December

Has been B U S Y!

My two foster kiddos returned to their mom, I got two new ones.
An 11 year old and 2 year old. I have forgotten how much work it is chasing a toddler around. These kids are the sweetest ones. I thought the previous two were good. These kids rock. Their situation is so. sad. The older boy is so appreciative. He and his brother came here with just a few articles of clothes. What two year old only has two outfits. Really?
We went to a foster parent group Christmas Party. It was very well planned. There were over 100 kids.

The boys really weren't happy about me taking pics with Santa :)

(Sigh) Hubs made it home from Idaho. The boys have enjoyed him being home.
Sunday we went to my mother in laws for Christmas. It was fun to watch the cousins interact with each other.

Too bad we had some kind of flu bug that went thru and half of us got sick. Like me and Andrew. On our way home. Thank goodness Matt drives. I had to pull over and have him drive. I didn't feel good. Whatever bug it was, hit us at once. Andrew was sick all day Monday.
Christmas eve morning he said he felt good. He at least had color.

Christmas eve my dads side of the family was here. It was great. This year we did a white elephant gift exchange. We had a blast. IT was funny watching the kids decide what to take when it was their turn. I had bought king sized candy bars. Those were a hit. I think I will do the same thing next year, but I want to throw some home made gifts into the pile as well.

Christmas day we spent at home. I made roast beef for dinner.
For lunch, we had finger food. I made crackers from scratch. They were good. The hardest part was rolling the dough out thin.
I have more pics, I will have to download later.
For now, I must tackle my desk. The paperwork is taking over!

Saturday.

I got two new foster kiddos today. Both boys,2 and 11. They live in this area, so no having to deal with out of district transportation! The daycare I like to use provides transport.
I have no idea how long they will be here. They are really sweet.
My only complaint is that the two year came with one set of pjs, 3 shirts and 2 pairs of pants.  His brother came with 4 pairs of underwear that are two sizes too big, and has a ack pack that is literally, falling apart at the seams. I went to the the sports store,as the had back packs on sale and got him one, I went to a kids second hand store and picked up more clotthes. Some of the items were brand new. I just need to get the older boy some socks and underwear, and they will be set.
We are getting ready for Christmas. Andrew and Ryan cleaned out their room. I have been working on mine. My goal is to tackle my desk and the garage. The garage is super scary. Jon and Tom worked on putting the tools away that they borrowed when fixing Matt's car. I am planning on making a dump run,so I want to get my money's worth.
I want to do one more thing tomorrow too. I want to try to make crackers. I love crackers. I have read that they are easy to make. We shall find out.

good news!

The social worker just called me. The kids will get to go back to their mom Friday after school. He is on his way here now to pick up their belongings ( the older boy and I packed most of them last nite).
I am happy for them. I was hoping that they would be reunited by Christmas. Its great to have an answered prayer!

this week

I will be glad when this week is over. I'm already beat.
The two fosters should go home tomorrow or Friday. We spent the evening packing their belongings. They are excited. I just wish I had an exact date. I know that social workers are busy, but IF mom has a place, and you are doing your walk thru today to make sure it is appropriate, and mom has an appointment to sign paperwork, then I should have a date. I doubt he will help with transportation either. He hasn't come to my house. At all. By the way, in Washington the social workers are SUPPOSE to come to my house once a month to check up on the kids. And people wonder why kids fall thru the cracks.
This weekend my boys' boy scout troop has what they call "amazing race". One of the kids patrol are sleeping here Friday. Need to make sure I am stocked up on milk...
Saturday is also the Christmas Rush. Andrew has done this race for 4 years. He loves it. Ryan will also do it. He is hoping to be able to jog it. It is a 5k. Ryan has bronchitis, I took him to the doctor yesterday. I am hoping that he gets better by Saturday. He also has basketball practice that begins on Tuesday. He is on the same team as his friend Nelson. Ryan's basketball playing skills should have improved with wearing his glasses. We shall see.
I have been up since 1 am, Ryan's coughing woke me up. I have all the laundry done. I am trying to get motivated to vacuum. I hope to take a nap later.
The cub scouts will be making gingerbread houses today. I am hoping to remember my camera this time :) I didn't get any pictures last year. This one is from 2011.

