Good and Bad News

After all the great news I’ve heard this week, I was disappointed on how the week ended.

The week started out really well. I found out that one of my friends who is in an abusive relationship is out and in a safe location. I have been keeping her whole family in my thoughts and prayers and so it was really nice to hear that everything was lining up for her.

Then I got great news!! After a very long time of looking, applying and lots of rejection, my sister was offered a fabulous job as an account manager at Web MD. This will be a great fit for her. It will give her a lot of opportunities to grow and really shine professionally in a field that has a lot of potential – and not to mention - pay her mortgage and buy me a Christmas present. (Hey, a girl’s gotta have priorities!) Anyway, I am so very happy for Aon. You should have seen the kids and I do the “happy job dance” when they found out about it. We even called her up and sang her a “lovely” job offer commemoration serenade which probably brought tears to her eyes. (What kind of tears – she’s not saying.)

The North County Recreation Assn auction is coming together and some of the issues (like the Castle Rock and Toutle youth football teams playing at 5:30 way over in Wahkiakum County which over 1 hour away and the slow / low donation amounts) are being resolved so that we will be able to have people attend and support the youth sports in our area. Donations have been picking up and the weather is even starting to co-operate with us. I had visions of this outdoor auction / dinner / dance being in the middle of a horrid downpour all day long. (It still might be a little bit nippy and have a couple sprinkles, but nothing like earlier in the week.) So keep your fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, the work week is ending on a down note. Late Friday afternoon, we found out that our Drug Court did not get the big federal grant we applied for in May. If we got the grant, it would have “saved” our program and really helped it grow to help veterans in our area. Now it is slated to close at the end of the month. I feel so badly for my friend, Debbie, who is the coordinator of the program. She has been through so much this past year. If someone would have told me that we would be shutting down one of the original drug court programs in the state (and one of the most successful) when she was hired last summer, I would have laughed in their face. I am so disappointed. So keep your fingers crossed that by some miracle our Drug Court is saved and is allowed to continue helping people get clean / stay sober and quit doing crimes in our community.

Who Ya Gunna Call?

All I could think as the ongoing media hoopla was reaching deafening pitches regarding the stray cougar in the Seattle park was "Why didn't they just call my soon-to-be, brother inlaw, Kevin?"

He has a way with animals...especially unwanted wildlife.


Click on the link to get the whole story....

Cougar Caught in Seattle Park

Sock Summit

I spent one day with my mom at the Sock Summit Market Place. (The Sock Summit is a national convention of sock knitters.) It was pretty cool. Most things were way beyond my level of experience but it was fun to be inspired. One of the booths was this crazy comic book booth. They taught you how to make super hero masks. They had several there where you could try them on and then they would take an "action" picture of you as the new super hero. Here's a pix of my mom and I hamming it up for the camera. (shock shock I know) What I want to know is how did they know what we were going to wear that day? Only the Shadow knows.....



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/3799605606_9141fcf078.jpg

So we need Super Hero names..... Any suggestions?

Lost Weekend with a Twist

I had such high hopes and plans for this weekend. (I was going to cram 5-6 days worth of work into this weekend and I had some fun plans too.) The best laid plans of mice and men are laid to waste.....

Unfortunately, I got sick Friday night and never really left the bed and/or couch all day Saturday. Being so tired from the late night at the emergency room the night before didn't help either. B was also sick Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday - she had a relapse of the crud from earlier in the week. (I'm taking her into the doctor this morning.)

Sunday: I left the house at 8am for church and wasn't home for more than 5-10 minutes at a time until 10:15pm. After church ,we came home and checked on B and changed clothes. M, C and I then met my sister and her friend in Woodland which is about 40 miles south of us. We went to my favorite U-pick berry farm and picked blueberries for an hour and half. (The kids and I got about 15 pounds. - Sure missed B -my berry picking machine) But 15 pounds is still a pretty good haul. (don't think we'll be making any blue berry jelly, since we'll probably eat or freeze all of it for personal conusmpution becasue we LOVE blueberries. In fact I had a bowl late last night when I got home. They were sooo good!!!)

