Mama’s Brag Post

Some weeks are better than other's when it comes to raising kids, and seeing the choices they make. This week Tyler and I couldn't go to our Scout meeting, to avoid sharing our wonderful stomach bug with any of our friends. Travis, it seems, is always looking for an excuse to not go to his meeting. So often, in fact, that I have asked him several times if he wants to quit. Well, when I said we weren't going to the meeting, I figured for sure Travis would be looking for a way out….nope. In fact, he spent some time that afternoon making sure he had the design for their patrol flag printed out, and he made a point of asking me for a copy of the formal flag ceremony. It seems one of the new scouts in his patrol doesn't have it memorized but wanted to lead the ceremony. Travis said the Boy Scout leader was a little disorganized and couldn't find a copy last week, so Travis wanted to make sure he brought one in case somebody needed it.

Is this leadership I see coming out in my son? Whoa! It's too cool! This change in attitude seems to have come along with his new role as Patrol Leader. In fact, he received his badge 2 weeks ago, and he was a little pushy about me getting it sewed on before he went on a hike with his patrol a few days later. I think he's proud of the position, and is taking it seriously. Yay!

Mom & Me Camp was fun, at least what we stayed for was. Tyler woke up at 1:00 a.m. vomiting. Not fun. I decided to get him comfortable and hold off till morning to go home, because another mom and her son had ridden with us and they really wanted to do the morning activities. However, after the 3^rd episode, I made the call to go home. It took us awhile to pack up and haul it all down to the car, but we were on the road by 3:30 a.m. The other mom and son understood. I'll post pictures, but probably not until after we move.

The move….only a couple days left to finish packing. Saturday we'll get the storage unit and start moving everything out. Melissa, is it important to you that I keep the knitting machine or the VHS Taebo? If not, I'm donating them. Tonight I saw some fun benefits of the move…I ran into a friend at the Post Office, I had another friend point out that we can carpool if need be to and from church functions, and yet another lady pointed out how easy it would be to get together for park days or to set up the pitching machine….like I couldn't have driven in from Port Orchard for that stuff, but somehow being in town just makes it easier.

At the church tonight, I had the opportunity to hear a Christian band I hadn't heard before. I had walked into the youth room to get Travis, and stopped to talk to a lady I know. But then the stereo started playing what I thought was "I Love Rock & Roll." I was just getting ready to ask if that was appropriate music for the occasion, when the lady I was talking to pointed out that it was "I Love Apostle Paul" by Apologetix. They are a Christian parody band who "specializes in biblical parodies of rock hits from the 60s through the 90s" and today. They will be playing in Mount Vernon next Friday night. I think the youth group is planning on going. I checked out their webpage, and I think it would be fun to get some of their CDs. Melissa, I just downloaded The Devil Went Down to Jordan, here are the lyrics: http://www.apologetix.com/music/song.php?freebie=true &song_id=28

Okay, don't know when I'll be checking in again. Have fun everyone!

It’s been a week….

…and I don't have time to blog about it right now. I'm waiting for the washer to finish so I can toss the stuff in the dryer and go to bed. Tyler and I are off to Mom & Me Camp first thing in the morning. It should be a fun weekend.

Yesterday I had a fun challenge. Desiree was here picking up her boys when one of them accidentally locked her keys in her car. We spent almost an hour with a wire coat hanger trying to pull up the handle on the passenger side. It took us at least 15 minutes to maneuver the hanger through the door to even make the attempt. At the end of almost an hour of fishing, the coat hanger was too flimsy from being bent and manipulated, it wouldn't hook. We each took a breath, said a prayer, and then we got a fresh hanger. Within 5 minutes we had the door open, praise God! The first hanger was our practice hanger, to hone our skills. The second hanger was easy.

Melissa, my schedule for next week: Monday, Scouts; Tuesday, packing; Wednesday, WOW!; Thursday, packing; Friday, Bible Study; weekend, moving. Was it really two hours we were on the phone?

Tommy was sick all day today. Poor baby, he's miserable. My mom came out to babysit for me so I could go to Bible Study, no taking a sick baby to that. I feel so bad for him; he hasn't managed to keep much down. He likes the pedialyte though, which is a good thing.

I need to find my camera so I can pack it. Have a great weekend everybody!

Thursday

I have a cold. It came on slowly Monday night, hit me hard Tuesday and Thursday, and seems to be waning now. I do not like colds.

I had a woman's circle Bible study tonight. That was a nice change of pace. We actually finished our study by 7, but sat around chatting until after 8. I needed the laughter.

Upcoming events....Jeff and I are leading children's church this Sunday. That should be interesting. I'll let you know how that goes.

My weekends are all planned out for awhile...this weekend is packing (mostly the garage, maybe the China cabinet). Next weekend Tyler and I are going to Mom & Me camp at Camp Sheppard. While we're gone, Jeff and Travis should be helping grandpa get his house ready for us to invade. The weekend after that (2 weeks from now) we'll move. Yikes! Only 2 more weeks.

Then I'll spend some time cleaning this house for the owner's. We have the rent paid through the 6th. On the 6th, I'll sign the boys up for swimming.

On the 7th, Travis and I are taking a train trip to Portland. He's working on his railroading badge for Scouts. One of the requirements is to interview somebody who works for the railroad. I told him he could call Manny, talk to his former youth leader at church (he's an engineer), or wait for the trip and participate in the group interview that is already scheduled. He'll probably wait for the trip, but thinks it's cool that he has options.

