shelling tour

Cape Ramono - our destination on the tour

no words can describe how amazing and beautiful it was

the abandoned house - it was amazing to see

i could live there if the house was not in the water :)

i loved the colors on this net

our "new" house

my man

love the blue/greens with that splash of orange!

sea shells stuck in a sand ridge -

the shells were everywhere on this tiny island

a smaller island along the way

this sign just reminded me of a pirate for some reason

these markers were throughout the islands

and they usually had birds on them

The shelling tour was the group activity on thursday and we had a blast! We all boarded the boat and of course they had some great music playing and lots of drinks and thank goodness, some shade! there is no better feeling than being on the water, in a boat, riding through the waves and feeling the sunshine on your face. they toured us through some of the 10,000 islands, found some dolphins and then we landed on ramono point. i literally cannot describe how beautiful it was. we found some pretty amazing shells, they had these mica disks in all colors and we even found a beat up conch shell. but the item that held all of our attention was the house. apparently there used to be two houses, one now rests in the ocean and the second is abandoned. a hurricane blew away a bunch of plants and bushes which caused erosion and because of that this house that once sat up off the beach is now in the water. the amazing thing was it was full of shells, waist deep! as we walked back to our boat, i stopped at stood at the very tip of the point.....my toes in the warm water, the breeze on my face and the blue/green ocean as far as the eye could see. God designed this spot on earth for me to sit and ponder and remember and know that He is God. that will forever be my spot. i will go there in my mind when the times are tough, when i need encouragement, when i feel down and remember what it felt like to stand there.

the beach

chickie huts

:D

i love this shot....so simple

this guy fishing cracks me up....it is a big fishing community, but usually on boats

love this shot too

couldn't wait to hop on one of these

these sailboats created some beautiful colors against the white sand and stormy skies

the beach. no words describe the beauty. it was amazing. being from the northwest, i am used to rocky shorelines, battered shells and crashing waves. this was the complete opposite. calm waves, tons of shells (whole ones) just littered the beach and the water was beautiful blues and greens. the sand is so fine and soft and was not hot when you walked on it in bare feet. we spent our second morning down on the beach walking in the water and soaking in all the sights and sounds. there were lots of beach activities going on and beach chairs that you could rent and just hang out down by the water. the water was a little murkier than i had anticipated. i was expecting clear, blue-green water and frankly there were not a lot of people swimming in the water.......more people at the pool. it is amazing how much stress and anxiety left my body that morning as we walked on the beach. i could sit there forever watching the waves come in and feeling the sand between my feet.

the island adventures

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh......................a tropical island, sun and sand and surf. who could ask for anything more? let me just say that words could not describe this vacation.

thad and i took a red-eye in to florida on tuesday night, so that we could spend most of wednesday on the island and in the sun! i had never taken a red-eye and it was interesting. i was able to sleep a little and i watched a free movie! i will say this, that people on the east coast are not true starbucks fans...we had to hunt to find the little green logo at each and every airport!

we arrived in fort meyers early in the morning, found a starbucks and a target and then headed out to the island. the island was more commercial than i had thought and every inch was covered with houses or stores, but the beach was amazing. we checked our bags at the hotel and headed down for some lunch at Quinn's (the restaurant on the beach). It was amazing and hot and had a beautiful view. I ordered us some coconut shrimp and a fruit platter.........yummo!! thad had never had coconut shrimp before and he became a fan that day. now let's talk about the pool....

(view from our terrace)

i love it when someone will serve you at your chair while you sit by the water and soak up the sun. life cannot get any better than that. i love the little flags that you raise to signal your server that you desire some service (thad would have killed me had i taken a shot of the flags..he he). it was heaven! marred only by the fact that we had to gather on the terrace for a cocktail hour with work compadres (not that it was terrible being with them, it was terrible leaving the relaxed state that you reach while by said pool, being served by a waiter).

