Re-discovering golf

Prior to our daughters entering our lives, golf was a regular part of our lives. As small children are not real understanding about the concept of staying out of the way of swinging clubs and flying little white balls.........we've taken several years sabbatical. Suddenly, we seem to have jumped back into it with a vengeance.

As a whole, Mike plays extremely well. Disgustingly well, to be honest. He introduced me to golf, and I try to remember when I get frustrated that someday I'm going to get even by sticking him on a horse in front of a large group of people, and instantly try to get him to feel a "diagonal" or a "lead". (Any idiot can SIT on a horse........but it takes some time in the saddle before you begin to FEEL the horse. Golf is not the same.....You don't really get much of a learning period before you approach your first tee box feeling (and looking) like a completely uncoordinated fool in front of all the folks hanging out in the clubhouse.)

So, despite the fact that I'm still pretty green at golf, we've been getting out and having a good time. I was going to wait a few months to upgrade my clubs, but Mike begged me to buy new ones. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) I sunk a chunk of cash into a really great set of hybrids that I'm loving. Even the boys are getting out with us and playing a bit. They participated in a two-day junior's clinic a few weeks ago and picked up some great tips. Dane is itching to get his hands on Mike's new Cleveland driver. :)

Sometimes, I wonder at how easily I find myself slipping into obsessive hobbies/sports. I blame it on my history with horses, as the only way to truly be competitive with horses is to totally absorb yourself in them. I find that with golf it would be very easy for me to own virtually every contraption, tool, etc. that goes with the sport, and I can easily justify it to myself! Similar to horse sports, where it doesn't take very long and you own a gazillion bits, boots, pads, and a whole host of other horse-y contraptions. Fascinating or bizarre? I'm not sure......

But one thing is for sure..........at least I don't have to feed my golf clubs twice each day. Or vaccinate them. Or buy them a truck and trailer. I can even throw them in the corner for months on end and they'll still be there. Perhaps a little dusty.........but no worse for the neglect. :)

A weekend of sunshine!

Mike and I ran away this past weekend with just our two girls! To sunny Eastern Oregon where Mike grew up. VERY warm.......VERY dry........and lots of sagebrush. A big change from the dampness and mold of Western Washington.

It never ceases to amaze this Western Washington native how you can actually see into the distance over there. And see through the trees, where they exist at all. I'm much more accustomed to very dense green stuff EVERYWHERE. I find it comforting.........Mike finds it a tad claustrophobic at times. I feel a bit "unsheltered" in Eastern Oregon, while he loves the wide open spaces. :)

In any case, it was nice to get away for a few days and see his family! The rain pelted our windshield just north of Portland, so we were welcomed home from sunshine by the normal rainforest weather.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz...........

I have recently embarked on a new fitness cycling program and it really feels great! I'm alternating cardio-workout days with weight-training days, and enjoying the sense of accomplishment that I get each day from taking charge of my physical health again. I've allowed too much time to go by where I've been focused purely on the business and family, and my personal fitness has suffered because of it. So.........feel the burn!!!

But I've run into a little bit of a snag. My cardio workouts are really messing with my sleep patterns. I always work out in the morning, and I'm finding that I've got a lot more energy to carry me through the day. However, after 3-4 hours of sleep at night, I'm waking up like someone turned a switch to "on." Which means that bright and early about 1 a.m. in the morning, my brain is running on high. This morning, I laid there for about 30 minutes trying to "will" myself back to sleep. No such luck. So I got up. But what does one do at 1 a.m. in the morning, without running the risk of waking up the rest of the family? Of course, I ended up at my computer. So here's what I'm finding I do at 1 o'clock in the morning:
1) Work on appraisals? Nah. I usually consider it, but I don't seem to have the concentration my work requires, even though I can't sleep.
2) Play cubis online. I've even won a badge or two. You wouldn't believe how many people are playing those games in the middle of the night!!!
3) Shop for golf gear. Oh YEAH! :) I have wisely left the credit card out of the picture, as what may seem like a wise purchase at 1 a.m. might not seem so smart in the daylight, but I'm hoping to upgrade my clubs in the next few months, so its fun to read up on all the latest technology. I'm still debating.........Taylor Made? Callaway? Cleveland?
4) Surf ebay for anything interesting. That get's boring pretty quickly.......

