Teachermom

Snow Day #2

2012-01-18T15:40:00.001-08:00

Noah had Bradey and Shawn come over today to hang out, play video games, and go sledding.
They decided that the sled needed help to go faster so Noah brought out the WD40. After Shawn got them started down the hill he jumped on and all three boys went flying down the hill. I am going to make a big pot of pasta for dinner, and the boys plan on watching NBA games and raiding my snack cupboard. Once their clothes dry they might venture out again but I think they're in for the night.

I felt sorry for the poor birds yesterday so when Noah and I ventured out to the store I stopped at the local farm supply outlet and bought more seed and suet. Since I hung the feeders we have had lots of birds in the backyard. However, these birds look very well fed. They must be hitting other yards too.

January Snow

2012-01-17T07:47:00.000-08:00

Tipper's first snow. He was more interested in coming inside to sleep on his chair rather than wrestle with Boo in the yard.

Most of yesterday we had no more than a dusting of snow. It looked like powdered sugar all over everything. By late afternoon the temperature had risen to 37 degrees and we were just wet here at our house near the water. However, just a few miles inland snow was around all day. When we went to bed last night several schools in the area had already canceled classes for today. My district chose to wait till morning. I woke up at 3:30 this morning and took a peek out the window and saw nothing but green grass in the front yard. But by 5:30 when Forrest's alarm went off the ground was covered, and by 5:45 I received my call that school was closed. Noah's basketball game is canceled for tonight, but the boys are practicing if they can make it to school safely at 11:00 AM. We let Noah drive a bit in the slushy slick stuff yesterday. Maybe I'll give him another driving lesson today after practice. Thank goodness for all wheel drive. Here are a few pictures of our beautiful snowy neighborhood.

December 2011

2012-01-01T16:38:00.001-08:00

Here's the year end wrap up. December has been a very busy month. Between practices and games Noah has basketball 6 days a week. Alyssa finished her finals early and has been home since Dec. 5th. She doesn't not return to college until the 7th of January and her classes resume on the 9th.

On Christmas Eve we got together with our neighbors, the Collins family. The kids exchanged gifts and we enjoyed a yummy fondue dinner.

We had another Christmas celebration with the Lewis family with more gifts and Erin's yummy cheeseburger soup.

Our tree was on the small side this year since we chose to put it in front of the window so it could be enjoyed by the neighbors rather than placing it in the center of the room to take advantage of the vaulted ceiling height.Noah and Alyssa collaborated on the decorating of the sugar cookies.

Noah scores on a team from Vancouver, WA during Christmas break. Alyssa's long break will allow her to see 10 of Noah's games. She is the surrogate big sister of Noah's friends. 2011 ended with a grand party at the Bryson compound. Noah didn't sleep at all and has been dozing off and on all afternoon. I hope to do a better job keeping my blog up to date in 2012.

Basketball Season Starts

2011-11-28T18:56:00.001-08:00

The basketball season started this past weekend with the Garfield High Jamboree. Noah got to suit up with varsity. He even got to play for a few minutes in the first game against O'Dea. These are the only photos we took during Thanksgiving weekend. We completely forgot to get the camera out on Thanksgiving Day. We didn't even get our Christmas card photo taken. Here Alyssa poses with her real brother and her surrogate little brothers, Kaleb and Shawn.

Noah listens intently during a time-out.

Since he's only a sophomore sitting on the bench during varsity games will be the norm. Most of his playing time will be when he plays JV. Noah was so excited to get into the game and play his first varsity minutes. He didn't even remember touching the ball till he saw this photo. He did well. He didn't turn the ball over, he made good passes, and he played solid defense. The regular season starts tomorrow. Good luck Eagles!

Good Bye Alexander

2011-11-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

Our four weeks with Alexander flew by. I don't know if Noah's German or Alexander's English really improved much, but the boys did become good friends. Noah and his friends were very welcoming, and Alex was just part of their group. He went to football games, Homecoming, the Absolute Air Park (a warehouse filled with trampolines, Noah's fall league basketball games, and he had his first experience trick-or-treating. Alexander got the full Halloween experience by going to the pumpkin patch to choose his own pumpkin. Unfortunately his was so hard he had to borrow a small handsaw from Forrest so he could carve it. We also took Alexander to our friend's huge haunted house in downtown Seattle. He didn't seem to like it much. I didn't either. I did like the part where our friend who owns the haunted house business let us go behind the scenes for a special tour. Before his trip to the U.S. Alex had only played Xbox once. As you can see by the photo he loves it. Alexander and Forrest share a love of race cars so Forrest bought a racing game for the Xbox, and all three of my boys love it. Alexander flew home four days ago. His trip home took 25 hours (including a 4 hour layover in New York). I hope that we will be able to visit him sometime in Stuttgart, and we told him that he always has a place to stay with us if he ever comes to Washington again.

Homecoming 2011

2011-10-15T22:03:00.000-07:00

Noah's handsome group all ready for the Homecoming Dance. Alexander (our exchange student), Hannah, Elyse, Amilia, and Noah.

My beautiful kids. Forrest looks small between Noah and Alexander.

Time Flies

2011-09-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

This week Alyssa starts her sophomore hear of college and Noah started his sophomore year of high school two weeks ago. Just a short five years ago as evidenced by this picture Alyssa was the big sister in every way, age and height. She's still 5'7" but he has grown to a man sized 15 year old standing nearly 6'4" and weighing 210 pounds. She is still my girlie girl fussing with her hair, make-up, and clothing. He shaves almost daily and wears cologne. They are great friends and have a wonderful relationship. I am truly blessed to have such great kids.

Peace and Quiet

2011-09-04T20:00:00.001-07:00

I have had no one to answer to all day today. Noah has been with friends all weekend, Forrest is visiting his mom, and Alyssa went to Wild Waves today. I have had a blissful day to only do what I want to do. I did some shopping. I bought new towels for the guest/kids bath. Usually the kids' bathroom gets the hand me downs from the master bathroom when Forrest and I get new towels. I spent some time puttering in my classroom. I have enough planned for the first three days of school so I am not going in tomorrow. I will not be working on Labor Day. A nap on the deck, washing the cars, and taking photos of an amazing sunset rounded out the day. Alyssa and I plan to get pedicures tomorrow. And the kids will be doing some housework so I can start the school year with a clean house. They've been free from chores all weekend. It's time for them to step in and clean bathrooms and scoop the dog poop from the backyard.

On Tuesday I will get a massage to loosen up my neck and shoulders before reporting to school for some meetings and final prep for Back to School Night. Our wonderful PTA will feed us and the families dinner. The kids will come to my room where they will drop off their supplies, choose a cubby, and a seat, and introduce themselves to me. I am looking forward to a great year. I have several kids who are the younger siblings of students I have had in the past. It's always nice to see familiar faces and catch up with the families.

End of Summer Weekend

2011-08-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

After a great Jamaican/Mexican feast at the home of the Adam's family Saturday night we expected to spend a quiet Sunday puttering around the house waiting for Alyssa to get home from her camping trip with her friends in Winthrop. But that's not what happened. Forrest and I picked up some delicious looking Sockeye Salmon from Costco. It was way too much for us to eat so we invited our friends, the Brysons. A few extra kids joined us for the feast. Forrest makes amazing barbecued salmon on a cedar plank. A green salad and red potatoes with dill and butter rounded out the meal. Tracy Bryson brought her famous fruit pizza and the kids also made s'mores and pie iron pies. It was a lovely evening with a gorgeous sunset. Since Forrest is going to visit his mom over Labor Day weekend this is the last big gathering of the summer of 2011 at our house. It's been a busy summer of basketball and driver's ed for Noah and work for Alyssa and Forrest. My main jobs were to run errands, drive Noah around until he got his permit (now he drives me), keep up with the laundry, and cook. I walked lots of miles during Noah's driver's ed classes, and once the weather cooperated I did get in some relaxing time on the deck with some good books. I realized that I haven't taken many photos this summer so I grabbed the camera and took a few shots last night.

Update

2011-08-25T07:46:00.000-07:00

My dad told me that people are noticing that I haven't been keeping up with my blog this summer. Well that's because we haven't done much lately. Alyssa is working four days a week at the daycare, Forrest is also working, and Noah has driver's education classes three days a week plus drives. Noah is taking his class with his friend, Kaleb, so I usually walk with Kaleb's mom during their classes. We have walked the full Arlington Airport Trail which is 7.3 miles and parts of the Centennial Trail where it cuts through Snohomish County. After classes Noah and Kaleb usually go to the gym and lift weights or I drop them off at Lake Goodwin so they can meet up with their friends (mainly cute girls in bikinis) and work on their tans.

I have spent two days in my classroom getting it ready. I am having trouble getting motivated to spend more time there right now. All of the teachers in our district are waiting for news of negotiations. The state has given us a 3% pay cut, but we don't know how that is going to be worked into our current 3 year contract. Some districts are having furlough days. Our union president is not doing a very good job keeping us all informed so there is lots of discord and rumor mongering. Hopefully we'll know something soon.

As you can see by the photos Mom and Dad are here for a couple of days. They took us out for dinner last night to our favorite Stanwood, Jimmy's Pizza and Pasta. We are looking forward to our friend's party this weekend. It will be a Jamaican feast prepared by our favorite Jamaican transplant, Cordel Adams.

That's all the news for now. I promise to do a better job of keeping this blog up to date.

Summer Weekend

2011-07-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

I made a solo trip to Portland to see my family including my cousin, Suzanne, who was in town for a work conference. As usual Mom and Dad treated us to great food. We also took a drive through the northern end of the Willamette Valley to check out a new resort in the Oregon wine country, The Allison Spa and Resort. It is a beautiful place, but definitely out of my price range.

We also made a stop at the Sokol Blosser Winery to admire the view and taste some amazing wine.

While I was out of town Noah played in and won the Aquafest 3 on 3 tournament, and Forrest and Alyssa took in a sunny Mariner game. Amazingly they got to see the hometown team win a game for a change.

After Jim and Michelle and her family left Mom and Dad's house Saturday night we realized that we didn't take any photos of them. Sorry guys.

Central Washington University Team Camp

2011-07-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Noah's junior varsity basketball coach has 16 boys interested in playing ball in the fall. This allowed him to make two teams of 8 boys each for team camp at CWU. Noah's team (the top 8 boys) played in the small school varsity division rather than the junior varsity division. The other 8 boys played JV. All of the Arlington teams competed well during camp, but Noah's team was the only group to win their division. Great work boys!

Hoopfest Weekend 2011

2011-06-29T17:33:00.001-07:00

On last Friday we headed over the mountains to Spokane for Noah's 6th time participating in Hoopfest, the world's largest 3 on 3 street basketball tournament. On the way to Spokane we stopped in Wilbur for lunch at the Billy Burger and a visit with my Grandma Beulah. She greeted Noah's friend, Kaleb, just like another grandson. She met him last summer when we stopped in during a camping trip. Grandma showed us her pictures from the parade she was in last month as the Grand Marshal. After visiting with Grandma we continued on to Spokane to check in at the hotel and to pick up the team's registration packet.
Hoopfest is a tiring weekend and Noah takes every opportunity to rest between games. The boys had a very successful weekend. The rules of Hoopfest are that the winner of a game is the team which is ahead after 25 minutes or the first team to score 20 points.
Noah's team won all four of their games by being the first team to 20 and were crowned Hoopfest Champions for their bracket. It was a very successful weekend for Arlington teams. I know of three other teams who also finished first and another team that finished second.

Noah and his friends like to play skins, but they decided to add sleeves this year, and Noah added the additional accessory of a retro headband. Alyssa is one of the boys' biggest supporters so she of course had to pose with them in front of their court.
Noah is joined by teammates Kaleb Bryson, Bradey Brummel, and Nate Lewis. In six years Noah and his friends have won their bracket twice now. Good job boys! We're proud of you.

After this exciting weekend I made a more sobering trip to Portland for a funeral. The father of my best friend from high school passed away last week. Although it was a sad occasion, it was a great celebration of life for a man who know how to live life well and thoroughly.

May 7th and 8th

2011-05-09T19:54:00.001-07:00

Saturday was Noah's 15th birthday. He spent it with his parents, grandparents, his sister, and his basketball teammates. He played three games, winning 2 and losing 1. It hit me hard that my baby boy is growing up because I recently signed him up for driver's ed class for August.
And as you can see he is much bigger than I am. I looked him up on a growth chart, and for his age he is in the 97th percentile. Noah is now 6'3" and 195 pounds.

Mom and Dad came for the weekend on their way to eastern Washington. They got to experience our hectic weekend of basketball in Seattle. Thankfully they are good sports. They took us out for several yummy meals. Thanks for a great visit and for sharing Noah's birthday and Mother's Day with us.

This next weekend we will be on the road for basketball again. We will be staying at a hotel in Ellensburg, and Noah will have games in Selah, Yakima, and Naches. Alyssa is going to meet up with us and spend the weekend following us around.

Weekend in Olympia

2011-04-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

My sister, Michelle, and I made a return trip to Olympia for a weekend away from our husbands and children. We made this same trip two years ago. We stayed at the same funky, old hotel, The Governor, which is within walking distance from many excellent restaurants and shops.

