Horses of Courses

Instead of writing about all that has happened in the last year, I’ve decided to focus on one subject at a time. Since I just attended an “Equine Extravaganza” on Saturday, I will start with our foray into the world of showing horses.
Lita has been horse-crazy for some time. And Naomi—being Naomi—followed her older sister. Except that they didn’t outgrow it. Once Lita had read every horse book in our city library (she probably OWNS as many horse books as many libraries do), it was clearly time to try something more. So we joined the 4-H club “Drivers and Riders.”
This is not your average 4-H horse club. Most of the groups around here (and Enumclaw has many) are made up of youth who own one or more horses. Our club, however, works with ponies belonging to one little woman. Isabelle, our leader, is 86 years old and her ponies are her children. She loves human children too (she was also a school teacher for many years), and believes that “the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a child.” So each of the girls has adopted a pony to groom, train, and compete with. I assume that Isabelle mostly just uses 4-H because it is a good way to deal with the liability issues inherent in having a bunch of kids in her barn. Anyway, Lita’s pony is Mr. B, a very patient and curious gentleman with “an attitude.” Naomi’s pony is Carmen Miranda, a former roadster (racer) who is easy to work with and loves to run.
We still didn’t know much about horses or about 4-H in May, 2006, when Isabelle announced we were getting ready to compete in a show. She coached us on costumes, technique, and judging. Then we showed up at the arena and she brought the ponies. (The event was Fit and Show, where the horses are led around the ring in response to the judge’s instructions.) The girls did pretty well, considering it was their first time. So we were enthusiastic about going to the King County Fair.
But Fair turned out to be A LOT of work. Decorations for the stalls! At least one club member (of five) at the stalls from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day! Being judged on how clean our dirt walkway was! And all that for only one event, because all of the other competitions got scheduled on Sunday and we chose to forfeit. To make it worse, one of the other clubs lodged a complaint against us saying that we hadn’t followed all the rules. I figured they were bad sports.
The rest of the year was less stressful, though we spent two mornings a week at the barn. We did one more competition, learned how to drive carts with the ponies pulling (very fun!), and entered our carts in the Enumclaw Christmas parade. The ponies loved the bells on their harnesses, and loved to go fast in order to hear the jingling! The girls enjoy driving the pony carts any time, and may even learn some skills that will help them when it comes time to drive cars. (Meanwhile, it’s a good thing that the ponies pay attention, because sometimes the drivers don’t even look where they are going!)
All along the way, Isabelle has been handing us papers, but I never had any “context” or knowledge of what fit where or that the papers were anything more than informational. She informed us in January that we needed to be keeping record books. Then we started doing public presentations. (I remembered this from my 4-H days.) Every club member did a presentation about “The Tools in my Grooming Tote” and I thought I would SCREAM if I had to hear one more time about what each brush is used for! But eventually each girl chose her own presentation topic, and we got a little relief.
Then one of our group started looking around on the internet. It turns out that there is a lot of information there about 4-H horse clubs and we found out those other folks at the Fair weren’t just being bad sports. While we were relying on Isabelle to tell us everything, she was about 10 years behind on “how it’s done in 4-H.” She is a wonderful lady, and has been so good to us, but she is just not very concerned about specifics! In last Saturday’s classes, for instance, I learned that a record book, a public presentation, a poster, a judging competition, and two horse shows were prerequisites for even going to Fair. (I’d be upset too, if my kid had done all that and then some little upstart club got in without doing anything!) It turns out that Isabelle has been a 4-H leader for so long that they let her get away with almost anything. I just wish someone had let me know! I have also discovered that our costumes are all wrong. And we are supposed to use posters in our presentations. And our record books are supposed to use a certain format. And we were making some major faux pas in our performances. And…. So, we have our work cut out for us in the next few months. I’m not enthusiastic about going to FAIR again, but my girls have talked me into it. Now that we know that “your feet always have to point toward the horse” in the Fit and Show event, we might even get some nice ribbons!
Cheryl

