Thursday, May 31, 2007

Quote of the Day

Someone posted this on ScrapAddict.com and I immediately fell in love with it... it's exactly what I wish for my kids. Thought I'd pass it along. Enjoy.

i wish you so much.
but most of all i wish you to be your own true self.
to take all the gifts that you were born with
and make of them marvels of beauty and ingenuity and astonishment.
-pam brown

Monday, May 28, 2007

Oink, Oink


As previously mentioned, Chase is playing the role of Wilbur in "Charlotte's Web". Time sure snuck up on us and all of the sudden his costume was due. Despite my diligence, I was unable to find a pig costume in his size. I mean, how many 10 year old boys chose "pig" as their Halloween costume? Seriously. So when Chase came home last week and announced that his costume was due on Tuesday I knew that meant that I had to make it.

So off we go to find all the supplies needed for the costume. Keep in mind that my Mom had taught us to sew when we were kids but I haven't really sewed anything in a while ... anything besides scrapbook pages that is. So I'm about as rusty as can be at this. But I find a pattern that will work with a few small changes (no lions mane or bunny tail) and go in search of a suitable fabric. I found tons of things but none of them were right. The cottons were just too thin, they didn't have the right color of fleece (fuschia was NOT going to cut it! LOL) and I couldn't find any pale pink faux fur. So I was left in a lurch ... until I found this beautiful pink velvet on the clearance rack. Score.

I scooped it up and brought it home only to realize that sewing velvet is NOT easy. I spent all day fighting with the stretch and how it constantly wants to stick together when I'm trying to position it and how it's slippery and on and on and on. But after 6 hours of diligence, 4 costume fittings, 3 hood fittings, 1 repositioned tail and a trip to WalMart (forgot the zipper ... DUH!) I am finally rewarded with this:

I must say that it turned out better than I expected. He does look a bit like a pig, but it's Chase's attitude that it makes it SOOOOO stinking adorable. Of course, the fuzzy ears and curly tail don't hurt. :)

So that chore is done. Thank goodness. I can't wait to see the play! Break a leg buddy!

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Growing Pains

It's 1am and I've been up nearly every 20 minutes with Carissa who is suffering her first agonizing bout with growing pains. It seems just a few short years ago when Chase got his first growing pains, then Tristan got his first. And now Carissa is having them too. It serves as yet another reminder of how quickly the kids are growing.

This school year is almost over and I'm staring at the reality of the fall, when all my children are gone from the house all day for school. I've been enjoying this last year with Carissa still home with me half the day. Next year that all changes.

Motherhood has been such a quick-rolling ride ... always moving, always changing. I wish it weren't so. I wish it could stand still for a few more minutes. Because I know 15 years from now I'll be looking back at this moment and wistfully remember living through these growing pains.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Not much new ...

so I thought I'd share some recent LO's of the kids with you.




In case you're interested in seeing more of my layouts you can see them here at ScrapAddict.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

More kudos for the kids

Chase continues to amaze me. Last week he was offered a scholarship for Oregon Childrens Theater. His teacher has been so impressed with his work as Wilbur in Charlotte's Web that she suggested him for this scholarship. He probably won't be going, as it only covers half the tuition and driving to Portland every day for 2 weeks just isn't feasible with gas prices as they are. But it was such an honor for him to be suggested for it. Way to go Chase!

Tristan is starting to blossom! He had such a hard time with pitching machine at the beginning of the year. Now he's finally got in the rhythm and is doing great. He's starting to hit regularly and beginning to get some power behind it. It makes him feel so great when he does that and it's great to see that happiness on his face. :)

Carissa has really picked up the reading this year. Coming into Kindergarten she knew her letters and phonics and could read short works (cat, dog, man, etc.) but couldn't read a book or story. Now she's at it full swing. She can read books all on her own, except for a few hard words. And she's reading everywhere! It's so fun!

OK, those are the kudos for today. Just wanted to share.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Broadsided by a Deer

I'm still somewhat stunned by the days events.

It's the day before mothers day, so we went into nearby St. Helens to shop for Mothers Day gifts. We didn't find anything there so grabbed some lunch for the kids at Taco Bell and then headed down the road to see what we could find at Fred Meyers. We were headed down the highway at 60mph when we it happened ... a deer broadsided us.

Seriously. We didn't hit the deer, it hit us. I saw it in slow motion ... the realization that a deer had crossed 4 lanes of a busy highway and was right alongside our van. And the realization that, no matter what Brian did, it was going to hit us.

When it hit the far rear window on the drivers side - right next to Carissa - the impact was monumental. I didn't realize that something so small in comparison to our van could make that much of an impact. The sounds of the deer thumping into our van and the window glass shattering were deafening. Then came wailing from Carissa and screams from the boys.

Brian looked in his rearview mirror and simply said "your daughter". I looked in the backseat and saw her there covered in blood and screaming. As soon as the van stopped moving I jumped out of my seat and screamed at Brian to unlock the doors so that I could get to Carissa. I jumped in the back, unbuckled her and scooped her out.

