What?

So when I was putting Sunshine to bed tonight, I thought I would mix it up a little. I usually pray with the kids at bedtime, but I thought she's old enough to do this herself, let's see what she has to say. Not that she doesn't already pray at dinner, just normally at bedtime I do it (mostly to keep it short and sweet and get the show on the road if you know what I mean)

But when I asked her to pray, she said something that I did not expect. She said that she didn't want to. I asked her why? She said "I am sort of mad at Jesus right now."

Totally not what I expected!

No way I'm going to let that drop. So I press on. Why on earth would you be mad at Jesus?

She then bursts into tears. And not just a little cry, oh but the ugly cry. She was gasping for breath and trying to talk through it. It was an all out sob. Like she had been holding it in for a while.

Then it comes out. She is mad because she thinks that Jesus came in thief in the night style and stole her crab Whitey.

Now for those of you that even remember Whitey, give yourself 50 points. If you don't then get caught up here.

We had a long talk about forgiveness and understanding why God does things the way He does. I can only hope that I didn't just confuse her even more. Quite frankly, this is a topic I myself am not exactly an expert at. I can only lean on the assumption that He knows what He is doing. That is just hard for a 4 year old's brain to wrap around. Who am I kidding....it's hard for a 33 year old's brain :)

I told her that I have a running list of things I plan on asking God when I get to Heaven. I told her I'd put it on the list. Although my guess is that He did it just to push a reluctant mom into having a hard conversation with her child. We'll see.

Under the influence

Only under the influence would I get such heart warming moments like these. Normally these two are tearing each other's hair out. But today , under the soft glow of Benadryl, they live a life of loving their sibling.

By the way, they were just standing there watching watching TV embracing each other.

Whatever. Capture the moment, because they are few and far between :)

Allergies are awesome!!

So for some reason the cottonwood trees are just brutal this year. I really don't have allergies, but every now and then something will set me off. This year it seems to be cottonwood trees. They release this cottony fluff in the air that coats the ground and looks like snow. It usually only blooms for about a week or so. But it is a rough week for those of us that are sensative to them.

Well it turns out that my kids are bothered by it too. Their pediatrician swears up and down that kids couldn't possibly have allergies until they are about 4. But all I know is that one day Peanut was fine, and another day he is a sniffeling , wheezing, red eyed mess. He and Sunshine were just hating it this morning, so I gave them some antihistimine. It did the job, but they were both stoned all morning.

It was sort of a nice break though. They just layed around and I got to post a bunch of stuff to sell on Craigslist. It all worked out for the best.

At one point Peanut just set up camp at my feet with his blanket and loveys and all. He started using my foot as a pillow. It was really sort of pitiful. Just to put him out of his misery, I fed him lunch at like 10 this morning and put him down for an early nap. It just knocked him out.

Sunshine is watching a movie right now in a sort of zombie state. She is too stuborn to take a nap, so she is just fighting it. I give her about an hour before she can't take it anymore and falls asleep.

We'll see.

Monkey see monkey do...

Imitation is the best form of flattery. I love that he follows me around with Sunshine's vacuum and even makes the sounds. Unfortunately the batteries "died" in the toy vacuum so it doesn't make it's own noises anymore. Darn it anyway :)

The children's museum

So Bug had Friday off from school because they had some sort of in service day or something. So we started off this (already) long holiday weekend by going to the Children's museum. We try to go there as often as we can just to justify having a membership. The kids always have fun though. Rockstar husband even cut out of work a little early and met up with us. We had fun playing.

Random facts # 5,6,and 7

Ok more random facts time. Are you ready?

Here we go ...


#5

I have never had a childhood illness. Not without trying either. That is chicken pox, measles, mumps. My mom would always stick me around kids that were sick when I was young, just so that I could get it and have it be over. But I would never catch anything. When I was pregnant, it made my midwife a little nervous that I have never had chicken pox. I guess if you get it when you are pregnant , it can cause all sorts of problems. So she wanted me to go and get the vaccine. But before they give it to you, you must have a blood test to make absolutely sure that you don't have antibodies that would counter the vaccine. So I did. Well it turns out, I have a natural immunity to chicken pox. How this is possible I have no idea. I am just a freak like that.


