Cheryl's life at the farm

2009-04-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe how long it's been since I've posted on here! I swear I am going to get better about it. For now, I need to catch up.

Like I said in my last post in September Pat was on strike and he remained on strike a long, long time.... Ok, maybe 10 weeks or something but it seemed like forever. With the economy going in the toilet during that time I really was scared that the strike would go on forever. I was so depressed about it all that I barely emailed, let alone post on my blog.

In October my son Shane went to Iraq. He's gotten through 6 months now and is supposed to only be there for 6 more. In December it started snowing around the 18th, maybe earlier, I don't even remember but it lasted forever!!! I think it snowed every day for 4 months, I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad but we did have snow here for that long. I was so happy when I saw that last little pile of snow go away. For the first time since we moved here 7 years ago I have thought about actually moving for the last few months, not too far, just into town but away from the cold, long winters at my house. If it wasn't for Pat I'd probably do it too. I used to say I'd live here until I die and then have my ashes strewn around our property but not anymore. Hopefully we'll have a really nice warm Spring and Summer to make up for it and I'll forget about this moving nonsense. Right now it's almost May 1st and I'm sitting here typing this with my baseboard heat on next to me, my layer shirt on under my zipped up down coat... I'm serious! I felt bad for complaining last week because I saw that it was supposed to be 100 degrees in Baghdad, not far from where my son is stationed. I'll take cold weather any day over hot weather.

Right now I have to get ready to go to Tim's school conference so I'll get ready but I'll post more of what's been going on soon, maybe today and I'll post pictures too.....

2008-09-15T10:07:00.000-07:00

The weather this month has been so perfect, hate to see it end! It gets pretty cold and rainy here in the winter. I'm determined that I will bundle up and get outside instead of staying in the house so much this winter. We have a couple days left of warm weather then some not-so-warm so I'll try and do some work in the yard and on the house outside. Pat's on strike with Boeing but is still over in the Puget Sound area doing some work on our trailer, etc. I've gone over there for the past 4 weekends. One of those weekends he redid my brakes on my car, something that was long overdue. Last weekend I had a blow-out on my car as you see from the picture here. In all my years of driving I don't think I've had a flat and never bothered to learn to change one. Luckily Pat said he would come there and change it, it was 11:30 at night on a dark highway about half-way between here and Seattle. A state patrol officer stopped to check on me and said he'd help me fix it but Pat was on his way. I was shocked when I got out of the car to look at it, could have turned out so much worse.

Last week it was my birthday and also my mom's and one of my sisters. Thankfully I don't feel any older than I already feel. I was making a quilt for my mom but didn't quite get it done by her birthday. Luckily I had bought her a set of cd's that she and dad liked. It's hard to stay inside and work on sewing when the weather is so nice. I've been doing alot of weeding and mowing outside and my blueberries are finally ripe enough to start picking them. Now that I'm thinking of it I'd better get out there and pick the ripe ones and also check the apple trees before the deer come by and start raiding them like they do.

2008-08-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile again since I posted. I put a new picture of the house on here with it's new roof!! I thought it would never happen but we finally got it. The old shake roof was 30+ years old and had bats living under the shakes and I hate bats!! We had to get new skylights too but it was worth it in the end. We got opening skylights in the bedroom and upstairs bathroom which is nice when it's hot out but it never seems to get hot out here. This summer and last summer had very few hot days. I'm so glad I picked the 2 guys that ended up doing our roof. They are so nice and easy going and we ended up having them do other things too, like the lattice under the porches and deck, and doing some wiring in the garage, installed a "new" door in the garage (one I got for free a couple years ago) and put in a new window in the garage. We're going to have them do more but we're taking a break from it until we see if Pat goes on strike next week.

Mom is doing better so that's sure good. Her birthday is coming up soon, September 10th she'll be 83! I really need to finish this quilt I started last Fall for her. When she was in the nursing home last Fall she was talking about how much she loves the Fall colors and I decided then to give her this quilt. This picture of the unfinished quilt doesn't show the richness of the colors but you get the idea. It's also very, very soft with all flannels. I just need to finish tying it and do the binding and then I'll be done. I guess I'll end this posting here for now. I have so much to do today. Pat hasn't been home in weeks and I think he'll be coming home tonight or soon. He's going to do my brakes today. I left my car over there and brought his home a few days ago. My brakes were so bad I just couldn't drive it anymore. The rotor on the front drivers side had deep grooves in it.

2008-02-21T19:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been about 8 months since I've posted. So much has happened in that time and I doubt I'll remember it all.

The highlights are that my in-laws flew out here the first part of September and we went up to this resort in Canada where Pat and I spent our honeymoon almost 19 years ago. It's called Tigh-na-mara. We stayed in a log cabin and it was pretty cool. The bad thing was that by the time we got up there it was late evening, time for bed and we had to check out the next day in time to make the long drive back to Victoria, B.C. to catch our ferry. All in all we had lots of fun. I have pictures on here somewhere, will post when I find them.

In October my Mom had sort of a breakdown, I guess you'd call it, and ended up having to go into a nursing home but the good news is that she was much better by Christmas and Dad was able to bring her home to enjoy Christmas with him and stay there. According to Dad she's doing fine and she's seemed fine when I've seen her. It was all a very scary, very stressful time for all of us but I'm thankful that she's ok now. She went to a geriatric hospital for a couple weeks before the nursing home and it was so, so hard to see her like that. She kept begging me to get her out of there and there was nothing I could do.

Very soon after all this started with my Mom I found out that my ex-mother-in-law had cancer and it was pretty bad. Her husband took it very hard and within a couple days he had a heart attack and died. My son Shane, who's in the Army in Georgia, flew home for the funeral. It was sure nice to spend some time with him, I miss him so much! He got to spend some time with his grandma which was good because she died soon after too, about 3 weeks after her husband. They were such good, loving people and were so good to me when I married their son when we were 17.

I had what I had thought would be minor surgery for a cyst in November and had a really hard time getting better from that until the first part of January. Now here it is February and time is flying along. During all of January we had snow and ice the whole month but recently it's actually been fairly decent out although I saw that our neighbor still has some snow at his place where it had been kind of piled up. I saw buds on a flowering cherry tree this afternoon which gives me hope that it will be warmer soon. 2007 was the rainiest, coldest year we've had here, even all summer long. We had about 5 days of really nice weather around the 4th of July and that was it. Even my chickens seem to be happier lately since it's been getting nicer out.

