20th Reunion Pre-Funk

Held at The Ram (so fitting - Go Rams!) in Puyallup, Friday night

This isn't a very clear picture above, but it needs to be in here because it shows exactly how Mick spent the evening at my Unofficial Pre-Funk. He's there with Tanya and Brian Hope. Tanya graduated with my class and married her older brother Ty's best friend (class of '87), Brian Hope. (Brian was also my first boyfriend in high school, and we like to laugh about that.)

Tanya didn't plan to go to the reunion, so when Mick found that out he sent Brian a note: "Brian, why aren't you going to our 20-year reunion???" Of course, the reason that's funny is because it was neither Mick's nor Brian's reunion, but they're two guys who would act like it was. Brian wrote back that he was bummed they'd be missing it, and that maybe he could talk Tanya into going to the unofficial one on Friday night.

So, there they are above, sitting and being silly for the evening. Mick introduced himself a couple times as "Jo-Jo" from Rogers, feigning surprise when no one recognized him. And then generally had fun joking around with Brian and Tanya and Karen at that table. (I didn't sit with them -- I had too many people to run around and catch up with! Karen did too, actually, so she wasn't always there. Tanya, on the other hand, was very comfortable sitting like a queen at her throne waiting for people to come to her!) The other guy in the picture above is Steve Oberhofer; I sang with him in Choir. He now lives in Hawaii and loves it.

Tonsil check.

My two best friends ever.


Yeah, I brought the creepy guy.

Tracy Wolmacher, Brandi Bilby and Christine German. Brandi used to be the totally hot stuff babe on campus; Chris and Tracy were these tiny little cute girls that were always together on campus, walking super close with their heads together, giggling with their hands over their mouths.


Gary Sarlund. The only thing that's different about Gare-Bear is that he's got a goatee and his shoulders are a little broader. Even the tuck of snuff in his lower lip is the same. And that's what we all love about Gary -- he's the totally loyal, totally sweet, huggy happy fella we can all count on. Now Gary's an electrician like his dad, married, and has a little boy he says is already smarter than him. See? What's there not to love about a fella like that?


With Mike Peters. It was so much fun to see Mike. I swear he was about 5 inches shorter in school. He says he was always 6 foot, but I think he must've slouched or something back then. Mike reminded me that he came to my house once after a Key Club meeting and knocked at the front door. When Don opened it, Mike said, "Hey, is Anjie home?" and Don looked at his watch and said, "Do you know what time it is?" Mike looked at his watch and said, "Uh, yeah, 9 o'clock?" And Don said, "Yeah, 9 o'clock on a school night," and turned poor Mike away! This was a sweetie-pie good boy Key Clubber Cross Country Runner -- and he never came back!

I told Don that story and he says he feels awful now. I took that to mean Mike was welcome to swing by their house any time he wanted to now, and I told him so the next night. Ha ha.



This is Jay Hansen. Not a close friend at all in high school, but a nice enough guy. The end.

Christina Mendoza arranged the Pre-Funk at The Ram.

Larry Aegerter and his awesome wife, Tammy. Between the two of them they have six (maybe seven?) kids and seem to have a really strong marriage. Larry's still totally tough and adorable, a marial arts master and contractor with the military; Tammy stays home and homeschools their kids. She's currently waiting for her second kidney transplant.


We love Cheese! Jason "Cheese" Bisig here with Karen and me. We used to have all kinds of fun with Jason and Buddy (he didn't show) in Jazz Choir. They were totally obnoxious but loveable and we used to ride around in Jay's little Manza. In junior high, Jason used to come over and we'd stand on my grandparents' motorhome in the driveway and shoot baskets. He was a super fun pal to have.

Jason, Gary and Karen.

Here I am flanked by two amazing sopranos, Karen (left) and Carrie Chappel.

Karen, me and Carrie again. It was funny, I got to briefly meet Carrie's 10-year-old daughter Elena earlier that night. She stood next to her mom, saying, "Heh heh, they have Buttface Beer here. Heh heh. Buttface beer." Now, of course, that's a little gross and all, etc., etc., but the funny thing is that she acted exactly like Carrie would've acted as a kid! I met Carrie in 8th grade and she was always doing some sort of "Heh heh" kind of thing. Meeting Elena totally cracked me up.

