Fish Story

We went fishing with the CAST for Kids program in Washington. This program, put on by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the CAST for Kids/Fishing for Kids organization is one of the best programs! They stocked and netted off a small portion of Lake Sacajawea in Longview.

When it was our turn we went and got our poles and headed to a place along the shoreline to fish. It took a bit of work, but we started catching them. First Tristan. Then Chase. Then Carissa. Then Chase again. Then Carissa again. And finally Tristan caught his last of the 2 fish limit.

They were beautiful little rainbow trout and the kids were thrilled! Not thrilled enough to touch them, but thrilled enough to catch them and look at them. LOL.

Brian was a big help, as he loves to fish. I could cast out well enough, but this Mom was more than happy to stick on the sidelines most of the time, snapping photos or offering advice or encouragement. I don't do the ooey, gooey, slimy, fishy thing. ICK!

Chase had the "big catch" of the day with his 12" trout, though Tristan gave him a run for his money with an 11" fish. Carissa had the "small fry" at 8".

We had some happy little fisherman (or fisherwoman, as they case may be)!

It's happened ...

... baseball season has officially taken over our life! Tristan and Carissa are both playing baseball this year, so until mid-June we have 3-4 games per week.

Tristan is playing pitching machine for the first time this year. I think he's having a good time, but his hitting has been up and down. The first game he didn't hit at all. The 2nd game he hit all 3 times at bat. The 3rd game he hit 2 times while at bat. And this game he didn't hit at all again. But he has a good coach that we are thankful for.

Carissa is in her first year of t-ball and she seems to be enjoying herself too. Of course, in typical Carissa style she has to add her own flair to baseball ... can you guess which one is her?



(She's #5 ... the one with the pink socks and batting helmet! LOL)

No pictures of Tristan yet as I just recently got the camera back after leaving it at Mom & Dad's on Easter. But as soon as I get pictures of Tristan I'll share them. :)

It's coming to an end ...

I've been Cub Scout leader for Chase's den for 3 years now. It has been such a wonderful experience and I've truly enjoyed it. But this year things have changed. I've become more busy with both school and my scrapbook designing and I have activities at the kids schools and sports to contend with. It's become increasingly harder to put in the time to create a wonderful program for our kids. So next year I will be turning my den over to another parent who will finish the last 1 1/2 years of Cub Scouts with them. It's sort of a sad event and it hit me today when I was at the pack meeting. Next year I get to sit here. Next year I get to watch the new leader go up and give awards. Next year I get to watch the boys play their games instead of trying to organize them. Next year it will all be different. And it was a sad moment, as I have really enjoyed doing all that with the boys. But I am comforted by the fact that they will have a wonderful new leader with new ideas and new things to learn and that I will still be involved, on a smaller scale, with their scouting experience.

It was a beautiful day today! Another over-70 day with sun shining and birds chirping. OK, maybe I didn't hear the birds but it was one of those so-beautiful-you-can't-help-but-be-happy kinda days. Or at least that's the theory. I don't think it quite works for me.

I started out at the scale - up a pound (thanks Bek for that so yummy but not-so-diet conscious garlic bread!). I worked out this morning for an hour and felt good about that. Ate well today too except for a few pit stops for a Hershey kiss from the kids Easter candy (isn't it gone yet?!? ... NO, and it won't be for while at the way they are eating it).

Brian and I went for a walk this afternoon so that we could measure the distance of the footpath near our house. It was a brisk 2 mile walk, as we barely got home before the bus came hauling the boys.

Had a baseball game this evening too and Tristan did ok. Still need to work with him some at home, but he's trying his best. He hit 2 out of 3 times at bat and was enthralled by the pitching machine when he played pitcher.

Tomorrw Brian heads back to work for his last 4 nights on night shift. YEAH! I am so tired of night shift. And it doesn't help that I'm a huge scaredy cat and can't sleep well when he's gone.

Besides that, life continues on much as normal. I'm fiercely looking for something to look forward to next, but it looks like our 2007 Disney World plans might not pan out. So for now I guess we'll just live day to day, enjoying what's going on and hoping for another wonderful Disney vacation sometime later in our lives. (Can you tell I'm really bummed about it? *sigh*)

Take care our family and friends. We're thinking about you.

In lieu of photos ...

