Mark is Official

Mark is definitely an official "Counsell" now, as this rivals even the pulling of the yogurt cup off the baby skunk in the soft-hearted to animals category. While relieving himself in the middle of a run in a wilderness canyon near our house, Mark saw that a little tree mouse was helplessly floating in the "matter" inside the tank of the port-a-potty. Mark actually reached in to pull him out (it took 2 attempts) and set him free again.

So Aug 3rd - today the weather report said - lighter morning fog burning off quickly - warm afternoon.... It misted so heavily that there must of been accidents because traffic was a snarl still after 9am on several freeways. People were using umbrellas to walk any distance. And we never saw the sun - Thick June gloom in August - but hey - it was cool, cool, cool, cool. Maybe we can shut bedroom windows tonight.

Happy Birthday

Mom~ I got the card today. What a cool surprise!

I will put it in my retirement account :)

Windy has told me that she doesn't care what it takes, she is going to figure a way to make my lasagna in Lithuania.

PoloPolo I Quit

Mom,
I deleted the duplicate post of your's from earlier today.

I gave my two weeks notice yesterday. What a feeling! I did my best to be as in control of the whole process as one can be, but about a half an hour before I met with my boss, my district partner happened to go into my office and see that it was all but cleaned out. He freaked out and started to try and hunt me down. He called about 6 people trying to find me, and called my boss and told him my office was either 1) empty, or 2) ready to be painted. 10 minutes after they spoke, I showed up and resigned. My boss broke out in hives-seriously. My DM partner cussed a lot, and pretty much everyone else was "stunned," "surprised," "no way," "are you kidding me?" and all sorts of other cliches for "shocked." My partner said he would be happier if I'd have left under bad terms, instead of such great terms. My boss' boss' boss called me this morning and asked that I call him about "opportunities" on the West Coast as soon as I return. Yeah, right! Seriously, it's nice to know that there is a chance that the old fam won't starve if I was that desperate. I will work out my two weeks, which was important for anniversary purposes, and shake a lot of hands and eat a lot of baked goods in honor of my legacy.
Honestly, people seem sad to see me leave, but genuinely happy (if not somewhat jealous) for me and the fam.
Two weeks and we are outttaaa here!

....Polo

Just one of my pictures of brothers at play. I've decided I'll have to get more pics of Jordan - I've so many of the little guys. Somehow he doesn't have as many cute poses - or enjoy smiling for the camera the way the younger 3 do.

Marco...

I was beginning to think everyone had fallen off the face of the earth. Yay for the house! I'm looking forward to our first night there- don't know when it will be, but we're looking forward to it. :-)

Everything's A-okay here. Tomorrow is August and summer will almost be over. Time to get everything in order for school. I got the first email from the university today, that I need to turn in my schedule and declare how many units I intend to teach. I will be going back up to a full load of 15 units (12 hours of private voice lessons and one 3-unit classroom course) since Jakie will be in school 5 days a week this year. I'm continuing to take more students at home now and build more of a private voice studio at home as well.

Jordan has begun tutoring for the math portion of the SAT- he's stronger in the verbal area. I'm sure it's a shock to everyone that Jordan is strongest in the "verbal" section. Big shock. ;-) He has 2 friends over, which is pretty standard. One is going home, but then David, the fifth member of family, will make his midnight entrance as usual. It's funny because Jordan just goes to sleep, but David knows to let himself in and lock the door behind him and then he'll stay up later in Jordan's room while Jordan sleeps and in the morning Jordan leaves for practice but David stays sleeping until he has to get up for work, or afternoon, whichever comes first. It's probably 4 nights a week during the summer, once a week during school year. It's nice to have your best friend live next door.

Jakie is enjoying splashing in the spa and watching his flowers grow, which he's beginning to understand is a slow process. Mark is enjoying having us all around more and having more fun while the summer lasts. It's really cool that he works from home because we get to see him and have so much more fun and interaction as a family.

How/where is everyone else? Marco...

The house is officially complete!!!! We are free to move our stuff in. hahaha. But except for a few little things the contractor still is going to change out it is finished. He will replace the beautiful but troublesome garage door with a less expensive one - at Lindal's expense - and also replace the front door with one that opens to correct way - at Lindal's expense. And put on the correct door handles that Lindal failed to ship in the first place.

