Another awesome tip from Jodi and a shopping story - Part 1

If you haven't realized it already... I seem to dwell on the brink of scatterbrained near-disaster an awful lot lately.

Why this is, I do not know (or choose to think about).

Case in point: Yesterday I decided to go grocery shopping after dinner instead of my normal payday morning run that would have happened today. I hadn't made it 3 minutes down the road though when I realized my car was starting to overheat (we have a very slow leak going on in our radiator and haven't had it fixed yet). Instead of turning around and coming back home to refill the water in the radiator like a normal person would, I decided to continue on my way and swing in to my brother and sister-in-law's house another 8 miles up the road to take care of it there because they live conveniently right on the way to town, and more importantly, I hate having to turn around.

Now this is the point where most people would shake their head at me and wonder "what were you thinking?" But guess what - I made it there just fine and my brother-in-law Tim even refilled the radiator himself, leaving me to catch a quick visit with Cara. Love my fam.

No, the real problem came later in the evening. You see, had I turned around and gone back home, I probably would have noticed MY WALLET sitting on the dining room table when I walked inside for a container of water, instead of making the discovery that it was not in my purse when I went to check out after shopping for an hour all the way up in West Linn, 30 miles from home. GRRR!

So here's my tip: if you ask your three year old to bring you something out of your purse and he brings you your wallet instead, don't just tell him to go put it back and then assume he did. CHECK TO MAKE SURE.

Little turkey!

(Or you could just go get whatever you needed yourself. That might work too.)

And what was I doing in West Linn anyway, when all the stores I normally shop at are in Clackamas? Well you'll just have to come back tomorrow to hear the rest of the story, because trust me, my evening gets even better (or actually, worse, then better, then worse again).

I'm nothing if not a living, breathing, disaster-prone, shopping drama queen :)

"The place of fun"

That's my new name for the lake house in Pacific City where we vacationed the past 4 days  with my husband's entire family.

(Or at least that's the name I came up with a few seconds ago, after I started to title this post "we had a beachy time" and then realized that's the exact same title I used last year to recap our first visit there. Looks like I'm as corny now as I was a year ago.)

The new title works just as well though because, people, did we ever have FUN! I didn't think it could get any better than our trip last year, but it did... for these main reasons:

1. We did not break down and require towing to get there. 

2. We had excellent sunny weather as opposed to last year's mist and drizzle.

3. Blake was potty trained this year - enough said!

4. The board game Apples to Apples was introduced. HUGE hit.

5. I think every trip we take is better than the one before!

Meet the Halverson clan, 2011

One great grandma (Margaret), 2 grandparents (Teri & Gary), their three children (Erik, Russ & Cara), with their spouses (Tricia, Tim, and myself), and 12 grandchildren (Ben, Mandy, Sam, Derek, Debbie, Drew, Kendall, Mark, Maddy, Cooper, Lizzy, and Blake - in order of age) makes for one lively beach house!

(And technically this is also the Grandle clan since Cara married Tim, but who cares about technicalities, right?)

  

And now I give you my favorite 10, I mean 11, alright, 12 pictures from the trip (out of the 100+ I took, I say that's still pretty good narrowing down skills!) And I've made them huge so hopefully you have speedy computers... 

excited for the first catch of the trip!

the kids swam in the lake multiple times a day

I love s'mores!

dinner prayer

gorgeous Cara

Maddy, Lizzy, and Kendall, with Mandy in the background busy catching tadpoles.

Tricia and Teri visiting by the lake

Three generations of Halversons

Mark and big brother Ben

On your marks, get set, GO!

At the beach!

Uncle Erik buried Blake standing fully upright!

wrestling Grandpa

What, you counted 13 pictures? Umm... I don't know what you're talking about!

Seriously though, so many wonderful memories. I can't wait till next year. 

Monday confessional

I bought this at Target last week for no other reason than the label, which caught my eye. 

While born and raised in New Zealand, I had no idea we had a National scent!

How exciting!

And  glacier carved streams? Verdant vistas? Who could resist the sound of that? 

Not I.

(Although the waterfall emerging from the sky above the much smaller mountains is not a landmark I remember, and frankly looks a little dubious to me.)

Vacation-hoy!

