Merry Christmas Eve

Here we are.  The night kids all over the land have been waiting for.  I am hoping that our boys enjoy the morning as much as they think they are going to.  The boys didn't ask Santa for too much and we didn't approve Santa to bring everything on their list either.  They kind of got a little something from us early because they were on sale and although it's not officially part of their Christmas gift, they don't need a bunch of other stuff.  I sometimes wonder if Fischer gets the short-end of the stick since it's easy for Santa to bring a "family" gift that works for the older boys, but Fischer doesn't usually enjoy it until a year later.  So, last year, Santa brought the XBox.  Fischer plays it now, but didn't then.  I guess in the end, it's all good.  We would love to enstill in the kids that Christmas is NOT about getting, so we tend to approve a lesser quantity of gifts that Santa can bring each year.  There's always the grandparents that like to spoil the kids, so we're good with that.

 

I kind of wanted for Christmas some home improvement projects that are a little pricey or a little too much DIY work involved, so they will have to wait.  My in-laws are getting new carpet and I admit, I am a little envious.  We need new carpet as well - a DARK BROWN boy colored one. :-)  Someday . . .  In addition, I have most of the stuff to update the kitchen backsplash, cupboards and bases, but that's the "little too much DIY work" that I don't seem to be motivated to do.  At the moment I feel a little motivated, the house is a disaster and all energy is spent trying to get it cleaned.  I just can't seem to get those flat surfaces reclaimed to ZERO clutter and it's driving me nuts-o.  So, next on the Christmas wish list . . . new clothes.  What girl can't use new clothing for Christmas - but that would be in the form of gift-card and shopping day w/out kids kind of "new clothes".  But, I keep telling myself that I really need to lose a few pounds before any more new clothes enter the closet.  We have too much laundry as it is anyway.  Too. Much. Laundry.  Scratch that idea.

 

So, it's back to the drawing board.  What I want for Christmas is World Peace and a nice day where all family members get along, have much patience for the others' annoyances and shortcomings and some good prime rib!  I want to have fuzzy socks and peppermint hot cocoa and pajamas all day long.  I don't think that's too much to ask.  Maybe I could throw in a maid service, as well . . .or is that pushing it?

I hope my family and friends all have a very Merry Christmas.  If you haven't gotten our Christmas card yet, I'll have to, er, um . . . check with the mail carrier as to why those darn cards haven't made it out of our mailbox yet - or is that out of my purse yet? Either way, I am thinking you'll have them real soon.  If you don't get one and thought you should have, then please feel free to call.  I can't seem to keep a current list of addresses handy when I need it!  Maybe I should ask Santa for my former self back - the one where I was an organized, neat freak - oh yeah, make that skinny, organized, neat freak.  :)  I was all of those things once, I am pretty sure.  For sure, it's too much to ask to have that good memory thrown back in there too!

May the blessings of Heaven be upon you and your family. Happy Holidays! 

More Often

Part of me wonders if it's really worth the time to blog.  Part of me wishes I would do it more often.  So, tonight I am on the "do it more often" side.  Tonight, Paden was reading through the blog and looking at old pictures and Gunnar and Fischer joined in.  They had a good time recalling different events.  So, even if no one else reads this, I suppose it is all worth it for the kids to have something to help them remember different events in our lives.  So, I read through a lot of of blog posts. I read a lot of good stuff.  I am glad I documented.

So, although I am tired and don't have much to say tonight, I am going to figure out how to get some more blogging in.

I did make 8 new cards yesterday, so if anyone is in need of baby shower cards or birthday cards, feel free to buy them from me. :-)  Just kidding, I have really only ever sold one card to a co-worker and I wouldn't have taken the money from her if she hadn't forced me.  Felt good to get some card-making in.  Paden wants a blanket made, so I started that tonight.  Never mind that the sink is full of dirty dishes.  Tomorrow, we will be eating whatever breakfast food doesn't require bowls or spoons; we'll see how well that works.  Back to card making, up next some thank you cards I think.  Then more birthday cards.  I like to have cards on hand for any occasions.  Christmas cards?  Eh, well, maybe.  I am thinking that Shutterfly photo cards are the way to go again this year. I have never really gotten in the groove to mass produce the same card over and over and get them addressed to family and friends in time for a certain holiday.  Pretty much happened once . . . with our wedding invitations nearly 12 years ago . . . and I had help then. ;-)

Well, folks, if you didn't already know . . . we bought an embroidery machine.  (Yes, this is random paragraph posting night).  So, our business, DeadRock Sporting Goods, LLC is a full-production shirt making biz.  We can do screen printing, heat press and embroidery.  Neil does all the screen printing, I do most of the heat pressing (well, cutting of designs/names) and we both can run the embroidery machine (he better than I, but still).  So, we are doing pretty well at this little business.  Soon, we'll have a website up; it's started, but not finished.  Since I quit Facebook, I'll have to ask my few faithful readers to help us out and get our web site posted to the masses once it's finished, so stay tuned.  It's good.  It keeps Neil busier than just substitute teaching at the school.  It is something that the boys can learn to do and take over if they want some extra cash as they grow up and it pays for us to take a vacation here and there - maybe next time we'll actually take the kids.  Is that really called vacation if you have to take your children?  Or is there another word for that "seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time, chaotic, road trip"?

Abruptly end randomness here . . .

WDTG?

Seriously, where does time go?  And why is it always in a hurry? It's November 1st.  NOVEMBER.  Wow.  This phenomenon is perplexing.

Many good blog topics have come and gone.  Many small events in the lives of my children have certainly passed without being documented.  Well, in my work world of Human Resources we have a little theme that if it's not documented, it didn't happen.  So, I kind of feel that way at home.  Stuff has happened and soon I'll forget about it because I didn't blog it.  I suppose I need to get better.  Since I quit the time-sucking evil that is Facebook several months ago, I thought I would spend more time doing more important things. I am not sure I've gotten there yet, but I did start reading a book called "Getting Things Done".  So, I am working on it. :)

So, let's back up the train a little bit . . . first, School.

Gunnar started a new school this year as he entered 4th grade.  He is now a Wolf instead of a Bucaneer.  He seems to be doing very well thus far.  He started the year with a substitute teacher though.  I realize that women are free to have babies whenever they please, but it's a little annoying that his teacher is going to miss the entire first quarter of school.  She supposedly coming back on the 13th of November.  We were happy with who Gunnar got for  teacher, we didn't know until the first day of school that she wasn't going to be there.  At any rate, Gunnar doesn't have to deal with his brother at school anymore so that seems to be good for him.  Paden still silently worships Gunnar, but Gunnar was really ready to have a break.  At the elementary school because Paden was in a 1st/2nd grade split class last year, he was in the 2nd/3rd grade hallway and same lunch/recess schedule as Gunnar.  Needless to say, a big brother just needs a little space sometimes.  We figured that from here on out, they won't run into each other very much, so I am hopeful they will love each other again someday.  We missed conferences due to a football game that we had to leave like at 4pm.  I was going to send a substitute parent to talk to the substitute teacher, but I thought that might have been a little much.  Gunnar does have perfect attendance so far.  I really think that's important.

Gunnar played football for the first year.  It was a fun experience to get into football.  There were 20 kids on the team, only 5 of which had ever played before and there were about 9 fourth graders.  We don't have enough kids in our town to make a 3rd/4th team and a separate 5th/6th team, so it's one team and we had to play the older teams.  We got crushed.  Hard.  I think second game ended about 51 to 0.   The team only scored one touchdown all year.  They did however make improvements from game to game.  They started to get the hang of it.  It's pretty fun to watch them - Neil may disagree. 

