Clarke Family News

We need your help to find a cure!

2006-10-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we'll be taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk to Cure Diabetes along with a half-million other walkers across the country. Our goal: To raise $90 million to help fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people--a large and growing percentage of them children. This includes Quinn.

Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

That's the bad news... and yes, it's pretty bad.

The good news, though, is that a cure for type 1 diabetes is within reach. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity.

I'm posting to ask for your support because now more than ever, EACH of us can be a part of bringing about a cure. Each of us can make a real difference.

Together, we can make the cure a reality.

Thanks,

Paul

Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal:

http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=86565231

If you are uncomfortable with donating on-line but still willing to help please e-mail me at clarke@ntc.edu.

Fall Season Sports Underway

2006-09-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

Quinn is back at it with two sports for the early Fall season, soccer and flag football.

Both leagues are a bit different this year.

Soccer is four on four, up from three on three, but still with no goalie and coaches on the field. The 4x4 format has much less scoring, but he did have one goal in their second game (the team's first) and a pretty good assist in last week's game. Quinn's coach is trying to stress passing and teamwork, some other coaches are not.

The yellow team's name this season...Galaxy.

Flag football's big change is that the players, not the coaches, play quarterback. Here we see Quinn's first play as quarterback, which ended with his first, and the team's first, interception. We don't have any pictures of that part of the play.

Most importantly the kids are learning skills, which for Quinn has meant paying attention to what he is doing.

The green team's name this season...The Spartans

Josie Turns One(ish)--the Year in Review

2006-07-21T12:19:00.000-07:00

It's been just over a year since Josephine came to live with us. For the most part she's been an angel. Really. She seems only to cry about very specific things (usually things we can fix in one or two tries). She sleeps through the night. She doesn't usually wake up to loud noises (they are building two houses across the street and have finished the one next to us) unless Quinn is making them. She was slow to start crawling (blessed immobility) and isn't walking yet. She is fond of standing up next to things like tables and chairs, and f there is something to grab you can bet it will be relocated to the floor. She loves phones and remote controls, and seems to know real ones from fake. The real ones are better.

Most of her first few days were spent under a green glowing blanket. Which was nice, I'm sure, in the summer heat.

She had lots of visitors

in the early days.

July was spent asleep, when Quinn would leave her alone. Here she is sleeping while he was busy at swimming lessons.

She woke up for August. Here she is trying to see

what's under the bill of Ken's cap.

September took Quinn out of the house for Kindergarten, so Dee had time for a room make-over.

Tragedy struck in October. During a little publicized alien invasion, Josie was captured and partially encased in an alien pod, probably to be transported to the alien home planet. Quick action was needed, and Quinn boarded the mother-ship after he painted himself green to better blend with the alien invaders. Without concern for his own well being or the cleanliness of his clothes, he single-handedly battled his way through the alien ship and rescued Josie from the alien vegetable cocoon.

November brought a number of changes, including the introduction of food. Here Josie enjoys some sort of mashed grain.

December had us getting ready for Josie's first Christmas. Numerous gender mis-identifications prompted Dee to issue an all-girly clothing order effective immediately. Josie says, "Yes Ma'am!"

January and February were cold, and Josie showed only passing interest in the Winter Olympics. She spent most of her time reading.

March was spent in the tub getting swimsuit ready.

April was busy with standing training and Quinn's Flag Football games to attend to. There's just so much laundry...

May means Mother's Day, so Quinn and Josie tried to put aside their differences to give Dee one day of peace and quiet. As you can see it lasted just long enough to take one picture.

June started off with some degree of difficulty as we were swarmed by giant ladybugs. Fortunately, by Josie's birthday we were able to catch one and use it as a birthday cake. They're delicious if you cook them just right! Look, there's another one...

Shortly after the birthday party we took a trip to see Josie's Godfather. Here you see her paddling out in an inflatable to save him from drowning.

Well, that's it. A whole year. I'm sorry you couldn't have been there to see all of it. Come to think of it, if you had been there, I might have gotten to take a nap. Hope to see you soon.

Best Wedding Idea Ever

2006-06-27T21:28:00.000-07:00

We recently attended a wedding. Actually it was the reception, not the wedding itself. But we did buy a gift and get dressed up. It's usually a pain to do that. Either the kids (mainly Quinn here) don't want to get ready on time, or don't want to wear something presentable (again mostly Quinn) or they don't want to behave or sit quietly or any of those things. Getting a sitter isn't always easy. They usual suspects on this night were busy themselves (at other weddings) so we were stuck, and frankly, near declining.

