random kidorableness

Can we be done with the May posts yet?  I just see all these random things that I want to throw in for our family book.  (If I ever catch up on the last 4 years of family books... I've started them all...)

Grace's big reading project this spring was to create a cereal based on a book she read and then do a live commercial in front of the whole 4th Grade.  She chose The Hobbit and was reading it right when the movie came out.  She didn't want to see the movie until she finished the part of the book that the first movie covered (so cool... most kids would just go see the movie and skip the book.)

She invented a cereal called "Vanishing Rings."  If you don't know The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings There is a ring in the story that causes the wearer to become invisible.  She even included a toy ring that she made herself out of origami in the cereal box as a prize.

She dressed up as one of the dwarves in the story:  Thorin II Oakenshield, Son of Thrain, Son of Thror, King Under the Mountain.  (I'm serious.)  Note the beard she created with her hair.  It was SO funny.  I was at school when she did her commercial, but I didn't video it.  She did a great job.  I always have this hard decision... make a video or actually watch it myself.  Sometimes I feel like when I choose to video everything, I actually miss everything because I'm so focused on getting the camera stuff right.  Sometimes I just like to enjoy watching my kids live, and not through my tiny camera screen.  So, these are some pics we took at home, before and after.

Harriet's big spring school project was an animal habitat report, complete with diorama.  Her current favorite animal is the dolphin.  She had so much fun doing this.  She LOVES to create animal habitats. In fact, when Grace has been assigned to do them in the past, Harriet will just make one on her own and be jealous that she doesn't have a school project.  

Again, I didn't video Harriet's presentation either, but I was there for it.  I couldn't have been prouder of how well she did.  My shy little girl who barely speaks at school, got up in front of her whole class and confidently gave her dolphin information and answered questions without hesitating for a second.  

Grace outgrew the 20 inch bikes in the garage this spring (really, she was on her way out of them last fall.)  Since David is pretty picky about what the kids ride, we couldn't just run to Target and buy a $100 bike.  We kept trying to find one we could afford quickly, but those mountain bikes just get more expensive the bigger you get.  We ended up finding this Specialized Hot Rock on craigslist for not too much and David has spent the last couple months souping it up.  He has actually had a lot of fun building it up for Grace and modifying all the stuff.  Grace is pretty tickled, actually, to be riding a bike her dad built for her.  It worked out great.  We'll have to post a series of before and after pics... he's putting the final touches on it.

Had to throw these in... Harriet blowing a pink balloon at her friend's birthday party at the end of the school year.  Her whole class went to the pool together.

And... one more performance?  Miss Hillary had a little Irish Dance recital at her house to show off all the kids have done this spring.  It was adorable, lasted only 15 minutes, did not require costumes or tickets, or rehearsals.  Pinch me, am I dreaming?!  The big recitals with the professional dance companies are fun, but this was a welcome change in the exhausting May routine.  

Diary of a Cyclist's Wife... Iron Horse

I decided to start a series of posts about David's adventures (from my perspective, of course.)  I know he intends to blog about his stuff, but just doesn't get around to it.  If you want the testosterone version with all the gory details, you're going to have to do your own, my dear.

David and I do not function on the same wavelength when it comes to extracurricular activities.  It's no secret after 16+ years together.  But, we've at least learned to make our wavelengths sync in a productive way instead of causing interference so much like they used to.  Over the years, he has found ways to become supportive of my equine addiction, is even sweet about it sometimes.  I have found ways to support his cycling life.  In the process, I've earned CWE status (Coolest Wife Ever) and he, in turn, allows me tons of freedom when I want to spend a morning, day, week, or month at the barn or ranch.  David often makes up for any absence from home and family by being a generally great contributor to the household too.  When some wives cringe at the mention of their husbands going out to do something "because they haven't seen him all week and/or need him to help", I (usually) think it sounds like a great idea and a well-deserved break.  I mean, the guy even does the dishes more than half the time.  I often hear the dishes getting put away while I'm still in bed and he is heading out to work at 6am.  He doesn't bat an eyelash when I say I'm heading out to meet friends, go to book club, or even get on a plane.  He takes the kids to lessons when needed, or rides as fast as he can to get home from work, so that Harriet doesn't have to go with us to Grace's lessons.  He cooks dinner on the weekends.  Stuff like that.  He more than earns his adventures.  

