Winter Wonderland

I wasn't allowed to finish shoveling our front deck for fear that I might disturb our scientific measurement. Buried under that snow is a one foot ruler standing upright. I'm guessing that right now we have a little over 14 inches of snow.

The kids did not have school today and it is cancelled tomorrow as well. If it is going to snow, this is how we like it.

Brant

Retraction

Due to a scheduling conflict we will no longer be traveling to Denver this weekend. We hope to reschedule a visit for the near future. Sorry we'll miss your baptism Braxton.

My New Toy!!!!

Let it snow!

Last year as the snow approached 2-3 feet we decided to buy us a snow blower. Yea, right. By then there were none to be found. This year we stated early, but even now the guy at Sears said he was selling 6-7 a week. This one was on sale plus he knocked of another 10 percent so it was cheaper than the basic "two stage" blower. We're all ready now (except there is no gas in it).

It has been a good week. Wednesday I went to Pendleton to the substantial completion meeting for the new roof. While they were putting the new roof on they got 1" of rain and it ran down and got on and under the hardwood floor. The floor experts were there and said we could not save the floor (too badly warped). So they will be tearing it out and putting in a new one. Cost will be about $35,000. Luckily the church and contractors insurance will pay for it.

We have been having nice fall days. I need to get out and blow and pick up the leaves, but they are still falling off the trees and I don't want to do it more than once.

We got new tires on the Ranger Friday, after driving on "slicks" for the last 3-4 years.

I took Grandpa up to the dermatologist on Wednesday. He froze several cancer spots and biopsied two. One on his cheek and one on his are. When he gets the results he will have to go up and have them cut out. The doctor said he can do it in his office. One is about 3/4" in diameter but he thinks he can take care of it.

Uncle Eugene is flying out on November 3rd. I'll pick him up at the Spokane airport.

I lined up the fence people to put in new 6' vinyl fencing on the two "sides" of Grandpa's yard. They will probably do it the week Eugene is here. That will be nice so he can be there to make any last minute decisions.

Today was Stake Conference. Matt and Kimbre came down last night and went to church with us. Today we had dinner with them and Seth and Lacey. After dinner they carved three pumpkins - they turned out great.

That's it for now.

Dad and Mom

Not much new here this week. We finished painting two of the rooms in our house and they turned out pretty good. One is a variation of sage green and the hallway is a nice yellow. Kelly loves the yellow and I am a little unsure, so we're giving it a few days to see how we feel about it.
This week we have a rent-a-child with us. He belongs to Kelly's friend (who is on a vacation she won from work, his dad is in Korea in the Army) and will be staying with us until Wednesday. I'm sure all you parents will just laugh at the fun we're having getting up in the middle of the night to a crying two-year old who misses his mommy and his "soft one" (it's a blue blanket that matches his "baby" that he also must have).
This Friday we are headed to Denver for the weekend. We'll leave Friday after work and come home on Monday. Don't worry Mom, we'll drive all the way there in one shot so you don't have to worry about us sleeping in the car.


Mom and Kelly at the Aplets and Cotlets factory, no paper hats this time.

Andra's Birthday

Andra had her first birthday party friday night. We did manicures, made pizzas, decorated cupcakes and danced to girly music. Thankfully Andra has a cool older sister that made the party fun. Mom is kinda boring.

This picture is on her actually birthday a couple of mondays ago. Thanks for all of the fun things and the cute bag Grandma and Grandpa.

We are back in school now after three fun weeks of break. Here are a couple of pictures from our fall break. Korbin's head where Rett "tapped" him with a hammer.Building at the childrens museum.

Painting at the childrens museum.

And our happy baby Maura. Thank you for all of the fun gifts grandma and grandpa. The clothes for Maura were perfect. She has outgrown most of what she has.

Happy Halloween!

Last night was our annual "Un-official church activity, but everyone is from the ward" backyard party. We had potluck soups, pumpkin carving, a fire and lots of socializing. It grows every year and this year we had over 90 people. It was a lot of fun and a good chance to meet some of the new families. The pictures are from a girl in our ward. I especially like Katie's face.

