Week #13:Special Olympics Luncheon

This week...

...Jason got Traeger grill. Let me just say gift card and Costco. That about sums it up. He was like a kid on Christmas day as he opened that box. Paul was super excited to help where he could. I can't wait for him to start making dinner. Haha!

...Monday, Monday. 

...Emma performed in the fourth grade choir. Her cousin Ethan is also in the choir.

...we had a fear factor mutual night. They were very brave to try the different gross activities. I would not have been able to eat the baby food and the harry potter jelly beans were really taking a toll. We gave a little message about having faith vs. fear. Faith wins every time.

...Jason worked with Texas Roadhouse to organize a luncheon for Special Olympics. Texas Roadhouse is so cool when it comes to community service. They donate everything for the meal and open up before business hours to host the luncheon. Then they donate ALL of the proceeds to the organization for which we're raising funds. Their employees come in and volunteer their time to seat and serve at the luncheon. It's amazing! This time our focus was Special Olympics.

Jason parked his car out front along with one of the unmarked chargers that the gang team uses.

Here's the chalk art greeting that Texas Roadhouse had in the entry. I joked with them that no one would have thought that chalk art abilities was part of the job description.

The Benton County Gang Team came in to greet people at the door. We also had a Richland Officer and a Port of Benton Officer helping at the door as well.

Our friend Erik came with his mom Valery. He wore some of his medals from Special Olympics.

The Texas Roadhouse did not disappoint. Even thought it was a small luncheon, they got out there and danced several times. That's just what they do. Will Butts (pictured above) is the one that worked with Jason so much to put the luncheon together.

Here's my Lainey modeling the proper use of the napkin with the delicious food. Texas Roadhouse made these slider sandwiches this time. They were a huge hit...with me. ;)

Week #12: Measure Up!

This week...

...In the Barbie movie, The Magic of Pegasus...(Really? You ask. Yes, really. We watch a lot of Barbie around here.) Ahem! Back to what I was saying...In the movie, Barbie has to hunt down three things to make a wand of light to overcome the evil bad guy. The first one is a measure of courage. Lainey trying to see how tall she is with the tape measure made me think of that. Lainey's taking her measure. 

...we caught sight of these little blossoms beginning. What a great time of year! I love it when the buds and blossoms and leaves return. This is the tree in our backyard. Soon, they'll be popping out everywhere else.

...we played at the park.We met with one of Paul's friends from school. I sat and talked with Amity and the kids played with Caleb. Caleb showed Paul how to make these paper claws and they've been doing nothing else since.

The park got too cold for me. So we came home and brought the neighbor kids with us.

 

...Jason painted my bookshelf for our bedroom. He created a nice paint booth in the garage and set to work. I can't wait to use it.

Week #11:In Time Out

This week...

...I went to Time Out For Women with my sisters. My Sisters-in-Law were also there with their groups so it made for a fun weekend. When I was texting about Time Out, my phone auto corrected and I almost sent a message I was going to be in a time out. Haha! Not quite! The presenters were great. Shelly and I even snuck into the Time Out For Girls side to hear Hank Smith. He is so funny! I really enjoyed Laurel Christensen Day and Emily Freeman.

Me with Cherice, Shelly, Julie Marie, and Julie's sister Susan

The caramel apples at The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - Yum! This is our traditional candy stop. This year we tried the toffee and reeses pieces apples. Very good!

We stayed at the Davenport Hotel. It was very fancy. The theme was African safari. There were huge elephant heads in the lobby and tiny elephant heads around the gold trim at the ceiling. They had a bronzed, life-size rhino in the entry and a tiger resting in the restaurant area.

 

 
We had a doorbell!

And real towels in the bathroom for drying our hands. 

Here's our selfie in the granite walls of one of the downtown buildings. We liked walking to and from the convention center.

Shelly and I when we snuck over to Time Out For Girls.

Breakfast at the hotel. My biscuits and gravy was a sad disappointment. Next time I'll get the crepe.

Our group before leaving the hotel.

We ate at Luigi's for lunch again. We liked it so much we decided it was worth going back.

I found me a pair of Born shoes. It's been so long. I've been making do. I didn't know how much I missed a good shoe until I slipped my foot back into one of these.

