WOW!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our Fundraiser yesterday and made it a smashing success! We had about 50 people (a full house!), and made over THREE THOUSAND dollars! People came from all over, some I knew, some I hadn't seen in forever, and some who drove quite a distance to attend.

Everyone was incrediby generous and bought tons of prints, shirts, raffle tickets, and treats. Thank you to everyone who spent time making delicious baked goods, to everyone who helped set up and break down, to all of our donors who gave us items to raffle off (we even had a pair of Sox tickets!), to the musicians who played for us, and particularly to my family for helping organize everything and pull the whole thing off without a hitch! It was also great to see a whole table full of our team-mates come down and hang out!

We have lots of prints and shirts left, and I'll be putting up pictures soon, so if you didn't make it down, you can still help out and get some sweet stuff!

Thanks again!

(Wow...that was a lot of exclaimation points!)

In case you haven't heard the news... this weekend is our big fundraiser in Jamestown! We've been working really hard getting it together with the help of my Dad and awesome Step Mom, Laura! There will be fantastic music, cupcakes, dell's for $1, cool raffle prizes and lots of art from Jess and I! The weather is supposed to be nice too! I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

So please show your support and stop by! In addition to some beautiful prints of artwork we will have t-shirts featuring the sheep on the poster and these mini notebooks Jess designed!

Don't forget, Jess and I are raising money seperately, so if you want money to go to both of us, you gotta go to her page and donate, too!

This is her fundraising site!

Hey everyone! Just checking in to say that I'M HALF WAY THERE! Our ride is June 5th, and we need to have the funds raised by May 23rd, which is fast approaching.

I do want to say thank you to everyone who has donated so far. I'm touched by everyone's generosity, and people have been coming out of the woodwork to help out.

I particularly want to thank Dr. Terek for donating.

Dr. Terek is the surgeon who operated on my leg to remove my tumor, and he is a VERY large part of why I can actually participate in this event, or ride bikes at all.

When they figured out what was causing the pain in my leg, before the surgery, they figured I had 3 likely scenarios. I asked for the worst case first. Worst case was lopping my leg off at the knee. Most likely, was that they would have to fuse my knee so I'd walk straight legged for ever. Most difficult and risky was that they would be able to remove the cancerous part of bone, and replace it with a graft. Well, after 11 hours of surgery, a handful of plates, and a pile of screws, they managed to pull off the graft and hold my leg together. And it still works!

So, thanks, Dr. Terek, for the donation, and the functional leg!

Hey hey!

So, it's been a little while since I've updated this-here training blog, but I wanted to catch up on what's been going on. First off, we went for our first outdoor training ride yesterday! The ride was down in Quonsett, and we did a 12 mile loop a couple of times. Jess and I hadn't gone for a ride with our clips yet, so it was a learning adventure for both of us. The wind was unbelieveable going in one direction...anyone who has ever tried to play soccer down there will know how insane the wind coming off the water can be down there. However, going the other way was beautiful!

It was a great day, so Jess and I took the opportunity to do some "press photography", aka, ham it up for the camera so we can get some good pictures of us on our bikes to put on our donation pages! So, here's a couple...

First up, me being all sporty on my bike:

Second, we have the two of us being normal and happy (thanks to our teammate John for shooting this for us!):

Third, me acting like a lunatic and Jess letting the camera snap off a bunch of shots:

We are just about half way to our ride! So, if you're feeling inspired to help out, please don't hesitate to click that donation button to the right!

Don't forget to check out Jess' blog as well, and donate to her, too! We have to raise money separately, so if you want the money to go to both of us, you gotta split it up between our pages.

Thanks guys!

Hey Everyone!

I'm still here, plugging away! We're getting close to the two hour mark in our spinning classes. We've done an hour and forty-five minutes the last two weeks in a row. It. Is. Hard.

But! We're all making progress and cruising along, getting ready to transition to riding out side. I'm getting used to my new riding shoes, but I'll see how I do when I get out on the road...hopefully I won't fall on my face immediately!

A couple bits of good news: One, our team-mate has finished her last round of chemo!

Second, my mom has gotten a bunch of good scans back from her last round of tests, showing lots of tumor reduction!

There's a lot of bad news in the world, but it's good news like that keeps me riding and pushing myself to do this. Well, that, and the fact that there are people on my team that are in their 60's and they are CRUSHING me in the training. I need to step it up!

We're closing in on our "recommitment" date, which is the point at which they want us to have 1/4 of the fundraising handled. So, if you've been waiting to donate, now would be a great time!

Also, check out Jess' blog, too. She's done some art for hers, and is going to keep doing more!

Her blog is here!

Thanks!