One BIG step for mankind

My son is a picky eater. Vance will only eats a handful of foods -- breaded chix nuggets, Mac & cheese, peeled & sliced apples, bananas, Danimal yogurt, Tillmook French Vanilla yogurt, bread, peanut butter and nutella. That is about it.

While on the way home from Nebraska, he gobbled a Beyer's yogurt with oreo cookie crumbs.

Today, he said he wanted a sandwich like Zoie. She has butter and jelly. He elected for peanut butter & jelly. "Strawberry" he shouted. After making Zoie's sandwich, I asked him to come in and help me make the sandwich. God only knows if I would have made it, it would have been wrong and he would have gotten mad.

So, he tried to put the peanut butter on the bread. He let me help. Then, I set aside that piece of bread and got another slice for the jelly. "No" he says. He puts the 2nd slice on top of the other slice and spoons on the jelly. I chuckled to myself, but it was his way. While spooning the jelly he had to taste it. "This is good" he said with a smile. I was so excited -- this may be the beginning of new foods. He always studies "new" food, but politely says "no thank you".

I made sure there was jelly touching all of the bread (including the corners) before I handed it to him and sent him back to the big table.

I kept an eye on him. Sure enough, he gobbled the sandwich while watching Oswold. Zoie, the growing 6 year old, had her sandwich done before Vance started and needed a 2nd one.

I thought to myself "How will I put that type of sandwich in a container for him to take to school without messing it up?"

Arya is always in the action! She too wanted a sandwich after Vance was done. She nearly stuck her head in the jar trying to lick the peanut butter.

Life on the road

An insight to my life with 3 small children in the motorhome for nearly 3 weeks.

My mom usually makes breakfast and I make lunch and dinner. For this breakfast, the kids got pancakes that spelled their names.

Since it is hot out, the kids often enjoy just hanging out in the air conditioned motorhome watching Noggin or a movie.

Pizza night . . Yes, I made pizza in the motorhome.

Vance loves trucks and tractors. These trucks were Uncle Paul's -- I put the unicorn sticker on the blue truck. Notice the blue truck is missing a wheel, but Vance still loves to play with it. We have lots of rocks for him to use to fill up his trucks and play.

Univ of Nebraska

We visisted the Univ. of Nebraska and their Dairy Store. At their East Campus, the school focuses on Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. We had great ice cream and visited their tractor museum. The school does alot of testing for tractors.

Check out Zoie's "spacey" smile. She lost her first tooth before we left.

Arya hiding in a vintage tractor -- the first one with a cab.

Although Vance was excited to go to the tractor musuem, he got shy and hid once we were there. I gave him my camera to take pictures after about 10 minutes and that helped ease his nerves. There are not many pixs of me -- so enjoy.

Event #1

Well, I travelled 1600 miles and did not do well in my first event. I did OK, but here OK is not good enough. There were 25 skaters in the event and I ended up in 15th with scores of 14, 4, and 18 from each judge. The skater holding first going into the finals had scores of 2,2,1 and the girl in 2nd scored 3,3, 19. Another skater got 13,11, 1. Disappointing, but I have never skated that event at nationals. I skate again on Thursday, August 5th. So from now until then, I will practice, practice, practice. I like to skate at the national practice "rink", which is a travel national floor laid in the hockey arena on the fairgrounds with no air conditioning. I have been skating from 5-6:30am so it is "cooler", like 78 degrees rather than 95+ degrees. Then I have been skating in the afternoon at the airconditioned rink with the coaches. I WILL do better in the next event. Stay tuned :)

I have pictures taken of us but I can't find the cord right now for the computer.

We are staying at a GREAT place -- Camp-A-way, pool, playground, swings, very shading, quiet (except for the bugs), lots of skaters, trees.

We are doing fine but miss our family. See you soon.

Watch me skate!

During the next 2 weeks you will be able to watch the National Figure Skating Championship in Lincoln, Nebraska. The website is skatersplace.com and here is a list of times and events I will compete in:

Monday, July 26 @ 7:15am Open Womens Loops Elimination
Wednesday, July 28 @ 7:00am Open Womens Loops Final
Saturday, July 31 @ 1 pm Senior Precision Team Final
Thursday, August 5 @ 11:30am Novice A Women Figures Elimination
Friday, August 6 @ 1pm Premier Gold Women Figures Elimination
Saturday, August 7 @ 11:25am Novice A Women Figure Final
Sunday, August 8 @ 8:45am Premier Gold Women Figure Final

I will keep you posted about my performance and placements.