Paden is in second grade, although I was seriously confused the other day and had to ask him if he was in 2nd or 3rd.  Because he was in the 1st/2nd split last year and did all 2nd grade work last year, I keep forgetting what grade he is in.  So, he's still testing in the 97th and 99th percentile in Reading and Math.  He got some ridiculous percent of his goal for the first quarter AR reading - like 134% or 145% or something like that at a 3.9 level average (so 3rd grade 9th month average).  And he got that like a month before the quarter ended.  So, that's Paden.  He is somewhat like the absent-minded professor.  He's not a neat, organized kid.  He's a little sloppy, clumsy and just all over the place.  His teacher said that sometimes she has to watch or he'll be on her lap.  She has Paden helping with getting other kids logged into the computer, of course.  He's a little needy still, but he does have a few friends.  We've been trying to work with him quite a bit with his social interaction with people his own age.  The teacher said there was one time where a girl got upset at something Paden said because she didn't understand.  The teacher understood what he was trying to say, but it came out wrong to another 7-year old. Good times.  Paden also has perfect attendance.

Paden played soccer and starts a little basketball camp on Monday.  He had a good time with soccer even though I had to bribe him to play.  He's OK with basketball because it's only a 5-day camp.  He doesn't want to do wrestling, which I am alright with.  I am sure he'll be playing quite a few video games during the winter.  He did state he needed a new game because he's bored with the ones we have.

Then there's Fischer. We elected not to put Fischer in Preschool this year because he'll have to go two years anyway.  So, next year he can go.  I hope that goes over well.  He's very similar to Paden in that he doesn't do change well and anything out of the ordinary he freaks out.  When our babysitter wasn't available, he had to go to my friend Jessica's and the second day he refused to go to the bathroom at her house.  She had to just make him sit down and cry until he went.  So yeah . . . hopefully he doesn't do what Paden did when he was 4 with the preschool thing.  Paden would have a meltdown about going to the sitter too.  Fischer throws a fit if he can't go to Sarah's, so he's used to that.

Fischer does work on his letters at Sarah's.  They just finished "F".  He knows how to write an F and an E.  He can count to about 23.  He is pretty dang witty.  He likes to joke around.  He knows he's funny.  He had to take some pictures to Sarah's for a project.  So, we quickly had to look through pics one morning.  Later that day when she showed me the project, she said that she thought the pictures Fischer brought were of Paden.  After further inspection, it appears that is the case.  Fischer thinks they are him, so whatever.  But, yeah, I think they are Paden.  They all look similar to one another in different stages of their life.  Fischer is actually very athletic and intelligent.       He's pretty dang cute.

I think I'll have to finish recapping another day - only so much energy available . . .

White Sharks!

Well, Paden has played what is more than likely his last game of soccer today.  His little team of 6 and 7 year old kids had a good season.  Paden didn't really want to play this year and so I promised him his beloved babysitter, Edith, would be his coach.  He still wasn't convinced.  Edith's little sister, Arianna, didn't want to play either.  We had to bribe them both.  Because I am the president of the youth soccer club, I let Paden pick the uniform colors for like 4 teams and let him decide some of the players on his team.  He was somewhat satisfied. I think they might have also used his suggestion for the team name - White Sharks! He also got to be the first person to use the GoPro camera and he wore it during one of his games.  That was some pretty funny footage.  Paden likes to play goalie.  He's not that great at soccer, but he seemed to enjoy himself alright.  He actually was playing pretty aggressively today.  It was cold this morning - like 30-something degrees.  So, I made Paden put on a long-sleeved shirt over his undershirt, then put on his jersey - so three shirts.  I couldn't find the thermal underwear, so he had one a pair of sweat pants (little too big) under his shorts.  He looked spectacular. :-)  

Not sure why he looks like he's going to cry here . . .

Goalie ready!

Go Number 7!

Game over!  Nice job!

Overall, it was a pretty successful soccer season for this team.  I am pretty sure Paden is done with soccer.  The next year, he'd be moving up to the next age bracket and that's when it starts getting a little serious.  He's not that in to it, so we'll have to find something else for him to do in the fall. 

I said "I love you!" to a Stranger

In fact, I said "I love you!" to two different strangers - one on the phone and one in person.  The story goes like this . . . We had the opportunity to go back east to Pennsylvania and Washington DC last week (more on that later).  We flew in to Harrisburg, PA which was close to where I had to be for work.  To start our journey home on Friday, we got to the Harrisburg, PA airport at the right time, had no issues, got on our short flight to Washington DC Dulles airport for our connection to Denver, then to Pasco.  We had a couple hours in DC and like 4 in Denver for layovers.  So, we walked around the Dulles airport, bought a couple sovenirs and made our way to our gate.  We were going to leave about 4pm.  Well, we didn't board and they make an annoucement that the plane had a water valve that wasn't working and it had to be fixed.  So, at first they didn't think it was going to take very long.  About 4:30pm, they said they will give us an update at 6pm.  I still wasn't worried because our plane out of Denver wasn't leaving until 9:55pm and there's a time difference.  So, we snacked - didn't want to eat because we wanted to catch a Jamba Juice at Denver.  I caught up on some work emails for a while.  No update at 6pm came.  A little after 6:30pm, maybe closer to 6:45pm, a rush of people went to the gate and started boarding.   So, they finally announced they plan to take off about 7pm which would still get us into Denver with enough time to make our connection.  So, we get on the plane and sit and sit.  Of course.  So, we didn't actually get off the ground until like 8pm, which is now cutting it really close for us to catch our next flight.  They did give the plane free Direct TV for the ride for an apology.  I watched some episodes of Law & Order: SVU that I don't remember having seen before.  That was nice.  So, we landed and taxied and at the moment when everyone hurries to stand up and wait to get off the plane, we had 20 minutes before our next plane was to take off.  We get off, find the TV to find our gate.  Of course, we were at like B30 and needed to be at B79.  So, off we go running down the airport.  I love that Denver (and others) have the moving walkways (flat escalators), it really helped!  We asked two United airlines employees if our bags were going to make our flight since we were rushed.  They said that more than likely if we made it our bags would made it.  We trusted them for the most part.  We got to B79, scanned our tickets and we were safe - we still had a long walk to the plane - but we made it on.  As we were in line to get on the plane (no jet bridge) we saw they were loading the bags, we thought we saw our luggage so we felt good.  Phew.  We arrived safely "home" to Pasco  at 11:15pm and make our way to baggage claim.  We see very few bags on going by on the baggage carousel.  Then, the airport worker put out the sign "last bag".  Great.  So, ours weren't on the plane.  We had to go down to the ticket counter along with some other folks and wait for someone to help us.  The same airport worker finally came down to do our claims for delayed baggage. They said it normally comes the next day and someone would bring it to us.  Ok, so better that we got to sleep in our own bed.  We hadn't eaten though since we planned on eating in Denver and that didn't work out.  Even in tri-cities, there's not much open at 11:50pm.  Luckily, Jack in the Box was open and we got some food and made our way to our home - got here just about 1am.  It was nice to sleep in our own bed.  I am glad we ran down the airport to catch our flight instead of hanging out in Denver.  I felt bad for commenting on some other folks I had seen sprinting in the Denver airport on our trip out.  Yeah, don't comment on those folks, it's happens! :)  The next day, we waited and waited for the airline to call about our bags.  I called the information hotline about 11am and they were still "searching for our bags".  A little after 1pm, I got a call that our bags were in Pasco and someone will deliver them between 2:30pm and 4:30pm.  That's when I replied, "I love you!" to the stranger on the other end of the phone line.  I wonder if he gets that often in that line of work.   About 4:15pm, a little gray car pulled up and a lady drug our bags out of her trunk.  The car had no indication it was from the airport and she had no identifying clothing either, but she had our bags and that's when I told a complete stranger in person, "I love you!"  I suppose that sounds a little odd as I recount this story, but it is what it is.  I was thankful to have my stuff back!  So thankful that strangers got to know of my love for their dedicated work to bring my stuff to me.  And that's the story of when I told a stranger, "I love you!"

I have a lot of pictures from our trip that I need to organize and get posted - so more about our trip coming soon.  The rest of the trip was good and no drama!  Only a little snafu on the way home, but all is well with my new red shoes and my souvenirs that spent an extra night on the road.

 

How lucky I am!

Let me tell you a little about what my wife has been doing.

