Hello

Miss Holly, I need your help. I am getting ready to make christmas cookies and candies and I can't find your recipe for caramel. Can you please post if for me? I will text you in the morning incase you do not see this tonight. Miss you Love you

Its getting so cold

Another long weekend that we just finished. Kassi had games both saturday and sunday. Saturday we drove to Moscow for her first game at 8:30 am:( I was not very happy, I had to get up even earlier than if I was to go to work. They did great, and played there little hearts out. We ended up winning 2 -1.
Then off to Lewiston for the second game. It was finally 2:00pm when we were able to start the game, and so hot we all came home with sunburns. These girls were tough, they were elbowing our team, pushing them in the backs as we were running the field. It got very ugly although with all the shots they had on Kassi (protecting the goal) not one got passed! I wish you could see her play. She has gotten so good and aggressive. She didn't like the way they were treating her team so she got even in the second half. Coach Dawn pulled her out of the box and let her play forward. She scored the first goal of the whole game!! And almost got a red card & ejected from the game. The ref said that there was enough elbowing going on and that they needed to stop, "If I see you elbow one more time or punch anyone in the back you are out of the game, do you understand" (his words). Well needless to say they only did it while he was not watching. The other parents were not really happy with it either, they kept yelling at the ref to keep his eye on her, however it was there kids who started it. And of course I don't know how to keep my mouth shut so I got a little voicterous with them and told them what I thought. We ended up tying them 1-1. So after the game we headed to Baskin Robins to cool down before the long boring drive home.
Sunday she had two more games, but thankfully they were here at Hayden Meadows. They did very well again. We played two Spokane teams, tied one and lost one. But what a weekend, four games in two days.
So now we are just working our tails off again before this weekend (more games).

Jake got the floor of his shop in today. Now we wait a couple of days before he starts throwing up the sides. How is your house coming along? Miss you

busy busy busy

Sorry I haven't been on lately. Work has been so crazy busy. I am short on staff and have been working any time between 5:30am to 10:30pm. I am so tired and I just found out this week that one of my other girls is quiting. I sure hope that we start getting some good applicants soon.

Memorial weekend I made another wedding cake. Beth asked me to make it for her ex-sister in law. She finally married the father of her two youngest kids. I hope that she is happy this time around.
And we went camping at Mirror Lake. Have you ever been up there? It is close to Sandpoint, very quiet. They actually filmed part of Dante's Peak there. The part where they go to rescue grandma from the cabin, they get in a small boat and go across the lake, and the acid in the lake eats the boat. Well this is the place the cabin was actually built by the movie people and was left there for them. We had a good time, we took the canoe up and farted around the lake. Then Larry let Gabby drive the Xterra. I was so nervous, but she has informed us that as of October 27th she can start taking drivers ed. Please do me a favor and put me out of my misery now.

We had our last soccer tournament Sept 11 & 12 in Sandpoint. I don't have pictures of them playing this time. I am taking the stats for the games and Larry isn' t real good with the camera. The girls did great! The played like a real team, talking to each other, calling the ball, assisting with goals, helping Kassi stop goals, and we even had one of our new girls to Sting score her first goal. We beat out the Sting Clark team, Lakeland Nighthawks, and Spokane shadow. Then we faced the Kootenai Rovers (Canada team) in the semi finals. The Rovers went into the semi finals undefeated, we played our hearts out and held them to the end 0-0. It then went to a shoot out and they were lucky enough to advance to the finals against the Missoula Strikers. We are not sure who won the tournament but our girls finished in third place. Please excuse me while I go kick larry's ass.

Ok I am back.

On September 19 we had our first league game against the Spokane Strikers. We played hard again and a couple of our girls including Kassi got hurt. The final was Spokane 3-2. Kassi ended up stopping a goal and getting kicked in the ribs (she is a little sore, but I don't think it is anything serious), then she came out to play forward got ran over and then took a shot at a goal and twisted her ankle. Mason one of the other players twisted her knee (she has already been in to see the doctor about doing this a couple of weeks earlier and is currently wearing a brace), Sophia has one of her hands braced up from breaking her thumb on the counter. We look real good coming out on the field:)

