New Kitchen

Our new kitchen is almost done, floors to be refinished and extended into the family room, floor trim to be put in and outlet covers to be put on. We did most of the design and layout ourselves, along with the work (with some help on both from Ma and Pa Smith). With the wall gone, it is amazing how open the rooms feel now, and there is so much space to cook!

Here is what it looks like so far. There are a few "during construction" photos and some "almost done with construction" photos. Never noticed how much junk was on our refrigerator until I looked at these photos. Yikes! But the girls like having their stuff on there, so there it stays. The desk in the kitchen is very nice, and the open family room has been great for family Wii time, which the girls are happy for now that the work is almost done!

Construction/Before photos

Construction already started, cleaning out the cabinets.

More packing being done.

Hole in the ceiling to get to the waterline and drain line.

"No pictures! No comments!"

Wall between kitchen and family room now gone.

Refrigerator looks so lonely.

Big open, unfinished empty space.

After photos

Family room looking toward front door. (Never noticed how cluttered the fridge was until now.)

FR looking toward dining room.

Garage hallway looking toward family room/back door.

Entry way looking toward family room.

Dining room looking toward garage hallway.

Dining room looking toward family room.

Christmas, Lionsview and basketball

Christmas!
Christmas in the Ruiz house was a little disheveled this year. We decided to do some work to our kitchen to rid our house of the hideous white cupboards we have been living with since we moved in 8 years ago. We started our project on Veteran’s Day and thought for sure we would be done by Christmas. Sadly, were we not done by Christmas, and here it is MLK weekend and we are still not done, although very close. (Look for a separate blog posting on the kitchen). We had just a few decorations up and a Christmas tree. Santa was good to the girls and each got something they really wanted: for Lanna a bike and Maggie a new jacket. Oh, and Maggie, Lanna and Mom all got Snuggies!

Maggie and Lanna by our tree

Maggie showing off her new coat

Lanna and her new bike

"I got a Snuggie!"

AAU Basketball
Once again, Carol is co-coaching basketball with another mom, but this time with an AAU tournament team. We had a one day tournament in Kelso just before Christmas and a two day tournament this weekend in Chehalis. We have been working on the fundamentals of basketball, while trying to get in time with offensive and inbounds plays. One thing you notice right away at any tournament is that you wish you had more practice time! But the girls played some great defense, did some fast breaking, and occasionally we saw glimpses of the offense being run. For some girls, I think the tournaments are more about the concession stand and gabbing time in the stands than the actual games.

We played in our first two-day tournament this weekend and were very close in every game. We won only one game, but could easily have won four of those games. The girls seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the social aspect of the weekend as much as the playing part of it.

Fun time at Subway

Maggie cruzin' the court

Panthers warming up

The Panthers in action

Mr. Red-shorts (Jill T's favorite)

Lionsview – A Class Town
Lanna is in the third grade this year and has really enjoyed school. This year, the class was given a city theme with every child having a job, a mayor, reporters, banks, etc. The Daily News ran a story on the class and Lanna’s picture made the paper. The article and picture of Lanna are linked below. Way to go Lanna!

http://tdn.com/news/local/article_3c2bf16a-033f-11df-93a7-001cc4c03286.html

http://tdn.com/image_9bd4525a-0309-11df-ae38-001cc4c03286.html

Western Day
One Friday a month is a special dress up day at Columbia Heights Elementary and this past Friday was western day. Lanna found things in her closet and then borrowed something from both mom and dad to finish out the ensemble. She wanted to wear mom’s boots too, but I nixed that idea. Although sadly, the boots were not that big on her.

Lanna all westerned up - yeehaw

Pumpkin Patch and Run Like Hell half-marathon

Pumpkin Patch

Ruiz Family Pumpkin Patch 2009

We did the annual family trip to the pumpkin patch this year at yet another place. This one was a bit smaller, but still had plenty of good pumpkins to choose from. I was a nice day to be with the family and we enjoyed our short trip. We were fortunate to find a white pumpkin, in addition to the traditional orange ones. And we even saw several friends at the patch as well.

Maggie with her white pumpkin.

Lanna holding her perfect pumpkin.

