Filling the freezer

Christmas tree sales were strong enough this year that we were able to fill the freezer with a side of beef and a side of pork. That's obviously going to help me stick to a scaled-back grocery budget for 2011 : ) Now that the freezers are full, it's going to require a little planning to use everything up in a timely manner and not let anything get lost in the corners of the deep freeze.

Yesterday Patience read a story (to me) about a man and his cat (Mr. Putter & Tabby) who made soup. That got me thinking that we could easily make soup, too, just like in the book! We used the "meaty soupbones" from our freezer, added all the vegetables that the book mentioned, and, viola! Dinner on a dreary day!

A new favorite for our family is cheeseburger pizza. I really like it because we're not using processed meat which is unhealthy and which sometimes the Littles complain about being too "hot." Here is dinner from a few nights back, before they were cooked:

Here is the funny part. I made a large one and a small one. Dylan wasn't home for dinner so it was just the 6 of us, but the large pizza fed all of us! The small one went into the fridge for the next day. I remember not too long ago when I'd have to make at least 4 pizzas if I wanted leftovers.

Nathan's job

Don't feel sorry for Nathan. When he goes to work, this is the view:

I'm beginning to think our Alaska cruise this summer won't be that impressive for Nathan!

The great Nick update

What can I say? Nick continues to be cute beyond words. Entertaining. Precocious.

The one thing I can complain about is his propensity for escaping. If you turn your back for 2 minutes he'll be outside jumping on the trampoline or getting the mail. Not good. So we've turned several of our deadbolts around so we open them with a key from the inside. When we're not unlocking the door we hide the key from him. He just loves to be outside, and he can't stand these wet cold winter days where we keep him housebound. We can't wait for spring.

He's talking more, but is still difficult to understand. Maybe because he always has his pacifier in his mouth : )

He'll be attending preschool 2 afternoons/week starting in September, and I think by then he'll be good and ready for it. We'll definitely have potty trained all mastered before then. Before our cruise in August, actually!

Nick dressed for church in adorable "handy-downs," as Patience calls them.

Nick is definitely daddy's boy. He loves to play or "work" outside with his daddy!

The great Jordyn update

Jordyn is going to be 5 next week. I know. I can't believe it either. She has a list of wonderful things that she wants for her birthday so we'll do our best to make her wishes come true. She chose Monday night's dinner (homemade macaroni and cheese with broccoli) and we'll have a Dairy Queen ice cream cake because that's our family tradition : ) We're not doing a "kid" birthday party this year. We'll wait until she starts kindergarten for that. But I am taking cupcakes to her school on Monday.

She's doing great in school. Her teachers are surprised at how much she's come out of her shell this year. She has discovered a new skill: video games. She's great at them...better than Patience even.

She's also picking up a lot of what I'm teaching Patience in school, so I'm sure she'll be totally ready for kindergarten in September. Kindergarten registration happens this month.

Jordyn is skating very well in her lessons and enjoys taking them. She would make a great figure skater. Or maybe a gymnast. She's built perfectly for that : )

The great Patience update

Patience is doing great in her schooling. She now can read almost independently, needing help with words that are impossible to sound out, like "through" or "bought." She loves reading, and we're making great use of the library. Today I challenged her that if she got a "best time" in her math flash cards I'd give her, Nick, and Jordyn each a piece of candy. Well, now I know how to motivate that child. Her current best time was 8 minutes but today she answered them all in 6 and a 1/2 minutes! She asked if she can have candy every time she got a best time but I told her that we would do that only on Fridays.

She's still loving Pioneer Girlz Club. Last night Don had some computer work to do at the church, so he drove Patience and her friend, Paige. When it was over, he took them out to Dairy Queen for ice cream! She brought home an invitation for a "Victorian Tea" for all the girls and their moms. That's in 2 weeks, and it's a dressy occasion. Everyone is bringing their own fancy tea cups and plates, wearing gloves, etc.

