Teacher's note

I get sidetracked easily.

So when I was looking for a document in our filing cabinet the other day and I came across some of my husband's grade school papers, the document search of course went straight out the window. Because 20 minutes of looking at old drawings, pictures, and papers from your hubby's childhood days is just way more fun!

Especially when you find a teacher's note handwritten on his 6th grade school report:

"Russ has an unbelievable energy level. He's been a positive example to other boys in the room when he provides words of encouragement to needing individuals. Russ could use improvement in his listening skills."

Oh ho ho ho! That exactly describes Russell to this day! ENDLESS energy, incredible exhorter, and a bit of a poor listener! (I say that in love, honey ;)

So funny how after 24 years, things haven't changed.

Little cutie patootie!

Monday Confessional

I was so proud of myself Sunday morning. I woke up early, remembered we were on door greeting duty at church, got ready ON TIME, and had the whole family there 25 minutes before the service.

Another young lady was already at the door so I told her that we'd take over and she didn't need to cover for us. 

"Oh", she said confusedly, "I was asked a week ago to door greet".

"Don't worry about it", I replied, "we've been on the schedule for a long time and it must have just been overlooked". 

So we took over and all was well. 

Funny thing is, today I looked at the calendar I keep on my phone and noticed something odd...

we're on door greeting duty NEXT Sunday. 

Ha ha ho... ohh hum bug. 

InstaFriday

A peek at the week via the cell phone cam.

The plums that Mum, me, and the kids picked off Mum's plum tree last weekend to make glorious, delicious plum sauce.

That's about 8 gallons of plums, after we'd already made the first batch (which uses 120 plums). After we'd made the second batch we were still only 2/3 of the way through the first bucket. Did I mention we only picked one tree?

Making more tomorrow!

Still taking naps with this guy. He's so cuddly :)

 Russ was gone for 4 days hunting last week and came home Sunday night - so happy to have him back!

Monday night I was invited to a girlfriends dinner party at my friend Nicole's. It was so lovely to just relax around the table, eat girl food, and chat and laugh without being interrupted by small people who still think it's hilarious to burp at the table.

Blake fulfills his life dream of climbing on one of the giant concrete balls in front of Target.

So I found this while out grocery shopping and got all sorts of excited. A Halloween version of my favorite Easter candy in the whole world? Could it taste exactly the same, even with a weird green center instead of yellow?

 And the verdict was YES. Which is good news and bad news, because I think we all know what this means - I will HAVE to buy one every time I see them.

The gigantor head of cauliflower I picked up at our local produce stand.
EIGHT POUNDS.
$2.50
Sold.

We love us some cauliflower - cooked this way (I omit the onion and use plastic wrap instead of wax paper).

(Also, the foot in the pic was my attempt to show a size comparison, in case you were wondering what in the heck?...)

Have a GREAT weekend, friends!

The many faces of Blake

Love this crazy kid.

On the bathroom wall

Russ and I are both extroverts. Not that we're equally outgoing, because on an extrovert scale of 1-10 I'd probably be a 5 while Russ would be somewhere off the charts in the 15 or so range, but we're both outgoing none the less. Our oldest child is also an enthusiastic extrovert and our youngest is well on his way to being a mini-Russ, outgoing to the extreme. 

Our middle child though. INTROVERT. And this translates to opposite a lot of the time. In the way we think, act, feel, and process things. 

We love him so so much. We are so thankful for his personality and differences from us. We are glad he is the way he is. But we don't always relate. Or understand. Or deal with his introvertedness very well. And this can be equally frustrating for him and for us. 

So I was struck when I saw this on Pinterest. Struck because it is sooooo Cooper. I think it's helpful. 

And that's why it's now taped to our bathroom wall. A good reminder for us extroverted thinkers! 

And in case you want to know how to care for an extrovert, here you go!

 Both prints were designed HERE.

 

Monday Confessional

That moment when you discover you would make a poor zoo tour guide:

"Oh look, a little duck, kids! Come see how cute he is!"

"Oh wait a second... nope... never mind. Carry on!"


(p.s. it's plastic.)

Hello, InstaFriday

Here's what was captured on the cell phone this week...

Why yes, Blake and I went to the zoo this week. The lions were awesome. And CLOSE.

Holy cow, we were positively being stalked behind our glass wall.

It was Blake's first visit to the Oregon Zoo, and he got to enjoy it with one of his besties, Emily.

He also got to enjoy packing our lunch around on his back all day, because a skateboard backpack looks much cuter on a 4-year-old boy than on myself.

 The pumpkin spice latte has returned to Starbucks. And my world got a little bit brighter this week.

 Blake makes a stud spidey if you ask me. Especially with his fave nerd glasses.

Fresh baked banana bread. It's what's for breakfast.
And lunch.
And as a snack.
And it smells so good I want to make some more.

So this may not excite many people, but we are talking PORTLAND, OREGON here. In the middle of September. This forecast is pretty much better than the entire month of June was this year.

Pumpkin spice lattes, fresh baked banana bread, and weather warm enough for my kids to play outside all day and even SWIM in?

Fantastic.

Memphis

Fact #1: I love Broadway shows & musicals waaaaaay more that music concerts.
Fact #2: Musicals make excellent surprise birthday presents.
Fact #3: I have the best friend in the whole wide world.

