Monday Confessional

You know those nights where you leave dinner plans to the last minute because you're busy doing other things and/or you just don't feel like starting cooking yet, and then realize it's almost 5 pm and your son has a baseball practice at 5:30 and you should probably feed him before he leaves?

I make spaghetti in those situations. A few minutes to boil the water, 9 minutes to cook the noodles, throw on some Prego and Parmesan cheese and voila, a completely average and uninteresting dinner is served.

Last Thursday night I found myself in exactly that scenario, except it wasn't just my son who needed to leave, but my husband who was going with him (husband who turns to the dark side when overly hungry.) So I quickly got out my large black stockpot with the glass lid and set it on the stove to boil the water. While waiting to put the pasta in I assembled everything else I needed and loaded the dishwasher. Once that chore was finished I was disgusted to see that my slowest heating stovetop in the WORLD had still not brought my pot of water to a boil. Not a single bubble. I made sure I had the right burner on and that it was working and then decided that the saying "a watched pot never boils" may extend to being in the same room as the pot, and wandered into the living room to check my email, figuring I'd hear the lid start to rattle when the water got rolling.

15 minutes later, I remembered the water with a yelp and rushed into the kitchen to stare down through the silent lid in dismay... Still. No. Bubbles. What the heck?!

So I lifted the lid. And realized I'd forgotten the very important step of ADDING WATER to the pot.

Let's just say that Cooper took a muffin to practice and the grownup accompanying him was NONE TOO HAPPY.

Glass lids can be very deceptive.

Signed,
I am a kitchen disaster.

InstaFriday

More Instagram pics from my cell phone this past week... have a great weekend everyone! 

Lunch out at Thai Dish with Jana before seeing The Lucky One. 

We also hit up Yogurt Shack, a garage sale, and a women's consignment store. 

Could a girls day out get any better?

Over at our friends' for dinner last Friday night, my kids and Coop's buddy Judah found the Halloween dress-ups in storage upstairs and entertained themselves for hours.

 Where there is a large pile of dirt, boys MUST dig. - Confucius 

(or it could have been me)

 We were visiting a friend who is building a home in the country and the kids found a rubber boa snake. 

Which is actually a real snake common to the Pacific Northwest.

They are very docile and never bite, but will wrap around your arm and slowly squeeze...

Did you just shudder too? 

 During our beautiful summer-like weekend last week Russ built a fire pit out back and we tested it out roasting marshmallows after dark. This will get MUCH USE this summer!

 My big dinner hit of the week: a chicken and broccoli braid of Pampered Chef fame. 

Yeah, it was awesomely yum. 

This may be my favorite pic of the week. During nursery duty at Church Wednesday night Russ got a little sucked into The Fox and the Hound. Notice all the children around? Yeah, they'd all left! Baahaa.

 Cooper came home from baseball practice with his new uniform on. Adorable! 

Russ managed to come home with a new baseball hat himself... not sure how he scored that but I'll be sure to steal it when I'm having a bad hair day ;)

Why my kids have an awesome dad, reason #65: He periodically writes them love notes and hides them in their backpacks to find at school. 

(While he didn't come up with this idea himself, it's part of the Father's Mandate from Growing Kids, he has faithfully continued to do it for years).

My kids LOVE it.

(Also, I feel the need to note that "Bolindal" is not a weird middle name but a rhyming nickname Russ calls our daughter, and if you will all please agree with me, should obviously be written "Ba-lendall". Thank you.)

Linking up with Jeanett here:

Picturesque

 A grassy field, a blossoming cherry tree, and children reading in the warm evening hours of Spring. Simply lovely.

And so okay, the grassy field is actually our back yard, currently on it's way to a hay field while our mower is in the shop being worked on, but for the sake of these photos we'll call it picturesque.

Pure mush

Did you know I love my husband a lot, a lot, A LOT?

I do.

And although I don't normally like to get all mushy on here because... I just don't, 

sometimes you come home to find something like this waiting for you...

And you turn into a ball of mush because you love People magazine

and your husband (who normally makes fun of you for occasionally reading it online),

has stopped to buy one for you "just because".