Halverson beach trip, August 2010

We're off on our first official vacation of the summer today, back to the lake house at the Coast where we stayed last summer, and THE CHILDREN ARE EXCITED!

(That is the same as saying the children are driving my crazy, except it sounds nicer. But really, the children are driving my crazy.)

We wanted to leave earlier but the majority of the packing had to be done this morning due to our chaotic evening last night that went something like this:

5 pm: drive to town with the kids to have dinner with Russ and his b-ball team at their team camp, which ended last night.

6 pm: Drive around town running last minute errands while Russ returns school van.

7 pm: go watch the varsity boys play at their team camp in a neighboring town because, as I'm sure you all know, Russell NEVER tires of basketball and is supportive of any team from our school, but especially the team coached by his good friend Doug, and that now includes our incoming freshman nephew, Ben. 

8 pm: leave the high school and stop spontaneously at my parents to pick up eggs (did you know my dad works at an egg farm? Because he does, and this means free eggs for the family every week. It's a pretty sweet perk.)

8: 25 pm: leave my parents after a quick and noisy visit and head back to town because one of Russ's player's parents mentioned that they were having a garage sale this weekend and had baseball gloves we could have for our boys, inviting us to come browse pre-sale.

I'm sure you can see where this is headed...

9:25 pm: LEAVE our friends garage sale, the proud owners of two baseball gloves and  two balls, a bike rack for our Tahoe, a bag full of clothes and shoes for Kendall, and a box FULL of barbie stuff that Kendall managed to get for free and completely swooned over the rest of the evening.

9:30 pm: arrive at our mechanic friend's to pay for and pick up our fixed riding mower that Russ planned to get up and use at 6 am this morning to mow before leaving for vacation.

(This pit stop was prearranged - in case you're wondering if we normally pay people random visits at 9:30 pm in the evening - and fully supported by me because our yard is a HOT MESS and I wanted it mowed, like, yesterday.)

But guess what? They were setting up a garage sale too. 

10:00 pm: By now we own a new toddler bed for Blake and Russ is down the street with our friend looking at fishing gear that might work for our trip while I'm back in the car with the kids wondering how the heck I ended up out and about this late on the evening I was supposed to be home packing. 

Luckily Russ came back quick when I texted him: "your children have run wild. Save me."

So it was a late night. And really it was okay because we were all "VACATION-HOY!" and didn't want to go to bed before 12:30 am anyway, which is what happened by the time I'd baked brownies for the trip and Russ had assembled the new bed, twice, because he did it wrong the first time and I was not about to let it stay that way, and we'd watched a western movie that had nothing to do with packing at all, but was quite good. 

But now we're ready and outta here! So happy weekend to you all my friends!

We'll be fishing and playing here:

lake view left

lake view right

 (And don't worry about our place, or try anything shady while we're gone, because we've got that covered. Plus, our vigilante neighbor who lives only a stones throw away and is ARMED AND DANGEROUS, has informed us many a time that he watches every single thing that goes on over here and not a single vehicle come or go without his noticing, and Russell and I can both attest to the validity of this statement. Guys a phenom.)   

Blake stole my camera

And had himself a little photo shoot. Rascal.

Among the pictures he took, like this...

And this...

his new tennis shoes on top of his dresser

And of course the prerequisite self-portrait...

Hello blurry nostrils!

I found this little series he took of his toy cars, which it appears he moved several times to snap pictures of...

Looks like the trucks may have been fighting?

And this priceless shot...

Which seriously made me laugh. out. loud. 

Somebody's been watching his mama take outfit pictures every day!

About Father's Day

I had grand plans to blog about our Father's Day last night, until my cousin and her fiance showed up to watch Gulliver's Travel's with Kendall (because she has them wrapped around her little finger) and I was all, "Yay, visitors! I'm going to bake cookies!" and happily threw my blogging plans out the window.

Had I known that I would later be forced to watch an incredibly violent Kung Fu movie made famous for the fact that the director paid the stunt men extra to actually break their arms and/or legs for visual authenticity, a fact I found deeply disturbing, I'm not sure I would have abandoned my plans so willingly. 

Fact: I am not a fan of Kung Fu movies. Especially ones with English subtitles. Especially when they have next to no plot and are filled with people getting their limbs broken.

However, it was still fun to hang out with Mike and Linley, and the cookies were delicious.

