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August 12, 2004
It has been a busy, fun, laid-back summer. Work has been really busy, and I am so adamant about sticking to my 6-hour workday, that there has been little time to write an entry (given the amount of time I spend on the computer at work, I never want to get online at home; therefore, all my diary writing happens at work).
Seattle has been blessed with another fabulous summer weather-wise (2nd yr in a row). We’ve had lots of 80-degree days, lots of sunshine, lots of blue sky. It has been the perfect summer to start our membership at our neighborhood beach/pool club, and it has become our second-home. On any given (semi-warm) day, Hana & I race down there after I pick her up at daycare and meet up with the same group of moms/kids. As in past entries, I could go on and on endlessly about the spirit of community, the sense of belonging and the general greatness of our new (and my old) neighborhood. I’ll try to spare you, but when I get to thinking about it, I just feel so blessed and happy to be here. I truly feel back in my element, and I suppose I am.
Hana loves the pool and is warming up to the beach. Bits of sand on her feet can still send her into a tizzy (“dirty feet! clean!”) but now, more often than not, she’s pouring sand over her head and burying herself in the sand with the other kids. She still is not a huge fan of swimming under water, but she can (note I say can, not “enjoys”) swim underwater by herself for about 5 feet, from point A to point B. The one exception to not getting her face wet is jumping-in….she LOVES to jump in, and recently jumped off of the starting blocks (swim team start blocks) all by herself into the pool (with her dad catching her). She can and will (with no hesitation), to my dismay, swim the entire length of the pool (and back, and all over!) with a swim noodle under her arms. Looks like a great leg workout, but her fearlessness to take-off down to the deep end (with the false security of a noodle) scares me.
We’ve all (Mike, Hana & me) made many new friends, and I’ve reconnected with several old friends (friends I grew up with in this neighborhood). Mike’s got a serious (ha) pickleball league going with some guys down at the beach club, and I’ve exercised more this summer than I have since high school. Some friends and I have been doing twice weekly deep-water-aerobics/water jogging, and my girlfriend T and I have been swimming 3 mornings a week. We have been walking (with a stop at Starbucks) pretty religiously on the other 2 days, and hope to start a running program soon. We’re under the tutelage of 2 other older moms who are an inspiration to us as totally fit 40-year old women (and great runners/athletes). T and I also recently swam in the Seattle Summer Swim League Adult Meet and had a great time. We are both former USS swimmers, and we actually, unexpectedly, impressed ourselves with our times and our splits. They are certainly not what they used to be, but not as bad as we anticipated! The final leg of our 200 free relay was headed up by a 19 year old lifeguard from the beach club b/c one member of our relay wasn’t there. We later found out that this poor girl “forced” to swim on our relay was at Olympic Trials earlier this summer. We felt so ridiculous; she was probably just dying at swimming with such old ladies! haha
Another advantage of the community we live in is the incredible network of support here. Right now for me, it manifests as a friendly group of women (I think of us as girls, but…semantics…) about my age who have kids around the same age that I can connect with and build friendships with (and work-out with!); as a big network of teenage/college-age babysitters that I trust and know come from nice families and with solid recommendations from other parents; and a big network of moms with older kids (kids older than my own) and more experience, who are open and willing to be resources for those of us still in the earlier stages of parenting. I have loved the casual mentor-mentee type of friendship that I’ve found with these women, and it has been full of respect and admiration, good advice, and funny stories.
We have been taking full advantage of our great weather and our beautiful new view (since our move, I mean). Mike, Hana & I often eat our breakfast on the back deck, looking out over the lake as the sun rises over the Cascades, and cap the evening off with dinner and a glass of wine in the warm shade of our deck and the to the sound of boaters and swimmers playing in the lake. Having a view of nature, of something other than a street or another house, is hard to underestimate. We live off of a very busy road and still plan to put up an electric gate but have yet to do so. That said, Hana is well-trained to stay in our courtyard and away from the driveway entrance. The biggest hassle is trying to turn into our house from one direction at rush hour, as we have to cross two lanes of busy traffic at that time of day. In light of this, we make every effort to avoid being on the road (at least coming from that direction) at that hour of the night.
