Halloween Eastern WA Style

We drove over to Eastern Washington this past weekend for the annual pheasant scare. (I guess I shouldn't call it that since Bill & Dennis generally get a pheasant or two for all their traipsing around the Palouse.) We went sans Tucker who had to stay home to work.

On Saturday, Dennis goes out with Bill and I usually drive from Pullman to Colfax to visit Aleta. So here's a few pictures from the trip.

Spencer, Kimberly and Leah played a rousing game of Phase 10. Much to Spencer's chagrin, Kimberly pulled out a win on the last Phase. The girls are getting so grown up looking. Kimberly is a Junior in high school and Leah in in 8th grade--same as Spencer.

James is looking more grown up all the time too. It's hard to beleive he is 5 already. Of course I am always thinking he is older than that. He had a great time with Cooper and was sad to see him leave (or maybe it was the Lego men that Cooper had brought with him).

Jumping on the trampoline is always a fun time too. The kids stayed out there for quite awhile, even though it was a very blustery day. They had some game going that involved someone laying in the middle pretending to be a "dead man". James was in 7th heaven to have two new playmates, and boys at that!

After our day at Aleta's we headed back to Bill's house in Pullman to get ready for Halloween. Cooper & Laura carved pumpkin together. Then Cooper

got dressed to go trick-or-treating. He was very excited to be the Grim Reaper. I especially like the skeletal gloves. Kind of creepy.

Laura & Spencer volunteered to take Cooper out in the neighborhood and although neither of them dressed up, they still managed to come back with their pockets full of candy. The said they never actually asked for candy, that people just gave it to them. Cooper made quite a haul with his pillowcase too of course.

Now last but not least, the creepy family photo. I hate the inside out eyelid thing that Dennis does, but you have to admit that it does make a great Halloween picture!

Hawaii

So here are a few pictures from our trip to Hawaii. We were there from October 17th to October 24th--so a nice long trip. It was alot of fun and a very relaxing trip. The first picture is of a the catamaran we got to go on for a sunset cruise. It was a very balmy evening and I didn't get seasick, but Dennis did. We did the cruise on Wednesday. The new picture of us on the side panel of the blog is from this cruise.

The first picture is the helicopter we got to ride in for an hour tour around Maui. That was the way coolest thing we got to do on our trip. It was amazing! I've always wanted to ride on one so this was pretty awesome. This is the view from the helicopter of the hotel strip where we were staying on the north end of the island. We stayed at the Westin Ka'anapali.

This trip we decided to take the road to Hana which is a 30 mile windy, twisty road on the south end of the island. This was one of the stops along the way. The water was this incredible blue and there was all these volcanic formations in the water. This one kind of reminded me of a turtle. It was really cool to see the waves crashing against the rocks. There was a blowhole but no water ever shot up through it.

This is another shot from the road to Hana. There was this cute little town way down in the valley with a white clapboard church that looked really cool. I was trying to frame it through the plants. I thought the pictured turned out kind of cool.

Dennis went boogie boarding with this other couple that we spent quite a bit of time with. We found this great beach just north of where we were staying and the waves were really good. Some of them would have gone right over people's heads if they were standing up as they came in. I didn't do any boogie boarding myself, but Dennis had a great time.

I don't know how we missed this tree the first time we went to Maui. It is in this square in Lahaina a little coastal, tourist town on the north coast. It is a huge banyan tree. I know it looks like alot of trees, but is is all one tree. You can see all the twisted, gnarled stuff in the middle, but all the ones that look like separate trees surrounding the middle stuff is part of the main tree. The sign says there are 19 different major "trunks" for this one tree. It was totally cool.

Yes, I know there aren't really any pictures of me and Dennis, but we didn't really take any of ourselves. It was kind of weird to be there without the kids to take pictures of. We only took a few of us and they weren't all that great. Oh well. It was a really fun trip though.

GRRRR! I Hate Computers!!

I have been trying to update my blog with pictures from our recent trip to Hawaii (last week) and haven't been able to make it work because of our stupid computer!! Between our computer at home & the computer at work I am going crazy. I takes my computer at work 20 minutes or more to warm up every morning. The good news is that we are scheduled to get new computers at work in December. Meanwhile I just have to grit my teeth and find other things to do while I wait for the computer (s) to get it together.
I was able to get one picture on as you can see, but that is it! The only reason I can do this is because I am using Dennis' laptop. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the photos from Dennis' laptop.

The Old Man

Dennis' 50th birthday was Wednesday, October 7th. We both took the day off and played golf together. It was a gorgeous, sunny day, perfect for golf. He had a great round and despite being barely able to walk I did pretty well (The new exercise routine at the gym the day before left my quads like jello. Going downhill even slightly was a bear!) That's how we celebrated the day of his birthday.
Since it was his 50th after all a party must be held (even though I didn't want to, party pooper that I am) and Wednesday being the middle of the week and all it had to be another day and someplace else. Kathy (Oma) graciously allowed us to have it at their place. Luckily Saturday, the 10th was also a pretty decent day and we held the party in the back yard. We had most of his family (including his aunt & uncle from Port Ludlow) plus a few of our friends. It was a very nice evening. We had tons of Mexican food and everyone just hung out in the back yard.

We lit a fire in an old washtub so that everyone had some place to get warm as the night got a little chilly as the sun went down. The kids also strung up some Christmas lights to give a little light and set the mood.

I figured I would throw in this picture of me, with my friend Peg and sister-in-law Lisa just because I hardly ever include pictures of myself.

Have I Done Any Good...

