Johnsons' Journey

I guess it’s about time to post again… Seems I’m back to my once-a-week posting. *lol* … But hey, I get more comments per post that way! … I also haven’t gotten any assignments from PayU2Blog for almost 2 weeks (which hurts… Can’t buy homeschool books with my PU2B money, when I’m not getting any!), so I am not posting for them right now either… Come on people, give me some assignments! *rofl*

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!

It was sure quiet around the house, without the boys here… I guess the main reason would be because Josh takes the whole “big brother” thing to a whole new level… He is a Johnson, after all… He likes to tease the girls (mainly Alicia) until she is literally screaming in frustration. (It’s actually quite annoying! *sigh*) Then, when I get after him about it, he always just says, “But I was only teasing!” … Just like his Dad and Grandpa, he doesn’t know when enough is enough. (Joe REALLY doesn’t know when to stop either. *sigh*) … Anyway, without the teasing, the girls didn’t do any screaming… So that was nice!

Now, don’t get me wrong… Josh doesn’t ALWAYS tease Alicia… Sometimes they are the best of friends, and sometimes they are the worst of enemies. And they have been like that since Alicia was tiny… They do play together a lot… They’re relationship is very strange. *lol*

I sure missed the boys when they were gone though. It just didn’t feel right, only having 2 kids at home. I kept telling the girls that I missed them, and Amanda would say, “I miss them more than you do!” … So it looks like I am not the only one who was glad to see them.

On Thursday we took the girls to the family swim at the pool. The girls had fun, even though the boys weren’t there to play with (Debbie and the twins didn’t come either). We only ended up staying about an hour though, instead of the entire 2 hours… The girls would have liked to stay longer, but Joe started not feeling very well… Plus, a group of 3 Mexican guys and a white guy came in. They had to have been in their mid-30′s, but they acted like a bunch of immature 12 year olds. They were loud and roudy, and with the way they were throwing the balls, I was sure that one of the kids would get hit with a ball… So I was glad to leave… And the girls didn’t complain either, especially since it meant that Mommy would be making dinner all that sooner. *rofl*

On Friday we took the girls to Molalla Bowl, so that we could use up the free passes from kidsbowlfree.com. We told the girls that we would bowl just the two free games, and then we would eat dinner there at the bowling alley, after we bowled. I even told them that IF it was quiet enough there, I would bowl too… So, since it seemed slow, all four of us got shoes and we got 2 lanes. Bumpers for Amanda and me, and a regular lane for Joe and Alicia… Alicia has been wanting to practice without the bumpers up, and she’s getting better! She even got a 59!!! … And yes, I need bumpers. *rofl* … I am THAT BAD!

Unfortunatly, during the first game, the bowling alley started to fill up. So Amanda and I decided to only bowl one game… Meanwhile, Joe and Alicia bowled their two and then moved over to our lane. They put the bumpers down and finished up mine and Amanda’s 2nd game. Joe bowled under my name, and Alicia bowled under Amanda’s.

Then we got dinner… We should have just gone somewhere else… Thankfully, we were first in line… They only had one poor girl back there, working all alone, and she got bombarded! Seems like she spent over 30 minutes (after we sat down), just taking orders, before she got to even start making ours. We had to wait forever for our food, and then when we finally got it, the fries had been overcooked and were a bit more crunchy than I like them… But I did feel sorry for her. She really needed some help back there! (I don’t think they expected it to be that busy, as it’s normally not at that time of day.)

When we got home from the bowling alley, I wanted to make some cookies. We had some birthdays to cover. (We give cookies to family on their birthday) I had Joe stop at Thriftway on the way home, because I knew I needed some baking butter and more chocolate chips. So we got that and headed home. Then Joe went outside to work in the hard, and I went to work on the cookies… Only to discover that I was almost out of brown sugar! Rats! I only had enough for one single, solitary batch of cookies… I have never made just ONE batch of cookies at a time before. It almost didn’t seem worth the effort. *lol* Before I even started I had switched the laundry… I had the cookies made, the dishes washed, and the kitchen clean, all before the dryer stopped. *lol*

Anyway, I was only able to make enough cookies for Jamie Q. Michael’s birthday is this coming Saturday, so I will make his on Thursday… After getting some more brown sugar.

On Saturday we had a family reunion at the farm… I really WAS NOT looking forward to going, mainly because of the dogs. Everyone brings their dogs and lets them run free… And they all seem to want to run STRAIGHT to me. *sigh*… And this time there were 6 of them! … One of them was an extremely hyper 2 year old golden lab. OMWord, was that dog HYPER. Poor Amanda was scared out of her mind, and spent a good portion of her time flying to either mine or Joe’s lap. Finally Jamie Q and her boyfriend put the dog in the back of their pickup, and Amanda was able to get down. She isn’t afraid of the other dogs, because they aren’t as wild.

It was AWESOME to see the boys again. It was sooo nice to give them nice, long hugs. … Even Amanda threw herself at her brothers for some hugs too, which seemed to amuse both of the boys.

Sounds like they had a really nice time at the farm (they had been there since Wednesday). They got to help out with little chores around the farm, and had a lot of fun with Great-Grandma Toepfer and Uncles Larry and Ronnie… In fact, I think the Toepfers would adopt them, if they could. *lol* Larry, Ronnie, and Grandma Toepfer couldn’t say enough wonderful things about Jared and Josh. Marie (Joe’s Grandma) went on and on about how well we are raising the boys, and how sweet and smart they are. Larry seemed impressed with how much they like to help with the chores, and Ronnie (who loves to tease) got a kick with the teasing back and forth between him and the boys… And, of course, Jared can give as good as he gets, and that tickled Ronnie… I guess one time Jared was looking into Ronnie’s ear, and pretending it could see clear through out the other ear. *lol* … And I guess they were telling the boys that they were going to send them down the outhouse, head first, to take inventory.

Anyway, we are going to make some plans to have the boys spend some more time down there this summer. The Toepfers enjoy it, and the boys enjoy it… And I think it’s good for all of them… Just maybe not for me, since I miss them so much.

There is one depressing thing though… I guess on Thursday Ronnie let the boys ride on one (or two) of the horses, and NO ONE took a picture! *pout*… This is the first time the boys were on a horse, and I MISSED IT, and I don’t have any photos to show for it… I am going to go pout now! *lol*

Other than the dogs, the day was mostly nice… Joe’s Dad was mad at us though, and was grumping at us all day. … He was mad because we only came for the day, and we didn’t camp… Debbie told us that he told them that it was *insert bad word here* that we had a nice trailer, but didn’t bring it to camp… But you can’t have hookups, and I can’t shower in it there… And I can’t go without a shower. My skin and hair is too oily, and I NEED my morning shower! … So, it was no fun dealing with Jim all day… Because when he gets mad, he can REALLY hold a grudge! (Which is where Joe gets it from *sigh*) … I guess when we got there, Joe went over to say hello, and Jim said something about us being a day late and a dollar short, and he didn’t say it in a nice way either.

