Girls Weekend at Chelan

My friend Jeanne works for an attorney who owns and runs a winery in Chelan -- Vin du Lac. To celebrate his 5th anniversay of the winery, he held a celebratory Mardi Gras themed party at the winery.
So five of us girls piled into Jeanne's mommy-mobile and made our way to sun-drenched central Washington.

Seafair Torchlight Run 5K

Alex's second 5K! He's definitely found his calling. He's recently informed me that he is going to be in the Olympics. Somehow, I believe him. He's quite upset that I've run more races than him this year, but coordinating around the parenting schedule makes it a little challenging.

New haircut- whaddya think?

Mom took me to her stylist today, and I let him have his way with ... my hair.  This is what he came up with.   I won't tell you what I think of it -- I want to know what YOU think of it!  

Eric Hutchinson and Marié Digby

Saw them in a small divey-ish venue in Spokane last night. Great concert. I flew over from Seattle to visit my Mom, and we'd planned to catch Eric in concert. Josh was able to come along -- and had a great time. Josh even won a free CD from Eric for being the newest inductee as a "Hutchhead" -- an award given by Eric to the person he noticed in the crowd who was so into the music, but had never heard it before.

Alex will be insanely jealous when he sees the pictures -- he loves EH's music (maybe almost as much as I do!) His sound is similar to Jason Mraz, although I think Hutchinson's music and lyrics are better. He's also got an amazing on-stage presence, quick wit and a great sense of humor.

Marié and Eric have been on tour together for the past six weeks, and I'd never heard her music before. She's truly talented and beautiful too! We got a chance to chat with Marié after the show, and learned that she is half Japanese and half Irish. She was amazed to learn that I was 1/4 Japanese and also Irish -- she made a comment that maybe her children will look like me!

I am certain they will both hit it big -- and seeing them in this venue was amazing. If you get a chance to see him in concert now, do it! I'm convinced you won't get the opportunity to see him in this small of a venue for long.

Check them out!

http://www.erichutchinson.com/

http://www.myspace.com/mariedigby

Weekend update

After complaining about the sub-par summer weather here in the great Pacific Northwest, Saturday blows in with a humid warmth. Now I'm all about heat wherever I can get it -- maybe it's the Texan in me. But this humidity just made me sleepy. Embarrassingly, we did absolutely nothing all day. I think I took three separate naps. I didn't work in the yard, I didn't clean house. Nope.

We did eventually get a call from our old neighbors who were all sitting in the cul de sac drinking beer, and invited us to join them. It was a little awkward driving to an impromptu driveway beer party -- this is something that happens organically. Somehow, being invited and having to drive to it makes it seems not-so-impromptu. However, I was grateful that they thought of us, and it felt like old times sitting outside, chatting and watching the kids play.

Once Sunday rolled around, we decided to make up for lost time. We went to an early show of Kung Fu Panda. The Woodinville theatre offers $5 tickets for any showing on a weekend before noon. Unfortunately, the movie left a lot to be desired. Other things we did that day: hit a bucket of balls at the driving range, a quick trip to Costco, some time logged at the off leash dog park, had some friends over for a bbq dinner, and went to listen to some music at a local "battle of the acoustic bands". Not a bad way to end the weekend.

Oh, and my camera is broken. This blog won't feel right until I can add pictures. I'd better take care of that soon....

No pool time

Although summer has officially arrived, we here in Seattle have not yet seen the signs of it. Most days my heat still kicks on, so we were pleasantly surprised on Friday to see that it was going to be warm enough to hit the outdoor pool at the gym.

We'd planned to meet Amy and her kids in the early afternoon. Fortunately, my tardiness paid off this time. She called to tell me the gym's pool heater was broken, and the pool was closed. We then planned to meet at the local public pool. Before we even left the house, Amy had called with the bad news: that pool was closed too. Finally, we agreed to meet at a new spray park just down the road. It wasn't as comfortable sitting on our towels on the concrete, but it was hot out and the kids were getting their chance to get wet.

As we were sitting there in our swim suits (looking quite out of place with all of the other fully dressed moms), the water abruptly stopped. There was some confusion for a while -- maybe it was a break? Maybe it shuts down every x minutes so you can reapply sunscreen? No -- it shut down because the filter was full of sand, and had to be replaced.

Now I ask you: why would you build a spray pad whose system was so sensitive to sand, and install a large sandbox within feet of the drain?

Like Seinfeld's Soup Nazi -- there must have been someone out there blackballing us from enjoying water on one of the few pool-worthy days this year. "No pool for you!"

So we sat there, in swimsuits on the concrete ground with no water in sight, eating warm grapes. Next time I'll just spread out on my driveway at home.

School's out for summer!

It's hard to believe that this school year is already over. The past year was one of many changes for Alex and me. We had only been in our 'new-to-us" home for a few months when school started. This was the first year for the new elementary school. Alex struggled with leaving some of his friends behind at the 'old' school, and definitely was not happy leaving the only elementary school he'd ever known. Even with the lure of brand new facilities at the new school complete with technology in every classroom that most of us wouldn't even know how to use, Alex was grieving.

The start of the 3rd grade also brought with it adjusting to life with divorced parents -- packing for trips to Dad's house, juggling schedules, and nightly phone calls. Eventually, we found our groove and settled into the routine.

Academically, Alex performs very well. He always has. In fact, I sometimes think I place too little emphasis on it. His grades were consistently 3s (meets expectations) and 4s (exceeds expectations). I'm so proud of his academic achievements, but honestly can take zero credit for it except for passing down some smart genes that I was lucky enough to get from my parents.

I still struggle with how to 'teach' him social graces. I'm thoroughly convinced that smarts can only get you so far. I'd much rather him be socially and emotionally intelligent than the brainiest kid in class. It's quite frustrating as a parent to see where he's going wrong, but unable to get him to internalize what I'm trying to teach him.

It's kind of like my golf swing. The golf pro can tell me, show me, swing with me all he wants. I can intellectually "get it". But until the day I felt it, I didn't get it. I guess all I can do is continue to tell him, show him and hope that one day he'll feel it, and then it will click.