Civilian life is so good!!!

I am officially in love with our civilian life! Matt came home the other day and said that Weyerhaeuser did very well this last year as did his section, so they decided to pay out 100% Which meant a large bonus for us!! When he was shown the amount he told his boss that couldn't be accurate because it would need to be pro rated since he had only been there for six months. His boss mentioned something about how they had "forgetten about that" and walked away. On top of that he was given a significant pay raise also! So in six months he has recieved two bonuses, and a pay raise! Amazing!!
The company also sent him to an IT conference in San Francisco for a week where he was dined by potential and existing vendors. He then came home with an I-pod shuffle for me and a Portable Playstation for the kids, courtesy of said vendors.......nice......
My cousin asked if all of this made me wish we had gotten out of the military sooner. I recognize the Lord's hand in this and know that it was the perfect time, place, etc... Matt had to be in the military all those years so that he could recieve the knowledge and training that it provided him, the oppurtunity to have the learning experiences he did and so much more...
I am ever thankful and appreciative of the blessings we have recieved. With this gratitude I have also felt an extreme desire to prove a good steward over the things we have been given. the children, house, finances, etc..... I do realize that as quickly as it is given, it can be taken away.
So thanks to the military for all it provided for us and for making the decision in it's wisdom to cut us loose, it is truly one of the best things that has happened to us.

White River Valley Museum

We went with some friends to see this museum in Auburn. It is a small museum but very well done. It explains how the area was founded and the different groups of people and events that settled in the area and made it what it is. They had a log cabin that you could walk through which was nice because we just finished reading "Sign Of The Beaver" where a young boy lives in a cabin waiting for his family. This gave the children the chance to make the coralation between the house they saw and the cabin in the story. Michael says it is no wonder they got cold from the weather coming in through the cracks, the cracks between the logs were large.

They also had rooms that were done up to resemble a local hotel, a general store and a hat store. And we can't forget about the life sized cabose that showed how the engineers lived.

The caboose was a favorite as was a horse ride. One that you drop a coin into and it jumps around for a minute or so. However, this was no ordinary ride, this horse really jarred you! The lady showing us around liked to explain that it could knock a filling out. I guesse it was the actual horse that sat in front of one of the local stores and people who visit the museum often remember having riden it as a child.

Hmmmm.

Our Lds friends who know us well, will definetly appreciate this. We got a call from the second counselor asking us to speak in church. We knew it was coming, we have been in this ward for about three months.
So after Matt gets off the phone he has a strange look in his eyes and asks if I want to know the topic. He says "you're speaking on teaching children to worship". I laugh out loud. What??? You have got to be kidding me! I am one of the last people who is capable of talking on this specific topic! So, maybe it's I need the info more than that the ward needs to hear me.
Then he asks if I want to know what he is talking on. Wait, we have different topics? That is highly rare. It gets better. His topic is on resisting temptation..
The interesting thing is that the members in this ward really don't know us all that well and have no idea what we have been through. I told him it was a good thing he was the one on the phone as I would have laughed out loud!!!!
hmmmm, inspired or just really out of touch? Probably the former I am thinking. Anyhow, it should be an interesting sacrament if anyone cares to visit, Roecker's? Hughes?

*heart attacks*

Last halloween we were "boo'd" (check Oct. blogs) So, for our Family Home Evening we discussed service and how it should be given with an open heart and not with the expectation of a reward. To go with the theme we gave "Heart Attacks" to a family in the ward, our neighbor, and a family from our homeschooling group. Way too much fun! The kids love ringing the doorbell as fast as possible and then making a get away without being seen.
We are not sure if the one that went to the neighbor will be passed, we sort of live in what I call an "isolation" community. We think the homeschooling one got passed and we know that the ward one is going around because it has come back to us! We didn't get our heart in the window fast enough :) It was a thrill for the children to also be on the recieving end however.
So here's wishing you all a great Valentine's day and a "Heart attack" of your own.

