March 1 was a Sunday, but it was jam packed with work. We had planned on going to OMSI in the morning, but the girls woke up in grumpy moods. We needed to do some cleaning around the house anyway, so we worked on that instead. Jada cleaned up the girls' room so that their clothes weren't overflowing. She had each one help in turn while the other did piano. I handled the laundry, did some adjustments on the commuter bike, and cleaned out the kitty box. Phoebe's birthday party was in the afternoon at the Cerami-Cafe again this year. All of the kids that were invited were able to make it. Everyone chose sculptures to paint and got to work. Phoebe's guests contributed 28 more books to the SMART program in honor of Dylan Emslie. Afterward, Gramma came over for dinner. The girls took turns reading to her and playing the piano. We gave Phoebe her big present tonight too since tomorrow is a school day, and a busy one at that. She got a pink Fender Squire Stratocaster and a purple pick. I still owe her an amp, but I'm waiting for the price to come down on one of the 2 I'm looking at.
Phoebe's actual birthday was a bit anti-climatic. She got a 6am call from Nana and Bapa, and I let her choose what she wanted for breakfast - scrambled eggs with only cheese. Normally I put vegetables in her eggs, but I figured she could have what she wanted this time. She had a good day at school, I guess.... After school, I picked her up from Jada's union office. She had to do her piano when we got home though, so she wasn't that excited. (Just to give you an idea of how awesome Jada is, she arranged to get a ride home from her meeting so I could still ride my bike to work and to her office, and then drive the girls home.)
Ellen went to pick out glasses this week with Jada and Phoebe. It did not take Ellen long to find the ones she liked the best. They have purple frames and a nice oval shape. Phoebe even found some that she would like to have some day. Jada took pictures on her cell phone, but it is difficult to see the detail. Ellen's glasses should arrive in a week or so. She's very excited. On Thursday afternoon, after school, Jada took the girls over to Gram's to visit and drop off some things. They found her up in the activities room getting her nails done, so they decided to give a quick piano performance to those present. It was a big hit with the folks up there and an opportunity for the girls to see how well their songs are memorized.
Saturday was a busy day. We started off with an early trip to the grocery store followed by taking Ellen to her writing class. While she was there, the rest of us went over to REI to pick out and purchase a new roof top box for the car to replace the one that was stolen. I used my entire dividend to pay for it, so I only had to spend $18 on it. Ellen had a birthday party in the afternoon. Jada and I forgot to validate the actual location of before I left, since we both assumed it was at a certain bowling alley and it wasn't. We managed to still get to the party about 15 minutes late. (Apparently the birthday boy's mom started out at a different, wrong location!) Jada went to pick Ellen up so I could rest. Then we went to visit with Gram where the girls read to her. Sunday morning was the time change so I didn't sleep much. I was keeping an eye (or ear) on the pager all night to make sure that the servers all jumped like they were supposed to and all the tests succeeded. Then all too early, it was time to get up to drive up to the mountain to snowshoe. The snow was awesome. It was light and fluffy, so we did our Enid Lake loop off of Glacier View snow park. On the way to the trail head, we passed a couple guys breaking camp. They had created a snow camping area. The girls hiked ~1.5 miles. Ellen was grumpy because we let Jada lead, and Ellen had to stay behind me so that she wouldn't keep running into Phoebe. Phoebe complained a lot until after we had our snack and then she perked up. Back at the trail head sign, I concocted a make shift tripod out of my ski poles and gloves to snap a picture. One of the images captured me in all my grace tripping over my own feet and Jada doubled over laughing. We did get a good one too. That was followed by our traditional pancakes at the Huckleberry Inn. When we got home, we all just needed a nap.
During the week was also busy. My corporate basketball league team lost in the semi-finals, but Ellen's soccer practices are just starting. Due to budget cuts, there are some rather strict rules about when we can use the fields. If it has rained in the last 24 hours, we're not allowed on the grass, and we can't practice anywhere but the grass. Tuesday night, we ended up just having a team meeting since it had been raining. We did get to practice on Thursday though because we had a suddenly warming trend into the 50's with some sun. Jada's mom went in to the hospital to try to address her continued struggle with her breathing, but she was released on Friday. By Friday evening, we were both exhausted so we went to bed just after 9pm.
