Hatchets and Pointy Sticks

Good Morning! As promised the story behind the name.
A few years ago some friends of ours asked us to watch their kiddos SM and JM. After dropping SM off at school JM and I had some time to kill. So we (as in I) decided it was a beautiful day we should go for a walk down a local walking trail. After informing JM of the plan he got so excited and enthusiastically told me we had to go by the house so he could get his tools. Well he is a boy so that could mean just about anything. But I could not deny those bright blue eyes the chance to get his tools so we stopped by the house. He immediately runs into the garage and comes back with a hatchet. In my head something said maybe this was a bad idea but his parents have let them do strange things in the past. Like eating doughnut holes for breakfast... don't judge. My family wasn't allowed that for breakfast. JM happily placed the hatchet in his back pack and we were off. When we got to the trail he asked if he could pull out the hatchet as we walked. Okay I am not a total idiot... NO. There are MANY stops along the way so I let JM know that he could play with the hatchet then. At the first stop he pulled the hatchet out of his backpack with great might and enthusiasm. Here is how it went:
JM: "Can I cut down the forest" (there is not real forest, mainly weeds).
ME: "sure have fun but don't cut your leg off (mom is a nurse don't think she wants to see her kid for a hatchet wound)
JM: Big smile, blue eyes sparkling "okay"
After about 10 min of "cutting" He placed the hatchet back into his backpack and we were off to a "better spot". At the next spot our narrative was basically the same however, there was an added element. Another family. Oh yeah my bad idea feeling begins to emerge again. JM asks little girl if he would like to play. As he pulls out the hatchet mom of little girls eyes get big and she looks at me with glaring eyes that just yelled "are you a complete idiot". I was feeling a bit like one at this point. After awhile it was time to go meet JM's mom and my baby needed a nap. So he placed the hatchet back into the backpack and we headed home. After a full day of chopping down the forest JM was very tired to so he went to play in his room. The story, however, is not over... Mom arrives home and i begin to tell her about our adventurous afternoon. When I bring up the hatchet
AM: "Oh the cute little plastic one out of his room"
ME: trying to look sheepish "No, the one out the garage"
AM: "his dad's hatchet"
ME: "apparently"
AM: "and you didn't think that could be a bad idea"
ME: "well yeah, but you let your kids do weired things all the time..." (also an important note: Every time we have thought the kids were pulling our leg they are allowed to do we find out later after talking to the parents that they are allowed to do it!)
Since no one got hurt it was just a good laugh one they still like to tease me about. Oh and for those of you are reading this thinking whats the big deal a boy... a hatchet... JM was only four. There you go I admitted it I let a four year old smile his way into playing with a hatchet. The pointy sticks is just a play on the hatchet... when were were planting the cache JM found a pointy stick broke it to make two pointy sticks and shared one with his sis SM. When his parents called I said to them "no, worries they are just running down the trail with pointy sticks" This time I was a little smarter and told them to stop running. LOL.

Packing and a planting...

Today has been one of those days were the morning felt like I had all the time in the world. Then like a mack truck it hit me not only did I double book myself for this evening (oops) I have two days before I leave for 10 and I have packed nothing yep that's right nothing. First thing first I had to call my friends that we were having dinner with and A. Cancel B. Bring kiddos with me. Luckily B worked out. (I refused to give up watching the kiddos we had some planting plans). So to dinner we went. It was very fun and exciting and the kids did amazingly well. So we played and visited for a few hours. Then we did the planting. Planting what you ask? A geocache! That's right a geocache (www.geocaching.com)! The kids helped us find the most perfect spot. Well hidden under some... well that would ruin the surprise for someone who was attempting to find it. We creeped in buried it and creeped out. The name of the cache is Hatchets and Pointy Sticks. The name has deep personal meaning. Tomorrow I shall share the story so stay tuned.

Fathers Day in the Park

Our Church had a Father's Day picnic at Sunnyside park on Sunday. Abigail had fun playing on some of the toys. Most are still a little big for her but she attempted to have fun.

Coffee and Cropping Yay for ME!

