Winston's Birthday

Winston's birthday was Sunday.  He picked hot dogs and french fries for his Birthday Dinner.  I liked it - nice and easy!  Then he got to blow out the candles on his 'self-designed' birthday cake.  I wish we had taken video of it, he was laughing so hard while trying to blow out the candles!  It was hilarious!  I think there ended up a fair amount of 'spit' on the cake by the time he was done. 

One of the things he asked for this year was a Star Trek Starship Enterprise.  He absolutely LOVES the Enterprise.  So he got one.  We've been having close encounters with that space ship ever since!  It's very noisy and lights up when a button is pushed.  He even sleeps with it and in the middle of the night we have heard the under attack 'alarms' going off on it.

The Starship Enterprise getting ready for her Maiden Voyage through the Moore House!

There she goes!

I think hims one happy boy!

Camping and Caking

Winston decided that since we weren't going to make it camping this year, he would do some of his own camping in the Living Room...

Just remember - you pack it in, you pack it out!

Sleeping like a baby.

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Winston decided that he wanted his birthday cake this year to be a house cake.  He's very specific, so he drew a picture of what he wanted his cake to look like:

And here's the finished product:

I added the chimney for my own bit of artistic flair.

Harvest's End

Harvest has come to an end around here.  The neighbor farmers packed up their combines and trucks and pulled out of our driveway yesterday afternoon.  All around the community we see other combines and trucks heading back to their shops to get cleaned up and put away for the year.  The fields are filled with yellow stubble - kind of like a crew-cut haircut for the Palouse.  Next we will be seeing the tractors coming out to plow the fields and plant the winter wheat.  It's a busy time of year for the farmers around here.

This year one of the farmers that owns the acreage behind our place hired Keaton to work for him during harvest.  Keaton got to be a rock picker.  It was his job to go out and pick the big rocks off the road every day to make sure the equipment didn't have any flat tires.  I think he kind of enjoyed doing it, although it was dusty work.

It's certainly a harbinger of fall now that the wheat is gone.  We have to settle in to the 'drab' days of autumn and winter.  Lots of brown, brown, brown - at least until the winter wheat shoots it's little heads up out of the ground.  Then we usually get snow, depending on the winter.  I will look forward to spring green again.

My Son is a Trekkie

Oh yes he is - a serious Trekkie.  He loves the starship USS Enterprise.  He's drawn hundreds of pictures of the Enterprise and he talks about it a lot.  He says he and Keaton are going to build the USS Enterprise out behind the barn.  His birthday is coming up and we got an 18 inch Enterprise toy for him to play with.  It lights up and makes sounds.  I think he'll like it.  I was going through the many drawings he made today - I'll admit that I throw most of them away because there are so many - and I came across this keeper:

I like how he drew the house, the barn and then somewhere to park the spaceship Enterprise.  He's always thinking, that one!

We Been Hiking On The Railroad

Here's some oldies but goodies.  I don't think I posted them before.  I finally got my XD card transferred to CD today and these were on it.  I thought you might enjoy them.  This is a trip Tom and the boys took earlier this year ( I think in March ) with some friends of ours.  They hiked the railroad tressels over by Winchester Idaho.  There was no way I or Winston were going anywhere near them (I'm deathly afraid of heights and Winston is too unpredictable).  They had a great time and got some great pictures.

This last tressel is called the 'Half-Moon'.  Preston was a bit intimidated by it, so he didn't cross it.  Instead, he climbed all the way down the canyon and back up the other side to meet up with everyone.  One of the interesting things that Tom told me he learned on this trip was that the base of these old wood tressels are not anchored.  They are basically 'loose' and when the trains would go over them they literally 'walked' back and forth with the motions of the trains.  Every month or so a railroad inspector would come out and see if any were too far out of line and would take big sledge hammers and knock them back into place.  I think that would have made me a little nervous riding the rails in the old days if I knew about that - it's a long way down!  Hope you enjoyed my little picture show and history lesson.

This and That...

Sorry that I don't have any pictures to share with you today.  Tom bought a new component for the computer and it wasn't compatible because there was an 'error', so he decided he needed to reboot the whole system.  Thus - I lost all the pictures I had downloaded.  I keep telling myself I will buy an external hard drive one of these days, but then I forget all about it until Tom reboots the computer and I lose my stuff.  I'll try to get some pictures built up again soon. 

In other news... Preston starts college tomorrow.  I think he's excited.  He's planning on riding with his Dad on the days they have the same schedule.  Preston has classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday - with a pretty full day of classes.  On Tuesday mornings he has a lab.  Then on Tuesday and Thursday evenings he has work-study.  He'll be working for the Athletic Maintenance Dept. setting up for football games and then basketball games.  He may also get some time in to do Security during the games or before/after games.  It should turn into a pretty good job for him, and will work well with his school hours.

Keaton and Winston still have one more week to sleep in before school starts.  I suspect Keaton will take full advantage of that.  I am really glad he got his driver's license so he can drive to school this year.  I was not looking forward to driving him in to Jazz Band every morning.  Tom Got the Geo working for him so he'll have a car.

