3 Years....

Is it possible that James has been gone for three years? How does life go by so quickly? Today is a hard day. Last year I did okay but for some reason today isn't as easy.


It's hard to believe that it's been three years since I have run my fingers through that blonde unruly hair, gazed into those penetrating deep blue eyes or heard that notorious grunt that meant "leave me a lone".


He would start school this coming fall. He has two beautiful little sisters that he would be running and playing with..if things had turned out differently. Don't get me wrong. I accept the plan for James' life. I understand that he brought a deeper understanding of life and love to many people...but, I'd rather have James back.


January is just hard. Mamalee died last January too and now my Grandpa Lew is in ICU. He is doing very well and will come home tomorrow...but, still...makes me a little wary. My faith is a little lacking at the moment I guess.


Sorry I haven't posted pictures of Christmas yet. My computers are having HUGE issues. I will post a happy post as soon as I can.

Polar Express

We went on the Polar Express yesterday. We had a ton of fun. I'm headed to bed but wanted to quickly upload a few of my favorite pictures.

Here's Kyleigh..asking her an iPod :)

Landon, asking for a Nintendo DS

and, Tristyn, asking for Polly Pockets. Here is Kyleigh and Landon with their bells. Santa handed out bells to all the children, just like he does in the movie.

We had a really good time. The train ride was about 2 hours long. I would say the only drawback to the whole thing was it was in the evening. The scenery where this train goes is amazing and I would have loved to see it. The people on the train don't keep the kids entertained the whole time so they got a little bored. But, overall, it was great. Our conductor was a kick and they even brought us hot chocolate and cookies. Plus we sang Christmas Carols and had the Polar Express book read to us.

A Blog Ignored!

Hey! Did you think we had fallen off the planet?? Things have been a little stressful and ALOT crazy in the Thomson household! First off..when I went to Germany I borrowed my bosses memory card for my camera. Well, about mid-October, I finally gave it back to him and since my memory card went missing while I was away...my camera is without a card so I can't take any pictures. I have one on order and it should be here around Monday.

Kyleigh is in the community play Christmas Carol which is consuming all of her time. She has been at practice every evening from around 5:30 to about 10:00 or 11:00 every night. She is exhausted, but tonight is opening night and we are excited to go and watch her.

Landon is doing great. He has started boy scouts and really enjoys it. He was supposed to be in the Starlight Parade this year but he got a bad cold so I pulled him out of it. I let him bundle up long enough to go watch and then get right home with some hot cocoa.

Tristyn is Tristyn :) She's doing great. She is loving school and enjoying all of her new friends. She can write her letters and numbers and is starting to read and spell. I am so proud of her, she has come a long way from those first few weeks of school.

Thanksgiving was great. We all went up to my parents' house and then over to my grandparents' for desert. It was a nice day of family, food and games!

Dan and I are great. Busy, busy, busy! We are looking forward to a nice family weekend.

Landon has his Christmas program Monday night and then on Wednesday we are headed to the Polar Express! I'm hoping my memory card will be here so I can post lots of pictures next week.

Happy Birthday!

Okay, so not only is it Steve Irwin Day..it's also....Steve Adkison day! Happy Birthday Dad! Oh...and, it's also my Aunt Mary's birthday..and, my Grandma Barbara's birthday was a couple days ago! Lots of November birthday in our family. Happy Birthday everyone!

Crikey!

It's Steve Irwin Day (11-15-07)!! Don your khakis and have a whopper of a great day!

Someone emailed me the following story a few weeks ago and I loved it. I am not trying to start a debate whether animals go to heaven, etc. I just thought it painted a beautiful picture and one that I could clearly see happening.

Rainbow bridge is a place if both peace and anticipation as departed pets await their beloved owners. There are plenty of things to keep them contented while they wait: trees you can't get stuck in, endless meadows, splashing streams, thickets to hide in for pounce attack games.

