Random Ramblings

A Project Completed

2007-05-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

I CLEANED MY SCRAPBOOK TABLE!!!

This is news of monumental proportions.

This task has been on my to do list for about 9 months. It's too low a priority to ever get to the top of the list.

I am so lucky to have a desk for my scrapbooking supplies. I found it at an estate sale for only $40. I was so excited to have a place to leave a project out, so I could work on it a little at a time in spare moments, instead of having to put everything away and get it back out again every time I had a moment to work on it.

The problem is, I don't have any spare moments. So the incomplete project I had sitting out on the desk never got worked on. Instead, the desk gradually became the receptacle for all things crafty that needed to find a home, as well as the location to dump any unfinished craft projects, paper pieces, photos, ribbons, cards, letters, and other memorabilia. We have been adding stuff to the pile on the desk for ages without ever putting any of it away. When housecleaning, we always ignored this particular mess. For almost a year.

I can hardly believe I had enough free time to spend an afternoon working on it, interruption-free. When I finally got to the end of the task, after about 5 hours of sorting, filing and purging, I was filled with the desire to scrapbook. I'd better resist the temptation, since that's how the last mess got started.

Reality Check

2007-05-11T17:25:00.000-07:00

Looking back over my past blog posts, I can detect when I'm feeling crowded and when I have room to do my own thing by the frequency of my posts. I think I'm crowded more often than not these days.

But not today. I am hopeful that my weekend is going to be filled with room to do my own thing.

Alterations are done; payroll, job costing, invoicing, check balancing, and bill paying are all done; mending is done(I started working on that one in between alterations); inputting my financial data from the three weeks that my data was lost is done; 75% of the weeding is done.

My house, on the other hand, is a complete and total disaster. Dust everywhere, clutter overflowing every room, and shoes, socks, books, toys, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia from 6 different individuals left here, there, and everywhere.

I'll probably clean this weekend.

That's ok. I like to clean. But I wish I had this month's book on tape.

Alterations

2007-05-11T17:03:00.000-07:00

I volunteered to help with alterations at my girls' dance class. I thought I was giving myself an out by telling them I can't do much more than sew a hem or tack up a strap. But inevitably, I was in over my head. Since I was already there at class waiting for kids so many days a week, I thought it would be no big deal to offer to do alterations at that time. I envisioned sewing hems at a leisurely pace while chatting with friends.

Not so. Every Wednesday I've arrived at class to find a line of girls waiting and ready, costumes on inside out. Far too many of the girls have costumes that are too large; I've had to take in several waistbands, and many of the hems have drawstrings that have to be moved and replaced. The first couple of weeks I thought I was going to lose it. I was bringing home piles of costumes to alter at home, when I don't even have time to cook dinner or play with my kids anymore. I felt so stressed about those stupid costumes! That was around the same time that my computer crashed and I lost all my data.

I'm feeling a little more relaxed about it now; the pace has slowed down, and I'm not taking home 5 or 6 costumes each week anymore. I enjoy being able to help, and while I don't agree with many aspects of the studio's operating procedures, I do think that if this is what the girls want to do, it makes sense for me to be involved if there is a need. So, in spite of my stressed state that first few weeks, I'm not sorry I offered to do the alterations. I do, however, wish I didn't always find life so frighteningly busy... and volunteering for once more thing certainly never helps with that.

Gardens Here and There

2007-05-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

Last month, while in Portland for dance competition, we spent an afternoon visiting the Japanese Gardens. It was so beautiful, restful and serene. I wish my garden looked like that! I had hoped it would give me some ideas, but so much of what they had created related to the climate of the area, with mosses and other wet loving plants everywhere. I would love to view a Japanese style garden created in a dry, arid climate.

In the meantime, I am finding a bit of time here and there to do a little weeding and pruning in my garden. Things could use a bit of a face lift and some shifting around, but I haven't found the time for that. I think my next project will be to eliminate the grass(weed) path and replace it with shredded bark. The tough part will be moving a mountain of rocks I've unearthed and left laying in a pile on the path. I thought it would be great to create a dry stream bed with the rocks, but have no idea where to put them. It would be so much better to move them only once!

The front yard is still bare dirt. Sometimes I'm afraid it will always be that way. With our bathroom remodel project done, next on the list is a sprinkler system. The estimate we got was way out of our price range, but we just don't have the time or know-how to do it ourselves. Clint has a friend with some experience in irrigation systems; maybe I'll get lucky and we can hire him to install them for us. It would be so lovely to have a front yard again.

Nothing to Show

2007-03-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to get anything done these days. My list is unchanging; I don't ever seem to get anything crossed off. Thinking productively, what have I done lately?

Over the last two weekends, I cleaned the garage. It was truly a nightmare. Clint hauled the ruined piano and lots of other junk off to the dumps. What a relief!!! That piano has been bugging me for ages. Of course, there's still a big pile of Clint's work tools in the middle of one bay, so I can only park one car inside. But at least I can move around in there now. I have a terrible habit, once the garage starts getting disheveled, of just stepping in the door and flinging, instead of trying to find an actual spot to put something away. So, it's my own fault really. But I really, really hate cleaning the garage.

I took the girls to the mall. They've been asking for months, and I just haven't had time. I realized I was never going to have time, so I just did it anyway. Now they want to go to Wal-Mart.

I tried out Entrees Made Easy. It's taken a month to get over the guilt and become comfortable with what semms like a lot of money for a meal, but I'm pretty sold on it now. My family loves the home-cooked meals and trying different menus. I'm so grateful about the time it's saving me I could just cry. Funny thing is, even with half our dinners taking half the time, I still don't seem to be getting to the stuff I'm supposed to be doing.

I caught up on job costing for all Clint's work since January. Oh, and I'm still doing payroll every week, although that's about it for me and business work lately.

Homeschooling. Tamzin just finished with her math for this year, and she is so excited. She also just finished her first grade reader. She is so proud of herself. We're now reading the Spiderwick Chronicles, recommended by Chelee. She loves them. It's her first foray into chapter books, which she had always been to impatient for before. I'm working with the older girls on writing and history a few times a week, and now Shelby wants me to read her Environmental Science book so we can discuss the concepts together. It's fascinating, but it takes time! I do the same thing with history, and we have great conversations together, but it means I have 'homework', too.

Gave the girls their annual "test", required for homeschooling. It's a pain in the neck, but at least it's done now, and the girls are happy with their scores. They feel they accurately reflect where they are at, for the most part.

Cleaned the house a few times, with help from the girls.

Went to the park a few times. Hosted a play date.

Took the girls to Portland for Dance Competition. Definitely a worthwhile experience. Went to OMSI, too. The girls had a great time there.

Nursed the family through a round of the flu, and then a bout of colds.

Threw a birthday party for Gillian at BounceArena. Definitely a fun way to go.

So what am I not getting to?

The taxes. I'm 80% done, and stuck. Knowing I'm going to owe a fortune, since I underpaid my estimated taxes last year, makes it hard to feel motivated to get it done. But I've got 3 birthdays and another out of town dance competition to think about in April, so I shouldn't be putting it off like this.

Fashion Revue. If I don't get the girls started soon, we will be so crowded later. It's not so easy to "help" 3 girls sew cool outfits. It's harder than doing it myself.

My Blog. My Photos. My Scrapbook Table, which seriously has not been cleaned off in a year, and has papers and photos piled high (another fling spot). The dishes, which is what I should be doing right now. Gotta go!

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T12:00:00.000-08:00

My Valentine's Day gift to Clint. Flowers, candy, Emmets (he loves a dash in his coffee in the morning) and a handmade card. I decided to go traditional this year. I don't think I've ever given him candy before. I'm pretty sure I've given him flowers before, but he doesn't remember it. After he was asleep last night, I brought in the flowers and arranged them in the beautiful vase I got for Christmas, and left everything artfully arranged by the coffee machine, so he would see it all first thing in the morning, while I was still sleeping.

I gave each of the girls a heart shaped box of See's candy. I've never done that before; it felt decadent. I gave them roses, too, three peach roses each. I bought a dozen roses and arranged them in four vases after they went to bed last night, then made valentines to go with them. I was rushing, so they were quite uninspired. I love homemade valentines. Usually I put a lot of creative effort into valentines for the girls, but this year I just didn't get to it until the last minute.

My Valentine's Day booty...so far. Beautiful handmade cards from all the girls, a sweet card from Clint with the perfect sentiment, and a box of dark chocolate pecan turtles(my favorite, yum!) and chocolate covered strawberries from Clint. Last night he gave me the candy, saying it wouldn't keep until today.

Today is our anniversary. We probably wouldn't make such a thing of Valentine's Day otherwise. It makes sense to reaffirm our attachment to each other. It feels good to know I wouldn't have chosen any differently if I had it to do over again.

I don't have a "real" gift for him. I couldn't think of anything. I bought him a thermometer with lots of fancy settings on it, but I think I'm going to return it. It's kind of boring.

I don't think we're going to make it out on a date this year. The kids have been sick for days, plus they have dance class most evenings, and he leaves for Lake Mead on Saturday. So we'll celebrate with romantic traditional stuff, and it will be just right.

The Eggs Our Birds Laid for Us While We Were Gone

2007-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

19 eggs in 3 days. Can't complain about that!

The View from our Hotel

2007-02-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

We went to Bremerton to see Clint's dad last weekend. He was in the hospital recently and had just returned home. Thankfully there was nothing seriously wrong with him. He's not been taking great care of himself, and was weak and malnourished. He had a stroke last year and has been depressed and anxious ever since.

After ruling out other options, we decided to bring Chico, our chihuahua, with us. This meant staying in a motel instead of with Clint's dad and stepmom. We found a great hotel close to Clint's dad's place, but it was unavailable Friday night. We decided it would be worth it to switch lodgings after one night if we could stay in this hotel, which had an excersise and game room, indoor pool, an ocean view, and a killer rate. For Friday night, we made reservations at a nearby motel that would take dogs, but when we got there, the room was unacceptable. Linoleum flooring and only 6 inches of clearance around the two queen beds. With 6 of us in a room, 2 have to sleep on the floor, so it just wouldn't work. We sat in the parking lot calling places, trying to find someone that could accomodate all of us and the dog.

We did, and things worked out great, but it was stressful in the meantime. Rhiannon had been feeling poorly prior leaving on the trip. I had suggested it might be better for the two of us to stay home and let Clint and the other girls go without us. We couldn't expose an 83 year old man in poor health to a virus. But Clint and Rhiannon felt it was possible that her looming sick feelings were temporary, so off we went. It was clear by the time we reached Ellensburg that Rhiannon was pretty sick. She was feverish and dazed. She doesn't travel well anyway, so she felt pretty awful. Waiting in the car while we struggled to find accomodations after a 4 1/2 hour drive was agony.

In the end, we got a great deal on two rooms at a Comfort Inn in Port Orchard. We've never stayed in two rooms before, so for Clint and I it was like a mini holiday. We haven't been in a hotel room without a child since our wedding night. We all ate out at a really nice Mexican Restaurant, trying to make the best of an uncomfortable situation. Rhiannon was like the walking dead the whole time, but had vetoed the idea of ordering a pizza in our room. In the morning we ate their continental breakfast with homemade waffles, and then Clint and the girls went to see grandpa while Rhiannon and I spent an incredibly boring morning watching motel TV.

At checkout time Clint returned to the motel and moved us to the other hotel, which had allowed us to check in early due to Rhiannon's illness. After unpacking and getting the girls settled, we left them there at the hotel, and Clint and I went to visit Clint's dad. Then, I came back to the hotel to watch over Rhiannon, and he and the girls went back for dinner with his dad. After they got back I went out and picked up some dinner for Rhiannon. In the morning I swam and had breakfast in the hotel with the girls while Clint went to visit his dad on his own.

Tamzin had a great time collecting shells on the beach outside our room. We had a first floor room with a sliding door and a fireplace; the girls had an adjoining room with it's own sliding door looking out on Puget Sound. Gillian and Tamzin loved the pool, although we didn't have much time to swim with all that was going on.

Clint's dad was grumpy and uncommunicative. He would often interrupt the conversation to say "I don't want to talk about that". Clint was tense and worried after seeing his used-to-be-genial dad. I was concerned about Rhiannon, whose fever was very high and who was having difficulty getting rest under the circumstances. We ended up arguing our last night and morning, which was a bummer since we were staying in such a nice place, and it should have been great.

The last time we visited Clint's dad we stayed with them, which was great because we could help with the cooking, and had lots of time for visiting. While staying in a hotel had the potential to be fun, it made it harder to have a meaningful visit. I don't think Clint felt better after seeing his dad, and I'm not sure his dad did either. He seemed to be aware that Clint was struggling to manage his family and his sick daughter, and so insisted that Clint not return after his Sunday morning visit, but instead take Rhiannon home. I had wanted to make this trip with Clint so I could help keep his stepmom entertained, so he could have one-on-one time with his dad. But I ended up being no help at all.

Clint worked so hard to make the trip comfortable for me and the girls, when he should have been focusing on his dad. But he's a problem solver, and making things nice for his family was something he could DO, while I think at his dad's he felt quite helpless. It's been 9 months, and no one has been able to figure out how to cheer up his dad, and they understandably worry about his unhappiness sending his health into a downward spin.

I think we will all have pleasant memories of this trip (except sick Rhiannon) but we didn't really accomplish what we had hoped to with Clint's dad. At least we got to visit.

F in Blogging

2007-01-18T14:20:00.000-08:00

I'm not very good at blogging, I guess.

I think I'm losing interest, too. I had envisoned my blog as a way for me to keep in touch with friends and family that I don't talk to all the time, people who might want to know what I'm up to. It hasn't worked out that way, though. My faithful blog readers are people who already know what I'm up to on a regular basis, more or less. And those I thought would be interested in knowing my day to day activities? Not interested, I guess.

So, given the always overwhelmed state of my to-do list, blogging has become less and less and less of a priority, until now I wonder what the point is at all.

I was going to post a half dozen pictures detailing how I've spent the last month, but I can't get blogger to upload them. Must be a temporary glitch.

Turkey Day

2006-11-26T16:55:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was perfect. Relaxed and laid back. No company, just Clint and the kids and I. Clint, Rhiannon and I spent the morning cooking companionably, while the other girls played GameCube together.

An early dinner, a meal of all the traditional favorites, voted on by the family so that everyone got to have what they most wanted. Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry apple stuffing, rolls, fresh green beans with bacon, sweet potato casserole, fruit salad, pumpkin pie and dutch apple pie.

A game of Apples to Apples over dessert, followed by a family movie and an afternoon doze. Who could ask for anything more?

November's Project

2006-11-21T16:33:00.000-08:00

As if I don't already have enough to do, I made a promise to "make over" Rhiannon's bedroom for her next birthday. I know she would let me put if off if I said I was just too busy, but I figured I just needed to get it over with, or it would be yet another project hanging over my head.

Painting paneling is soooo much work. It takes 3 coats of primer to cover the wood stain, then 2 coats of the color coat. Plus, the ceiling hasn't been painted in 45 years or so, so it takes several coats to cover that as well. To do a truly good job, the base trim has to be removed and painted separately, then replaced. Then there is the edge trim that hides the panel edges at corners and ceiling. Plus, you can't forget the closet, which has to be completely dismantled to really get in there and cover all the surfaces.

