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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And last, but certainly not least...

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

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

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

Graduations!!

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

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

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

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

All dressed up......

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Hate Grocery Shopping and Cooking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spring without sunshine...

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

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

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

Things to accomplish today...

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

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

A small problem with a yellow pill...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where is the time going?

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

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

New idea for Reality Game Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Easter "shiner" for Jennica

Happy Easter to all!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday Wisdom

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

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

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

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


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

Happy Thursday!

They're putting my braces back on!

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

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

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

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

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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

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

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

Return from blog-holiday...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More rambling soon!

2008 already!!

2008 has arrived. It is 2008. The year is 2008. Hmmmm.....

I will turn 40 this year. Wasn't I supposed to have my life in perfect order by age 40? Another hmmm.......

I have now been self-employed for over two years, which coincidentally happens to also mean that it has been over two years since I have sat and looked at the clock for an afternoon, willing it to be 5:00 NOW. Instead, I always find the end of the workday creeping up on me far sooner than I am ready, as the amount of work to be done always exceeds the number of hours available. I'm feel fortunate for that, but the feeling of time slipping away has increased exponentially with my workload.

All of you that watch/read the news know that the U.S. housing market is floundering a bit these days. This has a direct affect on the appraisal industry as a whole, and appraisal businesses from an individual standpoint. My business has been affected, but so far, less than many. However, I find myself trying to see into 2008 and gauge the economic course of the months to come. There are opportunities available to do other things, but I'm hesitant to leave the comfort of this "niche" I have carved for myself. I LIKE WHAT I'M DOING! Two and a half years ago, I couldn't say that.

So I am at a point of pondering. Pondering the future. Pondering the past. And pondering where I want to go and what I want to be when I grow up. Wasn't I supposed to have life all figured out before age 40?

The end of our Christmas

Twas the night AFTER Christmas,
when all through the house,
not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.

The stockings were emptied,
the presents unwrapped,
we'd just all settled down,
for a long winter's nap.

Okay.........enough of the rhyming. Around 11:30 pm on Christmas night, we were suddenly awakened by several brilliant flashes of light (the kind that light up the whole house) and 3 or 4 deafening booms. Instant pandemonium, and with no idea what was making the horrible racket...FEAR!!! We looked out the blinds for great balls of flaming I-don't-know-what in the front yard or SOMETHING! Nothing visible, but darkness. The boys ran out of their room demanding answers. The power had gone out with the first boom, so Mike is scrambling to find a cell phone to call 9-1-1. Our hearts are racing and blood pressure is high while we dig out flashlights and dial for help. All while waiting for the booming to resume.

Its all rather amusing in retrospect, but wasn't the least bit funny at the time. After our call to 9-1-1, the PUD showed up and found the cause of the problems right across the road from us. They stumbled around in the dark for awhile over there, apparently fixed whatever needed fixed, and the power came back on. End of story.

But WOW! Talk about feeling like sitting ducks in a nuclear war! Like I said......pretty funny. In retrospect. :)

A "Mom-of-the-Year" moment

Grant will NOT be nominating me for the 2007 "Mom-of-the-Year" Award and here's why:

Last Thursday, Grant had a very busy evening scheduled. He went to school all day, came home on the bus, and then had to be back at the school for basketball practice at 5:00 pm, and across the street for the Elementary Christmas Program at 6:30 pm. Very do-able, but busy.

At ten minutes before 5, he hollered at me in my home office that we needed to get moving or he was going to be late for practice. I dropped the appraisal file I was working on, grabbed my keys and off we went. As we hopped in the suburban and slammed the doors, I looked over at him, in shorts and a t-shirt, and said, "You didn't grab any clothes for the concert, did you?" I got a blank look in response. "GRANT, you're not going to have time to come home and change! You need clothes to wear!!" Grant starts to hop out of the suburban, and, being the wise Mom that I am, I tell him, "I will run in and grab you some clothes! I'm faster!" Sixty seconds later, I am back with a polo shirt, and a new-looking pair of jeans out of the clean laundry (Our school Christmas concert is not very formal, and most kids wear jeans. I'm willing to go along with that, as long as they are clean and not overly-faded-looking.) Finally, off we go to basketball practice.

The next hour is a whirlwind for me. Pick up girls. Pick up Dane at wrestling practice. Take girls home. Food. Mike decides to stay home with the girls. (We had ALL done the High School Band Concert the night before.......) Dane goes with me back to the school for the Elementary Christmas Program.

