Blake was here...

top shelf of the fridge

These days, you just never know what you're going to find where around this place.

It's Friday and I have no news...

Except that I bought a bridesmaid dress yesterday because I'm going to be in my cousin's wedding this summer and I LOVE IT. 

And my sister and I hosted a Premier Designs jewelry party last night and made enough desserts and treats for 30+ people. 

And then after coming home I contemplated being wild and crazy and staying up to watch the royal wedding, but wimped out (or was very wise, take your pick) and instead dreamed about it all night long. 

And have been watching wedding coverage all morning today. 

While eating leftover no-bake cookies from last night's party because they call to me.

And in case you're interested it's cold and rainy here in Oregon. STILL. 

But the forecast calls for 70 degree weather on Sunday which is perfect because we're celebrating my little brother's 30th birthday. Happy b-day Jamin! I sure love you!

Awkward and Awesome

Awkward:

- tiredly sitting down on the toilet after a long, hard workout and realizing you haven't even pulled your pants down.

- trying to get back up off the toilet after that long, hard workout.

- realizing at 7:15 pm on Wednesday night that you have kid's nursery duty at church, and it started at 6:45 pm.

- putting your homemade BBQ pulled pork on the stove top over low heat to warm your sauce and then rushing off to church, forgetting to turn the burner off. This is not only awkward but also quite dangerous, and stinky as well.  

Awesome: 

- pre-burned BBQ pulled pork. YUM.

- realizing after three straight accident-free days (and nights!) of your youngest child wearing big-boy underwear and taking himself potty when needed, that he is FINALLY potty trained! YES!!

- watching your husband tiptoe across the yard in his socks with his son's BB-gun in hand to get that dastardly gopher that's being digging up holes all over the place. Yes, it was a gopher. And it was HUGE.

- giving your hubby air high-fives through the window after gopher TAKE DOWN!

- asking your three year old what he's doing when you see all his toys laid out across your ottomans, and hearing him answer, "I'm habing a gawage sale!"

- Okay, that's totally awesome.

Easter weekend report

I would like to start by saying that in a cruel twist of fate we enjoyed the most beautiful day so far this year on Saturday, the day before Easter, and on Sunday morning woke to rain and temperatures in the 50's. 

Typical, Oregon, just typical. 

We made the most of it on Saturday however, playing at the park in town, spending time outdoors, and hiking down to the river again.

Kendall's Easter work of art - a fancy mud pie.

"Happy Easter"

The river has gone down so much in just one week, which made for great rock-throwing fun.

Russ and I just enjoyed the view and the amazing fact that we own this piece of property. We are so, so blessed. 

After the hike back up we watched a family movie and I made the sinfully delicious Easter candy caramel corn, which took till 10 pm, and resulted in me nixing the Easter Story cookie plans because I still had to iron our Easter outfits. 

I lack time-management skills.

My friends Jana, Sarah and I (thanks Therese for the picture!)

Our church had a fabulous Easter service on Sunday morning and all three of our kids were in choirs. 

Including this little lamb, who was in the "iddy-biddy" kid's choir for the first time. He looks quite angelic here but in actuality he is pleading for candy after falling down the steps coming off the stage and crying quite hard. We felt he more than deserved a treat of course :)

After church we headed over to Tim and Cara's for a huge family dinner, during which I took not a single picture of anybody but my own three children during the egg hunt. FAIL.

It was tons of fun though, with games, loads of food, and an NBA playoff game that kept us there until almost 7 pm because SOMEBODY couldn't leave without watching till the very last second. I'll let you guess who that might have been.

And that was our Easter!

Now to go pay a little visit to the kid's Easter candy haul...

death by chocolate

I made this for Easter.

And then I ate it,

And ate it,

And ate it some more.

(It's the darned white chocolate drizzled all over the top. I just can't say no to white chocolate.)

We had a wonderful Easter, by the way. But I'm going to have to talk about it tomorrow. 

After I've slept off my gigantic sugar overdose.

