Ahhhh, Vacation

What do you do your husband is working too many hours go on vacation? Just write about when he wasn’t so busy!


Just before the end of the school year our friends Craig and Michelle invited us to come on a fun trip with them and some other college buddies to the Washington coast. Craig’s family has a great cabin right on the beach with a large section of waterfront. Even better, it is on a sweet island, Harstine Island to be exact!

Even though there was a sizeable cabin, Dusty and I opted to take our fifth wheel camper for our sleeping quarters since there were quite a few people already bunking in the cabin. As if we needed another excuse to use our new toy!

It was a wonderful long weekend full of exploring the sea life at low tide, biking, good food, kayaking, bonfires, racquet sports on a real court, reading, ladder ball, and lots playing with the dogs. There were plenty of dogs on the trip too; thankfully they even managed to get along most of the time. Our Moosey loved playing fetch on the beach, even though the shells made her paws sore at times. Dusty and I loved having other people who didn’t mind taking a turn at throwing the ball for her so our arms could have a break. Here are some pictures showing all our fun!

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

Here are a sampling of pictures from our camping trip earlier this year. It was a great trip and we loved hanging out in our camper in the evenings when the spring air made it a bit chilly out and the damp surroundings from recent storms made conditions for starting a fire less than than ideal. Despite the rains before we arrived, a sprinkle on the way there and a warning of precip from every weather website, we had glorious weather! It was sunny and warmer than any days in our recent memory.Unfortunately most of our friends we scared off by the weather mans doom and gloom forecast. As it turned out there was just three of us on this trip, yes that does include Dusty and me too! Otto, our one guest, was very disappointed he didn't even get to test out his new hiking tent and rain fly seeing as we did not get a drop of rain after setting up camp. Every one had their own reasons for missing, all sicere and understandable. The sad part is when friends tell us they will go "next time." Why is that sad, doesn't it sound like a good thing? In a perfect world I would be thrilled to hear that and look forward to then. However, in reality, since I know my farmer husband will now be working his tail off till next fall, that "next time trip" isn't likely anytime soon. Yes, we may sneak in a overnight in the camper here or there but since we typically don't have more than a days notice when the stars align for such an event, which means most friends schedule is not flexible enough to come along. Oh well, we had tons of fun and we can cross our fingers and pray for another shot later in the summer! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

The Hawaii Novel

We had a wonderful time in Hawaii. Here is an overly detailed rundown of some, ok most all, of the fun things we did while there. If you are not into reading right now feel free to skip ahead and just look at the pictures. However, the pictures are not in chronological order due to the fact that we were using two cameras that happen to have ended up on the same image numbers. This recount of our adventure is more for us to remember all the details when we are old, than anything else, but we thought others might find it interesting.

Wednesday I went to school in the morning to teach my 5th graders. The when I got home I double checked our bags for the zillionth time and hopped in the truck to go out to the airport. Somewhere along the way we miscalculated when we would need to leave. Now, don’t worry we didn’t miss our flight, quite the opposite really. We checked our bag, got through security, found our gate and I looked at my watch to see that we had two hours and ten minutes until our flight... What?!? We are still not exactly sure how we ended up so far ahead of necessary, but I suppose it was better than the opposite situation. All the free time gave us a chance to play games on my iPod.

Once it was finally time to board our flight, the experience was as expected, long and slightly cramped. We landed just after dark and took a shuttle to our hotel. We wanted to get out and stretch our legs some so we took the opportunity to do the first of many wanderings along the beach shops. Our jaunt out required a very important stop at Yogurt Land for some pineapple bliss in a cup. We were fading fast despite all the energy around us because it felt three hours later due to the time change, so then it was back to our hotel to crash.

Thursday morning we were up early (again because of the time change) to go to Pearl Harbor and the battleship Missouri. We were very impressed by the battleship because it was so big and had a wealth of history to go with it. The information our tour guide gave us about the cannon like guns that stocked the ship was astounding. Each of the nine deck guns supports a 16 inch barrel and can deliver a 2000 pound shell 23 miles. Every 30 seconds the nine rounds from the ship can level an area the size of a football field. Since we did the battleship first, then went to the sunken Arizona we had a much clearer picture of some of the boat components that were laying in the murky water below us in Pearl Harbor.

