School Week #1 Report

Well I have finished my first full week of school ( Actually it is 1 1/2 weeks since school started on a wednesday the 21st of september). It is going well overall. I have had two tests so far and have passed both of them, but to be perfectly honest the easy part is now behind me, it is now time to buckle under and really get to work. Things are defiantly looking more promising this quarter for me.
Crystal found a job posted on the Cascadia Community College web site that fits her to a tee. It would mean a reduction in pay of about $28/month. We could hope to offset that though with the money that would be coming in from SSA for Rachael's Disability and with the money that I get from student loans and grants as well as grant money from Crystal for schooling. She is wanting to finish her degrees possibly online ... possibly part-time in person. I hope to get her back into school soon... she is so close to finishing her degree that she needs it too.

We found a really nice two-bedroom apartment in the Canyon Park neighborhood of Bothell. The rent is just over $1085/month for a two bedroom/2bath 1120Sqft apartment.

That is really not a bad price but at the moment we are stretching, it to make that, and the reduction in pay could make a difference to us. We do not have to move out of here until March and possibly later then that so you never know what may happen between now and then.

First day of Classes and Happy Birthday Crystal

Well what a day today has been. I had my first day of classes at Lake Washington Technical College today. Taking courses in Networking Fundamentals, everything you ever wanted to know about computer networks. How to set one up, how to trouble shoot it and more... so exciting for all concerned. Also, I would like to wish a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the love of my life Crystal Deering. She is celebrating the 28th anniversary of her 21st birthday. Happy birthday my love and may we have many more together. I am sitting in the library of the college right now writing this while I wait for my ride home. since today was the first day, we got out early. my instructor this quarter is Charlotte McGray, it should be interesting since this is her first time teaching this particular course and she has just completed her N+ certification herself. I think this quarter will be spent with her figuring out just how she will instruct her classes. It should be fun and a nice change of pace from the other networking fundamentals instructors. well that is about all I have to say for now, everyone have a great day:-)This feed may not be republished without the consent of the post author    

Ready For a new School Year

I stopped by the college again on my way to pick up Rachael. I found out that my appeal had been approved on the 17th, so now they will review my financial aid request and then the check comes. But I am good to start school on the 21st. I feel this quarter will be a lot better then the last two. I was really beat up winter quarter in the CFOR classes and I think the beating and the exhaustion took their toll on the spring quarter as well, moving didn’t help much either. All that to say that I feel ready to start again and this time I WILL be successful :-) I suppose the reason I was feeling so not looking forward to it was due to the fact that I didn’t know where my funding issues stood. Now that that is taken care of I can focus on the success in classes.

She's here!

For those of you who haven't heard, we had a baby girl on Saturday, July 30 at 7:11pm. She was 8#2oz, 21 inches long. Her name is Laasya Morgan (pronounced Luh-see-uh). Mom and baby are doing well, and the other kids are just glad that the baby is finally here. Being at home, Skotland and Iliana had a front row view next to daddy as he caught her, and Skotland got to cut the cord. It was a special time for them. They love on her and smother her with kisses. Enjoy the pictures, and we'd love to hear from you!
Derek, Melissa, Skotland, Iliana, Lars, & Laasya

Welcome to the new Blog

Welcome to our new WeBlog. We have moved here to make it easier to pst RSS and also to incorporate othe logs from other family members. hope you like it.

If You would like the older post you can visit our old log at http://hammerstromwa.tripod.com/blog/

7/4/2005

12:37 PM Well happy July fourth to everyone. We are
getting ready to go to the Enumclaw fourth celebration
before we have to take Caitlyn home. It is 67 out
right now and will probably get warmer as the day goes
on so it is a nice day to be going .. Quite unusual
for Seattle on the fourth.

6/28/2005

Well another quiet day. Enjoying a peaceful break
between rounds of guest. Sharon and Doug are due here
probably around Thursday or Friday, this ought to be
an interesting time. We had a great time out at the
lake with crystals mom and their family friend
Francis. We got lots of neat pictures and such stuff.

