Busy Week

This week is thad's bday and we are planning on suprising him with a tailgate party on thursday night! It is suppose to rain at this point, bummer. I am having cable installed on wednesday so that we can watch the OSU game that night too. Making pulled bbq beef sammys with these little goodies on the side http://bakerella.blogspot.com/2008/02/super-bowl-funday.html

Sydnie found those cute little treats on her favorite website! So that is on our list to do tonight as well as pta meeting and football practice! Hopefully he won't find out about his party, but maybe he secretly reads this blog and does not tell me!

I have still not found my groove with blogging and working. Most days I am so busy when I get home trying to complete my other chores that blogging is the last thing on my mind. Now that I will have a dvr though, I can pause my tv and come post really quick!!! he he.

THE GIANT KILLERS!!!!!

27-21

27-21

27-21

Need I say more? Last night was a phenom game. Our boys really pulled it out, thanks in no part to a healthy dose of the Jman!!! Cannot wait to see that new ranking on espn, without usc at the top!!!! GO BEAVS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know ,I know

It has been a whole week since I posted, but I am a working mom now.........haha. So I just had a little story to share with you all this evening. As the kids and I were sitting around the breakfast table this morning, they were both studying their awana verses for tonight. Syd is gung ho, cannot wait to finish her book in one fell swoop. Where as noah is already telling me that he is not going to go to awana next year, maybe he will finish sparks, but not t&t. So syd was telling me that she could do 6 sections in one night and going on and on about it, when suddenly noah decides that two sections are not good enough for him, he now wants to finish an entire "chapter" in one night. He is only competetive with her! I swear if syd played on a sports team with him, he would be the best player out there, just to one up her. Cracks me up. Just a quick story, until later.

increased

So tomorrow is the day that I increase my hours at work from 2 hours a day to 4 hours a day. I have posted before that my dream job would be a teachers assistant in our school system and I had been accepted to sub this year, before I was hired to my current job. But now that reality is coming true. Last friday as I was still on my coffee caffeine high the principal caught me in the hall and asked if I would be interested in tacking on 2 more hours to become an assistant. I of course said yes immediately and did not ask a single question....but floated home on a haze of acceptance and wow, I must be doing something right. So this morning he told me that he wanted me to start tomorrow and to talk to the teacher that I would be working with to figure out the hours I need to be there. So tomorrow it is! I love who I am going to be working with, but I will not lie that I am a little apprehensive............something new always does that to me. My hours are going to be so weird because I have to work around my existing job, but some morning I will have time to go get a coffee or run to target. Others we will have to get to school early so that I can start when the bell rings. So pray for the kids and I as we make this new transition. Hopefully not too much stress. That means I have to have breakfast eaten before I take them to school!!! ha ha.

OH NO!!!!

Crescent lake has been evacuated and is threatened with wildfires! This is our beloved lake, so many memories and good times. I went to bed with a sad heart last night after I heard about the fires. I cannot lose this place. This lake where I grew up going every summer and spent so many hours swimming and climbing China Hill. The place where one summer my brother and I got ride in the camper, instead of the cab of the truck, down the hill to the grocery store! The place where I caught my first fish, lost a tooth and got a hook in my finger all in the same day. The place where my kids now go to experience crystal clear water, biking, the lodge and good, good memories. My prayer is that the fire does not touch this lake, that the tree lines remain, the lodge is still there and that the beautiful pumice beach is still white and crystal clear! My heart is still sad this morning as I looked thru all of our camping pix for the last several years...thought i would post a few of what this lake has been to us. It is like I am saying goodbye to a dear friend, well hopefully not goodbye, just take care.......we love you.

Celebrate

Today was a national holiday for my daughter..........can anyone out there take a guess why? In order to celebrate the holiday she had to wear her special shirt, call her bff in the morning to arrange to wear the special shirts and they had a whole thing at recess planned! So I fed into the madness of the national holiday and make cupcakes, just 4, and brought them to her at lunch time to share with between the 4 friends. Can u guess yet? The cupcakes spelled out the national holiday on them? Anyone?

Happy Birthday Nick Jonas!!! I know I should not feed the beast by making n.i.c.k. cupcakes, but it was the cutest thing ever!!! They all wore their JB shirts and ate their cupcakes and played nick games on the playground. So for one day, Sydnie pretended that she met her favorite singer and shared a cupcake with him (she even wanted me to make sugar free cupcakes because he is diabetic)!!!

Enjoy. It's Monday

This is exactly the type of "worship" I want to see in my church. bwaahaahahaa. I seriously cannot stop laughing.



