March Happenings

I ment for this to post before the St. Pattys post, opps!! The first weekend of this month we went to Elizabeths and helped celebrate Destinees 14th birthday. We had a good time! She had us play a few fun games!

Sorry about the order of the photos! I have not mastered this!

Happy St. Patricks Day !

Happy St. Patricks Day!! We had a nice time this past weekend ! We celebrated Johns Grammas birthday. She turned 96!! Since there are several March birthdays and our family has an Irish heritage we celebrated St. Patricks Day also. Here is a family shot of Gramma , Dad , Joyce, Sean, Jackie, Johns other sister Susan, and our family. There were more family present that are not in the picture, but we wanted a picture with Dad since we are not all together very often. Susan lives in Indiana. Johns Dad is still battling cancer.


Here are pictures of twin lambs that were born Saturday while we were gone. They are so cute and tiny!! Spring may really be coming!

Tonight I am making corned beef and cabbage for dinner! I am really loking forward to it and my family even likes it!!

Happenings

I have been enjoying some beautiful sunrises in the mornings when I go out to feed the lambs!

We have had a nice day around here today! John talked Emily into trying to ride her bike again and she had success!! She had crashed on her bike back in Florida, over a year ago, and has not wanted to try again. Daddy was able to talk her into it. At first she would only ride on the grass but after awhile she was riding up and down the driveway and we have a pretty long driveway. She was having so much fun that she did not want to stop. I think she probably rode for about an hour total. John got his bike out and they went out on our road too. It is a very quiet road.
See how long the driveway is?

Here are a couple of shots of the lambs. I was out playing with them for awhile. We are trying to get them to learn to eat grass. They need to get off the bottle soon. Vince was trying to nibble on my vest insted of grass but it looks like Vinny was eating some grass. It is really hard to get a good picture of them!
They are 5 weeks old now and have really grown alot!
The boys were out shooting their BB guns also but I did not get a picture of that. They had fun shooting plastic bottles. It was just really nice having everyone enjoy the outdoors and not vegging with the TV or Wii!

Hi! Just a quick note! My Mom is still in the hospital for thoses of you that knew that from reading Facebook. Her pneumonia has gotten worse because it did not respond to the antibiotic. They changed her meds last night, but she is feeling pretty bad and wants her girl to come. So we are out of here in a few hours and will stay through the weekend. I would appreciate prayers that the new antibiotic does its job!

On a side note. John got his offical job offer for the promotion! There are just a few things that need to be ironed out. So we will be moving again, but it will not be until after school is out. They are going to let him work from his office here a few days a week to cut down on the commuting. He may only go down there 2 days a week until we move.

Well I have to get packing! Love you all!

Sadly the newest lamb did not make it. He was neglected by his mother. Randy said if any more lambs happen to be born to these Marinos we are going to just take care of them right away insted of seeing what the mothers will do. He said there are 2 more sheep that may lamb since the others did. We shall see! Vince and Vinny are doing great and it looks like it is about time for me to go feed them!

Suprise

This morning I went out to feed the lambs and I looked over into the field where the Merino sheep are kept, the lambs mother being one of them, and I'll be darned if there was not another baby lamb!!! This time the mother is taking care of it. I have not gone up close to see it because I don't want to scare the mother. I am going to wait until Randy comes out to feed and see if it is OK to go near them. I went to Ranys house and was able to tell Katie but Randy was not up yet. Katie was again surprised and excited. She looked good!

HOME AGAIN

Hi All!! Katie is home again and is doing well!! She gets tired pretty easy but was excited to meet the lambs when Charlie brought them home today! She came over from the house and met and inspected both of them. She is still having some trouble with saying what she wants to say and with reading but she says it is getting better everyday.

Meet the lambs!! This little guy the kids are calling Vinny. ( I think Randy and Katie are going to let the kids name them) He is the smaller of the two and we were having a hard time getting him to eat. Tonight when I fed them though he ate really well, almost a full bottle. Michael is trying to feed him.
Here is Emily holding Vinny.
Here is James holding the little guy the kids have named Vince.
Vince eats very well ! He sucked down almost two full bottles since he came home. He is a bit bigger and more agressive of the two.

The kids chose V names because Katie names the lambs by the same letter of the alphabet. Last year was U so this year is V. Anyway you will probably see more pictures of these guys later. Randy is going to let us have the job of taking care of them and I think it will be fun! Of course he is around if we have questions.

Katie continues to improve and may be coming home today. She is still having trouble with getting out what she wants to say and still can not read. They are going to run some final tests today and then hopefully she will come home. I'll keep you updated!

