13 Innings and the Beach

What a loooooonnnngggg afternoon. Noah's 1:00 PM game went on for 13 innings. It was a 3 1/2 hour game. Noah's team scored three runs in the first inning including two that Noah hit in with a double. The other team tied things up in the middle of the game, and it stayed at 3-3 till the end of the regular game, 6 innings. So we progressed to extra innings. It was a tense pitcher's duel. With Little League's new restrictions on how many pitches a boy can throw in a game we were getting worried that we'd have no one left for Monday night's game. Noah's team used up both their best pitchers and so did the other team. Finally in the bottom of the
13th with the bases loaded litle Saigo hit a double which scored two runs and the game was finally over 5-3. This was the second time this season that Saigo has gotten the game ball for getting the game winning hit. The sweetest part of this victory was that the team we defeated was the only undefeated team in our league prior to today.

After the game our niece, Jackie, and her boys, Austin and Anthony, came up for dinner. They live near Spokane and they were in Redmond for a state chess tournament. After dinner we took them to the beach to investigate the tide pools and to play at the playground.

Final Day of Testing

Hooray!!!!! In a couple of short hours my WASL ordeal will be over (that's the Washington Assessment of Student Learning). This is our state's attempt to comply with No Child Left Behind. Our overly ambitious state decided that even though the Feds only require math and reading testing that we also need to do science at 5th and 8th grade and writing at 4th and 7th. These are the 7 most boring and exhausting days of my year. On Tuesday I had students spend FIVE hours writing an expository essay. Now they were the exception and most kids only needed three hours, but that's heroic work in my book for children. The untimed nature of the tests requires that we have to find places to park the kids who are finished early while maintaining a quiet testing environment for those who are still actively working. Those kids got short breaks for lunch and snacks, but they couldn't go to recess. The test security police think that 9 year olds might share ideas and help each other with the test if we let them have recess. They apparently don't know 9 year olds very well. Fourth graders have better things to talk about.

As a sixth grader Noah only had to do the reading and math tests. He's finishing up today too. Alyssa opted to take all four tests last year as a freshman, usually they're taken as a sophomore. She passed them all and so she didn't have to test this year. These exams are graduation requirements. Since she wasn't testing she had half days of school while the other sophomores and upper classmen who didn't pass last year were testing. That's just wrong that she missed 8 half days of school to accomodate testing schedules. I have a co-worker with an autistic son who was told to keep him home on testing days since he didn't have to take the tests and his teachers were needed to administer tests to other students. He missed seven days of school when he could have been working on his individualized learning goals.

I certainly hope brighter days are in the future for education with a change in Washington DC and hopefully some changes in Olympia too. Since Alyssa is planning on going into teaching I'd hate for her to feel the way I do about my job come springtime.

Whacky Weather

Yes it did happen!! We woke up to find two inches of snow at our house Saturday morning. The strange thing is that as we drove inland away from our house on the water the snow disappeared. Usually our location near the water keeps us warmer and we get the least snow. We took the camera to the baseball opening day festivities thinking it would be funny to get pictures of all the kids in their uniforms in the snow, but there was no snow on the fields.

But boy was it cold! If you look closely you can see that Noah and the other boys have pulled their sleeves down over their hands in an effort to keep warm. They weren't allowed to keep their warm-up jackets on during the parade of teams like the coaches. We continued to get weird weather into the afternoon.

The photo of Forrest standing on our front walkway was taken during a strange hail/snow pellet mix that moved in during the afternoon. Once again this event was localized near the water. When we went into town later in the evening we didn't see any hail or snow accumulation. This strange mix added two more inches.

SNOW

Yes, you saw the dreaded S word. The weather folks have been talking snow for today and tomorrow, and I chose to largely ignore their dire predictions because they're so often wrong. But lo and behold I drove to work in a rain/snow mix that turned to just snow at the top of the large hill I cross on the way to town. I just came in from afternoon duty after dismissal where I got to stand in a snow shower for 15 minutes. Many of the cars that came to pick up children had snow on the roofs and hoods. I'm sitting in my classroom looking out the window and it looks like a scene from January. Isn't this supposed to be spring?