We also had one other issue, with Joe and Jim… Joe’s family always does this Bingo thing at all the get-togethers like this. You’re supposed to buy cheap prizes from the dollar store and wrap them up in newspaper. Then the winners of the game get to pick a prize from the pile… I never play, but Joe and the kids enjoy it… Anyway, when it was time, Joe grabbed his chair and went into the shop to play. As he was pulling out some Bingo boards, Jim and Joe have this conversation:

Jim: “Did you bring any prizes?” (in a grumpy tone)
Joe: “Yes, why?”
Jim: “Because you can’t play if you didn’t bring any.”
Joe: “Yes I can, who says?”
Jim: “I did.”
Joe: “Well, then I won’t play.”
Jim: “Fine, be an *insert bad word here* then!”

Then Joe left and refused to play… He was mad, and he’s still mad… And Joe can hold a grudge just as long as Jim can. (Like father, like son. *sigh*) … What is insane is that we DID bring some things, and even if we didn’t, the table was PILED with gifts. Plus, some of the older relatives didn’t bring anything, and Jim didn’t have any trouble with them playing.

I just can’t believe Joe’s dad called his own son such a name!

The weather was really nice (at first), which was quite a shock to the system, after all the rain! (and it was back to raining by the time night fell)… Since it wasn’t raining, and the boys and Alicia were off playing games with their cousins, we took Amanda on a little walk to see the waterfalls that are on the Toepfers’ property (they have something like 380-ish acres). I’ve never been to see the falls before… I have no idea why… Though we only went to the top of the falls. We were told that the trail down was really muddy and slick (because of all the rain), so we didn’t want to chance it… It was a nice walk anyway, and Amanda seemed to enjoy herself. She even picked some flowers for Great Grandma Toepfer.

Luckily, the kids were oblivious to the issues between their Dad and their Grandpa. They all played, and came home with lots of cheap prizes… They got glow sticks, poptarts, a bike lock, some containers, etc. Josh even got a pair of fake glasses with a nose, which is SO FUNNY!. *lol* … He’s all about those, since he is such a goofball! … And you should have seen the grin on Alicia’s face when she won those poptarts. She does love her food!

Josh sure gave cousin LeRoy (who’s around 24-25 years old) a laugh though. He saw Josh’s shirt (which used to belong to Jacob) that said “Parents for Sale”, but didn’t notice that the dad is free. Anyway, he asked Josh how much he would take for his parents, and Josh says, “Two thousand for my Mom, but my Dad is free.” … After LeRoy told me, I said to Josh, “So… I’m only worth two grand, huh?” … And then Josh upped it to a couple billion. *rofl*

Our BIL, Bob, brought a pellet gun and some targets with him. He and Kyle were off shooting at the target, and they called Joe over… After a while I got bored sitting there by myself, so I went over to watch them shoot the gun… Bob (our resident drunk) asked me if I wanted to try. I told him that I wouldn’t even know how, and he said that he would show me… So I agreed, which SHOCKED everyone there, including Joe! *rofl* … That had to be the funnest part about trying it out. … and it sure was harder than it looks! The gun is a bit heavy, and hard to keep steady. I did manage to hit the target (though not on the bullseye), which impressed the guys very much. *lol* … Joe was going on all day about how wonderful his wife was… She cooks, cleans, teaches the kids, and can shoot!

When I was trying out the pellet gun, the boys were in playing Bingo. I guess Ronnie had seen me doing it, and went to tell Jared that I was holding a gun… Jared wouldn’t believe him! *lol* He had to come over and see for himself… While he was there, I told him that he could try too, if he wanted… He LEPT at the chance!… So Joe showed him how to do it, and was giving him some gun safety rules… Anyway, Jared was able to hit the target too, and he even did better than Joe, Kyle, and Bob! *lol* I told Bob that it was probably the hunting game they have on the computer, and Bob agreed. *lol*

Then Jared ran off to get Josh, so he could try too… Bob gave Josh some tips, and then Josh shot it. He hit the target too… Though they did tell the boys that the scope was off, and where to aim at. No one told me, so I was aiming at the middle! I wonder how I would have done, had I known that the scope was off!

Ronnie came over after a while (The Toepfer Boys go hunting all the time, and know there way around guns), and when he heard that the scope was off, he fixed it for Bob. After the scope was fixed, Josh almost hit the target dead center! I asked Bob if I could keep the target (he was going to thrown them all in the fire), so he gave it to me. Later that night (when we were home), Josh kept picking it up and looking at it. After a while I told him that when we got him a cork board for his wall, I would have to put it up for him. He asked me why I wanted to keep it, so I asked him, “Why do you keep looking at it?” … He just grinned at me, and hasn’t asked me again.

Alicia surprised me while we were there… She must be getting over her fear of heights! … When we were watching the target practice, I looked over to see her sitting on the top rail of the fence, which is probably 4 1/2 feet high! There was a time when she wouldn’t even walk down stairs, because she was so afraid, and now she’s climbing on fences! (and I noticed while we were camping that she is going down the high slides now too, which she never used to do)… But MAN, was she jealous that the boys got to ride those horses! She LOVES horses, and she wants to ride one so bad… But Larry and Ronnie never brought them out during the reunion, so Alicia was out of luck. I think she is more than a little bummed about it too. Poor Princess!

And OH MY WORD, is she ever loving the fact that she can now ride her bike! If it weren’t for all the rain, she would probably be on it ALL THE TIME! *lol* She’s been so mad at the rain the last few days.

The assistant manager at the gas station where Joe works part-time got transfered, and now there is someone else doing the scheduling… And when Joe went to work yesterday morning, he realized that he was scheduled longer than he usually is… He’s usually off in time for us to go to church, but not this time. … So now Joe needs to talk to them about his schedule, so that we won’t miss church next week! … The kids were sure bummed, since we had missed church during Joe’s vacation.

Last night was the kids Some “R” Kids summer bowling league night… We decided to go in an hour early, so they Joe, Alicia, and the boys could bowl their two free games before the league started at 6:00 … OMWord, what a headache… There was a new kid working, and MAN did things get screwed up!

