Home School April Fools Joke

I know it is August, but I just found these pictures and had to post them.

Jason loves pulling jokes on people and loves April fools day.  I decided to get him back, homeschool style.

One of the ways that we work on math is to play a train game.  If he gets all the problems right he gets the secret prize located until the towel.



It's a fun way to review boring times tables.  It's April 1st and I decided to do the 5x's tables knowing that it would be easy for him.  Prizes can be a couple of quarters, stick of gum and little toy, whatever I have on hand.  Today's prize:



But this is not what is under the towel.  Here he goes, working his way through the train.



He finishes the game beautifully and here is his prize.



A kiwi.  Was he happy about this?




Nope.  He did cheer up when I gave him the diet Coke.

New Stereo

Anthony worked in a cherry orchard this summer.  He helped with fixing fences and getting the irrigation up and working.  He spent one long week working the cherry harvest.  Up and in the orchard by 4am and home after 5pm.  It was the hardest the kid has ever worked.  It really paid off because he earned a very nice paycheck.  Ohhhh, what it is like to be young with no bills.

He decided to put a brand new stereo system in his car.  Here he is working on it with his Dad.  Why the umbrella.  Here in eastern Oregon, winter didn't leave us until mid August.



Someone had to get in the trunk to hook up the speakers.



But it didn't work, so Dad ended up in the trunk.



Anthony was pushing Dad's buttons a bit in this picture.

Gearing Up

That is what this weekend will be about.  Getting ready for the start of school.  Baby #1 is a senior, Baby #2 a freshmen and Baby #3 will be a 5th grader. 

School starts on Monday and the craziness begins.  I believe Megan's soccer games start the week after but Anthony starts his football season next Friday night in an out of town game.  2 hours away.  Ughhhhh!!!  but I plan on being there.

It's Done and Over

Yes, this years first annual Augustfest is done.  Tired, tired and tired is the only way to describe the way this family feels.

We could not have been happier with the turn out.  There was a lot going on in this town over the weekend.  The real draw back was the heat.  Man did it get hot.  We were suppose to have a bunch of canopy's for the day and for some reason they never got there.  This year was really a learning experience for us.  We took lots of notes and what worked and what didn't.


The first thing we all agreed on was changing the date to September.  It will be cooler and not right after the fair.  This was also the last big weekend to take vacations before the start of school.  The way we ran the kids games will be reworked.  That was my baby and I am big enough to admit it didn't quite work the way I wanted.  Plus, the great guys from the National Guard gave us some great ideas on how they could help out more.

We got a lot of really positive feedback from everyone who came or was a part of this.  The best part of the day, in my opinion, would be after everything done and cleaned up.  We all sat on the lawn of the church, toasted the event, and joked around.  We are truly blessed to be apart of this church.  There are some really great people who are just fun to be around.  I walked away feeling closer to our current friends and have made some new friends as well.

One last thing:  To my kids - thanks for stepping up and helping out the way you guys did.  We could not have done it without you and your friends that came to help.  We know that you had other things you could have been doing, but are so proud that you thought this was important enough to be a part of.

To Steve - you did an amazing job and should be very proud of yourself.  You took on something no one else would do.  Someday we are going to be sitting in that beer garden with Tony, Angela and Gloria looking back at that night with smiles on our faces.  Because we all know that someday this thing is going to be huge.

And to everyone who helped.  There is absolutely no way this could have happened with out your help and encouragement.  Father Christopher, I agree with you - "This church is moving into the future."

Anything that causes feet to be that dirty has to be a success.

Tired

That's how I feel today......Tired.

Steve and I (mostly Steve) are planning a huge event at our church this weekend.  Steve had only a month and a half to pull this off.  I will let you know how it goes.  Right now, it's come down to a lot of prayer to pull this thing off.

Any way....as you can imagine, there have been lots of phone calls between us and the church.  It is not unusual to see one of the church numbers pop up on our caller id.  I can tell who it is by the number.  One for the secretary, one for the office manager and one for the kitchen.  Since Charlene has retired I don't receive as many calls from the kitchen as I used to.

Last night I went to bed early.  I needed some sleep big time.  Jason and I had an argument about salad last night.  That's when I said to him, "both of us are going to bed early."  Sports practices, school, planing out our homeschool schedule and this church event is killing my sleep.

So at 12:30am I get a phone call.  Half asleep I can't find the phone.  Anthony's comes in and said, "it's the church."  It can't be, Father is out of town and no one should be there.  A couple of years ago, we did have some problems with people getting into the church. 

I check out the caller id and realize it's coming from the church kitchen.  Have I ever mentioned that there is a joke between us and another family that the church is haunted.  Then last year a person from the church told us a story about some very strange things that have happened there.  Someone also told us about a possible exorcism there.  Ok,  you didn't hear that from me.  So of course, me being me....and that I have watched way to much Ghost Adventures, that is the first thing I think of.

I call Steve, who is out of town, tell him whats going on.  He says, "No, one is suppose to be there, you need to call the police."  If someone is calling why would they be calling from the kitchen.  In the mean time, another call...this time they ask from someone and we have no idea who it is.  I call the police.

This dispatcher sends some one over, literally across the street.  And was amazed that I knew what phone the call came from.  Anthony and I (you were too Anthony) were a bit freaked out.  I decide to take a look at the church directory.  There is a lady with the name the man gave us that goes to our church.  And all the numbers in the phone number are the same as ours on two numbers are reversed. The directory has pictures so I look up this lady's picture and sure enough it is of her and her family.