But one day the residents noticed some rather.....unusual newcomers arrive. The koalas and the kangaroos slipped in rather quietly, but then came the bearded dragon, the skinks and the goannas. The influx of snakes startled an entire family of cats up a tree. Pythons, cobras, tiger snakes, brown snakes and even fierce snakes. There was so many at one point it seemed as if the ground was alive. A burly wombat shouldered his way through the crowd and plopped down in a shady spot, barely missing a jack russell terrier who yapped indignantly as he abandoned his position.

And then the crocodiles showed up.

Finally a Great Dane managed to get up enough nerve to approach one of the reptilian giants. "Um......excuse me," he said hesitantly. "But, why are you all here?" The croc dropped her jaw and laughed. "Same as you mate," she said "Waitin' for someone who loved us." The dogs, cats, gerbils and other "typical pets" looked at each other in confusion, then at the plethora of weird, ugly and downright deadly creatures assembled. Who on Earth could possibly love some of those faces?

"I see him!" shouted a green mamba from his vantage point in one of the trees. A cacophony of squeaks, hisses, bellows and roars erupted as the mob surged forward towards a lone human being walking across the field towards the bridge.

The other animals managed to catch a glimpse of him before he was overwhelmed by the crowd. "CRIKEY!" he shouted joyously right before he was bowled over by the wombat. "Well I'll be," said a Persian as she tidied up her fur. "It's that Aussie my human liked to watch on TV. Had to be the craziest human on the whole planet." "Oh, please," remarked the echidna as he hurried by. "Is it really that crazy to love something God made?" "No its not," they heard a voice say from the crowd. "You see, I, too, was with him, at his side as he caught the crocs, the snakes and the spiders and spoke of the importance they had in life. For you see, I am his mate, his dog Sui.

To you ordinary animals he may seem crazy, but to me he is simply known as "Best Friend"

And with that comment, as the animals looked on with surprise, she ran barking, clearing a path to him, and jumped in his arms, licking his face as he cried, "Sui my mate, my friend. How I missed you so."

And with that they all crossed the Rainbow Bridge together......

Rome...Finally!

I have been completely unmotivated to get my Rome pictures up, but here are a few.

This, of course, is the Colosseum. It was amazing. We did a tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. On this day, Holly & I started our day at our hotel (of course - LOL!) and headed straight for the Colosseum. It took us 10 hours of walking Rome to get back to our hotel.

Trevia Fountain
Dinner the night of our 10 hour walk. Yes, we ate at McDonalds. We were so exhausted and homesick that McDonalds was a welcome site!
Here I am back at our hotel. For some odd reason I decide to pose with my dear friend, Pepsi. After 10 hours of walking in a foreign country, you do strange things. I was pretty desperate for this Pepsi, I paid 6 Euro for this..which equals about $8.
Here was dinner the first night. We were pretty traumatized and just went to a small market. A great dinner of rolls, Funky Chips, nasty jelly, chocolate and mineral water (that we thought was regular water..that was a surprise)
Here is one of my favorite statues from the Vatican Museum. You don't see many statues of a mother and child so I fell in love with this one.

While I was in Rome, I did not particularly like it or understand it. Now, I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to go there and would gladly go again. Being in Rome was initially hard, it was the first time that Holly & I were truly on our own. We had been away from our kids for a week and deeply missed them. Despite the emotional issues we faced in Rome, we learned a lot of history, spent hours roaming the city and never once got lost. We saw paintings by Leonardo De Vinci, sculptures by Michael Angelo, the Sistine Chapel, Pantheon, the list goes on and on. It truly was amazing!

Michael W Smith - In Concert - I'm Up

Okay..here is an oldie but a goodie..and, possibly one of my FAVORITES! I am a die-hard MWS fan and this brings back a million memories. For those of you who think I have ditched my MWS years..I have not!

It's Over!

Soccer that is! Tristyn is a fantastic soccer player and has so much fun. Every year our fall schedule is wrapped around soccer. Last year both Landon and Tristyn played. This year Landon decided to sit the year out.

