Licensed to Drive

No it's not a new James Bond movie but I suppose if you were out on the road at the same time as Tucker it might be considered an action adventure. Yes it's true, it is now legal for Tucker to drive alone in the car. Scary (in more ways than one). He passed the driving test today--in one try no less. How difficult could it be since the test took all of 10 minutes according to his dad. I guess they are processing so many people every day they really can't do thorough testing. However, it did take him two tries to pass the written test. In this photo he isn't actually preparing to drive more than a few feet though. We just needed the car moved from in front of the driveway to in front of the house. So he drove maybe all of 10 feet after I took the photo. I think that counts as his first drive all alone. Glad we got that over with. We were all just leaving to go somewhere as a family and he asked if he could follow us in the car by himself. I guess he doesn't realize just how expensive almost $4 a gallon is. Oh yeah, he will be learning soon. Nevertheless, a banner day for any teen.

April Showers?

Yes, that is snow on my bleeding hearts and it is almost May in Seattle!! I know for some of my blog readers the thought might be "Snow in April? What's the big deal?". Well, it is the latest it has snowed in Seattle since they began keeping records. Friday evening around 5pm it started to snow, not just a light, skimpy fall but a full force, big flake, snowfall. Amazing. You can see from the snow on the car that it was coming down. There was a baseball game going on across the street which continued until there was a very bright flash (lightening) and then a very loud crash of thunder. I am sure the lightening must have struck very close in the neighborhood somewhere because I have never heard thunder here that loud before. You've never seen such a fast exodus of players and fans alike from the baseball field. It is a very odd thing to have snow at this time of year. Of course the snow didn't stick around too long, but then we had a snowfall again on Saturday. It didn't stick either luckily. We had hail today and the weather is supposed to be cool until Wednesday. Weird weather. The rest of the world may be experiencing global warming but I guess we are getting global cooling. It has been a pretty wacky winter and spring here. I wonder what summer will bring??

Two Halves Equal a Whole

Sure we are laughing in this photo. But we definitely weren't laughing at the end of the race or the next day! This is our good friend Peg with us just before the start of the Whidbey Island Half Marathon. It was a torturous 13.1 miles all of it uphill! Okay I'm exaggerating it was probably only 11 or 12 miles of it that were uphill! Alright again I exaggerate, but it was definitely over half. I was not prepared for that. Still I managed to finish the race only 15 minutes slower than the first one I did in November. Thanks I have to say in large part to my sometimes, Greenlake running partner Clover who is also the Principal at Cooper's school. She ran with me from about mile 3 to somewhere between mile 10 or 11. At mile 3 she said only 3 more Greenlakes. That's how we broke it up. Every three miles we would think that it was starting Greenlake again. It pretty much got me through. We both had to do a bit of walking. Finally we reached a point where I just couldn't run at the point she was ready and she went on ahead--with my blessing of course. She finished 3 minutes ahead of me. Our friends the Roche's also ran in the race and finished before us all. They were there to cheer Dennis on for the last lap around the stadium to the finish. It gave him the inspiration to really pore on the speed which caused the whole stadium to erupt into applause. (Somehow I must have registered Dennis incorrectly because the "official" results on the website show him coming in 4th place overall for walkers and 1st place for men walkers. He said if he had known he was registered as a walker he would have gone slower.) The three of them also cheered me on vigorously. I did muster up a bit more speed at the end but I was pretty much wiped out. I was instantly sore and it lasted into yesterday. Today I could finally walk down the front step without out feeling like I was going to weep from the pain or possibly topple, stiff-legged to the sidewalk below. Yes, stairs particularly down have been a source of intense pain. Monday and Tuesday getting out of my chair at work wasn't so pleasant either. Then again neither was walking. I was pretty much a wreck.
Do I feel the need to do it again?? Heck no!! Although I will be out there again tomorrow taking on Greenlake while Tucker is in seminary. (So that's a no, Neal and Steph there is just no way I will be doing the Seafair Half with you in June!! You two have fun with that!) I've done my two halves and in my book that equals a Marathon. The fact that they were 6 months apart is irrelevant. Which means I can cross that off "the list".

