Shorewood's Final Record

Shorewood lost a tough match to Edmonds Woodway on Tuesday.  Before the match we had no hopes of winning.  Like none.  But then, as the match progressed, we did so well. We came so close!  We gave up so many 3rd round pins--after having EW wrestlers on their backs!  It was stressful and draining.

One of our wrestlers ended up with a broken nose.

But Thursday went much better.  We beat Meadowdale at home for Senior Night.

Shorewood wrestling wins on Senior Night to finish second in WesCo South

Let's go T-Birds!

 There were 5 Seniors on the team this year.  They will be missed!

Shorewood Victories!

Shorewood took 2nd in the Shoreline invite!
http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2018/01/shorewood-takes-close-second-in-2018.html

Shorewood Beat Mountlake Terrace in an intense match.  The atmosphere was really tense.  It was silent in the room...then loud.  We had the really terrible ref.  Libby told Derek, "You did really well, even though you were a tomato head the whole time."
http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2018/01/shorewood-wrestling-pulls-off-victory.html


Shorewood beat Shorecrest for the 8th time in a row.  Go T-birds!
http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2018/01/shorewood-wrestling-extends-dominance.html

Then they went to a tournament at Raymond HS--a travelling tournament! (They slept on a the gym floor after a dual on Friday night).  They took 2nd in tournament!

Lots of trophies this year so far! 2 tough matches this week, then on to the postseason!

Sometimes It's Hard...

To be a police officer.
Derek's squad faced a tough decision this week.  They chose to go into a burning house to try to rescue a woman.  They found the woman, and brought her body out of the house.  But she was already gone, and it was the most horrific crime scene Derek had ever witnessed.  Derek and his squad were treated for minor smoke inhalation and released from the hospital.  But it will take time to heal from the emotional trauma from seeing such a gruesome crime.  Thankful for a supportive PD that provides counselling and understanding. Thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that has given him strength to keep going, and healing.  Thankful for the peace and safety of our friends and family.
Give your loved ones a big hug.

Derek made the news...had to buy lunch for his squad. 

Another surgery?

So I've been having pain in my wrist and shoulder since the summer.  I kind of felt like they were tied together.  It is only most painful if I put pressure in my wrist, like pushups, down dog, etc.  So I quit doing yoga.  (Sad). 

My physical therapist felt like there was some inflammation in the wrist causing the bones in my hand not to glide properly under my radius and ulna. So I was comparing my wrists a few days later and noticed this guy pop up.  A cyst.  I got it checked out and had an ultrasound.  This isn't a cyst that they can drain.  So I need to have a consult with a hand surgeon.  Frustrating.  But worth it if I can get back to yoga and have less pain in my shoulder because the alignment is off.

A Birthday Marathon

Libby has declared that I am not just celebrating a birthday, but having a birthday marathon.  After my amazing weekend last year in Vegas celebrating with my friends, I decided that I need that every year.  So this year Emmi and I went to Minnesota to bring a baby shower to Jen.
It was SO FUN.
Emmi's flights took her through Seattle, so I flew Delta so I could fly with her.  Miraculously, on both of the flights, the person sitting next to her on our "completely full flight" didn't make it.  So we got to sit together both flights. 
The entire weekend was about catching up with two of my favorite women on the planet.  And it was perfect. 

Emmi and I both got a good chuckle over this sign.  

My two pregnant friends!  I had a dream that first night that I was pregnant too. Yikes!  I was happy to wake up from that one. We stayed in a hotel in Minneapolis that first night.  We walked outside and I couldn't believe the cold.  It almost makes it hard to breathe.  But it was refreshing.  For a minute.  Then we rushed inside as fast as we could!  We ate at the Newsroom for dinner on Friday night and at Hell's Kitchen for brunch on Saturday.  The food was awesome!  

Then we went to the temple.  It was a Spanish session with English subtitles.  That was a fun experience.  

 We then went to Jen's house to spend the rest of the weekend with the whole Bromley clan.  Jen is rocking being the mother of 5 (soon to be 6)!  She made us amazing food.  We talked and talked and talked and stayed up super late (I was thankful that it was 2 hours earlier for me)!  Jen made us some super yummy salmon that I am going to try and duplicate for my birthday dinner today.

Emmi brought us some Korean face masks.  I did the snail one.  Yucky, and yet amazing! 

We look a little scary! 

This is the de-icer working to prepare our plane for takeoff.  It was 7 degrees in MN when we left.  It was 64 when I got home to Seattle, a record setting high!  

It was a great weekend.  I paid for it all week by being extra tired, but it was worth it!  I love my girls!

