Living in a Winter Wonderland...

Well.... so much for the Farmer's Almanac claiming a cold 'DRY' winter this year. We got about 8 inches of snow last weekend and today we've had snow falling all day. It's supposed to snow all the way through tomorrow. We may get to miss school tomorrow, which the boys aren't too upset about. Despite the inconvenience, it is beautiful. The inconvenience is that we have to drive up a small grade to get home and it often drifts over with 5 foot drifts, so when we do go into town we need to make sure we're prepared to stay in town. Or else we have to be prepared to be stuck at home - which is what I prefer! We have lots of pellets to keep the stoves going, so we'll definitely stay warm at home.

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The holiday season is here, again. We are having fun at school (work) with all kinds of activites. In the preschool we've been making lots of fun crafts. In the Kindergarten Winston had his class party today. We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and they turned out so cute! Preston and Keaton survived their holiday concerts - Preston in Choir and Keaton in Band. Tom's been enjoying lots of goodies that people bring in to his work, too. I've been getting a little bit of baking done. I haven't gotten as much done this year as I have in the past, but that's okay. We don't really need all the calories!

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For the Christmas holiday we are planning on trekking down to the Boise area. We'll be at my Mom and Dad's for Christmas in Mt. Home. We're planning on spending about 4 days there, so it will be great to just relax there and visit with family. Then we will probably be staying with Tom's grandmother in Emmett for a couple more days where we can visit with his family. We haven't decided whether to stick it out there until New Years or to come home. The weather will have a lot of say in that.

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We've had quite a busy year. Tom has had a pretty good year at the college, despite worries about cut backs. So far it looks like he's going to weather the economy okay. My job has been very pleasant this year. I just love working with the little boy I one-on-one aide for in the preschool. Preston has enjoyed his time being co-editor of the yearbook for the high school. He's also just about to finish driver's ed. He just has to pass the driving test with his teacher. It will probably have to wait until the snow melts! He has really been looking forward to spring when his Choir class will go to Disneyland to perform. Keaton has started wrestling, winning 2 out of 6 matches but his coaches say he's doing great and believe he will get some more wins in. Winning isn't the point, though. Keaton enjoys the sport and doesn't mind if he doesn't win - he likes the challenge. He's also getting up early every morning for Jazz band. He really enjoys his music. Winston has been doing awesome in Kindergarten. Everything is finally clicking for him. His speech is getting so much better and socially he's just blooming. It's wonderful to see how well he's doing. His main goal in life, though, is still to be 'big like Preston'. He tells me often that his legs are getting longer. He'll get there one day - and probably out-grow both of his brothers.

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Well, we wish you the best of everything in the coming year. Take Care, all...

Love: Tom, Tracy & Boys

Holy Smokes! It's November!

Are we really half-way through November? Where has the time gone? Winston and I got to play 'hooky' from school yesterday. He woke up with a really red eye and it was really gunky - not a pretty picture. So when we got to school I took him to the school nurse and she said 'Yep, Pink-eye'. So we got to come back home. I felt sorry for my sub - she didn't have any advanced warning that I wouldn't be there. Then I got to take Winston to the doctor to have his eye checked. Keaton had already scheduled an appointment for himself to get a sports physical (wrestling is coming up) so we just jumped in with him to see the doctor. The doctor said it was not pink-eye, just a cold in his eye (yay!). So today he got to go back to school. It was nice, though, to have an unexpected few hours at home. I got a few more of my 2007 scrapbook pages done. Five more to go and then I can start on 2008!

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We had a really nice time for Halloween. We invited our good friends, Rob and Janelle and their family, to spend the night here at our place. We played lots of games - pool, foosball, a board game & Tom tortured them with his silly little party games. The kids had fun running around the place and eating lots of sugary junk food, and drinking pop. We were up until the wee hours of the morning - probably just from the sugar high. We made home-made rootbeer for the first time. That was a blast! It's so cool when you first put the dry ice into the rootbeer. We had fog all over the kitchen floor. The kids loved it!

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Tom got to spend a few days over in Oregon hunting with his brother, Paul. While he was gone the boys and I enjoyed just relaxing around the house. Tom didn't get anything - they were hunting for birds. I think he doesn't want to have to clean them, so he doesn't shoot any (or else he misses on purpose).

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Preston still has not passed driver's ed. We had to have his permit renewed, and he's still driving with his instructor, but he can't take the car out on his own yet. So the roads are still safe a little while longer. But watch out come spring! Then Keaton will be in driver's ed, too. We are getting ready to place bets on which one of the boys will finish first - ha ha!

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So far our Thanksgiving plans are to go to Tom's grandparent's house. I offered to cook dinner, but I don't know yet if they will take me up on that offer or not. Marcia will be there, too, so I'm sure there will be plenty of us to put a meal together. It will be good to see some of Tom's family that we haven't seen in a while. Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving - Hurray for the pumpkin pie!

Tom's 18th (Again!)

