Tang Soo Panda

Jack finally tested for, and received, his red belt in Tang Soo Do karate. He is pictured breaking a board with a side kick. EM almost didn't get the shot because Jack broke through on his second try!

Jack is now officially one color away from black. If he applies himself, he could be invited to test for the black belt by the time he enters middle school. This is huge. I know he does it because of my insistence (it teaches him coordination, discipline, mental focus and self-defense). I told him that if he really felt strongly about stopping, that he could quit the sport once he received his second degree black belt. So he plugs away at it week in, week out, wax on, wax off.


No sooner was his belt singed around his waist did he point his finger at me and order me to start taking classes, because of a silly little promise promise I made him about a year and a half ago (to keep him motivated) that I would start as soon as he hit red.

Okay, so I am now a Tang Soo newbie with two classes under my white belt (no pun intended.) If I apply myself, in a year, I could be taking classes with Jack -- which would be cool because we would have that to do together (AKA quality time) and because he would essentially be my (gulp) coach.

On a related matter, we took Makena to see her first movie in a theater. It was Kung Fu Panda. She sat on my lap for most of it until she couldn't take it any longer and jumped off. She spent the rest of the movie either punching Jack and me or kicking us in the shins.

EM was waiting for us when we got out of the theater and she ran out and kicked him in the knee.

Needless to say, Makena will soon be taking karate classes too.

Is a karate mom

Father's day

The special day started off with Jack making breakfast for his dad and grandpa. We had beautiful warm weather so we headed back out on the water to try our hand at catching some lake trout. Makena loved her new vest and didn't fight me when I put it on her. I suspect because it was pink.
We didn't catch anything AGAIN. I was so looking forward to gutting and scaling fish. I especially enjoy the residual smell it leaves on my hands and clothes. Alas.

It was a perfect day.

Isabelle

Freeze Bobos

We had freakish weather over Memorial Day. A blizzard in May. Snow came down so hard and so fast that I had to pack chains to get up the mountain. Nevertheless, I persevered and we made it to the lake house safely. The foul weather was followed by a blanket of fog.Once it lifted, the sun came out and the snow melted but the weather was still biting cold. That didn't stop us from getting out on the lake for some fishing.

The only thing we caught was a picture of the four of us in the same frame.

A prize catch! I'm going to stuff it and mount it on the wall.

Isabelle

The Mei Meis

If you ask Makena what her name is, she will respond "Mei Mei." Until now, we have never referred to her that way. She has always been Makena, Mak, Kiki or La Diabla. Her Chinese name is Li Han. The reason I am slightly amazed is because the term happens to mean "little sister" in Mandarin. So I wonder if the diminutive is just a coincidence or if she has some memories of Chinese and is calling herself that because she might have been referred to as "Mei Mei," in her foster home or at the orphanage. The bottom line is, she is now called Mei Mei about 80% of the time.

Willa and Ruby, two little mei mei friends of Makena's came over to the house for our her first official play date. It was a challenging social experiment for our two-year old and she passed with flying colors. Until then, most of Makena's social/play activities had been centered around going to the park and interacting with children she met there, or while attending dance or music classes. This time she was the host and was subjected to having to share her toys and her space with two curious, lovely and charming three-year old girls.

We started the date off with an art session which really kept them focused for a long time and then we had the girls run around the yard looking for Rommel (pictured above,) petting the horses and trying to catch the chickens. The only emotional distress occurred at lunch time and was centered around having to share the (one) princess cup. Until then, Makena had graciously tolerated the assault on her toys and the trashing of her room but she drew the line at her Cinderella goblet. That was off-limits. For the safety and well-being of her guests, we let her win that battle.

The girls really drew Makena out of her shell and by the time they had to leave (for their naps,) she was interacting with them and bossing them around to follow her along on her cavalcades. It made me feel happy and very proud.

I can't wait to get the mei meis back together again soon.

Isabelle

Secret Identity

A phone call from Sears took me for a bit of a tailspin last Thursday. A woman called me from the store to ask if I had added anyone to my list of authorized users on my Sears card. I hadn't. She went on to say that a woman had purchased over five thousand dollars in goods at two store. This was done in person and giving enough of my personal information to get away with it until someone became suspicious and called me. I can't believe I actually picked up the phone. I'm a screener.

I spent Friday on the phone with the fraud department for all my credit cards, we established new passwords and checked my credit report (apparently, your mother's maiden name is part of the public record). I am now waiting to fill out a dossier they will be sending me shortly. I have to get it notarized.I have to include a police report. I have to go to my local sheriff and report it. Ugh.

I opened my mailbox on Saturday to discover a letter from the doctor's office (where I had my mammogram last week). I immediately assumed that since he hadn't sent me a purple postcard telling me that everything was fine, then the letter meant that he had something more ominous to share with me. I was right, except I was wrong.

A woman posing as a driver for a messenger company the doctor's office uses for their billing, stole all the personal billing records of the patients who had been examined the day I was there. We're talking: Social Security, driver's license, home address, birthday, etc. That's how my identity was stolen! They haven't caught her yet. They weren't able to nab the woman who had a shopping spree on my good credit either (maybe they are one and the same.) Why she couldn't steal my attention deficit or my procrastination or the little voice inside my head that encourages me to have an extra bite of cake when I shouldn't have any, really gets my goat. I might have let her shop a little bit longer out of sheer gratitude. I'm done.

I had to get that off my chest.

Is- not shopping

A thousand words

This is Makena. She is 2.5 years old and leaping off a diving board in the deep end of her swim teacher's pool. She can't swim, although thinks she can. She moves her body through the water like a dolphin and holds her breath until we fish her out for a breath of air.

I'm so glad we don't have a pool at home.

Is- staying dry... so far.

Proof

(Makena,discovering the joys of spelunking through a narrow box.)


(Jack investigating Makena's recycled wonderland.)



(The result: A half hour of impromptu sibling Co-play.)

This is proof that a brother and sister (seven years apart in age) can find commonality in cardboard and that with a little imagination and enough packaging to go around, fun can be free. Of course whatever was in the boxes cost us an arm and a leg. But that is beside the point. Or is it?

Isabelle