First … We asked for two lanes. We were going to put Alicia on one (with the bumpers) and Joe and the boys on the other… Only for some reason Craig put the two lanes on “league play” and didn’t tell us. That means that you have to switch back and forth between the two lanes. If we had known that, we would have put Joe on the same lane as Alicia… But as it was, half the time Alicia had to wait for all three of them to bowl, and then the lanes would switch and then she could bowl again… But this was after we figured out that they had done it… The lanes had switched and we didn’t know, so Alicia and Joe bowled under wrong names… so we had to delete out those scores and try to remember that they were swtching… THEN, the left lane got “stuck” and it took them forever to get it back on again, while we sat waiting. Once they got the lane back on, it stoppped counting pins, so we would have to manually punch in all the scores on the board… It was a nightmare! … They only ended up being able to play one game before the league started.

I think someone needs to give Craig some more training!!!!!!

We are going to be seeing a lot of the bowling alley… We’ve signed up for 2 other leagues! … Joe is even on his first league now… They are having a 10 week Wednesday night league for $5.00 a week. It’s called the “We need bowlers, and you need a ball” league. *lol* … You bowl all 10 weeks, and at the end of the 10 weeks you get a free bowling ball! Joe wants his own ball, and the boys want a “spare” ball… Spare balls are for when you try to pick up a spare… While their main balls (or “strike balls”) are heavy and are built to “hook” (curve), “spare balls” are meant to be lighter and go straight, to pick up the harder spares.

Then, Molalla Bowl is having the free summer kids’ league again. It’s on Thursdays… So the boys will spend Wednesday night with the twins, and Debbie will take them (and Jacob and Jamie, of course) to the league on Thursdays, as Joe probably won’t be off work in time… This is why the girls aren’t joining. I don’t want them spending the day at the Mewings on Thursday, while Scott and Debbie work. They are too young. It’s best to have them home with me…

Well, I guess I’ve rambled on long enough. (This post is now over 3000 words!) … I need to get some breakfast, do my workout, shower, and start laundry, so I better run!

Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

I’m sure I won’t have time to post tomorrow, before we leave, so I thought I would post this morning, just in case…

On Wednesday the kids had their last Kids Club at church for the school year. Sounds like they had a lot for them to do, and they all had a really good time… I was able to sweet talk Joe into taking the camera, and he actually took over 30 pictures… Which is AMAZING for him! *rofl* … Anyway, they got to make hand puppets, and for one of the games someone brought a huge parachute thing that they had balls on and they got to fling the balls around. Sounds like a blast to me.

Alicia has made a new little friend at the club, and her name is Olivia. They adore each other, and the girls want to get together sometime this summer to play… We’ll have to make sure that they get to.

Not only was this the last Kids Club for the school year, but it was Jared’s last one period… He’ll be in 7th grade this fall, which means he leaves these kid things behind… … He will be in F.I.R.E.D. U.P. youth this fall… Youth Group… I can’t believe that I have a child who will be old enough for youth group… *sigh*

On Thursday we took the kids to the recreational swim at the Molalla Aquatic Center… After we get back from vacation there will only be 2 more that we can go to, before they change to the summer schedule… Last year the summer schedule clashed with Joe’s extended work hours, and we were never able to go. … Oh, we could go on the weekends, but it’s crazy busy then and we don’t like it when it’s that insane. So they are going to have to enjoy the swimming while it lasts…

Though, they didn’t enjoy this last Thursday swim as much as normal… Debbie and the twins didn’t come this time, and Josh and Alicia were bored without Jamie and Jacob to play with. We ended up leaving 30 minutes early… But they still swam for 1 1/2 hours, so they got some time in.

Last night we took the kids to the bowling alley… We won’t be there for their Sunday night laegue, so they had to pre-bowl for that… Scott, Debbie, and the twins met us there, but they had ot be on serarate lanes, since they were just bowling for fun.

The games went fast… Shawn (the owner) put Alicia and Amanda on one lane, with the bumpers. And they only bowl 2 games with the bumper league. Then he put Jared and Josh on two lanes, and he had it on the “league setting” so that they would switch back and forth between the two lanes. Since there was only 1 person for each lane, the 3 games went really fast and they were done with all three games before the girls were done with 2 games.

Amanda was EXCITED because she managed to get 3 spares on one of her games, which thrilled her to no end. *lol* … Man, that girl can get HYPER!

As soon as the kids were finished bowling, we ran out to Oregon City to see Joe’s parents, Jim and Elvina. We had ordered Elvina something for Mother’s Day, and it had been late getting here… We just got it on Wednesday, and we wanted to give it to them before we went camping.

Elvina had a good laugh over the one little gag gift we gave her (we got her something nice too) … I found a little “Porn for Women” book (don’t worry, it’s clean)… It’s actually pictures of men doing housework with funny sayings. Like one had a picture of a man cleaning a toilet, and the caption said, “I would never dream of letting you do something like this!”. … It’s TOTALLY funny! My favorite is one where this guy is folding laundry and it says, “This is the way that YOU like the shirts folded, right?”

Funny, funny book!

Anyway, we ended up staying there until around 10:30-ish, visiting with them, before we came home.

Today we have to get the trailer ready to go for our camping trip. I have already washed all the sleeping bags and other bedding, and I ran all the camping dishes (and cookware) through the dishwasher. Today we are going to clean the trailer and then put everything back… As well as getting packed, etc… Tonight Joe and I will make a Walmart run to get the groceries for the week, and we will just unload them straight into the trailer. We’ve had it plugged in since Thursday, so the fridge/freezer will be cold enough.

Then we head out in the morning! Yay!

It’s a good thing that we’ve been there before, so we know where we are going… Joe and I are really good at taking wrong turns and getting lost. *rofl* … Thank heavens we now have a GPS system. Before that, we would always have to look for exit signs, when we got onto the wrong highways. *rofl* … In fact, even with the GPS, we STILL screw up sometimes! (We did on the way to the Wedding a couple weeks ago, and YES, we were using the GPS. *rofl*)

Time for my weekly “catch-up” on our lives. *lol*

First thing I want to do is wish my newphew, Ryan, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can’t believe you’re 11 years old. Amazing! We love you, and we miss you! Hope you have a wonderful day.

So… What have we been up to for the last week?

