This past Friday night, my little Cub Scout den had an overnighter in tents.
A little background Our church is on a hill here. We have a nice sized property. Our actual church building is just south of center in the property. We have a small parking lot to the south and a rather large one to the north. The main road is west. Just behind the south parking lot (to the east) is the house we live in. It is a split level and only the top story is the parsonage. The lower level has a rec. room, the church kitchen, a couple of storage rooms, & a couple of bathrooms. Behind the actual church are a small building with the secretary and pastor's offices and a backyard to the house. Behind the large north parking lot is a playground and a basketball court. To the north of the very large parking lot is a large lot of land covered with grass. This past fall, it was my den's service project for one of the Webelo's pins to make a fire pit ring on the east side of that field. Our purpose was to have it used by both the church and the Scout groups that meet in the building.
So, this past week, our den camped around the fire circle on the grass. It went pretty good. But, it was interesting and had, of course, a few unexpected moments.
The first actually came a couple weeks ago when I found out that my oldest son's troop, which meets on Fridays at the church, would be having a Court of Honor that night. This raised a conflict as my son would be receiving a rank badge and a couple of our leaders were getting special district (area) awards.
No problem - one of our den dads had started a wood craft project last month with the boys - they could finish it while my family went inside to watch the other program. The project was a huge wood shield with a water balloon launcher behind it. The plan was that, after finishing the project, they would test it. Should keep them busy.
Well, the Court of Honor got started quite late, so I didn't get to watch all of it, but the launcher did keep the boys occupied for a while. They did get a lot of running in, which was hopefully going to help them go to sleep faster later on.
Our next activity was to get the fire built and going. Then we roasted some marshmellows - always lots of fun. The only problem I had there was the desire by the boys to, instead of roasting and eating the food product, catch the marshmellow on fire and watch it fall into the flames and burn a gruesome death. I'm afraid the den leader (me) was a bit of a spoil sport on this as this makes a very icky mess in the ashes, and well - what a waste of really yummy marshmellows!
Following the marshmellows, we settled down in chairs around the fire with some cocoa and told stories. Yes, the boys wanted scary ghost stories - no, that spoil sport den leader wouldn't let them. Now in my defense, I have at least 2 boys with more then enough imagination who would not sleep a wink if we got started on scary stories. But, we did tell funny stories and had a fun time.
Finally, it was almost 10 o'clock and time to do the final potty stop (across the basketball court, the playground and backyard, and in the bottom of the house) and climb into sleeping bags and go to sleep. I confess this is where I was most concerned about our event - chatty giggly boys who won't settle down and go to sleep. We had 2 boys with dads who had their own tents. My son slept in a tent with me. Then, there were 2 boys who a sharing a tent next to mine with no adult. They were my concern. Both of them can tend to get a little hyper.
But...everyone went to sleep right away! It was nice. I read for a bit and turned my flashlight off between 11 & 11:30. Then, as I'm praying, the weight of having those 2 boys in the tent next to me being my responsibility kind of settled on me. I was quite thankful they had behaved well about going to bed and to sleep. I closed my eyes and dosed off.
Now, remember that weight of responsibility? This makes one sleep a bit lighter with ears perked a bit to any unusual sounds. At around midnight, I awoke to the sound of a zipper. I had the impression someone had left a tent and walked toward the house. I didn't jump up and look out to see who it was, as if it was one of the dads, that would be a tad embarrassing, but instead, waited. And waited. After about 15 mintues, I looked out my flap toward the house.
Sidenote: my oldest son, after his own troop meeting had a couple of buddies over to spend the night. As a treat, Dad let them sleep downstairs on couches in the rec. room and watch a movie til late.
So, I peek out toward the house and see a) through the downstairs picture window, my son and his friends are still watching a move and b) through the very small window, the light in the boy's bathroom is on. Well, I'll just keep waiting. I mean, it could be a dad who is having some library time or something and I sure don't want to go investigate that. I also have doubts about what woke me. I've been known to have dreams that seem realistic in the past or I could have heard somebody going back into their tent.
