On to Week Two...

The first week of school flew by busily for us and its time to gear up for Week 2.

Tomorrow is another big day as Jennica joins the other three at school. She did this routine last year also........half days, Monday thru Thursday..........but this year, we are SO excited to have Miss Hailee as a teacher! Tiersten had her last year in 4-year-old preschool and she is a fantastic preschool teacher. Fully-certified, she teaches preschool by choice. She's the type of teacher that we would love to have more than once, so maybe we can convince her to bump up to a higher grade level in a year or two. :)

Tiersten's first week of Kindergarten was GREAT.........just ask her. She piled off the bus the first day, and didn't stop talking until bedtime, at which point she just about fell asleep standing up. Exhaustion is putting it mildly, but she rolls out of bed each morning at 6:00 rearing to go. :)

Grant started football practice last Monday, and discovered that perhaps he should have worked out a bit more over the summer. Considering that we suggested this repeatedly all summer long, he's not getting much sympathy. I know.......mean parents. After his second day of Junior High, he announced at dinner one night that Junior High is not much different than 6th grade. Yeah............whatever. :) Dane laughed.......and we just sort of nodded our heads.

As for Dane..........well........our school gives a brand-new laptop to each incoming freshman. Fully programmed with more than he will ever use. Wireless internet........the works. He will return this laptop next summer and the school will "clean it", update the programming, and give it back to him. This will recur each year until he graduates, at which point his laptop will cease existence, as they figure it will be outdated by then anyway. Pretty cool, huh? Many of his textbooks are online, and he has a required advanced computer class that he is going to love. He now has an email address, which I will share with those of you who wish to "bug" him. :) Also, Dane's first football game was Friday night. His coach is a little notorious for not letting freshman play at all, so Dane was delighted to see action in the first game!! He played a little in the third quarter, and most of the fourth quarter. They got beat badly, but hey............at least he got to play, right? He was also laughing because their quarterback came dashing along the sidelines yelling "Beeeeeeeeeeep.............." loudly enough that they could all hear him. And right in front of them, got absolutely levelled. So much for trying traffic signals..... :) While I know it wasn't great for the team to start with a solid loss, I have to say that I'm pleased so far with how high school football is going. Considering that, in June, we weren't sure if we would have enough kids to field a team, its nice to see them on the field. One game at a time........

First Day of School

Wahoo! Today is the first day of school! The boys were pretty ho-hum about it all, but Tiersten.......she's a whole different story. Today is her first day of kindergarten. She barely touched her breakfast and didn't even want to hold still long enough for me to snap a picture or two this morning. I thought for sure she would pick out a dress to wear, and was surprised that she actually chose to wear jeans and tennis shoes.........I think she has big plans for recess and the new play equipment at our playground. Kindergarten at our school is full day and very academically-challenging (seriously!!), so it will be interesting to see how exhausted she is tonight. And tomorrow night. And the night after that. :) She will be riding the bus home this year, so I'm looking forward to seeing her this afternoon! Ahhh.........the advantages of working from a home office.........

Dane has been practicing football for two weeks, and his first game is this Friday. He is enjoying it all, and as one of the few freshman, is getting to know his older teammates. Grant starts football practice with the Junior High team tonight, and their first game is not until the 18th.

Last, but not least, Jennica starts preschool next Monday, so she has one more week of day care before heading off to school with the "big kids." I expected a bit of temper from her this morning when Tiersten headed off to school without her, but she was surprisingly amiable about it all. Whaddayaknow. :)

Blog ranting...

By sheer nature, I tend to a person that with strong opinions that is willing to speak my mind. With that said, I also try to be aware of the havoc that personality trait can cause on others, and attempt to temper it with good listening skills and make an effort to think about things before I speak. The result is that sometimes by the time I have thought through my response on an issue, I have worked myself into a real frenzy and the recipient of my opinion gets a REAL earful. In this particular case, I'm going to blog my "earful", as there really isn't anyone in particular at which to direct my frustration. So here's the deal--take it or leave it!

