disappoitment

Sky got word today that he did not get one of the 4 percussion positions available in the band.  It is so sad because he has been practicing on the drum kit but that is not really the same as what they do in band. 

I wish we could find an older used clarinet to buy for Sky instead of renting the current one every month.  We may have a line on a sax if he decided to move to that instrument...fingers crossed!

OOPS forgot to post B's Bday!

My baby turned double digits!

We had a party at the bowling alley again this year and we all had a blast, except Shane who went home sick...

If you look on the table by the ice cream scoop you will see the cool bowling pin pens that I found online to use as decorations and everyone got to take one home.  I even gave one to the bowling alley owner because he thought they were so cool.

Brady got his bowling pin and everyone signed it, now I just need to find a way to drill a whole in it and make it into a lamp.  He has 2 and I thought they would make cool lamps for him to keep instead of just big paper weights.

Sky the Christmas Star

A few weeks ago Sky joined the Christmas Ensemble which is made up of band members from the middle school and the high school.  they have been getting together a couple afternoons a week to practice Christmas songs.  Yesterday the group welcomed Santa to town for the HO HO Hoquiam Celebration.

 

 After a few songs Santa arrived...

 

And we all moved inside for more music then a magic show...

ok not a great video but sky has the blue checkered shirt in the middle.

When it is hard to give thanks...

 

Our friend, Scott, lost his 15 yr old granddaughter this week after a valiant fight with cancer.  Even though we all knew this day was close, and now her suffering is gone, there is so much pain with loosing someone so young.  I pray for strength for all of them.


Getting wrapped up in our day to day lives it is so easy to loose track of the blessings we have each day.  I hope on this Thanksgiving day that everyone I know will join me and wrap our arms around our children and let them know how thankful we are to be blessed with them in our lives.

And I give thanks that I have each of you in my life also...

Fundraisers!

So far this year I worked to get the elementary schools magazine sale and candy sale fundraisers all done and now the middle school is selling Butter Braids and Pastry Puffins which is fine I knew there would be additional fundraisers now that Sky has moved up but I just found out that the middle school ASB will be starting another fundraiser before the holidays selling cookie dough!  After the new year I have basket bingo and regular catalogue fundraisers and we are adding Skate nights, a rummage sale and a fun run.  I am not looking forward to how many other fundraisers the middle school is going to do. 

I want to do everything I can to help the schools and the kids but I just don't know how much more I can do.  I have no time to do something just for me.

Sky's reading class is going to The Nutcracker in Seattle next month and I did sign up to be a chaperone.  Yes I have to deal with a group of obnoxious 6th graders but I get to go to the theatre!  Now I am packing up my office/craft room so we can give Sky his own room and I feel I may never have my own space again.  I can't let this happen!  I really need to find a way to still have craft time.

The first thing I need to do is decide what is important.  Get organized and then I should have the time to myself.  Hopefully before the end of the year Sky's room and the front porch will be done.  Keeping fingers crossed!

Truck or Treat...

I got to attend truck or treat for the first time this year at Central.  I have always been at Brady's class at Lincoln on Halloween and Shane when to Central.  This year the middle school does nothing for Halloween so I decorated my van and got in costume and had some fun with the kids!

The day before Sky had his first concert:

And the afterschool program taught the kids how to make fake wounds:

all and all a fairly interesting week around here.

My problem...

So I have an issue and I am having a hard time coming up with the answer.  Since my first baby entered school I have kept every piece of paper they have brought home.  I have weekly classroom updates from Mrs. Coyote's kindergarten class, I have every lunch menu sent home for the last 5 years...well technically I have 2 for every month for the last 3 years.  Every homework assignment, every picture painted, every name list for valentines, every scrap that came home I have kept in separate boxes, one for each kid for each separate year for fear of tossing something very important.

Did you know that after a while these boxes start to pile up!  I have many more years of all these papers coming home.  I had gone looking for some type of storage boxes when Sky was in 1st grade in hopes of more secure storage but now I am starting to think I need to let some of this paper go.  I could keep some of the art projects, although the schools we have attended have not been much into that kind of thing.

Of course not everything is a nice neat 81/2 by 11 sheet either, there are the odd big pictures and 3d projects...the really big stuff this last couple years I have tried to take picture of because in this small house it doesn't take long for that stuff to get ruined in the boys room and I just have not had the space to store it.

