3rd week of March

Treasure in the Swamp
While Miriam's party was going strong, Isaac and Isaac C. found an abandoned tire buried in the swamp. They spent about two hours trying to get it out with the help of the lawnmower, a water skiing rope, and a come-a-long. They couldn't get enough traction with the lawnmower so once they got the rope tied around it Dode stepped in and used the van to pull it out. They commenced to clean it up and drill a bunch of holes in in for letting water drain out. Why did they get it out? I don't think they even have an answer to that, but they acted like proud new parents!

"This fix is only temporary ... unless, of course, it works"
The philosophy of famous handyman Red Green.

In the spirit of Red Green and "There I fixed it!", I present to you our traffic control sign.  (That website is worth wasting a few minutes on just to get your laughs in!)

Part of our driveway is only wide enough for one car.  In order to cut down on people needing to back up when someone is suddenly coming the other way, we control the traffic on the driveway during produce mornings.  My dad does traffic control at one end of the driveway while the kids provide the other.  Each person has a walkie talkie so they can talk to the other one.  My dad sometimes has a hard time hearing/understanding the kids so at times it's a comedy of errors.  One of the walkie talkies had a battery die this week.  Elizabeth came in and was issued another one.  I caught Dode in the house a little later eavesdropping on the two of them with the walkie he replaced the battery in.  He was doing a fair amount of chuckling. 

One of the difficulties is getting drivers to recognize that the child standing there waving to them is not just being friendly but is actually trying to communicate.  The orange vest was a step in the right direction but people were still giving a friendly wave and heading off on their merry way when they were supposed to be waiting their turn.  My dad provided gloves with orange hands but it was still a problem.  Next, he brought a driveway reflector on a stick.  He put green tape on  one side and left the other red.  It wasn't large enough for drivers to notice but gave me an idea.  I found 8" slow/stop paddles on Amazon.com but Isaac thought they were too wimpy.  Issac found this full size (and much beat up) slow/stop sign in the swamp beside our house and he decided he could mount it on a handle for the girls to use.  In the true spirit of Red Green (and his Grandpa Lynn) it is built very sturdy.  He used an old beat up 2x4 for a handle.  The bottom of the board isn't even square!  We don't have to worry about it breaking any time soon!  It definitely got the attention of the drivers!  Elizabeth has to turn her entire body to keep the sign balanced and upright.  Dode would like to replace the board with a PVC pipe but he hates to cancel out Isaac's work.  I fear that Isaac's temporary fix will become our permanent solution.

Green Smoothie Girl

Thursday night, I went with some friends (and my wonderful sister-in-law Sheri) to Seattle to listen to the Green Smoothie Girl, Robyn Openshaw.  She was a great speaker and I'm even more inspired to keep up my healthy green daily habit.  I've decided to get as many of the kids drinking them as I can.  William is already in love with them.  I told Jacob to read her book, hoping when he read the health benefits and testimonials he'd give it a go.  Anastaya has committed to having a small one each day.  I bought Robyn's 12 Steps to Whole Foods program.  The idea is to go through the book, one chapter a month, adopting the healthy habit of that month and adding it to the way you eat.  Step 1 is a daily green smoothie and I'm already there.  Step 2 is a daily salad.  As long as lettuce prices go down, that one is easy for me.

We all really enjoyed listening to Robyn.  She was accompanied by David "Avocado" Wolfe.  He's a famous raw food guru.  The consensus in my group is that he might be a good writer but he's a terrible speaker.  He was going around in circles and off on tangents about conspiracy theories, "I never take a shower, it's a gas chamber and you know, they tried that in the 40's", "You live in the mushroom capital of the world.  You should all be out gathering all the mushrooms you can to eat."  He was up there pretending to smoke pot, would say he had some great information for us and then get sidetracked, he was just awful!  At least he brought chocolate samples!

We used the lawn mower AS A LAWNMOWER!
Dode is proud to report that he was able to use his lawnmower as a lawnmower this week.  (As opposed to tow truck, kid entertainment device, ATV).  We've had so much rain, there were places were as much water was coming out the side as grass clippings!

Back to back birthday parties
Friday and Saturday felt a bit like a train wreck.  In 24 hours, we had two separate birthday parties, first Anastaya's, then the next day Miriam's.  In between the parties, we did the produce co-op.  So, in the space of 24 hours, we accommodated over 100 people aged 5 to people in their 70's.  Isaac had a scout camp out Friday and Dode spent part of the evening over with the scouts.  Somehow, we managed to do it all and still keep our sanity.  I was really dreading all the things I was responsible for but it turned out better than I expected.

