Spritual Happenings

I have the honor of attending two very special events in one week. First, on Sunday Richard and I took Adrienne to get her Patriarchal Blessing. All I can say is, WOW! OK, so I can say more. I am aware that I do not know everything about my dear teenage daughter, but I think its safe to say that I know her better than anyone else here on earth. But the Lord knows her even better than I and that was very obvious to me while listening to her blessing. The Patriarch only had a couple of minutes to talk to her beforehand, and yet the things he said about her made it very apparent that the Lord was speaking through him. It was a very lengthy blessing, just when I thought he was about to end it, he would continue on. I feel so blessed to have been there and am so excited to see what the future holds for my beautiful daughter. The promises made in that blessing were amazing!!

This coming Saturday Annalina will be "bath-tized" a member of the church. She was still saying it that way on the way to her interview with the Bishop, so we finally corrected her. She still slips up occasionally! Anyway, we are looking forward to this fun and exciting experience with our darling eight year old daughter. I will be writing more about that later! If you live in the area and can come, please do, it is Saturday the second of January at 3pm at the Hillsboro Stake Center.

Playing in a Melting Winter Wonderland

Any tension from the snow ordeal last night melted away as I watched Annalina and Joseph in the snow this morning. We walked the short distance to the church and played and played and played! I am not a play in the snow kind of person, but its hard not to when the kids are having such fun!

Driving In A Winter Wonderland

This afternoon Joseph had a B-Day party to go to for a friend near the old house. Since I was going to be in Hillsboro to drop him off, I set up a play date with Annalina's friend Megan so she could come over and see our new house and they could play without pesky brother around to bother them. Sounds like a great plan, right??

On the way home is started snowing, a light wispy kind of snowfall, by the time we were home, it was heavy and sticking to everything. No problem, it wasn't supposed to last, but would turn to rain in a short while, so the weather guys all stated. So the girls played and I kept an eye on the weather, an hour and a half later we had three inches on the ground and it was still coming down heavily. We set out earlier than planned and it was a good thing we did. The roads were slick ice where the tire tracks were. I tried to keep one side of the van in the snowy side of the road and we did ok. Baseline was crawling along and the car in front of me kept sliding all over the road and this was freaking me out a bit, so we turned off the main road and took the long way by the library and out Evergreen. It went pretty smoothly.

I am a pretty confident ice and snow driver, in my early twenties I drove from Seattle to Portland alone in a huge snow storm, the three hour drive took me about 9 hours, so I am fairly comfortable driving in the snow, but I am not so comfortable driving alongside those who haven't a clue what they are doing. It only took 45 minutes to get to Hillsboro and pick up Joseph. Then the fun begins....

I decided to take Evergreen home since Baseline was so bad earlier. We made it pretty well until we got to Cornelius Pass Road, it resembled a slug, inching along ever so slowly! After waiting for light after light, and seeing people driving horribly, cutting each other off, ignoring traffic signals, etc, I decided to cut across to 205th, which would lead us directly home. The road connecting to 205th was crammed with cars as well, and as we approached the turn I needed to take the incline was just enough and the ice was just thick enough that I could not get going again. The stop and go traffic turned to just stop for me!

OK, at this point, Joseph was warmly dressed, but Annalina had no coat and was wearing her crocks. I did not have a coat either. I have no cell phone. I admit, as the mother of a scout, I should have been better prepared! But who would have expected this?? It was supposed to be raining! Anyway, there was nowhere in walking distance for us to get to in order to call for help. So I tried and tried to get the van moving, but we got nowhere. Cars just went on around us. I backed up and tried again and again, but no luck. Another car was pulled over and this one man got out and tried to push my minivan to get it going. Not gonna happen, but I was grateful at least someone was trying to help! About that time I backed up to the curb to throw in the towel and maybe cry my eyes out, when a truck pulled along beside us and got stuck as well. Several times I thought he was going to slide right into us. Then yippee, a police car pulled up with his lights flashing. What a relief!!! I was outside the car to see if I could help the truck get moving and the police officer hopped out long enough to say, "try not to plug this road up, there's a huge line of cars trying to get through!!" As if we could not see that!!! And they were off. I was on the verge of tears again, Richard was working very late and it would have taken him hours to get to us, even if I could call him, which I could not. Oh, did I mention I really needed to pee? Oh yes, just to add to the drama.

