Big Honkin' Truck

This is the new truck. Well, new to us. After driving a Ford Ranger since '90, this feels really big, even bigger than the van. Lee is really liking it though. It's a Chevy Silverado & it seats up to 6, although I wouldn't put adults in the back so much. It's fine for the kids tho.

The engine is a V8, I think, so it is plenty capable for hauling something heavy, or putting a camper on there or something. It does suck up the gas though, so I don't think we'll be using it for that sort of stuff very often. The trailer stuff is all there, with wires for lighting & everything.

Living in a town where you haul your trash to the dump, and you have a burn pile for yard waste, it really is handy to have a decent truck. It will be especially handy for our annual Christmas Tree Hunt with the extended family. Since we moved up here, we've had to split ourselves amongst the other cars. I think we dragged the Nissan Sentra up there once or twice with chains on the tires, but I never attempted a van. We would use the Ranger here & there, but that only seated 3, so that meant 2 of us didn't even go on the tree hunt. The years we didn't have a truck, we'd have to arrange a separate trip to go pick up our tree from someone who did have a truck, or we'd ask someone to drop it off on their way back north.

This will be a lot easier - not only for getting there & back with a tree, but also for the cookout part. I will be able to cart along my cooking stuff from camping and use my own propane stove to make our hot dogs and, most likely, Lee's chili. We can pack an ice chest with drinks & the whole bit. I like it much better if I don't have to split all my stuff up between 3 cars so we can make our contribution to the potluck!

Also, we're not done with our home improvements. This truck will be very helpful in moving the bigger gear around - the drywall sheets were kind of tricky in the Ranger last time. We are hoping to do central heat/air as the next project, and it will be easier to load equipment into a big truck (actually extended) bed, vs. our little Ranger. And this one is even lined!

Other improvements besides the size: The Ranger's seat was mashed (just gave out) and I had to sit on chair pads to drive it. The window was all full of spiderweb cracks from various rocks and a car seat (empty!!!) hitting it at one point. The bench seat lever to move the seat forward & back had broken in the fully back position, so I also needed a cushion of some sort to lean against when I drove as well. The Silverado has fabric seats and air conditioning. The Ranger did not.

We got it for a really good price, and more than half was paid out of the settlement from the accident with the Ranger. Lee's foot is pretty good now, and he's back to walking to work.

I guess it was time for us to move up in the truck world!

Ebay for Christmas

Because they'll ship for you. It's just easier than shopping, waiting at the Post Office to mail packages, and all that stuff.

And while I'm at it, I'll be watching those items I still need for me :)

Rainy Rainy

We are having some funky weather. After freezing on Halloween, the clouds have collected over us and it's raining - with the cloud cover comes a warming temperature, so it's quite balmy. I am wearing sandals, a t-shirt and capri pants to work. Over the last couple of weeks I'd been wearing boots, turtlenecks, vests/sweaters & cord pants.

I have crossing guard duty this week, so hopefully it will taper off enough to keep me from getting completely drenched. At least we have Friday off so it's a short week.

Hopefully it won't rain on the Veteran's Day Parade on Saturday. I have to find out today which girls in my troop are going to walk in the parade. Amanda will be with the band. Mary might be doing something with Search & Rescue, which leaves Diana & Renee (and me). We'll see!

In the Newspaper

So, Diana was quoted in the paper the other day. She's doing a class on video production, and as part of that, she's supposed to create a PSA about the dangers of drug use. There was a all-day presentation at the fairgrounds, and all the kids doing video production or related classes were there learning tips from the local TV people.

The bit in the paper from Diana:

"We already know long-term effects." She said she would never do drugs because her parents would eventually find out and make her life a nightmare. "My parents educated me early on," she said. "If I were to do drugs, that would just totally mess up my family."

What didn't make it into the paper was that she has brothers with special needs, and she has a lot of responsibility at home - if she were to do drugs, it really WOULD mess up the family dynamics.

Lee is fine with the world knowing that yes, we do pay attention to our kids and when they do things they shouldn't, there are repercussions. It probably isn't clear to most people, but Diana's idea of her life being a nightmare would be us taking away her computer. And if she did drugs, besides going to counseling and other interventions, she would most definitely lose a lot of her current freedom. And she'd probably have to do more chores.

She would still have Japanese club & Girl Scouts, because those are both positive activities that discourage drug use.

Not so much a nightmare as some would think, really. But for her, yes, very bad.