This morning, any plans to blog were delayed by household chores, watching my nephews, and this, that and the other thing, and this afternoon I enjoyed a long and relaxing visit with a friend, until next thing I knew it was almost 5 pm and there was still no blog post.

So on to Father's Day! 

The kids woke up earlier than Russ and fixed him breakfast in bed. Kendall carried in the plate of food, Cooper carried the glass of milk, and Blake brought in the present, announcing "Happy Birfday!" over and over. (Presents = birthday parties according to Blake.)

After a great Father's Day service at church we had a family BBQ at my parents house, with Russ's parents invited as well. I loved it that they came, my dad and father-in-law are both so important to Russ and I and it was great to celebrate with them both. 

(And laugh at Gary who didn't quite put "Father's Day" and the BBQ together so thought it was really weird when Dad announced that there were ribs for everyone but the steaks were just for the men. "I would never get away with something like that at my place!" he told us he was thinking before he finally figured it out. Ha ha :)

Russ's Dad, Gary - without his glasses on...

because Teri thought he looked a little too "Stevie Wonder" with them on.

My dad, Wayne

who just got either licked or kissed on the eyeball by Russ.

*sappy moment* I would just like to state for the record that I love and respect my Dad, father-in-law, and husband so, so much. They are not only the best fathers I know, they are also the best men I know. I am beyond blessed to have all three of them in my life. *End sap*

We ended up hanging out all afternoon watching golf (the boys), assembling a jigsaw puzzle (the girls), and swimming (Kendall and Cooper), because you know, it was like 67 degrees, totally hot.

And that's how we spent Father's Day. A great day, Kung Fu movie aside ;)

Jodi's awesome tips for the day

If I were to sum up my day yesterday into one sentence, I would have to say that it was basically sheer and utter madness.

MADNESS, I SAY!

From beginning to end things did not go as planned, and if I were to try to explain it all in writing you would be dazed and confused within two paragraphs, and 100% lost by the end of what would be sure to be the longest and most complicated tale you'd ever been bored by in your life. So I won't. 

But I will share some important tips that I learned from my experience:

- If your husband's car is in the mechanic shop and he has to take your vehicle to work for the day, a day that begins at the ungodly hour of 4:20 am, you may want to tell him the night before that the gas tank is pretty much sitting on empty and needs to be filled at the closest possible station when he leaves. Otherwise, you just might be rudely awakened at 4:40 am and called upon to come to the rescue ASAP, in what could only be termed as the most hostile wake-up call you've ever received in your entire life.

- If you decide to turn off your morning alarm that was set for 6:30 am because you didn't go to bed until 1:00 am the night before and then lost almost an hour of sleep during the wee hours due to a "vehicle emergency", and instead trust your body to wake when your contractor shows up at 7:00 am on his way to work to do a quick 10 minute fix-it job in your bathroom (see, I told you it was complicated), do GET UP when you hear him arrive.

DO NOT, under any circumstances, ask your 8-year-old son (who also wakes up and comes into your bedroom to ask if he can watch cartoons) to come get you when the contractor leaves and then fall immediately back to sleep. Because this will be a FATAL MISTAKE. You could wake up an hour later, at the time you were supposed to be leaving the house for a busy morning, to find your son engrossed in the TV and oblivious to the fact that the contractor left 45 minutes earlier.

- If you have borrowed your brother-in-law's car for the day because your husband needed yours, do not put the single car key you were given into the car's cup holder for safekeeping and then send your daughter out to the car ahead of you with your water bottle in the morning. Because she will be sure to put your water bottle into the same cup holder, and may unwittingly fling the key to the nether regions of the vehicle, causing you to search for it frantically for 5 minutes that you just DO NOT HAVE TO SPARE. And you will want to pull all your hair out.

- If you have to run into town later in the day to go to the bank, do not leave at 1:10 pm when your bank is closed from 1-2 pm for lunch. This will frustrate you.

- And if you go to a friend's garage sale while waiting for your bank to open and pick out a few items to purchase, promising to return with cash as soon as you're finished at the bank, do not forget all about it by the time you actually do leave the bank, and drive straight home instead. 

- Also, do not try to cash an insurance check written out to both yourself and your husband with only your own signature on the back, because you will be denied. Apparently it's a law.

