April 2
We were getting all ready for our soccer game this morning when I got the call that the field for Ellen's game was closed due to poor field conditions. I was able to split up the calls with one of my assistant coaches to call everyone to let them know. Everyone was really disappointed since it's actually sunny this morning, and it was our first game. Now they'll have to try to find a time to make it up. Phoebe's game started under ominous circumstances when we drove under a rain cloud, and it started to pour for the 30 minute before game time. It was cold too. However, just as we were about to start, the sun came back out for the duration of our game. A perfectly timed sun break. I only ended up with 7 girls, so I had to borrow some players from the other team, but we did pretty well. I saw a lot of passing and some good spacing at times on the field I was on. I put Phoebe on the other field trying to make sure that my new assistant coach had some good players too. With only one sub for each of the teams, the girls got lots of running in. We made a trip to REI to use the rest of our dividends and 20% off coupons in the afternoon. Then we planned on skiing Sunday even though the weather today was very windy and snowy. Jada got a call from the park district informing her there were openings for Sunday swim classes if the girls wanted them, but they started Sunday afternoon. She accepted, and we planned on taking that into consideration for our plans the next day.
April 3
I got up at 4:50am, and Mt. Hood Meadows had already posted a weather report for the day with 3 short statements: "Little wind. Little clouds. Bluebird day." For the non-skiers out there, a bluebird day refers to a clear day at the mountain where the sky is clear, and the sun is shining. I got to work getting breakfasts made and Camelbak's loaded up. Then I woke everyone up so food could be eaten, and we could be on the road. Bluebird days have been rare this winter, and no one was going to miss out. I sent an email to my guitar teacher before we left informing him that we'd be missing class today. The roads were good all the way, and we got a great spot within the first 3 rows of cars in the lot. I had to get Phoebe a new pair of gloves because she had finally outgrown hers, but didn't tell us until after all the winter clearance sales were done. We were able to find a pair that would work at the mountain shop. The spring pass gave me 10% off. Love that spring pass. We got the girls checked in for their lessons, and we went off to get our rentals. The lines were already long at the Mount Hood Express ski lift, but there was a buzz to the air that wasn't there on other days. The sun was shining, and the mountain was visible in all it's glory. It was going to be a beautiful day. We were one of the first sets of tracks on the corduroy on South Canyon, one of our favorite runs. It was smooth and fast. We had gotten 3 runs in before the girls even started their class going up on Vista Express. We even skied the trees that the girls told us about last week. They were tougher than I thought they would be for a class, but we both made it through unscathed. Even though we could see the top of Cascade Express, and it was clear, we still didn't want to venture up that high on the mountain again. The terrain was wind-scoured ice just off the lift, but it got better as we descended. Fog rolled through occasionally, but it was still pretty nice out despite temperatures in the 20's. We caught up with the girls around 11am. Jada got to ride the lift with each of them. We picked them up a bit after noon, and we went to the Huckleberry Inn for breakfast. This week, we had no trouble getting a table. We were in and out in record time. Then we just had to make it back to the Beaverton pool by 2:50pm for the girls' swimming class. We brought their stuff with us just in case. To spare the details of our drive, we pulled into the parking lot at 2:45pm. Jada paid, and they were in the class. They both did a good job from what we could tell. It took a couple laps to get back into it, but they were fine after that. Then it was time for dinner, showers, piano, and bed, plus a massage for Jada.
April 11
It's been an odd week. Winter has settled back it seems. It's been chilly and rainy this week. Monday, I worked from home while waiting for people to come to the house to check our rodent traps. They didn't come until 4:30pm. Ellen's team had a soccer game on Tuesday night on a huge field. It was a regulation size field for older kids, so the girls were all exhausted by the end of the game. I tried to keep subs moving every 5 minutes or so. Luckily the rain held off, but it was windy and chilly. Ellen had an almost goal, she just backs off the ball anytime she's challenged. I'm trying to figure out how to work on that in practices. We had our practices on Thursday night too. It dried out by the evening, but it was chilly still. The field I'm supposed to get for Phoebe's practice is still a swamp, so we're making makeshift fields in the area where the micros normally practice. This month our times have shifted so we have an extra 15 minutes of practice time thanks to more daylight hours. Friday was a teacher inservice, so Ellen and Phoebe each got to have a playdate at friends' houses while Jada was at work. After work, they went to visit Gramma where they both got to play their performance pieces for a crowd following the scheduled entertainment that day at the nursing home before heading out to their group lessons. Their instructor had the results of the composition competition, but she hadn't had a chance to review them yet. Friday was an oddly winter/spring day. It was 36 degrees when I rode to work in the morning, but it was in the upper 50's on the way home. It was also sunny all day. It had been over a month since the last completely sunny day here according to the paper.