We'll have about 6 hours to waste in Portland, any suggestions on where to go or how to get around? I don't know Portland at all! I have looked up some ideas, and am considering the Oregon Zoo or Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Starting young on the video games.

I found it!

That is one big bunny!

Another rainy Easter Sunday.

BBQ, yum.




Ready for dinner.

Have a nice day!

I hope everybody had a good Easter with their respective families.

I had a good weekend. Saturday a friend took me out to lunch. That evening Jeff and I took Tyler and Tommy out to dinner after we did some shopping. Travis was at a friend's house.

Sunday we came home after church and stayed home. It was just us, and it was nice. The boys had an egg hunt in the rain and basket hunt in the house.

We had a simple dinner of salad, potato salad, bbq pork steaks, dinner rolls, and sliced bananas & strawberries w/whipped cream for dessert.

Scouts was fun tonight. I was paid a high compliment. One of the boys in my den was at home sick, but his father made it a point to tell me how very upset the young man was that he couldn't come to Scouts. He had really been looking forward to our project tonight, and the dad was under orders to find out what we did and if he could do it at home. Funny.

What we did was make some simple instruments. After the instruments were made, the boys played them while loudly singing Yankee Doodle. It was great! They loved it.

We only have one den meeting left before Crossover, and I do think I'm going to miss this a bit.

Well, it's getting late. Better get to bed. Good Night!

A Beautiful Day

We started a papier mache project today. We're making monsters, and today we shaped the faces on balloons. I am hoping they will dry enough by tomorrow to pop the balloons and paint the faces. If not, we'll be painting on Saturday. Maybe I should take pictures.

The boys have been bugging me to take them to play tennis all this week. The weather has been so nice, I don't blame them for wanting to get out. This evening I told them I would take them for a drive to see if we could find tennis courts close to where we'll be living, and if we were to find some, we could stop and play for awhile.

Three-quarters of a mile, that's how far the tennis courts are, a walkable distance. We're happy with that. We stopped, the boys played tennis for awhile while Tommy and I ran around in the grass. Then Tyler watched Tommy while Travis and I played for a few minutes. After we put the tennis equipment back in the car we walked over to the playground. Travis watched a softball team at practice, Tyler climbed, and Tommy mastered climbing up to the slides and sliding down with no help. We spent a good hour or so there, had a good time, and left when the sun started hinting at sunset. We decided that will be a regular walking destination for us.

Rainbow, if you really do make it out here in May/June....we'll definitely have to take the kids there. Pack a lunch and let the kids play.

Next, Travis wanted me to see how far the church is. I keep telling him we'll be close, but not close enough to walk on a regular basis. Hmmm...just over a mile. We walk that on a regular basis. I wouldn't want to walk it on Sunday mornings, but I foresee possibly walking to and from VBS this summer, and maybe the last two or three WOW! meetings, when we'll be living over there and the sun will stay out later.

Tomorrow night we're dying Easter eggs with other families at the church, then attending the Good Friday service. Well, time to get my little monsters to bed. Good Night!

Hello Everybody!

3-legged race

I am pleased to see that everybody is doing well. It took me awhile to catch up, I really need to get cable Internet.



So, kids have been keeping me busy. Last week we did spring break. Tyler had a buddy go with us to WOW! and spend the night and Wednesday. On Thursday Tyler went to his friend's house, and Travis had a friend spend the night. On Friday I declared Family time until the week after Easter...no more sleepovers or play dates. Travis, Tyler, and I fell asleep watching Harry Potter.



On Saturday we went to the egg hunt at the church, and met up with some friends there. Everybody had a good time. Tyler won one of the guessing jars...the one with jellybeans in it. That is typical for Tyler, he has won something at every event we've gone to with the church for the last several years, usually a guessing jar.



A lady at the egg hunt made a remark to one of the boys who was sprawled out on the grass...she said he could've made a snow angel 3-days before that. Too true. I was shocked to discover that I had managed to get sunburned that day.



I got the boys and I signed up for a hunting safety course in Silverdale. It isn't until late July/early August. It should be interesting.



Thank you, Rainbow and Melissa, for letting me complain to you. I started to annoy myself, though. I hate whining about the same person over and over again, but she does something new and ridiculous on a regular basis.



I took advantage of the dry weather and sunshine yesterday. I ran my Scouts up and down the lawn for about 25 minutes, doing various relay races and wearing them down. Next week we'll do crafts. We'll build our instruments for Cub Scout Band and practice singing and playing our song for the Pack Meeting. After that, we will only have one den meeting left before Crossover.



The Boy Scout Assistant Scoutmaster gave me a heads up on a good sale at Big 5. The timing was good, because he asked me if Travis has a good sleeping bag and I told him I had actually thrown Travis's bag away over the weekend. Well, today Travis got a brand new Coleman mummy bag for $29.99. The original price on the box was $69.99. Yeah, that's a good deal. The one he picked is only rated down to 20 degrees. I tried to talk him into a 15 or 10 degree bag, but I think his final decision was made based on color. Who am I to complain? My bag is only rated to 40 degrees, but it sure is a pretty combination of pink and black, with a pink stuff bag.

April Fools

Tyler woke me up and told me it was snowing this morning. I halfway dismissed it as an April Fool's joke, until I saw the white world we were living in. What is up with this snow????

Tyler did prank us though. He hid all the shampoo in the house, from both bathrooms, including the shampoo out of my shower. I didn't find it, and Jeff was about to jump on Travis for it, when Tyler confessed and said he got the idea from the Disney Channel.

Josh has gone to his mom's. Noah is here. The older 3 boys are watching a movie. Tommy's asleep. I'm on my way.

Good Night!