CIM 2009 - Hot Mamas Relay Team

While on maternity leave with Abby I got to be good friends with April and Miki who were also on maternity leave. We started running together. Originally we planned on doing the 4 Bridges 1/2 Marathon as a relay together, but April and I were both injured by the time it came around. Miki ended up running it with her husband Tom and another friend from work.


While we had been training for that, we had run a few times with Anna Hamlin (another friend who works with me and April) who was training to do the full 1/2 marathon. After the 4 Bridges, Anna suggested that we run the CIM (California International Marathon) together as a relay. We entered as the "Hot Mamas" team. :)



We had tons of fun with this!!!! On Saturday morning we did the packet pickup and expo at the Sac Convention Center. We also hit Michael's for shirt decorating stuff. Saturday evening we got together with all the families and had a carb loading pasta bar party. Slightly insane with eight adults and eight kids 4 and under. We also decorated our shirts - lots of bling involved of course!


Sunday was the race. It started in Folsom and ended at the Capital building in downtown Sacramento. We had a few points of drama - I managed to leave the chip at home and forget the gate remote so I couldn't get back in to get it at 5:30am. Luckily I've done enough races to know they'd have spares at the start. The other girls got to deal with major traffic issues getting to the starts of their legs. It was also very cold - 32 degrees when I started. Luckily the snow held off until the next day - or it would have been miserable (see below for a picture of the snow that fell at our house on Monday).


I was very happy with how my leg went (I was the first leg). I did 6 miles and my goal was just to run the entire thing without stopping - regardless of time. In training I'd been averaging super-slow 13 to 14 minute miles. So I was thrilled to average an 11 minute mile! (Yes it's mostly down hill.) I did the full 6 miles in 1 hour 6 minutes and didn't stop once! Yay me!!! The other girls did awesome as well. Once you take out the 15 minutes it took me to work up to the starting line and some timing issues exchanging the chip, we all averaged about an 11 minute mile and no injuries!!


We all had such a great time, we've decided to try running a full 1/2 marathon together in March. Wish us luck!



Below is a picture of the snow we got the very next day - 5 inches at our house. It would have been miserable to race in.

Thanksgiving 2009 & Nana's 90th Birthday

Happy Thanksgiving Friends and Family!

Ok - so I'm really late with the TG wishes and this blog. I'm also way behind on email and facebook responses - so if you're waiting on me - I apologize!

Thanksgiving was a great holiday for us. We took the very last days of vacation I had left this year and spent a entire week in Atlanta, GA. We stayed with with Robbie's sister, Tracy, and her family. Robbie's parents, Bob and Dottie, joined us after a few days. It was so fun to watch Owen with his cousins Collin and Carson. Boy did he burn off energy with Collin. And he reaction to Carson was an improvement from March when he didn't want him around at all. Instead this time he sometimes played next to and sometimes ignored him. Collin and Carson also seemed to have fun with Abby. Carson was really gentle with her - so sweet!


Despite the rainy and cold weather, we still managed to do lots of fun stuff. We made it to the Atlanta Aquarium (the biggest in the US). It was incredible - especially the tunnel room where you could see two whale sharks. We also got to pet sting rays and small sharks which was cool too. We also took the kids to the neighborhood park to feed the ducks, and to a tire swing that was way up high in the pine trees. Tracy and I also managed to get some Mary Kay training done in there too. :)



Thanksgiving Day we spent at my grandmother, Nana's house. She was celebrating her 90th birthday and ALL of my Mom's side of the family came to celebrate with her. It's the first time all of us have been together since I was 14 (so almost 20 years). We've been together in various ways, but never all of us. It was a huge gathering as between marriage and kids we've added to the family over the years. 32 people stuffed into the house. :) We also got together the next day for lunch and a birthday cake for Nana. It was so wonderful to see everyone! I only wish I could have spent a lot more time talking to each person.

4 generations of women (Paulla Beard, Rita Thompson, Kristen Gehbauer, Abigail Gehbauer)


All in all a wonderful time. Can't say I love flying cross-country with two kids. Owen was actually mostly very well behaved - watch videos a good deal of the time. It was Abby who was the tough one. I don't think we'll be doing long flights again with her until she's a little older and less wiggly/screechy.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!

Halloween 2009

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FRIENDS AND FAMILY!

