Bagel's Life @ Home & School

"WALL-E" Day

2011-10-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

According to my son, today is "WALL-E" Day. According to him, 3 years ago, we had planned to go see this movie at the "cheap theater" ($1.50 I think) as a family to see this. However, on that day, he was "sportin' a 'tude" and had a bit of a meltdown. So we decided that it would be best if he stayed home, rather than take him and his issues to the theater. So I took my daughter, just the two of us, while the boy stayed home with his father. He finally did get to see the movie, about a month later when it came out on DVD and we bought it.

We didn't think anything more about it until the following year, on this date, that he said it was "WALL-E" Day and we needed to celebrate by watching the movie, and ever since then, October 13 has been the boy's special "holiday". When he mentioned it last night, my husband wondered aloud just how many years we'd be acknowledging this made up holiday. I reminded him that our daughter was celebrating a stuffed animal's birthday for nearly 4 years before she moved out of that phase (it did provide this mom with an excuse to make chocolate cake though!).

Is the last year of celebrating "WALL-E" Day? Only the boy knows!

Happy "WALL-E" Day!!

Ep

A Tale of Two (Sets) of Grandparents

2011-09-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Well, in light of Pat Robertson's advice that it was ok to divorce a spouse with Alzheimer's and marry someone else, I felt the need to address this topic. I've already shared my feelings on Facebook, strongly (to put it nicely) disagreeing with Pat's advice. So I thought that I would share, some personal stories, from my own family. Two very different examples of caregiving spouses.

My Mother's Parents

My grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's back in the mid 80's. By that time, she had had several other health issues as well. My grandpa retired early to stay home and take care of the house and her. She had diabetes, asthma, arthritis, and depression. So she really wasn't up to housekeeping, or much cooking. She wasn't an invalid, but she didn't have the drive or energy to do that (thought her ability to complain was uneffected). So when my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, my grandpa did was most well spouses do. He joined a support group. And there, is where he met his mistress. She had a husband at home with Alzheimer's (the running "joke" on this is that perhaps, since they met at an Alzheimer's group, they forgot that they were already married).     It wasn't long after that, that my grandpa put my grandma into a memory care home...........and then, they started taking day trips together,and started spending the night at each other's homes and his visits to see my grandma were less frequent. Then he told my mom and my aunt and obviously, they had some issues (like, "Um Dad, you're still married").   Well he blew them off, and then, soon, introduced us to her, and she wasted no time being Grandpa's spokesperson, always feeling the need to correct us.   Once her presence in Grandpa's life was established, my mom and aunt were asked to return their keys to their parents' house. Grandpa suddenly had an answering machine and rarely returned calls. This was hardest on my aunt, because she lived a mile away from her parents for many years, and they had been her support (if you could call it that) as she had an alcoholic husband. Now, I'll interject here, that I do realize that my grandpa allowed this other woman to influence him. He made the choice to gradually push his children and only grandchild (me) away.   I remember how upset my mother was when she'd try to call on a holiday to talk to him and just got the answering machine. Until this woman came along, my mom, her sister and parents called and wrote each other constantly. Now, my mom and aunt were feeling orphaned, abandoned and rejected by their own father.    Because they were! This new woman had no interest in my grandpa's family. Eventually, my grandma passed away, and the mistress's husband did too. A month after he died, the mistress married my grandpa (her stuff had been moved into his house long before). Eventually, she tired of my mom and aunt trying to call, and talked my grandpa into selling his house (the one that my mom grew up in) and move to her house out in the country.    They only gave us a mailing address, no phone number. My grandpa eventually disinherited his own children because of this woman's influence, and he adopted and bent over backwards for her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.   He stopped acknowledging birthdays, didn't send Christmas cards, and didn't come to my wedding. We saw him again the week before my mom died. I had to call information to get his step-daughter's phone number to call her to relay the info to him that his daughter was dying.    He and his now wife, came two days later to see her, which I was glad for. However, he totally ignored my aunt who was also there and the wife tried to usher him away from her anytime my aunt tried to talk to him.   The didn't sit with the family at the funeral either.   They didn't even speak to my aunt until it was discovered that she was dying as well.    When my grandpa finally passed away a few years later, the other woman and her family planned his funeral, and were able to have a private good-bye.   I got a phone call saying that he had died, and then I have to search the internet to find out where and when the funeral would be.   Now this may sound like I'm holding some kind of grudge, but let me point this out. When you bring in another person, you have two selfish people serving themselves That other person is seeking to get rid of your past and anyone and anything from it.   What did he have to show for his life when he died? He had no relationship with his family and the few who remained, he had discarded.

After that lengthy diatribe...........on a more positive note...

My Father's Parents

This will probably be much shorter, because these grandparents, were best friends. They had mutual respect and a mutual admiration for each other. After my granddad retired, they had regular date nights in the form of dancing lessons. When the lessons were over, they went out every Friday and Saturday night, to whichever lodge had the best band and danced all night. They worked around the house together. He helped with the housework, and some of the cooking.   When they went to shop at the mall, he would sit on one of the benches in the middle and chat with other husbands waiting for their wives, until Grandma came along with shopping bags, which he would take to the car while she continued shopping. They started traveling alot, and saw most of the world. He still called her "Babydoll". They had a warm and pleasant environment in their home, and I loved to go there.    After some health issues, my granddad started to slow down a bit, and eventually they decided to move out of the house that he had built (large enough for nearly the whole family to stay in, and where we had had several family gatherings) downsize their belongings, and move to a manufactured home park.   By this time, he was getting more forgetful, but he tried to stay busy, even when he could barely walk.   All during that time, my grandma felt that it was her job as his wife to care for him, and she loved him. Even when he couldn't remember out names, he knew how we were related to him. When my grandma once asked him, if he knew who she was, he paused and then said, "My Bride".    Eventually, it was becoming detrimental to my grandma's health (she wasn't getting the rest that she neededand had some heart concerns). So she made the hard decision, to put him in a facility. She visited him often, and was always concerned that he was being taken care of, that the clothes in his closet her his, and that he was eating.   I went to visit him one day and he saw me, smiled and said to the nurse, "That's my granddaughter!".   I stayed for about an hour (and by the end of that hour he was calling me by my aunt's name).   Soon after, he became ill with pneumonia, and was gone rather quickly.   My grandma said more than once, "If I had just kept him home...........".   I think that had their roles been reversed, my granddad would have done the same for her.    When he passed, he had many friends, family, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren present, who he had a relationship with (as shown on the slideshow during the service).

After viewing these two marriages, which one would you want to be in when you're old? The selfish one or the selfless one?

10 Years Ago......

2011-09-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to see Facebook statuses featuring the same question: "Where were you 10 years ago when you heard the news?"

So I thought that I would answer that as well.

Ten years ago, when I first awoke, I went to the computer to see what was on the ABCnews website. The first headline was that a plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. My first thoughts were that it was a small plane, like a Cessna and that it was an accident. Then I updated the site and discovered that another plane had hit the second tower, both planes were commercial airplanes, and that this was no longer considered an accident. So I turned on the TV, and called out to my husband, telling him what was going on. At the time, he was working a temp job, so I don't remember if he was getting ready for work or not. My kids were 5 & 3, and had no understanding or interest in the news. Then that first tower fell, and soon after, the second one did as well, and I was shocked and grieved at thinking of all of those lives lost in such a short span of time.

As the day went on, I kept the tv on. At one point, I did need to run an errand, and while in the car, driving on the freeway, I had the radio on, listening to the news, which at the time was describing where the President was going. I remember thinking that perhaps, that information should have not been shared. The word that I've seen on other blogs, describing the feeling that day is "surreal". I felt that way as the day went on. Traffic was minimal while I was running my errand, and I had a sense that the world had changed and not for the better. My kids were going to have a different sense of being safe and secure than I did as a child. They don't remember that day, and they don't remember when the subsequent war started, but they've heard us talk about it, and have heard news reports about it over the years to the point that this is their "normal".

Ep

A Little Love Note From My Girl.....

2011-08-27T08:56:00.000-07:00

I love Frontierville on Facebook! I used to play Farmville until it stopped giving me choices to expand my farm. So now, I have Frontierville, Cityville, and Pioneer Trail. I only have been playing one of those because really, it would take all of my day just to keep up with these virtual places and the missions that go with them. However, they are the cleanest farms/gardens/cities that one could ever tend to.

Not long ago, I was on Frontierville, and I had several missions going in which in order to get them done, I needed to work on my "neighbors'" towns. So, being the list maker that I am, I wrote down all of the things I needed to do.

Then, I left my computer so that my kids to have their time on it. My daughter sees my list and wrote..........

Yes, that's me, I'm a "Zynga Nerd"!

I need to find a more productive hobby....

Ep

Mac & Cheese Freeze!

2011-08-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I was in the mood to start making meals to freeze and then heat up when the weather starts getting nippier. I had already made and froze a batch of soup, so this time, I thought that I would make some macaroni & cheese.

I have my mac & cheese (actually I multiplied the recipe by 4, and if I do that again, I'll need to use a larger cooking pot).

And I have my quart sized freezer bags.............

Measure out the amount that you think you'll need (I have a teenage son, who is never full, so I pack about 2.5-3 Cups per bag).

This part is a tad messy. If you need to spoon it into the bag, I won't disown you! Please remember to wipe off the edge of the "zipper" before closing the bag.

Don't forget to label & date it (even though by looking at it, you obviously know what it is, and because of that, it will probably be on the dinner table within a week).

Lay them flat in the freezer until they're nice and solid....

Once frozen, they stack or "stand" nicely in the freezer. I guess you could say that this meal stands on it's own! Haha!

It turned out to be rather handy for me to have done this when I did, because while I was recovering from surgery, the kids were craving some mac & cheese and all I had to do was get a couple of packets out of the freezer to defrost, transfer to a baking dish and heat.

Happy Freezing!

Ep

Never Too Tired for a Birthday!

2011-08-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

Our girl had a birthday recently, however, she was away at summer camp when it happened. I packed in her bag a present to open and two packages of Oreos to share with her cabinmates (because I wasn't willing to drive 10 hours to deliver homemade cupcakes). Before she left, she told us that she wanted to open her gifts from us as soon as she came home. I wasn't so sure that she would be up to doing that after a 10-12 hour bus ride home. However, when we picked her up, she was hopped up on Mountain Dew and more than ready to tear into gifts!

Presents ready (do you think that she likes pink?).

The tired, yet happy, and caffeinated camper, ready to open her gifts.

Teenagers never tire of getting money (and it's already spent!).

Her theme this year was "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", and this little stuffed doll was a treasure.

The requested birthday dinner: home made macaroni & cheese and tater tots. Starchy carbs all the way!!

And for dessert, chocolate cupcakes!!

Then, a few days later, we had our family birthday party:

Even though it was the girl's party, she spent most of the time entertaining two little cousins (which she doesn't mind, and they LOVE her!).

I could not have done this by myself. After I frosted the cake, my girl scored the Whimpy Kid face onto the cake and I piped the black frosting around it. It turned out very well!

The birthday girl had help blowing out all of those candles!

Nephew, "B" loves to play with baby dolls. He and his brother were playing with our dollhouse and furniture (and a few naked Barbies). B was putting the baby in the crib and then rocking it and singing to it. Very cute!

Nephew "D" was helping my girl unwrap her presents, including a picture that he drew for him by himself.

The rest of the day included the kids playing on the Wii (during which, my 4 year old nephew stopped briefly and asked "Does everybody want to see my underwear?"), and then my girl and brother-in-law playing on the Wii (which he is now inspired to buy), followed by an attempt at a 4-generation family picture that my nephews and son didn't want to be a part of (we got them in there anyway though, under much protest).

Another birthday memory made, and another year to plan for the next one.

Ep

Surgery & Vicodin

2011-08-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

The title probably tells it better than I can.
So just a bit of a disclaimer here, before I go on, if anything is misspelled or just doesn't make any sense, or you can mentally hear me slurring my words in this post, blame it on the Vicodin (ok, twice I've misspelled that word.........and fixed it).

Once again, this post is in "novel" form (meaning that I have no pictures, and after you read this, you will probably be glad that there aren't any).

Last weekend, was one of our normal weekends. I went grocery shopping. We ordered a pizza for dinner. We just kind of took it easy on Saturday. On Saturday evening, I went to church. All normal things. Then on the way home from church I started feeling sick, and then the sick feeling became painful. By the time I arrived home, I just needed to get inside and lay down and was feeling badly enough that I didn't want anyone touching me. No matter what position I was in, the sharp pains in my back and abdomen would not go away.   My husband kept asking if I needed to go to the doctor. Well, when do you really know? In the past, when I've felt that bad, as soon as I decide to go to the doctor, I start to feel better. By midnight, the pain was still there and I was nauseas as well. So at around midnight, I finally told my husband (just after he had taken some Benedryl and had gone to bed) that I thought that the ER sounded like a good idea.    And as soon as we were on our way, the pain started to subside. However, once there, and after explaining my situation several times to ever new person who came to see me, and an ultrasound, and some poking around my abdomen, it was discovered that I was having gall bladder issues (if you've never had a gall bladder attack, it feels like the largest gas bubble that you've ever had). After talking to the on call surgeon, the on duty doctor (who was very nice by the way) decided to admit me for observation.

In the morning, the surgeon came in and talked to my husband and I and it was determined that the best course of action was to remove the gall bladder, which should only be a day surgery. So, I called my kids at home to see how they were. I asked my daughter how her brother was and she offerred to give him the phone saying that "Mom was on the phone". I heard him in the background ask her, in all seriousness, "She's still alive?".    Then later in the afternoon, my daughter called again, and said that she and her brother were outside because when she turned on the gas stove, it smelled like rotten eggs, and she remembered that in commercials for the gas company, the announcer tells you to do that. So my husband went home to investigate and everything was fine (later on, I explained to her that if she smells the rotten eggs when the stove isn't on, is the time she should be leaving the house, and in the future, it might be a good idea to wait to start cooking until a time when a parent is home).

So Wednesday, was the day for the surgery. I wound up having two separate procedures done (being under anesthesia makes the day go by faster!). The first surgery was for the gall bladder and then the second procedure was to get a stone that was lodged in a duct that the surgeon couldn't get to. The way to get that out was through an endoscopy (camera down my throat) As I was feeling groggy and like someone kicked me in the belly, I was wheeled into a room for the second procedure and the nurse asked me, "Did they tell you what position you're going to need to be in?". No I hadn't heard. Then she tells me, "On your stomach". So I had to scoot on to a table, and roll over onto my stomach with fresh incisions. Fortunately, I was sedated soon after.

Needless to say, the powers that be felt that it was best that I spend the night in the hospital after all of that "fun".

So now I'm home, and if I even move a toe, someone is ready to tell me to not move and they'll get me whatever I want. Some time think this an easy thing to do, but it isn't. I'm on pain meds too, which make me feel loopy (which of course makes me want to prove that I'm still coherent).   I've been told by several friends who have had this surgery before that I will feel so much better. I hope so!

Ep

Church camp & Sibling Scavenger Hunt

2011-08-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

For the past week, my dear girl, Heather, has been away at church camp.............in another state..........in another time zone. This was the first time for her to travel out of state without her parents and, needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), she was a bit anxious and also excited. While she's been gone, we've been able to text each other so I was still able to tell her that I loved her before she went to bed. So, she still seemed close.........sort of.

It was also the first time that we've been apart on her birthday. She turned 15 this week, while at camp. I sent one gift (a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" t-shirt) with her so that she would have something to open on her birthday, as well as some Oreos to share with her cabin mates (because this mama wasn't able to travel to another state to bring cupcakes). So here at home, on her birthday, her dad, brother and I had a cupcake in her honor. Before she left for camp, she told me that she wanted to open her gifts as soon as she gets home. That remains to be seen. In the past, when I've picked her up after camp, she looks worn out, sunburned and just about ready to fall over. I'm picking her up this evening, so we'll see if, after a 10 hour trip, she has any energy to open gifts. She might, and then she'll sleep for most of tomorrow.

As tradition goes around here (sort of because not everyone participates), when someone goes out of town on a trip, be it business or summer camp, I write a short note for each day for the traveler. One year, my husband went away on a business trip and left notes for the kids with clues as to where a gift or treat might be. So my daughter took that idea and has been doing that with her brother. My son, Kylin, never likes it when his sister goes to any kind of overnighter or camp (protesting starts two weeks ahead of time). For the past two camps, at least, she has written a letter to him for every day that she's gone and has left clues for him to find each day's gift.

This year, she had 7 envelopes taped to her door

So he reads the letter

She drew a picture of his favorite characters (today's was a ghost from "Pac-Man")

Today's clue indicates that the gift is on top of her canopy
And it's a "CARS" folder (and Kylin is truly happy..........really, he is.......I swear)

Today is the last day for this little scavenger hunt, and the hunter is still sleeping!

Ep

On The Go

2011-07-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

Today's post is in novel form, meaning, that I don't have any pictures to go with it.

Yesterday started out as a fairly planned out day. I had a "to do" list all typed out in my phone. The plans included wrapping my nephews birthday present, cleaning the counters in the kitchen, show my son how to really clean a mirror (he thinks that he knows how, but the mirror always tells another story). I was going to cut the kids' hair, pay a bill or two, and make some meals to freeze. The only thing that I did get done was to cut the kids' hair. So at least their hair is no longer blocking their vision. I wound up needing to run a couple of errands. So that changed my plans as well.

Then, in mid-afternoon, I received a text from Kevin, suggesting that we attend a city council meeting in a small town about 45 minutes away. We, along with some of our friends, started a political watchdog group about a year ago, with the goal of keeping the public aware of discrepancies and such in our local government. Kevin and the other guys have written articles for their blog about them as well (I wrote one about homeschooling). Mostly, I contribute with ideas, and for when meetings were at our house, I made a lot of muffins. So, part of what was going on at this small town was that a significant amount of money was missing and there were some in the town who were petitioning to have the mayor, and the city council recalled. So, we went out to this small town, listened to what the people had to say, and at the same time, it provided another Civics lesson for my kids (who were bored, but they'll remember it when they're adults).

So for this impromptu trip, it meant dinner-on-the-go, meaning burgers. To keep the ketchup and mustard on those burgers from dripping into the laps of those of us who want to be taken seriously at a meeting, I put those burgers in coffee filters. They're handy for now and make nice "catch-alls" until I can go to a Cash & Carry and get the wax paper burger wraps for future last minute, meals to go.

EP

Morning Exercise

2011-07-21T13:23:00.000-07:00

My morning usually starts this way

I hear a cat meowing at the door at around 6:15. So I get up and get ready to make coffee. However, at least one of these is waiting to greet me.

Paws & Aslan
So we head downstairs and this is what comes next in our routine.

I hear a cranky meowing at the front door. So I let Fonzie in and she promptly runs to the door leading to the garage (and the food). So I let her go out there, and just as I think I have a moment to start grinding coffee beans, I hear Oscar meowing, betting to be let out of the front door.

So, out he goes, to wonder off to our porch furniture and snooze on it, leaving hair on the cushions.

So now we're back to Aslan. By the time this picture was taken, he had been out in the garage for food, then back into the house, then outside through the back door, then back into the house and now he wants to go back to the garage, as if something about it may have changed since he was there last.

I kept track as to how often I was opening and closing doors in the morning. The number on this day was 11 times within a one hour period (before I saw any of my human family members). There was a short time frame in which I did get coffee made.

No one can tell me that I do not exercise! :)

EP

Yummy!!

2011-06-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

I have had a very strong desire to try out The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe. Today, since I was going to be home all day, I thought I'd give them a try. Now, one thing that I've noticed about her recipes, is that there tends to be enough to feed a family twice our size. Some of the recipes, I have made using the measurements of ingredients that she recommends. I serve one half and then freeze the other half for a future meal. In the case of the cinnamon rolls, I just "halved" the recipe. So instead of making nearly 50 rolls, I had about 23. Still a bit much for a family of 4, however, tonight, my husband is having some of his friends over, and I'm counting on them to have a few.

Who could say "no" to these?
Ec

Thirteen

2011-06-07T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'll give an update about my last post. My son seems to be handling the passing of of his favorite children's pastor well. We weren't able to go to the celebration of life service because we had been sick, and were still recovering.

So, on to new business.

My youngest is now a teenager. However, he is still young at heart.

He started the day with presents (even before breakfast).

The theme of his party was "Spongebob Squarepants" and this pillow/throw came from his sister (that third eye on Spongebob is actually the tag........so it's not a mutant version).

The day was off to a sugary start: Donuts for breakfast!

Later in the day, the birthday boy wanted to play at the nearby park. His sister, also young at heart sometimes, joined him on the swings (everyone else who were there age and height, were playing basketball nearby and swearing loudly).

