On a Scale of One to Ten - I Didn't Get Much Done

My begging for donations is front row center this post as the actual “Dash for Nash” takes place this weekend.  For those who haven't been reading this blog, Nash was in a terrible car accident when he was hit by an uninsured drunk driver.  His road to recovery is a long one and anything you can do helps.  Give what you can, every dollar, prayer and share goes a long way!  To donate, click HERE, but if you can't do that, share this post, and if that's too much, say a little prayer for Mai and her family.  Thanks again!

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Earlier this year I made public my resolutions for the year and I must say…. I am quickly falling on my face.  I made bold proclamations and underlined them with hope and moxy.  I spoke of shaving time off of my marathon times, losing weight, getting the kids going in a variety of ways and even improving my golf game.  I have not succeeded in any of these endeavors.  Here they are in the most successful to least successful of said projects. 

GOLF – I set a goal of playing a sub 40 round of golf.  While I didn’t hit that so far, I have hit two 40s this year.  I don’t feel like I’ve played well and I also don’t feel like I’ve played enough to do so.  That probably has something to do with responsibilities.  Stupid responsibilities.

WEIGHT – It may not be obvious to the naked eye, but I’m not impossibly far behind in my weight loss goal.  In fact, I am halfway there.  On the surface, one might think “halfway there with almost half a year left, he may have this one”.  Those people clearly don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas or know anything about my winter weight gain or know what happens to me after I run my last race of the year. Conservatively, I would need to be at 130% of my weight goal to have a chance of being at 100% come December 31. 

RUNNING – I wanted to shave some minutes off my marathon times.  Whelp, it seems you would have to run a marathon to shave minutes from it.  While I have run a bunch this year, time concerns made marathon training a difficult nut to crack.  My last race of the year will be a half marathon in September but will unfortunately fall 13.1 miles short of a full.  I guess you could say I shaved four plus hours off last year’s marathon time, but that might be slightly disingenuous. 

KIDS – I wanted this summer to be the one where we worked on things that were important to them…whether they realized it or not.  I had full intentions of accelerating their math program, their piano lessons, their soccer play and their running, some of which they are currently interested in.  We did some of the above, not all, perhaps not even a lot.  I have begun to realize that they have to want it for themselves as bad as I want it for them.  I had dreams of them being ahead in school this year, of being in the upper echelon of their respective soccer teams and of getting a foothold on the piano.  As a parent, you want the best for your little ones even if they don’t see the full benefit, but without seeing the full benefit they are less than apt to dedicate themselves. It’s a conundrum, a Catch-22 that less solvable than I have grey matter to combat it. 

The message here girls?  Its twofold.  The first is to be accountable.  I made a list of things that I wanted to accomplish.  I put them out to the world (or worse, on the internet which apparently is forever).   It would have been easy to ignore what I had resolved, and to most readers it may have been advised.  But the fact is that I resolved to get these things done and for the most part, I did not.  I have time, but unless Christmas is void of visitors and ham, I don’t like my odds.  The second lesson has more to do with you directly.  Some of the resolutions I made were to help you accomplish things that would benefit you down the road.  The problem with that road is that it is a two-way street.  I can want it for you until I’m blue in the face but you have to want it, too.  What I can do is facilitate things and show you why it’s important but it’s up to you to follow through.  That being said, time to clean your room, at home soccer practice starts in fifteen!

River Rafting and Fly Fishing and Whatever Cleaning I Have to Do.

Okay, so the girls had their grandparents take them away for the week.  At first, I was a little apprehensive as they will be missing our Fourth of July traditions, including having our neighbors over for BBQ and setting off COMPLETELY LEGAL fireworks in the back yard and sitting on the second hole of City Park Golf Course for the city’s annual firework display.  My wife and I finally acquiesced to the request and sent the girls off to Gunnison, Colorado.  

