There hasn’t been too much going on around here… A whole lot of bowling is all! *lol* … But as of this afternoon, all the summer leagues are officially over. Last night was the last night for the Have-A-Ball league (The Johnson Boys came in 2nd place for the league!), and today was the last day for the kids summer free league… Jared was excited because he got to bowl against the Hartrampfs today, who pretty much make up the dream team of bowling.   Jared’s team beat them on all three games! … Of course, it’s because they have a higher handicap. The other team actually knocked down more pins, but our team was bowling above their averages, which brought the pin count higher because of their handicap score.

I spent a good portion of yesterday baking cookies for a couple birthdays, and for our camping trip. For the first time I made peanut butter chocolate chip (I used mini chocolate chips), and I think they turned out pretty yummy! … I also made a bunch of regular chocolate chip cookies.

You want to hear something funny though… I put a bunch of cookies in a ziplock bag, to take to the bowling alley for the employees. I gave the bag to Teri (one of the owners), and she took the bag home and didn’t share a single cookie! Next time I will have to give her a bag, and then put one on the counter for everyone else!

I am just about ready for school to start… We’re going to start on September 6th… I now have all the lesson plans done for all four kids, for the entire school year. The only thing left to do is to print out the lesson plans and get the kids’ binders ready for the year. But right now I am out of ink, so it’s going to have to wait until we’re home from vacation. Once we’re home, we’ll have one full week of vacation left, and then it’s time to hit the books.

I CAN NOT believe how fast the summer went by! *sigh*

Wow!

We’ve been keeping busy, as usual… When we’re not out and about (read: at the bowling alley), then I’ve been busy working on lesson plans for this coming school year, and also working on my heritage blog. I finished typing out Mom’s Memoirs, and by the next day I had 3 or 4 comments from people who had gone to the same school in India that Mom went to. How amazing is that?! I forwarded all the comments to my Mom, and she sent Emails to all of them. One of them wrote her back the same day, and even sent Mom pictures of the school and surrounding area. My Mom was THRILLED, to say the least!

The internet sure makes the world a whole lot smaller, doesn’t it?

One thing that’s going to be nice about homeschool starting up again, is that means the neighborhood kids will all be at school too. It seems like our house has become Grand Central Station! Every time I turn around, another kid is knocking on the door, wanting to play… And they ALL want to play inside (though I don’t always let them). The girls even talked me into letting Darian spend not only Thursday night here, but Friday as well… And, along with Darian, Hunter was over playing with Josh all day on Friday as well. They even want to eat meals with us, and don’t seem to need to ask their parents’ permission either… Darian and Hunter are good kids, but they can both be jabber-jaws, and I get enough talking from Jared, thank-you-very-much. … Sometimes I have to make the kids play outside, just to get some peace and quiet!

We even took Darian and Hunter to the bowling alley with us on Friday. Hunter was THRILLED, and even brought his own bowling ball… Darian had fun, but she did drive me more than a little crazy, with her asking for soda, slushies, and money for the vending machines. She doesn’t seem to understand that no means NO, and that it also means to STOP ASKING BECAUSE THE ANSWER IS STILL GOING TO BE NO!

Hunter wanted to spend the night on Friday as well, but Josh whispered to me that he really didn’t want him to sleep over. So I let Josh make me be the “bad guy” and he told Hunter that only one friend could sleep over at a time, and since Darian was already staying, he couldn’t stay… I felt bad for Hunter, but I can’t force Josh to have a friend sleep over, can I? *lol*

On Saturday, after making hashbrowns (etc) for breakfast, we sent Darian home and got to work. All 6 of us teamed up and got the house cleaned. We did bathrooms, floors, kitchen, bedrooms, etc… Oh, and I gave Joe and the kids hair cuts too, before we started cleaning… We were done by around 3-ish, and then (after I took a shower) we headed out the door.

Amanda had wanted to eat dinner at McDonald’s for her birthday, but her birthday falls on a Monday this year. Joe works late on Mondays, and is too tired to do much of anything when he gets home… So we took her (and the rest of the kids) to the McDonald’s in Oregon City, as she wanted to go to one with a playland, and the one in Molalla doesn’t have one. She was quite happy with her Happy Meal, and the play time in the play-place.

After leaving McDonald’s, we went to Kmart… I had finished going through the kids’ clothes, and had a small list of things they need for the winter… Jared needed some underclothes, Josh needed a couple more pairs of jeans and a couple more t-shirts (we had to buy him smalls from the mens’ department!!!!!), Alicia needed a couple pairs of pajamas, and some summer sandles (as her’s fell apart), and Amanda needed some socks and 2 pairs of jeans.

Amanda was THRILLED, because she found some jeans with sparkles on them.

I was a little put out with the pajamas though… We had to go to the junior section and bought 2 pairs in a size small… But once we got them home, and the tags off, I noticed that while the shirts are both small, the bottoms were not. One was a medium and one was a large! They are HUGE on her, and had to be pinned so they wouldn’t fall off. (Well, the mediums weren’t as bad as the large ones, obviously.) … It doesn’t seem to bother Alicia though, and she says that they are very comfy, which is highly important to her. *lol* … I’m going to get my needle and thread out and sew up the sides, so she won’t have to have the safety pins on them.

When we got home, I wanted to color my hair… You know the grays are starting to show when you’re 10 year old asks you when you plan on dying your hair again. … Anyway, I usually do it in the bathroom. I like to lock the door and strip down to my underclothes, so I won’t get dye on my clothes. It also makes it easier to rinse it out of my hair, as I just jump into the shower when it’s time. But, since my hair has to sit for 45 minutes before I rinse, it can get a little boring in there. *lol* Normally I take a book in (and a chair), and read for 45 minutes, but this time I wasn’t in the mood. So I took in my portable DVD player and watched 2 episodes of “Mad About You” while I waited… That sure made the time go by faster!

Today (Sunday) we had the Lane Family Reunion to go to… They had it at Eagle Fern Park again, which is where they had it last year… But for some odd reason, they had it on a Sunday this year, instead of on Saturday, like they normally do… Since it started at 2:00, we had to go straight there from church. We stopped by the Thriftway in Estacada and got some chicken, since I didn’t have time to cook anything (since we went to church) for the potluck.

The funny thing about the Lane Reunions, is that we rarely talk to anyone, except for Joe’s immediate family. We all put our chairs out together, and stick together. Joe parents do mingle, but the rest of us don’t do much of that. (Though we did talk to Jean for a while… She is one of the daughters of Charlie and Nellie, who owned the house we rented in Sandy back in ’06.)

They had some games and prizes for the kids, and they all seemed to have a good time.

To help pay for renting the area for the reunion, they were selling disks with pictures from the Lane heritage on them, for $15. Since I love that sort of thing, we picked one up… OMWord, are they unorganized! What a mess of photos on that disk! The scans are poor (a lot of “extra” around the sides of the photos, and no touch ups done to the pictures themselves), and some of them are not even labeled as to who the people are! I copied the pictures to my computer, and will be sorting and editing them the best I can… I hope I can find out who everyone is in the unmarked pictures. Geesh!

We had to leave there at 4:30, to make sure we got to the bowling alley on time… Tonight was the last night for the “Some-R-Kids” bowling league, so they were having awards and a pizza party.

All four of the kids got trophies (all the kids get them). Jared got one for “Most Improved Average” … He improved his average from 105 (from the fall league) to 140. Coach Mick said that it was a huge improvement, and very impressive. Josh got one for “2nd Most Improved Average” for bringing up his average from 91 to 117 … Sad thing is, in his other two leagues his average is in the 130s, so he’s actually brought it up higher… But for some reason, he doesn’t bowl well on Sunday nights. *lol* … Since Alicia and Amanda were in a bumper league, they didn’t get trophies for anything special. They just put their high game and high series on their trophies… But that didn’t bother the girls at all, they were just thrilled to get trophies at all!