After leaving Pearl Harbor we stopped at the grocery store to stock up our little kitchenette with a few basic necessities like diet coke, bananas, bread, milk and peanut butter. It was very nice to have our own little fridge, microwave and toaster. I am sure it saved us a good deal of money since we didn’t “have to” eat out every time we were hungry. Once we filled our fridge we put on our swim stuff and walked to the beach just a block and a half away. The next hour or so we soaked up the sun (and plenty of sand too) before going back to our room to get cleaned up for dinner. We ate at Chili’s then walked around the international marketplace.
We kept our busy pace Friday by getting up and out the door to the Dole plantation. I was worried about the weather since it poured rain the whole time we were riding the bus there. I should clarify, this was not your typical little Hawaiian mist; we are talking windshield wipers full blast and puddle sized raindrops kind of rain. As we made the short walk from the bus stop to the main entrance I was lamenting the fact I had forgotten to bring my rain jacket or any other manor of sleeves, since the weather near our hotel had been lovely. I decided I didn’t want to be cold in the rain the rest of the day so I went about picking out a lightweight sweatshirt. I found a really cute green one and had no sooner finished paying and exited the gift shop when the sun burst back through the clouds. The rest of the day was beyond warm and I had absolutely no need of my cute new sweatshirt. Did I appreciate the weather’s sense of irony? No. But did I tolerate it due to the fact it helped me gain an otherwise completely unnecessary new sweatshirt? Yes! Now, on with the plantation tour. We found the train which took us around the farm a bit smaller that we had expected but equally fun. It was really interesting to hear how pineapples are farmed and see the variety of colors, sizes and shapes they come in. I never knew pineapples came in a pink variety too. After the train we wandered through the various garden areas, got our fill of informational signs, bought a yummy Dole whip (pineapple soft serve ice cream) and went catch our bus to the North shore.

The North shore had very quaint little shops but neither of us felt like spending time inside now that the sun had come out again. So we went to Waimea Valley botanical gardens for a little hike. The gardens and the unusual plants were gorgeous! The highlight of our walk was seeing a waterfall at the end of the trail. I was surprised to see people swimming in the pool below the falls. There were lifeguards and everything. The lowlight of the trek was when I fell and seriously scraped up my knees. Apparently I am not capable of looking up at a tree, walking down a hill, stepping on a small stick, and keeping myself upright all at the same time. Luckily my awkward blunder and subsequent childlike whining was only witnessed by about 3 people (one of which was Dusty) and the previously mentioned lifeguards had band aids! Despite having a very five year old like spill it was a fun hike.

It was still mid afternoon and fairly sunny as we walked down the road and found ourselves a nice spot to watch the big waves roll in at Waimea Bay. To keep in form with the “acting like a five year old” theme I had established with my fall, Dusty had a good time playing in the sand, making a giant mound and trying to protect it as the waves washed it away. I asked for a castle and instead he makes me a pile, stating he didn’t have the appropriate tools, aka a bucket, to make castle. Before too long it got a little overcast so we got on our bus and enjoyed a view down the windward side of the island. We stopped at Ala Moana shopping center and looked at a few stores before buying dinner and Cinnabons to take back to our hotel.

Diamond Head volcano crater was first on our hit list for Saturday morning. Although the climb is just under a mile each way, it is plenty strenuous. There is a 560 foot elevation gain from the base and the trail is jagged stone and dirt mixed with tunnels and stairs, with the last tenth of a mile up being all stairs. The view from the top of the old military bunker is well worth the hike. To be honest, the way down was worse than the way up since my legs were a bit shaky from the stairs and I was afraid I would trip again.

From Diamond Head we went to Sea Life Park. The dolphins were amazing to watch. We could have paid to swim with the dolphins and although it looked fun it was more expensive than we were willing to pay. We were more than content watching their show. I was so impressed with the show they put on. They could do so many tricks and stunts. I was also perplexed by the resident Wholphin. Yes, that is a whale crossed with a dolphin. It is the only one known of in the world. It was neat to see penguins, sea lions, monk seals, sharks, rays and tropical fish. I also liked the park because I got to feed sea turtles. What can I say; I am a sucker for animals.

We rode the bus back home but the day wasn’t over yet. That night we went to a luau! I just can’t believe the way that those hula girls can shake it! We both really enjoyed the dinner. It was neat to see them take the roast pig out of the pit in the ground and nobody ever complains about an all you can eat buffet.