I've been working on putting energy seal between the logs inside the house during the cold months and did some on the outside along with staining, etc when it was somewhat warm still during Fall. I've also been sanding the inside logs, and probably will still be working on that when I'm 80, very slow going.

I have to pick up Tim from a sports awards program at school but I will post some pictures on here soon and will also try to post what's going on in my life.

2007-06-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was looking through some of my pictures to put one on here and found this one. It's a very old one lane bridge, over 100 yrs old. People have to stop when they get to it and see if somebody is already on it and take turns. They're supposed to be building a new one but I guess the estimates are way too high so I don't know if it will happen. The new bridge was supposed to also have a pedestrian bridge underneath to link the Olympic Discovery Trail. There's a beautiful view of the Elwha River from the bridge, even more gorgeous in the Fall.

I've been having alot of medical tests but things are looking better. One was from an abnormal mammogram so I had to go in for more pictures and an ultrasound the other day and it turned out it's just multiple cysts. Kind of scared me when they came in and asked me what age my Dad's sister was when she had breast cancer. I also switched from my beloved doctor over in Renton, 3 hrs from here, to a dr in town but I don't like this new one at all so I guess I'm back to trying to find one who's taking new patients and is on our insurance network. I've been driving to Renton for the past 5 years to see my dr but with all the medical stuff that's come up this year it was getting to be too much.

Tim is bored to death now that he's on summer vacation. The friends he made from school have been busy so far. He did get invited to a 4th of July party though. We need to find out if the parents will be home, etc and we always shoot off fireworks here and also go into town to watch those but I told him we'd try and work something out. Pat's off work all next week. The kids badly want to do something in the way of a vacation thing. I'm sure Pat will just want to spend the week around home. It makes it even harder because of Thunder's seizures. He went about a month with none and then a week or two ago he had a bad day where he had 3. We raised his Phenobarb dose but the vet says we can't go much higher.

Update 8/2/2007
The bridge pictured above was closed today, a month earlier than they were going to, because of the bridge accident in Minneapolis. It was scheduled to be torn down next month anyway and then the replacement bridge will be built but will take 2 years to build. I'm glad they decided not to take any chances with it but will miss the beautiful views from it, especially in the Fall.

2007-06-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

I didn't really have much in the way of new pictures right now but I like this one that I downloaded from MaryJanes site. My Dad made me a chicken house that I just love, partly because it's just what I wanted and needed but mostly because my Dad made it. I'm going to take a picture of it, should have last week and now it's raining. The Silkies love their new house! I gave the Buttercups the Silkies old house and they love that too.

I'm finally getting some medical appts done and found out last week that I have a cyst and had an ultrasound yesterday to see if there's anything else going on. It's weird how unsurprised I was about the cyst. It seems more and more these days that if I just trust my gut feelings I know more than I would have thought. I don't know if that makes sense. I've been so sleep deprived lately. Today is Tim's last day at his Tuesday school and then after school and this evening is a dinner and "project fair" to celebrate their last day. I will miss this school as much as Tim, maybe more. I started him in this one day a week school last September to let him start being around more kids his age after homeschooling him for 6 years and he loved it so much he would count the days and hours till the next Tuesday so I enrolled him in public school for the other 4 days. He has done better than I ever would have dreamed! He even was on the honor roll recently! He still gets help from the special ed teacher in a couple areas and as they say, he processes information slowly but he loves school more than any other 13yr old I've ever met and I always get glowing reports about how hard he tries, etc. We went on a whale watching field trip with the Tuesday school a few weeks ago and had a wonderful time! I'm not crazy about small boats and the water but the water was like glass and it was a sunny day. The next week we went on a field trip to Victoria B.C. with Tim's other school and again, had a blast! The weather couldn't have been better. The view of Port Angeles as we were heading back is breath taking! The end of next week is the last day of school at his regular school. I am going to be loving not setting an alarm clock all summer!!!

The dr said I most certainly have asthma and wants me to have a pulmonary work-up so I need to set that up. I have an appt with a regular dr in town next week so I can get referrals to some of these other drs. I fought changing my dr from the one in the south Seattle area but it just needed to be done. Dr Toulouse has been my dr for many years but it's too hard to know a month or more ahead whether I'll be able to make the 3hr drive over there.

Other than the medical worries life is good and I find myself thinking very often how blessed I am. All four of my kids seem to be doing well. The weather has been improving and that sure improves my mood.

2007-05-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today is my Mom and Dad's 56th wedding anniversary! They are two very amazing people and I'm so proud of them.

2007-04-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of our Buttercup rooster. The farmgirls were talking about the Buttercups and I thought I'd show a picture of mine to show what the hen and rooster look like. The hen is in the picture behind the rooster. The rooster is more colorful than the hen. They're nice chickens as long as it's just the 2 of them. The hen gets pretty mean if any of the other chickens are let into their area. She doesn't seem to want to sit on any eggs so I thought I'd see if one of the Silkie hens would like to sit on them.

2007-03-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of part of the side porch. Behind me in the picture is the porch swing. As you look towards the woods you can see a deer.

I haven't posted in a week. Pat worked the weekend but came home Saturday night. Tim went to school Monday but came home with a fever and has been sick with this cold/flu thing again all week. Stephen has had a bad cold but was getting better but he's been pretty sick today with the same thing, this cold/flu. I'm pretty much better except that I still have the cough so it seems like every minute of the day one of us is coughing. When I've had some time 'I've been reading I know this much is true' which my dad loaned me a few years ago and I never did read until I was doing a bunch of cleaning out recently and found it.

The weather has been somewhat nice the last couple days, at least for here, it's warmer in Seattle. I really kind of wasted the nice weather though. Oh well, this is the start of Spring, I'm sure there will be many nice days. The chickens sure look better! They've been able to take their dirt baths (I'll never understand that) and they don't look so awful like they did when it rained constantly.

Next week Tim will have Spring break. I'm going to Seattle at the least for Tuesday night to make very sure I make my drs appt on Wednesday. Not sure what I'm doing beyond that but I'm going to try and get over to the Puget Sound area early enough on Tuesday to spend some time at Country Village, one of my favorite places.

2007-03-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of me with Missy when we first got her a couple summers ago. I was going through some pictures today and found this one. Sure do miss when my porch looked like that, or at the very least to even be able to sit out on the steps without freezing!