From the park, we took the kids to our local mall, where the birthday boy wanted to buy a case for his new iPhone with the money he had received that morning. We also stopped at the bookstore, which was selling everything for half off and my daughter found a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" hat for a great deal! Then my husband treated everyone to an Orange Julius (I had forgotten how tasty those were!). Another full dose of sugar...........

Then we went home and had these after dinner........

Then, the sugary weekend continued, two days later, when we had his birthday party and this treat........

And then this happened............

Ouch! I gave Spongebob a splitting headache!
He was a good sport!

Ec

Well...............

2011-05-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

I was planning to write about my son's birthday. He turned 13 last week. However, I'm in more of a sober frame of mind today. One of my kids' favorite children's pastors, "Pastor Ron" passed away yesterday, and it just either doesn't seem appropriate to post about a birthday party just yet.

My daughter, has been grieving as any normal person would, there have been several tearful bouts around here. For my son, this is probably the first time someone that he's felt close to has passed and the idea of what that means, is going to be a slow realization for him (Autism serves as a bubble that keeps him from really understanding these things right away, at least in his case). Right now, he isn't feeling like he needs to cry, but as he puts it, "I'm just sad in general".

So, probably in a few days, I'll get back to how we ushered another child into the teen years.

Ec

Basic Rice & Veggie Stir Fry

2011-05-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, my husband and I went to one of those Japanese restaurants, where everyone sits around a griddle and watches the waiter cook up a delicious stir fry. I watched how and what they cooked and after eating the delicious food, decided that I wanted to try this at home, because I wanted this dish more often! Kevin was more than willing to let me try to copy it and be the quality tester!

I realize this picture is sideways, however, we could just say that it's meant to keep the reader on their toes. Are you willing to agree to that theory?
Anyway, the two ingredients missing from this photo is the onion and the soy sauce, but they will make an appearance later.

Before I start any chopping, I start cooking the rice. We bought this rice cooker a few years ago, and I think that it's the most used appliance (other than my stove) in the kitchen. I use Jasmine rice, as it cooks really clean (in that there is absolutely no residue on the lid of the cooker when all is said and done). Once the rice is cooked, put it in an airtight container and let it chill in the refridgerator.

While the rice cooks, I move to the cutting board and start chopping the onion (I chop it first to get the crying over with). I generally use a medium white or yellow onion, and dice the whole thing.

Next on the chopping block is the zucchini! A medium one seems to be enough for this recipe. I cut it in to quarters and then slice away!

First, I sauté the fresh mushrooms, and then set them aside.....

Then, add a little more oil to the pan and sauté the onions and zucchini!

At this point, you can fry your diced chicken, or beef or pork or tofu. For this recipe, I usually use the Morningstar Farms "chick'n" strips.

In a larger pan (because you will need one, trust me), pour in about 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil

Add your chilled rice.....

Break it up, stir it around.............

Add your sautéed meat & veggies........... Keep stirring so nothing sticks to the pan (or at least so that most of it won't stick)

Now if anything starts sticking to the pan, this stuff here, this soy sauce, will loosen things up a bit and will make your stir fry more manageable (and it's very tasty too). The amount of sauce depends on your taste, so as the cook, you get to taste test alot. If you have a "quality assurance" tester, such as a spouse........even better!

Ta-dah! Now it's time to tell your kids to put the cat down, go wash their hands, and tell the one designated to get drinks that he's on in 5! Dinner is served!

Elizabeth

Civics Lesson for the Homeschooler

2011-04-10T23:13:00.000-07:00

Before I start, I will be courteous enough, to warn you ahead of time, that there is a shameless plug coming up in this post. If you don't want to see it, I won't be offended if you scroll past it. If you do want to see it, it's there for your enlightenment, so to speak.

About a year ago, I had posted an entry about how our state, city and transportation commission had decided to rename a stretch of highway, using our tax dollars, against the wishes of the majority of our town's citizens. I also mentioned that my husband and a few other gentlemen came together and organized protests against this move, as well as spoke before our city council and our transportation commission, trying to remind them that the majority of constituents were against this idea. Signatures were gathered in an attempt to get something on the ballot so that things like this can be voted on by the voters, and not have the powers that be, make that decision for us. Unfortunately, we didn't get enough signatures. However, that led to my husband running for office (he garnered about 5 % of the vote). That experience also led him, and 3 other gentlemen (from the original group) to form a local political "watchdog" group, with the intent to bring things to the attention of the public, in order to keep our local government accountable to the public they were elected to serve.

Get ready...........here comes the shameless plug........

So that brings me to what prompted the civics lesson. Personally, I think that any opportunity, to take your children to city, county, or state government meetings, that are open to the public, can count as civics lessons. You can teach your children how government is supposed to work, and then take them to the meetings so that they can see how it really works (how good or bad it works, depends on where you live).

Our local transit district is planning to place a rapid transit bus in an area of town that would be adversely affected by it's installation. The street that it's intended for is lined with businesses that will experience a huge disruption in their income or will be forced to lose or have to move their businesses altogether.

There have been city council meetings that were open to the public, hearings involving the transit district, and as of this past Tuesday, a hearing before the Metropolitan Policy Committee. My husband, his friends in the watchdog group, and several other business owners spoke, hoping to convince the committee to postpone the plans for this rapid transit line.

So, I brought my kids to see their dad, and others, let their voice be heard.

This was my attempt to get them to smile. My girl did a very good job. My boy, looks like he's trying to figure out how to pick on her or something.

When one goes to speak before a committee such as this one, one needs to get in line, and sign up for their time (which is about 3 minutes long, so speak fast)

The transit district also sent a couple of security guards.

My guess is that since there were only two, that it was either assumed that there wouldn't be a full room, or we wouldn't cause much trouble. In either case, they were right.

Anyway, two hours and over 40 speakers later, the committee decided that it was time for a break. Since my husband had already spoken, we decided to go on home.

Now for as much as my daughter was not looking forward to going to this meeting as it would be boring, she did remember what was said, and could discuss it with us a bit. I also saw her page on FB where she was explaining to a friend what the meeting was about. So I guess that counts somewhat toward an essay, written/verbal combo.........perhaps.

My son probably won't remember much about what was said at the meeting, but he does know what it was about, and he did do a very good job at sitting still and not complaining about how long the meeting was taking. Very good, considering that he didn't bring any drawing paper to keep him occupied.

Lp

House "Rules & Directions"

2011-03-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday evening, while the kids and I were at church, my husband stayed home and spent the quiet time, hanging up mirrors, pictures and any other wall-hanging that needed a place. Amongst the things needing hanging was my whiteboard/corkboard. I thought that the whiteboard would be handy for writing down things to add to my grocery list or menu or schedule. However, once it was hung, the kids wasted no time in finding the dry-erase markers and filling in the space.

My son has been pretending that our new kitchen is a department store restaurant and that our pantry (which is around the corner from this board) is an elevator. So like any department store, there is the sign giving directions (just in case anyone who is also living in the house, might lose their way. The picture on the bottom half is my daughter's drawing of the main character from the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books.

I may need to get a new white board for myself..........and hide it, LOL! Just kidding.............sort of.

Elizabeth

Moving Weekend

2011-03-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry that it's taken so long to get back to my moving story. I've been busy trying to unpack, keep our lives going, and get back into our school routine (which could be a different blog post because I've noticed some things have changed in the routine since moving).

So moving day arrives.............We have friends lined up to help us move, and a box of VooDoo Doughnuts and a fresh pot of coffee ready (to keep them happy as our friends).

The boy spent a lot of time in and around the U-Haul, not wanting to miss out riding in one. I think that to him, this was the equivalent of meeting a celebrity!

I had a few bags of things that I had bought to decorate the new kitchen with, and I really felt the need to get those new coffee themed place-mats out. A friend has referred to this as "nesting" and they were right. I was anxious to nest before the boxes were unpacked!

This was my husband's version of "nesting". The tv needed to be set up and running. I would agree on this one. A tv sometimes is nice background noise when working. We don't have cable, so we also had to have some favorite DVD's on hand. The original plan was to have some movies to watch that dealt with the moving process. However by time time of the move, we weren't too choosy (and yes, we chose to watch some "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Always good!).

Valentine's Day also fell at the tail end of the moving weekend. Knowing that this was going to happen, I shopped a few weeks earlier and had everything prepared so this "holiday" would still be celebrated. It's also rather nice after a big move, to get some new things for new rooms. The kids received lot's of chocolates, and new books (which was nice for them since their books were still packed and in storage) and trinkets.

French toast for breakfast! I didn't have anything to cut them into the shape of hearts, but I don't think that my family cared. French toast is always tasty, especially when covered in sugar!

My husband didn't forget Valentine's Day either. The card was appropriate since he's very much into karaoke these days........

For an afternoon snack, I bought a couple of red velvet cupcakes for the kids. I would have made them, however, my baking pans were still packed and I didn't know where they were. It's a good thing too, because I really didn't need extra cupcakes tempting me along with all of the chocolate candy that was still available in the house :)

So since Valentine's Day, this has been the reality that I've been faced with. We've been figuring out where to put things and what stays and what goes. Fortunately, this time, we have in house, able-bodied helpers to help move some of this stuff around (they aren't as excited as their dad and I are about that fact though, lol).

Ec

Moving Day Approaches!

2011-02-18T14:31:00.000-08:00

Well, in reality, it came and went............nearly a week ago.

But I thought I'd recap the events, just not all in one post.

Last Friday

We signed the papers, got the keys to the house, and rented a U-Haul. I would never, ever want to work at a U-Haul center. Those trucks were parked sooooo close together, and I was amazed that the employees could drive them out onto the lot without scratching the trucks on either side.
They follow the "6-inch rule" very well!

We took the U-Haul home, much to our son's delight (he had been talking about U-Haul's and drawing pictures of them for at least a week, so he was thrilled to see a "real life" one in our driveway. We loaded up the couches and dining room furniture and as many boxes and containers as the truck would hold, and took them to the new house. As you can see, the boy is resting in the new living room, tired from all of the excitement (and possibly because it was after 10PM).

Our new dining area, which we fully intend to eat all of our meals in (the rest of the house has carpet, and I'd like to avoid as much food spillage as possible. There is definitely more room to get around. Breathing a sigh of relief!

Take a look at those shelves! I've never had a cupboard with shelves that swung out. How convenient!

So that was Friday...........

I'm still unpacking and we still have a storage unit to empty out, but I will try to post more later.

Elizabeth

Planning from the Pantry

2011-01-31T22:12:00.000-08:00

We're less than two weeks away from moving day. So I don't really want to transfer everything from the pantry to the new pantry. So, I'm attempting to plan my meals for the next two weeks, based on what I have on hand.

Here's what I have to worth with......

And here's what I started with.........

I rarely buy this, however I did a few weeks ago, so, why not break it out and treat the kids to some instant pudding! They didn't seem to mind.

Ep

Basketball

2011-01-24T23:04:00.000-08:00

We aren't really tried and true sports fans. We don't follow really any sporting events on tv or on the radio. However, when the Ducks are playing, we do pay a bit more attention to how their teams are doing. We had the opportunity to buy tickets for the first Lady Ducks basketball game (vs. the OSU Beavers) at the new Matthew Knight Arena. The tickets were only $2 each, so for a family of 4, that was a pretty good deal for entertainment.

Because it was a sold out game, we decided that we'd avoid the trouble of trying to find parking near the arena, and take our town's rapid transit system.

What we didn't know was that our RTS, which runs every ten minutes during the week, only runs every 30 minutes on the weekends. So when the bus came, a crowd of people crammed onto the bus and it sped off, and we thought "Oh, it'll be here in a few minutes. The picture above is of my son, waiting too long for the bus.

This is just my attempt at an "artsy" pic while we were waiting for the bus. My son also informed me that he was "done having pictures taken". Well it's not of his face, and he didn't have to pose, so he has nothing to worry about.

My daughter would have been so bored without her phone and Facebook! (My husband and I were on our phones with Facebook too!)

The cool new score board in the middle of the arena!

Dear Daughter sitting next to her friend and having a fun conversation! I love her smile!

Occasionally, there would be a sign on the scoreboard that read "MAKE NOISE", which my son loved! Permission to make noise is a great thing for him. So this is the "Noise Meter" to let us know how loud we were. Dear son, enjoyed making noise for a short time and then he was done, and he was ready for everyone else to be done as well.

We had some popcorn of course. Once it was all consumed, my husband put the bucket on our son's head, hoping that it would attract the attention of the camera guys go get him on the scoreboard screen. It didn't, but hey, we tried!

The final score.......the Ducks won!!

Like there was any doubt!

Happy New Year

2011-01-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone had a safe & happy new year's celebration!

I asked what everyone wanted for NYE snacks and Heather asked for Oreos and Nutter Butters. To her, that would be adequate. We also bought a tray of cut veggies, which we wound up not eating. In the past, we've had things for dipping into a fondue, however, since Kevin has switched to a vegan diet, we didn't do that. On top of that, I wound up coming down with a fever and napping for 3 hours in the late afternoon, and that necessitated just getting a pizza.

Just a little humor from our New Year's Eve. We had some Martinelli's sparkling apple-grape juice to ring in the new year with. However, my son refused to have any, because it's an "alcohol wanna-be" and he's planning to never drink alcohol (Momma has such a good boy!).

Here's to a happy & healthy new year, and praying for good things!

Lp

It's back again..........

2010-12-31T11:56:00.000-08:00

The flu bug is back again. Different symptoms than the ones we had last month, but once again, a holiday where we'll truly be relaxing and hanging out at home. It's the kind of bad feeling that makes a grown adult want their mama. Just to be there.

Now sick parents don't necessarily get the rest that they crave, because the house and kids won't take care of themselves.............or will they? My kids are old enough to fix their own lunches, pick up their own things and fold laundry. Mine are still able to do that, and then like their mother, rest between chores (except my son, who despite a sore throat, desperately wants to go somewhere today). I had planned to go out shopping for New Years treats for tonight, however, since I'd rather snuggle in a blanket and nap, and my husband isn't quite in the place at the moment, he offered to do that shopping for me and I really appreciate it.

This New Years Eve could very well see our kids staying up late and their parents already asleep.

Happy New Year!

Ep

Christmas Break is Almost Over.........

2010-12-29T23:16:00.000-08:00

And I guess I should get caught up before the new year starts.

So, a recap of the past month..........

I celebrated my 42nd birthday. The day was relaxing. I was served breakfast in bed by my husband and he did a great job with the gifts (including a pedicure, a 60 minute massage, and a Josh Groban CD)!

My daughter was in a play for our church's dessert theater. She didn't have a speaking part, but she gave a very good performance looking sad and forlorn. She called it her "Chad Dylan Cooper" look (anyone who watches "Sonny With a Chance" will know who that is).

Then along comes Christmas. The drum above was an ornament that I found to give to my husband (He really liked it!). Every year, I give my husband and kids each and ornament (which is something that my grandmother did for her family for as long as I can remember).

On Christmas Eve, we let the kids open on present. Usually, it's a game or a movie or both. This year, we brought home a Wii! We had talked about it for the past few years (since we bought a Game Cube). They sort of guessed what it was, and were thrilled when they opened the present. We let Heather set it up all on her own, and before we knew it, both kids were playing games together (not something that happens often).

And finally, the last event of the year. My friend had taken her daughters to get the cartilage of their ears pierced a couple of weeks ago. Heather had wanted to get hers done after that. So a few days after Christmas, she and I drove to the mall and had a Mother/Daughter cartilage piercing. She's pretty pleased with it. I think it's fun to have. I don't intend to get a lot of piercings. This one is enough. It didn't hurt that much which was good. I was a little nervous, about the same kind of nervousness that one has when going to get blood drawn. But it was quick and not that bad. Heather was happy that she got this one, but that she also wasn't going to do it again. The ears are a tad sore and only really noticeable when we accidentally bump them while pulling our hair back behind our ears, or rolling over on them when we're sleeping.

Start the new year with a new hole in your ear!

Happy New Year,
Ep

Day 3

2010-12-05T21:55:00.000-08:00

Well it was another day to just stay home. Kevin's feeling a bit better (not totally well, but he's further ahead in this bug than I am), so he took care of me today. He bought me a magazine, rubbed my feet, and made dinner. So today, I was able to really rest.

My son however, is feeling just dandy, and was talking or making his noises all day long and spinning in circles. Basically back to normal. I'm still too tired to deal with his "normal". Hopefully, tomorrow I will be.

Day 2 of Mom's "Sick Leave"

2010-12-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

I did venture out to the grocery store yesterday. It wasn't too bad, however, it did wear me out and when I came home, I was ready to lay down. I had sent a text to Kevin when I was ready to leave the store and by the time I arrived at home, he had the kids ready to come out and unload the car for me and then had them put the groceries away. Which was sooooo nice. He then, ventured out and picked up dinner for us. All this, and he's still sick too.

The ones who are feeling better and have the energy, yet still coughing, are the kids. They've been having a marathon of sorts of their favorite shows.

It looks like our house may be selling. We have an offer. It's looking like a possibility. So we're starting to look for a place to move to.

So, today is the second day of mandatory rest. I did venture out to Weight Watchers but didn't stay for the meeting. I did have a favorable weigh in, so that was a perk in my day.

Today, I either have no voice, or when I do have one, I sound like a barking seal. At some point today, I had to answer a question that my son asked and then he asked, "Why did you say that so softly?". I answered that I couldn't answer loudly.

So for now, I'm camped out on the couch watching "You've Got Mail" (my son came out after his room time, saw what I was watching and asked, "Have we passed the swearing yet?")

I Tried to Avoid it......

2010-12-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

but the bug that has been making my family sick, finally found me. I went to bed with a slight heavy feeling in my chest. I woke up in the wee hours this morning and that slight heaviness was heavier and I had a sore throat. So now, I am experiencing what every one else is. So I'm already thinking about what I need to do to in order for me to rest.

1. It is actually a grocery shopping weekend, and I do need to go to the store, but this time it'll be for easily prepared foods and paper plates. My husband still isn't feeling that great (these things seem to hit the adults much harder) and he won't feel like producing big meals. So easy meals are the way to go. Another thing I need to get are paper plates. Normally my son is in charge of the dishes, but he's been sick too, and even though he's feeling better, I don't feel like arguing with him about returning to that job right now.

2. I need to weigh in at Weight Watchers. This happens to be the week that they implement their new plan and under normal circumstances, I'd stay for the meeting. But I'll just weigh in tomorrow and then when I'm feeling better, I'll go to the "get started" or "refresher course" meetings that happen right after a regular one. I just don't want to sit in a room full of people hacking and coughing and "spreading the cheer".

3. Pick out some DVD's to watch, make some tea, grab a box of tissues and hang out in my room and not do anything.

The Bug That Has Been Going Around............

2010-12-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

has found some "R & R" around here.

Last Wednesday night, Kylin went to bed with a fever, so we were starting to wonder if half of our family would be staying home for Thanksgiving. However, by Thursday, he was feeling well, and his fever was gone. However, after the holiday, both of my kids and my husband came down with fevers and colds. So, I headed to the store and stocked up on the needed items to get us through this.

I did ask Kylin what kind of juice he wanted, and his answer was: 7-UP. Please don't blame that mistake on home education. The boy is just trying to trick me.

By lunchtime, they were feeling better, for some, voices were starting to return and sound normal again. So I made up some home made macaroni & cheese.

Doesn't that look yummy? I think so.........I could eat the whole pot...........but I won't.............because really..............it's for the children.

Due to the kids being on bedrest, we haven't had any school this week either......and they haven't really done any chores (I did those, because who feels like doing dishes or putting wet clothes in the dryer when you're head feels like it's too heavy for your neck to hold up?).

We've also been catching up on "Spongebob Squarepants". We've never bothered to watch this show, so Kevin downloaded it from Netflix so that we could see what the fuss was about. Ok, there isn't an ounce of anything educational about this cartoon, yet, it's still pretty funny!

Oh, and during all of this time of infirmity, this is one of the things keeping me charged and awake and going,

It looks like it's time to make another pot.......

Lp

Thanksgiving And A Few Lazy Days

2010-11-28T14:02:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to blog more often. However, there has been a lot going on due to the holidays, and getting ready to move. So, first, an update

-Our church is putting on a dessert theater production just before Christmas. Heather is in the play this year. So we've had a few play practices to drive to and those are about to increase.

-Our house has been on the market for over a month now. We've had a few showings. So far, no bites (unless you count the ridiculously low one that we received early on).

- We're still slowly packing and putting those things into storage. However, now that the holidays are here, we did have to go back and dig out a few Christmas decorations because we do like to keep things somewhat festive.

-Just before thanksgiving, we also had our first snow of the season.

