Because People are Asking..

 

Compare this, from February, 2008, at R’s second gymnastics competition:

To this, shot March 14, 2009, roughly 14 months later…

The After-Meet Interview

Publishing R’s “Official” post-meet interview with the “media”. He’s got a bit of a bad-boy of the sport ‘tude going on… time for me to do some media training with this fine young man!

State Gymnastics Meet Tomorrow

Last year was R’s first State level competition (blogged here, at the old blog site). This year, we’re making our first repeat trip to State.

Last year was an eventful overnight trip to Bend for the competition. This year, the meet’s in Springfield so we’re making it a day-trip.

R has been stronger and stronger in his events every meet. It should be fun to see how he does. As usual, we’ll post video clips of his events so everyone can share.

We’ll be taking the Jag down for this trip…first time we’ve taken it out for a real road-trip with the whole family. It ought to be fun!

Mixed Bag of News

So, here's a weekend update with a mixed bag of newsy tidbits.

• C had a series of MRIs at the end of December. Two of the three came back negative, which is positive. What I mean is, the MRIs so far don't show any new cancer tumors.
• The MRIs did give a detailed accounting of how much arthritis C is working through, and precisely where. The docs will be turning their attention from teasing out any metastatic tumors to managing arthritis. It's a much more mundane - and reassuring situation, arthritis.
  
• People are calling to see the Stark Street house. That's great!
• M recorded her own composition at music class this last week. I'll post
  it separately. C listened to it with M and the music teacher last
  night. C mentioned that she was impressed with the quality (as a
  partial and proud mom should). The teacher responded that he was rather
  impressed too, that normally compositions don't turn out as nicely as
  this one did.
• I met an old friend after work last week. I'm guessing she'd rather go unidentified in the blog, but we were close through college and for a number of years afterward. It seems that a little time with her was good for my soul, somehow. To speak of our conversation and say "I needed it" isn't accurate. To say "I wanted it" also isn't quite right. I was certainly looking forward to our meeting, and enjoyed seeing her, and I came away a better person for having spent some time together. I'm grateful for that.
  
• R gave a speech to his fifth grade class earlier in the week. It went quite well, i was told.
• We're back to the kind of weather one would expect from January in Portland. Temps int he 40's, grey dull skies, a bit of rain. The monotony is welcome now that we can hold up three weeks of Minnesota-style winter for comparison.
  
• Weather service announced this week that we're in a La Nina year. Again. We had one of those last year, too. La Nina explains why we had snow in Portland in April. We might not be done with the unpredictable cold snaps yet this winter. I'll keep the tire chains within reach.
• C is sick today. Flu sick. Poor thing. It came on suddenly. She started her day fine, but was green and nauseous within the hour. She got through her obligations, vomited a couple times throughout the day, and went to bed when we got back home at 2:30 or so. A couple hours later, she's still sleeping. I really don't expect to hear from her again until morning.
• M returned to ballet classes today. For her, that was a signal of the return to normalcy. I think she was glad to be back. For the rest of the afternoon, I noticed her quietly doing ballet footwork whenever she was being patient for something or someone. Yeah. She's glad to be back.
• We only finished our 2007 taxes six weeks ago, but we're nearly ready to start submitting our paperwork for our 2008 taxes. We haven't been on a proper tax schedule since the cancer diagnosis in 2005. To enter 2009 ready to start filing our return as soon as Jan 31, is a great feeling.
  
• I took down the holiday lights this afternoon. It's good to have that done.
• I have a handful of small household projects to work on over the weekend. Little things like installing vinyl floor moldings along the laundry area to give a finished look there. Minor, really. I like that. We'll do enough big work once moving time comes around.In the meantime, I'm trying to 'rest' whenever and however I can.
  

I don't seem to have much to say that's philosophical or profound at the moment. I'm grateful for many things, and am hopeful, given these crazy, unexpected times. There are many other good things going on that are outside the scope of this blog. Should only a portion of them come to pass, I will feel unusually blessed in these times.

More UW Gym Meet Video - Pommel

 

R's Mushroom base arrived yesteday. Now he's got a setup just like you see in the start of this video. Daily practice, yeah?

UW Gym Meet - R Kicks Off 2009 Season

R's Parallel Bars

R's Vault

The Dash, The Barre and The Mushroom

We spent five days at the beach, starting the 23rd and ending with our return today. Our original plan was to drive to the beach in the late afternoon on the 24th, but the snowstorms lined up such that we had to make the trip when the weather allowed.

All the highways to the Oregon Coast were closed on the 21st and 22nd. They opened for the 23rd, but with the threat that they'd close again on the 24th.

So we darted for the beach at around 7pm. The thinking was that we'd let the roads get as passable as possible, then scamper over before the roads could get icy again. The tactic worked. We had to use chains almost 70 miles, but we got through uneventfully.