And then I try to stumble back to bed and go to sleep, just so I can wake up at 6:30 absolutely EXHAUSTED, and spend the next three hours trying to get woke up. So I'm yawning today, and more than just a little. Fortunately, today is the day our housekeeper comes, so I'm ignoring the basic around-the-house stuff and just focusing on staying awake for appraisals.

Anybody know how long this sleep thing will last? Should I tone down the cardio workouts? What a pain in the neck!

"Mom......Jennica's putting rocks in her ears."

There are just some phrases that a mother never wants to hear. This past weekend, our whole family was outside in the backyard and Tiersten came around the back of the garage, "Mom...Jennica is putting rocks in her ears." I immediately stopped what I was doing and let Tiersten lead the way back to Jennica so I could investigate.

Jennica was, in fact, cramming pea gravel into her ears. For the most part, they were falling right back out. Except for one tiny little piece that she had thoroughly wedged into her ear canal. Really special. Really friggin' special.

Mike and I quickly came to the conclusion that attempting to remove it on our own was only going to shove it further into her ear. So we shut down the rototiller and the lawn tractor, left Dane in charge of Grant and Tiersten with strict orders not to operate any machinery while we were gone, and packed Jennica off to the ER.

I think ER staff develops a certain sense that enables them to "read" parents and situations when they walk in the door. There are certain situations that require urgency and certain parents that demand it. And then there are parents that are obviously "frequent flyers" in the ER, and show up more exasperated than panicked. We definitely fell into the latter category on Saturday and the ER responded accordingly. Jennica was obviously not in any pain, and wasn't bleeding. In fact, she seemed to be quite delighted to be the center of everyone's attention without having to compete with her sibilings. The ER doctor on staff that day turned out to be our wonderful local surgeon, with whom we had been previously acquainted (he put 44 stitches in my leg about 6 years ago and he's operated on both of my parents), he's wonderful with kids, and he's way over-qualified to remove a small rock from a little girl's ear canal. With Mike and I helping to hold her still, he used an itty-bitty little tool and wiggled the rock out.

Now........this is the second trip that we've made with Jennica to the ER regarding a foreign object shoved into her ear. The last time was when Tiersten tried to turn her into "Sister Potato-head" (see previous post from a couple of years back). Hopefully, there won't be a third trip...

So we, the exasperated and "frequent flyer" parents, went home. We've had ANOTHER good chat with Jennica about how nothing is to be put into her ears and she nodded solemnly and did a good job of pretending to be listening. Whatever...........sigh.............

And last, but certainly not least...

I realized today that I have posted recent photos of everyone but Grant! He had his last baseball game of the season tonight, so I snapped a great picture of him through the fence, and am posting it here! He says that this is his last baseball game EVER, as he intends to run Track & Field for RHS next year instead of baseball.

Grant is also graduating in a big, if unrecognized, way. He's moving from the elementary school into the High School building across the street for 7th grade. Because of our small district, our elementary is K-6, and our high school is 7-12. This is a HUGE transition, as he will suddenly go from a peer group of 5-12 year olds, to a peer group of 12-18 year olds.

In any case, Grant just turned 13, and is an absolute blast! He tends to be a little on the quiet side.......unless he thinks that nobody is watching! :) The photo is of his good friend Drew on the left, with Grant (in helmet) on the right. Drew attends a different school, so they will forever be on opposing teams from here on out.

Graduations!!

Yesterday, we had three graduations in one day! Tiersten graduated from 4-year-old preschool into Kindergarten, Jennica graduated from 3-year-old preschool into 4-year-old preschool, and........the biggie........Dane graduated from 8th grade to High School.