Tom's birthday was last Saturday, which was the 18th. We have reached the age where we feel the number of our birthdays are something that should be 'confidential' (ha-ha), so now every one of Tom's birthdays are his 18th birthday because that's the day his birthday is - this is quite the run-on sentence! And my birthdays are always my 22nd birthday - so that technically makes me 4 years older ): Oh well, I don't mind. Anyway, Saturday was his birthday. I wasn't very well prepared because I've been suffering a sinus infection, so it was pretty boring for Tom. I did make him French Toast for breakfast (his favorite), and then we had Lasagna for dinner (also his favorite). Then we had blueberry cheesecake for his birthday and he got a new Coug shirt and hoodie sweatshirt. That was about it (woo-hoo). That is the extent of our excitement around here right now. I wish Washington State would win a game... that would make us all feel better.

Little Bro Has Heart...

Last Thursday we had an appointment to take Winston to see a cardiologist. During his 6-year checkup his doctor heard a heart murmur. Because a heart murmur had never been detected before, he wanted us to have it checked out to make sure it wasn't something serious like a hole in Winston's heart that might be getting larger. So we went to Spokane and saw the cardiologist. Tom took the day off to go with us. The good news is that Winston's heart murmur is a 'normal' murmur. That is where when the valves of the heart go to close, they don't always close all the way and it creates a little 'whistle' sound. A lot of people have that kind of murmur and never have any ill effects from it. But while we were there they used the ultra sound device and took pictures of his heart. We got to see it on a monitor and hear it. It was really neat. Tom had never seen anything like it before and he was a little 'weirded' out by it at first, but once he got used to it, he thought it was pretty cool. Winston got to keep a couple of the pictures that they took and he's already taken them to school for show-and-tell. He's pretty proud of it all and loves to tell everyone all about it!

Brothers Got Spirit!

Last week was Spirit Week for Homecoming at Preston and Keaton's High School. Every day of the week they had a different 'dress up' contest. The first day was 'Dress to Impress' and they put on suits and ties. They both won the competition on that day for the Junior and Freshman classes. Tuesday was 'Hawaiian' day. They put on their Hawaiian shirts and board shorts. They looked pretty cool! Preston won on that day, too. Wednesday was 'Come as you are' or 'Pajama' day. They wore their pajamas - Preston won again! Then Thursday was 'Twin Day'. That's when they dressed as seen in the above picture. They both won on that day. (Teachers and friends couldn't tell them apart and kept calling them by each others' name). Friday was blue and gold day. They just wore their school sweatshirts. Preston did paint his hair blue and gold striped, but alas... he didn't win on Friday.
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Thursday night was their school 'Powder Puff' football game. That's where the girls play football and the boys are the cheerleaders. Keaton got recruited to be a cheerleader and he looked so cute in his long blonde hair - wig. Some girls even put makeup on him. It was a hoot to watch him out there cheering and attempting to do a human pyramid with the other freshman boys. Preston was the official photographer - taking pictures for the yearbook. He was hesitant to go down and take pictures at the field. Tom and I had to convince him that as yearbook editor he had a 'virtual press-pass' to go down there and take pictures. He finally relented and got some really good pictures of the game. Being parents of High Schoolers really is fun sometimes!

Hiawatha Trail Pic

Preston and Keaton are standing on one of the trestles of the Hiawatha Trail.

The Hiawatha Trail

Saturday was a beautiful day to do something together as a family. We had Uncle Paul and our neighbor, Tim, staying the weekend with us so we dragged them along. We made plans with some friends, Mike and Linda, to go ride our bikes on the Hiawatha trail. The Hiawatha Trail is an old train track that has been converted into a gravel bike path. It is 15 miles long, a gradual down hill slope most of the way. There are several tunnels and trestles that we went through and over during our ride.

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At the beginning of the trail is the big tunnel which is 1.7 miles long. Whew! It's a BIG tunnel. Tom bought us all flashlights (1.00 store flashlights) and he had a nice LED light on his helmet. Needless to say, the dollar flashlights were pretty much worthless in that tunnel. I was really glad that Tom had that LED light. I just followed him. The weird thing about being in a deep dark tunnel, on a bike, is that I kept losing my balance. My equalibrium kept going off. Also not to mention, there are ditches on either side of the trail through the tunnel that are 18 inches deep, full of water. So I had to keep my bike from going into those also. I did end up walking my bike through most of it. It was kind of neat, in a weird-creepy kind of way. Once we were back in the sunshine, it was great. The fall colors were starting to show. There were lots of wild flowers, and it was just cool to ride along the trail, looking at the mountains and trestles off in the distance.

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We stopped for lunch at about the half-way point and enjoyed sitting in the sunshine eating our sandwiches next to a little creek. There were a lot of people riding the trail, so it was kind of neat to just watch everyone. Mike and Linda brought their granddaughters with them, and they had fun running around with Winston. (Tom was the lucky one who got to tow Winston on the back of his bike). We got back on the trail after lunch and right away I noticed that my bike was harder to pedal than it was before. I thought to myself, "Whew, I must really be getting tired." That's when I noticed that my tire was flat. When I caught up with Tom, we tried to fix it. Luckily we had purchased a can of 'fix it' for the flat tire. It worked, but only for about a half mile. We still had almost 7 miles to go. So all of the boys, including Paul and Tom, took turns riding my bike the rest of the way. I am really grateful that they were willing to do that. Otherwise, I'd still be on the hill trying to ride down.

