Just a brief, and I mean bried update.

We've attended Tessa's family birthday party at the pool. Good times.
We visited Great Grandpa Severson (age 96/97) on Sunday. He's old yet cheerful. And we learned he likes watching sting operations where they catch internet predators...and Msnbc News. Ok Grandpa.
Caleb likes his literacy lab, and I think he's actually learning more in that 25 minutes than in regular class.
We've spent a few days at the park using the unpredictable sunshine to the max.
I have started work at an additional company, that makes 3 employers for myself... tricky keeping which tasks report to which companies! Whew!
My desktop computer has been out of commission with viruses/worms/trojans etc since last Monday, so that's the reason for few postings. Crossing my fingers that Staples can have it ready to pick up tomorrow AM....

The boys are all excited:
We will be in California from late tomorrow afternoon 2/10 through WEDNESDAY night of next week 2/17. We'll hit the ground running with school, lit lab, Awana and work and MOPS with craft that week. Pray for a safe, on time flight and our luggage lands when and where we do!

In the meantime, the boys have "packed" their back packs to include far too many beanie babies. We have an abundance of them thanks to Grandma Judy paring down her collection. And the boys have been inseparable from them. Caleb sleeps in a small pool of them on his bed each night. Jockey takes them in the car EVERYWHERE, to show and tell, etc. The one great thing is that there are so many, there are few fights and never have we not been able to find one to go with us in the car!

So that's the quick low down, good night.

What's the latest?

Caleb and I had a careful discussion when an opportunity came up. Bottom line: He has made the choice to attend a "literacy lab" program after school for 6 weeks. It is just an extra 25 minutes, so he will get out at noon. It has the purpose to expose him more to reading, phonics, sight words, word blends etc. It will probably have a different approach that I would use, and that is a good thing. No reminder needed that I did not go to college for elementary education (or patience training for that matter.) I am hopeful that he will make another leap in his abilities, provide a chance for focus. Right now he will just see the first letter or first number in the addition problem and guess. Guessing isn't knowing... and guessing isn't actually looking. I'm hoping he will improve.

Both the boys are in Tennis on Tuesdays. They love it. They also get a chance to swim and visit with Grammy and Grandpa, and GG Dahl too. And the come home tired.

Awana tomorrow night. I help. Again.

No big plans for the rest of the week. Might catch a day at the park if I can bundle up warm enough... we'll see.

More as it comes.

A Rite of Passage for kids, though not one I'd sign up to celebrate, it could be worse...


Second only in communicablity to the common cold is... lice. Apparently, we were the only guests at the hotel this weekend.

Caleb called to me this morning and said his head itched and he saw white things. Not taking him at his word precisely, I performed my own examination fully expecting dandruff and a need for extra water or conditioner. I was a bit disturbed to find...lice. Being a born "nit-picker", I looked his entire head over and killed all live ones. Then I examined Jockey, and found a few more and killed those too. This determined the rest of my day. Despite the beautiful sunshine and park playing possibities... We had a new priority.

I now know at least 5 more facts about lice now, than I did yesterday.

1- The lice do not have wings... no flying.
2- The lice do not have back legs (like grasshoppers).... no jumping. (Thus takes direct contact with head or items that have touched the head)
3- The lice will die in 24 hours without human blood.
4- Lice do not live/feed on pets because the pets are not humans.
5- Lice lay 3-4 eggs a day.
6-Hot water and a Hot Dryer are good enough for washables.
7- A good vaccumming is good for non-washables.
8- Lastly and surprisingly, there is a debate on the effectiveness of all products, shampoos and sprays, other than the comb.

As for me and my house, pesticide shampoo is the way we went, because the little bugs can transfer or fall while being combed out and I'd rather them be dead if my older eyes miss one that falls prey to gravity.

So I have discovered, diagnosed, treated and combed each boy. Phew, the hardest part was making them hold still for 45-50 minutes for the meticulous combing process. And Thank GOD they are boys and have short hair!!!
Mike and I both check out as clear, but the washing, sterilizing, vaccuming ensues to make sure there are none to transfer to us or back to the boys.

The Lice War is not a difficult war (as yet), but a great many loads of laundry.

So onward... (and I'll be calling the hotel.)

Just a little catch up.

We made it thorugh the busy-ness of last week. Leadership meetings, Awana, School, Mops, etc.

Then it was off for a 5+ hour drive Friday to Hayden, ID for a visit to an indoor water park at the Holiday Inn Express. They have an arcade with tokens and prizes, indoor play structure for the kids, mini golf and bowling (which we didn't do) and a "Raptor Reef" dino-themed indoor water park. Three slides, a wave pool with zero depth shore, and a kids play structure set in nearly a foot of water that has it's own slides, sprinklers, sprayers etc.

The kids were a little car weary, but they are quickly learning use every rest area we offer them. (Which I used nearly every one in the Eastern part of the state for my own reasons.) Every kid needs to learn to use the facilities when it's offered; I learned at the age of about 7 going through Arizona... long story. So we got there with time to eat dinner and hit the slides. Caleb was tall enough for one solo, and the other two with an adult, so both Mike and I got our sliding quota in... and Grandpa Dahl too. Jockey was a little left out of the slides... but you couldn't tell from the way he zipped around the kids area and dove through the waves.

Saturday was rainy, and although a beautiful walk and a really cool children's park were tempting in Couer D'alene, we were nevertheless rained out. We did hit a few thrift stores and found treasures in cheap books (me) and a couple stuffed animals for the boys. Then it was back into the pools for fun. Then dinner and back into the pools again. I treated the boys to a little $5 of arcade fun somewhere in there too.
Sunday was a wake up, breakfast, clean up the room and back into the pools type of day. We made a couple stops on the way home, most noteably at "guy mecca" aka CABELA's. Then onward home arriving late about 8:30pm.

