Saturday, August 16, 2008

On being a cops wife ...

Over time I've come to realize that there are some consolations that you have to make when you are a cops wife. New, minor changes that he makes and that slowly become part of everyday life. So, in "You know you're a redneck when" style, here's my "You know you're a cops wife when" list. The whys are listed in parenthesis.



  • You know you're a cops wife when you are left staring at the corner of the wall in every restaurant. (Because he needs to always have full view of the room and entrances and also not leave his back unprotected. Thus he sits in the corner and you sit facing him, facing at the corner.)

  • You know you're a cops wife when it feels wrong to walk standing on his right side. (This is the gun-carrying side. On duty or off he needs to have his right hand free in case he needs to access his weapon. Even when he's not carrying a weapon he naturally leads you to the left side to leave his strong side open.)

  • You know you're a cops wife when you are almost exclusively regulated to the passenger seat. (Oh yes, the need to be in control of the vehicle. Anyways, he does have all those defensive driving courses under his belt, so he must be the safer driver.)

  • You know you're a cops wife when you look at your husband demeanor when meeting someone new and instantly trust his character judgement. (He knows A LOT of bad people and can easily get a quick feel for those who are fundamentally "good" and those who are obviously not. Not to say that this is infallible, just that he always make a very quick, and usually fairly accurate, judgement of a person and I can tell from his body language whether it's someone in the "obviously not" category.")

  • You know you're a cops wife when you have to cook dinner 3 times and he still doesn't get to eat it. (Coming home for dinner is a great idea ... until he gets a call he has to rush off to. Then he calls me and says that he's ready for dinner so I warm it up again, only to have him get called away again - often before he even makes it home. I draw the line at 3 times warming it up ... after that he's on his own!)

  • You know you're a cops wife when you say "I Love You" and "Be Safe" at the end of every conversation with him. (Just in case ... you never know what can happen.)

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Our summer ...

It seems that the only way I'm going to get to blog about our summer is in updating posts. I never seem to find time to blog when things happen so this catch-up will have to do. Here, in no particular order, are some of our summer highlights so far.
The new Stephenie Meyer book came out. YEAH! Read the whole thing the day I got it. Couldn't put it down. Of course, that's how it is with her books. This one was a little wierd but good anyways. It was nice to see the story move on.

In June the kids took part in the River City Childrens Theater summer production of "The Emporers New Clothes". All 3 kids were able to act in it this year. They did a great job! Chase was a swindler called "Hoax".

Tristan was a spy

and Carissa was an orphaned Cadet (good thing she was orphaned ... her pony tail got all ca-ca and none fixed it so she went onstage lopsided! LOL).

Last week we took the kids to Mt. St. Helens to hike the Ape Caves. This is a large cave that formed because it was once a lava tube. The lava is all gone, of course, but there is this huge cave to hike. It took us several hours to hike the couple of miles, as you have to climb over boulder pile after boulder pile. We had such a great time together, really working as a family and enjoying the challenge of a new experience. Sorry, no pictures. The kids camera broke and I couldn't risk taking my camera along on a hike like this. :(



I did however take the camera to the beach when we took our one and only night away this summer.
On the way to the beach we, on a whim, decided to stop at the Tillamook Forestry Center. This place was great! Neat exhibits, fun activities for the kids and some hiking trails behind where we wandered around for a while. The best thing is that it's free. Gotta love that!
We took the kids to our favorite place -- Cape Kiwanda. We stayed in the cabins at the bunnies resort and took lots of time at the beach. The kids climbed the huge sand dune
then we cut over to hike the top of Cape
then it was a fun run down the steep dune hill and back down to the beach where we checked out the tidepool area
and just walked along the beach. The kids, of course, were on the search for shells to take home. Our rule is that it has to be a whole shell to go home. Not so easy to find whole shells either. Here's what we ended up with this trip.
We were sooooo sandy after this that we washed it off in a swim at the resorts pool before heading over to the yummy pizza place we always eat at when we visit.
Back at the cabin Chase made a fire and we make s'mores before heading off to bed.