Sunday morning we took the bus to Haunama Bay to swim with the fishes. I had a defective snorkel mask or possibly a defective forehead. It gave me all sorts of trouble by putting pressure right in between my eyebrows when it was “suctioned on.” I seriously thought I was going to have a bruise. When the mask wasn’t on super tight causing the pressure, it had a very slow leak. Just a few drops of ocean at a time would sneak their way in but eventually those little drops would start to gang up on my eyes and then I would have to stop and let them all out. Thus, I would have to put my mask on really tight again. Most of the time it worked well enough to get by and allowed me to see lots of awesome creatures. Some of the notable animals we saw were multi colored sea urchins, an angel fish bigger than any I have ever seen in a pet shop, the Hawaiian state fish with a name longer than this blog (but only by a little), a puffer fish as big as my parents dog Bandit but without legs, a striped eel that made me really freak out as it slithered by, and a sea turtle but unfortunately we were no longer in the water when we spotted him. Best of all we discovered Dusty can almost float in salt water.

We were so worn out from swimming all morning we HAD to go and take nap before dinner. I think Dusty spent most of the nap watching Deadliest Catch but how would I know, I was lights out. When I woke up I was refreshed but starving. We got dressed up and went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. There was a wait to get seated and that made me hungry-grumpy. We couldn’t kick the hungry part of that but while we were waiting we got rid of the grumpy with a little retail therapy. Dusty informed me that his dad had slipped him some money before we left Spokane and told him to surprise me with something on our trip. And Dusty did just that when we found a beautiful but slightly pricey hair barrette I really liked. Soon we got called to be seated for dinner and man, did it hit the spot!

Sleeping in was our only plan for Monday. We had toyed with the idea of hopping to another island for a day but since our pace for the trip had been quite brisk we decided to just relax and enjoy the area near our hotel. We spent most of our time Monday sitting on the beach, lunching on leftovers in our room and looking through more shops and it made for a perfect day. Later in the afternoon we walked to the Hilton Hawaiian village and had fun taking pictures by the lagoon. After that we walked to the beach to take a few pictures at sunset. While we were walking on the docks in the marina we saw weird looking ripples in the water. Upon closer inspection we could see that there were jelly fish shuffling around beneath the surface of the water. Tons of them! It made me very glad I didn’t act out my plan to sit down and dip my toes in off the edge of the dock. After our photo session we had dinner at Red Lobster and then walked home along the beach.

We had so enjoyed the day of relaxing, that Tuesday we basically had a repeat of Monday with just a little less sleeping in. We tried to go to the restaurant in our hotel lobby for breakfast and were most surprised to see the doors closed and menus all taken down. I asked the gal at the front desk if it was going to be open later that day and she said in an excessively cheerful voice “No they are closed. Never to be open again!” Her chipper tone made me curious about the quality of the restaurant. Apparently, the hotel remodel was not going to include it in their new design. We turned our misfortune into joy after eating at Lulu’s on the beach walk instead. It is a really good thing we hadn’t found Lulu’s sooner or we would have had to eat there every day. The second story -bar style seating faced the ocean for a beautiful morning view. Additionally we had a front row seat to watch workers scale the palm trees for their regular trimming. It may sound annoying but it was actually really cool to watch the guys shimmy up the tree trunk, no ladders, and just start chopping older palm fronds and heavy coconuts out of the tree tops.

Our afternoon consisted of more time at the beach and one last walk through the international market place for all of our must haves souvenirs. Then we spent some time sorting and packing up in our room. I wondered if we would be able to fit it all in to take back home. It’s a good thing for me that Dusty is a superb packer and made it all fit with room to spare. So what did I want to do? Well fill it up of course! I kept myself in check though, adding a few last minute items like a calendar and photo album. For dinner we walked to Cheeseburger in Paradise. It was one of the biggest cheeseburgers I have ever eaten and we found a funny t-shirt to take home to my dad that said “Shut-up and eat your burger!” on the back. I also required one last stop at Yogurt Land; (I spared you the knowledge of how many other times we stopped in during our trip) I truly love pineapple yogurt!

Wednesday was our day to fly home. We had such a great time and nearly perfect weather, it made me want to stay forever. I was so sad that our vacation was over. I teased Dusty that I was going to let him fly home alone and I would just stay awhile. As I was joking about that we watched the news and heard a storm was coming that would be bringing heavy to torrential rain and flash floods. If it was going to be rainy I figured I might as well be back in Spokane with Dusty and the Moose pup. From there our trip home went well including our flight and when we landed back in Spokane we were not greeted with any rain at all! Instead we had hail and snow! Welcome home.

Living in Each Moment

To be honest, I often forget to enjoy each day as it has been given.