We will be there and get our stuff from storage the week of Labor day. And hopefully enjoy - esp Mont - some relaxing time just enjoying being in the mountains and in a lovely house.

We bought the minimum of furniture to ensure comfy seating and sleeping this weekend. Target, Costco & the internet! Had a busier Sat than we planned - but got started and just kept rolling. Now you'll soon get pictures of a furnished home. We'll pull one more U-Haul tralier load over Labor day weekend.

We finally have a little relief from the heat - mostly because the sun doesn't come out much, but the bedroom is still 80 at night. At least I'm adjusting sleep wise.

You all seem to have disappeared??? Where are you?

2nd time around

I finally got the blog to post a picture and will now rewrite what I wrote this morning. When I hit publish it all disappeared.

Jakie posed these pics too - with grudging cooperation from his sibling Tessa. Notice the hair. He wanted to look like Daddy. Fortunately Heidi caught him at it before he shaved himself completely..... See the lighter spot on top? It was a bit of a shock seeing him in this haircut the first time - but he's cute, huh?

In case you were wishing you were with those lucky dogs in Pt L during this heat wave: It is 4:48pm and 87 degrees in the kitchen. It was 75 at 6am this morning - warmer still in our bedrooms. We leave all the windows open and the front door (with security screen locked) at night and still it doesn't cool down. The humidity was 78% yesterday. The bathroom smells like a locker room at a swim pool after a shower. We try to sleep with the lovely sound of traffic rushing by and planes taking off. I am so exhausted and want sleep! And we are probably better off than a lot of people! Gigi was so hot & sweaty yesterday she drank the 1/2 bottle of prune juice I had left sitting in the fridge after I finished the Vicodin. She had an interesting afternoon! She was relieved when I got home & explained she didn't have the flu. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!

Our house has not finaled yet. A few little bugs that were fixed, but our contractor discovered the person in the health dept that inspects and issues the certification for the sewage/septic has let the paperwork sit on his desk for 3 months. He'll try and pry that loose and hopefully Monday will see the papers signed.

Jordan's first flexi ride. Mark in background.

San Diego Play Day

Garrett's first flexi ride

Mont, Mark, Jordan and Garrett at the Corvette Diner

Here's Gigi and Jakie at the Corvette Diner

Wednesday

I'm calling it Wednesday because it's Wednesday and the last post was Tuesday and this is probably the only post for Wednesday. Unless Kyle is up later than I am, which is entirely possible.

The heat finally broke a little today. It was still mid-90's but cooler than yesterday and this whole week. Mark was happy he was able to go for run without me objecting. I have NOT wanted him running in 100+ degree heat! But today was mid-90's, high 80's, so he got to run and was happy. Jordan hasn't been able to run because of the same old hip problems. We are going to take him to UCLA's Cross-Country team physician for our last resort and last professional opinion before hanging up the running shoes. He is the solo team captian for the upcoming season, so if he can't run, I'm not sure how it will play out. He's still going to practices and leading/encouraging, just not running...

We had friends over for dinner last night, a couple who are both colleagues of mine from the university. Jordan was at the fair with friends and Jakie was playing next door so it was actually a quiet grown-ups only meal and conversation. Of course, David came in and out a couple times for stuff for Jakie, and Blake popped over once for his daily check-in. But it was still quiet, wine-with-dinner, soft-music-playing, sustained adult conversation. That hasn't happened in long time. :-) It lasted until 10:30 when David brought Jakie home since his little sis and bro were going to bed, and 30 minutes later, Jordan returned with 2 girls in tow and they and David plopped down and threw in a movie nice and loud. So that was the end of grown-up time. It was nice while it lasted. But we do love our crazy happy noisy daily chaos too with teenagers coming out of our ears. It will be over too soon...

Been plugging away at the book too. I still think that making their ideal deadline will be next to impossible, but we're making progress steadily. Of the seven new ones we've agreed on, we completed lyrics, syllabification, keys, and musical concepts for five of them today and I will overnight them to our arranger tomorrow. The other 2 are spanish, so I have to do those myself tomorrow, making new translations and finessing out the rest of the details and get those off asap. I'm not stressed out yet...