About three years ago myself and another guy got the great idea to start a Bowfishing tournament. Well last year he decided it was to much work and up and quit. This left me to deal with all of this by myself, I am really good at thinking of crazy things to do but am not very good at organizing them. So with that said this caused me much stress. So she did all this plus directing me on what I needed to have done and when.

So here's what she did. Made a website (www.oregonbowfishing.com). Got enough sponsors to fill a raffle table that genarated over $1,500.00 worth of raffle tickets sold. Got a dinner for 80+ people organized and done without a hitch. Ran sign-in all Friday night and got everyone a packet, t-shirt, and weigh in card. She also made sure all of the kids under 16 got there kids packets with arrows and stickers and other goodies. She ran weigh in for 2 days which in-tails weighing about 12,000lbs of fish from 25 boats. Organized and directed about 12 volunteers. She did all of this and so much more I can't even begin to think of it all. In the end this thing goes no place without her. I am lucky to have her, and have her to tell me what do to and when to do it. I know this post doesn't even come close to telling everything she really did but well, maybe it's a start.

Thank you sweet pea I love you!
Neil

P.S.
Wanna go shoot some fish?

Gunnar's Happy Birthday

Well, folks . . . 10 years & 4 hours ago today, baby Gunnar entered the world at 2:14am.  He had a rough journey.  We like to attribute that to his large size and being the first kid.  He had a good sized head and pretty good shoulders and they literally had to suction him out.  Poor little babe.  It was only, oh . . . about 24 or more hours of labor and he was about to be yanked out via c-section. Glad the vacuum worked because after all that, cutting up my mid section might have been more than I could handle - maybe.

Anyway, we had the bestest nurse at the end, Becky.  She was so sweet.  Once I finally got the epidural and could rest for a while, she and I were talking at one point about newborns.  I was hoping my newborn would be cute to everyone, not just me.  There's many babies that only a mother can love - never believed that cliche until I started going to the OBGYN and seeing all the baby pics on the wall. :)  So, when Gunnar finally decided to show his little face, I didn't get to see him right away.  His long, stressful journey caused the medical staff to want to check him out first before they let me hold him (contrary to Paden where they just plopped him on my chest slime and all).  So, she tells me that "he's beautiful".  In an exhausted breath, I replied, "you aren't just saying that, are you?"  I really didn't need someone to lie to me at that moment, I guess.  Although he was pretty red and had a giant bruise on his head from the vacuum, he was pretty dang cute.  Of course he was, he looked just like me when I was born!  Ha ha ha ha.

The nurses commented a lot about how alert he was.

Not to long ago, I was cleaning the garage and found our old video camera with lots of videos of Gunnar as a newborn infant not doing anything.  We were silly parents.  They were pretty fun to watch though, even though at 3 days old, babies really don't do anything. 

Gunnar arrived early by just about 2 weeks.  I remember my co-workers were going to throw me a surprise baby shower and then I didn't come to work that day.  Funny thing is that with Paden, they did the same thing and Paden came even earlier, so I missed it again.  They planned it one week earlier and Paden came one week earlier. 

I love Gunnar to pieces.  He's still my baby (especially since Fischer constantly tells me he's not a baby).  Gunnar is awesome.  He's a good kid, although still a boy, he's a good kid.  He does boy stuff sometimes and makes silly boy decisions, but for the most part he's a good boy.

He's a fantastic big brother.  When Paden was born; he came into the hospital at 2 and a half years old and he just grew up by about 4 years that day.  He was chewing gum when he came in to see us and he was so happy to see his baby brother.  He's always been protective of Paden and Fischer.  He's now into Fischer more than Paden - he and Paden have been fighting a lot this last, oh let's say year.  I hope this coming school year will help that, as they will be in different schools.

Gunnar loves sports and playing outdoors.  He's always been a mud-lover.  He loves building anything out of "hook blocks" (duplo legos), K'nex, wood, metal, mud, etc.  He's also very athletic and loves to stay busy.  He likes video games, but would rather be doing something active.

Yep, he's naked in that mud pit; his favorite spot!

When we moved to Boardman, we couldn't (still can't) keep the boys out of the Columbia River.  We love it! And, oh how the boys miss that dog, Max. . .

Gunnar is pretty stubborn at many things; we're trying to break him of that.  He does take many things literal and sometimes has a hard time seeing the big picture, which I suppose are all teaching moments for us.  He is getting better about trying new things and branching out, but he and his brothers sometimes have a hard time dealing with change.  He definitely tries my patience at times.  He is getting more mature all the time and that makes me happy. :)  I want him to be trustworthy and be able to have a good time as he gets older.  He does have a sensitive heart and wants to be liked by everyone. 

We are having a little friend get together at our house today for him.  I am lamenting the fact that he is no longer single digits and he's almost as tall as me; he's got about 7 or 8 inches to go.  His feet are just about bigger than mine as well.  We'll be buying him men's size 5.5 or 6 boots for school this year.  I am thinking he's going to be a big kid!

It's been tradition since birthday number 1 to have a water park party with the Livingston family.  I think we are still going to do that this year, just having a hard time finding a date.  So, if you are in the Livingston family that usually goes to this shin-dig, it might be the 17th or 18th at Moses Lake.  We'll let Grandma know and she can post it on FB. :-)  I really didn't want to go to that venue on a Saturday, but Fridays probably aren't much better as far as size of crowds.  However, we have some t-shirt orders coming in, so we need to see when we can get those done as well.

I may or may not have current pictures of the kid, but the camera battery is dead and I just plugged it in to charge.  I will get some of him today though. :)

Anyhoo . . . Happy Birthday, Gunnar.  I love you with all my heart!

Thinking about Blogging

I was thinking about blogging . . . so I suppose it's about the time to stop thinkin' and start doin', but I am not sure I remember what I was going to blog about.

It is July 23rd.  JULY.  TWENTY-THIRD.  I am not sure where the last six or seven weeks have gone.  . .the summer goes by so fast.  That is kind of good and kind of sad.  Because I work at a job that I don't have summers off, it's good for me that it goes fast so I don't have to feel like I am missing out for too long on all the summer fun.  But, on the other hand because I do work all summer and the boys are home   I do feel like I am missing out on some fun.  I hope to take a few days and spend with them.  We have a busy August planned and maybe a busy start to September.  We didn't really have any big trips planned this summer.  We just went to the usual Pig Out in Cle Elum a couple weeks ago, we have our bowfishing tournament in August and Gunnar's birthday.   I do have to go to Seattle for work, so the boys will stay with Livingston grandparents for a few days and Neil and I are going to Seattle.  That's the week before school starts.  I want to take a day off in the week before that to get some school clothes shopping in, I guess.  Gunnar has outgrown all his pants.  Paden probably doesn't need new clothes, but I like to buy him a few shirts at least so he doesn't feel like he always has to wear hand-me downs, although he hasn't really complained yet.  So, probably after the tournament, I'll get the dressers cleaned out and rearranged with what clothes fit who and get the list going of who needs what.  Fun stuff.  Last week, Walmart already had school supplies out!  What the crap?!

Gunnar turns 10 - the big ONE, ZERO - next month!  I am not sure how I feel about that.  He's getting to be a very tall and he's a good kid.  He's starting to be mature and go play with friends.  He rides his bike a mile or so to his friend's house or just down our street to his friends.  It's pretty fun for him that he's old enough to go do stuff like that so he doesn't have to feel like he is at home all summer.  He and Paden don't always get along and Paden also tries to follow him sometimes.  Paden also gets antsy for him to come home, but it's good for Gunnar to get away.  We just try to have the kids over to our house too, so that he doesn't get too comfortable with leaving our house ALL the time.

Fischer has turned into a whiny three-year old.  He can still be very sweet and very polite, but he can also be very whiny where everything is a tragedy.  Then he yells at people if they are looking at him or talking when he wants to talk.  He's got a great grumpy face and it's hard not to laugh at him sometimes.

