Pesky rodents beware!!

So if you know me at all, you know that I don't do rodents of any type. Not mice, not hamsters, not bunnies and totally not squirrels. Squirrels drive me nuts. No pun intended.

I have been fighting this battle with the squirrels for as long as I have lived in this house. I like to feed every bird in North America. It's just something I do. I have serious over nurturing issues. But the squirrels are a huge pest and get in there and drain my feeders. In an afternoon sometimes if I am not on top of it. So I have to get out there and chase them off.

How do I chase them off you may ask......

I am a super soaker comando.


I can't actually bring myself to hurt them. I just don't want them in my yard.

This is how I have spent the majority of my day. Chasing these little punks out of my yard. I am like the proverbial old guy in a bathrobe with the shot gun and lawn chair screaming "get off my lawn!!" Except I am......well....me. And I have a child's squirt gun.

Oh sure I could just get "squirrel proof" feeders. The ones that claim to keep out the squirrels. But where is the sport in that? Then I would have to do something real and productive with my time. We can't have that :)

Someone has to teach those crafty little buggers a lesson.

A nice spring day at the park.

Just a little video for fun.

Bug's birthday extravaganza

So Bug's birthday was back on April 8th. But with Easter and every weekend being packed with something I had a hard time finding a weekend to do Bug's party. But we found one 3 weeks from the actual day.

He decided that he wanted to take a couple of his friends to JJ extreme.It is a place near our house that has a warehouse of bounce houses and giant swings. We did a party a couple years ago there and frankly, I was not impressed. It was really expensive (like $200) and there were only 3 or 4 kids that even showed up. We had to buy (at extra charge) their food and we only got to let the kids play for 1 hour. But he really wanted to do it again and I had some coupons that I had been saving for the past year waiting for the right time.

He invited 3 of his friends and so I picked them up for school yesterday and took them over to JJ extreme. They all got in on these coupons and I didn't have to pay a dime. I was totally surprised that they would allow me to use them all at once. But they did. They boys bounced and jumped and nerfed and swung themselves silly. They got to play for 2 1/2 hours. So they were exhausted when we were done.

We brought them back here to our place and fed them pizza and cake and had ourselves a real party for Bug.

He had a great time and said it was his best party EVER!!! That is always what you want to hear :)

Here are some highlights.

My gazebo

So I had this great gazebo that rockstar got me last year.







It was my salvation in the warm months. When the sun is out I am physically incapable of being inside. So the gazebo is where we spent the majority of our summer. We ate nearly every meal out there and would even drag the laptop out. I loved it.









Then tragedy struck.......dun dun dun!!!!


We had this insane ice storm that took out everything. The weight of the snow and ice tore the canvas of the gazebo. I thought well, it's annoying, but I'll have to get a replacement canvas roof. They are not all that expensive and it sort of was a learning lesson that I should have taken the canvas off for the winter.






Then as if that was not enough, once the snow melted, we got this vicious wind storm and the wind literally picked up the steel framed gazebo like an umbrella and threw it across our yard Wizard of Oz style. It completely crunched up the frame and bent the support beams. Rockstar had to take a hacksaw to it and pull it apart for scrap metal.







It was dead and gone. I was sad about the whole thing. I know it is just a thing, but I really loved that gazebo.

But the healing process had to begin and we started thinking about getting another one.

I looked and looked, but I couldn't settle on the right one.

But then I saw it across the Sears showroom. The one!!

Luckily we had just gotten our tax return and had budgeted to get another one.

So we got it and Rockstar went to go pick it up in our van. It was all disassembled and in a giant box. He barely got it in our van as the whole thing came in one box.







It weighed about 4000 lbs and took 3 men and a boy to get it in and out of the van.

But after 7 hours of assembly and a lot of his his own hair being pulled out, he had it together.



And it is glorious. A little bigger than our last one and a bar with stools attached so that the kids have somewhere to go other than a separate "kids table" on the deck when we have company. Already we have eaten the majority of our meals out there since it went up. It makes our little house not quite so cramped.

Easter

Yeah so I know that Easter was a couple of weeks ago, but as you may have noticed, I am a little behind on my poor neglected blog. So I thought I needed to get caught up and get these pictures on.

We did celebrate Easter in the usual fashion.

The kids dyed eggs.

Edward then took said eggs and helped me make deviled eggs. Because really, what else are you going to do with 2 dozen stained hard boiled eggs?

It was really nice of him.

Then we did the standard church service and off to my in laws.

We did our Easter feast and egg hunt (which had to be inside this year as it was a downpour outside)

Then because my very reason to live is to drive my kids insane. (Hey, turnabout is fair play) So Bug is getting really annoyed that mini Edward seems to suddenly pop up at any given time.(mostly because I keep him on me at all times) So I like to have a little fun and torment him.

We hid his eggs like usual, but I threw this in just for my own amusement.

I put him on the mantle next to other eggs. So while he was looking for other eggs, he stumbled on to Edward here. You are in luck because we even got our little piece of torment on video. What is funny is we just edited down this video, but he had been searching for like 5 minutes. So he was in total search mode. We thought it was pretty funny though :)

Let's get this song on New moon!

So I have this friend that is an incredible musician and has a unique chance to do something awesome. My friend Kristin has written and recorded a song that has a good chance of being on the New Moon soundtrack. I am asking all of my readers to do something huge for her. Listen to the song and comment on the youtube comment area. The full story is right here as written on her own blog http://coppeefamily.blogspot.com/2009/04/my-new-campaign.html.

