Bryson's of Bend

Old Fashioned Pork Chops in Crock Pot

2010-06-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ok, I haven't been very good with my blog, but I am making it up to you with my most fabulous new crock pot recipe. It is a definate A.

Old Fashioned Pork Chops

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground mustard
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper
6 boneless pork loin chops (5 oz ea)
2 tblsp canola oil
1 can (10 1/2oz) condensed chicken with rice soup, undiluted
1 medium onion, quartered
1 1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the flour, mustard, garlic salt and pepper. Add porkchops, a few pieces at a time, and shake to coat.

2. In a large skillet, brown chops in oil on each side. Transfer to a 3-qt slow cooker. Top with soup, onion and parsley. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until pork is tender.

These came out wonderful! I am allergic to rice, but I ate one anyway. The onion was slightly carmelized and the whole thing was tasty!! I love easy and yummy recipes.

Donkey Basketball

2010-03-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Tonight I got to witness something totally new and unique - donkey basketball.

Katya was part of the girls basketball team that went up against the equestrian team in a fundraising event at the high school tonight. There were real donkeys brought in that have special rubber shoes on thier hooves to not scratch the floor.

It was pretty funny to watch, especially when Katya's donkey had a mind of it's own.

I brought Alexis and Logan and they were interested for all of ten minutes. They had to hold out for a whole hour until Bob came to rescue them.

Katya had a really good time. It's a shame she never gets to do anything fun or different up here.

Unmistaken Child

2010-03-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Anyone that really knows me knows that I am very open-minded in my beliefs. I have a fascination with world religions and remain open to learning what other people think and believe. After all, I sure don't have all the answers nor would I ever pretend to. I have a core center of what I believe, but there is a lot of room for expansion.

Therefore, I believe strongly that every religion and every person's religious beliefs are sacred and should always be respected. I may not agree with what you particularly believe, but I will always respect it.

When I was lying on my back in the zero gravity chair I watched a lot of Netflix on demand. One of the movies I had in my queue was "Unmistaken Child". It is about the search for the reincarnation of a Llama that passed away in Nepal. I remember reading about the child that this movie was about and I was fascinated by the whole thing.

I watched this movie with a bit of a skeptical point of view. I was certain that I would be able to see, without a doubt, some form of a pre-concieved notion of which child it was. The entire movie centered around the old Llama's assistant, who in my personal opinion, has achieved enlightenment. Talk about a pure soul seeking nothing but love, peace and goodness. I really admire this person. He is a simple soul who misses his mentor terribly.

Since I don't want to give it away, all I can say is - I am not sure that this child is NOT the reincarnation of the Llama. There were two moments in the movie that really shook what I thought to be the truth. Katya and I are both left dumbfounded and completely intrigued by the whole thing.

I am not sure that a group of people that are that closely bound together by faith and by their love and respect of the earth and each other could not, somehow, have reincarnation. It goes against Christian thinking and every Western religion that I can think of (Hindu being the exception). But man, it leaves you thinking that maybe there is a master plan for these people that we are just not privy to.

Watch it and let me know your thoughts. Don't miss the last five minutes... that one moment still has me thinking.

Bad Back

2010-03-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have a bad back.

It is a relatively new thing for me. I used to have a really strong back and never once had so much as a sore anything. Shoulders and neck yes, but never my back.

Then came Alexis.

When I delivered Alexis she did something strange on the way out and my tailbone was broken. Ouch. I couldn’t figure out for the longest time why I absolutely could NOT lay on my back and why it hurt to sit. I guess it is a common occurrence for deliveries. It took me several months for my back to recover. I had to sit on pillows and really baby my lower back. Then as I was just about recovered….

WAH BAM!!!!!

… here comes Logan. Although I didn’t know I was knocked up for the first three months, I sure as heck knew it the last six. I had sciatica and horrid lower back pain. I slept with a pillow at my back every night for extra support.

After Logan I could tell that I had a tender back because it made itself known whenever I would bend over changing a diaper, bathing him, picking up Alexis… anything. Even my mattress made it hurt. A few lucky times something zigged when it should have zagged and I ended up crying. Man, oh man, I was dying. Luckily Bob and motrin saw me through.

Sunday it did it again. Katya asked if I would go to a Bikram Yoga class with her on Sunday morning. She didn’t want to go alone and I wanted to try it out because I noticed their pose sequence was not really heavy on the arms (since I can’t do arm junk). Bikram is that “hot” yoga where the room is set at 90 something degrees and you end up dripping with sweat after about ten minutes. At the end of 90 minutes every part of your body and strand of hair on your head is wet. You feel great afterwards though.

I was having a good time and focusing on my breathing and stretching until I hit the pose that took me out. I was all loose from the heat and didn’t realize I went too far until it was too late. I was dying the rest of the class. I went home and after a shower put myself into Bob’s zero gravity chair (it flips back to relieve back pain) and didn’t move really until last night. Man… I was dying. But Katya and Bob picked up my slack and took care of me, the house and the short ones. Katya wouldn’t even let me get myself something to drink. I think she feels pretty bad.

But this has not put me off of the yoga with Katya. I just now know to baby myself and not try to do all the poses until I have been a few times without pain. It’ll happen. Besides, I like having something special to do with Katya. I think she is pretty cool and a lot of fun to hang out with. Just give me a month to recover.

Books

2010-03-17T07:00:00.001-07:00

I am a bibliophile.

bib·li·o·phile (bĭb'lē-ə-fīl') n.
1. A lover of books.
2. A collector of books

Give me a good book and I can block out the world for hours or days. Even a so-so book I’ll usually read to the end. Those are actually pretty nice because it doesn’t make my entire world stop.

My “need” for reading comes in waves usually. I always have to have something to read so I have books and magazines stashed all over the house, in my car and usually something in my purse. I can easily have four books going at once depending on where I am.

Then there comes “A” book. One of those all-consuming, can’t put it down, don’t care if people around me are hungry, what is wrong with wearing dirty socks, hope the health department doesn’t come by – books. It doesn’t have to be a national bestseller or even a terribly great book, just one that catches my imagination. There is no specific genre that does it and no particular author.

This weekend I had such a book. Started it on Saturday afternoon after pulling it at random from a stack of books that my cousin, Beth had given me last Thanksgiving. Just wanted something to have “in case” I had a spare 5 minutes somewhere. Then I got sucked in.

Sunday I was totally worthless. All I wanted was to sit on the couch and read. I didn’t take a shower, I didn’t change out of my jammies and I didn’t even eat until around 2 o’clock. I forced myself to put the book down for a little bit in order to do a couple of loads of laundry and visit with my children, but that was pretty much it. After baths I sat on the couch “for just a few minutes” while Bob watched some tv. I seemingly blinked and an hour had passed.

It reminded me of when I was in middle and high school and my mom would take my book away from me and put it on the fridge so I would actually do my chores. I thought she was so mean when she did that. I didn’t recognize I had issues at that point. Recognizing your addiction is the first step towards recovery, right?

This insane love of reading runs in the family. Katya is a book addict along with my aunts, cousins and nephews. Not sure if it is nature or nurture – but when Bob asked me about that Muzzy early reading system I laughed. I seriously don’t think that Alexis or Logan will be needing any assistance to try and get them to read any earlier than they normally would. I told him that the important thing is the LOVE of reading. The skill comes from practice, not from regurgitation of sight words when you are 3. The short ones already love books. They will both sit with their favorite books and make up stories to go with the pictures. They will bring stacks of books for use to read at night before bed. I’m not worried.

So, although my life can become totally derailed for a good story it is nice to know that someday we will all be sitting on the couch with our noses in our books and I can call it “educational”. And some day when they are forced to read books that they don’t like, they won’t be intimidated. Even books that are really, really long won’t seem like a problem. That just makes for a longer story and that is always a good thing, right?

Give a Day, Get a Day

2010-03-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

I have seen these ads on TV for a while now. The whole “Give a Day, Get a Day” for Disneyland.

Well, a friend of mine here in Bend did just that with her husband. They spent a day fixing bikes for a local non-profit and are now getting their tickets for Disneyland.

I just didn’t think that there would be anything in Bend that would qualify for that program, so I never checked it out. When I did, I found all kinds of stuff! So, on March 13th Katya and I will be volunteering at a fun run supporting the local “Healthy Beginnings” child program.

Evidently we will be doing something like directing walkers and runners along the path and helping pick up trash from about 8:30am to 2pm. What an awesome trade!!

Everyone ages 6 and older can volunteer and earn their free ticket. What a sweet deal! Volunteerism is also an important thing for our community. This is just a way cool way to encourage it and be richly rewarded!

So, we are all scheduled for our volunteer day and at some point we will be getting our free tickets to Disneyland.

After that it will just be getting ourselves down South to go. Maybe we could meet up with some family while we are there!

Anyone care to join us?

Bye Bailey

2010-03-04T13:38:00.001-08:00

We lost our dog today.

I still can't believe it. She seemed ok when I left this morning. But luckily Bob saw that she seemed out of breath and her gums looked white so he rushed her to the vet.

The vet had done an ultrasound and determined that her spleen was bleeding, probably from a tumor. Evidently they are very common for German Shephards when they reach middle age. We adopted Bailey when we "think" she was about a year and a half in 2002, so her estimated age was 9.

Since she had no other health issues, Bob gave him the go ahead to remove her spleen. Dogs can live without them with no ill effects. However, when they were putting her under she went into cardiac arrest and passed away.

Total shock.

Some people don't understand how animals can become part of your family. Bailey was a definate part of our family. When Bob was living in Oregon and I was still in San Diego for those two years, Bailey was with him. If the kids were playing downstairs and I was in the kitchen, I knew that they were fine because Bailey was down there to protect them. Bob would take Bailey out to the property and walk around or take her with him when he rode dirtbikes. That dog could run and run and run and run. Her endurance and energy seemed endless.

Her patience with the toddlers was endless. She stood there and let them hug her, pat her back or brush her. She followed them around to make sure they were safe. Although, sometimes it was from a safe distance.

I even put her name at the bottom of every Christmas card that we sent.

Bob is torn up. I haven't stopped crying for two hours and I am trying to somehow let the kids know that Bailey isn't coming home. She is in heaven. Hopefully hanging out with my other beloved animals; Shen, Phuff and Bandit. I still have to tell Katya. She will be everybit as heartbroken.

Goodbye Bailey. We loved you. We will always miss you. Thank you for being such a wonderful and loyal friend. I am so sorry I didn't get to say goodbye.

Pink Overload

2010-03-03T06:59:00.000-08:00

Ya know, before my mom had breast cancer I only wore pink when pregnant. It most definitely was NOT a color that I would choose for anything. In fact, I was kinda anti-pink.

When Michelle and I went to Seattle and did the Breast Cancer 3-Day it was pink overload. Pink hats, pink shirts, pink boas, pink … everything. Susan G Koman is an organization that I have historically donated to anyway and pink is their signature color. So after the walk, I just embraced the pink.

I work with a bunch of guys. I mean, I am the only female in the entire engineering department. When you factor in the manufacturing group – the ratio of men to women is crazy high. Normally this is not a big deal, but working with that many guys means that you have to deal with some guy issues.

The main one the bugs me is the – “If I see something that I need, I’ll just grab it off someone’s desk and abscond it”.

It is not malicious, but guys tend to be forgetful. They grab something because they need it “at that moment” and then later on they don’t remember where they got it from. At Qualcomm I had a label maker so I labeled everything. My ruler, my stapler, my scissors, my tape dispenser…. People laughed at me, but I always got my stuff back.

Now I don’t have a label maker, but I have some stuff that I have to have in order to just go to the bathroom and my normal colored stuff kept walking off. Like safety glasses and a hard hat (lots of construction). Not to mention having an open desk crammed in a single-wide trailer with my “stuff” sitting out for grabbing.

So, I have again embraced the pink. I am now the proud owner of pink & purple safety glasses (shiny pink too from Amazon), a pink hardhat and now… pink scissors. My last pair of scissors walked off last week and I intentionally found this breast cancer pair. Still waiting to see if I need to find a pink tape dispenser and stapler.
Trust me, my stuff won’t be taken any longer.

Best of Intentions

2010-03-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

When I get in a hurry, I mess things up.

I am sure that it happens to other people, but it really seems to ring true for me. Maybe that is why I tend to be so methodical about some projects, I know I will mess it up otherwise.

Case in point, I wanted to do something nice for my family and have warm muffins waiting for them when they got up Monday morning. I set out the muffin mix, muffin pan, bowl… everything I would need. It is a box mix, how could I screw it up?

I can.

Evidently this little box mix had an “apple packet” that you were suppose to put in after the eggs, oil and water. Totally didn’t connect with that until I had put all the mix in the muffin pan and was getting ready to put them in the oven. I was going to be late as it was making the muffins, so I didn’t the time to scoop out all the batter from the muffin pan, mix in the packet and then re-ladle the muffin pan again. So, being totally wasteful, I dumped it all down the drain and left.

How frustrating!!!

So, I was late to work for nothing.

Tonight I will make muffins – for tomorrow! They won’t be warm and fresh, but they will exist. Which is more than the ones from this morning ever got to be.

Our Sunny Sunday

2010-02-28T19:42:00.001-08:00

Today was just... beautiful. Perfect and glorious.

The sky was an amazing clear blue, the sun was shining and it was cool... but not cold. Perfect for a t-shirt with a sweatshirt.

By the time I drug my sleepy self out of bed (with a cup of coffee brought to me by my hubby) everyone else in the house was up and going. Katya went to yoga and Bob was itching for a walk so I threw together a picnic lunch, grabbed the dogs and we all headed out to Tumalo for some exploring.

We went to the same spot that Bob had taken Katya for lesson 1 on driving a stick shift. The road was closed, so we had an awesome flat road to walk on with the kids. We meandered on the road until it almost reached the reservoir and then we headed back. Bob estimates that it was about a mile out and a mile back. Awesome first hike with the short ones! They did great! The dogs were so happy to go out and get some exploring in too.

Right about the time we got back to the truck they were famished so we enjoyed a lovely meal of sandwiches, apples, pickles and chips before we pulled out the bikes and let the kids go at it. It didn't work quite as well as we had hoped in the dirt. Once the frustration level got too high we packed it in.

I thought they would be exhausted and ready for a nap but nope... they wanted the park. So off to the park we went! They played for another two hours before they really were fried and we headed home for a rest.

Awesome day, glorious weather, wonderful kids, patient husband... a fabulous way to spend a Sunday.

To Booster Or Not To Booster

2010-02-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

Alexis is now four years old. Dang! It seriously was just yesterday when she was born, wasn’t it?

My little firecracker has been growing like a little weed and now I am left with a dilemma: is it time for a booster seat?

When she outgrew her infant seat we bought a Britax carseat (4 actually, 2 per car). Hers has a cool pink cover with flowers and it is super soft to lay her face on when sleeping. It has been awesome. When it is locked into my truck the top is secured to the headrest and the bottom is secured to the car. That puppy ain’t going anywhere. But, she is getting taller and now I am wondering that even though the carseat goes to 60 pounds, should she be moving to a booster seat for the height?

Being neurotic like I am, I found a cool one that was not only recommended by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety as a “Best Bet” but is pink. I personally like Alexis having a girlie seat, it suits her personality and my love for a splash of flair. It is called the Maxi-Cosi Rodi XR and looks pretty cool. The reviews that I have read on it are pretty good too. Granted the other best one on the market is made by Recaro, but it is $350 and only comes in tan and black. Yulk. I’ll probably end up getting those for Bob’s truck and pay for them by selling the other carseats. He was really impressed with the Recaro one when he saw it in someone else’s car.

I have seen several of the “Good Bet” carseats at Target for only $50. Part of me wants to just go with one of those, but the other part is thinking that if they have to stay in a booster seat until they are 8 years old and 4’9”, the booster should be nice, safe and comfy.

Or am I being neurotic?

It was much easier when Katya was little. The rules were not as strict and I was so poor I was happy that I could afford anything at Target for what looked like a good carseat and booster seat.