On the positive side...it's done! She is now moved back in to her very pink bedroom. I wish I could say the job is over. But painting is just the beginning of a room "makeover". Next we painted her dresser and hanging shelves, purchased and installed a closet organizer, spent several days sorting through her old stuff, deciding what to keep and what was not "new room worthy", and finally, set out shopping for bedding and accessories. Here we have run into a snag; the style of bedding she wants is nowhere to be found. We will have to either figure something else out, or (horrors) sew it ourselves.

To make things even more challenging, Rhiannon and I often butt heads about the best way to do things, or what we think will look or work the best. So while in theory I believe that it's her room, and she should be able to do what she likes with it, in practice I'm only willing to shell out the big bucks for something I also feel comfortable with, which means I get lots of unhappy vibes from a diva who feels I'm messing with her groove. Ouch.

It's tough to take after working so hard painting a bedroom, while my bulbs languish in the laundry room because I don't have time to plant them.

Pastry Chef

2006-11-20T20:25:00.000-08:00

More goodies baked by Rhiannon.
This time she made homemade cream puffs. Sooo Yummy!

Baking has become the activity of choice for this girl when she's bored.

It makes keeping to a low fat/sweet lifestyle challenging. It's hard to eat just one!

Truffles

2006-11-04T18:32:00.000-08:00

Thursday was an in and out day for me. One child to the dentist, another to dance class, another to driving lessons.

Somehow, in my absence, my resident chef and truffle fairy, Rhiannon, managed to make chocolate-covered, coffee liqueur-flavored truffles. The process involved a number of stages of cooking and cooling, yet she managed to keep it all a secret until the moment when I walked into my bedroom to find a wrapped box of the little delights waiting for me, with a note that said I'm the sweetest mom around.

Of course, moments before, I was telling them, in an irritated tone, how uncool it was that they all kept looking at me, whispering, and giggling. I felt like I was in high school. Then I found the box, and the note, and I cried. I so rarely feel really appreciated, even though I know they all do, that I was just overwhelmed, especially since I had not been at my most loving.

The truffles were amazing and delicious. I can't believe Rhiannon whipped them up by herself. She is so confident and adventurous with her cooking, it amazes me. Tonight she made a cheese souffle for dinner. I've been meaning to make a cheese souffle for 12 years, and still haven't gotten around to it. She's got talent.

Halloween with Friends

2006-11-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

I am so lucky to have such a cool bunch of people to hang out with on Halloween. It's more fun every year! I enjoy Halloween as much now as I did when I was a kid. The creative costumes, the spooky houses with elaborate and scary decorations, walking around the neighborhood after dark, warming up afterwards with hot apple cider and conversation...what's not to like?

Oh, and just check out the spoils of the evening. It's enough to open up a candy store!

Gutted

2006-10-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is it. A bathroom remodel in progress. Things are going great.

The plumbers have "roughed in" the plumbing and installed the tub/shower. The electricians have re-wired the wiring. I ordered the vanity cabinets, which came in today. The drywallers are scheduled for Monday, and Clint tells me they will not only drywall, tape, and texture, but also paint. I thought that job would belong to yours truly! I tried to talk him out of it, but he says he just wants to get it done, and that they will be faster.

After that, Clint will install the cabinets. I need to buy light fixtures, a sink and faucets for the sink and tub this weekend(and pick out a paint color...lavender, maybe?). Then, finally, the electrician and plumber will come back to install fixtures, and we will be done!

UPDATE: As of 11/3 we are drywalled, taped, textured and primered. Now it's just paint, cabinets and fixtures, and decorating!!!

Hand Sewing

2006-10-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

I spent Saturday sewing a mermaid costume for Tamzin...by hand.

First, I couldn't find a patttern that looked like what we wanted. We were trying to avoid the typical shell bra with nude fabric over the belly (like Ariel) look, but couldn't find a pattern for anything different. I envisioned a long slinky dress with a flared hem. I had some cool knit fabric with sequins that I got as a selvage end on discount years ago(thinking it would be perfect for a mermaid costume). So I laid Tamzin down on the fabric, guessed on the shape, and started cutting. It's a simple sheath style dress, but my tempermental sewing machine has always resisted knits, and it absolutely refused to sew on the sequined fabric. After 30 minutes of struggling to get it to work, I remembered a bird costume I sewed some years back out of the same type of fabric. I ended up sewing it by hand, because the machine wouldn't work.

So, I pulled out the needle and thread, asked Tamzin to read to me while I sewed, and started stitching.

It wasn't too bad...if I'd been around back when everything was sewn by had, it probably would have been one of those jobs I would enjoy. I'm happy with the costume; it looks just like I'd hoped it would. It probably took me 4-5 hours to put it together, maybe twice as long as it would have taken with the machine. It's not very durable, though. If she is rough on it, it will not hold up well. As long as it makes it past Halloween...

Project Progress

2006-10-15T12:09:00.000-07:00

Clearly I don't pay enough attention to my sidebar. I guess I'm not paying that much attention to my blog in general these days.

Anyway, I took a look and...my how things have changed!

My house is now painted! Woot! It happened last month, while I was trekking back and forth to Puyallup with Rhiannon. It took 12 months and half a dozen discussions to make the phone call to a painter, and 2 days to prep and paint the house. Clint thinks I should be more appreciative of a task completed, and all he accomplished(he didn't actually do any painting; he just made the phone call), but I would have loved to have eliminated the waiting and reminding part. OK, I admit, he probably made more like 5 or 6 phone calls. You know, getting two bids, then discussing the bid, then arranging the date to paint. I still think it could have happened sooner. I know, I'm so ungrateful. I admit if I'd wanted it done so badly, I should have made the calls myself. But he's the one with the contractor contacts and the right lingo for getting a good deal.

The house looks great, but the kids are unimpressed. They can't believe I really paint our house boring BROWN. It's actually a lovely shade of tan, and I like it.

Now we are making progress on another sidebar oldie, remodeling the downstairs bathroom. Clint tore out all the old drywall and jackhammered a portion of the floor tile to reveal an old drain that we will be using when we install the bathtub. I've ordered cabinets so we will finally have a place to put towels and toothbrushes (after all the plumbing is done, of course). Now we just need to schedule the plumber & electrician. Clint is supposed to be making the calls...

Driving Lessons

2006-10-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

It's pretty weird sitting in the passenger seat while your child is in the driver's seat. It's amazing how grown up she looks.

I don't really feel qualified to teach someone to drive. It's pretty hard to explain how to think about a dozen different --- but equally important --- things, all at the same time. I'm trying to keep myself from explaining too much, since that seems to be my normal pattern. But then it will seem like I'm not explaining enough, which is definitely not good.

When I enrolled her in Driving School, I figured there was plenty of time to get out on the road driving, a little at a time. But she has to take 4 drives with the instructor, and she wanted to get some time in on the road before getting in the car with him.

I'm awfully proud of her for being so determined and sticking it out, even though I suspect at times she's not enjoying it (I hated Driver's Ed in school, and ended up not getting my license until I was 18 because driving was too intimidating). I don't want her to feel forced into it, though I think it will make dance classes and CBC easier next year.

My hope is that if we start early, she will have so much practice that she won't feel so uncomfortable a year from now.

2006-10-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

I really miss Munchkin. I have bad dreams that wake me up thinking about her. I know I just have to let go, but I worry about her. Is someone taking care of her? Does she miss us? Is she scared or confused? Does she wonder why we haven't come to rescue her?

I think if she had been hit or taken by a coyote, we would have found a sign of it. We've searched the area and the roadsides several times. She had never wandered beyond our mailbox or our across-the-field neighbor's place, so it's hard to imagine she would have done so this time. We discovered she was missing within 2 hours; how far could she have gone unless someone picked her up? There were no stray Schnauzers taken to Pet Emergency Services, which is what would have happened if she'd been hit and someone had tried to get her to a vet on a Saturday evening. There were no found ads posted in the paper. No one has answered our posters or ads.

I don't bring her up to the kids, but all three of the younger girls have had nightmares or trouble sleeping because they feel sad and wish she were back home with us. It's hard.

Neah Bay

2006-10-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

(This post is from August 11...I stuck it in drafts and never got back to it...how lame is that?!).

We had a great time on our vacation at Neah Bay. We did lots of fishing for Sea Bass and other assorted fish. The limit there is 10 fish per person per day, so a family our size can stock up an enormous supply. We brought home about 60-75 pounds of fillets. Each morning at about 5:30, we boated out to sea to take advantage of the early morning bite

Rhiannon got seasick the first day, and stayed at camp with extended family after that. I did fine the first few days, but got seasick on the third day. I managed to keep fishing, but decided to sleep in the last two mornings and let others do the fishing. Shelby and Gillian were into the fishing...they kept Clint so busy netting their fish, he had a hard time keeping his own pole in the water!

The weather was quite cool (55-65), but we packed accordingly so it wasn't bad. Now that we're back in the heat, I kinda miss the cold!

The kids all loved exploring the tidepools and rock climbing near the shore. We had some great finds, like a purple starfish in the process of consuming a mussel. Tamzin and her younger cousins spent hours playing in the sand. She and Gillian played in the water all day too, in spite of a water temp of about 49-55 degrees. Clint and I got to go kayaking a few times, which was my favorite part of the trip. It's a great way to sightsee, and thrilling to be on the (almost) open ocean.

We also visited a Makah Indian Museum, and took a hike through the forest to the "most northwest point of the Continental US". It was so beautiful, but I didn't get any pictures, because I left my camera behind at camp :(

The best news about the trip is that I managed to keep up my running schedule, only missing one day. I've never been able to keep up an exercise routine while on vacation before, so I'm pretty excited. It was fun running in a new place; I did some exploring, got some private time, and got to see Neah Bay from a different view.

How I Spent My Summer, by A Busy Mom

2006-09-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

I've had "blog" on my list of things to do for ages. I've composed many mental blog posts, but life has been too crazy to even read my favorite blogs or keep up with my email.

Where have I been?

August
week one Trip to Neah Bay with Clint's family. It was fun. Was so proud to have kept up my running schedule even while vacationing. Have an unfinished draft blog post about the trip.

week two A frantic week helping Gillian and Rhiannon finish their Fashion Revue dresses for the Saturday judging. Barely finished in time.

week three An equally hectic week preparing for fair; taking/mounting photos, purchasing supplies, framing art, baking clay, experimenting with baked goods recipes, designing posters, washing birds, and creating a theme, decorations and posters for our poultry display. Oh, and planning and setting up a fairground campsite.

week four Fair. Driving back and forth to the fairgrounds twice a day for animal care and participation in events. Late evenings and very early mornings. Sleep deprived, busy, but enjoying the music, the kids activities, and the family time. At this point, my running schedule failed, my one regret. I just couldn't figure out how to fit it into such long days.

week five Clean up all the fallout from fair. Clean the trashed house. Take kids on a two day family vacation to Silverwood and Boulder Beach...without Clint, who had to work at the last minute. No time to run.

September
week one Start our homeschool schedule. Discover Gillian and Tamzin will not rest until they can go to public school. Enroll them. Buy supplies. Figure out a new routine. Send them to school for two days. Help them over the hard parts. Start dance classes. Then Tamzin and Gillian want to quit school. Help Rhiannon make a few improvements on her FR dress. Pack. Take Shelby and Rhiannon to Puyallup so Rhiannon can participate in Fashion Revue at the State Level, for which she qualified. Munchkin disappeared from our house while we were gone. Clint feels terrible. Gillian is positive she put Muchkin in the house before they left to go to dinner, but when they returned two hours later, she was gone. She has been left outside accidentally one or twice before, and has never wandered off before. Still no time to run.

week two Create and hang posters all over Benton City and the surrounding area offering a reward for Munckin's return. Clean house because the physical clutter, coupled with the mental clutter, is stressing me out. If one goes away, maybe the other will be more manageable. Call the paper to post an ad for Munchkin. Disenroll G & T from school. First full week of dance classes, so I get to see if offering two classes a week to each child is manageable. Shelby starts driving lessons, in Richland. Gillian has decided to continue Art class at the public school, so I drive her back and forth 4 days. Take Rhiannon and Gillian to sleepovers. Spend a glorious Friday afternoon hanging out with Tamzin while I do errands. Buy her a scooter(she's wanted one since April...we're going to split the cost). Look forward to having the weekend off, then discover Tamzin performs at Sausagefest Saturday. Take Tamzin to practice 8:30 am Saturday. Go to Animal Shelter to look for Munchkin. Sausagefest Saturday night. Shelby and Gillian stayed home because they were worn out from such a busy week and didn't want to go. I'm worn out too, but I went anyway. Never found time to run.

On Vacation

2006-07-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

Why is packing so difficult?

We are leaving for Neah Bay in the morning, and it seems like we've been packing continuously for 2 days now. There is just so much to remember.

To make it more challenging, I feel driven to get things as cleaned up as possible so I won't have to come home to a mess. Things look great, but it's late, and I'm tired, and I still have a couple of things to do...

Just a Little Farther

2006-07-31T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today on my long run I made it to Smitty's Conoco on Bombing Range Road & back. I'm not even sure how far it is; I need to check it. I was scheduled to do 8 miles, but had hoped to do 12. I've been so curious to know if I could make the half marathon distance, which is 13.1 miles. I had 12 figured at Candy Mountain Estates, but things were going well, and I could see the Conoco sign, and it seemed so close, so I decided to go for it.

I was pretty tired the last 2 or 3 miles, but I think I may have run about 13 1/2! Yeah! That means I could survive a half marathon, even though I am slow.

Birthday Tubing

2006-07-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

Shelby's birthday is Tuesday. Instead of a party, she asked it we could all go tubing on the river. I feel a little gilty that we do this type of activity so infrequently that she chose this as a birthday activity instead of dinner out, or a movie, but still, it was a great choice.

I've been spending what little free time I have helping Rhiannon and Gillian with Fashion Revue, so I told Clint I was worried about putting everything together for a day on the river. He said he would be in charge.

I gotta say, having someone else take care of the details sure adds to the fun factor of an event for me! Clint decided we needed a new tube, did some comparison shopping, and brought home a giant thing that is designed to hold two (we found it could comfortably hold three while tubing, even more for just floating around). He prepped the coolers, the kids, blankets, chairs, umbrella, tarp, got the gas, blew up the float and planned the picnic foods (to be purchased at FM on the way to the boat launch).

All I did was grab the sunscreen and towels and put on my swimsuit. I was so relaxed and laid back. Clint was a little more bossy and serious. Maybe that's why I tend to be bossy and serious. It's a byproduct of being in charge.

We had an awesome time. The float was a blast and when we weren't "tubing" the kids loved exploring on the beach, wading and playing on the float.

I'd love to be like those families that go out on the river every weekend. After all, it's right there. But with fair and our camping trip around the corner, I guess we're lucky to have made it out at all. Thanks to Shelby!