And underneath you find a sweet card

that he has taken the time to address with his fancy script

and filled with gift certificates to a local salon,

along with a heart-melting list of reasons why he loves and appreciates you.

And then you just feel like you have to TELL THE WORLD!

I LOVE MY HUSBAND!

xoxo

Return to the river

Oh glorious Sunday, you were so good to us!

The temps reached into the high 70's yesterday and as soon as we came home from church and ate lunch we headed down the trail at the back of our property to the river for an afternoon of play.

Blake, Cooper, Kendall, and cousin Maddy.

Of course, play is a relative word because to Russell that meant bringing down his mower with a trailer attached to haul all sorts of manly tools so he could clear trails and get rid of unwanted brush. He was completely in his element. 

And so was I!

Ahhhhh.   

  

 These girls are over a year apart in age but they are two peas in a pod! 

 The kids caught salamanders...

explored and played all sorts of imaginary games, 

and got incredibly dirty.

 Yikes. 

Because the weather was still so warm when we came back up to the house the kids all put their suits on and soaped up the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath.

It felt just like summer. 

And to top it all off, my tulips opened :)

Thank you, Sunday. You were perfect.

InstaFriday

I'm so glad it's Friday!

Here's the cell phone pics from the past week...

Life with Russell often means strange animals being brought home to show the kids. This day it was a grouse, which was trying to hide in a fallen branch in the middle of the road not far from our house.

Russ slowed down, opened his car door, and scooped it up... for reasons that I shall never fully understand. 

After showing the family it was then let go and amazingly enough, it did not die of a heart attack.

 A family fave... I could live on their steak fries and honey mustard dipping sauce. 

We were there last weekend for a surprise birthday party for my cousin Linley. Fun times. 

 Miley in the car. 

Like most girls, she enjoys the feeling of the wind in her hair on a warm spring day. 

 At a baby shower for my friend, Ellie. Instead of games we decorated onsies for her coming baby and I made this one. I needed step-by-step instructions but loved how it turned out - and it was fun!

(And the shower was just in time too, her little girl came on Wednesday!)

Spring bulbs in my garden.

 One of our favorite dinners... BBQ drumsticks, baked potato and steamed broccoli. 

All three of my kids love the broccoli best - I'm doing something right!

Trying color on my lips for the first time in YEARS.

And okay, it's not really lipstick, it's tinted CoverGirl Natureluxe gloss balm.

They cost $6.49 at Target, something I wouldn't pay for lip balm (because I'm cheap), and yet I coughed over $11.00 to buy a 3-pack at Costco because they had a $3.00 off coupon - even though I couldn't choose the colors.

This is what I like to call "The Costco Effect". I'm a big sucker for it.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I'm linking up to Jeannett here

Awkward and Awesome

Awkward

- The on-the-spot tour of our new bedroom I had to give the County appraiser who showed up at the door unannounced last week. (Read: my room was not ready for guests.) Oh, and this is my clean underwear pile you see folded on the bed...
  

- The look on the poor appraiser's face when he came back to the front door after leaving to sheepishly explain that he'd locked his keys in his truck and could my 10-year-old daughter please shimmy in his back window to unlock it for him? 

- The moment Russ arrived home just in time to see his daughter climbing out of an unknown truck with an unknown man standing next to it... I've never seen him speed down the driveway so quickly and jump out of the car looking like he was ready to accost a perfect stranger!

- Telling people you accidentally ran over your son's foot. Telling the internet you accidentally ran over your son's foot.

- My addiction to Draw Something on my cell phone. I have 18 current games going, and I can't be sure, but that seems like a lot to me. It is kinda sorta a teeny tiny bit ALL CONSUMING.

Awesome
- The imagination of a 4-year-old. Today Robin Hood was in our apple tree - the REAL Robin Hood, you know, from the animated Disney movie. According to Blake he had his hat and clothes on and his bow and arrows and he was going to stay the night up there. We had to wave several times, but when I started talking to him through the glass I was corrected... "he can't hear us, Mom." Oh, excuse me. 

-  Couches turned into pirate ships.