Run Like Hell Half-Marathon

The Raccoon Racers ran the Run Like Hell half-marathon and 10k today. Carol and Trish ran the half-marathon (2 hrs 2 minutes) while Cindy and Shannon ran the 10k. It was fun to see the many costumes runners wore and it turned out to be a perfect day for a run. Given that we meet so early in the morning (5:00 a.m.) and it is usually dark, Raccoon Racers seemed a fitting name for our group (although our many encounters with raccoons during our runs is really the reason for the name). We donned our masks for a pre-race picture before heading to the starting line. No, we did not wear our masks during the run for fear of breaking and ankle on the course due to limited vision. The race started at 7:30 in the morning and it was a bit chilly. However, after a mile or two (closer to two) we started to warm up and get into the groove of the run. The half-marathon took us through downtown Portland and then up (and I mean up) into the hills of Portland with a nice view of the Willamette River and Mt. Hood in the distance, before heading back into downtown and the finish line. We have been training for this race for about 3 months and it was satisfying to cross the finish line for one more race completed. With the race behind us, we are all enjoying our afternoon with a well deserved day of relaxing.

Raccoon Racers (left to right) Carol, Trish, Shannon and Cindy

Family Happenings

Summer Canning

Summer seemed to come and go with a blur, and before we knew it, it was time for school to start. We spent a few days/weekends with Nanny making pickle relish and jelly. Since the girls helped do some grinding of the relish ingredients, Lanna stated it is now "our" relish and not "Nans" relish. The girls also did a great deal of raspberry and blackberry picking for the jelly making. Our cupboard is stocked with jars of relish and raspberry and blackberry jelly. I enjoy spending this time with my mom and hope I can pass this experience onto our girls. It's time consuming work, but the rewards are delicious and the girls enjoy reaping the fruits of their labor (actually more Mom and Nan's labor). With fall apples here we will be doing a bit more canning in the near future, with Nanny at the helm, of course.

Nan and Lans straining the relish.

One batch of jelly completed.

Soccer

We are into the full swing of things with school and fall soccer. Now that Dan is a certified referee, he is busy almost all day Saturday with games to ref in between watching the girls play. So far we have been lucky that the girls games schedules have not conflicted, but we know the day will come when we are not so lucky, so for now, we are enjoying it. Lanna's team is still playing strong and winning most (if not all) of their games so far. Maggie is enjoying playing select soccer and getting to know her new teammates. Her team is 2-2 so far and beginning to play well as a team.

Lanna in the goal.

Cispus

Maggie had the joy of attending the Cispus outdoor school for 4 days in September. Carol went to Cispus when she was a 5th grader and was excited for Maggie (and hopefully Lanna) to have this experience as well. We heard many campfire songs and comments about Cispus for weeks, if not months, prior to the trip. One of the things that makes this experience so anticipated is that the entire school comes out to see the 5th graders off. So for 5 years (K-4), Maggie has watched previous classes depart for their trip, dreaming of the day when it would be her turn to go.

Mom and Maggie at the Cispus send-off.

Lanna's class sending off the 5th graders

The experience did not disappoint for her. In fact, it was even better than she imagined. The 5th graders spend 4 days and 3 nights in the Cascade Mountains taking in a multitude of learning experiences such as plant life, wildlife, land forms, wilderness survival, and a long nature hike. They stay in a dorm with 8 students and one high school counselor (whom Maggie absolutely adored), and meet as a group for meals and nightly camp fires. For days afterwards we heard something about Cispus about every 5 mintutes. Talk of Cispus slowly tapered to every few hours, to once a day and now every fews days. It made such an impression on her that she would like to be a counselor when she is in high school.

One of Maggie's Cispus groups.

Posing for a picture at Yellow Jacket Creek.

We are thrilled Maggie had such a great time and are excited for the day Lanna is able to go as well. Lanna enjoyed her time as an only child for a while, but by the last night commented that she missed Maggie. I asked Maggie when she returned if she missed Lanna and she said "No, not really." Well, one out of two is not bad.

Playing hookie

I skipped work today to head out on the Columbia River with some co-workers to try my hand at the fall run of salmon. It was a slow day, but as they say, a bad day of fishing beats a good day of working. Dan was invited to go as well, but since school is back in session, he had to pass on the fishing trip, and was just a bit envious. We headed out at 5:30 to the boat launch to get our spot "on the line" and drop our lures in the water. Captain Tom, First Mate Corky and deck hand Cindy are old pros at this and in no time we were waiting for our first bite.

It wasn't too long before we had a hit, and the crew were generous enough to let me reel in the first fish, as I hadn't caught a salmon in a while. This turned out to be a jack, which is a juvenile Chinook salmon that heads in to spawn early (I did not know this before today). Anything over 24" is considered an adult, and this salmon measured at 23 3/4" (I swear!). After basking in the sun for a while and having a few snacks, we got another hit, another jack, but released this back into the water as it looked like it had already started the aging process. We had a big hit a little later on what was sure to be the biggest fish of the day, but somehow the fish managed to wiggle off the hook. Not long after, we had another fish on which the captain was sure was another jack, small and not worth pulling the anchor to drift with the current making it easier to land the fish. However, he was wrong and we netted a nice size Chinook of 14-15 lbs.