Just for laughs

*The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby Englishwill be the official language of the European Union rather than German,which was the other possibility.As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that Englishspelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-inplan that would become known as "Euro-English".In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will makethe sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of"k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letterThere will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when thetroublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words likefotograf 20% shorter. **In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted toreach the stage where! more komplikated changes are possible.Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have alwaysben a deterent to akurate speling.* *Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag isdisgrasful and it should go away.By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such asreplasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".* *During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords **kontaining"ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tuunderstand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in zeforst plas.If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.*

Out we go!!!

We have made friends with a family from one of the Homeschool groups we belong to and this weekend decided that we had been cooped up enough so out we went!
Saturday we went to Pacific Science Center. That membership we got for Christmas is really proving useful!! They were having a mini train theme and the place was packed with miniature trains and even a small working train the kids could ride on. Of course we made the guys go with the younger ones, but they couldn't quite fit. Such a sight seeing Matt ride around in a coal car with his bottom in the car and his legs hanging out the front!
We then went back to their house for a night of conversation and Pizza.
Matt is starting to take guitar lessons from Eric on Saturday mornings, he sure does love it. The two of them are crazy walking around the house strumming and singing at the top of their lungs, wouldn't have it any other way.
Monday we were off to Northwest Trek which is a wildlife preserve. Athena has a membership and kids were free so we all got in for free, gotta love that!!! It was a huge nature preserve with a ton of land. They take you out on a tram into a natural habitat and we saw lots of Bison, Long horned mountain goats, black tailed dear, and tons of other animals.
While on the tram I once again thought of how lucky we are to be here in the Pacific Northwest where we have these kinds of learning activities so close to us.
We saw Bears and Owls, Eagles, Fox, Beavers (which are a lot larger than I had thought) cougars, linx, and a lot of other animals.
It was also fun becuase they had this game for the children called Predator and Prey. Each child was given an animal and a piece of paper with four blocks each for water, food, shelter, and space. They were to find markers throughout the park labeled with these items and then use the marker to cross out one of thier boxes. If they filled in all the boxes they survived and won the game. However the catch is that all the park workers and volunteers were predators and if you came across one and they were hungry they could eat you!! My poor pigmy rabbit (Isaac) got the brunt of it, but luckily you were given four lives so he still got his prize. The kids had such a blast.

Freaky weather

When we moved to the Seattle area Matt and I were talking about the chances of snow. I told him that it never snows enough to stick around here. Oh, how wrong was I.
First we had a snowfall that stuck for two days in Nov., then the windstorm that knocked out power to a great percentage of people on the west side of the state,

Then last week it snowed two nights in a row and the roads are still nasty! But, low and behold last night it snowed again!!!

I am not one to be detered by a little bad weather so I have been driving in it. but after getting the van stuck on three hills and Matt spinning it on a street, I am ready to hibernate!!!

One of Seri's first questions while I was driving on the still snow and ice-covered roads was, "Where are the salt trucks"? Good question, so when we got home we asked Dad, who looked at me and said "It doesn't snow around here remember"?

My baby girl....

Vik Muniz

I took the children to the Seattle Asian Art Museum to see works from the featured artist, Vik Muniz. Such an incredibly talented man!!! He makes art out of any kind of medium that strikes his fancy. Chocalet, spaghetti, dust, dirt, caviar, diamonds, string, twine, sugar, things from the vacuum cleaner bag.....you get the feeling that no material is beyond this man's imagination. Truly shows that art can be made from anything.
There is a pic of a collection entitled "mounds" which is just that, mounds of stuff.
Also one of a horse made out of army men, and our favorite Mona Lisa doubled, one made of Peanut butter, the other of Jelly!! We took home a poster of this one.
I am sorry the pictures lately have all been coming out less than stellar. They do not offer high speed internet in our area yet and so we are stuck with dial up which is not loading the picturtes as nicely as I would like it to.