So, does anyone has comments, suggestions or experiences that they would be willing to share. I’m kinda in a dilemma here.

How Starbucks Saved My Life

2010-02-25T05:26:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas I was walking through Barnes and Noble looking at books and writing down titles I wanted to check out from the library (I’m bad that way). On one of the center tables I remember picking up this small green and tan book called “How Starbucks Saved My Life”. I remember thinking what a silly title and I put it down and moved on.

Right before Christmas with the cleaning rush before guests come over to stay I stumbled upon a few boxes of books that my wonderful cousin, Beth, had sent up with me at Thanksgiving when driving home. We are a hard core reading family and we often route books around to other family members to share the love. In this box was that little green and tan book. I figured it was ironic and that I would have to read it now.

Last weekend I was doing some cleaning and thinning out of our “stuff” and I stumbled upon that little book again sitting so lonely on the bookshelf. I was wanting something to read and it seemed like it would take no time at all. It didn’t. It turns out that it was a pretty decent book. Granted, it is written from the perspective of a white, 63 year old man who was raised in privilege in the East Coast. I know that the East Coast has a different way of thinking so I just had to go with him on why he thought the way he did.

In a nutshell, it is the story of a man who had lost his way in life (you’ll have to read it for the details) and then through a chance encounter at a Starbucks Job Fair applied for and got a job at a local Starbucks. Through his time at Starbucks he really learns to live the Starbucks (and his amazing manager) company culture and it helps him become a better man. A happy man who feels more fulfilled in life.

Most of all, I really liked his “3 L’s” so much that I thought I’d share an abbreviated version of them:

1. Leap … with faith: Leap with faith rather than huddle in fear.

2. Look … with respect: Learn to look and see everyone in your day as a welcome guest to be treated with respect.

3. Listen … to your heart to find true happiness: Trusting your own heart is your greatest path to real happiness. Everyone is given a unique path to happiness that is special for each person – we just have to listen to our hearts.

Vision Board

2010-02-24T05:24:00.000-08:00

My vision board is in serious need of some vision.

Katya, Bob and I have all watched “The Secret” and at one point last year we all had vision boards with where we wanted to be in life, what we wanted, where we wanted to go…etc. Bob has one at work with business related goals and Katya has one in her room with her life goals. Mine was always kinda small. I only managed to have a list of books to read and a smiley face.

Pretty pathetic.

So, here I am trying to get my personal house in order. I’ve gone to the doctor, I’ve gotten new glasses, I’ve started working out again, I’m cutting down on sugar and eating more fruits and veggies. Now I am working on my vision board and I am finding it hard to put anything up on it. I’ve always struggled with the 5 year plan at work. You know, the “where do you want to be in 5 years” thing.

I have a home, I own a nice car, I have three beautiful children, I’m in a loving marriage to a great guy, I have two dogs and two cats, I have all the “stuff” I think I could ever want. I can’t even think of a car that I would want to replace my Durango with.

When push comes to shove, I do want a finished master bathroom and fireplace. There are other things I suppose I want for the house like a big deck and upgraded kitchen, but those are “nice to haves”.

After watching the Olympics I did realize that I really, really, really want to go to the Olympics and watch an opening or closing ceremony. It wouldn’t even matter what events I watched, I love them all. I’m strange that way. No sports all year and then the Olympics have my full attention.

So, I am sitting here thinking of things to vision about. Being debt free … taking Katya to London … going to Costa Rica with Bob … reading everything on the BBC 100 list (this was Julianne’s idea and I like it) … live more simply and travel more. I guess this is a pretty good start, but I've still gotta work on it.

2010-02-23T17:56:00.000-08:00

Meet “The Chief”.

“The Chief” is Katya’s first car. It is a 1987 Jeep Cherokee Chief 4x4. She only cost us $600 and an extra $675 in repairs, but for the money she is a good little car. It has nice tires, is four wheel drive, has a good interior and is a nice mid-sized metal tank. Granted, like many of us, she comes with issues.

Her main issue is her driver’s side door. It not only has a rusted hole in it, it has issues closing. That means when you are driving in the early morning you get a nice cold breeze on your tushy (as I did this morning driving it to the mechanic). But Katya is looking for gainful employment and we will have the local body shop fix that part up soon. Since this is her car, she has to pay for it. There are a few other rust spots on the car, but we will see how much time, money and effort Katya wants to put into making this car pretty.

Life Lesson: Anything worthwhile is going to take effort

The previous owner was one of those people that wasn’t a big believer in maintenance. It has become very apparent that although certain parts of the car are in great shape, he only fixed things as they broke. So when Bob (my hero) spent the entire weekend working on this car with Katya – he found a lot of rust. On the upside, he was able to use his torch to “unfreeze” certain bolts. He had fun doing that. So, Katya can only drive this car as far as AAA will tow it back for free. Thank goodness for AAA and cell phones.

So as of now, “The Chief” has new rear brakes, front brake rotors & pads, rear U joints, gear knob, license plate light and a lot of new fluid and oil. Hopefully she will run without issue for a long time.

Not to mention I hope Katya finds a job so she can pay us back for all this.

Home Gym - Here I Come (Again)

2010-02-22T19:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since I have taken working out at home as seriously as I did before I moved. Not sure what the deal was. Maybe not having a set schedule for a few years just totally did me in.

It made me complacient.

Throw in a couple of pregnancies, a little boy that just does not like to sleep through the night regularly and you get a bit chubby too.

Soooooooooooooo, I am going back to my old habits. My treadmill was serviced today and it seems to be running awesome. For my belated birthday gift, Bob had gotten me a little tv to post over it because it is so deathly boring walking facing a wall. I had a little tv in my garage in Poway, but it is too fat for the space I've got now. This fancy new little flat screen will be totally cool. AND it has a DVD player in it. I will be doing a LOT of Netflixing of tv shows. It should be the right amount of time to be on the treadmill every morning.

Until my tv eventually gets mounted, I will just be content listening to my IPod for the next few weeks. Katya has really loaded a bunch of new music on our shared ITunes library. It will be quite the adventure to find out what I will be listening to.

But I am not going to lie, this is going to be painful. As in seriously painful. I know I can do it, after all I woke up at 4:30 every morning for almost a year to drive across town to hit the gym and I paid $40 a month. This way, I don't have to drive so dang much, I save some cash and I don't have to haul that gym bag around every day. Let's not even get into the whole changing clothes in front of other people when you are self conscious to begin with.

So, wish me luck. I will be needing it until it becomes habit.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

2010-02-22T18:59:00.001-08:00

I have taken a seriously long hiatus on my blog and for that I apologize.

Inspiration was just not coming to me and life had just taken over.

But as time has gone on, I realize that I really like having a blog. Even if nobody else (other than Laura, Nan and my Mom) read this... that is ok.

So, if you have nothing else to do, then check in from time to time. I'll be updating with my randomness on a more regular basis. :)

Building the Playset

2009-05-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T09:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-23T14:35:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

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!

Playtime With Logan

2009-04-09T06:12:00.000-07:00

With Alexis going to preschool in the mornings, this frees up some time for me to do some one on one with my litte dude.

While Alexis was in her first day of preschool, Logan and I spent the morning together.

We started off having breakfast together. I had to kind of mesh that with a Campfire event meeting, but he didn't seem to mind.

Afterwards we headed over to the children's museum only to find it closed.

Sooooooooo, we then high tailed it over to the High Desert Museum. We had such a nice time there.

Logan loved just standing there watching the salmon in their stream swimming. And then there were ducks... and some other birds... and some statues - I had a hard time getting him to go inside the building at all.

Once inside he loved the turtles and the Lynx. The Lynx was lounging in the sun and kept staring at Logan through the glass. He just kept saying "kitty". Yup, that was a really big kitty. Then we walked all around the outside and this included the bird exhibit. We learned what owls sound like and he was totally enamored with the Golden Eagle. He was jumping around his enclosure and spreading his wings to catch the breeze. They are beautiful birds.

The River Otter exhibit was his favorite and I had to eventually leave because he kept trying to climb into the enclosure. My little monkey boy.

We finished off our morning with an oatmeal cookie and juice before we headed to the car to go and get Alexis.

All week we played. We hit Barnes and Noble as well as the Children's Museum.

I know that Logan will be ready for preschool all too soon, so I am enjoying this time with him.

1st Day of Preschool

2009-04-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Alexis has been ready for preschool for a while now, but I have been waiting until Fall.

After some rather difficult weeks, I decided that this girl needed sooner rather than later. She is smart and needs to work that brain of hers. Not to mention her refusal to totally potty train even though she knows what to do. A little peer pressure would be good in this area. Of course, me teaching her things doesn't work because she is one of those kids that just don't learn from parents. Katya was the same way, so I understand.

I looked all over Bend for preschools that were in my area, came with recommendations...etc. I found what appears to be an awesome one. It is a home preschool and I really like home care programs. Katya was in one for years and her caregiver was amazing. Her house is set up to where one half is her living area and the other half is the preschool. The school room is her converted garage and it has bright colors, artwork on the walls and nice pergo floors. Her backyard is huge and flat and she works from a preschool curriculum.

I took both kids there for a visit and they both didn't want to leave. Ms. Stephanie (her teacher) seems really nice and she has a good raport with Alexis. Alexis introduced her and Logan without any prompting from me. "I Lexi. This my brother, Logan.". I guess she has chosen Lexi as her nickname. Ginger wins.

Tuesday was her first day and I was expecting a little bit of drama. Didn't get it. We arrived at 8am with Alexis all dolled up for school and she just walked in and started playing. No problems whatsoever.

When I picked her up from school at noon she was happy to see me and not one single tear.

This was her teacher's report for the day:

- She went on the potty when one of the other kids did and kept a dry pull up all day. YEAH!!

- While she was doing some coloring of her letter "B" she told her teacher "Sissy at school. I at school. I am a big girl!".

- No pushing, shoving, attitude or difficulty.

- She didn't eat the bean and cheese quesadillas, but that came as no surprise. I did warn her about her picky eating habits.

All in all a FABULOUS report!!

All afternoon the girl was a little chatterbox. I believe this is a great time for her development and I can't wait to have more conversations with my little Lexi.

Gymnastics

2009-04-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

When Alexis turned three I was absolutely thrilled!! Why? Because then I could sign her up for a class and I did not have to participate with her. Kinda hard to do when I have Logan sitting in the wings waiting stuck in a stroller.

I had done a gymnastics class with Alexis when Logan was first born. I stuck him in his carrier in eyesight of where I was and ran around the gym with Alexis attempting to get her to do what the teacher wanted. It was an exhausing battle of wills. I only survived two classes.

So, two weeks ago we started gymnastics for a second try.

We got to the class and she was so excited. She looked darling in her little pink outfit that she picked out last summer. (We were at a mall in San Diego and she spotted this outfit when we walked by, she ran in before I could stop her and she promptly started stripping her clothes off to put it on. How could I say no with that level of "love at first sight"?) She jumped around and as soon as everyone walked into the gym - she turned and held onto my leg. ????

Didn't expect that.

I had to spend the whole class with her encouraging her to sit on the carpet square, do the jumps, listen to the teacher... it was a long class. Poor Logan had to sit in a stroller watching all the fun. Then something magical happened about ten minutes before the class ended. She didn't need me anymore so I snuck back to the parent area.

Her second class was yesterday and I was hopeful that it would go better than the first. She rocked it!! She had some initial hesitation, but there was a pink carpet square waiting for her to do her stretches on and she couldn't resist. I mean, it was PINK. She kept an eye on me for the first fifteen minutes, but after that she pretty much listened to the teacher. I was so relieved!

Actually listened is not exactly correct... more like heard what he wanted her to do and then when he wasn't watching she would do it. She bounced on the trampoline, jumped into the foam pit, did oodles of somersaults, hung by the rings.... she is gumby girl.

I was so proud of her.

After the class he gave everyone a hand stamp with a purple star AND a smiley face. She couldn't have been any happier.

Yeah for gymnastics!!! I can put Logan in with her when he is 30 months, which is this summer.

Spring Is In The Air

2009-04-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

Ah... Spring.

It is here! The days are slowly warming up, the bizarre sudden snow is more of a novelty, my tulips are popping up (although the deer already munched the ones along the sidewalk to nubs), and there is new growth on all the trees.

It also means that my little ones can FINALLY go to the park!! They are energetic little things that need their space and their ability to climb on things without hearing "no". So, when the afternoons are at least in the high 50's, we're heading to the park.

During the summer, we were making it a daily occurance and a little ritual with Bob. He would come home (the sun sets very late in the day here in the summer), put the kids in the trailer, hop on his bike and take them to the park for 45 minutes of fun before bath and bed. It was nice and I look forward to getting back into that routine.

A week or so ago we grabbed the kids on a Friday evening and headed to the park. I took the camera since it was the first real park play since November. I got some good ones that show their changing personalities.

Alexis is my outside girl. She doesn't care about the temperature... she just wants to be OUTSIDE. She has no fear, she pushes boundaries, if she falls she gets right back up and tries again (that whole tenatious spirit of hers), she loves the rush of zooming down the big kid slide or getting pushed really high on the swing - she is like a mini-Bob in this way with his love of adrenaline. I need to keep my medical insurance current on this one.

Logan is enjoying being outside more and more. But he is WAY more reserved and serious than Alexis. He will try and keep up with her, but you can see the reservation in his face. His favorite thing right now is going up and down steps. He will probably enjoy the rock wall before the next winter hits. He is a climber.

Bob is enjoying playing with his little ones. He waited a long time for them and he likes to get to play with them as much as he can. He is a good daddy.

My Mom's Visit

2009-04-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

A little birdie reminded me that I never did a post about my mother's visit in February. I must make amends.

In February, my mom came up and stayed for a whole week! It was her "President's Week" of vacation. She came up by herself and stayed in Katya's bedroom. Katya was temporarily moved to the "Lounge" for the week, but she didn't mind.

It was a really awesome visit.

My mom went to Katya's basketball game, took her shopping, hung out at the Old Mill, stayed with the short ones when I went to work, played with them, took naps with Alexis every day (she thought that was really cool) ... it was fabulous. She even made a fort with the dining room table and hung out under the blanket with them.

When I came home from work the kids had been bathed, the house clean, the laundry done and everyone was in their jammies watching cartoons being lazy. It was awesome!

That week went really, really fast.

I am hopeful that she can come up at least once or twice a year like that. It would be so nice to have her here and be able to have some relaxing "downtime" with the kids.

Not to mention that I miss my mom and like her staying here feeling comfy enough to stay in her pajamas all day and hang on the couch and visit.

A Whole New Level

2009-04-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

She looks sweet, doesn't she. Well, looks can be deceiving.

Stubbornness and just being difficult is a trait that runs deep in my family. So much so that "jackass" is considered a term of affection.

Not kidding.

The family tells stories about my brother with a carton of eggs, a fan and a hot summer day. It's funny now, but I have a feeling that my brother came close to going to foster care that day.

My cousin spent five full days sitting at the kitchen table because she refused to do her homework. After realizing she had to sit there all weekend, she finally relented.

I still remember vividly Katya standing at the top of the stairs yelling "go ahead" (hands on her hips and everything) when I told her she had to do whatever it was she needed to do or get a spanking. Katya also had such a sassy mouth (a trait that Alexis unfortunately inherited) that she knew intimately the taste of liquid soap from having her mouth washed out several times.

So the fact that Alexis would rather have hot pokers shoved under her fingernails than do what I want her to do is not a huge surprise. She feels the need to constantly push everyone's buttons, keep a good arm's length distance for her "personal space", and is having a hard time learning to "share" with other kids. But when she feels that she is close to foster care herself... she is the sweetest thing ever. All smiles and hugs.

She is wearing me out! The girl is only three!!

I wonder which ancestor is responsible for putting this mutant gene into our DNA. And seriously, why hasn't it died out yet?