Initially, the kids were excited about the snow, however it was discovered to be the icy kind and not the kind for snowman making. But it was pretty while it lasted (which was about a day).

-For Thanksgiving, we went to my sister's. She made the entire meal by herself, including 3 different pies (chocolate, pumpkin and apple-----all three were delicious!). When we first arrived, Nephew #1, age 3, found his buddy Heather and they were off to his room to play. Kylin checked out the family room where the toys were. Nephew #2, wasn't so sure about the unfamiliar adults who just arrived and hid behind a chair, and looked down at the floor, hoping that if he couldn't see his auntie, then she couldn't see him. He was more comfortable with the kids than he was with us. Heather spent the entire visit playing with her little cousins, so she really slept well that night. After we were home, and the kids were in bed, we watched "Planes, Trains, & Automobiles".

-We didn't venture out at all for "Black Friday". Part of me would like to try doing that, and the part of me that doesn't like crowds is happy to stay home. My daughter thinks that it would be a lot of fun. I'm thinking that I might actually try it next year, with my daughter. This year, the stores were open at 10PM on Thanksgiving night! Would a shopper going out to this be considered an "early bird" or a "night owl"? I have friends who took part in this late night event, and not returning home until mid afternoon the next day. That's insane...........but it sounds like fun, if you're with friends or daughters.

-Now that Thanksgiving is over, we seem to have caught a little cold and we've each been in various stages of feeling bad or feeling better but needing Kleenex. Twice now, we've had a lazy day around the house and I've been in my pj's past noon (today included). Sometimes it's just nice to have a day with very few demands. However, I do have some Christmas decorations that need to be put out..........and I do need to venture out and get a newspaper.

Lp

The Lonely Carnivore

2010-10-08T20:44:00.000-07:00

Well maybe not totally lonely.

Ten years ago, my husband and I decided to try out a vegetarian diet. He had some issues with acid reflux and we thought that perhaps that by trying the "no meat" route for 6 months, maybe the reflux would subside. It did for a little bit.   By the end of 6 months, my husband was pretty much sold out on this way of eating and wanted the children to be vegetarian too. So, because it wasn't immoral or unethical, and not totally unhealthy, I didn't argue. In fact, I stopped eating meat also because I didn't want to cause a rebellion amongst the children. So I learned just what substitutes were out there for meat. I learned how to use those substitutes in regular recipes, and over the years, we've been alright.

However, I've never been a vegetarian at heart, only in practice.   I come from a family with farming roots. During the first 8+ years of my life, my father helped run my grandfather's dairy farm. We had cows around our house most of the time. The cows that didn't like to stay in the pasture, wound up in our freezer, and on our dinner table. We had beef nearly every night.   So years later, when I stopped eating meat, there was concern from some in my family (my grandma mostly) that we weren't getting any protein. Well the meat substitutes were soy based, so there was protein.   Dairy was still part of the menu (however, my husband has gone vegan a few times, and he is doing the vegan way as I type this).

So as of 3 weeks ago, I stopped being a vegetarian.

So that leaves me as the only non-vegetarian in the family.   I'm still cooking meatless for the four of us. Last weekend, I think in an attempt to show that it was ok with him if I eat meat, my husband offered to take me to a Wendy's for a burger. Well, I'm on Weight Watcher's, and a burger would have been too many points for me, and quite frankly, I wasn't in the mood for one. Plus, I hadn't eaten meat in front my family in several years.

I wasn't sure when the opportunity would come up to for me to break back into the carnivorous world. As it turned out, today was the day. It's Friday night, and a payday, which means it's "takeout night". My husband wasn't feeling good today, and he's the one who usually procures the dinner for "takeout night". The overall request was for sandwiches from Subway. The kids and their father had their usual "Veggie Delight" sandwich.

My sandwich:

Turkey! Mmmmm..................

Ep

Empty Boxes

2010-09-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

We're currently in the early stages of moving. Early, in that we're packing all of the decorations and extra items that we aren't using (for example: all of my bakeware is packed because my oven doesn't work). So we've been asking around to friends, and friends of friends and local grocery stores for boxes. When the boxes were first brought home they were stacked in front of the house. It didn't take long before this happened:

Oscar,

And I found this later on,

Fonzie (I will be washing those grocery bags before I use them again..........just in case anyone is looking at this photo and getting grossed out that my son's cat is using them as a comforter or a pillow.)

Hmmmm......When moving day comes, I wonder if this would be a viable way to move the cats? Just kidding :)

Ep

Our First Day of the New School Year

2010-09-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

I have a high schooler now.
And I have another middle-schooler, at least according to his age, he is one.

I had read about a tradition of another home-schooling family (Sprittibee), in which they take their children out for a "back to school" breakfast on the first day of school.   So we did that last year, and had plans for that this year as well. Because of limited finances both last year and this one, breakfast was only for the children, and it came from McDonald's (a.k.a. "Micky D's" or "Mac & Dee's Roadhouse" around here).

When I woke up this morning and came out into the livingroom, Kylin was on the couch, dressed and ready to go (I wasn't). Heather came out soon after and she dressed for pictures (because she knew I would take them and she didn't want to look like she had just rolled out of bed).    The plan was, for us to leave as soon as Kevin left for work (he took the bus this morning so that we could have the car).

When the time came for us to leave, my son was out of the door and waiting by the car, and I was still inside the house, looking for the keys. I couldn't find them anywhere, so I finally sent Kevin a text asking if he knew where they were.   As it turned out, he had them. So he got back on the bus and came home. While we waited for him and the keys to arrive, the kids decided to get started on their schoolwork early.

So here is my highschool gal

and here is my middle-schooler boy

When my husband arrived home with the keys, we then took him to work and finally made it to McDonald's for this breakfast

I probably would have ordered a hashbrown for myself (because I LOVE potatoes), but they tend to stick with me longer than I like.

What I really wanted was this:

"Mama's Little Helper"

So by 9:30 I think, the kids were finally having something to eat

Pay no attention to the table, it has just become a catch-all for a family starting to pack for a future move (and a boy who likes to draw a lot of pictures and then not put his supplies away).

The weather seemed to know that it was the first day of school as well. We went from decent sunny weather yesterday, to rain all day today. I didn't mind too much as it gave me an excuse to make chili and the kids had some hot cocoa!

Eventually, I'll get back to posting about our Seattle trip, and also about the move that I just mentioned...........when I get another free moment.

Lp

Are We Old?

2010-09-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we were watching "Live With Regis & Kelly", and apparently a viewer had e-mailed the show stating that Regis wouldn't have such a hard time dialing numbers for their trivia contest, if he had a rotary phone. So, that brought the question out of my daughter, "What's a rotary phone?". Did someone just slap me with an "old" label!

So I posted that comment as a status on my Facebook page and that brought on other comments. I was reminded of the days when we had party lines. I remember trying to call my grandma or my dad, and discovering that there were other people having a conversation on my phone.    Then someone commented on how when they worked in a thrift shop and a record player was brought in. Apparently the 17 year old co-worker didn't know how to put the needle on the record.

My husband and I have told our kids about our childhoods, in which we didn't have personal computers (I didn't, but my husband did when he was about 15), and our televisions only brought in 1-3 channels and we didn't have cable (as Jeff Foxworthy once said about those days, "When the President was on, your night was shot!").   When I was 12, my mother put our black & white tv in our pastor's garage sale, so I wasn't watching any channel for several years (until I had my own apartment and my own tv, and soon after that, my mom and stepfather acquired another tv and it was ok to have in the house again).

My kids have heard of records, but I don't think that they've seen them.   My daughter likes to ask, "What are those?" everytime they're mentioned.

So because they don't know what these things are, does that make us "old". I'd rather use the word "classic".

Lp

Our Weekend in Seattle---Part 2, Heading North

2010-08-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

So, now that my purse was packed, as our suitcases. I thought that we would be able to get away with taking one suitcase, however after packing what I needed (for anything that could happen), I realized that there wouldn't be any room for my husband's clothes. So I dug out another suitcase. It was smaller than mine, but I've noticed that men don't pack as many things as women do (I went on a trip with my dad once, and all he packed was his shaving kit, a coffee maker and a fresh shirt and underwear for the next day......just the necessities). Women pack for any occasion or weather change that may come up, so I needed that larger suitcase for myself :)

I was up late the night before, making sure that we had everything we needed, and that the kids would have everything they needed for their stay at my friend's house, and making sure that the cats would be taken care of etc. I think that I finally went to bed near midnight (all of that hard work and stressing paid off too because we didn't forget anything! I was a very good packer).

I woke up at around 5AM as to get a shower in. We have 4 people and a water heater that needs about an hour to heat the water between showers. The ladies go first, because we have hair and we like to kind of fix it up a bit, kind of, sort of (well maybe not for a road trip, but I wanted mine to be clean and dry at least, I didn't want my spouse offended by the filthy chick in the passenger's seat).

We took the kids to my friend's house, said our good-byes, thanked my friend again for taking them for the weekend, and headed off to find some fast food breakfast.

Our first stop was a McDonald's. Since we don't eat meat, we usually order the Sausage McMuffin with Egg, minus the sausage. We apparently only ordered the Sausage McMuffin minus the sausage (we didn't ask for the one with egg I guess because what we discovered, once on the road again, was this:

That's right, a grilled cheese English Muffin. We had a good laugh about that and figured that it was probably the equivalent of what we'd normally eat at home.

Then we found a local coffee stand for our "morning fuel"

And we were headed North...

I lived on a dairy farm when I was little, so I like to see cows grazing in the pasture.

Then there was the rain of hay and it's source (windshield wipers are of no use here)

Once in Portland, we found the sign leading to our destination! Excitement is building! And apparently, so were rain clouds, because once we crossed over into Washington, the rain started coming down.

Not only was excitement building, but so was the need to use the bathroom. So our first stop in Washington was at a Winco in Vancouver...........to use their bathroom. My apologies to Winco for not buying anything, but thank you for the clean bathrooms! Just a recommendation or two. A door on the bathroom would be a good idea, and duct tape isn't adequate for holding hand dryers on the walls.

We finally made it to our hotel in Federal Way, with about 2 hours before needing to leave for the show. As soon as we entered the lobby, we noticed other fans of the group. Other than the time that we went to Portland to see a documentary about this band, I hadn't seen so many fans in one place (and that was about to change later in the evening). I forgot to take pictures of our room and by the time I thought to do it, my husband was already napping in the bed and I was putting on my contacts and sprucing up for the show. However, it was a really nice room!

So, that was the trip, and my next post will probably be about the show............

Ep

Our Weekend in Seattle---part 1, Packing the Purse!

2010-08-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Kevin's favorite band was planning to perform near Seattle, last weekend. For the first time, he asked me to if I'd like to go. So I said that I would. Before I married my husband, I had never heard of the band. I remember seeing a record album cover at some point in the 80's but had no idea or interest to know whose record it was for. So when I married my husband, he was no longer listening to them, or really any other secular music. So I didn't hear or see anything related to them. So, since then, things have changed, and he listens to this group again, as well as several others. So, in the past 7 years, I've heard more about this band and it's members. So, when he talks about them, I have a better idea as to what or who he's talking about. I've heard their music, and they play really, REALLY well, however, it's not really music that I listen to. If I listen to anything secular, it's usually something that I listened to in my highschool/college years.................or, the Jonas Brothers (thanks to my daughter, lol). Mostly what I do listen to is on the Christian radio stations.

I never went to that many concerts and most of them were Christian. The last secular one that I went to see was for Weird Al Yankovic at the county fair. The last two Christian shows I went to, were in enclosed buildings, and they were so loud that the bodies of the audience absorbed the volume, and some of the opening acts, literally screamed at us. I had heard that the venue for this latest show was open on the sides and back, so I felt that I probably wouldn't be blown totally out of the place, and I learned that even though this group did scream out their songs in the early years, they really didn't do that anymore. But, in any case, I thought that I would make sure that my purse was ready for almost anything during the show (my husband wasn't so sure that I should bring it, but most men aren't carrying the things that we women are. A purse is our home away from home as it has the basic necessities to keep our lives from falling apart..

So, here's what I packed, and who knows, it might help other future inexperienced concert goers (one never knows............)

Yes! Earplugs. I wound up not using these because I was concerned that I might not hear anything at all. The gal who frisked me and checked my purse (before I boarded the shuttle to the venue) laughed when she saw these.

Ok, don't laugh at the brand of granola bars that I bought. They're low cal, and a nice substitute for the fried food at the venue, if one is trying to trim down.

How did we survive with out this stuff when we were kids and went to the lake and the only bathrooms were not the kind with flushing toilets or running water? Always good to have when you go to a venue and you don't know if maintenance has adequately filled the soap dispensers in the bathroom.

I was wearing my contacts to the show, that's the only explanation I need.

I didn't take any pictures of the show with my phone (I used my camera to take about 4.............my husband took many, many more). I carry this everywhere so my daughter can text me if they need me (but she was having too much fun with her friends to send me anything, so she didn't need me after all).

It's summer, and I assumed that it would be sunny, and that I would need these. However, once we crossed the border from Oregon into Washington, the sky became cloudy, and it started to rain, and continued to do so off and on for the rest of the day (and the day after that, so I didn't need these after all)

Hey, I may be in my 40's, and the rain kind of flattened my hair, but a girl still wants to look cute & pretty for her guy at a concert!

More posts about this trip to come!

Lp

Who, me? Apologize?

2010-07-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my son spent the latter half of the morning playing with his model train set, out in the garage. It provides a quieter home for the rest of us when he does that.

(I realize that I've used this photo before, but he's wearing the same shirt as he did yesterday and he is playing with the trains!)

So at lunch time, I fixed their chicken burger sandwiches and set the lunch on the table. I called out to the garage to let the young engineer know that his lunch was ready. Normally, he'd say, "coming" and be at the table in no time. Not this time. No, this time I was told, "I'll be there in awhile". So I said that he needed to come to the table right now, before his lunch is cold (which would bring on complaining if that happened). So he reluctantly comes in and sits down, and then asks me, "Mom, have you apologized for interrupting what I was doing?"

Uh, no, I make no apologies for refusing to starve my kid!

Lp

My Girl is Home!!!

2010-07-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry that I didn't take a picture of her getting off of the bus. By the time I arrived at the church, she was off of the bus and had her luggage and was ready to go home. She had a touch of sunburn on her face, and she'd had a long week. She wound up being sick off and on at camp all week. This was also the first year that she had a cell phone with her, so we were texting back and forth all week. If the week was rough for her, the one benefit from camp is that she was so glad to come home and see her brother, and us.

Lp

Summer...........So Far........

2010-07-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

So now that the "protesting season" is over, there have been several other things keeping our summer busy.

So one of the first things that I did, and I was in the mood to do until my muscles needed to recover, was to pull weeds in the flowerbed. Then I found some perennials (and a few annuals) and a bag of bark, and made a 3 foot section look pretty. There are many more weeds to pull, and flowers to plant, and I'll take care of them, a section at a time.

Then, there was a trip to see my grandma and celebrate her 92nd birthday, in the area where I grew up. Before I left, I went to the site where my grandparents used to have a dairy. and took some pictures. There used to be another building on this site in front of the white building where the machinery and the cooler were located. One of the most prominent memories from when I was little was being told to wear shoes (red top/ black rubber boots....year round) and being told to watch out for wet areas or puddles as it could be caustic soda, which was acidic and could burn the skin. My dad came home a few times with some nasty burns from that stuff. Yikes! To describe it would just not please the imagination of the reader!

Then, there is the summer ritual for kids everywhere......camp! Our church is having camp this month and my girl has been looking forward to this since June. Thanks to us being busy with the road renaming business, there were many opportunities for her to watch her brother, so she earned most of her money that way, and a donation from her grandparents helped too. We did all of the summer camp shopping (Do we have enough t-shirts & shorts? Does she need a new swimsuit? etc). I bought snacks for her to take with her to give out as "bribes" to the cabin inspectors there. When the day came for her to leave for camp, I think that I received one hug good bye and she was on the bus, anxious to leave (however, this is our first year of her being at camp with her own phone, and I've been getting a lot of text messages from her all week).

So with her being gone all week, we only had one child at home. What does a younger brother at home do with his time, without his sister at home to play with, or tick him off?

Well there's time in the garage with model trains...........

Videogame time.........

(and a little "Phineas & Ferb" to fill in the rest of the time)

Swinging and burning some energy at the park...

I think that the park made him the happiest. He was able to run all over. Then about a half hour after I took this picture, someone was smoking pot nearby and the smell was rather strong. So we thought that it was time to go before the boy started to say something out loud like "People shouldn't be smoking!".

So we then went to the store and restocked our Oreo and chip supply (no, the smell from the park didn't give us the "Munchies", we just all have a sweet tooth and like salty food) and took the boy home.

More on our summer, as it progresses...............stay tuned

The Protester's Follow-up........and other things..........

2010-07-10T12:59:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I posted a blog about how our governor had decided to change a state highway, after a friend who had donated to his campaign, at the taxpayer's expense (during a time when he was telling our state lawmakers that we had to cut back on everything else during this recession). Since then, my husband and the other co-founders of a group to stop it, started gathering signatures to get approval to put an initiative on the November ballot (they had no problem getting the 1,000 signatures for that.......especially if you go to a Tea Party rally on Tax Day). Then, came a 30 day waiting period while the signatures are verified, and the Attorney general approves the ballot initiative, and then the 10 day period for anyone to complain about it. When all was said and done, and we were given the green light to collect the 83,000 signatures, we had one day to do it. We were given the "okay" to collect, one day before the deadline to have them in. So, Mr. P. (my husband) and the other organizers, really had to be creative with how they could collect so many in such a short time.

So in the time leading up to "the day", they:
~bought a banner featuring the name of their group and web address, as well as the date of the signature drive.
~spent a few days, holding that banner on the overpass that crossed over the highway in question, waiving & yelling.
~were interviewed on the morning radio program several times.

~because this was a statewide signature drive, and because they did have an online petition option (print it out, sign it and send it in), they rented post office boxes in 5 cities where those closest to them could mail them to us faster.
~also had volunteers (including me) gathering signatures in front of post offices all around town.

After a full day of signature gathering, and making trips to the post office boxes, we only had 1,117 signatures. So Mr. P and company, took those signatures to the Secretary of State's office (they couldn't accept them as there obviously weren't enough) and then to the Governor's office with a handwritten note, so that he could see, just how many people were opposed to this idea.

So, what do we do now? Well, Mr. P, and his co-organizers are now running for office (two of them are running for State Representative and one is running for State Senator).

It's interesting, in that we had no idea, when this started, that the road we were fighting for, would lead to this.

How Do You Get a Tall Boy to Practice Self Control?

2010-06-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

You bribe, er, motivate him with ice cream! Kevin started this with Kylin a few months ago, in that if he had 21 days of "Good Reports", then we would take him to Sonic for the frozen treat of his choice. The first time that he succeeded was after 21 days of those good reports. However, that last 7 days were really a struggle for him. So, we made it a two week deal.

Tonight, he achieved his "Good Report" prize!

So here's the happy boy. He's had dinner, and now he wants to fill up on a Reese's Sonic Blast! (It took me at least 3 tries to get him to smile like he was happy and not give me one of his goofy faces. At least he didn't stick his tongue out this time)

Beulah Land!!

I was very good and had my 4 point ice cream cone (Anyone on Weight Watchers will know what I'm talking about)

He has the prize!!

It's also pretty cool to be the sister of someone who earns trips for any frozen treat!

So long Sonic! We'll be back, to indulge our sweet tooth, another day (hopefully in two more weeks!)

Ep

Two Sisters

2010-06-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Today, we had a rare treat. The kids and I met up with my grandma (the lady on the right) and her sister (the lady on the left), her daughter, their niece and her daughter. My grandma, Theda, is originally from Texas and her sister, Bessie, still lives there. These days, they don't get to see each other very much. My grandma is in her early 90's and doesn't travel as much anymore. Aunt Bessie is a little younger ( and a few inches taller) and she isn't traveling as much either. She flew out to her the state that her daughter lives in, and then her daughter drove her up here to visit.

You know, there are many folks who believe in population control and that having just 2 kids is more than enough (however, if those two kids are of the same gender, then it's ok to have more until you get th opposite), or if you have reached your 40's, you should stop. Now if my great-grandparents had followed that logic, these two sweet and fun ladies wouldn't be here (and neither would I for that matter). You see, they are the fifth and seventh out of seven children. Their parents started off with two children, a son and a daughter, and it was that way for about 10 years. Then suddenly, they started having children again and within a few years added five more. I think that there is 21 years between the oldest and the youngest. Aunt Bessie was 5 when she became an aunt for the first time. Over the years, all of the children married and had children of their own. . The cousins age range from the first to the last grandchild is about 40 years. Anyway, these days, my grandma and her sister are the two surviving siblings, and they are very special to us. Bessie starts her journey home tomorrow and I bet they'll be talking on the phone on Sunday (or Saturday)

(I would type more, but my computer is being slow and my husband is in bed nearly asleep and it's getting late..and I "need" to check my Facebook...haha)

Where Were You Five Years Ago?