- This guy at the dentist. Xrays? No problem, as still as a mouse. Opens and closes and swishes on queue. And thanks the Doctor on the way out the door. Stud. 

- Friends having babies and friends getting the news that they're getting a baby (via adoption) on the same day! Yay for new babies!

- A date with a girlfriend tomorrow to see The Lucky One... with lunch at Thai Dish first. Yes!! And then dinner after with great friends. It's going to be a splendid Friday! 

- A weekend forecast of finally hitting the 70's! I see gardening in my future. (That's right, I only garden in good weather... leading to the dismal case of my flower beds at this moment.)

Pin curls

Kendall asks me to do her hair in rag curls about once a week. And I comply a good 1 time out of 10, which I guess is still often enough to make her keep asking.

So yesterday when she asked again, and I said "not tonight, honey", again, she didn't act disappointed, and I (possibly still feeling magnanimous towards my children after the FOOT-RUNNING-OVER incident) had the spontaneous idea to try something new instead.

"How about pin curls?"

I mean, if pinterest can do it... why can't I?

Except if I followed that train of thought I probably should have actually looked it up on pinterest. Instead I just guessed how it worked and Kendall ended up looking like this:

Hello, Cindy Lou Who.

(Yeah, totally didn't know what I was doing.)

Kendall managed to sleep on that crazy do and here's what her hair looked like after we took the pins out this morning...

And after we separated the curls with our fingers...

Acceptable enough for Kendall's liking, but I think I'll twist and pin a little less zealously next time.

Monday Confessional

How was your Monday morning today?

Mine? Not so swell. 

It started off with waking up to a tight throat, stuffy nose, and a cough. Just like the cold I only recovered from two weeks ago. What. The. Heck. And on top of that, the weather that had been nice and sunny over the weekend was now a steady driving rain. Boo.

Then my 4-year-old (who went to bed at 8 pm last night and got almost 11 hours of sleep) managed to still wake up on the wrong side of bed and was a grumpy and whiny mess before breakfast had even started. And due to how I was feeling I can tell you I was in no mood to handle it nicely.

Next, I took my older two to school, and discovered upon drop off that my 9-year-old had forgotten his backpack (with his lunch and necessary change of clothes for after P.E.) for the THIRD TIME in two weeks.

Enter ugly-mood mother.

   

So off I zoomed back home with 9-year-old in tow to retrieve the backpack as quickly as possible, with dire threats of consequences for wasting Mommy's time and gas when he got back home from school that afternoon. (Ugly-mood mother is super understanding and kind on gloomy Monday mornings.) 9-year-old knew this was serious business and jumped out of the car and grabbed his backpack in record time, and then practically dove back in as I started to move again before he was even all the way in the car.

Which is how....

how...

how it came about that I...

(GULP)

RAN OVER MY SON'S FOOT WITH THE CAR.

(Side note: Want to know how to get out of a bad mood? Try accidentally running over a blood-relative's foot. Because just like that, ugly-mood mother was instantly replaced with horribly-contrite-and-ashamed mother.)

Thankfully nothing was broken or sprained... but much crying ensued. MUCH crying. Enough to make me decide to keep my 9-year-old home even after I was sure he was going to be okay, for no other reason than the fear of the story he'd have to tell when he went hobbling into his classroom.

Yep, I'm a total wimp. (But a very contrite one!) 

So here's what we're up to right now...

 Ice-pack and Spongebob on Mommy's bed.

It's the least a guilty mother could do. 

InstaFriday

Oh Fridays, how I love you. Half day of school for the children, start of the weekend for my husband, and workout morning with my friend Kristie (well I don't love that part, but I feel good afterwards!)

Aaaand... InstaFriday!

Freshly stocked from the MAC counter. New little eyeshadow boxes make me happy!

Girl date! At Mirror, Mirror with my mother, mother-in-law, daughter, sister-in-law, and two nieces. Super fun. 

Riding in style with Cooper's class on a field trip to Franz Bakery in Downtown Portland. 

While driving we played 20 questions and Draw Something... which grew quite the crowd of kids hovering around our shoulders, and let me tell you that everyone's a drawing expert when you're not the one actually drawing! 

