Old Schtuff and New Schtuff

It seems to be that time in our lives when things start to break, wear out, or just quit working. So it is with a few of my necessities of life.

Our Microwave door broke about 2 weeks ago. It still worked but you had to slam it shut in order to get it to close all the way so you could cook stuff. As my Mom will attest, I use my microwave a lot. In fact, she had to buy me one when I went to college so I wouldn't starve. :) On Tuesday, my husband had to go to The Dalles for his Presidency meeting. He left early enough so he could buy us a new microwave. Britni and I had already picked it out. :) It's shiny with lots of new buttons. We are having fun learning how to work this one. :)

Next, I broke my crock pot a month or more ago. I have been lost without my crock pot. I use it all the time or I did until it broke. So on Saturday while Lynn was playing on the computer he ordered me a new one online. It came yesterday!! Yea!! It is shiny and has lots of buttons too. It's digital. Way cool!! I can't wait to use it!! :)

However, before all of this happened. Our telephones started to die on us. We have had them several years. The kids even lost one of them last year. We swear that they buried it outside somewhere. We expected a dog to dig it up but that never happened. Anyway, the batteries just started dying in all of them. So when we went on our Portland trip to the Temple, we stopped at Best Buy and looked at phones and batteries. The batteries were just as much as if we bought a new phone system. So we ended up buying a new phone system (at Costco actually) we were comparison shopping and Costco had it cheaper.

I am hoping that nothing more breaks or dies on us. At lease these were relatively insignificant compared to what it could be. I don't dare mention all the possibilities. I might jinx myself.

I will now go use my shiny new microwave to make my lunch. Have a fun and happy Sunshiny day!! :)

Happy 14th Birthday Daniel

I was suppose to write this on Sunday when Daniel actually turned 14 but I got the flu that night and have done nothing since then. Now that I am back among the living, I will write about my Daniel!!

Daniel is an amazing young man. He is growing up so fast not just his height which he is taller than his Dad now. But also spiritually and mentally. He can still be goofy Daniel when he wants to be. But for the most part he is a great example for his little brothers. He loves Basketball and sports in general. He loves his family. He stands strong among his friends. He may get lax in his school work at times but he will work hard to get them back up when need be. I am truly grateful that Daniel is a part of our family. I love him so.

Here's the latest pictures of him with his sis!! Happy Birthday Daniel!!!

Happy Anniversary

Yesterday was our 17th Anniversary. We usually stay overnight in Portland or something like that but it didn't work out this year. So we went to Portland to go to the Temple and then we went shopping. Lots of shopping. We stocked up on items that were getting low. We looked at tablets and laptops but decided to wait until we see what the Ipad 3 is going to have before buying. And then we went to Ross to get me some "work" pants in case I ever get called in to substitute. It was depressing to find out that you have to buy a bigger size. But now I know that I need to be more serious about losing weight. I haven't been this heavy in about 4 years. Britni tells me to just go on her diet where she is so busy that she hardly eats all day. But then eats a big bowl of ice cream every night to make up for it. She said I could skip the ice cream part since I'm trying to lose weight. Now that I have digressed from the topic.

We had an enjoyable time at the temple and then ate at Olive Garden and did lots of shopping as the paragraph above describes. We left at 6:30 a.m. and got home at 7:30 p.m. Very long, exhausting day. But it was fun to just be together on our own without our kids.

Today Daniel and Jacob are headed back to Portland to go to The Globetrotters basketball game. Boy Scouts got a discount on seats. They are very excited.

Date? What's that?

Lynn and I had an actual date on Friday night. He came home from work on Friday and said Let's go to The Dalles and go out to eat and shop. So we did. We went to the restaurant at the Shilo Inn. We had never been there before and we were told they had good food. But it was pretty expensive. It also overlooked the river. So we had a great view. We had the place to ourselves. It's the off season for the wind surfers and vacationers. Then we went shopping. I haven't been to The Dalles for shopping in about a month. All I have been doing is buying the necessities in Goldendale. Milk, bread, eggs, cheese, etc. It was fun and we now have food!!

Saturday we went to the World wide Leadership meeting in the morning and then spent the day as a family. It was a good day.

Today was Ward Conference. They talked a lot about Unity and also about Indexing. There is a push in Salt Lake to get Indexing done. So Lynn and I are now signed up for Indexing. WE want Britni and Daniel to do it also. The push is also to get the youth involved, like Elder Bednar said in conference. Their texting fingers were made for more than texting, they were made for indexing.