2010-06-07T23:14:00.000-07:00

I saw this question posted at "The Joyful Journey" blog so I thought that I'd post my answer to this same question.

Hmmmm....five years ago...my kids were still shorter than me. My son was 7, and not ready to read (now he literally reads everything...out loud!). My daughter was still somewhat of a little girl and now she's a teenager starting highschool in the fall. My husband and I were still in our 30's then as well.

On a more personal note, but with getting into specifics, five years ago, I was living with a lot of uncertainty in my life and and wondering, every day, if it would end on a good note or a bad one. My life was going in a direction that I hadn't planned on, and I found myself feeling like I had been forced onto the scariest, fastest roller-coaster in the amusement park, when I was only in line for the kiddie one. Everyday, trying to keep things calm and normal for my family while I was being whipped around. Now, I don't have as much uncertainty, however I deal with a lot more stress than I ever have. Things have slowly improved, and hopefully, in five years, I can look back and report that things have improved even more (I'm praying that they do anyway).

Check back in 5 years and see!

Sunday Morning Donuts!

2010-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

This morning, I decided to make donuts for the family (usually I buy muffins for the kids Sunday breakfast, but money it tight this week and I had the ingredients and I had been wanting to make these).   This recipe is found on The Pioneer Woman's website.

I had to start last night as the dough needed to sit for a few hours. So I mixed the dough last night, at around 10, while my husband was watching "House" (this episode was a bit intense for me, so I was glad to be in the kitchen).

This morning, I woke up at around 6:30 (without the alarm, which has become the norm since I had the kids), and started rolling out the dough and then searching for something to cut out donuts with (which I don't have so that means a shopping trip next payday).   I finally used a drinking glass and the opening of a water bottle lid (improvising!).    Then I laid the flat donuts on a wax covered cookie sheet and covered them. Because the dough had been in the refridgerator all night and I needed it to be warm and rising, I set the cookie sheet on the griddle and set it to "warm". I put the donut holes on a plate, covered, and set it on the coffee pot which was at the time, making the coffee.

By 7:30, the kids were up and Heather was waiting patiently for the donuts to rise. Kylin came in and wanted to know if they were ready, and why they weren't ready. Then he went into his room and sat on his bed.   I checked on him later and he was just staring out of his window. Then he said, "You should have gotten up earlier".   Yeah, yeah, yeah.........sure.

Finally about an hour later, the donuts were ready to fry, and I had told him that once this time had come it would go very quickly.   There was a bit of questioning as to why I didn't make any chocolate frosting, but he will forgive me this time because, it's my first time making these.   Of course once they were finished and glazed, he devoured two of them! So hopefully he thinks now that they were worth the wait.

My husband liked them enough to compliment them on his Facebook page. So I think that I am more than welcome to make them again! It may be awhile though because they are so good, that I could easily use up all of my daily Weight Watcher's points eating them!

Very tasty!!

Lp

Feline Friday: "Oscar"

2010-05-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Wordless Wednesday: Aslan (or as my son calls him: "Mr. Poop")

2010-05-19T14:31:00.000-07:00

I really don't have much to say today, so I thought I'd share this:

Doesn't he look a little happy? (and yes, I do realize that the title of this post is "Wordless Wednesday" but I felt the need to say something, at least give the picture some acknowledgement).
Lp

The Birthday Party "Rules"

2010-05-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is my boy. He will be turning 12 soon, and we've been planning his birthday party. Now due to his autism, his mind processes and plans differently than ours. He's very "obey the law or rules" type of person. However, he's very into everyone else obeying the "laws" that HE makes. So today, he made a list of rules for his party.
Keep in mind that what he wrote has been influenced by what he's heard in the news lately, and from reading and making "Neighborhood Watch" signs for our house.

"BIRTHDAY PARTY WARNING!
Birthday Partys are Required by Permission Please whrite for who & the time&the Date the Month & the year & the Place & your R.S.V.P. Zipcode & there Adress & there city & there State & there Zipcode & the person who has the party have to be a Legal Resident Under property Laws. & Non Legal Residents are Prohibited in birthday Partys. having Non permision birthday Partys you can be arrested or Prosecuted. it is Legal to have a birthday Party with Permision. having Partys without Permision is illegal Violators will be Prosecuted."

Isn't that the welcoming party that you want to be invited too? If I didn't personally know the author of this piece, I'd be puzzled, but since I do, I have to chuckle a bit. Just one of the many, many unusual things that he'll come up with.

Lp

A Sunday at Home

2010-05-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here surfing the net and trying to make improvements to how my blog looks (trying out new things) on a Sunday morning, during a time when I would normally be leaving for church. Before I go any further, I will say that the picture of the rose above is huge! It's from our yard (last year), and to represent spring, I thought it was appropriate. It just really stands out doesn't it?

So as I stated, I'm here instead of going to church, and that is because I went to church last night. My daughter & I are teaching 2 & 3 year olds during the Saturday night service this month. So we can sleep in for both days of the weekend and not just Saturday. After August, I'll need to leave that job because my son will be graduating to the Jr. High group in the fall, and because of his autism, he really can't sit in the regular church service alone.

So it's Sunday morning, and we're home and ready for it to be our son's bedtime already. This kid is all over the place looking for old pieces of cardboard on which he had drawn signs, as well has the large fat pens he used to draw with. He can't find them, and he doesn't look very hard. This is a boy who will walk into a cluttered room, scan it and then declare, "It's not here!". He'll sort of ask, in a demanding tone, that we help him find them. However, when we help him, he stops looking. If he doesn't find what he's looking for, then he'll declare that it/they were stolen (yes, robbers came in, and stole cardboard and markers and left all of the electronics). Then if he still can't find them, he borders on having a meltdown which includes tears. So we as parents are constantly trying to help him stay focused, and think things through and not to get discouraged, and remind him that he needs to control himself and watch his attitude or he could lose his "good report" and his trip to Sonic in a week and a half.

So after typing that whole paragraph, the boy finally found the markers and the cardboard. His sister had been using the markers on a project in her room (not on the walls!). So now all is well in his world, at 10AM.

Now, I'm debating on whether or not, it would be wise to take a walk. The sun was shining when we woke up, but now the skies are cloudy and in Oregon, there's always a good chance of rain (light rain would be ok though).

Happy Sunday!

Baked Potatoes in the Crock Pot

2010-04-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

I've had a craving for baked potatoes and remembering that my mom & step-father made them years ago in the crock pot, I thought I'd try it.

So here is my crock pot. Obviously not a current one with no sign of stainless steel or white ceramic. This was actually my grandparents' crock pot, which they bought when I was about 4 or 5, however it still works as if it were new. I've been married for nearly 15 years, however the first time I actually used it was last Christmas to keep scrambled eggs warm for brunch.

Then here are my bag of potatoes. I don't buy the large bakers in bulk because that is just way too much potato when one includes and toppings and/or sides...........at least it is for us.

Then we have our selection of potatoes. We only need a small amount, because our last name isn't Duggar (by the way, I love their show!).

First of all, it's always good to wash the potatoes (and I realize that I'm not talking to novices). I used a dish towel because I currently don't have a vegetable brush. So that's on the shopping list for next payday and I can go to our local kitchen & garden store (or as my daughter calls it "The Hippie Store") for a really good one.

Next, prick your potatoes all over with a fork. If you don't, you'll have mashed potatoes.........on your ceiling.

......a bit of foil......

Well, I think you know where I'm heading here........

That's right, wrap them up like a present............

Place them in the crock pot, put the lid on, and .............

cook on "High" for 2 1/2 -4 hours.

Everyone except my son really liked the potatoes (my son isn't really a potato fan, and he's really particular about what he eats......even after a "try-me" bite).

So that's my story of introducing the crock pot into my meal preparation. I found a couple of websites with scads of recipes that I'm interested in trying (one site even has a recipe for making playdough in it. At this time, there's not a high demand for playdough here).

Lp

Our "Political" Venture

2010-04-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

A little over one month ago, something happened in our county, that unexpectedly changed whatever plans we had for our lives for the next 5 weeks following:

The powers-that-be in our state (Oregon) and city we live in, decided to rename a long stretch of highway that runs through our town.

Now, originally, we had heard on the news, that on the following day, the city counsel & the mayor would be voting on whether to change the name from it's current name, to the name of a former state transportation commissioner, a prominent businessman in our town, who had passed away a little over a year ago. When we first heard about it, we didn't think that it would happen, and didn't seem as concerned. However, on the following day, we heard on the news, that the city counsel and the mayor had indeed decided to change the name.    Well we didn't agree with that idea, especially when we found out that the change was going to cost a quarter of a million dollars, of tax payers money, during a time of recession in our state, when money is tight and other roads are needing to be repaired. When we are being asked to vote to raise taxes to maintain roads, paying for road renaming (when we have plenty of other roads, bridges, bike paths etc that are new and nameless) just didn't seem right.

So, my husband, is a regular on Facebook and he created a page for those who were opposed to the name change and wanted to be a "fan". The fan base grew rather quickly (and my husband brought in a co-admin for the page) and within one week, someone came up with the idea of staging a protest, standing on an overpass over this stretch of highway. So on a Saturday afternoon, probably 15 people (maybe more) showed up with signs (some of which my son made) and protested for a couple of hours (I didn't go as I had told the kids that I would take them to a movie and I didn't want to blow them off). Well this protest caught the attention of one of our local news stations, so that night, my husband was on TV.    By this time, there were over 600 fans on the page. After this protest, there was talk of having another one at another area of this highway, on the following Monday ("Have fun storming the castle!").     Then on the following Friday & Saturday, there were protests again.

Now, I am not a protester, I don't normally get involved in anything political.    However, I did go to support my husband on this issue (numbers help) and I don't agree with the name change.   By this time, the fan base for the page had reached over 2,000 I think.

So, for the Saturday protest, my husband had our son make a new sign (maybe one day I can post a blog giving tips on how to protest comfortably and effectively, hahahaha).

My son made this sign too and it's the sign I hid behind (because this is really out of character for me, but my husband wanted to take this picture of me).

And here's my husband, with his new sign. What you don't see, and I wasn't ready for, was his use of a bicycle horn, and his hollering. I have never heard him make so much noise before (considering that we're always telling our noisy son to quiet down). So this was new to me! (and for being in this protest, and the one on the day before, I was treated to a dinner at the Olive Garden and a movie)

So as the weeks progress, our local paper started publishing revelations that there were some possibly unethical arrangements between the family of the new namesake, and the governor and the transportation commission.    Then, the governor and the commission decided to change the name partially and only put two new signs on the highway, one at each end, costing only $1,500 of the taxpayer's money, and change the rest of the signs when they've "worn out".   Well, who is to say that the commision or department of transportation won't decide that the signs will have worn out within the next year and still be spending the $250,000 that was originally planned?

Kevin and his co-admin started gathering signatures to have an initiative put on the ballot, to prevent this from happening in the future (anywhere else in the state) without the citizens of the state being able to vote on it.

The new plan was going to be voted on by the transportation commission on April 20th in a coastal town about an hour and a half away from our town and the road in question.    Several from the Facebook group (which by now boasts nearly 9,000 fans) planned to go as well.

And what kind of homeschooling parent would I be, if I couldn't turn this into a field trip?   Not every kids has the chance to see "Robert's Rules of Order" in action, supposedly.

On the afternoon of the 20th, we gathered at a local department store with about 12-15 other folks from the Facebook page, and everyone wrote on the car windows what our cause was.

Now, Heather looks like she's cool with everything. Really, she's tuned into her iPhone, listening to the Jonas Brothers and trying to tune out the song "Convoy" and the various 70's & 80's tunes from her parents' childhood that were blaring from the CD player. Kylin was just happy to be going to the coast and despite the weather (rainy) and being told that we probably wouldn't be going to the beach, in his mind, he was going to the coast and that means beach. To quote Mr. Bean, "To the beach!"

One of the news vans from our town, following us to the meeting (because by now, this was a news worthy topic).

I think that our two kids were the only ones at this shindig.

After opposing testimony from about 10 people and testimony from one person in favor, who was also an employee of the family of the namesake, the transportation commission voted in favor of the name change. So, that was a disappointment to this convoy.

After the meeting, several of us from the FB group, met at Mo's for an early supper/snack. For those who have never been to Oregon or at least the coast, Mo's is famous for their clam chowder. Our family hadn't eaten there in several years because we don't eat any kind of meat, and the primary purpose of this restaurant is to serve seafood. We were able to find something meatless on the menu however, so we didn't starve.

After our dinner, our son was very persistent about going to the beach. It was not "go to the beach weather" at all. It was so windy that it was shaking our van, and the rain that was coming down, was actually coming in at an angle. The rest of us in the car, really had no desire to go outside. However, Kylin, in his mind, was disregarding the weather. We were at the coast and we must go to the beach. So we found an area where one didn't have to climb over a dune (in the wind & rain) to see the ocean. Kevin ventured out with the boy so he could have his wish fulfilled. Heather & I waited in the car, and stayed dry. At one point, we did receive a text from Kevin that just read "Brrrr!". After about 20 minutes, they came back, and Kylin's shoes were wet because he was close enough for the water to come up on shore and soak his feet.

So after a long day, dealing with this political venture (and in Kylin's case, wet feet), we headed home. Below is one of the signs we came across (several times) on the trip:

Interesting, when you consider why we were making this trip!

LP

Miss "Fonzie"

2010-04-19T22:26:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted any blog and since I have some recent pictures of Fonzie, I thought that I'd go ahead and post them as well as the little story of how we acquired her.

About 3 years ago, when we already had 3 young cats, this black & white cat started showing up in our yard regularly. It tended to like to nap under our shrubs a lot. We also were keeping our cats' food outside as well, so that may have been the main reason that this new cat kept showing up.

One Saturday, Kevin and Heather thought that they could coax her to come into the house and hopefully make her a pet.

Once she was in our home, it didn't take her long to figure out that she had it made, and from that time, she has made herself at home anywhere and everywhere in our house!

Obviously, by now, she has acclimated to her new home very well, as she seems to feel free to lay in our window sill all of the time (the problem with her sleeping in the windowsill is that after she falls asleep, she falls out of the window, unplugging our DVD player on the way down, after which, she jumps right back up to repeat the process 5-10 minutes later).

Heather gave this new cat the name of "Fonzie". I have no idea what made her think of this name (especially since the cat is female) as she's never seen an episode of "Happy Days". Heather just thought it sounded good.

"Are you still here with that camera? Go away, you bother me!"

(really, she isn't as mad as she looks, however my father-in-law will pester her sometimes to see if she'll become as mad as she looks).

Lp

Garlic Pasta (or cooking dinner on a Thursday night)

2010-03-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I made one of versions of pasta that Kevin and I like, and the kids are ok with. I found the recipe years ago in a cookbook we were given as a wedding present (always helpful to a new bride). I've made it so many times over the years, that I don't really need to consult the cookbook anymore. It is really simple to prepare, and, because when I post on Facebook that I'm cooking something in particular, some of my friends ask for the recipe. So I thought I'd try posting here on my blog, of what I use to prepare tonight's meal (and some of the other things that were going on while I was cooking).

So here are the basic ingredients that I use
1/4 C of Olive Oil
3 garlic cloves
linguine (enough to feed your family, you know how much or how little they'll consume).
1/2 C of Basil and Parsley combined (I didn't have any freshly grown herbs on hand tonight, but these bottled ones will be fine for tonight).

Just as I was getting started, my son came in and was rubbing his hands all over the counter exclaiming "The counter is clean!" (after I put his artwork away, then yes, it was clean).

So, my water is boiling, and the pasta is going in.............

and my son came in and turned on the fan so the steam from the water wouldn't set off the smoke alarm (it only happened once and it was caused by steam in the bathroom after a shower. Ever since, he's been concerned about steam setting off the alarm).

While you are waiting for your noodles to cook..........have a cookie (and if you want to enjoy it in peace, wait until the kids are in the other room)!

After your noodles are cooked, drained and in the serving bowl of your choice, heat 1/4 Cup of olive oil in a small pan.........

mince 3 cloves of garlic and add to the heated oil, just long enough for the garlic to become a light brown color (if you leave it in too long, it will turn black very quickly!). Then pour the oil with the garlic over the pasta and toss the noodles a bit.

Then combine 1/4 Cup of Parsley, 1/4 Cup of Basil, & 1/8 teaspoon of pepper, and add it to the pasta and toss the noodles again (it will be very noticeable if you don't).

I'm in mid toss here :)

While I was tossing my noodles, my husband and kids were spending "quality" time, defacing pictures in our yellow pages! Who needs TV when you have the phone book for entertainment?

So, now dinner is ready. The recipe calls for Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on the pasta and any other time, that is what I would use. However, I was out of Parmesan, so I used Mozzarella cheese. No one seemed to mind. However, Parmesan is the better cheese for this dish.

A word to the wise: be sure not to smile at others, until you've brushed your teeth and checked them with a mirror!

2010-03-05T14:57:00.000-08:00

So, my husband and I had a special date yesterday. Usually our dates include dinner at the Olive Garden and a movie (when money is tighter, it could be dinner at Subway and a movie at the discount theater). But, this night, was a special spendier date night be date night, because it meant a trip to Portland (2 hours north of us), and a show featuring Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, and Larry the Cable Guy. It was also a rare date night in that, after the show, we didn't have to hurry home to relieve a sitter (our kids were spending the night with a grandparent)! Gee, what could we do with that "free time"? Kevin had searched the internet for a new restaurant that we could try and found one called "The Old Wives Tale" (I asked him if "young wives" could still eat there. He never did comment on that). The plan was to eat at the new restaurant before the show. However, due to an accident on the freeway that held up traffic, we were delayed and arrived in time to find a parking space, find some fast food at one of the concession booths and then find our seats. The show was great, and a lot of fun!

So anyway, this isn't what the focus of my blog is about. During various parts of the trip to Portland and then driving around Portland after the show, I saw a few things that brought up a few memories. My mother was from Portland, and all during my childhood, we made regular trips up there to see my grandparents and my aunt & uncle. To a kid, these trips were kind of boring, and my grandparents' house was not the friendliest place to visit. There are a few pleasant memories about visiting them, but not very many. But here are a few, that are sort of nostalgic.

This is the view from the freeway. Just miles of fields and farms, and at this time of year, herds of sheep and new lambs.

This "lovely" place took both of us down memory lane a bit. All during my childhood, if I wasn't paying attention to the scenery on a trip to Portland, the smell from this paper mill always told me that we were about half way there. If I was napping in the car, the smell woke me up. The mill is now closed and the smell is gone. It was the first time we passed by with out that smell that says, "you're in Albany!".

This place, we came across while driving around Portland. When I was 4, I stayed with my mother's parents for a month because my parents were separating and my mother was working on getting a job and an apartment for us. So, for 1 month, I lived with her parents. It's really hard to find many pleasant memories about that time because, well, let's just say, that my grandma was dealing with a lifetime of disappointments and she wasn't a happy person, and made sure that we all knew it. However, one of the few pleasant memories was coming to this shopping center with her and my grandpa and we would go watch people skate at the ice rink. I hadn't seen this place in many, many years, and just seeing this sign took me back a bit.

So that was my day yesterday.

We have another trip to Portland coming up soon, in the area of town where my mother grew up, and I'm wondering if there is anything left from my childhood there. I guess I'll find out soon enough. If there is, I will try to post about it.

I Love.........

2010-02-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

I had noticed earlier this week while reading "The Pioneer Woman's" blog, that she had made a list of the things she loved, for Valentine's day. So I thought I'd do the same (it can't hurt and it's something to blog about).

1. Jesus (of course, and if you've read my posts in the past and didn't know I was a Christian, you do now. Mystery solved).

2.My Husband(who made breakfast this morning, and bought me a latte)

3.My Kids(who bring joy and entertainment and revelations to my life)

4.My family and extended family

5."Steel Magnolias"

6. Chocolate!

7. Yumm Sauce!

8. My church

9. My Friends

10. "Anne of Green Gables"(I would love to live in Canada in the Fall)

11. Fall and Spring

12. Photography

13. Fettucine Alfredo with Chicken

14.Roses & Tulips

15. Purple, Blue, Red, Black

16. Coffee

17. Date nights (anytime alone with my hubby is great!)

18. Sci-Fi movies

19. Funny romantic movies (some of them)

20. Shopping for clothes

21. the beach

22. Road trips!

23. Mint chocolate chip ice cream

24.jewelry

25. family history

26. sweaters

27. biographies & autobiographies

28. Home decorating magazines

29. being at my grandma's house

30. parades

31. marching bands

32.. bluegrass music

33. 80's music

34. steak & potatoes

35. hot showers

I'm sure that there are more that will come to mind after I publish this.