I was watching the Sunday morning broadcast of General Conference last night (that's the beauty of satellite TV & being able to record stuff to watch it when you want) and listened to President Monson's talk about doing good. I actually saw the "challenge" in the Ensign about how he wanted everyone to do something good as a gift for his birthday. I had wanted to get my Primary class to do that and even wrote a letter home to the parents about it, but for whatever reason never got any further with it than that. I was feeling a little guilty as I saw the little montage of all the things kids/people had sent to show what they had done because I totally planned on doing that with the primary class, but....

Anyway, I was still feeling that challenge for myself to try to do something good every day. I guess blogging about it is my way of publicly acknowledging that I plan to do that and it started today. I had thought about it last night and made a commitment to try to do something good today. I even remembered that commitment this morning as I was driving to work, which is pretty amazing for me to actually remember something the next day!

Then of course I promptly forgot it for the rest of the day. I was driving home later that afternoon and realized that I actually had done something good today!!

We had a little power outage this morning at the school. The main transformer blew at about 7:30 am. We had about 1/3 the power we normally have which meant no computers, no intercom, and very limited lighting. We did manage to get through the whole school day, but Seattle City light said they had to shut the power completely off 10 minutes after school let out so they could do the repairs. True to their word, the power went out abruptly at 2:45pm.

Unfortunately one little 6th grade Somali boy happened to be struggling with his stuck locker and worrying about missing bus when the power suddenly went out. It was the literal straw...he was so upset he started to cry about all of it--stuck locker, missed bus, dark school. Now came the debate about who could drive him home. You are supposed to have a special "license" in order to drive someone home--which I don't have. Unfortunately though all the people who did have the special license were already driving another student home or had meetings. Apparently in emergency cases someone without a special license can drive students home. That was me! My good deed in the world today was to drive the little boy home!

Here's hoping that there is some good deed I can do every day. (Not that I am going to blog about it daily, it just seems like a worthy goal) Most days it probably won't be anything as dramatic as today, but it seems like just trying would make the world a little brighter!

3rd Time Lucky & Other Stuff

Tucker next to his third vehicle in a year, through no fault of his own as past posting attest. This time around he is driving a 5-speed (which he loves) Honda Civic. Seems like it will be a nice reliable car for him. Although not as cool as the Trooper of course, the gas mileage is waaaay better which beats cool any day. He has already started adding stickers to the back window.

Spencer turned 14 on September 11. Mom & Dad chauffered by Roberta came up for the occasion. We had a birthday dinner on Friday night (pot roast, mashed potatoes and butterschotch pie) which was ready just in time for their arrival. He opened presents and this next picture is a picture of his list (he prepares one every birthday and Christmas) with the top item clearly crossed out with a big "No". What was that top item? you might ask. That would be the lap top that Dennis said "No way in ... was he going to get" What's that right next him? Why that would be the laptop that Dennis got for free from work! We added some ram and a video drive and we now have one very happy 14 year old!

Here's Cooper on the first day of school. I was not there to take the picture (how sad is that) because I had to go into school early. Spencer took his picture and Tucker took Spencer's. Tucker doesn't start school (community college) until the 29th so no one took his picture. Cooper rode his bike by himself to school that day and has pretty much done the same thing every day so far. Pretty independent kid.

Here's a few from our visit to the Cupcake Cabin over Labor Day. We were going to go to a resort near Mt. Hood but due to the unplanned rescue of Tucker after his Trooper broke down and the return of the half-dead cat, we postponed it until another time. Luckily for us our friends, the Roches were still game to have us visit the Cupcake Cabin. We went up Saturday morning and stayed until Sunday afternoon. The weather was iffy, but a few games of killer croquet were still played, as well as Perudo and other card games. It was nice to get away even overnight. We are planning another visit the first weekend in October.

The Cat Came Back...But The Trooper Didn't

Who can blame Kabuki, the psycho kitty, for taking the tempting opening placed before her? When her family left her for a week vacation in Idaho and left the boys' bedroom window gaping wide open, what formal feral kitty wouldn't leap at the chance for freedom and jump out the window despite the two storey drop?? Then why not enjoy that new found freedom for oh, let's just say, about a month & a half, causing the aforementioned careless family to give you up for dead. Then let's say after the freshness of the all night partying has worn off and you are feeling a little bit hungry you decide to head for home. Wouldn't you know, some would-be good Samaritan finds you just outside your family's house with your leg stuck through your collar looking like a concentration camp kitty and decides to turn you into an emergency animal shelter. There some kindly attendant notices that the collar, which formerly had your leg stuck through it, has a tag with your name & phone number on it. She calls the family after 10pm at night to let them know you have been found. The message for one reason or another is not received until later. At 7am the next morning your contrite owner picks you up from the shelter and is given the advice that perhaps you should be taken to your regular vet. Given your emaciated, flea-covered condition, your owner wishes you had a regular vet to be taken to. However, seeings how you didn't, she takes you to the one closest to home.
Now your life hangs in the balance. Resusitating you will be $$$, so mom tries to call dad for advice. Luckily for you, dad is not available and mom just doesn't have the heart to approve termination. So you get to have vet care and I.V.s for two days. Even after all that your prospects are still somewhat iffy. You come home painfully thin and barely able to stand. How you progress over the Labor Day weekend will determine your longterm life prospects. But so far, Kabuki the psycho kitty seems to be getting better each day.
As for the Trooper, that's Tucker's car. He took it on a camping trip with friends to the Oregon coast this past week where it peacefully succumbed to transmission failure. Sadly, it now rests-in-peace in a junk dealer's "lot" in Lincoln City, OR. (That's the short version of the story). The free car turned out to be not such a great deal after all.
This week will go down in history as the week of Kitty & Car Trauma!