How Times Have Changed

Remember the days when going on long (or short) car rides meant counting license plates, singing songs, finding things that start with ABC, annoying your brother (or sister) and threatening them with crossing your line on the seat? It's a whole new world out there now.

Just a fun example was this past weekend. We had planned to head up to Auburn for Sunday. I send a message on FaceBook to a dear friend in the area letting her know I would see her the next day. Within 10 minutes she calls me and wonders if we can come up Saturday evening instead and stay the night. We pack up and head out.

While we travel Carlin is finishing up homework on his laptop. Kyle is playing games on my laptop. The gameboys are on board. Wayne is on his cellphone, I'm on mine. And, of course, the GPS is directing us! Our car rides are definitely quieter then they were when we were kids!

Happy 18th Birthday, Deidre!

I can't believe how fast 18 years has gone! For as much as I always forget in the day to day life, that special day when our little girl came into our lives is still as clear as can be! I will try to get some pictures posted of her day soon.
(I'm needing to do a major overhaul on this blog too and get it updated!) New computer, new camera--now find time to practice with both! SOON!

Robotic Season

The first two pictures are taken in the pits area.

It is the first day of competition, making sure

everything connects.

The picture below is a set up of the field.

Carlin's teams robot is the blue one on the

far side of the field.

The picture below is what you see quite often

on the field. (Carlin's team have on the yellow shirts.)
Sometimes you don't have much time between matches

and you work on fixing your robot and hope it runs again

by the next match. In this picture they were next up. They

had to repair a chain. Other teams really pitch in to help wherever!

The first Saturday in January the Robotics Team learn what their game is. This year their game is soccer. Heads get together as they begin to plan the robot. All the guidelines have to be studied. An overweight, oversized robot can be disqualified from participating. No one wants to spend weeks building a robot that can't participate!

The kids get to work designing, building, programming, electrical, etc.... They are at school until 7p.m. every day and all day on Saturdays. This year Wayne got involved with the team and he would go in at 4 and spend the evening down there.


I'll post a few (of the many) pictures getting ready and participating in the competition this last weekend. This weekend will be their second competition.

Snow Days!

We have been enjoying our snow days to the fullest. Life has just been so busy and it just felt good to have a couple days off! So far this year we had just had enough snow to barely cover the grass--for a day maybe! Tuesday it finally started coming down pretty good. It was enough that they dismissed High School and hour early so the buses could make their run and head to the elementary schools on time. They canceled for Wednesday, but then called off Thursday, too. It was to be student head count time too which may have been why they called off Thursday. We already have off Friday through Tuesday for President's Day and Teacher's Inservice.
Yesterday we bought some new sleds--since our other ones have long since expired. We went to the one hill in town and spent the afternoon sledding. I didn't think to take my camera with me though.
Usually this time of year we are heading up North to go skiing. This year Wayne's schedule at work is busy enough that we thought we had better stay put.
Carlin was the only one going crazy on our snow days. They wouldn't let anyone back into the school for after school activities (Thank You!) so he couldn't work on robotics! :) Today, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday they get to work all day on their robot so they are happy again!

Wayne's Projects

From this beautiful (ugh-lee) router table
--to a much nicer larger table

Lots less mess too!

This was a fun project!

Stacking trays made this fall
Love the corners

Wayne made this stand for his folks

Spalted maple and black walnut

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years to all you dear people! Looks like my New Year's Resolution had better be updating my blog! It has been way neglected since Face Book came along.
We have been enjoying our Christmas vacation at home this year. Even the kids have commented on how fun it has been to just stay home. We didn't have to fight bad roads going anywhere. Days of sleeping in and staying up late. Many hours spent on the computer--but that will change once we are back in school.
Wayne has finally got to build his router table. He has waited forever to find time to build it. This past year has been busy enough for him at work that he wasn't able to use his vacation time until the past two weeks. He will have 2 1/2 weeks off total. Last night he finished hooking the dust collection up to it. I'll have to post pictures of his projects soon.
I have spent the past few days changing the looks in our upstairs bathroom. It isn't that many years old, but already the walls needed some updating--and I needed something to paint. We changed a wall in our living room too. I had painted in with sandstone paint. One thing I learned with sandstone--it works best with darker colors!! I had used it in Deidre and Carlin's rooms and it gave me no trouble. When I painted the living room wall with it--well, it looked awful. I used a salmon colored paint and all the sandstone is dark. It ended up looking like a really dirty wall. Wayne sanded it off and put some drywall compound on it. It is painted Cabin Red now and looks pretty sharp. (if I do say so myself!)
Monday will be back to work and school for all of us. Carlin will be starting his build season for Robotics so he will be pretty scarce around here for a couple months. He really enjoys it though. Last year he got to drive the robot during competition. It will be fun to see if he gets to this year.