Isaac's new sunglasses
An unexpected package came in the mail this week.  Isaac had been looking at aviator sunglasses on Amazon.com and had put a pair in the shopping cart.  I didn't notice and proceeded to buy something else.  A few days later, two packages came in the mail.  A funny kid's picture book that was recently published, Interupting Chicken, and a pair of sunglasses.  Lucky for him there were only $3.50 and not the $45 pair he'd also been looking at.  Lesson to me, check to make sure items haven't been added to the cart I'm unaware of!  Isaac was so proud of his new sunglasses he wore them inside the house for the entire day!  When the glasses came, they were a bit bent and would not stay on his nose.  Remember the quote from Red Green?  Isaac fixed the problem by finding a black piece of thread and attaching it to each ear piece.  The thread went around the back of his head and held the glasses tightly up against his nose.  When Dode got home and saw what was going on, he bent the glasses into place. 

106 degree hot tub
We'd de-commissioned the hot tub for the summer but Anastaya wanted to use it at her party.  We refilled it and made sure the water was nice and clean for the party.  Jacob got in the day before and said that it felt really hot.  We didn't listen.  Anastaya and her friends got in and started squealing. They didn't put more than their feet in, just sat around on the edge. After a while, they check the temperature on the side and read 106 degrees.  We used the hose to bring the temp down to comfortable soaking temperature.  I should have gotten a photo of the lobster red feet on those girls.

Impromptu visit from the cousins
Just as we were sitting down to dinner on Saturday, Dode's brother Randy called to say he was on the freeway and would soon be going by our house.  He wanted to know if some cousins could come over and play for a short while.  We didn't have to think twice about that offer!  Lainey, Jenna and Savannah came over to eat with us and play while Dode, Isaac and Isaac C. got in the truck with Randy and went over to Cascade Park (a church campground in Arlington) where Randy was looking at some trees they want taken down.  In addition to being a school teacher, Randy has a business falling hazardous trees.  He'd taken down a cottonwood tree at Cascade Park last year and now they want him to take down quite a few more.  The kids really enjoyed their unexpected play date and it sounds like when Randy goes back to actually take down the trees they'll be able to play again.  Hooray!

Rainbow Birthday Party

Miriam with her guests

When it was time to celebrate Miriam's sixth birthday with her friends, I wondered what theme to go with. Then, I asked her to draw a picture on the invitations we were sending to her friends. She drew a rainbow on each of them and a theme was born! I had a lot of fun coming up with activities and it was a really inexpensive party to put on.

Decorations

I bought crepe paper streamers in every rainbow color I could find and used them to decorate the dining area. We gathered up everything "rainbow" we could find in the house to decorate the mantel. If the girls had been a few years older, we could have played an "I-Spy" or Kim's game (the game of trying to remember all the things you saw) with the items on the mantle: hackie sack, juggling balls, umbrella, kite, badminton birdies, puzzle, flower lei's, quilt, frog decoration, ribbons.

There is no way I was taking my favorite picture down, good thing it's colorful!

 Rainbow Food

skittles, rainbow twizzlers, M-and-M's, colorful paper goods

Miriam's favorite cake (Chocolate Chip) "rainbowed up" with sprinkles and colored sugar

rainbow jello

a few of her guests enjoying the licorice, can you see how many the girl in pink is holding?!

Rainbow Games

When we have a party, I always like to have a good mix of free play time and activities.  In the past, Miriam has gotten really upset when her friends didn't want to do what she wanted to do.  Games have been a good way to bring every one together and soothe hurt feelings.  I usually wait until things aren't going smoothly before calling every one in for a game.  Miriam didn't cry once this time but we still did a few of the games I'd prepared for.