While I was reluctant at first, I have to admit that I did loosen to the idea as evidenced by the fact that within twenty minutes of the little one’s departure, my wife and I were enjoying a beer at a brewery down the street from our house.  It was nice to sit and talk to another grown-up without the seven question a minute pace my children generally set.  We sat and discussed, well, the kids.  We talked about that week’s soccer games and Avery scoring a goal and making a fantastic save, we talked about Macy playing well but being inconsolable after a rather meaningless loss and Darby deciding that she wanted to take a summer off of the sport.  In order, we decided that we were thrilled for Avery, needed to have a chat with Macy and that despite it not being great for her, Darby taking the summer off was great for us.  After that we went home and began to straighten up after the debacle that was getting the girls out of the house.

The only other event that came up so far was a reading we attended for a friend who just published his first novel.  That’s it.  That’s the fun that we gave ourselves.  I guess in the spirit of transparency, that’s the fun we afforded ourselves that didn’t involve running around Horsetooth Lake trying to get ready for our Wild West Relay.  Beyond that we have planned a fun filled week of cleaning the house, thinning the girls over abundant clothing supply, putting our garage back into order, a little gardening, mowing the lawn, prepping for a new diet and if that fun wasn’t quite enough, I am also taking online classes that have taken over my life.  

As my wife put it, “What would the ‘us’ of fifteen years ago think about the ‘us’ today?”.  Chris and Adrienne of fifteen years ago were fun loving people.  It would be fair to say that both of them would have disapproved greatly of our plans.  Well, fifteen year ago ‘Chris’ was so smart, he’d still be making the calls for today ‘Chris’ and I have obviously left that job up to Adrienne and the girls.  

Come to find out, while we have been scrubbing and sorting and mowing and pruning, the girls have been riding four wheelers, fly fishing, watching fireworks in Gunnison and even went on a rafting trip.  Both fifteen year ago ‘Chris’ and today ‘Chris’ are terribly jealous and I assume you could plug Adrienne, either version of her, into that camp as well.  

The point of this one, little ladies?  Pretty simple, really.  There is a time for almost everything.  It’s summer break and you girls need some fun.  While you’re gone it gives mommy and me a chance to get some things done around the house.  The classes are necessary and so is the mowing.  We’ll get it done while you’re gone and hopefully find a touch of time for ourselves as well.  As for you?  Get your fun in now little ladies.  We have math to study and handwriting to work on.  If you want to think about running the 5Ks you’ve talked about you need to start running.  Soccer starts back up in a couple of weeks and the house always needs help.  So, enjoy your fun, and there will be more to be had, but we need a certain amount of focus as well.  After you get back you can look forwards to equal parts of work and fun.  Spelling here, Renaissance Festival there, Math here, Glenwood Springs there.  Balance like that will help you greatly in the future.  

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Speaking of helping greatly in your future, invest in your karma! We are still collecting donations for Mai and her son Nash.  For those who haven't been reading this blog, Nash was in a terrible car accident when he was hit by an uninsured drunk driver.  His road to recovery is a long one and anything you can do helps.  Give what you can, every dollar, prayer and share goes a long way!  To donate, click HERE, but if you can't do that, share this post, and if that's too much, say a little prayer for Mai and her family.  Thanks again!

My Kindergarten Teacher Can Beat Up Your Kindergarten Teacher!

I haven't written in a while, but this is a blog post I've been marinating on since the end of the school year.  This year marked the end of an era for the Jacobson clan.  Over the last five years we have all gotten to know a fantastic teacher by the name of Connie Le.  Mrs. Le was each of my daughters first teacher at Traut Core Knowledge School.

