Free ice cream... for a while

This afternoon the boys and I took part in a Road Rally Scavenger Hunt with the Rec Center. We were each given packets with rules to follow and mystery directions to follow. Then we piled in our cars and went out in the countryside hunting down addresses and information. There were puzzle sheets to complete and trivia questions to answer.

Winners weren't based on time, but on the number of answers we got right, and we misread a clue and I miswrote another one, so we ended up 5 points behind the winners in fourth place out of five cars. (Those that tied had to Rock/Paper/Scissors for their prize.)

But for fourth place we got an envelope with $5 gift card to X-man's favorite ice cream place, Marble Slab. Then on further discovery, we found three more coupons for free kid's size ice creams with one mix in and a coup on for a free drink and popcorn at the movies. I'm pretty sure that was more than what we paid to participate, and it made X-man's day. MacTroll ended up giving blood at the Marble Slab blood drive because he's the only one in our family that can do that these days. So his ice cream was free anyway.

With X-man, we're working a lot on not worrying about winning or losing, because right now he doesn't want to take part in things where it's not clear that he'll be a winner OR if not everyone gets something. He has a lot of anxiety about it. For example, he thinks he'd rather run in the Kids Fun Run for Orchard Days on Sept. 17 rather than participate in the Family Fitness 1.5k at his new school. Because he thinks the one at school will have winners and trophies, where as the one at Orchard Days is just a fun run with nothing special a the end.

We also started the day seeing Spy Kids 4 at the Savoy 16 theater for their Lights up, Sounds down showing. It was very nice. Very few people there, and the movie, like the other three Spy Kids films didn't spook my five year old. He's already asking for Spy Kids 5. :-)

Kindergarten starts on Tuesday. :-)

He Could Walk 100 Miles

X-man and I signed up for the 100-mile club at the Savoy Recreation Center. When I was running for the half marathon, I accumulated miles much, much more quickly than I do now. But since I've been limited to walking, biking and swimming, it's slowed down a lot. Mostly because unlike the Walk to the Moon competition last year, this program doesn't count other forms of exercise that's not walking or running.

Anyway, today X-man wanted to go mini putting. He was going to go with Papa yesterday, but the course was closed due to the weather. So even when the storms stopped, it was a no go (Papa made it up to him by taking him to Marble Slab. He was quite keen on the idea that X-man could totally direct him straight to the ice cream store from mini putt. :-)

I told him that if he stopped whining (because holy cow that's been terrible for the last two days), we could walk as a family to Old Orchard Links. He was great on the way there, but then he golfed 36 holes and was really tired walking back. He swore his feet were hurting him, so I told him he could walk barefoot after we stopped for drinks at Sonic, and we'd carry him over the roads where there was gravel.

He did okay. We even got to stop and wave at Rogers and see a train go by up close. The engineers waved, and he had questions about everything in the cars, as usual.

When little legs only walk .25 or .5 miles at a time, two miles is a lot. He's only got until September to finish it, and he's just past a half marathon (he started a month ago). So, I'm hoping that he enjoys the quiet time until dinner and then is still tired enough to fall asleep relatively early after bath. My plans are to finish laundry hell 2011, and MacTroll is going to mow the yard before it rains again.

That is after I finish rolling a frozen bottle of water under my heel for 15 minutes and MacTroll finishes watching Young Justice with X-man.

Love 'em and They Leave Ya Every Time

Grrrr. I went to Body Bar class at the Savoy Recreation Center today expecting to see one of my two favorite Park District Fitness instructors: Emily. I didn't get to go last week because of Jury Duty, and as it turns out... Emily accepted a job in Chicago and is moving ASAP. But she gets benefits with that job, so who could blame her?

I hate that. It's like when I was at the Fitness Center and the Magnificent Melissa took a job with Les Mills and stopped teaching Body Blast, which was my favorite class there.

Mmmm, maybe I need to stop getting attached to classes that start with double Bs?

Either way, the sub today was very nice, but holy smoke the class was overcrowded.

I saw a mess of people at the ARC this weekend when I was running, too. So many that they were walking to parking spaces over by Assembly Hall after their workouts because the lot next to the building was full.