Catch a rainbow:

I bought rainbow spinners from Dollar Tree. I tied a different colored ribbon to the back of each of them. I told the girls that it was their job to reach into a cloud, find their part of the rainbow, and then go capture a rainbow.  The girls were blindfolded and set in front of a bowl of rice. (I'd used Miriam and William as my guinea pigs.  Paper clips were way too hard to find.  Pieces of ribbon were impossible to find.)  They ran the rice through their fingers until they pulled out a coin with a colored sticker on it. I was really pleased that the weather cooperated because I set up a table outside and put the cloud there.  Then any "raindrops" (pieces of rice) that escaped the cloud didn't make a mess inside.  Every girl found a unique color and had to wander around the yard looking for the pinwheel with the attached ribbon that matched their color. They squealed with delight when they found theirs and starting running wild around the yard making them spin.

They looked very festive scattered throughout the yard 

Find the pot of Gold:

I wanted to do a scavenger hunt but knew the girls were too young to read clues. The day before, I went around the yard and took photos of different areas and printed them up. I mounted them on different colored papers so they'd be part of the rainbow. I placed them around the yard before the party started.  I made sure the last clue led them to the "gold".  As they went to each location, they found a photo of where to find the next photo clue. The last clue was on gold colored paper with a photo of the final location.  At that location, I set a basket I spray painted gold with fancy sunglasses inside.  I made sure there were extra sunglasses so the last girl to choose didn't get stuck with the only pair left.  (They were 8 for $2 at Wal-Mart in the party section.)  I had to laugh while they were running around.  One of the girls was far behind the pack but had no idea.  Each time she'd find the photo, she'd excitedly call out, "Guys!  I've found it!  We need to go...."  She never caught on that the other girls had left her in the dust and happily completed the hunt without ever getting discouraged.

 

looking for their next clue

Two games I'd planned but ran out of time for

Walk the Rainbow (think Cake Walk):

I was going to set out colored squares in a circle.  The girls would walk from square to square while listening to Over the Rainbow. I would spin a spinner. If they were on the color the spinner stopped at, the would receive smarties candy (a rainbow in a wrapper). To make it more fun, I made a dice to instruct them how to get from square to square (jump, skip, twirl, backwards, while clapping hands, tip toe)

Rainbow, Rainbow, Gold:

A version of Duck, Duck, Goose substituting Rainbow for Duck and Gold for Goose. The girl who was it would say "Gold!" and drop a beaded necklace over their head. There were enough necklaces for everyone to get one.  I thought this was a perfect way of playing Duck, Duck, Goose because there would be a visual clue for the girls of who'd been picked and who still needed a turn.

Rainbow Craft

At every party, we have has some kind of craft activity.  I didn't want to do the traditional paper plate rainbow cloud combination.  I decided rainbow hand prints would be too messy.  (It's a good thing too because Miriam made those on Friday in her class at school.)  Miriam had really loved her Dollar Store ribbon spinner until it broke and I decided they'd be easy and inexpensive to make. (Mine are much  more durable too!)

I bought dowels and fishing spinners from the Hardware Store. It took three employees at the hardware to figure out how I could pull off what I wanted to do.  Dode attached the hardware ahead of time. The Isaacs, Elizabeth, Dode and I helped the little girls select curly ribbon in assorted colors to attach to their spinner. They helped pull on the ribbon while their buddy held it against a scissor blade to make it curly.

dowel + screw+ fishing swivel=fun and pretty

The Standby's

No activity at our house would be complete without the standby's.......

Jeep Rides

Lawnmower rides

zip line rides

trampoline mayhem

getting dirty

I'm sure her mom was thrilled to get her back in the car!

Miriam had told her friends ahead of time to wear dresses because they'd be dancing at her party.

As the first guests arrived, she brought them into the living room and played the demo songs on the piano while dancing with her friends.  Knowing how dirty kids can get at our house, I'd have told them to wear old play clothes!

The Verdict

Miriam and her friends had a great time.  There were tears when moms came to pick up their children.  I overheard one of the girls tell Miriam, "You have the BEST parties!"   I made sure to label everything I could and a half hour before the party ended, I set everything the girls were taking home on the kitchen counter and tied their swag up with a twist tie.  Each girl brought home their pinwheel, rainbow ribbon wand, silly sunglasses, and a bendy straw.

1880-2010: The story of a section corner

To be a surveyor is to be a detective.  Think of your favorite detective on a TV show or in a book.  They encounter a puzzle they want/need to solve.  They follow all the leads they get.  They talk with lots of people who might have information about the puzzle.  Some information takes them to dead ends.    Sometimes they get a lucky break when someone has information relating to the puzzle they didn't realize was important.  There are also times when information leads them directly to the answer.  In researching land for surveying, the same process happens.  Happily for me, I love mysteries and detective stories and find the twists and turns of Dorrel's research interesting to hear about.  Maybe you will too.