~Lisa

Our Furry Family Members Part 2: Aslan

2010-01-22T21:25:00.000-08:00

I had intended to post a blog about one of our cats every Thursday, however, with the holidays, I was busy. So this brief entry is about the second cat we acquired, Aslan.

Soon after we had acquired "Paws", my husband decided that he wanted a cat of his own. So one Saturday afternoon, he checked the classifieds for a kitten. He found one way out in the country about an hour drive from our house. The lady who was giving him away had several other kittens and cats and her house smelled like it. This particular kitten, Kevin chose and since he had been allowed to run around a lot outside, he was kind of wild. So we brought home this wild kitten, and introduced him to Paws. As to be expected, there was a lot of hissing between the two. It lasted for about a week. While this was going on, we tried to find a name for him. The choices were narrowed down to "Aslan" and "Maverick". Obviously, "Aslan" won.

To this day, he is still a "wildish" cat. The only time he looks relaxed, is when he's asleep. Every waking moment he has the wide eyed, wild expression. As for being Kevin's cat, he actually likes and has bonded with Heather more (and Kevin has bonded with Heather's cat ).

This cat has several nicknames. "Az", "Spaz", "Azzie Wazzie" (to name a few). However the oddest name was given by our son. He started calling the cat "Mr. Dodie". On my mother's side of the family, "dodie" was something that you did in the bathroom. It was what my Scottish grandmother (who didn't have an accent) called it because it's what her Scottish mother (who did have an accent) called it, and it's what we taught our kids to call it (it sounded less crude). After awhile, my son just started using the crude name and now calls this poor clean cat, "Mr. Poop".

A Different Walking Venue

2010-01-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I talked about getting back into the walking routine. We walked outdoors (because my husband took the car to work yesterday), and I shared the hazard I had walking over a man-hole cover.

So, since I had the car today, I thought we'd go to our local shopping mall to walk. It's open very early for walkers to get their exercise in a dry environment, window shop, and then stop for a coffee when they've finished.

A better, less hazardous environment for the person trying to walk off their holiday pounds? You'd think so. However I discovered that there hazards of another kind that might slow a walker down....

The first thing I saw that made me want to stop was the coffee place. I love the coffee here just as much as I love Starbucks! However, I did not stop for a vanilla latte.....with 2% milk.....I was very good! I kept walking.

Then, a few yards into one wing of the mall, puts us in the food court. Not too bad altogether because the restaurants haven't opened yet. However, there is movement and food preparation in one of them, and it smelled very good......

Oh Yes! The sweet smells of Cinnabon! They weren't open yet, only making the rolls for the breakfast crowd. Mmmmmm.....

The kids had their "hazards" to slow them down as well.

The first one was....

The Sweet Factory........also closed, but plenty candy within view!

Then toward the end of our walk, we came to the hazard that stopped them in their tracks...........

Build-A-Bear!

As we walked out of the mall, one last delicious smell (of something fried) met us at the door, and this was where it was coming from.....

Need I say more?

I was good. I behaved and I didn't stop at any drive-thru establishments serving food on our way home.

Back to the Daily Routine

2010-01-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

Today was the day! The day that we start using the alarm again on a daily basis. Kevin went back to work after a week-long vacation. The kids and I started school again. I can't say that anyone was enthusiastic about the return to routine, but, it is what it is. We can't sit or lay on the couch forever, watching our favorite shows or spending every available minute on Facebook.

Part of the routine, that I needed to restart, was walking daily. "Chocolate season" started at the end of October and then "family dinner" season (which has a lot of food, and delicious desserts) added to that, and I stopped walking and it's noticeable (to me, if not to anyone else). So, this morning, we put on our warm coats, and set out to walk around our neighborhood.....

So we set off...Heather shivering and wanting to be inside, and Kylin, pointing out every car (make and model) to us.

Kylin brought along his "whip". It's made from the hoses of a toy fire truck, hooked together and taped in place with mailing tape and painter's tape. He rarely leaves home without it. I'm not sure if this is all that common for autistic kids, but it works for him almost like a pacifier works for a baby.

This cover, meant to keep folks from falling into this square hole, was actually so slick, that I slipped and fell on my knee. Notice the smirking smile already there for any adult who trips or slips because of it's presence!

As we were approaching the end of the street, Kylin pointed to the field across the road (with his whip, which also serves as a pointer) and said, "Mom! That's rural over there!"

It's starting to get a bit windy and we're starting to feel a few rain drops. Heather is getting a bit cold, and so is her mother.

Back in the house, where it's warm. Time for "book learnin'". Normally, I'd have them sitting at the kitchen table, however......

My table is currently in service as the place to put all of the Christmas decorations before I put them away :)

Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

Happy 2010 everyone!

My husband and I were checking our nearby Twitter pages and noticed that alot of folks were talking about where they were 10 years ago. My husband posted that 10 years ago, he didn't know how to spell "atheist" and now, he is one (and being the Christian wife of one, could generate a blog site of it's own. Tempting, but for now, I have no plans to start one). For me, 10 years ago, I had two toddlers (3 and 1), now, ten years later, you can do that math on that one. I also was recovering from a D & C that was the result of a miscarriage. We were also watching the TV all day to watch the new year happen in the rest of the world. Mostly because we'd been warned of Y2K and had been strongly encouraged to store water, food and other supplies should our power go out. I woke up the morning of the 31st, turned on the news and the first thing I heard about was that the power was out in Paris, France. It wasn't due to Y2K. Paris was experiencing a very strong wind storm. As you all know now, Y2K didn't happen. There are the original naysayers that said that it wouldn't in the first place and they like to laugh at those who were hoarding supplies. They can laugh all they want. If anything, the threat of Y2K, did bring about an awareness to the population that it's a good idea to be prepared with those supplies in case of ANY emergency.

This is the second year that we've let the kids stay up with us to ring in the new year. It's exciting for them, and yet exhausting for us. Our son, Kylin, is the type of person who is running on adrenaline every waking moment, even if that moment is at midnight. When he goes to bed at his regular bedtime, my husband and I are mentally exhausted. Our son spins, skips, and just stays very active until he falls asleep. He talks as fast as he moves too (which is probably part of the reason that his sister shuts herself in her room). He's the boy who, after being awake for an hour in the morning, has us anxious for his bedtime to arrive. So letting him stay up late, is a big step for us.

In preparing for this big night, I asked for everyone's input on what to eat.

~Kevin wanted cheese fondue. We had this last year and he really liked it. I used a Swiss cheese sauce this time from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. for the sauce, we had things for dipping such as Potatoes, vegetarian meatballs, raw veggies (so that we felt we were eating healthy). He also bought some Kettle chips, and everything one needs to make margaritas (so he won't need to make a stop at the 7-11 for Slurpees to spike).

~The kids wanted cookies! Oreos and Nutter Butters!

~and Root Beer! (Yes, I realize that my giving them sugar contributed to my son's busyness, but it's New Year's Eve!)

We started the evening with watching the Blu Ray version of "Star Trek". All but Kylin had seen the movie already. Am I a "Trek Nerd" if I admit that this movie brought some tears to my eyes at some point? Once the Trek movie was over, we still had time to kill, so our next movie was "Napoleon Dynamite". That one is just plain funny! It took watching it about 3 times to grow on me, but it's just a fun, goofy movie. Our last movie of the night was "Paul Blart, Mall Cop". Kevin really likes this one. It was Heather's first time watching it and I don't think that she liked it as much as her dad did. I had forgotten how much swearing was in it too. More than what my kids are used to hearing anyway.

Kevin finished the night by making Margaritas. As he was crushing the ice in the blender, Kylin came in and asked what Kevin was making and then saw the blender and yelled "Smoothies!". Kevin had to explain that it was a "grown up smoothie". I will say that I did try one, and my conclusion is that I prefer regular smoothies, not the kind with the alcohol.

Today, we're celebrating the new year at home. Our university's football team (the Oregon Ducks) is playing in the Rose Bowl today! Go Ducks!!!!

We're sort of taking it easy today. I didn't have to make lunch (Kevin ordered pizza)! I say sort of, because I need to finish the laundry and get the kids' lessons planned for Monday as well as order some curriculum. I was going to go grocery shopping today, but I changed my mind. I'll go tomorrow, when everyone else is.

Lp

2009-12-24T18:34:00.000-08:00

So, my birthday is over. I made it to 41 with no problem this year. My husband arranged for us to meet my family at a pizza parlor, and then surprised me by inviting my friends too.

So now that my birthday was over, it was time to get a tree. We usually get our tree at a local home improvement store. Our timing was right too because the trees were 50% off and our tree wound up costing $7! When I was little, we lived down the road from a Christmas tree farm and would get our trees from there. After my parents divorced, we didn't do that anymore. I always liked the tree farm and hope that for at least once, we can give our kids the experience of going to the tree farm and picking out a tree to be cut.

This tree was the first thing that we hauled home in the new van. Now we could have tied it to the luggage rack on the roof, but we didn't have any twine (and I do realize that we were at a home improvement store that sold it and/or bunjee cords, but we just chose not to buy any) so we put the third seat down in the back and maneuvered the tree in. Unfortunately, for Heather, the tree pinned her seatbelt to the floor when we turned a corner on the way home and nearly strangled her. We did manage though to get the tree and the kids home, safe and sound. We waited a couple of days to put in in the house and decorate because Kevin's computer desk was still sitting in the corner that we wanted to put the tree in (Kevin's idea, not mine, just so you know that I didn't "make" him sacrifice his computer corner). When the tree was finally set up, we decided to decorate it on a night when Kevin's folks were here. Kevin's mother (who has Alzheimer's) used to really enjoy decorating for Christmas. So we thought watching the kids decorate the tree might ignite some kind of spark. She seemed to enjoy it a little. There were some ornaments that we thought she would have loved in the past. There might have been a hint of a spark, but it faded nearly as fast as it came.

Now here we are, at Christmas Eve. So far, today has gone by faster than the days of the past two weeks. I made some fudge for the neighbors and then had the kids deliver those today (Kylin proudly wore his "Santa" hat). After going to the first house and saying "Merry Christmas", Kylin told Heather, "That was being friendly!". The kids are anxiously awaiting the morning when they can find out what all of those presents contain. Heather is at the age, where she's more "ok" with waiting. Kylin is not there, at all. In the past we've had something for them to open on Christmas eve, and we do have something. I bought the kids a game (LIFE), but I didn't wrap it because they were with me when I bought it, so it wouldn't have been a surprise. So tonight, we're watching "UP" again (probably the cutest yet saddest PIXAR movie I've ever seen), and having the traditional pizza and pie. Then we'll probably try to play the new game with the kids. Kylin may or may not finish it. We'll see. He isn't a real game player (but Heather is). Hopefully the kids will be abl eto get to sleep tonight. We have an early morning, a VERY early morning to rest up for.

Lp

My Birthday Surprise!

2009-12-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

So today sort of begins my birthday weekend. I'll be 41 on Monday. My husband has been out doing some birthday/Christmas shopping this past week, which had him coming home late from work a couple of times. So tonight, when he came home from work, he asked me if I wanted to start my birthday celebrating tonight. Of course, I'm not going to say "No". So he handed me a metallic red box. I opened it, and it was full of metallic red confetti, and at the bottom of the box was a single car key. I realized that it was a car key, but just couldn't fathom that I was getting a car on my birthday! So he took me outside and parked on the street was a 2004 Ford Freestar mini van!

The car we have been driving, a '94 Oldsmobile for the past two years. In that time, it has slowly had things go wrong with it. As of now, both front power windows no longer have power. The side passenger window for a long time wouldn't stay down so it's now held up with duct tape, (but still tends to come down so I have one of the kids hold it in place when I drive over railroad tracks & speed bumps). The radio antennae stopped extending so I couldn't get the Christian stations on the radio. And the air conditioner stopped working. And by now, the engine hasn't been sounding too well either, and Kevin hasn't felt very comfortable with me driving it with the kids to church and back (driving through rural roads to get there). So he, with the help of our neighbor, test drove and picked out a van, with low miles (always a plus). And tonight, I'm back in the mini-van club!

The Cat Chronicles: "Paws II"

2009-12-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

Just a note to start this entry. I am really not a cat person. I grew up with dogs (we had some farm cats, but I didn't care for them because they scratched more than the dogs did). My dad had Dachshunds, so I guess I'm more of a "little dog" person. However, I married a cat person. My husband has always had a cat (and he has plenty of cat stories of his own). Those cat loving genes were passed on to our daughter as well. So for the rest of my life, I will probably have a cat living in my house.

Apparently, according to this picture, all you can really tell about Paws is that he's totally black and that his eyes were open when the flash went off. We currently have 5 cats in our house, and they each have some interesting personalities, so I thought I'd devote a blog entry for each one.

So, as the title states, this one is about Heather's cat "Paws". When Heather was about 6, she started talking about "when I get a kitty, I'm gonna name it Paws". For three years, we heard about this cat that she was planning on having. She didn't seem to have any particular kind of cat in mind other than just having one of her own. When she was almost 9, and it was a hot day in July. Heather was coming home from church camp that day. I had gone to the teacher supply store when someone walked in and said that there were some free kittens in front of the grocery store next door. I left the store to check out these kittens, and saw a little orange tabby snoozing amongst the little black fluffy siblings. I made the impulsive decision to take him home (which surprised my husband because impulsively bringing a kitten home is something he would do......and has done). So Heather came home from camp and found this cute kitten in her room, and he was the "Paws" she had waited for. This little guy had a place on her bed to sleep and he even blended in with all of the stuffed animals.

Unfortunately, that little guy didn't stay with us long. We only had him for a month and he wound up having to be put to sleep. Heather grieved for several days over him. Kevin started to check the newspapers again for free kittens and found an ad for "rubberized" kittens out in the Thurston area of Springfield. So we drove out to see them and see what "rubberized" meant. The lady giving them away demonstrated by holding them in hand, just under their little armpits and sort of dangle them, and swing them a little before cuddling them. They were the most relaxed kittens we'd ever seen. Heather picked out this little black ball of fur with bright blue eyes, and he became "Paws II" (we eventually dropped the "II"). It turned out that he also had a little bit of white fur between two toes, so I guess his name fit.

We brought him home, and discovered that he liked to beg for food (scrambled eggs). He doesn't do that now. He's kind of passive. Anytime he sees other cats get into a fight, he likes to go and be a spectator, not a participant. He's not a mouser, he'd rather play with it, however he is a bird catcher (gross & sad). And I have never seen a cat so proud when he's being pet, like this one. He acts like he's the king of the house. He's also the only cat in the house who may actually figure out how to open the front door to let himself in and out, and it wouldn't surprise me if, one day, he figures out how to ring the doorbell to let us know that he wants in. He certainly has tried.

Even though he's Heather's cat, he seems to have bonded with Kevin more (it's ok though because Heather has bonded more with Kevin's cat "Aslan")

So, that's the tale about Paws. Not the most exciting or amusing one, just kind of a lazy one.

Lp

Bagel's "Wordless Wednesday"

2009-12-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

Um, yeah..........Well so much for "Wordless Wednesday". I need to say a few words about this cat. I'd like to know what Oscar does that is so tiring that he needs to sleep all day...........on my bed. I know for certain, that he wasn't spending hours wrapping these presents to tire him out.

December is Busy and so am I!

2009-12-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

(the picture on the left was what I discovered while typing this blog. Don't worry, my kitchen is clean and I normally don't allow cats to be on the counters or in the sink. But they sneak up there anyway thinking that there's something for them)

Well..........we've already cruised through the first week of December and Christmas will be here faster than I'll be ready for it!

As tradition has been, on the first day after Thanksgiving, we put away all of the fall decorations, and bring out the Christmas ones (as seen in this post's pictures...........the paper bag at the bottom is not one of the decorations.... in case you're wondering........we just haven't moved it yet).

I have probably said it before and will say it again, this year has gone by faster than any other year in my past. Not only am I getting ready for Christmas, but I've been sewing quite a bit too. My kids needed some more winter sleepwear (especially my son, whose legs grew longer than his pant legs in the past 6 months). Then there is always school to oversee, errands and more errands to run, and regular household chores. Just really busy! I joined a group on Flickr in which I am supposed to post a picture of my self (or at least have a part of myself in it) every day. I haven't been always able to do that every day, because................I'm busy..........and so is my husband. He's been putting up our lights and he really, really likes to have alot. For us, this is the time of year, in which if the Christmas lights are on, we don't turn on any vacuums or hairdryers. A small sacrifice for a beautiful display. I'm very glad to have a husband who likes to put up lights!

So today, was one of those busy days. My daughter had a Jr. High youth group Christmas party at 1:00. I needed to do grocery and Christmas shopping. The party was only 2 hours long and I needed more time. So I awoke early (earlier than the time my husband wanted to wake up on a Saturday) and headed out the door just before 10. I cruised through one store, found most of my groceries (so we won't starve, should the forecasted snow arrive) and was back home in time to put them away, and eat something (cereal) before delivering my 13 year old to her party.

My first stop in my Christmas shopping venture was to one of our shopping malls, to find a few requested items. I had hoped to get a few items from our local university's store, as my son has become a fan, (and our team is headed for the Rose Bowl, so I wanted to see about getting commemorative t-shirts). That store was FULL of people so I decided to go back later this week.....when most of those shoppers are at work.

I think that probably the funniest moment of the day, was when I was at the Christian bookstore. A man came in and said rather loudly to the lady behind the counter, that only in our town "would you find THIS store next to THAT one!". "THAT" store.......is a Victoria's Secret. Those two stores had been next to each other for years (the Christian bookstore has been known by different names) and I never saw the irony. Maybe I was too busy noticing the irony of the church down the road from us that shares a parking lot with an adult bookstore (I have no idea which one arrived in that lot first).

After my visit to the mall and a local ShopKo, it was time to pick up my daughter and then take her shopping. She wants to buy Christmas gifts for family and she has two friends who have birthdays this month. So we ventured toward the other mall, stopping at a couple of craft stores on the way (my daughter had the same "excitement" at those stores that I used to have when my mom would take me to the fabric store when I was little. She was very bored). I tried not to take too long in gathering paper for scrapbooking (after the holidays).

Once at the mall, we walked all over the place. Visited several stores, found gifts, and tried to avoid bumping in to people. By the time we were finished, we were both very tired, so we treated ourselves to a latte/hot cocoa.

Now we're home, resting our weary feet, and legs, and the plastic. Our house is lit up (though not quite bright enough for planes to see yet).

Lp

The Perspective of the Vertically Challenged Spouse (or short person)

2009-10-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

What prompted the idea for this subject was my needing to get a bottle of V-8 juice off of a high shelf, put there by my husband. When we were putting groceries away, he put the juice on the shelf closest to the ceiling in our laundry room and even though I had a step stool (the kind that has a fold down seat on top), I still needed to climb on top of the washing machine, to reach it.

This isn't the first time I've had an issue like this. To clarify, I'm not a little person (like on TLC's "Little People, Big World"). I'm just an average short person. I'm 5 feet, 3.5 inches tall. I just barely still qualify to buy "petite" clothes (the pants tend to be slightly too short if I buy them in that size so I buy "Average" and hem them a bit). My husband is nearly a whole foot taller than me. So he's looking at life and looking at things from a different perspective, literally. Putting away groceries that I would regularly use, more than he would, is just one of our differences. Just as he's not thinking to put things lower, I dont think to look for things higher than my eye level. There have been several times when I've looked in our refrigerator for what I know is a full jug of milk or juice, that should be there, and isn't. I can look everywhere, within my eye level or below and not find it until maybe I happen to look up and find the item on top of the fridge. What usually happens in this case is that my husband will need something in the refrigerator that is in the back, so he'll take out the milk or juice that is in front of it, put it up on top of the fridge, and then forget to put it back. Since I'm not looking up high for milk or juice on top of the fridge, I usually don't find it until the beverage is warm (or until it falls on my head when I open the refrigerator. No brain injury yet)). It's something for us both to improve on.

My need to adjust to living with taller people didn't start when I married. I was born to taller parents. My dad was nearly 5' 11", and my mother was nearly 5' 9" (she wore 3" heels most of the time and wore her hair rather poofy which made her look taller). When I was little, it was assumed that I would be taller like my parents. My mother calculated my full height when I was two, using a formula she found in my baby book. Using those calculations, the results showed that I would be the height that I am now. She reconfigured it several times because "certainly she can't be THAT short!". But, my paternal grandmother's gene pool kicked in (she was just over 5' 2") and I never became a tall person. My grandma would tell me several times, "I stopped growing when I was 12 and so will you" and "You'll never be taller than me".

