First "storm"

Expect the unexpected. I know that's what I should expect. And as soon as I think I know what's going on, a big ol' storm rolls in and what was expected is out the window. Let's see, when I left off, Kevin had a few days left in Tule Lake and then was heading up to Bend to start the highline job til the end of January (with Christmas/New Years off). He was supposed to move Thursday and start Friday, but an "atmospheric river" decided to dump buckets and make wind and create havoc in California and Oregon on Wednesday night. So, Thursday turned into Kevin's first storm call.

He got a call from his foreman on Wednesday telling him to get his stuff packed and expect a call. That call finally came Thursday around ten in the morning. He packed his storm bag, left the trailer in Tulelake and headed to the normal show up to wait for his crew. 

Waiting for the crew.

After about an hour of waiting he was instructed to head up to Medford and he met up with his crew there. They were out on storm for 30 hours, finishing up early Friday afternoon. With Bend being up in the air, he decided to drag the trailer home until Christmas at least. It's really cold where he'll be working by Bend and he was worried about getting a the trailer snowed in. So, after not sleeping all night, he did what any logical person would do and started the 11 hour trek home. 



Leaving California

Hoping he can say goodbye to California until a vacation!!! The 11 hour drive took quite a bit longer with some random roadside naps and black ice. I was just ecstatic to get daddy home unexpectedly for a few days!

We went and saw Santa, had a nice fun dinner, and drove around looking at Christmas lights. I'm so glad Kevin was able to spend the weekend with the kids. He got to see Kj's newest fettish, puffy dresses and her cowgirl princess hat. 

Santa visit.

Santa's Reindeer

Hugs at dinner

Bathroom selfie.

Sissy's weekend attire.

Kevin starts in Bend (actually by Crescent) Tuesday and it sounds like he'll only be there til Christmas, and then onto the list of available apprentices. Who knows though!!! They're splitting a three bedroom condo, so that'll be a nice change of pace than being solo in a trailer. 

Christmas tree update

After being angry that the tree was difficult and not perfect for a few days, I finally got over myself and my crappy attitude and it turned out pretty sweet.

Oh Christmas Tree

Kevin had Saturday school in Eugene this weekend so the kids and I tried to stay busy. Weekends without daddy are the absolute worst for some reason. We make it through the week, and then we (or maybe it's just me) are sad that he's not there for the fun on the weekend. 



Kj heading out to run errands. 



We were only going to be gone a few hours...

Saturday was a busy day; we got our bountiful basket in Deer Park and then went to the West Valley Outdoor Learning Center's open house to see some owls and hawks close up. Kjersten was so scared of the birds, until we found a baby owl and then she got all excited. 

Kj looking at the baby owl.

Drake checking out the snakes

 

After seeing the snakes, turtles, turtoises and birds, we went to the McDonald's in Hillyard for lunch. McDonald's seems a lot grosser when you go into one in a questionable neighborhood on a rainy day when the floors look unjustifiably filthy. We survived, so far. The rest of the afternoon was pretty laid back; cleaned the house while sis took a nap and Drake played, then we went out to Thai food for my aunts birthday. 

Sunday I had slated to get our Christmas tree because it looked to have the best weather of the weekend. Normally Christmas tree hunt day is my favorite day of the year. We all get bundled up and go out as a family in the woods looking for the perfect tree. Sometimes it's beautiful and snowy, usually it's just cold. This year, it was wet. Not even super cold, just soggy and wet outside. I've been thinking a lot about this day, knowing that Kevin may or may not be able to join us. His plans to come home next week changed and now he won't be home until right before Christmas (more on that later), so I knew I had to just suck it up and do it. 

Drake borrowed my dad's little saw and proudly wore the sheath on his belt. I brought the Chariot to help carry it back in one piece and not covered In mud. We set out from the house looking in the woods. Oy. It was hard to find one in foot with two small children. 

Christmas tree expedition

 

Through the woods we go.

 

Good enough!