We had a great Halloween this year. Lots of Halloween activities squeezed in. We did our usual trip to Apple Hill where we took pictures of the kids in their costumes. There's a separate blog about this. About two weeks before Halloween, we took the kids to a "pumpkin patch" - not one where the pumpkins are still on their vines but a gimiky one. It was a cloudy day and so very in keeping with the mood for the holiday (see cool pic Robbie took above). Owen ran through a maze. They had several old cars to look at (one that looks like Sherrif in the movie Cars). Owen picked several pumpkins to take home and carve. Lots of fun!

The weekend before Halloween, Owen helped Robbie carve a pumpkin. This is our first pumpkin not only as a family - but since Robbie and I have been married. This is the first year that we figured Owen would be interested - and he was for about 30 minutes. He helped carve out the top and scoop out the seeds. When he saw inside the pumpkin his first reaction was, "Candy!"

That same weekend we got together with our friends the Gulbrandsens and the Geroys. Miki and April were on maternity leave with me and we've been taking pictures of our three girls together at different stages. So we wanted pictures of the three of them in the Halloween costumes (in the first pic below, Addison is a monkey, Abigail is a ladybug, and Kate is a kitty cat). Too cute. We also got pictures with the older kids (Owen is Elvis, Grace is Cinderella, and Sam is a 50's girl) and even some with the parents (no costumes for us)!

And then there's Halloween night...

We had dinner with our friends Ariel and Damon and their daughter Alex. And then we went trick-or-treating. Alex was dressed up as a lamb (so cute). And Owen went as Elvis. We moused his hair and drew on side-burns for the actual trick-or-treating. We had gone last year, but the kids were a little too young to get into it. This year was the first year they kind of understood. We had talked it up to Owen, but the actual event was a revalation to him.

After every house he'd say, "ANOTHER house?!?!" Like he couldn't believe that we could go to another house and they'd give us candy. After a particularly scary house he wanted to be held and not go up to the door any more. But once he saw that candy was still on offer, he was back up to that door on his own in a flash. We kept it pretty short - just going the length of the Tribble's street (which is a longish street). We popped over to some of our neighbors' houses after we got home to show them the kids in their costumes.

All in all, an awesome Halloween! I can't wait for next year already!

Owen/Abby - Oct '09

October was a busy month for the Gehbauers. I returned to work. Robbie worked his tail off. Owen is 1/4 of this way through his 3rd year. Abby turned 6 months old. And Halloween was the holiday of the season (addressed in a separate blog).

I returned to work on October 5th after a week in Texas visiting family and friends (previous blog entry). I am still on the Dell account, but have moved to a new role - Rebate Analyst. So far I am really enjoying the role a lot. It's a different customer dynamic from that of Customer Analyst, and a more high-level view of the account. I am working closely with a friend - Megan Donahue - who actually had the chipset desk before I had it. I'm just following her around. :) Megan had the full Dell rebate desk previously, but with the advent of some new processes, they decided to split the desk into two. At the moment I am doing a lot of working creating new tools/spreadsheets to handle these new processes. Eventually I will handle rebates for all desktop and server products that Dell buys from Intel. It's hard being back at work after 6 months at home with Abigail. But I love my job - so that helps a lot.

Robbie's had a bit of a rough month. At work they have "innovations" that are basically independent projects. He is part of an innovation team that is one of 12 teams company-wide up for an award. He goes to Denver next week to demo their innovation and see if they win the award. However, to be ready for Denver, he's been working long hours every night after the kids are down. So from about 8pm until 12/1am. It also didn't help that while Owen was sick (see next paragraph) Robbie had to be the one home with him for a full week (I'm out of any available PTO). So he missed out on a week of innovation time while he spent the nights just keeping up with his daily workload. Owen continues to be a combination of amazingly adorable and aggravating. He's doing the typical 2 year old thing - tantrums here and there, pushing buttons, testing boundaries. But he's also really sweet, displays great manners, can be very snuggly, and is very funny. He's still daddy's boy (will tell me to get up off the couch next to him so that Robbie can sit down instead). We start potty training officially right after Thanksgiving. So fingers crossed on that one. Owen had swine flu this month. It was pretty odd. He woke up from a nap one Saturday with a 102 fever. By the time we hit the urgent care and the pharmacy, it was down to 99 (with no medication). By Monday he'd been on tamaflu and without fever for more than 24 hours so he was in school all week. Fine over that weekend. And then on the next Monday fever fack up to 102 and out of school all week. He was quite a trooper - you'd never know he was sick to watch him. His favorite things lately - Little Ensteins (especially episodes with Melody), the green motorcycle, dinobites (he won't eat anything else), and Mr. Potato Head's glasses.