...Jason took the kids to soccer on Saturday morning. I signed them up for soccer with Family Friendly Soccer out of Richland. I sent Jason to the store for shorts for Emma and Claire and he came away with "gear" for each one. Haha! (Which I'm very grateful that he did because they needed it.) So even though I was gone for the weekend at Time Out, my fabulous husband took these rascals to their first practice/scrimmage all by himself. They had so much fun. He took pictures and texted them to me. Tears came to my eyes as I looked at their happy faces. I was so grateful in that moment for the support and love of my husband and my five beautiful children. (He even took our five kids, plus our little friend Danica, to the Lego movie on Friday. Way to go! I tell him to lay low with all the kids when I go to Time Out, but he's ambitious. He's not afraid to get out with all of them.)

They had to try everything on Friday night. Aren't they great?!

Jason texted this photo to me on Saturday morning. They were ready to go!

This is Lainey's photo bomb picture. Boo-yah!

On the Field-

Here's Lainey hanging with her dad. She got some new soccer clothes as well, she was just in bed when they took the picture together. This is what he texted me about his night without me: "Lainey crawled in bed with me last night. She beat me up pretty good (knees, slapped, kicked, etc)." Poor guy!

...Jason worked on the bookshelf for our room. It is really coming along. It's almost ready to paint. I am so excited to put it in my room and finally be able to unpack some books.

...we took Lainey out to Tony Roma's. Jason won a gift card to Tony Roma's at his awards banquet. I've never been there before so we went out to lunch while all the other kids were in school. She liked her dessert of pudding and gummy worms.

...I discovered where Emma's missing pants had got themselves to. She went and stayed with a cousin at her Aunt Shawnee's house. She left with three pair of pants and only came back with one. It was bizarre to say the least. I asked her if she'd checked her bag several times and she assured me that she had. We texted Aunt Shawnee. No, they live in a small apartment and there aren't that many places for pants to hide. We called Grandma Erickson because they'd gone over there. No, the pants didn't get left behind there. We called the cousin to check if the pants had got tangled up in her stuff. No, no extra pants to be found. Hhmmph! Where could they be? 
   As I was cleaning clothes off the bedroom floors to start a load of wash, I made my way into Emma's room. I noticed her backpack and picked it up. It felt heavy for being supposedly empty. I opened the middle pocket and discovered the two missing pairs of pants. Sigh. What a silly girl I have. Apparently, the middle pocket doesn't count as part of the backpack.

...my sister found a mouse in her room. It was moving so slowly that she was able to push it into a box with a dust pan and get rid of it.

We thought it was fitting to find this already written on the side of the box - DESTROY! 

...we took the YM and YW to the planetarium for mutual. We had plenty of spots so the Activity Day girls got to go too. Emma liked that. It's so fun to learn more about the stars and how to find them in the night sky.

This is a look at the size of the planets in comparison to each other and the gigantic sun at the top.

Week #10: Deputy of the Year

This week...

...we attended Jason's awards banquet for the Sheriff's Office. This is always a fun event. Jason has been involved the past three years in procuring donations from community businesses for door prizes at the event. It's so fun to see the people he contacts and how willing they are to give money and prizes alike to show their support. I get to help him make the rounds before the event to pick up gift cards and so forth. It's fun to say that I am affiliated with the Benton County Sheriff's Office, even if it is just as a behind the scenes deputy's wife.

Getting ready for the big night-these are gift cards and prizes

   This year the banquet was held at the Kennewick Red Lion. Jason and I manned the sign in desk, helping people with their tickets as they came in for the social hour. We really are perfect for this job because we don't drink. (Most everyone else is busy getting in line for their alcohol during this time.) I like seeing everyone come in, trying to put names with faces, and being friendly. (I have a secret love of event planning - I think that's what my degree was in a different life. Ha!) We had a great dinner catered by the Red Lion staff with mini desserts for after. Since we were organizing the door prizes, it ended up that we were at a table by ourselves. We missed out on that part of getting to know the husband/wife combos from the squad a little better. But, I did win the box of chocolates since we were the only ones there. Haha!
    I got to go on stage and help Jason with the prizes. Eeeek! I told him I didn't want to be in the way, but that I wanted to be supportive of him. He wanted me there with him, so I went. (Event planning remember? I wasn't too disappointed.) ;) We had put together some of the lower end prizes for the beginning and then before the awards for last year were given out. It was nice to have them all broken up throughout the night. We pre-drew the names for most of the prizes and then drew names out of the basket for the last several big ones. I think the Sheriff's Office has found their next MC because Jason was funny. He has a lot of energy and he's not afraid to say just about anything, of course on a PG level. He had people laughing over the way he pronounced the names on the cards. He had people laughing over they way he would contact just about any business to solicit door prizes. At first, when he commented on the support from all the businesses he said, "And I've got my wife up here with me; she's hot!" What?! I was thinking, "Did he just say that in front of 130 people including the Sheriff and Under Sheriff?!" At one point, Jason handed the mic to me while he took care of something and the MC for the night teased that I'd have to talk into it. So I set it back in it's holder and commented into the mic what the joke was and that I wasn't taking that on. (Apparently people thought that was so crazy that I felt comfortable up there and then that I talked into the mic! Haha!) There was a general feeling of fun and good will as Jason gave out all the wonderful prizes he was able to bring in. Among the list were, three guns, a Traeger Grill, several golf packages, a gym membership, complete car details, Mariners and Seahawks tickets, Dust Devils tickets, lots of restaurant gift cards, wine (for the wine lovers), horse riding lessons, and a free Lasik procedure. It was awesome!
   The Sheriff and command staff also give out awards for the previous year to recognize the superior work of the patrol and corrections staff. This year Jason's squad won squad of the year. Go D Squad! He works with a group of really great guys. It has been fun to get to know them and their wives these past three years. It's nice to know that these guys are backing him up every day. Jason also won Deputy of the Year. We were pleased and amazed and thankful. This award is nominated and voted on by his peers at the Sheriff's Office. So many of the guys came up to shake his hand and pat him on the back once he came back to sit down. Their support was heart warming and amazing.

