You know home looks better and better.

Rob and I have made a joint decision to not make change.

There are reasons for it, and reasons not to do it.

When it comes down to it financially staying here is smarter.

Sanity wise the stress of getting this place ready to sell or rent is insane.

And the road was fixed so were not nearly as stranded as we were.

I don't know we were just so ambivelant about the whole thing, now I know I'm quite happy right where I'm at.

Oh I'll complain bitterly in the wintertime, but winter goes away, and life moves on. 

HMMM  I think my head is spinning.

Okay I know my head is spinning!!!!!!!!!

My sister called early this morning to tell me my 16 very very soon to be 17 year old sister was in labor.

My mom called about 12:30 to tell me that it was a girl 6 pounds something.

I called my sister, my dad and then my husband to tell the news.

My husband asked me if I was sitting down--never a good question.  *snicker*

I was afraid he was going to tell me the prison was shutting down--they *are* shutting down McNeil Island in Washington.

But nope.  He was calling to tell me that Shelton called and wants to interview him on THURSDAY!

*shrieks*

Breathes.

Okay so if they hire him (which is mostly for sure)  He will start May 1st.

Its kind of funny because we had both rather decided it wasn't happening, and now I'm back to looking at houses.

The sad news is the BIG house is sold.  But I do believe God has a plan, and if this is his plan, maybe that house wasn't out of the flood zone like we were told, or there were more problems with it, etc.

So...we shall see.

I'll keep you posted.

Woo if you look outside we just might be getting day four of spring!  Its shocking, and hard to believe. 

*cheers*

We spent most of yesterday after church outside.  Two hours at the beach, an hour at the river, some time in our yard.  We all got little red rosy cheeks from the sun.  It was sooooooooo nice.

We hadn't seen the sun since October, so trust me when I say we are soaking it up!

No pictures.  *sniff, sniff*  As my camera is still missing, and KK's is out of batterys. 

Samuel found something he's very good at--that is productive.  I had my every spring battle with the himalaya's that take over my yard.  These nasty blackberrys grow everywhere.  They were quite literally up to the height of the eves on my roof behind my lilacs.  And they are ALL gone now.

Samuel pruned them down, chopped them up, and so on until every last one was beaten into submission.  Its a temporary thing as I'm sure they'll come back, but it looks so nice right now having them gone,  and better yet I didn't have to do it.  And he *volunteered* to do it, and stuck with it!  *yeah*

So now I need to decide what to do with my yard.  The two  closest flower gardens are easily maintainable.  The others are just sad, and continue to be sad.  I dismantled one small one and let the lawn have it back.  The other I really want to maintain, but its a lot of work, and it always looks AWFUL by July.  But its got a big huge stump in it that also looks awful, so I'm rather torn as to what to do.  I keep looking at it, and contemplating what to do.  No ideas yet.  

Rob finished replacing all of the skirting under our house which makes our house look MUCH bettter, and will stop the two big dogs from tearing up the place down there.   Its so nice to have that done as well

We went on our first spring adventure.  We had sunshine.  And we weren't sick!  It was necessary.  Its the second day we've seen sunshine since umm October. 

Anyhow we have been wanting to find the towns very old and lost grave yard.  After two and a half hours of searching in the woods.  Its still Lost.    But we had fun.  *snicker*

Its abutts our property which is why we're so curious.  Sides its fun to play archeologist some days.  We had a map, and some gps coordinates.  And it didn't work.

We came back home, ran into the man who had originally told us about it.  He gave us new directions.  We ate lunch, and tried again.  Still no go.  Ahh well, it was fun.

So pictures.  I'm using KK's camera.  Which isn't nearly as nice as mine.  But mine is in Olympia.  At least I'm desperately hoping that's where it is, because otherwise it was stolen out of my car while we were in Aberdeen.  I'm waiting for a email from the coach.  But she's busy, and has horrible email manners, so it  could be a couple days before I know for sure.  *growl*

Anyhow  at one point some of us were *DONE*  We'd scrambled straight up a very steep hill (pictures of that later)  So we crashed and told the others to go further and see if they could find something.  They went fur...and got losted.  *snicker*  So we entertained ourselves longer then originally intended and ended up building a fort while waiting.  hehe

I found this little pixie peering at me around an alder tree....I think we might have to keep her!

And here's our fort.  My pictures of it didn't come out totally great, but hopefully you get the point. 

So that's the angle from the "door" of the tent.  We used a tree as a brace, and a whole bunch of dead but straight alder branches as "walls"

And here they are inside it.

