House Inspection

Saturday morning was the inspection for the new house. We've been told by numerous people that it can be a little intense and not so much fun, but we were ready for it. After 3 hours of running around taking photos and measuring every wall in the place, we finally got the recap of all the findings. Other than having really crappy windows (which we already knew), there weren't too many other issues at all. As a matter of fact, our Realtor told us that it was one of the best reports she's seen in a while.

Since we are going to replace the windows, we got the seller to bring $5000 in cash to the closing and escrow the sum into our mortgage. Now we'll get 2 credits from Uncle Sammy. $8000 for the house and $1500 for the windows...boooooyeahhh!

Check out the link below for more pics of the house.

NEW HOUSE

Thanksgiving Day in the mountains

After a great spin on the trainers, Bryce and I drove up to his house in Edwards, CO (just outside Vail), to spend Turkey Day with his family.

They live in Singletree - just across the highway from Beaver Creek and right on a rockin' golf course.

We took his beautiful Bernese Mountain Dog 'Bosco' out for several walks which was super fun. Since the golf course is closed for the year, he got to run around all over it and roll around in the snow.

Since the Binghams were vegetarian's for 20 years, they continue the tradition of eating 'Nut Loaf' every Thanksgiving. I do have to admit that it lived up to it's reputation of being absolutely delicious, however, this was the first time I have not eaten a big greasy turkey for my yearly feast :)

Tis the season for shopping!

I made some serious television purchases this morning for our new house and it's not even Black Friday :) The 37" Panasonic above and the 26" TV/DVD combo below were just too good of deals to pass up. As much as I love online shopping, I'm sure we'll do our share of sale shopping this Friday since we're heading up to the mountains to hang out with the Bingham family. OH BOY

A good update!

I spent the better part of my weekend with Bryce in Home Depot, Target, Lowe's, Concepts, you name it. I'm pretty sure we now know exactly how every room in our new house is going to look! We have some killer ideas and we're confident the place is gonna look amazing! Get pumped up :)

Although I still haven't gotten my heart rate above 100 bpm in 2.5 weeks, I was able to go for a little walk Saturday afternoon. It felt so good to be outside and I even saw this hilarious flag above! Unfortunately the good guys (UofM - but only bc my bro goes to school there) lost and it was a terribly boring game. I was, however, finally able to turn my leg over the bike pedal on Sunday evening which made for a very good ending to the weekend. I'm on the mend...wooohooo!

Boulder Center for Sports Medicine

A new partnership has formed! As of yesterday, BCSM has become one of new sponsors! Although I usually find myself there due to injury and the need for PT, the facility also offers endless ways to achieve your peak fitness in any sport. The Sports Science division of the center is one of the best physiological testing facilities in the country. It has an absolutely amazing staff as well with Neal Henderson as the director of the department. Neal is one of the most knowledgeable and supportive individuals I have ever met. He's not only my coach, but a long time friend and one of the greatest assets in my life. With his and the help of Andy Pruitt, Stephen Paul, Jason Americh, and Matt Schneider, I have been able to improve my level of training and racing throughout the past years as well as get through those 'bumps' (or injuries if you will) along the road. Thanks for everything you do BCSM. I'm super excited for this opportunity!

Erin's a BIG girl now!!!!

I went under contract and locked in my 4.75% mortgage rate last night on the above home! Apparently having way too much time on my hands turns into buying really big stuff. Although I'm super excited, I'm both extremely terrified too! I have a closing date of January 6th barring everything goes smoothly but still need to find someone to sublet my current house through May. Anyone you know, please send my way :) More pics of the house below. An elderly lady currently lives there but Bryce assures me once we paint every wall a different color, put in wood floors and add some sweet furniture it's gonna look AMAZING! OMG this is crazy :)

More Pics

Super Fun Weekend

I've been after the new Oakley Foresake sunglasses for a while and figured I should probably try them on before ordering them. Unfortunately the only place that carries them right now is the Oakley Store down in Cherry Creek. Since we didn't have anything better to do on a Friday evening, we drove down and I hobbled around while we stopped in all the various stores. Oh so fun. I'm pretty sure the best part was the 25min visit to Brookstone. We sat in the $4000 massage chairs and almost fell asleep. It was awesome. I told Bryce we weren't coming home empty handed so we purchased two hideous pairs of interchangeable sunglasses for $25 (see above) and haven't taken them off since. Yes, yes, we look ridiculous, we know!

Saturday was a fun filled day of cleaning, house shopping and going out on the town. We took Tingle and Brittany (Bryce's sister) out to dinner at Juanita's then met up with the crew at Bacaro to see the fashion show The T Bar was hosting. The only real reason we were there was to watch and make fun of my roommate Jon while he modeled underwear throughout the bar. Since training and racing aren't in the picture these days, several drinks were consumed and as always, lots of good laughs shared.

As terrified as Jon and Pamela were, they had nothing to be worried about. Jon did great and came home with lots of compliments on the night.