Saturday morning it was all about preparation for soccer. Unfortunately, we had scheduled eye appointments well in advance of the soccer game schedule, so Phoebe missed half her game. We found out both of the girls need new glasses. Phoebe showed up at half time of her soccer game and scored a goal. We had been borrowing players from the other team because even when everyone is there, we only have 10 girls on our team. The other team had 15 girls. It's been a little tough this season so far. From there, we went over to Ellen's game field and had our picnic lunch out of the back of the car while we waited for the game before ours to finish. The field we played on was called Bonny Slope, and I think the reason for that was because the field is on a slope. luckily, we got to go toward their goal on the second half, but it was a tough first half. At half time, Ellen tried to stage an insurrection when I was sending her in to play defense. So I sat her down and didn't put her back in for a while. When I did put her in, I put her in defense like I promised. Unfortunately, we only had 2 subs so I couldn't keep her out the whole game. After the game, we drove up to Mt. Hood to catch up with Pete at his condo. He was in town just for the weekend, so we invited ourselves over to get to see him. We had a really good dinner at the Mt Hood Brew Pub. We ate way too much food. Then we went back to Pete's to settle in in front of the TV to watch an old Warren Miller ski movie called "Storm". The girls really liked watching that. In the morning, Phoebe told me that she dreamed she was skiing down a double black diamond run. The girls each got their own bed in the guest room, and Jada and I took the pull out bed downstairs.
It was nice staying up there since I didn't have to be up at 4:50am to start getting ready to leave for the mountain. We were already there! I made some oatmeal and caught the girls jumping on their beds (Thanks, Gary and Sandi). We headed off for Mt. Hood Meadows at 7:40am, and we still arrived right before 8am. There was no one on the road. The weather reports weren't great. It was sleeting a bit and around 32 degrees when we arrived. The wind was a bit whippy too. After dropping off the girls and getting our skis, we found Pete. We got to ski several runs with him which was loads of fun. We haven't skied with Pete in probably 11 years since a cancer ski out we did. After a while, he went to swap out skis and met up with another friend who was coming up to meet him. Jada and I went off and found some new runs to ski. It was a fun day even though the weather wasn't ideal. We had to constantly wipe the water off of our goggles so we could see as we were heading down the mountain. There were so few people on the mountain, we must have gotten in 8 runs before 11am. We finally headed over to try to find the girls on their side of the mountain, and when I slid up to the Easy Rider lift to get my pass scanned, it wasn't there. I had it on the previous run, so I lost it between the top of Mount Hood Express and Easy Rider. I'm guessing it was somewhere around the top of Chunky Swirly. They let me go ahead and take that lift, and we tried to find the girls. However, we were unsuccessful. Since we were tired, wet, and cold, and it was after 11:30am anyway we called it a day. I went to the concierge desk to get a new pass printed out as a keep-sake. We poked around the ski shops to see if there were any good deals to be had toward the end of the season, but nothing good enough. I need new boots, real ski pants, and a better jacket. I still wear mostly cycling clothes to ski. Maybe next year I'll get some actual ski clothes. We never did see Pete again, unfortunately, but I'm sure he was off in Heather Canyon or skiing the black diamonds. We were off to brunch at the Huckleberry Inn before heading home to touch down briefly before taking off again for guitar lessons before taking off again for my massage. I fell asleep on the table this week. So that is how we spent our last day of skiing for the year. We got the most out of our passes. The girls' lessons were even free since it was the 5th one! We didn't even know about that! Spring passes are the way to go when we have a great spring like this.
On Monday, after school, Jada took the girls to look for new glasses. They each chose a new pair. From their descriptions, they have a bit of sparkle to them this time. I didn't get to see them, but Jada did so hopefully they're not too ostentatious. I picked Ellen up from her tutoring class after work, and got some work done around the house before dinner. Jada received not one, but two tan jean jackets from some place called Talbot's that we've never been to before or ordered anything from. They were 2 different sizes. We're not sure where they came from, but Jada checked her credit card to make sure they weren't charged on it. So if anyone out there knows who these are from, please let us know.
April 15: Tax Day
Well, not tax day for us since we took care of that in February like every year. It's been a wet and windy week here with temps in the upper 40's, low 50's. I got to ride my bike to work Tuesday and Wednesday. The girls got the results from the composition competition, and neither of theirs was chosen. They were disappointed. Thursday's soccer practice was very wet. It poured the whole time, and the girls didn't really care. I just hope the fields are ok tomorrow so we don't have to find time for another make up game. The last 2 days have just been constant rain. Today, the girls had their piano Junior Festival. Jada took Phoebe in the morning. She received a Superior for her pieces which means she earns her first Gold Cup this year. I took the afternoon off to take Ellen. I had to pick her up from downtown Portland at the Portland Statue University campus from her field trip. Ellen's class got to take a walking tour of downtown to learn about the history of Portland followed by a scavenger hunt around the PSU campus. Luckily Jada had been able to get her Junior Festival time moved out to 3pm so she'd be able to stay for her whole field trip. I just picked her up before they boarded the bus to go back to school. Ellen also received the Superior rating for her pieces. They sounded really good in what was basically a Schimmel studio room with 3 Schimmel baby grands which must have been $20k each if not more. They were gorgeous. This is a church that was bought by Classic Pianos and restored as this concert piano studio space. We met up with Jada and Phoebe for dinner at Red Robin to celebrate the kids' awesome achievements.