Aw, here we are with our buddy Colin, a.k.a. C-Train.

C-Train and Cheese.

With Dori Johnson. Dori and I played junior high sports together - and then she got pregnant and we lived two very different lives. (Hi Dori!) I've come into recent contact with her again, though, and am really enjoying her. She's been a mother more than half her life, which is totally trippy, and parts of her life have been very complicated. Through it, I'm amazed at how her perspective has developed so fully. She has A LOT of brilliant things to say. She's educated herself on political issues, and takes some really amazing stands -- on health care especially. She writes them on a blog, and I admire her thoughtfulness and her articulate writing.

Maybe that's what's so much fun about a 20-year reunion: we can rehash the ways we used to be, and revel in the ways those 20 years have shaped us in unexpected and exciting ways.

I still have to post pics from the official reunion - but I'll do that tomorrow. Or the next day. Or the next...

Oh, and I'll totally try to use the word totally as much as possible. It is, after all, flashback to 1989 time.

Seewer Love

The day before my 20th high school reunion (yeah, I'll get to that later!) I arranged to visit my Aunt Sharon and my cousin Lane. I brought my mom along, too. (Far right.)

Aunt Sharon (left, above) is my dad's only sibling, and Lane (in the middle next to me) is her only child. So, Lane and I grew up the only children in our families - and the only two grandchildren on the Seewer side. That worked in our favor - especially in regard to Grandma Nancy, who gave us loads and loads and loads of love and attention.

In a period of three years, back in the early 90s, my Aunt Sharon lost her brother (my dad, to colon cancer), her mother (to heartbreak and old age) and her father (to stomach cancer). Those were hard years for her and she did a lot of rallying that about wore her out.

In light of that, I can't tell you how great it was too hook up with her and have SO MUCH FUN. She's got a sharp sense of humor. In fact, she and Mom realized they had a lot to laugh about when they discovered that they each dated my dad's roommate, Rich, back in the day. They've known each other for 40 years now and this was the first they'd confided that in anyone. To have seen their faces when Aunt Sharon pulled out the old picture of old Rich was priceless.


Seeing Lane was really wonderful too. Lane has four boys (the littlest one was taking a nap while this photo was shot) and she leads a busy life, to say the least.

In addition to having four active boys, two of them have Ushers II Syndrome, which is a disease that results in full deafness and blindness by the age of 18. It's very rare and few advancements have been made - although both boys have cochlear implants, which help significantly - so she and her husband Todd have set up the Hear See Hope Foundation in search of a cure. They also have to fight hard to create the optimum learning environment for their kids in school. They've been featured on KING 5, they have a Board of Directors full of movers and shakers, hold huge fundraising events, and are absolutely remarkable parents who work as a powerful and loving team. I can't even tell you how great my admiration for them is.

And Dane and Aubrey had a blast playing with the cousins.

I've been home for a week now, but can't you tell? I'm still feelin' the Seewer Love.

Summer '09 - Sausalito visit

I won't be listing names and connections here, but these are our Willow Creek Academy pals. We spent the weekend at my friend Camille's (her kids are Josh and Abby) - but Aubrey stayed over one night at her best friend Gia's.

Our friends the Lee's hosted a big BBQ / slip-n-slide / baseball day at their house. It was so much fun.

The pretext of our trip was to head down to San Francisco and catch the King Tut exhibit (another blog entry) but it wouldn't have been complete without seeing these friends.

Sorry - not many pix of adults. We like them, too.

THE OUTLAWS

At breakfast yesterday morning Aubrey informed us that her outlaw name is Jiminy Schneikes.

Dane says he hasn't figured his out yet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY. I HOPE YOU'RE
HAVING A GOOD TIME AT WORK.
Love, Dane

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DADDY. I LOVE YOU. (sings birthday song)
Love, Aubrey

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY. I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING

A GOOD TIME AT WORK, TOO! (thankyouthankyouthankyou)
AND I LOVE YOU. xo, Anj

For everyone curious to know

how the kitchen

is coming along.

