September

Elias got braces...I took a photo with my phone and magically deleted it somehow.  He only has bracket on the uppers for now.  They will be adding the lower ones later. He chose alternating blue colors to show school spirit...GO EAGLES! Elias was originally going to play football this fall but joined the Cross Country team instead.  He's never been a runner so this was a shock for all of us.  He's stuck with it though and showing great improvement.  He ran a 7m30s mile the other day for his personal best.  Caleb had me buy a stop watch so he can challenge to a mile race on Sat. morning.  We'll see how that goes.  Elias tried out for Off Season Basketball and made the team as well.  This was a REAL shock to us but we couldn't be any prouder of him.  He seems to have adjusted really well to Junior High.

Isaac started and quit a YMCA soccer league last week. We signed him up for the 8/9 yr old team.  His first practice was last Wednesday where he was the only older boy and had little teeny girls as young as 5 on his team.  Ummm that's not safe and for sure not ok.  As we walked on the field he got a look of his team.  Sharing the field was a tackle football team with boys about his age.  Yeah, pretty sure playing pansy soccer with the fru fru girls while watching an intense football practice wasn't going to work out.  It's too late to join the football team but he wanted off that soccer team whether or not he had any other sport for a replacement.  I don't blame him.  He's doing awesome in school again this year and has amazing teachers.

Silas began Kindergarten and we all had our fingers crossed that it would work out.  The first 2 days he wasn't buying into the structure and rules but by day 3 he decided he loved it.  He's done really well adjusting to his new life and complains every Saturday when there's no school.  I got a voicemail on Friday from his teacher letting us know how great he's been YAY! Then I got a note yesterday that he "spanked" another boy who'd been naughty to him. He's just a living example that for every action there is an equal or greater reaction.  Maybe Jake won't dump Silas' chips out next time.

Jude's 1st day of preschool.

Blowing out his candles.

Feeling pretty awesome with his weedwacker toy.

Ready for his surgery.

Jude turned 3 and was pretty excited about his Birthday.  I had planned on making his dessert for our Sunday celebration of his Birthday.  At about 8:30 Saturday he told me he needed a race car cake....ut oh...He was expecting a character cake of some kind.  Oops.  Caleb and I put Elias in charge and ran to Kroger and bought a sweet dragon cake that met his needs. While he were singing to him we had to keep lighting his candles.  Guess he didn't know that you're supposed to wait til the end of the song.  Yesterday was finally his inguinal hernia repair surgery.  Luckily we got bumped to the 1st case of the day so we didn't have to keep him fasting for long.  They gave him some medicine that made him tired and amnesic so he wouldn't remember being wheeled away from me.  He was like a wasted, drunk 3 year old. He was hilarious. The best thing he did was hold his hands right in front of his face and turn them back and forth and asked me with very slurred speech, "Mom, why are there no toys in my hands?".  They went in to repair his hernia and explore the opposite side to be sure it looked healthy... Sure enough they found a second hernia as well.  So grateful we waited for a Pediatric Surgeon!  The one we were seeing in Idaho wasn't going to check the opposite side.  He's recovering very well.  He's refusing all pain meds today and is happy and getting around.

Taking Jude on a "choo choo ride". Good thing he won't remember what they were really taking him for.

Snuggling Dad in the recovery room.  He was SO agitated waking up from the anesthesia.  He was angry, screaming and thrashing around for 20 minutes.

I just got back from my weekend in NYC with my bestie Kris and had an amazing time.  We were so proud of ourselves for being in charge of all our own travel without an agency and getting around like pros.  Kris wrote a great post with all her sweet pictures so I'll put the link to her post here for you to check out our trip. http://herewecomevietnam.blogspot.com/2010/09/260-breaking-it-down.html

Crazy Summer

Before Tami and I were married, she showed me a picture of her all dressed up in hunting clothes holding a pistol with a scope.  Without asking much about it, I assumed (and we know what that makes out of you and me) that she enjoyed the outdoors.  After our first September camping trip just over a month and half after being married, I started to ask her questions about her outdoorsiness.  It actually started out as a pretty big argument because we camped when it froze outside.  Anyway, she told me that in the picture all she was really doing was modeling because she didn't really like doing that kind of stuff.