Well I did stop growing when I was 12. Until then, I was a little taller than all of my friends, and then when I stopped growing, they all started. Within one year after my 12th birthday, all of my friends were significantly taller than me. From then on, I felt the need to remind the adults at church and school (actually the same place) that I was still the same age as my friends. Because I was shorter, it was suddenly assumed that I was younger. When we went on field trips and had to take separate cars, there were many times I was sent to ride in the car designated for "the younger students". If we had to stand according to height for a picture or class presentation, the shorter row was referred to as "the younger students". A friend of mine who went to that same school always remembers that I was a stickler about letting folks know that I was older than my friends. She was surprised that it didn't seem to be an issue with me now. Well when you're grown, and so is everyone else, no one is mistaking you for being a 6th grader when you're in high school (and when you turn 40, you really don't mind if people think that you're younger!).

Living with a tall parent was a challenge for both of us. My mom would put things up high because that is where she'd look for them (just like the situation that I live in now) and I rarely ever did unless she told me to. When I would walk with her, she took longer strides, so I had to race walk to keep up with her. She heard a song about short people on a tv show, and liked to tease me by singing that song. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a song about tall people to sing back to her. I think that being shorter hindered my mother from seeing me as an adult as well. She really didn't see me as an adult, until I was 26, when I married. Until then, I was little and still viewed as a little girl. I think that my aunt's view of me was the same as my mother's because once I married, she didn't know how to relate to me or talk to me at all.

People who had known me since I was 2, assumed that I would be tall like my mom and would assume that I was in 6th grade and would say "Oh, you have plenty of time to grow" and "You're going to be tall like your mother" and when I'd say that I quit growing, they'd ask, "Well how old are you now" and I'd say, "Twenty", to which they'd stop smiling and say "oh".

Now being short or "vertically challenged" (as a former co-worker told me once), has brought on some interesting requests. We're asked to look under things more because I guess it's easier for us or because we're closer to the ground. The oddest request that I've ever had was from a tall female coworker. I used to work in a grocery store deli, and we saw alot of male customers or venders during the day, and this coworker always managed to see someone who she thought was cute, and she wanted to look her best when he came by our counter (we were wearing greasy aprons and smelling like fried chicken, jo-jo's & bleach, how could we really improve on that?). Anyway, any time "cute" guy was heading our way, she'd ask "Lisa, quick! Look! Do I have boogers up my nose?" Yes, that's right, apparently short people can be "booger inspectors" for tall folks. I never did put THAT on my resume!

I guess that being shorter is also something that is sometime envied a little. Something that my mom told me on many occasions, was that "at least you won't have to worry about finding a husband who is taller than you". I guess she was right. I found one who is quite a bit taller. Tall enough to get the things off of those high shelves..........the things that he originally put up there.

I don't have a picture to coincide with this blog entry. I thought that I could take a picture of myself next to my actual height on the measuring tape, but I just don't feel like taking the time to do that. I could also post a picture of my husband and myself to show our height difference, however, he really doesn't like me to post pictures of him because he doesn't think that he photographs well (I think that he looks fine, but I'll respect his wishes..........for now). Lp

Which Would Be A Better Description?

2009-10-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

This morning, I commented to Kevin that I was "going to make breakfast for the scholars". He thought I had said that I was going to make breakfast for the "stallers". I suppose that both terms would adequately describe our kids. They are still students, but they certainly try to find ways to postpone school. Lp

Fall Weather is Soup Weather

2009-10-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

All through September, we had Summertime weather. The kind of weather that maybe has a crisp chilly nip in the morning and is 90 degrees by dinnertime. Picnic weather.

We're now in the first week of October and the weather has drastically changed to being very cold if, not close to freezing at night (and despite this, my husband is still too warm, wearing shorts, and still has the AC on in our room at night). When the temperature drops, I start thinking about soups. For the past week, I've made some soups and a large batch of spaghetti sauce for the freezer, and this year, some of the ingredients came from our garden.

I also found an article in the latest issue of Better Homes & Gardens (publisher of my favorite cookbook), on how to organize your freezer better. So I'm working toward a goal of having an organized freezer and utilizing as much space and still have easy access to everything in there (without having something fall out, landing on my foot), using the ideas in that article. Hopefully in my next blog (or the one after that), I'll have a picture to post of the newly organized freezer. So this week, I'm working on round two of cooking for the freezer. Today's feature: Split Pea Soup (one of my husband's favorites). Ep

2009-09-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

This picture is of one of the sunflowers from our garden. We had hoped that they would grow larger so we could harvest the seeds. However, that hasn't been the case. So for now, we just have pretty sunflowers in the garden.

It's hard to believe that Fall is pretty much here already (or at least the weather is). The months that have passed since I turned 40 seem to have gone by faster than any other time in my life.

We've had a busy summer. Busier than usual. Kevin had planted a garden in April and we had planned to keep up with is and harvest as much as we could. We also made plans to clean the garage, get rid of the clutter (the kind that we wouldn't want to take with us if we ever moved), and trips to the Goodwill came up in our planning. Back then, we also started talking about taking a trip to Eastern Oregon and Crater Lake. The last few years for us have been somewhat financially tight and stressful. This year we finally seemed to catch a break, and life seemed to be getting better. Then on the day after Father's Day, my husband started to not feel well. It started with nausea, and then progressed to abdominal pain, and fatigue. He'd still be hungry and would eat, but right afterward, he'd be in pain, and sick and go to bed and sleep the rest of the night until morning. Then he'd wake up still sick and feeling like he hadn't slept. So, that meant that he couldn't always help with parenting after he came home from work or if he was home from work because of being sick (who has the energy to deal with a child's tantrum or meltdown when they feel like crap?). So this illness has been going on all summer. He's seen at least 4 doctors (one of them a specialist), and had pretty much every test done, and we still don't know why he's sick. There are some days when he seems to be fine and then he'll eat and be sick for a few days. It's frustrating for both of us.

We put our summer projects on hold until he's feeling better (of course, even when we're feeling totally great, do we really want to clean the garage? lol). I had been continuing a fairly flexible school schedule during the summer too, but even that just became too much and I decided to take a break until the local schools started up again. It was one less thing to think about. I wanted to harvest & preserve as much from the garden so Kevin wouldn't feel like his early spring efforts went to waste. I froze quite a bit. Our front yard flowerbeds had been neglected all summer, so this week I finally tackled that job. I'm sure our neighbors will be pleased.

This week, we started school. We originally planned to go on our trip next week, but since Kevin is still ill, he wouldn't enjoy the trip. So hopefully by next year, this will be behind us and we'll be able to go on a trip and everyone will be able to enjoy it. My kids aren't that thrilled to be doing schoolwork again, but they do like getting their work finished earlier in the day. Then they have time to read what they like or work on projects or hobbies. There's a bit of a chill in the air and that adds to the "back to school" feeling.

Lp

A "Snack" on Sunday

2009-08-13T08:44:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, while my husband was working in the yard, he save a little hummingbird from our cat "Paws". The little guy had a broken wing, and we discovered that it was illegal for us to keep him, even if to nurse him back to health. Kevin named the little guy "snack" since he was nearly "Paws'" snack. Kevin took the little bird to a wildlife shelter and the lady there said that it would have to be euthanized. Apparently, for a hummingbird, eating coincides with flying. So even if a person caring for a hummingbird put a little birdfeeder in the box or cage with it, it wouldn't know how to eat because it wouldn't be able to fly. So it's unnatural to just eat without the flying. We hated to see that he was going to have to be put to sleep, but it would be more painless than being crushed in the jaws of a cat.

Good by little "Snack"

Triggered Memories

2009-08-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

Today, my daughter and I went clothes shopping, for her. She turned 13 earlier this week, and besides having all three "High School Musical" movies on her birthday list, she also asked for gift cards to certain stores. So I have a teenager now, who is more interested in her clothes than she used to be. For the first 10-11 years, I didn't have to take her clothes shopping, and she wasn't really interested. I could go to the store and if I saw something that I thought was cute or had a "Winnie the Pooh" character on it, I could buy it, bring it home and she'd think that it was so cool. Now, she has an opinion about what she likes and what she wears. So now, even though she doesn't like it, she has to go through the racks and try things on to see how they fit and look. And I can rarely pick anything out that I think she'd like, even if it's in the Juniors dept. because what I like, she usually doesn't. So today, I'd hold up something that I thought she might like, and if she looked like she was having to think of a way to let me down gently, I quickly put it back on the rack. I did pick a few that she liked (but they didn't fit right when she tried them on). By the time we were ready to go to the fitting room, I noticed that the majority of items in the cart were bright pink (her new favorite color) She did come out of the store though with a pair of pants and 4 tops and a "High School Musical" quilt that she was very happy with. Just in time for Fall. Then we went to the local earring store geared toward selling costume jewelry to preteens & teens, and found a pair that she liked (and she knew that I would never ask to borrow them). We went to another store to look at shoes and two other stores to look at CD's.

We were only gone for about three and a half hours, and we were both exhausted. So this had me thinking back to when I was her age. When I would go and visit my grandparents (on my father's side), there would be at least one day in the visit when we would "go to town". My grandparents lived in a small town and the closest shopping mall was in the town I live in now which was close to a half hour drive away from them. On the "town days" we'd spruce up, put on our nicer clothes, and drive in to town and make a day of it. There were stores still in the downtown mall (walking from store to store was outdoors) and then there was the indoor mall. We'd manage to shop at both places. At the indoor mall, my granddad would sit in the middle of the mall on the benches with the other husbands, waiting for their wives to bring their purchases to them to take out to the car, while the wives went back to shopping. I'd almost always come home with new clothes. My parents were divorced and I lived with my mom, who didn't make alot of money, so the new clothes were always appreciated. Anyway, we would be out shopping all day, and then we'd come home at around dinnertime and my grandma would make some supper and then we'd relax in the evening.

So, after today's afternoon excursion, I started wondering, was my grandma as tired after our shopping trips, as I was today after being out for just the afternoon. If she was, she never showed it. I'll have to call her and ask her. She'll probably chuckle at me. :)

Lp

My Girl is home!

2009-07-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the day we've been waiting for here. Heather is home from camp! When the bus arrived at the church, Kylin was VERY excited. During this whole week, he pretty much had his parents to himself. And for as much as he probably liked that, he's used to having his sister to entertain him or to relate to. Heather was VERY tired. She was kept very, very busy at camp. Once in the car, Kylin had no trouble fitting back into the norm of finding things to correct or contradict about his sister. After we arrived home, she called a friend, I sorted her laundry. Then we went to the DQ for Blizzards to celebrate her homecoming. I brought home a Peanut Buster Parfait made with chocolate soft serve for Kevin (at his request) to enjoy after he came home from work.

Tonight, I made mini pizzas for the kids while they watched "Finding Nemo" (Kylin's choice for Family night). Heather was really too tired to watch. She was parked on the couch under a blanket, ready to doze off.

While everyone was watching the movie, I went out to pick the blueberries as I had noticed the other day that the bluejays, seem to be getting a free meal in our yard. After I was through picking those berries, I was passing by the garden on the way to the house and notice that there were more raspberries, green beans and some tomatoes ready to be harvested as well. So I spent some time in the garden taking care of that. I still need to go back as there are more than could fit in the bowl that I had.

And finally, something that I've been thinking about off and on for most of the week. Today would have been my mom's 66th birthday, and thinking about that just made me wonder what she would be like now. She passed away 13 years ago, about 3 months before her first grandchild (my daughter) was born. At that time, her skin was still pretty smooth, and her hair was salt & pepper gray (more salt than pepper I think). I wonder if it would be all white now, and if so, would she be coloring it or let it be whatever it naturally is? I wonder what kind of grandmother she would have been to my kids? And how often would she remind me of what kind of a kid I had been when I was my daughter's age and make the constant comparisons? Before she died, she would call me every day to see if I had listened to Dr. Dobson that day on the radio. I didn't have children yet, but I bet that if she were still alive, she'd probably really urge me even more so to tune in to his show. She'd probably come over alot, if not every day, to see what was new. I think that she would have probably gotten quite a kick out of Heather. I think that with Kylin, she'd probably shake her head in bewilderment at least once during the visit and comment about his energy. She would have loved them though. I think that she would have liked them too. If she were still here, she probably would have wanted to ride out to the church with us today to see Heather get off of the bus from camp

Happy Birthday Mom.

Lp

Stay Cool!

2009-07-18T22:18:00.001-07:00

The A/C is finally in!!!
Kevin hadn't been able to find anyone to help him build a platform for it, so he installed the mounting bracket in the window sill. Hopefully by next year, we'll be able to build the platform to better support the unit. But now, we're enjoying a cooler house. It's been in the 90's for the past few days and it's supposed to stay that way for another week. Yaaaay!!!

Today, I visited with my friend Carrie and her husband. They were house-sitting for his parents, who live near me, while they were camping with all of their grandchildren and nieces & nephews who are around the same age.

Tonight, Heather and I taught in the 2s & 3s class at church. We had only two little boys, and they seemed to play well together so it was a fairly calm time. Toward the end of the class, Kylin was brought by his teacher to my class because he was spinning in circles and singing his songs about 911 calls loud enough that the teacher couldn't finish the lesson. Generally disruptive. So she brought him to me. Once we arrived home, I told Kevin what had happened and he spoke with Kylin about how he is expected to behave in church and in public.

So that's pretty much about all for today.

Lp

Another hot day

2009-07-16T23:06:00.001-07:00

Sooooo, today, it's really hot, in the 90's, and we don't have the A/C. It's the kind of hot in which you can just sit on the couch doing nothing, and you sweat anyway.

Kevin was home today, not feeling well. Yesterday, he had a CT scan to see what is causing all of this pain in his left side and abdomen. A doctor who he hadn't seen, called back with the preliminary results which indicate that nothing is wrong. Various friends are saying that it sounds like gallstones, and tell him to insist on getting an ultra sound. He can't get into see a doctor until Monday. I'm prepared to take him to the ER if he feels the need to go before then.

I did venture out today and bought paint for the kitchen. I'm hoping to do that project next week while Heather is at camp. I did buy some Otterpops for the kids while I was at the store too. For as much as I'm trying to avoid sugar, I'm having a bit of a "sugarfest". Frozen popcicles certainly help a person keep cool.

I did get some sewing done as well. I have a project that I'm working on and maybe after next weekend, I'll post a picture of what it is.

Lp

A Babbling Blog

2009-07-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to blog more often. However, when I do, I always feel like I should blog about some event or something major that happened. But I've seen people blog about everything under the sun (I've read some blogs that have me thinking, "Whoa, I don't think I could share something THAT personal!" But some folks do).

Today, Kevin took the car to work. We only have one car to share and usually on Mondays & Fridays, he takes it to work, and the other days, he'll take the bus and leave the car home. When we first married, we had two cars, however, mine (a '77 Ford Grenada) was no longer running. He had a little Nissan pick up ('84 I think) and it was not an automatic, and for some reason, the seat wouldn't move forward very well, so I couldn't really drive it. So Kevin did the majority of the driving until we had a baby on the way and needed a working car with a back seat. The only time we had two cars was for a 9 month period when Kevin had another truck and I had a minivan (the nicest car I've ever had and by then we had two kids and needed more room). Anyway, we're back to one car. Maybe one day, I'll blog about my car history.

So this morning, the kids and I went for a walk. I try to get a 30 minute walk in every day. I started taking my son with me because he's just so full of energy, I thought that perhaps a walk would help burn some of that. I started taking my daughter with us because, well it's exercise and can go toward PE credit. Kylin, likes to announce every car that comes by, and what make and model it is. He likes to also announce everything he sees in every yard, on the street, every berry vine, etc. Heather, is anxious to get back home and for the walk to be over. The one thing that does catch her eye when she's out is a cat. She loves cats!

Also during the morning (and sometimes it's in the afternoon too), we do have school during the summer. It's not a tight schedule, due to errands, and Regal Cinema's showing of free movies two mornings per week (free air conditioning on those hot days when you don't have an A/C installed in your house). Yesterday, was our day to see the free movie. It was also the day that we went to the library. And the day to go to the store and get some last minute things for Heather to pack for camp (She's packed & repacked a few times already, and I still need to check and make sure that she packed everything that she needs). And we had to return the last of the soda bottles & cans collected to raise money for her to go to camp.

So after a busy day like yesterday, I'm happy to be home today. Just happy to not have to be anywhere. I can get some much needed things done, like blanching and freezing the produce from the garden, and try to get some areas organized. The only place that I needed to go to was church tonight. Heather had her youth group and Kylin had a boys class (which I sat in on with him because lately, he doesn't want to go and acts up in class sometimes, but he can't stay home with Kevin because he's a handful and Kevin hasn't been feeling well at all). I also had to turn in Heather's money & paperwork for camp. She's all set to go now. On Monday, she'll be off to have fun.

So now, we're home from church, the kids are asleep in bed (I know that Heather is, and I think that Kylin is because I haven't heard from him for at least an hour). I did have to drive up to the local little market (Dari-Mart) for more milk (chocolate milk for Kevin, which Heather heard about and said, "I hope he shares!"). I bought myself a little ice cream too. Now it's time to sleep. I have no plans to go anywhere tomorrow. However, we'll have the car, and when the car is here, there's always a reason to go somewhere.

Lp

Busy, Busy, Busy July

2009-07-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

So Summer arrived without much fanfare, at least not here. We're still having some school during the summer so the kids won't have a harder time getting into a routine in the fall. Heather leaves for a week of camp in just over one week. It'll be a quiet week here. I'll miss her and Kylin will too. For as much as Kylin gets easily annoyed with his older sister, he does miss her when she's gone. On the other hand, Heather is very excited. She has a whole week of fun and no interference by her brother.

We recently had Kylin tested to see where his strengths and weaknesses (in behavior, academic and intellect). It's called an SOI (Structure of Intellect). He scored extremely high in art and drawing (we knew he would). There are some exercises (Sensory Integration) that we were given to work with him on so as to stimulate his brain to make some connections that it hadn't been. The first one that I tried on him was pretty much like massaging his hands. He was in a sour mood to start with, and he wanted me to "be done", but at the same time, his eyelids were drooping. He was calm for at least an hour. Maybe I should massage his hands just before he goes to bed. Maybe he'll get to sleep quicker!

Something that I thought I'd do, since we have a trip to Crater Lake coming up and alot to do before that trip, is to put my "to do" list on my blog (everytime I write one down on paper, it gets lost or else someone throws it away).

So, here it goes:

~July~
-Make reservations, and send invites & order a cake for Heather's birthday party
-Get a gift ready for Nephew #1 (he's turning 2 near the end of this month)
-Finish shopping for Heather's birthday and for her week at camp
-Purge broken or neglected toys out of the kids rooms
-Sort through older magazines & donate to friends or the library
-Buy or make valences for the dining room & kitchen

~August~
-Paint dining room & kitchen
-harvest and preserve the produce from the garden
-Clean out garage
-A trip or two to the Goodwill to donate
-Make a new school schedule for the new school year
-Make lesson plans for the Fall semester
-Get cooler cleaned and ready to hold snacks & beverages for the trip
-Shop for snacks for trip
-Gather some DVD's for the mini player (which the kids will be more interested in while traveling)
-Pack, pack, pack

This list is more or less a list of goals for me before the summer is over. Some things (like the painting) may not happen until after we get home. My husband has been not feeling well for the past 3 weeks, so I've been a bit busier taking care of my own chores as well as some of the ones he'd normally be doing. He's been to the doctor (actually 2 so far) who gave him some meds. I hope that they work. It's a bummer to spend your summer feeling sick.

So that's really the end of my report. I'm off to cut out some fabric to make more pj's for the kids!

Lp

My Son's 911 Incident

2009-06-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Here's something funny that happened today. Kylin didn't want to go to church tonight. In the past, if he doesn't want to do something, he'll threaten to call the police or call 911 (and we have told him every time that cops aren't going to come and let him skip school, or make his sister do what he wants etc). So today, he dialed 911 on his cell phones, that have no service. He didn't know that even cell phones with no service can still call 911 (and I didn't realize that he was doing so). So a little after 5:00 this evening, a Lane County Sheriff's deputy showed up at our door investigating 8 incomplete 911 calls coming from our house. I called Kylin to the door and asked if he had called 911. He said that he did so the car would be towed and then we wouldn't be able to go to church. Having a cop show up at the door sort of scared him I think. The officer told him that calling 911 when it wasn't an emergency was a crime. Kylin was a bit shaken up after that (a real cop showed up at the house and seriously spoke to him!) and he was very mellow and cooperative the rest of the night!. And we did go to church. He is embarrassed about it now and doesn't want us talking about it. I told Kevin about it when he came home this evening and he thought it was really funny. I had to fight off the giggles in the car driving to church!