Drake took this picture of me cutting the tree.

Sis watching me cut the tree.

Successful kill.

I let Drake pick out a small tree to bring home and decorate,
 while we're out with our tree killing saw...

Drake carrying his tree home.

Loaded into the Chariot and a kiss for sis. 

 

Next was the easy part, just had to get it in the stand and into the house so we could decorate. Turned out to be not so simple. I had no idea what I was doing but obviously it wasn't working. After a childish temper tantrum that involved kicking the tree followed by a sobbing shower, I finally gathered my wits enough to get it standing up enough to bring in the house. Once inside, it became obvious that it had more flaws than I noticed outside. 

Decorating went about as well as getting it into the house. 

There are currently random ornaments strewn about the house from the kids. I'm sure we'll be finding them in April. I know it's not about the looks of the tree, but about the memories and love that goes into getting it. And I'm sad to report that most of the day I was cranky and upset that Kevin's not home. Hopefully the kids didn't notice that part and will have fond memories of this year's tree adventure. It really was an adventure. 

As for Kevin, he's still down by Klamath Falls and after being told a date to be laid off, he was told the next day that instead he was going to a highline job south of Bend. He thinks he'll be home on 12/23, which will make it the longest we've gone without him home. The weather where he's going is colder and they're working five to seven 10-hour days, so it's going to be a rough couple weeks for daddy. 

Daddy's fun Sunday chores.

Thanksful

Thanksgiving is such a good reminder to be truly grateful for all the awesome things in our lives. I love that it always revolves around family, food, and shopping. Three of my very favorite things.

I spent the two weeks prior to Thanksgiving telling the kids about Thanksgiving and what the day is all about. Drake is probably so tired of me asking him what he is thankful for. Every time, he would answer me, "I'm thanksssssful for _____". ____ was his toys, our car, our house, our dogs, and Mr. Turtle. If you catch me saying "thanksful," I blame Drake. It was too cute not to pick up and say.

When Kevin signed us up for this crazy lineman gig, I learned pretty early on that I should get used to him possibly being gone on holidays, birthdays, etc. We were so, so blessed to be able to have him at home the entire week of Thanksgiving this year, including for his birthday.  The week was pretty laid back. I worked in the office two days, so Kevin got to hang out with the kids. Tuesday was Kevin's birthday and we went out to Chinese for dinner, just the four of us.

Waiting for Papa to pick them up for a Thanksgiving Rhino ride.

 

Sis loves to swing.

 

The kids swing every chance they get.

 

We had Thanksgiving at Kevin's parents this year. His mom (the craftiest lady ever) made the cutest place markers for the table. It was nice and low-key, just ate and hung out.

 

 

 

I went on the annual family Black Friday shopping outing with my mom, sister-in-law and my aunts, cousins, and grandma. This year wasn't as crazy as years' past, I think because now a lot of the stores are open on Thanksgiving.

 

Over the weekend, I got the Christmas decorations out of storage and put up. I love decorating for Christmas. Most of our decorations are hand-me-downs from my mom, so I look forward to the day that I can walk into Costco or Target and just load up on decorations that I really, really love, although the hand-me-down ones are very special to me.  

Lantern from my BFFs wedding, real glass antique ornaments from my great-grandparents,
and battery LED lights from Shopko on Black Friday.

 

I love this silver nativity my mom gave me (she has one too), and the silver sparkly trees.

 

Nothing makes a living room more cozy than stockings hung by a crackling fire.
Thank you to my mother-in-law for sewing the stockings for us.

 

Home sweet home.

The last night before daddy leaves is always so bittersweet. It is full of snuggles that are so sweet, but so sad knowing that the following night we'll be hundreds of miles apart.

 

 

This is hopefully Kevin's last trip down to Southern Oregon this go-round. They scrounged up a little more work down there to last another couple weeks and at this point it's looking like he'll be heading home with the trailer (that hasn't been home since August, and that feels so strange!!) for a layoff in mid-December. After that, he waits until the apprenticeship finds him more work.

