Clan Martinez: March 2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

HARRISON IS ELEVEN - part 3

Well, I wasn't there for Harrison's swim party until the very end, so the pictures will have to tell most of the tale. Dad took several hundred - here is a representative sampling of the great swim party - March 28,2009:

setting up

Deedee filled in for me as party supervisor

HD took his deep end test first thing

Grammy checked kids in & out

weather outside: frightful

swimming pool: delightful
(sorry - end puns)

nothing like swimming on a snowy day

Finally! The water slide is on!

HD flies into the pool

chatting with Curtis

G-Boy scores a great seat

Lord of the Noodle?

the whole gang

Happy Birthday to Youuuuuu

feeding frenzy begins

HD has to eat fiber food - no pizza for him

Deedee readies the cake

Dinner Table A

Dinner Table B

let the unwrapping begin

HD and his three best friends

better late than never?

an exciting drive home

Sunday, March 29, 2009

HARRISON IS ELEVEN - part 4

For those of you paying attention, yes, I did skip "HARRISON IS ELEVEN - part 3", because the only picture I have of "phase 3" is this one of Harrison resting between parties:

I missed the big swim party, because our praise band "Pseudolaic" had their first "gig", which I blonde-ly agreed to do, completely forgetting I had already booked the swimming pool for Harrison's party on the same day at the same time.

If you're wondering, yes, that's a motorcycle.
The pastor showed a clip from the movie
"Wild Hogs" for his sermon about "Cruisin' with Jesus"

Dad promised to take lots of pictures, so when I get them I will do what I can to record Phase 3. In the meantime, I can summarize the final phase of the birthday that never ends.

Phase 4 of Harrison's birthday celebration was the traditional post-swim sleepover. Usually this is just Alex & Dylan and whoever holds the current "Best Friend" title (with 11 year old boys, this seems to fluctuate on a semi-weekly basis). But Alex & Dylan were going to be out of town, so Harrison ended up inviting 5 other boys instead.

Our service got done early enough that I was able to get to the pool just in time to load our overnight guests into the Pilot to drive them safely to our place on the newly-slick roads (sudden-but-anticipated snowstorm that struck during the party).

They were all really well behaved, so except for the impromptu "kitchen picnic" (the swimming left them hungry in spite of the pizza we served at the party, so we spread a tablecloth on the kitchen floor and served them hotdogs and carrots - two food staples in our house - I wasn't planning on serving a second dinner!) everything went smoothly and exactly as planned.

we popped popcorn and let kids fill small bowls
with treats from our "snack bar" for movie night

after an hour of video game time, we spread
out the sleeping bags and started the movie:
Pokemon Destiny Deoxys

Julio kept the kitchen clean

What a difference a day makes!
Julio got that tree out of the creek just in time!

BREAKFAST TIME
Julio cooked eggs to order ~ I served the cereal

after breakfast, it's back to the
video games until time to leave

And so ends the continuing saga of HARRISON IS ELEVEN...wait...no, it's not over yet. There's still part 3 to be told...I think my kid may be spoiled. There are advantages to being an only child - and having your birthday over spring break, when Mom runs a daycare and has to come up with fun activities for the full days of no school!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Love Love Love Your Neighbor

I love our neighborhood. Living here makes every day a real-life situation comedy.

Recently we looked out our back window to see our yard next to the creek in flames, with our next door neighbor standing by the fire, calmly raking away at it as his two tiny children ran toward the fire carrying ice cream buckets full of water. He had decided to do us the favor of burning off the dead brush in the spillway, and along the edge of the creek.

Never mind that it's against the law to burn within city limits. Never mind the half acre of dry grass and leaves leading from the fire to our wood-constructed home. Never mind the trees within just a few feet of the flames leaping higher than him.

Needless to say, in my own calm fashion I explained to him in no uncertain terms that he was never again to have open flame near our property.

Well, the neighbor on the other side of this would-be Darwin award recipient just happens to have earned the nickname "Mrs. Kravitz" in honor of the nosy neighbor lady from my favorite TV show of the 70's, Bewitched. She "heard" I'd had an issue with our rocket-scientist friend, and took it upon herself to take photos and report him to the city. She copied me in on her email and photos - here are a couple:

A few days after all the excitement, I was walking Zuki in the backyard and noticed one of my favorite trees had collapsed into the creek. It was such a huge tree it nearly formed a bridge to the other side of the creek.

Worried that the bucket-brigade children next door would see this as a great opportunity to win the Darwin award for themselves, I asked the engineer who lives across the street if he could recommend a quick and safe way to get the huge tree out of the creek before our resident pyromaniac held a bonfire.

That was yesterday afternoon. He came over first thing this morning with his truck and chainsaw, and after sharpening the chainsaw Julio borrowed from Dad, he worked with Julio to tie the tree to his truck and drag it up into the yard. They had pulled the entire trunk into the yard and had it cut into pieces before I could even get out there with my camera. But I did make it out in time to get shots of them pulling the top of the tree out of the creek.

The sermon last Sunday and the sermon at the service our praise band performed for this evening (another post yet to come) were both centered around the two greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, spirit and strength, and Love your neighbor as yourself. I'm happy to say I've accomplished that in spades - I am often frustrated with myself for doing stupid things, embarrassed by myself when I overreact, and pleased with myself when I am able to be of service to others. My 3 neighbors gave me a chance to love them each the way I love myself.

Thanks, neighbors!

Friday, March 27, 2009

HARRISON IS ELEVEN - part 2

Well, Harrison is off to a movie/sleepover birthday party for his friend, Avery, and his Mom has been a nervous wreck all day in preparation.

Why? As we were heading out to Pei's for his birthday dinner last night, his stomach started to bother him again. It got increasingly bad as the evening progressed, as you can see in the pictures below. He could barely muster a smile even when he unwrapped the best gifts of the evening.

Finally I remembered once when he was a baby and Nana was visiting, and he was screaming bloody murder with one of these colon spasm things, and she suggested giving him a warm bath. Desperate to try anything, we filled the bathroom sink and it only took a few seconds of him sitting in the warm water for him to settle down and sleep through the night. Well, Harrison is too big to sit in the sink these days, but Nana's suggestion did the trick again. As soon as everybody went home, he jumped into a warm bath and experienced nearly instantaneous relief.

He's been fine all day today (but slept until 11, so not like it was that long a day for him). He has an "emergency kit" to take with him to the movies, and I packed a fiber-laden sack lunch for him to eat in lieu of party foods. But I'll still be up all night listening for the phone to ring.

I really hope this doesn't set him back and cause him to be too sick or tired to enjoy his swim party/sleepover tomorrow night!

opening a bag full of "warm up" presents
while we wait for our chef