So, when he says things like "I'm going mountain biking Wednesday night after work" or "I'm heading on a bike-packing trip in June."  I barely even flinch.  It's gotten so bad that half the time I don't even know where he is going that day.  I found out the hard way a couple weeks ago that he and I need to be more careful about that.  I had no idea where to even begin to look for his car, let alone David and co. when his friend's wife called one night in a panic that they weren't back from an evening mountain bike ride yet.  I would have been looking on the wrong side of the mountain for a very long time if he hadn't popped into cell range when he did.

I do perk up and listen more closely if I need to be involved in some way, and he's learned to make it more fun for me to be involved too.  (Like, don't ask me to train and get in shape to accompany you on a century road ride, or bike from here to timbuktu on a single track mountain bike trail.)  But, sure, I'll do a full moon ride with you and the kids at White Sands, ride to the park, or hang out at the Marriott in Durango while you kill yourself biking to the top of Silverton!

Speaking of... David decided he wanted to do the Iron Horse bike race over Memorial Weekend when a friend invited him to join their team.  Having just been to Durango in December for the first time, I knew it was a place I'd love to visit again, this time, in the summer.  We decided to make a little summer vacation weekend out of it and take the girls up to swim, go out to dinner, and play at Durango Mountain Resort.  

After a long afternoon swim, we cleaned up and ate at our favorite place, Steamworks, and then headed back to the hotel to shave the cycling legs.  I just kept having these images pop into my head of him crashing down the steep descents and ending up with major road rash with all that hair on his legs.  We discovered that the venus razor wasn't cut out for a maiden voyage up the hairy calves, so I ended up at walmart at 10pm for an electric hair trimmer and a few more razor cartridges.  We did finally get him all slicked up and ready to ride.

(daddy/daughter synchronized swimming)

David woke up early to head out to the starting line.  The Iron Horse is basically a race against the train from Durango to Silverton, CO.  The bikes start when the train whistle blows.  Our Marriott room was just around the corner from the train station, so he rode over and I followed a little later with the kids in the car to try to catch the start of the race.  We were slow to get over there and just barely got to the corner in time to see the train take off.  I never saw David (Grace says she did), but he was well ahead of the train pretty quickly.  We followed it down main street for a bit and then turned around to get ready for our day playing at the ski resort.

While David rode the 50 miles (mostly a ragged uphill ride and dangerously down some steep spots on the passes) from Durango to Silverton, we drove up to the Durango Mountain Resort.  That's where they close the road to cars anyway and where the Quarter Horse portion of the race ends.  I couldn't believe how many kids we saw doing the Quarter Horse!  Grace was inspired and says she wants to do it.  That will take a lot of training on her part and a lot of eye closing on mine.  

We did the alpine slide a dozen times, a little mini golf, and both girls did the bungee jump trampolines twice.  David caught a shuttle down to the resort from Silverton in early afternoon and met up with us.  He was pretty happy with his time, officially 3:18 and came in 228 out of 1529 riders overall.  (194th or something out of just the men.  I tease him that he let about 34 women beat him.  He says if he could catch the women who pass him he'd dump me and marry one, so watch out.  hahaha...)

(first time both girls have ridden a chair lift together - by themselves)

(Hattie and I racing the alpine slides.)