I was about to go ask the car stuck in front of us if he had a cell phone when three young men passing by on foot asked me if I needed help. YES! They advised me to back up and take a right, through a neighborhood that exits onto the road I needed to be on. I wasn't sure I could get traction to make the turn, but they assured me they were there to help if I needed it. I made it but even then I remembered the downward hill we were facing to get home. I tapped the brake like crazy and was thinking how grateful I was we just had the brakes done on the van, even if it had just depleted our savings! When we got to the intersection before our house, we saw the steeple of the church and both kids were excited we were almost home. To my surprise, Richard was home when we got there. He had almost as fun an adventure as we had driving the 3 miles home from work. I could not get the car into the garage and wasn't even about to try again. He hopped in and pulled it into the garage for me.

The whole way home Annalina prayed for our safely, she prayed for me to drive well, and then she prayed for someone to help us when we were stuck. Hearing her prayers helped to calm me. I was so proud of her. I told her this when we got home and she said, "well Mom, I'm about to be baptized, I have to practice!" The kids were very brave and patient, considering they were both hungry and tired. They did not complain and the prayers were very helpful! I am grateful to be home. I did call Adrienne and tell her not to try to get home tonite, so they will spend an extra night at their dad's house. I would feel better having everyone home safe and sound, but at least I know everyone is safe. It sure is beautiful out there, but I don't think I will be going out again until its melted away!!

Just our luck....

Friday night I needed some help getting the garage sale ready. Richard has been working lots of extra hours in preparation for year end at both Tek and Fluke, and had to work from 6am to about 10pm Friday. But he carved out about an hour and a half to come help me set up. Early into that block of time, he was heading out to the garage with a box and stepped on a piece of cardboard on the second step down. His foot slipped and his ankle rolled and he fell onto a big pile of empty boxes, which may have saved him from more injury. However, he has a wicked looking swollen, bruised ankle to show for it! Sunday after church I took him to immediate care and they confirmed he has sprained his ankle. Poor guy! After hobbling around a couple of days, his buddy from work brought over his crutches and now at least he can get around without putting too much weight on it. It puts a bit of a damper on continuing efforts to finish up at the other place. On a positive note, our garage sale went well and now everything left over has been hauled to the DI trailer. The upstairs is completely empty and clean and we are well into getting the downstairs cleaned up as well. We spent a couple of hours there this morning and will go over again tomorrow morning. It seems I cannot handle more than a couple of hours there at a time. Too overwhelming!! But it won't be long now and we can focus on our new life!

Preschool Christmas Program

Last night was Joseph's preschool Christmas program. It was short and sweet and packed with people. The kids sang many songs, then were asked individually by the teacher what they wanted Santa to bring them for Christmas. When she got to Joseph, well, here is what he asked for....



Yes, he said a notebook and a pencil. And I believe few kids received laughter AND applause for their answers!! You may be wondering, are we so poor that we can't afford paper and a pencil for our sweet little boy? Not true, however Santa may be able to find a really special one for him. Annalina is always writing and drawing in her notebooks(she's got quite a stack already) and he is fascinated by this. So he made up his mind a couple weeks ago that he really wants his own notebook and pencil. I think he will be pleasantly surprised Christmas morning!!
After the program the kids got to decorate cookies, make some ornaments and visit with Santa! Annalina was really shy and did NOT want to actually sit on Santa's lap. It was funny, she was telling him what she wanted from a couple of feet away. He could not hear her, so I urged her to sit for a photo! Oh, and she would like colored pencils for Christmas. The preschool kids had their photos taken by the teacher, so I will post that photo once I have it.
Reindeer Joseph with his purple frosting covered cookie! Looking a little tired! It was a big night!

