Busy Weekend

Two basketball games for Noah, ice skating with friends and taking her written driver's license test for Alyssa, hunting for and arguing about the perfect Christmas tree, and a birthday party for one of the kids Alyssa babysits.

Alyssa passed her test, she'll take the behind the wheel portion on Dec. 27th and if she passes it she'll be officially licensed on Feb. 1st. Noah's team won both of their games. The first one by more than 30 points and the second by more than 20.

Sunday morning dawned cold and snowy. Our house always looks more festive when it's snowing. The Christmas tree farm just down the road was beautiful covered in snow. We tramped through the snow and admired the views. We finally decided on a beautiful 12' tree. It's a gorgeous, full, Grand Fir, very aromatic. The whole house smells great. Amazingly enough we got this huge tree for $25.00. It should have been $35, but the owners of the farm didn't feel like measuring and just let us have it for the under 10 foot price. Since no one plays the piano in our house any more we decided to take full advantage of our vaulted ceiling and place our big tree in the middle of the living/dining room blocking the piano.

The birthday party was at a place called 3,2,1 Bounce. It's a huge warehouse building filled with a variety of bouncy houses, the kind you see at carnivals. It has become a favorite party spot for the kids of our friends. This is the third party we've been to at 3,2,1 Bounce in the past six months. The little cutie Alyssa is posing with is the sister of the birthday boy.

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Everything Runs Together

Children's sports schedules are crazy. I just paid Noah's AAU basketball fees right after Thanksgiving to the tune of nearly $150.00, and tonight I have to go sign him up for Little League. Then they have tryouts in January and practices start the first of March which is right after the basketball end of season tournament. Football sign-ups are in April with tryouts in May, gear hand-out the last weekend of July, and practices every day for three hours starting August 1st. The month of July is the only month without sports for Noah.

Basketball has the most reasonable schedule. Tryouts in October, practices start in November and the season starts Thanksgiving weekend. I don't understand why baseball sign ups are so early this year. Maybe the league is afraid they'll lose kids to the new arena football league that has sign ups in February, so they're trying to get kids to commit to baseball early. That's the only explanation that makes sense. I think this might be Noah's last year of baseball. He's toying with the idea of participating in track next year when he's old enough to do middle school sports. He'd like to try shotput and discus.

I guess our sports commitments mirror the holidays. Some stores are already marking down their Christmas decor and it's only the first week of December. They have to make way for the Valentine's stuff.

Stormy Beginnings

Wow! December sure has started with a bang. We had snow, sleet, icy temperatures, white out conditions, and slick streets all day Saturday and into Sunday. Today the temperature is 20 degrees warmer than Saturday's high and flood watches are on all the rivers through Wednesday. It's breezy here, but on the Oregon and Washington coast wind speeds over 100 mph have been clocked this morning. Forrest is waiting to see if he'll have flood watch duty any time this week. His shift to patrol the dikes of Skagit county during a flood is 6 PM-6 AM. Hopefully if they're going to send him out tonight they'll send him home early this afternoon to sleep for a few hours. The photos I've posted are from late Sunday morning. As you can see it was snowing very hard, but it wasn't cold enough to stick. Usually we can see the island and Port Susan beyond the trees, but as you can see we were all socked in and our view was hidden.

I'm at school with no children today. It's our report card day. However, since we went to an online grading program that the parents can access all the time I don't have reports to fill out. Right now I'm waiting around for my music and library grades so I can finish updating the online system. Then I'll have the rest of the day to get things ready for my December arts and crafts projects.

Since Forrest and I didn't go away for our anniversary in October as we usually do I took him on an overnight trip to Seattle over the weekend for his birthday. We had a great time Christmas shopping, going out for coffee, eating out, and seeing the beautiful Christmas decorations.

Thanksgiving Weekend Fun

What a great weekend! My folks came up for the holiday bringing good cheer, dressing, pumpkin pie, and a new way to play cribbage. It's a tabletop version which Alyssa and Noah picked up quite quickly. I am not a visual learner so I struggled with visualizing the play. They helped us out by taking the picture that will accompany our Christmas cards. I won't post it here since most of my readers are family members and you'll be receiving a photo with your card.

Mom and Dad got to attend the first two games of Noah's Turkey Shoot basketball tournament. The team lost their first game to their arch rivals in a heart breaking contest. I was miffed by the officiating. None of Noah's teammates went to the freethrow line at all during this game. The other team went many times and won by 11 points. The second game was Noah's best of the weekend. He had a double-double, 12 pts. and 16 rebounds. Noah's team ended up with a 3-1 record for the weekend. We got to spend lots of time with our basketball friends whom we'll be seeing every weekend till the first of March. It's a good thing we all get along so well. They're a great group of people.

On Saturday night we went to an Apple Cup party to watch the annual WSU Cougar game vs the Washington Huskies. It was a partisan crowd full of Coug fans. The game was exciting down to the final whistle. Forrest made the mistake of drinking his friend's concoction called a Touchdown. The mixer is Red Bull energy drink. I don't know what kinds of alcohol are in it. But obviously it didn't agree with my hubby and he has asked me not to let him ever drink Red Bull again.

Alyssa and one of her babysitting clients, precious little Chloe, put up my Christmas decorations between basketball games. They did a beautiful job. Forrest put the lights up on the house and the place looks very festive. Alyssa also helped me shop for presents for most of my nephews and my one lone niece.

All in all a very full and fun weekend.

The Future

I had a vision of the future this morning. It was actually a vision of my sister's future with her three boys. Noah had a two brothers, aged 11 and nearly 14, spend the night last night. Noah is as big as the older boy. As I watched these two tweeners and the teen wrestling on my family room floor I pictured my sister's house in a few years. Her boys are 4, 7, and 10. With long legs flailing and big feet kicking I was prepared to be repairing lamps or furniture. The boys plus Alyssa went through a gallon of milk and a gallon of juice in the past 24 hours. I just went grocery shopping yesterday, and I need to go again.

Noah is finally growing again. He went from May through October without adding any inches to his height, he was stalled at 5'4" for five months. He's now grown an inch in the past month. His new basketball shoes are size 13. I'm sure glad I only have one boy to feed. If I had three that eat like Noah I'd have to take on a second job.

Good luck Michelle!

Holiday Plans

We've finally made our holiday plans, and we've told both sides of the family that we're staying home for the whole holiday season, Thanksgiving through New Years. Usually we alternate holidays, Thanksgiving with one family and Christmas with the other. This year we're staying home. Our families are welcome to join us. Noah can sleep on the floor in Alyssa's room and guests can use his queen bed.

We're tired of trying to travel, attend Noah's holiday basketball tournaments, and have some quality rest at home. We often return to work exhausted rather than rested after the holidays. The price of gas, traffic, and the weather can make the journey to see our families miserable.

As a child we spent most of the holidays at home, in Portland, just the five of us. I got to see my friends and enjoy my time off from school. We've spent a few holidays at home during our 18 years of marriage, but we've never stayed home for the whole season.

Another reason we're staying home is that Forrest is going to be traveling for work a lot more in the coming year. The county has tapped him to take the training necessary to become a bridge inspector for the public works department.

So all of you readers who are also relatives, give us a call and let us know when you're coming and Noah can change the sheets on his bed. Happy Holidays!