The Summer Countdown

Only two weeks of school left and I am so excited to not have a schedule every day. I know, I know, come the middle of August I will be begging to have them back in school. What have we been doing here? Nate spent the day ripped out a sub frame from another car to replace his sub frame while the rest of us sat in the blistering heat for 4 hours at Becca's last band concert. She did great though and I bought plenty of water and soda in support of the band. Hot dog lunches, yum yum. We are going to try and schedule out our summers so all you friends that live to far away, this is the year to come see us. Just let me know when you want to crash at our house. You can even make us a stop on the way to something better-nice seeing you Angie.

Oh by the way, I am re elected to school board for another four years. Tomorrow is another big meeting but we are almost done until August. I only have one meeting in July! Well back to the same ol same ol.

Smith Family Keeping Busy

Well I thought I would just do a quick update and say Happy Mother's Day to all the fabulous women I know. Today was a day of achievements for the Smith household. Roz has turned 12 and is officially on her way into Young Women's. The girls came and welcomed her in this week by decorating her room with B's. It was close, but the bishop passed her off this morning and she received her certificate.

Becca had her own success today as she received her Young Women's medallion. We are very proud of her finishing it up before becoming a Mia Maid. Way to Go Becca! I am just sad to see her project of teaching Zach and Eliza piano lessons to end; now I have to do it.

I am in the middle of the Beaverton School Board elections but as I am running unopposed, I am feeling confident I will win. I am putting my election energy into getting LeeAnn Larson elected as well. State budget and elections in the next two weeks are going to be keeping me busy. Thank you to everyone for their wonderful help.

BOB Winners

Becca, Berkley, Brian, Jose, and Ryan are the Mountain View champions for Battle of the Books. Today they went to the regional competitions and placed 3rd in the first round and then lost in the semi-finals. We are so proud of them and they are right now parting it up here. They are so glad that they never have to look at those 15 books again. Thanks to Samantha for coming over as well so Becca isn't the lone girl with all the boys and the friends they brought. Becca also won first place for 8th grade in the science fair this week. Yes, my life truly is about my children.

I am running for school board and I am not excited about the campaign thing again. So far I am running unopposed, but their is still 1 week left to file. It has been a hard long battle with school board but I am fighting a good fight and we are defiantly moving forward with positive changes.

I am ready for a quiet do nothing week for spring break. Becca is getting her full braces on finally. We have been link by link dragging a tooth down for 16 months. She is finally ready for the next step. Have her give you a big smile.

OK I am back

I know I know....It's been a long time but I have decided when you have something worth writing about you are two busy to do so.

Quick update:
Go Eagles: I went to my 20 year high school reunion. We had 9 people there from my kindergarten class. It was fun to see so many people though I still am not sure what it is about having gone to school with these people, some of them my whole life, that has such the draw. What I really want is a stake reunion to visit with my old Mormon friends.

St Marten's: We actually did make it out with the crazy weather in Oregon and Chicago. We enjoyed strawberry, mango, chocolate banana and my favorite pina colado drinks (virgin of course) on the beautiful and warm beaches of the Caribbean. Losing 5 of our 7 pieces of clothing including all of our clothes except Nathans was a set back. Also the scary event of my Mother in Law Joyce having a heart attack 2 days before we left resulting in she and Paul not joining us made us sad. Becca read and tanned with her 50 sunblock on, Roz and Eliza got their hair braided enjoying freedom to snorkel, build castles and swim in the pool. The boys were beach bums in the morning, pool in the afternoon and riding on the pirate ship. Nate escaped the blackberry for a whole week and I read a friends book she is writing which is coming along awesome (you know who you are).

The beginning of a new year: Life is up and rolling in full speed now with school board budget and elections through May. We had some beautiful weather in January and now I have the itch to work in the yard. This years project is pathways around the garden.

I am off to check my facebook account now. Ah technology-it's so time consuming :)

EEEEK a mouse

So I know the whole when the weather gets cold bugs and vermin move to where it is warm but this was ridiculous. I picked up my coat off our den (not really used for much more than collecting stuff) and screamed when I saw a huge spider under the coat and another one dropped out of my coat. Of course my husband gives me this hard time about "it's just a little spider". Yeah, no it was two, major surprise factor and I almost put that coat on!

So a few days later I come home from an evening school board meeting and my husband calls down from our room "could I come up there"-sounding a bit off. So I come in to find him huddled in the middle of the bed with his laptop where he informs me that he saw a mouse run under our bed. OK, we are talking second story window. What is up with that? So long story short and much secret time from the kids in case I couldn't catch it, we corner this mouse in my sitting area with the screens we pulled off the windows to paint. Nate has barricade duty seeing as for some reason he really just can't stand mice, and I climb over the barricade with the bucket to try and catch it. I see it cornered behind my scrap booking stuff (who knows whats living back there since it has been so long since I touched it) and start in with "here, here little mousy". Nate very shortly tells me "don't talk to it!" So I had to proceed to chase this mouse from corner to corner until I finally finish it off with a box.

Thankfully, task was completed, I can now scoff at my hubby for making fun of me for the spider incident and we haven't seen or caught another one since.

Side note: as I am at my parents for my 20th reunion- my mother made the comment "most people try and loose weight for their reunion and you look like you gained weight". Yeah, I think I will go cry now.

Cool Hair Ideas

Ok everyone with cute girls-Mahina this one is for you. My sis-in-law sent me this link and it is very fun. I just thought you might like to check it out. http://babesinhairland.blogspot.com/

So I realize this is interesting coming from the mother who's children never look like they have brushed their hair, let alone sat still long enough for any of these elaborate do's, but a mom can dream can't she. Those of you with young ones still, get them used to the brush and rubber bands early because the older they get the more opinions they gain. Enjoy playing with bobby pins and bows. Maybe Sunday I will try and get Eliza to hold still long enough to do something. Funny, she seems to let her cheer coach do her hair....huh.

Pirates Hurting Stephenie Meyer

If you haven't heard, the first 12 chapters of Stephenie Meyers Edward Version-Midnight Sun was pirated and released on the Internet. She is so sad and frustrated that she has decided she can no longer finish the book and has but it on hold indefinitely. As fun as it would be to read the whole thing, she ought to take some time for herself and the family to get over it and then see. If you want to read it go to her home page, stepheniemeyer.com.