This might be the first Labor Day of my life that I am not ready for school to begin.  I can't even begin to explain how weird that is for me:  I'm one of those people who love the smell of the library, freshly sharpened pencils and clean notebooks full of possibilities.  I was barely five when I started school and since then, I've had roughly five years when I was neither student nor teacher.  Shoot, I used to spend my summers playing school.  Don't even analyze that one!

  Two junior high boys in the house this year!  I can barely keep up with their food intake, not to mention the outgrowth of blue jeans and shoes!  

Swimming in the Willamette - great way to beat an unconditioned house during the dog days of July!

We are still homeschooling but with a different spin - technically it is public school online.  We're giving it a try just for the heck of it but because I'm still me, I am supplementing with some of my own curriculum.  Little basics like Typing, Latin and Logic.  Piano.  LOTS of reading.



It's not that we've had such a fabulous summer.  It's been merely OK.  Nothing great.  Mostly one house project after another.









Like, building a Movie Screen for Outdoor Movies!











And finally getting my Dream Door!

 We found this solid wood, unused door at the Salem ReStore for $50.  I sanded it down and painted it.  Our brilliant friend, Doug, and his Dad, turn it into a gorgeous Dutch Door.  Most beautiful door in town!

But the best project of the whole summer is my Little Free Library (http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/index.html).  I've seen these in England in the iconic but sadly unused red phone booths.  My friend Melissa introduced me to the link and I was hooked.  Once again, friend Doug came through with the carpentry based on my badly drawn sketch.  But it turned out brilliantly and now our neighborhood has its own reading material.  Take a Book, Leave a Book!  I'm especially excited because loads of children walk by our house every day on their way to school; hopefully I can get books into the hands of families that may not be able to afford them otherwise!

At Sunriver

At the mall

I finished my third novel and have begun a fourth, typing wherever and whenever!  One of these days I'm going to focus on publishing.

I can see the finish line

Add caption

I ran a few races and am proud to say that I am faster now than I was twenty years ago.  Faster than five years ago.  I even won a 10K in my age group!





And, oh, yes.  I celebrated my 40th birthday.  Which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  We had a great party in the back yard with friends and an outdoor movie - Brave.  Nothing like a Fiery Redhead and cartoon kilted Scots to cap off a perfect party!

The party invite.
It was an English theme!

Flea Market furniture, spruced up.

I made some Union Jack tuffets.

Yep, recovered and quilted the footstool!

One of my favorite photos of the summer:  everyone watching Brave!

 This is my exhausted teenager in the middle of the afternoon after staying up with his buddy Adam until 4 am!

This is Adam's mom, my gorgeous friend Kellianna!  We spent five days doing exactly what you see here.  Hanging out, relaxing, talking, writing, drinking, laughing like fools and even crying a tad.  It was a great week!

Thomas and Ryan

Adam, new Student Body President!!  Woot Woot!

William had the unique opportunity to spend a couple of days under the tutelage of a Lego Master Builder (there are only 16 in the whole world) at a local mall.  Over three days about a gazillion kids and Lego workers built an 8 foot tall Incredible Hulk.

The best part was how great the Master Builder was.  He took time out to talk to William and me and gave some good advice on what William needs to do to become a Master Builder.  The first thing he said was, "You need to shoot me and then get in a really long line!"

The final day of the building extravaganza.  It was so cool to see William "in the Zone," as he calls it.  The rest of us were a little bored with watching hours of Lego building.  Thomas raced around the mall and took all the photos.

Not quite finished but you get the idea!

Deep in the Lava Tube

We had dear Navy friends come visit for a week and other friends from church offered the use of a house at the Sunriver Resort near Bend, Oregon.  The four boys have known each other ten years - since diapers and pacifiers and first days of kindergarten, camping trips and multiple holidays.

"I solemnly swear to eat whatever Miss Denise is about to hand us!"  Who's the kid with his fingers crossed???  And Nick looks a little doubtful while I sort out the Cricket Lickets!  This is outside the High Desert Museum.

  I offered $1 to the first boy to get to the cricket in their Cricket Lickets.  Thomas tore into it so fast I was afraid for his teeth!  

  Four men in a private hot tub!

