First Grade First Day

We did our annual "Back to School Shopping Extravaganza" several weekends ago in which each of the kids got to pick out a brand new outfit and shoes from Target. Considering my kids are raised in 90% thrift store finds and hand-me-downs, this is always a big event. I had to bite my tongue on both Jake and Faith's picks- skull shoes for him and Dora shoes for her. But they were so excited to get to wear them this morning.

We walked Jake to school together. Jake rode his scooter and Brian and I pulled the other kids in the wagon. There was a lot of excitement and some nervousness- especially when the principal announced at the flag salute that parents were not supposed to walk inside with the kids, but rather to say goodbye outside. Luckily there were no tears.

I saw several friends that I haven't seen in the last few weeks who asked me when I would be starting MY first day- and I had to fill them in on my return to Apangea and the demise of my teaching position at Rolling Hills. Although I was really bummed when the change in plans occurred, I was so grateful today that I was able to go with the entire family and drop Jake off, pick him up, and get to have that quality time with the kids. That wouldn't have been possible had I been teaching.

Brian and I picked Jake up at 3:15 and took him to the Merc for a First Day of School treat. He told me that he loves his teacher and made a new friend named Gabe. Should be a good year!

Just Like Old Times

We took my mom up to Lucky Peak to go water skiing on Saturday. It was like a 2nd generation ski trip complete with Corona (I don't think they sell Lucky Beer anymore) and Jimmy Buffet. My mom was 36 years old when they bought their first boat and Kim and I were 5- big difference being that her other two kids were 14 and 16, not 2 and 3! That difference became obvious when a half hour after we arrived Tanner announced that he had to poop. We had to take him all the way back to the dock to the toilets there. It will be a tad bit easier when the kids are a little older but man is it fun right now, too.

The kids were so excited to go on the boat again. They are really comfortable on it now and pretend to "wake board" while holding onto our refrigerator handle. It's pretty funny to watch Tanner and Faith as they take turns skiing and holding the flag. The skier will fall down and yell "Skier down!" and the other one puts up a pretend flag.They all tried their hand at "real" wake boarding" this weekend where in they got into the bindings on the beach, held onto a ski rope, and Brian ran along the dock while I steadied the board in the water. Faith wasn't so thrilled with this experience after the first time she fell in headfirst. Jake loved it, though, and Tanner enjoyed it so long as dad went slow.

I got some crystal clear water to ski on and it felt just like the old days. Smooth as glass. The sore muscles two days later are well worth it. Brian came so close to getting up on the wake board and I am sure once he adjusts the bindings he will be jumping the wakes. We are going up next weekend with Kim, Bill, and the kids and can't wait.

On the ride back to the dock Faith was true to form and fell fast asleep on Grandma's chest. Different Grandma... same position.

All in all a GREAT day. I am so glad we got to share it with my mom.

The Richard E. Simonich Memorial Vegetable Garden

So, this was the first year we got a garden planted (so named for my Grandfather, who got one planted every year, in every spare square inch he had). It's been pretty cool, although there has been a learning curve. I'm planning to do it again next year, but need to remember to do some things differently so I'm writing them down here.

1. Don't start with seedlings - everything I started from seedlings died either before I got it in the groud or right after.

2. Plant Beefsteak and Roma tomatoes. I don't even remember what I did plant. We have gotten a few, and they have been good, but next year I'll plant some I know.

3. You need a harvest of more than a green bean or so a day to make beans worthwhile to plant. Next year, on beans, "go big or go home".

4. Don't plant corn, buy corn. We have two corn stalks that came up, if we're lucky we'll get an ear before the frost kills them.

5. Fix the sprinkler down the end so the peas don't shrivel up and die (see also applicable green bean advice on the pea crop).

6. Get some major tomato cages, the little one's suck and don't hold up to the wind. Also get some stakes for the heavy, tall plants.

7. Shoot any birds that you see anywhere near your plants.

It was a fun year and I think the kids will be more into it next season so we'll do it again. Even though it's not cost effective for what we got (or really could get, even if everything came in), I do think it's cool to do. If you add in the educational aspect, along with the environmental one (and the educational aspect of that) I don't think I wasted my time....