#6

Only under complete force do I ever wear socks. I own 3 pair of socks and they are only for the gym. I am always either barefoot or in flip flops. Always. Year round. No exception. I feel completely claustrophobic in socks and closed in shoes. It started with my first pregnancy. My feet grew a size and a half. Plus I had really high blood pressure which made me swell like nobody's business. So shoes were really uncomfortable. Then once I got pregnant again and again (you get the idea.) Each pregnancy my feet grew a little more. I used to be a nice and dainty size 8. I'm now a freakish 10 1/2 sometimes 11. That is the type of awesome that nobody wants. But one of the perks of not havening a conventional job is that I can be barefoot all day and nobody is going to complain.

#7

I am a human jukebox. When I was younger my Dad was a disc jockey a couple towns over. My parents divorced when I was three, so I didn't get as much time with my dad as I would have liked. But I knew that he was on the air somewhere. So I was constantly listening to the radio hoping to hear his voice. Unfortunately I didn't understand the whole concept that we didn't pick up his station where we lived. But I listened none the less. The radio was always on. Because of this , it seems I can sing along to just about any song from the 70's and 80's with pretty good accuracy as far as lyrics. What is funny about this, is I didn't really know I had this skill until one day my husband and I were bored and watching an infomercial. (Clearly this is long before kids. Who has the time for that now :) It was one of those CD compilations of the hits from the 70's. I sang along with every sample song they gave. He just looked at me and asked "how do you know all of these?" I thought " I don't know, how come you don't?" Then it turned into a game. He would try to stump me and we would watch more of those dumb commercials. I could always name that tune in under 5 notes. He then deemed me the "human jukebox" I carry my title proudly.


Ok so there you go.

There are always more to come.

There will be a quiz later. Just so you know.

Peace out.

I heart Barack Obama

Ok I know I don't normally do posts like this, but I promise it won't turn into a common occurrence. But as a native Oregonian, it should come as no real surprise that I am a bleeding heart, bedwetting liberal. As such I love me some Barack Obama. I won't go in a long winded argument as to why. I still believe that politics , much like religion is a personal choice. Point and case, just because I consider myself a Christian, certainly doesn't mean that I only vote for the "conservative vote". I vote for the person that I think will do the best job and the person who will take us in the direction that I think we need to be going.

If this tarnishes your golden opinion of me, well then so be it.

In any case, Obama was in town yesterday down at the waterfront. I love this city for a lot of reasons, but I especially love that when a guy like Barack Obama comes to town, all the folks come out. As you may or may not know, Portland is one of the most bike friendly cities in the country. Add the two factors together and you end up with a million bikes parked anywhere and everywhere.

I guess Portland broke some sort of record for an event like this. We had over 75,000 people down at the waterfront.

Awesome!!!

Great day for a bike ride

On Sunday we got out and went for a great bike ride as a family. Bug and I rode our bikes and Rock star husband pulled the younger kids in the bike trailer. It's quite a workout. But it gets us all out and riding. We rode down the 4 mile trail downtown and then played in an awesome fountain on the waterfront. It really acts more like a sprinkler. It blasts like 10,000 gallons of water from 16 different spouts. It's really fun.

Luckily we got down there before the heat of the day struck, had a picnic lunch, played in the fountain and then biked the trail back home just as the heat really kicked up.

Downtown was especially busy this afternoon and I'll write out another post about that a little later on.

It was a great day.

Trying to keep cool

This weekend we had some sort of freak heat wave. Ok let me remind you here that a little over a month ago we had snow during spring break. This week we top 100 degrees. Whatever.

Well to top it off, we have a fantastic forced air system that should hold our inside temperature at a comfortable 68 degrees. In theory. We have a digital thermostat that after living in this house for 8 years, we have yet to figure out how it works. It usually takes about a week to get it under control and then we don't touch it again until it's time to turn on the heat in the fall. This however wasn't the weekend however that we got the thermostat under control. So basically it drove us outside into the 90+ degree weather to try to cool off.

