Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Shovel Snow

Have I posted this picture before?



This is how Megan shovels snow.  Gotta love her fashion style.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Spring Fever

It happens all the time in school.  Spring is in the air and summer right around the corner.  It happens in home school as well.  Hard to focus when the sun is out and only a few more weeks left of school.

This time of year sees a lot of schools out on field trips.  We are no different.  We don't take as many field trips as we did when Jason was younger.  Yesterday I decided it was time for an outside day. 


We headed to the marsh to look at the birds coming in to start their nesting.  There are Canadian Geese, Mallards and Hawks all over the place.  We saw none of them.  What we did see was always flying away from us.  Why you ask? 


He likes to talk.  I don't ever want to discourage a teenager from talking to me.  He felt like he wanted to open up about what is going on in his life.  He also wanted advice on the drama of being 14.  Who cares about the birds.  It was almost a 2 mile walk and we talked the whole time.  I loved every minute of it.  It meant the world to me when he got in the car and said "Thanks Mom."

Love this kid.

We did get to see this guy.


It was worth it.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

So Sweet

This thing is bigger then he is.  On our visit to Costco a couple of years ago Jason fell in love with this giant teddy bear.  Of course I said, ummmm no.  They must only have them around Christmas time.  It was kind of funny when he was shorter, because you would only see the bear and two little feet running through the store.

 
This Christmas season, he came armed with his own money.  "I am buying this and there is nothing you can do to stop me."  Jason carried him through the store on his shoulders.  He got jealous stares from all the little kids.

The stupid bear almost didn't fit in our car.  He has his own space in Jason's room.  He once was kidnapped and held for ransom until Jason got his room clean.  I'll look for that picture to post.  It wasn't easy hiding a 5ft teddy bear but Megan helped.  She is very good at that sort of thing.  

This was what I woke up to.  Both Jason and bear asleep on the couch.  Notice the bear has both his own blanket and stuffed frog.  This is one of the many reasons why my blog is titled "News from the Zoo."  It truly is a zoo around here and I am just the head zoo keeper.




Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Christmas

I didn't take many Christmas pictures.  I just sat back and relaxed and enjoyed hanging out with the kids. 

I do miss having little kids around.  But having older kids means not being waken up at 3am to open presents.  It was 10 before we got everyone up and moving. 

Sunday, April 19, 2015

125 Degrees

Well....maybe not 125 but it sure felt close to that.  Ok......it was 69 degrees but to us Eastern Oregonians it felt like 125. 

It was another soccer weekend and I have the sunburn to prove it.

Proud mamma moment, Megan scored the winning goal.  Here is the picture to prove it.  But I will get back to this.


I know you are asking yourself, isn't Megan a goalie?



Why yes she is.  Notice the tape on her fingers.  She jammed two of her fingers during warm up to the first game.  She ended up having to sit that game out.   We made a trip to the ER, and they are not broken.


She was once a forward, and a good one at that.


No pushing at all going on here.


This game was a tough one.  The girls ended up passing around bottles of Ibuprofen and ice bags.  They ended up winning 3-2.


I have said it before, I love watching this kid play.


It's like ballet.

Here is the kick off.  Megan had been messing around with Noel.  She kept asking her "Does this look straight?"  Then she would fix the grass and move the ball again.  This went on for a couple of minutes.


Back to this picture


I have watched this kid play for a long time.  I knew when she took off running She was going to make a shot.  I was hoping to get a picture of it.  Then 33 stepped in front of my shot.  Ugghhhhh!!! How rude.  If you look real hard at 33's wrist you will see Megan's orange cleat.  That is her foot kicking the winning goal.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Port

Something else we did during the Thanksgiving break. Discovered a love for Port.


I think these pictures say it all.


These two would never make it through the winter in this town.  Heater is up full blast and they are both covered in blankets.  At least this year Aunt Doris isn't wearing her gloves.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Thanksgiving 2014

More pictures from the memory card.  Thanksgiving and Steve Mom, Aunt Doris and his cousin Roger, were all here to celebrate.  As always we had a great time.


 Every Thanksgiving I take a picture of our table.  Almost every year I forget to check out the girls face and make sure she is smiling.  I can't tell you how many pictures I have where she is doing something goofy.  She has been doing this since she was two.


Jason was supposed to be goofy to, but all he pulled off was shutting his eyes.  I caught him and told him to smile, but forgot about the girl.  


