The Clarkenhovens.....

The next station is......Oak Harbor!!

2010-08-05T18:47:00.000-07:00

One of the big parades that the Middle School marches in each year is the Oak Harbor Parade. I had always hoped that one of my children would play in the Marching Band because I love listening to them!!! My wish was granted!! Here they come around the corner!

This is their leader, Mr. Nelson. He retired at the end of this season. (Too much Katie!!!)
It was so chilly this day that they all had to wear their sweaters!!

Somebody else caught them towards the end of the parade!

At the end of April, my friend Jen was holding a cake decorating class for Moms and I thought it sounded like fun so I gave it a try! Apparently decorating wedding cakes is not in my future!! :o(

Church Performance and Dinner at Auntie Cathy's

2010-08-04T16:29:00.000-07:00

As always, the day after State competition, the Church puts on the Youth performance. This year it was the Singing Tree. I think that Emily makes a very cute tree!

On April 18th, we were invited to a family dinner at Auntie Cathy's house. I was able to get some nice pics!
I ♥love♥ this one of Emily!
OK, Katie's is pretty nice too!
Goofing around with Nana!
I think that Gord gets his picture smiling ability from his Dad!This one turned out really nice too!

Stay tuned! More to come tomorrow!

Bad Blogger Girl!

2010-08-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been doing a very good job of keeping this up lately but for those of you that aren't on Facebook I will make an attempt to update you on the lives of the Clarkenhovens over the last few months!

To find a starting place I need to go all the way back to March/April for Destination Imagination (DI) Season.

After many months of practices, research and hard work Katie & Emily competed at the Regional Competition in Lake Stevens, WA on March 6th.

I tried to consolidate the posts by grouping the pictures!

Emily and her team!

Katie & hers!
And a couple of miscellaneous ones for good measure!

Both teams won so it was on to the State Competition in Wenatchee on March 27th. Katie's team worked hard and did well but unfortunately they did not come in first place.
Emily's team won and are Washington State Champions!

Emily's team was honored by the Mayor of our town on May 17th. Here is Emily accepting her certificate!

Please check back over the next few days and I will do my best to get y'all caught back up!

Family Reunion

2010-04-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had cause to travel for a mini family reunion. My Cousin David, who got married a couple of years ago, was going to come all the way from Japan for a visit. You may remember his wedding pictures here and pictures of his new baby here. My Aunt Louise lives up near Penticton, B.C. and was going to have a dinner for David and his family there.

It was about a 4½ hour ish drive so the girls, my Mom and I hopped in the Van and headed up. We came to an impasse when the GPS said to go one way and the road signs said to go another but we decided to play it safe and follow the road signs. Time wise I think that it was slightly longer but it was the more scenic route and I'm glad that we chose that way. We ended up taking the GPS route on the way back and that was perfect for the drive home!

We stopped along the way to take a picture of my Mom and the girls and one of me and the girls.

This the house that my Aunt rented out for the evening.

My Mom.
This is my cousin David's wife Etsuko. It's pronounced like Let's go without the "L". I shot this picture with Etsuko and their son Kai. They had only arrived the night before and were exhausted from Jet Lag.
My cousin Carolyn, whom I hadn't seen in about 10 years, has two boys named Riley and Cameron. Katie and Emily really enjoyed getting to know their second cousins!

Here's a family picture of David, Etsuko and Kai. I hadn't seen David in about 10 years either!
This is Carolyn's little girl Maria. She was so sweet! I love her hair with the balloon!

This is my other cousin Brian and his girlfriend Nicole.

David & Kai.

Carolyn and her family.

We had such a good time meeting up with friends and family that we hadn't seen in a very long time!!

Rock Climbing

2010-04-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Katie and Emily were invited to a Birthday Party at WWU. It was really cool that they picked something unique to do. The first part of the party was rock climbing and then they went swimming after that. Needless to say my girls slept well that night!

The staff started out by explaining how everything worked.

Then they set them out to give it a try! Katie went first and actually did pretty well.

She made it all the way to the top!

Next was Emily's turn. Do you think she looks a little nervous in this picture?

I think that they did much better after I left and wasn't taking pictures of them!!

Katie complained that her arms hurt for a few days after this!! What a workout!

Katie's Modeling Adventure!

2010-04-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

Upon perusing Facebook one night, I noticed that a local Salon, Blush Me, was looking for some people to have their hair cut and then get their pictures taken by a local photographer, Courtney Price Photography, to show off Meredith's (the owner of Blush Me) hair styling talents.

I inquired as to the ages of the Models that she was looking for and apparently Katie fit the bill. I only got a little nervous when she mentioned that she was going to cut and COLOR Katie's hair. Being the conservative Mom that I am, I asked if the coloring was going to be age appropriate. She assured me that Katie's hair would not be PINK or RED or any other outrageous color. Phew!! It turned out that she had highlighting plans for Katie's hair!

You must admit that the colors below still do look a little scary!

Katie didn't have a whole lot of patience for the foiling step below but we managed to get through it!!! Katie came in for the cut and color about a week before the shoot.

Isn't she beautiful!!
Finally, the foils came off!
Now for the cut!
She chopped lots off!
Here's the final result!

This was a pic that I took after Katie got home from the shoot.

And here's the professional one!

Music Boosters Dessert Concert

2010-03-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year Katie decided to join the Jazz Band. They practice before school and play when then get invited to "Gigs". One of the Fundraisers of the year for the Music Booster Club is a Dessert Concert.

Emily got to hang out with her friend Callie eating candies! Callie was there to watch her brother Calob sing in the Choir.

The gal on the left is Maggie and she is my Co-Leader for the Girl Scout Troop that I lead. She and Theresa head the event every year.

Here's Katie playing her Clarinet!

The Olympics & Curling!

2010-03-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

Our flight was delayed coming in from Vegas by 2 hours the night before so we were pretty tired the next morning. We weren't quite sure how busy it was going to be because we had heard horror stories before we left that it was going to be a mad house so we left pretty early. We actually got there with no trouble at all but at least we weren't panicking about being on time!!!

Gord and the kids posed outside the venue with our Tickets!
We did not carry any bags with us so we were able to enter through the Express Lanes. It was much like entering an Airport. The security was very similar except we didn't have to take our shoes off!!
Here's Emily getting checked in!We were there so early that the stands were all pretty much empty! The workers were kind enough to take pictures of us before the rest of the crowd showed up!
Because we were early, we got to see them prepping everything. This gentleman has a machine that pebbles the ice so that it is not completely smooth.
Then a mini Zamboni clears the ice of any loose particles.Only an hour to go!!
The athletes were bagpiped in.
Gotta love those pants. The Norwegian team was very stylish!The Americans played right in front of us and it was such an exciting match! In some ways we had really good seats. We were in row 2 but at the very end. The American match was right in front of us and as long as they were playing in the circle at our end of the ice it was fantastic but it was really hard to see at the other end.

After a few overtime ends the Americans were victorious and it was very exciting!

Of course a sporting match involving the Americans would not be complete without fans like these!
We loved our Olympic experience and the kids had such a good time so it was all worth it!

See, I really did Zipline!

2010-03-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

While in Vegas, since I had the camera, most of the pictures Ziplining were of Gord but there was a gal in the group that was kind enough to swap pictures with me!

Here I am watching everyone get ready!

This is the starfish position that is used when you are on a very fast run! It creates wind resistance and keeps you from going too fast!
This is the streamline position. There are some runs that aren't quite as fast and this position allows you to go the fastest!
Getting used to the harness!
Making sure the camera is ready!Making sure everything's ready!Time to go!

Here I come!

Almost there!

I made it!!!!

Vegas and Ziplining!

2010-02-21T20:20:00.000-08:00

Gord and I headed to Vegas recently. It was our first trip away together (alone) since before we were married. I've been to Vegas twice before and both time the people I went with were sick so I never made it to Old Vegas! This time we were bound and determined to go. It was a cool experience and I'm glad I went. This is the beginning of Fremont Street.

They have a whole street with a covered screen and they play all sorts of cool things on it. This time it was a dedication to Don McLean's American Pie and was very neat to watch.

And of course, what's Vegas without Elvis!! He apparently has not left the town!

We saw Sponge Bob and couldn't resist a picture with him!

We stayed at The Flamingo and here's the Flamingos to prove it!
On Wednesday I had talked Gord into going Ziplining with me. I've always wanted to try it and it was awesome! The crew were great and we went with a great group of people. I want to try it at Whistler this summer!

This is a picture of the strip from the top of the mountain. You can see the Stratosphere way off to the right of the picture.
Here's a lake that we could see too. We were only about 5 miles away from the Hoover Dam.They got us buckled in all safely!

And then we went! There were 4 different lines with the longest being about a ½ mile long. It took us about 3 hours to complete. It was very exciting!Then here's Gord coming in!
When in doubt, legs out!!!Stayed tuned over the next couple of days for an Olympic Update!

Olympic Pre-Trials

2010-02-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

We had a fantastic day today!! I was starting to get a little nervous since we aren't right up in the mix for the Olympics!! I wanted to make sure that we knew exactly where we were going and have lots of time when we head up for our Olympic Curling event on February 20th!

About a week ago, I got this great idea that we would forego Super Bowl Sunday since Gord was working anyways and go do a trial run for our Olympic day. We decided to invite my Mom along and the kids were game!

We picked my Mom up about 8:00 ish, ish, ish and headed for Richmond to catch the Skytrain to the King Ed station which is closest to our venue.They had these cool colored lights coming out of the light standards along the road!
We found the venue without too much trouble but we realized we had walked the long way around. No problem, it just makes it easier on the day of!! It was such an easy, peasey walk that I'm not sure why I was concerned!
There was plenty of Olympic signage that the kids had fun posing against!

My Olympic Advisor (thank you Auntie Deb!) recommended that after we checked out the venue to hop right back on the Skytrain and take it down to the Olympic Plaza Station and catch the Olympic Bombardier Electric Train to Granville Island. We loved this and were very disappointed to find out that the Train was only on loan from another country and would go away after the Olympics. We had planned to take it again in the summer. :o(

Here's the entry way into Granville Island. I hadn't been here in years!
Of course lots of boats too!
And for my American friends....yes touques do exist!!!
The kids and a beaver!
We found some really cool mittens!
When I found out that the torch was heading through Abbotsford on a day that I wasn't working, I knew that we had to head over to see it too! It was very flukey, we ended up at the perfect spot just moments before it came through and we got an awesome spot! Here comes the escort camper!
Here comes the torch!

It all happened so quickly! All of a sudden it was coming and before we knew it the Torch was back on it's way but it was so exciting to see it. You could feel the energy in the Air and the kids loved seeing it.

What a once in a lifetime experience!!

What an awesome day!

My Mama's Home!

