We are the "Baum"s!

Our vacation :)

2011-04-09T00:10:00.001-07:00

Another slideshow by Smilebox

Wishing for Super Powers....

2011-03-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

I posted on Facebook the other day that I was wishing for Super Powers but stuck with ordinary skills. Just how would I use these Super Powers?
Let me list the ways:
1) Make everything alright for the birdie who nested with us for awhile
2) Figure out the ways to fix all those that are "broken"
3) Get all the knowledge into little brains without killing their spirit or mine :)
4) Protect my kids from any and all bad things in the world
5) and so much more that is rattling around in my brain!

Yes, you read correctly. Our little visiting bird has flown to another nest. We tried our best, but there was a few big road bumps and the little birdie felt that we weren't the right parental birds for her. So with heavy hearts we helped the little birdie move on Friday. Even though we know it's the right thing for the birdie.. right isn't always the easiest to accept. I hope some of what we did with our birdie sticks :)

Rain Rain.. go away :) or at least slow down. My kidlets @ school NEED to go outside and run and run and run so they can learn, learn and learn!!!

What would YOU do with super powers...

Roller coaster!!!

2010-12-09T20:35:00.000-08:00

This quote really describes my life right now: "Life is like a roller coaster, you get jerked one way and another, and you never know whats around the corner, but you just got to enjoy the ride!"

Seems as the girls get older and more involved with activities, I have less time to spend with them. It's hard to let them go and test their wings. Hoping that what I've taught them and the ideals that their dad and I have instilled in them will carry them in the right direction. Now I know how the mama bird must feel when she has to let her babies leave the nest and fly away :(

Speaking of nests.. we've added a new baby bird to our nest... well she's not really a new bird, she's been around in the form of one of the girls friend. Her life hasn't been the good roller coaster ride..but one of those haunted house, freaky rides,scary, dangerous rides that you can't wait to get off of! We're hoping she can hang in our nest for awhile but a lot depends on many factors that we can't control and we just have to put it in God's hand and trust He helps those who are deciding which ride she gets go back on is the fun roller coaster ride of our house.

I'm so not ready for Christmas. I've bought hardly anything for anyone and I'm not really in the spirit of Christmas. I'm ready for school to be out. It seems kinda crazy around my room these days and I sometimes feel like I'm not making a difference because I've become just a person who herds children around all day and nags at them. My job over winter break is to rejuvenate myself and to read the book Teach like a Champion. I need something to boost me back up. I know I'm a good teacher (and no that's not conceited) but I really feel like I'm spinning my wheels. I know what I need to do and how to get it done.. I just need the willing audience to join me in my adventure. Someone asked me recently how long I've been teaching and how long before I get to retire. I said I'm starting my 22nd year.. and then I got to thinking.. I've been doing this job, this adventure and sometimes this nightmare for a almost half of my life. Some days it feels like I just started and then other days (like today or this week in general) it feels like an eternity and that I'll never be done! Some wise person in the government decided that teachers can retire when they are 67 years young. Since I started teaching when I was 22.. that makes a grand total of 45 years in the field of education. That being said...with 21 years behind me.. I still have 24 more years to go. It scares me just a little!!! One of my OMS teaching buddies who's the same age and time in teaching as me said.. we'll all be living @ the retirement home and they'll just drive us all to school in the little bus and we'll get off with our walkers and canes to go to work....kinda funny and little far fetched but then again not far from the truth either!

Okay Debbie Downer is signing off.. nothing like taking a 6 months leave of absence from blogging and then spill my brain guts on the page :) Wanna see a picture of my girlies???

Cloning?

2010-04-25T19:50:00.001-07:00

It's days like today that I wish we had the technology/know how to clone ones self. The "call" came in today saying that Ana had made it to the finals for Nashville Star!! (junior division) Woo hoo!! WTG my dear!

Now comes the cloning idea... she has to be in Connell on Saturday May 8th (time unknown yet but thinking around 5). It's a 3 hour drive from here to there. All this is all and good.. I can deal with the drive and all that, it's the conflict with her sister's community play that is opening that weekend as well! So Karina has to be there @ 5:30 PM to start the show! I want to be at BOTH things! Karina's play runs 4 more times after Saturday, so I'll be able to catch that then. This is the last year in the junior division of Nashville Star, so I don't want to miss it! ahhhhhh clone me! :)

updating photos

2010-04-04T14:09:00.002-07:00

I know I'm lame. I can't even manage a photo a day! I'd look @ the girls or something and think.. oh there is my photo of the day and then never retrieve the camera to take it! I'm okay for April so far!

3/17 Ana and friend

3/25 Monster Band/Choir festival in Tonasket. The sea of blue shirts are the kids from Okanogan! Isn't it awesome to see music going full force here!

3/26 - a sign @ Tonasket school.. a good message for all!

3/29 Brett's new truck.. he was ready the other truck was 13 years old!

3/30 Karina with her new dress and shoes for her trip to Cats with Hailea and Isabelle

3/31 me.. I had to take a picture for my wonder CT gig with Randi Oh Designs (new store opening soon!) so I decided what the heck.. I'll include it!

4/1 my pretty toes :) just thankful my toe nails are grown out enough to have pretty toes..

4/2 April fools came a day late.. snow.. ucky snow! )

4/3 dying eggs

4/4 the "kids"

updating photos...

2010-03-14T22:49:00.000-07:00

3-8
The girls doing the Wii singing thing...

3-9
Karina playing her favorite game on the computer. Wizards 101 or something like that. She and Dylan will play together each on their own computer :)

3-10
the sprout.. growing out of Ana's sink. We're guessing someone forgot to flush the birds water before rinsing and refilling it.. umm gross!

3-11
adjudications for piano

3-12
Ana and Ashley @ the beginning of the journey to Lewiston :)

3-13
Ana and Ashley pretending to be flying over the top of Lewiston/Clarkston area. Taken on top of the grade!

3-14
Ana watching Glee on my laptop. She and Ash started watching on the way home and now she's hooked too!

photo a day..

2010-03-07T21:33:00.001-08:00

March 6th...this was taken today but I had taken a photo of the dog lounging around the house the day before but I'm going to substitute that one out for this one.. it's classic!!

March 7th.. talked Ana into putting on her Spring frolic dress and had some fun taking photos in the park with the dog and Karina and Hailea :)

I'm up to date on my photo a day!!

2010-03-05T22:19:00.000-08:00

I took my little point and shoot camera with me to Seattle for the NCCE conference! It was beautiful in Seattle.. yes that is BLUE skies in the last photo! It was nice all 3 days we were there!

Wednesday.. the view from my 23rd floor room in the Seattle Hilton... thought it was funny to look down and see a neon sign that said rock bottom (think it's a eating place)

Thursday.. the view from our table looking up @ the Cheesecake Factory where we ate dinner! :)

Friday 3/5... some flower pictures :) I got a few.. yes that is blue sky you see!

2010-03-02T19:46:00.000-08:00

The cake for the Lady Bullpups Basketball Banquet. I did such a good job ordering this one! ;) LOL

This is for you Jordan!!

2010-03-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

Jordan said I needed to update my blog! What 2 months since my last update and I'm slacking??? okay, I guess I am! Yes, there was a touch of sarcasm in that remark! :) I'm so bad about being sarcastic!! :)

Let's see.. what has happened to us since the first of Jan? Basketball, more basketball, Missoula's Children Theater performance, piano recital, piano lessons, beginning of rehearsals for Annie Get Your Gun.

I'm glad I never said I'd do the picture a day because, heck I can't even update my blog.. though if I start now, I could post my picture every day.. hmm sounds like a challenge to myself!

***insert brief pause while I take some pictures***
Okay.. here it is!! A picture of Karina's new socks.. the mismatched ones from Grandma's attic! I love them! I debated on which ones to get and settled on these! :)

okay one down.. a whole bunch more to go :)

Here is one picture from our basketball season. This is Ana and her bestie Kendall who plays for Liberty Bell.

One of Karina in her play as the Baird to the court :)

There ya go :)

Happy Jordan??? (LOL)

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-03T12:08:00.000-08:00

I can't say that I'll be better at posting here since I seem to be Facebook obsessed. Any of you family out there on facebook??? Let me know :) We can be "friends" :)

I still have my Christmas cards in my possession that need to be addressed and sent out. I'll need to add Happy New Year to my comments :)

My new job is going well. I enjoy helping the teachers but I miss the daily contact with the kidlets. Lucky for me I seemed to have picked up Ashley's class to hang with and @ North I'm in Nancy and Brenda's room quite a bit so I get my working with kids fix there :)

Through some lucky draw of my name I guess... I get to fly to Seattle on Jan 11th and spend two days checking out the new MSP test and seeing how the questions align with the new state standards. It's one of those things...it will either be really fun and the day will fly by or it's going to boring as all get at and I'll be hoping the day passes quickly!! I'll fly home on the 14th as the only flight after 5 that returns to Wenatchee was @ 10:30 PM.. so I'd get into Wentachee @ after 11 and than have to drive 2 hours home. Umm no thanks! So I fly into Wentachee @ 11 AM and then drive home for the dentist! Yuck :(

Otherwise, it's life as normal... piano lessons, Girl Scouts and Ana starts basketball tomorrow. 2 weeks of practice and then games twice a week. It keeps us busy :)

Take care everyone!

Hang on to your seat....

2009-11-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

yes indeed, it's me.. returning to post on the good ole blog!! Did ya miss me??? Life has been cray busy!! but what is new right?

So let's recap the last 6 weeks.. volleyball (posted pics already).

School pics (taken by Tim Patrick photography...awesome job!)

Ana's birthday (14th)

Fossil dig with Karina in Republic

My 2nd great nephew was born. Welcome Kainoa (Noe)

Pumpkin Patch after visiting my mom and dad (Happy Birthday Dad!) 135 pounds of pumpkins later (only 5 pumpkins!)

Halloween
Karina- wood fairy

Ana (old fashioned girl)

Next up is dance team if they get that going again for Ana (coach is having a baby that wants to come early silly thing) and then Brett's birthday, Thanksgiving and oh so much more I'm sure! Eagerly awaiting the return of my D60 as the shutter decided to quit working in the middle of the last couple volleyball games.. :( It's an ouchie fix but needed :(

Hello Fall...

2009-09-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

well it's not officially here but it always seems that way after fair is over that fall really officially begins :) We've had our first Volleyball game and we won!! Go Bullpups! A few random shots with my new zoom.. it's almost like being on the court! Lighting always sucks in gyms.. :) LOL

Fair time has come and gone... we brought home tons of ribbons and awards :) 3 Grand champions and 3 Reserve Grand Champions and 2 people's choice awards :) Gotta love that! I got a blue on my scrapbook (no grand this year :( boo hiss) and reds on all my photos. We won't discuss photography @ the fair okay.. makes me hot under the collar :) LOL
Some highlights!
Karina's quilt.. Reserve Grand Champion and People's choice for Sunday

Ana's quilt.. People's choice for Thursday..yes it has a red..they didn't like that all her points weren't pointy.. but I thought pretty darn good for a 13 year old!

