9/11

We planted a tree in our yard ten years ago today, to commemorate the lives that were lost on this fateful date.  It was just a small birch tree when we planted it, and it sprung up a new shoot a few years ago so Kory trimmed back the first growth so the two trunks are the same height.  It’s ironic that we planted the tree in honor of the Twin Towers, and now we have a tree with two trunks, growing side by side.  It’s still a small tree, but at least it’s still alive.  I’m a “survival of the fittest” kind of gardener so anything that lasts ten years in our yard is doing well.  Kory put flags by it today in remembrance.  It’s sad to think what’s become of our country in the last ten years.

I’m not sure how long our company from Norway will stay with us, but we love the fact they are here.  Roda and Greg are making the most of each and every day.  Yesterday I took them to LaConner and they walked around the town and popped into all the cute shops.  They only came with backpacks on their backs, so buying any souvenirs is out of the question, but they sure liked looking.  In the afternoon we took them down to Padilla Bay and let them use our kayak out on the water.  It was a wonderfully warm day, but the breeze was a bit strong so they had quite the challenge getting back to the boat launch.  Kory, Kaleb and I just enjoyed sitting by the water’s edge, reading books and soaking up some of the last rays of summer.  Afterwards we had dinner out on our deck, then Kory and Kaleb took them to the Skagit Speedway for a night out on the town.  They want to experience it all.  

The fire in the Olympics has made for some pretty dramatic sunrises over the valley, so Roda and Greg got up before the sunrise this morning to watch the drama unfold in front of our house.  The fog lays low, the sky is orange, then the horizon turns pink, the sun comes out and the fog lifts up and washes out the entire view.  It’s quite the sight and they didn’t want to miss it.  Afterwards, I took them down the road and let them hand feed the wild birds in our neighborhood.  They thought that was a hoot.  Simple pleasures.

After we left for church this morning, Roda and Greg borrowed our car and headed down to Seattle for the day.  I love that they can take themselves around and see what they want to see on their own schedule.  We were kinda busy today anyway so it worked out well.  After Kory and I took a quick nap this afternoon, we had a home fellowship meeting with our old group so that took up the rest of our day.  We so love getting together with everyone and figuring out how best we can be used by God to show others the love of Christ.  That’s what we’re here for, and sometimes, it takes a village to make it happen.  We’re looking forward to what this “year” will bring and how God will work through us.  Hallelujah!

Back to School

Kaleb hit the books running on Wednesday.  His long summer has come to an end.  He’s actually been off school for six months, so it’s been a big adjustment to get him back in the swing of things. 

Age wise, he would be starting 7^th grade, (but I started him a  year early, so it’s technically 8^th grade) so this would be a big year for adjustments anyway – saying goodbye to the simplicity of the elementary years.  He’s always telling me he would much rather have positive re-enforcements, rather than negative ones, so I devised a scheme that seems to be working very well to help with the adjustment.  I pay him to perform.  Unfortunately, money talks. 

I have learned through various trials and errors, that my son is best motivated through having some cash to call his own.  We have a rule in our house though, that every dollar he gets, he has to divide it up into fours, with one part going to God, one part going into savings for his first car or college, one part getting invested for his retirement and the other fourth he can spend.  This creates a need for some serious income if he wants to buy something that’s more than a few bucks.

I’ve read a lot about teaching kids how to handle money and the one philosophy I tend to agree with is to NOT pay them to do chores, but to pay them for doing well in school, since that’s most like the “real world” when they become adults.  So, I’ll be paying him for his grades, now that he is taking classes where he gets a transcript.

We signed Kaleb up for Hillcreek Christian Academy this year, just to see how it goes.  It’s a twice a week school for homeschool kids and he’s loaded down with homework for the rest of the week.  He begged to take Physics, and I also made him take English. Between those two classes and the Algebra class he’s taking on-line with Johns Hopkins University, his piano lessons, Speech club, gymnastics, Confirmation and Scouts, he’s got a full load.  And I’m not just paying him for his grades, I’m paying him if I don’t have to tell him to do a thing.

