Mieke and Terra and Fundraising for YMCA Again in 2018!

A message from Travis Windleharth teamraisersupport@seattleymca.org.

 

Hi Everyone,

 

Mieke and Terra are fundraising for the YMCA again this year! All of the revenue goes to help youth in need.

 

For four years now Annemieke has attended before and after school care at the Magnuson Park branch of the YMCA, and Terraline is now in her second year, and they both do some summer Y camps. They'll continue to go here throughout elementary school, and they really enjoy it a great deal.

 

"I really like when we play the outside games, like when we were all fruit flies and eating different kidns of fruit like pears, bananas, and grapes" - Terra

 

"I really like all of the art and craft activities and the paintings we learn about from famous artists and then try to copy" - Mieke

 

So what are these kids up to here, and what else does the Y do?

 

The building the Y is located in is situated in Magnuson Park, which is a really awesome place. The whole giant park was previousy a Navy base, and has been redesigned to feature park areas, sports fields, wetlands, beaches, playgrounds, community gardens, art installations, and hiking trails. There's even a beaver lodge. Most of the old Navy buldings have been converted into community centers and officed for non-profit organizations.

 

After school activities at the Y are wonderful and integrate all of this space, and the Y cooperates with many of the non-profits to provide rich experiences for all of the kids. This year Mieke is learning to rock climb at the Mountaineers just down the street in a partnership with YMCA, taking computer classes at Microsoft, and both Mieke and Terra are taking a martials arts class on Fridays! They are both doing cooking classes in YMCA Master Chefs as well, and have takens courses such as Space Explorers, Lego Engineers, Comic Book Club, Nature Explorers, and Around the World (Geography and Anthropology).

 

What is really amazing is the YMCA doesn't turn families away for financial need. There are far more families in need in Seattle than some might expect, and the organization provides support to families that would not otherwise have access to this after school care and enrichment. Other classes they do or have done are Space Explorers, Lego Engineers, Comic Book Club, Nature Explorers, and Around the World (Geography and Anthropology).

 

In addition, these funds go to support other YMCA programs that provide nutrition to youth from low income families, clothes, and low income access to gyms, community centers, classes, childcare, and the YMCA provides a lot of other support for low income families, such as clothes.

 

If you can afford to give on behalf of Annemieke and Terraline, please consider. Thanks!

 

Addressing Critical Local Needs

Developing Smart, Resilient Youth
Your support prepares the next generation of kids to be successful adults.

Thanks to the support of caring donors like you, the Y is able to provide programs for our community’s youth from birth to graduation and beyond—no matter what their families’ financial situations may be.

In Y programs, kids develop the courage to try new things, the resilience to try again when they fail, social skills to make friends and keep them, and values like compassion, generosity, honesty, respect for diversity, and social responsibility.

Enhancing People's Health & Building Community
No one knows kids and communities better than the Y.

The Y is where community happens. In neighborhoods and towns across King County, the local Y is where people of all ages come together to laugh, learn, exercise, and build their sense of collective purpose and connectedness.

From the banking executive to the stay-at-home parent, the retired teacher to the cancer survivor, we give everyone the opportunity to live healthier lives, with donor-funded scholarships and sliding scale fees to ensure that the Y opportunities are open to all.

Caring for Vulnerable Young People
You drive the Y’s work to help youth and young people who need us the most.

As a charitable organization, the Y is deeply committed to serving the greater good. And, thanks to you, we are making a profound difference in people’s lives. We provide thousands of meals to hungry kids, safe, stable environments for foster youth and their families, and positive role models and opportunities to learn and work for at-risk and homeless youth.

Your support makes our community stronger. Please join me and consider giving today. http://campaigner.seattleymca.org/site/TR/AnnualCampaign/General?px=1252619&pg=personal&fr_id=1081

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Chompers

Community Day

The UW villages held family day today, and Terra socialized, while Mieke jumped in the bouncers and rode ponies.

Fall

I am wearing Terra, otherwise she would be in the picture too.

Tiger Mountaim State Park

Terra takes the lift.

Yellow Bee

Annemieke's imagination has really been blossoming lately, and her imaginative play and stories have become more complex. The other day while I was pushing her on the swing, she told me that she wanted me to "push me in swing so high, into SPACE!" with a dramatic skyward gesture with her hand. Then she told me she would go to the moon and to a comet.

I caught one of her little stories on video in the car this morning. I'll add subtitles later, but if you turn it up you can tell that she is saying. I don't even know where she got the idea, but apparently when she gets older she is going to turn into a yellow bee and grow wings under her arms, and fly over houses and into trees. I seriously have no idea where she comes up with some of this stuff.

Judi and Terra

Early photo of Judi and Terra.

River Walk

Annemieke insists on having a stick on every nature trail. We are on the San Diego River Walk.

