A Scrap of Life

Post-Christmas Trip

2012-01-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

One December 26, we left the post-Christmas mess of our house and hit the road for a short but much-anticipated trip north to see my little brother, Jimmy, who had recently returned from deployment, and his wonderful wife and kiddos. It's about a 4 hour drive from our house and we had stops to make on the way, so we got up and going.

I do have to admit making a few extra stops on the way, at both Wal-Mart and Target. I'm a deal shopper so those day-after-Christmas deals were just calling my name. Plus I had a HUGE rotary cutting mat to exchange (apparently "large" at my store is only "medium" at theirs. It took a roll of wrapping paper to wrap it, it was so huge. LOL). Oh, and we made a quick stop at Nipps on the way through Longview, so the kids could taste the best burgers ever!

That taken care of, we hit the road. Our first stop on the way up was in Lakewood, Washington. In 2009, 4 police officers were killed in a coffee shop and we wanted to stop by the memorial. It was a bit hard to find, but we finally located it. There's no way to describe how seeing something like this feels. I feel so much pride in what Brian does, yet at the same time there is the reality of the danger of his job. This was a sobering reminder of those dangers as well as an affirmation that their sacrifice does not go unnoticed. And having been touched by the death of Chief Painter, this is even more emotional for us.

Brian's favorite part of the memorial were some words etched way down on the bottom, under the names and nearly hidden behind all the flowers there... "praecessi in vulnero via". They're in latin, but translated they mean "We go in harms way".

After freezing our butts off at the memorial, we got back in the van, cranked up the heat and headed for our next stop: Lynnwood, Washington and the American Girl store! Carissa wore one of her other Christmas gifts, a dress for her and a matching one for Ella. She looked so adorable and was so excited to finally be going to an American Girl store! (Although she is freezing here! Parking at the mall the day after Christmas is terrible! We had to walk a long ways, it was freezing outside and she forgot to bring a coat... lesson learned my young daughter!)

Anyways... we finally arrived!

She walked the store in awe of all the stuff there. She loved the horses most of all, but was astonished at their $75 price tag. Then she took Ella to the doll salon and got her ears pierced. It's the one thing she knew she really wanted to do while there. She paid for it using gift cards that she got for Christmas.

While we waited for the ear piercing, we shopped so more. I must be rubbing off on her, because she looked at the exorbidant prices and went "Wow, that's too much!". She walked out with only the ear piercing and a second box of earrings for her doll. Even the "sale" deal of $25 for matching shirts for her and her doll couldn't tempt her.

We were running later than we hoped, so we got back on the road for our final destination of the day: Jimmy's house! We had dinner then just spent the evening chatting. Randal had decreed that we would wake up and do Christmas tomorrow, so that's just what we did.

We had brought bigger gifts than normal for Jimmy's kids, thanks to a merchandise voucher we had received for recalled Fisher Price toys. They took up half the back of our van! The boys seemed to enjoy them, especially Randal who played with his space shuttle a lot. Our kiddos opened gifts from Jimmy & Virginia too. Carissa couldn't wait to get home so she could play Wipeout Wii! LOL

We really didn't have any plans for when we were at Jimmy's, hoping to just have some down time to relax and hang out with them. We talked, laughed and played video and board games (they introduced us to "Settlers of Catan" board game, which we now own and love). It was just such a fun time!

Tristan was most excited about getting to hang out with Alden. Even though Alden is 2 now, Tristan wants to be picking him up, hugging him, sitting with him, etc. Alden is his little buddy. It's so adorable. Have a mentioned what a great father Tristan will be someday?

Chase got into the action too and he and Randal played around.

Tristan's just had to put his new hat on Alden too. Look how adorable he is!

They sure have beautiful, wonderful, well-behaved babies. I think they should have even more. Just saying...

On our second day there we went out to eat lunch and then they took Alden home for a nap. We took Randal with us and headed to Deception Pass, so we could see the area. It was freezing (again) and Carissa had no coat (again... since it was still at home), so we didn't last that long outside. We walked about halfway across the bridge and then ran for the van. It was cold even for those of us with coats. We headed into town, driving by the base and seeing big planes flying by. We filled up on gas then head back to Jimmy's house. We stopped at the halfway point on the Deception Pass bridge and parked so we could run out and get a quick photo (forgive the crappy phone photo).

Jimmy and Virginia went out that night so they could have a few minutes of time alone together. Brian and I really enjoyed staying at their house hanging out and playing with their boys.

