Last week of May

Senior Appreciation
We had Senior appreciation night at church this week. I had very mixed feelings about going. Yes, Jacob is a senior, no he is not graduating. As the youth got up and each shared a few thoughts about growing up, I sat there feeling more and more depressed. I don't feel like we've done a very good job at getting Jacob launched into his life. He's not graduating from high school this year and it doesn't look good for next year at this point.  He refuses to take the GED exam and just be done with it. He doesn't have a job and has no interest in finding one. He doesn't have a driver's licence, and again isn't interested in doing the things we want him to in order to get one. (Things like: make progress in school by finishing three of the classes that he has 95% done, fasten his seat belt while in the vehicle with us, come home on time or as agreed on at least 50% of the time.)

Each of the seniors got a chance to say a few words.  Most thanked their parents and leaders for helping them become the people they are.  Jacob gave me credit for getting him there (to the activity) because I forced him to attend.

So, we have an adult son with no skills, no motivation, no bright and shining future on the horizon. What makes it so difficult to deal with is that Jacob has amazing potential.  He's incredibly intelligent with a lightening fast mind and phenomenal memory and ability to make connections.  He's charismatic and people he meets of all ages naturally are drawn to like him.  Yet, he seems determined to throw all that away.  Jacob is definitely teaching us that you can't judge your success as a parent by your child's achievements. I look back on raising him and I believe we gave 100% to him (Dode says 150%!). If I could have had the power to change anything, I would have been able to convince Jacob to get help with his depression sooner.  It's not something he's conquered yet, but at least he's agreed to counseling and trying different medications.

Track Meet

Thursday Anastaya had a track meet.  It was a cold, rainy day.  Anastaya competes in three events, Shot- Put, Discus, and the 800 Meter run.  In order to keep warm, I jumped up and down in place.  I must have done a lot of it over the three hours, because the next morning, my calves were extremely sore!

I figure, as long as I'm at the track meet, I might as well be helping. This was my second time helping as a timer. I get to stand right next to the finish line that way! Although it was wet and cold this week, it was an improvement over the last time I helped. That time, I had a stomach bug and stood on the sidelines wondering where I could throw up without anyone noticing if it came to that. Anastaya was wishing I wasn't helping this time because she was freezing and wanted to just quit and go home before her last event.

Freezing before her last event, the 800 meter run. 

She is a hard worker but isn't exactly quick on her feet.  She came in far behind the other girls.  I'm glad I was there at the finish line because I noticed that they were arranging the youth on the track for the next event and I had to holler out, "Wait!  There's still a runner on the course!"  I tried to console her by telling her that being last isn't a big deal.  I told her that when I ran a 10k, I was last.  In fact, I was 10 minutes behind the next slowest runner and they were taking down the finish line before I even got there, but I still felt great for doing it.  I'm not sure it gave her much comfort.

I think the kids enjoyed our pop up canopy more than my timing skills! 

I'd brought it thinking it would be nice for all the timers to stand under.  When I saw that everyone had sufficient rain gear, I decided to leave it in the car.  Then, I noticed the kids standing around getting rained on, hugging themselves and freezing so I went to go get it for them.  I was in the big van and a car had parked really close beside me.  The canopy was on the side next to that car.  It was a total struggle to open the side doors far enough for me to inch it out of the van.  I had to alternate opening one door, slide the canopy, then open the next door, slide the canopy, over and over.  The canopy I'd thrown in didn't have wheels so I lugged it over to the track wishing there was a strong man around to offer to ease my burden.  (No luck!)

Ear, Nose, and Throat Visit

Isaac's ear infection is the kind of thing that just won't clear up.  He's been to the doctor (a 45 minute drive away) at least 8 times for it.  He's had it professinally cleaned out three times, something he hates.  We had his hearing screened at the beginning of the month and found that although his hearing has come back (after loosing all hearing in the ear after his ear drum ruptured), he still had some high frequency loss.  The ear was also still bothering him.  We went to the Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor on Friday where they re-evaluated his hearing and while it's not perfect, it's still improving.  He used a microscope and a suction device to clean all the junk out of his ear that resulted from the rupture.  There was so much debris in his ear, it was preventing the ear drum from vibrating as it should, resulting in hearing problems.  With some drops for the next few days, his ear (cross my fingers) should be back to normal now. 

