Happy Birthday (18)

To Him!

Some of the things we have accomplished this spring,

Darian started driving...

And Graduated High School.

Since we are going to need lots of money for college, I have been cranking these babies out! I designed a new look, It is more of a book bag than a grocery bag. Thinking about college age people you know...

I got the yard cleaned up, The weeds were growing like a garden!

My brother installed my oak stairs.

And we threw a party!

With a few of his besties coming to celebrate with him!

It did not rain on the party, but it was cold, so that beautiful fire pit came in handy!

I have more catching up to do, but it looks like this post is all about graduation, so I will leave it at that.

I hope you are well!

Sorry I abandoned you all spring!

I have a WINNER!

It is 9:00 p.m. here on the West Coast. I have been at the High school since 1:00 p.m. I worked the concessions, watched the show, then we tore down the entire set. The kids ROCKED the show!!! This was Darian's 4th year in the program. 5 shows per year, so this was his 20th time performing in this venue! He is so famous, he even does AUTOGRAPHS!!!

I did manage to get him to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule tonight to help me with one teeny tiny little project...

O.K. This is actually funny. Therese found me months ago! She is a follower and friend of my mother. When I started my blog, she kindly started following me so I would have a reader. She became one of my bestest bloggy friends, Always uplifting, and positive! I am actually quite jealous, because she has 3 boys, AND a brand new BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!  She is only blogging on Sundays for lent, and hurried today to get her entry and blog about my giveaway.

Therese Has a blog called The Musings of a Mom. Where she blogs about all the things that happen in a family of four kids.

Therese said....I blogged about the giveaway...I also am a follower...I would love the large shopping bag!!!

Thank you to all that entered.

And passed the word. I really had fun logging on late at night to see who had been here.

Not that life gets back into the groove, I hope to have some new projects to finish soon...

Darian want's to sleep for a week.

They go into competitions next.

Monterey California next.

Trashing the camp!

JAZZIN AROUND THE WORLD, OPENING NIGHT!
I hope you enjoy the video, That is Darian in the short green shirt, dark hair. Front and center in this shot.
Karyn

Finally putting my giveaway together for you!

Are you a follower? Some of you are regular visitors, but not followers, some of you are followers but not visitors. I am going to choose one of you soon for my first ever give away. Don't miss out. Tell me if you are both a follower and a visitor. Including on my facebook followers. By being a Pre-giveaway follower/visitor, you get an extra entry! So far, this is what I have for ya!

I am going to be kindof scarce for a few days. Darian's program is all consuming. It requires parental involvement to get a show of this magnitude to run smoothly. In the mean time, If you are a frequent visitor, consider becoming a follower. Then start leaving me comments. I am going to just print, cut, and pick when I have the "prize" all together!
Karyn

Jazzhands everyone--------------

Liar Liar pants on fire!

I have 3 sons,
Darian is a high school Senior,
Cannyn is a Freshman,
Brystan is in 7th grade.
for the most part, they are great kids!
We struggle as a family like most do,
with obedience, attitude, and school.

Today, I called the school and excused Darian for the morning so I could "take him to the doctor".
I hope lightning doesn't strike me down!

Why?
Because he is in a music group that practices 5 hours a day right now. Yesterday, he came home and sat down on the couch.
I took his shoes off and covered him up before I went to bed. This morning when I woke everyone up, he was in a panic.
Every day, he is at school for 13 hours, then he has dinner and does his homework. Occasionally, he has a friend over, but mostly, he is home doing his homework. Yesterday, he fell asleep, so no homework was completed.

So, right now, he is at the kitchen table doing homework.
Not at the doctor.
Not in class, although he will need to make up whatever he missed today.
I don't do this often. In fact, in order to stay home from school, you had better be puking or have a temperature over 100*.
(I have one who pushes this.)
But, this one is trying so hard to get a drivers license (momma said 3.5 to drive.) and wants to go to college next year.
So, Lightning bolt or not, I lied to his school.
Have you ever?

All Day today...

I Worked on THIS

Nasty isn't it?

You see, while I was busy building my fireplace surround and mantel,

NO ONE was cleaning up the kitchen!

Not the able bodied 44 year old man,

Not the able bodied 17 year old almost man,

Not the able bodied almost 15 year old man sized person,

Not the able bodied almost 13 year old man sized person,

NO ONE!

