School's Out

Today was Dylan's last day of second grade. He had a great year. I blogged about his teacher, Renae Ely, earlier this month. She really is wonderful. When I stopped in after school today to take this picture, she told me how much she enjoyed having Dylan in her class this year and what a great kid he is. I already know these things about him, but it's still very nice to hear.

There were several groups of blubbering 6th grade girls roaming the halls, hugging their former teachers, crying and saying goodbye. Even though I liked Northridge as a student, my own memories of leaving after 6th grade were more like this: "Woo-hoo! I'm out of here!"

Here's a picture of me and my friends from the last day of 6th grade in 1981. I'm in the blue shirt. We don't look too devastated about moving on to Hughes, do we?


Now the challenge will be keeping summer boredom at bay. Dylan's not too good at busying himself, and last summer he moped around the house a lot, which drove me nuts. This summer, I've got loads of activities lined up for him. We'll see if that makes a difference.

Spring!

These are some shots of my irises in bloom this week. Seeing them pop out is always a sign that spring has sprung.


My friend, Irene, dug these up out of her yard in 2000, and I planted them in my south flower beds. They have since spread and filled in the beds nicely. I wish they bloomed longer, because I just love them.

Reckless Driving

This was the scene outside our house last weekend. The aftermath, actually. A car flew through our intersection going extremely fast. It hit the dip on the far side of the intersection, bottomed out, and launched across the intersection. It landed in the dip on the other side of the intersection and bottomed out again. It came to a stop three houses down from us, and the passenger got out. I ran out to see if they were ok. I looked into the car and saw that both front air bags had deployed! The driver was still sitting in the car. They both said they were ok, but the driver looked dazed. He restarted his car, and they drove off.

Three other neighbors had also come out, one of whom noted the license plate number and called the police. The officer arrived a few minutes later and took our statements. One of our neighbors witnessed it himself and said all four wheels were off the street. Many cars bottom out in this intersection, but I've never seen one going this fast. Two other officers arrived, and they measured the distance between the two huge scrapes in the blacktop. Forty-three feet!

The officer returned later to take other measurements and told me they tracked down the driver, a 17 year old who was going to be in deep doo-doo. To cause that degree of damage to his car and the street, he must have been going well over 60 mph. WAY TOO FAST on a residential street.

It's a Great Night for a Parade

Here's what I was doing last Friday: marching with the Just For Kix unit in the Band Night Parade. We had around 200 dancers, which I think was the bigest unit in the parade. We danced to "I Get Around", which was a real hit with the crowd. I guess you can't go wrong with the Beach Boys.



I walked backward for most of the parade, but my quads weren't too sore the next day. The weather cooperated nicely and kids had a lot of fun.

Plaster Caster

Dylan's break is visible on the right vertical edge of the radius just below the wrist.


We saw the orthopedic doc yesterday, who strongly recommended a cast. I was relieved because that Velcro cast seemed flimsy. Now I'm not quite the fretting mom, although he's still not supposed to climb, run or jump. Since he's so young, the doc said he should heal in 3-4 weeks, but he'll still be missing some fun end-of-year activities at school, like a class swimming trip, baseball game, and Northridge mini-olympics. He's getting by with his left hand for most things; however, piano will have to wait.


His friends signed his new cast today, so it's not the blank slate that it was when he left for school this morning.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all moms who pause here, and especially to my own mother.

We spent a good portion of the day prepping for painting tomorrow, although I did get in a lovely nap this afternoon. And the closest I came to cooking was to put a frozen pizza in the oven for lunch.

I got great cards from Brad and both boys. Connor hid his and made me look for it (found it in the ottoman under the blankets). The weather cooperated beautifully to make for a very nice Mother's Day.

When The Bough Breaks

Today was the Cub Mobile race at the capitol, where Cub Scouts get to race in the cars they built. After we got checked in, there was quite a long wait for the races to start. While we were waiting, Dylan and some other boys were climbing some small trees and dropping down to the ground, a drop of about 6-7 feet.

I didn't see it happen, but he must have miscalculated somehow, and he fell out of the tree to the grass below. When I saw him crying and holding his right arm, I suspected something pretty serious had happened because he has a high tolerance for pain and doesn't complain until it's pretty bad. I examined him as best I can as a non-medical person and found that he was very tender on the sides of his wrist. He could also not twist his arm or make a fist.

I waited about 15 minutes to see if he would snap out of it. When he didn't, I decided to take him to the emergency room. It was pretty quiet down there, so we got in fast. The x-ray showed that his arm is broken! They sent him home with a Velcro cast, and we will see an orthopedic doc tomorrow to determine if he'll need a plaster cast and for how long.

I was actually proud of how calm I stayed through the whole thing; however, I did have a small breakdown when we got home and I could relax. I was beating myself up about letting him climb that tree, but then I thought, eight year old boys are supposed to climb trees, right?

Here's a funny side-bar: the ER doc was a drummer friend of Brad's, the ER nurse was one of my former JFK moms, and the ER nurse practitioner was a dancer whom I had coached on Centahnas. Her daughter is also a second-grader at Northridge, and I think I talked her into signing up for Just For Kix next year.

Congratulations Renae

Dylan's teacher, Renae Ely, was selected by the Chamber of Commerce as this year's Outstanding Elementary Teacher of the Year. I was one of two parents who nominated her, and it was an easy letter to write because she is so deserving. She was really grateful.

The way they presented the award to her was kind of neat. Only the principal, Bob Olson, and a few staff members knew about it in advance. He told the students that they were being called into the gym to see a play. Before the presentation, they had seated Renae's family, the superintendent, the Chamber rep, the other nominating mother, and me up on the stage behind the curtain. When all 650 students were assembled, they opened the curtain. She knew what was up when she saw who was behind the curtain.

Here she is receiving the award:


This was the scene in the gym when they presented the award:


Here she is with her daughter, Lexie:


Coincidentally, she was also my Centahna coach, and I co-coached with her for two years, too. She was the same back then for us on the team, and I have many fond memories from those times.

It was very exciting, and I was so happy to be a part of this for her!

Congratulations, Renae!

Matchbox Launcher

Here are some pics from today of the boys and their friend, Jake. They built a lever to catapult their Matchbox cars into the air. They jumped on one end of the plank, which sent the car sailing off the other end. Several cars met their demise in the process, but it looked like a lot of fun, and I think there may have been some learning about the laws of physics, too.

Here's the set up:


And the launch:

JFK Spring Show

Saturday was the culmination of my Just For Kix dance season, with our Spring Show. All my classes (200 dancers) performed for a crowd of about 500 people. It went great, and what a relief that it's over!

Here's a picture of the flowers I got from my dancers:

The roses on the right are from an 8th grader who is leaving Just For Kix because she made the dance team at Century High. Her card reads, "These seven roses are for the seven years that you helped me blossom into a beautiful dancer." [sniff] I also got some very nice gifts from my Senior Kix class, a bracelet and a fleece blanket. How thoughtful. I was especially honored to recognize my first ten-year dancer. I had a plaque made with photos from her first year (in 1st grade) and this year (10th grade).

Now I have the parade this week (rehearsal tomorrow, parade Friday), and after that, I'm off until the first week of August. Just enough time to recharge and get pumped for another season of dance classes!

Give It To Me

This is the song I'm hooked on at the moment. It's from Timbaland's new CD, and features Nelly Furtado and my man Justin Timberlake. I really like the syncopated beats and the unusual phrasing in the lyrics.

Here's the video, which doesn't do the song justice. Great song, mediocre vid.

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