One-Liners

My children are always saying really good one-liners, and it's usually when they are completely oblivious to the depth of meaning behind what they have said.

Just today Jarod and I were watching a TV show called Wizards of Waverly Place. The kids are wizards in training and the oldest brother finds out that he has finished wizard school, but now has to do an independent study. His sister says "way to go Justin, you finished school just to be awarded with more school", to which Jarod says "that's just like when you graduate from High School". Alex and I had a good little chuckle over the truth in his words. It's good to know that he feels that way....it's just the way things work.

About a week ago, the kids and I were on our way to swim practice. We were driving along behind an SUV with "DO YOU KNOW JESUS?" painted in large letters across the back window. I said "do they think that's gonna convince people to know Jesus?" to which Cassadie said "yeah, do they think they can advertise Him like He's a roll of toilet paper?" Exactly!

This past weekend, Cassadie and I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Championship swim meet in Wenatchee. It was the championships for Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, and Northern Idaho. Cassadie swam so well, I can't believe how hard she works. She really amazes me all the time. The funny thing is that she amazes herself as well. Quite often, after a race, she'll tell me that she didn't know she could swim that fast. One day in practice, she had to swim a sprint, and her coach told her to finish in a certain amount of time. She said she swam so fast she scared herself. She just didn't know she was capable of moving that fast. It's funny!

Anyway, back to the meet. She swam in five events. She swam two on Friday, one Saturday and two on Sunday. After swimming each race, the top 20 swimmers come back in the evening to swim a final race for placement. Cassadie got to swim in three final races, placing in the top twenty in three of her events. She also got personal best times in all five of her events, dropping almost 30 seconds altogether.

Her coach tells me that she's hard to coach, but that it's for a good reason. She's progressing so quickly that he has a hard time, there are just so many little things that she still doesn't know. It's kinda like, what do you teach her next that will be the most beneficial? I'd like to say that she gets it from me, but I know that I am not as intrinsically motivated as she is, or as naturally athletic as she is.

I would have pictures except that I don't remember to take any, as I have mentioned in my earlier post, and I can't seem to find my cable that allows me to upload the pictures to my computer. So, I hope to find my cable, and get some video soon so you can all see how much she really has improved.

You can find anything on the internet...

Birds are funny creatures. Living in Central Washington, I have seen my fair share of cranes, hawks, eagles, and other large birds. Alex gets very excited when he sees a bald eagle. I have to say that it is cool to me, but since I have seen then around since I was a child, the sight of one does not thrill me the way it does him. He is often disappointed by my response to a sighting. I do however, get very excited at the sight of a pelican. We have had pelicans in the Yakima Valley for the last five years or so. I absolutely love to watch a flock of them circle in the sky. It seems so majestic the way they soar; their white bodies contrasting the blue sky. It has become a ritual on the way home from Yakima to see if we can spot them in the river. The kids are very excited, I'm sure as a result of my excitement. Tonight, Jarod saw two of them, and we began to discuss their strange bill. He says that when he thinks of pelicans he remembers the scene in "Finding Nemo" when the pelican scoops Nemo up, gets water for him, and flies with him in his bill. Jarod proceeded to look them up on the internet when we got home, because as he says "you can find anything on the internet." He actually found some crazy stories. One was about a girl who had to get 20 stitches from a pelican ramming into her head while she was swimming in the ocean. Another one told about a pelican eating a pigeon...which I find odd. Isn't that kind of like canibalism?

Don't you every wonder why we do this to ourselves?

For those of you who don't know, I am currently taking classes in an attempt to get my Masters' degree. I'm in a program that requires me to take classes for six weeks over three summers - then I complete a thesis-type project and get my degree. This is my third and final summer (cross my fingers), I am taking 14 credits which mean four classes. I am in class from 9 until 3:30 three days a week. The first two summers it was 16 credits each, six classes, and four days a week. 11 of the credits are from education courses and the rest are math courses. All of this to say, it is an intense six weeks.

I can't say that I was excited to go back to school, but as a teacher, a Masters' degree is really a necessity. Not because it changes my job at all, but simply for an increase in salary. I am technically qualified to teach at a junior college with a Masters' degree, so my adjunct faculty position at Heritage University will be legitimate now. (If you didn't know, I have been teaching there for 2 1/2 years, in the evenings.)

