The only way to wake up at 4 a.m.

Surviving the Storm (and I don't mean Thanksgiving)

Well, it was the storm of the year, so far. But we made it through like true Northwesterners, with the Glory of God and the power Yamaha. 

Early Monday morning it started to snow and by Monday afternoon we had an impassable, amazingly scary TWO inches of the slippery stuff on the ground and school had called to let us know they were letting the kidlets out HALF AN HOUR EARLY!! (the END of the WORLD, I tell you!)

Of course, by about 4:30, things had progressed so that we were without electricity and we now had about THREE inches of the stuff on the ground. To be fair, it was covering a fair amount of ice that was making driving quite hazardous and scary. Jeff left work early and it still took him over 3 hours to get home, but with God's blessing, he made it home just ahead of the horrible accidents on I-5 that kept hundreds on the highway and in their cars for hours and hours and hours. I was, and am still, so thankful.  Gary was on the road for over 4 hours just trying to get home from Bremerton, normally a 20 minute drive!  We had a dinner of cheese, crackers and pear by the light of a candle while Jeff hooked up the generator. I don't think the kids thought it was all the romantic.  Things continued to progress and by bedtime the wind was a real distraction. Even over the din of the generator by our back door, the sound of the wind beating our poor house to death and whipping the boat cover against the siding, not to mention the sounds of branches and pine cones raining down, made for a rather sleepless night. About 3 am we were both propelled out from under the covers by a HUGE noise that seemed to last forever and end with a sonic boom. Jeff, being the wonderful caring neighbor that he is, immediately was out of bed, with his boots on and his stocking cap to try and see what it was. He came back in 5 minutes later, defeated by the wind and the noise and the branches flying out of nowhere. But the next morning, we noticed there was an inordinate amount of sky that could be seen over our neighbor's yard.

Above is the new view from our neighbor's front porch.

Unfortunately, the other end of the tree landed on his neighbor's house.

That window looks into their 3-yr-old daughter's room, and this is the amazing part, they had just laid her down on the couch in the living room minutes before this monster crashed through her bedroom ceiling.  GOD IS AMAZING!

This tree actually laid down the full length of their house and no one was hurt. It still gives me goosebumps. I am so glad that no one was physically hurt, though watching the shock on his face the next morning as he surveyed the mess was heart wrenching. It made our mess look much less horrifying though I was still amazed by such scenes of power.

 The branch lying across our back fence was over 20 feet long and 8-9" in diameter. However, no damage to the fence or either our house or the neighbors. This branch, however, had to travel quite distance to land this far from a tree!

This was our first view of our yard from our bedroom door. It is even stranger when you stop to think that we don't have any trees in our yard!

Inside, however, was a different story. Thanks to the generator, we were blessed to be able to run our pellet stove, refrigerator, crock pot and hot water kettle. The kids, Noah and Lydia, stayed busy playing endless rounds of Uno, Go Fish, and Rummy. The trains made it out a time or two as well.  Notice the cords snaking all over the house. Yes, Jeff did attempt to run the router and his computer through the generator. He even had a satellite phone system that he had brought home to work on. Thankfully, things were not that bad.

Manis, being his own cat, had his own ideas about who the space heater was set up for.

When all was said and done, we were without power for three days, getting it restored the morning of Thanksgiving Day. Other than discovering that we were horrendously messy cave dwellers once the lights came on, I was quite pleased with how we did. I am almost ready to move "off the grid"!

HA HA HA

But honestly, we were so minorly touched by this storm. SO many more of our neighbors were quite literally crushed and have many days of struggle ahead and I just pray that God makes His comforting presence known to them. Jeff and I went for a drive on Wednesday and discovered several neighborhoods where giant trees laid across power lines, porches, cars, trucks, barns, driveways and houses. PSE workers were out in full force and that was gratifying to see, even with the upcoming holiday, they were out in the freezing temperatures doing their dangerous jobs as fast as they could.

This storm gave a whole new meaning to Thanks-Giving this year, and for that we are truly thankful.

