Another week down!

Our week was quite eventful last week. We finished our second week of school, and Ellie is doing better with her handwriting. She is tolerating the new handwriting workbook much better than just pages of letters to write. She is still enjoying math too. The kid amazes me every day with what she knows.

Our trip to Arago (Coquille) went well. The baby shower was a huge success, and it was great to see our friends again. Ellie and Miles had a great time Thursday evening and Friday morning playing with all the kids. We also went out to the property that Lynn's parents still own and picked wild blackberries. I have a pie in the oven as I type. There weren't alot out there, but enough to get a pie. Brenda gave us a bunch of apples from their tree too, so I will most likely be make another pie or two in the near future.

We finally got some rain today. It was really nice to see. I have been getting tired of the heat and the nice weather. Sometimes it is nice to have a cooler, rainy day. It hasn't rained a whole lot, but enough to get the ground wet.

This week shows some promise of being a quiet, more "normal" week for us. MOPS starts on Thursday, but that is really about the only thing unusual. I keep saying some day my life will slow down and I can get some of the "extra" stuff I want to do around the house done. Hopefully it will slow down before I turn 80!

Birthdays, School and More!

Yes, I know I haven't posted much lately, and I will try to do better, I promise!

The last few weeks have been really full. I can't believe that Ellie's birthday was three weeks ago. We had a ladybug party, and it was really fun. She had about 9 girls come and with parents we had about 25 people in our house. Chelsie and Jennah came down from Port Angeles to help and it was great having them visit. Thanks Chelsie for driving so far!

Then last week we started homeschooling. It went really well, and I found out that Ellie hates handwriting and really likes Math. I went to Learning Palace on Saturday and found a book that might make handwriting a little more palatable for her. She is reading really well too. She amazes me every day with what she can read. The other day she was coloring a picture and wrote Yellow with absolutely no help! Every day when it is school time, Miles will climb up to the table and say "I ready for chool!" He has trouble saying the "S" sound at the beginning of words, but it is really cute!

Tuesday we had a great outing with two other homeschool families. It was really nice and relaxed and we all got along really well. The kids had a blast picking up leaves, hazelnuts, sticks and acorns at Dorris Ranch.

Wednesday Ellie started Busy Bees at church again. She loves the program. Miles is in a class with just 2 year olds and loves being able to play with his friend Joe. We will be starting an adult Bible Study about Joseph this week, and I am looking forward to it.

Thursday we had a Steering Team Meeting for MOPS. It will be starting next week! I can't believe how quickly the time flies by. I am getting the crafts ready to go and am really looking forward to starting up again!

Friday, Ellie's friend Kendra had a birthday party at the swimming pool that is close to our house. Ellie and Miles had a blast with that. Her theme was bubbles and the kids got bubbles (of course), bubble bath, and bubble gum in their goody bags. Miles got a Spider Man pen that had bubbles, a stamp, and it lit up in his bag. That has become a hot item in our house! Of course, Miles has had to use the stamp all over his body, and pretty much everything else. He has stayed away from the furniture though, which I am thankful for.

Saturday I had the rare chance of getting out for a few hours by myself. I got some last minute things for MOPS and got the nametags done for the first meeting, and went to Learning Palace and got some school work for Ellie. Most of it is for later in the year, but I want to be prepared and know that I have a plan for what we are going to be doing.

Mom's birthday would have been yesterday. It wasn't as hard this year as I anticipated it would be. Of course, I kept busy too. We went to church, then Kendra and Micah (our pastor's kids) came and stayed with us for a few hours while thier parents were in a meeting, then I had Mom's Club at church at 5:00, and didn't get home until almost 10:00.

Of course, with the busy week we had last week, my house is a shambles, and I really should be cleaning right now. This week looks to be less hectic, as we only have Busy Bees on Wednesday. Thursday we plan on going to Coquille for a baby shower, and we will be spending the night with friends. I am really looking forward to it, which reminds me, I'd better get started on a gift!

Well, I'd better close this book and get started doing all that I need to do. I promise, I will try to keep this more updated, if anyone is still reading and cares that is.

Random Stuff

I know it's been two weeks since I have posted last, but the time just seems to get away from me. I've been wanting to post these pictures for some time now.

On the 7th we went for our annual trip to Winston to pick cherries. The kids had a blast. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that trip.

Lynn climbing a ladder to get some on the very top of the tree. I had a hard time keeping Miles from following him!

Miles wasn't sure about picking the cherries at first, he was more interested in eating them! But once he got into it, he was hard to stop!

Here he is with his basket full. Notice the flower in the basket - he picked that and insisted on putting it there!