Road Trippin'

If you have been to Karen's blog you already know a bit about our little Spring Break road trip. You know that it was a road trip in the real sense of getting on the road and driving, and driving and driving and...you get the picture. On my "list" was take the boys to General Conference. It just so happened that this year the last weekend of Spring Break was General Conference so I got tickets for the Saturday afternoon session. We didn't leave until the Monday before instead of the Saturday before because of the Young Women's Broadcast that day. (Being the Stake Young Women's Pres I kind of felt obligated to be around.) If you have no idea where my hometown is in relation to Seattle, lets just say it is an all day drive--12 hours on the road--not including stops. Tucker helped with the driving which he enjoyed immensely--me I enjoyed it in a seat-gripping, non-sleeping sort of way.

We spent Tuesday, Wednesday and most of Thursday visting my parents, which included some fun frolicking in the bit of snow they still have. It wasn't a speedy sled ride, but it did the trick. Unfortunately I had to make an unexpected visit to the local medical clinic (30 miles away) for a sudden bout of...something not fun. That wasn't much fun--including the medication I have to take until this Friday. It was nice to see mom and dad and spend time with them. Tucker and Spencer even made a visit to the school with their cousins at lunch time (Tucker to check out the local female populace of course.) Tucker was amused by the fact that there were only two hallways in the high school. How big of a high school do you need when there are only 80 kids?? (It's true)

Thursday I had a nice visit with my high school pal, Tonnie. She is one of the reasons why I always donate to various Multiple Sclerosis Societies. Tonnie & I went to school together from 1st through high school. She has always been a person full of sunshine, laughter and good cheer. She still is despite her current circumstances. She is back living with her parents in Mackay because her husband couldn't cope with the MS and divorced her (that's the nice short version--there's a much longer not so nice version of course.) She can stand but is mostly confined to her wheelchair now. She calls the climb up 13 stairs to her room each night "scaling Mt. Everest". If you aren't donating to MS causes I hope you will!

Thursday afternoon we drove to Karen's (a mere two hours compared to the 12 of Monday). We had a nice stay and played 3 rounds of Upwords. I blame bad letters for my two losses (of course). She was generous enough to go to Salt Lake with us despite not being on Spring break herself. Another 3 hours to Salt Lake City Friday night to stay with Tyson and his wife Angel. A fun visit.

General Conference was a cool experience. We did get there very early (enough to be on the very first row & the very first seats of our sections). We had fun riding the light rail train that was put in for the Winter Olympics there. This gave us some time to take turns taking the boys around the Conference Center. It is very cool. Cooper didn't manage to get through the whole two hours--he fell asleep on my shoulder. Tucker & Spencer stayed awake but it's hard to say how they felt about the experience. I thought it was great of course.

Sunday was another 12 hour drive back home. In all it was over 1000 miles traveled on our Road Trip. It was worth it!

Funky Formal (or channeling my inner Paris Hilton)

This past weekend was a school fundraiser/dance called the Funky Formal. A good friend of mine (Scrabble buddy Michelle) has been putting on a "Funky Formal" for several years now. Michelle started it because one our friends mentioned one time that she had never gone to any of her proms in high school (just like me I might mention) so Michelle decided to throw a party with a "prom" type theme. People come dressed in all kinds of fun, funny and funky attire. I had been to one before wearing an emerald green bridesmade dress with a huge bow on the butt that I found at Value Village. This year Michelle let the school take it over to use as a fundraiser. I was all prepared to head to Value Village, DI or Goodwill to purchase something truly hideous when I heard that Ross Dress for Less had "prom" dresses on sale super cheap. Since I had been somewhat of a procrastinator, this being the Friday before the Saturday of the dance, Ross sounded like a good deal. I was sure I could finde something hideous there just as easy as the good will stores.