The weather was lovely, sunny and clear with just a bit of wind. It was a little chilly, but manageable with a light jacket. We shopped, explored the farmer's market, walked along the waterfront and up the hill to the capitol building.

We were very pleased that despite the recession all of the small stores and boutiques that we enjoyed two years ago are still in business.

After dinner at the Fish Tale Brewery Cafe we went to the movies. I heartily recommend "The Lincoln Lawyer." It's a great suspenseful drama.

On the way home I ventured in to West Seattle to watch Noah play two games in the varsity division of his AAU spring league. He plays on both the JV team and varsity team. His JV

team is 4 and 2, but the varsity team

hasn't won a game yet. They are an

all freshman team playing varsity

teams which is an uphill battle.
Noah's team is 14 and 15 year olds playing 16 and 17 year old juniors.

Next weekend Alyssa will be coming home for Easter and Noah will have a rare weekend off from basketball. Alyssa and I are looking forward to see the new James McAvoy movie, "The Conspirator" about the trial following the assassination of Lincoln. Unfortunately Forrest will have to work on Easter at the tulip festival so we will have our Easter dinner Saturday night.

Spring Break Part One

2011-03-20T20:21:00.000-07:00

Alyssa finished her final exams on the 15th and came home for her spring vacation. She won't go back till the 27th so she gets nearly two weeks off. She was here for the basketball banquet on Wednesday night. Noah was voted Most Valuable Player by his teammates. It was a great moment. Now we're on to spring basketball ball. Noah's North City team won their first tournament. Noah has joined an established team so he is having to prove himself and earn his playing time. The coaches don't know him as well as they do the other kids. Noah has only been working out with them for two weeks. He played well in all four games. This weekend was a round robin tournament and they won the whole thing by winning four games in a row. Next weekend he'll have two games with this team on Saturday and one game on Sunday with his high school team. Alyssa is enjoying her time off. She gets to reconnect with all of her "brothers," (A.K.A. Noah's friends). She got to see one of her friends in a production of "Bye, Bye Birdie." And she plans to get together with other friends from high school later this week. Noah and I have two more weeks before our spring break. We are very jealous of her time off. This was also my birthday weekend. My amazing family bought me an ipad that I am learning how to use. My friend, Erin, made me the most delicious lime/raspberry birthday cake, and Forrest and I went out to dinner with friends Friday night.

Late Winter

2011-03-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

After a week that started with snow and a late start for my students this weekend has been beautiful. Alyssa and her friends had clear driving over the pass. She spent Saturday afternoon driving Noah and his friends around to film a short video clip for German class. We had the neighbors over for spaghetti, good conversation, and games. Today we took the kids out to lunch and then helped Alyssa pack up to go back to college complete with four loads of clean laundry. She'll be home on the 15th after her final exams. I am so happy that it's nearly 6:00 PM and the sun hasn't set yet. I'm looking forward to moving the clocks forward next weekend. I hate those days in winter when I leave to take Noah to school in the dark and don't get back home till after dark. After having snow on the ground the whole final week of February it was great to finally get out in the yard and take stock of how my plants made it through the winter. I was pleasantly surprised to see so much new growth.

Busy, Snowy Week

2011-02-25T21:42:00.000-08:00

Last week we went east over the mountains to see Alyssa and spend some time with Forrest's mom. We left the house Saturday morning, got to campus at 12:30, shopped at the bookstore, and then took the kids out to lunch at the Rusty Moose.

The kids needed new cell phones so we took care of that too. Alyssa's had died and she was using a borrowed phone. Now both kids have better phones than mine. Oh well, they use their more than I do mine. After that we went back to campus for a basketball game. Sadly Eastern lost to Cal State Northridge. It was an ugly game. Eastern has a very young team, and their inexperience was evidenced by the large number of turnovers.

We spent Saturday and Sunday night at Mary Lou's place on Loon Lake. It was clear and very cold. The kids and I took a quick walk on the frozen lake leaving very clear footprints behind. I took the opportunity to compare my size 10 women's feet with Noah's size 15 men's. I wear an 8 1/2 in men's so Noah has me beat by 6 and a half sizes.

We had Sunday dinner with Forrest's mom, aunt, and one niece and her two boys. On Monday we took Alyssa and her clean laundry back to campus and headed home to Stanwood.

On Tuesday we had just enough snow for a late start. Tuesday night the snow came fast and furious so Wednesday and Thursday there was no school at all, and today was another late start. Now we have four days to make up in June. Noah enjoyed the time off. He had a friend over and they were playing Xbox most of the afternoon.

January Birthdays

2011-01-29T13:42:00.001-08:00

January is a very busy birthday month in our family. Alyssa, Enid, Mom and Dad, and my mother-in-law all have January birthdays. We bought Alyssa a plane ticket to fly home for her birthday. Mom and Dad picked her up at the airport on their way north. We all met up at Noah's final home basketball game in Arlington. Noah's team is two games away from an undefeated season. They beat Lake Stevens last night by nearly 30 points. Noah hit a buzzer beating shot from half court to end the first half. I think it's the first 3-pointer he's made all season. Usually he's down low battling with the big boys. Too bad I wasn't filming at that point in the game.

He had a chance to make a half-court shot during halftime of the last varsity game for $100 bucks and missed it. And then he made this one when no money was on the line.

We picked up birthday cupcakes at the new cupcake store in Stanwood and are anxious to try them tomorrow on Alyssa's real birthday. We have red velvet, lemon angelfood cake, chocolate with peanut butter mousse, chocolate angelfood, dark chocolate, and chocolate with raspberry filling. We are off to Claimjumpers for dinner soon. Alyssa is anxious to try their huge chocolate layer cake for dessert. We had to take a 4:00 PM reservation so we'll be eating with all the old people who go out to dinner early. But it was a choice between 4 and 8 and no one wants to eat that late. By eating early Alyssa will have more time to shop at Alderwood Mall and spend her birthday money.

Resting is Hard

2011-01-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

Having a week off from work to recuperate after a minor surgical procedure is proving difficult. I am bored. Once the pain was gone and I wasn't taking narcotic pain killers I expected my energy level to come back immediately. Wrong! If I try to do too much I end up feeling like my legs are rubber bands. I went to Noah's game last night thinking that sitting and watching basketball wouldn't wear me out but it did. I think I am just a bad patient. There's only so much reading to do and so much TV to watch. Although I have become quite a fan of the Travel Channel, "Bizarre Foods", "No Reservations", and "Man vs. Food" are my favorites. My other problem is that as soon as I lie down to take a nap the phone rings. Yesterday it was my doctor's nurse calling to check on me. I guess I'll just have to turn the phone off.

Holiday Wedding

2010-12-23T15:46:00.001-08:00

I love weddings, and it's been quite some time since I got to attend one. My cousin Margaret's son, Ryan Presho, got married to his high school sweetheart in Spokane on December 19th. The wedding took place at the historic Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane. The Christmas decorations were gorgeous. Holly Howard is now Holly Presho and part of the family. This trip allowed us to also spend some time with Forrest's relatives. Alyssa helped out by babysitting some of the younger members of the wedding party before the ceremony. She got to spend a little bit of time with her favorite girl cousins, Ryan's sisters, Nicole and Mikala. Noah had to dress up in something other than basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I think he cleans up pretty nicely.

Christmas Prep

2010-12-15T19:43:00.000-08:00

Christmas countdown has begun. I think we're in good shape to have everything ready. The kids finally decorated the tree. Forrest put the lights on the house. Shopping is done and most of the presents are wrapped. Alyssa and I need to find some time to do some baking and make some fudge.

Now if only I can survive the frenetic energy of the children in my class for two more days. There's a continual hum in the room. Alyssa has been coming to work with me. She's been working with the kindergarten and first grade students. She's been helping them complete some Christmas projects, and today she helped complete some math assessments with the first graders.

Noah is in the middle of spirit week at the high school. He has worn cheetah pajamas to school and a furry sweater that made him look like the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street for ugly sweater day. His freshman basketball team continues to be successful. They've won all five of their games by 15 to 25 points.

Christmas break will be a busy time. We have a family wedding in Spokane, a quick trip to Portland, and Noah will continue to have basketball. He has one game during break and practice on most weekdays. I'm hoping to get some good books read by my fire with a cup of tea and some Christmas cookies.

Ah, a Snow Day in November

2010-11-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

This is the coldest Thanksgiving week here in Western Washington in 25 years. And also the snowiest. I remember Thanksgiving 1985. I was home for college when the storm hit.

I had to chain up my mint green Pontiac Sunbird and drive it back to school. If I remember correctly my dad followed me back because I didn't have much experience driving on ice and snow.

Yesterday started out with the forecast saying that most of the snow would be from Everett south so I thought we wouldn't get much snow at all. However, by 8:45 AM as the students were getting off the bus it started snowing in Arlington. It snowed hard, but the flakes were the dry tiny ones that don't amount to much. By lunch it had warmed up a bit and that first round of snow melted. Then the temperature dropped suddenly, and it started to snow again, this time with larger flakes that piled up more quickly. The big problem is that the snow that melted formed a layer of ice under the new snow.

Basketball practice was canceled so I had to go get Noah from school during the last recess for my students. Lots of parents came to pick up their kids early. The buses were late and since the principal lives within walking distance of the school she took the remaining kids to the gym with a few other teachers and told those of us who live farther away to get going. The last group of kids were picked up at 6:00 PM, almost two and a half hours after school got out. It took Noah and I more than twice as long as usual to get home. Many people I know were on the road for 3-5 hours to get home last night.

Noah and I had a quiet day at home. He had a friend come over. They sledded a bit on our road, and they played a lot of Call of Duty, Black Ops. I made cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread with craisins, and pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips. We're waiting for Forrest to get home with Alyssa for Thanksgiving. School is also canceled for tomorrow. I'll have to get the turkeys in the brine for Thanksgiving and bake a pecan pie. We're having dinner with friends in Arlington starting with a yummy brunch and then eating all day.

Homecoming 2010

2010-10-23T21:34:00.001-07:00

Noah and I went out to the Bryson's so Noah and Kaleb could get ready for the Homecoming dance together, and so that Kaleb's mom, Tracy, and I could put together some gift bags for the kids. We included mints, gum, cookies, water bottles, and other fun surprises like glow sticks.

Kaleb and Noah grudgingly agreed to pose for us.

Noah and his girlfriend, Kaitlin, make an adorable couple. The 12 friends going to the dance together met at Kaitlin's house for pictures before dinner and the dance.

Tracy and I had dinner at Applebees while the kids had Italian food at Johnny Carino's. Then the kids strolled the Cascade Mall to kill time before the dance. They were a sharp looking group in a mall filled with people in jeans and sweatshirts.

Off to College

2010-09-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

On September 17 we moved Alyssa into her dorm in Cheney, WA at Eastern Washington University. It's a beautiful campus with fountains, statues, brick buildings, and a devilishly red turf football field called "The Inferno." We weren't sure we could fit everything into the room. Three girls come with lots of "necessities." Alyssa and her friend, Amye, turned their beds into bunks so that they could fit everything else into the room.
There was no way to fit three twin beds and three large desks and chairs into that space without stacking the beds. I was impressed with the amount of storage in the room. I think Alyssa has more drawers and closet space in her dorm room than in her bedroom at home.

Amye has the top bunk for now. I don't know if she'll keep it for the whole year or alternate at some point. She likes it for now.

Alyssa is settling into a routine of classes, studying, going to the gym, and attending sporting events. She has attended her first college football game and a volleyball game. The boys next door tried to teach her how to play poker, but she preferred Uno and BS. She has gone out to the movies with one set of cousins and out to lunch with another cousin and his girlfriend. They even took her to the VFW hall and taught her how to play pool. Now she can play on the tables in the dorm lounge. She'll be coming home for the first time October 8th. On the way home Alyssa will swing into Ellensburg to pick up a friend and take her home for the weekend too. During the weekend she's going to be home she'll get to see her former babysitting charges play football and cheer as well as see Noah play two basketball games in Seattle. It will be a very full weekend.

Nostalgia

2010-08-30T19:26:00.001-07:00

Just look at those cute boys. Hot August Hoops champs in 2007. Almost exactly three years later they won another August 3 on 3 tournament.

I was looking at this summer's photos and comparing them to photos we took three years ago during July and August of 2007. Alyssa, Forrest, and I don't look so very different but just take a look at Noah. It's amazing! He's grown more than a foot. I hope his feet have stopped growing. He's been a size 15 for 9 months now. Usually I have to order his shoes online, but last week we actually found a pair at a mall store that were his size and on sale. That almost never happens.

Camping

2010-08-23T09:10:00.001-07:00

We spent four days in eastern Washington on a family vacation with a couple of spare children along for the ride to keep the kids busy. Forrest, Noah, Kaleb, and I drove to Sun Lakes/Dry Falls State Park on Thursday. Alyssa and her friend, Amanda, joined us late Friday night. Forrest and I have decided that we don't like weekend camping any more. Thursday and Friday were so peaceful, quiet, and uncrowded. As the sun set Friday night the campground filled up and got noisy.

In the loop adjacent to ours were two

very large family groups. Forrest said it was like a refugee camp (he's so politically incorrect) since neither group spoke English. One was a large Hispanic family with at least 17 kids and the other was a large Russian family. There are only supposed to be a maximum of 8 people per campsite, but apparently the rangers didn't feel like enforcing that provision. The kids kept running back and forth through the middle of our campsite. Next year we're going to camp mid-week.