- ALSO, do not spontaneously decide that you need caffeine and pick up a 12 oz latte after quitting drinking coffee at least 3 weeks ago. Or at least, don't drink it on an empty stomach. While it may not seem to bother you at first, and in fact may feel quite helpful, you will later come to BITTERLY REGRET IT.

- If you have volunteered to make and deliver dinner to some friends who just had a baby, do not forgot to take your bacon out of the freezer when it is one of the ingredients. This way you will realize that there actually is no bacon in the freezer earlier than 3:00 in the afternoon.

- When you run back into town to pay for your garage sale purchases and pick up bacon, leaving your husband home with the kids and promising to be quick because he has to leave shortly to coach summer league basketball games, go to the store first, then the garage sale. That way you won't run into friends at the sale, chat too long, and then get a call from a friend and immediately launch into the tale of your crazy day and drive half-way back home before realizing, THE BACON!

This will also save you from an even further fall from grace with your husband who is not only still bitter about running out of gas that morning, but now late leaving the house because of you.

- If you successfully make and deliver dinner to your friends after a crazy day, consider it a triumph even though you were late getting there, and return home immediately to relax and perhaps sleep. Do not instead attempt to go grocery shopping, Father's Day shopping, and bridal shower shopping within a 3 hour period when it is plainly obvious that you have completely lost your brain. All you will do is wander aimlessly, get sucked into Ross for way too long, stare at Father's Day cards for 1/2 an hour in Target, and finally return home 4 hours later with your Father's Day and shower gifts taken care of but only three actual grocery items.

Yes, THREE.

There will be much shame. And nauseousness from your earlier coffee run.

- And lastly, I will leave you with this final nugget of wisdom (well, besides DO NOT BE LIKE ME):

If you feel like you have had a terrible, awful, no-good kind of day and know that it was all your own fault because you can just never seem to get it together, or make it anywhere on time, or flat-out make better decisions, leaving you feeling like the most unreliable failure of a wife and friend there could ever be, stop that train of thought before you manage to spiral downwards into a puddle of self-loathing tears. Trust me, I know of what I speak.

Instead,
Remember that you are incredibly tired and therefore, emotional.
Thank the Lord for his grace and for always being reliable, no matter how unreliable you may be.
Thank the Lord that tomorrow is a new day and that He can help you to change and to do better, and that He is more than willing to do so.
Thank the Lord for giving you a wonderful husband who has never stopped loving you a single second of your life together.
Thank the Lord for giving you amazing friends who stick with you even through your faults.
Listen to the quiet voice of the Holy Spirit and let Him love and comfort you, because He will, HE WILL!

He is so good, and so faithful, and He made you and knows every single one of your weaknesses and still loves you always.

Then GO.TO.BED. It's a pretty sure bet that you will feel MUCH better in the morning :)

An important fish update, and other matters

- I'm sad to inform you that my fishy fears have been realized. Rhino and Buster, the goldfish, went to meet their maker last weekend, one day after the other. Yes, it was a grand tragedy in Cooper's world. Yes, there were many tears. Yes, I gave in to better judgement and promised him new fish ASAP.

But only because word on the street is that we have a local "fish lady" around these parts who raises goldfish that are apparently much hardier and healthier than what you will find at Walmart. And they're only .50 cents each. Sold.

(And by ASAP I mean in the next couple of weeks or so. Or longer if Cooper forgets all about it, which I'm crossing my fingers for.)  

- In animal-related news, the ants are still gone. Praise be to Jesus.

- On Tuesday, Blake managed to break our toilet seat and lid apart, and clean OFF of our toilet. Do things like this happen in other people's homes?

The upside of this is that instead of buying a new seat, I talked Russ into buying a new TOILET. Wooohooo! The old one was not only OLD (really old), but also the color peach, and stained around the rim like you wouldn't believe. In a word, disgusting.

(I would take a picture for proof but it's outside now and it's dark and, you know, what if there's a cougar? I'm staying put.)

But look, sitting in it's place is this shiny beauty!

With the highest non-clogging rating at Home Depot. When you have 5 people sharing one bathroom this is an extremely important factor. Forget water efficiency, give me something that can really flush! (And honestly, we live in the country and have a well so it's kind of a moot point.)