I really like this vid for the dancing...i mean they can really groove. and i especially like the matchie matchersons vibe in this one. Plus I did not know that you had to snap your fingers at all time while on stage? Plus, uuuummmmm, breakdancing. Bonus!






But this vid has got to be my favorite!! i mean look at the feathered hair and come on who doesn't think that God is like a mountie!!!! (just listen, it says that). Plus I like the lead singer learned how to play rock n roll from Jesus!! hahahahaha. Plus diggin' the lady in the big ol' glasses, who likes like she is completely hot after the lead singer. hahahahaha. I also love it when the lead singer goes down and octave with Jesus is a friend of mine with what sydnie termed as a evil face!!!! hahahahaahahaha. Seriously gotta get me some of this in church on sunday!!!

Worth the Drive

do u remember this post (http://lifeworthliving-rochelle.blogspot.com/2008/07/great-pizza-hunt.html) i had already found the perfect pizza, but it is not near us at all. This pizza is the best ever! The Tajano pizza is to die for. i had some for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. YUMMO! After the game yesterday we went to American Dream Pizza in Corvallis and then drove over to my brother and SIL's house. i complained in the last post about pizza costing $23.00, guess what, this one did too.....but really when the pizza is that good, who cares. When we were ready to take off they told us to take the left over pizza home with us........normally I would leave the leftovers, but this time they did not have to twist my arm. I happily took them home, ummmmm hello they have access to this delicious pizza all the time, i do not. So next time any of you are in OSU territory, head over to American Dream and experience true pizza nirvana.

I See Orange People

fan fair

the bungee run

OOOOOOO-SSSSSSSSS-UUUUUUU

passing the pigskin

the claw - the kids were super excited to get these

he is so proud that she loved the game.

she was involved and excited to be there...cheering for her daddy's team.

some person took a family pix...this is how it turned out!

at least i am in it, that almost never happens.




Today we took the kids to their first ever college football game. We have wanted to take them for awhile, but also wanted to wait until they were old enough to enjoy it and they did. It was a great day for some football! (disclaimer - i like my football with a chill in the air, but sunny) We headed to OSU early so that the kids could experience fan fair....a kids dream. They loved it. Free tshirts, free eye black, free ice cream and inflatables. Then it was onto hot dogs and the game. We did not have the greatest seats, but when kids go for free, who is gonna complain. Sydnie saw her teacher, so excited! We also saw grandpa....who we knew was going, but finally at halftime we found his seats and talked to him for awhile. It was fun explaining all the plays to them, because I don't think they have ever watched a whole game. I think they were most excited because they know what a big OSU fan daddy is. It was so fun to have everyone dressed up and ready to cheer on our favorite team. Sydnie and I even painted our fingernails orange and black! After the game we ordered pizza from our favorite pizza place and enjoyed that with our favorite niece and nephew and brother and SIL. Good day. Good Pizza. Good Memories.

It's Back

This is also the time of year for another one of my favorites............fall tv schedule!!! I have several favorites that are returning this year.........chuck, heroes, 24 (with TONY!!!!), grey's, house, smallville, the office and then there are the new ones. I sat down this week and watched fringe. new jj abrams show. made thad watch it with me, because back before children we would watch xfiles together. it was okay. i think i was expecting lost or alias. but it has intrigue and a good who "conspiracy" plot, so i think i will give it a few more weeks. I cannot say that there is really any other new shows that I am interested in watching this year............maybe the ex-list. it looks kind of cute, a nice girlie show. Plus I just got addicted to Hulu. They don't always have every episode, I missed the whole last part of house last year due to the writers strike and completely loosing interest in tv.......so i wanted to catch up and they pulled all of the episodes off fox and hulu! huh? always good!!! It is going to be a very busy fall for me, lots of tv and hulu time!!! The return of my favorite shows..........I love fall!

Remember

Healing Fields September 2006

We will never forget!

smelly town, smelly town

i have a complaint...............my town stinks. literally. i don't know if it is fertilizer, pesticides, but something in this town stinks. my whole house reeks of it. i cannot leave my windows open unless i want to smell this unbearable stinkiness. so i am not sure if i need to call the mayor, the city council or the farmers around here. now, i have blogged this year about how i love the fresh produce that i can buy around here.............but right now i do not like the farmers so much. it has been happening all summer long, but it is really bad right now. i want a good nights sleep with no stinkiness!!!! i know that there are some ladies from our lovely town that read this little blog....does your house stink too?

WHAT IS THAT SMELL???????