Man Vs Woman: Successful Work Day

His....

                                       Hers....

Nuff said.

A Change in Me by Mac Washburn

So Mac wrote this great piece of expository writing (?!) for an assignment at school (where else).

I love it.

So I am sharing it (with his permission). By the way, he got an A- on it!

I never wanted this much responsibility.  I didn't have to do as much as I have to do now,compared to when I was 7.  Now that I'm 12, I have to take care of 3 brothers, 2 sisters, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 ducks and 5 fish!  When I was 7 I only had to take care of myself.  All I had to do is make my bed, clean my room, and make it to the dinner table on time. Now that I'm 12 I have so many responsibilities it's mind blowing!

First of all, I have to help care for and watch my baby brother and sister.  They could break something, hurt the dogs or hurt themselves. They need constant watching to make sure they don't get into trouble.  Sometimes they need me to change their diapers or put them to sleep.  But even though they give me lots of trouble, they are still cute and I love them.

Then of course there is my little (though not physically a baby) brothers and sister.  They need constant watching too, except for different reasons. If they hurt each other it's not my fault (unless they broke something or there's massive internal bleeding).  I'm supposed to make sure they don't burn the house down in the process.  Also, I have to be a good role model so that they don't grow up to be crazy hoodlums. (though personally I don't think it's making a difference.)

Lastly, there is the matter of my 12 pets.  I have to feed them, clean up after them and make sure they get plenty of exercise (at leas the dogs, anyway).  I also have to pick up their droppings.  For instance, I have to pick up the dog's poop out of the yard and the clean the cats' litter box.  They are a lot of work but they are fun to pet and play with.

In conclusion, I have lots of responsibility that at first might sound boring and aggravating, but they always pay off and make you a better person.  You may like to have no responsibility and watch TV all day, but this just makes you a lazy bum instead of a responsible person.

Amen to that, Mac!

Random

Movie night. Obviously they didn't enjoy the film.

So, I have been getting up at 3-ish a.m. the past few mornings. Note I said "getting up". I have been waking up at around 2ish each morning, spending the next hour getting crankier and crankier and then finally jettisoning myself out of bed with a naughty word left in my wake (sorry, Jeff). But once I am up, I am so much happier! I make myself a cup of coffee and crawl into one of the prayer shawls that a dear lady-friend from church made for Jeff and I, cuddle up with the dog (who would like to crawl into the shawl but who is relegated to a mere, run-of-the-mill blanket) and read Psalms for an hour on the couch. I get the fire going and the cats calm down immediately. It is lovely! Just as I start to feel myself getting sleepy, my alarm goes off at 4:45 in my pocket and it is time to refill the coffee cup, feed the cats (who were hoping that I was going to feed them at 3) and then move into the office to get to work.  The crazy thing is, I have been in SUCH a better mood during the morning hours! Yes, even during breakfast!  I blame it on the prayer time. I tend to crash about noon, but so far I have had the chance to take a short nap to get through dinner time. After three days as such, I went to bed last night looking forward to my early morning time.

Unfortunately, the cats decided to push the envelope and woke me up at 1:20.

He'd better be careful or he will be heading to recycling with the box!

I'm sorry, God, but even with a National Geographic Magazine article on King David awaiting me, I could do no more than grab the spray bottle that I have taken to storing by my bed and send off a couple of poorly aimed squirts in the general direction of the cats.  I think I repeated that about every 15 minutes or so as they would come galumphing into my bedroom, careen across the tile floor and scrabble under the bed. I finally awoke to my alarm going off at 4:45, with the spray bottle still in my hand and crazy water marks all over the walls. Damn. The cats, of course, were curled up in matching balls on Jeff's side of the bed. Double Damn.

Needless to say, today I looked as if I have been getting up at 3 a.m. for the past year. I honestly love that color of deep indigo purple, the exact shade between sundown and twilight...just not underneath my eyes. Ugh.