So, preschool is in Alexis' near future. I think I found one that might work and it is close to my Aunt Ginger's house. There is an opening at the Montessori school close to my house, but Ginger and I agree that Alexis' innate need to push boundaries would not work well with a "learn as you go" school. The girl needs some boundaries.

Hopefully I can get her signed up today and she can start on Monday. I hope. It would only be part time mornings, but it should help her put her creative mind to better uses like learning how to cooperate with others, use scissors, write her name other than how best to try and subvert my authority.

Getting Ready for Growing Season

2009-03-18T15:45:00.001-07:00

As much as I love Winter with all the snow, I LOVE Spring too!

With Spring comes tulips, daffodils, snapdragons, trees covered with blooms, wildflowers covering the rock walls in my yard that only show up for this one special season. It also means it's time for planting!!

Don't know what bizarre-o gene that I have that makes me feel compelled to get back into my yard and work my hiney off raking pine needles, pulling weeds, planting flowers, pruning trees... but it is rearing it's ugly head again.

I'm attempting to start my garden this year from seeds. I've got these cool little seed pod things set up in my "Lounge" and they have contained within them the hopes of green beans, watermelon, cantelope, corn, carrots, tomatos, bell peppers, cauliflower, pumpkin, lettuce and zucchini. I only planted them this weekend and already there are signs of roots taking form.

It is very exciting.

And when I ran to COSTCO to pick up a few things, what did I see? An apple tree!! A beautiful baby apple tree that has not one, not two but FOUR different kinds of apples grafted to it. Honeycrisp, Lodi, Cortland and Wolf River. Never tasted any of them, but it sure is worth a shot. How cool is that?? Especially for under $15. I have the best memories of sitting in my yard or my grandparent's yard and eating avocados, oranges or tangerines until I was sick. I want my yard filled with blueberries, apples, pears and other yummies that my kids can snack on while they are playing too.

We are still a few months away from planting outdoors for the baby plants, but the tree is going outside pretty soon. I think I know where, but it involves Bob with a shovel. He won't like that so I have to butter him up.

Here is hoping for a bumper crop of goodies this summer!

Spendy Sports

2009-03-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

I am all about sports. Granted, I've got a few extra pounds on me that I am trying very hard to rid myself of, but in general I am a HUGE supporter of sports. Especially for Katya.

One nice thing about having Katya when I was 23 is that I clearly remember middle and high school. The drama, the classes, the riding the bus, the horrid cafeteria food, the never fitting in, the cliques.... Normal stuff. The one thing that kept my sanity during those years was running. I started running in middle school and that carried over into high school.

Now that Katya is in high school, I am encouraging her to go out for any and all sports that she likes. She should try it all! It is a great way to make new friends, have new experiences, maintain her athletic build, and travel this great state of Oregon.

Volleyball and basketball are behind us now. Both of those sports were not too bad money wise. I would say we had to spend $200 or less for each sport. That includes sign up fee, fundraiser, sweatshirt/t-shirt, shoes and $20 here and there for when they travelled outside of the Bend area for overnighters.

Track and Field just started a few weeks ago and last night was the parent night. Evidently the high school takes their track and field program very seriously. They push the kids really hard and their training program has turned out a lot of amazing athletes and quite a few college scholarships. (Keeping my fingers crosses there) I mean, those kids are out there running, jumping and doing drills with snow blowing in their faces. Yikes!

This sport is costing us some serious coin. There was the sign up fee ($65), the money request for snacks, the $60 uniform deposit, the sweatshirt/t-shirts/team jacket/team beenie purchase, buying new shorts, a new athletic duffel bag (her other sports actually supplied her with one for the season), a spike bag, and the nutrition testing. The nutrition testing includes blood tests for iron, Vitamin D and then a urine test for pH something or other that I don't remember anymore.

Can I hear a CHA CHING???

But, Katya loves track and I want her to stay in it for all four years. I think that exercise helps keep endorphins up and stress levels down. But I am so glad that I have a job right now. Granted, my hours were cut WAY back, but it is still income. Which is good, since it will take a while for my checking account to recover.

Can't Help It... I Need Them In My Life

2009-03-08T23:08:00.000-07:00

It is part of my daily fix and has been for years and years. It is a habit going back to when I learned how to read. The bit of humor that starts a day. A little something to make you smile.

Of course, I'm talking about comics.

I love my comics. I don't get the paper, but since the Internet became so mainstream I've been checking out my favorite comic strips every morning. For Better or For Worse, Luann, 9 Chickweek Lane, Rose is Rose, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy....

I need them to help me start my day on a positive note. Sometimes the first smile of the day comes from reading about the antics of Garfield or an old Bloom County strip. I loved that strip. The only tattoo I ever seriously considered (besides the "Made in the USA" on my hindquarters) was one of Opus with that crazy fruit hat of his. In high school and college I was all into politics with a passion. Now, not so much. Thank goodness my common sense kept me from having a penguin on my ankle forever.

But I love comics. I enjoy buying a Sunday paper and flipping it straight to the comics and fighting over the pages with Katya like I used to do with my brother and my mom.

I think they are some of the best ways to get kids to learn a love of learning. An awesome way to do some reading without too much brain power having to be involved. After a long day, sometimes your brain just needs some candy. Other times, it is nice to see someone with an editorial cartoon sum up some of the world's most messed up situations with one picture. It helps to release some inner frustration or makes you feel like you are not alone in your opinion.

Whatever comic may be your personal favorite - I hope you get the chance to read it daily. The world is in a tailspin, the news is never happy, life can be a bit stressful so take two minutes and enjoy some escapism as good therapy. Try comics.com.

Afterall, laughter is the best medicine!

It's All A Matter of Perspective

2009-03-02T15:34:00.000-08:00

To me... I see a lot of work. Hours of sorting, washing, folding, dripping dry, putting in drawers and hauling loads up and down the stairs.

To them... they see quicksand, a hidout, a soft spot to rest, soft things to throw around, undergarments to put on their head and walk around the house growling like tigers, and endless giggles.

I have to remember to try harder to see what they see.

Eating My Way Through Seattle

2009-02-07T18:04:00.001-08:00

I flew into Seattle early, early yesterday morning to spend some quality "girl time" with my BFF, Michelle.

Seattle is one of my all-time favorite cities to visit. There is just something magical about the water, the fog, the hilly streets, the stores.... I love it. I also especially love Pike's Market.

Every time I come into town, Michelle and I hit Pike's Market. We first head to the French bakery where we get lattes and baked goods. I got Katya a bag of her favorite bag of palmier cookies and I noshed on a chocolate croissant. We then headed to Beecher's for cheese. I love cheese. Adore cheese. Had to get some cheese. I got some frozen mac & cheese, some Flagship, smoked Flagship and aged Flagship. Good stuff. I also bought Katya her favorite, herb cheese curd. Two containers. I brought a collapsable ice chest to bring back with me in my suitcase for this stuff.

We then grabbed some fruit, some asparagus and Michelle popped for some Alaskan King Crab legs. Then I went to the magazine stand and got Katya her French Vogue and then we grabbed some cinnamon mini doughnuts and we took our haul to the truck because my arms were going to fall off from carrying all that.

I had never been to the Seattle Art Museum, so we headed down there and took a tour through the galleries. Not fabulous. I admit, the white Ford Taurus' that they had spiriling through the air with lights going through them was cool, but that was about it. The pop art displays were a bit wonky. Not to mention the ceramic toilet that had ceramic poop in it. Art.... really? On our way back to the car we stopped at some upscale chocolate shop in the Four Seasons and bought a couple of pieces of yummy dark chocolate and possibly the best chocolate covered orange peel I've ever had.

We headed to a late lunch after that (cause we didn't eat enough) in Mukilteo at Ivar's and I had some amazing clam chowder with sourdough bread. Delish.

Dinner was fruit and some fresh brioche from the bakery.

Today was three hours at the gym to pay pennance for the food yesterday. Lots of eliptical, abs class and yoga. I'm not so good at the yoga so I headed back to the eliptical for the last thirty minutes of class.

Then we had to have lunch... of course. It was some sandwiches on baguettes that Michelle bought yesterday morning. Yum.

After laying low for several hours and hitting the used book store we had to have dinner. The crab legs, steamed asparagus, leftover baguette.... waaaaaaaay yum!

We are planning our morning tomorrow to consist of more workout followed by lunch and pie on Widbey Island before I have to head to the airport at 4pm.

It's good here. I have to treadmill my little heart out all week to pay for all the yumminess here.

Sleep Deprived Mama

2009-02-03T04:03:00.000-08:00

My little Logan has some kind of internal clock that requires him to fuss, cry, cough or do something that wakes him up between 2 and 3am almost every single morning. For him to sleep through the night is a rare, rare thing. This has been since birth.

This morning, I was in a HARD CORE deep sleep with a really vivid dream about "something" at 2:30am that I can't recall now, but after he woke me up I have stayed up. I tossed and turned and eventually almost drove Bob to the couch but I decided to relent and just get up, take a shower and start my day a mere 3 hours earlier than normal. I am going to die today.

It is one of my long work days, so not making up some sleep time while they nap.

When Logan was an infant my mom read an article that some French women had said that raising sons was harder than daughters. In many respects, boys are way easier than girls. But in terms of sleeping and being so darn "needy", they definately take the cake. Little girls will give you sass and attitude (at least the ones genetically related to me), but they sleep and like their independance.

So, as the rest of the house sleeps I sit here and type. I have lunches made, vitamins set out, notes written to Katya and Bob, checks cut for the company, and my car packed for work. I am merely waiting for the magic 4:30am hour when I can go to Starbucks and get myself a Venti Caramel Machaito or Vanilla Latte. Maybe both with how I feel right now.

Winter Formal

2009-01-31T20:07:00.000-08:00

Katya has her Winter Formal tonight. Man, where did the time go? My little girl is attending a winter formal at her high school.

Anyway.... she looked beautiful!

She had her girlfriend J. come over early and they giggled, did their hair and got ready upstairs while Ginger and family came over bearing chicken enchilidas for the occasion. We all ate yummy Mexican food and waited for her grand entrance. She looked lovely.

Then her friend Smiley came over with his mom (just friends) and we made everyone pose for pictures and gushed over them in general. They looked so cute! They were meeting other friends for dinner and then going to the dance that started at 8 o'clock.

I can't wait to hear how the dance went. I hope she has a wonderful time!

Cupcake Party

2009-01-31T19:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had a little BBQ get together thingie to mark and celebrate the babies birthdays. They are too young to have friend parties, so we just use it as an excuse to have our neighbors and friends over for good food and some visiting.

Things I learned at the party:

1. The babies are very VERY good at opening presents now

2. Alexis really, really, really likes to blow out candles. In fact, she blew out her cupcake candle four times before she let us sing for her and THEN blow it out. Then later that night she blew otu the same candle about another ten times.

3. Cupcakes are evidently best eaten from the top down.

Another Birthday Bites the Dust

2009-01-25T15:08:00.000-08:00

Thirty nine. 39. Three ... Nine ... The ten year anniversary of turning 29. Yesterday was my 39th birthday.

Uuuugh. That is a big number. Next year is a BIGGER number. But I am getting ready for it.

I joined a gym and went and worked out this morning. Lets just say that as a person who used to be in rockin' good shape - I've got a lot of work to do. But my head is in the right place for it finally.

I find it funny how we have the eve of big birthdays and the BIG birthday itself. You know, 29 and 30, 39 and 40.... At least I don't have the huge list of expectations for turning 40 that I did for turning 30.

So, here is to a healthful year full of toddler fun, teenage sports, travel, work, making new friends and visiting with old ones.

Happy Birthday, Logan!

2009-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Today my sweet little surprise baby turns 2.

Man...it goes so fast. One day you bring them home from the hospital and the next they are running around and dramatically telling you "no" (with a hand out and everything).

It has been crazy having a little boy after two girls. He is a rough and tumble kind of guy. He loves to jump on you, hang on your arms and bounce on your stomach. He loves to hug and cuddle and share his toys with you. He will eat just about anything (unlike his picky sister) and likes his chocolate Ovaltine milk. He LOVES his binkies.

So, happy birthday to you little man. Love you lots!

Mom

Think Hope - Not Hate

2009-01-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

Our country is in such turmoil right now. People are losing their jobs left and right. People can't afford their mortgages and so many are losing their homes. We are in two wars. Our schools are out of money and some are closing. The cost of gas may be half of what it was over the summer, but food prices are still high. Medical costs consume so much of our money that even with insurance, our 20% equals hundreds of dollars a month.

The world economy is on fragile ground. The effects of global warming are evident even to those that don't believe in the science. Natural disasters are commonplace every year with flooding, tornados and hurricanes. Extremes of nature bring all kinds of problems from long periods of sub-freezing temps to long extremes of hot weather in the 90's and above. People get sick from both and trying to afford to keep you house comfy costs money too.

So now we have a new President. Because of the election, it seemed like not a whole lot was done to try and fix what was broken because of the new faces that were going to take office. Everyone was waiting to see what personalities and opinions would be pushing policies through. I'm not just talking about the presidential office, I mean governors, senators and representatives.

The pomp and ceremony of the Inaguration is over. The realities of a new face of this nation is real. It is a nice side benefit that he happens to be black. Or kind of black or whatever - the dude ain't white and it's cool with me. I like his agenda for this country. I have spent a lot of time reading whitehouse.gov and I hope that his team can move us forward to a better place. The hope that people have is great, even knowing any change will take time.

Then I read that Rush Limbagh is spouting his rhetoric of hate. He actually said that he hopes Obama fails. What?? He is letting his partisan POLITICS take priority over the good of the NATION. He wants the whole country to continue on its downward spiral just to feel better about a Democrat being elected? Give me a break.

I didn't vote for Bush and I sure didn't like his agenda. But he was the President and I hoped that he would make good decisions for the country. That the country would be better because he took office. I never hoped that he would fail. Why would I when his decisions would eventually impact my life? He fails, I fail.

The same goes with Obama. If he fails... the country fails. And in some ways so does the world.

So, I can only hope that people out there who harbor great hatred towards Obama because he is a Democrat or because he is a person of mixed race/African American/whatever - think about the bigger picture. You may not like him and I'm not asking you to. I never liked Bush myself.

But I am asking you to think hope and not hate. Think that you hope he makes decisions you like. Hope that his decisions help to bring back jobs to your city, affordable housing to your area, respect of the US to the rest of the world, stability to your bank, money to your kids schools and brings your military family home.

Get involved. You have the opportunity to speak your mind through the change.org website. Let your voice get heard. State your opinion. We don't all agree and that is a great benefit not a disadvantage. You can't move forward as a person or a country without people challenging your ideas. It makes you think, educate and re-evaluate.

I for one have great hope for this country to pull ourselves up, dust ourselves off and put things back together ... only better.

The Beauty of Freezing Fog

2009-01-18T09:04:00.000-08:00

I love winter. Love it, love it, love it.

Probably being from San Diego gives me the love of the magic and beauty of winter. Snowflakes, icecicles, treetops covered with white... it is beautiful.

We have been having freezing fog here and it leaves the trees with the most gorgeous ice crystals on the trees and branches. I hope you enjoy what I get to look at today.

Branches of the tree in front of my house.

My street

Angels That Watch Over Me

2009-01-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a big shout out to thank those angels that watch over me every day and have since I was a little girl.

I KNOW I have angels. They have protected me from great harm, they have helped me to make those decisions that can change your future for better or worse, they have made sure that I always arrive home safely and have protected me from those that would do me harm.

This fact is constantly brought up again and again when I have car problems. Last night, I pulled into my garage and all of a sudden steam started pouring out from under the hood and I heard coolant pouring onto the garage floor. Luckily, Bob was able to easily fix it with a new hose clamp and some new coolant. But it brought the fact home again just how lucky I am to have those angels. My car has never broken down when I was not a) home or b) with Bob who could fix it. Those odds just don't exist without divine intervention.

Who are my angels? I am not sure exactly, but I can venture a few guesses.