Our school district has, in my opinion, a really fantastic elementary school. The administration has taken huge strides to spend money wisely to keep class sizes small, teacher competence is through the roof, and parent involvement is good (at least up until about Grade 5 or so). I could go on and on about all the terrific programs offered in our primary grades. So my hat is off to our elementary and they are specifically excluded from my about-to-be-rant. 'Nuff said.

Our high school sucks. The female students seem to do okay. The boys are a nightmare. Drug use is rampant, parent involvement is very poor overall, and our student population is comprised of far-too-many losers. Well........guess what? I've got a freshman son, and a son entering Jr. High. Just peachy! Not the greatest environment! However, we have been well aware of the issues at hand, and have stayed put for several reasons. First, we feel strongly that the teaching staff in the school is very, very good. They aren't the problem, and we feel that our children can get a good education at our school, and yes, education is a priority in our family, as opposed to athletics alone. Second, we don't feel that the correct answer is to "run" from your problems. We feel strongly that it is a more important life lesson to teach our children that you deal with life's problems with integrity and honesty, and face them head-on. So........we have chosen to stay put rather than "choice out" to one of our neighboring districts. (By the way, we also feel strongly that our neighboring districts also have many of the same problems--they are simply hiding their problems a bit better at the present time.)

So, Mike and I have attended the last two school board meetings, voiced our concerns, and have felt like we have been treated with great respect. We have been the ONLY parents in attendance over these specific issues, which is somewhat expected, but still appalling. Our school board is willing to take action, and are in the process of making some big decisions. Honestly, I'm not sure of the outcome, but I give them credit for their willingness to try to find solutions rather than just agonize over the problems.

But this evening was a student-athlete meeting at the school, and I was the only mother in attendance for a football player. By far, most of the kids had attended alone without ANY parent, despite the fact that the letter sent home had requested parent attendance. I found myself feeling like the oddball, even while my brain says that I BELONGED there. What more important thing could I possibly do on a Sunday evening than attend a meeting that explains my sons' extracurricular activity for the next 10 weeks!!!!???!!! This is important to my children, and therefore, is important to me!!!

So........I'm left with a feeling of frustration and anger for those parents that can't be bothered. Will they be able to be bothered to pay attention when their child is arrested for drug use? Or when their child doesn't graduate from high school?

Really ticks me off..........Part of me wants to say that its going to serve the parents right when their children fail, but I don't really feel that way at all. For what I see happening is parents failing their children.

School countdown (and some mischief!)

Yesterday, our Day Care was closed for a staff training day, so since the girls were home (which means NO appraisal work will be accomplished), I scheduled the day off in my schedule and ran away for the day with my kids. :) We loaded up in the suburban with my Mom and headed an hour south for a picnic and a great day on the shore of a lake. Mike surprised us by meeting us there, and we all enjoyed some time in the sun. With football starting next week, and school starting right after Labor Day, these opportunities are slipping away. And, as much as I hate to admit it, it is always heavy on my mind that the boys are nearing an age where summer jobs and other commitments are going to encroach. So.........whenever I can, I'm going to enjoy a leisurely family picnic together!!

As always, Jennica managed to slip some mischief into the day. On the way home, we stopped for pizza at a well-known local restaurant. She had finished eating and was beginning to wander the restaurant a bit. It is one of those places that feels somewhat like a cafeteria, and it wasn't a big deal to have her circling our table, but her circles kept getting larger, while we boxed up our leftovers and prepared to leave. Suddenly, Jennica was at our table with a large piece of watermelon! She was happily munching away, while Mike and I scolded her for raiding the salad bar.

When we got out to the parking lot, I noticed that Dane and my Mom are both laughing hysterically. They finally explain that, as we were all trudging out of the restaurant, they took a gander at the salad bar and there was NO watermelon anywhere at the salad bar. I am less than amused at this point, and Jennica is still happily munching her watermelon. The following conversation proceeded while I'm buckling her into her carseat:

Me: "Jennica! Where did you get that watermelon??!!!???"
Jennica (very matter-of factly while still munching): "From the man in the black hat."
Me: "WHAT man in the black hat?"
Jennica: "The man back there in that place." (Still chewing away.)