I have to say that I am really proud of Tami right now.  She was completely out of her element this summer but was willing to do it because she knew how much it would mean to the boys.  Instead of just putting up with it for the summer, she actually learned to really like it and ended up having a great time.  The boys got to see and do things that they would never be able to do in the city.  For one, the suburban broke down and we had to get towed into a small town in Eastern Washington.  They didn't know vehicles broke down.  They got to be stranded in the middle of the lake when the boat broke down.  They hauled drinking water from the marina, hauled garbage out to the park, fixed the boat motor, put a new garage door opener on the boat house, lit fires, caught fish, cleaned fish and ate fish, learned to wake board, ski on two and slalom, hauled, split and stacked wood, drove boats, learned to dive, worked at a gun show, went to Silverwood, road fourwheelers, played with cousins and aunts and uncles, went to church at a small branch and most importantly, spent a lot of time with grandparents.

After all the things the boys did, you would expect that they grew the most.  The crazy thing is that Tami seems to have grown more than all of them.  She became very indepedent and helped the boys with just about everything.  Before this summer, she knew boys and the types of things they liked but I think she now understands boys and is willing to do whatever it takes to teach them and challenge them in new areas.  I better post this before she gets a chance to read and then delete this.  We will be posting more pictures soon.

We Must Be Getting Old

Elias turned 12 last week.  Wow do Caleb and I feel old!  The thing he wanted most for his birthday is a .243 hunting rifle.  We were unable to purchase a gun in Idaho because we're not residents here so we owe him one as soon as we get back to Texas. Turning twelve is  monumental on it's own but in addition he was also ordained a Deacon on Sunday.  It took a little work to get all the proper documentation to have him ordained outside of our home ward but thanks to a great Bishop in TX and great Branch President here in ID it all went smoothly.  The Branch President wanted us to do it before church started so that Elias would be able to help support their small group of young men pass the Sacrament.  We thought that sounded like a great idea. So 5 min. before church started Elias went up to sit on the front row and asked what he needed to do.  He was basically told, "your isle is that one" and that was it.  I have to say he did great with basically no instruction.  I guess he actually has been paying attention to how things are done.  I'm sure in a couple weeks when we get back to Houston he'll get a thorough instruction session.  In RS meeting the lesson yesterday was ironically on the Priesthood.  The teacher was an awesome lady who in looks and mannerisms reminded me of Kathy Bates.  She made a comment that for some years now she's been a widow and not had the Priesthood in her home.  She said that there is a marked difference from the time when the Priesthood was there and when it wasn't.  It occurred to me that as Caleb travels (which is frequently) our family has missed that presence in our home as well.  I'm so excited that we'll now have Elias as a Priesthood holder to fill in for Caleb when he's gone.  It won't be long before Isaac is right there too.  We're so proud of Elias and the decisions he's been making.  It's sad to think that he's 12 now and we really only have 6 more years with him before he'll be off on a mission and then to college.  Guess we better make the best of these next few years!

Vacation and Anniversary

I think Tami is just about to the end of her rope at the cabin.  She has learned more things this summer than she ever cared to know about boat motors, snakes, fishing etc.  For some reason, none of those things were ever on her list of things you must learn before you die.  After talking to her on the phone tonight, I can tell that she is pretty frazzled and we may have stayed a little long this year.  She keeps telling me that we only have 2 weeks left at the cabin.  That makes her pretty happy but I could spend every day up there. 

We were on vacation one time over our anniversary.  We were having so much fun in the water that I completely forgot.  Tami didn't forget but she made sure she didn't say a word until I was just about asleep from the crazy day of water sports.  She leaned over and said, "Happy Anniversary!!!"  Those are not excited explanation points, they are mad ones.

This year, I decided I better do something early or else I would forget.  I did get a little coaching from a friend so I can't take all the credit.  Tami won't be able to read this until I get to the cabin with my phone so while she reads, she will find out that I got her two tickets to see Wicked in New York on September 18th.  Happy Anniversary Tami.  I can't believe we have been married for 13 years.

Just Pictures...lots and lots!

I don't have a lot of time to blog so I'm just going to post some pictures.  We're sitting in the burb outside the Indian Reservation IT center stealing some free wireless so I'll update later.

Operation Relocation/Extermination

Got snakes? We've got a lot less now than we did a few days ago.  Caleb's not afraid of much but snakes would make his top 3 list if he had to make one.  North Idaho snakes are harmless yet still creepy.  Every time we head onto shore we hear or see snakes in the grass.  Caleb decided it was time for the boys to relocate a few of them.  He made this decision while he was out of town however.  So I put the boys on the task.  Elias became self proclaimed "spotter" and Isaac was the snake wrangler.  After an hour or so they had caught 6.  Ewwww!  We put them in a bucket and took them over to the State Park in our boat and released them.  Later that same day they went after it again and caught 10 more!!! I'm not talking about a large square footage hunting area either.  This load we hauled out in the boat and let go "near" shore and watched them swim.  They went all directions.  Several chased after the boat, some went for the bridge and a few headed toward shore.  With the water temperature barely above 60 degrees we're not sure how many made it.  Survival of the fittest I suppose.  We've taken out 3 more now for a total of 19 snakes! Nasty!