Priceless

One large balloon, three small balloons- free from the craft box
Three bottles of Starch- $6.00
Endless amounts of packing paper- free thanks to government movers
Red Napkins- $2.00
White napkins- $1.00
Yellow crepe paper- $1.00
Time spent fringing red napkins- Two movies ("Step up"

and "Rent").

Time spent applying napkins- Lost count at about three hours

Time spent discussing technique and placement- about an hour maybe more depending on who you ask.

Look on 4 yr. olds face when he sees the homemade Elmo Pinate........

Priceless.

He's 4!!!

Well, my baby turned 4. Hard to believe, but it just keeps happening no matter how hard I try to stop them from getting older :( He requested an Elmo birthday so that is what he got.
Matt made him a homemade Pinate of Elmo. We listened to Elmo Cd's, made Elmo cupcakes by cooking strawberry cake mix (with a lot of red food coloring) in the Pampered chef Prep bowls and sticking on eyes and noses with frosting, decorated foam goldfishes with pom pom balls and glitter pens, made our own pizzas out of english muffins, and colored in a lot of Elmo coloring books. Well, at least those were the activities I had planned, the kids participated as requested but were really anxious to just go and play. Oh yeah, I found this bulk food place that had candy legos that you could really build stuff with, the kids really liked that one.
We also palyed the "Guesse who I am" game. Names of Sesame street characters were taped on the guests back and they had to ask yes or no questions to get hints to help them guesse who they were. The adults had a blast with this one! The hardest one I think was Grungella, did you know that Oscar the grouch had a girlfriend? I was prarie Dawn, that one took me awhile :)
As I looked around at all the guests it dawned on me that we really have a lot of circles of friends. My family was there, a friend I have known since highschool, a friend from our old apartment complex, and a friend from one of our homeschool support groups. Interesting. I didn't think about it until they showed up and we were doing introductions and realized that none of them knew eachother.
The party was great, everyone had a good time and the proof was in the pudding when my baby came to me, gave me a hug, said "That was the bestest ever, can I have another Elmo party tomorrow?".

zoo lights

Each christmas season Point Defiance Zoo decorates with a lot of light displays depicting animals and visitors come in the evening after the live animals are put away for the night and view the "Light animals". Well I guesse we didn't explain this well to our children. They were so excited to go and after walking through the zoo for awhile Michael finally asked where all the animals where. I explained that that they were all sleeping and he replied "well then, what exactly is the point?".
Luckily for them the aquarium was open and they got to see all the fish. They spent literally almost an hour on the floor watching the sharks. We also had a very interesting conversation as we are studying the events of the USS Inianapolis and the shark attacks and here were real sharks to compare to.

