Rachel's Challenge

Wednesday night, we went to the Idaho Center where there was this "Rachel's Challenge" that had come to Nampa and all area schools, families, churches were invited to come and listen.
Rachel was the first to be murdered at Columbine High School in 1999's massacre. Her father now speaks to thousands about her life and how she impacted others with kindness.

Our church's youth group was going, and so we decided to go as a family to help out with the driving. It was remarkable to see how this one girl is able to continue spreading acts of kindness through the family's continuing efforts of bringing her story our entire nation.

As a recap, Rachel loved those who either just needed a helping hand, or needed an advocate when bullied. Testimonies from people who had come into contact with her show that their own lives have dramatically changed, simply by realizing she was doing this with a purpose and how they appreciated her for what she had done for them.

Rachel is an inspiring story, one that if you should get the opportunity to hear about her in your community, you should go! They even had channel 7 news there, broadcasting live to the entire valley community. Click on the title of post to be taken to her website.

I Got My Bookcase!

I've been waiting for this for months. All winter, the books have sat in the garage, in danger of getting soaked by the snow melting off the truck and sloping directly toward the boxes. Since construction has slowed to a snail pace, we found a cabinet maker that was willing to give us a great deal. They made the bookcases in paint grade material, and installed them. Dave then spent his time doing his thing.

When I had the boys all start bringing up the boxes, they grumbled that all those boxes would never fit. Close, but I got them all in!
Now, I'll be able to find what I'm looking for. I never want to have to live out of boxes again. Now, the next project is to get the pictures out of the boxes, and get them hung. We could have done that earlier, but somehow, those things just don't get done unless we make it a project of the day.

A Quiet Week

I am still doing more standing than sitting. I can't even lay down on my back yet, so sleeping is rough. But, things are getting done, so I'm happy.

Last week, Zach did a volcano experiment. Here is a rare picture of him!
I let the boys do most of their school work on their own, and they did fairly well with the list.
The boys all got their ski passes for the rest of this season and next. I found 2 snowboards on Craigslist so they don't have to rent every time. Dave got a real nice board with bindings and boots that fit great too. We got a board with bindings that we thought was a 149c, but turns out it is a 155 like Dave's, so Josh will use it instead of Zach. Next time we'll bring our own measuring tape! I can't believe the owner didn't know what size they had. With the passes came 3 lift tickets. I'm on a quest to get in shape for next season, and wear those bomber protection pants while learning. THen, towards the end of the season if I care to venture off the bunny hill, I can use the lift tickets to get up on the real mountain. It was a better deal than buying a pass for me.

We finally got our bookcases installed this week. Dave is busy as I type getting them painted. I can't wait to get all the boxes of books unpacked from the garage.

We had a visit from the Elders of the church. Seems they do this once a year and everyone is on a every other year cycle. We got this year's cycle. We found out a little more about the Education fund the church has. Our school of choice is most likely not going to be one of the supported schools for long. We have 3 other schools to choose from, and next year the boys will be attending one of them. Our neighbors go to Nampa Christain, as well as just about Josh's whole Sunday School class. The more local school is Cole Valley, and the third choice is Foundations Academy, a Classical School here in town. I guess our next step is to visit the schools.

A Challenge of a Week

Challenges come in many forms. For us this week , it has shown up in a variety of ways in just one week's span of time. At least the view from our Master Window is peaceful.

