Little Miss Resourcefulness

Poor Savannah. The girl is always left with no pillow to rest her head upon. It's not that we've never bought one for her, its just that everyone takes it. The fact is that in the Gibson home pillows are something that everyone wants, but for some reason no one can ever seem to find. Everyone started out with two pillows, except for mom, because I need six pillows to get comfy with at night and I don't share! Anyhow, I've carefully guarded my pillows and it wasn't hard to do. It took a little bit of time to get use to the zip strips and steel cables that held my pillows in place, but after a week or so I was finally able to memorize the combination to the pad lock and that made moving my pillows around in the middle of the night much faster.

I just don't understand why the kids can't seem to keep track of their pillows. I've offered to cable them to their beds, but they just look at me like I'm crazy or something. My main concern is where could all of these missing pillows have gone? I've long ago excepted the mystery of the sock monster who lives somewhere under my dryer and helps himself to our socks each and every time I do a load of laundry. Something like that is very easy to comprehend, but missing pillows is a completely different thing. Perhaps the sock monster has moved on to bigger and better things, like pillows. That's possible, isn't it? Nonetheless poor Savannah seems to be an easy target for the little Sock Stealing Pillow Snatching Monster. She's been without a pillow for nearly 2 months now and she's explained (or complained) to me several times about the dangerous medical problems that she may be forced to live with for the rest of her life as a direct result of having to sleep without a pillow. (who would have known that sleeping without a pillow could cause bad grades on spelling tests and a crooked big toe?)

Luckily Savannah's resourceful thinking wasn't harmed by the pillowless nights. As soon as she saw the mess that her little brother had made with the paper shredder, she ran off and then returned with an empty pillowcase. She quickly gathered up as much shredded paper as her pillowcase could hold and then began to sew the end shut. Finally after a few near-fatal misses with the sewing needle and a box of Band Aids, all is well for Savannah. She claims that her pillow is the best one that she's ever had. I guess now her spelling scores will be improving and her crooked big toe will straighten out. Let's just pray that the S.S.P.S monster finally leaves poor little Savannah's pillow alone.

Shredded Paper Snow Angels

This is another one of daddy's idea's. Not the part of throwing tiny pieces of paper all over my bathroom, but the part about allowing our curious four year old son to shred papers in the industrial shredder. Daddy says that its a bonding experience to work along side his son while using dangerous heavy equipment. Mommy tried to intervene in this "special manly bonding event," because she knew that her little man could create trouble in almost any circumstance. However, both little man and big man began their work and just as the big man looked away for a few tiny seconds, the little man found out how to remove the bag from the shredder and that's when all the fun started.

A visit with Grandpa Gibson

After our fun underground tour, we surprised Grandpa Gibson with a quick visit. Taylor was thrilled to see the car that he and his dad had driven in the Pendleton Round-up Parade a few years ago. Grandpa has an entire shop filled with antique cars and interesting stories to go with each one. The latest story about someone who became stuck in the rumble seat of this car (above) after being very rude to another passenger that Grandpa was driving around. In the end Grandpa had to remove the seat to get the person out. The moral of the story: Don't put your nose or butt in other people business! The kids are excited about the chance of getting to maybe be in the 100th anniversary Pendleton Round-up parade next year. Taylor says that he will have a licence and wants to drive the Corvette. (Not going to happen Tays!)

Pendleton Underground Tour

(Thanks Savannah for being my picture model!) The Pendleton Underground is a treat to anyone that sees it. The tour includes a step back in time as you walk through long ago forgotten about, hidden tunnels that run through out the town of Pendleton. You'll see the many underground establishments some of which were owned by the Chinese who weren't allowed outside after dark or they could be shot. Part of the underground housed the illegal 'speakeasies' where prohibited liquor was served at hidden underground saloons. There is an entire other world down there. A meat market, laundry, bath house, several saloons, a bowling alley, several card rooms (for illegal gambling), Chinese jail, and several other underground businesses that were run by the Chinese for fractional amounts of money. Then after touring the dark underground, you are brought above ground to one of the many brothels. On this tour you visit Madam Stella's brothel which is located upstairs on the top floor of another building. Although the topic is very controversial, the kids found it very interesting and it gave them a better understanding of what it was like to live here over 70-120 years ago. I've been on other underground tours and none come close to the Pendleton Underground.

The Pendleton Underground Tour

The Pendleton Underground is the coolest!

Robert and I have been on the tour many times before, but the children have never gotten to see this amazing place. So on Saturday, I took the 3 older ones with me on an adventure to the underground. I tried to explain to them that we would be underground in hidden tunnels that ran throughout the city, but they couldn't quite grasp it until they saw it for themselves. I could tell by their silent , wide eyed, curious looks that they were amazed. History is now the favorite school subject at our house. We will definitely be back to explore more of this amazing place.

