Two weeks later......the story of our Saturday

Between busy-ness and sick-ness, its taken me a full two weeks to get this posted. But in any case...Here it is!!

Two weeks ago today, we sprung a surprise on a friend for his 40th birthday! His wife planned the day, got everyone together, and off we went to Emerald Downs! This is the same couple that we went there with in July and they had such a great time, that Kelly decided to surprise Chad with another day there for his big 4-0!! He had NO clue what was going on, and was greatly surprised!!

So......all 8 of us crammed into the Crawford's Expedition and away we went!! Of course, after my BIG win last time, I had high expecations. As usual, pride cometh before a fall. I started off with a bang, which only further fueled my pride, before losing all of my gambling cash. I think the most fun I had all day was watching the fool in front of us that very loudly kept announcing his total losses. At first, he was amusing, but when he exceeded $1000 before 1/2 the day was over, I decided that he deserved to lose. Everybody in our group lost except the Portmanns, but none of us lost even a fraction of what that loud-mouthed jerk lost!!!

After a day at the races, we proceeded on to dinner at Hooter's! Keep in mind.......we are normally a pretty tame crowd. After all, we have 11 children between the 8 of us, and we are all intelligent adults. Several of us had never been to Hooter's (me included) and I have to admit, its a tad over-rated. You can turn on your average TV sitcom and get skimpier outfits!!! But, for a 40th birthday and with such great company of great friends, we had a blast!! Lesson learned--do NOT drink anything that Andy orders by the round. And Kim, next time I'm volunteering as the designated driver. :)

A little late-night shopping and a late movie ended a great day!! I only hope that Chad has as much fun as the rest of us!! Happy 40th Birthday, Chad!!

We are headed for Mexico on a great big ship with this same great group of friends in a few months!! WAHOO!! I can hardly wait.......

Another week gone......

Whew!!! We have finally reached the end of this week! A little worse for the wear, but everyone is present and accounted for!!

First of all, after my last post on how shy Jennica was on the first day of preschool--she blew through the door on Tuesday like an old pro. She has hit the ground running and is loving EVERY minute of it!! She has a couple classmates that scream every morning when their parents leave them, while I feel fortunate if she remembers to wave good-bye to me!! We arrived at the school one morning along with two buses full of kids, so there was a large crowd of kids trying to get in the front doors all at the same time. Surrounded by a large crowd of kids, Jen looked up at me with the biggest grin ever and said, "This is COOL!!" She really loves everything about going to school!

Tiersten has settled back into the school routine and is happily back with her group of friends-Chloe, Hannah, and Hannah. I find myself worrying a bit that the four little girls that are so inseparable are becoming a little "clique-ish", but the teachers have assured us all that they are making sure that the girls are interacting with the others in the class. I recognize that my concerns are probably extremely premature, but the last thing I want is my daughter to be one of those "Mean Girls."

Also, Tiersten's eye appointment on Wednesday went about as we expected--the doctor had made a MAJOR error in Tiersten's vision prescription. Instead of needing glasses for extreme near-sightedness, her new glasses are now being re-done with ONLY a correction for her astigmatism. HUGE difference!! The doctor was very apologetic, gracious, very willing to pay for the error, and I'm trying to be understanding that doctors make mistakes, too, but I'm still rather annoyed with it all. I know...........move on, Beth.....its not the end of the world...........BUT STILL........

Dane's first football game was Thursday night and he did very well! He never came out of the game even once, had an unassisted quarterback sack, and seemed to be busily running all over the place knocking people down. His weight is beginning to drop again, so we're working on getting him to increase his calorie intake and food volume. (All together now......POOR DANE!! What a hardship to have people telling you to eat MORE!! Don't we all wish we had this problem?)

And, last but not least, Grant's first full game was today. They absolutely demolished the opposing team!! Grant had a LOT of playing time, gained a lot of yards, had some great tackles, and got his first touchdown! Unfortunately, a flag went down on the play so his touchdown didn't count, but his Mom still counts it as a touchdown! Way to go, Grant!!!

Onward and upward!!

Five days of sickness...and still no end in sight

The humor of being "jinxed" has long since worn off. Nobody here is laughing anymore.

Jennica stayed "barf-y" the rest of last Monday. Tuesday, her illness moved to another orifice, and that lasted until Friday. (She's a cute kid.......but a lousy appraisal assistant.)

And over this past weekend, despite following her with a can of Lysol all week, I GOT IT!!! AAAAAHHHHHH! I'm slowly getting better, but yesterday, the weather was gorgeous and all I wanted to do was lie on the couch and hope to die. Truly delightful!

But life goes on, sick or not. Grant had his first football game on Saturday and did really well! It was actually a Jamboree thing-y, so they really only played like 10 minutes or so. He's carrying the ball quite a lot this year, and came within inches of a touchdown before being levelled to the ground. He also had an unassisted tackle, and some other good carries. Way to go, Grant!!

Dane's first game is this Thursday. He's going to be starting at center, and defensive end. His team isn't real big, so he will probably play the whole game. As in the ENTIRE game. Gonna be exhausted when he's done.

The girls both started preschool today!! WAHOO!!

Tiersten has different teachers and a different classroom than last year, and is actually in a differently-funded program this year with a whole different set of rules, so she's going to have to adapt a little. Her lead teacher is very young and pretty and looks like what a preschool teacher SHOULD look like. The assistant teacher is also terrific! The class is, just at first-glance, probably about 30% ESL students, so they have a full-time interpreter in the classroom to attempt to get the non-English-speaking students fluent before Kindergarten next year. A daunting task to me......but they really do a fantastic job. Tiersten will be reading by Christmas if she stays on her current track.

Jennica has been eagerly awaiting her big preschool debut for a whole year!! Much to my surprise, she was NERVOUS today, and very subdued. Her teacher wanted to get a photo of her upon arrival, and Jen wouldn't even smile. She stood very quietly against the wall with her hands folded and wouldn't look at the camera!! TOO FUNNY!!! I thought about telling the teacher not to get used to this "shy child", but nah........they'll figure it out soon enough! She was a bit of a handful at preschool testing, so they have already seen a little of what she is capable of. (From Jennica when they wanted her to show them she could hop on one foot..."I'm NOT hopping for you. I'm playing!!!")

And life is never dull around here. To add to the "fun", Tiersten's new glasses, that had been so eagerly anticipated, arrived last week. Keep in mind--we had consulted with a highly-respected specialist on Tiersten's eyes to get this prescription. Everyone RAVES about this doctor. Well....not sure what went wrong, but T can NOT see out of these things. AT ALL!!! No way--no how. We have tried to get her to wear them, even a little, and it just doesn't work!! She can't see three feet past her face. So.....the doctor (who is currently booking appointments in January) must have heard the irritation in my voice on the phone and has managed to "fit her in" this Wednesday. Sure......we NEEDED to drive to Olympia this week. On the same day that I have an order due, and an evening full of football practice and Open House at the school. Seriously here.......I'm rather laughing. Thats what we get for having four kids!!

So........its been a long, last 7 days. But all is good and things could be SO much worse. A little bit of stomach flu and trying to be 3 places at once is not something to whine about!!!

More soon on that delayed post about what we were up to two Saturdays ago.......

JINXED!!

We spent Saturday with friends (more on that later after I've had a chance to download photos) and between the four couples, we have 11 kids total. So......we happened to end up in a conversation where everyone was regaling their worst "vomiting child" stories. Some real doozies!! BLECH!!! Mike and I did a lot of listening and finally volunteered that our kids are not much for barfing. The rare flu........sure. But we honestly couldn't remember the last time that one of our kids had up-chucked.

We should have knocked on wood!! No kidding.......Jennica showed up in our bedroom at 2:30 this morning, "I puked!!" She was covered in it, but very matter-of-fact about it all. I seem to remember crying and wailing when I threw up as a kid. Not Jen. So we stripped her down, cleaned up the mess in her room, got the laundry going, got her back to sleep and all that. She threw up AGAIN at about 7:00 this morning. So now she is being followed by a bowl everywhere she goes. :)

Open mouths......insert feet. The Saturday crowd is going to get a BIG kick out of this one.....

Gotta love three-day weekends!!

Yippee!!! A three-day weekend!!!

