Firsts this fall

Interesting. Erica is starting a job for the first time in a long time. I am not sure that Kindergarten Teacher was on her short list........


Nathan is in Tacoma working and living his life.


Rush is attempting to lose some weight and get in shape for the Air Force. We love Caroline (the girlfriend) and her geekyness that fits so well in our family.


Arin started working at Sonic this week. Opening day was yesterday, and I guess it was crazy. But I guess it might be better than milking sheep.


Isaac is finishing the last portion of his school to join the Air Force in November. He wants to be a hydraulic tech.


Jonah started back at the high school, cross country is his current sport. Honor's society and keeping up his grades......


Tovah decided to go back to public school for her 8th grade year. Kind of a slow start, but after 3 days, I guess it is OK.


I got my Bachelors Degree in Health Informatics (B.S.H.I.) from WGU. Now I can say I am DONE with school for a long time. I still love my work. The babies make me happy.


Another school year starts. Sports, dentists, orthodontics, and just plain family things. Thanks once again to Erica for helping make all of this possible!

I'm still alive!

~erica

I'm almost done with my Masters- finishing the last online class. Now I'm starting the job search process because I've got almost $50,000 in student loans. I haven't had time or energy to write on the blog but I've missed it. I have some knitting projects planned for this summer that I plan to also blog about. I've gotten my photos all loaded onto my computer and 2 years worth sorted into file folders. We've completed 2 more Eagles since the last time I checked in, that makes only 1 left to finish. I have a lot to talk about and a lot to share. Soon...

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.

Thinking

Spent today (my birthday) sleeping and preparing for work. Woke up to a gnome that looks like Larry Bernandez (look that one up!), and a great baseballism poster from Erica.

Spent Saturday (Taryn's Birthday) watching her little sister Tovah playing fastpitch. Tovah pitched for the first time in a game, and did pretty well.

Was thinking about my little 2 year old in heaven and realized that Taryn would be 22. What would she be doing? College, or graduating? Military? Working? Questions that have no good answers today. Realized that it really dosen't matter. What matters is: I know where she is. I know she has a little sister to look after (Ahvri). And she has lots of friends with her that I may have met for a very short time, but I know she will look after them as well.

I have 5 boys and a (3) Princess. I have track, softball, wrestling, cross country, school, work, movies, events, plays, chess clubs, band concerts, heartaches and triumphs each hour, day, week, month and year with this menagarie. And realize I wouldn't change a thing.

Thank you, Erica, for putting up with me.

And finally, thanks to the NICU night shift for helping me celebrate two birthdays this weekend at work.

Saying Good-bye to 2013

~erica

 

Ocean Shores December 2013

I was so ready for winter break to start this year. Fall quarter was long and very difficult for me, it wasn't the workload but I think it was the depth of thought being required to process all the information and to fit it into the information I had from last year. Border-thinking, coloniality, modernity, and how they fit into a white, Christian, U.S. citizen worldview. I'm looking forward to a tough academic program of linguistics that will allow me to take a breath from evaluating my place in the world at every turn.

I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish but to be honest I was pretty sure that just getting to sleep in a few mornings and do nothing was about all I was capable of accomplishing. The night before my evaluation conference with my professor we spent a couple of hours in the ER with Arin getting a possible concussion checked out (no, just a bang and a bruise but he lost 5 days of wrestling). So thinking that I didn't really do anything the last 3 weeks I made a list....

• spent an evening with Ryan playing Santa for a friend's preschool
• went to our last elementary Christmas concert/ program
• spent an afternoon a the endodontist following up on Tovah's tooth issue
• attended the Middle School Wrestling banquet with Jonah (he will be wrestling in high school!)
• finished up 5th grade basketball with games on 2 Saturdays
• took Tovah to see the Nutcracker
• went on a date with Ryan in the evening (we go out to lunch all the time so I'm not sure why we say we never have time to "date")
• went to the beach for 2 days
• finished the One Ring scarf I've been knitting for 5 months
• knit boot cuffs for a friend's birthday (it was back in November)
• went to lunch 2 different days with 2 friends that I just haven't gotten to see since September (one was in Peru for 10 weeks so that's why, the other one our schedules just haven't meshed)
• read several books just for fun
• started a book on invented languages that I've wanted to read for some time, I hope to finish it this weekend
• dealt with pink eye and other assorted colds
• hung two maps that have been framed for months
• hosted our annual Not a Christmas Party
• restarted a sock that has been stalled since August
• started motorcycle gaiters for my dad