We were lucky and Tristyn had the same coach this year that she had last year. She really loves the kids and teaches them how to play the game well. The girls went undefeated!

Random

It has been a crazy month and we are finally on the tail end of it. Now that I have been home for about 3 weeks I have had a lot of time to reflect and think of my trip. I did not think that I would ever consider myself the traveling type but now that I have experienced it, I love it. I hope to go again in the near (within 2 years) future.

It was a blessing to experience the things I experienced and to see how other cultures live. I learned that there is a lot out there to see and do and I am not content to just "be" here anymore.

Here I am in Rome (you can see one of me in Luxemberg at a castle in the top right corner):

It was also an eyeopener to me to watch a military family in action. I don't think any of us here realize what the men and women (and their families) in our armed forces do everyday to make sure we have our freedom. Tim came home the day before we left and we had 24 fun filled hours with him, including being able to watch their family re-unite.


I finally made it home on 9/28 after being delayed 22 hours. I came home to both of Dan's brothers staying at our home for their vacation. We had a great time. Brian stayed a week and Paul stayed for two weeks. Kelley, their sister was able to come and stay one night and we had a great time. The weeks were full of bowling, eating out, movies, shooting guns, shopping and a ton of fun.

Saturday we were able to go to the zoo with just our family. What an amazing trip that was! We had such a great time! The weather was perfect. Probably the last great weekend of the year and we had a perfect day.

I promise to upload more pictures of my trip soon. I have been so busy trying to get back into life.

Winnie The Pooh

Everyone knows that I love Winnie the Pooh..and, apparently, even if I am slow, I am like him - LOL! What a great quiz! :)
Take the 100 Acre Personality Quiz!

A Quote

I read this quote here and just had to share it.

"The child must know that he is a miracle,
that since the beginning of the world there hasn't been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him."

~Pablo Casals

I don't even have to comment, the quote says it all.

Rome

I know I promised pictures of Rome..and, it will happen, but we have switched out our computers and not everything has been put on the new one yet..including, my pictures of Rome. So, as soon as I can....I will upload them and show you a few.

In the meantime, we have been crazy busy over here. Dan's brother's have been here for a visit and we have had a great time. Brian went home today and Paul goes home on Thursday. It's been a real blessing for these guys to get together. Their sister Kelley came for a visit on Wednesday and we had all of them together which was awesome. We got some great pictures of that too..I'll post those soon too!

Mom's Overture by Anita Renfroe

Okay, this is way too good!!!! Have a good laugh!

Germany

We're home! It was a whirlwind two weeks and I have 600 photos to go through to figure out which ones are the best to post here. It was a great trip, we had so much fun over there. I'm going try to go in order of our trip and right now I am only going to post the first few days.

Here is a castle called Vianden. It's emmense!!!!!!!!!!!! Isn't it beautiful? It's so bizarre how you drive around the countryside in Germany looking for these huge castles, you can be so close to them and they are hidden so well. Unexpectedly, you turn a corner and bam..there it is!

Ian and I are getting ready to tour Berg Eltz. I enjoyed the times that Ian wanted on my back. This was the first castle that we were able to take a tour of and go inside. This castle is still owned by the original family and the family still lives in part of it. Can you even imagine that? I think this castle is my favorite. It looks like a fairy tale.

Here is a portion of a cute little town called Bernkastel-Kues. I loved this town. It was surrounded by vineyards and a lot of the houses had grape vines growing over their front doors. I can not tell you how tempted I was to just wander over to someones house and pull off a cluster of grapes. The town had this beautiful scent to it and we believe that it actually smells like freshly made grape juice. During our visit there a German band marched through town. This was definately my favorite town.

Notice the grapes! Looks tempting huh?

Here are some castle ruins above the town. It's called Castle Landshut. There is actually a restaurant inside this castle.

The view of the town Bernkastle from the castle.

