January 1 - Happy New Year!
We spent the first day of the year mostly just cleaning out old files from drawers. Since it hasn't snowed in several days we decided not to go to the mountain. Instead we slept in. I didn't even hear the girls until 7am. The girls both did some piano practice while Jada cleaned out old files to make room for new ones. I spent a big chunk of morning finishing the December journal and finally posting some pictures after 3 months without. When their piano practice was done, they read their books and wrote thank you notes for Christmas gifts. In the late afternoon before dinner, we played Settlers of Catan for a couple hours while Jada was making dinner. Jada won this time handily while cooking us up our traditional black-eyed peas for New Year's Day. We put the girls to bed on time.
January 2
We had a lot to do today. We were all up and starting breakfast by 7am so that we could be out to the grocery stores as soon as possible. We got home and left again to visit some friends to finally exchange presents since we'd both been out of town for the holidays. It was nice to see our Canadian friends. The girls had fun playing with their boys, and Jada and I got visit with our Godson. The kids were also working on fixing something that was supposedly wrong with the hockey table game. We were able to get Phoebe's piano done before going to Gramma's. I was supposed to have a massage appointment, but our masseuse is still ill. I also was going to take Phoebe to my guitar lesson, but my instructor was also ill, so we'll start next week. I walked Phoebe through some basics for about 30 minutes. When she actually decides to try doing things, she still remembers how to do it all from her class 2 years ago now, but she just likes to complain a lot first. Then Jada cooked a whole chicken, so we pulled out Settlers of Catan again to play another game. We didn't quite make it to the end before dinner was ready, but we were close. Jada was only 1 point away from victory, and both of the girls did much better tonight than previous games. Even after they ate their chicken legs and showered, we were able to get them to bed on time.
January 4
The first day back at school after the winter break was yesterday. The girls both loved being back and school, though it was the first day I've had to wake them up in 2 weeks. Isn't that always the way? They finally sleep in when they can't. Jada and I got back into the gym. I had a check of our rodent traps in the morning, so I phoned into meets until noon. In the evening, I finally got in for my massage since our masseuse was feeling better after his flu last week. (Jada got her turn tonight.) My back is much better. It survived another gym trip this morning. After school, Jada had a staff meeting followed by a quick meeting with the principal where Phoebe pitched her idea for her school participating in Pennies for Peace to support schools for kids in poor Afghan and Pakistan regions. Phoebe's quite our little philanthropist. She has been putting a dollar of her allowance aside for the Portland Rescue Mission since before Thanksgiving of her own decision. When Jada told her about the Pennies for Peace charity, she was on board and wanted to do it for her school. She's already started planning how to do it and enlisted some friends to help her make posters. She's going to present her idea to the PTO later this month.
January 8
The first week of school was tough for all of us. Jada and I started to build ourselves back up again by getting to the gym a little more regularly. The girls had a hard time waking up all week (until this morning, of course). Jada started doing some state testing with kids in the mornings. Both of the girls went back to piano lessons this week, and they both received direction on the songs they had been practicing incorrectly during the holiday break. I also got Phoebe to more willingly practice some guitar. It's amazing how quickly she has improved considering how much she carries on about not wanting to do it. She really finds it fun, she doesn't want to admit it.
Today was a busy day. We went grocery shopping in the morning, and it was quite slippery out first thing with lots of ice. It got above freezing by the time we got home. We put in a visit to Gramma right before lunch so the girls could play piano for her. While Phoebe was playing, Jada was trying to whisper something to me when Ellen leaned in from the other side and said, "I like to whisper too" just like Buddy the elf in the movie Elf. It was a great comedic moment, and I couldn't be more proud. Of course, she started laughing just as hard as we were. The comedic timing is starting to show. Jada went off for her haircut, and I took the girls home for lunch. Then it was off for another round of errands one of which was Bed, Bath, and Beyond, as Jada continued her bid to put together a grown-up bedroom. She bought some throw pillows and a full length mirror that we were hoping would fit somewhere in our room. It didn't. Just a bit too wide everywhere we tried. So we'll be taking that back. While we were there, we had our 20% coupon, and found something for $100. We asked how much it would be after applying the coupon. Phoebe answered $80 within a minute. She's very quick at math in her head. We made a stop at REI to get some goggles for Jada that don't force her glasses back into her face as well as helmets for us for skiing followed by dinner at Macaroni Grill.
