It's About Time

It's about time I get a little caught up on things.  Thanks to a no-student day at school and a training that ended at 12:00 and a brief break before I shuttle children to and fro, it's a moment I have to blog.

Why haven't I been on here?  It's about time, you see.  I'm finding, more than anything, my children's increasing need for the computer means I haven been bumped off many times.  And when it is my turn, I'm too mushy brained and tired to make any sense.  So I just think the next day would be better.  And then the next day comes and we repeat the cycle.  So in all ways, it's about time. 

And now I'll quit wasting it and catch up!

Let's see.  Two weeks ago, Alex went to the All-State conference in Yakima.  He had such a great time.  He was with his peeps.  He met some new peeps.  He played a lot of music.  He fell in love with music in a new and fresh way.  He is extremely passionate about music right now.  I could do an entire post on that.  How do you bridle passion?  Or do you?  Oh, don't get me started on that.  And what do you do when advise is given by a respected person that you disagree with and then that causes some conflict?  I said don't get me started and I mean it.  It's all being processed, thought-through, chewed-on, mulled over, discussed, passionately discussed, and pondered.  More on that in the future, I'm sure.

My first Alex sighting! Any manner of things could be the reason, but I'm choosing to believe that little grin was because he saw his mommy in the crowd!

Alex and his number one know competitor at this year's state solo contest. They are very friendly rivals!

The full All-State Chamber Orchestra! 50 bonus points for picking Alex out of that crowd.

Olive Garden after the concert, finally hearing all about it!

Anyway, the weekend was great for him.  Brad and I went over for the concert.  And after 4 days, I missed that boy.  And the concert was so very beautiful, what a pleasure to be gifted with listening to that!

Because the concert was at 10:00 in the morning, Brad and I went over the afternoon before and actually had time ALONE TOGETHER!  Alone together, my favorite oxymoron.

The only picture of our time I have is our take-out dinner.  A little hole-in-the-wall place in Ellensburg that makes beautiful perfection out of a hamburger.  YUM!

Mmmm...

And then last weekend was an event to remember!  Alex and Brenna ran their first race together!  It was a 6-mile, 2 person run.  Each person runs 1.5 miles, tags their partner who then runs 1.5, and you repeat that.  It was so much fun to watch them do that together.  Alex was mostly excited because they were the only brother/sister entry, so they were guaranteed a prize!  And it was a c-c-c-c-c-c-cooooooold morning!  Oh, boy, did we get chilled! 

Brenna finishing her first leg.

Alex coming in to pass the bracelet off to Brenna.

Alex coming into the finishing chute!

A post-race picture!

Receiving their "major award"!  And it was...a deck of cards! :)

Fun times.  And somewhere in the midst of the last two weeks, I had my pie judged at the pie fest!  That was such a great event, and so many gorgeous (and delicious!) pies to see and eat.  The judging?  Very mixed.  One judge seemed to really like it, giving me all 8's out of 10.  Another judge really didn't care for it, giving me mostly 4's out of 10.  The third judge was a blend of both.  So now I'm challenged!!!  Can't wait to try again and try to blow them away with the "brightness" of my flavors, whatever that means.

Ah...I feel a bit more caught up now!  I'm really feeling the itch to be back on here regularly.  I'm hoping my kids' teachers will cooperate with that plan and decide to stop giving writing assignments for the next few months!

Until next time...