Just a little over 11 years ago

2009-05-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

About a month after our daughter's first birthday, my husband & I discovered that she was not going to be an only child. When we found this news out, we were still in our duplex, surrounded by packing boxes, because we had just bought our first house (which is the house we still live in today) and we were moving that week. Two new starts, a new house and a new baby. So during this pregnancy, we discovered that it was going to be a boy, and that he had a cyst in his brain. The cyst issue eventually resolved itself in a few weeks, but not before 3 more ultrasounds and a meeting with a genetic specialist.

Also during this pregnancy, my step-father kept telling us that this child would be so different than our first one. Hard to imagine because we only had the one, and she was a happy little kid. What would be "different"? We were hoping that this one would be quieter, because our happy firstborn was a rather chatty little gal. So our son was born, and he had a high pitched, screaming cry. Once he calmed down, (thanks to having a nice warm bath and being swaddled), he was just a quiet baby. So all through that first year, he didn't cry alot (unless he was hungry or teething).

Something that we did notice is that he was very observant. If we gave him anything thing to play with, he didn't really play, but he would just study every aspect of the item and when he had nothing left to study, he'd toss it on the floor. This continued into his toddler years when we would give him a piece of paper to color on and he would just study the paper and then drop it on the floor. Something also changed when he turned 1. He suddenly didn't want to eat anything, but peanut butter sandwiches. Overnight, literally, he went from being willing to eat anything, to refusing everything and only having PB sandwiches. For the next 3 years, anytime that we took him anywhere to eat, I had to have a PB sandwich in my purse for him to eat while we ate something else. In restaurants, we just felt like folks were watching us and wondering why we would let our older child eat something ordered from the menu and not do the same for our younger one.

He screamed about everything too, shrill piercing screams. He screamed if we were going to certain restaurants & stores. He screamed if we didn't carry him from the car to the house once we came home. One day, we came home and the boy screamed to be carried and my husband decided that the boy could walk to the house by himself. So Kevin pulled up a chair and sat in front of the garage until finally, the boy started walking toward him, at which point, Kevin moved his chair closer to the front door, which would then frustrate my son. He finally made it into the house by himself, but not with out screaming so much and so loudly that I was sure that the neighbors were going to call us in for abuse. We had a kid who would rather be waited on than have to do anything for himself (he's still kind of that way).

Other differences included, not speaking. He was 2 1/2 and still hadn't even tried to speak. I finally started singing simple words, sentences & phrases to him and he would mimick them back. Every 6 months, his vocabulary would expand a bit and he would finally start to put a simple sentence together. He also didn't interact with other children. I'd send him to Sunday school and he pretty much kept to himself and was the only one who didn't do a craft. Sometimes I'd keep him with me in the main church service, sometimes I would leave him at home with his dad.

So here we are 11 years later. He's an 11 year old boy, who still thinks more like a 6 or 7 year old, and he's nearly as tall as me (I'm not considered tall). He just recently received a diagnosis for being on the autism spectrum. Something that we pretty much knew but waited until now to get. He's certainly not the quiet child, he's full of chatter (mostly about things that interest him such as cars, trains, states, countries, flags, the weather, a favorite movie), and sound effects. We've been homeschooling him from the very beginning and I think that has actually helped him. He's not one to sit still for long periods of time and he has a few "tics" that would be distracting to a classroom full of kids. So he does all of this at home, for his parents and sister to hear. He's quite an artist as well and has impressed several folks with how well he draws (yes, he finally stopped analyzing the paper and started drawing on it).

I don't think that my step-father had this in mind when he said that the second child would be different from the first. We love our boy, and wouldn't have him any other way. And that boy is 11 years old today and he's "cool and very smart"

He'd Rather Draw

2009-05-08T09:08:00.001-07:00

At 9:00, I told the kids that it was time to start school. My son, who had been drawing pictures (of cars) asked, "Does that mean I have to stop drawing pictures and do school work?". I asked him, "What do you think?" and he answered, "no?". Nice try kid!

Lp

2009-04-21T08:15:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, my husband took advantage of the beautiful weather (in the 80's) and took care of some much needed yard work and patio cleaning. Our Saturday included a trip to a local landfill, or "the dump". Our son has never been to a landfill (it was a regular occurrence when I was a kid), so he was very excited (and he likes to hang out with his dad after a week of being at home with his mother and sister). So here is a picture of my guys, just before leaving in our neighbor's truck. My son is holding his latest di-cast truck to show that "the truck is in the truck". Anyway, he was having a good day.

2009-04-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Oregon in the Spring!!!

A Few Funny Quirks and Other Things

2009-03-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Our 10 year old son, Kylin, doesn't always hear things in the way or manner that they were spoken. He also tends to use words or phrases that don't always mean what he thinks they do.

A couple of examples:
A few months ago, something came on the TV that the kids didn't need to see, so I told them to "avert your eyes". Kylin repeated it as "INVERT" your eyes. Kind of hard to do! He has it straight now though. Several times if there is something that he shouldn't see or doesn't want to see, he'll say "avert your eyes!".

Another example happened yesterday. I gave him the job of cleaning the toilet and it quickly became apparent that he needed some more guidance in that job. So my husband was showing him how to clean it and when I walked by the bathroom, Kylin said, "We're organizing the toilet!". Lately, we've been doing some decluttering and reorganizing and cleaning, so he assumed that "organizing" was synonymous with "cleaning". I guess he's partially right. But the joke for the rest of the day was "how do you organize a toilet?"

Since this weekend was the time to change the clocks ahead, Kylin also reminded us that it was time to check the smoke alarms. The boy thrives on a schedule and remembers when things are supposed to happen, like checking the alarms. So Kevin checked them and the boy is happy and won't remind us again until November. I wish that he was as much of a stickler about the need to do his schoolwork.

Heather has been known to say and do some funny things, but she's at the age where she'd be mortified if I blogged about them. I'm sure that I've done things unintentionally to embarrass her, so I really try not to do it on purpose!

However, the most recent thing that I did with Heather was to take her to see Kutless in concert. Concerts I had been to in the past were for Don Francisco, B.J. Thomas, Charley Pride (I was really little then), and Weird Al Yankovic. Fairly mellow, great acoustics, not too loud. The Kutless concert was held in a church that was built with the intention of having concerts, but this group and the opening acts were rather loud (and there was a lot of screaming...something else I wasn't used to). It was so loud that I felt the audience was absorbing the volume. I had to laugh at one of the groups though. Long hair shaking all over the place and screaming rap (I wasn't expecting that and neither was Heather). I was sitting in the back, where parents sit. My first concert as a parent. I felt a little old (but I'm not old, I'm only 40, and that isn't old!). We're going to see the Newsboys in a couple of weeks. I like them, and I'm hoping for better acoustics and hoping that the opening acts won't scream at me....too much.

Lp

The End of the First Month

2009-01-30T17:43:00.000-08:00

So January is coming to a close and I'm already feeling that time is moving too fast........because it is.

We're enjoying the dining room set immensely! About a week after the dining room set arrived, my father-in-law brought over my mother-in-law's curio cabinet and it's sitting in the dining room now (as shown in the above pictures). Already the way the house looks is improving!

The next few pieces of furniture that are due to come soon are "new" dressers for Kevin and I. So I've moved my dresser into my son's room (because he's been lacking a real dresser for a few years, because he was too rough on the last one he had, I think he's ready for a real one again....I hope). So I'm currently living out of a couple of suitcases that are sitting in our closet (which one of our cats seems to want to use as his bed). We're also getting night tables. So mine is emptied out and moved into my son's room. My intention is to paint before any new furniture moves in, because right now, we actually have space to walk around and move the bed in order to paint walls.

The fast that I mentioned in my last post is nearly over (just in time for SuperBowl and all of the treats that go with that......my daughter has requested Oreos........I will try to resist those.......or most of them!). It's time to shop for some sugar (not much though)!

Lp

January 15, 2009

2009-01-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

It's nearly 2 1/2 weeks into the new year. We're back on our "schedule". School is back in full swing. As I'm typing, my son is giving me the verbal inventory of his CARS collection (it's not the first time I've heard it either). My church is doing a "Daniel Fast" which means that we are fasting caffeine (missing my coffee), meat (not a problem right now as I'm a vegetarian) sugar (really missing this too), cutting back on tv etc. So far, one week into it, we're doing alright. At the beginning of the fast, my husband (who is not participating) offered to buy me a coffee (and I let him, it was my last one) and then made a joke about being the little devil on my shoulder trying to tempt me into breaking the fast. Before anyone might possibly get offended by his doing that, he was joking. In the past, he's been rather understanding and has never intentionally tried to get me to break the fast.

The table and chairs that I mentioned in my last post have arrived. They are sooooo nice and they were so well taken care of that they seem practically new.

I discovered that I like Hummus this week. I was at a ladies Bible study and one of the snacks that was brought had it. Very tasty!

On a lighter note, at 9AM today when I announced that it was time for school to start, my son was rather distressed because his clock was about 5 minutes behind so he thought that I should wait for school until his clock read 9:00. He said that the other clocks in the house were experiencing "technical difficulties".
Suuuuuuuure........

Lp

Happy New Year! Welcome 2009

2009-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

So, the first full day of the new year is nearly over. The 3 packages of cookies (chocolate stuffed Oreos, Nutter Butters, and Keibler Grasshopper cookies) are now gone (hallelujah! no longer a temptation to snack on!), the Christmas decorations are packed away and the tree is out. Our dining area (where the tree was) looks rather empty......for now (my father-in-law is giving us his dining room table as he's getting a new one, and as soon as he finds out that our tree is down, he'll bring it over).

New Years Eve seemed to be rather long. Maybe it was because this year, we told the kids that they could stay up until midnight. They were very excited and had certain foods that they wanted to snack on (hence the cookies!). We thought we'd try a cheese fondue this year as well (Kylin reminded me that he didn't want to dip anything in cheese sauce......he has issues with sauces on his food......except for macaroni & cheese). I also made some artichoke dip (very close to what serve at the Olive Garden). Kevin declared it very tasty. The kids chose the movies to watch. By 9PM I was beginning to wonder how wise it was to let my son stay up so late. Kevin and I were already tired and Kylin was pretty sugared up and busy. Kevin took a nap at some point and I read a book until about 11. From then on, we watched Dick Clark's New Year's eve special and the kids watched the ball drop in Times Square.

We had hoped that the kids would sleep in this morning. I think they managed to sleep until 8. We would have liked for them to sleep in longer, so we could sleep in longer. We have 2 more days to sleep in (I can't on Sunday), and then Kevin's vacation is over, he goes back to work and the kids start school back up again. This "vacation" of Kevin's was so busy that it really doesn't feel like we had one. Maybe the next time he has vacation time, we can relax a bit more.

On another note, my desk seems to be the place for the cats to take naps. As I'm typing, I have one cat snoozing on my monitor, with her tail swishing across the screen, and another cat who is snoozing so close to my mouse, that when I'm using the mouse, the cat decides to rest his head on my hand like it's a pillow. I'm not a huge cat fan, but I tolerate these "rugs". They are a bit entertaining at times.

Lp

Thinking about 2008 and 2009

2008-12-28T22:20:00.001-08:00

Another year is coming to a close and it's about this time every year that has me wondering what the new year will bring. And as I get older, each year progresses faster than the year before (something my dad told me would happen back when I was in Jr. High).

This past year has been an interesting one. It started off well and then life threw a bomb at me that I wasn't expecting, and it's taken the rest of the year to recover from that. LIfe happens when you're making plans or think that you have things all figured out. So for this year, and the years after that, I have no intention of making resolutions that will frustrate me if I don't keep them in the time span of a year. I'll make goals and give my self a bit more time to accomplish them. I won't say what those goals are because I've discovered that if you tell people what you're trying to accomplish (such as losing weight), then they constantly ask you about it ("How's that diet coming?") or try to "help" you ("Is that slice of bread on your diet?"). So, I guess, as I reach each of my goals, I'll write about them then.

2008 started off alright, and then at the very end of January we lost my Granddad Lloyd. He was one half of my favorite set of grandparents. He'd had dementia for quite awhile and finally had to move to a facility. I did visit him two weeks before he passed and he knew who I was (he didn't know my name but he knew that I was his granddaughter) . So February started with a funeral for us. My granddad was flight instructor in the Air Force during WW2 (he didn't want to crawl on the ground like the Army so he joined the AF and graduated at the top of his class). He was a dairy farmer and was very successful at it (Last month I met a guy who grew up drinking milk from Lloyd's Dairy). He liked to build things (bunkbed for my dolls, a playhouse for my sister, rigging a swing off of the back patio with some rope and a flat piece of wood). Granddad Lloyd loved my grandma very much (he once told me that he would look my grandma and just think about how lucky he was that she chose him), and he loved his family, and we all miss him very much.

On a lighter note, we also saw Bill Cosby perform a show at the Hult Center. He was really entertaining and definitely worth the money we spent on the tickets.

In the Spring, my "baby" turned 10 and we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by going to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Such a disappointment (the movie, not the anniversary).

In the summer, my grandma turned 90, my nephew turned 1, my daughter turned 12 and my dad turned 66. That's about the extent of our excitement. Oh, yeah, Kevin went to a concert up in Portland as well. So he had a little more excitement. We had many hot days, and always thankful for our air conditioner! It would have been really nice if we could have traveled somewhere, however the price of gas was a bit much for us.

My sister-in-law, Lorrie, came to visit in the Fall to spend time with my mother-in-law who has Alzheimer's. Just before Thanksgiving, my MIL moved to a care facility for Alzheimer's patients. It's quite an adjustment for everyone, but mostly on her.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I turned 40. During the two weeks before my birthday, I really wasn't happy about the new number, but now I'm ok, and life is moving along. My husband tried to have a surprise birthday party for me, however I found out about it one week before it was scheduled. Then it was postponed due to snow that was supposed to come on that day (and didn't until the next day), and then it was cancelled due to weather again. He felt rather bad that the birthday party didn't happen, and I appreciate him for trying. I suggested that he wait until my 50th.

Christmas has come and gone, and now I'm feeling a great need to put the decorations away and clean and organize around the house.

If we do anything for the new year, I really hope that we're able to travel somewhere. We've talked about possibly going to Crater Lake. That would be fun. I haven't been there since Heather was 10 months old. She has no memory of the trip and Kylin hasn't even been there. There has also been talk about going to see some waterfalls as well. Both destinations would give me a chance to practice taking some awesome pictures with my camera!

So hopefully, in the new year, I'll have some interesting things to blog about as I try to meet some goals, major and minor.

Lp

Day 3 of Snow

2008-12-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

We're sort of in a lull between snowfall sessions. It's still very cold outside. More snow is supposed to arrive in a couple of hours with freezing rain this afternoon and then more snow this evening. The weather guy also commented that we could have a white Christmas after all. I just hope that the roads are safe to drive on by then.

Another concern that we have about this weather is that one of our cats never came in last night. Kevin went out to look for him and he never turned up. So hopefully little Emmett found a warm place to spend the night. He loves the outdoors but he usually comes in at night. Hopefully he'll turn up today.

Since we knew this freezing rain was coming, Kevin braved the roads and made a store run for things to get us by in case we were housebound for more than a couple of days.

Even though other kids are having no school or delayed school, my kids are still having school today. One of the perks of homeschooling. Unless they're sick, they shouldn't have a problem getting to school (the kitchen table or tv trays in the living room).

On another note, I cut and paste my blog on 3 other sites. Someone had commented about yesterday's blog and had asked me if as I had gotten older, did I wish that I had had more children, as that's how she was feeling at having just turned 39 and had two older kids. Since she posted anonymously and I couldn't find her blog page to answer her, I'll answer in this general blog here, and hope that she sees it. So, yes, I do wish that I had more children. I'm very thankful for the two that I have, but one of those dreams that had died for me was to have a larger family. I was an only child for most of my childhood (my sister came along when I was nearly 15, quite a large age difference there) and I didn't care for not having siblings. After my second child, we had two more opportunities to have another child (but they didn't make it) and we even tried to adopt and that didn't happen either. So, yes, I do wish that I had had more children.

So, there's the latest................. so far. The snow saga continues.
Lp

The 40's have begun!

2008-12-16T18:00:00.001-08:00

Well, this is my first post as a 40 year old, and I don't feel any different! For the past two days that I've been 40, I've been ok with the new number. When September first arrived, I knew that this day was coming, but it didn't bother me that much. I was busy enjoying Fall, teaching my kids, running my errands etc. Then about two weeks ago, it hit me that I was almost to the middle of my life (I plan to live to be 100 ) and I wasn't at the place in my life where I had hoped to be at this age. When I turned 30, I was just fine with it because I was where I had hoped to be at that age. However the past 10 years brought with it unexpected things that weren't pleasant at all, and pretty much changed the course of how life went and the dreams that I had had, slowly died, and at times I have felt like I was dying inside as well. If I didn't have Christ in my life to depend on, I don't know what kind of choices I could have made. God hasn't "rescued" me from the hard times and the difficult issues, but He's certainly helped me through them and is still helping me. (ok, this is probably the end of the not-so-perky-depressing part of this post).

So 40 was coming whether I liked it or not. My sister-in-law and another friend have told me that the 40's are much better than the 30's. I hope so, or it'll be a dull ride. I've also heard that the 40's go by fast. They did for my dad, but I think that had a lot to do with the fact that he was busy raising my sister and watching her get older and not necessarily realizing that he was also getting older. I really hope that the 40's don't fly by so fast that I reach 50 and wonder "where did that time go?"

So, anyway, my birthday started kind of early. We were supposed to have some snow, and I woke up early (on my own, because I just don't have the ability anymore to sleep in), peeked out of the window into the semi-dark early morning and I could tell that the back yard was still green and not white. My husband sleepily asked if I saw any snow and was disappointed when I said "no". He was able to sleep in a bit longer, I couldn't. I did finally doze off after Kevin left to make breakfast for me (as the routine goes, Kevin cooks and serves breakfast in bed on my birthday and Mother's day). I didn't doze for long because I could hear the kids talking to Kevin as he was cooking. While I waited, my dad called and I visited with him. I think that he's had a harder time with me being 40 than I was. He just can't believe that he has a kid who's 40. He still feels like he's the one who should be 40 still. Our chat ended just before breakfast arrived. Breakfast consisted of biscuits & gravy, vegetarian sausage, fried eggs and O'Bryan potatoes (I love potatoes for breakfast!) and a vanilla latte, and several presents. My husband gave me a card that reads "More and More over the years, you and I see things the same way. We hold them up close and squint".

The snow that was forecasted for my birthday, didn't come. It was pretty cold, and I stayed home because I didn't want to go somewhere and then have it snow while I was out and then have to drive home in it (for anyone who might be reading this, we only get snow about once per year and it never lasts long so we're not well practiced in the art of driving in the snow and we all tend to stay home and close schools). I just kind of relaxed a bit during the day, sitting on the couch watching "Gilmore Girls". While I was watching that, Kevin made a birthday cake (from "scratches" he said as he scratched the box of cake mix--funny guy!) So I had a very good birthday and 40 doesn't look so dreadful after all.

The snow finally came yesterday. I realized just how ill prepared we were for it. Last year for Christmas, we bought the kids snow gloves (after so many years of knitted gloves, we thought that they might like being in the snow longer if their hands weren't cold and wet) and we kept them in the kids dressers. So yesterday, the snow is here, and the gloves aren't in the drawers and we can only find one. So, the kids went out in knitted gloves and they were cold and wet, and the snow wasn't rolling right for a snowman (according to my daughter) and they were back in the house within 15 minutes. My son decided that he will stay in the house for the duration of the snow. So, I'm on the alert and looking out for the missing gloves (and other gear) so snow will hopefully be more enjoyable to them.

While the kids were outside, I came out with my camera and took pictures of the white neighborhood. The kids noticed that a hummingbird was at the feeder and were calling for me to take a picture. I've only seen a hummingbird at the house 3 times in the 11 years we've lived here and this one hung around to have his picture taken which was cool. I was able to take about 5 pictures of him while he was in our maple tree. I hope that the little guy stayed in the tree because there were 5 cats roaming around on the ground below who would have loved to have him for a snack!

So today is day two of the snow. Yesterday, the roads were more icy and the bus that Kevin was riding to work bumped into the curb a few times. After work, Kevin had to wait in the freezing cold nearly an hour for his bus to arrive to take him home. He was pretty cold when he finally arrived home. This morning, it was 11 degrees outside. Kevin told me later that the roads were better and he made it to work on time.

