Johnsons' Journey

Well… I guess that since we’ve been home for 3 days now, it’s time to update the old blog. I’ve finally got all the posts I wrote while we were camping, up. I was waiting on Flickr, as I wanted to add pictures to the posts. All day yesterday I was trying to get the pictures uploaded, but Flickr was being a pain in the other side of my lap. Finally, this morning I skipped one picture, and the rest went and uploaded… Wish I would have tried that yesterday! … I have no idea why the one picture wouldn’t upload to Flickr, but I am glad that the rest are finally being posted.

Anyway, back to Prineville, as I never wrote about the last day.

I got up at around 7:00 and went and took a shower in the camp showers… Turns out that 7:00 is a bad time, as everyone and their mother is taking a shower. *lol* … But I managed to get a mostly hot shower, which is better than no shower at all.

When I got back to the campsite, Joe and the kids were all up. So we had a simple breakfast of toast and/or cereal, and then I sent Joe and the kids to take a shower while I did the dishes. Once they were back, I did the girls’ hair and off we went. I wanted to do our “homeschool portraits”, so they had all dressed in nicer clothes… We went to 3 different areas and I snapped a bunch of photos of them. When we got home, the hard part came when I had to choose the pictures to be the “official” school pictures. *lol*

After I was done taking pictures, we headed back to the trailer and got ready to go. I think it was around 12:30 when we were pulling out of the campsite.

Joe had called 511 again, and it sounded like parts of hwy 126 (the Santiam Pass) was possibly closed due to the forest fire, so we decided not to chance trying to go home that way… Wouldn’t want to try to make a u-turn while pulling a 26 foot trailer with our little Durango. So instead we drove north west and went on the pass by Mt. Hood… I have no idea what that pass is called. *lol*

The kids were quite impressed by how close to Mt. Hood we got, but I didn’t bother to take any pictures. The top half of the mountain was hidden in clouds.

There were some delays on hwy 26 though, as they were doing the “Hood to Coast Relay” … While Joe drove, the kids and I watched all the runners… I would have watched more closely, had I known our friend, Erika, was running in it! … Joe and I used to work with Erika at PayLess, and I found out today, on facebook, that she ran in it for the first time… Pretty cool!

We made it into Sandy, Oregon by 3:30, by which time we were all pretty hungry. So we stopped at McDonald’s for a late lunch, and then headed home… I think we were home sometime between 5:00 and 5:30… We spent the next hour and a half, to two hours, unloading the trailer, unpacking, cleaning up after the cats (you WOULD NOT believe the mess two little kittens can make in the bathroom!!!), etc.

The first thing the boys did when they got home was to run into their rooms, grab out their bowling balls, and kiss them. *lol* … Going 7 days without bowling about killed them.

The boys wanted to go bowling as soon as everything was put away, and Joe thought it would be easier to just take all the laundry to one of the laundry mats in town and get it washed all at once, instead of having me spend all weekend doing it.

Joe thought we should go to the newer laundry mat, as it was nicer, but I am now wondering if it would have been better going to the old one… The washing machines cost $2.00 a piece to run them! The ones in Redmond were $1.50 to use… When you have 11 loads of laundry, that can really add up! … Plus, while the dryers cost the same as in Redmond, they didn’t dry as well so you had to run them longer, which meant that they really didn’t cost the same. … So 2 hours and $29 later, all the laundry was washed and folded.

While I was at the laundry mat with Amanda, Joe and the other kids went to the bowling alley and bowled 3 games… The boys were sure happy about that!

On Saturday, Josh and the girls had a Bible Day Camp to go to, with their Sunday School class. Like they did in June, we dropped them off at the church at 11:00 and they were bussed to Feyrer Park. Then we had to meet them back at the church at 3:00… They had a lot of fun, got to have a BBQ, play games, and came home with lots of little goodies.

While they were doing that, Joe, Jared, and I went to the bowling alley again, as a treat for Jared, now that he is in the youth group and didn’t go to the Bible camp… Jared talked me into bowling too, and he was thrilled to have us both to himself. We had lunch there too, since the others were having the BBQ.

As for the rest of the evening, we didn’t do much of ANYTHING. Just sat around on our rears, watching movies and bumming… And I’m sure that Joe got some naps in.

Oh wait! … I forgot… Joe, Alicia, and I did go to Walmart on Saturday, to get some groceries for the week. We left the other kids at home, but Alicia needed new shoes, so she came with us… We had to buy her size FIVE! She can fit perfectly into size 4s, but we wanted to give her some growing room.

She sure is growing up in a hurry! *sigh*

Since Sunday was the last day of his vacation, Joe wanted to be bad and skip church. He wanted to sleep in and get a lazy day in, since he won’t get another vacation until March… So that’s what we did… We did do a little bit of housework, but mainly we just bummed.

As for today, Joe is back to work, and the kids and I got some housework done… I’m also doing some laundry, as Mondays are my usual laundry days (along with Thursdays)… Well, the dryer just stopped, so I better run! … Catch ya on the flip side!

August is flying by at an even faster pace than the rest of the summer! It’s insane that it’s already the middle of the month! … In a couple 2-3 weeks I won’t be a lady of leasure anymore, as school is almost upon us.

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!

I can’t believe it’s August already! … This is our last month of summer vacation. … The summer just FLEW by, faster than they normally do. Probably because we were busier this summer, than we normally are. I will be so sad to see the summer turn into a wet, Oregon fall, filled with school work and rain. *lol*

I measured and weighed the kids yesterday. I try to do it a couple times a year, but it seems I haven’t done it since last December. Ooops! … But I also noticed that I had done it last August too, almost to the day. So it was fun to be able to see exactly what they’ve grown in the last year.