The girls "graduation ceremony" was a picnic/barbeque event at our High School football field. Lots of fun activities for the kids to keep busy.

Dane's graduation was a bit more serious, but still designed to be fun. He only had 25 graduate with his class, which shocked me. His class has really been shrinking, which is a frightening trend. Some of it is due to "choicing out" to other districts (a concept that I'll explain to anyone that hasn't heard of it--just send me a message), and the rest of it..........I'm not sure. He had a solid 50 kids in Kindergarten, so why did they lose 50% of the class??? WEIRD! Since Dane is a busy student athlete, we tend to only see the other kids that are active and involved. I just didn't realize until last night that the 15-20 we normally see make up a HUGE percentage of the total class.

In any case, I'm posting photos! Congratulations to our family of graduates!

All dressed up......

When someone at the school told the kids to "dress up a little" for the dance on Friday night, I don't think this is quite what they had in mind, but its fun to see these boys having fun! They are very self-driven student athletes with high GPAs and a big desire to succeed, so sometimes I feel like "cutting loose" doesn't come easy. From left to right--Levi, Dane (my son), and Tom.

I think my hair is on fire.....

Now that I'm in the middle of the chaos that always comes with the last weeks of the school year, I remember telling myself that last year I said I was going to take the last 2-3 weeks of the school year totally off NEXT YEAR. Well........"next year" is here and now, and I forgot until it was too late. So...I'm burning at the candle at several ends and also trying to keep up with my normal workload, and its nobody's fault but my own. :)

No kidding.........Grant ended up with SIX field trips between May 29th and June 12th. His Dad went on one of them, and I went last weekend on the overnight trip. Tons of fun......but SIX field trips? This overnight trip was a bit bizarre, as no school staff attends. They appointed me the "parent-in-charge" which was fine, as the normal ratio on this trip is 1:1 for adults to kids. Well........this year, we were 1:3 with some high-maintenance 4th graders. I came home VERY appreciative of my own children. (If we had been able to find a roll of duct tape, I think there still might be a few kids taped to the Space Needle in Seattle. Not really........but you get the general idea.)

Dane is gearing up for Jr. High graduation this Thursday night. I've come to the conclusion that Raymond High School is the ONLY school on the planet that makes this big of a deal of 8th graders moving to 9th grade, but it IS a big deal and rather cool. They even wear caps and gowns!

Tiersten and Jennica will both have a picnic this Thursday with a "Preschool graduation" of sorts. Should be a good time. Hopefully, it won't rain, which would be downright unusual considering how the rest of our Spring has gone.

And amongst all that activity, we're still playing baseball, had a drug bust at the high school (that none of my children were involved in, but still was a little distressing to this parent). And "some idiot" scheduled dental appointments for 4 kids in the next two weeks. When I scheduled them in December, I didn't even THINK about the chaos of the school year ending. Rather amusing, actually.

So, I guess, nothing has really changed. Just got the pedal to the metal and looking forward to the last day of school on June 16th. Hopefully, the sun will come out soon!

I Hate Grocery Shopping and Cooking

Its not exactly profound to say that grocery shopping is a necessity in life. I accept that statement, but I sure don't have to like it. Its similar to my thoughts/feelings on meal preparation. Both shopping and cooking are extraordinarily time-consuming, and time is an extremely precious commodity in my life.

So here is my thought: There is BIG $$$$ to be made in grocery shopping as a business. I know it sounds stupid, but I would seriously trade my housekeeper for a grocery shopper, but they also have to do the meal planning that goes with the whole ball of wax. If I'm going to pay someone, they have to take on the entire inconvenience of the job.

I owe some great kudos to my husband, who willingly shops for our family at least 50% of the time (and cooks). Its a good thing I wasn't born in 1902, or really any time prior to our society accepting that men and women could share and swap roles in the family. And yes, by the way, I was totally honest with Mike BEFORE we got married that I absolutely refuse to spend my life in a kitchen.