I had to laugh later though, as the kids came dragging into the kitchen after a restless night trying to brave the wind storm. Oh? Did I not mention the wind storm? Yeah, that would be because I was so tired by the time I went to bed, I didn't give a flip.  The kids, however, must have had a harder time. We all looked like we had gone a few rounds in the boxing ring.

By the grace of God (and His nudging to drink that extra cup of coffee), I was able to safely make it to Montesano so see my Grandma. She is doing wonderfully and it did my heart good to see her finally interacting with the other residents, personnel and office staff.  She even took me around and introduced me to people.   She is so cute motoring down the hall in her wheelchair, just using her feet to propel her along.  From the back, she looks like she is just floating down the hall in her chair, her hands held relaxed in her lap. I thank God and my friends, family and people who I don't even know who have all been praying for her since July 3rd.

With Jeff in Miami this week, I am hoping that if I keep my week jam packed, it will go by quickly, though if I were him, after seeing pics of his hotel room, I don't think as that I would be in all that big of a hurry to come home, especially as it is right on the beach, and we are getting forecasts of snow for this weekend!

JOY!!!

Ft Worden 2008

I obviously have to get a better system of picture organization. Lost these on my computer and had to have Jeff download them for me, but look how much they have grown!

Frankly, I though this is what they looked like just about a week ago...

On top of the battery.



Ghosts in the Graveyard




It was a much prettier day that year....



Ft Worden: Replay

So this is the third time that I have taken the kids up to Port Townsend to run around the Kinzie Battery at Ft. Worden. They absolutely love it, which kinda tickles me because I remember running around similar places when I was growing up in Astoria. They are dark, dank, and terrifically scary. SUPER fun! This time they wised up and brought flashlights and the makings for a game of Capture the Flag. I don't know that a single flashlight was used and the game was so strung out that it was hard to follow, but they had a blast. So did the dog. In fact, I would hazard to guess that this is probably one of the best field trips I could hope to conjure up as far as they were all concerned. We were only there for 45 minutes due to an open drawbridge on the way up and then we had to be in Pt Angeles on a time schedule, but thankfully, Lydia and Ben wandered into a rather deep puddle, soaking shoes, socks and pant legs just before I called time. Sigh, I think I had just as much fun watching them!





Mac's impression of the Hunchback of Kinzie Battery




Floki's "I'm King of the World!" pose. It was COLD!!

 

The culprit for our delayed arrival due to the open bridge. (Psst! its a submarine...)





This reminds me of a U2 album cover. I just told them to line up, they created the poses...and no one was allowed to look at me (Mac's rule).




I love these two pictures



Notice the brown blur in the foreground. He was having SO MUCH FUN just being one of the kids!

Yes, blurry, but I just couldn't delete it. This was as we had just gotten out of the car and he wanted sooooo badly to run off with the kids.

Future Talk (it ain't a pretty one, folks)

(Disclaimer: This is my personal vent. It is MY blog and therefore I am taking full responsibility for my rantings. But please, if you are going to read even the first sentence, stick it out until the end of the entry. Thank you, and please be sure to look both ways before crossing the street.)



I am beginning to think that the future is an obnoxious thing.  We don't appreciate the here and now because we spend so much time worrying about it. We make plans for the future without knowing what it will be. We base our here and now on the possibility of what will be when noone can say what that is.  We live our lives entirely dependent on something that doesn't even exist yet and no one has any control over.

Does any of this make sense? Probably not, I am only 2 sips into my first glass of wine tonight and I have Scooby Doo blaring in my ear.  What I am trying to get at is my frustration in the concept of a medical diagnosis of a "life expectancy".  I get angry when I hear that someone with a life threatening illness suddenly gets tagged with a finite amount of time, as if,  up until the discovery of the tumor, cancer, heart condition, that person's life expectancy was infinite. What? Really? Dang, had I known that.....

Folks, we ALL have a life expectancy and it is limited to the breath we are breathing right this instant. No further. I think we take it for granted that we are going to wake up tomorrow, let alone be around next year for that Mexican vacation we are planning (still have to get those tickets scheduled, darn it). I got a job once, when the employer was vacillating about hiring me due to the fact that I might only be around (due to my transient lifestyle) for one year.  I told him, yes, that was true. But he could hire the next best person who could promise to be around until the world ended, and they could walk out the door after the first day on the job and get hit by a truck. One just never knows....

