ryan... in 2010

Favorite ice cream flavor: mint chip

Favorite movie: Indiana Jones… all of them

Favorite sport: baseball

Desired occupation: children’s book illustrator

Most inflectional person(s) in my life: my family

I collect: rocks

Best advice someone gave me: to think before you act

Favorite gadget: grappling hook bow-tie

Favorite place in the world: Disneyland

Favorite video game: Wii fit plus

Favorite thing to do as a family: go to the beach

If I could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, it would be: um... i don't know about that....

Definition of joy: extreme happiness

Something nobody knows about me: there’s stuff… but I’m not telling

Favorite musician: All American Rejects

Favorite saying: read it before you eat it

What are you looking forward to most in 2010? learning about Lewis and Clark

On my mind right now: finishing playing Mario Bros with my dad... {are we done now?}

today ryan and i hung around in our pajamas and told each other jokes and compared our HUGE feet... actually, his HUGE feet and my long toes... it was a good day!

the process...

from painting the logo...

and paper mache and paint...

to the school halloween parade!

he did an excellent job!!

and then we have "TIM, the teenage zombie"

this is the first year i've okayed a scary costume...

we even have blood from the people the "zombie" eats

(my actual camera is still on the bottom of the snake river... so... sorry about the bad phone pictures!)

the soccer scoop!

• 250 plus AYSO regions applied for teams to go the AYSO national tournament...


• 24 AYSO regions were picked (and 12 of them were california regions?!)...


• idaho falls was one of the regions picked...


• there were 25 kids in idaho falls who tried out for the team, and jacks made the cut!!
  

so we will be in west palm beach in july watching him play soccer on the international polo club's fields! and you maybe you're wondering if ryan is all bunched up about not making the team... and the answer is a big, fat no. because he doesn't have to fundraise, practice or do any of the hard work... and yet he still gets to go on the family vacation to florida and even get to play in the soccerfest on the day before the tournament. yes, it is good to be ryan!

* * * * *

a caramel macchiato update:

• we went to starbucks to get the prototype
  
• went to the library for the opaque projector--for a supreme logo reproduction
  
• the cup has been made out of paper mache and chicken-coop-stuff
  
• we're painting the cup tonight with the first coat
  
• we're still working out the eye-holes and who'll carry the bucket due to the irony of being vulnerably encased in the cup...

this time last year, i was desperately painting bones for jacks' skeleton costume. so knowing we're not paper mache-ing on wednesday makes me feel like we're ahead of the game!! why we can't just buy costumes? i'll never know...

irony...

ryan and i were driving home from a soccer game the other day, and he starts talking about his halloween costume...

a venti caramel macchiato.

i knew about this idea, and have thought all about the papier-mache and chicken coop construction... but i wasn't prepared for this conversation.

ryan: i will need a flap on on my venti cup to get my candy

me: no. you'll be a venti, so your cup will sit on your shoulders with your arms and head out.

ryan: no, no, no... i don't want my head out

me: um... how will you see?

ryan: i'll have little peep-holes

me: i don't think that sounds safe

ryan: i know! with my head in the cup, that will make me vulnerable...

me: um... what?

ryan: i'll be vulnerable for halloween

me: {stunned silence}

ryan: do you get it? vulnerable for halloween... it's ironic

me: um... what?

are they now teaching irony in 4th grade? i learned what irony meant when i saw reality bites 1994... i was 22!!

creatures of habit...

it's become tradition... and maybe we're boring, but every year when my parents come for their trip to idaho, we always go to jackson (just over the hill into wyoming). i guess it would be boring if it wasn't so much fun for jackson and ryan! watching their little faces light up when my dad pays an arm and a leg for the alpine slide tickets, and while dave signs their lives away to ride the said slide.

none the less, it's the nearest slide...

and snow king has a really good miniature golf course, if you can pull ryan from the video games...

and the view isn't too bad either!

i'm so disappointed...

these are bullies...

so yesterday, as usual i drop the guys off at day camp... and the director/owner says, "can i talk to you all in the office?" it wasn't really a request.

so in we go, and she proceeds to tell me that the guys were caught making fun of another little boy for the way he talked. i was mortified! not my children! they have been raised in a very tolerant and open-minded home, where we've always said that the world would be so boring if God made everyone exactly the same. it's not easy, but i want my guys to be the kind of people to enjoy diversity and differences--especially when they live in cookie-cutter perfect idaho falls.

my jaw is still on the ground in shock, when i realize i have to say something. i didn't completely freak out, but in a very controlled voice i said, "i'm so disappointed in you guys..." and then ryan starts crying, and jackson (as stoic as ever) looks down at his feet not uttering a word.

then the kicker of the whole thing is that the said child "we" were bullying was the owner/director's own child. okay, i'm sure that i would never have known about the incident had it not been the spawn of the day camp director/owner. so my emotions go here and there with thoughts like:

• if it were my children who were teased, i would have told them to suck it up and realize the teaser was a jerk and move on... however, now i'm the mother of the jerks!
• then i go the other way, and my heart goes out to this little boy and to his mom, who is hurting from the sting my boys inflicted.
• and then i'm so angry with jacks and ryan over this for so many reasons like the little kid is only going into kindergarten, ryan still can't pronounce his R and W sounds... and they know how it hurts to be teased.
• and back the other way, boys will be boys, and kids tease each other. but that's just so wrong.

so now i'm the mom of bullies... nice.

picture from Eric & Caroline's wedding May 5, 2007

the force is strong in these two

i bet you didn't know that throughout the day at disneyland, there is jedi training for young padawans...