Ta Da!

Zoie goes to Camp Kirby!!

On Wednesday, we dropped off Zoie at Camp Kirby on Samish Island. It is her first overnight camp and it is 3 nights and 4 days. This is the camp I worked at as a counselor and assistant director. It was a strange feeling at drop off time to leave my oldest child with 2 strangers . . but it is exactly what other parents would do with me . . they would leave their child with me for a week to enjoy nature and play on the island. Zoie was not scared or nervous; she was ready to just play on her bottom bunk (although she has a top bunk at home, I insisted she have a bottom bunk. I did not want a call in the middle of the night that she fell out onton the concrete floor). So Vance, Arya and I just headed out to visit friend who also works there.

I know she is having a great time. It is been strange without her . . and Vance keeps asking when we will go get her. And while she has been gone, I rearranged the kids bedrooms so she has her own room, something that has not happened for about 2 years. I can't wait to get her tomorrow morning after skating. :)

Vance

I bought 9 boxes of cereal at the grocery store (of course they were on sale!). Vance quietly lined them up across the kitchen and described them and compared their sizes.

Arya

My little girl is growing up very quickly! Finally she is out of the crib and sleeping all night and napping in the big kid bed. She is in Zoie's old top bunk that has a rail attached to it. Arya and Vance now share a room and Zoie has her own room in the front of the house.

Regionals 2010

Upon Marissa's request, I finally viewed the videos of my skating from Portland. In the past, I have been nervous. But on this day, I was totally cool, calm, and focused. I was ready. Thus, I won, and won, and won. The event you are watching is the one that I beat the 2 time National Champion. I think she was shocked, to say the least.

This event is called figures. Each skater skates 3 different figures, tracing (or trying to) a thin black line, doing various turns forwards and/or backwards. Although it may look easy, it is hard and takes lots of concentration.

Arya gets a timeout

Arya hides her eyes after getting a timeout for throwing a toy.

More Graduation and Vacation pictures

Our Trip to Wyoming

My mom and I and my 3 kids travelled to Wyoming (Yellowstone & Casper) last week to see our family friend, Meghan, graduate from high school. Mom's new motorhome was a great travelling partner. Despite rain, snow, and cold weather, it was a fun trip for everyone.

Vance talked non stop during the 2 hour graduation cermony -- trying to repeat the graduate's names and telling stories and asking questions and telling me that he was ready to go.

AJ & the Harmonica

Auburn Skating Meet

"I'm the winner"

From an episode of Wow Wow Wubbzy, www.wubbzy.com, the little cartoon character creates the Wubbzy shuffle and song when he wins the games against friends. . . Well, "I'm the winner" this weekend.

I won all 3 of my skating events at the Northwest Invitational in Auburn, April 10-11.

I won Novice A Women figures. I won Classic A Women Figures. And Open Women Loops.
Although I won all 3 events, I have lots of practice in the next 9 weeks before the Northwest Regional Championship in Portland in late June. If you place in the top 3 at regionals, you qualify to go to Nationals in August. Despite not skating for 4 years, my goal is to win both Novice and Open Loops. I have the potential, I just can't get nervous. I have to compete like I practice.

This was also Zoie's first competition. She placed 4th in figures and 2nd in freestyle. She did go good. We were all proud of her. Had she not put her foot down for an extra push in figures, she might have placed higher.

And Vance, he did not skate. But he did great for being 3. Getting up at 5am and hauled to the rink to just hang out. He couldn't even play the video games cause they weren't on. He managed and went to bed at 4pm.

Big thanks to my mom and Paul for helping with Vance and Zoie at the meet. And to Bill and Jean for keeping Arya for the weekend. And love to Ty for coming down to watch Zoie, despite working early Saturday morning, riding down and back and working again Sunday morning. Farming does not know weekends.

I'll post pixs and video later.

Everything else . . . .

I was trying to photograph all 3 kids, but Arya was too interested in Zoie's ring pop.

And below, trying to get all 3 of them to stand together in the tulips was impossible.

Zoie had this breakfast ready for me when I returned home from skating on Saturday morning.

Ferry ride home from Bremerton. Ty and I took just Vance for the weekend. It was fun.

Vance's skating skills have improved drastically in the past 3 months. Yes, he has pajamas on. He had come with me to my skating practice in his pj's, then did not change before the Easter party.