 Now, I hear a couple of you getting defensive. WHAT A HORRIBLE, PESSIMISTIC, WAY TO LIVE YOUR LIFE!  Yup, it would be if that was the end of my reasoning.  For the record, I have been known to store water and canned goods in case I lived through that hurricane or wind storm. I even bought a case of batteries from Costco in preparation for Y2K.  Which is to say, I have hope that I will live to wake up tomorrow AND take that Mexican vacation, for what is life without hope? I even always try and look both ways before crossing the street. And I think that is a perfectly happy way to live life. Live with the hope, heck why not even the expectancy, that you will be there for your 50th class reunion, but realize and keep in the back of your mind that, well, despite your best intentions, that truck might just come out of nowhere. All of this to say that the threat of impending death should not be the life changer that it always seems to be. It should be the constant that encourages us to live every day to the best of our ability, and that includes living it with hope.

For the record, the doctor bases that expectancy of 5 more years of life with your "condition" based on the fact that you will be living in a box, on a shelf, doing nothing but existing, taking your meds and eating your vegetables. Why do we need an amount of time attached to our diagnosis? Why can't they say "You have cancer. You are expected to live. . . until you die."  The rest of your life is just as up in the air as it was when you didn't have cancer, just now you have the cancer meds to juggle as well as your shopping list and finding that deal on that flight to Mexico.. Life is nothing without a good challenge to make it interesting. Sometimes interesting sucks. I will grant you that one, but it is never boring and it usually uncovers a whole bunch of blessings if you keep your eyes open.

Okay, here is where the disclaimer comes in. You know what makes me even crankier? The fact that a good majority of us NEED the finality of a "life expectancy" in order to truly appreciate what we have! Yes, I am including myself. I have been on the surviving side of several unexpected deaths and life threatening illnesses in the past four months, and each time has been an absolute, lung-deflating, heart-destroying, iron-fisted blow to my sense of well-being.  I have become too entrenched in the minutia of directing my family's every last move and thought that I have done very little to pay attention to my own. Is this how I want to live my life? So wrapped up in the direction and control of everyone else's that I have nothing to show of my own? I am so torqued over the fact that my husband doesn't call me when he leaves the office to come home, that I don't stop to appreciate the fact that he is COMING HOME!! When we learned last month that the husband of a family friend had died suddenly and unexpectedly, in his sleep no less, it hit me that THAT could have been MY husband! In fact, some day, it might be! And what will I have to remember of our last days together? That I spent precious time complaining that he left his underpants on the floor next to the hamper again? That I wasted breath whining to him about the fact that I'm too fat to deserve to have him to tell me I'm sexy? That I went to bed cranky at him for playing solitaire instead of reading a good book (that I assured him he would love!)? Yikes! Really?

Now while I can't say that I never grump or whine anymore since the passing of our friend, I can at least say that I am always sure to tell him that I love him whenever he leaves or whenever he crosses my mind (thank you text messaging) and definately before we go to sleep!  See? Blessings out of misery.

The same has happened with this latest familial diagnosis of brain cancer. Hey, guess what? She isn't going to live forever.

                                              Damn.

But you know what? We are still going to make sure that she is careful about looking both ways before she crosses the street, and we are going to be especially careful with our Americanos while driving, and we are going to make a bigger effort to appreciate the blessings that God grants us each and every day, until one or the other of us dies.

       

Now, who's up for Mexico?

This Blessed Life

Okay, so if you know me (which I am fairly sure that all three of you do) then you know that we had a drama-filled weekend with a family member being given a scary medical diagnosis. One's first reaction is to say "S**T!! Life sucks!" But let me tell you, as a result of that one horrible thing, I have been presented with so much to be thankful for! Here is just a sampling of how God works...