Marathon

2006-07-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, while out for my run, I was stopped by a couple of other runners who asked me if I am a marathon runner. I guess they've seen me out running before, and are training for the upcoming Portland Marathon. They encouraged me to give it a try.

At first, I didn't give it much thought. It was flattering to have someone ask me that (I don't know why). I'm just running because it's the cheapest, most efficient, and fastest calorie burning activity I know of, and I'm trying to get into shape!

I had been gradually lengthening my runs, mostly because I found it enjoyable enough that I didn't mind running a little longer, and hey, longer means more calories burned, right? But I never had any end in mind but fitness.

But for some reason those ladies stuck in my mind. I did a web search on marathon running, and even got a bunch of books from the library on the subject. I've found the reading fascinating, and have gotten some of my own running questions answered about how other people run.

So I started following a marathon training schedule a couple of weeks ago. I don't really know why. I figured I'd stick with it until the runs got so long they were either boring, or my feet hurt, or I just plain didn't like it. I'm sure I can't keep it up for long, because every year I run for about 6 months, and then life gets busy and I give it up.

But I've run 5 days a week instead of 3 for two weeks now, and today I ran 10 miles! I can hardly believe it myself. Last week my big day was 7 1/2. I had never gone farther than 5 1/2 miles before, and usually run 4-5. It took two hours, and my legs were feeling pretty heavy the last couple of miles.

I can't imagine going much farther than that. I was ready to be done by the time I saw my driveway again. It's been fun experimenting to see what my body can handle, but I don't think there's a marathon in my future. 26 miles is too far for me.

Yard Sale

2006-07-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to have a yard sale all summer. I've had some stuff I desperately wanted to get rid of, but felt at least some of it was worth too much to give to the Good Will. Clint was reluctant; he thought it would be too much work. Well, so did I, but I wanted to get rid of that stuff!

I'm really happy with how things turned out. We made $190! We sold the saddle & tack for the horse Shelby got rid of about 5 years ago (yeah!). Shelby got the cash for that. Clint sold his old lumber rack...one fewer item junking up our field (yeah!). We sold the Little Tikes play structure & slide that's been way too small for anyone to use in years (yeah!). And lots more of the same kind of thing...stuff we haven't needed for ages.

We gave the kids the money for the stuff that was theirs individually, and yet we still had enough money left over from the sale of community items to take us all to Pirates of the Carribean.

One great thing about a yard sale is it gets the kids thinking about what they are ready to get rid of. After the sale, even if it didn't sell, they are still ready to let most fo their stuff go. I was able to take a carload of 15 boxes & bags of stuff to the Good Will after the sale. We've got the truck loaded up and ready to take another trip. Maybe soon I will never see that ugly old orange chair again.

Ssssss

2006-06-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

I ran over a rattlesnake.

I was out for my run, wearing my dark sunglasses, so I didn't even realize a snake was right in front of me until I was only a step away. Propelled by my forward momentum, it was just easier to keep running. I've never had a fear of snakes, and we've found so many bull snakes on our property, it never occured to me to be cautious. It didn't move as a ran over it, so I slowed and turned around, lifting my sunglasses to get a better look. Is it dead, or was it only a stick?, I thought as I took a step towards it.

He lifted his head in caution as I stepped his way, and without my sunglasses I got a good look at his unmistakable, triangular viper head. What a shock! Fortunately, he was only interested in getting away from me, and when I moved no closer, he went on his way, off the road and into the brush.

Just today I got an email regarding a child bitten by a rattlesnake at Crow Butte, complete with photos. Boy, talk about a nasty injury. I feel pretty lucky now, since I stepped within 3-4 inches of, and right over, his tail.

Gardening Frenzy

2006-06-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to spend only a few hours in the garden. I always find so many things I want to work on. I so rarely get a chance to work out there, and it feels so good to be outside!

Sunday, after a 6 mile run, I stayed outside to putter in the garden while I was cooling off. I never stopped. 10 hours later, I was wiped out, but happy. So what if I felt like I had been run over, or was 80 years old?! So what if my body ached from head to toe from digging, dragging, bending and weeding?!! I had finished all the gardening "wish I could do"s that I could think of, and was happy.

I admit it, I'm carried away. I think I might be taking the garden too far. I've extended so far beyond the sprinklers Clint installed for me that I'm back to dragging hoses and worrying about remembering to water before my plants get killed by the heat. And I'm playing with a number of new species for me; that can be tricky because they may need to be moved a time or two before I find the spot in the garden that they like best. And my family keeps bugging me about the poppies. Yes, they are a dishevelled mess, and cover the pathway so it's impassable. I don't care. I like being able to look at them from my bathroom window.

Maybe it's ok to be carried away. It sure makes me happy to see what I've grown. I think the birds like it, too.

Movie Mania

2006-06-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist the free month of video rentals, so I decided to give Netflix a try. I was skeptical. When I want to watch a movie, I don't want to have to wait around for it, and who wants to hassle with dropping them in the mail, postage paid envelope or not?

I was wrong. We've had such fun developing our queues and rating movies to see what recommendations will pop up. In fact, we've had too much fun. Trying to watch a movie a couple of times a week was getting way too challenging for me. After the trial month was over, I failed to change the membership in time, and so we paid for a second month at the 3 movies at at a time rate. This worked well for us, since Shelby, Rhiannon and I each had a queue and particular movies we were interested in watching. And it's a great deal, working out to about a dollar per movie if we return the movies promptly.

This month we stepped our membership down to the 2 movies at a time rate, and will alternate who gets to choose the movie. Shelby is on an anime' kick, and is watching as many as she can, since they can be hard to come by at the library or the video store. Rhiannon likes contemporary comedies as well as an interesting mix of other genres.

Some of my favorites of the last two months were; The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, Zathura, Fahrenheit 9/11, The Family Stone, and Tea with Mussolini. Now that Cint is back I will try to find movies we can watch together; next we will check out the new Harrison Ford movie Firewall, and after that Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, both of which were recommended by my brother.

On to New York

2006-06-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Clint is off on his last tournament of the season (at least for this circuit). This time he's going to New York. The tough part of it is that his truck and boat are still in storage down in Nashville. He will have to fly to Nashville, pick up his boat, and take the 1ooo mile, 22 hour drive to Lake Champlain. Talk about brutal.

Luckily, he's managed to talk a friend into taking the trip with him, so he's going to have company on the drive, and someone to prefish with prior to the tournament. After the tournament is over, they will make the 2,000 mile drive home.

In retrospect, having my husband gone for close to 3 months of the last 6 has not been so bad. We worked harder at being together when he was home, and I got to do things I normally wouldn't have had a chance to so while he was gone.

The hardest part has been that he has not done well in the circuit, which means that financially we will be spending the next year or two paying off the expenses of the trips. It must be incredibly disappointing for him, since his purpose in going was to make money doing something he loves, not create debt that he will have to work harder doing something he doesn't like to pay for.

It's not over yet, though. He still could bring home a paycheck on this last tournament. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Secret Garden

2006-06-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

I love having the opportunity to see other gardeners' gardens. It helps me with my own gardening to see what someone else has tried, what combinations look good together, what plants they have been successful with, and how they put it all together.

The Secret Garden Tour comes to the Tri-Cities once a year. ACT puts it on as a fundraiser, so the tickets aren't cheap. But it's a great way to see how other gardeners in our area garden.

This year I volunteered as a garden sitter, taking tickets and answering questions at one of the featured gardens. I did get some good ideas, at all of the gardens. I also came away with renewed confidence in my own garden, which doesn't look too bad, even compared to these "choice" gardens, at least to me.

ipod, sprinklers, & curtains

2006-05-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

I never blogged about some of my recent acquisitions. While my friends do the compact, or work on minimizing their "stuff", I just keep on acquiring.

For Mothers Day, I bought myself an Ipod. I've been spending my time figuring out, playing with, and loading songs onto the thing. I do that more than I actually use it to listen!

Clint has been hard at work in most of his free time getting sprinklers set up in my garden. I was so busy bumming because he wouldn't start on the front yard, which needs excavation, that I failed to notice how much work he was putting in to my garden space. As I grow my garden, he has been right behind me, adding sprinklers to make watering a breeze.

The biggest suprise is that he says he enjoys it. A year ago he said, "I'm glad you like your garden, just don't expect me to work in it with you." It didn't bother me; I knew he meant I couldn't expect him to be on hand to do the hard stuff just because I wanted it done. After all, it is my thing, not his. And yet, that's exactly what he's been doing. Half my garden now gets watered with the turn of a valve.

My other recent acquisition is new curtains. I've been wanting to get curtains for my bare windows for years. For a while the minimalist look was great, but I wanted to warm up the space a little, and privacy is nice, too. I chose a claret ret velvet, and I love it; usually I get frozen with these types of decisions because I worry so much about making a mistake, and then spending the next 10 years looking at something I hate. But I think I did good this time; I really like them.

Sometimes Busy is OK

2006-05-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

I hate being too busy. I try so hard to keep from overbooking myself. But sometimes, if you don't say yes, a wonderful opportunity might pass you by. If I were better at going with the flow I could make it through the busy times more peacefully. I get stressed when it's busy, I admit it.

Our Memorial Day weekend plans were relatively relaxed. A BBQ at a friend's house on Monday, and an optional dance rehearsal Saturday morning (that I figured we could easily miss). But after some discussion with my husband on the possibility of holding a garage sale Saturday morning or attending a neighborhood campout Friday, I discovered he was worried about and/or feeling the urge to check on things at the cabin.

I suggested we forget the garage sale, and take a trip to the cabin. As long as we left after the dance rehearsal(I was informed by by kids that they strongly preferred to go), and got home in time for Monday's BBQ, it could work. It's only a two day trip, but sometimes those are easier to do, since not so much packing or food planning is involved. He was hesitant to agree to the idea. I think he was worried I was scheduling things too tight, and when I get stressed my family can't bear to be around me. I can't promise that packing & preparing while taking kids back & forth to town for rehearsals won't be stressful. But our weekends are booked for the next 5 weeks, so there really isn't going to be a better time.

Once we get to the cabin, we'll be doing nothing but relaxing. Clint can check on all the things he was worried about, and make sure the cabin is ship-shape. We can do some hiking and exploring with the kids, maybe some biking on the back roads, and I can even sneak in some reading. It sounds pretty good to me!

I need to learn that sometimes busy is OK, too.

Owl Pellets & Dissection

2006-05-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

I just got my order from Home Science Tools. We are back on track now for dissection with a new batch of specimens.

I ordered a How to Dissect manual this time, and spent the afternoon reading up on earthworm dissection details. I'm a little nervous about the earthworm dissection. I remember doing it in high school and finding it really boring, mostly because it was so small that it was hard to cut accurately, or to see what I was supposed to see. The manual gave lots of great info; let's hope the real thing will be as interesting to the kids. Of course, it's optional for them; they don't have to participate if they don't want to, so I suppose it could just be Shelby and I figuring the whole thing out.

I ordered a few owl pellets, too. Owls swallow their prey whole, and then regurgitate the bones, teeth and fur as a pellet. Owl pellet dissection is a great way to study the eating habits of birds of prey. It is also a great lesson in skeletal anatomy, since you can piece together and identify the entire skeleton of one or more small creatures.

I'm so glad we're finally getting around to some of these projects. We've been talking about dissection since last summer. I wish I could be a little quicker at responding to my kids' interests. With this kind of a track record, I'll be lucky if they even have the same interest by the time I get around to indulging it! I'll have to work on that.

A Perfect Day

2006-05-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

I think I had the best Mother's Day ever!

I spent the morning gardening. While I didn't get to everything I had hoped to accomplish, I'm happy I got to spend 4 hours in my garden. While I was planting, Clint was rototilling more garden space, so now I have even more garden to play in! He also fine tuned the sprinkler system he has been working on, so the sprinklers are much more effective now.

I thought it would be fun to take a bike ride on Mother's Day. We are definitely not on the Compact; we had to buy two new bicycles to go for a ride. Clint found a great deal on a pair of adult Schwinn touring/trail bikes, and we gave them to Shelby and Rhiannon right before our ride. They were so excited, especially Rhiannon. She was trying to be enthusiastic about going on a family bike ride, but was dreading it because her bike so small and uncomfortable for her. So small, in fact, that we passed it down to Tamzin. Shelby's old bike went to Gillian. Since Shelby and Rhiannon's old bikes had been used only rarely, they look like new, so everyone was happy.

I came up with the idea of a bike ride because Tamzin has been teaching herself to ride without training wheels this month, a true accomplishment on our bumpy, uneven gravel parking area. Unfortunately, she left the bike out, and I ran over it with my 'Burb. We discussed repairing it, but since we knew ultimately we needed a bigger bike for Shelby, it seemed logical to have each girl move up a bike. When Clint and I lined up all the bikes to assess the situation, we realized that Shelby's old bike would still be small for Rhiannon, and it would not be long before we would have to think about a new one for her as well. So when he found a great deal, we decided to get two.

With two new bikes and four happy kids, we were off to Chamna Natural Preserve for a ride. It took two gas guzzling vehicles to get us there, one for the bikes and one for the kids, so it wasn't a low consumption day by any means, but then, few days with a family of six are, I suppose.

What a great place Chamna is! I can't believe I haven't been there before. We rode around on some of the hiking trails first, but that was rough for Tamzin. Then we checked out the biking trail. We didn't go far, because Tamzin was hot and tired by then, and getting a little frustrated with the hills. But the older girls were in heaven! They raced up and down the hills, over and over again. They had no idea bike riding could be so fun. In all the years that they've ridden, they've never had the opportunity to experience that feeling of freedom and speed on a bike. In our location, riding on the road is unsafe for younger kids. They've always been confined to the yard, so they've never experienced a "wind in your hair" kind of ride.

Because we weren't sure what to expect at Chamna, we had agreed that if it was not suitable for riding, we would pack the bikes up and drive to Howard Amon, where we knew the trails would be great for a ride. So after playing on the hills a bit, we headed to the park. Of course, we were all hot by then, so stopping at Atomic Ale for cold beer and root beer floats seemed like the perfect cool down treat. After that, it was off to the park.

Howard Amon was a perfect place to ride. The trail was so flat and smooth that Tamzin was riding like a pro in no time. The older girls loved it because they could ride on ahead and then circle back and join us again, or stop and rest and wait for us to catch up. There were lots of other residents out enjoying they day, and most smiled and expressed a greeting, which made the ride even more fun. We stopped to play on the play equipment and examine the progress of the new rock climbing feature, and then we headed to Pizza Hut for a cheap and easy Book It coupon dinner. No prep time, no dishes.

We got home just before dark. I had just enough time to more one more plant before putting the kids to bed. A perfect day.

Oh, but boy, is my butt sore!

One Less Want

2006-05-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

There's a lot to be said for delayed gratification. I've been wanting a notebook computer for over a year now. It would be so convenient to be able to do my office work while I'm waiting for the kids at all of their various classes. Multi-tasking, you know. Can't waste a single moment.

I guess being constantly behind and overwhelmed got me thinking this way.

But I'm not quite so behind these days, and I have to say, it's awfully nice to just sit and read, or take care of an errand or two, on my "chauffeuring" days. Buying a notebook computer would make me feel like I had to choose work over reading a book, the way I do most of the time at home. I don't think it's worth it.