These PSA's aren't aimed at a kid like Diana, who has great self-esteem & confidence in herself, who doesn't bow to peer pressure and who comes from a loving, involved family. It's really supposed to be trying to help those kids who don't have that kind of life. Kids who need someone to say, "It's okay to do your own thing. You don't need drugs to be happy."

I'm interested to see how Diana's PSA comes out. If we can manage it, we'll post it on the blog when it's done :)

Happy Halloween, part deux

After going to the Neewollah Parade downtown (Halloween spelled backwards), Connor was pretty much done with the trick or treat thing. It might have something to do with the temperature being 38 degrees after the sun went down.

So after we got home again & ate some spaghetti for dinner, Trevor & Diana changed into much warmer clothes. Then they went out to really trick or treat. They had to go to most of Diana's route customers, and then through a newer housing tract near where Christy lives.

People were either giving out handfuls of candy because they didn't expect anyone to actually come to their house (but had candy just in case) or it was getting late & they wanted to get ride of their candy.

For round two, Diana was Puss in Boots, and Trevor was an elf - what else can you be with green hair?

We handed out full-size candy bars this year. They were on sale, and we only had 6 kids come to the door anyway, so what the heck? Lee figured if they took the time to come all the way up our hill, they deserved something more than a tiny Snickers bar.

It was good our kids used pillow cases. They came home with a LOT of candy. Yay!

Happy Halloween

Connor was Timmy Turner.

Diana was Wanda.

Trevor was Cosmo.

Together, they were the cast of "The Fairly Oddparents!"

The girl next to Trevor is Christy. She was a sorceress or something. Connor referred to her as "Vicky" because that's the name of Timmy's babysitter. :)

Bathroom coming along

It's not quite done, but it's usable! We still need to put in the trim, and there's supposed to be a cupboard over the toilet coming in too. And I haven't done any kind of decorating at all yet.

But we now have two full bathrooms in the house, vs. one and a toilet with a cupboard :)

Diana should be getting contact lenses soon, since Lee & I moved our stuff out of the other bathroom, and she now will have room for lenses, cleaner, solution, etc.

Cleaning Day

Saturday is cleaning day. We all clean the house & do laundry. You wouldn't think this would be cause for joy, but in Connor's case, it's just too fun.

Normally, I forget about the laundry part way through the day. Once it's started, I have to remind myself to keep moving loads. Recently, Connor decided he wanted to help with the wash. It's probably stimming a bit, but he likes to watch the washer fill with water & then do the wash cycle. He has to close the top to make it continue, so at that point, he usually leaves. He comes back again once the rinse water starts, because he wants to put in the "milk" (fabric softener looks kind of like milk). As soon as the dryer stops, he calls for me to get the load out, so we can move the wet clothes in and start a new load in the washer.

This is really helping me to keep the laundry moving. Thanks Connor!

Auf Wiedersehen Leonie!

On Sunday, we got up early and drove Leonie to the airport. Lots of the students on both sides (German & US) were tearfully saying their good-byes.

I think most of the kids had a good time visiting Oregon. A lot of them had U of O or OSU hoodies or other Oregon gear on. They had a big group hug, and lots of promises to email, etc.

Diana really liked having a "sister" around. She actually was happy to do more girly things than she usually does - like trying on clothes at the mall.

Leonie made a pretty good dent in Diana's manga collection, but I think she could have spent another couple of weeks just cozy in her bed, reading manga. Any spare moment, that's where she was. Diana was glad to have someone around who appreciated what she likes too.

Just before she left to go through the security check and off to her gate to wait to board, we did a last group hug with Diana, Leonie, Connor & me (Lee was at work and Trevor stayed home). We were all kind of sniffling, and then Connor pipes up with, "I'm Alive!" So we all had to laugh, of course. (that's a quote from Calvin & Hobbes again - the next line would be "I kiss the sweet ground!" after a nasty spill off the Radio Flyer wagon). I'm not sure if it's Calvin & Hobbes hugging each other that prompts Connor to say that, but he's done that before when hugging us.

Anyway - we watched & waved as Leonie got in the security line, and then she was out of sight. Diana & I held Connor's hands as we left the airport and got back to the van. Then we drove back toward I-5, and went in search of Sweet Tomatoes, a salad buffet restaurant we like to visit when we're near Portland.

Then we drove home again.

I just wish I'd remembered the ibuprofen & that heat pad thing I was going to stick onto my back. Ouch.

Leonie emailed already. She is home safe & sound. I think both she & Diana are already looking forward to June, when Diana goes to visit Leonie!

Homecoming Dance

Ooooh! Aaaah! Aren't they pretty?

