The NEW Mr Rogers

Check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HoMjeA2uZI

This is Marty's brother. Is he not the Mr. Rogers of the new generation?

Exercise Neurosis

I am convinced that I have a mental illness associated with exercise. I was out this morning at 5 am - it was dark, drizzly, foggy - most people would be have been angry about it. I was happy as a clam. I was sweaty, wet (from the fog) and happy. Genuinely happy! That is not right!!!

Employee Foundation

My company has an employee foundation that is completely funded by employees and provides grants to charitable organizations. I give money to the foundation out of every check which makes me eligible to:

• Champion an organization for a grant
• Review and approve grants

Right now I am reviewing the grants and rating them for approval. The gal that runs the program is ready to throw me out of the process because I keep asking questions! :-)
The thing is....I take this all very seriously and want to make sure I am giving each group the appropriate consideration. The grants I am considering are worth about $350k. And all the organizations are trying to do the right thing, so it is tough reviewing them.

Gotta Love those Pre-teens

Yesterday I had such a funny converstion with Drew regarding my going on a field trip with his class. His teacher had requested that I participate and drive on a class field trip to a cinema event. Being a committed mom, I moved around my schedule and opened a 4 hour block of time on a Tuesday morning. And with how crunched I am right now, it was quite a feat to open up the time.

So.... I tell him last nite that I am planning on participating in the field trip and here is our converstation:

Drew: "Oh - I really want to go with Tyler's Mom. But you can still go."
Me: " Why would I go if you are going with another Mom?"
Drew: "Well, you can just take some other kids. I still want you to go but I REALLY want to go with Tyler's Mom."
Me: "Oh yea, just what I want to do, experience a 6th grade field trip with someone else's kid!"

So, the window of 4 hours is now open again! When I told his teacher about the conversation, she cracked up - such a pre-teen!

Two in braces?!?!

We now have two kids in braces at the same time! Gracie got her expander yesterday.

It goes in the roof of her mouth and we turn a key every nite that causes her palate to expand or widen. This will help with her bulldog cross bite.

This pic gives you a great insight into why she has trouble with "S's" and "R's" - her palate is so narrow and deep and her tongue is so BIG that it is hard to get the right position for the R and S sounds.

That is a scary looking mouth. And in it, I see dollar signs....it is going to cost a fortune to fix!

Student of the Month

I am proud to report that Gracie was student of the month in her class for February! This is not your normal parent brag....this is really significant. This is the kid who struggled to learn how to read and was tenacious in her pursuit! She deserves this recognition! I am proud!

Mango

Jim and Gracie are hooked on mangos - Jim will buy 6 at a time and the two of them will eat them in one day....or at one sitting!

On Friday Jim came home from the grocery store with this gadget -- a mango slicer! It cuts out the pit leaving the fleshy outside to eat.

The two of them are thrilled!

Retro

I had to bring back this old pic because it makes me crack up everytime I see it. Chad and Daisy as Sonny and Cher!

Loss of a friend....

I got the bad news yesterday that a friend from my previous place of employment died on Wednesday, unexpectedly. We had just exchanged emails and pics of our kids last month. She was one of those folks that was down to earth, kind, honest.....all the good qualities you can name. She was someone you couldn't say anything negative about.... probably because she never said anything negative about anyone else! She was early 40's and had a 2 year old son who was truly the light of her life. She beamed with pride and amazement when she spoke of him.

The world is not as vibrant with her gone. And I hurt for her son who won't ever realize how much she loved him.

Maria....you will be missed.

Tree down

Today PG&E came to take down a tree that was dead and threatening power lines. It was a huge event for all of us to watch. We counted the rings and found the tree was about 90 years old!

Fishermen

This is my favorite pic from the weekend. Check out the size of that trout!

Weekend highlights

Here are some great pics from the weekend. Sledding, kayaking, skating! We had a great time playing a "hockey game" with the orange cone - girls against boys! This was a shot of "puck off"! The weather was amazing as you tell from the half dome shot. When the sun went down while we were ice skating a big full moon came over half dome - STUNNING!

Family Time

We are at the cabin with my brother's family and are having a FABULOUS time! Today we went fishing and kayaking. Gracie, Sam and Jack hopped in a kayak and were halfway across the lake before I could even get mine launched! They were fearless. It helped that the lake was like glass. At the same time Jim had the pontoon mama out and they were catching trout after trout. They caught a couple of trout that were so big they looked like salmon. I will have some great pics once I get them downloaded!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I just finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield for the book club I am joining. DUMB DUMB DUMB! Do not waste your time reading it. There is nothing I can say about it except....what was the point????

Happy Heart Day

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day.

Ours was uneventful. Drew got a purple basketball. Gracie got a stuffed frog and Jim got a book about emrgency medical care in the back country! I got a lot of hugs and kisses. And Drew made dinner and frosted the heart shaped cake we made.

All in all a good day!

The Glasses

The Glasses
By Grace M.

