Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. We got to dress up for work. Our theme was "At the Movies" and our costume had to be movie-related. We had people dress up as a movie extra, Hannnah Montana, Lilly, Hannah Montana's friend, and Punky Brewster. At our other office somebody dressed up as Cat in the Hat, Marilyn Monroe, Lucy (from I love Lucy), and Pocahontas. I picked a character from my favorite movie "Shrek," I chose Princess Fiona.

Later Halloween night, Kurt, myself, Julie and Kyle took part in Spooky Woods Ride here in Des Moines. We left from Rasmussen's Bike shop to Denman Woods. This was my first "at night" ride and I rode a trail that I have never rode before, and yes I rode in my dress. I have to admit that the trail was not bad at all, with the exceptions of a few logs that I had to get off my bike and jump over, and of tight squeezed through some trees. I think I hugged about 4-5 trees, but laughed each time. After awhile we to the Denman's firepit, where the party awaited. Here are some pictures from the night.

Me, Julie, Kyle, Kurt
Kurt and Julie pre-ride
Kurt aka Elton John
(notice his disco ball on his bike, it actually worked with a headlight on it)
Kurt and I at the party.
Julie G aka Eve (love the fig leaves)
Flaming Tree Trunk

October's Almost Over

Can anybody believe that we have one more week of October left? It has just flown by! AND is anybody, besides myself, excited that the price of gasoline keeps going down? This weekend it hit a low of $2.05. Of course what goes down must come back up right? Anyways, back to what I was blogging about. We had another busy weekend. Kurt, myself, and our friend Julie G. participated in the 5K (3 mile) walk for the Susan Komen Race for the Cure, here in DSM. There were ALOT of participants this year, they say a record-breaking 25,000 people partook in the walk or race. It was a great experience. If it wasn't for Julie S (who asked if I wanted to do it with her), I don't think I would have participated. Here are some pictures from our morning:

Kurt and Julie G. racing for Boobies!
Kurt & I (Susan Komen Race for the Cure 2008)
Julie G & I
Julie G, Kurt & I

Kurt and I both are sore from the race, I guess we are used to our legs biking, not walking. The rest of our weekend was filled with bike racing. They had the Spooky Cross, cross-biking race, at Living History Farms. Saturday was not bad at all. Kurt, Julie G and Julie S (it was the Jules' first cross race) participated on Sunday even despite the bone frigid weather and the horrible winds, and I must say they all did a fabulous job!

Fun Weekend

I sure had a fun weekend, or at least Saturday I did. I participated in the mountain bike clinic with the 2 Julies. There were 6 guys helping us women learn skills to mt. bike. The first thing we learned was to turn tight corners, so we practiced goin around a tree. I got the hang of it, but scuffed the tree a couple of times. The next skill we learned was how to get our front tire off the ground as if we were to go over a log. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to do it, but I got it. I was doing it wrong at first by standing up, and now I have a HUGE black/blue bruise on my inner right thigh because of my seat. But I can now say I can pop wheelies. The 3rd skill we learned was to get our back tire off the ground. This was a no-go for me, and I ended up girl-racking myself by the handlebars. Let me just say that it hurt like a m-fer! I got a little discouraged after that and sat out for awhile, while other people jumped over logs and watched one of the Julies do a summer sault over her handle bars! SCARY!!!!! But luckily she was ok and not hurt. The 4th skill we learned was climbing hills. This wasn't a good thing for me either because before I even started the incline, I lost my momentum. The second try I did, Kyle (Kurt's nephew) pushed me up the hill. The only thing I probably succeeded at was going down the hill. It was easy as pie. Towards the end of the clinic we went on Hillside. Orginally we were supposed to go to Denman's, because it was beginner friendly and pretty flat, but it was muddy. I didn't do so well on the trail I'm a bit out of shape and was huffing and puffing. I lost my momentum frequently. When we got to our stopping point, I felt sick to my stomach, and Julie S. had been sick all week, so she and I called it a day and returned home, while Julie G finished up with the rest. Overall I had a good ol time, but I wish I could have done better.

Later, after the bike clinic, we went to Legends to eat, and off to our show "Dixie's Tupperware Party."

This isn't your average tupperware party. It was a Broadway show, and an actual tupperware party!

Here is a sample of the show.
Dixie's show was very funny! and I recommend it to anybody who has a good sense of humor.

Busy Saturday

Wow it's been a busy weekend already. Kurt's been busy with his house. His brother and his dad came up from southern Iowa to put new shingles on.