This has been a rather odd week and I'm not quite sure why. It started off with me in a "shopping mood" and, let me tell ya, I did pretty darn good indulging that one!! One of the things I spent money on was a matching set of MP3 players for Mike and I. We have talked about buying them for quite a while and just never seemed to get around to it. To be an appraiser in 2007, you have to be pretty techno-savvy, but I don't own really anything that is a techno-TOY. I do now! And I'm loving it!!! Of course, Mike and I are down-loading totally different music to our respective MP3s. Very funny to see how blatantly different our musical tastes can be. (Of course, the difference would be that I HAVE musical taste......Back at ya, Baby!!)

And somehow, I became once again buried in work again this week. I've got a whole host of complex orders again on my desk!!! While I admit that I am gaining tremendous experience and knowledge in the process of researching all the value complexities involved, the brain power that it requires is unreal. Then again, I have to admit that I bore very easily and this keeps me from getting bored--never a bad thing. And I'm developing a great library of research material, and a brilliant peer group whose opinions I seek out and trust to tell me when I'm headed in the wrong direction. I've also taken some big career steps recently, which I'll have to blog about at another time, and all these complex orders will come back with interest later on. However, even Mike had to tell me to quit obsessing this week, from one Type-A personality to another.

We're off tomorrow to have some GREAT fun!! Don't want to jinx the day, so I'll post about it on Sunday, while I'm working. Yes.......I will be working quite a lot this weekend. Gotta catch up before Tuesday arrives with a whole set of new orders. But don't worry....I've played plenty lately, so this is just the grindstone hunting me down.

Have a good weekend!!!

Where do you get those meek, mild children?

In the past few weeks, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I think Mike and I have officially become "those" type of people. You know the kind. The ones with the rowdy kids. Sigh...

As mentioned in a previous post, last week was our County Fair. We went several times, of course, and the girls got more confident with every trip. On Friday night, we could have given them some money and we're about 99% sure that they would have happily run off to the carnival without a single worry. WE would have worried, obviously, but they would have been totally oblivious to anything except the rides. In fact, we didn't even make it in the front gate that night before they had partnered up with another little girl that they know from the Day Care and they were off and running with Aubrielle!! LITERALLY running through the crowds of people while we were frantically trying to slow them down and get them to listen to us. Both girls were just so totally confident and comfortable in this moving mass of people.

And then, with our new bicycles, we have been riding in the evenings quite regularly. The girls ride in a little cart behind Mike. It was very warm yesterday, so many people were out on the rail trail enjoying an evening stroll/ride, which is where we also chose to ride. Of course, all these people seemed to be relaxed and leisurely and peaceful. And here we come!! The girls are yelling and laughing and making all kinds of racket in the cart. For awhile, we tried to keep telling them to lower their voices, but we reached a point that it seemed like we were making more noise telling them to be quiet than the amount of noise that they were making! So.....we gave up!! At least they were HAPPY and not fighting or crying!!

And on Sunday, we ended up in JCPenneys at the mall. Jennica took off!! We turned around and she was GONE!! Once again, totally confident in a completely strange place. We panicked, of course, and split up to find her. Mike found her looking at some things just totally unconcerned that we were out of sight! AAAHHH.

So I want to know---where do you get those kids that you see clinging to their parents' legs? And those kids that are so shy that they bury their faces if a stranger says "hello" to them? And those kids that walk across the street holding their parents' hand, or ride meekly in a shopping cart through a grocery store without trying to climb out??

Because we have FOUR freakin' kids and NOT ONE OF THEM has been meek and mild!!! At Dane and Grant's ages, their self-confidence is becoming a tremendous asset. But at ages 3 & 4, its a great big pain in the neck for us as parents!! I remember wanting to throttle the boys when they were toddlers for exactly the same behaviors that the girls are exhibiting now. What are we doing wrong??!!?? The girls have very strict rules and are consistently disciplined and the whole works, but you can't take a confident child and MAKE them afraid to leave your side!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! I guess I just have to keep reminding myself that someday it will be a good thing. And I will have a lot of gray hair.

Awakened by loud trucks

Very early this morning, we awoke to very loud trucks in our driveway. Yahoo....The concrete trucks have arrived!!! Even as I write this, the contractors are still outside working the huge slab that is about to become the foundation for our new garage. The weather has been less than cooperative, so they've been sitting at a standstill for over a week with the forms complete and afraid that if they poured, the sky would surely open up and dump huge amounts of rain. But today is the big day!! Progress!! Hopefully, the framing and all that jazz will go quickly, because there is only so much time now before winter and we want it totally complete, with paint and all.

And with that said, fall is definitely arriving. We're beginning to have those evenings where the fog rolls in shortly before dark and there's a different feel in the air.

The boys are both hard into football now and loving every minute of it. Grant is covered in bruises, and even got his hand smashed into the ground by a cleated shoe at practice last night. When I picked him up, I could tell just by the look on his face that he was in pain from something, but he had "toughed it out" and made it through practice without quitting. Its pretty swollen this morning, but fortunately, just a bad bruise. His team doesn't practice today, so he's got a day to rest it.

As for Dane, his football cleats look HUGE. Not sure when his feet got that big. And he seems to have grown another inch or two. Or I'm shrinking... :) He said that there first day of conditioning yesterday was "easy." He'd better not let the coaches hear him say that. And now on top of football practice from 3:30-6:30 every day, he's going to add Pep Band practice from 7:00-?? on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He's been invited, along with a few other Junior High kids, to play his trombone with the High School Pep Band for High School football games, so that will be one more thing to keep him busy.

Things are getting back to normal.

Trying to get back in the swing of things

After my lengthy vacation, I'm having a really hard time getting back into the swing of working. My brain has a serious case of concentration-itis and I can't focus on ANYTHING. So.....here I sit at my desk and nothing seems to be motivating me to get it in gear. Maybe if I spit out some of my thoughts here, it will help. So here goes.

1) Grant has started football practice. His head coach taped his name across the front of his helmet, followed by a number. So Grant's helmet says, "Camenzind 95". The name thing I got right away, as their practice jerseys are not numbered and all the kids look the same once they get helmets on. Duh. But whats with the number? I asked Grant and he said that it is his weight. I about died laughing. Positive PROOF as to why most girls don't play football. Even at age 12, I don't know many GIRLS that would let a coach write their body weight for everyone to see. Now, you have to realize that in Grant's league, you have to weigh below a certain amount to carry the ball, so it makes sense to plaster it on their head while they are building the team, but still......It was good for a hearty laugh.

2) Dane entered a pencil sketch in our County Fair, and also the sunset photograph that I posted a week or so ago. He's always received wide acclaim for his sketch work, but this is his first attempt at photography. Lo and behold, he crashed and burned on the sketch, while the photograph received "Best in Class". He's still scratching his head over this one.

3) I had an interesting day of appraisals earlier this week. First, got attacked by fleas in a very infested house. Lovely. And then had a job at a home where the property owner has a medical-use license to grow and use marijuana for his/her personal treatment of their medical condition. The property owner was very forthcoming about it, showed me their licensing paperwork, but STILL........it was a little weird to see all of this stuff under grow lights and all. WOW! Yeah......I know.........I live under a rock and I'm very naive. I like it that way, so leave me alone. :)

4) Once the kids all start school, is the weather actually going to be really nice? Its been a very wet summer for us, and its going to stink if the sun comes out AFTER they go back to school.

5) The suburban is covered with Mt. St. Helens ash from our road trip last weekend. The sun is out at the moment. I could go outside and wash it. But then I wouldn't be getting any work done. But I'm not getting any work done by sitting here blogging anyway. Hmmmm.......Its a dilemma.

On that note, this seems to be deteriorating, so before I talk myself into going outside to wash the suburban, I'm getting off of here.

Ho hum, Ho hum, Its back to work I come...

Vacation is officially over. Today, like it or not, was back to business as usual. In the last month, we've had a steady stream of family from far and wide through our home, followed by 10 days of being gone, so the return to routine is actually welcome in some ways. Being the control freak that I am, there is comfort for me in habit and routine. Two weeks from tomorrow, and the boys go back to school. Another 6 days after that and the girls start preschool again. I'm actually looking forward to regular schedules and bedtimes and all that.

On the down side, I came back to the appraisal world with the mortgage industry in continuing chaos. The largest mortgage servicer in the country is Countrywide, and all of us in all areas of the industry and waiting to see what their fate will be. We all knew that the robust market of 2005 wouldn't continue forever, but I don't think any of us imagined that the downturn would reach as high as Countrywide. Then again, investment carries risk and I think it is wise for all of us to remember that.

