Hayden and Maddison - Homecoming 2009

Hayden, Maddy and Maddy's friend Holly - homecoming 2009

I know, I know, I am just as terrible as I thought I would be at keeping this blog updated! I only now sat down to update because I have pictures of Hayden and Maddison to post! They went to the Homecoming dance on Saturday and they looked so nice - and Maddy wore a dress!! It was semi-formal and she chose a dress that was short, so you could see all the bruises on her legs from crashing, but that just added to the Maddy-ness of it! :-) Hayden wouldn't give up the jeans, but at least he wore a button up shirt.

They each had a place to go after so I was home alone again - I have to tell you I am NOT liking this at all!! At least Shady was with me, but she doesn't talk nearly enough! :-)

P.S. Lake City lost the homecoming game. :-(

Damn to hell the lazy assed contractor who discovered that spraying drywall putty on a ceiling and letting it dry was a fast way to "finish" a ceiling!! I hope he spends a few lifetimes in hell, and his penance will be to scrape, refill, sand and re-texture a million ceilings!!
Can anyone tell what I have been doing this weekend???? I swear there must be a special place in heaven for contractors who really "finish" ceilings. (you know, the pretty swirly ones, or the nice flat ones) This has got to be one of the WORST jobs I have ever done in this re-model. It may well be the worst job I have ever done. The wetting down and scraping was bad enough - now I have sanded all the areas that David filled (because the LAZY contractor who origionally did this house must have been running low on drywall mud, so didn't fill in all the low spots correctly...Hell, I tell you! ) After I finished, I realized that despite my very best efforts to avoid it, there is a fine dusting of - well, DUST! - all over the house! I have had to vacuum, dust and damp dust almost every surface in the entire house (except the rooms whose doors were shut) Tomorrow we will be spraying the new "texture" on the ceilings, and I will NEVER do this again!! Once these are done, I don't care how it looks, It is staying!!
I have to go blow more drywall dust out my nose..... :-(

Maddy at Motocross

School!!! Look out

Ricky Charmichael!!!

I decided that since I am still getting complaints from my followers, I will be updating this blog with just random everyday stuff instead of trying to fill it with interesting stories :-) you may all regret this....
I have been keeping busy with the remodeling of the house. I am currently taking down the "popcorn" ceilings in the livingroom and the room Hayden is moving into (Justines old room). What a messy hassell(sp?) that has been! I bought the special tools that are supposed to cut down on the mess, but they don't work as good as advertised - surprise, surprise - so there has been a ton of cleanup every time! I worked on the livingroom last week and I am finishing the bedroom this week so David and I can team up to put the new ceilings up. We are using the knockdown method, basically popcorn that is flat. It is much more modern of a look and I want something that I don't have to vacuum every month (you know this is true Mom and Doug!) The ceilings will stay white and I will paint the walls a color. David thought it would be a good idea to pick several colors and let everyone have a say - I decided that that is a dumb idea and I will pick the one I like the best. David and I like the same color and we will be here longer! :-) Hayden will now only pick the color for his room and Maddy will pick hers when we get closer to doing that room.
Maddy got to go to a motocross school in Vantage last weekend. It was sure nice to have her out racing again! It is still too cold here, but it was 50 degrees there. David got some nice pictures of her jumping with the sun in the background (silouhetted) but they were only on the phone so when I post them they will be really small. Hayden has been practicing all week for his drivers test that we thought he would be taking this week, only to find out that it is in fact not until April 15th. We were both disappointed to say the least! He is really a good driver and I was looking forward to having a helper! So we will wait one more month. He will be driving by summer, though, which will be an even bigger help.
I will post those pics of Maddy next....

OK! OK! I am not the best t keeping this up and I have heard from everyone who bothers to read this that it is time for another post..