Will my boys think I am horrible if I toss out a bunch of these papers?  What should I keep and what should I toss?  I have lots of reminders sent home about various activities at school.  I can toss those correct?  Or should I scrap that stuff?  Or should I scan every sheet and save them on a hard drive?

Military action...

So the boys wanted to go as characters from their favorite tv show, Stargate SG-1.  I couldn't find any actual costumes for the show so they went with these and I am going to change out the patches and try to make some that look like SG-1 patches,

Originally Bray wanted to be Dr. Daniel Jackson and Sky wanted to be Col. Jack O'Neil...or was the other way around? 

I still think I have strange kids.  At least the farm is safe from a Goa'uld attach!

bubble bath here I come...

I am so excited, Shane almost has the bathroom done!

My new tub with jets!  Can't wait to get in with a glass of wine and couple candles lit and sit back and have a long hot bath!  Haven't been able to take a bath since we left Spokane.

I really like the new sink and vanity.  The walls are a light mint green color and I LOVE it!

It is exciting when a room is done but I am so tired of having my house tore up!  Next thing that is going to be done is the front porch I think, I hope!  When the rain hits we don't have any covered area out there and it becomes such a muddy mess!

happy yellow...

Ok, so I am starting to put my kitchen back together but things are going real slow. 

At first I was afraid of yellow, and the first yellow we chose was too bright according to Shane so he got a new color that is closer to butter.

I just want to have every cupboard organized.  Everything in its place kind of house.  no clutter.  I am starting to think that is never going to happen to me.  I just moved my desk into the kitchen and had to move 3 boxes of misc. crap that has no home in the kitchen yet.  Do I need those things?  no...but some of them were given to me and I have this obsession to hold onto everything anyone has given me.  I don't want to hurt their feelings if they ever find out I got rid of it.  This means if anyone wants to see the Christmas card they sent me in say 1996...I have it. 

Ok, I am going to commit right now to donating a box of kitchen items that I have either A. not used since I moved here 2 years ago or B. don't like...even if it was a gift.  I better be sure I have a nice bottle of wine chilled to get though this though!

kitchen work...

So the bugs came out of the kitchen wall again.  So Shane decided it was time to take the wall out and hopefully rid us of the bugs once and for all.  There was a huge carpenter ant nest in the wall...

Shane and Scott tore down drywall and sprayed like heck as they went.  They decided to take the window out first thing so they had fresh air as they worked.

They removed drywall back to the cupboards to make dry walling as easy as possible.

See we have already taken down some drywall in the main bathroom too.  There is my gross tub that will soon have a new finish.

This is the side with my huge walk in pantry.  Looks so messy right now due to shoving everything in to have it all out of the way of the work.  Shane has talked about expanding my pantry so we can put our freezer in it also. 

I don't think I took any before pictures.  I had been left with some pretty ugly paneling stuff.  had small brown building all over.  But that was nothing compared to some of the 5 layers of wall paper that were under it!  The most obnoxious was a bright flowered print that I am guess was the late 60's early 70's.  Around the 1950's though I did like the paper that had kitchen do dads all over it...egg beaters and measuring cups and mixing bowls.  The color was distorted but it wasn't as bright and flashy as the other papers, muted blue-green and pastel pink I am guessing were the original colors with maybe a white or off white background.


When I first bought my house on Joseph, my brother Danny bought me a garden window because I had always talked about wanting one.  I loved that window and was so sad when I sold my house and couldn't take it with me.  I had talked about wanting to put one in the kitchen but these days they are a special order item and so expensive!  Shane and I had talked about making the kitchen window smaller so that in the future we could put counter top all the way around the kitchen and to save time and money right now since everything has been going over budget.  But Shane knew how much I wanted a garden window and so he got me a HUGE one.  He actually will need to cut the window opening bigger and re-frame it to get the window to fit.  I will have enough space to put all my herbs in it and to even have room for my spring starts each year! 

I want to leave you with a beautiful photo I found while trying to find a before pic of my kitchen.  I love going to the beach and here are my boys enjoying the last moments of daylight.

Best fireworks EVER...

Hoquiam's big thing each year is the Logger Play day which is the first Saturday of September.  This year was the 50th annual and I wanted to go.  Last year it fell on Shane's birthday but luckily this year it was the day before.  Shane had gone as a kid and said it was boring but I worked hard and got both the boys to agree to go with me.  I even got one of Sky's friends who had also been told it was boring and didn't want to go to change his mind and join us...I had bought a ticket for Shane but he was working on the house so this way I was able to use all 4 tickets.