The weekend was pretty much the usual for us. Up early for grocery shopping followed by piano and Ellen's last writing class. In the afternoon, Phoebe had a birthday party to attend. We picked her up,visited Gramma, went out to eat, and came home. I was starting to get a little bit of a sore throat, but I figured it was just from allergies. Phoebe was able to finish her science fair project that day too. Hers was about liquid volume. She had complained that Ellen had a bigger cup than she did, so we proved that wasn't the case by filling up one of the cups with water and pouring it all into the other cup to show they held the exact same amount. On Sunday, we were up early again to head up to the mountain for what will likely be our last day of snow shoeing for the year. The snow level was around 3000 feet, so we got up into the snow just below our trail. The snow was more wet than last week, but it looked a lot like powdered sugar. The road to the trailhead hadn't been plowed yet, but it didn't stop us. We were the first ones in so we got first tracks again this week. We did our favorite 1.5 mile Enid Lake loop followed by breakfast at the Huckleberry Inn. (Phoebe wrote about it during the following week's class and actually did a nice job of sounding out the spelling). It was a little more difficult getting out of the road since the plow had just come by on highway 26 and left us a nice little snow wall to get through. In the afternoon, Ellen and I had to get her science fair project started. Ellen's original question was what made crystals grow. However, we modified that first to how can I grow crystals, and finally narrowed it down to can we make halite crystals (table salt) a different color. She mixed 1 tsp of salt into 6 tsp of water, and then she added a drop of green food coloring. After mixing it all in and letting it sit for a couple days so the water could evaporate and allow the salt crystals to re-form, we found that they did have a little bit of a green tint to them. Though, we also noticed that in her control sample, (non-colored) the crystals re-formed into larger chunks than the colored one.
The science fair itself was on Thursday. All during the week after work, Jada was busy with school board candidate interview prep and the interviews themselves. I went to work on Monday, but Tuesday and Wednesday I stayed home sick with a sinus and fever. I slept most of the time. I thought I would only need 1 day, but I ended up getting worse throughout the day on Tuesday. I was better on Thursday so I went back to work.
Friday was a long day at work for me trying to catch up and get ready for being out a week, and Saturday morning we packed, visited gram, and went to the airport for our big spring break trip to Illinois, the Land of Lincoln. Once we arrived at the airport, we parked in the economy parking, got right on the shuttle (which just happened to be passing by as we were getting out of our car,) and got to the terminal. The check-in went quickly, though we noticed that Phoebe's ticket had her last name spelled wrong. Luckily that didn't derail us. While checking in, we were told the our flight was delayed even though it wasn't listed as delayed when we checked before we left our house. That was going to put us almost 50 minutes behind schedule giving us a very much shorter time to get to our connecting flight. The flight out went well. Jada sat between the girls on the first leg, and I sat across the aisle with a man and his 3 year old son. Everyone was pretty well behaved. We had 30 minutes by the time we landed in Denver to reach our connection on the other end of the terminal (arrived at gate B39 and departing at gate B95). We made it with just enough time for the girls to go to the bathroom, but not enough time to get dinner as we had hoped before our initial flight was delayed. The nice part is it reduced our overall travel wait time, but we ended up having an assortment of nuts, Clif Bars, and apple for our dinner. At Peoria "international" airport, it took a while for them to get us off the plane and then get the luggage into the carriages since it seems the same people do all the work at that airport. Plus we arrived at 10pm, so everything was really slow. Nana and Bapa were there waiting for us at the airport. We got to their house and hurried the kids to bed as quickly as we could. My brother's family was also there that night so the girls slept in the same room with us - the girls in sleeping bags, and us in the bed. Luckily, the girls fell asleep immediately since it was already 11pm (9pm PST).
Of course, Ellen was awake at 6:30am (4:30 PST) literally Harumphing (Hey, I didn't get a harumph from that guy) when she had to stay in bed to try to sleep a little while longer. When I tried to explain to her that no one else in the house was awake yet, including her sister, it just made her all the more frustrated. Finally, I just got up and started making oatmeal since I couldn't sleep with her laying there making her heavy sighing sounds. Plus she had managed to wake Phoebe, too. I made enough oatmeal for the girls and anyone else who wanted some. My nephews, Trey and Noah, were the first to come down. Noah and Ellen hit it off pretty quickly after breakfast. She's a year older than he is, but a full head shorter. Ellen taught Noah how to play chess, and they both played checkers later. Finally they all settled on playing with the Fisher Price castle. Phoebe and Trey played with Legos and worked together to build a pretty tall tower. Trey is the youngest at 3 years old. The weather was pretty nice, so we went down to James Field at the end of the block with 2 soccer balls, and we all played a little bit. It was good for the kids to get out of the house to run around for a while. Plus the temperature was already up near 60 degrees. My sister and her husband showed up while we were down there, and then we all came back for lunch and had an impromptu early birthday celebration for Nana. After a little more playing and a round of group pictures my brother's family headed home so they could be home early enough for bed since they had school on Monday. Auntie Mandy and Uncle Nathan stayed behind, and we all went out to Avanti's for dinner. We got the girls to bed at a more reasonable time that night. Something that I noticed quite a bit while the girls and boys were playing was how much they use the word "sweet" to express how much they like things.