2010-01-15T19:53:00.000-08:00

It's been a long, tough year for my Mom with my Dad's illness and passing. So when my brother called her up and invited her for Christmas she jumped at the chance! My sister-in-law Patricia, my niece Sarah and nephew Christopher live in Germany and my brother works as a civilian in Iraq and then comes home to Germany occasionally to visit.

To sweeten the deal even more, they were going to be spending Christmas in Egypt! This is exactly what my Mom needed!

She left on December 15 and came home today! I headed off to the Airport (YVR) at about 12:00 to pick her up. I got there about a ½ hour early and was able to check on my laptop and see exactly where her flight was! Technology is so cool!!

Here comes my Mom all tanned with a nice new shirt. She looked really good!!

After I dropped her off I headed for the Border! It was really nasty this morning with of lots of rain and wind but the sun made an appearance this afternoon for a beautiful sunset. I took a couple pictures while I was waiting in line!

They've made some fancy changes at the Border in anticipation of the Olympics next month! We now have a super, duper, snazzy electronic sign welcoming us to the United States of America! Our tax dollars at work!

And of course we've got to have fancy signs telling us which lane to line up in!

Christmas Morning & New Years Eve 2009!

2010-01-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

As mentioned, Gord had to work on Christmas Day but he didn't have to leave until 12:30 pm so he got to be home when the girls opened their gifts! Here's a collage of present time!

Since a bunch of the Deputies were working on Christmas Day, Gord asked if I would please make some Pulled Pork for their Dinner that night. Some others were bringing Meatballs and Garlic Mashed Potatoes and other yummy items! So here's a picture of Gord's Christmas dinner!! Apparently the pulled pork went over very well!!!
New Years Eve we did something a little different this year. Cheryl and her family came over and we had a game night! I thought we may play multiple games but apparently Apples to Apples was a hit and we played it for over 3 hours!! It was tons of fun! I think that it looks like Katie is talking a little trash in this picture!!
Check out the two Goofballs in the bottom right corner in this pic!!
And no, that's not Callie's beer in this pic!!
I had a nap this afternoon just in case I was expected to try and stay awake. Believe me, it's a struggle every year!!! The S Family went home before midnight and Gord was tucked in early because he had to work the next day but I did end up making it to midnight and so did the kids! Emily headed straight to bed at about 12:03 and Katie ended up setting off the Alarm but we won't go into that here!!

Happy New Year and I hope 2010 brings Health and Happiness to everyone!!

Christmas Eve Dinner & Outtakes!

2010-01-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

Things were a little different at Christmas around here this year. Firstly, we had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve because Gord had to work on Christmas Day. Secondly, it was very quiet.

This is about the 4th year that we have included Cheryl and her family in our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations and it just wouldn't be the same without them!

This is the first Christmas without my Dad and I definitely missed him at Turkey carving time. Gord does NOT carve the Turkey and the job has therefore always fallen upon me with my Dad's guidance. Terence gave it a try this year for the first time and you can read about it here.

Since my Dad was gone my brother invited my Mom to fly to Germany and spend Christmas with his family. My Mom and Dad have spent many Christmas' with us and I thought it was only fair that we shared her for at least one year!!

She left on December 15th to spend 1 week in Germany and then they left for two weeks in Egypt. They spent Christmas in Egypt and then will fly home to Germany for approximately 1 week and then she will fly home on January 15th. I think that this is exactly what she needed this year!!

We ended the evening with a family picture and I thought it would be fun to post some of the Outtakes from that. Please keep in mind that I was only playing with my camera at this point and they are not meant to look good yet. I am trying really hard to master taking pictures without my flash and it takes me a really long time to try and get the right setting. Usually by this point everyone is getting antsy and I give up and switch to Flash.

The one with the Big Red Blob in the middle is me trying to run for the picture. I had set the self timer on the camera and thought that 2 seconds might possibly be plenty of time. Apparently not!! We switched it to 10 seconds after that!!!!

Still more posts coming!

December Catchup!

2010-01-05T12:00:00.000-08:00

The day after Emily's birthday seemed like the perfect time to put up the Tree. I definitely wasn't feeling Christmas this year and I don't know that I ever did through the season but I figured getting the decorations up was a start!

December 13th was Katie's Christmas Band Concert. It's hard to believe that it was only a year ago that Katie was performing in her very first Concert! She has improved so much and does a very good job.

My Mom came down and joined us for dinner before the concert and then stayed with Emily as we ran to the school for Katie's Winter Conference with her Core teacher. I then ran home to get Emily, my Mom and my camera to take them back to the concert and when I got there I realized that I had left my Card for my camera in the computer!! I was bummed because I was finally sitting in a spot that I could have taken pictures of Katie. She is so short and Clarinets are always in the second row so I never get any pictures!!

I think that this picture makes up for it though! I really like it. It's nice when she wears her hair up out of her face and we can see what a pretty girl she is!

I was able to get a full length shot of her too! You might recognize the dress since both of my girls are pretty much the same size we were able to get lots of use out of this dress this season!
We got my Mom a little gift before she went away on her trip!
My Mom and her grandaughters.
On December 13th I went out with Cheryl on her annual Birthday Extravaganza. We had some lunch, saw Everybody's Fine which was certainly much different than either one of us was expecting and did some shopping. I didn't really get any pictures this day except the one below on my phone camera and apparently it doesn't focus well!!
I dropped her off after our day and we were met by this Crazy Hawaiian who came out to meet us!! Who else would come out in shorts and flip flops in the snow (with a sweat shirt)!!

Some of you may have seen this picture on Facebook but it's too cute not to repeat! Emily got a new coat for winter this year and she wore it when we had that really cold snap with snow. I think that she looks like Nanook of the North!

Maggie and I got this bright idea to take our Troop on a Field Trip to work on some badges over Christmas Break. Apparently it didn't click for either one of us that it was THREE DAYS before Christmas!!! We took them to PetsMart and to the Mall. This is a fantastic group of girls and everything went really smoothly. The crowds at the Mall weren't even that bad.

The upper left picture is of Grace feeding a Grasshopper to an Oscar. She surprised me by jumping in and catching the Grasshopper that had escaped on the floor and didn't bat an eye when it was suggested that she feed it to the fish!

At the Mall we worked on the Differently Abled Patch and the girls tried eating their Dinner with their eyes closed and also walked around the Mall trying to simulate being blind.

More updates to come so keep checking back!!

December Birthdays ~ What was I thinking???

2010-01-03T12:00:00.000-08:00

You'd think after the first December kid I'd plan it out better the second time but apparently not!!

On December 5th my baby turned 11!! Next year she's going to be in Middle School! Ack!!! Traditionally on their birthdays, the girls get to pick where they'd like to go for dinner. Unfortunately this year, Gord had to work so we had a Birthday Lunch instead. Emily picked Red Robin and didn't remember the whole singing routine when it's your Birthday. Her face says it all because she was absolutely mortified!! I also caught a nice one of the sisters actually pretending that they like each other ~ these pictures are far and few between!!

Katie's birthday was December 17th and she turned 13!!!!! A Teenager!!! Double Ack!!!! We went out to dinner at Homestead for her birthday dinner but I didn't take any pictures that night!

The girls had a party in November so that they could celebrate with most of their friends but they also wanted to have a smaller get together with their best buds closer to their actual birthday!

Emily invited Natalia and Katie invited Adri and Whitney. We started out by heading to the Movie Theater and catching The Princess and the Frog. It was cute and the girls really seemed to enjoy it. Adri's mom came and met her at the Theater because she was having her art shown in our home town. The rest of us headed over to Red Robin for some dinner.

We were starved but the girls waited patiently to be called. Whitney is on the left, then Katie, Natalia and Emily.
I love this picture!!
And here's Natalia and Emily!
And of course, we had to put Emily through the Tortures again!!! I'll just say she was not pleased!!!
The girls enjoyed their Sundaes and sufficiently stuffed themselves!!

We decided to head back to the Mall to do some Window Shopping. That of course included trying on some goofy glasses!!!

We then picked up Adri again and it was back to our house for a Sleepover!! And you can't have a Sleepover without giggling girls!!!

What an awesome group of girls and we had a great time!!

Check back in a couple of days for more December Happenings!!

So much for Blogging!!

2010-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

I feel like all of my posts of late have started out the same way!! I haven't Blogged for a bit and I'm not sure exactly why. I think that Facebook is part of it. I have uploaded some pictures there and I was sick for awhile and had absolutely no motivation. I think that December is the first month in a long time that I have not posted anything. I will try and do a better job!

Way back on November 21st Emily's Soccer team had an end of the year party. We traveled way up North to the Matsqui Recreation Center to go swimming. If you've never been there it is an awesome place for the kids to swim. It is a wave pool, it has diving boards and water slides and is just plain fun! I didn't really get any pics inside the pool that worked out because of the lighting but we did stop for dinner at Bob's in Sumas on the way home and I got a couple pics there. This is of Emily, Emily and Abby drinking hot chocolate and there's one of Katie too!

On Thanksgiving Day we started out with a children's program at the Church. Emily had a speaking part and did some singing. They always put on such a nice program and it's fun to watch the kids sing.

Emily's friend, Callie is at the mike on the left and this is a picture of all of the kids that participate.
We then headed home to start dinner. We were fortunate this year that Gord had the day off and we had a much smaller group this year ~ only 15. The kids had fun working on the wishbone a couple of days later!
On November 30th the girls had their Rededication ceremony at Girl Scouts. Here's Emily with her leaders.
Emily got a chance to light the candles as part of the ceremony.
I am very proud of Katie. This year in Girl Scouts she has moved up to Cadettes and they really encourage the Girls to take a more active role in planning and implementing their meetings. This is very hard for some Leaders but Katie is lucky and she has a really good one that is doing a fantastic job of supporting the girls. Katie emceed most of the ceremony by herself and definitely enjoys taking these roles on. As some of you know, Katie is in one troop (Cadettes), Emily is in another (Juniors) and then I lead another troop (Juniors) at a totally different time and place. We also have Brownies and Daisies that meet at the same time and their leaders need assistance so Katie has essentially taken on the task of being a co-leader for the Brownie Troop. She really does a fantastic job!

This takes us to the end of November and I think that I am going to stop there for now and tackle December in a post or two in the next couple of days. I promise!!

The Final, Final Mile!

2009-11-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again for The Final Mile. Emily has participated for three years and unfortunately this is her final year. Each of the three Elementary Schools in our town participate in Marathon Club during the first couple of months of the school year. The kids run around their track at lunch time a couple of times per week making their way up to 25 miles. At this point they are invited to participate in the final 1.2 miles at the track at the local high school. It is a very big deal for the kids and more importantly, it gets them very excited about exercising! You can see Emily's previous two years here and here.

It's hard to believe that only 10 minutes before it was about to start it wasn't even raining. Boy did it start and so did the wind! You'll have to excuse the graininess of my pics as I stayed up in the bleachers and it was so wet that I forgot to check the settings on my camera! Apparently I didn't care at the time!!