I've felt so bad because I haven't been able to share photos lately. I plan on seeing my in-laws this weekend so that I can finally get my camera back because I feel lost without it (then again ... maybe the camera isn't there and it's lost and I need to buy a new Digital Rebel instead. Nah, Brian would never fall for it! LOL). Anyways, back to the lack of photos. I figured since I can't share photos right now I would just share a few of my recent layouts. They're all from one of the upcoming May kits at ScrapAddict.

Better

Things have been better the past few days, as I knew it would. I was in such a funk that day that I was glad when it was over.

Tristan had another game today and hit all 3 times at bat. We worked with him at home and I think that helped some. He was just thrilled that he hit the ball and got to run the bases, even if he was tagged out once.

Carissa's first game is tomorrow, if the weather holds out. It's supposed to start raining tonight so I'm not sure she'll even have a game tomorrow. But if she does I won't be there, as I am taking a "me" night and going to crop at the scrap store in St. Helens. I've never been to a crop at a scrap store before, so it will be a nice change. And I get to hang out with the other preschool mommies and chat and eat and such, so that should be fun.

Saturday we have some shopping to do (Costco mainly ... need some food! LOL) and then Tristan has a birthday party. Sunday we're going to get together with Becky and Brandon, which we haven't had much time to do lately. That should be fun. Besides, we are all good at grumping about the diet, or lack thereof depending on the moment.

Speaking of which, I must mention that Brian is doing AWESOME. The man just astounds me. He had to have his uniform pants taken in a month ago and they are already too big again. He's rocking the diet and exercise. He's lost about 90 lbs in just over a year. I'm so proud of him!!!

I'm doing well too, though not exercising as much as I should. We did get a "Total Gym" and let me tell you, that thing WORKS! My arms, shoulders and abdominal are all sore from the 1/2 hour I spent on there yesterday. I'm down about 15 lbs. since the beginning of this year and I'm pleased with that.

We've also made some minor changes around the house to help encourage the kids to eat a bit better. Snack time is the worst, as they had got in the habit of eating whatever snack they wanted (in other words, something sweet and sugary and not-so-healthy) and then following that up with a healthy snack if they were still hungry. We decided a month ago to quit buying the little packages of brownies and cookies and donuts that we used to let them eat. Now it's apples, popcorn, yogurt, etc. Just a little change but I think it's important to not only eat healthy ourselves but to have our children do so also. That's not to say we don't have sweets in the house ... we have a HUGE pile of Easter candy sitting right here ... but that's more of a treat instance instead of an everyday thing.

Well, guess I better get to work on my homework so that I can plan and pack for the crop tomorrow night. Take care all.

One of those days ...

Today has been one of those days. I'm trying really hard not to get all grumpy today and it's hard. Thankfully it's almost bedtime for the kids and I'm going to kick back with my scrapbook stuff and a good girlie movie.

So, here's a rundown of some of the low points for today (can you tell I'm in glass-half-empty mode???):

1. I'm PMS-ing. Too much information, I know. But just recently I began to realize that I do get grumpy prior to my cycle.

2. I had to help out in Tristan's class. It used to be that I didn't mind helping out in class but there is something about his class this year that just isn't settling with me. Not to mention the project I was doing with the kids was very hard and almost no one got the concept, so there was tons of grumbling to deal with.

3. I tried to scrapbook and the page is just not cutting it for me. It's sitting on my desk half finished because I'm not really happy with where it's going and not sure what I can do about it.

4. My Mom came over. It wasn't her so much as the fact that my house wasn't clean, the dishes weren't done, I had just started mowing the lawn when she got here and I felt badly because I had so much to do that I couldn't hang out with her as much. But she got to spend time with the kids at least, which is good as she's headed to Costa Rica this evening and we won't see her for another 3 months.

5. I forgot the camera at my in-laws on Easter. So no camera means no pictures of Tristan's first baseball game of the season (I'll get into that more later though).

6. I lost a charm from my charm bracelet that I bought at Disneyland. I just put the thing on this afternoon and be this evening I had lost a charm. Grrr.

7. Carissa had practice and Tristan had a game, which means I got to spend 1/2 hour eating with Brian then we went our seperate ways with kids only to meet up in just enough time that he could kiss me and leave for work. 12 hour days stink!!!

