Not Ready to Say Good-bye...Yet

The summer of '95 was a hot one. How do I remember this? Because it was the summer that I told my dear husband that I wasn't going to visit his parents anymore. Well, at least not until we had a car with an air conditioner. His parents at that time lived six hours away and in the "hot" part of the state and we had just returned from a visit in which Katelyn got heat sick over and back. I was so sad to see Katelyn so miserable, uncomfortable, and throwing up, especially since she was (and is) such a good traveller. Seeing that misery caused me to make that rash statement.

My sweet husband was of course understanding and did what he always does...he set about finding a solution to the problem. He immediately started scouring the local car lots, diligently watching the auto ads in the newspaper, and putting out feelers every where to find us a car. This was in the days before Google, Autotrader.com, etc. The search took a lot of effort on his part, but he was determined. And it wasn't long before he found a car that met all of the requirements: four doors, economical, reliable, low miles, and mostly importantly had an air conditioner.

And that is how our little Honda Civic became a member of the family. We purchased her in October of 1995. She was only a year old, had less than 11000 miles on her, and was just around $10000.00. She has been a great little car. Somewhere along the way she was dubbed "the baby car" by me and "the hot rod" by Dave. She was the car that we brought Carson home from the hospital in. She was the car that my brother, Dan, used to learn how to drive a manual transmission. She carried the kids and me back and forth to Olympia a couple of times a week for about a year so Katelyn could take gymnastic lessons. She is the car that Katelyn, age 7, and Grandma Graham backed into with Grandpa Bud's golf cart (and the window hasn't worked quite right since). She is the car that convinced my Grandpa Lee to buy his own Honda Civic after he had her for a couple of weeks while his car was in the shop in Spokane. So many memories are wrapped up in that little car.

I was diligent in keeping up with the routine maintenance so that the addage "Honda's will run forever" would be true for us. But sadly, over that last few months the baby car has started to show her age. The cost of repairs have been more than what the baby car (with over 220,000 miles) is worth, but I'm just not ready to let go. That is so illogical, I know, especially since I'm not driving her anymore. She has now become Dave's commuter car, but I do still take her out every now and then.

I know that eventually we will have to let her go. But until we have saved up enough cash to buy another commuter car for Dave, we will repair the baby car and see if we can get her to limp to the finish. I think by then I'll be OK with saying good-bye.

PS Yes I realize how stupid it is to be so attached to a car. And yes I realize that in the scope of life's tragedies this doesn't even rate. But I am feeling a little melancholy about the Honda being deep within the sunset of her life. And, I'm probably putting more emotion into this so I don't have to face the emotions that keep bubbling up when I think about Katelyn heading off to college in a couple of months.

Chelan Challenge Century

Man when the race organizers say "challenge century" they ain't akiddin'. This ride was nothing but up and down hills for 102.6 miles. And Dave was just crazy enough to ride it. His brother, Mike, convinced him it would be a good training ride for RAMROD--ride around Mt. Rainier in a day.

The weather on Friday night was horrible--high winds, lightening, pouring down rain. And we slept in a tent with no sleeping bads or blow up mattress, but with a dog who just wanted "out" most of the night. It was a crazy pre-race night.

But prayers are answered and we woke up to good ride weather on Saturday morning. The winds had died down, the sky was overcast, and the temperature was in the mid-50's. The ride consisted of 3 different loops. I missed Dave and Mike on the first loop, but I was there about halfway up on the major climb of the 2nd loop.

This is the sign at the bottom of the climb...



It says 12% grade for 5 miles

And here Dave is climbing the hill...

And of course when you climb to the top, you are rewarded with coming back down. Dave loves going down and he maxed out at about 41 mph, although he said he could have gone faster. Blech, just thinking about going that fast makes me want to throw up!

A challenge ride wouldn't be a challenge if all of the climbing was done on loop two, so of course, loop 3 had several climbs. I made sure I was close to the top on the final climb of the day so I could cheer the riders on and take a few pictures.

Mike displays his mountain goat-like characteristics & crushed this final hill. And with a smile on his face, no less.



Dave is just glad that he can see the downhill road sign.



And they finished in about 6 hrs 40 minutes

Fist pump...boo ya, baby! 100 miles.

I asked Dave after he finished the McNeil Canyon climb if he would do this ride again. He said "Never!"

Yeah, well last night he was talking about how he would approach the hill differently & what he could do to climb it better.

