Cindy Hval

A strange affliction seems to have overcome many of my 40-ish friends. It began with vague murmurs about cholesterol and too-snug jeans. Soon, discussion became peppered with talk of morning walks and gym memberships. And suddenly, marathons were being mentioned as casually as lunch plans. Seemingly overnight, these folks took to wearing expensive Saucony or Asics running shoes and talking about doing the “Peak Performance in Portland” or the “Bellingham Bay.” When they talk about “Leavenworth Oktoberfest,” they aren’t talking about beer-drinking.

In May 1940, Gary Cooper, Ginger Rogers and Mickey Rooney graced the covers of movie magazines; Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain; and in a tiny town in Montana, Clyde and Mary Jane Walden married. Seventy years later, they are still smiling.

When Kathy Armstrong took a Zumba class through the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, she immediately fell in love with the fast-paced, energizing exercise program. “It was so fun!” she said. Armstrong, recreation supervisor at the East Central Senior Center, decided to bring Zumba to the over-60 set. Zumba combines Latin, salsa and reggae music with easy-to-follow dance moves. The popular fitness program has legions of followers throughout the nation.

More than 20 years ago, for reasons now unclear, I decided to have a baby. Derek and I had been married three years, and I guess it seemed natural to want to expand our family. Of course, we could have bought a dog, but we didn’t. Truthfully, I’ve always wanted to be a mom. As a child, when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up my standard answer was, “Flight attendant, actress, librarian and mother.”

When Kathy Armstrong took a Zumba class through the Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, she immediately fell in love with the fast-paced, energizing exercise program. “It was so fun!” she said. Armstrong, recreation supervisor at the East Central Senior Center, decided to bring Zumba to the over-60 set. Zumba combines Latin, salsa and reggae music with easy-to-follow dance moves. The popular fitness program has legions of followers throughout the nation.

At a little yellow house on Government Way in Coeur d' Alene, new parents are learning about going green.

Visiting with Andrew Larson, the new chef at One World Spokane, is like taking a kitchen tour of some of the finest restaurants in the area. That may because he's cooked in many of them.

Kids with Spider-man backpacks and Hello Kitty lunchboxes aren’t the only ones going back to school this month. Fifty-year-old Kathy Dyer is eager to resume her studies at Spokane Falls Community College – something she once thought impossible. In 2007, while living in Florida, the mother of four suffered a stroke. “It took me months to get back to as normal as I could get,” she said. As she struggled to recover, her husband announced he wanted a divorce. “I didn’t know where to go. My life had been turned inside out, and I didn’t know what to do.”

I would like to take a moment to defend my vacation style. I didn’t think I needed to, but apparently I do. With any luck, I will have just returned from nearly three weeks of vacation (I wrote this before I left), visiting family and friends in Florida. I went by myself, as I did last year, though this year one of my sons came along on the last week of the trip. My husband remained in Spokane working. Our family joke is that he stays to earn the money; I go to spend it. Works for me.

Some young adults leave Spokane for college and vow never to return. This was Mariah McKay’s plan. But when she graduated from Reed College in Portland in 2006, she came home to conduct a job search and ended up falling in love with the city she thought she'd left behind.

They called to me. They twinkled at me from among sensible square-toed pumps and frivolous flip-flops trimmed with plastic daisies. They glittered. They sparkled. They shone. I didn’t even intend to look at shoes as I scanned the racks at my favorite thrift store, but a shaft of sunlight lit up the golden shoes. If angel choirs approve of 4-inch stiletto heels made by Fredrick’s of Hollywood, than those angels were singing hallelujah, as I reached for the shoes.

Like many young women, Melba Jeanne Yates fantasized about the man she’d one day marry. He’d be handsome of course, and a Christian, but one thing he would not be was a farmer. Her ideas about being a farmer’s wife made her shudder. “Feeding chickens and milking cows – none of that stuff appealed to me,” she said. But a blind date with Don Barton in December 1945 changed everything.

Seventeen-year-old Mead High School student Benjy Migliuri recently returned from a visit to the University of Washington. While it’s not unusual for high school seniors to tour prospective colleges, Migliuri’s 10-day stay was unique and one he’d never dreamed possible. “I’m a quadriplegic from birth,” he said. “I’ve been in a wheelchair all my life.”

Seventeen-year-old Mead High School student Benjy Migliuri recently returned from a visit to the University of Washington. While it’s not unusual for high school seniors to tour prospective colleges, Migliuri’s 10-day stay was unique and one he’d never dreamed possible. “I’m a quadriplegic from birth,” he said. “I’ve been in a wheelchair all my life.” His visit was made possible by the DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Scholars Summer Study program. Funded by the state of Washington, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, the program offers disabled students a glimpse of college life. DO-IT’s goal is to increase the success of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers.

In 2006, Shelley Schneider noticed what she thought was a bug bite on her son’s stomach – but the bite didn’t go away. When she took 8-year-old Clayton to the dermatologist they discovered he had anaplastic large cell lymphoma, a type of skin cancer. Thankfully, the cancer hadn’t spread elsewhere, so Clayton had the lesion removed and got on with the rough-and-tumble life of a grade-school student. Their relief was short-lived, however. “Two years later it came back, and this time in his lymph nodes,” said Schneider.

Several years ago, local author Niki Anderson wrote a best-seller titled “What My Cat Has Taught Me About Life.” I thought about that title as our own kitty, Milo, recently celebrated his first year of owning us. We had set out to adopt an older female feline, so I wouldn’t be the only girl at home. We ended up with another hyperactive baby boy. Go figure.

On Saturday, approximately 190 soccer teams converged on the fields at Plantes Ferry Sports Complex for the Les Schwab Northwest Cup. Most of the players had competed in tournaments like this before, but for members of TOPSoccer, the event was a new and exciting experience. TOPSoccer, The Outreach Program for Soccer, is a national program for individuals 4 and older who have physical or intellectual disabilities. The program debuted in the Spokane area in 2006 under the leadership of Sharlene “Gus” Schmauch.

His gentle voice and beaming smile will be missed in the hallways of Ferris High School this fall. Akira Yoshida, beloved math and Japanese teacher, died July 9. “He was an instructor who immersed his students in what he taught them,” said former student Patrick Pacyga. “You weren’t able to hide in his class because he engaged his students in such a positive way.”