There was a Grandfather at the game. The same Grandfather that had been at every game all season long. He cheered on all the kids. He paced the fence much like Tommy Lasorda used to pace the dugout while he managed the Dodgers…way back when.

All of a sudden I was hit with a vision of my Daddy sitting there in his beloved North Dakota watching his beloved David playing in his first Little League Tournament and I couldn’t stop the tears from falling…much like right now just remembering it.

I so wish my Dad had lived long enough to see yesterday…he would have been so proud regardless of how much time David spent playing, or how he did at bat. These are the times when I miss him most, and still do.

The boys lost that game…but in the bottom of the final inning the boys made up some major ground coming from behind with a 10 run deficit to finish out only 2 runs behind. We were very proud parents.

I’m sitting here listening to the umpteenth rain storm of the Summer. But for some reason this one reminded me of my Dad…I don’t know if it’s because it was loud or what exactly it was that jogged the memory, but it did.

I’ve always loved rainstorms…the louder the better, the more lightening the better, the more thunder the better. I got hit with a vision of my Dad, in his robe stretched out on a couch under the big picture window on Murietta. He would long for rainy days when he didn’t have to go anywhere and could just sit and enjoy the fact that there wasn’t much he could do other than read a book, in his robe, on the couch, under a big picture window, with a storm blowing past outside.

Yeah, I love the rainstorms…even the bigger, scarier ones we have in North Dakota, cuz they always seem to remind me of Dad.

Ahhh…the happy couple at their wedding rehearsal dinner.  There was so much I wanted to say to you both tonight…but found myself too emotional to actually say the words.

Like Chris said, I’m so thankful that you, Porter, were able to find true love twice in one lifetime. You are blessed to have Taya in your life, she so obviously loves you with her whole self. And I know you well enough to know how much you love her as well. You, Porter, are an example of the best that is within all of us and deserve only the best and I believe Taya is that.

Taya, thank you for loving my baby brother, he is so special and I love him so much. Thank you for bringing so much joy into his life…I am eternally grateful that you found each other and ask that you take good care of each other. I hope that when life deals you both the occasional challenge, you will hold onto the joy you feel today. Your love will help you weather any storm.

I know Mom and Dad continue to be proud of you every day Porter and tomorrow they will be there in spirit cheering you on and wishing you both nothing but love and happiness as will David, Lynney, Wally, and I.

Congratulations, love, and happiness always!!!!

I wanted to take Porter and Taya out to dinner last night…the least I could do considering how crazy busy they are pulling the wedding together. Taya actually worked yesterday and had a ton of errands to run after work so that left Porter, David, and I.

We had a pow-wow to figure out what to get for dinner…I knew David was hungry for seafood, but if we were going to do that, we should have done it while were were still on the mainland. I mentioned that what I was hungry for was Asian food, and that caused me to remember that I’ve been wanting to try Pho, pronounced “fa”, and it is a Vietnamese noodle bowl. Porter said there was one in Poulsbo that he’d been wanting to try.

Off we went in search of Pho. I walked in the door of T and N Pho and left immediately at home…the aromas were delectable AND they had bubble tea which made David hug me in appreciation!! LOL

Lots of stuff on the menu sounded fantastic, especially the steak and shrimp vermicelli noodle bowl pictured above.  But…I went in for Pho and that’s what I decided to get. Man it was good. The broth was very flavorful, with steak, vermicelli noodles, steak, green onions, bean sprouts, fresh basil leaves, fresh lime juice, optional jalepeno slices I left out.  We also ordered egg rolls which were phenominal with this really different dipping sauce. It was so good I went back to try the noodle bowl pictured above, today.

I’m off to Amazon to see if I can find a Vietnamese cookbook so I can duplicate it at home…one of those noodle bowls would be SOOO GOOD on a snowy winter day!!! I’m just about drooling on myself thinking about it. LOL

This morning I was on my way over to the meat department to deliver a message when I saw the following, out of the corner of my eye:

Note the word “tender”…shortly after receiving whiplash from turning my head to see what the heck was tender, I ran into our store manager. “Lanny”, I said, “Why on God’s green Earth would the word “tender” be highlighted on a popcorn box? Tender? As opposed to what? And why the hell would you advertise this box as tender, while drawing attention to the fact that the other, similar products are not. Is this one of those new-fangled marketing ploys I’ve been hearing about? Never in my life have I seen the word “tender” used in conjunction with something other than meat and frankly it scares me!”.  Lanny didn’t have any explantion to offer me other than laughter…but it was one of those things that niggled at me all day long. I guess those marketing execs got half the job right.

You want to know what the 3 most important things are when navigating your child through their education? Question, question, question. Only, I’m not joking.

When I was growing up, my Daddy worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). He retired from the LAUSD with almost 40 years under his belt. Dad was not “certificated”, didn’t hold a teaching certificate, he was “classified” which was the term given to all other LAUSD employees. Because of Dad’s time with the “board”, as we called it, I also started my working career with LAUSD. Nepotism ran rampant in the LAUSD.

All those years spent working for the LAUSD was a HUGE blessing that I am only realizing now.  They exposed me to the inner workings of the second largest school district in the nation, but more importantly it taught me what each child is entitled to in terms of a public school education.

The second blessing came when my son started at Lummis Elementary in Las Vegas. It was a wonderful school with an incredibly caring staff of teachers and administrators. I was lucky to learn how to be a “parent of a school-aged child” there. Everyone was so willing to share their knowledge, calm my fears, and answer my questions.

