After I "helped Santa" fill the Stockings on Christmas Eve. Si and Em crept out of bed and added a few decorative touches. They hung paper snowflakes all over the living room ceiling. It was a beautiful surprise on Christmas morning!!!

 

Merry Christmas!!

Who needs a star on top of the Christmas tree when you have a cat around. With glow in the dark eyes!

I'm as hungry as a monkey!

~Soph

Yesterday we started our second round of Chickenpox. This round involves Em, Ad, and Soph. From the looks of things Em might be our grand champion with the most spots. She is only a day and a half into it but has more spots than anyone has had at this point. Perhaps she will not get many more, not likely.

They should just be out of the contagious part by Christmas but still have all those awful scabby spots. Poor babies.

Friday afternoon I ran from my room to screams in the living room. Soph was holding her face. As I went to inspect the damage I asked the other two, Si and Ad, how it happened. Soph was jumping on the couch and fell, face first, into the coffee table. All of a sudden Soph blurts out Addey made me. At this her hand came down and the amount of blood shocked me for a moment. I quickly recovered and sent kids to get the usual stuff. I got the blood under control relative fast. And realized she had a nasty gash on the upper corner of her mouth. Now the hard decision, does she need stitches? It was about 4:30 so by the time I got to the town the Clinic would be closed and I’d need to take her to the ER. Combined with the fact that it was on the corner of her mouth, gapping pretty bad and the amount of talking she can do. I wasn’t she I could mend it, so we drove to the hospital. She ended up with two stitches and a couple of shots, and a stuffed bear from the nurse.Not to mention a Happy Meal with a milkshake from me. All better.

Today I found her standing on the edge on the couch preparing for a jump. Yikes, apparently lesson not learned!

Well it has finally happened. One of my kids has contracted the chicken pox. None of my kids have had them, not even Tirz or Em. Silas has mad it through but poor Tirz is right in the thick of it. The other girls have not shown any signs … yet.

Happy Thanksgiving four days late!!

I have been so busy this last week and weekend. We had a great Thanksgiving Day. We had a total of 26 this year. Our party grew too large for our house so we celebrated at a neighbor’s house who was gone visiting their family. We had loads of food and lots of laughs. A few die-hard football freaks fans in our group were even able to watch the game because our neighbor has satellite TV. We all had a great time.
We continued our celebration to the next night having a couple of families over for dessert. Rick built a huge bonfire outside and the adults sat the fire while the teens tried to sneak up on us in the dark. Nice try kid-os!!
Rick and I continued the celebrating one more night. We went over to a neighbor’s for a Texas Hold’em Party. We stayed until about 2:30 in the AM. It’s a really good thing Church starts a 2:00 in the afternoon.
I’d say back to our ordinary mundane life but we had a truck load of snow dumped on us, seven inches to be exact. That much snow always adds a twist of “fun” to the mundane!!

I am sitting in my chair!!

Well, it happened. It’s just good it happened later in life. It would have been difficult to handle at the tender age of sixteen. It’s just so embarrassing. It’s rarely seen. Well maybe in a movie. Of course, Hollywood is so dramatic. Today there are all the safety measures in place. It’s a wonder what they did in the past. I suppose it spewed everywhere and all present were faced with the possibilities of fire and a final explosion. It’s everyone’s fear at some point in life. It would have been nice to glimpse it happening to someone else. None the less, there it was the gas nozzle still hooked up to the car, the other end disconnected from the pump, dragging about three feet behind. All that could be done was to lift the nozzle from the car, scoop up the other end, take it to the attendant, and simply say, “It broke, sorry.” And walk away!

Summer Time

Summer is the time of year for science. Well life science anyway, specifically the study of insects and a few amphibians. We currently have two Pacific Tree Frogs, one green and one grey ; two Praying mantis, a boy and a girl; a California Root Boerer, he's a big one and he hisses too; and a Tree Cricket, a very loud "singer." The frogs are going to need to go back to the wild soon. We are feeding them flies but this is becoming a weary task. I’m not sure they are getting enough food either. The Hissing beetle (what some around here call'em) needs to go very soon, he is just plain creepy. A bug should not be that big! The cricket will probably become food for the frogs or more likely the praying mantis. It was fascinating to watch it move his wigs to make the chirping noise. It came in the house uninvited and interrupted our Jerry Lewis movie. We are keeping the praying mantis for a while. I just fed the male a bunch of moths. The female has a grasshopper left from yesterday. I would like to see if the female would lay an egg sack. It would be so intriguing to watch it hatch in the spring. It could be a little creepy too because there could be 20-400 little babies. Then we can let them go in the garden to eat the bad bugs.

A short conversation at Walmart

Upon seeing a single grape in the parking lot in the middle of a huge oil stain a very cute blond four year old shouted with excitement,

"Look mommy a grape."