This past year I got sick and tired of reminding the boy to brush his teeth, make his bed, drink a glass of water, exercise, do his school work, take the garbage out and on it goes.  He’s usually lost in his own imaginative world, or reading a book and tuning us out at every minute.  This is the year that will change, since I’m putting money where my mouth used to be.  I made a list of all the things he has to do everyday, and if he can do them without any prompting from me, he gets cash.  I can see from how it’s gone so far, this is exactly the kind of motivation he’s been waiting for, and it also has the potential to break the bank.  I didn’t think he’d be so successful.

This week, Kaleb’s been waking up every morning at 6:30, doing all his chores and even starting school an hour before he’s scheduled to start.  Yesterday he worked “after hours” in order to complete a chapter in Algebra.  There are no messes he’s left behind in the house (except school work) and his bed is made better than I could make it.  He’s been kind and respectful and has been as near perfect as a kid can be.  Who knew.  He’s also done an extraordinary amount of school work and not complained a bit.

He’s not been without tears, however, as he was sorely disappointed in how boring his Physics textbook is, and he felt the songs his piano teacher gave him this week were just too hard.  I had to explain that his brain is going “where no man has gone before” so he just needs to push on through and pray for wisdom.  I’ve had to give many pep talks this week, mostly because he’s still adjusting back into the academic world and getting over a little jetlag.  But both Kory and I have been exceedingly impressed with the effort he’s making so far and we only pray his enthusiasm lasts the whole year.

We attended a school assembly for Kaleb’s new school on Wednesday, and had a parent-teacher conference on Thursday.  That school is a serious college prep school and the good thing about Kaleb going this year is if he can’t cut it, he’s still young and the classes won’t show up on his transcript and he can take them again later, but if he’s able to pass both the high school classes he’s taking, they will give him credit and it will go on his transcript so he won’t have to take them again.  Sweet.

  

We’ve been working in the yard a little this week.  Today Kory was sitting in the top of our plum tree, trimming off some shoots, when the whole tree just suddenly fell over.  He said he just rode it on down and never fell out of the tree.  It broke right at the base of the trunk (see photo of Kaleb near it).  Incredible.  We’re sad to be down one plum tree but thankful Kory didn’t get hurt. 

Kory took Kaleb fishing again last night, but again, they caught nothing while everyone else around them seemed to be snatching them up.  Tonight, we picked up one of Kaleb’s second cousins (age 27) from Norway and her fiancé (from England) at the bus depot and they will be staying with us for some days.  They are on a three-month tour of North America so it will be nice to have them hanging out with us for a while. 

We’ve certainly been enjoying these glorious warm days of summer, beautiful sunrises and dinners out on the deck at night (mostly because our dining room table is now converted to a school desk and is covered with papers, books and laptops). Oh, it's so good to be home. 

Travelin' Day

It was a travelin’ day, for sure.  We didn’t fly out of Philly until 10am, but I was worried about the rush hour traffic and morning rain, so we were up at six and out the door soon after.  We ended up two and a half hours early for our flight but at least we missed the traffic jams.  We used the time to play cards and sip coffee so it wasn’t a bad way to start the day. 

Our flight left nearly half an hour late due to rain, so when we landed in St. Louis (photo below - you can almost made out the Arch right behind the big white dome) we were a bit worried we’d miss our connecting flight to Seatle.  The gates were right next to each other so we made it just fine.   I don’t really like Southwest Airline’s policy of no reserved seats, especially when there are three people traveling together.  We got the last row of three on the way to St. Louis, but since we were so late in boarding on the flight to Seattle, there were no seats together.  We asked a man if he’d mind moving, and he did, so we were able to get a row to ourselves, but it caused Kaleb much grief as to what he should do if he couldn’t be by us.  It all worked out but it easily could NOT have.  We asked God to intervene, so we have to give Him the credit, but next time, I’m taking a different airline.

We flew over a lot of wildfires in the Montana/Wyoming area (see photo below), which was sad to see but made for some interesting contrasts in the landscape as the smoke settled in the valleys below.

