On the Second Day of Christmas....

Bill noticed a small eruption/lesion a couple of days ago (unrelated to the ninja star and in a totally different location) and we decided to watch it for a day. Yesterday, it was much bigger and looked to us like a staph infection. So, I took him down to critical care last night because of the possibility of MRSA with a staph-like infection, particularly among wrestlers. Yes, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and sure enough, he has it. UGGHH! Perhaps we're missing the message being sent to Bill that he should NOT wrestle. MRSA can result in necrotizing fasciitis (think flesh eating bacteria), if not treated quickly. Needless to say, Bill is being treated quickly! This is also from wrestling. Staph is common-- though MRSA is a bit more scary. Last year, one of the wrestlers had MRSA and didn't know it and by the time he realized what it was, he was in the hospital and very ill. More fun on the horizon....

On the First Day of Christmas...

... Bill was in the wrestling room last Tuesday warming up and doing some calisthenics trying to burn off a few ounces before weigh-ins, prior to his very first match of the season, when one of the other wrestlers who was sitting in there, decided to practice throwing some of his 'ninja stars' against the wall while sitting around! Of course, you know what's coming with this post.... one of them accidentally stuck into Bill's thigh over an inch deep, slicing through some of the muscles. The kid who was throwing these is actually a good kid, and meant no harm, but clearly wasn't thinking (see the manual on "Thoughtless Teenagers"). he was also unbelievably foolish to bring these things to school (see the manual on "Expulsion from School,") let alone throw them while in the wrestling room. Fortunately Bill is going to be ok. Brad took him down to the office (as usual during all of his traumatic injuries) and cleaned, irrigated, and prepped the wound and then put in some stitches. Bill, or some other kid could have easily been much more seriously injured (eye, neck, etc.). We spoke with the kid's parents and they were mortified, and have confuscated all of his stars! The other part of this story is that now Bill will be out for about 10 days while his leg heals and so he doesn't stress the stitches by wrestling. So, after having to miss the entire wrestling season last year, he's still out. More to follow....

Family Pics....

One of the recent family pics we shot out in the yard last month :-) More to follow...

Our Budding Edward Gorey....

Dan is drawing a lot with pen & ink lately. Right now, he's experimenting with the "Batman" motif. I think his drawings are reminiscent of one of my favorite illustrators, Edward Gorey-- another "pen & ink" man! Enjoy!

Let The Carving Begin!

Backlog of Birthdays....

Yes, Folks, it's been birthday mayhem around here!

The birthday kids: Dan, Mike and Brit.


We began with a birthday party for Dan. He invited all his little friends for a Halloween birthday. The kids decorated trick or treat bags and then used them for a halloween treasure hunt (much like an egg hunt with plastic eggs) except we searched for little plastic pumpkins filled with a toy or a goody! It was a big hit! There were about 125 plastic pumpkins hidden all over the yard (we held it to about 2 acres).

Later that night..... after Dan's 5th birthday party.....Mike had all of his church friends over to go to the local haunted house for his 15th birthday. Then they came home and watched Anaconda. We made Mike break up his birthday into two groups because we didn't want to host 22 kids at our house at one time, and he knew that none of his church friends like to play too rough, so he opted to do the more physical stuff with his other friends....

The next weekend Mike had all of his school friends over, who consisted mainly of the first string on the football team. They played a lot of football, some basketball, some X-box, and ran through the cemetery at about 11:00pm. We have no pics to show for Mike's crew. We were too busy giving them their teenage space!


Then, the next weekend, Brit had a slumber party for her 11th birthday. They went to Subway for dinner, decorated t-shirts and watched "Kicking and Screaming" (with Will Ferrell) and "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," among other things. Then they stayed up until about 4:00am doing Madlibs and telling stories and had a great time :-)

Halloween was just a footnote to all of this, of course..... :-)

FOR CRYIN' OUT LOUD!!!