Wow! that's a lot of stuff for 3 weeks that felt like I didn't accomplish anything. Ryan worked on Christmas so it was quiet after we opened presents. The kids played their new games and I knit, read, and napped. He took them to see The Hobbit and Frozen at some point during the last few weeks. We watched Elf and Muppet Treasure Island as a family.

Tomorrow I'm going to Ocean Shores to watch Arin wrestle with my mom and Sharlene. Sunday Tovah has pitching and Awana (but no team practice), Monday school starts back up for the kids and Isaac has Chess Club, then Tuesday I start back to school. The schedule seems easier because only 2 kids have sports and Tovah's only playing one sport this season instead of the 2 or 3 she played in the fall.

I haven't made any real goals for the year except do what it takes to graduate either in June or August (if I need to pick up some math credits and Bible knowledge for Multnomah). I'd like to start running again and do a couple of 5k's with a friend. Arin turns 18 in May so we need to finish his Eagle requirements. We also need to hold Rush's Eagle Ceremony. Those seem like about all I can handle right now. If I was to choose a word for the year I think it would be Purposeful.

Coffee Break

 ~Erica

Ryan's cousin called to see if I wanted to run away to Canada; she had a passport she'd never used and I have a brand new enhanced ID so we both can cross the border. I told her it would take me several weeks to plan such a spontaneous trip so we decided to go after school started during a week Ryan was off so he could get everyone to sports and such.

 

 

 

First stop was Fiddler's Coffee in Centralia

 

 

2nd stop was at Krispy Kreme in Tacoma. At this point I decided that maybe I should put our destination into Gladys the GPS. Gladys is not familiar with Canada. She had no information onboard to route our trip. Emergency Plan B was a quick trip to AAA for maps. The lady in the office also printed us a TripTik to the hostel in Jericho Beach where we were staying that night- we went Old School! Problem is, I was driving and Shar can't read a map to navigate....

 

 

  I like to stop at places we don't have in our Tiny Town and the surrounding area, I knew there was a Five Guys in Marysville and I'd never eaten at one, so that was where I was headed for lunch. Shar was just along for the ride and didn't really care what we did as long as I drove. You have to love a place that has grilled onions and mushrooms as standard toppings!

 

At 2:00 we were passing through Ferndale, just in time for Sonic Happy Hour. Shar claims I gave her whiplash as I pulled off the freeway...

 

 

Waiting at the Peach Arch to cross the border into Canada.

 

 

Gladys is lost...

 

See that beach area between my fingers? That's the nudist beach, I didn't mean to end up there but they had a bathroom and we had drunk a lot of coffee and Shar can't read a map and it was pouring rain and I just had to stop. On the upside- we didn't see any nudists, everyone had raincoats on, and I was able to figure out where we were and where we were going. We're supposed to be up there in the green area in the top right corner, just under that blue frame, that's Jericho Beach.

 

Jericho Beach Hostel

 

It's an old army training camp and its right on the beach in a really neat old neighborhood. We didn't get to do much exploring since the weather was really bad (at home they were having thunderstorms and the power was out for hours) but in the evening it cleared up enough that we did get to walk a bit on the beach and hear the waves and it was enough for me to be refreshed. I stayed in a Hostelling International Hostel in Seattle last winter with my program from Evergreen and was impressed by their cleanliness, convenience, and especially their price, $30 Canadian.

 

I think there is a TV crime drama that is filmed in Jericho Beach and Vancouver but I didn't go look up the particulars since I remember it as rather dark and gritty and I didn't want to freak myself out if that was truly where it was supposed to take place.

 

Looking towards downtown Vancouver in the setting sun. I never really got my bearings on where I was looking, I think Stanley Park is off to the left of downtown in this picture and the beach we were walking on was really the Fraser River.

