November 4
On Tuesday the 2nd of November, Phoebe lost 1 tooth during the day at school. Jada found her walking down to the office with the intention of pulling it out in the health room. Jada ended up pulling it out for her. Early on Wednesday morning, I caught the girls sneaking Halloween candy into their rooms at 4:30am, and shortly after that, Phoebe lost another tooth. Both were top teeth on either side of the 2 front teeth, so now her smile slightly resembles that of a jack-o-lantern. The candy was already planned to take to school to be placed in the staff room on Wednesday, you know, to pick up after the first wave from the weekend ran out. Now we wish we had done it sooner. We had been trying to figure out why Phoebe had been so poorly behaved lately. They are both under pressure now for this weekend's Festival of Ribbons where they have to play their duet together and 1 memorized piece each, plus Ellen has a second duet with another fourth grader from her piano studio.
Ellen is learning the states and capitals now. Her teacher had a CD of songs with them all. It's super annoying, but maybe it'll help her remember them all.
November 6
After practicing for so long, this morning was Go Time for the girls' piano at the Festival of Ribbons. Their duets were first. Ellen and Phoebe got through their performance pretty well ("All Star Marching Band"). They got good marks from the adjudicators, and they worked well as a team. Ellen did a good job of waiting for Phoebe when she got a little behind, and Phoebe did a good job of counting to keep them on track. Then Ellen had her duet with another girl in the studio. They also did a nice job. It was a very dynamic piece ("In the Hall of the Mountain King") which they played with gusto. They did really well considering they don't get to practice it together much. Then they all moved on to their memorized single pieces. Phoebe surprised everyone by starting off right from the moment she sat on the bench. She worked through a lot of the issues she had been having and delivered a good, consistent performance paying attention to her dynamics. Ellen had a rough patch in the middle where she forgot a measure. We were worried, but she collected herself, found a place to pick it up again, and finished with confidence. She was disappointed in herself, but she didn't cry or scream. We told her how proud we were that she was able to shake it off and finish the piece. The Adjudicator made similar comments in her write up.
We missed Ellen's soccer game, but the head coach sent me a mail later letting me know how well they did. I think we're undefeated or pretty close this season. We took the girls to brunch, and then Jada took them with her over to visit her friend Laurie. I got to stay at home and try to nap. Since tonight is time change (and seriously, can we please do something about that?), and one of my reports is owning the overall activity this year so I was going to stay on the bridge all night as the owning group leader. I didn't get much sleep, and I actually felt worse when I got out of bed. I played guitar for a while until Jada called me to go get some dinner. We stopped by the Burlington Coat Factory first to try to find a new dress coat for Ellen. She fits in a women's petite extra small. She'll be wearing Jada's clothes before we know it. While we were at that shopping area, Phoebe saw a place with Fresh Grill on the sign which was the name of one of our favorite local eateries (regular readers may remember us talking about that around this time last year). So we're pretty happy that it'll be opening probably around the first of the year still pretty close by, just not as close as it used to be.
When we got home, we got a call from their piano teacher. Ellen and her other duet partner were selected for the State recital this year. Phoebe was crushed. We had warned them that there were no guarantees that either of them would be selected for the recital this year. Maybe it'll light a fire under Phoebe to stop throwing so many fits at the piano and actually just use the time to practice. Or not. So that'll be December 4th which is the same day as a chess tournament. Hopefully, like last year, we'll be able to do one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon.
We kept the girls up a little later tonight due to time change. I'm reading Fablehaven to them. We put them to bed a little before 8pm. I had to get on the phone starting at 9pm for our work. We have to monitor all of our systems during the night to make sure nothing hiccups (seriously, can we get rid of the time change? Can our congressmen do something about this? Surely there's no money in this so it should be easy, right? But it does happen all over the world...on different dates. Maybe there's some sort of conspiracy going on with the Stone Masons or Opus Dei. Is this going to be the plot of the next Dan Brown novel, or maybe the next movie in the National Treasure franchise? Perhaps I've already said too much). I'm on the phone just after midnight as I type this. I'll be on the phone until 3am. I guess I'll just go and try to change all the clocks back. I don't know how I'm going to deal with breakfast tomorrow.
November 7
The time change happened. I got to bed around 3am (new PST), but I had a really hard time sleeping. Jada helped the girls get something to eat before coming back to bed herself before breakfast. I'm just worn out, but when I lie down the sleep doesn't come. I'll try again after lunch. That's usually a good time for me to nap. Jada helped the girls make their own breakfasts this morning. They got to crack open their own eggs so they were happy about that. Jada made waffles, too. I didn't have to do anything this week. I felt kind of bad about that, but I did enjoy the waffles!
