Ok, I’m getting pretty serious about making bread.  We’re loving the taste and freshness of our homemade loaves.  Now I’ve got to get serious about figuring out the right recipe and cooking method.  So welcome to the Best Bread Bake-Off!

I’ve made several different recipes, and I know many of them have been tasty… but I can’t remember quite which ones were good and which weren’t so good.  I actually really prefer to make the dough in the breadmaker and take it out for rising and baking in a loaf pan in the oven.  But that method is hit-or-miss… something isn’t right with my rising technique, and baking the bread in the oven heats up the house, which isn’t a good thing in the hot humid days of summer in a house that’s already 80 degrees.  So I’m going to test the recipes and baking methods over the next few weeks and document my results here.  We’ll find a winner!

Well, actually, we’ve been home since Monday evening. Josiah and I had a fabulous trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, and we got to spend some really relaxing time with my family. It was very nice to just have one child to look out for, as well as people all around me to entertain him. He was a little charmer, with sweet little conversations in his amazing daily-expanding vocabulary. My sisters taught him to say, "De-WISH-us!" at breakfast one morning. He loved our laughing reactions, and of course, he’ll repeat it 4 or 5 times, waving the de-wish-us item around for dramatic effect. So funny.

I’ve got lots of pictures to resize and post, but for now, I’ll post this link to a fun online scrapbook I created last night.

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I’m so tired tonight.  After a quiet day yesterday reading a lot and playing with Josiah, I stayed up extra late to wait for Anna to get to my parents’ house.  She got in around midnight, and we had a nice chat until 2am.  Of course, Josiah decided 5am was a great time to start the day, so I’m really wiped today.  He got a nap at 10am, but I chose to go to the coffee shop/store instead.  The buzz from my blended mocha only lasted until about 2 🙂

So J & I are in Two Harbors, Minnesota, 20 miles down the road from Duluth, where my sister, Kat will be graduating on Saturday.  We – with Grandma and Charlie – drove up here after dinner, and we’re staying at Anna’s in-laws house.  Very nice to be in an actual house instead of the hotel we were planning on.

Anna got us all settled in our rooms, we said good night to Grandma & Charlie, and Anna brought out some great iced tea (my favorite Tazoberry, that she used to bring me when she visited me in Nicaragua) and told me she had Starbucks ice cream in the freezer… and Lost was recording on DVR, so we settled in to watch it.  SWEET evening.  We’ve both just chatted with our hubbys – we love you, Hal & Brian! – and we’ll probably crash.  But it’s been a good couple days, and I’ve really appreciated the short bits of time here with Anna.  I’m really looking forward to seeing my other sister, Kat, tomorrow.  I sure miss my sisters!!!   

Enjoy these pictures and video from Analise’s preschool choir performance last night.

(For those of you with slower connections, you may want to right click on each video and select "Save As" or "Download" to download a copy of the video to your computer before trying to play it.)

Video 1 (14 MB)

Video 2 (22 MB)

Josiah and I are doing well on our own.  I definitely missed spending Mother’s Day with Brian and Analise, though.  Josiah did make my day so sweet by saying (with prompting), "Happy MoDay!"  It’s so cute.  I was surrounded by wonderful mothers – my mom, Grandma, and my dear Aunt Carol (my dad’s sister), which was very precious. 

Friday was busy with the pinning ceremony for Anna’s graduation.  She was the main speaker, and she did a terrific job!  We had a great family dinner, grilled out on Hal & Anna’s patio, before a small reception that Hal put together for Anna’s friends.  Saturday was busy with a champagne toast reception for the graduate students and the actual commencement ceremony, before we all met at a wonderful restaurant in Galena, IL for dinner. 

Josiah’s been amazing for me on this trip.  He’s been so well-behaved, and he stayed with 2 different people while I went to graduation festivities.  He even sat through the nice restaurant dinner, which is so unusual for him.  He’s charming everyone, and talking about EVERYTHING.  He’s still got some stomach and diarrhea issues, every other day or so.  I’m so frustrated by it.  We’ve got to see the doctor when we get home, as the lab tests we were waiting for results from came back negative. 

