Awana grand prix

Last weekend we had our big Awana grand prix. This is where kids are given a block of pine wood and a set of wheels. Then it is up to them (or their Dad) to shape it and paint it to make it look like a car. Plus they have to be a certain weight to make it go fast. There is a whole science to this.

My husband used to do this when he was in Awana. So he was all about doing this with his kids. It always seems like such a great idea in theory. Although this happened last year too. We don't actually have any wood working tools. So it was just him and a knife wittleing away. About half way through the first one, he was ok to never have to do this ever again. Plus I could tell he was seriously considering "just how dangerous is it really to give a 6 year old a knife to let him do his own dang car?"

Luckily he got them both done. Then the kids got to decorate their car themself. Bug painted his blue with flaming bunnies (Foster's home for imaginary friends reference) and Sunshine took crayons and stickers to hers. They both did a great job.

Of course once we got there it looks like some of the other cars came right straight from the Hot wheeles factory. There is no way the kids designed half of them. Which just sort of made me mad. It put them at an unfair advantage. I thought our kids cars were fantastic and original.

None of our cars won for speed, but they both got trophies for original design. I am glad about that. That they recognized the effort. But usually things like these "everybody is a winner". The kids don't know that though. They felt like big winners and strutted around with their new shiny trophies.

It was a pretty fun day. Grandparents and even Aunt Mari came out to cheer them on.

What up playa...

So Sunshine has this weird obsession with fake teeth. Why these are so awesome you may ask? Well....to be honest, I'm not sure. Possibly because they are covered in germs and then all the kids feel they need to shove the slobbery wad in their mouth too. The whole idea of them just barfs me out quite frankly.

But she always seems to find them in every store and begs for them. Normally I have no problem saying no. Whining children seem to be my super power these days and they usually have no control over me. But when I saw these in the store and saw just how insistant Sunshine was to own these little gems....how could I resist.

Ok let me also preface this here by giving you a little bit of a background of where I got them. True confessions here..... I love Winco. If you are not familiar with Winco...let me fill you in. It is an enormous grocery store where most everything is still in it's original case and dirt cheap. There is nothing fancy or showy about this grocery store and that's how they keep the prices so low. Let me remind you I am feeding a bottomless pit that is disguised as a family of 5. We spend more on groceries than we do on utilities. So a place like Winco is awesome because I can stretch my already tight budget a little farther. However.....it comes with a price. winco is located in the sketchy part of town. At any given time of day you can see meth heads, crack dealers and strippers also cashing in on Winco's low, low prices. So it tends to be a bit of a sociological experience. I love it. It always gives me good stories to laugh about. Of course the kids and I always need to bathe in Lysol after our Winco experience just to get the sin off of us :)

Well so Sunshine and I were having our one on one time. Which if you have kids you understand that sometime it just happens to fall on a time when you also need to get something done too. So we spent our time grocery shopping.(Don't judge me) But in that, the small toy section of the store caught her eye. Which, can I just say how depressing grocery store toys are. Like they are similar to dollar store toys. They couldn't afford to get in Barbie, so instead they got "Darbie" who just looks like a cheap knock off....because it it!!!! Well amongst these crummy toys....Sunshine found these.

They cost $1 and were worth every penny seeing a lily white 3 year old girl put in her stupid gangsta crunk teeth. Whats funny here is she puts both top and bottom in and then tries to talk. Which just turns into a drooly mess.

My kids crack me up.

Weird night at the gym

Ok so I go to the gym tonight for my aerobics class. But there is just weird people and energy there tonight. A lot of the regulars are not there but in their place are these awesome parade of nutty society.

First off...there are these 2 guys in their 60's that are there 3 times a week without fail. I never really gave it much thought,. Just thought they were just pastey old white guys that liked water aerobics. I mean I realize it isn't really the most "manly" of workouts, but I can keep an open mind. They have always been nice, but not all that talkative. Well tonight the instructor (who I have grown to love) asked if we had and requests for music. Apparently thats all that it took for the flood gates to open. Both of them about worked themselves into a lather (literally) jumping up and down while doing a little clap. All the while screaming ....CHER!!!!