First, a little background.   Before the government could sell  property to individuals, they needed to be able to convey an exact piece of property.  They divided the country up into a grid of one mile square sections by having their surveyors lay out monuments in one mile grids. The surveyors would set a monument then go directly north for one mile, then set another monument, then go another mile north and set another monument, etc., etc.  Then they would do the same in the east, west and south directions until the entire area was full of a grid of monuments one mile apart.  The monuments (the markers they set at the one mile intervals) included: cedar posts, ash piles, rock cairns, or any other inexpensive and readily available materials (they even used dinosaur bones in one area in Wyoming).  Whether or not those corners were placed exactly a mile apart does not matter, the government sold the property between the monuments to the settlers.  The monuments were the official corners of the properties the government sold.  In order to survey a piece of property, surveyors today are required to recover and use those same monuments.  They are the legal corners of the properties.  Due to the nature of the original monuments, they have faded away and been replaced by new longer lasting monumentation like iron pipes, rebar, and concrete monuments with brass disks.

Surveyors are not content to accept just any old monument they find, they want to know how it got there and make sure it is in the same location as the original monumentation placed by the government when the land was originally divided.  Following is the story of how Dode researched the background of one of the original corners on the reservation. 

While preparing to convey parcels of land to the Native Americans, the federal government in 1880 conducted a survey of the Tulalip Reservation and placed a grid of monuments as described above.  The monument we are interested in for this blog post is known as the NE 16th of Section 24, Township 30, Range 4.  In 1880 the government surveyors set a 4" x 4" cedar post as the monument for this point.  It is not surprising that the post has long since dissolved.  In 2009, Dode searched around the estimated location of the corner and found not a 4x4 cedar post but a rebar with a plastic cap.  On a nearby tree, he also found a metal plaque inscribed, "Scott Paper Company 16th Corner" which included a bearing and distance to the rebar.  It was dated 1974.  Talking with Tulalip Forestry department, Dode discovered they had found the plaque six years previous folded up and embedded in the bark of the tree.  The foresters had chipped it out, flattened it, and re-attached it to the tree.  Some one in 1974 believed the location of the rebar and cap was the same location as the cedar post that had been set in 1880.  Remember, the location of the cedar post set in 1880 and not location of the rebar and cap controls the legal boundary of the properties in this area.  Is this rebar in the same location?  In an effort to discover how the cedar post morphed into a rebar, he set out researching.

The plastic cap attached to the end of a 1/2" rebar driven two feet into the ground.

The plaque on a nearby tree.

The cap on the rebar had the state number for a land surveyor stamped into it.  Dode went back to the office and got online to search the county records for surveys done in that area in the 1970's and found nothing.  Doing additional research online, Dode found that the Scott Paper Company had been sold to Kimberly Clark.  He knew that in the 1970's, a lot of timber companies like Scott Paper would do surveys for their own use and not record them.  Maybe Kimberly Clark would have information about the rebar.  Calling to the Kimberly Clark North America Headquarters customer service, they gave him the number of the head office back east which then referred him to a records office in Georgia. After several back and forth phone calls, he received a call from a records person in the local office (Everett, WA) who said he couldn't find any surveys for the property.

Stumped but not defeated, he used the number off the rebar cap to search the state database of land surveyors and found the name of the surveyor who had placed the rebar.  With a name, he googled the land surveyor and found his home number.  He is in his 70's and lives in Arlington.  A phone call to the home of this surveyor found that he was semi retired (he still did occasional surveys out of his home office).  He looked through his files and found a survey on the property from the 1990's and with a new date Dode was able to get a copy of that survey over the Internet from the county records.  On the survey, the surveyor had commented that at that location, he had found a 2" hub set by Jerry Peterson of the Scott Paper Company.

Before we go on, let's review what we know.  The rebar and cap had been set in the 1990's by a surveyor who was working for a local resident, and the plaque on the tree had 1974 and Scott Paper company scribed on it.  The surveyor had found a 2" wood stake set by Jerry Peterson of the Scott Paper Company.  How did he know the 2" hub had been set by Jerry Peterson of Scott Paper?  A call back to the surveyor really did not help.  He could not remember.