Finally, around 1:00, (no, don't ask why I waited that long. When you're really tired, you don't think clearly) I take a last look and see that though the t.v. is turned off in the rec. room, the light is still on. This irritates me a bit as my son has a baseball game on Saturday, and he does need some sleep. The bathroom light is also still on. (Big sigh) My looking out the flap at this time awakens my son in the tent with me. He announces that he now needs to use the restroom - just the excuse I need to go investigate.
We march to the house and I find that I indeed having been dreaming about tent zippers and nobody from our camping group is in the house. While my camping boy is doing his thing, I invetigate the rec room and find that both my other boy's friends are sound asleep and he is just laying on a couch with the light on. I don't know why he has left the light on, but I promptly turn it off, kiss him goodnight once again and tell him to please get some sleep. My other son is finished with his business and we proceed back to our tents where all is quiet. My boy goes right back to sleep and I scold myself for being so anxious and drift back off to sleep....
only to hear again a zipper. This time it is accompanied by the sounds of rummaging though a back pack. So, I peek out and sure enough, one of the boys next door is poking his upper body out of their tent going through his back pack. I ask him - F, what are you doing?
"Looking for something."
"Do you need some help?"
"No"
"What are you looking for?"
"Just something."
So, I wait - every few moments he looks up to see if I'm still watching. Just as I'm about to climb out and ascertain what he needs, he finds it and crawls back into his tent. He quiets down pretty quickly. I look at my time piece and see it is 2:00. I lay down once again, thankfully sleep comes quickly again...
and wake yet again. This time it is not a zipper, but rather the sound of a sleeping bag outside. I poke my head out and there is F again. Only this time he is fully clothed and rolling up his sleeping bag outside his tent.
"F, what are you doing?"
He looks up quite startled.
"Oh, I'm wide awake, so I thought I'd sit out here and read for awhile."
"Um, F, it is only about 2:30 in the morning. I really want you to get back in your tent and try to go back to sleep."
This shocks him.
"It's only 2:30??"
Yes, I assure him - so, back he goes into his tent. I look and see it is actually 2:50 in the morning. This time he does not settle down right away and I hear him and his sleeping bag moving about for quite sometime. As I'm once again about to get up and go investigate, he finally quiets down. I found out the next morning that one of the other dads did wake up during this incident. Neither of us know how the other boy in the tent slept through it all. :)
This time, I am able to go to sleep for a longer period of time. Right up to 5:30 when I awaken to someone walking around my tent. I pop open that flap again and find - the other boy, A, with a walking stick from the next tent. I do know he is an early riser typically and he confirms this and lets me know he is just marching around the camp site to get his exercise. I understand, I tell him, but since it is so early for the rest of us, could he please read book in his tent for a while? Yes, he happily agrees and scrambles back in.
I can get a good hour in, I tell my self as I snuggle back in my bag. I close my eyes....
"Mom! Mom!" my son is shaking me awake a bit paniked. As I look up at him, he points by my head where a spider is crawling along the wall. With a sigh, I grab a bandage of some sort from the 1st aid kit, stick the spider, wrap it, and set it firmly under one of my shoes. It is 6:00.
I did get to sleep another hour. When I awoke at 7, I gave it up. Originally, we were going to be adventurous and cook pancakes on a camp stove - you know, 1 at a time. But, I'm too tired and I'm feeling a bit crabby, so I go home, get my electric griddle and make them in the fellowship hall. While I'm doing this, A's dad arrives and bless his heart, he brings us all Starbucks coffee. Another dad doesn't like coffee, so I ended up with 2 lattes. Yes, I needed them!
After breakfast, we packed everything up and won't meet again til next fall. I'm glad we did it, and I certainly could have had worse problems. I don't know that we'll do it again. Well, if we do, I think I'll insist on a parent for each boy - then I'll only have to deal with my own observant kiddo and spiders. :)
Wow! It's June! When I was a school teacher before having children, October and June were the longest months of the year as they had no holidays or days off. (Well, o.k. there's Memorial Day, but it is at the tail end of May and all the kids have nice weather fever.) Anyway, each year, these months now get shorter and swifter. Where does the time go?
Baseball is now in city tournament play. Both boys play today. Unfortunately, both their 2nd games occur during church time. Grrrrrrr So, they will each miss half of those games. I love baseball and always enjoy the season, but I confess, I'm always ready for the season to wind down each year as well.
