My favorite moment of 2006 . . .

This was definitely my athletic highlight of the year, heck, of my lifetime perhaps! Crossing the finish line on the Olympic oval in Lake Placid with Liam and Conor at my side and my wonderful husband beaming at us --- truly priceless!!

Have a wonderful and safe New Year!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Santa was here!! I can't wait to see the boys' faces when they come down this morning! Merry Christmas and have a wonderful time with those you love ~ Deirdre

Christmas Eve

Our usual luminare -- minus the snow

"Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house . . . "

Family fun - Breakfast on Saturday

Here's the whole gang!

Conor reacts to Aunt Denise and Aunt Dianne's jokes!

Breakdowns and repairs

"Gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk . . . . "

That's the sound my refrigerator began making on Monday.

It is already running on a controller motor that Bill put in back in August when it made some dying, gasping sounds just before the Greater Cleveland Triathlon. The night before the race, my arm brushed the center strip and it was HOT! The damn fan gave out, so Bill patched this "temporary" option together. Great, he's out of town and I'm distracted by "gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk, gunk . . ".

Thankfully, he got home Tuesday and last night he replaced it with a different motor. So now, periodically it sounds like we are preparing for takeoff when this new one kicks on. He's ordering a new refrigerator fan today, I think.

The good times continue . . . . my wedding band is one with the channel setting holding 8 diamonds. I've never had an issue with my engagement ring or wedding band in the 11 years we've been married. But Tuesday, I was gesturing wildly in my usual communication mode and I noticed the band had a mark down the center. So upon closer inspection, it is CRACKED IN HALF!! I have no idea how this happened. In fact, Mr. Jeweler said it is pretty rare. Of course, I'm already on the hook for the re-pronging of my Mother's Day ring. Who knew that you had to re-tip, re-prong, re-whatever the settings periodically?? Had I known, I'm sure I wouldn't have gone with a setting with 20 small diamonds and about 40,000 prongs. The cost is per prong -- of course.

My heel pain has been getting worse instead of better. I'm trying to stay on pace with my 800 mg. ibuprofen and have amped up the stretching. Tuesday night, I really felt a bad stretch, followed by pain when I was standing on the boys' beds and putting glow-in-the-dark stars all over their ceiling. I secretly hoped I had performed my own little fasciotomy, but I'm sure it would have been a lot worse. Tomorrow I'm planning to run for the first time in weeks and we'll see how it goes.

Well, the good news is that the fireplace mantle is almost ready. It is at least ready for stockings, which has been my requirement all along. The fireplace fiasco goes back to July 4th when I returned from our ride after losing Bill and our friend, Rich. As I was drinking coffee and enjoying the fruits of my workout (ok, bagel, but "bagel of my workout" just sounds weird), everything crashed down from the wall above the fireplace. Long story short, water had been seeping between the chimney for years, carpenter ants had found a comfy home there, and we needed the chimney repaired. After getting ripped off by some fly-by-night masonry guy, we decided to put in a gas fireplace with surrounding faux stone. Thankfully, Bill has done nearly all the work including running the gas line from the basement to the fireplace. The major issue is that I wanted a stone mantle instead of wood. Well, they make the stone mantles in 5' sections. The space between our two built-in bookcases is (you can guess pretty well right now . . . .) 5'3". So we devised a plan to use the hearth stones cut in half to "make" a stone mantle. Now Bill is carrying out my little plan. He is so amazing at the things he is able to do. I am so thankful -- truly!!

Please though, no more breakdowns . . . this is pushing my limit of funds and patience . . .

More Christmas fun!!

Yes, it was a busy weekend -- decorating the tree, visiting Santa (I gave him the real scoop after the boys did their spin!), and checking out the new animals at Farmpark on Sunday morning. A calf was born Saturday night -- it was very cool that we had seen the mom on Friday evening during Country Lights and the calf was there on Sunday. They hope to name him Rudolph!

Oh yeah, did I mention shopping and baking in the fray??? I am hoping to wrap things up (literally too!) this weekend with the boys gone to ski until Tuesday. Of course there are parties to attend to so we'll see just how much I get done . . .

Busy, busy, busy . . .

It has been a whirlwind this month -- San Diego, soccer, school meetings, Christmas shows, work and umm, well, very little working out. Consider this my break since becoming a Gobblerman!!

We went to Farmpark last Friday night for Country Lights and it was wonderful. There was snow on the ground, the boys made their toys (the elves even danced and sang while we were in working!), Conor milked a cow -- it was just a wonderful night.

Kona 1-2 . . . 1 minute apart

When I checked the time on these photos, it was only 1 minute apart. It was such an incredible race for both of them. . . can't wait until next year!

I AM A GOBBLERMAN!!

Yes, I finished my indoor Ironman on Tuesday morning overlooking San Diego Bay! Meanwhile the boys were home for their second SNOW day!! I guess I picked a good time to be out of town!

Anyhoo, I'm back home and trying to get back on track now. The Hawaii Ironman was broadcast today and I'm reviewing my photos (some for the first time!). Time to post a few goodies I left behind the first time -- especially some of the scenery shots around the house.