Tournament again!! In Oregon

Another weekend, another TKD tournament. This time it was in Cottage Grove Oregon, a hefty 6 hour drive from our house. Ugh. It shouldn't be but the traffic through Seattle, Olympia, Portland make it so.

Felix did the best this time. I'm so proud of her. Her ring is the 11-13 yr old 1st Degree Black Belts. Every girl in this ring are from Oregon and all know each other. And they're mean, mean fighting machines. Seriously. I would not want to meet on a lighted street let alone a dark one. They'll kick you from here into tomorrow if they had the chance. They're forms too, are mean and precise. Good blocks, punches, kicks, etc.

So Felix typically does very poorly in this group. She has my competitive spirit ... which basically equals nothing. She needs to have my sister as her mom. Lisa is very competitive and would train her right. Unfortunately, I didn't do such a great job in that area. Oh well.

However, when they were calling out the winners for the various competitions, lo and behold! Felix got 3rd in Forms! Even with seven girls in her ring. She was a shocked as I was! I was trying to keep track of the points that each competitor was getting but I'm just not a good enough "Soccer Mom" to write those things down (and believe me; MANY parents write down every one's score to compare it to their childs' score. Can't do it). So I was totally surprised when she won. And totally proud. And she was proud of herself too and felt like she wasn't such a loser anymore like she has been for the past eight months. Her ring is a bit more tough than it used to be and this was very good for her psyche.

Felix holding her well deserved Trophy!! (with her DS stylus in her mouth)

Robee didn't place but he's already state champ for last year so he didn't really care. Thomas placed 2nd in both Forms and Sparring and I placed 3rd in Weapons and 3rd in Sparring.

Robee in the back during our road trip. He has my ipod while playing his DS. Technology makes kids stop looking out the window but it can make the trip not as grueling.

So our next and last competition for the season is April 25. I also have a Instructor Camp next weekend to test for my Instructor's License. A bit nervous about that but it'll be okay.

This is a pic of the Portland Temple. I tried to get one of the Angel Moroni but He was going by too quickly.

Spring Day (finally!)

We finally had a nice Spring day, albeit a little cool. But hey!! The sun actually came out and we finally saw our shadows!!
This is Felix and I at the school playground. I believe my shadow is suffering from Winter bloat. Hmmm. Time to run.


Robee going down the slide. I think I need to do this one again and rotate the danged thing. Sorry. Too lazy to do it now.

This is Robee after the slide and falling out on his back. I don't think the injury is too serious but who knows.

Felix holding a ladybug, the first of the season!! She finally had to find a plant to deposit it because the little thing wouldn't "Fly Away Home" off of her hand.

Yep. Me on the climbing wall. Bare-footed. Going up was fine but coming down on that bark-covered ground ... yikes. My poor feet. Whatever happened to just falling on the asphalt?? Wimps.

Robee's Track Meet

Robee joined the Runner's Club at school. They trained for a mini-track meet for about three weeks. He seems to really enjoy running (unlike my other off-spring) and liked going to practice. His meet was two weeks ago Saturday and it turned out to be a cold, windy day. Poor kids!



This is Robee and his friend, Jayke. I'm not sure if this is before or after his run. Actually, I'm thinking it was before his run because I think he took off the vest to run. And the sun was barely shining just before the meet started.


His first run was the mile and he didn't place high, but he did finish and he didn't walk (one of his goals). His second run was the relay and he was second to run. He actually passed a kid and put his team in third place. Unfortunately, their anchor brought them into fifth. Oh well.

He had a great time and I'm posting more pics as soon as I can get them off my phone.

Good job Robee!! I'm so proud of you.

Life goes on ..................

Okay. The viewing is done. The funeral is over. The plot has been dedicated and Mom is flying in good health.

And I am moving on. I'm not the first person to have a parent die and I won't be last.

On to happier things, eh?

In Memory of My Mother - Lucile Dorothy Van Alfen Barker - 6/1/35 to 3/7/09

Bye Mom. Love you. Good health to you now.

Lucile Dorothy Van Alfen Barker, 73, passed away peacefully in her sleep on March 7, 2009. She was born June 1, 1935 in Ogden, Utah to Dutch immigrants, John and Pauline Herbert Van Alfen. Lucy was raised in Ogden with her eight siblings and attended Ogden High School. After graduating in 1953, she worked for Safeway Stores and her father at their family real estate office. She married Joseph Keith Barker on August 30, 1955 at the County Courthouse in Salt Lake City. Their vows were later solemnized in the Logan LDS Temple in 1956.