Anthony says they look familiar, but it's a little difficult because the directory is 3 years old.  Then it hits me.  The lady's son is our new acting priest and had every right to be in the church.  And would be making a call from the kitchen because he wouldn't have keys to the office.  What are the odds that our numbers would be that close and we are active members of that church.

Sorry David......I will buy you a pulled pork sandwich this weekend.

Let The Crazy Begin

It is that time of year again.  Time to say goodbye to the lazy days of summer and start the crazyiness of school. 

First off, not sure about the lazy days of summer.  We don't have those around here. 


School doesn't start for two more weeks.  However, high school sports have.  Megan (can't believe she's a freshmen) has practice from 7:00 to 9:00am then again 6:00 to 8:00pm.  Anthony's practice's are 8:00 to 10:00am  and again at 4:00 to 6:00pm.  I can't believe it, this could be our last year of sports with Anthony.  He has been in organized sports since he was 3.

Megan decided that she would start daily doubles with a positive attitude.  She is worried about the 5 mile run they have to do, but she will be fine.  She was up this morning at 5:50 so she could be on the field by 6:50.  Good Girl!!!!!

Anthony got up at 7:40, left the house at 7:50 to be at practice by 8am.  I don't think he was even awake when he left.  When I told him goodbye and have a good morning, I just heard a mumble. 

Well, I had to take a quick break while writing this.  Megan came home from her morning practice.  It went really well.  She took some of our advice and had a small breakfast this morning and she said she felt really good.  The summer work out she has been doing helped.  I won't say it to her but I will say it here.  I TOLD HER SOOOOOO!!!!!!

Back From Vacation

We are back and had a great time.  I only took 336 pictures and have limited that down to 37 to share here.  Lucky you!!!!

Here we are, it's our first morning.  Steve and I discovered this campground back when I was pregnant with Anthony.  It turns out that Steve had camped here once before when he was a kid.   We love this area.  Jason asked if we could move there and I said...sure, why not.


We could not have asked for better weather.  69 durning the day and almost no wind for the first two days.  Sometimes I think Steve is a bigger kid then the kids.  He spent more time in the water then they did.  The first day, we hung out on the beach.


Everyone was having a good time and even Megan would pose for pictures.



They discovered the crabs.



Steve and Jason saw a really big crab and tried to catch it with their hands.  It didn't work.






Look what washed up on the beach.  The red tummy is from the cold water not the sun.



Look at this kids tan.  That's from spending the summer working in the cherry orchards.



Megan didn't do a lot of swimming but she did do some building.  In the middle of the sand castle is a crab she dug up.






She is trying to send a message.



To the Coast Guard helicopters.  I think it said "HELP!!!!!! NO CELL PHONE RECEPTION!!!



Here is Anthony, hiking out to the fog horn.




That night it was off to Moe's for dinner.  If you find yourself on the Oregon coast you must try this resturant.  They have locations all over the coast.  We are exploring the docks here.



The next day we where off to Clearwox Lake.  I found this guy on the dock going to the dunes.



This lake is located in the camp ground and is at the base of one of the sand dunes.  Because it has a dune between the lake and ocean, it blocks most of the winds. What do you do all a big hill of sand.  Sand board of coarse.  This was great for Anthony.  He blew out his knee this winter and was able to use his new snow board once.  He really enjoyed sand boarding.





You can kind of see the sand dune behind Steve's head.  I was playing with my new 35mm lens I got for my birthday and ended up over exposing some pictures.


There he goes up the dune.  This dune drops down right into the water.



A better shot of how high it is.  We are sitting a few feet above the water.



Here he goes.







He said, it's not as fun as the snow but still had a good time.



I just like this picture.  It reminds me of when he was a baby.  He would close one eye and scrunch up his face when he cried.



When at the beach, someone must get buried in the sand.  She also zip tied him to a water faucet too, but we aren't talking about that.



Megan liked the sand on the dunes better because there was not craps.  She liked it so much that she let Anthony bury her.



The water looks yukky but it's really not.  That's just sand you see.  On the dune side of the lake, it is sand all the way down into the water.  Very cool.



One of the things Jason enjoyed doing was running down the dune and jumping in the water.  But what if he falls before the water???



Our last full day in Florence would not be complete without a sand dune ride.






Here we go off on the trail.  The kids were not pleased that we took the bigger and slower tour.  We promised next year would be the fast ones.  What we didn't tell them, is we hope to have some ATV's to take out there.  There are ton's of trails up in the dunes and along the beach.



As it turned out, I was on the wrong side of the buggy for good pictures. The tree island right above the woman's head is where we are going to end up.



We are riding right along the beach.



We are above Clearwox Lake.  The dune to the right is the one Anthony was sand boarding down.  I didn't have my zoom on but we could see the people on the hill.



Another trip down to the piers for some shopping.  Megan has found herself a new hat.



Our last dinner in camp.



And sadly camp is all picked up and ready for our trip home.  Everyone decided that we are going back next summer and for a longer time.



Thought I would through this last picture in.  One of the things we did while there was take some pictures of Anthony.  I am practicing my skills in both picture taking and photo editing.  I will start shooting pictures for his senior portraits.  Anthony, one of my biggest supports, has been telling all his friends and as it turns out, I will be taking their pictures as well.  Really looking forward to it. I really like the picture below but it just shows me some things I have to work on.  One thing I noticed on this trip, Anthony looks like he has a real eye for photography. One of these days I will post more pictures that he has taken.  He does a really great job.


Any way, that is all for now.  Have a good day.