After the last day of school I found myself thinking about the teachers who made an impact on my life.  I came up with three names, Julie Frink, Ted Snow and Terri Sandelin.  I would be willing to bet that none of the three would "A" remember me or "B" know what an impact they had on this 'meh' student.  Mrs. Frink was my sixth grade teacher at St. Johns Elementary.  I think that she would be surprised to know that I was a relatively unhappy student when I walked through her classroom door for the first time.  I was fresh off of two years of very strict Catholic school teachers and hung out with a group of friends who saw recess as the only redeeming quality of school.  She turned it around for me, whether she realizes it or not.  Ted Snow was a speech teacher I had during my freshman year of college. He made me able to speak in front of people, which is a fine accomplishment, but more importantly, he taught me to embrace writing and the creativity that goes along with it.  NOTE: perhaps I should be cursing Mr. Snow at the same time as he is in large part why I wound up with an English degree as opposed to a degree more valuable than the paper its printed on.  Finally, Terri Sandelin was a teacher for several English courses I took at Colorado State.  She embraced conversation about literature and its meanings.  She was of the belief that there isn't simply a correct answer in literature, in fact, there is an endless supply of correct answers and it is for the reader to sift through them and find the one that brought the text to life for them. I'd like to offer an honorable mention to Dr. Bucco, Sister Martha and Coach McCormick.

Here is the rub, these three teachers, and the three honorable mentions, are about all that stick with me for my twenty-ish years of education.  This group, for the most part, saw a kid who needed help in one way or another and took the time to give it.  I could site plenty of examples of teachers who didn't extend their hands the same way, but this isn't that kind of blog and I'm probably mostly to blame for it anyway.

That brings me to Connie Le.  Mrs. Le was the kindergarten teacher for all three of my children and without hyperbole, they are all incredibly better for it.  When I say that, it isn't in a "all kindergarten teachers are great and all the kids are better for it" kind of way.  I'll say it this way: if you have children and they had a teacher that wasn't Connie Le, then you officially shortchanged your kids.  Okay, maybe that's a step too far and maybe I'm a touch biased, but Mrs. Le was great for our family.

Avery was a shy kid.  She was an extreme rule follower to the extent that she wouldn't even speak up when she was knocked down in the hallway by another kid because "we aren't allowed to talk in the halls".  She needed someone to help her out of her shell.  Enter Connie Le.  I don't know that Avery would recognize the little girl that entered kindergarten at this point. She blossomed under Mrs.Le's watch.

Macy was the opposite of a shy kid.  We were concerned that Macy would try to solve all of the worlds problems with her fists.  We were nervous going to our first parent teacher conference that we may be sending Macy to therapy, not first grade.  As it turns out, with Mrs. Le's help, Macy had become a calming influence in class and had become someone that Mrs. Le sent to calm other kids down.

Darby was very young going into kindergarten.  We were concerned that we had sent her too soon.  Intellectually, she is six going on sixteen but emotionally, she was younger than most of the other kids. No problem for Mrs. Le.  We have a little girl that made a bunch of friends, is a veracious reader and seems more comfortable than she ever has.

While we will all look forward to seeing Mrs. Le in the halls of Traut, its sad that our last kid has passed through her doors.  She recommended that my wife and I consider having another kid as to alleviate the separation anxiety.  That seems like a bold step, Connie.  Wouldn't it be easier just to start teaching fifth grade?  You could still teach our kids and I wouldn't have to build an extension onto the house!

The lesson here girls?  That's an easy one.  You need to appreciate that you have when you have it and be grateful for those who help you along your path.  I think it's somewhat sad that the teachers I named that had an influence on my life probably don't know it.  That is completely my fault.  Teachers are a remarkable lot and my guess is that there isn't nearly enough people telling them that.  So, with that, 'Thank You' Mrs. Le.  My little brood is a better brood for having had you in our lives.  There is not a lot of people who  have the ability, compassion and generosity to positively steer the course of someones life.  Teachers do just that every day, and Connie Le does it exceptionally well!

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Speaking of changing someones life for the better, we are still collecting donations for Mai and her son Nash.  For those who haven't been reading this blog, Nash was in a terrible car accident when he was hit by an uninsured drunk driver.  His road to recovery is a long one and anything you can do helps.  Give what you can, every dollar, prayer and share goes a long way!  To donate, click HERE, but if you can't do that, share this post, and if that's too much, say a little prayer for Mai and her family.  Thanks again!