Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Summer, Please Don't End

School started today and I sent off Kyle (grade 12) and Kirsten (grade 9) to catch the bus at 7:15 this morning. Kevin has opted for dual enrollment and so will begin classes at the community college in a couple of weeks. I know, it's just crazy; how could they possibly be in high school, and the twins in their senior year??

One project finally finished - Kirsten's bedroom. The wallpaper is gone and we now have this amazing dark turquoise color on the wall. How long has she begged me to paint her room? I hate to think about it. It should have been done long ago, but other things seemed to be more important at the time. Forget that - after the initial shock, I'm rather enjoying that blast of color at the end of the hall! And she's ecstatic.

While the room was fairly empty, I scrubbed and put down 4 coats of polish on the floor. Can't believe how gorgeous that floor is now! It won't last long - too much life going on in there.

Speaking of life, here are a couple of teenagers who are full of it. There's so much life there that it knocked them right out. :)


In August we hitched up the trailer for our annual trip to the Long Beach peninsula of the Washington coast for the Paulson family reunion. Nice to get away and have some downtime! The boys and Kirsten needed to recharge the batteries as they put a lot of miles on their running shoes this summer. You might notice an additional dog in the picture. That is Max, my Dad's dog, and I guess he's now my dog too.

Also in August we hosted the annual Mid-Columbia Insurance picnic for our employees and their families. The weather was awesome that day, I think it was about 83 degrees F which is quite mild for the Tri-Cities! Usually it's 95 to 100. We had two bounce houses for the kids and lots of great food, fun, games, and prizes!

Last week was the county fair and at long last DH put in three pictures receiving a blue ribbon on one of them. Kirsten entered three pictures and got blue ribbons on each one! They're much more generous with their ribbons in the youth category. :)


Here is the portrait she entered which I think totally deserved the blue ribbon.

Along with the fair is a rodeo each night which is fun to go watch. Since our company is a fair supporter, we get special passes to the "party pad" which is right between the chutes for the riding events and the chutes for the roping/wrestling events and I mean it's right next to the action and sometimes you can almost be a part of the action! There I was sitting next to the rail on Saturday evening when a bull threw a cowboy off his back then charged at him. Said cowboy flung himself up the rail - almost into my lap. It all happened so fast, but not so fast that I didn't notice that the cowboy was pretty cute. :) Not only do you get the good location, but there's free food provided by some of the best caterers in town, so I got real spoiled not cooking dinner last week.

All that's behind me now and I'm back in my own kitchen, cooking meals not only for my family, but the boys cross country team came for breakfast yesterday! Thank goodness not the entire team - my house isn't big enough for them all - but enough of them to go through 5 pounds of bacon and who knows how many pancakes. This year I got smart and didn't set out all the bacon on one plate, but held some back in reserve so there was a more equitable distribution of the coveted bacon. If there's one thing boys love, it's bacon.

Of course, there's lots more to report, but I think I've gone on about enough for now. I'm hoping that one day I'll have a chance to sit with my needle in hand, but since it's xc season, I'm kinda doubting that's going to happen soon. In the meantime, I'll enjoy all your stitching progress and maybe make a trip to Joann's to see if they have those Alicia scissors I've seen on a couple of blogs today!

6 comments:

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

All of our kiddos are growing up :)
I love Kirsten's portrait, much deserving the win!
bacon is coveted thing at our house too :)

Lynn said...

I can't believe summer is almost over either! It must be quiet around your place now the kids are back to school.
I love the colour of Kirsten's room! It's one of my favourites.
I think she was very deserving of her fair ribbon too. Lovely photo!

Karen said...

The colour you used for Kirstin's bedroom is gorgeous! Her portrait turned out really well, and the win was well-deserved!

School starts next Tuesday here. It's hard to believe that summer is over. It just flew by this year!

a woman who is said...

I need to come see your roses!!! Before the summer slips complete away from our hand.

Siobhán said...

My boy twin is in his senior year, too. My girl twin decided to do a gap year so I get her home for one more year. I keep joking with them that I'm going to home school them for college. LOL They grow up too quickly, don't they?!

5 lbs of bacon--I can imagine!!

Nice job on Kirsten's room. The portrait is gorgeous, too. Congrats to the ribbon winners!

Robin said...

Hi! Thanks for commenting on my blog. I am always looking for fun, new blogs to read. Some of the projects I alluded to are embroidery - which I haven't done in years! I am having so much fun!
We LOVE Kellen Moore at our house. In fact when I am trying to get my 3 year old grandson to eat his dinner, I entice him by saying" Okay, take a big Kellen Moore bite!" It works every time!