Katy 13.1

Katy, one of Houston's most well-known suburbs, hosted their first annual half-marathon/5K/fun run the first Saturday of February. Cori and I registered for the 13.1 mile stretch early the last Fall and started training through the winter. Cori struggled with an injury and did not end up running. I was very close to dropping out as well. In the middle of January, we got the exciting and shocking news that we were pregnant. I will write much more about this soon (we have just come through a late miscarriage). But in regards to this race, I found myself very frustrated. I had been trying to catch my stride and, after a year of starts and stops, felt I was finally making progress. January marked the 18 month postpartum mark for me after having Jeffery. Historically, this is when the clouds start to clear for me. My long runs started feeling good. My body was starting to change. I found myself feeling spontaneous and unsolicited happiness. At last! I was coming back! I had enjoyed a week or so of this realization when morning sickness set in. Nausea and fatigue made it impossible to finish the training schedule I was working through. I decided to run the race anyway. I didn't shoot for any particular pace. Just the finish line. It was a nice flat run. The morning was cool and misty. My pace averaged out at the 10:30 mark- nothing special, but a full minute faster than my long runs had been leading up to the big day. Several friends from church participated in the run as well- it was a good time being together.

name that book

The school district here does a competition every year for the 3rd-5th graders called Name That Book. A list of 100 books is released at the end of the previous school year. Children are encouraged to use this list for their summer reading. When they are back at school, the kids form teams of up to 6 members. Then in the middle of January, a series of competitions begin. 10 - 12 teams meet for battle in the library (of course). Team one is read a quote. Team one then has 30 seconds to name the title of the book. The title has to be exactly correct. (Some of the titles are ridiculously long) If they answer in time and correctly, they earn one point. If not, no point is awarded, and they move on to team two. Etc. Each grade level has two heats. Then there is a school wide competition among the heat winners from each grade level. The singular school champion team goes on to represent the elementary school at the district level.

Grace was nuts for this competition.

I mean, she went completely bonkers for it.

She single handedly read at least half of the list in the first few months of school. ( I hadn't procured any of the list books for her over the summer because we had just moved in before the end of the school year and I had no idea what any of this stuff was about...) Her team met together in the library during their lunch recess. They practiced quotes and practiced reciting titles. Grace worried and worked and worried and worked. It was the only thing she could talk about. For months. MONTHS.

The night before their first competition Grace asked Cori to give her a father's blessing which helped calm her down a little. Then, at last, it was finally time to compete. Her team did well out of the gate. They were 3 or 4 questions in before missing their first point. Once time started running out, they took a tally of where all 12 teams were. Grace's team was tied with one other team, and so they went into a shoot out. It was nerve wracking!

Team Grace: correct
Other team: correct
Team Grace: incorrect (oh no!)
Other team: incorrect (Ahhh! There's still a chance!)
Team Grace: correct (then they all sat in their little circle with heads lowered, crossing fingers and holding hands...)
Other team: incorrect (Victory!)

Stewart, Michael, Christopher, Grace, Clara, Taylor

I was standing in the back of the library violently rocking Jeffery in his stroller I was so anxious for her. The librarian brought them up front and introduced them to everyone and oh my, was our girl beaming for weeks. We were so glad her team won, though it meant that we still had another competition looming in the future.

The school-wide competition was about a month later. Grace's team did well again, but they came in second to a team of 5th grade girls who had been working hard to get to the district competition since they first became a team as 3rd graders. Grace's team was 8/10 on their quotes. The winning team was a quick and effortless 10/10. Grace and her team mates were very sad to have lost, but they were glad such an awesome team went on to represent Swenke at the district competition. The librarian gave them each a big hug and told them that she had never seen a 3rd grade team do so well.

We have two copies of next year's list...

A morning with Monet (and five kids and an impromptu ice skating adventure)

The HMFA had a fantastic Monet exhibition that was available through the late winter. I really wanted to get to it, and finally made it happen on President's Day. While the rest of Houston was packing it into the zoo and the children's museum and the museum of natural science, we had the art museum practically to ourselves. Grace invited her friend Becca to come along.

I really enjoyed the way they chose to curate the collection. At the beginning of the exhibit, there was a map of the Seine superimposed with a timeline of the Monet's several homes along its banks. Each room of the exhibit was a collection of what was painted while Monet was living in one of those riverside houses and flowed chronologically. Most of the walls displayed several paintings of the same scene (this is pretty typical of Monet collections)- each done in different color schemes as they were painted at different times of day. This curatorship gave a comprehensive progression of Monet's style development that I had never seen in a museum. 

The kids were so good. I had several museum patrons pat me on the shoulder and compliment how well they were behaving. (I kept it to myself that I had issued certain threats before we got out of the car...) I loved seeing them read the captions on the wall and overheard some cute conversations. Budding little art historians. On one wall, there was a collection of three paintings, all the same scene. Two of them were in the beautiful pastels. One was in greys, browns, and oranges. Grace asked why someone would choose to paint something in ugly colors like that when he could paint it in beautiful colors like the others. Grant whispered that the point of the painting wasn't to be beautiful. Good questions and thoughtful answers. It was a moment that filled my heart with hope for the rising generation.

After we were through with the Monet exhibit, we wandered through the whole west wing of the museum. By this point, Jeffers was starting to act really ready for lunch and a nap, and I was feeling really ready to be done wrangling my herd. On our way out, we passed this ice skating rink that had been erected in the main foyer. Calling it an ice rink is generous because it was, in fact, oiled plastic arranged to look like an ice rink. The children all looked to me with their biggest pleading eyes when the following conversation ensued:

Kids: Begging and petitioning and making promises.

Me: Wow. That does look like a lot of fun! Did any of you bring your fun money?

Kids: Shaking their heads no, with an expression on their faces that seemed to say, "you know we didn't bring any money, Mom!"

Me: Darn it. Sorry about that, friends. I spent all my fun money getting us tickets to see the paintings. How about we just go get some lunch?

(un)helpful museum docent who was suddenly standing behind me: Oh, did you say you went to the Monet Exhibit?

Me: Yes, we loved it!

(un)helpful museum docent: Well, the price of skate rentals is included in the price of the exhibit ticket!

Me: Forcing a smile. Wonderful!

Kids: Smiles of triumph all around.

(un)helpful museum docent: Just go to that desk, fill out waivers for each of your skaters, and they will take you to the tent where they will be fitted with skates. Oh, also, you will have to skate with them, since you have little ones.

Me: With the same forced smile and through clenched teeth. Thank you, sir! You've made our day.

I then proceeded to fill out paperwork, lace up 10 ice skates, buckle Jeffery down into the stroller (he stayed on the side of the rink) and hope for the best. It wasn't that bad actually. And I was grateful the docent happened to be there. The kids loved it.

New Year's at the Lake

Once we had had our fill of Christmas festivities in the valley, we headed up to the Lake Tahoe condo for a few days to ring in the new year. The parent company that owns Vail and Breckenridge bought Heavenly a few years ago, and they have worked hard to make New Year in Heavenly Village something special. This year, they had professional ice skaters perform every night of the week. The weather while we were there was exceptionally cold and windy. We stood out for as long as we could and enjoyed the show. Mostly we felt terrible for the scantily clad lady skater who was surely FREEZING!

We did some ice skating too - just in the sunshine when it was a few degrees warmer.

This happens to be the view from a piece of property that Cori and I are in love with. Dad currently owns it. It is in a gated community in the foothills of Genoa. 9 acres that cut up the mountainside. There is a trail out the back yard that connects up to the Tahoe Rim trail system. Cori and I drive up to it every time we visit my parents. We made a quick stop here on one of our trips back to the house. Man, would we love to build our dream house/cabin here someday!

One of the nights we were at the Lake, Mom and Dad treated us to a fancy dinner in North Lake. The restaurant itself is a cabin that Charlie Chaplin once lived in. The food was amazing. And the drive...

Heavenly Village has a novelty soda shop called Rocket Fizz. It has become a tradition to spend some of our fun money there and then have a tasting night. Over the years we have tried frighteningly unique flavors and tasty treats alike: key lime pie, red velvet cupcake, raspberry ginger ale, mint, bacon, and (never to be forgotten) alien poop.

We played Ticket to Ride as couples one night. Dad always wins this game. (My mom always wins the trivia games, and Cori always wins the card games!) It was a treat watching him and my mom bicker the whole game through regarding their strategy. Just remember, "one off the top" will get you where you want to go Mom!

Half of the mountain was closed due to lack of snow and high winds. The temperatures were also intimidatingly low. We persevered out for a ski day anyway. While I was taking these quick photos of the kids, Cori was in the shop next door getting face masks for them as their ski instructor warned us about frostbite risks that day. Ski school was off somewhere we weren't able to go this time, and so we didn't get to watch them at all. But they loved their day on the mountain. The big kids (the rest of us) did too! I didn't get any pictures - I never dared take off my gloves!

Mom likes to drink soda out of wine glasses. I totally approve of this. Sometimes I do it too. While I'm cooking. It really makes you feel like something fancy!

On New Year's Eve they fence off all of Heavenly Village and visitors have to have a bracelet on to be there. There are performers everywhere and they do a gondola drop and fireworks at 9PM. I love this tradition. We wandered down around 8 to check out the entertainment. It was SO COLD. We made it though.

New Year's Day found our family on a plane headed back to Texas.

Christmas Break: At home in NV

Our Nevada relations had kindly waited to open any of their Christmas presents until we arrived. So first thing out of the car, our children were rushed to the arms of their aunts, uncle, and grandparents and then let loose on a pile of gifts.

Our days at home were filled with the usual things: games, books, food, music, animals...

Grace is anxious to begin cello lessons. She has been asking for a little while. I keep reminding her that each kid can only have so many lessons/practices/games on the schedule. Once she is done with volleyball and swim we can look for a teacher. She was super excited to get a little intro from her cellist auntie Sara.

Dad got a new plane since the last time we were home. Cori and I got to go up one perfect afternoon. I like sitting in the back seat so I have space to spread out cameras and also so I can close my eyes from time to time. Being up in a little plane frightens me just a bit.

But I go every time because I can't get enough of this place. I love the lake and the valley. Pictured below, Dad banked a hard turn to give us a great aerial view of Emerald Bay.

We had our fancy Christmas dinner and music night a few nights after Christmas. Dad gave Mom a set of chimes to add to her hand bell collection. The kiddos learned a few songs to perform with her. Grace and Grant played piano. We all sang.

Aunt Sara and Uncle Kevin helped wrangle the littles as the night went along.

Papa Jeff got all the kids up on G.S.. I only got outside in time to snap a few photos of Grace. Gracie would get up every morning and go out every evening she could to help dad take care of the horses.

The barn has other things to keep this little boy happy!

It wouldn't be a proper gathering at Grammie and Papa's without a pizza night. Dad is getting really good with his outdoor oven.

Grace spent most of her free time in this very position with Friday. She was at the end of book number 2 by the end of our few days at home.

Before we headed up to Lake Tahoe for the rest of our trip, Sara and I paid a visit to her first cello teacher, Helen. Helen has been a musical fixture in our family life since we moved to Nevada in 1995. We gave a little concert, Sara on the cello, me on the piano, to Helen and her daughter.