Alright, no guarrantees on how long it will be again before I put up any new posts because the Spring Term starts today. This term I have Western Religion, Spanish (203), 2-D Art, and Tennis. We dropped through Wal-Mart last night to pick up a cheap tennis racket, and I'll still need to pick up all of my art supplies for the art class after she gives us the list in our first class tomorrow, but I already have everything else.
In the meantime, I've killed too much time this morning doing very little so I need to get Madison ready to leave so that I can get to my first class on time :) Hopefully, I will manage to check in a little more frequently in the next couple of months!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Grades Are In!!
I'm making this really short because Steve is ready to watch a movie with me, actually he's about to start it without me... Anyway, I got four A's out of four classes this term, coming away with an Academic Honor Roll this term and a final GPA of 3.21. Hooray!!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
And the Diagnosis is...
Bronchitis. I have bronchitis. I made an appointment today; actually, one for myself and one for Kellen. Kellen just has a head cold. So between co-pays for the two of us and the medication prescription that I filled for myself, it was a $120 day. Ouch. So the next couple of days I wil be taking a steroid to help dry out my lungs and a narcotic cough syrup that will help control my cough and allow me to sleep through the night, which I haven't done the last couple of nights. The good news is that it should be enough to get me back on my feet in time for next term starting on Monday. I wasn't entirely certain that I wanted to go to the doctor for it, but Steve decided we should err on the side of caution since bronchitis can have similar symptoms to, or develop into, pnuemonia; a particularly bad thing, we're thinking. So I have a couple more days to recoup, and that will hopefully be enough.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Sickies
First, the good news. I did get my phone back. Hooray!! I walked up to the class where I left it (this was the last day of class for Winter term) and it was sitting on a chair outside the door. I personally felt like that was a really good way for someone ELSE to pick up, but that's not what happened. Anyway, it worked out fine. They had hit a reset button the phone before they gave it back so I had to re-load everything that used to be on it before, but even that I don't mind, since I at least had the phone.
The other good news is that the Winter term is over. Last week was finals. I think I did reasonbly well on most of it, although the Earth Sciences one has me a little worried. Ive worked hard on my grades the last couple of years and I'd like to make the Dean's List again; we'll see if I did well enough to manage that this time. It's not much, but I at least know for certain that I dind't fail anything; I definitely got A's in theatre arts and pe, but those are both kind of hard to fail. I think I have a B to an A in Spanish, and I think I'll come away with at least a B in science. Laying it all out like that makes it sound like I am unreasonably stressing over grades that are really just fine, but there's a reason Steve pokes fun at me and calls me a 'Hermione'.
The unfortunate thing at the moment is that even though the kids and I are home on spring break, we're all sick. Like hacking up phlegm, sniffly noses, sore throats, achy muscles, and the lot. We haven't left the house since the Pinewood Derby on Saturday. We may have to actually go into the doctor tomorrow if we don't start improving since we all have to be better by Monday; school waits for no man. In the meantime, I've tried out a couple of home remedies for expectorants today. The one for a ginger, clove, and cinnamon tea was awful; the ginger gave it way too much bite. I wasn't impressed with the bay leaves tea because it didn't taste like anything at all, but lack of flavor is one of the reasons I don't like drinking tea anyway. The other two that I tried were thyme and savory teas which, sweetened with a little honey, were definitely my favorites.
So hopefully the sick status improves greatly and really soon. The bad thing is that Steve seems to be getting sick now. I know this sounds a little bad, but I'm glad at least that I'll be feeling better by the time it really hits him; it's a whole lot easier to take care of another sickie when I'm not sick.
The other good news is that the Winter term is over. Last week was finals. I think I did reasonbly well on most of it, although the Earth Sciences one has me a little worried. Ive worked hard on my grades the last couple of years and I'd like to make the Dean's List again; we'll see if I did well enough to manage that this time. It's not much, but I at least know for certain that I dind't fail anything; I definitely got A's in theatre arts and pe, but those are both kind of hard to fail. I think I have a B to an A in Spanish, and I think I'll come away with at least a B in science. Laying it all out like that makes it sound like I am unreasonably stressing over grades that are really just fine, but there's a reason Steve pokes fun at me and calls me a 'Hermione'.
The unfortunate thing at the moment is that even though the kids and I are home on spring break, we're all sick. Like hacking up phlegm, sniffly noses, sore throats, achy muscles, and the lot. We haven't left the house since the Pinewood Derby on Saturday. We may have to actually go into the doctor tomorrow if we don't start improving since we all have to be better by Monday; school waits for no man. In the meantime, I've tried out a couple of home remedies for expectorants today. The one for a ginger, clove, and cinnamon tea was awful; the ginger gave it way too much bite. I wasn't impressed with the bay leaves tea because it didn't taste like anything at all, but lack of flavor is one of the reasons I don't like drinking tea anyway. The other two that I tried were thyme and savory teas which, sweetened with a little honey, were definitely my favorites.
