First Waves...

So, the first wave of familiy arrived here at our hosue yesterday at around 3ish after frequenting the grocery store :) Everyone was so happy to be able to sit down and rest finally and the kids were all so excited to see MaMa, PaPa, G-PaPa and Baby Faith! I made everyone dinner and we had a rather relaxing evening. I also got to do some more gardening, Yipee!! I planted most of the plants that Grandma Marcia brought over on Wednesday. Only 3 pots left.... and I am still pondering where I want to put them :)

Today is going to be busy..... I have a Chiropractor appointment this morning at 9, and Jason's Mom (MaMa) is going to go with so that we can go grocery shopping for their week here after that... Hopefully it won't take too long. Tonight we are all going our separate ways, as we have a potluck for our last day meeting with the "10 Great Dates" crew. It should be lots of fun, and they have requested my "Mona Salad" as usual :) It's my Mona Salad cause a good friend that we met while living in Yuba City, CA made it for us one night and then gave us the recipe.... Who knows what it's actually called, but I called it "Mona Salad" from then on to remind me of the awesome woman that made it for us :)

VBS went great this week, the last day I brought bubble stuff so that we could take the nursery kiddos out to do bubbles. They LOVED that and made such a great mess with the bubbles, in their hair, on their clothes, in the grass.... I think that there is going to be a spot that "bubbles" every time someone waters that spot of grass!! My kids all had a great time, and the Johnston girls had a great time the one day that they were able to go. Poor things.... Kourtney was sick on Tuesday, and Brittney and Mom were sick Thursday and Friday!! I really am hoping that the sick season will come to a grinding halt now, so that everyone can enjoy summer!!!

Gotta go, not sure how often I will get to blog while we have family in town. 8 extra peoples to play with you know :) And the kids have been DYING to see Max and Keira!! I will try to get a few good pictures to put up here.

I know we are having the Potluck tonight and are BBQing tomorrow with who's here already and family that lives in town :) After that we haven't really planned, other than a wenie roast at the beach for 4th of July!

Ugh! it's Ten O'Clock!!

So I have been cleaning up a storm lately, trying to get the house back up to par....my par, very confusing, but don't mess with the par or you'll get sent to your room! hehe!! Anyways..... We have a bunch of family coming into town for the Holiday week coming up. Jason's parents will be here tomorrow, along with Baby Faith and Jason's Grandpa. Jason picks them up from the airport tomorrow afternoon. My parents and my younger Brother and Sister will be here either Sunday or Monday, they are driving up and camping along the way :) Everyone will be here till next weekend sometime. The Fourth will be a blast as usual. If you have never been up here for the Fireworks, you have to try to make it sometime. I don't know where else in the country that they let you buy as many kinds of fireworks as they let you buy here, most people get them from the Indian reservation, things like bottle rockets, mortars, roman candles etc.... and everything but the firecrackers and bottle rockets, I believe, is legal!! zit makes for a wacko shoe down at the water beginning around 9 and then things really start to pick up around 10:30 when it finally gets darker.... and keeps going well into the morning hours.... and then it starts getting light here around 3ish. so they stop and wait for the next night! Hehe....

The kids have had VBS this week and I was assigned to the nursery for baby duty, which made Sarah Rose really happy cause she hates it when I try to leave her in there. But now, she's getting used to me staying the whole time, so who knows how it will make the situation after VBS??!!

Well, it's getting late and I have one more VBS day left, taking 6 kiddos to and from, and working in the nursery during. And then when I get home I think we are having lunch with Kristy and her girls and I hope to get to work out in the yard a bit to plant all the wonderful goodies that Grandma Marcia brought me yesterday :) TTFN

Oh yeah, and I have another Chiropractor appt on Saturday :) And I sold 3 of my pieces at the Farmers Market last Sunday! Yipee!! I got to go buy some groceries! (a few Papa Murphy's Pizza's just fell into my front seat *wink**wink*)

A visit to the Pacific Science Center and the Rainforest Cafe!

