I was out of town.  So sad that I missed this.  Especially since Job finished the Awana program at Northlake Church.  He started in Cubbies and worked through all the books through TnT.  He participated in the different nights including being a volcano for Hawaii night.  When I realized that I was going to be out of town I begged John to bring his camera to take photos.  Unfortunately Job stepped behind the flag when he recieved his Timothy Award so I have a photo of the flag.  He learned roughly 36 verses a year for 4 years during TnT.  That's 144 verses. Wow. 



Lona finished her second year in TnT.  She can be such an over-achiever.  She finished her book and then went on to do the silver and gold activities.  I think she really likes school work and memorization work.  At the end she had to say 36 verses in one night.  Yikes.  I don't think I could do that.  I am so very proud of both of these kids.  They worked hard and it paid off.

Renee with Denis

Albert with Denis

Meme, Albert, Renee at Denis' Baptism



Pepe & Meme with Denis

Denis with his guitar

In Italy

Front left side  (he dealt with the radar)

Lead guitar for his band "Fried Eggs"

Denis with his mother Renee

Karen & Denis in Switzerland

Denis giving his daughter Nicole away at her wedding (August 2009)

Wow, what a hard post.  This year I learned that my father was diagnosed with a brain tumor and possible lung cancer.  He also has a bleeding ulcer and has strokes and a history of heart attacks.  I don't really keep in close contact with him.  He's has called me a lot more these last few years than I have called him.  I flew out in May to visit him for a week.  It was a tough week.  It was difficult to see my Dad like he is now.  He is bed ridden with the use of one arm only.  Which means he is totally dependent upon others.  He is still sharp and as communicative as a man can be.  He loves to watch hockey and is following the Stanley Cup.  It was one thing that we could talk about.  My life and his are and have been so completely different that I struggled to find something to chat about.  He has a friend that comes over once a week to visit.  They talk model airplanes and a little politics.  I had some photos of him in his youth and had them put on a CD.  We went through the photos and I learned a little bit about him.  I knew he had a band but didn't know what it was called.  I somewhat remember an orange VW bus but not much else.  He grew up in France overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland.  Being French he was obligated to serve in the military for a couple of years.  My mother and father divorced when I was 4 years old.  He moved back to France when I was 13 or 14.  I saw him two or three times in the next 15 years.  He moved back to Montana after I had moved to Bellingham and again I didn't see him much. He has two children that are quite a bit younger than I am.  In fact his youngest son is only three years older than Isaac my son.  My Dad has done some research on our family tree and traced our family back to 1580.  The family tree paper is almost 10 feet long and is missing Lona.  I brought it back with my and am going to have it copied.  It has on there a man named Pierre Eugene Ducimetiere (du Simitiere).  Apparently he helped design the great seal of America, particularly the motto: E pluribus unum  and the eye of providence.



Denis at his home in Montana (May 2012)

About 10 years ago John built this play structure.  I had read in a magazine how a landscape designer used plants to camouflage his kids play structure.  His play structure had a jungle feel to it and his kids loved it.  I had also read in a Martha Stewart Magazine about Wisteria how it can take over a structure.  So John's Dad brought up a small wisteria plant for us.  Every year we get more and more flowers.  Every year John works hard to prune it so that it grows the way we want it to grow - over the structure so it forms a living roof.  This year it has surpassed my expectations and I was surprised.  The last time I looked out my kitchen window the wisteria was promising lots of blooms.  When I returned from my trip to Montana and saw my wisteria from my kitchen window my breath was taken away.  It is in full bloom and I am hard pressed to find green leaves among all the purple blooms.  John has been begging me to take photos of Lona in the wisteria ever since I came home.

Yikes,  Isaac turned 14.  Where did that time go?  I ask that each time one of the kids has a birthday.  With Isaac turning 14 though it just seems like a milestone.  No can't drive but he's ending his middle school years.  He'll be in high school next year.  He's starting to get to be more of a man.  But just starting.  You the beginning - hairy gorilla (armpits), stinky man smell, very strong opinions.  What will this next year bring?  I see only four years left with him.  Possibly two if he goes to Running Start.  He'll still be at home for that but it will mean more responsibility, more independence, more grown up.  I'm excited for him and also excited for myself.  I mean hopefully I've done my job and he'll fly away.  Oh, I don't want him to go but I also do. 