So hopefully the sick status improves greatly and really soon. The bad thing is that Steve seems to be getting sick now. I know this sounds a little bad, but I'm glad at least that I'll be feeling better by the time it really hits him; it's a whole lot easier to take care of another sickie when I'm not sick.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Setbacks
I went in to talk to an advisor on campus today, to make sure that I was on track time-wise for everything I need in order to get into the Education program and graduate on time. Apparently, I'm not. When I first transferred in, I had asked different people (one of them a standard advisor, the other a Spanish advisor) if I was going to still be able to fit everything in if I re-took the 200-level Spanish classes. They said yes. The real answer was no. Keep in mind that all I have left after the Spring '09 term is a math class and the remainder of my Spanish courses before I enter the Ed program and take all of my Ed classes. But that leaves me with a total of 12 classes (all in 3rd or 4th level Spanish) that will have to be taken inside of two terms. It's just not practical. It just might be feasible if the schedules line up, and if my advisor lets me, and if the number of credits that would end up being fit within the limits of the maximum allowed per term. That's a lot of if's. And here's another one. If I had known that re-taking the 200-level Spanish was going to set me back this far, I would've taken the plunge on jumping into the Span 301 instead and trusted to my abilities in Spanish. Ugh. So this either means finding a way to take the 3rd year Spanish classes during the summer or pushing my likely graduation date back quite a bit. Steve is not going to be happy about this... I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to tackle this one.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Piano Recital
Some months ago Kellen's piano teacher let us know that there was going to be a recital in March and gave us the date for us so that we could put it on our calendar. Kellen has been working on his pieces for this for several weeks now. Last night, when I called the teacher to find out the specifics on the recital, she let me know that Kellen didn't really feel ready with his pieces so she had sent in the information for the students performing (to put on the program) and didn't put Kellen on it. I am so irritated that she basically allowed Kellen to make that decision without talking to Steve and myself! We both talked to her and she's going to try to get him back on there, but I feel that it's totally unacceptable for her to have let a 10-yr-old decide something like that. And, when I told Kellen that his conversation with her had resulted in him not being on the program at all, he was upset, too. I don't think he realized that. His fear was that he wasn't going to have them memorized in time for the recital, but he doesn't need to have them memorized for this one, just for the festival that happens late next month. Recently, because I assumed that the teacher would communicate with me on problems that Kellen is having, I just wait outside after the less for Kellen to come out (Madison being in the car with me) and I obviously need to change that. I am going to have to start going in every time and asking how he is doing, because she isn't communicating with me on her own. Ugh, it's so frustrating. Hopefully, she will still be able to put him on the program, because we told Kellen that working towards being able to perform in front of others and let us see how he is doing along with the other students is part of taking the lessons. Steve placed a great deal of the blame on Kellen last night, threatening to take away the lessons and the piano, but I don't think that would've been a good idea. Kellen likes playing and would actually be upset to lose the music.
It's kind of funny, really, because Kellen thinks he wants to be a chemist. I'm not sure where he pulled that idea from, but he's very artistic and that doesn't usually go hand in hand with science and chemistry. During Lent our church is doing an extra service every Sunday evening and this past Sunday they had a member of the church come demonstrate pottery and related it to how God is our Potter. Kellen was fascinated! He sat right up front on the floor in front of the pottery wheel watching the bowls and vases being shaped while he worked with his own little lump of clay. And yesterday evening, while we were waiting for my Bible study to start, I played on the piano a little in the sanctuary and Kellen beat along the rhythm on the drums. It wasn't exact, but he had picked up the emphatic points of the music and was hitting the drums in time with it. He also tries to dance along with almost any music he hears; it looks more like a noodle wiggling around because he's so uncontrolled and rather uncoordinated, but he loves doing it. The thought of him in a still, sterile environment like a chemistry lab is kind of funny to me. It'll be interesting to see where he actually ends up :)
On the phone, I still haven't gotten it back in hand yet. I'm going to make calls around the campus to see if it's been turned in already and no one has called me...
It's kind of funny, really, because Kellen thinks he wants to be a chemist. I'm not sure where he pulled that idea from, but he's very artistic and that doesn't usually go hand in hand with science and chemistry. During Lent our church is doing an extra service every Sunday evening and this past Sunday they had a member of the church come demonstrate pottery and related it to how God is our Potter. Kellen was fascinated! He sat right up front on the floor in front of the pottery wheel watching the bowls and vases being shaped while he worked with his own little lump of clay. And yesterday evening, while we were waiting for my Bible study to start, I played on the piano a little in the sanctuary and Kellen beat along the rhythm on the drums. It wasn't exact, but he had picked up the emphatic points of the music and was hitting the drums in time with it. He also tries to dance along with almost any music he hears; it looks more like a noodle wiggling around because he's so uncontrolled and rather uncoordinated, but he loves doing it. The thought of him in a still, sterile environment like a chemistry lab is kind of funny to me. It'll be interesting to see where he actually ends up :)
On the phone, I still haven't gotten it back in hand yet. I'm going to make calls around the campus to see if it's been turned in already and no one has called me...
Thursday, March 5, 2009
About the Phone...
I have a small update, even though it's not much yet. In my PE lecture today the professor pulled me aside to let me know that she had received an anonymous email from someone who says they know who took the phone and that they are going to return it in the next day or so. I suspect that they are only finally returning it because I personally talked to each of the classes and made it personal, which is a little discouraging because it means that they had to be convinced to do the right thing. But if it means that I'm getting my phone back I told the professor I wouldn't ask any questions or cause any trouble for the individuals. They had managed to hack the phone and put some things on it, so they are going to remove those before they return it, but that indicates that from the moment they picked it up they didn't really have any thoughts about returning it, until I pestered everyone continually. So I'm really pleased that it looks like I'm getting it back, but the initial dishonesty of people is a little bit of a downer still.
In the meantime, when/if it actually comes back to me, we're going to add the $5/month insurance so that we're protected if I do something this riduculous again!
In the meantime, when/if it actually comes back to me, we're going to add the $5/month insurance so that we're protected if I do something this riduculous again!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Just popping in...
I know, my posts have been truly infrequent lately. I apologize (I probably already did that in an earlier post) but school really has me swamped lately. Not that this is any different from last term... The good thing is that all of my hard work paid off in spades last term because I made the Dean's List, and I'm on track to make it again this term. Yeah!
A few of you knew that I got a new phone a month or so ago. I lost it this last week. I left it in a classroom and, when I realized I didn't have it, I went straight back; it was already gone. It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes. I'm still hoping that someone is going to try to find a way to get it back to me, but that's dwindling day by day. It happens to be a smartphone with a password on it. If you enter the incorrect password too many times, the phone locks itself down. There's no external information on it to tell anyone that it belongs to me. I've notified campus security, the local police station, the cell phone company, and the manufacturer of the phone. I also talked to the office in the building where I left the phone and had my professor from that class send out an email to all the students in that class. No luck yet, and it's been 5 days. The day it happened, Steve said I'd never see the phone again, but I keep hoping that he's wrong. I am posting a sign in the student union building and the library tomorrow to see if that will net me anything. So discouraging.
Well, that was kind of a bummer. Um, on the up-side, Steve gave me a gift certificate to a local salon for Valentine's Day so I have a whole year to go in and get several pampering things done. I'm thinking about making a haircut the first one, but they also have a hot stone relaxation therapy something-or-other that is calling to me, too. I'll have to decide.