Bedtime Chaos

Bedtime has never been easy in our house. When Jake was 3 months old I remember him crying and crying in his crib. When he was 18 months I remember sitting against his door inside his room and having him throw a screaming fit while hitting Brian with a wet diaper. When he was 4 he slept on our floor for months.

Faith used to be our champion sleeper but lately she cries and calls out and wants us constantly from the time we put her to bed until morning- which comes way too early still.

Tanner is doing OK right now, but still has the occasional fit at bedtime- usually sparked by some conflict with Jake or just simply from being too tired.

Jake remains our biggest culprit. He's six and a half years old. When will this battle end? Lately it has been him calling down stairs (literally) 20-40 times a night just to "check if we are still here". He will call out ANYTHING to get a verbal response to ensure we haven't left him. Where did this insecurity come from????? (OK... anyone who knew me as a child you can just zip it!).

On Tuesday we came up with a plan. We took two pictures of ourselves- one of us sitting on our couch reading/watching TV and one of us sleeping (staged, of course). We wrote on the back of each one: "Yes, we are still here. Yes, we love you. Yes, we will see you in the morning" and laminated them. They hang next to him in bed as a reference and a way to possibly get him to STOP. Does this child need therapy???

We are at our wits end (hence the quote at the top of our blog this week).

Since he has been born I have read every book on sleeping habits of children that I can get my hands on and even resorted to reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle "The Never Want to Go To Bedders Cure" the other day. Seriously... I am that desperate. Please send chocolate, large amounts of caffeine, and possibly some hard alcohol (I'm not sure if that last one would be for me or for Jake).

Guitar God

It's All a Blur....

Where did the time go???

I rushed back from my HS reunion on Sunday morning in time to take pictures- Phil had hired a professional photographer for the family reunion here. It was quite a crew and we are looking forward to seeing the group shots, as well as the shots of our individual family. With the photo shoot completed we hung out the rest of the day and evening with the cousins- most of them playing an impromptu game of soccer. Jake was funny because he plays so well for his age and also gets sportsmanship so when his big cousins started to play unfair he stood right up to them (all 46 inches and 42 pounds of him!) to argue his point. He almost got into a fist fight with one of them , but when they had both calmed down he walked up to him, shook his hand, and apologized. Sometimes he baffles us with how mature he can be in situations.

Everyone slept late this morning then we headed out on the lake where all three kids tried their hands at driving the boat with Brian. It is a fairly new boat (the rental) and drives really nicely. The kids all fed the ducks off the dock, threw ice off the dock for awhile, and played some more soccer until the heat became too much. Faith fell asleep on the way to lunch and although neither TJ or Jake slept, they are both exhausted and ready to go home, even though neither one would admit it!

We had such a fantastic trip- met lots of new friends/family, had some great adventures, and are so thankful to Phil for making it all happen. Time of departure: 3AM. We should be home tomorrow evening in time for dinner. Wish us luck!

Clear Lake Day Five

Today was the biggest day, group wise of the trip. All my Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Assorted Other Family showed up and we packed the place. In addition, there was a bass fishing tournament hosted by the tackle shop next to the hotel. They did the final weigh in on the lawn of the hotel, so all of the kids got to see the size of fish that you can catch if you know what you're doing (and have 50 or 60 thousand dollars invested in a state of the art bass boat with a fish finder etc.). The biggest bass was 9.5 lbs and was HUGE in comparison to all of the stuff that the kids have been catching this week, so they were in awe and really enjoyed watching that. After that....right back down to the docks to try to land the "big one".

Today Marisa was off to her 20 year high school reunion in Saratoga so she is gone overnight and will be back tomorrow for photos and the last couple of days here. The kids and I went out for a ride around the lake after breakfast in the ski boat and they took another "family style" nap. This time I pushed the two queen beds together and we all four slept in the gigantic result. The kids are so worn out and exhausted that I had to wake Tanner and Faith up at 4:00, for fear they would sleep right thru. The kids kept me busy all day. They met all the relatives, played, ate and generally just MOVED all day long.

Dinner was BBQ chicken and Tri-Tip which Uncle Bill cooked and it was just delicious (thanks Bill). We sat around the campfire and reminisced, talked, roasted marshmallows and just had a grand old time until the kids just fell apart, which was my cue to head off to bed. I have to sign off now, the kids are waiting for me to sleep in the big bed and Tanner is currently screaming that he needs a band-aid for a scrape on his ankle that is a week old.

