wherein I post pictures of the nice meet up we had with Nikay (including free boxes of won’t-poison-you animal crackers they gave each child)
and
try not to cry again that I barely made it home because the tranny on THIS van has decided to kill itself.
and I don’t even have to blog about it!
See here: http:\\xidama.blogspot.com
and here: Nikay
Lunch on Wednesdays is a spectacular homeschool program, let me tell you!
P-daddy had surgery last week Thursday. It was both elective and medically necessary, meaning he could have chosen not to seek it out but the condition (which I will decline to broadcast here) would have continued to grow and cause him pain. We’ll find out the results of the biopsy tomorrow, but we are not worried.
He did well after surgery, during which he was put under general anesthesia. The multi-care presence at Allenmore was amazingly efficient and friendly–it was a day surgery machine, I tell you. The funniest bit was the anesthesiologist, who offered P-daddy some caffeine in his IV. “You haven’t had your coffee, have you? Do you have a withdrawal headache?” Not two minutes prior, P-daddy had said he felt one coming on. He declined the extra jolt, though.
Niki had the children while we were gone all day for this procedure, and then stayed over to watch them again the next morning for the 8 AM (!!!) follow up appointment at the dr’s office. While I recognize this is a beneficial trade-off (in our eyes anyway) for an inpatient stay, it still was somewhat overwhelming. Paul and I commented how wonderful it was to not even have to think about the kids.
Anyway, what that means in terms of my online life is that well, I am not here. Not like I usually am anyway! P-daddy is a terrible, terrible convalescent and when I am not enforcing bed rest, I have the children away from the house.
We had a last huzzah at the Renny Faire last weekend with some dear friends (see Niki’s blog for some pix) and it sounds as if we have infected both those families with our madness. I am already looking forward to next year. Cruelly, my peasant Renny costume arrived moments before we left to go to the fair. The thing is, I bought it a size down because I knew I wouldn’t be receiving it in time to use this year. OOOOOOWWWWWWWCH! Oh the whining my friends heard that day! (Not to mention the flat-out, cackling, laughter from my dd when she saw me try it on anyway.)
~D~ got lost at the Renny Faire. ~G~ got lost at the Renny Faire. It was a tough day at the Renny Faire, but as fun as ever in retrospect! I was somewhat sad for P-daddy when we returned and he said wistfully, ” I wish I could have gone.” This guy never wants to do anything like I do, so I am really happy about his affection for it! There are a lot of these in WA and OR, not to mention the ones that aren’t quite Renny, but have to be just as smashing!
The local YMCA opened and omigoodness. It opened yesterday, and we spent several hours there yesterday and today. (G even had their first first-aid call, when she spontaneously burst into a heavy nosebleed in the pool. YUM!) The facility is actually better than I expected and everything I hoped it would be. We even got to meet another homeschooling friend there today. Day two of the facility and we already had a swimdate! I guess I will count that as our lunch-on-Wednesday date, cause I am retentive that way.
After the pool, the boys and I took to the gym and shot hoops while G ran a mile on the track. Not kidding, she counted. 9 times around is a mile. After that, she joined us and we left with promises to return again tomorrow. This is going to be a very good thing.
All my homeschooling homies are gearing up for the non-year to begin. It’s fun talking to each other and comparing notes. I have two ladies coming over on Friday to talk homeschooling and pick blackberries. I am crazy. I know that I am.
Tonight Mackattack babysat for us while we had dinner at Elliot’s in Seattle. It was very nice of her, and very overdue for us.
P-Daddy’s former college friend and current President of his alma mater (one in the same) was in town to schmooze a Microsoft donor to the annual fund and show his teen aged son some colleges in the area. He gathered some of P-daddy’s alums for dinner. The meal was fabulous, as to be expected, and the conversation was easy. Aside from the President’s son, we were the youngest at the table. No one had lived here longer than 7 years.
I was kind of teasing P-daddy when I asked him to inquire about Alma Mater’s stance on homeschooling and admissions. Most large universities, including some Ivy League schools, have reserved spots for homeschoolers now, but I wasn’t expecting much from an 1100-student private college in Michigan.
His friend couldn’t hear him very well over the other diners and replied “Homeschooling?” and jabbed a thumb at his teenaged son. “He’s homeschooled. Well he was, until boarding school.” Turns out the guy (and his sister) go to Interlochen, a fabulous arts school in MI. Normally I am not a fan of boarding school, but Interlochen is wonderful. I had been accepted into Interlochen and had a scholarship, but my Mom hadn’t let me go. At this point I was freaking out with the coincidence and affirmation of it all.
As we were leaving the restaurant, the boy took me aside and said “I think it’s cool you’re homeschooling. I really, really loved it. It’s great.”
I had to give that boy a hug.
But I am really hating my van right now. So I shall go on about the positive, and ignore my pounding sinus headache, in itself the just desserts for well, desserts.
On an upswing, we had a lovely weekend. We did. We got the van back Friday night* and on Saturday, drove to a friend’s birthday party at Odyssey. The kids love what Chiknman refers to as “the human habitrail,” and they did the party very efficiently. My kids have
never been to an arcade before, so when they took the children to that half of the play complex, their little heads started spinning. By the time we were ready (omg please let me out!) to leave, the children were, too. 
They each got puzzle boxes as party favors and the big kids actually put them together that night. (Their mom is not a fan of jigsaw puzzles, so I was pleasantly surprised by how well that went over here. )
Saturday afternoon, P-daddy got a gardening jig on and dug a new bed for our strawberries. He went NUTS, and built a rock wall around it and everything. I was really impressed with that, [pictures to come], and he was soooore the next day. 
On Sunday, P-daddy went golfing and then we went to Penrose to scope out the perfect camping spot. You can reserve online, and WA State parks tries to make it as convenient as possible by including pictures , but …if you can drive to see for yourself, it’s so much easier. The tide was lower than any tide I have ever seen anywhere in my life. We walked into the inlet, out past the archipelago, for those of you who have been there. (Not the one on the left, the one on the right— the two mile nature trail. ) People were clamming everywhere, bringing in geoducks and horse clams. We asked one man how he eats his geoduck and he said “raw.” Um. yuck.
GreenMama says the birds remind her of a happy childhood memory.
Valerie is so entirely suited to these happy marine colors. The jewelry is much brighter in person than is coming across in these pics.
*It is making clickety valve noises and on Sunday, when we drove back home fromPenrose, the gauges stopped working. The van would still run, start and go, but I couldn’t see how fast we were going or whether we had any gas. Not acceptable after a 5 week sacrifice and 1650.00 expenditure.