Heading out to the car, looking a LOT tired! Merry Christmas!!

Isn't it Great? Annalina is Eight!!!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest little girl I know! Today is Annalina's eighth birthday! What a blessed eight years it has been. Annalina continues to bring such happiness into our lives and we love her so very much. Since Richard has to work very late tonight and the older kids have a temple trip this evening, we decided to celebrate and let her open her gifts last night. Richard and I spent the entire afternoon at the old house working in the garage, so Adrienne picked up the kids after school and took them home. She then made Annalina a birthday cake, a white cake with white frosting, at Annalina's request! When Richard and Igot home, I got dinner in the oven and we quickly wrapped her presents. There was nothing in the budget for birthday, so I was lucky to have thought to get prepared a while back. We had gotten her a baptism dress and she really likes it, it will be beautiful on her. I got her a gingerbread house, since she got one from the Consers last year and loved it so much, she asked for one this year too! And she got two barbies that I had ordered as a Kool Aid premium many many many years ago when Adrienne was little, but she was never into barbies. I found them while sorting through the garage and thought she would like them. And of course, she did! She named them Kathleen and Rosie. We have had a family tradition with the older kids that they get breakfast in bed on their birthdays. We did not do this with the younger kids since they were kind of young and with the bunk beds, it didn't seem like a good idea to have breakfast served way up there. This year Annalina was so excited at the thought of breakfast in bed. So I got up early and made her eggs and toast with applesauce and took it to her room. She was very happy! Happy Birthday Annalina, your family loves you more than you will ever know!!

Joseph, Just Joseph

Today in the car on the way to preschool Joseph said, quite out of the blue, "Mom, when we turn a thousand, we die" and I asked him why and his answer was "a thousand is the last number" so I explained how numbers go on forever and he seemed a little disappointed that his reasoning was not correct! He is so funny! At first I was not looking forward to taking him to preschool and back since its about a half hour round trip, but I treasure the time we have in the car together. Joseph has always had trouble with several letters and their pronunciations, especially the letter s and l. So we work on that in the car. The other day he said he wuved me and I asked him if he could say "el" and he tried so hard and just about every other sound came out of his mouth. I asked him to try la la la la. And he did and finally got it and the proceeded to say I ullll-ove you mom! He was so excited and it is absolutely adorable how he enunciates the L sound every time. So he started saying every L word he could think of, including lollipop and Leila, his cousin's name. He is doing great and still says ullll, at the beginning of every L word. Oh and he was very excited that now he could sing Jingle Bells in Spanish correctly-"Cascabeles, Cascabeles, tra la la la la"(they have been working on that for the preschool Christmas program coming up). Joseph has quite a video game addiction. He LOVES to play Spyro the Dragon and I have to be very careful, because if it was up to him he'd play 24 hours a day and while it would be nice to have him occupied for so long, I know it is not good for him. One day he was very grumpy when I told him it was time to turn it off, so he had a couple days off from playing(he has been pleasant about it ever since). Well after those couple days he came to me and said, "Mom, I will be so good today, I will be a thousand good, and I have already been 40 good, so I only have 20 more to go". You just have to love the logic of a four year old! In case you can't tell, I adore my Joseph. I adore all my kids, but the stage Joseph is in right now is so incredibly fun. I wish I keep him this age for a few years. He is still so loving and sweet and will come up and hug me and snuggle out of the blue. His mind is always thinking, I love the things he comes up with. He is nice to other kids and is very sharing with his things for the most part. Kids are such a blessing!

Settling In

So we have been living at the new place for a full week now. The first night was loud! People coming and going till the late hours. I was getting worried that we had traded our quiet little neighborhood for a thriving metropolis! But the following night was quiet and peaceful for the most part. We decided there were lots of people visiting for the holiday weekend and that contributed to the sounds. Our bedroom is also very light, which is a good thing, except for early in the morning when the sun shines right into our room. The good news is if we decided to bring in some plants, they should do great!

