Julia's First Graduation

Today Julia "graduated" from Horsecamp. We had my Mom & Dad, Garrett and our family come watch the arena part of our lesson. We all enjoyed it. My favorite part of the week, was listening to Julia giggle as she trotted around the arena.
Jaden thought she did a good job. Rod thought it was pretty amazing that a 3.5 year old could lead a horse so well!

Afterwards we came home and hung out & then had lunch. We were due to be up to a friends house near Bellingham about 1pm. Leeann has a pool where she lives, so the kids got changed into their pool clothes & we headed to her house.

We all had a great time. The kids loved the pool. I got the chance to really talk to a good friend of mine. Glad that we took the time ~ glad that she thought enough to call and plan to see us. She has the ability to understand some of the emotional things I've been dealing with lately ~ in such a understanding and motherly way. Talking to her, always helps me steer myself back on path. Her faith in the Lord is so tangible and real. I love her very much!

Got home just in time for Josiah to play the second scrimmage game before the All Stars tournament next week. I dropped him off at the baseball field with my mom & Garrett. Left Jed there with them as well (my dad stopped by to pick him up for their Garden Club meeting - Josiah couldn't go b'c of the game.) Jaden, Julia & I headed home for some quite time. I did a load of laundry, realize how sore I really am, & went & sat down on the couch with the kids & watched the first Night at the Museum.

Rod came home with Jed from the Garden Club meeting. He drove over there after work. He's officially recieved permission to go ahead and develop a website for the Skagit Men's Garden Club. They don't have one. I think they should... Anyway, Rod needed a final project for his Adobe Certification in the design field ~ so he decided to do their website. Tonight he took it to the president to get the go ahead. Glad that's decided. All in all, it was a good day. Tonight, tired, I will sleep well. What a crazy busy, yet great week!

Yep, We sure did!

(Tex & Julia)
Today was an eventful day, I guess.
We started out at horsecamp, day 3 of 4. Had a good morning with my little Jules. Today she got to experience guiding the horse with no help from mom or her teacher. We were in a small arena, and we took off their lead ropes. Then we played sort of a hide & seek. I went somewhere in the arena a ways away ~ and it was her job to her her horsey over to me. It was quite fun & I was profoundly surprised that she was able to do it. We she also went on a long trail ride in the "jungle" (where I led Tex.)

Then I got Jaden from Mom & Dad's. Mom had Jos & Jed out at the gleaners with Shirley. When I came home, she showed up with the boys shortly after. Jed asked if he could go to Grandmas for the day. I said okay. It's summer afterall.

Julia & I had a nap on the couch while Jaden & Josiah played. That was good. Then Mom came to take Josiah to baseball practice. (Garrett has been helping out at practice, so she's going over to the park anyway.... I'm getting to the point where I'm park-ed out!)

I showed up before practice was over so that we could all go to the Matt's practice. We all headed over to one of the players homes. Mon & Wed, Josiah & Jed have been going to practices of sorts with their coach from this season. This last Mon they went on a hike of Little Mountain. The boys had a GRAND time & so they all agreed that for practice Wed (today) that they would go up the other side.

I didn't have anything better to do & wanted to take the opportunity to participate in what the boys were doing ~ so I went to. I should have known better. It was much harder than I had anticipated. Julia was with me & my little doll was such a trooper. She did better at it than I did. (I "heard" that Jaden had no problem on the hike at all!!)

I should have known that there was NO way that I, a relatively seditary housewife, could keep up with "the boys" on a three mile hike. 1.5 each way. We let the boys go on ahead. Julia & I got about 3/4 of the way up & the trail split. Didn't know which way to go. Julia thought we were lost. I got out my cell to see if I could get ahold of Garrett or one of the other dads that were hiking... when a lady & her dog showed up & told us the way to go. Not much later I ran into Matt & David. Matt went on ahead with the boys & David stayed with Julia & I.

I seriously thought about heading back. But, I wasn't sure of the exact way. I asked about the way back down the trail & then I thought, I'm not feeling well enough to make sure I go the right way ~ and I didn't want to take the chance of getting lost with Julia in tow.

I thought about the boys, Garrett, Josiah, Jedediah and Jaden who all brave-heartedly went ahead of me & expected me to show up at the end. That spurred me forward. Literally. Then I thought of my Youth Dynamics days, where, we rockclimbed, river rafted, repelled and hiked. We went on a week hiking trip in the North Cascades ~ I have pictures to prove it :D

I thought about how I have not done one thing as hard as what I was doing right at that moment since I had gone on that North Cascades hiking trip with YD. I thought about how difficult some of the hiking had been and yet I kept going and pulled through. It wasn't pretty, but I had done it. Which of course, means, that I can do it again. Day to day, now as I raise my kids, I still see the effects of the time that I spent as a Youth Leader with YD. The investment my leaders made in me, and I am so thankful.

