Kendall stories

So close to 10 years old she can almost taste it!

Recently Kendall told me about the book of Revelation in the bible and suggested that I take a look at it.

"I think you'd like it, Mom."

Bless her heart, she thought I'd never read it. When I told her that I'd read the entire bible several times through, ever since I was a teenager, the look of astonishment on her face made me laugh out loud.

Retelling this story to friends yesterday reminded me of a couple of my favorite "Kendall stories" from when she was preschool age...

Kendall was about 3 years old and having a bath when she discovered a small clump of hair on the side of the tub that I'd removed from the drain after my shower and then forgot to throw away. I heard hysterical crying and ran into the bathroom to find Kendall frantically trying to reattach the hair to her own head... thinking all her hair had fallen out.

It took my quite a while to stop laughing enough to calm her down!

Sometime around the same age, I found Kendall in her bedroom looking out the window. I looked out with her and commented that there were no birds outside today.

"They must have flown south for the winter", I said. 

"No", she replied, "they went to Walmart."

When Kendall was 4 years old and painting on her little craft table in the kitchen she came into the living room and said, "Mom, I have a little problem in here..." so I came to see how I could help.

Turns out the "little problem" was that she'd PAINTED giant colored circles on my KITCHEN WALL. 

Oh Kendall... 

Cinderella Kendall age 3

Good thing she was such a doll, even back then!

I can't believe I'm going to have a 10 year old. That's a decade of life with Kendall... the sweetest blessing God could have ever given me :)  

Playing hard

We've had 80+ degree weather folks! Its an Oregon summer 2011 miracle. 

While it sure would have been nice to be swimming in the pool at Sunriver this past weekend, a little hitch in the works caused our vacation with friends to be rescheduled, and all of a sudden our weekend opened up.

Something doesn't look quite right, does it?

That would be the broken arm of Dylan, T.J. and Jana's son. The arm that he broke AS WE WERE PACKING TO LEAVE Thursday afternoon.

What are the odds?!! Poor guy!

It was an emotional day, not to mention chaotic, what with trying to help any way we could and also figure out what to do ourselves and whether we could get a refund or find another date to go. (Which we did, yay! The vacation plan lives on!)

But in the meantime, now what to do? 

Yard sale from 9-4 pm straight on Friday (I fear we have a real sickness) with the whole fam plus Emily, Dylan's little sister, stopping for coffee, quesadillas,  and a surprise visit to play with some puppies. 

Have dinner with Russ's parents and sister, enjoying a lovely outdoor steak dinner on the back deck. 

A little late night movie watching cuddled on the couch (saw Unknown. Liked it. Lots.)

Saturday morning... raspberry picking with Blake. A fun sidekick but not what you'd call "helpful".

the collages are back!

Then a lovely wedding in Corvallis that I was so glad not to miss after all.

Gorgeous church in Corvallis, Oregon

Hello, Mr. McHandsome!

So fun celebrating our friends Travis and Denae's big day with them, plus catching up with old friends.

After church on Sunday we had a BBQ lunch at my parents for my Dad's birthday, and then went and visited the little convalescent.

AND THEN...

While on the way to Walmart with Mum at 8:15 pm to pick up dad's birthday gift from us all, Russ called to see if we wanted to abort our mission and all go see Captain America with my cousin Linley and her new hubby Mike at 9:30 pm instead.

You betcha! Mum and I LOVE spontaneous fun!

Within 1/2 an hour we had returned home, called my Dad and had him come meet us, got a babysitter for Blake (who needed to go to bed) and Kendall (who didn't want to see the movie), and were on our way!

It's hard to say what Cooper loved more... getting to go out to a movie wtih us on his own, or the actual movie, which he dubbed "the best movie I've ever seen!".

I don't know if I'd go that far, but I enjoyed it... especially the ending, and the sneak peek after the credits were over, which I may or may not have actually clapped at (I got caught up in the remaining crowd's enthusiasm, ok?)