There was once a little boy named Drew. One day his glasses fell into a lake. He started to cry. But his mother told him a story. This was the story:

There is a fish down there that is not so cool and he is going to find your glasses. He is going to swim into school and say, “HEY! Like my glasses?” But the other fish still didn’t really like him. So he went out hunting for some other cool stuff. He went to the barber shop to get a new hair do. Then he went to the mall to get some new clothes. While he was at the mall, he got some new swim shoes that say “Go T” on them. Then he went searching around for a comb to comb is hair. There was a nice comb over by the boat ramp where a boat was getting launched. So, he tried to stay out of its way so he was not caught. He swam back to school and said, “Do you guys think I am cool?” “Yea, you are the coolest,” said the fish. And then they said “do you want to go out and have some dinner or a snack with us?”

They went out for some food at the Breakfast Fish Inn. They had some stuff to eat and a glass of sea water. And they went on their way. They were right in time for the annual fish race!

That is Drew’s mom’s story. It made him forget about losing his glasses.

The End

I have a really cool brother. Here are a few of the things about him that makes him awesome:

• He loves his kids unconditionally and with all his heart and soul and they know it.
• He is committed to his wife and his marriage - there is no doubt about it.
• He loves Scooby Doo as much now as he did when he was eight.
• He is kind hearted and down to earth.
• I can count on him for anything.
• He is a great Uncle B to my kids.
• He takes the time to follow his interests, whether it is tennis, writing or going to Vegas.
• He just wrote a children's book based on a story he told Sam and Jack.
• He grows an enormous garden every summer that harvests enough tomatoes for a small nation and he is always willing to share.

I am so proud to call him my brother. Everyone should be so lucky.

Parenthood

I am mostly happy with the way our kids have turned out so far.....except..... Drew was sick yesterday and he has got to be the most pathetic and dramatic sick person I ever met (excluding my mom). It is so dramatic that I have to fight off giggles! Good luck to his wife some day!

Daughter Dad date

Gracie and Jim went out on a date last nite. They attended a winter mountaineering session at our local REI. Just what we need, Jim with more ideas about how to backpack in a driving snow storm and sleep in a hand made snow cave. They had a great time. Gracie enjoyed the pics the speaker showed.

workout

I have been working out at the gym, almost exclusively, so I have not been running much. And I have really picked up my workout routine, doing 1 hour and 20 minutes of cardio a day, doing weights almost everyday, etc.

This morning I went out running for the first time in a while and to stay up with my more intense workout, I did sprints and football agility excercises (the tire thing). The dog must have thought I was crazy! As soon as I would do the agility excercises, she would run back to me and stay right next to me! And when I sprinted, she would turn up the speed too! We must have looked like quite the sight at the crack of dawn!

job update

For those wondering, work is ok. The big announcement last week knocked me off my stride for one day but that was all. I took the weekend - got myself together - and went back monday ready to kick some serious butt. The "dream team" that I work with have the same strategy and we are plowing forward!

If anything, this made us MORE focused!

oops

I have a tray in my kitchen that is filled with tea cups, tea bags, sugar, etc. It is out on the counter vs in a cupboard because I am a tea addict and drink it all day long. This way it is easy to grab a cup, fill it with hot water from our insta hot, pop in a tea bag and be on my way. The tray also serves as a catch all for random small items - jewelry, gum, pictures, coins, etc.

Recently, I grabbed a cup, started filling it with hot water, looked down to see my watch and earrings covered in about half a cup of hot water!!!! My watch no longer works - the earrings are fine!

A bad day?

Just as I was commiserating about my bad day, one of my girlfriends told me about hers:

Her team at work accidently shut down the company network for an hour, caused a building to be evacuated and set off the halon system!

BUMMER!

Note to SS: You are my hero!

Book Club

I am starting a book club and will be reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I am looking forward to reading a book at the same time as other people and getting the opportunity to chat about it.

Super Bowl

Honestly, I like Super Bowl better than Christmas! And this year is an exceptionally good one: great teams, we are at the cabin, it is snowing on and off and we have tons of snackies!

We took a hike in the hail and rain to work up and appetite for:

• stuffed mushrooms
• pineapple
• chili cheese dip
• spinach dip
• sausages

Should be a delightful afternoon.

Bad Book Review

I read a ridiculous book this weekend: Where or When by Anita Shreve. She is also the author of The Pilot's Wife, which I read a number of years ago and did not like. It is a story of two people who fell in love when they were 14 and in summer camp and found each other 31 years later. It tells of how they wrote letters back and forth for awhile and then met each other at the old camp. It details how they found love in each other again, but left their families in ruins. Dumb book that I skipped numerous pages of because I could not stomach the flashbacks to camp again! Don't waste your time reading it.

Weekend Update

So after the drama of Friday, we packed up and left town. I needed some time to get a game plan together without being assaulted by modern media - who only know 9% of the story - the rest is just wild speculation!

The best place to clear your head is in the middle of the quiet wilderness. So we packed up our snow shoes, fishing poles, cooler and chairs and went to Cherry Lake. The snow was about 4 feet deep and it snowed nonstop all day. We snow shoed down to the lake and tossed in a line. Then we went about to building the mother of all snow forts! After a few hours, we hiked back up to the truck, had lunch and sledded for a couple hours. All in all, a great way to get rejuvanated and be ready to kick some serious butt on Monday when returning to work.