The Brightons Have Arrived

Here're my boys! Willy Stubal and Sammy Bear! (Sam less than an hour old)

I've been checking in daily, but only today has this site finally allowed me to post anything! YAY! (Dumb computers!)
So, let's see...we have a precocious 6year old who reads like his parents do (gee, what a shocker) and loves riding his scooter around the block--even when there is snow and he has to just walk it around rather than riding. We're working on getting him to remember that one should wear shoes when there is snow, and that zipping up the coat will keep one warm, rather than just standing there shivering with the zipper open.
We also have a (literally) bubbly 1 month old who crosses his eyes, spits up a lot, blows bubbles, smiles, snuggles, and has belches we can hear in the next room. He seems to be a little colic-y (some days are much worse than others) so I have a herbal liquid I give him which has a little fennel (breaks up gas bubbles) and chamomile (calming) and it always helps him feel better. Getting into the cloth diapers at 2 wks old cleared up his diaper rash, and I try to wear him most of the time, so he's usually a pretty happy baby.
Dave started a second job delivering the morning paper, so now we have an extra almost $200/wk, and that is helping us catch up with some finances that had been getting behind...adding a mortgage to the budget of a first-year teacher really put a strain on things this last year! Between his needing to leave at 4am, and my frequent waking with the baby, we've started going to bed by 9ish every night. It would probably be earlier, but Will goes to bed at 8, and we like to have a little time with each other before we crash.
I'm feeling pretty normal again. I am adapting to my new sleep schedule and to doing things one-handed. Sammy and I are finally learning to nurse laying down, which is a great help at night (although he currently has sniffles for the second time in two weeks, which impedes his breathing and means I have to keep him upright when nursing...oh the joys of a winter baby). I've been blogging fairly often (although irregularly) so if anybody wants to check in there, feel free... most of it isn't newsy so much as just my spouting opinions on life and society (currently most of them are related to babies of course). I'm also back to sewing for my etsy store...I now find myself pouring over the fabric remnant racks everywhere I go, looking for one more cute flannel...but it's bringing in profit!
I guess that's about it. Oh, I did have to comment to Dale that I think it's amusing that Vigo is a scandinavian name...because (as you may know) our Samuel's middle name is Bjorn...
And William is already asking when we are going to have a little sister. :-)
~~jenni

Invitations to post

Hello, family. Just tweaking with things, trying to give our blog some privacy. . please accept the invitation I've sent to your email (click the link at the bottom, use the email address I've sent the invitation to, blogger will walk you through setting up a free account). If you are a grandkid and you want to be able to post or comment on a regular basis, send me an email (to my personal address, not to this one) and I'll send you an invite. Be advised that eventually, you'll be required to have an account to be able to read the blog.
Thanks!
Katy

Idaho news - February 2007

Hi family,
We love reading your entries and not having to wait until they are several months old. We did get a chance to see most of you during November and December but Katy's plan for a visit fell through. We hope to see her sometime this Spring before her kids forget who we are. Our winter has been very cold with quite a bit of snow so we haven't been outside a lot except for Dad who clears the snow and Whitney who walks to and from the bus every school day.

We are still serving in the Student Stake and really enjoying these kids. So many of them are amazingly strong. My Relief Society doesn't really need an advisor for most things but sometimes my experience is helpful for them. Mostly I feed them and hug them. Dad has such a small Elder's Quorum to work with and that creates its own problems. He also has several other responsibilites on the High Council which keep him busy. This last weekend was Women's Conference for the Stake. I taught two sessions about nutrition and the Word of Wisdom and using that as a guide for our food storage planning. There were about 35-40 in each session, many more than I had planned for, and we had to print more copies of all my handouts. Dad is organizing the use of our Stake Center by the Jazz Festival for later this month - they need many practice and performance venues. Since we don't have full-time custodial people, he has to see that all that is taken care of for four days.