And that's how we played hard at home instead of at Sunriver and still had a GREAT weekend :)

God's goodness (and fun yard sale finds)

For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. (Ps 5:12)

What does God's favor look like for us these days?

- Russ needing a new archery target for his bow and finding this one... brand new, never used, worth $80.00 + shipping online, at a garage sale for THREE DOLLARS. 

- Needing a bike rack for our vehicle to haul our bikes on vacation to Sunriver, OR (the land of endless bike trails) and finding an awesome one that holds 4 bikes at a garage sale for EIGHT DOLLARS. The same rack that is worth around $100.00 in stores.

- Wanting a bigger bike for Coop because the one he had for the last 2 years was looking a little small under him, and finding this Mongoose brand one at a neighbor's yard sale for $30.00, when they cost over $100.00 new in stores. 

(all of the above items were found by Russell... the walking, talking, yard sale-deal-finding MAGNET.)

- Hitting a garage sale in town that just so happened to have new and near-new Nike clothing in both Russ and my sizes and getting a big bagful for $13.00. (The lady running the sale worked for Nike.)

(Russ was especially excited about this U of O jacket :)

- Falling in love with a cute Gap dress in a local consignment store, it fitting like a glove and husband telling me I HAVE to get it, only to be heartbroken to find that the side zipper is slightly broken, but showing the store owner and having her give me the dress. As in, FOR FREE. My awesome Mum fixed the zipper in five minutes flat.

Yay, for cute new dresses! (And mothers that can sew!)

- Getting a steady flow of people at our garage sale last Saturday even though it was raining on and off all day long, and making enough money to pay off another big chunk of my dental bill.  (The astronomical one.)

- Russ going to the dentist's office to pay off said chunk of bill, and then getting the remaining $900.00 we owe COMPLETELY WAIVED by our dentist.

My teeth are finally paid off! Woo-hoo!!

My point?

God is good! Give glory to Him!

A collage collection

Guess who discovered Picasa's collage maker and is having way too much fun with it?

This works out well since I've been feeling like it's almost pointless now to recap some of the fun goings on we had earlier this month... the ones I promised two weeks in a row to talk about and then never did, because, WEDDING MANIA! And then GARAGE SALE MADNESS!

But now I have an awesome excuse: collages need lots of photos... and I just so happen to have them! 
 
(Plus, there's always my dear Grandma in New Zealand to think of. She loves the pictures :)

So here we go. And remember you can click on each image to bring it up bigger in a new screen.

4th of July weekend

Freezer jam making with Kendall and her friend Katie.(This went amazingly well, despite the fact that Blake tried to "help" by reaching up to stir the bowl of crushed berries while I was wiping some splatters off the floor and ended up dumping half the bowl's contents on my head and shoulders.)

Church service holiday extravaganza with line dancing!

Yard work with Daddy's little helper.

Rodeo Fun

Hometown rodeo with Dave and Kelly, my parents, and my Aunt and Uncle who were visiting from New Zealand.
This was their first rodeo and we wanted them to enjoy it. 

So we made sure that giant elephant ears were provided. 

And that we stayed for the fireworks.
I don't know about them, but we sure had a great time!

Independence Day

Hometown giant street parade.

Family BBQ.

Splashin' in the pool.
Fireworks.
We love the 4th of July.

Mary Poppins broadway show (aka the purple panty story)

Girls night out! Jana, Kelly and I had a lovely evening at Portland's broadway, and we started the night out right with a stop at California Pizza Kitchen for dinner.
Thai Crunch Salad and fresh fruit smoothies? YUM.

When we approached the theater I saw a lady in a black sheath dress standing looking at the huge Mary Poppins sign out front. She was standing still and didn't appear to be with anyone, but what made me notice her was that her dress was torn down the back center seam from her tailbone to an inch or so above the bottom hem, and that the gaping hole revealed purple satin panties underneath.

I immediately pointed this out to Jana and Kelly in a hushed whisper and we quickly consulted as to whether we should say anything or not. I was for it, they were against it - being afraid of embarrassing her too much and citing the rule "if they can't fix it, don't tell them". (We later decided this rule applies to things like a tear in your stocking or a hole under your arm - NOT your rear end.)