Abigail is 6 months old - can you believe it?!?! Time flies even faster with the second kid. Just this week she has been up on all fours and rocking back and forth. I'm guessing she'll be crawling by Thanksgiving time. She doesn't like to sit up - would rather practice her crawling. She still growls like a little bear (although probably louder than a bear - at the grocery store the other day I was two aisles from Robbie and could hear her quite clearly. She has gone on formula strike - would rather eat the solid food instead. But she's growing steadily. She got through her 6 month appointment with flying colors. Although she did find a new decible level when they gave her the shots. Her stats are:

Owenisms...

One evening after Abby was down we were playing in the livingroom with Owen. Owen started walking away and said, "I'll be right back." We said, "Where are you going?" and he answered, "I'm going to make dinner." What a little mimic!

One morning we were getting in the car to go drop the kids off at daycare. Robbie had opened the garage door and it was really foggy outside....

Owen: "What's that?"

Robbie: "It's foggy outside."

Owen: "It's froggy outside."

Robbie: "Not froggy, foggy - that's fog, buddy."

Owen: moment to think and then, "We have to be careful!"

Robbie: "Why do we have to be careful?"

Owen: "We can't see!"

Abby-isms...

Abigail has started "talking." She says the sound "bah." But by intonation you can hear exactly what she's telling you. And she looks directly at the person she's talking to. We get an earful when we put her in the car (which she hates).

While practicing her crawling skills, Abigail loves to fly like an airplane. Whether on her tummy or being held, she sticks those arms out straight. If she's on her tummy she arches her back and the legs are up off the floor too.

Apple Hill - 2009

This weekend we did our annual autumn trip to Apple Hill. I know I've blogged before about what it is, but this is also my annual blog about our annual Apple Hill trip. AH is a series of orchards up in the mountains (the beginnings of them) about 30-45 minutes from our house. The fall is the best time to go because that's when the harvest is going on.


We now have our traditional orchards that we always go to. They have lots of great food. Of course we have to have various apple related things, and then there's the BBQ. For the kids there's a petting zoo, hay rides, a pond, pony rides, tractors, and picturesque pumpkin patches for pictures. Every year we take Owen (and now Abby) and get pictures in the Halloween gear. This year Owen is Elvis and Abby is a ladybug. Owen picked his own costume this year. We showed him 5 costumes and he decided which one - he picked it for the guitar.

This year we went with Ariel, Damon, and their daughter Alex, and with Tom, Dana, and their daughter Danika. The weather was gorgeous - blue skies and low-to-mid-70s. Owen did the hay ride. And both Owen and Alex did the pony ride. Danika got her face painted. Abby was very well behaved. The adults chased the kids all around and enjoyed the tri-tip sandwiches and the dutch apple pie.

Great time had by all! Already looking forward to our trip next year.




Incidentally... while getting pics of the kids in their costumes we also took pics of Abby in Owen's baby costume. Below is a shot of each kid. Any guesses as to which one is Owen and which one is Abby?

AOT Memorial Boogie - 10 Year Anniversary

10 Year Memorial Boogie

My big reason for visiting Texas recently was to attend the 10 year anniversary AOT Memorial Boogie. For those of you not in on the skydiving lingo - a boogie is basically a big jump weekend where skydivers all over gather for a weekend of jumping and socializing. Usually more planes, or unusual planes, are brought in and typically there's a dinner and lots of skydiving traditions.

Me, Mark, and Travis

The AOT Memorial Boogie is held annually for a more particular reason. My senior year of college, on September 18, 1999, the plane (nick named Duct Tape) at my home drop zone - AOT (Ags Over Texas) in College Station - crashed on take-off killing all five people on board. So we hold this boogie to gather the friends of those killed in the crash.

Jonathan Warden - a friend through so many ways - skydiving, JoLynn's husband, Travis and Mark's cousin, part of the Warden family - incredible people who I had become close to in college.

Rob Puryear - pilot, friend, what a great sense of humor and fun, had to drag him out dancing though, he loved his car.

Mark Woodings - previous leader of the Texas A&M Skydiving club/teams, owner of the drop zone, my first skydiving instructor and mentor, so many friends and good memories have Mark and AOT at the center of everything.

Sarah Miller - a freshman who had joined the club with her roommate Carol. Making her first jump on student status. Beautiful and sweet.

Lela Futch - a tandem student who had been given the jump for her birthday by her brother.