Dode had worked with a Jerry Peterson a few years ago while at Downing & Assoc.  Was this the same Jerry Peterson?  It turned out he was.  Dode googled and called up Jerry at home and found Jerry had worked for Scott Paper and remembered being out there in the 1970's but couldn't remember that exact corner or any details.  Jerry referred Dode to his old boss from Scott Paper, Bill Rollins. 

Googling him yielded a phone number and he found a retired 70 year old Mr. Rollins who remembered surveying out there.  Mr. Rollins said they would not have set the hub, it would have been something they found.  He said he would have put a plaque on a tree, hence the origin of the plaque the forestry department found six years ago.  Jerry and Bill would have recorded their findings in some field books which would have been saved and may have been handed on when Scott Paper sold the property.  Dode spoke again with the Kimberly Clark records person in Everett, mentioning he had spoken with the two men who had been standing in the woods 35 years ago setting those corners and that their notes were turned over to the company.  The Kimberly Clark employee looked through his records and while he didn't see anything, the original field workers were welcome to come down and look for themselves.  The question remained, if they didn't set the 2" wood hub, who did and was it in the same location as the original cedar post?

This wasn't the only monument he was researching.  1/2 mile away was another one that he was doing the same kind of detective work on.  Through another rebar and cap, he found another surveyor's number.  The state database gave him a name, city (Centralia), and the fact that his license was still current.    Google wasn't getting Dode anywhere with contact information so he started calling surveying companies in Centralia asking if anyone knew of the mystery surveyor.  He found out he was semi-retired and currently surveying out of his home and was given a home phone number for him.  Talking with the Centralia surveyor, Dode was given a quick life history and found that this surveyor had done surveying for Scott Paper for years.  Alarm bells started ringing; this surveyor still had all his old notes and was happy to send Dode a copy.  Finally Dode would have the survey notes from the 1970's showing why the Scott Paper surveyor believed that was the location of the original cedar post.  Dode waited two weeks for the notes, when they finally arrived it was discovered the notes had made it to Dode's building twice, but the first time the mail room shipped it back unopened (that surveyor had to make two trips to the post office and pay for the shipping twice).  Unfortunately, when they came in, they were for a parcel of land in the area but a parcel entirely unrelated and done for an entirely different party.  The Centralia surveyor didn't have Scott Paper's old records.  Another dead end!

Two months later, while researching another corner by studying the Department of Natural Resources web site, Dode found an obscure reference to the DNR possessing Scott Paper's old records.  Dode remembered the corner he'd been spent so much time researching and contacted the DNR to see if they Scott Paper's record of that corner.  The DNR confirmed they had some Scott Paper records for a surveys done in that area but they were not sure which one was the right one.  The DNR agreed to email all the records.  Dode waited and waited and waited for a response.  Waiting on the government!  About two weeks later, he found a way to access their database online and did the research himself.  (He later found a timely response to his original request emailed from the DNR in his junk mail folder.)  Finally, it was there that he finally found the missing Scott Paper record.  What did it tell him?

Scott Paper's record stating what they set and why they set it where they did.

Jerry Peterson of Scott Paper had set a post and it had not been set in the location of the original cedar post.  Scott Paper had determined the original location of the cedar post was lost and unrecoverable.  They had used the legal method of replacing it called "Single Proportion".   Dode called Jerry back and he discussed the methods and equipment Scott Paper would use for laying out surveys.  Jerry remembered they did there own surveying (no one was certified or licenced) using a compass and chain to set the corners (a very rudimentary set of equipment accurate for only small distances.) 

The final answer:  The corner had been illegally set using outdated equipment by an unauthorized individual using a legal method.  That incorrectly placed location has been used by surveyors for 35 years.  None of them had done their research to find how Scott Paper had established the location and now any surveyor that comes upon it must decide if he will use the location his peers have been using or if he should set his own conflicting corner.  A surveyor is always concerned with what will happen if his decisions are called into question in a court of law.  The cases are decided by judges who aren't required to be survey law experts.

To be a surveyor is to be willing to dig and pick at a mystery that others would throw their hands up as unsolvable.  It's much more than standing on the side of the road looking through an instrument.  More than placing flags in trees.  More even than making a legible map.  Most of what a surveyor does is behind the scenes where the customer never sees it and the only one who knows about it is his curious wife.  Do you see now why it can be so expensive to obtain a survey?  And Dode can rest safe with the knowledge that long after he is retired from the industry, young freshly minted surveyors will be searching for him to question him about decisions he made 35 years ago.