 

Mt. Hood in the distance.

 

Kevin working, thanks to Colby for the pic.

Eugene, Oregon

I bought Kevin the silliest birthday present ever this year, a plane ticket for me from Spokane to Eugene. I swear, it was a present for him, and it turned out great!  We had so much fun together, just the two of us, not in mommy/daddy roles. It is always so refreshing in parenthood to step back and remember that the root of our family is the love between us and without that, we would simply not be a family.

 

I drove through Eugene when the kids and I visited Kevin in Cave Junction, but we didn't even get off I-5, so I was looking forward to checking out the town.

 

This was the first time I have ever driven myself to the airport and flown by myself, but it went so smoothly. Everything just seems so much simpler when you don't have two kids in tow. My flight was at 6:00 AM, so I got to watch the sunrise from the airplane over the fluffy clouds. What a way to start the day.

 

Sunrise from the air

 

I had a window seat with an empty seat next to me on BOTH my flights. I think it really must have been my lucky day. In hindsight, I probably should have bought a lottery ticket! They even checked my bag for free, which solved my predicament of how to get my overhead up there with coffee in hand. Life has so many obstacles sometimes. I was glad to not have to lug both bags around Sea-Tac.

Walking onto the plane, this was definitely a first.

 

I safely arrived in Eugene exactly on time and only had to wait about ten minutes for Kevin to pick me up at the airport. I love small airports.

 

From the airport, we determined we had both been up entirely too long (7 hours by 10 in the morning), and thus it felt like lunch time already and we needed to promptly find food. Well, I needed to promptly find food. I think Kevin was probably fine, but since my world revolves around my next meal.......  We had pancakes at the Original Pancake House. Then, we went to REI to try to find a pair of boots for Drake (no sales tax!!). After finally arriving at REI (we had a terrible time navigating through Eugene) and finding out they only had girl's colors and two sizes too big, we went to a local fly shop next door. And then, we had to figure out what to do next. We had nothing to do. So, we went to Cabela's and I had them price match to REI for the boots. And then....we still had nothing to do and it was not even noon yet. Our check in time at the hotel was three, but they so very kindly allowed us to check in at noon. We did what any logical parents do when they have a break from their children, we took a nap before dinner.

 

After our pre-linner nap (I won't even call it dinner, it was 3:00 in the afternoon...), we made our way to Ninkasi brewery for some beer tasting. I assume this is Kevin's favorite beer because every time I see new beer in the house, it is Ninkasi. We drank beer and bought matching sunglasses, because we're cool like that.

 

Ninkasi didn't have food, so the next place we went was the Rogue Public House. Ate some grub, drank more beer, and then headed back to the hotel, because we had to get the heck out of downtown Eugene before the Duck rally started for the football game the next day. By now, I was so tired of seeing green and yellow and ducks that a football rally mixed with how much beer I had drank was bound to not end well.

Beer, beer, and more beer.

 

Saturday, Kevin had his Saturday school and after the troubles navigating the town the day prior, I told him please, for heaven's sake, if you want your truck to remain in one piece, do not let me drive it around this town. He took the truck and left me at the hotel with no transportation. I had determined earlier in the week that the Eugene Holiday Market was definitely something that I needed to check out, so I spent half the morning looking up the bus schedules and trying to figure out where the fairgrounds were and how I would get there. Much to my surprise, when I asked the hotel front desk to hold my bag and asked what the easiest way to get to the market was, they told me that they had a shuttle and would be happy to take me to the market and pick me up when I was done. Now, this is probably common practice at hotels, but I am so used to getting royally screwed over every time I do anything, that when things like this go right, I think it's the luckiest day ever. I guess I didn't need Kevin's knife for self protection after all!

