Steamin' Hot!

My conversation with Ben as I got the shower ready for him this evening:

Me:  Are you sure the water's not too hot?  (as the steam is pouring from the shower)

Ben:  Mom, HOT is my middle name!

Sick

'I cannot go to school today, '
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
'I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more-that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut-my eyes are blue-
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke-
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play! '
--Shel Silversteen

OK, I'm not THAT sick, but I do gasp and wheeze and cough and choke, and I barely whisper when I speak, and my nose is all stuffed up, and my body aches, and I have a fever and chills. 

I denied that it's the flu, since I did get a flu shot last Wednesday, but maybe it didn't have time to kick in, because those symptoms sure sound like the flu when I list them.  Although they didn't all hit at once like they say the flu does.  It started gradually on Tuesday with that itchy feeling in the back of my throat and progressed to not being able to get out of bed yesterday afternoon.  Maybe I shouldn't have taken the girls bathing suit shopping yesterday morning...it really did me in!

Fortunately, Brad is working from home today, so he got the boys off to school (the girls have been home for the past three days because of parent/teacher conferences) and he's taking good care of things so I can rest.  As long as I keep pumping in the Advil Cold and Sinus pills and Delsym cough syrup, I'll survive!

It's Finished!

For the last few months, Brad (with the help of our friend, Jimmy) has been building our dining room table.  He started this project over five years ago when my brother, Tyler, was still at home.  We went up to Port Townsend and picked out the wood and Brad and Tyler put together the table top.  Then Tyler decided to get married, and moved to South Carolina, so our table top had been sitting in the garage until one day when Jimmy came by and asked what the big slab of hickory in the garage was for.  Jimmy is a very talented wood-worker and offered to help Brad finish the project.  Thank you, Jimmy!  It's beautiful, and I can't wait to eat our first meal on it tonight.

Here's my face when I first saw it (Mariann, Jimmy's wife, requested this one):

Here it is without the leaves, seats six comforably and eight a little tighter:

And with the leaves in, it seats 10 to 12!  Exactly what I wanted.

Here's a view from above.  Now we just have to do something about the chairs...

I Must be Socks-ist

This morning as Ben was getting ready for church, he stepped in some water, getting his right sock wet. If you know Ben well, you won't be surprised that he immediately demanded a new sock.  I couldn't find his other pair of black dress socks, so I pulled a pair of his white every-day socks out of his dresser and tossed them to him.  He put on one white sock.  I asked him, "Are you going to change the other one?"  He responded, "Why?"  I said, "Are you going to wear one white sock and one black sock to church?" He said "What, are you racist?"

A Bad Day

Everyday when I pick up Ben from the bus stop, I ask him how his day was.

Today, our conversation went like this:

Me: Hi Bud, how was your day?

Ben: Really bad!

Me: Oh, why?

Ben: My bus driver was really mean and I got a crystal stuck up my nose.

Me: (laughing) Really? How did that happen?

Ben: Zack had some crystals and he gave us one and I put it up my nose to show Quin I could blow it out and it got stuck.

Me: (laughing too hard, can't talk!)

Port Townsend Weekend

A few months ago, our friends Jimmy and Mariann planned a weekend trip to Port Townsend for our two families.  Earlier this week, Mariann had to have emergency surgery, so I assumed we would cancel the trip.  After much discussion, we all decided that she would be able to relax even better away from home and would have six extra people to wait on her if we kept our plans.  Since Mariann's mom had come to town to help out after the surgery and was flying home Saturday morning, Brad and I and the kids went up Friday night, and Jimmy, Mariann and Izaac joined us Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning, the view from our balcony looked like this:

Next time we're bringing the kayaks! 

Since we had a few hours before the Wises arrived, we decided to drive over to Fort Worden and play in the bunkers. 

This is the bunker down by the beach, for those of you who have been there (this was my first time!)  We're standing at the very top of a three story cement structure, with railings that are definitely not up to current safety codes!  I don't think safety codes were invented 100 years ago... Notice the look on Jillian's face, she's trying really hard not to look down!

Inside the bunkers are these cool narrow passageways that are pitch black!  We didn't bring our flashlight, but fortunately I had the camera, so by holding down the button half-way, I was able to turn on the "red eye reducer" and shine an orange light in front of us so we could see where we were going.  And every so often I'd take a picture, which set off the flash.  I was pretty impressed with the way the flash lit things up.  These pictures were honestly taken in total darkness!

There were all sorts of cool stairways on the outside of the bunker, too.

The beach was beautiful, but it was pretty windy and cold, so we didn't go down to the sand.

I love this picture of Jillian.  It looks like she's in a picture frame.  The colors in bunker were so in harmony with winter.  Greys, whites, dull greens and blues. 

After we'd explored the "beach bunker" for a while, we drove up the hill and then walked up to the upper bunkers. 

This is where my dad takes the scouts on an outing every fall to play Capture the Flag.  There's at least 1/2 a mile of bunkers waiting to be explored! 

Ben was so excited about going into the dank, dark tunnels.  One time he went in ahead of us and when we got to the end, he wasn't there.  I called his name and he didn't answer.  I was totally freaked out for a second, until he popped around a corner, giggling.  He obviously hasn't ever watched a horror flick!