MT. BIKE OREGON
AND SOME
HOWARD PRAIRIE CAMPING

While Mick spent a three-day weekend with his brother at Mt. Bike Oregon, which they planned five months ago, the kids and I spent a three-day weekend at Howard Prairie, which we planned five days ago.

I can vaguely report that Mick came home exhausted and happy (maybe he'll post his own blog?), and I can specifically report that the kids and I came home exhausted and happy as well.

Howard Prairie on Lake Hyatt is just a half hour out of Ashland - 17 miles out Dead Indian Memorial Road. (The kids and I think this is a sad and lonely name - and when we learn why it's called that, we'll report back.)

We arrived at noon on Friday and scoped out a coveted LAKESIDE spot and spent the afternoon kayaking and swimming on the lake and doing a little bike riding through the campground. The kids also got to do a little jet skiing.

Dane admired the jetskis of the family on the beach next to us and the dad came over and whispered to me later that if my boy wanted a ride on the jet ski, he'd be happy to take him. He wanted to see if I was comfortable with that. He and his wife and baby and in-laws were totally wholesome and warm and I told him my kid would think it was awesome.

So, both Dane and Aubrey took rides with Chad on his sit-down jet ski and squealed and steered and smiled the whole 10 minutes of each of their rides. I just stood on the beach smiling and thrilled for them.

Other than the jet skiing highlight, we woke up around 8 on Friday and took a ride in the kayak together on a calm morning lake. I paddled the sit-on-top and the kids each sat on an end, dragging their feet through the water.

Later that morning, we took a six mile bike ride on a trail part-way round the lake and had a blast. Dane just zipped ahead - but always made sure to stop at decent intervals so we didn't get separated for long - and Aubrey used those little knobby tires like a pro, saying things like, "I think we should go the whole way round the lake!" (it's 15 miles) and "Mom, I'm mountain bike riding!"

We stopped at one point at a place like this:


I didn't have a camera with me and I didn't have a piece of paper or pencil, but I memorized the moment -- the scene, the scent, and especially what my boy said -- because it about melted me into the ground.

He stood there really still, squinting at the landscape, and said - speaking with this sort of cadence where he lingers on his key words (I'll emphasize them for you):

This place is a beauty.
You've got your tall trees growin' over there...
You've got this great big lake here...
You've got all this green grass growin'...

Then a slow, audible sigh.

Yeah, that about sums it up, I think.

Later, after a return ride, where Aubrey handled herself like a champ (her chain came off at least 8 times, and she only broke down to cry on about the eighth time), some friends joined us.

Here's some Chix in the Stix with our Pips:

Girl pips.

Grubby Mom feet.

Chix on the beach.

Boyz In the Hatch.

CONDITIONED

When I ask why he's rubbing conditioner all over himself in the bathtub, Dane tells me, "Um, the bottle says it's for extra body."

Box R Ranch Trip as told by Dane

So, on the first day, I was at the YMCA for the beginning. We packed up all our stuff and we took a long time for us to go there, and then we were driving there. And in the middle of the drive the girls bus stalled - it's true - and they had to wait there for an hour.

So, we took all our stuff into the tipi and we set up everything. Everybody had their own spot for their clothes and sleeping bag. I was with Keller, William, Ben, Isaiah, Jorge, Carson, and Mason. My camp counselor was named Tucker. I didn't know any of them - except I met Keller at a birthday party once - before I went to camp.

We went to sleep in our tipis and then we woke up for Polar Bear Swim. It was warm, but the water slide was cold and we weren't allowed to do the zip line. This was at 6:30 in the morning. And then we started rotations.

One of the rotations was going swimming again; another was art; and the last was sports. The next day we did archery. And I was not that good. So, there was hay and a target. And in the target there was a yellow, black, green, and a red and yellow. Yellow was the bullseye. I got the worst ever. Wanna know why? I got two in the hay and one in the white. But it's still my favorite thing.

On Wednesday we did a campfire. We roasted s'mores and they were yummy. It was a very cold night so it was nice doing that. That night, it was actually kind of raining.

Every night there was skits. There was a really good skit. This wasn't my group - and it was cows with guns. And my group did the midget exercise once -- we were midgets and we did exercises and stuff. We weren't in midget mode but we put shoes on our knees. It was a funny play. One of the counselors said, "So far, that's the best play."

