Jacob and his friend Mohonri (also known as Kichan) had gone somewhere in the Mohonri's car and the car key was inadvertently locked inside. It was his only key. There was a broken chain link fence near by so the boys wiggled a piece of wire free and made a hook on the end. They spent two hours in the pouring rain trying to jimmy the lock. They couldn't get it to work so they decided to try to snag the keys off the steering wheel where they had been left hanging. That didn't work, they knocked the key to the ground.
They then decided to cut their losses and break one of the smallest windows, but still couldn't reach the lock (pulling the handle didn't unlock the door, meaning the two hours spent trying to jimmy the lock were spent in vain). The secretary of the building they were locked out in front of tried to help; supplying the boys with a variety of things while they were there: an umbrella, a door stop, a baseball cap and a hammer. The door stop was used to try and widen the space between the door to jimmy the lock, the umbrella and baseball cap were given to them after the first hour in the rain. After two hours in the rain, they used the hammer to break out another window. I say "they" but it was actually a cute girl who walked by. They asked her if she'd like to break the window out and once she realized they were serious, she said, "Sure!" In the process of breaking the window, she cut her hand and started bleeding everywhere. I'm sure she won't soon forget the boys she met that day but I don't know that they left a very good impression on her!
Once they got it unlocked, the boys came over to our house to clean up all the glass and fashion two new windows out of cardboard and black plastic. When I mentioned that a locksmith might have been a good idea, I was told that they didn't have any money on them and besides, the plastic/cardboard window works just fine.
Mountain Biking
Saturday Dode took Isaac and his friends Douglas and Nathan Colburn mountain biking. They'd planned to hit the Pilchuck Tree Farm, just a 10 minute drive from our house, but the high winds made riding in the tree farm too dangerous. They went down to Seattle to a mountain bike terrain park called Colonnade. Since it's in downtown Seattle and located under the freeway, it's a "mixed use" area. There was a homeless guy sleeping right in the middle of the bike park the entire time they were there!
It is built under the elevated freeway where they were safe from wind and the sleet/snow/rain that came down all morning. The map above doesn't show where the freeway overshadows everything.
Dode was in scouting for ten years. In that time with all his outings he never once had rain nor did anyone ever need to use a bandage. That blessing is long gone. He managed to send Nathan home with a banged up knee. He missed the wooden 180 degree banked turn after the "viaduct" on the map. Instead of making the turn, he sailed up and over it. After getting up from the crash, he remarked that he was thankful to have a helmet on. The ironic thing was that he would't have gotten hurt if they had left the park on time. Sometimes Dode isn't very good at keeping track of details with last minute changes. Since going to Seattle was an 11th hour change, he mixed up the return to Arlington time. I'd told him I wanted him home by noon and so had the Colburn boys' mom. Somehow in Dode's head, they were supposed to be home at 12:30. Nathan got hurt in those last 30 minutes.
"merely a flesh wound!"
Douglas didn't let his broken chain slow him down. He kept riding his bike as a coaster bike. He was especially good at the pump track, a bunch of bumps about one foot high set in a row where you can pump your handles and bike up and down over and over to get speed. Douglas was a master at it.
Once they got home, the boys' mom posted on facebook, "Trailing mud and blood into the house... my boys are home." Sometimes that happens when you're having fun with the Dicksons!
Isaac worked to master his bunny hop over and over again
little van + four bikes = our hillbilly look
Injuries and broken equipment aside, the important thing is that they had a great time!
School changes for Elizabeth
Thursday Elizabeth started taking a class at the same middle school Anastaya attends. She is there for 1.5 hours taking a reading/writing class. She was equal parts excited and nervous about going. One thing that made things easier for her is that the teacher has a therapy dog in the classroom. Elizabeth loves animals and was quite excited to meet the dog. I drove her in on her first day. As we walked up to the school, I reached down to hold her hand and she batted me away for the 1st time ever. I think she was feeling pretty grown up and didn't want to be seen walking in to the school holding her mom's hand. It didn't hurt my feelings; later that day we were walking somewhere else and she grabbed my hand.
Friday she rode the bus in with Anastaya. She's been jealous for a long time that she's never been on a school bus. It only took one ride for her to realize that bus riding isn't the paradise she thought it would be!
Another one bites the dust!
Dode is a really handy guy when it comes to fixing things around the house. But, when it comes to work vehicles, he seems to be bad luck. Once he borrowed a Tulalip van only to return it needing the transmission replaced. He brought that van back and exchanged it for another. It ended up with a flat tire. His survey rig has had the heater core replaced three times. He tried to avoid the curse of a broken vehicle when he went to the Tri Cities for a conference last summer by taking our van, only to have it die on the way home.