On my actual birthday my kids and students made me feel really loved.  (Even though I managed to kill 90% of the class fish the night before...Oops.  Thankfully they had some extra.)

Derek went out of town with his wrestlers, and I had to go to the dentist.  So I came home and made pancakes and eggs for the kids.  They were disappointed that I didn't have a cake or anything (but I was too numb in my mouth to want to eat anything anyway). 
But on Saturday Maren came through.  We went to Costco and bought the dining set I've been wanting, and got a cake.  She took us out to Olive Garden and then we ate the cake and played Sorry.  I even WON!  A nice birthday treat.  Derek is home today, so we will have a little family celebration with a salmon dinner.  I actually love stretching out my birthday.  It's nice. 

You can't see it on here, but there are 22 candles, along with the number 82.  There wasn't a 4 or a 1, so they went with double the number.  HA!  I hope 82 feels this good! 

The kids all helped me blow them out, so we can all get a wish! 

MP Wrestling Rhinos

Last year we started a branch of the Wrestling Rhinos at Meridian Park.  Our amazing PE teacher used to be a wrestler.  So last year I had to go to practice 2x a week as "Coach Trish."  I worked with the kindergarten group.  This year we did it again.  I was so stressed about how I would find time to be at practice 2x a week after school.  Luckily, a bunch of dads came through (especially because the PE teacher's wife had a baby and he missed the last 2 weeks of practice).  Most days we had 3 or 4 dads at practice helping.  So I got to work in my classroom and handle things more administratively.  Whew!

We had a great turnout for the season.  Ben didn't love it...especially because we didn't open the club to kindergarten since we have 9 kindergarten classes.  So once again, he was the smallest kiddo.  But overall it was amazing.  Shorewood came down and helped with practice a few times too. 

This was from a Rhino Scrimmage at EW in December.  We got in lots of wrestling this year! 

Shorewood at MP Rhinos

Libby didn't wrestle this year.  She didn't want to miss her Wednesday playdate with her friend Christine, and I think she just doesn't want to wrestle with boys at this point.  But at the end of season scrimmage, she got to wrestle a bit and thinks she wants to come back.  Sarah, on the other hand, thinks this was her last season. 

Ben liked the Einstein Rhino practice better, there were more kids his size.  But he kept at it.  Love this face.  Tough guy Bennie. 

 Our end of season scrimmage was at the Shorewood Shorecrest Match on Thursday night.  We had a huge turnout!  It was so fun!  Ben and Sarah both struggled in their matches, but it is fun to see so much energy in the sport. Derek said he has 6 incoming Rhinos for his Einstein team this year. Finally my hard work with youth wrestling is paying off!

Libby's first Band Concert

All 5th and 6th grade students play an instrument in the band or orchestra in our district.  (I love this, because it is my planning time!)  The teachers have the kids try out all the instruments and the best fit for Libby was the clarinet.  I was so happy it is not the cello, or french horn, or something else huge.  

Until the Christmas piano recital, our focus had to be entirely on piano.  Then we let Libby quit piano to focus on clarinet. 

A huge bonus is that Emma, Libby's cousin, plays the clarinet and loves it!  So she has been giving lessons to Libby on most Fridays after school.  Libby is actually starting to sound good!  Less squeaking/squawking.  More notes. 

For the first concert, I had very low expectations.  I mean I know how much Libby practices, and how much my students DO NOT do very much homework at home.  But they actually sounded quite good--considering.  

(The orchestra played a few songs by plucking, and they sounded great doing that.  Ben and Sarah have decided they will do orchestra for sure.  When the orchestra used their bows, however, they sounded about like the band.)  

We went out to dinner beforehand because we needed a quick meal. (We were also hosting Japanese Junior National Team Coaches that night--it was a complicated week.)  And Libby forgot her instrument.  So Derek had to bring it over.  Par for the course this year. 

Libby and her bestie Stella in matching striped dresses.  

Side note on the dress Libby is wearing.  She took it into the fitting room, but didn't try it on (and didn't tell me that).  She just had me buy it.  Then she didn't want to wear it because it didn't look like it would fit.  URGH!  I am never buying her clothes again (I said, but of course I can't actually do this).  So I forced her to put it on.  And low and behold, it fits and looks great.  Sigh.

Enjoy the Journey

Usually I make lots of individual goals for the year.  I write them in my journal, I try to revisit throughout the year and accomplish them by the end of the year.  2017, I unexpectedly went back to work and my life changed.  A lot.  And for the better!  I love teaching, and I'm glad to be back.  I'm glad it's working to be a mom and a teacher.  But I realized, when it came time to set goals, that this year what I really needed was a mantra.  And overarching theme for my year that would set the tone, or that I could use as a measuring stick when trying to decide if I should do something or not.