The summer leagues are just about over. Like I said, tonight was the last night for the “Some-R-Kids” league. Then this Wednesday is the last night for the “Have-A-Ball” league, and Thursday is the last day for the “Summer Kids” free league. There is a free kids tournament on the 26th, but we can’t make it as we’ll be camping in Prineville.

The fall leagues start next month… All four kids will join the kids league on Saturday (Amanda will be on the bumper league, while the other three will be on the Molalla Nuggets). Then Joe has decided to join the Sunday night adult/junior league with Jared, Josh, and Alicia… It’s going to be a stretch, money wise, but this is something that Joe and the kids really enjoy doing together. With Joe’s insane work schedule, he doesn’t get much bonding time with the kids, and this is their thing now…. I don’t think the boys even know that he’s decided to do it yet (he just decided tonight, but then the boys went home with the Mewings to spend the night), and they are going to be THRILLED when they find out. … They love bowling on a league with their Daddy.

Jared and Josh got quite the compliment… There is a family of bowlers (who actually live in our neighborhood), called the Hartrampfs. Anyway, the entire family bowls really well, and they are all always going all over the state (and beyond) to different bowling tournaments. They’ve even got to Las Vagas for a huge, important tournament. I think it’s mainly the boys (Craig, 18, Austin, 16, and Jared, 14) who do the tournaments… They are a really nice family. They are fellow believers, and Karen even homeschools them… Anyway, Karen was telling me that her Jared has an eye on the boys. He says they are really good, and in a couple years (when they are a little older), he’s going to recruit them into the special “Molalla Boys” bowling team that goes all over doing the tournaments… My Jared couldn’t be more thrilled, and can not stop thinking about it. It’s something he really wants to do… He has one more year in the “Molalla Nuggets” (bowlers up to age 12) before he goes into the “Teen Olympians” on the main fall league, and he has set himself a personal goal to get his average up to 180 before he enters the Teen Olympians… He started bowling 13 months ago, with scores in the 20s and 30s, and now he usually gets 140 to 180 … So I think he may just have a chance to do it, if he tries hard enough… And trust me, he will try.

Speaking of bowling, Josh has tried out a new kind of bowling… Bandaid Bowling.

The boys have done so much bowling this summer that they keep getting blisters on their thumbs. Josh had one on Friday, but only wanted a small bandaid. He was worried that a bigger bandaid would make it hard to get his thumb into the thumb hole on the bowling ball. So anyway, after bowling a couple frames, he noticed that his bandaid had fallen off into his bowling ball hole, and then been deposited a few feet up the lane. I told him to tell either Coach Mick or Terry (the maintenance guy) about it, so they could get the bandaid off the lane… But the next thing I knew, a ball ran over the bandaid and took it more than halfway up the lane… Then the next ball grabbed the bandaid and took it the rest of the way. ops” Oops! … Some day Terry is going to be working on the machinery at the end of the lane, and wonder how on earth a bandaid got down there!

The kittens are doing well… But… Clueless Cassie strikes again!

I swear, sometimes I don’t think that CeeCee is playing with a full deck of cards! *lol* … One thing that Tootsie and CeeCee are bad about, is getting onto tables. We have trained Cuddles and Buddy to stay off, but the kittens are there quite yet. Anyway, I got tired of getting up to get them off the table, so I put a spray bottle next to my desk, for use in their training. Sure enough, not long after getting it, Tootsie got on the table. I gave him one squirt, and he hopped off the table, lickety-split… A little while later, CeeCee tried it… Now, it was laundry day, so I had an empty laundry basket sitting on the table (I always fold the clothes on the table). So when I gave CeeCee a squirt, she ran around the basket, trying to get away from the water. So when she came back around, I would squirt her again… So here is this kitten, running circles around this laundry basket, getting squirted with water with every loop around. You’d think she’d get a clue and GET OFF THE TABLE! … I had to get up and remove her myself, because she just kept running around and around that basket! … Then she seemed happy to see me, so I think she thought I was rescuing her from the water.

She is so clueless!

Tootsie, on the other hand, is the best kitty ever! Other than the occasional hop on the table (which is getting less often, thanks to my water bottle ), he is so well behaved! And he’s so patient and so sweet! All you have to do is touch him once, and he’s purring. He’s just so loveable! … He’s 16 weeks old now (CeeCee is 13 weeks old), and he’s starting to get so big! He seems heavy for his age too, and I am wondering if he’s going to be a big, sturdy cat when he’s finished growing. He’s a LOT heavier than CeeCee, who’s quite delicate.

Well, I suppose I’ve bored you long enough. See ya on the flip side!

Speaking of school, UPS brought the rest of Jared’s homeschool books yesterday. It looks like math, literature, and life science are going to be his tough classes this year. The other subjects seem like there are less lessons, which isn’t hurting Jared’s feelings… And the fact that there is one less subject isn’t bothering him either. *lol* … This year his subjects will be; Bible, Math, Literature, Writing and Grammar, Vocabulary, World Studies, and Life Science… Jared’s looking forward to the chapters on wildlife in his science book. Those are always his favorite.

Now that the rest of the books are here, I need to finish up the lesson plans for the year. I also need to write the letter to the school board, telling them of our intent to homeschool. You have to do that every year.

Last Sunday we had our picture taken at church… They have this board in the church, with pictures of everyone who attends. It’s like a church directory, only without addresses and phone numbers. *lol* … Anyway, one of the deacons, Lee Christopherson, took us back into one of the Sunday School rooms (which doesn’t seemed to be used… The congregation is much smaller than the church building *lol*) that has this background set up, for taking these pictures… Well anyway, when he was done I gave him my Email address and asked if he would Email me copies of the pictures he took. I wasn’t expecting too much, as his camera looked kind of sad… But I was hoping for better than we got… I don’t know if he resized the photos, or if his camera just doesn’t take them in larger resolution, but these are so small you wouldn’t even get a decent printing in a 4X6. *sigh* … Oh well… I looked so round anyway, that it pretty much ruined the picture anyway.

Did I mention that our dishwasher is on the fritz? It’s been broken for a little over a week now… It’s amazing how dependent you become on an appliance. *lol* … I’ve so not been enjoying having to wash the dishes by hand all the time. … We’re hoping to get Joe’s BIL, Gene, over sometime soon to look at it… Gene is the family handyman.

The kittens are still doing well… And are as cute as ever! … But CeeCee is still being whiney. … Even though she was almost 8 weeks old when we got her, I think she wasn’t ready to leave mama kitty yet. She still wants to nurse a lot… She’s learning that she isn’t going to get what she wants from us but, unfortunately, Tootsie is a very mellow kitty. When he’s laying down to get a snooze, CeeCee will go try to nurse on him… And he just lays there and lets her. We’ve tried pulling CeeCee away from Tootsie, but she cries so pitifully that we give in… I told the kids that it was like when they were toddlers and sucked their thumbs for comfort.

We, of course, did a lot of bowling this week … Well, they did. Amanda and I didn’t bowl. … Joe got off work early enough on Tuesday to go, which made the boys very happy. That morning Jared had come to me and told me that his hand was starting to act up, as he was going through bowling withdrawals. *lol* … Then Wednesday they bowled their two free games, and the Have-A-Ball league. Thursday was the kids free league, and today we went just to bowl their free games.

Jared’s been really doing well this week, most of his games being 150 to 194! … He was really going wild on Thursday, and ended up bowling EIGHT games! In a row! … And he probably would have kept on bowling, had Joe let him.

Joe and Alicia both have new high games this week… On Wednesday (during practice, not during the league) Joe bowled a 194 and Alicia bowled a 103… Alicia was flying HIGH with happiness, and Joe was pretty much in shock.