As Dane and I are walking down the sidewalk towards the high school gym (where the program will be), we notice Grant coming out of basketball practice across the street. Even in the semi-darkness under the streetlights, something doesn't look right...........Dane asks, "What's wrong with Grant?" I reply something about not being sure. Grant appears to be holding his stomach with both arms.........He spots Dane and I coming down the sidewalk and starts towards us, still hugging his middle. ???

When we get close enough, Grant yells, "MOM!!!!!! You didn't grab MY pants! These are DANE'S PANTS!!!!"

Suddenly it becomes clear. He is holding his hands around his middle because he is literally holding the pants up under his armpits!! The legs are dragging on the ground and Dane is laughing uncontrollably!!! Grant looks LESS than amused, but it was impossible not to laugh! Keep in mind, Dane may only be 22 months older, but at this point in time, he is about 12 inches taller and 60 pounds heavier than Grant!!! :)

So anyway..........there was NO time to run home and get different pants. We got creative and used the belt that Dane was wearing to secure the jeans around Grant so that he didn't have to hold them up. He wasn't overly happy about it, but honestly, in the middle of a group of 250 or so kids....Nobody noticed!!! And, quite a large number of kids were there in basketball shorts and t-shirts, so I guess we could have skipped the change of clothes altogether. But it is somehow better in my sick little mind to have my child there in a new-looking dark blue jeans and a polo shirt, than in sweaty shorts and a t-shirt.

Grant............even if I'm not Mother-of-the-Year, I love you!!!

Do you believe in miracles?

When I started this blog and titled it "In the Midst of Miracles," we had just reached a point of stability in life. The girls' adoptions were final, we were living in our new home, I had just opened the appraisal business, and everything was going great. Our life is not easy every single day--that wouldn't be normal. But overwhelmingly, we continue to be very blessed. Every once in awhile, I get a reminder of exactly how I continue to live surrounded by miracles. Here is our most recent miraculous story:

In April of 2007, my youngest daughter, Jennica, was diagnosed with a very serious neurological condition called Nystagmus. It is a condition that, while caused by the brain, is manifested in vision and has to do with convergence. It is generally very debilitating, and the majority of people with this diagnosis never have vision better than 20/60 and, therefore, never have driver's licenses, often struggle desperately with basic reading, and other very basic functions that contribute to leading what most of us consider a "normal" and independent life. Most written sources on the condition state that there is no cure and that it is permanent. Period.

On top of the diagnosis of Nystagmus, we were also told that, much of the time, Jennica's brain was most likely only seeing what her left eye was seeing. When her left eye was covered, her brain engaged the right eye, but as soon as the left eye was uncovered again, the brain returned to the use of only the left eye. Puzzling...and worrisome!!

Fortunately for us, our eye doctor has expertise in the field of brain-eye connection (which is why we were there to begin with). She was able to tell us that both of Jennica's eyes physically have good vision. The problem was not in the vision, but in the way that the brain perceived the vision. So............with this heavy load to bear, we went home with a stack of exercises to work on. Dr. Inverso was quite positive that, because she is so young, we had a good chance of "re-training" her brain. WOW! Heavy-duty stuff......Especially for a newly-turned-three little girl. And remember from earlier posts, this is a child that we were told at birth had a high likelihood of autism, a very high probability of learning disabilities, and heaven-only-knew-what-else. Jennica has defied the odds and has NONE of the issues we were told to expect.

Now, I admit that after reading all the information on Nystagmus and what we were facing, I wondered if this was finally going to be "the one." The thing she couldn't overcome........

On November 30th, Jennica went back to her eye doctor. I'm overwhelmingly humbled and thrilled to report that the Nystagmus is GONE. G-O-N-E!!! And just as miraculous, her brain is now "seeing" with both eyes!! The eye doctor worked and worked to make sure that she was giving a correct report, and finally admitted that she could find no sign of either condition! WOW! We will continue with the eye exercises for several more months, just to be sure that we have given her brain an opportunity to solidify what it has re-learned, but the likelihood of these conditions returning is reportedly very, very slim.

So our stubborn, wonderful little daughter has once again beaten the odds. She has DEFIED the odds! Nothing short of..........well.........a miracle!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah.......I've been ignoring the computer

I arrived home late last Thursday evening via a rather circuitous route through storm-ravaged western Washington. I have to admit that I was unprepared for the vastness of the storm damage. Shortly after daybreak on Friday morning, I was standing in our front yard with my mouth hanging open at the sheer number of fallen trees. One hundred-year-old hemlocks and spruce snapped like twigs on the 20 acres of timber surrounding us.

We got lucky! Although we have numerous trees down, nothing hit our home or outbuildings. Power was restored late Wednesday and has remained "on". Other than a whole lot of trees to clean up, we have NO damage!! Far too many others were not as fortunate and I feel for them! Many roads still remain closed, and the clean-up of flood waters to the east of us have barely begun. What a mess!