I didn't see any man in a black hat. My Mom is laughing again and Grant is beginning to join in the hysterics also. They're definitely NOT helping.......

Me: "Jennica.........Did the man GIVE you the watermelon? Or did you just take the watermelon?"
Jennica: "I taked it." She's pretty much down to the rind now, and hands me the juicy chunk of green for disposal. UGH!

At this point, I contemplated going back into the restaurant to look for a man in a black hat and apologize for my daughter stealing a piece of watermelon from him. But then again, what would be the point? So we left. I know there were a few birthday parties going on around us, so I hope that she just non-chalantly lifted a piece of a loaded plate of watermelon at one of the parties, rather than swiping a piece of fruit off of some singular person's plate!!!

To the man in the black hat, whoever you are..............I apologize. My daughter is a very cute 4-year-old with no manners. We're working on it. What else can I say? SHEESH!!!

A week of vacation...

I have returned to "normal life" following a great week of vacation camping with Mike & the four kids in the Cascades. It was surprisingly relaxing.........a real testament to the fact that the girls are growing up and getting easier. We accomplished some serious "nothing-ness", which was exactly our goal. Swimming.........fishing........reading..........playing..........AHhhhhhh.

I'm posting some fun photos of the kids being kids!

Gone too soon

I think this guy "got it." If you haven't been fortunate enough to hear him speak or read his book, it is worth the time and will make you stop and think about your life. My prayers go out to his family.

Do you want to be a "Tigger" or an "Eeyore?" You decide........

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25848017?GT1=43001

Forever at last

Three years ago, a sibling group entered our foster care system. They were placed with a foster family for what was supposed to be a period of about three months, and just now..........three long years later..........they are finally transitioning to their "forever family." This lengthy term in foster care is becoming increasingly rare, as there are now laws in place that try to prevent children from languishing without permanency. However, the path for these particular children has had many twists and turns, and it has taken time to resolve the issues.

I have the utmost admiration for these particular foster parents, who have resolutely endured tremendous challenges and have remained steadfast in their commitment that their home would be the only stepping stone between these kids and their permanent home. For a time, it even looked like these children might be returned to their past-abusive home, and the foster family was facing the unbelievable task of helping to prepare them to transition back. Somehow, they remained patient in believing that justice would prevail. While I would have been raging wildly at the social workers, this family swallowed their frustration and focused on day-to-day life. When the kids left briefly to an adoptive placement, this family welcomed them back with open arms when it all fell apart.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have known these children. They can be incredibly demanding of attention, fight amongst each other like cats and dogs, and drive you to the brink of insanity. They have each struggled with deep depression, have huge trust issues, and are the definition of "needy." But there is a certain courage about them, too, that makes my daily challenges seem so small in comparison. They've faced abuse and rejection that no human being should ever have to endure, and still have the strength to get out of bed and face each day.

And now.......they're starting all over again. In a new place far away. With new people that they don't know. A new home. A new school. A new bedroom. A new yard. A new neighborhood. And they're told that this is "forever." There is no home to go back to on the weekend, or at the end of the summer, or after Christmas, or any other time. This IS home. In all of its unfamiliar glory. I'm sure they will be allowed to visit and talk to their foster family, but their foster home is no longer "home."

There is a saying about giving your children the two most important things in life--One is roots, the other is wings. I wish these children the utmost successes in life. I hope that they've grown roots to build on, and I hope they know that we're all cheering for them to FLY.........

My secret is out...

My secret is apparently now out in the open. This was such a huge secret that even I didn't know about it! Nobody had thought to let me know before, so I can be eternally grateful to the emails I have been receiving for informing me. You see...........I have erectile dysfunction. The email gurus of the world are kindly offering me Viagra and/or Cialis at heavily-discounted prices so that I may resolve this issue. Isn't that great??!!??

All humor aside, where in the heck do these companies get our email addresses? I could understand it if I had submitted an online questionnaire regarding this medical issue. Or, perhaps, even if I was surfing the internet looking for discounted prescriptions for ED. But I have done neither. Furthermore, I am a woman and my first name (obviously female) is part of my email address! I just wouldn't consider myself a "marketing target" for erectile dysfunction products. And yet, day after day after day, I delete them from my junk-mailbox. Along with a huge variety of other sexually-related prescriptions, products, etc., to which I have never searched for, considered purchasing, or frankly, even knew existed.