So.........I am home. I went on vacation to get a break from work. Now I'm back from vacation to get a break from........playing too hard? Go figure.

Friday Folly

I'm still on vacation!! Neener neener neener. Making the most of it!! The below is my Friday silliness. It was sent to me by my eldest sister, so its all her fault!!

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of callouses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Happy Friday!

10 things learned while camping

1) I admit that I WANTED to go camping. I have great memories of camping when I was a kid and wanted to build those same memories for my children. What I didn't understand was that the reason I have great memories of camping was because there was no work involved for me. As a parent, camping is an entirely different experience. So...take it from me...What I really wanted was to go camping again as an eight-year-old where the day consisted of sleeping, eating food that someone else prepared, sitting around a fire that someone else built, playing, bicyle riding, swimming, eating again.......

2) Sometimes when there is blue sky in the west, it really does sunshine the next day. Whaddayaknow.

3) A 6-man tent is an oxymoron. No tent should ever hold more than 4 people. Period.

4) Choosing a campsite near the bathrooms was a smart move. Choosing a campsite away from the lakeshore was a smart move. Choosing a campsite VERY near the playground was not really such a smart move. Our little girls were naturally drawn to the laughter of other children swinging and playing. That would be okay for part of the day. But ALL day EVERY day got to be a bit much. Almost enough to make you wish that you were a neglectful parent that could just say, "Go!!! I'll see you when it gets dark!!"

5) Give a 14-year-old a digital camera and he can take a LOT of pictures. Sure glad we're not developing all that film.

6) Give a 12-year-old a fishing pole, with which he catches two fish, and he is suddenly the world's largest teller of tall fish tales. Very funny!!

7) I like frogs. I don't like thousands of little tiny hopping frogs all in one place. Not kidding here.

8) Wearing shorts around a campfire makes your legs hot and you eventually pick up your chair and move farther back.

9) I taught my children to make toast on a campfire. :)

10) What is with the people that camp in big RVs and never come out? Why go camping if you're not going to go outside? I don't get it...

Just dropping by...

...for a quick update. Vacation is going well and I'm trying not to even THINK about the fact that its not going to last forever. I will post again tomorrow with a little more detail, but for now, enjoy the attached photo. My 14-year-old son, Dane, got control of the camera for several hours over the last three days and took some really fantastic pictures!! He's been a sketch artist forever, but this is a new outlet for him and I'm really impressed. Good night!!

On Vacation

I am just dropping by for a quick update as we're ON VACATION!!! WAHOO!!! I'm trying to stay away from the computer as much as possible, as I find it irresistible to check my email.....which reminds me of work......which ruins the whole point of vacation.

So.....I will be updating when I officially return to the computer-based world of appraisal on the 20th. Until then.....maybe I'll drop by and maybe I won't. :)

Have a good one!!

Time to buck up...

After my "the sky is falling" post the other day.......I've made a concious effort to buck up. We all have our down-and-out days, but enough is enough. And my life, even on the very worst day, could be a WHOLE LOT worse.

So...life is looking up again. The pile on my desk is slowly diminishing as I have stopped accepting new orders until we return from our vacation. The last of the particularly-difficult orders are gone, and the weight of those brain-crushing bruisers has lifted. Whatever backlash comes.........it is what it is. I do not and will not unethically fabricate numbers. Period.

My sisters and their families are both here visiting. One of them lives in Minneapolis, so yesterday's bridge collapse is being closely watched and hits close to home. Its good for all of us to be together, and our parents will gain a new appreciation for the peace and quiet when everyone goes home again. The four boy cousins, ages 15, 14, 13, & 12, continue to be close and enjoy their time together with wild games that none of the rest of us understand.

And last, but certainly not least, today is our 5th wedding anniversary. It has gone by incredibly fast, and this particular year was a specific milestone for me for personal reasons. So Michael.......we made it. Thanks for the five best years of my life!! I love you!! 1, 2, 3...... :)

What? WHAT??!!!?? What did I do to deserve this?

Ever noticed how sometimes life seems to magically "gang up on you"? You know its true.....admit it!! There are even phrases for this magical occurence. Like, "When it rains, it pours." The person that came up with that one was feeling seriously ganged up on.

Well.....I am SO there. Its Tuesday, and I am wishing it was Friday. Before a summer vacation and I am in the 7th grade. So I could be a sloth all summer like Dane is being. Still too young to have real responsibilities, but old enough that you've got some options on what you do with your free time. Ahhhh.........that sounds so good. I think I'll go spend five hours riding my horse. Dream on.

So here's the deal. 99 days out of 100, I really like my choice of careers, but the last few weeks I have had a number of really tough assignments. The kind where you go to bed at night and stare at the ceiling and wonder if there is some valuation angle that you have forgotten, and then you get in the shower in the morning and feel yourself questioning your opinion of the highest and best use of the property. And you think about it some more every minute of every day. You finally get the darn thing submitted, and then the phone calls begin. Why is this or that stated such -and-such way? Did you consider this or that? All while you're trying to move on to the next three complex reports....AAAHHH.

So my neck has been in knots, I've been fighting stress headaches, and I'm trying to convince myself that "this too shall pass". And then Jennica decides not to sleep last night and we're up and down with her from 2:23 am to 5:15, when Tiersten decides to join the party. Sleep deprivation does not help me out.....

And then something happens like this morning. I'm happily pulling out of our driveway, and see a squished black kitty in the road. I'm pretty darn sure that it is our kitty, but I keep driving as I don't really want to get the girls upset and I don't think there is anything I can do anyway. I will be back home in 15 minutes and go take care of the cat. So, 15 minutes later, I'm driving back and cat is still in the same place in the road, but sort of sitting up. Oh......GREAT!!! Cat is badly injured and didn't even have the courtesy to die instantly. Now Beth has to make the "life or death" decision on the cat. Thankfully, I'm good friends with our vet and she gave me the honest-no-holds-barred opinion that kitty has massive head injuries and deserves to die with dignity. So now.......when the girls get home, we get to break it to them that Daisy has passed away and is buried in the backyard. Sigh........

Jennifer was here this morning and I'm so tired and stressed that I was barely completing sentences when I was speaking to her. I am WORN OUT!!! I have stopped accepting orders in anticipation of clearing the desk before vacation, but the phone continues to ring. And ring. And ring.

So this is a GRUMPY post. Bah Humbug! 10 days until vacation.

Crazy Busy

For some reason, I seem to go week after week telling myself that life will be quieter and more relaxed NEXT week, or after some specific event in the future. I think it must be my brain's coping mechanism, because when next week gets here, or we get past whatever the specific event happens to be, things are never more relaxed...we're simply on to the next series of activities, things to do, and places to be. I'm feeling the need right now for some "down time", and the frequency of my headaches tells me that I'm pushing too hard. But I'm not sure what I'm supposed to remove from the schedule, as its already about as bare-bones as its going to get. Oh well! Onward and upward and trying to be grateful that I have the opportunity to be so involved in life.

The boys are home from camp and had a really great time!! There were about half as many kids as attended when I went years ago, but that doesn't seem to have dulled the fun any. Dane has been quiet, while Grant has been the storyteller so far. This is a bit of a role reversal for them, so its been fun listening to Grant jabber. I had no idea that Grant had an ability to blow Kix cereal out his nose for great distances, but he was a member of the championship team. Yep...I'm serious. Gotta love Junior High Camp!! :)

I've gotta hit the road here shortly, as I'm in the field all day today with the usual odd mix of properties. Maybe in my next life I will be one of those lucky appraisers that works in some area with a whole bunch of identical housing developments with an abundance of truly comparable sales. AAAAAHHHHHhhhhhhh....What a soothing thought that is......

Have a good day out there!!
Beth

Ahhhhh.........Camp Bethel

This past Sunday, we dropped the boys off at Junior High Camp. I attended the same camp as a kid, and later counseled there for several years. I have some great memories and, oddly enough, several of my old friends are directing/counseling my boys this week, or have children that are attending as campers. Like a magnet, Camp Bethel seems to draw us all back eventually, in one way or another.

In any case, I hope the boys are building the wonderful friendships and memories. I haven't heard from them, and I'm sure I won't until after they are picked up on Saturday. They are doing what they should--being boys and enjoying life away from home to the fullest.