It's nice to be home! I gained a lot of knowledge at my classes, but it sure didn't turn out to be a great time to be away.

Here I sit...

Still feeling worthless tonight. I'm buried in classes, evaluating the effects of financing concessions on market value, compounding rates of change, sinking fund factors, and other appraisal mumbo-jumbo. While Mike continues to hold down the fort at home with the kids. All roads in and out of the region continue to be closed due to massive numbers of downed trees, mudslides, and flooding. The power lines that are down are the BIG ones, so I'm relaying news to Mike that they are saying they will be without power for another 2-7 days. I'm not yet sure when I will be able to get home. Its a real possibility that my class will end in a few days and I may be stuck here for an additional day or two. Geez..........I hope not!!

But.........since I've spent all this money on these classes, lodging, etc., and I can't get home anyway, I'm trying to focus on the course content so I take home some valuable knowledge. Honestly, the information so far is not really NEW to me, its just being applied a lot differently. The "common sense" ends of the business I do really well with. I can isolate major contributors to value and all that. The more complex financial calculations sometimes get me flustered, as I don't always see a practical day-to-day application for them. But here I am, and in order to complete my designation, I have to have the course hours, so.....what the heck. Complex financials and all......

As usual for me, the largest gain from classes is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS from my classmates. I thrive on meeting people from different backgrounds and different places. The appraisal industry, as a whole, does not generally attract people directly from college. And freshly-graduated high school students very rarely go off to college with the goal of becoming an appraiser. The end result is that you get an incredible melting pot that makes up the group of people known as real property appraisers. And this class is no different!! We have a 60ish-year-old retired paramedic that broke his back in a helicopter accident working Lifeflight, we have a 70ish+ retired Navy guy, we have a 45-year-old real property investor that owns apartment buildings across three states and is just entering the appraisal business, we have a Japanese immigrant that got a clerical job at an appraisal firm and has decided to become an appraiser herself. We have people from Alaska, and California, and Hawaii, and Texas, and Puerto Rico, and Virginia. And we are all very diverse and bring different skills and backgrounds to the field. FASCINATING!! As is also typical, there only about 5 women in the class of 30+. In the lower-level appraiser courses, the ratio tends to be more equal, but the higher level courses........for whatever reason, many of the women just don't pursue that high. I hope it changes in the future!!!

My new Puerto Rican friend has spent five weeks in the United States since September, all in appraisal education. He is very advanced in the field, but only a year older than I am. He is nearing completion of both his MAI and SRA designations (a huge accomplishment), and is flying through the class with ease. The incessant rain here is driving him insane and he is anxious to get home to his wife, children, and sunshine. His English is quite good, but I have taught him two new words: nit-pick, and folks. And today he learned the phrase "back seat driver". :)

So........I need to run and get something for dinner and then it will be back to my motel room for a long night of studying. As boring as that sounds, I have to admit that it is downright luxury compared to my family's current accomodations.......sitting home in the dark and waiting for the world to reconnect them to the "outside".

A hurricane hits home...and I miss it!!

Here's the deal...I live with my husband and children in my hometown. My husband is not anative, but I've lived there pretty much my whole life. And, in the Pacific Northwest, we don't often experience "extremes" in weather. We get a lot of rain, but temperatures rarely drop below 35, and rarely rise above 90. We get a few days per year on each end of the spectrum, but for the most part, things are very moderate.

So, I'm currently out of town for two back-to-back professional education courses. I leave town....and lo and behold, the biggest windstorm of the last 45 years hits. I'm sitting several hours away, warmly enveloped in a nice hotel with a ton of shopping, restaurants, etc. nearby......while my family about gets blown off the face of the earth!! Talk about a WEIRD feeling!!

Today, I spent most class breaks on the phone with Mike, receiving constant updates. They have already been without power for 24 hours, and are being told to expect another 2-5 days without power. Literally, every major road in and out of town, as well as all the surrounding towns and cities, is closed due to downed trees and/or flooding. Interstate 5 is closed between home and my current location, due to massive flooding. Mike says that the 10 acres of undeveloped property behind our home looks like it was freshly logged due to the massive number of fallen trees. A window in my parents' home just miles away blew out from the sheer force of the wind. WOW! So much for living in a moderate climate!