Seriously, Diana never would have gone if not for Leonie. She hasn't attended any formal dances, and didn't have plans to go to any - but it was part of the activities for the German students, so she went!

The dress she's wearing is actually a dress she'd tried on at Ross two years ago. She really liked the dress at that time, but she was a freshman in High School, and I didn't see any reason to buy her the dress. Again, she's not into the formal dance stuff anyway.

So here we are years later, and Mary IS into the formal dance thing. She has scads of dresses, so she brings a few over for Diana & Leonie to try. And viola! There's the black and white dress Diana liked so well. She also loaned the peachy-pink dress to Leonie. If you click on the photos, you'll see more detail with the girls' hair. Mary worked a long time on both of them.

So that was Saturday night!

The Safari

I get a free pass through my parent support group, otherwise this would have cost about $60 for those of us in the car! Well, we probably would have left Mary home, but as she was going to do the girls' hair for the Homecoming Dance, I treated her too (for free).

The Safari had a lot of babies this time! Zebras, buffalo, yaks, and various ungulates in the African & Asian regions. Fun!

The lions were active (the bears were not) and the giraffe was close enough for us to see his blue tongue - so cool!




Even the hippos were out of their pond this time - highly unusual. I guess it's because it's gotten cooler, and maybe since we went in the afternoon, it was getting closer to their feeding time or something. I'm not sure. We didn't get to go through the village for long, because it was closing, so Connor missed the little train (no big loss).

After this, we got Taco Bell and the girls started getting ready for the dance. That only took 3 hours...

German Evening

Sorry for the poor image, but I was too far from the stage to use my regular auto-setting on the camera - the photos were too dark.

The german students treated us to a variety show on Thursday. Afterward, they'd all made desserts for us to try. Leonie made a chocolate whipped cream & cherry cake, and it all got eaten. She was very happy about that!

In the photo, Leonie is playing the "boyfriend" in the couple in the middle. The skit showed an older lady (red scarf) on a bench. The young couple comes and scootch her over, and then the tramp shows up and scootches over until the others are all forced off the bench. At the end, he said, "I don't have lice, but a bench to myself is nice!" and takes a nap.

Leonie did a good job of playing a boy. It reminded me of my Girl Scouts, since their favorite camp routine is "Boy scout inventions" where they all play (rather dumb) boy scouts. It's pretty funny too.

It was a fun night!

Another Hike

This is Fall Creek Falls. It's about a half-mile hike over medium terrain. Connor really liked it and this time we brought Liberty along as well. She did great as long as she was in front.

Renee is one of my Girl Scouts (we did this for our meeting - but the other two girls couldn't make it). Since she enjoys horror movies, Renee came up with a story about a mom, 3 teen girls and a little boy and a dog that get attacked by a bear AND a serial killer.

The story Renee made up is as follows. She used us as the characters - but it is just her made-up story!:

The sister & brother survive by getting back to the van and locking themselves up, althought the dog doesn't make it when it attacks the bear to give the siblings time. The exchange student tries to be a hero and gets her foot bitten off, and so she has to endure a long, painful death. The bimbo gets killed when she goes to get help alone, and the mom finally makes it to the road and gets a ride out of the horror trail, only to find out the car is being driven by the serial killer. The end.


Renee freaked herself out for the whole rest of the hike. All you had to do was say, "Gosh, that looks like a good place for a serial killer to camp" and she was running down the path.

Heh. We made it back to the car safely, obviously, and no one had a foot chewed off or anything. Renee is fun.

Happy Birthday Catherine!

She took the first two pictures herself. I was letting her play with my camera at the beach That's her foot & her towel.

Hopefully, you had a fun day today. There's a present coming in the mail - We've been kind of busy, sorry it's late!

Love from Tante Tina, Uncle Lee, Trev, Diana & Connor :)

I tweaked my back :(

On Thursday we were trained on lifting techniques at work (we have to move the kids around to different positions & changes from & to their wheelchairs).

I did fine with the lifting under the supervision of the Physical Therapist. We did lift more than usual tho. However, I felt fine, and had used the correct technique.

So after we're all trained, I go to use the restroom. While I'm laying down the little strips of TP on the seat to protect myself, I feel a twinge in my back. Suddenly I have to hold on to the rails on the wall and stuff to lift myself up & down. Dang it.

I had to file an incidence report, and fill out worker's comp stuff and go see a chiropractor. This particular chiropractor has massage therapists work on you before he does the adjustments. They use a heat pad, then massage, then the adjustment. My back feels a lot better already. The ibuprofen is good too.