Have you noticed how I like to use the...?

Finally have a charged camera and now the pictures won't post. Will try again tomorrow...

Love you all.

Cade Montgomery: Model or Photographer? The Post Kindergarten Explorations of the Artist as a Young Boy.

A little from column A, a little from column B.

These pics were completely conceived, and choreographed by Cade. I had to give some guidance on glances and smiles, but the posing was all him. It started with him climbing on the roof of my truck and proclaiming "Hey, dad, this would be a very nice picture. See the trees behind me? Heath, climb up here!" The personalities are captured well (if you can capture the undefinable personality of the Heath).

Cheers, Kyle

Apologies to all

I have been a little absent-but so have you. Where ARE George and Darcy? I was thinking the same thing last week.

I am in the process of cleaning up as many loose ends at work as I can before I give my notice on Monday evening. My biggest problem is that at this time of year, a lot of strategizing is going on. I am doing the annual reviews for everyone in my department, and giving them each gameplans to work with me to improve in the "opportunity" areas. Tomorrow, I am giving a 4 hour training class on what our focus for the next quarter will be. Last Friday, I spent 6 hours devising a strategy to develop some of our high potential, internal candidates. I had to commit to a lot of things in September and October. Today, I made my 28th appointment that will occur after I leave the company. I feel a little disingenuous, but I don't have much of a choice. The one thing of which I am certain: No one has a clue. I'll let you know how the whole thing went down on Monday.

The process of turning over the house with our landlords is very quietly shaping up to be somewhat contested with the deposit return. I won't go into the details in this psuedo public forum, but suffice that will be needing prayer for 1) a quick and painless moveout. 2) on the timetable that we need to be executed with military precision. 3)That I don't loose my cool (because I am visably stressed, which doesn't happen often)

grammar and punctuation apologies, but time is tight...pax, Kyle J

Marilyn, This is a golden Medallion tree. I thought you'd like a closer look at it since you've been asking Mom what we got. The yellow are pretty blooms in clusters.

Where did G&D go?

We have not heard from G&D in a while.... How goes it in BAM land?

Today is Final!!!

Mont & I had a wonderful weekend!! AH! to escape the heat and humidity here!

We had 117 &118 through the desert Friday afternoon - but 63 at 8:15 by the time we reached #103 Tamarron Pines. (our address there for now). It was delightfully cool and wet from an afternoon/evening rain. Saturday began to heat up looking like it might reach 80+ which is typical high temp for summer - then the thunderstorms moved in - and another delightful cool rain for a while - along with thunder & lightning. I'm so glad the trees are getting good water. (The winter there was too dry) We did not enjoy coming back here to feel like we're in a sauna!

The house looked wonderful - still needed a good clean of dust and dead bugs which is to happen today along with final inspection. There was almost no problem on walk through. Our contractor overall did a terrific job! I can't believe it is actually done - except for an exchange of front door and garage door - paid for by Lindal.

I'll be posting pics on the photosite. I can't get this blog to post any now.
Later this afternoon - obviously got pictures now.

luxury tax??

Here is the lowest price I've seen in SD for gas. In Gila Bend - which is a travelers trap - it was $3.01. In Happy Jack - 45 minutes from any other gas on a campers haven weekend - $2.99. Phoenix Costco: $2.88.

I've decided the prices in SD are set in some corporate headquaters by men/women having a jealous snit against people fortunate enough to live in SD weather. What other explanantion????

Today

Today was much quieter, since the heat really is oppressive. Gigi read most of day, but accompanied us to buy potting supplies for the flower seeds they gave away at the fair yesterday. She also indulged Jakie's desire to show off his swimming skills in the spa and a little shooting at flies with squirt guns in the morning. Tomorrow is rhubarb day.. too bad you're not here to have some..... :-)

Love you all.

Does This Balcony Make Me Look Fat???

Eddie Here~

I have been a little self conscious lately. Grandpa has always been my Edvocate, but after seeing this picture of myself, I have been wondering if he truly has my best interests at heart...

OOPS! Still more beaching it!

