4th Place is Awesome!

Last fall at LOTOJA, i thought i finished 2nd place, but 2 guys got off the front of our group that we didn't know about, so i ended up 4th. This started a chain reaction for my placement for the road racing season.

One spot off the podium.

LOTOJA '08 - 4th

Hell of the North - 4th

East canyon-we are not counting this race.

Antelope Island - 4th- but i was bumped to 8th

state crit - 4th (2 guys got off the front that we didn't know about and were lost among the lappers so i thought i was 2nd and really placed 4th... again)

Sugarhouse crit - i raced this twice. Once in the cat 4's and once in the masters 35+b's. I placed 4th in both races.

I can't complain about 4th place, because it is still better than i did most of last year, but a podium finish would be cool one of these days.
Here is a picture of me after one of the Sugarhouse races crying.
It's ok, if you look in the background, i think the Robot is crying with me.

We've adopted a little white girl

For Christmas in 2007, the girls got a hampster for christmas. You can read the whole story here. After that, we have not had a pet. The girls have been bugging us lately to get another pet. We told #1 to start saving her money. Over the last few weeks she has been doing extra jobs around the house and saving all of her money to get another hampster. When she finally had enough saved, she would ask every day if we could go to the pet store that day and get a hampster. On saturday, i finally took her and her sisters to the pet store to pick out her rodent.
As many of you know, there are several different breeds of hampsters. Some are better tempered than others, but some are cuter. I was afraid she was going to pick a dwarf hampster because she loves tiny things so much. Dwarf hampsters are mean, they don't like to be held and bite a lot. I told her to ask the guy at the pet store to help her pick a hampster that would be nice like to be held. He told her that actually mice are much better pets for that. Plus they are awake during the day, unlike hampsters. I used to get sick of hearing the hampster running around that wheel all night long.
He opened up the mouse cage and got one out for #1 to hold. It pooped in her hand and she instantly fell in love with the mouse.
The ironic thing is that we pay a pest control company at my work to make sure we don't have any mice. My first born just paid all of her hard earned money to purchase one.

I get so excited about sunday mornings because i get to sleep in until 7:30. This sunday morning, i was awakened at 6:45 by #2 saying "Dad, the mouse ran under the couch and now we can't find her"

I went downstairs and looked for a while and finally found her behind some furniture. I told #1 that if she loses the mouse again, we would be able to find her very easily because i would just set mouse traps all over the house and catch her. Is that wrong?
Last May, Megan was 8 months pregnant and so she couldn't run her favorite 1/2 marathon up in Ogden. This year she has been running a lot and paid the $65 entrance fee months ago because she was so excited to run it. A week before the race, she was running with some friends at 5:15 in the morning in the dark and stepped on a pine cone, rolling her ankle and making it painful to even walk. I race almost every weekend. She does maybe 3 races a year. I felt so guilty that i did not leave her home with a sprained ankle and the 4 kids to go and do the race that the rest of the guys were doing.
At least she has the RAGNAR relay to look forward to in June...if her ankle heals by then.

#3 makes 3 for 3 for me so far

I am 3 for 3 so far with daughters that don't have a competitive bone in their body.
We went and watched #3's first soccer game. She is on a team with her best friend/cousin Afton. #3 was quite concerned with how her cousin was going to do through the game so she spent most of the time running right behind Afton with her hand on the small of Afton's back making sure Afton was doing ok.
Neither of them actually touched the ball but they had fun and of course the highlight of the evening was getting soccer treats. #3 has watched her older sisters get soccer treats for years now. Occasionally if she stands around after the treats have been given to all of the players looking like a cross between a homeless cute puppy and a vulture, she is given any extras.
But last night was her night.
Her turn to dance around eating her treats while her sisters looked on in hungry envy. We are hoping that next time she will actually make contact with the ball.
My mom came and watched the game with us and i drove her home afterwards. One of the girls asked my mom how i was at soccer when i was a kid. She said i was mediocre when i got a little older but i was really bad when i was young. She said i was too busy trying to dig my way to China to care about the game. My mom has started telling lies lately. I think this is one of them.

It is not my intent to make every post about #3, but she is so damn funny right now.