Hallway Football

Larry and the boys played football in the hallway. It was quite entertaining! I wish I had a digital camcorder to record how David wiggles his little bottom in anticipation of catching the ball! When I get one, there will be short videos on this blog. Until then, I have action slides. Jared got tackled here, that was his favorite part.





David loved tackling his daddy!

Thanksgiving in Ashton, Idaho

We went to Ashton, Idaho for Thanksgiving. My grandparents live there and Tara is going to school in Rexburg so she was there too. It was nice to see my grandma, I really missed her! It's always nice to be in Ashton, there is a lot of neat history there. My dad's family has been in that area for several generations and my brother is buried there. We get a great view of the Tetons from their house and this weekend was a full moon so I snapped a few pictures while it was still light out, the effect was nice.


Jared and David enjoyed the farm, they pretended to ride all of the different tractors they could find and played with the dog, Roscow. Grandpa said, "That thing is a sorry excuse for a dog." Of course, Roscow could be a good dog if Grandpa would take the time to train him. Grandpa's solution for a dog who chases cars is to attach a 3 foot long chain to it's collar and let it drag. Well, Grandpa is always entertaining in his grumpy old age.

We had a close call last night. We were all sitting around in the living room and Jared came running in with a terrified look on his face. He said he had an emergency so I ran into the bedroom and saw a large black burn around the electrical outlet, a burned night light, and a burned/melted penny. I was shocked, horrified and nearly in tears. I scared the crud out of him with the "what could have happened" scenarios. I am confident that he won't do it again.


Jared should know better than to play with electrical outlets, but his curiosity got the better of him this time..... just like that time he played with fire and burned 1/2 an acre of land in the backyard - see the November 2nd post.

The ride home was uneventful. While my mom and I drove, we noticed all of the boys were asleep with their mouths open, I had to get a picture.

The end.

We went bowling yesterday

Jared gets graded by colors each day at school. A green means he was good, yellow = has been a bit naughty, red means "focus time" and blue means we get a phone call about it. Jared usually gets 1-2 yellow marks each week. We decided to start a reward system for him. If he gets a green mark every day for a whole week, then we will do something fun on Saturday - and let Jared pick from the options we give him. We told him he could go rollerskating or bowling. He has never been bowling (neither of the boys have) so he decided to try it. We had a blast!

Jared ran into the bowling lane and slipped the first time - he went straight down on his butt. It didn't stop him from doing it again, but he was more careful. David would roll the ball and as he'd watch it slowly roll toward the pins, he would jump up and down while watching the ball. It was fun to watch. He slipped once too, but had no lasting injuries beyond a bruised ego.

In this picture, Jared threw the ball so that it immediately hit the gutter guard and it zig-zaged back and forth all the way down the lane.

Notice Jared's hands over his mouth when he thinks he might get a strike, the ball is right in the center (after zig zagging)

Sonja's Day

Tuesday, I drove to Tacoma for an appointment in small claims court. I am suing a painter named Jeffrey Wallace for taking our deposit and never starting work on our house this summer. I had an appointment in court yesterday and he didn't show up. By default, my case goes to a judge and he will decide the outcome. The judge will only see my evidence and I'm sure he will see who is clearly wrong. All I need to do is get the process server to send a receipt for their services and a better description of the person they served. Once I get that, I will send it to the courthouse and the case can go forward. When I get a judgment, I will submit it to Jeffrey's bond company and collect the funds. I've never had to sue anyone before :(

Random picture of the month: My breakfast - same thing I have every day for more than 4 years (Shaklee soy protein shake and a huge handful of vitamins).

Pile of Leaves + Boys = Fun

We had loads of fun in the leaves today. Larry got a huge pile together and the boys massacred it in a matter of minutes. We turned it into a big leaf fight and Jared tried to throw leaves at me, but I was upwind and could gather more leaves in my hands. I definitely had an unfair advantage.





It's interesting how the kids are less gentle with their dad. With me, they just threw leaves. With Larry, they charged him and started to wrestle.


I got some good calm shots of the kids before the leaf fight broke out. They often let me play with my camera and use them as models, I think they enjoy the attention and watching me play with colors on my photo shop programs.

Larry's Back!

Larry went on a business trip on Monday and came back late last night. He visited Charlotte, North Carolina for company training. He thinks he may go again sometime after the new year. The boys had a countdown every day, they asked how many days left and I would tell them. Sometimes they asked several times in one day. I guess they needed a reminder that their daddy wasn't leaving forever. He was only gone 5 days and Larry came home with a couple of coloring/activity books which the boys have been attached to all morning. I think it helps to bring something home for them, they seem to forgive us immediately when we buy them off.

I took a picture 2 nights ago of a beautiful sunset. I call it "fire in the sky." I submitted it to the local news since they like to show off weather pictures every so often. One of my lightning pictures made it to the news once, I worked particularly hard to get it too.

UPDATE: Nov 28th - Larry said his HR Manager noticed this picture on the news so they must have liked it.

Jared and Panda

Our cat, Panda, is the family pet. I joke with Larry that she is the "other woman" because she is so attached to him and she often likes to sit between us. She is more like a dog than a cat. She follows him around, waits for him to get home from work, will come out of her hiding place when she hears his voice and is on his lap as soon as he sits down. Panda is very patient with the boys, she doesn't run away from them unless she has been mistreated once already. I think she must play the "3 strikes and you're out" game. She will allow them to pick her up and play with her, but if they test her patience too many times, then she will take off and hide. She does enjoy David more than Jared because David is more mellow and he will sit with her and take the time to pet her. Jared gets restless too quickly and starts 'experimenting.' So I caught one sweet moment between Jared and Panda - a very rare moment!