Paden declared to me recently that I have no idea how hard it is to be the middle child. Well, he's right, I really don't.  However, I don't know that it's as hard as he makes it for himself.  He also thinks his father is the worst one in the world.  He is kind of a sass-mouth and that's been getting disciplined lately whereas when he was 4 or even 5, he didn't always get in trouble.  People, if your kid doesn't something cute, but wrong, don't let them get away with it unless you want to have a kid like Paden on your hands.  He's smart and things everyone else is not and he's not afraid to tell you to your face.  So, there you have it.  He's still pretty sensitive about a lot of things too, which is strange.  I guess every kid has both sides to them.  Paden has also been kind of clumsy lately.  So, in the spring he cut his chin pretty well, which I am still paying for literally.  (Grrr, stupid hospital charges mega bucks for tape and super clue and his chin looks crappy.)  Anyway, then he's crashed on his bike a few times.  The other day he banged up his nose pretty good.  His legs are full of scrapes.  He's just going to have a few nice scars left over.  He has a hard time not picking at his scrapes.  Nice, I know.  You are welcome.

We've been doing pretty well on our bike rides - missed one or two last week that could have happened.  I did go today on a short route.  I need to measure that so I know because it has a smaller hill. :)  If I don't ride for a few days, the hills really kill my hip flexors!  So, I wanted to take it easy this fine Monday.  Tomorrow, I can go longer!  Remember, folks, I am towing at least 45 pounds with me.  We are looking at going on a ride in September that is somewhere on the Idaho/Montana border.  There two routes, one 30 mile route 1/2 of which is uphill (which we aren't going to try) and a 17 mile flat and downhill route where they bus you to the top of the mountain and you ride down.  We're thinking if there is camping, we'll camp a night, too.  Sounds like fun to me!

So, we found an awesome babysitter who the boys like to have and she usually cleans up a bit.  Now, I did give her a bonus the other day for cleaning, so she might be expecting that every time, so that could be a problem.  Our house was a DISASTER that day and she put a nice dent in it and made the boys help, so that deserves a bonus.  But, it's nice to at least not have the house completely destroyed when we get home - just clean up after what you made messy, that works for me.  She's 14, so hopefully she'll continue to be interested in babysitting for a few years. :)

Well, I really have nothing profound to say.  I haven't taken any pictures lately.  We don't have any exciting news. We're just living the life; the good life.  Just keep on keepin' on . . .

10, maybe 20 miles

I finally got my mother's day/birthday present - a new bicycle.  We (adults) got rid of our crappy Walmart special bikes last year at a small yard sale we had.  Those bikes were heavy, falling apart and yeah, just needed to go.  So, I had told Neil in the winter that I wanted a new bike so we can go on rides with the boys.  We have a great bike/walk trail up and down the river.  We live in a town with only small, manageable hills.  So, we picked up my bike about a week and a half ago.  I was able to ride it about five out of the last seven days and it's awesome.  It's amazing how well a new bike that's not from Walmart works.  It's pretty light, which is nice because I still tow Fischer in the trailer.

So, the boys decided they wanted new bikes as well.  They had been working with Grandpa to earn some money, so they decided that's what they wanted to spend their money on.  Great plan.  I like it when they make a good decision. :)  The only thing is that they hadn't yet earned quite enough yet and really wanted the bikes now.  So, we did cave a little bit and let them go look at bikes today.  They found some they liked.  Neil wheeled and dealed and got the puncture proof tires for all four of our bikes for a reduced price and everyone (except Fischer) ended up with a new bike.  Fischer got a couple of handfuls of free M&Ms and that seemed to appease him at the time.

We got home this afternoon and set out on our first family bike ride in over a year.  It was awesome.  So fun!  We went down to the Marina Park, around the loop, down the bike/walk trail to the River Lodge, up the road at the 40, left down past the wood mill, up the hill over the train tracks, down the hill past my work, down Columbia Avenue, cut through the back of the high school and back to our house.  Paden says, "wow, that was like 10, maybe 20 miles."  He referred to the bike ride several times as the "10, maybe 20 mile" ride. :) He's so funny sometimes.  

Fischer fell asleep in his little kick back trailer on the way home.  He didn't have much of a nap earlier, so I probably would have fallen asleep back there too in that situation.  He had a good time though.  

We got home and we were super-duper sweaty hot, so Gunnar, Paden and I got into the green swamp like pool.  The water wasn't terribly cold, just a little green. :)  We swam for a while.  I did a few water aerobics moves while in the pool.  I love water aerobics.  Our pool water level is a little low, we need to add some water.  There's a leak somewhere on the bottom we don't know where the hole is. :-(  Anyway, I am looking up a water aerobics routine for next time!

The boys loved going on a family bike ride.  They didn't have any issues with any chains or flat tires!  It was fabuloso.  I hope to go several nights a week.  Tomorrow Neil is going to buy some bark for the front where we finally pulled the weeds, so he's going to buy a deal for his bike to track how many miles we go.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was close to 6 miles we went tonight. It was a good hour of a ride.  We took two short breaks in the shade is all.  Hopefully, that's going to be burning some fat calories and I'll be slimming down.  Just when I think I couldn't weigh more another pound shows up on that dang-blasted scale.  So, I really need to put some effort into this situation!

The boys loved their bikes so much, they went on a ride up and down our street and down to the high school after their swim.  Kind of like a triathlon.  I think I went up and down our stairs following the swim enough times to qualify for the triathlon as well.  I hope I can still walk in the morning.

Dang Burn It!

Can a food allergy get worse the more you think about it?  It's it mental? Some remedies mentioned on the internet for food allergies involve hypnosis. Hmmm . . .

There are certain vegetables I like to eat fresh and when I do so, it makes my tongue and throat itch.  Usually, not a huge bother.  Sugar Snap Peas are so good and I think they are the culprit.  We had a potluck on Friday to which I brought the veggie tray with my new found love of onion dip made with dry onion soup mix.  So, I proceeded to eat yummy broccoli snap peas, carrots and mini tomatoes (they weren't cherry or grape, but smalll-ish size I found at Costco).  Of course, my tongue and throat start itching and I've never really known exactly what causes it.  You know it could be something in the dip or could be the veggies - pretty sure it was the veggies since I've never had issues with ranch, mayo or sour cream in other situations.  At any rate, it causes my taste buds to swell and usually is tolerable.  I just ate some cheese and crackers and called it good.

So, I was craving some more onion dip and snap peas!  Yeah, it's the peas.  I also read about allergies to peas and there is something common in peas, carrots and apples, among other things, which all seem to cause itchy tongue and throat for me.  Makes sense.

Today, my tongue actually swelled a bit on one side, along with itchy throat and ears, but on the inside, which you can't really scratch.  My scalp was itching.  I might have touched my eye with my finger, so my eye itched and was watering.  so, yeah . . . I am wondering if I am going to have to stop eating snap peas.  I don't want to.  That's very sad.  I really like snap peas.

I also read that there really isn't anything you can take prior to eating a food to stop the allergic reaction.  If that is not true and you know of something, please feel free to share.  What I am going to do with the rest of the large bag (Cash & Carry size) of peas!???    Grrrrrr . . . .

A rare occasion

It is no secret that Paden hasn't totally enjoyed having a little brother.  He once did say that he didn't want Fischer to die, he just didn't want him to be bugging him (that was over a year or so ago).  Lately, Gunnar has been watching more TV shows that adults would watch - Swamp People, American Pickers, Myth Busters, etc.  So, the littler boys aren't really in those shows and we have found them together a little more often.

Sunday afternoon's traditional lunch for the boys is Mac & Cheese.  As soon as we get home from Church, they zoom out of their church clothes into lay-around-the-house casual clothes and wait, sometimes patiently, for their Mac & Cheese.  So, this past Sunday was finally a nice day after the week started off with monsoons.

I found this . . . not a great picture taken through our kitchen window screen.  I was trying to be sneaky.

Yes, Paden is wearing a robe and pajama pants.

Two little boys eating lunch together on the trampoline . . . how sweet.  :)

At the moment they are downstairs with their smoothies and popcorn - I think Paden is playing a game on the X-box Kinect and Fischer is watching cartoons - split screen style.  They aren't fighting, so I am not disturbing them!