While in college in Spokane I competed in Logger Sports.  Although I double bucked crooked cookies I was great at the ax though...never attempted to climb the pole let alone top the tree because, well that is a really tall pole even when you don't have a big saw tied to you!

I had a blast!  They even had a couple world champion log rollers there and it was really amazing how long they stayed on.  The royal court did not fair so well.  I believe the Queen won but both were in the water within 2 seconds of the log being let go.

The night ended with the most amazing firework display I have EVER seen!  For one because we were so close, I am use to watching from my front deck on my Carnahan house.  But they also seemed to go for ever and were so colorful and amazing.  My phone battery died and I was not able to get any photos of the display and I am so bummed. 

The boys had mentioned a couple times during the show that they were getting bored.  At that point I got them hot dogs, then ice cream and lastly light up swords but after the fireworks Sky asked if we can go next year too.  All 3 boys couldn't stop talking about how cool the fireworks were...There were a lot of "Dude remember the one that..."  and "Oh Dude".

I was just as bad though I gave Shane a complete run down of the show.  He said it sounds better then what he remembers and even said maybe next year he will join us.

1st day of school...

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  Sky moved up to middle school and I was not ready.  He wanted me to go in with him and that helped.  There were other parents there, Shane said kids would make fun of him but he wanted me there and I just helped him find his locker, get his schedule, point out which classes were on which floor and left him long before the bell rang.

I started to break down once but I turned around and saw another mom who works at Central Elementary and her smile made me feel better.  Her youngest of 8 is in the same grade as Sky.

yes this is what he wore the first day.  I don't see fashion in his future career choice.

Mr. Cobb made a comment about how tall Sky has gotten and I said yes, he is half grown, just then Mrs. Cobb piped up that for some he is full grown and I realized for the first time he was taller than she was!

Now onto my GQ son...

This tie was longer than his others so I attempted a double Winsor knot.  Doesn't look too bad in photo but the knot is quite large so I am going to have to figure something out.  I had hoped this would work and I could start getting men's ties, more options available and then he could use them for ever.  For now he has already outgrown a couple of his shorter favorite ties but boys sizes are still a better fit.

It was decided that this year ties will be worn on non PE days because they get in the way and we have had a hard time finding tie tacks!  PE days will sport either his large selection of khakis or jeans and a Polo shirt.  Noticed this morning I have to go get new jeans because although his last year jeans fit fine around they barely come down to the tops of his sneakers...don't want to look like a flood is coming!  Bray moved up to Central school this year and he is excited for the year...fingers crossed that he is able to control his temper the whole year.

Not totally done but getting there...

Ok. so much has been done on the living room!  Looks so great.  As you can see there are still tools around and we have not found end tables yet that we both like and will fit our need but take a look...

Here is standing at the door looking into the room.  Look at how wonderful the floor is with it's new finish!  And I LOVE my new foot stool in front of the mom friendly chair.  With no sofa I have a great place to have all my house plants.

This is still by the door looking across the room to Shane's office.  The hutch looks great in the corner with the dark paneling gone!  And Shane let me have a ceiling fan!  We had to haggle on the style but we finally agreed on this one.  To the right of the fire place Shane is going to build a large wood storage area and the rug in the middle of the room is going to be moved to our bedroom.

We put our favorite paining behind our new chairs.  We still need to get a frame for this one but it looks so much like the river behind our house that we put it up anyway.

My goal is to minimize the living room.  We had so much stuff in it before and once Shane hung the TV on the wall I loved all the extra space and hope to keep it open and roomy feeling.  When the walls were first painted they looked pinky but once all the furniture was added they look better in my opinion and I LOVE the way everything has turned out!

We still have the down stairs bathroom to fix up.  currently the dry wall is half down to studs.  Then we are going to do a little work on the kitchen but I am going to have to wait a while for a big remodel of that room.  For now new paint and a new floor will make me happy.

Last meet of the summer...