Oh, I know! Just this past weekend, our cub scout pack went to OMSI for a scout-only night! It was so cool because they have a DaVinci exhibit in right now! They had models of inventions that he had designed/made, details on the Mona Lisa, exhibits of many of his other famous paintings; it was a great evening. Unfortunately, they didn't allow children under 4 to go, so Steve stayed home with Madison. Lucky for me, I guess :)
I'm sure there are other bits of news I could catch up on somewhere in this, but they're escaping me at the moment, and it's after 6pm, so I really should go make some dinner for the kids. Steve has a meeting tonight so he won't be home until late, but at least it means the schedule is relaxed a bit for the evening; the kids aren't nearly as demanding about when they get their dinner :)
A few of you knew that I got a new phone a month or so ago. I lost it this last week. I left it in a classroom and, when I realized I didn't have it, I went straight back; it was already gone. It couldn't have been more than 10 minutes. I'm still hoping that someone is going to try to find a way to get it back to me, but that's dwindling day by day. It happens to be a smartphone with a password on it. If you enter the incorrect password too many times, the phone locks itself down. There's no external information on it to tell anyone that it belongs to me. I've notified campus security, the local police station, the cell phone company, and the manufacturer of the phone. I also talked to the office in the building where I left the phone and had my professor from that class send out an email to all the students in that class. No luck yet, and it's been 5 days. The day it happened, Steve said I'd never see the phone again, but I keep hoping that he's wrong. I am posting a sign in the student union building and the library tomorrow to see if that will net me anything. So discouraging.
Well, that was kind of a bummer. Um, on the up-side, Steve gave me a gift certificate to a local salon for Valentine's Day so I have a whole year to go in and get several pampering things done. I'm thinking about making a haircut the first one, but they also have a hot stone relaxation therapy something-or-other that is calling to me, too. I'll have to decide.
Oh, I know! Just this past weekend, our cub scout pack went to OMSI for a scout-only night! It was so cool because they have a DaVinci exhibit in right now! They had models of inventions that he had designed/made, details on the Mona Lisa, exhibits of many of his other famous paintings; it was a great evening. Unfortunately, they didn't allow children under 4 to go, so Steve stayed home with Madison. Lucky for me, I guess :)
I'm sure there are other bits of news I could catch up on somewhere in this, but they're escaping me at the moment, and it's after 6pm, so I really should go make some dinner for the kids. Steve has a meeting tonight so he won't be home until late, but at least it means the schedule is relaxed a bit for the evening; the kids aren't nearly as demanding about when they get their dinner :)
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Holy Icicles, Batman!
We've been getting freezing rain here in the last 24 hours. Needless to say, from the pictures below, we aren't going to church this morning. I had to walk very slowly and carefully just to get the pictures I did; we are NOT taking the car on this! This first one is a Japanese maple that sits right outside our front door. If you look really closely in the upper right part of the tree, you can see the green end of a plug from the string of lights that is sitting on this tree. I'm thinking about turning on the lights and see how they look shining through the ice....
There's the antennae on Steve's car; it's a bit thicker than it's supposed to be...
And our poor trees in the back yard. No, these are not any variety of willow. They usually stand up quite straight.
One tree even had a few casualties in the branch department. We'll have to call the management company tomorrow and see if they can help us get rid of them. I heard further cracklings from the weight of the ice while I was walking around getting these pics so I came in quickly. I don't exactly want to still be out there if more branches come down. Thankfully, I think they are just barely far enough from the house that they won't be coming through any windows...
There's the antennae on Steve's car; it's a bit thicker than it's supposed to be...And our poor trees in the back yard. No, these are not any variety of willow. They usually stand up quite straight. One tree even had a few casualties in the branch department. We'll have to call the management company tomorrow and see if they can help us get rid of them. I heard further cracklings from the weight of the ice while I was walking around getting these pics so I came in quickly. I don't exactly want to still be out there if more branches come down. Thankfully, I think they are just barely far enough from the house that they won't be coming through any windows... So we will be taking a quiet day at home today, since the temperatures aren't supposed to warm up much (we're at 28 degrees) and that doesn't allow for any melting of the ice. It's still not as bad as the ice storm that Spokane got in '97, though.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Still Here!!
Okay, it's time for a HUGE re-cap! Sorry it has taken so very long to get back here, but school kind of swamped me for the last couple of months... The good news is the Fall term is over and I have until Jan 5th to get things in order before I start back for the Winter term.
So here is Kellen and Madison for Halloween. Kellen decided he wanted to be a skeleton, but then realized he REALLY doesn't like the feel of the grease paint on his skin. Madison, meanwhile, had a great time trotting around as Pooh, which earned her lots of comments along the lines of "How cute!" when we trick-or-treated at the university dorms.
In November, Steve and I had an opportunity (actually, Steve purchased the trip at the church auction) to go on a crabbing day-trip with another couple from the church. It was a great time, being out on the bay and kid-free for an entire day. As you can see in the picture below, I wasn't really keen on picking up the crabs (you have to throw out the ones that don't meet the size requirements) because they have the ability to really hurt if you get caught between the claws and I could feel the back legs trying to gain purchase on the back of the glove while I was holding him; he scared me to death!
Steve is there in the red shirt to the left of the picture, hauling up the crab pots. We didn't get that many, but it was a really nice day out with really good company. The guy to the right of the picture is the one who owns the boat and he helped us kill and clean the crab when we got back to their house so that we could take it home and boil it. Kellen (lover of all things seafood) was thrilled that we got to have crab cocktails the next day!
And we can't cover the month of November without Kellen's birthday, of course! He turned 10 this year and wanted a sleep-over with a Legos Star Wars theme. Hence the cake.
So here is Kellen with the friends that he had invited over, as he is opening his presents.
Just a couple of days after that we went to Tim and Joelle's for Thanksgiving (Joelle is Steve's sister, for those who don't know) and Kellen got to have ANOTHER birthday party with his cousins where he received three new Webkinz! He was so excited! Of course, the birthday party and meals were the longest stretches that we actually saw him because he had a blast playing on the Wii upstairs the remainder of the time...