And today Body Bar really needed to be moved to the gym. Since it didn't look like it was moving, I left and went to the weight room. I'm guessing people tried on their shorts this weekend and didn't like what they saw. Or they know that swim suit season is peeking around the corner...

I have yet to try on any of my summer clothes yet. So they're braver folks than I. :-)

Rec Center Happiness

So, I'm feeling under the weather today. Yesterday, MacTroll was down with an upset stomach and a fever. And today, I have nausea and a low-grade fever too. 

It's really put a crimp in my day. The good news is that MacTroll is downstairs feeling like a million bucks and carrying on with his work day. Me, I still got to take X-man to school and then came home and put myself under my warm comforter.

But I did manage to sign up X-man for some Jumbo Shrimp swim lessons at the Urbana Park District starting on Jan. 31. Terrance, the employee who registered me, was very friendly and efficient. He also gave me the low down on renting the Lake House for X-man's birthday in March. Although they're having some phone issues because the regular registration phone line message says that the building is closed for cleaning and to call the Nature Center. Alas, it doesn't give you the Nature Center's number in the message and if you push 6 to speak with someone... you just get the same message again. Thank goodness for Google. The folks at the Nature Center said they're working with the phone company to fix the problem. But yikes, what a pain in the ass for the week of Early Bird registration. (Get in now and save some bucks for registering early!)

Even easier than the Urbana phone registration was the Savoy Recreation Center's online registration. Sure, I was slightly annoyed at the $2 convenience charge. But I didn't want to go in and write a check. Well, not if there was a chance that I might feel like vomiting on the way there AND that the six spaces in the dance class I enrolled X-man in after he turns 3 would be filled by other folks smart enough to stay in their homes and not venture into the cold.

I'm excited that X-man's getting to the age where he enjoys doing activities. But I also know he values his unstructured free play as much as I love mine. So I'm working on finding him a balance. 

Safe Assumptions

A few weeks ago, my friend Rogers approached me concerned about her former place of employment. As a Savoy Recreation Center employee, she had learned that the Village of Savoy by law does not have to do background checks on their recreation employees. They apparently try do as much as they can with sources that are free (like checking the registered sex offenders list) for all full-time people, but according to Rogers' interactions with Village Board member Dick Helton, the village board feels that their minimal efforts are enough.

Rogers was disappointed in his response, so she decided to do more research. Apparently park districts are required by law to do background checks on their employees. So places like Champaign and Urbana do them for all of their employees, but they also go above and beyond and do them for their volunteers. 

Monticello isn't required to do background checks either (not a park district), but they don't pay the $10-15 to do the state-level check. Instead, they ring up the local law authorities who do local checks. So if someone had charges in Chicago and then moved down here, they may not know about it. 

As a parent, I always assumed when I sent my kid to summer camps or into the kid room at park areas that my elected officials and their employees would have found the children in my community worth $10-15 an employee to try and ensure a safe environment. I'm disappointed in the Village of Savoy to find out that's not the case. What's worse, is that they don't tell families that they don't follow the protocols that partnering recreation facilities in park districts do as a norm... 

So, here MacTroll and I are drafting a letter to go to Dick Helton and Savoy Recreation Center Director Tiffany DeSpain about how we won't be enrolling X-man in any kid-related programs at the Rec Center until the policy changes (now that he's finally old enough to take part in them). We'll instead pay non-resident fees to use other facilities who do the administrative legwork to try and keep kids safe.

If there's one thing I learned by going to the Child Assault Prevention Education seminar last fall, it's that the people that are most likely to hurt kids are the ones they feel safe with like their neighbors, family members, teachers and coaches. A creepy 90 percent of the time that fact hold true.

I know I can't protect him from everything, but the least community officials could do is help me out on the HR end. I'd much rather have tax dollars go to that then to maintaining a dock at the Dana Colbert Park.

If you'd like to help protect kids (even if you don't use the SRC) in our community, I'd urge you too to send an e-mail to Dick Helton dhelton@soltec.net and Tiffany Despain  tdespain@soltec.net inquiring about the issue. Hear them tell you about it themselves and then decide if you want them to take action. 

You can also contact the Monticello Park District and ask them to do a more thorough state-level background check, too.