Good Friday

Here's my short list of why it IS a good Friday...

1. I LOVE celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus my Savior - and with chocolate no less! 

2. The kids have no school today. This means we did not have to get up before 7:00 am. Hallelujah.

3. I'm getting my annual haircut today! Yay! (I don't mean to go a year between cuts... I'm just really bad at scheduling appointments)

4. I'm excited to make these with my kids tomorrow night - I'd never heard of them before seeing this post and think it's such a fun idea. 

5. I'm also excited to make this to take to our family dinner on Easter Sunday (if I don't eat it all before then that is. And that is a real possibility because, did you notice? White chocolate!)

6. I'm tickled when I see my kids copying little things that I do (in this case, the often used post-it reminder), and in such cute writing too :)

Cooper's reminder to himself to pack his lunch yesterday

7. I'm still relishing in the absolute best moment of my day yesterday; when I was approached by a complete stranger in Target because they recognized me from my blog!

It went something like this:

Stranger approaches timidly: "excuse me, this may sound funny, but do you blog?"

Me (extremely surprised): "yes I do!"

loveliest lady I've ever met: "I read your What I Wore posts every week!"

Me (with beaming grin): "Oh my gosh that is crrrazy, I can't believe you recognized me!" (and then I ramble on like a crazy woman for several minutes)

my new best friend for life: "Ummmm okay... buh-bye." (vows to never approach a stranger she recognizes from the internet again)

Just kidding on that last part, although I wouldn't be surprised if that's what she was thinking because I all but hugged her and took her home with me, she made me that happy. I know it's silly, but that's the closest I'll probably ever come to fame and it felt goooood. Shoot, it was the best moment of my WEEK.

Happy Easter everyone! 

A walk to the river

Across the back yard and through the brush, to the river we go

 Down the slope and through the tree field, to the river we go

 Around the curve, continuing down, to the river we go

 Beyond the trees and through the stickers from Hades, to the river we go

  Next to the giant Maple, take a sharp turn (and a gulp of air as you look down a very long hill), to the river we go

  Down the first steep slope of doom, to the river we go

 Stop for a breather and smile at your boys, to the river we go

 Glance back at the hill you just came down, and cry that you'll have to return up it, to the river we go!

Around the bend, to treacherous slope #2 of doom, to the river we go

The final turn, we're almost there, to the river we go

Follow your boys, pretending your leg muscles don't hurt like the dickens, to the river we go

Stop to rest, take a glance to the right, to the river we go

At last we're there! Sit down and enjoy! To the river you've come!

Now hike around, and laugh and play, exploring with your loved ones.

  

(and put off heading back up the hill of death for as long as you possibly can!)

 The end.

We don't want no stinkin' time share!

Russ and I arrived at our scheduled appointment at Vacation Internationale last Friday evening armed and prepared to fend off ALL sales tactics that might make us cave in and purchase into a vacation program that we had no interest in.  All we wanted was our free trip, man!

The first thing we discovered was that the sales guy that called us and scheduled our appointment told us no less than FIVE lies to get us there. Hmmm, what kind of havey-cavey business were these people running?! Russ was ticked and ready to walk then and there... except we had driven an hour to get there and were starving (due to lie #3: to come on an empty stomach because there would be plenty of hors d'oeuvres... yeah, there was a small platter of cookies) and the apologetic sales manager offered us dinner out at The Olive Garden if we stayed. 

Sold. Heck, we were already there, kid free and with no other plans - a paid dinner at one of our favorite places meant a done deal in our world.

And thus began the most excruciatingly high pressure sales pitch we have ever encountered. Picture the best and most savvy car salesman you've ever met and multiply him by 100. 

These people pulled out all the stops. At one point the woman making the main presentation to the room full of couples talked about her deceased daughter and the amazing vacation pictures they had to remember their time with her, and we looked around the room and at least two other sales people (one was assigned to each couple) had tears streaming down their faces. We're pretty sure that was a completely fabricated story and they were all a bunch of unscrupulous actors... especially after our personal sales lady went on to tell us about her own child that she also lost, and the effect this wonderful company has had on her family since then.