And we couldn't leave without a picture of Grandma with all five of her grandkids gathered around. The books that they are all holding have become part of the holiday traditions, with Grandma and Papa giving each of the kids a new Christmas book every year.
After participating in the horrendously early shopping that is the Day After sales, we drove up to Mark and LaNita's (Aunt LaNita is my mom's sister, for those who don't know) house for a night and went to Leavenworth with them on Saturday. With everything decorated for Christmas, it was just beautiful. And there were a couple of older cousins from Mark's side there visiting, too, so they took all the kids except Madison while Mark, Steve, LaNita and I wandered shops with Maddi in a stroller.
The first Saturday in December is, of course, Scouting for Food. I'm just now realizing the Kellen is not in the picture below, but he was there in the building somewhere... Not sure how that happened. Anyway, it was a good, but long, day.
On December 13th Kellen had a piano recital (he's at the bottom left of the picture) and all of the kids did a really good job. I took video of at least one of his songs and will try to get that uploaded at some point. No promises, though...
Sunday the 14th, WE GOT SNOW!!! And not just a dusting. It snowed for real! It doesn't typically do that here.
So after church we stayed in and decorated our Christmas tree. Tradition stands thus: I put the lights on the tree, then Steve sits removing ornaments from their boxes and handing them out to be placed on the tree by myself and the kids. Madison had a blast, with her most frequent comment being "Do you have something for me?" which, ironically enough, was the phrase she kept repeating as I was removing the household decorations from the boxes, because I kept telling her that each item she picked up belonged either to Kellen, Steve, or myself. She never lost hope that there was SOMETHING in there for her SOMEWHERE!
And here is the finished product... We didn't put everything on; Madison's penchant for touching everything would be deterimental to most of our ornaments. Maybe they'll make it on next year.
Sunday night and Monday morning it snowed some MORE! Needless to say, our area isn't equipped to handle this stuff so schools cancelled all over the place, and the kids and I made a snowman in the front yard. With below-freezing temps (on some days, highs of 26 degrees) the snow was too dry to want to stick well so we had to make a mound and shape it instead of rolling it in actual balls, but it worked!
So here is Kellen and Madison for Halloween. Kellen decided he wanted to be a skeleton, but then realized he REALLY doesn't like the feel of the grease paint on his skin. Madison, meanwhile, had a great time trotting around as Pooh, which earned her lots of comments along the lines of "How cute!" when we trick-or-treated at the university dorms.
In November, Steve and I had an opportunity (actually, Steve purchased the trip at the church auction) to go on a crabbing day-trip with another couple from the church. It was a great time, being out on the bay and kid-free for an entire day. As you can see in the picture below, I wasn't really keen on picking up the crabs (you have to throw out the ones that don't meet the size requirements) because they have the ability to really hurt if you get caught between the claws and I could feel the back legs trying to gain purchase on the back of the glove while I was holding him; he scared me to death!
Steve is there in the red shirt to the left of the picture, hauling up the crab pots. We didn't get that many, but it was a really nice day out with really good company. The guy to the right of the picture is the one who owns the boat and he helped us kill and clean the crab when we got back to their house so that we could take it home and boil it. Kellen (lover of all things seafood) was thrilled that we got to have crab cocktails the next day! And we can't cover the month of November without Kellen's birthday, of course! He turned 10 this year and wanted a sleep-over with a Legos Star Wars theme. Hence the cake. So here is Kellen with the friends that he had invited over, as he is opening his presents. Just a couple of days after that we went to Tim and Joelle's for Thanksgiving (Joelle is Steve's sister, for those who don't know) and Kellen got to have ANOTHER birthday party with his cousins where he received three new Webkinz! He was so excited! Of course, the birthday party and meals were the longest stretches that we actually saw him because he had a blast playing on the Wii upstairs the remainder of the time... And we couldn't leave without a picture of Grandma with all five of her grandkids gathered around. The books that they are all holding have become part of the holiday traditions, with Grandma and Papa giving each of the kids a new Christmas book every year. After participating in the horrendously early shopping that is the Day After sales, we drove up to Mark and LaNita's (Aunt LaNita is my mom's sister, for those who don't know) house for a night and went to Leavenworth with them on Saturday. With everything decorated for Christmas, it was just beautiful. And there were a couple of older cousins from Mark's side there visiting, too, so they took all the kids except Madison while Mark, Steve, LaNita and I wandered shops with Maddi in a stroller. The first Saturday in December is, of course, Scouting for Food. I'm just now realizing the Kellen is not in the picture below, but he was there in the building somewhere... Not sure how that happened. Anyway, it was a good, but long, day. On December 13th Kellen had a piano recital (he's at the bottom left of the picture) and all of the kids did a really good job. I took video of at least one of his songs and will try to get that uploaded at some point. No promises, though... Sunday the 14th, WE GOT SNOW!!! And not just a dusting. It snowed for real! It doesn't typically do that here. So after church we stayed in and decorated our Christmas tree. Tradition stands thus: I put the lights on the tree, then Steve sits removing ornaments from their boxes and handing them out to be placed on the tree by myself and the kids. Madison had a blast, with her most frequent comment being "Do you have something for me?" which, ironically enough, was the phrase she kept repeating as I was removing the household decorations from the boxes, because I kept telling her that each item she picked up belonged either to Kellen, Steve, or myself. She never lost hope that there was SOMETHING in there for her SOMEWHERE!And here is the finished product... We didn't put everything on; Madison's penchant for touching everything would be deterimental to most of our ornaments. Maybe they'll make it on next year.
Sunday night and Monday morning it snowed some MORE! Needless to say, our area isn't equipped to handle this stuff so schools cancelled all over the place, and the kids and I made a snowman in the front yard. With below-freezing temps (on some days, highs of 26 degrees) the snow was too dry to want to stick well so we had to make a mound and shape it instead of rolling it in actual balls, but it worked!