Lately, when we go to the bowling alley, the owners, Shawn and Teri, are both there and they bring their kids, Blake and Shelby… Amanda and Shelby just LOVE to play together, and call each other their best friend. It’s so cute, and they are adorable together. … Anyway, when we go there, we don’t see much of Amanda. As soon as we get there, those two are off and running (all the workers there know us well, and help watch over both the girls). Their favorite place to play is by the lockers, for some reason… Shelby was sure disappointed when we had to leave today. Poor sweetie!

I do know one thing… We’ve GOT to stop eating dinner at the bowling alley! We ate there on both Wednesday and today. *sigh* … If we keep eating there, and I keep getting hamburgers and jojos, then I won’t be losing weight very quickly. *sigh* I’m going to need a weight loss dietary supplement if we keep it up. … I’m down 53 lbs now, but I seem to be stuck here… I hope I lose another pound soon, so I don’t get discouraged!

We had to make sure to leave the bowling alley by 6:50-ish, because tonight Jared had his very first youth group outing at church… Well, it wasn’t really an outing, but you know what I mean. *lol* … Anyway, they had a Youth Group Movie Night. I don’t know what they are watching, but I do know that they will be having pizza and other snack items to munch on during the movie… They were allowed to bring a friend, so we invited Jamie and Jacob to go with him. They seemed pretty excited about it. … Since we live 7 miles out of town, Debbie offered to pick the kids up when it was over, and just take Jared home with them to spend the night. Jared LOVED that idea, because for the first time since he was a toddler, he will have both Jamie and Jacob all to himself.

Both Joe and Debbie were worried about Josh’s reaction to everything… Joe thought Josh would be upset about missing movie night, and even wanted to ask Boone (the youth pastor) if Josh could stay anyway. As for Debbie, she was worried that Josh would cry if Jared got to spend the night there, and he didn’t… But I held firm. I told them that Josh needed to learn that Jared, as the oldest, sometimes would get to do things he wasn’t old enough for yet (like getting his own cell phone)… I didn’t think it would be fair to Jared, if Josh got to do a youth group thing, when he wasn’t in the youth group… But there was no need to worry… Josh wasn’t upset at all. He did say it was weird to have Jared gone for the night, when he was home, but other than that, nothing… I knew that Josh would take it like a man. He’s a good kid!

One of our neighbors had told Joe that there was another park in Molalla, called Wilhoit Springs. So, after dropping Jared and the twins off at the church, we decided to drive out there really quick, to see what it was like… We had found it odd that no one seemed to know about this park… Well, now we know… It isn’t much of a park. … It was more like a semi-big field with a few trees and picnic tables. There was a path to the “springs”, but the springs weren’t much to speak off. Pretty small, actually. There wasn’t a playground, and the parking lot held a grand total of 3 cars.

It was pretty though, and would be a nice place to go take pictures of the kids. I got this really cute one of the girls that I just love.

Oh.. One more thing before I sign off for the night…

Alicia lost another tooth today! This is tooth #8… She has now officially lost more teeth than Josh, and the same amount as Jared. … Yes, Jared, who is 12 1/2 years old, has only lost his 8 front teeth. Josh has lost 7, though #8 is loose. (Amanda has lost 6.)

Alicia’s top teeth are coming in pretty crooked. I have a bad feeling that she will be ending up with braces, as they don’t look like they are going to straighten out on their own, like Jared’s did… I’m NOT looking forward to paying for those, especially since Josh may end up with them too. *sigh*

Well… I think I may go grab one of my 100 calorie bags of popcorn and watch an episode of Smallville… Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

Julie: “I don’t know why they call them slumber parties, because I am quite certain that no one slumbers.”
Joe: “What does slumber mean, anyway?”

I say “annual”, because it will probably be at least a year before Joe and I are brave enough to do that again!

Besides Alicia and Amanda, the girls were; Destiny and her sister, Graycee. Gala, Darian, and Olivia… Olivia goes to the girls’ kids club at church, while the rest of the girls are from around the neighborhood.

But 4:00-4:15-ish, all the girls were at the house… I don’t think I’ve EVER seen Alicia’s room get so messy, so quickly! All the girls… Except for one… Had made a beeline for Alicia’s room. They were “making projects”, playing with stuffed animals, and packing around Tootsie and CeeCee… Destiny, on the other hand, just followed Joe and I around the house…

We had planned on waiting until 5 pm before heading to the bowling alley, but Destiny was driving us a little batty. She wouldn’t play with any of the girls, and kept bugging us to go bowling. So we ended up leaving the house with the girls at around 4:30-ish… We had to be creative with the seating, because the Durango only holds 7, and there were 9 of us all together. So Olivia and Alicia shared a seat belt and Darian and Gala shared a seat belt… The girls thought that was fun. (Amanda is the smallest, but she is also still in a booster seat, and couldn’t share a seat belt.)

We decided that we wanted to eat before we bowled, so Joe and I ordered the pizza and the girls ran off to the game room to play… Darian had brought some money, which she shared with Gala (they are best friends) and Alicia and Amanda both had a dollar each (Alicia shared with Olivia), so we gave Destiny and Graycee a dollar each too… But that wasn’t enough for Destiny. She pouted because Joe wouldn’t supply her with endless dollars, and she was also mad because Gala and Olivia weren’t her friends. *sigh* … Talk about a party pooper, because that was certainly what she was. She needs a shirt that says, “Doesn’t Play Well with Others”. *sigh* … When we got the pizza, she woudn’t even sit with the rest of us. She chose a table all by herself… Amanda saw her sitting alone and thought she was sad (when she was really pouting, over who-knows-what), so she went over to sit by her, and tried to cheer her up.

I think the girls mostly had fun bowling… The only problem was that it was REALLY hot in there. They don’t use AC in the bowling alley, so when you’re bowling, it’s pretty miserable. Most of the girls were complaining about how hot they were the entire time we were there… So we ended up only staying for one game… Once again, Destiny was a bit of a brat. She insisted on being the first to bowl, and when she got two gutter balls on the first frame (most of the girls refused to use bumpers, even though they rarely bowl), she threw herself on a chair with a pout and said that she didn’t want to play anymore… Though she ended up finishing the game… Gala and Graycee really tried hard, and you could tell that both of them had a talent for it, and would improve a lot with practice. … Once again I was annoyed with Destiny, because she kept taking the camera without asking, and taking pictures… None of my kids would EVER use my camera without asking me first! … And she doesn’t seem to care when you ask her not to do something. She just does what she wants anyway. *sigh*

Since the girls were so hot, we surprised them by going to Fox Memorial Park on the way home, since it has a splash pad. When we pulled into the parkinglot, and the girls realized that we were there, the cheers were deafening. *lol* As soon as the Durango stopped, all but Amanda were out the door, had their shoes off, and were in the water faster than Joe and I could get our seatbelts off. … Amanda didn’t want to play in the water. She said that she didn’t want to get her favorite shirt wet, but that was just an excuse… She always acts a little afraid of the splash pad and sprinklers… So she hung around the edge, but the other girls had a lot of fun… For around 15 minutes… We got there at around 7:15, and it turns out that it shuts off at 7:30. *sigh* … But at least they got cooled down!

Since we hadn’t been there that long, we let the girls play on the playground for a while… Which gave their clothes a chance to dry out a little. *lol* … Most of them had a BLAST… All except for our little party pooper, Destiny… She was mad because the ice cream truck came by, and Joe wouldn’t buy them ice cream (too expensive). She sat around pouting, and then was spitting on the ground near Joe… She even pulled a bunch of leaves off a bush and threw them at Joe… When Joe told her that she wouldn’t be invited to the next party, she started acting a little better… But it’s too late… Because she won’t be invited!