Meet Jennifer, Navy wife and mother of two, husband currently deployed.  She's taking advantage of no boys in the hot tub!

 And that's the Twist family summer, done and dusted!  I'm off to enjoy my final hours of summer break with some barbecued chicken!

    

Shameful Neglect

So, yes, I've been shamefully negligent in blogging.  Six months and not a peep!  My aunt emailed me last week and said, "Merry Christmas!" and I had no idea she was referring to my blog!  To my adoring public, "I'm beyond sorry!"

Truly, it's been hard to think in terms of blogging because we aren't traveling anymore.  However, that doesn't mean we aren't wandering:  geographically, mentally and spiritually.  We took some of our settlement money from the Navy and went to England in early April with the boys.  We had an absolute blast, although, as it was sub zero temps the whole time, we nearly froze to death after our temperate Oregon winter.  We spent some time in southern England trolling graveyards and looking up long dead family members.  Our search was rewarded by finding Donald's great, great something or other, Thomas Twisse, who was rector in 1641 of a tiny church where his name still stands.  That was pretty cool.  Rev. Twisse's son, Peter, was the first Twist to immigrate, landing in Salem, Massachusetts, where the name took on its current spelling.  #1 celebrated his 13th birthday by going to a service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London and then to Legoland Windsor.  All in all, it was a fabulous vacation.

St. Andrews

                                                  Pigeons in St. James Park

May found the boys and me on a looooong road trip through Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming, via Yellowstone National Park, along with my parents.  Believe it or not, I grew up in the six hour shadow of Yellowstone but never visited until this trip.  Wow.  We toured many national parks on the Big Adventure but Yellowstone wins, hands down!  I only wish we had a week and a tent - the bare minimum for scratching the surface!  Then we spent a couple of days at my parents house seeing my sister and brother.  It's been several years since we were all together and it was a really great day!

Hairy D and Half-Stache Jill at their local Watering Hole

The Facial Hair Gang Rides Again!

Yellowstone Mama and Baby

One of my favorite things about Wyoming:  my parents' back yard!

And this is what we do on a bored afternoon - we learn the fine art of roping!

William and Grandpa, Dan and the old Willys

Thomas and Grandpa

Haven't seen snow like this in, well, never!  Not for the boys, anyway!

Who is King of the Mountain?

The boys and I headed home by way of I-80.  I've never been through that part of Wyoming either (what can I say, I didn't get out much as a kid and I left home at 17) so it was all new to me.  Absolutely gorgeous drive.  We passed Independence Rock, where the Oregon, California and Mormon Trail pioneers celebrated July 4th in 1841.  They signed their names to the massive rock and used it as a sign post for later pioneers.  I read about it in 4th grade Wyoming history and have always longed to see it.  I can now check it off my bucket list!

Nick Tormey, something Cavalry, USA, 1860 something.  It was really weathered and hard to read.

Northern Utah - early morning, low clouds.  Taken while driving but shhh, don't tell.

Three days after we got home, Don took the boys and headed to his parents in Montana.  No photos because they didn't take the camera.  What was amazing about this trip is that I never get more than an hour or two alone in my house.  I actually spent Five Whole Days, just me and the dogs.  It was a little too quiet but then again, my house has never stayed so tidy for so long!  I was giddy at having a clean sink/toilet/mirror that many days in a row and I have never done so little laundry!

I stayed home because I had a job interview.  Which suddenly became two separate, totally different job interviews, both of which are mine for the taking.  Both involve teaching English but the similarity ends there.  One is a one semester substitute job, full time, at a private Christian school to jr/sr high schoolers.  The other is three afternoons a week to preschoolers in our primarily Spanish speaking local public school, kids who need a bit of a headstart before kindergarten.  One job would drastically change our lives, after four years of homeschooling, and the other would be a mere ripple.  Don't get me wrong, it's nice to be wanted.  This is a good problem to have but weighing and measuring pros and cons is exhausting.  So is praying and not having an answer.  

Yet.