Jared is now 4 ‘ 10.5″ and weighs 70.4 lbs. In the last year he has gained 3.25 inches and 8.6 pounds.
Josh is now 4′ 9.5″ and weighs 82.8 lbs. In the last year he has gained 2.5 inches and 11.2 pounds.
Alicia is now 4′ 7″ and weighs 70 lbs. In the last year she has gained 3 inches and 12 pounds.
Amanda is now 3′ 10″ and weighs 38.8 lbs. In the last year she has gained 2 inches and 2.6 pounds.

Jared is now only 1 1/2 inches shorter than I am, and is LOVING the fact that he is almost as tall as I am. Of course, he also loves the fact that he is a full inch taller than Josh, for a change… But Josh wasn’t impressed with that. He wants to be taller than Jared. (At least he still outweighs Jared by a good 12 pounds! )

On Saturday, I planned on doing some work in the classroom. I was hoping to get some work done in there, and then asking Joe if we could hit Kmart in the evening… So I got a lazy start to my morning, and didn’t really start my morning chores until 10:30, figuring I had lots of time.

Not so much.

Joe calls me from work at 11 o’clock, saying that his sister had invited us over to their house for a BBQ at 2:00, and that after that we would be going bowling.

So much for my plans.

So I finished cleaning the kitchen, did my workout (45  minutes), and took a shower… At around 1:45 we left to go to the Mewings.

I was thinking that we would be eating at 2:00… But they wanted to watch some Brooks and Dunn special that they had recorded off TV. I usually eat lunch at 1:00, as my little bowl of instant oatmeal from breakfast is long gone by then. So I was pretty much starving when we got there, and Scott didn’t even start BBQing until 4 o’clock. *sigh* If I had known they were going to wait so long, I would have eaten lunch as soon as I was out of the shower.

By the time we got to the bowling alley, I pretty much just wanted to go home. I was tired, and my feet were complaining about the shoes. I was glad when it was time to come home. *lol*

We had to be up early on Sunday, so we could get to church on time. I’ve started getting the kids up at 7:30, instead of 8:00, and we’ve managed not to be late the last 3 weeks. Yay! *lol*

It was communion Sunday, and since we had already talked about the meaning behind communion, and Jared’s been born again since he was 5, Jared took his first communion. I was so proud! He is growing up to be such a wonderful young man, and it makes my heart happy that he’s made the decision to follow Christ. … After the service was over, we went up front and I took a couple pictures. They didn’t turn out the greatest, as both Jared and I felt weird doing it, but I am still glad that I got what I did. I needed a picture to commemorate the day.

After church, Joe took us to Pizza Hut, in Oregon City, for lunch. (Yum!) Then we went to Kmart, since we weren’t able to go on Saturday… I thought it was sweet that Joe would give up his Sunday afternoon, which is his only lazy day, so we could hit Kmart.

We needed to get the kids fall/winter clothes on layaway, and Alicia has been dying to go get her first training bra. *lol*

And boy, is she happy with those bras! … At first she went to look at the ones with the A cups, and I had to tell her that she is not ready for those yet. So I found her a 2-pack of simple, cotton training bras. I wasn’t to get another set, but it was the only one in her size, in every brand… Anyway, they sure make them a lot softer and more comfy looking than my first bra! … And thankfully, the set came with a white one and a pink one. She had really wanted a pink one! … We’ll have to look at Walmart this weekend and see if we can find her a couple more, since Kmart didn’t have anymore in stock.

By the time we got back to Molalla it was 3:30, but we didn’t have to be at the bowling alley (for the kids’ league) until 5 o’clock. Joe didn’t want to go all the way home (we live 7 miles outside of town), so we just stopped by the small park in town to kill some time. The girls played on the playground, and the boys tried to learn how to play with their hacky-sack… without much luck. *lol*

At around 4:30-ish we headed to the bowling alley… The league doesn’t start until 6:00, but we figured that the kids could bowl their two free games before the league started. Normally we get two lanes, but this time we had Alicia and the boys share one lane, just to drag things out a little. *lol*

By the time they were done with the league, Joe and I were more than ready to go home. *lol* … I was thankful that Joe works late on Mondays, and I knew I wouldn’t have to go anywhere!

As for Monday, besides doing some housework and laundry, I decided to get some work done in the classroom. I had finally bought some banker boxes, so I packed up last year’s work and put that in our closet. Then I got the new workbooks put away in the kids’ cubbies, and I also put all the 7th grade stuff on the shelf. I also got the 7th grade teacher binder ready to go.

All that’s left, to get ready for school, is to finish the lesson plans and get the kids’ binders done… I have ordered those from Walmart.com (as they never seem to have enough at Walmart when we go), so I will finish that as soon as they get here.

Joe ended up working late yesterday, and he was feeling too tired to drive, so he ended up crashing at his sister’s house, which is a LOT closer to his work than we are (he has about an hour commute, one way). I was teasing him about having a sleep-over with Gene, since his sister is spending the summer at the farm, working for the Toepfers. *lol* … Turns out that Joe didn’t get much sleep at all, and while he was glad that he didn’t have the extra driving, he would have gotten more sleep at home… So he’ll be home tonight.

Well… Guess that’s all… It’s been nice boring you, but I should run! … See ya on the flip side!

Man, was Saturday ever a busy day!