Today everyone will be learning how to properly clean and care for our new addition (twice daily Clorox wipe-downs isn't going overboard, right?) and Blake will be receiving extra lessons on toilet seat gentleness.  

- And that's the latest update on the goings on around here!

I know you are probably wondering how we stand all the excitement. It's tough, I'll admit it.

12 years

Sunday, June 12th marked Russ's and my twelfth wedding anniversary.

(Russ and my? Russ and I's? Me and Russ's? I have no idea.)

We had a family BBQ and two college graduation parties to attend that day though, so we went out to celebrate Saturday evening, and decided to make it extra-special by starting off with an hour long couples massage (Russ's idea), followed by pedicures (also Russ's idea, believe it or not).

I'll tell ya, nothing wins the way to my heart like a guy willing to indulge in a little pampering with me!

(Granted, there was no winning to be done because that happened over 12 years ago, but still, nowadays it's called "brownie points" - and they go a long way!)

Ready for our massages.

This turned out to be our favorite part of the evening, hands down. We were in a room together on side-by-side tables with our own massage therapist each. The lights were dim, there was soft music playing, and we were even given little chocolates. After an hour we emerged completely relaxed and stress-free, ready for the rest of our fun evening.

 After discovering a while back that guys got pedicures too, Russ decided he wanted to try it out. He enjoyed everything except the clear polish that was put on his toes, much against his will. He tried to say no, but the ladies working there didn't speak a lick of English and kept laughing at him and then holding out the bottle of polish again, so he finally resigned himself. (I was no help to him whatsoever, being too busy laughing myself.)

 I heart pedicures!

  Our puurty toes. 

Even though the lady that did my pedicure couldn't speak English, she very clearly and forcefully gave me the universal signal for NO when it came to wearing my wedges out of the shop, so Russ carried them for me :)

And then it was off to dinner!

Stonecliff Inn, famous for being the site of several scenes from the first Twilight movie. We just like it for the food and the beautiful view over the Clackamas river. 

Yummm.

To cap off our evening we went to the movie theaters to see Super 8. Totally enjoyed it. Not my normal type of film but it was funny and reminded me of The Goonies - and who doesn't love that classic?  

cuddling in the theater.

And that's how we celebrated 12 years! 

12 wonderful, amazing, crazy fun years.

Dear husband, 

I will never stop writing in my little journal

that I started all those years ago,

listing the many reasons why I love you.

You cause me to discover new ones all the time,

making life with you an adventure

I'll never get tired of. 

Love,

Me

xoxo

The ants came marching one by one...

Ants have invaded my home. Well, my kitchen and laundry room to be exact.

This isn't the first time we've had to deal with ants, over the 12 years we've lived here we have probably had 3 or 4 kitchen invasions. And I'm sure it won't be the last, seeing as that we live out in the country and our house is pretty old and not exactly impenetrable to insects. But this is certainly the worst case to date. 

Usually it starts with just a few on the counter. I'll follow their little trail to some miniscule crack or cranny, lay out little cardboard squares with Terro (best sugar ant bait ever), and watch with glee as the ants discover and gobble up the liquid and carry it back to wherever they came from - killing the colony and leaving me ant free again after just a couple of days - a week, max. 

This time, the ants showed up on the floor, in random places throughout my kitchen and laundry room, and it took me two days to figure out where they were coming in. And when I did, late yesterday afternoon, the ants on my floors had multiplied substantially, which made sense when I found not a single-file line marching in, but a freakin' eight-lane highway. 

Instant GROSS OUT. 

But I knew just bug-spraying and killing the pests wouldn't take care of the problem in the long run so I laid out about 8 little cardboard squares of Terro between the two rooms, banned my children from entering them, and then we left for the evening to go watch Russ's summer league basketball games, where I blissfully forgot all about my little ant problem. 

Until I came home to discover what appeared to be 500 ants swarming my bait squares and the rest of my kitchen and laundry. Apparently word got out quick and an entire ant city moved in.

It was at this point that I said, "forget the long run", put my kids to bed, and used about 1/2 a can of Raid to spray every single inch of those two room's floors, plus the entire outside wall of that side of the house. Then I waited 20 minutes, swept them all up, and mopped my floors with Pine-Sol until 10:00 pm.

Nothing like the worst case of the heebie-jeebies you've ever had to kick-start a good house scrubbing.