Getting to that appointment was a bit of an ordeal.  Isaac had stayed at a friend's house the night before and I'd never been there.  I googled directions to the address, saw it was about 12 minutes away and on the way to the doctor office and allowed myself an extra 15 minutes to pick him up and be on our way to Everett.  Well, google steered me wrong.  I ended up at the end of a skinny dead end road with no turn around at the end.  I did a 10 point turn to get the big van turned around, worrying all the time that I'd back up too far and end up stuck in the mud.  Once I got turned around, I tried to call home to get a phone number and found that there was no cell reception.  I started driving back towards home, trying to use my cell phone repeatedly.  Once I got reception, I was able to get the phone number for the house he was at and the mom said I was totally in the wrong area and had a long way to go to get to her house.  It ended up they lived about five minutes away from us and in the opposite direction of the doctor office.  I finally arrived to pick up Isaac and more than forty minutes after leaving home (30 extra minutes of driving around lost), I was driving back past our house and needed to be in Everett in 20 minutes.  We called in to tell them we were going to be late and they said as long as we were not more than 10 minutes late, they could see him.  Of course, I just missed every light we hit on the way and had to merge onto the freeway behind a fully loaded semi (think slow).  We made it to the parking garage at the doctor's office exactly 10 minutes late, and we were too big to fit in the garage!  There was no street parking around the building available.  At this point, my stress level was out the roof but we managed to find a parking lot a block away and were soon power walking to the office.  Thankfully, they still were able to see Isaac.

As long as we were in Everett, we ran some errands.  We stocked up on bulk supplies at Cash and Carry.  We sure go through a lot of: pizza flour, pizza cheese, hamburger patties, hot dogs,  french fries and tortillas! We also stocked up on chocolate at Trader Joe's (5 pounds of dark chocolate and two bags of dark chocolate covered pretzels.   Health food at its best!)  I've been wanting to make water kefir soda with the kefir I've been making and needed to buy some EZ Cap bottles to carbonate the kefir.  I looked on line and realized all the places that sold those kind of bottles were home wine making/beer making suppliers.  Not wanting to pay shipping on the bottles, I found a store in Everett that sold them, Homebrew Heaven.  When we pulled into the parking lot and I told Isaac where I was going, he sure got big eyes!  I wasn't sure what the rules were about all ages going in so I had him stay in the car.  While I was there, I picked up supplies for making mozzarella and ricotta cheese and some root beer extract.  Isaac kept the keys so he could listen to the radio.  When I got back, there was no radio on and I asked him why.  He told me he was afraid of running the battery down.  I told him, yes it would be funny if I had to call dad to come help us and told him we were parked at Homebrew Heaven!  When I got home, Miriam found a novel use for the napkins I stocked up on.

napkin pillows

Isaac measured in at the doctor today at 5'3".  I told him that since he's almost as big as me, and is probably at least as strong as me, it's time for him to start putting the new water containers on the dispenser.  I took a photo of this momentous right of passage.

We go through about 4 of these a week.  After putting a new water bottle on, Isaac has decided that we go through way too much water as a family!

Misc.

We made no progress in our ongoing search for a van.  We thought we'd found one and drove 45 minutes down to Lynnwood to look at it.  We'd made an appointment to look at it but when we arrived, we were told the seller was not there.  The lady of the house called him up and he told us he'd been there in 20 minutes.  An hour later, he showed up.  He was selling two mini vans (a short one like ours and a "Grand" style we're looking for)  and we quickly realized that he'd mixed up information about the two.   The Grand Caravan had too many miles on an old transmission for us to go for. After waiting all that time with the cash in my purse, without even taking it for a test drive, we said "No thanks" and made the trek back home, discouraged and disappointed. 

Isaac was able to go on a spur-of-the moment camp out with Randy and Jared.  It was their Stake Father and Son camp out and they realized on the way to the campground that they'd forgotten their camping chairs.  They swung in to borrow some of ours and we threw Isaac in with them.  I wonder if Randy is reconsidering his need for those chairs!

We've got a little over two weeks until our vacation and I'm getting a bit worried.  Yellowstone had a snow storm this weekend and they're forecasting 18 inches of snow for the Beartooth Mountains, just east of Yellowstone.  We're going to be tenting it!  When Elizabeth heard about the snow she excitedly said, "Can we bring sleds?!"