The days started drying off for the first week of school. The long weekend ended with a cool day on Monday. We spent labor day laboring around the house re-hanging the pictures that had remained scattered on the floor around the house after the painting this summer and finishing cleaning things around the house. The first day of school went well with both girls really enjoying their classes. Since it was Tuesday night, Ellen had her soccer practice (starting at 6:30!). She has her practice every Tuesday and Thursday with games on Saturdays. Phoebe has her soccer Mondays and Wednesday nights. Jada is what the teenagers might call "crazy" busy.
On Saturday, we went to the market and did our grocery shopping followed by another of Ellen's massive fits when we tried to get her to do her piano theory which she was supposed to be doing all summer, but had instead put off. That kept us from going to visit grandma in the morning, and almost cost her her soccer game too, but we let her go. She had a good game. The girls had a little time warming up in the first half, but they really started going after it in the second half. Ellen ended up scoring a goal and playing some pretty stellar defense. We put Phoebe down for a nap when we got home, and we put Ellen to work on her piano theory. Jada napped, and I spent time working on the bikes in the garage. One of my pedals on my commuter bike was broken, so I had to replace them. They seemed to work well in my test, but we'll see on Monday for the real commute. We visited grandma in the afternoon, but the girls were pretty disrespectful while we were there, so we were only there about an hour. Sunday was a nice day. The girls actually slept in until almost 7am. After our breakfast, we did an errand and went out to the Oregon Humane Society to look at cats now that we aren't going away for weeks at a time any more. We spent time with 2, but one of them was on hold. We adopted a 3 month old tortoise-shell short hair kitty that has orange, black, and white markings. Her name is Scarlett, named by the folks at the shelter, but we decided to keep it. The girls really liked playing with her. Scarlett seemed to be adapting pretty well. She already found her food and litter box. We'll keep her in the play room at night to help her not to run around too much, and so the girls can keep their door open while we all adjust to having a feline in the house again. We went to the orchard to see what apples were out so far, and found my favorites, the honey crisps. Phoebe figured out how to tie her shoes on her own while driving out there. After the girls went to bed, we brought Scarlett back out to sit with us. She curled up between us for a while on the couch.
Jada was able to spend some time with Scarlett on Monday morning before she went back to school in the afternoon, and we let her roam in the morning. She followed Ellen around until she sat down to eat. After we all got home in the evening, she got to roam around again. I noticed that she walks a little side ways. Maybe it's because her tail is so long. I played with her for a little while with Savannah's old feather on a stick. She really liked that. She's quite the leaper. We'll have to get a few more toys so she doesn't get too bored. She had her checkup with the vet on Wednesday, and she is healthy. She'll get her next round of shots in October. I had to spend 3 days out of work this week. Tuesday, I was home waiting for an upgrade to our internet connection and to get our piano tuned. The internet technician gave us the ever so helpful time frame of any time between 8-5pm. I wish I was saying that as an exaggeration. He did show up around noon, and the piano tuner showed up just afterward. Luckily the tuner was done before Verizon had to do any work inside the house. So at least that worked out. Wednesday and Thursday I was in Arizona for a training class. I got to take some of my project team out for lunch to thank them for their work. Now I have to figure out how to get my last guy in Ireland. I doubt they'll fly me over there for the day. When I got back on Thursday night, the girls had been horrible to Jada. Ellen had to miss another soccer practice due to her bad attitude and rude behavior while she was supposed to be doing her piano. Whenever Ellen gets calmed down, Phoebe takes that as her turn to act out. That's the saddest part of my week. I really only get to see the girls at their worst in the mornings when they complain about what I make them for breakfast, and at night when they're worn out from their day and just want to yell and scream. We haven't had time for a quiet story or a game in weeks. Plus having to get one of the girls to soccer every night of the week doesn't help much.
Scarlett has survived her first week in our home. We think she's lonely though. She's always trying to strike up a conversation with the kitty in the stove that looks just like her. We're still thinking about getting her a playmate. She has started waking me up way too early in the morning trying to get out of her room by pounding the door. I am apparently the only one who can't sleep through that.