So.........while I sit here typing in the cozy warmth of my motel room, my husband and children are home in the dark, eating cold food, and hoping for the off-chance that tomorrow might bring restored power. Schools are closed.......work is cancelled.......and a tree fell on the girls' day care facility. In stark constrast, this evening I had grilled cajun shrimp alfredo for dinner, at a wonderful restaurant with many friends and colleagues from all over the country. We watched Monday Night Football on a big-screen TV, and laughed with our fellow classmate from Puerto Rico as he yelled obscenities in alternating Spanish and heavily-accented English. We invaded Starbucks at 7:30 pm...while my family sits at home in a dark home, in a dark town, in a very dark and flooding region of Washington State.

Pull up a chair...

Okay, Folks...You better grab a cup of java, or whatever it is you drink, and pull up a chair. I've been absent of late, and have some catching up to do. I'm finding that when I get this far behind, it gets more difficult to sit down and blog because of the sheer volume of information bursting forth from my head. (Nice visual, eh?) In any case, I've been a busy girl, so here it is:

1) My sister's ordination in Spokane was a fantastic experience, and I'm so glad that my Mom and I made the trek to be there! She was surrounded by 300+ great friends and family members, and it was an occasion to remember. Many people flew in from many places so they could share in the celebration, and they were gracious and wonderful. Her church family threw a classy party after the ordination, complete with a great meal cooked by a REAL chef and live music. No paper napkins in sight! So a huge congratulations to Marj! We are so proud of you!

2) As a side trip with Spokane, Tiersten rode over with us with the idea that she would spend a few days near Spokane with her grandparents (Mike's parents) who live closeby. She is such a confident and spunky kid but, much to our amazement, she was NOT a happy camper with this plan. The biggest point of contention was that she was away from her SISTER. She demanded to talk to Jennica on the phone regularly, and absolutely insisted that she come back home with my Mom and I from Spokane when we left. So.......her trip was cut a little shorter than planned and we're all still a little stunned. We thought she would LOVE being the lone center of attention for a few days. Goes to prove.........just when you think you've got your kids figured out........ :)

3) Dane's Football Awards Ceremony also occurred in the last few weeks. I always find it enjoyable to sit back and watch my growing sons interact with friends and coaches in these settings and this time was no different. He is clearly respected and is often the brunt of large amounts of good-natured ribbing and harrassment, which he dishes back as well as he receives. Last year, he earned the nickname of "Dane-gerous" during football season. This year, they ended the season simply calling him, "Touchdown." He was elected by his fellow teammates as the "Most Inspirational." The team went through some real learning experiences together this year (more off the field than on) and I'm proud that he earned that award. Way to go, Dane!! Grant is very much looking forward to being part of the Junior High team next year, as Dane bumps up to High School.

4) On November 9th, Mike and I and six of our closest friends flew to LA and took a 4-day cruise to Mexico on the "Monarch of the Seas." Several of us had never cruised before and I admit to being a little skeptical as to whether this was going to be "our thing". Honestly, we had an ABSOLUTE BLAST! If you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend cruising as a GREAT way to travel. We have so many great stories and memories from this trip that will stay with us a long time. The international crew provided outstanding service and spoiled us rotten, the food was terrific, and the weather was great.........right up until we landed back in Seattle in the middle of a storm. :) The photo posted below is of the 8 of us in Ensenada!

So.......now that I'm rather getting used to living out of a suitcase, we're home for a few weeks and then I'm off to a killer 8 days of continuing education. In the meantime, I hope this blog finds you all busy and happy!!

Celebrating with my sister!

This weekend, I will be in Spokane celebrating my sister's ordination with her. I'm honored to be attending, and honored to be the youngest sister of this amazing woman. As a child, she was constantly in trouble for openly speaking her mind, but today, I see it as one of the greatest of her many assets. She is one of the most passionate people I know, and has the intelligence to turn that passion into positive things. Please read the following link:
http://www.stonewallnews.net/pages/full_story?widget=full_story&content_instance_id=832&open

Never one to travel the easy path, Marj.......you've earned this one!!! I'm so proud of you!! See you Saturday!!

Some welcome news in the appraisal world

I do not often post about the many varied issues that are important to the appraisal world, as I use my blog as a personal place to share family stories and photos with friends near and far. However, today is a big day for appraisers nationwide, so I'm going to make an exception and celebrate in print just a little.

Dane had an orthodontist appointment this morning, so it was late morning before I reached my desk. One of the first things to hit me from my computer was today's headline that New York's Attorney General is pursuing a lawsuit against a LARGE business group, with some evidence that they have been pressuring appraisers to fraudulently inflate market values.

Virtually every appraiser in the United States has been subject to, at one time or another, pressure to state a market value above or below a certain range. Regardless of who has applied that pressure, it is a stressful component of a profession that, by sheer nature, needs a reputation for ethics and honesty. Unfortunately, many appraisers have fallen prey to that pressure. I myself have dealt with pressure and spent many a sleepless night staring at the ceiling and wondering if, by holding my ground, I have alienated enough clients that I will need to apply at McDonalds next week.

