Project 365- Week 1

Last year I didn't hear about Project 365 until about the 10th of January and in my perfectionism I just couldn't start late. This year I've already got too much on my plate but after stewing for a year about doing it last year I just had to go ahead and start. I missed one day- Wednesday the 5th but that's our craziest day of the week so I let myself off the hook.

1- Jonah's friend Reuben with one of those spring-loaded, rubber-sucker toys stuck to his forehead. It was bedtime and I HAD to get a picture if I was going to do the project. I thought I'd go in and get a sweet picture of Rush reading to the 2 boys...

2- We had dinner with Oliver and his parents and Fred & MaryLinda at Izzy's in Olympia. We had Crystal and Adam over for dinner early in January last year so this must mean it's a tradition. They moved to Medeira, CA last spring so this was a special visit.

3- My first Botany lab assignment was to find a Hazelnut plant. The darker branch is the native shrub and the bigger lighter amends are from our filbert shrubs (the difference between a bush and a shrub is that botanists call them shrubs, just thought you might like to know).

4- Ryan got his new gas grill. He and Rush assembled it in the dark and ice and sub-freezing temperatures so they could grill steaks for dinner. It has 4 burners, a lid, and a thermometer so he can try smoking in it. It also has a side burner so I can use my wok and make mongolian BBQ all summer (I'm not a die-hard griller). Rush is the Beaver in the family- he reads and follows instructions so he's always assigned to help Ryan (the Golden Retriever) when some assembly is required.

6- Tovah started Chess Club this week. She doesn't want to play in any tournaments, we'll see how long that lasts. Isaac is looking forward to going to State again.

7- I had to take a picture of Rush and email it to the school for his ASB card. He's all paid up and ready for baseball to start (as soon as I get his medical form signed and turned back in). He won't get a haircut until the night after his first practice (at least that's what he told Coach last month).

December Highlights

~Erica

I was hoping for a quiet December with plenty of time to complete projects and relax. I had three weeks off of school and we gave the kids 2 weeks.

My dad bought Isaac a 3/4 scale bass guitar for Christmas, birthday, etc. I overheard my dad explaining to him that it was his to use but not his so he couldn't sell it or trade it with his friends. Isaac's excited to learn how to play it.

We had Walk & Knock on the 4th. I don't have any pictures- I took my camera but never got it out of the case. Rush, Arin, and Jonah went out with drivers while Isaac and Tovah stayed at the Grange to sort food. Before all the routes were in Tovah and I had to leave to get her to rehearsal and Isaac and Arin were picked up by one of the scout leaders to go on Isaac's compass hike for 2nd Class Scout.

Tovah had a solo in the kids Christmas play Back to the Manger on the 5th. She's all Engle- no stage fright for her.

Ryan and I had finals the 6th and 7th. Tovah and Jonah started out the week with the stomach flu. I lost my first half week at home being sick with the kids- it was a nasty stomach bug. Friday night our youth group rented the theater to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Unfortunately our boys don't drive yet so they had to be escorted and accompanied to the movie, my dad and I went but Rush had to stay home because the stomach bug hit him about 4 hours before we left. Ryan took Rush, Jonah, and Tovah to the see the movie the next week. I'm not sure if I would consider it the best of the 3 but definitely in the top 2.

The kids put the tree up.

Ryan played Santa for a friend's preschool class. Jonah sat on his lap just to get a candy cane. All the boys wanted DS's and the girls wanted Blizzard Makers except one girl who wanted some penguin toy.

We drove through Fantasy Lights in Spanaway. The weather had been so bad that I didn't want to go to ZooLights in the rain and the nights that had good weather the crowds were bad. Afterwards we took the kids to Sonic in Puyallup. Rush and Cheyney had the Tex Mex Coney dogs and Vanilla Dr. Peppers, she took a picture with her phone but I didn't get any pictures of the food. It was fun but definitely a summer eatery so we can sit outside at the picnic tables.

My mom took us to the buffet at the casino for lunch one day. I had heard about Restaurants.com and knew that they had 50% off coupons available to the Lucky Eagle. I got an 80% off code and got the coupon for $3- It saved $48 off the total order! I didn't take any pictures and haven't been able to get copies of the ones Cheyney took. The kids like the buffet because they can eat whatever they like and get dessert.

It's interesting to see what they choose and what they go back for, I think they are incredibly picky but Ryan says they really aren't. They are getting more adventurous in their tastes- fish, shrimp, sheep cheese, goat cheese, hot peppers... I think Jonah eats quite a bit of lamb at the neighbors and doesn't realize it (and they aren't going to tell him.)