The weekend of the 13th/14th was busy. Saturday, we had to get to the market quickly so we could get back home and prepare for Ellen's soccer game, and the Beaverton parade which was during the game. Ellen and I rode our bike with trailer attached to the park where the soccer game was. It was a nice 7 mile warm up for Ellen. The air was cool, but it was sunny. Jada and Phoebe went to the Beaverton Parade with one of Phoebe's kindergarten friends. Ellen had a good game. She had an almost goal, and a great save at the goal line. However, after lunch, when we put Phoebe down for a nap, and put Ellen at the kitchen table to work on her piano theory book, things deteriorated ending with Ellen out of control on the floor in the hallway unable to stop jumping around, screaming, and crying. We've been trying very hard to help her have a more even emotional time, but sometimes, something triggers her temper and that's it for the next hour. It's like trying to stop a nuclear reaction. She managed to fall asleep for a nap after she burned out, though. So we were able to take her to get her picture taken for the soccer team. Jada wanted to go out to dinner for her pre-birthday, so she chose Panera Bread Company followed by a trip to Powell's. We also stopped by PetSmart to get some kitty litter and a couple cat toys. While there, we saw a 2 year old tabby in their cat adoption area that we asked to visit with. She didn't seem to be a good fit. She was a lot like Savannah, and she was quite cranky after a day of play. We even rented a movie for after the kids went to bed. Man, there is nothing good out. I guess that's a big reason we hadn't been to the video store in about 6 months.
Sunday morning started early for me with Scarlett banging on the door at 4am as her very own birthday present to Jada. So I just got up and went to gym. At least, it gave me time to pull Jada's present out of it's hiding spot (I won't say where that is here since I think she reads this web page) and put up the happy birthday sign. Everyone else got to sleep until a little after 6am at least. The rest of the morning fell into the predictable pattern where we ask the girls to do their homework so we can go do something fun, and they proceed to cry and complain and throw fits. Today it was Phoebe who had the big fit, but she just laughs when she gets into trouble. It's not the same scary out of control that Ellen gets. It's more just straight defiance with a smirk. So we probably won't be able to go out and enjoy one of the last nice weekends of the year. At least Jada got to go out and be with friends away from the kids on her birthday. That afternoon, though, Jada's mom fell and broke a bone in her wrist, so Jada spent a little while in the hospital with her until she was discharged. Grandma is doing fine, it just hurt and she gets to wear a pink cast. We did get to bring her over for her birthday dinner at our house. Jada made a sugar free apple pie for the occasion.
It has just been a whirlwind of things to do the last 2 weeks of the month. Jada has been working on a presentation and video for her TAG training which she finally turned in to rave reviews from everyone she showed it to. She created a 50 page PowerPoint presentation plus a 10 minute video which she produced, wrote, and directed. Ellen's teacher helped her with the editing in iMovie. Next thing you know, we'll be whisked off to Hollywood. In addition to all that, she's also had to run the girls to piano practice and soccer practices every night and tries to squeeze in visits with her mom, all while letting me ride my bike to work. Oh, and she has to go to work in there somewhere too?
We got another kitten from the Oregon Humane Society on the 21st. She's a tabby similar in striping to Savannah, but more gray with a white patch on her sternum. She came in with the name Mystical Flower, but we shortened that to just Flower. Flower was a bit ornery with Scarlett at first, but after 3 days, they started playing together. The growling and hissing stopped, and now they're playing. Scarlett likes to groom Flower. We didn't mention Flower in a mass mail at first because we were concerned we'd have to take her back with how angry she was with Scarlett. Scarlett followed her around every where for the first few days, and Flower didn't like that one bit. She was good for the girls and us though, so we hoped it would just be a matter of time before she got used to us all. Jada took her in to the vet this past week for her complimentary check up where she was diagnosed with both an eye infection and respiratory infection which Jada has been giving her medicine for twice a day. Did I mention that Jada is superwoman? One of the cats, and I think it is Flower, keeps chewing through thin cables. She destroyed both of our cell phone chargers, and the tip of my stereo's antennae cable.
