The White Tux

Without much comment from me (we shall see about that), prom pictures!

First of all, I will comment. Paul told us where pictures were going to be but only the name of the place. It turns out it was a church connected to an old folks home. And we didn't have permission (I overheard one of the moms complaining to one of the workers about it--she said permission was given, but the worker said it was not given). There were so many kids there, though that it would have taken a riot squad to herd all the prom goers and parents out of the place. Paul's group wasn't the only group there. There must have been at least 75 couples and all of their parents and lots of the grandparents. The church space was huge, like convention center huge.

Paul and Taylor

Looking suave

Paul's group

The White Tuxes

 

Paul and some girls being silly

Waiting for their names to be read off in the Grand March at the school

Paul and Taylor are the blurry couple

on the party bus, which was a converted school bus. It has a karaoke machine on it. I'd give all the money I have to see Paul do karaoke in front of his friends.

Hopefully the group made it to the dance ok. As I was getting off the party bus after taking the above picture, the bus driver was asking some of the other parents how to get to the hotel where the dance was. He was trying to enter it into his GPS system and wasn't having any luck. There was no listing for this particular hotel. All the parents knew where the hotel was but none of us could remember the exact street it was on. They all kept saying, "It's by the Radisson" "It's right by DoubleTree." "It's right by such and such restaurant."  As a party bus driver, aren't you supposed to know these things? And if you have driven on 494 ever, you would know where Hotel Sofitel is.

After pictures, Jim and I went out to dinner. No one else was home. That is increasingly the state of my home these days.

Prom again

Paul is going to Prom today. He asked a girl from school. True to form, he didn't tell either of his parents. How did I find out? Facebook, of course. A picture of a blonde girl showed up on my news feed and it was tagged with Paul's name.

"That doesn't look like Paul." I thought to myself.

The girl was holding a Post-it note with "Prom? from Paul" written on it. The girl was smiling and doing thumbs-up.

The next time I saw Paul, I asked him what it was all about. He said, "Yeah, I asked Taylor to prom. She's in Italy right now on the band trip, so I had Emily stick the post-it in her suitcase. When she found the note, Emily took a picture and posted it on facebook." 

I know nothing about Taylor beyond what she looks like, courtesy of the picture, what her first and last name are, and that she's on the track team. And that she's a senior.

This is the least involved with Prom that I've ever been. I don't know if that's good or not. We will go to the home of whoever is hosting the picture-taking for photos of course.

Paul has ordered a white tux. All the guys in his group are going white. Paul isn't normally known for spilling his food on himself so that's not so much of a worry.  But any sort of smudge is going to show up.

Pictures later.

Big little kids

I made 5 batches of homemade playdough yesterday. I haven't made it in a long time. Paul made some last week for a school project--he had to made a model of a brain. It looked pretty wrinkly. I wonder if it shriveled as it dried? I didn't take a picture of it. He doesn't like having his picture taken when he's not running. At least by me anyway (I've seen countless weird pictures of him on his fb page so apparently he doesn't mind it when his friends take pictures of him).

Back to the playdough I  made. I even added food coloring. I made pink, yellow, blue, green, and purple. I made it for an activity in seminary. The teenagers each picked one or two scripture mastery verses and had to sculpt them out of playdough. Then the class had to guess which verse it was.

I haven't seen little kids enjoy playdough like these "big" kids did. I think they would have rolled in it if I had made enough of it.

With the exception of one kid, they all took their playdough with them to school.  One kid said, "I'm going to be playing with this all day."

Later he told his friend who is the other class: "We got to play with playdough in class today. It was the best day ever." And then he high-fived me.

Homemade playdough: for the best day ever.

A post about track and I will try not to complain about not being able to go

I had several very solid reasons to go to another track meet last night:
1. Paul was running in it, of course
2. He ate pizza the night before and he is sure that whenever he eats pizza the night before a meet, he does well.
3. The weather promised to be nice to me, unlike the previous meets where I was confined to the inside of a fleece-lined waterproof jacket.
4. The meet was at the high school I attended lo, those many years ago.
5. Mom promised sandwiches

Unfortunately, I also had solid reasons to be somewhere else:
1. Matt had a band concert
2. Sadly NOT at my high school alma mater
3. It was the last jazz band and regular band concert of the year
4. I had no one else to drive him there
5. and he had trombone lessons before the concert.

So Jim and my mom went. Lucky them!  (I will not complain)

Paul ran very well.

Here he is at the start of the 1600 m race

 Paul loves the blue track at Minnetonka.

He was in first place for most of the race, but the Tonka guy behind him caught up in the 4th lap

 Paul came in second with his fastest mile time ever: 4 minutes 38 seconds.  He had to have a bit of a lie down after the race because he pushed himself harder than he has before.


Then two hours later, he had to run again, and twice as long.

fourth place finish

He finished with his fastest 3200m time ever as well:  10:23. He "consoled" himself with the fact that the guys who finished before him were fresh--it was their first race of the day, while he had pushed himself near to his limit just a few hours before.