I feel like I've just saved a thousand dollars.

But I still want an Ipod.

Here Piggy Piggy!

2006-05-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

I bought a specimen set last fall. Shelby is studying Biology, and we thought a "lab" in dissection would be interesting. You can buy lots of different creatures, preserved in formaldehyde and then sealed in plastic. They are cheaper if you buy a set, instead of purchasing individual specimens. It makes sense, too, because a well rounded dissection study would include multiple classes of creatures. The set we picked out had around 10 specimens, and included a worm, a clam, a frog, a small fish, and a fetal pig. We were most excited about the pig, although we took a good look at the sample pig photo online to make sure we wouldn't be too squeamish to handle it when the time came.

We were a little disappointed when the specimens came. The bag was quite small for so many specimens, and while the plastic was clear, there was an opaque layer between the specimens and the plastic, so we could only prod the bag lightly and try to envision the contents. Opening the bag was out of the question, because we were in the middle of other projects we needed to finish before moving on to dissection.

The instructions said the specimens would keep up to a year in their plastic packaging, and even longer if frozen, so I didn't worry too much about not being able to get to it right away. Then life got busy, and we got sidetracked, and the dissections never happened.

The other day I realized we finally have the time to work on the dissections, and went to find the specimens, but they weren't there. They sat on the floor of my office for 6 months, until one day I started thinking I should find a better place to keep them.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what better place I decided upon. All logical guesses have been dead ends. I've searched my office, cleaned both freezers and my closet, still no pig. Where in the world would I have decided was a good place to keep specimens? Because while I clearly remember thinking about moving them---on several occasions---I simply cannot remember actually doing anything with them!

I can always order a new set. They weren't that expensive. But I hate the thought of coming across the old set later, when I'm not expecting it. So much for my organizational skills.

In My Garden

2006-05-02T16:36:00.000-07:00

I love my garden. It makes me feel good just to be out in the sun, and fresh air, with my hands in the soil.

I confess I don't plant only natives, nor do I limit myself to drought tolerant plants. I just plant anything I can find, and am attracted to, that can take the heat, cold and aridity of this climate.

I love to nuture perennials and watch them grow to overtake their space, until they can be divided to make even more plants, that I can plant in new places in my garden. I enjoy moving and replanting whenever a specimen seems to be telling me it would be happier in another part of the garden. I love crawling around on my hands and knees pulling out the weeds and saying hello at eye level to the plants.

I love to listen to the birds and other outdoor sounds. I love to watch the robins who follow me so closely as I garden, and the quail who scold me from a distance. Sometimes I put on my Shuffle and sing out loud myself as I build paths or spread mulch. I have to make myself come in at the end of a gardening day. Dinner is always late. I can't let myself garden every day, or I would never get anything else done. Maybe I'm compulsive, but once I'm out there, I just want to keep working.

"Draft"

2006-04-27T13:54:00.000-07:00

I developed the habit a while back of starting a thought on blogger and putting it in draft to finish up later. Now I realize I never did anything with those posts. Ooops. I'm going to publish them to my blog now, but they may not seem that relevant anymore. Oh well.

Blog Block

2006-04-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've forgotten how to blog. I find myself thinking about my blog at odd moments of the day, wondering if what I'm doing would be blog worthy. But even when I find something worth mentioning, I can't seem to find the words to set it down. Is this blog-block?!

Crooked Cat

2006-04-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

After suffering a serious respiratory illness, Midnight, aka "Wheezer" now views life at a somewhat cockeyed angle. The illness probably resulted from a secondary bacterial infection stemming from a chronic viral respiratory condition. He had a tendency to sneeze and sniffle from the very beginning, but I couldn't afford vet bills for what seemed to be a mild chronic condition, so I just ignored it. It didn't seem to bother him, and I figured it would get better. I even thought it might be allergies.

When he got the secondary infection, we thought he was going to die. He lost his equilibrium, couldn't walk, and would fall to the floor in a splayed fashion every time he sneezed. The vet eliminated feline leukemia as a possibility. After a few weeks of antibiotics he was able to walk, but his abilities had been much reduced. He was disoriented and lacked balance, although the vet said there was no evidence of hearing loss. The vet was willing to do as much testing as I wanted to pay for in an attempt to identify the virus, but couldn't offer a cure. We opted for a 6 week round of antibiotics, and hoping for the best.

Today Midnight is a very contented cat. He is warm and affectionate, and seems quite happy. He still sneezes, wheezes and coughs, but he doesn't appear troubled by his disability. His balance has continued to improve over time; he'll attempt a jump after viewing things with his angled stare. I guess, in the end, there's nothing wrong with seeing the world from a crooked point of view.

Old Faithful Geyser

2006-04-26T12:26:00.000-07:00

After my Dad died, we spent a few quiet days in my hometown.

My mom arranged a great place for us to stay in a friend's remodeled barn loft apartment. It was so comfortable, and so removed from everything we had been going through (we had been caring for my dad at his home, an hour's drive from where I grew up).

While in Calistoga, we did touristy things like wander the tourist shops, picnic with brie, bread and home bottled wine, and visit the Sharpsteen Museum, a place I had loved since I was a kid.

The kids really wanted to see the Old Faithful Geyser of California. I had never been there, although it was minutes from my childhood home, and I had probably ridden by the place on my bike hundreds of times (you can't see they geyser from the outside).

It was tourist trap expensive, and somewhat hokey, too, but still worthwhile for me, since it's a piece of the past of the place I called home. The kids enjoyed it, too. It erupts like clockwork every 25 minutes or so, and went off shortly after we arrived. It's an interesting and impressive geothermal phenomenon; they had posted little informational tidbits around the site telling about the history of the place, which has always been privately owned and exploited as a tourist attration. I loved the old photos of turn-of-the-century visitors.

Now I have a yen to visit the big Old Faithful, in Yellowstone.

Side Trip

2006-04-08T23:36:00.000-07:00

On our way home from the zoo, we had a little car trouble. The result: an extra day of vacation while we waited for the 'burb to be repaired. Total cost: $850 for the fuel pump, plus the cost of a motel stay and meals out for another day.

On the bright side, we got to spend an enjoyable family afternoon exploring the falls near our breakdown. They were breathtaking. It's amazing how we can put off visiting some of the sights so close to home.

Ferry Ride

2006-04-08T23:28:00.000-07:00

We took the ferry on our recent trip to visit Clint's dad. We had such a great time! The weather was brisk, but not unpleasant, although no one could stay out on deck for long. The ferry moves along at a fast clip, creating a strong, chilly wind. The force of the wind makes walking on deck an effort. At first it was a little frightening, so we explored the rest of the ferry, bought cocoa and coffee from their cafeteria-style snack bar, and watched our passage from the safety of a booth. But eventually, curiosity and a sense of adventure won out; there was nothing left to do but brave the elements. The views were breathtaking, the trip relaxing.

Clint's dad lives so close to Seattle! Not counting the ferry ride, he's within 5 miles of the wharf, and we can take the ferry from his side over for free. We're already planning our next trip! We always have such a great time when we travel; we should do it more often.

Excuses, excuses

2006-04-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long absence.

I've attempted to blog several times, but something always seems to come up. I wanted to show off some of the great pictures we had of our most recent family vacation, and I ran into problems uploading photos. Another day, I had lots to say, but no time to blog. Then, I had time to blog and couldn't figure out what it was I had planned to say.

Oh, and did I mention the dog ate my blog[homework]?!

I don't have any time to blog today, or much to say. But I guess I can at least say that much!

Jinx

2006-02-24T07:43:00.000-08:00

I've been afraid to post that I'm feeling better because I don't want to "jinx" it!

I did go to the doctor, on headache day 15. He was very thorough, asked lots of questions, but ultimately could not give a definite diagnosis. One of the most gratifying aspects of the visit was the lack of focus on stress as a possible cause of the condition. I guess I feared it was really all my fault, and that if I could just relax enough I would be fine. But all he asked was "Has your level of stressed changed recently?" Great question! Because I would say that my level of stress is regularly moderate to high, but it never gave me a 15 day headache before!!

So the doc gave me two samples of a migrane pill called imitrin(although he agreed it was not technically a migrane), with instructions to take one, followed by the second if the headache wan't gone two hours later. If that didn't do it, he would refer me to a neurologist for further testing. The pill worked (but was nothing to mess with...side effects include heart attack and death, and the insert says not to take more than four per month). I felt great all day. Then, 10 hours later, I got a whopping headache...in a different part of my head. I think it was a "rebound headache" from the medication, something I've been reading about on the internet. The next morning my origial headache was gone, but I still felt twinges of pain now and then from this other headache. By the end of the day, I was achy and congested. I had a cold.

We went to the cabin for the weekend, and I curled up in a corner with my tissues and read 250 pages of The Historian, a great read, by the way. I'll take a little head cold any day over a mild but never ending headache. In comparison to the last two weeks, I felt great! Then, yesterday, I woke up with a headache. I was so depressed I could hardly function. The thought of the headache coming back is just unbearable. I decided to take some sinus medication for it. After all, I'm still at the tail end of this cold. It took care of it right away, and this morning I woke up feeling great.

I've always found people who talk about nothing but their health condition so irritating. Don't they realize that at some point it becomes old news, and they are hard to be around because of their inability to focus on anything else? And now look what I've become. I've also never understood that very irritating comment that comes after you finish sharing the ups and downs of your life "Well, at least you have your health". To me this comment seems to say "As long as you're healthy, your life's ups and downs are trivial, so quit complaining."

I may still have a hard time being patient around someone who talks of nothing but their health, but at least I'll understand it a little bit better. I guess there's something to be said for walking a mile in someone's shoes.

Same Old...

2006-02-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

I still have a headache. It's been so many days in a row now, I've stopped counting. I've tried every remedy, but nothing is working. Some days it's better, but I either wake up with it, or it starts to come on at some point during the day. If I stay in bed, it helps, but I can't do that forever.

At this point, I don't know what else to do except learn to live with it. The hardest part is that the constant ache makes me feel grumpy, and I feel really bad for my kids. I'm trying to behave normally, but I know I'm not always successful.

Headache Day 5

2006-02-05T19:11:00.000-08:00

It started as a mild headache on Tuesday morning, and kind of came and went throughout the day. It was never severe, so I just chalked it up to lack of sleep and figured it would be gone in the morning. Wednesday and Thursday are my crazy days, and again the headache came and went. I decided stress and busyness were contributing factors, and figured it would go away when things slowed down.

Friday included three separate trips to town, with office work sandwiched in between, as I tried to catch up on urgent paperwork that I'd gotten behind on during the week. Usually Fridays are relaxing days for me, but with Clint out of town I have business responsibilities. Friday night, by the time I dropped kids off at their activity and headed to "mom's night out", my head was aching. Still, sometimes there would be minutes where the ache seemed to disappear altogether. I headed straight to bed when I got home, determined that a good night's rest would take care of the problem. Saturday it was still there, but mild enough to ignore. But after two more trips to town chauffeuring kids and handling business stuff, and 3 hours of errands to kill time between child pick up and business, my head hurt ferociously. I went to bed even earlier than the night before. I'd found that when I'm resting in bed, my head doesn't hurt at all.

This morning I arose sooo carefully, hoping the ache wouldn't start, but it hit again as soon as I was up and around. I desperately needed to work on paperwork this weekend, but office work is tough with a splitting headache. So I resorted to codeine. Up until now, I'd been sticking to ibuprofen, without success. The codeine made me so nauseous I ended up back in bed, and spent a nauseating but pain free couple of hours watching TV. This afternoon, holding my head gingerly and walking carefully, figuring if I avoided any sudden movements I could keep the thing from coming back, I headed to the office to work on the finances. My head is pounding now. No suprise though. The taxes would've given me a headache anyway, so it's just as well.

I'm not sure what it's going to take to get rid of this headache.

New Year's Resolutions

2006-01-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

This is not something I do every year. But I want to make some changes, and it just happens to be the beginning to the year, so...why not?!

1. Tell My Kids How Much I Love Them Every Day
2. Greet My Husband With a Smile and a Kiss Every Day
3. Cut Back on Lectures & Advice; Try to Replace them with Listening
4. Cultivate a Sense of Gratitude for All That I Have
5. Eliminate Negativity and Replace it with a Positive Attitude
6. Take Time to Meditating in the Mornings
7. Resume my 3x Weekly Running Schedule ~ Get into Shape!
8. Cook Healthy Dinners for my Family ~ without Complaining
9. Limit Alcohol Intake to Special Occasions
10. Limit TV to 5 Hours A Week (there's too much else I want to do!)

and finally...because I think it will help with some of my other goals...
11. Work to Find a Better Balance Between Self & Family

A Rose by any other name...

2006-01-18T23:44:00.000-08:00

Clint brought me flowers just after the New Year. What a shock! This man (usually)hasn't got a romantic bone in his body!

I confess, I've been hinting for about a year that a romantic gesture of any kind on his part would be warmly recieved. I hate to be an insecure wreck, but after this many years of marriage, life can be so routine that sometimes I wonder whether there's any spark of romantic love left. I'm not turning up my nose at the love we do share, but sometimes a bit of passionate infatuation would not be amiss from time to time.

Of course, as Clint has pointed out to me, a man is not likely to offer a romantic gesture after it's been "suggested" to him. Ater all, that would spoil the spontenaity, and therefore the romance, of such a gesture, he argues. Note that in the previous 12 years, I never made any such suggestion, hinted or not, and netted a total of one bouquet. Not that I think flowers are the end-all of romantic gestures. I can think of lots of things that could be far more original and meaningful. It's just the idea that your special someone thinks of you with affection, even when you're not there, and does something about it (even if it's the classic flowers) that makes it special.

Gratifying as the flowers are, my cynical self notices that they arrive two weeks before the beginning of Clint's 6 month venture into an East Coast tournament circuit, which will involve him being away 2-3 weeks every month until June. Is it possible that he's hoping to garner a little good will?

Whether there is a bit of truth to this or not, the two of us have been getting along great. I think he's happy becuase he's heading off on a new venture; I'm in a good mood because he's in a good mood, and maybe too because I'm hopeful for a better few months to come than the last few have been.

I loved the flowers, whatever the reason. Hopefully I conveyed my appreciation adequately! Clint is gone now, in Florida fishing on Lake Okeechobee with the aligators. Maybe when he gets back I will surprise him with a romantic gesture of my own. Hmmmm...

The Snowman Cometh

2006-01-16T17:49:00.000-08:00

While Lisa & Jackie created virtual snowmen Shelby, Rhiannon, and Clint toiled away at a life-sized model. I thought the similarity between virtual and actual was remarkable.

Home Sweet Home

2006-01-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

I never realized how forested my home was until I moved here to the desert northwest. I eventually came to appreciate the beauty of this area, and I stopped missing the green of home.

But during those weeks back home during my dad's illness, I was confronted with the incredible beauty of my childhood home.

This backwoods road is where I used to wander as a child when I wanted to be alone. I used to meander off into the woods and play games of pretend for hours.