The current mortgage mess in this country can be at least partly blamed upon greedy lenders, greedy consumers, and greed at every other level of the transaction. Those of us that have steadfastly refused to fraudulently inflate values are excited to see some progress being made to regain professional appraiser independence. WAHOO!!! Its going to be interesting to watch this case as it progresses, and the "ripple effect" on the mortgage industry as a whole could be enormous.

We survived!

Well..........despite Tiersten getting sick yesterday and coming home early, and despite Grant's sickness Tuesday night, and despite Jennica being completely insanely hyper through trick-or-treating and until 10:30 pm last night.........we survived another year of Halloween!

I do have an amusing point to make......we were SO busy trying to get everything done and get everywhere we were supposed to go.......we did not take ONE SINGLE PHOTO of the kids in costume. My Mom did..........but I didn't.

And lastly, a funny story about Jennica. We got home about 8:00 pm, stumbled in the door with all four kids, and Jen promptly vanished. Five minutes later, Mike looked at me and asked, "Where did Jennica go?" I shrugged my shoulders and we started calling for her. I walked into her room just as Mike was dragging her out from under her bed by her ankles. Still dressed in full costume, and stuffing candy into her face as fast as she can unwrap and stuff. Mike looked at me with this totally exasperated look and said, "Guess who I found under her bed eating candy?" Before I could even answer, Jennica gave me this huge cheesy ear-to-ear grin and gave me a "thumbs up" sign. I couldn't help but almost laugh. So Mike turned to her and asked, "Jennica, was eating all that candy worth getting in trouble?" (She had been asked to take her candy bucket into the kitchen!) All he got was another big huge cheesy grin and another "thumbs up" sign. Yi Yi Yi!! What are we going to do with her??

Hope you had a Happy Halloween! The best thing about Halloween? It only lasts ONE DAY!!

Well...THAT was an interesting evening...

Every family has them.........evenings that are so full of chaos that you feel like your hair is on fire. Once again, I'm a control freak. (Have I mentioned that before?) So...I did everything possible IN ADVANCE to be prepared for yesterday evening, knowing that we had many things to do in preparation of Halloween and wanting to hold down the stress level so we could enjoy some family-bonding time carving pumpkins. This is how it went........and enjoy the humor because we are!!

Grant comes home from school. Lets me know that he has volunteered to bring brownies for his party today. Grant and I put together his costume. (I'll post photos later...) Dane comes home and both boys get to work on some random chores.......feeding dogs, picking up their room, that sort of thing. (Dane's last day before wrestling practice starts.) Go to store and get brownie mix and go pick up girls. Get home, start dinner, Mike comes home. Mike and I fold five loads of laundry while dinner is cooking. Dane mixes up brownies and gets them in pan. Brownies bake while we eat. Clean up everything after dinner. Dishwasher running. Brownies cooling. Now baking cookies because brownies smell good. Pack 6 pumpkins into the house and carve them. (Thank heavens Mike had gutted them all Tuesday evening.) Clean up pumpkin mess, try to keep Jennica out of trouble. Cookies cooling. Empty backpacks from school, load backpacks with costumes and whatever everyone needs for school. Get laundry put away, cut up brownies and get them ready to transport to school. Get girls in pajamas. Get girls in bed. Load an appraisal file in computer that needs to be ready in the morning. Send off a few business emails on loose ends with different files. Empty dishwasher. And at 9:15......Grant starts throwing up. Clean carpet. Mop bathroom floor. Wipe down wall. Finally stumble our way to bed. At which point, Mike says, "Sure glad we had a nice relaxing evening at home. We really needed that." Laughing out loud........

Every family has evenings like these.

I'm the Halloween version of Scrooge

The title of this blog pretty much says it all. Halloween as a kid was great fun. Halloween as non-Mom adult wasn't even too bad. But I gotta say, Halloween as a parent pretty much sucks!

Parties started last weekend. Parties are still going. Parties will take place all day tomorrow. Every day I explain to the girls that today is not the trick-or-treating day. We've been talking costumes for WEEKS. They will be tired long before we ever hit the trick-or-treating trail. I am, by nature, a "let's-make-it-at-home" type of parent when it comes to costumes. Unfortunately, the gazillion football and school and work events that in which we have been partaking have not really left ample time in the schedule to make costumes. Grant and I are making his costume. We went easy with the girls and they are "zipping" into their store-bought costumes.

