Feeling Blue

What happens when a kid from school's parent sends a blue ring pop home for your kiddo.

Thanks, whoever you are!

Back to School

Does 4th grade come with attitude? The cooperation factor was missing this morning, but I did manage to get one un-blurry photo of Jaeden (finally).

Brooklyn looking forward to the 3rd grade.

I so wanted a picture of them together (I tried), but now the moment is gone forever...

Jordan still has 2 more weeks before he starts, and I promise a picture then. Even if I have to sit on him to get it done!

With Mrs. Pietila.

I just had to take this picture of the school bus in the fog. It shouts FALL. 'Twas a damp, cold, brisk walk this morning, but it sure felt good. Brooklyn was talking about a cold nose and I was telling her that's what scarves are for - wrapping around your face to keep you warm. Brrrr....and winter isn't even here, yet. I'd happily send some of this down to you Arizonans!

Can't wait to hear all the wonderful first-day-of-school stories they come home with! But first things first. Do I tackle cleaning the office, do the dishes and tidy up the house, or run to Starbucks and relish a few moments of this new quietness? Hard decision. . . . .

Where Are You???

We haven't disappeared. Really, we haven't! Just don't have a whole lot to blog about right now.

The two youngest kids are starting school on Tuesday (whoohoo!) and the oldest starts on the 21st. Can't believe we have a 3rd grader, a 4th grader, and a college student!

I'm looking forward to all that FALL brings. School, routines, crisp weather, sweaters, leaves changing color, candles burning, pumpkins, baking, and the list goes on. . . . .

What do you look forward to in the fall?

Bugz

Brooklyn had a speaking part in a program at school on May 8 called Bugz. It was about different bugs going on a picnic. I didn't get a video clip of her part - oops. We heard it for weeks before hand. "That's right, I am a dragonfly. I may look rather odd. That's because I just went through a metamorphosis. For I'm an arthropod." She did very well, I must say.

Her moment of fame. . . .

A clip of one of the cute songs about fireflies. The kids loved having the lights out and using flashlights.

Our Valentine

Here's our Valentine with her classmates today. I went down to the school to have lunch with her and play a little at recess. I got there in time to help make 100 Valentine's for the care center across the street. This is such a great age! All the kids think you're the best and Mrs. Hansen this, Mrs. Hansen that.

Brooklyn's teacher and class sang her happy birthday...Brooklyn started to not feel well during lunch and rapidly got worse. She went down to the office to have her temperature taken and sure enough, she had a fever of 100.7. What a day to feel awful! We quickly handed out her mini cupcakes, heart cookies and Capri Sun's for her birthday, she rounded up the Valentine's she got from the students and treats from the teacher, and we headed home. She has some Tylenol in her now and is content to be in bed looking through her Valentine envelope to see all her goodies.

♪ Happy #8 Brooklyn ♪

We hope she's feeling better tomorrow. She was supposed to get her birthday pictures taken. What timing! We'll have two eight year-olds in the house again for a week! What fun!

♥Happy Valentine's Day ♥

to all of you! We hope you get to spend it with those you love!

♪ Toot ♪ Toot ♪

I find it necessary (especially as his mother) to toot this young man's horn! He received his sophomore semester grades back and he's made HONOR ROLL! Great job, Jordan! He has a total of five A's and one B. Whoohoo!!! Three of those A's are really an A+ because he had 100% in those classes plus turned in any extra credit he could.

We couldn't be prouder . . .

PS He cut off those curls again - what a sacrifice! I'll have to subject him to another picture soon to prove it!

Deja Vu

Welcome to our world tonight. So far we're "high and dry", but there are others preparing for the worst. It's very sobering (especially because it's been just over a year since the last devastating flood) to watch people around town sandbagging, moving furniture/belongings to higher ground and so on. The kids were sent home two hours early today after moving their books and equipment up on tables and desks.

No school tomorrow, but shhhh. . . . .please don't tell them yet. I beg you. . . .please don't. They were off two days early, pre-Christmas break for snow days and now this. So let me pretend they go back to school tomorrow. If only for a few more hours.

It's predicted to be worse than December '07. We heard 10 feet above the flood line. Time will tell. The HUGE snow melt is compounding the problem. I noticed places that weren't bothered by the floods back then that are preparing to be flooded this time around. Anyway, we feel fortunate to be sitting up high. Ya never know, though. Our basement could flood, but we hope not.

On to better things. I misplaced my camera on Christmas Day so I didn't get any pictures of the yummy food, table setting, or family. How could that happen? I'm hoping to have my sister-in-law email a few and then I can post some pics. Guess what? I haven't finished posting from our Thanksgiving trip either. Jordan bugs me about it, too. So I better get busy!

The following snow pics were taken December 21. I must have been getting a bit weary of the snow to not have taken more between these and Christmas. Silly me. . . Now I wish for the snow instead of the rain and flooding. We always want what we don't have. Funny how our human nature works!

Happy New Year!

The kids decided it'd be fun to have a little bonfire and roast marshmallows on New Year's night. The snow had just melted in the backyard and we had a big windstorm hence all the leaves. We were enjoying the outdoors once again in spite of how cold it was!

Our Snow Globe

Are you tired of snow pictures, yet? 'Cause this is all it seems to be doing around here. We had a day of sun yesterday which was marvelous! It was so cold though that the snow stuck around and we had more ice form. Then the snow started again this morning about 10:30.It hasn't let up. It's so beautiful falling. It's just the right consistency and looks like we're peeking into a giant snow globe. Wonder what it'll look like by morning? We have almost a foot already. I worried about Maddie's paws being cold before. Now it's her belly, too.It already feels like Christmas Break should be half over, and it's just beginning. Uh-oh!