After berry picking, we ran to the store and got a veggie platter and went to a combined parish picnic at Riverside Park. The kids had fun running around playing with some of the other kids. This new priest we have is really interesting. He is very young - less than 30 but he is very traditional in many ways. He wears the old fashioned clergy "costume" for casual - You know the one you see in all the old movies (pre Vatican II uniform) black pants, black cassosk that comes down to his knees and the black rounded hat. It was cool to see him out there playing the water balloon toss in his full regalia. He's kid oriented and is supportive of our idea to attend World Youth Day in Spain in 2011. That is great! So we're going to start working on a planning / fundraising meeting next week. (I really wanted to go to the one in Australia, but my kids were too young.)
After the parish picnic, we went home and checked on B who was still sick. I had M & C stay home and watch her. I had a scout committee meeting. I knew it was going to be big because we were organizing the entire year, coordinating and identifying fundraisers / assigning chairmen and their duties, in addition to the myriad details that come up for start of the year organizing. The meeting started at 5pm. Knowing how our meetings take for ever and seeing the very full agenda, I half-jokingly told M to call at 9pm to spring me. I half hoped we'd be really effiecient and done by 7 or 8pm so I could take C to get some school supplies. But no such luck!! I didn't leave until 10 pm. UGH!!!!! That's a long meeting and several were still going strong when I left.

When I got home, I had the BEST surprise waiting for me. M had spent the time while I was gone to clean my kitchen. It looked SOOOO pretty!!!! It was so nice of her. She even cleaned out a couple of my cupboards and organized the chargers and extra cords. She did a FABULOUS job. What a nice surprise! Now my weekend wasn't completely lost!

Seattle Fun

We went to Seattle for the Kenny Chesney concert the first week of August. It was a lot of fun!! I really enjoyed showing the kids some of our old stomping grounds and doing some "touristy" things. We ran out of time so we didn't get to visit Pike Place Market, but did FINALLY got to go up in the Space Needle.

I took the kids to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We had a fabulous lunch and then enjoyed delicious cheesecake. The crazy thing is that the chocolate lover extraordinnaire - got key lime while my kiddos had about every other chocoalte version available. They were all very yummy and was a wonderful treat.

We visited the Fremont Troll.

The kids thought it was pretty cool - C really liked it... especially when he realized that it was a REAL VW bug that the troll had in his other hand.

Below are the "3 billy goats gruff" which is just below where the troll is. (I just love the sense of humor in that neighborhood.)

St Bridget's which is just a few blocks away from our little apartment near Sandpoint and Children's Hospital. This the parish where M was baptised. She loves going back and learning about her history. She is especially fascinated with the hospital she was born at.

Some of the pretty stained glass at St. Bridget's. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning and we really enjoyed the few moments of peace and tranquility.

The kids looking out over Elliot Bay from the Space Needle.

More Space Needle Pictures. It's been years and years since we've been up there. B has been REALLY wanting to go up for past 3 or 4 years, but always something happens and we can't. So this time we made it the priority and we had a lot of fun. It was very pretty that morning.

Over looking downtown Seattle from the Space Needle.

Where we lived when M was born. It was a great little apartment. (The carpets were a horrendous orange shag, but we had our own patio, storage area and a little yard garden.) It was close to UW and a very easy commute for me.

Craziness......

Kids' Family Fun

I had to head back to Castle Rock because unfortunately, I haven't won the lottery yet and work awaited. The kids stayed an extra week in Idaho and had fun with the Millward side of the family.

The kids pose with Grandpa and cousin with one of the 1 LARGE sturgeon they caught.

(One of C's fish was a 7 footer.)

Grandpa took them to Balanced Rock and to the natural hot springs swimming pool near by.

The kids clowing around at the Hagerman Horse Fossil museum.

(Some of the oldest horse fossils in the United States are there - back when horses were smaller than our golden retriever.)

Cabin Continued

More Cabin Fun.....

B doing what she loves....

She is such a fabulous photographer. I will have to post some of her pics. Her flower artwork is amazing!!!