Lucy endured 20 years of military life, moving 19 times throughout the United States and Thailand, before returning to Ogden in 1978. She was a member of the LDS church and enjoyed serving in various callings in the Relief Society. Lucy was an avid cook and was known for her delicious pies and chocolate candies. She loved her many pets on ‘Ma Barkers Ranch’, especially her poodles.

She was a fan of Neil Diamond, Tom Jones, and Englebert Humperdink. Lucy’s notable skills include her excellent penmanship and her organizational abilities. Lucy also loved painting, collecting dolls, planning family reunions, and shopping catalogues. One of her greatest joys was spoiling and loving her grandchildren.

In recent years, Lucy suffered from numerous health problems and her family is grateful she is no longer in pain and has returned to Heaven to be reunited with her sweet babies.

Lucy is survived by her selfless and loving husband, Keith; children: Jeff Barker of Salt Lake City, Cory Barker (Colette) of Orem, Kristi Neeleman (Thomas) of Arlington, WA and Lisa Harris of Tigard, OR; grandchildren, Brandon Barker, Brooke Tu‘ifua, Bryan Teeter, Heidi Strickland, Benjamin Barker, Rebekah Barker, Feliciti Neeleman and Robee Neeleman; great-grandsons J.T. Barker and Jacob Tu‘ifua and step grandchildren Jen Neeleman, Emilee Morzelewski, Angie Neeleman, and Ben Neeleman. Also surviving are sisters Diana Prawitt and Virginia Stark and brothers John and Paul Van Alfen.

She was preceded in death by her parents; baby daughter, Leslie Ray Barker; baby sons, John Michael Barker and Mark Anthony Barker; and sisters, Gertrude Carr, Thelma Martin, Pauline Thomas and Joan Robbins.

Funeral Services will be held Saturday, March 14, 2009, at 11:00 a.m. at Larkin Mortuary, Ogden, Utah. Family and friends may call on Friday, March 13, at Larkin Mortuary from 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturday prior to the service from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Interment will be at Leavitt’s Altorest Cemetery.

I have absolutely nothing interesting to say

This week has been really boring. Nothing interesting to say.

Monday: TKD class and we are doing grappling AGAIN. I'm sick of this. I'm there to learn a form and weapons, not wrestling people to the floor. Ugh. There is a grappling class and if I really wanted to be flipped up and thrown to the floor for an hour, I'd go to the class. I CHOOSE NOT to because I am OLD.

Tuesday: I have no idea.

Tuesday night: I feel an illness coming on. Head aches. Nose feels funny. Neck muscles ache.

Wednesday: I feel worse than yesterday so I take Aleve, hoping to feel better. I know that I must teach TKD tonight and may have 6 Tiny Tigers. I must be full of energy and excitement. I'm sure I can find that somewhere.

Wednesday night: I hurriedly put the kids to bed without reading, took a Tylenol PM and crashed into bed at 9:45. Didn't even hear Thomas schlepping in at midnight.

Thursday: Worked a little at the office on some client information for Thomas. Feeling a bit better. Didn't need meds today. Robee had track practice after school and after, he and I went to the craft store so I could make him a special Dr. Seuss "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" t-shirt. I'm going to make a copy of the cover of the book, print it on a transfer and then iron it on a shirt. He'll have the only Oobleck shirt in school! I looked everywhere for one and came up empty.

Friday: Watched Owen while Jen went to another doctor's appt and then on to work (she's way behind from being gone). He and I hung out, sat with the goats, fed the animals and just did 3 yr old stuff.

Friday night: I have no idea but I feel discombobulated for some reason. I think we may be going to TKD class but it's not for sure. We teach class on Saturday but Robee has his track meeting tomorrow and so we are bowing out for the day.

I hate the weekends. Actually right now, I hate most everything, so this post is a waste of time for anyone. Including me.

And I really hate the next door neighbor. We had some lovely Canadian Geese sitting by our pond and swimming and just sort of hanging out. Then my stupid ass-neighbor decides to fire-up his 4-wheeler and tear around his yard and scare the geese. I hate those people. They are such trash.

Okay. Hopefully next week proves to be better.

