Surge

Lots of fun last night with some new friends and some old friends. Had a barbeque and then headed to the surge game. We had gotten free tickets thru school and we all headed down. I was super excited for my kids to watch a soccer game, but they had a bounce house and that is all the kids did. But at break time the kids got to head out onto the field for a candy round up. ahhh the sugar rush! It was a great night. followed with a sleepover and pancakes this morning.

Gifted

My lovely friend J gifted me with the most awesome present this week!!! Now here comes the part of the story where the crazy comes out! You all know that I love coffee, I have blogged about it many times. But I also love the Starbucks Passion Tea. My SIL made me try one a couple of years ago and it quickly became my favorite drink in the spring and summer. I even have some tea so that I can make a quick batch at home!

So as I started my new found calorie counting I have been monitoring my intake of water, I drink a lot of water! I love ice cold water. I like a bunch of ice and some water that I just keep refilling over and over! But my new secret crazy is drinking my water out of my leftover venti passion tea cups. I know that I am drinking 20oz with each cup and then when I make my passion tea at home I feel like I went to starbucks, but just saved myself $2.15.

So last week when my friend came to pick up her kids I offered her freshly baked cookies and a cup of passion tea (in a starbucks cup). She laughed at me and I told her that now she was seeing the real me! On monday I got a very excited call from J asking me if I liked suprises or anticipation........then she told me that she bought me this new cup from Starbucks. A double walled plastic cup just like their passion tea cups! The lid screws on and it has a cool plastic straw!

Seriously this cup ROCKS! it does not sweat and it is so stinkin cute! I checked out our starbucks in town and they are completely sold out. I am telling you Starbucks is genius!

So thank u J for the awesome gift. you are so good to me and you are an awesome friend!

8 wheels and the open road

It is official. We are now a family of only 8 wheels. All of our bikes are training wheel free! (including mine haha.....hey it's early and i don't feel good leave me alone for the bad joke). Yesterday afternoon we took noah down to the school, where there is lots of soft grass and a wood track and we did not even need it. He took off and did not look back. He even starts himself off without troubles. Now I am not saying that the landings are perfect, but I think he likes to fall over a lot! As we were riding home together, he told me that he liked the bike so much better than his scooter and that he was going to ride all the time from now on! Last year he could have ridden without the training wheels, but fear held him back and he would not try. He could have had a whole year with the speed and freedom. I am so happy for him and I cannot wait to take family bike rides now.............before we had to go slow to wait for the scooter child, but now watch out!

Excited

hoping to go see this tomorrow afternoon. I am sure that it cannot live up to the originals and I will be sad to see Indy (let's just say he is not in his prime anymore)! I cannot believe how iconic that fedora is...........you just see it in a side profile and you know who it is! Plus the music......hello, classic. Of course for those of you too young (bree and teresa) you may not remember these movies...ha ha JK.

When I was little my dad took me to all of the Indy movies and Star Wars movies. I think that is why they are cemented in my character. It was time with my dad and brother. Just the three of us hanging out together. I remember going to see the second movie and almost throwing up when they ate the monkey brains! ha ha. Just Thad and I going tomorrow. should be fun. like a real date.

My Heart is Sad

just logged onto the news to sneak a peak at the news and ran across this news bulletin:

MARIA SUE CHAPMAN, DAUGHTER OF STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN, DIES IN ACCIDENT AT FAMILY HOME
NASHVILLE, TN...5/21/08... At approximately 5pm on the afternoon of Thursday May 21st, Maria Sue Chapman, 5 years old and the youngest daughter to Steven and Mary Beth Chapman was struck in the driveway of the Chapman home in Franklin, TN. Maria was rushed to Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, transported by LifeFlight, but died of her injuries there. Maria is one of the close knit family’s six children and one of their three adopted daughters.
More than five years ago, Chapman and his wife MaryBeth founded The Shaohannah’s Hope Ministry after bringing their first adopted daughter, Shaohannah, home from China. The ministry’s goal is to help families reduce the financial barrier of adoption, and has provided grants to over 1700 families wishing to adopt orphans from around the world. Chapman is a five-time GRAMMY ® winner and 54-time Dove Award winning artist who has sold over 10 million albums and garnered 44 No. 1 singles.