And that sums up how I ended up at Memphis last night, a show just starting it's national tour with it's first stop in Portland.

It was amazing. AMAZING!

The singing! The dancing! The comedy! I loved it all.

Jana did too. We're Broadway buddies, you see.

We were trying to figure it out last night and I think we decided this was our seventh show together since dragging our husbands to Cinderella in 2001. (Consequently, they never let us drag them to a musical ever again. In fact, when I told Russ about my birthday surprise his first words were, "this isn't a couples gift is it?" - haha. NO.)

But that's okay, I'd much rather go with a girlfriend anyway. So thank you again, my lovely, lovely friend!

A Pinterest Potluck

My friends and I have embraced the awesomeness of Pinterest and taken it to the next level...

A Pinterest party!

That's right, we'll use any excuse we can to get together and have fun - or in this case, eat amazing food. (Which let's be honest, is LOTS of fun.)

cake batter fudge

Now I may have just made this sound like I helped plan the party, when in all actuality I had nothing to do with the idea, besides loving it immediately and jumping on board.

And as you can see from the array of food above, I was not alone! Oh no, my friends Cindy & Shay scored a huge hit with their idea and have officially kicked off a once-a-month get together with a different Pinterest-inspired theme each time. (Like crafts, home decor, jewelry, etc.)

Obviously the first one was food. Everyone was invited to make and bring something they'd found off of Pinterest, or just come along to see what all the hullabaloo about the website was about.

I made chocolate peanut butter squares, because I like to pin recipes that have five ingredients or less and with only four, this one fit the bill nicely.

(recipe found here)

Which reminds me of something else I've pinned on Pinterest before:

No joke, folks.

But back to the party, it was so much fun.

And check out this little piece of "Pinspired" awesomeness, made by my friend Amy:

A magnetic board to hang in the bathroom that now holds all of her makeup. Super duper cool, guys.

Cindy and Shay also made all sorts of other things found off of Pinterest and displayed them around Shay's home... things like cool magnets, homemade play-doh, necklaces, wine glass candle holders, etc. etc. At future parties we'll actually make projects together to take home.

Which is good because remember when I bought a cool window frame for $2.00 at a thrift store at the start of the summer and was all excited to paint/sand/distress and then add pictures to make a wall hanging?

Here's how far I've got on that...

Pinterest craft party? SIGN ME UP.

Instagram on Monday

Ohhhh, just catching up on the cell phone pictures taken over the last couple of weeks. Again. Obviously I'm doing AWESOME at keeping up with InstaFriday over at Life Rearranged. Ahem. 

(Normally I'd tell you about our weekend doings, but as one of the biggest highlights was finally dusting my blinds... I'm not so sure you'd care to hear them.)

Sisters (in-law) that know and love you give you the most fun birthday gifts!

Mothers-in-law do too! 

Birthday dinner out to Red Robin with my peeps.
Witness Blake's "excited" face, which matched my face when the famous fries came out. 

The return of my favorite muffin to Costco. This also brings out my excited face!

Disturbing, Martha.

Friday night ice cream date with Mom & Dad. Including dining outside (Blake's request), and excitedly being requested to "look at that one!" at every. single. car that went through the drive thru.

And this was a REAL highlight from our weekend - catching up with an old high school buddy (as in, hadn't seen in 15 years!!), and his beautiful Colombian wife. Definitely more fun than dusting blinds!

Hope your weekend was swell!

Awkward & Awesome Thursday (and how we do chores)

Awkward:
- getting caught eating cookie dough out of the fridge with a spoon. For breakfast. In your workout clothes.
- walking by a stranger at the grocery store who recognizes and stops you to ask about your mother, so you pretend you know them too and begin updating them on your mother's amazing summer hike, until they interrupt you to say, "doesn't Leah still work at the farm?" And you say, "my mother's name is Carol..."
- attempting to avoid all eye contact, and if possible, aisle sharing with said stranger for the remainder of your shopping trip.

Awesome:
- cookie dough for breakfast.
- this woman:

Text from Mum: 10:32 AM Sept 3rd I reached the Canadian Border!!!
Woo hoo, 1500 miles completed... time to go home. Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.

- 1500 miles hiked SOLO. Proud doesn't even begin to describe how I felt when I received this picture & message on my phone yesterday morning. And the coming home part... my eyes instantly filled with happy tears :)
- updated chore charts now that school has started.

Three cheers for kids who help around the house!!! These babies worked AWESOME over summer and quickly became the source of all sanity in our household. I love you, magnetic dry erase chore charts!

(In case you're wondering how we do it: these are the daily chores. The magnetic boards are in the kitchen next to our fridge and on it I keep magnets with weekly chores like dishwasher duty, vacuuming, etc. that I just pop on and off the chore charts depending on whose week it is to do them, along with once a week chores like vacuum your room, clean mirrors, etc. that I put on the day it needs to be done. The kids check off each item as it's done so I can see their progress throughout the day, and then I erase the check marks before starting the next day.)

It's mind boggling that I'm actually a tad bit organized, isn't it? Now if only I had a chore chart...

Have an awesome Thursday!