Congratulations Lestie! I still cannot believe you have a boy! Has he peed on you yet? That is one you never really get used to. :) He is very cute, Chris and I both think he looks alot like Tim! Ben, congrats on the race- you are my hero. (on a bike) My biggest accomplishment lately...I have started a little bread baking buisness- it is to keep us going with gas $ and extras. I thought it would be fun, but it has grown faster than I expected! I am up to about 10 loaves a week, and with only 2 days to bake it- Tuesdays and Thursdays. (I have classes the other days) My bishops wife is my best supporter, she has told 4 of her friends who all want to buy from me...I may have to quit school and do this full time! Just kidding.

I am all for the family reunion, since I missed the latest one. I did have a baby, if anyone wants to look at him he is on a web site called growingfamily.com. Make sure you only fill in the required fields (noted with an *). The password to see him is my last name, Katsma. You could also try my link babypage. GOOD LUCK! We will be blessing him the first Sunday in December, and of course everyone is welcome.

Great Job Ben! I think it is great we have a place to brag about our accomplishments!So you all heard Lesti had her baby. He is a boy his name is Nicholas Brandon. he weighed 7Lbs. something! Way to go Lesti!

Since this is my self-proclaimed "Aunt Corrie's brag site" (I hope she never see this) I'll relate my latest accomplishment. Salary increase? No. New car? No. Riding a bike real fast? Oh yeah.

I did the normal Tuesday HP race with the big boys and for the first time ever, I won. I beat the cat 2 racer guy (Rick) who has always been this unbeatable type dude. The three strongest guys were not out, and no pros who ocassionally show, so the competition was not as strong as it can be, but two awesome dudes were there, one of whom has ridden me right off his wheel more times than I can count. So, it went like this. Rick and I and one other dude (Sammy) broke away very early in the race. We held off the peloton very well and after Rick and Sammy tried to drop me, but ended up dropping Sammy, they both realized they could use me and I took some tremendous pulls, stronger, I felt than Sammy. On the final leg there is this monster 300 foot, and very steep hill which is the final sprint to finish at the top. Rick (the strongest one) basically dared Sammy and me to pass him on the final sprint up this hill. After letting him sit up front a good while, Sammy attempted to pass him, but couldn't do it, at the same time, I went around the other side and dropped them both.

I'm savoring it because it may not happen again, and I'm pretty sure he's never going to take another long lead-out and dare me to come around him. It's called the power of being underestimated. No one at LSI has ever won this race, so I'm totally stoked.

Ben that sounds great! We will help where we can, I am not positive on the dates as I will be starting a new job in the schools right then. Plan on us unless otherwise noted. Thank you Julie for your call. I am sorry I didn't check the blogger this weekend...Way to go Ben and Julie! We can look forward to a family reunion in 2003!

Thanks for your input. They called us today and said someone else wanted it, so we went ahead and put our deposit in. I hesitate to be so bold, but since it is our year for the reunion, we'll go ahead and make it the plan. That gives you a year to deal with it. We wont make you come out any other time. As for Gigi and crew, we're sorry, but we'll come to Washington in 2004 when it's your turn. That goes for Polly, too. Polly, you need to have yours in Vegas, though.

Whatever you want to do is fine. We are happy to go anywhere.

Ben I think we could do that! Sounds like a ton of fun. I do not know how thrilled I am about the drive though. I guess Gigi is farther! How much would you want for food? That looks really good for our family everyone will have a bed and a ton to do!