Yesterday we had a family trip down to Seattle, centered around an appt. for Sarah Rose at Children's Hospital. Her appointment was for a condition that we now know as "Trigger Thumb." In Layman's terms, there is a sheath around the tendon in your thumb and hers have both inflamed and since it has been like that for over 3 months, they consider the condition permanent.So, we have scheduled a surgery for July 25th to have the tendon sheaths cut, and they said that it will never reoccur and that the surgery is one of the easiest ones that they do, especially considering this is Children's Hospital that we are talking about. It is a "simple" procedure, which requires her to be put to sleep, and they make a small incision at the base of each thumb to go in and cut the sheath, the thumbs are supposed to react immediately to the cut and will spring straight again. Currently they are both slightly bent and do not straighten out completely even when you try to push gently on her thumbs..... So, surgery in July and then one post op. appt. August 5th and then she should be all better :) They said that the general anesthetic is the most dangerous part of the procedure, but that we have a greater chance of getting into a car crash on the way there or home again, than having any sort of problem. So, I know that we will be worried for her, but I am sure that she will be fine. The hardest part will be getting her to keep the bandages on for 3 days and keeping them relatively clean! So.... Before her appt. Jason and I decided to treat the kids to a trip to the Pacific Science Center. They LOVED that!!! the huge Dinosaurs, the Butterfly house was my favorite!! And the other exhibits were amazing! The featured exhibit was the "Speed" exhibit, all about Speed, speed of light, speed of sound, motion in general, reflex speed etc. Lots to walk through, though not as big as the commercials try to make it seem :) But over all they had a fabulous time. We saw the IMAX film that went along with the "Speed" theme and they all loved that as well. After lunch and a quick trip through the "store" we headed over to Children's for Sarah Rosy's appt. After her appointment, we went down to Southern Seattle, actually called "Tukwilla" to the Rain Forest Cafe! A place that we have been dying to take them ever since we went several years ago with Sarah. We went to the San Francisco one, however, and when I heard there was one in Seattle a few years ago, it's been on my mind. Charity Ann was with us then, but only about a year old, so I am sure that she doesn't remember any of it! Anyways!! It was an adventure of a day, long, as we left our house about 8 and didn't get home until about 9:15. But we didn't run into much traffic in Seattle, and the kids were awesome!! We even purchased a membership to the Science Museum so that we can go back unlimited whenever we want to in the next year! And we have 5 more IMAX tickets, so I want to go back maybe when we go for Sarah Rose's Post Op appt. and see the Ocean Wonders 3-D film :) Well, have to wait and see. BTW-This is post #50!!! WOW!!!

"Huge fish that was eyeballing us while we ate our dinner!"

Happy Fathers Day!