All the rest of their Grands and Reserves came in the baking division... my girls like to bake and do a pretty darn good job. Ana's Blondies are to die for.. one of her friends has asked for a pan of blondies for her birthday..that is all she wants! Ana entered 8 photos and Karina entered 3 photos and K had some misc. crafty things running around the booth. Ana sang today and I'm working on uploading the videos now to facebook. The first one I forgot I had the video going as I was also using my camera to take pictures and had the other camera propped up to record LOL

A few random photos from the fair...some by me and some by Ana who hijacked my baby and took off with it... I worried the entire time..called her 3 times to see if it was okay LOL

Harlie's feet

My adopted daughter Kelsie :)

ana's cow says good bye until next fair :)

Offical crazy time has started.....

2009-08-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

We'll be trying to cram the last 3 weeks of summer doing as much as we can before we hit the grind of school again. @ the rodeo one of Ana's classmates said goodbye when it was over and that he'd see her in HE double hockey sticks in 3 weeks :) LOL I about died laughing! Ana is about going crazy to get back to the social aspects of school and sports! Karina is so-so about it..but I'm sure when it happens she'll be great! Brett starts back next week, but officially on the 16th. We were going to try to hit the beach with our bonus time for our resort but alas no time available...that sucks. We're going to Twin Lakes with the Headley's next weekend to enjoy some R&R.

We broke down.. we did.. we went to Stampede. We usually try to get the heck out of dodge when it comes to town, but since our ocean plans fell through we decided to hit family night at the rodeo. Of course we had to hit a few rides first, find some grub, get out of the brief downpour before we hit the stands. We went for box seats so we could see up close and personal :) Took my camera and got some good shots. This is where I wish I had my zoom lens :( someday :) Got some good pictures :)
Ana on some rides:

Brett and Jeff Cheeseman hanging with their daughters on the Ball of Fire ride :)

Karina and the streeters on the fury ride.. Lyndsi was not enjoying it as much as Dylan and Karina

Karina and Dylan on the yo yo

Random Rodeo pictures :)

and I'll leave with me...kicking back and enjoying the rest of my summer (until I have to go pack up my classroom and see what my new job holds!)

Did you see that????

2009-07-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

? that blur that just rushed past me?? I think it was my summer..rushing past me!! I can't believe it's almost the end of July! Where has time gone?

Since the last blog post...we've sent Ana off to Cougar Quest Camp @ WSU (academic fun classes-she'll be home tonight) Karina celebrated the first double digit birthday and I did my 3 days of my EETT grant training (information overload BIG time).

Because I was in class on Karina's birthday we just did dinner and cake when I got home (presents of course..now she can rock out big time!) so tonight I'm taking Karina and 2 of her friends (also July birthdays) to the Best Western in Omak and we're swimming, having pizza, watching movies and hanging out in the hotel all night :) Ana will join us for a bit when she gets home this evening. Brett plans on staying as far away as possible! LOL I know if works out okay that Ana wants to do it too for her birthday in Oct.

Karina and I have a few housekeeping things to do for tonight..like more food to eat in the room, some drinks, movies and cupcakes for celebrating!

The last week of July brings us allergy testing for Karina and a trip to the Tri-Cities to visit my mom and dad and visit with my bro and sil and my neice and nephew. The cousins need to bug each other (these are the youngest of the cousin bunch). Then it will be August and all the back to school demands begin! Ana has Band Camp, I have 2 days of Math training, an interview for a possible different position next year, hopefully a bit of family vacation, (beach and or the lake with Headleys) and scrapbooking!

I'm part of Peta Boardman's CT and 5 of us are part of the Battle of the CT's. Its a competition. We have to make layouts using the designers products and also follow the directions for the week. Last week was to use a common color (we chose pink, red and white) and to do a white space layout (white space meaning leaving more open spaces and not filling the whole page. Here is what I did.

We made it through the first round, our group was not in the top 3 (bummer) but we're on to round 2. Round 2 is to make a layout with a song type in it. We're using love songs. I'll post later with the link to vote when the round is up to vote. Voting only last 2 days :) and then the next round is put up! There are 4 rounds and the team with the most votes in the end win prizes :)

Okay off to do Karina's hair (she loves to have it all braided and made fancy) and then off into the stores to spend $$$ :)

Oh someone remind me to take a picture of karina's finished quilt :) Ana just got hers back the night before she left for WSU as we had forgotten it at my mils. She has some work to do on it before Fair so she better get to work!

A view of summer so far...

2009-07-12T23:48:00.000-07:00

Some photos to see what we've done this summer so far! :) Enjoy!

Manito Park - Lisa spent a couple of hours here

More flower pictures here: Flowers :)

The girls spent a weekend with their Nana and cousins:

4th of July

Ana enjoyed her friend Zoe's 14th bday by floating the river with her and 8 other friends :)

See album Here: FLoating

still to come this summer... Ana's Cougar Quest camp, Karina's birthday, fishing,a day at Silverwood, camping with the Headley's, golfing for Brett, Band Camp and various doctors appointments before school starts!!

FOBTY...

2009-07-09T23:44:00.000-07:00

we're suppose to blog about the weather.. What about this Okanogan weather? It's been a pretty abnormal summer I think. It's almost mid July and we still haven't had the scorching heat that we normally have. It's been cloudy, windy and a few plain ugly storms. I worry a bit about the dry lightening as we are pretty bone dry up here and that means FIRE.. Fire season is not fun!

Sooo looking at the forecast.. we have some nice mellow days ahead of us :) go mellow days :) Looks like good camping weather or even maybe a day at silverwood (amusement park) :)

FOBTY...

2009-07-05T14:34:00.001-07:00

You Are a Pineapple Smoothie

You are adventurous and brave. You aren't afraid of much.

You are in love with new experiences. You are usually the first to try something.

You get bored rather easily, and you need to be challenged in life.

You are turbo charged. Most people find it impossible to keep up with you in any capacity.

What Flavor Smoothie Are You?

camp and room make over :)

2009-06-26T21:18:00.001-07:00

Dropped the girls off at Camp last week. Here they are at Camp Four Echoes on Lake Coeur d'alene :)

cleaned up the junk out of Karina's room and then spent two days painting it. Brett helped by putting up the tape on Wednesday night. The next morning... sadly all his work was on the floor :( that wasn't nice of the tape!
BEFORE:

AFTER: rejuvenate green :) (white border on bottom will be covered by baseboard)

School's out!!!

2009-06-14T22:38:00.001-07:00

Yipeee!! I had to wait until "I" was officially out for the summer to post this! I said good bye to my 21st class of students on Friday! It's hard to believe I've helped shape little (and big) minds for 21 years! I don't feel that old to have been teaching that long!

We started our summer vacation with a quick trip to the Tri-Cities to visit my parents for only one day. Brett stayed behind to enter the cook off @ Tara and Jeff's. Heard the ribs were yummy but no top 3 for my cooking man :(

My summer will FLY by as I looked at my "overbooked" time. Ana and Karina both have quilt class (Ana next week and Karina the first week of July), both girls head to Girl Scout Camp on Lake Couer dalene for a week. Then we herd them to Brett's moms for a few days while Brett and I play in Spokane for his conference. Ana is working on her silver award for Girl Scouts and will be the big part of the Day Camp that they are putting on in July. I'll most likely be a adult volunteer and Karina will attend :) Then we ship Ana off to cougar Quest camp @ WSU for a week. I have 3 days in July that I'll be at my EETT grant training and this brings us to the end of July before we finally find ourselves with no commitments so to speak! I'm hoping that Janis comes through with my trip to South America to teach Math for a week. If that happens it will most likely be the first week of July. Not going to hold my breath.. was suppose to go last year and it never worked out on the other end either.. *sigh*

SO.. hope your summer is full of fun.. We're having fun whether we like it or not :)

FOBTY...

2009-06-07T18:49:00.000-07:00

Sweet Shoppe Designs (SSD) has some cool challenges all month long! One of them is called From Our Blog to Yours (FOBTY) and this one is that you have to blog about your favorite part of the zoo! Gosh.. it's been a long time since I've been to the zoo! The closest one to us is about 4 hours away. Hmm guess we'll have to make time to go with the cousins the next time we are there! My favorite part of the zoo is visiting the monkeys! I love to watch their antics as they play and go about their day in the zoo. Kinda reminds me of my teaching days :) LOL (kidding for those parents who might read this blog)!

:)

Piano Recital

2009-05-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Ana is finishing year # 4 and Karina year # 2 in piano. They don't always like to practice but they do okay. Their teacher always has an end of the year recital where everyone plays one thing and something together. Here is the 6 minutes of fame for the Baum kids.. Karina first, the duet and then Ana.

Enjoy!

Another season over....

2009-05-17T22:48:00.001-07:00

and then so begins the busy summer.... School is almost over.. 4 weeks left! :) Yippeee!!

Here is Karina playing Tennis :)

Ana in track.... high jump, long jump, 200m dash and a relay race.

It was Spring Frolic on Friday..Where did my baby go and who is this gorgeous young lady in her place???

Karina came for a few minutes to walk the red carpet!

Hope you've enjoyed my photo journey!!

I'll leave you with a picture of the double rainbow that Ana got on camera!

Pacific Science Center Camp In

2009-04-26T18:40:00.000-07:00

image from Pacific Science Center site

Both the Junior and Cadette troops had a chance to go to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.

I was lucky enough to go two weekends in a row! Yep..slept on the floor twice. Crazy? sure :)
It's a special night set aside for the Girl Scouts to go and spend the night and explore the science center. They get to sleep right in the science center. Karina's troop got to sleep on the floor by the solar system area and Ana's troop got to sleep in Puget Sound (not the acutal one but the floor area where it explores the sound)

They get to see a laser light show and view an Imax show (both watched Volcanoes under the deep sea). All the girls said they had a blast and said they'd love to go back next year!! :)

After being at the Science Center, both troops ventured off to explore downtown Seattle.

Mary (my co leader) and I took the juniors to Pike's Place Market to explore for a bit. We wanted to be home by 6 or 7 ish since it was Sunday so we didn't explore too much! :)

This weekend, the Cadette troop Camp in was Friday night, so we had all day Saturday to explore! The girls rode the monorail to downtown Seattle where we shopped for clothes (teenage girls and shopping always go hand in hand). Rode the monorail back and then headed downtown Seattle to Pike's Place market again.

image from Goggle

Spent about 2 hours here playing around and looking at stuff. From there the girls went to House of Hong and had quite the experience of dining on dim sum and many other things they hadn't even tried before (me either LOL).

From there the trip took us to Uwajimaja which is an Asian market with almost every imaginable thing you can imagine to shop from! We had fun looking at all the "odd" to us stuff that was there :)

It was an action packed two weekends in a row but so well worth it! Not only for my only personal kiddos but for all the girls in my troop and Laurie's troop to be able to see what is outside of our little valley! :)

What a great experience!

My troop in front of the Pacific Science Center.

Ana's troop never did a group shot..but here is one at XXX burgers in Issaquah.

All in all everyone had a blast! :) Not sure I'll be signing up to sleep on any floors again anytime soon as my massage therapist had her baby early and my appt. last week was put on the back burner. I'm sure I'll be a mess when I do get in again :)

Spring Break 2009

2009-04-01T23:03:00.000-07:00

ahhh home at last!! I loved our trip to the beach in Moclips, but there is something about kicking your feet up in your own house. Of course, I don't want to think about the laundry, cleaning up and general stuff that happens after being gone.