Monday, we rented a car to drive to Champaign. We were going to drag the girls with us since the original plan was to stop by Auntie Mandy's on the way back from the University of Illinois. However, Nana and Bapa were going to come up for dinner too. So rather than have the unhappy girls come with us to walk around campus seeing sites, we left them back with Nana and Bapa to bring to dinner, and we went on our own. We met up with my friend Matt at Papa Del's pizza for lunch (we also ordered a frozen pizza to bring back with us). It was just as good as I remembered it. It gave us a good long time to catch up with Matt while we waited for the pizza to arrive at our table. We headed towards campus and walked through the Digital Computer Lab where our offices used to be, walked by the Transportation building where I spent way too much time as an undergrad, and wandered through the Illini Union which is apparently now a strip mall. We picked up some souvenirs for the girls at the Follett's book store and stood near Granger Library and talked for an hour more before we had to leave to make it to Bloomington in time for dinner. We got there just a couple minutes before the girls and Nana and Bapa, so we got the quick tour of their house. The rest of the guest list was Auntie Mandy's best friend and her family. They have 2 kids around Ellen's age who we met at Mandy's wedding last summer. Ellen discovered the Rubik's Cube and came pretty close to solving at least a side before Jada took over to try to get the whole thing. We got the kids home to bed quite late again that night.
Tuesday, we had planned on heading to Springfield for the day. Originally we had thought we'd go alone, but we asked Bapa to go since Nana was working anyway. However, just after she got to work, Nana's principal sent her home so she could spend time with us. So we all ended up being able to go. We returned the rental car, and took the van. We started at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. It was a really interesting museum which we all enjoyed. The girls even were interested in the exhibits. We spent a good 3 hours there alone. Then we had a quick lunch in the cafe (not unreasonably priced), and then we walked the 5 blocks to the Lincoln house for a tour. Next we walked back up past the current state building and the original state house and stood on the same steps where Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the POTUS. Finally we drove to see Lincoln's tomb. It was a lot of fun. Weatherwise, it was excessively windy, but the rain held off until we were on our way home.
And on Wednesday, we rested. I managed to keep from letting the girls come down until later in the morning. Jada and I went for a short walk, but it was a lot chillier than it looked after having several days around 60, it was only 40. We went down to the Pekin Public Library to check some books out for the girls, and after lunch, we went to Nana and Bapa's church so the girls could practice piano. After dinner, Jada and I went out to see the movie, "I Love You, Man". It was funny. Definitely earned it's R rating for language. If you like the band Rush, definitely stay for the credits to see Paul Rudd and Jason Segal jamming some more. When we got home, we looked through the scrap books of our infamous 1977 vacation to Florida and our 1980 trip to Colorado. It was really funny to read the journals that Nana and Bapa kept on the trip. Mandy was 3, I was almost 6, and Allen was 8. Apparently we spent 14 hours for a 1 day whirlwind tour of Disney World. I certainly don't remember being there that long, but it's interesting how much I did remember. We stayed up entirely too late laughing about it.
Thursday we avoided getting up for as long as we could, but I just can't lay in bed like I used to when I was in my 20's. I made eggs for Breakfast. We packed up the girls to head to church to practice piano followed by a trip to the library since Ellen had already flown through her books. She started reading the Series of Unfortunate Events. She's enjoying it, which surprises me a bit since she is easily frightened by some books. Jada and I headed to Peoria to meet up with one of childhood friends to have a long lunch at Avanti's. We've known each other since first grade, and it was great seeing her again. We did a quick walk through the nearby mall. Once home, I napped for a bit. By the time I was up, the sun was mostly out, and it was around 60 degrees. Perfect for a trip to the park. We spent an hour there before coming home for dinner.