The next day we made another trip to the beach and another swim in the pool before heading out. Chase had to organize a family activity as part of one of his merit badges so he planned a hike for us.

We visited the Cape Meares lighthouse. Now, growing up next to a lighthouse in Newport I was surprised that this thing was so short. It's this stout little lighthouse. Cute but small. We also hiked to see the "Octopus Tree" and then hit the road again.
We stopped at our fave place - the Tillamook Cheese factory -- for fresh ice cream and cheese curds. YUMMY!!! Cheese curds are my absolute fave and I only get them when I visit the cheese factory.

Then we were on our way up the coast. We stopped in Seaside and walked, stopping for yummy elephant ears (are you seeing the trend here ... vacationing does nothing for the waistline! LOL) and a round of mini golf. Just for the record, I kicked ass. I even got a hole in one the last hole and got a free ticket, which the kids promptly used for a ride on the Tilt-a-Hurl.... oops, I mean Tilt-a-Whirl. Looks cool but I get green in the face just thinking about riding that thing. Ugh! They loved it though. After Seaside we headed our way home. It was a short trip but we really enjoyed it.
Chase went to scout camp in July. I went for the first few days and then left him for the rest of the week. While I was there I did get some pictures. Here he raising the flag at a campwide flag ceremony.
He got to go to the cold Lake Chamberlain to work on his Trail to First Class swimming, where he learned some minor lifesaving techniques.


Of course, the best part about Camp Merriwether is that it's on the beach! The boys spent as much time as they could down there, enjoying the sand. This is Chase and his 2 friends, who have all been together in scouts since they were Tigers at age 6. Six years and 5 camps later they still love hanging out with one another. Gotta love that. OK, I think that just about wraps up anything big so far this summer. Yeah, I'm caught up. One thing crossed off my list of to-do's!

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Strike that ...

Back up. Pretend that Pip never existed, then you can meet Lucy.

OK, I guess first I should give you the story. Chase has had a rat for 2 years so we knew what wonderful and cool creatures they are. Then Tristan got Pip. All was wierd from the beginning. We put her in the cage and she just sort of sat there and weaved back and forth for no reason. Then she started biting Tristan - rats are not usually biters. But she bit him hard enough on one ear that she drew blood. She continued her neurotic behavior in her cage so we talked to the pet store we purchased her from. They said that those behaviors are not normal and that she could possibly be missing a few screws. So we brought her back to them and Tristan chose a new rat. Hopefully we'll not have this trouble again.

So, without further ado, here's Lucy ...



Lucy was named after Lucy Pevensie from the Disney-made Narnia movies. You see, she has this little bit of white fur on her head that we thought looked like a crown. And since Tristan wasn't into naming her Cinderella or Ariel, he opted for Queen Lucy (as she's crowned at the end of the movie).

So far Lucy is doing well. No oddly erratic behaviors. She is active and soft and just so sweet.

Friday, August 01, 2008

One word...

I got this in my email box and, since I truly detest forwarding things, decided to just post it here. If you have a blog consider yourself tagged and add this list and your one-word answers to your blog. ;)

1. Where is your cell phone? charging
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair? favorite
4. Your mother? gone
5. Your father? supportive
6. Your favorite thing? "Twilight"
7. Your dream last night? school
8. Your dream/goal? lottery! LOL
9. The room you're in? dining
10. Your hobby? scrapping
11. Your fear? death
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? here
13. Where were you last night? pizza!
14. What you're not? awake
15. Muffins? chocolate!
16. One of your wish list items? Disneyland
17. Where you grew up? Newport
18. The last thing you did? sleep
19. What are you wearing? clothes
20. Your TV? off
21. Your pet? annoying
22. Your computer? quiet
23. Your life? good
24. Your mood? content
25. Missing someone? Jimmy
26. Your car? little
27. Something you're not wearing? sandals
28. Favorite Store? Kohl's
29. Your summer? fast
30. Love someone? Lots
31. Your favorite color? teal
32. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
33. Last time you cried? awhile