It was actually amazing Russ and I didn't laugh in her face. 

The more we said no, the longer we had to stay and face a higher-up employee, and the longer it went on, the less friendly Russ became until I was the one doing all the talking because I was afraid he'd be incredibly rude if I let him answer. And let's be honest; I can't be mean to save my life.

(And speaking of honesty, if I'd gone alone I would have bought in after sales pitch #3 because they were going to give us a FREE 8 DAY CRUISE!)

Thankfully I wasn't alone and we made it. After 2 1/2 hours and four different sales personnel, we were finally sent to Sergey - the mostly non-English speaking man who would give us our free weekend trip voucher (and our free dinner gift certificate). We picked San Fransisco and when he left the room to get our paperwork we heaved a huge sigh of relief that the stress of the evening was over. 

Little did we know that he would come back with a fifth and final offer, "You buy for two thousand?", less than half of their last price quote, with a sales man waiting outside the window for a discreet yes or no nod. That time we did laugh out loud - but still said no. 

And then we were finally free - Woohoo! We actually felt quite accomplished to make it out alive and still debt-free (we're not sure any other couple did!) and we celebrated in style at Olive Garden with appetizers, salad, dinner and dessert. Because remember, we were STARVING.

It was an interesting night to say the least. And believe it or not, we totally enjoyed ourselves :)

Monday confessional - playing hooky

Yesterday morning at around 8:30 am, Russ realized what a gorgeous day it was going to be and suggested we play hooky from church so he could cut and mow the trail down to the river on the back of our property and take the kids down to play. 

I said something along the lines of "yeah right, get out of bed and ready for church, Mister" and continued getting myself ready... but the idea of a fun family day sprouted in my mind and before long it had grown wildly. I came back into the bedroom and suggested we surprise the kids with a trip to the beach for the day - since we only go once a year, and never just on our own. 

Sadly Russell poo-pooed my idea soundly, even though I tried to sell him on it for a good 5 minutes; he had no intesrest in driving 3 hours round-trip on the last day of his weekend, but said he wouldn't be opposed to spending the money it would have taken in gas to get to the coast to take the kids to a movie, as long as he could still have his afternoon to work on his trail. 

Which is how we ended up skipping church and driving to the mall at 10:20 am instead. 

I choose not to dwell on the message we might have sent our kids yesterday (we really do love church!), but rather the memory of the initial confusion on their faces when we went the wrong direction (Blake noticed first!), and then their growing excitement when we wouldn't tell them where we were going. When they finally guessed a movie (after Disneyland, buying a new trampoline, and buying a puppy) we told them we were going to see "Rio" and they were ecstatic. And rightly so... it was a fantastic movie!

Blake, under the assumption that one must ALWAYS consume popcorn at the theaters, asked for some about 30 times.

We said no to the popcorn, but yes to Mommy's white chocolate mocha. Mmmm :)

My little movie buddy and I. We laughed so much together.

Afterwards we ate lunch at the mall food court and then stopped at Yogurt Shack for a dessert treat on the way home, throwing caution to the wind after such a foot-loose and fancy-free start to the day.

Then Russ had his afternoon to clear the river trail and we spent the last couple of hours of sunlight exploring the woods and hiking around along the river banks. 

It was a perfect day. We had such a great time with our kids and they were so full of love and gratitude for the time together all day that we really felt it was worth it. More and more we are seeing the value in investing A LOT of family time together and yesterday was just another reminder of that. 

Which helped make up for the sadness I felt when I realized we'd missed Palm Sunday at church. Darn!

Just in case you're wondering why we did all the spending when we're still on BUDGET LOCKDOWN... it's thanks to a little thing called my husband's side-business. Him and his buddy refurbish and resell these:

And in the last four days they sold 6! Hello fine weather - we love you and the motivation you give folks to buy play sets for their kids!

