100th Post This Year

I just noticed that the last post was number 100 for this year and over 200 total. So in honor of the 100th post here is some pictures from the last year.

He is home

...and he looks like he has grown a few more inches. He got home a couple hours late because they had car trouble on the pass. Yukkk what a awful place to get stuck. He got home in time for dinner and we headed off to see the movie (good one too). He has a lot of stories and met a lot of different people from all over. Rafting was the highlight of the trip of course, but it sounds like he really enjoyed the religious side of things as well. They prayed the rosary every day and he can pick out some Bible quotes that he thinks relate to his life. He spends so much time focused on sports, school and girls that it is nice to see him focus on something else positive in his life. Thanks Charlene and Kari for organizing a great trip. He is looking forward to working at camp next year and sharing the experience with his sister.

Motivated

Steve is very motivated this morning. He was up early to finish the garage but actually hasn't started it yet. He is off getting propane tanks filled for our BBQ and some up coming camping trips. He worked really hard on getting the equipment out last night so I can get to it. We won't be using the trailer this year. It needs some work on it and Steve just isn't going to have the time. We are going to order the new canvas for it later this summer.

Anthony will be here in a couple of hours and we are all really looking forward to seeing him. Even Megan and Jason have been missing him. It was too funny when Megan came back from camp. The dog was all over her and wouldn't leave her alone. We just found out about a soccer camp that her coach wants her to go to. That starts in two weeks and I need to get moving and get her registered.

The highlight of today is that the movie Wall*E is opening. Steve is beside himself. He was a little bummed we weren't going to the first showing. I won't let anyone go until Anthony is home. We watched the old 80's movie "Short Circuit" Jason got a real kick out of it. We have really been enjoying the Netflix box. Megan loved "Logan's Run" and "Westworld" a couple of old ones. Hey Dad, "Solent Green is people!!!!!!!!" yep that one is on there too. I remember watching that with him when I was little. That and watching Christmas Story with him, but that was the year my brother and I refer to as "Black Christmas" in our house and a story for another time. lol

Have a good Friday!!!

A work day

We got lots and lots of work done today. The house has been used as a dumping zone for far to long. We come in dump our stuff an take off again. Because of the floods in the Midwest and a derail near Portland, he is off for the next couple of days. There has been almost no trains running through here. Once they clear things up, we know it will be crazy and he will never be home. We took advantage of him being around and got some much needed cleaning done. I worked on organizing a couple of rooms in this house and he worked on the garage. Hopefully we will be able to pull off a garage sale here pretty soon.

I don't have a lot to say tonight except that I am looking forward to Anthony coming home tomorrow. It seems like I haven't seen him in forever. Tomorrow night we are going to go see Wall-E. I think Steve is more excited then the kids. The pictures of the flowers are from my garden. Hopefully someday I will have pictures of tomatoes.

Short Break Over

Yes, my short break between sports is over. Soccer practice started last night. I took it as a good sign that both Megan and Jason while on separate teams had the same coach. I was wrong..... they only have one game that doesn't conflict. The only good part is that the games are not at the same time. Most of her select team is with another coach but the joke is that you may have most of the team but we have the goalie.

Megan comes home tonight from camp. It has been very quite around here. I miss both kids and I am really looking forward to having everyone home this weekend. Megan should be back around 4:30 which is good because she has soccer pictures at 6. This is my crazy life.

Here is a picture I just found of Jason hitting the ball. You can see the ball and yes he hit it. Look at the concentration on his face. If you look in the distance that is Anthony on first base.

Off To Camp

Both kids are off at camp. Anthony was too funny yesterday when they left. They piled the kids into a small station wagon. They where not allowed any electronic devices and Charlene decided to make them pray the rosary before they could have doughnuts. Anthony pressed his face against the car window and mouthed "help me, please," as they drove away. Did I mention he was the only boy in the car? HEHEHE

Megan left this morning for her camp. It goes from today until Wednesday and they are only spending Tuesday night. After this camp she will officially be a cadet. She is happy about that, but not happy she will be forced into another troop. It is the old troop and leader that was not a good experience for Megan. Megan is terrified of this leader and I don't want her anywhere near my daughter. I am feeling like they are putting some pressure on me to move her into this troop. If another cadet troop doesn't open up then Megan will become a Juliette. Which means she goes solo and I work with her. She is totally ok with this and we started last year this way. It forces us to put aside some time for just she and I to do things together. We both like that idea.