Thankfully, we don't have to burn our Scout shirts in protest now. Mike passed his Eagle Board of Review tonight at the Seattle Council. Phew! I don't think I could have continued with any of this drama one more day without eating my stomach lining (: The joy!

PICS and MORE PICS....

Ok guys- We're still climbing upward, trying to get out from under the avalanche that is 'life.' Anytime I feel like I am moving at a frenetic pace, I just think of Ami and Alex and the new kidlets and then sigh (ha!) We are not that busy! I got nothin!

Bill had a photo session with a photographer for his senior picture and other miscellaneous fun poses several weeks ago, so I thought I'd share a few... We, as a family, have a family portrait scheduled for next week, so more to come soon. Meanwhile, enjoy what's here....

A Big Surprise For Brit!

Each year, Blakely Elementary School holds "The Fitness Challenge," where the kids compete to see who can run the most laps around the track in a certain amount of time. They continue this over the course of five days and then tally all the laps each kid was able to eak out during each day's timed attempt. This event is also a huge fund-raiser for the school and the kids really enjoy it, as opposed to selling light bulbs or wrapping paper to raise money (Ha!) When Bill was at Blakely, he received a ribbon for being a participant. When Mike was at Blakely, he took 2nd place for his grade level one year. Brit, surpassed both Bill and Mike by taking 3rd place for the whole school! She was so surprised and so tickled! She knew she had done well, but wasn't sure how her numbers compared to everyone else in the school until they called her name :-) The top three kids in each class were awarded champion ribbons, and then the top three for the whole school were awarded champion ribbons! Pretty cool.

School is almost over. I cannot even begin to describe how relieved I am. This year, I started to become agitated around mid-May as the kids began to be loaded up with huge projects, tests, concerts, school and class events, preschool parties and plays, etc.(UGGGHH!) It becomes the logistics dance from h---. With only two days left, we are all breathing easy :-) I love having the kids home from school. There's a lot on the bar-b- this summer, but it's all good and all fun ........TREK, Lake Powell, D-WORLD, Biking through Idaho-Montana-and Wyoming for the guys, football for Mike, crew for Bill, chess camp for Brit (the boys like to refer to this as "nerd fest"), some mini-sports camps for Dan, and hopefully Education Week in August. We'll see you all at D-WORLD!!

Coming of age...

A Few Shots of the Finished Product....

.....Just thought we'd throw in a few shots of the finished kiosks. Bill's face pretty well represents how he and Mike felt upon being finished. They were sooooooo TOXIC of this project.

92

.......the score Bill received when he passed his driver's test today! YESSSSS!!!! I no longer have to schlep everyone around as much as I have. I now have a willing driver to take my place :-)

She's Goin' to State!

Brit qualified for the state chess tournament in Tacoma! She is thrilled :-) She did well enough at her last tournament on Saturday to qualify. Brad and the kids will head down on Friday night, April 23rd and stay the night in Tacoma since the tournament begins early in the morning on Saturday. Meanwhile, I have to stay back at the homestead since the Relief Society Retreat is scheduled for Friday night and Saturday.... at our house! ARGGHH! I'd rather be at the tournament!

The Eagle Has Landed....

Bill and Mike coordinated their Eagle Projects with the Bainbridge Island Parks and Recreation Department. First they worked to earn the money to purchase the materials for their projects, along with some donated funds from several island businesses (you know one of them well--ha!). With the help of Brad, and some of their fellow scouts and Young Men's leaders, Bill and Mike each built two information kiosks made of rough cut tight knot red cedar, to be installed at different parks (mostly at trail heads) here on Bainbridge island. Shown here are the roofs, which won't be put on the kiosks until they are ready to be installed this Wednesday, and three out of the four kiosks ;-)

The guys dug the large holes at each of their sites on Friday, in preparation to install the steel brackets on Saturday. The kiosks are pretty beasty, so Brad and the guys devised a "jig" for each kiosk, so they could install and level the brackets in concrete in the exact positions they need to be in and let them set, prior to bringing in the kiosks. Final installation will be this Wednesday! HOORAH!

