New Year's Resolution

I have a lot of blog catch-up to do. Upcoming: Christmas, progress in the nursery (and our great furniture deals), signs of getting old and pregnancy updates.

But since today is New Year's Eve, I thought that I would publicly announce my New Year's Resolution.

In 2009, I will be a better house keeper. It won't be over night, but it WILL happen!

Funniest Christmas Card

Oops! Looks like my two week vacation (yup! two whole weeks) got the best of me. Or maybe it was just the holidays in general. Either way, sorry for not posting in a while. I thought that I would start off the blogging with the funniest Christmas card that we received this year. It was from Freddy's friend, John "Hag" Hagaman. He's single and thought that he would have some fun with his card this year. Pretty funny!

Bah Humbug?

Am I a bad person if I forgo the Christmas decorations this year?

I was going to set up the Christmas tree the weekend following Thanksgiving, but Freddy was hunting and the box was way up in the attic. I didn't think that it was wise to retrieve it by myself. Since then our weekends have been packed and I just haven't gotten around to it.

My thought now is that since we won't be at our house for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, I don't want to go through all of the hassle. I mean, Christmas is only 10 days away. So, all of the decorations are in the attic, not to be hung this year.

At least we have Christmas lights on the house. Thanks, Freddy!

This week my baby girl weighs as much as...

A head of cauliflower -almost 2 pounds - and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended.

Yesterday I went to JoAnn Fabrics looking for some fabric to make curtains for the nursery. Purple is not a popular color for decorating, apparently. I finally spotted the PERFECT material in - where else but the special order section. It was close to the medium shade of purple on the walls and had different shades of purple polka dots in lines down the fabric. PERFECT! It would match the polka dots on the crib sheets AND the stripes on the wall.

Guess how much it cost. $40 a yard! Yeah right I'm paying that much! I wasn't even about to pay the $20 per yard sale price. I quickly hung the fabric swatch back on the rack. Then a Christmas Miracle took place. Okay, not really a Christmas Miracle, but something really fantastic...I spotted that exact material in the remnants sale bin. There were two yards there and the price was half off of the current price, so I bout it for $10 a yard - a grand total of $20. Seventy Five Percent Off, people! I was stoked! The perfect curtains for $20. Go me! Now I just have to sweet talk my mom in to sewing them for me - I mean, for her first-born grandchild.

Photo Shoot in the Park

Last Sunday Freddy and I went to a local park with our neighbors, Sara and Austin. We took their Christmas pictures and they took ours.

Of course we brought Lola along. She always makes the Christmas card. And she had SOOOO much fun in the park. She chased squirrels, tried to follow the squirrels up the tree, sniffed out all of the good trails, let the other dogs know that she she was there and wanted to play, ran through piles of leaves...and back through piles of leaves...and through the piles of leaves again.

Here are a few pictures, but not the one that actually made the card. You will have to check your mailboxes for that one.

Nursery Work Day

Blog Confession: I claim no responsibility for the creativity you are about to witness. I totally stole it from someone else's blog. I changed the colors and I changed the measurements to accommodate this particular room, but everything else was ripped off from Amie Way. We blog stalk each other and we're both cool with that.

She used to be best friends with a friend of mine in Middle School, so I think that MAYBE we might have met once in the early 90's, but I can't recall. Currently, she is friends with my friend Kendra and works with my other friend Melanie. So, there you have it. My blog confession. I am a blog stalker and idea thief. Thanks, Amie for the great idea!

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, this past weekend was work weekend on the nursery. My in-laws came and graciously helped - a lot. Thank you!

We go two major things accomplished:

1. the walls are painted

2. The crown molding is UP!

I would like to send a very special Thank You out to my sweet husband who HATES to paint and hated the idea of installing crown molding more than he hates to paint. Can you imagine what he will do for this little girl when she actually gets here?! He's in a mess of trouble!

Here is the room Before

We finally had to bring a pillow in to the room for Lola. It served as a bed so that she wasn't directly in any one's way. She loved all of the excitement.

This is the room After. Stripes on one wall and lavender paint on all of the others. The wall of stripes is larger than shown in this picture (about 7 or so stripes), but I wanted you to see the stripes AND the lavender walls together.

And since the tools were already out...Freddy and his dad made me shoe shelves!