Mission Trails

Annemieke loves the Mission Trails Regional Park and Visitors Center.

Animal Sounds

I forgot sheep, "baa", and horse "neigh!".

Halloween

So this last weekend was Halloween, and of course Judi and I had our 6th happy anniversary.

Annemieke was a skeleton this year and of course she made a very cute one at that. I am surprised at how tolerant of the hood she was. We went to the Joan and Ray Kroc Community Center to a free carnival, and sa all sorts of fun costumes. Of course with Mieke being so young, we mostly watched, but there was apple bobbing, fishing for prizes, a haunted theater, cookie decorating, pumpkin decorating, tie-die, a craft fair, all kinds of fun decorations and of course food.

There is even an ice skating rink, and I got to try that for the first time! I didn't even fall.

Pumpkins!

Pine Cone

Of course things are still busy, but that is still no excuse for not posting an update or two! Some of the amusing things Annemieke has done lately:

* She makes animal sounds for cat, wolf, snake, lizard, elephant, lion, and murloc.

* Told the cat to get out of her room at bedtime- she pointed at the cat and said "nout!".

* Is now liberally saying "no". Do you want more milk? No! *shakes head* Can daddy have a hug? No!

* Preempts the signing time DVDs. She'll make the signs at the intro to each section at the black and white text when they speak the word, before they even show the sign.

* "Kisses" by sucking in her cheeks.

* Will cover her eyes if you say "dark".

* Will tripod with her head on the ground if you say "upside-down".

* Follows instructions very well. Too well. "Can you put the towel in the hamper"? Can you put the car in the box"? "Can you give the pine cone a hug"?

* Tries to hug kids in the child care center at the Y.

* Tries complex words. Rutabaga: "rubrubrubrub". Avocado: "avavavav".

* She is now obsessed with bubbles, which she calls "gaga" for some reason. She will sequentially hand us a cup and then soap in the shower, insistent we make "gaga" for her.

* She has some concept of self now. If I ask her "where is Mieke" or "Where is you"? she points to herself.

She's a funny kid.

Motivation

It was like a switch was thrown...

She went from a few hesitant steps to double-timing in in about fifteen minutes. All I needed to do was give her a little bit more motivation.

Surgery and a Bunch of Videos

First, a few shots of Annemieke. She is learning new things all the time, and it is a great deal of fun to watch. We made a couple of trips to the zoo recently- once with my family Easter weekend, and once since then. I'll attach a few photos I've taken since our hike, and upload some random videos I shot of Mieke.

I/Travis had a stapedectomy surgery performed on my ear a week ago Monday, which means they took out my calcified stapes (stirrup) bone and replaced it with a prosthetic. It was an outpatient procedure, though I'd never been under general anesthesia before. Given all of the other help issues people in the family have had this year- stents, brain inflammation, broken hips, spinal surgery, radiation treatment, and aggressive cancer, it seems rather insignificant. I was back at work in a few days and I feel great.

I can't hear much from my left ear since the prosthetic hasn't "opened" yet (it generally takes two to three weeks), plus it is stuffed with packing and my ear is full of fluid. It will be a few weeks before I will be able to hear much, and know how much hearing I got back. There is a small chance the prosthetic shifted (3%) but there is no way to know for now. The biggest downside is my list of restrictions, which includes not picking anything up over 10 pounds. Annemieke weighs about 18 pounds now... so we've been doing floor play, and the nanny is staying until bedtime every night. It is an expensive solution, but I don't want to risk having to go back in for a touch-up surgery.

I can't thank Judi enough- she's been superwoman taking on extra duties- taking care of Mieke AND me, and taking on extra duties around the house, as well as going to her own job. I am also extremely grateful to my parents, who came up on Saturday and watched Mieke while Judi was at work- AND cleaned the house and helped out in so many ways. Compared to what others in the family are dealing with, the past eight days have been a walk in the park for us, but it is still not easy.

Annemieke is still learning new things all the time. We made a couple of trips to the zoo recently- once with my family Easter weekend, and once since then. I've attach a few photos I've taken since our hike, and upload some random videos I shot of Mieke.

And since I use YouTube, I'll just link the videos. They are just Annemieke doing random things. We found the exact same "Frog Music Table" thing Chris and Nay have at the used baby toy store, and since she enjoyed it so much we bought it for her.