Really what it boils down to is that we are too cheap to call out a service person to see what is going on with it.

I don't think it is broken, I just think there is an IQ prerequisite.

Anyhow, out of the misery of face melting temperatures, we did manage to get some decent pictures.

Awana awards ceremony

So I know I have dropped the "blogging ball" so it would seem. But last week was a really busy one, so sitting down at my computer started feeling like a luxury of time that I didn't really have.

Anyhoo...last Wednesday we had a T ball game and then immediately following was the big end of year awards ceremony for Awana. Bug finished up his second year of Sparks and Sunshine with her first year of Cubbies. Both of them love it.

They were really proud of themselves.

ARRRRBLLAAAHH! and random fact #4

So I have this confession to make. I am a talk radio junkie. My Tv hardly ever goes on during the day unless it's Charlie and Lola, Yo Gabba Gabba, or Ni hao Kai-lan related. I just stopped fighting the battle during the day with the kids. Plus since the invention of the DVR, I just watch Tv when I have time and record all my shows to watch whenever. I hate wasting time in front of the TV when I know that I have things that I should be doing instead. I'm neurotic I know.

So, anyways back to random fact #4. I heart talk radio like nothing else. My favorite is a local guy named Rick Emerson.

I have been listening to him everyday for the past 7 years or so.They are like my imaginary friends. My husband jokes about it because I tell him funny stuff that they say throughout the day like we were hanging out. It oddly makes me feel cooler than I really am . Not the sad little stay at home mom that reality really reflects :) I don't even come close to fitting his demographic, (which is I'm guessing men 18-35) but it keeps me entertained.

So a couple days ago, he had a giant listener party. We have gone to the past couple that they have had. It is seriously like the greatest hits of the super nerdiest the Portland metro area has to offer. We fit right in.

We did have an interesting experience while we were there though. My husband even felt the need to write in and share our experience with the rest of the listening audience.
***********************************************************************

Dear Rick,

Last night we were standing behind a couple guys dressed up as pirates, and true to form, they were knocking back the grog like seasoned buccaneers.

As the night went on, however, we realized that one of the pirates was leaning over onto a table with his head in his hands.

Perhaps his peg leg was giving him slivers? Perhaps his parrot flew away?

Pirate 1: "Oh man, I'm feeling really sick. I think I drank too much. I'm sorry, man. I'm really sorry. Dude....."

Pirate 2: "It's ok, man. We've had a long day and you just drank too much. It's alright."

Pirate 1: "I think I'm going to vomit... I'm so sorry."

My wife and I look at each other with panic in our eyes because we're stuck where we are.

There's too many people packed in around us if we needed to jump to the side.

Hopelessly we watch "Greenface the Pirate" get closer and closer to his inevitable conclusion.

Our muscles and nerves were on edge like gazelles ready to jump into the air and over the crowd at the moment of chunder.

Luckily for us and everyone around who doesn't enjoy the smell of vomit, he just slowly turned and made his way out of the room.

We can only hope our courageous pirate made it to the bathroom where he safely scuttled his stomached and flushed it down to Davey Jones' Locker.


Best party ever.

-jason


Awesome!

Give my Dad some bussiness oh won't you please :)

Ok I know this is tacky, but if you know me, that rarely slows me down. I am going to do something I don't normally do here and that is shamelessly promote something. Over on the side bar over there ------------> is a link that says "shop Alaska from home". Click on it and check out my Dad's website that he has been working really hard at, but not having a whole lot of traffic. So I thought I might be able to help him out by getting the word out through you guys.

In short, it is a site devoted to those of you that went to Alaska on vacation, but didn't get all of the souvenirs that you wished you had. It seems like there is always something that you just couldn't afford at the time, but you wish you had gotten. Enter Shop Alaska from home. Check out his stuff.

Also check out his "about us" page. We even made it into the roll call :)

Or if going to my sidebar is just too much work, you can click.......here.

Random facts

So it has been brought to my attention that I am a unusual person with weird quirks that not everybody knows about. So I have decided to start dropping in random facts about myself.

