Track Star Anna

Anna competed in the Sitka High track meet this weekend. On Friday she won the girls' shot-put. Today, Saturday, she did the discus(one of her throws was almost 67 feet), long jump, and participated in the 4x100m relay. Today our weather changed a bunch. No sun, but wind, cold, and rain. Anna has been working hard every day after school for track. She has even developed shin-splints. She apparently would have qualified for the State meet next month, but we will be back east on our vacation.

Springtime for....Sitka

We have had a full week now of clear skies and normal temps.  In fact, yesterday was 58 degrees.... Lori left last Thursday and was delayed 3 hours because of heavy snow here and in Juneau.  At about 2pm it cleared up and we haven't hardly seen a cloud since.  It will end Sat. p.m., but it has been absolutely gorgeous.  I have ridden my bike at least part way to work each day this week (I'm too out of shape to go too far).  The kids and I have cleaned out the flower beds for Lori and got the yard looking nice.  At least we will only have to put up with a week of this...when it ends...before heading back to Boston and the east coast.  The eagles have been out in force.  Sometimes you can see 50-100 of them in one place.  This one was about 20 feet away from me.  I walked right by the tree it was sitting in and he didn't even flinch.  Really cool.

The Honorable Anna.. and Meg and Charles

Tuesday night at the Sitka School Board meeting, Anna, Charles and Meg were honored as members of the Drama and Debate team which took 3rd place at the Alaska state meet and 1st place for Academic Excellence(highest overall grade point average). Anna and Allison were the only members of the team present as most of the others were traveling with other activities. Anna was also honored as being part of the Mock-Trial Team which also took 3rd place. She was the only representative there for the team.
I hope these kids don't think this honor is unimportant. It gives recognition to the time and effort they all put in to being so good.

Planes, Trams, and Automobiles

OK, so there were no trains...
As I mentioned in another post, it has been a busy month for us in a traveling way. If this gets a bit confusing...please pardon an old man. I had a continuing education meeting to go to that was required for the new optometry law here in Alaska. For 4 days every optometrist in Alaska was at the Alyeska Resort outside of Anchorage. It is a ski complex and with the long hours we put in very few went skiing...I wasn't one of them. However, this is where the Tram comes in. Dinner one night.. provided by one of our sponsors... was on the top of the mountain and we had to take the ski tram in order to eat. I have no pictures of this event because I lost the camera when I returned the rental car...must have left it and it either got thrown away or someone has a nice camera.
But, the next part of the trip involved 2 cameras... Anna's and Anneka's. My CE trip was just before our spring break trip to California. Lori, Meg, Charles, and Anna flew down on a Sunday and I flew overnight that same day from Anchorage, getting into Seattle at 3am and not leaving till 8am. Even that busy SEATAC airport was practictally empty at that time of night.
Richard flew down from Utah on Monday and Anneka, Mike, and Samantha came in on Wed. nite. Oh, we took D'Artagnan with us with a great haircut...a mohawk all the way down his back!! He fit right in in California.
It was weird to think that this will be the last time I'll see the house I grew up in as our family home. My mom now has it on the market and plans to move to a retirement community. Depending on how my dad does... that was very hard to see... I may have to wait till the next life to see him again. Mom seemed to enjoy the chaos that we all bring when we come. Lori arranged for us to do family pictures since all 6 of us were there. The previous post has some of those. First time in 4 years. I'm sure Mom was relieved to have a quiet place when we left. Oh, we also had staying with us at Mom's a friend of Meg and Charles...Ben. He is from Haines Alaska and Meg met him when she was on her way to her exchange...Ben went to Spain. He is on a "road trip" and was in Calif. when we were.
We went to the beach and D'Artagnan got to romp in the surf, went to Magic Mountain(a Six Flag park), Disneyland... Anna's first visit..., my mom treated us to a show in Hollywood- Wicked, we saw my dad, and just enjoyed mid-70s and sunny skies. We also got to see my cousin Josh and his family, my Aunt Susie and Bill, Mike got to eat at a South African place that Lori found(he was a missionary in Durban), and on our way back with a long layover in Seattle we spent some time with my brother David and his girls as well as another cousin...Luke. My sister-in-law, Debbie, had to work and we missed her. David fixed Lori and I an Easter dinner since Charles, Meg, and Anna went visiting with a friend. We also got to see David's gym. His so rightly proud of what he is doing there.
Since we got back from California I have been on a work trip to Klawock and now Charles and Meg are in Juneau for a state wide student council meeting and Anna is in Ketchikan for a track meet(she does shot put, discus, and sprints). Right now I don't even want to think about the crazyness in the next few weeks....more on that later.

We Should have been in Pictures

One of the important tasks we did during our trip to Long Beach last month was to get new family pictures taken.  It had been 4 years since were all together.  With Anneka, Mike, and Samantha along with Richard being there we took some pictures at JC Penney.  Enjoy. (Yes, I don't look happy, but I don't smile one cue very well)

Long Beach Hart Home on the Market

(NOTE:
I had a bad link for the house. Please now use
the following as a link to
www.virginiabrady.com. When there please
click on the Properties button on the left
and then on the link for Current Inventory).
Following the above link(the title of this post) you can see the home I grew up in.
Since my dad went in to the nursing home last summer my mom started making plans to move to a retirement area called Leisure World in Seal Beach(about 5 miles away). With the sale of the house Mom will be able to buy a place there for cash and have all that she needs...and what she doesn't need(lawn and other maintinance).

When my folks(with David and me) move to southern California in 1960 we rented a duplex on Euclid. I remember a bit about that place. In 1962, a year or so after John was born, we rented the house on Tevis from some friends. The deal was apparently a rent-to-own thing and in 1964 my parents were able to buy the house. In 1994 it was paid off just as my dad retired from teaching for 34 years.

The house wasn't always this big. When we moved in it had a large back yard. Between 1968 and 1970 we added the family room/master suite. Then there was a small remodel on the front of the house in the 80's.

I will miss this house and had to say "good-bye" a couple of weeks ago when we were there for spring break.