I was going to go in order of our trip but this happened on the last night and I thought I would share. Yes, we met one of the Vergori's "little" friends. You can't really tell, but this one is 3 inches. There was a lot of screaming happening that night. Oh, and yes..that is a Tim Vergori hand. He came home the last day of our trip and we go to experience the homecoming. But, that's for another post! :)

My next post will be Rome! Stay tuned.

Finally...A Post

Wow! It's been a whirlwind of activity over here and today we have decided to have a down day.

The trip has been great. We arrived in Germany the morning of the 14th. The trip was surprisingly uneventful. I don't know what I was expecting - at least to be questioned by customs or something, but that didn't even happen. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get into the country.

The first day was just a matter of trying to stay awake. I fell asleep at 6 pm at the dinner table. Thankfully, Reese had not put dinner on yet. At that point I had been awake for 30 hours and it was time for bed. The first several days were difficult to get used to the time change as we are 9 hours ahead over here but I have gotten used to it and am finally sleeping well.

We have had a blast and have seen so many sights. We have gone to several castles, including whole castles and castle ruins. We have been to so many little German communities. The Germans (around here anyway) have beautiful homes with flowers decorating the outside of their homes and yards. It is so pretty here. They live in the middle of rolling green hillside, some of the country seems straight out of a fairy tale. Yesterday I rode a ski lift straight up the mountain next to a castle.

Holly & I left for Rome on Wednesday. Talk about culture shock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were times that I really hated Rome. But, now that I am done with it, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to be there. I learned and experienced ALOT! We even got "hit on" by several different Italian guys. I don't think they have any boundaries there..sometimes it was a little scary, but I get a good laugh thinking about it now :)

When we arrived on Wednesday we were very overwhelmed. But, we were able to find our hotel, drop off our stuff and then we saw the town on a double decker bus. That was really neat and helped us get our barrings. Thursday we walked for 10 hours. We saw so many things, including the Colosseum, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Palentine Hill, Trevia Fountain and Spanish Steps. We saw sculptures by Michael Angelo and paintings by Leonardo De Vinci. Friday we mastered the metro and headed for the Vatican. We went through the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel and then headed over to St. Peter's Cathedral and even saw where Pope John Paul is buried. I am not a history buff so a lot of Rome was confusing to me. We had two different tour guides for the Colosseum and the Roman Forum so that was helpful. I am determined when I get home to read up on some of the things that I saw so that my trip to Rome is more meaningful.

I am so thankful to be back in Germany. When in Rome I was homesick and missing Oregon but here I feel "at home". I am having a blast with the Vergori's and being with them is being with family.

That's my trip in a nutshell so far. Sorry I don't have any pictures to show you. That will have to wait for when I get home. You can go here for some pictures though.

And, for those of you wondering about Reese's "little friends"...no, thankfully, I have not seen any!!!!

Tristyn Goes To School

Tristyn started school on Thursday. My baby is in kindergarten. Can someone tell me how that happened?

Here she is walking up the hill to her school. It was a very emotional day for both of us. She thought she was excited until the teacher blew her whistle for the kids to line up. Then she realized that I would soon be leaving and that was it for her. There were a lot of tears and I had to really hold it in check so I didn't bawl along with her. It doesn't help to know that I leave on Thursday and can't make sure she is okay every day.























This was the last picture I got before the tears fell. I knew in this instant that things were not going to go well. But, she does love her teacher and her class..she just doesn't love leaving her mommy!

How We Spent Our Evening

Tristyn's new thing is to lay down under Dan's desk. Whenever she gets tired, she goes there for a little quiet time. When Dan & I were gone for the weekend she went there and slept. For some reason it seems to be her safe place. She spent a lot of time there this evening. I think this week is going to wear the poor girl out.























Landon spent the evening doing homework..a lot of homework. He had to: read for 30 minutes, do 100 math problems and write the names of every student in his class 3 times. He probably worked for about 2 hours. I think he's going to have a great year and his teacher is wonderful, but the homework might kill us :)

He was rewarded with about 30 minutes of the Crocodile Hunter and then off to bed.

