Sunday, September 30, 2007

An Answered Prayer


bj and eileen with the kids flying kites


bj teaching sydnie and emily magic tricks



yesterday morning i was snoring my little head off when suddenly i woke up to the sounds of doors being opened and cars running, it was 6am. i was thinking in my sleepy little head that it was the neighbor going hunting again. i tossed around for a few minutes and then got up to look out the window and find out what was going on......i see two ambulances outside of our neighbor on the left. i immediately started praying for BJ and Eileen, because i know that it is serious. i went downstairs because i could not sleep and saw them haul bj out on a stretcher. i was debating if i should go to eileen and tell her that we would be praying and that if she needed anything to let us know...but before i could make up my mind she was off after the ambulance.

we found out later that day that he was doing great, but that he had had brain surgery for a clot and bleeding in the brain. they originally diagnosed a massive stroke and could not give him the stroke drug because they did not know when it had started. so that was a downer to hear, but then toward the evening i spoke with eileen and she said it was just the bleeding that had caused everything. it looks like he is going to pull through just fine. thank you God for answered prayers.

these two moved in next door to us about 2 years ago and my kids just love both of them. they have hung their artwork in their windows, taught the kids magic tricks and continue to be involved in both of their lives. of course when we first met bj he told us that if he didn't like our dog he was just going to shoot her.....big long story told with a gleam in his eye. seriously funny guy. Eileen always has goodies at the holidays and made sure that last year at halloween even though their light was off that we could come inside. Also last year bj scared the crap out of my kids by dressing up and talking really funny at halloween to come deliver some suckers....the worst of it was the big hunting knife he was carrying. my kids were terrified. Good neighbors and good friends.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

THE MOM!

This made me laugh...thanks J for passing it on. We all say we are not going to say these things to our kids...but we all do.

11 Years

how can the time go so fast? Has it really been 11 years since we walked down the aisle. Yes it has. It is fun to think back to that day and remember all the stress, no eating and it being incredibly hot. Seriously....88 degrees that day. but the best part was marrying the man that i loved. Seeing him for the first time that day. Knowing that God had placed him in my life. That all the doors to that day had been opened by a loving caring God that knew we would be together before we were born. That is amazing. It was a beautiful day. of course my scanner is not working right now so I have no pix to post....I guess I will just have to watch my little video and look at our album today. Cuz I won't get to see my husband at all. how sad is that. same as last year. see each other for 10 minutes then off to the next meeting or thing to do.

I love you Thad....happy anniversary.

Monday, September 24, 2007

fall is here













I love fall. i love the crisp air. i love the beautiful shadows that the autumn sun creates. i love drinking a hot pumpkin spice latte. i love walking in the sunshine and cool breeze. i love the change of colors that occur. i love brining out all of my fall decorations. i love smelling pumpkin when i light my candles. i cannot wait to go to the pumpkin patch. i love turning my heater on in the car, but rolling my window down just a touch to let in the crisp air. i love that the holiday season in coming up quickly. i love "watching" my kids rake the leaves. this is by far my favorite time of year. i love the colors i love bringing out my fall sweaters and jeans. love love love.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Just for fun on a saturday

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car), chewie odyssey

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie), Starbucks Coffee almond snickerdoodle

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name), R-Gou (what the crap is that...a spaghetti sauce!)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal), Green Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born), Diane Portland

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first), Gou-Ro

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink), The Brown Coke

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers), Randal Harold

9. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy), Obsession take 5 (cuz that totally fits ha ha)

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ), Delynn Keith

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter), Pointer Portland

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower). Fall Christmas Buganveilla

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”) Strawberry sweatie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree), cocoa puff birch

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”), The Scrapbooking Sunshine Tour


So I am going to tag a couple of blogger ladies....bree, teresa, and amy you are it. can't wait to see your stripper names!