The girls are finishing up their second session of ice skating on Tuesday. Patience is doing great again. Only 1 kids is faster than her in her class. I told Nathan that he needed to stop funding the girls' skating lessons and start saving his money for a house in LA and he told me, "if their instructors say they have any possibility of being good hockey players you keep them in lessons!"

Patience and Jordyn are the best of friends. They play so well together and rarely fight. The other night before Don and I turned in we went in to check on the girls and found this:

They told us the next day that sometimes they have bad dreams so they sleep together to "protect" each other. (I'm not sure what Jordyn could possibly do to protect Patience.) You can't see it in this picture, but they're holding hands : )

Patience continues to be my "right-hand-girl" around here. I tell Don that if anything happens to me Patience will be able to run the house. She'll just need someone with a driver's license to help her. She's just as sweet and funny as ever. Such a blessing.



The great Dylan update

Dylan is well underway into his second semester at Kwantlen. This semester he has all the same music classes as before, but now he's taking Business Essentials instead of English. He did well grade-wise, netting a 3.77 GPA.

He's still working at Panago Pizza. They gave him a regular schedule, which is very nice for him. He works Friday and Sunday evening and all day Saturday...14 hours/week...which is the perfect schedule for earning some pocket and gas money without disrupting his studies. He did tell them that he'd be quitting in May as he's going to go back to Thunderbird for the summer. They were disappointed but they seemed to understand that he's got to make hay while the sun shines. He's not going to earn a year's worth of expenses working 14 hours/week at $8/hour! He wouldn't mind going back to that job during the school year; hopefully Panago will hire him back.

He attended a very fancy schmancy dinner last month that Kwantlen hosted for all their scholarship donors and recipients. Dylan was impressed with the dinner and the speaker they had afterward. The next week as he was reading one of his textbooks there was the name and picture of that speaker! It doesn't look like Dylan will get another $5000 scholarship for next year, as those are reserved for people just entering Kwantlen. But I'm very hopeful that he'll get some award. And he still has the $2000 scholarships he won while in highschool, so he'll be fairly close to covering his school expenses. He created a budget for 2011 that balances, so as long as he earns what he projects and spends just what he plans on spending, he'll be all set. It would be wonderful for him to get through his first two years of university with no debt.

Today he took Sean to Jazz band at Poppy and stayed and played with the band. That's so much fun for him...and for the other trumpet players in the band. One of Sean's friend told me after the last time Dylan played at their rehearsal, "I play so much better when Dylan is there." I guess you can play more confidently when you have someone to follow. After jazz rehearsal, Dylan stayed and helped teach Band 9. Mr. Ablitt let him conduct, which is a great experience for Dylan. I hope he continues to take advantage of this music program that's right around the corner, who has a teacher who is willing to let Dylan help in any capacity he wants!

Haley is doing well in her Grade 12 year. She is focusing on getting a paralegal certificate when she graduates highschool. So she's busy setting up school interviews and figuring out which school will be the best for her. Her senior prom is coming up in May; she and Dylan didn't go to his prom so they're looking forward to having a great time at this one. She's still working at Shopper's Drug Mart and baseball will start up pretty soon here. I'm not sure how she'll fit that in with school and a job : )

And....I think that's a wrap where Dylan is concerned!

The great Nate update!

Do you see a pattern? : )

Nathan has been back in Cordova since December 31 after experiencing, in his words, "the best Christmas ever." Cordova has been enjoying a very temperate winter. Nathan's been taking advantage of his new ice skates at the gravel pit in Cordova and has even played some ice hockey with Coast Guard friends.

Today Nathan is officially reinlisting, a formality that has to be done before the CG goes through the expense of moving him all the way to Los Angeles.

In preperation for the move and his new duty station, Nathan has been going through all his stuff with a fine-tooth comb and donating books and clothes to the Good Will. His goal is to have all his belongings fit in his car for the move. His car's not that big.... and he will (hopefully) be traveling with his very best friend Alex. Speaking of his car, he got the car registered in Alaska and the title is now in his name. Phew. I'm so glad that's all taken care of, and now he can turn around and do it again when he moves to LA.