Lola's Birthday

Lola turned 3 last Tuesday. Why, yes. She does share her birthday with Britney Spears. How observant of you. While they are both blond divas, my Lola has never shaved her head, she's fixed so she will never have puppies and lose custody of them, never been rushed to the hospital...etc., etc., etc.

Landri came over to wish Lola Happy Birthday...and get the advent calendar that I bought for her. It has chocolate in it, so she was super excited!

Lola got some yummy gourmet food. It was free with the birthday cake that I bought her and I split it up over four days so that she wouldn't get sick. (the sign above her doggie bowls says, "Dogs Laugh with their Tails")


She gets a birthday cake every year!

Don't mind me. I just finished a run, so I look like doodie. But I am maintaining a healthy pregnancy. =)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was at our house this year.

I kind of like it that way because

1. I don't have to travel

2. Everyone brings most of the food

3. I don't have to travel (did I already say that?)

In attendance this year: My sister Cathy and her husband Charlie, my sister Christy and her boyfriend Adam, my parents and Freddy's parents. Had my brother not been working, we would have had everyone there.

Christy and Adam

Cathy and Charlie

Charlie and the Brougham Sisters



The Brougham side

The Clark side

Thanksgiving day was also Christy's birthday.

You know you are a grown-up when you ask for things that belong in your kitchen!

Charlie BEGGED to drink out of our wedding mug.

Typical in every house, right? Men in the living room watching football while women are chatting it up in the kitchen.

Did you notice the sale ads on the floor? For the fifth year in a row, I braved the Black Friday crowds with my mother in law and her friend Susan. We also shop in Plano because they live in Wylie and I lived in Plano the first year we did this. Now I meet them when ever I get up.

This year I headed out my door at 5:45 am and stumbled back in it around 8:15 that night. I love Black Friday! This year seemed a little more crowded than years past, but that's what makes it fun right.

The only bummers of the day: JCPenney extended their door busters, so their computers went down for a while. BUT...to make up for the wait, they gave us an extra 15% off. Also, we didn't make it in time for the door busters. Other than that (and a little rain), it was all in all a good day.


Oops! forgot about this picture. Me with my sisters.

When checking out the baby bump, please keep in mind that these pictures were taken POST Thanksgiving lunch, so I have a baby, some turkey and a lot of mashed potatoes and green bean casserole in there.

This week my baby girl is as tall as...

...an English hothouse cucumber and weighs about 1 2/3 pounds. (Length: 14 inches, head to heel.)

This week my baby girl weighs as much as...

The average rutabaga - - about 1 1/2 pounds.

She is 13 1/2 inches long.

Without fail, this child starts moving and grooving

1. right after a meal

2. as soon as I lay down

Story Time

My neighbor, Sara has been my running buddy for the last 2 months or so. It is so nice to have someone to run with (hopefully I can talk her in to training for a half marathon after I have the baby). Besides having someone to motivate me and talk to along the run, I have another reason for really liking having Sara run with me – to help me in case a dog gets out and charges us. There is a mean, HUGE German Sheppard that roams our neighborhood from time to time, tormenting the poor dogs behind fences along the green belt, including Sara’s dogs. Before our run last night, Sara mentioned that he was out. So I altered our regular course to avoid the areas where he is most often seen. Yes, I have Lola on every run, but I often doubt that she would do much more than try to lick the other dog to death and play.

Why do I have anxiety about being attacked by a dog while running? Let me tell you a little story.

Flash back approximately 6 and a half years. I was in college, living with some sorority sisters – Kristi and Sarah. My pants were beginning to fit a little snug, so I had started running, a quick fix to unwanted weight gain, I had learned. I ran through safe neighborhoods in the safe college town of Stephenville, Texas. It wasn’t dark out when I ran, so I never spotted any UFOs (let me know if you don’t get that joke and I will explain).

