Glorious Life!

It's been a while since I've done an up-date post, so I thought I'd fill you all in on the goings-ons around here.  We've grudgingly settled back into the school routine and reality has checked us again.

Preston and Keaton have been sharing a car to drive to school.  They are in classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Then they both work on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Preston also has some labs on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  They often have other activities at the college or with friends that they stay after and participate in.  So we don't get to see them except for a couple of hours in the evenings and sometimes we get a day together on the weekends.  They are busy boys.

Preston is in his junior year of college, still majoring in Geology.  He's been thinking of picking up another major, though, but hasn't decided that for sure.  He's thinking Chemistry or Physics.  We'll see how tired he is of school come the end of next year.  He and Rachael have been spending a lot of time together since she's been back.  We've really enjoyed her visits.  She is from Alaska and she is studying Veterinary Science.  She seems to enjoy all the 'pets' we have roaming around here and gives them much needed attention.  Preston is working for the Athletic Department again this year.

Keaton is starting his freshman year at WSU.  He is majoring in Communications with an emphasis on Digital Design.  But he says there are a lot of avenues to take in communications and he's open-minded as to where he might end up in that field.  He is really enjoying the classes he's taking.  He is also working for the WSU Foundation in it's IT Department.  He's learning a lot about computers: maintenance and trouble-shooting, etc.  He seems to really enjoy that line of work and it fits right in with his major.  He's had some awesome opportunities so far this school year.  It makes for a great start for him.

Winston is starting fourth grade.  One of the major changes is that he's moved from the 'little' kids hall in the school to the 'big' kids hall.  He gets to have a locker.  He's been so excited about it, and seems to be taking it very seriously, expanding his desire for responsibility.  I hope that carries through the whole year.  It's taken him a little longer to 'get-with-the-program' of growing up.  I guess it doesn't help that he's the youngest and we've kind of spoiled him a bit.  But he's a great kid, and has a lot of potential.

I've been having my ups and downs with applying for jobs.  It's kind of depressing when I don't get call-backs or interviews.  Nothing has panned out yet - other than subbing at the school again, which is not constant work.  But it's what's available to me now and I just need to have faith that if I'm meant to be doing something other than taking care of and being a support to my family at home, then the right thing will come along at the right time.  The up-side is that I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to be home and taking care of my family without an outside interference that a job would make. 

Tom has enjoyed this past summer.  He's been able to take quite a bit of time off from work to travel and do things around the house.  It was hard for him, too, when he realized that vacation was over and it was time to hunker down and save up his time.  Work is going well for him.  Things have really picked up around the college.  That's okay with him, he's not one who likes to have nothing to do.  At home he's been keeping things working and the place looking nice.  This morning he got to put some plumbing skills to work as the upstairs shower drain came loose and sent water cascading through the downstairs linen closet.  He got it fixed and is now moved on to other things.

What a boring post this probably has been!  Anyway, we're looking forward to a fun weekend.  Our good school friends Kim & Rob Vowell and Jim Scott are coming to spend the weekend with us.  It's always a hoot to have them around.  Winston is having some friends over after school as part of his birthday present from us.  His birthday fell in the middle of the school week, so we told him he could have friends over on the weekend.  That being said, I've got a lot to do to get ready for this crazy weekend, so I better get to it!

Have a great Labor Day!!!

Un-BEARABLE- Z's!

(www.livescience.com)

I woke this morning at around 1:45 from a somewhat scary dream...

I was dreaming that I was a teenager again, and staying at my Grandparents' farm house.  It was just my brother Erik and I there, hanging out like we used to when we stayed the summers and moved irrigation pipes for Grandpa.  I was in the kitchen and I heard a loud roar coming from the front driveway.  I looked out the window and there was this ENORMOUS grizzly bear sitting out on the front sidewalk.

He was ANGRY.  He was roaring, and thrashing his head around, and carrying on like crazy.  My dogs were there too - the dogs I have now in real life.  They were going crazy-barking too.  So I started banging on the window trying to get the bear to leave.  It wasn't working.  I called Erik over, and we decided we were going to get Grandpa's gun and shoot at it to try to get it to leave.  We opened the window, got the gun pointed out - and the bear started leaving, but was still roaring - LOUDLY.

Then I woke up.