I have heard from Justine now twice. The first call was 30 seconds long and garbled from a bad connection, so I could hardly hear a work she said, which made me soooo sad! Then last Sunday, she called again and we got to talk for 10 minutes, so I am happy again. She did say she would get a few more phone calls, so I am happy about that, but she said that they don't let you write much so not to expect any letters back from her any time soon. Its ok for me, because I will just keep writing to her. It has been a weird experience to have her gone like this - She has never really been away from home for any significant time and I miss her terribly! She was driving me crazy the last few weeks she was here because she was bored, but she was still a help for me to have around. Even if it was just someone to talk to on a more "grownup" level. (And the fact that she is funny as hell doesn't hurt) I can't go to her graduation in April either because of the lack of time off I have for work since my knee and foot incident so I probably won't see her until summer - it just kills me!
I have been keeping busy to keep my mind off Justine. I am trying to finish "my" part of the remodel of the house. Last week I took all the popcorn ceiling down from the livingroom and chose the paint for the walls. On my next week off I will paint and put the new texture on the ceiling so David can get hot on the flooring. After all that is done, I will pick the new furniture (I know, I know, it has been a long time coming!) and put up the new baseboards and door frames. David is progressing nicely with the upper cabinet doors for the kitchen and will be starting the lower facing soon. The cabinets are ready for stain and they are beautiful! I am ready to put them up because everything inside the open cabinets is getting dusty from exposure. More dishes to wash UGH!! I am also going to work on moving Hayden from the upstairs bedroom to Justines old room. I have to paint in there too because there are purple flowers on the walls. Hayden offered to help me and I will take full advantage of it! I should have had her room cleaned out by now, but the first few days I tried to do it I just got all teary putting her stuff in storage boxes. (such a big baby!) I will be done with the packing by the end of this week and the carpets will be cleaned after we paint, so by next week he should have his new room.
Maddison is going to help me too, but she is doing her bathroom. She said it needs to be more "boyish" since Hayden will be sharing with her now. I have picked a stripe pattern in a navy/green/teal/white combination for the shower curtain and we will paint the walls in something (haven't decided on that) He will use the shower in my bathroom still since the showerhead in her shower hits him at about neck level (thanks to all my tall family for letting me know that!) and it is going to cost WAY too much money to fix. We would have to cut the wall to move it higher and it is way too much work with everything else going on this summer. (All my tall family members need to use MY shower from now on! :-) Maddy is getting new bedding in her room but doesn't want it painted anymore, now she is just covering everything up with her racing posters.
Hayden broke his finger a month ago but didn't know it. He was messing around playing basketball at Codys house and smashed it into another kids elbow. It swelled up but I thought he just jammed it. We had gone to the doctor about his knee ( he has Osgood-Schlatter syndrome) and he mentioned the finger in passing. The doc took one look at it and said"X-ray". Sure enough it was broken. He has to wear a splint for 3 weeks. (don't worry, he is still playing baseball and basketball)and then re-evaluate - possible surgery if it doesn't heal. We will plan anything like that for off-season so he won't miss any sports.
Hayden also started baseball (Freshmen team) and started practicing with his traveling basketball team. His first baseball game is on the 20th and his first basketball tournament is on March 28th. Maddison has a racing class in Vantage tomorrow and her first race is the 28th weekend too. We are getting in the swing for the summer sports, so if anyone wants to come and visit and watch, let me know and I'll pass on the entire schedule!
until next time.......

Well, the day has finally come! I dropped Justine off to ship out for basic training! I dropped her off at the hotel and we had decided in advance that I would just drop her off and leave quickly so we could cry on our own, or we may never have stopped crying! She was right. I cried until I got to Post Falls and I had a headache for the rest of the night. I know this will be a good thing for her, but I still hate to lose one of my babies! They seem so young at 18. Not nearly ready to face the world, but there she goes...
In other news, we found out that one of her best friends is pregnant! While she is young and this will put a little damper on her education for now, I still can't help but be thrilled at the idea of having another baby around! I miss the babies! Maybe now I can be a full time grandma to a little one until MY OWN grandson comes back! :-)
I will call or e-mail everyone when I get Justines address in boot camp so we can all flood her with letters and cards. I want to give her as much support as possible!

