November 2012
4th
Phoebe had an open gym for her basketball team Friday afternoon. She got to scrimmage, but she said she was a little lost trying to play. Hopefully, they’ll help her figure out what she needs to do.
Saturday was a busy day. I know I say that many times, but it’s almost always true. The girls had their Festival of Ribbons piano performances. Ellen and Phoebe both struggled in their individual pieces, but they did pretty well in their duets. Even the one they did with each other (the Entertainer) went well. The afternoon was spent on the usual chores. The afternoon was dry, so I did some errands by bike. Ellen needed more reeds for her clarinet; I needed bread and a new set of pedals for the commuter. When I got home, Jada and I cleaned the deck and covered the chairs, table, and grill. Then we went to our friends’ house for tacos and games. The girls always have fun playing the dancing games on their Wii. Tonight, I’m up late making sure time change goes ok for my folks. As I type this, it’s just after midnight and all’s well.
5th
Went to bed finally a little after the new 2am, but I still woke up at 6:30. Jada woke up early enough that we were able to go grocery shopping before heading out to breakfast with our friends at the South Store Café. The weather was great today. It was warm. If we had known, we could have ridden our bikes there again, but it was still nice to get out. We stopped by the orchard on the way home to get more apples. They’re only open one more week. Jada went off to see a movie with a friend in the afternoon. Phoebe and I raked leaves while Ellen did her household chores. In the afternoon, we went to Powell’s for a Sci-Fi/Fantasy author signing. I didn’t recognize anyone, but I chatted with one of them, Mike Shepherd, who looked lonely. He does a series with a female protagonist named Kris Longknife in some sort of future army. He recommended one of the books in the middle of the series. I asked him if they were appropriate for younger readers, and he said he tries to write them as something his 13 year old granddaughter could read. So if it seems ok, maybe Ellen or Phoebe could read them in a couple years. Though, I think Phoebe might enjoy Sci-fi a little more than Ellen, but who knows. Members of the local StarWars volunteer garrison were on hand as well. Phoebe got her picture taken with Queen Amidala, and I got mine with Boba Fett.
We also found out that Ellen and Phoebe were selected for the state recital for their duet as well as each of their duets with other partners. We were surprised.
10th
Sometime during the week, someone actually came to pick up almost all of our wood. I was very happy. Though they left about 6 logs almost like when there’s that last piece of pie in the pan that no one wants to take so they don’t seem greedy. Phoebe had another basketball practice this Thursday. It sounds like there weren’t too many girls there, but she said she had fun all the same. I made my first trip back to the chiropractor since my rib fracture, and that went ok too. Just a little bit of soreness later. I got my haircut on Thursday night. Jada had teacher in-service on Friday, so I had to stay home with the girls in the morning. I dropped them off with Jada before she got her haircut on my way to work. The girls helped Jada out in the classroom for a while and they had their gymnastics class in the afternoon. We also found out that we’re going to have to find a new Kumon center since the person who runs the one the girls are currently going to is moving back to Korea. Hopefully we can find another place. There’s one nearby, so maybe we can get into that one.
Saturday morning was foggy and near freezing. Phoebe and I went to the market for one of the last times this year, and then the girls had their haircut appointments. Jada and I had decided to take the girls to see a movie on Saturday during the week. We surprised them by driving to the movie theater to see “Wreck-it Ralph” in the swanky movie parlor of the theater near us. It was nice. I had never been in that particular type of room. Ellen had attended a birthday party in one of the movie parlors last year, and Jada had recently seen a movie in another. We each had our own little couch (Jada and Phoebe, Ellen with me). We ordered lunch there. The movie was good. Ellen seemed to handle it ok except she was clutching a pillow throughout the climax-although she doesn’t remember doing that. Phoebe was also worried during the climax, but she just snuggled in next to Jada. After dinner in the evening, we played Settlers of Catan which we hadn’t played in a while. Ellen ended up just winning before Jada had a chance to win on her next turn.
11th
Not much to talk about today. We made breakfast this morning at home. Then after grocery shopping, Phoebe and I raked the leaves while Ellen did her chores. Jada had her massage in the morning, and I had mine in the afternoon. We finished up the evening with a couple of episodes of the Muppets and then Jada and I finally watched the Avengers on DVD.
17th
I started back to the gym this week after my long layoff from my rib injury. I was a bit concerned, but it turned out to be ok. On Friday night, Ellen went to a slumber party. Saturday morning, Phoebe and I left for Illinois with Jada and Ellen to follow when school gets out later this week.