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When we reached the end of the trail, we were just in time to catch the shuttle bus back up to the top. It was an interesting bus ride. Kind of like those bus rides people take in the middle of Mexico. Mountain straight up on one side, cliff straight down on the other - and people trying to drive their cars in the opposite direction. Busses take up a lot of road, so there were a couple of times we weren't sure if anyone would have to back up. We survived the ride and the bus dropped us off on the mountain side of the BIG tunnel. Soooo - we had to ride back through the 1.7 mile-long tunnel to get back to our cars. Tom happened to be riding my bike, so we just walked our way through. Poor Paul had taken Tom's bike, with Winston on the back, so he had to entertain our little wild child on the other side while we slowly made it through the tunnel.

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Despite the flat tire and the BIG tunnel, we all had a great time. It was beautiful, and as tired as we were at the end we were all glad we went. I recommend it to anyone who is an outdoor enthusiast, or just likes to do something with the family that is fun and recreational. It is definitely worth doing again!

Like Father, Like Son...

This is Tom and Winston's favorite Saturday Activity. With almost 3 acres of grass, it takes a good 2 hours to mow, when you have to dodge trees, shrubs and Stinging Nettles! Winston loves riding the mower with Dad and is really good at being a navigator. They take grass farming very seriously!

Winston's 1st School Picture

Winston was so excited to get his first school picture taken. He's really growing up! I don't know what happened to the picture when I downloaded it. It got some white spots somewhere along the way. I tried to fix it but it does the same thing every time. Anyway, This is what you get:

Winston's first day of school went okay, I guess. It was harder for me, as mommy, than it was for him. I happened to be working at the school that day. He got in a little 'tiff' with some other boys on the playground - while I was on recess duty. Basically, he was ganged up on (but that's from a mother's perspective). He tried to stand up to them, but when I went to break it up he was on the verge of tears. I was fuming. I treated everyone fairly, though, knowing my child isn't always the 'perfect' one. By the time Winston got home (after his first ride on the bus!) he seemed to be in a pretty good mood. All seemed to be forgotten. (I was still fuming) (: After getting some play time in with the dogs and his brothers, Winston fell asleep and slept for several hours. He was plumb worn out! Tomorrow we get to do it all over again, yippee!

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Preston got the first of the school-year bugs. He had a sore throat and stuffy nose. He missed one-and-a-half days of school, so he'll have some catching up to do. We're still trying to get him to finalize his driver's training. It would be nice to have another person around that can drive into town when needed. He just doesn't seem to be in any hurry to do so. Tom and I couldn't wait to drive, or have our own car, when we were teenagers. We have weird kids.

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Keaton is really, really enjoying Jazz Band. He brings his trombone home every night and practices. Then he goes over his notes again on the piano at least a couple times every evening. He actually has band twice every day. Jazz band in the morning, and concert band as the last class of the day. He's in music heaven. That's pretty much all he thinks about lately. It's good, because in order to stay in Jazz Band, he has to keep his grades up. He's doing a pretty good job of bringing home his homework and getting it done right away. My baby is growing up!

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Winston's birthday was last Friday. We hadn't gotten a gift for him yet, so we took him to Shopko to pick out a present. For weeks, every time we'd ask him what he wanted for his birthday he'd say "I want reading glasses". He doesn't need them, he just likes them. He points out everyone's glasses - even strangers on the street. So, we were at Shopko and we told him to pick out ANYTHING he wanted in the toy section. He said, "Where's my reading glasses?" We told him we'd go to a different store and get them, but first he had to pick out something. We kept showing him toys, pointing out games, etc. Every time we showed him soemthing he said, "Where's my reading glasses?" Finally we gave up. We walked out of Shopko with absolutely nothing and went across the street to the Dollar Store. They have reading glasses there, and we were going to get a very low mag for him so it wouldn't hurt his eyes. (Or else we'd pop the glass out of them). He spent 20 minutes looking them over. Finally he found some that he liked. We were happy because they were actually a pair of polarized sun glasses that are clear when he's inside and darken when he's outside in the sun. He wasn't interested in anything else so we had to pick out some things just so he'd have something else for his birthday. It was a cheap birthday present and he was thrilled. Like I said, we have weird kids. (:

It's That Time Again...

School has begun. I'm kind of excited. I have two in High School and one just starting Kindergarten this year. Actually, Winston doesn't start school until the 3rd, so we have a little bit of 'summer vacation' left. Preston and Keaton started school yesterday. Keaton is enrolled in Jazz Band this year. Practice is at 7:00 in the morning, so he hitches a ride with the neighbors to be there for that. He's not used to getting up at 6:00 in the morning after a whole summer of sleeping in until noon. He took a nice long nap after school yesterday. I expect that will be the way of things for about a week or two. Preston had a pretty good day. I think he is happy to have his brother in the same school building with him again. He's my morning child, so getting up early for him is no problem. He's ready to go well before the bus comes. Winston will get to ride the bus for the first time this year. He's looking forward to that. I will be working again this year in the Preschool, so I will be around there if the boys need me. It's nice to have a job where I can be close to my kids. Here's hoping for a great school year!