Speaking of the girl.  She always gets the turkey leg.


After dinner was done it was resting time for the group.  Because there was a list of things that I wanted from the Black Friday sale at Walmart.  Love Roger for staying around and helping get all our goodies. 



Monday, April 13, 2015

The Dog is Loved

I was going through my memory card and found some fun pictures that I will post over the next couple of days.

Cheddar has the warmest bed in the house.  He is not a fan of people sharing his space.




Sunday, April 12, 2015

That Time Again

Sitting, trying to get good pictures, in the freezing cold rain and high winds.  Yep.....its soccer season again.  We traveled to Lewiston, Idaho for this game.  It is just the beginning for us.  However, next time I will remember to take my gloves.

Here are a couple of pictures from the game.  Both games ended up in ties.


My pictures are not as sharp as I would like.  I think it's probably because I was so cold that I was shaking.



I was focused on getting the picture that I didn't see exactly what happened.  She ended up coming down on her hip and getting pretty bruised up.  She still stopped the goal.


She's a tough kid and got up and finished the game.

I love the way she sticks out her tonge when she kicks the ball.  She has done that since she was 5.  Anthony used to do it to.

This was also a first for her.  She kicked the ball so far and hard, she ended up taking out a girl from the other team who wasn't paying attention.  They had to stop the game to make sure the girl was ok. 


I love this next set of pictures.  I love her focus.










This game is bitter sweet for me.  It's the first game of her last season.  I can't believe she has been playing this game for 15 years.  Our fall and springs will feel very empty next year as she moves on to the next stage in her life.  However, one of her dreams is to become a soccer coach. Then I will be taking pictures of her on the side lines. 


Wednesday, April 08, 2015

Anniversary

I started this blog 8 years ago today.  It doesn't seem like it has been that long.   Then I look at this picture.

The first picture I posted on my blog.  My babies aren't  babies anymore.

Sunday, April 05, 2015

That's A Wrap


The Show is officially done.  Now time to rest and relax for the next couple of weeks.  HAHA......Nope.  We start Megan's last soccer season.  We are off to Idaho next weekend for a game.

Friday, April 03, 2015

Pictures, Pictures and more Pictures

I want to thank April and her husband for taking the close to 1000 pictures of the show.   If it wasn't for them I wouldn't have some of the great pictures of Jason. 

Why didn't I take any.  See all the wonderful child actors.  They don't appear in the show until the second act.  Most of these kids have parents in the show.  Steve and I spend the first act of the show with them.  It is no easy task keeping them entertained and as quite as possible.  But these are great kids and they have done an amazing job.  I just want to add, whoever gave them doughnuts last night,  THANKS!!!!!!  


I have a few pictures to post.  Yes they are all of Jason.  Well......there is one of our favorite actress.  I will point it out when I get to it.

Here is Jason in the Toot Sweet number.


A few of Me Ol Bamboo.  Some of these have been posted before.


I think Rick looks just like Dick Van Dike






 

 This pictures is just after Jason gets shot.  Unfortunately there is no pictures of that.



Some of these pictures are from the dress rehearsals.  That's why their costumes are not all complete.  This one also includes Hiede.  She ended up getting hurt during the opening night show and had to be replaced.


They were supposed to look scared.  The director said Jason looks like he has "glass stapled to his underwear."  He said it was "perfect".







This is Shasta and she is our favorite actress.  She has been the diva of the show.  Wes has treats in his pocket, and if she doesn't get one on cue, she barks to remind him she is waiting.







This picture is during an actual performance.  Catlynn is playing the Baroness instead of Heide. 




 
I don't know what to say about Kyle.  He makes me laugh every time I see these scenes.  And I have seen these ALOT. 



I can't believe that we have 3 shows left.  This has been an amazing experience for this family.  The actors are unbelievable.  I can't say enough about the wonderful director Terry.  When we first started watching the practices I couldn't help wondering if they were going to pull this off.  They did and it was fun watching it all come together.   I love sitting in the audience and listening to the response of the crowd.  The loudest applause always follows the "Me ol Bamboo" dance.  If you could only have seen the dance a week before opening night.  I remember during dress rehearsal week Terry saying,  "Trust me, I have been doing this a long time.  Every thing will be fine."  I have heard the audience and read all the reviews.  He was right.