The snow is supposed to carry over into tomorrow morning, which just happens to be the official opening day ceremonies for Noah's little league organization. They've already played 8 games, but tomorrow is the official start since the two lighted fields which underwent major renovation this past year will be dedicated and officially reopened. We have to have Noah at the field in full uniform at 8:30 for a parade and other festivities. Then his team photos will be taken at 12:30. Thankfully there are no games scheduled for tomorrow. We just have Noah's basketball dinner at the coach's house. Sunday looks like a good day to stay home and do as little as possible. I guess I should sign off now and get home before Happy Hill gets slippery.

Dog Washing: We were duped

A nice lady who works with Forrest was selling fund raising tickets for her child's 4-H group. The tickets were for a self serve dog washing place. Forrest bought two tickets thinking that the 4-H kids would be doing the washing. He was wrong. We donned the aprons and scrubbed, dried, and brushed our two big dogs. The kids were just sweeping up hair and rinsing out the tubs. We did all the hard work. I've taken the dogs to this place before so I knew it was hard work. This was Forrest's first time. An hour later with our dogs still damp we straggled out covered in dog hair and sweat. Forrest swears that he'll never grumble again about the price of taking the dogs to a groomer at Petco. Our Husky mix has such a heavy coat it takes a whole day for her to be washed, dried, and completely brushed out. Her bill is $60.00. Add almost $40 for the Lab and tax and a trip to the groomer for us runs more than $100. We paid $40 this time and we did all the work. The dogs are exhausted after their ordeal. Me too.

Sunset

Tonight the weather was beautiful! I took a walk after dinner, and I took the first great sunset pictures of the spring. These photos were taken from our front yard. Now if it was only warm enough to sit out on the deck without a coat to enjoy this sight properly.

Spring Break Accomplishments

Books read: 3, see list to the left

Movies watched: 2, "The Last King of Scotland" from Netflix is a definite recommendation. Amazing acting from the whole cast. "Leatherheads," in theaters now, is not worth $9.00 a ticket. It's cute, but definitely one you should wait to get from Netflix.

I also ordered photos from Bartell Drugstore so I can start updating scrapbooks. Alyssa's was the farthest behind. I managed to work on her book with photos I'd already printed. Now all three books, Noah's, Alyssa's, and the family book are current as of last Hoopfest in June 2007. I'm 9 months behind. Usually I get caught up during Christmas break and summer vacation but I've been a slacker.

I finally cleaned out our office space. Since we have a laptop and use it downstairs most of the time the office adjacent to our bedroom has become a dumping ground. When we wanted to hook the laptop up to the printer we'd have to shift junk off the desk first. After two full garbage bags of junk and two bags of books to take to Half Price Books we can now use the desktop and walk into the room without tripping.

Spring break was wet and cold so I didnt' get much yard work done, but I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of weeding. The forecast for this coming weekend is looking promising. Hopefully I'll be able to get out in the dirt.

Quality time spent with family in Oregon and at home: 9 glorious days!

Spring Break

I apologize to those of you who also read my sister's blog as you're about to see some of the same pictures she has posted this week.

The kids and I took a quick whirlwind trip to Oregon for a few days during our spring vacation. We started with a stop in St. Helens to see my sister and her family. We doggedly endeavored to take a new photo of all five of my parents' grandkids. More than 100 photos later here are some of the results. It's nearly impossible to get 5 kids aged 5-16 to all look at the camera and smile on command.

My parents always treat us royally when we're in town. They took us to lunch at Henry's 12th Street Tavern, excellent onion rings, crab cakes, beer cheese soup, and all. We also enjoyed a lovely breakfast at La Petit Provence, a delicious French restaurant and bakery.

The sun finally reappeared after days of snow, rain, and hail so we squeezed in a morning at the zoo. After the zoo I talked the kids into enjoying a stroll on part of the River Walk.

Forrest never gets to travel with us during spring break as it always coincides with the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. Since Forrest works in the traffic division for the county he can't get away when his roads are full of tourists looking to take the perfect shot of fields of tulips. We worked in a trip to Cabelas and brought him some gifts since he couldn't go with us.

I discovered that I am slow on the draw with video games this week. We were introduced to Big Brain Academy and both of my children can outscore me easily. I'm good at the memorize and identify sections of the game, but the visualize portion has me stymied. I'll have to practice and bulk up my brain.