Here's the first group coming around the bend.

This is what it looked like off to the side of the bleachers. Don't let it fool you because the bleachers didn't keep us dry!
Our town's fine football team was practicing for a very important playoff game tomorrow night! Go Lions!!!
Here's Emily in the next couple of shots checking in with her card to make sure that she does every lap!

And finally her teacher, Mrs. Lee, giving her her medal! Congratulations Emily! By this point my glasses were so wet that I couldn't even tell if the pic was in focus!!

These are what drowned rats look like!

What we've been up to!

2009-11-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

Once again, its been a bit since I've posted but I had the time to update today!

This year, for the first time, Katie decided that she didn't want to go Trick or Treating and since Gord was working there wouldn't be anybody home to hand out candy, she opted to stay home and do that. She did a great job with the kids and seemed to enjoy it. Emily got invited out for a party first and then to go Trick or Treating with them. Emily's the witch in the purple!
I'm including the next picture, even thought it's not a very good one, since it was the 10,000th picture with my big camera. I got my camera in May 2008 so I've taken 10,000 pics with it since then. I just wish that my 10,000th picture was a much better one!
Katie had her first band concert of the year the other night and they did a really nice job. Unfortunately I never caught a picture of Katie but here's the 7th Grade band as a whole!
I know that it's not the kids' birthday until December but I tried to be proactive this year and think about their birthdays much earlier. Unfortunately it wasn't earlier enough and all of the weekend slots were already taken so we decided to take advantage of no school on Veteran's Day and have their party then. We invited about 27 kids between Katie and Emily and I think that there were about 23 kids that ended up coming. They were a wonderful group of kids and everyone seemed to have a good time!

Gotta love Costco cake!!
I found some funky candles for the cake and they worked out well!
Gord helped me light them.
Katie and Emily blowing out the candles!
Here's the group shot although I discovered after taking it that there were still a couple in the changing room and they had all skidaddled before I could retake the picture!
Last night was Emily's Father Daughter dance for her school. Gord was able to take the night off in order to attend. This was taken right before they left. Emily looks so grown up!
Gord got Emily a very pretty corsage for the night!
Boogieing the night away!

Gord was having a great time!!

This was taken as the night was ending. They both had such a great time!

Here's a picture of Emily with her friends at the dance!

Before I end the post I need to express an area of concern in the neighborhood. Gangs have moved in and I think that they're about to take over the neighborhood. We now have the Scooter Gang! I'm scared ~ how about you??!!

Fun with Fall Leaves

2009-11-04T06:06:00.000-08:00

I went for a really nice walk yesterday on a rare November sunny Northwest day and I decided to come home and get my camera out to take some pics of the girls playing in the leaves!

Last Meet of the Year!

2009-10-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Katie had her last Cross Country meet of the year today. All in all I think she did really well with it and I'm proud of her for trying something new. The top 2 girls all year were from different schools in our town and let me tell you, those 2 young ladies can run!!

Katie may not be the fastest girl in the group but she can definitely kick it in the end when she needs to. You can see her switching into kick it mode in this picture.

Here she is just a little closer.

Almost there Katie! Check out the signature hair!!

This event is hosted by LC and it is called the LC Ice Cream Invitational because they provide everyone with ice cream for the end of the year send off! Katie looks like she thinks it was all worth it!

Here are all of the ribbons from the girls that raced.
These were Katie's official Cross Country pictures.

Clarkenhoven Christmas and more meets!

2009-10-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday (which just happens to coincide with Canadian Thanksgiving) we celebrated the Annual Clark Christmas! I managed to grab a picture of all of the grandkids with Nana and Papa.

Katie & Emily loved their new throws that they got from Auntie Pat along with all sorts of other gifts from other Aunties and Uncles!

Last Thursday was another beautiful fall day and Katie had a Meet out at Nooksack. She shaved more than a minute off of her time to get a Personal Best time for herself.

Unfortunately it's hard to be a Mama cheering and taking pictures at the same time so the next two are all I ended up with. Katie prefers to wear her hair down and I think that they turned out to be cool pictures anyways!

Now, a week later, today's meet was at Cornwall Park in Bellingham. We lucked out with the weather again and it was dry and warm. Katie didn't PB today but she was only 5 seconds longer than last week and this was a more difficult course so I think she did really well anyways!

This picture was near the beginning of the race.
This one isn't focused real well but she was just coming out of the woods and ahead of her friend Morgan.
She's just about to step over the Finish Line. Congratulations Katie!

Mt. Baker Invitational Meet

2009-10-04T16:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! I haven't posted in awhile and now twice in one day!! I'm just so excited that my kids are feeling better. It was a very long haul for Emily. She was sick for 10 days and missed a whole week of school. She has dropped about 10 lbs since she's been sick. She's still going to be weak for a couple of days but I'm so glad for her that she's feeling much better!

Yesterday was the Mt. Baker Invitational Cross Country Meet. This seems to be the big one of the year. It is the only one held on a Saturday and all of the High School Teams compete too. What a wonderful fall day it was. Very cold though!

This is the view as we drove up. You can see the fog still lingering around and the frost on the ground.

This was our team's tent! The Middle School kids are in the lighter green and you can see some darker greens in the background that are the High Schoolers.

This was the start of the race. Again, you can see them running through the fog!

Katie got a great start. She was running off to the side and out of everyone's way.

Unfortunately this didn't turn out to be a great race for Katie. I was told that it was a tough course and coupled with her being sick this week it wasn't mean to be but she took it in great stride and she will get her turn again on Thursday.

Our town took first and second in the Girls' Middle School race. A gal from a Christian School in town took first and a gal from Katie's team took second. They are fantastic athletes! They ran the 1½ miles in 9 minutes and change.

Gord the Graduate!

2009-10-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

On Friday, after spending 4 weeks down at the Academy, it was time for Gord to Graduate! He was just a little nervous here! I am very proud of him!A contingency of people came down from the Sheriff's Office, including Sheriff Bill Elfo (to Gord's right), to present him with his diploma. I've never considered Gord to be a tiny guy but check out the gentleman to Gord's left. Gord is teeny, tiny next to him!!!
Here is Bill Elfo presenting Gord with his Diploma.
I got to pin Gord's badge on his uniform.
The man to the left of Gord in this picture is the other Deputy that went through the Academy at the same time.
Gord and his Mom.

His mom and me!

And that's Gord's sister, Cathy in this picture. The kids weren't able to join us for the ceremony because Emily in particular has been very sick.

I was able to get a picture of Gord smiling when we got home!

Cross Country Meet

2009-10-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Katie was supposed to have run in her very first Cross Country Meet on September 24th but she ended up being sick the day before and was trying to get some rest in order to be able to run well the next day but unfortunately policy states that if you are sick the day before a race you are not able to run in it. Katie was devastated but was able to be there to cheer her team on anyways.

She got her next opportunity for a meet at Peace Arch Park in Blaine on September 29th. It was pouring on the way there and for the start of her race. They provide the kids with really nice warm up pants and coats.

There were 80+ girls at this meet.

I was able to catch her not long after the start and then they headed up towards the Border.

Oh look the sun's coming out!!! Here comes Katie around the bend.

This is the home stretch and I think that she's about to die!!! She ran 1½ miles in 13 minutes and 10 seconds. I'm very proud of her!!!

First Day of School 2009

2009-09-04T16:52:00.000-07:00

We've survived another first day of school! Katie is entering 7th Grade this year and Emily is the big fish in the little pond in 5th Grade! It's hard to believe that when this year is done we will have been at our Elementary School for 8 years. It will be hard to move on as we love and adore everyone there!

Katie has to get up early this year at 6:00 am. She has to be at the bus stop at 6:55 am!! She is looking so grown up in her favorite color of blue!

Here is Miss Emily ~ Pretty in Pink as usual!

I wish that I had her nice skinny legs!!

This is Emily's teacher this year ~ Mrs. Cornelsen.
And last but not least (thanks to Cheryl's picture taking expertise!), here is Gord on his way to school! Cheryl drove Gord to go get his rental car so that he could make his way to his first day of school at the Academy!
Here's to a great time at school for all of the Clarkenhoven's and I'm not the least bit jealous (is that bad?).

August.....phew!

2009-09-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

I apologize! It's been over a month since I've Blogged but due to the events of this month I'm hoping that you'll forgive me! I'm actually going to start out in late July so bear with me.

It is with mixed emotions that I say goodbye to a good friend. We traded in my Car for a new to us Van. My feelings are mixed because I really did like driving my car but I really like the flexibility of the Van. My kids are actually able to each have a friend in the car now!!! The van is a year older than my car but only had 40,000 miles on it which is much less than my car.As many of you know my Dad had been pretty sick over the last year and a half or so. He had been in and out of the hospital many times over this period. This last time he entered the hospital on May 4 and the kids and I were able to get up to visit him about once a week. This picture was taken on July 11th and I like it because my Dad was having a good day and everyone is happy.

Less than a month later, on August 5th, my Dad lost his battle to Diabetes. This is the picture that I used in his Obituary and it was taken on February 15 of this year while my brother was here from Iraq visiting. He was very happy to have been able to see my brother.

Although I am sad that he is gone, I am comforted in the fact that he is at peace and no longer in pain. He had had a few amputations just before he died and battled many infections.

RIP Dad

Now for happier times. The day after my Dad's service we headed up North to Kamloops. A celebration for my Mother and Father-in-law's 50th Wedding Anniversary had been planned long before.

My sister-in-law, Pat, made a trail of rose petals down her stairs leading to.......

The honeymoon suite!!! (or better known as the love shack!!)

Pat and the kids also made some signs for them!Here's the happy couple!!! Gord's Mom and Dad.
We ate so much food that day!! Here's just a sampling of the appetizers!
And the day was not without excitement! Emily had been sitting on my lap and I had shooed her along when her hand hit Auntie Pat's red wine and sent it flying all over this gal's WHITE pants. She was a really great sport and Pat had another pair of white pants for her to wear and she had this pair washed and dried with no stains before she left!!The next week was Fair week! My kids love riding the rides! This was the first year that we actually let them wander a little bit on their own (with mom and dad checking in frequently!)
I think that my kids' favorite ride is the glider! It was getting dark so it was hard to get non-blurry pictures!
I like this one because the lights are starting to sparkle in the dark!I love this one because it shows the motion!!!
Next up was the Typhoon! Here's the kids standing in line waiting.
The Typhoon goes all the way around but both kids braved it and ended up having a good time!Next was the Tornado!I got a couple of cool pics of the Ferris Wheel.
On August 19th, Emily and her friends decided to have a Lemonade stand. I was really impressed when they decided to donate their earnings to the St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Janet's sister works for a bank so she took the proceeds in and had a check made out to the charity and sent it off!!