Emmys 2007 - Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Steve Carell

This was one of my favorite moments from the emmys. steve carrell is awesome. i am just getting ready to watch all three seasons of the office...back to back. because i have nothing else to do (ha ha)

Bummer

so by the time we all went to bed last night we all were coming down with a cold. noah coughed thru the night and thad and I woke up with stuffy heads and sore throats. our first cold of the season. we always get a september cold. hopefully it will go quickly.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Going Green


So I know that this is the new bandwagon to be on....everyone going green, keeping the environment pure and whole. but there is something to be said for how much waste goes into our dumps and how much we do not recycle. It has been in the back of my mind. I have always recycled cans, aluminum, paper, etc.....but what else could i be doing? So while i was on a weekly grocery run i found the fred meyer reusable sacks...bought about 3. I had just taken in my 6 month supply of plastic sacks..in a huge toys r us sack, that is a lot of plastic. I make sure that anything plastic or paper goes in my recylcing pile (which has now doubled) and I make sure that all of our light bulbs are flourscent. I walk the kids to school each day. I keep our lights off during the day and only one on at night(which helps with the pge bill too). I just read the other day that liquid laundry soap and dishwasher detergent takes more resources to make....so I think i will switch to granule kind. We are hoping to buy more energy effecient washer and dryer to cut down on waste.


I know that some people live green like there is no tomorrow. But every little bit counts in my opinion. I don't want to be the cause of those cute little polar bears not having ice to hunt on anymore. (he he). I will probably never be able to get thad to fertilize with natural resources....scotts rules according to him. but we have switched to non chemical cleaning supplies in our house, which now i don't have headaches when i clean. and this summer we gathered some ladybugs to eat the aphids on some of our plants (the kids loved that).


So here is my soapbox.....not completely granola...just little infusions every now and then. just being more concious of my efforts and the efforts of those around me. here are a few sites to view the impact of our living:

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Ortho Be Gone!

In august we had our normal dentist appt for the kids....nothing was different, no cavities, no teeth turning the wrong way, so I was a little suprised when the dentist told us we had to go to the orthodontist for sydnie. I know that she has an adorable gap in her teeth that someday could use some cosmetic fixing, but to hear that it might impact her adult teeth from dropping......off to the orthodontist we went.

For about two years the dentist has been telling us that the fix to her spread would be to cut her "soft tissue" in between the front ones, so I have been waiting for that. When we met the ortho this morning he reiterated the same thing. He told us that he wanted to see us in 6 months to make sure that the side teeth had dropped in correctly, but that he did not expect to see her even as a teenager!!! WHEW. She will more than likely have to have her soft tissue cut and then maybe a little braces on the top couple of teeth.....but nothing major. I was really praying that she would not go into braces this early (after some research, too young) of course sydnie thought it would be really cool, because several of her friends have them. So for now I get to wait for that huge expense and monthly visits.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Sleepwalker


(pix from two years ago...but he is asleep here)

So for about a year now my youngest has been sleepwalking. Every night, one hour after he goes to bed, he wakes up crying. Sometimes I catch him in his sisters closet, sometimes he is in his closet, one time i caught him in the playroom near the window (scary). He talkes gibbersh, he does not respond when questioned, he is not awake. I usually walk him into the bathroom, he goes, I guide him back into his bedroom, into bed, tuck him in and he goes right back to sleep. He never knows that he did all this. Thad used to turn the lights on and try to make him talk, until I showed him all the info on the internet. I was a sleepwalker as a child too and I outgrew mine. From what i can find, we have about 8 more years of this!!! HOLY COW. He always wakes up at the worst times....especially when my favorite tv show is on and i have to run upstairs to help. wow that sounded a little selfish, but come on. after reading some more info i found out that these episodes can be triggered by a full bladder, which make sense that he is usually trying to pee when i find him...seriously in his sisters closet!!!!

So I have now decided to use the full frontal approach (ha ha).....I will be waking him up each night about 45 minutes after I put him to bed (probably on commercial break) to use the restroom....the research showes that this tends to stop these episodes. It really is rather funny to see someone totally asleep, but up and walking around. It has to affect his attitude and crankiness though. If you sleep was affected every night and you were not getting your full night, wouldn't you be tired too? Let's hope it works and that he can go back to normal, good humored noah.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

So much fun!!!






































