Lake Wenatchee, Washington

Mandatory Rest

The flu bug is making its way through the family.  I thought the colds we had a few weeks ago gave us a buffer from the flu, but I was wrong.  The missionaries who came to our church last week showed up with it.  They were afraid of spreading it to our family, but I figured since they were sleeping next door that we would be okay, besides where would they go on an Oktoberfest weekend in Leavenworth.  All the hotels are booked unless you are willing to pay $300 or more for a room and then you get to put up with loud, drunk neighbors.  No, I don't regret letting them stay.  To be honest, being sick has given all of us an excuse to take it easy.  The boys and I stayed home from AWANA last night, napped and watched "Mom's Night Out." 

If you haven't seen it, you should.  The first five minutes made me think of my homeschool friend and fellow blogger, Sue.  The main character introduces herself as a blogger - Sue, Dutch - Sue,  can't think straight if her house is a mess - Sue,  ....ok...you get my drift.  Yes, Sue, you need to watch the movie.  You will love it.  By the way, that is about all you have in common with the main character.  Oh, she has three kids, two boys and a girl.  Ok...there are more things you have in common.  lol 

Anyway, the boys and I really enjoyed the movie.  In fact, after it was over, Brian came over and gave me a huge hug.  I guess it made him appreciate me even more.  Oh... one of other characters in the movie is the pastor's wife with a teenage daughter.  Yep, I might just buy this one for my library.

Bryce celebrates his 13th birthday

Today we celebrated Bryce's birthday. His friend Eli came over. We enjoyed pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and presents before going to Brian's pizza for bowling and more food. Happy 13th birthday Bryce.

Autumn Leaf Festival in our own hometown.

Bonnie and Brian hanging out together before the big parade.

It is finally time for our own parade here in Leavenworth and it's a family affair.  Brian joined the high school concert band this year which is also our town marching pep and football pep band.  Bonnie as Leavenworth's Distinguished Young Woman enjoyed greeting all of the Royalty who came to participate in our parade.  She spent the two plus hours before the parade visiting with everyone and getting to know all the queens and princesses.

Watching the parade with Mom and Dad Ells.

 Bonnie's DYW housemate and Washington State's DYW runner-up, Allison from Moses Lake

 The Chewalah float is my favorite and also carries another DYW who won the talent competition.

Royal City is also a fun float with their comic book theme and another DYW.

What a fun, tiring day.  Everyone is back home but there is a lot of excitement still in the air with all the people in town.   Once again I feel blessed to be a part of this awesome town. 

Othello

Another weekend...another parade....
This time we travelled to Othello, Wa.  If you don't know where Othello is, just travel east on I-90 towards Spokane.  Once you get to Moses Lake, get off on Hwy 17 and head north to Othello.  It is a bigger community than Ritzville, in fact, they have their own Walmart.  That means something, right?

The Othello parade commission had a 1955 Chevy Thunderbird for Bonnie to ride in and better yet, I was asked to drive it.  Bryce came with us so he got to ride shotgun.  It was a little scary since the float ahead of us was throwing candy and kids were running up to the car to get some.  Fortunately, no one died.  Lol....after the parade all of the Royalty met up at the park for a picnic and social time before heading home.  Two more parades and then Bonnie can hang up the drindle.

In the PIt of Despair

This little clip from the Princess Bride movie was running through my head last night.  It seems we are in the Pit of Despair right now.  Everything that has an engine and moves right now has a problem with it.  Pretty depressing.  After Todd and I went to the lawyers in Wenatchee on Monday he realized something was once again wrong with the Blazer.  At first he thought it was a coolant leak, but we can't be so fortunate.  Mercifully Todd was able to drive the car around the block and park it in our driveway before it took it last breath and revealed that the leak was transmission fluid.  Not an easy fix.  We are praying that it is a gasket issue or a hose that needs replacing, but if it is the whole transmission that needs overhauled, well....let's not go there for now.  The van is running but my passenger window has not worked for two years now.  Todd has had it on his agenda to fix but it keeps being put on the back burner.  Looks like with the Blazer problem, my window will forever stay closed.  The diesel truck has window issues as well.  Todd has to manually take off the door panel to pull the window up.  Then there is the backhoe.  Todd jumped on it yesterday to drive down to the church to do some work on the church parking lot. Unfortunately, the back hoe started spewing out black smoke everywhere.  All these things can be fixed, but as one vehicle reared its flaws one after another Todd and I sat around looking at each other and wondered  why?  Why?  Where is he going to find the time or the means to fix everything?  To top it off, he has to be in Seattle on Monday for a pastor's retreat/meeting.  I wish he could stay here but since they are discussing the Regional Family Bible Conference that our church is hosting it is imperative that he be there.  At least the van and diesel are drivable.  Until then, we will lie on our backs and cry out to God for mercy as we find ourselves in the ...Pit of Despair.

Things are in the Horizon

We have finally hit our first FULL week of school.  So far so good.  Bryce and I read in his Bible book a story of a Muslim girl.  It seemed like this was a good time to write a Compare/Contrast paper on Muslims vs. Christianity.  I keep telling Bryce that we have two years to get ready for high school.  I read on fb an article today about how to get your kids ready for high school. I was happy to see that we are doing just about everything on the list.  Bryce is taking typing lessons every day.  We are also working on writing and taking notes.  All three of things were on the top of the list to do. 

Brian is continually doing well at school.  Friday was the first home game and Brian's first experience playing in the pep band.  He had a lot of fun.  I have high hopes for Brian in band and have decided that I really like his band teacher.  This Saturday Brian has band practice all morning to get ready for the big parade in town - Autumn Leaf Festival which is at the end of the month.

For Todd and I, our afternoon was spent with a lawyer.  We are in the process of putting the Chumstick property in our name.  Once the land is deeded to us we can approach a builder to have a house built on the property.  We have found a builder we like and have two house plans were are interested in.  My favorite plan is the Mia. 

It is a pretty simple house but has all the room we need.  Todd and I walked through the model and I really liked how it felt inside.  The main level has the living room, dining, kitchen, family room, bathroom, and laundry. Upstairs is the master bedroom with a walk in closet and bathroom, there is also three other bedrooms and a bathroom.  The best part is that talking to the financial adviser our monthly payments would  be the same or less than what we are currently paying in rent.  You can't beat that. Hopefully all the paperwork is under control and we can have a serious talk with the builder and get the ball rolling.