Before we left, though, we had to make a quick trip to WL May Appliance Parts to get a part for the fridge in our garage. Turns out that some refrigerators get all 'backwards' in their operation when the room ambient is actually colder than the inside target temp. Our fridge is one of those; it stayed in the defrost cycle once the temperatures go below freezing, resulting in defrosted food during a blizzard. Imagine! It's easily fixed, however, with a 'garage kit.' The garage kit is just a resistance heater that wraps around the defrost timer. With that little bit of heat, the fridge snaps back to proper operation again.

The highways weren't closed on the 24th afterall, but they had accidents and traffic delays throughout the day. Others who drove to the beach on Christmas Eve reported that it was a long, miserable trip.

So the Typhoon got to the beach for Christmas. Aunt P, however, was completely snowed in. She was without power, too. Those conditions left her farm animals too exposed for her to make the trip to the beach for Christmas. So it was five days with the six of us all getting along nicely in a small beach house in the December rain.

Back in Portland, things warmed up and snow started melting. By the time we got home this afternoon, our two foot accumulation was already gone. Since I'd shoveled the sidewalk before we left, ours was already clear when we returned. No puddles or flooding in the back yard; no leak in the basement; no roof failures; no frozen pipes; no backed-up sewer lines; no broken refrigerator... nothing. Just a well-running house, warm and dry.

Grandma and Grandpa put on a fine show. The tree was lovely. The food was great. We played LOTS of games. Board games. Wii games. Cribbage. We read a lot of books, too. Interestingly, there were lots of board games and books under that tree on Christmas morning!

Santa brought M a ballet barre. He brought R a pommelhorse mushroom, too. Great tools for them to work with.

Mental Snapshots

One of R:

He's in his Boy Scout uniform, on the indoor basketball court at the church where the meetings are held. Impulsively, he does a front handspring, just missing sticking the landing. I had seen him do the front, but only on a trampoline or tumbletrack, not on a solid floor without any spring to it.


One of M:

She's playing the piano. Two handed. It's a simple piece, but it has chords sprinkled throughout the mostly single-note melody. She has to switch modes and rapidly move her hands to chords. It's hard work, learning that transition. But with each time through the piece, her transition time shortens and the tempo of the piece improves. The energy wrapped around her as she does this exercise? calm and satisfaction. Learning new skills on the piano seems to relax her, not make her tense. Because of this, I love it when she practices; her calmness spreads to me whenever she plays.


I'm overdue to post some video pieces. I'd better fix that.

Wreath Double-Whammy

UPDATE: the kids figured out that Peacock Lane is, in fact, unclaimed territory. They wasted no time in claiming it as their personal wreath-selling domain. In previous years, a Boy Scout would serve the street's greenery needs; he apparently moved on. Nobody else has supplied the street for a few years, leaving the residents on their own to buy at retail. So when M and R walked the street, and identified themselves as "the house on the end, behind the tree," most of the houses ordered.

 

Of course, it probably helped that I was putting up our holiday lights this weekend, signaling to the rest of the Peacock Lane residents that our house will, for the first time in anyone's memory, participate in their show. 

Because of this, we've been invited to the Peacock Lane planning meeting.... looks like we're now running with the IN crowd. Thanks, kids!!

 

Add another case-in-point to my earlier blog about the small-town community feeling.

----------

 

M dances ballet. This year, her ballet school is doing a holiday wreath fundraiser. There's a ten wreath minimum. There is one wreath to choose from. Ballet wreaths are 'local delivery' only. Basic 20-inch wreath: $20.

R is in Boy Scouts. This year, his troop is doing a holiday wreath fundraiser. There is no explicit minimum, but the scouts have a whole bunch of wreath and swag choices. Boy Scouts can ship an order anywhere in the continental US. Basic 20-inch wreath: $20. Shipped anywhere: $38. I'll post pictures of the Boy Scout offerings shortly.

Oh, the dilemma! **

I get the strong sense that both programs are using the very same wreath manufacturer right here in Portland; the end product should be identical in both cases. And, because both programs are going direct to the manufacturer, they're selling at the wholesale price.

Here's the description that seems to be accurate for both programs:

Hand tied northwest greenery using Oregon Juniper, Incense Cedar and Noble Fir. Adorned with Ponderosa pine cones. Inner diameter: 12 inches; outer diameter: 20 inches. 

These same wreaths, at the local store or corner tree stand, will cost around $30 this year. So you get a discount over retail, and help fund a developmental program.

So here's the general call out for wreath orders. If you're local to the Portland area and would like to support either program, we'll happily take your order for a wreath and deliver it directly to you. You can specifically state your preference for one charity or another. Otherwise, we plan to fill the ballet minimum requirement ahead of the Boy Scout program.

Boy Scouts have another fund raiser they do as well, so Scouting isn't really missing out if we err toward ballet.