I'm on my 2nd round of antibiotics but I do feel like I'm starting to get better. I had a little more energy this afternoon, good thing because there are alot of things that haven't been getting done.

2007-03-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

Here's the Amish sampler I was talking about. It's actually just the pattern, no thread or material. The picture isn't real clear, or maybe it's my eyes, but it says "Walk Humbly With Thy God". Mikki Jo has said she'd like it so Mikki, if you'd email me your address I'll send it to you. I also have the recipe for Amish Butter Cookies. I don't know where I got the recipe, I've had it for years, almost thinking I got it from my older sister, Charlotte. Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup oil
4 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Beat butter and oil together on low speed. Add flour, sugar, powdered sugar, eggs, vanilla, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Drop by spoonsfull onto a lightly greased cookie sheet (I actually don't grease the cookie sheet but that's up to whoever is making these). Bake at 350 for 11-12 minutes or very light brown. (With my oven it takes a little longer and I always take them out when the edges just begin to get brown).

2007-03-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

We have a family website on MyFamily.com that my dad and all my brothers and sisters and my son and his wife check in on and/or post something everyday. When it's someone's birthday we post a picture of them on the cover picture of the site, usually a baby picture. On Monday it was my grandson, Joey's, 9th birthday and his Mom, Melissa, posted this baby picture of Joey. I took care of him from when he was a little baby until he was about 1 1/2 when Melissa was working and so got to spend alot of time with him. Seeing his baby picture makes me miss him so much!!! I miss when he was a baby and I just miss him anyway since him and his brother, Aaron, and his Mom went to live in Savannah, Georgia where my son Shane is stationed in the Army.

2007-03-15T16:49:00.000-07:00

On the farmgirl site we were talking about what we would do if we could do anything we wanted and whether or how it would impact someone else's life and I had mentioned that I had thought many times how it would be nice if I could have space here for like a community garden for people in town who didn't have room for a garden or for the food bank. This picture is from 2 yrs ago when we had alot of clearing done on the property and this was the area that I was thinking of for the garden. I've heard that the woman who lived here before had beautiful gardens here and the man who did our clearing said that the soil was real good in this area. There is grass and weeds that have grown there now and alot of those trees on the left fell down in the windstorms this past winter but nothing that can't be cleaned up pretty quickly. I kind of wonder whether this is a do-able idea. The only thing is that we share a well and driveway with the neighbor but maybe it can be worked out. I've seen community gardens before in other areas and people always took pride in taking care of them. I don't know, maybe I've had too much caffeine (or cough syrup) today but it's a thought.

2007-03-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Here's one of our Silkies, one of the roosters I think, when it was younger. We found one of the Silkie roosters dead today in their yard. Very sad. It didn't look like anything got in there. Stephen said he heard them fighting last night but they do sometimes so he didn't think much of it but that must have been when it happened. I really think they've gotten along pretty well and haven't seen much fighting at all or I would have found homes for a couple of the roosters. I gave one of the Silkie roosters to my dad recently but my dad's 3 hens are being mean to the rooster so my dad asked me to take one of the Silkie hens over there to keep the rooster company and maybe hatch some eggs. Those Silkie hens sure do like setting on eggs so I bet that will work out good. I've been wanting to go over and see Mom and Dad anyway, if I could ever get over this cold thing!

We got a progress report for Tim today and it was great! Three of his teachers mentioned him working slowly but he does process information slowly. I'm hoping that as he goes to school that it will get easier for him to process information faster. Other than that he got all positive comments like "Exlemplary conduct" and "Pleasant and conscientious student". I hope the rest of his school years go as well as this year is going for him. I went back to sleep for a couple hours this morning and now it's time to get ready and pick Tim up already. I feel like I haven't gotten much done at all today but until I'm over this bug I'd better take it easy.

2007-03-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

A sign of Spring... There are a few crocus' around the big cedar tree next to the driveway. I love things like that, gives you hope when it's still so cold out that it will be warm again soon. Yesterday there was actually a little snow on the deck in the morning! Today after I took Tim to his bus I noticed there was fresh snow in the lower hills around. Very pretty! It's hard for me to get used to getting up so early but the early mornings can be so beautiful and lately I've noticed more and more animal sounds in the distance. I just hope the woodpeckers don't come back this year. I think it was about 2 yrs ago that we had an awful problem with the woodpeckers on the gutters of the house, especially right over my bedroom window. I read up on getting rid of them and it sounded like the woodpeckers have more rights than we do! We did hang alot of shiny things on the house and it seemed to help a little.

I've still got this cough pretty bad but the dr said on Saturday that he didn't think it was pneumonia. He did put me on antibiotics though for the sinus infection. Last night I went to sleep at 11:30 or so and woke up about 2, had to take some cough medicine and it still took me awhile to go back to sleep, got to sleep all the way till 6am! Yesterday morning I ended up sleeping in because I had set the alarm to 6pm! That hopefully will teach me to wear my glasses when I set the alarm. Speaking of sleep, I will feed the dogs and then hopefully go back to sleep for awhile. I set up my cutting table so I could cut out more of the cotton batting for the rag quilts I'm making and I would love to work on that but if I don't get some sleep I'll just be a zombie all day.

2007-03-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

There is a long, thin piece of land that goes out from Port Angeles. At the end is a Coast Guard Station but all along this piece of land before that is places where you can park along there and look out either towards town like this picture where the Olympic Mountains tower over the town or turn the other way and look across the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Victoria B.C. (British Columbia). We love to go to this piece of land, called Ediz Hook, during the summer and watch the sunsets or sometimes I just go there and relax. On 4th of July we usually park along Ediz Hook along with many other people and watch the fireworks over the town.

2007-03-09T17:14:00.000-08:00

These are some of the patriotic flannel squares that I'm using to make my next rag quilts. I really like the one that's 2nd from the left, the freedom bears. I have collected alot of patriotic flannel and am just making as many squares as I can and will make as many quilts out of it as I can, hopefully enough for each of my kids and one for cuddling up on the couch. I should have put these on a plain background. They're on the kitchen table which has a laminated US map taped to it. We also have a big laminated world map that we sometimes put on the table, especially when Shane was stationed in South Korea but now he's in Georgia.