I got to guest coach at Ellen's soccer game on the 20th too. One of the coaches was sick, so he asked if I could fill in on one of the fields (they split the teams and run 2 simultaneous games). It went ok. I think the hardest part was remembering everyone's name. We all rode the bike down to the game. The rig drew quite a crowd between games.
Now the end of the month is near. On the 18th, fall arrived in Oregon. It was sunny and 84 degrees on one day, and the next, it was 47 degrees in the morning, and never made it to the 60's for the next 3 days. Rain came in on the weekend, and the clouds stuck around most of the last full week. Saturday the 27th was a very pleasant day weather wise. We had Ellen's soccer game in the morning, but when we showed up at where we thought it was supposed to be, no one was there. I let the girls play on the playground while I called Jada to let her know that we were likely not going to be at the game that day and would be heading home. Just as we were leaving, though, the coach's wife drove up. She had the place wrong too. Luckily she was able to call and find out where we were really supposed to be so we got there late, but Ellen got to play. She even scored a goal and an assist in the first half. The afternoon wasn't quite so pleasant. We had to wash Phoebe's soccer uniform for her picture later. While that was happening, we went to the orchard to pick up some apples. When we returned, we tried to get some piano practice in, and Ellen threw her usual tantrum. This time culminating in her calling Jada the dreaded "D" word..."Drathead". She looked very smug and proud of herself for calling her mom a name. We didn't have time to deal with that since we had to get Phoebe to her pictures, so we put Ellen in the car, still throwing her fit unapologetically. From there, it was a visit with grandma then out to dinner followed by a trip to Storables to design a new closet. That took a lot longer than we expected. We were there for 2 hours. I'm just glad that we ate first. The girls were very well behaved in the store which we were happy about. It was time to get to bed when we got home. Jada and I followed closely after.
Sunday morning, the 28th, we had big plans. We had tickets to see Ralph's World downtown at the Aladdin Theater. It's the girls second rock concert. We got to talk to Ralph a bit, and he signed their ticket stubs and the concert t-shirts I bought them (it's never too early to start amassing t-shirts). He's just a really nice guy. Ellen and Phoebe spent most of their time down in the "gnosh" pit. Phoebe came back during some songs to rest. It's just a really fun show. Anyone who has children can enjoy the show. Jada and I enjoyed it very much. The unfortunate thing is that you have to pay all the Ticketmaster fees and things which tack on $20 to the face value of the ticket. Anyway, Phoebe napped after we got home, Ellen read some books, Jada finished the paper and attempted to rest (which was interrupted by Scarlett deciding her toes looked yummy), and I got to go out on a solo ride on my single bike. I do love fall rides. That bike is just so light and responsive after piloting the train and my loaded commuter all summer long. Hills don't take any time at all to climb, and I can put in 30 miles in just under an hour and a half. In the afternoon, we took the girls out riding on a bike path. There was some yelling at the beginning as Ellen and Phoebe got through frustration as it all came back to them. But they both made some progress. Ellen made it up an incline she usually has trouble with, and Phoebe powered up the last little climb all by herself. Ellen had to point out that she would have made it too if she hadn't gotten off the path into the grass. She still made it pretty far considering that. We had to stop off at PetSmart (Shop smart. Shop Pet-Smart) to get some litter and a new toy for the girls. They also got a new soft kitty bed which Flower has so far monopolized.
On Monday, the girls had a pretty good day. Ellen did what was asked of her, and she got to play on the playground during Phoebe's soccer game. I picked up a new head light for my bike for the winter dark months on my way over to the game. Tuesday morning started off with some screaming, but ended ok. I also got a call from Santana to let me know that our quad was being packed up. Now we just need to get a hold of the person who was helping us with this locally so we can get everything finished up. Wish us luck. Hopefully, I'll have pictures to post next month.
Journal entry: September 30, 2008