New Year's Day

2006-01-12T21:09:00.000-08:00

A snowy dawn on New Year's morning.
It was so beautiful.

I love being in the mountains in the snow.
What a perfect way to start the New Year.

What I Did This Weekend

2006-01-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

I had an unfortunate run-in with a windstorm and my garage door on Saturday night. This is the same door whose claim to fame is shattering Gillian's thumb two years ago. This time, my finger was the casualty. A sudden fierce gust of wind slammed the door on the last three fingers of my right hand. It ripped the nail of my middle finger out--intact---, lacerated the nail bed beneath, and folded the tip of my finger back to expose the bone, which was crushed at the tip. Nice, huh?!

Did I mention we were in the middle of fighting a would-be chimney fire when all this occured? So I waited, finger in ice water, for Clint to get the chimney problem under control, called my brothrr over to watch the kids...and make sure the fire stayed out, and headed to emergency, a place I vowed never to return to. I had to face the fact that my finger would need a repair job beyond that of self care.

Kadlec did a great job, and they were very nice (my only other ER experience was at KGH...they were not nice). They removed the part of the nail that was still attached, and then reinserted it to act as a protector for my nail bed until it starts to heal. They sewed up my fingertip, and I was good to go. The doctor says I will lose the nail, it will take about a year to grow a new one in fully, and he can't say if it will grow normally...it may not. I'm just glad I've got my whole finger.

Today at my followup I got to see it agin. It's a little Frankensteinish, but I can live with it. The follow up Doc saw no signs of infection (they had expressed concern over the possibility of infection to the bone), so I'm happy.

I wanted to come home and get back to life as normal. I've got too much to do to be laying around. But the pain pills made me so nauseous I spent half the day in bed, and then when I feeling returned to my finger, the throbbing kept me from wanting to move much at all! Now, 48 hours after the injury, I'm able to do a little typing without too much discomfort. Yeah!!! I'm back on my blog!!!

Numbers

2005-11-22T22:23:00.000-08:00

Percentage of men who survive testicular cancer 95
Number of guests at Dad's memorial 94
Number of years my dad lived 66 and 364 days
Number of Hours I went without sleep 45
Number of Days my Dad was ill 38
Number of Hours to drive to the hospital 12.5
Number of Days I spent with dad while he was sick 11
Percentage of men over the age of 50 who survive testicular cancer 10
Number of Days of Cemotherapy 7
Number of Doctors involved in Dad's case 6
Number of times his diagnosis changed 4
Number of times Dad was admitted to the hospital last month 3
Number of electrolytes his body couldn't assimilate after chemo 3
Number of trips I made to California 2
Number of tears he cried when he knew he wouldn't make it 1
Number of times I've cried Too many to count

I miss my Dad

More Bad News

2005-10-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

My dad is in the hospital with pneumonia. Thank goodness my sister called him to say hello. He had been sick with a cold or flu, and told her he hadn't eaten in two weeks. He was having difficulty breathing and sounded confused, even delusional. My sister lives 9 hours away from him, so she called me (I'm 13 hours away), in a panic because she couldn't reach my other sister, who only lives 2 1/2 hours from Dad, to ask her to go check on him. I was able to contact Alesia, who dropped everything to drive up and visit my dad on Saturday. He had lost so much weight and was so confused and out of breath that she took him to the hospital emergency. They decided to admit him for testing, and to monitor his breathing. He's been subjected to every test imaginable, and more.

This is what we know so far. My dad has emphysema. It shouldn't be a suprise, since he is a lifelong smoker, and has had a bad cough for years. But he goes to the doctor regularly, and has never been told that before. My dad also has asbestosis. This is a big surprise. Apparently he was in contact with asbestos materials in the 25 years he worked at the winery. Both of these diseases are incurable, and result in difficulty breathing.

Dad also has a hard glassy sustance in the lymph nodes between his lungs. They don't know what it is. The possibilities mentioned are cancer, lymphoma, tuberculosis, and advance stage pneumonia. They will have to transfer him to a larger hospital. This one is too small to perform the testing procedures that will be necessary to determine what it is.

I need to go see him. But if it's only going to be a short hospital stay, it would be best to wait until he's home, so I can take a turn caring for him. Today they will do a preliminary test to determine where to send him for the testing. It's so hard to wait. It must be even harder for my sister Alesia, who left her kids home alone to come care for my dad, and brought only 1 change of clothes because she didn't know she would be staying so long. She can't really leave, because Dad is too confused to talk to the doctors about his condition and what's going to be happening.

Bad News

2005-10-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday one of Clint's employess cut off his thumb. I can't stop thinking about it. I feel so horrible. I know it's not my fault, but I feel so...responsible. He was on our job, working for our company. I feel so badly for him. He's only about twenty three, and now the rest of his life will be altered.

They couldn't reattach it. Clint had to take the saw apart to get the thumb out, but the blade had damaged it too much for it to be useable. Clint was amazing. He handled the whole thing so well. While his other workers were still thinking the whole thing was a joke, Clint was doing everything he could. He determined that the thumb had been sucked up into the saw, cut the cord to the saw, grabbed the saw and Jason, and drove him to Kadlec. He kept his cool when another driver, angry that Clint had passed him illegallly, followed him on the freeway, passed him, and cut him off. He kept his cool at the hospital, where he turned Jason over to their personnel and then immediately started taking the saw apart so he could retrieve the thumb without damaging it. He kept his cool when the nurse took one look at the thumb and said "Oh that's no good; there's no point in putting it on ice." Clint insisted she put it on ice anyway until the orthopedic surgeon could make a determination. He even kept it together when the surgeon pulled him aside and examined the thumb with him in detail, showing him why it was unlikely that they would be able to reattach it.

Jason is recovering well. He's trying to adjust to the situation. He's thinking about things he loves to do that will be more difficult, like motorcyling. The only small mercy is that it was his left thumb. He's right handed.

We need to get out of this business.

Places to Go, People to See

2005-08-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to having the schedule slow down, but I've only got two activity-less days until we head to Silverwood Wednesday for two days and nights.

It's the girls' much delayed Girl Scout trip, which they worked so hard to earn over three years of selling cookies.

I hope the weather will stay hot, because I hear the water park is really cool, and we missed our annual trip to Moses Lake Water Park this year!

I've realized I have no plan for my dog. I can't believe I never thought about what I would do with her while I was gone. I'm not really comfortable asking Clint's relatives to take her, and I've never left her with anyone, so now I'm pondering the solution to that dilemma.

Never a dull moment around here!

Last Day

2005-08-27T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of fair. Things are winding down. One of the extra special treats of these last two days has been the FREE DQ blizzard available at the Hwy 395 DQ Grill & Chill when you show them your current day's fair stamp. For us that translates into a $12.80 value...$15.45 if Clint is with us! Blizzards are a rare but much loved treat for us, so we made sure to stop by yesterday and today!

This morning we went in to feed the animals extra early (we left the house at 5:45am) because the superintendent sponsers a free breakfast in the barn, and the kids can't eat until after they've done their animal chores. It's pretty funny to be eating breakfast served in the barn right next to the big sign that warns fairgoers not to eat food in the barn! Eggs for the breakfast are courtesy of the barns feathered temporary residents. The eggs sit out on the counter all week so fairgoers can see the differences between eggs from different breeds of birds. Another fallacy exploded, that eggs need to be refrigerated. I'm sure someday someone will catch wind of the superintendent's kind culinary gesture, and the poultry breakfast tradition will be banned for health reasons(although I have to wonder how many poutry raising kids have ever had a case of salmonella poisoning...maybe we're immune due to regular exposure)!

The girls served barn duty after breakfast, making sure all the birds in the barn stay watered, doing errands for the superintendent, anwering fairgoers' questions, and holding birds to give fairgoers the opportunity to pet them.

After barn duty we did the one fun fair activity we haven't had time to do all week...we wandered. We wandered through the fine arts building (finally) and got to see an amazing array of stunning photos(among them Mary Ellen's award winning orchard shot), wandered past the very loud but impressive chainsaw carving exhibition, wandered through the horti/flori-culture exhibits, the commercial exhibits, and the vendor booths. Tamzin spent her money on face painting, which was beautiful, but I can't show you because of my camera situation. Rhiannon bought a neck cooling thing. Gillian opted to spend $2 on a snow cone and save the rest (a FIRST for her!). Shelby bought a bird at the poultry auction Friday, for which she is now in negotiations with me about whether she should pay for it, or me.

I was glad to get back to the tent to rest. After a week like this, just an hour or two of wandering and I'm very tired!

Now we're home, and it feels so great just to sit here and read my email, and blog. It's effortless.

Tonight we go back for the 4-H barn dance, to see how we fared on the herdsmanship awards, and to check on the birds one last time. We've decided to skip the Starship concert. Tomorrow we can sleep in til 7:30 or 8am, and head to the barns at 8:30 to pick up our exhibits and our chickens. The tough part is that we have to have our animals out by 10am, but purchasers (each 4-H'er could sell up to three birds at Friday's auction) don't have to pick up their birds until noon. Some purchasers let the 4-H'ers keep their birds. They are in effect donating the price of the bird towards the 4H'ers' animal project. My kids want to keep their birds if the purchasers don't take them, so we will have to wait until we know whether they are being taken. So it could be a long morning. On the other hand, we have our campsite to pack up too, so that should keep us busy until noon!

No Photos

2005-08-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Due to an unfortunate mishap while the girls were filming a short movie with my digital camera, the camera is no more.

Well, it exists as an empty shell, but the minimum repair charge as per the manufacturer is $171. So it's back to the 35 mm for a while. I think I will have to pay to have them put onto disk at the developers, because I can no longer imagine photo organization/storage without My Pictures. It's amazing how easy it is to use lots of film once you've gotten spoiled by the digital camera's massive storage space.

On the other hand, I am appreciating the 35mm's ability to take the photo exactly when I want, instead of having to anticipate a digital delay.

So I guess I'm in the market for a new digital camera, if anyone has recommendations.

...And We're Off! (to the Fair)

2005-08-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

And so it begins.

Today is the first day of the fair. For us, fair has been happening for days now, starting with Sunday when we had to drop off all our exhibits, pick up our passes, and set up a camp spot. It was busy, but definitely do-able, in a cheerful fashion. The excitement among the kids was definitely happening.

Monday was livestock day. Getting chickens, vegetables, plants, crazy critters, and flowers to the fair, and then setting up the birds' cages and the poultry display, was the order of the day. We finished by about 9 pm, and headed home to get some rest.

This morning we were up at 5:30 am (as we will be for the rest of the week) and on our way to the fair by 6:30 (well, it was more like 7, but I was running really late!). Off to the poultry barn to feed birds and clean cages, then to set up a spot for the Doobie Brothers, to our tent for a 30 minute rest, then it was off to the just opening exhibit buildings...the kids were dying to see how their entries placed.

This afternoon we have not only Poultry Fitting and Showing and Fashion Revue events, but also a family funeral to somehow squeeze in...Clint's uncle passed away and we need to pay our respects to the family. Just when I think it can't get any more challenging, it does!

The girls are nervous and excited about their upcoming performances, and can't wait for this afternoon! I'm glad though that we had a couple of hours to come home and just do nothing. They need down time.

I'd like to do nothing, but I have two hours to pay a few bills, update my checkbook, water the garden, pet the dog, and get four kids and one mom ready for a funeral, poultry judging, and a fashion revue one right after the other! Argghh!

Sewing Lessons

2005-08-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

Helping someone else sew something challenging is A LOT more challenging than sewing it yourself. I am so brain weary and stressed from 9 days of helping Rhiannon and Gillian make their Fashion Revue entries. There were so many moments when I just wanted to rip the garment from their hands and do it myself! How do you explain to someone that sometimes the proper sewing method to is to just mess with it until you get it right?!

They both picked projects that were beyond their ability level, and could not be persuaded to try something simpler. They've had to really stretch and challenge themselves, and have learned a ton, and not only about sewing. Lots of life lessons were learned in the process of sewing these outfits. Time management, perseverence, setting realistic goals, financial considerations of a large project, how to cope when you've got a bigger challenge than you anticipated, and so on. Probably the hardest thing for them has been the redos. Poor Rhiannon has had to rip out and redo SO many seams. When I learned to sew, my first stuff was kind of sloppy, but it didn't matter, because it was only for me, and I was proud of my efforts, and so was my mom, who taught me. But Gillian and Rhiannon are going to be judged on their work, and so they want it to be right, which has meant fixing lots of little (and big!) errors.

And while they've done all the actual cutting, sewing, etc, I've had to be available to answer questions, explain the pattern, teach them the proper technique to complete a piece, check their work, and show them how to undo, redo or fix problems, so I've gotten nothing else done all week.

I am once again behind in my office work, my house is a wreck, my garden is drooping from lack of water, and I'm running out of time to get on top of things. My little sister (whom I haven't seen in more than a year!) is coming for a visit on Tuesday, which means I need to finish getting the girls ready for fair by Monday.

And we have stuff scheduled all weekend.

Plus Fashion Revue on Saturday.

Aaaack!!

Normal Life

2005-08-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Why is is that my normal life is mostly being too busy to get everything done?

I wasn't like that in my previous life (before kids and husband). I was really mellow, preferring to spend lots of solitary time reading or just doing my own thing. I rarely felt crowded. Sometimes I worked long hours, but I would use that as an excuse to cancel activities with friends or family, so that I could give myself plenty of time to rest and recover and get my alone time.

Now, life is long stretches of racing from one thing to another. And much of it is not negotiable if I want what's best for the people for whom I am responsible. I guess the truth is that I'm a sucker for fullfilling my responsibilities, and I have managed to acquire so many, I've sentenced myself to a regularly overwhelming schedule.

This summer is a good case in point. We did not schedule any "extra" activities. No dance lessons, swimming lessons or health club; we didn't even commit to regular park days or play days. Yet the entire season has been a blur.

You can tell when I'm too busy becaue I don't blog. That's why I have this pathetic habit of not posting for weeks at a time. It's too far down on my priority list.

The good news is, I'm in one of those rare, short term moments when my paperwork is caught up, I have only a few major things looming, and can allow myself to do one of the many things I squeeze in for myself.

At times like this, my mind goes crazy thinking of all the things I would love to work on...weeding the garden, organizing my digital photos, making a menu plan...But then I remember that I only had a few minutes to spare.

I have to get back to helping the girls make their outfits for fashion revue. We have only a week left, and it's getting down to the wire.

Boat Race Weekend

2005-08-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

We made it to the boat races this year, after my brother came through with 2 free general admission tickets. We picked up free kids tickets at the mall, sneaking Shelby in as a 12 year old. She was nervous about it, but they never even looked at her.

It was a great time. Very mellow. We found a great spot along the bank where we could swim and watch the air show and the boats. I was afraid the kids would get bored, because there's not really that much to it, but swimming in the river was all they needed to stay entertained. Rhiannon liked walking around to look at the vendors, even though it was mostly food vendors. We bought each of the girls a huge snow cone; they came with vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the cup...sounds gross, but it was delicious!