6/26/2005

6/26/2005, 11:17 AM
Well we are packing up getting ready to head home
after spending the weekend out at Lake Retreat. Billie
really enjoyed the place and enjoyed her visit. Her
friend Francis also seems to have enjoyed he weekend.
I am glad that they made the trip up and got a chance
to get to know Rachael and Caitlyn and a chance for me
to get to know crystals mom better. I have really
enjoyed spending this weekend. A real chance for me to
recharge after the tough quarter I just got thru with.
Well they are getting ready to go…. I will write more
later.

12:11 PM -- Well Billie and Francis have now left for
home, deciding to get an earlier start on it so that
they don’t have to rush to get back down to Fresno in
time for Francis to get to her plane home. We had
biscuits and gravy and eggs with peppers in them as
well as bacon and coffee.
I have as I said earlier really enjoyed spending this
time, recharging myself as well as getting to know
family better. Billie really loved the place and I
think she enjoyed staying here a whole lot more then
she would have had we just had to stay in Woodinville.
I thanked Todd for letting us use the place and for all
the work he has done getting it ready for us.

6/22/2005

Well the quarter is over. I didn’t pass modules 3,4 or
5 so I am going to have to take the whole program over
again, that is if I don’t lose my funding since I was
on academic probation after having done so poorly in
the winter quarter.

6/15/2005

3:40 PM
Well today seem to be just a day for things to go
wrong. I woke up this morning late. I then preceded
to have something of a panic attack when I realized
what I have to get accomplished in the next few days
in order to even stay in school. Sometimes I just get
so overwhelmed that I just cant even think or function
and all I want to do is just crawl back into bed and
hide. Crystal was a huge help to me and giving me a
little pep talk this morning before I went into class.
It seemed to help the day turn out ok.

6/15/2005, 5:26 PM
well I am beginning to feel better, I have just rolled
out one page of a four page report for my networking
class and it seems to flow pretty well. Taking a deep
breath and taking each project one small step at a
time I think I am going to be able to get thru this
and come out ok.

6/14/2005

6:57 PM
Well we are into the final two weeks of the quarter. I
have a group Project that I am working on for the last
module of the classes. I have another project that I
am working on to make up for the things I missed
during our quarter.

6/6/2005

10:30 AM

Monday, June 06, 2005
Well it has been a while since I have written in my
journal. We are getting down to the wire now for the
quarter with bout 12 days of class left. I am having
to spend a lot of time getting my stuff caught up.
Doing a TCP/IP work sheet that I should have had
finished two weeks ago.

6/6/2005, 4:33 PM
Well we just got to Crystals work and are now waiting
for her to get done for the day. Rachael had a good
talk with Indu, her counselor, today. Indu called me
in after she had finished with Rachael, she wanted to
discuss some things with me regarding what they had
discussed today regarding Rachael's not letting
Crystal into her room. Indu also wanted to let me know
that she had discovered why she has been so sick of
recent. She is Pregnant:-)

5/23/05

I cannot wait to get the internet hooked up again so
that I can once again be in touch with all online
friends, this having to use the telephone is sooo 20th
Century….lol. I also want to be able to post the
pictures that have been taken while we were moving and
maybe some others too, one can never know what I may
do >;-)

5/21/05

7:05 AM
Well I just got out of bed. After getting a banana for Rachael to have for breakfast till she gets in the shower, I decided to sit down here and write for a bit. We put Star Wars episode one in the DVD player last night and both Crystal and I fell asleep before the movie was even over. She is up and moving now too so I guess I need to find something for breakfast for us all.

5/20/05

Well it is 8:56am, I just finished taking exam #6 in my Networking fundamentals class, I think I didn’t do so well and will probably have to do a retake on this particular test to get the passing grade. I sure am liking this journaling feature of this program that allows me to jot down thoughts and reflections on my days.

Scott will be dropping by this afternoon to see the apartment. I hope I can get home in time to meet him when he gets there. I had forgotten about not getting picked up until 1pm and I may miss him. Hopefully he is running late today.

