Update

Leah - Busy running around after 4 kids. Homeschooling my 9 year old. I am Primary President which means I am in charge of all programs for children ages 11 - 18 months, everything from Cub Scouts, Nursery, Sunday School, Baptisms, etc.... I am also still selling lia sophia.

Greg - Working working working. He is doing a lot of CJA stuff right now. It is kinda like public defender, except it is contracted out to private attorneys. He takes Spanish speaking only clients, so most of them are illegal entry plus something else. He still has a few discrimination cases. He is really enjoying speaking Spanish everyday.

Mitchell - Started Middle School this year and is really enjoying it. He joined the Triathlon club and is loving it. However, he was in a cycling accident so he is out for 6-8 weeks. He gets his cast today.

William - Is being home schooled this year. He is enjoying being a bear in cub scouts and just got a new bike! I think he wants to be in the triathlon club too.

Wesley - Started Kindergarten this year. We spend a lot of time working on reading and writing. He goes to occupational therapy for his gross and fine motor skills. He is the happiest kid alive.

Shelby - I am wishing she was potty training, but she is not. She loves to sing and is a princess all the time. She loves her "pretty dresses". She stopped wearing pj's with legs. So I found a set that had a tutu to go over the pants and she loves them.

I would love to hear what everyone else is up too.

Hi Everyone, Its been a while since I've posted anything about whats been going on. Last weekend Dad and I met between Ellensburg and Yakima and went on a guided fishing trip. The sun was out and we had good company but the fish weren't really biting. Needless to say one of us caught one and the other did not. I wont say who do and who didn't??? Here is a picture of us on the bank of the river right before we had our steak lunch cooked for us by our guide, who by the way was named Mike also.
Mom and Dad then came over the mountains and stayed a couple days with us. Their is a large Tulip festival where we live every April and unfortunately Mom and Dad missed the blooming by about a week so I thought I would show you a picture so they can see what what they missed. The fields go for miles and miles.

Other than that Lydia has been working a lot and Sasha has about a month and a half before graduation. If you ask her she will tell you the exact number days with a smile. This summer she will continue to work at Taco Del Mar and attend Skagit Valley College in the fall. Other than that seems like something is always keeping us busy. Anyway, it was nice to see your Easter picture Leah and Happy Birthday yesterday Uncle Ed. Hope to see you all soon. Mike

Easter Picture

A lady at Church was stopping families outside, in the wind, on Easter Sunday to take family pictures for a church directory. Anyhow, here is ours.

Rodeo Houston!

Last night, Todd and I went to the Rodeo here in Houston. After the rodeo, they always have an entertainer come out and sing. Last night, it was Clint Black. It was a good show...but the best part was getting to meet him afterwards! My sister, Allison, is dating a relative of his, Tod (with 1 "d"). Thus, we got backstage passes. Todd also got a pic with Hayden Nichols, Clint's lead guitarist and co-songwriter. Check out the pics!


Above: Todd and Hayden Nichols


Above: Me, my sister Allison and Clint Black


Above: Mark Black (Clint's bro), Clint Black,
Tod (my sisters boyfriend) and Todd

It was a fun night! Hope all is well with everyone else. It doesn't look like anyone is blogging anymore. :(

~Melissa

Good morning!

Hi everyone! Thought I'd updated everyone on how things are going in Houston. Todd and I both got laid off as our company is sinking fast. As yu know, the real estate marcket is hoorrible which means agents can no longer afford to buy ad space in a real estate magazine. I know it is happenening everywhere, but it is sure different when it happens to you. Todd is still looking for something, but he has had a job offer he is thinking of taking next week. I found a new job, although it doesn't pay what I would like. Keep us in your prayers!

On a different front, the wedding plans are drawing to a close. I need to talk to the flower guy and Todd needs to get his tux...that's it. Every thing else is done. Our colors, for those who may want to know all this stuff, are crimson, silver and white. We will be having a raspberry ameretto wedding cake. The 2 bridesmaids, my sisters, will be wearing crimson strapless dresses. My wedding dress is white with metallic beading. It is A-line and strapless. :) I can't think of anything elsepeople may ask...so that's it for wedding stuff.

Jackson and Cheedo, the kitties, are doing fine. Jackson's bad kitty habits are starting to rub off on Cheedo who is begining to bite! I had to invent something called "Kitty Time-out".

Todd is at the lake house with my step-dad, Rob, today. They are working on building a new house on the new lot Rob has aquired.

Well, I gotta-go. Have a great weekend!

~Melissa

Update on the Acton's

Hi Everyone, I thought I would do a quick up date of what has been happening in our life. First, Shelby turned 2.

The kids had friends over to play, they had a really good time, as you can see!

William entered and won the Pinewood Derby by a landslide!

William had a piano recital. He just started playing in January and he did excellent.