We left the house at around 10 o’clock to head to Clark Park in town… Molalla Communications, where we get our internet service, was having their annual customer appreciation picnic… Though we’ve been a customer of MC since 2007, this is the first time we’ve ever made it to one of these picnics. It seems like usually they fall on the same day as a reunion, or some other plans we have going on.

So anyway, we got there by 10:30-ish, and went and registered. We were given a ticket for the door prizes, and a list of activities, etc. Then we went to the tent for the meeting, which ran from 11:00 to 12:00… That was the boring part. *lol* … But if you want to do the fun stuff, and have a chance at the door prizes (which were really nice), then you have to deal with the boring meeting.

Sadly, we didn’t win a door prize… I would have been happy with any of them. There was so many cool things. A Nintendo Wii, a large digital frame, a digital camera with memory card and case, a 1 TB external hard-drive… Stuff like that… But what I REALLY wanted was the iPod touch, and we came SO CLOSE! Our last two digits were 82, and it was 76 that got it. Boooooo! We came close to a couple of the other items too, as 86 and 87 were called.

At noon we went out to enjoy the activities… There were a few of those huge blow-up things for the kids, face painting, a DJ, stuff like that. They were also feeding us for free too! We got hotdogs, chips, cookies, soda, and water. As much as we wanted. It’s was a pretty good deal, and the kids enjoyed themselves.

We had one scary moment though… Alicia stuck her finger inside her pop-can, for some unknown reason, and ended up cutting her finger. The cut itself wasn’t bad, but it was bleeding pretty good. So we went and found a napkin and got to bleeding stopped. Then we went to stand in the Molalla Communications booth, so that we could spin the wheel and try to win a MC shirt… Anyway, we were standing in line when Alicia told me that she felt like she was going to be sick. So I put my arm around her shoulder… The next thing I knew, she was falling to the ground. I called her name, and tried to catch her, but no luck (she’s getting heavy). She fell against Amanda, and on top of the feet of the guy behind us… Her eyes were open and staring into space. I kept calling her name, but she wouldn’t respond. She had passed out!!!!! … I was about into panic mode, but Joe kept his head on. He had a little water left in his bottle, so he poured it over the top of her face, and that woke her up. She looked at Joe funny and said, “What did you do that for, Daddy?” … Which made us laugh a little, though we were still worried… Anyway, I sent Jared for a bottle of water for her, and Joe carried her to the shade (the temps were in the low 90s). She ended up drinking a bottle and a half of water, and after resting for a bit, she seemed fine.

I never want to do that again!!!

While Alicia rested (Amanda and I stayed with her), Joe and Josh went to go spin the wheel, and Jared went to get Alicia an animal balloon, since she didn’t get one when Amanda did, and wanted a horse one. (Isn’t Jared the sweetest! He was worried for his sister, and was doing all sorts of things for her. So sweet!) … Then, since her face painting got messed up when Joe poured the water on her, we took the girls back to the face painting booth for another painting. When that was done, we headed out.

After leaving Clark Park, we headed to Feyrer Park, so that the kids could go swimming in the Molalla River… Josh has been DESPERATE to go, and I don’t think we really had an option! *lol*

At that point in the river, the water only comes up to the boys’ shoulders, and the current isn’t very fast, so it’s a good place to play. The only downfall is that the bank is covered in rocks, which makes it hard to walk around… One nice thing about the rocks though, is that someone made a couple circles of rocks along the edge of the river, which made a perfect place for Amanda to play. We just told her that she had to play in the circle. She was content to do so, and we didn’t have to worry about her going out too far. Win-win!

The three older kids had fun swimming, while Amanda amused herself with catching tiny polywogs along the edge…  We stayed there for about an hour, and then headed home.

And we stayed home just long enough for the kids to change into dry clothes and grab their bowling balls.

When we got back to town we hit McDonald’s for dinner and an ice cream cone, and then went to bowl their two free games at Molalla Bowl… By that point we were all so tired, that when we got home, we VEGGED for the rest of the night.

Jared had a good time at the Youth Movie Night at church on Friday. I guess they watched a movie called, “Glory Road”, which is a basketball movie… Basketball is one of Jared’s passions, so he was quite impressed.

This coming Friday the youth group is having a bonfire/bbq, which I think he wants to go to as well.

Tonight was the kids bowling league night… We went in an hour early, so that the kids could bowl their two free games, and then they bowled their three league games… Anyway, Jared did very well tonight. His scores were; Free games = 146 & 141 (Josh’s were 166 and 120, and Alicia’s were 102 and 88), and Jared’s league games were = 129, 199, and 164 (Josh’s were 127, 157, and 114 and Alicia’s were 93, 86, and 106). On the 199 game, he bowled 5 strikes in a row!!! How awesome is that?!

All the kids have really improved their bowling skills this summer. The kidsbowlfree.com was the perfect program for them, for being able to practice all summer long. They are going to have a marked improvement when they get to the official league this fall.

I’m sorry I haven’t checked in sooner… I’ve been working on my heritage blog, and couldn’t pull myself away from that to post here on my real blog. … You know me… When I get lost in a project, I tend to lose sight of everything else. … But I told myself that I wasn’t allowed back there until I had posted here and caught up on my blog hopping.

The new kitten is doing great. … CeeCee has stolen my heart. She is just so cute and sweet, and she always comes and wants to snuggle with me. … Of course, she isn’t a lap cat. She’s a shoulder cat. *lol* Every time I pick her up, straight to my shoulder she goes. She either perches up there and looks around, or she snuggles in and takes a nap.