Fischer is getting to be quite a mouthy little boy.  He can scream and yell and make great grumpy faces when he's not happy.  It's kind of hard not to laugh at him when he does.  He's super cute.

Paden had swim lessons this week.  He had a good time.  Gunnar opted out of swim lessons and had Cub Scout Day Camp this week, Wed, Thursday and Friday (tomorrow).  He's had a good time, even though he doesn't really enjoy riding over with a couple of the boys.

Fun stuff.  I on the other hand had the chance to run into JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts and pick up some summer paper on sale - curse you JoAnn's, always the card stock packs I love on sale!  I really only went in for some paper for a project for Employee Appreciation for Father's Day at work tomorrow.  But, I couldn't pass up these summer card stock packs.  I suppose I should get some scrappin' done!

I also decided that I am going to make a denim quilt.  Instead of throwing out or giving to goodwill some old denim stuff lately, I have saved it for a quilt.  I think I have decided how my pattern will be.  I am going to do 5 inch square blocks made of three rectangle blocks of different sizes.  Wish me luck.  I am really not that great of a sewer.

Well, I am tired.  Maybe this blog post doesn't really detail all of the reasons why I am tired, but I am.  It's been kind of a busy week!

I almost couldn't make it!

So, I know that I am not in a good physically fit state of being right now.  It's not a secret.  I would love to lose the "baby" weight now that my "baby" is three.  I am a year longer of losing the weight than I was with Paden, only took me two years then!  Sheesh.  That third kid really did me in.  But, he's the cutest darn thing and of course I have absolutely NO regrets.  I would just really like to get rid of some lbs.  My cousins post on FB about their Omnitrion drops and wraps that shrink their fat down blah, blah and it sounds tempting, but what happened to go ol' fashioned exercise and good eating.  Well, I have never really exercised for real in my life, only through sports which was easy back in the day.  Not so easy now.  I was also recently tempted by a late night infomercial on the Tummy Tuck Belt.  Rub some cream on belly fat, wear a girdle-like belt for 10 minutes or all day and melt the fat away.  Sounded good to me, but I am kind of not sure I want to spend the money.  They were, of course, a "get a second one for free if you call in the next 10 minutes" kind of deal, so it wouldn't have been too expensive. But, alas, I feel I would be ridiculed for trying a gimmick.

So, last night we went in a monsoon of a rain storm into Hermiston to pick up a free elliptical from my co-worker.  She's not using it for now, I told her we'd give it back if we didn't use it or she wanted it back.  I guess it wakes her daughter up and she gets mad, so she stopped using it.  Anyway, works for us.  We wanted to buy one on the cheap in case we didn't end up using it.

So, I just did FIVE minutes and I almost couldn't make it up the stairs afterwards!  So, yeah, I think it's working.  It's definitely going to get the heart rate going and the muscles working.  Both Neil and I plan on using it.  We just plan to build up slowly.  I'll do five minutes for a few days, then work up minute by minute each day or two.  

On another good note, I leaned the craft room again.  It's gets to be looking like a tornado hit every couple of months it seems.  It's actually really annoying.  Maybe I'll try harder to NOT do that this time.  It's really the boys mess too . . . not just me.  I cleaned my bedroom about two or three weeks ago and it took like FOREVER.  It's been pretty clean since.  I've tried to keep up on laundry and not have millions of loads to fold and put away all at once.  One a day works better.  I am behind this week on the boys' clothes.  They are fresh out of clean pants.  Good thing school is OUT (as of yesterday).  Too bad the weather isn't really shorts weather yet though.

In other news, Fischer is now officially potty trained.  He actually did really well.  I started about a week before he turned three.  The other two boys were three before they decided to cooperate, so I really felt no rush or pressure to try with him sooner.  I think his babysitter tried a little bit here and there, but we didn't really hit it hard until right before his birthday.  So, I started on a Friday that I stayed home from work with the boys and worked with him Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  He did progressively better each day - less accidents.  Monday, he had to spend the day with my friend Marilyn instead of his regular baby sitter and he wasn't happy about that.  He stayed dry all day until I got home from work and then wet his pants.  He held it ALL day.  He doesn't seem to handle change real well (taking after Paden) and will hold it if he's not at his normal comfy locations (home or Sarah's).  He went to the children's museum with his little friend Malia one day and he did the same thing then, except he went in the toilet when he got home this time.  So, really day four only one accident. At the end of the second week, I let him wear underwear to bed, as he'd gone the entire two weeks w/out wetting at night.  So, I thought that went really well actually.  I gave away left over diapers.  I now have pull-ups to get rid of, which are kind of expensive and we didn't use hardly any of them.  He had had a couple of accidents during the day this week.  One at the sitter's and one here.  He told me he had to go, then we got distracted and then he all of a sudden was saying, "agh, not again . . .I told you mama I had to go . . ."  So, let's blame that one on me. :-)

The bad news is we have a leaky, rusty valve to the sprinkler system.  The good news is that it rained the normal summer rainfall amount in the last two days, so the grass got watered.  My orange lillies in the back also got some water they deserved and started to bloom.  They are the ONLY good thing left in our back yard.  It's a train wreck back there.  We are very, very close to just paying someone to help get it cleaned up and paying a kid to come once a week to maintain.  Neither of us like yard work, I guess and I usually get an allergy attack after being in the jungle-like weeds that we are sporting, so I have a hard time.

The boys finished school.  Paden scored very high on his placement tests.  Gunnar is where he needs to be for his grade level.  He did an awesome job at his speech with his catapults.  Paden and Gunnar both got in a bad habit of not turning in their homework, so that's an area of improvement for all of us.  Paden used to be good, but then got sloppy.  Gunnar got progressively worse as well.  Luckily in 1st and 3rd grade, it doesn't really count against you.  Gunnar is excited to go to a new school next year for 4th grade.  He and Paden won't be at the same school which makes Gunnar SUPER happy.  They have a hard time getting along right now.  When Gunnar is in 6th, Paden will be in 4th grade and they will be at the same school again, but hopefully in completely different wings.  It was hard for Gunnar this year because his 1st grade brother should have been in the K-1 wing of the school, but he was in a 1-2 blend class and in the 2-3 wing of the school.  I hope they will be friends again some day.  Paden was emotional the last day of school because his teacher is retiring.  We need to do something for her - she did an awesome job with Gunnar (for two years) and Paden both.  Gunnar's teacher did well with him, Gunanr can be a tough cookie sometimes - he is getting better with his attitude.  But, he definitely has a similar amount of patience as his mother - so we're all doomed.

I hope to get some housework done tomorrow, get some crafting done before soaking my feet at a Mary Kay Spa Party tomorrow night!!!  

Fischer changed his number to THREE!

May 23rd, 2012 - Fischer's 3rd Birthday.  It wasn't all that eventful, really.   The kid was kind of in denial that it was/is his birthday.  He's already having an age complex??  Well, not really.  His favorite number has been TWO for quite a while.  About a week ago, we started talking about his  birthday.  He pointed to May 2nd on the calendar and said, "I already changed my number to three on the number two."  Umm, ok . . . so, apparently he already turned three about 20 days ago.  Who knew?  We missed it. 

Grandma with the puppies and Grandpa Steve stopped in on their way home from Arizona and got here Friday afternoon/evening.  So, we got to hang out with them for a little bit.  Saturday, we headed down to the Marina with Grandma and Grandpa Steve for the Bike Rodeo.  We played at the park, threw rocks in the river and just hung out.  Grandma gave Fischer his birthday present.  He loved it - three little cars and $15!!  Rich kid.  Then, we went home for Fischer to take a kick back, then went out to dinner at the Mexican restaurant in town.  It was a good day.