We were pretty darn proud of the daddy person.  I am impressed with how dedicated he is to his sport and his fitness.  I used to be that dedicated to mine and I know how great that feels and how much it takes (my sport, not my fitness per se.)  He works so hard to road ride to work for general fitness and practice and then works overtime to get in recreational rides and mountain biking after work and on the weekends.  He works hard to maintain his bikes too and squeezes every ounce of working order out of his equipment that he can.  He has over 12000 miles on his current road bike.  Sheesh.  I hate even driving that much.  He's pretty cool.

p.s.  I re-read this post.  It sounds like a lot of bragging and "don't you wish you had..."  stuff.  I hate braggy blogs and self-righteous people.  I really apologize if it to came off that way.  It's just how I'm feeling lately - that I have a really great marriage and an awesome husband.  I have friends ask me more than once a month, how it is that I can "let" David do all these things all the time.  I also have people ask how David "lets" me do what I do.  Or how I "get" him to stay home with the kids or "get" him to help with chores.  I have to say, it has been a long journey.  Our marriage hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows and we have had our share of jealousies, resentments, and eye-rolling, accompanied by hurt feelings and unfairness.  But, sometime in the last few years, we hit an even stride and started "letting" each other have a life without requiring even-steven payback.  It came naturally and we really didn't set out for it, but recognized what worked when it did.  We have come to realize that having our own lives and identities actually make our marriage and our family stronger.  It makes us happier when we are together, and fulfilled when we aren't, to know that the other one isn't left behind wishing we weren't doing what we are doing, or watching the clock and cursing every minute we are gone.  Every marriage is different, but this is what works for us.  So, I guess I kind of wrote what I wrote to answer all the questions I get asked about how we let each other have these things in our lives without resentment.  The answer is, we just do.

A fond farewell to Mr. E

I mentioned we had to say a sad good-bye to Grace's 4th grade teacher.  I know teachers come and go and people come in and out of your life too.  For the most part, I have come to accept that to be natural and I don't get too worked up about most of it these days.  But, this one left a sting.

Mr. Emery was exactly, one of those teachers, whom you just pray your kids get to experience sometime in their educational careers.  He was already on my "cool" list before Grace landed in his 4th grade home-room.  Harriet had taken his after-school photography class when she was in kindergarten the year before.  I was so worried about her doing that.  She had such a hard time going to school that year and was so nervous in new settings and did not like doing anything where I wasn't nearby.  It was huge for her to have to go to something else, AFTER being at school for 7 hours already, knowing I wouldn't be coming for her until dinner time.  It was really hard for her to go to a class where she didn't know anyone, there were kids from other grades, and an unfamiliar teacher.  Thankfully though, that teacher was Mr. Emery.  He gave her exactly what she needed - just enough interaction to make her feel comfortable, just enough encouragement to let her know he cared, and just enough space that she didn't freak out.  He tried in vain, for the entire semester, to get her to speak to him, but let it all be on her terms, never forcing her.  She would respond to him very minimally, but by the end of the year, she was waving good-bye to him at pick-up and might have even smiled once or twice.  She knew he cared about her though and that made all the difference.  She will still talk about being in Mr. E's photography class, and was very looking forward to 4th grade when she would get to be in his math class.

Grace was hoping for his 4th grade home-room because she knew he ran the Geek Squad at the school.  She COULD NOT WAIT to apply for it.  She knew his love of all things geeky with healthy side dishes of science, nature, and math, would be right up her alley.  She squealed with glee when she saw her name on his class list before school started - she knew it would be an epic year, and she was right.

I still remember the feeling of my stomach sinking when Mr. Emery pulled me aside last fall to tell me that he was so sorry, because he knew that Grace would be incredibly disappointed- the Geek Squad would not be taking applications this year.  His reason was even worse - that he would be leaving the teaching profession altogether and moving out-of-state in May.  WHAT?  It was a huge blow for me.  We had just lost our incredible principal.  I was still reeling from that and as parents, we could not fathom how our school could ever be the same without her.  I love my kids' school and I have always believed in it and felt that it had something special going for it.  But, losing our principal did darken those feelings.  Now, we were losing one of our best teachers too?  It doesn't take very many hits like that to see huge ripple effects start to happen.  I've worked in schools.  I know what happens when you start to lose your leadership and your core guts and identity.  I worry constantly who else will follow them out.  I'm still wondering if we will fully recover.  The jury is still out.

