the Day After

Bye, Bye, Christmas tree...

December Snow

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Ryan's 11th birthday was Thursday (I am a bit slow with the blogging, but you already know that). Toby took the day off and we had planned a day at the Science Center at Ryan's request. He woke up with the flu, though. Jake and Emma were urging Ryan to come downstairs to open his presents first thing in the morning, but Ryan just sat in a chair in our room and stared. Now that's sick! We didn't end up going to the Science Center. He built his new lego set and then spent a good portion of his birthday like this:

He was asked several times during the day if he wanted to have cake now, but he kept saying, "not yet." We finally told him after dinner that it was cake time becuase we were running out of time. Look at the enthusiasm on his face:

Here are the cakes I made for him. The birthday cake has become, for our children, a big decision as it normally represents the child's most significant interest at the time. This was Ryan's choice, after much deliberation. As a budding numismatist (coin collector), he decided the Franklin half-dollar was what he wanted for his birthday cake.

And here's a video of the cake "ceremony." He was a good sport.

Happy Birthday, Ryan. We love you.

Garage Band, the early days

Ryan and Jake, soon to be famous rock stars. It all started here in a messy Redmond garage.

Sweet Jessie, part II

She's sweet, but don't mess with her!

Sweet Jessie

Just a few pictures of Jessie that I really love:

Mr. Peterson

I’m feeling sentimental today, I guess. I feel the need to write a tribute. Usually I just think these sorts of things in my head and don’t ever say them aloud, or write them and save them on my computer, but it occurred to me that other people post this sort of thing on their blog sometimes, so I thought I would go out on a limb and share this one with you all.

I was playing a song on the piano yesterday that I hardly ever play. It was “The Entertainer”, which I learned for a recital in third or fourth grade. I was young, but it is not so simplistic a song that it is no longer fun to play...it is, actually, quite enjoyable. The reason I don’t play it anymore is that I played it so much when I was a kid that my parents and siblings would probably be happy to never hear the song again for the rest of their lives and, feeling a bit bad for making them crazy with it, I gave up the song long ago. I realized yesterday, though, that my husband and kids weren’t there then so they probably wouldn’t mind my playing it...just once or twice...

Here is an amazing thing about the human mind: after hardly even looking at the song for years, my fingers still know it. The song calls for the use of the pedal, which smooths the notes, but I didn’t learn it with the pedal...I think because I couldn’t reach the pedals back then. As I was playing, I thought about Mr. Peterson, who was my piano teacher when I learned this song and how he always stressed the need to play “legato”, smooth and flowing, without breaks between the notes (unless, of course, the music called for “staccato” or it was the end of a phrase). Seeing as how I loved this man, I tried very hard to play legato as he wished. I don’t do this very well now, but I noticed that I was playing legato rather well in this song without even trying...it was part of what my fingers remembered. He told me so many times that if I was going to play the same note twice in a row, to not lift the key all the way up before depressing it again...I am sure I never do this now, because it is not easy, but I was doing it while playing the song I learned under his instruction.

So, I’ve been thinking about Burt Peterson today. I had to stop taking lessons from him after fourth grade when we moved to a different town and I had another piano teacher whom I still love. When Helen Ellingson left for Peru, though, I thought I was ready to be done with piano, but I continued to take lessons for a few more years because of Mr. Peterson. Whenever I thought about quitting, I thought of him and pressed on because I didn’t want to disappoint him. He was an elderly man when I knew him long ago so I imagine he is no longer with us. He probably wouldn’t even remember me if he were, but I will always remember him...and so will my fingers, I guess.

Video by Jake

Here's a good video Jake created that you should email to your friends - you have to listen closely to what he is saying, and pay close attention:

Online Relationships

Why people go through all the effort to put together a ceremony to “renew” their vows, I do not know. It can be so easily done these days with Facebook. Toby just sat me down and told me to respond to his official request to join that I received in email several days ago...and I did. While filling out my profile, he told me he would do something on the website so we’d be listed as married to each other. I was then informed online that Toby Smith would like to add me as “spouse”. I was asked, “Would you like to confirm this relationship?” I had two buttons from which I could choose: “Confirm” or “Ignore”. I thought about it for a minute...and then went ahead and confirmed.

“You are now in a relationship with Toby Smith”, I was told. Simple as that. Could have saved my parents a lot of money on that wedding if there had been Facebook twelve years ago.

Now I’m really laughing. I went back to finish my “profile” and it now says I’m married to Toby Smith and under that it has a place I can click that says “Cancel Relationship”.

I thought about adding my sister, Gail, as my first friend, but it told me she would have to confirm the friendship and I decided the possible rejection was too much for me to bear so I decided to wait.

Each time I am faced with a new technological possibility, I progress through five stages (you saw this happen with the blog):
1. Ignorance
2. Refusal (because these things always seem cheesy to me at first or because "I don't have time.")
3. Reluctant concession (usually for my husband)
4. Enthusiasm
5. Abdication

I’m at stage three so you can probably expect to eventually see more of me on Facebook...and then don’t be surprised when I disappear again.

Happy 9th Birthday, Jake!

Today, Jake turned 9. We were on the last day of our four day vacation, so we did a few things to make it extra special for "DD" (how Jessie pronounces "Jakey"). On the night of the 27th, we ordered pizza in our hotel room, and watched a movie. Jake had special cereal (Pop's) waiting for him when he woke up. He played with new legos for a while, then took a swim, and then we spent the day in Port Townsend, exploring the bunkers of Fort Worden. We had Terriyaki chicken and rice for dinner (his favorite), and there were 5 new license plates waiting for Jake at home.


Happy Birthday, Jake!

Father & Son, part II

Ryan and I had a fun trip to the shooting range this afternoon, with the Hartje's. We shot the .30 carbine, 9mm Pistol, 9mm folding rifle, cowboy .22 six shooter, and wrapped up with a shotgun skeet shooting competition - great way to spend the afternoon (followed by greasy bacon-cheese-burgers of course). How's that for an advertisement of Fall City, Washington :-)

M1 Carbine;

Sig 9mm, 226 (look at that finger discipline, good boy! It's called "indexing").

Single Six revolver;
Kel-Tec 9mm semi-auto

Father & Son Camping Trip

Ryan and I went on a motorcycle camping trip yesterday, we had a great time. It was good to go, just the two of us, and have a simple but fun adventure.

Here's the motorbike - all ready to go

Here's a shot of our campsite:

A boy and four hot dogs - who could be happier?

Hot Dogs for our camping dinner

Isn't life grand?

Perfect for a short haiku

Where we would like to camp if we come here again - we found the remnants of another group at this great spot.

Lots of fun, just what dad and Ryan needed.

Emma Rose at the Skate Park

Emma trying out her new skills at the Redmond skate park. A month of riding around her older brothers has given her great "situational awareness"...

Emma Rides Again

She wanted to show off some tricks - pretty amazing for her third day of riding!

Emma Learns to Ride

Inspired by her older brothers, Emma learns to ride in one afternoon. Two days later, she rode 11 laps around our driveway, and then I got bored of counting :-)

Skate Park, day II

A little more confidence today, thanks to familiarity, and inspiration from some very awesome riders - check it out:

Friday at the Skate Parks

Another (more modern) video of us boys at the parks:

Butch and Etta

Ryan and Emma in a faithful reenactment of the bicycle scene of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: