Small Things

I'm like Rocky right now...pumping my fists in the air, hitting stuff, running up mountains...okay, not really.  But I feel that way a little bit, because I actually accomplished my January biking goal!

I've been really lucky for a long time, because I've been able to find the "read-aloud" part of Baylee's curriculum on audio, either from Audible.com or as CDs from the library.  Today, for the first time in months, she was assigned a book that just doesn't exist in that format.  That means I had to read it to her myself...and read it to her...and read it to her.  The first chapter is 16-pages-of-small-print long.  Uhhhhhhhhg.  Good thing it's sort of interesting.

The book is called Moccasin Trail, and it's about an 11-year-old boy who is raised by Indians after he's attacked by a grizzly and left for dead.  The Indians find him, and one of their old women decides to make him her son, since her real son died.  Anyway, so that whole Indian thing happens, then he escapes after a number of years because they start scalping white people and he's not on board with that.  He makes his way back home and ultimately helps his real family move out west.  From what I gather, the story is mostly about rebuilding a relationship with them.

Random

• Zach passed the knowledge part of the driving test and has his permit, so lately he's been practicing driving.  Mike's the one who always goes out with him...thank goodness!  I don't have the constitution for it.  Mike says Zach's doing a good job, though.
• I'm thiiiiiiiis close to 168 miles for the month!  I've only got 5 and 1/4 to go.  Here's a pic from today, taken at mile 161.  I was trying to show you the neat traffic lights that are meant just for bikes, but it didn't work very well.  It's blurry.  The red/green light is shaped like a bike.

• Drew was playing something on his acoustic guitar awhile ago, and I recognized it, but I couldn't place it.  Then I realized it was "The Metal," by Tenacious D.  lol  The song sounds odd unplugged.

• I came up with the BEST idea, and I've been implementing it for a couple weeks now.  That is, I listen to books on my iPod as I clean the house!  Actually, the genius of it is that the only time I listen to them is when I clean, so it gives me something to look forward to.  I always want to know what happens next.
• Did you know that Harriet Tubman suffered from brain damage which made her fall asleep unexpectedly and put her in danger a few times on the Underground Railroad?  The damage was caused by being hit in the head with a brick when she was 12 years old, because she made her overseer angry.

Wet Ride

When I started out on my ride today it looked like this outside...

...and I REALLY didn't want to go.  Then when I got to about the halfway point the sky opened and there was a downpour.  I was as wet as it's possible to be.  When I got home and stood inside the door, water poured off me onto the floor.  But!  I did it!  I'm on track to meet my short-term goal, which is 168 miles in the month of January.

Huge Complaining Baby Alert

Man, I had the worst time at the eye doctor today.  I had to go...was forced to go...because I need new contacts and they wouldn't give them to me without an updated prescription.  The only way to get one of those was to go in for a check-up.

I don't remember eye appointments being so uncomfortable.  They made me put my chin all over the dang place, on this machine and that; they blew air into my eyes; and they put in drops to "deaden the sting" before they gave me other drops, but the deadening drops themselves stung like nobody's business.  My eyes watered so much that my make-up ran.  Finally they put in the drops to dilate my eyes, and for hours afterward I both looked and felt like a druggie.  Oh, and get this:  I had to go sit outside the office while I waited for the stuff to kick in.  For real.  This place is tiny and there's no room in there, and it's inside a Costco, so if you have to do any waiting, they make you go wait on a chair right out in a Costco aisle.  People pass by and look at you, and they see your bloodshot, squinty eyes and your runny make-up, and they judge.  At least I think they do.  I didn't have my contacts in at the time, so I don't know what the heck was going on.  They were probably judging me, though.    To top it all off the girl running the office was new and didn't know how to work anything.  I had to do things over and over while she got the hang of the machines.  It wasn't cool.


PS:  Just so you know, I'm whining now, but at the time I was the perfect picture of polite patience.  Honestly.

10th Grade at Our House

Oh my goodness.  I had this post almost done...and these "grade" posts are kind of a lot of work to put together...aaaaannnnd I deleted it.  I've never done that before.  Ahhhhh!  I CANNOT BELIEVE I have to start over.  This is me right now:

[cue crying on the inside]  [cue deep, calming breaths]  Okay.

Drew is "a delight to have in the classroom" (Isn't that what all teachers say?  Or was that just my teachers?  *grin*) in that he's an easy-going guy for the most part.  He does what he's supposed to do, when he's supposed to do it, and he doesn't complain too much.  He's not exactly what you might call self-motivated, because I usually have to tell him to move on to the next thing, but he's willing.  I appreciate that about him.

Drew's day starts with World History.  I've said this before, but this class is so much easier than what he did last year (World Geography) that it's a huge relief.  Drew just finished the Renaissance period, and today he started learning about the Reformation.

Next he always does his Small Gas Engines course...except for today.  Today we got to make an unexpected visit to the orthodontist, because a wire popped loose from his braces.

Luckily it didn't take too long and we were back at home and back to work.   I'll just say this about the engine class:  Drew is doing well, and that's about all I know.  It may as well be a Greek course.

Drew handles the textbook, I administer the tests, and Mike does the actual hands-on project stuff.  They've got big plans to take apart, fix, and rebuild a lawn mower.

Since there was still a bit of time before lunch, I made Drew watch the classroom portion of Physical Science.

He has video classes for science, and the teacher on the video assigns the work in the textbook.  Today Drew's lesson was on the transition metals of the Periodic Table.  It was hard.  The thing about this particular course, compared to the way most high schools do Physical Science, is that this one is considered an introduction to chemistry and physics.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that it's what a public school would call Chemistry I and Physics I.  It involves a lot of math, and has an Algebra I prerequisite.

Finally it was lunch time!  We had mac-n-cheese and Drew played his guitar.

Incidentally, during our lunch break Baylee came up to me and said, "Hey, Mom, you know that book I'm reading?  I have a question about it."  (She's reading, for fun, an autobiography that she got from the library called Just Don't Fall, by Josh Sundquist.  It's about how, when he was a young child, his leg was amputated due to cancer, and how he went on to become a champion skiier.)  Baylee's question had to do with something Josh said about his strict, conservative upbringing.  Apparently when he was a kid his parents had a device connected to their TV which would read the closed captioning of whatever they were watching, then "fix" any bad words by dubbing over them with words that were more appropriate.  Anyway, long story short, Baylee didn't understand what he meant when he said that one time they found themselves watching the Penis Van Homosexual Show.

After lunch Drew finished off his science assignment, then he studied for and took a test in English on pronouns.  (Sound familiar?  Baylee just had a pronoun test, too.  That's because they use the same curriculum publisher, and the program spirals deeper and deeper as you go through the levels, sometime at around the same time of year.  Hey, it's kinda like synchronized swimming, but with less water.)  He got a 90%, which isn't great, but it's not too bad.  It was a difficult test.  Finally Drew studied for an Old Testament Bible course test, and he called it a day. 

As often as he can Drew saves Geometry for "homework."  That just means he does it in the evening, after his mind has had a long break.  Tonight he'll be doing a new chapter on inequalities.  Basically, it's comparing shapes that aren't the same size, which sounds easy, but I'm sure will end up being complicated.

Music is also part of his load, because he actually gets high school credit for what he does with the SofR.  Right now with this Led Zep show all his SofR stuff happens on Thursdays.  He has a 45-minute lesson there in the afternoon, then he goes back in the evening for a 3-hour rehearsal.  He also practices here at home for at least a couple hours a day.

And that's 10th grade at our house!

Long Ride

I went on a 26-mile ride yesterday and it was absolutely gorgeous!  I'm so lucky to live in this part of the country.  The sun was shining and the temperature was in the 50s.  Of note, I saw both a bald eagle and a random rooster.  The rooster was a huge, beautiful thing, pecking in the dirt with a bunch of ducks.  It was weird.  I wish I would've gotten a picture.  I did get one of the eagle, though.

just starting out on the Burke-Gilman Trail...

 bald eagle ~ mile 135 of 2,014...

little rest...

Last Night

 

Baylee took this.  As you can see, I have very sophisticated kids.

7th Grade at Our House

Yesterday when I talked about the books that Baylee is reading now in school, it reminded me that I haven't done one of these "grade" posts for the year yet.  So today I'll tell you about 7th grade at our house!  (Did putting an exclamation point there make you giddy with anticipation?  lol)

Baylee is always the first one sitting down, ready to start school.  She grabs the books she needs from her school bookcase shelf...

...and gets to work.  She likes doing things in a certain order, and if I ever suggest anything out of the ordinary, she says, "No, I have a plan, Mom."   Today Baylee started with Word Building, which is her spelling curriculum.  It was dictionary work, which is exactly as exciting as it sounds.

After that she took her math test for the chapter she just finished, "Fractions in the Real World."  (This program always has several entire chapters dedicated to real world math.)  She got a B, which irritated me, because I had JUST gotten done explaining to her (again) how to figure out the sale price of an item when you're told the original price and what fraction was taken off.  That was one of the problems she got wrong.  Anyway, I was getting after her about it, and Zach stopped reading his civics textbook long enough to say, "Mom, a B is a good grade."  Oops.  I guess he's basically right. 

In English Baylee started a new chapter on adjectives, so, since it was the first day, it wasn't too hard.  Yesterday she took a pretty difficult test on pronouns, though, where she had to do all kinds of pronoun-y stuff, including telling whether they were acting as personal, demonstrative, relative, reflexive, interrogative, or indefinite pronouns.  She got a 100% on that.

Just like last year, I'm making her do two different English programs.  The second one, Daily Grammar Review, only takes 5-10 minutes a day.  Here's today's little assignment...

PS:  Please excuse her absolutely atrocious handwriting.  She can have nice handwriting if she chooses, but she doesn't often choose.

As always seems to happen when I decide to do one of these posts, Baylee didn't do her writing class today.  Darn it.  The program we use (Writing Strands) is scheduled one week on, one off, and this is an off week.  That said, she has done some very nice pieces so far this year.

I think she did science next.  She's in "life science" this year, and this chapter is on warm-blooded vertebrates.  Specifically, today's lesson was about characteristics of birds.  Baylee doesn't love science, but she's always finding interesting little tidbits to share with me.  I bet she likes it more than she admits.



During our lunch break Baylee played Mine Craft with Drew.  I don't get why that game is so popular, but they love it.  Apparently it doesn't take your full focus, though, because when I walked into the room Baylee was trying to teach Drew how to sing "Father, I Adore You" as a round.  LOL  Drew wasn't very cooperative.

After lunch comes the "bookish" portion of the day.  Baylee uses Sonlight, which is a literature-based curriculum, for Bible, American history, and reading.  This year the reading part of it is completely tied to the history part, so everything she's doing for those two subjects works together to give her a full, interesting picture of our country's history.

For a little while now we've been studying the build-up to the Civil War.  Both the books we use as spines (The Landmark History of the American People and Children's Encyclopedia of American History) have painted a vivid and sad picture of slavery, and to flesh it out even more Baylee is reading Freedom Train:  The Story of Harriet Tubman.  She's also memorizing a large portion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.  She's got 6-weeks to learn it.  Here's where she's at so far...

On top of that she's reading a book that has nothing to do with slavery, but is set in the same time period, called Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.  Oh, and I almost forgot that she's learning lots of songs about America.  Today she started a new one called "Old Texas."  She's not singing here, because she's just listening to it for the first time.

And finally, Bible.  Bible class consists of Baylee reading a portion of the Bible on her own, and she and I reading some together.  Right now she's going through Daniel on her own and II Chronicles with me.  She also does something called the American Indian Prayer Guide, where she learns about various tribes and how to pray for them, and she's doing a devotional called Starting Strong.   She also does Bible memory work through music.  That is, all her verses/passages/chapters are made into songs.  It works beautifully.

And that's Baylee's school day!  It's pretty full, but I think she enjoys it.

The Interurban and Some Books

I've done the Interurban trail enough times now...and usually around the same time of day...that I'm starting to see familiar faces.

• There's the young mother who pushes her two babies in a double stroller.  I've seen her three times now.  She smiled at me the last time and I smiled back.
• There's the large group of raggedy people and the tiny dog, who gather every single week day at lunchtime on and around a park bench.  They have tattoos and rough features, and they smell like cigarettes, but they're always talkative and happy amongst themselves, like they really enjoy each other's company.
• On Wednesdays the big gate to the Jewish cemetery is open.  All other days it's locked.  One Wednesday I looked in there as I was passing by and there was a group of Jewish men with beards, dressed in black suits.  They were standing around chatting, like a service of some kind was either just starting or just ending.

In other news, Baylee is loving the book she's reading for school so much that she's propped up in bed with her little lamp on, reading chapters and chapters ahead.  The book is called Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.  It's a biography about Nathaniel Bowditch, the man who, through math, fixed a lot of the problems of ocean navigation back in the 1800's. Doesn't that seem like a weird book for a twelve-year-old girl to love?  But she does.  Tomorrow she'll also start reading one called Freedom Train, which is the story of Harriet Tubman.  We're up to the Civil War in her American history course.

I'm One of Those Happy People Who Uses Exclamation Points!

Have you ever wanted to do something good, but somehow ended up looking like a huge dork?  That happens to me regularly.  It's as if "weird and awkward" is my natural go-to place when I'm trying to appear halfway intelligent.

Yesterday I saw a post on FB (on a private board for parents of SofR students) that just wasn't very nice.  It was complaining about a policy the school instituted a few months ago that says all parents need to buy at least 12 tickets to their child's show.  There are good reasons for it, which I won't get into, but I will say they give us a discounted bulk price.  Anyway, so an unkind post was written about it, and one of the people who runs the SofR, a guy named Kris, responded in a very professional way.  That didn't go over very well with the original poster, and, long story short, I ended up feeling kind of sorry for Kris.  I decided to write him a private message.  Here it is in all its unedited glory:

Hey, Kris!  I'm a SoR parent.  I just want to let you know how incredibly happy we are with the program.  Our son has grown so much in his musical ability since joining last year, and he's a *great* time doing it.  My husband and I appreciate all the work you, Zeke, and everyone else puts into the school.

As far as having to buy 12 tickets, that turned out to be kind of a blessing in disguise for us!  Knowing we had all these tickets to figure out what to do with, we started inviting people we know to the Big 4 show pretty early.  We ended up having 15 friends and family come to support Drew.  (Not only did we use the 12, but we had to buy more.  lol)  It was awesome to have so many people there for him, and they had a great time!  Seriously, they really enjoyed that show.

So again, thank you so much for everything you do!  We're all...especially our son...loving this amazing experience.

Sue

Yes, I randomly left out words in the first paragraph, and I used about 1,000 exclamation points through the whole thing.  I was excited!!! apparently.  Ughhhhh.  You'd think proof-reading was against my religion or something. 

Totally Normal

Sometimes I'll go back and read a post that I wrote here on the blog, and I'll realize that there's a grammar or punctuation or tense or whatever mistake in it.  Usually I don't fix it...at that point.  A day might go by, maybe two, until finally I can't stand it anymore and I edit.  That's not weird, right?

Long Ride

On Saturday Zach and I went on a 23-mile bike ride!  My plan was to do a 12-mile ride, but Zach talked me into riding to Gasworks Park, which I thought was 18 miles from where we planned to start.  Turns out I was wrong by 5 miles.  lol  It was a lot of fun, even though my legs are still tired two days later, and even though my face is chapped badly from the cold wind.  I'm just over 100 miles since January 1st. 

mile 90 of 2,014

I haven't talked about the diet part of my New Year's resolution list much.  On the one hand, I'm doing well.  I'm losing weight and really happy about that.  On the other hand, I totally lost my bet with Mike, because I cheated first.  lol  Oh well.  We'll both ultimately win if we can get our goals.

We're taking today off of school for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  It works well to do that, because all the other Seattle school kids have the day off, and because Drew has (had.  It already happened.) an orthodontist appointment this morning.  Anyway, we're enjoying the break.

Last night I finished the 4th book in a series, and on the last page it said something like, "Fifth and final book coming in the fall of 2013!"  I got excited, only to find out that the author didn't meet his deadline and the book won't be out until the spring of 2014.  That's not cool, man.  

A Lump and Some Lunch

A couple evenings ago Drew came to me and said that he noticed a lump on his body.  I'm not usually one to immediately think "doctor's visit," but I have a thing about lumps.  One of my cousins developed a lump on his leg when he was only five years old, and it turned out to be cancer.  Four years and an amputation later, he died.  His name was Matt.  Anyway, that was a long time ago, but even to this day lumps make me uneasy.  I ended up calling for an appointment for Drew first thing yesterday morning, and he saw a doctor before noon.  He's fine, by the way.  He has an infection, which we hope will clear up with antibiotics.  If not we have to take him to a specialist and have it removed.  Even then it's not a big deal.

When we got back home Drew made both of us his own delicious version of fried egg sandwiches.  He cut large onion rings, put them in a frying pan, and then broke an egg into each one.  He sprinkled them with some sea salt and pepper, fried them up, and served them between slices of toast.  Mmm!  Seriously, that was a dang good sandwich.

Misc. Pics

She was trying to get some extra schoolwork done on Tuesday night, because on Wednesday Rachel (and the rest of the Seattle public school kids) had an "early dismissal."  Baylee wanted to be ready to play whenever Rachel was.  By the way, that big Dr. Who poster is the 3rd one she bought with her Christmas money.

And I took this just because I thought Zach looked handsome.  He was getting ready to go out on a bike ride.

Throwback Thursday

Kids ages 8, 5, and 2.  Of note:  Baylee LOVED Barney at that time, and that gate was put in front of the school bookcase because Baylee wouldn't ever stay out of it. 

Wednesday

Drew and I were talking about neuter pronouns today...

Drew:  Oh, you mean like metrosexual?
Me:  What??  No.

Sigh.

I went on another ride today, but decided not to stop to take a picture.  I didn't feel like it.  Highlights:

• It was sunny!  This is the first sunny day I've had since starting.
• There were, therefore, more bikers and walkers out along with me.  I like that.
• I (carefully) rode through a little group of ducks.  Question:  What do you call a group of ducks?  Answer:  It depends.  On land = brace.  In the water = raft.  In flight = flock.

And for fun...

Tuesday

Fair warning:  I probably have absolutely nothing to talk about.

I'm about a quarter of a mile shy of 70 miles so far.  By the end of this week I plan to hit 100.  (For this little biking project I count weeks from Monday to Sunday.  It works better that way, because I think of it in terms of making up mileage on the weekend.  Does that make sense to anyone but me?  Oh well.)

mile 66 of 2,014 ~ It's a "sharing library" found on the Interurban trail.  People are welcome to borrow a book or donate one.   It's just something fun and free for the community.  I guess they have a bunch of these around the Seattle area.

We're doing great and getting a ton accomplished in school this week.  That feels really good.  A week or so ago I was discouraged about where we were, and so I sat down with a calendar and figured things out.  Thankfully, we're doing better than I thought.  There are a couple subjects the boys are behind in, so they've been doing double-time lately to catch up.  So far they have a good attitude about it, too, because, let's face it, everyone wants a summer break.  And Zach wants to graduate and be finished with high school.  Man, can you believe that next year I'll only be teaching two kids?  I might have to take up hooked rugging or something with all my extra time!  (Just kidding.)

