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 :)