On Thursday the 13th we took the kids to the pool to swim. There isn’t many more of these Thursday swims left before they change to the summer schedule, and we won’t be able to go anymore, so they need to enjoy it while they can! … And trust me, they are enjoying it. I wish we could go more often, as it’s such good exercise for them… While we were waiting for them to open the doors at 3:00, I was snapping pictures of the kids. I got a couple good ones. I didn’t get as many good ones as I would like though, because the sun was bright and there was a lot of squinting going on. *lol*

On Friday we met the Mewings at the bowling alley at 6 pm so that the kids could get some practice time in. They hadn’t been able to bowl in almost 2 weeks because the junior league had been canceled on the 9th. We ended up having dinner there, and the kids all had a good time bowling with their cousins.

When we left, the boys went home with the Mewings and spent both Saturday and Sunday night there… Debbie and Scott went to Ron’s funeral (which was in either Prineville or Madras, I can’t remember). Debbie thought the twins (14) would be bored on the long car ride, and didn’t want them to be lonely at home alone on Saturday. So our boys were recruited to keep them entertained… I missed them, but it sounds like they had a good time. Josh even helped do some of the cooking. (He sure loves to cook!) … Joe picked them up on Saturday morning, on his way home from work, so that they could come to church with us.

On Saturday Joe worked until 1 pm, and then when he got home he went out to do some yard work… I have no idea where he got the energy, since he worked well over 50 hours at OBRC and then worked an 8 hour shift at Safeway on Saturday… He was TIRED… But he wanted to at least get the lawn mowed. Then he and Alicia did a little weeding, but they didn’t get too far before Joe was finished and just wanted some dinner and his bed. *lol* … As for me, I spent the day doing some housework and then I worked on scanning and editing some of Joe’s Grandma Johnson’s old slides.

Church was nice on Sunday… The new youth pastor, Boone Noble, preached… I think it was his first ever sermon. He’s pretty young and is going through the seminar to become a regular pastor (I think). Anyway, he did really well. He didn’t look as nervous as I thought he would be… He just needs to use a few less “Umms”. But he was easy to listen to, and you can tell he has a passion for the Lord. He has the calling.

During his sermon he showed us this video clip from YouTube:

OMWord, this video really moved me! I ended up in tears (which made Joe give me some odd looks, as he couldn’t figure out why…) … It really puts things into perspective, how the things of this world will pull you away from Christ, and that you have to focus on Him… It’s an amazing video!

The kids had their junior league on Sunday… Josh wasn’t completely up to par on his first two games, but did really well on his last game (his scores were 84, 86, and 131). Jared bowled really well on all three games, getting a 136, 146, and a 113. Alicia seems to be improving some, and her ball isn’t hitting the bumper as much. In fact, she even got a strike that didn’t hit the bumper and got a free game card from Coach Mick for it, which thrilled her. She bowled an 83 and a 101, and Amanda bowled a 74 and a 79. (The bumper league only bowls 2 games… Alicia would love to do more, but Amanda is done after two.)

After two full months, Joe was able to bring the trailer home last night! … He took it to the repair shop on March 18th and brought it home on May 18th… Who knew it would take so long! *lol* … But anyway, it looks as good as new! In fact, you can’t even tell anything was ever wrong with it. Amazing! … It does need a good cleaning though, as it smells musty in there. I would like to open up the windows and air it out, but right now it’s raining to hard for that. *lol* … Anyway, the kids brought in all the towels, blankets, sleeping bags, etc in for me and I am currently running them all through the washing machine. Then tomorrow we will haul in all the dishes and cookware and run them through the dishwasher. The kids will help me clean the rest of the trailer on Friday… Because….

We leaving for vacation on Sunday! We’re going to Bevely Beach for 5 nights. We CAN NOT wait! It’s one of our favorite beach campgrounds (Detroit Lake is our all time favorite campground), and we love to go to the beach. Joe, especially, is needing this vacation. He’s been putting in a lot of extra hours and is very tired. A week of lounging around the campfire and on the beach is just what he needs. (Camping is one of his favorite things to do.)

I know what some people are probably thinking… If money is tight enough that you can’t afford school books, then why are you going camping? … Well, we paid for this trip with tax returns in February, when we made the reservations. The only things we’ll have to pay for is groceries (which we would have to buy anyway) and gas… And while it will take a lot of gas to pull the trailer to the beach, it will still be less gas than we usually have to buy, what with Joe’s commute into work every day (45 miles, one way).

The only reason money is a little extra tight right now is because we had to pay the deductible on getting the trailer repaired, as well as the repairs for a couple other things that the insurance didn’t cover. (While they did pay out almost $5000 on the repairs, we still had to come up with over $500 ourselves.) … Plus there was a couple other unexpected expenses (like new tires and brakes on the Durango). Once we’re caught up from that, we’ll be good to go.

And I feel weird that I have to explain this, but someone gave me a hard time on wanting to buy a new camera with our next tax returns, when we need a new mattress… So I feel like I have to explain that too… A good pillow top mattress will cost at least $2000… Which is more than twice as much as a new camera… Now the camera I have now is on it’s last leg, and it’s getting harder and harder to get decent indoor pictures (it doesn’t like indoor lighting, and doesn’t like to focus. It takes good outdoor pictures though)… I know that years from now, I will be more glad that I got good pictures of my kids, than I will be about whether or not our mattress made my back ache in the mornings.

Plus, if I can get my (multiple) pillows set up just right, my back doesn’t hurt that much… But it’s never a guarantee. Some days my pillows will be perfect, and other days I don’t get them just right and I will still wake up with an aching back (which for some odd reason, the workouts help! *lol*). On the days I wake up without a back ache, I have a hard time making the bed, as I don’t want to mess the pillows up! *rofl*

Jared is still reading like crazy! He is on the 7th book in his series now, and only has one left (which he wants to save for our camping trip, to read before bed in the trailer)… I’m not going to be able to afford to buy him some new books until the first paycheck in June, so he’s going to be stuck! *lol* … He has picked out the next series he wants to read though… We got a lot of suggestions from family and friends, so we went through those and Jared wants to read “The Red Rock Mysteries” next… There are something like 16 books in the series, so we won’t be able to get them all at once, but I will order 2 or 3 of them next month.

Anyway, I got away from my point… When Jared started reading book 6 of the Eric Sterling books (which we bought used, because they are out of print), he noticed what looked like the author’s autograph on the title page, written in ball point pen (The author is Ernest Herndon). So I googled his autograph and actually found a copy of it, and it does look close!

So Jared has an autographed copy of the book! How cool is that?! … He was thrilled, let me tell you!

Well, I guess I’ve rambled on long enough… I’ll try to post again on Saturday, before we head to the beach on Sunday… Catch ya’ll on the flip side!