My Aunt Deb and Uncle Rick (my Dad's brother and sister) helped me out tremendously in the days following my Dad's death and we had a family get together a couple of weekends ago. I like this picture of my Aunt because you can see all of the happenings in her glasses!

My Uncle Rick has a very nice home and has entertained us a couple of times this summer. He has an in ground pool and the kids love coming for a swim!

Finally, this past weekend, my friend Monica invited us to see a movie in an outdoor theatre in White Rock. There were tons of people there and many more behind us in this picture. People just bring their lawn chairs and they block of a city street and play movies during the summer. We saw Mama Mia this time and we had fun singing to the music.

Here's to September!! The kids start school tomorrow and I'm sure that I'll be back soon with some first day of school pictures!

Sleepover Aftermath!

2009-07-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

This is what happens at 6:30 pm when you stay up till 2:00 am at a sleepover (see post below)! She had fallen asleep for about 10 minutes earlier today but got up and felt refreshed after that.

It's OK though because her Daddy's in the other room doing the exact same thing since he didn't get much sleep doing the Ragnar. Good news though Gord's team, All Over the Pace, came 2nd in their Division and 4th place overall. Not too shabby!!

Tidbits and Summer Sleepover Extravaganza!

2009-07-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded pictures off of the camera and I found a couple of old ones so I thought I would add it to this post. The last day of Camp was Wacky Day and this is what Katie wore to Camp!
You might remember when I posted here about my cousin David getting married in Japan last year. Well, David and his wife Etsuko welcomed their first baby this week! His name is Kai. Here's a picture of them in the hospital.
Gord is taking part in the Ragnar Relay again this weekend and Katie is vacationing with her friend Haley in Lincoln City, OR so that left Emily and me at home by ourselves. She decided that it was a good weekend to have a sleepover and me being the ~~crazy~~ fantastic mom that I am agreed to have a 6 girl sleepover!!

Here's the distinguished group! They were not happy with me because they were looking directly into the sun and apparently it was really bright!
After eating and getting settled we headed off to the local swimming pool for some water fun! They wanted to relax in the hot tub before we left!
And of course you must get the silly picture too!
After swimming, we headed back for some banana split/ice cream sundaes!
Then they settled in for Popcorn and an American Girl Movie.

Around 11:00 I shut off the TV and lights and rounded them up for bed! By morning time most of them had ended up sleeping upstairs!

We played a game of greed with gifts that everyone had brought.

We had pancakes, bacon and orange juice for breakfast and then they watched the other movie, Open Season 2. By this time parents were arriving for pick up and I now have a nice quiet house!!

Lacrosse & Camp

2009-07-18T21:32:00.000-07:00

OK, so I lied in my last post. I had good intentions of posting my favorite pictures from Hawaii last year but I guess it just never happened!

Last Saturday was a very busy day. It started off by having to pick up Emily from a Sleepover at 10:00 am. She had just enough time to race home and take a shower.

We then headed up across the Border to Burnaby to visit my father, who is still in the hospital. He was in good spirits and we had a nice visit.

Then it was off to meet my mother-in-law and sister-in-law for lunch in New Westminster. We had Fish 'n Chips as this is my kids' favorite lunch when we are up North.

From there we headed back to Burnaby to watch my nephew Logan play Lacrosse. He and his family were down from Kamloops so Logie could play in a Tournament. We only get to see them a couple of times a year so the kids were excited to see their cousins. Logie is the little guy playing defence in front of the goal.

Here's a rare picture of the girls with their cousin Taylor!

After the game it was off to Vancouver to meet up with some friends for Cheesecake! We hung out for a bit and then we headed back home! Whew!!

This week it was time again for Twilight Camp. My girls have attended this camp every year since Kindergarten. They really look forward to it every year.

This year was a little different for Katie. She took the training and stepped up to be a Program Aide. She assisted the Leaders for a Unit. She was chosen for the Brownie Fairy Unit. I watched as she gave her input and assistance for a couple of weeks leading up to camp and she got lots of compliments for her hard work during camp so I was very proud of her. I must say that she was very tuckered by the end of the week though!

Emily was in a Junior Unit called The Amazing Race and they got to do lots of things around town and even got to take in a viewing of Harry Potter on the very first day at 9:00 am! Em is not a huge Harry fan but she seemed to enjoy the movie. In this Unit they get to spend the night for three nights. Emily came home on Friday night exhausted and extremely happy to see her own bed! She had bug bites galore including 3 on her face :o( but she really seemed to have a great time.

Here's a picture of her Unit and her running to give Gord a hug.

Emily's good friend Kyanna was in her Unit and they had an awesome week together.

Here's a picture of Katie on one of the nights that we picked her up. You can just see it in her face how tired she was.

As you can tell by the t-shirts in the picture of Emily & Kyanna the theme for camp this year was World of Wonders with Hot Air Balloons. Katie sent me the following 2 pictures from her Cell Phone Camera of the Hot Air Balloon that they landed in camp for the girls to see. They even let them get into the basket so they could get a feel of what it would be like.

Guess what I was.......

2009-07-01T21:10:00.001-07:00

......doing one year ago today? I had arrived in Oahu, Hawaii for the very first time! You can read all about our first day in Hawaii here! Just for fun this week, I think that I am going to post my favorite picture from each day of our trip. We had such fun and it will help make me feel like I am there all over again!

We went straight to the beach after checking into our hotel and the girls were beside themselves playing in the ocean for the first time!

Also, I just want to give BIG kudos to Gord as he quit smoking 4 years ago today!! Four Marathons and several races later, what a change he has made in his life since then!

Also, HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

Andrea's Ride!

2009-06-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

Today we headed out early to cheer my friend Andrea on in her ride. She is participating in The Ride to Conquer Cancer which left Surrey, B.C. at 7:00 am this morning and will bike to Seattle, WA with a stopover in Mt. Vernon, WA this evening. We stopped at the Marine Drive Park cheering station in Bellingham.

The girls made a sign for Andrea in the car today. It was a bit cool and windy when we got there this morning but we figured that it was good biking weather ~ not raining and not too hot!Katie decided that honking the horn as the bikers went by was a great way to show support!
Andrea's brother John and her father Bruce showed up to cheer too!

John didn't think it was a good idea for Katie to honk as the bikers went by. She got a little over zealous and he decided to take care of it! She was sitting in the drivers seat and you can see her foot sticking up!!Here comes Andrea!!! We got to the park at 9:00 am this morn and she arrived at about 12:15. Unfortunately there was an 1½ hour wait at the border!!
Andrea has a very cool Cookie Monster Biking Jersey!!

Here's the girls with Andrea!

The girls had picked some flowers for Andrea too and she wanted to take them with her in the back of her Jersey!

There goes Andrea!! I don't think it's too much farther to Seattle Andrea!!

Edited to add: By the time it was time to leave I got into my car and it wouldn't start because of all of the honking and Katie listening to the radio. Thank goodness I found somebody with some jumper cables!!

Good Luck Andrea!!

Gord's Birthday and Girl Scout Bridging

2009-06-15T21:08:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until I got all of the pictures up that I realized that it's totally done in the wrong order since Gord's Birthday was yesterday!

I am still having bunches of troubles with Blogger but I've figured out a way to somewhat get around it so whatever works right now and it would take way too long to redo it!

Tonight was Bridging, Pinning and Bronze Award night.

This is Emily with her Leader Casey, getting her Year Pin. She has been in Girl Scouts for 5 years.
This is Katie with her Leaders Shawna and Lori. Shawna is explaing what Katie did to get her Bronze Award. How she earned it is explained here and here in case you missed it.
This is Shawna presenting Katie with her Bronze Award.
Lori is giving Katie her Year Pin. She has been a Girl Scout for Seven years.
Here is Katie Bridging. I was waiting for my flash to recharge and tried to get a quick picture in so that's why it's blurry!
Yesterday was Gord's 39th Birthday again! I caught him opening a present from Emily that she had made for him at school.

Just in case you were wondering it's a holder for his handcuffs and uniforms and it says Sheriff on it.

We met the S Family along with Judy, Chery's mom and Gord's Mom and Dad at Billy's for dinner to celebrate.

You've got to love the singing and the free Sundae!

The girls amused themselves with some hand games!

Happy Birthday Gord!

Lots of Girl Scouting Activities!

2009-06-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Before I get started on our day of Activities, I wanted to show you the first Rose that came up in our yard. I really enjoy taking pictues of the flowers so you will have to endure, I'm afraid!First off it was swimming at the Bayside Swimming Club. I was surprised to find out that it was an outdoor pool. I had just assumed that it was an indoor pool. Fortunately it was a very nice day out. A little cool at times but overall very nice. Katie had already earned her swimming badge so she got a patch instead but Emily earned her swimming badge today.
An opportunity to get the girls together in a picture! They sharpied (there's that word again!!) numbers on their hands so that they could keep track of who had completed which station.
I really like this picture of Emily!I like the next series of pictures where Emily starts out under water and then makes her way up to the surface.

Of course I then had to take the same series with Katie!

I took this picture to see if you could figure out which one was my daughter. Just look for the one with the whitest legs!!After a couple of hours of swimming we grabbed some lunch and then headed off for some fencing. Katie was really interested in the Fencing during the last Olympics but I didn't even know that we had fencing locally. Then along came a Girl Scout event for fencing and I signed them both up!
The two owners started up by demonstrating the different Fencing teqniques. Here they are showing Sabre Fencing.This is Foil Fencing.

This is épée Fencing.During a break in the fencing, Katie took this picture of Emily and me.
After lots of demonstrating, they finally geared the kids up and let them Fence! Here's Katie in her suit.Here's Emily in the pink shorts. As I was typing this I realized that she reminded me of this!En Garde everyone!
Katie really enjoyed the class and got right into it!
Emily too!
Uh Oh, it looks like Emily might be losing steam!
But she got right back to it in a duel with Katie.
Katie taking a breather.
Here's the instructor using Katie as a guinea pig!

Bird is the Word!

2009-06-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last night, Katie headed out with Maggie and her Mom to Mollywood Parrot Rescue and Sanctuary to finish up her hours to earn her Bronze Award.

Maggie has been volunteering at Mollywood for years and has been kind enough to take Katie with her when she goes.

When I headed out to pick up Katie I brought my camera along so I could capture some pictures of Katie and the birds.

Here is Maggie, Harley and Katie. Betsy is the gal this is hidden just behind Maggie and she and her family operate the Santuary.
Here is a better picture of Harley. Harley is just gorgeous. Unfortunately Harley bites!It was just after this picture that Katie figured out how hard Harley bites!
It was time to feed Harley and they feed him baby food through the syringe that you can see.

I don't remember the name of this bird but as you can see she won't let her feathers grow back. She keeps pulling them out. She has some very pretty orange feathers at the back of her head.This is Rosie (and of course Katie!). Rosie was much happier to see Katie.