This year is the 10 year anniversary of the crash. So this boogie is bitter sweet - a tough time in my life to think about - but great memories of my friends who died and a chance to get together with friends not seen in a while.

Jenny, Me, and JoLynn (and Pierce)

Two of my very best friends - Jenny is Mark McHam's wife and JoLynn who was Jonathan's wife.

I've written down my memories of the crash below, but first I want to talk about the boogie this year... It was so wonderful to see old friends this weekend. Huge thanks to Kay, Jan, and the Spillers for organizing and hosting.

I left Abby with Mom and Dad in Georgetown. I arrived Friday evening and went straight to Meridon and Danny's house. They had gathered the College Station family - Muna, Sandy, Pop Judy and Travis's daughter Jayden, Debbie and John, Rex and his family, and Brad and his family. Travis, Mark/Jenny and their family, and JoLynn came a little later.

Meridon, Muna, Sandy

(Jonathan's mother, grandmother, and aunt)

While we were in college, every Thursday evening we would gather at Meridon and Danny's and be fed a great meal (a huge thing for broke skydiver college students) and have a Bible study. My first introduction to Bible studies. This was a group of people who daily demonstrated faith to me and taught me what it is to love God. They were my family away from family. 10 years later it was wonderful to see them again and feel that their love for me had never changed. I was welcomed back as part of the family.

Pop, Me, and Judy

Travis and Mark's parents, and still like parents to me. (Bill is Meridon's brother.)

Later in the evening Mark, Jenny, JoLynn, Travis, and I went to the Vineyard Court hotel to gather with our skydiver friends there. It is so strange that we are all married with kids now. When did we become the grown ups?

Me and Kay

Kay and John Choate took care of all of us younger skydivers. Sadly, John died from cancer a few years ago. Kay was major in organizing the boogie.

Saturday had us out at the DZ in the morning so that Mark and Jenny's kiddos could see the skydivers jumping. Tristan - Jenny and Mark's oldest - would say, "Hi Skydivers!" - so excited. And Mark would say, "Hey, I'm a skydiver." Hah! Guess it's not as impressive to an almost 4 year old without all the gear and actually jumping. :) None of us jumped this weekend for various reasons. For me, I promised myself a long time ago to stop jumping while I had kids dependent on me.

Me and Jenny (and Katherine)

Jenny was a fellow skydiver and club member/officer.

It rained in the afternoon and for the rest of the day. We spent a good deal of it at Sandy's house (Mark and Travis's aunt) just catching up. Late afternoon had us back at the DZ, but because of the rain the missing man formation flyover was cancelled. But we did group pictures, taps was played, and Jan gave a beautiful speech about all the different ways we say goodbye.

Me and Mike

Mike was a club member before my time. But was one of the "older" skydivers who kept us with us younger kids. Eventually married Jenny (the blond Jenny in the picture above).

Dinner and socializing in the evening. The boogie was sad and happy at the same time and there were several faces missing that I wish had been able to make it. It was also hard not to be jumping - I miss it so much. Give me about 18 years and I'll get back into it. ;)

Me and Jan

One of the original AOT skydivers. Jan was also my first official boss in my on campus job and like Kay and John took us youngsters under her wing. Helped organize the boogie with Kay.

The Reason for the AOT Memorial Boogie

Before I get into the crash, let me explain a few of the relationships. I dated my college sweetheart, Travis, through much of college. Though him I got into skydiving. Travis's brother, Mark McHam, and their cousin Jonathan were also skydivers and became good friends. Jonathan's wife JoLynn also became and has remained a very good friend. Jonathan's family (most of them) live in College Station (I mentioned above - Meridon and Danny are his parents). Ags Over Texas - AOT - was owned by Mark Woodings. It was my home drop zone where I made my first jump, learned to skydive, and had many good times.

My first jump at AOT

My memories of the actual crash are all over the place. The day was an odd combination of really fun and surreally awful. It started great - clear day, fun jumping with my friends. I made my 100th jump in the traditional way along with Brett and Greg. Skydivers will know what that means. If you're curious ask me about the story some time.

Sarah and Carol - two freshmen who'd just joined the A&M Skydiving club with us and were out for their first student jumps were there. We spent a good deal of the afternoon searching for Carol who'd landed off the DZ on her first jump. Jonathan and Mark (Woodings - McHam was in Florida at Nationals) did a low hop n' pop out of Duct Tape (the plane) when they located her and we drove in to get her. After bringing all the searchers back to the DZ and saying good luck to Sarah taking her first jump on student status (she'd done a tandum somewhere else before) Travis, Carol, and I headed to the Circle K to get some drinks.