One of the highlights of the visit was a quick trip to Wilbur to visit my grandma. Her 101st birthday is coming up soon. The girls love to take their own photos. Here they are at Soap Lake. It was too cold to swim, but we did dip our toes in the healing mineral waters. The kids loved jumping from the basalt cliffs into Deep Lake. Forrest shot video of their jumps from above while I floated on a tube in the water below. We weren't brave (or stupid) enough to jump in. Other than the wind the weather was lovely and warm. All in all a great family vacation.

Too Hot for Me

2010-08-15T17:03:00.001-07:00

Bradey, Noah, and Kaleb show off their champions shirts in front of the bracket proclaiming them the winners.

All the kids pitch in and help keep score for other teams when they're not playing.

Spending the weekend in a casino parking in mid-90 degree weather is trying. There is not nearly enough shade and we can't take the kids into the casino to cool off between games. Today we took the boys to a nearby grocery store to eat lunch and chill out between games. Noah's team has been trying to win this 3 on 3 basketball tournament since they were 9 year olds getting ready to start 4th grade. That was the first time Noah teamed up with Bradey and Kaleb. They've been a team ever since. They usually pick up a 4th player so that they will have a sub, but this time it was just the three of them, and they prevailed and they were the champions of their age group. Their bracket was a combination of 8th and 9th grade teams. However, Noah's team only played one 8th grade team. The rest of their games were against freshman teams from Lummi and Burlington.

Last night we had a potluck at our house after the first round of games. It was a beautiful night to sit out on our deck and enjoy our view of the water. It was a great evening with yummy food and the wonderful friends we've made through Noah's experience playing ball in Arlington.

Fair Time

2010-08-10T17:49:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the local Stanwood/Camano Community Fair. The weather was wet but the kids had a great time any way. I don't think Noah appreciates the animals any more, but Alyssa always takes time to see them. She was especially fond of the little piglets. I think she took 10 pictures of the pigs. This horse was waiting its turn in the show ring.
Noah and his friend, Nate, got their money's worth out of their $20 unlimited ride bracelet. They were at the fair for six hours. The boys ran into some girls from their school and spent the day with them. They later went to one girl's house to hang out for the evening before spending the night at Nate's. It seems like Noah never spends a full week here ever.
Alyssa and her friend, Rachael, kept their hoods up trying to keep their hair dry during the damp fair. They spend so much time straightening it they hate to get it wet. After the fair Alyssa went to a Mariner game with Forrest. They had a good time despite another loss for the home town team. I had the house to myself. I could watch whatever I wanted on TV and I didn't have to share my Ben and Jerry's ice cream with anyone.

Summer in Portland

2010-07-26T15:51:00.001-07:00

Our first activity in Portland on Saturday morning was a yummy breakfast at Bread and Ink. Forrest and Alyssa each had a beautiful plate of waffles like this. My omelette was yummy but not nearly as eye catching as this plate. I did get a bite of Forrest's and it was delicious. I keep thinking I'll have the waffles the next time I go to this restaurant, but their egg dishes are so good, and besides someone at the table always gets the waffles so I usually get a few bites anyway. Then we went to Lloyd Center to do some tax free shopping. During the heat of the afternoon Michelle, Suzanne, Alyssa and I went to walk through the gardens at Edgefield. We saw two bridal parties. I felt a bit sorry for the gals in formal dresses as it was 90+ degrees.
It figures that one of the few times Forrest actually smiles in a picture my eyes are nearly closed. This was part of a mass photo op after Forrest and dad grilled salmon, potatoes, and portobello mushrooms. We took lots of group shots.
Mom and dad posed with Suzanne.
Three 40 something cousins who still look great.
Here's one of our traditional photos of the kids. By height Alyssa is now in the middle. I think in a few years she'll be in Rowan's spot. Noah is 6'2", Fuller is nearly 5'9", Alyssa is 5'7". I'm sure Grayson and Rowan will pass the girl up by the time they're teens.
Here's the group arranged by age: 7, nearly 10, 13, 14, and 18. They're a lovely group. They get along so well. Noah took on Fuller on the basketball court and Alyssa kept an eye on the younger ones at the playground. I wish we could have stayed for a longer visit, but Forrest and Alyssa had to work today, Noah had basketball camp, and I had a dentist appointment. I'm glad we were able to get away for the weekend to go to Portland while Suzanne was in town. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Jim and Enid, maybe next time.

Summer is Finally Here

2010-07-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

The chickadees have built a large nest in this planter on my deck. They whiz by our heads as the travel back and forth to feed the babies. They're getting very brave around people and the dogs. In the beginning they wouldn't visit the nest if we were outside. They'd sit on top of the roof and chirp at us.Our walnut tree has grown tremendously this year. We're expecting a bumper crop of nuts in the fall. The nuts are weighing down the branches.

The weather has warmed up enough to encourage the lavender and roses to bloom. The yard smells amazing.

After we dropped the boys and coaches at the airport to go to San Diego on the 9th for a basketball tournament I spent the day in Seattle with a couple of other basketball moms. We explored Pike Place Market and had a yummy seafood lunch outside by the water. It was a great day. We deserved a day to play after getting up at 4:30 AM to get everyone to the airport.

Noah came back very tan with a bag full of dirty laundry on the 14th. He's hardly been home at all this summer between Hoopfest, camp at CWU in Ellensburg, and San Diego. Tomorrow he'll start training at the Redmond Athletic Club with a coach who works with college and pro players. I'm hoping to get pictures from some of the coaches and post them soon you and I can see some of his activities in San Diego.

Hoopfest 2010

2010-07-02T17:31:00.001-07:00

Coach Forrest dispensed words of wisdom and Alyssa cuddled with her youngest girl cousin, Savannah.
What a hectic weekend we had! We managed to combine Hoopfest in Spokane with Alyssa's college orientation in Cheney at EWU. This left us with no time for sidetrips to visit grandparents, cousins, and friends. Our nephews, Roland and Kris came downtown to see Noah play. Roland brought his girlfriend, Sydney, and daughter, Savannah. Roland helped out by keeping score during one of Noah's games. Noah hit the game winning basket in this photo. Alyssa met up with a friend from high school who had a sister playing in the tournament. The weather was much cooler than we've come to expect from Hoopfest, temperatures in the low 80s instead of 90-100 as in years past.

Noah's Turn

2010-06-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

In our district the end of 8th grade is not called a graduation, but they do have a ceremony called 8th Grade Recognition Night. The kids filed in, listened to speakers, and respectfully received their certificates of completion and shook the hands of the principal and school board members. This is one of my all time favorite groups of kids. Half of the kids at this middle school came from the elementary school where I teach. They are amazing kids. Although we were over crowded when this group came through Kent Prairie (29-30 kids per class) they were easy: smart, kind, well-behaved, and enthusiastic.

There are many natural leaders in this group. They will be noticed at the high school. I'm so proud of Noah and his friends.

Graduation Night

2010-06-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

Family photos before the ceremony. Loving siblings, proud parents and grandparents.

Drying off the seats before the ceremony with a leaf blower.

Walking across the football field to join the rest of their classmates so the ceremony can begin.

Alyssa receives her diploma from a school board member. Despite the rain and the wet field which left me with wet feet it was a great night. The valedictory speeches were short, sweet, and to the point. The principal was funny. Jazzmine sang beautifully as usual and the band played the processional with spirit.

The End is in Sight

2010-06-13T07:45:00.001-07:00

The final week of the school year is here. It started with Alyssa's graduation party yesterday afternoon. A mom from school made Alyssa's cake complete with an edible photo of the girl.

Little Chloe who is 5 was very excited to get to eat a piece with Alyssa's face on it. We didn't have as many guests as we thought, but this was a busy weekend for weddings, sports tournaments, and other graduation celebrations. Alyssa's friends came in waves so they weren't all here at the same time. The weather finally warmed up and reminded us why we love to live here. Forrest manned the grill and cooked delicious burgers and hot dogs, my friend Erin made her famous beans, and Tracy brought a beautiful fruit tray. I've finally learned to take help when it is offered. I don't have to do all of the food prep when my amazing friends are willing to pitch in. Today Alyssa will attend several parties for her friends.

Then tomorrow is the senior picnic and then graduation is Tuesday night. Michelle came up for the party since she can't make it to the mid-week graduation ceremony. Forrest's mom arrives tomorrow night, and my folks will come to town Tuesday. Then we'll move onto Noah's events. All of the 8th graders will spend Wednesday at Wild Waves amusement park and have their recognition ceremony Thursday. My school year will end Friday with field day and a staff salmon barbecue. I'm getting tired just thinking about all of this activity to come in the next few days.

Great News!

2010-05-19T13:40:00.001-07:00

Here's the update I promised in my last post. Scholarship night was last night at the high school. The students at Arlington High School have earned more than $800,000 in grants and scholarships. Alyssa was honored for being in the top 10% of graduating seniors in the state. She also received recognition for the Presidential Scholarship she received from Eastern Washington U. Last night we found out that she had earned a $2000.00 scholarship from the Kiwanis Club and $200.00 from the teacher's union. She's a great kid! It was amazing to see so many kids recognized, including some of my former students.

You might be wondering why I am posting in the middle of the day. Well it's that lovely time of year again when I have to torture my students with our lovely No Child Left Behind test. Today is day two of writing. The 9 and 10 year olds at my school have to plan, compose, revise, edit, and write a final draft of a 5 paragraph essay today. We started at 9:30 this morning. Most of the 4th graders finished by 1:30. Now I have the final 11 kids from all the classes in a side room still writing. They have had snack breaks and lunch, but no recess today. That's part of our test security protocol. Someone somewhere thinks that 9 and 10 year olds might talk about their test if we give them recess. They don't know kids very well. All of my students can come up with lots of other things to talk about.

Spring Update

2010-05-15T17:40:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that it's been more than a month since my last post. Sorry readers. Yesterday all the fourth graders at my school spent a sunny day at the beach. It was warm and sunny with no wind at all. The Beachwatchers from the WSU Extension Service ran stations for the kids and helped them identify creatures. I'm posing here with my student teacher, Kate. The most exciting part of the day was siting a young gray whale playing just off the pier in Port Susan Bay.

Noah and Alyssa enjoyed fried ice cream for dessert when Mom and Dad came up to celebrate Noah's 14th birthday. They got to see a track meet and try out our new bakery. Very yummy quiche and lemon bars at the Blackbird Bakery.

Noah has made great progress with his track events this year. He has taken 12 seconds off of his 400m time and has formed a 4x100 relay team with some of his friends. Shot and discus were supposed to be his only events, but he decided to try some running events and found that he liked them. We even bought him spikes which really seemed to help. They make him run on his toes. He has one last regular season meet and then district prelims. He should participate in the shot and 400m at the prelims.

The march to graduation continues for Alyssa. She has completed her AP calculus test so math class is just marking time. They have no more work to do. She has 19 school days left. Noah and I have 24. We are getting her announcements ready to mail this week. The third week of June will be very busy. Alyssa graduates June 15 and Noah's 8th grade recognition night is the 17th. We're having a graduation party for Alyssa on the 12th. We'll find out which scholarships she has earned May 18th. I promise to try and post more regularly.

Senior Prom 2010

2010-04-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

Alyssa's favorite thing about this dress is the back. Apparently she didn't think my lace-up job was good enough so she had Amye fix her up. Since they were the only girls wearing white they made sure that they didn't stand near each other in the group photos.

Amye is considering Eastern Washington University and Alyssa is hoping that they can be roommates.

Yuki invited everyone to her house for photos so that they could pose by the lake. It was a great setting.

I'm so pleased with the kids Alyssa has chosen to spend time with in high school. They're all kind, smart, involved kids. They are all National Honor Society members who put in lots of volunteer hours. But they also know how to have a good time. After the prom they went to a bowling alley for Midnight Bowling. Alyssa got home at 3:30 AM and went to bed with rhinestones still glued in her hair.

The sunshine streaming in the window woke her at 9:30 and she came to Noah's game at the college. Group photo:

Adam and Mahonroi in the front row. Yuki, Alyssa, Charleigh, Nadia, Amanda, Amye, and Marie.

Spring Vacation

2010-04-04T15:02:00.001-07:00

Alyssa and I spent the first couple of days of our spring break in Portland. We enjoyed lots of amazing restaurant meals, the art museum, and shopping for prom dresses. Mom and Dad are great hosts. We also got to spend time with my wonderful siblings. Michelle went prom dress shopping with us and Jim came over for dinner. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Paul, Enid, or the Worman boys.

Forrest and Noah held down the fort. Noah spent 3 of his first 4 days of break at his friends' houses. Noah also had a basketball game at Skagit College while we were gone. His team won by 40 points. Forrest worked in the yard and enjoyed some well deserved peace and quiet.

I read three books this week. One classic; Their Eyes Were Watching God, one food book; Comfort me with Apples, and a sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy's Great Adventure.

I finished a few spring cleaning chores including cleaning out and reorganizing my pantry, sorting through Noah's clothes and figuring out that he's outgrown 2 bags worth of t-shirts, shorts, and sweatshirts, and I filled one bag full of my clothes for Goodwill. I was hoping to do some yardwork, but the wind and rain made that nearly impossible. I did prune back my lavendar and cleaned up the sideyard, but that was the extent of the yardwork.