Annalina is adjusting well to her new school. We took her in the first day and sadly her teacher was out sick. But there was much excitement about "the new girl" and she had no problem making friends. She is in the advanced math and reading class. The second day Joseph and I walked her to school. We got there a bit early and I asked her if she wanted us to stay for the bell and wait outside the door with her, or leave. She looked a bit worried and asked us to stay, so we did. She insisted on walking home on her own that day and the next morning she was off on her own again. She feels so grown up and its just down the street and around the corner, so I feel ok about it. I am glad she is enjoying school so much. She does miss her friends from Patterson and I think a play date will be in order soon!
On moving day we had packed up most of what we wanted to move, with a few exceptions. But after moving it all of course there was still a LOT of stuff left, mostly in the garage. I have held off on working on it too much since I am trying to get prepared for my huge final in A&P tomorrow. Once that is over I will be spending most every day at the house sorting and tossing LOTS of stuff. I am hopeful it will be ready for a good cleaning on Thursday and then a garage sale this weekend. Then everything left will be hauled to DI and maybe we can get it on the market. It is a little depressing going back. Without the people and the things we cherish, a home is really just a house. When I am there, I find myself wanting to leave and go to the new place and work on making it ours. I am looking forward to being done over there so we can get unpacked and completely settled in.

The Only Thing Constant is Change

This morning I told Annalina of our pending move into the new house. I tried to explain to her the reasons why before breaking the news to her. When I said, "we are moving to a new house" her response was "no". I said, "yes, its true Annalina" she replied "no" again. I said "why are you saying no?" and she said "you are tricking me mom". I explained that I was not joking and proceeded to tell her about the house. I told her about her new school Tobias, and she giggled because she thinks its a silly name. She was happy to hear we would be just down the street from school so she could walk everyday. I was worried she would miss riding the bus. She was also very excited at the thought of making new friends both at school and in our new ward. She asked if we were changing churches and I explained how there are too many people in the world who belong to our church to all fit in one building, so the church has lots and lots of buildings and we are just changing to a different building, that's all. I told her more about the house and how it is three stories and she will be up on the way high third floor in her own room finally. She giggled and laughed and I was a bit surprised by her reaction. We even talked about the dogs and how only Gidget would be going with us to the new place. We would find a good home for Gadget, but that meant they no longer had to live in the laundry room, Gidget could be out in the house with us all the time. It was a good talk and I told her it was ok to feel sad or even angry, but she said she was ok. A little later she came into my room and asked if she could go bike riding around the neighborhood. She was considerably deflated since I had seen her last. I asked if she was alright, she said yes, just sad. My heart is already broken at my own personal loss in leaving this home, this ward, my friends and neighbors and this beautiful area we live in, but I can deal with it. I understand what is happening and I know there is no other choice. But my heart breaks again each time I see pain in my children's eyes. I don't want to disrupt their lives or cause them to be uncomfortable in a new situation. Richard and I would do anything and have done everything we could to stay, but the time has come.

The good news is that aside from the sadness, a huge burden is lifting from our lives. It feels good to know that we will have the funds to buy clothes for the kids when they need them. This last year we had nothing at back to school time and Adrienne bought all her own clothes and with a Kohl's cash gift card she earned from her purchases, she took Jake to get a few things he needed. We have been so blessed with friends who have stopped by with clothing their children have outgrown. It is amazing to me how people have answered my prayers and that they probably had no idea how dire our situation was at the time. The Lord really does work through others and I am grateful to those who stay in tune with the spirit and act on those promptings.

Yes, it is true, we are moving....