This week, we start talking to Fischer some more about his upcoming birthday.  He said, "Grandma already gave me my present."  So, I guess we could have ended it there, he was happy.  No gifts from anyone else, no cake, no singing, just done. But, we didn't want to do that.  Grandpa and Grandma Livingston sent him a package that arrived on Tuesday (I think).  It was pretty funny that Grandpa drew a fisherman in place of writing Fischer's name.  Funny, funny, grandpa!  Again with the money.  So, now the kid is more rich.  He also got a package of balloons.  Paden "helped" Fischer open the package of course without anyone making a big deal of it.  

Then comes today.  He finally decides it's ok to have it be his birthday this morning.  When they were going to pick up Gunnar from football camp, they stopped at the store to pick up Fischer's birthday dinner of choice: 

He chose hot dogs, grapes and red and orange soda.  We have a cake Neil bought at Costco the other day - one of those big All American Chocolate ones - just no one really wanted any tonight, they've been eating it the last three days.  Gunnar asked him about the candle, he chose to put it in his hot dog.  We chose just one candle vs three, he doesn't really get that part yet.  We also have a number three candle, but it's got that big base that really doesn't go into hot dogs well. So, we sang and he blew out his candle.  Trick candle and had to blow it out three times! :)

Maybe he can have cake with Grandpa and Grandma Livingston and blow out some more candles this weekend. He was laughing and having a good time with his candle in his hot dog.  We still haven't gotten him his gifts from us.  We didn't really plan ahead that well for this here birthday.  But, luckily Fischer doesn't seem to mind.

Fischer has a great laugh.  He likes to play jokes.  He has a great imagination and can entertain himself, but likes to have someone to pal around with.  He looks exactly like Gunnar when Gunnar was his age.  His favorite color is red.  His favorite number was 2, now it's 3.  Somehow quite a while ago, he could recognize the number 22 and would always point it out if he saw it, like on sports jerseys or on the calendar, etc.  He can count to at least 12 without messing up.  He recognizes some letters.  He made me mark his water bottle with a big F and the number 2.  Funny kid.  He loves Gunnar.  He loves to hang out with Gunnar.  He and Gunar sometimes gang up on Paden, which usually doesn't end well for anyone.  He has excellent verbal skills.  He still hates tags on his clothing and makes us cut them off.  He still likes to sleep with his blue blanket.  He has to have the tag from his blanket in his hand when he does use it - he's a one-tag boy - the only one allowed is on his blanket.  He's not as attached to his blanket as he used to be, but if he has it in bed he has to spread it out with the silky side up.   He sometimes can go several days without having to have it though, so that's nice.  He likes to take it with him to the babysitter's house though. 

He's pretty stubborn.  He doesn't have a lot of patience.  It's hard to tell where those traits come from!  Ha, ha!  He recently started to fold his arms angrily, kind of pouting, when he doesn't get what he wants.  He seems to be a pretty athletic kid.  He plays computer just like Paden.  He looks like a mini Paden at the computer.  He can't really sit still while playing and he also likes to have the TV on at the same time, just like Paden.  He doesn't seem to like changes to his routine.  He cries if he can't go to the babysitter's house.  The other day he pretty much pouted all day because he had to go somewhere else - where there is a boy his age that he normally likes to play with.  But, it wasn't his normal routine, so he was really withdrawn.  He likes to play Wii Sports Resort - the sword fighting game.  He's a good eater.  He sometimes out-eats both his brothers.  He loves sandwiches, which is funny because Paden hates them.  He likes PB&J and turkey - no crust though.  He is in a stage where he has to "help" with everything or do it himself.  Usually, I have to remind myself I can spend the time to have him try rather than just rush through and do stuff for him because it's faster and less messy.  I love toddlers.  I think they are fun.  Fischer is funny kid and I love a toddler's chunky little legs (well, all mine were chunky anyway)!  He likes to come in my bed in the mornings and snuggle.  He still sleeps in his crib, but can climb out on his own, so he comes in every morning on his own and crawls into the middle of the bed.  Sometimes he goes back to sleep and sometimes he doesn't. But, he always gives me a regular kiss (or several kisses) and Eskimo kisses.   He's so cute! I love him, love him, love him. 

Happy birthday, Fischer!

Columbia Youth Track

We just finished up another season of youth track.  It was pretty dang good this year.  The last two meets had some nice weather.  Last night was just about perfect, weather-wise. 

All three boys were sick at one point or another this week, so it was a little difficult to want to get out to the last track meet.  Paden was sick Monday, Fischer on Tuesday and Gunnar on Wednesday.  We're talking throwing-up-and-the-like kind of sick.  So, not fun.  The boys had perfect attendance for the year with one month left of school (like 20 school days), then they had to miss a day.  Bummer.

Anyway, back to track.  Gunnar wasn't feeling well, so he didn't do his best in any event, which is what I expected.  It's just hard because he gets his bad attitude.  The very first track meet of the season, we weren't sure what had happened to our kid.  He tried hard, he had a good attitude and he was just not the same Gunnar we were expecting.  He did awesome.  So, luckily we were able to build on that for the season.  I feel bad he was sick before the last meet since it didn't end well.  But, I guess that is how the ball bounces sometimes.

I also didn't bring my good camera to any track meet this year.  With Fischer out of the stroller age, it's hard to cart around drinks, sweatshirts and the camera.  Most of the meets, my phone was almost dead as well.  So, I really don't have a lot of pics of them this year.  Bummer.  Maybe someone else has some.

Gunnar's personal bests were: 

• Shot Put - 16 feet 3 inches (I think)
• Javelin - 68 feet 10 inches (a little wind assisted, but we'll take it!)
• Long Jump - 10 feet 1 inch
• 100 m - 16.2 seconds

Last week's meet he got all first places.  It's a little bit of a farce, since if other kids don't show up in your age group, you sometimes can get first by default. But, again, we'll take it.

Paden's personal bests were:

• Shot Put - 8 feet 7 inches
• Javelin - 28 feet 10 inches (I think that was the wind-assisted meet, also)
• Long Jump - 6 feet 1 inch
• 50 m - 9.6 seconds

Last night Paden's long jump and shot put were his best.  He truly got better with most events each meet.  Last night he needed to get first at least one event.  Here's the story:

Earlier in the week, like Monday, the boys were fighting and got their Wii and Xbox taken away for a week.  Paden was really struggling with this; then he got sick and threw up.  Haha.  Really, it was coincidental, not cause and effect. :)  Tuesday night, he got his ribbons from the previous track meet.  He got a 2nd, 4th and two participants.  He competes with 7 and 8 year olds and I think he's the only 7 year old boy, so he's younger than all the kids in his category.  He's not got one first place yet this year.  So, he had a meltdown when he got his ribbons.  This was the date he missed from school because he was puking the night before.  So, he was having a rough day.  Gunnar got all first places that night, so he was pretty happy.  That was the first time he got all first places.  This didn't help Paden's meltdown.

So, Wednesday morning somehow Paden got into making a bet with Papa that if he got a first place he could get the Xbox back early by a few days.  We were trying to tell him that he could get first, he was really close in the 50 to get first and we were confident he could get first.  We might have asked the coach, who loves our kids, if he could just make sure that Paden ended up with a blue ribbon at the last meet.  Coach agreed. :)  So, we were 100% certain Paden would get a blue ribbon.  Paden was not.  Long story short, he fought for 25 minutes with us, screaming and crying and ended up changing the bet to NOT getting a first would get it back.  He was being SOOOOO stubborn.  He was telling us that we weren't listening to him and we never listen to him and he didn't even want to do track, but we made him and on and on and on . . .  I walked him into school to make sure he was going to get over this ordeal.  He told me he was just going yell at Papa when he gets home and make him change the bet back.  I advised that wasn't going to work wel and that maybe he should think about calmly admitting he was wrong, apologizing and politely asking if he could change the bet back.  The first bell rings and he all but pushes me out the door so no one sees him talking to his mom and crying! :)  Cutie.  So, in the end we decided that the bet could go back to original stakes.  He needed to get first to get his Xbox back early.    He signed up for the 100, but it was 7:30pm and they were just finishing up relays and so I tried to get him to just run the 50, so we could leave sooner.  I wasn't going to make Gunnar run since he wasn't feeling well.  After some arguing about that he decided that getting to McDonald's faster would be good and he lined up to run the 50.  I head down to the finish line; Paden is still kind of grumpy-pants while waiting in line.  The gun goes off and I was messing with my phone to get it to record, so I didn't full see it.  He stumbled and fell at the very start of the race.  The coach was telling him to get up.  He got up and kept running, but he was bawling!!!   He ran it in like 12.3 seconds, obviously not his best.  He then proceeded to have another meltdown becasue he lost and couldn't get his Xbox back.  The coach tried to tell him to go back and run the 100; he refused.  So after we got him to calm down, we were able to check his time and see what place he got.  Well, by default he got first - he was the only runner in his age group.  So, it all worked out in the end.