"Yes," replied mommy, "but we don't eat things of the ground, remember?"

"I know. And we especially don't eat *food* off the ground, right mom?"

"Uhhh, yah."

What else is she eatting off the ground????

Pastel Palm Tree
Our beach doesn't have any palm trees but we enjoy it all the same. We (the kids and I) spent the afternoon at the beach splashing and playing.

I see the Moon, and the Moon sees Me. God bless the Moon, and God bless Me.

New address for Kruse Kreations. Click link on the side bar.

B-B-B-Bees

Look at these large bees! I think they are so interesting. They swarm my chives every year. This is not my finger next to them by the way. I had Tirz do it!! She didn't mind. She "pets" them. Yikes and yee-haw!
Has anyone ever heard of a bee kite? Or "made" one?

Busy, busy, busy! We seem to be constantly on the go.

The girls (Tee and Em) and I went on Monday to Spokane to go shopping for dresses for an up and coming wedding. Spokane is about a two hours drive from our place. It’s a long drive but necessary. There is really no place to shop for nice clothing here.

Tuesday evening we had women’s mtg. We worked on little party favor things for the wedding. Well most of the women did. There were so many of ladies, that I actually didn’t do anything but sit and chat.:)

Wednesday we had to our Contact Day for school. Addey has Speech class as well. Then Addey has her Ballet class and Silas takes Tae Kwon Do in town. I try to get all my town errands done in between. This week I didn’t have much shopping so we spent more time at the Library.

Thursday is our Co-op day. We meet at a little church in the area. I gave my last art assignment for the school year!!! The test is next week. In the evening Si had another Tae Kwon Do session. I take one of the kids out during Si’s class for a “Special time with Mom.” It was Si’s turn so we went to Walmart after he was done. He bought two bulletin boards that were on sale for his room.

Friday is movie night. However Si has a Promotion in Tae Kwon Do coming up (on Sat) so we went to an extra class. During his class I went and had coffee with my Auntie A. Friends invited Rick and I over to their place. I was so late in town with Si that Rick and I meet up at their place. The girls watched a movie at home and Si tagged along with us and hung out with their son.

So that brings us to today, Saturday, the Tae Kwon Do Promotion. These promotions last ALL day! Si is testing for his Yellow Belt. He has to stay for the entire promotion that means watching every student do his test. After which the Master presents students with their new belt. In the evening they will hold a Black Belt pre-test which Si want to watch. I’m taking Si in early. Rick and the girls will come later to watch Si and then go home. Rick and Sophi can’t sit that long.

Sorry I haven't been around.

I've been busy and very preoccupied with a book.

Inspiration from the coffee bean

My farewell to winter, May we not see this white stuff in the trees until November. 

Tag I'm it!

Okay I’ve been tagged by Karen here are my answers.

Four Jobs I Have Had:
1. Frame It (a picture frame shop)
2. R.E.I. Shipping Dept.

3. I mixed glasses of Ice-tea (with lots of ice) and did the laundry for Woody’s Grandma

4. House sat for my sister whenever she went out of town.

Four jobs I think might be cool to have:
1. a jazz lounge singer
2. a full time artist living in the tropics
3. a full time artist in the city (this might combine well with the lounge singer)
4. a full time artist in the country (half way there on this one)

Four Movies I could watch over and over:
1. Pride and Prejudice
2. I just bought French Kiss and I’m in the process of watching it to death.
3. It’s a Wonderful Life (usually a couple of times at Christmas)
4. Braveheart (though I don’t always watch the ending when he is disemboweled.)

Four places I have lived:
1 Seattle, WA.
2. Lynnwood, WA
3. Edmonds, WA
4. Colville, WA

Four places I have vacationed:
1. Oregon
2. Florida
3. California

4. Canada, eh


Four TV shows I watch:
1. No TV reception
2. But I love all the
3. Do it yourself and
4. Decorating shows.

Four Websites I visit daily:
1. Local library system
2. Google
3. Amazon
4. And yes my favorite blogs?

Four favorite foods:
1. I hate picking favorite foods.
2. I like what I eat in the moment

3. I’m nibbling on golden raisins right now.
4. Mmmm, yum!

Four Places I would rather be:
1. My new house
2. No we have no *Money*
3. or *Plans* to
4. build right now.

Four people I am tagging with this meme:

1. I’m not tagging anyone
2. And I rarely pass on
3. e-mail forwards too

4. Sorry :)

Tirz took this last weekend down at 'The River' (Lake Roosevelt) which is about 5 min. from our house. I love it.

Perched on a wire.

Hmmm

What I've been doing. Almost done.

All done

Rick and I

Chirp!

Sunset
Taken by Tee

WBS Doodle

Church Doodle

Twilight Snow

1-2-3 GO!

Faster, faster!

Oh no, wipe-out!

2006