Look out for a flurry of posts to follow… we’ve had a busy summer already!

The kids started off the summer with a week of baseball camp.  Thankfully, Brandon really enjoyed that first week of camp.   Brandon’s not nearly as thrilled with baseball this week, but he’ll live.

The following week, the only camp available was a basketball camp for kids ages 7+.  Brandon got to go to work with Bill every day for a week!  Christian loved basketball, and when Bill went to watch he described Christian as the next Gary Payton.

That week was incredibly hectic as we tried to wrap things up for our Hawaii trip.  We fit in a few fireworks on the 3rd, packed, and at the last minute realized we didn’t have Alyson’s birth certificate.  Thankfully no one asked us for one, but we’ll be ordering multiple copies shortly.

Lots of Hawaii posts to follow, as well as pictures from camps!

So I didn’t post about week 3 of soccer. There’s a reason for that. Alyson went for pictures and presumably did well there, although there were only 4 kids from her team in the team picture. Then she went to her game. Except it was 80 degrees at 10 in the morning and she was not a happy little girl. She was hot, she was whiny, she really wanted to play on the playground, and she absolutely positively did not want to play soccer. She screamed for 40 minutes. Needless to say, I have no pictures to share with you.Brandon had another great game, but I wasn’t there. I was at home with grumpy child.

Saturday evening we had a blast at the Mariners vs Padres game at Safeco Field. Most of Christian’s team and their families went, so we had a great big section in the nose-bleed seats (should’ve trained for weeks for all of the stairs to climb – especially up and down and up and down with Alyson to go potty). It was a Little League day, so the boys wore their uniforms and got to parade around the field before the game. It was a really hot evening (and expensive – one kid gets ice cream and suddenly they ALL want some $5 ice cream), but it was great fun. The boys were all riled up and really enjoyed the game. At the end, they were all standing together, waving their shirts in the air, cheering for the Mariners. What fun!

Sunday, Brandon wasn’t feeling great, and said he had a headache. In hindsight, he had a fever, but with the warm weather I didn’t realize it. At church, we ended the Sunday School year, and Christian was presented with a new bible (a third grade tradition). Christian had a baseball game in the afternoon, which Bill blogged. Monday, Brandon was quite obviously not well, with a fever of 102.5. He slept most of the day. Tuesday, he wasn’t any better, and I got hit with a chest cold. Wednesday, when he still wasn’t better, Bill got him to the doctor to find out he has strep throat. Poor kid… if he’d ever mentioned his throat hurt, we would have had him in sooner! We’ve both taken it easy the rest of this week.Today, Bill and the boys took the van in to have the tires replaced. We even had a rebate for the tires. Turns out we won’t need it. The van was all ready to go, tires replaced, when they managed to break our van. At first they said it was the brake line. Fluid was leaking all over. The manager got Bill and the poor starving boys hooked up with a rental car. Turns out, it’s not the brake line, it’s a line for the rear heating system, and they don’t have the parts for it. So we’re without our van for potentially a WEEK! What are we driving instead? A pretty 2008 silver Toyota Highlander.

Our four new tires? Free.

Our van to be fixed as good as new? Free.

Shiny new Highlander to drive for a week? Free.

And an extremely apologetic manager AND corporate staff to go with all of that free stuff.I think Discount Tire would like to keep our business. I’ll try to get some pics up later. Let’s hope for a quieter week next week!

Christmas was a wonderful, lengthy event for us again this year.  It started with our church’s Christmas program.  Christian had an important split-role this year.  He was one of the cousins as well as one of the shepherds.  He had a lot more lines and movement to memorize this year, and he did great!  Brandon did great as a shepherd this year as well.  He’s the BEST at speaking loudly into the microphone.  Alyson chose not to say any lines this year (neither did her buddy Madeline), but she was a beautiful angel.

Next we had Christmas dinner (a few days early) with Bill’s side of the family.  The kids’ gifts from Grandma were the biggest hits.  The boys each got a Rip-Stick (this is a crazy skateboard-like contraption that only has two wheels and probably says Age 10 and Up on the box, definitely requiring pads and helmets).  I like this picture because this is the only way I’d ever be able to balance on the thing 🙂  Christian’s starting to get the hang of his now.