The boys are completely in their element here.  Thursday they decided to become "swamp loggers".  There were a lot of large logs floating in our bay so they waded, swam and kayaked working very well together I might add to get them to shore.  I wasn't sure what Caleb would think about them bringing in all those logs and cluttering up our beach but once he came in on Friday he was pretty pleased with their work.  The wood will actually make great firewood so he helped the boys beach the rest of the logs and then cut them with a chainsaw.  Now he'll need to split it and have the boys stack it in our wood shed.  Sounds like a lot of work for "vacation" but that's the kind of stuff Caleb LOVES doing.

We've successfully accomplished 3 weeks of living on the lake.  After this week Caleb will be taking a week's vacation.  We're all excited for that!

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

It's cold people!  Everyone up here keeps saying that this is not the normal June temps for Idaho but I'm thinking we skip June next summer and concentrate on July and a week or so of August.  We're adjusting well to the way of life up here.  I have no idea of the day, date or time most of the time.  I can now drive the boat without feeling so nervous and anxious.  I think we've got the cabin stocked and organized well enough and the boys are quite the fishermen.  We still have no legal way to get the grey water tank pumped (the septic company who were going to accommodate us went belly up so that's in limbo right now for all the float homes) so we've been conserving our waste water and using biodegradable camp soap.  We let very little water actually go down the drain.  Don't think having a shower put in was a waste though.  I just line the entire bottom of the shower with buckets and catch as much h2o as I can and then empty the buckets on shore (using only camp soap of course).

Jude: Loves to "fish" which means he takes his fishing pole and smacks it in the water and scares all the real fish away.  Jon took time to rig his pole with a hook and bobber.  After about 3 minutes we decided a bobber would be plenty special.  He and Silas bathe in a large bucket and think it's awesome because with the two of them the water goes up to their necks.  Jude is confused about where he actually lives.  He keeps asking "Is this Maggie's lake cabin? Is this my lake cabin?"  He loves riding in the boat, fishing and having fires.  He's already burned 3 holes in his nice new speedo life jacket that I make him wear every minute of the day.

Silas: Is so ticked that he's not old enough to be in the boat when just Elias and Isaac go out.  He too loves fishing but gets his line tangled ALL the time.  I'm thinking of only allowing him to fish for 1 hr. a day until he can fix his own pole.  He still hasn't caught anything so we'll see how long his patience lasts.  He is really good at kayaking and feels like hot stuff when he's out on the water alone.  He attempted to learn to ski but the water is way too cold for him to be patient with his efforts.

Isaac:  Is a good fisherman. He's up to 4 crappie (horrible name for a fish even though it's pronounced croppy).  Jarom taught him how to clean and cook the fish so he pretty much eats everything he catches.  He is however going to have to be better about where he disposes  the leftover parts!  Frank brought down a little 8hp fishing boat that he and E have learned to drive and they put around the bay, throw out their anchor and fish.  I say "put" with some reservation.  I told the two boys to go out and practice driving in the bay but to stay within 100 yards of the house so I could help them if they needed it.  Isaac drove first.  He went straight out and started spinning doughnuts like he was on a jet ski or something.  I, of course, was calmly jumping up and down waving my arms to get him back in for a lesson on keeping the throttle at a very low setting.  The kid has no fear.  He's been extremely helpful with all things boat though so that has been nice.

Elias: Has an ongoing competition with Isaac.  They are keeping a fish count and whenever one brother is ahead you can't stop the other from fishing.  Elias has completed all the dirty work required for the fishing merit badge.  Last night he caught a good sized large mouth bass.  The boys were so excited to eat it so I went to build a fire.  As they were cleaning it Isaac all the sudden began jumping up and down with glee.  He ran over to me at the fire pit and said, "It was pregnant and the baby survived!".  I gave a quick lesson on how fish don't have live birth... duh.  It apparently had just eaten a little baby fish that survived the cleaning process.  The boys put the baby back in the lake.  It only swam for a few minutes then keeled over.  I guess it was all too much for the little one.  Elias was quite proud of his accomplishment. It was the biggest fish caught so far.  He's a lot more cautious than Isaac so maybe if the two of them stick together they'll even each other out.

I'm heading to Houston on Friday since Caleb can't make it down this weekend.  The boys will be spending time with their grandparents up here in Idaho.  I'm sure they'll be ready to get back in the action as soon as I'm back!