Bray has decided he is going to continue on the swim team this fall.  He has done so well.  Last meet of the summer was yesterday and unfortunately the electronics were out so I have no idea what his official times were or if he placed or ribboned yet.  He swam his first IM and his first Butterfly in a separate race also.  On the way home he told me he doesn't want to ever swim butterfly again if he doesn't have to...this meet it was a requirement that all swimmers swim all 4 stokes and an IM to participate.  Most kids had not swam Butterfly or IM in competition in his age group.  Many kids on his team chose to not go because of it only 3 boys and 6 girls from here went.  I am so proud that he gave it a try.  He was not fast but his coach said his form was perfect and that the speed will come in time.

Oh, an IM is when the swimmer swims a lap of Butterfly, then Backstroke, then Breast stoke and finishes with freestyle.  They are actually done at different lengths and some of the older kids swim upto 400 meters, doing 100 of each.  Brays group only had to swim the 100 meter IM though but it was not only the first IM for all of them at a meet but also their first 100 meter race.  Many had a hard time climbing out of the pool at the end and had to swim to the ladder instead of going out the wall like normal.

goofy mode

serious mode

Parents were not allowed on deck with the swimmers so we had to be upstairs which bummed me out not being with B but we had a good view to watch their form as they swam.  B is in late 1 on the far side.  The kid closest in lane 4 also wearing a GH2O swim cap is Colton from our team who is quite an amazing swimmer.  Bray is usually finishing just behind  Colton, whose father was a swimmer and competed through college.

B likes to start from the standing position, he feels off balance to start holding onto the board and he never gets his arms up high enough and head down enough to keep his goggles on when he hits the water...another thing that will come with time. 

not done but have to share...

Drywall is up and although still needs taping and finishing touches I have to share how great it is looking!

This is the stairway after taking down that wobbly handrail and closing it off.

My beautiful windows with grids really add to the country feel.  The original windows had the separate panes of glass but prior owners replaced most with plain windows.  LOVE THESE!

My mom, not so happy about his one...we took out the wood shelves around the kitchen doorway, not sure if we are going to do anything different here but looks so much more open and bright getting rid of the dark wood...and see my grids on my new sliding door...had to special order it because it is a HUGE door but lets in so much light and such a great view of the property, well worth the extra money!

After finishing the walls and getting everything painted Shane is going to refinish the wood floor again. He worked hard on it when we first bought the place and thinks just a light sanding and new coat of what ever goose grease he used before and it will just look AMAZING again.

I am flip flopping on the color though.  Still like the idea of light blue, bring in a feel of cool water, but I also think a light grayish white might look nice...don't laugh but I like the color of the plain drywall.  Closest paint color I have found is Alabaster White, but still looking.  I am thinking yellow for the kitchen and I want the colors to flow nicely together and now sure if either would look good...

Look look look!

Wiring and insulation is all done and I am getting drywall back in the living room!  Took an extra day to get started because of moving the laundry room but now we are back on track and I sure hope to have all the drywall done today!

Brady has his last summer swim meet tomorrow and I am sure hoping all goes well!  Heading to the Y now to do some IMs.  This is his first IM in competition which is where they swim all 4 stokes in the same race, Butterfly, Back stroke, Breast stroke and Freestyle.  B has worked hard on his Butterfly and Breast this week and he rocks the back and freestyle already.  His main problem is his kicking.  As the coach says if they are racing on arms alone B will take 1st place but he gets lazy with his kickers and that is his downfall because most other kids racing have stronger kickers.  And that gives much more speed.

can it be stress?

So my right eye is constantly twitching...very annoying.  Probably stress or lack of sleep...

Shane, Scott and my dad moved the washer and dryer into my new laundry room upstairs.  It will be so great to not have to carry dirty cloths down to the basement and clean cloths up 2 stories to the bedrooms.  Now with the bathroom upstairs all working most of the dirty cloths are kept up there and I do have hopes of having the main floor stay a little cleaner...course if Sky moved his bedroom into my current office then who know how things will be then. 

Bray is already making plans for his new single occupancy bedroom.  Since he is staying in the big room he plans to have his castle tent and drum set out.  He worked very hard yesterday on his room to make space to put a dresser in there.  With getting all the laundry done we found the boys lacked drawer space big time.  Now each boy has their own dresser which is a good thing. 

Roosters are crowing like crazy, we really need to butcher 6 of those suckers. 

Hoping the guys will get most of the drywall done today.  I really need to pick a paint color before they are done.  New windows look so great!  I live the white grids!  really goes with the country setting.

nothing but dust on everything!