Today the custodian at the school installed a holder for toilet seat covers, and filled it.

Girls like horses

Before you can ride, you need to help muck out stalls tho...



Thanks Nancy & Kraig for letting us come play with the horses!

:)

Cowboy Connor

This was great. Connor really liked the horses. Lee's brother Kraig & his wife Nancy have about 18 horses at their ranch. We wanted to take Leonie to visit some of our family and this is part of what we did while we were there.

Besides practically force-feeding them hay, Connor just really loved the riding part.


When I asked him later to tell me what he did, he must have strung 50+ words together in 8-10 sentence fragments about feeding and riding the horses. That's more than I've ever heard him say at once.

He sat on the white horse and said, "I'm cowboy! Let's go! Giddy-up! I'm Connor cowboy!" It was great.

The brown horse, Tia, was more skittish, so she needed to be led. The white horse, Trinity, was much more calm, so Connor could steer and ride more on his own.

We'll have to do this again soon.

A bunch of posts

After a bit of a break from blogging, I updated today (yay!).

Click on the photos to enlarge them. You don't always see the best detail in the photo as it is on the blog page.

There's another couple of day's worth of stuff I still need to add, but I'm tired now.

Enjoy!

Saturday, Part 1

So on Saturday, we did a bit of a round-trip tour.

We started by going out to Reedsport, then up past Florence to the Sea Lion Caves.

Then back down to Florence to play around on the sand dunes, and then have some lunch.

We went back to Reedsport and stopped at the lighthouse, but by then, kids were tired, so we didn't do the tour of that after going thru the Coast Guard Museum (or maybe I was tired & didn't want to chase Connor up & down the lighthouse?).

Then down to Coos Bay, and back over inland to get home.

It was about 250 miles.

Saturday, Part 2

Leonie rolling


Connor sandy-face (click & view close up).
Diana rolling.













Trevor takes a leap.
This is just way too much fun. Ever.

Do this next time you're up our way.

Saturday, Part 3

We stopped here for lunch. You can eat in a car. It was cool.

They also had little dime or quarter rides, so we had to spend a little change on that too.

Good burgers - regular & veggie!

At Crater Lake

Here they are! The 2006-07 GAPP kids! Well, a couple of them are missing - mostly on the American side.

We had Friday off from school, and I was one of the drivers. Besides Diana & Leonie, I had the German kids' teacher, and one of the American kids' teachers. So the adults talked in front, and the girls in the back.

On the way up, we hiked at Watson Falls, which the german students really enjoyed. They live in a very flat part of Germany, and hilly hikes with waterfalls are just way cool to them. Then we got to Crater Lake and ate lunch, took a bunch of pictures & then headed back toward home.

We also did part of the "Dread & Terror" trail on the way back. If you're up our way, you gotta do that one. The "dread & terror" part isn't the trail so much as it used to be very difficult to get the mail thru that section via horseback - too many blackberry bushes and other pokey plants. The trail itself is all full of water features. It's a good idea to wear shoes that can get wet, since a lot of the trail is partly in water. Water emerges from the walls, above & under the trail (where is it all coming from?). It's not a tough hike at all, but be prepared to get wet.

We had a spectacular day, weather-wise, and all the kids enjoyed it (as did the adults!).

Gotta get ready

So Diana's going to the Homecoming Dance this weekend because all the German & American partners are going. This is not something she would choose to do, normally. It's just not her thing. This is the girl who shops in the boy's department because she prefers cargo pants over skinny jeans (you can hold a lot more pencils & erasers for art!).

However, a couple of years ago, we went to Eugene to visit a mom & daughter that were living there. We all went shoppign together, and while we were in Ross, both girls decided they wanted to try on formal dresses. Diana found a very nice strapless gown in black & white, with contrasting embroidery. She actually liked the dress well enough to ask me to buy it. At the time, she was a freshman in High School, and I didn't think it would be a great idea to buy a $50 dress to hang in the closet for years. And you know what? She didn't need it anyway - she didn't want to go to the big dances, and she didn't want a boyfriend.

Fast forward to September. We found out ALL the German & American partners are supposed to attend this Homecoming. And really, if you're going to go to a big dance like that, it's certainly a lot more fun with a bunch of friends than going with a guy you barely know anyway. If you're already in a couple, it's a bit different, but she's not, so this is cool. She now regrets that she didn't get that black & white dress at Ross, though.

