Look how fun these projects are. Thanks again girls! (I told you I would post them) :)

Jackpot

I just had to get on and share what I got last night at my stamping group. I always feel like I hit the jackpot when I get there. I am glad they let me stay in the group even though my projects don't quite measure up the theirs a lot of the time. Our theme for the month was recycled cardboard. We could use chipboard, cardboard, whatever we wanted to do. I used punches to create a bunny out of the cardboard that comes in the paper packets. I can't find where I got the idea, or I would give them credit. If you know. Since my camera battery just died, I will post the pics soon....I promise :)

Hello Summer

To the very few readers I have I am pretty sure you might be thinking I have fallen off the face of the earth. Although it sounds very tempting, I have not. I have obviously taken the same attitude about blogging that I seem to have about writing in my journal. I have very good intentions, but the entries are few and far between.

Lots of fun things have happened since my last blog. Some birthdays, holidays, nervous breakdowns....ok maybe not, but that would be a good excuse to not be caught up. Anyway, we are enjoying the summer and it is going WAY too fast. The biggest "event" that has shaped our summer started the week before spring break. B decided she wanted to try out for cheer. I was SURE there was no chance she was going to make it and she tried out. This sweet girl who has never taken a dance class, struggled through every tumbling class she has ever taken, and bless her blondeness has a general lack of coordination (which she gets from her mother), pulled it off and made the team. I am now a cheer mom which is something I never thought I would say. I am very proud of her. She worked REALLY hard, and she seems to be having a good time. It did rearrange our summer, but that's turned out to be a very good thing.



M&M graduated from 5th grade and will be going to middle school next year. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact I have to throw her into the armpit of life so soon, and so small. I keep praying for a growth spurt, but it's not happening. She can't even reach the top shelf in the lockers. I will just have to have faith that B will take good care of her. I also need to remember what she lacks in size she makes up for in attitude. She will be just fine, I am a little worried about myself though.




Roo graduated from pre-school this spring. WHOOO-HOOO!!!! Hellooooo kindergarten. In an effort to save money our district has gone to full days every other day for the kindergarten, except two school, one of which happens to be our school, who will have the kindergarten go all day 4 days a week. (insert happy dance here) I am very excited, but secretly a little sad. No more entertainment during the day. No one bossing me around. I will miss it, but with a smile on my face. I have already wished her teacher good luck. Now I will just have to figure out who I want to be when I grow up...or if I want to grow up.



Summer is slipping away way too fast. Our vacation has come and gone. I will blog about it soon. I promise. I have to say I am loving sleeping in every day. Girls camp is almost here, and I get to go again. Yay me! I love those girls. And I love camp. I am going to enjoy every minute of summer I can.

I am thankful for....

Lately I wish I could hook the computer up to my brain and share all the great blogging that goes on inside my head. Unfortunately that is where it stays. In my head. I would be ungrateful if I didn't take a minute this Thanksgiving week-end to write a few thoughts about what I am thankful for.

I have to say that this time of year was changed for our family two years ago when we lost my brother-in-law Bob to menengitis the day before Thanksgiving. I still remember eating Thanksgiving dinner in stunned silence wondering if there really were things to be thankful for. I think we were all still in shock not quite ready to accept that he had been taken from us way too soon. I think about him every day. He was a great "brother" and I still feel a little ripped off that Roo will never get the chance to know him. Then again, I think they would have gotten into way too much trouble together. They say time heals all wounds but I am not sure I agree with that. I still miss Bob as much today as the day he died. I can say that I think we learn how to deal with things over time and for that I am thankful.

I have to say I am thankful for my family. I couldn't have found a better husband for me. He puts up with an aweful lot being married to me. Then again, that goes both ways. Our family pics we had taken are a great example. The caption for this particular photo should be "He loves me not???"
This is the face he pulls when told to act like he likes me. He thought it was hilarious. I am glad he got a good laugh. I am also glad he has a good sense of humor. What good is life if you can't sit back and laugh every once is a while.
And to be able to laugh with him is a blessing indeed. He does things every day to show our family he loves them. He even went out with me for a while on Black Friday. We did NOT go early in the morning, but we went and had fun. I'm thinking that needs to be our new tradition, but I am sure he is hoping it was a one time thing. He also put the Christmas lights up outside this week-end. He does it every year and the girls and I love it. He even lets them help. He is a great dad and I am thankful for that too.