When I got there, I proceeded to pull a variety of dresses off the wrack (some hideous and some not so hideous) and headed to the dressing room with six dresses in tow. When I tried on the red dress I just couldn't pass it up despite the alarming cleavage. Why you might wonder? Well, because for once in a long, long time, I felt beautiful! It's a simple as that. It has been a long, long time since I went into a dressing room, tried something on and thought "That looks really good!" Generally I just settle for "That doesn't look bad."

So, once I settled on the dress (despite super anxiety) I found this really great pair of shoes (also at Ross) that sealed the deal. They had acrylic heels and a rhinestone band over the plastic shoe part (hows that for a really great description). Cinderella shoes. The dress actually cost less than the shoes and the shoes!

On my way home I stopped by my friend Dianne's house for some moral courage (plus she makes jewelry and I was hoping she had something she could loan me for the night). I told her I was going for something totally out of character for me and when she saw me with the dress on, she said I had accomplished that. She loaned me a huge "cocktail ring", a gauzy shoulder scarf (knowning my cleavage issues) and whipped up a pair of dangly earrings while I waited. She was so amazingly supportive of my whole silliness!

I was determined to go full out on the whole prom thing! I never got to go to a prom so this was going to be my chance. Armed with the accessories, I decided that I definitely had to get an up-do and paint my toenails. I bought some nail polish that night and set an appointment for Saturday afternoon at the Gene Juarez Hair Academy to get the updo the next day. Getting the updo on Saturday was totally fun. It actually made me laugh out loud several times. I told the girl "You can do whatever you want, the more over-the-top the better" She was so excited. I think it was her first up-do that she had ever done on her own. Afterwards she was so proud she had to parade me around to show off her handiwork. It was fun. When I stood in line to pay, right in front of me was a little teenaged girl with her up-do, which made me laugh again. I was smiling all the way home. (It's in sepia because it brings out the hair definition.)

I hadn't shown Dennis anything that I was wearing so it was totally fun to surprise him with the whole ensemble. Spencer thought it was fabulous and took pictures. Tucker had a hard time getting over that this person all dressed up was his mom. We had a super fun time at the dance and everyone told me how nice I looked--okay most people told me I looked beautiful or gorgeous but we always have a tendency to downplay things like that. I felt beautiful.

And that is the point of this rather long-winded post. Once in awhile, everyone needs to feel that they are beautiful or that they look especially nice. Too often (at least for me) we go through life just being the same day to day. Sure we get new clothes or occasionally dress up. But how often do most ordinary people get to go all out and wear something amazing. How often do we really feel beautiful outside and in both at the same time? It wasn't just the dress, it was the combination of the whole process--getting the dress, getting my hair done, painting my nails, wearing the jewelry, going out with my husband for the evening, realizing that all that running was paying off, finally going to "prom" even though it was 30 years later...all of it combined together just kind of made me giddy. And for one evening, giddy was a wonderful thing to feel.

Cooper's Baptism and stuff

Cooper's baptism was this past weekend and it was a wonderful event for our family. One of the members of the Stake Presidency who I work with called the whole day Chandler Day. And it was. Earlier that day, due to a bit of a mix up, Tucker was ordained to be a Priest by Gary Ard who was the Young Men's president when we first moved into the ward instead of Grandpa. It was a wonderful blessing and I think Gary was very honored to have the opportunity. Then Grandpa Vaden ordained Spencer to be a Deacon and Tucker was able to stand in the circle with all the other men. It was all very moving and wonderful. It was great to have mom, Roberta and Aleta all there to experience it with us. Dennis brought mom to church just in time for the ordinations so he was there too.