I am making the frosting. Its super easy. I bought this powdered meringue powder made by Wilton at Walmart ( its cheaper there than at JoAnnes). Mix a couple tablespoons with powdered sugar, add some water and voile- you have "royal frosting". This will be the 4th year we have done this. The cubs have a lot of fun with this. I bring my standing mixer to make the frosting. We put it in ziplock bags with a corner cut off. Each scout gets one. The ziplock brand bags work better than the generic. The generic just don't hold up with all the sqeezing.
Hope everyone has a great week!

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving has been great. We cooked a big turkey, made mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and homemade pies. We ate ourselves silly.
Hubby supervised Jon and Epic taking the ac pump off Matt's car. The stupid piece still hasn't come in ( it was ordered Monday, it was in Billings, MT). Supposedly it will be here by Tuesday I asked the parts guy if it was coming snail mail, because you could drive to Billings in12-14 hours.
We bought new Christmas lights and a set of 8 candy canes that light up. Jon helped me set up the candy canes, Ryan and Andrew went jup on the roof and hung up the lights.
We took the kids swimming this afternoon. The two foster kiddos had a great time. Hubby worked with them on swimming in the shallow end. The other boys were in the deep end. Jon did a fabulous (OUCH) be.ly flop. I hurt from it. Ryan and his friend Nelson did not dive off the board. Ryan said he doesn't trust his swimming ability.
I got an email from Ryan's basketball coach. He and his friend Nelson are on the same team. They are excited. They are great buds.

pics from our roadtrip

Here are some pics from the road trip we took to pick up our puppy. In Idaho.

This was still the Washington side.

That was in Eastern Washington, somewhere...

 

We liked the clouds on the hillside.

We were gone almost 12 hours that day.
One of these days we will make it back and check out Wallace, Idaho.
It seemed to be a cool town.

 

This weekend

Was busy. Got all the laundry washed,folded and put away. Trimmed one of my dogs nails and expressed his anal glands. That was GROSS. Epic helped. He will never go into the medical field. I thought he was going to puke. It was smelly. We did it in the bathroom. I refuse to pay the vet $30 for both services.
It's been old here, the last three morning have been 24 degrees, this morning was 26. At least it's been sunny. It's nice to look and see blue sky. The sunrises have been gorgeous to watch.
I made homemade bread yesterday. It made the whole house smell good.
The boys have spent the last couple days playing monopoly. It's been funny to listen to them play.
We are preparing for Thanksgiving. It's been hard to find decorations. Thank goodness for Pinterest. I found some really cool things I am going to make.
Hubby will be home Wednesday, so here's to hoping that the house stays clean  is in one piece.

Random pics

My mom, Matt, and TJ on Matt's Bday.

Me, my 3 1/2 month old niece, and my 3 year old nephew. Aren't they cute!

My nephew being silly.

Jon and Matt used to play with that helicopter when they were his age..

Jon getting ready to drive my car. Its a manuel ( 5-speed). He does better than my other son that HAS his license...

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

bedroom re-do

Several years ago, my older two boys picked a horrible bright shade of yellow for their bedroom walls. At the time, they liked yugi oh and the color matched their comforters.

They older boys have since moved downstairs, and Andrew and Ryan moved into this room. They have been asking me to repaint it. They have been trying to find a color they both like.
They finally picked one.
I began the process of painting their room.

I wasn't too sure at first how I felt about the grey, I really like it!

 

Now the room should not be so bright. I found some cream color curtains at Target ( what is up with stores selling one panel for curtains, I mean really?  Who honestly buys one panel?)
I painted the closet door a bright white. I think we will have to replace the trim, as it is pretty trashed. I was going to paint it, but stopped. Why waste the paint if I am going to just replace it?
I will post more pics later in the week once the room is done. The lighting is better when done in the morning.

thankful

I noticed that several of my friends on facebook everyday put on their status what they are thankful for. I was going to do it, but I don't post things on there everyday.
I will post several things on here I am thankful for.
-That I have a home.
- My yard is big enough to have a garden, chickens and room for my kids to play.
- My parents live a block up the street, and my kids get to see them almost everyday.
- That my husband will be retiring from the National Guard in 7 months. We will be able to enjoy the summer together!
- That my kids are healthy.
- My job has decent benefits, and allows me to take care of my family while my husband works on his bachelor's degree
- My husband wants to complete his degree and make decent money to care for our family!
- My husband is willing to do almost all of our remodeling, and teach our kids what he knows.
- To have friends of other faiths and cultures. I feel it makes life interesting!
- I have friends that I have kept in contact with since elementary. I trust them with my life.
- To have a loving family.

birthday

My oldest son will be turning 18 next week.
 I wonder, where has the time gone?
I have been looking pinterest to see if I see anything interesting.
I like this idea from this website.