I am thankful for good girls. I watch them making good choices when it isn't very easy and am thankful I was sent these good, sweet spirits. They are an adventure and we don't always see eye to eye, but I need to take a little more time to let them know how proud I am of them. I missed B's birthday blog. I was probably trying to deny the fact that I am the mother of a teenager. Yep, the big 1-3. So far we are surviving, other than the fact that I am the meanest mom in the world and she gets nothing she wants. (and for the record, she gets plenty of things she wants and although she claims she will die without a cell phone, she seems to be doing just fine)

I also need to make sure my parents and my in-laws know I am thankful for them. Hubby and I would not be who we are today without them and I like who we are. Not only are they good parents, but both of our parents have stayed together. What a great example of marriage. I know it hasn't always been easy for them and I am thankful they have been the great examples that they are.

I am thankful for my amazing friends. What would we as women do without friends? I believe if I surround myself with great women, they will help me become who I want to be. And I hope that something good in me can help them in some small way. I do know I gain much more from them than they could possibly get from me.

I am thankful for my faith. What would life be without something to believe in? To be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a great blessing. It brings me strength. It gives me a great support system, and I hope it makes me a better person. I know who I am, I know that I have a purpose. What more could I ask? There are people who don't know who they are and wonder what the purpose in life is, or if there is any purpose at all.

If you haven't already take a few minutes to be thankful for the good in your life.
I could go on and on but I won't. I will save that for the ongoing blog in my head. Hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving!

Back to School

We are now well into the swing of things. We have a month of school under our belts. It has been good so far.

B started jr. high and was definately more ready for it than I am. I can't believe how well she is doing. I swear she has grown up since school started.


M&M is in 5th grade and thanks to the 6th grade moving to the jr high she and the other 5th graders are the big wigs at school. She is having a great time. She has some good friends and a good teacher and I think this is her best year yet.


Roo started pre-school two days a week. Can you hear the hallelujah choir in the background?.....I sure can. Four hours a week to do whatever I need or want to do is pure bliss. She is loving it too. She talks more about the boys playing pirates than what she is learning. I hope that is not a glimps into the future.

They all start school at a different time which means no more back to bed for me. That has been a little depressing. I am on morning car pool duty. It is nice to be out and done with all my errands so early in the morning but sure makes for a long day. I am ready for bed every night by 9. Makes me feel like an old lady. It's all good though. I am having a good time watching the girls. I am really proud of all three of them.

I have put stamping to the side lately to pursue my newest "hobby". I have discovered beaded watch bands. You know the ones inspired by the "Bumble" brand. I am loving it. Today I finished up on the few I was having trouble with. Who knew you could have beaders block. I am still trying to decide if I need to change one of the bands, but hopefully I am done for a while. One of these years I will have to post some pictures of what I have done. I think that I will get back to stamping.

For now I am off to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

Vacation part 2

The second half of our vacation is definitely we will never forget. We started off the day at the Applets and Cotlets factory. My great aunt used to buy them and it was fun to see where they were made. Not sure hubby appreciated it, but the girls and I had fun. The next stop we decided to make is to Lake Chelan. We got there without any excitement. We pulled up to buy tickets for the "Lady of the Lake" boat tour. The girls were very excited. We went thinking we were just in time. I went up to the desk. "We would like to buy tickets for the lake cruise" I said to the girl sitting behind the desk. She asked me when we would like to go. "Today" seemed like a good response. She looked at me funny....."yes, it would help me book your ticket if you told me today when you want to go." Hmmm. That was a strange response. So I tried "Right now." I am at that point thinking we are standing here with our whole family, jackets in hand, obviously ready to go. "Yes, I need to know right now if you want me to book your tickets." By that point I am thinking it is the blonde leading the blonde. I explained to her that we are not from the area and saw the cruise in a brochure and would like to go out for the afternoon. Oh.....we only have one cruise, it leaves in the morning and gets back in the afternoon. It would be nice if they said something about that in the brochure.