Leaving For School

Here they are. Before they headed off to school. Kyleigh is going into 7th, Landon into 4th and Tristyn is off to kindergarten. I think this is going to be a great year for all of them. Tristyn only went to school for about 45 minutes today - just long enough to fall in love with it and never want to leave.

I just have one question...where did the summer go???

One Year Anniversary

For some reason my post below did not include my comments. But, today is the one year anniversary of the death of Steve Irwin. Hard to believe it's been one year. Anyway, I thought I would post the video below because you will get a good laugh. I think most people have seen this..but, it's worth watching again!

Our thoughts and prayers are with Terry, Bindi, Bob and the Australia Zoo family today.

STEVE IRWIN Meets ROSS the Intern

Fish Guts And Good Friends

Last weekend Kyleigh and I went to stay at my friend Heather's house. I watched her son Andrew when he was three until he was five and then they moved away. Andrew & Kyleigh were Jr. Zookeepers at the zoo on Saturday morning so we had to get up at 5:30 to have the kids to the zoo by 7:00. We don't get to see each other very often but when we do we just pick up where we left off and have an awesome time! Most of the pictures of Andrew look like this:
















Before class:















After class: You can't see it but they have fish guts all over them. When we asked Andrew how he got fish guts on himself he only had one word to say "Kyleigh". Kyleigh's answer "I thought Andrew would want to eat fish, so I tried feeding him". You can't tell they've been together since they were three :) More like siblings - LOL!
















We had so much fun with them..and, can't wait to get together again! We miss you guys!

Getting Ready for School

BEFORE........

AFTER.......

I can see my kids' faces again!

Can you believe it!!??!! How did the summer go by so fast??? I am not at all ready for school to start. Tristyn will be starting kindergarten this year. How did that happen??!!??

Daddy & His Little Girl

I love this picture. Tristyn adores her daddy and, the feeling is mutual. These are two of the most intense people I know...they feel their emotions with their whole heart and soul. There is no middle ground with either of them. It can be intense around our house, but what a blessing they both are!

Landon's Swimming Lessons

Landon's favorite sport in the summer is swimming. One of my mom's friends has teaches private swimming lessons. Landon has taken lessons since he was 4 and he begs every year for lessons. He just finished his two weeks.

Here's Tristyn watching Landon's last lesson.
Landon doing one of his "moves".

Landon and Jeanine. Can you tell she enjoys him? She is a total blast and he loves every second of swimming with her.

This wetsuit was a pain to get off. It was too funny!

Camp Jonah

Back in June Kyleigh went to a music and drama camp in Washington. This was her 2nd year and she just loves it. It's a day camp and they go Monday-Friday and then on Friday the parents all come up and the kids put on their play and have a big BBQ. Unfortunaly, my camera was not working well that night and none of the pictures of Kyleigh during the play turned out. Every year Kyleigh learns more about the Lord, meets new fun people and has an awesome time.

Here she is after the play:

Look at the view from Camp Jonah's backyard.
I love this picture. Landon was running from the camera all night and decided to hide behind Julie. Julie is too smart for that. She lifted her fingers to me: 1...2...3 and she jumped away right when I snapped the picture. Gotcha Landon!

Sneaky little guy. Not the best picture but it's the best expression on his face! He wasn't expecting Julie to jump away :) ha!

MasterCard

I loved this commercial and laughed out loud when I saw it. This is what want for my kids - "being with people who understand you...priceless". There's nothing better then a good friend who understands you!

Our Newest Addition

Introducing...Thumper...finally! He's been in our family since the end of June and I have never written about him. Kyleigh's been on me for a month to tell you about him. She got him when he was only 2 weeks old and has been taking wonderful care of him. He loves to be held and cuddled and he even licks your face like a little kitty. He's a total blast and we are thankful for this little addition to our family.