3 weeks to go...but nearly $400 short of my goal

Good morning friends and family!

I want to start by saying to thank you to all of you for not cringing (ok, maybe you did cringe) when you saw this post appear on your facebook page.

It is getting to crunch time - I have 3 more weeks until the MS 150 bike ride but still have almost $400 to raise to meet my fundraising goal. Every little bit helps!!

With your donation, not only are you helping me to meet a goal (and possibly out-fundraise my dad!) but, more importantly, your donation helps the more than 400,000 individuals and families living with MS through research, advocacy, and support.

I also want to thank all of you who have already donated to my ride. Your gift (which, by the way, is totally tax deductable) means the world to someone living with MS.

If you haven't yet donated but are planning to, please consider taking a few minutes today to go to:

1. National MS Society, Bike MS (click on "National...");
2. Enter my name "Rebecca Leeb" and "NC" for the state;
3. Make a donation.

Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy!

Thank you!!
rebecca

Spare change?

Got spare change in hand? Skip my plea and donate now: (click here -->) National MS Society 

Search by my name: Rebecca Leeb and help support my ride.

And for those of you who are still with me...

I just spent the last 15 minutes trying to figure out how to download the Pink Floyd song "Money" and insert it so that when you open this post it plays in the background. But, alas, I am just not that technologically savvy. So, if you wouldn't mind just humming your favorite song about money while reading this, I'd really appreciate it. 

Um, no that's not me to the right of my dad.
That is a toothsome bear.
Obviously. :D

It is that time of year again. The MS 150 is looming large in my future and I am knocking on your virtual door to ask you to help support a fantastic cause and an annual bonding experience for me and my dad. 

Yes, this is me and my dad.
See? Neither one of us looks like
a toothsome bear.

The MS 150 bike ride is a two-day fundraising event held on the coast of North Carolina for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. The ride begins on and ends in New Bern, NC and lets participants choose routes up to 100 miles per day. This year's event is being held the weekend of September 6-7, 2014. 

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that affects the nervous system. The disease is progressive and increasingly debilitating. In the U.S. there are about 400,000 people living with MS and 2.1 million worldwide. So, it is likely that you know of a friend or relative who is living with MS. The MS Society supports research, education and provides support for individuals and families.

The ride is my opportunity to pay it forward. Although my life has not been directly touched by MS, participating in this event gives me a chance to try to help improve the lives of people with MS, their families, and their friends.

This is my third year participating in the MS 150 ride in New Bern, NC and I am excited that this year my dad and I plan to go the distance - 100 miles on day 1 and 50 miles on day 2. Last year over 2000 riders raised more than $1.75 million 60% of which was used for for programs, services and advocacy related to MS in the southeastern US. The remaining 40% supports national research efforts to stop disease progression, restore function, and end MS forever.

I can't describe what it means to me to undertake a ride like this with my dad who is my first riding partner. Last year I was thrilled to raise over $1000 for this amazing cause, and I hope to match, or better yet, exceed this amount this year. (please help!!)

But to do this I need your help! Please look under your couch cushions, in your jeans pockets, and at the bottom of your washing machine and pull together your spare change to support my ride and the National MS Society.

To donate go to: 

National MS Society

Search by my name: Rebecca Leeb

and help support my ride.

Together we can make a difference in the lives of people living with MS!

Thank you.

Making dad proud

My brother and I enjoy some astoundingly erudite conversations...

What do the movie Frozen, charities, and proud mommies have in common?

Brenna started Sunday school this past year, and she loves it. (Her Sunday school is called "Jewish Kids Group".) She loves it so much that she has told me on numerous occasions that she doesn't want to go to the YWCA (her regular preschool) anymore, she only wants to go to "Jewish School".  She loves her teacher Ms. Maya. She loves her class. And, she finally admitted, she loves that she doesn't have to take naps at Jewish school (because she is only there for 2.5 hrs) but she does at the Y (because she is there for 8 hrs/day) and she doesn't like taking naps because she "doesn't know how to sleep".

(Which, isn't that far off from the truth and why I am now used to being awoken way before the sun...and now that I have memorized Frozen, every time I am awoken by the pat-pat of a little hand I hear this little voice in my head say "The sky is awake. So I'm awake!")