She is also the whiniest cat EVER. She meows over EVERY THING. You so much as shift her a centimeter, when you’re holding her, and she meows. She meows when she eats, plays, and even when she’s using the litter box. *lol* … There is a gospel singer called “CeCe Winans” … Well, we’ve taken to calling CeeCee, “CeeCee Whiners”.

She is also NOT the brightest color in the box… When you’re holding her and she decides that she is hungry, she will start rooting around your neck, like she is wanting to nurse. So I put her on the floor, so she can go eat… Only she just keeps crying and wanting up. I actually have to pick her up and take her to the food bowl, so she can eat. *lol* … I am beginning to think that CeeCee should stand for “Clueless Cassie”, instead of “Cotton Candy”.

It’s a good thing she’s sweet and adorable!

Last Sunday we spent the day cleaning and organizing our two sheds. It took us something like 5 hours, but they look great now! … We still have a big pile of things to go to the GoodWill, and a big pile of things to go to the dump, but other than that, that’s two more things checked off my summer worklist.

We’re still going to the bowling alley all the time. … The kids are going to go into bowling withdrawals when summer ends and they no longer get all the free bowling coupons from kidsbowlfree.com. *lol* … But all this practice is really helping their bowling skills! … This last week, Joe and both the boys have bowled new high games! … Last Wednesday, during their free games, Joe bowled a 177. Funny thing is, the game started out just awful, for the first  6 frames, and then on the last 4 frames he got SIX STRIKES IN A ROW!!! (He got 3 strikes in the last frame.) … If he had bowled better in the first 6 frames, his score would have been much better… I think he was in shock for the rest of the evening. It took a while for it to sink in.

Then, that same night, during the Have-A-Ball league, Josh bowled a 182! … Guess he didn’t like that Joe had beat his top score during practice, so he had to make sure to beat Daddy’s game.

The next day, while playing the free games (after the free summer kids’ league), Jared bowled a 203!!!!!!! … And it was almost a clean game too! … A clean game is where you don’t leave any pins standing (no open frames). If you get all strikes and spares, then they consider it a clean game… Well, he got strikes and spared on all 10 frames (more spares than strikes), but when he bowled his last ball, after the spare on the 10th frame, he only got 8 pins down. Scott says that it doesn’t count, and that it’s still considered a clean game… But there was 2 pins left standing… So I don’t know… *lol* … But a 203! How awesome is that?!

Oh… And last Sunday (the 11th), Josh and Alicia got their trophies for the Pro-Am game they bowled in June… Josh had bowled AWESOME that night, and got 2nd place for the kids 10 and under… As for Alicia, we’re a little confused… She actually didn’t bowl well at all. Her average (on the bumper league) was in the upper 70s, but she didn’t get to use bumpers during the tournament. So she was only bowling in the 40s, which was UNDER her average… I know she has a really high handicap, but that usually only helps if you bowl over your average (which Josh did… He bowled WELL over his average!)… Anyway, Alicia won 1st place for the 10 and under kids, and bumped Josh to 2nd place… It makes no sense. *lol* … I am happy for Alicia, but I think that Josh deserved the 1st place trophy… And Alicia thinks so too!

On Monday the boys got to go to the farm again… Their cousin, Leann, was going for the day and she came and picked them up and took them with her… Leann’s mom, Dorothy (Joe’s sister), is staying there for the summer, helping out with things around the farm… Dorothy is a teacher, and has summer vacation off work… Anyway, she is doing things like painting their house, and helping with the garden, etc… Jared and Josh helped in the garden some too, and that evening they all took a walk to the top of Black Tail (a big hill on the property). They also played some board games… They seemed to have a good time.

I am annoyed by one thing this week… Our dishwasher is acting up! … It only runs for a couple minutes, and then it stops. It stays on, and the heating element stays hot, but there is no water running… Josh had loaded it on Tuesday night, and when we opened it on Wednesday, we thought that Josh had forgotten to run it. So we turned it on again, and dirtied up more dishes when we ate breakfast… By Wednesday afternoon we had figured out that it was broken, and that I would have to wash everything by hand… By then there was 2 loads of dirty dishes! *sigh* … So after spending FOREVER washing all the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, I couldn’t convince myself to make dinner and mess the kitchen up again… So we ended up eating dinner at the bowling alley, before they bowed the Have-A-Ball league.

So… Until Gene (Joe’s BIL) has a chance to come out and look at the dishwasher, we’re having to do all the dishes by hand… And trust me, these kids go through a LOT of dishes!

We found out on Saturday that there was another cougar sighting in the neighborhood!!! That makes 3 in 10 months. *sigh* … I am beginning to wish we had a place in town, instead of out here in the boonies… No matter how much I like the quiet! … Anyway, this one was seen running along the tree line, out past the houses. Not too close, but close enough!

Now I have to keep Alicia and Amanda closer to home… They like to run around the neighborhood with their little friends, but now they have to stay in the yard. They are not liking that too much. But it’s better to be safe, than sorry… Especially since the kids love to play in the field… The tree line is just a few hundred feet from the field, with just a small fence between them.

Since I finally got a few assignments from PayU2Blog, I actually got $50 from them on Friday… So I transferred it to our checking account, and on Saturday Joe and I went to Walmart to buy some school supplies for this year… So, I now almost have everything we need for the school year… I need four 3-inch binders (to put the kids worksheets, lesson plans, tests, grades, etc in for the year), and they only had 1 in stock. So I still need 3 more of those. But we have everything else we need. … Now that I got the banker boxes, I can pack up last year’s workbooks, etc and get this year’s set up… I also need to finish up this year’s lesson plans… I have Josh’s done, and Jared’s 1/2 done.

