Sick Boy

Wade didn't feel so good yesterday.  I'll try not to go into the details, but I want to remember a few of the things he said during his sickness.  

We were on our way to gospel meeting when it started.  (We turned around and went home.)  A small voice in the back said, "Mommy, I'm going to choke!"   A second later a little more urgently, "MOMMY, I'm going to have a choke!"  Sure enough he did have a "choke".  (A much nicer word than puke or barf, don't you think?)

We told him that he was very brave, because he wasn't fussing at all.  Halfway through a choking session, he said, "I'm brave, I'm brave," as if he was encouraging himself through it.  

He felt another choke coming on, so he was leaning over his bucket waiting.  He looked up at me and in a sarcastic voice said, "This is fun..."

Once we were home and over a toilet, his chant changed to, "This isn't fair, this isn't fair."  

I couldn't agree more sweetheart!  So glad you are better today!!

Weekend

Our friend Mike turns 30 tomorrow.  He and his family came to visit for the weekend, so we used it as an excuse to have a party!  Games, food, and friends made for a wonderful day!

DeAnne and Sue

Julie and Derek also stayed with us, and Julie loaned me her professional cooking skills!

Yum, chocolate cake!

Branson looked so cute in his onesie!

The Sanderson boys and the Thompson girls.  I love how Lydia looks like she is trying to make a funny face in this picture.

The stuffed animals were hungry apparently!

Derek and Julie

Racing their cars...who's going to win?

Our Weekend

This weekend was the Fire and Ice Festival here in Chelan.  Friday we went around and looked at a few of the ice sculptures.  Good thing we did, because by that evening most of them had melted!!  Saturday we took some time and went "ice skating".  No ice because of the warm weather.  Watched the slush sculptors (no ice because of the warm weather).  Listened to some musicians performing children's music.  Watched the parade in the rain.   Stood around the big huge bonfire while some crazies (I used to be one of them) jumped into the lake.  And then watched the awesome firework show peeking out from under our hoods.  Was fun!  Then we took off for Seattle to see Carolyn off (pictures to follow) and go to IKEA (see previous post).  Was a great weekend!  Now, we have a busy work week and another fun weekend coming up!  It feels good to get out and go and be somewhat social!  We had such a long lapse while we were building our house!  Interior doors are coming today, so you can use the restroom in private as soon as Jason gets them installed!  Yippee!!

Thanks for the new Aleph Bet shirts, Lisa!  That's what Wade calls them.  "I'm wearing my Aleph Bet shirt!!!"

He looked so big drinking his smoothie!!!  Where has my baby gone?

Another Big boy!

When we saw this ice chair on Friday we could sit on it.  By Saturday the arms were falling off and it was deemed unsafe to sit on.

Ice sculptors really had a time limit!  Get it done before it melts!

First time ice skating.  On no ice.  Boards covered with slush works too!

Big bonfire from everyone's donated Christmas trees.

About to head down to swim at the hotel.

IKEA

Wow!  What can I say!  Heard about it a lot, but had never actually been to one until yesterday!  I love their catalog, love their website, but had never been there in person.  Yesterday, after checking out of our hotel, we were within 2 miles of the IKEA here in WA, so I convinced Jason to let me go.  I was expecting a store.  Not an all day experience!  :)  I wasn't sure which exit it was off of the freeway, so I was worried we'd miss it.  Shouldn't have worried!  We could see the IKEA sign from a mile away!  Pulling up, I noticed the big blue building....oh, that must be the store.  I was wrong.  That was the first of 4 indoor parking lots!  Found a parking spot and took the pedestrian walkway inside.  There are some carts sitting around, but all the signs were telling us that there would be carts inside when we needed them.  (We should have grabbed a cart right away just to hold kids, jackets, purse, etc)  So, in we go...but not into a store...into a showroom!  No, not a showroom, a thousand showrooms!  Before we go any further, I want to tell you that the IKEA look is not really my "look".  The Swedish based store is a little more modern looking than I prefer.  So, as we looked, I found things that I liked by themselves, but not necessarily the whole room effect that we were seeing in the showrooms.  Anyway, on we go...we bypassed the child check center.  Would have been fun for the boys, but we would have had to wait in line.  Instead, they were totally entertained by playing house in every room we went through!  Finally we get through the showrooms and are invited to dine in their restaurant!  We passed on that, grabbed a cart, and headed into the marketplace area.  I had a few things in mind that I was looking for for the new house...a desk for the guest room, a desk/table for the upstairs, a desk for Jason's office, shelving/storage options for the front hall, etc.  Nothing totally jumped out at me, but it may have been because by this point we were on the 1.5 hour mark, and according to the map, we were only half-way through the experience.  We decided to speed things up a bit.  We zipped through home decor, rugs, and I'm not sure what else.  My eyes were going a mile a minute trying to take it all in.  (Remember, for the past 4.5 years I have lived in a small town, and have forgotten what the whole "big city" "big crowds" thing is all about!  :))  Finally we enter the warehouse full of boxes.  This is where you pick up the items that you noted on your shopping list as you were going through the showrooms.  And then, up ahead we saw the check-out.  Quickly I grabbed some candles and a scrub brush so I wouldn't leave IKEA empty handed!  We walked out with our couple of dollars worth of merchandise and were immediately side-tracked.  An IKEA garage sale?  3 days only?  Items that have been damaged in shipping and have never been opened?  75% off?  Let's check it out!  And there we found what we had been looking for!  A deal!  or 7!  :)  Boxes and boxes of merchandise.  All the boxes look the same!  One tiny little picture on the end of each box depicting what is inside.  We scoured the boxes trying to find something that we thought we needed.  Checking out the damage, "That's just a little dink."  "I can fix that no problem"  "This scratch is on the bottom where no one will ever see it."  And then we started stacking the boxes onto a cart!  Most items have 2 boxes.  Stack, stack, stack.  I think we need another cart!  Stack, stack, stack.  Go back in the store to that little computer by the checkout where you can look up an item number and see what this looks like!  Stack, stack.  And then we were done!  And we did leave a few boxes for the next customer!  :)  What we got....7 different items, each one $25, in 12 different boxes.  A desk for upstairs, a desk for the guest room, a desk for the office, a cabinet for the garage, a shelving system for the hallway, with another shelving system to stack on top, and one more shelving system.....not sure where it's going yet. :)  So we did buy!  But came out less than $200 lighter.  And a thousand pounds heavier!  Now to fit it in the van.  We had taken the seats out before we left, and everything fit very nicely inside!  Good thing we brought the van, the Pathfinder would never have been able to handle the load!  I've been to IKEA.  I enjoyed it!  I got good deals!  I probably won't be back for a LONG time!  Unless they have another 3 day garage sale.....

