Let the school days begin!

Madison is enrolled in a kindergarten readiness program here in Hardin, and I'm very excited for her. It runs M-F from 8:30-2:45. I toured the place last year and I was excited then about getting her into the program. We got a letter from the school informing us of the supplies needed (like real school!) so I took Madi school shopping. :) It was fun, it was just her and I and we went all over Billings looking and buying clothes, shoes, and school supplies. I remember school shopping as a kid and thinking it was super fun, I didn't know it could be fun as a mom too! One of the necessary items was a backpack (of course), well Madison wanted a Frozen themed backpack. We went to a few stores looking for one but never did find one. So I found this plain black one and told her she could paint it herself and make it look exactly how she wanted, AND then her backpack would be different from everyone else. She was so excited, so we grabbed the black backpack and went to the paint section and chose different colors and the next day she created a beautiful backpack! She loves it and so do I! 

 She was super happy with herself and her finished product. She was also very excited to show her teachers and friends... So far I think it has been a big success.

In my efforts to help Madi become more organized and have a better understanding of what is expected of her each day, we made a calendar. She painted the strips and then I cut them out, and then she chose all the pictures. The calendar shows her all the things she has to do to get ready in the morning before school(on the left) and then all the things to do after she gets home from school (on the right). And the days that have rainbow colors are days she doesn't go to school. We shall see if it works, but if anybody has some ideas to make this calendar more functional, let me know!

This was the first day of school, and true madi style she picked her outfit. I will have you know I had a great very stylish outfit. But I'm not going to lie, it is much easier to only pick certain battles, and that morning getting to school on time hit the top of the list.

Here you can tell she is running to school... Which is ironic because at this point she couldn't get to school fast enough.... But 8 minutes before I couldn't get her out the door. Ha!

Well madi has finished her first week of school and I'm so happy with how well it has gone. Not just with her teachers and the set up, but madi definitely eats different than most other kids. Her teacher and the kitchen staff have been so helpful and great to work with. Which has made my life much less stressful. And a bonus feature of a child going to school is discovering how much I can accomplish with one child in school all day and the other either napping or content to play with his toys. It's ah-mazing!! Seriously my life just got a whole lot more productive. And I'm so happy about it. Might actually get a Christmas card done this year. That's right it would be august and I'm talking about something to get done by December... That my friends is how my life has just changed. :) and with that I sign off. 

P.s. Happy Labor Day!

Life goes on.... and on....

After my parents were up and running on generators and life had calmed down madi and I headed for home. Madi had been gone almost a full month so I was excited to have her home. She was such a trooper with the drive and it was fun mom/daughter time. 

We made a stop at bear world, it was neat. Not quite what I was expecting, but neat. There was a guy that talked about what bears do and such and he was funny.... But it was basically a fenced in circle with 2 bears in it. I guess I was expecting more, but for $8 it was worth a break on our trip. 

Chillin in the pool with a bone. 

She quickly fell asleep afterward so must have been stimulating to her brain! 

It was great to get home and get back to the daily routine of life. I was super blessed because I left mason with Brian and had arranged for a friend from church to watch him. She was so great! But it turned out that my sis-in-law and her family were coming through. They ended up keeping mason with them throughout the week so brian didn't have to worry about it! They went to my mother-in-law's house during the week so mason was well loved. It was a huge tender mercy for me. 

Considering i had never left mason anywhere overnight his first "without mommy" overnighter lasted a whole week! Yet he didn't miss a beat when he saw me. It was like "oh ya, hey mom. What's up?" But this little guy is growing up and it's fun to watch and see how he is changing. He is going through a shoe phase. He loves shoes, and any kind of shoe. He doesn't like to leave them on real long, but will make some serious gestures/noises to get some help to put the shoes on. Here we have him in princess shoes. Not really my favorite style for him, but hilarious to watch him try and walk. He feels the need for speed at all times and goes from a complete stop to a full run and these shoes don't accommodate that very well. He slows up and then tries to speed up again and does the wobble dance. It's so funny. We only get 2 attempts and then he is mad at the shoes and throwing a fit to get them off. Maybe he is mildly embarrassed because his mother is laughing at him?

I will be doing an 18 mo. Post for mason in September so I will save all his stories for then, but coming home from work, this is often the face that travels in the back. 

And this is the usual dinner/snack routine. 

Toddlers can find the oddest positions to sleep in. That doesn't seem comfy to me.....

Madi was right back to her norm of changing outfits at least 3x/day. :) I think this one is a winner though!

We went as a family to the Billings fair. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I often forget that a 4 yr. old and a 17 mo. old don't have the attention span to watch a whole supercross. So we taught mason about selfies. Ha ha we were doing anything to keep him happy for the last 45 mins. 

Getting the hang of it....

Here was madi showing off her skills. 

I have probably 75 pictures that range from this face...

To this face. 

After the race we went to the rides. Madi was in heaven! Mason just got packed around in the stroller. No rides for him yet. I'm surprised at how run down the equipment is, and how outrageously expensive it is. You buy tickets to make yourself feel better about spending $4 for a 45" ride on some metal contraption that looks and sounds like it has been around since 1970. But alas we did it anyways. Her face was priceless though! She had a lot of fun and that was fun for us. We even went on some of the rides with her. 

She got to go on this one by herself. She was loving the train. 

It was my turn to take her on the mini roller coaster. You know the little one you see at all the fairs that looks really slow and lame. Well being on it, it had a little more kick than it seems, and also seems to go in tight circles which make an old mom dizzy. Ha ha ha I guess I'm not what I used to be! But surprisingly fun. 