All the drywall was taken down and Shane got everything wired!

While Shane worked on wiring Scott started getting the tile floor in my upstairs bathroom...yippy that is almost done! and he has started destruction of the main floor bathroom. 

I must share some very sad news though.  I am loosing my office.  This summer has proven that the boys need to have separate rooms.  I must have a way to sent them each to different areas when I just can take their fighting anymore.  So hopefully before the end of the summer I can move my desk back to the kitchen, get all my items back into boxes in the basement and start moving Sky into his new bedroom.

A look at the before...

So the windows are in and we have emptied the living room and are ready to start the work!  Here is my current living room and dining room...only thing we have done so far is Shane refinished the floor when we first bought the house.

Here is the new front door.  Well, it was changed last fall.

I tried to go around the room and give every section.  This is of course the front door and the large front window.

This is the corner of the house by my parents 5th wheel.  The dark paneling is going!

Here is our sad fireplace that will also be getting a face lift but probably not this year.

This is the door to Shane's office that we finished up last summer.



The china hutch Pam gave me will really look nice when the paneling is gone!

This is my giant sliding door that has a wonderful view of our property.  And the beautiful deck Shane fixed up when we first bought the house.
 

Here is the doorway to the kitchen.

Here is the hall, the end is the bathroom and on the right is the stairs going up then the door to the basement stairs and in the corner is my office.

Here we are back around to the front doorway.

Soon all my windows in this room will be replaced and I will have screens to keep the flies out!  We are even replacing the sliding glass door!

Can you see the sag in the ceiling?  Won't be sad to loose that!  But I will miss my water feature a bit.  I love waterfalls just not running down the walls of my living room.

Now the bathroom is not totally done just yet but the forecast has no rain for a while so we are hoping to get the drywall taken down and the walls insulated and then re-drywalled as fast as possible. Everything is sitting outside under a tarp and on the back deck for now...please no rain!

I have to start thinking about paint colors and new light fixtures!!!

Total Jerk...

My oldest son has become a complete and total JERK!!!

He expects everyone to wait on him and he yells orders and then gets mad if we don't jump!!!

I do not know what to do about this.  We wanted to go camping but can't until he is up and walking around on his own.  Maybe one of us should just stay home with Sky and the other can take Bray camping.  I am sick of going out of my way to accommodate Sky when he is not even trying to get better at this point.  He likes laying around not having to do any chores. 

I am very frustrated!  Everyone's summer is being ruined!

Not a good start to the summer...

So, Sky went on a class skating trip next to the last day of school and hurt his leg.  We took him to a doctor and at first they thought he might have cracked his tibia at the growth plate but now they think he may have torn his anterior tibialis tendon along with a severe sprain.  We were told it could be 6 months before his ankle is healed. 

Right now I am just trying to get him to do what the doc says and so he can get up and move.  We have the crutches for another couple days and then we give them back to the doc.  They want him up and moving on his own by then.  If he doesn't get moving it will take longer and be a more difficult recovery.

Without the built in play mate B is whiny about being bored.  I am ready to run screaming down the road.  I feel so out of control of my life!  I need to get my house really clean and organized but lets face it that just isn't going to happen with just me working on it.  Other option is to go to bed, pull the blankets over my head and ignore it.  Damn kids won't let me do that either so now what?

Hamlet....I think

Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.

Massacre at Triple Z the sequel!

The roosters got out of control!  Starting hurting the girls.  We have 2 severely injured a pure bred Americana and a pure bred New Hampshire.  I moved all the girls into the hen house last night and left the roosters outside.  they even killed one of their own during the night.  I can hear the cries as the ax hits the wood block.  I may never get use to this part of living in the country. 

At least Sky is at school, he takes it so hard.  B on the other had will be unhappy he didn't get to help.

2nd generation...

We got our first 2 eggs from the chickens we hatched in January!  They are so little.  I forgot how small those first eggs were!  We still don't have nesting boxes in the Jr. hen house yet.  We are hoping to find homes for some of them, just too many right now and we are going to butcher some roosters.  WAY too many of them!

Gun free zone...

All over the news they are talking about how more education about gun violence is the answer to stopping these people from shooting up our schools.  This was a gun free zone, didn't he read the sign?  Or more likely that is why he chose this school instead of say the local gun range.  These cowards would not go to a school district that allowed their teachers to be armed.  And if they did, they sure wouldn't get very far now would they?