Monday

I spoke with Randy and Katie is doing better. She was up walking around. She is having trouble forming sentences and can't read yet but Randy believes that will all come with time. Katie is understandably a bit discouraged, but Randy is expecting a full recovery. Katie is a very active lady and works hard on their farm. She was excited to here about the baby lambs, who are doing very well, and Randy was going to show her a picture of them when he went back to the hospital today.

Cara came over and since it was such a beautiful day we took her to see some local sights. A former fort from WWII and a driftwood beach. We tried to go to a local bakery, but it was closed. Insted we went to a coffee place that had baked good and Aunt Cara spoiled everyone with a treat. FUN!!

When the lambs come home next week Randy is going to set them up in our barn and he is going to let us take care of them. He will provide everything we need. The kids are excited!

Eventful Saturday

We have had a nice weekend!! There is a bit of sad news though. Our neighbors next to us are Randy and Katie. They are sheep farmers and are wonderful neighbors and we had planned to have dinner together Friday night. They planned to bring a Prime Rib Roast and a special homemade chocolate pudding Katie makes. Anyway Randy called and said he would bring the roast over at about 6 pm but that Katie would not be coming because she did not feel well. Randy brought it and the pudding over but did not stay either as he wanted to get back to Katie. It was so sweet of him to bring the planned dinner even though they could not stay. And it was yummy!!! Saturday morning Randy took Katie to the Dr in Seattle and it was determined that she had had a stroke. She is expected to have a good recovery but will be in the hospital until at least Tuesday. Please pray for her. This is Katie with one of the sheep.

The next part of my story is happy and something Katie will be excited about! Randy was going to tell her today.

Last night , around 5 pm, while Randy was still gone, I went outside on the porch and I heard a "crying" sound. My son Michael walked down our driveway to see if he could find where it was coming from and I'll be darned if he didn't find a new baby lamb standing by the fence "crying". His mother was not paying any attention to him and when he would walk to her she would run away. Anyway since Randy was not home and we did not know what to do we called his friend Charlie. Charlie came over and helped us figure out what to do. He went into the field and could not get near the mother. So he had us pick up the lamb. As he was turning to come out of the field he heard another sound behind him in the distance. He turned around and walked to the end of the field and he found another little lamb standing by the far fence . Anyway there are 2 new baby lambs!! One is white and one is black with a white patch on his head. They are both boys and they were totally unexpected!! Randy did not know the sheep was pregnant. He had just bought these new sheep last month. Randy was still not home by the time we found the other lamb and we did not have a way to call him. Charlie looked around his place and in his house for the mix to make lamb formula. We could not find it so Charlie told me what to buy at the store to make them some milk to drink. We put the lambs in some hay in our little chicken coop and John and I went to the store to buy bottles and the milk I needed.
We got it all and as we were just getting home Randy was arriving home too. He was very suprised at what we had to tell him! He then got lamb formula mix that we couldn't find, and so we didn't need what I had bought. Anyway I made bottles for them and we were able to feed them. They were not eating very well because they were cold so Randy made a place for for them in his bath tub with blankets and towels and turned up the heat to warm it up for them. We went home after that but Randy told us this morning that after they warmed up they ate very well and made it through the night. Charlie came and picked them up to take them to his house while Randy is at the hospital in Seattle with Katie. We can't wait until they come back home so we can help take care of them again. That was our excitement for yesterday!!

I wanted to get pictures of the lambs last night but we were too busy holding them and trying to get them to eat. I will try and get some when they come home. Cara is coming tomorrow and she was going to take some pictures but they are at Charlies place .

It has been a nice weekend and tomorrow we get to see Cara!

Change in 2009

Hi Everyone!!! I am feeling much better and almost to 100%. Thank-you again for your thoughts and prayers!!

WELL I almost can't believe I am going to tell you what I am going to tell you BUT in the big picture it will be for the best!! ANYWAY John is getting a promotion and we will be MOVING AGAIN!!! But not until July! John will start the new position and will commute to Bangor, WA. He will come home on the weekends and maybe a few other days a week. It is very good for Johns new career and we will be able to "relax and settle" once we are all moved.

So losing my job is looking more like a blessing in dusguise! With John gone part of the week until school is out I need to be available for my kids. Also this gives me time to finish going through all our stuff that is in the garage.

Honestly I am not looking forward to packing up again, but I've just got to buck up and do it! With this much advance notice it should be a much more orderly move than the most recent one.

We are thankful each day that we are back in Washington and thankful for this new opportunity for John!!

Thank-you!!

Hi All!

I just wanted to thank-you all for your thoughts and prayers while I have been sick! A MILLION thank-yous are not enough for our Cara Bear!! She always knows what to do and after two days of taking care of me she left my family with thorough instructions for my care!! If not for her care I would have been put into the hospital for sure.

