Life Continues, Despite the Drought

Despite the drought in my blog writing, life continues.

March has brought with it many pleasant surprises, much spiritual growth, and beautiful spring weather.

I survived my big project at work, Career Day last week.  I believe it went really well, and it was nice to read the comment of one of the students who said listening to one of the speakers made her really think about going to college.  To me, that is what Career Day is all about.
 
We have started a home group at our house on Sunday evenings through our church, Mountain Valley Congregation Church, and it has been such a blessing.  We are doing Rick Warren's "Forty Days of Community" which challenges us to share and pray with one another, encourage and serve one another at church, and do a project in the community.  We have the wonderful opportunity to help a woman who runs a local daycare fix up her yard, a task she is unable to do.  We are also going to relieve the workers at another church in the valley who do a soup kitchen once a week.

I have found I have needed this group to help me focus on the needs of others.  I tend to isolate myself, and focus on my own needs so much, that I don't look at the world around me and what God wants me to do for others in my community.  This group is helping me do that, and I am so thankful that my focus is changing.

 I had a wonderful weekend.  Friday night Paul and I entertained at a dinner at the Shoshone Golf Course, and had a wonderful time.  Then I got up early Saturday morning, picked up my mom and drove to Lewiston for Kiki Aru's basketball tournament.  My cousin LM picked Mom up in Lewiston and drove her to Orofino to spend the night with her sister.

On Sunday, Kiki Aru and I drove to Orofino and had a wonderful lunch at my cousin's house, and then headed back to Kellogg.  After a little detour that wasn't planned, we made it home.  I think the detour was planned by my Grandma West (who has been deceased almost 20 years), because the road we traveled on took us to the place where she was born.  We traveled along Cedar Creek Ridge Road, and ended up at Gold Hill.  Very interesting, because we had just been talking about this area at lunch with my cousin.

This summer all the Orofino family is planning a reunion, and hopefully we will take a road trip to Grandma's birthplace, as well as "The Ranch" where Mom lived until she moved into Orofino.

Z2 went to the District Speech Competition this weekend, participating in Duo Interpretation.  Her and her friend RC got third place, and will be going to State Competition in Pocatello next month.  I am so proud of her!!  PKR had six of his students qualify for state, which he is very excited about.

Spring break starts at the end of the week.  I hope to get a lot of organizing done and possibly even a garage sale at the end of the week.  That would be a big accomplishment!!

I hope to use spring break to get caught up on my sibling assignments.  I think I am behind by about a month and a half.

Hope to write again sooner, rather than later.

Sigh

I returned home from the evening conferences tonight, and let out a big SIGH!!!

I am now officially on spring break. Yeah!

And we actually had sunshine and blue skies in the Silver Valley today.

I hope it sticks around for a while.

The other night at the band concert, I saw my friend Gino White. Gino and I graduated from high school together, and he lives down in Boise, and is teaching. He is a former Idaho legislator, and I think is a bit discouraged with his political aspirations while living in Ada County (he is a Democrat), so he decided to go back and get his teaching degree. He now teaches at Boise High School.

We had fun visiting after the concert, and I started sharing with him about the book I am writing. His whole growing up life was spent living at the Cataldo Mission, because his parents were the caretakers. So he started telling me all kinds of stories about things he had learned from Coeur d'Alene tribal members, and got me all excited about my book project. He also talked about reading the book Big Trouble, which I still need to finish, and how good of a book it is. Well, after our spouses patiently stood around waiting for us to quit visiting, I said goodbye, and hope to visit with him more in the future.

Just got a call from The Princess. Opening night went really good, and they had a full house. I am really looking forward to seeing it tomorrow night. I had talked to her today, and she said last night they were having some technical difficulties, and it took them 15 minutes to get the peach out on stage. Well, everything worked tonight!

Poor Z2. She had some oral surgery today, and her mouth has hurt all day. I hope she feels better tomorrow. Keep her in your prayers.

For fun during my spring break posts, I am going to think back to the songs that I remember listening to growing up, and see what comes to mind.

Inland Empire Girl had a Boz Scaggs album, and one of the songs on it is "Lido Shuffle". I can still sing the song, word for word. Amazing what sticks with you for thirty years or more. I was fortunate to have a variety of record albums in our home growing up, and I listened to a large variety of music. Between Raymond Pert's "Chicago" albums, and IEG listening to "The Carpenter's", and my mom's love of Broadway Musicals, and Dad's unique old Jazz collection including Sarah Vaughan.

Spring Break

Raymond Pert gave us this sibling assignment:

Write about spring break...and perhaps share pictures.

As I look back over the years, spring break memories are about as clear as the slushy mess on my front walkway.

I do remember a couple of spring break trips in college, but, if I have pictures, they are hidden in a box in the deep, dark recesses of the basement.

One year, probably my sophomore year of college, PKR and our friend CB came up to Kellogg from Meridian, and I traveled back down the Meridian with them to spend part of my spring break.

What I remember from this week is the car trip back to Meridian was really fun. We stopped at each Historical Sign


along the way from Kellogg to Meridian along I 95, and learned quite a bit about Idaho history. I also remember the river being very high (I'm not sure which one), and it was really cool.


The next year, my junior year, PKR and I went to Seattle for a few days on a trip with kids from Campus Crusade for Christ. We did some outreach things, and enjoyed being in Seattle. I was quite amused being with PKR in Seattle.