When we went shopping, we left the kids at home with Jared. Joe and I went to the GoodWill first, and then stopped by Taco Bell for a late lunch/early dinner. It was nice having some time for just the two of us… … It sure is a lot cheaper to eat out with just the two of us, instead of paying for all 6 of us!

We found the coolest “art cart” at the GoodWill (a local thrift store) …. It was $20, which seemed like a good deal to me! …  We picked it up for Alicia, and now I have all her craft things all organized in the cart… She loves it! It’s perfect for her things.

On Sunday, Jared made another step in his journey to adult hood… He is now an official member of the youth group… Our church doesn’t have a separate junior high group and high school group, as there aren’t enough teens. So the youth group is 7th to 12th grade… Anyway, Jared has been telling me that Sunday School is getting boring, because he keeps hearing the same stories over and over, and since he will be in 7th grade in a couple months, I decided it was time he moved up… He wasn’t too impressed at first, but I think he was just scared about trying something new. Once class was over, he told me that it was fun and that he was sorry for being a baby about it.

The only thing Jared doesn’t like, is the fact that he’s the youngest and smallest one there… He’s the only 7th grader, and he is VERY small for his age… But Jared is mature for his age, so I think he’s going to fit right in. He just needs to do some growing, physically.

Anyway, the youth pastor, Boone Noble, gave Jared a binder. They are working on something called “Setting You Free to Make RIGHT CHOICES”. It’s a 7 week course, with daily lessons/devotionals. I guess they started in 2 weeks ago, so Jared has to catch up on the last couple weeks. Last night, without anyone even having to say anything, Jared brought his binder to the table and started working on it… He’s going to do 3 days every day this week, so he will be caught up by next Sunday.

I’m glad he’s enjoying the class already. … And Boone is a great youth leader… He’s going to be going to the seminary this fall, as he wants to be a Pastor someday.

This Friday he has his first official youth outing. … They are having a “Youth Movie Night” on Friday, at 7 pm… They can bring friends, so Jared is going to take Jacob and Jamie… I think that Jared likes that Josh and the girls are too young to go, especially now that he will miss out on the children’s day camps. (Of course, even Josh and the girls will miss the next one of those, since we will be camping that weekend.)

Well, I need to eat breakfast, do my workout, shower, and start laundry… So I will get to the blog hopping some time this afternoon.

Another week has gone by in between posts… I really need to stop that! I tell myself that I should post at least 2-3 times a week, but then I get wrapped up in some project or another, and well… There goes that!

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!

So.. What happened to spring? It is 18 days until summer starts, and I don’t feel like we’ve even had much of a spring! I’ve never seen such a cold, wet May before. EVER. By now we’ve usually already had days up in the 90s at times, but so far we haven’t even had any days in the 80s. At all. And Joe told me that if we don’t have a day in the 80s by the 10th, we’ll break some kind of record.

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.

The boys had their final swimming lesson last Thursday. Their instructor, Alaina, put them through everything they have learned over the last four weeks… A sort of swimming test, I guess. *lol* … Anyway, they both did wonderfully, and they received a certificate saying that they passed the level two course, and are ready for level three… We hadn’t planned on doing the level three, but now the boys are wanting to do it. BUT, the girls get to have their lessons first… But with Joe’s crazy summer schedule, they will probably have to wait until this fall.

We still plan on taking them to the Thursday afternoon Family Swim time at the pool though, until they change the schedule in June and we won’t be able to do that again until next April. (They are going to be so bummed when that happens!)

I ordered myself my Mother’s Day present. … Joe never knows what to get me. (To be honest, he’s never been one to put an effort into surprises for me.) So anyway, he always asks me what I want, and then gets what I ask for. *rofl* … This year I wasn’t sure at first, until…

We have these nice Coleman camp chairs in our trailer, that look almost exactly like this one (only ours don’t have that bag thing hanging off the arm). It’s a nice, sturdy chair, and the table is awesome. It also sits high enough that it’s easy to get in and out of… The only problem is that there is no support for the lower back, so after a while my lower back starts to ache. It’s really annoying… But the chair cost $20 (on sale), so I don’t want to get a new chair… Plus, I really like that table. … So most of last summer, I would bring my pillow out, and use that to support my back, but that was a little annoying too. *lol*

And then I saw this chair cushion in a catalog a week or so ago… Doesn’t it look comfy? I thought it would be perfect for my chair!! It has strings on the back, so that it can be tied into place… I’m hoping that it will be enough to help my back.

Now the hard part will be to keep Joe and the kids off my chair, so I can sit in it myself! *rofl*

I ordered it last Thursday, and I am hoping that it gets here before our camping trip to Beverly Beach (which is 2 1/2 weeks away).

We didn’t do too much over the weekend… Joe had the day off work for a change, so we all slept in and had a lazy morning. When we finally got out of bed, we did a quick pickup of the house, and then I made some breakfast.

We did take the kids bowling though… Since they are on the summer junior league, they get to bowl anytime they want for 50 cents a game. Not a bad deal. … So we met Scott and Jacob and the bowling alley at 1 o’clock (Debbie and Jamie were off getting their hair cut). They bowled 3 games each, and then we left… Joe did bowl his best game ever though, and got a 165. Josh wasn’t impressed because Joe beat Josh’s high game of 158, but Jared is still in the lead with his 180. *lol*

After we left the bowling alley, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, and then went shopping at Walmart. When we got home, we just bummed for the rest of the evening.

