Best Thing Ever

This one right here....she is just the best thing ever. We have our moments were we fight already over what to wear, the "Okay, mom" moments and the stretching of the wings. But she is still mine for the time being. My pledge is to love her for who she is and to always be there to support her and uplift her. We have the mother-daughter thing...I pray that the years to come with be filled with love and respect and good talks. The kind where we really enjoy each other and want to be around one another. My prayer is for understanding on both of our parts...that we grow together and through Christ our relationship is strong. Love you baby.

Himself

It is hard to grow up. It is hard to be happy all the time. It is hard to be a kid. It is hard to sit and have your picture taken over and over. It is hard to live up to expectations. It is hard to be a younger brother. It is hard to want to be able to read and write like your older sibling.

The world will tell him to be so many different things....I just tell him to be himself. I just ask for that short time to raise him up in God's ways and then let God take over and that I do the best I can.

The Proper Terminology

So this story has a background that goes back about 5 years. My daughter loves, loves, loves animals. When she was little she would spend hours playing with her little puppies and kitties. When her brother was born she would usually run from the room while I was changing his diaper....until one day when she looked in and proudly declared "Noah has a tail!!!!" So in order to protect her innocence, I continued to call it noah's tail as well. We got a lot of miles off the whole "tail" thing.

Fast forward a couple of years when she called "it" a tail to one of her friends and they correctly informed her that it was not a tail, like a dog....it was a p_n_s. I was being urged by several of my friends to inform her of the correct language of the appendage a boy has. So that was now done...i just needed to guide her that it was not a word we used very often and we don't really talk about p_n_s's.

Last week I sat my kids down to watch "The Sandlot". Super cute movie. The kids laughed the whole movie over the giant dog. But the laughter increased dramatically when sydnie saw the dog jump over the fence and yelled "wow, that dog has a big p_n_s!!!!!" I had to leave the room and laugh...did not want to encourage yelling out anatomy. Needless to say daddy was not thrilled.........that is what you get for telling her the proper terminology!!

Punkin' Patch

Finally some nice weather that we could go to the pumpkin patch....of course we went twice in one day...i think we can be done for the year. Yesterday afternoon, noah had his field trip to EZ Orchards and it was great. We got to pick a pumpkin, apple and enjoyed a fresh apple donut and cider. The mud however was not great. Most of the kids managed to just keep it on their feet, but the mud puddles were very tempting.

Then right after school we ran down to Corvallis to my brothers and went out to the patch with his family. The only thing missing was Thad (who is working on bball stuff). Had a great time. Watching my niece for her first trip to the patch and watching noah brag about how this was his second trip of the day!!! They had this cool little rubber duck race for the kids to do...where you pump water down a piece of gutter and float your duck to the end the fastest....Sydnie loved it. It sounds cheesy, but when it is a hit with the kids it works for me. We picked our pumpkins in the dark, almost got stuck in the mud with the hayride and our bottom halves were covered in mud by the time we were done. Good memories there.

Cleaning!!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. I feel like I have all of these "things" piling up to do and I have just been running around like crazy. I feel like I live at the school. I volunteer there two days a week and I work with two kids that need help reading as well. But when you add on PTA , well just give me a bed there!!! ha ha.

I did find time these last two weeks to paint sydnie's bedroom, a beautiful light aqua blue and then we found a bunch of hot pink stuff to go with the room. super cute......we moved her bed into her little alcove area, eventually we will hang the curtains in front of her bed so that she has to climb thru them to get to her bed. how fun is that? I loved gutting the room and getting rid of a bunch of excess. I really wanted to simplify her room so that she had her 2-3 major toys that she still plays with and then her art desk. I have had stuff in our hallway for two weeks, just sitting, waiting for me to find a home or throw it out (without her knowledge).

I also found out that a bunch of her polly pockets were on recall so we sat down and emptied out the bins, found all the pieces and boxed those up to send back. She of course discovered that she still loves her polly pockets...so they are now all over her floor.

As much as you try to keep there rooms clean and organized...they are just kids who want to have fun.

