Building the Playset

One of the things Bob really wanted this gigantic backyard of our for was so the kids could play in it. Of course, he bought it before we even had kids, so you know he really wanted kids.

Both of our short ones have gotten to the point where they enjoy playsets. So, that means that we should have a playset of our own in our backyard. We have often drooled at the one at Costco. I mean, who hasn't? Even as a grownup, I'd dig that thing for a personal fort. But that is more money than we have.

Then Bob's sister, Debbie, sent us a link from Walmart for a very cool playset under $500. So, we bought it. It looked really cool and very complete.

It was delivered to us in two large and flat boxes. I had read all the comments from other buyers and we followed some of their suggestions. For example, before any assembly was done we stained it to preserve the wood from our harse climate. Then the fun began.

99 Pieces of Wood (Bob counted)Bob assembling the ladder / rock wallProgressWorking in the rain to try and finish it

Completed!! A very nice slide, ladder/rock wall entrance, picnic table to the right.

A seesaw swing and two normal swings. The center area of the playset is supposed to be for a sandbox. Not sure what we'll do for that yet.Two very satisfied and busy customers.

Eight Things

My sister in law, Laura tagged me in a "get to know you game".

Here's the rules--mention the person that tagged you.
Complete the lists of 8's.
Tag 8 of your wonderful blogger friends.
Go tell them you tagged them!

8 Things I Am Looking Forward To:
1. Going on a Disney Cruise on July 4th
2. Visiting with my family on the cruise
3. Going back up to full-time work hours this Friday
5. Planting my garden in the backyard
6. Warmer weather- it has been a long cold Winter/Spring so far.
7. Alexis finally getting potty trained all the way

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Cleaned the garage with Katya
2. Lots of laundry
3. Finished a book
4. Vacuumed & mopped the floors
5. Spent some time playing with Alexis & Logan
6. Washed windows
7. Set up the kids play things on the front patio
8. Worked

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1. Enjoy cooking
2. Move things with my mind
3. Have my 22 year old body
4. Teleport myself to San Diego, Salt Lake City and Seattle on a whim
5. Win the lottery and make mine and my family's lives a bit easier
6. Take a trip overseas every Spring (Italy, Greece, Spain, Australia, New Zealand...)
7. Go to medical school
8. Tear down and re-build my house the way I want it

8 Shows I Watch:
1. Bones
2. Fringe
3. Numb3rs
4. Grey's Anatomy
5. The Mentalist
7. CSI: Las Vegas
8. Ghost Whisperer

Now who shall I pick.....
Laura already got everyone pretty much...

I'll just leave it open!!!

Guy Trip

Bob is leaving this evening with a friend to Lake Havasu for the weekend. Three whole days with no husband.

His friend has a house out there and he hasn't seen him in years, so this should be a fun time for all. Warm weather in the 80's all weekend, boats to ride the lake in, probably BBQing for every meal and lots of catching up.

Bob has been working all the time. Not a day goes by that he doesn't stress about some deadline for some board or some document that is critical to his existance. I know that it usually is business critical, but the guy never has any downtime. Despite his protests about this being the worst possible time to be going - he needs it.

My little weekend visits with Michelle in Seattle always help to clear my head. They kind of rejuvinate me for the next few months. They help me to remember ME. Deby - not the mother, the wife, the co-worker, the house cleaner, the family cook.... But the me that is the one that likes to travel, eat good cheese, watch corny movies, drink fruity fizzy drinks, sit in coffee shops with just a book and a vanila latte for a couple of hours.

My sincerest hope is that Bob comes back on Sunday night feeling a little bit lighter. A little bit happier. All the stress that weighs him down every single day will be hopefully lifted, even if only for 48 hours. I hope he reconnects with his friends, has fun swimming in the lake and driving boats and gets a lot of good belly laughs in. They are what keep us going when everything seems just too much to bear sometimes.

Have fun sweetie!

Wolf Talk

This morning was "Wolf Talk" at the High Desert Museum. Katya wanted to go to this a couple of years ago when they were here, but they were sold out. We were bummed.

But, when Logan and I were at the High Desert a couple of weeks ago they had tickets on sale!

So... this morning Katya and I got up and left Bob with the babies while we headed out. We stopped at Seargent's Cafe and Katya had the best banana pancakes in the world. Outrageous!

Then we got to the museum and hung out until they opened. We grabbed our carpet square and waited impatiently for the wolves to arrive.