Mr. Emery did at least, try to go out with a bang.  I have never seen a teacher put into a school year, what he put into this one.  At least, I feel very lucky, that Grace got to experience that kind of dedication and devotion from a teacher to his students.  It was quite possibly most, if not all, of the reason she has returned to the kind of student she used to be:  one who LOVES school, who can't wait to go the next day (most days), who looks forward to doing her work, who finds her school work challenging, fulfilling, and meaningful, and who doesn't want to miss a day when she's sick (instead of relishing being able to stay home from school when possible.)  She was that kind of student in kinder and 1st grade.  Even our traumatizing move from her beloved school in Boston didn't wipe it out of her.  Her 1st grade teacher here was a life-saver and carried her through the rest of the year.  But, her incredibly bad experience with a long-term sub in 2nd grade, coupled with an "ok" 3rd grade year left her just like most kids are - indifferent about school most of the time, and hating the rest.  Sure, she's always kept up her grades in spite of it, but her attitude about school has been on a serious downward spiral for a couple of years.  In my mind, it was only a matter of time before her grades and her education reflected her attitude.  Mr. Emery saved her from it.

Consequently, whenever he asked for something for his class, I volunteered immediately.  If he was going to work this hard for my kid (and not just my kid - he worked that hard for every kid,) then I was willing to work as hard as possible for him and his class.  Of course, you get the most out of the things you put the most into, so Grace and I got a lot out of the year.  She got an amazing education.  She was challenged, she was held to high standards, she was kindly and respectfully reprimanded when she stepped out of line (something most teachers aren't willing to do or simply let slide when it comes to the "smart" kids), she was given more responsibility and freedom as a student and a kid, and she rose to the occasion.  I remember a conversation early in the year when I had written in her agenda "please send Grace to the library after school, she doesn't ride the bus today."  It was standard practice (so far) at the school to give teachers that kind of information.  He came to me and said "I don't need to know where Grace is going after school.  Grace needs to know."  I apologized and said I just wanted to make sure he was in the loop as all of her teachers had wanted to know up until now - I wasn't sure when the teachers turned that over to the kids.  He said "that would be THIS year."  From that point, I knew he would treat her more like the grown up kid she was becoming and I would be required to do the same.  He helped me let go and realize that she was quite capable of navigating, a bunch of things I hadn't even considered, on her own.  He helped her grow up as a kid and helped me grow up as a parent.  But, he also gave me great comfort in knowing that he slyly "helicoptered" over his own 2nd grader.  I loved watching him sneak downstairs to say hi to his son between recess and class and be there for everything he did.  He is a great dad and it made him an even better teacher.

He is also a great friend.  He took genuine interest in our family, what were our plans for the weekend, what was going on in our lives.  He continued to work on Harriet for the entire year, trying to get her to speak to him or smile at him.  He watched out for her education at school too.  She wasn't even his student, but he would warn me of things going on at school, give me a heads up about possibilities and opportunities for her, and give his honest opinion about how to best navigate the school in Harriet's future.  Those insights and honesty are worth more than gold in my book.

I dreaded May.  Of course, the school year flew by as we worked hard in a flurry to make it awesome.  May arrived sooner than it ever has before.  We held a 4th grade picnic for Mr. E and invited his geek squad families to help us send him off.  Some of my very most favorite things I have ever received are thank you letters from former students.  They make you feel like the gigantic sacrifices in teaching might just be all worth it and help you realize that someone did notice what you did for them.  I tried to recreate that for Mr. E and we had a secret letter box set up for a month for students to write "thank you" and "favorite Mr. E memory" letters to him.  We put them all in a book and gave it to him at the picnic along with a few other fun gifts.

We are so glad that he seems genuinely happy on his new adventure with his family in Oregon and it appears to have been a good life change for them.  (We are following each other on facebook now.)  However, we are very sorry for us and our school, that we have lost an incredible teacher and friend.  I think out of everyone who was sad to see him go (and the list is very long - I'm not the only one who knew his value), Harriet might have been the saddest.  She knows what she will now be missing, not only from her 4th grade year, but from her daily life at school.  We are praying that the teacher who takes his place can even just be half as good.