Ana is sick..she sounds like a barking seal and running a fever, guess my first job back will get her into the doc. to be checked out. I'm holding my breath that Karina doesn't get it as they shared a bed the whole vacation.

Here are a few pictures of our trip to the beach...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

So... I still have Girl Scout cookies if anyone has eaten their stash already or didn't get their fix... :)

I'm Diggin' It...

2009-03-15T01:08:00.000-07:00

on all accounts!! :) :) Today was the semi-finals for the OK county Nashville Star competition. Ana has worked hard the last 3 weeks to make her song just right! The practice paid off.. she made it as one of 12 to the finals next week!!! (You'll get to hear her sing now Amy!)

Here she is belting it out (also available on facebook too)

What do the flowers you pick say about you???

2009-03-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Roses Say You're Very Affectionate

You are a classic romantic who believes in true love.

You often experience deep emotions and feel warmth toward almost everyone.

You are a bundle of positive feelings and sweetness.

You can are easily hurt, and people should be careful with your heart.

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

Great Grand Children....

2009-03-07T23:48:00.000-08:00

a legacy of Marion that lives on forever!!!

This is a picture of all but one of the great grandchildren of Brett's grandma. Becca is at college and was unable to leave Tacoma to come over to Spokane because of exams. She is the oldest great grandchild. Little Jack who Ana is holding is 2 months old and the youngest. What a beautiful group of children!

We'll miss you Marion....

2009-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

Brett's grandmother Marion, joined her beloved Vernon in heaven this weekend. I know they are together again and glad to be back in each others arms. Below is a poem that Marion wrote to Vernon when he was deployed to Germany during WWII. We have a photo copy of this in her own writing with a picture of the family next to it... At that time it was just Brett's mom and her older brother Stan in the family. Later 3 more kids were added to the family. This poem just touches my heart everytime I see it. The photo is right where I see it every morning when I come down the stairs.. it reminds me to love my hubby with all my heart.

Since You Went Away
Written for my Vernon

When you went away my darling
You took my shunshine too
Now all my days are dull and dark
For my only light is you.

Since you went away my darling
my day has lost its charm
My nights are filled with dreams of you
I'm always in your arms.

There is nothing left to do my darling
except to hope and pray

Hope that it will soon be over
and pray that your okay.

You took my heart my darling
on the day you went away.

We don't have any details as to when the service will take place, but it's tentatively set for next week. It will be a hard adjustment for all. She was a wonderful lady and my girls were blessed to know her. I felt blessed to be able to call her my grandma as well.

Busy...and an update

2009-02-09T16:33:00.000-08:00

Brett's grandma has been moved from ICU into a regular room, so she is on the mend. Keep those prayers coming for more recovery as we aren't out of the woods yet.

Ana competes tonight in the spelling bee, she has 2 basketball games this week along with piano and practicing for Nashville star qualifier coming up next weekend. K is practicing for Nashville star too.

If you need girl scout cookies...we're taking orders now through the 21st of February! :)

Herding cats.....

2009-02-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

or teenagers.. you decide! :) Here are all the girls in the hallway of our hotel. After their 5 hour training they were ready to let off steam! They played in the pool, ate dinner and played in the pool some more. While they were in training, Amy and I had fun touring Spokane Valley after the co-pilot in the car made the driver take a left instead of a right LOL :) We missed getting into Costco by 10 minutes darn it! We never found the book that Amy was searching for, but we did have fun!!

On the way home, I got a call from Brett. HIs grandmother isn't doing so well right now. She's in the hospital in Spokane. She is now stable but is still critical, so if you are the praying type, please send up a little prayer for Brett's grandma, Marion. Brett is there with his mom and we're holding down the fort at home.

I'll have to check my calendar....

2009-01-29T22:45:00.000-08:00

and see if I'm free. I put in all my "must go to or be at" places in my phone on the calendar. It turns the number green on the calendar when you have an event to do..looking at February... I have only a few none green days :)

Ana started basketball! 3 games down...many more to go! Tonight we drove to the Methow to play. The won! Ana has so much fun playing against her best friend Kendall! They laugh and joke.. and then play some serious ball! Check them out here!

Then I FORCED them to pose for an after game photo.. sweat and all :)

We got my dad moved to his new retirement apt. this last weekend. My nephew and his friends did a lot of the lifting and carrying and Brett and my brother Bryan did some too. I think my dad is going to love it. 3 square meals a day... all of his fun stuff in easy walking distance (bed, computer, new recliner and TV) in his apt. The rest of the "stuff" left at the house will go into an estate sale and then they'll clean it all up. It is the easy way to go.

Medical update on K... Since August we've been to the doctor at least every month...the last couple of months more than that. 2 weeks ago the allergy/ashtma doc who was just as perplexed as we have been with this persistent cough ordered another chest xray and also a sinus xray. They saw a small patch of congestion in K's left sinus and the conclusion was that she has had a sinus infection since August most likely and the infection has caused drainage down the back of her throat causing the irritation/cough. She is now on a mega dose of antibiotics and I happy to say that 2 weeks into the month long prescription..her cough is pretty much gone!! Yippee!!! To think... this whole thing was something as simple as a sinus infection *rolls eyes*

We also his the podiatrist this week as well. Karina rolls her feet in when she walks, but the doc was not concerned too much and had us go buy inserts to put into her shoes to help stabilize the arch. This is something she'll deal with the rest of her life, but at least we know that she's normal (per se) and the inserts should help with her "tired legs/feet" she complains of.

I'm off to bed...I battled a migraine all day (woke up with it this morning) and I've got that after migraine hangover feeling going on. Gotta rest up so I can be in gear when I go with Amy and Laurie with a group of teenage girls for a Girl Scout training in Spokane. Can't wait to go play a bit when the girls are in class. Amy and I plan some shopping during those 5 hours :)

Girl Scout cookie sales (pre sale) start soon! It's a fun, action packed time..but the girls love it!

OK Man is replaced by Hula Man

2009-01-09T19:16:00.000-08:00

Each year the Ok Middle/High School does a food drive for the community basket. This year, the students did a change war (money) and in one week, raised $4900. That’s an average of almost $10 per student. Anyway, the last couple years, the students weren’t able to raise the amount of food/money needed make the principals plunge. They did this year though. So to follow up OK man from a couple years ago, we now have Hula Man.

Ok Man from '05

Now meet Hula Man from '08/09 (they were suppose to plunge in December but had to postpone due to frigid weather! :)

A fresh start...

2009-01-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

to 2009.

I'm sure that all the usual goals will come up. I know I need to lose some weight and I need to get back to Curves instead of just paying them each month.

One of things I'm working on is communication.... keeping up with talking to and being in contact with family and friends more. My mom was always the one who kept me updated on what everyone else was doing, but she's unable to do much of that right now, so I hang in limbo on what my dear brothers are doing. I got a very nice long letter from a dear friend today that brought me to tears to think that I use to share my life, hopes and joys and general silliness with this dear lady every day when we worked together in Othello. Now it's reduced to just a little note or so at Christmas time. I really need to start to communicate more.. to reach out and just say hi more than once a year!

Though I hate being out of my classroom once a month, the Math Leadership Alliance has allowed me to see some of my dear friends there (all from my teaching days in Othello... we've all moved on to other places in NC WA). It's nice to get a hi, how ya doing.. how are the girls?

So in recap.. my goals are to be more healthy, and to be in better contact with friends and family!

Oh and I've always joined up a 365 day project... the goal is to take a picture once a day...every day. We're in day 2 and I'm doing well! (totally unedited and straight from the camera.) I'm using my new camera so I can get use to it.

Here are the 2 photos:

Santa was so very nice to us....

2008-12-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

The kids got fun stuff to play with (3 new wii games- Mario Party 8, Boogie Superstar (sining one) and wii music). K got from Santa a guitar hero game for her DS so she can rock out on her own! Ana got a new to her phone and new ringtones, some cool ugg style boots. Both girls got a ton of new clothes to model at school for at least a week :) LOL

Brett got a cool new turntable that converts vinyl records to digital music! My mil graciously brought a "few" of her collection so we can give it a try this break! Brett hasn't done it yet as his truck is giving him fits. It's been such a good truck..never giving us a problem for the last 10 years. It has to last a few more years, as I got the new car this year because of problems with the Expedition. Come on truck be nice... :) We had to replace a part for the 4wheel drive right before Christmas and now it's the battery causing havoic.

I was due for an upgrade on my phone....so Ana got my old phone (so new to her) and I got this!

Brett also came through... I've been drooling over a digital SLR.. but he kept saying it's way to expensive still. But low and behold.. this was under the tree for me!!

I'm in heaven and a little intimidated by it.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday so far! One more week of vacation left!! :)

I did do a layout here with a few of the Christmas memories!

Dancing in the dark...

2008-12-06T23:33:00.000-08:00

Another production of Lisa's camera. Middle School dance team and high school cheerleaders doing a cool light stick routine. :)

For your viewing pleasure...

2008-11-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

I'm pleased to bring a Lisa's camera production of OKMS dance team.. well our girl on the dance team.

Yes, she is the 2nd girl behind the little on in front for the first part! I lost track of her during the pom part but she's there for you to see :)

Fall time is here...

2008-11-16T19:20:00.000-08:00

We played a bit in the leaves today... Can't believe it's the middle of November already!

I'm still looking for the perfect photo for christmas cards. K was not being cooperative today, so needless to say there are few "good" photos I got of her today!

Brett celebrated his birthday last week after an exhausting day of running kids around to various functions and then supervising a basketball game while I was still doing Parent/Teacher/Conferences. He now has the new tiger woods 09 tour golf game to play on the Wii. Made him low carb cheesecake late last night that we need to cut into tonight to celebrate. :) Just didn't have time before to make this!

A is doing dance team at school and they performed at half time on Thursday which I missed due to the above mentioned activity. I hope someone takes pity on me and shares what they took of video and such :)

We continue to try to figure out what is happening with K's cough. First thought was ashtma, then after a month of treatment..the next thought was her allergies. So to cover all bases we are seeing the ashtma/allergy specialist here on Tuesday. Hope to have some better answers. Though it seems that her cough has gotten better in the last few days.

So I'll leave you with a layout I just finished with the new collab kit that is coming out soon from SBB designers (Amy C's stuff is in there :))

She can see clearly now...

2008-10-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

she has glasses!! Last year she was fine when we checked her eyes...this year not so much! :) We did find really cute frames though. What do you think?

Be Our Guest... and an "offical" teenager in da house!

2008-10-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

All I can say is wow..!!!

I've been behind the scenes for the dress rehersals and for the 1st performance but I don't think you get the whole WOW factor until you sit in the audience and only worry about watching!! Last night the family went (with mil) and watched!! it was great! I got a few clips of my own little napkin performing her heart out (including coughing fit in middle of stage :))

Here is the first clip :

2nd clip:

and the last clip of them chasing the villagers :)

It's official... she's a teen!! We were laughing at how much she's changed since she was a babe!! Check out our walk down memory lane :)

Ana day 1:

I love ya girl!!! :) big hugs to my grown up girl :)

School is cool....

2008-10-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

at least the pictures are this year! :) Woo hoo! We're celebrating!! for the first time EVER for Karina we are happy with the FIRST picture they took :) Honestly, in Kinder we didn't like even the retakes. 1st grade, retakes, 2nd grade--retakes and 3rd grade.. yep retakes! 4th grade is the magic year! hee hee

What do you think??