This is another bird whose name I don't know. I just love its eyes and pretty yellow feathers.

There are about 270 birds that they care for on a daily basis.

These gals were hanging out on my porch while Katie was waiting for Maggie and I couldn't resist taking their picture!

And finally, on Sunday Gord's parents stopped by after attending a friend's 50th wedding anniversary and I had to take their picture since they were so nicely dressed!
BTW, I wanted to give a shout out to my friend Monica as it's her BIRTHDAY today!!

Glasses and Girl Scouts

2009-06-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

For the last several months Katie has been working on her Bronze Award. This is the highest award that you can earn as a Junior Girl Scout. On Memorial Day, the Girl Scouts of Whatcom County had a dinner to honor the Girl Scouts that were earning their Bronze, Silver or Gold Awards.

This is the cake with the Girl Scout Emblem on it that was made in their honor. You can see the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards down at the bottom of the cake!

These are the girls in Katie's troop that are earning their Bronze Award too.

Katie and the Cake!

Katie being presented a certificate by Carole, the Regional Director for the Northern Counties. You may recognize Lauri's daughter Emily to Katie's right.

On Monday night, the girls in Katie's troop that are earning their Bronze Award had to give a presentation of how they earned their award. One of the major components of earning the award requires a Community Service Project. The next couple of pictures show Katie presenting her Award. Katie did her hours at Mollywood Parrot Rescue and Sanctuary. I have some pictures to share from there but the disk is not co-operating right now so I will have to post those pictures at another time.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Emily was doing a Community Service Project of her own. One of her leaders had a neighbor whose husband had passed away in November and then she had a surgery and couldn't do any yard work so the Troop headed over on their meeting night and did lots of weeding for her. Her leader told me that they worked very hard.

When I was at my Aunt's and Uncle's over the weekend I was enjoying taking pictures of their pretty flowers in their yard. It always gives me a chance to practice my Photography. I can't remember what these are called but I was trying to be more creative with the shots and I did shoot them in full Manual mode!!!
Now, I apologize to the people that have already heard the following story but here it goes anyways!

It has been over 2 weeks since I broke my glasses in TN. They were getting to be in very bad shape but since my eyesight is horrible I had no choice but to stick with them.

I was getting anxious so I called the vision clinic yesterday to find out when my new glasses would be in and after calling the lab, she assured me that they would be in first thing in the morning (today).

I had errands to do for work so I was very exited to stop by on the way and pick up my new glasses. I sat in the chair to get them fitted and the gal proceeded to maneuver the glasses like they normally would so that they would fit your face properly and the arm of the new glasses broke and fell off into her hand. I just about died. I am obviously frustrated but the poor gal felt very bad and after assuring her that I didn't hate her she told me that I should get a new new pair of glasses next week. Ughhhh!!

I had to use an arrow to point out the Magic Tape that she used to temporarily fix it so that I could wear them because we all know that Magic Tape disappears and you can't see it ~ right?!?!

She also gave me the groovy green case for all of my trouble! Woo Hoo!

More Tennessee and Tid Bits

2009-06-01T21:11:00.000-07:00

Most of the following were taken by my purse camera and I just got around to uploading those ones tonight.

This one is of Emily at the Knoxville Airport.Emily and I amused ourselves by taking several self portraits throughout the trip. I don't think you can have enough self portraits!! I think this one was on the first day. As you can see we were a little tired and if you look closely you can see the mishap that I had with my glasses has already happened. And yes! I am still waiting for my new pair to come in!!
I think that this one is on the plane on the way home from Knoxville to Denver.
I think that this one was taken at the Spokane airport waiting to board the plane to Seattle.
And of course, Emily had to get one including her friend that she acquired on the trip!
Fast forward one week later and we set out on a busy Saturday full of plans. We left home at 10:00 and headed out to Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster to visit my Dad who is still in the hospital.

We all have to wear gowns and gloves in order to see him. This is my mom and the girls out in the hallway waiting while a nurse tended to my Dad.Although it is an older hospital, they have fixed it up pretty nicely and he has a really nice view from his room. You can even see the Helipad landing. That is the Patullo Bridge in the background.

Next it was off to a Tea Party at my friend Leanna's house. It was a chance to get together with a bunch of friends that I only get to see a few times a year.

This is my friend Andrea, who loves to quilt!! She's very talented and made this quilt for Leanna or her daughter Adrianna, I'm not sure which. I thought it was very cute!

Andrea is doing a bike ride for Cancer on June 20/21, from Vancouver, B.C. to Seattle, WA, so if you happen to be out on I-5 on Saturday June 20th, give her a wave!!

Here's the bottom of the quilt. I love the panel at the bottom that shows the Panda's behind and she even included a little heart with her initials on it!!

After filling up with lots of yummy food it was off to my Auntie Deb's and Uncle Ken's for dinner. We hadn't seen them for a very long time so it was nice to catch up. These were my favorite pictures from the visit.

A pretty Clematis.

My crazy Amish Uncle! He has way too much fun! I think that he loved his new Ice Cream Bowl that we snagged for him at the DI Garage Sale!

My Aunt, who loves quilting too, is making all sorts of quilting panels using the writing parts from the salvage of the fabric. They make for very colorful designs!! The kids had a great time playing with them and putting them together in all sorts of different ways.

Tennesee, Finally!!

2009-05-31T13:14:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness!! I don't think that I have ever worked so hard to get a post up before!! I was finally able to start it by importing pictures from Picasa to Blogger and then add pictures three at a time for a while and then I would get the error message again so I would try and upload a few single pictures then sometimes 3 at a time and some times 2!! Crazy!!

Well, we've been home for a week now and I think that I might finally be starting to catch up and be rested ~ ya right!! Destination Imagination's Global Finals were a success again for another year. I think that Emily really enjoyed her time and was certainly grateful for the opportunity to see what her sister had been talking about for the past 3 years.

It's been busy at work ~ we received over 230 resumés for a 6 hour afternoon position so it's been plenty of wading through resumés and interviewing. Hopefully I will have my top 5 candidates ready for my Dr. to pick from by the time he gets back on Tuesday!!

Gord is still loving his job and is now on graveyards. I'm not sure about him but I think that I find this shift the most challenging because it's hard as a family to be quiet in the middle of the day while he's sleeping. Even the most simple of tasks seem to make LOTS of noise!

Anyways, on to Tennessee pictures!

Here's Emily and her good friend Kelsey on the first morning that they were there doing some pin talking! The cute little pin bag that Emily is wearing was made by one of her teamate's Grandma! They worked out really well and the girls really liked them.

Pin trading is a big part of Globals. Each State/Team/Country makes up a pin or a series of pins for trading. Every year there are certain pins or a series of pins that are very saught out and the kids will trade up to try and get those pins. It gives the kids some goals and a perfect opportunity to interact with other kids from different parts of the world that they may not have interacted with otherwise.Here you can see the Washington State pins that Emily had for trading on the inside of her bag.
Here are all of her teamate's sporting their new pin bags!
Of course, you have to have the team art picture too!
I rarely have a picture of me with either of the girls so I was happy to get one of me and Emily.
We were having a hard time keeping the girls dry with the fountain around!! They were having a great time though!! We did return later in the week with bathing suits on so that they could get a full dousing!!
This is the view from the girls' dorms by the elevator. They have this huge field set up with lots of sports activities to keep the kids busy!
This is the same view but of the building that they ate alot of their meals at. In the foreground that you cannot see is where the pool is. The girls spent plenty of time at the pool enjoying themselves. It was nice that they didn't have far to walk.
Here's Emily checking out the diving boards!
We had Opening Cermonies on the first full day that we were there. Washington's contingency was quite a bit smaller this year but the pink arrow points to Emily!
The scoreboard did a nice job of welcoming us!
Their Central Challenge was at 8:30 on the Thursday morning. They were either the 3 or 4th team to compete! Here's Emily and her teamate Elizabeth bringing in the Sound Design equipment. Mrs. Roebuck is bringing up the rear!
Emily and Elizabeth geting settled in.
Here they are at the end of their performance. They did a fantastic job and I was really proud of them!
The World's Fair was held in Knoxville, TN in 1982. This was conisidently only 4 years before Vancouver hosted the Fair. The structure below was built for the World's Fair in Knoxville. I prefer to call it the Disco Ball.
This was the very first year that we actually made it up the Ball. I didn't even realize that you could go up in it! There were some pretty views up there!
Next, we made our way over to the Convention Center. Here is where pin trading central takes place! Emily's about to make a great trade!
Emily and Callie were checking out the competition! Emily got a very bad sunburn on her first day there so she had to carry her bag around her waist the whole time!
My darling daughter by the water!
We found a friend!! Quack, Quack!
I asked Emily to try and make the same face as the statue!!
Callie and Emily waiting for mom.
Emily loved the big water "slide" that they had set up for the kids to go through.
Water baby!
Next they had to check in for their instant challenge.
These poor guys spent hours upon hours in the hot sun dancing and singing to the music to entertain the teams waiting to go in for their Instant Challenge.
Here's the team at the TADA wall after their Challenge. They didn't fair quite as well in their Instant Challenge as as their Central Challenge.

Mrs. Roebuck has struck up a great friendship with this gentleman that she met on her first trip here. He arrested her and Mrs. Crane in front of all of the kids the first year they were here but they've been great friends eve since and she looks forward to seeing him every year!

The mom's were feeling like some dessert at 11:00 pm on the way back to our hotel so we checked out the local Sonic! I had never been and was disappointed that the waitress did not deliver our food on rollerskates!

Finally, we made it to Closing Ceremonies. Again, the big arrow points out Emily. We found out that they placed 15th out of about 56 teams. She was very pleased with their standing and had a very good time. Although, I think that we were both ready to head home the next day!

I know, I know.....

2009-05-29T10:20:00.000-07:00

.....you've all seen enough pictures of my Dog(s) but since I can't seem to get a post up about Tennessee I decided to get my camera out and take some pictures.

I took lots of pictures of flowers but I know that y'all (that Southern thing's still hanging with me!) have seen enough of my flower pictures.

I then stalked the kids for awhile hoping that I might catch them doing something cute but apparently not so much. They were too busy playing to pay too much attention to me.

Gord was sleeping.

So, I then turned my camera to my last resort ~ my pig, I mean pug Chewie. He seemed in a really great mood and even posed for me!!

I give up!!

2009-05-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to do a post about Tennessee since I returned on Sunday and have not been able to upload more than 1 picture at a time. Is anyone else having problems too?

I have even tried different Browsers like Explorer and Google Chrome and have the exact same problem on both!!

Frustrating!!!!

Crazy Busy!

2009-05-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

It's almost time for Tennessee!!! It's hard to believe that we leave for Global Finals on Tuesday Morning (early, early 1:30 am!!).