And then there is the whole candy thing. We teach our children not to ask strangers for candy, and not even to ask people they know for gifts. And then we tell them that Halloween is exempt. Go ahead, kids.............dress up in a costume and its okay to to knock on people's doors and expect them to give you candy! And does anyone's kids really eat that candy? Our sits around for weeks, we eat the stuff we like, and finally dump the rest in the garbage. We have the additional problem that we only trick-or-treat with families we know. Many of the stops along the way involve grandparents or elderly people that don't get many trick-or-treaters, so they all have something "special" set aside for our children. Our kids are likely to come home with BIG candy bars, toys, cans of pop, and possibly even some cash. Not kidding here!! I trick-or-treated the same neighborhood as a child and one house was famous for giving silver dollars!!! And remember, we live in a rural area, so trick-or-treating is a driving from house to house event. No walking here!!

Before I was a parent, I knew a Mom that actually told her kids to go home after trick-or-treating and eat ALL the candy they wanted. Sometimes, she said they ate until they barfed. But the kids knew that when they went to bed, whatever was left of the candy went in the garbage. At the time, I thought it was a bizarre concept. Looking back, I have to give her credit ... it was a way to bring an abrupt end to Halloween leftovers.

Tonight, we will carve our pumpkins at home. And then, tomorrow, we'll stuff little people into costumes, smile, and do the whole nine yards that is Halloween in America in 2007. I will congratulate children on their costumes and hand out candy. I will chat pleasantly with other parents. But if you happen to see me out trick-or-treating, know that behind the smile...........I'm hoping that Martha Freakin' Stewart chokes on her carameled apple.

The "Man in the Pot"

As a parent of four children that are all virtually "fearless", I admit to taking great delight on the rare occasions that one of them actually shows a little genuine fright. I am quite seriously afraid of snakes and all four of the kids know that and flaunt it whenever possible. So.......I just consider it getting even. They've all been known to dangle things that slither........just to watch me squirm. This summer, Jennica even thought that the garter snake she found should come inside. YUK!

To get to the point of this story, Jennica went to Mary Bridge Hospital with Mike yesterday for her routine ear-tube check. (By the way, tubes are out and ears are great!) On their way home, Mike stopped by a Halloween store to look for a skunk costume for Tiersten (Yep......a skunk!). As they walked in the door, Jennica immediately spotted a huge pot with these life-size moving legs sticking out and kicking!! She flipped out and pretty much climbed Mike's legs!

Several hours later, when they got home, the "man in the pot" was all she could talk about. I was totally clueless and she was SO earnest about telling me and so frustrated because I was grasping her seriousness, but couldn't imagine what in the world she was jabbering about. Mike explained, and I tried very hard not to laugh, as this was obviously very serious to her! We have continued to tell her that it was a silly decoration and she doesn't seem to be having nightmares, but it sure made a BIG impression!

Serves her right for dangling a snake in my face.......... :)

I can see the light in the distance...

This coming week is our LAST week of football for 2007! Two weeks ago, I couldn't wait to get there, and now I'm going to be a little sorry to see it come to an end. Both of our boys have really matured this season and its been wonderful to watch! There teams have also been incredibly successful, with only one loss to each team. And, important to the Mom here, NO MAJOR INJURIES to any kid on either of their teams. With one week still to go...I'd better knock on wood......

Also, this past week, I turned 39! Mike made dinner on my birthday and my parents joined us and the four kids for cake and ice cream. It was nice to be home for the evening! And......last night, Mike shocked me with a surprise birthday party! He had started making some noises on Thursday about doing some house-cleaning, at which point I didn't catch on. I still didn't totally catch on Friday night as we were working around the house together and he was doing a more in-depth cleaning than usual. But Saturday, I got a little suspicious that SOMETHING was up. In any case, I still didn't guess that our usual rowdy group would all show up at 6:00 pm dressed in Mexican costume, carrying a ton of food, and........a pinata!! As always, we had a great time together and it was a lot of fun. I even won a round of Poker!! (Now that I think about it, maybe they let me win because it was my birthday. Nah........they're not THAT nice. :) ) In any case, by the time we re-possessed our children and got them into their own beds, it was 2 a.m., but THANKS to Mike and the rest of the gang for a great birthday! A few more weeks and we'll be sailing the West Coast of Mexico......

Lastly, a few weeks ago, we upgraded our camera. The last one had been as tough as nails through a lot of abuse, but a cup of apple juice on our camping trip this summer was just too much for it. We're having a blast playing with our new toy as, obviously, digital cameras have come a long way in the last few years. I've posted new photos of each of the kids above. At top, the girls playing on the playground at one of Grant's games. The photo of Grant (#26) was taken in Pe Ell on October 14th, where he had probably the best game he's ever had (so far anyway)with two fumble recoveries, two quarterback sacks, and some general knocking-other-people-down. And, lastly, the photos of Dane (in green,#50) are of him making a touchdown, and doing what he loves most..........smashing somebody on the gridiron (he's the guy in green on the TOP of the pile).