Joe wasn’t feeling well on Sunday morning, after he got off work at Safeway, so we ended up not going to church… We had originally planned on going to Joe’s parents’ house after church, and Joe’s sister, DeeDee, was going to come over there to cut my hair… I wanted it done before this coming weekend, since our niece, Leann, is getting married… But, since Joe wasn’t feeling well, we didn’t do that either.

He was feeling better by the evening though, so we made it to the bowling alley for the kids’ league… Jared and Jamie had decided to go with Andrea’s suggestion of “The Leftovers” for their team name, but Coach Mick had already assigned them with one… “Left Stuff” (as opposed to “The Right Stuff”) … They don’t really like that name though, and are going to ask Mick if they can change it to their name.

Some group had been in before the league, and had a birthday party… They ended up leaving half a cake, some balloons… Not to mention a huge mess. … So this guy who works there (I don’t know his name) let everyone have a piece of the cake (I was good though, and didn’t have one ), and he gave Alicia and Amanda each a balloon. They were quite pleased about that.

Sorry I haven’t been blog hopping like I should be… I’ve been busy working on Kyle and Leann’s wedding book that I am making. I want to get as much pre-done, before their wedding, as I can. I know that what with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday, and then the wedding on Saturday, I will be bombarded with photos… I am going to be in a scrapping-craze come next week… So if I am absent, you know where I will be… Lost in Photoshop Elements. *lol*

Right now I have all the pages set as private in my gallery, so that Leann won’t stumble across them (since sometimes I post links to my gallery on facebook, and she is on facebook)… But I have created a “guest pass”, in case you’re interested in the pages I have done so far. You can check them out here…

Oh, I almost forgot… We got the kids CAT results back already. They did pretty good, though not quite as good as last year. *sigh* … I hope we can bring the grades back up into the 90s next year.

Anyway, Alicia, who just finished 2nd grade, scored an 83% and is testing in the 4.3 grade level… Josh, who just finished 4th grade, scored a 90% and is testing in the 7.4 grade level… Jared, who just finished 6th grade, scored an 85% and is testing in the 10.9 grade level.

At least they all passed. *lol*

Well, I suppose I’ve rambled on long enough… Hope you all have a great day! See ya on the flip side!

Man! I didn’t realize that it’s been a week since I posted last! Shame on me! I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately… I used to be so good about posting almost daily, and now I am lucky if I post more than once or twice a week… Guess I’m in a blogging slump. Oh well… As long as I post at least once a week, I guess it’s not too bad, right?

Let’s see if I can get caught up on the last week…

As I mentioned in my last post, Thomas got the laptop fixed… I spent a few days getting all the iTunes shows, that Alicia likes, transfered over to it. When I was done, I set it up in Alicia’s room… She is LOVING it, let me tell you! *lol* … Now the girls can watch a movie on iTunes without having to ask the boys to use their computers. Also, on her own, she’s been working on a blog post. She is determined that it’s going to be 1000 words long. *lol* … To me that seems like too long of a post for an 8 year old, but she has her mind set on it. (She wants to make a post longer than the boys ever have. *lol*) So far she has just over 500 words, and I think she has run out of things to say. We’ll see if she makes it any longer.

Jared, Josh, and Alicia are finished with thier school work for the year (except for the CATs). Alicia finished last Tuesday, then Josh finished on Wednesday, and Jared finished on Thursday. Everyone who hears keeps asking me if we are going to start next year early, since we finished early this year… I may be imagining it, but they seem like they think I am doing the wrong thing when I tell them that we will start in September, at the same time the public school starts… I can’t help it if we finish before the public school kids do… All those days they take off for teacher in-service days, etc… Well, we work right through them. It’s only logical that we would finish before them. If we started earlier than September, we would be finished even earlier in the spring… So we may as well enjoy a nice, long summer! … And believe me, we DO enjoy it!

The CATs (California Achievement Tests) arrived from FLO (www.familylearning.org) on Friday. So today we started them today… There are 10 seperate tests on it; Vocabulary, Comprehension, Spelling, Language Mechanics, Language Expression, Mathematics Computation, Mathematics Concepts and Applications, Study Skills, Science, and Social Studies… Today we did the first 5 tests, and tomorrow we will do the last 5. We have to get them done and the tests mailed back to FLO in 1 week, so we can’t dilly-dally around. Plus, we can’t be “officially” on summer vacation until we are done with the tests. *lol*

Once we get the tests mailed back to FLO, then it is usually a 2-3 week wait while they grade the tests and send us the results… I always HATE waiting! *rofl* Last year the boys didn’t do as well on the language parts of the tests, and I am hoping to see an improvement this year. Also, Alicia didn’t do as well on the math part last year… Though they all still tested 4-5 grades above grade level overall, so we know they are doing well.

We actually don’t have to take the test every year. Oregon state law states that we have to have them tested at the ends of 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 10th grades… But I like to make sure that we are doing well, so starting with 1st grade, we do them every year (so Amanda didn’t have to do one this year, since she just finished K5).

The boys swimming lessons are going well. They are halfway through with them… Anyway, last Tuesday I didn’t go to watch them (wasn’t feeling well, thanks to AF), but I guess their instructor came up to Joe after class was over and told him that they were both doing very well. They are both loving the classes, and the girls can not wait until it is their turn.