Doesn't she look like the "other woman?" Those eyes! She seemed annoyed that I caught their little moment. The little skank! :)

Summer Vacations

We took a couple of trips this summer. The kids got to fly on an airplane for the first time and that was exciting for them. We went to Toronto for 2 weeks at the beginning of July. While we were there, we visited Niagara Falls (saw fireworks over the falls on the 4th of July) at both the Canada side and New York side. We went to Palmyra, NY for a little church history. We went to the Toronto Zoo, visited the CN Tower, walked around the downtown Toronto area and had a lot of fun.


We met the "rat man" downtown (ewwwwww rats!)





CN Tower - view from our hotel room















Our 2nd trip was a family reunion at the beginning of August. Larry's family likes to get together at the Oregon coast (Cape Lookout) and camp for a few days by the beach. This happens every other year and I always look forward to it. We all had a blast! We also visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was during this trip that Larry got a call on his cell phone from a company with a job offer. He accepted it right there (I was listening in on the details and gave him the thumbs up).

Our House - Before and After

This summer we did a lot of work to our house. We had the kitchen made over (refaced the cabinets, new sink, new dishwasher, new counter top). We also had new siding put up all around the house, but left the original cedar shake on the front (for character). We had a new deck built and a year prior had a sidewalk put in - the stones were pretty, but a tripping hazard. After the siding was finished, I had the house painted a more classic color. Getting our house painted was a whole other drama. Originally, we hired a guy (Jeffrey Wallace who owns A Touch of Class Painting) to paint our house. He took our $800 down payment for paint and took off. I will be seeing him in court on November 14th. It's a good thing he was licensed and bonded, his bond company will pay the bill when they see the judgment. We hired another guy (Brad Bernhardson of Best Buy Painting) and he did a fabulous custom job. Here are some before and after pictures.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE




AFTER

Last 2 months at a glance....

Halloween was a blast! The boys made out like bandits. We have so much candy from trunk-or-treating plus the leftover bags that I couldn't get rid of. I am thinking of sending it to my friend in the middle east or some other soldier for them to hand out to the local kids - I've heard of their candy bombs.




David got into some permanent ink, it took days to come off and he was obviously sorry about it when I caught him. Oh well, we survived and at least I had just enough sanity and humor to document it.


I went to Toronto and upstate NY. There is nothing like fall on the east coast! I went to both the Palmyra and Toronto Temple, it was a neat experience.





Toronto Temple






Palmyra Temple



Full moon (and the largest it was all year) over Lake Ontario


At the end of September, we went to the circus (Barnum & Bailey Ringling Brothers) and had a blast. We got the best seats on the floor and in the front row. The clowns picked Jared and David out of the audience to hoola-hoop with them. The clowns were hilarious, Jared could barely contain himself. He jumped up out of his chair to laugh and turn in circles from excitement. Poor kid has so much energy already - add clowns to that and it's impossible to keep him in his chair (and we didn't even try).


Now that time has passed, we can all laugh about this one..... At the end of August, Jared was playing with matches and accidentally burned 1/2 an acre of land in back of my parents property. Thankfully, there was no property damage. He was hiding in back of my dad's camper, I was looking for him because the house was quiet (a warning sign) and when I walked by the kitchen window for the 3rd time, I saw a frantic child running toward the house and in back of the camper there were tall flames. Horrified, I called 911, Larry and I went out to fight it with hoses. 2 other neighbors were also fighting it before the firefighters showed up. When they were done, I had Jared come out and look at the damage. I was hoping a firefighter would come over and talk to him, it was even better, he took Jared up in his arms and walked on the burned land to talk with him about the danger of playing with matches. The story made it to the local news, they got footage of the firefighter with Jared (not showing his face, of course).

Joining the Land of Blog

I've seen a few other blogs and it is nice to keep up with friends and family so we are doing our own blog. Jared turned 6 this year and David is 4. Both of the boys are highly energetic and keep me on my toes. Larry is a Safety Engineer and just got a job on the east side of Washington State. I am a stay-at-home mom and enjoy photography on the side. We lived in Tacoma for the past 2 years, it was a good experience for us just getting out of the Air Force. We miss the health benefits! But the benefits of living over here outweigh the benefits of living in Tacoma. We have had our house up for sale since August and hoping for a sale. We did get a low ball offer, but after counter offering, the buyer pulled out - which is okay by us! We spent 15K on upgrades and improvements so we aren't ready to give it away.

Jared is in the 1st grade, he is struggling with his extra energy. He has a good teacher who is doing her best with him. We are working on a good parent-teacher relationship and I am going to start volunteering to help her out to lighten her load. Jared does seem to enjoy school altogether. He is a very happy boy, his enthusiasm for life shows in his eyes. Everyone says Jared looks just like his daddy, I agree.

David can hardly wait to go to Kindergarten next fall, he is very envious of his older brother and the things he gets to do (mainly, riding the bus). He is more mellow when he is by himself, whereas he suddenly changes personalities when he and Jared are playing. It's fun to watch and sometimes stressful. While they can be great playmates, they can also be the worst kind of trouble together. I guess that is how brothers work. David takes after me with his features, almost everyone tells me he looks like me - I say "almost" because there are always a few odd people who don't see it.