When am I going to learn to blog a little more often? I remember the days when blogging daily was the thing to do… Guess those days are past. *lol* … Maybe they will be back someday. Maybe I am just on a semi-blogging-break? Who knows… Guess time will tell.

We’ve been keeping busy. In face, May seems to be flying by at lightning speed. It’s really insane! I want things to slow down, so we don’t “miss” summer vacation.

On Thursday, after Joe got home from work, we took the kids to the pool again. This time the Mewings didn’t meet us there, because Debbie had to get Jacob fitted for his tux*.. Anyway, Joe and the kids still had a good time, but I admit I got a little bored sitting there on the bleachers by myself (usually I have Debbie to talk to). I was wishing that I had brought my book along… After about an hour and a half, my back was starting to ache from sitting there with no back support. So I ended up grabbing the keys from Joe’s swim bag and waiting for them out in the Durango.

*Both Jacob and Jamie were invited to be a part of the wedding… Not one of my kids got such an invitation… I admit that Joe and I were a bit hurt that they had both of the twins in their wedding, and didn’t ask so much as even Amanda to be a flower girl. (They didn’t have a flower girl at all) … *sigh*

We didn’t do much on Friday… Just kicked back at home. It was a nice, quiet evening. … We love quiet evenings!

On Saturday morning, after Joe came home from work, I cut everyone’s hair, so they would look all nifty for the wedding. Then we kicked back until 2:30… The wedding didn’t start until 4:00, but it was in Portland, so we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves long enough to get there… And it’s a good thing we did too, because traffic on 205 was TERRIBLE. Thankfully, we made it there with about 10-15 minutes to spare.

The wedding was at some ritsy golf/country club… And let me tell you, we were MORE than a little uncomfortable being there. They even have a DRESS CODE posted by the door… Since we weren’t members and didn’t belong to the club, they weren’t totally strict about it with us. (Like you aren’t supposed to wear denim of ANY kind there, but a lot of people, including Joe, me, and the boys) were wearing it, and they didn’t say anything… BUT… I guess Bob tried to go into the bar to buy a “shot” for Kyle (the groom), and he was refused service because he was wearing jeans. They also made Randy (Joe’s cousins’ husband, who was taking photos of the wedding) tuck his shirt in… When Joe heard that, he quickly went into the bathroom and tucked his own shirt in. *rofl*

The wedding itself was nice. Both Kyle and Leann looked so happy… Though, it was pretty warm in there, and poor Kyle was sweating up a storm in that tux. *lol* He kept having to wipe the sweat off his forhead. Poor Kyle! … Also, Leann’s maid-of-honor has a toddler son, who she should have found a babysitter for. She did have a friend holding him in the audience (she was sitting right behind Amanda), but for half the ceremony, he was screaming his head off. I guess he kept kicking during his tantrum, and kicked Amanda on more than one occasion. Then, she put him down and he made a bee-line to his Mom up front, and was then trying to get into everything. Mackenna was constantly messing with him… I kinda thought it was rude of her… Her friend should have at least had the decency to take him out when he started crying, so he wouldn’t disturb the ceremony. I felt bad for Kyle and Leann.

One thing was funny though, and that was that Leann put the ring on Kyle’s RIGHT hand, instead of his left one! *rofl* … I didn’t even notice. Joe’s sister, Debbie, pointed it out to me later. *lol* … Oh well, at least they will have something to laugh about later.

The reception was long and loud, but (almost) everyone seemed to have a really good time. (I don’t think Joe’s Grandma and his two uncles, who live on a farm, were too impressed with the country club thing, nor all the LOUD music… Don’t get me wrong. I liked 99% of the songs, they just played them LOUDLY.) … They had a big buffet thing set up (Gene paid $17 a head for that meal!), so everyone ate first. Then the DJ went up and had Kyle and Leann dance to the first song, which was “Then” by Brad Paisley. Then Leann danced to “I Loved Her First” by Heartland with her dad, Gene. And then Kyle and his mom, Cyna, danced to “Because You loved Me” be Celine Dion…

After that, it was an open floor, and there was dancing for the rest of the evening… You should have seen Amanda. She was in HEAVEN. She danced, and danced, and danced. *lol* She was even dancing with Kyle’s mom and dad. It was pretty cute… The nieces and nephews were all dancing silly together, and even Jared joined in with that. (Josh and Alicia would have NOTHING to do with that. *lol*) I got a lot of it on video. Wish I could get it off the camera to show you, but it’s on a VHS-C tape. (OLD video camera *lol*)

We didn’t leave until close to 9 pm… On the way home, we had this conversation:

Julie: “I’m not one to cry at weddings, but I did tear up when Gene and Leann danced to “I Loved Her First”.”
Joe: “Ya, that’s a great song!”
Josh: “I cried too… When my cake was gone!”

… Silly boy!

There hadn’t been much food there that Josh, Amanda, and I would actually eat, so we ended up hitting Taco Bell on the way home (I was really hungry)… It turned out to be a bit of a mistake though, since the Diet Pepsi there isn’t caffeine free… Drinking caffeine that late at night is NOT a good idea! I wasn’t able to get to sleep until almost 3:30 in the morning! Ack! … I was SO TIRED in church the next morning. *lol* … I was mostly able to pay attention.

I think I mentioned that Joe’s cousin-in-law, Randy, was the one to take pictures of the wedding… Joe’s family has always considered him a bit of a photographer, so they always ask him to do things like this… Anyway, the last time I saw his was in February of ’09 at Joe’s Grandma Toepfer’s 90th birthday party. At the time we were talking pictures/cameras, since we are both camera-happy… I told him that I was dreaming of the Canon Digital Rebel, and he said he was too.

Well… He has one now! *green with envy*

OMWord, what an AWESOME camera! I can’t wait to see how the wedding pictures turn out! (He told me that he took over 1000!) I was seriously drooling over that camera. *rofl* … Funny thing is, Joe told me that I should set rewards for myself when I first started the weight loss journey. When he said it, I asked him if I could get a new camera when I get 50% to my goal, and he agreed instantly. I later showed him a Canon camera at Walmart (not a rebel) and told him that I would get that one, because even at $400, it’s much cheaper than a Rebel… Anyway, when we were coming home after the wedding, I was telling Joe how Randy and I had been talking about how we both wanted a Rebel, and that I was drooling over the one he has now… And Joe says, “Maybe we should just break down and get you one with tax returns next year.”… REALLY?!?!?! … I am *thinking* that I will be 50% to my goal sometime this fall, maybe a little sooner if I keep losing as quickly as I am now (trying not to hope too much about that )… But I am willing to wait until February, if that means I get a Rebel!!! … Anyway, if I remember correctly, his was silver like this picture I found. I don’t know if I’ll get a silver one, or a black one… He did have a fancier lense on his, but you can buy all sorts of different lenses for it. His was probably one he bought and switched out… That’s something I would have to learn about later, because I know NOTHING about that!