But I digress.

One of the first things Brenna learned about at Sunday school was tzedakah and mitzvot (charity and good deeds). Every week I give Brenna $0.36 to bring for tzedakah. 36 cents is equal to 2 x the number chai (18). Chai is a mystical/good luck number. ("Chai" is pronounced with a gutteral loogie hawking noise at the start, almost "HHHhhheye", rather than the hard "CH" like chai tea (it's charity not a starbucks drink!!)  Often when Jews make donations to charity or gifts of money they will be made in multiples of 18 for good luck, hence $0.36. So she doesn't lose her tzedakah (between the car and her classroom), she carries it in an Angry Birds pencil case - probably the first and only known Angry Birds Tzedakah Case. :)

Fancy cape = Elsa..................Of course it does.

This past week was her last Sunday school class until next fall. Each child made his/her own tzedakah box to bring home. While all the other kids decorated the box itself, Brenna attached what looks like toilet paper (but is actually torn paper towel - still, a little creepy) to her box, stuck "jewels" onto it and made an Elsa tzedakah box. (Of course she did.) See the "cape"? that's how you can tell it is Elsa....because "Elsa wears a beautiful cape". (Duh, mommmy.)

I asked Brenna if we should put the tzedakah she would have taken to Sunday school into her Elsa box for the summer and at the end of the summer we can donate it to a charity of her choice. She said yes, she liked that idea.

I asked her what charity she would like to collect tzedakah for...

M: Do you want to collect money to help animals that don't have homes?
B: Mmmmm. No.
M: No? Umm, ok. Maybe collect money for kids and babies?
B: No. I want to collect money for people who don't have jobs, so they can have money and also buy toys for their kids.

I am so proud.

JKG Preschool class 2013-14

 

Real mowers for reel men

A little over 2 years ago we finally acquired a yard. And with this yard came a house and bunch of green stuff (it's a stretch to call it grass) that got Michael all geeked out about buying something to cut it with. In our previous house I was able to cut the grass (monkey grass, aka lariope) with pruning shears. Granted it took me about 4 hours to get it all cut and a weed-eater would have done it in 0.001 the time, but that would have required owning a weed-eater, which I didn't.

So now we have, well, I'll call it "grass", but know that I use that term with literary license, and it needs to be cut with something other than scissors. Michael is running on and on about how we are going to get a "real" mower. Not a gas powered mower. A REAL mower. That you push. And I'm thinking, WTF? A real mower? As opposed to what? A fake one? But rather than display my lawn maintenance ignorance, I decided to just go along for the ride in the hope that I'll figure it out before I make myself look foolish. Besides, I just figured that my husband was having some sort of grass-fueled REAL man moment.

To fulfill the real mower fantasy, we headed over to our favorite big-box home improvement store and my husband leads me through the labyrinth of yard tools, whereupon I find myself standing in front of a display of grass cutting machinery. Michael bee-lines toward this little mower and stands in front of it salivating. I look at this little grass cutting implement and a lightbulb goes on over my head.

 

He wants a manual PUSH MOWER!! You know, the kind that has the rotating blades on a little barrel and requires real man (or woman) power to make it go. My dad had one of those. He used to punish my brother by making him mow the lawn with it.

It wasn't until many many conversations later that it was explained to me that it's not a REAL mower, describing the "real" man who powers it. Rather it's a REEL mower, describing the mechanism that makes the blades turn.

Oh. Right.
I knew that.

After being briefed on all the ins and outs of using a reel mower, I was granted the honor of becoming a real woman and cutting the grass. And, let me tell you, after pushing that thing through the weeds in the middle of July, I definitely felt like a real something-or-other!

Flash forward to this past weekend. Michael is away on a business trip and our patch of weeds is out of control.

The 2" of rain that fell on Saturday did nothing to curb the growth of greenery and our yard is beginning to look like an overgrown vacant lot through which you can no longer see that there is actually a house. Despite the spongy ground I decide that the grass is dry enough and I announce to Brenna that I am going to cut the grass.


This plan goes well for the strip of greenery between the street and the sidewalk.

Then I turn my attention to the green right in front of the house. Apparently the area near the curb gets more sun than the rest of the yard.