 

The next morning we hit a couple of Starbucks for breakfast and to look for a mug for Ryan that we never found (when I was cleaning up my car I realized that the sleeve advertised a specialty blend that is only available in Canada and that would have been a great souvenir to take home but we were across the border when I figured that out). Due to Gladys being on vacation and Shar's map skills and Canada's non-existent highway signs it took us longer to get to the border than I planned (and we saw a lot more of Vancouver's suburbs and I have no idea if we went through the areas that I promised my mom we would avoid...) We still made it to the border by 10 a.m. so we could have lunch at Pike Place Market and be out of Seattle by 2 or 3 in order to miss the Friday traffic.

 

September is looking a lot like January as we drove through Whatcom County- gray and foggy.

 

It was fun to introduce Shar to my favorite parts of Pike Place Market- we had Chinese BBQ pork skewers and French pastries for lunch. And I bought half a dozen macarons to treat myself later. We stuck our heads into the original Starbucks so she could say she's been there but the line was too long to wait to get any coffee. I still can't believe she's lived in Washington most of her life and never really explored that part of Seattle- when I was a kid we always took out of town guests to the Market and the Curiosity Shoppe and since the kids have been little almost all trips to Seattle include Westlake, the Market, or the Waterfront.

 

Our last coffee stop was Dutch Bros. Coffee in Lacey. Dutch Mafia coffee is my new obsession and I hear rumors that we may be getting one and while I'm excited to be able to get drinks I also am afraid the novelty would wear off if we had one readily available...

 

We had a lot of fun and did a lot of driving. I packed books and knitting and got to none of them. I didn't get to Murchie's Tea or a grocery store to buy digestive biscuits. But I got to walk on the beach and sometimes that's what I really need. Maybe we'll plan our next coffee break to Kona?

 

Just kidding.

 

Maybe...

Bible in 90 Days- Complete!

~Erica

 

I finished my reading September 8 which is actually 89 days. Stepping back and looking at the history of Israel chronologically was interesting. I didn't like the reading but looking back the thread was more apparent. What really stood out to me was the continuing disobedience of Israel, even when they had a good king and were worshipping in the Temple, they still maintained their idols and their high places and their worship of foreign gods. Once they return from exile things seem to be better but by the New Testament I think that they have replaced one form of idolatry for another- legalism. And this carried into the early church, most of the letters dealt with the difference between outward worship and inward relationship and that sin is in the heart not in the action.

 

A friend asked me what I learned and this was my response to her on Facebook, "Reading chronologically made me crazy with all the fiddly flipping and turning and reading in fits and starts but, when I stepped back and looked at what I read it made the "story" line much more apparent. The continuing disobedience of the people and their kings in spite of the prophets. The law was never truly followed until the time of the New Testament and then it was the new idolatry of the Pharisees. Their hearts were hardened to just loving the Lord their God. It's that simple. But on the flip side do we do any better? Rules and religion are easier to maintain than a personal relationship that calls for service and sacrifice to love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself."

 

I was asked about teaching a Bible survey class as a Women's Bible Study once I am done with school. I've really been thinking about what I would teach- I think there is a real lack of Bible K

knowledge and how all the parts fit together but then would it be too knowledge based and not reach the hearts of the students? I guess I have time to wrestle with this (and to be honest I wrestle with this balance in my own life- the difference between knowing about God and knowing Him...)

 



August on Instagram

~Erica

Our friends came up to visit from San Diego and we camped in Forks. Arin is the only one who would pose with Bella's truck at the Visitor's Center | Hiking in the Hoh Rain Forest

 

Rialto Beach in the fog | Not sure what Isaac is running from? | Arin on the breakwater

 

A friend had to run kids up to camp so I jumped in the Jeep and rode along catching up on the summer and just spending some time visiting- with the wind blowing through my hair (we just missed the rain!) | Tovah started hitting lessons with a wonderful coach | soccer started



July on Instagram

~erica

 



 

1st game at the State Fastpitch tournament | Get Well Coldstone gift card to make her eye feel better (she got hit with a ball at State, it was thrown by a little sister at lunch, not by an opponent, and left her with a wild black eye for a week) | Isaac and Jonah off to Camp Hahobas for a week

 

Arin voted in as Senior Patrol Leader | Managed to get to 1 Mariner's game this summer | Ryan posted this picture on Instagram and next thing the boys are hollering cause its up on the big screen!