January 9
We went up to the mountain to get in our first day of snowshoeing. We left at 6:30am, and there was already a lot of traffic heading up. We'll need to leave closer to 6am to go skiing, I think. We were the second car at the Glacier View trailhead. It was snowing nice big fluffy flakes, and the snow on the trail was the consistency of powdered sugar. We left the car at 8:24am. We had first tracks for the first quarter mile until we met up with the people who beat us there making the counter-clockwise loop. Phoebe got to lead halfway this year. She finally is willing to hike without complaint. We finally broke her...or she's just older and stronger this year. One of the two. She actually ended up leading the primarily upward trek to the Crosstown trail link at a really good pace. In all, she got to lead a little more than half, we think. Then Ellen got to lead the half mile back to the trailhead. We studied the map at the trailhead a bit before leaving to see how we could extend the hike next time to make it a little more challenging. We finished in about 1 hour, so we were at the Huckleberry Inn before 10am for brunch. They were busy, so it took almost 30 minutes just to get our food, but it's always worth it. We were home around 12:30pm. Jada left again to run some errands with Ellen while Phoebe finished her piano. We were going to take back the mirror to Bed, Bath, and Beyond before going to guitar class, but we got a call from my teacher that he had forgotten about our lesson. He would be home around 4:30pm, though, so we waited a little longer before leaving. Phoebe did a great job at her lesson. She really impressed the instructor with her knowledge of music theory, as well as her "sass". I can't remember what she said to earn the "sass" comment, but I'm sure it was something any one could imagine Phoebe saying. We rushed home to drop Phoebe off for dinner, and then I had to rush right back out again for my massage. My back continues to get better. Of course, I also haven't been near a basketball court in weeks. That will change this week, so we'll see how that goes.
January 10
Without going into any details, Ellen learned an important life lesson today at school. She's pretty sad now, but I think she'll be better off for it in the future. She's handling it well so far. The girls got new chess t-shirts. We also found out that Phoebe's debut at the PTO meeting is pushed out due to an expected potential snow fall here on Tuesday night. Who knows if that will happen. If it does, you'll be the first to know.
January 11
Ellen was able to work things out at school this morning, so all's well. I played my first basketball game in over 1 month. I survived. No ER visits. Now I just have to see how my back fares tomorrow. We were supposed to have 7 inches of snow in the valley today. It did snow. But it was only for about 30 minutes, and then the freezing rain came in which didn't really freeze. I drove to my game, and our whole team showed up. However, only 2 of the other team showed up. Rather than wasting the time, we divvied up the players and played a game since the refs were there and all anyway.
January 16
The temperatures warmed up throughout the week into the low 50's during the day with lots of rain. We had originally planned on going skiing this weekend, but there was rain on the mountain so that wouldn't have been fun for anybody. On Friday, Ellen wasn't feeling well. She had said on Thursday night that she was cold which is really not Ellen at all. She's typically on fire all the time. In the morning, her voice was half gone, and she was sneezing and stuffy with no temperature though. We let her go to school, but I worked from home just in case she got worse since all my meetings were possible for phoning in. I was on the phone from 8:30 to noon. In the afternoon I just worked on end of year reviews which was nice without anyone around to bug me other than occasional emails and instant messages. I worked with Phoebe on her guitar practice all week. She always starts with "I Can't!" However, she is very capable of doing anything she puts her mind to. The progress she has made just in this week is astounding considering the amount of caterwauling she does before she settles down to work. She's going to be better than me a few weeks, I can see already.
Saturday morning, we did our errands and visited Gramma. After lunch with the rain settling in with 55 degree temps, I decided to go for a bike ride...and Jada encouraged me. I suited up the commuter so I'd have the luxury of full fenders on the ride. It was really pleasant even with the rain. Traffic was light, and I had a nice tailwind once I made the turn back North. The commuter can move pretty well without the panniers on. It's a comfy bike. I completed a nice 25 miler in almost exactly 90 minutes which is a bit slower than I usually do it, but not bad for not having ridden regularly for a couple weeks. We ran a couple errands when I got home including a trip to the mall on a Saturday night. It's really busy there, but Jada had a Gymboree coupon that was going to expire, and she wanted to see if there was anything she could pick up for the girls. I stepped into the Lego Store, but it was shoulder to shoulder in there, so I couldn't just browse around very well. Next time I go in, I'm just going to get a cup of Lego's from the back wall for no good reason. I think I talked Phoebe into having her birthday party there this year too. We stayed up a little too late reading to the girls from the Peter and the Shadow Thief to get through the climax of the story so they'd have an easier time sleeping once knowing everything turns out ok.