2007-03-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

This is a rag quilt that I made for my nephew in Michigan when he had major back surgery a couple years ago. I've got alot of patriotic themed flannel squares cut out, some sewn, some not yet, and would love to get the energy to work on more patriotic rag quilts. Doesn't seem like that big a deal when you think about it but this cold or whatever I have has drained every ounce of energy I have. I want to make one of these for each of the boys and one to cuddle up with on these cold nights. I don't have the couch shown, I have a dark blue sleeper sofa. I have alot of cute patriotic flannels, took a picture of a few of the squares but I need to find the cord to upload the picture onto here. I also am in the mood to start working on a grandmothers flower garden quilt I started long ago, something I could bring with me to Tim's Tuesday school. He starts the 3rd trimester this next Tuesday, one cooking class and then 5 computer classes so we'll be there 6 1/2 hrs instead of 5 1/2. I tried to talk him into starting classes at 10 instead of 9 but he wants the whole day so....

I have so many things I'd like to work on and am so sick of laying around this past week! It reminds me of when I was on bedrest almost my whole pregnancy with Stephen and I was bored out of my mind! I did manage to get on the treadmill last night for a whole 15 minutes, better than nothing I guess. Drs appt on Monday so I'll try to hold out till then to ask why I can't seem to kick this. What worries me is that I had a bad case of pneumonia in my late 20's and now I'm I tad bit older than that and I have this awful cough. Laid around today watching tear-jerker movies like Sleepless in Seattle and The Other Sister. Finally brought the laptop back down to the kitchen just to get myself out of that bed. It's almost 5pm and I'm going to get Stephen to help me try and get the tarp back on this old Suburban that's sticking out of the carport and since the back window is open it's getting rained in and I guess we're in for some stormy weather this weekend. Pat's coming home for the night tonight and then going back to Seattle tomorrow and working the weekend. I was going to go over there this weekend but just don't feel up to it.

2007-03-07T20:51:00.000-08:00

This picture is of Pat and I. We were on vacation in Michigan in summer of 05 visiting all his family. I actually posted this last summer when I started this blog, was trying to repost it, surprised that it worked. I'm not much different than this except that I gained 10 to 15lbs since then and can't seem to get that off. It probably doesn't help that I have some girl scout cookies sitting here that I can't stay out of. I didn't bring myself any lunch when I went to spend the day at Tim's school yesterday and so when I saw that somebody was selling off the rest of their girl scout cookies I bought 3 boxes! What can I say, I was weak. When I'm sick it's my time to baby myself. Now that Stephen knows about these cookies they won't be here for long. I have a drs appt next Monday, I wonder if I can lose the 10 to 15lbs by then???

2007-03-07T13:37:00.000-08:00

One of our windstorms this winter snapped this old apple tree right off, just hanging by a thread now. I want to go outside and cut up all these trees that fell but I feel so rotten still, besides I got out my chainsaw a day or two ago and it needs oil. From the looks of it I have a feeling Pat took it over to where he stays and used it a bunch. This was my favorite of our fruit trees, such a shame. It was sure a rough winter. It's been sunny out for a few hours today and I'm loving it but I took my last Actifed a bit ago and have a feeling I'll be heading for a nap soon.

2007-03-07T12:39:00.000-08:00

Can it really be almost Spring?? I have daffodils coming up in places where I swear there were none last year but I'm sure I say that every year.

It's been really nice out for a couple days then back to rain last night but awhile ago this morning it's sunny again! I'd love to walk up to Tim's bus stop but my cold is still horrible. I took a few more pictures outside when I ventured outside a bit ago, will post more soon. I need to take more Actifed but it knocks me out. What a waste of a beautiful day!

2007-03-04T19:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a more close-up view of the tea towel that Aunt Jenny sent me. It is so cute!! There is another picture of it that I just posted but it wasn't a very good close-up. It meant so much to me for her to send me this!!!

2007-03-04T18:49:00.000-08:00

I don't think this is the greatest picture of it but here is my 3rd apron I made. The other 2 are more country with roosters, etc but this one seemed more Spring-like with apples, etc. Well, I guess now that I think about it apples would be for Fall but with the colors it reminds me of Spring. Next to it is the most adorable tea towel that I got in the mail yesterday from Aunt Jenny. I need to take a more close-up picture in a sec and post it. It meant so much to me that she sent that and it was tied up with a piece of lace and smelled so good!! My kids and husband aren't very nurturing and it means so much to me to get something "from the heart" and also on a day when I was feeling so rotten! Jenny, you are just the sweetest!!!

2007-03-03T07:12:00.000-08:00

This was one of those days of seeing something in the clouds. It looked like an angel to me. It's nice to think we have guardian angels with us. I think I'm a little delirious today, combination of this severe virus and lack of sleep. I talked to Pat last night till almost 12:30am, thinking I didn't have to set an alarm for a change and could sleep in.... wrong!! I woke up at 6am from my head hurting and my raw throat. I'm sort of known for my loud sneezes "for a girl" but not much louder than a squeak today. I had to laugh at myself this morning when I sneezed. Where the heck did I pick this up at? Last weekend there was a home show in town that I wanted to go to but I heard about the bad flu going around and decided it would be better to stay home. I guess not. Neither dog has even wanted to wake up yet but I'd better take them out anyway and go lay back down and hopefully sleep this off. Can't wait till this peaks!!

2007-03-02T22:38:00.000-08:00

I took Thunder to the vet today and really don't know any more than I did. She ran blood tests which I thought would show something but it all came back ok. She also did an EKG, for some reason she thought this might involve his heart but it came out ok. I walked out of there with $170 less... ouch!! She said if he has a brain tumor then the seizures will get worse and then we could take him to Seattle to a specialist. I sure hope it doesn't come to that. I don't want to think we have to choose between a badly needed new roof or medical care for our dog. She said sometimes a dog will have a seizure and then never have one again. Hopefully that is the case. As for me I can barely talk now. I called Pat awhile ago and he kept laughing at me, didn't help at all!!! Looks like he's working the weekend. He was going to come home for a night but he's leary of being around me and I don't blame him at all. I was going to go to bed early and read and sleep but I built a fire in the woodstove and have been watching King of Queens dvds. Nothing like a good comedy to take your mind off your troubles.