Yesterday Baylee was doing some schoolwork, using her VERY conservative Christian curriculum, when suddenly she stopped and said, "Hey, Mom, I think there are a couple gay ladies in my English book!"

"What?"

"Yeah!  They're two really old ladies named Mary and Martha and they live together."

I had to explain that they live together because they're friends who like each other's company, and they keep each other from getting lonely.  Then it got really quiet and the conversation was over, but I just know Baylee was thinking, "Okaaaaay.  Like I said..."

 

Weekend

Yesterday and today I got in a little over 20 miles altogether!  I didn't get a picture yesterday, because it was pouring rain out and I didn't want to get my phone wet.  Man, yesterday was the most miserable ride you can imagine.  It was raining so hard that the rain hurt, and it was cold, but worst of all (but FAR) was that it was extremely windy.  At one point I was pedaling as hard as I could on a flat stretch, against the wind, and I was going 7mph.  LOL  Even Zach, who went with me and is 1000 times stronger than me, said it was terrible.  Today, though, was much better.  It was just cold, which I can handle.  I'm over 60 miles now!

This was taken today, right before Zach and I went out.  I had a t-shirt and a big sweatshirt on underneath that coat, plus I was wearing gloves and a warm headband.  I was toasty.  At this point I was at 48.5 miles.  PS:  Why does my phone camera take blurry pictures?  I don't get it.

Also this weekend Baylee and Rachel won their first basketball game!

Finally, I feel compelled to mention that the song I showed in my last post, "Killing is My Business," is an anti-war song.  It's not pro-killing.  That kinda makes it a bit better, right?  I was talking to my mom on the phone on Saturday morning, and I was like, "Umm....well...he played 'Killing is My Business' and...err...'Tornado of Souls' and...uhh...'Angel of Death'..."  It'll be nice to have him playing something other than heavy metal, just for the embarrassing-song-title reason alone.

Big 4 Show

It's done and it was a success!  It was incredibly fun and incredibly loud. Kinda unbelievably, considering the type of music (heavy metal), fifteen family and friends came to enjoy it and support Drew!

the program

the stage before the show

 Baylee took this one.  I really like it.

 When he wasn't on stage playing, Drew was usually down on the floor with the audience.  That's him in the middle.

For one of the songs he played bass. He did a good job!

Here's my very favorite song.  Honestly, I was blown away.

And here's my second favorite.  I loved it, first because Drew has some fun solo stuff starting at about 1:35, but the second reason I love is kinda weird.  I love it because near the beginning Drew's guitar strap pops off and for about ten scary seconds the song comes very close to falling apart.  The look on all the kids' faces is priceless.  lol  The two directors of the show started to converge onto the scene to help Drew, but he managed to get himself situated again and keep playing.  It's just a fun example of "the show must go on."

Tired

My exhaustion came to a head today.  All of life's regular, non-holiday responsibilities + a leftover Christmas break mindset = not nearly enough sleep.  I dragged along through school and Drew's guitar lesson, then crashed for 2 1/2 hours.  Again, thank the Lord for older kids who do fine without supervision.  When I woke up I stumbled out to the kitchen to see about making something for supper, and Baylee was in there.  "Hey," I said, "I just had the BEST dream."

"What was it?"

"Well, it was a dream about time travel!  See..."

"Yeah...?"

"...wait a minute.  Now that I think about it, it doesn't make any sense at all."

I hate when that happens.

Anyway, with that nap and a magic cocktail of Ibuprofen and Sudafed (for a bad sinus headache), I feel almost human again.

Wednesday

Today has been a great day.  School went well, for starters.  Zach took a civics test and got a 100%, and Drew took a physical science test and got a 98%.  There was just one chemical equation he couldn't figure out how to balance.  Not bad at all for our first week back!