Friday we made plans to go visit Mandy this time since she wasn't going to be able to make it over to see us for dinner. We spent the morning getting piano practice done. I got to see my first boss from my detasseling days since he was doing some yard cleanup around the church. We also heard about the blizzard that shut down the Denver airport the previous day. Since that's the airport we're connecting through, we were especially interested. According to the weather reports, it should be fine there by Sunday, but here in Pekin, the weather was starting to show snow in the forecast. So we're keeping a close eye on that (little did we know that it would actually happen). We left for Bloomington after lunch (and after each of the girls had a chance to throw their tantrums) and headed for the Children's Discovery Museum. We were able to get in for free because of our membership at OMSI. We wandered about in lower level which is mostly geared toward the littler kiddos, and then headed to the second floor where there were more things to do for our age range. It's where the Agriculture themed areas are along with some wind and kinetic exhibits. Jada and Ellen played in the 2-story climbing maze. Finally, we moved on to the 3rd floor where they had one of those huge chess sets with the big pieces. The girls played a game together in which Ellen won. Jada and I had to stand on either side of the board to keep other kids from just walking right through the game and disrupting the pieces. (And their parents were right there not saying anything!) Jada and Ellen played a game where Jada won, and then there was a little boy who had been hanging around who wanted to play so Ellen played him. I was with Phoebe painting on the glass wall (it's ok, that's what they're supposed to do), but Jada said once the boy started to lose, his dad started helping him. Of course, that's when Jada gave Ellen a few tips, but not too much. Ellen eventually won. The painting room is a small room with glass walls around it so you can see in, but they have paints that you can paint onto the glass to make pictures. When done, the paint can be sprayed with water and squeegeed down to clear the glass canvas to start again. Standing on the outside of the room, you can watch as the creations are made. We left there and headed for Subway to meet up with Mandy and Nathan. After Mandy got there, we decided that we'd rather go somewhere we could sit down to eat so we could have a longer visit. So we headed over to Chili's. It was a long wait since it was already 5:30pm, but the girls did really well considering Jada and I had forgotten to pack snacks. We were home by a little after 8pm, and we had the girls in bed by 8:30pm which was pretty good since we need to start cheating them back towards PST. Jada and I actually went to bed early.
Saturday we didn't get the kids up until later while Jada and I made breakfast (and when I say later, i mean around 7am instead of 6am). We skipped piano since my friend Jenny was bringing her kids over to play. We had a nice visit and lunch while the girls all played together. Phoebe sort of played off to the side, but still interacted with Jenny's two kids who are roughly Ellen and Phoebe's age. Auntie Mandy and Uncle Nathan came over by lunch time as well. After Jenny and her kiddos headed home to put the littlest one down for a nap, we hung out around the house for the afternoon while the rains returned, and the wind picked up. Ellen, Nathan, and Mandy played a game called "I have" which is a card game which have something on each side of the card. You lay your card down saying "I have a elephant, who has a crocodile" for example as the elephant is on the front of the card and the crododile is on the back. The rest of the players try to be the first to "have" the crocodile to play that and ask for who has something else. It gets pretty wild. Ellen really had fun playing and would giggle constantly. It was a wonder she could say anything at all. Phoebe assigned everyone an activity to do. She assigned me to play Legos with her so we built a school and playground. Then she enlisted Nathan to help with some more playground equipment and modern art for the city of Town. Ellen read her books all afternoon. I think she managed to get through at least the first 5 books in the Series of Unfortunate Events in 2 days. We heard on the weather about the possibility of snow in the morning from the storm that had hit Denver on Thursday. We crossed our fingers after wishing Nathan and Mandy a safe trip home. After getting everything that we could packed for the morning, we went to bed. The distant rumble of thunder was an oddly ominous sound just before a snow fall as we were getting ready for bed.
I woke up around 3am to go to the bathroom after hearing thunder rumble again (I'd never heard thunder with snow showers...it was an interesting weather week), and while I was up I peeked outside to see snow on the ground - what we would later find to be ~4inches of fresh snow, and it was still going. I started checking on line as soon as I got up at 6am to see if the planes were leaving the Peoria International Airport. Most of the flights on the board were only showing delays to Chicago and Minneapolis, but we didn't know if it was because of Peoria's weather or the other end. Our flight wasn't on the board, but we left the house around 7:30am to make it to the terminal by 8am, 1 hour before boarding time. We got checked in, and the lady behind the counter didn't know of any issues with departure at that time. Our plane was out on the tarmac waiting. The same lady eventually came in from outside where she had either been putting luggage on the plane or shoveling a path to the plane (we didn't get to have a jetway. We walked outside to the plane), because she came in out of breath talking about how they were almost out of de-icer. However, she took our tickets and helped everyone get on board all the same where we sat. It'll only be a few minutes while we get things ready for take off they said. We already only had 45 minutes from landing to boarding for our connection in Denver, so we were worried. 10 more minutes while we get the plane de-iced. About 40 minutes later, they couldn't get the engines started because apparently the reason our plane was there in the morning is because it sat out on the tarmac all night, and the turbine was frozen. Just 10 minutes to get some hot water to pour over the engines. We were supposed to depart at 9am. At 10:40am, we finally start to taxi. At this point, we were already mathematically eliminated from making our connecting flight. I asked the flight attendant what we needed to do, and she said in most cases they'll re-schedule us while we're in the air and there will be someone at the gate to help with re-ticketing. Great, I thought. Nothing to worry about.
