You Don't See That Every Day

So among all the birthdays we have in April, we now have another anniversary to celebrate My nephew married a very sweet girl on Saturday, and we went to the wedding. The church was way out in the country, so it was a beautiful drive (once we got out of the city!) on a beautiful day. We got to see relatives we haven't seen in awhile, and eat some terrific food, and cake. Oh my! the Cake! This girl knows cake! Not just one wedding cake - oh, there were choices! And so yummy. But really this isn't just about the cake.  The wedding was beautiful, not just because it was family, but I liked the music - how could you not like Princess Bride?! And the flowers were gorgeous, and the bride was stunning. And the groom was awesome (how many other overused terrific adjectives can I use?!) We also had a lot of fun with the twist on the popular 'photo booth' that many wedding receptions use these days. They had a board with different relatives wedding photos on them. Th...

My baby is no longer a baby This little yay-hoo Little K. has turned 3 years old! We celebrated at lunchtime on Friday, with a cake - a pink cake of course - and presents. The siblings would be all away that evening, so she got to have her special time early.  (Our usual MO is to have the cake and presents after supper.) Oh, how different life would be without this one. Quieter, and with a little less sparkle in our world.  She is such a precocious little thing. She keeps us laughing and hopping with her non-stop energy and funny way of saying things.  She has also been a valuable 'resource' in teaching my older kids on how to take care of little ones. Just the other day my 7 year old changed her sister's diaper for the first time, and she did an amazingly good job of it too. Her older brother thinks that Little K is the best thing in the world besides food. And her older sisters love her to pieces. How could you not love a face like this?   ...

I have not driven since Monday morning. Now, that would make sense for me if I was on vacation in a foreign land. But I'm at home. Ive been at home since Monday afternoon - the one afternoon when I thought I would never get home. The pickup wouldn't start in the parking lot of a store. My rescue-hero (aka husband) saved the day, got the pickup to the mechanic and got me home. But then 2 days later he was off to work out of town. And the pickup was in the shop still, because it was starting for the mechanic and they couldn't see exactly what was wrong with it! I'm thankful it was my husband who took the pickup in, because I don't know if they would've believed me. So we've been at home this week. It hasn't been exactly easy either, with children's activities, a boy at school, and with sports and church stuff. I have had to rely on others' kindness to pick up my kids or drop them off. That has been pretty humbling too. On the other hand, I have go...

Y ou know you're from Oregon when ... You call them Filberts and not Hazelnuts. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the "Walk" signal. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it is not a real mountain. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima, and Willamette. You consider swimming an indoor sport. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark—all in an eight-hour work day. You never go camping without waterproof matches and a poncho. You are not fazed by "Today's forecast: showers followed by rain," and "Tomorrow's forecast: rain followed by showers." You have no concept of humidity without precipitation You kn...

(I had hoped to have this up earlier in the day ... but my truck broke down, and that threw a wrench in everything. Forced to stay at home, I turned to projects that really needed taking care of - like curtains for my girls' bedroom. One down, one to go.) We had two meets in one weekend this time around. Or rather, She did: Saturday morning was her swim team's first meet of this year; not sure when the next one will be, but she was pretty excited to finally be using her skills that she has been practicing twice weekly for eons. On Sunday we drove to another town for her (and ours) first ever triathlon. into the pool - the one in the red cap It was so much fun! I would have joined her if I could swim. And by the time it was over, the other girls were clamoring to do a tri also!  The course was not too long, just right for a 12 year old. She swam 100 meters, biked 2 and half miles, and then ran half a mile. Since swimming is her strongest point - and her favorite ...

10 years have gone by since I got my last tetanus shot. I guess it's about time I get another. Ten years ago I gave birth to this sweet little girl (although this picture was taken when she was 6 months, not a newborn) My middle girl is 10 today. Wow, has time gone by fast. That little happy baby has grown into a sweet young girl, one who loves to help create in the kitchen; one who likes food - especially the picking and eating of it on the farm. She takes amazing photos with our simple little digital camera. She takes care of her youngest sister with a mother's compassion. Sure, she has her days when she is a green eyed monster. None of my children are perfect. But she has blessed our lives in so many ways. It's been a good decade.