Endings and Beginnings

2010-03-21T19:39:00.000-07:00

Daffodils in Skagit County. They're almost done and the tulips are right behind them.

An early field of tulips. The rest are not far behind and they will be followed by crazy tourists who block traffic, swear at Forrest's flaggers, and park where ever they want to. The weather forecast looks promising for early crowds. Forrest might have to work next weekend before the official start of the season April 1.

Noah's social studies fair project on the history of the signal corps. His teacher was in the gym to 2:00 AM grading them. I think it deserves at least a B. We'll see.

Our last AAU end of season team party at the Bryson compound. We've watched most of these boys play ball since 4th grade. Now these young men are in the home stretch of 8th grade heading towards high school. When they started playing together Alyssa was taller than all of them and she's been a surrogate big sister. When I requested this photo with all of her "brothers" she got teary since she'll miss most of their freshman season while she's away at college next year. Today Noah had his first spring ball game as part of the high school program at a local community college.

Taco time during the party. Tyler, Noah, and Kaleb.

Watching the 2 on 2 tournament that the boys organized during the party.

Presenting photos of their past championships to Coach Bud and Coach Jeff.

Final AAU Tournament

2010-03-13T07:01:00.001-08:00

Last weekend was the league tournament for Noah's AAU team. They didn't place in the top four in the regular season standings so their only chance to play in the next tournament against another league was to win the WESCO title. They played three amazing games, but only came away with one victory.
The first game against the Knights was their only win. The Eagles won by more than 10 points.

They lead the second game against Mount Lake Terrace till early in the fourth quarter and lost when Terrace got a slim lead and went into a stall offense. Our boys managed to steal the ball back and tie it up, but Terrace won on a last second shot. My favorite picture is the one where Noah is blocking the ball. Although Noah was quick to point out that he was called for a foul on that play. But the Terrace kid only made one of his free throws so it was a good foul.

The third game of the tournament went to overtime and was a great game personally for Noah. He played with lots of intensity and his future coach at the high school was there to see it. He emailed me at school to pass along his compliments to Noah, and he spoke with Forrest too. The upside of not qualifying for the next tournament is that we have a sports free weekend something we have not had since the middle of August.

Noah has started lifting weights with the high school team and starts a spring basketball season on Sundays next week. So our break is very short.

On the Alyssa front, she has made her commitment to EWU official by sending in her deposit. She should be receiving her housing packet soon so she can try to get her first choice of dorms. She is looking forward to prom (pricing limos, picking out hairstyles, etc.). Since she is 18 now she can close at work so she is picking up more hours at the daycare. Alyssa has received her first scholarship from EWU for $2500 a year for the first two years. She is in the process of applying for others.

Forrest has his third furlough day of 12 coming up this Friday the 19th. He enjoys having a day off here and there to get some things done around the house, but doesn't enjoy the cut in pay.

The administrators in my district are getting ready to lay off more staff this year. I'm very fortunate to not have to worry personally about this, but my former student teachers are in jeopardy again. They were laid off last year and then rehired in the fall. We just got news that another teacher is retiring so maybe that will save someone's job. Work is very hectic now with getting ready for the statewide testing in May. My grade level has a strange composition of kids. Fourth grade at my school has more special education students than 2nd, 3rd, and 5th combined. Basically that means we're in jeopardy of not meeting the No Child Left Behind standards again because we have so many students with significant learning disabilities. These kids are all making steady growth but at a slower pace than their peers, yet they're expected to pass the same tests on the same timeline. It's maddening! I guess this is enough ranting for now. I should start enjoying my free Saturday.

Bellingham

2010-01-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

This weekend saw the basketball team with families in tow returned to Bellingham for the Martin Luther King Tournament to defend their title. The boys weren't able to repeat as champions, but they did have a successful weekend, winning 4 games and losing 1.
Noah and Kaleb modeling their new shooting shirts and mod 3D glasses. The pink shirts are being worn by the whole team and many people in Arlington. I bought 4 of them. They are to support the wife of our high school coach who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The boys are also sporting hot pink laces in their basketball shoes. Half the fun of going out of town for a tournament is the down time hanging out at the hotel.

Most of the boys' games were at the rec center on the campus of WWU. It's a great facility with four basketball courts. Taking photos during a game is difficult because of lighting, but Forrest snapped a few in this gym because it had the best lighting. Unfortunately this was the one game the boys lost. Here we have Noah firing a pass cross court to Nate and shooting a free throw.

Several of the families from Arlington AAU stopped for dinner on the way home. The staff at the restaurant did a great job handling nearly 30 people. We were all worn out by the time we got home and everyone was in bed before 9:00 PM. It was a great weekend! And by the way if you're ever in Bellingham visit Coffee Woods for a latte and a white chocolate raspberry scone. They're amazing!

Christmas in Eastern Washington

2009-12-28T21:48:00.000-08:00

The first stop on our Christmas trip was Wilbur, WA. We had a yummy lunch at the Billy Burger before we went to see Grandma. Who knew the Billy Burger could make delicious cream of tomato soup. I must find a recipe and make some myself. I believe Paula Deen has a recipe for it in Alyssa's new cookbook.

We had a great visit with Grandma. She showed us the new research she's compiled about her family's history.

After Wilbur we made our way to Loon Lake. Christmas Eve is the big event in Forrest's family so we were a big group on the 24th. Eighteen people opening presents makes a big mess. I had to hand off the camera to get myself in a photo.

Forrest puts on a cheesy grin for this photo with his mama. We persuaded all the cousins who were present to pose for a shot. We were just missing Alan.

The ice on this shallow end of the lake was 6-8 inches thick. The kids walked out quite far. Alyssa and Savannah are great friends. Kris reluctantly posed with Noah. He just turned 17 and said he felt very short next to this 13 year old cousin.

On our way home we stopped for a visit with the Presho cousins. Margaret fed us a yummy lunch. We had to take our traditional photo without Ryan as he was out with friends playing paintball. In this photo the kids lined up by height: Noah 13, Nicole 17, Mikala 14, and Alyssa nearly 18. She's been the shortest in our photos for a couple of years now. Noah is 6' tall so 19 year old Ryan who is 6'4" is still ahead of him.

Christmas at Warm Beach

2009-12-22T17:45:00.001-08:00

Since we're heading east to spend Christmas with Forrest's extended family Mom and Dad came up and celebrated Christmas a few days early with us at home. The children begged to open their presents first thing Saturday morning.
Dad got coffee and Mom got jewelry.
Noah loves the Hollister t-shirts Alyssa bought for him.

Forrest is smiling, but he was battling a bad bought of bronchitis.
Don't look too closely, my eyes are closed in this one, but at least Alyssa looks beautiful as always. We ran a few errands after presents and then we were off to Oak Harbor for Noah's basketball game. His team clobbered Oak Harbor by 40 points. The bench players got to play lots of minutes, but Noah still scored ten points in limited playing time. Then it was off to Applebees for a post-game celebratory dinner. We were planning on going to Mitzel's, but it has closed and is being remodeled to be a Chinese restaurant. Drat! The service at Applebees was slow, but we were a table of 11 so it really wasn't that bad.

All that running around was too much for Forrest so he spent most of Sunday in bed or his recliner. He was able to return to work on Monday and sounds much better. It's off the grandmother's house we go tomorrow.

Searching for the Tree

2009-12-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

A trip to our favorite tree farm above the town of Silvana, Point Valdimar.
Great trees and awesome prices.

Our 9' tree was only $25.00. It was a cool, frosty day, but Noah of course wore shorts.

Alyssa did most of the decorating. It's amazing she didn't fall and break her neck.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T05:20:00.001-08:00

Forrest decided that he didn't want to deal with all the clean up involved with deep frying the turkey in the backyard to he searched for a new method on the food network website. He brined the turkey overnight in vegetable stock laced with herbs and spices. Then for the first 30 minutes it roasted at 500 degrees. The remaining time was set at 350. It's one of the best turkeys I've ever tasted. Amazingly juicy. Can't wait to make sandwiches.

We divided the cooking chores quite well. Noah did the green bean casserole. Alyssa made the stuffing and rolls. Mom made the pies. I took care of potatoes and appetizers.

After the feast the kids had just enough energy to play video games for awhile.

Then we all went for a walk to get some fresh air so we could work up our appetites for pie. Dad snapped some pictures for Christmas cards since our previous attempt last month didn't work out. Noah isn't really taller than Forrest yet. Forrest is standing in a hole. But he is a full 6 feet even now. I lost my bet with Alyssa. She was sure he'd be 6 foot before Christmas and I disagreed.

Some how mom and dad managed to avoid being in any pictures. I will have to remedy that today at Noah's basketball tournament.

Odds and Ends

2009-11-02T18:51:00.001-08:00

This photo is our bountiful walnut harvest. Last week's stormy weather knocked all the nuts off the trees. Forrest cleaned them up. The green outer coverings were knocked loose when they fell. According to our internet research they need to dry in a cool, dry, place. So they are currently residing on our front porch in one of the kids' old sleds. This is the first big harvest from a tree we planted several years ago. They should be ready to eat in 3-5 days. Can't wait!

We braved long lines on Saturday to wait in our car for the drive-up swine flu vaccination clinic. The wait was three hours. We are good multi-taskers and made the most of our time. While Alyssa and I stayed in the car and snaked our way through town Forrest and Noah walked to the barber shop and got Noah a trim. Then I walked over to the hardware store and picked up a few things (and used their bathroom). Alyssa and I went to Starbucks while Noah and Forrest stayed with the car for refreshments.

Alyssa has had some mild reactions to the flu mist. A low grade fever and cough. My throat has been dry and scratchy. But nothing like getting the full fledged flu. We've had kids miss 7-10 days of school with high fevers of 103-105 degrees, high enough to cause hallucinations. Some of our kids at school have developed pneumonia too. So despite the long lines and some minor reactions I think it will pay off in the long run.

Football is now over. Noah's team lost in the first round of the play-offs on Saturday. The field was a horrible mess and the other team handled it better than Noah's team. They lost by two points. The other team was able to convert their extra points and Noah's team wasn't. Six games were played on that field in the span of five days of wind and pouring rain. The sod just couldn't hold up under that onslaught. We have tonight off, and basketball starts tomorrow.

I guess that's all the news for now. I'll try to do a better job and not go so long between posts.

Homecoming

2009-10-18T19:44:00.001-07:00

Alyssa poses with Noah before the Homecoming dance. Alyssa and her friends didn't have dates, but they made quite the night of it. They went out to a great seafood restaurant for dinner before the dance. After the dance they went to a scary haunted house that's put on by a friend of ours. One girl got right up to the entrance and freaked out and couldn't go in. Then they all had a sleepover. Needless to say she's exhausted and went to bed before 8 tonight.

What a lovely group of ladies. What are the boys at their school thinking?

But who needs boys with this much energy and silliness?

So Hard to Get a Good Photo

2009-10-11T15:34:00.000-07:00

Alyssa wanted this shot of her and Noah in their blue and gold.

Noah's eyes are closed. Forrest isn't smiling. I'm gritting my teeth. Alyssa looks OK.

Forrest still isn't smiling. The kids and I look alright.

Noah's eyes closed again.

Three out of four look good here.

Alyssa is the only one who looks good here. I don't know what I'm looking at, and Noah's eyes are closed again.

Maybe there's a Christmas card photo in this bunch. Or maybe we'll have to try again.

This is it, the end is in sight

2009-10-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

This week Alyssa mailed her final two college applications. She has applied to four schools. Two state schools; Eastern Washington U and Central Washington U and two private schools; St. Martin's and University of Portland. Because she applied early she didn't have to pay the application fees or write the essays for the private schools. Her transcripts have been sent, and now she just has to wait for acceptance letters and offers of aid and scholarships. She will most likely attend Eastern unless St. Martin's offers an amazing aid package.

Alyssa's yearbook photo has been submitted. She still has to choose her quote and we have to send in a baby picture by the end of October. Her Homecoming dress has been purchased and so has her ticket to the dance. She is attending the dance with 6 girlfriends. None of these beautiful, intelligent girls have dates. What are those boys up there thinking? Her senior year is seeming to fly by. She's retaking the SAT this weekend. Her scores from last year are strong enough to gain her entrance to all of the colleges she has applied to, but she wants higher scores for scholarship consideration.

As Alyssa is getting ready to move onto college, Noah will be starting high school next year and we'll get to do it all over again. I'm feeling very old that my kids have reached this point in their lives. I can't possibly be old enough for all of this.

Catching Up

2009-09-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

Alyssa planned a group volunteer opportunity for Honor Society. This past week she and her friends provided childcare during the kindergarten orientation and a PTA meeting at my school.

For those of you not on Facebook here's a photo of the antique table Alyssa refinished for her senior project. It looks terrific in our freshly painted living/dining room surrounded by chairs my grandpa made.

Noah's game was a blow-out so he got to play different positions than he usually does. Here he's waiting for the kick-off. Too bad the kick was short and it didn't get within 10 yards of him.

Here Noah is breaking up a pass. He loves to play defensive end.