She was covered in blood from her forehead to her thighs. She had a mouthful of food and was still holding her taco. She seemed disgruntled that I made her spit the food out and throw the taco away, but she did it nonetheless. She was starting to calm down and as soon as Brian told Carissa that it wasn't her blood on her but that it was the deer blood she stopped screaming. Somehow the idea of being covered in deer blood was much more appealing then being covered in your own blood. Go figure.

It was obvious once I started wiping the blood from her face that it was not, in fact, deer blood. As soon as I'd wipe the blood away it would return. And there was quite a lot of it. So we called an ambulance to come help. They took a while and cleaned her up, removed bits of glass and stopped the bleeding. They suggested we go to urgent care to have them look her over more completely.

We took Carissa to urgent care where they cleaned her up even more. She had 2 decent size gashes on her face - one on her chin and one on her jawline. They opted for some sort of glue and tape strip thing instead of stitching it, as stitches would leave scars. The rest of the cuts were minor.

Here's what Carissa looks like right now ...




The deer had made impact on the window about 3 inches from Carissa's head. The glass had shattered and cut every exposed portion of her upper body, which was a substantial portion as she had insisted on wearing a skirt and tank top today. She has glass cuts on her arms and upper legs, on her hands, between her fingers, on her face and even in her ear. She had glass cuts and seatbelt marks on her neck. She had glass on her head and in her hair. The worst was the left side of her face, which took all of the impact. She looks like a prizefighter after a long hard fight. She's sore and a little shaken up but overall she's doing well.

The deer, for obvious reasons, did not make. The most obvious sign of this is the chunk of deer still stuck to my van. EEEEEEWWWWWWW.

The inside of the van is covered in shattered glass and deer fur. Even Brian and I, way up in the front seat, got hit by glass. None of us got so much as a scratch from it, though all 5 of us are a bit shaken up. We're thankful though that we were driving our big sturdy van and not Brian's little commuter car. We're also thankful that the deer hit us and not the motorcycles right behind us, which would have had a much worse outcome. But more than anything we're thankful that Carissa is going to be okay.

It was a very scary day. We're all still trying to come down from the adrenaline rush of it all, but we're all going to be fine. The van will need a little work but in time it will be fine too.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Still counting ...

9 1/2 weeks down, 6 1/2 still left to go. It's been a long road and I'm ready for it to be over with.


Everything here seems to keep me hopping. My new neighbor and I were talking last week and she said when she first moved in she thought I was just stuck up and never said hi to her, but it took her a few weeks to realize that I was focused solely on rushing to the next event and that I didn't even notice her waving to me. Yep, that pretty much sums up my life. Rushing from here to there and back again. Work, volunteering, scouts, parents organizations, baseball, more work, more volunteering, more baseball... you get the picture.


It has all come to a screeching halt this week though, as Carissa got the flu. Poor girl. She's been home for 2 days already but I'm hoping she's better by tomorrow. Of course, she's enjoying the unlimited TV/game time (we limit our kids to 1 hour per day but give them a break when they're sick). She's watching yet another Barbie movie while lying in our bed and realxing on Dad's comfy pillow. Hopefully she'll be feeling better tomorrow...


In other news, I'm thoroughly frustrated in my search for a pig costume for Chase's role as Wilbur in Charlotte's Web. I thought about getting him some sort of long sleeve hooded shirt and pants, both in white (because he doesn't have to wear pink, which he is absolutely thrilled about). Unfortunately all those white things are either impossible to find because of the season or outrageously expensive. I only have another 3 weeks and I've come up empty thus far. *sigh* If the magic costume fairy is out there and has a tip for me I'm ready to hear it!


In all the hubub around here I've barely had time to do my homework much less scrapbook. But today I was really inspired by looking at pictures of baby Randal. Man, is he getting adorable. I love that he's starting to get a little of his own character. And some of these pictures are so perfectly suited to scrapbooking.


Jimmy, Virginia and Randal are coming to visit for the first time at the end of of the month and I'm SOOOOO excited. We haven't seen them since they left for Italy a couple of years ago, so this will be a chance to see them and Randal. YEAH! Oh, and for those of you who read this and know Jimmy too, here are some pictures of theirs to share. While I love that Randal is making a kissy face while his mom is smooching him, my favorite picture is Jimmy and Randal in their flightsuits. OOoooooooooo ...

Thursday, May 03, 2007

My Mommy moment for today

After much procrastination, Chase (age 10) finally completed his homework for tonight. He had to write a paragraph telling why his Mom is the greatest. Here's what he wrote:

"My Mom's the greatest because she does lots of things for us, such as: bringing things to school even if it makes her late for work, she lets us have our own pets, she takes us to the movies, she lets us sleep over at friend's houses and most importantly she loves and cares for us. That's why I think she's the greatest Mom."