When we got home (at around 8:30), Destiny had seen the fingernail polish and asked if they could paint their nails… I didn’t see any harm in it, so I said that they could… That turned out to be a mistake! They made such a mess! They finished up all my nail polish remover, and half of a new bottle of polish (mine, not the girls… of course). They kept painting, removing, and painting again, and adding extra layouts of the glitter overlay stuff… Next slumber party… The nail polish will be HIDDEN WELL! … What really upset me was that one of them didn’t put the lid on one of the bottles very well, and when I went to pick them up by the handles, the bottle of bright pink nail polish fell and got all over the carpet in front of my desk. *sigh*

At 9 o’clock, I had them get into their pajamas and spread their sleeping bags. It was movie and popcorn time… Not that they really paid much attention to the movies… And OH MY WORD… Those girls devoured an entire package of cookies and FOUR bags of popcorn!!

I spent the next 5 hours, trying to keep the noise to a dull roar, because Joe had to work at 4:30 in the morning… It didn’t really help though… I was pretty lenient about it until around midnight, because I expected them to be hyper and all, but once midnight came, I thought they really should try to get some sleep… But they didn’t ended up crashing until almost 2 in the morning. By this point I was SOOO SLEEPY, and happily skipped off to bed!

I got up at around 6:30, so that I could get a shower in before they all woke up… When I went out, they all looked so cute and peaceful, sleeping all over the living room floor. Who knew that those angels were really devils in disguise.

When Joe got off work (and brought home eggs and sausage), I made pancakes for breakfast… After they ate, we had them pack their bags and sleeping bags up, and then sent them outside to play… Olivia’s mom didn’t pick her up until after 2:00, and we had been asked to watch Darian until after 3:00, as her parents were at a car show… But we pretty much told Gala, Destiny, and Graycee that it was time to go home… I needed some down time, to recover from the slumber party.

Now that the wedding album is finished, I am taking a bit of a digi-scrapping break. That album was 138 layouts big, and that’s a lot of scrapping. … So the project I am currently focused on is getting old photos posted to Flickr and moving old blog posts over here… I will add a month’s worth of photos to Flickr, and then all that same month’s worth of posts to this blog. Then I can use the Flickr photos in the blog post… So now, all my old posts that didn’t have pictures on them, have photos now. (Well, if I took any photos that day ) … I just finished up June of 2005 yesterday. I still have July ’05 to April ’09 to go, then my entire 18 years of journaling will be in one place.

Tootsie is doing so well! … He’s turning out to be the best little kitty ever! He is really super sweet. He purrs all the time, even when he’s playing… And you should see him play! When he’s in a hyper mood, he bounces around the house, pouncing on anything that moves, and a lot of things that don’t. *lol* … And he LOVES to play with one of us. The more attention he gets, the happier he is. … And when he’s tired, he loves to be snuggled with and sleep in someones lap. … He was also the easiest cat to litter-box train… I thought it would be harder, since he had been outside (or under a house) since he was born, and never used a litter box before. But, we only had to show him the litter box one time, and he’s NEVER had a single accident. When he has to go, he just bounces off to the laundry room and hops into the box. (He bounces everywhere he goes… He’s a lot like Tigger and Roo from Pooh Bear. *lol* … In fact, I call him Tootsie-Roo all the time, because of the bouncing he does. *lol*)

The girls have been having lots of fun playing outside with their little friends, now that summer seems to have FINALLY arrived. Alicia hurries through her morning routine (shower, chores, breakfast), because the sooner she is done, the sooner she can go outside. Half the time the girls put their swim suits on under their clothes, and when it gets warm enough, they fill up their pool, or play with the hose… Alicia also spends half her time on her bike.

Amanda doesn’t spend quite as much time outside as Alicia does. A lot of the time, Amanda will come inside and play on Josh’s computer, while the rest of them are off doing other things. (Josh installed Alicia’s “Pony Love” game on his computer for Amanda, so Amanda likes to play that.   )

As for the boys, they like to go play basket ball, but not when the sun is the highest, because Josh gets hot and doesn’t want to play outside. So they will play in the mornings for a while, and then in the evenings for quite a long time… Jared would spend more time outside, if only Josh would come out with him more. (Unlike the girls, who have lots of friends, the boys haven’t made any close friends. There are a few boys they play basketball with, but then it ends there. … All the kids, that the boys enjoyed playing with, moved away.    )

We’ve been doing a LOT of bowling this week… For the first time ever, we were there 5 days in a row! … I am glad we have no plans to be there today or tomorrow. … Joe and the kids are really enjoying the free passes from kidsbowlfree.com. … … We originally weren’t planning on going on Friday, but (while I was giving Joe and the kids haircuts) Joe’s dad called and said that he had something for us. He and Elvina wanted to come watch the kids bowl and give us the thing… Joe and I really didn’t want to go anywhere, but the kids did… So, we went ahead and ate dinner there and the kids bowled… They even talked Grandma into bowling a game! She had only bowled once before in her entire life. She said that she bowled a 53 the first time, and on Friday she bowled a 70! I was impressed! … After they were done bowling, we all went to McDonald’s for some ice cream… Well, I didn’t have any, I had already been bad by eating a hamburger at the bowling alley, so I thought that I better not have ice cream too! (My weight loss journey is going well. I am down 46 pounds now. )

Jared, Josh, and Alicia all have new high bowling scores from this week!!! … On Thursday (the 24th), Jared bowled a 183!!! … On Saturday (the 26th), Alicia bowled a 87 with no bumpers, and even got 2 strikes in a row!!! … And yesterday, Josh bowled a 171! He was on fire! … Too bad none of those scores are league scores. *lol*

On Saturday the kids went to their first ever “Bible Camp” with the kids from church (Lifegate never did any Bible Camps)… This was actually a first for me, and kind of hard… For the first time EVER, we dropped the kids off at church, and they were bussed to Feyrer Park… Without us or a relative… We dropped them off at 11 o’clock, and then picked them back up at the church at 3 o’clock.

The kids had a BLAST. This was the first time that any of them have been on a bus, so that was a big highlight for them. … They got to have a scavenger hunt, they made buttons, played games, and had hamburger and hotdogs for lunch. There was also a Bible story… Oh, and they were all given yellow shorts that said “Grace Church Bible Camp” on them, but Josh’s really didn’t fit well. I wanted to get a picture of them all wearing them, but Amanda and the boys took them off as soon as we came with the Durango. *sigh* … I gave Josh a disposable camera (I didn’t want the kids to lose their digital cameras, and asked them not to take them), so he took a bunch of pictures for me… I just need to get them developed. *lol*

While they were doing the Bible Camp thing, Joe and I went out for lunch (Arctic Circle) and went to Walmart for groceries (and we stopped by the Goodwill too)… We thought 4 hours would be plenty of time, but it wasn’t! We were 5 minutes late getting back to the church to pick the kids up! So embarrassing! … If we had skipped the Goodwill we wouldn’t have run out of time, so if we do this again, we won’t do anything but lunch and Walmart. *lol*

We ended up missing church yesterday. … Joe is scheduled off at 8:30 on Sundays, so that we can go to church… But yesterday a couple guys switched shifts, and there was no one else who was trained on the register. So Joe was stuck at the gas station until 11 o’clock. *sigh* … Joe was NOT impressed! … The manager assured Joe that this wouldn’t happen again, so we won’t have to miss church again.

Well… I need to eat breakfast, do my morning chores, workout, shower, and get laundry going… So I best go for now! … See ya on the flip side!

Oh, we’ve had a few nice days, scattered here and there… But mainly it’s been cool and wet. It’s more like April weather than June weather… I’m wondering if we’re EVER going to get summer this year!

So… What’s been going on since my last post?