Gunnar had not really wanted to run the 100, then as we were getting ready to leave, he changed his mind and wanted to run.  He just barely missed his age/gender heat.  I told him to go run with the girls anyway, it doesn't matter.  So, he ran with the oldest group of girls in the last heat; there were two girls.  He smoked them, but it's not really about beating the people in your heat.  He ran it in 17.16 seconds, pretty good for feeling sickly.

Overall, I am happy with their performance and their improvements from meet to meet.  It was a pretty good season.  Gunnar had a buddy, Jose, an older kid, during track that he bummed around with.  Paden's friend Levi from his class participated as well, so it was nice to have them have some friends there as well.

I will see if I can track down some pictures.  :-)

Lesson Learned

New routine.  Instead of trying to rush through reading scriptures at 7:30am during breakfast, we decided that 6:00am when everyone wakes up would be better.  So far, so good as far as the scripture reading goes.  This will work out better, as Neil usually has to be at work at 7:15am.

So, ahead of schedule this morning, we were going to leave the house at 7:40am.  Can. NOT. find. my. car. keys!!!  What the crap.  Really?  I looked everywhere for 20 minute leaving some parts of the house looking like a tornado ripped through (at least now the rest of the house looks consistent).  So, I got a hold of Neil at the school, which is luckily only a couple of blocks from my house.  He sweet-talked the Vice Principal of the school (who actually is a friend of ours) to bring me his key to the van.  My boys have perfect attendance so far this year.  We got the key and made it out the door at regular time we do - 8am - and the boys were not late.  The other good news is that I wasn't late for training I was facilitating in Paterson.  I was freaking out though - not pretty.

I stopped at the Dollar Tree on the way back to work from Paterson to pick up a few things for the QA lab and for my at home foot soak.  For some reason, instead of getting a basket I decided to drop the ribbon 57 million times as I was looking at stuff.  Something was just not right there.  Get a basket!  Duh.

I came home after a day at work where I didn't really get anything off my to do list, only got things added - typical Monday, I suppose.  I decided that I was going to make cookies and try to drop them off for the ladies that I am assigned to visit teach.  I am not great at making monthly visits.  I am not 100% sure how the heck today is April 30th and I went out visiting one month ago.  So, I was making cookies, it was going pretty well.  The old, tired kitchen aid only spun the bowl off it's base one time. I baked the first batch on our giant cookie sheet - 30 cookies.  They spread out all over the place including hitting the back of the oven.   So, not sure what happened there other than I am not the pro cookie maker that my husband and father in law are.

So, what did I do - make another batch - the same way I just made the first one.  What happened? Pretty much same thing.  They spread out, just put less on the sheet.  The first batch was under cooked.  The second batch was overcooked.  They tasted alright - just didn't look right and they were definitely not worthy to send out to people that I want to still like me.  By that I mean, I couldn't get them off the sheet in ANY recognizable manner.

Neil comes home and politely asks what happened. Yeah, I screwed them up, I know.  He politely mentioned that maybe, just maybe, I didn't have enough flour.  Yep - I didn't get a college degree in math; it was the touchy-feeley stuff I learned about back a million years ago.  I am not sure I ever scored well in Home Ec.

So, I also don't think my boys ate a real dinner - likely just cookie dough.  I don't know.  Gunnar decided to go play with his friends during that time.

I did finish a couple of chores, but quickly just felt lazy after seeing everything else that needed to be done.

It just seemed to be like a not-so-good Monday.

Moral of the story (i.e., my lesson learned):  Don't skip church for the heck of it.  Monday is much worse that way.  So, Fischer did throw up Saturday middle of the night, but he was fine Sunday morning.  I suppose we still should have made our way.  Neil went; he's the good one?!  Yep, he is. :-)  He found the keys in the piano. 

Sabbath Meanderings

Phew, we survived Sunday.  Sometimes it is really miraculous that we make it out the door and to church; we actually made it on time today.  Neil has a meeting every Sunday morning at 9:15am and church starts at 10am.  So, that leaves me to get myself and three boys ready.  Sometimes it's fine and sometimes not so fine.  Today was actually not that bad other than I got watching a movie (yeah, I know - not for you to judge) and so I was behind schedule.  I also need to get in the shower before Neil because he usually waits until the last possible minute before he needs to leave.  But, I do have to say that I don't think that I had to yell (that much) at the boys. :-)  Really, maybe just one stern, "to the car now" might have had to be spoken.  I really don't recall at this point in the day. Or maybe some grumpy eyebrows the minute Gunnar's chocolate-covered strawberry's chocolate dropped right in front of the door and Fischer stepped immediately in it before anyone could pick it up - it all happened so fast!

So, sometimes when the morning isn't perfect, it's hard to pay attention and to glean anything from what's going on there at the ol' church.  But, I know it's where I need to be and I am ALWAYS glad I did go.

Today, luckily one of the speakers told us what the two points of his talk were at the end of the talk because I would have never gotten them otherwise.  Be a good journal-er - write in your journal for family history's sake and use details.  Hmmm, now I don't recall what the second speaker's topic was.  Oh well.

In Sunday school, I sometimes have a hard time following that teacher.  He's a friend.  He's good guy.  He's just a little scattered sometimes, in my opinion.  Maybe it's just me.  We did talk about honesty and tithing.  I am thankful for those simple topics though.  It's good to talk about honesty and the small choices that we have daily to be honest or dishonest.  Let's just say there have been times when I haven't been honest.  Like the times when the receptionist has a caller for me and I tell her that I am not available, when I could really answer the phone.  Now, sometimes I have good justification - I know why they are calling and I don't have the answer yet, so I get the answer before I call them back.  Or, when it's someone checking on an application that I have already told them their status.  Seems like good justification to me, at the time.  Seems like an opportunity to ask for forgiveness later.  I am 100% there are others, just don't feel the need to air ALL my dirty laundry today.  Let's save some for another day.

I am thankful to hear about stories about tithing.  Our teacher told a great story about his personal experience with tithing when he was preparing for his mission.  I love hearing those sorts of stories.  It helps me to stop and think about what blessings I enjoy that are because of tithing.  I think I am looking for too many miracles when it comes to tithing and I should be thankful for the little things.  We have never been without shelter (my tamale dealer commented on the size of our house and I was sheepishly trying to just brush it off 'cuz it's not that big, really).  We've never been hungry (in fact we're overweight).  We've never been thirsty (in fact, I love Circle K soda fountain at the end of our street and I have a Thirst Buster frequent drinker card).  We've never been without clothing (in fact when all the clothes are clean, they don't fit in the dressers).  We have never been without heat (just by choice, some of you know how our house is).  We have never been without water (so much so, we have a mud pit all summer long in the back yard and a swimming pool we are constantly replenishing).  We have not been perfect.  We have not always managed our money well. But, we are getting better. We are very much blessed.  I found a tithing slip receipt in my scriptures from 1997 - college - I paid $8.28.  Awesome, it was a little easier back then.  Even though I bet $8.28 seemed like a lot - like a couple of meals for a college kid!