Here is A: :)

Ana didn't seem to change much between this year and last.. just a little more grown up looking but the same smiley face!

both girls seem to have sticky upy hairs there..but over all good pics!! I bought the copyright to these photos so I can post them, print them, etc. etc. :) Costco does a good job with printing for a great price!!

I'll leave you with a sneak peak of Miss Napkin herself... K :) Dont' want to show you the whole thing.. it will spoil it for the performance :) LOL

Small town fun.....

2008-10-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

It was Harvest Fest weekend. We were suppose to be out of town so we didn't pre-register for the Autunm Leaf Fun run but decided to go to my mom and dad's the weekened before when my brother and sil and kids were there.

Both girls did the run. K did the 1 mile run/walk and A did the 5K run/walk. She thought she was in shape from volleyball, guess it takes a different kind of "shape" to run that far! A did have a bit of excitement on her route. An older lady collapsed in front of her as they were running. A was a little shook up by it but was the only one with a cell phone on them, so she gave it to a man who called 911 and then she directed the ambulance to the right spot. Scary huh!

The girls during the run....

Later both girls were at the Girl Scout booth recruiting new girls :)

A and a friend were in the egg toss contest. They came in 5th but had lots of fun!!

So we begin the count down to the big day... A's Birthday and the opening of Beauty and the Beast... both fall on the same day :) You can still buy tickets @ Rawsons for the performances. :) Oct. 16, 17 and 18 ( 2 and 7 ) Oct. 23, 24 and 25

We have tickets to see Saturday's evening performance with Brett's mom who is coming for the weekend. A plans to celebrate her bday next weekend with a sleepover of 6 other girls (eek...)

So begins Volleyball

2008-09-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

Can you believe what a bad mommy I was!! I totally ran off to Karina's piano lessons and then on to Ana's game and forgot my camera! It was their first away game... in the next town over all of 4 miles! They lost the first game, won the 2nd and lost the 3rd for an overall loss. I did take my camera for the 2nd game and got a few shoots! Hopefully, I can get better with my camera inside...the gym sucks for lighting! :)

okay off to pick up the girl from her away game tonight. Didn't win but sounds like they had fun :)

Fair results....

2008-09-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Even though it tires me to the bone, I love the fair!! I got to take my 3rd graders this year and see the thrill of the fair through their eyes! I walked a ton and my little piggie toe paid the price.. a huge blister! I'm still nursing that baby along. I didn't think my feet were ever going to forgive me! The 3rd graders had a blast and we really enjoyed our time!

My girls had their stuff in the girl scout booth. K's quilt won Reserve Grand Champion and People's Choice for Saturday. She also entered a few art projects and a very delicious chocolate chocolate chip zucchini bread which won a Grand Champion! (her other competition was her sister who got a Blue ribbon on her "regular" zucchini bread)

A's quilt got a Blue ribbon and her peanut butter cookies got a Grand Champion in the cookies (4 other peeps she competed against) On Sunday everybody was hungry for sweets so Ana's cookies got People's Choice on that day (the first day a quilt hadn't won People's choice).

Here are the girls reverse tie dye shirts :) they turned out cool :)

I entered 9 different photos in the photography section. I got mainly reds and a few whites. I'll take my reds though as I think the judging was a bit "different" than past fairs!

However..... I did excel in one area!! My digital scrapbook was named Grand Champion in the adult division for scrapbooks! Woo hoo go me!! Makes glad of all the time I've sat at my computer preserving my family's memories!!!

Here are two videos of A singing. Excuse the shakey hands of the camera women :) LOL God has truly blessed her with a decent singing voice. She gets better and better every time she sings :)

Here are the kids enjoying the carnival :)

First Day of School!

2008-08-27T19:57:00.000-07:00

Where did the summer go? (see blog posting about who stole my summer) LOL

Today was back to school! Both girls were so excited to be going back! A went with her dad and I dropped K off on my way to my first of the school meeting. My stomach did a little... ahhh sniff sniff moment when I dropped K off at the school. She kissed me goodbye and as I drove away I was thinking... there goes my 4th grader! When did she get to be old enough to be a 4th grader!!! It only lasted about 3 blocks, but it was a brief melancholy moment!! I think because I teach too, I feel that the first day of school is a new year, a new beginning and it makes me sad in a way to see my girls growing up.

Okay enough blabbering... here are the girls posing for first day pics!

Fair is next weekend so we'll be there most of it! A is singin on Thursday and Sunday :) Stop by the Girl Scout booth and say Hi! I'm sure I'll be there way too much! LOL

FOBTY 8/22 :)

2008-08-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

Playing in the Sweet Shoppe Designs From Our Blog to Yours challenge :) This is the quiz this week :) What were you in high school!

You Were the All American Kid

Popular but not plastic. Athletic but not a jock. Smart but not a brain.

You were well rounded and well liked in high school.

Who Were You In High School?

well except for the athlete part.... it was close LOL Me= clutz!

EEEKKKK... who stole my summer???

2008-08-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

I had all this big plans this summer.... lose weight, get in shape, take a trip to Colombia to teach, and so on and so on. I didn't make one goal LOL *shrug* the Colombia one was out of my control...but she PROMISED next year same week in Bogota (Colombia again). It better happen!!

Here I thought I'd have a calm week before having to go back to work and really work. Today turned out to be a none working day. Dropped of K at quilting class, went to store for milk, bread and meat and some stuff for dinner tonight (no girls for 10 days..so we had no milk or kids bread in the house). From the store, Ana and I went to pick up Buster from Uncle Earl's kennel (cottonwood). Home with him, make K's lunch and then I had an appt. at the docs. office for a silly rash. That took forever. My appt. was @ 11 I was in the room by 11:05 but didn't see the doctor until noon. sheesh. Over to the pharmacy to pick up my stuff and then finally time to head to school. (planned on working while K was quilting to not waste gas back and forth). Did lots of talking and planning with the 2 new teachers. Are you tired yet??? I am! and it's not even 1 pm yet! LOL

so tomorrow is working in the morning after dropping off K for quilting. work in room in the AM and then go to Mentor class in the afternoon. Wednesday is more of the same.. except more mentoring stuff (minus the hair cut appt and running A to the Ortho) Thursday and Friday are full days of Science training. So who's coming over to help put my room back together?? anyone anyone?

The girls had a total blast at camp. It was tag team talking from camp to Spokane! :) I'm so glad they got the chance to grow and become such great girls :)

okay.. so carry on! Everyone enjoy our last couple days of freedom my teaching friends!

Scenes from a rearview mirror....

2008-08-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

That would be my life recently... I thought I should take a picture today when I was sitting at a construction stop light looking in my rearview mirror. I've been doing a lot of that lately...looking in my rearview mirror!

First I got the pleasure of going along with A's Girl Scout troop on their trip to Wenatchee. At first I thought I was going to have to drive, but in the end we only had 7 girls go so we all squished into Amy's van and Laurie's car. A two hour drive to Leavenworth where we played mini golf (2 holes in one for me!!!), walked around downtown Leavenworth, and the girls had fun making trucks honk.. Thanks Amy for the video!

After a fun afternoon there.. we drove to Wenatchee and went shopping!! Stayed the night @ a hotel, more shopping on day 2 and then driving home. All the girls choose to go together in Amy's van, so Laurie and I had peace and quiet on the way home!

Home for one night, wash, reload the suitcase and then off the girls and I went to meet up with my 2nd brother, Dave. He recently got married in Hawaii and was bring his lovely wife Terri and her two cute kids, Kasey and Kolbie to meet up with my two girls. The "cousins" as they like to call each other. We meet up in the Tri-cities where my folks live and had lots of fun! (almost 4 hour drive). Got to see my mom and dad. Dad is back at home and mom is in her new home. She is doing good.. lots of good moments with her this weekend! :) Brett didn't go with us as he was playing in a golf tourney... he came in... 2nd again... for the 9th year.

So on Monday we hit the road again to come home. We were home long enough to wash clothes, and spent the good part of Tuesday getting stuff and packing stuff for the girls to go to Girl Scout Camp. It was a huge task.. they'll be gone for 11 days.

So once again up early this morning and off we go with an additional GS friend Emilee today. It was almost 3 hours to Spokane, we ate @ Sonic. Sonic is okay, they have yet to make my bacon cheeseburger correctly for me in the 4 times I've eaten @ a sonic. LOL From there we drove the approx. 36 miles to the Camp. We got there a bit after 2 when drop off was scheduled only to find a back up. The bad part... I had to go potty REAALLY bad... so they took pity on the old lady and let me hike in the camp a bit and use the bathroom! :) All girls were delivered to camp and left with a hug and see ya mom. I hurried back to Spokane so I could get the oil changed in the car.. you see we've put on 2500 miles on new baby Gus since we got her at the end of June. Got that done..love Gus Johnson Ford...they even wash the car how cool! I hit the road to come home. Arrived home a little after 8.. 11 hours after I first set out this morning!

so there are my scenes from my rearview mirror... I plan on sitting at home as much as possible over the next few days.... :)

oh one tidbit from today... we drove the river road to spokane today and we happened to see a little coyote pup on the road.. I had to swerve to miss the little one... He looked so cute.. big head, little body.

What kind of Music are you?

2008-07-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

You Are Country Music

You are friendly, down to earth, and fairly conservative.

You are true to your friends and your upbringing. Change is hard for you.

But beneath your old fashioned attitude, you are expressive and artistic in your own way.

Very few people can express pain and pleasure as eloquently as you can.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Where does the time go....

2008-07-23T21:33:00.001-07:00

Not too long ago little Miss K was this bald headed cute little baby!

Now she's a tyrant... no just kidding!
She's still my cute little baby but she has hair now! :)

Can't believe it was 9 years ago she was born. It's been a beautiful nine years! Love ya kiddo!

Photos from the beach.. enjoy!

2008-07-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

Photos from our beach vacation :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Kilroy was here....

2008-07-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

oh wait.. that's not Kilroy! That's the quilt holder!

Ana finished her quilt in record time (well all the girls in the class finished in 3 days!) This one is going into the cedar chest for "later" MUCH later!

K will do her class in August. It was suppose to be the last week of July but they had to change.. It's right after GS Camp so I hope she's not too grumpy.... She can be that way.. Grumpy that is :)

Beyond bummed...

2008-07-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

There are no other words to describe it.. I'm beyond bummed. I finally got ahold of Janis who is in charge of the trip to Colombia. Poor thing has been dealing with a sick mom and just hasn't been able to have this on her plate. She turned it over to someone else and nothing has been done (or not much). she told me today to assume that we are NOT going. Airfare has risen sooo high that she doesn't think we'll be going. I was so looking forward to going and expanding my horizons! She did say plan on going next year...same time of the year! Next year will be Bogota. Guess I have an extra week in my schedule now :)

*big sigh*

Did I say I was bummed???

The usual Suspects??

2008-07-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Here is Suspect #1

He is accused of using the carpet in front of A's bedroom door as his personal bathroom. He was promptly scolded by the girls and K lost the bet to clean up the wetness he caused. (A had a bad headache) Off K went with her roll of papertowels and grumpy face. I followed a few short minutes later with a grocery sack to put the offending papertowels in. One step onto the carpet and looking at all the water I saw I knew that Suspect # 1 was off the hook!