We headed back to the RV looking for something else to do. We drove around the lake for a while. It was beautiful. We decided to try and find a water slide park we read about. We finally found it on Water slide Road (who would have guessed)? It was a great. We all had a good time. I didn't have my camera so you will have to imagine the water park overlooking the lake. We stayed until closing time and headed over to the RV park we saw while we were driving around. There was a new sign out front. Full. Not good. We couldn't find anything in town so we headed on down the road. WAY down the road. I was starting to get worried. We finally found a spot in a rodeo ground rv park in Omak Washington. Have you ever been to Omak? I don't recommend going. We were thankful for the place to rest, but happy to get going again in the morning.

Up and going again we headed toward the Coulee Dam. Wanted to go on a dam tour. It was hot at the dam. Too hot. The ol' rv didn't like it there. Started lurching again. We pulled into the dam parking lot just in time to take the tour. We walked across the dam with the tour guide explaining it was probably over 110 degrees on top of the dam right now. No kidding.....let's get on with the tour. We went to a shelter on the edge of the dam and listened to the guide for a while. She got my attention when she said, "this is the point we usually go into the dam, but since the elevator is broken, we can head back now." So the tour existed of walking across the very hot dam, peering over the edge, and walking back. We went to the visitors center for a while and back to the rv. This was the worse day in the rv. She broke down about every 20 miles or so. The rolling hills and the heat were just too much for her. We limped her into Spokane that evening and stopped for dinner. After dinner I spotted a KOA sign and told Nate he had better follow that sign. When we got there, I ran in to see if we could get a spot. I got quite a scare. No spots left. I wanted to fling myself on the counter and cry, beg, bribe, anything to not have to get back into that motorhome. It had been a very long stressful day. Then suddenly they remembered they had just had a cancellation. Hooray! Kissing them would have been inappropriate, but I sure wanted to. We lurched around the parking lot a few times. Felt like the Griswald family pulling in. I am sure our neighbors were thrilled when we pulled up to the side of them. All we were lacking was a backfire. KOA was our refuge that night. Swimming in the cool pool, movie on the lawn, and to bed. I would have been happy staying there for a long, long, time. Unfortunately we only had reservations for one night.

The next day was Sat. I was ready to go home, but we weren't supposed to be home until Sunday. So we headed toward Cour D'alane. We wanted to see if maybe we could get that lake cruise in yet. We made it there with no lurching. Drove right into the middle of the biggest street fairs I have ever seen. We had to walk a LONG way to get to the lake. Saw lots of stuff in the booths lining the street. We grabbed some lunch and finally got tickets for a lake cruise. It was very relaxing. Roo instantly made a friend and didn't leave her side the whole time we were on the boat. She has the tendency to be a stalker that way. I am glad Zoe's mom humored her. Then we headed to Cataldo. It would be our last hurrah. A little Idaho history the next morning and then home. I didn't know the greatest adventure with the RV lay ahead that night. We pulled into the rv park and hubby says he is going to drop the fuel tank to see if he can figure out what the problem is. OK. I have no idea what that meant. Now I do. If you have never had that experience, I hope you never do. We couldn't get the plug out of the bottom of the tank so we had to drop it full. Right onto Nate's hand. Ouch. Then we had to figure how to get it into the 5 gallon buckets we had. Not enough buckets. Hubby couldn't see anything wrong so we had to try and lift the half full tank back into place. It involved a jack, and lots of language I didn't think the girls should hear, but we did it. That is a feeling of accomplishment. Don't know many people who can say they have done that. Then Hubby made friends with the rv park owner and got a tour of his garage. Turned out to be a drag racer and hubby was happy to have met him. Even stopped on the way out Sun. morning to say thank you.

Sunday I was ready to be headed home. We held out breath and hit the road. Only broke down once. Coasted into a little gas station that claimed to be running out of gas. Sold us $10 worth of gas. Thank goodness it was enough to get us to the next exit. Hubby didn't want to chance it so we came home with the windows open and the heat on. I was sooo happy to get home to my air condtioned house and my kitchen, and my full size bathroom......I could go on and on. We can laugh about most of the trip now. It was a good time. I might even want to do it again after hubby fixes the lurch. The girls have a story no one else will have. I would definately say we bonded. Maybe a little too much.