November 13
Another week gone by. Mother Nature pushed the button clearly marked "Winter" on Monday this week as temps barely climbed into the 50's in the afternoon with morning fog, rain, mist, and sprinkles. With the time shift, it was too dark to practice any more, but one of the other coaches still showed up to have unofficial gatherings of players who also happened to be there for soccer scrimmage. I wasn't able to make it this week. I had my first Intel League basketball game Tuesday night. We were on fire...except for lay-ups. No one could seem to hit those, but everything else was falling. Thursday was Veteran's Day, so there was no school. Jada took the girls to their piano lesson and visited Gramma in the afternoon where they watched her get a haircut. The girls also made their own eggs for breakfast that morning. Friday was a teacher work day, and Jada was there all day again even though she's only paid as a half time teacher. The girls went to a day camp at the Nature Park. I got to ride my bike to work 3 days this week, so that was nice. Ellen has had more stints where she seems to be maturing ever so slightly. She's doing what we're asking her to do more often without complaint. Though she still has her moments. Phoebe, on the other hand, is all rebellion all the time with all the screaming and crying that entails.
Today is Ellen's last soccer game, and our last chance to get a team picture with everyone in it. We took care of grocery shopping in the morning. Ellen's game was at 2pm. This was the first game the girls had played that late in the day, and it showed. They were definitely out of their routine. The other team was doing what our team normally does. It was raining and about 46 degrees, so that didn't help anything either. In the end, I think they were all happy the season was over. Jada took a team picture since everyone was there. We had about an hour before the soccer party by the time we got home. Ellen took a hot shower, and Jada quickly tried to get the certificates printed out. We ran out of color ink during that as well, so I had to run to the store. In the mean time, Ellen had decided not to eat her entire snack on the way home, and she was melting down. After getting some food into her, we drove over to a, well, I don't really know how to describe it. It's got rooms with massive TV's for eating dinner and watching sports. It has bowling alleys, and an upstairs with games of different types, though nothing like the old arcades. The girls had an hour of bowling, and then we moved into a party room for the second hour with food. We coaches split up the girls so we each only talked about 4 of them to keep ourselves from talking too much. As a result, we got through it in record time. We left by 7pm, and we had the girls in bed by 7:30pm.
November 14
Jada stayed up almost all night reading a book last night. I had a difficult time sleeping as well. Just too much going on, I guess. As a result, we were both slow to get out of bed. Phoebe started constantly leaving her room to check on the time slamming her door every time. I told them to make some toast while I took a shower. We had our big breakfast followed by errands. We decided to stop by to see Gramma, and we got lucky that she was awake and eating her breakfast. The girls even were able to play a couple songs that they could remember on the piano. I lay down on the couch around noon to "rest my eyes" and said I'd have some lunch soon, as I was still stuffed from breakfast. I got up a few minutes before 3pm. I guess I was tired. I didn't sleep the whole time, but I didn't want to get up. The girls all read in the the other room. I ran to the orchard for the last day to stock up on apples before my guitar lesson.
Ellen has been diligently working on her own on her South Dakota social studies project for school. Each kid in her class gets to choose a state to do research on. She has done a lot of it on her own, and she's not leaving any of it until the last second. I don't remember doing anything so elaborate in grade school.
November 16
The girls had a dentist appointment first thing in the morning to get sealants on their back teeth. Ellen seemed to do just fine and was done in less than 30 minutes. Phoebe put up a fight. Apparently her enamel is weak, and the sealant won't stick to her teeth very well. She couldn't get her tops done much more than a temporary seal because they weren't up far enough to get the sealant all the way on.
November 20
Both of the girls decided to donate some of their allowance to the Portland Rescue Mission. I matched their funds, and we sent off the check. Phoebe's become quite the philanthropist since it was her idea to donate the money. We're not sure what has prompted this generosity and concern for her fellow man, but we're willing to encourage it. She's also having a difficult time with watching her Gramma be sick. We did some errands in the morning. Then Ellen worked on her South Dakota project some more. She had a bit of a setback Thursday night when she was leaning over it after her shower with her hair dripping on it. That was a bit of a lesson for her about how well she needs to dry her hair, and where not to stand after she's showered. So we picked up some new markers, and she's getting back to work. The project is due this week. I got the outside spigots turned off, drained, and covered since we're expecting some temps around freezing, and we don't want a repeat of last year's pipe burst. I also got the chairs off the deck to dry in the garage. After lunch, I took the girls over to the My Masterpiece Art Studio for a class. They painted scarves. It'll be interesting to see how they turn out. Jada had an appointment to get her hair cut and went to visit her mom. While the girls were doing their art, I ran a bunch of errands to drop off some things at the recycling center, look at Guitar Center for some ideas on connecting my guitar to a Mac, and finally to our favorite bakery, Bungalow Bread Company, to pick up some bread for our lunches. The rain had cleared out, and it was a little sunny in the afternoon until the sunset at about 4:45pm. We went out to Macaroni Grill for dinner so we could stop by REI afterwards to take advantage of their winter sale on boots for the girls. They haven't grown out of their current ones yet, but if we wait, they'll be out of stock because by January, it's time to get out the summer stuff, you know.
