Maid Marion's Maid

The Missoula Children's Theatre is world famous for traveling to various national and international cities and towns, large and small, and putting on a play within a week using local children (k-12). There is even a documentary about it called The Little Red Truck. They set a prearranged location (for us Frenchtown High School) and have try-outs (involving singing and acting); they choose which children will have which roles and start practicing right away (the same night for the larger roles)!!!!

This years MCT Frenchtown play is Robin Hood. Auri tried out Monday afternoon and has one of the top 5 roles :) She will be Maid Marion's Maid, who is much more interesting and has as many lines as maid marion (per Auri)!! So, she will be exceptionally busy this week, as if TAG, dance class, singing lesson, and pep band were not enough things to do in a week! She is so excited and states that the play is going to be so funny. She really shines as she describes her character and how she is going to portray her.

There will be 2 shows on Sat. I am not sure if they will be in our theatre or in at the Missoula Children Theatre, either way, it should be great!!! For those of you who are able to come up, you are more then welcome to stay here...just think of it as indoor camping :)

Skiing Fun

We went skiing at Discovery yesterday and had a blast. Sara took lessons and learned a lot, so we can go without fear next time, and I turned Auri into a speed-freak. By the end of the day she was trying to go as fast as possible down the blue slopes :) Jamie did boarding and lots of neat tricks.

Some (few) pictures at our site.

1+1+160+166 horsepower

Here's a nice picture on this sunny day. The two 1-horsepower... ahm... horses and the much more powerful cars, including the new one.

friends, neighbors, skiing/sledding and a new CR-V

Well, we are still showering at the neighbors.... Laundry there also (if at all) They are wonderful people, but I still don't feel right bringing all our laundry, so I suppose I'll head to the laundromat this week :) Max and Jill came out Feb. 7th-11th...It was so awesome to have them over!! Max introduced us to a new board game called Blokus. It is like 4 player tetris. We went horseback riding, but the horses were so excited to be out for a ride that it was more rodeo then trail ride :) Jan, Max and Jill went skiing up at SnowBowl (Missoula) on Sat. Sunday, Max & Jill and the kids had an awesome time sledding and riding Jamie's snowskate (snow skateboard) on the hills of our yard and also on our neighbor's hill. The kids are doing well. They took advantage of the 3 day weekend to hang out with friends. Auri went skiing Sunday with her friends. She had a great time and was very sore the next day (yesterday) :) We are still trying to get her 50 hrs of driving logged (for her license). To that end, she drove us up to Kalisbell yesterday (Monday) to pick up our new car, a Honda CR-V 4wd. It is going to be nice to have a vehicle that is suited to country living. We bought it through the Costco program which saved us a couple grand. We could have bought one in town at full price, but decided that saving $2,000 was worth the 2hr drive!! The Mission Mts are breathtaking and Flathead lake is spectacular! The dealership was having technical difficulties, and Jamie had an appointment for his NFT. So, Jan and Auri left early to get back to town and I waited for the CR-V. Unfortunately, I was so tired of waiting by the time I got the car, I didn't pay attention to the interior color. We had requested grey(leather), but we got black leather....So now I am waiting for a call back about exchanging it. Black leather in the summer does not sound fun.... Jamie is doing well. He has been taking his meds, mostly without reminders (He made signs for his room to remind him to take his meds twice a day). He sprained/strained his wrist last week while sledding with friends and has been wearing a brace to help protect it. We took Jamie in to a GI specialist to get some help with his chronic diarrhea. The MD thinks it is IBS, but is running some tests to rule out other factors. Auri and Jamie are doing well with school, except for getting their make-up work when they are absent. Therefore they are each failing a class at this time. Auri's case is complicated but he fact that her teacher has been out related to her father's health and so Auri has not been able to make up a test or turn in her missing work. Jamie has lost his science book and will have to buy a new one. It has been missing for awhile and is probably a factor in his low science grade. The weather here has been gorgeous!! highs in the upper 40's/lower 50's, lows in the 30's. Unfortunately, it is melting all our snow..such a bummer. However, this morning was quite nippy (18 F). So, I guess winter is not over yet :) Thankfully, it seems to be warming up quickly (25 F at 9:30am) Well, I need to get myself movin', lots to do before I take Jamie to his orthodontist appt this afternoon and Auri to her theatre group and dance lesson this evening.