So I fully confess that I am the person that those end-of-the-aisle non-bargain stacks are designed for. My grocery store priorities are ALL wrong, and I admit it. My first priority is to spend as little time there as possible, and my last priority is to worry about what I'm spending.

You know........its rather liberating to be at a point in my life to admit that I truly HATE grocery shopping, and its just as wonderful to admit that I totally SUCK at it. I can just think of so many things I would rather do with my time.

Which brings me to Part 2...the cooking. I'm actually a GOOD cook--when I want to be, which is the trick. Once again, its all about the time involved in the planning and preparation. I'm more of a spur-of-the-moment sort of gal when it comes to meals, which doesn't always work real well for a family of six.

I used to apologize for these shortcomings but, you know, I think I'm past that. I have my strengths, and I have my weaknesses. Deal with it. Take out, anyone?

The Spring without sunshine...

So far......its been a rather crummy Spring, as far as weather is concerned. Regardless of our lack of sunshine, track season and baseball season and t-ball season are marching onward. Although I've been terrible about updating here, we've taken quite a few photos of kids in various activities lately, so I will slowly get organized and get them posted here.

I'm actually posting the most recent photo first. Yesterday, Mike took the girls fishing at a local spot known as Case's Pond. Tiersten caught a little one, and Jennica caught a BIG one. They were ecstatic! Even the blood didn't dissuade them!

Tonight, Mike and the girls ate their catch, while the boys and I ate lasagna. I grew up on fish! In fact, I grew up with smelt thawing in the kitchen sink! However, having fish cooking in MY kitchen tonight was rather disgusting! I was even less-impressed with the cleaning last night......(GAG!) Not sure when I became such a wimp........

Things to accomplish today...

#1) Must.......win.........lottery.
#2) Read #1 again.

Its been that kind of week. See? I said in my last post that April is always like this! :)

A small problem with a yellow pill...

Today is one of those Saturday's where we need to do a massive grocery shopping trip. The kind of shopping trip where first you clean out the refrigerator and cabinets, and THEN you make the list. Spring is always a challenging time for us and this year is going to be no different with Dane in track, Grant in baseball, and Tiersten in t-ball. On top of that, the girls and Mike all have birthdays in April. In order to not constantly eat at McDonald's, its time to get organized! So......the renegade-box-of-brown-sugar-that-escaped-to-the-back-of-the-cabinet-and-is-now-hard-enough-to-cut-glass is in the garbage, all wilted and bruised produce is in the garbage, the list is made........and I'll head to the grocery store shortly.

But first, a Jennica story:
On Thursday, we headed back to the naturopath in Olympia. We reported that things were going well (right up until we temporarily let her have milk products last weekend) and that the dietary changes seem to have really helped her moods and general health. We can just tell she feels better, in every way!! So.......as expected, the doctor told us to continue the current diet. Duh. She also gave us a new multi-vitamin for her, and a Vitamin B6 capsule to go with it. No biggie, right?

When we opened the bottle of B6, we discovered capsules full of bright yellow powder. We're supposed to sprinkle the powder onto some food, and she's supposed to munch it right down. At this point, I'm still not seeing a problem.....

So Friday morning, I put a little applesauce in a bowl for her, dump in this yellow powder, and mix it all up. The applesauce is now bright yellow, but I'm still naively convinced that this won't bother Jennica. I approach her at the breakfast table, where she is munching down rice krispies, and hand her a spoon of applesauce. Big brown eyes solemnly look at the spoon, look at me, look at the spoon, and look back at me, "It's yellow."

I decide to play dumb, "Yes.....applesauce is yellow."

She's not convinced, "Not THAT yellow." She's still very solemn, and I'm somewhat impressed that she's not whining yet.

"Yeah, not usually." I throw in a little honesty here. "But this applesauce is yellow because it has extra vitamins in it."