For his birthday, we decided to celebrate a little just family.  I was leaving on his birthday so Job, Lona and I decided to surprise him.  We cleaned the house (not like he cared - but I did).  Lona made fudge (Grandma's recipe) and Job helped me make a banner and he put it up.  Job and Lona also put up little paper balls all over.  I had balloons in his favorite color tied to a chair.  I picked him up from school and brought him home.  He was surprised.  Loved that.  When John came home we went to Olive Garden which all the kids love to go to for their birthdays.  Then home for fudge and presents.  We want to have something for him and his friends soon.  Just have to figure it out.

There is this in between season at our house.  It's between winter (rain) and the pool opening, when those sunny days call to us to be outside but it's still chilly.   Well that is a relative term, relative to I want to be outside or inside playing video games.  There is this area in the back yard that has sand and mud where we place our swimming pool.  That spot that really has no use unless we have a campfire.  That spot that is just perfect for building mudballs and creating lakes and rivers with the hose.  That spot that is only there during the in between times.  In the winter its too cold for the hose but the in betweens well, the sun is out so the hose must be able to be turned on.  So logical.  So the inbetweens are full of volcanoes, tunnels, rivers and the best are mudballs.  Baked to rock hardness in the sun and a gooey, sloppy mess most of the other times.

Remember the part of the book Tom Sawyer where Tom gets his friends to white wash the fence for him.  Well that really does work but the child has to be younger by a couple of  years and that child has to feel like they are getting something out of it; such as being able to play with the older child.  A few weeks ago our little neighbor girl wanted to play with Lona but she had to pick up the backyard, pooper scoop and mow. ( Her brothers ref and she wants a job.  I have a job that needs doing.  As soon as she can referee then I'm out of a yard worker.)  Anyhow, she decided that it would be in her best interest to help my daughter pooper scoop so they could have time to play.  Fast forward a couple of weeks and John decided it was time to stain the back fence (we have four different colors of stain back there) and "hired" Job and Lona to do it.  Here comes our little neighbor girl.  "Knock Knock Knock" on the front door.  "Can Lona come out a play?"  "No." I replied, "She's staining the fence in the backyard."  5 minutes later she's in the backyard watching and talking about how she could help out and she just needed a roller.  I'm sure my kids would have been more than willing to hand their roller over to her.

We have two referees in the house.  Both Isaac and Job are refereeing this season. It has been a challenge keeping every one's schedule straight on Saturdays.  Not to mention that a couple of times schedules had changed but I didn't realize that some game times were changed.  I'm trying to keep track of when three kids play soccer and two kids ref games  That can be a total of 9 games on Saturday.  I have no idea how Kyle and Erica the ref organizers do it.  It's amazing.  Aside from me trying to stay organized I really believe that this reffing thing is teaching the boys a lot of real world stuff.  Job referees U6 and U7 games, so he make $7 a game.  Isaac is refereeing older kids, U11 and U10 so he makes $15 a game.  They are running the game.  They call fouls, out of bounds, corner kicks, and goal kicks.  With the older kids, the referee gives the coaches the permission to sub in, times the games and calls off-sides.  The only downside for Job is that he gets so cold and has a terrible time keeping his fingers warm.  Even on warm days he'll wear gloves.  This year Isaac has had some challenges with coaches.  He's been yelled at and had coaches go back and forth on whether a call was appropriate or not.  He's had coaches make bad reports and is learning to go through their comments and look at what can be constructive criticism and how that can help him to be a better referee.  I have a very difficult time taking constructive criticism.  It's even harder to sit there and read it about my boy who's first off-sides game was with two incredible difficult coaches.  In fact another coach was on the side-lines and asked Isaac if he needed to get a field marshal to step in and deal with these coaches.  But there is always something we can learn in these situations.  It has taken a little glow away from being a referee for him although the pay check is still nice for him.  For boys who like to sleep in I'm surprised that their first choice of game times is 8:00 in the morning.  They have to be at the field by 7:30 to check in so there isn't any sleeping in on Saturdays for them.