Winston will be going on to the second grade, but will have the same teacher and be in the same class room.  So it will be a lot like last year for him, just different studies.  We were happy for him because he really liked his teacher last year.  We recently found out that his Audiologist went bankrupt, meaning we need to find a new audiologist for him.  Also, the money we were supposed to get back from the insurance company for his hearing aids got sent to the audiologist, which then probably ended up in the Lawyer's pockets.  So we most likely won't see a penny of the money we were supposed to get back.  It's very frustrating because they are very expensive.  But the hearing aids are still covered by the company who makes them, so if they're lost or broken we can still get new ones free of charge.  (Thank goodness for that).

I finished working on science kits at the school last week.  It was kind of fun.  After chatting with the Principal, I feel confident that they will be sending as much work my way this year as they can.  So it won't be too bad being a sub for the year.  Some days maybe I'll have more time for blogging ; )  And some days I'll be working like crazy at the school.  I just have to be on call and ready at a moments notice every morning to go in and get to work. 

Got you caught up on most of what has been going on around here - other than the combines have come up the driveway today.  They'll be harvesting the fields behind the house for about a week.  Poor chickens will have to stay in their pen and the dogs will have to stay by the house.  I might have to put a leash on Winston, too, to keep him out of the road!  That's it for now.  : )

Toady Boy!

This has been the summer of toads.  Winston has been finding lots of them, and BIG ones.  When he finds them he wants to play with them, and play and play and play... I feel sorry for the toads so I make him release them back into the wild (down at the ditch).

Yesterday he found this one.  He's been telling us he wants a pet toad for his birthday, one he can keep in his room.  We keep saying emphatically "No".  Yesterday, in a bid to keep the toad from being 'loved' too much, I told Winston he could keep it for a couple of hours in a box where he could watch it all he wanted, and he could touch it but not hold it.  (I've done some research and Toads do secrete a poison through their skin - I'm not real comfortable with Winston handling them so much.)

Through a little research we learned that this particular toad is a Western Toad, and a female.  Winston chose to name her Jessie.  He tried to feed her a fly and a stinkbug, but she wasn't too interested.  She just wanted out of the box.  So after his allotted couple of hours, we took her down to the ditch and released her back into the wild.  Farewell Jessie... you were a good friend for a day!

Winston & Jessie

Good Lookin' Dude

Keaton T. Moore

(all spiffed up)

A Very Long Day.

It has been a very long day.  I should be in bed right now instead of blogging.  It started at 2:45 a.m. when three teenage mutant ninja racoons decided to have a quarrel over the cat food right outside my bedroom window.  There was a lot of growling and snarling going on.  Tom got up and shoo-ed them off the porch and put the cat food inside.  Then they came back onto the porch and fought over the 'crumbs' of cat food that were left behind.  After that they ran over to the other porch and got the dogs all excited.  I couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up and did some reading.  I should have tried harder to get back to sleep.

Got Tom off to work and I tried to sleep then, but the dogs kept running around barking.  I did get about a half-hour 'nap' in before I had to get up and get myself ready for work.  At work we made good progress on the science kits, so that was good.  But I did put a full eight hours in, taking only about 15 minutes for lunch.  Thankfully it shouldn't take us too much longer to finish and we'll have the rest of the week to relax.

Got home just shortly before Tom.  We were sitting on the porch and I noticed one of my chickens was acting kind of 'funky' like it wasn't feeling well.  I thought maybe it was dehydrated, so I tried to get it to drink some water.  By the way it was acting, I got a little suspicious and decided to google and find out what was wrong.  It turned out she was 'egg-bound', which isn't good - can be lethal.  She couldn't get the eggs out.  Suffice it to say, I found out how to 'help' her with her problem.  It wasn't a pleasant experience for her, me or Keaton (my assistant).  She did let go two eggs and is feeling much better now.  (I know - this is all probably WAY too much information, but this is what I had to deal with today.) 

Then after playing vet, I got to cook dinner and do dishes and all the fun things mommies get to do with their day and now I am sharing it with you over the World Wide Web.  I think it is time for me to go and take that nightly nap - maybe I'll get to sleep all night and tomorrow won't be quite so eventful.  Good night!

Buddies

Winston & Rosey

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho...

...It's Off To Work I Go...
Don't know how much Blogging I'll get done this week.  I'll be busy at the school.  Hope my house doesn't fall apart under the boys' care - eek!

What Preston Did this Summer ~ Part II

Mt. Hood!

On a day off from work, Preston and Paul took some time to explore and hike up on Mt. Hood.  Preston brought home some really nice pictures from their time there.

A REALLY big Maple Bar - YUM!

Uncle Paul standing outside of Timberline Lodge

  ~ ~Spooky!~ ~ 

***

Taking a trip down a ski run

 (and yes, there were still people skiing down one of the runs)

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It was hard to choose between the the great shots of Mt. Hood that Preston got, but this was the one Tom liked best, so it's the one I decided to post.  Enjoy!