Then there was the broncin' barrell. It's an awesome barrell ride of sorts. You'll have to see when we go. It's freaky -- I know how to work it, though.

When I was going there, I thought it would be a giant box with an R on it and it would have a bunch of ranch dressing in it. It's true. But it was really a giant ranch.

Every morning, I just put on clothes. I didn't care if they were clean or dirty. *

I want to go back next year!

By Dane Reynolds



*Note: Mom here. This is true. His duffle bag had many clean clothes in it when he returned. I think Dane wore the same clothes 3 days in a row -- underwear included.

What are we going to do with her?

My fart smells like barbecue chicken. -Aubrey, age 7

DANE COMES HOME TODAY!

Aubrey's been counting the days. Well, the hours and minutes, really. Hope Dane has some great stuff to tell us. Karen's right: he should post a blog giving everybody the scoop.



On another note: R.I.P., John Hughes...

My generation grew up on his stuff. Personal favs: Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Say Anything, and She's Having a Baby.

Loved thinking about marriage and love through Hughes' eyes with that last one - I always think of the scene where there are complications with the delivery and Kevin Bacon's crying in the waiting room to a Kate Bush song. Gets me every time I even think of it.

But now that I write that, I think Say Anything is the serious winner - with John Cusack hoisting that boom box up over his head...

BIKE BALLS

Quote of the Day

Aubrey, riding her bike into a curb, yells, "Ow! That hurt my nuts!"

BOX R RANCH

Guess who's heading out on his first week of overnight camp? And guess who gets to sleep in a tipi, hop out of the sack early for Polar Bear Swims, shoot arrows from a bow, and stay up late round a campfire?

That's right. Little Roscoe's headed off to YMCA camp. Aubrey's been telling him every ten minutes for the last two days that she misses him already. He's been packed and ready to go since Friday.

The rest of us will stay home and wish him well -- we'll also surprise him with some gooshy lipsticky HoneyBoy Reynolds mail so he can have the full camp experience. Of course.

Click here to get the lay of the land.

.

MERKIDS OF ASHLAND

REMODEL UPDATE

There's a lot of info I could leave here, but I'll keep it short since I'm going on week six without a kitchen. The tilers are laying slate tiles in the laundry room and kitchen today and tomorrow. Then we have to seal it, which will take another 3 days to fully dry. I might be able to install cabinets before that, but have to make sure nothing gets the floor wet or too dirty.

It's going to look amazing. It's taking a lot of patience.

Navel Contemplation

You wanna know what's good about inny belly buttons? You can hold water in them. -Aubrey, age 7

DANE LEAVING A PHONE MESSAGE FOR HIS BUDDY

Um, hi? This is Dane? And I'm, um, home today? And I'm wondering if I can have a play date with Avery? [Pause] That's all I'm really wondering about. [Pause] The End. [Pause] Um, goodbye. [Pause] I hope I can see Avery today. [Pause] Okay, bye.

R.I.P., Frank McCourt, with your angel on the seventh step.
1930-2008

Angela's Ashes was an inspired gift to his readers -- and was the subject that saved me when I wrote my first Masters paper. I met him in 1999 at the Associated Writer's Program conference in Buffalo, NY. I was giddy when I met him and told him I'd written my first grad school paper on him and the Angel on the Seventh Step. He was quite sweet in his response when he said, "Well, you probably know more about me than I know about myself."

Aw... May the road rise up to meet you, Frankie M.

ANYBODY STILL READING THIS???

Whoa... Took a long blogging break -- settling into life with no kitchen (four weeks now), teaching Sticky Slippery Messy Mix-y Textures Camp at ScienceWorks last week, and traveling north to Astoria for a writing workshop and south to San Francisco for King Tut -- so I'll just ease myself back onto the scene with this mini-update:

We went to Britt Fest last night and had front row (FRONT ROW!) seats to the Cowboy Junkies. Here's Dana and me with our new best friend, lead singer Margo Timmins:

Father's Day is soon and I'm too busy to blog, so I've pilfered another great article from e-Horizons:

What about Dads?