I was a bit bummed yesterday, bc it felt like I was missing out on the family time due to J’s naps and early bed time.  But I’ve actually NEEDED the naps myself, and last evening I had a nice relaxing time to catch up with my Aunt Carol.  Today I had a short-but-nice morning drink with Anna at Badger Brothers coffee.  Mid-morning we left Platteville for my parent’s house in Shell Lake, with a stop in Madison for Trader Joe’s and Noodles & Company… two of my very favorite places.  AND!  I was finally able to buy 2 bottles of the Charles Shaw (Two Buck Chuck) White Zinfandel wine ($2.99).  I’ve wanted to both times I’ve been at TJ’s in Georgia, but both visits were on Sunday, and they don’t sell alcohol on Sundays.  I also got some yummy sweet potato chips, some mini chocolate peanut butter cups, trail mix that’s a big hit with Josiah, and a box of the 100-calorie milk chocolate bars.  Wow – they’re tasty, and amazingly big for 100-calories! 

Anyway, we made it up here by dinner time, and we enjoyed a TJ’s shrimp stir-fry dinner.  Yum.  Josiah was a trooper on the long drive, even after his DVD player battery died.  He sang songs, looked for big trucks, and kept both Grandma & Charlie busy picking up his cups and giving him snacks while I drove. 

Quiet week here, which I’m looking forward to.  Friday we’ll go to Duluth, MN for my sister, Kat’s, graduation on Saturday.  Then Sunday morning – EARLY – we’ll leave Duluth for the Very Long Drive back to Chicago, where I’m staying with a friend before flying out Monday and Grandma & Charlie will drive on home to LaPorte, Indiana.  Whew – what a journey!!    More chit-chat later this week, and maybe even some photos, if I can find them!!!

Mother of the Year

 Micca Monda Campbell

 “Her children
arise and call her blessed; her husbandalso, and he praises her.”   Proverbs 31:28
(NIV)

I long to be a godly wife and mother, but my efforts to become this
‘ideal’ woman stated in Proverbs can leave me grieved and depressed.

I felt especially defeated the year my youngest son started kindergarten. In
Tennessee, kindergarteners follow a scattered schedule the first two weeks of
school where half of the class attends one day and the rest comes the following
day. It helps them adjust. For me it brought confusion.

On Tuesday, I took my son to school, kissed him good-bye, and headed home
to work.

I
was busy at the computer when the telephone interrupted my pace. ‘Hello?’

‘Mrs. Campbell, this is Parker’s teacher. I was wondering who would be picking
him up from school today.’

Stunned that I had forgotten my child, I jumped in the car and raced to the school.
He stood on the sidewalk holding his teacher’s hand with tears in his eyes and
REJECTION stamped across his heart. I took him home, apologized profusely, and
made his favorite meal for dinner. I felt like the worst mother ever.

Thursday,
we returned to school. All was going well until I was, once again, interrupted
by the phone. I hadf orgotten to pick up my child not once, but twice in the
same week!

I
sped to school on two wheels. This time he was standing with the room mother,
who was obviously a true Proverbs 31 Woman. As she helped him buckle his
seatbelt, I tried explaining myself.

‘You’re not going to believe this, but I did the same thing earlier this week.’

‘Yeah, I know.’ She replied bluntly.

I felt I’d been labeled a ‘bad mother,’ and I felt like a complete failure.

Later that same year, God encouraged me as a mother when ParentLife
magazine named me one of eight ‘Mothers of the Year!’ Parker’s reaction to this
surprising news was, ‘If they lived with us for a while, they’d probably reconsider.’

Those were my thoughts exactly. In fact, I asked my husband how I could be given
such a great and undeserving honor. With wisdom, he shared that maybe it was
God’s way of saying I’m doing better than I think.

His wisdom helped me put things into perspective. God never said I had to
be perfect. That was my expectation. He never said that I wouldn’t make
mistakes or a wrong decision every now and then. Again, that was my hope. I had
assumed that the Proverbs 31 lady did everything right and I was suppose to as
well.The problem was, with all her great accomplishments, I never considered
her ‘not so good’ side.

