A Super Saturday

Today we started off with an Intel sponsored family fun run. It was at the Ronler Acres site. I'd never really been there before. They have a nice wet lands area that is really pretty. Mallory and Pete ran a little of the 1.7 miles and Courtney, Connor and I walked. Mallory came in 2nd in her division and Connor got third in his. I have to say that Courtney beat Connor but she had more competition in her division so we're not sure what her placement was. Way to go kids! I enjoyed doing this as a family.

Afterwards Intel gave away prizes. Pete and Connor were drawn and Connor and Mallory got stuff for their placement. Yeah, free stuff!

Later this afternoon the girls had the gymnastics June Jubilee at Oregon Gymnastics Academy or OGA as most people deem it. Courtney and Mallory did a really good job. Courtney really shined doing the vault and the floor routine. She did a one handed cartwheel! Mallory was fantastic doing the beam and the bars. She is very fluid with her movements. We were very proud of all they have accomplished.

Celtics and the Melansons

Well, I wasn’t sure if I should write this entry. Being a deeply superstitious person, I don’t want to jinx the upcoming NBA finals, but I feel that I needed to post something about the Celtic’s meteoric rise. Much to Julie’s chagrin, for the first time since she’s been a Melanson, the Celtics are in the finals. Which means that I am a verified schizophreniac, crazy on game days and relatively normal (although more ESPN centric) on off days. She’s always known of the family affinity for the Celtics, but due to their lowly status over the past 20 years, she hasn’t had to deal with me in “playoff mode” as I apparently blurted out during one recent episode. Sure, she’s had her brushes with my crazy sports nature during the ’95 Cowboys Super Bowl run (early on in the relationship, she’s probably blocked this one out) , the Red Sox World Series in ’04 and ’07 (including nightly conversations with Dad breaking down each game) and Italy’s ’06 World Cup title (which included hijacking brother Mike during the family reunion which Julie and I were in charge of, to go to an Indian Casino to watch Italy’s semifinal game against Germany. Wow, that didn’t seem so crazy at the time.), but they weren’t the Celtics. I can sense Julie starting to shake nervously just reading this.

I really feel that the blame should squarely fall on Dad’s shoulders. :) Growing up I could always count on a few things, Mr. Kirby not seeing how “wide open” I was on the Lafayette Elementary School field during recess, regular wood cutting retreats to the mountains followed by weeks of stacking cords of lumber with blackberry faces on them and watching the Celtics playing late into May and June sitting on the couch next to Dad. Dad indoctrinated us all. Sure, there were some rebellious points for most of us, Bob with the Knicks, Mike with the Hawks and Pacers and even myself with the Suns, but we all have Celtic green running through our veins. Living in rural California’s only impact on us was that we weren’t able to go to the games in person. We proudly displayed our loyalties on Tom’s masterpiece of a Celtic backboard and our homemade Celtic shirts (rest in peace DJ #3) deep in enemy Laker country.

Bird, McHale, Parish, DJ, Cornbread Maxwell, Ainge; they might as well have been part of our family. They certainly brought our family together for me. The memories I have watching games together are too numerous to count, Mike being thrown off the couch following a Bird jumper against Atlanta, Mike and I jumping around in an empty house screaming while taping the “Bird steals the ball” game against Detroit for Dad because he was at the Saturday night session of stake conference and Dad taunting Grandma (wish she were here for this, she would have relished this year’s playoffs) during the ’84 Lakers/Celtics finals. There were a million double thumbs up/YES!!! moments from Dad.

As I am the obsessive sports fan of the family, they probably made more of an impact on me than the others, but maybe not. What I do know is that it was something special for me. Thanks Dad, for spending that time with me, watching the games, telling me stories of the Celtic glory. It’s been a while, but a glimpse of the glory is back.

Come to think about it, this has been a crazy last few sports years for me. The Sox won in ’04 and ’07, the Cowboys are resurging, Italy holds the World Cup and is competing in the Euro finals, BYU is coming off of back to back 11-2 football seasons and is getting serious BCS buzz for next year and now the Celts are back. Could this be the cherry on the sports sundae? We’ll see. (Can we dig out the old backboard and prep it for an ’07 on the border?) What we do know is that we are in for a solid week and a half of basketball madness. Sorry Julie, but welcome to the Melanson family for real.

BEAT LA! BEAT LA! BEAT LA!

Our House

So, our house has been on the market since just before Thanksgiving 2007. Wow that makes it seem even longer!! Anyway, because it hasn't sold we decided to update the bathrooms upstairs by putting tile on the counter and floor in the master bath and on the floor in the girls bath. It turned out great!
Because the updates are now done the house has a new listing in the hopes that someone will see it, fall in love with it, and yes- BUY it!!!


We also got to have Allie, Luke and Kate for a little on Saturday. I love having them over. The girls play, Luke and Connor hang out and Pete and I play with Kate (even though she was supposed to be sleeping!). The girls built a fort to play in and made a sign to welcome Allie and Luke into it. I'm starting to wonder about how long Pete's actually going to live. After the girls had said he was going to get dead the other day, Luke was here and climbing on him and told him the same thing!

