Let's try something new this month. I'm going to try to keep up better and write a little bit after each weekend so I don't forget.
The first weekend of September was already busy. During the weekend, I did some honey-do's installing a new light switch in the master bathroom and replacing the dryer ventilation tubing. Jada did some much needed cleaning around the house. Phoebe was very interested in finding out how a bathroom is cleaned. Phoebe was very proud of helping mommy clean the bathrooms. I got a ride in on Saturday afternoon on my own for the first time since May so I headed into the west hills. I felt like I was flying without all the extra length and added weight from the tandem and even my commuter.
Saturday night, we went to see our friends for a cook out. The girls played with their boys, one of whom is Ellen's age. Then we cooked s'mores at the table they have on their deck that has a gas fire in the middle surrounded by fake wood. It was fun, but the girls got to bed very late.
As always, they were up early the next morning. We got out of the house by 8am for a nice morning ride. We went to my Goddaughter's house to drop off her birthday present. We were a bit early, so we stopped off at the park in their neighborhood to waste a few minutes so we wouldn't arrive too early. Then we stayed and chatted for a little bit, but Elsa didn't feel like playing since she had also been up late and ate lots of cake for her birthday the night before. We left there and went to Krispy Kreme for a quick snack (We weren't too worried about it since we were already doing at least 20miles) followed by a visit with another friend of ours that was close by. Finally, as we rode by Nike, we dropped in to see Papa. By the time we got home from our little visiting errands, we had been out for 3 hours and 22 miles. It was such a nice and sunny morning, it was too good to pass up. That night, Grandma came over to visit for dinner. The girls were quite rude to begin with since they didn't nap again, but they eventually got warmed up because they had been looking forward to seeing her since we told them the plan a couple days prior. We ate a nice healthy dinner out on the deck. It was very pleasant.
Finally, on labor day, Jada went to school to get some work done in the morning while we just had a slow morning. We eventually went over to the school to play on the playground until lunch time. Then we did the house work that was mentioned earlier followed by an errand to the Streets of Tanasbourne to look for some school clothes. Then it was home for baths before the first day of school. Actually, Ellen is trying out a new routine with showers. It seems to be going well. Phoebe likes having the bath on her own and Ellen is learning to rinse out shampoo. At least the routine seems to go more quickly.
Finally, Ellen's first day as a first grader came. Ellen was very excited that morning. She helped make her lunch, and got dressed in a very cute outfit. She was dancing around and couldn't wait to get going. She must have had a good day, though she didn't talk much about it when I got home. She told Jada that her favorite parts of the day were recess and center times. She looks tired when she gets home, but she will get used to it sooner than we think.
During the week, I found that Ellen now knows how to tie her shoes the big girl way. I had no idea. She also helps in making her lunch, though she doesn't have as much in her lunch as the other kids, she's finding. Our response is, as always, get used to it. We don't really pay much attention to the "Jones'".
On the weekend, we decided to get another training ride in ahead of the LiveStrong ride at the end of the month. We decided to do around 40-50 miles with the girls. We left a little later than usual. Straight out of the drive, we had a motorist shout at us to get off the road at 9am on a Sunday morning when there was no one else on the road, and I was over as far to the right as I could go. Must have been on his way to church. The rest of the ride was ok. We saw several other groups of riders out who all smiled and waved at us and our "hard core" kids. Then we turned north, and the wind hit us full in the face. We were fighting that the rest of the day until we turned south again on Murray. What should have taken us around 3.5 to 4 hours ended up taking 5 hours because we were crawling into the wind. The sun was hot too. Ellen and Phoebe still did fine. We stopped for potty, and luckily we had brought along some lunch for the girls just in case. I picked up some ice for our Camelbacks at a Subway along with some energy drink. We ended up doing 45 miles that day. Then we all sort of passed out when we got home. We found out later that a few people we know actually saw us out that day.
