Holiday Time

Like many people, we have been busy during this holiday season. We started by celebrating Thanksgiving with my mom and then my sister and her children joined us for shopping and gingerbread house and cookie decorating. My children have also made paper snowflakes of many shapes and sizes, so that we could have snow inside the house as well as outside. One of our annual traditions at this time of the year is to go out and cut a christmas tree. Although it has become an expensive tradition, it is one that holds a special place in our hearts.

Moving On

Today we finished moving our daughter's last few things out of our home into her new home. She has been staying with some of her friends that live about 45 minutes south of us and now they have purchased a new townhome and she will be renting from them. I must say that it is with mixed emotions that I watch her move on. I am very proud of her and excited for her to start this next stage of her life but also miss having her around just to chat with whenever. Her new home is just minutes from her work, instead of the 45 - 60 minute commute that she did have. It is also closer to church and a lot of her other activities. This move will save her time and money and also bring a bigger sense of independence. Along with this move another move will be happening soon. Boy #3 will move into Big Sister's room (after a paint job, of course) and thus Boy #2 and Boy #3 will have their own rooms for the first time ever.

First Mustang's 7 Random facts

My husband was tagged by flying solo to do the 7 Random facts meme too. Since he doesn't have a blog or want one - I am posting his 7 random facts, dictated to me this morning before church.

1. I like Mustangs (cars)

2. I like fruity flavored ice cream

3. I am restoring a 1965 mustang.

4. I think global warming is a farce.

5. I am looking forward to Christ's return.

6. I wish I had a bigger shop.

7. I want a big screen 1080p TV.

He also decided his nickname should be First Mustang.

So there you have it, my husband's first post on Tootlestime. We are tagging anyone who hasn't already been tagged. Let us know if you post your seven random things.

7 Random Facts About Me

I was tagged by my friend Shiloh Mom with this Meme - First here are the rules:

7 Random Facts... now these are the rules:
-Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
- Post these rules on your blog.
- List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
- Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
- Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog

Here goes:

1. I am only 4'10" tall
2. I am researching my family tree
3. I enjoy reading Mrs. Pollifax mysteries by Dorothy Gilman
4. I have four children
5. I have one sister and two step sisters and one step brother.
6. I live in a bright yellow house
7. I drive a Black Cherry Chevy Suburban.

I am tagging Ladybug at Christian Life in the 21st Century, Artax at his new An Inconceivable Blog, Waldo Pepper at his new Flying Solo blog, Our friends the Reddings at
Redding Mountain . I know that isn't seven but it will have to do. Have fun!

One Beautiful Lady - A Tribute

Yesterday, December 10th, 2007 would have been my mother in law's 78th birthday. Unfortunately, lung cancer cut her life short. In March of 1987 at the age of 57 she passed on two weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

Bertha Mae Rische was born to Melvin and Elfrieda Rische, on December 10th, 1929 in Mound City, SD. She grew up, the third of nine children, she and her siblings were very close. Bertha graduated from Glenham High School in 1949. After graduating from high school she worked as a nurses aid at the Mobridge Hospital and then later as a sales clerk and clerical help at Montana Dakota Utilities in Mobridge, SD. She married Henry Liebelt in June of 1954 and they later moved their family, first to California back to South Dakota and then to Washington State, where they settled. All together they had four children, of which my husband was the third. She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. A very talented homemaker, Bertha could sew and crochet beautifully. She was a wonderful mother-in-law, who was incredibly patient with her not so skilled daughter in law. She was one of those people who make you feel at home instantly. I miss her very much.

The Life and Times of a Grandfather

This past weekend, I took a two hour drive to pick my mother up from her sister's house. This sister, my aunt, had in her possession documents from my grandfather's military duty. I have very few memories of this grandfather as there were some relationship issues that kept him and my mother apart and thus us kids didn't really get to know him. It is so sad how Satan can step in and destroy families, but that is another subject for another time. I have a strong interest in family history and why people make the choices that they make and so my current project is to get to know as much about this man as I can. Unfortunately, he died several years ago and so I cannot talk with him in person and so I have to dig through old papers and talk with those who did know him. His name was Everett Bowen and he was born in Audrain County, Missouri in 1911. I know that he graduated from highschool and married my grandmother Zelli Romans Trower in August of 1941. He worked as a sheet metal worker for North American Aviation Company for 6 months in 1942 and served his country in the 3119th Signal Service Battalian of the army between 1943 and 1946, when he was honorably discharged. Soon after he was discharged from the Army, He moved his family to Washington State. The family consisted of my grandfather, grandmother and my mother, who was born in 1943, while he was away during the war. Another daughter came along some time during 1946 and then another daughter in 1948. The family remained in the Seattle area and all three daughters were married in the Seattle area. When I was about 4 or 5, my grandparents divorced and due to the difficulties between my mother and grandfather, we rarely saw him. He retired to the Puyallup area and also died there in 1988. As you can see, all I currently have is a bare skeleton of his life events. I hope to flesh it out in the weeks to come and be able to have a more complete idea of his life and times. I enjoy the pursuit of family history, it is like trying to solve real life mysteries.