The "Hey Lady! Cooking Show" brought to you by Sadri and her amazing Mojito Fruit Salad.

The appreciative audience.

B frosting her German Chocolate Cake her Aunt Laura made her.
(It was YUMMY!!! )
and very pretty too.....

B is officially 12!

Meg floating with friends past the cabin.

I love this picture. The girls floating by the fly fisherman.

Cabin

Some of my favorite things while relaxing at the cabin over the 4th of July.
It has to be one of my all time favorite places in the world. (a little slice of heaven on earth) Thanks for the great times everyone. It was so nice to be able to relax and enjoy the time with my family.

Fluff & Stuff

Harley & Trooper hanging at the cabin

(Usually Trooper was "running with the big dogs")

Chris and Trooper taking a little siesta after a long day of fun playing in the river and woods.

The family waiting for the fireworks at the Lodge at Bill's Island.

(Very impressive display of pyrotechnics. )

Wild Weather....

We had a couple thunderstorms that had some good sized hail in it.

(It was a good thing we ran the last little bit of our hike - but still was soaked.)

Sunset from the deck at the cabin overlooking the Snake River.




The cabin is made for reading and relaxing which Barb is taking full advantage of.

Megan & Trooper hanging in the hammock.

Bruneau Sand Dunes

Here's some pictures of our trip to Bruneau Sand Dunes State Park in Idaho.
The kids at the lake - Those hills aren't really hills. They are massive sand dunes - some of the tallest in North America.

M, B, C and trooper at the Bruneau Sand Dunes.

HorseTrek 2009

We pick up M tomorrow evening. She has been on a 9 day (182 mile) serious back country horse ride through the Oregon Cascade mountain range. Yesterday she was riding / following on the Old Oregon Trail. She riding a horse called "Night Shade" if I remember correctly. It is a black Appy (with white speckled butt). When we attended the midTrek BBQ on Wednesday, she regaled us with many stories. (A lot were funny and interesting, several had me realizing the liability release I signed wasn't just another simple piece of paper you are required to sign before you participate in any activity - they were serious.)

All in all. She has been having a marvelous time. She has been hanging with a lot of the more vetern trekkers including the trail boss' daughter. Scott, the trail boss, said she was "really good with horses" and would really like her to come down and ride with them this Fall and Winter. I guess they have been impressed enough with M's skills that she was the 1st year trekker to ever to be "a dragger" or some such title. In other words, she was allowed to lead a string of 3 pack horses laden with a bunch of their gear. So basically... M is in heaven. Can't think of a better time for a girl like her who loves horses and has a special knack with animals. I'll regale you with more stories later - especially about beans, buckets of creek water and mutant chipmunks.

I Topped The Rock!!!!

B, C and I "Topped the Rock to Save the Library" this morning.

A little background in case you didn't read my earlier posting....

Several years ago, the city could no longer afford to run our little library, so it has had to have an operations levy every year since then. This last year, the library levy failed to get the super majority by just 4 votes and thus failed. The library has been running on donations ever since (yes those little cans at the grocery store).

The Friends of the Library hosted a 5k Fun Run & Family Fitness Walk called "I Topped the Rock". It incorporates some of our little towns famous features such as "the rock" which is a large basalt outcropping / hill just on the edge of town and our new river walk trail that meanders by the Cowlitz River. In addition, there was music, an auction, and semi street fair set up in downtown. (Most of it was blocked off this morning.) There were 2 bands playing. One "Carl Wirkkala and the Ghost Town Riders" are friends of ours. Carl grew up in our house and we bought it from his Dad. The drummer is M's best friend's dad. They are actually pretty good and Carl has made several trips to Nashville. (He's a really good songwriter and musician.)

Anyway....