My Finished Bathroom!

Just thought I'd publish a couple of pictures of my beautiful new bathroom. It's like being in a fancy hotel bathroom! I love it! I'm still trying to find some nice things to put in it for decoration. I'm looking for a nice 'water theme' picture to hang on the wall over the tub. I love the blue-green rug and curtains. The best part is that when I'm tired of blue-green I can change the colors of the rugs and curtains to something else.

I Killed the Maytag.

My 2-year-old washing machine died on Thursday. We thought we were so clever to buy a Maytag two years ago. Now we aren't so sure. Actually, what went wrong isn't so much a big deal, just a little pulley, but you can't buy just a little pulley to replace it. You have to buy the whole motor assembly, which costs $130 - almost half the price we paid for the whole machine new. They get you coming and going now days. So Tom has tried some 'mickey mouse' work on it. It worked for a little bit, but now the bearings are popping out. The part to fix that is $75 bucks. I'm about to pull my hair out about it. I've been washing the clothes in the Kitchen sink (not an easy task when you have a 5 year old who digs holes in the yard with the dogs). Tom says if this ever happens again, he's just going to buy a new machine. I think that's what the Maytag people would like. There's still time, it's not fixed yet. I may have a new machine before the next week is out.

Silverwood

Last weekend we took our annual trip to Silverwood Theme Park. We enjoyed spending our time there with the Drakes, a family that we're friends with. Winston and I spent time at the little kid rides while others went on to ride the roller coasters. I'm not much of a roller coaster rider, so I didn't mind staying with Winston. We did get to go together as a family on the log-waterfall ride (I can't remember what it's called.) Winson is certainly a thrill-seeker. When he is older he will definitely be going on the coasters with his Dad! Then I can spend my whole time at the wave pool! I took him on the ferris wheel. I thought he would be afraid of being up so high. Truthfully, I was the one who got scared! The wind picked up while we were sitting at the top (they were loading others in the lower cars). The wind really got me squirrely because the bucket car we were in started swaying. Then Winston started putting his hands up in the air and yelling "Wooo Hooo!" and rocking the car back and forth. I kept yelling at him to sit still. He wouldn't have any of it. Then when the cars started moving fast, he thought that was great and started waving his hands even more and yelling "Wooo Hooo!" Crazy kid. I also took him on the "Scrambler", an old carnival ride that goes around in circles and spins the cars in circles at the same time. He loved that one, too.

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After spending several hours in the hot sun, we continued on into Boulder Beach, which is a water park that is inside of the Silverwood Theme Park. We had fun floating the river, letting the kids play in the water fort play area and taking a turn in the wave pool (my very most favorite). Winston got so cold because the wind really picked up after we got wet. We didn't get to spend as much time at the water park as I would have liked. We then took the train ride around the park and some of us went to the Ice Skating show while the guys went to ride roller coasters again. All in all it was great fun. I let Tom carry our bag with our swimsuits and towels in it. He decided to set it down by a tree while he rode a coaster. Someone took off with our bag. It turned up in Lost and Found - but we didn't know until we got home. We had to have it shipped to us - wet clothes and all.

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After our day at Silverwood, we went across the Highway and camped at the RV park there. The Drakes camped there with us and we enjoyed the evening visiting with them. The next day we all went to Lake Couer D Alene and hiked around Tubb's hill. There was a little rocky beach there and the kids enjoyed playing in the water. Some of the adults enjoyed it too! We saw an Eagle's nest where the Eagle flew in and was feeding it's babies. That was really cool. On the way home we splurged and got the $6 burgers at Carls Jr. (Tom's favorite).

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Now we are home. The bathroom is finally done and to keep from getting bored, I've started getting some more scrapbook pages done. Keaton is keeping up with the crop of grass growing on our farm. Lifting the grass catcher bags is good for his football muscles. Football will start in about 3 weeks. Winston has been playing like he's "Joy-Joy dog". Don't ask me what that is. It's some creation he came up with. He pretends he's a dog and won't answer us with anything but a "bark". We had to draw the line when he wanted to eat his dinner off of a plate on the floor. We told him that Joy-joy had to turn into a boy during meal times and when we have to go into a store. He seems to be okay with that.