My "delete" finger works very well, so I don't really consider these emails offensive. More of an inconvenience, I simply delete them away. But they baffle me somewhat. If this is targeted marketing........well............somebody needs to narrow their target.

Only three kids for a week

Yesterday, we took Grant to Camp Bethel for a week of Junior High Camp. He always seems so shy and quiet. Its kind of hard to drive away and feel like he's actually going to have a good time. However, each year he keeps asking to go back and always claims to enjoy himself, so go figure. I just keep trying to remind myself that he is 13, and that his life is HIS journey. It's not fair to compare his camp adventures to my own, where I looked forward to it all year, couldn't wait to go back, and could barely be bothered unload my gear from the car before running off to be with the friends that I had missed for months.

Yesterday was also Dane's 15th birthday, so we left the girls with friends when we ran Grant to camp, and took Dane golfing on the way home. He REALLY likes to golf, but doesn't often get to play a full round, so this was a treat for him. He didn't play real well yesterday, and had to grudgingly laugh at his own frustration which was only making his game go that much worse. Welcome to golf, Dane!! :) He's grown so much in the last year or two that its almost unreal. He towers over me now, and just rolls his eyes at me when I make a point of reaching up to pat him on the head.

And lastly, the girls had a GREAT time with our friends. Brandi and Brittany not only painted their nails, but also did an intricate miniature stamping thing on each nail, which the girls thought was terrific. They got to pick out which stamps they wanted to use for each nail, and what colors, and they were completely in seventh heaven. We do "girly" things at home sometimes and paint nails, but I don't think I would have the patience for the intricacy involved in this little design process. I can't even believe that Jennica would hold still for it all, but she was all decked out and enjoying it to the max. Too funny!!

So this week will be a little quieter with one less kid at home. It already doesn't feel quite right...but I hope Grant has a GREAT time!

Riding the rollercoaster...

Coming to the end of this week, I'm mentally exhausted. Despite the financial turmoil that the news seems to delight in reporting, I'm still very busy with appraisals. I've put a lot of effort into being very versatile for exactly this type of market, and it seems to be paying off. While conventional lending has slowed somewhat, FHA is booming. While real estate purchases are lagging a bit, my private work has increased dramatically. I'm grateful that I can shift my workload into other areas and that I have the tools to make the transition effortlessly. With a huge plug to A La Mode/Aurora, my software provider, they keep the behind-the-scenes invoicing and accounting simple so that I can focus on valuations without losing track of the financial end of my business. They are the most expensive software option for appraisers like myself............and worth every single penny.

With all of this said, the weak economy takes a toll on my mental state some days. With fewer properties selling, my selection of recent comparable sales is much smaller than it was 12 months ago. With properties that are unique to begin with, I feel like I'm sometimes pounding a square peg into a round hole just to come up with three comparable sales that barely define "comparable". I don't blame the lenders when they call and ask, "Is this the best you've got?" I sometimes find myself apologizing for the lack of good data, as if I could go out and create better sales.

And then things happen like the IndyMac Bank failure last Friday, which creates deepening concern for other lenders and consumers alike. IndyMac appears to have been deep into fraudulent practices, and most appraisers can tell you that fraud has become a common practice in the mortgage business. We find ourselves voraciously defending the lenders we find to be ethical, while at the same time hoping that the fraudulent ones go bust. When appraisers chat together, the "David vs. Goliath" conversations are common. Which big lender will be the next to fall?

Over the past three years, I've cultivated wonderful friendships with other appraisers across the nation. When I feel like I'm losing my perspective, they're always there to make me realize that appraisers, as a group, are all deranged. Its a career requirement. If you don't enter the field deranged..........just give it a year or two.

And so we sit and continue to type, report after report after report. We watch the news along with the rest of the nation, and watch the stock market rise and fall with the most recent financial news. Just like a roller coaster, its too late to get off, so we might as well enjoy the ride. Let's just hope that there are still appraisals to do at the end.

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........