Clear Lake - Day Four

Today was officially Fishing Day at the family reunion. All of the kids have been fishing like crazy on this trip. Jake, Tanner and all the cousins have been fishing all day, everyday since we got here. There have only been a couple of breaks to take rides on the boring old boats and jet skis, then right back down to the docks, gear in hand as soon as the boats were tied up.

Clear Lake is famous for it's fishing and the kids have been pulling out little bass, perch and pan fish from the docks with some regularity. This morning we decided (the Dad's and I) to take all the kids out on the pontoon boat for a morning fishing trip. The whole thing took an hour plus to get organized and underway, but when we left the dock we had 10 kids and four adults. The grown-ups really had no illusions of fishing ourselves and we spent the next hour or two re-bating hooks, untangling lines, fixing snags etc. We fished in three or four areas of the lake and caught nothing but lake grass and algae.

We came back in and the kids went back on the docks and back to catching the little guys. The Dad's (at least the ones who fish), decided to take an "Over 30" fishing trip after dinner to get our lines actually in the water and relax a little bit. Marisa and I cooked tacos for everyone and after that we set off on the pontoon boat. It was gorgeous out, flat water, sun setting, peace and quiet while fishing. We didn't catch a damn thing, but I'm not really sure that was the point.....

Clear Lake - Day Three

So this morning we went and picked up the patio/party/pontoon boat that Dad rented. The plan was to drive all of the boats, wave runners and the patio boat over to Konacti Harbor, anchor and spend the day over there.

Clear Lake is a large lake (for those who have never been) and it is a strange lake from a topography standpoint. It is very shallow for quite a ways out, hence the grasses, algae and such, but then drops off and gets very deep very quickly. I was driving the patio boat (my three weeks of boating experience making me the “expert” and thus the Big Boat driver) and the wave runners and the ski boats quickly out-distanced us. We were cruising along just fine at our top speed of NINE miles per hour when we hit the drop off and the s#*t hit the fan. The waves got really heavy and a couple proceeded to break over the bow, soaking everyone and everything. Kids started screaming. We slowed way down and made it thru the chop across the lake and thru the inlet, and around the point, where we anchored and spent most of the day, swimming, skiing, wave runnering and just having fun in the sun. Jake, Faith, and Tanner got on the SeaDoo this time and TJ loved it. Marisa got to drive it by herself several times and I didn’t think she was ever going to come back to the patio boat.

Towards late afternoon, the wind started picking up and the kids were ready to head back for some rest. Yeah, right. Lisa, Phil and our family decided to head back on the patio boat, thinking it safer than one of the ski boats in the gigantic surf that we knew we would encounter (see yesterday’s post). I knew that crossing would be a challenge, but had no idea just how much of a challenge. We likened it to The Perfect Storm. For almost two hours the boat was hit by wave after wave, soaking everyone and everything. All we could do was laugh, but we were all cold and tired and wet and worried about the kids (we had all three of ours and three of Lisa’s including her 10 month old baby). We covered the kids from head to toe with wet towels to keep the oncoming waves from direct hits to the face. The boat was ankle deep in water at points. We kept saying, “No one is going to believe this. There is no way we can explain this to anyone so that they really understand how miserable this is! But, as in all things, attitude is everything and we all laughed a lot, held the kids tight, sang some more Gilligan’s Island, and toughed it out. It was definitely a memory maker.

We made it back to our dock at 5:30 but Marisa and I are still feeling wobbly-legged at 10PM tonight -and no one has any desire to take the patio boat across the lake again any time soon! In fact the plan for tomorrow is for some shoreline fishing…..

Clear Lake - Day 2

Top Five

5. Waking up to this view out of our window and enjoying a hot cup of coffee while the kids played on the lawn out front, waiting for the rest of the 12 children under age 11 to wake up and start the day.

4. Taking a VERY BUMPY two hour boat ride over to Konocti Harbor and back with Brian and our kids, along with Lisa and her three oldest kids. White caps and tidal waves it seemed battered Uncle Rick's ancient but reliable boat. No one skied, needless to say, but everyone had a great time singing the theme song to Gilligan's Island through the darkening sky on the way home.