This realization came when I was counting down the days until our upcoming Hawaii trip, 16 day in case you were now wondering. I am so excited to get to go on vacation that sometimes I wish it would get here faster. In this wishing things would get here faster, I forget to look at all the great things that are going on right now. I am all for having things to look forward to, that is not what I am critiquing about myself. Rather I am trying to remind myself that the journey should be just as important as the destination. It is good and healthy to be mindful of the future; it helps us to keep making forward progress in life. Yet I am realizing it is also important not to get stuck thinking about things that will come and forget where we are at right now.

I also know that it is a slippery slope to start wishing life away. I noticed that I will often start thinking about the even the little fun events that are coming up, soon my mind wanders to upcoming seasons of the year, then I start thinking about plans we are working on for a house, which lead to thinking about a future career or family and before I know it I am wishing I could see the path for the next five years all laid out on a neat tidy map in front of me. I think even if that was possible, I wouldn’t want it - despite my wishing for it at times. That is because when I think back to five years ago, I see how many things in my life have changed or turned out in amazing ways I could never have believed possible. I know that if I was given a look at my future, it wouldn’t look the way I expect it to and really that’s not what is important anyway since it is often the journey that shapes our lives more than where we end up. This is a very tough concept for a planner like me to wrap my brain around. It is so easy for me to think of things in the future and start wishing for them then that becomes a goal and eventually a precise outline of where I want my life to go.

You may be thinking, “So what. There is nothing wrong with that?” and while I agree, If there is one thing I have learned about my life it’s that the more you try to plan, the fewer things go the way I expect. Lately I have found myself making plans for a year or more down the road that aren’t always founded on very sturdy ground. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are bad plans, just that I don’t have enough info about where I will be in that time until it gets closer. Life can change so fast, you can’t always have a specific plan and occasionally you just have to act. I need to remember sometimes it is ok not to have all the plans for life and just see what happens on the journey.

I am trying to be more “present” in each day and think about how I can enjoy and make that day better rather than just thinking about what is coming up. So in an effort to look at each day as a part of the journey here is a list of the blessings I’ve seen in my life lately:

- We had a beautiful Saturday morning, almost warm even, and Dusty had time to go on a run with me. It was more fun after than during for sure.

- The seed order for our garden arrived and we can start planting as soon as the mud dries a bit.

- The daffodil bulbs we planted last fall are finally popping up. I love daffodils! 

- My Moosey puppy and her insatiable desire to run and play fetch helps “force” me to spend time outside. She is obcessed with sticks!

- Our great friends come over or invite us to spend time playing games and eating dinners together.

- I can get in touch with my inner fish since I have had sub free Fridays to go swimming with the girls and their kiddos.

- Report Cards for my 5th graders are nearly done and we can get back to our regular schedule, sans tons of assessments.

- There is a thick crop of Snow Bells blooming to brighten up the entrance to our tin box.

- My Dusty is the most amazing man I could have dreamed of and supports me in every way imaginable.

Friends

Dusty and I are so thankful to have such amazing friends in our life, both new and old!

 A few weeks ago I had a three day weekend. It was wonderful to have a little more time to catch up with some of our out of town friends. We had planned to visit Chris and Carla at their house in the Tri-Cities but they were actually headed North to go skiing for the weekend in Canada. This means we got to start our “parade of friends” on Thursday when they stayed with us in Spokane.

Friday I had school and Dusty spent the morning helping move some of the bigger items to Craig and Michelle’s new house! After school Friday Dusty and I packed our bags and hit to road on our way to see our friends CJ and Libby in Pasco. We went out to a great dinner, played games and enjoyed relaxing at their house for the night. In the morning Dusty and CJ went and played disc golf while Libby and I visited and caught up on each other’s life.

In the early afternoon we moved west to Prosser to visit Grant, Andrea and their new little one, Noah. Noah was very sleepy while we were there. It was fun to watch him make little tiny faces and hear about life as parents from Grant and Andrea. We left Prosser with perfect timing to have a gorgeous sunset as our backdrop for our return trip to Spokane.

Sunday and Monday we went to Craig and Michelle’s new house to help them get settled in. I enjoyed helping Michelle organize and decorate their awesome new house. I was so amazed how perfectly all their furniture and decorations fit in their new house. It definitely is the perfect house for them and we are so happy that they finally found “the one” after looking for over a year… even if it is ALL THE WAY out in Liberty Lake.

Sunday we also went to a birthday party for Sami and Alan’s little boys. It was at a gymnastics facility so the kids there all were having a great time going crazy on the toys. The gym had tubes, slides (like McDonalds) and a bunch of other gymnastics specific equipment. Including a giant pit filled with foam. I seriously wished I was a little kid again so I could have my birthday there; it looked like so much fun. Dusty was excited to have an appropriate excuse to buy some cute little tractor toys for the boys gift, and I think the boys were just as excited to get them.