Brant

Snow!

Not to steal Kevin's thunder from his mid-week post, but man do I love this stuff! If it had just been a little colder today, we would have had a lot more as it rained/snowed most of the day.

Brant

We Finally Have Some Pictures to Share

While I was driving a moving truck to Utah for my home teaching family Lisa took the kids to the farm. They had a great time: pumpkins, corn maze, ducks, sheep, tractor trains, food, and beautiful weather. Lisa actually let the kids ride the little train cars without going along with them.

Here he is, 8 year-old cub scout Braxton! Thanks for the uniform mom and dad! He wore it to pack meeting last night.

Remember making these?

Who needs bunk beds and mattresses?

Maybe the new bunk bed isn't working so well for Adria.

Go Vandals!!!

So the Vandals have been playing a tid bit better than they have in the past and we are so excited!!! This is a picture of Seth on his 30th birthday as I dropped him off to work the sidelines of the game. I was hoping to get a better picture of him and the dome in the background, but the parking lady wouldn't let us get any closer...

While working with the volleyball team one day, Seth mentioned that I do vinyl signs. One of the girls who is in charge of their Dig for the Cure event asked if I do banners and Seth told her yes and to go to my website. When she heard that I was strawberrypearl she and the other girls couldn't believe it. Apparently, I have followers. Some of the girls on the volleyball team like to go to Now and Then just for my stuff and have purchased several of my items from the store. So, I created this banner for them based off their shirts for the event. I didn't have time to order a banner blank, so I went to JoAnn's found some material and created this. Seth did the grommets. The only thing that bugs is that the writing is supposed to be italicized, but it just looks croocked. When I applied the vinyl, it all measured level. I'm hoping when they hang it up in the gym it doesn't look so bad. So, lesson learned, don't italicize words on banners.

I am doing the WSU Fall Craft Fair on Friday and Saturday. I spent yesterday cutting, routing, and sanding at Mom and Dad's yesterday. I also had to do some wood for our Super Saturday coming up. While I didn't earn myself a jigsaw, I did purchase a new belt sander. I managed to catch Dad's on fire one too many times and didn't want it to spread to the house.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather and colors!!!

Cheerleading and Wildlife Experience

Once again it was time for the mini-cheerleading camp. Aimee had a couple of practices and then she performed at half-time of the high school football game. The weather was very nice and the "little" girls had fun performing with the "big" girls from high school.

This week Leslie and Lisa took the kids to Wildlife Experience on Friday. All I heard about was caterpillars, butterflies and animatronic panda bears.

Brant

Travis and Kelly's Visit

Mom and Dad at the Candy Store That's one big Aplet bar!!!!
Mom made a Hole-In-One on the 16th hole (Travis made one earlier)

Our Foursome on the 18th green (you can see the course in the background)

A man in native dress playing the Alp horn just outside our breakfast window

Travis and Kelly at the Fish Hatchery on Icicle Creek (Chinook Salmon)

Beautiful down town Leavenworth (the tourist part)

This guy played for hours under the gazebo

Hope this blog isn't too long or uninteresting. Travis and Kelly arrived Wednesday evening so on Thursday morning we left for Leavenworth. We "meandered" on the way over. We stopped at: Warden (church, schools, our old house [we clocked the distance from the elementary school to our house - exactly 1/2 mile], down town, Asgrow, G & G's old house), cruised Moses Lake, our old apartment in Quincy, the Aplets and Cotlets factory in Cashmere, Leavenworth, the Fish Hatchery, Icicle Creek road, home.

We had great time. I ate way too much and we saw lots of things and places that brought back good memories of our family 20-30 years ago. Mom and I first visited there in about 1974. We reminisced about leaving Brant sitting on a tree stump in a little plastic car seat in about 3 feet of snow while we looked for the perfect Christmas tree (we kept him within eye-sight). Then on the way home a semi passed us and the tree blew out of the Ranchero and rolled down into the Wenatchee River. I jumped out and rescued it and tied cloth diapers together and tied them across the bed of the Ranchero to hold it in (it was a real ugly tree).