3. Allowing Jake to stay up extra late to run around playing with his older cousins in the twilight/darkness, having free reign on the property to do what he wanted with the "big kids".

2. Taking Faith and Tanner to the park and letting them play on the swings (pushed by a never ending array of older cousins, of course) while Brian kicked my butt in Ping Pong.

1. Having Brian arrive at our property with one of the rented SeaDoos and upon asking which kid wanted to go first, having Faith pipe up (the ONLY one!) that she wanted to go on the boat with Daddy. She is a brave one, my girl. My nerves were a bit on end as I watched her ride off with Brian holding her in front of him. She loved it, though, and only after about 15 minutes did she tell Brian she "wanted to go see her mommy".

0. Jake fishing off the dock with all his new "friends". They caught some very small perch and crappie (including this catch of Jake's) and the little ones had to be dissuaded from keeping their new "pets" overnight, finally releasing them back into the lake. Jake was very proud of his catch and showed his Dad, me, Tanner and Faith, his Uncle Rich and pretty much anyone else who was within earshot. I was pretty great to see him that fired up about it.

Clear Lake - Day One

As I type this, I think the kids are asleep, which would not be surprising with the day they have had. We got to Clear Lake about 3:00 this afternoon for my family reunion. My Dad and Joan and Uncle Rick and Kathy have been planning this vacation for us for well over a year now and it's finally here. I am meeting Joan's children (my step brother and sister I guess) for the first time along with all of their kids as well.

Everyone kind of descended on the resort about the same time today, and given the nature of kids, they were all playing like long lost friends about 10 minutes after that, despite having never met the others prior to today. I know it's been said by the Beatles, Dylan and others, but the world would be a much better place if the children were in charge.
Everyone got settled and we sat down to an wonderful lasagna dinner that Kathy had prepared with all 27 of us getting together for the first time. Not to be outdone by our children, the parents all seemed to hit it off as well and the day was a rousing success.

My Aunt and Uncle got everyone shirts with our names on them to make the logistics easier. After dinner we played some sports, did a little fishing, and settled in for the night when the mosquitoes came out.

Tomorrow we're picking up three additional boats that my Dad has rented (in addition to my Uncle's Ski Boat), and should spend the bulk of the day on the water. We'll try to post as we go, to keep the pictures straight if nothing else.

CA Vacation 2009- Leg 1

I arrived home from my trip to Pittsburgh around midnight on Thursday, after having been gone since the previous Sunday AM. We sent the kids to daycare and spent the day catching up on bills, packing, and preparing to be gone from home for 12 days. We left Boise around 5PM on Friday and drove to Tahoe, arriving there at 2AM our time. Mom must have anxiously been awaiting our arrival, because she greeted us at our car! The kids were troopers on the drive and slept the last three hours. We spent most of Saturday in Tahoe with Nana and after a rough morning patch, had a great day at the park and lunch out before we packed up the kids and headed (slowly... due to CA traffic!) down to San Ramon to see Auntie Sue and Grandma Mary.

The kids were greeted with an array of gifts welcoming their arrival: new cups/plates, coloring books, beach towels, new stuffed animals with themed books and pajamas for all. We spent the next two days trying to visit with as many friends in the Bay Area that we could (never enough time to catch up with everyone!), eating too much food (thanks, Auntie Sue and Mary!) and watching the kids revel in the full on attention they got from two of their favorite people in the world.

All was well until the first night when I put Faith to bed. She was exhausted and actually asked to go to sleep before her brothers. I put her down, then a few minutes later heard her crying and crying. She sounded scared. Sure enough, when I went to find out what was wrong, she pointed to the item in the picture above- which was in her direct line of vision about a foot from where she slept on the floor- and said, "I NO LIKE DA BIG FEET MOMMY!". I tried to make her see that they were not attached to an actual person, but this did more harm than good, I think. She made me remove the table from her room and then close the door to the room in which they were now housed. The rest of the visit she walked timidly by that door, shying away from the room and saying, "Big feet in der. I no like them. Dey scare me!".