In school, we have 2 more weeks of Spelling and penmanship. Then we'll be down to Language, History and some Science to do over the summer.
Our church has put up a new sign. We had a very nice carved wood one, but it had no lighting and the times were out of date. This one is lit and you can change the wording on the sign. It has opened up several conversations for me so far. This is good. I've been asking the Lord to help me have a 'religious' talk with many people lately, especially in the baseball circle, and the sign has been just the thing. I've discovered a lot more church goers then I realized. But, I've also been able to put out a few invitations to join us as well.
I think that's it for now. I had some 'deep thoughts' to blog about, but I'll wait til a shorter post.
Aha, I'm a night early this week. ;) It has been a busy one, but not like some of the last few. Mother's Day was nice and quiet. Nothing extroardinary, but it was nice. 3 of my four kids went out of their way to make me homemade cards. That was sweet.
Monday night, my oldest had a game and we won by 1 point. It was 16 - 15, quite exciting as our umpire was a bit rough around the edges. But it was nice to finally have another win under our belt.
Tuesday evening was a glorious evening off. We just played it quiet though my dh had to umpire a game and #2 son went with him. I let the kids at home have some extra t.v./video time just to relax and do nothing.
Wednesday, AWANA was royalty night. Our local public school had an art demonstration by the students, so attendance was down, but it was a good evening. Only 2 more weeks of AWANA left. Next week we have a hike to a local park and then awards night the following week.
Tonight, was another night with no obligations. Yay! We got spelling studied and had some play time with Daddy.
Hmmm...I think I may, not sure, but possibly be getting tired of baseball. But, then again, it is near the end of the season and the businessness catches up to us a bit.
Well, today was a triple header for me.
Baseball that is. I keep score for both my boy's teams and was on the schedule today.
A couple of weeks ago, my oldest boy's game was rained out in the middle of the game. We had a scheduled game agains the same team today, so the managers agreed to come 2 hours before the regularly scheduled game and finish the previous game. We won the first game, and they won the second.
Immediately following that, #2 son had a game. They were victorious as well. Both my boys pitched in the winning games and did well, so I was a proud mama. :0)
It was a long day though and for once, I was tired of baseball when I got home mid-afternoon.
My dh got a new toy last week. Our sweet folks in our church agreed to buy a laptop computer for the pastor to use both in ministry and for personal reasons. He's had a lot of fun playing with it and all the neat things it can do. He was tickled to be able to download the slide show from last Sunday's message and take it with him to 2 gals who were unable to attend church for illness and hip surgery, and show them the service, including the sermon. Tomorrow, he is hooking it up to the house system and showing a couple of short videos that the regular computer is unable to play. He had to show me how it works tonight and it was fun to watch him play.
Well, that's enough for a full day.
Happy Mother's Day, everyone!
Oh, and may I interject here.....if your pastor's wife is a mom - give her an extra hug. I know a few who could really use it. 
This week we had much less baseball. (yes!) My oldest had a game Monday night, which they tied. And #2 had a game on Wednesday, which we left early from for AWANA. Thursday evening, we had.....nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was my first night to stay at home all evening in 2 weeks. It was so nice. I did....nothing. Well, that's not true; I bopped around on my computer a bunch and played a game or too.
Today, the kids went to the dentist. I'll confess that I hadn't taken the 2 youngest yet. My daughter had a bit of fear about the whole ordeal, but everything went just fine. No cavities (yay!). The older boys are getting sealents next Tuesday and the dentist again reminded us that Craig needs braces. I think he finally convinced Dad that the sooner we start the better. We've been reluctant until now, not just for $$$ reasons (though that is a biggie), but because I had the whole works when I was in 4th grade for several years and now my lower teeth have moved back. We want our son's to stay put when the whole process is over. The dentist said - do it - so this summer we will be comparing orthodontists and starting the metal mouth smile. Poor guy.
Adam and I had a den meeting this past Tuesday. We went over the 10 essentials. Funny how this little list is emphasized over and over to be known by Webelos for Boy Scouts, BUT IT"S NOT IN THEIR BOOK ANYWHERE! Hmmmm. We have decided to do our first campout as a den the 2nd Friday in June. This will definitely be interesting. Our church is blessed with a nice open lawn and we've put a fire pit at one end of it. Our den will pitch tents around the pit.