I stood there amazed. Usually my "Queen" detector goes off the moment we meet. But these two totally got past my advanced radar. I had to giggle to myself. Mind you I am not laughing at them (all you sensitive nellies out there) I was laughing at the situation.

So there was that. Then there was this other couple where the guy was at least in his mid to late 30's and his girlfriend/wife looked to be about 19 or 20. She went along and did the aerobics class while he paced along the concrete of the pool, barely taking his eyes off her. He just gave off the jealous vibe like he was waiting for her to talk to someone just so that he could get on her about that. For a minute I sort of felt sorry for her thinking "wow that must really suck to be with someone so oppressive" Then I saw her get dressed after the class in a 3 sized too small halter tank top. With glitter writing on the front that said "Buy me stuff". Then it became abundantly clear who these people were. That little show of control was just one of their games. People like this bug me.

Look I know I am not perfect.Trust me I don't even sort of claim to be.

I'm just relaying some good times at the gym.

My husband the philosopher

So often I beam with pride by the things my husband does and says. He has an incredible mind not to mention a dark wit. He sees the world through a different filter that most of us do and is able to put the pieces together in a way that I only wish I could. Half the time I just coast through life as a sort of inactive participant. Often I find myself following a "sheeple" mentality. This is something I am working on, but hey, we all have something.

I'm not just being lazy here, but he wrote an awesome and profound post on his blog that I thought was worth sharing.

Which State Do You Live In

Ch Ch Changes..

Well as warned...I changed the layout. I was getting tired of the lavender. I wanted some wild valentine layout, but most of the templates were way too girly for my taste.

I really don't have anything interesting to blog about here. I just wanted to point out that I did in fact change the scenery. Do not adjust your set.

That is all.....

Wild kingdom .....and pizza

So the family and I were out the other night trying out this new pizza place that just went in down the street. It's one of those places that has a plasma tv at every table and then a big one on the wall. Usually the big one has a game or something neutral on it.

So we are changing the channel on the one at our table. We find cartoon network and so we are good to go. Then we hear Sunshine talking about a piggy. We just think she's talking about something on the cartoon they are watching. So we don't give it much attention. Then Bug chimes in. He's like "Are there pigs that live in the wild?" . We say "yes, but not around here". At that moment Sunshine yells "Oh NO!!! Whats wrong with that piggy?!"

At that moment we turn around and realize that the big screen TV on the wall was on ESPN. However we just happen to hit right in the middle of some sort of hunting competition where they were in fact hunting....you guessed it, wild boar.

Perfect. Just the sort of thing I want to watch with my young kids while we are eating. I asked them to change the channel and they were totally embarrassed. You would think that ESPN would be a safe bet, but I guess not.

Now that poor Sunshine is scarred for life :)

No kidding, this is what that poor animal looked like before it got shot. They really are kind of cute.

My morning commute

So I have had this idea for a couple years and just haven't put the pieces together. I have been doing this morning commute since we moved to this house over 7 years ago. My husband works downtown in the land of overpriced parking garages. Generally they charged more for parking than we pay for car payment. Because they can. Usually companies pay for their employee parking so they can charge outrageous prices. His company doesn't though. Not even a discount. They won't even chip in for a bus pass. So we are on our own. We laid it all out and it is the cheapest for me just to drive him and pick him up everyday. It was sort of inconvenient for like the first couple of months, but I have been doing this for 7 years now, so it's just what I do. My kids know the drill as they have been doing this since the day they they were all born. We just take Dad to work in the morning.

So because of this I spend on average 2 hours in the car a day. Add in taking Bug to school.

But I have always wanted to take pictures along the way because on a nice morning, it's a really pretty commute. The Portland skyline with the sunrise in the back is pretty awesome. This morning it was about 20 degrees so the added chill makes it look all the more crisp.

Just a little slice of my life here. It may interest nobody but me, but I thought it was worth documenting.

Annie Oakley

So last night Sunshine had her first big sleep over at Nana's (my mom) house. They seemed to have great fun. They did lots of "Girl things" according to Sunshine. They camped out on the floor in her family room and went shopping today. Sunshine had a blast.