An Over - Abundance of Need

Now, let me start by saying I love my kids more than anything, anyone who has been around us knows that. HOWEVER, anyone who has been around us also knows that I am a man of limited tolerance. Now, don't go getting all alarmed, no one has been beaten, CPS has not been called and all is fine. But as I marched up the stairs AFTER bedtime had commenced for the 435th time last night, I got why single parenting is so hard. The need. It's more than I've got to give when it's just one parent here.

By way of illustration, let me just present a short, one act play. It's called, The Drama of the Juice and stars me and any one of the above lovely children in the photo.

Scene: The children are in the other room watching TV. Doting Father is working on computer in office.

Child (yelling): Dad! Can I have some juice?

Dad (sighing and getting up): Yes. Hold on.

Dad grabs blue sippy cup out of door and walks to fridge.

Child: No Dad! Not that one I want the RED cup.

Dad: Why does it matter? I grabbed this one, can you drink out of the blue one?

Child: (raising voice): NO, I need the RED one.

Dad: Fine! (grabbing the red cup) Here's the Red one, happy?

Child; Yes

Dad: (opens fridge and grabs apple juice container, begins pouring apple juice)

Child: Dad, I don't want apple juice, I want gatorade.

Dad: You like apple juice, just have that.

Child (lower lip beginning to quiver). But I want gatorade, I don't WANT apple juice.

Dad: (swearing under his breath): Fine, fine.

Dad: (pouring the apple juice back into the jug and pouring gatorade into the cup): Here. Here is your gatorade. Happy?

Child: (walking in and sitting on the couch): Yes.

Dad: Hey, no drinks in there, come back on the wood floor.

Child: BAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Dad: (full on swearing now, pick's up kid and puts on hardwood). Stay HERE.

and so on....and so on....and so on....and so on.....

Jesus I need a drink.......

Bye Mom! Have a good trip!

6:00 am - We dropped Marisa off at the airport bright and early this morning for a business trip to Pittsburg, PA. We're not quite sure how long she's going to be there (she promises she'll explain it all in a separate post), but it's single Dad time again.

I took the kids out to breakfast at The Cracker Barrel and now they are hunkered down watching Mama Mia! in the TV room. After that it's early naps and off for some errands.....wish me luck.

12:07 - Oh my God, everyone slept....in the same bed no less. I had to share a photo to prove it really happened....

What the heck are you doin'?

Take me out to the ballgame...

So we took Mom out to a Hawks game on her last night in town. As usual, the kids all had a blast, with the usual dose of Mascot drama. The picture is of Tanner wearing his "Mascot Protection Armor" (pat. pend.). He said he wanted to bring a sweatshirt to the game to put over his face when the "big birdy" came around, and sure enough he did, eventhough it was in the upper 90's at game time. He seemed fine, eating a sucker that Grandma bought him under there and peaking out to watch the game and keep an eye on Humphrey the Hawk.

The boys got to run the bases again,

although Tanner wouldn't at the last minute because the "big birdy" was high fiving kids bewteen first and second. Tanner settled on watching his big brother run the bases and then heading back to out seats to watch the fireworks. It was a great game and a beautiful night once the sun set.

At least Tanner's fear of mascots tell us he's not ready for Disneyland yet (not that I'm too disappointed), so we have another couple of years to put that off.

Mom left early this morning after a couple of the more stressful weeks I can remember. I'll let Marisa explain more later, but suffice it to say it would have been an impossible two weeks without Mom's help and excellent child distraction skills. Love ya Ma, see you in a week or so.