He had never really been in a big city before, and it kind of freaked him out. I still remember a group of us were in downtown Seattle, and got a bit sidetracked down by the waterfront, and went down the wrong road, and came across some men sleeping in blankets in a doorway. Oops...wrong turn.

Those were both nice trips, mostly because they were shared with PKR.

Spring Break in Spokane...or maybe we are on Winter Break

This past weekend we traveled to Spokane and stayed in Liberty Lake, and shopped, watched AAU basketball, and watched really bad TV.
The main reason for the trip to Spokane was to watch Kiki Aru play in the North Spokane Classic AAU Basketball Tournament in Chattaroy. The Silver Valley Sting played their first game Friday night, and they lost. It was not a fun game to watch. There were lots of fouls, and lots of girls getting hurt, and our girls were not looking good.

Saturday was much better. Our team was much better than their two opponents on Saturday, and they played better, too.

On Sunday, they lost their first game, but played well. Their final game was to win either third or fourth place. They won the game and got third in the tournament. Kiki Aru had the best game of her life, and was ON FIRE!!

PKR's brother KDR was also in town because his daughter was playing in a volleyball tournament, too. KDR's wife and his daughter KNR was also there, and we stayed in the same hotel. Z2 and KNR are best buds, and Z2 traveled back to Nampa to spend a few days with her, and will come back Wednesday.

The Princess and I had a wonderful time Saturday morning shopping for prom dresses. She found a beautiful dress. It was fun watching her come out in all the different colors and styles, and finding the one she like the best. Her prom is May 3rd, and I can't wait to share pictures from the big event.

We made a decision when we moved back to Kellogg to not pay for cable television, so we don't have tv at our home. We watch a lot of DVD's and we have my mom tape some shows we like. So when we do stay in a hotel that has cable tv, it is TORTURE. Yes, there are a few things on tv worth watching, but overall, there is a lot of really bad stuff. And there is so much reality tv that is so bad. Why do I want to watch a 40 year old woman who dresses bad go spend $5,000 on a new wardrobe. And is there anyone who really thinks Final Destination 2 was a scary movie? I think I lost a good share of brain cells over the weekend.

Despite the snowy roads, and bad television, we had a wonderful time. Today we had nothing planned, and spent most of the day just laying around doing nothing. We haven't done that in a long time. Besides, it was snowing so hard all day, there wasn't much to do outside. So it was better to just stay in and be lazy bums for the day.

Not a whole lot planned for the week. We are having lunch with friends tomorrow, and dinner with other friends. PKR and I are looking forward to spending time with friends and some time with each other this week.

Bon Soir, mon amies!!

A Little Family News To Share

I haven't given an update on recent family events, and I know there are a few of you out there who will be intersted in some of the following tidbits.

**Both Z2 and Kiki Aru qualified to attend State History Day at Albertson's College in Caldwell next month. Z2's group did a documentary titled "The Conflice and Compromise of the Coeur d'Alene Indian Tribe's Culture". Kiki Aru's group did a performance titled "The Conflict of the Salem Witch Trials". I will be traveling with them to Caldwell the second weekend in April.

**Yesterday PKR, The Princess and I (along with about 12 other KHS students) spend the day at Timberlake High School at the District Speech Festival. I went along to help judge the events. For the second year in a row, The Princess qualified for state competition in Retold Story. In this category, you are given 3 different children's books which you read through, then you choose one and retell the story. Two other KHS students also qualified, one in Impromptu Speaking, and one in Oratorical Analysis. PKR will travel to Rupert, Idaho with these students toward the end of April.

**I was talking to my friend SB tonight on the phone, and it looks like they have two extra tickets to the Elton John concert in Pullman in April, and asked us if we would like to go with them. We will both be coming back from the State History Day competition that day, so we have to work out the details, but I think it might work. How COOL is that!!! A once in a lifetime experience, if you ask me.

**This weekend Kiki Aru has a AAU bball tourney in North Spokane. My niece TR is coming up to Spokane this weekend play volleyball, so we'll have lots to do with PKR's brother's family in Spokane as well.

**Then we'll have a week home for Spring Break, with nothing major planned, and just some time to relax and take it easy before the onslaught of other activities take over our lives between now and the end of school in June. Such is the life when you have three active girls.

Happy Easter everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful day.

He is Risen!!

He is Risen, Indeed!!

Top Ten Things To Accomplish While My Family Is Gone For Spring Break

10. Work on writing at least three more chapters on the book I am writing about the Silver Valley.












9. Type up a months worth of dinner menus so we can maybe have a few more home cooked meals around here.

8. Type up a Master Grocery List.







7. Pray and seek God’s Wisdom on a variety of issues in my life.









6. Weed the flower beds outside (weather permitting…this is the Silver Valley).





5. Make chore lists for the family so I can see if someone other than me will tackle scooping the cat litter boxes.








4. Make use of the new exercise equipment in the basement every day. My new rule…I can’t blog until I exercise.




3. Do my taxes. Ugh!






2. Tackle some spring cleaning projects inside the house.






1. Take the plastic off the fifth season of Gilmore Girls on DVD that I have been hiding from my daughters in my lingerie drawer and watch it uninterrupted.