It was a pretty neat little 5k fun run. It starts out in front of the library, goes on some city streets for about 6 blocks, then accesses the river dike path north of town. We went south along the trail until we reached "Castle Rock" at the south end of the town. We hiked up the steep hill trail until we reached the top and received our commemorative bracelets. Then down a different trail to the end of the south part of the path in Lion's Park. Then we turned around, went up the path until we hit Front street and walked along it (past the middle school) back to the library. It was a really fun time. Barbara ran it in about 31 minutes. Chris and I took our time and were 59 and 62 minutes respectively. I think the Rock really slowed down the times. There was a short 1 mile course which our friend accidently ran then went and redid the 5k so she really got in her excericise for the day. I liked that Top the Rock fun run had prizes for youngest to complete the course (5 years) and oldest (86 years). There were several 6 and 7 year olds and 77 year old runner and another 85 year old walker. That was just awesome to get that range of participants!!!

Since this was a fundraiser to save the local library there was a Storybook Theme Contest. We dressed up as our favorite story character, but didn't win any prizes. (The group of teachers dressed up as "Mother Goose and the Rhymes" and the little girl dressed as "Laura Ingalls" in her full length calico dress and bonnet took the top prizes. They were awesome!!) B was the accident prone Bella (from Twilight). C was "Billy" and Amber was "Little Ann" from Where the Red Fern Grows. (his choice - and favorite book) Our friend was the one of the fisherman from A River Runs Through It. I was Ferdinand the Bull and kept smelling the lovely flowers I had brought with me. (The local paper and internet media "guy" took pictures of us in our costumes.) I guess there's a Utube spot for it.

It was also announced that B won one of the coloring contests to help promote saving the library and got a free icecream cone at one of the local cafes. We all admired her pretty artwork which was hung up on the window outside the icecream shop.

There was a lot of fun music, food, and the Army had their rock wall there for the kids to climb. Good times all around!!!

Surprise!!!

This is a post from last week, (day before my birthday) but I was still having a lot computer problems and lost it. I finally have internet tonight (and since the rest of I-5 corridor seems to still be without power I have the internet to myself)


Last week, I was greeted with a lovely (early) birthday dinner on our deck when I got home from C's baseball game. The girls cleaned the deck, made dinner, and a birthday cake complete with candles. They threw me this early surprise birthday party because they knew we had B's Spring Choir Concert tomorrow on my bday. So as we finished our delicious lemon cake very generously frosted with chocolate and bright green mint flavored frosting, B turns to me and says.... "oh by the way mom. I need you to make me a pink poodle skirt for tomorrow's concert but I don't want you to stay up all night."

Easter Dining and Other Results

I can't find where my pictures of Easter Brunch went to....but when I find them I'll post them on here. It was simple but very yummy! Scrambled Pesto Eggs, Bacon, Coconut Bread, and Strawberries.

Close up of dinner plate. Aon was the master chef of this fabulous dinner. (B and I helped.) We had lemony garlic green beans, her delisiciouso corn dish, potato au'gratin and crab cakes on top of a lemon vinegrette salad. As the carnivorous sous chef, I was put in charge of the Ham.

I must say it is a very pretty ham and it tasted awesome. It was the best ham I've had in a very long time. I made a huckleberry chipolte glaze which was a perfect compliment to the smoky salty meat. Yum!

Easter Dinner table. (The kids used the colored eggs as a centerpiece.)

It was very pretty especially with the candles.

M working off some of that yummy food and big Easter basket.

She even went for a jog in the pouring down rain. Crazy Gilrl!!!

This is "beginning" of what became known as the "Peeps incident" at our house Easter morning.

(Aon couldn't control her peeps and below is the resulting tumult that ensued.)

There was a peeps orgy and this is the resulting chaos.

Spring Sports & Other Saturday Fun

Spring is starting to slowly arrive in the Pacific Northwest. Which means the beginning of Spring Soccer, Track and Baseball seasons.

(M is on the middle school track team and is loving it. She is super fast and has had the opportunity to try a lot of different track and field events. Out of 40 girls trying out for the 100m relay team, she just found out that she will be running the 1st leg because she was the second fastest girl. She is also doing the 100m, probably 200m, 100 hurdles, and then they can't decide whether she should do javelin, long or high jump and/or one of the other running events. She's loving all the practice and is jogging on her own on weekends and Spring Break. I'm planning attending at least one of her meets and hopefully will get some pictures. If not I'm sure I'll have a basic proud momma brag alert in a couple weeks.)