I left the Roo factor out of the vacation. She was something else the whole time we were gone. I was proud of hubby not killing her when she told him to just turn the key and get her out of there when we were broken down for the 6th or 7th time of the day. If it were only that simple. Or her repeated requests for fruit snacks and gum. If nothing else I learned patience. For now I will just be happy hanging out at home enjoying all those little luxuries we take for granted.

Oh the memories...

OK. I promised to revisit our family reunion/vacation in the state of Washington. We have known about this for about a year so hubby dear decided to buy a motorhome in the salvage auction. It was soooo stinky and yucky. With a whole lot of work and tlc it is really nice. We were so excited. The girlies couldn't wait to get going bright and early the first morning. This is Roo the first day as we were happily driving down the road.
We were driving a long about 5 hours into our adventure when the motorhome started to lurch a bit. Hubby looked over and asked if he should pull off or take a chance. Hmmm.....stranded in a town where we can maybe figure out what's wrong or stranded on the side of the freeway. Tough choice. I think the look I shot his way made his decision easy. We pulled off the freeway and just at the end of the ramp the motorhome died. Once again, hubby came through. New fuel filter, new spark plugs and wires and only a few hours behind schedule we were back on the road. I have to say that being stranded in a motorhome is a much different experience than it is in a car. We had a bathroom, food, and a generator to run a tv. I have to say it wasn't horrible, just stressful.

Anyway, we arrived in Washington about midnight. The reunion was a lot of fun. My aunt and uncle live in paradise.
This is a picture of the waterslide they made. The kids would hit a bump on the way down that should have put their bottom end in their forehead, but they loved it.

My uncle took us out on the ocean in search of orca whales. It was AMAZING. He got us right in the middle of a pod that were coming right at us. The rules are pretty strict about getting up close and personal with the whales. You can't just drive up and see them. You can however cut your engine and hope they come to you and they did. There were whales everywhere. My camera was too slow to get a good picture, but I got what I could. I have to say it was a lot of fun and definately a highlight of the trip.


My aunt and uncle also have cherry trees. The girls had a blast picking cherries and we enjoyed them for the rest of the trip. .

On Monday we headed out on our own. We toured Widbey Island. We went to Fort Casey for a while. I have been there once, when I was a kid and it must have had quite and impact on me because it shows up in my dreams periodically. It was really fun to go back and visit.

We stayed at Deception Pass that night and this is where the adventure truely began. We drove under the bridge when my uncle took us out and it is really pretty. Here is the view from the boat.
There is a really nice state park there with rv hook-ups so we got settled in and decided to walk to the beach. We didnt' realize the beach was so far away.
One blister on M&M's foot and a lot of whining later we were there. On one side of the parking lot is the ocean. On the other a fresh water lake. It was very cool. The only problem is we forgot to have the girls change into their swimsuits. Oops. Roo made it known she did not like the ocean side. She walked around with her hand on her mouth screaming that is smelled and she was going to throw up. Nice. We let them play (Roo safely off the beach on the freshwater side) and then we walked back. M&M on her daddy's back and Roo on my back or B's back. I must say we slept very well that night.

The next day we headed down the road to Levenworth. Levenworth is a charming Bavarian town just at the bottom of Mt. Baker. I have always wanted to go and we were all excited to get there. One thing I havent' mentioned is that it was HOT the whole time we were there. Really hot....record breaking hot......and humid. we were headed up Mt Baker in the heat and just at the top, the lurch was back. Uh-Oh. The motorhome died at the top and we literally coasted all the way down the other side of Mt. Baker. Best gas mileage we got the whole trip. Hubby got it started at the bottom and we were off to explore the town.


We stayed at the Isicle River Rv park that night and got to camp backed up to the Icicle river. It was very pretty and the girls had a good time playing in the river.

That is the first little bit of our trip. Stay tuned for part two. It gets much better....or worse depending on your point of view. I can say that the adventure has just begun.