25th
As I mentioned before we left, Phoebe and I went to Illinois last Saturday afternoon. The flight was on time, but that also meant that we only had 20 minutes to get from one end of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport’s Terminal 2 (the B concourse) to the other to make our connecting flight to Peoria. We were the last on the plane, but at least we made it. The same cannot be said for my bag. It missed. Our flight into Peoria was the last from Chicago for the night, so we had to wait until almost noon on Sunday to get it. Luckily, we always pack one change of clothes in our carry-ons for just such an eventuality. Nana and Bapa were waiting for us at the airport, but we were also pleasantly surprised that my sister and her husband were also there. We would end up getting to see them every day that week except for Wednesday when Ellen and Jada flew in. The weather couldn’t have been nicer through Tuesday. It was in the low 60’s and sunny. We got to play at the park, and Phoebe raked some leaves. We ate out at Avanti’s as well as Andy’s Diner which is owned by one of my high school chums. We only ate breakfast there, but it was great. At the library, I saw another of my old classmates that I had known since elementary school. He runs the Public Library. Phoebe checked out a load of books and a couple of videos: the Sound of Music and A Little Princess. I was able to go to Bapa’s gym all week too.
On Wednesday, Jada and Ellen started their trek eastward with their flight scheduled to leave at 6am PST. When she ran her card to check in, it couldn’t find her in the system. Then there was only one person to help her, and she was otherwise occupied. Luckily, when Jada tried again, the system was able to find her, and she just made it onto her flight to Chicago. Meanwhile in Illinois, we woke up to a thick fog that covered most of the state and wreaked havoc on flights in and out of O’Hare. Jada’s flight from Portland was able to land, but enough flights had been cancelled or delayed, that she ended up having to spend an extra hour and a half at O’Hare. While she was having her ordeal, Nana made pie after pie, and I made my chocolate peanut butter pie which is pretty much the only one I can make. Jada finally arrived in the late afternoon in Peoria (along with her luggage), and we went out to Avanti’s again.
Thanksgiving morning, we drove to Rockford for lunch. We stopped in Bloomington to pick up my sister and her husband, and we sent Ellen to ride with them and then switched the girls out at the midway point. Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt’s house is always fun. We were able to see everyone except my cousin’s daughter who is Phoebe’s age. We all ate way too much dinner followed by the craft project which my aunt takes great care in pulling together every year in secrecy. This year’s craft was a cardinal in a nest with eggs that we wrapped in differently patterned tape. We all had fun trying to figure out the best way to make the tape lay properly on the egg. The kids all did a different craft for their age. Then it was time for the pies. There were 10 pies on offer for 19 people - an excellent ratio. Flavors included chocolate cream, lemon, pineapple, apple, grape, chocolate peanut butter (that was mine), chocolate brownie, pumpkin (3 of these). I think I managed to tread the line at the edge of being uncomfortably full though I did put on about 5 pounds during my visit back to Illinois. The kids took my brother’s video camera and ran around outside making movies. We haven’t seen the finished product yet. It rained a bit which brought them back inside. We finally left around 6:30pm, I think. I offered to drive the second leg of the trip back to Pekin.
Friday morning, the temperature was only in the low 30’s and stayed there all day, but it was sunny. We had a second Thanksgiving with the leftovers. We played some new games we had picked up before the trip. There were two different card games called Loot and Star Fluxx. Phoebe had also found a movie game we had as kids called StarWars: Escape from the Death Star. It was still in amazingly good condition for being over 30 years old. I have my copy of the game still in Oregon, but it’s not in nearly as good condition. Jada and I went to the gym too. Finally, on Saturday, our last day in Pekin before our 6:45pm flight out of Peoria, the temperature dropped again into the low 20’s where it stayed most of the day. We had brunch at my friend Tom’s diner again in the morning, and we spent most of the day just sitting around the table. The girls were all worked up with it being the last afternoon there. We went to the airport, and Jada once again had issues getting checked in, but finally got the reservations worked out. We had plenty of time in O’Hare to grab dinner at some Mediterranean place near our gate. All flights were on time, and through some miracle, both the row Jada and Ellen were in as well as the row Phoebe and I were in was missing one of the passengers, so we had the 3 seats for the 2 of us, although two rows apart. Phoebe took advantage and lay down to sleep for a couple hours since the flight back to Portland departed Chicago at 9:05pm. We arrived in Portland just before midnight, picked up our bags, and made the last shuttle out to the long-term economy parking lot. We arrived at home after 1am PST, so we were working on a 20 hour day without sleep at that point since we were still mostly on Central Standard Time 2 hours ahead. Scarlett was none too happy with us, and pounded and cried outside our bedroom door all night. The girls were worried that she had a cold because her “meow” sounded funny in the morning-she lost her voice! Not the most restful night of sleep I’ve had.
28th
We found out today that Phoebe was victorious over a 5th grader in chess club on Monday. Apparently it was a big deal according to coach. On Wednesday she didn’t have time to complete a game against another 5th grader that she’d battled down to just a king against her own king, queen and a couple of pawns. She’s really put a lot of effort into improving her game. The practice tournament is coming up on Saturday morning.
30th
Phoebe has also won RAH and finish in the top 12 money collectors for the Fun Run which means she got a pizza lunch today and will get to go out to breakfast next week. Phoebe also had her basketball practice today, and she’s signed up for Battle of the Books in January. Ellen is getting ready for her first band concert in 2 weeks. Plus, Ellen earned straight A’s for her first quarter of middle school. Yea! And so endeth November.
Journal Entry: November 30, 2012