Fall Is Definitely Here

Awesome school concerts (niece Kayla) Falling leaves

Playing in the leaves and wearing long sleeves
Early darkness

Jordan not smiling for pics - hey, that's not just fall. That's all the time!

Brilliant fall colors Love how this picture turned out with the street lamp illuminating the brilliant, yellow maple leaves! I usually can't get a night-time picture to turn out like this without a tripod or flash.

Hope you're enjoying these beautiful fall days! Don't forget to turn your clocks back next week (unless you're fortunate enough to live in AZ).

It's Here!

First Day of School 2008

First Day of School 2007
See any changes? Jordan of course is soooo hard to get a smile out of, Brooklyn is definitely in a happier mood this morning than this time last year, and Jaeden - well, Jaeden is always smiling (unless he's whining of course). Growth changes? I definitely think the two younger ones are taller this year and I definitely see Jordan's maturity. Isn't he handsome?

Jordan - Sophomore

Jaeden - 3rd Grade

Brooklyn - 2nd Grade

It's a cloudy, foggy morning so the lighting is awful in the picture. Sorry! Would've helped if I'd taken their picture outside, but it was too cold. Brrrrrr....

Hope you're all settling back into your fall routines!

(Yikes!! I just realized how blurry last year's photo is - it was so hard to get them to stand still for two seconds)

Swim Lessons

Jaeden and Brooklyn wrapped up eight weeks of swim lessons. At the end of every two-week session, all the kids do a safety review and then they get to go down the water slide a few times. It's definitely something they look forward to!

This last session, they also moved on from having to jump into the pool with life vests on to jumping into the pool like a lifeguard, keeping their head above water.

Only two and a half more weeks till school starts for us - whoohoooo! Sorry, am I not supposed to be that excited about it??

Another Week Gone By

Our Miss Boo never stops in the middle of the day let alone falls asleep. Obviously she wasn't feeling well. She was sick with a cold last weekend as I mentioned in the last post. So she stayed home from school Monday, and it took a lot of persuasion to send her Tuesday. This picture was taken on Thursday. At least she went to school. But she came home and said she'd fallen asleep on the bus (could this be Brooklyn?) and she immediately crawled up into the rocking chair. I gave her a couple of pillows, and she was out. (The first picture is blurry because I was trying not to wake her with the flash.) Anyway, I'm happy to report that she's MUCH better!

Brooklyn and Jaeden went to Olympia for a field trip on Friday. They saw a laser show and came home telling us all about it. I'd forgotten how much we used to look forward to those grade school field trips! So much excitement in packing lunches, wearing the appropriate clothes (raincoats here in WA), etc.

Yummy cupcakes we made Friday afternoon.

Jordan has student-led conferences this next week (I'm sure it'll be good news in that category) so that means half-days all week for him. He's still loving every minute of his welding classes.

No school for all the kids on Friday, either. What is up with that?? It seems every time we turn around, the kids are off for some reason or another. Do kids ever go to school anymore? Monday off here, Friday off there, half-days this week, Christmas Break, Mid-Winter Break, Spring Break, teacher planning days, state planning days, holidays, snow make-up unused days... To complicate matters further, the high school isn't on the same schedule/routine as the grade schools. I do wonder how working mom's manage sometimes between all the days off school, sick days, etc. It's quite a juggling act. I admire each and every one of you working mother's out there!

We're counting down the days till we go on our Caribbean cruise during Spring Break. We'll be sure to take lots of pictures to share with you! Meanwhile, we're busy packing and figuring out what to take/not take. Thanks to Laurie (my cousin) and Erika (my sis-in-law) for their advice so far! Each little bit has helped immensely. We're really starting to look forward to this cruise.

Hugs to all of you and hope you enjoy what's left of your weekend!

Landscaping

Oh, how I wish I'd taken a before picture of this space in front of our house! It was downright scary. Just a big jumble of plants - overgrown rose bushes, rosemary, daffodils, and whatnot. It pays to be married to a landscaper. Every time I looked at that space, I would have nightmares. I'd have no idea where to start! But Keith got in there and took out anything we didn't want, moved rosemary to some pots for kitchen use, transplanted a rhododendron that was lost in the yard elsewhere, made order out of the daffodils, etc. All within a few hours this last Saturday. It doesn't look like much yet especially when you can't see a before picture (sorry-wasn't thinking!), but believe me - it's a total turnaround. Okay, ignore that big orange/rusty spot on the wall. We're getting to that...

Make note of those daffodil's already in bloom! Yay!! Spring really is just around the corner...17 days to be exact. Those round white things - Brooklyn's handprints. She made one for Mom on Mother's Day and one for Dad on Father's Day last year. So we had to use them. We left them in the tins for now otherwise I'm afraid they'd break up too easily.

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Oh, I just found some before shots! From before we even moved in a year ago. You can maybe get an idea of how jumbled and messy the yard was. We have a ways to go, but so much improvement already. The prior owners loved a hodgepodge of everything with no rhyme nor reason to placement of things. It was a pain to mow. You'd come across tulips smack in the middle of nowhere. Remember, we're still renting so we don't want to put a ton of $$ into this. But we do like living in a nice place, too. The landlord wants us to buy, we'll see. When we first moved in, we hauled a ton of garbage away including an old stove and other filth sitting on the front porch.

While Keith was working on the front there, I was busy rearranging and cleaning the porch. An early spring cleaning. The boys went to a Sportsman's Show at the fairgrounds earlier in the day and won two $25 gift certificates to our local hardware store. They were sweet enough to gift me with one so I can go pick out some pretty flowers to perk up my pots. I'll take pics to post later.

The little ones were so excited about school this morning. It's Dr. Seuss Day and they got to wear pajamas to school as well as take their slippers, teddy bears, etc. So fun!

Enjoy your week!