On Tuesday, the weather was finally so nice, the boys and a neighbor kid decided they would play outside with their airsoft guns. It was beautiful out. Sunny and a warm 45 degrees. I was watching from the front window because I was in the office, and the boys were taking a break on the front porch chairs. They were chatting and reloading their "mags". I think they were being slow about it, in order to catch their breath. It was a typical front porch scene. Just enjoying themselves. Then, IT happened. A new kid walked down the street by himself on the other side, and decided to stare at the boys from behind the front end of a truck. And, he stared for what must have seemed an eternity. He was a 10 year old boy. I know the boys got to feeling uncomfortable with him just watching them, so the neighbor kid says, "what's up?" (a kid way of saying hello?) The new kid say's, "Kendall says when he walks by you riddle him up." (Kendall is a fellow neighborhood boy that plays airsoft with them, and has a way with story telling.) Josh tosses back, "and we'll riddle you too.... (hands up in air waving without any gun) JUST KIDDING, just kidding." He continues to stare. Our neighbor boy remarks to the boys lets push him on, and he shoots off his pistol and says, "and I'll give you 10 seconds to run". It was in the direction of the boy, but the boy was way too far away to actually get shot, and the neighbor boy wasn't really aiming at him. The kid runs down toward the park instead of home never looking back, and we figured that was the end of that. He took the long way home and probably arrived there licky split. I was outside by that time, and gave the boys a quick reminder that we don't shoot at unarmed civilians. It was a general comment, since my own boys didn't do anything that I felt could be punishable, but wanted to be sure the neighbor kid understood the rules we play by. I went to get the mail across the street while the boys continued to discuss what they just saw.

Next I know, the father is at my door with his son, accusing my boys of shooting his son. I let out a chuckle and a sigh, thinking to myself, 'you're at the wrong door', and remarked, "no, they didn't SHOOT him", ready to tell him what happened, but he got so upset he let me know it was totally unappropriate for me to think it funny for teens to intimidate innocent people , and that he was "disappointed in me, and I guess I know what I'm working with." I was so stunned by the rudeness of this man, I simply looked at him with a dropped jaw thinking about an approprate response. Then, he continued to imply I was just an idiot not worth speaking to, I said that I must be unable to help him, stepped back inside the house and shut the door. He clearly was looking for something I just didn't know about.

So, I didn't get much sleep that night. The next day, we decided we would speak directly with the boy as he came home from school that day. Well, his mother came to meet him in front of our house, and she is even more aggressive and rude than the father! However, we found out that the story didn't end with him running. He was so confused, that he ran straight for a porta potty at the park, and called home from his cell phone telling his folks that the boys chased him there and were outside shooting at the porta potty. !!!! Now, they have one confused kid, or an attention seeker. The mother found that it was important to tell us they just moved in, it was his first trip on the bus and walk home, and they know no one in this whole state. (um, I think that applies to alot of us in this new subdivision) Unfortunately, we were unable to even give a simple fact regarding what happened on our porch, except that I informed her that her husband was offensive and rude in his approach at my house. Her simple reply was that she couldn't speak for him. I wondered why she was speaking for her son.

Soon after we stopped the boy to talk with him, he went home and the mother thought she could defend him. I simply wanted the boys to work it out. It easily turned to an argument because she wasn't even there! Of course, she knew what he told her. Since he wasn't willing to stay and sort it out, I was simply amazed at the turn of her conversation, and how twisted things were. She finally consented and said she felt they were attempting to convey they did not intend for that all to happen, and she let them go shake her son's hand and call it good. Both parents are handshakers. They shake and introduce their name, then stab hard. It gave us and the boys plenty to talk about. But, I didn't sleep a single wink of sleep that night, just tortured by the realization that an adult could speak to other adults and children the way they did, had no interest in the other side of the story, and feel like a handshake in the midst of hatred will heal all.

Enter Friday, and our next challenge. The Boise schools were out today, because of a teacher service day. The same neighbor kid got permission to come with us to Bogus to snowboard with us. We left early, and found that there were already a lot of people on the mountain. I guess lots of Boise poeple decided it was a good day to ski. We got all our stuff to the lodge, got our passes, and rented our gear. Then, headed for the lift.

I debated whether or not I wanted to take the chair first, or go for the magic carpet for a practice run. After negotiating in my mind, I decided I'd rather only sit and boot up once rather than several times for such short runs. I got off the chair and headed for the slopes. I was amazed to see how many people cluttered the run. It looked like an obstacle course. I also realized the snow was very different from last week. Last week, as all previous weeks, was fresh powder, soft and moveable. This week, it hadn't snowed in days, was warm during the day and freezing at night. The slope was crusty icey. And, I was aiming straight for a kid sitting down in front of me. You always go for where you're looking, and especially when I couldn't get my board to turn or stop in the ice, I was quickly reaching this young girl. I finally just dumped myself down to stop, and landed pretty hard on my butt. I got up again, moved myself off to the side, and the next time I fell, I could tell I was really sore. By the time I had gotten myself to the bottom of the hill, I was in enough pain that I knew I wasn't going down the slopes anymore before lesson time. When the family came in for lunch before the lesson, I realized I wasn't going to do the lesson either. So, I hung out on the snow pile outside a building, resting my backside in cold ice knowing that icing a bruise is always a good thing.