8. Tristan's game did NOT go well. First he gets a bloody nose while walking to the field. We get that stopped and the game begins. He is on 1st base and doesn't pay attention at all ... he's too busy digging a hole in the ground with his cleat. Almost gets beaned by the ball more than once because he isn't paying attention. He has 3 turns at bat and doesn't hit anything. In pitching machine, where he is for the first time this year, they get 8 balls to try to hit and he couldn't get anything. Don't know what was up with that. He wasn't batting right, he wasn't paying attention, he wasn't even trying sometimes. And then he comes and sits down with such a sad face and tears welling up saying "How come I can't hit it? Everyone else hit it." My heart just breaks for him and I, of course, blame myself. I should work with him more. I should have instilled that agressive attitude into him. I should have played ball with him as a baby. All of it comes to my failure as a Mom. In essence, I suck!

Have I mentioned that it's just one of those days???

Movies ...

I love movies. Well, I love "girly" movies at least. Not too crazy about horror films (too scary for me) and all those shoot-em-up movies don't do much for me either. But love stories are my favorites. So when I saw this spot at Universal Studios I just had to take a photo. Can anyone tell me what movies this is from???

It's one of my FAVES ... Notting Hill (Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts). My other faves are Sweet Home Alabama, Dirty Dancing and Dirty Dancing Havana Nights (don't knock it if you haven't seen it ... it's actually very good), Coyote Ugly and Footloose.

OK, that's enough of my musings for today.

There was a moment today where I almost melted. Chase had a homework assignment to do a speech about his "favorite relative". I was sure he would pick Brian's Dad, as they had just spent the weekend there going to a Blazers game and to see Ice Age 2 and other fun things. So I was pleasantly surprised when he said he was going to do the speech on Uncle Jimmy.

Jimmy is my little brother who isn't so little any more. He is in the Navy and is currently stationed in Italy where he resides with his wife Virginia and dog Stanley. Previous to Italy he was stationed in Washington state so we were able to see him several times during his stay. It must have made an impression on Chase because those are the reasons he chose to do his speech on Jimmy.

So for the speech he had to have 3 reasons why he liked Jimmy and then supporting points. His reasons were this:

• Uncle Jimmy has an awesome job. He gets to fly planes (he doesn't get that you are on to something new Jimmy ... sorry, I didn't have the heart to tell him! LOL) and search for submarines using his radar (which is an example Jimmy shared with the class when Chase took him as his show and tell in 1st grade). He also things his job is awesome because he gets to live near a base with a bowling alley! LOL Guess he enjoyed when we went bowling on our trip to Washington last year.
• Uncle Jimmy gets to travel to cool places. He said he loves seeing your photos and lists places you've gone and places you are yet to go (with D.C. being the epitome of great places! LOL).
• Uncle Jimmy is fun. He has a cool dog (tell Stanely that Chase misses him). Uncle Jimmy & Aunt Viriginia also play hide & seek and have taken Chase to the park (another highlight from a previous visit! LOL).

So those are Chase's reasons why Uncle Jimmy is his favorite relative. It's nice to know that he sees some of the same things in Jimmy that I do.

The perks of home ownership ...

Yes, we love our home. We love having a place that is ours as long as we want it to be, with no one to answer to when we want to do something to it. We love changing the paint (as long as it's not pepto-pink-puke colored) and we love learning how to take care of it. But what I don't love are the little surprises. And this week they hit us ... literally.

So here's the story - Chase is doing the dishes (yes, mean Mom makes makes her kids do the dishes ... one day the future spouses will thank me for it!) and I hear this rush of water and this yelp. I walk into the kitchen to see Chase soaked from head to toe and holding onto the head of our kitchen faucet. What happened is that he grabbed the faucet head to pull it out and use the spray feature and the end of the head just snaps off. Poof, end of faucet. Thankfully he had enough foresight to turn the water off fairly quickly, but as he stands dripping on the floor I can't help but laugh out loud. It was hilarious! Of course, it's too late at night to do anything about it so he finishes up the dishes (thank goodness the dishwasher still works) without rinsing them then cleans up the wet floor. Of course, to compact the issue I have to forget (TWICE) that there is no head on the faucet and I turn on the water, which in turn sprays a steady stream 4 feet across the kitchen soaking everything on the side of my refrigerator. Did I mention I did this twice? What a mess!!!

2 days later Chase goes to take a shower and I hear a similar yelp from him. When I go into the bathroom I see that the showerhead has cracked and water has shot out, thankfully missing Chase (who has had more than enough of the water folleys for now), and hitting the bathroom mirror, soaking the counter on the way.