We enjoyed Travis and Kelly's visit. They left this morning to return to Provo. Yesterday was so nice we spent most of the day outside. The temperature was about 70 degrees (what a change from last Saturday).

We are all excited (especially Seth). The Idaho football team is now 6-1 and eligible for a bowl bid. They are having a fantastic year. Some people are even talking a win over Boise State (ranked in the top 10). I'm a little more skeptical.

Hope you are all having good weather and enjoying the last days of fall. I fear the snow is just around the corner.

Mom and Dad

Last Call for Hiking

Matt just informed me that he was able to get off time for our 1st Commemorative Zirker Family hike (sorry, no t-shirts this year. Maybe some long underwear with your name silk-screened on the bomb hatch). He and I determined that the week of November 9 would be the best. We're thinking of a three day, two night hike somewhere in southern Utah. Everyone's invited.

Our Week

This week was our school's Field Day. Usually they do it in the spring but this year they tried the fall. They felt like springtime was just too busy with all of the end of the year activities. I was worried about the weather but it turned out to be a perfect day. Ty and Aimee had fun running around and participating in the various stations. Being my own boss, I actually got to watch them for the first time. (Thanks for the encouragement Kevin.)



The last two shots were how I spent my last Saturday (during General Conference) and weeknights. Les was in charge of the ward's Super Saturday where the ladies get together and make crafts. Guess who gets to make the crafts that they put together...me. This year I thought for sure no one would want a silly little nativity scene. I guessed wrong. I had to cut out 50 of the little things. For you math wizards that is- 3 items times 50 sets for a total of 150 pieces. I guess I shouldn't complain, I got a new scroll saw out of the deal.

For those of you who thought I was sinning and missed conference, I recorded it and watched Saturday's sesssion on Sunday. I taught Seminary this week and wanted to show up on Monday prepared to discuss all five sessions. It has been a long time since I watched all five sessions and even longer since I took detailed notes. For some reason I got a lot more out of conference this year. I liked Bishop Burton's talk on the "ity" values and Elder Holland sure left no doubt as to his testimony of Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon.

One final note- it snowed early Saturday morning! Enough that it covered my deck and roof. Bring on winter!

Brant

What Is This???

Does this bring back old memories?

Our weather is going nuts. Two nights ago it was 11 degrees in Pullman. Last night it was 8 degrees. Tonight it is supposed to start a warming trend and only go down to about 17 degrees. Next week we are supposed to get back up to more normal temperatures. We knew the cold was coming so I had checked all the vehicles, turned off the water to the drinking fountain, unhooked all the hoses (sometimes I forget and they freeze and push back into the house and split the copper pipe inside the wall).

Yesterday I mowed the lawn and cut down all the peonies and ground cover in front of the house, put up new Wal-Mart blinds in our bedroom and generally felt good about myself. Mom cleaned the garage and then we took a pickup load out to the dump. Pretty exciting stuff, huh?

Mom and Lacey are at the stake center for the stake relief society meeting tonight.

We took Grandpa to church with us today. Brenda, Chuck and some of their family have the flu. Grandpa ate with us and then when I took him home I did my usual thing and undid all the mistakes he had done to his computer. His printer wouldn't work. When I got into it he had made an old printer that is long gone his default printer and then on this good printer there were 16 jobs backed up. When it doesn't work he just keeps re-trying and the jobs just back up. Finally the printer gets twitterpated and just refuses to print.

Mom and I are looking forward to working three days this week and then playing for two when Travis and Kelly arrive.

That's it for now.

a kelly update

This weekend was my second feis, pronounced "fesh" (my first one was in June). I danced 5 different solo dances: 3 soft shoe and 2 hard shoe. The hornpipe (a hard shoe dance with an off-beat rhythm) was dreadful. I was so terribly nervous that I would start at the wrong moment that when I actually did start at the right time, I didn't trust myself and started dancing really fast to try to make up for it...throwing my rhythm for the rest of the dance. Blech. But I managed to pull off 2 firsts and a third in my soft shoe dances. Hurrah!