Life Without Preston

We are living with one child less for about a month this summer. Preston is working for Uncle Paul in Oregon. Preston is my great negotiator between Keaton and Winston - so his lack of presence is felt deeply. I don't know how we'll manage when he goes away to college. The picture above is one of the rare moments when the other two boys are getting along. I think it's because I've dosed them with maple bars (a rare treat) so they are occupied with that for the time being.
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We've been slowly working on getting our bathroom done. It's crazy, but we thought the tile and tub would take the longest time and be the hardest thing to do. It seems all the little things, cosmetic things, are taking a painfully long time to get accomplished. We thought faucets would be the easiest thing - go pick a couple out at Home Depot and put them in. Well, we've found that if you have antique tubs, the new faucets don't fit. We've had to 'mickey mouse' things together to make it work. Then the sink faucet we bought is too big for the sink - UUUGGGGHHH! Home Depot is 60 miles away! It's like we have to plan a major trip just to get the hardware that we need for this project! So the bathroom is on hold, again, until we can get back into town. Sometimes living in the country is a little rough on the pocket book when you have to fill the gas tank to get anywhere.
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In other news - for those of you who knew about our little 'friends' living in the plum tree in the back yard, the male squirrel died this weekend. I was very sad. I became quite attached to the little fellow. The female is still there, but I'm sure she's very lonely. We don't know what happened to him. Tom just found him on the ground and buried him. It's very sad.
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For the 4th of July, we'll hopefully be working on the bathroom again. I hope we can get it finished, finally. We'll probably roast marshmallows in the back yard firepit and let off some fireworks. When you live in a beautiful area like we do, spending time in the back yard is a lot like camping - and it's free (sort of, if you don't count the mortgage). We hope you all have a great Independence Day Weekend! Until next time...

Some Coast Pics...

Keaton and Preston take a little evening stroll on the beach with Uncle Levi. We were able to get down to the beach a few times. We found lots of sea life - star fish, little crabs and anenomes. Uncle Jeremy even found a dead sea lion - yuk!

Back at the house there were lots of card games - 4 square, Sevens and Catan. Some of us enjoyed a little time reading. The kids had a blast playing on the 'playground' in the back yard. We also had lots of yummy things to eat. We love being at the Oregon Coast!

4th Annual Chick Reunion

This year's family reunion was at the Oregon Coast. My brother Levi & his wife, Kadie, were nice enough to find a great big house for the whole family to stay in. We had a great view of the ocean and just a short drive down to the beach. The kids had a blast running, laughing and playing together. It was really great to get to see everyone. It's the only time we all get to be together at once. I hope the tradition will continue for many years to come. I love my family, love getting to be with them during these times - and even though we all have our own ways of doing things and seeing things in this world and this life - my love and respect for all in our family will never change. I'm thankful for my parents and grandparents, who have made great efforts for all of us in present times and in times past. I'm thankful for my brothers and sisters and their spouses and the fact that it is important to them to do what it takes to keep close as a family. I'm thankful for my little nieces and nephew and the joy they bring to us all. What a wonderful thing it is to be together - even if it is only for a day.

Tough Boys

Don't they look like tough little men? They were having a great time with the camera the other day. They got pictures of Winston riding his bike - with help, of course. One picture shows Winston running over Keaton with his bike. It's great to have three brothers who enjoy being together and have fun.
Tomorrow is our anniversary. Tom and I will have been married 19 years. Some times it seems like just yesterday. Tom made the comment that time doesn't seem to have passed until he looks at how old his kids are getting. I notice it when I look in the mirror - gray hair, bigger waist-line, wrinkles - oh, my! We will be spending our anniversary doing finish plumbing in the bathroom and hanging wainscoating. Yay!

This is June???????????

We had a really rainy week last week, and this week started out the same. Then on Tuesday I looked out the window and it was snowing! Big, fat, fluffy snowflakes - that turned to slush when they hit the ground. The whole ground ended up covered in slush. It snowed for a couple of hours. Then the sun came out and melted it all and steam came pouring out of the ground. Our back yard looked like it was sending up smoke signals! Steam was billowing out of the wheat fields, too. Won't Summer ever get here?

UNDER DESTRUCTION

Tom and I decided to put the little present we got from Uncle Sam to good use and started working on our bathroom. This whole process started about a month ago. We finally sat down and decided on a floor plan that we both could live with. Then came demolition day. What a mess. Getting the bathtub and toilet out were easy in comparison to all the old walls that needed to come down. We uncovered the old window that was in the wall behind our toilet and now there is much more light in the bathroom. Then Tom totally insulated the walls - a much needed thing as our bathroom is always cold in winter and the pipes to the shower would freeze regularly. He also fixed the ceiling so it is all the same height - put in recessed cans for light. We chose to go with the stall shower, so that is in, too. All the plumbing is done. Now we are sheet-rocking. Today is tape and mud day. Then if it dries by this week, I get to spend the week priming and painting.

The plan for our bathroom is to go all neutral browns. This is because I have a hard time deciding what color I like my bathroom to be. The blue thing just wasn't working. We picked out a light tan ceramic tile that we will put on the floor and around the bath tub. Then we picked out a dark oak vanity for the sink, with a multi-toned counter to go on top. Then we will stain wainscoating to match and put it around the lower perimeter of the bathroom. The upper walls will be painted a light tan to match the tile. The shower, bath tub and sink are white. I thought I'd off-set the whiteness of them with drawer and cabinet handles of white ceramic - the antique kind. The idea is that if everything in the bathroom is tan, the color can come in the form of curtains, towels, vanity items and rugs. That way if I want to change the colors all I have to do is change out the curtains and rugs. I think it will work nicely. We have decided to use the old clawfoot bathtub that is out at the barn. We bought a finishing kit to make it look like new again, then we will drop it into the tile frame we've built. All of the water fixtures and light fixtures have an antique flair to them with chrome and white ceramic-glass-enamel.