Grandpa Harold: He is my step-father's father who passed away when I was in college. We clicked upon meeting the first time and we loved spending time together. He taught me how to use a computer when I was in high school and computers were a rare thing instead of the standard. He taught me WordStar (the original word processing program) and how to program in Basic. He teased me when I got my drivers license and he drove all the way to New York to meet me at the airport when I got back from Belgium. He had no teeth, but loved to eat steak. He was a hoot. I loved him as if he was my grandfather from birth. I miss him so much and am so bummed that he never had a chance to meet my kids or be a part of my adult life.

Grandpa McClellan: My paternal grandfather who passed away a few years ago. Great man who lived an amazing life. Flew bombers in WWII and Korea, was a motorcycle cop in Long Beach, a private pilot flying charters to Catalina Island, and drove that old RV of his all over the US with my Grandma McClellan. He was quiet, but I know he loved me. If I ever needed anything I knew that he would be there for me.

Uncle Richard: My uncle died about five years ago and his death has left everyone in our family with a deep sense of loss. He was a playful, funny man with a crazy sense of fashion (Donald Duck hats and Yosemite Sam shirts) and a deep love of family.

Aunt Georgie: She was my aunt from when I was a little girl. She passed when I was five or six years old, but I have never forgotten about her. She was a powerful personality with an outspoken direct manner and a playful side.

I am just guessing at who is up there watching over me. It could be family from long ago that I never really got to know like my great grandparents. Whomever it is, I appreciate so much their help and their always making sure that if something breaks on my car, it does so in my garage. If my kids hurt themselves, it isn't serious and we are always RIGHT there, if I am faced with a big choice I usually make the right one and for that little voice that tells me what is going to happen about five minutes before it does. I have to listen to that little voice more often to make my life a bit easier.

To my angels - thanks for the help! Someday when my time comes, I promise to pass it on.

B-Ball Girl

2009-01-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

Last night was another one of Katya's marvelous basketball games, but this time I had my camera so I was able to capture a few choice moments.

Total concentration

Rebound girl - 9 this game!

SCORE!!!

Goofy chick

Life With A Cast

2009-01-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

Alexis is doing really well with her bright pink cast. In fact, way better than I ever thought she would. I forget sometimes how flexible kids are. They just accept things and move on.

Anyway, I thought I would share some photos of her life with a cast.

Getting ready for bed. Looks sleepy, huh?

She still has no fear of the trampoline.

The whole "arm in a bag" thing for bath time.

It also goes well with a wide variety of princess dresses

Re-sale Stores in Trouble

2009-01-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

Effective Feb 9, 2009 there is a new law that goes into effect that basically requires all stores to test ALL their children's merchandise for lead. This includes shoes, clothes, backpacks...etc.

Re-sale stores obviously can't afford to test all of their merchandise and this is going to make them shut down. The consequences of this law at this time in our economy is deadly. Here is an article about it from the LA Times.

I for one love my re-sale shops and don't want to KNOW what this is going to do to the price of kids clothes in the store. This means that all those lovely clothes that your kids outgrew after one wear can't even go to the Goodwill. They have to go straight to the dumpster. Think about next Halloween when you need a costume and don't have $30 to buy a new one. How stupid is that?

Please, please, please write a letter to your sentator and congressional representative or send an email to the Consumer Product Safety Commission telling these morons what damage they going to be doing to an already fragile and damaged economy. You can also vote on Obama's change.org website to bring this topic up in consideration. It needs more votes to bump it up in priority.

ADDITIONAL NOTE:
This also affects any home based business that sells anything aimed at children 12 or younger. So all you working stay at home mothers who make quilts, toys, clothing or anything of the sort - you will be out of business too.

And yes, this law DOES include garage sales. You could technically get arrested for selling children's clothing that is not labeled "lead free".

Could our country get any more screwed up?

Toddler Follies

2009-01-05T07:11:00.000-08:00

I was downloading pictures from my cameras (I still haven't looked at the CDs from David yet) from the Christmas holiday so that I could organize and share them all with you. If a picture is worth a thousand words, these tell what life has been like with the little ones for the past week.

Princess Alexis

Logan coming up with new and creative ways to play with the little kitchen

Breaking her arm doesn't keep her off the trampoline she fell off of

Logan cruising on his little Kawasaki - Bob can't wait to get them on dirtbikes

The Holiday Update

2009-01-02T21:26:00.001-08:00

Well, our holiday season was great! My brother and his family came up and stayed with me for a week.

Two toddlers + two young boys = chaos

But good chaos. I was surprised at how well the kids all got along. My aunt, uncle, grandparents and two cousins came up as well, although they stayed with Ginger. We had much laughter, lots of good food, lots of movies and tons of hugs. I miss my family something awful. It is always sad to see them leave.

Then just as they left, Bob's friend, Eric, rolled into town. He is a long, long, long time friend of both Bob and I and he has been here for a few days so far. He is a fellow engineer and is enjoying helping Bob with some of his little projects while he is visiting. He leaves town on Tuesday with Bob to head to San Diego (he drove and needs assistance) and Bob will fly back next Wednesday. That will be a long day.

New Year's Eve was promising to be a fun one and we were going to troll around downtown Bend with some of my work associates, but then Bob got the call he didn't want to get for a while. His father was in the process of passing away and he needed to be by his side. Bob, Debbie K and Patti all held vigil and held their father's hand and told him how much they loved him and appreciated him as a father until he passed away. His body was old and tired and his mind had fogged from Alzheimers, so this was very much a blessing since he can now be with his wife, Marian. Bob is silently grieving his loss. Losing a parent is always harder than you think it will be.

Then today, I was redeeming a gift certificate that Bob had given me a year ago for a facial while he watched the kids. On my way home he called to tell me that Alexis was trying some acrobatic trick on the new trampoline she shouldn't have been trying and she took a hard fall. The fall left her in tears for a long time and during the two hours at urgent care, she cried constantly. Her poor eyes are puffy and chapped from so many tears. It looks like she broke her arm, hopefully just a hairline fracture with some fluid that is probably causing all the pain. Her arm is all splinted up and they gave us some Tylenol with codeine to calm her if she needs it.

So far, the end of December was great but the beginning of 2009 leaves a little something to be desired. I am going to bed tonight with lots of good thoughts to throw out into the universe that tomorrow will be a better day and 2009 a good year.

As for all the hectic goings on of the holidays, I will post that with pictures when I get a minute to go through everything. There were some great moments that I must share with you all.

Shoveling Snow

2008-12-19T13:12:00.001-08:00

The snow had been piling up and I really needed to attempt to get our walkway and driveway clear of snow before the next dump tomorrow. Bob is out of town, so this job falls to me.

I figured that this would be a fun way for the kids to play outside and me to get some snow shoveling done.

Logan wanted nothing to do with it. He still doesn't like the snow very much. I hope that I can get him to warm up to it as winter progresses. He eventually just went down for a nap so Alexis and I stayed outside.

Alexis LOVES the snow. I had bought her a red plastic shovel and she was hard at work shoveling snow for me. She was flinging it everywhere.

Then she told me that she wanted to make a snowman. I have to admit, being from San Diego has it's disadvantages sometimes. I've never made a snowman. I just started dumping snow from the driveway into a huge pile and Alexis would pat it down. I was attempting to make the bottom ball, but it looks more like a snow blob than anything else. Maybe a snow butte.

Eventually Alexis got cold so we went inside and she is now cuddled up under a blanket watching "Tinkerbell" for the umpteenth time while her boots dry in front of the fireplace.

What an excellent way to spend the day.

Meaningful Names

2008-12-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

My sis-in-law, Mandee, posted a blog about a cute website that she found that has tons of baby names. It's called "What a Lovely Name" and it is a lot of fun. I especially like how they show names all decorated for use on scrapbooks or blogs. They offer all kinds of ways to change the backgrounds and colors too. Very cool.

I have no intention of having any more children, but I was interested to see what it said about our names meanings. I am a firm believer that you grow into your name.

Bob : Meaning "bright with fame". Shortening of the name Robert. Can also be given as an independent name.
Tags: American, friendly, intelligent, strong

Deborah: Deborah is a Biblical prophetess and judge who was instrumental in the victory over the Canaanites. She was also Rebekah's nurse. In Hebrew Deborah means "a bee." Nicknames for Deborah include Debbie and Deb.
Tags: athletic, funny, Hebrew, strong

Katya (I had to go with a combination since they did not have hers): Katyayani. This sis a name of the goddess Parvati.
Tags: beautiful, funny, Hindu, leader
Katherine. This name is derived from the Greek root "katharos," meaning "pure, unsullied." Tags: English, intelligent, strong, wise

Alexis: Originates from the Greek word Alexein, meaning: "to defend, to help." Tags: American, brave, fun, strong

Logan: Meaning "dweller at the little hollow". Taken from the Irish surname, a diminuitive form of the Gaelic word "lag," meaning "hollow".
Tags: American, calm, happy, independent

So according to our names, Bob will be famous. He already is in his business circle for being an extremely talented and hardworking engineer.

I am a strong woman who can conquer injustice in the world. Man, how I wish I could. However, I am a major rule follower. My view on what is right and wrong is pretty clear cut. I am a hard worker and I would like to think I am strong.

Katya will continue to become a woman who is strong, wise, a leader, and funny. She already is all those things now. I hope they are qualities that she nurtures as she continues into adulthood.

Alexis will become a helper to the world, brave, fun and strong. All excellent traits to have.

Now for Logan. He is going to be my happy, mellow, independent little dude who likes hanging out in his house. Not too shabby. Happiness is a wonderful personality trait to have.

Art Show

2008-12-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

Katya has been in art all semester and been having a good time with it.

There is an artistic gene that runs through Katya from both sides. Her Great-Great Grandfather on her father's side is Leon Trousset. Evidently he has some pieces in museums around the world. On my side, my Great Grandmother was an artist herself and my cousin, Becky, is an amazing artist as well. I fancied myself an artist until I just didn't have time for it anymore.

Katya refused to touch art supplies and resented art projects until Kindergarten. Then one day she surprised her teacher by asking to do some painting. It was a beautiful picture of a flower with a sun and rainbow. She has just been my little Van Gogh ever since. But usually she reserves her artistic talents for drawing what she hopes will be her future fashion line.

Last Thursday, her high school had a really cool art show with live music performed by some guitar students. It was a display of art projects that the kids have worked on all semester. Some of those students are just amazing. I love seeing what some kids have inside of themselves that they express through art.

Katya had four pieces of art on display and I loved all of them, since they were all so different. But I admit, her scratch art piece was the most striking of all. I can't wait to see what else she comes up with.

Don't See It

2008-12-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

I love my hubby.

Even after two babies, weight that just won't leave, age creeping up on me... he still thinks I'm hot. Really hot. Even if he doesn't mean it, he says it - which counts for EVERYTHING in my book.

The latest compliment that I have gotten from him is that he seriously thinks that I look like TinkerBell. Whenever we watch the "TinkerBell" movie, he reminds me how much he thinks I look like her.

Totally not true, but I love him for thinking I look like a cute little fairy.

Decorating The Tree

2008-12-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Tonight I decided that I was tired of looking at our poor ornament-free Christmas tree. I had a rough day trying to juggle the kids and a whole lot of pressure to get stuff done at work. I am mentally tired and since it is "kid time" again, I figured I'd do something they would like.

I had already put on the lights (Katya revolted this year) and I figured that I would just put some of the big bulbs on it, wrap the tree skirt and put some of the wrapped gifts under it to make it a bit more festive.

Katya is in Aloha tonight for a basketball tournament (yes, Aloha, OR) so I can't put all the personal ornaments on it, just the base coat.

Well, I turned on the Christmas music to get in the mood and immediately I heard "No singing, Mommy!". I wanted to sing along to my favorite songs and instead of Alexis trying to join along, she just didn't want me singing at all. I sang louder and she yelled louder. What a puke. She was putting a wet blanket on my festive mood.

I ignored her and still sang (although quieter) while I decorated the tree. Then I figured that I would put the angel on the tree.

NO WAY

It made Alexis burst into tears to see the angel sitting on top of the tree. She even went so far as to cover her eyes because she couldn't bear to see her up there. ???? What was all that about?

I guess I get to go buy a star.

I have never had so much backseat commentary when decorating the tree before. Sheesh

When she is old enough, she is doing it all by herself. Lights and all.

Where is the Snow?

2008-12-01T17:14:00.000-08:00

Where is the snow? It was, like, 60 degrees today!

I was wrapping lights on my tree today in short sleeves and with the doors open. What the heck?

Christmas is supposed to be cold. We are supposed to have snow covering the ground. People are supposed to be grumbling about having to shovel snow off of their driveways. Winter boots and jackets should be worn by all. Fires in fireplaces should be commonplace. Hot chocolate and tea should be a desired drink in the afternoon. Not iced tea because we're hot.

Mt. Bachelor doesn't have any snow to ski on.

What is going on!! My nephews are coming up here for a white Christmas, playing in the snow, tubing... I've got nothing to offer them! They will be so disappointed.

If you know of a good snow dance, please let me know, I'm up for trying anything at this point.

Twilight

2008-11-30T14:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, Katya and I were totally belated in our viewing of the hit "Twilight". But with good reason.

The director of "Twilight", Catherine Hardwicke, has family that lives here in Central Oregon and decided to do a screening and a Q & A afterwards. I found out from a fellow Bend blogger and immediately called the Sisters Movie House and bought Katya and I some tickets.

There was a 2-hour talk with the director where I guess she talked about where the movie was shot, how she did certain shots, technical details...etc. But that was by invitation only through the Film Oregon Alliance (I think I got that right). We didn't score any invites to that.

The talk was from 3-5pm and it said that the movie would show afterwards. So I figured (without double checking anything, dork that I am) it would start around 5:30 or 6:00pm. At 3pm Katya and I headed to Sisters and pulled up to the Sisters Movie house to grab the tickets and get the true time - 7:30pm. We were a bit early.

Not a big deal! We found a bookstore, bought some good books, went to the Sisters Coffee House and had some warm drinks and read for a couple of hours. It was so nice!

We went out to find a place to have dinner but were disappointed to learn that we couldn't get seating anywhere because of a football game called the "Civil War". It is between the Oregon Ducks and the Oregon Beavers (University of Oregon and Oregon State) and it is a big deal. Some day I'll blog about the whole Duck/Beaver phenomenon that we have here, but not today.

Luckily the Sisters Movie House has warm food and we had ourselves a couple of very yummy cheeseburgers while we waited for the film.

The movie itself was really good! I was surprised somewhat because the book is always better than the movie. But I was seriously disappointed by Jacob not making more of an impact on-screen. But you do what you can when trying to film a movie. Things get cut out. But some of the sceens in the movie were amazing. Like the standing in the tree over the Columbia River Gorge. WOW

The Q&A afterwards was very interesting. I never really gave much thought to what a director of a movie did, so I learned a lot. I hope that she comes back after filming the sequel. I'd love to do this again!

Holiday Photo Shoot

2008-11-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again to get holiday portraits done of the kids for Christmas gifts for the family. Sears is always a good bet for us since it is affordable and they work so hard to try and get good pictures.

This photo shoot was just as painful as previous ones since Alexis has again decided that getting her picture taken is just about the worst thing in the world. I had to opt out of a group shot of the three of them together and instead I ordered some collages.
Logan was awesome! He loved the props, smiling for the camera and being the center of attention. The only problem with him was that he was so busy running in circles, jumping, rolling on the floor....etc that we had a hard time getting a picture of him standing still.

Katya of course took amazing pictures. She is so beautiful inside and out. I had the hardest time picking which pictures of her to buy.

Since getting a picture of the three of them was going to be impossible, I settled for a picture of Katya with her little brother. This is so cute!

Grading Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving for me was a day of non-stop cooking in the kitchen. My day started at 8 am and I finished cooking / serving around 6pm.

All in all the food turned out pretty good, but I now know why we normally ate at 1pm. Then you feel that all of your cooking efforts were worth more when it turns out to be an all day eating feast instead of a fancy dinner. Plus, you actually have time to sit and visit with all of your friends and family that came over to share it with you. If I ever have to do a full T-Day dinner by myself again, I'm taking shortcuts. Like buying mashed potatoes from COSTCO.