As we fly, we can see out the window the extent of the snow storm that had been moving across the plains for the last few days. The snow is still on the ground as we approach Denver even with 50 degree days. It was sunny and windy when we touched down 40 minutes after our flight to Portland had already departed. (~11am) There was no one waiting at the gate, but there was an information desk just down the concourse. Luckily, we got right in line while Jada went back to a kiosk near the gate we came in on to check our reservations. When she came back, we hadn't moved much in the line yet, and she was flustered. "TUESDAY", she says. "They booked us for Tuesday at 10am!" So we continue to wait in line to see what our options are. When we get to the agent, they say we're pretty much out of luck. There aren't any airlines with open seats until Tuesday, but we can try to get standby flights at either 2:45 or 6:31 that day. I ask about vouchers or any other options. Oh no. It was a weather problem, she says, so we don't get vouchers for hotels or food. "Sure. The weather was a problem, but the flight crew didn't get there in time, and they obviously didn't try to de-ice or start the engines before we got on the plane at 9am when we were supposed to be leaving. Apparently negligence is ok as long as they get to the destination. We all got to the airport just fine and well ahead of boarding time just like we're supposed to despite the weather. This storm was even predicted more than a day in advance. They couldn't have put a cap or something on the jet to keep the ice out?" These are all the things going through my head as I politely smile, glance down at my 2 small children now faced with the possibility of sleeping in an airport for the first time, and ask to be put on standby for the next available flight while we head to the main desk to talk to a supervisor about vouchers.
We came in on B80 which is the very first gate on the new extension of the B concourse. The 2:45pm flight is at B60 which contrary to all modern math principals is actually just down the hall of the habitrail that connects the main part of B with this new addition. Since it's still early (almost 12pm by this time), we head down further towards the center of the concourse in search of lunch. We have some deli sandwiches at some place I don't recall the name of and re-hashed our options. After lunch, we headed back to the gate B60 and found an agent there who we once again put on our brave faces for, and discussed what we could do and why other people from our same flight got hotel vouchers while we didn't. She explained that if we were members of the Premier club, we would get vouchers, meals, even earlier places in the standby line (earlier than the likes of we without proper membership in their mileage member club). Instead, she said our best bet was probably the 6:31pm flight since it was a bigger plane, but you never know...oh, and by the way, the gate for the 2:45 flight is now B90. So we shuffled off down the long habitrail again, past the agent who originally gave us the dire news where the line was now all the way down to the gate we had come in on. Lots of missed flights on Sunday, apparently, due to weather. We sat patiently waiting at B90 for the boarding call. By chance we ran into the family of one of the girls from Ellen's soccer team last fall, so the girls had someone to pass the time with at least while we waited. (I may have failed to mention earlier that the reason that all the flights to Portland were booked was because this was the last day to return from Spring Break before classes started up again.) It turns out that they had just come in from St. Louis which didn't get nearly as much snow, and they had spent the previous day in Collinsville. It is a small world after all. So at this point, the plane is boarding and Ellen's friend is leaving to get on their plane while we wait. Our hopes have already fallen since we are still 2, 3, 4, 5 on the standby list, and we think about our options some more. I find that I can get on the free wireless network in the airport, so I start looking up hotels and rental car options. We decide that we don't want to split 2 and 2, but we would be willing to go 3 and 1, sending the girls back to Portland while I live at the airport trying to get on another flight out. I start looking very hard at the possibility of renting a car and making the 18 hr 21 minute drive (by MapQuest calculation) back to Portland so the girls only miss 1 day of school rather than drag them around the airport all day Monday hoping to catch a flight. When suddenly, all 4 of our names are called. Somehow there are 4 people how haven't shown up yet...just 4, and we're next because the person in front of us wasn't there. We rush to the stand and start getting our tickets printed, but in the next minute, the 4 show up out of breath. The gate person goes ahead and lets them on even though they were late. Our hopes dashed, we get on the list for the 6:31pm flight and explain, once again, what this all means to the girls trying not to let on how very frustrated we are. Jada's migraine has been starting to build during the wait for this plane, and it kicks into high gear at this point.