One particular night…
I’m running… I’m taking in the scenery…I’m running…I spot a man working on his truck in his driveway…I see his dog…I think to myself, “Gee, I hope that dog stays put. It doesn’t look like it is on a leash”…I’m running…I see the dog come running from the yard TOWARDS ME!...Commence freaking out…What do I do??...Dog is right in front of me…What do I DO?!...Dog is making noises. Growling maybe?...Why isn’t that man calling his dog back? WHAT DO I DO?!...I see the dog open his mouth and lunge for me…I turn around – as in a 180…The dog has bitten me. ON THE BUTT! And then he(I’m SURE it’s a boy dog) just merrily runs back to his yeard.. I see the man look up from his truck. No apology. No “Are you okay?”…Do I go yell at the man? HECK NO! I am going no where near that dog again…I keep running…I stick my hand just below the waste band of my shorts, on my outside right hip (aka my butt)…I pull my hand out and examine the fingers for blood. I am not bleeding. How am I not bleeding?...I run home. Sarah is at her boyfriend’s house and Kristi is at class. I need someone to look at my butt to see if the skin has been broken. What if I need a Tetanus Shot?...Oh, look. Kristi’s boyfriend Ryan is here. Ryan will look for me…”Ryan, I was bit by a dog on my run. Can you look to see if it broke skin? It bit my butt.”…Reluctantly Ryan looks, more than slightly embarrassed, but all he sees is a little pink mark. “It doesn’t look as bad as you say it was, Cheryl”. Whatever…By the time Kristi gets home it is black and blue – and you can clearly see that it is a dog bite in the bruise…No, it was not a tiny Chihuahua as someone once suggested. It was a huge, ginormous, ugly, mean, take-no-prisoners-kind-of dog. Or a Boston Terrier. I’m not really sure, actually.

This week my baby is roughly the length of...

An ear of corn (about a foot).

She weighs just over a pound.

She has been moving around like crazy and I have been able to feel it for the last couple of weeks (a little late in the game, but what can you do?). I used to feel her moving around up high in my stomach, but lately she has been low. She moves a lot when I am reading, so she either likes the Twilight series as much as I do, or she doesn't like the fact that sometimes when I read I rest the book on my stomach.

In two weeks I have to drink that nasty orange drink to see if I have gestational diabetes. If there is any way that you can give yourself gestational diabetes by eating too much sugar, I probably have it! I know, I know. you can't give yourself gestational diabetes. Only a joke!

Work weekend on the nursery is December 6th, so I should have some pictures to post after that. In the meantime, think purple and green - sophisticated nursery with a collection on yellow lab stuffed puppies.

Why?

Why, all of sudden, can I not get breaks between paragraphs on my blog?!

Ever had an "I can't believe I thought that" moment?

As you know, my friend Shelby had brain surgery in August. Now she has metal plates (and maybe screws, too?) in her head. Well, her and I went to a Ranger's game a few months back and as we were walking in the security guards gave us the once over with one of those metal detector wands. A common procedure, it had nothing to do with how we looked. Anyway...we were a few steps past them when she decides to turn around ask them to wand her head to see if it would go off. The security men looked confused, but when she told them why they happily obliged. And it actually "whined" a little as it passed over her head! Very cool!

So that got me telling the story of how my grandfather has a metal plate in his knee and when we were younger, he would stick magnets to it to amuse us. Then, as I was telling her the story, it hit me! He LICKED the magnets and THEN put them on his knee. His metal-plated knee was not magnetic after all. What a sad discovery to make at the age of TWENTY EIGHT! I was pregnant at the time, but this one I cannot attribute to Baby Brain so I called it an "I can't believe I thought that" moment.

I had another "I'm so stupid" moment last week during the Redskins game. They flashed to a picture of the Lincoln Memorial and I thought "Washington D.C.? I thought the Redskins played in Washington State." Yeah. I actually thought that until LAST WEEK! I guess it wouldn't make much sense for a team from Washington State to be playing in the NFC East (not that the Cowboys playing in the NFC East makes much geographical sense either). I can't believe I thought that!

Baby Brain #3

Tonight Freddy's boss is taking the salesmen, shop foreman, office manager, etc. and their spouses to dinner at a VERY nice restaurant. Being pregnant, everything that I would have worn to this dinner doesn't fit anymore. So I decided last night that I needed to know exactly what I was going to wear so that I wouldn't make us late tonight, trying on everything in my closet.

This morning, I went to grab my black bra from the drawer and it wasn't there. Where could it have gone? I had it on just last night when I was trying on all of those outfits. Did I accidentally put it in the hamper? No. Did I carelessly leave it in the bathroom? No. WHERE WAS IT?! Oh, well. I'll wear the cream one.