It's all part of my wandering and not being lost, as per my friend Tolkien.  I've spent 2,500 miles on the road, wandering, in the last two weeks.  I've spent nearly 40 years wandering (although I'm only admitting 29) and not being lost.  Criminy, our family travelled 20,000 plus miles wandering the country.  Sometimes the wandering is a means to an end.  I don't know what I'll do with my "two different employers want me" conundrum.  

Yet.

Wander with me and see what happens.

   

Merry Christmas . . .

. . . From Our Home to Yours!

Love,
Shakespeare

Holly

And Us!

Happy Birthday, #2!

Today is #2's birthday.  You might think that having a birthday this side of Christmas would help to alleviate some of the seasonal antsy-ness that most kids succumb to.

You might be wrong.

As soon as the calendar rolled over into December, this kid has been a stressed mess.  Sticky notes in various sizes, colours and editions have been appearing by my bedside for several months, including order of desire and cost at Target with his father's discount factored in.  Always an early riser, he has been seeing the dark, dark side of the morning for a couple of weeks now.

You can see from the stack of 3 (count 'em) gifts that we do not go crazy at birthdays or Christmas.  The top package is from his big brother, paid for out of his own money.  We don't schedule dozens of holiday events.  We don't shop for dozens of people.  We watch Christmas movies and listen to lots of Christmas music.  We have a basket of Christmas books we haul out every year and re-read.  We have suppers with friends.  We try to keep a peaceful and hopeful Advent season.

No matter how calm we try to keep life, #2 cannot stand the wait.  I think this is normal of any kid but when you add Christmas right on the heels of a birthday . . .

Today dawned grey and wet.  Luckily, no asteroid/meteor/apocalypse struck or we would have had one distraught birthday boy!  Tops on his list this year was a crossbow.  What on earth would an urban kid do with a crossbow?  For starters, he has his eyes on the escaped-but-domesticated rabbit living on the empty property across the street and the feral cats that roam freely in herds.  Clearly, we couldn't give this crazy kid a real crossbow so we did the next best thing.

Bass Pro did not fail us in a scaled down, NERF type crossbow that shoots foam darts 60 feet.  But you have to have a target, right?  Enter a small, inflatable buck complete with a decent rack and a velcro target over his heart and you have two boys spending most of the day in the back yard pretending to be Great White Hunters.  We only paused to have a Sushi lunch, as per a sticky note request, and to make birthday Cream Puffs, as per another sticky note.

We've had a quiet but a good day and I suspect he may sleep a little more soundly tonight.  Or do I mean, I hope?

Ah yes, the annual birthday photo-in-your-underwear-because-you're-too-excited-for-clothes!

I'm not sure why he is wearing Don's military issue, Icelandic parka!

This will see us through the long winter, I'm sure!

Even Don had to give it a try.

Bringing home the meat.

Birthday Cream Puffs.
Don't look at the chocolate -  I didn't get it tempered properly
but it didn't stop anyone from eating them!

The Worst?

Today I am reminded of Shakespeare (the Bard, this time, and not my neurotic dog) who said in King Lear:

"The worst is not
So long as we can say,
'This is the worst.'"


I wonder when one know that the worst is actually the worst.

We were dealt the death blow by the US Navy today.  I arrived home from a long day working for my lunatic boss, who is convinced that by having the internet we are at risk for people hacking into our dental files.  Never mind that we don't accept credit/debit cards of any kind and the only personal information we keep on the computer is possibly (but not always since we don't require them) a social security number.

The look on Donald's face was not good but then, given our particular circumstances, not exactly unusual either.  He handed me a letter and I saw the certified envelope in which the devastating missive had arrived.

Let me preface.  When last I blogged, Donald was on his way Bremerton, WA to be evaluated by a psychiatrist.  Her notes indicate that while he is showing some improvement, her recommendation was that he continue as before and come back in a year.  Remember, when Donald was medically retired in 2010 we were told he would have five years to remain as such before he was formally re-evaluated.  He has been officially retired 1 year and 355 days.

Back to the letter.  A team of three 06's (read:  high ranking and important) decided that he no longer had PTSD or a major depressive disorder.  He only suffers from anxiety but as such is unfit for duty and can no longer receive his retirement pay, his health insurance or commissary/exchange privileges.

Merry Christmas, Lieutenant Twist.