Last Wednesday evening was spent at the bowling alley. At 6:30 was Joe and the boys’ new “Have-A-Ball” Bowling league… That’s the one where they will get the new bowling ball at the end of the 10 weeks… Anyway, we decided to go early so Joe and the kids could bowl their two free games. When we got there and were checking in, I noticed that they had posted the results from the PBA Pro-Am tournament that the kids were in on the 11th…

I was more than a little surprised by the results.

For the 10 and under age group, Alicia came in first place! … She actually didn’t even bowl that well, since she wasn’t using the bumpers, but her handicap pushed her over the top… But I feel bad for Josh, because he bowled well over his average and should have came in 1st place, but Alicia pushed him down to 2nd… Anyway, they will both be getting trophies for it, so that’s exciting.

For the 11-15 age group, Jared came in 12th place… So no trophies for him… He didn’t bowl as good as he normally does, and he was up against some TOUGH competition in that age group… Most of them have been bowling for years, while Jared’s only been bowling for 11 months.

Anyway… Joe and the boys enjoyed the “Have-A-Ball” league… They already got to pick out their ball, but Shawn hasn’t ordered them yet. There was a paper a picture of the ball on it, in (I think) 7 different color choices. Jared picked out a blue/silver one, Josh picked out one that was more green, and Joe picked one out that was red/silver-ish (I think). I’m not sure when they will get the balls. I had assumed that it would be after the league was over, but who knows.

Alicia was wishing that she could join, but there are only 3 people allowed per team, and no one else to be on a team with her. … So she was a little disappointed over that (but didn’t cause a fuss or anything). We do plan on getting her a new ball and bag for her birthday though, so we don’t have to worry about her not having a ball… Though there was a pink one on the list she would have loved. *lol*

As for Amanda, she was happy sitting with me and coloring, and playing with the toy dog she had brought… I think she would rather go back to ballet, and not worry about bowling anymore.

On Thursday I made some more birthday cookies… Two of Joe’s sisters, DeeDee and Debbie, both have birthdays this week… Since Debbie and her family are in Utah all this week (visiting Scott’s Dad, who moved there in March), I decided to make the cookies early. So I gave them to Debbie on Thursday evening, and on Friday Debbie gave some of them to DeeDee… They both work together at Papa Murphy’s in Oregon City.

While I was working on the cookies, two of the girls’ little friends came in. Destiny and Gracie are sisters. They are adorable, and very sweet… But Destiny sure can talk. *lol* She’s not shy either. She asks a million and one questions, including if she and her sister would be able to have a couple cookies when I was done making them. … Alicia and Amanda sure love playing with them, but Jared and Josh find Destiny annoying… Jared was annoyed because Destiny kept going into his room and messing with things (he told me this later, so the next time they come over I will ask the girls to respect the boys’ privacy). Josh, on the other hand, was annoyed because Destiny wouldn’t ever put Tootsie down, even when Tootsie would meow to get down… After I was done with the cookies, Josh managed to get Tootsie from them, and brought him to me to watch, so Destiny would leave him alone.

Anyway, after we dropped the cookies off at Debbie’s place, we went to the bowling alley again, to let the kids (and Joe) bowl their two free games from kidsbowlfree.com … I’m thinking we should just have our mail forwarded to Molalla Bowl. *rofl*

On Friday we didn’t do too much… I was working on my digi-scrapping for a lot of the day, and the kids played inside and out… Joe worked later than normal, so we didn’t go do anything interesting… Which is perfectly fine with me!

That night Alicia finished reading her first novel! I think she did awesome, considering she is only 8 years old! I am a huge book lover, but I didn’t read my first novel until I was 9 years old (I read the classic version of Pinocchio)… Anyway, she read the first book in the High Hurdles series by Lauraine Snelling, and she has already started the 2nd book. She likes to read in bed for a while before she goes to sleep, just like Jared does (and just like I did when I was younger … You know, before I shared a bed with Joe and the light would keep him awake ). Jared reads faster than she does, but that’s because he is 4 years older than she is.

I am quite proud of her!

We had a time getting Buddy to come in on Friday night… He is still sulky about us adopting Tootsie… Though he’s not quite as angry with us as he was… Anyway, Joe and the kids (except Amanda) finally went outside at around midnight, to track him down and bring him home. Thankfully they were able to find him… So far he hasn’t given us any more scares like that, and I hope he doesn’t do it again… This neighborhood isn’t too safe for housecats after dark. Too many predators around, like coyotes, bobcats, and the cougar, who would like to have Buddy over for dinner… And we don’t want Buddy to be the main course!

While neither Cuddles or Buddy is very happy with Tootsie at the moment, Tootsie is thriving… Barely over a week ago, he was terrified of all of us. Now he romps around the house like the energizer bunny, playing with everything that moves (as well as a lot of things that don’t! ). He loves attention, and he LOVES to snuggle. This afternoon the kids were all outside playing, and he came to me and cried to get up, and slept in my lap for quite a while, while I watched a show on iTunes. He’s just the cutest little thing… And he became housebroken a LOT faster than both Cuddles and Buddy. He seems really smart… We are all quite smitten with him.

Saturday was a housecleaning day… I made a worklist for all 6 of us, and we got to work. We straightened every room, did a bunch of dusting, laundry, sweeping and mopping, etc. I think we were finished at around 2 or 3 o’clock. Then we just kicked back for the rest of the day, after I made dinner.

I did manage to get the wedding album, that I have been working on, finished and ordered! I am SO GLAD that it’s done! It ended up being something like 137 pages long, which is quite longer than I planned. … But I couldn’t convince myself to delete any of the pages… I had originally wanted to print it with Shutterfly, but since it was over 100 pages, I had to use mypictales… I’ve never used them before, so I am nervous about the outcome! … But one nice thing is that out of the blue I got a newsletter from them, and it had a 25% off coupon for orders over $100, so I was able to save $42!!! That was nice! … Sure hope it turns out good!

Anyway, if you want to see the book, here is a link to the pages in my Flickr gallery…

Sunday was, of course, Father’s Day… Joe had to work in the morning, so we couldn’t do any of the breakfast in bed things… Usually Sunday mornings are a rush, and Joe only has time to quickly change and eat a quick breakfast before we rush off to church… and we’re ALWAYS a few minutes late to Sunday School, which is highly annoying, but there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about that.

We hadn’t been to our own church for like 4 weeks, due to camping, the family reunion at the farm, and then going to our old church last week, so it was a little embarrassing going back and dealing with all the “where have you been” questions. Glad that’s over!

Since it was Father’s Day, the kids’ Sunday night bowling league was cancelled, but the kids still wanted to bowl. So we went to the bowling alley as soon as church was over. We ate lunch there (they have yummy food!), and then used up their free passes for the day, plus they all bowled an extra game… Joe was convinced that, since it was Father’s Day, the boys should let him win at bowling… Too bad it didn’t turn out that way! *rofl*

While we were at the bowling alley, I happened to mention to Joe that in a few months we’ll probably have to buy Alicia a couple training bras… Poor Joe… I don’t think he was ready to hear that! He was so flustered that he ended up throwing a gutter ball, and then he didn’t want to discuss it AT ALL…. Guess he’s not ready for his little girl to grow up! *lol* … Of course, I have almost the same reaction when I think about how close Jared is to shaving and a drivers license! *sigh*

Well… I suppose I’ve rambled on long enough. I’ll catch ya on the flip side!

Sunday… church… bowling

Tootsie is doing well. He’s adapting to his new living arrangements with flying colors. By Sunday you wouldn’t even have thought he was a stray that had never been handled by people before. He’s loving all the attention, and is purring all the time… And he’s beyond sweet and adorable. … So far Cuddles and Buddy aren’t too happy that he’s around, but I am hoping/praying that Buddy will come around in a week or so… Cuddles has never accepted Buddy as a friend (though Buddy has no issues with Cuddles, and would be friends if she let him). Cuddles tolerates Buddy, as long as he doesn’t get too close. She seems to be doing the same with Tootsie. She watches him, but only gets upset if he gets too close.