Pretty much all I succeeded in doing was mangling the weeds. After about 30 passes up and back trying to shorten the grass rather than skid over it or pull it out from the root (which wasnt' necessarily a bad thing for some of the knee high weeds), I called the grass cut and turned to planting flowers.


In the end, Brenna looked at my handiwork and said: Mommy, I thought you were going to cut the grass?
Me: I did.
B: No you didn't. You just flatted it.

At about this time, our friend Dayna comes over. She looks at the "mowed" grass and asks what I used to "flat" it. I told her I used a reel mower (which was now back in it's home under the house).

She looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said, "Real?! As opposed to what? Imaginary?" This led to the two of us rolling around on the grass making lawn mower noises and pretending to "flat the grass". Not sure what the neighbors thought but no one called the cops.


Truthfully, Brenna is right. It does look like I "flatted" the grass rather than mowed it.

But the flowers look nice.

snow day recipe

It is the snowmageddon blizzaster in Atlanta. We are all stuck at home for at least 48 hrs...or until Saturday when the forecast high is supposed to be 65 deg. (No, I dont see anything weird about a 50 degree temperature swing over a 72 hr perioda0

With no school and a dead laptop, but plenty of power and southern snowstorm staples (bread, eggs and milk) Brenna and I baked.

brenna's snow day recipe for "apple pie"

Ingredients:

flour - as much as you'd like - more is better...if you're 4 years old

multi colored sprinkles

chocolate jimmies

nestle's chocolate chunks

mini m&ms

Equipment

a bowl

a wooden spoon

small rolling pin

a whisk

measuring cups in various sizes

cookie cutters - ours had a halloween theme...because everyone wants bats and pumpkins in Jan.

Directions

1. Have an adult put some flour in a bowl - the amount will be less than you want but if you whine about it you are likely to end up in your room by yourself. 

2. Mix by hand. A lot. - By hand means with your hands in the bowl

3. Add multicolored sprinkles

4. Add more sprinkles

5. Add chocolate chunks - these seem to be under adult control so you won't get as many as you'd like. 

6. Eat some of the chocolate chunks. (Dust the flour off of them before putting in your mouth)

7. Mix with your hands some more. Spill some on the floor and counter.

8. Pour mixture out of the bowl

9. Spread mixture on counter. Be sure to spill some more on the floor and your step stool or chair. Point out the spill to whatever adult is closest. If you are lucky, you will be right over a heating vent and can spill into the HVAC system

10. Return mixture to bowl (minus what falls on the floor and remains on the counter)

11. If you still have sprinkles, add more sprinkles

12. Request m&ms for your mixture. These are also adult controlled.

13. eat chocolate chunks and m&ms

14. Mix more. Use the whisk. This is sure to send stuff flying and is way fun.

15. Pour some mixture onto counter

16. Roll with rolling pin

17. "cut" with cookie cutters

18. Use your hands to push "dough" back together. 

19 Repeat all steps until you are done.

20. Be sure to drop more on floor and chair

21. By all means, manage to get the mixture in your hair

responses to important baking questions

B - now I need to add the apples

M - we dont have any apples

B - that's ok. we have sprinkles. how can you make apple pie without sprinkles?!

how indeed?!

M - how long does your pie need to bake?

B - 6!! Hours!! or 70. Yes 70!!

70 what I didn't even want to ask.

Note for adults who may wish to attempt this recipe with their own child:

This is an excellent way to clear out all those little bottles of cake decorations that have bee n haning out in the cabinet since the dawn of time.

Clean up may require an industrial shop-vac and high pressure hose so plan ahead

Entertainment value is worth the clean up.

And I bet you thought dinosaurs were extinct (the MS 150 ride report)

 



Not too long ago I had a conversation with Brenna that went something like this:

B: Mommy?

http://sweetclipart.com/multisite/sweetclipart/files/dinosaur_t_rex_0.png

M: Yes, sweetie.
B: Where are the dinosaurs?
M: There are no dinosaurs anymore because they all died. Do you think that means they are extinct?
B: Yes! they are eh-stink...es-stinks....stinks! Stinks!! hahahahahaha (peals of 3.5 year old laughter)...Dinosaurs STINKS!! hahahahah (more uproarious laughter).