2007-03-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

I've been coming down with something the last couple days and now it's official, I'm sick. Ticks me off, no time for sickness. I've been trying to do the positive thinking thing, something I try to do anyway, but today- What positive statements do you make when you woke up after 4hrs of sleep to your dog having a seizure and you feel awful? I'm trying not to enforce it by saying "I'm having the worst day". I've been taking some Aireborne since I felt some bug trying to sneak in and attack me but it might not have been soon enough. I tried to nap this morning off and on but life interrupts sometimes. Now I have 30 minutes to get in the shower and try and get the dip stick stuck back in the tube in my car before I go pick up Tim and then take Thunder to the vet at 4. (my car leaks oil but ever since we bought this car last summer the tube where you check the oil is bent and you're having a very good day if you can get the dip stick back in there after you check it. Last night I checked it when I got gas and had to drive home without the dipstick in there, still can't get it in there) What I need is a big bowl of chicken soup. Maybe I'll stop at Safeway deli because I sure don't feel like cooking.

2007-03-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Thunder (our boxer on the left) gave me quite a scare this morning. Last night when I came home from getting groceries Stephen said that Thunder was acting like he was going to throw up. I don't think he did but he was very whiny all night. I woke up at 4am to him thrashing around in the living room, went down there and he was having a seizure. I finally got him calmed down but for a bit he seemed to be staring into space and then laid there breathing heavily and wouldn't or couldn't get up when I was calling to him, then seemed pretty shaky. After awhile I got him to drink some water and later he did eat some breakfast. Tim and I were supposed to go on a field trip to the Seattle Aquarium today and we were going to Pike Place Market too but I explained to Tim this morning that I need to take Thunder to the vet and he was very understanding. He decided he'd go ahead and go to his regular school today and he wanted to get ready 1/2hr early so he could take the bus. Thunder and Missy are both napping right now. I only got 4hrs of sleep so I think I'll take a little nap and then take him to the vet. Sure hope he's ok, he's 5yrs old and boxers aren't known for living long lives. We would be crushed if something happened to him.

2007-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

I probably already have this picture somewhere on my blog but I was looking for one of Tim and like this one. I feel like such a bad mom today. Tim's been going to school on Tuesdays at a school geared towards homeschooled kids and then since he loved that so much we put him in a regular school the other days. This regular school is only half day on Wednesdays and I completely forgot that this week. It was snowing like crazy today and I was thinking I had a good hour till time to go get him and he showed up at the door! I felt awful, he's such a sweet kid, rarely complains about anything. It wouldn't have been so bad if he had a coat and hat on. It was good at least that the snow wasn't bad enough that the bus driver had to drop the kids off up at the highway, that would have been over 4 miles for him to walk. As it was I think it was about a mile and a half.

2007-02-28T12:26:00.001-08:00

I woke up to snow today. This picture was taken when I was driving back from taking Tim to school, not far from my house. It's still snowing but not alot on the ground, maybe an inch. It must be affecting my internet satellite because I've been trying to post this picture for quite awhile today.

2007-02-25T15:47:00.000-08:00

Seeing the old barns also reminded me of the time when my dad and I went up to Whatcom County, I think it was when we were working on our family genealogy. This is a picture of the barn that my dad helped his grandpa build in the 1930's when he was a child. The house where they lived wasn't there anymore but the barn was doing fine.

***This is being posted a couple days later. I asked Dad where this barn is located and here's what he said, "The Barn is or was on the property on the Telegraph road just south of the old Liberty school, on the east side. My grandparents bought the property about 1910, so the barn was built shortly after that." He didn't say but this property was somewhere between Bellingham and Sumas. It was a surprise to me for him to say that the barn would have been built shortly after 1910 since my dad wasn't even born till 1931 but I guess it makes sense as my dad's grandpa died when my dad was 8 or 9 years old. Maybe what my dad had said was that he helped his grandpa in the barn. I would love to drive up to Whatcom County one of these days and see if the barn is still there.

2007-02-25T15:39:00.000-08:00

After seeing some other pictures of barns it got me to thinking about a couple pictures I had. This is a barn that was in Sequim for a long time and when we'd go to Dungeness Spit camping we'd see it leaning more and more until one day it had collapsed. As I look at this old picture of it I see animals near it and have to wonder just how long this barn was used for the animals shelter.

2007-02-24T16:39:00.000-08:00

These are my 2 sweet grandson's, Joey on the left and Aaron on the right. Shane is in the Army stationed in Savannah, Georgia. Him and Melissa told the boys last weekend that they were going for a drive but not where they were going and they went to Universal Studios and Disneyworld. They all had a blast! I miss the boys but am glad that they and their mom can live with Shane. He spent a year stationed in South Korea and being away from family.

I was going to try and post something everyday but today have had a very lazy day so haven't even gone outside. Pat got home from Seattle late last night and we ended up sleeping in till almost noon and have been very lazy today but it's nice to have a day to just relax. I need to get outside and clean the other chicken houses before we get a bunch of snow but can't get the energy.

2007-02-23T10:37:00.000-08:00

This picture reminds me of Spring, something I've been craving, nice warm weather to takes walks in. This was taken up the road from here. Always cracks me up when the animals around here come over to the fence to greet us as we walk by.

This morning I woke up to snow again, just enough to make it look pretty out there with a dusting of snow on the branches of the trees, very icy out too though. I wasn't wanting to drive in it but Tim wanted to go to school so I took him. It is always such a beautiful drive going into the very small town of Joyce where he goes to school. I was sure wishing I would have brought my camera, Monday for sure. I need to go into town today so I thought about driving out to Joyce first but it probably wouldn't look the same without the early morning sun on the hills around Joyce.

I stayed awake much too late last night listening to a book on cd. I try to take a nap in the evening so I can talk to Pat after he gets off work at 11 and drives to our trailer. I sure don't get enough sleep to be able to stand that alarm clock going off at 6:30am. I've got the alarm set to "crow", need to change that before I get to where I hate the sound of roosters. Speaking of roosters I took one of the Silky Roosters over to Dad's a week ago since his rooster had disappeared. I put the rooster in with the 3 hens and they let him know he was very unwelcome there! Dad did say later though that when he checked on him the next day he was enjoying the chicken house and just staying away from the hens. Hopefully they'll get used to each other. Stephen and I moved the chicken yard yesterday since it was getting muddy there. I cleaned out the Silkies house and put new shavings in, still need to clean out the Barred Rocks house today and the Buttercups house. I hope it warms up!