What Preston Did This Summer ~ Part I

This is where Preston spent most of his summer...

Working for Uncle Paul!

There's always a sale... come on in...  check out a deal!

The patio furniture and wood stove showroom.

An awesome Jacuzzi with a stereo...

betcha would like one of these!

The chemical shop - this is where you can find whatever your pool or hot tub needs.

Aha!  Here's Preston... all cozy in the chemical lab, waiting to help someone out.  This is where he tested water, repackaged items and sold chemicals to customers.

Here's his testing kit - tools of the trade.

And here's Preston's Boss!

  Thanks for the great Summer job, Uncle Paul!

Pool Boys!

Tom decided it was time to clean the pool because it's going to be HOT again next week and the pool was getting a bit slimy.  (I think he wanted to play with his pressure washer again!)  Anyway, he dragged Keaton away from his computer, and Winston away from his dirt, and made them help him clean.  They're such good helpers!

Keaton even got the honor of running the pressure washer!

Winston enjoyed playing 'slippy-slide' in the water.

Sometimes work can be fun!

Homey Coyotes!!!

Last night as we were finally getting everyone settled down to sleep... first getting Keaton out to the barn after his three trips back to the house for various things... and Winston was tucked in to sleep upstairs... I was snuggled in and just on the edge of dreamland when I heard them.  We have a couple of crazy coyotes that like to come up close to the house and howl. And last night they were REALLY close.  Of course this gets the dogs going.  So I get up and lock the dogs up on the front porch and climb back into bed.  Then it's annoying having to listen to them compete with the coyotes.  Soon after that I hear the running of little feet down the stairs and into our room. 

It's Winston:

"Mom"

"What, Winston"

"There's Coyotes"

"I know"

"I'm Scared"

"They can't come in the house, you're safe"

"Can I sleep on the couch?"

"Yes.  Get your pillow and blanket"

"I'm scared to go upstairs by myself"

"There's no coyotes in the house"

"I'm scared!"

So, I dutifully climb out of bed yet again (I also had climbed out of bed to let Keaton in from the barn earlier - before the coyotes started howling) and went upstairs to help Winston get his things.  Then we came back downstairs and made a bed up on the couch for him.  After kissing him goodnight again, I climbed back into bed and was finally getting relaxed again when from the living room I hear...

"Mom"

- pause -

"Mom... Know what Mom?  Coyotes can't break in the glass?"

- pause -

"Mom?"

"No Winston, they can't break the glass"

- Long pause, I start to relax again

"Mom"

- pause -

"Mom!"

"What, Winston?"

"Coyotes can't come in doors and windows either?"

No, Winston.  They can't come in the doors and windows either.  Goodnight."

"Goodnight"

And finally there was silence - except for a small chuckle coming from my husband - then I was able to relax and off to sleepyland I went.

Lazy Summer Day

Today I am Lazy and I will admit it.  It is nearing the end of our Summer vacation.  Only three more weekdays and two weekend days for me and my Summer vacation will officially be over for the most part.  So today, I'm basking in lazy, cozy, do-nothing-ness as much as possible.  (Is that possible for a wife and mother?)

...Actually, my chickens were out of food, so I had to go into town first thing this morning when the Grange opened and get them food.  They were looking at me last night like "Where's the food?"  Poor Chickens.  They were so happy when I showed up with it this morning - they came running and squawking.  They love me.

...And I can't forget to do my "Remember List" stuff.  Tom keeps adding more stuff to it, so there is that to do today.  I guess I can be lazy when that's all done.

...And I didn't blog yesterday, so I had to sit down and blog today... because I told myself I was going to blog faithfully so my family could keep in touch with me and I could keep in touch with them... and they'd know I was still on the planet.

Next week I'll be working at the school putting together science packets for the grade school kids.  It should be fun and interesting.  Then the week after that Preston starts his first week in COLLEGE!  And the week after Keaton and Winston go to school and I start Subbing.  Where did the Summer Go?!

You know, there's always a hundred things to do in a day.  Maybe I can be lazy for a couple of hours.

My Remember List

This morning as I struggled out of bed at 4:30 a.m. to help Tom get his lunch together for work, I was greeted with a 'Remember' list for the day.

Ever since I've been taking medication for migraines I've found that sometimes I go through periods of major forgetfulness.  I've always been a little bit 'air-headed'.  But this goes WAY beyond that.  Now I forget names of friends and even my own siblings (sorry siblings), can't remember things I've told people the day before and I forget to do even the simplest of everyday tasks.  My brain is a fog and it's very frustrating!

My poor husband, in a bid to be polite and helpful has made me this little list.  I think he is desperate to have clothes to wear to work - wants a healthy wife who takes the vitamins her Dr. told her to take religiously every day - needs his son to wear his hearing aids so he can learn to speak normally - and would like him to do homework so he can keep up with the rest of his class in the 2nd grade. 

I Love that he wrote "I Love You" at the bottom.  I think I'll frame it and hang it on my kitchen wall.  Then I'll be reminded every day of the little things I need to remember ~ and the big thing I need to remember.