And the view looking up.  The trees we rested in are rather pathetic alders that are less then 15 years old.  But still pretty in the blue sky.

The losted peoples, made there way back to the main trail, which they knew where it was.  And then headed back towards the car.  And then started hollering to find us on the not so trail that they'd been on.  It was we've been told since the original wagon trail into Clallam Bay.  Its just barely a trail.  BARELY.  My dad would have been proud of us, he loved taking us on those kinds of trails.  *snicker*

After the losted were found, we had to go back down the steep steep hill we'd gone up.  We abandoned the "trail"  and just went straight down.  I loved this big mossy stump about half way down and took several pictures of it by itself, and then decided it needed a model.  So Jeremiah was volunteered, and when he got on he discovered a blue jay feather.  Major score!    Don't you love the joy on his face?

About half way down our cliff Zeria and I declared break time.  She went up the cliff twice thanks to there misadventure, so she was rather dead.  LOL

Eventually we made it down.  Okay so I did some sliding on my bottom and my pants will never be the same.  *snicker*

We walked on the main trail back to the car, and our kids managed a first.  They successfully hid from us, and actually startled Rob.  Three of them hid behind a cement barrier, and Samuel hid

way back up on the cliff/  gives you a good impression of what we climbed huh?  And that's just a very small part of what we went up.  LOL

And just to prove it *is* spring the girls found these just before we got back to the car. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

In other intresting tidbits.  Rob and I went on a date night, and after dinner decided to go for a drive.  As we drove by the Rock a huge rock that is the towns graffiti spot.  Its not a no-no- graffiti spot it is truely available to spray paint happy birthday, or I love so and so.  Its kind of fun to read.  But yesterdays graffiti was truely offensive and had been visited by a gang on vacation.

It had in HUGE words White Power.   I was not impressed.  So we detoured to a friends house who keeps spray paint for the purpose of removing any foul words placed on it, we borrowed it and did our own graffiti.  Its the first time I've spray painted that rock.  It now has a lovely brown shamrock on it.  In place of the very offensive words.

Good morning.

Rob is headed back to work today wether he's better or not.  He "says" he's feeling better, but having heard that from him before I don't believe it.

And amazingly I still haven't got whatever *it* was.

Strange.

But I'm not complainin'

Our broom broke.  I mean really broke.  We have all laminate floors, and a family of 8.  Brooms are vital.  We've been sweeping with the broken piece of crap since Thursday.  And it broke some more.  So its too short for even Jeremiah.  And the nearest broom is 35 minutes one way.  Thats a lot of gas for a frickin' broom.

I've seriously contemplated going to the community hall and "borrowing a broom" for a week.  

I don't need anything else, I don't want to drive an hour and ten minutes for a BROOM.

And trust me when I say that's the closest broom.  *sigh*  I can't come up with a single way of keeping this house even remotely clean without it.  Humms a lot.

Someone want to email me a broom?  Right now I'll just stare longingly at Jeremiah's old friend from when he was a baby and dream of brooms.  How truely pathetic is that??

I btw miss his baby curls. 

Spring is coming.

Its not really here yet, but its coming.

Yesterday was gorgeous.  I think it was all of 55 degrees Farenheit, but blue sky and sunshine.  And we stayed out in it as much as possible.

Rob is sick.  SICK.  He's slept Friday, Saturday, and Sunday away, and he just called in today, and is headed back to bed.  I can't believe how tired his sick is making me.

He does so much more in this house due to my chronic fatigue, and oh my word am I dragging due to attempting to remotely pick up his slack.  He fought through the sick to go sit outside at the river with us last night.  He knew that it could be two months before we see the sun again, and was determined not to miss it.  It was so nice. 

Nobody took an unplanned nap yesterday, so I believe the kids are mended.  *yeah*

Now to get the hubby mended.

And dream of spring.

I keep forgetting Rob had to call the fire department at work the other day....

And it made national news.

Toilet sausage chef causes prison unit evacuation Thu Mar 26, 8:27 pm ET

We're mending, but not mended.  Kaylin still slept great portions of the day, and Jamari and Jeremiah took voluntary naps.  And Rob has a nasty cold.  I've coughed through all of it, but no other symptoms, other then tired, and I think that's due to taking care of everyone else.

Anyhow baton competition from last weekend.  LOL  The above picture is the presentation of the teams.  A few kids missed it, I think there were 59 kids at the competition total.  And a few out sick.  My kids are at the far end nin mostly blue, next to the pale pink. 