And that's how we played hooky. 

p.s. Wondering about the Friday night sales pitch we were going to and whether I held strong or not? Come back tomorrow for the story, it was QUITE the event.

Wish me luck!

This evening Russ and I are off to one of those 90 minute time-share presentations to get a free 2 night trip for two. 

This will be our second time going to one of these presentations - here's what happened the first time:

- We went on the agreement that we wouldn't get sucked into any sales pitch, we just wanted the free trip.

- I got totally sucked into the sales pitch and we were there for over 3 hours. 

- Russ saved the day in the end and stopped me from buying in to the company.

- and almost didn't speak to me the whole way home. 

- We had 60 days to fill out the form and return it to book our free trip. 

- I missed the deadline. 

- Russ swore to never attend another vacation type sales presentation EVER AGAIN.

That was about 7 years ago. And Russ has remained adamant since then. Well, until two weeks ago, when he answered a sales call for a similar company and I overheard him explaining why he didn't go to those type of things, and I interrupted and begged to go, swearing I wouldn't get sucked into the pitch.

And that leads to tonight's plans!

Wish me luck.

I'm the girl that bought the revo-styler off an infomercial and used it ONE TIME. Also the Mircacle Blade knives, Shark steam mop, and numerous other items.

I am basically a sales person's dream. But not tonight! I shall stand strong! And take my free paid vacation to one of 7 fabulous locations, airfare included, without any guilt (and more importantly, without a furious husband).

Have a great weekend :)

"Uggmmpphh"

That would be the sound of me trying to move. Unsuccessfully. 

I hurt. 

I'm on week four of a new workout program my husband started using down at the school for the high school basketball & volleyball girls during the off-season called BFS (bigger, faster, stronger) and it is KICKING. MY. TAIL.

There are drills for speed, agility, and flexibility, weights, and something called plyometrics... all things that I have had nothing to do with for the past 12 years, and I'm not lying when I tell you that my goal each week is to stop before I get to the point where I'm about to throw up. And I've had a few close calls.

I'll tell you something: if there's anything that's going to make you feel like a weeny-wuss while working out, it's doing it with a bunch of high-school athletes.  Even the newbie, gonna-be-freshmans-NEXT-year can out do me in every single area. (Except weights. I haven't been toting Blake around for three years now for nothing!)

It really speaks volumes about my love for my husband (and lack of self-pride) that I keep going back. Russ LOVES me being involved and coming down to do this with him. And he is really encouraging and supportive every time I have to stop before the others.

The problem is that I keep having to stop. Russ is running the program three days a week (Mon, Wed & Fri - for TWO HOURS) but I can only go on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the past two weeks I could only go on ONE of those two days, so instead of getting better each time like all the others, I not only feel like a complete beginner still, I actually feel like I'm getting worse.

Take yesterday for example, when I was part of a two-man relay team doing box drills (jump on and off a 12 inch high box 6 times front-ways, side-ways, left footed, right footed) and my one leg I was jumping up on gave out and slipped off the box, making me stumble backwards before falling flat on my butt.

It was real graceful.

I came home a bit discouraged. Russ has taken on the role of my inspirational motivator however and it wasn't long before he had me excited about the program again. Dang him.

So I'm not giving up! At this point I don't even care if I get bigger, faster, or stronger, I just want to be able to get through the darned workout!

In the meantime, if you see me walking at the speed of a 90 year old while making soft groaning noises, pay no attention. I probably just crashed and burned in front of a bunch of teenagers once again.

Grief and ice-cream

We're on spending lock down this pay period. 

That is, after we spontaneously decided to go out to Chinese for lunch on Sunday, and took my brother along and paid for his meal too. (Hint: if you want your bachelor brother who lives up in town to come to your daughter's piano recital, trick him into staying around after church by offering free food.)

But back to the spending lock-down. Russ and I renewed our non-spending vows again Sunday night and were all set to conserve our fundage for the next week and a half.