Our menu was:

Turkey (cooked in a bag): Everyone liked it, but I still though it was a bit dry. Not sure all the trouble of brining it was worth the effort.

Sausage, Cranberry, Apple Stuffing: I really liked it. I did use "stuffing" bread from the bakery downtown which I think made a difference.

Make Ahead Gravy : A+ all around. I made it the night before using turkey wings and it was marvelous!

Mashed Potatoes : Next year I'm going with the COSTCO ones. Not worth all the time with peeling and boiling.

Cran-Raspberry Sauce: Always wonderful and quick to make

Sweet Potatoes: I tried a fancy recipe where you whip them with vanilla and cinnamon. Nah, next year I will remain a purist. Boiled, sliced, topped with brown sugar and butter and baked. THAT is my favorite. Easier too.

Carrots w/ Bacon: Yummy, but too much orange food overall. Next year I will just try something simple like steaming green beans and have them with Hollandaise

Caesar Salad: Ed brought this over. Quite yummy

Fresh Fruit: Bob's mom brought a big fruit salad and Logan ate most of it.

Rolls : From the Great Harvest bakery downtown. Wonderful as usual.

Pumpkin Pies: A tradition and yummy. Katya was bummed I didn't get them baked and cool enough for breakfast. She had to have some for lunch instead.

Apple Pie: Not a big mover. A great pie, but too ordinary. Next year I will cook a marionberry for sure.

I was totally wiped out last night. We only had our family, Bob's mom, Bob's sister, Diane and our friend Ed (his wife was sick and couldn't come). So, it was the smallest Thanksgiving dinner I think I have ever had. But it was lovely and everyone seemed to enjoy the food. I did miss the crazy chaos that usually surrounds holidays with my huge family.

Our turkey was organic, and I learned the hard way that those birds don't have a lot of dark meat on them. Quite a bummer for me, but good to know for the future.

I hope that everyone had a lovely Turkey Day no matter what you did. To those that joined me for dinner, thank you for coming and sharing the day with us. To all my family in San Diego - I missed you terribly.

Kaput

2008-11-26T07:39:00.001-08:00

That is what my car did right after we pulled into the garage last night.

It went ka-put.

I thought I would just put the babies in the house with Katya so I could run to the store to get some stuff for T-Day. But when I got back in it I turned the key and the engine sputtered and died. I tried valiently to get it to turn over, but it wouldn't. I am so thankful that it waited until we were in the garage though and not somewhere in the dark on a side road.

I am so BUMMED!

I hate it when my car doesn't work. I just feel so trapped when I don't have wheels! I am a huge maintenance girl because I always want to avoid situations just like this.

I had to miss going into work this morning because of the whole lack of wheels thing. At 8 o'clock I will call a tow truck to haul my beauty to the repair shop. I hope it is just a fuel pump or something relatively quick, easy - and cheap - to fix.

Bob and I are going to attempt to do a bit of carpooling today so I can still go into work for a while. But we'll see.

Christmas on the Brain

2008-11-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

I know that Thanksgiving isn't until Thursday, but I can't help thinking about Christmas!

There is so much family that is coming up here for the holidays and I really would love for them all to have a wonderful time while they are here. I'm trying to make sure that I do what I can to make sure everyone feels loved, busy and full.

In preparation we bought a new futon mattress for the "Lounge". An 8" innerspring one, it feels awesome! We are keeping the old one for one of the boys to sleep on while they are here. I only need another twin mattress and we will be all set for sleeping arrangements for my brother and his family. I will be putting them in the Lounge and I am sure they will be most comfy with the TV, DVD player, puzzles, crayons and other craft supplies and desk space. Then there is the "Art Room" that is clean and ready for occupation. It has the foos ball game thing in there as well as lots of floor space for my spunky nephews to utilize with their gifts. After all, everyone needs their space to run to when they have had enough visiting.

I have been giving the menu planning a lot of thought and I am planning on lots of crock pot meals since I will be insanely busy. But it all has to be yummy.

Then there are activities. I will have to work two full days while they are here, but I figured that they could go tubing at Mt. Bachelor one day and I am open for suggestions for the other day. One day we will stay home and bake and decorate sugar cookies. We will have to find some snow to play in at least one day, maybe two. Then there is the High Desert Museum with their bug exhibit. What little boy doesn't like bugs? One day we could hit the Family Fun Center and maybe Bouncing Off the Walls. Anyone else have some ideas? I'm thinking just one outing a day to keep people from becoming fried and to keep costs down.

I put up my Christmas lights on the house today. Tomorrow I'll pull out our little light up deer. I just love twinkle lights! After Thanksgiving we're going to the forest to cut down our tree and get it all decorated. Now all I need is snow and lots of it. Keep your fingers crossed that they get a white Christmas.

Harlem Ambassadors

2008-11-20T15:09:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night was the big basketball game with the Harlem Ambassadors. This was a charity event to help Campfire raise much needed funds in this economic downturn.

I had first heard that we were getting the Harlem Globetrotters. Then I heard it was the Harlem Globetrotter Ambassadors. The truth was they are just the Harlem Ambassadors. And although they were not the famous basketball team I was expecting, they were excellent and entertaining nonetheless. I know that we had a good time and I think that the people that went to the game had a good time too.

Katya was a referee and I think that she did an excellent job. She was a little freaked to make a call on them in the first half of the game, but she warmed up and was all over the place the second half. They even had a bit of fun with her which was fun to see. I got some video of her dancing with the other ref, so check that out on You Tube.

The babies couldn't have cared less about the basketball game, but they were kept entertained by Bob, Ginger, Danae, Debbie K (with her mentor child), Ed and Barbara.

Afterwards Katya and I headed over to join the team and the other Board members for a spaghetti feast at someone's house. It was excellent and we even had a chance to talk to a couple of the players. I love it when opportunities arise in our lives to be a part of fun stuff.

Recipe Thursday

2008-11-13T07:35:00.001-08:00

Today I bring you a quick, slap together with stuff you probably already have in your fridge/cupboard, takes less than an hour to make from beginning to end, but tastes totally awesome and was a COMPLETE hit in my house recipe.

If you are coming to visit this Christmas, you will be eating this for dinner some night.

Easy Mexican Casserole

1 pound ground turkey
2 cups salsa
1 (16 oz) can black beans
1 (16 oz) can corn
2 -3 cups torn up corn tortillas or 2 cups of crushed tortilla chips
2 cups sour cream
1 (2 oz) can of sliced black olives, drained
1/2 cup chopped green onion
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook ground turkey until no longer pink. Stir in salsa, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed. Stir in beans and corn; heat through.

3, Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 torn up corn tortillas (or 1/2 chips) in dish. Spoon 1/2 meat mixure over tortillas. Spread 1/2 sour cream over beef (and follow with olives and onions if you want) and 1/2 tomatoes. Top with 1/2 cheese. Repeat another layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

Fabulous! Everyone in my house was fighting over the leftovers. That is when you KNOW it is good.

And if you want to make it a smidge more healthy, use light sour cream and stick with the corn tortillas. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-11T07:26:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving is coming up remarkably soon and my family is all going to San Diego for the dinner of all dinners.

That leaves me here in Bend with the few family members that Bob has that are staying in town. I guess I'm doing the cooking.

I am used to doing the pies, the cranberry sauce, jello salad and veggie. I've never done the whole thing before. With one oven.

All Recipes.com has been an awesome find for me and I am cruising for yummy recipes that I can make for turkey day. I plan on doing:
* a turkey in a bag (that is the only way I know how to do it)
* try some "Make Ahead Gravy"
* cranberry sausage stuffing (not cooked in the turkey for once)
* mashed potatoes
* candied sweet potatoes (for me)
* some kind of veggie
* pumpkin pie & apple pie

How I'll do all this, I have no idea. However, if you are a seasoned T-Day cook I could sure use some advice on how to pull this off. Also, if you have any amazingly fabulous recipes that you are willing to share - I'd love them.

If you are a fellow Bendian, you are welcome to come over and share with us. Dinner will be followed by a viewing of my favorite holiday movie "Scrooged". It'll be a good time.

Debbie K's Camera

2008-11-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

I had noticed the last time I was visiting Debbie K that she had some really cute pictures of my kids that I had never seen. I asked her to kindly hand over her memory card so I could copy them off. She did.

These are some of the pictures that she had captured over the past year of my little ones that were too cute not to share.

Powder Puff Football

2008-11-07T20:32:00.001-08:00

Thursday night was Katya's first big Powder Puff Football game.

For two weeks the freshman girls had gotten together and had some impromptu flag football education and practice.

Bob came home early so that I could bundle up and go out with Terren to cheer my little darlin' green monster on. It was freakin' cold and although I was bundled up in my warm boots, warm jacket, gloves, hat and thermal shirt - my bum was freezing from sitting on those aluminum bleachers. I'm buying myself a bleacher chair.

Anyway, the Senior vs Sophmore game was first. It was a good game, but the sophmores beat the Seniors. Ouch.

Next up was Katya's game. She is a tiger out there! She got tackled a couple of times when she dove for that football and she had no problem chasing girls down to rip off their flag belt. She had teachers commenting on how agressive she was all day. She is such a good athlete. She gives every game her all.

Unfortunately, the Juniors were a tough team to beat and they triumphed in the end. But it was a great game and everyone had a good time. I even got to meet Katya's hunky new boyfriend, Luke.

New Recipe Thursday

2008-11-06T06:27:00.000-08:00

I have lots of people coming up to Bend for the holidays and I can't wait. Over the past year I have collected some wonderful dinner recipes for feeding my family, which I will use next month.

But really, my favorite meal of the day is breakfast.

I would gladly forgoe any fancy dinner in exchange for a plate of biscuits and country sausage gravy for breakfast. Or pastries. Or a hobo scramble with lots of bacon.

So, with six people decending on my house for the best and most important meal of the day I have been researching breakfast recipes. Both warm and just muffins. My family are always willing guinnea pigs.

I thought I would share my new favorite recipes and if you have one or two that you love, please share.

Amish Breakfast Casserole

1 pound breakfast sausage
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
6 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 1/4 cups shredded swiss cheese

1. In a large skillet, cook sausage and onion until sausage is cooked through; drain. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir in sausage mixture. Transfer to a greased 13x9x2 baking dish.

2. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until set and bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Moving On

2008-11-05T07:04:00.000-08:00

The election is over and we have a new President. The country can stop holding it's breath.

I can finally watch TV without having to endure all the horrid election commercials.

Last night was so historic in many ways. Our first African-American President. How cool is that? Granted, a woman in office would have been a historic first as well.

I remain hopeful that since we had almost 65% of the country vote (first time since 1908, evidently) - the voice of the people demanding change has been heard.

It is still going to be a tough couple of years. No country can recover from what we have been through these last few months overnight. Last couple of years, really. The ripples will be felt far and wide and for too long. All I can do is be thankful I have a job, Bob's business has work and that people seem to have a new resolve to help each other through the tough times ahead. We all are being expected to go above and beyond just to make ends meet.

Personally, I know several people out of work. My uncle is going to have to commute from Bend to San Diego where work is. Lots of retired people that had lived off of savings and investments are returning to the workforce part-time. Some people that work construction are becoming truck drivers or getting work hours away. My hairdresser's husband is out in the forest cutting down trees in the snow to earn money. We do what we have to.

This Christmas will be a lean one. But this is our opportunity to show our kids and ourselves that "stuff" is not what makes a joyous holiday. Family, friends, good food, funky movies, corny Christmas music and home made gifts can make for a more memorable and important holiday than one with lots of "stuff" that you bought.

So, here is looking to tomorrow with great hope.

Getting Politics Off of My Chest

2008-11-04T05:56:00.000-08:00

All this mudslinging on the TV and constant bickering between who considers themselves a Republican or Democrat is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

If I made the rules there would be no "party" affiliation. I think that candidates should stand on their own beliefs, convictions, education, experience and vision. No hiding behind the whole "you should vote for me because I am in your party".

So many people are so staunch in their belief that anyone who calls themselves a member of their political party should be good. When it comes time to fill out their ballot they just select everyone on their party's ticket.

The Independant party was supposed to help balance this out, but the two main party's still trump them so if you really want to be elected you usually have to commit to one or the other even if you probably don't agree with everything the party stands for. Also, if you want to access the large pool of money that the two party's have for publicitiy you must pick a side.

This whole thing is silly.

And don't get me started on the Church thing. I believe in separation of Church and State. If you wish to belong to a Church to worship - by all means do so. But someone's religious opinions are outside of their "job" in office. If you are a Jew, Catholic, Pentacostal, Christian, Wiccan, Baptist, Mormon ...whatever... I only care about the job you will do in office. It doesn't mean that you practice what you preach at home. I dislike others judging people because if you belong to a Church you are this way or that way. And I dislike Churchs throwing their support behind one candidate or another. When I was little I remember sitting in my Grandma's church while the pastor would say that everyone needed to vote for this person or that person. It seemed wrong when I was seven and it seems wrong now. The worst was when a pastor I know told the congregation that Bill Clinton was the anti-christ. Unfreakinbelievable.

So, my perfect world doesn't exist. It probably never will.

Hopefully everyone has already voted or will be voting today. Whatever you do - please vote.

And if I have totally irritated or offended you, I am sorry. It was not my intent.

Halloween

2008-11-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

I was so not feeling the "mood" this Halloween. Not sure what my funk was, but I was not motivated to do much of anything Halloweeny. Katya was going to a football game and then movie night with some girlfriends, so she was MIA.

Lucky for me, my husband is a social butterfly and he had accepted an inviation to a family Halloween party with some friends of his. I actually had to don a witch hat and cape that I had stashed away so I could at least say I was dressed up. Bob put on a mullet wig and looked pretty funny.

Alexis was dressed up as a flower and she didn't want to take her costume off for anything. Logan was a dragon. He couldn't have cared less that he was dressed up. But he looked cute.

When we went with the whole crew trick or treating I wasn't sure how the kids would do. Alexis worked the "Trick or Treat" and often scored herself an extra candy. Which she promptly put into her mouth paper and all if she got impatient.

Logan refused to say "Trick or Treat" and instead resorted to the cute parade wave that he has going. Being a forceful guy, he would just reach in and grab no less than three pieces of candy a handful. That is skill.

Afterwards we went back to their house and noshed on BBQ meatballs and pumpkin cheesecake until bedtime. It was fun and hopefully next year I will be feeling more festive.

More Pumpkin Patch Fun

2008-10-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

On Sunday we returned to the Central Oregon Pumpkin Company - only this time as a family.

We had a lot of fun this year since both kids could walk and had an attention span of longer than 30 seconds. We hit the petting zoo, which was remarkably low on goats to pet. Then we got a caramel apple, yum. With dark chocolate chips on top. Double yum. Then was the train ride, the archery challenge, the pirate ship and slide, the beloved pumpkin canon (I missed hitting that beat up old car by "that" much) and finally the maze.

Bob went on the train ride with the kids while I went with Katya to the archery challenge. She got five arrows and on her fourth hit a BULLSEYE. Right on! She is so cool.

After the archery we went to the pumpkin canon and I got to launch a cannon for the first time. I loved it. What a feeling of power when that thing launches. I so wanted to see it splat all over that beater car. Next year for sure!

By this point Alexis became demon child. I had to forceably strap her into the stroller and ignore her screams and tantrum throwing for seemingly forever. Luckily the "thump" of the pumpkin canon drown out her screams. Even kettle corn wouldn't appease her.

Then we got to the pumpkin patch to find our pumpkins. It took for freakin' ever because all the crazy frost had caused a bunch of pumpkins to start rotting. Alexis asked nicely if she could walk so I let her out and she roamed the patch for about an hour trying to touch the yulky ones. She became so happy that she started randomly hugging Logan. It was pretty cute but Logan wasn't loving it. I'm thinking that if a gigantic garden is what makes her happy, we are all over that next Spring.