April 16
The constant and heavy rains of the past few days have resulted in closed fields this morning which means no soccer games this week. I had sent an email out to all the parents last night when I found out, but this morning, I called the ones I hadn't gotten a reply from yet. Everyone was disappointed. Ellen is re-working her composition a little bit to add more variety. We eventually decide to head to the Bike Gallery to look at getting Jada her big girl bike. They have their big spring sale going on this weekend, so all the bikes are marked down. They had a frame that would fit her, but not a component set I was happy with. I wanted to make sure she would be able to have as easy a ride as possible, so I went ahead and had them get a compact crank and Shimano Tiagra shifters. The Tiagra shifter have the integrated shift levers. The Sora, which was on there by default, have a thumb shifter for shifting to the more difficult gears which you can't reach when in the drops. The compact crank gives a nice range of gearing without needing a triple crank. I was skeptical when I first got one with my cyclocross bike, but I'm a believer now. They had one ready to be built up in the warehouse, so we didn't get to bring it home today. Hopefully before the end of the weekend, though. I was telling Jada, this bike was similar in price to my first real road bike, my Bianchi Forza, except this bike has far better technology for the money these days. When she took the bike out for a test ride, she was shaky to start with, and it reminded me of Ellen and Phoebe when they were first test riding their bikes. Jada managed not to fall over, though. So that was good. After lunch, Ellen did some "drop jobs" to earn money towards pajamas for her American Girl, Phoebe did her piano, and I spent time in the garage prepping the bikes for a spring of work. I replaced the brake cable on the quad all by myself for the first time! I changed out one of the timing chains on the quad, and also got the tandem ready for Ellen again. I swept the garage floor, and cut up some boxes. It was a productive time. I'm not entirely sure where Jada's bike is going to live. I think we'll have to move both the cars to the driveway so I can fit them all in. Then we let the girls watch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire since we finished the book a couple weeks ago. We ate dinner in the front room watching the end of the movie, and then we went to Dairy Queen for tiny ice cream cones. We hoped that it was small enough, but Ellen still had a behavior change as soon as we walked through the doors at home. She managed to keep from getting too worked up, but we were close. That's why we keep those kinds of treats few and far between. Phoebe had lot's trouble sleeping at night too, but she did finally go to sleep.
April 17
The morning was sunny, but in the mid 30's. We went out for breakfast and grocery shopping in the morning. Our favorite waitress was back at the Murrayhill Cafe, and she may be willing to take Phoebe's old bike off our hands. It'd be nice to get it out of the garage. Jada and Ellen went to visit Gramma, and I took Phoebe to Home Depot to spend the gift certificate she got for her birthday. She picked out a tape measure (25feet), some screw drivers, some nuts and bolts, and a bigger toolbox. The girls got their piano done, and I watched some of my Paris-Roubaix cycling race I had recorded last week. Ellen had an Easter party that some of her friends had put together to go to. Then it was time for swimming class followed by guitar. Jada cooked up a wonderful soup from scratch, and then she got to have a massage.
April 18
I woke up feeling horrible this morning. Rather than try to fight through it, I went ahead and stayed home. I'm glad I did since I ended up sleeping most of the day away. While I was in bed, Jada was off speaking at the announcement for a candidate for a US Congressional candidate. She was one of the people he selected to speak on his behalf. In the afternoon after Jada dropped Ellen off at her tutoring, she met Phoebe and I over at the Bike Gallery to pick up her new bike. They swapped out the stem for one that was a little shorter and had more of an rise. It's red and white with black accents. During dinner, the hail came, and it came hard for a good 5 minutes. Then the sun came out, and the hail stopped. Weird weather. Went to bed at 9pm.
April 25
I eventually got better, and I went back to work last Thursday. I've pretty much been trying to catch up since. The girls had piano practice, and we found out that Phoebe has been skipping some of her practice so she isn't ready for her syllabus next Friday. So now she has to come back on Tuesday. We had a decent soccer practice Thursday night. Just a light sprinkling of rain. Friday was a much more pleasant day, but I was in work all day.