Tomorrow, we do have back to back games. But, hey - what are Saturdays for if not baseball, right? ;)
OK - I'm a bit tired and punchy tonight - I need to go to bed.
Well, today turned out to be an awesome day! A friend from a bit south of us offered to treat us to the zoo. We went to the Woodland Park zoo and had a great time. She has boys my boy's ages and she brought another friend who has a little girl just my daughter's age. We were one big happy group lookin for animals. :)
Tonight, I kept the official score books for my oldest boy's baseball team, even though he is out of town for Scouting. Would you believe they won their first game? Without him? And without another one of their best players who was ill. But, it was really neat for them to finally win one.
So, tonight, we are a sleepy, but happy crew. Hope the weekend continues to be as good.
Another week has gone. That means 5 more games of baseball have been played, 5 days of school, 4 pinewood cars sprused up, 7 loads of laundry (not counting towels) washed, and some really nice days of sunshine enjoyed (finally).
Last Saturday, the boys got to play baseball in the rain. You are not a true baseball person until you have braved the elements to get a game in. 
My #2 boy's team was able to squeeze their game in before the field all went to slush, but not the oldest. We had to quit as a puddle at third base threatened the skills of balance for the third baseman.
I'm glad to say though, that after said games last Saturday, the weather here has been absolutely gorgeous! It's been a bit long in coming this year, but hey, this is the Pacific northwest, so par for the course. #2 son's team played two more games this week, winning one of them. My oldest boy is on a team that, sadly, has not pulled out a win though. Our consolation is that last year he was on a team that won all but 2 games.
For AWANA this week, we had a pinewood car race. The older boys are gracious enough to loan cars to their younger brother and sister. So....my oldest, Craig using last year's car won, and his little 3 yr old brother, Daniel got 4th. Everyone had a great time. I think we only have 4 weeks of AWANA left. It went by fast this year. I just realized I need to get up the nature walk for my Sparkies. Good thing I blog so I can remember these things. 
My oldest is leaving today to go with his Scout troop to the mountains for a Camporee. This is an event where most of the local troops compete in scout skills, such as starting fires, cooking a good meal over it, setting up tents, etc. He's looking forward to it.
We were going to try to go to give him support, but my #2 son, Adam, has the regional pinewood derby race for Scouts tomorrow. (not to be confused with the AWANA one) So, we'll stay in town and root him on. I think my dh is umping for a game somewhere too. Hmmm...I guess we're a bit busy, ya think?
So, on that note, it's off to start my day with my little people. We have spelling and history tests before all the events.
Spunky is giving away a Benz Microscope and Apologia Biology Set this week. Click Here to get the details.
Yes, yes, yes, I know, I know, I know - I'm way behind in blogging. I'm not making any excuses though because they will just sound lame - I think the best thing to do would be to jump right back into it.
First off.....I've been tagged by my friend Youngwife. Sorry, dear, but I've all ready done this tag. 
I think it is even near the bottom of this 1st page at this point in time. So, you'll find all my answers there though I can now add The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe to the movies list.
So....since the 18th, its been baseball, baseball, and yes more baseball about 3 nights out of the week. This gets hectic and sometimes an irritant being so busy, but we love it and it is only for a season. We've had more then our share of rainouts this year, especially on Saturdays, which actually haven't bothered me as I suddenly have a free day.
This morning, the boys teams are having their pictures done and as the weather has been fabulous this week, even though it is cloudy, it will be off to the ballpark this afternoon.
Speaking of fabulous weather, this past week, my daughter and I planted some shade flower seeds in our flower bed. My little gal just loved doing that. She has her own little 'junior' gardening tool set and had a blast using them. We then made a 'stone' to put in the bed for decoration.
My oldest son, 11, also learned the manly job of mowing the lawn this week. We had tried last summer, but the mower and our uneven front lawn were still a tad too big for him. This time, he did great! And he's in that mode where the job makes him feel big and important, so it is not a drudgery. I'll take advantage of that as lon as possible. 