She's happy with that explanation, and opens her mouth and takes the teensy-weensiest of bites. Instantly, the jaw clamps shut, she hops off the chair with her hand over her mouth, and runs over to the family room and buries her head in the couch. Brilliant parent that I am, I follow her.

"Jennica, you need to eat this." All I see is the back of her head shaking no, while her face is still buried in the couch.

"JENNICA!" My voice is rising. The fun is beginning to diminish, as I have a million things to do today, and a million places to be. They need to finish breakfast so I can run them to the Day Care. "Lift up your head and have a bite of this."

She sits back and looks me straight in the eye, and very calmly says, "I'm.........not.......eating........that."

All-righty then. My brain is registering that there is NO whining here, no screaming, no yelling, no temper tantrum. She is just very emphatically stating her stance. This is a new behavior for her, so I have to ask myself, could it really taste THAT bad? So I take a bite, and watch her grin from ear-to-ear as I make every effort not to grimace and spit it out! I honestly would rather drink a bottle drano than ever eat that stuff again!! The look on her face was absolutely priceless, as she knew that she had won this battle. It took me half of the day to get the taste of chemicals out of my mouth.

So last night, Mike concealed a capsule-ful of B6 in a glass of chocolate soy milk, and unbeknownst to her, she guzzled it right down. But its fascinating to see the changes occurring in her, right before our eyes. The ability and willingness to communicate at a much higher level went right through the roof. And all because we removed milk from her diet? Who ever would have "thunk" it???!!!???

Where is the time going?

My 14-year-old son and several friends took advantage of the time off from school last week to go snow-boarding. Dane has skiied quite a lot, but this was his first adventure on a snowboard. They had a great time, and say it is quite a lot easier than skiing. On a humorous note, they had responsibly informed their track coach that they were going to miss practice on this particular day--and he still made them do some extra running at the next practice, which none of them were real happy about. :)

In any case, they're growing up too fast! From left to right: Levi, Dane (my son), Molly, Aaron, and Chelsea.

New idea for Reality Game Show

Come.......on.........DOWN!!!!!!! And "ABUSE THE APPRAI$ER!!

The game goes something like this..........A lender and/or property owner show up and state how totally stupid and insane the appraiser is that recently completed an appraisal for them. (Can you believe that they only think my house is worth THIS much??!!???) They present photos, video tape, whatever to make their case that the property is worth much more.

And then, they bring out the poor brow-beaten appraiser, who is bashed with verbal comments, while he presents his findings and supports his opinion of value.

At the end, the audience casts their vote for who they think is correct. If the lender/property owner team wins, they get some big prize. If the appraiser wins.........well, they get a pat on the back, as federal regulations prohibit an appraiser from collecting any fee related to the amount of the final opinion of value. (For clarification on that, appraisers get paid an established fee that can not be based upon the amount of the final opinion of value. This is crucially important, as a commission-based payment system could influence an appraiser to "inflate" a value for their own gain. Most people don't think about it.......)

So what do you think? Is this show going to make me million$$$???

Yeah.........I don't think so either, but it is the reality of life as an appraiser in a floundering economy. Thousands of appraisers across the nation are taking daily "verbal-beatings" for correctly reporting property values which are thousands of dollars below the value that property owners need to sell their homes, refinance their homes, or in the worst-case scenarios, retain their homes. Foreclosures are still climbing, so the pressure continues to mount. Some clients are stressed to the point that they don't want to order a costly appraisal without a "guarantee" that a loan will result, but it is unethical (and against federal regulations) for an appraiser to provide any sort of opinion of value without performing the time-consuming task of actually appraising a property. I suppose an appraiser CAN perform that process for free, but that is a pretty lousy business practice.

Honestly......I get tired of the "up-front" requests for value before I have a chance to do my job, but I don't really mind the verbal beatings that sometimes come after the job is complete. When I've done my analysis correctly, its pretty easy to support my opinion of value with factual data. Unrealistic expectations are not my problem. Providing an accurate opinion of value IS my problem.