It was fun and after several hours we headed home. I wish I could say that they fell asleep on the way home, but they didn't. I think the caramel apple and kettle corn might have been to blame.

Snugglebunnies

2008-10-26T16:17:00.001-07:00

Kids are cutest when they are asleep.

Especially if they are toddlers who have given you a hard time all day.

Last night when I was checking on the kids before I went to bed I found them snuggled up together in the race car bed - laying backwards. They were so cute I just grabbed a blanket and covered them up.

Mama Bought a New Pair of Shoes

2008-10-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

Lame, I know. But I haven't bought myself a new pair of shoes (that weren't walking shoes) in forever. I did buy some sandals over the Summer, but nothing I could wear when I had the kids with me. Work only kind of stuff.

Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but I have found out to my great dismay that my post-baby feet are a full size larger than my pre-baby feet. I have some beautiful shoes that I have worked hard to purchase over the last ten years and now they don't fit. I leave them in my closet even though I can't wear them because I love them.

Yesterday running around for work stressed to me the importance of getting some new shoes. You see I have been wearing tennis shoes for months now (broken toe and all) and evidently the venting that works so well in summer isn't so great in Fall. The cold breeze that would come up froze my little toes. So, I finally just broke down and went to Macys and bought a pair of shoes.

Evidently I did good because Katya says they are cute. I like them because they:

a) have some color
b) are warm
c) are waterproof
d) go up past my ankles to keep them warm
e) are flat so I can still chase after my kids while wearing them

I still need a few more pairs of shoes, but shoes are spendy and I have skinny little boat feet that are hard to fit. I would like another pair of dressier black or brown leather boots. I saw a pair of Michael Kors that were darling but the toe box was too tight and the heel was too loose. I was sad.

Trouble in DVR Land

2008-10-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Tragedy struck our house on Sunday evening. Bob and I were watching an episode of Chuck when all of a sudden - blip - the tv turned off. The DVR went dark and never was to recover.

That was very sad news for Katya who hadn't seen the episodes of Chuck or Bones that were on it.

Last night I ran to the upstairs TV at 8 o'clock to try and catch Chuck as it broadcast real time. But of course, I missed Boston Legal because it doesn't come on until 10pm. I just can't stay up that late when I wake up so early.

Today I have the cable guy coming over this afternoon to hopefully bring a working DVR with him so I don't miss recording any of our favorite shows. After all, we never actually sit down to watch TV at normal times and if we don't record what we actually want to see - there is nothing on.

And per Mandee's suggestion, I will have to plug in the pumpkin looking dude that she says is on the Disney channel right now.

Anyone else have suggestions of good stuff that I may not know about?

The Room Is Decorated

2008-10-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

The kids' room is decorated as good as it is going to get for quite a while. I am a bit frustrated that it did not turn out quite as planned due to the frustrating habit that those self-stick borders had of NOT sticking to the walls. Every time I walked into the room it had peeled off. I managed to glue Tinkerbell up, but the Cars border fell down on top of Logan who promptly crumpled it into a nice big ball. Oh well.

Although the room is not exactly what I wanted it to be, I think it is pretty good. Logan's walls are silver and have some of the Cars characters on it. They are still sticking, thank goodness. Alexis' walls have Tinkerbell and courtesy of Elmer's Glue, her border is still up. I had Bob put up a curtain rod and I hung some curtains to dim the light a bit more for naptimes and it is working well already.

The kids are still enjoying looking at the walls and telling me the names of all the characters on it. I still want to put some stars on the ceiling, but I might have to have someone bring them up from San Diego at Christmas since I can't find them here.

The room itself is pretty small and with the addition of the extra huge car bed, there is no room for playing in the the room itself anymore. Luckily, the closet is a walk-in so they can play in there. It should be a fun and happy room for the next few years.

The Bed Is Here - sorta

2008-10-18T09:34:00.001-07:00

On Thursday I got the magic email from Walmart saying that the much anticipated car bed had arrived and needed to be picked up. Bob told me that he would pick it up after work and bring it home. I had a Campfire event to go to, so I left the kids with Debbie K. and figured that all would be well.

I got home and ran upstairs to find Bob huffing and puffing having just finished the bed. I turned the corner of their bedroom to look in and I found - the wrong bed. It was not the bed that I ordered at all. In fact, it is much wider (6 inches) and longer (5 inches) and a solid light blue. Bob was exhausted from dismanteling the crib and hauling all the bed pieces upstairs and putting it all together. Inside he had set the toddler mattress and told me that he just didn't think that it looked right.

That is when I had to tell him that he put over an hours effort into the wrong bed. I had to go and show him on the computer the bed that he picked out and the bed that he put together. The fact that the bed we now have upstairs is in fact more expensive than the bed we ordered finalized Bob's decision that it was good and we weren't going to dismantel the bed, put it back into the packaging, drive it back to Walmart, have to re-order the correct bed, wait another two weeks, re-assemble the crib and go through the bed assembly all over again. Luckily we had a twin mattress in the Art Room so we just dropped it in.

With all that out of the way, we brought the kids upstairs to see the new bed and Logan LOVED it. He kept climbing in and out and he would lean over to look at the tires. Then he would climb out of the bed to touch the tires some more and then climb back in. It was really funny. You can tell by the look on his face how thrilled he was. Bob was there with his video camera catching the whole thing.

I had put Alexis' new Tinkerbell bedding on her bed and she was all into that before she even noticed the new car bed, which was good.

So now this is Logan's new bed. Alexis has already slept with him in it and it is the designated play area for non-sleep times. Although, I must tell you that I have already had to sleep overnight in the bed with Logan to keep him in his bed and Alexis in hers and during naptime. We'll see how long I have to lay down in that thing before the novelty kind of wears off.

I am currently decorating the walls and will post the finished bedroom as soon as I am done.

Winterizing The Home

2008-10-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm from San Diego. Winterizing the home in San Diego consisted of having the furnace checked once a year and maybe replacing an old window.

Not so here. Bob and I wrote out our winter checklist and it is 21 items long. We'll never finish the whole thing, especially since we both end up doing extra things that weren't on the list to start with.

For example, yesterday Bob decided that we needed a storm door on the front door. Too much cold air leaks through the door and we have been debating it for a while now. Pretty much all of yesterday was taken up with Bob working on this project. And no, it isn't finished yet.

I spent this weekend painting two walls in the kids bedroom. With Logan's new bed coming, he needed his two walls in the room a color other than pale green. It wouldn't go with his new racecar bed at all. Now his two walls are silver. It took three coats to get it to a nice silver, but it is finally done!

Still to go is blowing out the sprinkler system (it's freezing every night), clean up my garden bed and backyard (gardening trash is still sitting around), get the furnace checked, move the kid toys from the front patio to storage along with the carpet, finish cleaning up the art room for our Christmas company, replace the futon mattress, finish painting some exterior window trim ...etc.

The list is still sitting on our chalkboard telling me to get a move on my other action items. I promise to try and get at least one other item done this week. I promise!

Pumpkin Patch with MOPS

2008-10-11T08:21:00.000-07:00

This year my MOPS group arranged for us to go to our local Central Oregon Pumpkin Company as a group on Thursday. This meant that we got to get the kids in for $5 each and we did a rotation of the offerings that they had there.

We started with a "train" ride. Actually it was a tractor with a train nose attached to the front. The kids LOVED it! We rode around the property and looked for all the painted characters out of the movie "Robin Hood". The trip took us next to the horses in their grazing area and the big chicken and duck coop. Alexis had a fit when we got out of the train and before we left we got to ride it one more time.

Then there was storytime (my kids couldn't have cared less, too young), the petting zoo, the play area behind the petting zoo, and the pumpkin patch. There were organized trips through the maze, but I couldn't keep them both together so we left that early. They had a patch just for school groups with little pumpkins and each kid was able to pick out one. It was a crisp 46 degrees so we bought a hot chocolate and a funnel cake that we shared with the other kids.

Alexis did her level best to avoid ever getting her picture taken and not once actually looked at the camera.

Then the end of the visit was their seemingly favorite part. They found a flat bed trailer and had the best time jumping, singing and running on it. I recorded some video of their frolicking.

It was such a good time and they were wiped out when I put them back in the car to go home.

We are still going back as a family next weekend, but it was a good time for us to go with all the other MOPS moms.

Bend's Fall Festival

2008-10-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we all headed downtown to attend my favorite event of the year - the Fall Festival. Fall is my favorite time of year with the leaves changing colors, the crispness in the air, wearing sweaters and fuzzy boots, hot cocoa and snuggling under layers of blankets in the living room while watching tv.

Well, the weather noted the festival was here and did an abrupt about face from the 80's a week ago down to the 60's with a cold wind.

At first we just wandered around looking at all the vendors offerings. Katya and I both got new shirts and we came pretty close to actually buying something to put on the wall of the laundry room.

When the kids had decided we had done enough shopping, we headed over to the kid area and did some pony rides! Alexis went with Bob hovering next to her and Logan rode with Katya firmly holding onto his jacket. They both loved it! At first Alexis didn't even want to get on the horse at the last minute and then it became getting her off of the horse was the problem. Logan love it and was screaming something (I think he was saying horse).

After the pony rides Bob and the little ones had fun running around the maze while Katya was visiting with some friends that she spotted.

Then after having some lunch we headed back to our car and walked right by the giant blow up slide. Well, that was a fun thing to pass up so Katya went with Alexis and Bob went with Logan. Both kids would gladly have gone again and again, but we were out of tickets and it was nap time.
All in all it was a great time and I am looking forward to next years!

Harlem Globetrotter Ambassadors

2008-10-09T15:31:00.000-07:00

Hey all you families in Bend & Redmond! Are you up for a fun-filled night of basketball fun?

The Harlem Globetrotter Ambassadors are coming to Bend!

Saturday, November 15th
7:00pm
Summit High School

Adults $10
Students $7
Children 4 and under are free

Most of you don't know this, but I am on the Board of Directors for Campfire here in Bend. Our Campfire office serves all of Central Oregon from Klamath Falls to Sisters and out to Prineville. I am a big supporter and believer of scouting organizations for helping kids become great adults.

Anyway, I digress.

The tickets are on sale at Umpqua Bank and I also am selling them to those that are interested. If you would like to get some tickets for your family, just let me know and I will hook you up!

P.S. Katya is going to be a referee! It should be a lot of fun.

P.S.S. For kids that like autographs, the team will not leave until every child that wants an autograph, gets one. I think that is pretty cool.

Fact Checking

2008-10-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Ok,

Pretty much everyone I know already has their mind made up regarding this Presidential Election. I have no desire to go into who I will be voting for or why - after all my vote is private.

However, with all the smear going on from both camps I would advise you all to check out a website that I really like. It is a fact check site that evaluates what all these candidates are saying, gives background, and finally tells you if the statement was True or False.

Please check this out before you believe the statements being made on all of the zillions of TV commercials. With less than a month to go, the bunk will get pretty thick before it is all over.

"The" Bed for a Little Boy

2008-10-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

My mom keeps telling me that boys are boys no matter how big they might become. Inside, a full grown man is really just a little boy who likes toys, just more expensive ones.

Well, the time has come to put Logan into a different bed. The crib is all of a sudden causing all kinds of problems. Logan tries to climb out (we found him hanging by his fingers once) and Alexis likes to climb in to visit. Or torment. I still haven't figured out which since she likes to do both.

We have an awesome little toddler bed that our neighbor gave us, but Logan would fling himself right out of it. He is an all-over-the bed kinda sleeper. So then that puts us at a twin. Most twin beds are too high and would require a step stool like Alexis has to get into and out of her bed. That is a bit too dangerous for a little almost two year old.

When looking on Craigs list I found a race car bed. Bob didn't know that they made race car beds for little boys in a twin size. Unfortunatly, I missed that one opportunity. Nobody else in Bend is selling a race car bed. Then comes Target and WalMart. I found a cool bed, but it was not exactly cheap. But Bob was all excited about his little boy sleeping in a race car bed. I ordered it from WalMart since they had no shipping (Target wanted to charge me $300 in shipping!) and we pick it up later this month. Bob can't stand the wait. Here is the new bed:

Now, being Mom, I don't want Alexis getting all jealous since she didn't get a princess throne bed or anything. So we sat down and I let her pick out some new bedding on-line. It is arriving from Target and will be put on her bed the same day as Logan's new bed arrives to hopefully mitigate the jealousy factor.

Man, I didn't realize this whole gender specific bed/bedding thing would hit so soon!

Baby Boy

2008-10-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

Logan; aka: Bruiser, Bam Bam, Boo, Destructo.

He is ALL boy. He loves anything with wheels, gears, buttons, levers...etc. So, without any encouragement from me he loves all the typical boy stuff like cars, trains, planes, bicycles and dirt bikes (he hangs in the garage when Bob is working on his). He was introduced to Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars when visiting Dylan and Ryan over the summer. Ever since, all I hear is "cars, cars, cars". He can't go anywhere without at least two. I have several in my purse for emergencies.

This is Logan at one of his sisters volleyball games. Total and utter boredom.

Just being a cutie in his Dad's shoes.

Forget the toddler playsets. Logan only plays on the big kid playsets at the playground. He is a rough and tumble kinda guy.

Middle Child

2008-10-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

Alexi-bear is the middle child - but she likes to think of herself as the center of the universe in our house. And she usually is. Especially when she really lets her keen fashion sense loose and she puts together outfits that are just breathtaking.

Favorite phrase: "I do it!"

Current passion: Avoiding getting her picture taken

Alexis feels that tutus just are an all around good accessory.

When you are at one of your sisters many volleyball tournaments, it is good to get comfy to stave off the boredom of sitting on bleachers for 8 hours.

It is too bad Katya's high school colors aren't pink and purple.

Teenager Update

2008-09-30T07:37:00.001-07:00

I have again been lax in the posting of pictures of my three darlin's. Let's start with the oldest.

Cute, sophisticated, can belch like a construction worker, athlete extraordinare, star student, funny, sarcastic (like her g-ma), gorgeous, has a strong sense of personal style and currently her room has not one open space on the floor. I throw things in from the door because I don't want to break another toe.

First day of school. We traditionally go out for breakfast on the first day of every new school year. We hit a local favorite bakery called Nancy P's. D-Lish!!

This years school picture. Isn't is good? I look at this a lot because I don't actually see too much of her in person. Between volleyball, friends, homework, football games...etc she is a blur. I love Sundays because she hangs with me all day at home in her jammies.

This is what Katya spends 5 to 6 days a week focusing on - volleyball. And being in tiny little Bend, we must do a lot of travelling to go and play with other teams. So far this school year Katya has been to Salem, Madras, La Pine and tomorrow they take off for The Dalles (a 3 hour bus ride each way). And by the end of October she will play at Hermiston and Pendleton. I need to get my map out to see just where these places are. And of course, she is already planning on doing club volleyball in January. Busy, busy, busy. In fact, too busy to get into trouble. :)

Broken

2008-09-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

I managed to do all that walking in training... I did the walk with Michelle and although our feet hurt, we did it. Then I come home and while cleaning the house on Sunday trip over the vacuum and - break my little toe.

Left foot. Baby toe. OW!

I had it confirmed via x-ray that it is indeed a fracture and the doctor says that it will be 8-10 weeks until I can start back with the walking and aerobics again. I'm bummed.

So, I hobble around the house and go to work with my slippers on and take a lot of Motrin. Man, I love that stuff. And I spend all my time with Logan trying to keep him off of my foot. For some reason he wants to badly to step on it now.

3-Day Journey: Day 3

2008-09-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

At 4am those darn cell phone alarms went off. Let’s just say we were even less enthusiastic than we were the morning before. Lots of grumbling and groaning. We got dressed, I bandaged my feet, strapped on both knee braces, we packed our bags, rolled up the sleeping mats, folded the tarps and stuffed the sleeping bags. Then we had to tear down the tent and pack that up too. In the dark. When it was really cold. Before coffee.