Where has the Time Gone?

I must admit that I contemplated deleting this blog - due to lack of inspiration and interest on my part. I am not sure why I decided to continue on, but alas, for now I am. The summer seems to have flown by and yet, when I look back, I have a hard time figuring out where it went. Hmm. We did have a couple of short trips, one to the Sun Lakes area of Eastern Washington in June, it was wonderfully warm and sunny, which was greatly appreciated after our cool spring. The second trip was a camping trip with dear friends in the Olympic National Park Heart O' the Hills Campground. Lush, old growth forest envelopes this campground and God's handiwork is truly evident. Other events have filled our summer too. Our oldest son, almost 17, has started his first job at a nearby Jack in the Box restaurant and also received his drivers license. These events have brought many changes to our daily routine. We are entering yet another season of our family's life - another child growing and moving a bit closer to independence. It is exciting and yet bittersweet, my babies are growing up. Time marches on.

Artwork from Boy #3

After watching Bridge to Terabithia, Boy #3 checked out some drawing books from the library and produced these pieces of artwork. His big brothers are always drawing, but he didn't feel like he could do well and so he didn't draw much. The movie inspired him. Also, the neighbor boy and Boy #3 have been making up their own imaginary places, sort of like the kids in the movie did. It was well worth our time to see this movie.

Crazy Boys

These guys are always thinking up something to keep busy!

Creative Builder

Boy #2 is a very creative builder these days. These are some of his recent lego creations.

What have we been up to???

It has been so long since I posted anything here and there are so many things swimming around in my head. Our 5 weeks of chaos is about over - drivers ed. class is done and boy #1 successfully completed his course. He now must get more drive hours in and will also have to have his permit for at least 5 more months before he can take the drivers test for his license.

Boy #2 has been playing football for the local middle school and has thoroughly enjoyed it. He has one more week of football, including two games and then the season will be over. It has been a good experience for him, he has learned much about the game and about working together on a team. The school has been geat about working with us as homeschoolers and the other players have accepted our boy as a teammate.

Boy #3 has finished his second session of swim lessons and successfully passed to level 3. He will start level 3 in another week and he attends lessons two evenings a week. He has worked hard and it is paying off.

It has been a crazy, unusual time in our lives - but it was well worth it.

Taxi Mom

I never thought that I could be described as such - but alas it is so. Our family went from over a year of almost no outside activity to CHAOS! It started with son #2 wanting to play football. We went ahead and let him go out for the local middle school team. He has practice every weekday from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm. Son #3 is signed up for swimming lessons that take place every Tuesday and Thursday for the next four weeks at 7:00 pm. Now son #1 is taking Drivers Education classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm for the next 5 weeks. So this is how my afternoon goes:
Leave the house at 2:15 pm and drop son #2 at the Middle School for football practice. Return home at about 2:45. (luckily everything is pretty close). Leave home at about 3:35 pm to take son #1 to Driver's Ed. Return home about 4:15. Leave home at about 4:50 to pick up son #2 at the middle school. Return home about 5:15pm. Leave home at about 5:45 to pick up son #1 at Drivers Ed. Return home at about 6:15. (on Wednesdays we will leave from Drivers Ed to go to bible class) On Tuesdays and Thursdays - Leave home at 6:50 to take son #3 to Swim Lessons, return home about 7:45 pm. Hopefully I will be able to stay on top of all of this - add to it, parent meeting for football, and scheduling drive time with the Drivers Ed school. Swimming stops in 4 weeks, drivers ed in about 5 weeks and football at the end of October and then we should be back to our normal hum drum schedule.

My Week

We arrived home on Sunday Evening, three of us had head colds (I was one of the three). We celebrated hubby's birthday. The alternator went out on the suburban. My bursitis is still acting up. Hubby returned to work on Tuesday. I have been working on mountains of laundry and laying around in between. I spent time on the phone trying to get some medical assistance for my mom, with little success. Not a very productive week. We did get our wireless network set up again today, after much frustration. So maybe things are looking up. I am hoping to recover my dining room chairs this weekend and work on school scheduling.

Today

Today is our 26th Wedding Anniversary. Today we drove about 8 hours and spent time in three states. Today we completed the first leg of our trip to Montana. Today the weather was cloudy and then sunny and warm. Today we crossed three mountain passes. Today we ate lunch at Dairy Queen. Today the boys got to watch a movie because we have a new laptop. Today I got to blog because our favorite hotel has wireless access now! Today was a good day! Hope your today was great!