Boat Drinks

OK.... so all we had was Diet Coke and no Lucky Beer, but it was another great day on the lake. The kids all tubed and played in the sand/water, I skied, Brian drove like a pro and Mary helped all of us out, even acting as Faith's bed on the boat ride back to the dock. It took us one hour to get on the water- 60 minutes from our front door to sitting on the bow heading toward the beach.Too cool. We've already got it down to a science- from the packing of the cooler, loading of the boat, launching, driving, etc... all the way to the cleaning at the end of the afternoon.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Once again I am reminded of the importance of flexibility in this life. It's been quite a week- professionally speaking. Wednesday night I received an email from my principal for next year (I had signed a contract in April for a 2nd grade teaching position at a charter school in Eagle) stating that the State Commission of Charter Schools had voted unanimously to revoke the charter of our school. Trying not to panic, I did some research and found the audio transcripts of all of the previous year's commission meetings ( hours of fun entertainment! ) and found out the school was given a list of deficiencies way back in April. There were several meetings in May and June, then at the July meeting earlier this week, the commission gave the news that they were voting to revoke the charter. To make a long, long story very short, let's just say that after speaking with the Deputy Superintendent of Idaho (luckily I know him pretty well from my job this year at Apangea and was able to call him directly) I found out more details about the school and its leadership and I decided to resign my position and stay at Apangea to help with implementation for another year. As many of you know, I was dying to get back to the classroom, so this was definitely a blow for me at first. I spent a few hours yesterday feeling sorry for myself, but after a relaxing date night last night (Thanks, Mary!) and a day at the lake with the kids today, I am feeling 100% better. I keep reminding myself that I have a long teaching career in front of me. And Brian keeps reminding me of how much I truly respect the product that I am promoting, the people I work with, and how much more flexible my schedule is with this job.

Considering I had spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday interviewing candidates for my replacement, I had to kind of cow-tow back to my boss and ask for my job back. He was so supportive. In fact, everyone at Apangea was GREAT and not only told me I could have my job back without any hesitation, but also told me how happy they are that I am staying. Unfortunately this means I will have to go back to Pittsburgh for training the first week of August. Luckily I really like my colleagues- in fact my boss is probably one of my closest friends here- but being gone for 5 nights will be rough, especially considering I am going to be gone 3 nights this week for a training in Idaho Falls.... Brian gets another opportunity to shine as Super Dad :)

LAX

Lacrosse is a sport that is gaining in popularity all over the U.S. But is HUGE here in the Boise area. We have friends who's children have been playing for years and it's a big deal (he's choosing his High School based on where he'll have the opportunity to play Varsity LAX as a Freshman). Jake and Tanner watch college lacrosse on TV sometimes and like to play up in their room.

We signed Jake up for the YMCA lacrosse experience camp this summer (along with about 6 others), and today was the first day. Marisa had a meeting so I took him and stayed to watch. He did great. We bought him a lacrosse stick at a yard sale and he has been playing with our friends son (above) so he had some skills before he showed up this morning. He knew how to pass, shoot, face off..everything.

They did drills for a little bit and then broke down into a scrimmage. Jake had two goals and an assist. It was awesome. Hopefully he stays with it, really it's the only way he's going to go to an Ivy league College.

Why we did what we did...

So after talking about buying a boat each summer for the past I don't know how many summers (go back and read the summer posts for the last couple of years), we bought one this year. It's a 15 year old Starcraft that we found on Craigslist (how did the world exist before Craigslist?). The people that owned it were great. They took immaculate care of the boat, it was always garaged, always maintained etc. It was in beautiful shape. They took us out in it and showed us how to drive it, launch it, trailer it etc. They also threw in a whole bunch of ski equipment. So, all that said, Marisa and I jumped in a bought it.

Yesterday was the exact reason why we did.

We got up 1st thing and loaded everyone up in the car and headed out to Lucky Peak resevoir. Lucky Peak is about 45 minutes from the house and

a really easy drive. The lake is long and narrow (kinda like Don Pedro only not as warm and smaller), with campsites and docks kind of spread throughout. We got up there by 9:00, got the boat in the water and found an unoccupied dock. We set up camp and hung out on the water the rest of the day.

The kids swam, played in the sand, caught tadpoles and rode in the boat. All of them went in the tube behind the boat at different times. Faith and Tanner both helped drive as well. Marisa got to ski and knee board as well as tube with Faith. I tried to wakeboard (I need some help, and a board with WAY bigger bindings) and kneeboard (unsuccesfully!), and got to tube with both Tanner and Jake. Grandma Mary came up as well and helped us shepherd kids, man the ski flag and hold Faith while she fell asleep on the ride back to the dock to go home.

We left about 2:00 (it took a couple of shots for me to get the trailer in the water straight enough to trailer the

boat) and were home about four. We hit the DQ for some soft serve on the way home, and all in all it was the exact summer boat day we had been longing for. We are both so excited that the kids will have these memories to grow up with. The tube was the extent of their bravery so far, but it's just a matter of time. We'll see you on the water.