Family Togetherness.

The last couple of weeks have flown way too fast. Here is an update on events in the Willoughby household.

Ken
Ken joined Squalicum’s swim team last week. He has a very busy schedule. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he has to be at the school at 6am for weight training. Then he has turn out that afternoon in the pool. He gets done at 5:00pm. Either I pick him up on my way home from work or a friend of his gives him a ride home. Since David has somewhat of a flexible schedule he gets up early enough to get Ken to the school on time then heads to work. It works out really nice. I can assure you that David will be taking lots and lots of pictures at Ken’s swim meets as soon as that happens I will post some photos for all to see.

Jordan
Jordan still continues with violin. She is enjoying it a lot, but lately it has been a little bit of a fight to get her to practice. Why am I not surprised? lol She did however give us a concert on Thanksgiving day. It was cute to watch. She is very proud of the progress she had made on reading music. That was part of the concert is to show us what music she was reading and what she can read now. Jordan has also joined a math team at school. It meets Tuesday and Thursday’s after school. The meet for about an hour and a half, the nice thing about it is there is bus service after school. The teachers that are doing it got a grant to include transportation. Jordan is very excited about it.

David
David has been busy with photographing the Lynden playoffs this last couple of weeks. Yesterday were the semi finals and Lynden lost. Next is basketball season. He usually shoots just Lynden because he has a connection out there. He has been doing it for so long the parents come to expect him there. He did get some connections with Sehome and Squalicum that he might be shooting more and their games as well. Of all the photography he does sports are his favorite.

Me
I am still trying to adjust to my work schedule. Getting home at 6:00pm seems so late especially now that it is dark when I get off. Thanks to my husband who is still cooking all the dinners, otherwise it would be like 7:30 by the time we would eat.

Whole Family
Since David has been gone every Saturday shooting some sports event the last month the kids and I have been going to Church. I have started to attend Christ The King in Bellingham. The kids and I enjoy the music and the service. Jordan liked going to the Kids club while Ken and I went to the main service. Last week Jordan’s friend Summer wasn’t at Church so Jordan decided to go into the main service with us. I thought for sure she would get bored once the sermon started. That is not what happened she loved it. I think her favorite part was all the music that we sing before. She asked if she could continue coming with us instead of going to the kids club. I told her she could do either of them.

It has been interesting each week we go to Church we get someone new to join us. First it was my cousin Hilary she is 16. She has been the one driving us since David had the car. I thought it would be scary to ride in the car with a new driver, but Hilary has yet to scare me. She is a good driver. Then last week it was my little sister Mandi who joined us. She said she loved going to our church. (Sorry dad and Karla) I can understand the music is great I mean who wouldn’t love having a full band at Church. lol I know I do. Plus the sermons are good as well. It has been fun hanging out with the teenage crowd. I have been getting to know both Hilary and Mandi. Even though they all tease me about being taller then me. Now I know how my mom felt. At least Jordan is still shorter then me….for now.

Thanksgiving has come and gone but I have to give you a little recap on our Thanksgiving. But first I need to give you a little history lesson on the Willett-Willoughby Thanksgiving last year. The Willett’s, my dad, Karla, Mandi and Sammy were living down in Seattle. Karla and Sammy at Children’s Hospital. My Dad and Mandi at The Ronald McDonald House. They were not able to eat a Thanksgiving meal together. The Willoughby’s myself, David and Jordan were back in Bellingham. I had to work from 8:00-4:30pm that day. Thanks to my cousin Anita she had David and Jordan over for dinner that day and sent a plate home for me. As soon as I got off work I came home and packed up my family and the car and we headed down to Seattle. We got to RM house and about 8:30pm. We unloaded the car and got settled into the room. Then I went down to the kitchen and heated up my plate of food from Anita and eat my Thanksgiving meal by myself. Not much of a family gathering where we all eat around the same table.

So this Thanksgiving I was determined to make up for last year. Jordan, Ken and I made up five pies for dessert. We made an apple, cherry, a chocolate cream and two pumpkins. Ken even learned my secret ingredient for my Pumpkin Pies. Then David and I got up early on Thanksgiving and cooked all day. I can tell you it was so worth all the hard work to have all of us sitting around the table together. Our little Sammy didn’t eat much of the meal, but it sure was a blessing just having her running around entertaining us. It was by far a 100% improvement compared to last year. Christmas is next.
Here is a photo of Jordan entertaining Samantha. If you look in the background you will see the rest of us sitting around the table eating together. Great photo Karla you captured it just perfect.

Today is Saturday and we are enjoying the four-day weekend. David is sitting behind me on the other computer patiently waiting for me to finish with this one. Jordan is in practicing on her new heelies. (more on that later) Ken being a typical teenager is still sleeping. lol It is just a nice Saturday morning. We don’t have much planned except later today we will be getting out our Christmas decorations and putting up our tree. Yes I have a fake tree. I would love to have a real one, but I am allergic to real ones. It is not so bad that I can’t be in a room with a real tree for a few hours, but bad enough that I can’t sleep in a house for several weeks with a tree. Plus with my daughter’s allergies it is just better for us to have a fake one. But that just means we can put our tree up early since we don’t have to worry about it getting too dry. Both Ken and Jordan are excited to decorate the house. They both did such a great job with Halloween I can’t wait to see what they do with Christmas.

Before you get too bored let me tell you the story about heelies. You would think that I would have gotten these for Jordan as a Christmas present. Here is the story. Yesterday the kids wanted to go to the mall for the day after Thanksgiving sales. Normally I am one of those that get up at the crack of dawn no wait before the crack of dawn and get in line waiting for the stores to open at 4 or 5am. But after looking at the paper I decided there really wasn’t much worth getting up that early. Anyway I took them to the mall. Mandi and Ken went off and did their own thing while Jordan and I looked around. Jordan and I have been looking for a good pair of tennis shoes for her to wear on raining days. It has been about a month and we just couldn’t find ones that fit right. The shoes she has now are like track shoes and when it rains she walks around with wet feet. Not a good thing for a girl who gets sick easily. While we were at the mall we check all the stores again to see if they had gotten anything new. While we walked by Finish-line I saw that heelies where on sale for $29.99. Of course I walked right past on to the Sears. After trying on several different pairs and no luck I got to looking at the prices of the shoes she was trying on. It was about the same so I suggested it to Jordan and of course she was thrilled with the idea. Just for those of you that don’t know heelies are the tennis shoes you see on kids with have wheels on the back heal. I must say it was a great investment. It kept her very active yesterday and today. It takes a time to practice to figure out the right balance to do it. Trust me I put her shoes on and just about killed myself. I thought Jordan was going to pee her pants laughing so hard at me. Anyway she has improved a lot since last night. She has gotten to the point of not touching anything; she just needs to work more on her balance and she’ll have it nailed. I am sure by tonight she will be a pro.

That’s it on the Willoughby’s for now.