Saturday's weather was perfect. Sunny, a little cool in the morning for Phoebe's soccer game. Though, Phoebe didn't get to come to the game because of their yearly well-child checkup. I had to miss their appointment to coach the game. Then I came home briefly to pick up the girls to head to Ellen's game. It was much warmer by the time they played. We only had 1 sub for their game. Ellen played keeper in the second half. She has a great drop kick just like her old man. She got frustrated when she let a couple through, but she did fine otherwise. It was in the 70's by the time we finished the game around 1:15pm. We got back home, and I put the hitch rack on the Tribeca and loaded the bikes up. Because of the odd geometry of the girls' bikes, we could only fit 3 bikes on there. Luckily, Jada's bike is so wee I could just put it in the back of the car through the passenger side door. We drove over to the Greenway park trail. Ellen took right off, as did Jada. Phoebe had to re-learn how to ride on her bigger bike, but when I was trying to help her she was more interested in crying and scooting her bike along. Once Jada decided to see what she could do, Phoebe suddenly was able to ride. I got to ride with Ellen for a while. We went over to Macaroni Grill for dinner where we watched the Blazers pull out a victory over the Mavericks to even the series 2-2. Then we went to REI to pick up a few items that we needed.
On Sunday, it rained as if to remind us that summer wasn't here yet. We spent all day inside except when we went to visit Gramma. Since it was Easter, the girls couldn't play piano or they'd disrupt Mass or the many families gathered to visit after Mass. The afternoon was spent just hanging around. Ellen, though, is still working on earning money for more American Girl things, so she worked on her drop jobs. She vacuumed, swept floors, cleaned bathrooms, and even made both her and Phoebe's beds. Phoebe paid her to do some of her own chores. I spent time doing laundry and working on the bikes a bit. Then they watched the movie Matilda which the Easter Bunny brought for Phoebe. He also brought dolls (magnetic and paper) and notepads for the girls. Swimming and guitar were both cancelled. My massage appointment wasn't though. So that was nice.
Jada started her conferences, and I started my week of manager on call. It's going to be a busy one for us both.
April 28
Thursday is conference day. We attended the parent-teacher conferences for Ellen and Phoebe first thing in the morning so I could be back in time for my first meeting of the morning. Not surprisingly, both of the girls are doing well in school. They can be a little chatty apparently, and they both can be difficult to convince to stop reading once they get started. Otherwise, they both work hard in class, get their work done, and are well liked by their classmates. Jada's been getting some of her conferences done throughout the week, but Thursday is the big day where she'll be at it until after 7pm. As a result, I stayed with the kids and attended my meetings from home. I took the girls to piano lessons in the afternoon followed by soccer. The thunderstorms and hail that were predicted didn't materialize, but it did shower off and on throughout the two and a half hours I was there. Both of the girls had to be there as well, so they spent some time annoying each other too. Phoebe helped me with Ellen's practice until she got tired. I had forgotten to bring my self food, but I at least made sure the girls were fed. By the time I got home, Jada was close behind having finished her last conference around 7:30pm. I had to start my fast for my yearly physical the next day at 8:30pm, so I had some soup and a cupcake Jada had brought from work.
April 30
Friday morning, I had my annual physical. I survived the blood draw, and then stopped off to grab a bite to eat before heading into work. The girls both had their syllabus for piano in the morning as well. Their reports were very good from the adjudicator. Lots of good marks. Now all that is left is the recital in May. The weather was nice. Phoebe had a birthday party in the afternoon at the movie theater where she saw Rio. She seemed to survive it better than the last time she went to a birthday party at a theater. Ellen and Jada visited Gramma, and did some shopping at Powell's for a birthday party Ellen has on Sunday. They also found books for the kids' classrooms for teacher appreciation week.
Saturday morning, just as I was about to head to the bread shop, I got paged to call into work. I ended up being on the phone for 2.5 hours while Jada took the girls to the grocery store. I got done just as they got home which was fortunate because I had to get Phoebe to her soccer game at 11am. We ended up with just enough girls to field our two teams, and boy, were the girls tired. They still did pretty well considering how tired they got. I'm still trying to teach them if they pass and move to the open spot instead of chasing the ball all over the field, they'd be better rested. But they're 8, and they want to learn some things the hard way still. However, they do have moments of clarity where everything happens as we practice it. So that's nice. We had time to come home between games today, but only just. Then it was back out to Ellen's game in the afternoon. It was a little warmer by then, so it was pleasant to be on the sidelines as the clouds drifted over the sun sporadically. The girls were just on today. Ellen scored our first goal on a put back, and we just kept going from there. Everyone, no matter what position they played, just did what they were supposed to do. It was great. Ellen had a couple more almosts where she just needs to shoot with a stronger foot. She tends to hesitate, and loses the ball in stride. However, that's why we have practices. Jada only got to watch half of each of the games as she was flitting about town. We met up with her over at a friend's house where I picked up Phoebe from her to go home. The girls played quietly after dinner and guitar practice.
And that about wraps it up for April. I wouldn't say it went out like a lamb, but it was at least not a lion.
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