Here is the video here. Just tell her what you think in the youtube comments.



This is what she sent to me....


On another note - HOLY CRAP, JAX! Thank you for promoting me! The song is not for sale at the moment since I'm trying to get it on New Moon. For now I just need as many people as possible to log onto youtube.com, look up The Mending Seed, watch the video and rate it. Leaving comments is good too. It's part of my campaign for when I approach Summit.

In other exciting news - my cousin heard it, loved it and told me his wife's aunt is best friends with Stephenie Meyer. He said he was going to see the aunt at Easter and he was going to make her listen to the song in hopes that she would take it to Stephenie because if Stephenie likes it, she can get Summit to listen to it. ANYWAY, I haven't heard back. I need to email him and let him know that keeping me waiting is not a good idea. LOL. I'm dying here!

Also, the CEO of BMI records in Nashville has heard it and apparently really likes it and says HE has connections to get it into New Moon. Again - still waiting to hear back. (SIGH)

Thanks, again, for your support! It means so much to me! I'm really touched. Thank you!


So lets get in there and make this happen!

Twilight party

So on Saturday I went out to my friend Shanna's house in St Helens for a big Twilight party she had. She being a fellow sister in obsession with the saga, she was awesome and opened up her house and we got to watch the movie, eat Twilight themed food and we also went on a tour of the town which as you may know (if you are my real friend and read my blog religiously which in my mind you all do) St Helens is where they filmed the majority of the movie. Molly and I went out there a couple months ago and I even put up a post about it here.

But this time I had Edward with me to re-enact some of his scenes. I am fairly certain that not only the girls that were with my group thought I may be out of my mind. And if they didn't, then the townsfolk did. But like any good blogger, I had to share my experiences with the world.

So enjoy!

Edward outside Bella's house.

Edward outside the bookstore.

Edward scaring off potential rapists. Isn't he intimidating?He's growling on the inside.

My lunatic self with Edward outside a store that the crew used for their set decoration.As the sign says.

The ally

The bloated toad aka "the restaurant"


Me and my fictional boyfriend.

Send for help :)

Bug turns 8!!

So I know I am a couple days behind on this. I have been sort of bogged down with stuff lately. But as the title says, my little Bug turned 8 a couple days ago. I can not believe it has been 8 years since I became a mother. I can barely remember my life before kids. Although I wouldn't trade it for anything. I feel like these kids made me the person I am. Bug was the first one to break me in though. He has been challenging and hysterical all at the same time. The sense of humor on this kid is incredible. Some of the things that he comes up with are awesome.

I had a lot of fun putting this slide show together. I was able to keep my composure a little better with this one. There was no sobbing and (hardly any) drinking going on. I got a hold of myself before it got out of hand :)

So there you have it.

Happy Birthday Bug!!

ComiCon 2009

As you may already know, my family is it's own brand of nerdy. We love all things Star Wars and most things sci-fi. My Dad has always been a Star Trek junkie as I was growing up and my husband's Dad was a comic junkie. So when the two of us meet up and breed, our offspring really have no chance at coolness. But there is a place where we can come together and hang out with our nerdy brethren.

Comic conventions.

Now these are not what they once were. They used to be (according to my husband who has been attending these since he was knee high) Comic vendors only. Before Ebay and the internet, this was the only place the seasoned (nerds) comic collectors could go find super rare comics. Nowadays, it's like geeky Disneyland. Everyone dresses up as their favorite character and they sell every sort of action figure, figurine and toys that you could think of. It really is a lot of fun.

Believe it or not, I had never been to one of these, but I had heard tales of the sheer awesomeness. Also Bug's 8th birthday was coming up, so we thought we would take him as he is WAY into this stuff. He went to ComiCon when it came to Portland last year. This year the big one was in Seattle. So my sister in law, my husband,Bug and I all piled in the van and off we went.

It was a lot of fun. Also there were a couple of celebrities signing autographs. Will Wheaton of Star trek next generation fame (and also Stand by me) and my favorite, Jewel Satiton who was "Kylee" on Firefly and Serenity.

We also walked around downtown Seattle and had a nice dinner on the wharf.

It was a nice little day trip. Bug had a lot of fun.He saw a lot of cool costumes too. his favorites were the ghostbusters, Boba fett and a kioshi warrior from Avitar. We got a lot of good ideas for next year :)

Here's some of the highlights of our day. Some of these pictures are taken at the Children's museum here in Portland where we saw the Star wars 501 troop last weekend. We just follow them around :)

I was amazed at the detail these people went into for their costumes.

It has happened

It has finally happened. It took longer than I expected it to, but here it is. I have finally lost my ever loving mind. I have been fighting the urge to join the bandwagon in purchasing every Twilight related thing I could get my hand on. I have been doing rather well in that I have bought nothing but the books. I figured Stephanie Meyer has made enough money off of me. Today I realized that I can't fight this feeling anymore. I've forgotten what I started fighting for. (sorry)

So I bring you my new BFF. My very own mini Edward doll.



Then I started having fun with him.

This is Edward raising the roof.


This is Edward snorkeling.


On a roller coaster


On a sunset beach,





You get the idea.

Seriously, I have a problem. There should be a 12 step program for my brand of crazy.