Ahhh..........its so much fun being ethical sometimes. Of course, if there had been more ethical lenders/brokers/realtors/appraisers/etc., perhaps so many property owners wouldn't be in financial trouble to begin with? And the beat goes on.........

An Easter "shiner" for Jennica

Happy Easter to all!

This weekend has proven, once again, that there is never dull moment at our house. Saturday morning, Jennica was standing on the toilet dancing and fell off, hitting the right side of her face on the bathtub on the way down. She's got one heck of a "shiner." The attached photos were taken this morning in her Easter finery on the way to church.

Which brings me to another point--Some of you that read my blog know that Jennica has always been a very heavy milk drinker, and can be a "challenging" kid at times. With much skepticism, we visited a naturopathic doctor a month ago. (I only say "skepticism" because this is not a medical path that Mike and I had ever really considered before, and have virtually no experience with. We only considered this option because I have recently spoken with several parents who have seen significant health and behavioral improvements with relatively minor dietary changes suggested by this doctor.) In any case, the doctor suggested that we cut ALL dairy products from her diet for a month, just to see what would happen.

To make a long story short, the first week was a disaster and its pretty easy to say that things got worse before they gradually began to improve. Late in Week #2, Jennica and I declared war on each other one day, and out of sheer stubborness and an absolute will of iron, I won. (Neener neener neener!) Between this re-establishing in her mind who are the parents, and the diet change, Week #3 was the absolute best that she's ever been! Perfect?-----No. But she was rational and reasonable, far less whiny, and much less argumentative. A glimpse of success!

Now, with any diet change, at some point you have to "test" to see if there is really any dietary relationship to the changes in mood and behavior. So on Friday, she had some cheese and on Saturday morning, she had a tall glass of milk. Late yesterday and today, the child from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is back with a vengeance. YIKES! Its rather amazing to me how quickly I had forgotten just how bad it can be!!

So.....its unanimous here at home that the dairy products are right back out the window. That is the only dietary change we have made, along with the addition of just a couple of low-dosage supplements, but it sure seems to have had a drastic effect. Without consistent and appropriate discipline, I'm sure it wouldn't be a solution, but we're committed there also, so we'll see if things improve again as we change her diet back to no dairy. I also had a chance to talk to an old friend this morning at church that has pursued far more aggressive dietary standards for her son, who is just a couple of months older than Jen. It was fun to hear her stories! We briefly contemplated switching kids for a week, but ended up deciding that no matter what your problem is, there is an advantage in "knowing" your problem. :)

This week, we have a one-month appointment with the naturopath. I'm looking forward to going and reporting our progress! Its going to be interesting to see if she says to continue status quo, or if we gain something "new" to try. I'm sure she'll be impressed with Jennica's black eye.

I usually try not to post political stuff....

........but this was too good to pass up!

Wednesday Wisdom

I figure that every day I learn (or re-learn) something is a day not wasted. These are the things I learned today:

1) Allowing Tiersten to pick out her own hair doo-dads in the morning is like letting Mike put out a movie at the Video Store...........Its a long, painful process and you generally end up with the first thing they saw anyway. (I love you anyway, Michael! )

2) Just because a Toyota Highlander has a total of six seatbelts does not mean that our family of six is going to all fit in this temporary-rental-vehicle-while-the-suburban-gets-fixed-from-the-afore-mentioned-fender-bender. I have to admit that I'm rather enjoying the smaller rig and the girls think its great, too. Its the long-legged males of the family that seem to be struggling with where to put their legs. And when they finally get the front seat back far enough to be comfortable, the girls are squealing in the backseat about being cramped in their carseats. Rather funny!

