What to do???

When David is gone for a few days I usually use the time to get a big project or two done that is messy, like painting or deep cleaning.

So this week I had a couple of painting jobs lined up, one of which was painting the legs on this table!

I really was not into a messy paint job and things kept interrupting full days.

Yesterday was a surprise trip to the doctor with Hannah, then to the pharmacy and back home for some treatment---praying it works!

Today was a surprise morning of testing at the school district.  We had asked for testing a while back and had some meetings, but I had not heard back on actual testing dates.  Got home from the doctors last night at 4:30 to a message that there was a 2 hour testing this morning at 8:30.

Along with all this is my still not feeling up to my old energy levels with all the diet changes due to food sensitivities.  I am thankful for how it is working, just need to get the eating figured out so I have energy all day.

So I decided no painting or big yard projects.

Then Erinn called and asked if I could get a box of her Christmas stuff ready to send to her in Hawaii since she will be arriving early December and wants something to make the house somewhat festive, even though they will have no furniture. 

So that started.....

You see where this is going, right?

Well one box of Christmas led to another box of Christmas.

And well lets just say that Thanksgiving is somewhat getting the shaft around here this year. 

I figured we were not going to be home for the holiday any ways so why not.

So right now at 4:00pm this is as far as I have gotten. 

Mess city.

And you know how one mess leads to another clean out messy job.

I have both school closets all over the place too waiting to be organized or cataloged!  I have to get a list of what I have because I am always changing things up as Hannah needs it, and I order lots of things from my PBS and I don't want to be doubling up, but I do want to get things on my wish list.

And the big Christmas change over means cleaning all those little nooks and crannies that only get cleaned a few time a year--sad to say, but too true.

Amazingly we have completed a full day of school everyday this week so far---yeah!!

Caleb aced a Science test today!

Hannah had all her school completed by noon even with our morning doing school at the school district offices.  Then she happily jumped into helping me because Christmas is just too fun and she is lighting up all over!

Goal tonight:

1) lesson plans for the next two weeks done

2) put regular school closet back together.

3) pre-pack Erinn's box and put the rest of her stuff back in the attic

4)catalog rest of grade school books and replace them on shelves

5) totally IGNORE the rest of the Christmas stuff and cleaning.

and finally

6) play a game of trains with the kids:)

I am exhausted just writing it down:)

A Fury of Football Frames....

 So what do you do when you keep saying more to come on your blog....

 So what can I do when I have posted at least three blogs on Drew's races.....

 So what can I do when football season has already been over for two weeks and still no pictures....

 Well you got it....a fury of football frames!

 Caleb just finished his third year of football with the same team and the same great coaches

 His first year was four years ago when we were still unaware of some of the issues he faced in his birth country---football brought much of that to the surface and allowed us to deal with some previously unknown circumstances---and for that we are truly thankful.

 The next year we took off because it was Drew's senior year of cross country and there were many conflicting dates, plus we wanted to make sure Caleb was ready for another foray into such a rough sport.

 This year he really started to figure it out and was off to a great start, due to a first game injury he became a little hesitant, but worked through it during the season.

 Caleb played starting defensive back on a team that was second in their league.

The first place team won state by a landslide and Caleb's team only lost to them by 4 points.

 I believe Caleb was the only 5th grader on a team of 6th graders, so they will all be moving on to jr. high next year (seriously that can not be so close to happening with our second set of kids--boy I am getting old!)

 That means  next year, if he chooses to play, it will be with a new team and new coaches.

 Caleb is extremely social, the total opposite of Hannah, and he will really miss these guys.

He loves it when we see them around town or at other functions.

 Here is the first hit of the season where he got hurt.  I think he was the guy underneath and got hit in a pretty sensitive area:(

 Coaches checking him out on the field to see if he can play.

 On the Sunday before his final regular season game, we believe he dislocated his knee running to the bathroom at church.

Yes, you hear that right, not playing football as all parents worry about, but at church!

He missed the first play-off game which was hard for him, but the swelling was gone by the final game and he played in that game.

 What a great season Medford Pop Warner Black Tornado!

 Caleb with Coach Faust, their official head coach and his defensive coach, who was amazing with Caleb all 4 years.

Caleb with Coach Rumrey, their acting head coach, overall tough guy who expected a lot from his kids and taught them a lot about teamwork and discipline---oh and he is the ex-head high school football coach that coached lots of winning high school teams.

Great season Caleb, we are very proud of all your hard work!

Right time-Right place

 So does this little girl look happy to see her big brother?

She was so excited.

She misses all the big people around here.

 David was very aware that there was way more going on at Stanford this last weekend than the Regional NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Gotta love the welcome the hotel had for all of the out of town college guests staying at their hotel---LOL.

 And then there was this lovely sign right out front.

We may have been sporting our Washington State University Crimson and Gray but......

We are Oregonians after all.

So early Saturday morning we headed over to Stanford University.