Overall the weekend ended up being much busier than we originally thought it would be for us. Nonetheless, it still seemed very refreshing as our hearts were fed by getting to see so many of the important people in our life. We are so thankful for all the great people we have in our life!

Winter Work on the Farm

As a farmer, this time of year I field the question, “so what do you guys do this time of year?” fairly often, so I thought I would try to share some of what keeps me busy during the winter. One of our main projects in the winter is fixing all the equipment that broke the previous summer. That way it is ready to go and break again next summer. Some of our bigger projects this winter are to rebuild the engine in the 8630 (John Deere 4WD). Last September it dropped a valve and beat up a couple pistons. We also had to replace the clutch in our 1974 Chev C60 truck, Find the internal oil leak and change the brakes in the 2240 (John Deere small loader tractor) We also have been working on all the regular maintenance on the other tractors and pickups.

As with every other day of the year, the cows still need to be fed all winter. When it gets really cold, I have the privilege of thawing frozen water troughs for them in the mornings as well. The Moose usually comes with me to help feed, but usually gets distracted by fetching a stick, or any other object she happens to find. In addition to feeding our animals, a lot of our hay customers also have animals to feed, so Dad and I load out hay several times a week. It takes a long time to get rid of 1200ton of hay a pickup load at a time. We spent a lot of time in November and December plowing snow to keep access to the hay open.

This winter we have also worked on restructuring the farm. In 2010 My Dad and I farmed separately and worked together, but keeping track of what is whose was kind of complicated. After talking with out accountant and lawyer, we decided to put both of our operations together and form TD Walsh Farms, Inc. It should be easier to keep track of books and things. That is most of the work related things that keep me occupied, and then there is hanging out with Erin and the dogs, church and small group, and snowmobiling. It is nice to have a more flexible schedule in the winter, makes up for some of the long hours in the summer.

Back to the pace of life

Since Christmas is well past I will just give you a few highlights from the holidays.

 We realized we had no plans for Christmas Eve. No one wants to sit around by themselves on the night before Christmas, but it looked like that could be what would happen. Dusty and I got talking and decided we had plenty of steaks to BBQ. So that is just what we did! With just one days notice we threw together a big potluck dinner at Tim’s house with my parents, sisters, grandma, Dusty’s dad and grandparents all in attendance. I have to say I was impressed with my creativity to make non traditional side dishes since I didn’t have time to go to the store and stock up on such short notice. Also, Christmas Eve Day the twins came over to snowmobile and had a good time before helping get dinner ready.

Christmas day we planned to do our usual running around to all our family gatherings. This plan had to be changed however after Dusty attempted open his new snow shoes and ended up opening the heel of his hand instead. – A word of advice, don’t use a sharp knife to try and cut zip ties, get the scissors! – Dusty managed to control the bleeding long enough for me to clean the blood spurting spots off the light tan couch and then off to the E.R. we went! I know this makes it sound like I wasn’t worried about Dusty. I was but since he seemed to have things somewhat controlled, I decided I did not want to return to our house after Christmas and have it look like a crime scene in our living room. There was blood spatter everywhere; apparently that is what happens with deep puncture wounds near main arteries. The hospital was (thankfully) very empty so Dusty was able to get right in and stitched up. The nurse even gave him an extra big gauzy wrap so he could get additional sympathy for Christmas! Dusty was given another gift from the hospital, a lovely pair of surgical tweezers and forceps. Just what he always wanted! After our E.R. visit we resumed our plans. First we went home to get presents, next we went to my parents’ house, then Dusty’s grandparents, and finally back to the farm to Dusty’s dads. In all the day was great! We got to see nearly all our family and received some awesome gifts. I do have to brag on Dusty a little bit he gave me my favorite present this year, a vacation to go somewhere warm!!! Look for more about that in future posts!!! The cool part was he hid the money he was giving me in a bunch of little gifts. For example, he cut a little slit and inserted the money into the packaging of a new stamp set. So at first I think “oh awesome new stamps!” Then it gets better when I see a hundred bucks inside the package! Isn’t he great?!