“Some of my favorite childhood memories from when I was a kid in the 1960s were the mornings when my dad would let my mom sleep in and he would make breakfast and get us off to school. He would pull whatever he could find out of the refrigerator (jello, cake, etc.) and serve it to us. My mother would have died, but we never told her and we loved it. I felt especially attached to my dad on those mornings.”

The role of fathers has changed and evolved since this example. Today there are single dads raising children, same-sex dads, dads who are primary caregivers for children while moms work, grandfathers actively involved in grandchildren’s lives, and on and on. Fathers are playing increasingly active roles in their children’s lives. Some roles might be considered traditional (e.g., coaching the soccer team) and some less traditional (taking care of a newborn when mom returns to work). All are good and important. The influence of fathers in children’s lives is critical; however often the pressures on dads also to be primary breadwinners takes precious (and necessary) time away from parenting. How does a dad balance these competing demands?

What we know:

Fathers are key in their children’s lives. Research shows that father involvement leads to positive outcomes for children. Children want close relationships with their dads and they want them involved in their daily lives. At the same time, when there isn’t a father in the family, children are resilient. Sometimes an older brother, grandfather, uncle, or friend can play a fatherly role.

Dads should be allowed and encouraged to have their own unique relationship with their child(ren). This relationship will not be the same as the mom’s relationship with the children, but it will have its own unique strengths and qualities. Regardless of how far we have come, sometimes societal messages around gender roles still make dads feel secondary in parenting or primarily responsible for discipline. This is not true. Men are just as able to nurture children as women. Fathers’ relationships with their children matter to both the child/ren and the dad.

Dads should look for chances to have one-on-one time with their child. Another name for this is “special play time.” During “special play time,” your child gets to decide the activity or activities for a set amount of time with no interruptions for phone calls or outside conversations. Your job during this time is to follow the lead of your child in what they choose to do as long as it is safe. Special play time is as sacred as any appointment on the calendar. You plan ahead for it and follow through (e.g., 10 – 11 a.m. every Saturday morning). Your child will come to count on that time with you, even if it is only once a month.

Children want to know about you and about your life. Teaching your child a skill that you know (e.g., gardening, cooking, or carpentry) is one good way to spend time together. “Hang-out” time, where you could play in the park, rough-house, or read together, for example, is also very important. It is often after “hang-out” times that children can feel connected and start to talk about what is really on their minds.

Remember that dads are key in children’s lives. Your relationship with your child matters!

STILL MOVING - will be back to blogging soon

fyi: Last year on June 15, Mick graduated with his DDS degree. This year on June 15, we'll be fully moved into our very first house as homeowners. Hooray!

note: We're remodeling the kitchen. Yes, I've seen The Money Pit - or was it War of the Roses? Whatever. We'll just keep putting our best foot/feet forward and take on the adventure.

pix: Will post them soon.

ttfn...

Just in case you've been confused
about the password...

RUSSIAN NINJA prompts our Quote of the Day

You know what I always think about: When does he ever get tired??? -Dane, age 8


Check out this amazing video. Then guess who's signing up for Gymnastics again...

College Pal Weekend

So, in 2003 we started getting together every summer for a Chicks in the Mountains backpacking and camping trip. We'd shoot for a couple days in the mountains outside Bellingham, hiking among the lupine, swimming in alpine lakes and cooking tinfoil meals over a mini-camp stove. The last couple of years had to be scaled back a bit, though, due to pregnancies, babies, and dental school graduations.

Considering that, I'm not sure what our excuse is this year. But I DO know that I'm flying to Seattle tomorrow to meet up with my old college roomies from Western, 1991-1993, and I'm taking a ferry to Anderson Island in the Puget Sound to spend two kid/spouse-free days with my girls at someone's generous uncle's house.

We've got Chara-Chachi, Maureen-Mo-Mims, Shelby-Bug-Bugger, Michaela-DJMik-Mitchella, Jenny-Fiffer-Farquar, and, yours truly, Anjie-Zhay-Netty.

I wish I had more pictures on my laptop of all of us, but, alas, I don't. Nonetheless, here are a couple photos of me with Shelby and Maureen in Skagway -- when we wore our eyebrows thick, our shirts big, and our pants too high.

Vive le nineties!