Jake and Vicky are in the process of building there shop. They gave us the canopy and boy has it been an experience. We got it just before memorial weekend, and of course we were gone so it did not get tied down. When we got home sunday it was still standing up right, yeh! Then we went to dinner and when we came home it was upside down in our trees, we left it over night since is was storming. Then monday it decided to go back into the Powlison's yard (half in the pool and the other half was in the area Jake just dug out for the shop). Jake helped take the top and sides off and put the frame back in our yard. Wednesday I came home from work and decided to mow the yards. I had the girls come out and help me move the thing to the back of the fence line. As soon as we picked it up one of the bars at the top popped out of the frame, we set it down to fix it and BAM! Another bar popped out and cracked me across the cheek bone. My eye swelled up so big that it blocked my vision, and to top it off it has been blacker than black for the last week. Everyone has been asking me if Larry did it and if I needed them to protect me. Sorry no picture

Gabby went to her first homecoming dance. She looked so beautiful! She was fighting me on going too. She kept saying that she didn't want to go because she didn't have a date. I told her that I didn't have dates everytime and that if she didn't go she would regret it. I won! She went and she had a great time.

Ok talk with you later! Love you


Oh I almost forgot Beth and Josh had a little boy. Jack William Glidden. He is a cute little boy and they are doing very well. Beth is loving it! Josh has even come around, and they have been talking about having one more (not right now, probably in a couple of years). I will get a picture and post it later.

Back from Glacier

We are finally back from our wonderful week in Glacier National Park. And boy did we have a great time, well most of it was great. Mom, dad, Ted and Bev went with us. It was there first time ever being there so we had fun showing them around. I really wanted to see a bear this year so that I could get pictures but no such luck.

We took everyone up the Going to the Sun road to St. Mary lake. What a beautiful lake, bright blue water as clear as could be.

Then we went hiking up to Hidden Lake where we got to see lots of Mountain goats with their babies, marmoths, birds, big horn sheep (but they were too far away for pictures), and just awesome views of the glaciers and mountains. This was a 1.5 mile hike in and we went up to almost 8,000 ft. so needless to say it took us about 2 hours to get there. The way out though it was almost all down hill and much easier (faster too). And everyone slept very well on this night.

We went to the Hungry Horse Dam, drove around part of the reservoir to find spots to fish and canoe at. But after reading information from Glacier we learned that you do not need to have a fishing license to fish inside Glacier National Park. But anywhere else in Montana you need to have a fishing license and a conservation license. So we decided to take the kids fishing in the park. We did a lot of fishing but came home with nothing, I guess the fish did not like what we were offering. So Kassi did some swimming while the weather held out for her. Gabby got in, but also jumped out just as fast. The water was COOOOLD - what do you expect though when it is the run off of melting glaciers.

Our last hike of the park was at Avalanche Lake. WOW this was the most fun of the hikes. Beautiful surroundings, breathtaking water need I say anymore? And the gorge was dream come true pictures. The white tail in the pictures walked with me for probably .5 mile, and then surprised us as we sat on the shore and ate. It is amazing how all of the animals here are not afraid of people. Almost as if they want you to pet them, I did not though of course. This one little chipmunk had no tail and was so friendly that he helped himself to the corn we took in to fish with. And then he came right up and sat in my hand while we fed him crackers.

The next day we took the kayak and canoe to Lion Lake just before the Hungry Horse dam. We spent the whole day playing in the lake, canoing and kayaking. My arms felt like they were going to fall off the next day. Larry was so cute though he kept asking me why I wanted to buy a canoe, because how boring. He had never been in a canoe before and thought that all you did was sit there. Once I got him out in it though he changed his mind. Now he is planning fishing trips with Josh out on Twin Lakes. The girls had fun in it too, each of them got to go out with Larry or I and take turns helping to paddle us around.

After trying out Bev's kayak I am glad that I did not go that route. I think I would have been bored, because honestly Larry would never get in a kayak. He would not feel as stable.

We finished off our activities with a bike ride on the trail in Glacier. It actually led us down to the shore line of Flat Head River. The girls got a kick out of watching the white water rafters come down the river. I didn't get many pictures from here as we were riding and not playing.

