It's been 6 months.
Yikes.
So sorry.
I'm going to try to catch us up with little snippets of each month.
A LOT happened in those 6 months.
I know it's not the detail you're used to, but, sadly, it is what it is.
I have to get back on track somehow.
FEBRUARY
Katie took the ACT.
(She took the SAT in the Fall, but thought the ACT matched her test taking skills better)
She took a test prep class through Princeton Review that lasted 3 months.
We stayed overnight in a hotel and got her there bright and early to test.
She ended up doing really, really well.
Katie and I attended Washington State PTA Focus Day in Olympia.
We visited the capital building and heard from legislators.
We ate a not-very-yummy King Cake for Fat Tuesday.
It snowed a bit.
Huzbend had shoulder surgery to repair a torn something or other.
He had to wear a soft brace for 9 weeks and couldn't drive.
Katie prepped for a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the end of the month.
Scopes looked good and clear.
MARCH
Mikey's drama class took a field trip to see "Into the Woods" in Seattle.
I was lucky enough to be a chaperone.
No kids were lost, a new catchy jingle to play in your head at 3am was gained.
At the time, the drama class was neck deep in rehearsals for Fiddler on the Roof, Jr..
The first weekend in March was the Emerald City Comicon.
We had a lot of fun visiting booths, attending various panels and shopping.
Me = Goofy
Huzbend and Mikey = The Prisoner from Elden Ring video game
Katie - Yor Forger from Spy x Family anime
APRIL
Katie and I watched an amazing performance by Manual Cinema of Frankenstein.
It was mixture of live actors, live music, puppetry, and live sound effects.
The actors did all of it below a giant screen which showed what they were creating as they created it.
It's really hard to explain, but it was really cool.
We visited a high school cultural fair.
There was lots of food to try, activities (like henna) and performances to watch.
That same evening, Katie's school had a Mystery Masquerade event.
Everyone at the event had to solve a mystery of some stolen statues.
There were designated students who were actors in the mystery.
It was so creative and different.
Mikey and his friend presented their National History Day board at the regional competition.
Their topic was the Anti-Vietnam War Movement.
They didn't move on to State, but they were proud to show off all their hard work.
A few other things from this month.....
Huzbend began physical therapy for his shoulder.
He was still wearing his soft brace.
Katie was rehearsing non-stop for her spring musical.
One of Mikey's friends invited a bunch of friends to an escape room.
They almost made it.
On the last day of the month, the kids dyed Easter Eggs.
You may be asking why they dyed them so early.
You'll find out next month.
And, guess what, next month is right after this picture!
APRIL
Was a crazy ass month.
THERE WAS SO MUCH GOING ON!
The first week of April was dedicated to Mikey's middle school production of Fiddler on the Roof Jr.
Mikey played an extra most nights, was Lazar Wolf one night and was Tevye another night.
So, so proud of him.
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There was a special guest in the audience!
Grandma stayed for a week.
We ate fancy lunch, went to a tulip farm that didn't have tulips yet (so sad) and bought delectably delicious chocolate. Yum.
Easter fell on the second weekend of April.
Mikey was headed off on a trip to Belize, so we decided to have Easter a week early and at NIGHT!
Directly after Mikey's first performance of FOTR, Jr., the kids had their annual egg hunt.
How did the Easter Bunny know that we wouldn't be home so he could hide the eggs?
Ahhhhh, the mysteries of the universe.
Mikey headed to BELIZE for Spring Break!
He went swimming, saw monkeys, visited temples, hung out at the beach, and almost stepped on a tarantula.
(For Huzbend's sake, I have not posted the picture of the tarantula)
While Mikey was traveling internationally, the rest of us stayed closer to home and visited some colleges.
Up to Vancouver to the University of British Columbia.
And, down to Oregon State, with a stop in between.
The craziness continued after Spring Break.
That next week was Tech Rehearsals week for Katie and her spring musical, Seussical.
Lots of late nights dancing and singing and then finally, after months of work, it was time
to perform!
Seussical opened the second to last weekend in April & played for two consecutive weekends.
Katie was a Who, down in Whoville, who also was a fish as well as a military cadet.
Those Who's really can diversify.
She also rocked Who hair.
(A squiggle of hair smack dab in the middle of her forehead)
AMAZING!
Again, so, so proud.
We weren't done yet.
Katie visited a college fair.
She also spoke out at a school board meeting about the elimination of the assistant principal position at her school.
I spoke at the same meeting, did PTA stuff, volunteered a whole bunch helping sell things at the high school musical, and watched A WHOLE LOTTA musicals.
Huzbend was finally cleared to drive, drove himself to doctor appointments and received even MORE physical therapy exercises.
And last, but certainly not least, Ralph turned 9 the last week of April.
MAY
There was a bit more breathing room in May.
The last full month of school brought some events with it.