La De Da...Getting ready for work...putting on clothes...need some jewelry...There's that pesky bra! I had put in the jewelry drawer. But I wasn't as far off base as you would assume - the jewelry drawer is right beside the bra drawer. Baby Brian.

Addictions

Over the past week, I have acquired two new addictions - both soon to pass as soon as I finish them.

The first started last Wednesday when I began reading Twilight. As of right now, I have finished the first two books and I am over half way the third book, Eclipse.

While I can't say that they have changed my life or that I will never read another book again because nothing could compare (actual responses I have heard), I will say that I have not been able to put them down. I even read at stop lights and on my lunch break at work. And (if you know me, this will SHOCK you), I opted to read on Monday night rather than watch the Jon & Kate Plus 8 Special Event. That will likely give Shelby another brain aneurysm when she reads that.

I want see the movie this weekend, though I plan to go to a matinee showing because I am assuming that the crowds will be smaller.

I recommend this series to EVERYONE! Okay, mostly women. Men probably won't dig it because it's very romantical (that's a Cheryl world).

The second addiction is to the Boy Scouts Carmel Light popcorn that I bought from a co-worker's son for a fundraiser. I got the tin on Monday and worked from home on Tuesday (leaving the tin at my desk) and I am already over half way through it. BUT...I have been sharing it with friends and I don't feel TOO guilty because it IS light. Still I thought it was best to lock it up in the compartment over my desk until Friday. We'll see how long it takes before I break in.

This week my baby girl weighs as much as...

A mango - just over one pound.

She is approximately 11 inches long.

Only 17 more weeks to go!

Kids Eat Free

A friend of mine emailed me this link to a website that helps you find all of the "Kids Eat Free" nights in your area. Although I joke about Freddy being a kid, he does not qualify for any of these meals...but some of you have real kids that do!

Check it out: http://mykidseatfree.com/

Twilight

Yesterday morning I turned on the news just as I do every morning while I am getting ready and I see that there is a teenage girl frenzy in Dallas. Someone famous was making an appearance in Dallas that night and hundreds of teenage girls (accompanied by their parents who looked completely beat down) were lining up at 4 am to get tickets to…was it an autograph signing? I think, but I’m not completely sure. I had missed the intro so I didn’t know yet who they were talking about. Then they mentioned his name – Robert Pattinson. No clue.

Later that morning at work and I hear some co-workers talking about it. I leap from seat, round the corner of my cubicle and ask, “Who the heck is this guy?” I thought that Diana was going to have a heart attack. Apparently he was in Harry Potter (never saw any of them) and now he is the star of the new Twilight movie.

Everyone is talking about the Twilight series. By everyone I mean all of my female friends (of all ages) and they LOVE it! Kristi brought me the first two books in the series on Halloween and, after talking to Diana about them yesterday, I am determined to start reading them tonight. Looks like Girlfriends Guide to Pregnancy is gong to have to take the back burner for a while. Great book, by the way, but that is a topic for another post.

And here is a funny conversation about the Twilight series that took place between my friend Shelby and her boyfriend Matt, paraphrased of course.

Matt: What are you reading?
Shelby: Twilight.
Matt: What’s it about?
Shelby: Vampires. In high school.

A few days later Matt sees Shelby reading Twilight.
Matt: I see you’re reading Sweet Valley High again.

Matt’s a funny guy.

This week my baby is roughly the length of...

A spaghetti squash.

She weighs almost 1 pound.

Thirty by Thirty update

On Tuesday, November 4th I completed one more task on my Thirty by Thirty list. It was to work the polls on election day. My precinct chair never called me back, so I headed to Crowley to work with my former boss (we still work together, just in different departments).

It was a very cool experience! There were only about 300 voters all day, but those were record numbers for the precincts assigned to our polling place. It was really cool watching the first-time voters (young and old) and I was excited when we got a disgruntled voter just minutes before closing.

I wish I would have taken a picture of me doing my civic duty, but pictures were not allowed.

And because another task on my list is to live a greener life, I share this information with you: Payless Shoes has a new "green" line. Check out this link for more information:

Payless Goes Green

Halloween and the Baby Bump

On Halloween, the cutest little candy corn I have ever seen came trick or treating at our house. This is Kristi and Ryan's little "sweetie", Landri.