This last year has been very difficult for us financially. Our income has gone down while expenses have gone up. I have prayed for months now to be able to find a way to make it work here in our home. This past month those prayers changed. We prayed to know where to go. Last weekend Richard took me to some townhomes near his work. They were so tiny and I cried thinking of the sacrifice it would be trying to live there for the next few years. When we got home I started to look for places on Craig's List. There were a few houses in our price range, but they had to be near the max line, we will soon be a one car family again. One place looked good to me, so I mapped it out and saw a building just across the street that looked suspiciously like one of our church buildings. Sure enough, it was! For some reason that calmed me. And a block up the street is an elementary school. And max is little less than a mile the other way. We drove by the house in person, it is three stories and like a town home, but they are detached. We got out to walk around it and decided to check the front door. It was unlocked so we snuck in and toured the home on our own. It is much bigger than the apartment townhomes and has four bedrooms and a bonus room on the main floor with the garage. The middle floor is the living area with a fairly large kitchen, a dining area and a good sized family room. It is a lovely home. We called the manager and he took us through another larger home a few houses down. It was bigger and had more storage, but was also more expensive. This move is about cutting our costs so we can save and hopefully be able to buy again in a few years. So we went with the smaller home and it feels so right! I feel so blessed to have found a home I am looking forward to living in. I know the Lord is aware of our needs and that we were led to this area in answer to our prayers. We have a lot of work to do. We will be moving the majority of our things Thanksgiving weekend and will need to get the house on the market shortly after that. I am still in school, but I know the path has been laid for us, so we can do this!!! I am feeling so many emotions right now, but most of all I feel so very grateful.

Pumpkin Carving and Oh The Mind of a Four Year Old

Richard was gone all last week up near Seattle working at Fluke to add yet more responsibilites to his job. Yet another person has been let go and Richard is up there figuring out what that person used to do and how they did it!! He has been home for the weekend, but is heading back up on Monday, bright and early. We miss him so much when he is gone! But it looks like travel may become more common for him. Yesterday he spent the day helping a family move and late in the day we went to get pumpkins. Today we carved. I covered the table in newspaper, had pumpkins in front of each kid and they all had markers to draw their faces on with. Richard is the official face carver. I was sitting across from Joseph and I said, "Ok guys, time to draw on your faces". I sat there and watched Joseph as he(with a very serious face) drew a strip up one cheek and then one down the other. I was about to get mad? What was he thinking!! Then it hit me, I told him to draw on his face and for once he was not about to question me. I was trying to explain to him what I had really meant, but was laughing so hard! Richard was too. It was one of those moments I will not forget! Here are some more photos of my adorable kids and hubby getting the pumpkins ready for their big Halloween debut! Wait, where is Adrienne??? Apparently at the old age of 17 she is no longer into carving pumpkins with the family. Well, that is ok, we feel blessed she was alright with it for the first 16 years!!

Camping-Didn't think there could possibly be more did you??

We spent a gorgeous afternoon on the beach! The weather could not have been better, it was one of those rare perfect days on the Oregon Coast! The sky was blue, temperature was about 80, the air was fairly calm(much to Richard's dismay-he could not get his kite to stay in the air!). I have few photos of Joseph's face because he spent most of the time in the water facing away from me. He made lots of friends and even when Annalina got tired of taunting the ocean and wanted to dig in the sand, he kept at it. I enjoyed laying on a blanket and reading in between watching the crazy antics of my kids. Here you can see the wreck of the Peter Iredale which has been a apart of this beach for over a hundred years now. It seems there is less there than when I was a child!
Here is Richard, trying his hardest to get that kite to stay up. No luck though!! Maybe next time!
Annalina loves to be buried in the sand. She does this every beach trip. Don't you just love the bikini top fish shapes Richard added for fun!!!