Moving on, we had a sleepover with our girl scout friends. Mary, who is IN to all the big dances, has scads of dresses. She brings some along for Diana & Leonie to try out. In the bunch is the black & white dress Diana wanted 2 years ago. It found her. Guess what she's wearing to the Homecoming? Leonie also found a nice dress.

Today, a guy came up to Leonie and handed her a note from his friend. The friend asks Leonie in the note if she'll go with him to Homecoming. He writes she is "varry pritty" in his penciled note.

Actually, going as a couple is discouraged. The German & American students are supposed to hang out together - not pair off with dates. So Leonie already didn't think she was supposed to go with anyone. But Lee & I also told her it was not a big loss. First off, the guy doesn't have the guts to ask her face to face. She doesn't even know who he is! And the creative spelling isn't helping either.

But doesn't Diana look cute in make up?

Remodel update

So here's the new shower, sans doors. As you can see, it sits in the corner of the bathroom. It's actually 3 pieces, and you caulk in between all the seams first. Once the doors are on, you do a lot more caulking.

I'm not sure I'm happy with the showerhead so far. It's more like rain than a massage-type shower, and I like a little more pressure... That might get switched out. But I like the handle to turn the water on, and that came with this showerhead. Easy enough to fix.

The far left is the color of the bedroom, and in the bathroom it's a bit lighter blue.

More later....

Getting there...

Okay - we have the vanity in, the mirror up (with lights!) and the toilet is in. The base of the shower is down, and tonight when Lee gets home, we'll put up the rest of it. It has to be glued and set, and I guess there's a 10-minute window of time to get it in the right place once you start sticking the glue on the wall, so we'll have to move fast. And apparently this glue doesn't wash off once it's on something, so we'll also have to be careful! Then it sets for 48 hours. During that time we can use the caulk and seal everything though, and once the shower walls are up, we can put up the towel racks & stuff like that.

I think we're going to put a few more shelves up still - like above the toilet. And some kind of cupboard for the appliances to stay plugged in. That will be on the wall to the right of the vanity. But we're not going to get into that part yet. We're just concentrating on a working 2nd bathroom at this point!

More pictures to follow...

Germans!

Last Friday, Lee & Diana picked up our exchange student from Germany. Her name is Leonie, and she's very nice. Her English is very good, and she has been a pretty easy guest so far.

Diana is experiencing more High School stuff than she normally would. The first night the students arrived, there was a home football game. Leonie wanted to check it out, so off they went. I dropped them off and they got a ride home with another host & german student. Diana hadn't ever been to a game before.

The next day was Saturday, and we went to a Harvest Festival (kind of dull, but it gave Leonie a chance to see a little of the town & try our great ice cream). That night there was a pool party at another host family's house, so I dropped them off there. There were 40+ high school kids there (yikes!) and that was Diana's first big boy/girl party.

On Sunday, a local pilot flew groups of 3 german students at a time for an hour-long flight. We were actually scheduled for 9:00, but it was too cloudy, and she eventually got to do her flight from noon to 1:00. After that, we had to get stuff together for a pot luck dinner, held at our big park on the river. Connor enjoyed throwing rocks in the river a lot.

Then on Monday, school started. Leonie followed Diana through her schedule the first couple of days. I had to go to a Girl Scout leader meeting, but Lee took Leonie with him to get some groceries.

Tuesday we had our regular Girl Scout meeting. I'm not sure what Leonie actually thought of that. I have some wild & crazy teen girls and there's a lot of giggling and silliness and eating. I actually had the scouts figure out a craft to do as a kind of get-to-know-you thing. So they all had canvas bags, sequins, puff paint, felt, googly eyes, etc. to stick on with sewing, tacky glue or hot glue. Everyone made a unique bag. Some of the girls got it all done, others are still working on them. After that, we had spaghetti. Mary was impressed with Leonie's use of a tablespoon to wind her spaghetti on her fork. "I love how Leonie does it right, and we're all just slopping spaghetti on our faces!"

Wednesday all the german students took a tour of our mill and museum. Leonie thought it was a little long. Leonie's best friend (also an exchange student) came to visit. I dropped Diana off with them at our outdoor mall for a couple of hours. They had to go to Claire's, Dollar Tree, and the Spirit store. That's a temporary Halloween store. Since they don't do Halloween in Germany, it was a lot of fun for the german girls to see it.

Today Leonie got her own schedule of classes. She's checking out Beginning Acting, Foods, and other elective classes. She said she enjoyed that today. Then after school, she went along to the Japanese club meeting with Diana. Speaking of, in her downtime, Leonie loves reading Diana's manga. She's currently going through Full Metal Alchemist, one of Diana's favorites. They aren't familiar with that one in Germany.