It was cloudy and misty but I did get a few pictures of the lunar eclipse. I went out every 10 minutes or so, when I went out the last time and the moon was totally gone it was the wierdest feeling. I can see why ancient peoples freaked out when the moon disappeared, I knew where it had gone and it was still a bit of a shock when it was not where it was when I saw it last.

John brought gifts over for the kids. He got Rush a shotgun to go duck hunting in January. He wanted to take him bear hunting this fall but had to cancel. Next year he, Nathan, and Rush will go.

Tovah got horses, grandma has her eye on them to add to Grand-daddy Wilbert's collection. The other boys got really good binoculars- they each got their own pair.

New fingernail polish from Cheyney and new nightgown from The Disney Store's BOGO free and free shipping sale that week.

We didn't celebrate Christmas until Monday when Ryan got off work so we spent the weekend in our jammies watching movies, playing XBox, and I scrap-booked. Sunday night Tovah and I went to Jillian's 9th Birthday party. Tovah brought home a huge bag of candy to share with the boys.

The kids got new jammies, books, videos, DS games, and XBox games.

Rita brought over Max and Squeaky but Max didn't work out. The kids are enjoying having a new cat, once Squeaky came out from under the stairs where she hid for 2 days. We went to Applebees for our Christmas dinner. Tuesday Ryan and the boys went to see Tron. We had a Family Game Night Tuesday night with friends. The boys did a good job inviting their friends but forgot to tell people it was for the whole family, we finally got an invite out on Facebook a few days before the party. We had a great time...

The big kids played XBox

The littler set found the Marbleworks and Legos in the boys' room

Downstairs there was Mexican Train dominos, Settlers of Cataan, In a Pickle, the new electronic Scrabble, and lots of food and laughter. We had 17 boys here, 8 girls, and 17 adults. Next year we'll do a better job of getting the word out ahead of time...

Tonight's New Year's Eve- Ryan's at work, I've got most of my Winter Break To Do List to finish, and the kids are watching the Dr. Who marathon on BBC. We have have one more day to stay in our jammies all day. Church on Sunday then school starts for everyone on Monday.

Randomness

~Erica

***Today I'm trying to catch up with all the things that have gone undone since school started. I've lost a brand new shirt that I only wore once and I'm pretty sure one of the boys has it since they pull their clothes out and fold them and they won't learn to fold the picture out so they can see what t-shirt it is. I'm sure my new bejeweled black t-shirt is folded in one of their drawers

***The other day a friend emailed to ask which email address she should use for me- she had 4 in her address book and was that a reflection on how much was going on in my life? I didn't have the heart to tell her that I actually have 7 email addresses that I check regularly (though to be honest 3 are "future" addresses):

-2 are our "family" email addresses at our old carrier and our new carrier that will be our only carrier as soon as Ryan and my dad figure out what to do with my dad's website hosting

-2 are my personal email addresses with our old and new carriers. I had to get my own email address to have my own facebook account. They are really only used for things I don't want cluttering up our main email account.

-2 are Lewis County Homeschool email addresses with our old and new carriers.

-1 is my new student email account at the college and to get to it I have to log into a whole new window and it's a real pain but I don't have the time or energy to try and figure out how to forward it to one of our other accounts.

-I think I may also have a google email that I got at some point for some reason I can't remember- it's just a vague feeling that I did it.

***I've made 3 trips to the post office to mail packages in the last 24 hours- I got Nathan's monthly care package off so I can now focus on his Christmas Care Package, I mailed Marylinda's birthday socks to her (only a week+ late and I didn't take any pictures), and I mailed a magazine to a friend who I thought would enjoy it (Elaine, you should get it Monday). All three were in different piles and I just had to get to them.

***This morning I had 37 emails flagged in outlook that I needed to deal with, I'm down to 19.

***I'm really keeping busy so I don't have to think about writing my research paper on "The Pros and Cons of a Personal Income Tax" that is due Dec. 3. I really don't want to do it. I did some research last night and emailed a bunch of articles to my school account to print out on their paper on Monday so I can pretend like I've worked on it this weekend. Also I have a book in at the library that I need to pick up. I need to type up an outline and turn it in to the teacher by last Thursday (it's an online class that I set all the deadlines except the Dec. 3 deadline- this is dangerous territory for an expert procrastinator).

***Last night I got to spend 2 hours at Barnes & Noble while the bigger boys were at a Warren Miller film (it was my reward for spending 2 hours at the Scout store early that day trying to straighten out the popcorn sale fiasco- not really, I was already scheduled to drive the boys to Olympia last night). I found the new Artemis Fowl book The Atlantis Complex but Ryan wouldn't let me spend $18 on it so I bought a $4 book (Lauren Willig's Temptation of the Night Jasmine) and a $5 Peppermint Mocha and did research on the school library from B & N.