Thad ended up having a meeting after the gathering and i headed up to our room after a very long 24 hours and settled in to watch some lost (i know i am on an island, but i was exhausted from the travel). when we arrived at the hotel we noticed several signs alerting us to the fact that it was turtle season and we would need to black out our windows at night and that the resort turned off all lights outside so that the turtle babies would head out to the gulf, rather than up to the hotel. we had a message on our phone each night telling us the same thing....kind of funny. next day two!

impulse

so today i totally broke down and used my birthday money to go buy a point and shoot camera....just to take to disneyworld with us. okay, that is not really true but i still bought one right before our trip so that i could take it. i have been thinking about this for awhile. i really like the smallness and ease that a point and shoot has to offer. i know that the pix will not be the same as if i had shot them with my slr, but sometimes convenience wins out. so we will see how i like it. i have 90 days to return it! the funny thing is, is that really while we are at the most magical place on earth i probably won't really even have time to take pictures! we really only have about 1 days worth of running through the park and taking in all the sights. i am sure that stopping and taking pictures will be the last thing on my mind. of course i am still lugging my slr across the country so that i can snap pix of this amazing island that we are going to. can't have just any old point and shoot for that! so i guess it truly was an impulse buy.............

keepin' it real

this morning we had communion in church and for the last year we have let sydnie participate. she truly understands what it is for and why we do it, but today she completely cracked me up.

she had her "cup" in her hand and was looking at it, when she turns to me and asks

sydnie: "mom, is this grape juice?"

mom: "yes"

sydnie: "they should really make it cranberry juice so it looks more like wine"

this from my nine year old, who i am pretty sure has never even seen wine! lol. it gave me a good chuckle and i had a hard time keeping my laughter under wraps. very astute on her part.

shopping frenzy

i have to say that as i prepare for this trip that thad and i are taking on tuesday, i feel like i have gone a little crazy with the whole.............gotta have the right outfit for all occasions. and to make matters worse, i feel like my spring wardrobe for work is severely lacking as well. which has made the shopping bug even crazier.

i started off telling myself that i could manage with what i had in my closet with a few exceptions...i needed some sort of dress for a nice dinner. i found the perfect little black dress that can be dressed up or down depending on where we were going. but what i did not have was the perfect jewelry. now i am kind of a minimalist when it comes to the bling and i hate to spend a lot of money on jewelry. so my dear friend decided to help me out and we found the perfect necklace and bracelet to go with. i should be set right?????

of course not!!! when julanne and i went to portland last weekend we spent the better part of 3 hours in macy's, our arms laden with one new piece of fantastic clothes after the other. we both tried on things that would not normally fall into our "style" and i know that we put back more than we bought. i found another perfect little resort dress to wear on our casual dinner nights, one of which is a sunset ceremony on the beach (think luau). i found several cute work outfits, but once i got home and dug through my tanks, i realized that frankly i was lacking there too. so more shopping, i know it is a disease! but i cannot stop myself.

now for the real reason i started this post. a couple of years ago when thad won this trip and they sent us to scottsdale, az. i felt like a total stay at home mom. especially when they took us out to morton's steak house. i remember telling myself that i was definately the old navy clothing person at our table. it obviously stuck with me! i did not want to feel that way this time. i wanted to dress a little nicer and feel a little better about myself.

let me say this. that you cannot judge a person by what they wear and i should feel good no matter what i am wearing, but for those days we were away.......i wanted to not feel like a stay at home mom! so this time i am going with a suitcase loaded with brand new clothes and shoes and new swimsuits. i know that this time, i will feel a lot better about what i am wearing.

i do miss this

even though i have heartily complained in the past about baseball season.........i really do miss this! noah decided to take a year off of baseball and it was a great decision for him. he has matured so much and last week when the weather was nice he was begging his daddy to take him outside to practice. in fact this is what he said

"yeah....i just decided to take a year off of baseball, practice and get better. but i really do miss it! i can't wait for next year"

another thought about next week...

i don't suppose that i will find this in the surf of marco island,

when I am there next week? one can only wish.....

kickin' it up a notch!

this morning i was upstairs getting ready for work and heard sydnie say that she was going to make breakfast for us. i heard her messing around downstairs and knew that she was in her element. as i walked into the kitchen she had on oven mitts so that she could take the eggo's out of the toaster oven without burning herself and on the kitchen counter i saw her latest creation. adorable little chocolate milk cups with a banana slice stuck on the side. you see she decided to mix chocolate syrup with strawberry syrup to create a whole new flavor, but felt like the cups needed a little kick....so she added the banana slice onto the edge! how adorable is that!

next week?

i am wondering if we are going to have to wear a mask next week when we travel to florida? i am sure that this whole swine flu thing will blow over by then, but still if it doesn't that would be an interesting trip. we are taking a red eye out on tuesday night and i am not sure that i want to sleep on a plane with a mask on! i just cannot imagine that it would be very comfortable.