My parents came by last night while I was trying to clean it up a bit, and Mom had some good Ideas for organizing it a bit better, so I dug in, and tore it up a bit more.

Now all the baking stuff is together.

I weeded out and organized the spice cabinet. I don't remember when I bought half the spices, so out they went.

And this mess gained a few more shelves.

I USED THE CHOP SAW ALL BY MYSELF!

But, I let Cannyn do the actual construction, electric drills, nailing guns, and levels are his favorite toys.

Now it looks like this!

I used the pine board taken off of the first attempt at the mantel. and some bits and pieces of the trim my brother in law sent home with me that I didn't use for the mantel.

( I couldn't resist sticking the camera in the pantry with Cannyn and snapping a picture while he worked)

Darian came home from practice while I was washing the inside of the refridgerator, so he decided to pitch in and help me. He wiped the freezer, tossed last summers popsicles and turkey burgers, and vacummed the coils for me.

In short, if it has a surface, it was cleaned today.

I even decorated above the cabinets!

( After Darian stood on the counters and sprayed and wiped all the grime from up there.)

Hmm. Just how long do you think it will stay that way?

Shall I take bets?

Oh, every thing that was removed from the kitchen is sitting on the dining room table,

Tomorrow, I sort it, and toss, and donate whatever doesn't belong anymore.

Oh, and I guess I should pay the bills I found in that mess!

I guess today was a productive day, even though I almost spent the whole day in one room of the house!

Fireplace is finished.

But, I can't show it yet, I still have to stain it. instead, I am going to show you what Darian made  for his Jazzmine class.

Every year, they make a sign, either by themselves, or in small groups. Darian chose to make his by himself, and ended up doing it VERY last minute, he finished it this morning in time to take it to school and turn it in.

BUT

 His teacher liked it so much, he left it plugged in all day,

The lights behind the head melted the hot glue,

The head fell off.

I guess I had better pick up some gorilla glue or some epoxy this weekend.

We learn through our trials right?

Christmas lights are up!

I let the boys have fun putting up the Christmas lights this year.

They may have gone a little overboard!

What do you think?

O.k. I am just kidding, We went to Warm Beach (Stanwood WA) to the Lights of Christmas display grounds.

TWICE!!!

In 20* weather!

TWICE!!!

The first night, Thursday was for this...

Arlington High School Jazzmine performs there every year. This year, Darian and the Sextet performed their award winning rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Darian is the boy in the center. Second shortest...

The second trip was with the girls. I had picked them up Friday night (120 miles round trip) and all day Saturday we worked on Christmas crafts, but they wanted to know if it was time to go to the lights...

Once we got there, I took 3 pictures and the camera battery died.

So, I dug Darian's camera out of my purse and took another picture, It's battery died!!!

I did not get a picture of the youngest on the pony ride...

I did not get a picture of the two youngest on Santa's lap,

I did not get a picture of the four of them riding the train,

I did not get a picture of the talking spruce telling them jokes...

By the way, Do you know why Santa planted three gardens?

So he could HO HO HO!!!

It was so cold, we hurried through the light exhibits.

Even though it was a quick trip through the lights, the girls enjoyed it and talked about it all day Sunday.

I also took them to church.

The middle one kindof freaked out last time they were here,

She did NOT want to go to church.

So, We didn't...

This time we made it there, They played in sunday school and watched a video on the birth of Jesus.

She did fine...

And IT SNOWED!!!

But nobody put the cameras on the charger, so no pictures of them playing in the snow.

We drove them home early this afternoon,

They want to come back next week!!!

(I said maybe next month!)

I still need to find more Christmas presents for them.

Maybe I will pick up a few for my own children as well.

The little girls,

Nae and Brystan

It is really getting close, I guess I should at least try to shop for them!

Oh, and I have a video of the boys doing their number... Could someone please leave me a comment telling me how to add my videos? PLEASE???


Thank you Gina and Sue, I am going to have to do it another way, I am taking the videos off of facebook, and they have an imbed code. so I am doing it with that. I have an updated blogger post setting which helps with doing pictures where you want them, but I don't see how to add videos with it. so...
Imbeding now...

Long Week

Life as a High School Senior is hard!

What type of flower?

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.singleplaylist&friendid=127731918&plid=

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.singleplaylist&friendid=127731918&plid=

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O.K. I tried to bring some of D boys music over to my blog. I am a confessed technological idiot. I did figure out how to link you to him. (He is going to kill me!)