I'd post pictures of the band concert, but Jim had my camera at the track meet. Matt and the rest of the jazz band/regular band did well, but Matt didn't dance as much as he had in previous concerts. Maybe next year.

Item one in my line of Ridiculous Clothing

A parka-style shrug. Designed to keep only your shoulders and the top third of your back warm.  Waterproofing by request.

Cool runnings

I

Am SOOOO cold.

My bones are made of ice, I tell you.
I'm considering hopping into the freezer to WARM UP.

I sat for 3 1/2 hours in 45 degree, rainy weather in the bleacher section to watch Paul run three races (however, I got there late and missed the first one). I brought an old bath mat to sit on because I knew the benches would be wet, I brought my umbrella, and I wore thermals and wool socks.

I'm still cold.

I sat.

I was too cold to do anything except blow on my hands and hold the umbrella.

Surprisingly, time went pretty fast while I was waiting for Paul's next race. Or maybe I was too cold to perceive the passage of time.

After his second race, I went back to my van and sat in the running vehicle, with the heat blasted so my toes would unfreeze.

Then I waited for the last race.

I got out of the van to watch the second race and immediately my body core temp dropped close to absolute zero.

Paul ran in his flimsy, thin, sleeveless track uniform. Just looking at him made me even colder.

I took no pictures because my camera absolutely refused to leave her case because it was too cold out.

Paul's team (the entire boys' track team) took first place and got a trophy.

I got the sniffles.

So cold.

Tracking Paul

Did you know it is track season? In fact, it has been track season for several weeks. In honor of track season, I will post two pictures of Paul running on a track.

Paul doesn't usually run relays, but he gave it a try last week. He ran the second leg of the 4 x 800 (he had to run two laps)

Here he is running the 3200m

It was a very windy and cold meet--temperature was in the low 40s. I wore a fleece lined jacket and a scarf, in addition to my regular uniform of jeans, socks, shirt, shoes and sunglasses. Compare that with what Paul is wearing above. He was freezing. He's wearing the gloves because if he didn't, his fingers would lose blood circulation and turn a really gross shade of waxy light yellow. It's happened often and it always weirds us out. He couldn't wear gloves during the relay because he had to actually hold onto the baton. Gloves=drop the baton.

Ten things on a cleaning Saturday

1. If ever I enjoyed cleaning, it was today. I cleaned the living room. I removed the trombone and the music pertaining unto it. I washed a plastic cabinet thing on wheels and moved it to another room. I removed backpacks. I went through all the clutter on the half walls. I put away the Valentine's day and Easter decorations. I dusted the piano. I put up a few of Paul's senior picture boards. I arranged the missionary shrine and hung a signature tie that EJ sent home (it's a white tie with the names of all the elders in his MTC district). I vacuumed (including baseboards). There is now NOTHING in the living room that doesn't belong there.
2. I am tempted to not let people in the living room for at least a week, just so I can keep it looking nice.
3. Adding unto the cleanliness of the upstairs, I also decluttered the kitchen counter yesterday.
4. Although, looking at the counter now, someone has put a pizza box (with pizza in it) on the counter. And a couple of plates and a pizza crust. I may have to cordone off the kitchen area too.
5. CHILDREN, CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELVES!
6. I am going through the bookshelves downstairs. Lots of books are being relegated to plastic containers in the garage, and some are even going to be (gasp!) given away. I need room for more books (although now that I have a Kindle, I won't be taking up TOO much space with more books).
7. I am toying with the idea of painting my coffee table (that has never had coffee on it). It's kinda dinged up and, um, out of style. A paint job might make me like it more.
8. We inherited a piano bench (without the piano) from the neighbors when they moved. It's now sitting under the window in the living room. What shall I put on it? Plants? Succulents maybe? Catnip?
9. I also cleaned my room.
10. The sewing room/office is next.

THE phone call!

We talked to EJ! Jim didn't go to work this morning, so as not to miss the phone call. When my phone buzzed, we ran to answer it, and put it on speaker. I'd heard that putting a cell phone in a cereal bowl boosts the volume, and let me testify (can I get an amen?) that this WORKS. (congregation nods, and says confidently, "Amen!") We heard EJ loud and clear.

We talked about things he was sending home (one of his suits--the one he's had for several years--and the letters he responded to), his new ability to solve a Rubik's cube (this is what he's learned in the MTC?), giving a sacrament prayer in Spanish during church, having a short conversation with Elder Archuleta (small talk--"hello" "how's it going?" "where are you going on your mission"), seeing guys from our ward/stake, some of the devotionals.

He's very excited to be on his way to Mexico. We consider him very lucky, because several elders who were supposed to leave for Tijuana at the end of Feb STILL have not gotten their visas and have been serving in stateside areas for 6-8 weeks already, but EJ and his companion and district leader all got their visas on time and are at the airport now.

I can't wait for the first email!

A time to get, and a time to lose

To everything there is a season.