I just wanted to write really quickly, before my computer dies, what we did today. Jason wanted to go for a "walk" and when I saw him getting ready in the kitchen this morning, I saw him packing a few food stuff items that usually require heating up as well as a lighter and a few other "survival" items. He then proceeded to tell me that he wanted to take along a few things in case we decided to have a little camp fire and wanted to cook something up. :) Sounds like fun to me, I am usually up for an adventure! So I mentioned the half pack of Costco Peppered Bacon that we still had in the Fridge from Breakfast yesterday and he said "great!" And then I decided to go a little further by creating an "experiment" of Cornmeal, Whole Wheat Flour, Dry Milk, baking powder, salt and some sugar. I put a few Tbs. of cooking oil in another baggie and we packed plenty of water. We got all the kids ready without telling them of our possible plans and headed off. Now, our property provides plenty of opportunity for hiking, so we didn't have to drive anywhere. There are all sorts of trees, thousands of them; Maples, Douglas Firs, Alders, Cottonwoods, Cedars etc. There is also lots of greenery in the way of ferns, salmon berry bushes, gooseberry bushes, blackberries, ground blackberries, and lots of other misc. shrubs and bushes. The boys and Sarah Rose went through yesterday and re-blazed part of a trail that we have been trying to keep up over the past few years, and today they had the chance to finish it to the creek, in which we found out that we have 2 huge trees that need to be removed and cut up before we can get down to our creek! So, anyways, while they were off trail blazing, Noah, Charity Ann, Sarah Rose and I worked on getting a fir started in the area that we picked out as our "day camp" for today. We went and found rocks of various sizes to put around our little fire once I got it going and then pampered it until we could cook over the open flames and coals. Jason packed a little frying pan that I got out (cast iron, so no wooden or plastic handle to burn or melt off!) And I got out the "Experimental Mix" and my Oil and Water. I then mixed it all together, added a little oil to the pan and made our first "griddle cake" The kids were so excited!! Then I pulled out the bacon and they knew that they were in for a real treat! When Jason and Cayleb got back from their adventure, i had a nice fire going, and had gotten the three kids that were with me a little food to fill their tummies. I then started working on a plate for the "big boys" and got them fed. Jason had to run back home (a 10-15 minute hike each way) for my pocket knife to open our can of Baked Beans. We got that opened and put it can and all in the coals next to the fire. Every one ended up having a great lunch, got all filled up and so I tidied up and we went to see what the boys had been working on up the trail. Along the way we were finding and picking salmon berries for the kids to eat. A real treat to my kiddos!! Sarah Rose was just saying "I found Salmon Berries" over and over, she just couldn't believe her luck! I guess!! After that we went back to camp, and decided that it was time to put the fire out and head back home so that Sarah Rose could get a proper nap.... just couldn't convince her to settle down next to daddy, so reluctantly, we packed everything up into my backpack that I carry her in and 2 other backpacks... and the chainsaw, weed eater and a jug of water. It made for a wonderful day, I hope that Jason had as much fun as I did. I think that he did, he really loves getting to admire the beauty that lies around us. As do the kids and I. I'll put up some pictures later when I get them uploaded onto the computer, K.

I think that I forgot to mention that the griddle cakes and bacon turned out really yummy. I think that this is a day that the kids will remember forever :)

Beach Party

Sorry I haven't been on in a few days. So here's the Wrap-up :)

I got my Konos last Friday!! Yipee!! It has been so much fun browsing through all of it. It's hundreds of pages of reading materials and I LOVE to read!! There are thousands of fun and interesting project ideas throughout and it's been really enlightening to look through it!

I have been working on my Garden Art this last few weeks trying to get up a nice selection of things to take down to the Farmers Market this Saturday. I feel like Chickening out for one more week, though, cause Kristy found out she couldn't make it again this weekend! I've added a small assortment of decorated glass bottles that turned out really cute, and I got some really pretty seashells and have started a nice selection of Sea Shell Wands as well. I also made 2 more of my "Staff" wands, they are over 5 1/2' tall and are almost 2 feet wide :) So, I am getting closer to feeling like I have a nice amount to display. I also made 3 things for the kids to give to their teachers for their last day of school. Noah wanted me to make a glass beaded mobile with the stages of Butterfly development displayed on it, it turned out really cute! And Charity Ann picked out a Seashell wand to give to one of her teachers and the tealight cup with a flower wrapped around it for her other teacher. So. I'll put a picture of my favorite of the seashell wands at the beginning of the message. Still getting up the nerve to go down and try to sell them. Nothing like hanging yourself out there to be hosed! Everyone keeps telling me that they are so beautiful, though, but it's hard thinking that people will like them enough to actually give me money for them :) Here's a link, though I haven't posted new pics. of the newest arrivals.

We have a Beach Party with Kris-te-te's family scheduled for today. It's going to be lots of fun. We are having a Hot dog roast at the beach and smores and potato salad, chips and dip, yum yum!! I want to take down the staple Bubble Supply. I am the Bubble Mamma after all! Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, I feel like that aquarium character from Finding Nemo! So, here's to a great day!!

A Family Reunion Missed....