To Tom's face, right in my face, and he was snoring as loud as he's ever snored.  Maybe louder.  It took some maneuvering to get him to quit - because there was no way I was getting back to sleep with that racket going on!  He did finally quit, and I did finally get back to sleep - for a couple of hours anyway.  I think his snores could scare a grizzly bear!

THE END

Winston's Pre-Birthday

We had Winston's Birthday last night because his cousins were here to celebrate with him.  It was a great time for everyone!

Hazel looks EXTRA excited!

For his birthday cake, we made a chocolate cake with buttercream and chocolate frosting.  He recently got a little combine toy, so we used that and made a Palouse wheat field for it to drive on.  We also added a school bus because Winston really likes school buses and it's almost school time.  It was a fun cake to make, and it tasted really good!

Big brothers Keaton and Preston made it home in time to celebrate with us.

Singing Happy Birthday!

A new camera!  Yay!!!

Hazel, Lilie and Violet decorated this wrapping paper!

Pyrates Legos!  Just what I wanted!

Super Yay!!!!

A Happy Birthday Boy!

Pizza and Play!

I haven't posted much about the older boys because the older boys are not around much.  Between school and work, we get little glimpses of them from time to time.  Here are a few, along with more cousin pictures...

Preston brought Rachael home last night to meet the cousins,

and to help make pizzas for the crowd.

 They did a great job, and everyone enjoyed stuffing themselves with pizza.

Thanks Preston & Rachael!

Keaton was having fun teasing Violet, instead of studying.

She kept peeking at him through the window.

Not too sure what to think of that strange guy in there.

Lilie & Elsie visiting with our friendly friend.

Making play-dough biscuits with home-made play-dough!

Everyone got a different color and scent.

One of the favorite cousin games!

Tackle Keaton!!!

Keaton and Violet playing piano with their toes.

I'm not sure what's going on here.

Don't look behind you, Violet, or you'll be traumatized for life!

Tonight we are celebrating Winston's birthday a few days early.  His birthday is next week after school starts, so we thought it would be more fun for him to celebrate while his cousins are here to do it with him.  I had LOTS of help making the cake!

Photos to come tomorrow!

Good Times!

More fun with the Chickies!

Swinging on the swings!

Unfortunately shortly after this picture was taken, poor Lilie got bonked on the head with one of the swings.  That brought that little bit of fun to an end.

So we moved on to the trampoline instead! 

They had 'all jump' and then we had a 'five jump' competition where each person got to do five different jumps while the rest of us watched and cheered them on.  Violet was hilarious!  She kept trying to get on the trampoline when it wasn't her turn.

Then we had a game room cleaning party!  Woo-hoo!  I don't think they thought Aunt Tracy was too cool with this idea.  They were good sports, though, and we got it all picked up.  I haven't been out to see what they did in there today yet.  Hmmmmm.  Might have to have another party!

Cleaning up the 'Fort'.

Today cousin Preston was kind enough to let everyone play with his dragon legos.  Dragons and Legos!  What could be more fun than that?

Then we went swimming again!

We did a LOT of swimming today! 

So cute!

Everybody's having a good time!

Then cousin Preston brought us DOUGHNUTS! 

He's the best! 

Summer Fun with Cousins, making wonderful memories!

It actually took about five tries to get this picture.

Cousin Time!

We have Nels & Rachel's girls hanging out with Winston for a couple of days.  Sort of his last 'hurrah' before school starts.  It's been a ton of fun already!  They've been getting a lot of play time in, and even a little bit of swimming.

Last night, we put them to work getting their bedding ready for their sleep-over.

Violet had fun playing with the toys!

Lilie and Winston, setting up the bedding in the living room.

Hazel helps out.

Elsie picked her spot first.

Having a bed-time snack of cinnamon toast before lights out.

Today they've been playing outside, in the barn and spent some time in the house coloring on color pages we found on the internet.  Dragons, lizards and unicorns seem to be the theme of the day.

Winston, Hazel and Lilie had fun swimming in the pool this afternoon.

Elsie gave it a shot with a life jacket on...

...but soon decided that big pool was too scary for her.

 So she was more than happy to play in the little pool with Violet.

Violet had a great time just being outside!

She had so much fun, it just plumb wore her out.

Which is why I have this little moment to sneak a blog post in!

Hopefully we'll have more adventures to share with you tomorrow!

Firsts - with the bests!

It's the first day of school for Preston and Keaton!

It's the first day they will both be going to college together!

I still can't believe I have kids in college.