Scouting is going well. My den which is #2 son's group is ahead of our requirements for the Arrow of Light which is a great feeling. Next month we are planning an overnighter on the churches' lawn. That will be an interesting experience. I still have a couple of boys in the den who haven't figured out when it is time to settle down and stop being silly. 
My oldest is now the assistant patrol leader for his patrol. He is quite excited about that. Last night his troop voted 3 boys to receive the Order of the Arrow which is a great honor. They were good boys that were elected too.
And on the subject of honors....my pack surprised me by giving me a Spark Plug award. This is a fun one to receive. It is not a 'big' recognition, but a nice one to receive. It means I put a 'spark' into our unit and the actual reward is a real car spark plug on a ribbon. Like I said, a fun one to receive.
OK that is all I can think of right now. It is off to a day of baseball. Hopefully, boy #1 team will win a game. They haven't won yet, but have been mighty close most of the games. It's just one of those things.
And...hopefully...I'll keep up on my blog better this week.
Well, Monday was an almost normal day here. We got started a bit late as we were out late Sunday night. Daddy took our daughter for a walk which she loves. Both the youngest children adore taking walks with their Dad. I think the older boys would too - but there's school.
My #2 son had a baseball game last night. They didn't do so well. They almost made a come back at the end, but not quite. It was one of those nights. I keep the score for both of our boy's teams. When I got to the park last night, the door to the umpire/scorekeeper's hut shut and wouldn't open. There were three folks inside who couldn't get out and I was trying to get in to get the scoreboard machine for my field. Another umpire came along to assist, but no go. The door knob was broken. Finally, somebody got a big knife from the snack shop and was able to wedge it into the knob to jimmy it open. Heh - we all got a late start.
Tonight my oldest has a game. So far, neither of the boy's teams have won this year. What a strange start. Neither of their teams are bad - and the scores are always close. Just hasn't happened yet.
We've had a lovely Resurrection Day here. Our little musical went well this morning as did the rest of the service with Communion.
After morning service, we had a nice ham dinner with some friends who have no family in the area. And, we let the kids have an Easter egg hunt. 
I must confess, I love watching the kids have a good egg hunt. It is so entertaining! Today, there were 2 eggs left, in plain sight. I could see them - but none of the kids. And, no I don't laugh at my kids, but I certainly give a good chuckle.
Our big news this week (and I can't believe I didn't mention this in my previous blog!?!) is the decision made by our daughter to ask Jesus to be her Savior. She has said 'the prayer' before, but when Daddy would ask her about it, she never understood why it was necessary for her to have a Savior. She just didn't recognize her own sin. As a professor of mine would say - you must get a sinner lost before he can be saved. This time though she understood. One of her older brothers had said to her earlier in the evening - "You need to get saved so you can go to Heaven." It upset her and she accused him of saying she was going to hell. So, we sat down and talked about it, why if she didn't trust Jesus to save her, yes she would - why? because she was born a sinner. She acknowledged that she was indeed a sinner and understood that this is why Jesus needed to die on the cross. Then, on her own, she prayed and told God she was sorry, and asked Jesus to save her. So, there was rejoicing in our house and in Heaven (Luke 15:10) this week.
Happy Easter, all!
It's been a busy week!
Both the boys each got a baseball game in - and unfortunately, both came in 2nd place. But, they are having a good time playing ball - when they can - the rain here has upset more then a few games for Little League. But...welcome to the Northwest.
We've also been practicing a lot for our Easter service coming up. Some of our adults and children are doing a short musical about Christ's death & resurrection. It's a pretty simple one and we are a small group, but I think it will go well.
We had career night at AWANA this week. The only one who dressed up from my family was boy #2, and he was...shock...a baseball player. 
My hubby has also been doing several handiman jobs around the church. He's spackled our foyer ceiling which had water damage, filled in holes in the sheet rock in the fellowship hall, painted over the repair, and filled in holes in the parking lot.
