News, but No New Pics

I have some new news, but no new pictures. I did take some pictures of the sunrise the other morning, but have yet to take a look at them.

Last weekend we planned on heading to Spokane for a wedding show and just a weekend in the big town, but we never made it. Our first big experience of driving on snow and ice happened. Shawn hit an icy spot and lost control and flipped the Passport. We weren't hurt, but it sure taught some lessons about winter driving on the east side of the mountains. The Passport was moderately hurt. Shawn was taking the worse case scenario that it was totaled, but thankfully it's repairable. In fact it is at the shop now getting a new leaf spring and a wheel alignment. The tow bill ended up being more expensive then the repair bill and of course we learned our lesson about not having any tow coverage.

Shawn's constructive doings of the last weekend was building a full size igloo in the backyard. He is very proud of it and tries to climb into it at least once a day. I got a bit tired of helping so called over Amy's kids and the in turn they brought some more kids and they all helped Shawn put the finishing touches on the igloo. Once again I have pictures, but they are still hanging out on the camera. It is a pretty impressive sight to walk out the door and see an igloo.

With the Passport out of commission, my truck had to go to work. It wasn't very happy with me. We took it out Sunday to get some extra weight in the back and it took two tries to get it out of the driveway. Then with 250+ pounds in the back Shawn had to push me out Tuesday night to go to the shop and I had to get a good running start on Thursday when I headed to Wenatchee. If we get the chance I really do see us trading in my truck for a decent 4x4 truck.

This morning Shawn and I headed to a fellow teacher's property. Dean's house burned down the Thursday before we tried to go to Spokane. His family made it out alright, but the house was a complete loss. I've never known someone who has lost their house in a fire. I can't imagine how traumatic that must have been watching it burn down. Dean seems to be handling it as well as can be expected and today was the clean up day. Along with some other teachers, friends and students we cleared out all the metal roofing and copper wiring along with many other metal odds and ends. There wasn't that much wood to remove as it all burned. Shawn did use the chainsaw to cut up the deck and some of the trees surrounding the foundation. Dean plans to rebuild on the same spot, but will have to start from complete scratch as about half the foundation is just loose rock. Hopefully Shawn will be able to help out with that this summer.

Well might as well wrap this up as we will be heading to the basketball game soon. Shawn runs the scoreboard and I make believe I help. Hope to get the pictures looked at soon and maybe even some posted.