3/13-3/20

Miriam's birthday dinner
On Sunday, we celebrated Miriam's birthday with my mom and Greg.  My mom had taken Miriam overnight for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.  On Saturday night, they took Miriam to dinner at my mom's favorite restaurant.  Miriam REALLY liked the meatballs a la carte'.  She ended up eating 7 1/2 of them!  And, these aren't the tiny meatballs you get from Costco, they're each the size of a tennis ball.  Because they're so large, they come two at a time.  Which means, after the first set, my mom had to order three more sets!  Once everyone was done eating,  my mom asked Miriam if she'd like an ice cream sandwich.  "No thank you Boma, but can I have more meatballs?"  Miriam's dinner ended up costing more than either of the adults at the table!

One of Miriam's favorite things to do when my mom and Greg come to dinner is to sing with Greg while strumming on an old broken guitar.  Greg brings his professional guitar and they have a jam session.  Miriam is not just a guitarist, she accompanies with vocals that she makes up on the spot.  There are lots of songs about things she loves.  Greg thought Miriam needed something better than a broken guitar so he built her a ukulele.  (Yes, you read that correctly, he built her a ukulele.)  It even came with a case to keep it safe in.  It was so cute, after she opened her presents, she grabbed her ukulele and headed upstairs.  We found her a while later, sitting on her new birthday bed strumming and singing. We keep calling her ukulele a guitar and she keeps correcting us and saying VIOLIN.  Apparently, she's familiar with the relative sizes of the difference instruments.

Out in the field

Dode uses the term "in the field" to refer to any time he is outside physically visiting an area he will be mapping.  This time, he was actually visiting a field.    The tribes have purchased a large field next to the Snohomish River where they are going to rip out the dike and flood it as an estuary.  Before they flood it, they (and the federal government) want to get measurements of how things were to start with.  We've been having so much rain lately that the ground was really wet.  Parts of the field are already flooded due to all the rain.  The water was deep enough in places that they'd be using a boat.  One thing Dode has found to be different when working for a government than his experience in the private industry is the amount of people it takes to do a project.  Two employees from the Department of Fish & Wildlife were coming with a boat and to tell Dode where to take measurements.  One employee from the tribes' Department of Natural Resources was there to supervise.  Dode was there to push a button on the instrument.

Dode knew he was going to be getting wet but didn't have any chest waders.  Apparently the Natural Resources people are very territorial about their waders so it looked like no one was willing to loan him a pair (Dode is casual friends with many of the Natural Resource employees and has gone out in the field with them many times)  At the last minute, he found out someone had quit and left their chest waders behind.  Dode was able to borrow them and while he was glad to not be wet, he didn't enjoy cramming his size 9 1/2 men's feet into waders designed for a size 6 ladies' foot.  After a while, he lost all feeling in his toes (literally).  By the end of the night as he was laying in bed they were still tingling.  (His boss has approved the purchase of a pair of waders that actually fit for future use.  Having waders is a huge step up from what he's ever had before.  He's done "center of stream" many times while working with Downing and Associates by walking down the center of a stream in his jeans and hiking boots on cold rainy days knowing it would just be six more hours of field work before he could go home and change.)

Dode had taken his work truck out to the site the day before and had noticed a very muddy area and thought to himself, better stay clear of that.  Well, the next day, his friends with the Federal Government drove right into it and only got 30 feet before being mired in the mud.  After spending almost an hour trying to get the truck out of the mud with the help of all the rocks and sticks they could gather, they walked a mile down the road to another vehicle and towed it out. 

I'd been telling the kids that Dad was going out in the field the next day.  They were casually interested.  Then, I mentioned that he'd get to be in a boat.  I thought that novelty would spur their interest.  Miriam turned to Dode with hands on hip to inquire,  "Dad, what kind of boat do you use in a field?" 

Good and stuck

Using the other truck to pull it out

the boat they were using

There were four men in the boat in order to do measurements in the field, sounds like government work doesn't it!  The job could have been completed with one person.  Dode's job consisted of being ready to push the button on the GPS when someone said, "Now."  Very technical!