This is a picture from the Birthday Party for Jason's Grandpa that we had to miss. It was to far away for us this time..... Gas prices are killing us these days :( It looks like they had a beautiful day to have it on and it also looks like everyone had lots of fun. Too bad we couldn't be there, there was a lot of family there and I feel like we were the only ones not there. Bummer.... But I'm not letting that dampen the fun we had this weekend :) Our fun was good too, it's just that we miss all our family down there so much. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!!

Glorious Sunshine

I think that you can tell that everyone in my neck of the woods is sunshine deprived! We all arrive at church wearing Capri's and skirts with bright colors just hoping that the sunshine will come out! The thing is, Lynden is always breezy or sometimes just downright windy compared to our house! So I got all dressed, grabbed a small jacket and proclaimed as I climbed into the truck "If its windy at church, I'm gonna freeze!!" Silly me, it's always windy over there! And being only in the mid 50's to begin, and adding in a Frasier Valley fed breeze, the wind chill was prolly around the upper 30's to low 40's! I was a Tif-cicle! Anyways. When we left our house the weather was looking like it might turn out pretty nice, but when we were coming home it looked a little less so, some grey clouds were looming in the background out over the bay.... But we pushed onward. Feeding the kids lunch and packing up a few beach afternoon things like the ferrets, we were being optimistic. And we always knew that even if it turned out being pretty cold and gray, were only 5 minutes away from home, so we can always come back and pop the kids and ourselves into warm showers and then watch a movie together :) Out we headed, and as we drove along the sun started peeking out, and the clouds started getting less gray. When we pulled up at the State Park Beach the sunshine was out full blast and the clouds were receding. It was still a little cool when I stepped out in the warming air, that's why I never leave for the beach before July without a jacket! (or after Mid August). To make a long story shorter, I kept my jacket on the whole afternoon, the kids roller bladed along the bike path and out around the bathrooms and back, and we collected shells and crabs and hermit crabs and driftwood. They kids even took over an abandoned camp fire towards the end and proceeded to roast seaweed on it for us grown-ups for dinner!! Kristy and her two girls came about an hour and a half after we got there, and then her hubby met us another hour or so after that... We stayed a lot longer than we had hoped to be able to stay, and everyone had a blast! We are planning an early Fathers Day Weenie Roast for Friday, so hopefully the day will be just as beautiful. So far, Friday looks like the best day out of the next week and a half, so here's hoping!

I also got my KONOS finally!! It came late Friday afternoon, after I had already started pouting cause UPS usually comes in the morning :) So, I got to read read read, I am having too much fun with all this!

And the driftwood I collected this weekend, I am hoping to turn into some cute garden Wands to sell at the farmers market in a week or so. Please wish me luck!! And pray!! He he!! :)

Finally there is an End!

Cayleb just finished the last assessment he has for the year!! Yeah! Now he's just finishing up his Science Project presentation so that he can present it to Dad, and we still have some spelling words :) But the pressure is off! And NO my Konos isn't here YET!! All I can think is that they didn't get it out in Monday's mail and that means that 3 Day Priority will have it here tomorrow. And I think that 3 Day has some lee-way regarding actual delivery times etc. so 3 day may actually mean 3-5 days.... so Hopefully Friday or Saturday, but this totally Stinks! I did go pick up a few FREE bookcases from a really nice Home School Mom this morning. I think that hers are all about to fly the coop, and she's downsizing :) Free is good, I can do free, unless it's across the state or something, these were only about 10 minutes up the road and back :) So they went in the boys room and I designated one for each of them and we have organized all the kids books into categories and Cayleb picked out which books he wanted on his Shelf, and I picked out some that I know Noah would want on his. Then Cayleb filled the rest of his shelf up with treasures :) I also adorned Noah's shelf with some treasures too, so that when he gets home he can be surprised. Sarah Rose has been a little pickle this morning, getting into all kinds of stuff while Mom was trying to Organize!! She definitely knows when Mom is not paying attention like she should be! Hehe!! Nothing to painful, though, so we survived.

Yeah! I see an end!!

