Random Stuff From April 2026

Here's the random stuff for April. 

Jack has decided he wants to try to get a scholarship to the ROTC program at the University of Washington so he has to take his SAT's. In order to get signed up for the test he had to have a photo on file. This was the photo we used.

 

During the weekend of April 11th our church celebrated our 25th Anniversary. They had this fun backdrop up for photo ops. 

On Saturday night our original pastor, Pastor Brett Hollis came back to perform a comedy show for us. He's the one in the blue shirt with his arm bent. The person holding on to his arm is Pastor Dennis Sawyer. He is the pastor that married Michael and I at CBSR back in 1999! The man behind Brett is Pastor Proctor...he is still pastoring at CBSR and he's the pastor that dedicated Jack and Ella. The pastor in front of Pastor Proctor is Pastor Brooks he told us a bit of the backstory in regards to the church and the property. To the right of Pastor Sawyer is Pastor Jenny Smith she was a pastor at Riverview for a time years ago before we started attending. She spoke at our Women's Retreat a couple years ago and was wonderful. Next to Jenny is Pastor Tim our current pastor at Riverview and then to his right is Pastor Brian. He was our worship pastor for years until he moved on a few years ago. When I look at this picture all I can think of is...What a legacy! 

The Storer's got a new kitty. His name is Percy. 

On April 14th we went over and visited him. He's a Siberian so he's gonna be a big boy one day! His coloring is so beautiful and he has blue eyes! 

 

After playing with him for a while he was tuckered out so he needed to take a nap. I told Caitlynn he needed something to cuddle with so she went and got this little bear. Isn't he the cutest!!! 

On Wednesday, April 15th, at youth group we played a game involving solo cups. One team was supposed to make sure all the cups stayed upright while the other team was supposed to put the cups upside down. Towards the end it basically turned into a lets tackle and wrestle Michael game. Justine doesn't even weigh as much as Michael does, but he used to wrestle so he knows what he's doing. It was so hilarious! 

On Saturday, April 18th, we went out for a date day with Ella and Justine to celebrate their upcoming anniversary. To celebrate we had their pictures taken at JCPenney's. I'll upload those in a separate post. 

After pictures we went over to Potato Corner formerly known as Undercover Fries at Southcenter. We've been wanting to introduce Michael to these fries for quite a while now. They are honestly the best fries ever!

Trust me...get the Loopy fries with Sour Cream & Onion and BBQ seasoning. They are SO good. Michael is a fry connoisseur and he loves them and has been saying that we need to go back. 

After eating fries we headed over to the Kent Valley Ice Centre so Ella and Justine could go on their first alone date. Although they didn't know it was going to be an alone date. I had no desire to go ice skating since my back was still recovering from herniating my disc in February. I also hate the cold so there was no way I was going to sit around freezing waiting for them to be finished. So we drove up and told them we'd be back to pick them up when the skating session was over. I wish I had been filming Justine's face. He was like..."Wait, what....you're not coming in?" It was like he almost didn't know what to do with himself. In fact he even said, "I don't know what to do!" I told him he'd figure it out. They had a good time and it was fun letting them go do something on their own. 

While they were skating Michael and I went over to the Kent Golf Course and ate that the restaurant there. We weren't starving because we had just had some fries, but shared that one basket between 4 people. So we got two appetizers. We got Birria Nachoes...which I now know I don't like the birria.

 

We also got street tacos....those were yummy! 

It was a nice little alone date for us too! 

 

On Sunday, April 19th, Jackson did his last speech and officially graduated from high school. He was a part-time student this year since he only had to get 3 credits so he's had a pretty low-key year. So proud of this guy and looking forward to what the future holds for him. 

Michael and I left for his Water Conference on Monday, April 20th. It was down in Tri-Cities this time. They have a pub down there called The Proof! We love it! We had dinner there that first night and I got a yummy Huckleberry Lemon Drop....so pretty! 