Anastaya and Mom day
Each year, each of the kids gets a special day with mom and a different special day with dad.  We try to come up with activities the children will enjoy that will give us plenty of time to talk and enjoy each other's company.  Last year, Anastaya and I didn't get our day together.  The first time we scheduled it she ended up gettting sick, so we re-scheduled it, but she ended up going over to Randy and Lisa's to play with the cousins.  On Saturday, we finally got to have our 2010 special day.  We went down to West Seattle and did a street scramble.  You are given a map with most of the street names removed and several points marked on it.  You walk around to the marked locations (the competitive people run) and when you get there, you answer a question on an answer sheet to prove you were there.  (Example:  What is the address plaque made out of?)  You get points for each place you visit, with the points awarded based on how difficult it is to get there.  It is a timed event and the team with the most points at the end wins.  If you're interested, more information can be found here.  The day couldn't have been nicer. It's been raining here for weeks but it was sunny with no wind.


I thought she'd enjoy the scavenger hunt aspect of it.  She did, for about 10 minutes.  Then, we headed up a steep hill and for the next three hours, I heard pretty much non stop about her tired feet and sore legs.  I told her I was sorry and that I'd thought she would enjoy it.  She told me, "You are the one who enjoys exercise!"  Oops!  It took a lot of patience to keep responding to the complaining with positive comments but I somehow managed.  She made sure to ask if our next day together involved exercise and was happy to hear that it doesn't.  I guess I'll keep it a secret that her dad is planning to climb a small mountain with her this summer!  (He says, "It will make a man out of her!  Is that what we're going for?")

before the event, still smiling

It goes to show that you can't choose a perfect activity every time!  (When we got home, she told everyone that she'd had a great time, I guess she'd already forgotten how miserable she was.)  After we were done, we went to eat at a restaurant right next to the beach that was reviewed as having great Greek food.  Anastaya chose gyros, her favorite.  She gave them a thumbs up but decided that the Greek restaurant in Marysville is better.  I must have really tired her out because she fell asleep about five minutes after getting in the car after complaining about the traffic for four and a half minutes and didn't wake up until the car stopped in the driveway.

at least she got to eat her favorite lunch!

2nd week of March

Book of Mormon Party 
We try to have family scripture study every night.  I'd love to be able to say that we do it every night without fail but that would be a lie.  We keep trying, some weeks are better than others.  Sunday night we finished the Book of Mormon.  Dode suggested we celebrate our accomplishment Monday night with ice cream sundaes.  The girls got excited about the party and decorated the dining area with streamers.  We invited Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Lynn to come over and join us.  Elizabeth came up with a great game where we tossed a stuffed pig into a basket which had the name of a key figure from the Book of Mormon on it.  After landing the stuffed pig in the basket, the person told what they remembered about that person.  Then, we enjoyed our ice cream sundaes, followed by a game of Apples to Apples. 

Lynn's cousin Gene Zeller was still in town from Uncle Leo's funeral and he came over with Sharon and Lynn.  It turns out he and Dode served their missions in the same area, separated by 20 years.  It's a small world!  Gene lives in Wyoming and invited us to come visit when we vacation there in June.  He's even willing to pick Dode up at the airport in Billings when Dode flies in to join us for the last half of the vacation, which will save me hours of driving, miles of backtracking and two hotel rooms (We almost always exceed the maximum occupancy in a single room) for the night in Billings.  We are really looking forward to exploring that part of the world Dode's family helped settle years ago, and we're looking forward to picking up some honey candy at Gene's factory.  I'm going to buy a bunch and bring it home for the reunion in July.  Grandma Dickson always had honey candy on hand for grand kids and I thought the next generation should be introduced to the tradition.

Miriam's Birthday

Miriam is six years old!

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Miriam is a joy to have with us.

She loves vacation, but hates traveling

She loves honey and puts it on everything (french fries here)

She loves playing outside

She is fearless

She LOVES "her" Jacob

"Chocolate the Bear" goes everywhere he can with her (at the ski lodge)

She is a spunky girl. 

She comes up with the funniest thoughts about things.

Example:  She was complaining that she was tired of William being mean to her.  I told her he's learning.  She said in disgust, "They teach that at Kent Prairie?!" (his elementary school)

She's a night owl in our early to bed family

She's our little athlete. 

She's got more endurance than her big siblings.

She is absolutely self possessed. 

She has no problem spending the night away from home with grandparents.

She has absolutely no concept that she's just too little to do some things.

