Bullied

Grace was not going to join any sports teams this fall, despite my best efforts. Then half-way through the cross country season, she came home to tell me that she had joined and would need rides home after practice. After a little prodding she told me, "My friends bullied me in to it." It appears they did not have enough girls to compete, so they went recruiting. They found Grace and used peer pressure for the most wholesome result of getting her to join cross country.

Despite joining late, and never being into running, by the end of the season she was able to jog the entire 3k course and even set a personal record at the end. She was only beat by one other girl on her team! We don't need to mention there were only four girls on her team and she beat the other two by mere seconds. The important part was she beat them and her own personal time. Thank goodness for her pushy friends.

I Don't Need Another Dog

 We have this old lady dog.

We have this old lady cat.

We have a fish and a frog.

We have four kids.

We don't need another dog.

On that note, meet Daisy. She is a sweet, energetic, youngish dog and has no manners. She thinks she needs to protect the house from all invaders, even a few who actually live here. She growls and barks at everyone who comes to the door (usually neighborhood kids). Thankfully she's all bark and no bite (and only partly because her teeth are worn to nubs due to her previous living situation). She keeps trying to tell the current dog and cat she is in charge, without much success. Le sigh. It has been a process, but she is getting better. And Grace is head over heels in love. We don't need another dog, but we have another dog. She's pretty cute, even if she is a menace.

New Hobby

Lately I've been playing with brush lettering, which is like calligraphy, but much easier. Ethan came home and saw me writing away. 

He simply stated, "Mom, it's nice to have a hobby. But maybe leave some for the other people?"

He's not wrong, but that's okay. I find it calming to write down my quotes of the day. I've always had horrible handwriting and no artistic talent, so I find it satisfying to improve the lacking skills. I'll never create anything perfect but I can still enjoy the process. 

A few of my favorite quotes:

said by one teenager to another teenager, about a separate teenager.

quote attributed to a three year old and addressed to Uncle Mike.

comment to me from a patron, in regard to Jeff Bezos.

One Last First

This year Libby is a senior, Grace is in 8th grade, and Sam is in 7th. I, of course, did not manage to get any photos of their first day of school, but it still happened.

I did manage to get a picture of Ethan heading out for his first day at BSU, his first class starting at 7:30am. He was barely awake, but still posed for a picture. And with such joy on his face.

I really cannot believe that we are here already. I'm proud of him, even though he is difficult to photograph. He is majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in ASL. He's hoping to only spend a year at BSU and then transfer to a school in California.

Yet Another Birthday

This girl is now 17 and a senior in high school. She has a shoe shopping addiction, a Trader Joes addiction, works at a local ice cream shop, and still manages to bring home great grades. I am floored at how fast she has grown and impressed with the person she is.

We had a few friends and family over for her birthday, and even a visiting frog. He was a pretty polite guest before he went hopping off.

I hope this year is amazing. I can't even fathom she is less than a year away from graduating high school and then is headed for college.

Vacation Plans

August 10 we were all set to leave for Wallowa Lake. We had a campsite reservation made 6 months in advance, we had the food purchased, and planned on waking up in the morning, loading the car, and heading out for a week of fun and relaxation. 

At 3 a.m. Grace crawled into my bed, saying she felt ill. Her throat hurt, she couldn't swallow, and she was burning up with fever. I gave her some Advil, sent her back to bed, and waited for morning. 9 a.m. found us at urgent care seeking a diagnosis. I was really hoping for strep throat. We could treat her and still leave 24 hours later. Alas, it was not strep throat, despite the rapid onset and inflamed throat. All of her tests came back negative, so we tucked her back into bed, and canceled our camping trip. 

That evening Michael and I went for a bike ride. We needed a little reset and a chance to come up with a new plan. We happened to find a kayak someone had thrown away, and Michael was pleased to strap it to his bike and haul it home.

Meanwhile, Grace was still sick. She pretty much spent the next four days in bed. Her fever would go away for a few hours, but then come raging back. She was a miserable little girl.

This was what we did instead of camping. A whole lot of nothing. But we did it together, because we all managed to get the time off of work.

By the end of the week, Grace was feeling a little better, so we decided to head up to McCall for the weekend.

 

We even had a couple cousins come with us. Grace was still not 100%, but she was feeling well enough to join us for most activities.

We had a picnic lunch in Charlie's Garden, outside of McCall. The greenery was stunning, the flowers were blooming and there were even a few ripe huckleberries.

After Charlie's Garden we headed for the lake, with our paddle boards, our trash kayak, and my niece's two-person kayak. Parking was a nightmare, and the beach was packed. I was ready to turn back, but my nieces pointed out we had come a long way and they wanted to play. It was crazy when we first got there, but soon a couple of huge groups left, and the lake became much more pleasant. We spent hours paddling, swimming, and lounging around.

After we got everyone and everything back to the cabin and ate dinner, we took everyone down to the nearer beach to see the sunset.

We were only able to spend one night in McCall, but we got plenty of lake time, plenty of ice cream, and plenty of family time. It wasn't the vacation we planned, but it was still nice.