We had to move the china hutch in the kitchen over about seven inches so we could slip the shower stall in next to it on the bathroom side. Then Tom built a cabinet to finish off the wall where the china hutch invades into the bathroom wall. That cabinet will be a giant medicine cabinet (floor to ceiling) with mirrored doors. We should have plenty of room for all that junk that kept falling out of the old medicine cabinet into the sink. Our new sink and vanity will go in front of the existing window and will take up that whole side of that part of the room. Lots of counter space! The toilet will stay where it is. The bath tub will go where the old bath-shower combo was. The yukky shower doors are gone - YAY! And where our old sink was will be a linen - towel closet. We will have used about every usable space, but we will have much more storage and it will be much more functional for us. Sorry about this being so long winded. When we are done, maybe I'll be able to post pictures!

Movin' to the Big House...

Keaton graduated from 8th Grade last night. The word around his school is that they're movin' to the 'Big House' - the High School. It's across the street from the grade school. It was a really nice and fun program that the school put on. They had a 'syncronized swimming' skit done by 4 junior boys from the high school. They also had the Blues Brothers perform the 'Junior High Blues'. Then instead of handing out certificates, they had each student come up on stage and say their name into the microphone. After the ceremony we all went to the cafeteria for the Luau reception. Keaton had fun 'hamming' it up for the camera. We went through a lot of pictures just trying to get one serious picture out of him. SUMMER VACATION IS FINALLY HERE!

Mr. Toothless...

I finally got my stupid computer to download pictures again. Maybe you'll see more of us. As for now - this is our latest, the gap-toothed kid.

Toothless!

I was having a nice afternoon, typing up some notes into my computer when Winston came in and said "Hey Mommy..." I turned around and looked at him and noticed a big "hole" in the middle of his bottom teeth. I yelled "What happened to your tooth?" He looked at me in a very surprised and somewhat terrified manner and said "I don't know!" I had visions of him falling down - chipping his tooth out of his mouth - biting into something and pulling it out... Winston isn't very good at explaining how things happen to him. I asked him where the tooth was and he said "On Mommy and Daddy's floor." So we went into the bedroom and I began the search. It was a very small tooth - but we found it in the carpet. I looked into his mouth and sure enough, there was an adult tooth just starting to come in. I can't believe my BABY is old enough to start losing his teeth.

Our Sons: The Track Stars!

It's half-way through May already, what do you know? I've only 4 more days of work left at the school, then Winston and I are on Summer Vacation! I'm looking forward to sleeping in! Preston and Keaton have been ripping it up on the track and field lately. Actually, Preston's season is at an end as of last Saturday. He's done impressively well for a Sophmore in the Triple Jump. At Districts last weekend he jumped a 38' 3". He was only 7" shy of going to Regionals this weekend. He's only 3' away from jumping what the school champ is doing - and only 4' away from the school record. By his senior year he might make that. His coaches are very optimistic. He also did the Long Jump and the 100 M. Keaton has been running the mile - almost always comes in 4th. It just seems to be his spot. He also did the 700 M and has been practicing to do the pole vault. He probably won't actually get to vault until next Spring when he is in High School. We're very proud of the boys and their accomplishments.

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Winston graduates from Preschool on Wednesday. It will be a little bit sad because he's enjoyed his last two years in that class and loves his teachers. At bed time he makes sure to include them in his prayers, saying he is thankful for Bobby, Tammy and Shirley - and the french fries. They have been wonderful to him and he will miss being in their class. We are excited about Kindergarden for next year. We weren't sure if he was going to be able to do the classroom routine, but over the past couple of months he's made such leaps in maturity and learning that we can now see the possibilities. He's finally got his ABC's down, writing his name in Capital and small letters, and he's counting to 30 and saying the days of the week and months of the year from memory. He has come such a long way. His social skills have improved a lot, too. Instead of picking one child to play with at school he is now joining groups of up to five kids to hang out with and following the game (play) plan and pattern with them.

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We've been busy in the yard this spring. A dear friend of mine has let me inherit several plants from her yard so now I have a cute little 'English' garden next to the patio. I have Hostas, Lavender, Grape Hyacinths and lots of other plants that I can't remember the names of. I also put in a little stone path. It all looks so nice! Keaton was such a great sport in helping me find rocks for it. We also hauled a BIG rock over to put in a spot where the dogs always dig. We thought that rock was going to kill us before we got it to where we wanted it. It almost got Winston, coming centemeters from his foot when in tipped over and rolled out of the wheelbarrow. I'm so glad he didn't get hurt. I also transplanted a bunch of daylillies and purple Iris. We have so much Iris - I've threatened to get rid of a bunch of it. Marcia couldn't stand the idea, so she dug some up to take to other relatives. We also got our garden in and everything but the pumpkins have come up - actually I think there's one pumpkin just barely peeking out of the ground now. It feels good to have a lot of the spring yard work done. Now I can concentrate on my spring cleaning in the house!