Our spot happened to be right in front of an almost deserted beer garden, so Clint and I hopped over for a quick $4 Budwiser or two. It was great because we could see the girls the whole time. In my opinion though, the beer gardens are overrated. I had a better time swimming and hanging out with the kids.

I was nervous about the whole event, because Clint has always discouraged us from going. Of course, he denies that, but his past experiences with the wild and crazy earlier years of boat races, along with his reluctance to take the girls to anything if it might be difficult or complicated(which is just about any public event that involves taking four kids), have a tendency to make him less than enthusiastic. I get nervous because if I insist on doing an activity, and it IS hard, he will be tense, and I will be frustrated, both of which make the whole event even harder.

I decided to go on this one, whether he wanted to or not. Of course, once I make the definite decision, he goes along with it, but even then, I am nervous, and almost wish I could go without him, so if things get tough I can just work it out on my own(which is a lot easier than having to also argue with him about how to handle things).

Anyway, there was nothing tough about it. The biggest challenge was the heat, but we were on top of that one. I just kept slathering the sunscreen on the girls and me (Clint didn't, and got burned), and we brought hats, sunglasses, and a beach umbrella.

We wanted to go back on Sunday, too, but felt that deserting my Dad for one day of his visit was already pushing it. So we passed our tickets along to Mary Ellen and Pat, so that they could check it out too! I hope we can finagle free tickets again next year. It makes for a fun an affordable family event!

Shelby's Birthday

2005-08-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

For Shelby's birthday, we went to Tony Roma's for dinner(my dad's treat). Shelby had an oddly "blue" birthday. Blue towels, blue Moshi hippo, blue bedroom makeover, blue wrapping paper.

She also scored a trip to the Indy races with Christopher, and Silverwood passes for the entire family from Aunt Roxann. Boy, was that a suprise! They must have been offering them at a great discount to Battelle employees, because she did the same thing a few days later for cousin Preston's birthday.

In this picture, Shelby is showing off her other blue gift. She loves it; after all my hesitation about buying something somewhat out of my affordability range, I'm really glad I did it.

Munchkin's New Look

2005-08-05T10:27:00.000-07:00

Munchkin had so many tangles and mats, and so much cheat grass in her fur, we had to go for the shaved dog option. Now she looks like a rat with a beard. At least she'll be cool and burr free for the rest of the summer!

How We Spent Sunday

2005-07-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

My friend Stacie invited us to go boating with her family. They have a "banana boat". They pull it behind their ski boat like a tube, only it can hold 10-12 people. Very fun. A wild ride, though. We all have minor injuries, from sunburn (you know that one spot you miss with the sunscreen?!) to head bumps, to scrapes.

The kids loved it. The point of the day seemed to have been to try to shake the kids off the banana boat by driving the speed boat in so many loops and figure eights that they couldn't hold on any longer.

I fell off the banana boat once, got pushed off by my kids, got my face scraped up by the rope, and was seasick. I had a good time, but I think I might be too old for this kind of a good time...I still felt seasick a day later!

The Finished Room

2005-07-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't refinish the piano, or any furniture. I didn't repaint the stove or buy bedding or window coverings.

The paint job was SO HUGE that it took all 5 days just to get it finished. It took 5 coats of primer to cover the walls! Painting the hallway and the closet took an extra day! At least we bought the bed!

Clint, who avoided the project for the first couple of days, ended up making 4 trips to the store for me for extra paint, and bought, cut, painted and installed mouldings for the windows(an unfinished project from 6 years ago)and in other places where moulding was missing. Then he cut and reworked the closet shelves so they would be more useable. He helped move furniture into the room on the last day, and installed the curtain rods (no curtains, though!), vent covers, and outlet covers. He picked up Shelby when we discovered she was arriving 4 hours earlier than expected, and took her with him to turn in our fair forms so I would have an extra hour to get all the stuff moved into her closet! I was just doing a final vacuuming when they arrived.

Tamzin spilled the beans by saying "Shelby, I got your old room!" the minute she walked in the door. But she loves her new room all the same. It's working great to have the two older girls downstairs at bedtime. The bathrooms are less crowded for teeth brushing, and I'm finding it easier to keep Tamzin focused on getting ready for bed without the older girls there to visit with.

Shelby's new space is bright and airy. We rigged a sheet and a bead curtain as a door since the room doesn't have one, and she seems content with that, for now anyway. And she is looking forward to going bedding shopping for a new quilt.

The whole experience wore me out. On Wednesday, in a panic because I wasn't making any progress, I painted from 5:30 to 12:30 am. That's 19 hours! Thursday I put in 13 hours, and finally the room was painted and we could start moving in.

I'm still recovering. Part of me can't imagine ever painting another room again. The other part of me wants to get started on Rhiannon's room right away!

While You Were Out - Benton City Style

2005-07-12T13:50:00.000-07:00

I dropped Shelby off to camp yesterday morning. She will be gone until Friday. We are going to spend the week painting our old basement rec room and redecorating it as a bedroom for her 14th birthday.

I am typing with hands covered in paint! We are going to paint the panelled walls a pale blue, that is, if we can ever finish primering them. I just ran out of the second can of primer, and have to head to the store for MORE. We’ve done 2-3 solid coats, but I can still see some bleed through on the wood and I don’t want to take any chances on the look of the final color. I had a friend who painted over paneling and it looked nice, but you could definitely tell where she skimped on primer. Her advice was, do extra coats of primer for the best result.

The kids have been really into helping, and have actually been helpful, too! Thats a new one for me. The last time I let them help me paint, Clint was really mad because there were so many dried on drips on the walls that the room was pretty much ruined. Gillian and Tamzin helped me all day yesterday, and still had the energy and enthusiasm to go at it again this morning.

I am hoping to not only paint the walls, but also buy a larger bed, repaint some of her furniture, and even strip and refinish the piano(which will be in her room), paint the stove(also a permenant fixture in the room, and I have to find high temp paint for that), and figure out cool bedding and window coverings without spending any $$$ on it.

It's been a long time since I've tackled a project this size. Of course, while I was out getting paint, I managed to sprain my thumb, slowing me down before I had even gotten started! At least it's my right thumb, so I can keep on painting. It's surprising to me how much I use my non dominant thumb, though. I'm keeping it taped becaues I'm too tempted to use it, and then it hurts!

Office Blues

2005-07-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

I've been buried in office work all week.

I didn't realize how behind I had gotten over the last few months. As the girls springtime activities kept getting bigger, more numerous, and more time consuming, I guess I was just doing the minimum to keep my office work under control. I would sort mail, pay bills, update my checkbook, clean up the clutter, do payroll, and so on. But over time, I collected a massive pile of "stuff to be dealt with later" that could finally wait no longer. So this week, I took advantage of our first whole week unscheduled to catch up on things. It's amazing how long it takes to process all those random projects and bits of paper.

The upside is that once I got on a roll, I just kept on going, and now I am ahead...just a little! I've already done my monthly taxes(not due til the 15th) and my Quarterlies (not due til the 31st!)

Then, to top it off, I even did a REALLY LOW priority office project...I burned a couple of mixed CD's from my growing MP3 files to listen to while running or in my new 'burb...which has a CD player!

AWOL

2005-06-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the absence, but I've been crazy busy! I hate it when life's like this. Sadly, I'm learning that in the ebbs and flows of my particular life, it just gets like this every so often.

I don't say much about it when life finally slows down, because I'm either (a) afraid I will jinx it, or (b) someone will hear me say I'm not too busy and will give me more #%$& to do!

So mostly, you will hear me complaining about how busy I am! Mind you, I am not complaining at this point, merely informing!

What have I been doing? Chaufeuring, and LOTS of it(to McNary, 2 dance classes, art class, and Pokemon league).

Plus...play dates with new friends, park days, orthodontist appointments, doctor appointments(Gillian had a sty), gardening(ie, digging, planting, moving, watering, weeding, mulching, moving rocks, buying and hauling soil amendments, weedwhacking, mowing, burning, shopping at plant nurseries), dance and piano recitals, recital rehearsals, payroll, taxes, bill paying, checkbook balancing, business paperwork, running, housecleaning, laundry, cooking, grocery shopping, summer shoe shopping for the kids, car shopping to replace the now unreliable van, buying and installing a new swimming pool, and prepping for and attending the used curriculum fair.

Then, in my SPARE time, I went to the Secret Garden tour, read Ben Franklin, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, and Same Difference, went to book group twice, and saw Star Wars with Clint and Chris.

I'm thinking positive, though. I'm just sure things are going to slow down soon! Classes are ending this week, after all, so that should count for something.

Katie's Quail

2005-05-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

I offered to take care of Katie's quail this weekend. She had to go to California for a few days and was worried about how he would do at home. We had had several conversations about caring for the chick, and were eager to do what we could to help.

When Katie brought him, she was concerned about him. He was not doing as well as he had been in the beginning. He was listless and his eyes were closed. She said the first day he had been active, hopping about all over his cage. She was worried that he had gotten cold in the car on the trip from her house.

We put a light bulb on him right away, and started giving him sugar water with an eyedropper every hour. He had improved significantly by noon, so we decided to see if we could get him to drink on his own. We put chick starter feed and a jar lid of water in his cage, and showed him how to drink. Shelby and I were so excited when he pecked at the feed!

We noticed he had trouble walking, and decided to cover the wood shavings with newspapers, something we do with baby chicks. It helped a lot, and by late afternoon he was active and alert, hopping all over the place and pecking at his feed.

At bedtime I became concerned because he was still so active. He was even cheeping quite a bit, something he hadn't done at all earlier. He had run into the glass of his cage a number of times, and didn't seem at all inclined to sleep. I was worried that he might hurt himself in the night. I tried rigging an infrared light over his cage. That's what we use for heat with our chicks. But the light was so strong I was afraid it would melt the outsides of the cage (a mistake we have made before). I was also afraid it would get the chick too hot and he would die (something that has also happened before). Katie had been using a 60 watt bulb to keep him warm. We were using a 100 watt bulb and it was working great, but the infrared is 250 watts. It seemed like too much heat for such a little cage. If I put the light farther from the cage, it didn't seem like it was directing the heat enough to the inside of the cage. That's when I thought of the loft.

Our loft is like an oven. I've stubbornly refused to turn on the air conditioning, and the downstairs has been a tolerable 83 degrees. But the loft is at least 10 degrees warmer. After comparing the temperature in the lighted cage to the loft, I decided it was probably warmer in the loft anyway, so I took the chick up to the loft without the light. He quieted down soon after, and seemed to be adapting well to the change.

He died in the night. I found him with his head in the jar lid of water. There was only about a tablespoon of water in it, so I don't think he drowned, but I think he may have gotten wet, and then chilled. It hadn't occurred to me to remove the food and water lids. Earlier that day he had been hopping in and out of them. It was funny because he would hop into the water, then into the food, and then he would peck at the feed that stuck to his wet toes. We normally leave the feed and water with our baby chicks, so I didn't think to remove it.

I feel so bad. I wish I had woken Shelby up to get a second opinion on removing the light bulb. I had a bad experience with baby chicks and a standard light bulb, so I was afraid to leave it on all night. The loft was still very warm when I got up at 6 am to check on him. But if he'd had the light on, he would not have gotten chilled, even if he had gotten wet. I think I would feel just as bad if I'd left the light on and had found him dead in the morning. Then I would have felt bad for leaving him is a situation I had doubts about.

I didn't think I would be so attached to this little guy making it. His chances seemed small. But after his dramatic improvement over the course of the day, we were so hopeful. He was showing so much personality, too. He was alert and active and precocious, and it seemed like things were tilting in his favor. I know I did the best I could, but its hard knowing I may have made the wrong decision.

Unmotivated

2005-05-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

My hubby left Friday afternoon for a tournament in California. He'll be gone 9 days.

I feel unmotivated to do anything. Is it because he's gone, or am I just recovering from yesterday's haircut from hell?

In spite of feeling unmotivated, I made "appointments" with each of the girls today to help them work on their sleep pants. The frustrating thing about working at Linda's shop is that, while it's fun for the girls to work with other kids, it's hard for me to help four kids at one time, so there's a ton of waiting, and sometimes they get frustrated. Tamzin didn't even have a project, since I wasn't planning to have her do sleep pants, so she was wanting me to help her create something, too, and bored and sad that I couldn't help her.

The girls got a little done Saturday, but I decided for my own sanity that I needed to work with them one at a time, at home. So I made myself available this afternoon. I didn't even have to do that much, just be there to explain each step and show them what to do. But it worked much better to work with them one at a time! Shelby, Rhiannon and Gillian got their sleep pants finished except for the hem, so they all got to try them on and wear them around for a bit. They are so excited! Even Tamzin is happy. We cut a rectangle of some leftover flannel and I let her sew it with my help on the machine, and she made it into a pillow. She stuffed it with fabric scraps and sewed up the stuffing hole all by herself! Now she says she would like to make an outfit! She is very proud of herself for sewing on the big machine!

I cooked a nice dinner, something I do sparingly when Clint is out of town. I went running this morning, too. And I did some weeding in my garden. And I sent my mom some photos via email. And I made a cool CD slideshow (to music) out of some photos we took this spring (something I've been meaning to do for ages)! Now that I'm writing it all down, it sounds like I've done a lot for someone who feels as unmotivated as I do right now. Hmmm.

The Haircut From Hell

2005-05-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

The girls and I were out of the house early Saturday for our 4H sleep pants project meeting. We spent a couple of hours at Linda's mom's shop sewing.

Then we went and got Gillian the haircut from hell.

I don't know why I keep trying. I get so frustrated with hair stylists. They always act like they don't know what I am talking about when I attempt to describe a hairstyle. Dang it, they're the professionals, they should be able to figure it out. Gillian wanted a blunt cut with the front longer than the back. Seems simple enough. But the stylist found lots of reasons not to be able to do what Gillian wanted, and kept layering, and layering, and layering, until now Gillian's hair is way too short, way too layered, and not even close to what she wanted. When the stylist first said she might need to layer it a bit in the back because of the thickness of Gillian's hair, I said OK. It made sense to me. But still, we had asked for a BLUNT cut, not a layered cut. Her hair is now very layered in the back, somewhat layered at the sides, and long in the front.

The cut took more than an hour the first time around, plus 15 minutes to wait for our turn. When she finished, it didn't look great, but we were all tired and wanted to go. We left to do some shopping. But then I got a better look at the cut, which the stylist had tucked behind Gillian's ears. When it came untucked, I realized they had her hair going from short, to long, to short again. It stuck out on the sides like a little kid had cut it. I wanted to cry, because I knew I had to take her back to have it fixed, which would mean more waiting.

Of course, we had to wait 30 minutes for the same stylist to be available when we returned. Then she was totally obtuse about what was wrong with the cut. Then she went on to blame Gillian, saying that Gillian kept asking her to cut it shorter. Well, maybe she did, but I'm quite sure she didn't aske her to LAYER it! I managed to be polite the entire time, but I was very frustrated. In total, three hours of our afternoon were spent at the hairdressers. With the other girls waiting the entire time! I ended up paying double the cost of a haircut, because I tipped her a second time to foster goodwill. After all, she didn't get angry or nasty about it. But she was deliberately dense and unhelpful, in my opinion. She refused to give any suggestions about how to fix the problem, just acted perplexed by my concerns.