The kids didn’t get to swim as long as they would have liked on the family swim this last Thursday… It’s from 3 to 5 pm, but Joe didn’t get home from work until around 3:45-ish. So they only got around an hour to swim, instead of 2 hours. They were reluctant to get out when 5 o’clock came! *lol* … But they had no choice, as the 5:00 lessons were starting. *lol* … We’re hoping that Joe won’t have to work as late this coming Thursday.

On Friday, Joe and I left the kids at home while we went shopping at Walmart… Usually Joe just hits Walmart on the way home, but I wanted to get some hair color, and I didn’t trust him to get the right one (mainly because I couldn’t remember if it was 116 or 118 that I needed, and I wanted to make sure that I got the darker of the two *lol*).

… Also, I wanted to print out a couple 11 X 14 prints that I scrapped to put the boys’ bowling patches on… I think it turned out pretty cool! … I scanned in the patches, so that I would be able to space them out correctly on the layout. I wanted to write the date/score of what the patch was for. I also added their team photo (which I took myself), and a photo of them with their trophies. I put their league stats on it, as well as the year… Once we got them home, I attached the real patches over the scans, and we’re going to frame them for the boys’ walls. (Walmart was out of that size of frames, except for some really expensive ones. We’re going to try Bimart, to see if they have any…) … Anyway, if you want to see bigger versions of them, here is Jared’s and here is Josh’s. (Just click where it says “All Sizes” above the photo, to see a larger version.)

We didn’t do anything exciting on Saturday… Just some housework… The 6 of us banded together and got the house in tip-top shape. Made sure all the rooms were clean, cleaned the bathrooms, mopped the floors, etc. Then we spent the rest of the day just doing our own things, and basically relaxing… Gotta love a relaxing day.

As for me, I spent the weekend in Photoshop Elements. I got 24 layouts done!!! … Sad thing is, I didn’t even finish scrapping 2 days worth of photos. *rofl* … I am still working on the pictures I took of our vacation last June. So far I have 104 layouts done from that trip, and I STILL have 3 1/2 days of photos that need scrapping. Is that SAD or what?!

Note to self: “You take too many pictures!”
Reply to self: “I would rather be behind in scrapbooking, than stop taking pictures!”

*rofl*

Anyway, here’s hoping that I get the vacation pictures scrapped before our next big vacation.

Well, I should run. I need to pay bills, finish laundry, blog hop, and do some things on facebook… Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

Can you say, “YAY!!!” … Because Amanda sure can! She is officially on summer vacation! … She finished up her kindergarten work on Thursday, and she was QUITE pleased about that too. She is now an official 1st grader, but she doesn’t care about that right now. She is just focused on the fact that it is now summer vacation. *lol*

It’s very strange to think that I will never teach kindergarten again… Since Amanda did it twice, I have taught it 5 times… But I never will again. It’s kind of strange… And a little sad… These kids are growing up much too quickly.

Of course, there is also the fact that Jared will be in middle school this coming fall… MIDDLE SCHOOL… I will be teaching SEVENTH GRADE! … How in the world did THAT happen?!?!?!

 When Joe got home from work on Thursday, we met the Mewings at the Molalla Aquatic Center so the kids could go swimming… At this point we thought the trailer wasn’t going to be fixed, so Joe was in a pretty bad mood… He didn’t want to swim with the kids, but they wouldn’t have allowed Amanda into the pool without an adult in with her, so he had to swim anyway… Luckily, Scott decided to swim too, and they all got to playing the poolside basketball thing, which helped Joe’s mood and he was actually smiling… While he was playing ball with the guys, Jamie took over watching Alicia and Amanda, and they had fun away from the guys. *lol*

For a while the boys practiced what they learned during their swimming lessons on Tuesday. Jared can swim a few strokes, before he stops… I don’t know if he lacks confidence, or if it’s because a little water goes in his nose… Neither of the boys like putting their heads under the water…

After the family swim (3:00-5:00) was over, we took the kids to Subway to get some dinner (and Scott and Debbie decided to join us)… We chose Subway because not only is there not much to choose from in Molalla, but mainly because Amanda has been craving a meatball sub pretty badly. The last time she wanted to go, she got outvoted by the other kids… So we went to Subway, with a very happy Amanda… Only to find out that they were out of meatballs… Poor Pixie! … I felt bad for her… Also, I had gone online to see what I could eat that wasn’t high in calories. I had decided on a 6 inch ham (on wheat with no cheese) and a cup of soup… Only to find out that they don’t have the soup at their store. … So annoying! … So there was nothing I could have with my sandwich (I didn’t want to eat chips, and they didn’t have any side salads), and I was still a little hungry. … Oh well, I lived. *lol*

We had a nice time visiting with Scott and Debbie too, though mainly we discussed what we were going to do without the trailer, since at that point we didn’t know they were going to fix it…

After we were done eating, it was time to go back to the pool for the boys swimming lessons.

This time there were only 4 kids in the class, so the boys got a little more time with the instructors… When there are 5 kids, and the classes are only 30 minutes long, they really don’t get much lesson time…When it’s time for the girls’ lessons, we may do the private ones… With the regular lessons, it’s $28 for 8 half hour classes… But they only get around 5 minutes of the teacher’s time… With the private lessons it’s also $28, but they get a half our of undivided attention from the instructor… We can’t decide if it would be worth the extra $ or not. *sigh*

This time the boys did a little better with the lessons… Though I think that 8 weeks won’t be long enough. We shall see… You can tell by the video that they still have a long way to go… Though I do wish she would focus on regular swimming, instead of on their back. Wouldn’t it be easier to teach them one way at a time???

