June 22, 2010- June 22, 2011

I posted my first blog exactly one year ago today...
I was in flux...
I didn't know if I was coming or going...

I didn't know that a year later I would be sitting at the same desk, in the same state, in a new pair of slippers...
I didn't know that Jeff would eventually find a job right here in the NW...
I didn't know I would be offered a teaching position just down the street...
I didn't know that the next year would bring the blessing of stability and happiness...

And while my goal was to blog for a year...
I didn't know if I would follow through with that commitment...

Blogging has been rewarding, frustrating, cathartic, challenging and interesting...

Some days are easier than others...
Some days are a real challenge either because I can't think of anything to blog about or because of computer difficulties...

Speaking of computer difficulties here are a few of mine...
Today I had planned to post pictures taken one year apart
June 18, 2010 the boys walking down a Florida beach
June 18, 2011 the boys walking on the Oregon coast
This should take a matter of minuets...

and for some unknown reason I can't....
I'm doing everything I've done just fine for the past year but I can't...
So, I'm giving up...

Also, I can't post comments on anyones blog including my own anymore...
I know of some who can't post on my blog entries anymore?
These things are a mystery to me and I'm tired of dealing with them...

So, after one year I'm taking a break from blogging for awhile...
Thank you so much to my 13 "followers" I have enjoyed your comments and feedback!
If I miss it enough and can figure out a better way of doing it I will be back...

But now I have to focus on my class, my kids, my garden and enjoying the NW!

Frychik

Loosing Control or Letting Go?

Last Friday Joshua successfully passed his drivers test....
If I add up the time it took to take the written exam - 10 min
to the time it took to him to perform the drivers test - 10 min
It took him a grand total of 20 min to become a licensed driver in the State of Washington...
Of course that's not counting the waiting time...

 Here he is getting ready to drive us to take his test...
He was very anxious that his dad not forget to leave the Honda so he could test in that car and not the Tahoe...
So worried in fact, he sent his dad a text from his bed at 6:30am to remind him...
Isn't technology grand! You can remind your parents of something and not even get out of bed!

 His instructor...
Imagine with me for a minute what it would be like to have this as your job...
I'm shuddering...
The teenagers, the non-english speakers, the space cadets, the aged, oh the fun they must have!

 Getting his picture taken...twice :)

Success!

He was so excited!

He barely let me ride home with him!  He was so anxious to drive on his own...

It is an anxious moment when you stand in the driveway and watch your child drive away...

The child that you carefully secured into a car seat..

The child that you carefully buckled into his booster seat...

The child you carefully buckled into his seatbelt...

The child you remind to buckle his seat belt...

The child you throw your arm across his chest when you slam on the brakes to try to keep him safe...

How is it that this child just drove off in your car?

Sign.......

Anyway it sure makes me feel old!
How did this happen?
How is it that he is two years away from being an "adult"?
He's so excited about his new responsibilities...
He's so anxious to spread his wings...

Ty is almost as excited as Josh...
He wanted his brother to take him to a movie...
So, Josh's first solo trip was driving his brother to the theater...

Suddenly I'm obsolete...
Well, except laundry and providing food...

I'll always have that!

Frychik

Weekend fun and change of plans

Joshua was supposed to have flown out to Nashville yesterday morning...
Unfortunately, his Aunt and Uncle have a grandson at UCLA medical center in need of a liver transplant.
He is 15 months old and the biopsy on Friday showed cancer cells in his liver.  Such a frightening time for the family.  The baby's name is Caden Rose, please pray for him and his family.

Thinking Saturday would be our last family day we decided to head to the beach.  It was gorgeous around here on Friday and it was easy to picture us frolicking on the Oregon Coast.
We woke up Saturday to drizzle...
We seriously contemplated not going...

But I'm so glad we did!
First stop was Camp 18 which is a fabulous restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the way to the beach.  It once was a logging camp and they have the yummiest Cinnamon rolls and fried potatoes!

 They have wood carvings on the porch of the restaurant and its fun to wander around and see what all is out there...

After we gorged ourselves we headed west to the Pacific Ocean...
We had all the bikes and our plan was to head to Ft. Stevens and ride the trails.
The weather was still misty and chilly but I had just resigned myself to it at this point...