Unfortunately, by the time their lesson was over 2 hrs. later, I was in such pain I could hardly walk. They all packed up, and we headed down the mountain. We decided to take me in to the chiropractor, since he has an xray machine, is usually a quick visit, and a lot less expensive than going to an emergency room. The chiropractor was in, and after a quick exam, decided to do an xray. Sure enough, he was fairly convinced I cracked my tailbone. He did say that even if we did go in to the Dr, they wouldn't do anything, as we suspected. I just need to take time to heal, sit on a donut, and don't bend over.

Now that it is a couple days later, I'm more sore than before, and wondering if I really want a snow pass that we intended to buy on this weekend's half price sale. I found out that they sell " bomber protection" for snowboarding. These are shorts that have 1/2" foam padding along the hips and tailbone plus an additional plastic protector running on the outside of the tailbone protection. I know that if I attempt this again, I'll be wearing those $75 shorts! Plus, knee padding and wrist guards in addition to the helmet we already wear. Snow might be more forgiving than a street and rollerskating, but not much!

So, there ends a week of working on challenges, every day.

A Glorious Winter

Winter. Cold and snowy. Isn't that Winter? Well, apparantly, we are getting a special treat this year. According to the local news, we've had more snow this year than the last 6 years total. There is a run on snow shovels at the hardware store. We now own snow boots, tire chains, hats, gloves, and have anti-freezing window wiper fluid. I find it fun though to wake up and see the new snow scene. And, the ski season has been terrific!

Today we were glad to see that Bogus Basin Road was open for business. Yesterday, they closed it at 1pm due to an accident pile-up and strong winds blowing snow across the road. But, all was well today, and we were there plenty early to get familiar with the new routine of renting snowboards. I like the boots! In fact, we were all more comfortable with the snowboard boots instead of the lean forward hard and tight ski boots. They are so much easier to walk in too, especially on the stairs.

There were 17 of us for the class, so they split us up into a young class and the older "kid" class. It started off really slow, since most of us didn't even know what "foot" we were in order to determine wether we were "goofy" or "regular". Say what? I've been called Tigger before, but never Goofy. Alas, I found out I'm goofy. So was Dave and Zach. Josh rode "regular". This all simply means that we "goofy's" naturally use our right foot forward instead of the left. After we all got our feet in the right place and learned how to fasten our feet in, we were ready for the lesson. A first lesson in snowboarding is usually alot of one foot in and one foot out pushing ourselves along. Yes, we did this back and forth. Then, we progressed to pushing ourselves up a tiny incline and learning how to skate down turning to the left or right. Apparantly we all did well, because we all got to take the "magic carpet" up to the bunny hill.

Beginning snowboarders spend alot of time on their butts. We fall, of course. But, we also sit and wait for everyone to get up the conveyor belt (Magic Carpet), and then we need to sit to strap in our second foot. In some amazing way, the kids can bounce up from sitting to a standing position. I guess I don't have the stomach muscles, or maybe I don't have the flexibilty, but I cannot be sitting on my bum, reach my hand to the bottom of the board under my feet, and stand up. Out of our class of 9, I was the only one that couldn't just stand up, however, I learned really fast how to roll over and stand up from my knees.

After the second or third time up and down, our instructor informed us that we were the fastest moving class he ever had! Well, I don't think I was able to go 3 feet before I was back on the ground again on the first run, but somehow on the second run, it clicked and it was much easier.
After class, we all decided to be brave and took the chair lift up and tackled the big hill. We all survived, and all of us but Dave thought we did better than we thought we would. Dave figured because he was such a confident skier that he would master this fairly quickly. He found it harder than he expected. I guess the rest of us had less expectation.