I got to transplant some sunflowers yesterday. My 2 youngest's S.S. teacher gave them as part of an illustration a few weeks back. As we live in the Northwest, there is a constant battle with plants and slugs & snails. Last year, I had planted some sunflowers directly into the ground and said pests ate each and everyone. Grrr. Well, this time, I tried something called Deadline for the young sunflowers. It is a grey tar like substance that you squeeze in a circle around the plant. And...WOAH - there were at least 1/2 a dozen of those slimy critters stranded on the circle having perished while trying to nibble my sunflowers. I hope to win the battle yet.
Tomorrow, we are supposed to have 2 more ballgames, but we'll see if the weather cooperates. Also, my oldest is helping out on an Eagle Scout service project. And, one last practice for Easter - the busy week will culminate in a very busy day.
what decade does your personality live in?
quiz brought to you by lady interference, ltd
They worked most of the morning. After lunch, one ambitious young man decided he would edge our basketball court for us with his dad's gas-powered edger. It was a great idea. I told my oldest that he and I would continue to help him as I appreciated his thoughtfulness. What we didn't know was the grass had actually creeped at least a foot onto the actual court. We spent almost 2 hours edging and removing the grass from one side. I put my foot down then and told the eager beaver (who was petering out as much as I was) that we'd let the rest of the court wait for another day. And, yes, my muscles ache today from scraping grass and moss. But, it was a good day!Well, the sleep over went well. We let the boys watch Zathura after the little ones went to bed. It was an interesting and entertaining move, but won't be taking up permanant residence in our home. A few naughty words and really really bad behavior didn't set well. I'm glad the older boy learned to appreciate his brother, but I don't think any lessons were learned watching older sis.
Now Wednesday, we bought an awesome movie - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. That has always been one of my favorite books in a favorite series, and I really enjoyed the movie. Hollywood, of course, had to mess with some parts, but overall, it was great! We had no AWANA that evening, so we invited kids over to watch the movie.
Thursday, which is Ladies' Bible Study day, saw again, a ton of boys at our place. Since the kids were all out of school for the week, my hubby got to watch 13 boys and 3 girls while we were studying and chatting. What a ratio, eh? My friends were a tad concerned about leaving their boistrous boys with Doug for 2 hrs. But, he took it like a pro and said he was just glad we took the time to meet every week. Isn't he a sweetie? :)
Today was field trip day. We are part of a small local homeschool group that does field trips once a month. Today, they went to the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Now, my older boys have a bit of an appreciation for the finer arts, but they just weren't into this field trip. So, the menfolk went to the Pacific Science Center, while my daughter and I took a lesson in ballet. She (my daughter) loved it! She adores ballet and thought it was great to have a real lesson. After the lesson, they showed us custumes from the Nutcracker and then we got to watch the professional dancers practicing for their upcoming program, Sleeping Beauty.
After our girlie field trip, we joined the boys at the Science Center which is in the same area. There, we saw a demonstration on combustion, played with 3-D displays and watched a 3-D IMAX movie on sea life. That started out hilarious. I spent the first 10 minutes laughing at my 3 year old trying desperately to catch the floating jellyfish right in front of him. It was so cute! However, after the big fish suddenly lunged out to eat the jellyfish, he lost complete interest and curled up in my lap with his pacifier.
Tonight, my oldest had his Scout meeting. They learned how to handle axes safetly. Tomorrow, the troop will be having a service clean up day here at our church. We're hoping they get lots of weeding done. :)
Finally, my friend who had her twins got to go home with her babies today. They are 9 days old, but finally pinking up nicely. I know she is quite quite glad to be back in her own bed tonight.
Well....no horizontal surfaces uncluttered, but I did get a lot of my daughter's floor cleaned up and weeded my front flower bed. And, I started the weekly laundry, so today wasn't a total loss.
My daughter got invited to go play at her little friend's house which completely made her day. She's over there now. When I dropped her off, my friend handed me 2 mochas - one regular and one with english toffee flavoring. Mmmm She asked me to tell her which was better. I definitely rooted for the flavored one. :)
Tonight the older boys are having a sleep over here. 2 more boys for one night. This of course totally made their day. They are saving up their game system time to share with their friends.
My friend's babies in Tacoma are doing better. Her daughter is officially 'released', but the boy is still under blue lights. So, Mama and sister are staying at the hospital til he is released which will hopefully be by Friday. The 2 little ones do not latch or suck well, so my friend is having to pump and bottle feed. If you think of it, please pray for them. My friend is having huge emotional swings (who wouldn't), but overall is doing o.k.