the competition is tough.

there are many younglings who wish to be called upon by master mace windu. in his wisdom, he will only call on the younglings have the force within them.

and wouldn't you know, the force is appearently strong in jacks and ryan! they were chosen for a quick training session...

the younglings were outfitted in the jedi padawan uniform...

and equipped with weapon of the jedi...

they were trained in the proper use of the lightsaber...

and then...

who should show up? darth vader and his villianous storm-troopers!

but darth vader and the storm troopers were no competition for the padawans, and were sent packing to the death star to battle another day...

f-word...

guess what we heard this angel-face say this afternoon ...

the sushi was intense!

or at least that's what ryan said after he stuffed himself with sushi last night at his birthday party!

he wanted to have a roll for every year of his life... 9 rolls?!

being the buzz kill that i tend to be as his mom, i said: dude, you can have 3 rolls...

he said: i'm nine now, and so half of nine is... um... (he rolls his eyes to right, and contemplates this mathimatical calculation)... almost 5, so i should have five, right?!

i said: three

he said: ... (well, he didn't say anything and just puffed out a big sigh)

i said: sushi is about being with friends and enjoying the taste of your food. not inhaling it as fast as you can

he said: fine, i'll have four

i said: we'll order three and we'll see

well, this is the result of him getting his way and eating a california roll, a caterpillar roll, a humachi and avocado roll, and an italian roll... he was so full he didn't even eat his free cake!

happy birthday, ryan!!

happy birthday, papa!

it was my dad's birthday this week...

and i have been searching around the files for a great picture of him with the fella's...

and then it made me think that the best pictures i have of him are the ones i carry around in my heart. when we lived in colorado, he fell off a ladder and was at my mercy for a few weeks--if he wanted to go anywhere, I GOT TO DRIVE HIM! then when he got in the car accident, he was again driven around by me... more of a treat for me than it was for him, i'm sure. it was great because, i knew that i had to have my car clean before he'd get in... so my car was clean! oh, if he could see it now, i'm sure i'd lose driving priviledges.

papa went with us to story times and then out to lunch at village inn or applebees... oh, applebees is where ryan threw up under the table when he was sitting by papa! and what a trooper he was when jackson turned one, and threw up all of the birthday on papa--who didn't throw up right on top of little jacks!

then i also think of the wrestling and pillow fights--he's such a great papa that he lets two little boys throw pillows in nana's living room! i remember every sunday night after dinner and before we went home, there would be mayhem... which usually with ryan getting tickled so much he'd pee his pants. but all three of them had grins from ear to ear.

there were car shows that papa took them to just to see the "cool cars", and they still do that when we're in arizona. they go to the mc-a-donalds on wendesday nights, and there are all of those gray-beards lovin' that two little guys are there to spice up the action. papa took the boys to the ok corral, and started ryan's admiration for doc holiday... and he's never afraid to look that the snakes and creepies that the boys love at the desert museum.

and i also think that jacks loves baseball so much because papa loved playing baseball with him-even when he was a tiny little guy. in 2003, we all spent the afternoon of july 4 at the park playing baseball... no one complained about the heat, we we're having too much fun!

we love you papa, and we can't too see you in

D I S N E Y L A N D ! !

snow and soccer

the sun was shining!

when i got home from great falls, dave and jacks told me they were going fishing on sunday. why they weren't taking ryan is such a point of contention between dave and i... i should be discreet and stop here... whatever! this is the thing our friend has a drift boat big enough for 4 grown men. yet, it only fits two men and two scrawny 10 year olds at certain times. i'm perplexed why it can't hold another skinny 8 year old. dave tells me it's not his boat, and that the kid in question is jackson's friend, and he should be able to have that time with his friend... yada, yada, yada.

when i reread these, it seems like i never listen to dave. that's not true, really. i do listen, but sometimes he drives me crazy when he just can't see that i'm right, he's wrong and he needs to STOP trying to convince me the contrary. pretty simple.

anyway, ryan and i were able walk to the five-and-diner for brunch, ride our bikes to the museum and listen to ziggy and bob with the windows and moon roof open because spring had finally sprung in idaho.



or so we thought {insert ominous music}...

we woke up to snow on wednesday, and i hear that other places in the rocky mountain region did too!

what the hell happened to spring?

the guys were freaking out because wednesday was the first soccer game of the season...

but of course, the snow was blown or melted away by afternoon, and the sun was making a weak appearance.

the game was great! we have some quality players on the team again, and the team is coached by our favorite coach... dad! the first game was a what the coach calls a learning game. the team played well and tied the game.

it also seems that in the 10 year old bracket, we're learning to talk smack. so i heard about all of the insults... oh, the things i do not want to hear!

jackson is in the middle there. with ryan and seth in the background.

seth one of the smith-ibagian kids, who are now like family to us. we hang out so much as families, it's like cory, drew, gabz and seth are the cousins to jackson and ryan... and jacquie and curtis are the cool aunt and uncle who let them eat the sugar their mean mom with-holds from them.




this is ryan, number 2... the kid on the team who confuses the hell out of the the other team!

is that a dude?

no, that's a chick...look at her hair...

how come that team has a girl?

we're totally beating a team with a girl!

dude! that is a dude!

so, again send fast thoughts as we go to boise/nampa for our last swim meet for the season. we're hoping for good times and good times!

haiku

blosomes are on trees
buterflys are in the air
spring has come agan

lilys are buding
fish are swimming in the pond

and birds are chirping

dew is on the ground
all of the snow has melted

spring has come agan

ryan, march 2008