Since Ben is at WSU, we get to see him most Fridays for dinner. It's great to really get to know these two grandkids who are here. We wish we could see all of you more often and know you better. Could each of you set a time (maybe the first Sunday of each month, for example) to post an update on your family. Of course, posts at any time are wonderful.

Our VERY BIG NEWS this month is that we have booked the Alaskan Cruise which we have dreamed of for years. We will fly into Juneau and board the ship on June 20. There are only 138 passengers on board and the entire trip will be in the Inland Passage. Since it is a small ship (about 250 feet), it goes into the fiords and stops at some of the villages the big ships can't handle. It also gets very close to the icebergs and the wildlife locations. We are excited! We decided to spend some of your inheritance.

Love, Mom and Dad

Dale's last letter and some photos

Hi family!

This will be a short one, as I'm off to LA for two days on a VERY early morning flight. We're hoping everyone can make it for our late July/early August reunion up here, I'll be calling everyone to check in and make sure the dates work for at least part of the time.

Here are some recent pics of our family...

We've had a fun winter, aside from a big adventure with a power outage and discovering what 240 volts surging through our house from a 20KW generator set does. We've had a LOT of snow, both here and at the cabin. A lot of snow in Woodinville is an inch, and we had about six inches for more than a week, which basically shut everything down. Sort of pitiful. The cabin, on the other hand, had around six feet of snow at one point, making for all sorts of fun over there.

Here's my last family letter:

September 25, 2006
Dear Family,
You are all officially invited to ridicule me in return for all the times I’ve harassed you for sitting on the family letter for months on end, since I’ve had it for exactly two months now.
Well, as you all now know, Vigo Samuel Miller arrived July 22 at a whopping nine pounds, ten ounces, and he’s been growing every since. He’s a little over 15 pounds right now. He turned out very nicely and we’re going to keep him I think, though he’ll need to start behaving better between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM before we decide for sure. ;-) It’s been a bit of a shock after our last baby six years ago, who was very mellow from day one. Vigo’s pretty calm and sweet too, but I think we forget very quickly what having a newborn is like! Kari’s doing great and is already back to running five miles every other day, though it was a very long labor with over two hours of hard pushing to get his (rather large) head out so she was pretty worn out for the first few weeks.

Here are some pictures, the first two are when he was only a few hours old, then some more recent ones…