Here I am with my medals after the feis. They're much less impressive than those from the last feis. If any of you have small children who want a costume prop, let me know. Oh, and don't mind the nasty looking wall behind me. That's what happens to plaster when it's covered by 60 years of wallpaper. If any of you are hankering for a visit to Utah, there are still 2 more rooms to go...

On another note, here is our house:

It is much improved since we (meaning Trav) ripped out the nasty mugo pines that were invading the front porch and sidewalk. We'll show you some before and after pics once we get to the after part.

And finally, here is what I have to come home to every day.

Scary, eh?

Happy Birthday Seth. Sorry we forgot to call. I made a mental note earlier in the week to call and somehow managed to forget. Now that you're in your 30's I'm sure you understand about advanced age and memory loss and stuff like that.

Not much happening here.

We've been sick for the last week and are only now just recovering. Lisa knows that I was sick because I did several things that I've never done since we've been married: I visited the doctor (nurse) on Thursday, I asked our home teachers to give me a blessing on Saturday, I missed the priesthood session of conference, and I took some cough and cold medicine last night. I hoping a feel well enough to work tomorrow. Brant is hoping for that too.
We watched all the sessions of conference from home this year, because we were sick.
Lisa has been wonderful to care for all of us, despite being sick. She has washed all of the bedding two or three times, disinfected the entire house, stocked up on vitamins and medicines, and mandated hand sanitizing before each meal. Thanks Lisa!
Sorry, we didn't take any pictures of us being sick.

Not Much Happening

We just got back from Richards (cake and ice cream for Aunt Brenda and Seth's birthdays). Before that we were at Seth and Lacey's for dinner and cake for Seth's birthday. Friday night we were at Seth and Lacey's for Seth's birthday. Boy, I wish I had a birthday once in a while.

The weather has turned cold. It froze the other night so the leaves should start to turn colors and drop. I forgot to turn off the drinking fountain but I did it yesterday. No harm done, I hope. That's about it for now.

Dad

Our First Backpacking Trip, Together.

With summer coming to a fast close, Kimbre and I have been trying to cram in everything on our "To-Do List". We left town late on Wednesday afternoon and headed for Thompson Pass on the Idaho/Montana Border. The pass is just over 5000 feet and the weather there was a bit different than our sunny and 60 degree weather we left in Post Falls. We stepped out of the Bronco to a light dusting of snow on the ground and 36 degrees. Summer had left here a long time ago.

Our hike destination was Revette Lake. A small mountain lake with a hike in of just over a mile and a half. We didn't hit the trail until 5:30 and we made it to the lake an hour later as the sun was setting. With the light fading and the temperature dropping rather quickly we had to set up camp in a hurry. Things got a little hairy when one of the poles of my tent (The same one I won from Tri-State 15 years ago) decided to break. After several wraps of athletic tape we were back in business and out of the elements.

The next morning we woke up to frost on the ground and the tent. Soon the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. We stuck it out for a few hours, had some instant oatmeal, took some pictures, relaxed in the tent, then called it a day. When we made it back to the Bronco, we discovered I had left the rear window down. A nice squirrel had let himself in and helped himself to a salty (empty) McDonald's bag and some kethcup packets.

On the way home we stopped in at the "Spragpole Inn and Museum" in Murray, ID. We had a great lunch while the local sewing circle ladies played game after game of pinochle, bridge, gin, or whatever it is old ladies play.

For our first time out we did all right and Kimbre even said she would do it again, only in the summer time.

Home Sweet Home, complete with a shivering Kimbre and snow.

Looking South out over the lake. The ridge to the left (East) is the Idaho/Montana border.

We had the lake all to ourselves (maybe that was a hint) until just before we left. A kindly gentleman offered to take our picture for us.

Thought you might enjoy this Mom.