The Start of a New Week in SA

The Cedar pollen is awful! Paulie has a cough now too. I gave him some medicine before going off to school. It's also cloudy and hazy today...not pretty at all!

This past weekend was fun and busy - as usual. I got my hair cut--well, really trimmed and Tonie said now that my hair is longer - we can do some straight across bangs..but I can still sweep them to the side too. Works for me and I do love it!

We went with our friends Greg, Ginger and their boys to the AT&T Center to see the Freestyle Motorcross (FMX) event. We had fabulous seats! So great that when the woman was going to be shot out of the cannon..she came over and asked us to move up. Why I asked? Her reply...."if I miss the net and go over..I will land right here..maybe even on you!" That was all we needed to hear and an usher took us up 20 rows. This part of the night was amazing!!!! After she shot out, flew in the air and landed in the net safely...we were able to go back down to our seats.

recap:

The preliminaries started off well with Justin Stoltzfus putting together a nice run that included a solidly executed Kiss of Death. He set an early standard scoring an 85.7. Bustin’ loose next was Jason Rowe. He went big, but had a sketch or two during his run and it was reflected in his score as he was only able to post a 74.0. The third rider out was the rookie, Nick “six guns” Dunne and he had a flawless run that looked to have him in the finals with an 89.8. The final rider in the first set was Derek Burlew and he looked great. The spacious floor set up nice for him and he held onto a rock solid until he was darn near on the ramp. But his 88.7 would not hold up for a trip to the finals.

During our first break Geoff Aaron thrilled the crowd with an acrobatic display of trials riding. Showing us why he is the ten time national champion and what allows him to have such great results in Europe battling with the top names in his sport. AMAZING!!!

After intermission we had the incomparable Jennifer Schneider who puts the whoa, in whoa Nelly. The Cannonlady took flight and I was exhilarated with her stunt! We all were!

One of my favorite tricks is now the Captain Morgan....the pose from the bottle of 100 proof rum..you know right? This is Dunnes signature trick and it is fun to see. Go here to see examples of some of the stunts.

But the hero of the night was definitely Matt Buyten. Matt broke a back flip nac nac and a massive dead body to take home the hardware with his 93.3. Impressive!

And I wish we had a video of Paul's reaction to the whole night. It was great!! He hollered, cheered, clapped, jumped up and down, said things like, "oh my goodness" and "can I do that?" and "I want him to try that again." and "pass the popcorn, coke and cotton candy!"

Here he is after the event with his new FMX hat...it came with the cotton candy..ok?!

Sunday was a lazy day of playing with Paul, catching up with friends and family and talking to my niece Lauren. It was Lauren's 8th bday and when I asked her how 8 feels her reply was, "Aunt Susan, it feels pretty cool!" Sorry Tom and Alleson -- she is a lot like me! Since I cannot be around her too much - they live in Denver - nice to know she still picks things up from me. She had 7 friends over Fri night for her first sleepover and they stayed up until 2:30am. WOW -I was shocked! My brother must have filled them up with sugar! Will Paulie ever want a sleepover?!

Danny is now studying for the Series 24 Exam. He is a sales manager - over the financial advisors we have in credit unions all over TX and the western half of the US - and it is encouraged to have this license. So--he was at the library in the afternoon and then at the kitchen table (again) for a couple of hours in the evening. You have to give him credit......working for a bank for 16 1/2 years......rising up to the top....being laid off in Nov 2001 and then moving forward to his dream job. And he never once was down on himself..ok, well maybe once last Sept when he got the letter he missed passing the CFP by a lousy 8-10 questions. But what did he do....got right back to it and took the exam again in November. And we were just informed - he passed! WOOO HOO !! So see--if you know people who have been laid off - it WILL all work out..have faith and move forward..press on.....get keyed up.....no pity party!

I am headed to the gym shortly. My legs are not feeling so good today. I worked them out hard Sat morning and I think they hurt more today than yesterday. It's tough to walk! So, I will do cardio and arm and ab work. My marketing extraordinaire friend invited me to run in the Diploma Dash on Feb 21 at UTSA. I registered this morning. It is only a 5K..I used to do 7-8 of those each year with my friend Kara and her Mom when I was 11-14. However, we all know I am not close to that age anymore....... Julie said we could walk a little if we needed to. She and I are training for the half marathon in November..the Rock n Roll Event. And Nov will be here before you know it.

Tonight is our ACTS meeting. I am on music ministry. We are going to play a song at the beginning of the meeting to get the ladies calm and bring the Holy Spirit in and close. We all have such hectic lives that sometimes it is difficult to calm our bodies and minds. I hope the song Out of Darkness by David Kauffman will help my Sisters in Christ tonight get prepared for a great planning meeting! The retreat is April 2-5..but there is a lot to prepare. We want to make it so special for the 42 women who will be joining us.

Time to head to Spectrum. Have a good day and be kind to people!