Here is the actual culprit of the water:

Yep the waterheater had decided that 30 years was enough of a service to anyone and promptly decided to leak out the bottom onto the carpet! Called in Brett from outside where he was about to start mowing the lawn and he took a quick inventory and then went to Home Depot to purchase a new and improved water heater! :)
We cleaned the carpet (wetvac) drained the old one enough to get it out of the closet. Put the new one in and Brett said a few choice words as the new on is much shorter than the old one. Worked and worked and finally had to just put the water back on without the hot connected. Quick trip the next day to Home Depot again another hour or so later we had hot water!

We were just glad that this little culprit decided to leak the day BEFORE we left for Spokane for a few days. Can you imagine the MESS we would have had when we got back?? ummm no thanks! :)

New stuff :)

2008-06-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

We went for a drive on Saturday. Not expecting to actually do ANYTHING (thus not cleaning the car out)but look what we ended up driving away with a NEW 2007 charcoal gray Ford Edge. We beat this other couple by minutes that wanted to buy it too. I was afraid for my life for a just a few seconds after I had gone to the Epedition to get paperwork and they were backing out in their old car after losing the deal (kinda thought they might be a tad ticked and run me over! LOL)

so here is my new Girl... name to follow. The expedition was named CARla by the girls so they'll have to think a of good name for this car! :)

Just for fun....

2008-06-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

Found this on Sarah's blog.. what fun! Canada looks big and blue on the map but I've really only been in the area of Canada just above Washington and not all the way over there! :) Also small but there is Jamacia. I'm hoping to add to my list of been there.. Colombia S.A. It's still up in the area.. I hope it lands soon!

Where has Lisa been?

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Now for the US... I'm sadly lacking back east experience! LOL

Where has Lisa been?

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

where have you all been???

Singing

2008-05-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

There is another singer in the house! and no it's not me! :) Here is H and K singing God Bless the USA for Grandparents day

School year coming to a close....

2008-05-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

wow! only 2 weeks left of school for my girls and hubby and 3 weeks for me! I might make it after all! :)

We marked one more activity off our list of done for the school year. When Ana got home from camp, she showered and lounged and talked on the phone of course! :) Then we headed to the piano recital. Half way there I remembered I STILL hadn't charged my batteries and I only got K's piece and part of the piece the girls played together...just imagine Ana playing Beauty and the Beast.

They played Skip to My Lou together...not too bad for Ana being gone all week and no time to practice.

AS mentioned before.. I made it all way the up to Camp Progress and found out I had no batteries! ugggg! and grrr on my part! Lucky for me Taelor's mom sent her prepared to camp and she loaned me 4 batteries for the night so I could record the fun happenings at Camp! Here is A in her cabin. They had decorated it to make it look pretty for a contest. (they didn't win) hee hee

K hanging by the fire waiting for the skits and singing to start.

Some singing and skit work followed and then we were dismissed to go home! :)

I managed to get one sisterly picture before we left. K admited on Tuesdsay night she missed her sister but then got mad at me when I told A :) *shrug*

Long time no talk! :)

2008-05-16T23:37:00.000-07:00

we've been continuing down that busy road called life. Both girls finished soccer this week and we can now call most days our own again! One more week of piano lessons and a big recital on Friday the 23rd. If you are nearby you can come and listen to all of Mrs. Christensen's kids play in a recital at the New Life church in OK.

Tonight was the BIG spring frolic of dressing up fancy, cute hair and lots of drama as always! :) Who knew boys could cause girls to fight and quarrel with each other! **rolls eyes**

Here is a picture of my "baby" all grown up! :) in the bargin dress of $20 that I got a year ago! :)

Here she is dancing with her friend CJ. They've been friends since Pre-school :) and I think they both like each other a bit :)

as promised.. a picture of my brothers and my dad and I :) I'm the short one in the photo in case you were confused :) hee hee

Ana goes to camp this next week. It will be an odd kind of quiet at our house! :) Sunday we go to Omak Lake for a canoe trip with Ana's class. I'm mom the chauffer :) and Brett is goign to be Chef :) Hope to get some good pictures of them having fun. It should be a nice warm day to learn how to canoe!

Hope everyone is having fun :)

She dribbles, she shoots.....

2008-04-28T21:47:00.001-07:00

she SCORES!!! yay! WTG Karina!! This was taken the moment before the big kick into the goal! Of course, this happened moments after dad left to pick up her sister who had soccer practice across town!!!

Soccer Mania

2008-04-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

That is my life right now.. Girl Scout cookies were quickly replaced with Soccer.. practice and games X 2 girls! Needless to say it makes for never a boring moment in our lives!!

I "want" a new zoom for my camera (or better yet a new DSLR!) since neither will probably happen in the near future.. I'm stuck with what I have! *darn it*

When all was said and done..my camera didn't hold many Vegas photos! I was always thinking.. oh the other girls will get a good picture! :) hee hee

Here is one of the "freemont experience" from the old downtown Las Vegas! They have this huge dome over the street and show a laser light show..it's awesome!

My mom continues to improve. She is getting crabby with the nurses and PT at the rehab center because she wants to go home. So all is well! :) She just needs to get strong again so she can come home!

Well off to put K to bed we have soccer @ 9 am in the morning.. which isn't too bad but it's an hours drive from here..so that means we leave @ 7:30 am.. *sigh* no sleeping in for us!

Home sweet Home

2008-04-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Well almost! I'm at my mil's with plans to be home this afternoon! My trip to Vegas was fun.. no big winnings. Got to do some people watching! Weird hand guy, weird druggie guy and numb face guy..oh the memories ! LOL Saw a show and did lots of walking!

Got great news on Thursday that they have moved my mom to a rehabilitation center to continue her recovery!

Will post some pictures when I get back home to my computer :)

see ya!

A long road to haul...

2008-03-30T10:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my mom and my family for strength during this time. What looked very bleak on Wednesday is now looking up. She has been moved from the ICU part to the progressive care and if she continues to improve from there to a regular room. she still has a long road to haul...but she is well on the path to recovery. Please continue to pray for her.. all those prayers do help!

I unfortunately had to leave abruptly on Friday as I got a touch of the stomach flu and knew I needed to be away from the rest of the family and my mom as to not give them this yucky thing. It was a horrible 4 plus hours drive home with many stops along the way. Add snowing from past Moses Lake and on to the mix.. wonderful!

I seem to be on the mend and still plan on flying out tomorrow to Vegas. I got permission from my dad to go as I told him if he needed me there with him I wouldn't go...but he insisted that I go and have fun with my friends. You know I'll be checking in daily with him on how she is doing.

As soon as my sil sends me the photo.... I'll post a picture of all 5 of us kids together. This hasn't happened since...well we can't pinpoint the exact time but it has been over 20 years! Crazy isn't it!

Cookie craziness and singing!

2008-03-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday proved to be a long day :) Ana and I got up at the crack of dawn to get Ana to the Women's Club Easter Egg hunt where she and 5 of her Girl Scout friends set up and helped run the Easter Egg hunt! I managed to sneak home and crawl back into bed for what was suppose to be only an hours more sleep.. only to jolt awake at 9:20 and having to hustle to be at Walmart with my load of cookies to sell by 10 am with Karina! We sold from 10-2 and in that short time sold 103 boxes of cookies! :) Ana came from the Easter Egg hunt to Walmart to sell at the other door. We all left @ 2 to run home and take a shower before leaving again to go to Sarah's moms beauty salon for a new hair style for Nashville Star! Look at how cute we turned out! :)

Off to the PAC to sing! 22 very well qualified contestants! Wow!! One guy from Wenatchee just BLEW me away with his version of Jesus Take the Wheel! Ana did a good job but didn't place in the top 8. Though a bit disappointed, even she had to admit there was some very tough competition out there! I'd show a video of her singing but alas I can't figure out how to break up the video I do have. Brett was recording Emma and Maddie's singing for Aaron and since Emma was after Ana, he didn't stop the camera and restart for a seperate video of Emma. So if any of you guys out there can help me figure out how to split the video of Ana and Emma up so I can give Aaron his copy and we can share Ana's I'd greatly appreciate it! :)

The Easter Bunny came today and gave the girls kites! They had a blast playing with them as it was the perfect gusty day up on the hill! See the high flying kites!

Enjoy your week! I'm sure this week will fly by!! Spring break is just around the corner! Hurray!!

March already!!!

2008-03-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

yikes.. who stole away the rest of February on me?? Can't believe it's March 9th already!! My time to go to Vegas with my friends is coming much faster now that it's March! In a short amount of time I'll be flying off to the city that never sleeps!!

This month promises to be a whirlwind!! Yesterday we spent a good part of the day at Nashville Star qualifier. We assumed it would be much like last year, pretty laid back about 20 or so trying out for the 15 spots. We walked in at noonish (one hour after it had started) and it was SRO! She signed in then and at that time was the last person to perform!! OMG!!! We missed the first 6 or 7 people singing but heard the rest! In the end there were about 44 young people who tried out...only 15 go on to the qualifiers on the 22nd of March. They sent us home to wait for the call because they had too many score sheets to go over with in a short amount of time. Just before 8pm last night, she got the call....she MADE it!!! Yippeee!! Ana is one of 15 to sing in the final @ the PAC on the 22nd! We are so proud of her! You see.. I can't carry a tune for the life of me.. i LOVE music and will torture..um sing with the music all the time. So to have a daughter who uses her voice so beautifully amongst some very stiff competition! It makes my heart swell with pride!

Thursday Ana does her adjudications for piano. They have to memorize two pieces of music and play for a music professors who critques them and helps them grow as a musician. (see a common thread here.. singing, playing piano and clarinet in band).

Then in the middle of next week Girl Scout cookies arrive, so for many weekends, and a few week days, we'll be living at the Walmart or Safeway parking lot selling cookies to all who want them! So if you ever need me between the weekend of the 22nd and sometime in mid April. Find me there!

I'm tired already and all the big rush hasn't even started!! yikes!

Take care everyone! :)

**hugs**

a bit of the Little Mermaid play

2008-02-23T22:28:00.001-08:00

Smack dab in the middle of nowhere...

2008-02-19T21:59:00.000-08:00

Many people ask me.... just where do you live? My usual response is smack dab in the middle of nowhere.. halfway between here and there! I told my friend Sarah that we are a "remote" town. We were talking about going to the Girl Scout store and I told her the closest store was 3 hours away..

I'm 2 hours from Wenatchee and somewhat decent shopping, 3 hours from Spokane with major shopping and 5 hours from Seattle with ultimate shopping. There are days that being smack dab in the middle of nowhere is a nusanice...like when I see that cute little doodad that someone used in a hybrid project and find they got it at Target or Michael's or Joann's or some other big name brand store we don't have in my little "remote" town. It's a pain..but in the long run it probably saves me money! :)

Though I have to say... we have some of the most beautiful scenery in my middle of nowhere. Last week as I was up around 6:30 am to potty and feed the dog, when I happened to look over the fence and see a glorious sunrise happening right before my eyes! I ran upstairs...grabbed my camera and went out on my deck to snap a few shots.. snow is still on the deck and somebody wasn't wearing shoes or socks *big grin* brrrrr. The best part for me..was not only the sunrise, but the fact that Ana who was in charge of letting the dog back in came running upstairs to tell me to grab my camera because she saw the beautiful sunrise! Great minds think alike :) So glad she sees the beauty in the world around her!