Waterpark in the Winter??

Robee under the fountain.

Thomas and Felix getting dumped on by the bucket.

The line for check-in. This was the WORST line ever. Ugh.

Thomas and I decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the newest attraction south of Olympia Washington. It's located in a po-dunk town that used to be less than a blip on the map. Now, it's a family destination. It's called Great Wolf Lodge and there are about 11 of these fancy-shmacy water parks located throughout the Midwest and east coast. This is the only one located west of the one in Texas, so that makes Washington kinda speeshal, fer sure. http://greatwolf.com/grandmound/waterpark

It is an indoor water park (and that would make sense here in the very wet and chilly winter Northwest) and holds about 340,000 gals of water. It has four main gigantic slides, wave pool, kiddie pond, and water fort that has 1,000 gal bucket that dumps water on the crowd every two minutes. The entire hotel is made for kids. At night, it's like a huge slumber party, with kids running from place to place on some sort of adventure hunt or magic quest.

And there is a bar downstairs for the weary parents to numb themselves from the day's activities. I heard it was full almost every night. :D

The hotel is definitely pricey; ours was $250/night but that's because - although we were planning it for awhile - we didn't book until two weeks before our planned trip. We're paid when the court is paid and if the court isn't paid, then we have to wait. Can be a little unnerving at times.

Anyway, the price of the rooms varies, depending on the room and the price also includes the pass to the water park. For those of you who haven't been to water parks lately, they have risen in cost. Some parks are around $40 to $50 for a day pass. So if you figure four of us for $40 is $160 and then a room can cost for four anywhere from $90 to $130 per night ... it just about breaks even.

Nuff with the economics. So this water park has this one famous slide called the Howlin' Tornado. Famous it is. I had heard it was a whirlpool type of slide which I had a hard time wrapping my mind around that visual.

When we finally got on the thing, it was actually a half-pipe slide. You sit in a four-leaf clover inter tube - balancing my weight with skinny Robee was a challenge - and then the life guard shoves you down a giant dark tube (like being born really). Then the inter tube bounces through twists and turns and if you're unlucky like me, you're going backwards so you have no idea of the terror that lies before you. However, being in direct line with Robee's facial expressions let me know we were in for the worst.

Suddenly the bottom falls out - meaning the slide drops straight down - and you go sliding into an enormous half-pipe cavern. By this time, Robee is screaming from his abdomen and his eyes have almost popped from his sockets.

Now the tube careens back and forth in Class 10 rapids, all the while I'm facing backwards and watching Robee's expression for the next section of this pit of doom. You then come to an almost calm standstill after flying back and forth four or five times and for that nano second, you're lulled into a moment of serene thought - not for long.

The bottom drops again (not quite as drastic as the first but still enough you think you've left part of your intestine back in the cavern) and the tube twists and turns again and then you finally leave what seems like hour-long stomach-heaving ride into a calm relaxing pool of warm water so that you can exit .............. and then stand line for another turn.

Yep. Robee, Felix (she finally joined us after she saw I was still alive) and I rode that thing at least six times. The wait for the darn thing was sometimes up to 1/2 hour so you have to really want to ride it. We couldn't talk Thomas into that one, although he did do everything else. That's okay; he doesn't force me to see scary movies, I don't force him to go on the Howlin' Tornado.

I won't go into to detail about the rest of the park (I hear cheers) but I had to relate the experience of that slide.

It is a cool place and the kids were so excited. As I mentioned, we surprised them. We told them we were going to go to Long Beach for client something or other; we do that a lot to finish up old business in Long Beach and the kids love going to see our old home. So they were so not suspecting anything. Also my kids tend to be not focused on what's going on around them. They're just along for the ride.

So we pull into the street leading to the lodge and Felix is the first one to see it. She says, "Oh! That's that water park place that Kenzie (her friend) went to with her family. She said it was way fun. We should go there sometime." We're now pulling into the parking lot and the kids have funny looks on their faces and we stop the car and say, "Guess what. We're not going to Long Beach. We're going here instead. Surprise!"

Robee, since he has no idea what this place is, asks if it has a pool. Felix starts screaming and saying, "Robee! This isn't just a pool! It's an indoor water park!!" And then he starts screaming and everyone is screaming and happy.

THAT was the best part of the weekend for me. I was excited to see them happy and excited. It was totally worth it to us.