11/28-12/4

Feast! (or famine)
Thursday, Miriam had a feast at school the parents were invited to attend.  They'd planned it for the week before Thanksgiving but because we'd cancelled school due to the snow, they had to reschedule.  Miriam was so excited for the feast and really wanted me there.  The teacher had the children make invitations for the parents and Miriam copied what was on the board.  She wrote down "12/10" as the date of the feast.  She doesn't have school that day and I wrote a note to the teacher asking for clarification.  One of the parent volunteers called me two hours before the feast to say she'd found my note and the feast was that day.  I was babysitting Seth and Ellie so they got (had) to go to the feast with me.  Elizabeth and I have piano lessons at the same time the feast was scheduled for but luckily our teacher is flexible and we were able to reschedule.

Miriam made her native american costume

at the feast.  They had lots of healthy choices. 

Miriam ate popcorn.

When we got to the school, I had an suspicion that our feast might be a bit lacking.  There were two long tables set up.  One was richly decorated with personalized place mats at each spot.  There were baskets of rolls, muffins and popcorn.  The other long table where the parents were sitting was totally bare.  The two kindergarten classes came in and sang a few very short songs (maybe three minutes total).  Then, it was time for the feast.  The children found their spots and a few of the parents brought the food around.  Then, we (the invited parents) sat at our sad bare table and watched them eat. 

Our view from the parent table

What a feast!  Later that night Miriam asked me why I hadn't eaten with her.  I told her parents weren't invited to eat, just watch.  She said, "I think it's boring to watch other people eat."  I agree!

A Very Busy Friday and Saturday

My mom paid for Millie and I to go to Crafty Maiden with her this year.  It's a cookie/gift exchange taken to the extreme.  The idea is that everyone makes 12 dozen cookies and 12 hand made items.  You decorate everything to make it blingy and bring it to the event.  I made beveled glass snowflakes and miniature caramel tarts.  I spent Friday making cookies.  12 dozen plus more for sampling!

3 stages of cookies: finished, just with caramel, and empty

Miriam HAD to take my photo

I needed a way to display my snowflakes and came up with the idea to use a trellis.  Dode got home from work and in just under an hour he had to:  eat, build a trellis from scratch, put the cover back on the portable garage (removed due to a wind storm last week) and gather up all our Christmas decor. Then, he was off to the church to help decorate for the Christmas breakfast the next morning.  I've accumulated quite a bit of Christmas decor through after Christmas sales and it was needed for decorating the church.  Once the trellis was complete, I still needed to paint it, find a way to hang the snowflakes, and light it.  I ran to wal-mart and grabbed lights and hangers that had a sticky back.  The paint was dry by the time I got home so I stuck up the hangers and the lights.  Everything looked wonderful.

I'd planned to spend the time between the produce truck getting here and volunteers arriving to get ready for the day (important things like eating breakfast and getting dressed up). When I came down in the morning, all the light hangers had peeled away and my lights were in a big jumble on the table.  The truck was a half hour late (I use the truck arrival as my alarm clock) and the first volunteer a half hour early which left me no time to get ready. Pick up time was from 8:00-8:30. Usually by 8:30, there are 1-2 baskets left. This week there were around 10. I had people who were willing to help me with the clean up but it was still crazy.  I was running around trying to get fancied up while dealing with produce questions, kid questions, and last minute crafty maiden preparation.  

To make things even more fun, our septic tank is having problems and won't pump the liquid into the drain field. The pump tank fills up and just spills into the lawn. We called a company to come service the tank but they are on vacation until next week. In order to not stink out the the produce people, we turned off the water to the house.   Dode had to leave to take Isaac to his robotics competition but before he left, he turned the water back on.  Somehow the urinal got jammed in the running position so I ended up running around the house, trying to finish getting dressed, looking for a screwdriver to turn off the urinal while water is flowing out onto the lawn and people are out there.  Good times!  I finally was ready to leave for my activity just a half hour behind schedule.  Dode had barely finished dropping off  Isaac to his event before the girls started calling to ask where he was so they could go to the ward Christmas breakfast. 

Crafty Maiden

I made it to the Crafty Maiden just a little frazzled.  Dode met me there and helped me get set up.  Since I was late, we were trying to set up while people were trying to sample my cookies and view my display and move around the crowded room.  You walk around looking at what people brought and sampling their cookies for about an hour.  You get to judge every one's hard work.  Then, they serve lunch (a gourmet lunch with tiny portions). 

After lunch, the exchange begins.  Everyone is given a number based on when you registered and they call out numbers in groups.  You have 1 minute to choose something and then your turn is over.  The idea is for you to end up with 12 hand made items and 12 dozen cookies.  My mom had told me that it was a competition and the categories were: best cookie, best artisan, best other, best presentation.  The only category that wins an actual prize is best presentation.  I decided I was going to try for every category so I went all out.  My caramel tarts had homemade caramel with a cooked butter cream frosting.  My snowflakes were time consuming but beautiful.  (Mostly made while listening to General Conference)  My cookies were beautifully packaged and my snowflakes looked great in the trellis.  Now I know that I worked too hard!