Oh rainy Oregon, you were a little bleak this week. 

All that rain makes for lots of green and moss though, so while it's too wet to swing in this tree, it sure is pretty to look at!

What have we here? Cream eggs with my name written on them? Well I think I'll help myself then!

(Thank you Mum and Dad for still give me candy on Easter ;)

On of my very faves. 5 mini-eggs were eaten during the watching of this show :)

Which is why it's a good thing I'm off to work out this morning! 

Happy Friday!

"I" statements

(Today I'm taking the "I" statements challenge from Becky Higgins blog... recording a little bit about myself, right now.)

I was... woken up at least 4 times during the night last night by sounds, Blake, my husband, etc. but still woke up this morning feeling like I slept like a baby. Yay!

I am... laid back and easy going and I laugh easily. I keep up on laundry and dishes and making my bed daily and sweeping, but I am not well-organized or on time or disciplined enough to clean my windows and mop my floors more than the bare minimum. I'm also pretty sure my bare minimum is a lot less than your bare minimum.

I think... it's a good thing I've never owned a credit card in my life. Spontaneous shopper + line of credit? Disaster waiting to happen, people.

I wonder... how long it will take my kids to notice the fact that I'm pilfering their Easter candy stash at an alarming rate.

I wish... Oregon was sunny all the time. Or even 70% of the time. Heck, right now I'd take 50% of the time! Come on, sun!!

I save... poorly. Not my strongest suit. Thankfully I have a husband who's pretty darn good at it, otherwise nothing big would ever get purchased around here. (I'd have a lot of cute clothes though...)

I always... say yes to dessert. ALWAAAAYS.

I can't... imagine not having Jesus in my heart. Not having my children. Life without my husband. A 100% sunny Oregon (darn it).

I believe... that mosquitoes have no useful purpose on earth and should all be exterminated. That could be done, right? Who's with me!!

I promise... to always try to show love to my husband with his love languages (physical touch and words) even though they are the complete opposite of mine (acts of service and gifts). Not as easy as you might think!

I love... sunshine. Pretty gardens. Camping and vacations. Summer break's easy schedule. Walks to the river. Fresh zucchini and tomatoes straight from the garden, the 4th of July. Cute sandals. Maxi dresses. I love SUMMER!

A warm night at the County Fair last summer.

Over Easter weekend...

THIS happened. 

Turns out tall bunnies are not to be taken lightly, even with Mom holding on to you for "protection". 

We were at our small town's annual egg hunt at the park - our first time attending! 

After collecting eggs Blake warmed up enough to wave from a safe distance. And a fun time was had by all. 

However, while we were gone our dog escaped and ran away for the first time ever, leading to mass family panic for the following hour until we discovered (in a very very roundabout way) that a lady had stopped and picked her up and taken her 7 MILES AWAY to her house. Thankfully we were able to get her back safely and the dognapper turned out to be a kind dog-rescuer.

After that my sister and I took our boys to Target and I may or may not have purchased my second maxi-dress in one week. 

{Blake and Cooper with cousins Hayden and Elijah} 

I'm sure you can imagine what a quiet and peaceful group we were while shopping. 

Easter Sunday turned out to be the most beautiful day we've had all spring, and this brings me to the part where I show you way too many pictures. 

It can't be helped, I'm sorry. 

 Easter service. 

 Kids choir.

The "iddy biddy" choir. (ADORABLE)

Besides the fact that one of my shoes literally FELL APART during worship, it was a great service!

We had a big family lunch afterwards at my Nanna's. 

 And a Resurrection egg hunt and story time with the kids before doing the outdoor egg hunt. 

We also made a big to-do over my brother's face when he showed up. Riding bicycles in Portland can be dangerous if you hit a bush and crash and then your buddy riding behind you runs over your head on accident.

True story.  

Heading out on a tractor ride with Grandpa Duke. 

We ended the day by popping over to Russ's sister and brother-in-law's where his side of the family had gathered, and had a lovely evening sitting outside chatting, watching the kids play baseball, and marveling every 5 minutes or so at the warm weather (I'm telling you, it was niiiiice).

It was a gloriously lovely Easter.