.....(then comes the rest of the application paperwork....UUGGHH!)

The best part of all of this, according to Bill, is not getting his Eagle project done, but being able to get his driver's license now. ROCK ON! He had to get his project done first.

Mike, who has at least a year before he can even get a permit, is taking this all in stride :-) No urgency. It will just be nice for him to have this out of the way before he enters high school in the fall.

Skiing at Snoqualmie

We rented a cabin for 5 days up at Snoqualmie, where there are 4 different ski resorts within a few miles of each other. The snow isn't exactly "Utah fresh powder," it's a bit more slushy-- more like California skiing, but it was great fun. We went tubing on Friday night, skiied Saturday, hung out in the cabin and played games on Sunday and then skiied Monday and Tuesday. Brit and I skiied mostly at Central, while the boys spent most of their time at Alpenthal. Brad went with us at Central a few times, and Dan spent two days at ski school, after which I took him up the bunny hill :-) If we can just get Dan up to ski speed, we'll all be able to ski together! Brit is getting to be a good little skiier and was willing to even go down a few black diamonds with me. The boys like to ski black diamonds and find gnarly jumps to try and break their legs. No broken bones yet! Mike has more ski time logged in than any of the kids, so he has the edge at this point, but Bill is a close second. Bill's three friends drove up late Sunday night to join us at our cabin so they could ski with Bill on Monday and Tuesday. Mike's friend Noah also showed up at Central ski resort and decided to stay the night on Monday night and ski again with Mike on Tuesday. After Bill's friend's car broke down, we took everyone home in our cars and stopped at Triple X Rootbeer drive-in in Issaquah, home of the one pound burger! Of course Bill and Mike and all their friends ordered the one pounder! Mike, who was already 3 pounds over his weight class had to make weight the next day, so after stuffing his face, he fasted from 7pm until the 5pm weigh-in the next day. He was EXACTLy 164.0 pounds for the 164 weight class. Big relief. We should do this every weekend! It was a lot of fun!

Brit at the Fourth Grade Music Show

A Snippet From Brit's Fourth Grade Music Show...

I remember this song well, and it should sound familiar to Dave and John, as well as mom and dad :-) Brit's class also sang Route 66, and several other oldies (ha!) Brit is fourth from the right in a black skirt. Next year she is on to Sakai Intermediate School (which is 5th and 6th grade here). Dan doesn't start kindergarten until Fall 2011, at the same time that Bill starts college. I remember mom telling me that when we lived next door to the Hansens (we lived there until I was about 12 years old), Dave (who was about 6 at the time), mom and I (about 3) were over at the Hansens and Karen (who was only about 2&1/2) was so excited because her big brother Craig was coming home and he had been away at college for a long time. Dave looked at mom and wishfully asked, "Do I have a big brother who is away at college?" (ha!)We are hopeful that Dan will have some memories of Bill while he was still at home. Aim, do you have any memories of me while I was still living at home? Probably not!

This Post Needs No Introduction...

.... We bought this baby, born in 1967, in Auburn just this morning and have been cruising around ever since. Needless to say, there's a very giddy 51 year old at our house today. He has wanted one of these since he was 9 years old!

The Latest Fav.....

The Heps..... at least Dan, Brit, Mike, Bill and Mom (indeed, everyone but Brad) have discovered the joys of munching on roasted and seasoned seaweed. Mike brought some home from church a couple of weeks ago. His Sunday School teacher, who served a mission in Korea, shared some with Mike and it spiralled from there. It comes in a package of big paper-thin sheets which are easily torn apart for little snackers. Brad tasted a tiny bit and was mortified. He's happy to stick with meat and potatoes. I went to Central Market last night at about 10pm for the usual Saturday night grocery run and we loaded up on about 10 packs of the stuff. Needless to say, our supply is already way down. We don't use it to cook with or make sushi, we just eat it right out of the pack. Yum!