The End of Wrestling (for the year)

We also went to Everett on Wednesday afternoon for the District Wrestling Tournament.

Their computer system failed, so I ended up running the staging for the tournament.  I didn't see any matches or get any pictures.  But Einstein took 2nd.  They had a tough tournament!  

Lots of medalists.

Wrestling awards were on Thursday and Mariners started on Friday.

Spring is here! 

Happy Spirit Week

Last year I decided that a Spirit Week would be a good way for the students to use all their Spirit Day ideas at Meridian Park.  Turned out to be a pretty stressful, but fun week.  So we did it again this year. 
Skits written (mostly) by students on Mondays during lunch.  Sadly I got no pictures!  It was really fun though.  We got some good laughs, and even had a little choreography at the end!
In the skits we introduce the Spirit Days for the week.
On Tuesday we did "It's Pawsitively Pawesome to be a Cheetah."  I can get a pic of this tomorrow.  Many classes had their kids write on a paw something they love about being a cheetah.  Then we put them up in the halls.  It is really cool what kids wrote.
Wednesday was the Student Store (thankfully I delegated that one away last year)!
Thursday:  Book Character Day

I love reusing Halloween costumes! And, since we just read Peter Pan, it was appropriate that Ben was Captain Hook. His friend Juliet also dressed up!  

I was Robinhood, and Sarah was Cleopatra (we swapped costumes from last Halloween).  Libby was Ginny Weasley I think.  The one thing I learned is that I should wear a cape more often.  I loved it. 

Friday was Cheetah Swag day.  I put a lot of work into making sure we gave out lots of free Cheetah Tattoos and stickers, but I had to do the work before hand and have other teachers help out, because I was at a training.  Boo.  It was a hectic day because Libby ended up going to the dentist (thanks to Grandpa) and having a tooth pulled because her permanent tooth was popping out the side. Then she wanted me to come get her from school because it hurt.  Anyway, it was a busy day, but no pictures!  (And you don't want a picture of the inside of Libby's mouth, trust me!)

SCC Spring Concert

I got to be the Intermezzo Tech Director for the spring concert.  Which meant I only took this one picture because I was being "responsible."  It actually wasn't too hard.  This is a good group of kids.  We moved through the rehearsal and performance without any real hitches.  

I kind of hope I get to be the tech director for their next show at Benaroya Hall!

Ben still isn't sure about the whole choir thing.  But it is so amazing!

I got glasses...

And I'm getting used to them.  It was a rough few days at first.  But it is nice to not have to hunt down readers all the time.  And there is some distance help in the top of my "progressives" too.  Ahhh, aging! 

Fairy Visit

One of Libby's teachers had a clean desk fairy.  I loved this idea and we have had a clean room fairy in our house.  She brings little treats or toys or books occasionally when rooms are clean. 

I found this note from Ben a week or so ago.

Okay, so the fairies have been busy and haven't come for quite some time!

So they came in the night last night after I went to the Disney Store on my outing with Libby yesterday.  I bought a whole Wreck it Ralph set so that the fairies can come visit Ben without any prior planning.  He basically keeps his room clean all the time, so I don't really need this carrot with him.  But I can reward his sweetness and good behavior, right? 

A Furniture Frenzy

Well, finally in March we got the "retro check" (back pay since Seattle PD finally got a new contract).    So I've been busy spending it!  Thankfully our washer (which felt like an earthquake each time it spun) held out until the retro check came.  It started spitting brownish water out from the underside each load.  So we got a new washer dryer set.  It was installed this week.  I literally had to walk into the laundry room multiple times just to see if it was actually working because it was so quiet!  YES! 
Another project....last year I was into a Family Room project when Derek ended up needing surgery and I just stopped.
I had bought a couch I didn't love (maybe actually hated), and I just left it.  I also still needed one more chair to complete the room.

The old chair situation

Walking through Fred Meyer last week I found this awesome couch.  It was the right color, size, depth, softness, and it was on SALE!  Wahoo!  Replaced the hated couch.  

The red bench is dying, the pleather is flaking off.  So that's on my list too. One (or I guess last week 2 things) at a time.  

The leather chair on in the first picture had to go because, while lovely, when you sit in it, you gradually slide off onto the floor.  So uncomfortable.  I love the chair on the right.  But I found it at Home Goods and they only had 1.  So I finally made an IKEA run last Saturday and bought the Strandmon chair of a similar color.  Loving the comfort. 

  Come on over!  The family room is now comfy!

Backup your DATA!

So this is a short blog post to explain why I didn't blog last week.  I'm in deep mourning.  For a hard drive.  That I thought was backing up to a backup drive.  And it wasn't.  We have handed it off to a pro to see if he can get our data back.  And by data, I mean all the pictures I have taken since 2007.  All the videos.  All the Les Mills releases.  All the music.  Everything except our documents. 
Thankfully I have dutifully uploaded the pictures to Shutterfly every month or so.
Some of the videos are on youtube. 
And thankfully I'm not teaching Les Mills right now, so it's not an immediate crisis.
And I'm still holding out hope that the pro will be able to salvage our data.
But seriously.  The backup drive that I bought and set up in 2016--I NEVER made sure it was working.  So, it never backed up.  Since 2016.  What an oversight!
Not going to happen again to this girl.
Monthly double checks on backups. Paying for backup to the cloud maybe? 
Thankful for Shutterfly and photobooks and calendars that have had me uploading regularly.  And thankful to my blog that has had me recording everything as we go along.
Anyway, have you backed up your computer today?
Sob. 

