Running Around Like a Runner?

Ryan was also very busy in May (or at least until the last moment of April). He had a successful track season, even though he was bored running around in circles. He ran the varsity 4x800 meters and the 1600 meter (mile). His team was able to go to the state qualifier meet. They were ultimately disqualified - but there were a lot of really fast kids & wouldn't have been able to go on to state. Scott was the unofficial team timekeeper. He wrote down lap-splits for the kids so they knew when they were improving. Ryan's PR for the mile was 4:47 & their team 4x800 time was less than 9:00.

As much as Ryan enjoyed running track (with the end goal of being faster at cross country), he and the neighbor boy were SO EXCITED when track & baseball were over & they could spend every waking moment together. (only a slight exaggeration) 

scout campoutBYU lacrosse

He also spent time growing like a weed & stubbing his toe & ripping off toenails, jumping on the trampoline & playing the NO FAIR game with Jared. [I would clue you in on the rules of the no fair game, but I don't know them. I just know that whenever Ryan, M, & Jared play, Jared comes in & says, no fair! Jared calls it that now.]

Ryan graduated from eighth grade to no fanfare. He celebrated 8th Grade Day with his classmates & willingly skipped the dance. There was no graduation ceremony- he exempted all of his exams except his required high school Spanish test. When asked if he wanted a picture in front of the school or something, he just gave me this look as we left. (That's a no.)

May is the New December

There are so many activities in May  - it feels like running around at Christmas time. Guess where we want to go?

We lost the hat somewhere along the way. Jared thinks someone walked off with it. This is the only time he wore a serious face all season. His nickname is SMILEY. He is happy & smiling whenever he is playing. We missed coaches of years past and look forward to years in the future. We are proud of Jared for trying & doing his best with minimal instruction & encouragement from his coach.

Jared helped his dad & his brothers fix a GREAT Mother's Day meal for me. I was able to nap & enjoy the day while they made a masterpiece. Steak, baked potatoes, salad, and Chunky Lola cookies. (Recipe & pics another day.)

The end of the school year is always challenging. Lots of activities to fit in before it

s too late. Teacher gifts, awards day, baseball tournaments, and getting drug along to all of big brothers' events. Through it all, he is pretty easy-going.

Pre-Graduation Festivities

Christopher graduated on May 23, 2012. I am sad to say that I just sent his announcements out yesterday, failed to read directions and wondered why on earth there was not any glue or insert cards. I was happy with his senior pictures - I tried & tried to make a photo collage with cute little kid pictures and more mature now pictures but nothing was working. I finally said, "Hey bud, let's do a photo shoot." He excitedly agreed (!!!) & suggested a park downtown. We drove down, parked the car & walked to the first spot. RATS! No camera card. We quickly found a Staples & were back in business. The best of the rest ...

The week before graduation, the school at a senior picnic at a local farm/venue. Because the school is small & we don't go to church with or live by many people who attend, it was a quiet event for us. The food was good & it was nice to see a few of the kids that Chris has been in school with since third grade.

 

Drawsome is awesome!

One of my friends (Susan?) mentioned that Drawsome is really fun & I must agree! The game gives you three words worth one, two, or three coins. Sometimes the words are obvious & easy & other times they border on ridiculous. I usually plan on my iPad now because it's easier to draw bigger & more details.

Let me know if you want to play.

Perigee-syzygy

The moon has looked especially big this week. I tried taking pictures with my zoom lens and got some decent shots. It took some effort & an Internet search for the right settings. I put the camera on a tripod & turned off the porch light. (Bonus: no one could tell that I was in my pajamas!) I took the light readings off of the moon & turned off the flash.

It turns out that my first shot was the best.

The moon was so bright that it looked like a sunset through the clouds. The colors were really golden and pink. I ultimately stayed up until after 12:30 playing with settings for speed and aperture and the timer (no camera shake). I am happy I did because the clouds have covered the sky since.

 

Blogging. Or something like it.

I love to blog. It is not clearly evident from the recent posts I've made about Flour Bakery, Boston and the marathon, track season, senior project, or dealing with coaches that we don't always love. Or Drawsome or the moon. A wedding and a funeral. Genealogy and extractions. Bike riding on the bunny trail. Philadelphia. Florida and Easter. That about summarizes the last month. Looking forward to posting pictures soon.

Amazed at my Brilliance

Earlier in the day, I saved us from the predatory effects of an unnamed satellite giant with a name like a bowl. (Yes, thank you kind installer for charging me an additional $17+$5 per month for the last year for NOTHING. He just creatively hooked stuff up & billed us incorrectly so we had to pay through our teeth.) Because success at crazy feats seems to come in waves, I decided tonight would be the best time to tackle the problem of the wireless internet outage. The internet has been getting slower & slower & then finally it failed a few days ago.

Tonight, I sat down at the computer & reconnected the phone to the modem, the modem to the router, and the router to the computer. I may have been distracted for a few moments before I glanced at the router & noticed that the pretty blue cord looked like it wasn’t plugged in all the way.

Now the wireless internet works. I’m a genius!!! Seriously, what if all problems were that simple to solve???