We finished up and dumped everything with those insufferably perky crew members by the semi trailers that somehow appeared in the middle of the night and parked a mere 100 or so feet from us without our knowledge. We made it to the breakfast and coffee lines and then sat as far away from the other perky people as possible. Wendy found us (as she is also very similar to us in personality) and we all sat there glowering and chugging coffee while waiting for instructions to head to the school buses that rolled into camp.

Once on the bus we all sat in relative silence as everyone around us was also sore, tired, had some kind of pain somewhere and was bone cold. We had been camping in Redmond and we were heading to our new starting point at the University of Washington. We were unloaded at the arboretum and we wound our way around the university, through the center of campus (what an amazingly beautiful campus!), along the main road where the sororities and frat houses were (and during rush evidently), down through some beautiful neighborhoods and to a lake.

When we hit the lake I was dying of pain. My feet had reached an all time high in terms of pain and I had already been eating Motrin as though they were orange Tic Tacs. I think I was at 8 by this point. But the lake was a designated cheering station and there were so many people lining both sides of the walkway cheering us on. They had cookies, held signs, handed out bubble gum and Red Vines, little kids were handing out stickers to put on our hands, one person had brought home made pink walking sticks made out of pvc pipe, one person was waving tuct tape for people with blisters that needed securing, some people had little pom poms that they were waving and one old Asian woman came up and shook Michelle’s and my hands. I had no choice – I had to suck it up. But I have to tell you, by this point I was seriously considering gnawing my feet off at the ankles just to stop the pain. Those were the hardest three miles of the entire walk and I was about to cry. But then it became manageable again and after downing a Red Bull at a gas station we walked by I had more energy. Michelle suffered in silence, but even she told me later that those cheering stations really helped her through some tough spots too.

We had lunch at a really pretty place called Gas Works Park that overlooked Seattle and we could have enjoyed it more had we not just been thinking about finishing the walk. We ate in record time, hit the potty, stretched and headed back out. The rest of the walk was really pretty which helped distract us. We walked along the many piers, (we loved the cheering sections people had set up through there with the Gatorade margaritas) through downtown and over to the Aquarium. Our last pit stop was at a parking lot across from there and it was then that I had to re-tape up some spots on my feet and switched to dry socks so we could finish. Michelle grabbed another bag of pretzels (she got one at every single stop that day) and we headed out.

By this point we were two miles from the Space Needle and the Seattle Center where our finish line was. People were everywhere cheering us on. Cars and motorcycles were honking, tour buses waved at us and we kept singing that Christmas song “Just put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking across the floor...” It was our personal mantra. We heard other people saying “left, left, left right left…” We were so darn close. When we finally looked up and saw the needle it was so darn close, we were only a couple of hills away.

When we finally got to the top and headed down the drive into the Seattle Center we saw a massive crowd waiting for us. They burst out into applause and were cheering all of us on. We (even Michelle) couldn’t stop smiling. We walked by two little girls holding a huge blow up picture of their mother who was taken at the young age of 37 in 2006 by breast cancer and I almost burst into tears. They had a huge team and I saw them all weekend, but didn’t know the story until later. It broke my heart that their mother had to leave them so young. Thankfully she had a sister who is obviously honoring their mother the best way she knows how and they will be well loved. They are why we walked.

At the bottom of the walkway we were handed some pink shoelaces by one person and a cold drink by another person. We walked to the entrance of the holding area and those blessed crew members were there again cheering us on and telling us how fabulous we were. We walked through the door and down some stairs to a huge applause and blaring music. We felt like rock stars. People were smacking our hands, congratulating us, hooting for us, making us feel so wonderful. We were pumped full of adrenaline and were floating on a little cloud. We were then given a t-shirt and a pink rose (courtesy of Pro Flowers.com) and then had a picture of us taken in front of the completion sign. We found our way to a corner and sat down, exhausted but buzzed. Wendy found us again and we all waited there for a couple of hours until it was time to go into the stadium. We had somehow been one of the first people to make it to the finish line.
After a while, when all the walkers had finished or been collected, we all were lined up and sent out to the stadium where we were met with thousands of people applauding us. Man…it was overwhelming. It wasn’t until that moment when we turned around and saw the actual full 3,500 people filing in. It took forever to get everyone in. Then there was a big inspirational speech thanking our sponsors, thanking us, thanking our crew (they are the most amazing people EVER), and then there was a special time when the survivors walked in. They had all been given pink shirts to wear. Everyone had taken off one of their shoes and they held them in the air as a salute to those men (yes, men can get breast cancer) and women who had fought and survived the disease. I couldn't help but think of my my mom as everyone was saluting the survivors - I love you!

They announced that our walk alone had raised over 8.6 million dollars!!! That is a lot of money to go towards the fight. At the end of everything we collected our bags and loaded our bus back to the hotel in Bellevue. We sat there with our IPods on and I fell asleep. I have to tell you, that shower at her house felt SO GOOD! And I will not take indoor plumbing for granted again!!!

With the help of my family and friends I was able to raise $2,467.00!! I think that I still have a few corporate matches that will bring my total even higher. Thank you all so much for your support!!!

All in all, it was an honor to walk for my mother and Lynn. I feel good that we were able to do something for these most important women in our lives. We can’t be there to bring them dinner, or take them to the doctor, or just hold their hand when they don’t feel good – but we were able to do something in HONOR of them if nothing else.

We love both you beautiful and wonderful ladies!! You guys are the real rock stars.

3-Day Journey: Day 2

2008-09-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

Our cell phone alarms woke us up at a bleary eyed 4:30am and we pulled our walking clothes on as we mumbled and stumbled our way to the porta potties, coffee and breakfast station. We both had frozen parts of our bodies overnight and our tent was covered with water from the heavy dew that covers the area every night. Let’s just say that after walking 20 miles the day before, sleeping on the ground doesn’t do much for your disposition.

We each downed three cups of coffee and had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, potatoes and oatmeal we were well fueled and ready to go when the trail opened up at 6am. I think we didn’t really make the trail until 6:30 or 7am. As we trudged along mumbling to ourselves we overheard all kinds of women discussing how they were going to hit the first Starbucks that came into view. Luckily, the Cow Ladies were there to greet us as we walked by so we stopped to take a picture with them.

Along the path Michelle noticed a Panera bakery and we headed over there so she could get herself a pastry for the road and a latte. As we joined up with the rest of the walkers we came across some cute high school girls out there cheering us on from across the street and then we hit McDonalds that gave us cups of coffee, Jamba juice that gave us shots of smoothie and Starbucks that handed out doughnuts and iced tea. That really lifted our spirits since it took me a full mile to warm up my sore feet and get those tendons loosened up. (BTW, we stretched at every stinkin’ stoplight) We also came along a team shirt that had us laughing for while.

We were hurting for this walk. We made it to the second pit stop before realizing it would take everything we had to make it to lunch (the 10 mile mark). Michelle’s knee was hurting and her toe was killing her. My feet were throbbing and it felt like I had rocks in my shoes because my neuromas started swelling up. Those last 2 ½ miles were the worst. We broke out our IPods and stuffed them in our jog bras and stealthily brought the earpiece up to our ear so we could focus on music to help us through. We were not allowed to have IPods so we were totally breaking the rules by doing this.

That lunch pit stop sign was the best thing EVER! It meant we could stop and it was our planned point to stop for the day. We fully intended to save most of our energy and pain tolerance for the Sunday walk. We weren’t going to kill ourselves on Saturday. Lunch was yummy chicken wraps at a beach and then we took some nice buses back to camp.

At camp we lay down in our tents and took our shoes off to survey the damage. Michelle’s right pinkie toe was black and blue and completely swollen. Her knee was killing her and her lower back was not much better. I had a huge nickel sized blister on the side of my heel, a blister on the bottom of my big toe and one on the bottom of another toe. My plantar fasciitis was killing my feet in general and those marbles were getting more and more swollen. We put our feet up for a couple of hours before showering, ate dinner, had some cookies at the Pepperidge Farm tent and then stayed in the tent the rest of the night. Our fellow teammate, Nancy, had brought some pink tuct tape and I used some to try and keep my orthotics stuck to my insert. I believe that when my insert shifted when I was walking it caused the orthotic to rub on my heel which caused that one really bad blister.

When I hit the porta potty that night, I was greeted by this image on the inside of the door which I thought was really funny. Michelle decided to be proactive and she put the other tarp over the tent to try and keep the moisture out of our tent as well as providing some extra shade in the afternoon so we could hit the sack before 8 o’clock.

3-Day Journey: Day 1

2008-09-16T07:51:00.000-07:00

Our alarms (we set multiple because of my wake up fiasco Thursday morning) went off at 3:15am. We silently trudged around getting dressed and throwing our non-walking clothes into bags that we would leave in Michelle’s car. I have never needed the in-room coffee maker more until that morning. The coffee tasted good even with that nasty powdered creamer. That is when you know you are tired.

We headed downstairs exactly at 4am, put our gear bags by some chairs, put our non-walking clothes in the car, grabbed our breakfast and found ourselves more coffee. We sat there eating and watching people file in with crazy headbands, matching outfits and more pink duffel bags than I thought were actually made. As we were sitting there watching all this chaos go on around us, we met this crazy lady named Wendy. It turns out her team mate bailed on her at the last minute so she informally joined our team. She had personal reasons for doing the walk as well without all the pink fanfare. We liked her immediately.

The bus pulled in and we loaded our gear on. Some really excited and pumped up people started loading on the bus as did other people more like ourselves who were sitting there wishing for a Starbucks fairy to appear. But the attitude in the bus was infectious and we all found ourselves in better moods by the time our bus pulled up to Bellevue Community College – our starting point.

It was quite the sight! People dressed up as fairies with wands and crowns, people in crazy pajamas, people with orange cones on their head and others dressed up as pirates were everywhere cheering us as we got off the bus. My bag was a little bit lopsided on the wheels and some really nice woman ran up and picked up the back part of the bag and helped me carry it to a waiting semi trailer. We had our tent assignment on our credential which had been mailed to us a few weeks earlier and it said J69, so we headed to the “J” semi trailer. These nice people dressed up with animal hats and in crazy jammies loaded our bags and we headed off to look around.
We were one of the first people there so we had time to put up a sticker to tell my mom and Kerry’s mom (Michelle’s other BFF’s mother) that we were walking for them. Then we took pictures of the lights they had everywhere with messages of encouragement and headed to the line for Starbucks as soon as they opened up. We also acquainted ourselves with the porta potties that would be our best friends for the rest of the walk.

My feet were already starting to protest so much standing, so we sat down on a curb as the rest of the walkers filed in. I heard that we had somewhere in the range of 3,500 people doing this walk. We eventually found the other two members of our team- Nancy and her sister, Lyn. Michelle worked with Nancy in San Diego and her sister, Lyn lives in Seattle. There was a big opening ceremony with lots of fanfare and encouragement, lots of cheering and inspirational music and then we were off.

The walk on the first day was not all that pretty. Our route was along a lot of busy streets that were mostly business or industrial. Not much pretty to look at. Luckily the route had these pit stops every 2-3 miles that really broke up the walk and enabled us to potty at regular intervals. Each of these pit stops had water, Gatorade, ice, pretzels, chips, granola bars, bananas, oranges, nuts and little PB&J sandwich things. There was no going hungry while doing the walk. They also provided lots of salt so that people like me who sweat, didn’t puff up like the Pillsbury Dough Girl. I ate a lot of potato chips to try and combat my puffy fingers and feet. Michelle was never without her pretzels.

Lunch at mile 10 was really yummy. Chicken breast sandwiches, sun chips, an apple and cookies. This event was so well organized everything went smoothly everywhere we went. Because walkers have to stay on sidewalks we naturally formed a long line that must have stretched out for miles. This meant that the waves of people hitting the pit stops did so in small groups. It wasn’t until the very end of the last day that I really got an idea of the true number of people that walked.

Ic must say, the best thing about walking were the people that parked themselves along the side of the road in parking lots and held up signs cheering us on, telling us thank you for walking for them/their children/parent/spouse, telling us we were heroes, handing out candy, otter pops, red vines, bubble gum and spray bottles with water spritzing us down when the temps were crawling into the 80’s. It felt so good to have people take the time out of their day to cheer on a total stranger. Those people cheering really gave me personal motivation for finishing, especially on the last day, when I was having a hard time putting one foot in front of the other because it hurt so badly.

For those people that couldn’t finish the walk at any point along the way were the sweep vans. They were decked out with themes and they patrolled alongside of us waiting for some person to show a thumbs down that they needed a ride. We had the “Peace” van. They had slogans like “Make love not blisters” on their windows and they blared 60’s and 70’s music as they drove by. And of course they wore tie dye and giant bras over their shirts. There were the “Mammogrammies” that wore mumus and grey wigs and had “Be a film star, get a mammogram” written on the back of their van. The “Dawg Patrol” that had dog costume hats and pictures of dogs all over their van. They had “Are Your Dawgs Barkin’?” on their van. The van would pick these people up and take them either to lunch or to the camp depending on the time of day. The Cow Ladies just rode alongside us every day with loud music, a moo horn and lots of clapping and encouragement. Everyone loved those lovely ladies.

We also loved all the motorcycles that belonged to our safety folks. These guys and gals had their motorcycles decked out with plastic boobs (when else would this be socially acceptable?), bras, pink teddy bears and flamingos, boas and flags. The safety folks made sure that we got across all of those more hairy intersections safely. They were awesome standing on their feet all darn day with a smile on their faces while directing weary walkers along their path. And they were there for us at the end of the walk too. But more of that later.

Michelle and I lost our other teammates along the way, but we trudged ourselves through to the very end of day 1. Our feet hurt, our knees hurt, Michelle’s back hurt and we didn’t talk at all for the last few miles since we had to concentrate on our own personal pain levels.

As we rounded the corner on the last blessed mile we walked along our camp and saw just how massive it was. What a production! HUGE white tents for our eating area and food service area, seas of pink sleeping tents, semi trucks labeled mobile showers, more rows upon rows of porta potties… it was massive. As we came to the entrance of the camp there were more crew members there cheering us on and congratulating us that we finished. We walked down the flag lined path to the sleeping area and grabbed our stuff off the ground and our tent and got everything set up.

After setting up our tent, rolling out our sleeping mats and bags we grabbed our pajamas and shower stuff and headed over to the towel tent. We had both paid for towel service so we picked up our two towels that were slightly bigger than a hand towel and washed the days grime off of ourselves. Total gym class rules in there. If you were a modest person you were in a world of hurt. But most of us are older broads with childbirth scars, cellulite on our ample thighs (despite all those training walks) and I met one that had mastectomy scars.

We grabbed our spaghetti dinner and ate as fast as possible because the dinner music that night was some opera singer that was getting on my nerves. At least sing cheesy Italian restaurant music instead of whatever the heck he was singing. From there we went to the La Croix tent (one of our sponsors) and had ourselves a nice cold sparkling water beverage and vibrated our tired feet for a while before heading back to our tent and crashing for the night. Other people went to the big tent and did karoke until lights out at 9pm. For once, Michelle was not in a karoke mood.

3-Day Journey: Day 0

2008-09-15T17:33:00.000-07:00

I start at day zero, because that is my travel day to even get to Seattle.

My plane was scheduled to depart Bend/Redmond at 6am. I figured to be safe, I would leave the house at 4:30am and get there safely at 5am. If I got up at 3am, I could unload the dishwasher, clean the kitchen, make a lunch for Bob and Katya and even swing by Starbucks to get myself a nice latte before I had to head to the airport.

Things didn’t quite work out that way.

Logan woke up with a nightmare (again) at 2am. I got up and got him back to sleep. I debated on going back to bed, but figured I would benefit from that extra 30 or so minutes of sleep. Well, I opened my eyes a while later and looked at the alarm to see a red glowing 4:45 staring back at me. I had that horrid feeling of dread that you get in the pit of your stomach when you realize that you are in a really, really bad spot. I quite literally threw clothes on, grabbed my shoes, kissed a bleary eyed Bob goodbye and ran downstairs. I grabbed my purse and ran to the car. I believe that I might have exceeded the speed limit just a bit in my haste to the airport. The whole time I was talking to the Uni verse and asking for assistance with red lights.