Forecast for this week says 40 degrees. I guess our snow will melt quickly. After all this, Zach is sad to see the snow melting. He spends most of his available time building snow piles, as big and tall as he can make them.

Skiing Again

We have finished our 3 session ski lessons!
Zach stayed home and watched a marathon of Sponge Bob Square Pants. At least, we left him watching, and he was still watching when we got home.

The morning started out rough. It was very cloudy here and visibility up the mountain was poor. Half way up, we were above the clouds, and it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day! When we checked in they were passing us snowboard boots. Somehow our registration for next month got into the computer early, and it switched our gear for this day. So, we ran later than we planned after getting them to fit us for skis.

We all had a great time. My instructor decided for the last day he would show us the mountain. He took us to the back side, and up a hard to find chair lift. We explored wonderful trails, and had gorgeous views. And, no Black Diamond runs! Whew. I was really nervous last night. Turns out that my class was full of younger kids that were showing promise early on, but they continued to stay with what was comfortable, and were not working hard at learning new techniques, so the instructor decided we weren't ready.

Josh also progressed to where the instructor took his class to the same backside trail! When class was over, Josh and I took Dave on that trail (he didn't get the same tour) and I was really impressed with how well Josh was doing, and he was having a good time too.

After class, Dave felt like he could teach me some of the techniques he had learned. Had he done this on a smaller hill, I would have probably learned something. But, he took me on what he was familiar with, and it was quite the steep slope. Not something I would have done had I known what was lurking over the ridge. I only fell once, but tweaked the knee enough that I was done for the day. Since it was already 4:30, we all felt like we had a full day of skiiing.

I'm looking forward to next month, and we hope to be a foursome again.

More Skiing

Lesson #2 down, one more to go.
This week, we left home early, so as not to be rushed getting up the mountain, or getting our rentals and tickets. We even brought our own lunch and ate before the lesson so we weren't so famished during the lesson and stored our shoes on a shelf so no locker was needed. It feels like it is getting easier. Except the skiing part.

Zach was firm about not skiing. Since he has been sick since last week, we gave in at the last minute. He sat in the lodge fully armored with ski pants, gloves and hat. He slept most of the morning with a head on the table.

Josh also came down with the same cold mid-week, but he decided he would at least do the lesson, but didn't want to ski before or stay and do any more skiing. He said after the lesson that it was nice to learn how to turn and stop. He suggested Zach not come back to the next lesson because he would hold up the class not having this very important info. Since Zach isn't interested in the least, I've filled out his refund form and we'll see what happens.

Dave and I took the chair #3 up and had a couple ski runs down before the lesson started. On the first run Dave and I took the same route. The second time Dave was in front and said, "follow me". I got down the first part of the hill and saw he was WAY out in front and thought to myself..."No Way am I 'following him'." He is a skier. I am a beginner. I can count 3 previous times I've been on skis. I can't just 'do this' and 'follow'. Am I being stubborn? No. I'm being Realistic. I like my knees working most of the time. I like being able to get up our stairs without weird methods to accomodate broken legs or feet. So, I ditched him and went down the more traveled slope, at my own pace.

The lessons began, and we all went to our appointed places. Dave's instructor decided that he should have taken the Advanced level instead of Intermediate. HA. See. I'm not following him.
After 1.5 hrs. of ski lesson, I headed toward the lodge to find Zach. I was tired, and not up for the last run. Last I heard, the instructor was happy with our progress, and was going to get us ready for going down a Diamond run next week for our last bang. What a disappointment. I'd much rather enjoy the trip down the mountain than have to watch every move I make and never see the wonderous view from up so high. Besides, I find that such hard work on such advanced slopes really take a toll on my recovered but weak knee. I'm looking forward to trying Snowboarding next month. The easy boots that don't bruise the ankles and the two feet together on one board should help the knees. And, I might be able to get myself back up after a fall! I see and hear that one learning snowboarding spends much time on their bum, but hey, I got LOTS of padding there.