 Preston & Keaton in 1998
Preston in 1st Grade, Keaton in Kindergarten

First day of school together at WSU.

Go Cougs!

I know having their picture taken this morning was one of those 'Gee Mom, do we have to?'  But I'm really proud of my boys and the choices they've made.  I couldn't have asked for better kids.

I love you bunches, guys!!!

Mt. St. Helens: A 30 year perspective.

Mt. St. Helens

On our way to Oregon before going to Vegas, Tom and I took a scenic route over the pass at Mt. St. Helens.  I had always wanted to see the mountain up close, and I wasn't disappointed.  Even in it's broken top state it is still a majestic sight.  We could even see a bit of 'steam' coming out of the crater.

It's been over 32 years since the mountain had it's big eruption.  Tom and I were in the 6th Grade when it happened.  It made quite an impression because we were both living in Oregon at the time.  Tom was living in LaPine, and I was in Halfway.  We didn't get any ash fallout in Halfway, not that I remember anyway, but it was certainly talked about A LOT in school and on the news.  From what I hear of the locals, where we live now was hit pretty hard by the ash.  Even in our yard, if you dig down about an inch or two into the soil, you can find a layer of Mt. St. Helens' ash.

This was one of the reader boards we found on a roadside stop as we approached the mountain.  This guy was camping on the day it exploded.  He happened to take some pictures before deciding he better get out of there.  It's a good thing he left when he did, because if he waited any longer he would have been covered by the ash cloud and probably never heard from again.  Pretty amazing pictures!

The national parks decided to leave the area to recover in it's natural state.  Because of that, you can still see a lot of the trees that were downed by the blast.  There are some small trees growing, but not nearly as many as there were before the blast.  It really does have a bit of a desolate look and feel to it.  One thing I noticed, at least while we were there, we heard no birds singing.  I didn't see any birds around either.  Lots of butterflies, but no birds.

This is Spirit Lake.  The lake itself seems to have recovered, but it still has a lot of floating logs left over from the blast.  Tom and I were amazed at how many there were still floating on the water 32 years later.

Some parts were so thick with the logs on the water that it looked like dry land.

It was really an interesting and impressive drive and I'm glad we took the time to do it.  I recommend it to anyone to go see.  There are interpretive centers, ranger talks and you can even hike the mountain.  I think we will go back sometime and spend more time there.

In other news:

Preston and Keaton both start school tomorrow at WSU.  They are busy getting all of their things together.  Winston still has another week of summer vacation.  I will be applying for an office job tomorrow.  We'll see what happens.

Miscellaneous Leftovers from Vegas...

I took quite a few pictures of our trip.  It's hard to get them all into one post, so here's some of what I had left over.  For some reason I didn't get any pictures of my sister-in-laws, Amber & Carrie.  Don't know why, it's just the way it turned out - but they were there and we had a great time!

Overlooking the lower mall at the Venetian.  They had a 'Carnivale' theme going on.  There were people dressed up in colorful outfits - some with flashing lights - and some walking on stilt-legs.  We were going to go down and have a closer look, but got sidetracked and never made it back there.  It was kind of cool, but freaky too in a clowny-sort-of-way.

The Trump Tower.  Don't know why I took a picture of it, maybe because it looked all glittery against the night sky with it's gold tinted windows.  I like how it's framed by the palm trees in this picture.

More Bellagio pictures!  It was sooooo pretty!

Tom kind of looks bored, though.

Tom and Paul, looking at the flowers.

Tom, Paul and Caesar, pointing.

At Caesar's Palace (Sorry the picture is fuzzy).

A cool fountain outside of Caesar's Palace.

An Orange County Copper made up like a fish for the Bass Pro Shop.  You can see the waterfall in the background.

A flamingo at the Flamingo...

...just because I like them.

In front of the House of Blues.

I went to a concert here once.

It was awesome!

Tom inside the Luxor pyramid.

It's still kind of a cool hotel.

A random Egyptian.

They had a Titanic artifact exhibition at the Luxor.  I was going to go to it for Winston's sake, but the tickets were $35 and no pictures.  I'd rather spend that on souveniers.

Tom in front of Excaliber, just for fun.

Me in front of the Cosmopolitan chandelier.

It was three stories tall and SO SPARKLEY!!!

Paul, at the Flamingo pool.

Thanks again Paul & Amber, for inviting us on this trip!

It was great fun!