Walk-a-thon!

Our kids go to Carl Cozier Elementary School. It is a great school and we love it. I have decided that one of the things I really really love about this school is the fact that they do ONE fundraiser all year. That's it. And, they do it right at the beginning of the year. No silly sales and guilt trips for not helping my kids earn prizes. It is AWESOME! The one fundraiser is the annual walk-a-thon, complete with pledges or flat donations, community donations of bread and otter pops and a water station for keeping the kids cool.

My sweet little kindergarten A got to participate in a small version, because she doesn't go to school on Fridays when they were letting the rest of the school walk. The 2 littles and I went over and cheered her on. She never stopped running hard for 30 whole minutes! I was totally amazed. I'm not sure the distance, I know it wasn't much, but she ran 27 laps and was so excited the whole time. I love that people are so health conscious here and want to teach kids good habits.

Friday, the big kids each got 30 minutes to run with their classes. They were on a regular 1/4 mile track and they had 3 stations each lap to get their wrist card punched. W was fast and enthusiastic. I like to think of him as an overly excited puppy dog when it comes to physical activity. He's kind of all over the place and uses tons of energy and is so excited the whole time. (Seriously, you should see him in swim lessons...TONS of energy used, he just doesn't get very far...). A paced herself. She's learned she has to be careful so she doesn't have a major asthma attack. I had her puffer right there just in case. Sometimes she shies away from hard physical things because they're just extra hard for her with all her health stuff. She ROCKED the walk-a-thon with 21 laps! I worked the water station during their 30 minutes with another mom. There were 6 classes on the track (1st-3rd grades) and I think in that 30 minutes we used 1000 paper cups! Not very eco-friendly, but the kids stayed hydrated! A and S were great water station assistants and D just hung out in the hiking backpack the whole time cheering kids on. Containment is key with that boy lately.

Exploring Bellingham, one park at a time.

A few nights a week, we try to head out to explore a park in our beautiful city. It's a great way to wear the kids out before bed time! Here's our happy family at Fairhaven Park.

A and S love playing "store" at every park we go to. I wish we could use bark mulch as $ other places too!

My handsome big boy learning about different animals and where they come from. What a great kid!

Twisty slides are so much fun. These two little girls are best friends, and have their moments of worst enemies. I'm so glad they have eachother. They remind me of Kon and I...

Tricky boy! I think I have very cautious kids. It is very rare that any of them attempt any daredevil stunts. This is about as risky as they get.

This is D showing us in sign language just how cold it is. He says, "it's cold" over and over while shaking his fists and making that face.

The 3 girls in the middle of some fantasy game. I love that they all love dresses so much and will layer as much as necessary to wear a dress, even when it's cold. Man, my big A is getting so tall!

So far, we have explored Whatcom Falls Park, Cornwall Park, Bloedel-Donovan Park, Bouleverd Park, and Fairhaven Park. This city is filled with trails and parks and beautiful things to see and do and discover. Hopefully the weather cooperates so we can continue our explorations and wear out our sweet Green Beans enough for bedtime!

"Washing"ton

S and her umbrella.

We just got home from taking the kids to school.....TGIF. After we dropped them off, we stopped by the bank to make a quick deposit. The whole time we were waiting A and S from the back seat kept saying, "Mom, when can we go to the car wash?" "I want to wash our van." "I want to be covered in bubbles at the car wash." "Mom! I want to wash our van...NOW!" I kept saying things to brush them off so I could focus on the money depositing. I finally said, "No, it rains so much all the time it would be silly to wash our van, and I don't know where a car wash even is."

To that, my dear 3 year old S replies, "Yeah, we don't need to go to the car wash. We live in Washington, and that has washing in it. That's why it has to rain so much."

Brilliant!

"Where are you from?"