Ellie had fun picking cherries too. The trees are small and there were lots that were low enough for the kids to reach on their own.

Ellie's full basket. She saw her brother's flowers and had to put some in her basket too.

After we were done picking about 20 pounds of cherries, we stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream (just another part of the tradition) and then we met up with some friends and went to a park that was nearby. The kids had a blast playing with McKenzie and Philip, and it was really fun to see thier mom, Sarah too.

They had a couple of really tall play structures, and Miles of course had to climb them. That kid amazes me sometimes with his lack of fear. Lynn stayed close by him though, and followed him up.

Not only did they have tall play structures, they also had a really tall slide - notice that you can't see the top over my husband's nearly six foot head - Miles of course insisted on going down it. Over and over again! I don't know how many times Lynn climbed up and down those steps!

We had a great day in Winston! We kept busy the next week going swimming and to the park. I got my hair cut and sent to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I had two ponytails that were about 9 inches long. My hair is pretty short now, but I love it. It is so much cooler, and I'm not getting headaches like I was. Sorry, I don't have any pictures of it yet :)

Saturday the 12th, we went Kid Jam, which is a big kids festival type thing. They have booths all over and a ton of stuff for the kids to do.

Our first stop, Ellie had her face painted - that's an ice cream cone on her left cheek. She thought that was pretty neat. Miles absolutely refused to let the lady anywhere near his face. He kept looking at her like, "You want to do what???"

Then we went to see all the fire trucks and met up with Smokey the Bear. Miles wasn't too sure about him either, but we did get him to high five Smokey. - I had a picture of Ellie with Smokey all uploaded but figured out how to delete a picture with it! :)

They liked the old fire truck too.

One of the booths had a paint your own face table, they said it was because they weren't very artistic! Ellie thought that was pretty fun, it looks more like war paint to me. Looks like we might have some big lessons to learn when it comes time to learn how to put on make up!

At about the very end, we made it to this outdoor stage where they invited anyone who wanted to come up and dance with them. They were doing the Macerena, Ellie really tried, and had a lot of fun. Miles, Amber (the girl who babysits for us, came to help with the kids) and I watched.

The kids had a blast at Kid Jam and we all came home really tired. Ellie asked for the next week when it was going to happen again.

It seems we have been pretty busy every day. The garden is doing well, and we are starting to enjoy some fresh veggies. The kids love seeing everything grow.

We are looking forward to another fun filled week. Lynn is taking vacation this week, and Dad is going to come down for a visit. We plan on going to the beach, visiting friends in Coquille/Arago, and going to the Coos County Fair so Ellie can see a real rodeo. Then we are going up to Brooks on Saturday and will go to a big Steam Tractor show there. It will be fun to have Dad along too. I think he will really enjoy the thing on Saturday.

Well, I got up because I couldn't sleep, and now I'm feeling pretty sleepy, so will go. Will try to post again next week after all our fun!

Late Night Ponderings

This is the first time in a long time that I have been unable to sleep. Last year this was a regular occurance, but lately I have been able to get to sleep pretty easily. Not so tonight. So, since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I would post and see if anyone still reads this. If you do, I apologize for not posting for so long, and I will try to do better. :)

I have been so incredibly tired lately that just getting through the day has been a struggle, so posting on here was just not on my radar. The last month has gone by so quickly. I have my garden planted and it is growing nicely. We ate fresh picked broccoli at dinner tonight, and also had a salad with lettuce, and radishes from the garden in it. Ellie loves to pick radishes and I know she will also love to pick the carrots, beets and peas when they are ready. Both the kids are excited about growing things in the garden. I weeded and then fed it with Miricle Grow last week too.

I have flowers growing too. I planted two rose bushes a few months ago, right before it snowed in April. One is a yellow rose that will be really pretty when it matures. I already have had a couple of blooms from it. The other one, I thought was a red rose, but it tured out to look like this.

The fragrance is awesome too. I have been enjoying it for about a week now. I think this bush only blooms once, but with blooms like this, I can handle it. It had a nice long stem and was so awesome. I can't wait to see it in a few years when it is nicely established!

Our 4th of July was fun. We had a neighbor invite us to a block party and it was nice to get to meet some of our neighbors. Miles loved the fireworks. While Lynn was lighting then he would call out "Careful Daddy!", but after they went of he would say "Do it again!" They stayed up way too late last night and slept in this morning. Miles also wanted to do fireworks again tonight.

Lynn has been working a lot this week. He worked 6 days in a row, 12 hours each. He is exhausted, especially with the late night last night. We will enjoy his 4 day weekend. Then he will work next two weeks and take the last week of July off. We are looking foward to a little bit of a vacation, although we won't be going too far away from home with gas prices like they are.

