A New Leaf

So today is the first post of November, the first school day of November, the first school day off of Daylight Savings Time, AND, last but NOT least, the FIRST day of a new class I am taking found at www.shimelle.com and titled Blogging for Scrapbookers. I have taken a class from Shimelle at Creating Keepsakes a few years ago and I loved it. I have taken a few of her online classes and am continually amazed at how she makes me look at things differently. She is from England and there is a part of her verbage in her posts that I love as it is not the American way to do it.

She works doing things in the industry of scrapbooking and finds it difficult for people to understand all of what she does ass some people (particularly those of the male species) just don't "get it" as I am sure we all have experienced. She recently compared scrapbooking to blogging just using paper and pretty things. From that she developed this class and I am excited to embark on this journey with her.

My blogging is sporatic at best and is complicated by Facebook as it sometimes seems duplicative in nature. My hope through this class is to use my blog more often and to post more meaningful (AKA meaty) posts on my blog as I use it to save memories and things that make my life just that MY LIFE.

I hope you will visit and read my blog as I embark on this journey. I am not setting unreasonable expectations so I am making NO promises to my readers except that I am going to start this journey and see where it takes me.

Here is to a new leaf in my life and fun blog posts to come.

Digital Scrapbooking

I have recently started dabbling in digital scrapbooking and find that I like it not as a replacement for paper scrapbooking but rather as an adjunct that gives me a little different creative outlet with the ability to do it on my laptop with little to no mess! Sometimes it is nice to sit on the couch and create a little fun with the ease of the computer.

I am at home grounded to the couch with bronchitis so today gave me some free time with my laptop. My little buddy Amos is keeping me company and making sure I stay on the couch . . .

My cousin is married to a now-retired fireman who has a very great relationship with all of my cousin's kids and grandkids. My cousin's first grandson Carson was born with Cystic Fibrosis. He has struggled through some challenges as they get him set with his meds and routine to manage it. Belinda and Wes have done so much to raise awareness and raise funds for CF research. A friend of Carson's mom's took some great pictures of Wes and Carson together in fireman gear. I have loved this picture for a long time -

Today I took a kit I got from http://www.digitalscrapbookplace.com/ with fireman stuff and used this picture I love and made a fun page of Carson and his hero, his grandpa Wes. I included this poem on the page:

MY GRANDPA'S A FIREMAN

There aren't many kids ~ so I'm led to understand,
Who can really and truly say, MY GRANDPA'S A FIREMAN?
My Grandpa never gets older like kids who grow each day;
He doesn't even have wrinkles 'cause God made him that way.
There's something' special 'bout him, and I know what he says is true;
For he wants me to be fair and honest in everything I do.
He takes me to parades, and I sit in his big red truck;
I push the siren so very loud ~ you'd almost think it was stuck!
At times his clothes smell funny; I hold my nose and say "PEEE-UU!"
But I know it's from smoke and the kind of work he has to do.
On Christmas and Thanksgiving ~ even Easter and birthdays, too,
We visit Grandpa and Grandma where there's so many things to do.
I know I'm really lucky; I'm the happiest kid in the land,
Since I have someone I love and can say, MY GRANDPA'S A FIREMAN.
-Author unknown

Here is the finished product - I love it!! I think it really shows the relationship between them!

Hello Fall

Been a while since a post so thought I would post tonight just to prove I am alive. It is definitely fall here in Chelan. The temperatures have gone down to a high of 70 in the day and the high 30s to maybe 45 at night. Gone are the shorts and the hooded sweatshirts are out.

The kid are staying busy in school. Chase loves first grade and his teacher. He knows his sight words for first and second grade - all 400 of them and is started reading chapter books and loves it. He has gotten 100% on all 5 spelling tests so far! I am so proud of him. He has soccer practice two afternoons a week and had his first soccer game on Saturday. He was a very tired boy after that game. He even took a nap this afternoon which he NEVER does and was still ready for bed at bedtime. Mackenzie is started on her sight words and on her first books in kindergarten. She is tired by the end of the week as she has soccer practice one afternoon a week in addition to full day kindergarten 5 days a week. She has the same teacher Chase had last year and loves that she knows the routine. She really misses being at home with Mommy so we do a lot of encouragement some days to get her going and other days she is ready to go.

We are ready for fall and love the change of weather. Wishing a happy fall to all of you!

Events in Chelan

It has been an interesting week in the Chelan area. Not only did school start this last week on Wednesday but to add to the chaos, we had a tractor-trailer rig run into the side of the Beebe Bridge which connects the Douglas County side of the Columbia River to the Chelan County side. Our school district has 120 students and 5 teachers that live on the Douglas County side. This is not usually a big deal of a commute but . . .

as you can see in the photo, there is extensive damage to the bridge so the commute has become quite an event. The kids on that side are being picked up about 6 AM in order to ride the 1 1/2 hrs one way back to Chelan via Wenatchee and are not getting home until 4:30 or 5:00 PM. Mackenzie's teacher (Chase's teacher from last year) lives on that side of the river. She and her husband (Steve and Carolyn Burdick) are both teachers in Chelan and have a 4 month old son Jayden who goes to daycare in Chelan. They have a new commute as they began school on Wednesday bycoming to work by boat from Sun Cove area to Chelan Falls thanks to Mr. Blair (the husband of another teacher in the district).

Hopefully they will be clearing the bridge for pedestrian traffic by school on Tuesday. In the meantime there is a long detour and any traffic that needs to go north of the bridge has to be rerouted through Chelan making it a very busy traffic area especially with apple harvest in full swing. If you are from out of the area and want to see more pictures of this accident, which unfortunately resulted in the death of the driver and her partner, go to http://www.golakechelan.com/ or http://www.wenworld.com/.

Here is hoping for a smoother week this week!

Wisdom from a First Grader

Today after his first day of first grade Chase arrived home with homework. As he sat down to work on it, he asked me "Mommy do you know what homework means?" I replied, "No, what does it mean?" His sweet wisdom-filled reply "It means I am growing up!"

Happy Birthday Gramma Betty - a Great 77 years

Saturday was my mother-in-law's 77th birthday! She is suffering with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and is no longer able to swallow at all and is only able to communicate in writing. We are all facing the fact that she is failing and this may well be her last birthday. In honor of her big day, we got all of the family possible together for her day. There were in total - 3 sons, 2 daughters-in-law, 7 grandkids, 8 great grandchildren and 10 friends! It was a fun day and she looked so happy to have them all there.

Here's to Gramma Betty - wishing you comfort and peace as you struggle through each day. Know that we love you so much and are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Megan made a fabulous scrapbook page for Gramma about the things she learned from her. i cannot say things better about Gramma so I will just include this picture . . .

Apricots

My best friend and I have been dealing with LOTS of apricots for a week now. We have a mutual friend who has trees of apricots that they just use for themselves but can never use all of them. She told us we could go pick all we wanted. Well, if you have never picked apricots, it is easy and goes very fast. That is a good and a bad thing. The good is you have what you need (and more) in less than an hour. The bad is that it is hard to stop as it doesn't seem like you have picked long enough.

Between the two of us, we have made nearly 70 pints of freezer jam (thankfully she has a clean nearly empty freezer to keep it in). I made 4 quarts of apricot syrup. I dried a dehydrator full of them. We have eaten lots as well.

We will remember these apricots well into the winter when we are covered in snow and wishing for sunshine!