USS Indianapolis

A few weeks ago attended a presentation about the greatest Naval disaster in US history. The Indies is a story full of twist, turns and events that will make you squeam in horror. Such a tragic story.
The presenter started out talking about the atomic bomb and the destruction it caused, she showed pictures of what they call "Death Shadows". This is a permanent shadow made on a wall or step where people were standing or sitting. Because of the instant destruction, their shadows were literally left to mark the place where they were.
She then went on the talk about the Indie. This battleship left San Fransisco on urgent orders and so quickly that most of the men did not have a chance to say goodbye to anyone. The ship had been hit earlier and was undergoing repairs. They were ordered to Pearl Harbor to pick up cargo.
They paused for a moment as the Trinity test went off in New Mexico, in case the test did not work their ship would be turned back. For, what noone on the ship knew, they had picked up the parts of the atomic bomb. They sailed to Tinian where they dropped the bomb off and then were to travel To Guam and then Leyte.
Captain Macvey requested an escort but was told there was no need as there was no enemy known in these waters. The first of many screw-ups. The truth was that we had dechiphered the Japanese code but we couldn't avoid all their known subs or they would figure out that we knew their code. So it was decided that certain information would be randomly withheld. This information included that not long before a US ship had been sunk in these waters and that two enemy subs were known to patrol these waters.
So the Indie set off without any radar to detect enemy subs, without an escort, and without knowledge. Shortly after midnight on the first of Aug. 1945 the sip was hit twice by an enemy sub. Within twelve minutes the ship had fully sunk. There were 1,196 men aboard the ship, it was estimated that about 300 some odd men went down with the ship. The majority of the others made it out but were generally harmed.
they floated in the Mariana Trench, some for a total of five days. They syffered from Hypothermia, salt water ulcers, lack of food and water, and least of all Shark attacks and dellusions.
When finally rescued, by a miracle that probably should have never happened. Noone even knew who they were or that their ship had gone down. (Much more to this story).
But the story doesn't end here. Their survival was largely kept from the public, even their families until the Navy could get their act together and find a scape goat. That goat was Captain Macvey. They charged him on two counts, failure to zigzag and failure to call abandon ship in a timely manner.
On the first count the Cpt had been told to zigzag at descretion to avoid being hit by a sub. He had just called the cease to zigzag a little while earlier because of weather conditions, he had also been told that there was no indication of enemy subs and they were safe. As for the call to abandon ship, the ship went down in twelve minutes!!! And the majority of the men made it off the ship.
He was court martialed on the failure to zigzag count, even after the US brought the Japanese commander into testify against him and the man said he would have hit him even if he was zigzagging!!!!
In the end only 317 men survived, and in 1968 Macvey committed suicide.
What I have discribed are only a few of the facts. There are so many other details to the story. Ther was also a survivor present who answered questions and recounted his experience. The man is still afraid to fall asleep because opf what his mind recalls. He will avoid sleep at all costs.
I encourage you to study more on this topic. We are listening to a book on tape called "In Harms Way" This is one of the most complete acounts.
Others include:
Out of The Depths: David Harrell- this is a survivors tale with a huge influence of God.
Fatal Voyage, The Sinking Of The USS Indianapolis: Dan Kurzman
Left for Dead: Pere Nelson- this includes a lot of information about Hunter Scott. A young man who started with a history project and eventually gathered the survivors together to fight Captain Macvey's sentence. This one also has a lot of great pictures that really bring the men into a reality. It shows pictures of the survivors then and now.
All in all, this was an experience I will never forget. Matt, I and Seri left this event in absolute tears and gratefulness for the crud that the men who fight for our country have to put up with.
If you can't already tell, this quickly became a huge topic of interest for us. Guesse we are back to studying WWII once again. this time from another perspective. While we were in Germany we studied about it from the European view when a friend loaned us "the Candy Bomber" (another excellent book) and coincedentally it was timed with the closing of Rhein Main Air Base in Wiesbaden.
Everyone, including me is perturbed that I forgot to take the camera. How we would have loved to take pictures with Eugene and of all the memorabilia he brought with him. The saddest and yet most joyous items in the display were a lot of letters that the men had written to their families, so poignant and amazing........
You can also google USS Indianapolis and get to the survivors webpage and a lot of other sites with information on the topic.

For Teresa

A few months ago on her site she posted that she had found this new game called Zuma that she loved, so of course I had to go and play it. Well after many hours of addiction, I am proud to announce that I have won the game!!!!

Rub-A-Dub Sariah in a tub

This was Sariah's first "big bath" and boy did she like it. Looks like we have another water baby :)

New blog

We have brought our children back home for their education. While going through this experience I realized that I needed a sounding board of sorts. A place to collect my random thoughts and get them off my chest so to speak. So we now have a new blog. www.hiwohi.blogspot.com . Feel free to look. I must warn you however that I can be a pretty opinionated person and this not a hold-back blog. I in no way mean to offend individuals with my thoughts and in most cases I am just ranting in general.
Feel free to leave comments as I am usually open to suggestions and advice and this is a subject I am very passionate about.
Enjoy