And then, of course, was the annual handing out of candy with the neighbors in the driveway. Lucky kids get three houses in one stop! Can you tell whose first year for trick-or-treaters it was? Check out the dogs in this picture - Lola was content just hanging out and it looks like Max was dying for a piece of candy! This is probably the only picture you will ever see of Lola in "clothes". Freddy hates it, so she only has this shirt (it says Local Celebrity in orange rhinestones) and two bandannas - Cowboys and Colts, of course! She needs a Tarleton one...

And lastly...the baby bump. I swore I would never post baby bump pictures on the internet, but here I am. This is for all of the long-distance family and friends. NEVER expect a bare belly shot because that is for sure never happening! This picture is me at 21 weeks (and a lunch). You're welcome, Cathy.

Baby Brain #2

I will be out of the office on Tuesday, November 4th. I will return all messages on Wednesday, November 3rd.

Have a great day!

Cheryl Clark
Director of Agency Engagement

Baby Brain

As my husband so lovingly put it the other day, I "just haven't been in the game lately". I've taken wrong turns, I've lost all common sense, my memory is nearly non-existent and I make comments that don't make sense at all. I like to call this Baby Brain. I've assured Freddy that this is a normal side-effect to pregnancy, but I don't think he bought in to that until the other morning.

It was Saturday and, being the FABULOUS wife that I am, I was making my husband bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast - typical Saturday morning (yeah, Right!). The eggs are done, so I grabbed the frying pan and put the eggs on to the plate. Then I set the pan down on the island...Which would be fine if there had been a trivet there. But there wasn't. What was there was our plastic (yes, PLASTIC) table cover that looks like turf/grass. It's a Football Sunday Staple at our house (don't ask why it was on the island on a Saturday). Anyway...It's one of those table covers that you can wipe down and reuse. It has felt/cotton stuff on the back so that, I guess, it won't scratch your table?

It took me seconds - maybe even just one second to realize what I had done. But it was too late. It had melted the the table cover and my expensive Pampered Chef pan now had melted green goo on the bottom.

Baby Brain.

You'll be happy to know that Freddy was able to clean the pan bottom with some Goo Gone and a razor blade.

Here's the damage. Like my referee punching bag (Holding. Defense.) and football chip bowl? I thought they really added something to the picture.

On another note...We went to dinner recently with the neighbors. There were too many of us for one car and no one else wanted to drive, so we all piled in to my SUV. Austin drew the short straw, so he had to ride in the back along with the boxes I had back there. Sadly, it's not the first time he has had to ride in the "way-back" and I doubt it is the last.

Lola's New Love

Lola has a new love. She Luh-oves to run beside Freddy on his bike. He'll only take her around our court because she's easily distracted by other dogs - even ones behind fences.

When Freddy leaves on his bike for a ride and she can see him through the window or the front door, she cries. She literally cries. And this is the only thing that she has ever cried about. Okay, she also cries when she has to be inside by herself and she can hear everyone outside, but that rarely ever happens.

This one is a JEM!

Last Saturday Sara hosted a Halloween Party at her house. Fun was had by all - dinosaurs, super heroes and princesses alike. The kids had fun with the games that Martha Stewart Sara came up with and the adults just had a good time in general.

Amber's husband came in the Reno 911 cop costume. Hill-Lare-E-Us! Out of respect, I won't post pictures on my blog, but here is a picture from the show. Guess which one he dressed up as.

Then there was Jem and The Holograms. Outrageous! I realize that our costumes aren't dead on, but you get the picture. And I'm also aware that none of The Holograms were ever pregnant, but I figured if ever one was to get preggers, it would be the one with the purple hair.

I told a lot of people about the Jem and The Holograms costumes and here is what I learned: You have to be exactly my age to know what the heck I'm talking about. The cartoon aired from 1985-1987 and I loved it! I also loved Beverly Hills teens, but I seem to be the only person alive who remembers that cartoon!

Freddy donned his Tony Romo jersey and taped up his pinkie. It took some people all night to get it. Really, people?! I'll post pictures of us at the party once Sara sends some my way.

Crazy Dog!

My dog Lola is SO FUNNY! When she gets a new bowl of food, she takes the rug from underneath her bowls and covers them - over and over and over again. But she never leaves them covered.

She has also been known to leave single pieces of dog food on our living room floor. Sometimes she ventures a little farther and takes the single pieces of food in to the hallway or our bedroom. But there is ALWAYS a single piece of food somewhere in the house.