I've gotten this question a lot. I've thought about this question a lot. The other day as I was driving down the road, I was feeling a little homesick. Problem was, I wasn't sure what or where I was feeling homesick for. I miss familiar things. The most familiar place to me right now is Terre Haute, Indiana. I miss my house and my friends and knowing that there were people thinking of me and who knew me. I miss being aware of different people with different needs and being able to help out when I felt a prompting to do so. I miss walking into DeVaney Elementary with my little kids in tow and having friendly faces with nice things to say all around me. I miss knowing the routines and the routes to get anywhere, even if it meant dodging a stopped train.
I also miss Mesa, Arizona. My family's home. That's where I grew up. It doesn't feel very familiar anymore, but that's where Mom and Dad are, and that's home base with all of my siblings. I miss being with my sisters and laughing so hard my face hurts and bellly is sore. I miss being around all of the talented people who happen to be my siblings (both blood and in-laws). I miss all of my nieces and nephews and having my kids play with them. It's been WAY too long since we've spent time in AZ. So long that it's gotten easy to be away. I don't like that.
Truth be told, I was born on Whidbey Island about an hour from where we're living now. So technically, even though I have no memories of this place, I could answer the "where are you from" question with "Whidbey," but that doesn't feel like home either.
As I was driving, the primary song kept going through my head:
"Home is where the heart is, where warmth and love abound. Home is where warm circling arms go all the way around."
My home is here. My home is where I have M, and A and W and A and S and D. It's not familiar here, but it will become more familiar. We've got a lot of discovering and exploring to do. I think a little piece of my heart is in AZ, and IN, and UT (our first 5 married years and 3 babies were born there. Dear friends remain there, too.) and Whidbey (it felt familiar to my heart when we visited...).
This is gonna be a fun adventure. Another chapter in our life. It seems like it's probably gonna be a pretty short chapter, but who knows. We have our plan, and He has His. We'll see what happens!
So, I think the best answer I came up with for me, the one that makes my heart happiest and seems to make the most sense, is. I'm from heaven! That's where I lived first, and that's where I'll go home to one day. I makes everything else feel a little more like home. I know that no matter how isolated or lonely a new place may feel, I'm not alone. I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and knows me and is keenly aware of exactly where I am and of what I need.
That is my final answer.

Our pet baby birds

We have a bird nest by our side door that caused us to not use it for a month. It has four eggs in it. Three of the eggs hatched.

The nest is up in the corner of the side door. Walker said he saw one of the baby bird`s feathers flutter to the ground. I haven`t really "seen" the baby birds but my mom has told me about them. I`ve only seen the nest. They`re baby robins alright. You can tell because of the egg that didn`t hatch. They don`t have their feathers in this picture, but they`re getting them now.

In this picture, you can see one of the baby birds acting like his mother is feeding him. He`s acting that way because, whenever the baby birds are awake and my mom puts the camera up there, they start acting that way.

Once again we see them acting that way. They must be pretty hungry! They`re starting to get fuzzy in this picture. Aren`t they cute? I can`t wait till I see them. See you later!

The Giant`s chair

This is Abby doing the blogging now.Last week we went to Menards and Alyssa,Sadie and I found a chair so big,we thought a giant shopped there so they made a chair for him.We sat in it and started asking our dad to take a picture of us.It was so big,our heads didn`t even touch the top of the back of the chair.Sadie`s on the right,Alyssa`s on the left and I`m in the middle.When I stood up,my head went past the top of the back of the chair.I had fun sitting in that chair we thought they made for a giant.

Oh, Walker.

The other night at dinner, Walker was being especially "Walkerish." Mark looked at me and said, "You made him." I responded, "well, you made the silly part." To that, Walker said, "yep Dad made the silly part and Mom made the serious part." Probably true. That wasn't enough, though. He then said, "no, Dad made the silly and fun part of me, and Mom made the boring part." Thanks kid!
I like to think I made the sweet part of my children, but I guess I was wrong. Time to spice up my mothering now that I'm 30 whole years old!