So, do I enjoy going to school? Honestly, sometimes. I do enjoy learning new things, especially math, and I love to be challenged. Although I have recently realized that I do not cope well with too much challenge. I am not fun to be around when I cannot figure out how to do something. The other day, I spent hours trying to figure out a math problem, and when I couldn't figure it out, I literally fell apart. It was quite ridiculous. It was kind of like throwing a handful of rocks at a snow covered mountain, and the last one causes an avalanche. In other words, it was one of several things that caused the meltdown.

It really isn't all bad. Doing math all day is fun ( I know I'm a nerd), and the people are great. I enjoy my time with them, although it seems short. I have made good friends.

Why do I even own a camera?

I have found that some times I wish I were creative and could take great pictures like my amazing sister. Most days I am okay with the fact that I did not get that gene. I spent Memorial Day weekend in Vancouver with my sisters and we had a blast. The drive to The Couv was amazing...the wild flowers were in bloom, the trees were all green, the sky was a beautiful clear blue and the mountains were gorgeous. I kept thinking that I should stop and take a picture, but couldn't bring myself to do it. I knew all those cars I had just waited sooooo long to pass would get in front of me again. So, there are no cool pictures to document my beautiful drive that weekend.

The last weekend in May, Cassadie and I spent three days in a park at a swim meet. Hanging out with great people, having lots of fun. I got my camera out several times because I saw something I wanted to take a picture of, but by the time I got it out, there was not picture to take, I had missed the moment. Why didn't I just keep it out?

I just spent the weekend at graduation and graduation parties...did I take my camera? You guessed it, NOPE!

Do you ever see something so crazy that no one will ever believe you, and maybe you're not even sure you really saw it. The kind of sight you would love to get a picture of, or have someone there to witness. The other day, on my way to work, I saw one of these crazy sights. A gigantic metal fish on a Semi-truck trailer. It was the length of the trailer, and as tall as the truck. It was actually quite beautiful. I found myself wondering if I should turn around and chase it down just to get a picture of it. Then I remembered, I don't take pictures, and it would probably make me late for work.

Ichi - Ni - San - Yan ...

So, Jarod had his first karate test this weekend. The owner of the dojo is Sensei Mack Morris. He is about 80 years old and still teaching karate. He has actually been honored by the Prime Minister of Japan for his karate skill, and that's why his belt is white and red striped. He started one of the first karate dojos in America. This is him talking to the students and instructors.If you look closely, you can see that some of them are wearing blue smocks over their gui. Those are the instructors.

For the actual test, they have to show what they have learned in order to get their next belt. Everyone starts out as a white belt. The next belt is white with a black stripe and then yellow, yellow with a stripe, etc. They test them in groups, so all of the black belts tested at the same time. The second group was all of the orange, green, purple, and brown belts. Jarod's group was last; all of the white, yellow, and gold belts. The test was in the gym at YVCC (Yakima Valley Community College) and the gym floor was full of students of all ages. So, this is how it would go...

1. Two black belts demonstrate the move they will need to show, since there are multiple colors on the floor at one time, they demonstrate each of the different things.
For example, the white belts need to show a front kick, while the yellow belts are showing a round kick, and the gold belts are showing a side kick.

2. Everyone does their move at one time, while the head sensei shouts out commands (in Japanese)

3. The senseis and other black belts move around the floor checking and scoring each student. There are 24 of them total, checking 50+ students.


They had to do several self-defense moves, kicks, punches, etc. Then they had to do their kata. Depending on your belt color, you would do anywhere from 1 to 5 katas. Some of the students did katas involving weapons...those were very cool to watch. Here is the video of Jarod doing his kata. He's not so happy about me posting it, but I'm the mom right.



Jarod got his score Wednesday and he passed so he now has his stripe. They begin a new 4-month session next week.

"You can't sell me!"

We went to Cassadie's school band concert tonight. As Alex, Jarod, and I were sitting, waiting for it to start I turned to Jarod and we had the following conversation.

me: So Jarod, have you decided what instrument you want to play next year? (They start band in 5th grade)
Jarod: Nah
me: Well, I think you should choose percussion
Jarod: What?
me: You know, drums
Jarod: oh, yeah
me: It's more marketable you know
Jarod: You can't sell me!!!!! (with complete shock on his face)
Alex and I laugh hard for what felt like minutes
me: No, you know, like when you grow up and want to be in a band you can say "I can play the guitar, the drums, and I can sing"
Jarod: yeah (giggling)

I didn't even know he knew what marketable meant, I fully expected to have to explain it to him.