2007-02-22T12:16:00.000-08:00

This is the first picture I ever saw of my house. We were living in Seattle but had decided we wanted to move to Port Angeles. I was looking on realestate.com and saw the ad with this picture of this house with 10 acres at a price we could afford. I figured that it was a come-on but we drove over here anyway to look at it. It was March 15th and we had snow in Western Washington but not alot. We were following the real estate agent as she drove to this house and as she climbed higher and the snow grew deeper we fell in love with the area and by the time we got to this house with a foot of snow we already loved it and knew that somehow we would buy it. The rest is history. We love this house and the land around it and the town. We are so blessed!!

2007-02-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

Here is another good picture of Shawn that I found on my computer when I was looking for something else.

Haven't posted much lately. Tim went to Crescent School last week 1/2 days and did really well so we were going to try and put him into full days but last Friday he got sick with a wicked cold so he's been home all week.

I haven't been feeling great myself lately, went to the drs yesterday and will have testing done next week. It's been such a long, cold and windy winter here, can't wait till Spring! We have had at least some snow here since Thanksgiving weekend! It's starting to cloud up some but last time I looked it was still in the 20's on the porch. Haven't done any sewing lately and I'm missing it. I have to take Thunder to the vet today and get groceries but hopefully can take a little time to sew too.

2007-01-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here's the picture of my oldest son Shawn, that I have been looking for. I really like this picture of him and he's with Joey, my cute and sweet little grandson.

2007-01-02T16:47:00.000-08:00

It's been a couple months since I posted. So much has happened since then but it will be hard to remember it all. The weather has been awful! We had a couple feet of snow Thanksgiving weekend which was beautiful but it started out pretty heavy and snapped trees all over the place so we ended up losing power for 5 days or so. That got very old! Here's a picture of our house during that snow.

We also had alot of windstorms and lost power during a couple of those too, the last time I just couldn't take it anymore so I bought a generator. We had bought a smaller one to use down at the neighbors for the pump for our shared well and I bought a larger one to use here so we could at least have some lights and the fan for the woodstove and also charge the batteries on cell phones and the laptop. The day after I bought the bigger generator and right after Pat got the other generator wired in at the neighbors the power came back on and hasn't gone out since.

I took Tim to Tacoma for his 2nd MRI since the 1st one in September showed a spot on his pinneal gland and they wanted to do this 2nd one using dye. I haven't heard anything from them, hopefully that's good news. It was a nightmare just trying to get that appt done. The 1st appt was Dec.4th and I also had a drs appt and figured I could make it to the MRI fine but forgot just how horrible traffic can be in Seattle so since we didn't make it in time we had to reschedule. We had an appt for Dec. 6th already at Tim's neurologist in Tacoma so we made the appt later that day for the MRI. We went to the neurologist and then made the mistake of going to run some errands and got caught in traffic so didn't make it again! On the way home to Port Angeles that night I hit a deer and wiped out the front end of my car pretty good so I've been having to drive the truck since then. I made the 3rd appt for Tim's MRI for the following Tuesday, figuring that we'd be partway there already since Tim's school is at least 30 minutes east of here. We were doing fine on time until the truck broke down not all that far from Tacoma! I called Pat and told him what happened and he said it sounded like the clogged fuel filter which it does sometimes and even though there was a spare filter in the glove compartment I didn't know how to change it so Pat drove down from Boeing and fixed it for me. I had planned on driving right back to Port Angeles that night so didn't bring a change of clothes or anything but I got the chance to change the MRI appt to the next afternoon so Tim and I spent the night at the trailer. I gave myself 1- 1/2hrs to make it from Federal Way to Tacoma and made it to the MRI with plenty of time. I wasn't taking any chances.

We had at least 2 of the Silkie hen's chicks hatch, one of them was dead when I first saw it so I don't think it lived long. The other one was so cute and looked healthy but it also died within a day or two. She sat on the last 3 for another week or two so I figured they just weren't going to hatch so I put her back in with the other Silkies and we're going to discourage her from setting on eggs for awhile. It was so cold in the greenhouse where we had her that her babies just didn't have a chance.

One of our windstorms broke our satellite dish for our internet and it took weeks to get it fixed. It sure is nice to have it back! We had to go back to dial-up for awhile. I guess I'm spoiled. I got myself a laptop in December and am loving it! I hooked it all up so that one of the kids can be online on this computer and I can be online at the same time on the laptop and also I can use the laptop with the wireless connection at Tim's school and other places that have a wireless connection.

I had a picture of Shawn with Joey that I really like and wanted to post on here but I can't find it now. I'll look around for it and post it later. I have a bunch of other good ones of him but I can't get them to post at a decent size, they're all so tiny you can barely see him.

2006-10-31T22:53:00.000-08:00

Haven't had time to post on here in quite awhile. We're still working on the refinishing job on the house, taking alot longer than planned. I'm anxious to finish painting the AfterBlast on the front porch so I can start staining but it's been so cold here the last few days work has had to stop until it warms up a little. It's supposed to rain on Thursday so hopefully will be able to get some done.

One of the Black Silkie hens has decided to set on some eggs, 5 at last count. There are 4 roosters in that area and 3 hens. The roosters seem to get along ok so I haven't done anything about getting rid of any of them. It will be hard to do, I've gotten attached to all of them, even the one rooster who loves to peck me and always has since he was a baby. I think he's the same one who we call the Guard since he seems to decide who is allowed to come into their house. We've seen him sit in the doorway until long after dark while 1 or 2 of the hens are sitting outside. Anyway it will be nice to see the baby chicks and let the mama raise them instead of us bringing them in. That got old last Spring when we had big bins with the chicks in the living room. Their chirping wasn't too bad but as they got bigger the smell got bad unless we cleaned their bin out everyday.

Tim is loving his Tuesday school. Next Tuesday the new class list for the new trimester comes out. He's anxious to see what classes they will offer. On November 17th there's a big field trip to the Science Center in Seattle. We're looking forward to that but not to having to be there by 7:15am. We'll have to leave our house by 6:30 and we're not morning people here!