Morse Wildlife Preserve

We were invited to a program at this preserve and thought it would be great to go to. Our adventure started when there was no address on the invitation and I couldn't find it listed. The town it is in is rather small and I thought for sure there would be signs but we got there and no luck. After three stops at gas stations where people did not know what I was talking about we stopped at a post office. With all the people there only one of the carriers knew.
We finally get there and I mentioned how difficult it was to find and they explained that it is not open to the public accept by invitation twice a year or by request from someone they know as the primary mission is land and animal conservation and secondly education.
As a result of me being late we didn't get to do everything, but we started at a display of animal skins, skulls, snaje skins and turtle shells. The lady explained why the different textures of fur and feathers where needed by different animals. Some feathers are used for flying, decoration, warmth, or stability depending on the animal. So interesting!!
We then went on a plant hike where the woman explained the different varities of foliage and what they could be used for. She also talked about the conservation efforts they were having to make in this forest. Did you know that when a tree falls and the stump starts to decay and grow new trees that is called a "nursing stump" because they are nursing new growth?
After this it was to the fire to get warmed up a tad and then to the barn for some hot chocalet and stories. We heard a tale about how the Kinglet bird got to be the king of all birds and earned the golden crown that sits on his head along with a few others.
Then it was back outside to play a game of survival. There were five cups in a line and each child got four chances to knock a golfball into the cups. They were labeled with things birds need in order to survive, food, water, shelter and space. The fifth was labeled ESA. The child picked a bird to be and then had to shoot one ball in each of the four neccesary areas to survive, or if they got a ball in the ESA they automatically survived because the Endangered Species Act would provide their needs for them.
The children loved it!!!
The pictures show racoon foot prints that we saw and the kids at the look out tower. What a great day!!

Another day at the PSC

We had so much fun the first day that we went back for more a few days later. Again we were there from about 2:30-10:00 and again it was non stop. the only bad thing is these late nights are starting to get to us. I have to get us back on schedule and soon.
Today they all played on the virtual soccer machine and we spent most of the rest of the time in the insect and butterfly area.
We also saw an IMAX film entitled "hurrican on the Bayou" it was about Hurrican Katrina, but it was about more than just the hurrican itself. It explained how when man came in and started making the rivers and artificial banks mu7ch of the wetlands on the outskirts started dissapearing and running off rather than being built up by soil deposits. Wetlands serve as a speedbump for hurricans and the disaster was so much worse because of this lack of wetlands. Amazing how one act that people made because we thought we were being smart can come back and hit us later. Michael is still a pretty sensitive guy and he was having a hard time, then when his sister whispered that the story was actually nonfiction and followed a real girl's experience he lost it. They choose to sit a few rows up from us and it was sweet to watch Seri gather him in her arms as he cried with empathy. On the way out she still had her arm around him and was comforting him.
by the way, did you know that your body gets rid of 4.4 lbs of dead skin cells over a year?

Christmas

I couldn't believe it, Matt woke up first and wanted to get the children up but I wanted to sleep some more so I told him he had to wait until they came to get us. So he sat there in bed saying quitely to himself "come on kids, let's go" over and over. Must have worked because pretty soon they were all in our room hollering to go downstairs. When we got downstairs there was only a note under the tree that said,
"sorry, Santa got sick before finishing his route and had to go back to the North Pole. He sent me instead, hope I did it right. Love, the easter bunny".
On the back of the note was a riddle which led them to their fish tank in the living room (thanks Papa and Meme) and another note that sent them on a quest to the washing machine. turns out their gifts were hidden all over the house, go figure. the kids had a blast and we loved watching them, sure gave christmas a twist.

Christmas Eve

Christmas eve my side of the family meets and celebrates so that on Christmas day relatives can do it with the other side of their family. We met at my aunts house. A lot of people in a small house, but always lots of fun. this year there were so many of us that the adults drew names for gifts and the kids were given stockings that everyone contributed to. It was really nice and I hope we continue to do that. We always have sloppy joes (my family is HUGE on tradition) even though noone really likes the family recipe. Then we played games while the kids watched Polar Express.

Christmas eve our children are always given new pajamas to sleep in. When we got home the children found their pajamas and were thrilled, so we put them on, took a pic and sent them to bed.