Both of our bathrooms are in a state of disrepair right now, but we’re making some progress on the remodels. Mike chose to start both at the same time for reasons beyond me (mainly his impatience, I think), and while both are functional, it’s a little annoying to have two partially dismantled bathrooms. That said, the work he has done is a big improvement from the way they looked before, and I’m anxious for completion. In my mind I’ve already moved on to my Dream Kitchen Remodel, but I think it will remain just that (a dream) for a few more years.
Our chickens moved with us, and have weathered the move well. They’re still laying proficiently (one egg each per day) and seem to be in good spirits (as much as a chicken can seem anything but dumb).
We’ve taken a few day trips this summer, been out on the boat a lot, been to many, many BBQs, and took a weekend trip to Lake Chelan in Eastern Washington. We stayed with our friend S and her two kids in a condo right on the lake, and had a wonderful time. We swam in the lake, played on the beach, played in the many pools & parks at the complex, walked through town, went to the riverside park, ate drippy ice cream cones under umbrellas, and just enjoyed the hot desert sun. The first day we arrived the air was smoky and heavy from forest fires, but the wind has shifted by the morning and we saw clear skies and bright sun. We went to the waterslide park while there and the kids had a ball. I thought Hana might be timid, but she LOVED it! She went down all of the adult slides (on our laps) except the Purple Haze (a long, dark, steep tube) and the innertube ride. She loved going down the adult slides the most (and laying back for added speed, with daddy), but had lots of fun going down the kiddie slides all by herself too.
We went to Bainbridge Island for a daytrip to a friend’s cabin, and this was the advent of Hana’s complete fascination with ferries, bordering on obsession. She talks about the ferry all the time. We had a great day: warm weather, slight island breeze, lots of crabs found under rocks, some croquet, some beer, some fresh crab, and several beach walks. We took another daytrip to Whidbey Island, and visited the Lingonberry Festival. Hana loved the ferry ride (no surprise), and the festival was quaint and fun. Hana got her face painted for the second weekend in a row, and at this fair she had a blast in the bouncy house (the weekend before we had gone to the community fair at our local shopping center, and she refused to set foot inside the bouncy house). Most of all she loved the berries. Hana is a total berry NUT. She SHOVELS berries by the handful into her mouth, and bitterness doesn’t seem to be even a consideration. She could care less. Blackberries are the ultimate favorite, with blueberries tailing close behind. Lingonberries (something akin to a blackberry and raspberry mix) also met her favor, although the U-Pick was pretty well picked-over by the time we got there. We traveled on down the island to a beautiful lavendar farm wherre we bought a few dried bunches (for gifts) and two hearty lavendar plants. The scent of our car on the drive home was heavenly. We drove up and around, over ------ and through Anacortes, and it was a lovely Sunday trip. This summer we made it to one of the outdoor concerts at Woodland Park Zoo (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones—I had never heard of them prior). I love these concerts, and for the fourth time, we were blessed with a perfect, warm summer evening. We picnicked with a couple from the neighborhood and enjoyed the mellow music. Hana preferred dancing on the hillside and rolling down the hill with millions of other kids to hanging out on our picnic blanket, but it was fun to be where the kiddie action was too. I got a nice long break while Mike & Paul took Hana and Corina & I were able to hit the beer garden and enjoy a couple of beers amongst the beautiful butterfly exhibit (the greatest beer garden I’ve ever seen at a public event).
Last weekend we played in our friends’ annual Sloshball Game, and it hit me just how much older we have become. This game (softball with a keg on 2nd base – in theory you’re supposed to pound a beer when you get to 2nd), while still fun, is MUCH more mellow than it used to be, and almost everyone now has a hard time pounding a full beer. A good sign, I think…. We’ve got a couple more daytrips/hikes planned for the upcoming weekends, plus a day of golf up north with my parents. Several more BBQs, a couple of birthday parties, our 10-year high school reunion, and as much time at the beach club as possible, till fall comes. We had a couple of rainy days last week and I actually felt a slight excitement for the cooler days of fall, although that can wait until October and I’ll be perfectly content.
I took a week off in early July which was absolute heaven. Hana & I had so much fun (and Mike too, although he was technically working—from home). She did swim lessons at the beach club, and we mainly just played at the pool, took long walks and thoroughly enjoyed each other and having nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do!
Must run …. Hopefully I’ll be back again sooner than four months or so to post again! Until then……
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