Antiquing

I had excess energy this morning & decided to go "antiquing" in our food storage room. I unearthed many treasures & made quite a junk pile for the boys to take to the trash & the recycling bin after school, piano, track, and baseball practice.

I have decided that I need to use powdered milk at a more significant rate than heretofore. I have at least 18 cans that are from y2k. We won't drink it or use it on cereal but I will look at everydayfoodstorage.net for some great ideas - baking, pies, yogurt, smoothies, & Magic Mix.

BTW Magic Mix is a magic concoction to keep in the refrigerator to substitute for cream of anything soup. As a bonus, it has no modified food starch so I won't get a headache!!!

I un-boxed many cans for storage & put them on the handy-dandy shelves that Scott built for us a few years ago. And after a rancid experience with
Stored mayonnaise last week, I have discarded a few old (>6 months) bottles of mayonnaise, Miracle Whip and salad dressing.

As for antiques I found a case of corn from SAfeway in Washington State, chili mix from long, long ago, and other buried treasures. (Who stashed pop tarts in the basement? Hm?)

Do you store food? Do you use an inventory? How do you use the cannery soup mix? Let me know what works for you!

The Dentist

I did not mind going to visit the dentist until seventh grade. In middle school I discovered the wonder of the vending machine and SPC (sugary salted processed crap) including candy and soda pop. I suddenly went from having perfect teeth to having cavities. Ugh.

And about the same time my dentist started using student hygienists to do the cleanings. Ouch!!! The System must have worked differently back in the day because they were learning on my mouth. I still get nervous every time I have to check in, don a bib, and open my mouth.

We had talked about my wisdom teeth & decided that there was space. I made a deal with my first adult dentist that if the wisdom teeth unwisely chose to get cavities, they would be pulled. The dreaded day came and the teeth had to come out. Our insurance would not pay for me to be put to sleep. And since I was so anxious about the whole thing, we decided to have my dentist pull the teeth. He warned me that morning that he was low on happy gas. Okay, just be fast!

The dentist numbed me and gassed me up. Headphones on & John Tesh started playing for the last time. The dentist put his foot on my chair ... And he pulled & he tugged & he pulled. (One tooth down, one to go!) First he pulled hard & then he pulled harder & ... The tooth shattered leaving the roots behind & the gas running low. I muttered through my grimace, "I don't like you anymore." He numbed my mouth as well as possible & had his secretary call the oral surgeon for an emergency extraction.

Scott drove me home & I miserably waited four hours before I went to the oral surgeon. I don't remember much beyond sitting in the chair & then waking up in the middle of a different song. As we were leaving the front desk lady recognized Scott & said something to the doctor Scott had done a merit badge clinic or something else Boy Scout related for their troop. The doctor kindly (very kindly!!) forgave our bill beyond what the insurance company would pay.

And so here I sit waiting for the dentist to come and give me final clearance. The hygienist is sweet and patient with me & I think I had a good calm appointment. If the wrong dentist walks in (they rotate based on who's available at whatever time), I freak out. My friend Dr Rouse is gentle! Here's hoping for many many years of happy smile and twice per year panic-free sessions. :)

Amazed at my Brilliance (cough)

My wireless internet has been down for a few days. Earlier in the day, I saved us from the predatory effects of an unnamed satellite giant with a name like a bowl. (Yes, thank you kind installer for charging me an additional $17+$5 per month for the last year for NOTHING. He just creatively hooked stuff up so we had to pay through our teeth.) Because success at crazy feats seems to come in waves, I decided tonight would be the best time to tackle the problem of the wireless internet outage.

I sat down at the computer & reconnected the phone to the modem, the modem to the router, and the router to the computer. I may have been distracted for a few moments before I glanced at the router & noticed that the pretty blue cord looked like it wasn’t plugged in all the way.

Now the wireless internet works. I’m a genius!!! Seriously, what if all problems were that simple to solve???

Guess what?!

Jared just finished the entire Harry Potter series. He read every single book. Wow!

And so it begins...

Last summer and fall I visited granite stores and warehouses in search of the perfect granite to go with our maple cabinets. We finally went on a Friday after running and saw our favorite - Delicatus White. I am certain that the fabricator did not believe me when I told him the good news. (It took almost a year to decide!)

I love the granite - lots of variation of color & pattern & texture. Our white appliances are now getting gently phased out - gently because of budget not because of any soul-connection or anything. I picked out tile shortly after the granite was installed. It's called Bottocino marble.

And it has done a beautiful job of waiting for me to muster up enough courage to start the process. Today is the day!! I have a bridal shower at my house next week & what better incentive is there than public humiliation? One tile up and several hundred to go! Any advice is welcome.

I Love Technology. I Hate Technology.

A recurring theme of my real or imagined Facebook posts is about the troubles I am having with my toys. Yesterday, my iPhone was giving me grief! The GPS function wasn’t working well. I couldn’t look things up on the internet or Facebook (places & skills that are essential to my existence after all). I could not voice dial - a big deal!!! So much of my life is spent in the car running here & there that I need to be able to say, “Siri, call Scott!” and have her jump to attention & complete my request. It was not happening!!! I tried restore on my own but goofed at a critical moment & restored all the files that were giving me problems. I reset it again & everything was great today.