For me, camp always went far beyond the basic activities of rafting, swimming, and campfire. When I tell old camp stories, I find that I often describe the schedule and what we spent our time doing, but that is not truly what Camp Bethel was to me. It was so much deeper, but something that I can't really put into words. To say that I grew up with my fellow campers sounds silly when said aloud, as we truly only spent one week together each year. But in many ways, they had just as much influence on my life growing up as my school classmates, with which I spent nine months each year.

This is a story that portrays my innocence at age 15 or 16. I have never told the boys this story, so I'll have to let them read this when they get home. Here goes...

Almost all teenagers arrive at camp with some expectation that they are going to stay up all night, or sneak out, or do some other "something". I was no different. I had been attending camp for several years, but I was now a teen and liked to think of myself as slightly rebellious. Living in a small town where I was highly recognizable did not give me much opportunity for rebellion, as I was totally convinced that if I so much as spit on the sidewalk, my parents would find out. But here I was......an hour from home with no parents for an entire week.

So, one evening, another girl in my cabin and I decided that we were going to sneak out in the middle of the night. She was also a girl from my hometown, and someone that also harbored an inner rebel. (Yeah right!) We made an arrangement that one would wake up the other at a certain time, and we discreetly set out our clothes and shoes so we would be able to dress quickly and quietly. The time came, and we slipped quickly out of our cabin. Now on the front porch, we exchanged big grins and tiptoed down the stairs, quite pleased with our success thus far.

Now.......this had been fully pre-meditated and we're feeling quite smart. We have outsmarted our cabin counselor and all the other girls in our cabin, and we are outside at 2 a.m. with no adults in sight. We are REBELS.

However, we forgot a few things:
1) Its dark, heavily wooded, and the cabins are approximately 30 yards apart with virtually no exterior lighting. It is so dark that we can hardly see the myriad of paths that wind the way through the camp to the main complex.
2) Its cold and foggy. We are on a large chunk of property located at the south end of the Olympic Rain Forest--a solid 20 minute drive from the nearest town. Isolated ocean beaches are not too far to the west. At two o'clock in the morning, its none to warm. Mosquitoes like this environment and they are hungry.
3) We are ALONE and without a plan. So........we go and throw rocks at a boys cabin until a couple of boys come out. Of course, they ask what we are doing. We tell them, "Sneaking out." Brilliant.
4) We stumble around on the dark paths for approximately 10 minutes with said boys, trying to come up with some entertainment that will not involve waking up any adults. We're avoiding the main complex, so as not to get seen by someone who may be up moving around. However, by avoiding the main complex, we are also without light, heat, and any activities that may be slightly amusing at 2:00 am.
5) One of us finally caves in and mentions that we are cold. Three other heads nod in agreement. We go back to our respective cabins and back to bed.

We are teenagers. We have successfully rebelled.

For Mike and his Dad

This has taken me a few weeks to get posted, but here it is!!

For Father's Day this year, Mike sent a plane ticket and Mariner's tickets to his Dad. His Dad flew into Seattle one afternoon in late June. They went to the game together, spent the night in the city, ate out, and Wayne flew home the next morning. They had a great time together and, since Mike and I never seem to see any of our parents without our herd of noisy children, it was nice for the two of them to get to spend some rare father-and-son time together alone. Of course, the girls weren't real happy about missing out on hugs from Grandpa Wayne, but they saw he and Grandma Sharla in May and will be seeing them again soon. I think its good for them to learn that Daddy gets time with his Dad, too.

Its 4:30 pm on FRIDAY!!!

Okay.........Gotta get something out of the way here right off the bat....For any of you lenders out there that may be checking this blog because it is linked to my business web-site, I know that this is my THIRD blog of the day, but I do not owe you or anyone else any reports today. I am officially caught up with all deadlines (wahoo). I realize that Monday is coming fast, and the deadlines start all over again next week, but I purposely scheduled some "screwing off" time for today, and I have actually spent most of it working. So don't be sending me any of those internet-transmitted guilt trips.

Back to the subject at hand...Since it is 4:30 pm on Friday and I'm screwing off, I just checked the blog of one of my favorite internet blogger cohorts. I'm either very tired, or it is truly THAT funny. Not sure which, and I don't really care. So anyway, the list below is extracted from the Beast Mom. And since I just listed her name here, I'm not breaking some copyright laws, am I?

So here it is!!! Editor's Note: The comments in red have been added by me, myself and I, and are not to be blamed on Beast Mom.

Top 10 Children's Books That Didn't Make The Cut
1. Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and Other Urban Legends
2. Pat the Cockroach
3. Guess How Much I Loathe You (Never liked that stupid rabbit anyway. I know some divorced people that could have written this one...)
4. Green Vegetables? Who Needs 'Em? (Amen. 'Nuff said.)
5. A Kids' Guide To Slothfulness (I think Dane did a book report on this in 7th grade.)
6. How To Become The Favorite Child (Hmmm. Marj & I know who wrote this book--LOLOL)
7. Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Whiners (I wrote this one!!)
8. If You Give A Grizzly A Cookie
9. Flushing Goldie (I forced my mother to help me bury a goldfish or two...)
10. Winnie-the-Pooh & Piglet Go Hitchhiking

Anyway, Happy Friday and thank you, Christina the Beast Mom, for tickling my funny bone!!

The stupidest marital argument in the world

Mike and I got into a really stupid marital argument last night. So all you married people out there--top this one!!

We had a brief war of words arguing over who got to rock Jennica last night at bedtime. Not who HAD to rock her, but who got the privilege of rocking her. Now...keep in mind that this is OUR CHILD. She's not going anywhere!! We've been doing this for 3+ years, for heaven's sake, and she still really craves this 10-minute rocking session each evening to help her unwind before we lay her down. It was not like this was the last rocking session we were going to get...

Now, we don't argue over this subject every night, but it is something we both enjoy doing. Yesterday, it just happened that Jen and I had spent a long afternoon in Olympia at an eye appointment, and I was hoping to end the day with her, since it had been a rather special one-on-one day for us. Mike's point was that I had gotten to spend the majority of the day alone with her and he wanted a little time with her while I spent some time with Tiersten, who he had picked up at Day Care and taken out for dinner. He had a rather good point, so thats how it went, and I enjoyed chatting with "T" for a few minutes while he rocked Jen.

On a separate but related note, we have sorted entire boxes of photos recently. It has been a BIG job, even though the majority of our pictures are stored on CDs. In the process of sorting pictures, I found the attached photos among the menagerie. I had completely forgotten about this picture of Mike with Jen, and it made me smile to remember what a chubba-bubba baby she was at that age. The picture of Jen and I was taken by one of my sisters last summer at our parent's home. Even though that photo is only a year old, its amazing how much our littlest girl has changed in that relatively short period of time.

Great Flaming Marshmallows!!

The boys have been bugging us for about a year to build a firepit in the "back forty." Due to the location of where we wanted to put it and the work involved with clearing and levelling that area, its kind of been a lengthy process. I think the boys forget that two years ago, there were thirteen huge hemlock trees on this portion of our property that are no longer standing.

In any case, my sister and her family are coming from Minnesota for their annual two-week Washington summer vacation. The boys have had a big goal since last winter to have the firepit completed before their cousins arrived. So...we buckled down, moved the dirt, cut the last of the brush, hauled the pea gravel and the bark, put up the fence and the blocks, and its done--complete with a nesting family of chickadees in the birdhouse on the tree. We've even got enough room to set up our tent on one side.


I have to admit that we're pretty pleased with the final result and have already used our firepit quite a lot. Its very peaceful to sit back there around a fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, smelling the woodsmoke, and just spending time as a family.

So, Erik and Matthew--beware!!! Dane and Grant have got plans for you and this firepit involving a tent, sleeping bags, and lots of marshmallows. We're looking forward to having you all here!!

Oh, de doo-da day...

This past Saturday, we ran away to the races!! For several weeks, we had been planning a day at Emerald Downs with friends, and it turned out to be an absolute BLAST! We left all of our many children at home, and had a grown-up day of nothing-but-fun!!

Now...Mike and I have been to Emerald Downs before, but it has been several years. And for those of you that might not know, I spent 20 years of my life consumed in competitive horse sports, so this is right up my alley......

We all wagered small amounts, after careful scientific analysis of the racing programs and horses in the paddock, of course. (Yeah right!!) The program helps, and so does viewing the horses being saddled, but there is still a LOT of luck involved. Just ask Kelli about the lame horse that won the race!! (So much for my "expert" advice...)