Monday we did not have school, but finally having a break from the rain we spent a long, bundled up 4.5 hours at the park meeting friends from school... both by arrangement and by coincidence.

It's been a busy few days. But it's beautiful outside, almost like spring, especially when I saw the hydreangea starting it's new sprouts. Hmmmm. Did we skim through this winter without a trace of snow accumulation?

The first week of the new year...

Caleb was VIP this week at school. What does this mean? He got to be line leader, choose helpers, make the runs to the office and library as needed. He had show and tell, he got to bring snacks. Lastly, he got to invite special guests and introduce them and talk about them and field questions from his classmates. Grammy Dahl and Papa Bill (the non-working local grandparents) were gracious enough to share time with 28 little kindergarteners. They were asked stuff like "what's your favorite cookie/lunch/animal" "what do you do with your grandparent" etc. I learned that Papa Bill and I both like Oatmeal raisin cookies. Grammy shared a very interesting bit of information about when she was in Kindergarten.... in her school the boys and girls did not play together, or even walk down the same hall way/ stairs. That was a bit of a brain warp for the kids. Hard to imagine, especially during their friendship week when they are assigned rotating people to befriend, play with and talk to during recess. MOST boys are asking to be with other boys by the way, but have come to terms that there is a majority (70-80%) of girls in the class and there just might be a time they are teamed up with a girl. ewww yuck.

So after visiting the Caleb's class, there was time to go and visit Jockey's class before it was time to actually take Caleb away from school. So we had nearly 30 minutes to see Jockey in action tearing up the playground and being a little leader. Everyone chased him or did what he did, even if that meant breaking the rules and throwing rocks... we're working on that. Good leaders have to set an example. Then it was off to chapel and a lengthy discussion about what color the robes of the angels might have been wearing when they visited the shepards in the fields the night Christ was born. There were many votes for light blue and light green, several other colors, and a surprisingly decided vote for Black... huh? We we ended with a quick prayer of repeating after the pastor, true to Lutheran form, and we were off to get Caleb. Papa Bill went to get burgers while we returned to the house. After a surprisingly in-our-seats lunch, the boys introduced Papa Bill to the Wii and got him to play bowling with him.

It was a great day of crisp sunny weather where we all enjoyed the outdoors. The boys lucked out with outside recess, we took Papa Bill to see the house we are thinking about if we actually sold this one, and then I took the boys to the park... I mean it was sunny after all. A non-rainy day should be used for maximum enjoyment. And we did just that.

No idea what our weekend plans are, but there is Sparks tonight. Cubbies has been cancelled for the night and might have to be for the rest of the year due to lack of leaders... I pray not. So that's the scoop.

Have a great rest of the week.

Happy New Year!


We rang in the new year in a quiet sort of way. Sleeping or working on projects. Might as well start the new year true to personality.

We have taken down our tree now. It really was a great tree this year. I hope we have success next year at picking out another nice one. Everyone helped take it down. The boys especially found joy in helping, just as much as putting it up really.

The boys are now healthy (at least mostly). Jockey attended a birthday party today. It was at the fire station. It was actually a really great birthday party. They gave us a tour, let us ride in a fire truck, let the kids spray a hose that they had taken off the truck and hooked up, gave them goody bags and hats... it was really neat. Jockey has already asked if he could do this for his birthday; so don't be surprised if it happens.

School is just around the corner. I'm not sure I'm ready for it all to start back up again. But there's no choice for any of us. But it helps to have something to look forward to and that is a vacation to California in mid-February. Sun, warm... nice.

So that's our update. A slow and steady week and new year with the knowledge that life's going to kick into high gear any moment.
Hope you're having a great start to a new year too.

We got an unexpected visit of a fever upon Jockey last night. About 12:45 AM he was using the restroom and coughed and sounded like he threw up. I went to check on him and he was burning up. The highest last night was 103.6. I iced him, cold washclothed him, Tylenol, Ibrophened and prayed. He was down to 101.9 at 6 Am when we finally went to sleep. He's spiked back up to 103 mid-morning before more medication was put into him. But he's handling it well. I was wondering for a moment if I was going to have to hold him down in a cold bath, but we made it through the night. He has a very very bad cough, but thanks to our Rite Aid deals in August, I have all the sore throat meds he could need. So despite the beautiful sunny crisp day, we are going to stick close to home. Where did he pick this up... probably the Children's Museum one week ago. He'll make it through. I just pray the rest of the family doesn't follow in his footsteps on this.
Thanks to every one for their generosity to our family this Christmas and your prayers for Jockey getting well.

Our Christmas...

In SHORT, because We are all tired, and I'm beyond exhausted...So more pictures than words. The boys were blessed almost into the area of indulgence. But they are grateful and playing with everything in turn with sheer joy. The family was blessed with working/matching phones! Several great scrapbooking items/tool came my way, and Mike is enjoying his coffeemaker even as I type. And it appears that the handmade gifts were received with pleasure over... reluctance.

Crisp sunny day, very different than last year's foot of snow, but just as enjoyable. Casual and family, nothing better.

On to pictures. In reverse order of the day:

Dinner at Kristina, Ryan, and Cousin Tessa's.

Hugs after a fun morning.

Hugs and presents in the morning:

Stockings before breakfast:

That's our Christmas in a Photo-nutshell. On to sleeping and maybe a bit of compulsory tidying.

Merry Christmas.

It's CHRISTMAS!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday Jesus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQyXWllz5Ao


Hope you and your families have a great day of joy and fun.