Noah making an unassisted tackle. It was a beautiful day for football. Sunny with a breeze, but not too hot. After the game we had a great barbecue at the coach's house. Alyssa went shopping for a dress for the Homecoming Dance this afternoon. It's beautiful! I'll post photos of it later.

Weekend of Birthdays

2009-09-08T07:07:00.001-07:00

What a great weekend! Grandma turned 100 years old on Saturday surrounded by family and friends. Mom and Dad planned a great party, cake, ice cream, and lemonade. The Wilbur Senior Center looked beautiful with Michelle's and Enid's table decorations. The photos Alyssa and I used with the flowers were a great success. It was so crowded at the party that we didn't get much quality visiting time done there with our cousins from out of state. The best visiting took place at the Willows Inn sitting outside at the picnic tables and at the park where the kids could run and play. My grandma is an inspiration for how to live a good life. She has always had hobbies, her art, and is widely read and interested in the world. I know 60 and 70 year olds who won't touch a computer, but grandma keeps in touch with her children and grandchildren by email and reading our blog posts.

My mom had to grab some "baby time" with Stratton as her youngest grandchild is now 6.

Here are some beautiful great-grandchildren: first row, Haden, Dalton holding Stratton, Gavin, Bryce sitting on Grandma's lap, Rowan.

Standing, Alyssa, Grayson, Ryan, Fuller, Noah, and Felicia. Brandon and baby Myla weren't able to make the trip.Nine out of ten grandchildren were also present:

Katie and Suzanne sitting with grandma, in back are Leanne, Chris, Michelle, Jim, Me, Jay, and Mark. Leanne's sister, Debbie was the only grandchild not able to attend.

Then the Jones family traveled onto Forrest's mom's house where we celebrated more birthdays: Roland's, Mellisa's, and Anthony's.

Austin and Noah are the cousins who are closest in age so I had to snap a photo of them side by side. They are both 8th graders this year, but Austin will turn 14, 6 months earlier than Noah.

First Football Game of the Season

2009-08-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Forrest, Alyssa, and I dressed for the partly cloudy, intermittent showers that were forecast for today in Bellingham. What we got was bright sunshine, a slight breeze, and 80 degrees for Noah's 1:00 PM game. Forrest and Alyssa both got sunburned, especially my fair English complected daughter. Both my make-up and moisturizer have sunscreen in them so I was fine. Even with his helmet on Noah managed to come home with red cheeks. Noah's elbow got bashed by an opposing player's face-mask. It's bruised and swollen, but he has a break from football till Wednesday to heal up. Several of his teammates were nursing minor injuries too.

Bellingham's Regulators are traditionally very big boys. They weren't that much taller than Noah and his teammates but the Eagles gave up 20-50 pounds on the line per player. The Regulators scored on their first possession and then were held scoreless till the second half. Noah's team lead 24 to 6 at half-time. Noah and the rest of the offensive line have perfected the wedge, and they powered through Bellingham's defense to grind out lots of yards.

Bellingham scored twice in the third quarter when the coach put in the second team defense. In the fourth quarter the Eagles managed the clock and scored one last touch down with two minutes left in the game to seal the victory.

Noah is spending the night at a friend's house tonight and will then go to Wild Waves to celebrate his friend's birthday. He was pretty worn out so I think there won't be any problem with him wanting to stay up too late before his big day at the amusement/water park.

Alyssa put the final finishing coat on her refinishing project. The table is going to be gorgeous. Now we're going to move the old table out of the dining room, paint it, and then move the newly refinished table into place and attach the top to the base. We can't get it into the house in one piece. Alyssa is anxious about the class schedule she picked up last week. She's missing a graduation requirement, and the computer gave her two classes she doesn't need. Hopefully she'll be able to meet with a counselor this week to sort it out.

Busy Week

2009-08-20T16:54:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Portland to visit the family, allow Alyssa to use Dad's planer to work on her table leaf, complete some school shopping, and visit some old friends. Mom and Dad treated us to some great meals, both at home and in restaurants. We finalized some of the plans for Grandma's party Labor Day Weekend. Jim's wife, Enid, was visiting her dad, but the rest of the clan was in attendance. Noah made a basketball stained glass for his bedroom. And as usual we all took lots of photos.

Today I took Alyssa, Noah, and the neighborhood kids to the zoo. They had a great time. It was like traveling with 6 year olds. These teens ran from one exhibit to the next insisting that their picture be taken with every piece of animal statuary at every exhibit. It was great fun, but I'm pooped. So very glad that Forrest offered to take the boy to football practice tonight.
Another great shot of Mom and Dad with their grandkids.

Alyssa and Rowan

3 on 3

2009-08-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

Noah and his Hoopfest teammates participated in the Tulalip Casino 3 on 3 tournament over the weekend. This was the first 3 on 3 tournament Noah ever entered 4 years ago as a 4th grader. His team has never won this particular event, but they keep trying. Their first game was a bye so they started off with an automatic win. Then they lost their second game to the top team from Stanwood.

On Sunday they beat the other team from Arlington made up of their AAU teammates. Then they beat a Stanwood team. They were eliminated by a different Stanwood team.

There were only 7 teams in their age group. Two from Arlington, 4 from Stanwood, and one from Lake Stevens.

I don't know why this, but this tournament has gotten smaller every year. Hoopfest keeps getting bigger, but Tulalip is shrinking. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last year. Rumor has it that the Tulalip Tribe doesn't want the Boys and Girls Clubs to host this tournament on their property any more. Maybe the market is saturated. You can find a 3 on 3 tournament somewhere in the northwest every weekend all summer long. Forrest told the boys to coach themselves and take care of their own substitutions. The boys opted to draft their friends from the high school team to be their coaches. I know Noah looks older than 13, but it's never more obvious than when he's standing with some of the high school players who are 15 and 16. He's definitely not my little boy any more. Basketball will be put on hold now as the focus is on football. Noah's team has a jamboree on the 22nd and their first official game will be on the 29th.

Cousins Visit

2009-08-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

The Jones and Worman cousins always love a trip to the beach. On Thursday temperatures were still above 90 at the house so we sought refuge at Kayak Point Park. There was a nice breeze, cold water, and lot of logs to play on. Usually the kids line up by age so Alyssa would be on the far left, but Noah decided they had to line up by height instead. He's enjoying being the tallest in the crowd. At 13 he's nearly 5'10". Alyssa and I have bet a coffee on when he'll reach 6'. He's grown 5 inches in the last 9 months so I think he's going to take a break for awhile. My bet is he won't be 6' tall till his birthday in May. Alyssa is betting that he'll be 6' by Christmas.

The kids love to roll the driftwood out into the water to float on. It's much more interesting than using the inflatable toys.

On Friday while Alyssa and Forrest were at work Michelle and I took the boys to Anacortes and Deception Pass. Our plan was to have a picnic on Whidbey Island at the state park. But it was all socked in with cold fog. We retreated to Bayview State Park. Fuller complained about the chilly (70 degree) temperatures. He even put on his sweatshirt. Once he warmed up the boys all made their way to the water.

Forrest kept an eye on the boys Friday night so the girls could go shopping. We found some great deals at Kohl's during their nighttime Power Hours. While we were shopping Rowan got sick so Forrest had to clean up vomit which is usually my job. Poor man. The Wormans are now on their way home. I hope Seafair traffic in Seattle wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow Alyssa and I will be heading east. We'll spend Sunday night with my cousin, Margaret, and her daughter Nicole before heading to Cheney for a tour of the Eastern Washington University campus and a meeting with an admissions counselor. EWU has a major in Early Childhood Ed. which is the field she's interested in so it sounds like it would be a good fit.

On Monday night Forrest will take Noah to the official start of his football season, the parent and player meeting. He'll have his first practice on Tuesday. During the month of August the boys usually practice 3 hours a day 4 to 5 days a week. Thankfully the end of the week looks cooler for his first practices in full gear. I get in lots of walking during football practice, and I also spend time getting my classroom ready as my school is only a mile from Noah's practice field.

Camping in Winthrop

2009-07-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great camping trip to Winthrop last weekend even with three extra teenagers along for the ride. Thankfully everyone got along and there were no squabbles. Alyssa and her friends slept in our tent, and Noah and his buddy, Nate, slept in Nate's small tent. Forrest and I got the trailer to ourselves until Saturday morning during a downpour when Noah got fed up with Nate rolling over on him and he joined us at 4:00 AM. The temperatures were cooler than the mid-90s that were forecast because of the thunderstorms that rolled in during the afternoons. On Saturday afternoon the kids took over the trailer with the computer to watch a movie. Alyssa fell asleep with the computer on her lap and the other kids watched while she slept.

Because of high fire danger we couldn't have a campfire so we made smores over charcoal briquets and cooked with our dutch ovens and the trailer's gas grill. The drive through the North Cascades was glorious. The mountains, rivers, and lakes are spectacular.

Sunday Drive

2009-07-20T07:38:00.001-07:00

I can't remember taking any leisurely Sunday drives last summer when gas was $4.30 a gallon. It was great to get back to this family tradition. Forrest had some outdoor locations for taking photos of Alyssa for her senior portraits so we set out for Skagit County on a beautiful Sunday morning. You'd never know by this photo that right behind me is a large Shell oil refinery. Our plan was to have lunch at Gere-a-Deli, a great lunch spot that Forrest and I frequent when we have lunch meetings in Anacortes. But, alas, it was closed. Many of the downtown restaurants aren't open for lunch on Sundays so the few that were open were packed. So we decided that ice cream would make a yummy lunch.

This view is from the top of Mount Erie. The lake is called Heart Lake. At the top of this mountain we came across a group of Austin Healey enthusiasts out for a drive. There were a dozen of the sporty little cars parked by the viewpoint. We took lots of test shots of Alyssa and got several good ones that might become her official senior portrait, but we decided that the rest of us needed to be in some photos too.

From the top of Blanchard Mountain, a popular hang gliding starting point.

More Test Shots

2009-07-16T16:27:00.001-07:00

Alyssa didn't like what she was wearing when I took these photos, but I wanted to play with lighting. She refused to rest her chin on her hand (the traditional pose from my high school days). Lately it's been too sunny and Alyssa's been too busy for us to work on her senior portraits. When she's not at work, she's sanding her table, or going to movies at midnight. We've not seen Noah much this week. He brought home a friend from open gym on Monday night. Then Noah went home with the same friend after football last night and has been gone all day. Forrest and I are meeting Alyssa at Noah's friend's house for dinner soon. Then he'll be off to another friend's house tomorrow afternoon. Forrest is playing poker tomorrow night so Alyssa and I can have girl's movie night with both boys out of the house. We have the Broadway production of "Rent" from Netflix to watch.

Senior Project

2009-07-10T18:42:00.001-07:00

Alyssa working inside on a rainy day on sanding the base of the antique table she is refinishing for her senior project. We have to document all of the steps so she can include them in her presentation in January. She'll give a 15-20 minute oral presentation which will include her employability portfolio, her scholarly paper on nuclear energy, and the 40-60 hours she will have spent on refinishing this table. She will give a Power Point presentation using the photos to document her work since the table will be too big to carry to school on the day of her presentation.
Most of the time she's been able to work outside or at least with the garage door open for fresh air. When it's finished we'll use the table until she gets a home of her own. Her biggest problem has been that someone at some point in this table's life painted the base baby blue. It looks like the paint was put on raw wood and it seeped into the cracks. I don't think she's going to be able to get all of it out. Thankfully most of it is on the feet, and you'd have to be lying on the floor to notice it.

Next week she's going to be working 49 hours at the daycare (one lady is on vacation and one is on maternity leave). Usually she works 20-30 hours. She won't have much time to sand so she'll have to put in some time this weekend. I'm looking forward to an almost unscheduled weekend. The only thing we have to do is take Noah to get fitted and pick up his football gear. It's hard to believe that football practice starts in three weeks. From August 3rd on Noah will have 3 hours of practice daily Mon-Fri. After school starts they cut back to only 6 hours a week of practice.

Alyssa and I are trying to schedule a tour of Eastern Washington Univ. sometime in August during the end of their summer session. Eastern has an Early Childhood Education program, and since she wants to teach kindergarten this school should definitely be on her list of schools to apply to.

Hometown Fourth of July Parade

2009-07-05T15:27:00.001-07:00

Noah and his teammates march with the rest of the basketball camp participants.

The "Old Bags of Arlington" make their annual appearance.
You can't have a parade without Boy Scouts.
Every fire engine in town was in the parade as well as every single tractor too.

Alyssa and Chloe wait for their brothers to walk by. They were the 58th entry in the parade. They had a long wait. But Chloe collected a huge bag of candy.

Report from Spokane

2009-06-29T14:36:00.001-07:00

Noah's friend, Kaleb, came over to Hoopfest a day early with us and stayed at Loon Lake at Forrest's mom's house. The neighbors tore apart their old dock releasing millions of styrofoam pellets into the lake. Forrest and the boys took part in the clean up with pool nets. The neighbor paid the boys $10 each for their labors. Money they quickly spent when we went to the movie, Transformers 2 in Spokane. A very long, loud movie
filled with lots of explosions and chase scenes.

Hanging out at the hotel.

Bradey, Noah, and Kaleb. Ty hadn't arrived yet. They lost their first game wearing the shirts Forrest picked out for them. The boys then decided to go "skins" for the rest of the weekend.