Rhiannon and Tamzin walked over to Bed Bath and Beyond to shop, while I waited with Shelby. Then Shelby and Rhiannon went over to Target to shop, and I waited with Tamzin. Tamzin was a saint. I cannot believe how patient she was. It was so frustrating!!! Even now, Gillian's hair is not quite right. There are parts in the back that are not even. I admit, her hair is hard to cut because it's so thick. That's why I don't cut it! But if the stylist is not capable of cutting her hair evenly, I wish they would just say so, and let me go to a different stylist!

The whole point of the haircut was so Gillian could go to camp and not have to worry about having an unruly mop to deal with. Now her hair is so short, she can't tuck it behind her ears, so it's in her face! I can't decide if I should take her to Maeleena and ask if she can fix it, or if I'm just being too picky and should forget about the whole thing. The only way I can think of to fix it is to layer the front to match the layering in the back. Then it won't be in her face. But it also will be even less of what she wanted.

Tamzin begged for a haircut too, something I didn't want to do, since we just cut it not that long ago, and cutting it again would mean it couldn't go into a braid, my favorite non-tangling hairstyle. But she was so patient at the salon, I decided to give her a haircut when I got home. She is so happy! She loves it! I'm sad, because I liked her hair longer, but I'm happy that she's happy!

Kayaks & Asparagus Dogs

2005-05-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

There's something so awesome about sharing a meal... or an afternoon... with good friends.

I was ambivilant about attending Saturday's homeschool BBQ. I get so wrapped up in projects at home that it's hard to break away, and time with Clint is so limited, I hate to "use" up his time unless it's a top priority. But the kids had friends they wanted to see at the BBQ, so we went, and I am SO glad we did! We kept picnic preparations simple by picking up Fred Meyer fried chicken and bringing a simple dip with bread to share.

We decided to bring the kayaks, thinking we might be able to combine a fun family activity with the potluck at the park. It worked out great. Both kids and adults had a fantastic time paddling back and forth from island to shore, and up and down the bank. The river was a delight to the senses, and paddling is hard work, but fun! After accompanying the older girls several times, we felt confident letting them traverse the route alone. Rhiannon and Lisa loved the tandem kayak, and went back and forth over and over, laughing and giggling.

We stayed for hours later than we had planned, along with Mary Ellen, Lisa and Jackie. We visited and watched the kids play. It was great fun, and wonderfully relaxing.

Pat and Mary Ellen invited us over for Asparagus Dogs on Sunday. I spent a glorious and exhausting 6 hours digging in the garden while Clint worked inside installing the baseboards. Then we showered off the sweat of our projects, made a couple of side dishes, and headed over to Mary Ellen's for dinner.

True to his word, Pat's Asparagus Dogs were a gourmet feast! We spent an enjoyable evening visting on the deck and watching the rain showers, playing Yahtzee with the kids, and squeezing though fences for a little neighborhood exploration! Mary Ellen treated us all to exotic espresso drinks in charming little demitasse cups as an after dinner treat. I got the lowest Yahtzee score, but I had a winner of a weekend!

Spring Blog Cleaning

2005-05-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

I got on Blogger (finally) to see about fixing the comments, and deicded it was time for a change...a template change, that is. It was an easy way to solve the comment problem, since some of the newer templates have comments already set. The bad news is I have lost the old comments, but it didn't look like Comment This was coming back online any time soon anyway.

Changing to a new template motivated me to redo my sidebar, too. I feel so ...updated!

Remodeling, or Recap Part 2

2005-04-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

We are in full swing on remodeling projects again. Clint installed the door and window trim, and will start on the baseboards as soon as they come in. It looks so nice!

We finally chose our cabinet hardware, so Clint is in the process of installing knobs and pulls. I think there are about 50 altogether for the kitchen and bath alone. We decided on a simple style matte black knob and handle that I found at Home Depot, and a copper knob for the bathroom. They were in the mid range as far as price, $2.50 for the knobs, and $5 for the handles. It was still shocking to see the cost though; it really added up, with all those pieces. The cabinets were becoming damaged because of the lack of handles. They aren't designed to be knob-less, although they look nice that way. They don't have any place to grab them, so fingernails bubm and dent the wood. We are still getting used to grabbing them by the knobs. Even half done, they look so much better!

We veered off the remodel path and onto home maintenance to repair the upstairs bathroom tub surround, which had water leaking behind the surround, damaging the studs and creating an ugly mildew problem. We decided to replace the tub as well as the surround, after discovering the tub was rusting through at the seam. After an afternoon of tub shopping, we brought home a replacement 2 piece fiberglass tub/surround, destined to resolve the mildew problems inherent in using a separate plastic surround. We went to great lengths to ensure that the pieces would fit through the bathroom door and into the space available, only to discover when we got it home that it would not make it up the stairs and around the sharp angle from the landing to the bathroom.

I was all for putting the old tub back in and putting up a cheap new plastic tub surround, and just replacing it every 5 or 6 years. But Clint felt the old tub was not useable, so it was back to the store to assess options for plan B. This time I let Clint handle it on his own. He came home with a very nice 4 piece plastic tub and surround. Of course it was three times as much as the 50% off fiberglass one we had purchased the week before. We've decided to keep that one for the downstairs bathroom remodel, which we are planning for July. There is no tub or bath in that room at all, thus the need for the remodel.

So, while Shelby and I spent Saturday on an all day trip to Pendleton for a seminar on "Raptor Rehabillitation and Wound Management Techniques", Clint installed the new tub and surround. It totally exceeds my expectations. The tub he chose is beautiful, and BIG. I may even be able to convince some of the kids to bathe up there instead of in my tub! And it's so clean! We aregued a bit on the fixtures. He wanted to replace them with the same old clear plastic knobs style that was there before. I wanted a more modern metal lever. Same price either way. I said I would rather put the old knob back on than spend money on a newer model with the same dated look. That made him mad! I think the issue was the plumbing valve for the different style lever. He was worried that it would require a plumber to change out the valve. But in the end, after the tub came out, he found it was not difficult to change out the valve at all.

This whole process involved ripping out drywall, sometihing we hadn't planned on. I was going to paint the bathroom as soon as the surround went in. Cilnt has replaced the drywall, but we will need a professional to tape and texture it if we want it to look right. I'm voting for leaving it like it is until we do the downstairs bathroom, since we will have the same situation once we move the sink and add the tub. Then we can just have someone come out once and do both bathrooms.

Last on our remodel list are installing the stone columns on the front porch, the baseboards,the bathroom remodel, and painting the exterior of the house, which needs to happen soon or the weather will start damaging the still unpainted siding. We plan to get all four projects done this spring and summer, before Clint's fall tournament schedule, which is very busy. My dream would be to finish all this AND start to work on the yard, which needs to be completely redone, but I'm thinking it's not realistic. It's a bummer to have a scrappy yard for another year, though. But there are limits to what is humanly possible.

An April Recap

2005-04-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

I knew April would be a busy month when I looked at my calendar and there were only three days on the whole month without something happening on them. Still, since a fair amount of those things were routine, like dance classes, I figured it would be fine. And we are fine, but very busy these days!

Grandma Dorothy's brain surgery kept us busy at the beginning of April. We spent an afternnon cleaning her house for her while she was at the hospital. She is doing well (the tumor was benign) and has been told she can resume her normal activities, but the experience left her feeling emotionally weakened and in need of support, so we have been visiting her to keep her spirits up.

April is a birthday month for us, so we were busy with gift shopping, party planning, party preparations, cake baking, gift wrapping...all the little things that go with birthdays. My brother celebrated his B-day with a BBQ. Clint and I played basketball with our kids and Henry and Chloe. It was a blast! For my birthday I engineered a shopping trip for the girls with Clint and made a special birthday dinner of lasagne with my favorite angel food cake with berries for dessert. I thought about spending my day doing something fun like scrapbooking, but I had too many chores to do. That's OK, it was an awesome day. The girls made me feel SO special. They bought me a new bread machine (yeah...my old one broke) and a new monitor for the old computer. Yipee! Now my computer has as awesome a screen as the girls' newer game computer. I can do all my work on the old computer now! They also bought me dangly earrings, scented candles, and a Japanese maple and columbines for my garden. They know all the things I like. I'm so lucky! A few days after my birthday was Tamzin's. We did Chuck E Cheese and a play date with two little girls one day, and then invited family over for a BBQ on her birthday. Clint's birthday was just a few days ago. We took him out to dinner one night, and then the next night we took him to Sportsman's Warehouse to choose his own birthday gift. This plan developed after a month of asking him for birthday ideas and getting NO response. I don't really care about getting him something, since I know he doesn't care, but the girls feel so disappointed when they don't have the chance to give a gift. He chose a pellet gun. He said he had always wanted one. I don't really get it, since we have a Red Ryder BB gun in the closet, but it was his choice, and he was very excited about it. He also took a day off work to go fishing for a B-day gift. The joys of self employment. And nothing bad happened on the job site while he was gone, thank goodness!

The girls started an Art Class through the Boys and Girls Clubs in Kennewick. It's an Art History class with a focus on tactile arts. Each week they will do a project related to an historical time period. They've done cave paintings and wood sculpting. Next week they will be doing Minoan period Frescos. Shelby and Rhiannon have been really enthusiastic about the class. I think it has exceeded their expectations. I'm not sure yet about Gillian. Tamzin is too young, so she and I have to find something to do for 1 1/2 hours in downtown Kennewick. We've played at McDonald's once and gone shopping at Fred Meyers once. This puts me at three days a week taking kids to classes and needing to find things to to while I wait for class to be over, and needing to be organized enough to have dinner planned and my household stuff under control so I'm not freaking out when I get home. I admit, I'm slipping. I'm not very on top of things at all right now.

Shelby has been volunteering at McNary Wildlife Refuge about 3 times a month. Driving her to and from is enjoyable, since we get time to visit without interruptions, but it does take some time. She likes helping out, and loves the Refuge.

I spent the first two weeks of the month frantically doing taxes. Not just income taxes, although that was the biggie, but also quarterly business taxes. With Clint's business in full swing again, I need to schedule in about 6-8 hours a week of office time to keep caught up, but it's tough to squeeze it in. Each task is small, but when I do them in peices I find I end up forgetting some stuff, which leads to disaster later. I had to do a California Tax Return, too, since they withheld $800 from his winnings from last year's big tournament. It was a pain in the neck, very complex. I had to call their tax board 5 times to get the full answer to one question about the method for distribution of business expenses by state, and in the end I had to look up the Ca tax code myself to be clear on the answer, since I got conflicting responses! But, it looks like I will get all the money back, so it was 5 hours well spent! I still need to file a Louisiana return, but I'm not sure it's worth the $30 they withheld. I think it will take about an hour. Hmm. Maybe it is worth it, if I can find the time.

Where Have I Been?!

2005-04-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Aaaackkk! Where have I been? I must've dropped off into blog oblivion! I'll have to think about it and post later.

Brain Surgery

2005-04-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

Clint's mom has a brain tumor. They discovered it Wednesday when she went in to ER with unusually high blood pressure. They took her by ambulance to Seattle's UW hospital yesterday, and she went into surgery today. Clint went over last night to be with her. The girls and I are waiting to hear how she does.

The doctor told her removing brain tumors is the only surgery he performs. He does about 200 a year, and has never lost a patient on the operating table. I guess you can't ask for more reassurance than that, under the circumstances.

Update: Dorothy is out of surgery and has regained consciousness. She is able to chat a bit, but has a headache.

The Picnic's Over

2005-03-22T21:36:00.000-08:00

After working as a project superintendent for the last 6 months for a local general contractor, Clint has realized it doesn't pay enough to cover our expenses. So it's back to framing. He started a project ths week. That means my vacation is over. Now it's back to weekly payroll, billing, invoicing, tax payments, employee reporting, etc, etc, etc.

Just when my schedule was starting to get busy with kids' activities, too. Shelby's going to take an art class, plus she's volunteering at McNary, so it looks like I'll be running the kids to something 4 days a week, not counting play dates. Wait til Gillian and Tamzin figure out they deserve an activity, too.

Of course, after starting his project, Clint let his boss convince him that they just couldn't do without him. He agreed to stay on until things are a little more under control. It's pretty much win-win for us, since we will gain the profit from the framing project plus the weekly salary from the condo project. And, since he's going to continue the consulting under his license instead of as an hourly employee, he's going to charge more, so he'll be making what he should have been getting all along.

Only problem is, how long can a man work two intense jobs and really give it his all? It's been 10 days, and he's looking peaked. I think he's trying too hard. I wish he would just walk away from the condo project, but he feels honor bound to stay on until he drops.

All this means that I really shouldn't be asking for his help getting kids shuttled around or give him a hard time about the added burden of the business, because he has it way worse than me.

On the up side, I'm looking forward to having more than $35 in my bank account. I hope we get paid soon!

Gumby

2005-03-15T19:37:00.000-08:00

Our newest family member is Gillian's iguana, Gumby. She got him for her birthday. He eats a lot. He's a vegetarian. He likes parseley, apples, dandelions, romaine lettuce, and bananas.

On the River

2005-03-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

In spite of sore throats and stuffy noses, the Johanson clan ventured out on the Yakima River for a four hour paddle on Sunday. Clint and Tamzin rode Clint's canoe. Shelby and Rhiannon got to test out two ancient kayaks that Clint rescued this winter from a neighbor who was going to throw them away. Clint did a little fiberglass repair on Saturday, and they were watertight and good to go!

Gillian and I took to the water in the new tandem kayak Clint decided we had to have to go along with the other two. But that's another story.

We had a blast!!! My arms were sore after about 15 minutes, and they never really stopped hurting, as we were paddling continuously. But it sure is fun!!

The wind was blowing briskly against the current the whole way, so instead of being able to just let the current take us where we wanted to go, we had to work at it! We parked one vehicle where we thought we would be able to float to, so we couldn't just stop early. Rhiannon kept mentioning that her arms were tired, but she was a trooper and made it the whole way.

It's so neat to see the landscape from this view. The sights and sounds are so calming. We saw two grey herons and lots of ducks. Clint had time to stop and fish. Tamzin caught one, but they threw it back.

And the only one who fell in the water was Munchkin!

My Weekend

2005-03-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

Gillian's birthday party went great. The girls made masks, opened presents, attempted somewhat unsuccessfully to play a few organized games while I cleaned up the mask project and got the cake ready, ate cake, and then played happily for 2 hours at I don't know what. The kids had a blast, I got to visit a bit with a friend, and in the end Gillian and Tamzin went home with someone else for a sleepover!

Shelby, Rhiannon and I decided to have a movie night for our unexpected evening alone together. We browsed the video store and chose two movies. Rhiannon fixed a simple dinner of baked potatoes with fixings while Shelby and I cleaned the fish tanks (In the midst of the party, my friend's 2 year old "fed" our aquarium fish with approximately 3/4 of a jar of fish food. Since fish will keep eating until they pop, we had to completely change out the water... all 45 gallons of it. He then proceeded to feed Gillian's new betta fish, so its bowl had to be changed as well.)