Oh, and he has fifteen days to sign the letter and return it to the powers that be.

I wonder if these 06's know what it is like to live with someone who may or may not speak to anyone in the family for weeks on end.  Someone who can barely get out of bed some days.  Someone who, after giving everything at work, has zero to give at home.  But what do I know?  I'm not a doctor or a high ranking military officer.  Empirical evidence is obviously of low import to the "experts."

Yes, we can appeal.  But we've been there, done that and Do Not want another t-shirt.  Two appeals and one official hearing before the Washington Navy Yard.  Nearly ten, emotionally exhausting months upon the Navy Roller Coaster of Not So Much Fun.

So.  We looked at each other in sadness and said, "Is this it?  All those years?  For what?  To be injured and just released?"  We agreed we cannot go through the appeals process again.  It was too much the first time.  The Navy will give us a small severance and we are going to take it.  The money, while not large enough to be worth the damage, will be helpful in small ways.

Then, this will all be over.  A beautiful Naval career cut short by an unforeseen injury, one brief day in which my husband went to work and came home an entirely different person, changing our family 180 degrees.  It seems small but it broke my heart when he said to me tonight, "I can't even keep the title Retired anymore.  They'll even take that honor away from me."

LT Donald Twist, USN CHC, you faithfully served God, Country and your Family.  "You don't need to wear a patch on your arm to have honor."

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Another sugar fueled Halloween has come and gone and with it, the two year anniversary of the blog.  And, by default, the two year anniversary of being out of the Navy.  Except that we've recently discovered, we sort of aren't.

Let me esplain.  No, let me sum up.  (Princess Bride, anyone?)

Donald is on temporary retirement for five years, at the end of which he will be reevaluated as to whether or not he goes on permanent retirement.  He's been diligent about jumping through the yearly hoops, seeing mental health and tracking with his meds.  About a month ago, the Navy called.

Hello?

Two years and not a peep but when they call and say you need a full physical and mental evaluation, asap, you really have no choice.  Furthermore, when they refuse to accept either your local doctor or the doctors at the VA, you have no choice but to haul yourself to the nearest naval facility.

Does the Navy not realize that Oregon has a VA hospital but not a single naval installation?  Going to the army hospital at Ft Lewis, WA wasn't good enough either.  Absolutely had to be the hospital at Bremerton, WA where his complete breakdown originally happened.  Oh, goodie.  Let's stir up the PTSD pot, shall we?

So, Donald complied, staying in Bremerton less than twenty four hours.  And really, we aren't even sure why it was necessary or what will come of it.

Happier topic:  I thought I would post photos of the boys from last night.  #1 did a reprise of the Headless Horseman, last seen in Portsmouth, VA.  He had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction while trick or treating (apparently not being able to see ruins the fun just a tad) so he came home to hand out candy with me.

I tried to convince him that I could nip up to the attic for the costume box we've lugged all around the world.  The conversation went like this:

"You could wear my coconut shells and my grass skirt!  It would be hilarious.  Come on, just Do It!"

He turned very slowly to me and said, "Yeah, that would be really funny.  But my DIGNITY is worth more than a sucker!"

Have I mentioned that I love this kid?  This is what I get for trying to talk him into being a transvestite hula dancer!

#2 went as a Werewolf, which only got as elaborate as a mask.  But hey, I am not into spending a gajillion dollars on costumes worn once.  I try to emphasize the creativity aspect of Halloween.  After searching dozens of youtube videos to make our own wolf costume, we discovered that a.  the most authentic one was worthy of Hollywood and took over 300 hours and hundreds of dollars to make and b.  gluing hair all over my sensitive skinned kid was probably not a great idea.  He actually had the nerve to roll his eyes at me when I suggested he just draw a werewolf on a brown paper bag!  So, we bought a mask and that's as far as that went!  He insisted on carrying a pillowcase after hearing about childhood stories fed to him by his father and he came back with a serious load of candy.  I don't know if I should be embarrassed or glad that I work part time for a dentist!  And he was a little disappointed to find out he would be sharing with his brother.  Oh, the agony of living with unreasonable parents!

Savor that tea!

Cheers!

Why does this photo frighten me?

Pretty relaxed for being headless!