This was pretty cool. These people are from Mission: Wolf in Colorado. They talked a lot about wolf behavior and interactions before the wolves even came out for a visit. They encourage visitors out there at their refuge and some day it would be cool for us all to go out there, volunteer our time for a bit and hang around the wolves.

When the wolves came out they were just beautiful. One was a full grey wolf that had imprinted on humans and therefore could not be released to the wild. The other was a wolf-dog that had been found eating out of dumpsters in Salt Lake City. He was such a lover that he tried to sit in everyone's lap to get attention.

I was surprised to learn that although in Yellowstone when a wolf kills a deer, a bear can easily steal their kill. But in the three minutes before the bear shows up to grab the leftovers, a wolf can consume 15 pounds of meat. In three minutes! Evidently, the re-introduction of bears into their ecosystem has helped the endangered grissly. Nature needs it's balance.

Anyway, the whole thing was totally cool. Katya had her entire face licked by the grey wolf and both wolves found great interest in my shoe. I had stepped in some dog doo earlier and thought I had gotten it all off. It was still cool to have them RIGHT there in front of me.

I hope that they come back again. Alexis can go and see them when they are 4 years old. We'll see if she can sit still long enough then.

Growing Some Flowers

I have a love of gardening.

Not sure why. Don't know where it came from, but it is there. I can only think that my Great Grandparents, who homesteaded in Halfway, Oregon, put this gardening bug in my system.

Alexis loves creating things. She wants to be in the kitchen and she is always making some kind of pretend something with her play food. She also loves to be outside and she LOVES flowers. I must have given that same gene to her.

Sooooo... we are growing some flowers for our yard.

Since I had such great success with the little dirt pods and greenhouse things, we are growing some Zinneas, Giant Sunflowers and Sweet Peas. I say we, when actually it is Alexis doing all the work.

Step 1: Put the little dirt pods in the greenhouse base with the little hole facing up.

Step 2: Add water and watch them triple in size. (Always fun)

Step 3: Add flower seeds and press them into the dirt.

Step 4: Cover them up and put them in the sun to grow.

Track Season

It has been track and field time for Katya. Summit is serious about their athletes and they train HARD regardless of weather.

That means snow, cold, wind, sun .... you name it.

They also have a doctor and a nutritionist that work with the athletes to help them achieve the highest standard of athletic excellence and health possible. It is pretty amazing the difference from when I was in track and from what Katya has today.

Her coaches have her doing all kinds of events from long jump, high jump (she doesn't like this one), hurdles and sprint relays. It is not uncommon for her to be signed up for 4 or 5 events a meet.

Through her long hours of hard work, her times are getting better. Her form is getting better. She is now consistantly placing in the top three for her events. No small feat!

There is a cool website that the athletes use to monitor all of their times, distances and placements from the meets. It is called athletic.net and it is seriously cool. It takes all the guesswork out of the meet results and helps athletes focus on their "Personal Best/Record" to see improvement. Here are the results from the last meet. She has another meet tomorrow in La Pine and about one a week until the end of the school year.

Luckily betwen Bob, Terren and I there is usually a parental figure at all of her meets. Bob went last time when Terren and I couldn't make it and he videotaped her 300 hurdle race. It is pretty cool to be able to give her so much support. I hope to make part of her meet tomorrow in La Pine. The only bummer about high school track is that they don't let any parents on the field at all, so all those cool close up action shots I got during middle school are no more. Oh well.

Egg Hunt

Easter was a very good day in our house.

The little ones didn't sleep good the night before so everyone in the house was a bit on the foggy side all morning. Very mellow.

I made us all a HUGE breakfast of french toast, hashbrowns, sausage, bacon, and fruit salad. Debbie K. eventually joined us and she brought over some of those amazing muffins from Westside Bakery. Add to that Black Forest ham, zucchini bread and butter nut pound cake - we had more than enough food for the day. In fact, the leftovers should last all week.

The skies were dark and the forecast predicted rain after 11am. So my neighbors and I had a two backyard egg hunt with all of our kids. They had such a good time! Logan was not exactly sure of why he should be picking up the eggs, so Bob let him open one and eat the candy inside. My kids have huge sweet tooths, so they got the hang of it really quickly.

Katya played Easter bunny this year and did a great job of putting the 100 or so eggs all over the backyard. It is nice to finally be able to let the kids roam our huge expanse of a backyard. Watching them trudge across our yard with their baskets in hand was pretty cool.

The post-egg hunt nap was pretty sweet too. What a great psueudo-lazy day!