Rambling update

Every time I post, I think, "Well, that wasn't so hard! I should do that more often. Yup. Gonna start blogging every day." And then, of course, I don't because when I think about it, it just seems like too much effort...

Tomorrow is the last day of the fall trimester for our homeschool co-op. I'm so ready for the break! We don't start back up again until mid-January, and I finally bit the bullet and only agreed to do half-days for the winter trimester. I've been waffling on that for 2 months! First, I think we'll quit... then I think we won't... I weighed the pros and cons and still didn't come to a good conclusion... DH wasn't a bit of help. I begged him to make the decision for me. Doesn't he get the idea? I'm willing to be a "submissive wife"! Just tell me what to do! He won't. So... I finally compromised. We'll go for 2 classes instead of 4.

Got the kids' school pictures back today. The photographer captured great smiles! The only drawback was that for some reason all the pictures came back too dark. The entire homeschool group's pictures were all too dark. And nobody had backgrounds on their pictures. It was the kind of deal where you choose the background and they add it in digitally later, or something. I don't really understand how that's done... but these are just blah-dark... no color, not even really black. The photographer was just really having a bad day that day. He forgot some critical part and had to go back to Spokane after it, so the picture-taking was delayed an hour or more. It was a mess! They've offered to retake them, but I'm not sure I want to go through the hassle again. Hopefully they'll just refund our money. The disappointing thing is, they were actually really good pictures!

The mountain out my window has snow on it. Today was the first day the sun shone since it snowed up there. I really enjoyed my view today! But another storm is supposed to be moving in, so we'll probably get snow tonight or tomorrow. It will still be pretty, just not as dramatic as when there's snow on the mountain and not down here. We've actually already had snow twice, but both times melted off within a day or two. It's still a little early for it to stay any length of time.

Still working on trying to get the dog to not bark when we leave her home alone. Funny thing is, she's not usually a barker... at least when we're around. But we can't leave her home, because the other lady in the building sleeps days. We've been watching "The Dog Whisperer". Fascinating show. He recommends walking the dog for at least an hour a day to wear her out before we leave, but who has time for that? But then he demonstrated how to teach your dog to walk on a treadmill, if you don't have time to walk the dog that much. So now I'm looking for a second-hand treadmill, cheap! We think it's hilarious! But, hey... if it works...

Finally saw "Cars" on Saturday night. DH bought it for the kids. (At least, that's what he said! ) After our sojourn on Route 66 this summer, we especially enjoyed the extras on the DVD telling what inspired the movie. DH is a huge auto-racing fan, so he loved all the parodies of the race car drivers and other celebrities. I told him, "I'm sure I'm not appreciating this movie as much as you are." He said, "I'm sure you're not either!"

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Today is our wedding anniversary! I've spent over half of my life with my very favorite person. Who could ask for anything better than that? No special plans this year. I'm kinda bummed about that. It just didn't work out. But I'm just reminding myself that it's a blessing to have such a great marriage... and every day is special because of that!

Yesterday was the 15th birthday of the boy in our youth group who was killed in a car accident a few weeks ago. He shared his birthday with his older brother, so I know they are really missing him today especially. Continue to pray for their family. The mother is improving, but her recovery will be slow.

Field Trip - National Weather Service

We visited the Spokane office of the National Weather Service with some other families from our homeschool co-op on Friday. We learned a lot about weather and what is involved in forecasting weather. The meteorologist who was our tour guide was very friendly and enthusiastic. He showed us a bunch of different satellite images and dramatic photographs. And then we found out that many of them are available on the NWS website! My kids want me to "put that website on their computer"! (We have the internet blocked on their computer, except for websites that their dad or I approve.) I think that's great! They can learn a lot by exploring the site, and then keep us up-to-date on the weather forecasts. Oh... and by the way, it's weather.gov, not weather.com. The .com site is the Weather Channel, which is fine, but it does have ads. The .gov site is the NWS and you don't have to worry about ads.

We also discovered that the NWS is who broadcasts the weather radio station that the kids discovered on one of the channels of their walkie-talkies.

The highlight of the field trip was at 4:00 p.m. when we got to watch them release a weather balloon. I have seen weather balloons occasionally, but I never knew they were released twice a day, every day, all over the world at the same time! (I think the guy said 1,100.) There is a small styrofoam box, about the size of a shoebox, tied to the bottom of the balloon with instruments to gauge things like temperature, wind, and moisture. The balloon is bigger than I thought it would be. Maybe the size of a bean-bag chair, if a bean-bag chair was inflated? They track the balloon for an hour-and-a-half. They said it usually travels 150 miles or so before it "pops". The box has a label on it so if anyone finds it, they will know to return it to the NWS. Our guide said that about 15% are returned. He estimated that it costs about $300 for each balloon that is released!

Speaking of weather, we had our first snow of the year last night and it's still on the ground this morning! Maybe a half inch or so. The kids are excited. I dread driving in it.

Tragedy in our youth group

A 14-year-old boy in our church was killed on October 13th. The newspaper tells more about it. Our whole church is stunned and grieving. Please pray for the family of this young man, particularly his mother who was also in the accident and was critically injured.

Hunting update!

What a week we've had! We aren't used to this much "testosterone" in our house, so it's been a riot!

Last night the hunters came in without a kill, but with great pictures, video footage, and stories. That's as good as a kill, in my book. They saw several moose and got pictures. (They don't have moose tags, so couldn't shoot them.) What's amazing is that we have lived here for over 8 years and in that length of time have only seen 2 moose on 2 separate occasions. Yesterday they saw a cow and her calf, and a bull moose, and some others. They saw a grouse strutting its feathers like a peacock or a turkey. They also saw several deer, and I'm not sure what else. They just have a great time! (No bears, though.)

I'm not sure what time they left this morning, but they were long gone when DH got up at 6:30 to go to work. About 11:00 I got a call from them. How would we like grilled venison tenderloin for supper? One of them got a deer, and they would butcher it themselves! The others were still hunting, so they may come home with more than one.