For your reference, Vigo is a Scandinavian name, which Kari really wanted this time. The poor kid was at various times named Harper, Corvin, Getty, and a few other things, but finally I just went with what Kari wanted because the names kept getting stranger. However, though it’s taken some getting used to, Vigo seems like his name now. It’s kind of a big bruiser sort of name, which definitely fits.We finally moved into our house – version 2 – in late May/early June, and have been doing all the final things (landscaping, fixtures, furnishings) ever since. It’s finally starting to look like home, and we’re looking forward to having everyone up next summer for a family reunion. Everything should be put together by then, and there will be plenty of room for all I think – though we might have to use the backyard for kids. Kari’s sister Tracy is living in our guest house, but if she’s moved on by then we’ll have that available too.
The highlight of the new house in my book is the lawn. It was only slightly more to just hydroseed everything once they were out with the truck, so we put down a lot of grass until we decide what else we want to do. This is important since it gave me an excuse to use my tractor! Dad tried it out when he was over here and I think it passed muster – now I just have to figure out not how to scalp my sprinkler heads, though basically I’m just going to have to dig a lot of them up and reset them lower. Otherwise, it’s pretty low maintenance and the yard is pretty much done other than the beds (we’re starting to get our plants now), and the back patio and a path that leads around the house. We’ve got the base in now and hopefully the stone will arrive in a week or two.
On other fronts, the kids are all in school now – including even little Caelen in all day kindergarten – and sports and other activities are all back in full swing again. Connor and Elsa are playing soccer, and Ethan’s getting ready for baseball tryouts. I’ll likely be an umpire for the league again, though the “grief to satisfaction” factor is rapidly falling as the parents become more intense about their kids’ games as they get older. It has been fun to learn the finer points of the game, though. Grace is in Young Women’s now and enjoying their activities – our ward has a great group of leaders and they do some really fun things. She’s going to the International Community School again this year (it’s 7 through 12) and loving it. I’m not sure if it’s normal for an eighth grader to love going to school so much even though it’s a very intense program, but I’m happy to see it. ICS places more kids in Ivy League schools on average than even the supposedly “best” private schools around here, which is interesting considering that it’s technically a public school, with one primary difference being that they require (and enforce) at least 30 hours of parent involvement/service hours per family each year and tend to attract better teachers because the kids who are there choose to be there. It seems to be an educational experiment that’s worked, and we’re hoping to get Ethan in next year. The problem is that even once a child has qualified by academic referral from their elementary school, it’s then a simple lottery to get in or not. It is probably the fairest way, but kind of a bummer for families with multiple kids that they’d like to have attend the same school.
Work has been quite intense after a slow spring – I’ve had to travel quite a bit of late, though fortunately just to help some of our newer people in “local” markets (Spokane and Portland, primarily). However, I’ve had to make some trips to lovely Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, in addition to my quarterly visit to NY to be indoctrinated at the mother ship. This next weekend I’m taking Kari and Vigo with me to Portland, which will make the trip a lot more fun. Megan Curtis, who helped us with the kids for several years until she got married, just had her own daughter in the spring but is going to come up and watch the kids for a few days so Kari and I can have some time away.
Last weekend we took a long overdue trip to the cabin with our friends the Burts (photos below, including some of the Burt kids…). If you look behind the picture of the boys hiking Dirtyface Mountain (I know those words strike fear into the hearts of the Howell family – me too actually), you can barely see our meadow down below by the lake. The mountain burned in August 2005 so it was a very interesting hike. HUGE trees were burned and standing like ghosts, but many of the deciduous trees were already green and the underbrush was over our heads in many places. All of this in only a year. There were parts of the hike that were almost like walking through a sort of ancient natural monument, with the silence of the forest that muted almost any sound and the stark contrast of the bare old trees and the new undergrowth of deep green as far as you could see in every direction. A few of the largest trees looked like they’d survived, with little areas of new growth at the top, but everything below was burned and bare. One that had fallen over and been cut to make room for the trail had 250+ rings (Caelen counted, he’s good at that and amazingly patient). The pond project at the cabin is finally done; it’s really greened up and become a neat place now with lots of wildlife stopping by. Maybe they were always there in the tall grass and we couldn’t see them, but we’ve seen a bear and lots and lots of deer since the pond was finished. Now we’re just putting in a “beach” area of pea gravel and laying down a giant log across to the island, and it will be all done. When the pond is full in spring and early summer it’s just over an acre, with the deepest point about 20 feet deep. I’m going to stock it with triploid cutthroat trout and some crayfish next spring, though I suspect that I’ll just be making a nice buffet for our resident heron and some other birds who come by to check on things fairly regularly.
Well, I better check out and go to bed – 5:30 will come early and Vigo might want to talk in the middle of the night. I look forward to seeing the contingents that came make it for Thanksgiving, and the rest of you next summer.