First Sightings

On sunday as we were headed out of town to the play, we stopped at starbucks for a little caffeine and some eats for the road. As we walked into the store it was almost as if I could smell the pumpkin spice syrup calling me, begging me to buy one. I am complete now. They have indeed started selling this scrumptious pumpkin spiked caffeine buzz. I love this drink. I wait for September and drink it all the way until they run out of the syrup, which is usually sometime in early january and then I wait the rest of the year for September to arrive. For some people fall starts the back to school and holiday season. The time when leaves fall from the trees and the air is crisp and beautiful. For me it is the return of my favorite drink and it makes paying $4 for slice of heaven here on earth all worth it!!

Today!

Today I am skipping town to go to one of my favorite musicals of all time!!! The last day of performances and Julanne and I are so excited. We had talked about it about a month ago, but literally decided last night @ 9pm that we were going to go!!!! YAY. I am looking forward to some girl time and just some refreshing after the week of job and school. So think of me, think of me fondly.........while I'm away. (that is a reference to a song, for those of you who have not seen it).

Flag Football

Our first "real" football game! Noah did great. He did not act to bored and was really happy to be running up and down the field. He was super pumped to hanging out on the field with his new mouthguard! ha ha. Although he almost choked on it at one point. He almost caught the ball, remember he is not a sports kid, so this is a major improvement.

It was a great first game. Good Job Bud

First Day

She is soooooo happy that her best friend is in class with her. She loves her teachers (she has two). She had her first day of school outfit layed out for 1 week, hanging on her door. One of her teachers noticed her necklace right away, then proceeded to tell her where her outfit came from and that she loved it right away. ha ha. She already has her first homework due tomorrow! She was also very excited that I was in the lunchroom for a few minutes today. She had a great day!

I have a first grader!!! What is up with that? This is about the only good pix I got of him today, with his eyes open even. He has his eyes closed on every pix I took today. He was super excited today. He was up and dressed and ready to go. I don't think he was nervous at all. He was just happy to be back at school with his friends and he played with most of them this summer! He loves his teacher and his classroom and today he was the table helper. This year he gets to keep his own supplies (this is a new thing for 1st graders). He loved his pencil box. He bounded out of school and was ready for his first play date.

Day Two

I am back to report on the newly acquired job and my newfound working mother attitude. ha ha. I was so tired last night that I could barely make it up the stairs to bed and I was alone for the evening with two hyper kids that could not go to sleep. This morning I agreed to work early until around 11:15..................I left at 12:45. I was starving, because of course as the first day of school goes, it is more about getting the kids ready than me. ha ha. At least I had makeup on and was dressed sensibly.

Actually the day was really good. It is a lot of info to absorb in two days. A lot of training. It was a lot of organizing today and getting to know some students. all in all a very productive day. I did find out that my hours are going to be different than I thought and I will be working from 10:45-12:45, which means no gym in the morning, no lunch with either of my kids. My heart is really sad about the no lunch thing. Noah has never had the opportunity for me to bring him lunch before, although he came with me when I brought syd's in.......not the same. It's all good though. So in answer to Teresa, I have not quite yet. ha ha, give me a couple of weeks. :)

My First Official Day

So today is my first official day as an employee at my children's school! I am back in the work force and frankly I am a little nervous. This SAHM thing is all I have known for almost 10 years! I have dabbled in work from time to time, I really wanted to do something, but I missed my kids more. But this is the perfect job. My kids are in school full time, I will be there, they can see me and say hi if they want to and it is only 2hrs a day. A foot in the door. A chance to make sure I really want to work again. I was really torn as I was filling out applications early this year, did I want to work 4-6 hours? I talked with the principal, he gave me pointers and advice, told me to use him as a reference........in the end I applied for my current job based on the fact that they begged me too. haha. So today, instead of spending the last remaining day with my kids, I am headed to training for 4 hours. They get to go have fun bowling with some friends. I will be working all day, from training to pta open house to football practice to bedtime, then wake up to the first official day of school. It is a jam packed day and in the end I get a paycheck and I still get to spend time with my kids. Wish me luck!

Museum

ry-ry did not want to touch anything. no dirty hands for her.
hello cutie pie. noah's favorite color.

these flowers looked like wax. sydnie really liked them.

sea anemone. i think. maybe i need to go back and learn more. ha ha.

jellyfish are the most interesting creatures.

fun to watch them float in the current.

sounds of the ocean.

listening to a blue whale, which he studied about last year.

copying noah.

aren't grandpa's the best. they stop and explain everything

to you and make learning fun.

This museum was kind of fun. We watched the video of the exploding whale, which actually was kind of funny, even though it was disgusting. We saw some friends of ours in a beach safety video...little, itty bitty Holly. (so cute). We only had an hour to get through it before we met ry-ry's mom for lunch, but it was well worth the price.....free!