2006-10-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the back side of the house with the After-Blast painted on. It makes the house look a little darker. Once we get the After-Blast on the whole house then we get to start staining! That will be my favorite part, it'll be like coloring. We're going to put a cedar stain on and then energy seal between the logs that will also be cedar color. We decided against doing the chinking. Can't wait to get the energy seal on, it's been freezing cold in here every night lately. We also got a 5 gallon bucket of EZ Strip last week ($220), Pat left it in the driveway, Stephen was asked by Pat to move one of the cars and he backed over the bucket of EZ Strip! This project has been way more expensive than we ever dreamed. Hopefully running over the bucket taught Stephen to drive more carefully and always check behind him before he backs up. I want to get out there and paint more tomorrow but I have to go to Tacoma for an appt for Tim at the pediatric neurologist. We'll get the results of the MRI Tim had last week. I'm finding an egg about every day in the Silkies area now. Today I walked by and saw an egg in their yard so I got it and put it in my coat pocket and went back to painting. Tonight I was on the computer and remembered the egg and checked my pocket and it was broke! That'll teach me. **This is added on October 15th. You would have thought I would have learned, I did the same thing a few days ago, stuck an egg in my pocket when I was working outside and it broke while I was working on the house!

2006-09-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

After waiting since Spring for one of these chickens to lay an egg we found 2 in the yard of the Black Silkies area today! This is a saucer in the picture so it shows how small these are, they're from Bantam chickens which are fairly small. I've got to get that greenhouse ready to put the chickens in! We've been so busy with this huge project of blasting the finish off the house that I haven't had time to work on anything else. The blasting is done and it looks like it won't rain for at least a few days so we'll go ahead and spray the house with the Shell-Guard this weekend.

2006-09-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

We're still working on this huge project of blasting the old finish off the house and then we have to spray it with the Shell Guard and then the After-Blast, then we can stain it. I think that will be the fun part although you can sure see the progress while you're blasting so I guess that's been fun too. We were supposed to only need 40 bags of corn media for the blasting but so far have used 78 bags and we're not done. We're supposed to be re-renting the blaster tomorrow for the weekend, if it doesn't rain. I've been using the shop vac to vacuum up all the corn media I can and then I've been sifting it into the empty bags so we can reuse it.

2006-09-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday and Melissa, my son Shane's wife, posted this picture on our myfamily.com site. It's me and Shane when he was about 2, probably 1978 or so. I miss when Shane was that little and I sure wish I was as young now as I was in that picture!

2006-09-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

Joey and Aaron on their first day of school in Georgia... such sweet adorable boys!

2006-09-05T22:44:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the Silkies. Most look like roosters, at least half anyway.

2006-09-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

It's official, these 2 on the left are roosters. I've got at least 3 of the 7 crowing now. They crow back and forth at the Sicilian Buttercup. I really like listening to them crow but I know it would be too hard on the 2 or 3 hens in there. I guess I need to find them a home.

2006-09-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

Wow! It took 1 minute to upload this picture onto here. I love this fast internet! I'm so tired, should be sleeping right now but I want to play on the computer. It's after 10 and I need to be out of here in the morning between 7 and 8 at the latest to be in Tacoma by 11 for a drs appt at a pediatric neurologist for Tim. I've waited all summer for this appt so we need to go. After that I have to drive back up to Permachink to get another 30-35 big bags of corn media. On Thursday and Friday I'll do some of the blasting but also need to take Stephen to the dentist Thursday.

2006-09-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

We are in the midst of a big project, blasting the old finish off the outside of our log house. Much bigger job than I thought. I know it will be worth it in the end but for now it's a huge pain. I have pictures of the job as it's going along but this slow connection isn't being very cooperative. On Tuesday this guy is coming here to install satellite internet. Cannot wait!!!! It's been 4 long years of the connection problems.

I also have pictures to put on here of the chickens. I have a feeling that soon we will have fewer. At least 2 of the Black Silkies now crow along with the Sicilian Buttercup who's in a different area. I actually only am pretty sure that 2 of the 7 Black Silkies are hens. I really hate to get rid of any of them and I know I couldn't eat them so I'll place an ad at the feed store. There was alot of fighting going on in there today but even the 2 Buttercups were fighting with each other. I think their nerves were all on edge from listening to that huge air compressor going and the corn blaster was going too. I couldn't even go near there without my ear plugs. We picked up 35 bags of the corn media and because we didn't read the manual fully we ended up using way more the first day than we should have so now we have 1 or 2 bags left. Didn't even get started till 5pm on Friday, about the time that Permachink closed until Tuesday morning. Ticked me off because I had asked them if we had problems would we be able to get ahold of someone and they said yes. We haven't been able to contact anyone from there and they are apparently the only place in Washington State where you can get the corn media. I went around to the feed stores yesterday with a sample and finally bought 200lbs of chick scratch but it was much coarser than what we had. I may be grinding a bunch of that in the food processor.

I got Tim in school and on Tuesday there's a picnic to meet the other kids and parents. On Wednesday he has an appt. at a pediatric neurologist in Tacoma and then we'll probably be driving up to Redmond to get more corn media. Much of the house is done but still alot to do and then we spray it with Shell-Guard to protect from insects, etc, spray it with After-Blast, then stain it, etc, then chink it and we will have a much warmer house this winter. There was so much of that corn stuff that came into the house that I realized just how bad it's been needing to be chinked.

2006-08-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is my greenhouse that I'm turning into a chicken house. There was so much stuff that kept getting put in there that I couldn't even get in there to get chicken feed, let alone use it as a greenhouse. I'm going to cover the front windows on the left with plywood so it doesn't get so warm in there. There's the windows on both ends for ventilation but I still need to put chicken wire over those to keep our little escapees in and the other critters out. I'll cut 2 little doors, one of each side of the big windows, for the chickens to get outside into their fenced area which I need to attach to the greenhouse and expand. Lots of work but it's the best way.

2006-08-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

This is my Sicilian Buttercup rooster. He was kind of funny looking when I got him a few months ago but he's getting to be very nice looking. They loved all the long grass in the area I moved them to over the weekend. I need to get to the store and buy supplies to get the big chicken house built! I'm thinking seriously of getting the 5 Rhode Island Red hens, guess they're actually called pullets since they're less than a year old, and I really don't have anywhere to put them. Stephen and I may have to raid Pat's wood pile and put together another temporary chicken coop.

2006-08-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here's a better picture of the 5 Barred Rock chickens. After they got moved to the shade and long grass yesterday they were so happy! I called on 5 Rhode Island Red hens today. Do I dare buy them? I'd have to get another temporary chicken house ready to use until I get the big chicken house done. I'm thinking I'm going to need a pretty big chicken house!