What's Been Happening with the Howells

Hi family. I guess this first one will be like a catch-up family letter. I think I last wrote in March of 2006, so let's see...
April -
Alex received the priesthood, and was ordained a deacon.
Nick tried out snowboarding at a resort (Deer Valley) for the first time, using his free pass from school. I told him my knees wouldn't hold up for skiing anymore, and suggested our cousin, Paul Jones, or our bishop. He called up the bishop, and they had a great day together! Nick also did some spelunking with his scout group. He'd gone with our home teacher to rappel in some "pit" caves, but this is an actual cave called Nutty Putty. The entrance is a small hole in the ground that you have to go down head first. There are a multitude of passageways, one known as the "Birth Canal" and a section known as "The Maze". Nick said he was fine down there, but it was interesting to talk to some of the leaders after the trip. They spent about 4 hours below ground. Most of them were a little freaked out by the (w)hole thing and were relieved to finally be out.
May/June -
Graduation time! Alex graduated from the Dare program, and Whitney graduated from Seminary and High School. We're proud of them both.
July -
Nick (the adventurous one) took his kayak out on a river with Uncle Steve. (Nick had just practiced eskimo rolls in a swimming pool, so this was a big deal.) Also, I decided that I wanted to do some hiking, and that it would be fun to involve some friends. The kids and I (and different friends each time) went to Lake Mary/Martha/Catherine, Doughnut Falls, and Red Pine Lake (definitely the most difficult -- we did some rock scrambling to find Upper Red Pine -- but definitely worth it). We also tried to do a picnic dinner/hike to Cecret Lake, but it started pouring rain as we approached the trailhead. We ended up with two families squished in the back of our pickup, where we ate our dinners, and heard stories from the dad of the other family, who grew up in East Germany. Alex spent his scout camp at Zions Nat'l Park, where they hiked The Narrows.
August -
We took our big vacation to Idaho, with Nick leaving a week early. He rode with Uncle Ross to meet Mom and Dad in Montana for a family reunion. Then we all met at Kelly Creek, ID to camp. The scenery was amazing! The fishing was great! And our tent is very interesting in a big rainstorm! (Just ask Alex, who was swimming in his sleep.) We left to head up to Moscow for the last few days of our trip. We spent them getting Whitney settled in for starting school at U of I. She seemed to be fine, but it was tough for me to leave her.
After we got home, I started a new job. I now work at South Kearns Elementary School as a Title I Reading Aide. I have approximately 90 students, and I teach them in small groups (5-9 kids) for 15 - 20 minutes each day. I'm at school for 4 hours a day, so it's an ideal job for me. It was tough learning so many names at first, but they're all my friends now, and I'm really enjoying the job.
Nick was ordained a priest this month as well.
September -
Our adventure this month was the Ward Retreat. It wasn't intended to be a campout, but a few families decided to camp anyway. It was at Wasatch State Park. As the day approached, the weather was looking worse and worse, and people started dropping out of the "adventure". Of our family, only Alex and I went. By the time we got there, it was raining hard, and didn't let up for most of the night. We were sharing a camp spot with another family (see the Cecret Lake story above) of which only 2 came, so we rigged a big canopy over the picnic table with a tarp and some extra tent poles. It became the hangout/eating place for all 5 families, because it was the only dry place! In the morning it was very cold and began to snow! Brrrr. Eventually, other ward members began showing up, the skies cleared, and it got warm. We had various activites and a dinner, but I think our adventure made things fun and memorable for us.
Also in September, Nick (having recently turned 16) went on his first date to the Homecoming Dance. He also decided, after a year of begging from the swim coach, to join the swim team. It was a little shocking to see my son in a Speedo, but I can handle it okay now. He has done really well and quickly moved onto the Varsity Swim team. He had his last swim meet this past week, and he will now start playing Water Polo.
November/December -
Region volleyball time again... This year our women's team didn't do so well, even though we took first place in the stake, but our Coed team did very well, coming up with 3rd place in the region tournament.
Thanksgiving was just us at home, with the missionaries. They had each made special requests, so I fixed special things for each of them. They were late in arriving, and it was soon evident that either my cooking was really bad, or they had already eaten before coming. It was the latter, and they embarrassedly (is that a word?) confessed. Oh well. We had LOTS of leftovers...
Also a very large change occurred for me in November. I was called in to the Stake Offices and was released from my position as Stake Women's Sports Director. I was then told to have Sharon come over, because my bishop was there and wished to speak with us. Uh oh. I was then called to serve as the ward Relief Society President. We'd been without a president for a few months -- it took the Stake that long to release me -- so I spent a few weeks in "catchup mode". During that time, I felt like I was truly being carried, as I was working extra hours at work filling in for someone, and then coming home and doing nothing but Relief Society stuff until bedtime. It was amazing to me. Anyway, I thought that this calling would be a huge burden, but I am enjoying it. It does keep me very busy, though.
Christmas was a wonderful time. Jamie was home from school, and Mom and Dad came down, bringing Whitney. I have really missed having my girls here, so it was great to have us all together for a while.
Whew! That was a lot! Well, now you're up to date on the Howells. I hope to hear from the rest of you soon.
Love, Susie