Now we are in a “new” town with a very small district…where things are done differently then I may be used to. Fortunately, I am not afraid to ask questions.

Tonight there was an informational meeting with our School Superintendent and some concerned parents. This meeting was prompted by some letters that were sent to both the Primary and Secondary Principals, the School Board, and the Superintendent.  The point of the meeting was to address the concerns addressed in the letters.

It was a tough crowd, tough subject, and the Superintendent took a beating, verbally.  Being removed from the situation it was plain for me to see that there was a lack of communication…parents didn’t know that a complaint wasn’t considered “formal” until it was put in writing. If parents didn’t put it in writing it was considered a “concern” and would probably not go any further. Parents didn’t know how to get on the school board agenda or what was appropriate for a school board meeting, versus some other venue. I could go on and on.  Suffice it to say, there is a moral to this story, actually there is two.

The moral of this tale is to question everything. Don’t take one person’s word for it, maybe they misunderstood the question…keep asking, go to that person’s supervisor, and their supervisor, contact the state’s education office and ask them to direct you, ask other parents…YOU ARE YOUR CHILD’S ADVOCATE SO ADVOCATE.

The second moral of this tale would be to FOLLOW EVERYTHING UP IN WRITING. I don’t care if it’s just a quick email summarizing a two second conversation in the hallway…if it was important enough for you, the parent, to bring up, then write it down and forward a copy to the person you spoke with and ask for their input. And for goodness sake,  hang onto it! It’s easy for someone who is bombarded with paper all day to say “gee I don’t remember that conversation”, and then you have a copy that jogs their memory.

I think if all the hurt parents had known to do these two things, tonight’s meeting would have been unneccesary…I’m glad they know now…and so do you.

Our order arrived in May. The trees were strategically placed to hopefully keep the snow drifts down to a manageable level (when they are grown). The lilac and honeysuckle were planted in the front of the house around the deck.

We did start our garden. I started months ago by sprouting lots of vegies here in the house. We finally transferred them to the ground outside and they aren’t doing as well as the trees and shrubs.

I’m noticing that our soil has a very clay like consistency.  When it’s wet it is exactly like clay and when it dries it’s more like concrete. I joke that it would be perfect for making adobe bricks and building our garage! I’m thinking that for next year’s garden we are going to have to haul in some steer manure and some topsoil and really put the tractors and tillers to work combining it with the existing soil so we actually have something we can grow in.

While I am disappointed that my garden isn’t going completely as planned, I am living and learning.  Now if only of some of the flower bulbs I planted would start coming up, but like I said, it’s like trying to come up through concrete.

It was a tradition at his school for the kids to have a campout overnight. While on the campout they played baseball and he fell in love. So much so that he asked for a mitt for Christmas which he got.

Finally, once school was over, the Park and Rec group had T-Ball, Softball and Little League sign ups. David was there, promptly, when the little league registration opened. Practices are at 8am Mon-Thur mornings usually with a couple of games each week. The league is set to last for the months of June and July. He is enjoying it and does a great job of getting himself up early, and getting to practice on time all by himself. I was kind of surprised. I had assumed he was going to expect me to chauffer him to and from practice and I have a couple of times if I was already up and ready to go by 7:55.

David is loving it. Of all the sports he has tried, I think he has the most natural affinity for Baseball…a kid after my own heart. When I bought him a bat to practice hitting with, while at home, I was smart enough to grab some whiffle balls cuz I could remember all the windows and windshields I broke when I played growing up. Little league is really bringing back old memories.

The other thing David is really enjoying this Summer is zooming around the property on his dirt bike. He’s thinking he wants to try racing…I’m thinking he is way too cautious, but who am I to say.

There has been a lot of ballyhoo about whether Mott will keep it’s Moto-cross track or not. The country club next door would really like to get their hands on the property to use for groundskeeping. But the flip side is that the Moto-cross races are one of the few, true, money-making opportunities for the town. So far, no races are planned for 2010, and who knows how it will end up. I would not be heart broken if David wasn’t able to race because it would mean one less thing for me to worry about, but I’m not going to stop him if the chance should arise.  In the meantime he has several acres to race around and as long as he minds the newly planted trees, shrubs, and garden, we will be fine.

The newest thing that David is doing to keep himself busy this summer is volunteering at the Nursing Home. This was something he came up with all on his own and only told me about it after he’d gone and made arrangements to work there.

It pleases me to see him so willing to volunteer.  Like I said on Facebook earlier, it’s one of those rare chances to glimpse that maybe we are doing an OK job raising him.  Although he chastised me because he didn’t think I was as excited for him as I should be. But that’s a discussion for another day.He worked from 9:30 to 11:30 with the Plant Manager doing maintenance type work. Then he came home for a sandwich, and returned to help out in the activities room for the afternoon. He is anxious to return tomorrow and has his alarm clock all set. I thought he was going with me to Dickinson tomorrow to hit the used video game store…nope…that should do wonders for my pocketbook!

I also needed a DVD reader/writer.  My old one just stopped recognizing anything I put in the drive.  I usually back up to DVD, especially pictures, and that’s hard to do if you can’t read or write to a DVD.

While the place I took my laptop is an authorized Toshiba repair site…they didn’t have parts for my laptop on site and then the parts they ordered from Toshiba were back ordered…UUUGGGGHHHH!

So now I need to get back in the mode of posting…I’ve been away from it for so long now.  Pictures and thoughts to follow on various topics…I’ve been quiet too long! LOL