She's got a huge spirit packed into a little body.

Happy Birthday Miriam!

Spreading the Green Smoothie Revolution
I've written a few times about how I started drinking green smoothies to use up extra fruit and green leaf vegetables we were getting at the co-op.  It only took a few days of drinking them before I was craving them.  Instead of  day dreaming about the next rich dessert I'd be making, I started dreaming of my next smoothie, what I'd put in it, and how it would taste.  Not only has my nutritional intake improved with the green smoothies, but Dode's has as well.  Is he drinking them?  No way!  But, since I'm making dessert less often, he's eating it less often.  (Although I've noticed an uptake in his ice cream consumption!)  I'm packing a bunch of nutrition in each smoothie.  I've added flax seeds, chia seeds and kefir (made right here) to my smoothie rotation.  I was going through so many greens, I had to start buying an extra case of greens for myself when I put in the produce order.  That left me with a whole bunch of one type of greens.  I wanted to be able to vary what greens I put in my smoothies to get maximum nutrition. 

I put a special green smoothie basket up on the co-op website and figured if four other people bought a basket, we'd get a variety of greens.  Well, it was even more popular than the Italian basket this week. (21 green smoothie baskets vs. 20 Italian baskets.  As an FYI we also got 67 conventional baskets and 16 organic)  It remains to be seen if those people trying it for the first time will order one again, and if those that do re-order spread the word to their friends about how great these smoothies are.  Next week, I'm going down to a free lecture about green smoothies at the University of Washington.  They're advertising free t-shirts (perfect for day camp prizes), recipes, other un-named fun freebies, and chocolate (I don't know how chocolate goes with green smoothies but I'm in!)

Here's a fact sheet I put together to go in the green smoothie baskets:

Green Smoothie Basket

"The whole point with green smoothies is to maximize the greens, to add foods to your diet that you know are good for you but you perhaps rarely eat." -Robyn Openshaw, Green Smoothie Girl


Leslie Moss has been drinking green smoothies for over a year, here are her suggestions. Most of you want to read more and get more information about green smoothies. There are many websites and books out there about green smoothies. My favorites are Robyn Openshaw and Victoria Boutenko. Look them up for many, many different "styles" of smoothies.

Is it another fad diet? Or a passing theory? I can't say, but it can't hurt to eat vegetables that I'd never heard of or tried my 40 + years. Most people who are ordering Mrs. Dickson's fruit and vegetable baskets have confessed to me that they are enjoying the added health of eating better, because they have at their fingertips a wider variety of foods than they'd normally buy. So come on...take those fruit and vegetables and ramp up your health another notch!! The goal of a green smoothie lifestyle is health. Weight loss will come. Mine was very slow. I'm happy to talk about it and my change to gluten free eating. But that's a whole other subject, so email or facebook me. The main idea is to get to 60-80% Raw eating. Green smoothie drinking will help facilitate this. Plus, don't overdo it on the fruits. Your body will become overly acidic, and too many natural sugars will overwork your pancreas. Start out with a ratio of more fruit over vegetables; then slowly switch it to more vegetables over fruit.

To your health,
Leslie Moss

10 Top Reasons you should Drink Green Smoothies:

1. Eat amazing nutritious green foods, you normally don't eat

2. You don't need to add high-fat laden salad dressing to "get it down"

3. You will be living the way God or Nature intended you to eat.

4. A high power blender breaks down walls of cellulose better than your teeth can, making nutrition immediately available

5.You get more live enzymes in blended greens than any other food

6. Smoothies retain all the fiber in the plant, compared to juicing

7. green smoothies are fast to prepare and eat (I actually bring them with me on vacation, frozen)

8.You have a lower impact on the environment

9.They taste good- young and old should enjoy them.

10. They lower your cravings for sugar.

If you’re new to green smoothies, I suggest you start with kale or lettuce. They have a very neutral flavor. When I use spinach, I use less leaves because they have a stronger flavor. With mustard greens, I use even less.

If you make your smoothie and it tastes too much like vegetables, add more fruit.

I like some of the ingredients in the smoothie to be frozen. That makes it nice and cold and thick.

If you put blueberries in your smoothie, your children won’t even know they’re eating “green”!

Kale, Collards, and Mustard Greens can be removed from the stem, placed on a cookie sheet and frozen. Once frozen, crumble them into a freezer bag to store them until you are ready to use them.