Here's a photo montage of C and B's sports activities.

C primarily plays shortstop on his "minors" team the River Dogs. (This is the first year kids are pitching. They also asked him if he wanted to pitch after they realized that only having 2 pitchers for the team wasn't realistic for a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds.)


Not really a sport, but B's best friend who moved away to Forks (of Twilight fame) came in for a surprise visit on Saturday. They were so excited and had fun playing at Chucky Cheeses' for a couple hours.

The Pink Panthers Unite!!

A bunch of the girls are anti-pink so there was some consternation about being the Pink Pansies until they realized that.... the coolest thief in the world is the same color.

(A couple of the anti-pink crowd were mollified then because they love the Pink Panther and love to "steal" the ball.)

C up to bat in one of his first games. He hit a single and came around to score.

Happy Easter!!

We had a lovely Easter with my sisterAon. The weather didn't ever clear up enough for our traditional BB gun shooting contest - just pouring buckets most of the day. Other than that we had a fabulous food, fun and lots of laughter. I'll add more to this post in bit. I need to add some of the pictures. So tune in later.

April Fools

I usually "celebrate" April Fools for the kids and send funny crazy stuff in their lunches and plan meals etc. But it snuck up on me....all the stuff at work and the kids being on Spring Break contributing to my malaise.

Well, never fear.....This year B was especially inspired to play pranks on anyone in sight. (She and C had a lot of fun planning and executing these elaborate almost Rube Goldberg schemes.) I'll only describe a couple here....believe me the merriment went on all day.

B has this old fashioned, really funny, loud and somewhat annoying monkey alarm clock. It makes loud monkey shrieks in addition to the clanging bells continually until you wake up and turn the darn thing off. (Did I say it was loud and makes monkey noises?)

Well, she set it for Oh-dark-30 and hid it in her sisters bedroom. hee hee. Well M turned it off and went back to bed, so B snuck down into M's room retrieved the clock and did the same thing to her brother who is a very sound sleeper. Did I mention it is VERY loud and makes monkey noises? Well, the thing went off for over 12minutes before he woke up and found it hidden under his bed. (I was on the verge of waking him up myself because it was so loud and obnoxious. - His story was that he knew it was going for that long but he decided to wear out the batteries...nice try bub! No one believes him - especially since I looked in on him noisly several times hoping to "accidentally" stir him and to see if he was dead because I couldn't see how anyone could sleep through it.)

I knew I should have been worried about B volunteering to make me lunch... but she had mentioned the night before that she would save her extra taco for my lunch so I thought I was safe and that she was being the nice, kind, thoughtful daughter that she is. (I should have known better!!!) After eating my entire lunch, I noticed that there was a little note in the bottom of my bag which read.... "Mom I licked everything first." and then in very tiny almost so you couldn't see it she wrote "April Fools" The rat!!!

I think I'm going to celebrate "Boomerang Day" It's where April Fool's comes back and gets them when they're least expecting it. hee hee

Father Daughter Ball

This year for the annual Father Daughter Ball was the last weekend in February. We decided to keep it "local" because we knew that it would be a real hardship for any of the families to come over from the Intermountain area. The girls selected their escorts with care and were really excited when they were able to come over for the weekend. B picked her godmother /aunt's boyfriend, Kevin and M chose a really good family friend Lee (aka Elkman). A friend who works at a florist showed the girls how to make their own corsages and boutinieres. They ate dinner at a local restuarant (Judy's) which is famous for it's pasta dishes and desserts. They had a lot of fun dancing, talking and generally having a good time.

The chicken dance champs who were "robbed" at the crowning ceremony ham it for the camera.

B pinning her flowers on Kevin. (only a little blood - good thing he wore layers.)

Lee and M pose for the camera





M looking very pretty and very grown up.

B looking gorgeous and very stylish.

Lee, M, B and Kevin say "cheese" one more time for the paparazzi before the big dance.

Good times were had by all. Thanks guys!

We really appreciate it!!! You can't know how much it means to the girls (and to me).