I feel like a hamster on a wheel...

Its Sunday night at 6:30 pm. If I could do anything I wanted right now....hhhmmmmm........I think I would go to bed and pull the covers over my head and sleep for a solid 12 hours with no interruptions. I'm in that mood where I just want to be left ALONE for awhile.........peace and quiet........ALL ALONE!!!

It actually was a good week and I'm truly grateful for that. In fact, I feel a little ungrateful even admitting that I'm craving time alone. But its one "benefit" of being a one-appraiser-business that we generally get a lot of time alone (I don't think I've mentioned that my trust assistant, Jennifer, has moved to Vancouver..... ) and we get accustomed to that mind-organizing time. This past week was just one of those that the schedule was VERY full every minute of every day with activities involving other people and I've got that "hair-on-fire/claustrophic" feeling tonight of not being totally brain-organized going into Monday morning. I HATE that! The "control freak" in me really NEEDS to know exactly what to expect every moment of every day this coming week. If I'm prepared for the things that I KNOW are going to happen, I deal better with the unexpected things that always come along. Am I making ANY sense here?

I've actually got some really funny stories to share from the kids this past week, but I'm too stressed at the moment to think they're very funny. I KNOW they're funny, but I can't focus enough to put them down in words.

So now that all you people know how truly insane I am.........well..........yeah. Good night!! I'm still running on the hamster wheel......

I'm starting a club...Wanna join?

Its been awhile since I've gotten on my soapbox, but upon reading the news today, I'm motivated to express my not-so-in-demand opinion. So here goes...

I've decided to start a club. People Against Poor Judgement On My Space. PAPJOMS. Hmmm....That doesn't really have a ring to it. Well........something like that. Wanna join?

Now, before you get your hackles up, I'm not against My Space itself. I'm against "Poor Judgement" on My Space. In my experience, this happens to include almost the vast majority of My Space accounts that I have surfed, but let's just say thats a coincidence. And My Space is not the only one of these venues--there are others that are equally as obnoxious. So please include those as well under the heading that I am terming as "My Space".

Here are my gripes:
1) My Space is providing an easy venue for VAST amounts of poor judgement to surface. I've seen two news stories in the past two weeks involving sex offenders using My Space as a method with which to meet their victims. Both of these instances went so far as to actually result in the victims meeting these criminals and crimes being committed. All of the involved victims were below the age of 18, and apparently, using My Space without parental supervision or guidance. (Not to say that the parents would have been any smarter than the kids.....)

2) My Space is the host of a whole lot of photos, text, etc. being posted with NO thought to the PERMANENCY of internet record. Gone are the days when a note was passed around a high school english class stating who has a crush on whom, who got drunk at what party, what girls are using birth control, or whatever that week's rumor may be--when the note died, so did the permanent written record. Today, these messages are posted on My Space. To be accessed forever and ever. Its bad enough that our teens are engaging in as many adult activities as they are, but to have them posted publicly on My Space? Yikes!

3) And this is where I really start to feel the gripe--Our college and adult users that are exhibiting as poor of judgement (or more so) than our teens. Photos of obscene gestures at the camera, photos of obvious drinking binges, photos of all kinds of things that 30 years from now you don't want your boss/grandchildren/world to witness. Come on, people!! Where is your self-respect? Where is your class? For heaven's sakes, play! Enjoy life! Have fun in whatever manner you desire, and live with the consequences! But don't allow it to be posted on the internet!!!

Consider the permanent societal impacts of My Space. Are our heads-of-state going to be attempting to confirm a Supreme Court Justice in 30 years and My Space photos from a fraternity party suddenly surface? How many sex offenders are out there surfing for their next victim right this minute? How many of us have a moment or two (from which we learned a lesson) and prefer that it would stay a very private lesson and not posted on the internet?

In closing, I'm going to submit the perfect example--I had two close high school friends that briefly dated an upper classman. That upper classman is now a politician. He is highly respected in his field of work, as he should be, for the adult that he has become. I could tell a few stories about him from our younger days. But thats all they are......stories. No My Space posting. No photos from my cell phone that I downloaded to the internet. Just fond stories of silly high school days. As it should be. He has nothing to fear......

If he had been born 20 years later, that may not have been the case, and a scandal could be waiting to break at any time. Despite his hard work. Despite his excellent track record in his job. Despite the responsible adult that he is today. Despite the good he is doing in legislature getting some important bills passed that will benefit our society.