 

Tovah's team won their final tournament of the year! They got t-shirts (much better than a trophy) and I wondered how many days she would wear it?

 



State Fastpitch Tournament





~Erica

 

Tovah's team played at the ASA U-10 State Fastpitch Tournament in Lacey in July. I uploaded these pictures several weeks ago but they sat in a draft waiting until I took the time to journal them. Her team was up against teams that were much better than they were but they did okay, even lasted a game longer than their rival team (and believe me, we were all pretty excited about that).

 

The first day was against two teams that we wouldn't have played before to get the teams a chance to play on the artificial turf (and the games didn't count for pool play). The ball bounced differently than on dirt and the turf makes sliding into base easier or harder depending on whether its wet or not.

 

 

Warming up on the turf- the trick is to get the ball before it bounces

 

Both teams lined up with the umpires, not just the team captains. After the first set of games they also had opening ceremonies and introduced the teams and lined them all up on the field. It was pretty cool but my pictures don't do it justice.

 

Our friends came to hang out with me at the ball field both days. Reminded me why the older kids didn't get to play ball- little guys in the stands can be pretty exhausting but it was a lot of fun too. They cheered and waved and got pretty excited when Tovah acknowledged them and pretty much cleared the snack bag.

 

Sliding into home! I hadn't gotten a good picture of her sliding home before this one- I was always watching someone else while she stole home. I guess that's the point....

 

At the end of the day the little guys got Tovah-time on the playground!

 

I really need to get the pictures uploaded of the tournament they won...

 

4th of July Celebrations

~erica

We had to do our fireworks on July 3 due to Ryan's work schedule. That afternoon Ryan and Tovah went shopping for the good stuff as we still had a box of sparklers and little stuff from last year that we got tired of lighting. I'm not sure how it happened but Rush and Tovah were the primary pyros this year, the other boys did 1-2 but then went and sat back down.

 

 



Colored smoke bombs are a tradition but this year only Jonah ran through the smoke. The other annual photo is Arin and his lightsaber in the smoke. When I have my camera set slow it takes cool, ghostly images of him. I am still working on how to set my camera for fireworks. I print a tutorial while Ryan and the kids get set up. Next year I should read and practice several weeks before but I never think about it. I also want to take some cool sparkler pictures (we still have a huge box to practice with.)

The parade downtown is an annual event. It's very convenient now that we have friends living a block from the parade route (but getting away from their house as the parade let out wasn't much fun, I need to rethink where I park). It's always fun to see friends in the parade and the kids get excited to have candy thrown at them.

 

The chairs were for the adults but they got co-opted by the teens who weren't so excited about tootsie rolls and waving to people they know. After the parade we met Ryan at Burger King for dinner before he went to work and we went home.

Bible in 90 Days- Weeks 2-5

~Erica

Today I am finishing Week 5 of the Bible in 90 Days. I've gotten behind each week but have finished each week on time. It's harder to read when you are jumping through 3 books. I really thought that I would be in the flow of history in the Bible reading it chronologically, but I've found that it's choppy and it's almost like the thread is tangled. Reading straight through, yes, you get different threads going at different times but they come together and the story is stronger for those times that they are plied (I'm not sure my yarn metaphor is working but I'm not sure how to explain the disconnect I'm feeling.)

One thing that stood out to me is that David refused to sacrifice something that cost him nothing but Solomon had no problem building the Temple of the Lord that cost him nothing (it was paid for by David and the offerings of the people). There is a huge lesson in here that I am still pondering about the cost of sacrifice.

Another crazy thought that I had is that next summer, instead of reading the entire Bible I would read just the New Testament, in Spanish. It will either make me totally crazy or I'll spend a lot of time seriously pondering what it actually means...

Instaweek June 23-29

~erica

Finished the 3rd Doctor Who scarf before we left | Spilling Water at Grand Coulee Dam | Looking down the spillway from the top of the dam during the Dam Tour

Sonic in Post Falls, ID makes me happy even if lunch is at 9:30 | When the raft is at the red flag you can drop a quarter in the machine and it will spray the occupants | Dinner at Texas Roadhouse

Sunset over Lake Roosevelt | Dawn over Lake Roosevelt | Sunset on our way home Friday

 

We spent the week camping in Eastern Washington then home to a fastpitch tournament. We worked the tournament so I got 3 pictures before the 2nd game and that's it.