Today, I went to a photography class by my uber-talented friend, Michelle. See her work at http://michellerenaephotography.smugmug.com/ . I learned a lot and reviewed a lot and came home determined to figure out how to better use my camera. I spent the afternoon reading a Scott Kelby book that I downloaded to my Kindle app on my iPad. (How cool is that?!) For several hours this afternoon, I read the book & played with my camera. Today, I worked on aperture, focus & sharpness.

Michelle helped us figure out our tricky cameras.
It is absolutely perfect that this picture about using my camera is out of focus... meh!

Focus point in the center - I love the reflections on this one!!!

I learned how to change the picture!! Now the focus point is to the left of center.

My camera was sitting on the counter for the Moe's cup shots - I had a self-timer set for 2 seconds so I could press the button & move my hand away. The only change that I made to my camera was to change where the AF point selection spot was selected. I have a Canon Rebel XSi & the button to control where the camera will focus is on the back at the top right corner. I quite accidentally found it & I'm thrilled.

These bunnies were my photography subjects this afternoon.

This baby picture is one of my recent favorites. I know it is not of one of my kids - this is my friend's little girl & I've been hanging out with her for a few days while her mom gets over a ruptured disk. Isn't she precious? She is a very good-natured baby. I love taking pictures of little children - I don't want the pressure of making money doing this, but I love being able to capture a moment & personality.

So, the reason why I'm mentioning the photography class in a post about technology woes is because I had more troubles! My camera card did not download things correctly into iPhoto & I thought that I had deleted a few weeks of photos. Talk about pit of the stomach awful feeling!!!

And... if I could figure out how to upload pictures from Picasa or iPhoto without having to "upload to Blogger" ... I would be delighted & would share you what we're not missing because the pictures magically reappeared. Take my word!!

Three Things Thursday

Right now, I am downloading my blog contents, including photos and contents. I am going to have them printed up in a book. SIX YEARS! 276 posts. The entries I like include pictures and stories. Here goes:

Meet Hannah. She has been my little buddy on and off for the last week. She is SO GOOD! Her mom ruptured a disk in her back :(

Two funny things - I had her in the high chair eating lunch and I thought I would sneak in a few minutes reading on the computer. I put on my reading glasses (ugh!) & Hannah started to cry. As soon as I would take them off, she would smile and laugh. Back on? Crying. Haha. Second story, we arrived to my house and I was listening to Alma 5 (from the Book of Mormon) in the car. After a few minutes, she started calling, “Daddy? Daddy?” I said, “Daddy’s not here!” And then she started saying, “Eena! Eena!!”

Ryan turned 14. Wow wow wow. Where does the time go? For his birthday, he asked to be able to run two races. Track practice has already started and he is antsy to improve his time. He ran a 5K in 18:11 and won his age group (14 and under) on Saturday. I would show you the video, but the videographer (Jared) was pointing the iPhone at the wrong guy.

One other introduction - meet one of the Biker Babes (Kim) and Betty White (my bike). We try to get together on weather-permitting Fridays and ride the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The weather is supposed to be GLORIOUS tomorrow and I am super excited. I am always smiling and happy and tired when we are finished. During the winter months, we haven’t had much company on the trail - just some homeless guys and occasional dutiful walkers. (By the way, could my smile be any sillier in the blue-jacket picture? I think not.)

Honoring a Fallen Soldier

A young man died in Afghanistan and the funeral was today. Big-time protestors had targeted this funeral. I believe their threats actually encouraged more people to come out.  Many from the community came out to line the streets of Simpsonville. We were planning on meeting up with the scouts but decided to stop & find a spot because there was so much traffic.

I learned & cried & waved my flag. The Patriot Guard was out en masse! We missed the initial procession but I guess there was a stream of motorcycles for fifteen minutes. If there were protestors, the motorcyclists would have driven to the area & revved their engines so that the mourners would not be able to hear what the protestors were saying. No problems today though. The Patriot Guard stood shoulder to shoulder around the huge church and protected The attendees. They also walked the crowd  to make certain there was no disturbance.

Photo by Shawn Drury

Photo by Frederick Chapman

A short video of the crowds plus the bagpipes:
http://mauldin.patch.com/articles/video-a-community-says-goodbye-to-a-fallen-soldier#video-8852207

Freedom is definitely not free. I believe this man deserved to be honored for his choice to serve & sacrifice & fight for our freedoms. His family & friends deserved the chance to pay their respects.  One of my friends on Facebook posted the following:

Thank you to the members of the WC. Your antics have galvanized a community in patriotism and Christian love. You have caused us to truly honor a fallen soldier and son. You have made us aware there is no place for intolerance and hate. The Golden Strip has been moved like never before by brotherhood, love and thanksgiving. I'm sure this is not what you preachers of hate intended, but that is what has occurred. Thank you.

Well said Carlus.

Rest in peace PFC Whitmire.
"Heaven needs an army. "