Let me know what you think.. beautiful no??

So this week in the middle of nowhere.. K will be spending most of her afterschool time at the PAC. She was cast today as one of 4 town Criers for the Missoula Children's Theater production of Little Mermaid. This is an amazing thing. They rehearse the kids (K-12) and then perform a musical on Sat. She'll be tired and most likely crabby as all get out by Saturday night...but it will be worth it :)

Ana finishes her last week of AAU basketball and we settle down for a bit before Soccer starts again in April :) *sigh*

I only wish....

2008-02-15T20:57:00.001-08:00

2008-02-10T20:45:00.001-08:00

Dance the night away....

2008-02-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

K did the mini dance camp with the cheerleaders. Two nights of practice and then she got to perform for half time @ the girls basketball game! The laughter you hear in the video are the boys in the dance were break dancing.. the worm, you name it.. it was happening!

She had a great time and the dance instructor gave her huge kudos and being quick to pick up moves and dances. I know she loves dance... it's just our choices are very limited here in little remote OK town :(

Enjoy the short clip above before my memory card filled up...that happens when you haven't cleared it since November :)

reminder if we haven't hit you up and you need your Girl Scout cookie fix.. email me! Last day is the 17th to preorder :)

It's all Sarah's fault...

2008-02-05T21:57:00.000-08:00

Sarah asked me for some help this afternoon saying she had been tagged. I gave her a few ideas and then went on my merry way! changed my oil, picked up some prescriptions, browsed the dollar store and came home and took a one hour nap! Feed my kids, made dinner for hubby and self and then got on computer. well Sarah says go read my blog. So I did! and there my pretty name was... under the tag! Oh these are a pain.. but just for Sarah I'll do it.. but I won't bug anyone else to do this tag unless you really, really, really, really want to and then link me up baby!!

So just for Sarah!!

1. Name your two favorite scrapbooking topics:
My family and my dog

2. Where are the two best places you’ve been to?
been to?? as opposed to living in... been to hands down would be our honeymoon to Jamaica and the other fun part was going to the Grand Canyon with my parents when I was 14!

3. Name two things you do every day:
Play on the computer (yeah I know..it's that bad) and wash something (dishes, clothes, towels, sinks)

4. Tell us two things that pretty much everyone knows about you:
I LOVE to talk (though IRL I'm a bit shy for ohhh about 4 minutes) and when not on my computer I love to quilt.

5. Tell us two things that everyone DOESN’T know about you:
I'm adopted (well my family knows that but maybe some of you others didn't) and for a long time I collected teddy bear stuff (don't ask how much moved here to Okanogan with us..but someone made me box it all up.. thanks Brett! for the Teddy Bear intervention)

6. Tell us two things that got you into the hobby of scrapping:
One of the moms of a former student of mine was a Creative Memories consultant and I went to a workshop or two to help her get going and started my paper scrapping journey. I paper scrapped a bit when we moved here but didn't like the mess. Amy C showed me SBB and the rest we'll say is history!

7. Tell us two things that you want to accomplish in the next six months:
Declutter my house more (organize the now "extra" room which is stacks) and paint K's room

8. Name your two favorite scrapping tools:
PSE5 and my tablet (HATE a mouse now!)

9. Name your two favorite sources of scrapping inspiration:
Scrapping magazines and browsing digi galleries (yeah what Sarah said)

10. How has your scrapping changed since you started?
I started very plain.. nothing fancy in my layouts and now I love to make my layout fun and pretty to look at!

11. What scrapbooking project have you yet to try but would love to?
Do more digital hybrid projects! :) I've dabbled a bit..but want to do more :)

15 Reason why NOT to do a play...

2008-02-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

was a huge success!! They all looked like they were having a blast! :)

We have video to burn to DVD's so you can all see but here are a few highlights of the night!

Someone is using their brain!!!

2008-01-29T22:08:00.000-08:00

Report cards came in the "mail" (dad's pocket) and it seems that Ana did quite well for herself! 2nd quarter brought straight A's!! (go Ana!) Her overall GPA for the 1st half of the year is 3.89 (darn Math in the first quarter!)!!! Still waiting for Karina's grades, but I'm sure she's doing great too!

Pretty proud of that girl! This weekend is the big "play" for the middle school so if you need something to do on Saturday night come on down and watch! 7:30 show time!

K went skiing with her friend this weekend and had a great time.. she was pretty sore for a few days!!

Friday brings the start of pre-order for Girl Scout cookies!! Can't believe it's that time of year already :) So if you don't get hit up and you need a Girl Scout cookie fix..give me a call. I can find a cute girl scout or two to hook you up with those! (delivery of cookies is in mid March)!

What a week!

2008-01-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

K went to bed on Sunday night and complained of a headache.... so we gave her an advil and sent her on her way! She woke up in the morning with a raging fever, so Brett stayed home. This darn virus she had was mind boggling fever as high as 105 during the whole WEEK it took to shake this fever! Even Saturday when it was normal, and we headed off to A's basketball game, she was very quiet and leaned on me most of the game as I kept score and took pictures (low scoring game! :) Though we haven't won a game.. the girls seem to be having fun!! It's a good experience for playing next year in 7th grade.

A few photos... not the best as I was sitting in the middle of the gym at the scorers bench. I might have to bribe one of my photo friends to come and get some good action shots for scrapping!!

so while I had a sick one... and home for 3 days. I managed to scrap a bit!
Full credits can be found in my gallery here @ SBB

Also next weekend if you have the need to scrap! SBB is turning 5!! So we're having a great big weekend event.. prizes, challenges, crops and fun to be had by all! If you buy in the store you also get a great collab. kit by many of the designers at SBB!

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-06T15:25:00.000-08:00

We rang in the New Year with some friends and an awesome game of Killer Bunnies! We normally go to our friends Denise and Julia's house, but Denise took a nasty spill on Loup Loup and ended up having surgery on his shoulder. Sooo at the last minute I decided to finish cleaning up the house and invite people over! We had a great night.. ate, drank, played killer bunnies, a little Guitar Hero III and froze outside shooting off poppers and doing sparklers!

Then it was back to reality.. school. Ana decided to play AAU basketball this year, so after we turned in forms...one of the ladies who runs the AAU program approached Brett to be the coach. So Brett is coaching 11 6th grade girls...most who haven't played basketball at all (Ana included in that statement!) They practiced this weekend and we look forward to every Saturday for the next 9 weeks of traveling and cheering them on! Ana is also doing the drama school play to be performed the first weekend in February. Yeah, I'm a chauffer.. and wouldn't you know it the "limo" is acting up again. Dang thing.. thought we had it finally fixed before we left on our Eastern Washington tour.. guess not :(

My layout Snow Princess was chosen as layout of the day at 3scrapteers. This kit was made by Dani Mogstad and Laura Deacetis @ sweetshoppedesigns..it's called Snow Bunny! :)

Hope 2008 brings you all joy and happiness!!

Polar Plunge... brrrr

2007-12-22T13:38:00.000-08:00

It was a rockin' 5 degress in the morning when then filled up the little water pool! Fast forward to 6 hours later.. it's a whoopin' 20 degrees outside! They had to take the layer of ice off the top of the water before the kids could jump! The kids didn't reach the 5000 goal for the principals to jump! so the 6th grade through 10th grade got to jump! brrrr! the look on their faces when they jumped in was priceless!! shock!!!

So here they are.. a video might follow later if we can download it from the other camera!!

Here is one of Mr. R holding up a chunk of ice they took off the water!!

Ana and other 6th graders jumping!

Our first official band concert!

2007-12-20T21:33:00.000-08:00

We had to arrive early and wait to be ready to hear Ana and the rest of the 6th grade band play...... two songs :) Not bad for 6th graders 3 months into the school year :) That little clarinet has seen many a Christmas Concert in its day!

It was a nice concert.. I look forward to next year when Ana gets to join choir as well and listen to her sing her little heart out!

Tomorrow is the Polar Plunge!:) It sounds like hubby is safe from jumping (darn it)unless they are hoarding it somewhere.. but Ana will jump!! So after Karina's party I'll hop on over to the middle school to watch the big jump!
Okay got the two songs uploaded to you tube!!! enjoy!

Okay will be back tomorrow with "cold jump" pictures :)

Christmas stuff

2007-12-17T17:55:00.000-08:00

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Isn't it Lovely!! Look delicious???

2007-12-16T20:08:00.000-08:00

It's my birthday cake!! Made especially for me by my lovely daughter Ana and my "other" daughter Lily (waves @ dd#3)! It's my favorite of the chocolate cakes.. German Chocolate with lots (think 2 cans) of frosting!! yummmmy!! Of course, Ana's comment was "it looks like puke.. I can't eat that!" okay so don't eat it! More for me!!!

What a wild and crazy weekend! I must be getting older...I can't party two days in a row like a use to! We had the Middle/High school staff party on Friday night got home waaaay late but had lots of fun! I got a super apple cutting board handmade by one of the teachers @ the high school...it's a hot item every year! Brett got some Starbucks (the adult kind)!

Saturday morning we went to a memorial service for our friends dad. It was hard.. much harder than I thought it would be. It's been 2 years since Gary left us and the tears I cried on Saturday during the service were for our family (the memories of Gary) and for the other family as well. It's never easy and time does ease some of the hurt but it still does hurt. Big hugs and thoughts to Laurie and Jay and kids and Mary and Bill and kids...

Karina was a busy little kid with not one but two birthday parties on the same day and almost the same time. Lucky for her, she was able to bowl with Dylan and then move on to Shelby's party for pizza!

Between all this I was working on my cookies for the beer and cookie exchange party across the street! Tried a new kind this year..it's an eggnog snickerdoodle! I've yet to eat one, but got rave reviews from hubby and children!

I'm off on Weds. this week, so I get the joy of watching Karina's performance and to help at her party! and the best part is that I'll be able to watch the Polar Plunge! If the middle/high schoolers bring in enough cans I'll get a picture of Brett jumping into the cold water (and it's suppose to snow and snow so brrrrrr)! Ana was chosen by drawing to be the 6th grader to jump! So she'll be jumping in the cold water too! Camera ready to go!

I'll try to update with polar plunge photos on Friday!!!

December has arrived...

2007-12-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

Only 15 shopping days left! Yikes I better get a move on!! I have mom and dad done. A good idea what for Brett and still working on what the girls want. Having a hard time with them as they have too much already and the don't really need ONE MORE thing. It will just be tossed aside :( I'm not happy with my girls right now. Seems they have no regard for picking things up and taking care of them. Are we really becoming a throw away society? Where people think.. oh well I'll just go buy a new one?? *sigh* frustration on my part :)

The "ickies" have hit our house..lucky for those involved it seems to be just a 24 hour bug with the tummy. So far I haven't gotten it yet (knock on wood)! I so don't need this!

We had snow and now it's gone.. but not before they went sledding in the dark (Ana had gone to Spokane with Taelor). Buster was forced to sled..poooor Buster!

I also went out and snapped some "frosty" pictures when I stayed home with Karina.

