Write My Life

Mike’s birthday celebration included opening presents and going out to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. Since Mike is so hard to shop for his presents mostly consisted of clothes and chocolate.

I also made him a little book highlighting the events that took place during the last year when he was 40.

One day Mike said to me, “There’s a lot of projects I could work on but I’m going to do one of the one you want done.” And that was the start to the master bathroom home improvement project.

For years, I had noticed the wallpaper curling on the edges in the bathroom. We also had a broken floor tile. For me all I wanted was the wallpaper removed and the walls painted. Mike thought this would be too “plain” so he added the wainscoting to the project list.

We started out by taking down the wallpaper. The girls helped with the first layer of wallpaper removal. I wet the walls and took off the second layer of wallpaper.

Mike did the remainder of the work including painting, changing several of the fixtures, adding wainscoting, caulking and fixing the broken tile. It was an on and off project that took a few months. Luckily, the bathroom was usable during the entire project. Getting a photograph of the final room is tricky but this photograph gives you an idea of the new color scheme and design.

Happy #12 to Jackie!

With her birthday on a Sunday, we squeezed present opening in before going to church. After church, we set up all the final details for her party.

Jaclyn chose to have one more wizarding themed birthday party. In her creative mind, she devised the idea of having a party at the newly created American wizarding school called The Phoenix. As the facility is under construction, potential students would learn about the school at the Gormish residence.
The students had received invites with class options. They RSVP’d their choices and we made schedules for then. Upon arrival, they went shopping for class supplies then they attended their three classes plus “free period.” Here were the class choices:

Muggle Studies: Students will create a description of a Muggle object for inclusion in the book, A Wizard’s Guide to Muggle Objects.
Broom Flying: Broom flying basics and all you need to know about playing Quidditch.
Potions 1: Learn from our Potions Master by creating magical substances.
Potions 2: Take your potions expertise to another level and create your own potions.
Care of Magical Creatures: Discover a new magical creature and share your findings.
Charms: Create a new charm with a friend and demonstrate it to your classmates.

Muggle Studies was cancelled due to lack of interest. Mike taught Broom Flying, Potions 1 and Potions 2. He liked empathizing safety issues in his classes, proving that the American wizarding school was much safer than those other wizarding schools.

Jackie did a lot of planning for the party, including making up what they would do in each class and choosing the food. Jennifer helped with some preparations including making wands and putting class schedules together.

The meal consisted of pasta with tomato and meat ragu sauces, pumpkin pasties, fruit and a flourless chocolate cake.

Returning from camp, I unpacked and got settled. Early Sunday morning, I woke up with stomach pains. So, Sunday consisted of me resting and sleeping in bed all day. Mike provided food and took care of the girls. On Monday I felt better but both Mike and Jackie were sick. On Tuesday, I had a burst of energy and tackled Jennifer’s room. In the next three days I reorganized Jennifer’s bedroom, purchased and assembled a desk, file cabinet and bookshelf from IKEA. Then, I cleaned up the rooom. It was a serious and productive burst of energy.

Our Sierra Bible Camp session was small but everything went quite well. The weather was outstanding with temperatures in the mid-80’s. We had a beautiful sunset walk to Lake Almanor, Bible classes, free time, t-dye t-shirts, campfire, olympics, etc. 8 days is still a long camp, but I didn’t notice it as much this time.

Mike’s sister came to visit for a week, always a blessing to our family.

She joined us on our annual summer visit to the San Francisco Zoo.

In lieu of drama camp this summer, the girls chose horse camp. For two weeks they went to camp Monday, Wednesday and Friday for appox. 2 1/2 hours.

Jaclyn joined 4 other friends from school and church in her group. Jennifer attended the same camp at the same time but in a different group.

The instructors at Webb Ranch taught them to brush their horse, helped them tack the horse, then gave them lessons on riding the horse. Switching between western, english and bareback riding styles, the girl learned to stop, turn, ride the rail, maneuver around obstacles, 2-point, jog, and trot. On the final day of classes, they did a trail ride around the ranch grounds.

Mike and I really had to discuss whether Jennifer could take horse riding lessons. Jackie had not started until she was 10 years old. Jennifer wasn’t 10 yet and we felt she might do better to wait a little longer. But it was Jackie who convinced us to let Jennifer take lessons also. Jackie said she wouldn’t feel upset or that it was unfair that her sister began earlier than her. She pointed out all the good things about it. When we told Jennifer she could go, she was all smiles and full gratitude.

We attended our final Harry Potter launch party at Kepler’s bookstore in Menlo Park. They dressed in black school robes and brought wands and a bag of wizarding supplies. Jaclyn hung around with her friend Nia and Jennifer and I floated around the festivities inside and outside the store.

We joined the extra long line at 11:45 p.m. and were handed our books at 12:25 a.m.

Why change something good? For the 4th of July we did more of the same – picnic on the grass at Pete’s Harbor at the port of Redwood City, play games, relax and watch spectacular fireworks at approx. 9:30 p.m. It works for us.

Our return home plan was to visit one of my scrapbook friends who lived outside of Minneapolis on Saturday, spend the night in a hotel along the way, then return to Mike’s parents house Sunday. We had a wonderful visit, including a great meal and great hospitality, with my friend, Sue. It was a delight to see Sue again and meet her family and dogs!

We hit the road, driving down along the Mississippi River and crossing it into La Crosse, Wisconsin. But we hit a snag here. There were no hotels with rooms available. In a town of 50,000 there wasn’t a room to be found. We continued down the road, finding nothing…not even in a few little, off-beaten hotels we found. We did not find a hotel until we pulled into Madison, WI at midnight.

Another snag we discovered at dinner was that I left my purse at Sue’s house. Duh! Mike, master planner for all emergencies, had my passport so we were safe with me being able to board the airplane home. Sue quickly sent my purse back to California were I picked it up a few days later.

Back in the Chicago area we returned to the heat and humidity. We spent Sunday relaxing with Mike’s cousin and Monday just hanging around with Mike’s parents. On Monday, we decided to visit a park with a frisbee golf coarse before the heat hit hard. Mike showed us his killer frisbee throws. We were all surprised by the length between the tees and the location of some of the holes – some over creeks or into the woods.

Despite our plans we didn’t totally beat the heat and humidity. By 10:30 a.m. it was beginning to drain us. Now I remember why I don’t live in a humid place anymore…