Well, there aren't any pictures yet to post, but I thought I should let everyone know that Haydens team won their last game of the freshmen season in DOUBLE overtime 62 to 59. We played a Priest River JV team that came to play us at the end of their undefeated season. It was by far the best game we had all season (Hayden got 11 points) and a great way to go out! We played Moscow yesterday and also won by 8, (Hayden had 12 points in that one) which felt really good after going down to Moscow and losing to them with what seemed like hometown refing. (or would that be "reffing", I'm just not sure) The boys wanted to beat them so bad - they were fired up for that one for sure! So ends another great basketball season and I will post some pictures of him playing as soon as I can get some ordered. We are getting them from the photographer that takes them at our games because my camera is just so crappy for inside the gym pictures.
In other news, Justine leaves for boot camp on Monday. :-( I will be sad to see her go even though I know it is something she really wants to do. I am the Mom and as the Mom I am supposed to hate it when my babies fly the coop! And anyone who knows me knows that I really do hate it (Sydney - grrr!) I had a parental breifing from her recruiter and he told me that her first phone call to me would be full of tears and pleas to get her out of there, but not to worry because it happens to everyone! Now, I don't know about you, but when I heard that I wanted to choke him. Who says that to an overprotective Mom???!!! S-I-G-H!!! This will be harder on me than her I am sure! So, anyone wanting to wish her well should call before we leave on Monday at 5:00.

These are some older pictures that I found while trying to organize pictures on my computer. I thought they were good ones.
We didn't do much this weekend, me still being on crutches and all, but the kids (Hayden and Maddy) did each go snowboarding on a day - Maddy on Saturday and Hayden on Sunday. The "Big Air" competition was on Sunday so they got to watch that. David spent most of his weekend trying to finish the cabinet doors for the top part of the kitchen. Anyone who knows us knows that this new kitchen has been talked about for about 6 years ans has been trying to be accomplished for about 9 months. It is taking longer than I expected, but all the work is being done by David at almost no cost to us, so I can't complain. The doors came out beautifully! I can hardly wait to get all the rest of the stuff done so I can have a pretty kitchen! I will focus on the livingroom as soon as I get off crutches. The ugly popcorn ceilings will be the first to go! Then we are also going to move the two kids left after Justine leaves to the bottom bedrooms and redecorate for them. Haydens room will become an extra guest room with a double/queen bed and the exercise equipment will move to that space to have more room in the basement. The small room will stay as my craft room and we will keep the single bed in there. Alot to do, but well worth it!
I watched movies most of the weekend (when I wasn't ln Facebook). Hopefully this will be the very last weekend I have to spend laid up. I am ready to DO something! I have watched a lifetime of TV this year! I did get to see the Gonzaga game on Saturday (what a killing! Poor Zags!) and the Lakers/Cavaliers game on Sunday. Both Kobe and Lebron are my favorites, but I had to root for the Lakers, and they didn't disappoint! I love to watch basketball of any kind. Hayden only has 2 more games and his season is over and Maddison has 5 more games and then it is racing/baseball season.
I will post some more old pics if I find anything really good. Putting everything into the proper files and labeling all of them is taking me longer than if I just slapped them into an album...SIGHHHH!!!

I know, I know, I have been a terrible blogger! I am one of those "its just me" people that Mo talks about in her blog - nothing much interesting to say... But I have had a few note worthy experiences this last couple of weeks so here goes.
I got well and healed enough to go back to work to wait for my next surgery. I was back for 2 weeks and now I am home recovering from the next round of surgery until Feb. 18th. The achilles surgery went MUCH better than the knee. It hardly hurts at all and only really hurt for 2 days after the actual surgery. I am on crutches again until Monday, so its not nearly as bad! The worst part this time is the bandage that has to stay on until I go into a boot on Monday. (envision a rather large girl in a rather small tub to bathe - NOT a pretty sight) It has to stay dry and clean and I am a busy girl so I'm not sure whether I will be successful at either. Hopefully this will be the last of anything that I have to get done because I am more than a little tired of all this!
Hayden and Maddison have had several basketball games in the last couple of weeks and are both doing really well. Hayden has only lost two the whole year and Maddisons team is 2-2. Maddy is so excited for racing to start again! Her home track posted the racing schedule for this upcoming season this last weekend and she printed it out and circled all the races that her Dad is available for in about 2 minutes. She found out that it is almost all of them and she is thrilled. I will post pictures of her racing when the time comes.
David and I have been married 20 years today. It hardly seems possible! Congratulations to us! 4 wonderful children one son-in-law and 1 grandchild - not too shabby at all :-)