this just kills me!!!! how sad. how crushing. i have known other families that this has happened to. but wow! i have followed this guy. met him personally. i have listened to his music for almost 15-17 years. My heart is breaking for them right now. lots of prayer tonight and in the weeks to come for this family.

wii fit

picked up the wii fit today at Costco! I have not been able to touch it. My kids have been playing it all afternoon! They keep running in to tell me that I should play it and I keep telling them that I would love to! They are doing the island run right now and cracking up! noah has figured out that you don't have to actually run, but just swing your arms and it still counts! they are so funny. It looks like it will be fun, but who knows! maybe tonight I will get the chance to play! the snow jumping looks like a lot of fun, sydnie became an expert right away....jumped the whole distance.......noah not so much!

I guess it is okay that i have not played. i still feel crummy. I just wish the fever would go away. I am really hoping that i can hit the gym tomorrow! I feel like I have lost all of my measly little muscles that I built up! ha ha.

I just heard them say that u can unlock new games as you earn points! That would be cool. plus the packaging is all green and white..........how cool is that! and when you play with your mii's they are all in yoga pants!!! ha ha.

Ants for Dinner

This morning I woke up at the unearthly hour of 5:30am and since I could not get back to sleep I decided to hit the net. I read some blogs and then headed over to visit the Pioneer Woman. I found the mother lode of recipes on one of her contest from last week and spent an hour and half searching thru them for some that sounded good. I copied about 20 and was pretty excited to make the grilled talapia tonight, but as I am sick with a sinus infection and nice little fever, I decided to not go anywhere to buy the ingredients. Instead I decided to serve up some chicken with ants!

Now let's talk about ants for a minute. I hate them, I loath them and they are in my house right now! I have lucked out for a couple of years and they have been confined to the garage and laundry room. But this year they hit our kitchen full boar! They are everywhere! And considering that Oregon is built on a huge ant domain we have them all the time! YUCK! Plus given our run in at my brother's house with ants and noah's phobia...I thought I would have some fun with him tonight.

I found a simple casserole recipe that had a small amount of poppyseeds in it (don't ask me why, they did not add anything). Noah of course complained that he did not like this recipe and was not going to eat it! As Noah took his first bite of chicken casserole...........i looked at him with all seriousness and told him that i rounded up a bunch of dead ants and threw them in the chicken dish!!! He just about lost his dinner right there. Ahhh the love of a mother! It runs deep this desire to mess with my kids! I see it as a sign of love and affection. They see it as years of counseling to get over the damage I have done to them. he he.

Grace

I wanted to share today the amazing, loving story of the Smith Family.

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/

If you have not heard this one before get ready to revel in God's amazing love and grace. I cry everytime I read a new post. I have mourned with her, cryed with her and rejoiced with her. She is keeping it real. She is broken. She is grateful. She is trusting.

Here is a link to a great interview that was done by a church in Nashville.

http://withoutwax.tv/2008/04/28/rocked-to-my-core/

Too Far

So I do enjoy the going "green" thing........who is not jumping on board with the whole reusable bags, recycling, etc..........................

but this might take it just a little too far! A SOLAR POWERED BRA???? that can charge a phone or ipod from your chest? I mean I always knew "these" things were fully charged, but come on! Check out the entire article here:

http://in.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idINT29336420080514

Then laugh hysterically remembering the time I said b**bies to my principal like 6 times in a row!!! ahhhhhh....the good old days when b**bies were just b**bies and not solar power operated, electrically charged ipod generators. haha haha haha.

A Mother of a Day!

This is it......the one day out of the year that I can officially tell everyone what to do! I don't have to cook, clean or do laundry, if I don't want to..........all in the name of Mother's Day. I love this day. I think we should celebrate at least once a week.

This morning I actually slept in. I don't do that very often. I awoke to the sounds of clanging and little voices downstairs. I realized again this year they were making me breakfast! The moment arrived and I could hear the little feet running up the stairs, excitement was in the air. My daughter, who is so amazing and sweet had run downstairs before me this morning to make me breakfast in bed. (these last few days we have had fun remembering the tater tots from last year's breakfast). She proudly displayed my breakfast which consisted of toast with jam, a kiwi, a cutie orange and a protein bar! Of course she brought me the knife to cut the kiwi and a spoon to scoop it out. It was so cute! When I asked where the coffee was, she looked devasted and answered so serious "I don't know how to make coffee mom!"

