Here's a funny series of events for you. Tuesday night Caleb came home with the next step in his taekwondo progression - sparring gear. All this foam allows him to be protected as he practices contact sparring (read: fighting) with his fellow tkd mates. Caleb tried it all on, and he was showing off his stuff while attacking Dave and protecting himself against his dad's best shots. In the end, Dave got the short end of a wrist pad, and a jammed knuckle.
Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon. Dave calls me and says, "How would you like to buy me a new wedding band?" Whaaat?! Apparently the jammed knuckle from the previous night's activities rendered his ring finger the size of a kumquat (my guestimation, not his), and he was losing feeling in the finger. Since he works with sheet metal and conveniently had a metal saw nearby, he proceeded to cut the ring from his finger. We decided it would be better to lose the ring to save the finger. This is the result of his handiwork:
Next stop: the goldsmith at Kluh's Jewelry to see what magic he can come up with. I hope he can fix it. I really, really like Dave's ring.
Caleb has reached another milestone in tae kwon do. Tuesday he tested for and received his advanced yellow belt. Yellow with a green stripe in it.
He practiced form (taeguk ee jung), worked hard on his hapkido and really knew what he was doing. This test was an easy one for him. The link below is to a video of his form. (I'm still having issues with them posting to blogger...grrr.)
I had a great day today. I met with a child psychologist who will help us with Caleb, and I left his office feeling lighter and more hopeful than I have in months. Plus, the sun was shining! Cold, but still sunny. I had the fastest 3 mile run I have ever had. 26:26. Not as fast as some of my friends (G and Am-dawg), but I am over the moon about it! Then, this arrived in the mail:
My friend Amy had a giveaway on her blog a few weeks ago for a gift certificate to CSN, and I won! That website has everything. Seriously. It took me quite a few visits before I settled on the above cookset. I love the Circulon we have, but it is starting to show it's 13 years. BTW, the yellow matches perfectly with the walls in the kitchen. Not that I cared, it was the cheapest set they had! Now, to break them in with some good cookin'!
(This is wordy - please indulge me!) One year ago (Thursday to be exact), Dave & I were waiting in the cell phone lot at SeaTac Airport waiting for his parents, Bill & Jolene. We were talking about my dad, who was in a Seattle hospital at the time, and how once we picked up Bill & Jolene we needed to go visit him. The song, All is Full of Love by Bjork came on. We had a nice visit with him. We talked about awful hospital food, what fun things we had planned with Bill & Jolene, and the plans for Caleb's baptism on Saturday the 9th. I specifically remember Bill asking my dad if there was anything he (Bill) could say on my dad's behalf. My dad simply answered that he knew Bill would be able to say the right things. We thought it a bit ironic that as the 6th May grandchild to be baptised, Caleb was the first to live in Washington, and yet, the first that my dad would not be attending. He kept talking about how he wouldn't get better in the hospital, and that he needed to go home. We assumed he meant home to my mom - that home in Auburn was where he would go to get better. We said our good-byes and he held my hand a bit longer than I was expecting and said, "I love you Prillo." We returned home and worked frantically at last minute preparations for Caleb's special day. Friday night we went to bed after 11. Shortly after lying down, the words to the Bjork song I mentioned earlier came into my mind. As I sung the chorus over in my mind, I was filled with the most wonderful feeling of warmth, love, peace. I don't really know how to describe it. I felt ready to burst, yet I was so happy. Not 30 seconds later, my sister Rachel called in a panic. The hospital had called, dad was not responding, and her husband Aaron was rushing (well above the speed limit we later learned) my mom to the hospital. She would call back when there was any news. I was tasked with calling my brother Craig, and sister Dyan. Through it all, I was very calm. Even before hanging up the phone with Rachel, I already knew what the news would be. My dad had passed away. About 30 minutes later my mom called to tell me what I already knew. We woke up Bill & Jolene, told them the news and actually got a few hours of sleep. The next day we had Caleb's baptism as planned. It was a very emotional affair. And at the end of the day, Caleb reaffirmed what I had been thinking: that Grandpa May was able to attend his baptism after all. Today, I was innocently cleaning out a filing cabinet and came across a card my dad sent to me in 1996 when I was still single, living in Salt Lake City. I think of him a lot. I am sure he is "watching over me". There is a particular song by Pearl Jam that makes me cry every time I hear it. But lately I have had the words from the musical Wicked going through my head. For Good. (Sorry about the size of the video. I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller!)
The lyrics are beautiful and say some of how I feel about my dad. I hope that someday I can have as much of a positive influence in my childrens' lives as my own father has had (and continues to have) in mine. I love you dad! - April
Today we furthered Caleb's education by helping him ditch/sluff/skip/play hookey from school by going to the Seattle Art Museum to see this: No, maybe it was this: Hold on, maybe it was this: Okay... I've got it. We went to see the Picasso exhibit. It was amazing....ly crowded! Stand in line to buy tickets, stand in line to check coats, stand in line for our allotted time to view the exhibit, stand in line to look at the paintings, stand in line to buy the magnet that says were were there. (Which, by the way, isn't of a painting we actually saw, nor does it say SAM. It is of Man of La Mancha. Oh well.) Since we were unable to take pictures of the pieces we did see, here's a sampling of what was there. Bathers
Man in a straw hat with an ice cream cone
L'acrobat While I have seen other Picasso pieces in different museums, it was a bit overwhelming to see so many in one place. These were mostly pieces he kept in his own studio, for his own collection, knowing one day he would put them in a museum. As he said, "Give me a museum and I will fill it." It was a great experience. I'm not sure Abby will remember much, but Caleb sure has a new perspective of the human face!
You won't believe how quickly I came up with that acronym! (I'm embarassed...) Tonight was Abby's first dance recital. It was in front of the movie theaters at the Capital mall. All day she said she wasn't going to "go up there". She fell asleep in the car on the drive there, and I think that was the boost she needed. It is a short performance (2 min 11 sec), so enjoy. We especially enjoyed her "directorial enhancements"! **I can't; for the life of me; get the video to post here. So, go here to watch it on youtube***
Next stop: the goldsmith at Kluh's Jewelry to see what magic he can come up with. I hope he can fix it. I really, really like Dave's ring.