Thad's sister got married last night and as you can see we had so much fun. We started our day at Deepwood for pictures with the bridal party and totally unplanned noah grabbed abby's hand and kissed it. well that set the photographers into a frenzy and they made him do it again and again. SO CUTE. Noah had a blast walking down the aisle and he did a great job not messing around on stage. The best part was when the pastor asked for the rings and noah was mouthing to me that he had the rings, why weren't they using his rings....i thought i was going to laugh out loud at one point. He did a great job. It was so much fun to see abby so happy and nervous and just loving her day. We moved onto the party and sydnie got to hand out favors with her cousins. The girls were done so quickly, so proud of their job. My kids had been waiting for the dancing all night......hoping for the chicken dance. The girls danced so nice, but noah was like a spring with to much tension....bouncing all over the floor and when he paid to dance with abby I though he was going to pull her over! When we left the party was just getting started with a hispanic tradition of the groom being thrown in the air!!! Cannot wait to hear what happened after that. Congratulations abby and eder.











Tuesday, September 11, 2007

first day of kindergarten


isn't he just adorable. seriously love his little camo shoes.
with the too big backpack and the freshly pressed clothes.
i love the first day of school. he has just had to wait several
days for his first day. he has been so patient and now he
gets his moment to shine.




So cute in his little shirt...he has been waiting to wear his
new first day of school shirt. even with the 90* weather,
he still wanted to wear this one.




Thought this would make a cute pix of his name on his cubby




already hard at play...he could not wait to head into the classroom
and start playing. he knew there was stuff to play with and he has
been waiting two years for this day. he immediately started talking
to his new little friend on the right and i could not even get him to
tell me goodbye! he just was in the moment. so proud of himself. such
a big guy now. he was very excited that he gets to come out the front
door today. man he is so cute. I just wish that his first day of school
excitement had not woke him up at 5am!!! Hope he stays awake in
class today.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Warning - Warning - Warning!

The great rip off has just occured....

do not, i repeat do not take your daughters to Limited Too........EVER.

I am the first to admit it is ridiculously over priced and extremely expensive, but sydnie loves it so I told her we would only go there a couple of times. my mom decided to use our too bucks today and take sydnie on a shopping spree.

$160 = 6 items!!! that is with $50 off. HOLY CRAP!!! then mom complained about how expensive it is.....to which i said then why did you take her here? in all fairness i told mom not to buy the $50 skirt!!!! seriously.......for kids clothes!! she got a couple of pairs of pants, which i gladly paid $36.00 for because they fit and she liked them (sydnie is really a skirt girl, so i have to get pants when she likes them).

of course you suckered in by the too bucks and coupons off and before you know you have spent $900 and you have to hide it from you husband. ( i did not do that but some lady was observed who did).

in the long run we found three great pairs of shoes for miss extra extra wide foot at nordstroms and she liked them. another long story and dinner needs to be put on the table. have a great night.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

the nitty gritty



the first and second day for sydnie have been great. she is really coming into her own this year and loving school. she sits at a table of all girls, which helps so much. last year she was always at a table with boys. she loves her teacher and is really looking forward to learning a lot this year. she has already had pe and music....library must be tomorrow. the last two days she has walked out of school with a huge smile on her face. and this morning she did not want me to walk her into class!!! I knew it was coming.....i took every chance i could last year to enjoy walking her in.

i have been praying for her all summer that she would enjoy this year and just have fun. she had a really rough year last year. i am told that most girls go thru a phase in the third grade of just trying to fit in and figure out what and who they are, but syd went through it last year. plus she hated being away from me all day. i had to search long and hard this summer about home school. i was not sure it was the right thing to do...but she was so miserable last year. i was able to talk to some women and decided that the best thing was to see how this year went and if something horrible happened we would pull her out and put her in private school. she needs to experience some of these bad times to appreciate the good.

she looked absolutely adorable on her first day of school. her outfit was of course from limited too. she has been planning this outfit since end of july when we bought it. the only snafoo was the brown ballet sandals that we had bought to wear the first day were too tight for some reason....(i think she really wanted to wear the ballet crocs from limited too). i have learned through the years to not fight about the shoes. she said that everyone loved her limited too strawberry necklace......"the girls all wanted one mom!" I loved her outfit......she looks so cute. this year is all about blue for sydnie.....YAY, no more pink.

so here is to a good year and good friends and a great teacher!!!!!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

2nd Grade








Monday, September 03, 2007

Isn't she lovely






While we were camping, sydnie had her hair french braided and she loved it. she was super excited when the braids were pulled out that her hair was wavy. she wanted a photo shoot on the beach. most of them did not turn out good, but i love the ones of her laughing.