There were times today, that I literally couldn't make the next step. David held out his hand and pulled me up. Talk about "seeing" what the Lord can do. Isn't that what He does for us when it's tough enough we cannot do it on our own?

Honestly, I would not have gone today if I would have known how hard it would have been. I certainly would have left my precious little three year old daughter down at the bottom, safe and sound with her Grandma. She & I went on an adventure & boy, that's what we got!

There were a few times, where I had to tell her to stop talking and just keep walking. She just kept saying that she needed to go to the bathroom, that her legs were tired or "Where are my boys?" she would say. Each time she said one of those things, which in those moments, were complaints or downward thoughts, I had to ask her to not to talk. Sometimes, it's just better to not say anything at all ~ than to discourage those around you, as well as yourself. That may not have been a lesson for her, but it was for me.

Made it to the top. Had hoped to get a group picture of the team & the other kids from their families that had come. No chance. We were too late. Oh, well, got a picture of Julia & I. That'll just have to be good enough.

The way down was so much easier. We talked much of the way. There we were, almost back. I get a call from Garrett on my cell. Where are we? On our way down! Did we make it to the top? Yep, we sure did!

Nope, didn't do it pretty, but we got 'er done! And I got to tell my boys that, although we finished a good 1/2 hour after them (probably more honestly) and that even though it was tough, that I wanted to quit, that I weighed my options ~ finishing something that was very hard, was the better way to go.

My bandwidth has been compromised.

(photo: Tex & Julia, June 29, Lang's Horse & Pony Farm)
Wow, didn't realize that it's been a couple of weeks since i've posted!

Since we went white water rafting, a few things have happened. Baseball ended for Josiah & Jedediah. Josiah had been told when All Stars tryouts were, but we decided not to have him play. A day or so later, Coach Mike called asking if Josiah could play ~ they didn't have enough boys. Fine. Lesson learned: Avoid tryouts = Get asked to play anyway!

So his baseball schedule got extended a couple more weeks. Jedediah's not old enough to do All Stars. The All Stars games are July 9-14. It's a double elimination tournament. I like how things are going much better this year (compared to last year~the reason that I didn't want him to play this year.)

(little video: Josiah, June 30th, All Stars practice) I've almost finished all the levels of New York in Mafia Wars on Facebook. I know, that means I've spent much too much time playing it in the last few months. It does get me the "cool" award with many teens and kids of my own. Sometimes it's just fun to have something in common with those around you. This is one of those things.

Lately, we have been working on when the kids were going to go to horsecamp at Lang's pony farm this year. They started something new this year, a Mommy & Me camp for kids under 5. Well, normally during horsecamp, I schedule Pony rides for Julia because she gets so upset she can't go & she doesn't understand that she's not old enough. So for a bit more than what I usually pay for pony rides during her brothers horsecamp week ~ I scheduled her for camp. We we re actually supposed to go a couple of weeks ago, but a friend died ~ and I wanted to go to the funeral. So we rescheduled for this week.

Needlesstosay~ Julia is having the time of her life. It's two hours in the morning, for four days. Today was day two. She's gotten to go on trail rides, trotted and learned to steer her pony "Tex." She's also helped saddle him and brush him. She says she wants to buy him and take him home. He's her "best friend." I think I'd let her fall in love with horses, if it could keep her away from boys for a few years... hmm, have some time to think about that :) I personally would love to have horses. Maybe one day that dream will come true.

Rod has once begun school again. This should be his last quarter at Skagit. Today he was excited because he actually used one of the skills he's been learning ~ at work! He has about 6 weeks left of school and then he will be done with his Adobe Certification. He has one class left to take someothertime ~ they did n't offer it this quarter ~ and then he will have a Graphic Design Certificate. I'd like to see him take that last class to finish it out. I'm all about tying up lose ends.

Speaking of lose ends. I feel like i've been doing FCHM an injustice lately. We've been talking about switching from a monthly ezine to a weekly ezine ~ for awhile. There are some things in my life that has made me a crazy woman. My bandwidth has been compromised.

I've been putting them out once a month for well over a year. And, I've been putting off making the switch. Dominic had said that he would like them to go out weekly, on tuesday. So, I got our first weekly ezin e out, on a tuesday (late, but done!) and have started on the next one. We use constantcontact.com for them. It has worked out nicely ~ but it took me a bit to really figure it all out. Here is the June Ezine.

The highlight, was figuring out a banner/button for an advertiser! I used some of my photoshop skills! Now, i've seen though what Rod's been doing in Illustrator & Flash and I hope to use some of that - put to good use sometime here soon.

What am I looking forward to? This weekend for Rod is a three day weekend! He now gets holiday pay :) So, we're planning on going and getting fireworks at the reservation on the 3rd. And then planning on spending time with good friends on the 4th! Maybe this year, like last year, we'll get another cool family, professional looking photo!