Ahhh... the 3.5 year old sense of humor.

But what, you may be wondering, do stinky dinosaurs have to do with my recent MS 150 ride with my dad? Well, my friend, more than you would think...



not nearly as cute as the one above but more accurate for sure.

During our MS 150 ride I discovered that, in fact, dinosaurs are NOT extinct. They are very much alive and are living happily in my bike saddle. Who knew?!

The weather forecast for this year's MS 150 ride in New Bern, NC promised perfection - low 80's for the high, sunny skies, and light and variable winds (translations: headwind from all directions except when it's a crosswind). Who could ask for more?

Ok, some training for 150 miles over two days would have been nice, but that wasn't in the cards for either my father or myself this year.

My parents had just returned less than a week prior to the ride from a 3 week stint in Bali, Java, and Singapore (retirement is rough). And I had spent my summer attending to other priorities.

Between my dad's jetlag and my focus on things other than riding a bike this summer, my dad and I decided that our best plan of attack for this ride was to just make it off the starting line without falling over.


This was my second year fundraising for the National MS Society and my 2nd year of doing the Bike MS 150 New Bern (NC) with my dad. Despite our lack of readiness we were excited to have the opportunity to ride our bikes and raise some money for such a worthy cause.

I am pleased to report that I far exceeded my fundraising goal of $500, and together my dad and I have raised almost $2000...

WELCOME TO YOUR PARTICIPANT CENTER

Progress for Rebecca Leeb

$905.00

I HAVE RAISED

$500.00

MY GOAL (change)

100%

PERCENT

0

DAYS LEFT

Although I am thrilled to have exceeded my goal, I am nothing if not an overachiever. As such, I have set an unofficial goal of $1000 which I am still trying to reach. So, if you would still like to donate, please do not hesitate to click here (click on the word "here". really. try it. put your cursor over "here" and click. wasn't that cool? hyperlinks are amazing inventions. :))

(Ok, so it didn't work. My bad. Try clicking on the big long hyperlink below...

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/NCTBikeEvents?px=5431795&pg=personal&fr_id=20780

I am listed as Rebecca Leeb from Georgia. Donations will be accepted through October 7, 2013.)

In the vein of being realistic about our fitness and desire to suffer, my dad and I set our sites on doing the MS 150 - 50, or  fifty miles per day for a total of 100 miles over the weekend. This goal would help us both survive 2 days of riding. It also had the added benefit of allowing my mom some relief so that she could survive 2 straight days of corralling Brenna's enthusiasm for the beach and everything sand.

sure, she looks calm....

Maintaining my mom's good humor and sanity was a priority as ignoring this was likely to result in my dad and I having to ride our bikes back to Chapel Hill after our MS 100 and sleep on the front lawn.....for the rest of our lives. Not exactly our desired fate.

We rolled into New Bern on Friday afternoon, picked up our packets, dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed another 40 min down to Atlantic Beach (NC) where my mom and Brenna would set up home base. A quick walk on the sand, some Calabash-style dinner (aka - fried everything including the water and the plate on which your food is served), back to the hotel to tuck Brenna into bed and the 40 min drive back to New Bern where my dad and I set a record for getting our stuff ready for the next day and were in bed by 10:15 pm.



I mean, seriously, if you ask for a more beautiful day than this
you deserve to get smacked upside the head and then
subjected to my mother's ill humor upon being left with her
over-excited beach bunny for 15 straight hours while suffering from jetlag.

Day 1

It was a little windy but with the mercury sitting at an almost chilly 66* (F) the conditions were perfect for a relaxed ride over the flattest terrain between the Atlanta Ocean and Kansas. 



New Bern, NC, spelled: "F...L...A...T..."

The ride starts at 8 am sharp. The start is staggered with the fastest riders (those who can or pretend that they can average >20 mph for more than the first 100 yards) heading out first. Subsequent groups head out at approximately 2-3 minute intervals thereafter. 



the start

My dad and I settled in toward the back of the group of riders who all at least imagined they would average 18 mph.

A beautifully sung rendition of our national anthem and we were off. 