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Tom redirected our walking path. Instead of walking up the hill to the orchard, we now can walk down the hollow along the stream. He has it set up so that he can mow it with the riding lawn mower to keep it maintained. That will be really nice for him. It is so pretty right now with all the wild flowers and Cow Parsnip growing and blooming. I could live without the Nettles, though. But there are too many to be completely rid of them. The hillside has wild sunflowers, Syringa, Lupine and several other small flowers blooming right now. And the wild roses are starting to bud and smell wonderful. The walking path is about 1/2 mile down the draw, so it's a mile walk round-trip. We've been trying to walk it at least once a day, and twice a day on weekends. It's much more fun to exercise when you have beautiful scenery to do it by.

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Well, now that I've written an entire book for this month, here, you should be well informed. Other events not mentioned - Preston turned 16 last month - and is driving! We're looking forward to Summer Vacation and seeing family at the coast and elsewhere.

Spring Break - Give Me a Break!

I just noticed that it was the 28th of February when I last posted. I started blogging instead of doing newsletters because I thought it would be easier for me to keep up with - hah! It just seems I never have time to sit down and get these things done. This probably won't be much of a post, but I'll do my best to update you on our doings.... We were going to go to Utah for Spring Break but because of the weather - still snowing off and on here - and because of the price of gas - uuuuugggggg! We decided to go to the beach instead. We thought, yeah, a nice relaxing time at the coast, just being a family, not spending much money, just enjoying each other. We found a really nice rental house. It was small, but very nice. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms. One of the bathrooms had a steam-room shower. It was huge! We also had a great view of the ocean and it was very affordable. We really enjoyed about the first two days on the beach, finding agates and shells and checking out the sea life in the tide pools. Then Winston got very ill. I'm sure it was some type of flu (which has been going around here at home). He was sick for days. He spent the rest of our vacation holed up in our bedroom, not moving much and not eating much. It was bad. Keaton felt ill, but not nearly as bad as Winston. Then Preston got it! He even missed two days of school and a track meet when we got home. I hope we are out of the woods with that bug. Other than the sickness - we did get some nice visiting time in with Tom's grandparents, Uncle Paul and family, and we got to spend a day at the zoo in Portland with Levi & Kadie (We also got to see their home and visit with the 'kids' Ruby, Lola and Kylo. They were so cute!). Now we're back at home - back at work - back at school - and counting the days to Summer Vacation!

Some of our latest mugs...

Just thought I'd post some recent pictures:

Preston and Winston engineer the great marble race tower on a Sunday Morning

Keaton brings home the Bronze from Bi-State Champ Tournament.

Valentine's Day Flowers for Mom - Dad did a great job of picking them out.

Dad built us a new "Winter" home in the back yard. Winston Loves it!

YES, WE ARE STILL ON THIS PLANET!

I have been terrible at keeping up with this blog. It seems that every time I get a minute to update this something comes up or someone else is using the computer. Sorry that it's been so long. We ended up having four snow days in January. It was nice to not have to drive in to work on those days, but now we have to make those days up at the school. So.... we've lost our two-day mid winter break and will have school two days later at the end of the year. I guess it's true that when you play-you pay. The boys got some sledding in this year and some snow forts built in the yard. We still have a lot of snow covering our back yard but the driveway becomes more clear every day. That makes Tom and Marcia happy - now they can get their cars out.

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Keaton did very well in wrestling this year. He took 3rd in the Bi-State finals. It was pretty amazing to us and his coaches that he did so well with this being his first year ever to do that sport. He really is pretty good at it and really knows what he's doing out there - for the most part. It's really neat to see your kid do something well and use skill that you didn't realize was just beneath the surface.

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Preston has started Track. He's been looking forward to it all winter. He got some ankle weights to help him strengthen his legs because he wants to do some running events this year. He will still do the long jump and triple jump. He'd like to pole vault but I think he may be getting too tall for that. I just can't believe how fast he's growing up. Every time I hear his voice I think it's Tom talking - and a couple of times when he's come through the door I thought he was his father. I think he's almost caught Dad in height!

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Winston is plugging along with Preschool. His language and speech is really coming a long way. He's finally catching on to a lot of things. Tom has gotten him to say his ABC's with almost no help. And count to 20! He gets to 10 (once and a while tripping over 7) and then he gets through to 20 after confusing 11 and 12 - but for Winston, that's pretty good. He can recognize his name when it is written and he tries to write it. Sometimes he can do it beautifully - other times it ends up upside down or backwards. He'll get it one of these days. He's really been our little Science Fiction fiend lately. He keeps drawing pictures of space ships, talking about alien planets and looking out at the stars to see if there is a space ship in the sky. He keeps us guessing as to what he will be one day.

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Tom has been doing well at work. He really enjoys his job at the university an says he's become a softie. He - along with some of the other guys - has been taking turns working the supervisor job when their supervisor is gone. I tell him they're grooming him for a supervisor position. He just shrugs it off and says they all get a chance to do it once and a while. He's also enjoyed visiting with a couple of the guys from work who car pool with him. It makes for a nicer commute. He's also coming up with plans for what to do this spring in the yard and in the house. Got the tile bought for the bathrooms - maybe they will get remodelled sometime in the next 10 years!