Sunday morning, after our big breakfast, we went to the Woodburn Company Stores so Jada could find some new pants. I was in need of pants too since all of my jeans have inappropriate holes, and my other pants have frayed cuffs. I found 1 pair of pants in my size at the Columbia outlet plus 2 shirts. Jada found a couple pairs of pants, shirts and a couple of scarves that Ellen picked out at another store. Ellen and I got complimentary jersey's for our bike rides this year at the Perl Izumi store, plus I bought the girls some cycling shoes since their feet are close to the smallest size they have. That'll save some rotating weight on the bike. In the afternoon, Ellen went to a sleepover while Phoebe, and I went to our guitar lessons. She did the first 30 minutes, and I did the second half.
January 18
Yesterday Jada and the girls had the day off from school due to the MLK holiday. I went to work. Phoebe and Jada went to visit Gramma before picking Ellen up from her sleepover. In the afternoon, some friends came over to visit for a while. Jada went to the gym before she ate dinner, but she made dinner for the rest of us. On Tuesday morning, I had to wake Ellen up in the morning. Apparently she had been up quite late (11pm she said) at her sleepover, and she woke up at 6am to quietly read until it was bright enough to play with some toys. Her friend didn't wake up until after 8am. I had to wake Jada and Phoebe up too. No one seemed to want to get out of bed. In the evening, we went to school to attend a PTO meeting where Phoebe presented her idea for her Pennies for Peace penny drive at the school. She'll be conducting it starting this Thursday at the Literacy and Math night at school. Her goal is to donate 1000 pencils where each pencil is $.01. It seemed like a large number to her, so we went with that. She'll run the drive until early March when we'll send a check to Pennies for Peace. She has some friends to help make posters, and some friends who will be start collecting this Saturday at the chess tournament as well.
January 22
On Thursday night, Phoebe put up posters and a table at school for the Literacy and Math night. She and her friends had worked on them Wednesday to be ready for Thursday. They turned out well. She collected quite a bit of change on her first night. The girls enjoyed checking out new books at the library that night, as well as participating in activities including writing "fan letters." Ellen chose to write to her favorite author, Rick Riordan, while Phoebe created 3-dimensional shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. Ellen also had the opportunity to chat with children's author, Pam Flowers, about writing and outdoor experiences. I chatted with the kids' friends' parents, while Jada helped out the girls' chess coach with his session on beginner's chess. Fun was had by all.
Saturday morning we went grocery shopping. It's practically spring out today with sunny skies and temps hovering around 50 degrees. I'm oncall, so we can't really go anywhere this weekend, or this would be great weather for a bike ride. Certainly better than last weekend's ride in the rain which wasn't horrible, but it's always nicer to ride in the sun. New Seasons Market donated some small tubs for Phoebe to use for her penny drive, so that was very nice of them. I went to Bungalow Bread, but they were just putting Jada's favorite cookies in the oven so I reserved some to pick up later. Ellen has continued to pick up some "drop jobs" (what she called odd jobs when she couldn't think of the right words) around the house. She vacuumed, swept the floors, and put away dishes to earn some money towards an American Girl doll. We went out for dinner at Benihana with some friends to celebrate Ellen's RAH award from December finally. It was fun.