We headed to church and I got to spend the morning talking to friends in the lobby (wink wink). Afterwards the kids were dying to take me to lunch so I finally talked Thad into taking me to McMennamins. He was not sure that we should take children in there, you know it is a pub! I used to go to them all the time in Portland. Love the food and the atmosphere and of course the beer! It did bring back the memories! a ruby ale.....yummmm. We had a great time and the kids really loved it inside. So much better than chain food places.

Then the kids presented me my hanging basket they had made me (totally thad's idea, since he has been talking about these for a year now). But the rest of the day I have got to just relax and Thad grilled dinner tonight! I love this day! Now I will have to see if I can make this happen more often!

From Bad to Worse

So this morning started off pretty good. Got up, got dressed, ate breakfast and went to workout. Saw my friend there and then for some incredibly stupid reason decided to try group groove this morning instead of riding on the elliptical. Now this would be all well and good if I had not had to shake my bon bons and smack my booty (all in the name of group groove) as my friend and her husband and little ones decided to walk by.........ha ha, ha ha, seriously, ha ha. Hi Bree!

I decided to stick out the class and finally got a decent routine to work out with, where there was no snake, no cowboy and no butterflies! But really not my type of class. I feel a lot better when I work up a sweat on the elliptical, plus I get to read.

SOOOOO then I had to rush home to get to the mother's day lunch at school, which my son threatened me by saying "If you don't buy me my nerf gun I want, I won't give you your Mother's Day gift!!" Which he lost the privelage to buy the gun, get the gun or see sunshine for a week.

But then after school he walked up with said gift in his hands and asked if I bought the gun......I said no. He proceeded to walk a ways away from me and SMASH his ceramic gift that he had made! No lie. So now he sits in his room with no toys, no privelages, no WII, no trampoline and nothing to do except think about what he has done. It is going to be a long weekend, because this is what he gets to do.......................for two more days!

It has been a wonderful start to Mother's Day weekend! Hopefully it will get a little better. :)

Girlie Day

Yesterday I got to have a girlie day and it was so amazing! My friend had noah come over for a play date in the morning and said that she would drive him to school, so that I could have a whole day! WOW! I don't even know what that is. Of course by the time I left her house it was 11am....ha ha. I was able to go run a few errands and not have anyone asking for a new toy or telling me they were hungry or tired!

Then my friend called and she was downtown and asked if I wanted to go have lunch with her at the "Wild Pear". I of course jumped on the chance, can you believe I have never been there! It was so pretty inside! and yummy and it was just good to get out of the house and sit for awhile over lunch with a friend. I guess when I go out places lately, they are all mommy places. Places that you would take your kids and it is okay if they yell and scream and trash the place. This was just a girl place. It made me feel like the burden of motherhood was lifted for a short time. Then we went to Meringue and Twig and a couple of other stores downtown. So much fun. I fell in love with twig. so cute. I could have bought many things in that store, but I was so good and just walked away...thinking of all the places I could put the stuff I found.

It was a refreshing day.....a much needed time of renewing.....a chance to let my inner girl out and stuff away the mom facade for awhile! We all need that time to remember what it is like to just be a woman and enjoy a day without children, doing something we enjoy. Unfortunately the day came to screeching "put your mom facade on quickly" relapse when I had to be at the school early to introduce a PTA assembly and deal with a mob of kids who wanted to get autographs from the Cascade Surge Soccer Club. But I can still feel the inner girl, she is in there. Quietly waiting until the next time.....................

When did that happen?