Taking guns away is not the answer because the bad guys of the world are NOT going to follow.   Instead of helping this would lead to only the bad guys being armed.  Drugs are illegal, it still is around.  Murder is illegal and it still happens.  Since the time of Moses it has been written...thou shalt not steal but that still happens too.  Maybe the addition of more signs advertising that you can easily come in and take our money take our lives because we are not armed is not the proper strategy.  Maybe more good citizens who are armed and able to defend themselves is what is needed?

Seattle will just keep advertising larger and larger gun free areas.  Guess that will help keep the bad guys there and away from my hometown though.  Our property is posted that we are armed.  Our neighbor open carries when ever he is outside.  I know if there is ever any problems around here there are 4 guys who are excellent shots between these 2 houses.   I feel pretty safe...how about you?

Clarinet anyone?

So today the Central Elementary School 5th grade music class had a little performance.  The first half should have been called the "Skylar Show".  The performance started off with Sky playing a couple solos and the director using him as the example on how to play the recorder.  Of course he played beautifully and I forgot my camera!

He was also chosen by the director to be a recorder tutor for any 5th grader who was struggling this year.  He loves music so much and signed up for Middle school band last night.  He is starting with the clarinet.  I would love to just go buy him one but even a plastic one that is good enough for band cost $800 new...at least in Tacoma, didn't check the local place, probably over 1K here in town.  The band director said to not purchase one from Costco or Wal-Mart or Sears because they are just not a good enough quality and normally don't last very long before needing to be replaced.

I ended up renting him one for $33 a month.  I am locked in for 3 months and a portion of the rent goes to purchase if we decide to do that down the road.  Not sure if he will stay with Clarinet or try something else.  Everyone has to either play flute, clarinet, trumpet or trombone for 3 months then they can move to the sax or percussion with the director's approval.

I would LOVE to find him a good used wooden clarinet.  So if anyone has one sitting in a closet, let me know.

Sky told me he hopes to learn all the instruments.  This could get expensive!

(Hopefully this video is watchable)

Here is a solo Sky did during an assembly at school on Monday when he was recognized for earning his black belt in recorder...Since he had already earned a black belt in the 3rd grade he was given alternative music to learn so he didn't get credit for something he had already done.  There were only 3 black belts given out this year.

 

He did hit a bad note but I still think he did very well!

Little Swimmer...

Here is B at his first swim meet in his speedo!  not sure why he chose this pose but oh well...

Here is my first attempt at marking his arm for his events.  There were actually 4 but I took the pic before I knew he was also swimming a relay.
 

It was a long day.  I was in charge of timing swimmers in lane 8 for the first half of the day which was a bummer because I couldn't focus on B's first race.  Luckily his last 3 races were after my shift so I could focus on my baby 100%.

He tried so hard and we are so proud of him, he is a little disappointed with his standings but since this is his first time competing I think he did great.  Here are his standings:

All are Boys 9 - 10 year old

     50 yard Freestyle:  8th place with a time of 1:02.04 minutes
     50 yard Breast stroke:  5th place with a time of 1:45.66 minutes
     50 yard Backstroke:  4th place with a time of 1:06.61 minutes
     200 yard Freestyle Relay:  1st place with a combined time of 3:13.45 minutes

The Sea Otters were amazing!  Our next meet is this weekend at South Kitsap pool in Port Orchard.  B will be taking on his first 100 yard individual event.  We decided against competing in the Yakima meet, it is 2 days long and an out door pool plus all the expense to get there...Does not sound like much fun to me!

My new life moto...

So when I went back to school I decided my life motto was going to be:

Do what you love, love what you do 

Thus I chased after my biology dream and loved every minute of it.  But, I don't love cleaning out chicken poo.  So I found a new motto that I really can get behind, especially living here.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass

It's about learning to dance in the rain.

I have this on the wall of my office and I am putting it on the wall of our new bathroom.  This way when I get ready every morning I can remind myself of this bit of wisdom to keep me going.

so put on your rain boots, it's gonna be a wet day!

Beware the littlest bugs...

Sorry, been a rough week.  Last Thursday my spider bite went full nuclear on me and I started spiking a 103.6 fever (after taking meds to bring my fever down).  Unfortunately that was the day Shane was out of town so, unable to keep anything down I was just a lump on the couch the whole day, too weak to go upstairs to bed.

