Italian Festival

This weekend was the Italian Festival. Tina and Marty have had a food booth there for 3 years. They sell chicken parmigiana sandwiches. It is a huge event with lots of planning and prepping and a lot of work during the weekend. Yesterday it was hotter than jalapeno peppers so it was a bit slow during the day. But it was crazy in the evening.....it was like everyone waited for the sun to go down before they came out. And then they were hungry! Today is was 20 degrees cooler and the crowds were good but the chicken ran out at about 1 pm. They all had to wait til 6 pm to pack up so I took the kids home while they all hung out. The total number of sandwiches ended up being about 950!

Between the Italian Festival and Gracie's tournament, it was a tiring weekend!

3 on 3

Gracie had a 3 on 3 tournament today. She played 3 games. Each game had 3 eight minute periods. They tied one and lost two. But it didn't matter because they all had fun!

New Shoes

Gracie got these "sick" new shoes today!

Summer Team Building

At work, a lot of groups go do a team building event during the summer. Often it is things like sailing in the bay, paint ball, laser tag, etc. My team, being a bunch of "do gooders", uses our team building event to volunteer. Last year, we sorted food at the Second Harvest Food Bank. This year it was Habitat for Humanity -- Yesterday we went and worked in 97 degree weather getting a driveway ready to be poured on Monday. We tied rebar, cut rebar, hauled rebar and pounded rebar into cement! It was a lot of work but I thought it was fun too! The project is a 6 unit project - 2 two bedrooms apartment type homes(one handicap accessible, one set up for a blind lady and her husband); 1 four bedroom condo, 2 three bedroom condos and a three bedroom single family home. The places where really nice - very airy and light. I met one of the daies who is getting a three bedroom unit. She has a 15 year old son and a seven year old son and her mom lives with them. Currently they live in a 2bedroom apt. She is thrilled! To qualify, she has to put in 500 of her own work hours (or she can have her friends or family work the hours off). She works there every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She spent the whole day doing touch up painting in all 6 units. If you ever want to do a good deed, this is a great volunteer event. I learned to use a rebar cutter and thought that was awesome!

Getting ready.

Ahi is getting ready for hockey season by wearing her hockey jersey. And she and Daisy are doing the prewash in the dishwasher...getting the dishwasher ready.

Why?

Why and how do I get myself involved in this???? I have been talked into being the team mom for Gracie's soccer team! Which I have done for years, but this year its different. This year she is playing competetive soccer so there is a lot more work. Right now, I am juggling:

* Registering for two tournaments
* Selling caramel apples for a fundraiser (let me know if you want any)
* Ordering backpacks and uniforms
* Making a quarter jar
* Collecting $ for everything!

Luckily we already have our team flag.

New couch!

Since I have giant children, I needed to get giant furniture! This is our new couch which allows each of us to stretch out on it. And there is even room for Ahi. It just came today and we love it!

Out for a.....argh....run

I took the dogs out running this morning and as I was crossing the street, I was looking at Ahi who was frantically smelling something on the ground, in the middle of the street. As I was looking back, I did not notice that in the middle of the street was a DEAD snake and I stepped RIGHT on it!!! ICK! GROSS! GAG!

Had to go back and take this pic.

First Day of School

Gracie started 4th grade today and Drew started 8th.

Union

Here is our campsite at Union Lake. It was a cool spot right on the water.

Doggie Playtime.

Here is a great video of Daisy and Ahi playing when we were on vacation.

Can you believe this is the same chiweenie that was afraid of her own shadow???

Girlie Weekend

Gracie brought two of her buddies to the cabin this weekend. There moms came too. We did everything we could squeeze into a day and a half: kayaking, swimming at the lake, swimming at the pool, getting ice cream, having mexican food and playing Apples to Apples. It was a great weekend. It was so nice to be around such nice girls.

Innertubing

This is a video of the Jack and Drew innertubing over vacation.

Downward dog.

I just called home from work to check in on the kids and Gracie told me she was doing yoga. I asked her where she learned yoga and she said she never learned it....but that she was doing "downward dog, cat and giraffe and stuff like that!"

Our first stop - Union and Utica Lakes

Highlights of this stop were:

* Chris and Drew kayaking with Ahi and Daisy - it should have been videoed and we would have won a million dollars on Funniest Home Videos!
* We saw a bald eagle hunting for fish
* We saw baby catfish that looked like pollywogs with whiskers!
* We realized that we left all our pots and pans at home....with the lighter!

Dog Vacation

Here are some highlights of the dog's vacation!

Our newest addition

Jim built a rack this weekend for the kayaks! This finishes off the garage remodel at the cabin.

Hallelujah!

There is a GOD! I lost 1 pound on vacation!

I guess that is what happens when you never sit still.

Vacation pics will be coming shortly.

Boater Dog

When we were out innertubing with my bro's family, Ahi came along for the adventure. She decided to sleep in the extra clothes bag all day!

STAR Testing

All states have their own standardized test for schools. I always call them tests to see how well the teachers are covering the material to be tested. NOT tests for how well the kids are learning or how smart they are. I am not a supporter of these types of standardized tests and was not a supporter even before I had a daughter with dyslexia.

Last spring when it was time to take the STAR test at school, Gracie and I had many talks about whether or not she was going to take the test. It is not surprising that a kid with dyslexia is not a good standardized test taker. And I was concerned that taking the test would be a total downer for her. But on the other hand, the world is full of standardized tests and the experience would be good for her.