The week held lots of busy things. In addition to Ellen's second week of school, it was also her first week of soccer practice with the micros. She had 2 practices that week. One day this week, she was getting dressed in a pink polo type shirt with collar flipped up and pink plaid shorts. I thought I was back in junior high. I had Pat Benetar songs in my head the rest of the way to work.
Phoebe doesn't nap at school at all, and she doesn't nap on the weekends either, so she's very weepy all the time. But she still comes up with some very sweet things to say. The night before Jada's birthday, she said to Jada, "Tomorrow my heart will be happy, because it is your birthday and I love you!"
Jada's birthday wasn't great. She had to work and make dinner. The girls didn't behave very well. We put them to bed early in hopes that they could get it together for the next morning's Beaverton Parade (featuring Tommy Thayer from the KISS reunion tour in the 1990's). We drove down early to park close to the parade route, and then walked on down to the farmers market. We picked up some pastries as a special treat, and then waited for the parade to start. Our friend Meryl's husband and boys were in the parade with their Cub Scout troop holding the banners for the different floats so she came to sit with us too. The girls were excited and happy to watch. I couldn't tell what they liked best. Ellen saw some people she knew in the parade, and Jada disrupted the parade when her buddies from the Democratic party walked by. Phoebe loved chasing after the candy. After we had gotten home, Ellen was looking at one of the American flags that were handed out at the parade. She asked, "why does the American flag say it was made in China?" It was at this point, September 15, 2007 at roughly 12:45pm that our little Ellen learned about irony.
That afternoon, we made a failed attempt at nap time. I spent the afternoon watching the Tour of Missouri coverage on http://Cycling.tv. They finished into the St. Charles suburb of St. Louis. The girls didn't sleep...again even though they were both exhausted. They just got crankier as the day went on. We stopped by Grandma's house, but the girls were rather unpleasant again. Phoebe calmed down enough to brush Grandma's hair. That was her favorite part of the day. We didn't go out to dinner that night either since the girls were so poorly behaved at Grandma's.
Sunday morning, we went out for a short ride. It was cloudy and cool. Fall has already come to Oregon. Ellen increased her hard core cred as we rode through some sprinkles and clouds and sun, but not as much wind as last weekend. So we had that going for us. We stopped by a place called Mandy's for our first potty stop. It's a little diner in Scholls. Jada said it smelled really good, so we'll have to stop back for breakfast some time. We did 35 miles with no grumpy drivers. Someone honked at us, but we think we knew them. We think it was Ellen's teacher. The girls were both in great moods after we got home. We had a nice brunch at home, and then we headed out for a bunch of random errands. One of the stops, we picked up some yellow ribbons to write the names of the loved ones for the LiveStrong ride on to tie to our bikes and ourselves. Thanks to Pete for the suggestion. Then we finally went out to dinner for Jada's birthday. She chose Benihana. The girls had lots of fun watching. Ellen ate a bit of everything and then some more while Phoebe didn't really eat all that much. We still had fun.
During this week, Ellen had more soccer practice, and fall arrived. Our heat kicked on for the first time on the morning of the 18th. I had to put on arm warmers, leg warmers, and a vest for the first time. Phoebe is trying to get the hang of jokes. So far the one that tickles her the most is her "ding-dong" joke (instead of knock knock. She's cutting edge). It goes a little something like this. "Ding dong" "Who's there" "Baby head". That's it. She just starts laughing at that point. I went to Ellen's open house night. It was fun sitting at Ellen's desk. So that's what it was like when mom and dad went to parents nights.
For the second to last weekend of summer, we went over to Grandma's apartment for dinner. We brought over a dinner prepared from New Seasons and some fresh strawberries from the farmers market. We also brought her a new stuffed animal stuffed full of love from Phoebe and a computer table so that Grandma can have some room to work on her beautiful water color paintings. She gave Jada a very nice painting of a field of wild flowers. A good time was had by all.