Well, this has become a pretty long post, and I should close. I promise I will try to post more often too.

Last Weekend

The kids and I had a great trip to Port Angeles last weekend to vist Dad and attend the memorial service for Eleanor Alleman, a dear friend of our family.

I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures of the trip. Most of them are from our hot dog roast at Tonie's house on Saturday. Thanks Tonie, that was a lot of fun.

The kids had a great time playing with thier cousins and basically running around outside. Thanks to Liz and Chelsie for all your great help in keeping track of them - especially Miles!


It took me a couple of days to recover from the trip, but I now that I have my house in some semblance of order, and my floors clean, I am feeling more normal. :) I think I can get back to our routine.



Here is Ellie trying to hold onto a frog, you can see it's hind legs as it is jumping away.
Tim, Ellie and Mat in the bucket of Uncle Chuck's tractor. She thought that was lots of fun!
Miles loooooved being with Grandpa! I think Grandpa enjoyed it too!

Miles didn't want to hold the frog, he just wanted to put it in his pocket. Chelsie snapped this pic right before the frog jumped back out!Miles had fun blowing the dandilions behind the barn - near where we were having our hot dog roast.

We Made It

Well, after about 7 hours on the road on Wednesday, we made it to Dad's. It was an exhausting trip for me, the kids did really well, but I got really tired of driving, :) I bought the kids both a plastic lap tray and filled it with coloring books, crayons, markers and various things for them to do on the trip up. Ellie colored practically the whole way here. It was a great investment. Unfortunately Miles' carseat was too wide for it to fit over his legs correctly, so he had a harder time. He did really well though.

Miles was happy to get out and run around when we got here. Both of the kids fell asleep about half way around Hood Canal, so the did get about a 1 1/2 hour nap. We walked up to Tonie and Chucks, and visited with the kids a bit. Chuck gave Miles and Ellie a ride on the four wheeler, and they loved that. Then we came back and I scrounged up dinner, and put the kids to bed before collapsing into bed myself.

We went grocery shopping on Thursday morning and got to see Toniefor a few minutes at work. She was working on Wednesday so she could have Saturday off. I got a few groceries so I could make dinner. Dad has lots of meals in his freezer, but no ingredients like hamburger, chicken, things you actually cook. Next time I will have to remember that and stop at the grocery store and Sunny Farms on the way here :). Thursday night Andrea had a Kindergarten Alphabet Circus that we went too. Ellie enjoyed listening to the kids sing and do thier tricks. Miles was pretty entertained through most of it, but was done before they were.

Dad did have a turkey in the freezer, for who knows how long, so I cooked that today. I also swept, mopped and vacuumed his floors. They were really bad. I need to clean the bathrooms before I leave too I think. I'll get some stuff into his freezer before I go too.

Tonight I think Tonie, Chelsie and I are taking all the kids to the swimming pool in Sequim. Ellie missed her last swimming lesson yesterday, so I told her we could go swimming when we were here instead. It should be fun. Trina should be coming tonight too, so it will be nice to see her and the three younger kids. Austin and Douglas couldn't come because they had to work.

Tonie wants to go to Fort Warden tomorrow, but we will have to see what the weather is like. It would be nice to do something fun, but I'm not sure I really want to drive that far. Especially since I will be driving to Trina's on Sunday, and then home on Monday.

Well, I'd better go. I have Ellie, Miles and Tonie's Andrea all down for a nap. Funny thing is that Andrea gave me the least trouble! She just sweetly went in and laid down, my two cried and protested like they had never been lain down for a nap before! Dad went to town, and I am enjoying the peace and quiet.

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

Yesterday while Ellie was in her swimming lesson, I recieved a call from Dad saying that Eleanor had gone home to be with the Lord.

For those that don't know her, Eleanor was an amazing lady who was an influence on my parents when they were teenagers. She served for many years as a missionary to the children of the North Olympic Peninsula. She never married, but has hundreds, if not thousands of spiritual sons and daughters. My Ellie is partly named after her.

I can only imagine her welcome in heaven. Her fellow missionary Alma Enroth will be there to greet her, as well as my mom and so many others that she introduced to Jesus. But first of all I am sure that she will be greeted by her Saviour, who will say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master!"

So, again I am planning a trip to go to a funeral. I am still somewhat in a fog, although this has been expected for a few months now. I don't know when I will be leaving, or how long I will be there, but I do know I need to be there for Dad. He has taken this pretty hard, and with it being the around the same time Mom died, I think that makes it more fresh for him.

So, thank you God, for Eleanor and the influence she had on so many people, especially my family.