Last night Josh actually got all three of them together on his bed… But he had to “trick” them… Cuddles didn’t seem to know that Buddy was there (though she was keeping an eye on Tootsie, to make sure he didn’t get too close), and Buddy had no idea that Tootsie was on the other side of Josh… Tootsie, on the other hand, didn’t care who else was on the bed. *lol* … I sure hope that they can all be friends someday…

Anyway, on Sunday afternoon I gave Tootsie a bath, and he was so good! You take your life into your own hands when you try to bathe Buddy (Cuddles has always been easy, as long as Jared is the one bathing her). Tootsie, on the other hand, didn’t even meow. He just stood there while I washed him. I also sprayed him with some flea spray (that is OK for kittens), and he didn’t freak over that either… I just wanted to make sure to kill the fleas before they got to Cuddles and Buddy. It seems to have worked too, as I haven’t seen any more on Tootsie. I got this stuff from bugspray.com, and it works better than anything you can buy in the stores. It even works better than Advantage.

Hmmm… What else has been going on?

This last weekend, Joe’s Grandma Johnson (his step-grandma) was in town with her daughter, Linda, and Linda’s husband, Russ. They live in Eureka, South Dakota. They moved there in 2006 and we hadn’t seen them since then… Anyway, we tried to set up a thing with Joe’s family to go see Grandma, but nothing seemed to work out.

Anyway, Grandma, Linda, and Russ were staying with Jerie Gracie, who is the church secretary of Lifegate Baptist Church, where we went when we lived in Portland. That’s where Luellen (Joe’s Grandma), Linda, and Russ went too. We knew that they would be going to church at Lifegate, so we decided to go there for church on Sunday too, to surprise Grandma.

It was good to see them… It was also good to see some of our old friends from Lifegate… Though MAN, there isn’t many people who still go there… There was a lot of issues that went down after we left the church (when we moved to Molalla), and a lot of people left the church. Pastor Clark retired too… Anyway, during services there were only around 30 people (including the 6 of us) in the congregation… It was really sad… The only reason the church is staying afloat is that two other churches used the building. A Mexican church uses the old sanctuary, and I guess there is an Asian church that hold services there too.

Anyway, we did get to see the Gainers and the Wilsons, and Leonard Janes still goes there. Oh, and the Peytons were still there. It was really nice to see them all… We didn’t get to see Jerie Gracie though, as she was sick and didn’t come to church.

Sunday evening took us back to Molalla Bowl for the kids’ junior league… We went early so they could bowl their two free games, and this time Craig didn’t mess anything up. *lol* … Also, he didn’t even charge Joe and Alicia for their shoe rentals.

While they were bowling, Jacob got it in his head that the boys needed to spend the night, so they made all these plans with Scott and Debbie, and forgot to ask us. *lol* … Later, Josh comes over and says something about sleeping over, and Joe and I are like, what? … So I go over to Debbie and said, “The boys seem to think they are spending the night, do you know anything about this?” *lol* … So the boys ended up going home with them… I hope this doesn’t go on all summer long!

I didn’t do much on Monday… Just some laundry and housework… Oh, and I am still working my rear off on that wedding album. (I have over 100 layouts done so far. When I am finished I am going to need a scrapping break. *lol*) … As for the boys, Joe picked them up on his way home from work. I was glad they were home.

Last night Alicia had her first (non related) friend over for a sleepover. Darian, who is the same age as Alicia, spent the night. The girls (including Amanda) had a lot of fun, and were well behaved… Just giggly. *lol* … There was one mishap though… They wanted some popcorn, which Alicia has made a LOT. But this time, for some unknown reason, Alicia thought Josh told her to nuke the popcorn for FOUR minutes, instead of just hitting the button that says “Popcorn”. She SCORCHED the popcorn… OMWord, but did the house ever smell! I had Jared take the garbage out right away, and we opened some windows, but even this morning it still stinks in here. *sigh*

Oh! I almost forgot! … Amanda lost another tooth yesterday! It’s been quite loose for a while now, and yesterday it just sort of popped out. She wasn’t even trying at the time. *lol* She was just walking down the hallway when it came out. I guesss it just fell out of her mouth and landed on her shirt.   She stopped in surprise and then ran back to me with it, all excited. … The other top tooth is loose too, but it’s not quite as wiggly, so it will probably be a week or so before it comes out.

Well, I suppose I should eat some breakfast and get my morning chores done… See ya on the flip side!

So… What have we been up to this week?

Monday and Tuesday were *mostly* quiet… Joe worked late both days, so we didn’t go anywhere… But, with the weather starting to dry out and with the neighborhood kids getting out of school for the summer… It’s getting a little noisier around here. … Luckily, the boys “hang” with their friends at the basketball court (that is in the sub-division)… As for the girls and their friends…. Our house seems to be the hangout of choice. A lot of the time we have up to 4 extra giggly girls in the back bedrooms… There is Darian, Gayla (not in the picture), and sisters Destiny and Gracie… They are all sweet and adorable… But that’s a whole lot of giggling.

We are actually thinking of letting the girls have a slumber party sometime this summer… We just need to talk to the girls’ parents about it. I know Alicia and Amanda would be thrilled, especially if they have something special done for them, as it seems the boys get to do a lot of the extra things… I hope it works out for them.

On Wednesday, once Joe came home from work, we took the kids bowling… We’re loving the free bowling from kidsbowlfree.com. We spent $2.00 and Joe and the kids all bowled 3 games! … They get 2 free games a day from kidsbowlfree.com, and since they are all on a summer league, the 3rd game is only 50 cents a game (Amanda didn’t want to bowl). Half the time they don’t even charge Joe and Alicia for their shoe rentals (the boys have their own shoes)… Although that always depends on who is working at the time. *lol*

Oh! Alicia didn’t use bumpers, and she bowled AWESOME on her 2nd game! She bowled an 80!! … Her other two games where a 42 and a 40, which is pretty average for her, for non bumpers. But an 80! That’s so great!

On Thursday we took the kids to the pool for the last time this season. … The new schedule starts on Monday the 13th, and with Joe’s schedule, it just doesn’t work for us… Oh, we could do the weekend swims, but they are crazy busy then, and it just isn’t as fun… Oh well, we enjoyed it while it lasted, right? … While we were there, they pulled out the rope swing thing. I was really surprised when Joe went over and used it a couple times. *lol* … He looked a little dorky on the thing, but he had fun.

Last night we were off to the bowling alley again… Molalla Bowl hosted the Northwest PBA Open Pro-Am. There were quite a few professional bowlers there, and you could sign up to bowl the tournament with the pros… Since the kids are in a summer league, they got an automatic (free) entry to bowl in the tournament.

We took the boys bowling pins (that I got off eBay last year for them, for Christmas) and the boys got some autographs… I felt bad that Alicia didn’t have a bowling pin. Last year she wasn’t into bowling yet, so I didn’t get her one… So we grabbed one of the fliers about the tournament, and she had them sign that instead. We will frame it for her, and put it on her wall.

The pros were all super nice. The three that bowled with our kids were great with them, and seemed to have a lot of fun… The tournament was a “9-pin No Tap”, which means that if, on the first ball only, you knock down 9 pins, it is still considered a strike. Anyway, there were teams of 5 to 7 bowlers on each set of 2 lanes, with one pro on each set of 2 lanes. After each game, the pros would switch teams, so that each team got to bowl with 3 different lanes.

Since it was a pro tournament, Alicia didn’t get to use the bumpers (which is why Amanda didn’t bowl at all), so her scores weren’t too great… But for a new bowler, she did OK, and she tried her hardest. Her scores were 48, 55, and 40. I don’t think she got any 9-pin strikes, poor thing.

