Winneconne Weekend

Finally getting around to sharing the pictures of the weekend with Vic & Maggie, Brian, Jolie & the kids....it was the most beautiful day of September.

We spent the whole day on and in the water:

Michael played with the kids most of the day & then Brad drove us home while Michael and the girls road with Vic & Maggie.

We made it back to their house just as the sun was coming down.

Lighthouse Run Finished

Team - Mc Auliffe's on The Square Finish Position - 16
Team Score (places): 3524 Team Score (times): 4:06:41.3 O'all Cum. Place Bib

No Name Time
1 1455 Andrew Hansen
2 1651 Juventino Gutierrez
3 1458 Michael Johnson 38:42.3
4 1459 Steve Hawkins 43:20.6
5 1456 Lisa Hansen 43:51.6
6 1462 Matt Geary 48:25.3
7 1463 Danielle Geary 50:23.7
8 1464 Donna Dickenson 51:18.1
9 1457 Julie Johnson 52:46.9
10 1466 Jean Magnusson52:47.4

Wyalusing State Park

We got home early yesterday afternoon from an awsome 3 day vacation of camping, biking, hiking and even canoeing in Wyalusing State Park in Prairie Du Chien.

We really enjoyed the time we spent there. The Highlights:

Spending an unexpected 3 hours at the Sawmill Saloon while Michael played a new learned card game "horse thieves" with the owner Denny and his friends: Kenny, Joan, Bud & ??? = they were great host and we had an awsome time.

We just did a bit of biking and getting the lay of the land between the 2 campgrounds and sites in the Park on Saturday. Sunday we biked through downtown Prairie Du Chien and around the island. It was a beautiful ride. Monday we saved our biking for the afternoon and took to the trails in the Park. It was the most exhausting ride ever. Grass hills straight up and down for 2 miles, but as soon as I could breathe and speak I told Michael it was a blast.

Sunday afternoon we also went Canoeing on a 7 mile trail - well lets just say that it wasn't exactly our forte' the first half was ruff, 2nd half we seemed to find a better rythem but then we were competing with the speed boats so we were exhausted and not looking forward to our next canoeing expierence.

We did a little sight seeing in McGregor, IA - it was such a cute little town, it really reminded us of Deadwood, SD.

Taylor's Graduation

Taylor received his Diploma on Sunday June 7th. He also received an Honors Diploma. Then we had a small backyard picnic afterwards at our friend's, Drew & Lisa, house - They are awsome for doing that by the way.

Thought I'd share a few pictures from the day.

Riding into June........ Literally

Usually there is no need to ask what we are doing we are usually at Jellystone every summer weekend. Enjoying our favorite summer spot with friends. But this year is a little new for us we have a very busy schedule and I am excited about that so I'm blogging about it.

This past Sunday after a great breakfast with Grandma and Aunty Barb, Michael and I pushed our biking ability to new lengths and made the trek from our condo to his mom's apartment ~ we figure it was between 35 and 40 miles round trip. We were just making sure we could handle our upcoming camping vacation... and enjoying our new favorite pastime. I was sore afterwards but still went and did another 20 miler on Tuesday evening (that one was worse - it was cold).

June 5-7

Taylor has his official Graduation this weekend so we'll be hanging back at home because Vince Condella says its only suppose to be in the 50's and raining on Saturday and hopefully we can have a mini-cookout on Sunday after the ceremony.

June 13-16

Michael & I will be going on a camping/biking vacation to the Prairie du Chein area. We will be camping at the Wyalusing State Park and this is the camp site we will have.

Here's a link to this Blog: http://friendsofwyalusingstatepark.blogspot.com/.

We are going to tent camp, fish, hike, bike and maybe even go to the casino :)

June 20

We are doing the Racine Lighthouse Run with a bunch of friends and Michael's co-workers. We are doing the 4 mile race. Michael will be running for a good time his goal is to do it in less than 40 minutes. Me - I'm doing it to be part of the team and will just be happy to finish in under an hour.

July 1-3

Vacation with Mom in Montello - Rest, relax, shop, exercise - need I say more!

July has its own list of things to come but I guess I'll end there for now.

Boys Confrence Co-Champions

Austin has his conference meet Tuesday May 18th, 2009 in @ South Milwaukee. He did real well:
6th in Long Jump
3rd in the 4 x 400
and his team took 1st place overall tied with Oak Creek.

I did try to record his 4x400 race however I ended up getting excited at the end because it was a close finish and well....... unless you want to watch a video of the bleachers while listening to me scream I'm not gonna post it.