Because she was standing so still I wondered if perhaps she knew already, and had sent a friend for a jacket or something to wrap around her waist. But just then a couple approached her and asked if she would take their picture and she was quick to oblige, walking confidently to the spot they wanted and then CROUCHING DOWN to get the sign above their heads in the shot.

I couldn't stand it any longer.

"I would DIE, you guys! I have to tell her." And I marched over and did so (in a very discreet manner though, after she'd handed the camera back its owners). Of course she was mortified. Who wouldn't be? But she also threw her arms around my neck in a giant hug and thanked me about 20 times, and then begged me to walk closely behind her the half block back to her parked car so she could immediately drive home.  I was happy to oblige.

And that's how I became best friends with the purple panty lady.

(Mary Poppins was delightful, by the way.)

Linley's Bridal Tea (aka the day I was an African princess)

Let the record show that my Nanna throws the fanciest bridal showers you'll ever attend. Amen. 

Reception shots from the wedding

Gotta give a shout-out to my friend Staci for helping me with a few pics after the wedding. I hadn't had my camera all day so was in a picture taking frenzy during the reception and she was kind enough to help out. 

Love the family shot Stace!

I can't wait to see the professional shots from before the wedding.

There were polka-dot rain boots and umbrellas involved.

Well that was fun!

(The collage making that is. I can't speak for your viewing experience.)

Scenes from a yard sale

We had a successful weekend, money and fun-wise. 

But boy, did running a yard sale wear us out! So much so, that we skipped church yesterday morning, slept in, and still took three hour naps in the afternoon. 

I never actually got out of my sweats all day. 

Or cooked anything besides pancakes and chocolate chip cookies - regular Sunday staples. 

(click to enlarge)

Some things to note:

- Russ was IN. HIS. ELEMENT. I think he enjoyed throwing the sale as much as he enjoys going to them. Plus, he got to play in his shop all weekend, sorting and organizing, and this made him very, very happy. 

- As it turns out, a happy Russell means a generous-with-the-yard-sale-earnings Russell.

- Fresh pedicure, here I come ;)

- Kendall and Cooper threw themselves 100% into their hotdog stand and employed many a sales tactic to draw customers, including sending their 3-year-old little brother to ask shoppers if they wanted to buy "wunch". (Which worked quite well.) By the end of the first day they had earned back their initial investment (we had them buy their own supplies). 

- Unfortunately, enthusiasm fizzled drastically on day 2, and if not for our own generous hotdog and soda consumption, they wouldn't have made a dime. Still, it was a good lesson and experience for them.

poster by Cooper

- My Mum did the sale with me while Russ worked on Friday and came back Saturday as well. She was a yard-sale working MACHINE! I loved her company and we had tons of fun together. 

- Including laughing until we died over our inability to add up a MASSIVE pile of shop items all priced within the .5 - .50 cent range that an older gentleman was trying to buy. Seriously, after attempt #6 I just said, "how does $7.00 sound, sir?" because we were so flustered and embarrassed by that time that we couldn't think straight.

Cooper fell in love with this Michael Jordan poster that my Mum brought over to sell and spent ages trying to copy it. He wasn't happy with his results and completely erased his attempt at the close up of Jordan's face (apparently his version was "too cartoony"), but I just thought he was so cute sitting there drawing so seriously, I let him keep the poster for his wall.

The background he added in for effect :)

Besides making almost $800.00, one of the best parts about the whole weekend was not having to cook. Chinese Friday night, pizza Saturday night, it's no wonder we made it till last night before realizing that we were officially out of bread, butter, eggs, oatmeal, cereal, cheese, and tortillas. 

And toilet paper. 

Off to the grocery store for me!

But first... I just realized that today is the one year anniversary of starting my blog! Yay me! 

I had no idea I would enjoy it so much. Or write so dang much. 257 posts? Yikes!

Thanks for reading and commenting my lovely friends :)