So, we're down 2 things in 2 days. $200 later and 2 hours spent putting on the new kitchen faucet (the bathroom one only took 5 minutes! LOL) and we have learned our homeowners lesson for this week.

OK, I admit it ...

I'm an 80's girl. I loved the 80's. They were the time before life got too serious ... I was a fun loving pre-teen who loved hanging out with friends watching Footloose, Pretty in Pink, Dirty Dancing, The Breakfast Club and my all time favorite pre-teen movie, Teen Witch (a little known but much adored movie that was the epitome of all I wanted from life at 12, despite how shallow it seems now). So when fellow ScrapAddict designer, Anita, posted this link I was all over it. It was a good thing I was home alone because I was making Mr. Pipe Cleaner dance and shake his booty. The whole time I was laughing and tapping my foot. So for all of you fun loving children of the 80's who loved Footloose as much as I did, this link is for you:
http://www.davidbessler.com/pulldown/pipecleaner_dance.html

This weeks photo challenge ...

... was to take photos from 3 different viewpoints: above, straight on, and below. This is from the self-cenetered challenge, so strictly speaking they should have been photos of just me. But then someone pointed out how we never have pictures of ourselves and our kids together so I decided to coax Carissa into the photo shoot too.

We must have looked like the biggest dorks, sitting out in the front yard taking photos of ourselves. For the "above" photos I had to drag the garbage can over and put the camera on top of there. For the "straight on" photos I upturned a recycle bin and propped the camera on top of it. For the "below" photos I put the camera on the grass and Carissa and I bent over it.

If any of my nosy neighbors were looking out their windows they would think I was crazy! LOL

Anyways, here's the pics of me and my little girl.

Speaking of Disney ...

I miss it. I've missed it since we left there on March 6th. And a month later I'm still missing it. The kids miss it too and keep asking when we can go back.

Case in point - Chase is in the back of the van with his headphones and CD player singing "Zip-A-Dee-Do-Dah" (might off-tune but SO adorable, I might add) for 45 minutes straight while we are driving in the car. Then for no reason at all he takes his headphones off and says "This song REALLY makes me want to go on Splash Mountain again!". We hear a chorus of "me too" from the other kids who apparently are ready to return to Disney too.

Chase, of course, can be counted on to continue being the Disney fanatic that he is. When we get home he runs to find our copy of Birnbaum's Guide to Disneyland (which he has confiscated from me) and reads it cover to cover - TWICE. Tristan sits next to him reading along with him and commenting on how that ride was "cool" or "awesome" or how the food at that restaurant was "so good".

It really was a sight to see and makes me want to drop everything, jump in the van and drive the 16 hours down there.

Since it's been spring break (for me as well as the kids) I've had a little time to scrapbook lately. I did a few pages from our Disneyland trip and thought I would share them. Here they are ...

So we've been busy, busy, busy lately. It's spring break and I've been using this time to do the things around the house that I've been wanting to get done.

We painted Carissa's room, as mentioned, and finally got a decent shade of pink, called "Pretty in Pink".

Then came time to paint the room that Brian and I moved into. I chose a good shade the first time and like how it turned out.

We moved into the room and went to work on the master suite/soon to be family room. That's been a bit harder, as we had so much stuff to go through and we're not finished yet. Our new room is smaller and we've been trying to figure out a way to get ride of the dressers, so we bought some closet organizers (got an awesome clearance deal at Target!). We will put those up today before heading to Kjell and Malina's wedding.

What we've got left to do is to move the extra TV into the family room and situate that room. Then comes the hellish task of the boys room. This room is stuffed full of stuff and it is SUCH a mess. We already went through a bunch of stuff and threw away a whole garbage bag full, but I anticipate that we'll have another bag or 2 of garbage as well as a bag of donate/garage sale stuff by the time we're done. I had hoped to get that all finished while we were on spring break but that didn't quite work out.

We did head to Seattle yesterday to get a few things from IKEA. Walked away with a nice shelf and some stacking bins for the boys room, end tables for Brian and I and a few other smaller goodies.

It was a LONG day. We didn't get home until 11pm and Brian and I stayed up to put a few things together. It was 2am before we got to bed, which is about how late we have stayed up every day he's been off this break. I am TIRED!!! And then we lose an hour of sleep tonight, which is no good for me! Oh well, I'll catch up on sleep when I'm dead, right?!? LOL