We got shot at (Or at least over...)

We made the yearly Memorial Day trip to the Soap Lake house again in 2008 for the Last Stand Rodeo and a little peace and quiet.

We decided to hit the road after Parker's baseball game Thursday night, which put us at the ferry terminal at 8:30... I'm not young enough or caught up on sleep enough to make night time road trips like we used to do in college. I was insanely crabby and begging for a hotel bed by the time we hit Ellensburg.

There's something about knowing you're going into a house that sits empty 99% of the time (bug and rodent phobia rising) in the dark, having to make beds, check closets, etc before you can settle down... We rolled in at 12:30 (kids awake BTW...)and proceeded into the house as quietly as possible, so as not to wake up the neighbors. Evidently, nothing is quiet enough not to wake said neighbor's dog because within two minutes of our arrival, kids in the house, me dragging sleeping bags and blankies out of the car, Eric and I hear a shot ring out. It went like this:
Me: "What the hell? Is he shooting at us?"
Eric: "Maybe it was a firework."
Me: "I'm getting in the house."
Eric (over the fence to neighbor who has just advanced through his garden with a gun in his hand): "H-h-h-ello Mr. James. It's Eric. M-m-m-ari and Wayne's son."
Mr. James: "Nobody told me you were coming. Shot into the air. Don't want to shoot no one for no good reason."
Eric: "T-t-t-hanks for watching out for the place. G-g-g-ood night, Mr. James."
Eric (to me in the house): "Yup. We were just shot at."

Now, let me sort of justify - this house has been in Eric's family for 50-ish years. It sits in a neighborhood that has had it's ups and downs and it has NEVER been messed with. Largely, I'm now sure, thanks to Mr. James. He watches out for it and now in his 80s (?) takes the shots from his porch, as opposed to coming over and looking who is there first. Not that it's okay that he fired off a round over our heads, but if you're going to have a house that sits empty for most of it's existence, he's the kind of neighbor you want to have.

So that was a first...

Everything else went without issue. Actually, everything after that was GREAT!

Maddie won the stick horse race and $5 for the 8-year-old division(Parker came in 2nd - to his recollection). Best part - the announcer calling the race in Maddie's favor halfway through. She was FLYING!

We had a family putt-putt golf contest. I don't want to brag, but it came down to a playoff hole and there again was a clear one-stroke winner. Since I'm writing this, I'll let you guess who psyched out her opponent at that last, all important hole.

Parker got his first try at fly-fishing and hooked into 2 good sized trout at Rocky Ford! For anyone who's been there, it's not an easy thing to do. Eric landed a few beautiful 24-inch trout himself.

We came across a baseball tournament in Ephrata that provided us hours of fun on Sunday and some REALLY good baseball. Home again, back to the grind. When can we go back?

May 2008 - Undefeated!

Well, we made it through another softball season. It was a (mostly) great experience. Eric and I coached Maddie's AA Fastpitch team - Swift Plumbing again, to Maddie's dismay. Some of you may remember she had the same sponsor last year and never got over me telling her their hats would be plungers. The team voted to call themselves the Swift Bulldogs... That worked to make everyone feel better.

It was a blast to watch the girls' skills develop over the course of those 2 months. Eric and I decided to really coach - demand the best out of the girls, even if it meant yelling and making them run laps. It really worked. The other coaches said, "We just want them to go have fun." Our argument was, how can they have fun if they don't know what to do? That just creates frustration and anxiety. We gave them the tools, worked on minute mechanics, ran situations until they were asking if we could just go run laps... But come game days, they showed up ready to play. Every single player stepped up to the plate and truly improved. And they were a team because we made them accountable to one another. They cheered each other on from the dugout and on the field. What a cool thing to watch develop!

