The morning – the VERY morning that Sam spotted a mouse in our bathroom, look what popped up on my Russian language learning app?

I went to the hardware store with Ben later in the day and might have been squeaking a little (“SQUEAK! SQUEEAAK!”) as we walked around looking for mouse traps. Finally found some – got glue and regular snap ones. Ready for battle!

We also bought a TWIX bar and laid a boy trap. Look who we caught? A BIG one!

Here we are, decorating Sam’s cake 🙂 The boys each wrote something.

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Some of the boys – four of them – saw this big tent in its bag in the garage and begged to camp out in it! What was I to do? I really couldn’t deny eager boys an adventure, could I? We set it up in the dark, in the rain, mopped up the floor, and had cake then went out to sleep through a pretty heavy downpour all night. The tent held up, and so did we – had a great time. Even had a urinal in the tent because the rain was so heavy. Check out the album for more photos…

Shooting in the garage the next day while I tidy up the house and wash a dozen towels 🙂

Halfway through a 6 mile run down to Lynwood to meet up with Dave and the boys for breakfast. I love those breakfast sandwiches, and love them even more when I’ve earned one 🙂

I found this saws-all blade on the road and picked it up to save a tire. Never found a trash can along the way so ran with it like this. Quickly found cars gave me a very wide berth!

Now we’re in Tacoma for an exhibition game with Coach Chris’ son’s team. It’s a Squirt rep team, so a level up from us.

We got crushed, BUT – one of the coaches played O’Callahan from the movie Miracle! Lisa was so stunned! Mike is a very humble and nice guy.

THEN we headed to Poulsbo for dinner with some families from the team (an hour north) and took two boys (cousins) home for a sleepover since they can’t come on Wed when the rest of the guys do. I had NO idea what I was in for. OMG. They had a blast, and so did the boys. It was wild, though. Here they are admiring Sam’s cube collection. They also enjoyed shooting in the garage to see how fast they are on the radar gun, soccer (me as goalie), basketball, tucking chickens in (wish kids did that!) and more…oh…knee hockey before bed. It took hours to wind them down.

Breakfast before their game. Thanks to Dave, we all ate well! Thank you, honey!

So – Sam had a game, which they won 2:1 (just barely – tough game!). Then we did open skate while waiting around for Ben’s Mites practice. I spent 3 hours on the ice (I help corral kids and pucks), Sam 4 hours. Here he is tying Ben’s skates. I was so tired by this time that I lost my keys 3 separate times. I finally told another mom where they were! I felt nearly drunk with tiredness, but just kept moving or I would have keeled over! Lots of fun, though.

And THEN…home for Burns Night which my friend Ben McCafferty and I had FIRMLY in our books. Not to miss! I dashed home via Safeway to buy flour, sugar, and biscuits to roll haggis up in. We raced home, Sam made shortbread (I didn’t know Dave had already gotten some in the oven) and ordered pizza, gathered wood for a fire and started to get it going just as Ben and crew arrived. Ben didn’t want to wait for me to nurse along wet wood so took matters into his own hands. He makes me look TAME, doesn’t he? I’m glad to have friends like this for perspective 😉

Google translate – I spoke in Russian and finally got it correct enough to translate what I  meant to say! You would not believe the outtakes, though! I was LAUGHING out loud. Then I had the boys and Dave try. Dave thought it sounded like I was asking for a cheese stick. (Sounds like “vremya chestit’ zuby malchikov”.) In the outtakes below, I’m hitting the microphone and trying to pronounce the words correctly. If I don’t get it right, funny translations appear above.

Sam and I made pies yesterday to take to our friends’ home for a dinner gathering (which was wonderful). He made one with red apples and a sugary sauce which was actually pretty good, and I made one with green apples (double crust). Came out respectably enough.

This is a coprolite – fossilized worm feces from a lake bed in Seattle. I brought this up at dinner with friends last night and just had to display it because it’s so odd, and unless you come visit my artifacts shelf in our foyer, you’d never have the distinct privilege of seeing fossil worm feces.

Family photos get more fun every year!

See? Props for adults this time!

Happy 14th Anniversary, to us! Dave’s face is priceless.

On our way to the brewery

bar top selfie. Hubby a little shy about selfies in a brewery. Can’t imagine why.

I wrote this in the bathroom. He never saw it! (Obvious reason…men face a different direction than women when using the privy.)

Emmy plotting my demise.

Trying to get a Thanksgiving hug from Sam – it’s a full contact sport!

Shopping for all the fixin’s with Sam and Ben the day before Thanksgiving, after giving them frozen yogurt for lunch, AND allowing them to each have a cart. Maybe not a good idea, but they were model boys! No one got hurt, no one got admonished, and they found the things they were sent after, even in a crowded store. The parking lot was packed, the store was packed, but I honestly have not had a more pleasant time with them! We DID come home with enough to make FOUR pies, but that’s ok. We’ll get to that. I make a decent crust and it’s fun to do over the weekend. (Between hockey games? Huh…) On the way out of the store we raced shopping carts down the parking lot. There’s a nice slope for coasting. Yes, I was safe. 🙂 Turns out you can steer with your feet!