Sometimes
I let the bad out weigh the good. Perhaps the ‘Mother of the Year’ award was
God’s way of saying, ‘Hang in there. You’re doing better than you think, and I’m
not the only one who notices.’

Despite my many mistakes, perhaps my children will some day arise and call
me blessed.

The next time you need encouragement, let God whisper to your heart: ‘I hear
when you pray for your children, and I’m there when you teach them about who I
am. I watch you love, care, and sacrifice for them. You’re not perfect, but hang
in there. You’re doing better than you think.’

Dear
Lord, help me to be the mother my children deserve. Encourage my heart when I
feel like a failure. Erase my errors from the hearts and minds of my children.
Instead, help them to see Jesus in me, Amen.

Whew… how did it get to be Friday already??  Ag, there was so much I wanted to blog about, but I’m not even sure where to start!  After a crazy busy week, Josiah and I flew out yesterday afternoon.  A nasty line of thunderstorms and tornados had just blown through, but my flight was right on time. 

I was loaded down with luggage… my suitcase was 51.5lbs (luckily they let me through without the $50 charge!), my backpack – which I was wearing on the front – was packed full and VERY heavy, Josiah was on my back in the backpack, and I checked the carseat.  Getting through security was a HUGE hassle, with sippy cups rolling around, Josiah fussing, shoes getting misplaced.  I was frazzled before we even reached the plane! 

But that was the toughest part of the trip.  Josiah was amazingly good for me, very obedient, happily entertained with a Little Einsteins episode on my new iPod (I won it from a survey I filled out!!!).  Then he sat in the empty seat next to us (I didn’t buy a seat for him, just picked the LEAST desirable seat on the plane – back row by the bathroom, right next to the engine – in the hopes that no one would be next to us.  Woohoo – it worked!) and watched a DVD, played with his train, colored, and snacked.  He couldn’t have been any better.  I was so pleased!  I even got to enjoy some worship music on my iPod while he was watching his DVD player.  After we got off the plane, we had to wait for our backpack carrier, which had been gate-checked, and the woman who sat in front of us raved about how good he’d been.  Several other people commented on how they didn’t even know there was a small child on board.  Way to go, Josiah!  He enjoyed seeing the airplanes, too, but he was really focused on finding a "hopcoter", though there were none to be seen.

In Chicago, we were at the gate right next to the escalator to the baggage claim, and then our baggage claim was the first one we came to, and our suitcase and carseat were waiting.  When I asked a lady with a luggage cart which door to tell my grandma to pick us up at, she offered to take our stuff to the curb for us.  SWEET! 

The only hassle was that my Grandma (80years old) and Charlie (90years) didn’t wait for me to tell them which door I’d be at.  They ended up getting lost and finally parking in a parking garage, and I had to find them.  Amazingly – I’m sure a small miracle from God – they were in the garage directly across from where I was waiting, just up a level.  So, with J on my back, and a 30+lb backpack on my front, I pulled my heavy suitcase and dragged the carseat across 4 lanes of traffic, over the curb, to the elevator and up to my Grandma.  Hm.  Not exactly how the "cell phone waiting lot" was supposed to work!! 

Josiah went right to sleep after a quick dinner at a highway Oasis, and I drove the 3 hours to Platteville, Wisconsin.  Long, tiring but smooth journey, and we got in at 1:30.  J and I were in bed by 2.  Unfortunately, he was awake throwing up at 3:15 🙁  I got him cleaned up and tucked into my bed, rinsed off the dirty stuff so it wouldn’t stink up the room.  He did throw up one more little bit, but slept hard until 7am.  Poor guy.  I didn’t get much sleep, though.  And this morning, he had diarrhea again.  We’re waiting on word from the pediatrician from a stool sample, so HOPEFULLY – please pray!! – we get some answers so we can stop the nasty cycle!!  I can’t handle him being sick on this trip!

