Andy Smallman

What could be nicer for Melinda and me than a showcase photo like this? Here they are, our daughters, Chloe & Ella. The picture is from last night’s Thanksgiving dinner, just before the food was served. Looking at it carefully, I am quick to note how grown up the girls are. Well, I guess at 18 Chloe is considered a grown-up. But Ella is just 14. Ah, what the heck. They’re both just my girls.

I’ve had a little “alone time” with each girl today. Ella and I watched a couple of episodes of the TV show “Modern Family.” I hadn’t really watched it before but had heard good things about it. I found it quite funny, especially the episode in which a couple decided to go on a juice fast. Given Melinda and I did just that a few weeks back, it was especially timely and funny.

After going shopping with Andrea and Anna this afternoon, Chloe wanted to get some Indian food. Doing this was on her wish list of things to do over the holiday weekend. We ordered a couple of dishes from her favorite Indian food restaurant, Bengal Tiger, and together, she and I went to pick them up to bring home. It was nice having time alone with her in the car.

As the girls have gotten older, I’ve looked forward to having more of these adult interactions with them.

To Chloe’s right (left side of the photo) is Andrea. And on Chloe’s left is Anna. Please meet two of her best friends from college, both of whom are spending the Thanksgiving holiday with us. I took this photo using Anna’s incredible camera just before dinner, wanting a shot of the three young women for today’s entry.

Andrea, I’ve mentioned before. She’s Chloe’s roommate and you may recall that she is from Bolivia. Anna is from Singapore. Both girls have become part of Chloe’s circle of best girlfriends. Watching them interact, I’m reminded of all the stories one hears about the lifetime connections with college friends. Clearly, these three care about each other.

They arrived last night at about 10:45, a little more than two hours later than Chloe had hoped. A big reason for the tardy arrival had to do with getting stopped at the Canada-US border. Apparently, both Andrea and Anna had to explain why they were entering the US, where they were staying, stuff like that. This necessitated a trip inside the immigration office at the border. One part of their border crossing story made me chuckle, though. A good-natured immigration officer apparently told the two that it is a US tradition for Thanksgiving dinner guests to clean the rugs of their host’s home.

As you might expect, I keep asking when they plan to get this job done.

Here’s a photo I took at last Saturday night’s Cystic Fibrosis 2011 Breath of Life Gala in Denver, Colorado. This is the event that Melinda and I attended, present to show our love, support and respect for Bill and Teresa Elder, longtime friends of the Smallman family. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, Bill & Teresa’s son Bill, Jr (Billy) has cystic fibrosis. Born in 1987, Billy was diagnosed, I believe, in the early 1990’s. Since then, Bill and Teresa have worked tirelessly in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. On Saturday night they were being honored for their years of service.

At age 24, Billy’s health is very good and thanks in no small part to his parents’ efforts. On Saturday night he was called on stage to make a speech to the several hundred of us who had gathered for the event. He talked about a new drug that has been tested to be very effective in the treatment of CF, one that looks likely headed for FDA approval. This is exciting news.

I snapped this picture as Billy was talking, doing my best to include Bill, his proud father, in the foreground. Truth be told, it was a proud moment for all of us connected to the Elder family.

Three years ago today, Melinda organized it so that all of my parents’ grandchildren came over to our house for a photo shoot in our neighborhood park. The occasion? My parents’ 50th anniversary. That’s right, three years ago today was my parent’s 50th anniversary, meaning today is their 53rd. Happy anniversary!

So, yes, we took all 7 grandkids into the park and started snapping pictures, 140 of them by the time we were done. Toward the end of the picture-snapping, we got a really good one of everyone standing on piece of playground equipment. Melinda and I hustled over to a photo shop and had an enlargement of the picture made, framed it, and gave it to them on behalf of the family. My parents were very pleased and that photo holds a prominent space on a wall in their living room.

To honor the anniversary today, I’ve chosen another of the photos from that day. In the lower row from L-R are Olivia, Ella and Stephanie. Behind them from L-R are Jessica, Nick, Tammy and Chloe.

I’m going in back in time for tonight’s post. You see, I’ve got PSCS on my mind as the school has been keeping me very busy over the last couple of weeks. Frankly, it’s never NOT busy at PSCS, but the last couple of weeks have been busier than usual. For instance, today was the first day of what we call Reflection Week, three days of community building, group reflecting, and program evaluation. I’m in charge of it and it keeps me on my toes.

With PSCS occupying much of my attention, I found myself looking through the school’s photo archive and came across this picture. It’s from 1997 and is of a very young Ella, less than a year old.

As an infant, Ella spent a lot of time at the PSCS office since Melinda was there every day. This raised an interesting question on the first day of school this year. One of the teachers challenged the students to line up in the order of the amount of time they had attended PSCS. In one interpretation of the exercise, Ella, who became a PSCS student three years ago, would be near the “longer” side but not at the end. But if you take into account she was at PSCS in 1997 (in fact, Melinda went into labor with Ella while at work in 1996), Ella has quite a bit of seniority on everyone.