Also in preparation for his new duty station, Nathan is trying to learn California's second official language. He purchased Rosetta Stone and is using it to become fluent in Spanish. One of his superiors told him that if he could speak Spanish in LA he'd likely get promoted faster, as your coxswain qualificaiton is based, among other things, on how many boat trips you've made, and if you can speak Spanish fluently you'll get chosen to go on boat trips. Kudos to him; hopefully he remembers some of what I tried to teach him in Grade 8.

He hasn't been snowboarding yet this year, mostly because of the weather and his work schedule. And because it costs money to snowboard, but he can ice skate for free : ) He's on a basketball team with his shipmates and they're currently playing in a tournament in Cordova. Last night didn't go so well for them, but they're hopeful to get the #2 spot in the tournament.

Nathan mailed off his application for the CG Academy last week. Now we wait to hear whether he'll be moving to LA or to Connecticut. He'll know by April 15.

The only other thing I can think in the area of "Nathan News" is that his ship will be drydocked for three months, but they're not sure of the location. They better figure it out soon, though, as they're going to be underway for 12 days starting Monday, and when they get back from that trip they'll start transitting to the drydock port. Nathan is still hoping for Alameda, but he is hearing rumors of being in Seward, which is supposed to be worse than Cordova in terms of "things to do."

The great Sean update

Surprise! First of all, please forgive me for my nearly month-long sabbatical from blogging. But here are some updates of what happened in January and some things that we're looking forward to. First, Sean, because January was such an important month for him!

He turned 16 on January 20th! As is the custom in our family, Don went and took him out of school early to take his driver's test. He passed on the first try, so he now has his L and is driving every opportunity he can. He's doing well but I forget how stressful it is to drive with a new driver. You can't relax or anything while you're "supervising."

Speaking of driving, Sean has arranged to buy Nathan's truck from him, and we're in the process of "importing" it to Canada. We're going to target Friday, Feb. 18 to do the actual importing, because Sean has a Pro-D day that day. Nathan, in his characteristic generosity, is giving Sean a great price on the truck.

Sean finished his first semester of Grade 10 last week. We don't have his report card yet but as far as we know he got the grades he was trying for. This week he started his second semester classes and I'm sure he's going to have a full plate: Math 10, Science 10, French 10, Socials 10, Band 10, and three other music classes that happen outside of the timetable.

Last week Sean took 4 friends to the Toby Mac Winter Wonderslam for his birthday. They all came to our house around 1 p.m., hung out and watched movies, played video games, and then had a spaghetti feed before I took them to the concert in Abbotsford. They all really enjoyed it.

On Tuesday night Sean's cadet corps had their semi-annual ceremonial review. During the ceremony, Sean and 3 other cadets got promoted from Petty Officer 2nd class to Petty Officer 1st class! We were all surprised. Normally cadets have some idea that they're up for promotion, but that was not the case. Additionally, Sean's friend John Gammeter got promoted to Chief Petty Officer 2nd class and is now the corps' coxswain, which won't mean anything to anybody except Nathan : ).

Sean's on a great roll right now of handling all his responsibilities. He's showing a lot of maturity. He's a pleasure to raise. I'll be sure to let you know if that changes : P.  Here are some great pictures of Sean in his various elements.



Sean standing front and center as Guard Commander. Notice the cutlass.



Sean getting promoted to Petty Officer 1st class. I'm pretty sure this means Nathan will have to salute him now : )

Nick and Sean



Comfort



Sean and Patience

Woody's round-up

Last night, instead of cleaning up the Toy Story toys that she was playing with, Patience set them all up in this little display by the fireplace. She wanted to make sure that everyone saw them before cleaning them up. I assured her that everyone had. She reminded me that Nathan hadn't see her display. I assured her I would put this picture on my blog so that Nathan could see it, too. So, Nathan, here you go.