Until yesterday. When a dear, dear man that has attended our church forever and been a recess monitor at our kid's school for 15 years was in an accident and died. And a school assembly was held to tell the children. And I was called to come pick up my son who has, up to this point, not faced death in a real way and was beside himself. As in, he would not stop crying even after multiple (and I mean multiple) explanations of heaven and the glory of being with Jesus, and reassurances that his friend Mr. Turner was 1000 times happier to be there and not here any more.

Well, I had no choice but to take him to the movie store to pick out a couple of movies and then to McDonalds for a caramel sundae because apparently that's how I deal with grief. I called Russ to let him know and he asked me to pick a 2nd movie for us to all watch together later as well, and to get two more sundaes for him and Kendall because he was on his way home and was going to grab her from school.

Sometimes it's okay to temporarily throw the budget out the window. 

It worked too. Cooper was entirely distracted and thanked me when we got back home because it had helped him take his mind off of his sadness.

And our sad day was made sweeter by a cozy family evening together, cuddled under blankets on the couch watching movies, and talking about death and heaven - praying for the family that lost a beloved brother and uncle. 

But my favorite moment of the day was when Cooper got a phone call from his sweet school buddy Aaron, who wanted to check on Cooper and ask how he was doing. Cooper hung up after talking to him, much brighter that before, and said "Mom, I really like that kid."

Really, I would like to bottle up my tender-hearted 8 year old and keep him forever. 

P.S. I was going to write a recap of Scrap Around the Clock today, but instead I'm going to link to my sister's blog because she covered it fantastically.

Scenes from the weekend

Blake was here...

Cooper was here...

basketball court

I was here...

Scrap Around the Clock mania

Kendall was here...

nervous for her very first piano recital

And I don't have a picture of Russell, but he was here, there and everywhere this weekend.

(Including at a garage sale where he bought a drum set for Cooper, an item I would have STRONGLY vetoed if I had been consulted, earning himself a spot on my naughty list.)

(Oh yes, Santa and I have more in common than just round rosy cheeks.)

Hope you all had a great weekend! 

How to shop yourself to death - a tutorial

Haven't seen a tutorial around here in a while have you? Well let me remedy that!

Step 1. Plan a supply shopping trip the day before a large event that you are in charge of (say like... hmmm... Scrap Around the Clock for example) and decide to couple it with your own grocery shopping because it's payday and you want your tank of gas to last more than TWO DAYS for goodness sake. 

2. Prepare to leave at 8 am when your kids go to school and be back by 2:30 pm when they're out so that you can have an afternoon at home, and possibly a nap, before having to go back down to the school at 6:30 pm for the set up of said event. 

3. Leave your house at 8:40 am and congratulate yourself on being less than an hour behind schedule. Well done you!

4. Drop your three year old off at your parent's house so your Mom can watch him while you shop and visit for half an hour. 

5. Then stop by the school on your way by and visit with your sister for 10 minutes. 

6. Officially leave for shopping at 9:45 am, making the 35 minute drive up into town.

7. Stop for gas.

8. Stop at the bank. 

9. Stop for a 16 oz single shot extra sweet coconut white mocha with no whip. Or any coffee really, whatever floats your boat.

10. Run into JoAnn's Fabric to quickly browse their scrapbooking section for sales and lose a half hour of your life. 

11. Dash into Walmart for scrapbook table coverings, calling your best friend (who is also out shopping) on your way inside, and plan to meet in one hour for lunch, which is when you guesstimate you'll be done with Walmart, Dollar Tree, and the local scrapbook store.

12. Run into your sister-in-law. Visit.

13. Run into your other sister-in-law. Visit some more.

14. Come across your church's childrens pastors. Laugh at the coincidence of running into so many people you know and discuss topics like Easter gifts and funny pranks before finally parting ways.