Also today I got in another 10 mile ride during my lunch break, and it rained on me the whole time.  I'm not talking sprinkles, either.  It poured, and I came home soaking wet and filthy.  Here's the thing about rides like that:  You don't want to go at all beforehand, but once you're out there and you're dirty and wet beyond all repair, then it starts to get fun.

mile 36 of 2,014

Drew's show is on Friday!  We're excited.

#HomeschoolingGoneWrong

Baylee:  [watching The Biggest Loser]:  Mom, I love this show, because you can just see that people are losing weight.  All the men's boobs are shrinking.

Me:  Moobs.

Baylee:  Moobs?

Me:  Yeah.  Man boobs.  Moobs.

Baylee:  Did you make that up?

Me:  No, that's a word.

Tuesday

Not getting nearly enough sleep -----> exhaustion the next day -----> being overly emotional (ie kids are driving me nuts) -----> badly wanting to cheat on my diet

Moral:  I need more sleep.  I haven't cheated, by the way, but I'm not exactly feeling like a successful, powerful dieter.  lol  I'm feeling more like I'm hanging on by my fingernails today.  The fact that my first weigh-in is tomorrow morning and I don't want to mess it up is helping a lot, though.

In other news, Baylee and Drew are weird.

Monday

Before I forget for the third day in a row, I've got these two pictures from the weekend.

Baylee spent Christmas money on 3 big Dr. Who posters for her room.  Here are 2 of them...

And I got this really blurry picture of her playing in the basketball game on Saturday.  You can't tell, but she looked pretty darn cute out there.  This league puts 7th-12th graders together, so she's one of (if not the) smallest one out there.  All the older girls are very kind, though.

I'm proud of myself!  I went out bike riding today, and it took some planning, because I knew I was going to have to make it work over my lunch break.  I'd rather go in the morning, but by the time the sun is up I don't have enough time to ride before we need to start school.  I looked on a sunrise/sunset chart for Seattle, and I'm going to have to wait until close to the end of February before I can go in the mornings.  (Then only a few weeks after that we'll have daylight savings time, and it'll screw it all up again.)  Anyway, I'm proud of myself because I made it happen, getting in close to ten miles.  Two cool sights on my ride:

• Mt. Rainier!  Despite the cold, gray day, the mountains were out and Mt. Rainier was beautiful.
• They redid a big section of the Interurban last year, and I rode on that piece for the first time.  It's awesome!  It used to be that bikes were on the road with the cars for that section, but now bikes have their own lanes, divided from the road by a cement thingie, and we  have our own light at the intersections.

Here's my pic for today.  It's like a sign version of a flip book, and it shows Mount St. Helens erupting.  It's mile 28 of 2,014.

 

 (Is all this bike talk boring?  Should I shut up?)

No Soup for You!

Baylee and I just got back from a trip to Goodwill, because I needed another pair of jeans (and I found a cute shirt there, too!) and Baylee needed jeans that weren't high waters (she's growing so fast) and some basketball shorts (so she doesn't look like the weird homeschooled kid who's playing in khaki capris.  Sigh.  Yes, that happened.).  Anyway!  So we're walking up to the changing rooms to try on our stuff, and there was a tiny, old Asian woman manning the area.  As soon as I got there she got all agitated and yelled at me in thickly accented English that I was third in line and would have to wait.  I swear, I hadn't done anything rude or pushy or anything.  I just walked up and patiently stood there.  I smiled and nodded, though.  She also yelled at people about only being able to take in five items at a time.  One woman got kinda scared and said, "Yes, I've got five.  Just like you told me.  See?  Just five.  Okay?  Am I good???" LOL  The whole thing was like the Goodwill version of the soup nazi.