One of the special things she did was to make sure Michael had a birthday party. My Mikey turned 14 and is a New Years baby!! I can't believe he is already 14! Michael is a special young man and is an "old soul". He loves Star Wars clone troopers. I think he has 0ver 100! He also loves all the old superman and batman shows from the 40's and 60's. He is a good student and an all around great guy!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Michael!!! We Love You!!



Our snow is gone and this is what it looked like Saturday morning!!!
This is the sunrise I woke up to Sunday morning!!!!
Today I got the kids off to school OK and am just going to take it easy. The Dr said to only do what I feel like and to not push it and overdo. I'am going to "obey", I'm good at that!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Have a blessed time with your families!

This is a picture of the "calm" before our second snow storm.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

The weekend

We got up this morning to not much more snow but it was windy last night and what we did get was drifted. There were dritfs about a foot deep in places. We planned so we could head out early for Church and got there in good time only to find out it was cancelled. We did not know because I have not signed up for the church newsletter yet so we are not on the e-mail list. I don't think any of the Churches were open today. We needed gas so we got that and then went home. John did a devotional with us and we just enjoyed being together. In the afternoon we headed out across the road for a neighborhood party.

The party was nice. The hostess fed us all a yummy dinner of lasagna, bread, an italian salad ,and a sausage pie that was very good. Rumcake and cupcakes were for dessert along with punch. We then played a game with "white elephant " gifts. She bought each child there a gift of there own. We had a good time and it was nice to meet some neighbors!

It is snowing pretty hard again and the base may be closed again tomorrow, so John could be home with us. He might go in just to go through his in box, so he is not "buried" later, but he won't stay all day.

We still have our water back and are leaving a faucet running so it does not freeze again.
Thats all for our lazy Sunday!

We have water again!!!! Yeah!!

No Water!

Well I have to remember how to ruff it w/o water! Ours froze today it is so cold! When we lived at the ranch in Idaho we would lose water sometimes, so I have done it before. It is really cold and another storm is due tonight or tomorrow. Heres to "Pioneering" LOL!

We are having a second snow day today. We have not gotten much more snow but the roads are icy, a kind of chunky ice on some because the snow plows did not go down them.

I may try and run into town later. I did not go anywhere yesterday until John got home from the airport. Scott arrived safely in Florida and it was 70 degrees there at 11 o'clock at night. So he is missing our snow , but I don't think he minds.

I made sprintz cookies for the first time in a long time yesterday and they turned out yummy. Potatoe soup sounds good for our snowy day today.

Now that I am home from work and staying busy around here, I wonder how I had time for it before. Having the kids around has helped with the transition.

SNOW DAY!

Yes, it is a snow day, but this is a picture I took last night! It is so beautiful! This is looking west. Above the tree line are the Olympic mountains and you can't see it but between the trees and the mountains is the ocean!
Since it is a snow day the kids are all home, except for Scott. Dad braved the weather to take him to the airport in Seattle. He is flying to Florida to see his friends he left behind when we moved here last December. James and Emily helped make pancakes this morning. James has a bandage on his hand because he accidentally touched the wood stove this morning. Ouch!!

Here are some more pictures of snow. Right now it is coming down pretty hard. And to think I told a new friend recently that we don't get much snow on the island! LOL!

Enjoy!!!!! You can see that the stump is more buried.

SNOW!

We had our first snow of the season here on the island. It was just a few inches but it sure is pretty! Enjoy the pictures!!

Things

Hi! It has been far too long since I posted! It has been really busy around here with the move and work. But as of yesterday I no longer have a job. I was laid off/let go, what ever you want to call it! Needless to say I was/am crushed, because I truly loved my job and being back in the healthcare world. OK- we won't talk about that anymore!! On to happier topics!!

We really, really love living in this house! Here are a couple of pictures of the view! They aren't the best. I'll have to work on getting better ones.The house just feels much more like home!

THANKSGIVING was WONDERFUL!!! It is the first time in 61/2 years that all my family was at my house for a holiday dinner. We did not go and do much, other than the "endless" shopping we seemed to need to do in our small town. We had to get ready for Rachels B-day party and needed "stuff". It was just awesome spending time with family and just hanging out. Cara took most of the pictures so I do not have much to show you. There is a shot of how the men in our family "bond"!

They sit around and read together. I think they talked some! It was also fun dressing the girls up for church in dresses that Auntie Cara bought them last year. They don't look like they were having much fun but it was their idea! They sure got a lot of compliments at Church too!

It was a wonderful long weekend with family!!! I want to do it again!!