Over the causeway bridge (all of our climbing for the day) and we soon found a group of riders going just the right speed and willing to let us work in with their group. We stuck with our new friends until about mile 20 where the 50 mile and the 100 mile routes split. The rest of the group was doing the full century so we said our good-byes (at 19 mph) and continued on our own.

Feeling good, we made it to the rest stop at our 1/2 way point - known as the "lunch break" because it is the 50 mile mark for anyone doing the century on day 1 and has an unappetizing array of "real" foods to consume including beans and rice. Personally, I cannot imagine riding 50 miles, eating a plate of beans and rice and then riding another 50 miles in the hot sun and not vomiting, but I'm just weird that way I guess.

Anyway, we arrived at the lunch break in under an hour and 1/2 (zoooooooom!) at approximately 9:30 am - not exactly lunch time. We were there so quickly, in fact, that they were barely set up for riders to come in.



A toothsome pair.
(for those who don't know, my dad is a retired dentist.
this bear was outside a dental office we passed on our
way back into New Bern. my dad actually knows the
dentists in the practice.)



We took a quick potty break and had an appropriate snack of energy gel and gatorade (mmm, pre-digested food), and we were back on our bikes in 10 minutes. We picked up another rider just before the break who stayed with us for most of the remainder of the ride - A very nice lunatic riding for Team CBC who had lost his mind prior to the ride and made the questionable decision to ride from Raleigh to New Bern (approximately 120 miles) the previous day. Uh, yeah. That's right up there with beans and rice 1/2 way through a century ride in my books.

We continued to make good time on the 2nd half of our ride and were back in New Bern in just over 2.5 hrs. In fact, we may have been among the first 5 people doing the 50 mile route to finish for the day. Go us.

Our speedy return gave us plenty of time to take quick showers and head down to relieve my mother of a sand and waterlogged Brenna.



Shell fragment, anyone?



Day 2



Megasaurass
http://amazeworld.webs.com/2ijpxr4.jpg

Ok, so remember I started this ride report with the shocking revelation that not only do dinosaurs not stink but neither are they EXtinct? Right. So, here is where we get to that important scientific reveal...

Megasaurbits - sure, she looks innoccous
http://img0.etsystatic.com/012/0/5770482/il_570xN.429351174_pkab.jpg

The Megasaurass is a little known but very fierce and dreaded species of dinosaur thought to have died out with the rest of the dinosaur population when that ginormous meteor smacked into the Earth a gazillion years ago (or whatever theory you cling to about the demise of dinosaurs on our planet). Little do most people know this one species, and a closely related cousin, Megasaurbits, still exist but in a much reduced, though

disproportionately fierce, form. They cannot be seen but, like a swarm of no-see-em gnats, when they attack you will know.

Fortunately, most of the human population is safe from attack by the Megasaurass and the Megasaurbits, and it appears that only cyclists who fail to put in a sufficient amount of saddle-time prior to a long ride are susceptible. As such, I was susceptible.

Ohhhh, boy was I susceptible. Within about 30 nanoseconds of placing my rear on my bike saddle on Sunday morning it was painfully apparent that I had not only ordered and received a gross load of both Megasaurass and Megasaurbits during the night, but some had also escaped and infected a good proportion of the other MS 150 riders.

Oops. Sorry folks. I'll try to keep my order more contained next year.

Apart from the paleolithic invasion, Sunday's ride went off without a hitch. My dad and I started with the back of the fastest group and soon found a fantastic group of folks to ride with. We averaged 21 mph with this group for a good 12 miles before they continued on the route for 100 miles and we split off for another 50.

We had another wonderful ride and again finished the 50 mile course in just over 2.5 hours.

A delicious chocolate milk thanks to the folks at Mayola, and another MS 150 in the books.

All in all I would have to say that the 2 days of riding my dad and I did for this amazing cause were the most fun I've had on a bike in a long, long time.



Many thanks to all of you who helped me reach and exceed my fundraising goal. 





It was as a nice surprise to discover that the team that my dad and I ride for during this event was the 5th highest fundraising team for 2013!

Many thanks also to my mom who kept Brenna contained and entertained while my dad and I rode our bikes.

And what is a weekend of riding if there isn't a stop at Dairy Queen?

Don't just bike. Bike MS

.