Grandma Jean

My mom lived 5 hours away when we lived in Utah and we managed to go see her about twice a year. Since we are now an additional 5 hours away jumping in the car to go for a visit is a major undertaking, but one that we are now more apt to do. You see in the midst of packing up my home after the initial move to Idaho in June, we are slightly annoyed with this inconvenience and life is somewhat not too pleasant right now, but we have to go where the job is - that is the short and long of it. Along with all this turmoil, there has been an undercurrent of stress; my sweet mom, Grandma Jean, has been having health issues and ones that are not easily fixed by proceedures.

Today, we got the news that her time is now limited to months and I am in shock........ I have to deal with the realization that I will soon not be able to call her on the phone and talk to her, to ask her how to start the yarn on the needles when I forget it, that all my memories are going to go with her. I am finding that I wish that we had gone down more before this wake up call. I am finding that things that seemed so important before are not and that I need to get my family moved and settled so I can go and spend time with my mom. I am finding that relationships are more important then where I live, or if half our house is in storage, or that my life is not as rosy as I wish it to be. I am finding that it is the people that are in this journey called life with me, the people that I call family, friend, child, that hold my life, my love in their hands - that has suddenly taken on much more meaning to me.

I love you Mom!

And we do it all over again.......

What am I doing this week. I am getting ready to fill one of these again with boxes and dishes and furniture and our life and move all over again. Anyone know of someone in need of renting a 3000 square foot two story home, 4 bedroom, 3 bath with lots of closet space, in Boise, Idaho? It is in a great neighborhood with a elementary school, clubhouse and pool.

Our Excusion to Twin Falls

So as the summer is winding down and we are looking at having to move to another city, we decided to go visit The Man. He has been telling us about his nice room at a hotel and the kids and I packed up and crashed his pad for a few days. He needs to work and I guess I need to find another place for us to land in Twin...can I just tell you how much I hate looking for a place to live. But we have to make the best of this situation and so if going to a hotel is part of the deal then we will make the best of it, like going swimming for hours at the pool to wear out rambunctious kids.

We got some things we thought would sink but the best sinky toy for the pool was moms watch.

The plastic jacks just sat on the surface, but were still fun to gather, when they tired of diving for my watch.

The kids scoped out the room, selected beds and of course had to do the bed-bingo...bouncing from one to the other. I felt sorry for the people below us, but as it turned out there were lots of kids there during our stay, so who's to say it was us jumping on the beds......

One of the nights as were we driving around we decided to walk the rim of the Snake River. As you drive into Twin you have to go over an enormous bridge. To walk beneath the road and hear the cars zoom overhead is something, but to then to gaze out at the structure truly makes one wonder and wish they were there to watch it go up.

There were ski boats and fisher men in the river as we walked by, but all you can see is river going on and on.....

We walked until the path ended and the sun began its decent in the sky. It was a great evening, spent together just talking and being together. I know that we have done this before, the man gone working in another state, the kids and I following as soon as we could, but somehow it was easier, they were also so much littler. Now they know what is going on, they miss their Daddy and I miss having someone to defer to. Let's not even get started on the not sleeping issue. So as hard as this is, we want to get the move over with and get settled and hopefully stay put for a while, at least that is the hope. But I cannot think too far ahead anymore or I will get disappointed and I need to keep things going here. I have noticed that if I am down the kids are down and we might as well just go back to bed. There is too much to do, too much to really be appreciative about and as I tell the kids, "As long as we are together then everything is alright, no matter where we live, no matter what we have, our family is most important." So here's hoping that we can do that again in one place soon......

Two Weeks and Counting......

It is the last two weeks of summer and I will be spending that time with the most important people in my life - these kiddos.

Enjoy the last brief time with your kids.....soon you will only see them for that rush in the morning and then the rush when they get home.....sad to see it come, in some ways glad it is finally here but I do miss them when they are at school.

Boise Zoo

It was time to go and see what Boise Zoo had to offer. So away we went with everyone in the city that had the same idea and went to the Zoo. Drama Queen was so excited -NOT- to be there. At least their penguins actually get in the water and swim around. We once spent an hour at Hoggle Zoo watching and waiting for the those penguins to jump in, they would teeter on the edge and then on one foot and lean over the edge and then settle back down. No swim, no nothing and we just stood there for an hour in the baking sun.
My dapper boy with the penguin group.

They had a cool explorers area and some neat animals from the outback.

Just monkey'ng around at the Zoo.

We ended the day at the kids area that had lots to do and lots to see and lots of places to get rid of energy.

Another fun day at the Boise River

The kids have been begging to go back to the river and spend the day. So we packed up the wagon and drove to our spot. The water level was slightly lower than when we first visited, but it was still a great spot.There was a partially built fort that the kids worked on and then Sweet-boy wanted his own. So we gathered wood and began the delicate process of making it stay in the trees.
Not bad with what we had to work with, but not good for keeping much of anything out, especially the torrential rain that we have been having.

Drama Queen in her shelter, not bad for either of them and it kept them busy while I finished a good book-Three Weeks with my Brother by Nicholas Sparks.

What is a trip to the woods without a good walking stick? Or something like that is what they told me.

We quickly took over and established a great spot to base from, but as my adventurous kids let me know, "We must search farther!" and so we packed up our camp and went further into the woods. We found a spot right along the river that allowed us to watch the rafters as they floated by and was just beneath a bridge. There were fly fisherman catching lots of fish and the kids even got a chance to release a big fish in to the river.

DQ had been wanting to go swimming all day so we kept daring her to go in the river. It was slightly colder then the pool - alot cooler. But she finally did it and then it was swim time. Sweet-boy wanted to go in, but was not too sure about all that cold.

So he played with the floating logs that came along.

We stay and played till the last of the river rafters went by, and the fishermen called it a day, and as the sun went down we began our jouney back to the car. The kids were tired, we all smelled like wet something, but it was a great time.

CoMpUTeRS

We have been without a computer for a week and it has been really hard to deal with. I love that I can stay connected on my cell-phone but there is something about the feel of a normal keyboard. So hang in there as things are reloaded and new programs are tested out. I hope this is it, but we will see. Apparently there was a BIG virus that was making the computer slow. And someone thought it was all my blogging that was the problem......hm.... I think NOT!!