On to another week of life. The kids only have nine days left of school and then they're mine. I'm hoping to have a fun summer around home. Swimming, biking, frisbee, tennis, parks, and who know's what else!

Memorial Weekend

Well, a fun Memorial weekend finally came to an end. We were able to squeeze in a little sun, a little fun, some memorable lines from the girls and some yardwork. Saturday started with the normal basketball for me and Julie has restarted at the gym. Kim 2 convinced Julie to join LA Fitness. Julie has really enjoyed getting back in the swing of it, especially the water arobics classes. We then attacked the yard, which included the annual clearing of the east side of the house. While Connor and I were tearing our way through knee high weeds, I heard the girls playing on their bikes. They had named their bikes and were playing "Princess Cops". Which, as Courtney explained to Mallory, is when they are princesses and also cops. You know, we've been told that Courtney is a good combination of Julie and myself, but I never thought of it in that way.

But, that wasn't the best nugget from the girls. Later, Julie caught the girls admiring some of her porcelin dolls. She asked them what they were doing and they told her that they were determining who would get which dolls after we were done and gone. I like to tease the girls to see what sort of reaction I can get from them, so after Julie told me what they were doing, I asked them which ones I would get. Mallory wasted no time in telling me, "You're not going to get any. You're going to get dead, Dad. You're going to die before Mommy. " So, write it down folks, I'm going to get dead.

We introduced Julie and the kids to ultimate frisbee Saturday afternoon before the rains came. A bunch of folks from the ward put together an impromptu game. Julie lasted longer than she thought she would. Connor and Court lasted the entire game and Mallory was in an out, switching between the game and riding her bike. Pete managed to not get hurt badly, so a very successful day.

On Monday, we picked out the tile for the upstairs bathrooms which will be going in over the next few days and caught Prince Caspian in the afternoon. We all liked it better than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We topped it off with barbequed beef for dinner to fulfill the requirement for bbq on Memorial Day, even though it was raining and in the low 60's. Thank you Julie.

Piano Recital

This last weekend we had a good time playing. We went to our ward picnic and had Costa Vida for our dinner. We took the kids to the tennis courts and Pete threw the balls to them to help them get used to it. I have to say, the kids are much better than I am. I want to be able to play, I just don't know if I can play!

We also had our family dinner on Sunday. Bob and Kim and their family and Mike and Kim and their family come over once a month (or at least try to). It's always a bit crazy in all of our lives and we don't see each other if we don't schedule it in. I think that it's good for all of us and I know my kids enjoy seeing their cousins.

Tonight Connor and Courtney had their piano recital. They did really good. Pete wasn't able to be here (he's in Arizona) so I caught it on camera. I'm very proud of them.

A Day in the Sun

Yesterday was a beautiful high 80's day that the kids were home all day because of student led conferences. We had a couple walk through's (for the house) so the kids and I went to Rood Bridge park to get out of the way. When we got home the kids opened our front door and a bird flew into the front room. I had to scare it out of the front window and the poor thing wouldn't fly low enough to get out. He did finally almost knock himself out and then found the open window. He was a nice enough bird not to leave any droppings behind. Thank you birdie!

Last night I got another glimps of what having a pre-teen is going to be like. Connor has taken to reacting to my "pet" names for him by making noises or other things. That's what the lovely picture of Connor is. I happened to call him a turkey and this is what I got. I guess I should be more careful of what I say from now on!

Today it was mid nineties and hot, hot, hot! I LOVED it!! We had the conferences in the morning with the kids. They had a fun time showing Pete and I their work. This afternoon the kids and I went to the Beaverton water fountains. We ran into some of Courtney's and Mallory's friends from school so that really made their day. Connor was tolerant of them and would play and then read. The water cooled us off and was alot of fun.

Back Home

So we made it back from our trip and as you can see it has taken awhile to get back to the blog. Friday Pete had to be back to work and I played catch up with the laundry.

Then we went to the Tobias auction. We only left with one thing but it is what we wanted. Connor's class quilt.His square is the second row the second from the left (orange and green). We are all happy to have it. Connor's teacher Mrs. Torgerson is great. I've enjoyed getting to know her this year.

Saturday Pete taught the primary kids about Italy. They had their primary activity day and went on "missions" to a few places. Pete taught them about Bocce, how to say ciao (hello & good-bye), and had them taste cheese tortellini and Nutella. No, Nutella isn't actually from Italy but that's where Pete was introduced to it.

Monday was a beautiful day and Mallory chose to play Bocce for family home evening. We had alot of fun. The rest of the week the kids have been on the computer. We got our new computer right before we left so it's still a novelty for us.

I can't really believe it's been a week since we got home. It goes by so fast. It's been hard to focus on life for me. I really enjoyed the hot weather. I hope we have more nice days soon. I'm looking forward to summer.