Day 279 - Morning Wildlife

Once spring arrives, you start to see more rabbits hopping around.  In fact, at this time of year, I often see one or two meandering around the IJH parking lot when I arrive in the morning.  I've been seeing more and more along Bear Creek Parkway so I stopped and tried to get a shot of one this morning.  As you can see, he wasn't very cooperative.  He became suspicious once I got too close and he scurried away.  Probably a good thing since I've seen a coyote along here during broad daylight.

Day 278 - Race for the Cure

Awoke to a spectacular day for a race - sunny and warm.  Headed to the Seattle Center and arrived at 7:00 AM to get things set up.  I nervously looked around as I pounded my 4' garden stakes into the ground with the hammer I brought. Wasn't really sure how the folks at the Seattle Center would feel about that. Staked my claim right where I told my team I'd be - south side of the International Fountain. Commandeered a bench and then headed out to get as many freebies as I could before the throngs arrived.  There's always good stuff to be had and this year was no exception.

The view from our team spot.

My awesome new Old Navy pink flip flops

Stylish new free keychain

The amazing sight ahead as we inched our way down Mercer Street

Half of Paige's Posse - Bethany Steirer, Anne Steindorf, Kathy Bulyca,
Pat Johnson, Chris Gentes, Nancy Simpson, Karol Pulliam and me

The Goldie family and the Coons family (Richard Snyder and the Gilbert family were already running)

Our littlest team member - Kayson Goldie

I'd give anything to have Paige walking by in this survivor's parade

There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of you Paige.  I think Jackie summed it up best in her FB post when she said "Thank you Paige for inspiring me to get out of bed early on this beautiful day and walk 5K in honor of you. Love you always."  You impacted my life, and that of many others, in a profound way and I will continue to honor you as long as I am able.

Just so you know. . .next year, team shirts!

Day 277 - Getting Ready for Tomorrow

Race for the Cure is tomorrow so after taking advantage of the sun and digging up weeds, I had to get things organized for my team.  A quick run to Display and Costume where I found some great big letters that you can string together for a banner.  I also picked up 2 heart balloons in blue and silver (Inglewood colors) so people can spot them easily.

Anne had picked up pink leis for us yesterday but I wanted something else.  I wanted buttons with a picture of Paige but those were out of my price range and too hard to do at the last minute.  Then I got a brain wave - just head to Staples and pick up labels that you can put in your printer and use for name tags.  I went online and found one of my favorite pictures of Paige, James and Esme and printed enough for the team.

Packed a small cooler with some juice and granola bars for the team.  Pretty sure I'm ready.  I'd better head to bed or I'll never get up in time.

Day 276 - Nature Inspires Art

Every morning I walk under this beautiful archway outside our school.  I love the look of it, the way the sun creates shadows on the wall.  I often see deer on the way to and from work but I must admit, I am saddened by the forest acreage that has disappeared on the Sammamish plateau over the past 16 years.  Deer are quite able to adapt to changing conditions but their habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate.  I will never forget the day I saw two deer standing in the middle of an area where just the day before, there had been forest and now there was nothing but dirt and stumps.  Maybe it's my imagination but they looked truly confused.  Perhaps they were longing for the days when they jumped freely through the meadows as depicted by this arch.

Day 275 - Threatening Skies

As I headed home today, the weather took a turn for the worse. It went from sunny to grey, to downright scary.  The skies over Snohomish were filled with grey, water filled clouds that were hanging really low to the ground.  I fully expected a tornado to drop down at any moment; my own home state of Massachusetts even experienced a tornado recently!  At the very least, I figured some thunder and lightning was imminent.  The picture isn't nearly as frightening as it appeared in real life.

Day 274 - Belated Birthday Beers

My pal Anne and I headed out this afternoon for an adult beverage or two.  We were never able to get together for my birthday back in March and once hers came around in May, the same thing happened.  Finally, after an early release day and a celebration of volunteers and teachers in the afternoon, we headed to downtown Redmond.

Anne thought I would love Malt & Vine and she was right.  Walking into this place, any beer drinker might think they had died and gone to heaven.  The establishment is small without any bells and whistles BUT they have rotating beers on tap and refrigerated case after case after case of beers from all over the world.  By the way, there's no shortage of wine either and I'm a fan of both.  A couple of hours to get caught up on our lives, a couple of beers and we were on our way.  Thanks Anne!

Day 273 - W.W.P.D.

Well the Race for the Cure is coming up this weekend and I keep asking myself "what would Paige do?"  I'll tell you what she'd do - she be a heck of a lot more organized than I am!  I emailed folks a couple of months ago letting them know I'd created a team called Paige's Posse.  This was something I decided to do the day I attended Paige's memorial service.  Last week, I sent a reminder email to folks to let them know they could still sign up and I could even pick their shirts up for them.  Our dear Paige would have been sending cheerful reminders from the beginning, encouraging people to call their friends and family.  I will never forget Paige's first year at IJH because that was also the year she was diagnosed with breast cancer.  When spring came around, and several of our students lost their mother to the disease, it was Paige who organized Team Follansbee in her honor.  She even received an award for the largest school team.  Paige Cahoon - you are one tough act to follow!