Matt is hard to do anything for. He really doesn't get excited about anything. He did say he would be ok to do something for dinner. I am still waiting on ideas.

Cub Scout Den flags..

I created something similar to this several years ago for our daycamp.
Every year the boys would have to chose, who gets the den flag.
One day it came to me to give each boy a piece of fabric, and join them together to create a flag. The idea was at the end of camp, each scout could take their part of the flag home.
It was a huge hit, with the boys and with parents.
A couple months ago, I was asked to help create den flags for each of our dens. I used a similar idea as with daycamp, except I made a generic flag for the dens to each pin their piece to. In our pack, the boys move up on their birthday, so the kids are always moving in or out of dens.
The scout store sells big patches of the wolf, bear and webelos ( they also have the tiger rank as well).

I then cut the fabric ( made a front and back), and used fusible interfacing to give them a stiff appearance. I used twill as the fabric, since it is kinda stiff..

I joined the sides and tops together on the wolf flag. On the bear and webelos flag, I just used the interfacing to join the sides. I trimmed the sides with my pinking shears to prevent raveling. It was easier than sewing the sides. I used the interfacing to hold the badges, and then sewed around those edges.

 I then cut pieces of some ivory twill. The scouts will use felt pens to decorate the pieces.

 

The only thing left is to get the doweling for the flags, and then to make a holder ( #10 can with some pvc to hold them and cement )
These only took me a couple hours, and that was with interuptions (trick or treaters, making snacks for the boys to eat).

Happy Halloween!

This has been one of the quietest halloween's here in awhile. I don't think we even had 20 kids. There were several houses this year, that didnt have anything set up.
My kids went to a few, then we came home and watched Addams family on tv. The kids snacked on some yummy cupcakes that my visiting teachers dropped off.
The kuds took off their costumes as soon as they came home. Tomorrow when they get home from school, I am going to ask them to change so I can get pictures.
I worked on putting together den flags for my cub scout pack. I have one down, two more to make. My goal is to have them done by tomorrow. I've had a headache all say, so hopefully it will go away. It seems so quiet here. I remember when this neighborhood was PACKED with kids on Halloween. Now it's more like a ghost town...

Monday

Today has been a productive day.
The boys came home from school and rocked raking up all the leaves. My front yard was COVERED. They spent 2 hours blowing and raking them up.
They did a great job, and there was minimal fighting.
Dinner was scrambled eggs with ham, bagels and hot chocolate ( it was chilly today).
I found a great recipe for chocolate chip muffins. I made 30 yesterday. The kids and I ate them all. My goal is to make more sometime this week. The kids loved them. They asked for me to make more.
I cant believe Halloween is almost here. Before you know it, it will be Christmas.
Need to finish my Christmas shopping.
I am happy, I am OFF on Thursday. The best thing is, the kids are ALL in school so I will be by myself, as in NO ONE HERE. The house and I have a hot date in regards to house cleaning!

The tree in the picture is what it looked like before all the leaves fell. I love the shade of reds it turns!

This week

Has been a whirlwind. It's been good, just busy,busy,busy. The kids have rocked doing their chores and doing well with school. The two new foster kiddos are getting into a routine. Andres old assistant soccer coach called, he  was looking for our phone number and found it. He wants Andrew on his team. His coach said that our foster kid can join too ( he is a month older than Andrew). The boys are excited.
Tomorrow we will carve our pumpkins. I will begin to make Ryan's Arrow of  Light.  My goal this week is to prep Andrew and Ryan's room to paint it. They picked a light gray color.

Pictures

I finally got around to downloading my pictures..