**Thursday night we got the call that our beloved family member is in distress and prayer is needed.
    God's Response - Jeff and I spent an hour talking to SOOOO many friends and family members who we know are believers in Christ and the power of prayer.  It is so comforting to know that we have such wonderful people in our lives and that even if they don't know each other, they will drop EVERYTHING at the simple request to pray for someone in need. Simply the gift of being able to share such an experience with them was totally fulfilling and despite the fear that we had been filled with at that phone call, both Jeff and I slept soundly and peacefully.

**Friday morning Jeff and I manage to get to all of the kids' conferences and then Jeff is off to lend support to his dad and R. I had to stay behind to herd children and celebrate a birthday and ended up alone in the house that night.
    God's Gift - We are blessed to live close enough to almost any of our family members that if they need us, we can be there within a day, if not a few hours, with very little fuss or planning required. It is a wonderful thing to be able to physically be there as well as spiritually. I also had the opportunity to spend time with Ben and see him open up during a "fancy" dinner out for his birthday. We had great conversations and I didn't have to eat anything that wasn't something I wouldn't have chosen for myself! Then I came home and snuggled into bed with a big brown fuzzy dog along one side of me, a gray cat tucked between my knees and a white one purring in my ear. God grants me support and warmth, and yes, I believe love, even when my husband isn't here!

** Friday night, R's daughter is starting to try and figure out how to get to Washington from the Atlantic Coast in a reasonable amount of time without going into major financial debt.
    God's Gift -  Family and Expedia.com. She was able to find an amazing ticket price for the very next day and some of the most loving babysitters had only just arrived that day, her in-laws!  She was able to focus on getting to her mom, knowing that her family was going to be lovingly taken care of in her absence. Can you imagine the relief?! According to her, there were several other signs that God's hand was in the pot but the one I can personally attest to is that I was able to pick her up at the airport on this end and spend the most enjoyable 3 hours with someone who I truly enjoy being with. Add to that the fact that I had just been whining that I was missing her since our last visit....wow!

** After driving to the airport then up to Port Angeles, I was informed that it was hoped that I would stay overnight. I hadn't exactly expected this turn of events and hadn't even packed a spare pair of undies, let alone made arrangements for the dog, two cats, and ducks to be left overnight.  Good GOD, do you know what two ravenous, toothless, house cats can do to a kitchen in one night??!!
   God's Gift - Unbelievable friends and neighbors.  After no more than two short phone calls and one text, I had one friend taking care of the ducks for as long as needed, my ex-husband heading over to take care of the dog and cats, and another friend who volunteered to check on everyone in the morning so that I could stay longer if needed. How is it that I am so deserving of such friends? Who volunteers to check the cat box??The weather was crappy, some of them didn't even live close by, and others were even allergic to half of the animals!!

** M and B had to serve at church on Sunday morning and then we were supposed to help out at the Harvest party at church.

  God's Gift  - Step moms. Their step mom, Nettie, took them to church AND stood up and made an announcement in our absence asking for prayer for our loved one.  She isn't even a member of our church!

All of this happened as a result of that darned tuu-maah. I dunno, R....I'm beginning to think it might have been a gift itself....I know that despite the fears, blessings have been accounted for at almost every turn. I only pray that we all are mindful enough during the hard times to notice them and feel His presence as He offers them to us.    

Happy All St. Harvoween!!

Okay, my attempt at an all inclusive title. The kids have become a bit confused thinking there are way more holidays involved here what with the celebration of All Saints Day, Harvest Festivals, and Halloween on the same weekend. Goodness knows that with the parties at school on Friday, Trick or Treat Lane on Friday night, Trunk or Treat and Harvest Festival at church on Sunday morning and then trick or treating in the neighborhood Sunday night, they had their plates full as it was! Below is my St. Harvoween picture montage...

 

yes, the slug again.....

A stick man!!

Friday morning, Lydia couldn't wear a costume, so she dressed "normal".

Some of our favorite Trick or Treaters!

                                Hope you had a Happy St. Harvoween for 2010!