In any case, the HUGE highlight of the day was when I won an EXACTA!! I bet $4.00, chose two horses that I believed would win first and second place in the race, and they finished first and second as I had predicted! For the really thrilling part.......I won $395.80 on my $4.00 bet! Now thats some serious winning!!! WAHOO!! Several other small wins added up, and we came home with a lot more money than we took!

Most of all, it was great to get away and spend the day with our friends. Good food, good company, and good fun! Even on the ride home in the Suburban. :)

Oh, de doo-da day!!!

Independence Day

We had a GREAT 4th of July!! Spent the majority of it at home, with a quick dash to Tokeland so the kids could play in the sand on the beach for awhile. (The boys would still be there digging if we had agreed to leave them...Not sure how we got such beach-loving kids!!)

In any case, it was hard to get back to work today. We stayed up too late BBQ-ing and laughing around our new firepit, and then the boys set off a ton of fireworks once it got dark. Tiersten enjoyed the fireworks immensely and thought that was some serious fun. Jennica fell asleep on my lap in complete exhaustion before it even started. :) Even the dogs were hoarse today, as they barked even while crated.

Some photos above of the kids at the beach! Hope you and yours had a great day!!

Top Photo: All four hooligans, digging to China.

Middle Photo: Tiersten, dancing with her shadow

Bottom Photo: Jennica, trying to get warm....bbbbrrrr

Tinker-bumbler

Tiersten likes Tinkerbell. I mean REALLY likes Tinkerbell. She can spot anything with Tinkerbell on it a mile away. She has a Tinkerbell blanket, and for her birthday, her brothers bought her a Tinkerbell "dress-up" oufit--complete with wings. They picked it out themselves, which was a rather cool thing to do.

Yesterday evening, she dressed up in her Tinkerbell outfit after dinner and was dancing around the house. She accessorized with a tiara and her high-heeled Cinderella shoes. It was quite the ensemble!

As she was twirling around, I made a suggestion about a leap I thought she should try. She very promptly tripped in her shoes, got tangled in the dress, and crashed into the piano on the way to the floor. Oops! Worth a couple of good bruises....

She's a cute Tinkerbell, but not a very graceful one.

At a Loss for Words...

This post has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks. It follows a rather bizarre visit one afternoon from a friend I hadn't seen in awhile, which I will detail below, and, more importantly, the thoughts and feelings that her perspective on my life have invoked. She made me feel strange about my own position in life.....something I'm not used to.....and I've given it a lot of thought since that afternoon. The visit went something like this:

My friend showed up at our home early on a Friday afternoon, totally out of the blue. I got to know her through a parent-child thing, but neither of us participate in that activity anymore, so I don't see her much these days. She is someone that I always say "hello" to, wave at as we pass on the road, but not really someone that I've ever spent free time with. So...she shows up at my house and makes herself at home in the family room that adjoins my office. I kind of played along, curious what she was doing here, and tried to shut my looming deadlines out of my mind for a little while.

She started out with commenting how huge our house is. Okay? And how gorgeous our new kitchen is. Okay? And how cool the murals are in the girls' room that we had an artist paint. Okay? And how clean everything is. Wanting to be gracious and not make her think that I am Superwoman, I casually commented that our housekeeper had just left. Wrong thing to say. Of course, I got a wide-eyed response, "You have a housekeeper??!!??" Well, yeah......we have a housekeeper. We have four kids, two full-time jobs, I work a lot of late hours when deadlines are heavy, the boys play every sport under the sun........Yes. We have a housekeeper. No big deal. Its a very wise investment for a very busy family and I recommend it strongly.

Turns out, she has just lost her job. I'm pretty sure that she was here hoping I would have some extra work for her, but I had just hired Jennifer. And, honestly, I need someone with expertise in a very precise field of work. So.....thats a "no go." She rambles a bit at this point about how she's not really qualified to do much. She had her first child right out of high school, got married, had two more kids........

Moving on...her oldest child graduated from high school a year ago and has spent the ensuing 12 months lying on her parents' couch doing nothing. My friend wants to know what she did wrong raising her daughter not to be more motivated. Hmmmm. I don't know her well enough to answer honestly, don't know the situation well enough anyway, so I mumble something pleasant and semi-reassuring. She comments that she doubts I will ever have the same problem as our kids are all so competitive and highly motivated. I think to myself that our children would be motivated by a boot in their hind end if they thought about lying on our couch for a year after high school. Once high school is over, everyone in this house is on the "Earn-or-Learn" program. There is no free lunch here.

At this point, I'm beginning to squirm. This conversation seems to be going nowhere and I've got a TON of work to do. Much to my delight, our dogs suddenly start barking outside. Ah-Ha!! An excuse to get up and go to the window, and then maybe lead her outside onto the porch, and we can start inching our way to her car.........and she'll go away. We make it to the window, the dogs are chasing shadows, and she starts a new conversation on how lovely our backyard is, how much land we have, how nice our fenced dog area is with shed and doggie door......and how she wishes SHE could afford to have a nice fenced dog area, etc. This is beyond the beginning-to-get-annoying stage.

Now out on the front porch, she comments on the black gouge on our newly painted siding. Thoughtlessly, I comment that the roofers damaged it when they put the new roof on our house the week before. She comments that their roof is leaking really bad, but now that she's lost her job, they won't be able to afford the new roof they need. And isn't our house new? Why did we need a new roof?

I idly start picking at the blossoms on the hanging planters on our deck. She comments that they are pretty, but that plants are so expensive. I pleasantly agree......sort of.

She asks about the Suburban and comments that she had to borrow money from her mother-in-law to buy a new tire for her car because something was wrong with it.

She FINALLY left. I came back to my desk and attempted to get back to work. But this conversation has continued to plague me. She made me feel GUILTY somehow, because of what we have accomplished in life! And then I got angry.....

HOW DARE SHE!!! I'm sorry that she is at a low-point. Maybe she is always at a low-point. I don't really know. But I have made good choices with my life to get where I am!! Mike and I both work hard and don't rely on anyone but each other--financially or otherwise. While we are not wealthy, we are in a great place in life and, if we're making the most of it, I wish people could say, "GOOD FOR THEM!!"

Two weeks later........I am still at a loss for words.

Obsessed with presents...

Jennica has decided that great things come in gift wrap and bows! She is so obsessed with presents that, in fact, we've had two funny things happen last weekend regarding her love for gifts.

First, last Saturday, Jennica and I attended a bridal shower for a friend of mine. She was all excited to be dressed up and going someplace alone with Mom. As we walked into the shower, the first thing Jen saw was the mountain of gifts. With eyes wide and a big smile on her face, she turned and looked at me and said, "Its my burp-day??!!??" (Its my birthday?) With everyone laughing, I had to break it to her that the gifts were not for her. :)

Second, on Sunday, the whole family loaded up in the suburban and ran out to my parents' home for a Father's Day visit with my Dad. The kids played, we visited.......all was fine. As we were leaving and Tiersten was getting buckled in her carseat, she yelled out the door, "Happy Father's Day, Grandpa Larry!! Hope you got lots of presents!" Jennica, who was not about to be left out, quickly yelled, "Yeah......Happy Father's Day! Bring lots of presents!!" My Dad is not known for true laughter, but he showed some teeth on that laugh. (My sisters will understand the "teeth" thing.)

Jen reminds me sometimes of one of the songs from the musical, "The Sound of Music." ........Brown paper packages tied up with strings.......everybody sing..........

Busted!!

Today, we made a family shopping trip to Walmart. Along with the usual laundry detergent, dog food, etc., I threw in a bag of peanut M & Ms. It is one of Mike and my favorite treats, and we enjoy snacking on them. I opened them this evening, as we were doing the basic evening tasks of picking up and putting away and getting girls ready for bed and all that jazz. I put them inside one of the upper kitchen cabinets, and Mike and I were both getting out a few of them at a time and munching on them as we moved around the house. When Dane and Grant got home, they joined in the snacking and were occasionally nabbing a few, but the girls were "left out of the loop" as there is just something that seems like poor parenting to allow 3-and-4-year-olds to snack on chocolate shortly before bedtime. Kind of like sending them to bed with a cup full of juice--good parents just don't do it!!! You know what I'm talking about......