The last couple of days, due to freezing temps and nasty roads combined with the fact that our area is unequipped to deal with this kind of thing, Kellen has been out of school. Actually he hasn't gone all week, and school was cancelled again today because of the picture shown below. We have spent the time finishing up our various home-made gifts and I have every intention of doing some house-cleaning, baking, and peanut butter balls today.
Since the Mercedes is rear-wheel drive (i.e. not real safe in the snow) Steve has been driving the Honda all week and I haven't gone anywhere. Well, I went to grocery store after he got home from work yesterday, but that's it. It's getting a little boring, but Mom and Dad are flying in on Monday night and it's starting to look like we actually have the possibility of getting a white Christmas!! Holy Cow!
So that's the wrap-up of the last couple of months. Sorry it was such a brief view; I really did take more pictures of everything up there, but it would be silly to make a post THAT long. I decided to go for the Reader's Digest version instead :) Hope you are all doing well and having fun with your Holiday preparations!!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Silver Creek Falls
AKA: The Den Family Campout and Hike
The adults stayed up talking around the campfire until after 1am, so it was surprising that we all managed to drag ourselves out of our tents at 7:30-8am for making breakfast and breaking camp. Of course, we did start our day off with a rousing round of the Hokey-Pokey, just to get everyone moving! And, no, I don't have pictures of that because I was participating :)
While our breakfast was cooking (mountain men in dutch ovens, and they took FOREVER) Michelle had the boys work on drawing some maps so that they could finish up their Map and Compass belt loops.
We also had some biscuits cooking on the coals in the campfire, but they got a little hot. The general exterior of the biscuits were solid black, but no one really had a problem cutting that part off in order to eat the soft insides!
After breakfast and loading up all of our gear, we did a final trash sweep of our area (Leave No Trace) so that the camp site looked AT LEAST as good as we had found it. Then we drove a little bit back down the road to the trail head, where we were able to start off on our hike. I took a LOT more pictures of the various falls that we passed than you will see here. I will probably put them on my Web Albums and make them available for viewing later, but these few give the general idea :)
It should be noted that, although the hike that we took is marked as a 5 mi hike, one of the dads in our den had a GPS tracker of some sort that indicated that we actually did closer to 6 mi walking from the parking lot, along the hike, and back to the museum at the end. A very long day, obviously!
The original plan had been that we would leave the grocery store parking lot at 4:30pm so that we could arrive at the campground by about 5:30pm. That didn't work. A few of us were running a bit behind. I was worse than some others because I had to run back to the house for things like Madison's SHOES! I had been really busy the previous couple of days and hadn't had a chance to make my typical lists of what needed to be done/brought. Needless to say, I was a scatter-brained MESS! I also had neglected to pack any sort of a bag lunch for our hike the following day and was exceptionally lucky that Steve was only just leaving work as we were leaving town and he went through Wal-Mart to pick up a few essentials :) We ended up arriving at the camp at around 6:30pm and promptly setting up our tents, while there was still any daylight to work with, and starting some coals and a campfire for cooking our tinfoil dinners that we had all brought with us (Yes, I remembered to do that much!).
The adults stayed up talking around the campfire until after 1am, so it was surprising that we all managed to drag ourselves out of our tents at 7:30-8am for making breakfast and breaking camp. Of course, we did start our day off with a rousing round of the Hokey-Pokey, just to get everyone moving! And, no, I don't have pictures of that because I was participating :)
While our breakfast was cooking (mountain men in dutch ovens, and they took FOREVER) Michelle had the boys work on drawing some maps so that they could finish up their Map and Compass belt loops.
We also had some biscuits cooking on the coals in the campfire, but they got a little hot. The general exterior of the biscuits were solid black, but no one really had a problem cutting that part off in order to eat the soft insides!
After breakfast and loading up all of our gear, we did a final trash sweep of our area (Leave No Trace) so that the camp site looked AT LEAST as good as we had found it. Then we drove a little bit back down the road to the trail head, where we were able to start off on our hike. I took a LOT more pictures of the various falls that we passed than you will see here. I will probably put them on my Web Albums and make them available for viewing later, but these few give the general idea :)
At the first falls that we saw (and this happened with several others) the trail took us behind the waterfall itself, in shallow areas that had been carved out by the falls over the years. This picture shows everyone in our group standing at the rail with the cave of the falls at our backs; check out how low that ceiling is! Several of us had to bend double if we weren't walking right next to the railing.
This picture was taking from that cave (above) looking out along the valley. The trails that we walked are all out through there.
Then Steve and I walked further down the trail a bit to a small bridge where we could look back and see everyone else coming down. I know it's REALLY hard to tell, but Kellen is about the center of that picture in a blue sweatshirt with a maroon hip pack that he actually wears in front.
Just a pretty picture. There were lot of those. This shows the green moss on the tree, the leaves beginning to change, and the creek stretching away beyond it.
There was one section of the hike that had a LOT of stairs, which doesn't work really well for the jogging stroller, Madison's form of transport on this expedition. So Steve and another guy from our den essentially carried the stroller, complete with Madison, all the way down these stairs. See the next photo!
I know, you have to look REALLY closely, but this picture was taken from the opposite side of the creek (after going under another waterfall) and it shows the stairs that we went down. You can just see the fence going back and forth down the hillside from the top of the picture all the way down to the bottom, and even a few people walking on it to give you a reference for scale. Frankly, I'm glad we were going DOWN instead of UP!
This is kind of out of order, but as far as sequence goes, this picture actually occurred between the last two, since this is the waterfall that we walked behind in order to get to the other side of the creek where I took the picture of the stairs on the hillside. Kellen is the blue sweatshirt fifth in from the right.
This picture is actually MUCH later on the hike. We had been expecting Madison to fall asleep a lot earlier in the hike, but the trail was too rocky (read: bumpy ride) so she stayed awake. When she did finally fall asleep, it only lasted about 15 minutes. Oh, well. Both kids slept well that night when we got home, at least!
We had stopped for a bit of a break while we waited for some our group to catch up, so all the kids sat down on a retaining wall that divided the real trail (up behind them on the left) and dead-end detour that went behind another waterfall. We did, by the way, go see that one too in order to kill a little time while we waited.