My step-mom picked us up at the airport and after a stop at her place to drop her off, a stop at our apartment building in Seattle to pick up rent checks, a stop at Trader Joes to load up on groceries, a stop at Costco to get gas and a stop at a Thai restaurant for a yummy dinner, we walked in our door about six hours after we landed.  Hard to believe it took that long to get home.

We are now faced with a yard that needs mowing, a pile of mail that needs sorting, a bundle of laundry that needs washing and a few suitcases that need unpacking.  I’ll treasure every minute of it.  It’s good to be back.

I know I’ve been gone a bit too long when my welcome home was a spider web in my face as I walked in the door.  At least there weren’t any inside the house.  I love where we live, spiders and all.

Wrappin' It Up

We spent the day as planned – doing as much around the house for Connie as we could.  She likes to think she can still keep her place up, but it’s obvious she needs help.  And since Robbie was the one to do the bulk of the work, her place has been fairly neglected for the past few years since he’s been so ill.  We all pitched in today and worked in her yard and did as much as we could.  Kory did a lot of edging and additional pruning.  Kory and Kaleb both mowed the lawn.  Kory did the tough stuff but wanted Kaleb to do some too, since he’s never pushed a mower before.  Kaleb also helped me in the stream, clearing away debris that was washed down in the last flood.  The water level got up to six feet higher than normal, so I couldn’t even reach much of it stuck up in the branches above me.  We trimmed a lot of the bushes that catch the debris and tried to make the part of the stream that’s visible from the house, look nice.  It was more work than I realized and I’m currently exhausted and full of cuts and scratches from the various vegetation I encountered.  Overall it was a satisfying day, but the humidity was back and my face had a flood of it’s own with the sweat pouring off me from the heat.  What a workout.

We took Connie out for lunch to a genuine Italian restaurant nearby.  It really was much like the restaurants we ate at in Italy and the food was delicious.  No one could finish what we got so we got to eat the same thing again for dinner.  Yum.

Connie’s neighbors came over to visit us tonight before we left.  We were hoping to see Robbie again but he over did it on Saturday and was in no shape for company.  Poor thing.  It was nice to visit the neighbors though and to thank them for letting us swim in their pool.  We were kinda looking forward to jumping in again today after we’d all had a good workout, but they had drained the pool last week at the first sign of leaves falling from the trees.  Oh well.  They are a nice couple that look after Connie like family, so she is lucky to have them next door.

Connie showed me a book today that she’s been writing in.  I guess she’s been writing in quite a few – different recollections she’s had over the years.  She said she filled up two books just on funny things people have said to her over the many years she was a telephone operator.  She retired after 9/11 as the stress of that day was more than she could bear.  But the book she showed me was called “And then there was Mickey…” and she wrote down how she came to be our neighbor when I was a kid, and her impressions of me.   It was pretty funny.  She’s always called me the daughter she didn’t have and in many ways, she was the mother I didn’t have, too.  She taught me to iron a shirt.  She used to pay me five cents to iron her husband’s white business shirts (he was an engineer for Boeing.)  To this day, I do it exactly as she taught me and I think of her every time.  She taught me to bake, too.  She still remembers the mess we made in her kitchen when I babysat her kids for their anniversary, and while they were gone we all made them a cake.

Above all things though, she seems most confused about my name.  She can’t understand why I still go by my nickname Mickey, since it’s not my real name, and my last name is not the name I was born with, nor the name of either of the men I married.  I couldn’t explain it either, other than the name I use is easy to spell and unique enough that there aren’t many of us out there.  It’s just a name.  Inside, maybe I’m someone else, but outside, my name fits me just fine.  She doesn’t understand that, but she loves me anyway.

So our time has come to an end and we are all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and starting up our weekly routines.  I think we miss our pillows and our shower the most.  We have really enjoyed this time away, learning new things, visiting friends and seeing another part of our great country.  New Jersey is really quite beautiful, which surprised us all.  The big cities aren’t anything to visit, but the country sides are gorgeous.  We loved driving all the back roads and seeing the beautiful houses and farm lands.  I wouldn’t want to live here, but it’s certainly a fun place to visit.  We’re glad we did.