Here, have a good laugh: Awkward Family Photos. And don't neglect the older posts on the site. One of our favs? The Lenscrafter Family...

WE'RE ON MICK TIME

We're moving into the new house on Mick time -- that means sleeping in 'til 10, two trips to Noble Coffee, and buying a BB gun at a garage sale before shuffling a few boxes into the garage.

Good thing we have until June 15, but I'm guessing that'll come fast enough...

Ever since Dane was a baby, I've been getting these e-family updates from Bright Horizons. The topics range from how to encourage children to share, to how to road trip with the kids, to what to look for in a childcare provider. Given my recent post about Earth Day, of course I was happy to see this article cross my Inbox.

The Importance of the Outdoors in Children's Lives

Millions of children are only allowed outdoors with close supervision. In many areas, even the backyard or front stoops are viewed as perilous. Many children come home from school and watch television and may learn more about nature from television shows such as "Survivor" or "Gilligan's Island" than from the workings of their own backyard — that marvelous ecosystem teeming with life. They may know more about exotic animals on the Discovery Channel or farm animals on PBS than the snails, squirrels, birds, worms, and bugs that live outside their windows.

Daniel Janzen, the world’s foremost tropical biologist writes: “Here's what nature does for us no matter who we are or where we live...Human animals carry around this big brain, this big device for processing input. Part of our ability to use that device depends on the complex stimuli that challenged it throughout our evolution. Nature — whatever is out there, from a single tree to a whole forest — provides a big wad of the possible information that we can process. If you diminish nature, you diminish the diversity of those stimuli. When we don’t get input from nature, we don’t end up having much sense of smell, hearing, or vision. Television becomes our reality. We can survive on that and do, but it is not nearly as complex…When we diminish nature, we turn off lots of things in our own heads…Over the past 10 or 15 years, I’ve been bothered by the fact that Americans think that they’re getting nature through TV — all those shows that bring the elephants and tigers right into the living rooms. This Musak nature destroys the reality of people’s experience outdoors. When they are actually in nature, it’s disappointing, because the big spectacular stimuli aren’t coming as fast as they do on television...” (Gallagher, W. The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, Actions. NY: Simon and Schuster.1993, p.206).

Whether or not your child learns to love the outdoors boils down to priorities and will. The purpose of life is, after all, to inhale and to live it fully and reach out eagerly without fear for new experiences. Open the back door. Walk through a park. Get out of the car. Our children deserve our effort.

BIG NEWS

This might come out of nowhere for some of you, but Mick and I are signing on a house today - and it's supposed to close on FRIDAY!

We've kept things hush-hush since we started looking in January, especially because there can be such drama in the negotiation process, but things seem to be coming around fine and THIS LITTLE BEAUTY will soon be ours:

Workshop out back

Living room - which I plan to have more fun
optimizing than the previous tenant

Dining room

And here's the realtor's write-up:

Warm and inviting 3 bed/1 bath Cape Cod style home with new marmoleum flooring in the kitchen, hardwood floors, spacious and updated bath with custom tile, bay windows, formal dining room, wood shutters, and stone walkway. The .16 acre corner lot with R-2 zoning, private backyard, separate studio/workshop space, deck with arbor and potential for additional unit are additional features. Located close to schools, shopping, farmers' market, parks and bike path!


One final note - our family will LOVE biking and walking all the time in this area. It's in a great, flat location close to town. Additionally, the kids will be able to walk to their elementary school, middle school, high school, and even college if they want to!

Of course, I'll post more pictures after we move in and get settled - and will include other rooms in the house as well as the back yard (which feels like "the secret garden" and has trees and swings and benches and hiding places and good spots to choose from for a hammock).

An Award!

I can't believe it. I was nominated for this award -- I have no idea who nominated me -- and won it! I wish I could post the news clips straight onto my blog, but I'll just have to settle for this link for now: Woohoo!

Q & A with Super-Mom

Dane asked me the other day why grownups grow hair on their private parts. I told him that was an excellent question and that I think he might just have found his Science Fair topic for next year.

hahahahahaha... Can you imagine??? (We thought that was funny.)

And then, of course, I told him a theory about caveman days and keeping warm and said we could look up real answers later.

Yeah, I'll get right on that...