The bad part of our trip was at night when a huge rain storm hit. We think that my mom and dads motor home got hit by lightening. They lost all of their power when they were not plugged into the sites hookups. And I woke up wet. We have a few leaks in our trailer that we were unaware of, so we have some sealing that needs to be done before it causes damage and gets worse. And then we experienced some back up of grey water, luckily that was not the toilet water. Our sensors in the tanks are not working properly. Now what is funnier than this is that mom and dad also had a back up problem with their grey tank. How does this stuff always find us? But all in all when had a great time and can not wait to go back. We are already planning where to go next year in the park. And I am glad that we went for a week cause if it was only a couple of days we would not have been able to see everything that we saw.

Okay talk with you soon.

Gabby's 8th grade graduation

It is official, Gabby has made it through middle school and is now a Freshman:( My gosh have I gotten OLD. I knew that it would happen some day, but I never thought that it would come this fast.

Friday June 12, 2009 we attended the graduation celebration. Before the ceremony the kids were invited to have dinner with their teachers and the school staff, I thought this was cool. We never got to do it. And then the parents were invited to dessert and the celebration. At the celebration the principal spoke about what a good group of kids this was, and how they are getting ready to start a new chapter in their lives. The class chose the civics teacher to speak. She did a wonderful job speaking about the kids, I can see why they all like her. She had a story to tell about every child and she spoke from the heart, so you know that she really cares about them. And then they had a teacher sing to them for the first time every. Of course there was a slide show of the baby to now pictures, and that was pretty much it but we had a good time. I am glad that Gabby has chosen this school and I hope that she continues to want to go!

Hair Time

Well I was going through my computer organizing my photos when I came across these. I knew that I had to put them up so we could look back on them and laugh remembering what a good time we had together doing girl stuff.

I am so happy that you have come home for a visit. You have no idea how you had made my week showing up like that. As you have read from the post before I was having an awful week, not knowing what to do and you showing up was a dream. With everything that you have had to do this year, I know that I can make it through this uncertain time. Thank you!

Anyway here is a good laugh and we will get to have some more really soon when we are all doing hair again!

SAD DAY

Well I went to work on Monday and I got a call that we were having a meeting with the owners of the store. They had called us all in to let us know that they sold the store and lube center. Good news is that Ron McIntyre (Super 1) is the new owner. So now we are in the process of waiting to see if we get to keep our jobs and what our new schedule will look like. I do know that the store will now be open 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. So please put me in your prayers that I will be safe and that I will not have to spend a lot of nights and weekends away from my family. I think that we are already going to loose a couple of employees with the change.

Other than this Kassi is starting up another year of STING for the same wonderful coach Crabb. And we have 6 players from last years team! YEH!! Gabby is graduating from the 8th grade on Friday, I will post pictures when I have them. The garden is coming in wonderfully, hopefully we have some veggies when you come to town. By the way when will you be here, for how long, and has any more been said about camping?

We Are The Champions!!! Again!

Ok so we stomped all over MONTANA! We played 4 games. The first game we shut them out 13-0, the second game we shut them out 8-0, the third game we won 6-1, and then in the final championship game we had to play another STING team (Clark) and we won 5-2. I was so mad though, I wanted to go and kick Clark's teeth in down his throat. He teaches his team to play dirty ball. His daughter Mia was trying to score on Kassi, Kassi stopped the ball and had it in her arms on the ground, he told Mia to keep kicking it and get it in the goal. In the process Mia stepped on one of Kassi's arms and kicked her in the other elbow, just to score. He was so proud and told them to keep playing that way. Well Kassi was not going to let them win after that and she stopped all the rest of their shots on goal. Way to go Kassi! It was so hard for me to sit on the sideline and watch my baby in pain crying and I was not able to do anything. She still has a nasty bruise on her arm but I am thankful that she did not get really hurt. Mia did apologize to Kassi on Monday at practice, she said that she had to do it or she was going to be in trouble with her dad after the game, sad thing is is that I believe her:( I hate sounding so competitive but dang we have an awesome team. I am so sad that it is over now. Kassi had try outs for next year on Monday and Tuesday, we are now waiting to see whose team she is on.

Kassi Soccer Champion

So Kassi and her team played in the Hot Shots Tournament here the week before Memorial Weekend. This is the largest soccer tournament in the Northwest. We had 169 teams register and show up to play soccer. There were fields set up at Hayden Meadows, Canfield Middle, Skyway Elem., Lake City High, Coeurd'Alene High, LDS church on Honeysuckle, and NIC.