Well, time to get my little guy up from nap. Dad brought home Nathan's hot dogs which were on sale, so we're grillin outside this evening. And it's a beautiful spring day to grill too.
Well, it rained all day Saturday, so no baseball games. Instead, it was a quiet day at home and frankly, we just took it off and relaxed. Grandma and Grandpa went home in the morning.
Yesterday, we started practicing our music for Easter. Yes, my thoughts exactly - 2 weeks til we sing. But, the music is VERY simple and everyone picked up on it easily, so it should be o.k. We practiced again tonight and will meet on Thursday evening as well.
This week is Spring Break around here, so I'm letting the boys have a very light load. Only Spelling and some History. Though we weren't as lazy as Saturday, we had a relaxing day today too.
Tomorrow, I'll try to get some 'spring cleaning' done. We'll see. I really do hate housecleaning! There - I admitted it in public. Some people like to garden, some to do crafts, some keep the house neat & tidy. Unfortunately, I am not the neat & tidy house person. Wish I was. Would make some things so much more positive and simpler, but alas - I hate it. OK. enough whining - I will get something done tomorrow, even if it is to declutter some horizontal surfaces.
Tomorrow my youngest little man turns 3. Those 3 years have flown! So much has happened. I remember when I had my oldest, I couldn't imagine down the road to post 4 children and the youngest turning 3 yrs. old. But, it will happen tomorrow. We celebrated his birthday today as we have 2 baseball games to attend tomorrow. He has had his birthday planned for 2 months. That's right - 2 months ago I mentioned his coming big day and he let me know everything he wanted (expected?). He would have a train cake, balloons, ice cream, & present. He gave me a list of everyone who should be at his birthday, which were the ladies who help take care of him on Sundays and then he announced that we would be taking the green bus to Seattle. Oh ho! Is that so? You see, last Christmas, we took the transit bus into Seattle twice. Once to see the decorations and ride the special Christmas only merry-go-round, and a second time the day after Christmas for sales. Riding the bus was a real adventure for him, so I guess he figured we should do it for his birthday too. So...off to Seattle we went on the bus this morning. We did a bit of shopping, had lunch, and came back home for cake, ice cream, and those presents. The guest list wasn't quite as large as he originally planned, but Grandma and Grandpa were here, so that made it fun.
After the aforementioned birthday party, I left to go down to Tacoma to visit a friend who had twins this past Wednesday. A boy and a girl. The traffic was terrible! But, the end well worth it as they are as cute as can be and it was great to see my friend. These are her 7th & 8th children and her 1st girl. I'm thinking that's going to be one protected sister. The twins are having a bit of a rough start as their bellirubin count is bad. They are both under lights, and the poor little guy is under 3 of them. They are in the ICU and mom comes every few hours to nurse them. Mom and babies are hanging in there. Hopefully the bellirubin count will behave overnight, and they can start unplugging IVs and turning off lights.
So, I'm tired and off to bed. As I said, tomorrow is a double header in baseball. #2 boy's first, then #1's. I'm training gals on keeping the scoreboard.
It would appear I am becoming just that. Hmmm.
So, this week has buzzed by - again. We are definitely keeping busy.
Monday, I had morning tea at a British restaurant with our small band of secret sisters from church. We revealed who we prayed for through the year. It was nice. I had tea and crumpets. 
And I even put cream in my tea too - very British don't you think?
Anyway, Tuesday evening, I went out with a friend for dinner. She is a newly wed who moved here this past summer from Ohio. We had a nice time. It was humorous because my hubby took the kids to the same restaurant to award Adam for a 100% in spelling. We sat at different tables though.
Wednesday AWANA was Bible character night. I had a Joshua, and Esther, and a shepherd from my house. Daddy teased our almost 3 year old about having him be Moses in a basket. But, he came running to me, poor tyke, saying "I don't want to be in a basket! I don't want to be in a basket!"