As we got to the turn off we saw a sign advertising a sandcastle contest at Cannon Beach and decided to check it out...

This one cracks me up!
Mickey Club Sandwich!

 I loved Timberline lodge with Portland in the background...

We enjoyed ourselves walking along the beach checking out the "castles"

The weather would dry out for awhile and there was virtually no wind which is always an unexpected plus when visiting the Oregon Coast!

 Happy Father's Day!  I'm so thankful my boys have such a great dad and roll model in their lives!

 Me and my Fry guys!

My favorite picture of the day!

From here we headed to Ft. Stevens got the bikes out and rode for 10 miles.  We explored the battery and saw deer and the boys saw a huge bull elk on the trail right in front of them.  The weather was calm and amazing and I kept kicking myself for not lugging my camera along...so you will just have to take my word for it!


Little did we know as we packed up and headed home that we had more deer to see...
Just before our exit off of I-5 a deer jumped out in front of us...
Thankfully Jeff was driving and thankfully he guessed correctly as to which direction the poor deer would continue going...it was very scary and I fear my kids heard me say a bad word... ;) There is nothing like blissfully reading completely unaware of your surroundings only to be jarred to reality with your husband slamming on the brakes and swearving...he did not swear (he's such a goody two shoes!)

I was very thankful we had not changed our plans.  It was a lovely rare day when both teenagers were happy and we truly enjoyed each other as a family.

Josh was really disappointed when the call came in that he shouldn't fly out in the morning...
But I don't like sending him off on a plane without me anyway...

However, I do have a licensed 16 year old if anyone has any hard labor for him this week! ;)

Frychik

A List

• I'm almost done with my assignment!  I worked so hard yesterday and I only have two left!
• Josh had a basketball game last night and had an awesome blocked shot!
• Tyler's allergies are killing the poor boy! I think I'm gonna call an allergist zyrtek is just not cutting it!
• Josh has his drivers test today so if he passes he will be another licensed teenage boy on the road...
• Tyler is having a friend over today...
• Jeff's uncles grandson who is only 15 months old needs a liver transplant...so very sad, they need prayers!
• Because of the transplant they may not be in Nashville this next week and we have a plane ticket for Josh to fly there Sunday...not sure what will happen
• Tomorrow we are headed to the beach for the day!
• Yesterday Jeff's "Grammy" turned 90!  She is amazing!

• Thank you Judy for taking some of my lettuce bounty!
• My cat is driving me nuts!

The End,

Frychik

Busy...

Today will be brief...
Trying to finish my annotated bibliography....
I'll be a happy girl when it's done!

I would like to say that I was put in my place with a gentle reminder that I do have a LOVELY friend with not only 5 children and 2 yippee dogs...but 29 chickens!  And I'm sure she would make a WONDERFUL neighbor! Unless she is firing up power tools every day ;D

Love ya Suzanne!

Frychik

What to do...

I have a problem...
A frustration...
And no solution...

 This is my neighbor...
Let's call him Mr. NOISY PANTS!

 This is my porch a place I like to hang out in the summer to read or eat my meals, pet my dog what ever I feel like doing in a QUIET space...

 This is my garden and there right beside it is a huge ugly shop that Mr. NOISY PANTS built last year...
My garden is also my quiet space...no one bothers me out there and I get a lot of thinking done

Here is my problem, you may of guessed by now that Mr. NOISY PANTS is well NOISY!

When the house next door went up for sale I was worried who would move in...
I hoped they wouldn't have 5 kids and small yippee dogs and I was greatly relieved when these guys bought the house...and over all they are niceish...He, Mr. NOISY PANTS is very friendly she Mrs. NP is a bit frosty...and their adult son is hardly seen because he is sitting in front of the computer all the time, which I can see and HEAR because the window faces my porch....

And when I say noisy I mean power tools...

Constantly and large variety of them...

And when he does manage to work in his shop quietly he always has his radio blaring...
Which means all this filters into my garden and my backyard making it a very loud environment!

Monday I tried to enjoy my first day of summer vacation by sitting in the sun and reading for an hour...
The entire time I did this he was going hog wild with a pressure washer which had been going for the better part of 4 hours before I decided to go outside...