Me on the other hand....my job is to keep those boys on the roof and food in their tummies. After I got them all fed, I decided to go ride my bike. I felt guilty because I haven't been on it for probably 2 weeks. I think the last time I rode it, it was Kurt's cyclo-cross race weekend here in Des Moines, and I rode with Julie and Alexa. So anyways, I took off and took our "circuit" down to Gray's Lake and back. It wasn't too bad. I rode 11 straight miles until I couldn't stand my sore butt and some inclines, so I decided to walk about 1/4 of a mile, then I got back on and rode the rest of the way home. I think I clocked in at 17.25 miles roundtrip, which isn't too bad. About halfway through, I was kind of scared of not making it back home myself because my calves started to cramp up. I think my seat or something is adjusted wrong and I tense up my legs. But I made it home, and I think I got a flat tire somewhere because it was a little spongy when I got off. Now I "think" I should rest for the rest of the week because I have the mountain bike clinic this weekend. I told Kurt, I need to try on his shoes and clips on his bike to get used to them if I'm going to ride it. It's nice to have a boyfriend who has big feet because you can share shoes.

Me still smiling after biking almost 18 miles! KUDOS to me!

Vision Park Family Eye Care

I figured I'd let you know all about where I work. There isn't much to know about Vision park. It's been in existance for over 75 years. We have 2 locations: one in Urbandale and one in West Des Moines, which is where I work. We currently have 5 doctors at our practice (4 which are partners). My job title is a Vision Therapist. I work with children mostly and teach them skills to use their eyes together. You ask yourself...what is vision therapy? VISION THERAPY: (also known as vision training): therapy involving exercises which are aimed at improving visual skills such as, eye teaming, binocular coordination and depth perception, focusing, acuity (clarity of sight), and "hand-eye" or "vision-body" coordination. Vision therapy can involve a variety of procedures to correct neurophysiological or neurosensory visual dysfunctions. I figured I'd share some pictures with you from our West Des Moines office.

Our 4 partner doctors (l to r)
Dr. Wendy Muller, Dr. William Boelter, Dr. Melissa Billings, Dr. Beth Triebel
Outside our office
Optical area picture 1
Optical area view 2
1 of 4 exam rooms
Pretesting area, we also have the Optomap (it's a camera that takes a 200 degree image of the back of your eye.
Vision therapy room 1
Vision therapy 2

If you'd like to know more about Vision Park and what it has to offer the website to visit is www.vision-park.com

Nothing Exciting Here

hingNothing exciting really happened this weekend. Friday, Kurt had a night time trial and we hung out with Cheese Castle. Saturday, Kurt did some errands and his parents came into town, then we went to Ankeny to Kyle's Bike Shop and picked up the cyclo-cross bike. I got to ride a bike trainer, which is a real bike hooked up to a trainter and computer. It was real fun and I'd really like to do it during the winter months. After we returned from Ankeny, we went to Cheese Castle and had dinner with Kyle, Julie, Beth & Taylor. Julie and I went back to the house while Kyle and Kurt went to get shingles for Kurt's roofing project this weekend. Kurt and I were pretty tired, so we stayed home on Saturday night.

Newton's Cross Out Crohn's and Colitis Race was on Sunday. Kurt had another race this weekend. He got 16th place out of I don't know how many riders, but I do know that it wasn't last. He didn't do too bad for battling a cold. This was a charity race, and proceeds went to the Crohns and Colitis Foundation. They sold raffle tickets for a couple of bikes, but unfortunately we didn't win. Here are some pictures from the race:

Kurt changing tires before his race.
At the starting line. Where's Kurt? (my version of where's waldo?)
Hopping over the barriers
Pedaling up the hill.

Upcoming Goals

The cold weather is approaching us fast, and I've already started the procrastination process of not wanting to exercise or do things outside. But there are some upcoming events that I'm looking into participating or I am participating in.

October 18th - 2nd Annual Women's Only Mountain BIking Clinic (Thinking about doing)
**Learning the skills I need to have fun riding my bike off road. It teaches basic skills that you need to ride your mountain bike with confidence. Some of the basics that will be covered include, cornering, riding over logs, descending, climbing and special avoidance skills such as avoiding running into trees, crashing, falling over, running into / over the wildlife and running into each
other.

October 25th - Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Participating in)
**Joining Julie S., Alexa, and Julie G to support breast cancer awareness. We'll be walking 3 miles or so. Thank goodness I purchased some good walking shoes!

November 23rd - Tour de Lights
** Avid bikers will enjoy the 11 mile route that starts downtown and utilizes a trail to get you to Water Works Park. Another activity the Julies and Alexa have invited me to.

December 11th- December 15th: VEGAS BABY!!!
**I will definitely be doing a lot of walking.

Sometime in February - BRR (Bike Ride to Rippey) *thinking about doing*
**The BRR ride is a 24-mile round trip from Perry to Rippey and back to Perry. It has been a frigid 37 degrees below, trek in a foot of snow or a balmy high of 60 degrees …The ride continues no matter what the weather! BRR is also known as the “Original WINTER Ride” as well as the “Winter Ragbrai Reunion.” The BRR event has attracted over 3,000 plus riders that attend from all over Iowa and the country.


So I'm really hoping that this helps me beat the winter blues and keeps me busy, and help me keep the weight down during the cold months when most of us are pretty sedentary.