That was, until we were told by the bride to be, that this was a kid friendly wedding. Actually, this bride was pretty insistent that this be a good time for the kids. That doesn't seem to be the norm. She had a table in the reception hall with nothing but toys and games on it. Glow sticks, silly string, play dough, coloring books. Knowing Quinn was coming, she even had some dietetic candy.

They also had a caricature artist on hand. Check this out! Quinn's eyes aren't exactly right, but it's pretty good. Josie's is right on.

If you find yourself getting married anytime soon, have a heart and find something fun for the kids to do.

End of Days?

2006-06-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

The last day of Kindergarten came and went last week. On Wednesday I went to have lunch with Quinn and his class and observed as they suffered thruogh their final exam, write a sentence without copying it off the board. Quinn liked one of the sentences on the board, and tried to angle to copy, but was cut off and had to re-do his work after unch. I think he ended up with "I like my dog." or something like that.

Hot lunch, the second treat of the day, was pizza dippers, green beans, pineapple chunks, milk and a cookie. The tables in the gymnasium are small, but we made it work. After lunch we had recess, and I did my best to learn the ins and outs of kick and catch. It's sort of a cross between kick-ball (with lots more balls and no base running) dodge ball (with all the catching and less throwing the ball in the opponent's face) and red rover (without the physical contact). Scoring is kept in a vague way that lets everyone claim victory. Anyway, two mobs of kids occupy either side of a field, each armed with a variety of balls. The object seems to be to kick the ball to the other team in a way that they cannot catch it on the fly...either by kicking it over their heads or by kicking it so high that it cannot be caught. I'm not sure who keeps track of scores, or how much each catch is worth, but I was told that my kicking the ball over the heads of the 1st and 2nd graders we were up against propelled us to victory, something that I'm sure doesn't happen all that much for the lowly kindergarteners.

Thursday was the last day of school (only a half day) and it ended with an all school picnic, complete with an ice cream truck. Dee, Josie and I met Quinn and the rest of his class for the picnic. We were going to Mom's for Frank's birthday (including ice cream cake) so we skipped the ice cream truck, but still managed to have a good time.

Quinn now has six weeks of half day summer school, and then the rest of the summer off before starting 1st grade in the fall.

Josie's First Woodchucks Game

2006-06-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

NTC Night represented our first chance this year to get out and see a Woodchucks (baseball) game. It was their third of the season, and they won, 1-0, bringing them to 2-1 on the season. It was a nice night to be out (Dee might have been a bit cold near the end) and we managed to stay until the end.

Josie was perfectly behaved as usual, and Quinn even managed to keep control of himself for the most part. There were some kids there that he knew, that always helps. He got Woody Woodchuck to sign his shirt, adding to his collection of Woody signed memorabilia.

Quinn and I played in some casino's give away involving a small swimming pool and a pair of hoola-hoops placed near 2nd base. The trick is to throw the tennis ball into the pool, and if you do you split the winnings with the charity represented that night. Each ball costs a dollar, so depending on how many balls are sold you could win quite a bundle. I landed one ball in the hoola-hoop, which was good for four tickets to an upcomming game. Not a bad deal.

JDRF Neenah Walk

2006-05-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Team Q made its last planned appearance at the Neenah JDRF Walk for a Cure. We'll be walking in the first ever Stevens Point Chapter Walk in October, and now our fund-raising energies are aimed at that event. This year's team was the biggest yet, with help from NTC CJ Club members Micky Jo, Dallas, Brandon, Jen Z. and Nettie K., graduate Jen M., regulars Chris, Frank, Elroy, Kelly, Katelyn, Connie, Dee, Josie and, of course, Quinn. Oh yeah, I was there too. Chris did not finish last!

We had planned to do our own grilling, and everybody brought something, except I forgot to bring the brats. I bought them, and they were ready to go, they just didn't make it into the cooler. I've decided that I was rushing. There was plenty already there, so no one starved (like that's likely anyway) and Jen M.'s Mom's potato salad was the big hit.

Quinn Plays Flag Football

2006-05-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Quinn started his first season of flag football this April. While not his first forray into the realm of organized sports, it is his first try with football, and like most everything else he's tried, it's his favorite. He played for the Broncos (in orange) and seemed to enjoy offense and defense equally. The season is pretty short, with three practices and a couple weeks of Saturday games, it's all over too fast. The season is much shorter than Mini-Mite hockey. Hopefully there will be another round in Fall.