Kylie wanted to climb on top of everything she could, and of course Ben followed her. 

Every time we saw a small room with a door, Ben asked if it was the jail.  We finally found what we thought could have been the jail, but the sign says it's the store house.  Bummer.

Some of you know I have a thing for doors.  I don't know why, but I'm very attracted to pictures of doors.  These were too good to pass up!  Look at the colors, the textures, the details.  What's inside?  Where do they lead?  One of them I took a picture of had profanity graffitied on it; I didn't even notice until Brad pointed it out.  I decided not to post that one.  Now that Ben knows how to read, it's pretty hard to explain why people write certain things in really big letters all over walls!

All that running around left us with a big appetite!  Fat Smitty's was only five minutes away from where we stayed, so of course we had to stop for lunch.   I finally got to eat there!  Every other time I've stopped, they've been closed.  Of course I made the kids pose in front of the giant burger, even though they were starving. 

When we pulled up, we saw my dad's red pickup truck with a bunch of bicycles in the back!  He always stops at Fat Smitty's after Scout outings, and yesterday he had taken the boys up to the Discovery Trail for a bike outing to train for their big bike trip this summer.  We had no idea he was going to be there at the same time, but it sure was a treat to eat at Fat Smitty's with my dad!

And it was a treat for Kylie to eat with three of her adoring fans!

The Wises arrived a little later that afternoon, and we spent the rest of the weekend like this:

Success!

When I first started jogging back in October, my goal was to jog around "the loop", the 2 1/2 miles of road by my house.  I accomplished that in mid-November and set my sights on a loftier goal...5 miles.  I worked hard, and right before Thanksgiving I was up to 4 miles.  Then came the holidays and very cold weather and sick kids, setting me back to the 2 1/2 to 3 mile range.  By New Years, I was back up to 4 miles and today I jogged 5 miles for the first time!  I'm seriously patting myself on the back. 

My 8th grade PE teacher, Mr. Peet, would be so proud!  Everyday in PE, we had to run a mile in under 10 minutes.  It was torture for me.  I hated it.  I was always one of the last, panting in right at the 10 minute mark.  Ever since then, I assumed I couldn't run, so I didn't really try.  I'm grateful for good friends who set a good example, encourage me, and help me realize I just have to try.

I'm still a very slow jogger, the 5 miles took me 63 minutes (but I can do the first mile in 9 minutes, so there Mr. Peet!) My new goal is to jog 5 miles in 50 minutes.  I could probably do it now if the route was all down hill...but then I'd still have to get back up the hill somehow, so I guess that won't work!

Teeth!

Two bits of exciting news on the tooth-front this week!

Ben lost his first tooth! It's been wiggly for quite a while, but he was afraid of having it pulled out. On the way to Alicia's birthday party Sunday, he declared that he was going to let it fall out on its own. He was eating an apple, and when we walked into Brad's parent's house, he declared, "My tooth fell out!" But he couldn't find it. We looked everywhere, in the apple and all over the floor, but no luck. He determined that he must have swallowed it. The toothfairy was very smart and found Ben even though he was spending the night at his grandparent's house.



And yesterday, after 30 months, Nathan got his braces off! He said his teeth feel so smooth and nice. His orthodontist gave him a big bag of goodies, laffy taffy, sour straws, snickers, all the things he wasn't supposed to eat with braces on, but said he did anyway.

Here are some before, during and after shots:
July 2007, before the braces:

Later that day, after the braces were put on:

And today, after the braces came off! Isn't he handsome?

Winter at Battlepoint Park

The day after Christmas, the sun came out and begged us to get out of the house. We gladly obliged by going to Battlepoint Park. It was chilly enough for the shallows of the pond to be frozen. (But for some reason, warm enough that Jillian "didn't need" a coat.) Jillian and Ben loved poking at the ice and throwing rocks through.

Mariann and Izaac stood on the other side and skidded sticks across to us, sending us "messages".

Roller Derby!

Another fun thing we did over Christmas Break was go to Skateland! This place probably hasn't changed in about 30 years. At least it made me feel 8 years old again! Except for the music...I didn't recognize anything they played besides "New York, New York", which I loved and Ben hated! He put his hands over his ears and asked, "When are they going to change songs?"

We haven't been skating for quite a while, as was made evident when Kylie put on her rollerblades and realized they were a tad snug. They ended up fitting Jillian. That's about right, it's probably been three years since we've gone! So this was Ben's first time roller skating. He started off slowly, practicing on the carpet.

After a while he worked up the courage to go out on the wooden floor, but couldn't quite get up the guts to let go of the wall...


Just when he thought he couldn't do it and was ready to give up, something clicked! He ended up having a great time.

Jillian enjoyed herself as well. A few of our friends joined us, which always makes it more fun.

She was a good sport. When she fell, she got right back up! Unlike me. I fell once and that was enough.

Kylie entered some of the races and won a free soda in the "Shoot the Duck" competition for coming in 4th. This isn't a picture from that, but just one I happened to get. The lighting made it hard for me to take good pictures.