2006-08-06T16:28:00.000-07:00

I moved the chicken yard yesterday over where there's almost always long grass and weeds. The chickens had been in an area that I had cleared last year so there wasn't much in the way of grass or weeds there. None of them wanted to even go in their houses last night, they were enjoying the cool green grass and the shade. I've got to start building the chicken house soon and I'm thinking of building it somewhere in this area except it's a little too close to the clothesline for my liking. I don't want our sheets and towels smelling like chicken poop!

2006-08-04T15:34:00.000-07:00

I love this picture of Tim. It was taken last summer when we went to Ruby Beach on the coast of Washington. It's so beautiful there! It took us longer than we thought to get there since Missy, one of our boxers, gets car sick and we had to stop a few times but we got there in time for the sunset.

2006-08-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Stephen at Hurricane Ridge just outside of Port Angeles. I don't have very many pictures of him, just whatever I can take when he doesn't see what I'm up to. On this day last Fall we went up to Hurricane Ridge visitor center and then Stephen and I hiked quite aways up from there while Pat and Tim hung out around the visitor center.

2006-08-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

This picture is from the snow we got this past December on the 1st and 2nd. It stuck around till the 18th and then left. That was probably the least snow we've had in the 4 winters we lived here, certainly less than the 3ft we had the previous winter! Stephen is still complaining about that. It wasn't so bad but it sure stuck with us a long time! It was actually quite beautiful but was getting a little scary on about the 3rd day in a row of it not stopping. I started having visions of it getting so deep it would cover the windows and I was getting very worried about how much was on the roof, especially on the skylights over my bed and over the living room! It makes me feel cold now to look at a picture of the snow but it's not very warm here anyway. We had a few days recently when it was very hot but ever since then it's in the 60's and 70's, not even warm enough to bother opening many windows, makes me feel guilty when I think of all the people suffering in the extreme heat in other parts of the country right now.

2006-08-04T10:51:00.000-07:00

Something about this picture that I just love. This is looking from my living room towards my dining room. I wiped out the hard drive on my computer last week and am still reinstalling things on it. I was just going through some pictures that were backed up on the external hard drive and found 2 that are among my favorites, this is one.

2006-08-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Here's Tim on his birthday with Missy watching him open one of his presents, probably hoping it will be a squeaky ball.

I still haven't finished my latest apron! I hurt my back last week and when I went to Seattle for the weekend I ended up not being able to do much but lay around reading and then when I got back I've had so much to do around here that I couldn't find time to sew. Stephen and I are cleaning the chickens houses tonight, taking a break now.

2006-07-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

Here's Joey and Aaron at a park in Savannah, Georgia. Aaron had some dental work done that day and his mouth was hurting so Joey was being extra nice to him.

2006-07-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of Aaron at a park in Savannah, Georgia. He's such a sweet boy! I miss him and his brother so much!!

2006-07-18T12:04:00.000-07:00

Haven't had time to post on here or sew lately. I wish things weren't so busy. Here's a picture of Joey and Aaron at a park in Savannah, Georgia.

2006-07-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

These doggies just adore each other! I don't know what they would do without each other.

2006-07-11T01:30:00.000-07:00

This picture is of Shane with Joey and Aaron during one of Shane's leaves.

2006-07-11T01:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of our 5 Black Silkie chickens. You can't see them very well at all but even when I get close ups they look like a ball of black fur! They're really fun, a bit mischievous, one of them in particular likes to grab the S hook and run with it when I take the hanging food or water feeders down to fill.

2006-06-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

Tim and I went strawberry picking with Pennie and her little boy Carson yesterday. Pennie started a Farmgirl Chapter, just her and I are members so far. Our chapter is called "The Farm Chicks". Tim and I first went to her house and she gave us a tour, what a beautiful place and I love the pond with the ducks and all the other animals. Here's a picture of Pennie, Carson and Tim after we got done picking. I don't know why this one came out so small, I'll have to try to upload it again but for now here it is.

2006-06-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

We dug 2 deep holes to put my new clothesline poles in and the kids (Joey and Aaron, my 2 grandkids-- I can't be old enough to be a grandma!!) wanted to stand in one and get their picture taken. Thunder and Missy, our 2 boxers, wanted in the picture too.

2006-06-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Here's the front view of the apron I finished last night. I just strung the cable on my new clothesline poles so decided to hang the apron on it for the picture. As you can probably see it's pretty breezy today, nice change from the last couple days when it was hot here. On the upper part of the apron and across the area where the pockets are is a dark line but it's just shadow from the other lines. Look how blue the sky is! What a gorgeous day!

***Posting to this 2/27/07 Will it ever be warm enough again to hang clothes on the clothesline? I can barely get myself to go outside and clean the chicken houses. Most of the time I don't feel as old as I am but I sure can't stand the cold weather the older I get.

2006-06-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

I love this picture too. This one is after a busy day of visiting with Shane. Joey was pretty wiped out. I didn't know how he would do with the night flights and connections and general lack of sleep during our whole trip but he was an absolute angel! I miss those boys already! They flew from Seattle to Savannah, Georgia last night with their Mom to live with Shane.

2006-06-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

I just love this picture. This is my son Shane (who I just found out yesterday is in the hospital with malaria). I had gone to see his graduation from basic training and while he knew that I was flying there with his dad and stepmom he didn't know that we were bringing his then 6 year old son Joey. We had to not even tell Joey we were bringing him until the night before we left so he wouldn't tell his Dad when he called. There's an arcade in the picture and Joey was hiding in there and was supposed to wait till I called him to come out but I got so swept away with emotions at seeing how much Shane had changed in the short time he had been in basic training I forgot and then we heard Joey call out "Daddy!" and ran into his Dad's arms. I think we all shed some tears. In this picture Joey is showing his Daddy where he had lost his first tooth.

2006-06-26T14:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of my first apron. I really love this pattern, might make the pockets a little bigger on my next one. I used the 1940's pattern. I'm almost done with my next apron and when I take a picture of it I'll take a picture of the back too. You can kind of see the strip that goes across the upper back and the apron ties in the back. It's very roomy and easy to put on and I love that chicken material! I've got to learn to get alot when I find fabric that I love! I got the pattern for this from a store but it's from http://www.thecalicocat.com. I'll try and finish the next apron later today and post a picture of it. It's hot here today and I badly want to start making MaryJane's Apron! I bought fabric for it that is perfect for summer.