Home Wrecker

Anna has crossed over from fussy, teething toddler to happy home wrecker. For one thing, she has learned to pull a chair or tub up to the counter and reach whatever she is interested in. Here you see an example of her destruction. She pulled this tub up, pulled out a variety utensils from the drawer, dumped out the cinnamon sugar, and began opening a new cube of butter when I found her.
In the past 24 hour period, she dumped out almost a full pitcher of orange juice all over the counter and floor, and into the drawer and cupboard below, dumped a cup of water all over the counter, painted bowls with the already opened butter, threw graham crackers off the counter one by one, and got into Katie's school supplies while she was sleeping and drew on the couch with a permanent marker.

Here she is trying to make amends by doing the dishes! : )

Kit Hawes January 13, 1947-February 2, 2004

Today marks five years since our mom passed away from lung cancer. I have been thinking about her a lot the past two days. Here is a picture of her in front of her flower garden. Mom was an amazing gardener. She had a green thumb and had a home full of plants and a porch and yard full of flowers. She was also a golfer. She got a hole in one once (and her name in the paper lots of times)! She and my step-dad, Rich, celebrated their 27th wedding anniversary the year she passed away. She worked for 30 years at CSU Chico in the accounting department and retired a few months before her diagnosis. She was also a fantastic grandma. Two of my children haven't gotten to meet her, yet.
The second picture is from her birthday in January, 2004. She had never ridden in a limousine, so Rich rented one to celebrate her 57th birthday. This picture shows Mom, Rich, Darlin and Papa (Mom's parents) and me. My sister, Jeanette, and her husband, Curt, also came, along with some of Mom's brothers and their wives. The limo took us on a ride around Canyon Oaks, where Mom lived at the time, and then to Mom's favorite Chinese food restaurant. While we were inside eating, the driver took the limo back to pick up my sister's eight children and took them for a ride. Then he came back and took us over to Shubert's Ice Cream to get some of Mom's favorite treat, Lemon Custard ice cream. It was a great night.
We sure miss you, Mom!

Individual Accomplishments

We've had an exciting few days. First, we had the Pinewood Derby. Here is Josh with this year's entry. He came in 3rd place in his den, which was good enough to win him a candy bar. We only had one Scout competing this year. Rich figured out that this was his 9th year helping to create a Pinewood Derby car. Only 6 more to go--3 with Adam who will be a Cub Scout in July, and 3 more for Jeffrey after that. Whew!

Also, Josh was awarded his Webelos badge. Only three more months and he will join the 11 year old Scouts with our Boy Scout troop.

Here's Josh showing off his muscles!

Saturday, Josh and Adam competed in their first taekwondo tournament. They are low green belts, so they sparred with other boys their same level. They are both having a lot of fun with it. Here is Adam with his sparring group. He got a bye for the first round, lost the second round, and got to compete for 3rd place, which he won.

Here is Josh putting on his sparring gear, next to one of his good friends, Amrit. His sparring group only had four boys, but one of them was about a foot taller than Josh. After winning his first round, Josh and that boy competed in the 1st/2nd place round, and Josh beat him! Rich told me that Josh found the tall boy's weak spot and exploited it. Josh said he focused on using his technique. I just think it's fun for boys to get to fight in a controlled setting--testosterone and all, you know!
Here they are with their ribbons--3rd place for Adam and 1st place for Josh. Everyone who competes gets a ribbon of some kind, and they also got a hot dog, chips and a soda. Not bad!

Finally, also on Saturday, Katie went to the Winter Formal dance at Folsom High with a group of girl friends. This was her first high school dance. They started getting ready in the afternoon, had dinner as a group, and then went to the dance at 7 pm. She had a great time. Doesn't she look lovely?
Jacob stayed home and did homework. I noticed that I didn't hear about a group of freshman boys who got ready all afternoon and then went to the dance together. They were all home playing Guitar Hero, I guess.

Big and little

One of the things I love about the age span in our family (almost 15 down to almost 18 months) is when big kids play with little ones. Here are some pictures I snapped the last couple of days.

Jacob playing legos with Jeffrey.

And Jacob reading to Anna. So sweet.

An uninvited guest

Does anyone know how to get rid of a skunk?

We met some skunks this summer on our camping trip. We forgot to get rid of the garbage bag before dark the first night of our trip, and that was all they needed to invite themselves over every evening about 10 pm. You can't miss that smell. We were happy to bid them farewell at the end of our trip.

Last night, when I went out to close the garage side door and turn off the light, I saw a flash of black accompanied by a high pitched screech speed out the door. So that explains the skunk smell we have noticed in there from time to time. I would include a picture but it didn't stop to pose and I didn't either! By the way, Rich closed the door and shut off the light.

We don't want a pet skunk coming around. Any tips?

What I won't miss

Rich went back to work today. To be honest, I wasn't as lonely as I thought I was going to be (but the dog was sure acting up, and Adam broke into tears last night at just the thought of Dad being gone all day.) I think we did more separately than I realized with him in the office watching the stock market and me trying to homeschool three different grade levels. However, last night as I was pondering life without Rich around all the time, I decided to make a list of the things I am not going to miss about him being home to boost my mood when I do feel a little lonely. I could only come up with five.

Rich did most of the grocery shopping for the last eleven months. I loved that! What I didn't love was sending him to the store with a list that included apples, and having him come home with only 6 or 8 in a partially full bag. We have a family of 10 apple-eaters, so you can see the problem. Well, it is only a problem if you don't want to go the grocery store every day. They do that in France, so they wouldn't mind it there. I must admit he has gotten better. He used to bring home 4 apples at a time. When I did the shopping this week, I got a bag of apples full to the brim. Now we might each get one. Another thing I won't miss is having Rich take the messages when I am out. He tries to remember, but with so much on his mind, he rarely passes them along. When he does relay the message, he doesn't always get it right. For instance, when I showed up for my hair appointment last week and the hair dresser was out of town, I found out later that she had called to cancel. Just as I had been ready to head out the door, I had asked if she had called. He looked puzzled, thought a minute while glancing at the computer and then said confidently, "I am pretty sure she said the appointment is a go." He paused, glanced again at the computer screen and then declared, "Yes, she said you are on." I also won't miss having Rich be my alarm clock because, almost every day, he would look at me and decided I needed more sleep. I will miss the sleep but not the lack of schedule! I also won't miss the daily question of who will take Beth to school. Since my "alarm" didn't go off, I was often in my pjs at 9 am. Since Rich was working at home, so was he! Now it will be my choice to be dressed on time or go in my pjs! Finally, I will not miss the emotional ups and downs of following the fickle market. There are very, very few things that make Rich stressed. Losing money is one of them.

I agree, those are a bit of a stretch. And if we suddenly come into money one of these days and Rich can retire early, I will put up with every one of them again! I won't list the things I am going to miss because that gets too mushy. But I will say that I am very grateful that Rich is coming home tonight and tomorrow night and every night next week. For nine years before he left Yahoo, he traveled every week. I sure won't miss that!!

So if you are reading this, Rich, we love you and hope you are having a a great day! See you tonight!

Anna Banana-what a cutie!

First, Anna used Katie's lotion to "wash" her hair. Then she pulled out some of Jeffrey's clothes for Rich to put on her. The following pictures document what she looked like when she was done.