I was raised with boys. I lived in a neighborhood filled with mainly boys. I fought my mom on dressing like a girl. You know, the whole dresses and pretty hair and white socks thing. My best friend(s) when I was young were boys - There was one girl, a sister a boy I played with; and my cousin, who is a girl. I remember asking my mom for a baby brother when I was a kid too. She laughed at that. (Now that I am a mom I can see why she, as a mom to ten by age 38, laughed.) My husband was raised in a house of boys. No sisters. So I figured I would have boys when I got married. That was the plan anyway. But God had other plans for me. We have one son, and 4 daughters. Even our dogs are female. But I am still trying to figure out this whole raising girls thing. My poor eldest girl - she's the guinea pig for it all. She is 12 years old, and although she has zero interest in boys (phew!) I know the day is coming. That's why when I read this post on a friends facebook, I loved it! ...

April is full of birthdays in our family. Starting last Thursday and running through to the end of the month, we'll have 10 family birthdays (this includes my family and G's family also.) So we celebrated G's birthday yesterday, just the 7 of us having a fun time at home. He almost got breakfast in bed; but a certain almost-3 year old thought it would be fun to sit on his head. So he didn't stay in bed. Instead he got a special breakfast, made by his children, served to him as he sat and watched some TV. This in itself was pretty amazing - not that the kids made breakfast but that he actually got to sit and watch some Sat. morning football! Not too much was really exciting during the day. Birthdays get like that as a person gets older. Although I was pretty stoked when we actually went down to a store and handed over the $$ for a brand new dishwasher!! Wahoo! And then - it gets even better - G installed that evening and he even loaded it and ran the first batch of dis...

It's a good thing my husband watches one of my favorite shows with me! I'm talking about "Chopped" not Duck Dynasty! D.D. is not his thing, although I love it. So the other day I was made some soft pretzels in the bread machine. They just didn't turn out "right." It seems most of my breads from the machine are not coming out too well. So, we had all these bready treats to eat, and yet no one really wanted them for a snack. We tried putting honey mustard on them. We tried jam. Still not right. And then my smart husband said, why not melt some butter with garlic salt, and dip the pretzels in them? Aha! Just like in those Mediterranean restaurants, where you dip pieces of bread in olive butter, or such. And so I listened to him, and wow, they were good that way! I guess we can watch a lot more Chopped - it's sinking in subconsciously. We made it out to the farm on Friday to do some work with Grandpa. It was a sunny spring day, but COLD. We loaded ...

Some of my regular readers might know I like to run. A lot. And some might know that if my offspring are running or racing I get a little ... intense during their race. And so it happened yesterday. We are now in the middle of track season. The Boy had his first meet of the year last night. In the pouring rain no-less. Brought back fun memories of my high school track experience. WE once ran in the hail. Of course as a mom I wanted him to "Stay dry!" and "Get under the canopy", but as a 14 year old, he didn't really pay much attention to that, rather enjoying the time in the rain being goofy and hanging with the guys. The Boy ran the 400 m, 800m and 4x400m relay yesterday. It was great! He had grown so much since last year, and gotten faster too. He smoked the field on his races. On one of the races (800m) he was just doggin' it until the last 100m but then he kicked it in and won. I am pretty sure he won the 400m also, but my line of sight was not direc...

I've got a half-marathon coming up in 10 days. Yikes! I don't quite feel ready. I do, but I don't. Earlier in the week I made it to 12 miles. The first 6 felt great. The next 3 were ok. The last 3 were just plain hard to keep going. I admit, I walked. A little bit. And I was quite happy to visit with our couch that afternoon for a nice long nap. Today I had to get back out there and run some more. A maintenance run so to speak. It was only 3miles, but it was raining. I put it off this morning as long as I could, but I wanted a shower and wasn't getting one until I ran. (My day doesn't seem started right without a shower and cup of caffeine tea.) Anyway, the rain was coming down and so I ran out there when it *seemed* to be lessening. And it actually was quite fun to run in the rain. Thankfully it was warmer - spring is pretty nice around here. And thankfully it was only 3 miles. I was quite soaked by the time I got home. So I haven't hit the taper point ye...

The last half of spring break was beautiful! Sunny and warm weather in Oregon at the end of March?? Unheard of. We actually wore shorts and didn't have goosebumps. The kids had "friends" day or two. And we had some lego fun - which resulted in a billion photos on my camera that looked kind of like this: We made a trip to the airport to greet and help transport our friends who flew in from S. America! Hurray! - we get to see them for a year! We also found the shoes and dresses for Easter and an upcoming wedding.  Little girl shoes are just so cute! The kids got to wash both vehicles and took some time to smell the flowers For Easter I dressed up our kids and off to church we all went. This year we didn't have to wear sweaters over the sleeveless dresses. Why oh why do dressmakers make spring dresses without sleeves?! And why oh why do stores in Oregon NOT sell dresses with sleeves for little girls??   After an awesome church service we packed up a...