Today was a good day, though, and Josiah seemed to feel fine.  We napped this morning, played, walked around outside, and finally, a friend of my sister and Hal’s babysat Josiah, while my mom & Dad, Grandma & Charlie, Aunt Carol & Uncle Jim (here from Arizona), Hal & his parents, and I all attended the "pinning" ceremony for Anna’s Doctorate of Physical Therapy graduation.  She was one of the featured student speakers.  She did wonderfully.  I’m so glad I was able to be there.  I’m so proud of her!

We had a nice dinner of grilled chicken here before a small graduation party.  Josiah and I came home early with Grandma & Charlie for a good night’s sleep.  Busy day tomorrow with the actual graduation.  Pray that Josiah stays healthy!

I’ll just post Brian’s race report here, so you can enjoy his recap!

My race was insane. The call-ups were like a "who’s who" of criterium
racing. Kirk O’Bee, current US Pro crit national champ, Hilton Clarke,
Ivan Dominguez, Frank Pipp, Rashaan Bahati, and a bunch more. Toyota
United, Healthnet, and Bissell all had their A teams — but overall
the race was actually kind of small with less than 60 riders. I had an
OK start on the second row with the guy just in front and to the left
struggling to get into his pedals. I was in about 15th going through
the first two corners. The pace was not too, too fast but before I had
a chance to attack for the first lap prime, somebody else did and
everybody gunned it going down the hill into the third corner. I was a
little nervous not having had a chance to pre-ride the course and I
lost ground going into that corner coming out of it in probably 30th
or worse. By the time we made it around two more times I found myself
getting closer and closer to the back of the pack. Ivan Dominguez was
hanging out back there, too and I rode near him for the first few laps.

The pace was very fast and strung out everywhere except that third
corner, which was slower on some laps — but there were definitely
laps where we took that corner at over 30mph. I wouldn’t be surprised
if our average speed for the race was close to 30mph — I’ll have to
download the data when we get home to check. Even with the fast pace,
a group of 10 riders got away on about the tenth lap. Let’s just say I
wasn’t in any position to try to go with them. In fact I was hanging
on for dear life at the back of the group — which I think was
actually harder than riding near the front considering the whiplash
effect of turns 2 and 4. All the major teams were represented — but
the pace didn’t slow down right away. We went insanely fast for the
next 5 laps or so and then right when I was near the snapping point,
the field basically sat up between turn 1 and 2 and then basically
cruised the rest of the lap at 25mph — which was just enough time to
give me a chance to recover and actually move up to about a mid-pack
position going through the S/F.

I struggled some with Turn 3 as people would pass me going into the
corner and then it would be hard to carry momentum through it. When
the break finally lapped us, the pace shot up again and there were
several counter attacks so the pace would be fast on some laps and
then slower on other laps. Kristine says they were throwing out primes
on every other lap during that part of the race, but I was
concentrating hard on positioning, etc… and didn’t even notice them.
With about 20 laps to go, the pace shot up again as the big teams
started positioning for the final sprint.

But then with 12 or 13 laps to go, I was somewhere in the top 20 going
around Turn 2 and the people at the front sat up. I saw this as a
great opportunity to attack to move my position up — but when I
attacked and the front was still going slow, I found myself with a
huge gap on the downhill. Taking Turn 3 by myself was a lot more fun
than trying to negotiate it in the pack. I had a pretty good gap and
Frankie Andreu announced my name and our team going through the S/F!
At this point, Rashaan Bahati (Rock Racing) and John Murphy
(Healthnet) were also off the front chasing to "unlap" themselves. I
managed to bridge up to Rashaan after 3 or 4 laps, but he was cooked
and I stayed away one more lap before the field caught back up with
about 7 or 8 laps to go. It was awesome to be off the front of the
field with so many people from Birmingham cheering! Thanks!

The pack was strung out as it came by me, but I had enough adrenaline
so close to the finish of the race to ramp it up and hold on towards
the back of the pack for the next few laps. With 1 to go, a rider in
front of me gapped off on Turn 2 and I couldn’t go around him. I ended
up working with him to chase almost back on before the real sprint
started and then passed a bunch of people who had sat up for the
sprint. I think I may have finished somewhere in the mid to lower 30’s.

