27 Days of Summer Vacation: Day 3

~erica

I turned off my alarm this morning. I heard Jonah leave for school but I didn't have to get up and do anything. We did decide that we really needed a trip to Olympia to get a new hard-drive to back-up the other desktop. Once we were up there we needed to go to Cash & Carry, the Scout Store, and Trader Joe's, besides Costco. I was excited to find the dried mandarin oranges at TJ's so I grabbed 3 bags (last time I asked about them the worker told me that if I ever see them to stock up since they are intermittent on the shelves).

Came home to find my Mother's Day gift- a case of Raspberry New York Seltzer! I think the last one I drank was the summer I left for Guam 27 years ago.

The Adna 6th graders have been at Cispus this week so Tovah hasn't had team practice. We finally got back in with the batting coach (his daughter has had Thursday games for most of the HS season) this afternoon. If she would just follow through with her swing and use the power in her hips she would hit the ball over their heads and it wouldn't matter than she doesn't have to speed to sprint to 1st base.

The boys have Scouts on Thursdays, I took them as I'm pretty scarce during school and fastpitch. Jonah turned in his Reading MB that he has been working on for over a year. He has to complete 2 more Eagle required MBs for Star. Isaac has a handful of required MBs plus his Eagle project to complete before March and his 18th birthday. Isaac is planning on going to Camp Hahobas this summer and go on the 50-miler in the Olympics. Jonah just needs to figure out how to get 3 more camping nights to finish the Camping MB requirements then he's never going outdoors again!

27 Days of Summer Vacation: Day 2

~erica

One of the girls in my cohort is expecting a baby girl in August. We celebrated her with a baby shower at the home of one of our instructors (his wife graciously agreed to host when I approached her).

Welcome, Baby Alyce!

Jonah and Arin went to Puyallup for a track meet so it was a quiet dinner at home with Ryan, Isaac, and Tovah.

27 Days of Summer Vacation: Day 1

~erica

Took Jonah to school and then met a friend for breakfast. Then ran home to get Arin to get him to Bartel's to get fitted for a tux. Thankfully they didn't freak out on me when I walked in on Tuesday and said I needed a tux for Saturday, they said no problem. Did you know that are about a gazillion tux options to choose from? We just wanted a basic black tux, with a vest. Thankfully not only could I order it and pick it up in town, but it was a lot less to rent it than I was expecting. I also need to add "order a corsage" to my to do list for the week.

Got Arin home to finish his school work. We had gone early just in case we had to take the tux search to Olympia. Isaac has to be in Centralia at 1 to go to Seattle with PATH. They are celebrating the close of Persuasion with a night out in Seattle to see Phantom of the Opera at The Paramount and dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Ryan was supposed to go but was scheduled to work. Sharlene is going but we weren't sure they had a ride and I didn't have to take them...Rides are all worked out and off they went. Saw lots of pictures on Facebook of their adventure. They had about 30 minutes to spare between dinner and the show so they let then loose at the Barnes & Noble. I'm amazed they got them all back!

We grabbed groceries while we were in town and made it home just in time to run Tovah to play with a friend and get to the high school fastpitch game. It was their last league game and Ryan had promised several of the girls that he would come to a game. They won but let a huge lead slip away.

Tuesday night is always Taco Tuesday. The Gillaspies came as well as Allyson and a friend. Isaac usually does the bulk of the cooking so I had to do it. After dinner I had to cook chicken and eggs for the baby shower luncheon I'm doing on Wednesday. Shar brought Isaac home around midnight.

27 Days of Summer Vacation

~erica

*May 4th I finished up my first year of the MATESOL program (that's a Master of Arts Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at Multnomah University in Portland. Fall Semester starts August 31 but I have to go full-time this summer to make my schedule work out with commuting and the kids' sport schedules. So, this summer I'm taking Survey of Theology online, World Religions in a 1-week intensive course at the end of June, and I'm going to do my practicum (student teaching) here locally for 6-weeks starting July 6.


I feel like Phineas and Ferb, I need to make every day of these 27 days count for something....

So far my list includes...

• print photos
• clean the bathroom
• Isaac Eagle project and finish required merit badges
• Jonah needs to finish Star and get started on the next set of merit badges for Life
• write long letters to friends
• read a whole stack of books that are just for fun
• finish a baby blanket and maybe knit a pair of socks and a hat to go with it
• finish the pair of socks I started last fall plus another pair
• graduation party for Arin along with Senior pictures and announcements 
• take a picture every day

 * I graduated from Evergreen State College in June. I didn't walk because I'm not finished yet. I do plan on walking at Multnomah and then having a big party and then we are flying off to Hawaii to celebrate all the occasions we haven't had a chance to celebrate since I started school in 2010.