Today is regionals in Mukwanago. He'll be doing the long jump, 400 & 4x400.... Wish him luck

Tessa & Taylor's Prom

Taylor took his girlfriend Tessa (who we like very much) to her Jr. Prom this weekend. They said it was a good time and they made it home safe an sound so here are the pictures:

Austin's Track Updates

Just wanted to catch everyone up with Austin's Track results. I've been offline for a few weeks. (Sorry Aunty Barb and Grandma)

On Saturday April 11th - at the Wisconsin TFA State Indoor Championships @ UW-Whitewater Austin anchored his 4x400 relay to a 2nd place finish.

At the 1st outdoor meet of the season he took 4th in the Long Jump and 5th in the 400 meter. He was seeded 1st in the 400, but still felt good since it was his 1st run out of blocks and outdoors.

Last week he had a mild set back and had to take it easy with a deep tissue bruise to his left Quad. He's back and at practice and looking forward to anchoring the 4x400 again this weekend at Quad Park in Milwaukee.

Indoor Track Meet @ Park

Austin had an evening of 2nd Places. He took 2nd in all 3 events. All 3 events were great showings for him:
In the Long Jump he jumped his furthest of the season at 19'01".
In the 440 he won his heat and his teammate Fix(QB in football) won his heat and just edged Aust out in time.
And in the 4x400 the coaches wanted to try a couple of different combinations as they have 8 strong runners so Austin anchored the "B" team but still expects to be back on the "A" team for Saturday's big meet at Carthage.

Event 3 Men Long Jump Varsity
=======================================================================
Name Year School Finals
=======================================================================
1 Hicks, Chris Park 21-04.50
2 Goodman, Austin Park 19-01.00


Event 18 Men 440 Yard Dash Varsity
=======================================================================
Name Year School Finals
=======================================================================
1 Fix, Andrew Park 56.29 1 10
2 Goodman, Austin Park 56.62 2 8

Event 34 Men 4x440 Yard Relay Varsity
=======================================================================
School Finals
=======================================================================
1 Park High School 'A' 3:52.23 1 10
1) Fix, Andrew 2) Pitt, Leland
3) Stinson, Tray 4) Collier, Troy

2 Park High School 'B' 3:52.90 2 8
1) Goodman, Austin 2) Tirado, Giovani
3) Hood, Blakely 4) Jennings, Sedrick

Indoor

Event 3 Men Long Jump Varsity
=======================================================================
Name Year School Finals Points
=======================================================================
1 Hicks, Chris Park 21-04.50 10
2 Goodman, Austin Park 19-01.00 8

UW -Whitewater High School Track Meet

INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD:

Brown-Griffin leads Park at Nelson-Daniels ClassicUnion Grove boys place 17th in Division 2 portion

By Journal Times staffSaturday, March 21, 2009 8:43 PM CDT

Moriarity Brown-Griffin of Park won the 55-meter dash Saturday to lead the Panthers to a tie for 13th place in Division 1 competition in the Nelson-Daniels Classic at UW-Whitewater.
Brown-Griffin finished in 6.66 seconds and outleaned Washington Farrington of Menomonee Falls at the tape. The time was .06 faster than his time in the preliminaries.

The only other Park entry in the top six was the fourth-place 1,600 relay team of Andrew Fix, Leland Pitt, Austin Goodman and Troy Collier (3:37.46). The Panthers scored 15 points in the meet.

1st @ 1st Track Meet of the Year!

Austin just finished his first track meet of the year and did exceptionally well. An indoor meet at Park High School. He is on Varsity again this year and very excited about the season.
His first event was the 440 dash and he took 1st place. It is a bad picture but that was him coming around the home stretch and as you can see he had quite a lead on the rest of the pack.
Second event was the long jump, he was pretty tired but managed to get a 2nd place finish with a jump of 18'10". His coach told him if he wouldn't stagger stepped into the board he would have hit 20'. That is what he is aiming for.
And his final event was the Mile Relay(4x400) and well.........yep you guessed it his team took 1st place. That is his favorite event.
He doesn't think he'll be able to run the 400 in outdoor and the 4x400 so he might try his hand at the triple jump and high jump. He has quite a full season so there will be definitely more to come.

Michael Takes Home the Trophey

Last year Michael and Biggie(Adam) took 2nd place in the City Dart Tourney.

But this year after losing their first game they worked their way back thru the losers braket and won the 301 doubles tourney.

Today they went back to try their hand at the Cricket Tourney but no such luck, they played 5 games but got eliminated one before the money round.

First Bike Ride of 2009 - LOVED IT!!

