Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Pieces of Home





So I took the kids down to my parents house yesterday for a little R&R...we all needed to just hang out with a little TLC comin' our way. It is funny how sometimes you visit your home and become nostalgic for the things you remember most about what the house was when you were growing up. I was struck that someday these things that I know, will not be here...the house will be the same, but the things that make it up will be gone. So I had fun taking some photos of things that when I think of my parents house, say welcome. My dad loves to garden and growing up we always had a huge garden in the back, now my kids get to help grandpa plant the garden and tend to it throughout the summer. The boat is a reminder of all the camping and fishing trips we took as kids....but it doesn't run anymore. The windmill is a fairly recent addition, something they purchased on their 30th wedding anniversary.

I also took some of my dad's photos that he had taken with his Nikon SLR...beautiful photos of flowers and animals in their yard, and put them in an album for them to look at thru the winter. My dad took some amazing photos but my favorite was one of his pear trees.....I mean it looked like a postcard. I had fun devoting one full page to the animals that visit...deer, rabbits, quail, and woodpeckers....so cool. I told him he needed to practice some more and we could add more pages later.

Great weekend!!! Much needed escape and a chance to remember family.

Friday, May 26, 2006

frustrated

okay....so when I started this blog, my daughter had been diagnosed with mono (see 10 days post) but as it turns out after five hours spent in doctors offices, she really had tonsillitis, periabsess tonsillitis. So after 8 doctors visits, we finally got to go to an ENT who put her on antibiotics and we have to revisit next week to determine if the tonsils have to be removed. Now to top it all of I had to take my son in today and he has strep throat!!! I am super frustrated that doctors do not listen to what you are telling them. as a mother we know when there is something wrong with our child....not just a virus!!!! I was treated poorly for trying to protect my daughter and sons health, by "professionals" who are there to "help" you. Because the doctors didn't listen to me a month ago when I told them it just did not seem like a virus or why did they not prescribe and antibiotic when they claimed she mono and tonsillitis the first time, Sydnie may have to have her tonsils removed. That means that my beautiful, sweet 6 year old will have to go under the knife. WOW....I am mad. Good place to vent...gotta let it go and move on, because I will just keep getting madder and madder which is not going to do any good. I just know now that when we go to the doctors office I need to know and question everything that they are saying and doing. Sad state of healthcare. Well it's time to go serve antibiotics to the kids. Have a great weekend.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Yay Taylor

Okay....I am so glad that Taylor won!! I really enjoyed Cat, but Taylor just rocked the house...of course so did Chris D, but you can't have it all. I loved the fact that Carrie has done so well with her career. I watched her last night on the ACM's. Great voice. Can't wait to download Taylor's song.

How could a person choose between Idol and Lost. I have to say that JJ Abrams is a master story teller. He is amazing. Just finished Lost and I went back and forth between the two for the first hour, so I will have to watch Lost more intensely tomorrow, but what the heck was that? If they killed Locke I will be so mad. First "Locke" is written out of Alias, now Lost? Which I know cannot be true, but you never now with JJ. Love his theme's of choice vs fate. okay...enough about tv and now a little shut eye.

rain rain come and play





It is no suprise that it rains alot in oregon...the weird thing is my kids do not like to play in the rain. They never have, even though they have rain boots and umbrellas and rain jackets. But this week it has been pouring down rain and suddenly my son decides that his camoflauge umbrella is super cool and he wants to walk in the rain. Next thing I know the kids are outside in flip flops with their "cool" umbrellas running around in the rain. I of course think of the awesome scrap pages I could make so I ran and got the camera. The shots are not fantastic, because I was thinking of all the times when I was a kid and played in the rain and mud. My brother and I would be covered from head to toe in mud, but we were always so happy. Maybe I will have normal kids!!! (he he) Of course they were cold when they came in to change and they sat down to a warm bowl of soup, just like out of a campbells commercial. I think I will stay inside in the warm, cozy house and play on my computer...oh how times change.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

New Passion

I so love the David Crowder Band. I have been obsessively listening to their cd's this weekend. Oh my gosh...how come it took so long to get into them? My brother and sister in law told me to listen to it a couple of years ago, but I was in the height of letting my kids listen to their Veggie Tales. Now I am laying down the law and in the car from now on it gets to be mommy music. The kids love all of my music...jack johnson, reliant k, newsboys, aaron shust, faith hill. This is a little slice of heaven just for me. It probably does not hurt that I am scrapbooking as well. Seriously got to check out this http://www.davidcrowderband.com/index2.php3

Saturday, May 20, 2006

What would you do for sleep?

