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.

Wolf Talk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Track Season

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Egg Hunt

Easter was a very good day in our house.

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

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

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

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

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

Spendy Sports

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.

Winter Formal

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!

B-Ball Girl

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

Meaningful Names

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

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.

Twilight

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

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!

Harlem Ambassadors

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.

Powder Puff Football

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.

More Pumpkin Patch Fun

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.

Bend's Fall Festival

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!