Well a busy week is on the horizon. I'm back to Wenatchee for a Math meeting on Tuesday (will go down tomorrow night). Piano for the girls. This new hip hop health clas they are doing... Ana is considering doing AAU basketball..hmm 7 weekends starting in January gone :( wel'll see. It's good for her!

Oh I'm a bad blogger...

2007-11-30T23:05:00.000-08:00

*knocks on computer screen*

hey you guys out there! I'm still here! Bet you all thought I'd given up on this poor poor blog!

It's been CrAzY! The message I have on my Hello account reads.. Lisa has gone crazy.. Please leave a message after the beep! That would be my life! :) Not a lot of everything right now, but a little of lots!

We spent a very nice Thanksgiving here at our cozy house with my mil (waves hi!). It was so nice.. Brett and his mom cooked all day. I jumped in now and again to wash the dishes, load the dishwashere, unload the dishwasher and make mashed potatoes! and of course eat way too much!

Nana brought the girls a gingerbread house kit to do. They had tons of fun and only fought a little before it was finished! Don't they look they are having fun!!

credits here: SBB

We got our first bit of snow this last week and more is expected before the weekend is over. I love that first snow fall, the pristiness of it.. then I'm done with it! :)

Aren't these 2 the cutest things!! I love when I get new pictures to scrap of these two! and their mommy got MY dream camera so i expect lots and lots of pictures! (hint hint!)

Hard to believe we are in the final countdown to Christmas. It somehow snuck up on my this year! I can't tell ya what ever got as Ana reads the blog and she'd tell Karina what she got! Though I haven't gotten much so they better not be searching the closet by the front door. :)

Well it's almost time for bed.. so I'll say good night and catch ya later! If it snows like they promise it will I'll have some snowy sledding kinda fun pictures for you soon!

I'm alive :)

2007-11-14T22:54:00.000-08:00

Really, I'm here! We went to visit with Mom and Dad in Tri-Cities last weekend! It was fun to be home with them! I think they always need at least a week to recover after we have been there! Papa loves to have his "date" with his girls. They went to IHOP for breakfast and all was reported as having fun.

The girls had their conferences this week. Both are doing great in school! I'm so glad that they both enjoy school so much and that they have such great teachers who care for them!

A couple weekends ago, I asked Kendal if she'd do some family portraits for us to help her and to help us have something of us as a family! She did a wonderful job! These 4 photos are some of my favorites, but I couldn't post them all :) (Kendal has some more on her blog).

okay everyone resume your normal life :)

whooooshh.....

2007-10-29T17:49:00.000-07:00

That was last week flying by!! :) LOL Ana had the last of her 2 soccer games last week until spring! Even scored a goal in one! (go Ana!) Soccer is replaced by the drama club production of Nightmare on Elmway. This is a haunted house put on by the drama club of the middle school/high school. It runs 29th-31st from 6-9 each day. $3.00 to get in and be scared :) the doll room.. *shivers*

This next weekend promises to be fun!! Saturday is DIGITAL Scrapbooking Day! I know that many of the digi sites out there will have stuff to do all day long! I'll be found @ SBB hanging out in the forums and chat room to gather up all the fun stuff that is going to be given away :) Won't you come and play with us!! :)

Go HAWKS~~!!

2007-10-22T22:13:00.000-07:00

We had a blast this weekend!! We went to Heidi's to help celebrate the October birthday brigade. Ana turned 12 on the 16th, Lucas turned 4 today and sweet Rachel will be 2 on Wednesday!! and let's not forget my dear sweet dad who's birthday is Thursday!! You'll have to guess how old he is :) *grin*

Sunday we went to the Seattle Seahawks game as a family. It was Ana's birthday present! It was really fun!! Here are a few highlights of the day :)

Busy busy day...

2007-10-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

We started the day off downtown with the parade! Karina put on her witch costume and poor poor buster was forced to be a part of the pet parade with her! Isn't he cute though!!

(played with some new actions from my friend Lissa isn't it cool!)

Karina with her famous princess wave (learned it at Girl Scout camp..princess session this summer! LOL)

the cute little pumpkin walking ahead of Karina is Dylan :) Ruthie had to be in the parade too :)

Ana played soccer today and scored a GOAL!! She wasn't sure it was going to go in and mom was too busy looking through the camera lens to see the actually kick!! Here she is doing her famous throw in from the sideline!

All this before 1:30 pm! We ran back to Home Depot to get some painting stuff since I couldnt' find where Brett had hidden ours. Then off to paint the playroom...soon to be Ana's room!

I left her a message on the wall while she was painting the other wall..so she had to leave me a message back... I now have it in writing (umm painting) that she does Love her mom!! :)

Lazy days of fall

2007-10-07T17:22:00.000-07:00

So here it is.. those lazy hazy days of fall. I didn't want to but I pulled up all my flower beds today so as to have a repeat of the last few years... snow came before I pulled them up and it was a yucky mess the next spring. I did leave K's strawberries to keep growing until the first frost hits (hasn't hit yet but it will hit soon!) My nose doesn't like this time of year.. it's itchy, sneezy and did I mention itchy? The little flower pulling along with some weeds sent me into a sneezing fit! yuck!

Ana had soccer in Oroville Saturday. I got a picture of the many October birthday girls... Miranda is on the right with the first one on the 6th, then Lily on the 14th and Ana on the 16th. Kelsie is in December but we couldn't leave her out!

Today was also the Bone Marrow Drive for Parker Brown. Ana and I went up to the church around 2ish and the line to sign up to be on the bone marrow list was LONG! It was so proud to say I'm part of this community! Ana browsed the silent auction stuff while I signed up to be on the bone marrow list. All went pretty well..it was an easy test... just had to scrap your cheeks in 4 different places! So I'm all signed up!

lessons learned...

2007-09-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

IF your ehd doesn't have a fan to keep it cool...it will die and take with it 80 GBs of stuff. Of course, I've been a good girl and really in photo wise only lost the last month and a halfs photos as I've been saving to DVD. I'm hoping to recoup some of them from Sarah (sarah96) with whom I've shared the good ones over Hello with her, she has them saved in her Hello folder! The rest of the 60 plus GB was my entire collection of Digital Scrapbooking kits (yes, all of your stuff Amy :() I guess it's a good time to start "fresh". And all that time I put off starting to organize in ACDsee.. well it paid off ! I don't have to worry about it anymore! (trying to see humor!) There are a few things I'm really going to miss...like my Vera Lim stuff I collected while on her GuestCT and of course the Tracy Ann stuff I've collected. OH and my Shabby Princess stuff too :( *sigh* guess it should have been last month I joined mozy and did my back up stuff.

The good news??? The EHD is still under warranty. So though I can't recover my stuff from it (unless someone has $1500 running around unattended they want to give me) I do get a replacement. I just have to package it up and send it to Texas. Once they get it..I get a replacement one back.

Ana had her first soccer game this weekend in the Methow (they got KICKED) but they had fun! I got a shot of her having fun and then we went to Wenatchee to do Costco shopping. On the way down I saw a public fishing signs along the Methow river, so we pulled into one and proceeded to have fun chucking rocks and playing on the river bank. I truly do live in a place of great beauty! The dog enjoyed it as much as the girls!

I'm Famous!!

2007-09-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

well only in the scrapbooking world!! Last week in the mail I got my check for my two layouts I submitted to Memory Makers Magazine! I had submitted my layouts way back in April, and had to mail them to the company in May. Today in the mail I get a big package with two of the October Memory Makers magazine in it. Ana was excited to prove that she was indeed in a magazine! We are on pages 64 and 65! It is so cool to see my name in print. Who would have thought that my little hobby would make me some money! So if you are in bookstore or looking for magazines, go buy the Memory Makers October issue and look for the girls and Max and Zoe too! (had to share our famousness with our good friends!)

Sill battling this cold/throat thing. The rapid strep came back negative, but the inspection of my throat and nose came up with a sinus infection verdict. So I'm on the good stuff that is only once a day for 5 days, with an inhaler, some other stuff to loosen up the gook in my sinuses and chest. They did send off the swab to grow in the old fashion way to see if it still might be strep. I hope not! though I'm already on antibiotics so it shouldn't matter much if it is strep.

Well it's bedtime, news is over and I'm ready for bed :)

We have Grand Champions in the house

2007-09-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

and some blues and some reds! :) Karina was so excited! Her class went to the fair today so she got to see first hand her quilt... with a BIG purple ribbon attached!! She won Grand Champion for her quilt!! She was so excited.. her sister's quilt got a Blue ribbon too! Ana's butterscotch blondies served still warm from the oven (imagine Lisa standing in the check out line @ walmart with the buttterscotch chips talking to Ana on the phone explaining just how much 3/4 of a cup of butter is with the sticks of butter!LOL) We got everything in 2 hours before the deadline. Both girls photos got blue ribbons and both their "craft" stuff got reds. Karina was so sweet tonight.. she voted for Ana's quilt for her "people's choice" award that the Girl Scout booth has! :) It's a pretty ribbon! Hope she gets it :) It promises to be an action packed weekend..tomorrow morning the girls and I "man" the Girl scout booth from 8-1 then head over to the main stage @ 1:15 to get ready for Ana to sing with the Nashville Star stuff! She's downstairs singing her heart out right now :) Saturday morning is drive to beautiful downtown Brewster where we learn all about the Fall product sales for Girl Scouts. Back to the fair that afternoon to check in and such and back to the fair again on sunday for a few hours and to pick up all the stuff and clean up the booth area. *sigh* I'm tired just thinking about it all! Somewhere in there I have to do lesson plans and figure out what the heck I'm doing as I have 2 days of training next week in Wenatchee for the FOSS science kits. Going to be really really hard to leave my kids with a sub after only 4 days of having them! I'm still teaching routines and rules and working on stuff! and I'm still fighting this ugly head/chest cold thingy.. I miss my "normal" voice.. this croaky stuffy one is so not me! hee hee

End of brag.. photos to follow :)

Happy First Day of School!!!!

2007-09-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

oh man, I'm always a bit hoarse after the first day but add this darn throat/head thing I've had going on for days it was really tough! I croak like a frog!! I survived the first day of Third Grade. Both girls seemed to be okay. Karina had "homework" which means I had "homework" to fill out. All those forms :) Yuck!!

Here are my happy girls this morning :)

This weeks promises to be crazy with the fair starting, school getting going and going crazy!!! :)

Have a great week :)

Buster...

2007-08-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

okay it's dark but keep watching it.. It's buster attacking his toys.. He gets these wild hairs everyone once in awhile and it's hilarious to watch him pounce, go tearing off, come back and do it over and over LOL

sorry it wasn't working so I took it off.. believe me it was funny

Nothing new..

2007-08-24T22:50:00.000-07:00

Realized I had updated in awhile..but it's THAT time of year!! Getting ready to go back to school! This year I'm a mentor for 2 of the new 6th grade teachers, along with being new to 3rd grade and serving on the building leadership team. I had gotten better while the girls were much younger about NOT doing as much at school...but alas it's come around again. This week has been 2 afternoons of training/working with my mentees, 2 FULL days of learning how to use the FOSS science kits! Though they were full days I'm loving learning my new curriculum for 3rd grade! this sound unit was soo much fun! Only drawback is the 2nd week of school I have to have 2 more days of training for the other science kit we teach in 3rd grade!

