Happy 4th of July

It has been a crazy couple weeks since my last post. Let me try to catch you all up.

Cassidy returned home from her trip to Washington DC, Philadelphia, & New York City safe, sound, & sleepy! :) She had a fabulous time & in true Cassidy fashion spent all of her spending money...mostly on gifts for other people! Having had two children attend this trip now, I was amazed at how different kids enjoy different parts of the trip. Kaittlin's favorite parts of the same trip were the Holocaust section of the Smithsonian, dinner at an Amish community in Pennsylvania, & the Empire State Building. Cassidy's favorite parts were Mt. Vernon, the changing of the guards at Arlington, & shopping in NYC.

Cassidy has been busy "friend hopping" since she got home. She has spent the night with several friends, went on a boat ride to see fireworks, & put up babysitting flyers in hopes of earning some money this summer.

When Kaittlin was hired at the city pool this summer she was told that they were cutting back hours of all the lifeguards & they would likely only work about 20 hours per week. So she set off in search of a second job. It is difficult to find a job in St. Maries that is willing to work around a teenager's school, sports, activity schedule and even more difficult to find one that is also willing to work around another job. Both she & I originally avoided her applying at the store where I work for several reasons. But, finally she decided to apply there. She was hired in our Subway/Deli department & worked both jobs for several weeks.

She found that she was enjoying working at Subway very much & her manager offered her more hours several times. She began having some problems at the pool with one of her supervisors & decided that she would leave their employment & accept the offer of more hours at the store. She has been very happy since then, working nearly 40 hours every week. She now has spending money, is very close to having 1/2 of her letterman's jacket paid for, & is putting a significant amount into her bank account for college.

Yesterday we took her to Spokane for the Ironwood Thrower's Camp which is held on the Whitworth College campus. This is the largest track throwing camp in the United States & Kaittlin won a scholarship to go there. We got her checked in & helped her move all of her things into one of the dorm rooms. It was kind of surreal following her into a college dorm, packing all of her things, & leaving her there. Wow! Two more years...hard to imagine. She called last night & texted me earlier today. It sounds like she is having a fabulous time. The camp gets over on Friday. We will be driving up to see her & talk to some of the instructors. But she will be leaving with a friend from Bonners Ferry who she met several years ago at church camp & who also throws & is attending Ironwood. She & Alisha will head to Bonners where she will spend the weekend, then they will go to church camp from there. She will be home on the 18th.

Ike has been busy swimming at the pool, riding his bike, & going to All Star baseball practice. Last weekend he was asked to be a ball boy for the American Legion wood bat tournament. He worked ALL day, both days of the weekend & was tired & dirty when he came home, but I think he had a great time.

This weekend we had our first 2 All Star baseball games. On Saturday we played Sandpoint in Coeur d'Alene (all of the games are in Cd'A this year). Ike was the catcher for the whole game & hit a VERY LONG triple of which he was quite proud. The game was a good one & we won 13-2. Yesterday after dropping Kaittlin off at camp we made a mad dash from Spokane to Coeur d'Alene to see his second game. Thank God for Papa (Mike's dad) who drove Ike to Cd'A so that both of us could drop off Kaittlin. We got there just in time to see Ike hit for the first time. He was the catcher during this entire game as well. He had a good sacrafice out, a great tag at home, & a really long stretch to make an out at home. The boys played well, but lost this game 8-2. There was also some questionable calls by the umpires, but I don't believe that is what lost them the game.

Next weekend we have games on Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, & Sunday afternoon. Ike's birthday is on Saturday so we will likely provide some type of treat for the team after the game to help celebrate that. I don't know what I am going to get him for his birthday, but may put off the "party" until later in the month so that we can possibly attend a Spokane Indians game.

Mike & I have been busy trying to finish our new flooring in the upstairs of our house. The floor is in, but we have the pesky "finish work" to do...molding, stair treads, etc. We have another coat of paint to put up in the top half of our stairway, stair treads to stain, polyurathene, & install on the top part of the stairs, flooring to lay on the landing, paint on the bottom part of the stairs, then pulling out the carpet on the bottom part of the stairs, & stain, polyurathene, & install stair treads on the bottom part of the stairs. After that there will be some minor molding & then we are done with that project! Whew!

I have also been trying to get the garage cleaned out & get ready for a yard sale. This weekend I got half way through 3 stacks of boxes (floor to ceiling) in the garage that have been there since we moved!!!

All of that & throw in a couple weddings, a visit from my VERY good friends from North Dakota, a baby shower & you can see that it has been a very eventful several weeks. I will try to do better about posting more often...that way I can make the posts shorter! It is hard to get computer time at home when I am not absolutely exhausted. Sometimes I can get a chance to post during my lunch hour at work, but it has been busy there as well & I find that I get interrupted so much that it is useless!

More later....probably after this weekend of baseball games...unless I get lucky!!!