Summer Fun Part 1

Summer began on Katy's last day of school at Armatage. She graduates to Hi-5 Pre-K in the fall. We will miss all of our friends, especially teacher Amy. We made Thank You cards for them to remember us by.

We piggy-backed on our friends' Coffee Crawl on the day of Open Streets on Lyndale Ave. Perhaps overdid it on the bike and went a bit far but other than that it was a grand time! Fun to spend time with new friends!

We also found time to play with G & F. Gentle hugs, kids. Gentle hugs...

Dad and I golfed our favorite tournament the Jim Bucheit Memorial Tournament. 20th annual even! I think the last two times we went I was just finishing chemo. Much more energy this year.

We were proud to host part of the Airgas racing team during the North Star Bicycle Festival. They couldn't have been more polite guests and fun guys. Hopefully we'll get to host them again next year. And now that I know what to expect I can be more prepared!

Katy tried a few more sessions of gymnastics as well as more swimming lessons. We're still working on the 'listen and follow directions' part. She knows how to have fun, that's for sure.

We joined some friends for a light rail ride to our first Twins game. As expected, the ride and the popcorn were the highlights of the day for Katy. We lucked out and got perfect ball game watching weather.

The Hopkins' Stages Theater is one of our favorite places to see shows. The tickets are reasonable and the shows are fun and engaging. Katy loved seeing The Wiz but then wasn't too sure she wanted to actually meet him.

So if you take Katy's aversion to excess noise and flashing lights, and factor in my love of fireworks shows, our Independence Day celebration is always a bit of a compromise. I tried an out-of-the-way spot to view fireworks. Across the lake from where they light them off, not too busy and also room to run around. Would have been perfect except someone next to us brought their own. Sigh. So Katy watched from the car. She liked them, but spent more time rummaging around in the glove compartment and scattering the contents about the car. Typical!

Music and movies in the park with our friends Sandy and Ava. I wish we had gotten to more concerts. Next year!

Rachel and Evi returned in July for another fun weekend. We hauled the 'donuts' all the way to the lake only to find out they weren't allowed. So we swam, met Wyatt from Super Why and had some ice cream. Then went to the pool :-)

After the pool we joined my friends at Pathways for a 25th year celebration. If you live in Minneapolis and struggle with any kind of health issue and would like support, please check them out. Angels, they are. And finally we just had to check out Minnehaha Falls and all of it's flooding rains splendor. Certainly not a trickle this year!

Next up, A Grand Adventure!

Snowmageddon?

Quite possibly I'm the last blogger from Minnesota to post about the monster snowstorm. Maybe there are others that have yet to dig out from the giant snow drifts. In any case it is definitely worth mentioning. Holy crap it was a lot of snow!

I feel slightly bad that I missed most of it. Friday night, before it started, I headed to St Cloud for the USAG Level 5 and 6 State Meet. I volunteered to drive a few judges up and we were all told that we had to stay up there on Friday night. Report time was 7:30am and it was clear earlier in the week that if you didn't go up early, you'd be stuck. From the sounds of it, only a few kids out of a few hundred competing didn't make the trip. Amazing. Weather wasn't too bad up there but the reports from home sounded like the end of the world! Then we saw the video of the Metrodome collapsing and we all wondered what we would return home to. Well here's the first thing we encountered...

My carpool buddies picked the wrong place to stash their cars! Who knew? There are actually two cars there, one parked in front of the one you can see. Obviously, we found them alternate transportation home.

Then I got home and saw my fabulous cousin and neighbors had taken care of the snowblowing and shoveling. Thank you thank you thank you! All that was left was to make a path for Riley to go outside.
What it looked like when I got home late Sunday night...

 A small path shoveled...

Riley doesn't venture too far now!

 Final tally about 19". Whew.

I feel very fortunate to live on a street that gets plowed early. We can generally shovel the driveway and the snowplow drift at the same time. With this snow, they plow more than once. This morning was another three foot drift of hard packed snow at the end of the driveway. I would have taken a picture but I was trying to get out for an early meeting. Turns out, the traffic is still insane! Last night's 7 mile commute home took over an hour (I chose routes poorly). This morning's 9 mile drive took 40 minutes. At least it's getting better. (didn't make the meeting though, oh well!)

Tomorrow is the annual shopping excursion to the Mall of America for me and my mom. This year cousin Lexi will join us. I hope she's up for it! :-) We always have a good time and I treasure having the time to spend with my mom. Oh and we get to shop too! Next round of snow doesn't start until tomorrow night. Only another 2-3 inches predicted. Not sure where we'll put any more snow!

Looking forward to springtime already...

Four months and counting

Last week marked the end of my fourth month of waiting for my referral. I was going to blog about it that day but somehow I just couldn't come up with any words. Because what do you say? I'm hopeful, anxious, excited, bored, angry, tired, hopeful, all of the above? Honestly if I think about it too much I'll go crazy. It will happen. Someday it will happen. Not knowing when? That's the hard part. In the meantime I go about my day. Work, home, work, home. Walking the dog, chatting with neighbors, watering the plants. Summer is good in Minnesota and I'm enjoying it.

I started another crochet project, this time a dinosaur. I'll post a picture when I'm done. I'm looking for a policeman bear pattern to match the fireman bear I made for baby Max. Might have to make one up. Still have to figure out how to knit Christmas stockings to match the family stockings. Not being an advanced knitter, I'll probably have to get someone to make me a pattern. At least there's a few months before Christmas!

On a much more depressing note, I find out today that I failed my judging exam. Again. Fourth time was not the charm. Humiliating. I know I'm a good judge. I know I can do it. I've practiced at meets and watched videos and I do just fine. Stupid test. Always the same thing. Balance Beam. My favorite event even. How many expletives can I have in a day before the swear jar overflows? Today I might find out. At least, knowing that the season doesn't really start until January, I won't feel too bad about quitting because I was planning on cutting back after we get home from Ethiopia anyway. There's always time to go back to it. I know gymnastics will never be out of my system. Who knows, maybe my daughter will take a liking to it too?

I'm excited that my cousin Lexi will be here in a week or so to start her grand adventure of going to college in Minneapolis. She'll drive across the country with her dad all the way from southern California. I hope we'll have a few good months of fall so she'll fall in love with it here before the winter hits. :-) Any tips on where to find good roommates for new college students in Minneapolis would be greatly appreciated!

On to month five...

Why I love judging

I love being a gymnastics judge. Yes, it can take up an entire weekend. Yes, it can be long days of sitting on my butt with my brain hurting from all that math. And yes, I eat too much during the breaks. But in the end, I get to see successes and accomplishments and of course all the glittery hairdos. And leos.

This past weekend I got to see and judge some amazing gymnastics. I scored my first 10.00 vault. It was awesome. Makes me glad to be a part of such a fun sport. And a little jealous that this old body will never do gymnastics again. So, I will live to watch and enjoy. Fun!

Take a look at this amazing vault...

Gymnastics Videos on Gymnastike