A threat!

My dear, dear friend Kristin emailed me yesterday and told me if I didn't update my blog soon, she was going to take me off of her blogroll. So Kristin, this one is for you!

We just got home from a great fieldtrip. We went to Olympia this morning and the older girls toured the State Capitol and then participated in a Mock Legislative Session with the other homeschooling kids we hang out. They really enjoyed it. While they were there, the little ones and I went to the Childrens Museum. We then all met up and the girls gave us a private tour of the Capitol. It is such a beautiful building. We then drove and met our Homeschooling Gang for 2 1/2 hours of Laser Tag. It was AWESOME! I'm tired!

Kylie is attending High School this year and has a great group of friends. She really enjoys early morning seminary and most things about school. She is an exceptional student and great girl.

Paige, Lilly and Sam are homeschooled and we are having a great time. We have some new favorite curriculums. First is ReadingEggs. Sam and Sarah looove it and it cracks the rest of us up. Highly recommend it. The girls love the Institute for Excellence in Writing Course. I've learned alot. We are using Pandia Press' History and Science this year. So enjoyable to both teach and learn.
So far for fieldtrips we have done a 3 day camp at the Olympic National Forest, a Challenge Ropes Course, a Tribal Edge Wilderness Experience, a fantastic play "The Borrowers",
the Sol Duc HotSprings and a Pumpkin Patch. It's been a good start to a great year.

For extra curriculur activities Paige and Lilly are in a Musical Theatre Production; Sam is taking drum lessons and rock climbing every week. Paige and Lilly rotate months with Rock Climbing. I still run the High School Vocal Group for Kylie and Paige after school on Fridays. We have a great group of kids and they can really sing. It's fun.

Sarah as always is a delight. She gets to play with a friend 2 mornings a week and has a preschool co-op again this year. She is funny, imaginative, sassy and quite independent.

Steve is in his last quarter of graduate school. Yay Steve!
That's all I've got today! Kristin, are you happy? love you

What I'm Doing

So, I'm down alot right now with some occasional trips into the living room to read aloud to my kids. We're working on Percy Jackson Book 4. We love Percy Jackson.

This week I've hand cut 12 little birds out of felt. Stitched them, stuffed them, made wings for them, added little eyes and a bit of rosy-ness to their cheeks. They are for girls camp-the girls camp that I'm not attending anymore. I did make an extra bird with a broken wing to represent me :)

I've started knitting squares for a blanket. I don't like the original yarn I used so I'm starting over with a different blend. The blanket is sooooo fantastic.

I've started blogging again.

I've been watching the TV Series 'Life'. It's great. It was only on for 2 seasons and I own both seasons. I'm on Season 1, disc 3.

I've visited with friends who have dropped by so I don't go stir crazy. Thanks friends!

I've had a Presidency Meeting on my bed, done a lot of computer work and have been finishing up all girls camp responsibilities so the new Teepee mom can just step into camp.

Thats it!

I love...

I love So You Think You Can Dance! Just thought I'd share :)

July is sometimes a difficult month :)

On Saturday, as I was walking from our back door to the backyard, I missed a step on a cobblestone. I don't know how I did that...I think I must have been focusing on the chickens. Down, down, down I went.
I'm not going to go into the emotional trauma of knowing that I just severely injured my ankle again and exactly what that means. I'm not going into the difficulty of moving and getting to xray equipment. I'm not going into the difficulty of hearing the reality of this injury from my faithful doctor...
suffice it to say "It is what it is!" My household knows what to do with this extensive injury and it'll eventually be ok again. Something freaky though...this ankle injury happened on the 3 yr anniversary of my broken ankle from trek...freakkkkkkkkyyyyyyyyy.

The diagnosis; rupture of the collateral ligaments in the left ankle. 6 wks non weight bearing-crutches, roller cart...at 6 weeks a high probability of surgery being needed.

and here we go again....

Reflections on the past year

I was reading my friends blog the other day and I'm listed in the sidebar as a blog that she reads. I haven't posted in 8 months and her blog lists that. That is so wrong.
So here are some reflections from this past year: btw; I think that this is going to be SO boring for anyone reading this who isn't me :)

We discovered Thinkwell for math and it is spectacular. They offer math, science, government classes. Prof. Burger teaches math and we love it. He is very funny and engaging.

We have been on amazing fieldtrips this year...Space Needle, Tillicum Village, USS Turner Joy, Olympic National Forest, Whale Watching in the San Juan Islands, Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center, Cirque de Soleil, International Childrens Festival, Pacific Science Center, Seattle Art Museum, Fiddler on the Roof, Boeing Tour, Whirly Ball, EMP, Sequim Wild Animal Park, Ceramics, NorthWest Train and Trek tour, Transiberian Orchestra and more.

Discovered Studio East Drama in Kirkland. They are an amazing drama facility that caters to homeschoolers during the day. Kylie participated in a year long Shakespeare class and performed 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' in April. It was great. Paige and Lilly were in a musical theater class and had a great time.

We had some big birthdays this year; Paige turned 12 and entered Young Womens, Sarah turned 4, Kylie turned 14, Sam turned 8 and was baptized and Lilly turned 11. WOW!

We do birthday parties on even years only but missed Lilly's last year so ALL the kids (except Sarah because I haven't done it yet ) had birthday parties in a 3 week period...

Lilly took her friends to a Japanese Hibachi Restaurant-so fun

Paige took 13 friends across the sound to the Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center for a pool party. They had a scavenger hunt on the ferry, lots of swimming, pizza back at home...fun

Kylie had a Mad Hatter Tea Party that was AMAZING...I couldn't have done it without all of the great women who helped me. We then took the kids to see Alice in Wonderland.
These 3 parties happened in one weekend.

Then Sam had a laser tag birthday party...best money ever spent for a group of boys.
Sam was baptized this year. Grandma Jenson came into town for it. His dad baptized . It was a him. I was really proud of Sam. What a boy.

For Christmas, I knitted all of my children their own fingerless mittens and hats...all unique to their personalities. Yay for knitting! Yay for me!

I finally found a tandem kayak in my secret kayak budget and bought if for Steve for Fathers Day. Yay for the family. It was a great surprise.

We have chickens now-6 total. They even have a coop. They lay awesome eggs-about 5 a day.

I was called as a ward organist-eeks! so I'm taking lessons from a great organist and am enjoying it but boy is it hard. Those darn, darn pedals...(btw, it's a secondary calling for me)

Took Paige to Utah for General Conference in April-12 year old tradition. It was wonderful. We took some family names and she performed baptisms in the SL temple for her first time with several cousins. We attended 3 sessions of Gen. Conf and loved it. It was a great mother daughter trip and I love this tradition.

Okay! Thats it for now! It's the next post that is more exciting :)