3) Track meets in Western Washington in the month of March require multiple layers of clothing. If you think you're dressed warm enough, add two more layers and take two blankets and you'll be good! Dane's first track meet was today and we FROZE, even in the covered stands. I have no idea how the participants survived down on the track in the driving wind and rain. Dane came up and actually snuggled with Dear Ol' Mom in the stands under a blanket between events! Yep..........it was THAT cold. :) In any case, he threw the discus and the shotput, and ran the 800m and the 1600m. His shot "toss" was a personal best ever, and both running events are new to him this year, as last year he only ran shorter distances. The discus was wet and he was frozen by then, so we can count on definite improvement for the next meet there.


So..........tomorrow is Thursday and there is no school for the rest of this week due to Teacher's Workshops. Almost enough to make me wish I was in school again! Or not.........

Happy Thursday!

They're putting my braces back on!

Years and years ago, I got kicked in the face by my horse. (Total accident.........she didn't TRY to kick me. Long story. Too hard to explain.) Seven stitches and a plethora of skull x-rays later.......I left the ER with a delightful black eye and some disbelief from the doctor's and nurse's that my cheekbone had not been crushed. Obviously, the black eye went away, I went back to riding horses, all was well, and life went on.

But unknown to anyone at that time, the blow to my face and subsequent swelling most likely caused the very slow contraction of my lower jaw that has been taking place in the last 15-20 years. It has very gradually moved my lower teeth just slightly out of alignment, and there is some concern that it may continue to contract indefinitely, if we don't stop it.

So..........I get BRACES on my bottom teeth in a few weeks!! The orthodontist has assured me that I will only need to wear them for 3-4 months, followed by a nighttime retainer for another 6 months or so. The really funny part? Grant is getting his lower brackets put on the same day. What a mother/son activity to share, huh?

Since this is injury-related, do you think I can send a bill to my horse? I don't own her anymore, but I know where she lives......... :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After an extremely busy week, we've had a rather relaxing weekend at home! After the continuing turmoil of the financial world, which is more-than-slightly running over onto the appraisal business, it was a much-needed break. Unfortunately, its back to the grind tomorrow.

One of the things that I've missed lately, with being so busy, is the random opportunity to snap photos of the kids. So.........we loaded up today, went for a short ride up to the courthouse to feed the ducks, and took time to capture the moment. For whatever reason, it is always more noticeable to see how much the kids are changing (and how quickly) when I see photographs.

In any case, enjoy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, and check out the pictures below!

Return from blog-holiday...

It certainly wasn't planned, or even a conscious decision, but somehow I ended up on a "blogging vacation" after the first of the year. I've been incredibly busy with appraisals, we've been busily buried in basketball season with the boys, and the time has just gotten away from me. When I have had a few minutes of free time, I haven't really wanted to be sitting at the computer.

But I'm back. Busy as always.......but I'm going to try to get back in the habit of updating the blog. :)

Dane's basketball team lost only one game this year, so they all feel good about their season. That one game was lost by only four points in the very last minutes of the game, and was to a team that they had beat in overtime earlier in the year. Not bad, boys!! I think Dane is leaning towards wrestling next year as a freshman, so there is a good possibility that this was Dane's last basketball season.

Grant's basketball team also did very well this year, and was undefeated in regular season play. They had a tournament one weekend that didn't go "their way", but its going to be fun watching these boys take the court next year as 7th graders.

Both boys finally succumbed to the flu this week, and have been home several days. So far, the girls have both been healthy and we're hoping they avoid it. (Please....please......please.......)

Mike and I have both got a million things going on with work. Its nice to have interesting, mentally-demanding jobs, but we both admit that there are days that the simplicity of an "easy" job looks appealing. I'm fully aware of how quickly I would be bored in a less demanding field, but I have my days....... :)

And lastly, I was an unfortunate participant in a "fender-bender" in South Bend this week. Not my fault.......but the suburban took a good blow to the rear end and has the dents to prove it. My neck and back have been sore, but otherwise, no injuries, for which I'm grateful. The suburban will be headed soon for repairs. More of an inconvenience than anything else.

More rambling soon!