Their campus is absolutely gorgeous.

 Hannah beside one of the 'small' statues on campus.

 But this is why we made an early morning trip to the campus.

The right time-right place part.

 For all you football fans.

Saturday's College Game Day program was done live from the Stanford Campus for the 

Oregon vs. Stanford football game later in the day.

 Quite an experience to be there among all the craziness.

And yes, David yelled right along with all the other crazy people when the camera would zoom across the cables above us.

Though we are Duck fans, we were wearing our crimson and gray for WSU, so we actually looked somewhat like Stanford Fans.

But if you look at the red flag flying on the right hand side of this picture, you can almost tell it is a WSU flag!

Most of the colleges in the new Pac 12 were represented in one way or another.

 Yeah our crimson, kinda blended in with this side of crazies.

 Thanks ESPN and Home Depot for the unique experience.

 Caleb, David, Hannah, and David's nephew and name sake, David enjoying the cool morning.

Sometimes David's need to fill every moment of the day makes for fun memory makers!

Oh and by the way...

Even though Oregon was predicted to loose this game here at the Game Day hoopla...

We were privileged to listen to the whole game on our drive home on our XM radio and.....

Oregon proudly pounced on Stanford!  Yeah!

A two hour diversion

 When you are in the bay area of Central California, what do you do? 

 But head a couple hours out of your way to hit a famous landmark and see the city from afar in the fog and driving rain!

Especially if you are a Jordan!

 They were doing some work down here low and up higher.

Caleb, who is afraid of heights, was amazed at how high people had to go to work on it.

I think he was sick just thinking about it.

 Do we look cold?

It was!

What an amazing site, even after all the times I have seen it.

 Fun times---Fun memories

 My amazing husband who is usually behind the camera.

 A rescue training operation out of the coast guard station.

On our way out to seen Drew and thankful we could use the bridge to get there faster now rather than driving all the way around the bay!

I was one anxious mom to see my far away son!

NCAA Division 1 West Regional at Stanford

Wow---What an amazing weekend!

We were blessed with the amazing opportunity to watch our oldest son race in the

NCAA Division 1 West Regional at

Stanford University

There were 172 of the West's top athletes competing at this weekend's competition. 

Here you see about half the field.

In the first photo you see Drew and standing behind him to the right, is the eventual winner, Lawi Lalang, a freshman whose home country is Kenya.

 Washington State knew going in they would need amazing races from all their athletes to secure a spot to Nationals next week, but they also knew it was within their abilities.

 Drew knew that he and his teammate, Todd, would be key in their position at 5th and 6th runners. 

Cross country scores top 5 runners with 7 runners being allowed to compete per team. 

First place scores one point and so on with LOW score winning.

6th and 7th runners are for tie breaking and also add points to other teams scores, by being in front of their scoring runners .

Here are Drew and two of his teammates early in the race.

 I love this picture with him looking to the side.

The west region features some of the best runners in the nation with the top two teams advancing automatically to nationals, and 13 at large positions across the nation.

With Stanford, Oregon, UCLA, Cal Poly, Portland and California,  Washington State knew they were in for a battle and were going to have to run tough races to get in the hunt.

Drew would race for a personal best, as would almost everyone of his teammates on this amazing day.

Drew would place 61st in a personal best time of 30:43 for a 10K for a 6th man on his team.   To put this in perspective, he ran 20 seconds faster than he did 2 years ago when he won his state meet and then did the whole race over again at the same pace.

 The improvement that Drew has seen is amazing and it was so fun to watch him run strong after his struggling last track season only to find out he was battling mono all season.








His teammates placed:
 14 Andrew Kimpel 29:46
 16  Jono Lafler 29:47
 33 Justin Englund 30:14
 41 Todd Wakefield 30:21
 45  Andrew Gonzales 30:24
 61  Andrew Jordan 30:43
 65  Lee George 30:47

















Then they would wait on pins and needles for the scores.

When they started reading scores and these guys who had placed 6th last week at the Pac 12's were getting pretty excited as they heard:


UCLA   6th



Then.....

Oregon   5th

And their reaction to

WASHINGTON STATE 4TH!!!!!

One happy group of guys.

And we found out yesterday that 4th was good enough for one of the at large positions, so they are headed to nationals next week in Indiana.

For the first time in many years Washington State will be represented at nationals by their cross country team!

Congratulations men---we are very proud of all you have accomplished this year.

You can see full results here   http://www.gostanford.com/sports/c-xc/stats/2011-2012/west_men.html

and at this site http://www.gostanford.com/sports/c-xc/stats/2011-2012/west_men.html  you will find and article as well as an interview with his coach and top runner.

Also here is a short video from Flotrack  http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/240454-NCAA-D1-XC-West-Region-2011/video/515433-Mens-NCAA-West-Regional-2011-Race-Highlights  You can see Drew at about 55 seconds into the video on the left hand side in the red.