Tomorrow we'll go to the big mall in Eugene so Leonie can check out Hot Topic (so she can get her own FMA stuff. Whoo Hoo!

:)

Good tip

I got an email from a friend today. It's full of good tips.

We live a rainy part of the country. When it rains a lot, the clay that makes up most of the soil around here gets too wet for the ants, and they move into your house. It doesn't matter how clean or dirty your house is - you can have a spotless kitchen counter, and fly dies on your windowsill and now there's a line of black going from the dead fly to whatever hole in the wall the ants found their way out of.

Trevor's way of handling the ants is to "draw" circles around them with the liquid dish detergent. This uses up a lot of detergent. And the ants are still alive, just stuck in the circle. Until you wipe them up. Ew.

Diana likes the foam soap pump better. At least that way you don't have to look as much at the dead ant bodies.

My personal favorite way to get rid of ants was shown to me by my cousin Ekki from Germany. He used his lighter on a line of ants on a tree while we were at a park. They just froze there - burned to a crisp. But we can't do that in the kitchen without causing damage to my counters.

So here's the tip: Put some cornmeal where you notice ants coming in. They will take the cornmeal to their nest, but they can't digest it. So when they eat it, it kills them. Ta da!

Maybe it gets stuck in the 'node.'

For any that take issue with my attitude toward ants - hey, I pay the mortgage. Freeloaders of species other than human or dog will be terminated.

Wrong size hands

Yesterday, I worked on putting up the insulation in our new to-be bathroom. Trevor helped me first, then later Lee & I worked together.

You know, it's a lot harder to do something if all the tools are the wrong size and/or weight. After 5 tries, I could no longer squeeze the staple gun. Sure, I'm not used to doing that, but dang, it would help if it actually FIT my hand!

Working with the hammer isn't much better. It's weighted correctly for Lee (rightly so, since it's his), but it makes it more work for me. I have a small hammer I use for camping. It's a POS, but it works for me!

I would rather be the gopher with construction. I get too frustrated with doing the actual work. I'll cut the insulation down to size, but forget stapling it. So I just handed Lee the nails, tape measure, caulk gun, yadda yadda.

I'll stick to my sewing machine, knitting, canning stuff, etc. I'll leave construction to the people it's better suited for - people whose hands fit the tools (I know there are large-handed women out there somewhere!) and who have the arm strength to staple things to the ceiling.

I won the basket!

Back to my TOPS club. Don't read if not interested. And you're probably not :P

Every week at the TOPS meeting people bring some things (healthy food, money, whatever) to put in a basket. Whoever has the largest weight loss that week (minus any gain from the prior week) wins the basket.

We have a few KOPS, eight ladies, in our club now (Keeping Off Pounds Sensibly) and yesterday another KOPS lady & I were the ones with the biggest weight loss in the chapter that night. That's very unusual.

Until you reach your goal weight, most of the time the TOPS members will beat out the KOPS people every time on the weight loss. Especially since the KOPS people are all about maintaining their weight loss, vs. continuing to lose every week.

We have a 10-lb leeway we're supposed to stay in, and when you are hitting the top of your leeway, sure, you need to lose weight. But it's harder to lose 2 lbs. in one week when you only have 5 to lose!

So, that's my little piece of TOPS club history for today. 2 KOPS beat out the TOPS members to get the prize basket (and I got an energy-saving lightbulb in my half!)

See you lighter!

Thank You

to any and all people involved in keeping us safe in the USA for the last 5 years.

But oh, the potential!

We bought our house because 1) we were sick of living in a tiny 2-bedroom duplex with 2 school-age kids & a baby, 2) it was very very affordable and 3) we planned on living here a long time and the house has such potential! It's on about 1/3 acre, one story with a daylight basement, 2 toilets (tho 1 full bathroom) and 3 bedrooms. A nice fit for us. It's in walking distance from the elementary school and High School, if you really want to walk that far - Downtown is closer than that.

The first thing we did when we moved in was paint the interior. The previous owners were apparently losing their vision, so they painted every thing in extremely LOUD colors - greens & pinks and oranges. It hurt my eyes.

Lee's sister, Donna, came up with a nice color scheme for me - I selected the colors I liked best, and she helped me paint the kitchen & laundry room. Much, much better. The bathroom went from being bright lime green to white with green accents, and our bedroom went from bright pink to white with pink trim. The boy's room had been dark beige and pink (???) so we went instead for a yellow & blue that matched a cool wallpaper space thing that Donna had found for them.