So, that's the latest update here.

Lp

Thanksgiving, and the goings on afterward...

2008-11-29T21:56:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone rather quickly. Christmas is just around the corner. The kids keep lamenting how slow it is in coming, but I'm lamenting on how fast the time is flying and hoping that I'll be ready in time.

Our week was off to a rather sad start. My mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer's, was moved to a care facility on Monday. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer's about 2 years ago (as I was writing this, I asked my husband how long ago it was that she had been diagnosed, and his reply was "I forgot". Yes, we did have a brief chuckle about that). We've tried to help my father-in-law out by staying with her on Fridays. My husband and I took turns, so every other Friday, she was with one of us. Now it looks like we'll be visiting her on Fridays, and another other day that we can.

For Thanksgiving, we went to my dad's, as we have for at least 11 or 12 years. My little nephew was there too. He's walking now, which means that he's more interested in everything that my dad has around the house and wants to touch it. His parents were saying "No" alot because my dad's house isn't baby/toddler proofed. Eventually, my nephew was frustrated with the limitations, not having anything to play with really and he was due for a nap. So my sister and brother-in-law rushed through their dessert and left. They were going to the other grandparents' house and fortunately for them, my nephew had mellowed out by the time they got there. Plus there were little cousins for him to play with there. Hearing all of his fussing at my dad's house though, made my husband very glad that our kids were not that age and no longer in that stage of life.

After leaving my dad's, we came back into town and visited my mother-in-law at her new home. She was really happy to see us (especially my husband). We visited for about an hour. We were able to check out the facility and see her room and the courtyard. It's a really nice place. The kids drew some pictures for their grandma so she could hang them in her room. The ladies that worked there brought out a game for the kids to play with so they wouldn't be bored. So it was a good visit, yet a difficult one. No one wants to see this happen to their parents and it's hard when it does happen, and in this way. I can't really understand what my husband is dealing with, really. When my own mother died (from cancer), I had less two weeks notice really that it was going to happen, and when it did, it was sudden. Alzheimer's is just cruel and slow. For now, we're grateful that my mother-in-law remembers us (not our names, but she knows who we are), and we plan to visit as often as we can with the kids (though I think that my husband plans to visit daily).

Anyway, on Friday, I did not get up before the sun to catch the sales. The tradition we have is to put away the fall decorations and get out the Christmas ones (I think that I have about 9 Rubbermaid containters of them now.....time to purge them maybe?). My husband cleans up the front yard, and gets all of the lights (I think we counted about 8 containers of them) and starts planning the "outdoor illumination". Today, he spent most of the day outside and was even up on the roof. He'll probably be out putting up lights tomorrow too. Yes, it's that time of year, where the lights will come on at dusk, and during that time, we won't be able to use any hairdryers or vacuum cleaners (we know our limitations during the Christmas season, from experience).

So that is all for now,
Lp

2008-11-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

Well I thought that I'd take advantage of the time that the house is quiet to blog again. Kevin and the kids are out in the garage at the moment. Kevin is practicing his drums, Kylin is playing with the model train set, and Heather is videotaping everything that is going on out there. There is also the possibility that a cat or two has joined them and will be in Heather's "movie"

My daughter has a job for next week cat "sitting". The cat will stay in her own house and I'll drive Heather over every day to make sure that she has food and water and that anything needing cleaning up will be taken care of. This is one of those perfect jobs for her as she loves cats!

Yesterday, the kids and I went with my grandma to Shari's restaurant for lunch. I was in the mood for soup and their menu showed this very delicious looking baked potato soup. So I ordered that, without the bacon bits on top (we don't eat meat). The waitress said that there were bacon bits in the soup too. So I switched to the soup of the day which was Wisconsin Cheddar. Well they didn't have that either because they had forgotten to order it and were replacing it with a chicken & dumpling soup. Well that just wouldn't do......so I ordered a veggie omelet with hashbrowns (I still had a potato in some form!). Still having a craving for potato soup, I made a batch when I arrived home. I blended a little sour cream into it too. It was soooooo good! I did eat too much of it, but I got the craving out of my system. I have about a cup of it left, in the freezer.

Tonight, I thought that I'd make chili, which is what Kevin likes. I also chose a cornbread recipe that I hadn't made for my family before. It was called Cheesy Corn Spoon Bread. It was alright. I guess we're used to the Marie Callender's sweet corn bread (really it's more like cake). The chili was declared delicious, the cornbread will take some getting used to. Kylin declared that he liked Marie Callender's cornbread best.

The kids are getting anxious for Thanksgiving to arrive next week. The Macy's parade is something the kids will get up early to watch. Then we'll go to my dad's for dinner. My sister has been telling me that my nephew walks and has started saying a few words. So Thanksgiving at my dad's may have some extra entertainment this year! The kids are also excited about the day after Thanksgiving as that is when we put away the Fall decorations and get out all of the Christmas decor. Kylin has a singing snowman that he's looking forward to seeing again. We usually put fresh batteries in it when we get it out and then let them run out of power. It only takes a few days. While I'm inside with the indoor decorations, Kevin will spend most of the day (and into the evening) putting up the Christmas lights. By Christmas day, aircraft flying overhead will know where we live. :) Maybe next time I blog I can post some pictures of the goings on during "decoration day".

Lp

General Update (because I really don't have a title for this one)

2008-11-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

The rainy weather seems to be in full swing these days. I don't mind too much. I like to hear the rain when I first start to wake up in the morning. I wouldn't mind having my cup of coffee in my cozy bed on those mornings. However, the sound of kids in the living room indicate that I really can't do that for several more years Rainy days also bring more regular hot cocoa days for the kids.

Two weeks ago we also went on our annual drive through Cheshire, Veneta, Crow and Lorane (very rural areas near where we live). We've been taking this drive every year at this time since we started dating (so about 14 years now I guess), and every year, we are just so fascinated with the pretty colors of the fall leaves, and at the end of each drive, we comment on how we should have brought the camera. So this year, we brought it, and took about 64 pictures (one of which is the picture at the upper left of this post). Some of them I actually tried to take while the car was in motion (I had read the blog of someone else who was traveling by motorcycle and had taken pictures while still in motion, so I thought I'd try it as well, just in the safer car). A couple of years ago, Kevin bought me a really nice camera for my birthday and it takes fabulous pictures. I just love it! Anyway, some of my pictures in motion (or "drive-by-shootings") don't look half bad (note the picture at the upper right). Maybe just a hint of a blur in one area but not too bad. We took the kids on this trip too. They've been going with us ever since they arrived, and when they were little, all we had to do was buy a basket of French fries and a soda for them and they thought it was a great trip. Not so anymore. Hopefully one day when they're our age, they'll actually have fond memories of it.........maybe.........I hope so. They are both very artistic and only one is currently interested in drawing pictures of scenery.

It seems that a cold that has been going around has made a visit to our house as well. Just as my husband is starting to feel better after a week of having a cold, my daughter has the beginnings of one. Hopefully it won't last long. Thanksgiving is coming up and I'd really hope that our extended family will be giving thanks that we didn't give the cold to them.

So that's just about all there is to report. It's evening, the kids are in bed, and it seems like a good time for a cup of tea.

Lp

An odd commercial for sponsoring a child

2008-10-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

Just a short post on something I saw on TV yesterday that made absolutely no sense. There was a commercial for a children's charity for children overseas, and the spokesperson was a well known former child actress asking us to sign up and sponser a child, and by doing so, you'll provide the child with food, clothes and an education, AND have the love and gratitude of your particular child. Now that's all fine and good, I have no problem with that. What I found odd, was what they used as the carrot to dangle in front of the public to get them to sign up. The first 3 months you can sponsor a child for FREE! So for the first 3 months, how is this child going to get the promised food clothes and education from your sponsorship if you aren't paying anything, thus not truly "sponsoring"? After 3 months, it'll be $22 per month, but buy then, will person who signed up remember to budget that in. Who knows, I'm sure that there are some who will. We're also told that we'll receive a letter from the child we sponsor. So if we get the first 3 months free, should we expect a letter from "our child" in that first 3 months that says, "Thanks for nothing!"

This isn't buying a car or a piece of furniture with the promise of "no payments 'til after New Years!". It's rather sad that a charity feels that they need to offer this kind of motivation to get sponsors.

Ok, I'm off of my soap box for now.
Lp

We have a stash.........

2008-10-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

of tape!
I don't know what it is that is so fascinating about tape with kids. I know that I loved tape as a kid, but I don't remember why. But today's topic title was inspired by my kids when my son asked my daughter if she had any tape in her "stash". My son has such a fascination with tape. My daughter had one when she was younger, but now sees that it's only a necessity for wrapping gifts and fixing pages in her books. My son uses tape for building things and hanging things up. He uses it to hang up pictures on walls, to tape yarn to shoeboxes ,hoping to hook it up to one of the cats so they can pull it like a trailer, or in the case I'm seeing right now, taping it to the back of himself so as he's picking up clutter, he can put it in the box. However, he's realizing that the tape won't hold the box and everything he's putting it in.

Before my son discovered tape, there was plenty available for gift wrapping, closing boxes to mail, and preparing to paint. Not anymore. We are always rather hardpressed to find tape in the house. I have hidden it and he's found it.

Maybe for Christmas, we should just give him a box of tape for his own........that blue painter's tape so as not to wreck the paint on the walls.

Lp (as I end this, he is still trying to tape a box to the back of his shirt)

Fun facts About This Mom

2008-10-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

My husband did this several months ago, so, I thought I'd come up with something similar. Anyway, trivial stuff about me! Enjoy!

1. Until I was married, I had had maybe 2 coffees, and I didn't know how to make coffee. I married a major coffee drinker, and learned from him how to make it and my coffee intake is now every day, more than once per day. A friend of mine refers to it as "Mama's Little Helper", and I would have to agree.

2. My desk is currently covered with teacher's manuals, school books and the kids art papers, a large printer. My desk seems to be the "catch-all" here in the livingroom.

3. I haven't ridden a bicycle in at least 20 years

4. Current favorite soda is Wild Cherry Pepsi

5. I've been to a Star Trek convention (I went with Kevin when we were engaged. He got Marina Siritis' autograph).

6. Favorite comic strips are "For Better or For Worse" and "Stone Soup"

7. When I was in 6th grade, I went to a Christian School and we went to our state capital to hear Jerry Falwell speak. There were several tv stations and protesters there as well.

8. I've been to Canada twice. The first time I went to Edmonton with my parents and I was about 4 or 5. My mom and I swam in a hot spring and I think that it was snowing there too. The second time I went was on my honeymoon and we went to Victoria B.C.

9. I've never flown on an airplane. All of my traveling has been done by car

10. I've visited at least 10 states

11. I took piano lessons for 2 years (most of my lesson time was spent listening to my teacher tell stories about her youth).

12. I'm not a huge cat fan, but because my husband and daughter are, we have them in the house. We have 5 of them.

13. We are organic gardeners. Actually my husband does most of the gardening and I do the harvesting and preserving.

14. I went to a taping of "Who's The Boss" nearly 20 years ago.

15. Celebrities I've seen. The cast of "Who's The Boss", Scott Baio, as he was entering the parking lot of the tv studio, as we were leaving a taping of the show. Marina Siritis from "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

16. amateur photographer (I took a photography class 20 years ago, but it would help if I took it again since we now have cool digital cameras).

17. I used to work for the 2nd largest computer software company in the world (hopefully it's still the 2nd largest).

18. I grew up with dauchsunds as our family pets.

19. Related to Daniel Boone as I'm a descendant of his older brother Samuel.

20. My first 8 years were spent around a dairy. My granddad owned the dairy and my dad managed it. For 8 years we lived out in the country surrounded by cows. If anyone who lived in Lane County back in the 60's and 70's ever drank Lloyd's Milk, that was from my granddad's dairy.

21. There is a quilt with my name on it in the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Burr Oak, Iowa. My fourth grade class made a 9 patch quilt and donated it to the museum.

22. When I was in college, I studied to become a television director

23. I'm mostly Scottish, then Danish, Welsh, and a little Native American. My maiden name is an Irish one, but I think that's about as far as it goes.

So anyway, fun little facts that you never knew, and probably never wondered about, but now you do!

Lp

Being Flexible

2008-09-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

About 2 years ago, I had acquired a list of character qualities from a parenting seminar I had attended. It is titled "Christian Virtues" and has a list of them and next to each one is a rather simplified explanation so that even a small child could figure out what they mean. So, I had this on my refridgerator , and I made a copy for each of my kids and hung it in their rooms. I went over each character quality and their meaning and since then will go back to it when I think that they need to be reminded. I really don't think that they bothered to look at this list at all in the past two years..........until this week.

About 3 days ago, something happened where things didn't go for Kylin as he had planned. Usually for him, that means a meltdown. Kids with a autism or a form of it, really like to have things a certain way and they really don't like to have any kind of change from the status quo. So, anyway, something didn't go as expected and Kylin dealt with it pretty well and then told me, "I am willing to change if change is needed". Well that sounded a bit too grammatically correct for him to come up with that statement on his own. So I asked him if he read that somewhere and he said that it was next to "Flexible". So he finally read something on that list and made a connection. And he was so pleased with himself that he handled the change well.

Then came last night when we went to church. Usually when we go to church on a Wednesday night, he goes to his class at right away. But, we were informed that the kids were going to sit with us during worship and then go to their classes when the parents go to the adult class. That didn't sit well with Kylin, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was angry and trying hard not to have a meltdown. At some point, the children's pastor came by, said "Hello" and reached out to shake his hand and asked how he was doing. Kylin stuck his hand out and said, without any joy, "I'm flexible!". I think that the kids' pastor was amused.

Possibly one day, he'll wish that he never learned what "Flexible" means, and he'll wish that we never knew that he knows what it means.

Lp

School has begun.

2008-09-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

We did it. We made it through the first day of school and all of our lessons. I arranged the schedule a bit differently this year in that I had both kids here in the kitchen and I worked with Kylin in getting through his subjects. He was finished in about an hour. Heather who is in 7th grade had all but 3 subjects that needed my undivided attention so I let her wait on those until after lunch, when Kylin went to his room for a couple of hours of "room time" (formerly known as "naptime"). We got through everything except math in the first hour. Her math lesson took up that second hour and she was yawning and telling me how tired she was and just not putting much effort into it. She'd rather stay in her room and read and have "roomtime". I did remind her that if she were going to a regular school, that she'd be in a class or in P.E. at that very moment, so it's not like she was the only 7th grader doing schoolwork at that time. I also reminded her that most kids her age also take schoolwork home to work on in the evenings and they are really tired.

Tomorrow, we get to do it all again. Hopefully, there will be less yawning (and just typing about it makes me yawn)

In other news, it looks like I'll get to be an aunt again! My sister, after confirmation from her doctor, announced that she's expecting her second child in the spring. Her firstborn just turned one just over a month a go. She is going to be sooooo busy, (at least one year of changing two sets of diapers) but she'll be happy too.

So anyway, that's my latest tidbit of news!
Lp

School starts........Next week for us.

2008-09-02T12:55:00.001-07:00

I decided to postpone the beginning of the school year for us because Kevin is taking this week off as a vacation. When he's home, it's just harder to keep a school schedule when he isn't following any schedule. I do have the first week's lessons planned out and I have some curriculum ordered that should arrive very soon. So I think that I'm about as ready as I can be.

The weather is finally getting a bit cooler. It can still be sunny, but there is a bit of a chill in the air, which of course excites me, because it's "fall-ish", and that means long sleeves, sweaters, jeans, colorful leaves coming, and makes me feel like making soup (potato/cheddar is my favorite).

Recently, Kevin bought a 10 gallon fish tank that he found on Craigslist for $10. Yesterday we went to buy some fish to add to it and wound up needing a heater, new filter, water conditioner and a net. When all was said and done, we wound up spending $$41. About twice as much as what Kevin was expecting to spend. So we named the fish, "Hugh", "Navarre", "Dwight" and "Dex", and an algae eater named "Al". This morning I was informed that "Navarre" had already died. So once again, the pet I personally pick out winds up dying. Kevin is out running errands and he mentioned wanting to get another fish for me. So maybe if he's the one choosing it, it'll live!

This afternoon, I am going to make up some soup to freeze for later lunches and possibly some macaroni & cheese as well. It'll really depend on if I have enough containers.

So, that is the plan. Hopefully I'll have no interruptions and I can carry it out.

Lp

August 6-The Summer Festivities Are Almost Over

2008-08-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well just as I was doing the last time I posted, I am enjoying a berry smoothie while I blog! Hot weather just seems to require that treat.

Yesterday, I discovered (and I don't know why it never occurred to me) why, in the 11 years I've lived here, I have rarely seen a hummingbird. I was out side pulling the shade down over the window when I noticed to my left, one of our cats playing with something and I also kept hearing what sounded like a loud squeak. I thought that he had a small mouse (I've seen the cats play with one of those recently) and discovered a very small hummingbird. The poor thing was still breathing (barely). So then I started thinking about how we just haven't seen as many birds as we used to. Then I started thinking how, by setting out bird feeders, I'm really setting up a buffet for the cats. Poor birds!

Heather had her birthday earlier in the week. We planned to have family over for dinner and cake on the evening of her birthday. Kevin was out of town taking a class for work, so I was parenting by myself and getting the house ready for company. It wasn't that hard this time. Our days stayed busy and we'd hear from Kevin in the evenings. He came home two days before the birthday.

The day before the birthday was spent doing last minute shopping and baking the birthday cake. Then wrapping up the gifts and leaving them on the table for Heather to see when she awoke in the morning. Sure enough, when we got up on Sunday, Heather was already in the livingroom waiting for us so she could see her loot. She was pretty happy with her gifts, but I have a feeling that she sort of knew what she was getting. Either that or kids don't get that excited when they're 12. Later in the morning, we took our birthday girl to the mall to get her ears pierced. I think that has been the thing that she's been looking forward to the most. She was rather anxious because she knew that there would be pain. She made it through, almost cried, and when all was said and done, she had a big smile and earrings in her ears.

So now that the birthdays are over, for a while, we're taking a few weeks off from doing school. I need the break and the kids do too.

Lp

July part 2

2008-07-20T20:52:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here on a Sunday evening, enjoying a berry smoothie, made by my spouse.
Summer is cruising along at a steady pace. Heather is nearly 12 and this is the first year that she's noticing how fast the time flies. It's hard to believe that in just a couple of weeks, Kevin and I will have been parents for 12 years. When Heather was born, I had a 13 year old sister. My sister is now 25 and just last year, became a parent herself.

So anyway, we have a birthday coming up and the thing that Heather is looking forward to is the trip to the jewelry store to get her ears pierced. We've also been gathering gifts here and there, and before we know it, it'll be the morning of her birthday. She'll wake up to presents at her place at the breakfast table and she'll be anxious for us to get up so she can open them. We'll have a get together with family here at the house and then perhaps the following weekend, we'll take both kids and hopefully one of Heather's friends to Chuck E. Cheese for an afternoon of constant noise and arcade games. Pretty close to Heaven for kids I think.

Speaking of birthdays, this weekend, we went to my nephew's 1st birthday party. He was pretty cute and my sister put on a great party for the little guy. I'm guessing that she and my brother-in-law were exhausted and possibly took a nap when they came home.

I guess that it's time for me to close this entry. My daughter has brought out the game "Apples to Apples" and she's ready for us to play.

Lp

Keeping cool

2008-07-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Summer seems to be in full swing. The required heat is here too. I don't mind having the sun as much because we need it for the garden to produce the veggies that we planted. There's just something about harvesting your own food and having it for dinner or at least preserving it. It's a pretty good feeling.

The summer heat also provides us with a reason to make smoothies too. A few weeks ago, Kevin bought a heavy duty blender, that crushes ice. So on Friday nights, and sometimes other very hot weekdays, he can be persuaded to make smoothies using the frozen berries from last year's garden. They're very filling and very good, and not as fattening as what we'd normally get at Dairy Queen. Kevin made some smoothies tonight and they were soooooo good!

And finally, summer is bringing birthdays. Between last Saturday and the end of August, we will have a birthday party every two weeks. My grandma turned 90 last Saturday. We celebrated with a family dinner at Marie Callender's. My aunt & uncle joined us from out of town and my nephew, who will be 1 in a couple of weeks, was the main entertainment. Next weekend is my nephew's birthday and then two weeks after that is Heather's 12th birthday and 3 weeks after that are the birthdays of my dad and brother-in-law. It's a busy birthday summer.

So that's the latest with this report. Due to the rising price of gas, we aren't doing much traveling, so most of what we'll be doing will be here at home.

Lp