Gotta love the conflicting family obligations, yeah?

 

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** One program (ballet) uses the stick (minimum sales) to complete the program; the other program (Boy Scouts) uses a carrot (more options, shipping).

Back in February...

This image of R on the pommel is not new, but having a still of this image is. I recently pulled this still frame out of a video of R's competition.

Where Do the Loyalties Lie?

R's favorite gymnastics coach, Coach D,  left the WS gym a couple weeks ago. WS was real close-mouthed about his departure, even though we'd been working with them for six years and had a very close relationship with Coach D. That felt....wrong somehow. Like they were trying to scab over sore spot just as fast as possible.

Well, we picked at that sore spot. Forgive us. But it was for R's benefit.

You see, the WS Team Director and R just don't get along very well. The coach can't figure out how to relate to R, R can't figure out how to relate to the Director. They're both good at what they do, they're not a good fit for each other. It was the assistant coach, D - with whom R worked most, and best - the kept it all together for all of us.

And with him gone, it was clear that R felt unhappy about WS. His fire dimmed almost immediately.

And, truth be told, we just didn't 'click' with the parents committee. Try as we might, the communication just wasn't very effective. We were often left out of the loop. We heard similar things from the parents of R's peers in Level 4 and Level 5.

So, we started picking at the scab. It took a couple weeks of calling around. It wasn't easy - some old-fashioned gumshoe action was involved:

• We made a list of every gymnastics club in the metro area, and started calling
  • Did they have a level 4 and up boy's team?
  • Did they just hire Coach D?
  • Did they know Coach D?
  • Did they know where he went?
    
• We learned that, though there was a gym studio within three miles of home (a geographical winner!) they did NOT have a boy's team (loser!). BUT, they did refer us to a new gymnastics studio that just started up, and is building their boy's team right now. They wouldn't tell us names, but they were all to happy to connect us.
  
• It felt like that scab we were picking at had just lifted a bit. Suddenly, we felt like sharks, smelling blood. So we called; made the strike.  
  
• It was Coach D!
  
• Coach D is now the program director for competitive boys gymnastics at a brand-new gym staffed (interestingly enough) with former WS staffers. The staffers, it turns out, who relate well to R.
  
• So the next afternoon, R paid a visit and ran through a workout with Coach D's new team.
  
• R discovered that virtually all of his Level 4 and Level 5 teammates had also hunted Coach D down. The entire developmental base for WS's boys team did what we did! There may be one or two level 4/5 boys still with WS, but not very many. R's workout was with all his WS peers!
  
• This's got to smart over at WS, as they slowly come to the realization that we all figured it out anyway!

But I don't really care about what WS feels, do I? They make their choices and I make mine. You see, ummm, R was feeling lost as a side-effect of their choice to cover up Coach D's departure. Now that we've found him, R doesn't feel lost any more. He feels better than ever about gymnastics. The new gym is exclusively gymnastics. It gives him a place with his "people" -- just his "people," no other groups to dilute the effect of being surrounded by his "people." That's where his loyalty lies.

And Coach D got the confidence boost he needed: the gift of a ready-made team of boys he's already been developing, who have love and loyalty for what he's all about as a coach. The boys bonded to each other and to the coach. The parents bonded to each other, in part because we all were feeling excluded by the WS parents committee. Not that we knew it, but we were all poised for exit, weren't we? WS's handling of the situation was the final one-finger push needed to propel us all forward and out the door.

We'll still be driving to Tigard for gymnastics, but suddenly it feels like there's a PURPOSE to it all. R feels serious, important, valuable. He now has a real sense that he has real work he can do there. He has purpose. And that's where MY loyalties lie; with my son's ultimate well-being.

What a blessing. Glad we picked at that sore spot.

Gymnastics - The Year That Was

Tonight is the gym team celebration at the training facility - a pizza party, awards banquet, and an all night sleep-over in the gym. R's going. What a great way to celebrate his growth and contribution as a gymnast!

Back on the old, archived blog, I posted an inventory of his routines throughout the year. In honor of his contribution to this year, I'm linking to some of those videos here for THIS blog... sort of a highlight reel for R.

 

R on the High Bar at State:

Since State, R has been working on a number of new moves for the Level 5 competitions. He's progressing extremely well.

 

R on the Parallel Bars:

 

R on the Pommel at State:

Since State, where R achieved three revolutions on the mushroom for the  first time in competition, he has improved to as many as seven revolutions in training. Look out for next year!

 

R on the Rings, MAC Meet

R had an awesome year, both athletically and as a self-manager. Where he is today is much different than where he was to start the year. I couldn't be prouder.

Training continues throughout the summer. Gymnastics is a year-round thing! Given that he's already working on Level 5 skills (and even learning some beginning tumbling!) It'll be interesting to see where he is at the start of school next Fall.