Walking back after receiving Deputy of the Year and shaking all of the hands of the command staff.

Jason with his plaque - Deputy of the Year! Woohoo!

Matt Clark, Mike Ramos, Bruce Surplus, Justin Gerry (now a detective), Jason, John Thompson, Jared Jech

Photo Bomb - You can see Dan Korten jumping up in the back. (He's on the gang team and won the Lasik procedure. He was so pumped.)

Silly guys - maybe a little too much to drink? 

Here's the whole squad with wives (not pictured: Mike Mcdermott and wife Mandy) Once again Korten just couldn't stay out of our photo. Haha! Matt and Shannon Clark, Mike and Monica Ramos, Bruce and Tammi Surplus, Justin and Jo Gerry, John and Laurie Thompson, me and Jason, Jared and Nicki Jech.

...Ben and Claire were invited to a leprechaun birthday party. Of course, they had to go to the door by themselves. I mean, they're six now. They don't need to be walked to the door. Sheesh!

...we FINALLY planted the bulbs that Jason's mom and dad gave me for my birthday. Hopefully, they'll grow this year because we got them in the ground late. Lainey was our little helper.

This is the "story of our life" with Lainey. We ask or tell her to do something and she doesn't right away. She likes to try and talk us out of it. I think he's telling her to go to the bathroom in this case, which she also waits forever to do.

...the Beehives made beaded bookmarks. They turned out so cute. The mom of one of our girls hosted us and came up with this super cute idea. It was a lot of fun!

Emily Jane Christensen, Mckenna Carver, Isabel Soriano, Emily Susan Nicole Hale, Nancy Rodriguez

...we went in to Paul's classroom to read with him for his Dr. Sues Read Across America day. They wore their pajamas and we read together for just a short time.

...Jason took me with him and a friend to the shooting range. He wants me to go with him nearly every time he goes. This time it worked out so that I could. It was fun! It was also very, very,VERY cold and extremely loud. Jason let me use his digital ear muffs. They muffle the sound, but still allow you to hear each other talk. They were awesome. Our friend Neil was there and he let us shoot his guns too. Man alive! I jumped and screeched with the first one.

...we are ready for warmer days of Spring. It has been nice this week to let the kids play outside in the backyard and at the park. Bring on the changing of the seasons. 

...I caught Paul doing this instead of off playing! He was READING! It was awesome! Emma reached that read for fun stage in first grade. She didn't want me looking over her shoulder anymore. It has taken Paul just a little bit longer, and I wondered if he would ever really enjoy reading. The day has come. He chose reading over everything else. I snuck up on him with my phone ready and my heart bursting with joy. I think my heart pounding almost gave me away. The Amulet books have sparked his interest. He even reads them in bed at night. Awesome!

...we watched the Riner kids including baby Emmett. This was our first time with Emmett. We were all so excited to smother him with hugs and kisses. Emma was an especially big help. I was surprised at how much she wanted to hold him and how she didn't feel or act nervous.

...Lainey burned her arm on the edge of a cookie sheet. I had made biscuits for dinner and she couldn't wait for us to take them off the tray. She tried to reach up and over the edge as it rested on the stove. This is the lovely burn she got from doing so. This was an awful place for her to have a burn. It would rub on everything causing discomfort. We would forget she had it and grab her there on the arm to make her stop or get her to come or just to hold onto her. Poor thing!