So we made a deal. Take the test the first day and then if it totally freaks her out - then she didn't have to take the rest of the test. Giving her that out made her feel better about taking the test and after one day, she decided to keep going.

We had also told her that it does not matter how she does on the test and that we just want her to have the experience. And we discussed that the STAR testing is not a true measurement of what a kid knows - especially a kid with dyslexia - and that we don't care what score she gets. We also relieved her fear that if she did not do well, she would have to repeat grade 3! Her biggest worry was being held back.

Fast forward to now:

We got the STAR test scores....and she scored proficient in everything -- including LANGUAGE ARTS!!!

This is no minor feat - this is a HUGE accomplishment!

GO GRACIE!!!! Girl Power strikes again!

Lake Swim

Here are a couple pics of Gracie's lake swim. Jim went with her as an escort as she was the youngest swimmer out there. This was not a planned event. We just happened to be at the lake and found out they were doing a swim across the lake. Gracie looked at the lake and said, "I can do that!". What makes a 9 year old think they can swim across a lake? I looked at it and said, "no way could I do that!".

I was pretty impressed that she did her first "open water" swim at age 9!

A perfect day....

My brother's family was with us at the cabin yesterday and we had a perfect day! I got up and took the dogs for a hike. And on the way, I stopped to pick wild black berries!

Then I came home to french toast and happy kids!

After lounging around for a while, we took a hike to see the mine. My nephews had never seen it before! Both of them and Uncle B went in to see it. Mimi stayed out with me and the dogs (we are the smart ones!)

Then we lounged some more and had lunch (grilled mushroom and cheese sandwiches/nachos!).

Next we decided to head to the beach. We fished, swam and had ice cream! Jim and Gracie did a swimming race ACROSS the Lake! Pics will be coming.

Then we came home and had burgers and dogs.

All in all a great day at the cabin.

Mad Dog 20/20

I borrowed this cool flip video gadget from work. It is about the size of a cell phone and takes videos. We took it to the Giants game with us last nite and Gracie and Mad Dog played with it. We all thought this video was a crack up!

Pay if Forward, Mamas

I am a firm believer in the “pay it forward” mantra. My family and I practice it regularly in many forms:

* Donating time and money to charities
* Giving blood
* Participating in the America Heart Walk
* Loaning money thru Kiva
* Helping folks in need – including motorcycle crashes, kayakers who have broken their paddles and need a tow across a lake, and regularly rescuing lost dogs

But yesterday I had an experience that made me think of a new way to pay it forward…”pay it forward mamas”. Here is the story.

Earlier this year I worked with the Employee Foundation at work to secure a $32k grant for Parents Helping Parents (PHP). This is another one of those “pay it forward” things. PHP is a tremendous organization that assists parents who have kids with special needs – including Autism, Downs Syndrome, Learning Disabilities, etc. I have had the good fortune of utilizing PHP in my journey to understand and treat my Gracie’s dyslexia. I was so thankful for their assistance and the good fortune that we have as a family to have the resources to most effectively deal with dyslexia. My daughter and I decided we needed to find a way to show our gratitude. The grant was what we did.

So – yesterday out of the blue, I got an email from another Yahoo who I don’t know.

Hi Chris,
I just read about the YEF Grant you sponsored for PHP – great job! I am the mom of a 3 year old recently diagnosed with a Autism so I have just become connected with PHP and am finding it a very useful resource! Thank you!
Jean


Wow! That email stopped me in my tracks. It is so simple but was so powerful. It made me remember back to getting the grant and how happy it made me to do a good deed for such a positive organization. But more than that it warmed my heart that a mom, I don’t even know, took the time to reach out to another mom and say thank you for something I did!

So this is how “pay it forward mamas” was born. Going forward, I am going to make a point to tell another mom when I think she is doing something great – whether it be for her kids, for herself or for her community. And I challenge all the moms out there to do the same thing! We all work so hard – wouldn’t it be powerful if we recognized each other for our hard work and commitment to what is important to us all!

Go forth and “Pay if Forward, Mamas!”

Metabolic Testing

I had an interesting experience today - I got a metobolic test done. Here is how it works:

You breathe into a tube for 10 minutes and based on the analysis of some fancy schmancy machine, you get an assessment of your total calories burned per day and what your caloric intake should be based on that.

I track my calories and excercise on sparkpeople.com, so I thought I knew pretty closely what I needed to consume to lose and/or maintain weight and based on this test, I was SPOT on! My weight loss zone is between 1200 and 1500 calories a day. And my maintance zone is between 1500 and 1982 calories.

It does feel good to have my theories scientifically verified.

But it sucks that I can't eat a blueberry/apple pie everyday! DARN!

Gracie's birthday

Gracie and I are going away again for her birthday this year. This year we are going to a resort in Arizona. So far the plan is to spend time lazing around the pool, reading and hiking. On Sunday we are both going to get pedicures and manicures and she is going to get her hair done and we are going out to dinner for her birthday! We have a nice suite with a view of the local hills. It should be delighful!!!

It's a good thing...

It is a good thing that my camera isn't working or you would be looking at a pic of my toe missing a toenail. The toenail I injured while hauling around 30 pounds while backpacking in May finally fell off! So I have 9 beautiful pink toenails and one naked toe!