You had to go with the theme which this year was "Winter Wonderland".  There were over 100 people at the event and when I got there, I was disappointed to see that a lot of them had brought store bought items.  After all my work, I'd like to be exchanging with someone else who'd worked hard too! 

wearing my winner's apron

Well, I came in 2nd for best presentation.  (So close to the grand prize!  I think I might have won if I hadn't arrived late after many of the ladies had already voted.)  My snowflakes were very popular.  I had one participant come up to me and thank me for making them.  She said she'd used her first three turns to get three snowflakes.  They had a lot of door prizes and almost everyone won something.   I won 5 gallons of paint and an in home color consultation from the Crafty Maiden organizer.  My mom won two vases.

Millie was excited she won a cookie jar as a door prize.

Dode stopped in with Miriam and William part of the way through the day to check on us. 

Miriam stole some cookies from grandma.

First Lego League
It was Isaac's second year participating in the First Lego League robotics competition.  Isaac is part of a team that designs and builds a robot out of legos.  They are notified ahead of time what the competition obstacles will be and they try to navigate their robot through the competition area, earning points for accomplishing various tasks.  This year, Isaac was a programmer who helped design how the robot would behave.  We were very fortunate the competition was held at a high school only about a mile away from the Crafty Maiden.  Dode was able to help me and still see Isaac compete.  Isaac's team ended up coming in 4th.

They all had lab coats.  Their team name is "Duct Tape".

Miriam and William watched the competition along with Dode

after the first round, Isaac's team was in 2nd place

tweaking the program

checking out the robot

everyone earns a medal

Green Smoothies

Although I love the produce co-op because we get a variety of fresh produce, sometimes we get too much of something I really don't care for.  Such was the case with Kale and Spinach.  I went to allrecipes.com to try to find a way to use it.  I was looking for a soup.  What I found was green smoothies.  With 40% green leafies and 60% fruit, you don't even taste the green stuff.  It just turns the smoothie green.  William and I have been sharing one at breakfast each day.  It's a great way to use up some of the fruits we've had around a while.  I actually find myself looking forward to it each morning.

ready to go in the blender

a cup of green goodness

Snow Days

 

Snow! It's been in the forecast for a while and Monday it  finally arrived.  The kids are beyond excited.  Snow!   Miriam and Savannah went right out in it, trying to play in snow that was just dusting the ground.  For once, they actually stayed outside for a longer amount of time than it took to find snow clothes and get them dressed.  After they were cold (it's in the 20's out there), they warmed up in the hot tub.  They enjoyed getting out of the tub and standing in the snow.  It was quite a sight to see the steam coming off their little bodies.

getting towed around on sleds behind the lawn mower

warming up

Dode was released from work early Monday and it's a good thing.  Although it was snowing most of the day, the flakes really started accumulating as he was driving home.  He was driving the pick up since the weathermen had said we had no chance of snow.  It's not very good in the snow and I'm glad he got home before most of the accumulation.  Some people ended up stuck on the freeway for hours trying to get home.

It's pretty nice working for the tribes.  They cancelled work on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the snow but Dode will still get paid for those days.  So, we get an extra long Thanksgiving vacation.  I'd done a child swap with Lisa where I took Savannah and Jared and she took Anastaya and Elizabeth.  I'd been hesitant to do it since the girls would miss school but it ended up that they only missed Monday since school was closed Tuesday and Wednesday due to the weather.  The cousins have had a great time playing together.  Even if they'd missed school, it would have been worth it!

Savannah and Miriam had a very fun time playing together

It's quite cold outside but the kids keep going out and playing.  Isaac and Jared enjoy driving the lawn mower around while pulling the little ones in the sleds behind it.  They also tried some sledding on the hill.  It was really windy as it was snowing and a lot of snow blew right over the hill into the lawn.  So, the hill doesn't quite have enough for good sledding.  But, the lawn mower worked just fine.  William is fascinated by the icicles that are hanging from things.  He calls them his "crystals" and gets quite upset when they melt away in his hands.  As the snow started melting off, the kids went out and made a few snow men.  The snow men are melting away right out of the coats, scarves, and mittens the kids decorated them with.

a perfect treat for a cold day, rich hot chocolate and moist yam cake

Dode and I got to go out and deliver newspapers in the 17 degree weather.  We drove over to where our route begins and discovered the window of the van was frozen in the closed position.  That makes it a bit difficult to throw papers!  Dode had to work at it for quite some time before he was able to get it to open.  The heater in our van doesn't work very well.  It's our 3rd mini van by the same manufacturer and they all have had wimpy heaters.  We were bundled up in thick coats, hats, and gloves and managed to stay warm.  We had the road to ourselves as one of the few brave (or foolish) enough to venture out.

We're toasty warm inside with our two wood stoves running but it doesn't do a very good job of reaching upstairs into the bedrooms.  It also doesn't keep us warm all night.  The mornings are pretty cold inside and I worry that Jared and Savannah will tell their parents they never want to stay at Uncle Dode's again in the winter because it's so cold in the house.  The master bedroom door is closed all day so it stays the coldest.  I brought the thermometer upstairs and it showed our bedroom at 53 degrees.  We have three thick blankets on the bed and stay warm all night.  It makes exercising quite comfortable, no need for a fan!  (But it's pretty cold getting dressed after taking a shower!)