OK, but let's stay in a hotel next year.









Fathers Are So Special

Once upon a time (last Sunday to be exact) I was able to spend some time with some great dads.

We had dinner.

Watched the U.S. Open.

And just enjoyed to afternoon together.

It was good fun.

Of course, there can only be dads if there are moms.

And these are the beautiful women that stand beside and support the dads.

Where are Katelyn, Carson, Kayleen and little Michael? Having too much fun to be photographed.

But here is one kid who was willing to be photographed while playing...

Graduation!

It's still a little weird to see Katelyn in her cap and gown and realize she is all done with high school.

Some cute memories from Saturday (graduation day):

• Sheridan (our niece who is 7) leans over and whispers to her mom, Kim (Dave's sister), during the graduation ceremony "Oh no, Aunt Heather forgot her sunglasses."  Apparently, she had seen my Facebook post on Thursday where I talked about my little cryfest at the Senior Mother's Tea and I was worried about crying at graduation. I'm happy to report, no tears. Just all smiles for my sweet Kate and her accomplishments.
• Sheridan making Katelyn a sweet graduation card and giving her a dollar.
• Sheridan telling Katelyn "Well today you graduate from high school and in four years you'll be graduating from college."
• Little Katie (she's five) from across the street giving Katelyn a handful of nickels for graduation.
• Katelyn's face when she opened her present from Grandpa and Grandma Graham. She kept petting the pillow & has now added it to the collection of furry things she sleeps with.

Other awesome things:

• Grandpa and Grandma Wight making the trip over from Bigfork to celebrate with us. We are blessed and lucky that they are healthy enough and close enough to come over for such special events.
• Katelyn winning an iPad and iHome at the Senior Grad Night All-night Party. She also got the door prize she wanted...an electric tea kettle. That will be very handy while living in Rexburg.
• Katelyn talking about how excited she is for her up-coming trip with Grandpa and Grandma Whiting.

All in all, despite the really crappy weather, it was a perfect day.

Senior Mother's Tea

One of the privileges of being a mom to a high school senior is being treated to a great talent show at the Senior Mother's Tea. I suppose for most of the moms they were also impressed with the treats, but nothing was gluten-free so no treats for me.

But my soul was filled with gladness at watching the talent show. Almost every performer made some sort-of beautiful dedicatory remark to their mom before they started. There were a couple of original poems written and dedicated to the author's mom. One son wrote a song for his mom entitled Everything to Me.

The MC's provided enough humor and lightness in between acts that my eyes had enough time to rest and reload. Yes, it's true that for several of the acts I had tears streaming down my face. I am sure Katelyn was full of immense gratitude that the theatre was dark and my tears were probably not noticed too much.

I really did try hard not to let emotion get to me and spill over in the form of tears. But a few things were already setting me up for failure on that effort. First, I was really impressed with some of the dedications...they were heartfelt and much more than "Thanks, I love you Mom". Second, music always speaks loudly to my soul and song lyrics will often move me to tears, even more than a spoken word. And finally, my daughter is graduating for crap's sake! What mother wouldn't shed a tear or two when that realization finally slaps them in the face and you realize that this might be last time you watch your child perform on stage?

PS Katelyn and her friend, Mattie, sang What is this Feeling? from the musical Wicked. They nailed all of their harmony parts and sounded fabulous. I'm going to miss hearing her singing and humming around the house.

Happy National Running Day

Today was National Running Day.

Follow this link, http://rwdaily.runnersworld.com/2012/06/its-national-running-day-so-heres-a-video-of-us-running-in-costumes.html to see how the folks at Runner's World celebrated. Don't worry, it's G-rated.

I was afraid that my celebratory run was going to be a bust because it has been a horrible, blustery fall spring day.

But the winds died down. The rain stopped. And the sun even tried to poke through the clouds. So no excuses. I had to get out there and run.

And that's just what I did. 5.25 miles. Longest run I have done since my half-marathon three weeks ago. It was a great run. I felt light on my feet and smooth. Since I didn't really have a set distance or time I was going, I just ran until I felt like going home. That turned out to be 5 miles. It was nice and filled my evening with joy.

I hope that everyone can find something that fills their days and evening with joy. Even if it's not running.

Quote of the Day

Ideals are stars to steer by: they are not a stick to beat ourselves with

Barbara B. Smith

10th Relief Society general president

I love this quote.

It gives me permission to just try and be better than I was the day before.

Not perfect.