Starting a crazy busy week here.  We’re still dealing with intermittent stomach/intestinal issues here.  That means mountains of laundry are waiting to be taken care of, just after I got last week’s massive piles taken care of.

Brian raced in Anniston, AL and Roswell, GA (outside of Atlanta) Saturday and Sunday evenings.  Great races, LOADED with pros (like 70% of both fields).  Hugely impressive that he finished, and he even had several laps in both races where he was off the front of the pack leading.  I got really excited and screamed really loud.  🙂  We stayed at a nice hotel in Atlanta on Saturday night, actually getting good sleep, a wonderful breakfast, a nice swim in the pool, and a relaxing morning.  Even with some sickness to deal with on the trip, it was a good, fun time, and not-too-stressful. 

I’ve got a MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) Leadership Luncheon today, since I’ll be the Discussion Group Team Leader.  I’m really excited, because I have been very blessed by the ministry of MOPS.  If you haven’t been to a MOPS group and you’re a mom with young kids, I can’t recommend it enough!  Here’s where you can find a group near you…

We’re also going to try to make these cute butterfly cupcakes for Analise to take to preschool tomorrow.  I’ve never tried anything so fancy, so we’ll see how it turns out! 

Josiah and I are leaving on Thursday for 12 days in Wisconsin visiting my family.  Both my sisters are graduating, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.  It’s going to be a busy, crazy trip, and I wish more than anything Brian and Analise could come too, but Josiah and I will have a good time. 

Enough from me.  Gotta shower and move laundry.  Happy Monday!

Lots of updating to do on the cycling side! First of all, Brian’s back to riding his nice, fast yellow Trek Madone. Amazingly, after several phone calls between the bike shop and the Trek factory, Trek offered to give Brian a new frame FOR FREE! Yipee! That’s $1100 that we don’t have to pay. I tell ya, if I ever have anything to say about it, Brian won’t ride anything but Treks from here on out 🙂 We are so thankful!

This past week, Brian was gearing up for the big Athens Twilight race. The main event is a 9pm pro/elite race that is CRAZY fast and furious and full of crashes in downtown, just blocks from the University of Georgia. Many of the downtown restaurants on the 2 block course set up beer gardens, there’s live music playing, and -I’m not exaggerating – there are 30,000 fans lining the course cheering. It’s unlike any other race. Last year’s race was highly eventful, as Brian got caught in 3 crashes, before his bike was too damaged to continue.

Brian upgraded to category 1 status at the end of last season, and that was supposed to help him gain entry into some of these elite level races. But for some reason, the "big" races have become even harder to get into. The Athens race was labeled as a Pro/Elite race, and when Brian contacted the race director, he was told that he could register later, after the pro teams had signed up. He kept calling and kept getting put off. The contact he had assured him that he was probably going to get into the race, so that’s all we planned for. Until Thursday of last week, he got word that he couldn’t register for the big race. It was so frustrating. He registered for the category 1/2/3 race, which had a qualifying race in the morning and a finals race in the late afternoon. Still a good race, but not the Main Event and not with the big names he’d been looking forward to riding with. He heard from a couple people that they were going to see if they could get him into the evening pro race, but we went up there planning for the other races.

So he raced the morning race, and got into a break of 7. It was a tough uphill sprint finish, and he got 5th. In the afternoon finals race, it was on the crazy fast downtown course with like 100 riders. He stayed at the front most of the race, and finished 12th. Pretty good! I’ll post his race report at the bottom.

But a bunch of people made some phone calls, Brian got moved to the front of the list, and just before the finals race, he got word that he was 1 of 3 people they were adding to the pro race! Unbeknownst to us, the pro race had actually filled up to the race capacity of 150 riders, and more than 250 riders had wanted to race. Brian knew the right people in the right places to make it happen!