Diana's room was very small. It had been used by the previous owner for his ham radio room. I guess he used to have a massive ham antenna in the back of the house or something. Anyway, her room went from dark beige to light blue. Donna had found a lot of nice wallpaper borders & stuff to match up with paint.

All that together raised the value of the house right off the bat. Then we took a break for about 4 years.

Now we've added a master bedroom where our carport used to be. It's very nice and big and exactly what we wanted. Diana's tiny bedroom became a nice, big walk-in closet, and she moved into our old room. She painted all our previously pink trim a nice shiny black (to fit her oriental-theme decor). The new big bedroom has medium blue walls & light blue ceiling, with a nice Pergo floor that looks like real wood. The trim in the room is white.

Since the windows for the new room came with white frames, we went ahead and painted the other window frames in front white as well. It looks much cleaner than the old blue. We still need to paint the other windows on the sides of the house. However, we are in September now, and it's already started raining here & there. I'm focussed more on the new bathroom at this point.

And that's the last thing we've been working on now. If you've looked at Lee's blog at all, you'll know how that's going already. Suffice to say, I'm not much involved in this project other than cleaning up after it a lot. I did put down the tar felt stuff today by myself on the floor. So that's something. I also helped pick out the vanity. I need drawers. I have a blow dryer! And product for my hair!! Lee's dad took the wood from the huge cupboard that shared the room with the toilet, and he's going to make us a linen closet with that. It will go in the laundry room.

Our german exchange student is coming at the end of the month, so there's the timeline! Actually, the sooner we get toilet #2 up & running, the better!!

First Day of School

Connor started on Tuesday, T&D started on Wednesday. I worked Tuesday, but we didn't have students until Wednesday, because the construction from the summer wasn't done yet!

Connor's in 3rd this year. He apparently did fine the first week. I keep in email contact with his teacher, special ed teacher & assistants. They can also call me at work if there's an issue. I didn't really hear from anyone, so on Friday I sent an email to his teacher, asking how it's going. So far so good! He should be working on a "word of the day" every day, and he should have homework coming home on Mondays that's due on Fridays. I'm thinking it might be good to have each of us work a little with Connor during the week.

Diana is taking Anatomy & Physiology as an elective this year. She wants to work toward being a Physical Therapist (can't go wrong with the baby boomers getting older!). They are supposed to dissect a rabbit this year. Later, they'll go to a big hospital in Portland and see an autopsy performed. This is the girl who looks away when we watch CSI. Hmm. Should be interesting. She's also taking German 3, Video Production & Algebra 2 as electives. She said she wants to be done with Math after this. Too bad, it really comes pretty easily for her. The required classes are English & Economics, I think.

Trevor is doing Drafting 3, German 3, Trig, Chemistry & College Prep English as electives. The last four are more college-bound classes vs. elective in my book. And he's heading for something to do with engineering, and the Drafting should work best with that. Trig is just a semester class, and if he can do it, Lee would like him to learn welding, just because it would be a good hands-on thing to know - and it fits with engineering too. Trevor's required classes is Government.

I think everyone is going to need to be pretty organized to keep up with the class loads. Both older kids are supposed to do a household chore when they get home, then start on homework. Diana has her route, but she's wanting to change to a "real" job soon. I think we'll wait until after the exchange student is gone though, since it's easier to work around a paper route than it is to ask your new boss for hours to fit socializing with a bunch of german kids. Still, she's almost halfway into what she needs to earn for the trip, and that's pretty good!

The construction in my classroom was so late because 1) the school district waited too long to put the job up for bids - all the local contractors bid way high because their summers were already booked, and 2) they wound up using the district Handymen, who didn't know the codes as well, so there were 5 change-orders during construction.

We still had a toilet uninstalled and no linoleum in our changing room on the first day of school. They finally finished everything completely (I hope) by Wednesday afternoon. The linoleum had been laid on Tuesday, but it needed 24 hours to cure - but we could step on it during our day on Wednesday. Still, all that dust and stuff was a pain in the rear when we should have had kids in class. Oh well.

Now we get down to scheduling who is doing what with which kid. We have a new teacher this year, and she took the first 3 days just to see what the needs of our special kids actually were. On Monday she plans to have a schedule, and that will help us remember to take our breaks and lunches on time too. The new teacher and a new aide still need to be trained on feeding protocols for most of the kids, and that needs time with the nurse and Occupational Therapist. Until then, the three of us from last year will have to cover the feeding schedule. But that's okay, we can do that.