So........If you are a My Space user, and if you perhaps have a photo or two posted somewhere, and if perhaps there are obscene gestures made at the camera, or other immature postings....Enjoy them. Because you might just live to regret the poor judgement you used the day you posted them.

Grant.....little and tough!!

Grant played another football game on Saturday. In this one, they finally met their match and they got beat. They put up a heck of a fight in the first three quarters, but finally got by-passed late in the game.

Grant, again, had a couple of great runs. He is on the smaller end of the kids, but tough as nails!! Its not unusual to see him pushing the last yard or two to a first down with four or five guys hanging on trying to bring him down. This week, he got his arm stomped on, but kept on a trucking!

I took the attached photo from the grandstands this past Saturday. Grant is #26, and he's standing next to teammate and good friend, Darrol. Darrol is about "average-sized" for the boys in their division. GROW, Grant!!! :)

Speedy Gonzales meets Batgirl

The already-a-handful Jennica has developed a few new skills lately, and is finely honing a few that she had previously revealed to us. Its giving me a serious case of "absence-of-patience-itus". Let me explain...

First of all, our youngest daughter has the longest and skinniest legs ever to be seen on a three-year-old. No case of the preschool chubbies here......her thighs and calves are long and muscular. And, boy, can she use them!!! This kid can RUN like the wind!!!

Second (also probably related to those long, thin legs), she has recently learned to climb things VERTICALLY. Like cabinets, specifically. And she is FAST!! She climbs up on our countertops lickety-split, we lift her down, and she's back up there in a heartbeat.

Combine these skills with the fact that she has no fear of ANYTHING, and we've got a problem on our hands. She always manages to get some form of "contraband" out of an upper cabinet(all the lower ones have Jennica-proof child locks on them), hops back down off the countertops and runs for her room like Carl Lewis. She does a "Pete-Rose-type-belly-slide" under her bed, tucks her feet up, and the only way to get her out is to lay on your stomach and drag her out by whatever body part you happen to grab! The other alternative is to leave her under there and ignore her, but thats not real practical if you're trying to get out the door to a football game, or preschool, or wherever else we're headed.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH. Once again, she's got us thinking. I will give her credit for that! The standard punishments don't work with this child so, once again, we're having to get creative and think of ways to outsmart her, and provide a deterrent, all at the same time.

So if anyone out there has any suggestions for how to deal with Speedy Gonzales and Batgirl all rolled into one........we're listening!!

Eau de Football Socks

Before delving into the true subject matter of this post, I need to establish a few things:
1) I'm not a wimp. I can bury a deceased cat. I have shoveled endless mountains of horse poop. I have personally witnessed an autopsy on a cow (better known as a "post", which is short for post-mortem exam, and it was very fascinating). I will even pick up worms, spiders, and anything else except snakes. (NO SNAKES!)
2) I'm not a wuss. I am a parent of four, so I have caught vomit in my hands in a classy restaurant, I have changed diapers that exceeded the norm on the disgusting scale, and I have tried to discreetly remove dried boogers from a snotty nose.

So don't take it lightly when I say........MY SONS' FOOTBALL SOCKS ARE DISGUSTING!!

This is not our first year of football, nor is it our first year of sports. I have seen sweaty socks before. I have seen muddy socks before. And I have seen smelly socks before. In fact, I played sports myself, so I have had my own fair share of gross socks. But I gotta tell ya......for some reason, this year is different!

This year's football socks are appearing in my house with a stronger, more pungent, indescribable odor. And they are WET. This is the Pacific Northwest and we have had rain, so I know that part of the moisture is from the ground, but still.......EEEEEEWWWW. And when the arrive in my laundry room inside out, its all I can do to reach into them to turn them back right-side out, but if I don't, there are chunks of grass that are still there when they come out of the dryer. Now.....The logical solution is to insist that the boys turn them right-side out or they don't get washed, right? Been there and tried that and its simply not realistic. These boys get up at 6:30 am, are at school all day, don't get home from practice until after 6:00 pm, and still have homework to do and dinner to eat and fall into bed at 9:00 pm exhausted. As long as they are honor students, great citizens, and are considerate of their parents, I am willing to cut them some slack and deal with the socks.

But every time I reach into the laundry hamper and come out with a handful of wadded, wet, smelly socks, I can't help but wince. Give me blood and guts anyday! Football socks are NASTY!

No More Brace Face!

After almost three years, Dane got his braces off today!! Wahoo! Now.....the fun part is that we took a picture of him the night before he got his braces on and took another photo of him tonight. The really shocking thing is not his teeth, but just the sheer amount that he has matured. WOW! See below!!!

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.....