On Tuesday, April 21st, Justine and Ella celebrated their 2 year anniversary. They were just babies when they started dating! Since Michael and I were out of town they hung out together at Ga-Ga & Pa's and got to go down the to beach to celebrate. 

On Wednesday night the engineering firm that Michael uses...PACE...honors all their clients with a dinner. It was at a winery and everything was so yummy! This was all the folks from Michael's Water District that came along and their significant others. 

On April 28th, I went to Costco with Ella and Zeke to do our monthly shopping. The kids were helping me unload the van and Ella decided she wanted to make as few trips as possible. :) 

On Wednesday, April 29th, it was so nice outside we held our youth group game out on the field. I'm so ready for warm weather! 

Bye Bye Wisdom....Teeth!

Back in December when Ella went to her dentist appt she complained about her jaw hurting. She's felt like she couldn't fully open is for a while now. The dentist recommended we go to Pacific Northwest Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons and have her checked out. Her first appt with them in January had to be rescheduled since we have the flu, but we were able to go in on February 2nd. The first thing they did was take extensive x-rays and then we went and met with Dr. Kevin. He was amazing and seriously made Ella feel so at ease. He's both a medical doctor and a dentist and he even used to perform surgeries to put in shunts just like Ella's. He was able to see that her wisdom teeth were likely what was causing her issues so after he got clearance from all her other doctors we were able to get her on the schedule for surgery. 

I decided to wait until after her choir performance since she would not feel up to opening her mouth and singing for a while after surgery. Another reason was because that was our spring break so she'd have a few days to recover before jumping back into school work. Her appt was on April 24th at 8:10 in the morning. 

Ella really wanted Justine to be there for support. 

He doesn't have school on Friday's so he was able to spent the night at Ga-Ga & Pa's the night before and then Pa dropped him off at our house bright and early on Friday morning. Ella was a little nervous, but not terribly so. 

When they called her back I went with her. The nurse got her situated in the chair and all hooked up to the monitors. She also got oxygen and an IV placed. When Owen had his wisdom teeth out it was at our dentist office, but that dentist has since retired. Owen only had laughing gas, but Ella wanted to be sedated. 

 

They had her x-rays on the screen so we could see exactly where her wisdom teeth were. 

The dreaded tool tray. The nurse had those covered with a cloth until Ella was laying down and couldn't see them. 

I did get a chance to pray for Ella and then once Dr. Kevin came in I went out to the waiting room and waited with Justine. It really wasn't that long at all and then the nurse called me back to give me a little goodie bag for Ella with all her instructions. She told me I needed to pull the van over to the side entrance and waited for the nurse to walk her out. 

When Ella came out she was so silly and high on drugs! It was hilarious. I asked her if I could post the video and she said yes. 

It was so funny how she got mad at us for laughing at her and then she started laughing at herself. Justine got an even longer video of her. Her emotions were all over the place like a rollercoaster. 

The rest of the day she spent on the couch resting. Michael only worked a half day so once he got home, Jack and I ran up to Fred Meyer's to pick up her RX meds and get some softer foods she could eat. She had to take meds every 3 hours alternating between Tylenol and Ibuprofen for 3 days. She did take her RX meds a couple times, but mostly stuck with the over the counter stuff. I did set a bunch of alarms on her phone so she'd wake up in the middle of the night and take her meds. I didn't want her pain to get out of control. Thankfully she managed it really well. She did get some swelling...even though she iced a bunch...and she did get some bruising, but nothing too awful. Overall though it went really well! 

Cantate Homeschool Choir Spring Performance 2026!

A year ago when Ella was a part of the Cantate Homeschool Choir she was getting ready to perform at the Spring Concert, but then she ended up having a migraine and wasn't able to go. It was so sad. Fast forward to the Fall Session and she wasn't able to join the choir because of her Driver's Ed schedule. Starting in January she joined back up and was thankfully able to perform at the Spring Concert this year! Yay!!! 

The concert was held at the Federal Way Performing Arts Center. They actually had the concert for two nights to accommodate more people. Michael and I were away at his water conference so we couldn't attend the first night. Ga-Ga & Pa and Christina, Anna & Addison came though.  