Quinn's coaches did a great job teaching the kids fundamentals of the game, keeping them interested on and off the field and making sure everyone on the team got equal playing time and opportunities to touch the ball on offense. Keeping the players on the sideline interested appeared to be the biggest challenge. There are lots of distractions when you are 5 or 6. Scoring is kept very loosely, though I think the kids have a firm grip on their own individual stats. Quinn loves to talk about how many tackles and touchdowns he's scored. As Grandma Blomberg told me, you've got to toot your own horn.

If you get a chance to go to one of these games, you have to be aware of the rules. At this level, two coaches are on the field at all times. One plays quarterback while the other directs (and sometimes carries) players into position. Five kids are on the field on each side of the ball (well, sometimes they have to be reminded which side of the ball is their's) and there are rules dictating whether you must pass or run depending on where you are on the field. The first week it was fortunate if, in the heat of the moment, players could remember which way they were supposed to be running. They seemed to figure out that pretty quickly, and by the last week they all thought they were Barry Sanders - spinning, cutting back, reversing direction - basically running 50 yards in order to move the ball ahead three.

Each team seemed to have it's own superstar, either offensively or defensively. I don't think it was planned - probably just the forces of random distribution at work. Quinn's team's superstar was a third down specialist. Like I said, the coaches did an excellent job of spreading the ball around on offense - every kid got to play - but if it was third and long there wasn't too much doubt who was going to get the ball or what was going to happen. More often than not if he was on the field and running the ball it was a long run for a first down or a touchdown.

Fan support is critical in today's ad-revenue driven world of sports, and the Broncos had a regular cheering section. Rain or shine - it was mostly rain - fan turnout was strong for all games. Mom, Frank, Miriam, John (when the bees weren't too bad), Elroy Dee, Josie and I all made it out. Mom's desire to encourage everyone (even the other team) drew the ire of her fellow Broncos fans. Quinn decided to limit the number of times she yelled "Go Broncos!" to three per game. I still don't know what that was about.

See you at soccer practice...

Shell Shocker Sucks!

2006-05-15T19:40:00.000-07:00

All Quinn wanted for Christmas was a Shell Shocker. It was expensive, and of course went on sale almost immediately after the holiday season. I've seen it as cheap as $14.00. Of course that's without the $40.00 battery pack (not included). Did I mention that there are no other toys that use the battery pack?
Winter wasn't a great season to do outside remote control playing, so the mighty Shell Shocker stayed in the box until yesterday when Quinn asked to take it out and charge it up in anticipation of taking it out for a spin today after school. He and the his friend came right home after school and we put the batteries in and off they went. I was out front un-winterizing the lawn mower and they went out back to play.

Ten minutes later they were back out front. I didn't even have the mower fired up yet. I asked why they weren't still out back, and they told me that one of the arms had broken off. How did that happen I asked. Apparently the two decided that what they really needed to do was drive the Shell Shocker off the deck. Unfortunately, and despite being advertised as rugged and unstoppable, the Shell Shocker is not rated for a 18 inch drop off of a deck onto a piece of flagstone. One whole side was broken off, exposing all of the interior gearing.

Quinn's friend was driving at the time, and was apparently the idea man in this scenario. He and his mom have offered to buy Quinn a new one, but what's the point. The Shell Shocker is a piece of crap. If it can't take a little drop like the one off our porch how is it ever going to handle being run, full speed, into trees, curbing or other solid obstructions. I've read some reviews and postings, most are negative. I wish I had read them earlier.

So now I'm left trying to decide if Quinn's excitement over this (or any future) toy was worth $100.00. Anyone need a lightly used battery pack?

The Bad Day Photo

2006-05-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

I was working with Chris Clarke-Epstein, going over some stuff for a website update (www.change101.com and www.chrisclarke-epstein.com) and we were looking at some site statistics. We kept finding people linking in from blog sites. Chris has had some interest in blogging, I've been pretty cold to it...I've never read any and seemed to think it is more an outlet for people with no outlet. Anyway, she's done the research and I'm ignorant in this area, so we started to look at some of the sites and what the connection was between all these blog posts and her site.
apparently, lots of people are having bad days. Even more, they like to write about them. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, they like an image to go along with the description, one that captures the essence of just how bad their bad day is. Many of them have chosen this image of my son, Quinn, taken a few years ago at our old house in Oshkosh.
I let Chris use that image a few years back, and she uses it in some of her programs and has it on her site. Apparently it gets used pretty often. I searched "bad day" on Google images and it came up on the first page of results.
I've never felt it necessary to put a copyright notice on an image before, but I put one on it today.