On Saturday we played a Valley Thunder from Lewiston and won 2 - 1. Then another STING team (Clark) and won 2 - 1. On Sunday we played The Strikers from Missoula and won 6 - 1. And then for the Championship game we play The Nighthawks from Lakeland and won 4 -2. These girls played so well and were so tired when they were through. This was also the first nice weekend that we had and we all came home with a sunburn!

Now we are headed to Kalispel tomorrow for the last tournament of this season. I hope they play just as well and come home winners again! I will let you know how it goes.

1st Camping trip of the year!

Ok so I am going to brag that we went on our first camping trip of the year. IT WAS GREAT!!!!!! I love being out - not thinking of what needs to be done at the house (and trust me there is alot). But it just feels good to not worry and be on my feet cleaning all day and night.

We really wanted to go up to Priest Lake, but again we did not plan far enough ahead for it and they were all booked up. So we thought about going up towards Hope, and hopefully we would find a spot. But Larry called me Tuesday afternoon and said that he had gotten us a spot. YEH! One of his accounts has some property on the Ponderay River, and they were not going to be using it so she said that we were more than welcome to. At first I was a little skeptical but once we got there I was so happy that she let us use it.

Gabby and Kassi went fishing for the first time and each of them caught a fish. I got a picture of Gabby with hers but Kassi lost hers off the dock before I could get the camera out:( Rocky didn't hardly sleep, he kept running in the water all day long (kinda like my yard), and Kujo got mad because he wasn't being played with. Sophia well she was sophia - laying in the sun all day long. Rocky has decided that he also likes to go fishing. When anyone would pull a fish out of the water he was biting them as if he did the catching.

Then we went up to Colin to fish in Priest Lake and they were having a craft fair and parade celebration. So of course we had to stop and see what was for sale. We got some super yummy marinated garlic, pickled green beans and Honey Maple dressing. I am going to see if I can find the recipe for the dressing so I can make my own. And instead of cutting a section out of my yard for a fire pit, we found a really cute fire ring with a moose, dear, elk and bear cut in to it - and even better it was only $35. I haven't found anything that reasonable anywhere. So all in all we had an AWESOME weekend.

Now we are back home and reality is setting in. I tried to rototill the garden again, but the dang thing keeps quitting on me. So Jake that great guy that he is came over and did it for me while I was making dinner. Now tomorrow the girls and I are going to finally plant our veggies! I can't wait for them to be here.

Check out the pictures and let me know what you think of her property. I wish it was mine!

I need to get your recipe for the lawn fertilizer. I am really trying to stay up on my lawn this year and would like to get it green green before it gets too late. I also went out and sprayed all the weeds in the garden and the kids bought me all of my seeds and starts to get the garden going. Bill and his girlfriend have planted a garden in your spot and are keeping your home up very well.

Good to hear from you. Now that I know we are working properly I will show the girls how to get on here so that they can chat back and forth with the boys.

I am so excited, mom and dad just bought a motorhome so that they can go camping with us this year. We just reserved their spot in Kalispel with us for Kassi's tournament at the end of the month. We are going to have so much fun! I think they decided to get one since we are never home, but you would know that just as much as anyone else who knows us!!) We are so ready to go out, I think we are going to try and go somewhere local on Memorial weekend.

How is the truck hunting going? I hope you get one so that we can camp! Ok got to get home!

Hello Again!

Ok I could not figure out why you were not able to reply to the original blog, so I deleted it and I am starting over. I hope that this will work out better for you.

How are you and the boys? We miss you. I am trying to get started on the garden. I went out yesterday and fixed the gate, and sprayed all of the weeds with round up. Now I get to wait for them to die and then I have to find a rototiller to get the ground ready. I told my mom that if she gets me anything for mother's day - I want tomato plants, veggie seeds or flowers for the front yard. How easy it is to please us home makers.

Well I hope that you are having a good weekend and that they weather is better for you than it is for us.

Clayton - Kassi had a soccer game yesterday. She won 10 - 0. She did not score but she did have 5 shots on goal and all of them were stopped by their goalie. She wishes that you were here to watch her play! And she loved your email that you sent her, but you should be able to blog with her now.

Love ya,