Well anyhow it is Friday and Lori is planning on being up here around 11am tomorrow to pick up Rachael and is going to be keeping her over night so Crystal and I will have Saturday afternoon and night alone together (yippee).

Well we are now done with class for the day and I am sitting her screwing around on the laptop waiting for crystal to arrive to pick me up, bored as usual and ready for the weekend and to be able to kick back and relax for a few days.

5/20/2005, 6:21 PM this time and date button is really cool it lets me do multiple entries for the same day. Well I found the cables to connect the TV and DVD player so we can now watch movies. I am looking forward to this weekend, to have some time alone with Crystal, we have not had hardly any for what seems like months but we will get one night this weekend so we are happy with that. I cannot wait to get back online though, I miss being able to connect to the internet whenever I feel the need. Well I guess I should at least be in the same room with Crystal. Bye for now

5/19/05

Well we are getting settled into our new apartment now. Slowly putting things away. Crystal is right now making our first cooked dinner in the new place. Grilled cheese with onions, yumm. We had a ceremonial final meal of McDonalds at the old apartment on Tuesday May 17th. It seemed like a fitting end;-)

Not having our DSL hooked up yet I am going a little bit stir crazy but I only have one more week before we are scheduled to be reconnected. I am hoping to get the home portion of the network set up and then all we will have to do is drop the DSL modem inline and off we go :-) at least then Crystal and I could frag each other.

We Are Finally Moved In

Well now all the big rush and count down to get into our new apartmenrt have passed and we are in. It is now time for the slow process of putting everything away and setteling in. We dont have internet connections and I am dying to get it back. We hope to have it by the 26th of this month. I am writing this after classs from school jsut to keep everybody up to date with what is going on with us. hope everyone is well.

12 Days till we move

Welll we ar now down to 12 days till our move and we are getting more things packed every day, our apartment is beginning to look like a warehouse....lol

Countdown to our new apartment

DCP_3358,
originally uploaded by waman69.

well we have exactly two weeks now before we will be in our new apartment. We can hardly wait. Rachael is finially going to have her own room and caitlyn will share it when she is here. they will have a bunk bed with a fullsize bed for rachael on the bottom and a twin bed for caitlyn on top. Caitlyns favorite thing about the new place? "No more bumpy bed"....lol
stay tuned

We Burried Buddy Today

Buddies Grave,
originally uploaded by waman69.

We buried Buddy today. Found a spot we are sure he would have liked. It was in amongst trees and some Oregon Grape plants right next too the horseshoe pit out on the family property on Lake Retreat. We planted 2 small Catnip plants and 3 small Cat Grass plants around the top of his grave spot. We then placed several large rocks over the top as his burial cairn, and to keep other critters out as well. When we were leaving the sun was shining through the trees and warming the very spot he was. Buddy is with God now, and we miss him but will move on, and always remember him. Please Be sure to check back often because the tribute album to buddy is a work in progres and i will be adding more pictures as i feel up to it.

We had to put Buddy Cat to sleep

Buddy_Cat__0039,
originally uploaded by waman69.

We had to put Buddy Cat to sleep last night at the vets. He had for the last few days been struggling to breath and very lethargic. After an exam by the vet it was determined that due most likely to heart disease he had fluid build up in his chest cavity and it was pressing his lungs making it hard to breath. after much soul searching and even tears it was decided that it was best for Buddy that he be put to sleep. He was much loved by this family and will be missed by all who know him. I found myself laying in bed after coming home from the vets and waiting for him to come into our bedroom yowling at us cause we turned off the heater in the living room. The way buddy would go racing around the apartment after using his cat box, doing his "I Feel Good" dance.
Buddy's crawling down under the covers to get warm in the middle of the night, the way he would rest his chin on us and sleep cuddled to you. Waking up with his paw on your cheek or his whiskers tickling your nose. we have many fond memories that we will forever keep in our hearts as well as pictures that will always be a treasure to us.
Buddy will be buried out at Lake Retreat on some family property there on Friday February 25, 2005.