One Flamingo and One Zebra!

The drama club at Meridian Park puts on a really good show!  I was impressed with Dandylion Drama.  Even with almost 2 weeks of cancelled practices due to snow, they still put on a great show!  They built the set in our garage, and it was amazing to see the plywood become Pride Rock.

Libby got a little solo in the opening song.  I almost missed it because I had to get my Para-educator started on some work.  But I caught some of it on video.

I went to the show on Friday, the first night with Ben, Grandma & Grandpa, and Aunt Maren.

Derek went last night.  I think after they cleaned up and had the cast party, it was pretty late.  They are going to be pretty worn out tomorrow.  But I think they will say that it was worth it!

First Week Back

I came home from Utah on Saturday, in time to make my copies for the week (including student council meeting), hit the grocery store, and do some cleanup at home.
Sunday was pretty restful thankfully.  Because Monday was "hit the ground running" week.  Finally, after 3 weeks of no school (basically) we were back in business.  It was hard to figure out where kids would be after all that time off.  But we actually had a pretty good week! 
I looked at my photos for the week, and they are mainly of receipts for Rhinos purchases since we had our Rhinos End of Season Splash yesterday (where I took no pictures!  yikes).  And I had my second to last board meeting as president.

We had a great turnout.  I am excited to hand the board off to the awesome people I have worked with this year--and a few new additions (hopefully, fingers crossed we will get a few more).

Mom Comes Home

The day after Presidents' Day I flew to Utah to be there with my mom for the rest of Mid-Winter Break.  I wanted to take all of us, but I didn't check out plane tickets in time and they got way too expensive.  So I thought we could drive.  Then weather.  Yuck.  So I just decided to fly down by myself.  It was a good idea.  while my  mom would have loved to see the kids, since they weren't there I was free to cook, clean and organize to help her feel ready to be back home.
The first day I got on the plane excited that she might even be with my dad in the car when they picked me up.  By the time I arrived, they knew there was a hiccup with the insurance.  They needed to approve a take home wound vac.  And they hadn't approved it yet.  Despite many calls (even my dad called them), and long hours hanging out in the hospital, it was clear by 5pm that they weren't going to approve it that day.
My mom was pretty darn discouraged.  What a stupid technicality!
So instead of approving the wound vac that day, they had to pay for one more night in the hospital!  So lame.
We took her for dinner and ice cream in the cafeteria to drown our sorrows.  What a frustrating day.
But, on Wednesday morning, things started rolling.  The wound vac approval came in first thing.  The insurance called my dad and the hospital to let them know she was good to go.  It took until about 10:30 am, and we were rolling out the door.

The Rehab floor announces when a patient is leaving the floor--and they do a "victory lap."  The nurses play the song the patient chose and everyone comes out to cheer for them.  It was a really emotional moment for all of us!  I was bawling like a baby while I was filming.  The song she chose was "Brave" by Sara Barielles.  And I tell you what--my mom has been Brave through all of this!

Some of her friends from the gym put up yellow ribbons on every possible telephone pole and mailbox on the way home.  Yellow balloons and a yellow welcome home poster on the door.  It was so amazing!  (I am tearing up now just writing about it.)
My dad and I picked up Cafe Rio for lunch and a whole bunch of prescriptions for her (mostly vitamins they want her to take to try to build her system back up.)
And then I got busy.  I cleaned out and organized the pantry, the fridge, the freezer, the window seat, and lots of cabinets.  I made meals, and brought them to her, or helped her come down for them.  I helped her to the bathroom (although after a day she was confident enough carrying the wound vac to get there on her own mostly).  I stood next to her to lend support as she went up and down the stairs.  I even gave her her IV antibiotic a couple of times.  Right before I left I even helped her run through some of her PT exercises.  It was really hard to leave.
It was an amazing week for me to be there with her.  She inspires me.  And I felt like I was really of service to her.
This trial has been such a huge challenge.  I am glad to be moving through and see her feeling so much better.
The next step is for her wound to fully close (and it's pretty close) so she can be wound vac free--and this would also be antibiotic free!
Hug the people you love!

Happy Presidents' Day!

Only a few weeks late blogging about it.
We made our traditional trek to UW campus to see "George" aka the statue of George Washington.

 They look a bit bigger than they did on our first visit to George in 2012.  Although they were again a bit confused about why we were visiting George (It's his birthday? What!?)

 Statue posing in the Suzzallo stairwell.

They were very excited to see the reading room (as usual), but Libby actually wanted to look for a book (the Shakespeare play Cleopatra and Antony) and they really wanted to go to Starbucks.
They loved having a late lunch on the Ave.  (Especially Ben because apparently he hadn't eaten since breakfast at it was pretty late by the time we ate.)

One interesting thing I noted this time around, is that the books that fill the shelves in the Suzzallo library are not barcoded or cataloged for checkout.  I wonder about how they were chosen to be there.  It is a very random smattering of all kinds of books.  And I guess they just sit there--because you can't check them out.  I'd love to know more about them!  They must have something in common?  Maybe all donated by the same person?  Maybe each professor gets to pick a book that he/she thinks is important?  A fun mystery.  Maybe I'll have time to figure it out by next year.