"Water": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQOYPT6Z9b4

"The Wall": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrc707EGIAw

"Flowers": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAj8Zpnxq4

"Sharing": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1gMSdPh3Ts

"Stairmaster": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C04yDCJW_E

"Dancing Girl!": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOp1Pk-U5fs

"One Page Book": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtLK-FCMjgc

"Yogurt Wizard": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCUs6SGuPuw

Mission Trails in Green

Judi, Annemieke and I went on a nice hike after breakfast this morning through the Grinding Rocks Loop of Mission Trails park. We got some coffee for the trip, put Mieke in the Ergo, and headed into the park. It is very nice to live so close to the park and the visitor center, we were there in three minutes (and I have been hiking the Cowles Mountain trail more lately as well, since it is so easy to get to and the Ergo makes it easy to take Mieke). It was a wonderful, cool, overcast morning which are my favorite hiking conditions. There was a cool humidity in the air that filled the entire gorge with an herbaceous aroma of sage and other scents.

I have not seen San Diego this green in a very long time- at least since the winter 2004/2005 rains, and this may be the greenest I have ever seen it. Since November there has been at least a little bit of rainfall every seven to ten days, interspersed between unusually warm and sunny periods, which has kept all of the flora growing. Flowers are exploding everywhere, to the regret of my sinuses, though delight of Mieke who very much likes them. Everywhere I looked in the park I saw all sorts of plants in numbers I have never observed, and a throngs of flowers. We're due at least one more storm which is expected to roll in tomorrow, so we should get a few more weeks of this green before it is baked into summer brown. We also saw some intrepid baby cottontails and numerous birds.

Here are a few shots from the hike, with a link to Picasa below for some additional shots.

http://picasaweb.google.com/arlanthe/2010Apr11MissionTrails#

Seismic Disturbance

Well, we’re back. I’ve been meaning to resurrect this blog for some time, starting ohhh… about a year ago. Actually living life seems to get in the way of blogging about it however, but I finally decided that there is never going to be a “good” time to sit down and create updates, and that I will just create blog posts here and there as I can. There certainly is plenty for my family to blog about though- these pages are stagnant not for lack of news.

It is interesting that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube seem to have supplied the “connected” among us with a sort of immediate gratification in posting pictures, videos, web links, and snippets of personal news. These are great tools, but there is something lacking in the abrupt and constantly shifting nature of these services. Blog posts seem like a better method of going into a topic in more detail, even if it takes a little bit more effort and the audience is smaller. (Though I am still a huge proponent of using an RSS feed, such as Google Reader for those of you with Google accounts, to monitor blogs and other web pages).

So of course the big news this week is the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck South of Mexicali on Easter Sunday. Judi, Annemieke, and I all felt it in San Diego. Judi had a rude awakening from her nap, and Mieke and I were sitting at the computer when it struck. It was the strongest earthquake I have felt in San Diego in the 10.5 years I have lived here, and was the strongest I’ve felt since I lived in the Imperial Valley (which is where the epicenter was, on the Mexico side). It lasted for quite some time, and the building swayed a great deal and creaked and popped. Nothing appeared to have fallen over, and there was no damage. A series of aftershocks followed, several of which we felt through last night.

My family was actually headed back to Brawley from visiting us in San Diego when the earthquake struck (Brawley being not too far North of the epicenter, along the same San Andreas fault complex). They had almost arrived back in Brawley when the earthquake struck, having just gone down Carter road three minutes before the event. The image below shows Carter road in the immediate aftermath of the quake- note the main canal on the right overflowed its dirt banks, and flooded the road with water and mud. That spot is where my family was driving three minutes before the quake. Their house was tussled some, but there was no major damage, although apparently some streets in Brawley were flooded with water from all of the swimming pools that overflowed. My uncle Joe, 20 miles closer to the epicenter, reported that the water came out of his pool higher than a person “like a tidal wave”.

Leiden and Delft

We also went to the smaller tows of Leiden and Delft, outside of Den Haag.

Leiden is a small but attractive university town that straddles the Rhine as it meanders through Holland. The river is split into a "Y" in town, with the center of town coinciding with the convergence. The University of Ledien is very old, having been established in 1575 by William I of Orange. It has been home to a number of famous Dutch artists and scientists both ancient and contemporarty. Rembrandt was born and went to school here (note his surname: van Rijn "of the Rhine"), painter Jan Steen was born here, as was Willebrord Snellius, of "Snells Law" fame- another important optics theorem you owe thanks to for everything from binoculars to fiber optic technology. Newton made great advances in optics, but the Dutch pretty much owned the field for a century leading up to him. Also, the "Leyden Jar" was invented here, shocking! (That last sentence was a double entendre. The Leyden jar was essentially the first capacitor, it stored electric charge. Hey- if Judi posts, you get wit and language. If I post you get physics, deal with it).

I also never knew until stumbling across several plaques that this is where the second Mayflower pilgrims lived before setting sail for the Americas (though they did make a a "pit stop" in England to use the bathroom on the way). There are some exiled puritans buried here who never made the second Mayflower trip, including many children, and several English language puritan churches were run here for quite some time. Several American organizations keep the graves, plaques, and American historical sites maintained. Pictures to follow, as usual.