The baptism was later in the afternoon. It was totally amazing how many people showed up for it! There were some families from our old ward which was great and lots and lots of people from our current ward, plus many of Dennis' family. There were people standing in the hallway. It was a very good program too. I'd say the best one of all the boys. Our good friend Neal Roche gave a funny and very moving talk about baptism. (If you haven't heard the story of the boys role-playing the story of the Good Samaritan with Neal & his wife Stephanie, ask me to tell it some time--very funny stuff.) Neal did a great job in setting the tone for the program. Next it was Tucker's turn to do the baptism. He stumbled a little bit on the prayer but did get Cooper completely under the first time. (And no, he didn't hold him under til the bubbles stopped as Dennis suggested.) Then we had a muscial number by three very talented teenaged sisters from our ward--a capella! When they heard that Cooper was getting baptized they very excitedly volunteered to sing and they did a terrific job. They sang Nearer My God to Thee. They asked me if they should change it because "Isn't it a funeral song?" I told them "Only in the Titanic!"

The talk on the Holy Ghost was by Cooper's primary teacher, Katrine Wheeler and she also did a very good job. One of the better one's I've heard, complete with visual aides. Then it was Grandpa's turn once again to do the confirmation. It was quite a large circle. It really was a very spiritual event all the way around. I think everyone that was there felt it. Members of the ward had generously provided cookies, cupcakes, brownies and punch. It was so amazing to feel so supported by our ward.

After the baptism all the family plus our friends the Roches (honorary family members) came to our house for dinner. It was a very nice evening but I have to admit to being completely exhausted when I finally sat on the sofa at 9 o'clock that night.

Aleta and the girls stayed until Monday (the girls didn't mind skipping school one day). We had a little craft making session that morning. Around Christmas I learned how to make these snowflake/star/flower things from the art teacher at the school and had them hanging in my window. I had mentioned that one of my young women counselors was planning to use them as a craft project for girl's camp this year. Roberta, Aleta and girls all wanted to learn how to make them so we did. They are fun and easy to make and really look beautiful. Spencer stayed home from school that day too--not skipping, he actually had a fever and cough. (First day he has missed in three years!) So it was a fun morning of crafting the snowflake/star/flower for all. The girls were all excited to teach Aunt Celiac how to make them when she comes to visit them for Spring Break. The bottom picture is one of the snowflakes that is hanging in my window.

Sweet 16!

Wasn't he cute? Then look what happend. He grew up! Hard to believe but it's true, Tucker turned 16 last Tuesday evening. A pretty low key family event. We went out for dinner at Taco del Mar (his choice) then came home for peanut butter pie (again his choice) with Oma & Opa. We got him a couple DVDs and the blue Italia soccer jersey. (Even as a baby he looked good in blue. Still does.) He has a little more hair than back then but still has great eyes. When asked recently by the missionaries what kind of things you get to do when you become a priest, Mr. Smartypants Teenager responded "Date!" Then he answered seriously. But truly, turning 16 is all about dating. Only problem...no money. And mom and dad are not paying for dates. (That's just the mean kind of parents we are!) He is also quite anxious to drive and has visions of getting a car. Again...no money. I'm sure it will all sort itself out over time.

Serenity is fleeting though. The next day, he found out he would not be making the high school soccer team this year :-( Why? Not because of his lack of ability. In fact the coach told him he had what it took to make the JV team. Problem? Poor grades. He had been hoping that he could make the team and then get his grades up but the coach said Tucker obviously did not want to be on the team badly enough to do well in school. Hard lesson to learn but we are thankful to coach reinforced what we had been saying all along at home. On one hand, you hate to see your kids have to go through something so disappointing. But on the other, it is important that they learn that there are always consequeces (good or bad) for choices that you make in life. He just happened to suffer for some poor choices he made all this past fall (not turning in homework, not doing homework, not studying for tests....) Life is like that. Your choices always catch up with you sometime.

Other than his scholarly underacheivement, we can't complain about him too much. He makes good decisions in so many other areas. (Although Dennis really struggles with the flippy hair. Myself I prefer to pick other battles.) We are looking forward to this Sunday when he will be baptising Cooper. I think it will be an amazing experience and something that they will both remember all their lives. Spencer will also be ordained to be a Deacon this Sunday and Tucker will stand in with that as well (I think). A big priesthood weekend coming up for the Chandlers. Mom, Dad, Roberta, Aleta and her three youngest will all be here for it. We are really looking forward to it.