The monthish (new word) since March 30th, when Emily and her team became State Champions for Destination Imagination, has been spent in meetings planning fundraising events to get the girls to TN. This week has been dedicated to actual fundraising events.

Tuesday was the silent auction and the rest of the week was spent getting ready for the garage sale yesterday and today. It was a lot of hours but I think in the end we reached our goal and it will be deemed successful.

In between baking goods for the garage sale last night, I noticed that the two Lilac Trees in my yard were blooming. I absolutely love the color of the one in the first picture and I was scared that I wouldn't get a picture before it was finished so I high-tailed it out with my camera and got a couple of pictures.

The second one is much lighter and almost done but is still very pretty and I like the bokeh in the picture.

We also managed to get in a visit to Build a Bear with my Girl Scout troop this week! you can see Emily in the foreground and Katie in the background!

I also want to send out special thoughts to Cheryl who is having a tough day. She had to put down her second cat in six weeks today and is having a tough time. Sampson will certainly be missed.

Happy Chewie Day!

2009-05-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking that that's what today needs to be renamed because it certainly wasn't about the mama at my house today!

Yesterday as the S Family was leaving we noticed that Chewie was nowhere to be found! We checked in all of the rooms, closets and even the pantry as he's been known to be locked in there before. Not finding him we headed out to look.

Cheryl and I combed the streets until about 11:30 pm and Gord and our neighbor scoured by foot and flashlight. We finally had to give up. We left both porch lights on and the backyard gate open in case he came home in the night.

I woke up about 5:50 am this morn and decided to head out to see if I could find him before people were out and about. I searched every area within a mile radius of our house for about an hour to no avail.

I took a bit of a break and then made up some "LOST" flyers. I headed out to attach them to mailboxes. I was heading home to get a new supply when a lady yelled at me as I hollered "Chewie". I backed the car up and she was the owner of 4 Pugs that we had met before when selling Girl Scout Cookies. They said that somebody had inquired about a lost Pug last night and they kind of gave us a description of where the people lived but we ended up not being able to find them.

I was heading home again when I found the owner of two other Pugs who was able to give me the exact address of the people that had had Chewie. They weren't home but I left a message for them to call me.

It turns out that they had checked with a couple of Pug owners last night and when they didn't find his owner they called the Police who came and got Chewie and sent him to Doggie jail.

I tried several avenues today to try and locate Chewie but after hitting multiple dead ends was resigned to the fact that we were going to have to wait until tomorrow.

About 4:15 the City Police called and asked if we had a missing dog. Gord said that we would be right down to claim him and headed down to pick him up. Apparently we will be billed for the fees! I'm a little nervous to find out what these will be but at the end of the day we are all just happy that he is home safe and sound!

I've included a pic of him ~ he is pretty tuckered this evening after his late night out!

And of course I couldn't resist one of his sister too!

This weekend was the last weekend of soccer. I have mixed emotions about the end of the season. It will certainly free up some time for us but it is always sad because the girls are always just finally starting to gel when the season is over. It was a tough season for Emily's team. They had not won a game heading into the playoffs but they played so much better last weekend but still lost and they finally won a game yesterday and it was so fun to watch them play!

Here's a couple of sequential pictures of Emily playing the ball!

I didn't get very many pics of Katie this weekend but here she is playing starting forward kicking off the ball for the game!

It's been a long weekend!!!

Well, at least nobody bought me flowers!

2009-05-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I must say this has been a very interesting week! It started out with a phone call from Terence asking me what we were doing on Saturday because he wanted to surprise Cheryl for their fifteenth anniversary on Monday. He wanted me to surreptitiously ask her (three days before her anniversary!!!!!) what kind of ring she liked. I just laughed. I then hung up with him and tried to call Jerrie. She ignored me.

Long story short. Cheryl decided that we were going to dinner too late for her and she wasn't going to join us but then she decided that she couldn't live without us and relented. We met her at the restaurant. We had a nice dinner and then headed back to our house.

Terence then surprised her with a cake, plunger and a very nice ring.

If anyone wants to know about the plunger or the title to this post you will have to ask Cheryl yourself. But, if any of you know Cheryl well you will have to take a look at the second to last picture and know that as much as she denies it, it truly must be love.

Ain't it pretty!!

Deputy by Day, Runner by......

2009-05-01T16:06:00.001-07:00

Gord has finished his third full week of his new job and is loving it. He comes home with new stories every day and really likes the people that he works with. I've met a couple of them and they seem very friendly.

I wasn't informed when he took the job that I would have to sew all of his badges on! Fortunately I have tons of experience with all of the Scout badges that I've sewn on over the years.

Normally he takes his uniform off at work so I haven't had too many opportunities to get a picture of him. He wore it home today and it was a beautiful day so I jumped at the chance!

Doesn't he make a handsome Deputy? I even got him to smile ~ sort of!! :o)
Also Gord and Sandy, his friend Ray's wife, were featured in a magazine article about running in our small town. Ray, Gord and Sandy set out one Sunday for a run and Ray took some pictures of them and presented them to the magazine and they published them!
Very exciting for Gord!!

Am I caught up yet?

2009-04-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, it's been a bit since I've posted. I'm not 100% sure why but I guess it doesn't matter since I'm getting around to it now!! :o) That's my theory anyways!

I know that most of you know the story that's about to follow but I think that there are still a couple of people out there that don't know so here it goes....

This goes all the way back to State Competition for Destination Imagination on March 28. Both Katie and Emily's team qualified to compete there.

We headed off on Friday morning and made our usual lunch stop in Leavenworth, WA. It's very pretty and fun place to stop. It's a German themed town and there are tons of stores to explore. The weather was totally different this year. Last year the snow was coming down and this year it was just beautiful!

We got up bright and early on Saturday to catch all of our town's teams compete. Here's Katie's team. They did very well but unfortunately Katie is not Tennessee bound this year. Her team placed fifth. She took it very well and I was proud of her.
Here's Emily's team waiting anxiously for the results.This is Emily and her friend Callie just as they heard their team being announced as.....
FIRST Place!! Here they are getting their Blue Ribbons!And here are the Washington State Champs picture after the Ceremonies! So it's Emily who is bound for Global Finals this year! I am very excited for Emily to have the Tennessee experience too!Now, on to things that have been happening since State. Emily's school puts on a Music Concert every year and we got to go and watch Emily sing some songs and play the Recorder. She looked very pretty in her dress. I ♥LOVE♥ the picture of her in the middle!

Last weekend, like every weekend, we watched some soccer. It was very cold and windy at the fields that day. It was the end of Spring Break and hardly any of Emily's team showed up so they recruited Katie to play too.

She was just the right size for these kids that were 2 years younger!! She played Goalie for a bit and the middle picture shows both Katie and Emily playing together in the same game ~ that never happens!!

Over Spring Break, Gord's sister Cathy was kind enough to offer to watch the girls. I think that she enjoys hanging with them and they certainly enjoy getting spoiled by her! There was only a little drama on the second night, Emily had to end up waking Auntie Cathy up because she (Emily) was throwing up all over the place. I bet Auntie Cathy was really glad that she offered to watch them at that point!!! LOL

Here is a picture that was sent to me after they asked if Uncle Malcolm could show them how to chop wood. Emily kept saying that she really didn't think it was a good idea!
No Katie's were harmed in the taking of this picture!!

We had Easter dinner at my Uncle Wally's and Auntie Adele's. I was playing around with my camera and Katie was having a good time posing for me! Here are the many faces of Katie!!

I tried to take some pictures of their cousin Robbie too but he wouldn't smile nicely for me so Gord decided to get in on the action and make him smile! I'm not quite sure it worked!

I bought some bubbles and Katie was having fun playing with them!
It was so nice on the fields today. It was a bit chilly when the wind came out but most of the time the sun was nice and warm! Almost all of Emily's team showed up today so Emily had to manage without her sister. LOL Katie played really well again. She almost scored a couple of times. Here is one of them where she just missed the corner.Look how red her face got! She was playing hard!I like this one because it shows how her tongue helps her during the game!
The next two are taken one right after the other. She starts to kick it here... and finishes up really high here!She got on her tippy toes for this throw in!I forgot to mention that I totally let a Blogoversary slip by me a few days ago. It's been two years since I've been Blogging!! Hard to believe!

Driving Around

2009-03-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

We headed out for dinner tonight and then just drove around town for a bit. We ended up at the Car Wash. When Emily was a baby she was petrified of the Car Wash but now my kids love going through. They especially love it if it has the colored foam that smells like fruit!

I love the trees that line the Main Street of our town. They're even cool without leaves on them.

We also found the pretty spring flowers that are part of my new header. I'm so excited, this must be proof that Spring really is almost here!!!

We ended up at the school to help out with packing the props and sound design so that we can head across the Pass tomorrow for the State DI Competition on Saturday. Hopefully there's none of that white stuff!!

Good Luck and drive safely everyone!!

It's that time of year again!

2009-03-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Katie had a late soccer game today and she seemed to have a fire lit under her. She was running like crazy all over the field. She assisted on one goal and almost scored a couple of other times.

Emily had DI and a Birthday Party to attend. Apparently Birthday Parties trump Soccer Games so that's what had to give way this time.

Katie never seems to have a hard time taking on the big girls. Here she is trying to wrangle herself way away from #30. So she tripped that big girl and took off!

OK maybe not ~ but she did manage to get herself away from her anyways and take off after the ball!

Music Concert

2009-03-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday night, Katie had her Spring Band Concert. For the last Concert that was held around Christmas time they had to have the 6th Grade Band perform with the 7th & 8th Grade Band because they didn't have enough experience to carry a whole concert by themselves. There was definitely a difference in the talent level between the Grades.

This time the 6th Graders did the whole concert by themselves. They split them into 2 groups and performed 7 songs. They had improved greatly!

Katie is a short Clarinet player. Unfortunately they put short Clarinet Players a row behind tall Flute Players! These were the best pictures that I could get of Katie. At least in the first picture you can get an idea of what her dress looked like. We didn't get home from DI until 5:50 and she had to be at the concert at 6:30 and she still had to eat dinner and get changed so we didn't get a before in the dress picture. In the second picture you can see Katie playing her Clarinet. That is Kelsey in the foreground ~ she has known her since Kindergarten.

Fourteen Years Ago......

2009-03-19T19:02:00.001-07:00

yesterday, Gord and I were married. He was attending school in Cranbrook, B.C. and I called him up with a crazy idea to have an impromptu wedding.

We had planned to get married all along but on September 16, 1995 in a Church in Fort Langley, B.C. The problem was that Gord was living in Canada at the time. Apparently this made it a little difficult to get married and actually live together once married. I kind of thought it was crazy to get married and then not be able to live together.

It seemed that no matter who we talked to, Border Guards included, each person had a different idea on how to legally get married and have Gord move to the US.

I was working at the Crown Plaza Building downtown at the time and we had Immigration Attorneys on my floor. I finally sat down with one of them and asked them to tell me the best way to go about it.