15. Realize that it's been an hour and you are STILL inside Walmart. Shake your head at yourself and prepare to call your friend to cancel lunch, only to receive a text from her at that exact moment saying that she's running behind and better not stop to eat. Smile as you are reminded once again why you are best friends.

16. Finish your scrap supply shopping and finally begin grocery shopping at 1:30 pm. Oh yes, you've long realized you'd never have made it back to get your kids by 2:30 pm and have already made arrangements to have your sister grab them and take them to your mom's. Also known as the saint above all saints.

17. Get a call from another friend, who's car has broken down while she's out shopping, and agree to go try and help. MAKE YOUR WAY BACK TO WALMART. And grab a Subway sandwich inside because it's now 3:00 pm and you're starving.

18. Leave Walmart for the second time in one day at 3:30 pm, glad that your friend is back on the road in a working vehicle once again (no help to you sadly, but at least you were there for moral support) and head to your last planned stop of the day: Costco. 

19. Discover that Costco will not refill the printer ink pack that your sister sent with you so that she could have her printer working at tomorrow's Scrap Around the Clock and call her to let her know. Find out that her only other option is the Office Max store BACK UP THE ROAD ACROSS THE STREET FROM WALMART and resignedly offer to go there so she doesn't have to drive all the way up into town for one single errand herself.

20. Finally arrive back at your parents house to pick up your children at 5:40 pm, almost 8 1/2 HOURS AFTER YOU LEFT. Jet it back home to unload and shove groceries into your refrigerator before leaving again in 25 minutes flat to set up for the big event you're in charge of. Kiss your husband hi and bye as you rush past him.

21. Spend the next 2 1/2 hours transforming a gymnasium into a 24-hour scrap retreat room worth marveling over and try to look alive and alert as you begin to CEASE PROPER BRAIN FUNCTION.

22. Arrive back home at 9:00 pm, sore and exhausted, and crash. Literally. Who left groceries all over the kitchen for Pete's sake?

And that's how you do it folks. You might not truly be dead but I can guarantee you will feel like it!

Good golly those are giant!

Yesterday I took all three of my children to the dentist for their twice-yearly teeth cleaning. 

(I guessed it would take about an hour and a half. Um, more like two and a half. We literally closed out the joint. I may have read the February issue of More magazine from cover to cover.)

(There were slim pickings.)

While doing his exam at the end of Cooper's cleaning, our dentist decided he wanted an x-ray of Cooper's upper jaw to see where exactly his front two permanent teeth were, because his baby teeth are still firmly lodged in place at the ripe age of 8 years old.

And what he discovered I found QUITE humorous. Enough so that I took a pic on my cell phone. Please observe...

Exhibit A:

Cooper's current tiny teeth. All the top ones are still baby teeth. 

Exhibit B: 

The reason his permanent ones haven't come down. THEY NEED SPACE THE WIDTH OF FOUR TEETH. 

Exhibit C: 

In case you can't see how big those suckers are, I've labeled them. 

Exhibit D:

The person responsible for the incoming chompers. Russell (age I'm-not-quite-sure in this pic), along with the rest of his family have GIANT teeth. As adults their teeth are perfectly sized to their wide and attractive smiles, but as kids they are literally "all teeth".

I couldn't wait to come home and show Russ the x-ray. Because even though Cooper doesn't appear to look anything like his father, now we know that at least one physical trait has definitely carried on!

And as I guessed, Russ was pleased as punch.

Some fine craftmanship

You know your 8 year old son is trying to imitate his father, when after watching him work out down at the school weight room, he comes home and constructs this apparatus - to build up his own muscles:

Well done Coop! 

After his weight training he did a series of jumping jacks and push ups, and asked if I would add them to his daily chore chart so he could check them off each day (that boy LOVES lists, God bless his little melancholy heart). 

And then, he informed me that he better start eating healthier if he was going to get himself in shape, and packed an orange in his lunch for school today, to go along with a few of the homemade cookies we made last night. Way to be balanced, son.

(He's got his mama's sweet tooth, that one.)

Oh, how I love that kid!