Ready for it?
My theme is Enjoy the Journey.

I am a finisher.  I just want to get things done.  And sometimes it really makes my life less fun!  So, this theme allows me to recognize that it is journey--something that can't be done in a minute or even an hour, or even a day.  And if something is worth doing, it is okay if it takes time.  So, when I decide this year if I want to do something or not, I will ask myself, is this something that I will enjoy doing (not just enjoy finishing)?  And if it is something I have to do, I will ask, how can I make this journey more enjoyable?

I want to do some more PT and fix a few health things going on.  (Like my wrist that has some kind of weird bony growth causing pain, my weird shoulder thing, and of course my hip, etc.)  I ask myself, even though it is annoying to deal with this, healing is something that will help me enjoy the journey so I should get on with it!  Make that Dr. appt., PT appt., and do it!

Anyway, there is a daunting home project facing me.  Daunting because I don't have much time for it.  But I want to get it done.  So I was in the midst of getting started with it when I decided on my mantra.  I have had to grit my teeth a few times and tell myself that I am enjoying this.  But I am going to continue to work at it, and be okay with the fact that it is going to take time to get it done.

Here are the dominos that started this project.  Both things that I didn't anticipate causing this much work.
1.  We moved the piano into the ballroom.  This created a void that Derek and I disagreed what to do with.  (Remember that when we got the piano we spent several thousand dollars redoing the laundry room so I could relocate the coats and shoes that the piano displaced...so I should blame the piano.)  Trying to fill this void we went furniture shopping.  Which led me to domino #2.
2.  I found a new couch for the sunroom.  Once the new couch was in that room, I could no longer tolerate the paint in the room (or the exposed cords from the reclining couch.  Who knew the leather wouldn't go all the way to the floor.  I didn't think to look at that in the store.

I called in some professional help.  One of my best friends has a sis-in-law who is a designer.  She gave me some expert advice--lots.  But since she is in UT and is working with me remotely, I had to try to use her help remotely to get a new paint color.  I thought painting both spaces the same color would help the two spaces flow since they are right next to each other.  This is such a long story, but to make it short, let's just say that I thought I could be a gray paint person.  I really tried.  But I'm not a gray person.  I'm a tan person.  And it took 12 samples and painting the entire kitchen gray before I realized it.
Once Libby saw the new taupe color she said, "Mom, I'm so glad you realized you are not a gray person!"

This is the fabric I chose for curtains in the sunroom.  I love it.  But it was hard to choose a gray that went with it.  

And this carpet in the sunroom is all wrong for all these colors.  So basically, the carpet is going to have to go.  But not now.  Later.  The Journey.  It is fun, right? 

The first 9 samples.  Underneath you can see the only new thing I had bought for the family room.  The carpet to join the two sides of the room, the one where the piano had been and the one where the couch was sitting.  Anna, my designer helped me realize that I get a big carpet to join the two spaces.  Since it is our main walkway in and out of the house, it will probably get dirty pretty quickly.  I got a busy one with lots of color to help hide stains.  

Try, try again! 

One other thing in Anna's plan for the room is a barn door.  The main problem with that was the intercom system box that was in the way.  I felt intimidated about trying to remove it.  But I took it off, consulted the electrician next door and was able to remove it and patch the hole! 

Thought I had a winner.

But after I put it up, I just knew that it wasn't me.  And it didn't go with anything else in the house!



So, I went back to the drawing board and looked for something with more brown in it.

So this is the new family room.  No intercom.  A nice taupe color.  And a beautiful rug. The life-organizing stuff that used to be in this room moved to where the laundry room door used to be.   And this is how the room is going to stay for awhile.  I'll probably put the green couch back while I couch and chair shop.  But it might take awhile. And that is okay.  Because I am [trying to] enjoy the journey and to be okay with an unfinished project. 

This is the new sunroom. I built this little organizer for behind the couch out of those Christmas boxes.  They were 75% off, and I covered up the Santa's coming to town part with orange scrapbook paper.   It'll be for books, magazines, pillows and throws.  It also looks terrible with the carpet.  Ugh.  Remember, it's the journey! 

The new comfy couch in the Sunroom.  Selling the old one on Craigslist was quite the journey too.  I think I'm just going to take everything I don't want to the DI from now on.  

When I went to the spa on NY Day to read over my goals from 2017 and set my new mantra driven goals I realized that I had set a goal to paint to sunroom in 2017.  How nice that I was about to accomplish that goal! 

Anyway, updates to come, hopefully in 2018 I'll finish and have two fun, comfy, warm and welcoming spaces.  But not just to finish.  I'll finish having had fun doing the painting and shopping and refurnishing the space!