I attended the first in-person state PTA conference since before Covid.
I missed last years because I HAD Covid.
It was fun to hang out with my geeky PTA friends.
I also received a refresher on how much PTA people like to TALK.
I had a very nice Mother's Day.
Here was my Mikey made breakfast.
Katie got me my own copy of Frankenstein because I had never read it.
It was a really nice day out.
I took a nap.
Katie prepped for her calculus final while channeling the 'Flock of Seagulls" lead singer.
She passed.
Katie's school held their Better World Day event.
All the students work on projects to make their "world" (which can be local, state-wide, nation-wide, or international) a better place.
Katie led a project which began the process of getting E-Coli to eat plastic bits.
(The E-Coli was non-pathogenic)
The first step was trying to mutate the E-Coli.
They believe that they succeeded.
She was very happy playing with the E-Coli all year.
She had the exuberance of some demented Pokemon trainer.
"Gotta mutate them all!"
They now live in our refrigerator.
We have a badminton net.
In order to play you need to pick up Ralph's poop.
Hence, this picture.
I celebrated a friend's birthday.
We threw axes, ate dinner on the water and then closed down Cheesecake Factory for dessert.
Memorial Day weekend we headed up to Deception Pass state park for some beachy-hikey time.
Ralph sniffed a lot of stuff and hurt his toe in the gravel.
Mikey spent some time that weekend with an old friend.
Glad they can still clown around.
I helped lead my first ever Girl Scout summer day camp training session.
There were almost 50 people there...including my kids.
Not sure if I mentioned it.
I volunteered to be a co-director of a Girl Scout summer day camp that was going to happen in July.
We host 300 plus campers and it is completely run by about 100 volunteer adults and teens.
I volunteered at my last middle school Popcorn Friday and my last middle school afterschool party.
SIGH.
Huzbend had a few more physical therapy appointments. The healing was happening, but it was slow.
He also got more exercises this month.
We ended the month with an IV infusion for Katie and induction into National Junior Honor Society for Mikey.
As an 8th grader, he was knighted.
JUNE
The last month of the school year.
The end of Katie's junior year of high school and the end of Mikey's middle school career.
It was a bit much emotionally.
First up was Katie's high school drama banquet.
She had to dress up as Lucy from Peanuts during the school day.
Her catch phrase was "The doctor is IN!"
And, if anyone asked why she was dressed that way, she had to say, "I am a student of theatre and excellence is my ideal!"
She was inducted into the National Thespian Society that evening.
Mikey attended his 8th Grade End of Year Party.
He and his friends were the first one's on and the last one's off the dance floor.
After he partied hard, the next morning he was promoted to orange belt at judo.
Katie and I attended a local Pride celebration where she won this
amigurumi Pride bee from a claw machine.
Katie applied for an internship at a local nonprofit and was "hired".
For the weeks she as available she would work 3 days a week doing random tasks like
data entry, social media creation, filing, deliveries and pick ups, etc.
I had my last PTA meeting of the school year.
Well, it wasn't really a meeting and more of a get together at a local Mexican
restaurant to chat, laugh, and drink margaritas.
I helped organize Katie's high school's senior breakfast.
It was fun but made me realize she is a SENIOR next year.
Remember when I mentioned Ralph hurt himself at the beach in May?
Around this time, I noticed that Ralph's dew claw digit did not look right.
He also yelped when I touched it.
We took him to the vet.
They took some x-rays to see what was going on.
The bones in his toe were missing! Ew.
The doctor recommended surgery to remove the toe as it might be cancer that had eaten away the bone.
They could biopsy it and let us know.
I scheduled it.
Gulp.
Mikey had his LAST EVER middle school drama performance.
It was the annual variety show.
They started off the show with a version of Fiddler on the Roof's Tradition called "Nutrition".
I'll let you figure out what it was about.
Mikey was in a few other skits.
But this was my favorite......
"The Bridge of Death" scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Mikey and his friend bought matching Belize hats for the dads.
They were instructed to wear them to the Variety Show.
The hats said, "You Better BELIZE It!"
The end of an era at the middle school.
All the friends have moved on to high school.
The penultimate last day of school was that Friday.
I finished up my last middle school PTA task.
I, for the last time, entered, inventoried and organized the school's emergency supply shed.
That afternoon was the absolute last middle school volunteering job.
I helped tweens fashion shred t-shirts at the field day event.
Six years. Now done. I cried.
Katie was recognized for her achievements in technology by the American Association of University Women ... which was weird because she didn't take any tech classes her junior year. But, we'll take it.
The last day of school was June 20th.
Katie was ready for the school year to be done.
She had worked her ass off all year and was jonesing for some rest and relaxation.
Mikey and his friend walked to school together for the last time.
Next year, they're going to different high schools.
Mikey's school doesn't have a graduation ceremony.