Busy Birthday happenings

It has been a very busy week. Our eldest child, Plant Lover, celebrated her 21st birthday on the 25th and her very dear friend Tiffany and husband Josiah and baby Anya came to visit from Nashville. We had a BBQ with friends and family this past Sunday and had a wonderful time celebrating with our dear daughter.

Honored and Missed

My grandfather, Clarence Raymond Smith, was born July 13th, 1917 in a small town in Arkansas. He was a father, a husband, a grandfather and great grandfather. He was a wonderful grandfather, who loved to spend time with us kids. When I was in grade school and junior high he used to take me fishing with him and we would catch bunches of fish and then grandma would fry up a mess. He always had a big garden, enough to feed and army and he teased me about my first garden - he said it was a "postage stamp garden". It thrilled him that I was interested in gardening. Grandpa loved to work with wood and was always puttering in his shop and his other favorite thing was grocery shopping and keeping the pantry full. You would find him with all the grocery ads and then he would go all day from store to store getting the good deals. He liked to cook and make a mess. Grandpa had a triple bipass surgery and then lived life to the fullest for about 15 more years. The man was stubborn but boy did he have some spunk. Grandpa loved the Lord and did he sing about it (although a bit off key). He went on to be with the Lord, December 1996 and he is sorely missed.

About Me

Javamom tagged me a long while ago with this one and I just got it finished. It was kind of fun to go down memory lane and scary too since the old memory doesn't work so good anymore.

20 years ago (1986)
1. I was 25 years old.
2. My oldest was almost one
3. I worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in their personnel office.

15 years ago (1991)
1. Our second oldest was 8 months old
2. We were getting ready for our dear friends to move in with us.
3. I was content to be a wife and mommy.

10 years ago (1996)
1. I was 35 and was 8 months pregnant with my fourth child.
2. My grandfather was very ill
3. We went to see a civil war reenactment

5 years ago (2001)
1. Went to my first Apple Cider Press Youth Rally
2. Spent lots of time with our friends the Reddings
3. Listened to our daughter sing with her friends at Youth Rallys

3 Years ago (2003)
1. We camped at Mt. Ranier, North Cascades, Olympic National Parks and Mt. St. Helens
2. I witnessed the birth of my dear friends daughter.
3. Our oldest graduated from our homeschool.

1 year ago (2005)
1. We went camping in Spokane, WA
2. We went to We Care Ministry training
3. We went camping at the Olympic National Park

This year so far (2006)
1. Our two oldest boys have committed their lives to Jesus.
2. We went on a mission trip to Texas.
3. We changed churches after 14 years at the same one.

Yesterday
1. Met some friends at the park
2. I did laundry
3. Planned for our reading program

Today
1. Went to a garden with my daughter
2. Hosted neighborhood reading program
3. Worked on School Planning

Tomorrow
1. I will watch my son at swimming lessons
2. I will fix dinner for my family
3. I will help with Summer Memory Madness

In the next year
1. I will go to Yellowstone bible camp
2. I will work on my scrapbook
3. I will work on decluttering my house

In the next minute
1. Get ready for Bed

Happy Birthday Bouncy Boy!

Bouncy Boy, our youngest child, turned 10 last week. In our family, we have the tradition of letting the special birthday person select breakfast and dinner menus. On his birthday, we had cinnamon grands for breakfast and Pappa Murphys Pizza for dinner. Because he wanted his big brother to be at his party, he chose to wait until a few days after his birthday to celebrate with his friends. B#1 got home from his mission trip late Sunday night and we had Bouncy Boy's birthday party on Monday afternoon. He didn't want cake and chose to only have ice cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Vanilla. It seems just as if it were yesterday that Bouncy Boy came into our lives. My how time flies! This child fills our lives with much love and excitement. He is a very passionate child, there is no in between with him. He keeps us on our toes. Currently he is really into marvel comics and action figures.

Our House feels empty

B#1 left Sunday after church services to go on a mission trip to Montana. We are missing him terribly. We don't normally let our children go off without us like this but we felt this would be a good experience for him. He went with about 9 teens, some parents of the teens and our youth minister. It is a good group of people. They will be working with a very small congregation while in Montana, helping with community outreach. He will be gone all week and return late Sunday night. I am sure he will have much to share when he returns.

The Bright Yellow House

When we purchased our house 7 years ago, I wanted it to be painted yellow with white trim. Well, that wasn't one of our choices from the painter and we would have had to pay extra to have it - - so I didn't get my yellow house. About two years ago our house needed to be repainted (the original job was not very good - the hurry up cheapo job) and so hubby and I painted it. I now have my yellow house, it is the brightest in the neighborhood. Some people think it is a bit too bright but I just tell them that I am not a subdued kind of person.