On to New Years highlights. The day before New Years Eve (I guess that would be New Years Eve eve) my friend Sami invited me to her gym which was a lot of fun! Although I was so sore I could barely walk the next several days. I have since gone back and had better luck with the soreness afterwards. After trying it out for a week or so she even convinced me to join! I especially like it because it is just a few blocks from my work and the classes are great. But I am getting ahead of myself, back to Friday, New Years Eve when our friends Chris and Carla came into town a bit early. As my kiddos at school would say “we got to keep them” for the rest of weekend. A bunch more people showed up later that night for our party. Despite the below 0 temperatures we had a bonfire and some even bundled up enough to go snowmobiling. There was lots of food, games and kids inside to warm up with when it got too cold to be out. I think we may have actually been a little late noticing it was the New Year at midnight because we were having so much fun. Shortly after our midnight-ish toasts some people started to head home since they had young ones to get to bed and the rest of us had an ABC gift exchange. It was very amusing to see what people brought for their gift. The one that got the biggest laugh was Fauske and his giant jar of fiber, but they were all great! New Years day was much warmer at a high of about 15 degrees! Chris, Carla, Dusty and I took this heat wave as an opportunity to get in some snowmobiling in the sunshine! It was so gorgeous with the bright blue sky and sparkling snow. The conditions, although cold, were perfect for riding. After New Years the last little bit of break went faster than I could believe and I was back in my classroom before I could even blink.

Testing out our new snow shoes

Moosey loves to play in the snow too!

New Years eve party with friends.

Since we have been back to “regular” life we have enjoyed a bit slower pace than the holiday season. It can be nice to just be back in a routine. Here is what our routine has looked like since break. Both of us have been trying to catch up with work. I have had a great time planning our upcoming vacation. I have continued to go to the gym and even talked Dusty into going some too. We have enjoyed visiting with friends and. I hope our 2011 continues to be as great as it has started.

A Note from Dusty

As winter sets in we move the majority of our lives inside. We are great fans of the outdoors, but this time of year the inside of our home becomes full of beautiful decorations, great food, and family and friends. One of the most striking differences that has come about since Erin and I have been married has been the appearance of our home here on the farm. Erin has taken a hodgepodge of furniture from the 60s and whatever decorations I happened to collect over the first 20 years of my life and rearranged a little here, packed away a few things there, bought a couple matching things for this room and that and transformed our “tin-box” into a very welcoming home. As we were putting up our Christmas decorations this year I noticed her ability to make things look really nice, who knew coordinating colors could make such a difference. I have always loved Christmas decorations and so here are a few pictures to bring our home to yours.   

Despite decorating indoors, I always look forward to cutting a Christmas tree out of the woods for the farm house. This year Erin came with Dad and I on the hunt for the elusive perfect… well, the elusive good enough fir tree. As Dad said, they start looking better and better the longer you are looking. We only added three branches to fill in the tree we found this year, so it was a pretty good find. Since Erin came, we have photo documentation of our adventure.

Finding our groove, without feeling stuck in a rut.

Fall farm work is done, school is just chugging along, and it feels like we are now mostly settled into our little tin box house. It is nice to finally have a somewhat regular routine. How is it already the middle of November? 

We are still keeping a full schedule in the end of October and the start of November. Our Halloween party was a blast. We have some hilarious pictures from pumpkin bowling and the photo booth we set up. Here are a couple of our favorites from the party. 


Dusty and Tim just got done with fall work recently. Dusty kept thinking and telling me they were almost done then they would think of another project that should be done before the weather turns. I am sure that the guys have been busier than they like for this late into fall. I know dusty said many of the projects they have done lately are things that haven’t been done in several year because Tim needed help and Dusty was away a college. It is so wonderful to know that things with the farm will slow down a little bit. It feels like they have been going a million miles an hour since we got back to Spokane in June.

Last weekend was Tim’s hayride, potluck, and bonfire. He had an amazing turnout with about 80 people joining us for some or all of the evening. I was especially glad that the rain held off this year even though they were forecasting we might get a sprinkle here and there. (Last year it poured on us; people were soaked to the bone!) Everyone seemed to have a fun time and we only ended up with a few dishes to return to their owners so in all it was a great evening.

We also started a new church recently. Well, more like the same church in a new location, since it is a branch of the same church we went to in Pullman. We are really enjoying having it back in our routine and our new small group is great too.

This week I finished all my grades for report cards. I am very thankful to have that off my plate. Now there is just under a week before conferences to get the student portfolios ready; that is plenty of time for a procrastinator.

Next to do on our list is to figure out what we are doing for holidays. It feels like we just got done with our Halloween party, but I know Christmas and New Year’s celebrations are just around the corner… To party or not to party?