D&G's friends Dan & Eilen stayed at D&G's the 1st & last 2 day/nights while Grampa & I took the middle 3 nights 4 days. We invited Kenna to accompany us to the beach because with Justyna being away with D&G & Amy, she was alone at home (& is in herself, an enjoyable kid to have along!)
1. Grampa Mikey with "the explorers" who at Kenna's urging, had discovered a creek which fed into the ocean as well as rocks to be climbed!
2. Caleb & best pal since age 2, Kenna.
I just LOVE this spontaneous shot - catches personalities! - Caleb is cautious - Kenna fearless. Darcy said when Caleb was a tot, he'd at times stop whatever he was doing and simply "yell" "I NEED Kenna"! "Gotta scat" now! MC

While D&G were away, the "mice "did play! :-)

Here is "proof" that we stayed at D&G's a few days mid week!

1. Upper left, "Let the (Star Wars) battles begin"! - Josh
2. Beaching it in Lincoln City on an absolutely beautiful sunny July Oregon day! (The layered look is absolutely necessary unless you are (an orange tank topped) "polar bear" named Caleb!! The usual cold wind on the late 60's temp. day is great for kites, however - LARGE kites, but we loved it & topped off our time with hot chocolate at dinner!!
3. All four tunneling to be out of the wind - the 4th was family pal Makenna (their family version of our Mike Z.) whom is a real "sister" to the boys. (None of them, POSSIBLY including "Kenna" herself realize she is a GIRL as yet! ;-)

D,G, Amy & her pal Justyna, Kenna's sis, fly home from Ky today! Although C,J, & Sarah have managed well, I think they will be quite ready for it! I asked Josh how it felt to not have Amy around, offering assorted adjectives from a spectrum of "great to horrible" and he strongly annnounced STRANGE! I know that Sarah will be THRILLED to have them ALL back!!
More later! MC

Gigi at the Fair

Still no pics because still no camera charger. Sorry.

Tonight we went to the fair with Gigi and she had a great time. I asked her what she liked best and she said "All of it!" :-) We looked at the livestock: sheep, chickens, goats, pigs, cows, llamas, rats and the petting zoo even had a zebra! We watched pig races, which Gigi said was a first for her, but she got a kick out of it.
In the livestock pen after the races, there was a big mama sow with a litter just 6 days old. Gigi said that when she was a little girl, when they had a litter of baby pigs, if ever they couldn't find her, they knew to go look with the pigs, and there she'd be.

While Jakie and Mark were riding the Carousel, Gigi confessed that when she was young, she was kicked off a carousel for riding standing up, with each foot on a different horse.

Jacob rode the bumper cars with Mark and now has his first loose tooth. Yes, the two things are directly related.

That's Gigi's first night with us. We'll check in tomorrow. :-)

Back again

I keep putting off posting until I can put pics in, but the camera is dead and I can't find the charger since Jman has been back, so I'm giving up and posting anyway. Hopefully, I'll have pics soon.

Had a nice overnight visit with Sheree at her house. She and her mom are actually doing really well and enjoying their time together.

San Diego was fun. Bringing the mini-bike prompted memories of "the flea" from Gigi and Dad. Dad took it very easy- he said he used up all his luck on that street long ago. We did get Jordan and Garrett on the flexi which I have great pictures of, when I can get them... It took come convincing but Garrett finally went first and Jordan followed.

Dinner was tons of fun. Just being with my favorite people in my favorite city have a fun dinner in a fun place. I think we all enjoyed it.

Then Sheree came down here for two nights. More fun! I didn't cry as much as I thought I would and have before when she's left. I guess I know it's not really goodbye- just talk to you later.

Gigi arrived today for another 4-night visit. She and Jakie have already had a squirt gun fight in the backyard- with Gigi doing the chasing and Jakie the running away! It's supposed to be HOT- 99 to 100 so I'm rethinking my plans for her stay...

Love you guys. Pics will be soon...I hope.

