The Hazard Chronicles

It's early Sunday morning and I didn't expect to be home at this time to write the blog. I was supposed to be waking up to the beauty of the mountains, chimney rock in the background, the sun peaking up over the peaks to welcome a new day. Obviously that didn't happen. More on that later though.

*****

For now, I want to turn the focus to Rachel. As most of her friends know, she has become a pretty avid cyclist. And I do mean cyclist. She doesn't just go on "bike rides." To say that would be like saying Lebron James just likes to "fool around" with a basketball. What Rachel does is much more that I will probably ever have the gumption for. She trains, and she goes on group rides, and she races, and she has probably put more miles on her bike this year than I have in my car.

Well, last week Rachel did her last race of the year- the 108 mile Coeur d'Fondo. The course is a difficult one, which means a lot of steep hill climbs throughout the entire thing. She's had her eye on this race all year, and finally she can say she's done it! I am so proud of her.

*****

Let's turn now to Addy and Jack. As promised in the last post, we need to spend some time talking about their birthday. Seven years. Here is a brief update on each of them.

Addy
Addy girl is a freak of nature, and I mean that in the best possible way. She is that person who everyone is jealous of because she seems to be really good at EVERYTHING without even trying. From academics (reading chapter books in a single sitting), to instantly making friends, to totally dominating physical endeavors like rock climbing, dance, or cross country, Addy just seems to excel at life. I am excited to watch her as she grows up because there is so much potential there.

Jackson
If I had to use two words to describe Jack, they would be "creative" and "passionate." This guy lives in a wonderful world, where Legos and string are regularly transformed into spectacular creations. He is constantly coming up with new ideas for inventions or activities, and it is intriguing to probe his mind as he describes these things to us. Entire afternoons have been spent on his projects- things which I'll admit aren't always friendly to our personal possessions- but which are legitimately cool and offer a fresh perspective on how things can be seen. Example of this would be his fire pit on our patio, the mosaic of pictures nailed up in his bedroom, or the countless little rope and pully machines that have become ubiquitous throughout our home.

For Addy and Jack's birthday we had a party at the local skating rink complete with cake, pizza, prizes, games, and lots and lots of fun. What a great way to celebrate seven years.

"The Party Machine" seems like it should be on a game show. The papers fly around everywhere and the kids try to stuff as many as possible into the box to win stuff. We came away from this with a lot of small trinkets that will likely break within the week, but which the kids are very excited about.

Most of the kids used these little "skate mates" to help keep their balance. Whenever I looked out I couldn't help but imagine a bunch of grandmas with walkers playing bumper cars with each other. It made me laugh every time.

*****

Evelyn's exciting news this week is that she was bit by a boa constrictor. It was somebody's pet, and it scared her quite a bit at first. Then, after she convinced herself that she wasn't going to die, she decided it was sort of cool- "because after all, who gets to say they were bitten by a boa constrictor?" That's my girl. It's clear that she has picked up on my life perspective for a lot of things- the hardships are often totally worth it, if only for the story that can be told afterwards.

Here's the story she wrote about it: "I got bitten by a snake yesterday! It hurt real bad! So we were playing and a group of teenagers came and one of them had a pet snake! Now, we were intrested and so we went over, she said we could pet him, then we started to pet him and she forgot to tell us it get's shy and scared when you pet nere it's head and I was peting nere it's head when it sprange up and bit me I was bleeding all over and wowey, did it hurt! I frecked out! Good thing it was not posenous!" (sic)

*****

I want to make a mention here of the country reports our kids have all done. This was an idea that Rachel and I had for family night, and I couldn't have been more pleased with how it turned out. Each week a member of our family researched a country- it's food, politics, religion, history, sports, and any other unique aspect of its culture- and then prepared a PowerPoint presentation to share with the family. They were also in charge of everything else we did that night around this same theme- from the dinner we prepared to the games we played. At the beginning of this project we weren't sure if we were asking too much from our kids, but it turns out that they totally took the ball and ran with it. It was so much fun, and the kids were so excited when it was their week. Rachel and I helped, of course, but they all delivered the presentations themselves and got to be "the expert" on something. As for me, I can say that every single week one of my kids taught me something that I didn't already know, and let me experience something that I had never experienced before. It was AWESOME.

Just so we can remember, here are the countries that each of our kids chose:

Evelyn: India (Chicken curry with naan bread, an Indian dessert I can't seem to recall, and cricket)
Addy: Japan- focusing mostly on Tokyo (rice, sushi, traditional low table with a warming cloth, and a "pull the string" dice game)
Jackson: Kenya (Ugali, beef stew, maandazi, running races, and a virtual safari)
Maren: Ireland (Irish cabbage stew, soda bread, bread pudding, and leprechaun fun)
Dad: Brazil (Rice, beans, cheese bread, tropical fruit, brigadeiro, and soccer)
Mom: France (Crepes, creme brulee, and music from Rachel's childhood)

Here's Jackson telling us about Kenya while we eat the ugali he made

Evelyn taught us how to play cricket for her India night

Rice, beans, cheese bread, and tropical fruit for my Brazil night.

*****

Now for my weekend. Here is where I was planning on spending it:

Chimney rock has been on my to-do list for some time. Finally, I had a weekend free that I would be able to go and do the climb. I was REALLY looking forward to this one- not just for the climb, but because I think it would have been one of the last nights of the year spent in the mountains.

Well- as good as all that sounds, here is a picture of what actually happened:

That's my car, parked along the east side of Priest Lake waiting to be towed. This is what happens when you drive too fast on a heavily washed out dirt road and end up driving the entire front end of your vehicle straight into the ground. Oops. I assessed pretty quickly that the radiator was toast (gushing coolant is never a good thing), and managed to slowly make it back to the main road without overheating too much. As bad as I wanted to do the trip, I did not want to get my car stranded in a place where it would be un-towable. Turning around was a harder decision than it should have been, but probably the more judicious one. And chimney rock isn't going anywhere. Next time I'll remember to slow down.

On the upside, I had a great weekend at home with my family. Evelyn took part in our church services this week with a speaking part, as well as with a choreographed dance solo. Afterwords, we headed to a festival at the park, where the kids got to get their faces painted and play on bounce-house type toys. We did lunch out as a family, and then Rachel took Lindsey while the 4 older kids and I went to see a movie. That night, Rachel and I got to dress up for a meet-up group we are a part of.

Not the mountains...but not bad either.