Time Flies

Wow, were did the last couple weeks go?

We finally have all of our summer events wrapped up for scouts. The district had about 30 scouts from 6 packs at the Regatta parade this year. That's up from about 10 from 2 packs last year. W was the only one returning from our pack last year and we managed to get 7 or our 9 boys there.

School starts in 8 days for W and I think H will start the following Monday. I'm really hoping that watching his big brother get on the bus for a week will convince him he can ride the bus to and from school himself. I'm just so happy that the boys will have some apart time and be back on a schedule.

D got a promotion/raise at work. They are creating a position for him. Hey, in this economy, that's a big warm fuzzy feeling. They have had a lot of trouble with their ice machine and I don't think they keep up on other maintenance like they'd like to. So, he will be the maintenance/driver person. He figures he will keep a couple days with the out of town routes and the balance of time he will keep the refrigeration system going and make sure all of the trucks get their scheduled maintenance. They are still working out the details, but it looks like no more Saturdays and he will be guaranteed 40hr/week. Yeah!!

I spent about a week up to my pits in peaches. W has found that he really likes a little toast with his jam. So, we have been out of jam for a few months. I don't know what that stuff in the store really is, but I'm certain it's not jam. So we now have a bunch of peach jam and some canned peaches. I was just finishing up on my peaches and D called from work to see if I wanted him to bring home a Chinook salmon. Well, how do you say no to fish. I guess a coworker caught one and liked some smoked salmon D had taken in to share. So, he asked if we would smoke it for him in exchange for half of it. So, about 22lbs of fish later, I'm getting a break...while a wait for a box of pears to ripen for canning... Anyway, this guy asked if we would smoke the spine of the fish as well. We had never heard or thought of doing that. Evidently he pulls the meat off (very easy once it's smoked) and makes it into salmon cakes. I am guessing he will get close to 1lb of meat from the spine. Great idea.

So, can you believe it's fundraising time again? We are already ramping up for popcorn with scouts (look for the shameless pitch to pop up on my blog and in my emails soon...) I'm sure the school will start with wrapping paper soon. Then I will have to send W around to beg for canned food for scouts in a few short months. We'll probably just finish up with that and the school will start with discount cards followed by scouts doing the goodwill donations...then more candy sales with scouts. We all just need to learn to poo money.

Like all good things, my little break from reality to vent must come to an end. Maybe I will make it back here next Thursday for a post.

The sound of silence

Ahhhh, it's sooo much quieter here today.

Yesterday we hauled W up the river and sent him off with his cousin, her two boys and her parents for about a week. We had lunch at Chuck E Cheese, so the kids all had a good time. H was surprisingly quiet after I strapped him into his car seat. He was even quiet as he watched his brother suitcase, fishing pole, life jacket and BB gun being transferred from one rig to the other. He got pretty upset as the other car pulled away though. I decided to just sit and let them get a good head start so he wouldn't see what direction they went. It seemed to work. He said he wanted to go get W and I said maybe we could look in the car wash for him. He thought that sounded alright. So, I used one of my free car wash coupons. Then H started to get upset that W hadn't been found yet, so I said maybe he was over the bridge. Of course he wasn't. I was surprised that he remained so adamant that we go the other way, but he never actually broke out into the air raid siren that I expected to listen to all the way home.

After dinner last night H was able to talk to W on the phone. He had a big grin on his face for awhile after that. We found out that yes, W was no longer being pounded on by his little brother...but instead he was being pounded on by his cousin's little boy who's about a year or so younger than H. But the best part of the deal for us...we don't have to listen to W squealing like a little girl every time he gets pinched or thumped on for the next few days!!

Today has gone pretty good. H has asked for W quite a bit, but he seems to be tolerating the amputation of the big brother quite well at this point.

So, W has big plans for his vacation. He should be fishing as well as going to an amusement park. And of course the birds in the back yard need to watch out since he took his BB gun. My rules are whatever he shoots, he cleans, cooks and eats. I'm not sure if his D's sister will carry through on that threat though. I'm sure there will be a ton of TV watching and video games mixed in as well.

So, we made it though the fair last week. It just seems so small. Anyway, we spent money on wrist bands for both boys. We knew we would come out ahead on W, but we weren't sure on H. It was close. He is just at that magical height when he wants to go on everything, can only go on about 4 rides and refuses to go by himself. So, of those 4 rides there are only 2 that W wasn't too big to go on (or was it too embarrassed??). Anyway, we made W go on the hot air balloon ride with H a few times between the bigger rides. Well, after about the 3rd time, he got off and said he felt sick. So D told him to go over to the grass to hurl. It was hilarious. He ran over, put his hands on his knees and let go. H was so impressed with this new form of entertainment that he ran over, put his hands on his knees and added sound effects. W was not impressed...Anyway, I was thinking we could be done with the rides at that point, but that was not the case. W hopped right back on some of the big rides. Then he ended up on one with 3 high school kids. They got the car they were in to spinning pretty fast before the ride even started. By the time the ride was starting to slow down they realized the error of their ways. They all started pointing at W and trying to get the operator to stop the ride faster. W actually held it together until he got off the ride and headed for the grass again...and then on to the next ride. Honestly, I think what he ate had more to do with it than the rides themselves. Right before we hit the rides he had a soda, burger and what we call "The Borg Fries", those cubes of curly fries that look like a Borg spaceship. He didn't even finish his fries because they were floating in a pool of grease. It was so gross. Anyway, I told my niece about that when she said she may take him to an amusement park. Then I thought "hmm, maybe I should have just let him surprise her".

So, D is working about 50 hours a week now. He's even working on Thursday and getting Saturday off. Sooo cool. But we still haven't gone camping. Last weekend was the fair. This weekend W is gone. Next weekend we have scouts in a parade. And probably the following weekend he will have Thursday off and be working Saturday. Anyway, he's getting a full week and overtime...and he has a job...so we really can't complain too much, can we?

Anyway, now I need to go start fixing something for dinner. With W gone, I had to come up with a dinner idea on my own. Friday is usually his night to choose dinner. At least we let him think he's choosing. He almost always chooses the same thing and then I give a couple options for parts of the meal.

Hope everyone has a good week...and send those E.S.P. updates to blogland....