I have had a good long season of fun family holiday traditions with little children.

Today, some of the traditions were laid to rest. We did not color eggs this year, and we did not participate in hiding eggs and finding them. We did not have Easter baskets (although there was candy and plenty of it).

Now is the season of rest from the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus; the season of rest from little children. I have got my children, and now it is time to "lose" them to adulthood and self-reliance.

I don't mind. We have had fun the last 20 years of keeping up these particular holiday traditions, but it wears thin after a while, and we are getting to be too busy to keep some of them up. I am glad that we have had those times, but I am also glad that when I said, "no baskets this year" no one complained. They were happy that there was candy and that there will be ham and potatoes and pineapple for Easter dinner but the things of childhood are now universally acknowledged to be not necessary.

Matt spoke in church and it sill amazes me that he is old enough to put together a coherent, thoughtful speech. It also amazes me that he has such a deep voice, even after hearing it for nearly a year.

Ignoring the lemon bars

"How can you ignore lemon bars?" I just know you are saying after reading my post title.

Yes, how can I? How can I ignore the sunny yellow and smooth lemony tarty sweet flavor?

Mostly because I haven't baked them yet, silly. I can ignore them good and proper if they aren't there. (I really should be baking)

But I wanted to share something with you. Something so mind-bogglingly, incomprehensively, earth-shatteringly strange that my brain is almost melting just thinking of it.

Click on the image to view it larger. (address crossed out because I felt like scribbling over it in blue). Is this his official graduation party announcement? I don't know. I haven't asked Paul what he thinks of it yet. But that is the date and time for sure because he's already posted it on facebook and INVITED 800 OF HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS. He has no sense of proportion.

PS: I photoshopped two objects out of the picture. I'm pretty pleased with myself for making at least one of the photoshopped elements nearly undetectable. The other one is pretty obvious. Knock
yourself out looking for them.

PPS OK, I am pretty sure this is not the final announcement on account of because* I am pretty sure I misspelled Paul's middle name. It should be spelled "Doug." (heehee, no it shouldn't).  GEEZ, I'm the one who came up with his dang middle name, and I can't even remember how to spell it? This is like the nearly 12 month period when I thought Matt's birthday was the 15th of Oct, not the 14th.

PPSS Nevermind. I spelled it right. Pretty sure. 

*"on account of because"   I like that phrase. Where did we get that? Jenni, I'm asking you.

What I know of EJ

Not much!

Today was supposed to be his P day, but with yesterday's trip to Boise for his visa, I bet the powers that be didn't let him have today off from studying Spanish and the gospel. Which is a total bummer because last week his P day was spent at the dr office and he only got like three seconds to send an email that day. And next week HE'S LEAVING for Tijuana!

We were alerted to the Boise trip late Friday night, when I got a way-too-short email from him saying "So i am flying to boise on monday morning. to sign for my visa at a mexican consolete. Idk if that means i actaully have my visa or not but could you or dad make sure that i have like 200 in my bank card? i know i have had to use it a few times"

So that's what we know. We are assuming the trip to Boise means he for sure got his visa because that's what Jim says happens when missionaries get their visas--they travel to a consulate and sign their visa paperwork in person.

I have to giggle over EJ's spelling of consulate. 

Scorekeeping

The number of people I knew before they published fiction novels has now been officially bumped up to 2.  (And the number of officially published fiction writers who have posted a comment on my blog is now 1)

Anyone who has talked to me about books in the last few years knows my story about one writer (actually the link won't give you the story behind my personal knowledge, it will just tell you who it is), but several months ago, I discovered a link to a lesser known, but still very published, author.

The story goes like this:

Jim and I were on one of my favorite kind of dates: roaming Barnes and Noble. Jim doesn't usually come away with anything, but I usually do--mostly longing for a lot more of the books than I had the guts to say I wanted. Anyway, I was in the sci fi section (one of my favorite sections) when I spotted a name I recognized: Stephen Kent. (There was a middle initial too)

"Hey Jim," I said, "remember Steve Kent?"  (I knew he remembered Steve Kent, so it wasn't actually a memory check so much as it was a command given without the demand)  Steve Kent was a friend of ours from the 2 years we lived in Portland OR. We'd had dinner at his house a couple of times and Steve had asked me to read a non-published book he had written about vampires, which I did. Then we moved to Minnesota and we lost contact.

Jim said, "yeah" and I showed him the book: The Clone Republic.

We wondered if it was the same guy. Just in case, I bought the book (and read it).

After some internet research, which led to finding a picture, our hunch was confirmed.

Recently, Mike (employer and brother, not in that order) mentioned that he'd take book suggestions and that mostly he liked sci fi, preferably futuristic and off-world, and he also liked distopian scenarios. I suggested the Clone series (there are more books than just The Clone Republic).  I've had a report back from Mike, saying that he's enjoying the series.

And yesterday, I decided to post a comment on Stephen L Kent's blog. And he posted one on mine!

I'm cool! (and no, this isn't an April Fool gag)