Guest conducting

In the fall Stuart got a call from an old colleague asking if he wanted to come back up to Curlew and be the guest conductor for the Panoramic Music Festival that he took kids to when he worked up there.

He has been so excited all year!  The kids and I were excited as well because any chance we get to visit the Haddenhams is exciting!

We got there Thursday afternoon and it was raining...HARD!  In a typically city rain is an inconvenience.
In Ferry County it can be a tad.....muddy and debilitating.  

When we headed up the dirt road to Holly and AJ's we realized how bad it was when the road we were driving on was missing HUGE portions of the actual road.  Then, thankfully we have Ruby who is 4-wheel drive because their driveway was washed out....I should have taken pictures!

Friday morning Holly, Phillip, Maija and I drove Stuart into the school and then headed into town for a little grocery shopping.  We tried to go back at one point, but the grater was on the driveway fixing it so that we could get back to the house so we left for a little while again.  

It was still incredibly muddy when we left for the concert Friday night, but at least it was driveable!

When we got to the school this is what I saw.....  

 Man he looks good in a penguin suit!!

The choir wasn't terribly large, but it is a small schools festival and they sounded AWESOME!

This is a picture standing at their house looking out at one of the pastures.

the sheep!

 Holly and AJ live on 40 some odd acres and have 12 horses (one of which is a miniature pony), 8 dogs, 2 cats, 4 guiney pigs, a ton of sheep and 1 bottle fed lamb who has to be the cutest thing I've ever seen!

Phillip thinks Holly is his, and his only.  Holly too thinks Phillip belongs to her.  So when he asked if he could ride Duece Holly got out the riding gear.

 And here we have a VERY happy Phillip!

 Samuel and Duece looking good!

 KatieJo thought this was the greatest thing ever especially since she wants riding lessons for her birthday.

 And I'm pretty sure Maija had her dreams come true being on that horse.  She LOVES loves LOVES anything to do with horses!

 After doing chores at Cathy's we came back and played games....like Quelf.  Love Quelf, and LOVE playing it with Holly, Cathy, AJ and Stuart.  HILARIOUS!  If you're wondering that is wrapping paper around Cathy and Holly does have a box under her shirt.  You really have to play the game!

 Then there were some Jedi fights.  As it turns out AJ really does know how to fence.  Samuel....not so much. 

 And we got to eat homemade ice cream in homemade waffle cones.  Holly even made me sugar free cones with sugar free ice cream!

 And last but not least we got to ride the Ferry TWICE.  Maija was convinced there were sharks in the Columbia River.  And Phillip wanted to go swimming.  The rest of us just wanted to get back into the car because the wind was cold!!!

Chickens everywhere!

A friend of mine recently popped my bubble about how chickens who lay the eggs you buy in the store are treated.  Since then I've wanted to get our own chickens.  Well, we went to the Farmers Exchange on Saturday and found some cute chicks.  We went looking for tomatillo plants and ended up bringing home 8 chicks.  

For the record, I will NEVER eat one of these chickens.  We (not the collective me & Stuart we....just the me we) only want them for eggs and as pets.  

The only way one of them will become dinner is if it's a rooster.  We can't have roosters in town...not that we really want one.  

They're cute little things and I love the sound of chirping inside.  It makes me feel like it's spring for real outside!!

We bought 4 Leghorns (think Foghorn Leghorn from Looney Toons...they'll look like that), 2 Rhode Island Reds that lay brown eggs and 2 Ameraucanas that they call Easter egg layers because they lay different colors like...blue.  

It may not be terribly cost effective as far as eggs go.  However, they are a fun project for the kids and are a fairly easy pet.  

 This one is Terri....as in Terrell Davis the football player...can you see why?

March madness

Mary's  I mean March update.

Mary....this is really for you.  This time my blog has been updated...LOL!

March...really?  Wasn't it just December?

Samuel finished basketball season a week ago and started spring soccer this last week. 

 WHEW...I feel like a chicken with my head cut off some days!

We are also starting science fair projects.  KatieJo is doing how different sodas, juice and water affect the shell of a chicken egg.  And Samuel is doing which bag (biodegradable bags, plastic & paper) & leaves biodegrade in soil the fastest.  I like science projects.  I despise ones we have to document EVERYTHING.  And take pictures of EVERYTHING!  Oh well.  It's always fun to see them learn something.  

Stuart is coaching middle school track this spring.  Thankfully the season is just 6 weeks!

KatieJo had her eye check this last week to see how therapy is working.  She's doing great in therapy, however in the last 6 weeks her eyes have gone from a -1.25 to a -2.  That's a huge difference for 6 weeks!  Apparently getting older and closer to puberty can do that to a person's eyes.  She and I had a chat.  I thought we had an understanding that she wouldn't get any older etc.  But she insists on aging....some people's children!  She's excited though because with the new prescription she got to pick out new glasses.  This time the frames are red....I happen to think they're cute.  But then again I'm partial to both KatieJo and to red.

Phillip also had his eye exam this last week.  He's been going about every 3 months.  At first it was because he was blinking ALL the time.  Like turrets blinking.  So she put him in glasses.  Which helped, but not enough so she upped his prescription.  And now he's getting bifocals because although he isn't blinking like crazy anymore he's not using his focusing system correctly which means he isn't very good at sorting, counting out groups of items, playing memory etc.  It's not that he can't count or sort it's that his eyes don't want to focus on it and so it's hard for him to do.  So, bifocals it is.  Once he gets them we get to use 3M tape or post its when he is doing close up work to remind him to use the bifocal lens.  

As for me and Maija...well we've "joined" a group of moms who get together every morning for an hour at someone's house (we rotate) and help clean or purge or do whatever project needs to be done.  It's amazing what 5 women can get done in an hour that would take one person FOREVER!  

So far we've gone through my kids toys and got rid of 3/4ths of them, cleaned another kids room, 

de-cluttered a back porch, organized and purged a linen closet, cleaned floors, organized a pantry, hung shelves, and cleaned up a back yard.  

It's so much more fun to do these projects with others!  I don't necessarily need the group to get my projects done, but some of the others do and hey....I'm a social person so it makes my day go by super fast.