Whats funny is let me just preface this by saying that she's a little bit country to my little bit rock 'n roll. I loath most things country. But my mom seems to love it, so I openly make fun of her and she tells me to stuff it. It's just the little dance we do.Between you and me...I think she may believe that that she's one of the missing Mandrell sisters, but I can't be sure :)

Well for whatever reason....Sunshine is on this MAJOR cowgirl kick. (Much to my Mom's sha-grin) So my Mom introduced Sunshine to her new favorite store......the Tack Mercantile. yeah it is just what it sounds. Here is where you can get all of the Country Western style clothes you could ever want all in one place. She let Sunshine pick herself out her very own "cowgirl hat" and some (really nice...and no I'm not being snarky here...they really are nice) boots. She really let her pick them out herself.

Boy, Sunshine couldn't be more proud of her new treasures either. She got herself all saddled up and hopped on "Trigger" (Yes that's really the horses name) her trusty steed, and away she went. I had to pry her off of it just for dinner.

It's totally not my thing (what with the redneck and the hillbilly and all) but Sunshine and Nana are just two peas in a pod and I think I'm just going to have to learn to except this.


Or go nuts trying to fight it.

This is what happens

This is what happens when you turn you back on a 17 month old for any length of time. Somehow he got a hold of a self inking stamp that the kids had (not very well) hidden in their craft box. Luckily it is non-toxic, but as we seem to be finding out.....it isn't exactly washable. This happened at about 8:00 this morning, and it looked about the same when i put him to bed tonight.

his tounge and teeth are even a little red.

Good times.

awesome quotes

Ok so normally I put these in a nice little box off to the right here >>>>>

But today I have to get more than one and I didn't want them to get swept under the rug and not properly acknowledged.

All of them are classic Groucho Marx . Which C'mon!! Classic humor is way better than most of the drek you find today. And with that I give you some of the best one liners.

Behind every successful man is a woman, behind her is his wife.


Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?


I remember the first time I had sex - I kept the receipt.


Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

Finally a nice day!!

So a couple of days ago we had a nice day and the kids were itching to get outside and enjoy it as they have been cooped up in what seems to be like the longest winter ever. I know we have quite a bit left still, but everyone was beginning to miss what it is like to play outside. We have just come off of a 2 week rain pattern. So some fresh air was a nice change. It still was pretty cold though. Notice the progression of the pictures. As we get to the last couple, the kids noses get redder and redder :)

Maniac on a tricycle

So i have said it before and I'll say it again. This kid is fearless! This was a couple days ago we actually had a brake in the rain so we got the kids out and playing.

Notice here how her feet hardly even touch the petals. She's like a freak road warrior. Flying down the street at mach speeds.

Update...

Ok I know this is totally me patting myself on the back and all....but I just thought I'd take a picture of what a sparkeling clean kitchen should look like. ...Look mom...I even cleaned all the pictures off the cabinets! You've been trying to get me to do that for months!

Another exciting and productive day in the life of me!

I even have dinner in the crock pot! And now I need to go spend the next hour in the car picking Bug up from school and my husband up from work. Off I go!

This is why....

So I love that you all care what I have to say, but I'm going to have a "Real" moment here. This is the real reason why I haven't posted anything in a couple days. I don't have any life threatening drama or deep contribution I have to give the world. I have just been over run by my own filth.

I'm trying desperatly to get a hold of the clutter that is my house. I put up 24 auctions on Ebay last night and I'm trying to down size. Althought all of my listings are Tupperware. (I have a lot of Tupperware. Have I mentioned that I love Tupperware? Truth is I sell it just to get my own discount :) I have a problem. Somebody help me)

Anyhow... I haven't written a new post , because this is what my kitchen looks like at this very moment. I know you can't hear it ( what with the series of tubes that is the internet) but it is in fact screaming at me. My kitchen that is. So I must go and take care of it.

Sorry I'm not more interesting, but this is the "Real" life of a stay at home mom. I may make it sound interesting, but most of it is pretty much everyday stuff. It's all about making everyday stuff interesting ;)

Snow morning!!