Sunday was a quiet day… Other than church in the morning, we didn’t do anything (even though it was Mother’s Day) … The boys did volunteer to do the lunch dishes for me though, since it was Mother’s Day… But other than that, they were off playing, and Joe was in bed sleeping the afternoon away. I just ended up watching movies and scanning old slides… What I really wanted to do was work on Kyle and Leann’s album, but I have to wait until Randy and Dorothy get their photos to me… And I am feeling QUITE impatient about that! *rofl* … I guess it does take time to go through an edit over 1000 pictures. (I just REALLY want to work on that album, while the memories of the day are still fresh in my mind.)

The kids were supposed to bowl in their league on Sunday, but we get a message from Mick that it had been cancelled for the day, because Mick hasn’t been feeling well… He’s been down for 2-3 weeks now… I don’t know what’s wrong, but I sure hope it’s nothing serious… He was complaining of chest pains, but that was like 3 weeks ago… I am assuming he’s been to the doctor, but I don’t really know anything else.

Our summer reading program seems to be going well… We had planned on donig it Monday-Friday, but we never seem to get around to it on Mondays and Thursdays, which are the days I do laundry. *lol* … So we have done it 3 times a week for a couple weeks now… Before we started, I told Joe that Jared was really excited about the program, and Joe told me that Jared was “just excited to please me”. … Joe doesn’t like to read, and he’s always called me a “sick woman” for reading as much as I do. So he completely doesn’t understand the any of our kids would actually like and want to read… Anyway, Jared (who doesn’t know Joe said that) has proved him wrong. He’s been reading extra and has already finished 3 books. *lol* … If he keeps this up, I’m going to have to find him another set of books to read, and fast! … I wish I had more boy-type adventure stories already on hand, but all my junior readers are more for girls, since they were mine. *lol* (and trust me, Joe never had any )

You know… Joe has NEVER read a novel from cover to cover, not even for school. If he needed to read one for school (even in high school), his MOM WOULD READ IT TO HIM. Good grief!

Hmmm… Anything else going on? … Oh! Yesterday was our kitty’s birthday. Cuddles is now 6 years old. She was happy to celebrate her birthday with a can of soft cat food, which is a rare treat… We made sure to give Buddy a can too, and half way through the meal, they switched bowls. *lol* … They always do that. It’s so funny! (And no, they still don’t get along. Cuddles HATES Buddy with a passion! But that doesn’t stop her from wanting to sample his treats! )

Well, it’s time to eat some breakfast and start my day! Catch ya on the flip side!

Hey there! It’s time for my weekly check-in. … Remember the good ole days when I used to post every day? … Of course, that’s when the kids were little and I had something to write about every day. *lol* … Now that the kids are older, they spend more time playing with each other (or by themselves) in their rooms or outside, away from us. Makes for a less interesting blog…

The kids finished up their CATs on Tuesday. I got them photocopied and mailed back on Thursday… They tell us to photocopy them, just in case they get lost in the mail or something. That’s never happened before, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, you know? … Now we have to wait 2-3 weeks for the results… That’s the hard part!

Thursday was a bit of a busy day… In the morning, after my morning chores (and after breakfast) I made a triple batch of chocolate chip cookies… I used to make cookies for everyone in Joe’s family for Christmas, but with all the older nieces and nephews moving out into their own places, it got to be a little overwhelming. So now I make some for everyone on their birthday. (Joe and the kids like it better this way, because they get homemade cookies more often *lol*) … Anyway, Joe’s nephew, Jason’s birthday was on the 21st. The cookies were for him. He lives in Beaverton, but was going to be a Papa Murphy’s on Friday… His mom, DeeDee, works there with Joe’s other sister, Debbie. So we gave the cookies to Debbie on Thursday, and she took them to work to give to Jason. (I made sure to give a few to Debbie too, since she was our “messenger”. )

Thursday was also the family swim at the Molalla Aquatic Center, so we made sure to be there by 3 pm. Debbie and the twins were there too… Also, Joe’s parents were in town, so they came to watch the kids swim too.

Anyway, you should see how well the boys are swimming! … Though I’ve noticed that sometimes Josh forgets to kick his feet. *rofl* In fact, I added a video and you can see that in it… But Jared is doing really well. He can even do a double backwards summersault, which is pretty cool. The boys also think that jumping into the pool from the side is a whole lot of fun.

BUT, you should see Alicia!!! She hasn’t had a single swimming lesson, but she is teaching herself how to swim! Don’t tell Josh I said this, but she’s even swimming better than he is. She was practicing on Thursday, swimming from the side of the pool to where Joe was, and he would move back a little every time. She’s doing so well! … The only thing that all 3 of them need to work on is coming up for air while they are swimming. They always stop and stand up to breath… Guess that will come with time, right?

Ignore the bad quality of the video. I forgot to take my camera, so I used my cell phone instead. The audio was so bad on the videos (sounded choppy), so I added some music over the top… Then, since the song was longer, I decided to add some still photos as well. *lol*

The boys only have two more swimming lessons left (next Tuesday and Thursday)… They ended up with a new instructor on Thursday… Alaina, the original instructor, went to Florida for some choir competition. We don’t know if she will be back in time to finish the lessons or not… But it doesn’t matter, as the new one is nice too. This one is a guy, probably a high school student as well. (Most of them look to be high school or college age, though not all of them… A lot are probably from the high school swim team. The high school is right across the street from the pool.) … Anyway, he seems to be really good with kids, though Josh says that he is, “a little bit of a dork, but not as bad as Daddy.”

The kids’ summer bowling league starts this Sunday at 6 pm. The kids are soooo excited. Alicia has been counting down the days. She is so happy to be starting “her league” finally. By the end of the fall/winter league, she was getting more and more interested in doing it for herself… Especially after seeing the boys get their trophies. *lol*

The kids will be getting a lot of practice time too. There is a nation-wide program called “Kids Bowl Free“, and Molalla Bowl is a participating lane, so I registed the kids. … All summer long from May 24th through September 6th (I think those are the right dates) the kids get passes to bowl 2 free games a day. Obviously we won’t make it there every day, but if we hope to make it once or twice a week. Also, we can pay a one time fee of $25 and we would get free passes for up to four adults too… Joe hasn’t decided if we want to do that or not, but I think we should. It would be a great deal.