So this event that Melinda and I attended last night, the one for which I needed nice clothes, was actually in Denver, Colorado. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of the fact that we were going to be out of town for a night because we agreed to allow Ella to stay alone in the house. No need to be broadcasting that in advance of it happening.

The event was the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Breath of Life Gala. What made it significant to us is that some longtime family friends of mine, dating all the way back to my side of the family living in Omaha, were being honored. Bill Elder, childhood friend especially to my brother Scott but buddies with both Steve and me, as well, and his wife Teresa were the recipients of the foundation’s greatest honor. Their son, Bill, Jr, has Cystic Fibrosis, a tragic event that propelled Bill and Teresa into serious fundraising and awareness raising. Bill, Jr is now 24, is a graduate of Stanford University, and is currently applying to medical schools. His health is excellent.

So that’s what propelled Melinda to make a side trip to Wyoming a week in advance and what launched my need for a new suit. My parents, Scott and his partner Sally, and I rendezvoused with Melinda in Denver yesterday afternoon and then attended the incredible event. By the time the night had drawn to an end, Melinda and I had even danced to a Lady Gaga song.

Today’s photo is from our flight home as our plane turned directly above the University of Washington to be aligned for its final approach.

Last Friday I wrote about the challenge Melinda faces when it comes to my style of dress. I raised this because tonight Melinda and I are at an fancy event honoring some family friends, one that requires us to wear some fancy clothes. I hadn’t had a new suit since 1998 and she thought I should get one. But with her leaving for Wyoming last Saturday, I was left to try to figure out what I would wear on my own.

As you can see from today’s photo, I came up with something, a new suit from Banana Republic. It was quite the experience for me, lasting much longer than I generally take to buy clothes. I mean at Value Village it’s in, out, wham, bam. At Banana Republic it’s, “May I help you, sir.” And “Would you like to try a different color?” I must say that I’m not used to having help in the “Fitting Room.” And speaking of which, when did these stop being called “Dressing Rooms?”

So I provide this self-portrait tonight, sans chapeau. And I think my tie matches Melinda’s dress just fine, thank you.

An early winter evening, when Chloe was a little girl, maybe 2, maybe 3 years old, we looked out and saw a few snow flurries in the air. Her excitement was contagious so together, Melinda, Chloe and I sat and watched the snowflakes flutter through the night sky. A few managed to make it all the way to the ground and lasted there for a second or two before disappearing, much to our disappointment. As the evening progressed, the snowflakes grew in number and some got bolder, lasting on the ground. This lead Chloe to exclaim, “It’s piling up! It’s piling up!” It was so cute, especially since there really wasn’t any snow on the ground. Since then, whenever we see a light flurry and the hint of a snowflake sticking to the ground once of us will say, “It’s piling up!”

I was reminded of this on Wednesday when I received an email from Chloe up at Quest University. Her subject line, all caps, was, “SNOWWWWWWWW.” She included a couple of photos, including this one, and said they had about 6 inches on the ground with 15 due by Sunday. When I replied with concern for her getting home next week for Thanksgiving she said that it’s all supposed to turn to rain by early next week.

Meanwhile, here in Seattle tonight while I was taking Ella to dance class, we caught a glimpse of some “heavy” looking rain in the headlights. Once again the phrase entered my head, “It’s piling up!” Alas, at this point in the evening, a few hours later, it’s nothing but rain, no piles in sight.

Well, there goes Melinda. Wave goodbye. She’s started her new career – truck driving. I’m sure that to those of you that know her, this will come as no surprise. She’s a sucker for machines and can’t wait to operate them. There was that time back in 1999 when we had a backhoe left in our yard for a couple of days. She talked the operator into showing her how it worked. Guess who was driving it around at night after the worker had called it a day?

That’s right.

So picture Melinda in the Wyoming twilight yesterday getting a lesson in how to drive a big rig. I’m sure all she needed was that one lesson and then away she went. For all we know, she’s probably halfway between Cheyenne and Dubuque by now.

Shoot, that might be Omaha!

Not that it’s matters, but I wonder what’s she hauling. That is, I wonder what’s she hauling other than some attitude. 😉

Ella and I went over to my parents’ retirement community for dinner tonight, leaving straight from school after the weekly staff meeting. We arrived just after 6pm and hustled down to the dining room where, among the many choices, I selected corned beef and cabbage. I can’t remember the last time I ate corned beef and cabbage. It was delicious, the meat especially lean.

After dinner we all spent some time chatting in their apartment. Among the conversation topics included how to fold my nice clothes to fit into a carry-on suitcase with a minimum of wrinkles. What are mothers for? She even got out one my dad’s suits to demonstrate. After that, she retrieved her charm bracelet, thinking she might wear it soon, and proceeded to tell Ella about all the charms on it. My favorite is the one of rose-colored glasses given to her by friends of her grandparents (Ella’s great great grandparents) because my mother was always seeing the bright side of life.

I snapped this picture after the corn beef eating and suit folding demonstration, and during the charm bracelet showing.