***This Wednesday I have 6 items plus school on my calendar and I'm trying to figure out how to add a funeral to the day. Mrs. Verley died this last week. She was my first Freshman Advanced English teacher plus I had her for 2 trimesters of AP English my Junior yr.

***Wednesday night Ryan is doing dinner at church so Jennifer and I can go to the college and hear Ann Rule speak. Our county has hit an all-time low, we now have a criminal case worthy of an Ann Rule book. I read all her early stuff when we lived on Guam and I worked at the Stars & Stripes bookstore. I had to stop reading them when Ryan went to Japan for 6 months- I heard too many bumps in the night that freaked me out.

***I can't remember the last picture of my kids I took, I know we took our camera last weekend to my aunt's service but it never came out of the case. I took a picture on my cell phone of some cool driftwood balls in a store display window last night while we waited for the boys to come out of the movie. Ryan's working most of Christmas break and I'm going to spend entire 3 weeks scrapbooking and see if I can get caught up to 2010 before 2011 starts ) minus the 3 days I spend cooking for the dinner theater at church.

***One of my friends' daughters will be 11 on 11/11/11. How cool is that?

***Tonight I have a Creative Memories Photo Solutions Party. My first one in about 3 months. I should go and review what I'm actually supposed to do and get my bag packed. My lapboards are all over the house being used for schoolwork (they are perfect for the mouse when I have my laptop on my lap).

I'll leave you with a picture that will be the theme for the rest of my week:

I'm Impressed

~Erica

It's the simple things that make moms happy: Tovah got a Dora "piano" book at Costco last year- it was her money and she really wanted it. I really don't like those because it seems like the batteries die quickly and then to replace them costs twice what the book originally cost, you see dead ones at Goodwill and garage sales all the time. This book came with a card for replacement batteries from Publications International, Ltd. I was able to order 3 sets of replacement batteries for $7.99. They came today and had everything I needed including an extra screw for the little flap and a card to order again. She's back to making music and I'm rather impressed with the cost and the ease in which I fixed the book. I didn't even have to look for a screwdriver...

Jonah's birthday

Happy Birthday Jonah! Jonah's birthday was September 16th, he is 11 years old and he made sure that I wrote that he got $47.00. Here are some pictures of Jonah's birthday:

Your love never changes

~Erica

Rush, Arin, Isaac, and Jesse at the wreck of the Peter Iredale, Ft. Stevens, OR

I don't have to be afraid-

There may be pain in the night

But joy comes in the morning

Since Sunday I've been singing these 3 lines to myself, over and over. I just couldn't remember the rest of the words but these are the ones I needed.

 

Aunt Jane

~Erica

June 2010 at Nathan's party

Deborah Jane Johnson

June 1, 1952  - October 29, 2010

My Aunt Jane died last Friday night. She had AML and had gone through a Stem Cell Transplant in July using Stem Cell's from my father. Her stem cells had grafted but the steroids preventing GVH caused too much damage to her systems and she just couldn't recover.

One of my earliest memories of family is going with Aunt Jane when she drove a school bus route. I think I was about 3. We left long before dawn to start the route. I sat in the first seat across the aisle from her so she could keep an eye on me. I fell asleep about halfway through and woke up back at the bus barn. I was so disappointed to miss seeing the school.

When I was 6 we lived in Portland, OR while my dad went to Multnomah. Jane and Dwayne lived in Gresham while he attended the mortuary school at Mt. Hood CC. They lived close to the campus and we would go out there and walk onto campus to watch old movies. That summer we saw Old Yeller and the Jungle Book (I think we saw more but those are the ones that stuck with me.) Dwayne had to make a funeral mask out of plaster and hung it above their front door. It totally freaked me out. To this day I don't like anything on or near my face.

Later they moved into Portland (not sure where but I remember we turned at the Fred Meyer). My uncle had the coolest garden in the attic. Then they moved to the Hollywood district of Portland- I can still find that house because I was driving when they lived there. It was about 20+ LONG blocks from my great-grandparents apartment (I know how long it was because we walked it one day).

I loved going to visit them- when we were there nothing was expected of us, I could read or watch TV all weekend. Dwayne died in July 2004. It was hard to imagine that he wouldn't be there when I went down. I always told each of my uncle's they were my Favorite Uncle.

Jane loved to laugh and sing and to be creative. She loved to weld and do stained glass and garden and crafts. She loved camping and family. Best of all- she loved Jesus. She spent 3 days with us in June when Nathan was home from Afghanistan. We went to an outdoor concert  and cooked and baked and played dominoes.

She left behind a daughter, Sarah, who will be lost without her mother. 2 brothers, 2 sisters, many nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and great-nephews.