So, we finally got the girls in bed. I've hugged and kissed Jennica and have her covered up, and I moved to Tiersten's bed while Mike came in to snuggle Jen. I leaned down to give Tiersten a kiss, and as I was standing back up, her big blue eyes snap wide open, "Mommy, what are you eating?"
Of course, I tried to play dumb, "I'm not eating anything."
Tiersten's eye's narrowed, "You are, too! You smell like chocolate!!"
Now what in the heck do you say to that? "Oh......it must be from that cookie I had at lunchtime. Good night!!" I can hear Mike snickering behind me, as I move out of her bedroom.
The next thing I hear is, "DADDY!!! You smell like chocolate, too?!!? What are you guys eating?"
I'm standing outside their bedroom door about 10 feet trying not to laugh when I hear Mike say, "Oh...I gave Mommy a kiss so thats why I must smell that way."

Yes........we lied to our daughter. Our defense is that if we had told her we had M & Ms, she would have wanted some, which is not good for her at bedtime, right? RIGHT??!!?? But talk about feeling busted!!! We were busted for eating M & M's because our 4-year-old smelled chocolate on our breath. How funny is that?? What a kid.......

Calgon......Take me away!!

Jennica has been giving us a "run for our money" lately. She is SO strong-willed and far too good at figuring out new ways to manipulate the adults in her life. Fortunately, Mike and I make a point of being absolutely consistent with discipline, and our Day Care also works with us, so behavior expectations are the same wherever she is and whoever is "in charge" at that moment. I shudder to think of what a monster she would be if she could play us all off of each other.

Even with great communication between all of us, she's still a busy little handful. Mike and I have stepped up our expectations at home and we're making sure that we're consistent on all the little things that make a huge difference--such as deciding how many times we ask her to do something before she is disciplined, etc. It is so easy to fall into the trap of asking them 10 times and then just doing it yourself, and pretty soon you've got a kindergartener that won't do so much as take their own coat to their room. We ALL know a few of those kids...

Life at the Day Care is a different story. She is driving them insane!!! We absolutely love our day care--the staff is fantastic, the activities are excellent, the cleanliness is superb, and their discipline is absolutely fair and consistent. I've seen it in action and have been nothing but impressed. However, Jennica has "got their number" for some reason.

The root of the problem is that she won't LISTEN. If you are saying something to her that she doesn't want to hear, its like you've flipped a switch to "off". You can even hold her little face in your hands, make her look you in the eye and repeat it, and she will continue to ignore you. You would honestly think that the child has a serious hearing issue, but if you whisper in the quietest voice, "Let's go outside...", the girl is grabbing her shoes and coat and she's ready to roll. It is SO annoying......

So.....Mike and I sat down the other night after she went to bed and brainstormed some solutions. We're intelligent people--we should be able to outsmart a 3-year-old. Right?

So yesterday, the Day Care started something new with her, which we will also be doing at home, in keeping with the consistency theory. We're going to add a reward system on top of the punishment system. Not rocket science--simply reward the good behavior as well as punish the bad behavior. Obviously, the reward needs to be something she looks forward to, but not something monetary, or food-related, which sends the wrong message. So......we decide to try stickers. Yesterday morning went well. Yesterday afternoon was a complete and total disaster. We're trying it again today.

In the meantime, we are continuing to verbally communicate positive and negative responses to her actions. I thought that I would help her out this morning by taking a moment alone to briefly go over the expectations again. When I pulled up to the Day Care this morning, I let Tiersten out and sent her into the building. Looking at Jennica still strapped in her carseat (a captive audience, literally), I said to her in an upbeat tone, "You're going to have a good day, aren't you?"
Jennica: "Yeah!" (excitedly)
Me: "Are you going to listen to Jodi today?"
Jennica: "Yes Sir!" (Not sure where they got it, but the girls have been answering that way for a week or so.)
Me: "How about Amber? Are you going to listen to Amber and do what she tells you to?"
Jennica: "Yes Sir!"
Me: "And Sheila, too?"
Jennica: "Yep!"
Me: "So what are you going to do when Jodi asks you to pick up a toy?"
Jennica: "Go to time out!!!!"
That wasn't the response I was looking for. Me: "No.........You're going to pick up the toy and put it away, aren't you?"
Jennica: "Uh huh." Getting serious wiggles in the carseat now.
Me: "Jennica, you need to listen and follow directions. You'll get a sticker if you listen."
Jennica: "Okay!" I mentioned stickers. She's back on board.......sort of.
Me: "No hitting, no biting, and follow directions."
Jennica: "If they hit me first?" I shouldn't have gone there.
Me: "No.......even if they hit you first you don't hit back. You tell Jodi."
Jennica: "Okay." Wiggling again.
Me: "So what are you going to do when Amber tells you to put your shoes away?"
Jennica: "Go to time out!!!"

I give up. We'll see how the day goes. Anyone know a good psychologist? Not for Jennica...for me. :)

Now this is a new experience...

Tonight was 8th grade graduation, at which Dane played in the band. Grant and I attended, while Mike got dinner for the girls. (Neither of us were up for trying to keep the girls quiet that long.)

Eighth grade graduation was frighteningly similar to what it was 20+ years ago when I graduated from the same 8th grade. FUNNY!!! And.........same as 20+ years ago, there is a dance afterwards. So we are in uncharted territory tonight. We're waiting up until 10:00 to go back down to the school to pick Dane up from the dance. The last day of school is tomorrow, so the staff decided to get the kids home at a decent hour. It just feels rather funny to be waiting up for Dane because he is at a DANCE.

Ahhhh........He's growing up.

Its June 11th ALREADY??!!??

I fully admit to sounding a bit like Rip Van Winkle these days........Where is the time going? GOOD GRIEF!!!

Life is hectic, but it sure is great!! As always, I'm feeling very fortunate to be healthy and active, with a healthy and active husband and four healthy and active children. Even though our calendar can be somewhat overwhelming, it sure beats the other alternatives.

Grant's birthday came and went last week and he is now officially TWELVE!!! He wanted cash, cash, and more cash and thats exactly what he got. I spent his whole birthday with him, as he lucked out and had a field trip that day at school and I was a chaperone. Next week, he and I have a hot date to run up to Olympia and pick out the new electric guitar he has been wanting. He's anxious to join in with Dane's bass. I see a band in their future.....

Dane has been enjoying a relatively lazy last few weeks of school. He's put a little weight back on since the end of track and he's no longer looking quite so emaciated. His energy level is also climbing back up to normal ranges and I'm so relieved to have him looking and feeling good again. Not quite sure what happened there in April and May, but he was definitely "off". He's pretty pleased tonight, as he found out today that he scored a 296, out of a possible 300, on a major report for end of the year grades.

Tiersten finished preschool with a bang and is now a "lady of leisure" until fall. She's on the verge of beginning to read, so its going to be interesting to see how fast she takes off with it. She also now has a big-girl bicycle and she looks really old riding it. For some odd reason that we have not yet determined, she's going through a rather annoying phase right now of calling Jennica "Coconut." NO idea where that came from......

And, wonder of wonders, Jennica is SLEEPING. She's going to bed at night sleeping on her bedroom floor (still doesn't like her bed), without being rocked and without an hour of screaming, and most of the time, she stays there until morning. Naps are still hit-and-miss, but we've decided we can live with that as long as she will go to bed at night. Mike gets all the credit for this one--not sure what he finally did, but its working. We've also found out recently that Jennica is a hard little worker. We've always got 20 projects going around here and she runs errands, LOVES to help, and talks a steady chatter the whole entire time. She's been negotiating with me for her very own pruning shears, but I'm not giving in yet. :)

Mike's workload has been heavy and stressful at times lately. I wish I could say that he comes home every day to dinner on the table, the lawn freshly mowed, and his underwear neatly pressed. Unfortunately, most of the time he comes home to the chaos of a very busy appraisal business run out of our home with the fax and phone ringing, Jennifer(my assistant) and I blabbing back and forth, boys in and out, girls needing to be picked up, and dinner sometimes started and sometimes still a complete and total mystery. With the addition of Jennifer, I AM working significantly fewer evenings and weekends, but its still crazy around here. On a good note, he is incredibly and always very loved. Beyond that......I wonder if he had any clue what he was in for with me?

As for me, its been an odd month. My Mom got suddenly very ill in May and spent a total of 8 days in two different hospitals. Thankfully, she is much better, but it was a harsh reminder that we are all mortal. I think my Mom handled her illness better than my Dad did. Oddly enough, it made me step back and reflect on their marriage as it was during my childhood, and the obvious strength of their marriage now. I'm also incredibly grateful to Mike, as he went and spent a long day at the hospital with my Dad when I couldn't be away from the business. And honestly, Mike was probably a better companion for my Dad that day anyway. Thank you, Michael.