January 27
Sunday didn't have much to talk about. Usual weekend stuff except for some work escalations I had to take care of. Phoebe and I went to our guitar lesson. After she was finished she played with the instructor's melodica while we worked. So far this week, neither of us have had time to practice. My basketball game on Monday got moved up to 7pm (we lost in overtime), and I had an eye appointment and a massage appointment on Tuesday night. My eyes are still the same, though it seems like my right eye is getting worse. Tuesday afternoon, the girls also had their drama club. Wednesday morning, I volunteered at the school for the Passport Program testing. On Thursday morning, I had a dentist appointment at 8am before coming home to work for a couple hours of meetings before riding the quad over to the school for the Kindergarten Big Rig Day. This year, one of the kindy teacher's husbands brought a model rocket which he launched after the display to much cheering from the kids who watched. Then I stuck around to help out with chess club before the girls rode home with me on the quad. We were quite the hit with the middle schoolers down the street that we had to ride by on the way home.
January 30
Friday was a no school day for the girls, but Jada had to be there in the morning. Ellen and Phoebe brought some things with them to do. Mostly books. Phoebe brought her guitar to play in the music room, while Ellen was excited to practice "Ode to Joy" on one of the school violins. Phoebe accompanied her on the piano. I finally rode my bike to work from the car shop where I had taken the Tribeca in for it's first oil change. I also had them put on a trailer hitch. I'm still playing around with the idea of a trailer for the quad, but even if I don't do that, I wanted to be able to have a hitch mounted bike rack so we could carry 4 bikes with us on camping trips (when I get Jada one eventually). None of the trunk mounted carries are rated for 4 bikes due to weight. That way we can go camping, have the box on top of the car and bring bikes. The girls had their piano lesson on Friday afternoon again this week due to another conflict for their teacher. So we all got home late and had a quick dinner before bed. Jada and I have been trying to get through the Freaks and Geeks TV series. I can see why it was cancelled. It wasn't that it's not good, because it is a good show, I think it was just way too accurate in it's depiction of high school in 1986. The characters are all really awkward looking, even the main characters don't have the same "we're really 25 year old models playing 16 year old kids" like on so many shows. Plus they have lots of Rush, Styx, and Journey songs in the background which is awesome. It's also fun actor watching. In addition to James Franco, Seth Rogen, Busy Philips, and Jason Segal who are main characters, there are appearances by several other actors who have made appearances in TV and movies such as Shia Labeouf from Transformers, Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu from the original MST3K, and Rashida Jones from Parks and Recreation/Social Network. Friday was also the 25th year anniversary of the Challenger shuttle disaster, as it is known. This was the mission where they selected a teacher to ride along on the flight. I remember sitting in 8th grade English when one of the other teachers who had been one of the 3 finalists for that honor came in crying and announced to the class what had happened. The teachers brought out a TV, and we watched coverage for the rest of class. It may seem routine, but hurling a manned craft into space is still a risky operation. With budget cuts, we won't be seeing that again for a little while, but hopefully we'll return some day.
Saturday ended up being a nice day, but we didn't get to do much in it. Phoebe and I went grocery shopping while Jada took Ellen to get tested for math tutoring at Sylvan Learning Center. Ellen gets frustrated like I used to with math when I was her age. She has a friend who has similar difficulty and her parents started taking her to this place where she's increased her confidence, so we thought we'd give it a try as well. She came out of the testing with a positive experience, and she sounds excited to get started. We visited Gramma for a while in the morning before lunch. After lunch we had some errands to run. Then Jada took a nap to try to help the headache she had been fighting all day while the girls finished piano practice. I made pizza for dinner. It turned out pretty well with a slightly different mix of meats and veggies. After dinner we started a new book for the girls continuing the Peter Pan series we've been reading by Dave Berry (yes, that one) and Ridley Pearson. This one is called Peter and Secret of Rundoon. Sunday wasn't much more exciting. Though we did go to OMSI in the morning. They had an exhibition on Egypt which was interesting. They mostly focused on Hieroglyphics reading and archaeology. The other exhibit they had was on math and design concepts. We didn't spend a lot of time there because it was already pretty busy, so we'll have to come back to finish exploring that one. I worked all afternoon on annual performance reviews while the girls finished piano and Jada visited her mom. Guitar practice was canceled due to a conflict with the instructor, so we didn't have to be anywhere in particular which was a big help. I dropped Ellen off over at a friend's house to play for a while. Jada made a whole chicken for dinner which was yummy as always. After she left for a massage appointment, I read some more to the girls before bed.
January 31
It's hard to believe that we're already to the end of January 2011! Time is flying now, and things aren't going to be any less busy in February.
Journal Entry: January 31, 2011