Everyone was quite tuckered out by the end of the hike, and the kids were all thrilled when our den leader bought everyone ice cream treats from the State Park museum at the end of it all. I did think it quite funny that we were all quite cold (the weather, while not rainy, was definitely not warm) and yet we all thoroughly enjoyed our various forms of frozen treat!
This picture was taking from that cave (above) looking out along the valley. The trails that we walked are all out through there.
Then Steve and I walked further down the trail a bit to a small bridge where we could look back and see everyone else coming down. I know it's REALLY hard to tell, but Kellen is about the center of that picture in a blue sweatshirt with a maroon hip pack that he actually wears in front.
Just a pretty picture. There were lot of those. This shows the green moss on the tree, the leaves beginning to change, and the creek stretching away beyond it.
There was one section of the hike that had a LOT of stairs, which doesn't work really well for the jogging stroller, Madison's form of transport on this expedition. So Steve and another guy from our den essentially carried the stroller, complete with Madison, all the way down these stairs. See the next photo!
I know, you have to look REALLY closely, but this picture was taken from the opposite side of the creek (after going under another waterfall) and it shows the stairs that we went down. You can just see the fence going back and forth down the hillside from the top of the picture all the way down to the bottom, and even a few people walking on it to give you a reference for scale. Frankly, I'm glad we were going DOWN instead of UP!This is kind of out of order, but as far as sequence goes, this picture actually occurred between the last two, since this is the waterfall that we walked behind in order to get to the other side of the creek where I took the picture of the stairs on the hillside. Kellen is the blue sweatshirt fifth in from the right.This picture is actually MUCH later on the hike. We had been expecting Madison to fall asleep a lot earlier in the hike, but the trail was too rocky (read: bumpy ride) so she stayed awake. When she did finally fall asleep, it only lasted about 15 minutes. Oh, well. Both kids slept well that night when we got home, at least!
We had stopped for a bit of a break while we waited for some our group to catch up, so all the kids sat down on a retaining wall that divided the real trail (up behind them on the left) and dead-end detour that went behind another waterfall. We did, by the way, go see that one too in order to kill a little time while we waited.Everyone was quite tuckered out by the end of the hike, and the kids were all thrilled when our den leader bought everyone ice cream treats from the State Park museum at the end of it all. I did think it quite funny that we were all quite cold (the weather, while not rainy, was definitely not warm) and yet we all thoroughly enjoyed our various forms of frozen treat!
It should be noted that, although the hike that we took is marked as a 5 mi hike, one of the dads in our den had a GPS tracker of some sort that indicated that we actually did closer to 6 mi walking from the parking lot, along the hike, and back to the museum at the end. A very long day, obviously!
Friday, October 24, 2008
Battling Chaos!!
I know. It probably seems like our family fell off the surface of the planet, and I apologize. It's amazing how little information gets out to everyone else when I'm the source of the information and I'm already busy... So this post is the last two weeks in a nutshell. I will do a separate post for our trip to Silver Creek Falls, because it was just too amazing not to, but this one is just a general overview.
On Wed (Oct 8th) our den meeting included the gracious services of the past cubmaster as he came and taught the boys several basic things about Dutch oven cooking. And we made an apple cobbler dessert. The boys loved it, although I'm truly not certain which part was their favorite!
On Saturday (Oct 11th) we gathered for a popcorn blitz. That means that the boys arrive in shifts and do their best to sell popcorn to anyone passing by. We were hoping to catch football fans driving this particular road to a game in Eugene, but that didn't work. We got lots of supportive honking, but very little purchasing. Oh, well. It was a learning experience, and the boys maintained excellent attitudes the entire time (3-4 hrs).
On Monday (Oct 13) we drove out to the water treatment plant, which also happens to have a wetlands area, and the boys got to learn a lot about how the water can be naturally cleaned and filtered and what measures the city had taken to keep the area ecologically balanced. It was a great afternoon out.
On Tuesday (Oct 14th) we were invited by our local Boy Scouts to join the Troop for a Dutch oven cook-off. To entertain the kids, while coals were heating and food was cooking, they got to make a little tin foil dessert to be cooked in the coals. You take a plain donut and place it in the center of your foil. Then smear it with a bit of butter, slap a slice of pineapple on, and put a spoonful of brown sugar in the center of the pineapple before wrapping it all up and placing it in the coals. I would hazard a guess that they were in there for 15-20 minutes, but that's a guess. Anyway, when you're done you essentially have a pineapple upside down cake, camping style! And our den participated in the cook-off itself with a sloppy joe mix and an apple cobbler.
Friday (Oct 17th) we drove up to Silver Falls State Park (known to the locals as Silver Creek Falls) where we had reserved a group campsite for the night. I won't say too much about that in this post, since I'll be doing a separate one later, but we stayed the one night and then did a 5-mi hike past quite a few of the falls. It was fabulous scenery and a lot of fun!
Just yesterday evening, we had our Raingutter Regatta Pack meeting. The boys, for the most part, had a great time! Kellen ended up pouting for a while because his boat kept falling over and that meant he lost races. I'm personally not sure that it's possible to make the boat so that it doesn't fall over, but he was initially blaming it on me because I'm the one who put his rudder and keel on the bottom of the boat. Oh, well. Once he had calmed down, he managed to make his stand for his boat (hooray! there goes another requirement, I think) and then participated in the pie throwing.
Our cubmaster came up with a marvelous motivator for the boys in the den to sell their popcorn. For every $350 in popcorn that they sell, they get to throw a pie in the face of the leader of their choice. Steve decided it was a really good idea and, although not technically a leader, volunteered himself as a target. Wouldn't ya know, Kellen was the only one who decided that Steve needed a pie in the face?! Our cubmaster got the vast majority of them, and two others besides Steve received a little "recognition". All in all, a very fun night, although it did run rather late since we didn't get home until almost 9pm. Oh, well. Everyone had a great time!
Monday, October 6, 2008
Apologies...
There are a couple of people who had purchased popcorn online and I was unaware that they had because Trail's End changed their system midway through and I can no longer use the site I was originally checking to know what had been purchased; everything after a certain point (a few weeks ago?) shows up in a different place entirely. So, to Wes as well as to Ryan and Edith, I extend my apologies for not noting your contribution earlier; I had no way of knowing it was there. Thanks for helping!!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Another Busy Day...