 

I spent five hours wandering around the market drooling over everything; pottery, jewelry, hand-made tambourines and wooden flutes, felted animals, paintings, soap, wooden spoons. It was so amazing. There were so many amazing artists and beautiful things I wanted to buy. I ate delicious pad Thai and real chai tea for lunch. There was a main stage of different music playing the whole time, and street performers in the hallway. I made it out with one small thing for myself, a bag full of Christmas presents, and a wreath for the house. Not too shabby. Oh, and of course, a brownie, pumpkin loaf, and fudge for the drive home. Duh. I really hope that I will be able to return to this market at some point with a bigger pocketbook to indulge in some of the beautiful things.

 

Indoor Farmer's Market

I had the hotel shuttle pick me up at the market about 2 and I went to a brewery next door to our hotel (that somehow we totally missed the night before), and sat with my bags piled up waiting for Kevin to get done with class. He made it, we ate lunch, and then hit the road for the long drive home. We had great conversation and of course I made him change the music about ten times and reminded him to be careful driving about a hundred times, and every time he got annoyed I reminded him that he was the one that wanted my company on the drive home. Road trips with your best friend are the best. Happy birthday Kevin. xoxo

Firewood and family time

Kevin and I made an agreement the weekend of Halloween: he wouldn't come home until Thanksgiving. It's so expensive to have him drive home every weekend and now that he has Saturday school every other Saturday and it's four hours away from where he's staying, we've had to add hotel stays to the mix. So, we agreed. Yes, four weeks is a very long time, but we'll survive.

Fast forward to Thursday at noon when he got done working and contemplated what to do solo for three days in the middle of nowhere. I kept asking him how I could help, pictures of the kids, leave him alone, what? Then I sent him links of things to do close by, the lava fields, well, that was about it. He didn't seem very interested in my help, nor did he seem very upset that he hadn't seen us for going on three weeks. Weird. That was my first clue. 

This was my second clue, receiving this via text:

Bend, Oregon

 

Bend, Oregon, in a snowstorm 

Now, had he consulted me before deciding to drive home, I would have warned him about the BLIZZARD being reported extending from Portland to Pendleton along the WA/OR state line, but obviously he decided to just check it out himself. 

His 10.5 hour drive turned into 12 hours of sketchy conditions. 

Meanwhile, the kids and I had our Thursday evening YMCA time, swimming and yoga (Thursday night yoga at the Y, with Margo, is my FAVORITE activity at the moment). 

Kj swimming

Always jumping

Friday, I worked from home, daddy did homework, the kids played in their sheet fort that they call "the castle." 

Castle fort

Kevin and I went to Dumb and Dumber To and then dinner. Love to sneak away and actually talk to my husband without having to be interrupted by "moooom" "mommy" "mooooooooom" every two minutes. 

Saturday was firewood day. Growing up, I very vividly remember firewood days. Being in the woods all day while my parents worked hard cutting and loading up our warmth for the winter. I'm not sure what it is, but it's a magical experience. 

Kevin's truck wouldn't start. Apparently diesels don't like sitting for two days in near zero degree temperatures. We decided to load up the Subie and get started while the trucks batteries warmed up. 

Playing in the woods

Daddy worked so hard, like usual. 

Our hero

The kids and I mostly played, like usual. 

Kj said it was a dinosaur!

Jump!

At the pond

Big rock

Sibling love

Stump buddies

Papa brought up the old tractor with the log splitter and built a fire for the kiddos. 

Operation firewood 2014

 

Splitting

I did stack it in the truck, gotta do my tiny part at least. 

Bliss

We had hot chicken noodle soup and cross-country ski hot chocolate (which just means it's in a thermos with some creamer). 

Lunch time!

We came home tuckered out. 

Kj lost the battle

Pretty much, it was a glorious Saturday and I'm so so glad that Kevin broke our agreement and came home. 

On the horizon: this should be the last week of the Klamath job, I'm flying down to ride home with daddy next weekend (fingers crossed his plans don't change!), and a week off <hopefully> for Thanksgiving. Then what??? We have no idea!