Grandma found Alyson this fantastic Dora jacket – she LOVES it.

Next in our Christmas tradition was Bake Day.  We always enjoy the opportunity to spend more time with our Arlington family, and it’s a great warm-up to Christmas Eve.  Alyson was a great sprinkler this year.  She jumped up, ran over, and sprinkled cookies with great enthusiasm every time a pan was ready to sprinkle.  The boys helped make peanut-butter balls (and by the end, Alyson had them making squares and pyramids instead of the boring balls).  Here are the silly kids taking a break from all of the cookie-making.

Christmas Eve was next, where the kids were surprised with a fooz ball, pool, air hockey, table tennis, etc etc etc table that they have been playing nearly nonstop since we got it home!  Alyson also got a really cute white soft fuzzy bear that lights up.  It’s been a great nightlight for her.  We made it to the 11pm candlelight service at church, and all three kids managed to stay awake.  This is the first year Brandon was awake to hold a candle, and I think he enjoyed it.

Bill and I were up L-A-T-E getting the last Christmas morning surprises ready to go.  We now have a band in our house!  Here is the drummer:

And the guitarist and vocalist:

And here is the tired princess after a busy few days of Christmas.

We really enjoyed having Mom join us for Christmas this year.  I think my favorite gift was my most surprising.  Brandon chose to buy me the Mac game Lego Star Wars 🙂   I’m sure I missed some important highlights – feel free to comment on anything I missed.  It was such a nice Christmas.  I’m actually sad it’s over, but I’m very busy getting ready for another tax season.

Happy New Year to all!

 First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful husband!!  I can’t believe we just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary.  I’m not sure where those 10 years went, or how it’s possible that Christian is 8 and a “tween”.

Ok, here’s the update you’ve been waiting 24 days for…

CHRISTIAN – Christian is having a great school year so far.  He doesn’t really have close friends in his class, but it seems like a great mix of kids (28 kids in his class!).  I saw his teacher last night and she said that if I hadn’t told her about his ADHD before school started she wouldn’t have known he had it!  Although did I mention she’s in charge of 28 3rd graders?  He’s feeling good about how he’s doing and it’s wonderful!  She assigns light homework, too, which helps a lot.  Christian’s happy to be in Chess again, and was excited to be categorized as ‘Advanced’ 🙂  The soccer season is off to a good start.  I think they’re 1-1 so far, and they play on the BIG soccer fields this year.

BRANDON – Brandon is loving Kindergarten.  He loves library and PE and music and lunch and recess.  Christian took him to go buy Breakfast one morning and he thought that was really cool too.  It’s been fun to see him open up this year.  He’s been making friends and just really seems to enjoy himself.  He started chess last week also, and seemed to enjoy it.  I think Christian liked going over to sign him out of his classroom and take him to chess.  The biggest surprise to me is just how much Brandon is loving soccer!  This is the kid that has NEVER shown an interest in team sports, aside from the trophies at the end.  He’s having a BLAST!  Now I just can’t wait until they publish a game schedule for him so I can get it circulated!

ALYSON – Alyson is thrilled to be starting her music classes again next week.  She’s set that Daddy’s going to take her, and that’s just that.  She’s potty training herself… at least once a day I hear “Don’t need PullUps any more!”.  Of course, she does, but she does make it several hours without an accident now.  She’s been very whiny and demanding lately… I hope that phase passes quickly.  She’s still having fun at daycare twice a week (once this week, she was sick on Tuesday).  She’s having an easier time letting me leave.  She can almost write her name, which is really cool 🙂  Swimming has been… ummm… a challenge for her since she moved up to the preschool class.  For the first 2 weeks, she did absolutely nothing but sit on the step and whimper Mommy occasionally.  Now, she’s opened up and spends her time splashing her class and hitting her teacher on the head with her noodle.  Still not doing what he asks them to do.  I’m not sure which is worse.  I’m really on the fence about whether to sign her up for next session.  She’s enjoying it, but now that she’s getting disruptive I’m not sure.