speaking of our upcoming trip. i went tanning this morning. i have not been tanning in about 20 years! it is amazing how it all comes right back. the smell of the tanning beds. the lights. the relaxing feeling. the burn!!! yes that is right.....i burned. i was only in there for 10 minutes, but my body feels like it sat in the sun for 4 hours! but it is worth it now, so that i won't burn next week when i am sitting on the white sand beaches with crystal clear water and an umbrella drink in my hand.

love it~

girls weekend

this morning i am out the door. heading up to pdx for a much needed girls weekend. julanne and i are going to head out early, of course hit starbucks on the way........then hit the square. cannot wait to spend time with my friend, trying on some new clothes, eating some cheesecake factory and then taking in a showing of GREASE!!! (i have a feeling that i will have to rebuy that soundtrack on itunes....my verion is on tape. lol. ) then we get to lavish in luxury at a hotel overnight, sleep in, get more starbucks and then if we choose another shopping extravaganza!

take your child to work

so today was take your child to work day and sydnie finally got to go to work with daddy! she has begged him for about two years to go and this year he finally agreed. being the procrastinators that he is, thad forgot to add syd's name to the work list and luckily on wednesday when he emailed them, they said that they had one spot left!

here is the part of the story that i like: syd was up at 6:30!!! dressed by 6:40!!! teeth and hair and various packing done by 6:50!!!!

this has never happened in the history of sydnie....her nickname is molasses! i think she was really excited. she had a really great time with her dad. they visited a metals/plastics cutting facility and she brought home some cutout figures (a dolpin, a rose and a horse)

noah came to work with me for fifteen minutes of my morning in second grade, then he wanted to go to class. in the afternoon i grabbed him and he came down to fifth grade with me, but there was not much for him to do, so he went back to class. overall he was happy because he got to do a couple of things with his mom!

curse book fairs!!!

this is the week that our school hosts book fair from scholastic and it always brings out the nutso, gotta buy books frenzy in my children. well, actually it is not even about the books, they really want the fun erasers, bookmarks and pencils. ugggghhhhh. because we don't already have enough of that stuff in our lives?

so monday morning i caught noah counting his money, he was going to take all of it! i told him that he could only take $6 for a book! what did he buy............a pointer to help him read with. syd bought a book. but here is where it gets interesting:

they each took money back in on wednesday, their library time, and each walked away with a bunch of pencils and erasers. noah bought a pokemon pencil for himself, his sister and some other kid from class that asked him too. lol. needless to say there went $9.00 down the drain. i am thankful that he did that for his siter, but this kid that he never talks about? where does that come from. when i asked him about this kid who he has only mentioned once this year he proceeded to tell me that he was his "secret" best friend (no one even knows)!! so then we i started talking to him about saving his money and i was kind of upset that he snuck money out the door this was his response:

"but mom, i just want to be like jesus! i want to help people and show them love, by buying them stuff!"

i think his love language is gifts right now!!!

can't wait

my little guy cannot wait until his cousin his old enough to play with. noah is such a loving, generous kid and he is anxious to be able to run and play with luke. i secretly think that he wishes that luke was old enough to play with lightsabers so that they could duel each other. or maybe he is just waiting for uncle randal to put on a darth vader mask and look at his son luke and say.................."luke, i am your father!!!"

Happy Birthday MOM!!!

the thing that makes her most happy.......her grandkids!

take my breath away

they continually take my breath away. i am so blessed that they are in my life.

Silly String Wars

Grandpa started it all! He decided that we should use the silly string from the easter baskets after the kids were done hunting their eggs. The games began. Man grandpa can run!!!! Noah finally sprayed grandpa a couple of times, then it was time for ryen to get in on the action. She liked spraying people, but not when people sprayed her so her daddy took over and let's just say that there was a lot of string in hair!!! Syd finally got hers out to spray her dad and brother and by the time we were all done, the yard was a mess and the string was all gone. I warned dad that the string would not "melt" in the rain, but he said he was sure it would. needless to say we got a phone call today asking for the kids to come down and clean up their string.

(he was kidding of course)

Easter 2009

Easter this year kind of went by in a blur. our family was sooooo tired. lots of running prior to that sunday and we were all running on fumes. the kids had a blast decorating their eggs, making special chickie pops and sydnie made these adorable easter egg puzzles. we went to church that morning and enjoyed some great worship and an great message. then we headed south to my parents house. enjoyed some family time. so nice to be with family. hope you all had wonderful easter's and that we all remembered the reason for the day!