I don't know how good these will come out when I

post them, but this was yesterday at the Air Force base.

What you see on the trees is not snow, but hoarfrost.

It was so foggy that the fog was freezing and building

up on everything in site. It was beautiful, but made

driving a real hazard! The wind was blowing and in the

last picture you can see how it was building up in a

"blown" pattern. Half of every thick tree (evergreens)

was white with this blown frozen frost and every

skinny branched tree was completely covered. Very cool!!

While the snow has been a true pain in the ass this winter, these pictures of the backyard when the sun came out were too good to pass up. It looked like a million sparkles had been dumped on the trees. It hurt your eyes to look at it! This is what I love about winter!

Ok! Ok! Ok! I have heard that there are actually interested parties reading this blog, do I will try and be better about posting. I always feel like it should have pictures and I don't take all that many anymore.

I have been doing my best with this busted knee business. I am going to physical therapy (evil people!!) and trying to get the knee straight. It was bent in the brace for so long that the muscles and tendons have atrophied (sp?) So now I spend an hour or more having every kind of hideous contraption ever invented attached to my knee to try and help it along. I am loving the shock therapy - especially when he said "I'm turning it up now, let me know when you can't stand it." So when the tears are squeezing out of my eyes and I say "ok, thats it!" he turns it up 2 more notches... SADIST!! I have to work on it at home also, so every day I am doing some painful exercise or stretch 3 or 4 times a day.
NEVER TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR HEALTHY KNEES!!!

Maddison wants me to say something about her in this blog, so I will tell you all that she is a sweet daughter and she is the coolest kid ever! She is getting great grades in school also! She and David are working hard to get the bikes ready to start racing this spring. I think her first race is in the last week of March. I never realized how much there is involved in getting the bikes ready each year. They take them apart and put them back together with new this and new that on them (I couldn't tell you what all there is, I don't even understand what they are saying most of the time. I just say "mmmm-hmmm" and nod my head, with an occasional "Wow, thats cool" thrown in.) All I know is its good that she is the youngest, because I would hate to spend this much money on multiple kids! It makes me wish for the over-priced traveling teams again! :-)
Speaking of traveling teams, Hayden has been asked to join a traveling team for basketball whose goal is to go to Nationals. We have never played to that level before, and I think it will be fun. We gave a tentative yes, but are waiting to get a baseball schedule from the High School to make sure it doesn't interfere. We have to have him play baseball in case he never reaches 6'2" which is really the minimum height for college basketball. To be any shorter you have to be really phenomenal! I would hate to limit his options. His basketball team for high school is still undefeated - I think they are 11-0. His grades are coming up nicely (thanks to the fact that he can't get his licence unless he has a 3.0 or better :-)
Justine is 30 days away from leaving for boot camp! I think she is still excited for it, and maybe a little apprehensive. This will be a huge step for her, and we really hope this ends up being her niche. She got to go for a 3 day trip to schweitzer ski resort and had a blast and she is in Pullman visiting friends for 3 days this weekend (at WSU). She is going to visit Mimi and Papa in 2 weeks in Arizona, and then she comes back and leaves 3 days later. She is managing to squeeze in alot of stuff into this last month for sure! Lucky Girl!!
Ok, so I will post more on this site, but maybe not all with pictures. I do have a few that I will post next of some of the weird weather we have been having. These last 2 winters have been odd for sure! Nothing like ice storm year, but different. I am hoping all the new transplants from milder climates will give up and go back where they came from. Keep the 208 small!!