In third hour, Relief Society, we talked about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a good lesson.  My thoughts are this.  Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day and forever."  When our loving Father in Heaven saw that the world had gotten out of control with lots of different religions and apostasy, he finally had to put the gospel back on the earth in it's true form.  We know that because of the above scripture.  In the end it doesn't matter (all that much) who restored the Gospel; it's important to know that it is restored.  We have prophets on the earth again because He is the same yesterday and today and forever.  We have everything back that was lost during the apostasy.  I am thankful for that knowledge.  I am thankful for eternal families.  I am thankful for repentance.  I am thankful for living prophets to guide us.  We got a little bit on the top of the trinity and how the restoration revealed the Godhead as three separate personages.  I believe I wasn't ever really "into" any other religion before I was introduced to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (of Latter-day Saints) because there is no way in my mind that the trinity makes sense to me.  I don't know how, when Jesus was on the earth, he prayed to himself and answered his own prayers.  The scriptures say he prayed to his father.  The Father is separate.  The Father is his own person.  Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  I don't understand how Christ was born of a virgin and was the Father and the Son at one time.  Who was running the show when Christ was a baby? The whole trinity thing does not make one lick of sense in my mind.  So, I am thankful to know what I know about the restoration, about the Godhead and about how we can return with our families to live in the presence of God and his Son, Jesus Christ.  

One of my favorite quotes that is usually found with a picture of the Christus says, "I never said it would be easy, I said it would be worth it."  I always keep that in my mind.  

Another quote I ran across in my cleaning up today is, "You can't choose the consequences, you can only choose your action."

Kia Kaha (forever strong) is a quote that is going up on our stairwell.  I've had it cut out for a long time (like a month).  I just haven't gotten it up yet.  If you get a chance, you should watch a cheesy, but awesome movie called Forever Strong.  It's great.  Google it.  You won't regret it.  

Welp, that's all for tonight.  We are heading tomorrow to Portland to continue Paden's birthday celebration.  OMSI, Imax movie, Benihana - should be grand (and exhausting) . . .

Travel Log - January 2012

*Long post warning*


Just as the winter weather gets annoying - cold, frosty, no snow and just getting old - Neil and I hopped on a direct flight from Pasco, WA to Fabulous Las Vegas, NV.  I tell you what - direct flight is the way to go - with the extra time you typically have to spend at the airport, it was so awesome to just fly and be there!


Sunday - January 15th 
We left our three awesome boys with our very-capable and even more awesome niece, Cassidy.  We drove smoothly to the airport.  Arrived and went to check in.  There was a little longer line than expected and my "carry-on" was a little taller than expected, which cost  us $70 off the bat.  Allegiant's carry-on sizing is 2 inches shorter than other airlines.  Oops.  I still think Neil was happy I had that large of bag at the end of the trip.  We didn't have to buy an extra bag while we were there this time.


We arrived in Las Vegas paid for the hotel shuttle - little did we know we were the LAST stop on the shuttle route, so it did take almost an hour to get from the airport to the shuttle.  However, we checked into our room at the Luxor - we got a pyramid spa suite on the 8th floor.  I think they knew that I get motion sickness easily and didn't want to risk me getting sick having to ride any further up on the inclinator.

We checked out More Buffet at the Luxor for dinner.  It really wasn't that good.  I liked they had self-serve drinks and we sat w/in about 10 steps of the soda fountain.  They also had very tasty brownie bites.  Pretty much that's what I remember about that buffet.


Neil called up a buddy who lives there and he was able to buy us some bus tickets off the strip.  If you get them off the strip they are less expensive - $20 for a 5-day pass versus $20 for a 3-day one.  Great deal.


Monday, January 16th
We were planning on going out to eat with Neil's buddy, Luis and his family.  We weren't sure what time.  We didn't get a super early start to the day, we kind of bummed around and finally headed out on the town.  We didn't eat breakfast, it got too late.  We then were looking for somewhere to eat lunch.  Then we decided that we didn't a big lunch if we were going to go out later, so we walked and walked and finally landed at a Subway and Cinnabon.  I really am not sure what else we saw on Monday - seemingly nothing too outlandish.  We met Luis and his family for dinner at the Rio - World Carnival Buffet.  It was a pretty long line, but it went fairly quickly.  Normal price for this dinner buffet is $26.99 per person.  Because Luis is a local, the price was $13.50 per person.  Spectacular!  The Tix-4-Tonight places don't have as good of food prices anymore - last year Rio was 50% off, this year only 25%.  The Rio dinner buffet is very good.  Lots of tasty choices - my favorite of the night was some NY Steak.  Neil usually just eats his money's worth in prime rib and crab legs.  Mmm, mmm, good!


Tuesday, January 17th
First day of Shot Show - we tried to get up fairly early and get moving, but I am sure I slowed Neil down by having to take a shower and what not. :)  I did just put a ball cap on my wet hair to make it faster.  We headed down to the Paris for breakfast.  It was pretty good.  The price with the player's card discount was $15.99 per person.  Seems like "Yikes!" right?  Well, in reality, we would only eat two meals a day.  If we ate a breakfast buffet, we could go all day until dinner w/out eating.  So, if you think about it it really cost us $8 per person per meal for lunch and breakfast.  Much better!  The Paris makes made-to-order crepes.  I didn't end up having one as the line was longer than I wanted to be in so I ate some other stuff.  I discovered some prime rib hash that was divine.  Neil said the crepes were pretty good.  I thought the croissants were good, as well.  They had a pretty large breakfast buffet.  My new favorite juice is cranberry & orange juice mixed.  It's a little like ruby red grapefruit.  Good stuff.  


On the first day of the shot show we conquered the bottom level.  All attendees were wearing badges and their location was clearly prominent as well.  So, to occupy my brain, I started keeping track.  Within about 2.5 hours (give or take), I spotted someone from every state in the US, except Rhode Island.  In addition, I spotted the following countries:

1. Japan
2. Denmark
3. Switzerland
4. Italy
5. Belguim
6. Finland
7. Columbia
8. Thailand
9. Canada, including several different provinces:
• Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan & New Brunswick
10. Ireland
11. Spain
12. United Kingdom
13. Norway
14. Brazil
15. China
16. Germany
17. Russian Federation
18. Sweden
19. Netherlands
20. Jordan
21. Australia
22. Kahzistan
23. United Arab Emeritus
24. South Africa
25. Slovania
26. Uraguay
27. France
28. Poland
29. Greece
30. Taiwan
31. Chile
32. Peru
33. Mexico
34. Ukraine
35. New Caledonia
36. Greenland

Pretty crazy!  So, that was a great way for me to pass the time as Neil talked to vendors about gun stuff.  People watching is pretty entertaining.  It became a game for me to read everyone's tags and when I was racially profiling to get a new country and couldn't see the tag it was annoying!  :-)  I think I could have picked up some more countries if some folks weren't walking so fast.

Tuesday night, we decided to check out a restaurant that I read about on the internet called Grotto.  It's downtown at Freemont Street inside the Golden Nugget.  It was D-LISH.  It's Italian and very, very tasty.  We got a table with a view of the HUGE aquarium at the Golden Nugget.  I was unaware of this aquarium.  It's actually in their pool area with the swimming pool all around the aquarium.  There is a water slide that goes THROUGH the aquarium.  It's looks so awesome.  Too bad it was not super warm, I might of had to go down it.  

We took a stroll down Freemont street for the heck of it - to see what we could see.  We of course stopped to watch the spray paint artists - Visual Art Images - they are spectular artists who create awesome paintings with spray paint in a matter of minutes.  It's like Bob Ross on speed.  It's insanely cool.  I highly recommend checking these guys out.

We were walking back to the bus when all of a sudden all the lights went out and a boom of thunder sounded.  EVERYONE stopped.  Next we heard the stomping and clapping, then the words, "We will, we will, ROCK YOU!"  It started playing on the 400 foot-long ceiling screen.  That was pretty dang cool.  Last year, I don't recall anything spectacular playing down there.  This time, it was great.  Loved it.  

To be continued . . . I think I'll finish this up later.  I have some other things to do . . . such as sleep!  


I did upload our photos - nothing too spectacular - onto Shutterfly.  Feel free to check them out.  I didn't label them yet and really I don't think they are all that interesting of photos.