Return from DC

I will go in to more detail on Petrie's Progress, but things went well in DC for our orientation on the Fulbright. The photos are the WWII Memorial (which we hadn't seen before), the Capital, and a flower I found in the garden of the Smithsonian Center (also known as the castle). We are deeply indebted to Evie (whom we saw for about 2 hours of her total 4 days in Denver) for watching the kids, but we know they enjoyed the time with her. The squirtguns are still a hit in our 100 degree plus weather.

hot summer fun & boys toys

Heidi & Mark came down for Heidi's birthday yesterday. They brought a friend and a toy - we hauled out the Flexi. As you can see the eldest grandson decided the Flexi looked dangerous so put on his helmet. Jakie couldn't be tempted.
Here's some pics - Heidi can supply from the fun at Corvette Diner.
Marilyn - I'm sure that is a place that would be on your 'must do sometime' list. Jakie had a blast! So did I - onion rings, peppermint shake, burger - YUM - watching Jakie. Gigi was a little overwhelmed with the noise at first - but got into it soon.

Colorado Shorts & young grandmas

Kyle will have to supply the pics for this - I left my camera at home but found Windy's so took some shots with it.

2 hours into my 'watch' Heath had fallen out of a tree and had a bloody scrape on his face - plus assorted others on chest, arm and knee. OUCH! to grandma's heart. 2 hours before we left for the airport Sat he put on 2 pirate eye patches and walked firmly into the kitchen counter - one red bruise on eyebrow.

'Mr no pants' was angry with one of Grandma's orders so he obeyed, but then took off all his clothes and gave me defiant look: "watcha gonna do about it".

NO pictures for this one! I was driving the car and Heath in his car seat on the right side back. He asked me, "Grandma what is that under your arm?" I couldn't see anything he could be referring to - til with horror I realized he was referring to the skin hanging from my upper arm. Later at home he asked me if he could touch it. SOB My illusions of being a young fit grandma are shattered!!!! I'll begin lifting weights again tomorrow!

I was back to wrestling on the floor with them though. Nice to be well.

Hello!

Hello everyone! Greetings from us! I hope everyone is well. I've got a lot of work to do on the book but I'm actually enjoying housekeeping at the moment (wonder of wonders) and so I don't want to set it aside to stare at a computer. Sigh.

Gigi comes again this coming Thursday for Episode 2 of her OC adventure. This time will involve rhubarb pie and maybe the OC fair.... :-)

Love you all!

Ethan's 1st Birthday

It must be great to eat your birthday cake in any fashion that you want. And to have Joshua blow bubbles on you (the other kids also blew bubbles).

N & T - We shrunk your kids

We took Kelsey, Monique & Emma to the kids museum in Salem on Monday. It is a really neat place, where they can run and climb and go thru 3 or 4 buildings and explore diffrerent areas of science. MB

Some Pictures

By Cade.

He asked if he could take the camera on our trip out. Then he asked if I would show him how it worked. Then he asked if he could take pictures. You can guess I said "yes" all three times. These are the finest of his photos. I especially like his model, Heath, doing some sort of pieta on the shoe stool. He wouldn't admit what inspired him exactly, but I can recall visiting shoe stores, fabric stores, and the bank with my mom when I was a kid, and I can tell you, I felt like that most of the time as well.

Ethan & Us!

Here are a few of the fans watching K,M & E's swim lessons recently! Can hardly realize Ethan will be 1 yr old this Wed. July 12th! Time has passed TOO quickly! MC

Same Boys

Three personalities-or maybe not. While we were waiting for mom to come outside so we could all go on a bike ride, I decided to let the boys dictate the pictures I took with the point and shoot. This is what they came up with. I asked Heath if the sky picture would be the cover for the band's first CD. He replied "Oh Dad, no. It's for me to laugh." Heath also came up with the jumping one, while Cade decided the "almost smile" picture would be good.
Cheers

Catch up

Finally, the back steps are being put in, with the help from my friend Kurt. We are planning to do the bottom step today, but it is cold and dark out, after some rain over night. Amy is making the big "Wave" in thier new pool. The kids were in the pool for hours on the 4th. I need to get going and pick up Kurt. MB

Vilnius Update

Doesn't Mont look cool?