family update

We are struggling with having enough water to shower or even sponge bath/wash our hair, water the animals, do dishes/laundry....and may continue for the next month or two...Yea :( We are still trying to figure out the extent of the problem and if we will have to drill a new well or will be able to extend this one a bit deeper (without destroying it) or if it will all resolve to a functional level with the thaw...

Auri is loving her new courses this semester, esp. band and choir. She is making new friends and discovering a new passion in the arts. She has also joined the Teen Arts Group in Missoula, and a modern dance class. Her voice lessons are going well and she is constantly singing around the house...esp. Sweeney Todd-her current favorite soundtrack. We went on a Mommy-Dtr date last night to see the Headwaters Dance Company performance. They are a modern dance company in Missoula. It was awesome. They even invited the members of the audience to stay after and discuss the performance with the troupe. Fantastic!!

Jamie is also enjoying his new classes this semester. He is taking woods, kitchen aid, and driver education as his electives. He is very excited that it is the 2nd week of the quarter and he still has 7 A's and 1 D (science). I am trying to set up a teacher conference with his science teacher to see if we can get Jamie on the right track in that class. He is still going to Neurofeedback therapy 3xwk and states that he is feeling less brain tired. We went to see the Neurologist regarding his EEG's. His MD felt very strongly that with the abnormal EEG, the 2 episodes of passing out vs seizures in 3 months, the location of the lesion in the seizure area etc that Jamie should be on meds. So, he started Tegretol 100mg BID (2xday) for 1 week then 200mg BID, with a blood draw to check therapeutic levels in 2 weeks. The main side effect noted is feeling "spacey". So, far he has voiced no complaint regarding any side effects...so far so good. He may out grow this problem, so the MD suggests that he be on the med for 3 years, then wean off and see if he has any further episodes.

I went to Vegas last week for my mom's birthday and to visit my gramma Freemyer, who is dying of jaw/throat cancer and renal failure. It was a good trip. I enjoyed visiting with my Mom and sisters and even seeing my birth father, Melvin. Since, we were only able to visit with gramma one person at a time, we were able to visit with Melvin for several hours each day. Although she is very very ill, gramma was very happy to see us and Melvin commented on how good it was to see his mom happy for the couple of days we were there. I was really torn and wished I could stay and help, but my family needs me at home.

Jan did an amazing job holding down the fort while I was away...Driving the kids to their various activities, making them brush their teeth and very their coats :) hee hee. He is leaving for CA next week to work in San Jose. When he returns Friday, he will have Max with him. Jill will fly out Thurs night and we are planning a ski/boarding trip that weekend. It should be awesome! We are soo looking forward to their visit!

Goodbye Kizmet

We held a family meeting to discuss Kizsie's condition. Her tumor was slightly larger then a football, extending up to her spine and across her chest. Her leg was no longer used and swollen like a stroke victim's dependent limb. After discussing her decreased mobility, the swelling in her leg, her not getting up and coming over for pets (she would wait, looking at you, to see if it was worth getting up), her breathing (which was getting more difficult), and her level of pain (which is hard to judge, except by the large amount of drugs we had her on and still not using her leg, limping, falling, not moving as much). So, we decided we should put down sooner then later...that her quality of life was very low and we didn't want to keep her alive for our selfish reasons. We took her to the vet yesterday afternoon. She went to sleep easily and without distress. We, of course, cried our eyes out and continue to weep off and on today. We are sorry for the memories we will not get to make with her, but are happy that she is no longer suffering....we will miss her sweet spirit and kind eyes until we meet again at the Rainbow Bridge.