The next flight at 6:31pm departs from gate B27. That is all the way on the other end of the B concourse, but luckily we have time to get there. Maybe we complained too much or made too light of the flight out where we were late to Denver and had "only" 30 minutes to get to the connecting flight to Portland. I start really thinking about the driving option. It's only $34 to get the car to Portland plus gas plus food which we'd spend here anyway, and if we could get a refund for the rest of our trip, we could easily pay for it. We'd just need to get our bags since we had packed the girls winter coats away and it was going to be in the 20's/30's over night. They'd sleep most of the way, and Jada and I could take turns. It was doable, and they'd only miss 1 day of school. But we waited and ate dinner at some sports diner where the girls had beef hot dogs (Phoebe sort of liked mustard) and Jada and I split a burger and salad. Neither of us was really all that hungry. The 6:31pm flight was 2 over booked, and there was a decent group of people already on the standby list. Again, we declined the 2 and 2 option, but if they had 3 seats, we'd take that. And we waited. The girls were not happy, but they were coping really well all things considered. Ellen read and Phoebe was antsy, but not out of control. On the way through the concourse, we had stopped at every book shop there until we found one with a small selection of children's books. We let them each pick out something (thanks, Nana and Bapa!). We also picked up a magnet from a souvenir shop of the Denver International Airport to remind of us our trip to Colorado. I continued to run through the options while Jada's headache got worse, and the number of people still in the waiting area dwindled. Suddenly, a miracle! We were called once again. This time, we made it to the jetway. Jada looked like she was going to cry. If the gate ladies had been out from behind the desk, the girls probably would have hugged them. The seats weren't all together, but who cares. We were going home, and we only had to endure 9 hours at the airport. Jada and Phoebe sat together, but Ellen and I were split. Jada managed to talk one of the people in the row where Ellen was sitting to exchange seats with me. Ellen looked so mature sitting there between 2 strangers. She admitted later that she didn't know what she was going to do, and Jada said she was just sitting there wide-eyed when she came up. I don't know why I couldn't get the girl to swap with me. I don't know if she just didn't hear me, or what. Or maybe she changed her mind when faced with the prospect of sitting next to a squirrelly 8 year old. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful for us. The rise out of Denver was very choppy, and Jada was worried she was going to hurl most of the way home from her headache. But our bags were on the plane, and the car was still parked in the lot where we left it. The girls were so exhausted that they fell asleep in the car on the way home pretty much as soon as we got out on 205. As I said, they did very well all things considered. I was very proud of their behavior. I don't know if they sensed that we were too frustrated to be messed with or what, but they really helped us not lose our heads with the whole issue. We got them to bed around 10pm, and we were right behind that.
I heard Ellen up at 5am for a bathroom run. I didn't get out of bed until about 6am which is late for me. Jada was up and helped me get things ready. Somehow, Ellen even got some piano done. I got to work before 8am, but I had 3000 emails which I didn't come close to getting through. Jada said Ellen got to school 10 minutes late. I picked up my bike after work. I had left it for an overhaul while I was away. It's actually clean! Jada had already started some laundry before I got home, and since we didn't have time to make dinner due to the girls' first gymnastics, we had peanut butter sandwiches for dinner. Then I had to continue trying to get caught up on my mail. The girls fell asleep almost immediately after putting them to bed at 7pm.
Tuesday was back to work again. The girls slept in a little bit in the morning, and I was fine letting them. Jada had a class out in Hillsboro at 8am, and my first meeting is at 8:30am, so I dropped the kids off at school so she could get there on time. The girls had piano practice, and their instructor was very impressed with their progress in spite of the break. Even though they had fewer minutes, they still got some time in over the break which earned them the ability to learn some new songs for the spring recital. Then it was off to soccer practice for Ellen. We actually had it. It was only 50 degrees, but we tried to run as much as we could to keep the girls warm. The fields weren't too muddy. Then it was home for a quick dinner a few more minutes of practice and to bed while I worked on continuing to catch up from vacation. That's the only bad thing about vacation is trying to catch up afterward. And today was Nana's birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!).
Journal Entry: March 31, 2009