Whew! Once school is going, we get to start thinking about Girl Scouts! Whoopee!!

Canadian Humour

This next entries were on a menu at a pub I visited with my mom & sister, Connie. We thought they were funny:


Thieves broke into an RCMP headquarters today in Cape Breton and stole all the toilets. Police say, "we don't have a thing to go on."


Then there was the Newfy, who thought he had fooled Air Canada. He bought a return ticket, but he wasn't coming back.



The following is a telephone exchange between a hotel guest and room-service, at a hotel in Asia, which was recorded and published in the Far East Economic Review:

Room Service (RS): "Morny. Ruin sorbees."

Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service"

RS: "Rye... Ruin sorbees... morny! Djewish to odor sunteen?"

G: "Uh... yes... I'd like some bacon and eggs."

RS: "Ow July den?"

G: "What??"

RS: "Ow July den? ... pry, boy, pooch?"

G: "Oh, the eggs! How do I like them? Sorry, scrambled please."

RS: "Ow July dee baychem... crease?"

G: "Crisp will be fine."

RS: "Hokay. An San tos?"

G: "What?"

RS: "San tos. July San tos?"

G: "I don't think so."

RS: "No? Judo one toes??"

G: "I feel really bad about this, but I don't know what 'judo one toes' means."

RS: "Toes! Toes! ... why djew Don Juan toes? Ow bow singlish mopping we bother?"

G: "English muffin!! I've got it! You were saying 'toast.' Fine. Yes, an English muffin will be fine."

RS: "We bother?"

G: "No... just put the bother on the side."

RS: "Wad?"

G: "I mean butter... just put it on the side."

RS: "Copy?"

G: "Sorry?"

RS: "Copy... tea... mill?"

G: "Yes. Coffee please, and that's all."

RS: One Minnie. Ass ruin torino fee, strangle ache, crease baychem, tossy singlish mopping we bother honey sigh, and copy... rye?"

G: "Whatever you say."

RS: "Tendjewberrymud."

G: "You're welcome."

The last one is my favorite

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Abraham Lincoln

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.
Mark Twain

Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance.
Plato (427-347 BC)

Plato was a bore.
Friedrich Nietzche (1844-1900)

Nietzche was stupid and abnormal.
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)

Jack's memorial

click on the picture to enlarge it.

Here are some photos of Jack from the memorial. It was very nice. His brother played piano & picked out the music for the background, which included Weird Al Yankovic. His dad gave the Eulogy, and his sister related a funny story. Some kids from the High School band performed as well.

During the part where people came to the microphone and talked about their experiences with Jack, Diana went up. I was very proud of her.

One of Jack's friends had said that they'd discussed who had the funnier German last name. Dannenhoffer vs. Kirkendahl. Diana went up and introduced herself as "Diana," and then said, "Jason, I believe I win for the funniest German name with Kiester." Everyone laughed at that. Then she told her story about how Jack had insisted that dragons were real, etc. She held it together and was able to smile. Later, her teachers & people that know us told her she was very brave to do that. But knowing Diana, she has that ability to pull up courage and do what she feels needs to be done.

Afterwards, Jack's dad asked me if it would be okay if he took Trevor & Diana to help pick out a location at the cemetery behind our house for Jack's ashes. He said Jack would have thought it great fun to be so close to our kids - so they could just look over the fence and say "Hi Jack!" I told Diana if she wanted, she could ask if she could plant some snapdragons there. While we believe after death the soul moves on, and the body is just a shell, more or less, it will still be a place that she & Trevor can go to reflect and remember. I don't know what the restrictions are on an Oddfellows Cemetery, but they'll be trying to get him in there.

We'll be going over this week to visit. Lee was home with Connor & missed the memorial, and I think he'd like to visit with Jack's folks for a while too. Diana & I will bring some goodies. We know his brother really likes chocolate, so I think brownies, at least. Diana might want to make a cheesecake too.

Also, a blurb was posted in the paper that Jack was indeed wearing his lifejacket & doing everything he should to be safe. Some debris caught on his shorts, and that's what caused the accident. Of course, anyone that knew Jack would know he was following the rules. This was the safety-monitor kid who would remind everyone to do things the right way. People float the river all the time around here, and unless something freaky like this happens, everyone just has a great time. And that was Jack - living & enjoying life, and having a great time, with a huge grin on his face.

His dad reminded us at the memorial, none of us knows what will happen. Be sure to let those you love know how much you love them, and take the time you need to do that.