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.

Alex turns 9!

I know this day is supposed to be all about Alex, but I can't help but think --- I must be getting OLD! That's all I'll say about that (for now anyway.)

Alex chose to have this year's big celebration at Funtasia in Edmonds. It's a self-described 7-acre indoor/outdoor Family Fun Park. (Whatever that means.) What it means to me is it's an overpriced arcade with a few extras like mini-golf and bumper boats and cars. It's kind of like Chuck E Cheese for the school age crowd.

It's always hard to choose the right place and activity for a birthday party -- Alex has a diverse set of friends including neighborhood kids, some of whom are as young as 3 years old. There aren't a whole lot of activities that work for 3 year olds as well as 10 year olds. Weather in early June in the greater Seattle area can prove a little tricky as well -- so it's a risk to go with anything outdoors. In any case, this place seemed to fit the bill. There was a "Fun Fortress Playland" which consisted of a few bouncy houses for the younger kids. The older ones enjoyed a few rounds of laser tag, bumper boats and mini golf.

Overall, a success! The best part? Leaving the mess for someone else to clean up!

Call from the Assistant Principal

I wasn't sure if I should post this here, but after thinking on it for a bit I realized that this blog is about Alex and me as he grows up. There's bound to be some not-so-happy, not-so-proud moments.

I got a call from the school Assistant Principal (who, by the way, I had no idea existed). He called to report to me that he and Alex had discussed an incident that occurred yesterday between Alex and one of his classmates.

Apparently there was a group assignment, and Alex was paired with this boy. Alex apparently felt that his assigned partner was not doing his part, and an argument ensued. In any case, it doesn't much matter what preceded the incident at hand because there is absolutely NO reason the following should have been uttered:

"I'd like to see you dead."

Nice. Great. My kid is one of "those" kids. How did this happen?!?

My first thought was, great...how am I going to punish him severely enough, yet lovingly enough to not reinforce the hateful thoughts that are obviously running through his little head. I need something that will bring on feelings of remorse, empathy and understanding. But it should also be painful enough to remember next time he feels like losing his cool.

I still don't know what I'll do.

Relay For Life

On May 17-18 Alex and I particiated in the Relay for Life. This is a 20 hour-long relay held to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Alex was the only kid on our team who stayed the entire relay (overnight). It was held at Lynnwood High School on the track.

My good friend Amy was a committee volunteer and our team captain. Her entire family -- Mom, Dad and two sisters (one flew in from AZ for the event) also participated. I love seeing her family together -- it is obvious how much they truly love each other. It's amazing how much work goes into putting an event like this on.

As part of the fundraising, our team was selling glow sticks. Alex took it upon himself to be our official salesman, and was absolutely unstoppable in peddling the little glowing sticks and bracelets. At first he was a little timid approaching other participants, but once he came up with his sales pitch, he made round after round on the track. When people would say no, he'd politely say "Thank you" and move on. If someone said catch me a little later, he memorized who and where they were and always followed through. There were a couple of times when he'd come back to our tent discouraged because he didn't sell many that round. I'd convince him to take a break, and go back out when it was getting dark when more people may be interested in glow sticks. He'd reluctantly say ok, but the minute I turned my back, I'd see him walk off holding a donation jar with a large batch of glow sticks dangling from his arm. He did manage to sell all but a few of the glow bracelets.

I hope that by having him participate in events like this, he will have a new appreciation for how lucky we are. It was touching and inspiring to see and meet cancer survivors, and what we were doing there didn't seem to quite be enough in comparison.

Thanks to all of you who donated; you made a difference!

Teacher Appreciation Week

A couple of weeks ago, it was Teacher Appreciation Week.  Alex is in a 3rd grade class and has two teachers who job share.  One teacher works Mondays and Tuesdays; the other teacher works Wednesdays and Thursdays.  They alternate Fridays.

The PTA organized a schedule of items to bring your teacher each day of that week.  Things like, Monday bring a fruit, Tuesday bring a plant, Wednesday bring a cookie/treat, etc.  On Friday they were to bring a card. 

Being true to himself, Alex waited until 7pm on Thursday night to throw something together.  He says he works better under pressure.  Oh, I'm so not looking forward to the teen years!

I won't write much more here about the card, because I think it speaks for itself.  This kid cracks me up!

Niketown 5K May 10, 2008

Alex has been dying to run a 5K, and the Niketown 5K for kids was the perfect opportunity to get his long legs running!  All of the registration fees were donated to local schools.  It was emceed by a local celebrity -- John Curley from Evening Magazine, and was kicked off by Marcus Trufant of the Seattle Seahawks.

The run was 

a certified 5K starting and ending at 5th and Pine downtown Seattle.  The course took us down Pine and on to the I5 e

xpress lanes and back.

He's quite the little runner, and makes it difficult for Mom to keep up.  I was, of course, worried that he would take a wrong turn and get lost somewhere along the way, so I would not let him run too far ahead.  

Our deal was that he would have to check every 2 minutes to see if he could still see me.  There were a few logistical issues which led to slower times than we had hoped for.  He would run ahead, then stop to wait for me.  In the process he'd lose sight of me, and I'd run ahead of him.  This happened a couple of times.  

At about mile 2, I noticed I could no longer see him.  My Mom instincts caused me a bit of panic, so I stopped at the turnaround, and waited for 2 minutes.  Still  no sign of him.  I decided to run through and hope he was at the finish line.

As it turned out, I needn't have worried.  The course was very well laid out, and there was really not an opportunity for him to take a wrong turn.  He was there waiting for me at the finish line.  Next year -- he's on his own!