So around these parts, it dosen't snow very often. But when we get even the smallest dusting, the whole city shuts down. last night we got some freezing rain which with a little bit of snow. So naturally all schools were delayed by 2 hours this morning. We didn't realize this until we got to school and they turned us away. It really is pretty riduculous. Just take your time when driving on ice!!! Ask anyone who has ever lived in Alaska. You just learn to get around in it. otherwise we would all be shut ins.

Anyhow, this is what the kids did in the extra time this morning. They played pirate and turned his bed into a pirate ship.
By the way... he's in the big rubbermaid container in the bottom picture, but in actuality....it is his rescue boat. You know, the one that he had to catch when his scallywag sister made him walk the plank.
;)

What a draining day!

I woke up this morning thinking it would be a day much like any other. But a day in the life of a mother never is just a mellow day.

We had an incident yesterday in church that left us a little shaken. A parent of one of the kids was helping out in Bug's Sunday school class. We have seen this parent around and had a few run ins with him as his son and Bug are also in the same 1st grade class. Let me just preface this by saying (in the most Christian like way I can) that this man is not a very pleasant man to be around. He has little patience with children and especially mine. In his opinion his son can do no wrong. What is sort of funny about this, is that his son is just as rambunctious and high spirited as Bug is. They (for the most part) get along really well. But like all kids this age they do have silly little dramas and they do squabble. They sort of have a love/hate relationship.

Thus far it has always been my opinion to let kids learn to fight their own battles until they seek my help. Or tattle and then I have to get involved. So I have stayed out of their squabbles.

Then enters this Father. Now a little in his defense...I do enjoy talking to his wife. She and I have become friends just by proxy. We drop off and pick up kids at the same time and our kids are in church activities together. However.....this Dad is always rude to me and makes a point of asking me questions like "So I wonder what Bug did to my kid today" or " It sure would be nice if Bug didn't teach my kid such terrible behavior" or "gee...maybe if you didn't have so many kids you could get his behavior under control". (Ok I added that last one in. but that's the way he looks at me. It feels like that is what he is thinking. He is an only child and has a only child so that makes him an expert of child behavior)

Well let's cut to the chase here. So yesterday we go to pick Bug up after the church service and his teacher pulls my husband aside. Apparently this guy was helping out with the Sunday school class and had seen enough of Bug's "behavior" and decided to take matters into his own hands.

He took him aside , got in his face and yelled at him telling him" not to ever talk to his kid again." Now to a 6 year old this was really traumatic and really shook Bug up. He said that the way he was acting, he thought he was going to punch him or something. The teacher told us that she was really uncomfortable and thought this was very inappropriate.

We were LIVID!!!!

So we calmed Bug down and reassured him that whatever he did, no matter how bad, did not warrant that. We felt awful that this happened. Especially at church where we are taught to resolve things peacefully and talk it out.

So we got up today and I had to go in and talk to his teacher and let her know that Bug and this other boy can't have any contact. It seems so ridiculous, but I honestly just don't want to provoke him. After this, I would be scared to think what he would do to Bug if he found out that they were still talking.

So my husband gave this man a call tonight and told him "Look, the boys won't talk as long as we can help it. We have done everything we could do on our end. ...Oh and by the way....don't you EVER talk to my kid again unless it is in a heart felt apology. If you have an issue with him....you come to us. " Big man!!! Scaring the pants off a 6 year old child! He didn't even believe that Bug was bothered by the whole thing. He didn't say he was sorry or anything. He had no idea what he had done. He told my husband "sometimes you just have to speak sternly to boys" My husband was like "Yeah ok fine, talk to your own boy like that but leave mine alone!"

I'm trying really hard here just to turn the other cheek. But it gets tricky when your kid is in the middle of it. The mama bear in me just wants to rip this guys eyelids off. But in the meantime all I can do is just sit back and pray that he will realize what he has done and apologize so that the boys can be friends again. Because out of all of this...Bug really only had one friend at this school and now he lost him. Thats the saddest part.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.

Today's sassy look

Well as I have mentioned before Sunshine can't seem to do anything without some sort of sporty costume accessory. Today is no exception.