Yesterday as I was studying hard in the morning he fired up the electric saw and proceeded to use it for at least 4 hours...
The man is retired Army and clearly not ready to retire...
Could someone please offer him a job?  He's a hard worker and  great with power tools...




I was thrilled to find three tomatoes in my noisy garden!
I was also shocked!
What a nice surprise!

We are eating lettuce from the garden!
If you want some, come by we have plenty!

After being very discouraged with my lack of pumpkin production this week has been encouraging...

Two of the 4 mounds which previously had nothing are now sprouting!

If you look closely at the bottom of the picture you will see a new sprout emerging...

And my gorgeous wisteria!  I love this!
It's not a great picture, but if you look closely, notice how long that blossom is!  Amazing...

So, if anyone has any ideas about Mr. NOISY PANTS I'm all ears....

Frychik

Glaubensunwilligkeit!

So this is the first week of summer vacation around here...
People are sleeping in..
The house is quiet until about 12...then the demand for breakfast begins...

So I actually get up earlier to enjoy the quiet...
To work on my class...

Yes, it's true school is not out for me...
School will be with me ALL SUMMER, only to end Aug 21...which is 3 days before the fist day of teaching..

I'm 7 weeks into my 16 week graduate class, almost halfway there...
So far I'm holding at 100%
This week I have to put together an annotated bibliography....

My vocabulary now includes words such as;
Historiography
Historicism
Disciplinary Frame
Juridical
Hagiography
Lacunae - fancy word for "gap" - honestly does every common word have to have a "fancy" one?
Positivist
Anachronism
Postulates
Teleological
Glaubensunwilligkeit - seriously! German for "unwillingness to believe"
Gleichshaltung - German for "Political Coordination" i.e. - those Italians
Natality - birthrate
Hegemony

Yes, its all very impressive, if you hang out with a bunch of old mean who wear bow ties...

Oh, well I look pretty good in a bow tie...

Frychik

One year ago...

It was a year ago that we flew to Florida...
Jeff had a strong job lead...
He was excited about the job but not about moving to Florida...

I was terrified but being an AMAZING wife...
The kids were lured with the promise of amusement parks
So one year ago we all hopped on a plane and headed to Florida...

The kids were quickly unimpressed...
They saw that there mother was right and Florida is yucky...
Jeff's interview went well, but he realized he just couldn't move his family to Florida...

I was stressing about life...
Should I pack?
Should I plant my garden?

The man needed a job...
How would we sell our house?
How were we gonna transition in time for the school year to begin...

So weird to think back to where I was a year ago...
It was not a happy place...
Little did I know we would not be moving...
That Jeff would continue looking for a job for 8 more months...
A job that he eventually found literally across the parking lot from his last job...
That I would get a teaching job 2 min from my house...

I have frequently thought about Florida...
I wonder what this year would have been like had it worked out for us to move there...
We were definitely at a fork in the road a year ago...

One thing I know for sure, if possible, I'm even more thankful to be living in the NW near my amazing friends and family!  ( although it would have been awesome to be closer to Darrel and Connie! Love you guys!)

Thankfully, Jeff really likes his job...
I really like my job...
Ty was able to graduate with his class and continue to build his rep as an amazing guitar player :)
Josh had a great year and was elected Jr class president for next year

I'm so glad it's not last year....

Frychik

All Done...

Last night was graduation and everything that comes with it...
Family, friends, gifts....
I still have family here this morning so today it's just pictures...

The boy was excited by the effects pedal we got him for his guitar...

I love this picture...

He looks so grown up

He's even reading the card! :)

  Love this!

Josh introducing his girlfriend to his great-grandparents...


Frychik

Today's the day...

Tonight my "baby" graduates..

I'm so proud of him...

I'm already missing him...all I can think about is how little time I have left before he leaves me...

Right now he wants to be a musician...

 We have said that's fine but you have to have a solid back up plan...

Its fun to think what your kid will grow up to be....

I never imagined I would produce a musically talented child...

Fortunately, for him I choose well when it came to his father...

Tonight at graduation he is performing two pieces...

One with two flutes and a solo his own arrangement...

I can't wait!

I think he may end up working with animals...

A vet with a rock band...

Frychik