The season wrapped up last week with our girls going 12-0! Undefeated! It was pretty exciting to see these girls realize their abilities. We decided to coach because Maddie had a coach last year tell us he wasn't going to teach them something because "they're just girls." To Eric and I, they were players and deserved to know what they were doing right and wrong. Was it always perfect? Absolutely not, but they learned and we hope this base that we gave them is something they will be able to build on for years to come. We had 6 of the 13 girls on our team that had never played organized fastpitch before. At the end of the season, 2 of the other coaches accused us of having a "stacked team." Eric got angry because he thought that wasn't giving the girls credit for all of the hard work they'd done. I think that was the ultimate compliment - going from never having played before to having a reputation around the league as All-Stars! You go, girls! Tune in for more on Parker's season...

February - California, here we come!

The kids and I headed South to Sacramento to get away from the long Winter here in Washington. It was not only weather related, we got to meet the newest addition to the Ruano family - 6 week old Lucas!

Rachel and Raf's house was like a citrus wonderland to our kids. With an abundance of orange and grapefruit trees, we didn't eat much else for the entire first day. Parker's face bore the brunt of the vitamin C O.D. We had to stop him from going out into the yard - he ate so much, he broke out! But even I couldn't lay off the fresh squeezed juice. Yum!

We spent a fun day in "Old Sac." Cruising the wooden sidewalks, checking out the old buildings, a "wild west shootout", the saltwater taffy store and some giant ice creams rounded out our first day.

We woke up the next morning Parker woke up with a 103' fever. That's always nice to do to a family with a newborn. Maybe we should have let him keep going with the oranges...

Regardless, we drugged him up and Raf treated us to a grand tour of San Francisco. The kids had an absolute blast at the Exploratorium. A pumped up science center that provided even a sick kid with 3 hours of fun! From there it was onto the marina district to get a view of Alcatraz - which the kids were well versed on thanks to Scooby-Doo Meets the San Fran-Psycho. This lead to a lot of questions about failed jailbreaks, why, where did they end up? Who wants to go to Fishermen's Wharf?

Here the kids got to ride on the double-decker merry-go-round and meet their first celebrity impersonator - Forrest Gump. They didn't quite get it, having not seen the movie, and especially that Mom encouraged them to take candy from this stranger's box of chocolates.

All in all it was a great long weekend. The kids loved spending time with Mati and singing songs with him (Wheels on the Bus again and again). Parker, feeling better, got to chase a flock of wild turkeys (turns out they don't defend themselves as geese would), Maddie got her hair done by someone who could actually make a french braid, Mom got to snuggle up baby Lucas and visit with her good friends. A fun time had by all. But we all missed Daddy and were glad to be home with him again.

Another Year Older...

January... In our house, we turn to a new calendar year and a new personal year for Eric and me. In the last week and a half, Eric and I turned 33. I like to mull over my resolutions until my birthday, then put the plan into action. Why do we always make resolutions self punishments? I've done the diet one plenty of times, but always get to Dec. 31st with the same size pants. This year, I'm changing my resolutions. I'm making them things that may not slim my waistline, but will definitely lighten my load. So here they are, in no particular order, my resolutions for 2008:

• Laugh more - This is going to require me not taking things too seriously. Help me to accept the things I cannot change, recognize the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. As Parker says, "Don't make mountains out of molecules."
• Make time - We are surrounded by truly great friends and so much family, we should be immersed in them. Yet somehow, we allow time to pass without seeing one another for weeks and months. Even if it is just ordering pizza and sharing a bottle of wine? Why not just do it? I'm gonna.
• Be a duck - I spend more time worrying about the dog hair on my floor and what people would say about the dust bunnies that migrate out from under my furniture. I'm not pledging not to clean, that's just an example. But not to lose sleep over the little things that people will judge you on that are sometimes just out of your control and not really a true representation. A mantra quote from Dr. Seuss - "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." What I know for sure, is that we're all crashing and careening though this life for the first time. I may not do it the way you like, and you may not do it the way I like, but we're all here, so let's just watch the elbows. (And for those of you who didn't get the "duck" reference... just stop reading my blog. You're not going to get a lot of stuff...)
• Finally... moisturize. I'm 33. It's necessary.

Happy new year, everyone. It's my 33rd and I'm just really starting to enjoy the ride.