It was fun to stay up late watching movies with Shelby and Rhiannon . I usually don't watch movies with my kids. There's not enough couch space and too many interruptions. It makes me crazy. I would rather work. But hanging out with just the two of them was fun.

In the morning, we went back to the video store and rented more movies. Rhiannon decided she wanted to watch something suspenseful, something we could not do with the younger girls at home. So we rented Sixth Sense. We had lots of good conversation about suspenseful movies, scare scenes, and the supernatural. I'm glad we watched it in the morning, so they wouldn't have a hard time sleeping after. I think that kind of movie is best with a little time to think about it afterwards. We discussed horror movies as well. Several kids we know have expressed interest in horror movies. Shelby and Rhiannon decided they would rather not see horror films at this point, to my relief. I've just discovered that quite a few of those movies are rated PG-13, something I'm very puzzled about. How can they be so scary, but still be rated ok for teens?

Anyway, we had a lazy but fun weekend being couch potatoes.

Tournament Time Again

2005-03-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

Clint headed off into the wild blue yonder yesterday. More specifically, he's going to California for a tournament at Clear Lake, his first tournament this year.

It would have been easier for me if I'd had a little more advance notice. While he knew about the tournament, and knew he wanted to go, he didn't make up his mind until a day and a half prior to departure time. He doesn't seem to get how up in the air this leaves things for me.

To his credit, he hung around on Saturday morning long enough to help me pull everything together for Gillian's birthday party that afternoon. As the first guest arrived, we said goodbye, and off he went.

Another positive note is that he will be staying with my dad, who lives in Clear Lake. Not only is this good because it will be cheaper, but my dad can use the company. He's lonely in general these days, and this week will be especially so, as the 2nd anniversary of his wife's death falls on the 12th. I'm very glad Clint will be there to keep my dad's spirits up.

School's Out For...Ever!!!

2005-02-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

I think Tamzin's done with Kindergarten! (Read...Stephanie jumping wildly up and down for joy because she's sick and tired of getting up at 6:15 in the morning to get Tamzin off to the bus!).

Tamzin has regularly skipped a day of school every few weeks since starting last fall. Some days she just didn't want to go, and I was ok with that. The school didn't seem to care. I got no nasty notes when she missed 9 or 10 days the first quarter.

On Valentine's Day I think I permanently tipped the scales. I bought the girls a new GameCube game. Tamzin was adament that she wanted to play the game first thing the next morning, which resulted in her missing kindergarten. She ended up missing the whole week.

I thought she might change her mind once she realized the older girls and I read for a few hours together 3 mornings or so a week. I figured she would find life at home boring with no one available to play. But she's been keeping busy. She plays GameCube or computer, or watches cartoons, or colors. She doesn't stick around to listen, but she's happy, which is all I'm interested in.

She and I had some great times alone together in the early mornings getting ready for the bus, and on the way home from school. From these moments I realized I was not focusing enough of myself on her, and she has not been as close to me as the other girls were/are. It is so easy to be so busy that you miss out on spending time with your children individually. At least, it is with four.

So now I'm working on that, thinking about what little things I can do just with Tamzin. We made paper hearts together. Made soup and Jello together. She's asked me to help her "practice reading" (she likes working on letter sounds). Today she asked me to play GameCube with her. It's the first time she's ever chosen me...usually she asks a sister. I'm doing lots more tickling and piggyback riding. I want her to know she's made the right choice. Home is better... lot's better.

God Is Too Big To Fit Inside One Religion

2005-02-18T15:49:00.000-08:00

Bumper sticker on the back of an SUV at Tamzin's school. I love it. It's my favorite bumper sticker ever!

On Time

2005-02-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

"Try to think about time not as a finite resource that is always draining away, or as a bully to be feared or conquered, but as the benign element we live in."

from In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore'

"The whole struggle of life is to some extent a struggle about how slowly or how quickly to do each thing."

from The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny

"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it."

Soren Kierkegaardd

"Rescuing the next generation from the cult of speed means reinventing our whole philosophy of childhood...More freedom and fluidity in education, more emphasis on learning as a pleasure, more room for unstructured play, less obsession with making every second count, less pressure to mimic adult mores."

from In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore'

What a Headache

2005-02-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

I had the worst migrane headache all day yesterday. After forcing myself through my normal morning tasks, I finally went to bed in the early afternoon. My objective was to get rid of the headache so I could go to Book Group. It didn't happen.

I tried everything; Ibuprofen, lots of water, a good meal, a nap, resting in the dark, destressing with a book, decongestant. Nothing helped. I felt very sorry for myself that I was missing book group, but my head hurt so bad I couldn't even focus.

This morning I am cautiously optimistic. The headache is mostly gone, but it's like my head still aches with the memory of the hurting yesterday. Or maybe I'm just paranoid. I'm trying not to make any fast moves, because I'm afraid it will come back.

And I'm feeling sorry for myself because I've lost a whole day, and I had things I wanted to do!

To Do List Blues

2005-01-22T18:04:00.000-08:00

I've made myself a new To Do list, because I couldn't remember what I was wanting to accomplish from before Christmas. Immediately I felt stressed out, even though nothing on the list was a big emergency. It's twisted.

I've decided I am addicted to accomplishment.

Update: I found this post in my "drafts". Have no idea what else I'd planned to say, or why I saved it there.

No News

2005-01-22T17:51:00.000-08:00

My life hasn't contained anything blog worthy!

Life has been pretty slow. That's been nice.

We started keeping a regular homeschool schedule again last week. That's been a little tougher. Scheduling "homeschool" time has been the best way to make sure we find time to read aloud together. But, after more than a month of doing other things, no one is as excited about reading aloud as they are about playing the GameCube. Everyone says they want to read, but then they're all too busy. It doesn't help that with Tamzin out of school we go to bed much later, get up much later, and don't get around to reading until mid afternoon. By then everyone wants to be off doing their own thing.

We finished Great Expectations (finally). They all liked it, but I think it was too long. We're reading a short one called Pandora of Athens now.

Tamzin refuses to let me read to her at all, unless it's a stall to avoid bedtime. Even then, she will sometimes opt for a few minutes on her Gameboy over time with me.

We were all sick last week. The ailment varied depending by family member, but included sore throats, coughs, fever, and lots of stuffy runny noses. I stayed pretty busy fetching and carrying and catering to sick ones, so they would know I was taking them seriously. Often I am not so nurturing, being sidetracked with other things. So I'm proud of that. Mostly we're better now. A little stuffiness here and there, but subsiding every day.

I've been inputting recipes into Publisher in my spare time. I guess that's my big accomplishment for the week. Now I just need to start cooking!

The Snowmobile Ride

2005-01-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

GameCube Addiction

2005-01-04T13:11:00.000-08:00

I'm obsessed with Animal Crossing. I've played it every day since the day after Christmas. I have to force myself to stop so the kids can take a turn.

I'm lucky Clint is so laid back. He's been very supportive of my current trend toward being completely useless and unproductive.

Happy New Year

2005-01-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

We're back from our trip to the cabin. It was very relaxing. I got to spend 5 days doing anything I wanted. I'm still reeling from the freedom of it all.

There was only a dusting of snow when we arrived, but they next day it snowed continuously, and so there was plenty for sledding and snowboarding (on Gillian's new snowboard!). We had to wait another day before there was enough snow for snowmobiling, but we did get in several rides, including one on New Year's Day.

We toasted in the New Year with Martinelli's Spakling Cider. There have been four bottle of it sitting in the pantry up there for as long as I've been going up there. We finally opened one up when we were there last New Year's, so we figured we'd continue the tradition this year. It was still good, and the girls like drinking out of wine glasses, and toasting.

Vacationing

2004-12-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

I've been loving the last few days. The presence of the new Game Cube has kept Clint and the girls so busy that I've felt free to do whatever I want to do.

This included;
Playing Animal Crossing until Noon in my nightgown
Writing a letter to my good friend in California
Not cooking
Not cleaning (OK, I've done the dishes, taken out the trash, and made my bed, but that's only because I wanted to!)
Blogging
Hauling and stacking wood(it felt great to be outside)
Typing recipes into Publisher (the start of a project that could take some time)

I'm loving taking a vacation in my own house. It's something I NEVER feel like I can do. Maybe that's why I'm reluctant to go to the cabin. I know it will be great there, but I will have to decide in advance what stuff I feel like doing, and then I will have to bring it with me. There will be no phone, computer or satelite. Usually the absence of those things is what I love about the cabin but this time I feel like I will miss them.

Clint will get very grumpy if I keep resisting. He's been terrific this holiday. I took a 2 1/2 hour nap on Christmas Day, and he cooked dinner. I could say "Sure, we'll go to the cabin when you get everything ready". But I'm vacationing, and he's out working in 30 degree weather. I should be willing to help get our family to a place where we can all do something we like.

After all, with no phone, computer or satelite, I could finally get somewhere on Pride and Prejudice, and when the kids are sleeping I can play Animal Crossing. I could even scrapbook, if I have the energy to pack it all up to bring.

Gaming

2004-12-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

I thnk I'm just not a big gaming person. Clint and the kids love the Mario Kart racing game. I think it's fun for about 10 minutes. Then I get bored with not being able to stay on the road. My driving sucks.

Rhiannon loves the Game Cube. She is far less into Gameboy Advance than Shelby or Gillian, so it's been interesting to see her so into the Game Cube. I've realized it's because it's social. She plays it as an interaction with several other people, instead of solo like a Gameboy. It makes perfect sense, because she does prefer interacting with others to solo pursuits most of the time.

Rhiannon wanted me to try Mario Party 5, because she knew Kart didn't do much for me. She got a little impatient with me, because I have no interest in playing if it will make the other kids unhappy because they can't play. And EVERYONE wants to play. It's been on pretty much all the time, except when I strongly suggest they take a break.

We sat down last night to play. Shelby graciously sat out so I could play with the other three girls. I liked it much better than the racing game. It reminds me of a 3D Candyland. You move around on spaces like a game board and play lots of mini games that are just a riot. The hardest part is that Tamzin is pretty much never the winner, and she cries about it. I keep trying to deemphasize the winning part, but the other girls get excited to see their skill improving, so they talk a fair amount about how they are doing in comparison to the others. Even Gillian cried last night, after spending much of the game in the lead, she had some unlucky breaks and lost almost everything. It really sucked. Obviously, winning is less about skill and more about chance, but how to help them see that? I can tell them, but it doesn't mean they will accept it.

The other game I tried and liked is Animal Crossing. Unfortunately, only one player at a time can play. Gillian taught me how to play yesterday morning while the others were sleeping. They all woke up and tried to get me to try Party, but I was obsessed with figuring out how to sell my peaches and shells to the storekeeper on Animal Crossing, and told them it was only fair that I get a turn on the Game Cube they'd all been on pretty much non stop!

After they went to bed last night, I played Animal Crossing again while Clint dozed on the couch. But all the Animals went to bed and shut me out of their houses, so I still haven't figured out how to sell my peaches and shells.

Computer Improvements

2004-12-27T22:22:00.000-08:00

I installed Windows XP, MS Office, Publisher, and Norton AV on my old computer. I am trying to get it up to speed so someone will want to use it now and then, instead of having a waiting line to the new one. I decided to install XP because for no reason the old computer stopped recognizing the new one on the network. Very frustrating. The connections were still there, because it could get to the internet, and the new computer could recognize the old. But short of calling the tech out again (for $60 minimum) it occured to me that with Windows XP, the network wizard would get things running with a minimum of effort, and I know with that I could muddle through on my own. I also had to have XP to run my version of Office and Publisher, so it seemed like the best way to go.

Of course, after installing, everything was fine, and then for no reason the wireless adapter completely stopped working. Tech support at D-Link was incredibly rude, for the first time ever. They said the slot must be bad. So I uninstalled the drivers, had Tech Clint open up the computer and move the adapter to the one remaining slot, reinstalled the drivers, and...nothing. Called D-Link again, got a much nicer tech who said sometimes the connection disables itself for no reason. He explained how to enable it again, and I was good to go.

Clint was grumpy about the computer problem. He thinks the solution is to go a wired network. I am convinced this will work. We just have to be persistent. Eventually I will know all the things that can go wrong with it, and the fixes for them.

To Go, or not to Go?

2004-12-26T13:12:00.000-08:00

Normally we head to the cabin immediately after Christmas, sometimes even on Christmas Day. In the past, this was because the Cabin belonged to Clint's Dad, and we would all meet up there for a very fun holiday of visiting and snowmobiling. But now, Clint's Dad is unable to meet us at the cabin. Sadly, his physical conditon is such that long trips are not comfortable for him.

Without Clint's Dad there as an anchor, none of the other extended family members have an interest in visiting the cabin. Last year we went up after Christmas anyway, and spent a wonderful long holiday snowmobiling, sledding, playing games, and just enjoying the pleasure of being together.

This year I was elected to host Clint's families' Christmas Eve function. Between preparing for Christmas Eve, and Rhiannon's birthday(12/23), and last minute Christmas preparations, I felt stressed about getting us all packed to go to the cabin as well. When we realized there was no snow there, we decided to wait and leave today, since that would take the pressure off me to have everything packed (it's not just the clothes, it's needing to prepare for a week's worth of cooking and activities that is so time consuming!).

But today, enjoying the morning here at home, I'm not sure I want to go up there today. We surely will head up there at some point this week, because after this week our regular schedule of activities starts up again, and it will be harder to get away. But I don't know when we will go. I kind of like leaving it as an unknown. Everyone always chastises me for not being more spur-of-the-moment. So now that I want to be spur-of-the-moment, I guess I'm confusing. Why should I decide? How about if we just go...later!?

The Happiest of Holidays

2004-12-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

This Christmas has been the happiest holiday I can remember in ages. There was no moment when I felt unhappy, or overtired, or overworked, or overburdened, or disappointed, or unappreciated, or stressed.

As I cuddled up with Clint last night, and we recounted the highlights of the day, I was filled with an intense wave of Joy and Contentment. It was the pleasure of having spent a holiday free from sadness or negative feelings.

Which caused me to reflect on why that feels so rare and special. Is it something I am doing that causes there to be unhappy or negative moments in almost every holiday we have?

I will think about that later. For now, I am going to continue to enjoy my perfect holiday, and stretch it out for as long as I can!

Now I KNOW I'm boring!!

2004-12-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

I had a great time at book group last night, as usual. I was half an hour late, becuase Shelby had her piano recital that afternoon. I had invited my brother over for dinner afterwards, forgetting it was book group night. Then, Clint had to work late, and didn't walk in the door until 7 p.m.

When Clint walked in I said a quick Hello/Goodbye and headed to book group I figured they would visit briefly, and that Chris would then head home.

So I was pretty surprised to walk in the door at 10 pm to find the two of them opening up a second bottle of wine and watching King of the Hill. I sat down with them to visit and we popped in a movie to watch. Fifteen minutes later, I made a comment on the movie and got no response. Dead silence. I looked over at Chris, and...

I started giggling. Then I looked over at Clint...

Hmmm. They must have been having a pretty good time while I was gone. Obviously they were all tuckered out!