My day has been so fun... not really sure what Josh and Abi did but I got up early (not exactly the fun part) and met my BFF for coffee and we attempted to hit some yard sales but didn't see anything good so we drove on. Then I came home and picked up my kit for Kit Club @ PaperPals (http://www.paper-pals.com/) our local scrapbook store. I love seeing what other ladies do with the same stuff that I was given. Most of the time I feel quite inadiquate to call myself a scrapbooker but I always get some amazing ideas. Then I had a short break and headed back to PaperPals to take a class on using a clear acrylic album. It was so much fun. Shawna had a demo she had done but left it open for us to make our own. I found this fun and yet challenging. Again back to the I feel inadequate around most other scrapbookers. I had to keep on asking Shawna for approval (thank you Shawna). Here is some pics of some of the pages of my book...

After the class I was expecting to go home grab a quick bite and go work on roofing project number 2. Sorry no pics I forgot to bring my camera. Hopefully I will get some from the home owner. Just as I was about to leave PP I got a call from Joel that said they were all done so I got to go home. With no roofing project I knew that I needed to go work on cleaning a house that I am working on for some friends so I muster up the strength and headed over. I entered the house making sure ppl knew I was coming in. There was a car parked outside but I figured it was just more ppl. working on the house (our friends are doing a MAJOR remodel) I came up stairs to find Nick and Sherri! What is the significance of that you might ask... Well about threeish years ago they moved away b/c Nick joined the Army. I didn't know they were in town so it was a very pleasant surprise. We chatted for awhile and then I went to go get the the cleaning I had come there to do however, another pleasant surprise, the cleaning supplies were nowhere to be found so I was able to come home and relax. Again YAY FOR ME! Hope everyone else has had as pleasant of a day as I have.

Roofing

As part of going to World Changers the youth Pastor (Joel) organizes pre-projects for us. Typically it is roofing since that is what is needed around our area most. It took us two days and we were done. Here are some pictures from Pre-project #1.

Memorial Day weekend fun...

We started the weekend Friday afternoon and headed to Yakima, WA apparently also known as the Palm Springs of WA. Ha Ha… Amanda my wonderful sis in law got us tickets to go see Josh Turner and Carrie Underwood in Concert. We had so much fun. However, the security was a bunch of jerks. I was so close to getting a really really good up close shot of Carrie on stage I was zoomed in the camera was focused and about to click to take the photo when some security guard grabbed my arm and told me I had move. GRRR! I asked if I could have two seconds to take the photo and he said no… at least four other people were standing around taking pictures. Here is some of the shots I did get… We hung around after the concert and got some pictures with the band but Carrie Underwood didn't come out of her bus.

Then we were off to White Salmon for the Powers Family Reunion @ Aunt Nancy and Uncle Lyle’s cabin. They set us up in their 5th wheel it was VERY nice. Thank you guys again. Abigail got to meet her Great Grandma W for the first time.
In great Abigail style she immediately wanted Grandma to take her from us.

Just before sundown I went for a run Saturday night and found myself lost. The road I took slowly started to narrow until it was just a walking path. However, I finally found a property that thankfully led back to the road I knew and I made it back to the cabin just before all the sunlight was gone. They sent Josh out to look for me b/c stupid me didn’t bring my phone so while I was lost I couldn’t call anyone for help! I did pick up a rock as my protection (as if that would stop much) but hey David killed Goliath with a stone so I thought I could have a chance. That night we listened to the styles of Lyle and a neighbor breaking it down for us.

Sunday brother Steve organized for some members of the fam to go white water rafting with All Adventure Rafting (http://www.alladventurerafting.com/) guides. Here are a few pictures that they took for us:

We had to split into 3 groups. The top left picture is all of us getting trained to work the river. The picture below that is a group picture of all of the family members that went down river. Brother Lonnie and his son Bailey went with a completely different crew and the lower left corner of the collage is them. Look closely at the picture in bottom middle you can just barley see the tip of Bailey’s helmet he got completely covered! Upper right is brother Steve with his son’s Logan and Dylan and some of their friends. The lower right corner is Josh, Dad, Edie, myself, Kelsey, and Nick. It was completely amazing experience. THANKS STEVE! Dad in law affectionately got the name chrome dome (notice the helmet) along the ride. We were all tired by the time we got done we were all hungry and wondering when we were going to eat. Then Edie came to our rescue and let us know that she had brought snacks (mom, of three boys she knew). The next morning we came back home. Good memories to add to the scrapbook that will get finished??