"Everything"

This skit is performed by my brother's youth group at Northwest Hills in Corvallis. The kids did a great job! I have posted this skit before and it moves me to tears everytime. They performed it this Easter morning and we were all anxiously awaiting for the person to post it to youtube so that we could watch it. it truly is a great reminder that He has taken on our sins, He bears all, He loves us and would do anything (even die) for us. Before we go into a sugar induced haze today....let us truly remember what this day is about. Not a little bunny foo foo. Not candy. Not brightly colored eggs. But about our Lord and Savior who was born, died, buried and rose again on the third day!

chickie pops

here are the results of our girl time, baking! it was super fun, but so much work. i am not sure how many more times i will make these, but it was fun this one time.

a flock of birds

this was one of the best ones.


the easter egg attempt

help........i'm melting

this one just got squished.

i thought i would share our attempts at making cake pops............bakerella.com. they were by no means perfect. i think we decided that putting the candy coating in the microwave was the best way to ensure a smoother coat. but they were still hard to get all the excess coating off. syd has these visions that they will be perfect, so it was a good lesson that life is not perfect and we are not perfect, but God love us anyway. We had a blast working on them together and she was super pumped to take them all down to my parents house for Easter. I think we will have enough left over to share with teachers on monday.

in two years...........

i just want to put it out there right now..........i don't know how we EVER going to be ready in time for middle school!!! it starts so stinking early in the morning (7:45am) and my daughter is not a morning person. i know i still have 2 more years, but right here, right now i want to say it is going to be a hard adjustment!!!!

can you tell we have had one of those mornings? anyone else experience those? no one wants to get up, no one wants to get dressed? toys are more enticing than eating breakfast? can i just watch a minute of tv before school? but somehow i still managed to sneak downstairs and blog this post? hum? maybe i should be upstairs cracking the whip right now....he he. hey, a mom has got to have a sense of humor in times like this.

but seriously, only two more years!!!

soft and squishy!

the other day i received several excellents hugs from a bunch of kiddos, which is not unusual, but during this hug one of the little girls exclaims:

"you are so soft, not hard like my mom!"

hum?

i did not have the heart to tell her that it meant i was fat.........but what an awesome way to look at it. so now when i look in the mirror, i can tell myself that i am squishy! that it is all right, cuz it makes my hugs that much better.

In One Month

i just realized this morning that in one month i will be sitting on a white sand beach, hopefully with an umbrella drink in my hand and relaxing. that is right, i said in a bathing suit! oh wait, maybe i did not say that.

my amazing husband won a trip to marco island, florida for the two of us. all expenses paid! this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for the two of us. we are going to take the red eye in on tuesday night and then we have all day wednesday until saturday at the resort. all inclusive. they even have a restauraunt on the beach. we can sit and eat our meal with our toes in the water.

then to top it all of we decided to drive to disneyworld and experience that for a couple of days! this is the part i feel a little guilty about, but we need time alone. we are telling ourselves that it is a discovery trip..."do we really want to bring the kids here?" but really it is just a fun time for us to be together and remember what it is like to just be the two of us.

i am thankful that i was able to get some time off of work and go on this incredible trip with my man. guess i better start working out regularly again and watch what is going in my mouth, because i will have to fit into a swimsuit! yikes. every woman's nightmare.

finding "our" thing

this weekend in an effort to connect with my beloved daughter, i decided to go into her world and try out something. syd is a hard one to connect with. she likes her alone time. after school most days she will do her homework, then head upstairs to work on her art projects or play club penguin.....but then i miss out on time to just be with her and enter her world. it usually ends up that either right at dinner time or at bedtime is when she wants to finally spend time with me. so i usually invite her to help make dinner, because she loves to cook. but she really loves to bake more.....last week she asked to bake a cake and i let her. then she decorated it all by herself and she was so proud when we ate some for dessert after dinner that night.

awhile ago i showed her http://www.bakerella.blogspot.com/ and she loves it. it is one of the sites she visits everyday. so last week she got all excited that bakerella had gone to visit Pioneer Woman and she saw their creations together. at thad's bday we made the oreo footballs for him and syd loved it. she has been begging me to make the cake pops and when she showed me the adorable easter ones, i decided that this would be it, the thing we do together.