The last day they have a talent show and give out awards to 8th graders.
Mikey received an award for representing a core pillar of the school - Respect - and for Excellence in English and Diversified Arts: Drama.
And just like that, middle school was over.
We headed out for ice cream to celebrate.
It's just about impossible to get teens to take a normal picture.
Especially if you ask them to be normal.
This is what you get.
I hope you understand the irony that Mikey is smiling normally in this picture.
I do.
Ralph's toe amputation surgery was scheduled for the last day of school.
The surgery went well.
The toe was sent off to be biopsied.
A chest x-ray turned up clear.
Lungs and lymph nodes are usually the first place cancer spreads to in doggos.
Now, we just had to wait.
"I am not happy."
He had two different types of pain relievers to take.
You would think this would be a big deal.
But, anything is palatable to Ralph if you wrap it in cheese.
When he went outside, we had to keep his bandage dry.
He had to wear a plastic booty.
"I am even more not happy."
Huzbend took the kids to a summer comicon.
They had fun looking at displays and taking silly pictures.
Eventually, we had to take Ralph's bandage off.
And that meant, the cone had to go on.
"This is the most not happy I have ever been."
The last week of the month, Mikey began a 3-week summer high school course about video game development and Katie jetted off on a humanitarian trip to Cuba!
JULY
Let's pick up with that trip to Cuba.
Katie's Spanish teacher runs a non-profit that works towards getting rid of the sanctions against Cuba. He arranges humanitarian trips for his American students to visit Cuba.
They learn about Cuba and connect with humanitarian organizations there.
They toured Old Havana, visited a working farm, dropped off medical supplies and toys to orphans, listened to medical professionals talk about vaccine creation and much more.
Besides getting glutened really really bad, Katie had a great time on the trip.
Here are some photos of her experience...
Enjoying a mojito IN Cuba.
(No teenagers were inebriated in the making of this photo)
Fancy 50's convertible drive through Havana.
Old Havana.
American and Cuban students.
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While Katie was away, Mikey continued with his video game design class.
Mikey and Huzbend attended a performance of Return of the Jedi by the Seattle Symphony.
They played the soundtrack live to accompany the movie.
I stayed home to keep an eye on the dog with one less toe.
One of Mikey's friends had a murder mystery birthday party.
Mikey was a drunk and destitute dude pretending to be a college professor.
He was not the murderer and did not get murdered.
He did end up guessing who the murderer was but missed the motive.
On the Fourth of July, we decided to skip the parade craziness and head out for a short hike to a beach.
Sadly, we left Ralph at home. He was still recovering.
Katie returned from her trip and jumped into writing a sequel to her passion project novel of the past year and reading books.
She also started her internship.
The second week of July was spent preparing for the Girl Scout day camp that was happening the following week.
There were some pre-camp activities for the volunteers.
Mikey finished up his class strong and now has one high school course checked off his list.
Ralph had a follow up appointment with the vet.
It was cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma to be exact.
We will have to keep an eye out for other lumps, swollen lymph nodes and have him
checked again at 6 months for an x-ray and blood work.
The first day of Girl Scout day camp coincided with Huzbend's 50th birthday.
I'm not sure he was excited about this one.
The balloon delivery was awesome though.
We stuck a candle in some enchiladas.
My first ever experience as camp co-director went as well as could be hoped.
Every day brought some new challenge and a fire to put out.
The weather was great. Some foggy starts and some 80+ degree days. No rain.
My partner and I managed to get through with the help of a great team and an amazing set of silly headbands.
We had a total of 300+ campers and 100+ volunteers at camp this year.
Here are two such volunteers.
Cipher spent the week in the cooking station, when she wasn't interning.
Linguine assisted at the "Not a Hike" station.
At the end of the week, everyone was exhausted.
Camp is fun but it is HARD WORK.
The following week was pretty chill.
I took the opportunity to catch up on some other "jobs".
Mikey finally started summer and relaxed.
Katie worked.
Katie's old place of employment invited her (and some family) to get information about the upcoming Fall season and to pick some blueberries at the farm.
We had to drop Katie at Camp Oasis on Mikey's actual birthday, so we celebrated a day early.
We played a virtual reality game where we whacked goblins, skeletons, spiders and a dragon.
Happy (Day Early) 14th Birthday!
The next day, we hopped in the car to drive Katie to camp.
Mikey spent the drive playing Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
This is the last year that Katie could enjoy camp as a part-time camper.
She was considered an LIT - leader in training - this year.
When we got back home, we took Mikey out for Korean BBQ for his birthday.
And, now, we are all caught up!
I mean, I shouldn't make a habit of missing months at a time.
But....it was kinda nice to take care of 6 months of stuff in one week's writing time.
Hopefully it won't be another 6 months until you see what we get up to in August!
Ciao!