Mom and Richard arrive to find the mess left behind by the storm the night before (which knocked out power).

All cleaned up and burning away! Cheaper than hauling it 😉 Plus, you know I like fire. It was hard to get me to come in for turkey…

An impromptu Wed fire, hockey shootout, s’mores before dinner, and pizza supplied by the fabulous Larry, Eli’s stepdad. Thank you, Larry!

The weather has been really really cold, windy and wet this fall. Soccer has never been this much fun since I played in NJ! Still, the kids are all smiles and Ben continues to enjoy his time with the team. They are playing well together and winning some games, to boot.

Sam is leading dry land (warm-up before the game). Earlier in the day he was doing dry land in the bleachers while Ben was playing in a wet soccer game. This prompted me to see if the coaches wanted him to run dry land while they put together lines for the game. It seemed to work out well. Sam enjoyed it.

Wheat continues to learn how to integrate into this flock. She is very timid, still, requiring feeding by hand and constant vigilance to be sure she weathers the stormy weather ok. She finds hiding places where she can hunker down and stay out of the general chicken milieu. She’s learning to tolerate Calvin’s amorous advances. She’s an intelligent and sensitive little bird. I’m happy to see this through as long as it takes.

Ben leaving after a game. His bag is as big as he is!

Taking 4 hockey boys to stick and puck, then open skate, on Veteran’s Day. My bag is in there as well. 5 hockey bags…that’s as much as this truck can hold without putting the roof carrier on! What a funny time that was at the rink. Look for a link to “figure skating.”

This was pizza time between skating sessions. I think there were 9 boys. That is Dee in the back (purple jacket) taking pictures as well.

Sam has wanted a snake for a long time. I find myself in a spot where I need to consider: Xbox? Or Snake? Apparently the name “Bob” would be bestowed upon the 4′-5′ boa he hopes to bring home. Santa??? Thoughts? It’s only $60. Ha! And LIVE feeder rats! I can see it now – stopping on the way home from the rink for a feeder rat, then to Taco Del Mar, for feeder burritos. Geez…just when I thought my life couldn’t get more interesting.

I’ve learned Morse Code! Every morning the boys give me a word to spell out in code, then I check my accuracy. This has been a dream for some time – 5-10 years. And at last, I’ve learned!

A “happy Ben” picture after a great hockey game! This is his buddy Sam (not brother Sam).

We stopped at the commissary on the way home. $397 worth in the truck. Ben was in charge of the $5 tip you give to the ladies who help you out. But where is it? Apparently he’d put it UNDER a bag thinking it would be fun if the little lady found it as she loaded the truck and wondered if it was for her. Sweet little treasure hunt…NOT! Sam and I shared this look of disbelief. It’s one in a long string of looks we’ve given each other with Ben lately. Just earlier that day he was missing both hockey gloves AND a left elbow pad. Thankfully I was able to find old backup pairs for the game, and then Humpty Dumpty was put back together at the rink from the lost and found, and another boy’s bag. Still…the missing items list has grown distressingly long in the last week or so. Time to turn the noggin on.

Saying good morning on Obsidian’s first day of school! 🙂

Ben on his first day of school – this is after school with his buddy, Cole.

New zip line installed – it’s a huge hit! And a good workout hauling your buddy up for a ride 🙂

This is the morning routine – neighbor Kai pops over on his way to the bus and they work on cubing algorithms or shoot the hockey puck. It’s awesome. We are SO lucky to have great neighbors and be so close to the bus stop.

And back to the rink – this time with two boys! This is Ben’s first year playing Mites and he is really enjoying it! This is him waiting to step on the ice for his first practice.

And…another first! Power outage! Very windy today. We broke out the camp stove and made eggs and hot chocolate. Ben is going “ooooh!”

New hen adopted from my friend Anne (who actually sold this house to us). Her flock mates were killed by a raccoon, so she’s bunking in with us. This is her second night and she’s bravely assessing roosting options. I’m happy to say she was tucked up next to the King, Gordon, when I closed the coop door. Very little bluster and bullying. She’s a real sweetie.

The Bainbridge Boys have been hiking every weekend – twice up 6000 footer Mt. Townsend (9 miles roundtrip, 3000′ elev gain) and enjoyed a great view on their second attempt. We have had such fun with these boys, and for some hiking is a brand new sport which they totally love. Great dry land training!

We used hockey sticks for trecking poles 🙂

Out on a trail run yesterday with the Bainbridge 6 – more than 5 miles! They were a riot – doing parkour along the way, chasing me with a cricket and generally causing a huge ruckus with big smiles on all our faces. I love the time with them – they are so full of energy.

Some wounded Warriors catching a ride 🙂

Marching back, cricket in hand! Remind me to tell you about the unfortunate demise of Blake Mill Johnson.