Thanks, Mr. E, for everything.  Like Adrienne's mom said to me a few days before... "You'll never KNOW!  The influence of a TEACHER!"  We're pretty sure his influence will be felt for a long time.

(Mr. E in line with the kids playing kickball - waiting for his turn.)

(Mr. E and Grace)

ENDOFSCHOOLSHENANIGANS-AKAMAYNEARLYDOESMEIN

With both kids in elementary school, May feels exactly like a really really long run-on-sentence.  No punctuation, no spaces.  It has replaced the Christmas holiday season as the busiest one in our household.  In just a few weeks' time we pile onto our already busy schedule: jog-a-thon, field trips, play days (field days), book fair, teacher appreciation week, end-of-year picnics, school projects, the spelling bee (is it sad I wasn't sad that my kids didn't do the spelling bee?), and the talent show!  It's all incredibly fun and mostly worthwhile, but it's kind of feast or famine.  I wish we could spread it out a bit more.   I guess it really wouldn't matter, but whew... don't know if I've ever been so glad to see the end of a school year (in a good way.)  I think I might have taken pictures of half of it. 

Jog-a-thon

Harriet ran 7 laps.

Mr. Emery ran ? laps.  I cannot believe he came to school on his day off to run laps with the kids.

Grace ran 8 laps. 

 3 Field Trips in 2 weeks' time:  Natural History Museum and Symphony for Grace, and a play at Pope Joy for Harriet.

I have to admit, I totally enjoyed the 4th graders at the museum.  

This is collectively an awesome group of kids.

"Play Day" = old school field day = see if we can freeze the kids to death by soaking them to the bones and making them stand outside for 2 full hours in the chilly ABQ spring wind.

Paper Airplane Day in Math: I was thrilled, actually, to spend 4 hours at school doing this.  I think a teacher who assigns over 100 4th graders to make a paper airplane, then has the kids throw them down the hall 4 times each (I was there to record their flying distances,) and then make a 2 day math lesson out of it, is like, super cool.  The kids had a total blast doing it.  The vice principal walked by just as one was thrown and smiled as it whizzed by her face.  I love our school.  I might love it a little less when he is not there next year.

Speaking of cool stuff in math class... Mr. Emery assigned Grace, and a few of the other advanced math students, to do a giant self-guided math project/presentation.  They chose their own topics, created the requirements for their projects, and then outlined, designed, and completed the project, mostly unaided.  Grace chose to compare some of the measurements of planets in our solar system (volumes, distances from the sun, areas of their orbits, orbital velocities, etc.)  She worked on it for weeks at school and then spent a long 7 hours on a Saturday finishing up calculations and putting it all into a power point presentation.  She graphed all of her data using Excel spreadsheets and charts.  She even learned scientific notation and how to use a scientific calculator to do the calculations (something that some of my sophomore chem students used to struggle with!)  I have never seen her work so hard on something or be more excited about doing a school project.  I was so proud of her and so glad I got to see her present to her class.

Talent Show!  I am still floored that both girls made it into the show.  So many kids tried out.  I was so nervous for both of them, but especially for Harriet.  The Friday I knew they would get their "letters" I nearly couldn't bring myself to meet them at the bus stop for fear of what their faces would look like as they stepped off.  Thankfully, they both jumped down, GRINNING!  It was so exciting.  We had tons of rehearsal time added into already crazy weeks, but it was so worth it.  They both accomplished a lot and performed so well.  Harriet did an Irish Dance with her friends from dance class, and Grace played "All Apologies" by Nirvana on her electric guitar.  Proud momma moment.  

Videos!  I think I figured out my video problems, but I did have to shrink their sizes so if you full-screen it the quality won't be as good.  Enjoy the talent show:

Harriet

Irish Dance

(with friends Ava, Mylee, and Kayla)

Grace

All Apologies by Nirvana