It has been a snowy season, with many cancelled meets, but the end has arrived. I’ve got pictures of the regionals (held last weekend), but not the state meet (yesterday) since I was at the karate tournament with Eli. Joshua placed fourth in his weight class in the Eastern half of Maine, despite lackluster performance on the mat (which he acknowledges). But all in all, Joshua did phenomenally well (especially considering he got hit by a car last July), and the Camden team did outstandingly well, too. Here’s one moment early in one of Joshua’s matches:

Still, Joshua did well enough that he was able to compete in States! Although he didn’t place there, the mere fact that 8 months ago he was in the hospital receiving his second transfusion after the accident and still on morphine makes it amazing that he has recovered so well! And just six months ago, he had recently given up using crutches and limped even when walking slowly!!!! Like the other 8th graders on the team (most of the team!), he plans on wrestling next year at the highly competitive high school level.

We had a priceless moment early on…. Codi is Joshua’s best friend; this year, his family moved to the neighborning town, so he’s on the HAL (Hope-Appleton-Lincolnville) team. Codi’s younger brother (a year younger) is a great fan of Joshua’s, and he brought this sign… WE LOVED IT!!!!!! CRMS is the Camden-Rockport Middle School, 135 is Joshua’s weight class, and JoshWah is how Joshua signs his name sometimes on his MySpace, with an umlaut over the “o” and “W”….

Here are the boys “waiting” (as boys will–mucking around) for the awards ceremony; that’s Paul in the red sweatshirt on the far right toting a goatskin leather bag he has had since Peace Corps in Niger in the early 70s:

And the individual awards… Joshua receives a 4th place finish:

And the boys in his weight class…. the winner receives the flow chart of matches showing the 1st place win:

Joshua’s best friend Codi, on the HAL team this year, came in second in his weight class and at states came in 4th in the state! WAY TO GO CODI!

Then…..the team results. Belfast, whose team is a combination of three middle schools in/near Belfast, won. Camden-Rockport came in SECOND in the region! WOOOHOOO! Here the boys are hoisting their trophy to the happiness of one and all:

Joshua’s girlfriend Kristina came up to regionals with Eli and me. She doesn’t like getting her picture taken, so I snuck this one with the zoom:

I also got one with her face, but the second shot, when she realized I was taking pictures is so much more typical and kinda funny that I’m posting that one instead:

And here’s Joshua with his one-man cheering squad, Nick, brother and best friend Codi, Kristina, and Codi’s mom (white shirt) and step dad John (walking towards the group upper left):

All in all it was a wonderful season. The boys on the CRMS and HAL teams got to practice together this past week; they’ll all be on the same high school team next year and were cheering each other on at the meet (as long as the opponent wasn’t someone on their own team!). It’s a wonderful thing…. the five towns are all kind of “Us”. It’s good to be from a small town, and it’s good to live in Maine. As the saying goes, Maine is “the way life ought to be!”

I’m thrilled to report that my art quilt Koi has been juried into Paducah and, provided the USPS has gotten it there, is already in that city waiting to be hung for the show! Long-time readers will remember this quilt, which is actually two-sided. I used quite a lot of my own hand-dyed fabric for this quilt, as well as commercial batiks. This is the front (looking down on the pond):

Here is the back (from the bottom of the pond, looking up at the fish bellies and overhanging branches):

And here is a close-up of the front:

and the back:

I am especially thrilled, since Koi didn’t get juried into Houston (will try again this year, since that is permitted), and since I’ll be teaching in Paducah this year… always good when the teacher has a quilt in the show, eh?

Lest any of you think your quilt teachers are getting rich on the teaching circuit…NOT!  I just got back from Staples, where (or is it an Office Depot? whatevah… a big box office store in Rockland) B&W copies are 8 cents each.   I made 920 copies which, including tax, comes to almost $80.  That is for six classes I’ll be teaching in Paducah.  Then I get to pay to SHIP that heavy box of stuff to Kentucky….. ahem….  Not to mention the time, gasoline, etc.  And the time to order the stuff for the kits, cutting the materials, doing the paperwork and accounting for the orders of materials, etc.  Oh well!

Real quilt content still coming, I promise…. just not today.  Gotta get this stuff packaged, boxed, and shipped first!  Box needs to be IN Kentucky by April 7th for teaching on the 23rd…..   a couple handouts just aren’t ready, so they will go in the suitcase with the quilts.  The teaching binders and master copies and laptop are going in the roll-aboard suitcase with ME! More anon my good friends…..

Egads how time flies. Now, why doesn’t the fat fly away with it? She said, grumbling a bit about still wearing the extra weight munched on during my first trimester with him…..

We are, of course, so proud of our wonderful boys. Eli had a grand 10th birthday at home, even though it was immediately after Mom and I came in from California! It was further complicated by the fact that Joshua had a wrestling meet after school that day, so time was short. But when we finally got home around 8, it was cake time:

And old age is creeping up on him… ten whole candles challenged him LOL!

And presents. … Eli wanted two things: an iPod (the iPod Shuffle from his generous Aunt Joyce died after Eli left it in his pocket and Paul did the laundry; electronics and water don’t play nicely together) and ski stuff. All Camden 4th graders get 3 free ski lessons from the local Snow Bowl (clever folks they are). Of course, now Eli, the kid who hasn’t met a sport he doesn’t want to try, wants ski equipment and a season pass for next year. So…. with generous gifts from Aunt Joyce and Nana, he is on his way to a decent set of used skis, boots and poles (we’ll be at the ski swap meet next November!).

And here, from Mom and Dad:

And there was one more thing….. Paul had asked me what I thought of this idea, and I said in about two years, maybe at Christmas… so of course while I was in California, Paul placed the order!

What’s this you ask?

A cell phone for Eli. Fortunately, we have a family plan, so the phone is free and a modest monthly charge in addition–we share 400 minutes a month which is enough for all of us:

It will be useful next winter–we can drop Eli off at the Snow Bowl, then when he’s ready to come home he can call (or heaven forfend, if he falls on the slope and needs help). Still… a phone for a ten year old? Remember when we were kids and there was ONE phone for the entire family? And my Aunt Katie, in the boonies of Wyoming, was still on a party line?

No, I have NOT fallen off the face of the Earth, though some days I am tired enough to do that! Instead, I’ve gotten mom settled in to her new digs at Quarry Hill. On Wednesday, the moving van arrived a day early, so I’ve been unpacking like a whirling dervish. We are down to the last few boxes in Mom’s place, the rest is safely stored in a storage unit, and today or Monday it will be paintings on the wall!

We survived the trip intact, Mom is settling in, and thought I’d share a few quick pics of mom’s first visit to our house. Of course, the critters had to come meet Mom:

This one is Yeti, the ginormous dog-beast (aka Tibetan Mastiff). When he was about 2 (and as large as he is now) he tried to climb up and sit on mom’s lap when we lived in Friday Harbor, which was hilarious! Fortunately, Mom thought it was funny too, and wasn’t scared! And here, Zeus comes to check out the newcomer:

Next blogpost: Eli is TEN (and how the heck did THAT happen so fast, and why haven’t I lost the pregnancy weight????) and then, I promise, some art. Alas, not mine, but art!