Moral Delimma

For his birthday, my son got to "redo" his room which hadn't been updated since he was 3. The jungle theme was getting a little old and we were both ready for a change.

So what's my moral delimma you might ask? Well, it's simple and yet so complicated.

We have a fairly old fashioned priest. I guess one of the old pre-Vatican II conventions was to have 'annual house blessings' in January. (Holy Family Sunday was designated "the" Sunday to do that.) This entails, blessed chalk being given to the parishioners and man of the house would write on the outside of their house above the front door the "Roman code" with the current new year. This is supposed to bless your house and keep it for another year....yada yada yada - You get the picture.

(Don't strike me down Lord for being somewhat irreverent and not going into the detail required to do this wonderfully holy pronouncement of our faith justice. But I had never heard of this until this priest revived this tradition, so I'm not as hip on the verbiage and full meaning of all the symbolism behind it.)
After some wild arm gesticulations in the sign of the cross and couple quick Hail Mary's, I'm back.

Anywhooo.....

So a couple years ago, they ran out of white chalk and so the priest blessed a bunch of colored chalk. When it came time to pick up our family's piece of chalk, C, the little "man of my house" decided that red chalk would be really cool. (I thought that would be ok since we have a red brick front.) Well, before I could even get my coat off after we got home, C had run into his room and in about 8 or 9 different places had wrote "BLESS" all over his walls with this holy chalk. (He was so excited about the whole concept and being entrusted with "the holy chalk", that he forgot that the priest said it was supposed to go outside and above the front door.)

So I've been in a moral quandry ever since.... How do you remove it without going to hell?

And so for the last 2 years "BLESS" has covered every wall in his room in several obvious locations, while I struggled with the holy ramifications. (By now the red has seeped into the wall paint and I have to deal with it because I need to prepare the walls to paint.) I finally figured out what to do. - Yes I had an epiphany of sorts! It was so simple and yet has elegant grace that matches the symbolism needed for this quandry.

You ask....How do you remove holy writing from your son's walls? With Holy Water of Course!!

Yes! I did. I got some holy water from church and used it to wash C's walls where the red blesses were written. It looks great and is still holier than thou's room.

Finally!!!! 10 years old!!

C is finally in the double digits club!! He is so very excited!! He has been eagerly anticipating this day for nearly a year. (I remember back in September he told someone that he was "nearly 10".) Now if his mom will let him, he can play the 10 and up video games. Here's some pictures from his friend party and family party.

C's family cake that B baked and decorated for him.

C has a bunch of his buddies come over to the house for a movie night sleep over. Yep, they stayed up until the wee hours of the night playing video games and watching action movies. (I love the fact that this modern kids really loved the old 1980's movie Short Circuit. THey also watched the cartoon Star Wars movie Clone Wars, Iron Man and Speed Racer.) Each kid had their own bucket of "movie popcorn" movie candy, and pop. One friend said that I was the coolest Mom ever when he found out that they were going to watch more than one movie and could stay up really late and watch as many as they wanted. (At 2:30 am I made the last stragglers who were playing a pokemon card game go to sleep.)

The boys playing a pokemon battle game on the Wii.


C hamming it up as we sing Happy Birthday to him.

Yes, there is a big slice out of C's Birthday cake. I ran out of time, so I let him buy a cake. It was pretty cool. I took the cake out of the box and had it on the kitchen table. I then I needed to get the cool new candles I bought so I left the kitchen for a few minutes. In that brief 2 minutes, our dog, Queenie, who has not done this before, jumped up on the table and took a small bite out of the side of the cake. Well there's not much I could do with a house full of kids and I've already made the announcement that 10 minutes before do the cake. So I cut generously around the bite, put the candles on and made the best of it.

(I kinda laughed because something like this happened to my sisters' cake for my birthday this summer. She left it on a chair on the deck and Cricket thought it was very tasty.)

This is such classic 10 year old boy humor that I had to get a picture. Chris thought it was hilarious and there were several other cards and bags in the same vein of humor.

All in all it was a very fun birthday. C and his friends had a great time.