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My job at the school has kept me busy. It has a lot of benefits like the feeling of accomplishment when new things happen with the little boy I work with. He's a lot of fun. By the end of my four hours, though, I'm exhausted! I do work in Winston's class, so I get to see him more, too. That has been nice - except for the days when Winston's not so nice. This last weekend Tom and I had to go to Spokane to get the car worked on, and afterward he took me out to the Steam Plant Grill for lunch. It was really nice to get to spend some time together and go somewhere kind of fancy. We don't get to do that very much so it's very special when it happens. The Steam Plant is the old power plant that they used to make electricity and heat the city of Spokane. It operated from the early 1900's to 1986. After that, they made a restaurant out of the boiler room part. It's really cool - there's a place in one of the boilers where they have a table large enough for several people. All of the old pipes are still in there. It's really neat. It's something worth checking out if you're ever in Spokane.

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We've been kicking over our Spring Break plans. I think Moab and Arches Nat'l Park are on the list with a stop in Salt Lake. The boys haven't been down there, so it will be fun to take them. Tom and I've never been to the park, so it will be a first for all of us. We are really looking forward to it. Hope the weather holds out! So if you don't hear from me in a while....that's what we'll be up to.

WEATHER UPDATE, ETC...

We got six more inches of snow last night! School had a 2 hour delay, but because I'm a school employee and have to be there regular hours, Preston, Keaton & Winston got to go to school early today. Preston went to get some more Yearbook work done. Keaton played basketball with the preschoolers. Winston thought it was cool having his brother there. Also... Keaton's Wrestling tournament in Kamiah last weekend went well. He lost his first match but won the other two (one by a pin, the other by points) so he got to bring home a bronze medal. He was pretty excited about that. The forecast is for more snow tonight - maybe we'll get another snowday!

Winston, Tom and Preston Climbing the hill after their first sledding run in a field near home.

Brrrrrrr!

Winter is here with a vengence! We've been trying to keep warm with the temperatures dropping to below zero. We got a nice snowfall just before the deep freeze, so all of the snow stuck around and it's been beautiful here. Just wish it were a little warmer! Tom took the boys sledding on MLK day. He dragged me along even though I wasn't feeling the best. I got to be the photographer. They all had a great time!

Keaton started Wrestling - his first meet was last night in Lewiston. Tom and I went and expected to see him get wiped across the mat. (Keaton has never taken wrestling before). We were pleasantly surprised when he pinned the first opponent in the first round. Then at his second match with another opponent he almost pinned him in the first round and finally got him right after beginning the second round! His team was cheering for him - they knew it was his first time. The coach came over and congratulated us and told us we had a natural wrestler. It was crazy. Keaton's next meet is tomorrow, we'll see if it's beginner's luck!

Preston has been working hard at school. He's been busy doing hamburger feeds for his yearbook class - and trying to catch his teachers for interviews for the yearbook. He has driver's ed first thing in the morning and then spends many an evening at school doing other school activities. Life is busy for that one. His grades are great, though! He's looking forward to Spring when he can start training for Track. He hopes to enter some running events as well as his regular jumping events.

Winston has been having a great couple of weeks. He loves school, especially playing with his friends. He loves his teachers, too. He has resumed his Speech therapy and it seems to be helping. Most people can understand him when he's talking now. But he still comes up with some doozies! He keeps us laughing. He's also been reminding his Dad of all the things around the house that need some minor maintenance. I think if Winston were able to do it himself, he would! He's my little Engineer/Contractor/Maintenance Man!

Keaton - at his first Wrestling Meet - Just after his first Match.

SNOWDAY!!!

We had a snowday last Wednesday. We received about 10 inches of snow over the space of a day and a half. I took a picture of our front deck, but I can't seem to get it to download onto this blog for some reason. School was called off and the boys and I got to stay home. It was nice to sleep in. Tom still had to go to work, but got to experience finding the snowplow stuck at the top of the grade on our road. We get some really big drifts around here. Tom said that drift was about three feet high! One of the farmers went out with his tractor and plowed a spot for Tom to drive through to get to work.

Besides getting an extra dose of winter we have been keeping pretty busy. Preston has been getting to experience the rush of deadlines for the school yearbook. It's been a little stressful for him, but he's still enjoying that class. Keaton has talked his Dad into letting him take wrestling. He started on Friday. We'll see how things go with that. Winston has made a full recovery from being sick almost the whole Christmas Vacation. He is now full of vinegar and driving us all crazy. He's been making 'snow forts' in the living room with a big blanket, two chairs and lots of pillows.

I'm trying to keep Tom well. He's been sick a lot lately. He's coming down with a stuffy nose and headache again. It seems like he's sick for a week, well for three days then sick for a week again. I don't know what is going on. I keep taking that Zicam and so far it's helped to keep me from catching as much as he. I think we're ready for the warmer weather to show up!