I bought a case of pie pumpkins and have been roasting them and turning them into pumpkin puree for the freezer.  We aren't above a little child labor around here!

The girls had a fun time taking turns cranking the handle and pushing down the pumpkins

11/14-11/20

Monday
Monday we had a big storm and the portable garage survived.  Dode ended up getting out of bed and using tie down straps to attach the garage to the mini van.  That thing was not going anywhere!   The storm really revealed the different personalities of the children.  There was lots of lightening and thunder.  Elizabeth found a blanket and snuggled up next to me for the rest of the evening.  She was worried.  Miriam just asked that the curtains be closed so she could not see the lightening (out of sight - out of mind).

Tuesday 
The young women had a mother/daughter activity so Anastaya and I spent our evening at the church.  One of the gardeners from the Seattle Temple came and talked about how they design and maintain the landscaping.  I'm usually delivering newspapers during that time but Dode and Isaac ended up taking that on.


Wednesday
Our 15th anniversary.

There wasn't much "home" in the schooling today.  I started the day bright (actually dark) and early leaving at 5:30 for newspaper delivery with Isaac.  I have to say, delivering the newspapers with power steering is a whole new experience!  The van is so responsive now!  After newspapers, it was rush rush rush, get everyone ready for the day.  William missed his bus with a last minute potty stop so I had to drop him off at school before taking Elizabeth and Isaac up for their first speech therapy appointment.  Leaving the appointment, already late for their first class at SVS, we drove across town to Stillaguamish Valley School.  We left school at lunch time to come home and eat (we had run out of time to pack lunches in the morning), stopped off the library, and went back up to the school for another class.  During class, I met with the IEP team to go over the goals for Elizabeth's speech therapy.  Then, already late, we picked up Anastaya at the library and I took her and Isaac to piano.  Elizabeth and I finished delivering the newspapers to the vendors in town, I dropped her off at home and was home long enough (10 minutes) for Sheri to call and see if I could babysit (I said yes).  Finally, after picking up the kids from piano, at 4:15 I was home for the day.  Dode and I spent the evening trying to do accounting work for the produce co-op.  He was on one computer trying to get a spreadsheet to sort correctly.  I was on another computer trying to figure out the money end of things.  After struggling with it for hours, Dode finally realized there was a flaw in the program. 

When we'd come home for lunch, I'd complained to Jacob that he was home but hadn't bothered lighting a fire.  The house was 63 degrees.  Well, by the time I got home at 4:00, he had the house up to 82.  It's like walking into a heat wave.  Outside today it's nasty rainy where you can't even walk without stepping in puddles.  It was nice to have a warm house to come home to but I try not to think about how much firewood he went through!

Jacob entertained the little ones with an impromptu puppet show.  He set up the puppet stage, turned two socks into puppets, and did an improv show for them.  They loved it.

Friday

The big news of Friday was Sharon and Lynn getting home from their mission.  The kids were so excited to see them!  Sharon and Lynn got home in the early afternoon and we didn't let them rest much before they were over at our house for dinner.  We had the family that lives in the area over as well (about 25 people for dinner).  We lit up our big heart in the tree to welcome them home.  It was a great night of kids hugging grandma and grandpa over and over.  Isaac missed out because he had a scout camp out. 

Saturday

After helping to get the produce moved from the street to the house (only a couple of tons of food this week), Dode took off to meet Isaac at the camp out.  Dode picked up Jared from Lynn and Sharon's on the way and the two of them hiked in and met up with Isaac.  Isaac's troop was camping at the Bat Caves in Skagit County. It was a cold camp out with a mix of rain and snow.  They spent a few hours exploring the "caves" (it's a large boulder field and the spaces between the boulders form the caves) and hiked to the top of Oyster Dome where they had a commanding view of the San Jaun Islands.  I had the girl cousins over to play.  Then, my Dad and Cheryl came over for dinner.  We haven't seen them in a long time, it was nice to catch up.  Elizabeth sure had a stellar weekend with getting to see both sets of grandparents that she's been missing.

15 years

November 17, 1995

wedding day lunch

our most important wedding guest

15 years ago, Dode and I were sealed in the Seattle Temple.  If feels both like yesterday and forever ago. 

What has changed in 15 years?

We've gone from 1 child to six.

We've lived in three homes, all in Arlington

(an apartment in town over the tanning salon, a farm house off Hwy 530, and our current house)

Dode's held three jobs (Summit Timber, Downing & Assoc., Tulalip Tribes)

We've gone through three Dodge Caravans

Dode has endured me being hospitalized for pregnancy complications (twice), an appendectomy and meningitis.

We've held numerous church callings

We've endured sorrow and have experienced joy

What hasn't changed in 15 years?

We both still fit in our wedding clothes, and even still wear them

We still have my Toyota Pick up, over 200,000 miles and counting

We still stay up way too late at night talking

We still consider that each of us got the better catch

We each still get that jumpy heart feeling when seeing the other unexpectedly

We wouldn't want to take this journey with anyone else