ME – Busy, busy, as usual.  It’s funny… last month I was lamenting that the phone wasn’t ringing.   I should know better.  August is supposed to be a slow month.  Now I’m swamped with… let’s see…

• a new client who is has no bookkeeping records for 2006 and needs to file a tax return by 10/15
• incorporating my business effective 1/1/08, and all the paperwork that brings
• more tax returns on extension
• bookkeeping clients that have to file 3rd quarter returns next month
• getting clients moved over to new remote access and paperless systems (so I can delegate work more easily to staff!)
• marketing, marketing, marketing
  • I joined the Chamber of Commerce and have been meeting lots of business owners
  • I licensed a QuickBooks seminar program and will be giving 2 seminars a month for a while – the work to get this set up was enormous, finding vendors and establishing a location, printing workbooks, setting up the invitation mailings… the list goes on and on
  • I’ll have an ad in the Lynnwood Business Directory that will go out to 11,000+ households January 8.
  • I considered signing up for a Welcome to the Neighborhood program that markets to new homeowners, but it was more expensive than I’m ready to commit.
  • And keeping my eyes and ears open for other opportunities

  Oh yeah, and I’m co-team-mom for Brandon’s soccer team.

BILL – Bill had the opportunity to record a demo for a voice actress recently.  It was a very interesting project, and she was a really cool person.  His web hosting business is growing, too.  I’m not sure how he manages to do the church podcast every week, special DVDs for the special events at church (baptisms, etc), his web hosting work, helping with soccer practice, AND everything else!

Whew!  I’ll try to get some pictures added later, but no guarantees 🙂

Boy was I ever wrong when I was worried we’d be bored this summer! We’ve been running around like crazy people all summer long!

Just for posterity’s sake (and so everyone reading knows why we have such a hard time keeping in touch), here is our week…

Saturday

10:15 – 11:15, Shoreline, Brandon’s reading class

12:30 – 2:45, Lynnwood, Christian has Youth Hockey Day

3:00, Mill Creek, Brandon needs to be dropped off for his special Kindergarten overnighter with Uncle Andrew.

Somewhere in here Brandon needs a haircut, and Christian needs to buy a birthday gift.

Sunday

10 – 11, Church! Hopefully Brandon will be dropped off just before the service

1:30 – 3:30, Ice skating (note here that now all three kids are hooked on skating – thankfully Christian and I have our own skates now, so that’s two rentals we don’t need to pay for anymore)

5:00, Dropping off Christian for an overnight birthday party

7:00 – 9:00, Choir concert at Trinity

Monday

10, need to pick up Christian

3:00 – 3:25, Christian’s swimming lesson

4:00 – 5:00, Christian’s soccer practice

4:00 – 4:25, Brandon and Alyson’s swimming lessons

Tuesday

8:00, Drop off kids at daycare (the boys will go to a movie in the morning, and a park in the afternoon)
9:00 – 9:30, hopefully brief stop at client’s in Redmond

Hopefully will finish painting kids’ room!

3:30, Pick kids up from daycare

4:30 – 6:00, Kenmore, work for a client

Wednesday

3:00 – 3:25, Christian’s swimming lesson

4:00 – 5:00, Christian’s soccer practice

4:00 – 4:25, Brandon and Alyson’s swimming lessons

Thursday

10:00 – 11:00, Brandon to speech therapy

3:15 – 5:15, Shoreline, Christian’s reading class

Friday

8:00, Kids to daycare (no movie today, just the park)

9:00 – 1:00, Redmond bookkeeping

2:00 – 3:00, Bothell bookkeeping

3:30, pick up kids

Whew, what a week! And guess what? The following week looks much the same. Add in Kindergarten Orientation and drop the Kenmore bookkeeping, and that’s what the last week of August looks like. Oh, and add in the Fair somewhere in there too. Thankfully, when school starts, swimming will be over, and so will the twice a week trips to Shoreline for the kids’ reading classes.