I’ve been working on my Blurb book some, getting old posts ready to print into a book. (I have May 1992 through early 2000 finished.) One thing I am missing though, is a bio for Joe. I have a “pre-blog bio” as my first post here… Telling what my life was like before I started journaling. (No need to make it longer, as the blog itself can fill in the rest of my life. *rofl*) … Anyway, I really want one for Joe too. I thought it would be cool to have a “pre-married” bio, as I have pretty much covered his life since then, on regular blog posts… So I started to write one the other day. The problem is, that while I can get all the important details, I can’t make it “personal” … So I have asked Joe to help. I don’t think he’s too thrilled about it, but he’s not kicking his feet too badly. *rofl* … To help him out, I made some “memory/idea starters”. I took a spiral notebook and on the top of each page (for about 10-15 pages) I wrote things like “memories from high school”, and “memories from hunting with Larry and Ronnie”. etc. I am hoping that it will help him remember things, and then I can piece together a post from that… It will probably take him a LONG time to get them all done (Joe’s the king of procrastination), but I will let you know when it is posted, in case you want to read it.

Another spring project I have going is to scan Joe’s grandma’s slides… I’ve had them for a while, but never got around to scanning them. I need to get them finished so that I can give them back to Joe’s sister. That would be nice, since it would mean one less box in my closet! *rofl* There are 9 reels of slides, which has 100 slides each… So it’s going to take a while to get all 900 slides scanned and edited… Then there will be trying to figure out the years of the pictures. I’m sure Joe won’t be too much help. *rofl* … Also, there are a lot of pictures of Joe’s cousins, but he should be able to help me figure out who is who.

We start our summer reading program on Monday. Jared and Alicia are excited about starting, but Josh isn’t quite so much. *lol* … We’re going to have to get a morning routine going so that we can make sure we’ve got breakfast, chores, and the kids have their showers in by 10 am. We want to read from 10 to 11 (Monday – Friday), then I will do my workout and shower at 11:00. Then the rest of the day will be free time for us… I told the kids that they can stay up late on Friday, and sleep in as long as they want on Saturday (unless we have something planned). We’ll see how this schedule works next week.

Well, I have want to catch up on my blog hopping, and then get back to those slides (after doing my workout, of course. *rofl*) … Catch ya’ll 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!

There are a few things that I keep forgetting to mention, so I thought I would make a here and there sort of post. *lol*

One thing that I keep forgetting to mention is sad… When we came back from the beach on March 15th one of our neighbors, Thelma’s granddaughter, came to talk to us… Do you remember Thelma? She was the little old lady who would always give the kids (and the cats) all sorts of treats… Anyway, she passed away on the 15th. … She wasn’t sick or anything, she died of old age. She was in her 90s… It’s pretty sad, but her family seems to be doing OK. I think it helps that she led a good, long life.

We’ll miss you, Thelma!

We haven’t heard anything from the insurance company yet, about whether or not they will cover the repairs to the travel trailer… It’s driving us NUTS!… We did get a letter from them yesterday, stating that we have a claim in and that they are looking at it, or something like that (I didn’t read it, Joe just told me what was on it)… I’m still praying that they will cover it, so that we can keep it… We have reservations at 3 different campgrounds this summer, which are allready 100% paid for. I’m really hoping we won’t have to tent it!!!!!!!!!

The kids and I are planning a summer reading program. We plan on reading from 10-11 am, every Monday-Friday… But I am having trouble finding something for Josh… While Jared and Alicia enjoy reading, Josh is not that into it. I want to find a series of books that would appeal to a 10 year old, but that is appropriate too. I had been told that kids his age love the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books, but when I looked into those at Amazon, I wasn’t really impressed. Sounds like that have a lot of potty humor and name calling (like moron, dork, jerk, etc), that isn’t really what I want him to read… Any suggestions??? (PLEASE HELP!!! … Crystal, what does Ryan like to read???) … We do have one Judy Blume book (Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing) that he likes, and I wouldn’t mind getting a few more of her books for him. I always liked them when I was his age.

Jared will start out the summer with his “Eric Sterling Secret Agent” books by Ernest Herndon. He has read the first two already (there are 8), but he got the rest for his birthday and hasn’t gotten around to reading them yet. He wants to start over from the beginning… When he is done with those, he wants to read the Left Behind for Kids books… Still need to buy those (though they do have them in the church library).

Alicia will be reading her “High Hurdles” series by Lauraine Snelling (there are 10 in the series… she got them for Christmas). She LOVES horses, so they are right up her alley. Alicia is a SLOW reader (being as she’s only 8), so it will probably take her all summer to read all 10 books. If it doesn’t, she has a couple other horse books… And I wouldn’t mind starting her on my Little House books. … Also, Lauraine Snelling has a “Golden Filly” series for girls too. It’s out of print, but between Amazon and eBay, I am hoping to find them all for her birthday.

As for Amanda, we have a bunch of beginner readers… Her reading is still VERY shaky, and she SLOWLY sounds out words, with lots of help. We are all going to take turns with her this summer. She will read one of us one of the readers, and then she can play quietly in her room while we finish up our reading hour. Not one of us would have the patience to sit with her for an hour, while she struggles with sounding out the words… But I am hoping that things will improve over the summer months, before she hits first grade this fall.

Hmmm… What else is going on?

The local pool (The Molalla Aquatic Center) has finally redone their schedule, now that the high school swim team has stopped for the year. The open pool schedule only works for us in April, May, and half of June, and then the rest of the year it clashes with our schedule. (Well, we could make it on the weekends, but they are CRAZY busy then and it’s so not worth it!) … Anyway, the one we can go to is the open swim on Thursdays from 3 to 5 pm. This last Thursday was the first one we’ve gone to since last June… The kids had a BLAST… Jared and Josh must have thought they were in 7th heaven, because not only did they get to play in the pool, there was a basketball hoop on the side of the pool, so they (along with Jacob and Jamie) got to shoot hoops while in the pool. (Jared and Josh LOVE basketball.)