Our Christmas Break

We spent Christmas in Utah visiting Greg's family. We all had a good time. My Children really enjoyed the snow. Whether it was playing in Grandpa's front yard or our sledding trip.

This is Mitchell sledding.

This is William out in the snow

We had a nice quite Christmas morning. Then later on that evening we had more people join us. I think we had 24 for dinner.

Greg reading to Shelby and Wesley Christmas morning.

This picture was taken Christmas morning. She got all the jewelry including the ring pop, the bubbles, and the hair bows in her stocking. She had a great Christmas morning (by the way she dressed her self in all the jewelry).

Sorry, I was so late in posting this. I hope you all had a good Christmas also.
Congratulations Todd and Melissa.

Dryer Land......

Hello everyone..... A quick update from Skagit county.....We are still working out the knots in our backs from the sandbagging (a first for me-Lydia) that we did on Wednesday morning and things are somewhat better in our neighborhood. The new rain that we have received yesterday and today has brought the river back up and also the level of water in our ditches. But, nothing compared to what we experienced on Wednesday and Thursday (thankfully). We are all waiting for the rain to stop so that we can start the cleaning up process (parts of the roads are torn up, our gravel/pebble drive way is everywhere and uneven, parts of the bridge to the island is torn out ect..). Some of the clean up will paid by the property owners and also the covenant funds (so I hear..ummm?). We are very thankful and blessed that we were speared from getting water in our home.

Other news.. lets see... Sasha began dance classes this week (Skagit Dance Company) she audition for Hip-Hop on Thursday and she was also asked to audition for advanced Jazz. She will do this next Tuesday. Sasha has been very vocal about her sore legs and muscles these last couple of days. Kyle is busy with work. Mike is busy with work and soon we will both be busy outdoors (our plants took a hit during the winter snow storm and our front parking and gravel needs attention). Lydia is busy with work and keeping the carpets/home clean from all muck. I (Lydia) will be going to Olympia Washington in February. Six of my student's that went to Washington D.C. with me last summmer have been asked to present their presentation at this years Legislative Conference. Schools and legislators from all across the state will be present (this is a huge honor). My student's are grinning from ear to ear :) and I'm very proud of them!!!

My eyes are getting heavy so... I will close for now. Have a rested and wonderful Sunday!!!

Love , Lydia

Cat Update

The flood water has gone down and we have the pasture back. The silt that the flood brought may actually improve the quality of the pasture. There are a couple of fences that need repair work but all and all I think the flood was a benenfit.

I walked down to check out the pasture. There is still a lot of mud. As I was looking at all the deer tracks I noticed a set of cat tracks. LARGE cat tracks. It would seem that at least one of our furry long tailed neighbors is still with us. I will continue to carry a pistol when I'm out and about at night. Does that make me a poor neighbor? Mmmmmmmm

An interesting week !!

We figured out this week what you get when you have record snowfall followed by record rain fall. You get record flooding!!! This is a picture of our house and as you can see the road is completely flooded. And it is about 2 1/2 feet below our house. Luckily the survey when we bought the house said we were 4 feet above the 100 year flood. So I guess we'll have to wait 100 years before it our River gets this high again.
The Samish River is (or was) about 125 feet from our house, but as you can see it isn't right now!! Lucky for us it never made into our house but our neighbors a couple houses down weren't so lucky. My back is still sore from filling and lifting sand bangs. We have about 5 to 6 feet of water at each end of our road but finally the water is starting to drop but I still have to hike out in my fishing waiters to get to my truck the parked by the highway. I need to finish wating the BCS championship game so I'll talk to you later.

News!

I haven't blogged in a while, but I have some exciting news to share from Houston! Todd proposed to me on Christmas Eve and naturally I said yes! The wedding planning is in full swing as we are hoping for a June '09 wedding. Below is a picture of us on Christmas Eve (a couple of hours before the proposal) and of the beautiful ring he gave me!
~Melissa

Girls, where are you?

A couple of us brothers were talking the other night about how a couple of our daughters wanted to blog so we could all stay in touch. It seems the daughters have dissapeared off the grid while their dads have been blogging. I don't want to mention any names here, but come on girls. Let's see some blogs.
Love ya both!
Don't want to mention any names here:-)

New Years Day

We slept in this morning. This afternoon we fixed a yummy ham dinner for 9. It was a pepper incrusted ham from Hills. Wow was it good!

Tomorrow we are going over to Pasco for breakfast with Joe and Laura, then on to COSTCO. We're taking the truck in case we run into some shelving for basement.

Ed, remember your heart - don't let that exciting Iowa get out of control.

Happy New Years!

Its 3:25 AM and the last of our guest just left. It was a small but nice group this year. We had fewer fireworks but they beautiful and the Dutch Oven breakfast was scrumptous. We have a very nifty jigsaw puzzle about half done. All and all the new year is off to a good start. Mmmmm, I think it maybe bed time. Love Ya All - Good night - whoops Morning. - Popa