Journal -- January 14, 2007

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sunday evening on a long weekend because of Martin Luther King Day, which REI now recognizes as a holiday. Unfortunately, I am going to have to go into work for a few hours in the morning. Between our year end close and all the reviews I have to write I am totally swamped at work and can not take the full day off.

After church this afternoon, Andrew, Rebekah and I finally went out with the GPS unit I got for Christmas and did some Geocaching. The kids loved it and I think it will be a great activity to get them into hiking and exploring. It is remarkable what technology can do today and I love to see it being used to excite children about being in the outdoors. Drew and Rebekah were so excited when they would find a cache and are anxious to go again tomorrow.

Yesterday Paul had a game and he played well but I get so frustrated with his coach for the way he treats the kids. He also had a game on Tuesday and he had a very good game as well. Their team is doing well as they have not lost in the region and only lost one non-region game.

Friday his coach made him stay for the whole late practice, which would usually not be a problem but that night we had planned to go the Sonics vs. the Jazz game in Seattle. He got out of practice at 6:30 and the game began at 7:30. He got to Kent as fast as he could, picked me up and then we drove straight into Seattle. We hit the scalpers as soon as we got there as the game had begun and our timing was good. We bought two $120/seat tickets for $40/seat. They were good seats for a fabulous game. The Sonics won in overtime 118 – 106 and Ray Allen, the Sonics all pro guard scored 54 points. It was an incredible performance, maybe the best individual game I have ever seen. While we wanted the Jazz to win, Ray’s performance was more than enough to offset our allegiance to the Jazz. It was a game neither of us will forget and made us even more anxious to go on our road trip.

Yesterday Melanie and I went to Paul’s game as Rosie was working much of the day and evening on her talk for the first Ward Conference Sacrament Meeting today and a lesson she had to teach with that Conference in RS. She always gets uptight about it and then it goes well for her. She is a great speaker and doesn’t give herself enough credit.

Our weather has been very severe again this week. On Wednesday night it started to snow in almost a white out. Paul and I were going to go to the Sonics vs. Heat game that night. Paul had been looking forward to seeing Dwyane Wade play and was disappointed that we did not get to go. But it would have taken us all night to get home as the roads were terrible. It took me over an hour to get from my office to Auburn and I wasn’t sure I was even going to make it home that night. When it snows here everything shuts down. Once I got above Auburn there was virtually no snow. Thursday there was about 7 inches in Kent and we only an inch or so here in Enumclaw. Nevertheless they cancelled all classes and the kids were excited that school was out. On Friday they started school late in Enumclaw and canceled Melanie’s school again. The temperatures have been very cold for WA, as low as 15 degrees the last couple of nights. In Cache Valley it has been about 10 below. I wonder if I am ready to go back to that kind of cold. I can hardly take 15 degrees above zero let alone 10 or 15 below.

Melanie’s teacher called today and asked if they could have class tomorrow. Melanie was all excited as she loves school and has told each of us fifty times today how excited she is to be able to go to school tomorrow.

I sent the older kids the attached email with some details on our trip to Greece. After my research and discussion with Cris, I am more and more excited about this trip. It should be one of the best trips we have ever taken. It will be fun, educational and hopefully a time when we will all grow closer and create some lifetime memories.