I am so happy! This week has been going fairly well considering it has been Assessment week. Cayleb has been working, mostly, very hard on getting his Semester Assessments done for school, and after that we are done!! The only subject that we will be working on after tomorrow is Spelling because there is really no way to work ahead in that one, he really needs 4-5 days to work on each set of words (usually between 23-25 words.) He took his Science Assessment a while ago so that we could work on his Science experiment on Geotropism which he is still finishing up. He finished his Language Skills Assessments (2 parts) yesterday, finished the Literature assessment today and we have the review and assessment for Math tomorrow. History he Finished a while ago as well, as his presentation on Tall Ships of the World was considered his assessment. And Art has been incorperated into our Science lately because he is doing lots of decorating on his Science presentation. He has been having lots of fun with that lately. I decided to have him "Note Book" his results so he's doing a different page for each day that he had an entry, as well as a few other pages describing what his project was about etc.

I am also happy this week because I finally went to see a Chiropractor. First time I have ever seen a Chiropractor, just as a note. It went well, and I am hoping that we will be able to resolve my problems regarding that over the next few weeks. I'm going back on Saturday, and then she wants me to come in twice next week as well. My symptoms, you may be wondering, are waking up to my arm feeling like it is ON FIRE and FROZEN IN A BLOCK OF ICE at the same time. Yeah, your telling me, what a strange feeling that is. My guess was that it is a pinched nerve of some kind, and it's been going on off and on for about 5-6 years. It never really got bad enough for long enough to make me want to go in and see someone about it.... I consider myself to have a pretty high threshold for pain, so I think that some people would have gone in long ago about it, but I hate Dr. Appt.'s! Last night was better, but not good. So, I am telling myself that nothing can happen instantly, and it's been getting worse for 6 years, I can't expect it to get better in one trip to a chiropractor! So, I'll keep going. At least this way is a natural way to deal with the problem, I am not being "treated" with a prescription for Ibprofin or something, it's actually going to deal with the cause, the root persay, instead of trying to mask something. Anyway, I am too young to feel this dang old! Hehe.... yes, the Garth Brooks Song is now rolling through my head! Won't my friend April be proud of me!

Ahh my Konos is supposed to be here tomorrow!! I can't wait!! I created a database with my Konos Schedule for next year and put in on our Yahoo group. Birch Bay Konos Krusaders
Yeah, I know, I am a nut because I've already created a "schedule" for a Curriculum that I don't even have yet for the next 2 years!!

Sinking in my Garden!

I just went out to see what was sprouting in my garden and almost got eaten!! I sunk, with both feet mind you, up to my Knees!! Just try and picture that!! And then try to imagine me trying to get back out! I was crawling, and clawing at the ground! It was like real life "Quick Dirt" or something!!

Tuesday :)

Cayleb and I are working our tails off so that we can be done with School by Friday. He is finishing up Semester Assessments, which he HATES with a vengeance!! But I keep telling him it's almost over!!! Then we will never have to log in our assessment scores ever again! Not that we won't do testing or anything, but it will be for our info only, you know :)

I called about my missing Curriculum yesterday and talked to a very nice man and he apologised profusely that I hadn't received an e-mail telling me that part of my stuff was on back order and wouldn't actually be sent the day that they quoted me.... He said that the missing item had come in that morning and that I was a the top of the list. He guaranteed that my things would be sent off that morning, and that he was upgrading my postage to 3 Day Priority, saying that I should get them no later than Thursday :)!! So, I am trying to get all my house chores done and keep up with them so that when it comes I can just enjoy enjoy enjoy!!!

Today is rainy, Well not right this sec. but it looks like it could at any moment :) It's good for the garden and grass but I do hope that the Sunshines come back soon.

Jason has told me to try taking my wands down to the Farmers Market on a Saturday (it was supposed to be this Sat, but if it's really cloudy out then I'll wait for better weather) He just wants me to try it. And it's free to set up a table and it's almost close enough to walk to (would be if i didn't have stuff to carry down there.) So, pray for me, I need support here, I am not a very extroverted person, so I will be stepping outside of my comfort zone by a long measurement here!