Jared wasn’t bowling as well as he normally does… Which made him a little discouraged, which didn’t help the bowling. He did get a few 9-pin strikes (and a couple real strikes), but he didn’t get nearly as many spares as he normally does… His average is 133, and he bowled 156, 121, and 120 last night. (His high game, for regular bowling, is 180.)

Josh, on the other hand, was ON FIRE! … His average is 105, and his high game (for regular bowling) is 158… But let me tell you, he was LOVING the 9-pin strikes! And he got his fair share of them! Last night he bowled 176, 200, and 153 … TWO HUNDRED! It was awesome! You should have seen how happy he was… Of course, had it been regular bowling, his scores wouldn’t be that high, but he was still bowling better than he normally does.

The first pro they bowled with was Rick Francis. He was really great with the kids (well, they all were), and he seemed to like to have fun. *lol* He was being very goofy with the kids.

When we first got there, he was finishing up his last game from the previous session, and he bowled a perfect 300 (with only one of them being a 9-pin strike)… But lanes 1 and 2, where we were at, seemed to be giving ALL the pros some issues (which is maybe why Jared and Jamie weren’t bowling as well as they normally do???), so on the kids’ first game, he only bowled a 213 … Which I think is awesome, but he wasn’t too impressed with.

The next guy was John Wilcox, who is only about 20 years old… Also very nice, and quite the chatter… He REALLY had a bad night, bowling wise… At least one lanes 1 and 2. *lol* He ended up only bowling a 131, which is lower than Jared’s average (and Jared and Josh have only been bowling for 11  months). He kept laughing and saying, “I’m just going to pretend that this game never happened!” … Funny thing is, that’s the game that Josh got 200 on, so he totally kicked John’s rear on that one. … One thing he did that I found cute (I am showing my age by saying that, huh? … Because he seems like a kid to me! *lol*) … Anyway, every time he didn’t get a good frame, either his shirt or one of his necklaces would end up in his mouth. *lol* So funny.

The last pro they bowled with was Brian Irwin. He was also very nice, and good with the kids… And he apologized when he only bowled a 210. … Those guys seriously didn’t like lanes 1 and 2. *rofl*

And last, but not least… Our family has just grown by one! … I’d like to introduce you to Tootsie. Let me tell you Tootsie’s story…

On Wednesday the kids were telling me that one of the stay cats that live under Thelma’s old house had two kittens, and they told me how cute they were. I told them that I would love to see them, so Josh and Alicia made it their mission to catch one of them, so I could see it… This was not an easy task, as they were almost as wild and afraid of people as the adult stay cats in the neighborhood… Anyway, it took a while but they finally caught Tootsie and brought him in to me.

What a CUTE kitty! He looks almost exactly like Buddy did at that age! The only differences are that they have different color noses and some of Buddy’s stripes are more circular… But the biggest difference is that Tootsie has an extra “toe” on each of his front paws… I’ve heard of six toed cats before, but I have never seen one before… My, does it look ODD. *lol* … Anyway, that’s how we came up with the name Tootsie, since he has extra toes on his tootsies. *lol*

Anyway, that first night Tootsie was pretty scared. It was probably the first time he had been handled by anyone (other than Mama kitty), and he was shaking in fear. But I snuggled with him until he calmed down, and then we gave him some food… Which he chowed down like he hadn’t eaten in a while… After he ate, I held him for a while longer, and he got more and more relaxed in my arms… After him being inside for an hour or so, I put him back outside, and he ran off with Mama kitty.

On Thursday Josh and Alicia couldn’t catch him, though they did bring in his sister kitty (the kids called her Cupcake), who was also adorable… When they took him back, one of the neighbors asked them to put Cupcake in a kennel they had set up… I guess they wanted to find homes for the kittens, but could never catch them. So they were letting Josh and Alicia do the hard work. *lol* … It turns out that Darian’s Mom let them keep Cupcake, so at least we know that she got a good home. (And I think it’s cool that Alicia’s best friend has Tootsie’s sister    )

Last night they were able to catch Tootsie again, so they brought him back in to see me. He still acted scared, poor little thing. His tail was tucked, and he was shivering again… We gave him some food, and after a while Josh and Alicia took him back and put him in the kennel on the neighbor’s porch, where he stayed all night. (Now that he was caught, the neighbors didn’t want him loose again.)

When they put Tootsie in the kennel, Alicia told the neighbors that she wanted the kitty and was going to ask Daddy, so they promised not to give him to anyone else until she knew if she could keep him or not. They also told Alicia and Josh that they could come see the kitty anytime they wanted… It’s funny how they took ownership of the kittens, even though the Mama cat is a stray…

Anyway, today Alicia finally got Daddy to say yes… Honestly, I think it was her sad little face that did Joe in… So now the three older kids all each have their own kitty… Cuddles is Jared’s cat, Buddy belongs to Josh, and Tootsie is Alicia’s kitty.

Tootsie is doing much better with us today. He doesn’t seem scared any more, and I’ve even gotten him to purr a few times (Buddy didn’t purr for a couple weeks). Right now he’s all relaxed in my lap, going between snoozin’ and watching me type (one handed )… He’s quite curious about the typing. *lol*

I’m guessing that Tootsie is around 7 weeks old, judging by his size. So I went back 7 weeks and decided that we’ll call April 24th his “birthday”. There is no telling exactly what day he was born, but we have to have a day for the kids to celebrate. *lol* (They get almost as excited by Cuddles and Buddy’s birthdays, as they do their own *lol*)

Well, I suppose I’ve rambled on long enough… Besides, it’s hard to type one handed. *lol* … Catch ya on the flip side!

I seriously need some sunshine!!!!

Alicia found her digital camera! Yay!!! She has this home-made doll bed (made my Joe’s great uncle Morgan) and it was under the mattress of that bed. Sad thing is, I looked under that bed, but I didn’t look under the mattress. *lol* … When she found it, THEN she remembered putting it there (of course). I guess Josh was teasing her that he was going to delete her best pictures. She believed him and so she hid the camera from him, and then forgot that she hid it… Boy, she can hide things good! *lol* … I swear, that girl is so scatterbrained! *lol* (and I say that with love! )

Hmmmm… So, what else is going on with the Johnsons?

On Saturday we drove up to Washugal, Washington to attend a goodbye party for Joe’s cousin’s son, Josh. Josh S. has joined the Army… In fact, he flew out to Oklahoma yesterday, to go to boot camp… The party (which was at a local park) started at noon, and we didn’t leave until after 3 o’clock. Thankfully they got a covered area, because it did rain some…. Anyway, they had a really good turn out. A lot of people from both Carol and Randy’s sides of the family (Carol is Joe’s cousin). Plus there were a LOT of Josh’s friends from school. It was nice to see so many people out there to support him, even if I was uncomfortable, being around so many people I didn’t know. (We’ve never been around Randy’s family before.)

After we left the party we went to Joe’s parents’ house. Jim wanted to watch some game with Joe… I really wanted to go home, as I NEEDED to wash all the dirty laundry from our camping trip. As it was the boys were completely out of pajamas, and some of the kids were wearing dirty jeans. *sigh* … But alas, I was stuck… We ended up staying there until after 9 pm (and it’s a 30 minute drive home). I had to stay up until 1 am doing laundry, just so the kids would have something to wear the next day!

While we were at Jim and Elvina’s on Saturday, the girls asked if they could spend the night… Only we didn’t have any extra clothes or anything with us (not that they had any clean stuff anyway *lol*), so we made arrangements for them to be able to spend the night on Sunday and Monday nights… So we met Joe’s parents and Joe’s sister and her family at the bowling alley at 1 o’clock on Sunday (which gave me time to wash enough clothes to get them a bag packed). Joe and the kids got to bowl their two free games (thanks to www.kidsbowlfree.com), and they also ended up bowling an extra game or two. Then the girls went home with Grandma and Grandpa. Jamie ended up going with them too (so she could play with the girls), but she was only able to spend 1 night, as she had school on Tuesday.