Then, a few months ago, it started to be come two or three pieces of food - until the other day. Freddy had been home with Lola for about an hour by the time I walked through the doors. I wander past the living room on my way to the office to tell my sweet husband hello and what do I see? Fourteen - count them - FOURTEEN pieces of dog food spread out on my living room floor. Crazy dog. Wish I would have taken a picture!

So, when I worked from home last week I noticed Lola slowly adding to her stash of food throughout the day and I tired to document it. She didn't get to 14 pieces and I didn't remember the time span like I told myself I would, but here are some pictures anyway.

I didn't catch on until there were 3 pieces.

Then there were 4.

And then 5. At least it wasn't 14!

What would you do?

Let’s pretend for a moment that, for whatever reason, you HAD to change jobs and your next job could not be the same job that you presently have – could not even be in the same field of work. For example, I could not do fundraising/events and I would have to leave non-profits all together. Nurses can’t be doctors (or anything medical) and teachers cannot be counselors or principals, etc.

Also, ignore the whole training and degree aspect of it. You could be WHATEVER you want.

What would you do?

I would be a sonogram technician in an ob/gyn’s office. Yes, I know that when I tried to guess my own baby's gender, I was wrong, BUT...to be fair, I didn't have any formal training and that umbilical cord can be deceiving.

I was watching The Bachelor a couple seasons ago and one of the Bachelorette's was a sonogram technician. Since then, I have always wanted to be one.

What a fun, low-stress job! Not to mention I wouldn't have to worry about what to wear to work – I would just throw on the designated scrubs for that day (to match everyone else in the office, of course – or is that only in the dental field that they all match?) and away I go.

Yes, I know it is not all happy times of “it’s a boy!” and taking pictures of babies, but I would still like this job very much, I think. In fact, if I could take classes somewhere at night, I would have already started.

So…what would you do? And none of this “I wouldn’t want to do anything else” business.

Garage Door vs. My Car

It is Saturday morning after a late night (late night for a preggo that is) at the Ice Breaker portion of my ten year reunion at Fox and Hound. Before I make my way to the family picnic, I have to swing by the house of the Johnny Reb sponsor to pick up the buster poster (the big fabric RHS flag that the football team runs through at half-time). We are using it for decoration at the dinner reception that night.

I have tons of stuff to load in my car because I am going straight from the picnic to set up for the evening (an evening that it seems no one appreciated). Lola is eagerly following me around because she thinks she is going with me. It also happens to be neighborhood garage sale weekend and there are more cars than usual on our quiet court. Not wanting to chance Lola taking off into the street and getting hit by a car, I opt to partially open my back hatch in a closed garage rather than open the garage, allowing the hatch to fully open.

Note to self: When done loading, close the hatch and THEN open the garage door. Do not- I repeat DO NOT – open the garage without closing the hatch that is currently half-open and propped against the closed garage door.

Phone rings. It’s Freddy. He is asking if I want an autographed Brady James jersey he found at a neighbor’s garage sale. Sure, he’s hot but I’m not big on autographed memorabilia. Gather purse and keys, put Lola in her “room”, open garage door. Crunch! “Freddy, don’t be mad but I need you to come home right now. I just opened the garage door with my back hatch in it.”

My sweet husband wasn’t mad (I'm a lucky girl!). Things happen and it could have been worse. He just manually shut the garage door and I shut the hatch along with it. It left a small dent and a small scratch, but nothing major. I got off easy on this one.

If Brady James weren’t so hot, I wouldn't have been so distracted. I blame him for this.

Here is what I did:

IN OTHER NEWS:

Looks like I will have to wait a few more months before I can check “get CPR certified again” off of my Thirty by Thirty list. It was canceled this weekend and we can’t make the one in November. BUT… we can make the one in December and by then they will be in the brand new YMCA just half a mile from our house.

So, if you are interested in taking the class with me and Freddy, let me know. It is CPR and first aid and the cost is $57 for both. It only takes 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon.

After the Cowboys game last Sunday Freddy and the neighbor guys hit the street to play some catch with the pigskin. First Josh knocked his own mailbox off and then Freddy tripped to avoid Lola and jammed his elbow. This has slowed down his mountain biking considerably.