Here is a picture of the Arrow Of Light I made for one of the scouts in our pack

 

The tip was hard to adhere to the start of the arrow shaft. This shaft is 31" long. This boy earned a lot of stuff!

 I did add some leather stripping with feathers and beads attached. I didn't get pictures of that though.

 

Didn't do a whole lot more today. The boys and I went to the dump. We went out to Red Robin for dinner. I really wanted a low key day today. The kids played basketball and soccer outside. It was foggy and cold most of today ( yuck). Days like today make me think of moving to Arizona or Nevada. At lease there is SUN..

These pictures were taken 3 weeks ago at Denny Creek. The trees there are huge.

I loved how there was some snow on the very top of the mountain. The creek was running cold and fast..

 

 

 

Progress!

     I got a lot done today. Yesterday when I got off work, I went ahead and did the grocery shopping. Luckily, the store was not that busy.
The boys helped unload and put the groceries away. I worked on the laundry, doing dishes, all the other fun things the house needs. The boys raked up the leaves and vacuumed the house.
   After dinner, we went shopping for Halloween costumes. FK #1&2 each found what they were looking for. RJ found a costume, so I told him to get it. I don't want to wait then it not be there.
    Today I worked on cleaning my room, the computer desk and the garage. The boys helped me go through items. We took one load to Goodwill, and have a load for the dump outside. We have been in this house 9 years. I cant believe the amount of clutter that has accumulated. The garage still has a lot of work to be done; however at least we made a dent in the mess.
   The only break we took today was when I took the kids swimming. Its a public pool in the next city. I like it a lot better. The pool has a diving board with a rope the kids can use to swing into the water; a slide, and a huge inflatable octopus that they kids can climb and slide down.The kids had a blast. It wasn't that busy, which was nice.
     I am now working on organizing all my cub scout stuff to make it easier to track my awards/advancements. I am trying to connect with the other leader to come up with a plan. The other leader has a lot of health problems going on- I am covering for her until they call someone else to replace her. This group of boys is sweet, so I don't mind covering. I am planning for the boys to cook hotdogs on Wednesday, so that will be entertaining. Its been foggy here- I was hoping for sun today so the kids and I could do yard work.

    I realize that this picture is crooked, that's I placed it on the scanner. It is one of the few pictures I have of my grandparents, parents, aunt, uncle, husband and kids. I found it today as I was cleaning some of my craft stuff in one of the closets. This picture is even more important to me, as my grandfather passed away when I was pregnant with my 4th son.

Tuesday

The last couple weeks have been CRAZY! I have two extra kids ( foster kids-siblings ages 6&12, and yes they are boys). So yes, I am crazy enough to have 7 BOYS here. Let me tell you- I think it would be cheaper to buy a cow.. The kids have all been G-R-E-A-T.  These kids are so sweet. They are a voluntary placement as mom is in a rough spot. She calls her kids every night. They get along really well with my group- its been fun. I forget how much help a 6 year old needs with their homework :)
I finished an arrow for an arrow of light award for our pack meeting on Thursday. I will upload the pics later. I am happy with it :)
I think this weekend I will take the kids swimming to the local pool. All the boys have been asking- its an easy enough request. They have been good raking the leave almost every day. We got our pumpkins from the local vegetable stand Saturday. We will be getting ready to carve them within the next week. I don't want to carve them to early and have them rot.
That's all for now, I need to catch up on all my other things :)

This weekend

Was beautiful! 68 yesterday, 74today. I loved the sun and warmth. Especially after all the rain last weekend. We (the kids and I) went to Denny Creek. It was chilly up there, but sunny. The leaves are turning colors.
  I got all the mini pumpkins picked, and most of the vines are in my compost. I created a second pie in the corner of the garden. The compost will end up there anyway. The garden looks-empty. The bonus though, my kale and lettuce are beginning to come up.
   I did a lot of baking this weekend. I made cookies, bread, French toast, and lentil meat loaf. My kids loved the meatloaf. I liked it being made with lentils. I don't like the fat in hamburger.
   I was blessed with a bunk bed this weekend. I took in two siblings(boys again). I didn't have a bunk bed. I only had a twin and a toddler bed. The younger of the two technically could use the toddler bed, I didn't think it was appropriate. One of my friends asked people in her ward. One of them had one. I am so thankful, I don't have a lot of money right now. My husbands drill weekend was cancelled due to the government shut down. My husband said that even though we could use the money, he was glad to extra studying done and the opportunity to watch General Conference. He has missed the last three because of drill weekends. He said he was glad he could watch it as it was was happening.
  Time to get the kids winding down for bed.