Other than that, I have just been keeping busy with appraisals and family things. I'm incredibly grateful to be taking more time away from my desk and have vastly enjoyed digging into our yard and starting some long-awaited small landscaping projects. The big ones are still to come. I have solemnly promised my sons that I will not start any trees on fire this year. (You start ONE little tree on fire and everyone gets weird about you playing with matches....)

Somehow, it is already 8:30 pm, so I think I'm going to abandon the desk and pick up the reins in the morning. You know......I clearly remember watching the clock when I worked at the County thinking that the days would never pass. Now.....I find myself in exactly the opposite position--the days fly by with never enough time to accomplish all that I want. Is there ever a balance??

Happy Mother's Day!

Okay.........so it was two weeks ago that I said I was going to do better on the blog updating. I was also going to post some new pictures of the kids. None of that has happened. Oops! Great intentions......but once again, life got in the way. I'm still not in the mood to scan photos, so instead, I'll give a written update and another promise to add photos soon.

First of all, my new employee with the business started work this past week. WAHOO! Jennifer is turning out to be exactly what I needed--an independent self-started with extensive knowledge in legal descriptions and mapping. I pointed her at the computer, handed her a stack of files, and she's pretty much been on her own and figuring it out as she goes. PERFECT! Honestly, I don't have time to train someone, so I'm so glad she's willing to learn "on the fly". Eventually, she will work a part-time schedule, but I started this week behind and she pitched in and got me to the point where I am almost caught up. I am so grateful to have her!!

Dane is finally done with track, and I think he's actually relieved. This is the first time since school started that he will actually be riding the bus home on a day-in/day-out basis with no sports activities ongoing. He suddenly took a huge growth spurt and is now a solid two inches taller than I am. (WEIRD!!) He's also broad-shouldered and skinny!

Grant is about halfway through baseball season and seems to be having a great time in Little League. He's spending most games in left field, with occasional games at second base, and has had some decent hits. He's also got some end-of-the-year field trips coming up, which he always looks forward to. Its hard to believe he's going to be a 6th grader next year.

Tiersten has a couple of weeks of preschool left, and then she'll be done with school for the summer. I don't think she's figured out yet that school is going to be over for a few months, I don't think she's going to be real pleased about it, and I'm not sure whether to sit her down and talk about it, or just wait for her to kind of ease into it and figure it out on her own. She went outside with me today to help me poison some moles, and was pretty excited about it until Grant told her that we were KILLING the moles. :)

Jennica is still growing like a weed--she's a tad taller than Tiersten now, but don't tell Tiersten. Jen continues to be our "all or nothing" child. She has a huge bruise on her leg from a jumping game in the bathtub, and managed to ride her tricyle off of the porch steps this weekend. It never seems to matter how much supervision she has...she has an uncanny ability to wait until our backs are turned for 30 seconds to pull off whatever Evil Knievel stunt she's been working on. Sleep continues to be a low priority on her list, as well. Some days better......some days worse.......but she never seems to require as much sleep as we do.

All in all, life continues to be good, if a tad over-scheduled. Mike and I both kind of "hit the wall" this past weekend and are both committed to trying to get caught back up on rest this week. Monday should be a great start--the evening only has a baseball game and a band concert on the schedule. :)

MIA from blogging

One of my sisters told me a while back that she and our other sister had decided they could tell when I was really busy by how often I was updating the blog. I guess if she's right, than I've been REALLY busy lately... :)

And actually, I have!! Dane is in track, and Grant is in Little League baseball. April saw three birthdays in our family come and go. Mike and I escaped overnight to Seattle to a Mariner's game and are continuing to play Poker with friends one Saturday night each month. I hired a new employee to help me with the business, and have purchased a larger and more extensive computer network system so that Jennifer and I can set the appraisal world on its ear. The computer is great, but the network set-up and working through the kinks seems to be taking forever.

In any case, I'm back! Hope to be blogging a little more often in the near future again. I've got new photos to post of all the kids and I need to get caught back up with everyone.

Check back soon!
Beth

Happy Anniversary........to our kitchen?!?

On Monday, March 6, 2006, I decided to change the faucet on our kitchen sink. The previous faucet was just a tad leaky, and we had just bought a new one over the weekend. Being impatient, I decided that I would replace the old faucet with the new one before settling down at my desk to a day of appraisal reports. Hindsight 20/20, it was a bad decision, but at the moment, it seemed perfectly reasonable. I mean.........How hard can it be? You unscrew the pieces, remove the old faucet, put the new one on, and screw it all back together? Right?

Well....things did not go that smoothly. I had a small malfunction. Which resulted in a small pipe breaking. Below the shut-off valve. Which resulted in water pouring all over our kitchen floor. And we happen to have incredible water pressure. By the time we got the water shut off, we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 gallons of water. In our house.

In the middle of this, I made a rather frantic phone call to my husband at work. I'm hysterically yelling into the phone that I've got water everywhere, while he is still trying to figure out who the idiot on the phone is and why they are hysterical. I wish I had a recording of that phone call. Or maybe not.

For the first few hours, I mopped. And mopped some more. And tried to convince myself that it was just a little water. By that evening, Mike had convinced me that, perhaps, this was a bigger problem and I needed to pull myself out of denial. We continued to suck water with everything we could think of. We elevated carpets and increased air circulation. And in the morning, I called the insurance company. When they asked if we thought we should have a water damage professional look at it, I agreed hesitantly. Wasn't that a bit extreme, after all?

The professionals showed up within two hours, armed with state-of-the-art tools that measure water content in flooring and wall surfaces. It wasn't good. They packed out our flooring, and packed in 8 HUGE fans that made us feel like we were living at the end of the busiest runway at Seatac. They made suggestions about moving out, which we ignored. For heaven's sake, I operate a busy business from home and could not imagine moving the business, as well as our family of six, to a motel or apartment. So we lived on the runway.

The professionals came back daily and monitored the drying process. On Thursday, the insurance adjuster came and viewed the damage personally. We had water behind the cabinets and it wasn't drying, so our cabinets joined our flooring at the garbage dump. And our kitchen became an assemblage of boxes. A commercial-sized humidifier and more fans joined the original 8, and they erected a plastic tent around that whole portion of our house. We had to yell to hear each other just a few feet away.

Finally, after a week, we were pronounced, "Dry". Great. We looked around and our cabinets were gone, our flooring was gone, the sheetrock was gone up to a height of four feet, the insulation was exposed...we didn't even have a kitchen sink.

From that point, the arguments started with the insurance company. We fired the adjuster. We tried to fire the voice on the phone in Michigan. We became the "Homeowners from Hell." After three months of living with a family of six, through baseball season, without a working kitchen, we finally became fully functional in mid-June, with the help of a $30,000+ "donation" from our insurance company. There is a woman named Sarah in Michigan that works for the insurance company that REALLY doesn't like us. Because we won. Neener neener neener.

Our new kitchen is beautiful and we love it!! Looking back now, the three months was well-worth a brand-new custom built kitchen with exactly our tastes in flooring, cabinetry, countertops, appliances........the whole works.

But I have to admit that I will NEVER never ever try to replace a faucet. NEVER!!! My plumbing days are over. Its hard to believe it has been a whole year......

A Story for Dane

The past couple of weeks, Dane has spent more time than usual at home. First, he missed a week of school with pneumonia, and then he had a two-week break between the end of basketball season and the start of track, so he has actually been home after school. We also had three days off from school altogether for Mid-Winter Break, and the boys and I spent a lot of time together then. Its been nice.....

The other evening, Mike and I both commented to Dane at the dinner table about how lean he has gotten. With three full sports seasons already behind him this year, and one still to go, he has gotten almost downright thin. He is looking me in the eye right now, and I'm sure that by the end of the summer, I'll be looking up at him. As all Moms of boys this age seem to understand, its not just their HEIGHT that is shocking. His hands are suddenly large, his posture has changed from a boys to a young man's, and he's just so.......grown up.

As a final WOW, I was shuffling through pictures late this afternoon, looking for Grant's football photos from last fall. In the middle of the stack, I stumbled across some pictures of Dane from his 2005 football season. What an incredible difference 18 months has made!!! Mind-boggling!!! I'm sure I'm going to be saying the exact same things about Grant in a few years!!!