Katana with the Furses

We've been so furtunate this year to have Russ Furse, Justin's dad and a teacher at D.W. Poppy, drive Sean to and from school everyday there is an early morning music class or an afterschool music class. We told Russ and Kari that we were taking the money we'd saved by not buying a bus pass for Sean this year and taking them out to our favorite restaurant in Canada. We took them to Katana and they loved it. They'd never been to this type of restaurant before and they enjoyed the food, the show...everything!  After dinner we stopped at Dairy Queen and bought an ice cream cake and brought it home to share with the kids. Sean, bless his heart, babysat the Littles for us. Dylan and Haley were working, but came home before we did so they got some, too. Even the girls, who were in bed but not asleep, got up to have a piece. After dessert Russ and Kari stayed into the wee hours of Saturday playing cards and just having a heck of a great time. We are super fortunate.

Nathan's orders

Nathan just got his orders for his next duty station: He got choice #3 on his list (but #1 on mine!):

Los Angeles/Long Beach!

He wants lots of visitors, so please try to work Disneyland into your schedule sometime in the next 4 years, and visit Nathan while you're there : )

Intentionality

Is my new buzz word.

In 2011 I need to be more intentional in many areas, specifically homeschooling and scheduling my day. With very few time commitments it's easy to rush through my chores and then peter away the rest of the day. But I know that Patience will be returning to school in the fall, and if she can't read, write, and add at least as good at the kids who stayed in school, then what was the point in homeschooling her? Other than, of course, to enjoy her very sweet and helpful company for one year longer : )

So, here is my goal for the rest of the school year. Please hold me accountable.
Bible reading (I gave Jordyn Sean's old bible and I gave Patience Dylan's old bible) I read aloud. We started in Matthew.
Penmanship
Math
Spelling
Reading (Starfall on the computer)
Physical Activity (Wii Fit Nickelodian version, ice skating on Mondays)
Reading (weekly library trip, check out and read 7 books)
There!

A cold, cold night

Snow predicted tonight...blanket sleepers all around!

New year's eve

Tonight when we told the girls it was time for bed Nick ran in and jumped into Jordyn's bed and laid his little head on the pillow. Jordyn got in beside him, not quite sure if it was a good idea, and we kissed them and told them goodnight, sure that Nick would be bounding out of their room in no time.
Instead, we have this:

And on that note, Happy New Year! May the Lord richly bless you in 2011.

Great Wolf Lodge

On Tuesday we headed south to Centralia, Washington for a short family holiday at Great Wolf Lodge before Nathan headed back to Alaska. This was the kids' major Christmas present from us and Nathan, who contributed a huge amount of money to make this trip a reality.

After many trials, tribulations, and general gong-showness, we made it to the Lodge at 4 p.m.  We had been planning on arriving at 1, but that just wasn't possible : )  We unloaded our 2 vehicles, suited up, and headed to the waterpark. The kids LOVED it. Nathan and Patience hung out (Patience would do any ride that Nathan wanted), Dylan and Sean hung out for awhile and then headed back to the room to hook up to the free wi-fi, and Don and I double-teamed Nick and Jordyn in the little kid area. At first Jordyn wasn't sure about the whole waterslide concept, but by the end of the trip she would willingly go on any ride she was tall enough to go on!

After a few hours of playing, we ordered pizzas from the onsite Pizza Hut and watched as Nick inhaled 2 pieces in about 2 minutes...he was so hungry he didn't even wait for them to cool. Then we headed back to the room and got into jammies. Nathan took the girls to "storytime" and Dylan and Sean took Nick for a car ride to check out the outlet malls which they planned on hitting the next day. That freed up Don and me to go to Walmart to buy some stuff that I forgot to pack and get snack food and drinks. We all got back to the room around 9:00 and the Littles and I went to bed and Don and the boys stayed up and gamed together until the wee morning hours. One thing I have to say about GWL is that while it's a great place for a family holiday, Don and I were constantly on the lookout for the Littles (especially Nick). So while it was fun, it wasn't necessarily relaxing.



Nathan and the girls at storytime.



The next morning we all slept past 8, then went to breakfast buffet, which was really good. Then Dylan and Sean did their shopping, Nathan took the girls on their "magic quest," a kind of real-life video game, I took Nick to the "cub club" where he colored and played with their computer, and Don got some pictures. When Nick took his (short) nap, Don and the boys played a board game that they hadn't all played together since swim club days!