 

Fastpitch Tournament in Selah

~erica

We drove to Eastern Washington this weekend to play in a fastpitch tournament in Selah. Another mom and daughter rode over with us so that they didn't have to take 2 cars.

 

A stop at the top of White Pass for ice cream. One of these days we'll have to take the kids up to see the snow, they only get to go over passes in the summer when its all trees and dry meadows.

 

Other teammates were already in the pool when we checked into the hotel so the girls were ready to join them. It was cloudy at home when we left but it was hot when we got over the mountains. In the next hour most of the team arrived. Surprisingly we were the only U-10 team staying at the hotel, especially since it was right across the street from the fields.

 

There was no way I would be within 10 miles of a Sonic and not get a Cherry Limeaid. The other family had never eaten at a Sonic so they joined us for dinner.

 

The North Park Lodge definitely had a lodge feel. The lobby was decorated with antlers and pine furniture. This is our king room with a peeled pine bed and log cabin quilt. It had a good-sized fridge and microwave in the room and the breakfast was good too, with biscuits and gravy and waffles. The cable was limited so there weren't a lot of kids choices available outside of normal cartoon times but we had brought the mini DVD player and the laptop so we had some options. This was our first travel tournament and I didn't really know what to expect. I do know now that I need to bring a power strip when we stay in a hotel and I packed a lot more food than we wanted to eat since we ate breakfast at the hotel instead of out of the cooler. The fruit and fruit juice were her first choices, then cheese sticks. She didn't want yogurt or chocolate milk as she usually does between games. We didn't touch any of the cookies or sweet stuff that I packed. I brought chicken strips that worked well for lunch; cold the first day and reheated in the microwave the second day.

 

Downtime really needed to be rest time, playing in 90-degrees is hard work and the girls played 3 games each day. The mantra of the weekend was "water, water, water" and "shade, shade, shade."  Saturday we stayed at the field over lunch and it was hard to get the girls to settle and rest in the shade. Sunday I got a late check out so we went back to the room and ate and relaxed in the AC before returning to the field for the last game and the 3-hour drive home.

 

I made hair ribbons for each of the girls in Thrashers colors of lime and black.

 

Playing 3rd base.

 

Enjoying the shade of the new pop-up I bought at Costco. It's not much bigger than a chair when its folded up and it goes up and down almost instantly. It will also be nice for soccer in the rain.

 

Watching coach for signals, if the pitch gets past the catcher be on 2nd...

 

Some of the brothers found a great hill to roll down except they came back covered in grass and itchy the rest of the day. I'm blessed to be able to leave everyone else at home for tournaments.

 

Stealing home.

 

We ended up taking 3rd Place. The two games we lost we could have won, they were both close games. The girls have a lot to be proud of, they played well.

 

It rained yesterday and Tovah's comment, "it's nice that it's raining, we needed it after all the sunshine this weekend." She's definitely a Washington girl...

 

 

 

Rush Graduated on Saturday

~erica

 

 

 

School's Over! Time to start the Bible in 90 Days...

~erica

I just turned in my final self-evaluation and faculty evaluation at my end of program conference so I am done with my first year at Evergreen State College. I will reflect more on it later but now I am excited to get started reading the Bible in 90 Days again. This year I will be doing it chronologically for the first time. Let me know if you want to join in.

Someday I will blog again...

Someday, but not today. Today I have to rewrite a 10 page paper due Thursday on Literacy Campaigns in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Brazil and try to figure out how I could have forgotten to use my third source. I have to read the first half of Borderlands which is interesting but intense and randomly in Spanish which slows me down. And if I have any weekend left I need to think about writing a 3-4 page paper in Spanish on Robert Bolano's Nocturno de Chile (and I just realized that my special characters don't work in Blogger) that is due Friday. I don't have any pictures because I don't have time to upload them but please enjoy my Instagram feed in the sidebar- Instagram is like Jello, there is always room (time) for Instagram