Petrie's Progress has been updated. Use the link to your right------>

4th Fireworks

We found the perfect spot for fireworks this year. We had front row seats on Shelter Island. What a wonderful display they had! Saw some new stuff this year. We took the 4-runner down and parked in an easy get-a-way spot at 8am as soon as we got up. Then at 7ish we drove down in the Corolla and parked it across Rosecrans from Shelter Island and up a block or 2. Then walked to Shelter Island - read, and sipped coffee (We carried the coffee mugs in on the cup holders of the backpack) No open alcohol was allowed on SI this year so the crowd was not the rowdy OB crowd. When the fireworks finished we loaded our chairs (which had been in the 4-runner) into the back and took off for home - dropping Mont off to get the Corolla on the way. And he had a decent nights sleep. Gigi sure enjoys the fireworks so we're glad we can find such a convenient way to enjoy them.

Hope you all had a good 4th too.

new job

I forgot to mention that today was Mont's first day on his new job. After being told continually that he would get a few weeks as a ride along to orient him, he was told last weeek that they were so behind that he would just be thrown in. They tried to start him on easy stuff for his first day instead of giving him his assigned territory, at least. So he drove all over today. Considering gas is more expensive in SD than even the remote areas of AZ that is a bummer. Everythihg went OK.

The old dept sent him off Friday with a good luck balloon, $25 gift card to Olive Garden & $40.00 to Vons and a potluck.

More backyard camping

The showers at our campground are nice, too. So is the coffeemaker. But I could trade them for those Silver Falls. Just a side note: Cade and Heath are "camping" with about 20 stuffed animals. Cade would only bring those animals that naturally belong in the forest, but Heath has brought animals more indiginous to Africa, like giraffes, and zebras. And dinosaurs. Just right for the boy who climbs into our bed every morning (at about Caleb's wakeup time...ouch!) and makes us guess what animal he is. The latest? "A baby Okapi."

Hey, Darcy and George, didn't Joe marry an Estonian? Is he still over there? If so, we could get together while we're in Lithuania. We have been listening to our Lithuanian language CDs, which arrived today. So far, we can say "Do you understand English?" and we can understand it when someone answers, "No, Madam." That should get us pretty far...

not much doing

Hi- from sweaty Point Loma - yes, we too, are having temps in the low 80's and unpleasant humidity. We don't have an air conditioner though. Thank goodness for the ocean breeze we can blow through the house - moving if not cool. Our bedroom is not much fun at night though!

Gigi and I spent most of the day looking for shoes for her. She was a real trooper - but they don't make many shoes these days for 87 yr olds with osteoporosis that like to walk to church! Some stores didn't even have one pair she could try on. I wish you all could've seen us in Shiehk shoes waiting - with rap music & videos blaring - while they searched the back for her size - we knew they had it 'cause the display was her size & we were desparate to find SOMETHING safe for her that looked nice too. After 15 minutes they finally unearthed the shoe ("so sorry, the stock boy dumped.... yada yada") and one of the shoes was too loose in the heel. Most of the other customers were young African Americans. They had some wild shoes - not sure why they had those white flats????

To add insult to injury we decided to have an ice cream cone after our arduous shopping (11am - 3:30). Gigi gave me her wallet and went to sit down - I just couldn't do it - $4.50 for a small - I couldn't spend her money that way. So we went home in heavy beach bound traffic. But we had come up with the shoes she needed! Took 2 malls but we did it. We'd already done the close area store last Thursday.

That's about as exciting as it has gotten around here. We did pick our first tomato today!
Have a Happy Fourth all!

Backyard Camping

Hello,

I have a four day weekend, so Cade "planned" a camping trip for our time together. Last year, in the old house, we had a Backyard Camping trip. The boys slept in the tent, Windy slept in the hammock, and I slept on the grass. It was fun, but we lived more in the city, so it was a little loud when the Fire Engines were dispatched. This year Windy and I had our own tent, and the boys had their's. We cooked some hamburgers on the little grill (we were camping after all).
The best thing about this campground: hookups and included wireless internet. The boys watched a movie on their little DVD player before bed, and our tent is big enough for a small lawn table and my laptop for movies. It's been great fun, and we're going to do it again tonight!.
The other pictures are of Archer when he and I went on a winter photo expedition in February. It was soooo cold that I could only take my fingers out of my gloves for about 10 seconds before it was too painful to keep them in the mountain air. I shot mostly film, but here is one digital image I made. The snowshoes we brought as "maybe we oughtta" were an absolute necessity. We walked about 7 miles that day. Some of the pictures were nice. I hate cold.