so she made up her supply list and we had a girls date today. we visited michaels and target in order to find the items we needed. she is so excited. she was ready to start sorting the daisies and the rainbow chips, but i told her to wait until thursday so that we have our supplies all ready to go come friday night.

i guess that baking has always kind of been our thing. she loves to help bake pies and cookies. christmas is one of her favorite times because she loves to decide which goodies we are going to bake for the season.

i only hope that as we continue on our journey as mother and daughter, that this will keep the lines of communication open for us. that if we hit a rough patch, we can always pull out the flour, sugar and cookie cutters and let the sharing begin.

responsiblity

my little guy has decided that he wants a cat, his very own cat, to keep and love and take care of. so in an effort to show that he is ready for one this week he has decided that he is dishwasher boy. he takes everyone's plates from the table, turns on the water and rinses each plate thoroughly (a little too much actually) and then places them in the dishwasher! wow! he is so proud of himself.

it all started a while ago when both of the kids asked for another cat and their dad refused immediately. we already have one cat and a dog and that is about enough for my man to handle. but last sunday he went to a friends house to play and the boys had each gotten a new hamster.....that did it, he was hooked back on the i want my own pet. so we came up with a plan to ask his dad. of course their will be no rodents in this house. ever. so it has to be another cat.

you start by asking for a hamster. then you move to a ferret(eeeewwww) then you end with a kitty cat. simple right? so began noah's quest. his purpose in life. to show his dad that he is responsible enough to take care of a cat. who could deny their child that request.

apparently his dad would.

on getting old

you always hear the tales....the sagging, the metabolism, the internal body thermometer and when you are young you chalk them up to your crazy mom and her friends. well i am about there people and i am hear to say that i want my old body back.

the other day i woke up and i thought to myself as i looked in the mirror, "where did my eyebrows go?" isn't this suppose to be something that happens when you are about 50? i am only 29 (again)!!! i don't want the painted on eyebrow look. i refuse to do it, but sadly i am doomed because my mom does not have any eyebrows left. literally. she is 63 and no eyebrows. i remember distinctly the day i looked at her and asked her where her eyebrows went. so sadly i am at the point, when i remember, where i enhance my eyebrows with a little powder so that you can actually see them. i don't think it is so much that i have lost hair it is that they are slowly fading into oblivion.

a couple of months ago i got these super cute post earrings and i wear them all the time, but suddenly they don't hang the way they used to. i notice that when i wear them, they flop down a little. could this be the dreaded "my earlobes hang down farther than my nose" phenomenom that older women talk about? when i was young i remember older women telling me not to wear big earrings that pulled my lobes down even further, because the day would come when they would sag anyway....so i was careful what amount of weight i put into those holes in my ears. it did not matter. so now i am forced to wear drop earrings so that you will not look at my post earrings and see the sag, the granny ears that i am doomed to have.

by the hair on my chiny-chiny chin..........okay i am not there yet!!! but seriously what is up with having to shave your chin and mustache? my MIL keeps a razor in the car and just swipes at hair on her chin whenever she notices it!!! eeeewwwwwwwwwwwww.

we all know that we are going to sag, that is inevitable unless we get some "enhancements". i am fine with that, as long as i have some muscle tone underneath it all. i don't want to be a grandma that never wears shorts or short sleeves because of the sag.

so next time you see me, please don't stare at my waning eyebrows or my sagging lobes. just politely say hi and then continue to stare in their general direction until i relent and let you take a look at my aging body hair and grandma lobes!

World Autism Day

this year i have had the opportunity to meet some amazing kids and be in their world for a short time. these kids are special and just want to be loved. i love spending time with them and watching how their minds work and create. it is interesting to me that they thrive in their world, but struggle in ours. if we all just took a moment to enter their world....to see life through their eyes how amazing would that be.

today is world autism day. support it. know it. stretch yourselves to see through their eyes.

http://www.worldautismawarenessday.org/site/c.egLMI2ODKpF/b.3917065/k.BE58/Home.htm


another exciting project if you have not heard about it is the miracle project. a mom of an autistic child started a theatre company and a documentary was made about it. "autism: the musical" great movie. shows you how amazing and talented most of these little kiddos are.

http://www.themiracleproject.org/

and finally this is dedicated to my little friend who i love dearly, who has stolen my heart......

let me enter your world for one day, sing songs, draw pictures and just be. cannot wait to see you today and celebrate your world!