When you live on property with a river.  And a mile from the ocean.  Its hard to tear yourself away from those and go explore somewhere else.  But yesterday we did.  I had been playing with mapquest awhile back and discovered a road about 30 minutes from here that looped.  So we went and explored it.  The loop was shorter then originally hoped for.  So we went back up the loop and explored a forest service road.   We will go back when the sun is shining, as if we had continued there should have been a beautiful view of the Olympics.  It was foggy however, so we turned around and went and played by the Sol Duc River.

Just the alder trees in the winter.  Their bark is all rather stark this time of year somehow.

This for those of you intrested this is the  Sol Duc river.  Its a very beautiful little river, especially down further.  Nevertheless we had fun where we were.

Hmm xanga has decided I will not load any more pictures.  *growl*  Ahh well I guess I'll try later.

Anyhow it was a nice drive.  And it even stopped raining when we got out and played.  It has rained every day for over a week.  Its so icky!

Ha it let me load the other two.  These are just pretty pictures of the mossy trees. 

"All right which nitwit was playing in the sugar?"  (dad)

"DAD! DAD!  That was me and I!

Dad!  Dad!  That was me and I!"   (Jeremiah)

Well at least he's honest...if not completely unrepetant.  And it was rather hard to scold him as he was so completely honest.   Okay it was just hard to keep a straight face.

And then just as that was finished Rob is helping the kids with their SS verse.  He starts "Okay repeat after me."  Exodus 4:15  The kids dutifully repeat that.  And then Rob pauses.  "Now remember no seconds on cereal."  

The kids then repeated.  "Now remember no seconds on cereal."

They were quite obedient.  snigger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ahh well maybe you had to be there.  It rained cats, dogs, and elephants.  We were all going stir crazy.  So finally Rob decided to go hiking on our property on the other side of the river.  Twit that he is he did it in the deluge.   He took all the kids except Jeremiah with him.  They came back an hour later looking like drowned, muddy rats.  BIG time.  I stayed home nice and snug while Jer napped.  I was the only smart one of the family.  *snicker*  They also decided to take a "short:" cut from one trail to another.   And spent 30 minutes walking 200 yards through brambles.  I believe I've taken Faith on a short cut like that before.

Just snickers a lot.

You can NOT do short cuts in Washington forest.   They do NOT exist. 

I found this at Craktpots site. Its too fun

This weeks photo blog challenge is Emotion.

I rather thought this fit the bill.   I believe one could say it sums Zeria's 'tude up quite nicely. 

Why is it we all want pictures of us smiling.  When smiling isn't just what life is about.  Its also about crying, being angry, being depressed.  But the only memories we want are the smiley ones.  We don't have a very well rounded memory catalogue do we?

That being said this is my current favorite picture of my mom.  Because it describes the intensity in her personality something fierce.  She's working on architect plans here.  She was told she could go to work for an engineer as a drafter, but instead chose to be a stay at home mom.  She has no training, just a love of houses.

I think Rainee thinks God should have given her a little sister.  But since he didn't.

She's gonna make do....

Or is it make-up?  

And why didn't I just throw my old make-up in the garbage?  Oh that's right cause I wouldn't have this to show then.

Bangs head on table and snickers a lot.

We are all healthy.

Well except for Rob.  He finally got the crud last night.  Go figure.  Ahh well can't have everything.  We went for a drive this afternoon the first day I've been remotely intrested in such a thing in what seems like forever.  At our turn-around spot we found this fella.

We turned the van off and sat and watched him for over ten minutes.  He was just drinking water, and enjoying very early spring.   And wasn't remotely scared of us even if we were only 20 feet away.  Man I love my zoom!!

Anyhow this fella is once again a Golden Eagle.  I confirmed this by reading a lot on eagles today.  And Golden eagles are identified by the feathers that go all the way down to their feet.  I.E. Booted EAgles.  Just in case you ever wanted to know...

or didn't as the case may be. 

Well the judges may not like Sanjaya, and a lot of the people on the internet may not.

But Zeria and I think he's cute, and we like his voice. 

Sure he's not the power-house that some of them are.  But I'm not into power houses.  They hurt my ears.  And the brand of music of the judges top two favorites is well not mine.  ROFL. 

Though I have to admit I do like Dolittle some.  I'm just not totally into that brand of music.  Ahh well, I'm almost always end up rooting for someone who doesnt' get it.  Except for the year of Carrie Underwood.

And now you know one of my guilty pleasures.  *snigger*

I left a layout partially done on my scrapbook table last night.

And in the morning I found a "helper".  Doesn't she just look ever so helpful?  We do NOT btw have an indoor cat.  Some one just forgot to tell Kaylin's cat Blacky that.  She's inside more then out.  She's quick--I can never catch her.  And she's sneaky--likes to hide in the girls bedroom.  Stoopid cat.