They won their second and third games shirtless before losing Sunday morning and being eliminated.

Boy Alyssa and I look small next to Forrest and Noah.

Alyssa got to spend some time with some of her girl cousins, 2 year old Savannah, 16 year old Nicole, and 14 year old Mikala.

Alyssa and I also stopped in Wilbur to see my grandma. We came home before the boys so Alyssa could be at work today. Forrest and Noah are staying at Loon Lake for a couple of more days to visit with other members of his family.

Gardening

2009-06-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

From the looks of the fields around here there will be great crops of corn, hay, peas, pumpkins, etc. The wet spring plus two weeks of 80-90 degree temperatures to start the month got everything off to a great start. Local strawberries are ready. We can eat a half flat in two days easily. Raspberries are the family favorites so we're anxiously awaiting their arrival. We're also looking forward to local sweet corn arriving in August.

The family gardening projects look promising too. A photo of Forrest's tomato bucket has been requested so I will finally get around to posting that. For comparison sake I'll post a photo of the tomato plant I put into a raised bed (not quite a fair comparison since I planted two weeks before Forrest). Our walnut tree has put on lots of nuts this year. Last year we only got a handful. This year we'll have a large bowlful. The blueberry plants are growing slowly. I think I'll only get one or two handfuls of berries. The birds usually nab them right before they're ripe enough for me.

Noah has basketball camp this week so I'll be driving him to the high school Monday through Thursday. Wednesday nights his football team is meeting for informal games of Flash ( a type of free-for-all game where the boys can pass anywhere on the field). On Thursday we'll head east to spend Thursday night at Forrest's mom's house before we check into the hotel Friday afternoon for Hoopfest. Alyssa and I will come home Sunday night because she has to work. Noah and Forrest will stay for a couple of more days to see his sister, Jeweli, who will be in town from Albuquerque. One of Alyssa's co-workers is pregnant and due very soon so Alyssa needs to be ready to take on more hours to help cover her place.

Staffing

2009-06-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

I get to stay at fourth grade in my current building. I will be joined by a former 4th grade teacher who left 4th to teach kindergarten two years ago, another former 4th grade teacher who left fourth grade 8 years ago to be a remedial reading specialist, and a third grade teacher who is probably going to loop up with her current class. As you might remember from previous posts two of my 4th grade colleagues were laid off. Today I found out that my remaining teammate is going to be transferred to a school that laid off their whole 4th grade team so they need someone with experience. We will now have just one elementary counselor to service all 5 buildings instead of just sharing a counselor with one building. One of our first grade teachers is being moved to special ed. against her wishes because she has a Sp. Ed. endorsement that she has never used. There is a very weird vibe in the halls today. Relief for most of us, but agony for others. I can't wait for today to be over.

Odds and Ends

2009-06-11T21:42:00.000-07:00

We're trying to find a new home for our young dog, Cowboy. He is an escape artist. We just can't keep him in the yard unless he's tied up. He either needs a large acreage where he can have the run of the place or a kennel with a cement floor and a roof so he can't dig or climb out. I'll hate to see him go, he's a sweet dog, but I worry about him getting hit by a car when he's out.

Alyssa and I got to see a great Mariner game last Sunday. The M's won 4-2. Our second row seats were excellent. Forrest has been to two games and hasn't gotten to see a win yet. Alyssa and I must be lucky.

The fourth grade classes have been incubating chicken and duck eggs. So far none of my eggs have hatched. They've all been duds so I've been babysitting some chicks for one of the other teachers. Alyssa snapped the funny picture of Forrest posing with a chick named Caramel.

Noah's baseball season is almost over. His team scored a tremendous come from behind win last week scoring 7 unanswered runs to win a tournament game in extra innings. There is a great article with photos in the Arlington Times. Google the paper and check out the article in the sports section about the Stilly Valley Blackjacks.

Work is still very stressful. The lay-offs are set, but the staffing for next year is still in the works. I could be transferred to another building and/or be moved to a new grade level. The adminstrators were hoping to have news for us tomorrow, but it's not going to happen. I might not know anything till August. We can't make classlists or a master schedule for next year yet. Usually those things are done and ready for the fall by mid-May. Everything feels incredibly disjointed and everyone is out of sorts and jumpy.

Relay for Life

2009-05-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! What an amazing experience. Alyssa and her fellow honor society members were excellent representatives of Arlington High School at the Relay for Life this weekend. They helped other teams set up tents, they were enthusiastic, they helped clean up trash and recyclables, they cried when they saw very young children among the group of cancer survivors who started the relay Friday night, and they were solemn and respectful while lighting the luminaria. I am very proud to say that I was one of their chaperones. The team raised nearly $1300. Most of us slept very little, I think I slept from 2:00 to 3:30 am. A few of the girls didn't sleep at all. We tried to get them to sleep, but they set the goal of 100 laps (25 miles) and they couldn't be dissuaded. I came home Saturday morning and iced my knees and took a nap before going to Noah's baseball game. Alyssa slept all afternoon. We were both in bed by 8:30 last night. Next year Arlington will have its own relay and the honor society kids have been asked to take a leadership role.

Another Great Visit

2009-05-18T09:46:00.001-07:00

After a slow and uncertain start this turned out to be a great weekend. Alyssa came home sick on Friday, and we were afraid she had the norovirus as she had babysat for kids who go to the infected school earlier in the week. She slept for nearly 4 hours Friday afternoon, got up for a couple of hours, and then slept for 11 more. After that she was symptom free.

Mom and Dad came up so we belatedly celebrated Mother's Day and Noah's birthday. The weather cooperated, and we didn't have to shiver through Noah's game (they won 12-0). Then we had a late lunch/early dinner of barbecue treats at Famous Dave's in Everett. We'll definitely be going there again. We ate about 3:30, and I was so full I didn't eat again till breakfast. Breakfast was at a new place on Camano Island, the Diamond Knot (a satellite of the Diamond Knot Brewery in Mukilteo). Great food again! Forrest and I are looking forward to sitting on the porch at this new hotspot this summer sampling microbrews.

Cars were washed and waxed, Forrest crafted his own version of the Topsy Turvy tomato planter, and we celebrated the neighbor girl's 16th birthday Sunday night. Forrest and Alyssa are both sporting sunburns this morning. The forecast for Memorial Weekend looks good too. Forrest and I will be at the game Saturday night, two rows up from the ball girl on the 3rd baseline. You might catch a glimpse of us on TV if you're watching.

Thanks for the great photos Dad! Noah looks huge! I still can't get over how much I love Alyssa's new hairdo.

Norovirus follow-up

2009-05-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Attendance at the infected school is about 10 kids present per class, or about 40% at school today.

Norovirus

2009-05-14T08:51:00.000-07:00

Every major news station sent vans to Arlington to cover an outbreak of norovirus at one of our elementary schools. Yesterday 100+ kids were absent with violent vomiting and diarrhea. And more went home during the day with the same symptoms. Six teachers were out too. Usually if a school has more than 10% of the kids out sick they close the school. I'm not sure why that school is open today. Extra custodians apparently scrubbed the school from top to bottom last night. But kids are contagious the day before they exhibit symptoms and then for three more days after that. This is one of the elementary schools that feeds into Noah's middle school. So most of the kids at Noah's school have siblings that attend the infested school. And then there are also the siblings at the high school. I think we should have shut down the district today and tomorrow, had maintenance do a thorough cleaning of every building, and then come back and start again next week. I'm stuck in an all day science curriculum meeting with all of the fourth grade teachers in the district, however, all four of the 4th grade teachers from the infected school are missing. I wonder if the substitutes that were assigned to cover their classes cancelled because they didn't want to take a chance on being sick.

You're probably wondering how I'm able to blog during this meeting, but it's horribly disorganized and pointless since half of the district's fourth grade teachers are being laid off. So six people who are being involuntarily transferred to fourth grade don't know yet that they're going to be teaching this material. It's only half an hour into this long day and I'm already ready to pull my hair out. Maybe I'll post more later if I continue to be bored to tears.

Mother's Day Weekend

2009-05-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

As usual our weekend was busy. Noah had three friends over for a slumber party Friday night to celebrate his 13th birthday. They went to see "X-Men Wolverines," had a water balloon fight, watched "Die Hard" movies, plowed through a ton of food, and slept just a little. We returned all the boys to their parents at football sign-ups Saturday morning.

Noah's baseball team won another nailbiter game Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny evening. They won 8-7. Noah hit two, two RBI singles, including the game winning hit in the top of the 6th inning.

Alyssa is sporting a new spring haircut. She took her Advance Placement U.S. History test on Friday. She feels really good about the essay section. Now we just have to wait for the results in July.

My wonderful family got me a Wii Fit for Mother's Day. We had a great time hanging out in our pajamas exercising till 11 this morning. They also took me to Jimmy's for Italian food for dinner, and then we went to Cama Beach State Park to see the newly opened cabins. We've decided we want to rent one when the weather gets nicer.

Work is a trial. Budget cuts, staff cuts, and kids with serious spring fever make each week seem longer than the last. Six of our district's 13 fourth grade teachers got their RIF notices this past week. We all have a day-long science meeting on Thursday. That should be a laugh a minute. The one bright spot at work is the incubator full of duck eggs in my classroom. Hopefully we'll be welcoming a dozen ducklings in a couple of weeks.

Spring at Last

2009-05-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

I hope we're through with frost as I took a chance and put some pretty annuals in the ground. I also copied a container vegetable garden from Sunset magazine. It's a 4' x 4' bed with tomatoes, basil, cucumber, and dill. Sunset's version had chives instead of dill, but the store I went to didn't have any chives so I decided to use dill rather than drive around searching for chives. As usual my favorite bleeding heart is in full bloom under my front window. We had pajama day at school yesterday and an extra recess to celebrate the end of our state testing period, meeting our attendance goals, and surpassing our math goals for the end of the year 6 weeks early. I wore a long t-shirt, flipflops, and capri pant sweats. It was 75 degrees and sunny. I even needed my sunglasses to play volleyball with the kids. We officially have 31 days of school left hurray!

Day of Contradictions

2009-04-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

I didn't go to work today. Although my mammogram appointment only takes 15 minutes I always take the whole day off. I feel I deserve it. I also scheduled a massage therapy appointment to work on the knots in my back and shoulders. The contradictions in my day were that I had my 6th mammogram which means I'm OLD, but when I stopped at the store to buy some beer for Forrest I got carded. Which means I still look YOUNG. Yippeee! 21 was more than 2 decades ago.

Free Time

2009-04-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

Those of you who also read my sister Michelle's blog will have to look there for pictures of our Mom's Weekend. I'm having trouble with the picture mail feature on my phone.

Before this weekend Olympia has just been a place to pass through on the way to and from family in Oregon. But since it is just about midway between St. Helens and Stanwood we chose is as our meeting spot. The hotel was old, the free breakfast was bad, but the location was perfect. One side of the hotel looks out over the old capitol building and the other side looks out on Capitol Lake, the new capitol, and the marina. And everything was within walking distance of the hotel. Olympia's downtown has delightful shops, coffee houses, and restaurants. I bought a beautiful watercolor for the living room directly from the artist herself. At Dumpster Values, a hip thrift store, Michelle and I pawed through the racks to find vintage wear for Alyssa's Great Gatsby presentation. On Sunday the sunshine on the water beckoned. We strolled along the waterfront to admire the ships. We stumbled upon the farmer's market and took some time to sit by the water with our books.

After lunch at the market I got on I-5 for the drive home. My plan was to take 405 north as I-5 in North Seattle is under construction, however, there was an accident blocking the onramp to 405 so I had to stay on 5. There were 45 minute delays through Seattle so I got tricky and took 90 west across the lake and picked up 405 in Bellevue and proceeded up through Lynnwood and Everett. I made it home in two hours despite my detours.

I didn't know how much I really needed this weekend until I got home. Work has been stressful, the kids and their activities are stressful, and just the general economic uncertainty has been stressful. It was so much fun to poke around the stores, stroll the sidewalks, and just be me and not someone's teacher, mom, or wife. Thanks a bunch Michelle, love you lots.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a Happy Easter. Forrest had to work half a day as April is Tulip Festival month and he has to deploy flaggers where they're needed and manage traffic control. Easter is usually a very busy day for him, but our cold and snowy spring have put the tulips behind schedule. There are daffodil fields in bloom, but they're not the main draw. The wet, cold weather continued today so he didn't have to deal with many tourists.

Alyssa came home at 2:30 AM this morning and then was up at 9:30. She's been dragging through the day working on homework in her pajamas after her big night. They had a great time. They arrived early and couldn't get into the EMP so they played laser tag at the Seattle Center arcade. Once inside they had access to all of the music exhibits, rock and roll memorabilia, and the sound lab where they go to try out lots of instruments. They did some dancing too. The prom ended at midnight and the boys in her group were starving so they had to stop at Dicks for burgers and fries on the way home. The only trouble they had was that they lost their parking ticket and had to wait for someone with a monthly pass to let them out of the parking garage.

Noah had a game yesterday and won again 12-5. I managed the toddler section of our local egg hunt yesterday too. It was windy, but the rain held off till today so the egg hunters stayed dry.