Apparently my bite got infected and I was not winning the war.  After a few days of antibiotics I am doing much better.  Still tired but leg isn't hurting and not looking too bad. 

I even managed to finish sewing the costumes for Sky's school play yesterday...yeah me!  now to get caught up on everything else...are you shocked to hear the laundry fairy didn't make an appearance this last week?  Not to mention that darn dish fairy!  Need to get everything cleaned up because I want to just sit back and relax on Sunday...

Guess the bug...

So a couple days ago I had an itch.  Looked like a mosquito bite, I itched it a bit, put some cream on it and a band aid so not to scratch it during the night and went to bed.  The next day when I removed the band aid I had a big blister over the area and my leg was swollen turning red and hot to the touch.  Next day things got a bit worse and yesterday a bit worse.  I am thinking things might be getting better now though...

this is day 2

this is day 4

This is today, sorry bit blurry but as you can see the redness has started to go away...I was at the school in shorts this morning and some teachers FREAKED and told me to go to the emergency room, but I think I am getting better and so I think things are good.  This is not the first time I have had a reaction like this though and I am wondering what I am getting bit by...any ideas?

 

Teachers at school think it was a brown recluse and another thinks I have Mersa...I think I just have reactions to mosquitos sometimes...maybe one that bit an animal like say a  raccoon earlier and I am allergic to that animal maybe...

Baby's first Speedo

So I ordered my baby's first competition Speedo today.

Except instead of yellow it is purple...team colors are black and purple.  I also got him a solid black one that cost a bit less so he doesn't wear out the expensive competition one.  From what I understand with being in the pool so much the suits wear out pretty fast.  When I took classes 2 days a week, by the end of the term my suit was faded and a bit out of shape. 

Neither speedo will be here by his first practice...my bad I spaced off getting them ordered last week.  But his coach said his regular trunks will be fine until they get here. 

I just could not bring myself to get him this type...

I don't think he would feel very comfortable in it either.  Although a number of the teenage boys do wear them most of the younger boys wear the jammer style.

Not quite Roberts Rules...

So we were taking nominations for the PTO board for next year and right in the middle of things one person nominated me as next years president then it was seconded by multiple people and everyone said Eye.  Then the Treasurer, Sue said "motion passes".  So looks like I am president again next year. 

Shane not so happy.  I promised him that things will be different next year.  For one our VP has been VP at Emerson Elementary so he has some knowledge on things and my VP from this year is taking over as Secretary.  I am going to learn to say no better and hopefully more people will step up and help.

We are talking about combining the 3rd elementary school in town with our PTO which currently has Lincoln and Central.  See our town has "band" schools.  Emerson is Kindergarten and 1st, Lincoln is 2nd and 3rd (and preschool), and Central is 4th and 5th.  Very different from what I am use to in Spokane but it works well here.  Each grade consists of about 125 students.  So not counting pre-school, each school has less than 250 students in it.  Pretty much the kids in your class in 1st grade will be the same kids you graduate with, except for a few transplants like us!

Things will be rough without Annette and Sue helping, they both have been on the board for at least 4 years, but now both of their youngest are moving to the middle school next year.

Ok, but this is it really.  After next year I will still help the PTO but I am not going to be on the board.

Opening Day

Sorry not a great pic but here are the boys at opening ceremonies for the Hoquiam Baseball League.

It was raining so everyone was under a covered area waiting for the rain to let up enough for team photos.  Spoiler alert: the rain never let up and the photo was taken under the covered area.

Both boys play on the Lytle Seafood Twins.

Everyone was excited to play their first game...unfortunately because of the rain plans changed and the team headed for the High School and played in the gym instead.

The boys play in the minor league which is 9 - 11 year olds.  The boys on the team range from 3rd to 5th grade but we do have 1 2nd grader.  The coaches son.  Our WONDERFUL coach is Mr. Jump who is a high school teacher and coaches the high school baseball team.  He is so great with the boys and is teaching them skills they can really use.  No small wonder that his son is already a baseball dynamo! 

Hoquiam is a small world and Coach Jump is married to one of the Principals at Sky's school.  Did I mention we play at Olympic Stadium on Jump Field?  Our coach Jump has a brother, who coaches the Case Mia team, which is the Jump Family Italian Restaurant that was started by coach's mom.

Got all that?