Jonathan at the previous year's AOT Christmas party.

When we got back to the DZ maybe 10-15 minutes later there was smoke at the end of the runway. For absolutely no reason I said, "That's the plane." Travis said, "No it's not." Wish I'd been wrong.

After that my memory is a patchwork of images and moments... driving down the runway in my little pickup and hopping the barbed wire fence. Getting to the crash site and seeing the spot where the plane crashed burned to nothing - just parts of the wings left. Lela lying on the ground off to the side receiving CPR and thinking she was Sarah. Asking JB about who had been on the plane and then looking for them in the group standing there when he told me. Asking where they were and being told that other than Lela they were all still in the plane. Thinking they couldn't be - there was nothing of it left.

Taking Allison (Mark Woodings's girlfriend) back to the DZ and telling Travis about Jonathan and holding him. Waiting for JoLynn to arrive - she'd been called by not told why. Catching and holding her when we told her and staying by her side the rest of the day and evening as calls started going out to their family and friends. A lot of waiting while different people arrived at the DZ. Rex (Jonathan's brother) refusing to believe it was true. Getting cold because my shirt had been in the plane and I was only in a sports bra and shorts and it was getting dark.

Listening to Chuck tell about how as soon as the plane went down he'd immediately hopped on his motorcycle - the first to get there - and pulled Lela out even while the plane was starting to burn. He was able to tell us that no one was moving, no one was breathing, they were just gone.

Going back to JoLynn's house and being completely overwhelmed as people flooded in. Going to Amber's across the street both to escape for a bit and to tell her and Jim. Prayers in JoLynn's living room led by Danny. Older skydivers offering us a new home DZ as AOT would be gone with Mark. Maing sure JoLynn wouldn't be alone that night. I don't remember going home or going to bed.

Some of the Texas A&M Skydiving Club doing one of our money earning club activities - cleaning Jan's pond.

My memory gets even patchier after that - Going to the airport in Houston to pick up various people from out of town. Having to go to class in the midst of everything. Working with Jan on a joint memorial service on campus. Attending the funeral's - each one so different. Wearing ribbons for each person - the skydivers' ribbons in their jumpsuit colors. Laughing through tears at different stories of each.

Being amazed at the strength and faith shown by JoLynn and by Jonathan's family. Just a year earlier they had lost Jonathan's oldest brother Jerry Dan in an accident. At Jonathan's funeral, listening to a recording of Jonathan's speech at Jerry Dan's funeral. He talked about seeing him soon in heaven. It was like he was talking to us. Jonathan's ash jump over Coulter Field (where AOT was). The ash making an exclamation point in the air as it was released by Mark and Travis. My first jump after the crash. The amazing support poured out to all of us from the local skydiving communities. And eventually all of us moving on.

Another year of cleaning the pond.

It wasn't too long after the crash that the A&M Bonfire fell killing twelve. I moved to Austin at the end of that semester, finishing my last class for my degree at a community college there. A new drop zone - Skydive Aggieland - is now located at Coulter Field where AOT was - though not in the same hanger. It's where the boogie was held this year and it's good to know that skydiving traditions are continuing there.

Practice jump over Waller with my senior year collegiate nationals skydiving team - me (the purple arms), Travis (white arms), Brett (black arms), and Mark (green arms).

Witnessing JoLynn and the Warden's faith and the strength it gave them is the second time I've seen God in that way. The first was my senior year of high school with my best friend Jill when her mother was shot. Ultimately, witnessing faith in those two events are what led to my own faith and consequently the direction of my life since.

Our first Scrambled Ags (a boogie and scrambles competition) held at a new dropzone - all the Ag skydivers.

I don't talk about the crash much any more. Not many people in my circle these days know I'm a skydiver, let alone about the crash. It's too personal I guess, or maybe just too heavy a topic of conversation in general. But 10 years on it seems important to at least write some of this down. To know that I will never forget them.


The skydiving magazine published a memorial page as the back cover soon after the crash. The poem on it has always been one of my favorites as a skydiver...


"I have sent up my gladness on wings,
To be lost in the blues of the sky.
Because I have loved life,
I shall have no sorrow to die."


Miss you Jonathan, Rob, Mark, Sarah, and Lela!



More pictures at:
picasaweb.google.com/rgehbauer/10YearAOTMemorialBoogie
picasaweb.google.com/rgehbauer/Skydiving