Carol with the jack on her right and 15 lbs chinook on her left.

"Hurry up and take the picture already, my arms are tired!"

We may have had a bite or two after this, but it was slow for the rest of the day. We packed it in a little after 1:00 and headed back to dry land and home. It was an absolutely perfect day for fishing with calm water and warm sunshine, and it beat sitting in the office, even if the catching was slow. I was able to put two marks on my punch card today! Many thanks to the Gowers for a wonderful day. On the menu tonight: fresh salmon fillets!

Soccer Weekend

Cowlitz Kickoff Classic, 2009

Maggie had her first soccer tournament as a Timber Baron this weekend as her team played in the Cowlitz Kickoff Classic in Longview. Her team won 4 games and took first place in the tournament. Although it was fun to see them win, what was even more fun to watch was the girls meshing as a team. Maggie scored two goals over the weekend and played well. Lanna was a trouper as a "soccer orphan" a yet one more tournament and can't wait until it is her turn to have a tournament.

Timber Barons 98, CKC '09

Maggie being presented her medal

Cowlitz Kickoff Classic 2009 Champions

Girls U-11, Timber Barons 98

Referee Dan

Dan completed the referee course just a week or so ago and worked a few games this weekend as an AR (that's assistant referee, or linesman, for those of you not up to date on soccer lingo). He did a great job and it is nice to have someone give back to the sport that has give to our daughters. There will be many more games to officiate for sure, but it is all for a good cause. He was paid for the games he ref'd, but we managed to donate most of the money back to the Timber Barons 96 team running the concessions stand. I think they grill those darn burgers on purpose!

Dan assistant reffing at the tournament

It was a fun weekend and great for soccer. Just one more practice game on Tuesday before a few weeks off before the fall season starts. Yikes, school is JUST around the corner.

Observations in Italy

• Apparently, construction codes are much different in Italy than in the US. We saw several construction workers in San Marino and Italy wearing a uniform of work boots, cut off jeans, tool belt and hard hat and nothing else. Some workers should consider a different profession as they really should not be in public with the described uniform.
  


• Mopeds and motorcycles are the transportation of choice here. It doesn’t matter if you are in casual clothes, a suit and tie or even a skirt, blouse and high heels. Any attire is the right attire for riding your motor scooter. Carrying a cooler while riding a motorcycle is perfectly acceptable as well, apparently. The TV show COPS would have a field day here. Never seen cops on Mopeds. “Hey mister, slow down so we can catch you”.
  


• The second transportation mode of choice is smart cars or even Cushman utility trucks, which have room in the cab for only one driver. How interesting it is to see these small trucks parked everywhere or cruising down the street.
  


• Everything must be paid for here, including the use of bathrooms and beaches. There is nothing free, and woe to he who has not 60 cents for a trip to the bano! That would explain the smell of pee in certain places we have visited. At one restroom we were actually handed an allotment of toilet paper; I guess they couldn’t spare a square. We actually found a bathroom at the Lucca train station (and one or two others) without an attendant.
  


• Speaking of toilets, we ran across a few very different ones. Here is a picture from on in San Siro Stadium in Milan. It was an interesting experience, but when you have to go, you have to go!
  


• Did we mention nothing here is free? We have not found wireless internet free at most of the hotels we have stayed at, but hotels in the states would make it part of staying at the hotel. Our hotel in Florence claimed free wireless service, but it wasn’t working while we were there and they would happily allow us the use of their internet point for a small fee, thus NOT FREE!
  


• There are no STARBUCKS! :( There are no to go cups unless you are a six year old drinking out of a Dixie cup, just ask Valley Ingman.
  


• Beer is whatever they choose to give you. No choices like the Masthead.
  
• Smoking at any age is acceptable, apparently, as we have seen what I am sure are 12 and 13 year olds smoking. And you can buy cigarettes from a vending machine. And everyone (I mean EVERYONE) here smokes. Obviously no Surgeons General here in Italy!
  


• Graffiti is everywhere! It is really sad to see so many things covered with spray paint. And it is not confined to the big cities either, it is everywhere we have seen when traveling by train.
  


• I am not sure if they know what hair dryers are. I have used a variety of electrical devices that blow air, but look more like vacuum cleaners than dryers. The one in our room in Monterosso looked like it was made from part of my mother’s old vacuum, or was a Flo-bee: I have never dried my hair with a crevice tool before.
  


• ATMs must be very serious security threats and therefore not accessible beyond the security check points. Apparently they are required to be well hidden so as not to be obvious for tourists to spot and actually use when needed…at least in the airports.