Delft is famous for its characteristic porcelain appropriately named "Delftware". When you think of "fine China" you may think of painted blue porcelain dishes, possibly with windmills and flowers on it. That is Delftware. This is also a very nice town, and it is obvious that its main trade and claim to fame are its ceramics. The Royal ceramicists also work here, and we bought a piece from there. We wandered the town, meandered through the shops, had a great lunch, and at the end of the day we headed home.

Den Haag

This last weekend Judi and I had a rental car, so we took advantage of that and spent a few days in central Netherlands. First we spent some time in Den Haag (the Hague), which is the hoofdstaad of the Netherlands, I believe. In the Netherlands the capital is Amsterdam, but the government is based in Den Haag. This is of course where the international war crimes tribunal is located, among other famous international institutions.

We walked around town quite a bit, and it is a very attractive place with old churches and houses, and modern museums and shopping. We walked past many embassies under shady lanes. I wanted to park our car in the Swiss Ambassadors parking spot, where a sign reads “Parking for Swiss Ambassador Only” and snap a photo, but Judi barred me from causing an international incident. We passed the Escher museum, the big central fountain, and went inside the Oude Kerk (Old Church). It is a nice church, and I received an unexpected surprise when we ambled unexpectedly to the final resting place of Christiaan Huygens. He’s a “big name” in physics, especially optics, as well as astronomy, music, mathematics, and philosophy. He was surely one of the Netherlands greatest prodigies.

We also toured the Mauritshuis, permanent and temporary home of many of the finest pieces from the Dutch masters. Rembrandt, Jan Steen, Vermeer, and many more are well represented. Two of the most famous paintings in the building, which I shall paste below, are Rembrandts “The Anatomy Lesson”, and Vermeer’s “Girl with Pearl Earring”. In all of our tours of the museums of Northern Europe, I have developed a particular fondness for Vermeer and Jan Steen, and wonder why they don’t receive more attention.

There is a story related to Judi in this. The observer in the painting in the center, looking forward, is an ancestor of Judi's. I'll have her edit the post so she can explain it.

Later in the day we went to de Pier which means... the Pier. This pier is a sort of “double decker” pier, with glass walls creating an envelope between the two levels, so visitors can walk on top or stay sheltered inside in bad weather. Out at the ends of the pier are a cafe (poffertjes!), a multi-story restaurant, and an arcade. We had a dinner of mussels and frites, and as it turned out our server was an American born, Dutch raised sort of dual-citizen who hops back and forth between the U.S. and the Netherlands. I had to ask him where he was from, because his English was very, well, American. We walked some on the beach, caught the sunset, and even watched a red fox skate along the sands into some beach dunes that seem to be set aside as a reserve. It is a very gorgeous city.

Science and Rugby

We made on last trip into Paris this last weekend. It was actually to complete a school project, which required a visit to an informal science institution (ISI), so I planned a trip there with one of my classmates who happens to be another expatriate living in Paris. The Paris science museum is massive. It is a large three story complex, with a submarine and geodesic IMAX dome as separate structures on the grounds. It is easily the largest science center I have ever visited. There were exhibits on genetics, orchids, automobiles, energy, light, the space sciences- you name it. Two large children’s centers within the building alone were rather large. My classmate Elizabeth and I were able to get our research completed. Judi met up with us later after she did some shopping at the huge mall at the south end of Paris.

The other significant even of this trip, after our dinner in the Latin Quarter, was the rugby grudge match between France and England in the semi-finals. We were actually unaware that this rugby game was to take place in Paris, but on Saturday evening there was no question that the air was crackling with energy. Blue, white, and red face paint abounded, as did capes of the colors of France and banners of France and the team. We tried to get into a British pub to meet up with Elizabeth, but every pub was already packed and there were three times as many people in the streets as there were indoors. The streets themselves turned into a rowdy party zone. Large monitors broadcasting the game were swarmed by thousands. In most places when French icons came on the screen the crowd cheered, and when England came on the crowd jeered. The exception were the few English pubs that displayed the colors of England openly (all of the pubs were actually very clearly labeled by either a French or English false façade). I noticed the Irish pubs threw their lot in with France.

We soaked in the energy for a little while, chatted with some Brits on the street who couldn’t get in anywhere either, and eventually made our way back to the hotel where we watched the game in the hotel. I was downstairs during the latter half of the game, where a mob of South Africans, Aussies, Kiwis, and two other San Diegans were watching the game. (By sheer coincidence there were two San Diegans, separately, staying in the hotel and watching the game. We were the only Americans there). An Australian narrated and let me in on what the heck was going on. All but the one Briton in the room were cheering for the French, because they believed the English team to be thoroughly arrogant, plus well- you know how it is with former British colonies. The French narrowly lost, much to the dismay of all of the French people and team former-British-colony. It was an energetic night.