They said that we should get married in the US and then immediately file our paperwork. So I called Gord and he said to set it up for the next weekend and he would make the 10 hour drive home to get married!

I went to the Courthouse, got a Marriage License and arranged for Judge Moynihan to marry us! We only told immediate family and our Attendants, Geza and Monica.

When Gord showed up at the Border and told the Guard that he was heading down to get married he made Gord's Best Man, Geza, swear on his life that he would have Gord back in Canada that day after getting married. Geza fulfilled his duty!

We were hoping that our paperwork would make it in time for "the real wedding"... (to be continued in 6 months)

Here we are, the happy couple right after getting married!!
(yes, I had really big glasses!)

Monica, Me, Gord and Geza

Years of Therapy Should Fix This!!

2009-03-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

There were still cookies that needed to be sold for Katie's Troop so the girls volunteered to go out and sell the remaining cookies. We were at a Big Box store in our local Big City yesterday (it was freezing) and at a local Grocery Store (it snowed) today. I think that we only have about 3 boxes remaining so we're doing really well!

Shawna, Katie's Troop Leader, remembered that she had these costumes and said the girls could wear them if they wanted to. In the first picture Emily is all smiles because she thinks that she is only putting on the costume for the picture.
Here are the backs of them.
And the front. Emily's still smiling!
This is when I informed her that she needed to keep the costume on for the whole time!
Still shooting Daggers at Mom!! I bribed her with Donuts to keep it on the whole time!
Katie, of course, loved wearing the costume. She only got a little red when we saw some kids from her school!
On a different note, we had some really clear skies and a beautiful moon this week. I went out to try and practice with my camera. It didn't turn out too bad.
Here's the moon the next morning. I caught it about 15 minutes too late. It was just going behind our neighbor's house across the street.I wanted to thank everyone for all of the congratulatory emails that we have received for Gord. He is still pretty excited!

His Sunday morning running buddy brought this over for him this morning. He made sure that it was non-alcoholic so the entire family can enjoy it!

Things are looking a little different at our house this year!

2009-03-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Katie has been very involved in Destination Imagination for the past 4 years. She has made it to Global Finals in Knoxville, TN for the past 3 years which is quite the accomplishment. And just in case you haven't heard ~ Katie is a Global Champion ~ LOL!

Emily joined the DI family last year but her team did not make it out of our Regional Competition. I was concerned that she would be upset but she handled it very well.

Both of the girls competed in the Private DI Challenge. Emily in the Elementary level and Katie in the Middle School level.

This year however, Emily's team took First Place in the Regional Competition and that automatically qualified them for a berth at this year's State Competition.

Katie's team took Second Place and it wasn't until a couple of days later that they were informed that they had secured a Wild Card Berth and would also be competing in our State Competition.

State's are only in 2½ weeks on March 28 so stay tuned for the results!

Misc Pics of Emily plus a pic of her team and their Medals

Katie, her team and her Coach, Mr. Davies

Random Shots of the Day ~ Kat as Hannah Montana, Gord judging, Kyanna and CatylerI ♥ this picture of Mrs. Roebuck and Mrs. Crane who are so dedicated to the DI Program in our District

On a side note, last month Emily's school had a Family Math Night and Emily was asked to present a Math Poem with her classmate Andrew in front of the whole audience. For those of you that know Emily well, know that this is totally out of Emily's comfort zone and I was really proud of her for doing it anyways. She was extremely nervous but ended up doing a fantastic job! I forgot my camera that night but was able to find a picture of her and Andrew on the School's website. Check out the size difference between the two!

Guess what I did all day?

2009-03-01T20:34:00.000-08:00

Both of my girls had quotas that they had to meet for each of their Troops. I also had an excess for my Troop that had to be sold, so that meant that I spent most of my Sunday at Safeway selling Girl Scout Cookies. We have an extremely busy week this week with the lead up to Regional competition on Saturday for DI so I wanted to get as many sold today as I could.

Sales were a little slow at times but overall we got the job done! Katie only has a few boxes left to go to make her quota.

I thought that I'd also add this picture. I felt so very sorry for the poor Pansies that were planted with the promise of Spring only to be snowed upon a day or so later!

Memory Problem???

2009-02-26T19:33:00.000-08:00

We got quite a bit of snow yesterday and it was still blowing pretty good when I went to bed last night.

I have to park my car outside right now because I still have quite a few Girl Scout cookies in my garage. I needed something out of the car last night so I put Gord's big ol' rubber boots on with my pajammas and trudged out to the car. The doors were hard to pull open because they had started to freeze shut so I fully expected to have a problem in the morning.

After a two hour delay for the schools this morning, I headed out to start my car so I could head in to work. I had left something in the house so I went back in for it and came back out and tried to open my doors. I tugged really hard on the driver's side a few times to no avail. I decided to try the passenger's side too. Still no luck.

I drug out the extension cord, got the hair dryer from the house and had Emily take a picture of me trying to thaw my door. All of a sudden I had a thought. Had I actually unlocked my doors yet?

Apparently not!! They opened right up once I had unlocked them!!

I can't believe that I just shared this with you. Pretty sad!!

Saturdayish

2009-02-22T13:50:00.000-08:00

Has anyone else been having problems with Blogger? I've been trying to post this since Sunday so I have added a few things since then!

Emily had her last Basketball game on Saturday. I think that she really enjoyed playing and did well at it. Here she is taking the ball up the court.

She has been having DI practices on Saturdays as well and fortunately her games are at the same school as her practices so she was able to slip away from her practice for an hour in order to play her game.

It is crunch time for DI since their Regional Competition is only about a week and a half away ~ Eeek! This is their fearless leader, Mrs. Roebuck! She is the same coach that Katie had the last 3 years.

Katie is now on a Middle School Team with her coach, Mr. Davies. They are both doing the same challenge.
Emily's team this year is all girls. They performed a little for us as we came to pick them up.On Saturday, parents had other plans so our house became Sleepoverville! We made our traditional trek up to the local hot tub and swimming pool. The kids had a great time!

Mallory and Emily were quick to hop into the hot tub outside . I love that you can see the steam rising in the ~~cool~~ COLD air!

Hayley and Katie were smart enough to use the hot tub inside!
I am taking another Photography Class and this weeks assignment was shutter speed so I took my camera to the pool to practice. I really like this picture of Emily jumping in!
Here I was able to freeze the droplets of water as Katie "popped" out of the pool. I missed getting Katie totally in focus but I still like the pic.For many years, our School District has offered Fourth Grade swimming lessons. I think it is a very important part of their learning as some families aren't able to or can't afford swimming lessons and this gets all of the students comfortable in the water.

Due to Budget constraints this program was dropped this year but our local Lion's Club picked up the slack and we were still able to participate in these very important lessons free of charge after school. I snapped this as Emily was showing off what she has learned!Afterwards, we headed back to the house for some much anticipated Sundaes!!

It's that time of year again! On Sunday I got the call to go and pick up my Troop's Girl Scout Cookies.
What was up with this??? I left for work this morning in the rain and come home to this!! I'm pretty sure that we have at least 4 inches now and they are calling for 6 - 8 inches!!

It has been such a nice February too!! Spring is on it's way, right?

New Header!

2009-02-20T19:36:00.000-08:00

See the new header above that I took on the way home from work today! They are so beautiful and it was an equally beautiful day to go along with them!

I have also updated My Photo Blog!

Happenings

2009-02-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, Katie was invited, by her friend Hailey, to attend a play that her Dad was in and then spend the night. The play was The Penultimate Problem of Sherlock Holmes. The play was perfect timing because it fits right into the theme for her DI Challenge this year, Private DI. Sherlock Holmes is one of the characters that they are researching!

Katie and Hailey got their picture taken with Sherlock after the performance.

And here they are with Hailey's Dad.

At school on Friday, they were giving out roses to people that had had flowers purchased for them. The funds raised go to helping out the ASB. Katie was given two flowers. One by a boy who shall remain nameless and the other was from a friend!

Last night we had my brother and my parents over for dinner while my brother is in town. We took this opportunity to take some pictures. My dad is looking much better.

Here's one of just my Mom and Dad.

My Brother is Home!

2009-02-10T19:08:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, my father has been pretty sick and in the hospital so my brother made the decision to fly home from Iraq to see him. He left some time on Sunday afternoon and arrived this afternoon.

It has been quite some time since I've seen him and I didn't even recognize him as he was coming off the plane, hence the blurry picture!

He was a little tired but it was good to see him again.

My Darling Emily!

2009-02-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

Emily had a busy day today. She started out the day with a Destination Imagination practice for an hour and then left for her basketball game. Fortunately the game was at her school and she was able to sneak over to the gym. It's hard to get half decent shots in the gym because of lighting but you can see Emily dribbling the ball in the first shot and playing defense in the second.

Gord and Terence were down South getting training for the upcoming Regional's DI Tournament so Cheryl and Katie joined me in watching Emily's game. Emily's team didn't win but she always has a good time playing.

She then ran back to DI team to get in another couple of hours worth of practice in.

It was such a nice sunny day so I couldn't resist taking a couple of shots of Emily on the front porch. She was squinting into the sun in the first one but I thought that she was awful cute anyways!

We are now off to a Pizza and Movie night at her Girl Scout Leader's house.

Beautiful Road to Work!

2009-02-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

This is the beautiful view that I got on my way to work this morning. It was really pretty yesterday too but I was running late for work so I didn't stop. I kept regretting my decision not to stop!

I was fortunate enough to get another chance this morning. All of these pictures are SOOC (Straight-out-of-Camera). I was going to touch them up a bit with PhotoShop but I decided that they were perfect the way they were!!

Oh Deer!

2009-01-25T21:09:00.000-08:00

OK, I absolutely give up on Blogger! I have been trying to do this post all day and it will not upload my pictures from within Blogger so I did it via Picasa in two posts.

Katie and I attended a Girl Scout event yesterday at WWU and on our way there we pulled over to wait for my friend De Anna and I looked up into the bushes and saw this deer standing there. I quickly put my camera together and as I stepped just a bit closer he jumped out of the bushes towards me!!

It's a little blurry because he scared the crap out of me and low and behold there was another one right behind him. Very cool!!

Happenings....

2009-01-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

I want to give plenty of warning....the rest of this post is not for the faint hearted!!!

Katie and I attended a Chemistry Workshop at WWU yesterday for Girl Scouts. They put on some very cool Science programs. This one was very hands on and the girls loved it!

Below is a collage of the day. Katie was teamed up with her good friend Shannon. They have been friends since Kindergarten and love getting together for GS events.

The book that you can see in one of the pictures had been given to the University in 1951 and it has been well used. I also loved the back of the Chemistry Students T-Shirts.

They fed us well with Pizza afterward and we even got to attend a WWU Girls basketball game after it was over.