County fair is in 2 weeks. Both girls will enter their quilts, Ana might cook some blondies or such, but we're not pushing it much. Both girls and me (the new and improved future girl scout leader for Karina's troop) will spend some (quite a bit) of time at the girl scout booth! Ana will have the chance to sing either Friday or Saturday on the BIG stage as part of the Junior Nashville Star. Brett has even volunteered to work the Republican booth in the one building :)

We have a little more than one week left until school starts andd I know once that happens this year will FLY!! Ana is doing soccer, both girls are taking piano lessons and doing girl scouts and I'm sure we'll find one more thing to keep them busy in the winter! :)

Have a great day..week everyone! Probaly unless i get some fantastic pictures of something..won't post until the first day of school! *sigh*

Getting ready for school....

2007-08-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

if only school was ready for us! :) Due to the construction at the middle/high school, we are starting school 3 days later than normal. Karina's okay with it.. Ana on the other hand cannot stand that it's being delayed! She's ready and willing to start school!!

Both girls have finished their quilts. The pictures aren't the best but you'll get a general idea of what they did. I take no credit for the production of these quilts. The ladies @ Needlyn Time do wonders with 4 days of 5 hours each! Amazing!!
Ana's quilt- music themed..go figure!

Karina's quilt..doggies :)

We also just got back from 3 days @ the lake with our friends. It was perfect weather..not too hot, not too cold! Some pictures of the girls having fun!!

and of course today.. the last of the photos... Ana got her hair cut..short well not super short but shorter than it was :) Here she is :)

Not much more to say... the getting ready for school is hitting me too.. I have a meeting on Wednesday and then Tuesday-Friday the next week.. uggg it came way too soon!

Nothing Blog worthy

2007-08-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

we are the "baum"s are boring:) We've done nothing that is really blog worth! Good news on my mom front...she is home in her own bed and loving it!! She still needs to be keeping up with the PT and exercise to keep those legs strong!

Brett played last weekend and the weekend before that in the club championship. The first weekend you have to place in the top 12 to go on. So going in as #2 he got to play this last weekend as well! Once again he came in #2...says he's so tired of being #2..someday soon I'm sure he'll be #1! :) *hugs to ya Brett*

Karina is taking the quilting class this week. She's having a bit of problem reaching the pedal easy but she's determined to finish this project! We were a bit worried she wasn't mentally/physically ready but she managed the first day well!

We go to the lake with Headleys this weekend. 2nd annual affair:) Weather should be warm but not too warm and no smoke this year for a more enjoyable experience.

School is speeding towards us. Can't believe that it is just around the corner! I spent some time in my room today while Karina was in quilting class (trying to save on gas and not drive back and forth!) Should have it all looking good soon. Ana is coming with me tomorrow so she can work on bulletin boards for me. Love that she wants to do that kinda thing :)

I'll leave you guys with an ad for the SBB August ezine! I have an article, a freebie and a layout in there!! You can buy it here at SBB! EZINE

Summer..it's going FAST!!

2007-07-29T13:46:00.000-07:00

An update about the park!! Shortly after the City Council meeting.. 2 picnic tables, a garbage can and slow children at play signs appeared in our park!! Wow!! Talk about fast!

We hope that before winter we'll have the other stuff they promised us too!

It's been a week since I've updated, but we haven't done much around here. Brett is playing in the club championship this weekend, if he finishes in the top 12 he'll play next weekend as well :) Here's hoping for a top 12 finish! :)

The rest of summer promises to be packed with stuff to do! Wednesday, the girls and I along with the rest of the car load of Girl Scouts take off to Silverwood to play. We'll spend the night at the GS hostel and return the next day :) Karina takes her quilting class the first full week in August. We're going to the lake with the Headleys that weekend. Then it's time for Brett to start back to work (if the building is done enough.. remodeling is going a litttle slow!) ahhh stop this crazy train :) hee hee

Also have a back to school, check up on mom trip planned after the 15th of August..

8 years ago....

2007-07-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

I was coming home from the Othello hospital with my baldheaded little pink bundle of joy! Here she is.. I'm thinking about 4 weeks old here.. didn't have any baby ones scanned (hmm better do that)
To her birthday yesterday...

They grow up way too fast!! We had fun at the pool party! Lots of friends and fun!! A few pictures to share!

There are many more pictures but I won't bore ya to death!!
Well off to try and finish up my Harry Potter book!

I'm "bug" sitting

2007-07-18T23:05:00.000-07:00

When Randy called and asked if we would be around for awhile so we could "bug" sit, I had to say yes, since we've done all our running around already for July! :) So today he gets to our house with two 10 gallon fish tanks. Filled with WALKING STICKS!! One fish tank has just the regular walking sticks in it... last count about 20 minutes ago was around 20 of em in there! The other slightly larger tank has the Australian walking sticks in it (male and female)! plus a few regular walking sticks! Let me tell ya the Australian ones are FuNkY!! They are huge as in about 4 inches in length and "ugly"! see for yourself! The skinny one is the male (who has wings and WILL fly! eek!) the fat one is a female!

I'm not much of a bug person..but we do personally own two of the walking sticks thanks to Randy.. Also in our "care" is two petri dishes of eggs from the Australian walking sticks. I'm really hoping they don't hatch while in our care! eek!!

On to more important things! I'm so proud of Ana and her friend Leanne! They have been working on ideas to improve the little park where we live for over a year now. Well last night they were on the agenda to address the city council. They had it all put together! Pictures of the current stuff in the park. A speech all written out with Ana and Leanne taking turns reading it. It had a list of things they wanted to see. More swings, garbage can, drinking fountain, merry go round, picnic table (preferably covered), a better slide that isn't so dangerous etc. Also asked them to install children at play signs to hopefully slow down some of the "speedy" traffic on our hill. The mayor seemed quite impressed at how well they were prepared and such. We found out that some of the things they requested could probably be done with little or no expense to the city! Such as they have a surplus merry go round that they could install! fun! Also the mayor discussed that this is the year for grants and maybe they(the city) could write a grant to fund some of the improvements. All in all is was a great experience for the girls. I'm so proud of them I'm about to burst! Especially since I had little or nothing to do with the writing or such.. just support! I was even gone for technical support and Jill had to help them print the pictures to show the council! (thanks Jill!) Check out the cute pictures of all the kids who went to support each other in this adventure! Hopefully we can see some results here soon!

I'll leave with a little reminder of Karina's birthday bash on Sunday! It's a family gathering so bring all the siblings, mom, and dad and join us in our 2 hour rental of the pool! Don't forget to bring your floaties or pool toys! After swimming Brett is going to BBQ a few dogs or such in the little covered area by the pool followed by cake!! :) Can't believe she'll be EIGHT!

Allison Krauss and Union Station!

2007-07-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Jill for mentioning that Allison Krauss was going to be in Spokane! With ebay's help.. Brett and I got tickets... 2nd row.. center stage! We were within 20 feet of Allison and her band as they played for 2 hours straight! Cameras weren't allowed..but at the end I had to sneak mine out and try to get a picture.. I got a blurry mass.. see Allison is the one in black in the middle! Hee hee

This was our gift to each other for our 13th wedding anniversary! We went out to dinner with our friends Dale and Monica at Clinkerdager's in Spokane.. I had the yummiest prime rib!! Here is a self portrait of Brett and I waiting for our friends!

hmm wonder where Karina gets her self portraits! She had a great time at camp and we developed her pictures.. 50% were self portraits! the other 20% were of her thumb!

Ana had fun @ camp but she's not sure she wants to go back next year! all I know is that the phone has NOT quit ringing since she woke up this morning!! Brett and I finally quit answering it if we say the # was one of her friends and she was out and about and not able to answer the phone! I know, I know this has only just begun!!

I've been playing with my macro setting on my camera..still not sure why it doesn't allow focus like it's suppose to..but I did get a few pictures of the honeybees hanging out at my mil's flowers...:)

Are you bored yet??? The girls and Brett are going to hold the home front down while I drive down(over?) to see my mom and dad! It's suppose to be hot, hot, hot!! and I'm crazy to drive again!! Since I changed my oil in the expedition on June 7th, I've (we've) put on 3,000 miles on the car!! I hope it holds out!!! We had to take it back in to the shop because on the way to the concert on Sunday the service engine soon light came on! After quickly grabbing the owners manuel, we decided since it wasn't flashing we were okay! It's a little emissions thing that has to be replaced... go figure it's not covered under our extended warranty *sigh* Brett was talking today that we might have to think about trading it in. I feel bad...it's suppose to be his turn for a new car!! This would be car #3 for me...but **knock on wood** his truck has been very reliable!

I'll update this weekend :) maybe :) Last photo.. a beautiful sunset on the way home last night... we were just out of Grand Coulee heading home...

Hope you had a safe 4th of July!

2007-07-05T00:34:00.000-07:00

We had a great day! Went to our friends house for the annual 4th of July bash! Good food, good friends and the annual Grudge Croquet game. Lots of fun.. but no close 2nd finish for Brett this year. Theresa won again this year, even with the darn water hazard!

When it got dark we all retired to our house for the firework finale! We had gotten some fireworks yesterday and Streeters had some too! All the kids did sparklers and had a blast.. though I don't think they last as long as they did when I was a kid!

Since we can't have the high shooting fireworks (illegal) we did lots of fountains! This one lasted about 4 minutes total! Everyone ohhh and ahhh ed at the appropriate times :)

I'll leave ya today with a picture I took while driving to pick Karina up last Saturday. Yes, I was keeping my eyes on the road... I just put the camera on the middle section and pressed the button and hoped for the best! Buster has become quite the car riding doggy this summer... he's logged well over a 1000 miles with us just since school got out! and we head back up again on Friday to pick up Ana @ camp!

Oh and check this out!! You can this ezine @ SBB for $5.00! It has 90 pages of ideas and stuff for you digi scrapper friends of mine!! You'll even see a layout I did for the ezine in there!! check it out!

Gone to Camp....

2007-06-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

Guess they don't want the long drawn out goodbyes with tears etc. We were only allowed to be at the Gate to Camp Four Echoes...
Here we were allowed to unload, talk with them a few minutes, say our goodbyes and then we were dismissed :) Here she goes.. walking away with another little girl and a counselor (not hers.. think those in front there are hers)

Sooo.. she's at Camp this week.well until Saturday only which. her camp is called Princess Passion! Right up her alley..guess the cabins they are in are the swiss chalet type ones! I hide a few surprises in her bag so when she unpacks she'll have something to oh and ah about! I got a new pink sweatshirt that has Camp Four Echoes on it (hope Ana doesn't read our blog before she goes on Saturday as I have one for her too as a surprise!) Also, a care package from home will be there for Karina.. it has a little bear with a camp tshirt on and some chapstick as well. I also snuck in her monkey Momo into her sleeping bag when I rolled it up for her.. so he's there for some loving as well! I put in some stationary with addressed and stamped envelopes.. eager to see if she uses them in her 3 short days there! I miss her already.. heck I missed her minutes after turning my car around on the road and driving off... but nothing like a reality check from my lovely daughther Ana.. something to the tune of.. Ah mom knock it off.... she'll be fine!! Thanks honey I need that reality check :)

Here are a few photos of the rolling ball I spoke off last blog entry.. It was truly a riot..

I'll leave with a few pictures of the girls on the midpoint of steptoe butte.. check out the amazing scenery BEHIND the girls :)