Pictures from the Prom

whoops, this picture is of me and all my girls (plus Finn) and their yellow roses which I gave them for Valentine's Day, taken the night of our little adult party during the middle school dance... and now below is Friday night on my way home from work, catching Jackie and Howie walking home with the dogs from the school bus stop...

Howie and Jackson make a heart shaped evil eye cake based on a short story by Howie, Friday night at our house...

and now the Prom photos....

Prom night was actually the night of the pie auction, Ophir School's annual major fundraiser for the parent council which pays for lots of extracurricular things for the kids of the school. I don't think in the 17 years Jackie and I have lived here we have ever missed a pie auction... which in recent years has become more of an art auction as every class auctions off at least one art item which they make specifically for the pie auction. Above is the art piece Howie's class made this year, which we bought last night and immediately found a home on our living room wall. The pink elephant angel is the cake we bought, a huckleberry frosting, butter cake, with chocolate mocha froster layered inside the cake - huge, heavy, and yummy! It was a fun night, after working at the store, doing deliveries with Jackie and dealing with the kids we made it home to get ready for the big prom. I have never been to a real prom so it was my virgin prom, nervous and not sure what to do. Jackie bought me a tuxedo shirt at the thrift store where she also purchased her wine colored gown for the evening, both for only $3.00! I borrowed a bowtie from a friend and spent the last 30 minutes while Jackie was at Netty's getting her hair done trying to watch youtube videos and figure out how to tie a bowtie. When Jackie got home I told her what to do and she fixed it up for me, then we tried to figure out how to pin on her coursage and my boutinier (Sp?) and then it was off to Bucks T-4 to meet our group for our prom dinner and the wonderful night of festivities...

and then today, Sunday was a slow moving morning, Howie and I did grocery deliveries for a couple of hours together, he's earning money for his week long school trip to yellowstone, and then just when we got back to the store, he got picked up by his friend Ellie and he's off having fun. I went home and picked up the dogs and took them on a cross country skate ski and now I'm home listening to Jazz and about to go play a game of pool with Andrew...

It's been a week, and I haven't really felt like blogging i guess. Been working and skate skiing. The skate skiing wipes me out, makes me tired, but is so worth it, I get a lot of thinking done, a lot of processing takes place and it helps me figure out how to handle all the daily situations of my work and family life. We've been having lots of fun lately. Micah through an amazing shabbat dinner last Friday night, he did most of the cooking with Jackie, he came up with the menu, all jewish food from The Jewish Cookbook by Mrs. Jennie Grossinger, a book that my mom gave Jackie with a beautiful note - I'll have to go scan it and include it here:

The meal was awesome. Micah did all the prayers, for the candles, the wine and the bread. He had his two soccer buddies and their families over and we played 2 truths and a lie, Jackie's new favorite party game, and it was a blast. For dinner he served an onion pie, some honey carrots, and some awesome halibut, lemon, bread crumbs and cream mixture which was really yummy. Micah is very impressive in the kitchen.

And then Saturday we ended up having a spontaneous apres ski dinner party at a friends house - I didn't ski, but I joined in afterwards. Howie and friends had a ski race that day and of course Howie got second place! And then Sunday after a great skate ski with Jackie it was off to a really fun super bowl party.

Back at work today, afternoon skate ski, and now in Bozeman for Hebrew School...

weekend in Idaho

wow I haven't written since I got back from Florida.

check out the strangest palm tree Howie and I have ever seen, in the parking lot at the condo complex, the bark just didn't look real, it looks like concrete, but it's not, it's palm tree!

Jackie and I tag teamed as soon as I got back - we had one very busy day when we were both in Big Sky to try to squeeze in a few sentences and communicate and then she was off to Boston for a visit with her good college friends and Maria's birthday party.

on Friday, January 22nd, the house upstate closed, we still have a month to get our furniture and personal belongings out of there, it was sold to the DYI (Do It Yourself) Network. They are going to use it for their Blog Cabin Sweepstakes, maybe one of us can win it back. This is the house that was our retreat when we lived in NYC, Jackie and I used to go up there every weekend we could and it is also where we got married on that epic cold rainy day in August, only 1 mile from where the Woodstock concert took place...

So Jackie was gone for almost a week, not getting home after being delayed in Minneapolis an extra night until Monday, late afternoon, and then it was off to Hebrew School for me and the boys. It was somewhat of a busy weekend while she was gone, taking care of the boys, and the store, but did still get in a fun day of downhill skiing with Dan on Saturday while Andrew, Micah and Howie all skied with their friends and ski groups.

So Jackie got back and our lives are so busy, between the boys and the store and everything else. We did squeeze and epic meadow golf course skate ski, with the full moon rising in the east and the sun setting in the west, but it wasn't looking like we were going to make any kind of real getaway happen, but then we found this place on line called the Pines Lodge at Island Park, and they had some cabins and one was available at a decent price and we were able to find friends to farm off the kids to, Andrew stayed home and took care of the dogs, and Jackie and I were able to escape Big Sky on Saturday around noon until today, Monday, afternoon.

On Saturday we skated at Rendevous, in West Yellowstone, and just by chance it was free admission day. We skated skied for 3 hours, doing Rendevous, to Dead Dog to Deja Vu. It was beautiful and conditions were perfect, the trails very well groomed and fun. I was exhausted afterwards, that really good exhaustion from healthy physical exercise, but I was truly beat. We drove to Island Park, we checked into our log cabin, we had neighbors, but it was still off to itself, hidden in the pines. Lodgepole pines that from the hot tub almost looked like palm trees. The cabin was clean and comfortable, we found a good mellow rock music station, and settled into a quiet evening, just the 2 of us. Music, books, good food we brought from the store, wine, a movie, and most importantly each other.

In the morning we woke up to 4 inches of fresh snow, we had a slow morning, coffee, breakfast, reading books, making our lunch for later and then it was off to Harriman State Park, a great place for track skiing. It's an old railroad depot, with 2 large lakes, Gold and Silver Lakes, and flocks and flocks of Trumpeter Swans. It snowed on and off all day, it was a winter wonderland, and we skied and skied from 12:30 - 5 pm. It was awesome and I was exhausted once again. Keeping up with a Roberts isn't easy. At one point I caught up to Jackie and she was kneeling on her skis at the edge of the snow covered frozen expansive Silver Lake in silent prayer, praying to the tall cat tails swaying in the foreground.

On the way home we stopped at the gas station for some milk for coffee and a movie. We rented Paper Heart which turned out to be an awesome film about love, kind of a feaux documentary. It was another wonderful evening of mark and jackie reconnecting on yet another epic getaway, one long overdue, it had seemed like forever since we had spent any time together, alone, without interruption.

It was actually reminiscent of our times in upstate New York, when we used to just go and hang out in the country, taking long hikes, or walks, or actually cross country ski. The first time I ever skied, nordic or alpine, was when Jackie and I rented cross country track skis in upstate new york and went to this park and skied around this lake. I was so bad at it, but we had lots of fun...

And today we had yet another slow morning, took a quick hot tub, had breakfast, and checked out late at around 12:15, and headed home, this time taking a detour around Henry's Lake, stopping at the property at Hook and Horn, for a short track ski from the road to the river... and then back home by 3:30. I walked the dogs down to the bus stop, and met the kids, and then at 4:30 Jackie, Howie and Micah were off to Hebrew School. I went down to the store to do a little bit of work so I'm not too far behind tomorrow, and now I'm back home, writing and reading, and enjoying one more quiet night, until everyone gets home in another hour or so...