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