First of all, I have to make a correction on yesterday's post. The boys are called the Three Musketeers at school, not the Three Amigos. My mistake.
Second, OMSI was GREAT!! Bummer: I forgot my camera at home! The boys had a great time doing all the puzzles with Steve. I got nailed with following Madison all over the place while she did whatever entertained her at the moment. I did get to play a round of Mancala with a boy that was trying to explain it to his grandma. Since I was sitting right there next to the un-occupied game, then I volunteered to play a round with him so he could show them. He was probably 12-14 yrs old, which made us about an even match, because I'm LOUSY at strategy games. And Mancala does require strategy. I won, but only by two points. It was fun to sit and play for a bit while Madison assembled towers with blocks. Then Madison and I went upstairs to the science play room, intending to let Maddi play with the other toddlers that were there, but they were doing face painting! Well, we had get her face painted! So we stood in line so that she could have a cute little puppy dog face painted on her. DID I MENTION I FORGOT THE CAMERA!?! Oh, well. I took a couple with my phone, but I have no idea how to get them off of there now because I don't have a data plan; I can't just email them to myself. I'll have to work on that... In the meantime, we met Steve and the boys back downstairs at the entrance to the Planetarium for a show, which was free that evening. We were envisioning something to do with the planets. How silly were we? It was a U2 concert set to CG pictures. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome. But the pictures were the bizarre, moving, give you motion-sickness sort, if you're inclined that way. Steve is. So Steve spent most of the 45 minutes of the concert with his eyes closed feeling a little sick. Really too bad. With everything moving across a domed ceiling above us, it looked really cool. Afterwards, the museum was closing (it was just from 6-9pm) so we headed out to the car and detoured through Coldstone before actually dropping Calvin off and going home ourselves. It was rather a late night for us, but we had a lot of fun so it was well worth it. There were so many people there, though, that we've decided we need to go back again on a normal day and try to go early enough that it's not so crowded.
Well, Kellen had an excellent day today. We took his Popcorn Sales sheet to church with us and found a HUGE amount of help from our church members! Actually, considering how many other kids were waving their school/girl scout fundraiser flyers, I'm amazed at what Kellen managed. All told, he was able to get $330 in popcorn orders JUST at the church. Wow. And he also got to help out with Communion, holding the basket that everyone puts their little cup into afterwards.
When we got home, we did hot dogs (kids) and brats (Steve and I) for lunch, laid Madison down, and then Steve and Kellen went out on the streets with another boy from our den while I got some homework done. I was getting quite frustrated with finding the resources necessary to complete the math that was on my Earth Sciences assignment; he hadn't given us a place to find the formulas we needed and they certainly weren't in the text book. I can only imagine that he's making us review all of that stuff (because I KNOW I knew that information at one time) in order to be able to do the lab work, which I have on Thursdays.
I think that about wraps up today. We are so excited that Kellen is almost 1/3 of the way to his goal and are going to be participating in a blitz this Saturday as well as going another direction on the streets near our house during this week. Hopefully we will actually be able to hit our mark! In the meantime, lunches are ready for tomorrow, my homework is done, and it's just about time to tuck Maddi in bed. Yeah! My favorite time of the day :)
Second, OMSI was GREAT!! Bummer: I forgot my camera at home! The boys had a great time doing all the puzzles with Steve. I got nailed with following Madison all over the place while she did whatever entertained her at the moment. I did get to play a round of Mancala with a boy that was trying to explain it to his grandma. Since I was sitting right there next to the un-occupied game, then I volunteered to play a round with him so he could show them. He was probably 12-14 yrs old, which made us about an even match, because I'm LOUSY at strategy games. And Mancala does require strategy. I won, but only by two points. It was fun to sit and play for a bit while Madison assembled towers with blocks. Then Madison and I went upstairs to the science play room, intending to let Maddi play with the other toddlers that were there, but they were doing face painting! Well, we had get her face painted! So we stood in line so that she could have a cute little puppy dog face painted on her. DID I MENTION I FORGOT THE CAMERA!?! Oh, well. I took a couple with my phone, but I have no idea how to get them off of there now because I don't have a data plan; I can't just email them to myself. I'll have to work on that... In the meantime, we met Steve and the boys back downstairs at the entrance to the Planetarium for a show, which was free that evening. We were envisioning something to do with the planets. How silly were we? It was a U2 concert set to CG pictures. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome. But the pictures were the bizarre, moving, give you motion-sickness sort, if you're inclined that way. Steve is. So Steve spent most of the 45 minutes of the concert with his eyes closed feeling a little sick. Really too bad. With everything moving across a domed ceiling above us, it looked really cool. Afterwards, the museum was closing (it was just from 6-9pm) so we headed out to the car and detoured through Coldstone before actually dropping Calvin off and going home ourselves. It was rather a late night for us, but we had a lot of fun so it was well worth it. There were so many people there, though, that we've decided we need to go back again on a normal day and try to go early enough that it's not so crowded.
Well, Kellen had an excellent day today. We took his Popcorn Sales sheet to church with us and found a HUGE amount of help from our church members! Actually, considering how many other kids were waving their school/girl scout fundraiser flyers, I'm amazed at what Kellen managed. All told, he was able to get $330 in popcorn orders JUST at the church. Wow. And he also got to help out with Communion, holding the basket that everyone puts their little cup into afterwards.
When we got home, we did hot dogs (kids) and brats (Steve and I) for lunch, laid Madison down, and then Steve and Kellen went out on the streets with another boy from our den while I got some homework done. I was getting quite frustrated with finding the resources necessary to complete the math that was on my Earth Sciences assignment; he hadn't given us a place to find the formulas we needed and they certainly weren't in the text book. I can only imagine that he's making us review all of that stuff (because I KNOW I knew that information at one time) in order to be able to do the lab work, which I have on Thursdays.