On Friday, after the kids (and the twins) were done with school, Jamie and Jacob came over to spend the night… Since the boys get to spend the night over at their house (without the girls) a lot, Alicia and Amanda were DESPERATE to have Jamie spend the night, so we invited them both over. Joe stopped by Scott and Debbie’s house on his way home from work and picked them up… Actually, he got there before Jamie got home from school, so he hung out with Debbie for a while first. They ended up signing into Joe’s Facebook account and messing around…. They are funny to watch together. The ultimate sibling teasing. *lol*

As for the sleepover, the kids seemed to have fun. They played basketball outside, they played Wii, and they played on the computers. They watched movies, and Jamie brought over a game called “Apples to Apples” that they really enjoy… Am going to have to buy that game for one of the kids for Christmas…

I didn’t have to worry about what to feed them… Debbie works for Papa Murphy’s, and can get pizzas for really cheap (or is it free?), so she gave us a couple pizzas for dinner. (I was good though, and didn’t eat pizza )

On Saturday, for the first time in MONTHS, we HAD NO PLANS… And MAN, was that strange! *lol* … Of course, Joe still had to work in the morning. His shift was from 4:30 to 10:00 am… When he got home he worked out in the yard. He mowed the lawn, and edged it. Then he did some weeding. Later he BBQd hamburgers for himself, the kids, and the twins (again, I was good and had something with less calories).

As for me, it was sure nice seeing the day stretch out before me with nothing planned! … I ended up doing some digital scrapbooking… Joe’s niece is getting married in May, and I am working on a special album for them. I was able to get all the bridal shower pictures scrapped, and ended up getting 12 layouts done. I am very pleased with how the album is turning out so far.

This is kind of a group project, with Joe’s family… People are writing either memories of Kyle and Leann while they were dating, or giving them good wishes or advice on their marriage. So I will be adding all these stories/good wishes to the pages. I think it’s going to turn out nice. … Also, everyone is going to chip in on paying for it, so Joe and I don’t have to pay for it by ourselves, since the finished book will cost more than $100

I am worried about 1 thing though… I usually print 12X12 books at Shutterfly, but they only allow 100 pages per book. Right now I only have the bridal shower, the dress fitting, the proposal, and two memory pages done and I am already at 20 layouts… By the time I am done with the rehearsal dinner, the wedding, the reception, and the stories of how they met and fell in love (along with any other memories from family)… I am worried that it will be over 100 layouts … I will need to contact you Deb, as I think you mentioned somewhere you can print books with over 100 layouts. *lol*

Sunday was another busy day…

First we had church… Which we were almost late for *lol* … Somehow the morning got away from me. I think it was because I wasn’t feeling very well (nothing serious, just AF), and was in “just want to go back to bed, so I’m in slow motion” mode. Before I knew it, it was 30 minutes before we had to leave, we hadn’t eaten breakfast, and Josh still needed a shower… This is when panic mode set in. *lol* … Sunday School starts at 9:30, and that’s about when we were pulling into the parking lot.

After chuch we went to the bowling alley for lunch… There was am adult/junior doubles bowling tournament at 2 pm which the boys wanted to enter. We decided it would be a pain to go home and eat, and then come back into town by 2, so we just ate there…

Anyway, Joe bowled with Josh and Joe’s friend, Thomas (who is the guy who always fixes our computers when they break) bowled with Jared… Thomas is on a men’s league at another bowling alley… Anyway, while Joe bowled pretty good (for him), Josh didn’t bowl as well as he has been bowling (though his first game was good)… Joe’s average is 100, and he bowled: 123, 108, & 113. Josh’s average is 91 and he bowled: 121, 91, and 86.

Jared and Thomas were on fire though! Thomas’ average is (I think) 158 and he bowled: 191, 156, & 208. Jared’s average is 105 and he bowled: 122, 133, and 149… After the tournament was over we stuck around until they gave us the “unofficial” results, and Jared and Thomas may have come in at 2nd place!!! (Because of the handicap being added to the scores.) … It will be nice for Jared … The USBC (United States Bowling Council) sets up scholorship accounts for youth bowlers who are members (which the boys are). So the top four winners of this tournament get money added to their scholorship accounts! … When we see the official results, and the $$ added, I will let you know what it is… This is the first tournament like this that the boys have done, so I am unsure of how exactly it works. *lol*

Thomas finally got the laptop fixed… It had needed a new fan, but when he ordered it they sent the wrong one. He had to send it back and wait for the new one… He also told us that the screws and things are getting stripped and that if something else goes wrong with it, we may as well just toss it… Basically, it’s on it’s last leg. *lol* … It has been repaired 5 times now! HP worked on it twice, and Thomas has replaced the fan 2 times, and replaced the harddrive. With all the repairs, we’ve probably paid for that thing twice now. … We’re giving it to Alicia, but have warned her that if it breaks, we can’t get it fixed again… Here’s hoping it lasts a while. *lol* (She’ll mainly use it to watch iTunes, play solitare, and write on her blog every once in a while… Though I may install some of their computer games on it. It’s got a 500 gig hard-drive, so I may as well add some stuff to it. *lol*

Well, guess you’re all caught up with us again… Today is just a regular Monday… We’re doing homeschool lessons, regular chores, and I am doing laundry. Fun stuff… Guess I better get back to it too. *lol* … Catch ya on the flip side!