We are trying to get the boys into swimming lessons (we want to do the boys first, and then the girls, so we don’t have to pay for all four at once.) … Right now the next session is filled up, but we are on a waiting list. If they get enough requests, they may open a second class… Here’s hoping! … I feel TERRIBLE that the boys don’t know how to swim yet. I feel like a failure of a parent! *sigh*

When we were at the pool on Thursday, Debbie told me that there was a bomb threat at the high school!!!! … Both Debbie (Joe’s sister) and Joe think it was just some student that wanted to get out of going to school, and they are probably right… BUT STILL… It’s scary anyway! We never had to worry about things like bomb threats back when we went to school… Which was longer ago than I want to admit. *rofl*

We signed the boys up for an adult/junior doubles bowling tournament on April 11th… Joe is going to bowl with Josh, and Joe’s friend, Thomas (our computer guy) is going to bowl with Jared… The boys and Thomas are really looking forward to it… But I think Joe is nervous, since he’s not the greatest bowler. *lol*

Well, I better run… We have to go to Joe’s parents’ house today, for an Easter dinner thing with his family. (Made homemade rolls and chocolate chip cookies last night)… I best go wake the girls (boys spent the night with Jamie and Jacob), eat breakfast, do my workout, shower, and get ready to go…

Catch ya on the flip side!

Doesn’t Ecclesastes 3 say that we get a time to rest? … I know, I know… It doesn’t say anything about resting … But it should! *lol* … Of course, the Lord rested on the 7th day, which means we should too, right?

‘Cause I’m ready for my rest.

But I guess that won’t happen until summer vacation. *lol*

It’s been a long week at school… The kids want an early summer vacation, so they’ve been doing some extra work… Which makes my days longer too. *lol* But we are ALL looking forward to vacation, so I am not about to argue.

The kids are excited … The Molalla high school swim team is finally done for the year, so the Molalla Aquatic Center has finally re-worked it’s schedule… For most of the year the family swim times are scheduled too late at night (from 7-9), so that it’s too late for us to go, because Joe has to be in bed by 7 at the latest. But during April, May, and half of June, they have a 3-5 slot on Thursdays that works for us. It’s the only time we can go swim… Well, I take that back. It has open swims on the weekends too, but we NEVER go to those, because they are too busy…ANYWAY, starting this coming week we can go swimming on Thursdays again (well, Joe and the kids swim. I sit and watch, and take pictures *lol*). The kids are beyond excited about it!

Alicia and Amanda

We did a lot of bowling this week… The boys had their playoff games for their junior bowling league, which ended on Saturday. We wanted them to get some practice in, so we took them bowling on both Wednesday and Friday.

The girls decided to bowl on Wednesday too (they didn’t on Friday though)… It’s a good thing that Alicia (and Amanda) are going on the bumper league… Alicia sure is having trouble throwing a straight ball. Though she doesn’t try to do it, she always puts a hook on the ball. It will look like it’s going great, and then when it gets almost to the end of the lane, the ball will always turn to the left and either go into the gutter or hit the few pins on the left. Then the ball on the second throw goes into the same “hole” that the first ball made. It tends to frustrate her after a while… Poor Princess! She does seem to have better luck with a slightly heavier ball though.

Alicia is getting pretty excited about starting the summer league… Especially after seeing the boys win trophies on Saturday. *lol* … The summer league starts on April 26th, so they have a bit of a wait (and it’s driving the boys NUTS *lol*)

"The Cougars" ... Jared, Marshall. and Josh

The playoff games went pretty well… There were three games, which they played against a different team in each game. Their team won the first two games, but pretty much got slaughted in the last one. *lol* They bowled against the “Lightings”, which consists of Blake Copeland, who is the owner’s son (and Shawn Copeland used to be a pro bowler). Blake was on fire, and bowled well over his average, and they won the game. Since they had won their first two games too, they ended up being the league champions for the Molalla Nuggets (the grade school kids… The older kids are called the Team Olympians).

So… Even though the kids didn’t win the championships, they came in second! I think they did awesome!!! I am so proud of them! Especially considering that they just started bowling last July, and they were only bowling 30s or less back then. It’s amazing to see how far they’ve come in such a short period of time.

As for the trophies… Jared won a trophy for having the highest game above his average. He bowled a 180, when his average was 99, so he was 81 above his average. He also won 6 patches over the year… Josh won a trophy for most improved bowler. He brought his average up by 21 points this year. He also won a special patch for that, for a total of 4 patches for the year. They ended the year with Jared having an average of 105 and Josh having an average of 91.

After the bowling playoffs, awards and party (there was lots of food, but I remembered my diet and didn’t eat much *lol*), we drove into Portland. We had a family thing to be to at 4 pm, but I needed something to wear on Easter and for our niece’s wedding in May. My original idea was to get a dress… I haven’t worn a dress since Easter of 2002, but since we are going to a new church, and had Leann’s wedding in May, I thought a dress would be nice. Now I knew I wouldn’t be able to find a decent dress at Walmart or Kmart (which is where I normally shop for clothes), so my plan was to try Ross, since they boast the whole “dress for less” thing.

That was mission impossible.

For one… Their idea of “dress for less” is much different than my idea of it. *lol* Also, while they have TONS of clothes, they don’t have hardly anything in plus sizes. *sigh* … I ended up at the clearance rack, because the regular prices were more than I could take, and I did find one dress in my size that was cute… That is, it was cute until I tried it on. It was MOST DEFINATLY NOT CUTE on me!!! *YIKES* … I took one look at me in the full sized mirror and wanted to cry… That dress WAS NOT coming home with me. *lol*

So anyway, we noticed a store called “Catherine’s Plus Sizes” a couple shops down, so we went in to see what they had… And then walked right back out again!… Maybe you CAN dress for less at Ross! *double yikes* That store is WAY out of our league.

So then we went to Kohl’s… Lather, rince, repeat.

I then gave up on the idea of a dress, and we ended up back at Kmart. *rofl* … I ended up with some white capris and a nice, navy blue top that looks really cute together (though they would look cuter on someone else )… While we were at Kmart, we like to look at the displays, to see what they have on sale. They sure had a lot of pop displays!

Joe's Dad, Jim, and Jim's sisters, Dorean and Donna

When that was finally done, we went to Pizza Baron for the thing with Joe’s extended family (the Johnson side). Pizza Baron is really close to our old house in Portland, so we drove by there first… You know, that old house still feels a little like home. … But we DO NOT miss Portland! The traffic was horrific, and the sirens! Don’t get me started on all the sirens we heard ALL. DAY. LONG. It was insane! … Oh how we love Molalla!

Anyway, the time with family was nice… Mainly Joe and I talked with Scott and Debbie, which is kinda sad, since we see them the most. *lol* We should have talked with some of the other family we don’t see as often… But we do enjoy spending time with Scott, Debbie, and the kids.

As for today, we did the church thing and now I’m trying to get caught up on things that got put off during the week.

I think I need a vacation! *lol*