Yesterday my second grader came home with the Dinosaur report info!! She chose an Apatosaurus to report on, because her best friend was as well.......ahhhh how cute! So we were told as the parents to research with our children and help them get ready for the report. Only I could not figure out what the heck an apatosaurus was. I guess that is what happens to a mom of two that really could care less about dinos. I found a great website that had a ton of info and also found out that it is a bronosaurus. When I said that, my daughter turns to me and says

dd: "uhhhhh, mom, that is not it's name anymore!"

me: "it's not?"

dd: "no, mom.........they renamed it, because they figured out that they had the wrong head on the wrong body!"

me: "they did?"

dd: "they found a whole intact dinosaur fossil and realized that they had the wrong parts"

me: "hum, that sounds about right, wonder when this happened?"

dd: "it probably happened in like 1999, when you weren't in school anymore, so you would not know!"

me: "yup, probably!"

Ohhhh, they grow up so fast. She was on top of it and knew all the right info! guess i don't need to research anymore for her, since she knows it all......ha ha.

Influences

what a DUDE!!!! He loves this game! (if you look closely you can see his striped unds under the white pants....ha ha)

teaching his friend from school how to hold the ball while you throw it.

a little stretching....how cute is that?

and here is the money shot!!!

Ummmmm.........that is not my kid. I don't know who's he is. How rude and don't his parents teach him sportsmanship? I mean come on!!! Ohhh wait, he does look familiar, could it be, i don't know how my child could act that way? Oh crap it is mine. What does he think that he is doing out there. good thing he was in the outfield...so no one else could see, except with a telephoto lens. he he.

Everytime he was at bat yesterday, he would hit the ball then swing it wide and throw the bat back, missing the catcher (thank goodness) and then take off running to first. So the coach had a little talk with him and by his third at bat, he did not even want to hit, he was so afraid he was gonna lob it at the catcher. So after the game we had a little one on one and I found out that he learned if from watching "the sandlot"......one of his favorite movies! and I am guessing the tongue is from the movie as well. man, it is so fun to be a little boy.

Tweet Tweet

I picked up these Converse last night.....love these.....love the birds. Me and a friend both bought them to wear! We were joking around that we would call each other before we wore them, so that when we pick up our kids from school we can be matchy matchy!!! ha ha. My friend found them first and we searched for my size (they were on clearance) then I just happened to try on an 8 and they fit.......so I am proudly wearing my Converse Bird Shoes!!! Everytime Thad asks me why I bought bird shoes, I reply.........tweet tweet. What can I say.........I love shoes!!! I could have a whole room devoted to shoes!! I think I have a little Carrie Bradshaw inside me. If I could only run after my children in Manolo's I would! That and if I still had the feet of a 20 year old!

First Goal - Check

Alright girls......I did it. I finally achieved success. I cannot tell you how hard I have worked over the past 5 weeks. I live at the gym. I am there a lot. I work really hard and finally my first goal has been reached. Today I put on my "next size down" pant.............my "seven" jeans......my I "get to congratulate myself" jean. And this time instead of squeezing them zipped, I just zipped them right up! Now I am not saying there is not a little top overhang.........but hello they fit!!!! I went to coffee with some friends this morning who have supported me and told me that my butt looked good in them!!! (thx a and j) YAY me!!! Just thought I would share today.

I finally got to buy a pair of SEVEN JEANS!!!!

First Game

So here we are again............Baseball Season. Tonight was our first game and guess who got to play catcher, both innings!!!

He was so pumped up tonight. He still does not completely understand what he is doing out there, but he loves it and that is what is important. He begged his coach to let him play catcher again, which I think had to do with the fact that he could wear the cool gear and sit on his knees during play.



Not anything to do with really loving that position, in his mind it was the position that did the least! ha ha. But look at that pix above......he has the stance right. When he saw me coming with my camera........the got all ready and posed for me. so stinking cute! The best part of the whole night was snack...the mom handed out big league chewing gum and he was all over that! thought it was the coolest thing ever! It was a cold, but great first game.

I want to be Pink.......

This weekend we were fortunate to have my niece stay the night and boy was it fun! She was so excited to be here with the kids and she was so good. She is hilarious though. She has never stayed the night anywhere with big kids, so she was a little hyper. I was going to have her sleep in noah's room and move noah into syd's, but somehow they all got it into their little heads to sleep together!