Thursday was my day off, I had heard it was suppose to be a nice day so we went and picked up our new bikes Tuesday night and hit the bike trail along the Lake and it was great. I went from Eichelman Park to Carthage College and back and it was a great first ride even thou it was a little windy, overcast and drizzly it was at least in the high 40's.


Then I had a dentist appointment at noon and low and behold I walked out almost 2 hours later and it was 60 and sunny out. So I did what any working mom with the day off would do.....
....raced home did 2 loads of laundry while I watched As The World Turns and headed down to the local Racine lakefront for the second ride of the day. This one was quite a bit shorter but still was great.

Went from Gateway Tech College to the Racine Zoo and if Austin hadn't left his hat for work in my car, I'd a kept going! Of course I went to bed at about 8pm that night and its rained pretty much non-stop since, but hopefully I'll get a daily routine going this week, now that almost all the snow is gone.

Here's a couple of pics I snapped with my camera phone from the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan by the Zoo.

Austin's Winter Dance

Just thought I'd share the pictures of Austin and his friend Alex for their Winter formal. They went as just friends she's been one of his best friends since the beginning of middle school.

Words of Will Smith I wanted to share

I found this article in the middle of the US TODAY paper laying on a table at Panera's the day after the inauguration and wanted to share what I found to be a very insightful and powerful message while everyone's view was there, it was Will Smith's that made me stop and take notice.

In observance of Barack Obama's inauguration, USA TODAY invited a wide range of notable people — including Will Smith, Richard Parsons, Mary Frances Berry, Ken Burns and will.i.am — to answer the question: "What does Barack Obama's election mean to you?"

For me, it was something that I've always believed. I've read the Declaration of Independence. I've read the Constitution. I have the preamble memorized. It's something I've always believed in, and when Barack Obama won, it validated a piece of me that I wasn't allowed to say out loud - that America is not a racist nation.

More

I love that all of our excuses have been removed. African-American excuses have been removed. There's no white man trying to keep you down, because if he were really trying to keep you down, he would have done everything he could to keep Obama down. Yes, there are racist people who live here, absolutely. But they're not the majority anymore.

I'm an African American, and I was able to climb to a certain point in Hollywood. On that journey, I realized people weren't trying to stop me. Most people were trying to help me. Before Obama won the presidency, it was like, I'm the exception. Tiger is the exception. Michael Jordan is the exception. Bill Cosby is the exception. But there's something about being the leader of the free world, with every other position on earth below that. You can't argue with that. If Barack Obama can win the presidency of the United States, you can absolutely be the manager at Saks.

Come on. It was such a fantastic experience for me to be able to say out loud that I love America and not be called an Uncle Tom. That I can stand out, and I can say out loud that I love this country and not get funny looks.

I don't think we are African Americans, Irish Americans or Japanese Americans anymore. I think Americans are a new race of people. We are Americans of African descent. We are Americans of Irish descent.

It's a whole new world.

January 8th is a Great Day!

First and most importantly my godson/nephew was born today and is 8 years old. He is a great kid who is super smart and a super talented athlete and artist...must get it from his Auntie Julie (j/k) I hope you have a wonderfully "golden" day.

Happy Birthday OWEN!!

Second, I will always remember my first day of work at InsureOne eight years ago today because I was sitting in a training room in Chicago when I found out I had a new nephew. I was so excited... My 8th year anniversary has also reminded me that I am lucky in this economy to have a good career that I am fortunate enough to excel at and enjoy.

So happy work anniversary to me.


And lastly today we brought home Ocho, our newly adopted bengal cat. We've been kicking around the idea for a while of getting Bubba a playmate for those long days. Basically Michael, Austin & Taylor have went along with the idea after several months of me trying to convince them it was a good idea.
So last Saturday MJ, Austin and I went to check one out from the Humane Society. (Taylor at this point still hates cats and thinks its stupid we are getting one) The one we went to see had already been adopted but before we even started looking around...Michael and Austin fell in love with this leopard looking cat almost immediately and had decided that he was the one...
Well the people there had other ideas - he was surrendered (owner had passed away) and he was a "Bengal" and not adoptable. We were upset, didn't know what that meant but set out on a mission to change there minds. We found out it meant he was a fancy hybrid cat that was really expensive. After 5 days, 15 phone calls, more paperwork than it takes to buy a house and 2 supervised visits: WE GOT HIM TODAY!!!
So how is he doing you ask? Well Taylor just got home from school and after watching him for about 3 minutes got up and went and sat with "Ocho" on his lap and has been petting him non-stop. He adapted much quicker to his new home and new family than anyone would have expected. We were expecting a bit of a territory war for a few days and really with the occasional banter him and Bubba are already chilling together.