   

Saturday

Today was busy in a fun way.  I took Baylee and Rachel to their basketball game, and then stayed to watch, of course.  Both girls made baskets.  When I got back home I started getting ready to go on another bike ride (my 3rd of the year!) and Zach said he'd go with me.  We covered about 9 miles, which sounds like peanuts, but it's about all I can handle at one time right now.  We went on a route he chose, which included a couple hills.

I've got this picture from yesterday's ride...

mile 11 of 2,014

And this one from today's...

mile 15 of 2,014

I was thinking that it might be fun to take one picture and label it by mile every time I go out.

This week was mostly about getting back on the bike and getting used to it again.  Starting tomorrow I have to actually focus on covering miles...about 40 a week.  I think in the beginning that's going to mean low distances (9-10 miles) several times a week.

First Ride

I went on my first bike ride yesterday.  I didn't get that many miles in, partly due to being completely out of shape and partly due to the cold, wet, dark, yucky weather, but I'm glad I got out there.  I had forgotten a lot of things, because it's been a LONG time since I've ridden.  For instance, it took me a minute to remember how to work my odometer and how to shift the gears.  lol  Duh.  Good thing my chain didn't fall off, because relearning that really wouldn't have been fun.  Also, I had forgotten the main problem with winter riding:  You're both sweaty and freezing at the same time.  I had a heavy pullover jacket on, gloves, and a warm headband under my helmet, so most of me was fine, if not too hot, but my forehead was so cold that I got a bit of a headache.  Also, the strip of skin between the bottom of my pants and the top of my shoes was cold.  (Note to self:  Don't wear ankle socks next time.)

Mile 6 of 2,014:

Another thing I remembered was that riding is a wonderful way to experience the kindness of people.  Today an older man out on a walk was at a busy intersection and he saw me coming down the trail.  He hit the button to change the light for me, so I wouldn't have as long of a wait, even though he wasn't even going my direction.  When I got up there he gave me a smile and a wave and went on his way.

Resolutions

Okay, I've got two resolutions this year.  I had three, but then right off the bat I screwed one up, so I let it go and decided to just have two.  Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself by writing them here.

1. Stay on plan with WW.  I "started" a few weeks ago, but with Christmas and everything I've only done okay.  That is, I lost a bit of weight, but not nearly as much as I could've.  Now the holidays are over and I'm ready to get my money's worth.  Actually, Mike and I have a friendly competition going to see which one of us can stay on track the longest.  (He's counting calories.)  If we both do it, then we both win.  Yes, there's a prize involved.
2. Ride my bike 2,014 miles in 2014.  Good one, huh?  Catchy.  The logical part of me is saying that it's very doable.  The other part of me is saying that it's crazy, it can't be done, and I'll probably get rained on about a thousand times.

Leavenworth

We just got back from another great time in Leavenworth with our friends Todd and Kellie and their kids Bonnie, Brian, and Bryce.  It wasn't as snowy as it has been in years past, so we weren't able to sled this time, but we still had lots of fun hanging out, talking, laughing, and eating.

Yesterday afternoon Mike, Todd, and Zach went on a hike in the mountains, while the rest of us went into town.  Leavenworth is a beautiful Bavarian village, and they really do it up big around the Christmas season.  In fact, it's so Christmas-y that a Christmas movie was filmed there a couple years ago, and Kellie and all their kids were extras in it.  (The movie is called Switchmas, and it's on Netflix instant streaming right now.  We watched it last night, and Kellie pointed out the couple places where they were in the background.  She was like, "See!  There's Bonnie!  In the blue coat!  Bottom lefthand corner of the screen!")

Mike did fall on the hike, and now he's walking around like he's 115, and Todd got the stomach flu on the last night/morning, but other than that a good time was had by all.

Taken out the car window on the way over...

The guys' hike...

In town...

Waiting for really good bratwursts...

Baylee and Bryce are are only 3 months apart in age.  They've always gotten along well...

Drew, Brian, and Bryce camped out in the garage....

Todd and Kellie...

Leavenworth at night...