Prom 2009

2009-04-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

The theme is "Big Lights, Big City." The event is being held in the EMP (Experience Music Project) in Seattle. Dinner is family style Italian at Bucca de Beppo. As you can see purple is popular this year, however, as we were taking photos at the school we saw leopard print and every color of the rainbow. And some colors that don't occur in nature. Alyssa and her date, Jordan, were well coordinated down to the flower choices, white roses with purple and silver ribbons. Here are the photos we took at the high school before the kids all went off for dinner and dancing. I'll have to report Alyssa's impressions later. I don't expect to sleep much tonight. Alyssa is driving a car full of kids to Seattle since the mothers in her group of friends trust Alyssa more than the boys.

Trying Times

2009-04-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

Since the state legislature revealed their proposed budget cuts I've been to two emergency union meetings. I don't like the feeling I get when I walk away from them. It's a very us vs. them attitude. While I do believe that we have some dead wood that needs to be cut from the district office staff I have never gotten the feeling from our board members and the superintendent that "they" are out to screw the teachers to save themselves.

Our district has a deep hole, a $4,000,000.00 hole to fill. Cutting programs will not do it all. There will have to be staff cuts too. Preliminary figures indicate that 30-40 teachers out of 300 will be let go. I've been here for 20 years so I know I will have a job, but what concerns me is who will I be teaching with? Two of my fourth grade teammates are in their second year of teaching, and my other teammate only has five years of experience. It's likely that I might have a whole new team of people who have never taught 4th grade before working with me. Additionally I will probably have 30+ children in my room. I haven't had that many students since Noah's group was in fourth grade (and that was an unusually large group). Last year I had 25 kids all year, and this year I only have 20.

My pay will at best be frozen but probably cut. Forrest is likely to take a pay cut too. We were hoping to take one last big vacation with the kids before Alyssa's senior year since it will probably be the last one we all take together, and that's looking less likely now.

I chuckled at an article I read about our new education secretary. He was lecturing high school students in Denver about competition with the rest of the world. He told the students that they need to be in school six days a week 11 months of the year. Has this man been reading the papers lately? Every district in the nation is cutting staff, shortening the school year, and/or cutting programs to stay in operation. Where does he think the money is going to come from to institute his changes? We will receive some stimulus money, but it comes with strings attached, and most of it will go to special education or english as a second language programs.

OK, I'm done ranting now. I'll climb down off my soapbox. But maybe now that I've written my concerns down somewhere I'll be able to sleep tonight.

On more positive note, Noah's baseball team won last night 17-3. Noah pitched a no-hitter for four innings before he ran out of his weekly allotment of pitches.

Alyssa turns in her Senior Project proposal today.

Say Yes to the Dress

2009-04-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Dress #1 was too short.

Dress #2 was itchy and too short.

This one looked like an old lady dress, especially the neckline.

This purple number was the one! You'll have to wait for prom pictures to see how she looks in it. It will be paired with silver sandals, a silver purse, a black sweater with rhinestone button, and a sparkly barrette for her hair. Sorry about the quality of the photos, most were taken with my phone. I promise to post spring break photos soon. Hopefully tomorrow.

Prom Update

2009-03-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Alyssa has a date! She asked a very nice sophomore boy to the prom. He's a boy she's known since middle school. They were in jazz choir together. His mom is a middle school teacher. Now we have to shop for a dress. Thankfully Macy's has all of their prom dresses on sale, and I have a $20 off coupon too. I think we'll be able to get a dress for about $50.00. Hurray!

Updates

2009-03-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

Forrest's mom is back at home. She's making great progress and was released from the rehab center after only two weeks instead of the three weeks originally recommended.

Forrest is in the middle of a repair job at our house. We noticed a strip of wall along the sliding glass door had soft spots and bubbling paint. Forrest spent all day Friday searching for the leak. He had to take down some drywall and found several pinhole sized spots all in a line in the drain pipe from the guest bathroom. They look like nail holes. The builders thought they were hitting studs when they were actually hitting pipe. It took 12 years for the leaks to be big enough for us to notice. Thankfully the area is small and there was very little mold. We're leaving the drywall off for the rest of the week so everything can completely dry out.

I'm onto my third Nevada Barr mystery. I ordered them from the library and they haven't come in the order they were written, but that's not proving to be a problem. I've now added Mesa Verde National Park to my list of places I have to visit some day. That's where the Anasazi dwellings are most accessible to the public. My sister and I have planned Mom's Get Away weekend for mid-April. It will sure be nice to escape from the demands of husbands and kids for awhile.

Noah's basketball team had a successful end to their season. They finished 3-1 in a round robin style tournament the weekend of the 14th. We had his basketball team party on Saturday night. Noah and Forrest's first baseball game is tomorrow. The league lost his team's jerseys over the summer and had to order new ones. Hopefully they'll be here in time for the game.

Alyssa has scheduled a visit at Western Washington Univ. during spring break and a visit at Saint Martin's for the end of April. She is preparing for her AP US History exam in May and her senior project proposal. She hasn't been invited to the prom, but she's hopeful. Although I think she's more interested in the dress than any of the boys at her school.

New Author

2009-03-13T11:02:00.001-07:00

I've discovered a new (to me) mystery author. Her name is Nevada Barr. She write mysteries about a National Park Service law enforcement officer named Anna Pigeon. Each book takes place in a different national park since rangers rarely stay put for more than a couple of years. Barr weaves an intricate story amidst the beauty of our nation's national treasures. Her descriptions are amazing. She just released book #14. I read a review of it in a magazine and was intrigued so I went to the library to start with book one, The Track of the Cat. I'm really looking forward to working my way through this series.

Testing Season, Tweeners, and Basketball

2009-03-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

It's come again, that time when teachers of the benchmark years (4th, 7th, and 10th) start to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because we haven't covered everything that might be on the test that decides whether our district has met AYP. The poor high school teachers start their testing season March 16th. Thankfully I have till after spring break to take my students through their final prep. My grade level team and I are so concerned about our students that the final three weeks of March will find us grouping for math so that we can better use our para-educators, and we'll be teaching math twice a day. My focus will be on measurement.

Our biggest problem with math this year is that we have two different sets of expectations to teach. Our state instituted new math performance objectives this year, however, this year's state test was printed with the previous set of expectations. So I have to teach the old math standards so the kids will be prepared for this year's test and the new standards so they'll be ready for 5th grade.

Forrest and I have officially become "tweeners." You know those people who still have kids at home and ailing parents to care for. Forrest's mom is in the hospital. The doctors originally thought she'd had a stroke. It turned out to be bleeding on the brain rather than a clot, but the effects on the body are very similar. Forrest spent three days in Spokane meeting with her doctors and the director of the rehab center that she'll be moved to late this week. It looks like she'll be in the rehab center for three weeks relearning some of the skills she'll need to continue living on her own. My mother-in-law is a very independent woman who likes to do things her way so I'm sure having to be on an institutional schedule will be trying for her. Thankfully she has three grown grandchildren in their late twenties and early thirties who live nearby who can help out between Forrest's visits to check up on her progress.

Noah's league tournament starts Friday night. For once we're not in the same half of the bracket as the top two ranked teams. They boys have a good shot at making it to the final round for the first time ever. His team's fourth place finish has also earned them a spot in a tournament the following weekend. In that tournament the top four teams in his league will compete against the top four teams from an Eastern Washington league. And guess what? Baseball practice starts tonight. I'm ready for basketball to be over so we can move onto the slower pace of the baseball season.

Relay Update

2009-02-24T12:28:00.000-08:00

Our Relay for Life team is now up to $150.00 towards our team goal of $1000.00. Thanks so much to those of you who have donated online. If you're hesitant about donating online with a credit card you can print an offline donation form and mail a check to the American Cancer Society or to us and we can turn it in at the next meeting. Alyssa has the most money donated so far. Thanks again, Heather and Alyssa

Simple Pleasures

2009-02-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

This was another three game weekend for Noah's basketball team, and Forrest put in a whole morning helping draft Noah's baseball team. But the best part of the weekend was Sunday afternoon. The rain was bouncing off the skylight in the bathroom, and Forrest and I were curled up on our bed. Forrest was watching NASCAR while I was reading next to him under a grandma afghan. The drone of the cars circling the track provides great "white noise" for reading the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery. I even dozed off for a brief Sunday cat nap. Sunday naps, a good book, and my sweetie beside me are the prescription for a peaceful afternoon.

American Cancer Society's Relay for Life

2009-02-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

Please visit our team's site and consider making a donation to this worthy cause. Alyssa's National Honor Society team will be walking all night to earn money for cancer research. I'm on the team as a chaperone. Alyssa is the captain of our team. I'm very proud of the leadership role she is taking.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR?pg=team&fr_id=14556&team_id=381880

The Gift of a Free Weekend

2009-02-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

You did read my title correctly. The Jones family had a free weekend without basketball in the middle of the season. This is an unheard of phenomenon. Noah's team didn't have a tournament appearance for the holiday weekend as originally planned because of a scheduling error on the part of the tournament hosts. Hurray! With all of this free time we were able to do as much or as little around the house as we felt like. Alyssa even had a babysitting job get cancelled. As my husband will tell you I am a list maker so here is a list of things the Jones family accomplished with our basketball free weekend.
1. Two beanie caps crocheted in the now defunct Seattle Sonic green and gold
2. Two books finished
3. Fridge cleaned out
4. Master bathroom cleaned
5. All three dogs taken for a long run by the slough
6. A visit to the beach near our house, one seal sighted at sunset
7. Lancome gift with purchase enjoyed from Macy's
8. Valentine's prime rib dinner
9. Got caught up on "Monk" and "Psych" on DVR
10. "Confessions of a Shopaholic" enjoyed by Alyssa and friends
11. Final baseball tryout attended by Forrest and Noah
12. Forrest finished his top draft picks list for his baseball team
13. Scraggley lavender cut back in rose garden
14. Daytona 500 enjoyed, Nascar is off to a new season
15. Trip to orthodontist for Noah on President's Day

To top it all of it was a rain free weekend in Northwest Washington in February. As the old adage goes, those are as rare as hen teeth around here. The weekend got off to a rocky start with the Saturn ending up in the shop Friday afternoon. The mechanic "believes" it is the crankshaft censor. It should be ready on Wednesday. But it definitely improved dramatically after that. Forrest will be out of town this week in class in Olympia. Alyssa and I will juggle getting Noah to his commitments. As usual we'll be on the run. Thankfully I have no evening meetings this week.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-02-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend! Mom and Dad came up from Portland and we celebrated their birthdays and Alyssa's belatedly. Alyssa was able to buy an ipod Touch with her birthday money and earnings from her job. We had great meals out (except for the quick meal at McDonalds between basketball games). Noah had three basketball games. His team won two and lost one.

Alyssa went to an ice skating birthday party. Forrest went to two sessions of baseball tryouts to

scout players for the draft in two weeks. He is an assistant coach. Noah attended one session of baseball tryouts after his Sunday basketball game. I just followed everyone around or provided transport, food, and drink. I did manage to continue my recent streak of accident prone behavior by getting nailed in the knee by an errant pitch. It's purple and very tender this

morning.

Dad took a few photos and we didn't manage to get a good one of him.

If the ipod Touch was a little bigger

I think Dad would get one as it's a very portable way to check email on the road.

Here are the Photos as Promised

2009-02-03T19:51:00.001-08:00

Hot pink leggings, pajamas, and more.

Masterpiece sundae

Back: Alyssa, Yuki, Randi, Amye

Front: Marie, Amanda, Danine

All About Alyssa

2009-02-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

My plan was to update my blog with photos of Alyssa's birthday slumber party while Forrest and Noah are at basketball practice, however, the camera is in the car so I'll have to load photos later.

On Friday, Alyssa's 17th birthday, six of her amazingly intelligent, beautiful, and talented friends descended on our house for movies, Wii, Chinese food, ice cream sundaes, and tons of laughs. My daughter sure knows how to pick quality people to include in her life. Her friends are all good students. Some are involved in sports, some in dance, church, or other worthwhile pursuits. They are all members of the National Honor Society. One wants to be a pharmacist and another plans to attend Stanford and become a lawyer.

My daughter wants to teach kindergarten. She has volunteered in the kindergarten class of a friend of mine since 8th grade. She works at a daycare center, and she still does some babysitting too. Alyssa is a natural with young children. Everyone who has seen her at work in my school tells me that. She is planning on getting a teaching certificate with an emphasis in early childhood education and possibly special education too. She took the SAT on Jan. 24th. Alyssa felt very confident about the reading and math but not the essay as she ran out of time, 45 minutes goes by quickly. So she'll probably retake it in the spring.

Every week we receive emails, letters, and postcards from colleges: Western Washington, WSU, Saint Martin's (her top choice), Pacific Lutheran, University of Portland, etc. We'll start planning visitations soon.

I'm very proud that Alyssa has chosen The American Cancer Society's Relay for Life as her National Honor Society project. She is a team captain for her NHS group. Alyssa has meetings to attend once a month to aid her team in fundraising and organizing. The kids and chaperones (including me) will walk all night in shifts to raise money for cancer research.

Attention family members who read this blog, Alyssa will be emailing you this spring to ask for your donations to support this worthy cause. It's tax deductible and can be done all online. She'll direct you to her team's webpage when the date gets closer. The relay will take place the weekend after Memorial Day.