Personally, here’s how I spent the summer… I got a lot done on the kids’ room this summer.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post ‘completion’ pictures in the next month.  Unfortunately I don’t think I have any ‘before’ pictures of just what an enormous job it has been.  Bill and I also have been enjoying Netflix.  We rented all of seasons 1 and 2 of Veronica Mars, and I’m SO upset that it was cancelled.  Now we’ve moved on to renting Alias.  The downside is that we end up staying up really late to watch ‘just one more episode’, but it’s been fun 🙂  I hired a bookkeeper to take on any new clients, which I’m really excited about.  Surprisingly, I haven’t been reading much or scrapbooking at all.  I hope to return to those hobbies at some point… maybe when the kids are in school all day.

We almost didn’t get to go on the annual family vacation to Fort Flagler this year. Well, it’s not annual for us. I haven’t been since Christian was 1. That would be 7 years ago, for those counting. We made it, though!

Saturday, Bill had a sprained ankle, but he took Brandon to reading class anyway, and Alyson and I went to my Thrivent chapter meeting, and when we all converged back at home we decided we should go. By the time we threw the bikes and a ton of snacks and water bottles and blankets and sweaters and, well, you get the idea, it was 1:00. The next ferry from Edmonds was 1:30 and we knew we were cutting it close, but we were hopeful. Unfortunately, we had to wait for the 2:30 ferry, which left a grumpy Brandon, who had never been on a ferry, in the backseat asking continually why we couldn’t go, and could we just go home!

2:30 arrived, though, and we were on the ferry and ready to go. Brandon conceded that maybe it was worth the wait. We picked up a lunch of popcorn and nachos on the ferry and enjoyed the beautiful weather! We couldn’t have picked a better day for this trip. It’s a short ferry ride, and 30 minutes later we were in Kingston and on our way again. The drive was an unremarkable hour, exactly as Google Maps had said it would be.

We arrived around 4, got a restroom stop out of the way, said hi to all of the family, unloaded the bikes, and immediately went for a walk down to the beach. Alyson wasn’t too sure of the waves coming in on the rocky side of the beach. We watched Keina’s puppy Dakota run into the water just to get surprised back out by a wave nearly crashing over her. I think Alyson was as surprised as Dakota, and both of them decided they loved the water on the muddy side of the beach. The boys enjoyed the water too. Christian perfected skipping rocks, and Brandon got soaked!

The kids had some fun at the playground too. Alyson built a volcano (although it looks pretty flat in the picture).

Christian and Bill tried to get his kite to fly (it needed bigger sails and/or more wind).

We had a wonderful dinner cooked by the kids (not MY kids… the big kids), and went down to the docks to see if Josh and Trek caught any crab.

Alyson loved this part of the adventure. She loved sitting at the side of the dock, watching a too-small crab float back down into the depths, while waving and saying “Bye crab!”.

The boys liked helping pull the rope up, and Christian even picked up a crab or two.

They even liked it when they were told the rule. Can’t pull the crab pots up again until you go run up and back down that MASSIVE hill over there! They took it on with gusto, including Danielle’s boyfriend Curtis who was fantastic with the boys. Brandon was proud he always came in second behind Christian and that Curtis was last LOL.

No trip to Flagler would be complete without a walk through the bunker. We were watching our watches and the ferry schedule pretty closely by this time. We did NOT want to get stuck on the last ferry of the night and chance missing that one as well.

We went through the bunkers, and although the camera took bright pictures of the inside, it was pitch black to our eyes… Angie probably remembers it well! (Alyson found the LOUD banging by the older kids really scary but enjoyed exploring anyway. The boys LOVED all of it.) and we headed home in time to catch the 11:20 ferry home!

On the ferry, Brandon fell asleep on the floor of the van. It wasn’t fun to try to move him, but it had to be done. Alyson had fallen asleep shortly after leaving Flagler, but woke a little on the ferry and was upset to be stuck in her carseat. They all did great, though, and had a wonderful day!