Since Jamie and the girls were at Grandma and Grandpa’s, Jared asked if Jacob could spend Sunday night with us. So we dropped by their house on the way home, to pick up clothes and stuff for Jacob.

On Monday, after Joe got off work, we loaded the boys into the Durango and back to the bowling alley we went… Joe is determined to use as many of those free bowling game passes as he can! *lol* … We met the Mewings there, and then Jacob went home with them after they had bowled. This time they only  bowled the 2 free games… Also, it turns out that when you use your free bowling coupons they go into a bucket, and they have once a week drawings. We found out that Alicia won 3 free games.

On Tuesday, at around 2:30-ish, Jim and Elvina brought the girls home and then picked up the boys… We are having a family reunion at the farm on Saturday, and Jim and Elvina took their trailer down on Wednesday…. They invited Jared and Josh to go with them, since they know how much they love to go to the farm. They wanted to take them home with them on Tuesday, so that they wouldn’t have to pull their trailer up here to get them on Wednesday… The boys were very excited to go, but I sure miss them! Four nights is too much for Mama!

Alicia sure is loving knowing how to ride her bike! … As soon as she was home on Tuesday, out the door she went to get on her bike… Though she didn’t ride as long as she wanted to. She had her first bike accident and crashed. Thankfully she was on the grass, so while it hurt, it wasn’t too bad. No scrapes or bleeding, etc… She did limp a little for a while though… But that didn’t stop her. Yesterday she was out again, between rain storms, riding that bike!

For those of you who are long time readers… Remember 2 years ago when I wrote that post about my old childhood friend, Mary? … Well, a few weeks ago I found her sister, Tracy, on Facebook! She told Mary that I had found her, and Mary asked Tracy to give me her Email address… Well, yesterday we got in contact again!!! I am so happy! I haven’t seen her since 1983, when we moved to Portland… Sounds like she’s done really well for herself. She’s married and has 3 girls, and a step-daughter. She and her husband are both some kind of fancy chefs down in San Diego.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that we found each other again. We were such close friends all the way through grade school… As close as sisters, as everyone at school thought we were.

Mommy: “We’re camping. It doesn’t matter if your shoes get a little muddy.”
Josh: “Mommy… Are you feeling OK?”

Another nice (and a little wet) day at the beach.

We tumbled out of bed at around 7:15-ish… Well, I hung out in bed a little longer, while they all took turns getting dressed. *lol* Then I did the girls’ hair, and kicked everyone out of the trailer so that I could take a shower. The kids rode bikes for a while, and then they and Joe walked down to the beach while I was showering. Once I was dressed and had everything put away, I started making breakfast (biscuits and gravy)…

In the mean time, our old neighbor (from Portland), Rob, and his brother came out to the campground… Rob and his wife, Jody, moved to Missouri in September of 2004… Joe and Rob are pretty good friends and have kept in touch, Anyway, Rob was in Portland to see his mom and wanted to see Joe too. Since we’re here, Rob and Norman (Rob’s brother) drove out to see us for a couple hours. They got here just about the time that breakfast was ready… We ate outside while Joe visited with Rob and Norman.

After I washed the dishes, we all walked down to the beach for a bit… Rob and Norman left at around 11:30. We were going to come back to the campground and put away all the lawn chairs and then go down to the beach… But the rain decided to make an appearance… So back into the trailer we went for another game of Uno and another episode of “Little House” (Mr. Edward’s Homecoming) … I’m thinking I should have brought season 2 also! *lol*

At around 12:30 the episode was over and the rain had stopped so back down to the beach we went. It was dry, but it was windy, which made it cold to just sit there… Plus, I was wanting to burn off the extra calories from the biscuits and gravy we had for breakfast. So the girls and I took a walk down the beach a ways… I wanted to go longer, but soon the girls were saying they were tired and wanted to go back to where Joe and the boys were… So when we got back, I took off again, this time with the boys. They were more willing to walk longer with me. … Josh was funny though, because he brought the kite with him, and was flying it the entire time we walked.

When the boys and I were almost back to Joe and the girls, Alicia came running to me with the box of crackers… It turns out that a crow had managed to get the box open and made off with the entire bag of crackers, leaving the empty box behind. *rofl* … That was one happy crow.

At 2 o’clock we headed back to the trailer, because Amanda was complaining that she was cold… I sat in a lawn chair in the campsite and watched the kids ride their bikes…

Alicia has always been afraid of heights, and was never really into her bike. Even though she had training wheels on it, if she did ride it, she would ride it SLOWLY… Well last night she actually asked Joe to take the training wheels off it… And today she taught herself how to ride her bike, all on her own! (She wouldn’t let Joe help her.) She was so happy and proud of herself. So cute! … What was amazing was that by the evening she was riding like she’d been at it for weeks, and not just hours. She sure picked it up fast!

At 3-ish we started to get hungry again, so Joe started BBQing our hamburgers. Mmmmm… We decided not to chance eating outside, because it kept trying to rain… We would feel drops here and there, but it wasn’t ready to start full force… So we ate inside and watched an episode of “Little House” (For the Love of Johnny Johnson) While we were watching “Little House”, Charles told Laura that the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach… Josh looked over at Joe and says, “You must love Mama a lot!”

*rofl*

After we ate, at around 4:45, we decided to go on our evening walk, promising the girls that we would stop at the playground so that they could play for a while… We made it to the playground by 5-ish and let the kids play for around half an hour… Beverly Beach has a very nice playground. I was quite impressed by it. They even had a smaller one for younger kids… Even Jared was climbing on it (the bigger one), and he never plays on playgrounds anymore.

When we left the playground (at 5:30-ish) we decided to go back via the Spencer Trail (that runs along Spencer Creek), instead of walking back through the campground… While it was a nice walk, I don’t think it was the best plan… For one, they had these flyer things posted on all the bathrooms that said there had been a bear sighting, so that was all I could think about while we walked. *lol* I was glad that the kids were being noisy, as that would scare away any critters that may be around. … Then, it’s been so wet that the path was really, really muddy in places… I don’t think my shoes will ever be the same! *rofl* … Jared, on the other hand, was thrilled. He happened to have his bike with him, which is a mountain bike (with different gears). He was very happy to be riding along those muddy trails on that bike.

It was probably 6:00-6:15-ish when we got back to the campsite… Joe and the boys built a fire, and I had decided that I was going to park my rear in front of that fire for a nice, long while… But the girls had other plans. … Alicia kept wanting to ride her bike around the A-loop, so I kept having to go with them… After a while I just couldn’t do it anymore… My get up and go, got up and went!

One funny thing happened though… We were just kicking back by the fire when a truck (pulling a nice trailer) stopped in front of our site and a lady (maybe in her late 50s???) hopped out. She came and told Joe that they had requested a pull-through site, but didn’t get one, and her husband couldn’t back the trailer in. She wanted to know if Joe could do it for them. Joe, of course, was only too happy to help… I told the lady that she had asked the right person, since Joe is a truck driver. *lol* … Anyway, you should have seen the looks of shock on their faces when Joe backed it in with one try, with no one spotting him… I just smiled and told them that he does it every day at work, and then he’s backing in 48 foot trailers, which is much longer than theirs!

We had just settled in to make our s’mores at around 8 o’clock when the sprinkles started coming back… I had no plans on getting wet, so I put my chair away and made a bee-line into the trailer. … Joe and the kids dealt with the off and on rain for about an hour, and then they cleaned up camp and came in. They all took turns taking showers (Joe and the boys used the camp showers, while the girls took theirs in the trailer)…

All in all it’s been a great day, though we are all tuckered out… We should all sleep well tonight!