I've painted the picture of an almost perfect teen. But she still rolls her eyes, talks back, and squabbles with her brother. Despite those minor faults she's a good kid and I love her to bits.

Weekend Still Photos

2009-01-20T15:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some stills from this past weekend. Noah is showing off his new smile with braces on top (lowers will come later after he loses another tooth). And Alyssa is sporting a hat I crocheted. Amazingly I still remember how to crochet after taking about 12 years off. The team photo was taken just after Noah's team won the championship game Sunday night. Thankfully I got one picture of Noah in his champion's shirt before he ate pizza and drank Shirley Temples.

Forrest will try to post some video he shot later.

Guest Blogger-Forrest

2009-01-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess Heather is too exhausted catching up on chores to post so she asked me to do her blogging for her. We all know husbands are pretty lazy on the weekend and are rested by Sunday night.... Maybe not all husbands, I know Lloyd, Jim, and Paul are the exception to the norm!

We spent the weekend at Western Washington University at the MLK Basketball Tournament with Noah's Basketball Team. Two days and four games, resulting in a celebration dinner at the local Pizza Hut for winning the Championship in the 7th grade bracket. Noah's team finally got out of their funk they had been in and blew out three of the teams by 20 points or better. The Championship game was a bit tighter. After a back and fourth battle with 30 seconds remaining we tied the game at 48. Our defense held and with 12 seconds left we hit a three pointer to take the lead for good and sealed the game with two free throws to win 53 - 48.

We also got in a walking tour of the campus, mostly because we didn't want to pay for parking. Their Rec-Center is pretty nice as is most of the campus. We asked Alyssa if it was a college she might want to attend? Her answer was she thought it was too big. I guess that rules out UW, WSU, and most major colleges on the west coast.

In between games we hit the local Best Buy and returned our cheap video camera that quit working after three uses and upgraded to a better one.

As the result of the tournament and having today off, we tried to catch up on chores today. Heather mostly concentrated on the inside and I on the outside plugging holes and topping fences. Most of you probably know by now our (Heather and Alyssa's) new dog Cowboy has turned into an escape artist. Their freebie dog as ended up costing us several hundred dollars of breakout prevention. I guess it is true what they say.... Nothing is free! If you want to know more about our prevention tactics you will need to call, I don't want to put anything in writing and get in trouble with the animal rights people if they happen to stumble across this blog.

We did take photos, and once Heather gets the photos downloaded she will post them. I would ask her about it, but she is drinking some tea and earlier read Noah the riot act about being a slob and picking up after himself so I am a little apprehensive about asking her about it.

I guess I will close for now, I can feel myself needing a relaxing break. This Monday off has thrown off my whole lazy weekend routine.

Until next time your favorite guest blogger -fj

Still Soggy

2009-01-09T21:04:00.000-08:00

It's almost 36 hours after my last post and I still only have one way in and out of my neighborhood instead of three. A friend who lives above the small town of Silvana sent me this photo of the road that we both usually take to work. Maybe by Monday we'll be using it again. I still have to drive 20 miles instead of 5 to get to town. Maybe by Sunday the roads will be clear. Last night the police were escorting dump trucks to Stanwood to shore up the dike that had been breached. The water in the park and ride lot was up near the top of the stop signs and part of the state highway to Camano Island was closed. The sewer lagoons were compromised too as the river overflowed it's banks and poured into the holding ponds causing them to spill over. Stanwood schools were closed again today. They now have five days of school to make up. We only have three. As I was typing this the power went out. I'm sure that's related to the flooding somehow. I made Forrest go start up the generator so I could publish.

Whacky Weather

2009-01-08T13:25:00.001-08:00

The river is supposed to stay on the far side of the line of trees..

Of the three routes available to us to get home only one has been open the past two days. The others are under recording breaking flood waters. The state highway that runs through the town where I teach is closed. One lane of Interstate 5 is closed where it intersects with the state highway. The schools in the town where I live are closed and voluntary evacuations are taking place. The mayor declared an emergency and the firefighters are helping with the sandbagging efforts. Buses in the town where I work are on limited routes due to mudslides, water over the roadways, and especially because of the closure of Highway 530. My school and its neighborhoods are on higher ground so we have very few children missing today. One other school is cut-off from town and it also has no power. Two of the other schools have very few children as the kids just can't get to town. We had a two hour late start so that the sun would be up and drivers could assess the roads better. I haven't talked to Noah or Alyssa yet to see how many of their friends were able to make it to school. Forrest worked 13 hours yesterday inspecting and closing roads for Skagit County. I have no idea how long he'll be out today. I'm sure you've all seen some photos of Western Washington's flood waters since we've made the national news, but here are a few I took at 10:00 AM as the flood waters were cresting.

Christmas of 08

2008-12-29T10:12:00.000-08:00

We survived it! Between treacherously slick streets, semis looking to run us over, broken tire chains, a flat tire from someone else's broken chains, and horrid weather it's a wonder we're still here. Since we couldn't make it over to see Forrest's mom because of the snow here, there, and in the mountain passes we made a last minute decision to join my family in Portland on Christmas Day. By the afternoon of the 25th it was supposed to be warm and rainy. So we ventured out of our neighborhood in a thick snowstorm Christmas morning. Our 15 minute drive to the freeway took an hour. Then we had fairly smooth sailing till we reached Kelso where it started snowing again. By the time we reached Battle Ground huge flakes the size of silver dollars were swirling around us and sticking to the freeway. The final 30 miles of our trip took nearly two hours. Cars and trucks were spinning out all around us. I don't know how we avoided getting hit.

Thankfully once we reached my parent's house in Portland we could enjoy quality family time with cousins, grandparents, and my sibs and their spouses. After two weeks of snow the kids were all tired of it and none of them went outside to play. Wonderful food was eaten, movies were watched, English crackers were popped, and a very competitive game of Scrabble was played (Alyssa and I teamed up and were victorious).

On Friday we did some post Christmas bargain hunting capped off by a yummy German feast at Gustav's. Per Noah's request we had breakfast Saturday morning at la petit Provence before we headed for home.

This week is chore time. The carpets are being professionally cleaned which required us all to sort through some junk for a final trip to Goodwill. I'm going to clean and reorganize the laundry room. Our puppy, Cowboy, is getting neutered this week. And I just might get the photo albums all up to date. Our neighbors are coming for dinner New Year's Eve. The snow is finally melting although I'm still not sure that our garbage will get picked up today. Our road is still very icy. So now you're all caught up with the Jones family. Alyssa is sitting beside me as I write doing homework for her AP US History class. Her teacher emailed the assignments out to his students.

Forrest gets to Blog

2008-12-23T18:52:00.000-08:00

Its the Eve before Christmas Eve and my gracious wife has give me permission too blog on her site. You may be asking yourself what is Forrest doing bogging? Well, partly from boredom and partly because I bought a new inexpensive digital video recorder that I wanted try it out and post to see how it works. The video is a bit grainy but I forgot to take off the flim on the lense and it was a bit dark.

I guess I will also update you on the happenings in the Jones house hold. As most of you are aware of and are experiencing a similar fate, we are on day 10 of blizzard 2008. As you have seen on previous blogs we have hit the slopes of Stanwood to tube down the local hills. I found it refreshing especially the part when I hit the jump and was fortunate enough to have my spine cracked from tail bone to the neck.....aah refreshing.

We ventured out yesterday to the mall... whew. I keep hearing that nobody is spending money, but there sure are a lot of nobodies at the mall. We met up with some friends and to give back their kid that spent the last two nights at our place. After braving a few stores, eating at the food court and leaving Alyssa in my dust at a kiosk vendor... man those people are aggressive. I later told Alyssa that it was a lesson for her and to next time never make eye contact :o). I then left Heather and the kids in the mall and started to drive to the other side to meet our friends and drop off our visitors overnight bag, at which point I would meet them on the other side at the movie theater. I am not sure if it was the snowy roads or that all of those nobodies that aren't spending money decided to leave at the same time, any how, it only took me about an hour to loop around the mall to meet the family for a movie.

Today, Heather and went and did a little last minute shopping in town and Heather went to have her shoulder looked at. The doctor said something to the sort of shoulder tendinitis. I'm not sure but maybe we are getting a little older these days. My neighbor walked by me as I was shoveling out my driveway asked me if I had taken my aspirin before I started. Noah also got a present from his "Girl Friend" today in the mail. He sent her one earlier in the week through the mail also, sense they did not get to see each other at school due to the snow days. I get a bit worried sometimes that he is a bit too young for a girl friend at age 12, but I know they basically communicate by texting and hold hands occasionally.

We are now watching that comedy classic Christmas Vacation and chuckling at the stupid jokes being thrown around and the bad acting. We are also debating whether or not the roads will be good enough to possibly make are way down to Portland on Christmas day. Noah's Basketball Tournament was cancelled and we were originally going to go to Spokane for a few days but the weather also turned bad over there and my mother advised us not to risk the trip. So Lloyd and Jacque if you read this before we call, you may have some extra company if its OK.

Well, I guess I will close for now and finish watching our movie as Clark chases a squirrel around his living room as his cousin Eddie kidnaps his boss.

Enjoy and Have a Merry Christmas!

Sledding by the High School

2008-12-21T17:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Forrest took the kids to a new sledding spot on a beautiful hill next to the senior citizen center and just above the high school. Today we all went back with our friends and neighbors with tubes and an air mattress. Very exhilarating!

Snow Day #3

2008-12-20T06:12:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to remember if we've ever had three full days off for snow in a week before. I don't think we have. The week after Thanksgiving 2005 we had two full days off and three late starts. That was the winter that we missed five days of school and had seven late starts ( the last of which was in March). I hope this will be it for us, but most winters January and February bring the worst weather. Since Forrest doesn't work on Fridays he was home yesterday with our four wheel drive truck so we got to leave the neighborhood and venture into town. One of our most important stops was the post office. We had lots of packages to ship to eastern Washington. Our original plan was to drive to Forrest's mom's house to visit with her before Christmas, but the weather made us change our minds. We have about a foot of snow on the ground with 4-8" more forecast for tonight and blizzards forecast for the mountain passes. Spokane has about 2' of snow with more on the way. It's currently 5 degrees here this morning at 6:18 AM. It's very peaceful. The kids had three friends spend the night, and they're all snoozing in the living room, Forrest is asleep up in our room, and our dog, Boo is snoring beside me as I write this. If you're not tired of snow pictures yet here are a few more. If you look closely you'll see ice on the bay, amazing!

Lights of Christmas

2008-12-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

We got two free passes to the Lights of Christmas display at the Christian camp near our home. They use one million lights. It was beautiful to see the lights shining through the snow. We had another snow day today and school will be closed tomorrow too. It was nice to get out of the house. I was getting a case of cabin fever.

Snow Day

2008-12-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

Today I got a call at 5:21 AM telling me that school was closed for snow. It has snowed most of the day off and on. The temperatures rose to 35 degrees this afternoon and things got slushy, but now that the sun is going down the temperature is dropping again and everything should freeze up and get very icy. I'm betting that tomorrow will be a no school day too. Which is bad because my students have ornaments and decorations for the holidays sitting in my classroom. Hopefully we'll at least have school on Friday. Our staff party is supposed to be tomorrow afternoon, and the principal has a yummy waffle breakfast planned for tomorrow morning as her gift to the whole staff. I guess we're at the mercy of Mother Nature. Today was a bit productive, but not too taxing. Forrest had to work till 3:00 PM and then his boss sent everyone home so they could get there before dark

Today's Accomplishments:

1. 1 snowman built by the children
2. One steep hill smoothed out for sledding
3. 2 batches of spiced pecans made

4. 3 loads of laundry washed

5. half of the woodpile has been moved by the children (they'll finish tomorrow)
6. 1 sappy Christmas movie (White Christmas) watched by me

7. multiple games of Kabooki played by the kids on the Wii with the neighbor kids

8. Pantry cleaned out

Enjoy the photos of our day off.

Christmas is Coming

2008-12-14T19:39:00.001-08:00

The search for the perfect tree took about an hour of wandering around the tree farm back and forth over and over again. Forrest insisted that it was his year to choose the tree, but he kept asking our opinions which kept sparking arguments. Finally we found it. It takes up quite a bit of our dining room. My folks came up for an early Christmas celebration this past Friday, but they only stayed about 24 hours as the weather was turning snowy, and they wanted to get home before the worst of it hit. Noah had two games on Saturday. He won one and lost the other. Both were very tense, close games. Today we had a quiet day watching football and baking cookies. So here are a bunch of photos to get you all caught up with us.

Maturing Follow UP

2008-12-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last week's eye appointments were so convenient. Alyssa picked Noah up from school, and they both went to get their eyes checked. I showed up just as they were finishing up. While I was getting my eyes checked Alyssa picked out new glasses and ordered her contact lenses. Then she took Noah home. I didn't have to put up with whiny children asking "When are we going to be out of here?" It was great. By the time I got home the dishwasher was empty, and the kids were doing homework. Yesterday Alyssa picked up her glasses and contacts and my contacts too. It's so nice to have an errand girl who is so responsible and trustworthy. I promise to post photos of our hunt for the perfect Christmas tree soon. Since we got rid of the piano we figured that we could get a much bigger tree. We were wrong. Check back later for photos of the tree.