Flanagan Clan

The last year has been pretty life-altering. I imagine that most readers of this blog will know, but Sarah filed for divorce in September of 2016. That finalized in February of 2017. We have split 50/50 (week on, week off) custody of the kids. I (Andrew) have kept the house and Sarah, now remarried to Ken Gill, lives in Graham, WA.

It’s certainly a bit different than I imagined.

There can always be a lot of hard feelings, regret, and “rewriting” of history after a divorce. I’ve decided to NOT alter anything on this site though. Many of the entries were written by Sarah and many are about us both. But going forward, I plan to be the only contributor to this blog. Although I don’t necessarily want to spend much time reading through old blog posts, it’s good to keep the posts — even if it’s just for the kids later in life to look back on.

Lots of summer happenings. VBS programs for the kids, projects around the yard, and summer league baseball has all been happening.

We cleared some of the dead or dying trees (and a couple that were just in the way) this last week. Feels good to have a little more sun and space and a friend of ours can use quite a bit of the wood this winter for heating his house.

Behind our property, the developer finally began clearing out all the trees to make way for a new community. A little sad to see all those beautiful old trees come down, but it looks like the lots will be really nice and it does add some light to the very dark/swampy part of our property.

And the chickens are finally producing! A little slow to start, but the eggs are coming. 🙂 We had one more late-bloomer rooster that started crowing (and we had to get rid of), and are now at a final count of 14 hens.

Fourth of July was celebrated over at our friends place with a bunch of their neighbors. Lots of fireworks and excitement and great food.

Sam missed it because he was sick, but we got to go to a Rainier’s game last weekend and they did fireworks after the game!

Summer League baseball continues to move forward. Andrew’s team is doing well and learning and growing. Sarah’s been busy with working through some pre-requisites for her education plans in the fall and also doing a LOT of running.

Lots of changes — some hard as Sarah and Andrew go through some difficult and stressful parts of their relationship. God is good and we are trusting in him.

A late post — should have been on Monday.

Last Saturday we had our end-of-year party for the Dodgers (AAA Little League) team. A good time was had by all despite some spotty rain. We had some burgers and hotdogs, played a wiffle-ball game, and recognized all the kids’ accomplishments. Here are some of the Dodgers (and Ethan!)

This last week, summer is really kicking into gear. The plants are all looking great and things are growing. The chickens and bunnies are doing well and the house is looking good as things fill out.

Last Thursday, I was able to go with Patrick to a field-day at Owen Beach with his class from school. We picked up trash on the beach, did a scavenger hunt and enjoyed some good food.

Last night, we tried out a concert as part of the Highland Festival here in Puyallup. A little sparsely attended, but it was neat to get out.

More next week!

On Friday, we all went up to Seattle to go to our first Mariner’s game! It was a lot of fun… The Mariner’s beat the Rangers in a fun game and afterwards there was a firework show. Here’s a shot before the game kicked off — we didn’t take enough pictures.

Andrew spent a little bit of time working (slowly) on the tree house for the boys. It’s a small treehouse, but the plan is to get this setup and then get a zipline in place down about 100 feet towards the back of the property. It should be fun, but for now, we’re taking it slow.

The kids finished up their soccer games for the season and Patrick has finished up band (with a performance last Monday night). The boys still have another week and a couple days left before they wrap up with school, but things are starting to wind down.

Emma has continued to be a faithful dog around the property. She does a good job keeping an eye on things and keeping the larger wildlife at check. She loves walking through the woods and exploring.

We’re getting into summer now… This week is busy. Field day for Liam on Thursday and a school outing to Owen Beach the same day for Patrick (which Andrew will be helping with). Saturday we have our end-of-year party for baseball. Andrew’s been busy with the new project at work that he’s been assigned to. The work is different, but so far it’s keeping him busy. Sarah has been blasting through her biology pre-req and doing well.

That’s all for now!

We said goodbye to our three roosters over the weekend. Mean Chicken was continually getting more aggressive with everyone. The two silkie roosters, Napoleon and Kenny (no, we did not name him after my dad. A friend named him!), were having a hard time exerting dominance when all the hens were so much bigger. And most importantly, all three were loud and bothering the neighbors. So now we’re down to 15 hens, and looking forward to start seeing eggs within the month hopefully. We will miss you, roosters!