On Thursday he borrowed a 15 passenger van to drive with his department down to Lacey (a 2 hour drive). When they got in the van to drive home, he noticed a bit of trouble with the starter not wanting to disengage. He had to drive it home that night because they were getting home after the motor pool had locked his truck in their lot. In the morning when he started it, the van started but the starter wouldn't stop grinding. He tried different fixes but in the end, he had to disconnect the battery and leave it here, taking another car back to work. A few hours later, a tow truck showed up to tow the Tulalip van in. When he told the motor pool employees (all two of them!) that another of their vehicles was coming in broken, they asked, "Can't you just drive your survey rig when you need a Tulalip vehicle?" He asked Dode to write up his experiences in hopes that it could convince the tribes that they need new cars in their motor pool.
It was funny when they came to get the van. First the tow truck arrived, then Dode in our 12 passenger van, then his co-worker Steve (pictured above) driving Dode's pick up. Elizabeth came to me very worried, having only noticed the pick up to say, "Dad's truck just pulled in but he wasn't the one driving it!"
Kent Prairie Open House
On Thursday night, the elementary kids had an open house at school. Miriam's class had a musical performance. The music teacher sang about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while the kids shook maracas and pounded on rhythm sticks. The song went on and on and on. It reminded me of the "99 bottles of beer on the wall" song.
waiting for her turn to perform
up front with her maraca
We were treated to a late winter snow dusting on Saturday night. Sunday morning when Miriam saw what was outside, she had one question, "Will church be cancelled today?" When I told her that it was still happening she asked hopefully, "Will it be only one hour?" Sorry honey, church was on its regular schedule!
Sunday at church I was teaching a lesson to seven year olds. The topic was "Jesus once was a little child like me." We were having a discussion about things that are different from when Jesus was a child and things that are the same. The kids weren't even a little intrigued when I told them that back then, everyone wore dresses. The thing that really got them thinking was the lack of indoor plumbing. Then, when we talked about the kinds of toys Jesus would have played with, they couldn't come up with any. I tried prompting them, "Well, think of the kinds of toys you have that don't take batteries or aren't made out of plastic..... Can you think of anything that Jesus might have played with? What types of toys might he have had?" After much contemplation, a little girl in the class said, "Old toys? Dusty toys?" They are such concrete thinkers that they can't imagine what else the toys from so long ago could be. I mentioned that there were balls, dolls, stick games back then. Ohhh!
Back from the veternarian
Last month, Miriam and Isaac were wrestling in the living room. Isaac went flying across the room and banged into Miriam's wooden rocking horse. In the collision, the horse got the worst of it. One of the rockers split in half. Miriam was so worried and immediately called Greg to tell him what happened. When my mom and Greg came up for dinner, he took the horse back to his veternary office/workshop for repairs. It was a time consuming repair because he had to take the entire rocker off and replace it with a new piece of wood. A few weeks later, (with Miriam asking me every few days if I thought it was ready yet) he returned it to our happy little horse lover, good as new.
Our much loved (spoiled?) little girl!
She's wearing a jumper my mom sewed for her that is covered with Disney princesses.
Her American Girl amoire is in the background on the right.
Limping for a new reason
The foot is getting better all the time. My friend who is learning to be a massage therapist had finals this week. She needed a "body" for her test. I got a 15 minute leg/foot massage and then spent another 15 minutes being her anatomy visual aid. Her instructor would ask her to identify different muscles, then say where they attach, what muscles work in opposition to them, what kinds of massage strokes to use on specific muscles, etc. It wasn't a very long massage, but I got to have my foot rubbed some more by an expert. It works so much better for her to rub it that for me to try to contort myself around to get to it. I still have days where is swells up and hurts (especially if I wear shoes with a thin sole) but for the most part, I'm doing ok.
does anyone else put photos of their feet on their blog? (not to mention bloody knees!)
90% of the bruising is gone, my scar is thin and pink
There is numbness between my 3rd and 4th toes and soreness on the botton ball of my foot but I'm still glad I had it done.
that's better! freshly painted toes
such a daring color choice!
I am walking a bit stiff and slow though. Anastaya and I got trained on the weight lifting machines at the YMCA on Friday. Part of our training was a strength test to determine what weights we should start with. On Saturday morning, I spent an hour using them. By Saturday afternoon, I could tell I was in trouble. My legs were so sore! By Sunday morning, ouch! Dode is such an expert in "Stephanie" that he can tell when I'm limping because I'm wearing dress shoes to church and my foot isn't happy and when I'm limping because my legs are so sore that I can hardly walk.
Yes, a very daring toenail color choice! Glad the foot is doing better. Weight training sounds dangerous :o) Almost more so than the mountain bike corse!
ReplyDeleteJacob would make a pretty bad car thief...Gerry said next time tell him to go to the fire dept and say his Grampa worked in Seattle...they help people who have locked their car doors...glad Miriam the princess liked her jumper. Miss you guys. Love mom
ReplyDeleteSaw your blog about Jacob and all. At least you didn't resort to that, when you threw your only keys down the Cavaliers heater vent right in front of the Arlington post office. had to fish them out with a magnet tied to fishing line. Fun.
ReplyDeleteLove,Dad