So noah came running into my room this morning at 6:15am asking to go out to the car and get his bear! Needless to say I rolled over and went back to sleep. I heard him then go run into sydnie's room and wake her up. From there it was quiet playing in the hallway with their magnetix. Suddenly at 7:30 I realized they were being awfully quiet...that is when the feeling of dread came over me...what were they doing? I walked quietly to the playroom and realized that they were in the closet playing. Which is off limits by the way. I knew something was wrong, they are not this quiet...I happened to look down and saw lots of little styrofoam beads, the kind you put into bean bags. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that they had opened a newly acquired bag (still waiting to buy covers) and were playing with it. I go to the door and they had locked themselves in, went to find a key and told them to start cleaning up. Needless to say, I did get to sleep in, but I have spent the last two hours "helping" them clean up all the tiny beads. They lost their privilege of going to watch the Keizer Iris Festival parade this morning and we will have to see about the birthday party. So what would you do for a little extra sleep....let the silence continue or go investigate?

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

A Mom's Salary

Analysis completed by Salary.com reveals that today's 5.4 million stay-at-home moms would earn $131,471 in annual salary, including overtime pay, if paid in cash in addition to the steady flow of rewarding hugs and kisses from their children. Salary.com consulted with a representative sampling of stay-at-home moms before finalizing a list of the top seven job titles that fit the average mom's job description. Ranked in order from most time-consuming to least time-consuming, the list includes the titles of:
Daycare Center Teacher
Van Driver, Housekeeper
Cook
CEO
Nurse
General Maintenance Worker

Stay-at-home moms and working moms have a tremendous responsibility in raising their children and in the spirit of the upcoming Mother's Day holiday we recognize all moms and grandmothers for a job well done," We found it extremely difficult to put a true price on an annual salary for stay-at-home moms because they are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week with only a few, if any, chances to relax."

Finally a validation that we can never, ever be paid enough for all of the work we do for our families. I was online one day and found this article...I thought it would make a perfect scrapbook page about mothers day and all that we do. I enjoy being a stay at home mom and at this point in my life I would be very difficult to go back to work...how do you manage both when your kids need you so much? I have worked part time at a LSS a couple of times, but in the long run, my kids are more important than anything else. No one can tell you what is the right choice for you, but my decision to stay home has been the best decision I have ever made!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

My Day



This is one of the first Mother's Days that was totally relaxing...just me and the family...I loved this day. We spent the morning at church and then took a picnic lunch down to riverfront park. Kids played on the play structure and rode on the carousel. The weather was perfect, amazing actually. It does not get any better than today. The kids took me to Al's Garden to buy some plants for my patio. Picked up some cool plants and now I have to actually do the work to plant them (he he). We barbecued this evening and sat on our patio while the kids jumped in their new trampoline. It was so hot that we turned the sprinkler on underneath and they would run back and forth...eat a little, then jump, eat a little then jump. I seriously loved this day.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Pavement Hurts


Is that not a true statement? This week has been one of mortal danger for my son. He has fallen off his bike, crashed into his sister on his bike and fallen down while running in flip-flops....we have gone thru a whole container of bandaids in one week and we might have to invest in the company pretty soon. I was at Old Navy yesterday and found this awesome t-shirt on clearance - "Pavement Hurts". Well of course that went in the basket quicker than you could say what was on it. Noah proudly wore his new shirt today and even posed for some pictures of his bum knees. I know this is the beginning of many daredevil, boy things...Band Aids here we come and a little prayer for mom's sanity would be good too.

Do you Java?

A couple of weeks ago my friend posted on her blog the chance to be a taste tester for Boca Java's new line of coffee just for bloggers. I was intrigued so I went to their site and signed up. Well my coffee arrived yesterday. This company is awesome. They have these incredible names on their coffee, great tag lines! like - Life is short, blog hard. I could not wait to get up this morning and make my first cup of blogger fuel. I broke open a bag of Bloggers Boot up Blend, the perfect breakfast blend. WOW. I must say that is some awesome coffee. It was so incredibly smooth. I was in coffee heaven. The taste was superb, this will be my morning staple for years to come. The best part about it, my DH, who is not a drinker tasted some this morning and he loved it. I think I am hooked.

Friday, May 12, 2006

Camp Daddy - What a great time





Holy cow...I cannot believe it, my husband went camping last weekend with the kids and another friend and his kids. I had the whole weekend to myself. It gets even better, it was national scrapbook day and I got to celebrate. I scrapped down at our church with some friends, visited my LS and got only about 16 pages done. It just felt so good to hang with the girls and talk about everything and nothing. But back to the kids and daddy. They went to the beach for the weekend...it was nice weather, they played on the beach, went for a hike, roasted marshmallows, and rode their scooters. They had a blast...check out the pix.