Last warning to not go any farther!!!!

Yesterday without warning they thought it would be cool for the kids to see a set of Pig's Lungs that they had gotten into the Lab this past week. They even filled them with air for them. It was actually pretty cool and it didn't even seem gory to me.

But...then next thing I know Katie is right beside me as pale as a ghost and saying that her stomach didn't feel very good!!

We left for a little bit, she had a drink of water and upon hearing that they were going to be mixing chemicals that glowed she was right back in to the mix so to speak!!

Here she is trying to regain her composure!!

Long Time No See!!

2009-01-03T21:42:00.001-08:00

It seems like it's been a bit since I've visited you. With my Project 365 on my Photo Blog all said and done I plan to devote more time to this Blog. Since I visited you last I think it was around Katie's Birthday and it started to snow and snow and snow. I think that the people that wanted a White Christmas need to keep it to themselves next year!! I never thought that I would be hopeful for rain! We just got home and it is continuing to snow.

One Sunday before Christmas Emily performed with her friend Callie and their youth group in a Christmas Play. They had lots of fun practicing and the group put on a very nice performance as usual.

Here is a mini collage that I made of our Christmas. The kids seemed very happy and we spent a relaxing day with a nice reprieve from the falling snow. My parents joined us for lunch and then Cheryl and her family joined us later for Turkey Dinner.
A week later it was already New Year's Eve and like the last few years we have joined Katie's friend Caitlyn at their house to Celebrate. We almost made it to midnight!! Gord was falling asleep on the couch (getting up at 4:45 am does that to you!!) and we left at about 11:15 pm. Gord went to sleep as soon as we got home as did Emily. Katie and I watched Dick on the TV, celebrated New Year's together and then we went to sleep too!! Such party animals!!

Two of the Highlights of the evening were as follows.

Meet Alexa. Alexa is 6 months old.Now meet Tucker. Tucker is 3 weeks older than Alexa and way more mobile. He was a chunk of fudge!!Now Tucker meet Alexa. Alexa looks like she is crying in the picture but they LOVED each other. She is squealing with delight!!Now here are some random pictures from New Year's Eve.Happy 2009 everyone!!

44/100

2008-12-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

This was on my friend Jerrie's Blog and I thought it was fun!!

The things I have done are in BOLD!

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty ~ only saw it from the Staten Island Ferry!!
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon ~ Vicariously through Gord????
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community ~ How about an Amish Uncle???
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance ~ Only as a passenger with my Daughter!!
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing ~ Does Ice Fishing count?
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris ~ Only stood at the foot of it!!
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies ~ I've walked enough of the miles to consider myself part of the seller!!!!
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check ~ accidentally of course!!!
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square ~ Driven by it!!
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House ~ Stood outside of it!!
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating ~ Fish
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury ~ I tried but apparently bringing along my nursing daughter with me wasn't an option!!
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club ~ and I even went to the meeting once!!
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Rode an elephant

What about YOU?

I seem to see a pattern in the above answers. Apparently I've driven (floated) by, stood beside, and stood under many big attractions but have not actually been in/on them!!

Another Baby ~ Another Birthday!

2008-12-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

Today's weather is very appropriate to how it was twelve years ago! I had my oldest daughter right between two snow storms. I worked up until the day I had her and my only concession was that I had a gentleman that lived locally drive me to work because of all of the snow! I was a little nervous driving in the snow and besides that I barely fit behind the wheel!!

Fortunately we were able to make it to the hospital OK and came home with a new baby girl a day later. She was an extremely easy baby and for the most part still pretty easy to this day!! Ask me what it's like next year when we hit the teens though!!

My oldest daughter is smart, wacky, a good friend, LOVES DI, soccer, loves the color Blue, is strong willed and determined and is not scared of anything! I love my Katie!

HAPPY 12th BIRTHDAY KATIE!

Am I Crazy...or What????

2008-12-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those of you that answered or What!!! Before I get to the details of Birthday Celebrations I thought I'd tell you a bit about our weekend. We went out for dinner on Friday night to celebrate Emily's Birthday. She chose one of our local restaurants and she was very pleased with her gifts from us. I got her a pair of capris, a new shirt and a digital watch. The watch was a bit hit! She is now timing everything. I won't even share with you some of the things she is timing!

Yesterday we went in to town for Katie's Indoor Soccer game. She played a really good game (she has gotten so much better!) and even scored but they ended up calling it back (her coach told her he thought it was a goal in his books!) and she even had a breakaway shot on net!

After the game we checked out a photography shop in town and then ended up eating at a very old local restaurant that we used to come down from Canada to eat at when I was a little girl. The old restaurant's floors were settling so bad that half the tables were on an angle. They ended up closing the restaurant for a couple of years but then opened a new one down town and we enjoyed some really good fish and chips there yesterday!

As we were on our way to Costco we got news that our Local team won the State Championship in football and Cheryl's son, Calob came in First Place and won his chess tournament yesterday! Way to go Calob!! Very exciting news all around!!

We then headed on to do some shopping. As we were heading out of Costco I recognized a face from one of the local Blogs that I have happened upon in the last year. She seemed taken aback that I recognized her and asked her if she was from the Baker's Dozen. She has thirteen kids (some natural, some adopted) and it's just interesting reading about the antics of a large family.

We then headed home and were able to put up some of our Christmas decorations. Still lots to go but at least now we've started!

Today was the girls' birthday party! After having missed out on throwing them a party last year (long story) I decided that I would get the award for worst mom of the year if they didn't get one this year!! They voted for having it at the local YMCA pool which has a cool plaything called Pirate's Run. The kids love it!

These plus another dozen and a half are the cupcakes that I made for Emily's class for her Birthday!

Emily making her wish at her Birthday Dinner!

Here's Katie and Emily's Cake for their Birthday Party! Cheryl gets credit for the picture above, for the cake and many others that I didn't post with!

Here's what the Pirate's Run looks like. The kids have a blast going over it again and again and again!

Here's one of Emily making it to the end but the lady got in the way of the picture!!

Katie's going down the slide at the end in this one!

This is a group picture of all of the kids that attended the party plus one more that had to leave early! Yes, that makes 23 kids! That's where the Crazy part of the post title comes in!! LOL

My Baby Hits Double Digits....Gulp!

2008-12-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that just ten short years ago my baby was born. She has grown up quickly. She is very happy go lucky and been a delight to parent. I love that she is quirky and cuddly and smart and very considerate and kind to others and a good friend. I adore my youngest daughter.

She had her teacher conference at school yesterday and ended up with a very good report card. Her teacher is very pleased with her progress (as are her parents!).

I am including a picture of Emily when she was just a couple of months old.

Now my other daughter, Katie, excuse me ~ Caitlin now that we've hit Middle School had her student led conference earlier this week and like her sister did really well. She came home today with the following Certificates. Congratulations ~~Katie~~ Caitlin!

Another Mega Post.....sorry :o(

2008-12-01T15:42:00.000-08:00

Hi all! I'm sorry and I will try to get out of this pattern that I've been in lately of not posting for 2 - 3 weeks and then doing a large post to catch up. It has not been my intention but it has been all that I've had time for so it will just have to do!!

The start of this post takes us all the way back to November 16th!! The day of Leanna's (and baby Adriana's (the "a" is pronounced like the "a" in apple I found out!! The name is Dutch after Wilco's mother) baby shower. The girls and I made our trek up to North Vancouver a little early so that we could make a short stop at Stanley Park. It wasn't raining so it was a great day for this!

We took some pictures in front of the Totem Poles. The girls really enjoyed visiting them!

We also made a stop at the Light House at Brockton Point. We also saw a harbor Vancouver Police Boat which you don't see every day! The last picture is of the girls in front of the Lion's Gate Bridge to North Vancouver. They seemed to have done some road work on it since the last time I drove over it because it used to be ultra narrow and very scary!

Check out all of the yummy food at the shower. It was held at Siu-Imm's house. It was the first time that I had visted her house and it was very nice and cozy. Her kids are getting to be very big too! Erin really seemed to like hanging out with Katie and Emily. It was their turn to be the older girls followed around by younger ones!! :o)

The next night was the girls' Rededication Ceremony at Girl Scouts. They are in different Junior troops plus I lead another Jr. troop so we have lots of Junior activities going on in our house! The first picture is of Katie and her good friend Shannon starting off the evening with a Candle Ceremony. The next is of Emily receiving her patch from her leader.

Thursday was Basketball practice. Emily has decided to give Basketball a try this winter and she has been practicing hard with her team. Here is a shot of her passing the ball to one of her teamates. She is doing really well and seems to enjoy the Bball!

Friday Night was the Final Mile! I posted about it last year. The kids work hard at lunch to complete laps around the school yard equalling 25 miles and then they have a get together on a Friday night to have everyone complete the last 1.2 miles. They get their lap cards completed after each lap and when they're done they receive their medal. Boy was it a nasty night! It was fine when we got there but within 10 minutes the wind had picked up and the rain was blowing sideways!!

This picture shows Emily sporting each of the feet that she's collected at school. Each foot represents a completed card or 5 miles plus you get bonus feet for each subsequent card that you complete. The two big feet at the bottom are the ones that she gets when she completes the 25 miles. The kids wear them with pride!

Here is the starting line. I put an arrow pointing to Emily!

Almost done!!

Her card's done! You can see how hard the wind's blowing!

Here she is with her medal! Well done Emily!!

Thanksgiving! I am very thankful this year to have our health, each of our jobs, a roof over our heads, two awesome kids, a loving husband and lots of family and friends. We were fortunate enough to spend this Thanksgiving with some of these family and friends. Cheryl was nice enough to document the turkey carving for me.

After Thanksgiving the kids went home with Grandma and Grandpa. It gave Gord and I three whole days to ourselves! What a luxury. We did a little bit of shopping. Ended up only buying online.

The prime reason for G&G to watch the kids was so that Gord could compete in a Marathon of his own, The Seattle Marathon. He did the ½ Marathon. It turned out to be a perfect day for the marathon, it was very warm.
Nice banners to welcome us!

Our hotel!

And we even took a ride on the Monorail. I had never been on it before! It was so crowded that we ended up just walking back.

But, here's what we could see from our hotel window! I'm sorry that it's not straight but I had forgotten my tripod and this was the best I could get. When I try to straighten it with the computer it lops off the top of the tree. It was still cool all the same!

Here's my makeshift tripod! Let me tell you I tried everything that I could!!

Here's Gord's bib!

Ready, set, GO!

They gave out cowbells at the start to cheer the runners on and here is the wife and daugther of one of the other runners.

The Space Needle disappeared into the Fog!

Gord's good friend Ray and his wife Sandy also ran but I only caught a picture of Ray coming around the corner. Ray won his division and Sandy placed 7th in her age group.

It's Gord's turn to come through the shoot!

Phew, it's all over!