November 21
There was snow in the forecast, but it didn't come true over night. It was still clear when I went to the gym in the morning. It was frosty though. Later in the morning after breakfast Phoebe and I raked leaves while Ellen continued to work on her project. While Jada was visiting friends, the girls and I read. Ellen finished her project work. We had about 1 minute's worth of snowy slush fall from the sky in the middle of the afternoon before reverting back to rain. Jada, Ellen, and Phoebe went over to visit with friends in the afternoon leaving me alone for a little while to try to nap for about 40 minutes before I had to leave for my guitar lesson. However, even before that I went to Michael's to pick up the picture we had dropped off to be mounted in a frame 3 weeks ago. It was our shot of Lake MacDonald in Glacier National Park. It turned out really well, and it has now replaced our old Mount Hood picture above the fireplace. It fills the space better. When I got back, Jada was being frustrated by the dinner she was trying to cook. It didn't take as short a time as claimed at the butcher counter. They always seem to underestimate by at least 20 minutes.
November 23
SNOW DAY! Ok, it wasn't actually a snow day. It was more of an ice day. We had a lot of rain on Monday, and the temperature dropped into the 20's over night so there was ice everywhere. School was cancelled, but I was still able to drive (carefully) to work. The girls spent the day cleaning mostly from appearances. I'm sure there was lots of reading and piano as well. Work was pretty lightly populated which made for a fairly quiet afternoon. The drive home was not bad. The sun had been out enough to melt the ice a bit and dry it out before the evening commute which was nice. After dinner, I can't remember how it started, but somehow buying someone's love came up. Phoebe asked how much she would need to pay to buy Jada's love. Jada said it wasn't for sale since she already has it. Phoebe then came up with a song about that she sang while putting her dishes away. Jada and I were trying not to laugh out loud to disrupt her song because it was so cute, but we were both crying, it was so funny. It's one of those times when it'd be nice to have a documentary crew filming our lives like on Modern Family.
November 25: Happy Thanksgiving
I'm thankful for my family and friends. I'm thankful that the weather will cooperate, and there's a bunch of snow up at the mountain. I'm thankful it's only 8am, and I'm done making my pies for Thanksgiving dinner.
Yesterday was really cold. I suppose I could have ridden my bike to work, but I had a massage scheduled for the end of the day which was good because my legs needed it after 2 weeks of abusing my body by getting to the gym more regularly, riding my bike to work, and playing basketball 3 days a week. Ellen had a reading day at school yesterday. On the snow day she actually cried because she thought the "Read -in" would be cancelled so the classes could do the State Fair where all the fourth grade students browse the everyone else's state project. The teachers decided to move the State Fair out to next week since so many kids were out anyway for traveling. I stopped by REI on the way home to pick up a snow park permit in case we can go snowshoeing this weekend.
On Thanksgiving, I got up early for the gym, and after breakfast made the pies for the Orphan's Thanksgiving we were going to in the evening. I took a nap while Jada whipped up a delicious lunch quiche. Then we headed over to visit Gramma where we met up with our friend Pete. We spent about 2 hours there while the girls each played some Christmas music on the piano. After we got home, Jada and Pete made the mashed sweet potatoes and whipped cream. We went over to our friends house for their family Thanksgiving dinner. It was very fun, and great to see everyone again. We were in charge of bringing the pies (but not da noise or da funk, though we did bring some noise), so we brought 6 for the estimated 25 people expected to attend. The deep fried turkey was delicious as it is every year. We ended up bringing home 2 pies home with us, but we did manage to leave behind 2 and a half. The girls got to bed late, and they fell right to sleep. Jada and I weren't too long after them.
November 26
We had originally planned for snowshoeing today. However, since the girls got to bed late, and it was 40 degrees here and raining at Government Camp (according to the weather report), we opted to stay home. The girls got their piano done, and then I played guitar. I plugged Phoebe's in too so she could try some of the things that I do. Eventually, Jada opened Garage Band and played some drum beats that we could follow along with. We had a bit of a jam session in the music room with Ellen trying to play piano along to the beat along with some harmonica and Phoebe playing harmonica and electric guitar. Jada was on the Mac. Then we decided that we'd give the first Harry Potter movie a try with the girls. They made it through while Ellen picked out the differences from the book. They did a good job with that one, so we did the Chamber of Secrets as well. Ellen clutched her book the whole time. We haven't decided if we'll do the next one yet. They've read up through the third book now, so we'll see.
November 28
Saturday was another day of errands and a trip to visit Gramma. Phoebe brought her books so she could play piano. It wasn't a long visit this time, but everything was mostly pleasant. After lunch, the girls went to the My Masterpiece Art Studio class where they made holiday cards. I haven't seen them yet though. I stayed home and played guitar. I found some jam along web sites with downloadable MP3's that I can play along with to practice different things. In the afternoon, we did let them watch the 3rd Harry Potter Movie. We figured if we got past the <spoiler alert> part with Aragog early enough, we'd be home free. The girls did ok again, so that was good. Sunday was the usual errands and things. Jada worked on the Christmas cards and quiz, and I wrote the haiku. I went to my last guitar practice until later in December, and when I got home, Jada went to get a massage.
November 30
Jada and I spent the evenings of the rest of the week trying to get through the rest of Harry Potter movies in preparation for our date night Thursday when we finally get to see the new one. Jada also let me ride to work. The weather was warmer but very wet.
That's about it. One more month to go in the year already.
Journal entry: December 3, 2010