The Krispy Kreme hat was definitely a hit and quite hilarious.

Love the ski googles, love 'em!

We woke up to a solid 10 inches of snow Sunday morning which was absolutely beautiful. A perfect day for more cleaning, house shopping, dirt bike maintenance, relaxing and football. I could honestly give a rat's ass about football but I definitely love all the delicious food people bring over. I also highly enjoyed the deep fried oreo, which Bryce is eating above, that Jon created. He's always been into fried foods so he bought a deep fryer earlier today, battered some oreos, fried them to a perfect crisp and wabam...completely, divine, deliciousness. You should try it :)

Bye Bye BMW Moto...

I sold my 1999 BMW F650 GS motorcycle this morning.

It's okay, because this is what I really have my eye on!!!! Hehe.

42hr Texas Road Trip

Less than 20hrs after my surgery, Bryce and I jumped in the van and headed down to Matador, TX for his last moto race of the season.

No, it probably wasn't the smartest thing I could have done, but definitely not the dumbest either. I figured if I was going to be sitting around anyway, I might as well do it in the car with Bryce and keep him company for the 10hr drive there and back :) The drive down wasn't bad at all and we there in time to chat with a few people, get B registered, have some dinner and crash at the hotel.

Sunday was a typical early morning but a bit more rushed than normal. This was a 'timekeeping' event (I still don't get how it works) but at any rate, you need a special computer to keep you on pace and that still needed be mounted to the bike. Luckily he had a few guys give him a hand or two and made his start time with a few minutes to spare!

This was at the 2nd gas stop at mile 50. As you can see by the killer 'dust stash', it was pretty sandy and dusty. Although it wasn't his best of finishes (14th), he actually had a great race and had he been just a few seconds faster in each test, he would have been in the top 1o for sure and possibly the top 5. Great job B, that's your motivation to get faster for next season! Check out his race report at The Braap Spot.

The drive home - Since B drove the whole way down and raced all day, I figured I'd try to do a short section so he could rest his eyes a bit before the long haul home. Driving a giant van isn't easy and doing it 2 days after knee surgery isn't any easier! However, it did allow us to get home safely with only a few 10min power naps on the side of the road in the middle of the night. I'm now back on the couch resting, recovering and waiting for the time when I can run again :) Hehe.

Surgery #2

I went under the knife again this morning at 10am with Dr. Paul at the Boulder Surgery Center. The plan was an ITB release as well as a release of the small septum near by. The other part of the procedure was the smooth out the bone where the IT Band attaches called the Gerdy's Tubercle since it was a little misshaped causing the band to pull in a funky direction.

I wasn't nervous at all going into the surgery as it honestly feels like yesterday when I had the first one even though it was back in April. I was more anxious and excited than anything because I really think this is going to be trick in getting me back running. Everything during the procedure itself went as planned and was perfectly executed. The only concern was that the bursa he originally drained 6 months ago was more inflamed than any other bursa he had ever seen during surgery. Of course he drained it once more and cleaned it all up again and think it's definitely a byproduct of all the irritation so I should be all set to go.

Although I'm feeling much better right now than before, I'm definitely felling the aftermath of this surgery versus the first. Right away after I woke up I was in lots of pain so the nurse gave me some Morphine which made me super nauseous. Just what a girl who is terrified of throwing up needs, right? The pain subsided immediately but before I left, the nurse was adamant about me taking a Percocet so that the pain didn't return. As expected, that thing didn't sit well either, especially after eating only a half a cracker and a sip of ginger ale over the past 17hrs. Luckily I have one amazing boyfriend who has been taking great care of me and my ridiculous headaches and nausea spells. I absolutely hate being taken care of but I guess it's okay because I did the same for him last weekend when he had his wisdom teeth extracted :)

On the mend I am!

Deadmau5

This is just a small sample of the madness we experienced last night down in Denver from 10pm-2am :)

We had a great group of people head down to shake our little booties til we couldn't shake them anymore. Bryce and I got a total of 3hrs of sleep last night and will be completely worthless today! WORTH EVERY SECOND :)

Warren Miller's DYNASTY

There's nothing like a good ski/snowboard movie to get you pumped up for the winter season. I don't think I've missed a Warren Miller film yet since I moved to Boulder in 2002 and they just keep getting better. Although I enjoy the show itself, I really like the free lift ticket that you get when you walk in the door! Bring on the snow :)

Halloween and Teeth Removal

Halloween was very chill this year as Bryce had his wisdom teeth removed the day before. We sat around, watched moto movies and handed out candy to little kids...well I ate half the bowl, but that's okay :)
I thought I'd be nice and not take a picture of B and his swollen face, but now I wish I would have because the one above doesn't do justice. I never had any problems when I had mine done so I was hoping Bryce had the same luck. I don't think his recovery was quite as quick but he did do great and is definitely on the mend. Maybe he'll actually be able to eat something solid today!!!