So after already racing more than an hour and a half, he started the pro race, at the absolute back of the 150 rider field… I’ll just post his thoughts below…

Three keys moments that stand out to me:

1. During the amateur finals race, I heard a crash in Turn 4 somewhere behind me that sounded bad. Keep in mind how turn 4 works, you go screaming through it and then you come really close to the outer barriers. The memory that is most vivid to me is hearing several people in the crowd only a foot or so away making this sort of cringing “oh” sound right in my ear and another saying “did you see that?” It just made me realize that racing in front of those crowds is like being a gladiator where “the kill” is the crash.

2. Also in turn 4, but this time during the pro race, I was approaching the corner and I saw a couple guys go down in the corner. I had already committed to the outside and there were riders on my right so I knew I had to stop. I slammed on my brakes thinking that I had plenty of room to stop. Then as my rear tire skidded and as I got closer and closer to the guy laying on the ground, I knew that there wasn’t enough room to stop so at the last minute I just veered left, hunched over to the left and plowed into the barrier knocking it back into some people in the crowd. It was crazy – you don’t realize how fast you are going until you try to stop.

3. This last “vivid memory highlight” was in turn 2 and was very reminiscent of last year’s crash that brought the race to a halt. I guess it didn’t take as many people down so they didn’t have to stop the race this year. I was still near the back of the race slowly working my way up passing riders each time up the hill. This time fortunately, I wasn’t killing it through that corner to swing wide and pass people so I actually had time to stop. The vivid memory I have is seeing a bike literally flying up into the air, bodies rolling on the ground and people crashing. Miraculously I didn’t go down, but it was funny where I ended up — with my front wheel touching a barrier and the rear wheel of a rider down in front of me and also with several riders down to my right and several stopped behind me. I looked back at a Texas roadhouse rider who was stopped behind me, and said OK that was close enough for me, where do we get our free lap?

“Vivid memory #3”, unfortunately, was also the beginning of the end of the pro-race for me even though I didn’t know it at the time. Apparently, in the mayhem I had dropped a bottle either in that crash or the one where I went into the barrier. I got back into the race no problem and was doing great, passing people on the hill, thinking this is great I just need to move up some more and I’ll finish. People were gapping all the time or sitting up and I had to jump around them and catch on. But each time I was doing fine. I could feel my legs tightening up a bit so I knew I needed to drink more. I drank whenever I could – usually on the downhill just before turn 3. Then on about lap 30 of the 80 lap race, I was about out of Gatorade so I reached to switch the bottles and lo and behold I didn’t have a second bottle on my bike! With a very sinking feeling, I knew that the only way to finish the race would be to count on all the pre-race hydration I had been doing. It wasn’t enough though. About 8 or 9 laps later just under the halfway point, my upper legs locked up with both sides cramping at the same time and I couldn’t even pedal. That was it. Pulled out just past the beer garden on the hill. I’m happy that my fitness is there and one of these years everything is going to come together and I am going to get a top 10 finish in that race!

Earlier in the day the greenway race was a fun one albeit the hardest race I have done this year (even harder than the pro race!). I went with the break that launched itself after the second corner on the first lap. When that got caught, I covered another short break that got caught as I pulled through. Then the real break (a Toshiba-Santo rider) went on the next lap on the downhill before the first corner, and I couldn’t go with it. Fortunately, I was sitting on the wheel of Chris Butler (Hincapie U23 Development) when he attacked to bridge up. I tucked and held on as tight as I could to his draft and he dragged me almost all the way up. I had to take one pull on the hill and we made it up to the Toshiba rider. The guys I was in the break with just kept on killing it. Even though I was hurting pretty bad I was afraid not to pull for fear that they would attack out of the break and I would get dropped. So I would roll through whenever I could but I definitely skipped some pulls when I simply couldn’t go fast enough to get around the guy who just pulled off the front. My average heart rate for the race was 182 bpm (see below) — keep in mind that my Zone 5 starts at 175! For the finals race, my average HR was 171, and then for the pro race, it was only 169.

The HR data for the morning amateur qualifers race:

HR Data for the afternoon amateur finals race:

HR Data for the evening pro race (the Main Event):