When we got home we assembled the first of our items.  A desk for upstairs off the kitchen.  It was fun, and the whole family "helped".  The damage that made this $200 desk sell for only $25?  A small dent on the back railing. Tiny.  No one will ever notice.  Except you, because you will bend down and look for it when you come over, because I'm telling you about it!

Counting Surprise

We are in Seattle right now at a hotel.  Carolyn flies out in the morning for CA where she will be pro tem.  We came and went to her gospel meeting and now we are having fun in a hotel before she flies out.  Anyway, earlier today as we were driving over, the boys were all in the back seat entertaining themselves.  I heard renditions of ABC's, Wheels on the Bus, etc.  At one point Wade was counting on his fingers and this is what I heard....

1.......2......3.....Oh, there's a booger!  As he picks it off of his 3rd finger.  I about died laughing!

Negotiating

Tristan has learned the art of negotiating...kind of...
There are some things that I'll let him make decisions on, and if he is happy about it, I will let him negotiate with me too.  The other night I was telling him that it was 5 minutes until bedtime.   He asked if he could have 10 minutes instead.  I said, "No, just 5."
T: 10.
Me: 5
T: 8
Me: 7
T: 8
Me: 7 1/2
T:  Yeah!  7 1/2
M:  Ok
T: No!  5 1/2
M: Even better!

Wader Bader

Cabinets

The workers stayed with us this weekend, and Bob is very handy.  He wanted to help Jason with a project, so they hung the upper cabinets.  

I am very excited about them!  Now I just need to unpack all of my dishes and fill them up!  Actually I don't think I could even fill half of the space I have, especially once my pantry is completed.  That's ok though, I know how fast empty space gets filled!

Excuse the mess, I was fixing dinner in the construction zone as well!

One of the best parts is that all of those cabinets were being stored here, in my dining room.  Now that the dining room has been emptied out, we might be able to put our table there!  Another yippee!

4:45 PDT

That time has become very much a part of my life...

You see, the plan was, when we went to the East Coast I would keep the boys on their regular time schedule.  Usually they go to bed around 8 pm and wake up around 6 am.  So, I figured we will be 3 hours ahead, so they can just go to bed around 11 pm and they should sleep until 9 am.  That way I won't have to readjust their schedules while we're there only to change them back again when we got home.  Great idea....in theory.  It didn't work.  It didn't take them long to figure out when 6 am REALLY was!  Now we are home and 6 am EDT means 3 am PDT!!  So far they haven't gotten up at 3, but 4:45 is pretty close!  I'm stretching to keep them up until 8, because they really want to go to bed earlier, but they have been up before 5 every day we've been home so far!  When I say they, I generally mean Wade and Owen.  Tristan has been sleeping in until a more reasonable hour....6 am.  Hopefully it won't take them long to readjust...meanwhile, any volunteers for the early shift?  :)

Holiday Vacation Finale

Playing with pans at Uncle Garrett's condo.

Cammy took Tristan and Wade to Columbia with her for the night, Jason and Garrett were working, so it was Owen and I who headed for a nice walk on the beach!

New Year's Eve party at Lyle and Heather's

Our hostess, Heather, and little Landon.

Big Long Settlers game

Enjoying Landon's toys!

Owen on his steed.

Sparklers at midnight!  Wade didn't stay awake for the new year, but the other two did!

Charlotte and Elena with Tristan who blew his New Year's horn.

Another day of sailing!  Jason is making it look cold, but it was actually a BEAUTIFUL day!  There was nice sun, a perfect breeze, and we opened up the sails!

Garrett is a good skipper

The rig master

Owen takes the helm.  Just a note:  I don't know if any of my "sailing jargon" was accurate...probably not, but you know, just trying to talk the talk!  :)

Back in Columbia we watched the Packers and the Seahawks squeak their way into the playoffs!!!  This is in the Florida room, so it was a little chilly.

Eating...and sometimes decorating...gingerbread cookies.

River walk

This is where Cammy goes for meeting.  This woman's name is Katherine, and she is a wonderful, sweet, southern woman!

I have a picture just like this 2 years ago, and Cammy was holding Tristan.  

The boys keep calling these their Ermy hats.  Not sure why they couldn't get that vowel quite right.  They were marching and chanting.  :)

And this brings us home.  About 5 minutes after pulling in the driveway we hosted Carolyn's birthday party!  Happy 29th sis!!!  

We had a wonderful vacation!  We are so lucky to have such a great family!  Now it's back to working on the house.  Shelving is getting delivered today, trim package has been ordered, etc.  We have the workers coming for the weekend, and I feel bad that I can't provide them with doors yet!