The girls with their wands.

Collecting "runes" and crystals.

Success!

The girls and I did some very fun stuff that we planned for them. First, they got pedicures at Scoops, the spa for girls.

I wish the lighting was better : ( But here they are in fluffy robes, tiaras, and the royal toe treatment. They loved it.

Patience chose "glitter."

Jordyn chose purple!

Then, they stuffed their own animals. Patience chose a wolf; Jordyn chose a lamb.

Then, they got to build their own crocs. Patience chose pink with a purple strap, Jordyn chose green with a pink strap, and they each chose a "jibbitz" to decorate their new shoes.

We went to an adjacent restaurant and ordered some gourmet hamburgers for supper and brought them back to the room for dinner. Nathan was watching the Sharks game...unfortunately they lost to the Wild : (

Later that night Don took a very tired Nick to bed and I took the girls to storytime, and then I put them to bed and visited with Nathan while the other boys gamed to their heart's content. Dylan and Sean got some excellent deals at the outlet malls. Both of them spent all their Christmas money and the money that Don and I gave them for the trip.

On Thursday morning we woke up, donned our swimming clothes, ate breakfast at the buffet again, and then went directly to the waterpark for another hour or so of sliding. We all traded off watching the Littles so we were able to do the rides that they couldn't do. Then we went back to the room, showered and dressed, packed the suitcases and started packing the vehicles. When we got to a reasonable point in the packing, the big boys took the girls to the arcade to use the last of the tokens which made getting out of the room much easier.

At that point, Dylan drove the Matrix home with Nick. And the rest of us went and had a blast doing things that we simply couldn't do with Nick along. First we drove to Seattle and saw the movie Tangled. I let Nathan choose the movie and since he had already seen so many "big boy" movies this vacation, he chose Tangled. Of course the girls were thrilled! It was a great movie and we all enjoyed it. Then we went to Rainforest Cafe for lunch, which was excellent as usual.

From there we took Nathan to the hotel by the airport that he had booked (he had an early morning flight today so this was the most logical thing to do) and then we drove home. We got home just after 8:00, in time to put some very tired Littles to bed.

It was a great family time and we're looking forward to doing it again when Nick is a little older...maybe 4. Then it will be fun and relaxing!

Pillowpets!

My dad and Edith sent the Littles Pillowpets for Christmas and the girls LOVE them! Nick is ambivalent : ) Everytime they saw the commercial for Pillowpets the girls begged and pleaded for one. I knew that they were getting these for Christmas so I always told them, "no." They were so surprised to find them under the tree Christmas morning! Thanks Dad and Edith!

Don Sr's handiwork

The girls have two American Girls dolls (the Bitty Baby twins) and until yesterday all their AG paraphernalia was stored in a big plastic bin under their bed, which was not usable at all. So this Christmas I asked Don Sr. to make them a "doll wardrobe" that would fit between their beds. Waneta and I went out and found the two baskets and he built the wardrobe around them, making sure it fit beautifully, even accommodating the baseboard heater on the wall behind it. I just love it, and now the girls love to play with and dress their dolls!

And then, since I knew he'd be in the wood shop and have the white paint out, I asked him to double my counter space in the "bunker" kitchen with a shelf  that would hold two stories of canisters. I just love it! Thanks, Dad!

By the way, if you have an opportunity to get a father-in-law with fabulous wood-working skills, I highly recommend that you do!

Backpacks from Grandma

My mom has been knitting for years...not sure exactly how many, but I'm thinking 10 or so. She started with dish cloths, and when she had hundreds of them and everyone she knew had dozens, she moved on to scarves : ) Then she started making delicious baby blankets using the softest yarn you can find using the...you guessed it...pattern for a dishcloth (only much larger).  But now she has branched out in a big way! She knitted these amazing backpacks for the Littles and filled them with all sorts of treasures. It was really like opening a stocking on Christmas morning. There were crafts and books and choo choos, even a touque for Nick!