They sat right down front so they got an awesome view of the stage! 

The second night of the concert she had a bigger crowd...Katie & Ernie and Papa & Miss Ruth. 

And our whole family including Justine were there to listen to the choir sing. 

I didn't even try to find seats on the main floor I went right to the balcony. With as many people as we had I knew it would be hard to find enough seats together. I'm thinking next year I will try though since it would be nice to be closer to the stage. 

This is the whole choir! They are all homeschool kids that range in age from 4 - 19. There are over 200 kids up there! It's crazy how much the choir has grown since Ella first joined.

My sweet girl is right in the middle and on one side of her is Caitlynn and on the other side is June. 

I wanted to get pictures at the Performing Arts Center, but Ella's head was killing her from all the music and singing so we just dashed out of there. Thankfully once there wasn't constant noise around her she wasn't in pain anymore. 

It was so great to hear the choir sing, but it's also nice that we are on break from choir now until it starts back up again in September! 

If you do per chance want to listen to the choir here's the concert link. 

Easter 2026

This was our first Easter in Ga-Ga & Pa's condo. It's been fun figuring out the new routine of things since they've moved. Back at Christmas Pa had us sit at the table with guys on one side and girls on the other and I did not like it so I requested that we sit next to our spouses again. 

The table was set so pretty! 

The "kids" table....it won't be able to be called that much longer! Owen and Caleb sat at the big table with the adults. 

For supper we had smoked ham, roasted ranch potatoes, green salad, roasted corn and rolls. Everything was so yummy. The ham did freak Ga-Ga out since it came out red...she didn't realize that she bought a smoked ham. It tasted great though! 

Jack was enjoying lounging in Pa's new office chair that has a footrest! 

Cuties! 

I love it when Ella curls her hair...it really shows off all her highlights. 

After dinner Ga-Ga & I cleaned up the table and put the food away while Miss Ruth and Christina chatted and did the dishes. 

Michael and Papa had so much time to talk it was so great! 

The weather was so gorgeous so the kids decided to take advantage and went across the street to the park. 

Caleb had brought his spike ball set so they had fun playing that in the grass. 

The girls wanted to go down to the beach, so Justine went down to the beach with them to keep them safe. 

Back at the condo it was time to dive into the desserts. Papa & Miss Ruth got this Carrot Bar Cake from Costco. She decorated the top with dried flowers and made it look so pretty! 

It was also very yummy! I don't think there was any leftover at all. 

Ga-Ga also made pineapple upside down cake per my request. She wasn't happy with how it turned out looks wise, but it sure tasted great! 

Ella brought her curler that Justine got her for Valentine's Day. She curled my hair, but my hair just doesn't hold a curl at all. So she got to work on Addison's hair and it looked amazing! 

Since us girls like to chat about all sorts of things we wanted to have a bit of time to ourselves so we told the guys they should retire to the den. They were so funny they took it really seriously and even shut the door to the office. 

After being outside the kids headed back to the Ga-Ga & Pa's room to play games on the floor. They had just finished playing a game together so Owen and Zeke were having some electronic time. 

Justine really enjoys hanging out with Caleb.

Us ladies had the whole living room area to ourselves and it was lovely! We talked about everything under the sun and had such a nice time. I'm sure we scarred the girls when we were talking about labor and delivery though! :) 

We didn't end up getting a group shot and Christina and I completely forgot to get our selfie picture together! Tragic! 

What isn't tragic is the reason we were gathered together to celebrate. The death of Jesus was tragic for his followers that were present at the cross....they thought it was end of his life, the end of his ministry and the end of a revolution that was just getting started. Early on that Sunday morning when the ladies went to the tomb and found it empty everything changed. Jesus had conquered death, sin and the grave! He laid down His life so He could pick it up again. His blood was poured out to cover our sins that we could never ever atone for on our own. He is the Way the Truth & the Life! Thank you Jesus for the gift of salvation and what a precious gift it is!