Here is a couple of pics of her and her wormy. Part of camp is to make swaps and exchange them with other girl scouts. She did this a couple of years ago when she went to Jubilation. She took glass beads and glued googley eyes on them. I put the pin on the back and there you go, Wormies. They turned out very cute.




Like Megans shirt?? She wore that on purpose.

Nice Day

It has been a nice day today. I really should have been busier but I really just didn't want to. We ordered a box that allows you to watch the instant view Netflix movies on the TV through our wireless connection. We used to have to watch them on the computer but that just didn't work out with the 5 of us trying to watch one at the same time. We got the box today and have been taking turns watching TV all day.

Megan my baby is growing up so fast. I have really noticed how she is starting to care about how she looks in public. I noticed that she hasn't been wearing shorts and seemed a little self conscious about her legs. She told me that they are getting to hairy. Ok, they really are not hairy but she thinks so and I guess that is all that really matters. So, off to Walmart for her very own razor. We are also getting her ready for girl scout camp next week. Anthony leaves on Sunday and she leaves on Monday. She will be bridging over to cadets this year. We are not sure what troop she will be in or if she will Juliette and just be with me. Which will be fun too. So for the next couple of days we are working on her swaps and her dunk bag. If you don't know what these are you where never a scout. lol

Loving the Weather

That is exactly what we are doing. Steve picked up a little pool for Jason to play in. He invites a couple of his friends over for a swim party. He is fond of laying back in the water with his apple juice and say "ahhhh now this is the life." I have to admit I am enjoying it too. I go out with him (mostly to keep all the pool water out of my plants) sit back in my chair and read a book. I agree this is the life.

Anthony is due back from football camp today. It was strange that we didn't hear from him all week. To be fair, I didn't tell him to call and he forgot his cell phone. I was told they keep the boys really busy and they are beat by time they get back to the dorms. He will only be home for 2 days then off to church camp. It has really been quite around here.

Here are some pictures of our backyard pool. Gotta love it.

This one is my favorite from today.

One from the other night. The built a fort in the living room and spent the night in it. Steve spent half the night in there too.

It's Been Awhile

I know it has been awhile. I can't even say that I have been real busy or that I have nothing to say. I just haven't been on the computer much with the kids home. Steve is home from Sacramento and had a really good time. His Dad has been feeling really good. Steve also went to Andrews graduation and came back with pictures and videos. I had to laugh because he was trying to take a picture with his parents and an aunt but had the camera on video. It's pretty comical. The drive to Boise and back wasn't to bad, but it did cost at the gas station. We are having to add the price of gas into our travel plans, which we really never paid that much attention. I can't say we are cutting out any trips but we are watching the in between driving.

Anthony is off at football camp. I hope he is enjoying himself. He has been a cranky, moody mess for the last couple of days. I know a lot of this is because he is that age where everything we do and say is WRONG. A lot of it is because he has over scheduled himself. We finally had to it him down to talk about all his activities. He is at camp this week, he will come home on Thursday and be gone again on Sunday for a week at church camp. He figures he can still play one last baseball game and be back in time for All Star try outs. He still will have weight training for football during July and August he will start daily doubles (hell week). Did I mention he has a new girl friend, more about that in a minute. We asked him if he wants any time with friends, camping or just hanging out and doing nothing this summer. His answer of course was "yeah" followed by the eye roll. Ok, I get why rolling my eyes bugged my Mom so much. We told him that baseball needs to end. We know he loves it but he needs to make a choice. Either do baseball this summer or football, but it can't be both. He decided to end baseball and focus now on football. He has a new girlfriend who is very sweet. She came to his last game and sat with us. Of course, it was the worse game Anthony has every played. She made him a pie and brought it over to the house a couple of nights ago. He says it was good but he wouldn't share. She invited him over for cake at her house. He realized he would be meeting her parents for the first time. What he didn't know was that he would also be meeting her grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and even the great grandfather (who wouldn't talk to him, just stared). He says he had fun and her parents are as weird as we are. Sounds like good people to us.

We have had a couple days of good weather, so we have been working in the yard. I had to replant my tomatoes, the last ones just didn't make it through the cold weather we where having. My flowers have started to bloom and look so pretty. We are hoping that this means summer is finally coming. It feels good to see the sun again.

I think I have you all caught up. Fathers Day, we did nothing but go to the movies. A good relaxing day. Here is a picture of Megan with her banana slug named Sluggie.
Have a good Monday.

Pics from this morning

What???? Snow

Yes it is snowing here. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Well, I wanted the rain to stop. Again, careful for what you wish for.