And here we have a fabulous crown with the 23rd Psalm printed out on it. However you wouldn't know that, mainly because she has covered the words with foam stickers.

So basically she sits around eating lunch wearing her paper,Psalm, foam sticker crown.

Sure...why not.

Cowgirl Sunshine

Ok I know....third video of the day. But I promise I'll stop here.


This one sort of pulls it all together though. Sunshine has been on this Horses/cowgirl kick for ...oh....about 3 1/2 years. Add in her love of the death defying.....an this is what you end up with.

By the way...I just want to take this moment and apologize for the crummy video quality here. I know my Dad is somewhere screaming at his screen right now. But I just don't have very good light in this room and I was more interested in catching the moment than I was about making it perfect. I can see now that I chose poorly :(

Look out Sugar Ray...

Ok, so i know I have talked a lot about the wonders and greatness of the Wii. But I really had to give you a visual of just how amusing it really is. It's fun just to watch other people play it.

Mind you, this is my 6 year old beating the snot out of a virtual punching bag. It seems innocent enough, but what cracks me up here is the intensity in which he does it.

And of course the victory dance at the end doesn't hurt either ;)

A challenge...

I challenge any of you to sit and watch this baby and not at least crack a smile.

I have no idea who this kid is, but man, this cracks me up.

If you can watch this and not at least grin let alone laugh....you are broken my friend and need some help.

Big night in!!!

So what do we do on a thrilling Friday night you may ask? We gather around the wii for another round of virtual sports playing. We are hooked !

As you can see here, we ALL have gotten into it. Sunshine totally kicked my butt at tennis. She's fierce. I mean it, don't let her see your fear or she'll take you out. ;)

Feeding the ducks

So when you raise a family on one income (mom stays home and raises kids) you are sort of forced to get creative with fun things to do that are cheap , but don't feel cheap.

One of our favorite things to do only cost about $2 for our whole family. We buy 2 loaves of bread and go feed the ducks. We have a protected wetland within walking distance from our house so we brave the rain (Please, we're Oregonians, that was a joke) and head outside.

This time of year they are getting ready to nest so they can be really aggressive and hungry. As soon as we showed up they practically ran towards us knowing what we had for them.

There were regular old mallard ducks, and a bunch of Canadian geese. There were even some cool looking farm geese. Plus in these parts if there are swamp like conditions, there are nutria. Now if you aren't from Oregon and aren't familiar with nutria, they are like a cross between a beaver and a muskrat. They are pretty harmless to people, but they can make dams and a mess out of a yard pretty quick. They are considered vermin, but they are still kind of cool.

We got a couple cool pictures of the nutria and all of the ducks and geese too. We were amazed just how aggressive they were. My husband was able to get a goose to eat out of his palm and pet it at the same time. Usually they can be pretty nasty. But I guess we got him on a friendly day :)

recipe for disaster

1-wheat tortilla

1-oz peanut butter

1-oz homemade raspberry jelly

1-oz cream cheese

roll up like a burrito and VOILA!! You get a magnificent sticky mess that you will have to scrape out of his ears and eyebrows.

mmmmmm!!!!

Giddy up

So I don't really have anything clever to say about this other than this is just Sunshine watching TV.

Whenever possible, it is impairative that you do everything in costume. Today she's a cowgirl. you know, riding the range....watchin Dora. Whatever. This is what cowgirls do.

Ahhh the chicken and the road....

Ok normally I hate those horrible "cutesy" emails that get passed around. In fact if I usually just delete them if I see that it is just a foreword about how 70 angels will fly and grant wishes if I only send this along to 90 of my closest friends.....blah blah...

But this one actually made me laugh out loud. Which isn't easy to do.

My favorite is Jerry Falwell.

Subject: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

DR. PHIL

:

The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.


OPRAH

:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:

We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road....

ANDERSON?COOPER - CNN:

We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:

Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:

That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:

To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:

Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?' That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:

In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON:

Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

ARISTOTLE:

It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES:

I have just released eChicken2008, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ........ reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:

Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:

I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE:

I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:

Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY?:

Where's my gun?