I pulled into the airport at 5:15am grabbed my bags (lucky Bob had loaded them the night before) and what looked like it was important off of the front seat of my car (leaving the decapitated Barbie) and ran into the airport. I figured that now that I was there, it was smooth sailing. I have never had a problem at the airport in Redmond – until now. I walked in and the line for Horizon was wrapped around the wall and down to the entrance almost. And it wasn’t moving. Turns out an earlier flight had mechanical problems and 50 people had to be re-routed. Then once I was finally checked in I got to go and stand in the even LONGER security line. Once I finally got through I had to run to my plane. I made it.

Michelle picked me up at baggage claim and we headed straight to Pikes Place where we noshed on French pastry and lattes. So yum. We grabbed some extra for Friday morning (who couldn’t use a chocolate croissant?) and headed to do some last minute shopping at Target. Neither of us had clothes pins in our camping stash.

We got back to her house, re-packed our bags and double checked our packing lists to make sure we didn’t forget anything. We loaded our stuff into the car and headed to Bellevue to our hotel. It wasn’t until we were at the hotel that I realized I had forgotten our extra pastries and fruit at her house in the fridge. I almost died.

By this time we were completely nervous and just sat in the happy hour area eating chips with salsa and sipping Diet Coke watching as all these people came streaming into the hotel wearing nothing but pink. It was a pink fest. Michelle and I weren’t exactly sure what we had signed ourselves up for .

Our breakfast was going to be available at 4am and our shuttle to the event area was leaving at 4:30am so we showered and headed to bed early.

First Bike

2008-09-02T07:49:00.000-07:00

What was Bob thinking? We each take a kid to run errands for a morning because it is easier to deal with one than two.

Only, Bob sometimes comes home with "stuff" for the kids. This time he came home with a bike for Alexis.

Yes, a bike. Not a trike, not a big wheel - a bike with training wheels.

He is about one to two years too early for a bike for Alexis, but he won't hear otherwise. It does provide lots of entertainment watching him try to teach her to push the pedals with her feet while she just holds them up and lets Bob push her around.

When Debbie K. heard about the bike, she sent me home with a tricycle for Logan so he wouldn't feel left out. Isn't she sweet?

Maybe next year she might actually want to push the pedals. Until then, grab a cool drink and watch the fun!

Too Much of a Good Thing

2008-08-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

With as much zucchini bread as I make for my family (it is a favorite here), who would think that I would get totally burnt out on baking it.

I did.

You see, my Aunt Ginger's neighbor grows a garden and they gave her some zucchini out of it. They were kind of massive zucchini so Ginger gave one to me in the hopes that I could do something with it.

Check this puppy out! It was totally gynormous!

When shredded it totally filled up the 9 cup capacity of my food processor which translates to 6 loaves of zucchini bread. I was baking that bread for hours yesterday!

Three loaves went into the deep freezer, one was eaten, one is out for this weeks consumption and one went to a neighbor. Maybe I should be happy my zucchini plant turned out to be a cucumber plant.

O How My Garden Grows

2008-08-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

In Spring as soon as the weather started warming up, I had a bug to plant a garden. Not sure why, but I just HAD to have one. I had a raised garden bed box built and I carried 10 bags of dirt down there myself and guilted others into carrying another 6. It didn't fill up the box, but I honestly didn't care. (My yard is huge and you can't easily get to the bottom level with any kind of wheeled device.)

I ran to Lowe's and bought several different plants to stick in my half filled garden box. I planted a tomato, three strawberry, six cauliflower, one cantelope and one cucumber (I thought it was a zucchini). I wasn't sure if anything would actually grow since I have heard tons of stories about how you just can't have a garden in Bend without a greenhouse. I figured this was my experiment so we would see what happened.

Well, things kind of exploded. My strawberry plants had a ton of little berries on them, but the birds ate most of them. That's ok, I'm willing to share. My cauliflower are huge, but I don't see a head of cauliflower anywhere. My tomato plant grew so big that it now covers most of the planter box. And the zucchini plant that I thought I planted turned out to be a cucumber plant and I found three huge cucumbers down there today.

That tomato plant alone has about 50 little and large tomatos on it that are in various stages of growth. There is one that is just a few days from total ripe so I can put it on Katya's sandwich for the first day of school next week.

Now I need to fill in the rest of the dirt that needs to be there and I will plan out my garden a little better next year. I'm thinking I need to spread things out a bit more. Next year - heirloom corn!!

Monterey Aquarium

2008-08-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

When I was downloading the pictures from my camera of our trip to the airshow I found I had over 300 pictures on my camera! They went all the way back to Father's Day. Evidently I am really far behind in my picture posting. I will try and make ammends.

As you all were aware, we did a 24 hour stop over in Monterey to basically just go to the aquarium. I had wanted to go forever, so this was my chance to check it out. It was more like a hit and run, but we did all enjoy our brief time at the aquarium.

Family Shot in Front

Alexis and Bob looking at the cool jellyfish

Toddler wrestling - now THAT should be an Olympic sport

Katya being her normal goofy self

Madras Air Show

2008-08-24T14:57:00.001-07:00

I am a woman who likes a good airshow.

My mom used to take my brother and I to the Miramar Air Show in San Diego on a fairly regular basis. It is massive. We would park way out and trudge our way in, roast under the always hot sun and have the BEST time looking at all the airplanes classic to stealth fighter and the airshow was always something to oooh and aaah about.

I had taken Katya several times myself, only I bought the VIP tickets through Qualcomm so we parked on the tarmack and were served food in a covered tent. Ahhh, those luxuries I used to enjoy.

Well, now that I am a full blown Oregonian we decided to go to the Madras Air Show. I had seen the signs on my many walks around Bend and we put it on the calendar. My hubby, having a pilot's license, always wants to go to an airshow.

It was so much like when I was little. We had to park way the heck out, we roasted in the hot sun and enjoyed some nice aircraft. There was also a really nice small classic car show at the same time. The airshow itself was really awesome! A cool sailplane demo, a fly over by some military jets (I miss the sound of afterburners for some reason), some insane guy from Canada that was doing all kinds of crazy stuff.... way cool. We had to leave early because we were WAY past naptime, but it was worth it. Logan never really noticed that there were planes in the air - but Alexis did!

All in all - a way cool airshow! If you are a local, I suggest you check it out next year. It is only $5 a person for a full days worth of fun (kids 12 and under are free).

Frosh Team

2008-08-22T09:52:00.001-07:00

Well, Katya made a team! Last night at the end of tryouts it was announced that she made the Freshman Volleyball team for Summit. She couldn't be happier. The other girls that made the team she has played with either on the Cascade teams or with OVA. She likes all of them and knows they are really committed to be the best in the state. She even made a new friend that moved up here from Cali.

She told me that 22 incoming freshman tried out and only 11 made they team so she was really happy. The level of excellence among all the players through Varsity is awesome and she can't wait to get even better. She is looking forward to going through the high school years with these girls as her teammates. It is also an added bonus that even before school starts she has some good friends and a new friend.

Last night immediately following the v-ball tryouts was something at Summit called "Gym Jam". It is a really clever idea by the high school to get kids involved in their high school years before they start the first day of school. All incoming freshman were invited to stay for 12 hours overnight at the high school and plan Homecoming. Isn't that awesome! They had pizza and junk food, watched movies, played silly games ... the athletes were invited to sleep in different rooms so they could actually get some sleep before their practices this morning.

So far it is looking like Katya's high school years are getting off to a stellar start and I couldn't be happier.

V-Ball Tryouts

2008-08-20T06:44:00.000-07:00

It seems like Katya's whole summer has been in preparation for this week.

As soon as we got home from San Diego Katya started training. She actually would ride her bike down to Farewell Bend Park three times a week and run with the high school Cross Country Team during their training runs. Evidently the X-Country coach is bummed she is a volleyball player because she has a knack for long distance running. (Just like her mom - sniff-)

She has also been attending every volleyball conditioning and open gym that she could attend as well as doing a variety of exercise tapes at home. Add into that all of the bike riding she has been doing because of her summer volunteering at the Art Station, she has been getting some serious exercise. I figured with the bike riding alone she has ridden about 35 miles last week. Then there is all the volleyball we have been watching from the Olympic games. Beach v-ball, team indoor v-ball, men's and women's. She is listening to what the commentators are saying for their errors and trying to soak up what she needs to be great.

Well, this past Monday was the start of the high school V-Ball tryouts. High school is hard core! The tryouts are all week from 10-1pm for conditioning and fitness testing and then volleyball games are 6-8pm at night. Obviously, all of that intense exercise has done nothing but help Katya. She aced her mile by doing it at an easy 7 minutes. Her vertical jump is 15 inches. She did all of the required sit-ups in the 1 minute...etc.

Today is the first round of cuts and she is nervous. Not about being cut - she is too good for that. (This is for the people that couldn't do the minimum fitness requirements for the coach) She is nervous because she wants to make that JV team and not the Freshman team.

Wish her luck! I'll let you know how it all shakes out on Friday.

Animal Encounter

2008-08-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

On my walk Saturday morning, I had a very cool little animal encounter.

I've been leaving my house around 5:30am for my training walks. I do that so I can attempt to be home early enough to still spend the day with my family. And since it has been in the 90's lately, I get to walk while it is still cool.

Well, I was about 2 1/2 miles into my walk and the sun was still creeping up slowly when all of a sudden a big deer jumped right in front of me. I'd say less than 5 feet away. Luckily, it was a girl deer and not a boy deer. I don't want to be that close to anything with antlers.

Anyway, she just stood there and stared at me. I stopped dead in my tracks and didn't move a muscle. Then a minute later a little baby jumped behind her and started across the street. She moved to the middle of the street, but kept staring at me. I didn't move. Then, after what seemed like a very long time, another baby zoomed by in front of me and headed across the street.

Mama deer ran to the other side of the street and kept watching me. I figured that I had better move or she would stand there all morning. I was trying to convey to her that being a fellow mother, I had her back and would never dream of hurting her or her babies. But I guess my deer conversation skills need work.

I walked for about twenty feet or so and then I looked back and saw her head pop up over a big bush like "I'm watching you".

Very cool.

Olympic Fever

2008-08-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Olympic fever has hit! Although I missed the opening ceremony last Friday due to very important visiting family from Texas (I am still hoping they re-broadcast at some point), I have been an avid watcher the rest of the weekend. My DVR is filled with hours of Olympic footage. Katya and I are hard core Olympic fans so while Bob cleaned the garage and did other stuff, we had our noses pressed up against the TV in awe of these amazing athletes.

Some of my favorites right now :

- Men's & Women's basketball (how awesome was that game with China against Ming?)
- Men's & Women's swimming (just how many records weren't broken? Go Zimbabwe. Didn't think they would have a swim team for some reason. Silly me.)
- Men's rings (INSANE!!)
- Women's gymnastics (poor USA with all the errors. But they qualified so they can still come back.)
- Women's bicycling (The UK coming in to grab the gold at the last minute!! So exciting.)

Some stuff we watched just because it was the Olympics and we watch everything:

- Women's badmitton. Didn't even know it was an olympic sport.
- Men's boxing. Just because we didn't realize at first that other sports were being broadcast on other stations.

It has been so insanely exciting! I totally support my home team (go USA!) but I can't help but get excited when some little country has an amazing athlete that comes out of nowhere to take a medal. That reminds me, I need to print out a world flag chart. I don't recognize all of them anymore!

The Love is Gone

2008-08-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

I'm talking toddler love here.

When we first came home from San Diego, the little ones were nothing but love, love and more love. They were so sweet to everyone it was hysterical. They missed being home.

- Constant kisses and hugs
- Lots of spontaneous snuggling
- Holding your cheeks so that they could gaze lovingly into your eyes before they kissed you again
- They would take turns kissing each other
- They would randomly hug each other and lay side by side

Well, those days are gone. It was a really nice little experience while it lasted. They are back to their same little selves again.

- Taking each other's toys
- Fighting over each other's food or vitamins
- Lots of pushing
- Occasional kicking or tripping
- Head locks instead of hugs
- Full contact diaper changes
- Lots of crying, complaining and general whininess.

Man, I hope I can figure out how to bring the love back without having to drive so much. Any suggestions?

OUCH!

2008-08-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Breast Cancer 3-Day walk is coming up fast and I have been preparing by walking and walking. The three week break in San Diego is a hard thing to recover from, but I am trying.

Well, I am hitting the long mileage walks at this point. I should be up to 17 miles according to the charts they send me every week, but I have only done 15 miles so far.

I try, but I physically can't. Why? I have horrid feet. I literally can't take another step after one of those walks.

Granted, I have had awful feet my whole life. My feet are extremely thin and narrow with tiny narrow heels. Throw in something called nueromas - that are little tumors or growths that wrap themselves around the nerves inbetween your toes and can cause awful pain - and your feet hurt all the time. I had them cut out of my right foot before Katya was born, but they grew back. Three months on crutches just to have them come back.

I went to the foot doctor yesterday for the first time in 14 years and he checked out my feet and suggested cortisone and alcohol shots to try and shrink the nueromas and kill the nerve. He also said that my heels have inflamed tendons which is why they hurt so much. I start P/T for that today. I had the shots in my feet yesterday.

OUCH

But, I guess after shots every 10 days until the walk should help me to be able to finish it. At this point I am game for anything.

I am also going to invest in some new shoes that he recommends from a brand called Brooks. We'll see if those are any better than the Mizundos or other brands that I have in the closet.

Returning Home

2008-08-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

I'm back! And I do apologize for the extended hiatus on my blog. I don't think I have ever gone so long without posting since I started it.

Well, it has been a crazy past few weeks. The drive to San Diego was, as you are aware, long. Not something to be repeated for at least a few years. However, I did finally get to see the Monterey Aquarium after thirty-someodd years of wanting to go. It really is quite amazing.

I didn't get to do as much visiting with people as I would have liked while in San Diego, but that is always the case. However, we did get all of Katya's school clothes while we were there. True, it kills me to spend money on sales tax, but she will look quite wonderful for her freshman year of high school.

And no trip to San Diego is complete without the kids getting sick. Not sure why, but they both caught some kind of cold that left them with a nasty cough. And the day I was taking them to the doctor, they woke up from a four hour nap looking and sounding better. Then I caught it. Of course. Luckily my doctor in San Diego is the BEST and he saw me the day before we left and loaded me up with an all better shot, antibiotics, two different nasal sprays and an inhaler. I managed to get a nice upper respiratory, sinus and ear infection. Good times.

The trip home was great! We left my mom's house at 5:30am and headed north up the I-5 and even with some meal and stretch our leg stops we made it to Redding at 5pm. (Books on tape baby! What a difference. We listened to Executive Priviledge.) I splurged for a nice hotel because I was dying by that time. The next morning we left at 9am and got home by 1:30. I couldn't believe how well the babies acted. Minimal fighting, minimal crying. What a relief!

Although I am still in the process of putting everything back to where it belongs in my house (for some reason the unpacking sparked a wave of Spring Cleaning) things are returning to normal. Somewhat.

On the drive back, I spent some time making a mental list of places in California that I would still like to take the kids when they get a bit older. And get an attention span.

- Hearst Castle: Haven't been there since my Mom took me when I was 10.
- The Giant Redwoods
- More time at Monterey
- The Getty Museum: My mom reminded me of this one.
- Malibu
- San Francisco
- The San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park (when they finally notice the animals)
- Lego Land (I didn't have a reason to go before)

The Host

2008-07-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

Amazing. Awesome. Conflicting. Dramatic.

A suck you in until you have given up all hopes of sleeping or getting anything else done until you read every page of this book. And I do mean every page. Just when you think it has ended skip forward a few pages and it continues.

So amazingly good. Better than the Eclipse series in my opinion. And it took a lot for me to say that.

Get the book! Read it and let me know what you think!!