Monday Morning

Schools out but no sleeping in for me. Anthony still has football going on. He does weight training at 8am the practice at 3:30pm. He is skipping a couple of practices so that he can still play baseball. There is still a couple of games left.

We really enjoyed the sunshine yesterday. The kids and I played a round of mini golf and then went out for dinner. The reason for dinner out was my wonderful stove. The handle came off yesterday and when I tried to fix it I managed to take the whole door off. To make a long story short, it's not going back on without the help of Steve. So no stove for the next couple of days. Not a problem, just need to change my menu around a bit. But last night I was totally not in the mood for cooking. I worked on that %$@# thing for a couple of hours. However, I did get the handle back on it. Thanks Dad for your help.

Steve is in California with his family. He will be back in a couple of days. He flew out of Boise, which is a lot closer then we thought. We might be spending a lot more time there this summer. They have a very cool water park. Anthony wants to go check out the college because Boise State is on his short list. Also, they have a Carls Jr's, there and we hadn't eating there in 3 years. Mom - how did we miss that place last year? On my visit to Sacramento last year, we managed to hit most fastfood places in our quest to not cook.

Congratulations to Andrew (Deter) he is graduating from high school today. I am so bummed not to be there, but Steve is. He promised to take lots of pictures for me. We are so proud of you. We still remember the day you graduated from preschool. You where so cute (what happened) when you stood with your class and sang "Shinning Waters". Ask you uncle, he will sing it for you. Here is a couple of pictures for you. Isn't he handsome and yes that is his girlfriend. The first one I think you are about 5 and the last one we took this past April.

picture did scan very well

Last Day of School

and 12 more weeks until it starts again. HEHEHE

I am sooooo happy that it is over. We have a BBQ today at Megan and Jason's school. I am a little bummed that they don't do graduations for the 5th graders and the middle schoolers. Oh well, we have something special planned for them today at home.

I have pictures and a video from the last couple of days, but I will up load those later. To much going on today.

Bad, Bad Day

for the 7 year old. I won't go into details but it was not a good day to be Jason. Poor kid, it started right when he got home and didn't stop until he finally had to go sit in the car at Anthony's baseball game. After I got him home and in the bath (a garbage can incident) he tells me, "Mom ........ it is really hard to be a little guy." I told him that today was hard to be the mommy. He apologized, turned on the tv in his room, crawled into bed and fell asleep. Unfortunately I had to ground him until Sunday. I am hoping for a better day tomorrow.

I was just looking at the picture of Anthony below. Don't you just love that shirt. It is his favorite one. I threatened to get rid of it so he started hiding it. Since I really didn't want him to wear a smelly, holy shirt, I made him a deal that I would not throw it out and he would not wear it to school or church anymore. I showed him the picture and said "look at what you look like." He said "your right, I look pretty good." At that moment I realized, he is his father and yet another argument I lose.

Happy Monday

I think I am as excited as the kids. I remember this time of year when I was a kid. The promise of an exciting summer, sleeping in and no homework. This is the last week I will have kids in the same schools. Next year, Anthony will be in high school, Megan in Middle school and Jason will be in 2nd grade. I won't have kids at the same school until Anthony is a senior and Megan a freshman.

This weekend the kids and I drove up to an Oregon Trail Interpretative Center. It was supposed to be very cool with a neat museum and lots of trails. It took us 45 minutes to get there only to see the storm clouds moving in. They had to close a couple of the trails because of the high winds. Now, I love to do these hikes but not in the middle of a thunder storm. Megan really enjoyed this trip. We have just finished reading "Little House On The Prairie." So it was fun to see the covered wagons up close. Plus she knew the names of the cooking pots and tools. She did look up the buffalos nose to see how big buffalo boggers can be.

We haven't done much hiking around here. There have been a lot of cougar sightings in town. We also have to really keep an eye on the kids during Anthony's baseball games. Because they have seen several cougars near the park. They teach the kids in school about what to do if they see a cougar or a bear. Steve sees lots of bears when he is on his train. We also get coyotes in town, but not to close to our house. I have animal mace on order so I will feel a little more comfortable when we do hike. I really don't want to start carrying a shot gun, but lots of people do. Especially when we start hiking up to get mushrooms. Last year the kids found a bear den. Speaking of mushrooms, it is that time. The weather has been so bad that I am not sure if we are going to make it up there this year. Also, we are hearing that they are just not finding very many. In some spots there is still snow on the ground. I hope we get up there, because it can be a lot of fun.