Arrow of Light

Last Friday was a big evening for Christopher. Chris completed his requirements for his "Arrow of Light" and graduated from "Webelos" to the "Boy Scouts". All the dens of the pack gathered to celebrate and they had their "Blue and Gold" banquet. Since it is Lent, this meant salad and cheese pizza for most of us, but it was a wonderful night and everyone enjoyed the meal.

Chris and all the other scouts had uniform inspections and then they moved on to the "Arrow of Light" awards. It was really neat to see and he was beaming with a big smile that we don't see all the time. It was great.

Sarah, Rebekah, Leslie and I were all there to share in Christopher's big night. Rebekah's little friend Joanna was there to see her big brother Devin get his award as well. Of course Rebekah and Joanna had a lot of fun playing during dinner and kept us all entertained with their game of Simon 'sez as you can see here!

Here are some more photos of Chris. He went to his first night of Boy Scouts tonight and I think he is really going to enjoy it.

What's up with the Groundhog?

The groundhog did NOT see his shadow this year! He didn't!
There, I've said it. I should have been able to expect an "early Spring" this year according to this year's Groundhog day prognostication. Well, the Groundhog has blown it so far.

Our Presidents day weekend started out with a beautiful Saturday. It was bright and sunny with a blue sky. We spent time outside and I even washed the Big Green van with the help of some of the kids. Of course that really jinxed it! It got overcast later and Sunday was grey, overcast, and rainy. Monday wasn't much better.

Today didn't look too bad for my ride into Seattle, but Leslie had all kinds of bad weather in her driving day. She had hail and rain with a large number of auto accidents thrown in. I'm just glad that she didn't have any fender benders. I'm taking the train home now and I hope that I won't find hail and locusts waiting for me when I get to my stop.

My hope is that we will eventually get some more sunshine as we are all tired of the rain. I hope everyone else is having a better time than we are!

Like Mother, Like Daughter...

I just had to put this up! Rebekah conked out after a busy day and I just had to take her picture. After looking at the picture I knew I had seen that pose before and had to share...

You know you've lived too long in Seattle when....

...you would put this combination on and you thought that it looked just fine! Doesn't Rebekah look fabulous? I don't remember what prompted her to change, but Leslie and I couldn't stop laughing when she showed us her outfit. The problem is that I could walk around downtown in Seattle and find at least a half a dozen women with similar taste. I just hope that we can repair her fashion sense before it's too late!

I hope that you are all enjoying warmer weather than we have been having. I keep thinking that it will get warmer after all the snow that we've had, but it just isn't happening. We thankfully have had some beautiful clear days, but they have been very cold. All I can say is that the Groundhog had better NOT see his shadow. I don't want any additional winter time!

We did manage to get out last weekend despite all the cold. Christopher needed to get a hike in to help him complete his requirements to get his "Arrow of Light" for scouts and so we all trekked out to "Flaming Geyser State Park". We followed the trail up along the river and found "Bubbling Geyser". It wasn't much to look at. There were just a few bubbles that showed, but it was still neat to see. On the hike back we found a lot of Salmon remains on the river bank area that were left over from the spawning season. Apparently this is normal, but not everyone appreciated the smell!

And Still More Snow...(Updated)

I thought it only rained up here! Last Wednesday we got 6 inches of snow, the kids got another snow day, and I had another day of trying to work from home. I was looking forward to the snow melting and getting back to normal weather. Guess again! Saturday brought more snow. Of course the kids loved it and had more fun sledding down the trails by the house.

The snow melted enough to be able to get out and about by Sunday evening for mass and I was able to get to the office on Monday. By mid day I heard that more snow was on the way and that several more inches were expected. I woke up this morning and immediately looked outside to check. No snow! I felt better and hopped in the shower to get ready for work. By the time I got out of the shower the snow was really coming down. I tried to get into work, but after 2 hours on the bus, I still hadn't made it down to the train station. I turned around and went back home and worked the rest of the day there. The kids all had another snow day and even Leslie's classes were cancelled. At this rate, the kids are going to have so many days to make up from snow days that they aren't going to be ready for summer vacation until July....

More Snow

I haven't asked Leslie if she prayed for snow....But it sure started coming down this evening. Half the kids were ready for bed, but there was no way they were going down without a fight! I let them go out for "15 minutes" and it turned into 2 hours!


Dominic, Christopher and Sarah started out by throwing snowballs of course, and quickly joined some of the other neighborhood kids in dashing about and having fun. It seemed like all of the kids were out playing.



It wasn't too long before Mikey, Rebekah, and Leslie came out to join us. Christopher had a great time pelting Mikey with snow balls. Mikey got even though! Mike made a "snow pie" and chased Christopher down to deliver it. They all helped finish the snow man that we had started earlier. It took awhile, but I finally managed to get everyone back inside for the evening. They finished the evening with some warm drinks and talk of a snow day tomorrow. We'll just have to see what the morning brings....

Christmas Crash (not cash)

You can never tell how these holidays are going to turn out. You can prepare, plan, and try to have everything ready and then life will sometimes throw a curve ball at you. Saturday found us trying to wrap up our preparations for Christmas when Sarah said that she wasn't feeling well. She complained of a sore throat and when we checked her temperature it was 103. Not the best way to be getting ready for Christmas. On top of that, Rebekah's finger was looking infected where she had been biting at her cuticle. I took them both in to urgent care to see a doctor. They confirmed that Sarah has strep throat and Rebekah's finger was infected. They prescribed an anti-biotic and we were on our way.

JJ came home for Christmas Eve, had dinner, and went to church with the family. The kids missed him and were happy to see him. We all got to open a present after Church and they all seemed to enjoy that. We managed to get everyone off to bed at a good time and worked on our "last minute" touches. We went down in the morning to find Dominic and Christopher asleep on the floor in front of the Christmas tree next to their stockings. I guess they were eager! We got everyone up and began the unwrapping. They all enjoyed their gifts and I got busy making our breakfast. Before too long Christopher began complaining that his stomach hurt.

Well, as you can guess, Christopher managed to get strep throat as well. He was throwing up and so Leslie had to get him bundled up and take him in to Seattle Children's Hospital since the ER was about the only option to be seen today. They gave him antibiotics and medicine to keep him from throwing up so that we could be sure he would keep his seizure medication down. While they were away, JJ left to spend the remainder of Christmas with his newly adopted family. We didn't feel like making the big Christmas dinner at this point since one of our big eaters was gone and another one sick. We had chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for Christmas meal, but boy was the preparation a lot simpler. We're hoping to have our Christmas meal a bit later in the week when hopefully everyone is feeling better. Ah, the joys of having a big family! I hope Christmas was wonderful for all of you. It certainly was memorable for us!