I am hoping for no fog this week. so far so good. Enjoy your week my family and friends.

Recap

I know it has been a long time since the last post. I'm not sure whether to recap you on what has been going on or just give you the highlights. I think I will just give you the highlights.

The end of the quarter/semester is here. All the kids have done great in school. Britni is still a 4.0! Great Job with being able to handle sports and school Brit! Daniel had the 3rd or 4th highest GPA in the school. Great job Daniel. However, Jacob beat him. Jacob had the highest GPA for Centerville School last quarter. Centerville goes by quarters and Goldendale High School goes by Semesters. I think his GPA was 3.75. Great Job Jacob!! Benjamin and Samuel just get pass or fail grades and they are both doing well in school also.

Samuel is actually home sick today. This is his first sick day all year long. We have been blessed with healthy children so far this year. I better knock on some wood.

I have decided to get back into the work force, kind of. There was a job opening for a secretary at the High School. I was going to apply but then a friend suggested that I get on the Substitute Secretary list for the school district. So I ended up doing both. I am on the substitute secretary list. However, there are 8 other people who are substitute secretaries. So I am on the bottom of the list. I have yet to be called to work. There are only 6 available secretary positions to sub for. I also applied for the High School secretary position but have yet to hear from that. I assume that they hired someone else. No one really looks at me because it's been 16 years since I have really worked as a secretary. But I am putting it into the Lord's hands though. If he wants me to work then I will work. There is a time and purpose to everything. I just have to have faith.

Basketball is officially done now. Britni played her last game on Monday. She then got her back and neck adjusted yesterday. She feels much better now. She has lost quite a bit of weight with Basketball. I am hoping now she may put on some weight now. I wish that was my problem. I am just trying to lose the weight that I have gained.

I best get going for today. Enjoy your Thursday. :)

Don't Know What You Got, Till It's Gone!!

Yep great music lyrics and so true to what my past week has been. We lost our power last Thursday for 2 hours. I thought that wasn't so bad. I was just feeling the chill of the air when the power came back on that day. I figured I was doing pretty good since my brother in Seattle area was out of power for several days. So then Saturday came along and the power goes out again. (again during laundry) This time it's out for 5 hours. The kids went outside and played, we had sandwiches for lunch, then we played card games/board games. Just as I was laying down to take a nap from all the excitement of the board games, the power comes back on.

Then we get a phone call that night from our neighbor. We can't hear him on our phone. He calls Lynn's cell phone to explain that our phones don't work. So something must have happened when the power came back on because our phone was working before the power came back on.

Because it was Saturday, they would not fix our phones. So we waited until Monday. I called Monday to say our phone didn't work. I got a "ticket" number. They say it should be fixed by Tuesday morning.

To make a really long story short. We just got our phone and internet back 10 minutes ago. I guess this happened to a lot of people in the area. I feel kind of back for the poor phone people and PUD people who are working so hard to get phones and power back to so many people. BTW, we did have our internet for a few days but it also went out Yesterday. What is sad is that I was getting withdrawals from not having the internet after 1 day!!! I guess I best do something about that. However, I am so happy to be back among the internet living!!! :)

Snow Daze!!

This is day 3 of no school for the kids because of the snow/ice. Wednesday it snowed a lot. I will include a picture. We got between 12-14 inches. Then it started the freezing rain. When you live in the Columbia Gorge, you get freezing rain and wind. At least with the freezing rain there is minimal wind!! It's just very slick outside. Here is a picture of our pour trees. They are so weighed down with the ice. We have had a few limbs break off. Lynn's comment "That's one way to trim the trees." It scared out dog half to death. She barked at that limb for quite awhile, thinking the THE SKY IS FALLING!! The kids have fun trying to walk on top of the snow because of all the ice. Samuel is the only one light enough to actually do it. What is interesting is our fat dog is able to do it too. I guess she isn't that fat after all if she can walk on top of the snow. :)

At least we have power. A couple days ago we had 2 hours of no power. It was just starting to get cold in the house when the power came on. I hear my brother in Seattle area has no power and hasn't had it all day yesterday and into today too. He is a lucky man though, he has a generator and heater. We are very blessed indeed to have power.

Now to get the kids busy with their chores! Have a safe and warm day.