The Accidental Boilermaker

 Shortly after Evelyn’s playground accident, Katherine introduced her to Frida Kahlo. Frida endured several health and physical limitations over the course of her life. She suffered from polio as a child that left her right leg shorter and weaker than her left leg. When she was in school, she was riding a bus that was struck by a tram and Frida ended up with three spinal fractures, a fractured pelvis, collarbone, leg and foot, and two broken ribs.  Later in life doctors would diagnose Frida with spina bifida.  Due to all the trauma her body endured, Frida wore plaster casts and medical corsets to support her upper body which is why Katherine thought Evelyn with her neck brace would be interested in learning about Frida.  Evelyn really did enjoy reading about Frida and her art and as it so happened, an art museum in the Chicago suburbs currently is hosting a Frida Kahlo exhibition. So we bought tickets and went to Chicago this weekend. We got in Friday night. Kate too...

 Jameson was named a leader of the week today. This was quite surprising and I don’t really know the criteria since I think this is something new the school is starting. About 20 other students were chosen as leaders and all their names were read over the PA system during morning announcements. Nate and I were both very impressed.  Jameson isn’t a problem child or anything but this morning I wasn’t sure we were going to make it to school on time because he seemed incapable of putting socks on his own feet.  Lucky for everyone I had picked up a special treat at the grocery store so we were able to celebrate Jameson’s award. 

 What better way to celebrate the first week of school than waking up early and going to the opening day of a new donut store.  Our favorite donut place, Tom’s, closed.  But a new donut shop opened in its place so it’s not all sad. The inside it totally renovated and looks very nice. They donuts were good (they even have a make your own donut bar), but both Evelyn and Jameson said they liked Tom’s better. 

 First day of kindergarten and second grade! Everybody was in a good mood this morning. Jameson changed his mind about what outfit he wanted to wear but that was ok.  He also didn’t want me to walk him up to the door, he only wanted Evelyn. That was also ok.  I got a little sad saying goodbye at the crosswalk but then we saw Victoria in the car line getting ready to drop off Addie.  We waved and yelled happy first day of school and that cheered me up.  When they got off the bus, Evelyn just talked a mile a minute about her day. I was actually more worried about Evelyn than Jameson. Despite Jameson being a little more attached, he has never had a problem going to school. I was afraid that maybe kids wouldn’t be nice to Evelyn because of her collar or she wouldn’t have anyone to play with at recess because she can’t go on the equipment.  As it turned out, Jameson changed his mind and didn’t even want Evelyn. He walked up to his door all by himself. And Evelyn...

Jameson competed in his first mountain bike race today. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing as we have never done any mountain biking.  We took him out to the trails last Sunday to practice and see if he was even interested. He had fun, so Nate signed him up and took him yesterday to practice on the course. Jameson was one of the younger riders and one of the few who weren’t part of a team, but he had fun and finished his race. He had to bike 5 laps for a total of 2.5 miles. We celebrated a job well with a trip to Zesto’s where Evelyn lost another tooth.

 School starts Monday, so we tried to squeeze in a little fun today. We ran out for free Wendy’s breakfast sandwiches because why not, they were free.  Then we packed a lunch and went to the splash pad and park in Leo (we were at this park exactly 4 years ago with Isaac and Joshua). I felt like the all abilities swing was safe for Evelyn.  After the park we drove to Grabill because I knew there was a “country store” that sold fun candy and I kept thinking it’d be special to take Evelyn and Jameson sometime.  However while Grabill isn’t far, we’ve never had much reason to drive out there.  But by going to Leo we were already halfway there, so it seemed like it was meant to be. Evelyn and Jameson picked out salt water taffy and gummies and I got a couple bottles of fun pop.

We went to the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis with Amanda and the boys today. It was a lot of fun and we saw just about everything.  Treasures of the Earth where we learned about Archaeology. All aboard the train! The water clock was lots of fun to watch and we even caught the change from 12:59 to 1:00 when all the water drains from both sides of the clock.  I liked the DC comic exhibit the best. I thought the exhibits were the most fun and interactive. Jameson loved running fast like the Flash.  Everyone wanted to pretend to be an Indy car driver.  Of course we had to ride the carousel.  The ball machine was one of the last things we played with.  Wonder Woman!

 We went to the zoo with Bella and Millie today. Maryca thought it’d be fun to let the kids feed the stingrays and I agreed. I’ve been a little more agreeable to things I’d normally say no to since Evelyn’s had her neck brace (tomorrow is 7 weeks, 5 more to go). Millie said she was not interested.  Bella said she wanted to but when they handed her the cup of fish she changed her mind. Evelyn and Jameson had no problem picking up piece of fish, sticking their hand in the tank, and letting a sting ray eat off their hand. It was an otherwise normal trip to the zoo. They all pretended to be dead inside the shark and they even got to ride the carousel too.  Nate and I watched the school board meeting online tonight. Our district has instated their mask mandate for all students, teachers and staff irregardless of vaccination status. I was so glad. We had already decided Evelyn and Jameson would wear masks but now it is nice to know everyone will wear one both from a health stan...

 I ran my first in person race since September of 2019 this morning. It was a small, local race along one of the greenways in town. I did the 15k, but there was also a 7k option. The weather was a little iffy; light rain at the start that cleared up and then heavier rain with thunder toward the end. Nate and the kids were going to meet me downtown afterward to watch some dragon boat races but the bad weather made us change our minds.  I was very happy with my time of 1:33:29. The first 5 miles were really good, mile 6 and 7 were only ok and then miles 8 and 9 were hard (and slow). My running usually slows down over the summer and I did not really train for this race. This was probably the longest I’ve run since school got out. The best part of the race was the free sno-cone at the finish. Later in the afternoon we drove out to Sweetwater to see their updated music store. All the rain meant we couldn’t work on painting the deck like we had planned. 

 It’s my birthday! I told Nate I wanted to go mini golfing after he came home from work so that’s what we did.  In the morning we had invited Tamber and Natalya to hang out downtown with us. I picked up some treats at a local coffee shop and we let the kids play in the canal and playground.  My most delicious present was cupcakes as made by one of Nate’s co-workers. I also got a pair of running socks and new headphones for running.