Pictures

I love pictures. I splurged on myself a couple weeks ago and got a new camera. I love it. I have had fun playing with it.

 Here is my strawberry plant. I think it is confused... I am still getting strawberries from them.

 Here is a huge rainbow. The picture was taken from in front of my house.. There was a faint second rainbow as well.

These were taken from my cell phone. The top picture is of South Lake Union. You can see the boats. The bottom picture shows one of the buildings by my work. The sky was so pretty that day. It is days like this that make me appreciate the sun here.

Here are the trees in my front yard. You can see the top of the one tree is beginning to turn red.

My tree out back and my fuchsia . My tree is changing colors, even more since this picture was taken. That fuchsia was bought last year as a 6 inch start. It was my foster sons. He thought he had killed it, and left it at my house. His mom didn't want a "dead" plant. I moved it up against the house and forgot about it. I'll be if it didn't start growing. As the fall approached, I then moved it into the garage. We have a window on the south side. It did very well. I neglected it- I think I only watered it three times over the winter. This is it now. I have since moved it back into the garage by the same window. So we will see if it continues to do well.

A couple of weeks ago, my son and I went to the convenience store for a soda. We saw this in the parking lot and laughed. Wonder if it still works....

 

Too much..

I know that Seattle is known for its amount of rainfall. Yesterday was a little overboard. We had just over 2 inches of rain in 24 hours. It was great. My stupid drain outside my lower glass door couldn't keep up, and water began to come into the basement ( which is the older boys bedroom). I've never seen them move so quickly in getting their junk off the floor. Jon and Tom had cups, filling them and tossing the water into the yard. Tom suggested renting a jack hammer to create a new drainage hole. I told him I didn't think that my husband would go for it.
  Later today were are suppose to get a wind storm. It's been several years since we have had a good one, so it will be interesting to see how much damage happens, especially since it was so wet yesterday.
   I had the kids make sure their flashlights are ready, I have kerosene for my lamps. Now just waiting for the fun to begin...

Fall has arrived..

  Fall has arrived in its typical fashion here in the Seattle area. As I was driving home, it was down pouring ( I really  dislike driving on the freeway in that type of rain). As the kids were watching the Seahawks game, the rain stopped and the sun came out. There was a beautiful rainbow out, I got a good picture of it. I will post pics later...
    You can feel that the weather is changing. My tomatoe vines are beginning to die, the pumpkin vines are beginning to wither in spots. My strawberries however, are still blossoming and producing strawberries..
Hoepfully this week I will get time to finish picking the pumpkins, and pulling up the vines. I am trying to stay on top of the garden clean up this fall.
     I planted lettuce, onions, and swiss chard. Now to make sure my hens don't get in and eat it all as it sprouts.
My trees out front and back are beginning to change colors. My tree in the back has little leaves. They turn the most beautiful colors. The drawback: the leaves are small and a nightmare to rake or blow.
   The older boys went on a scout rendezvous on Friday and Saturday. They had a great time. They went last year ( they really didn't want to go); but had a lot of fun. This year they were looking forward to it.
   I found a memory card that was stashed in my nightstand- there were pictures on it. There were pics on there from last year. Its funny to see how the kids have changed in a year.

These pictures were taken a year ago. My mom grew up in Millwood. My great-grandfather was one of the first settlers there. He had a huge farm. My mom and uncle grew up seeing this train go to the papermill. It is in the town of Snoqualmie at the Railroad Museum. I was floored when we came across this locomotive.
There are several really cool train engines stored there.

The town of Snoqualmie is quite. It has several ma and pa stores off the main road. There's a really good ice cream parlor there. My kids enjoyed the ice cream.

I like decorating for the fall. This is the table decoration I made last year...

My goal is to get my fall décor up this weekend, so we shall see how that goes...