I am still here

i have been sucked into the vortex of PTA and Webkinz. I am gone all the time doing PTA stuff....(seriously did not think it would be this much work) and then when I get home from that I just sit around and play webkinz. Who needs to blog or clean or cook or do laundry. So I decided to cure myself this weekend and I have shipped the kids to grandparents and am making myself NOT play webkinz....well except for when Thad and I played last night in the tournament arena!!!! I have done laundry, fixed a fantastic dinner and started on my cheerleading scrapbook.....now that is a walk down memory lane. Oh the uniforms, Oh the 80's hair and Oh the amazing pantyhose that we had to wear......I really did just type the word pantyhose!!! does anyone even wear those anymore?

Maybe if I can get my scanner to work I will share a few pix....or maybe just a cheer....

keep it up
keep it up
keep that warrior spirit up
keep it up!!!

I know.....right now you are thinking....that is amazing. save the cheerleader save the world. ha ha. Okay I am off to finish my senior year for Varsity Football and Basketball.

Go for the Gold!

This awesome sign we made for the teachers to break through
we ended up putting it on the field and made a different sign
for the teachers to run through. (see below)

this years theme for jogathon was go for the gold...and the kids really did. My kids wanted to raise their $150.00 so that they could go to the after dark party. Put this year we threw in a pizza party for the top earning class and sydnie's class is in second place so far....so this weekend we are going to try and get a few more donations to see if we can win that pizza.

this was noah's first year and he loved it. he loved slapping high fives and everyone yelling for him. i think the funniest part was three of sydnie's friends were totally making a big deal about him everytime he ran around and afterwards came to find him after school. could he already be a heartthrob?

Sydnie did great again...she ran 9 laps again. not too bad. she was so excited to be out there and of course they played a bunch of high school musical stuff, so that made it even better. We went and found her the outfit she was wearing, just for jogathon. something comfortable and warm.

thank goodness there was no rain yesterday!!! Made for a much better day. It was really cold though.....my hands were frozen and i had a hard time using the calculator to add up all the donations. a great day and a great fundraiser for our school.

I'm Melting.....

I know that I live in oregon....but where the heck did fall go? I don't really want the fall that is rainy everyday...I want the fall with the beautiful sunshine and cooler temps. We walked to school yesterday morning with our big umbrellas and the cross walk lady told us she was glad to see that we didn't melt in the rain...we were true oregonians. ha ha. This morning though it was so nice outside, so we set off to school, walked sydnie inside, did some pta stuff and next thing I know it is pouring down rain. I know we live in oregon, it rains at the drop of a hat, but we did not bring umbrellas this morning. so we got a little drenched. I want the real fall back, but at least we didn't melt.

What I used to do

today i had to go into sydnie classroom and talk about my old job.....to 80 second graders. Last week while i was volunteering they went to listen to another parent then their teacher sat them down and talked about her job....sydnie raises her hand and asks that"if someone had a job before, but does not have it now, could they still come talk." Of course her teacher and i lock eyes and i nod.....so today was the day! I was trying to figure out how to explain my old job to a bunch of kids and could not come up with anything to great so i decided to concentrate on the fact that i worked for nike a long time ago.

get to the school and walk to the classroom and see who i have to follow!!!!! The canine Cop!!! with dog and all!!!! how do you compete with that???? They even got to pet the dog! She barked and did tricks!!!

The kids got really pumped when I told them I had met Tiger Woods and that he came to the campus to play some golf for everyone....... and that was about the extent of excitement. ha ha.

i even tried the whole mike meyers voice when i told them that i bought millions of dollars worth of product to sell!!! didn't work. ha ha. okay it really was not that bad. i got tell them how nike got their name and who started the company and all about steve prefontaine and bill bowerman and phil knight. they even asked if i got to travel around. which i did.

sydnie was beaming from ear to ear and that is what is most important. at the beginning of the year they had to say what they wanted to be when they grew up........work at nike. she graduated from wanting to be a princess to CEO of Nike....wow I grow them smart!!! ha ha.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

http://www.lowimpactliving.com/?gclid=CPvuiNK01Y4CFQZxHgodqnDA9g

http://www.thegreenguide.com/

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.

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.

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.