So Dane.......Here is a funny story for you. One that I remember from when you were very small. We were at Nana and Grandpa Larry's house for Thanksgiving, the year that you had turned two. Grant was about 5 months old. I had bought you the Disney movie, "Snow White" and you had been watching it off and on for a few weeks.

When we got to their house, Nana had a children's nativity all set up for you on the coffee table. The figurines were made out of plastic, so you could play with them all you wanted without having to worry about breaking her porcelain set. I was busy with Grant and not really focusing on what you were doing, until Nana pointed me to you and asked what you were doing. You had taken the figurines and lined them up, as if in a single-file line and seemed almost to be MARCHING them. It wasn't until you started chanting, in a sing-song voice, that it dawned on me, and I started laughing.

There you were, with Mary, Joseph, the three kings, the shepherds and all the rest of the gang lined up and singing, "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Hi Ho.....". To you, they were the seven dwarves marching off to the mines.

I love you, Dane! You are a great son, a wonderful oldest brother, and a marvelous person. I'm so glad I have you in my life!

Love,
Mom

Minivan-Mom-No-More

For the past four years, I have been driving a minivan. A white Honda Odyssey, to be exact. Cloth seats, power sliding doors, boring, practical........YAWN!!!!

We have long been admirers of the big SUVs. We are those annoying people that show up on car lots (preferably when they are closed) and press our noses up against the windows of the vehicles just to look in them. Each year when the new models come out, we check out all the new options on the internet and debate whether we would want leather or not, and what color we would choose. And then we rationalize that they are gas-guzzling beasts and we don't envy those folks when they get to the pumps. Yeah right.....

Well.......GUESS WHAT???!!!??? WE BOUGHT ONE!!! Good-bye to practical and bring on the fuel!!!

It is a 2007 Suburban in Amber Bronze (please don't call it brown)!! Far and away, a more luxurious a vehicle than I expected to be driving at this point in my life. Leather, power moon roof, auto headlights, remote starter, OnStar, 6-CD changer, rear-parking assist......but we will be living without the heated seats (All together now......ooooooohhhhhh......bummer!). It is an absolute BLAST to drive. We got a great deal on it and, with the boys getting taller with every passing day, its sure nice to have the extra room. (And YES, there is significantly more room than in a minivan.)

Now...........if I could just convince Mike that he can't drive it. Except maybe on his Birthday and Christmas. Or when I want a nice long nap on a long trip. :)

Tuberculosis and Scarlet Fever???

I suddenly feel like I've been thrust into a "Little House on the Prairie" book.

Two children that attend our day care were diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with scarlet fever. SCARLET FEVER!!???!!!

And then, last Friday, Grant came home from school and said that Darrol, one of his good friends and a fellow basketball player, is very sick with something highly contagious that Grant couldn't remember the name of. But the school had told them that they needed to tell their parents to expect a letter to arrive in the mail on Saturday, and that all the kids in the fifth grade would be tested for it. Turns out, Darrol has active tuberculosis. TUBERCULOSIS!!???!!!

I'm feeling a little awed by all of this. Fortunately, none of our children have any immunodeficiency issues that could make these illnesses a high potential for being life-threatening. IF our family should contract one of these illnesses, it will require prompt medical treatment, but we are not at high risk for serious complications. (Thank goodness!!) Not that I'm trying to ignore the seriousness of the problem, but I'm also trying to be realistic and not panic needlessly.

But still...........SCARLET FEVER AND TUBERCULOSIS??!!!??? This is 2007, right? It is both fascinating and frightening to me to see these illnesses making a comeback. WHY is this happening? HOW do we prevent other illnesses that we thought were a "thing of the past" from recurring? Are we going to see a return of the Bubonic Plague and Smallpox??

WOW! I remember thinking that you were really sick if you had strep throat......

The ties that bind...

A few weeks ago, I read something about how common memories and experiences provide a bond for people of similar backgrounds and give them a "connection". I have to admit that I instantly related and understood what the writer had been trying to say. It doesn't seem to matter exactly what the connection is--its just a fact that if you put a group of human beings in one place together for very long, they develop memories, inside jokes, topics which are avoided, etc.

In my family, I grew up the youngest of three girls. As adults, my sisters and I are each very different (which definitely keeps things from being boring when we're together). As is so typical with families, we probably would never be friends if we weren't related--not because we wouldn't like each other, but because we probably just would never cross paths!!

In any case, sisters we are. When I think of the things we share, the things below are what come to my mind. I'm POSITIVE that they will, in every instance, know exactly what I'm talking about.

1) W-26
2) The 10-minute tree
3) The song we are supposed to sing at Mom's future funeral (Hopefully very DISTANT future funeral.)
4) Why masking tape is involved in making chocolate chip cookies
5) Pulling daisies (Not picking...)
6) Hand-dipped chocolates
7) The real reason for singing "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," from the musical, Oklahoma.
8) Spider checks
9) Nose mittens from Rose
10) How to cook toast on an open fire (Something I thought everyone did, by the way.)
11) Buck, the cow
12)And while I'm on the topic of cows, why we had to name them what we named them
13)Benji-Mom
14)"There's blue sky in the west........."
15) How it rains in Washington D.C.



I'm sure I'm going to think of MANY more as soon as I sign off of here, so I will have to add them later. Dinner awaits...

Dumb dog........

Last Saturday afternoon, our dogs managed to knock open the gate on their yard. One of them stayed home (because he is afraid of the world "outside") and the other one took a walk. We came home approximately 90 minutes after the jailbreak, and Parker was missing. I hate to admit it now, but we FREAKED.

Within minutes, we were walking the neighborhood calling him and within a half hour, we were looking for him by car. No sign of him. Vanished.

We continued to look for him until LATE that night, posted signs that same night on every stop sign in a three-mile radius, posted him on the internet, and went to bed very worried. I was actually awake at 2 a.m. staring at the ceiling, worrying about the dog. Did he get hit by a car and was lying in a ditch in pain somewhere? Had someone found him wandering along the side of the road and picked him up with no intent of finding his rightful owner? Was he lost and alone in the woods closeby and unable to find his way home? The HORRORS......

In my defense........this dog has been with us since he was 13 weeks old. He is a very high-quality Shetland Sheepdog that was actually sold as a show prospect as a puppy, and then had to be re-sold as a "pet" because he only dropped one testicle. (To the non-dog-showing-folks-out-there, he is unable to be shown AKC due to his "one nut" status, and therefore, needed to be neutered and have a career change to a performance event, which is based on a particular chosen skill rather than a physical rating of the merits of his body. Does this seem stupid to you? Too bad!!! Dog showing is a multi-million dollar business.......) So we bought him and actually had him flown home to Washington to live with us. He is/was Dane's obedience dog and was THE 2003 Washington State 4-H Pre-Novice Obedience CHAMPION. Applause is appreciated here.....blah blah blah.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning, and again went Parker-hunting in the car. Two more hours of driving around. We covered a bigger area this time, as he had now had all night to make it a farther distance. Still no sign of his hairy little body.

About 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, the phone rang. The Sheriff's Office had received an email from one of our internet-surfing friends, and had made the connection with a phone call they had received earlier that morning. Parker was found!!

As it turns out, our hairy friend had walked only a quarter mile or so. He had spent Saturday evening/night and Sunday morning being happily spoiled by the residents of the nursing home up the road. From the sounds of it, he was quite the celebrity. He visited all the residents in their rooms at bedtime, went to mealtime in the dining hall......the whole works. We went down and picked him up and he has been home ever since.

As the final insult of all our needless worry, I dropped by a local business in the middle of the week, and someone casually mentioned something about Parker and the newspaper. I gave them a completely blank look and said, "What??" They proceeded to open our local newspaper and show me that, indeed, there was Parker's photo, smiling happily back at me, with a nice note about how Parker had been found and was now home with his family. I have no idea who put it in the newspaper. The photo was the one we had posted on the internet, and is included above.

So..........I guess the moral to the story is that the dog came out ahead on this whole deal. He got treated like a celebrity at the nursing home.........and again got treated like a celebrity by us when he returned safe and sound. We spent endless hours driving around looking for him, posting notices, and staring at the ceiling worrying. He was happily curled up in a nice, warm bed being admired by old people. And in the end.........he got his flippin' picture in the newspaper.

Dumb dog!!!!