#1

My husband and I bought our house 7 years ago, but up until then, I have never lived in any one place for more than 3 years. Ever. Three years has always been my limit of sticking in one place. I had someone ask me once "Are your parents military or something?" To that I reply..."no, just flighty :)"


#2

I changed schools 9 times by my freshman year.
Read #1 and you will see why. I am really good at being the new kid. I hated it. It sucked. Add being an only child into the mix and you have a whole lot of lonely. Luckily my mom was her own one woman show, so I was never bored. Just a little lonely.

#3

I have never pumped my own gas. Ever. Not that I haven't driven through many other states, but I am always with somebody that knows how to do it and I just let them take charge. But in return, I am 33 years old and have no idea how to pump gas. I have lived in Oregon the entire time I have been driving and we aren't allowed to pump our own gas here (for those of you that are not from around these parts) so why learn now. Whenever I go into Washington to see my mom, I always make sure I have enough gas to get me there and back, either that or she takes me out and does it for me. She's such an enabler :)

Stay tuned....I have many....many more weird facts about me to shock and amaze. Because I just wasn't egotistical enough :)

Happy Mother's day!!

I just want to publicly thank all of the Mother's in my life that have taught me how to be a Mother. My own Mom, step mom, Mother in law, Aunts and Grandmothers who paved the way and led by example of how to Mother our kids.

So my words are few, but in my opinion, pictures speak louder than words anyways. So I give you my favorite memories of these great women and a few of my own great moments in mothering.

I love you all.

My mom and I then and now.


My awesome Mother in law

My step mom

Sunshine showing off her Mommy skills


Grandma, Aunt and Mom.




Aunt and Uncle

My mom, Mother in law, Grandma and husband's grandma.


Peanut and I


Grandma dressing up with Bug at Halloween




Grandma and Sunshine



Peanut and Grandma up at the cabin

Happy Mother's day!!

Now go hug your mom won't you?

First T ball game!!

So last night was Bug's first Tball game. He did really well considering he had 2 games back to back. One at 6 and the other at 8. Now mind you, bedtime in our house is at 7. So that eight O'clock game sort of was a bummer. But we just took 2 cars and I had to split and take Sunshine and Peanut home to bed. If they weren't falling apart I would have stayed for the whole thing though. They all did surprisingly well.

It was fun to watch. All of the kids on both teams were about at the same skill level (and distraction level) I never played T ball, so I was sort of curious how it worked. But basically it's the same as baseball, but there are no outs, they just let the whole team bat. Then they switch teams. Also, you can only take one base at a time. So really why bother scoring? It gets kids used to the game I guess. Also learning how to play and work together as a team. Honestly, it was far more entertaining just watching the kids get bored and creative while out in the field. Bug had a talking to a couple times by the base coaches for making sandcastles in the dirt while he was suppose to be playing shortstop. What can you do?

Also Sunshine made some new friends with all the other little sisters of the players. They were quite a cheer leading section.

The cutest part of the night was when the first game wrapped up and all the players greet each other with the "side five and the repetitive "good game,good game,good game", they really weren't given instructions of what to do. So they went through that line and instead of the side five, they shook each other's hands. It took them forever to get through that line, but it was pretty cute. Very civilized :)

The Children's museum

So today my super responsible rock star husband played hookie from work and we took the younger kids to the Children's museum. It's a fun place that has lots of cool toys and lots of things for kids to use their imagination through "pretend play". There is a grocery store which is Sunshine's favorite part. (Huge surprise there ! :) Also a giant water table with lots of things to splash in and make a gigantic mess. That is Peanut's favorite part.

We all had a pretty good time. It would be nice if Bug was able to go, but we do special stuff with him at different times. Thats the hard part of being able to do special stuff with each one individually.

Feeding the ducks

This is our favorite time of year to feed the ducks. It's spring so all the Canadian geese have all their babies with them. We try to take a walk at least once a month down to the wetland area by our house to feed the ducks. But this time of year is by far our favorite time of year. The signets (baby geese) and all fuzzy and clumsy and they peep like baby chicks. They are pretty cute.

The whole family comes out. Even Libby has fun :)