We completed are last ride of the year as a family on Sunday September, 23. It was the Peach of a Century put on by the Salem Bicycle club. We rode the metric century, though they had to shorten the route ever so slightly due to some damage to one of the covered bridges that we were supposed to go through, so we rode around the parking lot until we got to the full metric century. It was only in the 50's while we were on the ride, so it was a bit cool. We had 2 rest stops on the route where the girls were excited to eat lunch twice. The second stop even had a nice playground for the girls to run around in Stayton. At around mile 51 and with still 11 miles to go, we pulled off the side of the road to take off a layer since the sun was out and it was a little too warm for the jackets and vests that we were wearing finally. There we were standing on the road side stowing the extra gear and taking a little fuel on. Ellen wanted to get going again and started singing a little song, "I like to move it move it. I like to move it move it. I like to move it!". There may have been a little dance that went along with that. It was just really funny, and this was at the 51st mile! With 11 miles to go! She was still raring to go. During the trip we were treated to impromptu songs, observations, and random thoughts. Phoebe also took 47 photos with her camera. I will post a few of them for you to view. At the finish we were greeted with a slice of peach pie with whipped cream on top to make the whole trip worth while. Jada asked about the youngest riders, and she did confirm that ours were the youngest on the ride. They got lots of compliments and high fives at the end of the ride in addition to all the encouragement they received on the ride. They feel very proud of themselves when they get that admiration, and we are proud of them too. We couldn't have prepared for the rides we did this year without their cooperation and enthusiasm. Ellen has already completed something that I didn't do until I was in my 20's in the metric century. Not to mention, for the year, Ellen logged 509 miles on the Burley Piccolo.
The girls both had their first gymnastics classes the final week of the month. They were both super excited. Phoebe will be able to move up to an older class after her teacher saw her ability compared to the other younger kids in her class. We had only enrolled her in the lower class because the notes said they can't go higher until they had completed the skills of the first class. Both girls will need to work on their forward and backward rolls, but they are having fun. Phoebe and I also started her clay class. The first class was more an introduction. We made some pinch pots and a coil pot together. They are using a clay from Crayola for the class that air dries in 24 hours. It's a pretty long class, but I think Phoebe had fun. It's very free form, at least in the first class. During the day on this final Saturday of the month, I was playing my Tears For Fears album Songs from the Big Chair and Phoebe said, "I like this music, daddy". She's our little '80's girl.
The night before the LiveStrong ride, Ellen came up with another gem. She said "when you two ride the bike without us you will be colder." When asked why, she said "because you'll ride so fast you'll make the breeze".
The last day of the month brought the LiveStrong ride. The weather was forecasted to be absolutely miserable, and it delivered. They had to cancel the 100 mile option due to high winds and cold temperatures up on Bald Peak mountain. They all had to do the 70 mile option instead. I wonder how many who signed up for the 70 mile option decided to skip the extension, and just did the 40 instead. We dropped the girls off with our friends Mark and Meryl for the day terribly early (thank you so much guys!) Even with the rain coming down, the participation level was high. Lance seemed impressed that so many people turned out in rain and 40 degree weather, though in Portland, this is just the way it is in the rainy season where cyclocross is king during this time of year. We got another front row seat for the start to see Lance take off. Then we lead out the registered 70 milers. We had waited so long in the cold rain to start, my legs just wanted to go. We actually passed the pace car they sent out ahead of us we were going so fast. Without the girls, it felt like we were flying. It was cold and wet the entire day. Jada was shivering quite a bit at the rest stops, but they all had good hot soup and hot chocolate. Some of the stops had little heaters and space blankets to help keep people warm. I got a picture of Jada with one of the pirates at the Hagg Lake rest stop just to prove she wasn't hallucinating. We flew along pretty well despite the weather. Not too many people passed us other than when we were stopped at the rest stops. The celebration had to be moved inside at the finish line where it was loud and crowded. We just wanted to get home and shower, so we didn't look for Jada's dad who was supposed to be there working today. It was a miserable day, but we made it through, raised money for a good cause (thanks everyone!), and managed to have a little fun between the rain drops anyway.
Journal Entry: September 30, 2007