Volleyball

Volleyball has started for Katya. She began practices the second day of school and has been to practices four days a week for 90 minutes a day. Wow! She had her first game last week and she has two a week for the next four weeks.

Now, I don't want to brag ...but... Katya is a force to be reckoned with on the court. She has a killer serve and she is really, really, REALLY aggressive. There is a competitive streak that runs deep in her and my brother both. From what I have read, it seems that Dylan has it too.

I took a few pics from her last game and I thought I would share. If you hadn't noticed by now, I am a major shutterbug. : )

MOPS

MOPS is my new favorite thing.

It stands for Mothers Of PreSchoolers and it is the best thing socially that I have done up here so far.

I am kind of a dork in new social situations. I am always so terrified that I will do or say something stupid and need to go and stand in the corner for my ignorance and lack of wit. I don't feel exceedingly cool, or exciting, or even interesting for that matter. And when I am feeling remotely stressed out or uncomfortable I become Ms. Stone Face. I hate that I do, but I do. Like I said, I am a dork.

One day many months ago when I was having an exceedingly hard day with juggling two babies, I was shopping at the local grocery store. I was going to get a coffee for myself because I really, REALLY needed it but then realized that I couldn't because I had no place to even put it. I was wearing Logan in the front pack and had Alexis in the child seat. I must have had a look on my face like I was going to burst into tears when the most wonderful woman approached me and asked if I had considered going to MOPS. I looked at her as though she was speaking Spanish and she proceeded to tell me briefly what it was about and how to sign up. She gave me some much needed and appreciated words of encouragement and then proceeded to do her own shopping. When I got home I called and got signed up for it even though it didn't start until this month.

MOPS is a place for mothers of children 0-6 can go and have a reprieve. My local MOPS is held at the church down the street and is run by the nicest ladies EVER. The meetings are every other week and I have my second meeting this Thursday. The kids go to daycare for two hours and play while the mothers all meet, have some wonderful breakfast foods, listen to a lecturer (the theme this year is The Home Factor) visit and do some activity. Both babies had the best time in their daycare and I was given a pager in case either of them needed me. Evidently Logan bounced for two hours and Alexis (after a brief, yet silent tantrum) proceeded to play with every doll and block in that room.

I got to meet some wonderful ladies, whom I would have never spoken to otherwise. I'm not saying I have a new BFF or anything, but it was nice visiting with these people. I just got an email from my table leader reminding us of our next meeting and it triggered all my warm and fuzzy feelings from the last meeting. I can't wait for Thursday.

New Fav Photo

I made some darn cute kids. Not sure how - but they are all beautiful!

Taking photos of them is my hobby as I try and record their lives for them. Someday they will want to take the time to sit and look at photos of themselves. Or their kids will. Or their grandchildren.

Anyhoo...I downloaded the pictures from my camera and one really stands out to me as a fabulous photo of Alexis. I think this one will be put on the wall as an 8x10 black and white. Granted, I have loads of pictures of Alexis - but this one I really like for some reason. Maybe it is the light.

Future Bookworm

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery there is.

I love to read. I mean I REALLY love to read. Prior to Alexis, I could easily consume two to three books a week. I spent HOURS at Borders reading through books and magazines with my chai whenever I had a free hour or three. Now I don't have that much time for my favorite hobby, but I have been trying to fit it in here and there with books from the library (staying at home I don't have my book fundage anymore).

Evidently, someone has been watching me.

Crock Pot Recipe Tuesday

Ever wonder what to do with those roasting chickens (the raw ones) that COSTCO sells in the two packs? How about throwing one of those puppies in a crock pot in the morning and have a delicious cooked chicken with the meat falling off the bone that evening? Sounds pretty good, huh?

Baked Slow Cooker Chicken

1 (2 to 3 pound) whole chicken
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp paprika

1. Wad three pieces of aluminum foil into 3 to 4 inch balls and place them in the bottom of the slow cooker.

2. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water. Pat dry with paper towels. Season the chicken with the salt, pepper and paprika, and place in the slow cooker on top of the crumbled aluminum foil.

3. Set the slow cooker to High for 1 hour, then turn down to Low for about 8 to 10 hours, or until the chicken is no longer pink and the juices run clear.

The Duck Races

Bend is big into festivals, farmer's markets, races of every kind (especially bike) and the Great Drake Park Duck Races. The duck races are an event sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Bend (we have four of them in our little town) as a fundraiser for their main charities.

What happens is that people can "sponsor" a duck for $5 a piece. Then at 2 o'clock they release all the little multicolored duckies into the river (much to the surprise of the resident ducks) and they float downstream to a funnel that feeds one duck at a time through so they can record who the winners are. The prizes are AWESOME! We're talking about a boat (Bob was drooling over this one), a car, ski passes, hotel vouchers for weekend getaways, decking material (we could have used that)...etc.

Before the official duck race started, there was a kids duck race. Every child that was in attendance was able to sign up for a free duck, get a free t-shirt, a free HUGE red licorice stick, and a coupon for a free kids meal at Applebee's. It was awesome! The kids race had their own prizes and I think they had a total of 75 prizes ranging from a tubing party for 10 at Mt. Bachelor to a Wii Playstation to bike helments to Happy Meals from McDonald's.

We had fun just cruising around, watching the ducks, visiting with our friends Ed and Barbara that joined us and hanging around Katya who was working a Campfire booth selling yo yo balloons, helicopter balloons and those huge punching balloons. The weather was just beautiful and couldn't have been more perfect.

As the kids were falling asleep on us we waited for the prizes to be announced for the kids race since you had to be present to win. Guess who won something from our family? Logan!! He won a Happy Meal gift certificate! Granted, after watching "Super Size Me" we won't be going back to McDonald's any time soon - but it is so cool he won!

Unfortunately, we did not win anything from the main duck race. Bummer! But there is always next year! I need my mother up here to sponsor a duck. She has the best luck of anyone I have ever met. She'd win us a boat for sure.

New Carseat

Little Logan is getting longer and the time will soon be here when he can no longer fit into his infant carseat.

Last year about this time I did some research on carseats and the one most highly rated by Consumer Reports was a brand called Britax. And these carseats can work with kids up to 65 pounds. (With my kids they will probably be in third grade before they hit 65 pounds. Ok, I might be exaggerating just a bit.) I had never even heard of that brand, but I found it on Amazon.com my favorite place on the internet. Imagine my surprise when I found lots of fun covers for the carseats! Butterflies, flowers, sport images, swirly colors...etc.

For my car Alexis got one that is peach with pale peach and pink Hawaiian style flowers. It is very pretty and the fabric is a super soft microfiber type material. For Bob's car she got a zebra print.

Well, I noticed that my now favorite brand of carseat is on sale for one week. We're talking $60 bucks off kind of sale - you can't pass that one up. So, I took at look at the available styles for this year. I love having a little boy, but the carseats just aren't as fun as for girls. They had grey with black (too hot in the summer), tan (boring), green w/ brown swirls (Bob and Katya didn't like it), blue with sports logo stuff on it (we don't watch football), lots of college logo and colored ones (no thanks), plain blue (boring) and plain grey (really boring). The only one left that was cute, fun and had some personality that was boy worthy was Cowmooflage. So that is the one that we got for both cars.

It is fun though, isn't it?