This is the first submission to my new blog site. I hope to keep all my friends and family members updated with the happenings of my family, job and hobbies. Still working in the dance world, teaching a high school drill team for the past 11 years has pretty much taken most of my time. However, I have managed to also: get any several ski trips a year, travel to many countries including Japan, Malaysia, Wales, Canada and Mexico, finish my masters in education with a principal certification, take up a past love...cycling and still finding time to knit and read, and spend time with my family (which I am sure they would say ~ "they never see me".
Over the past year, I started cycling again both for fun and for the exercise. (No - turning the big 50 this year...will not slow me down..lol) After biking every Saturday with a group from the Pearland area I decided to take on the big one and pledge to bike the MS150 from Houston to Austin. This will be my longest bike ride with the exception of the 7 day bike trip I took around the big Island of Hawaii back in my college days. The big difference with these two rides is ... I was biking in the beautiful Islands of Hawaii - need I say more, except keep in mind the wind and the mountains we climbed was something to talk about. We traveled about 35 miles in a day and camped out at local beach sites and public parks. We packed all our clothes and sleeping bags and tents on our bikes in bike saddles. I will never forget the first day off the plane after landing in Hilo airport. We proudly put our pedals back on our bikes, strapped on our saddles on the front and back and headed UP...uphill for 32 miles straight to the top of the volcano. What took all day to go up, moving like turtles, we sailed down on day two on a five mile road, with no traffic. Chain of Craters road was just being reopened to the public for travel the next day - so needless to say that was one fast ride down. The rest of the trip was remarkable...and an experience that I will never forget or trade in a lifetime! Well - the trip from Houston to Austin...will still have its "hills", but the scenery will not be quite the same and we will be traveling 80 miles the first day and 70 on day two. So I guess you might say we will be pushing a little harder on this trip...but I hope to be traveling a little faster - without the packs on the bike and no mountains to scale.
Over the past 8 years I can proudly say that all of our 4 older children have either graduated from college or is very close to doing so. With only Kai left at home, attending St. Thomas in the 6th grade - he sure has some big shoes to fill, but they have all set incredible examples for him to follow: Raymond is in his 8th year of the Air Force and is working on an Engineering degree, Kila is a 1st grade teacher at Friendswood ISD, Charles finished is BA degree from Nebraska and is working at a clinic here in Houston, and Kiana is a pre med biology senior at Baylor University and will be graduating in August with hopes of continuing forward in med school. They have made their father and I both very proud! And to add to those feathers in the hat ~ Kila and John, her husband (married in July of 2006), made me the proudest "grandma BB" to my first grandbaby - John Evans Savoy IV.