Swim Finals

I hadn't gotten around to writing a post about the girls swim finals. They both did great. It was a very long day for them, as the meet started at 10:00 AM and didn't finish until 7:00 PM. In the end both girls took a metal in individual events. Addy got one for the 200 meter breast stroke (3rd place overall in that event) and Savannah took one for the 100 meter freestyle (4th place overall in that event.) Savannah was forced to swim with 13-14 year old girls because their team needed someone to fill an empty spot because of a girl that became ill. Amazingly, Savannah wasn't nervous at all. She was just happy that she got to swim against the "big girls" and then got to stand with them after the race. When the older girls race it is a much bigger deal and all eyes are on the race. Usually there are lots of camera flashes and a lot more cheering (or screaming parents who are extremely competitive) and Savannah loved all of the extra attention. We never expected her to actually metal, but she took 4th place. She is pretty much walking about 2 ft. taller now! Now that we are done swimming for a few months, we can finally return to karate. We haven't been practicing very hard for karate since we were so busy with swimming and now the kids fear that all of their karate friends will be several ranks above them. Addy doesn't want to return to karate because she says that, "There is nothing more embarrassing then having a 7 year old have a higher rank then you." Unfortunately for Addy we don't allow the kids to quit for reasons like that. We are so mean! Karate is great because it teaches the kids so many valuable lessons and they can kick butt (should they ever need too.) So tomorrow we are back to our Tuesday's and Thursday's karate practices from 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm followed by swimming (no meets, just practice, fun & games) until 9:00 pm. Hudson will start karate in a few months too. YIKES!

Ta Da!

The extra pieces are still under my bed, but who needs them? The swing set is complete and although it may come crashing down when one of the kids sneeze, it will be fun until it happens.

However, I must say that this swingset in very cheaply made. You get what you pay for and isn't that the truth. Sadly we have been forced to make a rule that children only 6 and under can play on the set. I've had to remind the girls not to use the swings as a place to sit and rest because it will collapse it. Robert is going to add some extra wood to it to make it more structurally fit. Maybe those extra pieces of hardware will come in handy? I knew those little shiny objects had a purpose.

Great Fun for the Entire Family

The Divine Owner's Manual

Separating the hardware into bags.

The Warning Page!

Extra parts after we had finished.

This little nightmare started on Tuesday afternoon after Robert arrived home with our little surprise gift for the younger kids. It's a wooden swingset and we got it on clearance for an awesome price. I was fully prepared for a 6-8 hour, no breaks, hard working assembly time. The children were all gathered around as Daddy opened the boxes. We weren't surprised to see a box full of wood and parts. I quickly located the "Owner's Manual" and began to study and prepare for the impending nightmare that was about to start. The directions seemed easy to follow (take board K-1 & F-4 and bolt ? nuts ???) and so on... It soon became clear that we were in serious trouble when we noticed that NONE of the wood was labeled. We had the kids lay all of the wood on the lawn and then Robert & I walked around measuring each piece and taking note of where each pre-drilled hole was located. Five hours later we had finally located and labeled the wood. Hudson continuously asked, "Are you done yet, Dad?" His poor little world came crashing down when we told him that we couldn't finish the swingset that night. Hudson quickly responded by grabbing a few boards and crying while yelling, "Dad you just put them together like this. Now you do it Dad." This was followed by a self destructing meltdown (Hudson, not Robert!) and soon after, Mommy was near a self destructing breakdown. It was dark outside by now, so we were forced to call it a night and drag the screaming child inside.

The next morning the girls and I decided to separate all of the nuts, bolts, screws, and a zillion other little parts into groups as they would be needed for each step. The Manual stated that there was 22 "Easy to follow steps" to finish the swingset. So we began to locate each piece of hardware, but soon realized that they too were NOT labeled. The Manual called for two 3/4 lag bolts and I am looking down at a zillion little parts. What is a lag bolt? And a Hex Bolt, Lag Screw, Carriage Bolt, Deck Screw, Fender Washer, Flat Washer, etc... All in several different sizes. The directions in the Manual were very clear and stated that you should be VERY CAREFUL not to lose any parts because there were ZERO extra pieces of hardware. So we did the best we could and managed to carefully separate the groups and place them in numbered bags. It took us 4 hours of none-stop work to finish the job.

Again, we see a WARNING page about missing parts and so on (Note that it says nothing about having too many or left over pieces.) The girls and I were feeling pretty great. We had conquered the impossible. We were on top of the world. We had found a way to make Daddy's job a little easier. We laughed and reminisced about our 4 hours of hard work and how we had located all of the correct pieces and had done a great job. BUT... Savannah noticed that we had a huge pile of leftover hardware. How could that be? The Divine Manual specifically stated that there would be NO left over parts. Had we made a mistake? The realization that we may have to dump out all of the bags and START OVER hit us all hard. Addy blurted out the first thing that came to her mind, "Let's hide the extra pieces and maybe Daddy won't know." I've decided not to make any rushed decisions. I shoved all of the bags into a basket and placed it under the bed. I'll deal with it tomorrow.

Extracurricular Activities: Art Appreciation

Hmmm. I wonder where this extracurricular activity took place? I haven't graded their work yet. I wonder what grade they should be given? I am not sure if they completely finished all of their work. I see a few area's in the grass where it looks pretty bare. I think I may be forced to hand out an incomplete. They'll have to either except the low mark or Re-do their work. The only drawbacks are the paybacks!

RV

"Hey Mom, this is my RV. Do you want to go inside my RV and have lunch?" As fun as it looked, I regrettably had to pass. However, I did take a look inside and I was very surprised by what I saw.

3 rolls of TP

a bag of gold fish crackers

a change of clothes

snow boots

toothbrush and toothpaste

my car keys

2 bowls, 1 cup, 5 spoons

1 very big and sharp knife (thank God I looked inside)

a can of WD40 spray

a few nails

2 wrenches

my drivers licence & library card (he obviously went through my wallet. I wonder how long this has been going on?)

the remote control to Dish Network

a VHS tape of Blue's clues. (luckily the TV wasn't in there.)

and finally, a map of Oregon state