And Jeremiah has found a new perch.  My mom gave us this lovely wooden bench.  He climbs up on it, and then up onto the window sill.  From there he commands the world.

Well all of us anyhow.

Zeria hasn't thrown up since about 8 am Monday morning.  Its late Monday night as I blog.  But unfortunately she's gone that long before.  I've been making her eat very very mild foods, and kept her flat in a hope to beat this stupid little bug this time!

My friend who lost her house in the fire is almost definitely moving up.  The only decision now is when.  Their boys have had so much disruption in there life, so there trying to figure out how to work around that.  The house my parents are giving them is on the same road my parents live.  Its not a complete give, their will be a mortgage, but with no down, and for a fraction of the cost.  They literally thought they'd never be able to own again, so their thrilled.

I'm just excited to have her a little bit closer.

The key now is to pray for jobs for both of them.  He has his work visa, so there should be no issues there.  But umm he's not highly qualified for anything.  She's more qualified then he is.  And neither of them have more then a year of college.   We're really pushing right now for them to work at the prison--although it would be a bit of a commute.   The reasons are there are no qualifications needed, and they would both do well there.  The starting wage is also quite good and the job comes with beny's.   So we shall see. Prayers for Ginger are always appreciated. 

Good morning

Zeria is sick still.  We just got done cleaning up her last "gift" 

Scuse me now while I shriek cold blooded murder.

Okay.  Got that out of my system.

(maybe)

On other news.  Its just very hard for me to use the computer.  I really honestly did try yesterday.  And I can focus on the words, but not long enough to do anything about it.  I'm sorry Dee.  VERY sorry.  

The good news is I can scrapbook.    It doesn't require the super close concentration.  I've been getting a lot of scrapbooking done. 

I WANT MY GLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WANT HEALTHY KIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay.  I hadn't got it out of my system.

On other news.  Zeria got pictures from her camera developed and did several scrapbook pages yesterday.  Scrapbooking is excellent for her.  IT encourages journalling, which she did on several pages.  *score*  She also just plain did a nice job on her pages.

How's that for a title?  We are still sick.  I'm slowly regaining my voice.   Zeria threw up again last night after being better for almost 48 hours.  Rainee is laying on the couch with a bucket.   We ended up going to the Awana games...and had sorta-healthy kids the whole time.  And then Kaylin threw up on the way home.  ITs rather a bizarre stomache bug.  The boys haven't got it.

Yet.

This weeks unschooling is focused on spelling.  Its unschooling I didn't pick it.  The whole weekend every time the kids saw a new sign they had to spell the word outloud several times.   Zeria this morning made a two page list of all the words she could spell.  Kaylin and Samuel continue to have spelling bee's in the car etc.   Spelling is cool for some reason. 

We will go back to reading our chapter books together when i can actually talk.    Gotta love laringitis.

Its very hard for me to be on the computer as I'm still functioning with my old fuzzy glasses.  I can average about ten-fifteen minutes before I'm just too nauseous from being dizzy.   *growl*   But that being said I'm very much hoping to make some work for Granny Dee and Zvanzivou today.  I just can't promise anything.  It depends on how many sick tummy kids I have.  *sigh*

The Awana Games were...hectic.  The night in the motel was relaxing.    The Sparks team didn't do well.  They are a very young team.  The Girls TNT team also didn't do well.  Zeria was the fastest on the team, and she was about 6 inches shorter then any of the other team members on the other teams.  She was devastated they lost.  But we talked it out, and she herself finally identified that the girls team was just very young, and it was there first year playing.  Next year will be better she said when she finally worked it out.  And the boys team, they came in first on there circle.  Got a nice gold medal to show off. 

Contrary to the picture Samuel *WAS* excited about it.  He talked about his gold medal all the way home.  It was rather entertaining somehow.

In other pictures I have this to share.

Now I know I'm prejudice...but aren't they cute?  And I didn't dress them all in red, it just happened.  We were playing outside on the Walmart side walk while waiting for daddy to finish his eye appointment.  There was a big empty place that nobody walked on that we played games on for over 30 minutes.  We only had to move out of the way for people twice.  And they both said "You look like your having fun, don't worry about it."    The teenagers were particularly sweet.  I think they might have wanted to join us.  LOL

I love it when Rainee "takes care" of Jeremiah.  They are so sweet together.  And she's a excellent big sister.  Even if she's not that big.

My beautiful Kaylin, and then...

Snuggles from Jeremiah

And daddy and Jamari snuggling at the motel

I know every one's sick of reading that we're sick.

I'm sick of writing it.

I am now speaking in whispers.  Its quite exhausting to even do that.

And Kaylin and Zeria are puking.

We are supposed to be doing the Sparks and TNT games in Bremerton this weekend.  But at this point I'm guessing it may not be happening.

*sigh*

*scowl*

*growl*

Prayers for a miracle would be appreciated.