Sleep? What's that?

I was eagerly anticipating the start of summer vacation with dreams of lazy mornings and sunny skies. Boy was I dreaming! So far this summer has been a whirlwind of activity that has left me exhausted!

We did manage to take a 2 week trip out to Utah. The kids all had fun especially at my cousin's house in Southern Utah. It was good to see all the kids reconnect and enjoy the time spent visiting, riding ATV's, and eating. I enjoyed the time visiting with my parents although it was hard to adjust to their work schedule. I wish we had more time to play but they needed to take their vacation time to visit my brother in AK.

When we got back from UT, Connor, Bryce, and Hunter began their raspberry picking jobs. Shortly after they started, Keith and Hunter left for a week at Boy Scout Camp. They had a good time and Hunter even earned a few merit badges. Once they came back from camp, I decided I would pick berries with the boys in the morning. I grab a different boy's punch card every time I fill my half flat. I'm not making huge amounts of money for them but I figure every little bit helps. Keep in mind that we leave the house at 6:30 AM. So much for sleep in time!

Friday night I helped the Band Booster club work at the Tacoma Dome during a concert. Our group gets a certain percentage of the profits. Since Connor is in band and Hunter will be in the fall, I am trying to help out where I can. I thought the night would never end. I couldn't understand why people would pay that much for a cup of beer. And it wasn't even one cup. They would come back multiple times. Good thing I don't drink. I could never afford it! We didn't get home till midnight and I was up the next morning for berries.

I am not the type of person who can go back to bed once I am up and running but Saturday, WHEW! After berry picking, I went back to bed and managed to crawl out around 1PM. I would have slept longer but was having a guilt attack. Berry season is almost over so then maybe I can get those lazy sleep in mornings I dreamed about at the end of the school year.

There are still a number of things on the calendar for the rest of the summer. Connor, Bryce and Keith are going to the San Juan Islands for a biking High Adventure. Connor and Bryce are headed to AK to spend a couple of weeks with my brother. I have also promised the 3 youngers a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge when the boys are gone.

Not to complicate matters, we added another member to our family. Daisy, the puppy. What was I thinking???? It is like having a baby in the house again. We have to take her out in the middle of the night and again around 6 AM. Hopefully she will start sleeping through the night soon. I know I can use the sleep!

It's About Time

Wow! I really stink this year on the blog front. You would think from the lack of posts that we lead a boring and mundane life. Not so!

This Spring has really been trying. The weather has been awfully rainy and cold. If the calendar didn't say April, I would think it was January. Last weekend we did finally see some sun and what a difference! I am hoping for more bouts of sun and less of rain!

Since I haven't been keeping everything up to date, I'll have to give a quick run down of what has kept everyone so busy.

Connor - still really into shooting and has had some really successful matches. He is shooting well enough now that he has been moved up to "Expert" class. He's not happy about the move as it puts him at the bottom of his class. He is still young and has time to work his way up the ladder. He also joined the biking club at school and is looking forward to biking adventures with the group.

Bryce - joined football. Here they play middle school football in the Spring. He is having a great time and is really committed to the team. As a side bonus, his grades have been really good since joining and the missing assignment problem that has plagued him most of the year has all but disappeared.

Hunter - surviving middle school. I think the favorite part of his day is running home from school and beating Connor who rides a bike. Currently Hunter is not involved in any school activities but he is enjoying going to Young Men's.

Lauren - still dancing! She is wrapping up her year of ballroom dance. She only has a month until the end of the year recital. She plans to try out for the older performing group in the fall. She is also trying out with a couple of friends for the school talent show. I think they are doing a Taylor Swift song.

Kiersten - growing and learning so much! She is really becoming a good reader and I am impressed with how well she can sound out words. She has learned to ride a two wheel bike and loves to ride around the neighborhood. She is also in swimming lessons. I may try and put her in a session or two this summer. I haven't decided yet. She also had her first "wiggly" tooth. Not bad enough to fall out yet, but she keeps wiggling away.

Keith - working hard. Even though Keith gets to work from home a lot of the time, I try to keep him busy with "Honey-Do" lists. The last stretch he was home was spent building trellis frames for garden boxes, procuring soil for the boxes, trying to get the lawn looking better, fixing the lawn mower, and adding to our growing collection of camping gear.

Me - counting down the days till summer vacation! (Which are 34!) I have also been busy building our food storage. I have spent many hours since the Fall canning oddball stuff. My friends and I have canned chicken, butter, cheese, and hamburger. I love learning new things! Our next venture will be butchering chickens for meat. One of our friends is keeping 3 chickens for us that should be ready for butchering the end of May.

As you can see, our life is never dull. Most nights I go to bed exhausted and hope that dumb cat, Morgan, doesn't wake me up with his meowing! One of these days, I will actually post a picture or two on here even if it means making more than one blog post every couple of months. That's about it for now. Here's to more sun in the upcoming weeks!

Lost and Found

Sometime back in August Keith lost his keys. For those of you who know Keith, this is nothing unusual. He was on his way to work and realized while he was on the train that he didn't have his keys. He called the Transit Authority to see if his keys had been turned in with no luck. He checked the parking lot the van was parked in, no luck. He checked with businesses around the parking lot, no luck.

Under normal circumstances, losing your keys means getting copies made from the other set. The keys Keith lost were to our cars, one of which is a computer chip key. To replace that key was going to cost $80. We decided to forgo that expense and make due with switching keys back and forth between the 2 of us. We did make a copy of the van key which somehow I misplaced as I was headed out of town. We made another copy and everything was going almost as before.

Several times Keith called the Transit Authority to see if his keys had been turned in. Each time he was told no and they only keep keys for 10 days before throwing them away. A couple of weeks ago, Keith stopped by a King County Library to check out a book. They told him the Transit Authority had reported to the library they had found his keys. Keith called again and was told they didn't have his keys but then he mentioned the library said they had his keys.

Finally, that triggered a memory of his keys and YES! they did have them. This was almost 5 months after he lost them to begin with! The employee said usually they throw keys away after 10 days but since this key ring had 2 car remotes attached to it, they were sure somebody would be looking for it. My question is why every other time he called and described his keys was he told they didn't have them?

In any case, I am thankful Keith's keys were returned to him and we didn't have to spend the $80 on a new car key. I'm also thankful he had one of those annoying key ring bar codes attached to his keys that was his library card. I am convinced without that library card, we would never have seen his keys again.