My mom actually came out for this competition, and watched 90% of it.  She missed the kids trio, as she didn't get there at 10.  And missed the trick meet, because it wasn't on the schedule, and she'd snuck out for a nap asking Britanny to call her when the solos were on.

Jamari was still feeling good in that picture.  He pulled off two first places, and has advanced to the level of beginner.

I like the way they do it.  Everyone starts off at novice.  And if you get a first place, you have to advance to a different level of competition, giving others a chance.    You also compete in your own age group.  That can be a wee bit wonky though as its the age you are as of December 2009.  So Sam though he's 10, competes as an 11 year old.  But 4-H did something similar, so its all good.

This is Samuel with his first place in the trick-meet.  You don't advance in it.  Its based one who can do what skill.  He had so much fun, and was so psyched he got a first.  I was glad, as he was very frustrated in the morning with his placings.

Here's the kids with there first place plaque for there trio that they did.  I wish I had a picture of them in there trio costumes, but I was running so crazy that I didn't get one. 

I have learned the absolute best way of keeping track of whose in what lane.  And the kids are listening better about which lane instead of having to ask me three times which lane.  *snicker* 

I've even figured out how/where to store all of the ribbons/medals for each child so they don't get mixed up or lost.  So the next meet should run much smoother.  And is also apparently usually a smaller meet. 

Its very crazy at the meets.  I basically didn't visit with my mom as I was too busy directing traffic, she also sat at the very top of the bleachers, and I needed to sit on the floor, so I could get the kids to there varying competitions.

They compete in basic march, military march, a short presentation solo (30 seconds long) and a longer solo (one and a half minutes)  And they get the opportunity to enter each of these in two different levels.  So if you do the math that's 8 events for each child, and I have 5 children.   Just wait til Jeremiah starts!  LOL 

Zeria and Rainee had fevers WEdnesday-Friday.  They broke around noon on Fri, and seemed weak but okay.  We chose to go to the baton competition as they've been practicing for *this* meet for 9 months.

Rainee did fine all day.  Zeria did great in the morning, and just wilted about noon time, she placed fourth and fifth in her afternoon events.  Which is hardly suprising considering she now has her fever back, and a nasty cough.

Jamari started complaining of a BAD headache about noon.  And sobbed his way through his last routine--his choice.  He cuddled with Rob on the bleachers while waiting for awards and suddenly bolted straight up and raced for the bathrooms.  He didn't quite make it...he too has a high fever.

Samuel woke up sick this morning.  He was FINE yesterday.  He actually placed first in the trick meet, and got a second in his solo.  Which was super cool--partially of course cause he was competing against Zeria who bombed due to the re-visit of sick.

Zeria and Jamari slept all the way home yesterday, crawled into the house and have basically not moved since.  High fevers, and not moving at all.

Kaylin was feeling fine this morning, and about 9:30 she started feeling icky.  She's now crying because of the bad headache.  And has a lovely fever in the low 100's like the rest.

Jeremiah started complaining of sick about 10:15.   He lay down on a foot stool at 10:45 and didn't move for several hours.  He hasn't done the crying due to the headache, but we tylenoled him up very quickly, so we might have beat it.

Rainee still had a nasty cold all weekend.  But until about noon was doing quite well.  Colds are a normal part of Rainee's life.  At noon she came to me saying she was cold.  Her cheeks were flushed, and yup she was at 101.9. 

We could take stock in tylenol.

I have *never* had all six sick at once.  In stages of sick...recovering, and coming down.  But not all at once.

This is what my house looks like.

You can't see Rainee's head, but she's in the pink blanket beside KK.  We blew up the air mattress so they could watch tv and lay down.  We don't have enough furniture for everyone to lay out. 

The colored stars in the foreground of the picture were KK's project this morning, before the plague hit her. 

Rob and I have both observed if we weren't worried about the kids it would be rather like a vacation.  No whining, no noise.  Just 6 kids sleeping the day away.

I've talked to several different moms today, and they have all said whatever this is, its tricky.  It looks like its gone away, you send your kids to school, and they relapse.  So I guess that's what happened to Zeria and Rainee. 

warning reading this blog may make you sick.

As of this moment I have SIX kids with fevers, or just getting over fevers.

Colds

Stomache Bugs

and please don't make me move cause I hurt all over.

There's not enough room in the living room for them to all lay down asking us to shoot them.