This picture is me shopping at albertsons. These carts are the greatest invention! They make my shopping much easier.... For the first 20 mins. 

Then this starts happening. She begins to pick on mason and just enough to make him yell and then she proceeds to look at him and ask him what his problem is. Then other times she truly does care and is pulling him to sit down because he is not being safe but he has ha enough already so then he yells again. I'm not sure how I really feel about these carts. Because you also have the drop-off of the cart, where everyone is mad and crying because they aren't done with the cart yet. It's a canundrum I tell you. 

But after a day of shopping this is my drive home. This is peaceful. :) and happy. 

It's good to be getting closer to the end of summer. We are establishing more routines and getting into a system. I'm excited for next week when madi starts her headstart program! 

The fire

This is old news, so no one panic and think it's gone for round two. 

A month ago today, July 17th there was a wildfire that picked up speed and burned through my hometown of Pateros. It was incredible sad and heart wrenching to experience from far away and yet I'm positive I have no idea how bad it felt to be one of the many families who lost a home due to fire. 

Thursday I got a call from my mom saying she might not be bringing Madison home because there was a small fire up the road about 6 miles. Very much not concerned, but just letting me know they were going to take off on Friday instead. A few hours later my mom is packing and getting what they feel is important, throwing it into the beds of the trucks, loading up animals and evacuating to Downtown Pateros. As they are coming down the hill they see the fire has already crested the hills behind Pateros so they decide to drive south to wenatchee to wait it out. My dad had stayed behind to watch and keep an eye on the farm. Everyone else had left, so he was manned with a bucket and a shovel to take on the flames. I was on the phone, texting, calling, on Facebook and listening to internet radio KOZI station trying to get as much information as I could. Once I knew my mom and my daughter were safe in wenatchee all extra left over worry and panic shifted to my dad still on the farm. At one point he texted and said the fire was down to the shop which sits about 50 yards from the house, I was not sure if their house would make it, but the wind would shift and give the flames a push the other direction. I'm pretty sure my dad was fed up with me and my worried texts. I made him text every 10-15 mins to make sure the dude was still conscious and ok. We had quite the system. He would text "ok" and that was all I needed. But if he missed a checkpoint I was texting him for a response. My siblings and I were all on the phone multiple times sharing info and trying to figure out what we could do. The fire seemed to be the worst from about 7-11 pm that night. Then it had shifted from the farm and at that point we were hearing many sad stories about Pateros. Then hearing the fire was moving towards Brewster flats and Brewster. I think I finally went to bed around 3:30-4:00 am. 

My brothers and I decided we would leave Friday morning to drive to Pateros to help my parents. We really didn't know what we could do but we figured moral support could go a long ways. Plus poor madi was still there and needed to come home. And the return plans for her had just been thwarted, sooooo about 7 Friday morning I left for Pateros. 

It was a long day of driving but always fun when I see my brothers. It seemed like a normal smoky summer day until we got to Bridgeport/Brewster area. That's when it became very real. Downtown Brewster had fire sirens going off. The town was glowing from fires still burning on the hill. It was warm and smokey. It was sad feeling. It was eerie. We drove the rest of the way to our parents house and I'm honestly glad it was dark. So we didn't have to see all the destruction at once. There was no power so the town just looked and felt sad and eerie. I don't really know how else to explain it. Lots of sadness. We made it home and everyone got right to work. My brothers helped my dad hook up a generator in the dark to get power to the fridge and freezer to save food. I didn't do much but I did get madi and help her get ready for bed and settled in. Then we all went to bed in a hot smokey house. It was actually the best night sleep I had had in awhile. I'm pretty sure I didn't move. The next morning I got up early and went on a walk to see what I could. The farm looked sad. Most of these pictures are from that morning walk. It's amazing to think about fire and the power it has and the speed it can move and how much destruction it can cause. So sad to look up the hill and see the two closest neighbors and how their houses were just gone. Nothing but some twisted metal left. And everything was black. And the air was so smokey. 

The days that followed were full of getting generators hooked up to irrigation pumps and other peoples houses. It was a lot of cleaning and cooking(camping style). And there were some intermittent laughs shared. And a lot of taking it all in. I did eventually go on a drive to look around, made my heart sad to see so much gone/destroyed/ blackened. But it helps put a lot in perspective. Made me realize the things that are important, and if my house burnt to the ground, what would I want with me and what is just weighing me down. It was a very enlightening time and I'm glad we were able to go. I'm glad that my family is safe and I'm grateful for the things I have in life. 

Here are my pictures, if you have never been to my house it probably won't hurt your heart like it does mine, but here they are anyways. 

A very sweet friend knew we loved popcorn and it was tradition for us to eat popcorn on Sunday nights. Well she made us a huge bag full of delicious popcorn. So sweet and so tasty. 

This here was our best friend. Worked like a champ. 

This was a treasure find. No one even knew anything was down in this ravine becUse it usually has tons of weeds/brush and snakes. But turns out there were some fun finds!

The famous half burnt Pateros sign that was on so many Facebook posts... Well that is what is left of that sign. :(

Our gate. Well half of it. The other side is still standing!

This was a hose my dad used until the pump got fried and the power went out. Then he was left to just a 5 gallon bucket to dip into the pool and a shovel. My mom did the math and he hauled like 600 gallons of water. He did a great job of saving a power pole and their shop. Pretty sure those would both be gone had he not stayed. Crazy man. Grateful for him though!

If your house burnt what couldn't you live without? Might be a question we should ask ourselves more often so we know what's really important.