Next thing you know I was vacuuming, doing laundry, and clean-sweeping my children's dresser tops while they slept (sadly, a chore that needs to be done on a weekly basis). 

Who knows what will get accomplished today if I catch sight of even one single little ant on the premises - I'm on a warpath!

I am THAT Mom

You know. 

The one that takes a picture (or three) of a crying child in a funny situation before helping them out of it. 

I couldn't help myself.

And man, that little pink tote was really stuck on there! 

Too bad... it had been the perfect birthday hat for Blake's imaginary party he was throwing himself.

Over the weekend...

- Our oldest niece and nephew both graduated from the 8th grade. I was at the hospital when both of them were born. (Statements like that do nothing except make me feel old. Drats.)

Cousins Miranda and Ben

Funny story though: When Mandy was being born, Russ came and picked me up at some ungodly hour like 5 am and then raced to the hospital to be there in the waiting room for the birth of his brother's first child. So of course we were pulled over for speeding, and as soon as the cop walked up to the driver's window Russ started to explain he was in a hurry because his sister-in-law was in labor. The cop immediately leaned past Russ to ask if I was okay and offer his help. Um, no officer. I'm the 17 year old girlfriend that's still in high school. Thank you, though.

Russ got off with a warning.

- Back to the now-heading-to-high-schoolers though, we are so proud of them. Pretty much the greatest two 14 year olds out there.

- At their joint party afterwards, I ate this and discovered my new favorite pizza ever! The Thai Pie from Old Chicago. Yummmm.

- On Saturday the sun came out and we played, and played, and played all day. 

And by "played", I mean I weeded my flower gardens until I couldn't hardly stand up straight and Russ did some heavy labor moving and delivering play structures. But we were outside in the sunshine and that made us happy! 

- The kids were in their swimsuits by 10 am. As soon as it reached 80 degrees they were running through the freezing cold sprinkler, didn't phase them one bit.

- We spent the evening at my sister's with several other couples and their families, enjoying our first outdoor BBQ of the summer, and trying to stop my brother-in-law from burning down the neighborhood with his fire-pit (hehe, I love teasing my brother-in-law).

- And on Sunday, among other things like church, high school graduation parties, and visiting my friends Rob and Shay and their brand new gorgeous baby, I caught THIS guy meticulously cutting his own hair in front of the mirror with a pair of craft scissors!

Blake having a serious conversation on the TV remote "wif my Dad".

- I swooped down on that kid so fast he didn't even know what happened to him. Luckily it seems he had just started and no visible damage was done. LUCKILY.

But I'm pretty sure he won't be touching a pair of scissors any time soon. 

Monday confessional - a puppy tale

Confession #1:

When I was 16 our family got a new puppy name Coey, a lovely fluffy ball of a mutt that we all fell in love with instantly. While she was still quite young, within her first 6 months I believe, one of her front legs broke when she was playing rough with my Dad. It was just a freak accident (one my dad felt horrible about), and according to the vet not that unusual, because her quickly growing bones were still fragile. So Coey hopped around with a cast on her front leg and it was during this time that I backed over her with my car in the driveway and broke her other front leg. 

I'm surprised the vet didn't call an animal protection agency on us. Perhaps it was because he was too busy trying to calm down the sobbing 16-year-old in his office who was suffering from the worst guilt of her young life.

(Coey healed up just fine though after her stint in double leg casts and lived a long and happy life, just so you know.)

Confession #2:

I knew I had a picture of Coey as a puppy so went looking through some old pictures. I remembered one of me cuddling with her on my dad's La-Z-Boy rocker and sure enough, I came across it.

What a cutie, right? Scanned and uploaded. Done.

Then I kept looking through my old album because, you know, that just happens when you see all those pictures you forgot about, and it's a good thing I did because that's how I came across this one...

Well hang on a second now, that's still me in my dad's rocker, but THAT'S Coey! Good grief, I didn't even realize I'd scanned a picture of the wrong dog!

(That first puppy was a friends, I think.)

And that pretty much sums up so much about me:

-Remembers what you were wearing a week ago, but forgets your name. 

-Remembers what you wanted for your birthday after you mentioned it that one time months ago, but forgets when your birthday is.

-Remembers lots of fond memories, but can get reeaal hazy on the details!