I think that about wraps up today. We are so excited that Kellen is almost 1/3 of the way to his goal and are going to be participating in a blitz this Saturday as well as going another direction on the streets near our house during this week. Hopefully we will actually be able to hit our mark! In the meantime, lunches are ready for tomorrow, my homework is done, and it's just about time to tuck Maddi in bed. Yeah! My favorite time of the day :)
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Back in the saddle again!
Okay, some of you might get the little tune that accompanies that title running through your head and, annoying as it might be, it's kind of what I was going for! I have no clue what it comes from, so don't ask me for a reference, though.
Well, the first week of school (for me) is over. That would be the reason there has been absolutely no change to my page in over a week. So, I have Yoga, Spanish 201 (I'm re-taking it as a refresher after being out for a year), Earth Sciences (that one will require the most work out of me), Computer Sciences (how to use Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; no-brainer for me), and an Education class that is required before they will allow me to enter the education program here. A total of five classes, 16 credits all together. Not bad. Madison is in the campus daycare center, which makes drop-off and pick-up really easy. She doesn't really like it when I leave her there in the morning, but she has a really good time during the day and the staff are excellent with her. I tend to worry about leaving her with others because she can be such a handful; she's constantly in motion and frequently into trouble somewhere.
So now that the first week is over, my house was a disaster area and everyone got recruited to help with clean-up this morning. After that was done, we pretty much did nothing at all until Madison went down for her nap. Then Steve, Kellen and I played Kellen's Indiana Jones DVD game since Madison wasn't around to grab pieces and get in the way of the game, which is what happened the first time we played it. Someday we will find a game that is age-appropriate for both of our kids to play at the same time... And this evening we are going to take a jaunt up to OMSI to see their Mindbender exhibit, since they're having a members only evening for it. The exhibit is a bunch of puzzles and brain teasers. And, since our membership allows Steve and myself plus four children, Kellen has been allowed to invite a friend to go with us; can't take two because we don't have enough car seats. Kellen and two other boys from our den hang out all the time at school (already nick-named The Three Amigos) so it was actually a hard choice to pick only one. But with the elementary school out for the last three days (parent/teacher conferences) he's been able to spend time playing games and going to the beach with Mickey's family every day while I was at school so he decided to bring Calvin on our trip this evening.
I wasn't able to go to the parent/teacher conference with Steve, but Kellen got a pretty good report from the teacher. The only stumbling block that he has is his tendency to get really upset when he thinks he's in trouble. Mom and Dad will remember that when Kellen was little (3-4 yrs old) if he was publicly chastised for something he would get hugely upset over it, crying and wanting to crawl into his shell. He still does that. Only, at his age, there's really not a place for that. Is there something I should've done differently? It seems that this has happened a few times at school now, and it will take him a 1/2 hour or so to calm down and rejoin the class in whatever they're doing. Steve and I talked to him about it, but this is really something he's going to have to figure out how to handle because we can't follow him around at school telling him not to be worried about what someone has said. And it doesn't seem to bother him if someone pokes fun at him for something, it's only when he feels like he's done something WRONG. Then it gets to him. He doesn't want to know that he's done something he shouldn't have. Anyway, things to work through...
I think that's about it for our update for the week. And, in case anyone suspected differently, I am most likely going to be reduced to once-a-week updates at least until term is over in December. I just don't have the time during school to be on the blog all the time... It's amazing how much I feel like I'm missing in what goes on with everyone after only being off of it for a week.
Well, the first week of school (for me) is over. That would be the reason there has been absolutely no change to my page in over a week. So, I have Yoga, Spanish 201 (I'm re-taking it as a refresher after being out for a year), Earth Sciences (that one will require the most work out of me), Computer Sciences (how to use Word, PowerPoint, and Excel; no-brainer for me), and an Education class that is required before they will allow me to enter the education program here. A total of five classes, 16 credits all together. Not bad. Madison is in the campus daycare center, which makes drop-off and pick-up really easy. She doesn't really like it when I leave her there in the morning, but she has a really good time during the day and the staff are excellent with her. I tend to worry about leaving her with others because she can be such a handful; she's constantly in motion and frequently into trouble somewhere.
So now that the first week is over, my house was a disaster area and everyone got recruited to help with clean-up this morning. After that was done, we pretty much did nothing at all until Madison went down for her nap. Then Steve, Kellen and I played Kellen's Indiana Jones DVD game since Madison wasn't around to grab pieces and get in the way of the game, which is what happened the first time we played it. Someday we will find a game that is age-appropriate for both of our kids to play at the same time... And this evening we are going to take a jaunt up to OMSI to see their Mindbender exhibit, since they're having a members only evening for it. The exhibit is a bunch of puzzles and brain teasers. And, since our membership allows Steve and myself plus four children, Kellen has been allowed to invite a friend to go with us; can't take two because we don't have enough car seats. Kellen and two other boys from our den hang out all the time at school (already nick-named The Three Amigos) so it was actually a hard choice to pick only one. But with the elementary school out for the last three days (parent/teacher conferences) he's been able to spend time playing games and going to the beach with Mickey's family every day while I was at school so he decided to bring Calvin on our trip this evening.
I wasn't able to go to the parent/teacher conference with Steve, but Kellen got a pretty good report from the teacher. The only stumbling block that he has is his tendency to get really upset when he thinks he's in trouble. Mom and Dad will remember that when Kellen was little (3-4 yrs old) if he was publicly chastised for something he would get hugely upset over it, crying and wanting to crawl into his shell. He still does that. Only, at his age, there's really not a place for that. Is there something I should've done differently? It seems that this has happened a few times at school now, and it will take him a 1/2 hour or so to calm down and rejoin the class in whatever they're doing. Steve and I talked to him about it, but this is really something he's going to have to figure out how to handle because we can't follow him around at school telling him not to be worried about what someone has said. And it doesn't seem to bother him if someone pokes fun at him for something, it's only when he feels like he's done something WRONG. Then it gets to him. He doesn't want to know that he's done something he shouldn't have. Anyway, things to work through...
I think that's about it for our update for the week. And, in case anyone suspected differently, I am most likely going to be reduced to once-a-week updates at least until term is over in December. I just don't have the time during school to be on the blog all the time... It's amazing how much I feel like I'm missing in what goes on with everyone after only being off of it for a week.
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