Camping - Part 3, A Bad Day for a Migraine

One day while camping we drove back into Astoria to find adventure! We started by driving over the HUGE bridge between Oregon and Washington. The kids thought it was cool to be in another state and started asking about driving to Idaho, California and Arizona. We tried to explain that they were a bit too far for this small trip! Below is a photo of a small portion of the bridge.
Anyway, back in Astoria we stopped at the Maritime Museum and had a super fun time checking out the exhibits and even got to go aboard an old Coast Guard ship they keep docked there. A great time until.....the migraine hit! Luckily Richard had his pills along with him, so he took one right away and I drove us back to the camp site. He laid down for a while and then was doing better.

Back to the museum....
The Columbia was the ship we got to go on. We were even able to go beneath deck to see where the sleeping quarters were as well as the galley and captain's quarters. One of my favorite things about Astoria was watching the huge container ships come in. There is something really fascinating about watching them up so close. The photos do not do them justice! They are huge and I really want to go back and spend a day just watching them carefully maneuver the mouth of the Columbia, where it is so treacherous a special pilot is taken to the ships to bring them safely into the river.

Camping part 2-Its like Riding a Bike....

Last summer Annalina got a good start at learning to ride her bike, so we took the bikes along so she could get in some good practice. Here is how she felt about that....
In case you can't see, she is NOT happy. She was telling Richard that she would learn tomorrow, but not today. Richard was kind a patient and told her he would help her. It only took a few times and she was off and riding on her own! After that she was on her bike every chance she got. Our campsite was at the begining of a circle and she rode that circle over and over again, with Joseph on her heels. Lots of kids came and went during our three night stay, and she made friends and rode bikes with them all!
We had some neighbors at the top of the circle who were there the whole time we were and they had four kids with bikes. After our success with Annalina we thought we'd teach Joseph to ride his bike. Luckily the neighbors had tools, and we removed Joseph's training wheels thinking he would learn quickly. He responded the same way Annalina had and REFUSED to get on his bike without the training wheels. Richard put them back on and he loved it.....maybe next year.....

Our Camping Adventure-Tip of Oregon Day

We wanted to get away for a few days before the hustle and bustle of school started up again. We had limited funds and decided $17 a night for camping would be acceptable, so I used my coupons and things we had on hand to make up a nice little menu and we set the date for the first week of September. Adrienne had a babysitting job all summer and she had taken a week off to go to Idaho and did not want to take another week off. At the last minute Jake was telling me about the Argus cross country pics he would be missing, and then there was also the time trials that would place him on Varsity or JV. He did not want to ruin our trip by asking to stay home, so I told him if it was important to him not to miss these events, he was welcome to stay home. So he did! He would have gone along happily and not complained, and that is why we felt it was so important to let him decide.

So we took the little kids and camping we went! We had so much gear that we had to take out the two middle seats to fit it all in without a trailer. We had a bike rack hitched up so we could take the kids bikes.
We went to Fort Stevens. It was a beautiful week for camping, not too hot, not too cold. We took a day to drive to the South Jetty, which the little kids excitedly called the very "Tip of Oregon". We climbed up onto the observation platform and had an incredible view! We watched some container ships come into the mouth of the Columbia River. The first photo below is probably my favorite of the day, the land you see in the background is actually Washington. The kids played on the river beach while Richard hiked up onto the rocks and went down the jetty a ways.
Here is Joseph attempting to climb a really tall tree with his sandals on. I don't think he could have made it if he had been wearing spikes, but it was cute of him to try!
Ahhhhh, enjoying our campfire! The kids LOVED roasting marshmallows, but we didn't actually get to do this until the second night because I left them sitting on the counter at home!!Joseph is a born camper. I admit, I am not a real enthusiastic fan of camping. There is so much dirt around, and spiders.....yuck! But seeing how much the kids enjoyed the whole experience helped me enjoy myself! By the way, I only saw three spiders the whole trip, but one was trying to get into the tent and it was moving FAST! Kinda freaked me out. And there were very few mosquitoes which was nice. We did not use repellent, and I only got three bites the whole time we were there!

Cross Country Season Has Begun!!!