Thursday mornings Bible study became a nice cup of coffee while chatting because 2 of our gals couldn't make it. With such a small group, I don't like to do a lesson if more then 1 gal misses. When I got home, my dh pointed out that I had been able to 'get out' 3 times this week for what he calls 'girlie time'. It was true, and I certainly enjoyed it, but losing 2 school mornings and 1 late night won't be something I'd want to do all the time.
Friday evenings are now troop nights for my oldest. He is definitely enjoying Boy Scouts. His troop is training for a Leave No Trace Behind outing and test. I'm very impressed with the know-how these boys have here. I discovered that Craig and the other newbies were actually sent out by themselves with map and compass at the last outing. My eyebrows went up quite high when I heard this, but then the ASM smiled at me and assured me that his Eagle son had shadowed them. And...their little rookie band apparently passed up some other more experienced groups - so good for them!
Today, Craig's bb team had their first game of the season. They lost 13 - 11, but made a good showing. Craig got to pitch the last 2 innings and I was proud of him. He did just fine. He doesn't have much power, but he gets the ball over the plate. This means the batters hit it, but the team is good enough to field them, so he ended up only giving away 1 run from a triple. Adam's 1st game is next Saturday.
So, that brings the week up to speed. A week from today my last little one will be turning 3 yrs. old. He all ready has his birthday all planned out. Has for 2 months now. He wants a train cake, candles, balloons, and presents. He told me all the people coming (though I'm afraid the party won't be as big as he thinks) and even what we will be doing - taking the white and green bus to Seattle. 
He remembers this adventure from Christmas time when we took the bus downtown to see the decorations and then a 2nd time for the day after sale at Macys. So, on Friday, we will be making that excursion again, but possibly going to the Science Center instead.
So, til next week....who knows - maybe I'll blog between now and then. ;)
Well, I have a new friend. He is Cboy's next younger brother and my #2 hobbit - Batboy. You can check out his 1st entry. :)
(sigh) Well, I can see I'm slacking off on this blog thing. I honestly don't mean to. I just didn't think of it - and no Olympics as an excuse this time, but plain ole forgetfulness.
So, to catch up....
Our quick trip went smoothly for the most part. My poor dh's presentation wasn't so slick though. Doug has video and digital video & pictures in the presentation. The senior pastor was going to bring his laptop from home and forgot, so they had to use a less powerful computer. It didn't support the digital video. Then, the sound system wouldn't pick up the regular VCR video's sound, so Doug just did a lot of talking. :) I felt sorry for him, but he made it through.
The boys are up to their ears in baseball practice nowadays. My oldest's games start a week from tomorrow and #2 boy's starts April 1. They are enjoying it and doing well.
Another testimony to God's provision - I had written about our blessing in the mail from IRS. Doug commented this week that our Lord was pretty nice to us because the brakes in the van went bad and instead of us having to pray for the funds to fix them, God just provided them ahead of time. So, we had brake repair this week. I'm also very thankful they didn't start making noises on our jaunt over the mountains to my parents.
My aunt and cousins from AZ came up to visit this week for a wedding. I was able to have lunch with them. My oldest cousin family in that family, Laura, is very special to me. When I was wanting to get pregnant with #4, my dh was pretty skeptical. I had told Doug that I did want 1 more, but that I would abide graciously by his decision. Laura told me she would pray for me and Doug and, well, now we have Daniel. He was born on Laura's birthday. She is only about 3 years younger then myself and her greatest dream growing up was to get married and raise a family. She never found 'the guy' and everyone had figured that a family was not God's plans for her. But, it was and she met a really great guy a couple years back and got married at the young age of 34. They just had a little girl 6 months ago, so I got to see her this past Wednesday.
Our ladies' Bible study is going well. Another gal has joined us which has been fun. It always takes up about 3 weeks to get through 1 lesson, but the chit-chat away from kids is good for us. We've been studying gossip the last couple of weeks. I think we'll finish that next Thursday.
Today, Craig, my oldest is going on another Scout over nighter. This one should be a bit warmer. The focus is on orienteering (map & compass). We have him a bit better equipped this time. Tent camping is a tad different then when I was a kid. A lot more 'little' stuff required. Oh well - Craig'll get there. And then we get to start on Adam's equipment.
Well, I think that brings us up to speed. Hopefully I'll do better this coming week.