So we layed out their sleeping bags all in a row and we sat down to read a few books. Sydnie was reading ryen a kitty book, where you can pick out which kitty you would want to own, ryen kept jumping up and yelling i want to be a pink kitty!!! Finally at about 9pm my kids fell fast asleep, but ryen was still awake, just laying there with her eyes wide open. I kept checking on her and i would peek my head in and she would look at me and smile, then she would give that big sigh....you know the one where your kids are almost asleep. So I would leave and check again in a little while and she would look at me and smile again! Finally about 10:30 she fell asleep. Oh Boy! The next morning they all woke up at 6am...ready to play. I stood outside the door for a moment and listened to their interaction. They were reading books to each other and I could here a little voice saying I want to be a pink kitty......ha ha. Apparently she remembered the discussion from last night.

That next day we kept her pretty busy, we had to go to noah's tball clinic and then came home and played playdoh and jumped on the trampoline. Sydnie was asking noah and ryen what dinosaur they woud like to be and ryen turned around in all seriousness and says "I want to be a pink dinosaur!" Oh the fun of pink. When your whole world revolves around pink....what to wear, what to color with, what your favorite blanket is, what your favorite cat would be.............

I finally made her take a nap (two hours and she did not move)! When she woke up her mom was here and she went upstairs to get her out of bed.....i guess ryen saw her mom, threw the blanket over her head and said "i want aunt shell!!" oooppppsss. Then we took her to ice cream. a treat that she gets to enjoy when she is with me!!! ha ha. I like to pump her full of sugar and then send her home to her mom and dad. Isn't that what aunties are for?

It is hard to be green

a couple of my friends have posted about what they love............here is what i love right now

I LOVE METHOD

a while ago i posted about trying to rid my house of all the bad cleaning supplies and so far i have replaced all my surface cleaners, hand soaps and window cleaning. it has made all the difference in the world. i no longer have headaches and stuffy head for a whole day after i clean. i would literally feel like my head was going to explode from the headaches i would get. now i clean and i have no after effects, it has truly been amazing. i am obviously very sensitive to chemicals.....i cannot walk down the garden aisles at lowes because the chemicals drive me crazy. when thad is doing something in the yard with fertilizer....i stay in the house. (ps-don't know if i have convinced him to check out organic fertilizer yet....maybe i will tell him i will help him do lawn work if he buys it{wink wink})

So over the past few months i have been investing in new organic cleaners, going phosphate free, voc free, antibacterial free, all types of bad stuff free. what i have not used of my old cleaners i am going to haul out to the toxic dump site, along with old paint cans, etc. on earth day i was reading a few blogs and came across this great new book that method had written about detoxing your home.......i am half way thru it and have already made some other new changes. did you know that 4 trillion plastic bags are made each year.........we have gotten into plastic bag rehab here....we own reusables and we recycle any plastic bags that accidently come home.

my next new purchase is one i am dying to go buy today (but won't because i am good). then i can get rid of all my floor cleaning supplies....bring on the 5 second rule. nothing bad in this here cleaner....pure organic goodness. my kids could eat off the floor with this bad boy! ha ha. well maybe not, cuz of the dog, but you know what i mean.



i am not advocating that method is the only organic cleaner.......but with a smell that yummy......what are you waiting for.....go forth and clean mothers, in an organic way! and check out this site, if you want some method lusting news: http://methodlust.blogspot.com/

One Year Ago

Disneyland


thunder mountain railroad


my little pirate

new orleans square

Riding the trolley to the main square

The Princess Lunch at Ariel's Grotto

Posing in the "A" of California

another "A" poser


This time last year we were arriving at the airport for our first trip to Disneyland! The excitement was an electric current that ran through our little group. First time on an airplane for our little ones. It has been a whole year and in that time I have heard "when can we go back to disneyland?" about 50 times! I think that Thad and I enjoyed it just as much as they did. We both would really love to take them back......soon, before the magic is gone! Although is it really ever gone? The sad thing is, it has been a year and I have not done one single scrap page. I have the album..some stickers, a few pix printed, but no pages. I think I am intimidated to wade through 500+ photos, to choose and print which ones I like. Maybe I should start with Seaworld...there are not as many photos there!!! So maybe this year on National Scrapbook Day that is my goal. that is what I am doing.........my Disneyland Album!!!