Last weekend Richard and I had the pleasure of driving to Yamhill to watch Jake participate in the Trask Mountain Assault, is that not the most awesome name for a cross country event?? Anyway, this was his second competition for the season and it is NOT an easy one. It was full of hills, mud pits to slog through, muddy slopes to go up and muddy slopes to slide down. As hard as it is, Jake really loves running this race. It is exciting to be there, the energy coming off these athletes is eleectric as you can see from the start of the race below, there are SO many runners and though I know Jake is in there somewhere I have not been able to pick him out yet.



This race is run at the 3 Rock Ranch, which used to be the Flying M Ranch. There were so many schools there that we almost missed Jake running. We wandered for a long time looking for Glencoe, but could not find their camp. We had no idea what time the race started and had just decided to head home since Richard had been paged while we were on our way. We were almost to the parking lot when we found Diane Rasmussen heading in, she told us Varsity was about to start so we thought we'd just try to find him in the race. We spotted him midway through the race as they doubled back by the starting line. He had bright green tape on his shoes and around his head so he was easy to spot later. He finished strong!



OK, so here comes the emotional mother part, so if you are averse to this kind of thing and want to skip down to the next photo, you are encouraged to do so, I promise it will not hurt my feelings. Boy after boy was coming in for the finish and Richard and I were there at the end watching for Jake. My thoughts raced from excitement at watching Jake come in, to fear that he was out there somewhere hurt or struggling. Every runner we saw was covered in mud to some degree, so the irrational mother in me was starting to worry about my son. Would he be ok? Could he do it? I knew he could, after all he ran this same course last year. But I worried anyway. I watched and worried and thought about my Jake and what a wonderful man he is growing up to be. I thought about how proud I am of him and how amazed I am that he is working so hard at improving himself. Then the bright green headband came into view(for Richard, not me, my eyesight is not as clear as his) and I turned on the camera and caught his strong finish. Just look at him, isn't he fabulous!!!
So, as you may be able to see, Jake was covered in mud. I jokingly said, "how about a hug for your mom!" And that's just what I got! My first reaction was to cringe, I have a thing about being covered in dirt, its just yucky. In fact I believe my exact words were, "this is so against everything I believe in" but then I thought about it and realized what Jake had just done, and pride won out against the ickiness. I realized it was an honor for me to hug my filthy sweaty wonderful son! I wore that mud with pride and still have some on my purse, I may just leave it there for a while. I am so blessed to have the children I have. I thank my Heavenly Father every day for allowing me the honor of raising them. Each and every one of them is so dear to me and I am grateful at how they are all developing into such fine people, despite my shortcomings as a mother.

I am also grateful for my husband who had other things to do that day. I was going to go alone and thought the map looked pretty easy to follow. At the last minute Richard came along and I am so glad he did, I never would have made it, the roads out that far are not marked at all and I would probably STILL be wandering the backroads of Yamhill county today had he not decided to be my chauffer! Thanks honey, I love you!!

Back To School...for one of my kids....

So the first day of school is a bittersweet day for me, and probably is for every mother. It is exciting to get the kids back to school, more time to get done all the things that need doing, but it is sad in a way too. I took Annalina today(Adrienne and Jake will start tomorrow and Joseph in two weeks) and I watched her excitement at seeing all her friends she missed over the summer. Annalina is getting so big, it is hard for me to grasp at times how grown up she is getting. She is so tall and has such a beautiful smile. On this first day of school, and possibly every future first day of school, I find myself wondering, have I done everything I can to prepare Annalina to be successful in school? When I see the second grade click(sad they start so young) and the way they ignore her saying hi, I wonder if her feelings are hurt, or if she realizes at such a tender young age, that not everyone has the ability to be kind and loving to everyone else! I am just glad she is such a compassionate girl and that friendliness helps her make friends with almost everyone she meets. Her teacher is Mrs Gurske and her best buddy Magdalena is in her class as well as Gavin, Laef, Sam and Lizzy and a few others from last year. I think it will be a good year!