I might as well go first

Dear Family,

Let's see. I don't remember where I was when the last family letter came my way (and stayed in the back pocket of the binder that holds my protocols for a time when I had some time to write), so let me give a quick update:

I tested for and passed national and state paramedic last summer, and started working for Pacific West Ambulance, a private company, over on the Oregon Coast. I had been promised shifts that were 24 on, 48 off, with great benefits. I was told single moms did really well with this company. Come to find out, there's no childcare available, only two other single moms have ever worked for the company, the bennies suck, and the schedule was more like 48 on, 24 off. That (combined with a small unpleasantness involving the only other female paramedic trying to physically attack me and calling me various names after I'd worked there a month and an on the job shoulder injury at the end of November from trying to wrestle a combative patient to the ground) led me to give notice. I worked to the end of December, and had a job lined up in Corvallis as a med office tech, when I was offered a position at the local hospital as a Paramedic tech in the ER. Which is what I was hoping for in the first place. Everything about the position is fabulous, except that it doesn't start until halfway through February. So things will be tight for a bit, but I think it will be worth it!!

Kai's hearing has, indeed, decreased. We got him some new hearing aids, the most powerful digital aids available; our next option for him, if his hearing decreases more, is a cochlear implant. The idea of it turns my stomach, I don't know why. . . but we'll be exploring more options as we go. He's doing really well in school- absolutely loves math, his penmanship is great, he's learning to read and sound out words. He leaves me little notes all the time that say "Kai loves Mama."

Leah has a lazy streak a mile long- I think she thinks she should be princessed out on a daybed with the mama servant peeling grapes and fanning her with large feathers. She wants to be a paramedic/firefighter/doctor/artist/basketball player (or soccer, depending on the day). I told her she's going to need to start tolerating hard work. She just flounces her princess skirt and boops me on the head with her magic wand.

Rent went up here in Meth Central again, and after driving by the house down the street and waving to the cops circling it with their guns drawn, I realized that most people in Oregon don't live in neighborhoods where drive by shootings are normal (three in the last year), and mail gets stolen out of mailboxes on a regular basis, and you know the SWAT officers by face and name because they spend so much time on your street. So hopefully with this year's tax refund (if there is one) we'll be moving to a bit different neighborhood, where the kids can play with other kids in the front yard, and mom can relax a little.

Andrew and I are signing divorce papers today. We've been separated for so long I forgot I was married; there are very few things in my life I consider mistakes, preferring to think of them instead as learning experiences, but that marriage was definitely one big fat mistake. Not one I'll make again anytime soon.

I think that's all for now. Wasn't really expecting the kids to post, but hey, let's roll with it. And anyone else who has an individual blog, let me know the URL and I'll link it.

Love to all!

Katy

Hi family!!

I'm so excited about this blog!! Maybe my family won't be such strangers now. My boyfriendish person's family has been doing the blog thing for about a year now and it's lots of fun! So everyone make sure and post a lot! I also have my own blog, maybe I'll link it to this one...
I look forward to hearing from everyone!

Jamie

P.S. Pictures are great too!