The next morning we got up and hung around a few more hours, then got on the road towards home. We did make a few stops though. Since our anniversary trip to downtown Seattle in September, we've been wanting to take the kids there. We'd talked up Kukuruza, this caramelcorn store we found, and thought a quick stop might be fun. We hit Pikes Place first, walked around a bit and took a few pictures.

Then we walked the 3 blocks to Kukuruza. We each tried a different flavor of caramelcorn. Brian got a big bag of regular caramelcorn, while the boys and I settled on sharing a bag of Rocky Road caramelcorn. It was delicious and didn't even make it home! Yum!

We went back to the market for some fresh made mini powdered sugar donuts, walked around a bit more and then got back on the road. Our only other stop on the way home was at Cabela's, which is our traditional stopping point. The boys bought AirSoft guns with their Christmas money and we all spent time in the shooting gallery, which was free that day. Then it was back in the car for an uneventful ride home.

It was a lot of driving but so worth it to spend time with Jimmy & his family.

Christmas

2012-01-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it's time for another catch-up post. Christmas has come and gone and I wanted to share just a little of our season.

Here's the kids putting up their Santa sign in the front yard.

I'm not sure how much longer this sign will last, as each year it gets smashed up just a little more than it was the year before. We've had it for 10 Christmas' now and it's definitely showing it. At least for this year, it still made the traditional posting in the front yard.

And just because I feel like the kids have grown soooooo much this year, I wanted to compare this to a similar photo from a previous year. The earliest one I could find on here was from 2007, though I know we have them every year since at least 2001. Anyways, 2007 was just 4 years ago but look at the difference. And keep in mind that we put a new, longer stick on the sign a few years ago.

Aaaahhhh... Christmas Eve. Here they are before opening the traditional Christmas-Eve-Pajamas present:

... and here are the cookies left for Santa, along with a carrot for the reindeer and the Christmas pickle for Santa to hide on the tree. As a side note, this is our third year with the Christmas pickle and Chase found it this year, after two years in a row of Tristan. This meant that Chase got to open up the first gift all Christmas Day.

We watched the traditional "Polar Express" and the boys laughed at me as I cried (which I do every year at the end of that movie).

Then the kids changed into their PJ's. The boys were thrilled because they got "Angry Birds" shirts to wear with their PJ pants. Chase's says "This is what awesome looks like" and Tristan's read "Crush your enemies". They were pretty excited about them. Carissa got traditional PJ's, which came with a matching PJ for her American Girl doll, Ella. The little stuffed animal in the photo is Sugar, Ella's pet Yorkie dog. Carissa had received that as a gift from Chase for Christmas.

Right after the movie and PJ's, we stuck with tradition and read "Twas the Night Before Christmas". I *love* the new timer on my camera, which let me set this up, press the button and it just took photos at regular intervals over two minutes.

After this, it was off to bed with the kids.

Christmas morning they were allowed to wake us up no earlier than 6:00 and they were right on time. I didn't get photos of their gifts and stockings this year, but Tristan got a very cool purple skateboard with green and purple wheels. It's one of those "good" skateboards that actually works and replaces his Hot Wheels skateboard that was cheap and lame. Chase received a gift card from Santa to help him save up for his Kindle Fire. This was a theme of the day for him, as everyone gave him a little something towards it and by the end of the day he had enough money. He was thrilled and loves it! Carissa got a pink guitar and a book to help her learn how to play.

Family was plentiful on Christmas Day. Dad and Linda came over in the morning. This is one of the only photos I took on Christmas Day! It was such a crazy day that I just didn't even remember to pick up the camera.

Anyways, after they left Brian's parents came over, then Mom and Jim joined the party and we all enjoyed a ham dinner. By the time everyone left we had full bellies and lots of gifts to enjoy. Once they were gone, I saw Violet taking a nap in her beloved spot under the tree (now that all those annoying presents were gone and she actually had room!). I snapped a few pictures and thought that this looked like a perfect idea... nap time! Unfortunately, the day was almost done.

I eventually realized that I didn't have many photos from Christmas, so I set up the camera on the tripod and turned on that wonderful timer to get some shots. We're all a little tired, but we had enjoyed our Christmas day together.

On to the next holiday... new years. Brian had the chance to work the road on New Years. He's been jonesing a bit for the excitement and adrenaline that you find when working the road (which he doesn't get now that he's on the water), so it was nice for him to get a day to go out and run code throughout the county. He was able to stop by the house and take a dinner break. He timed it so he'd be home for the new year and he was. Here's a photo we took (using that timer again!) right after we rang in 2012.

*sigh* Another year gone, a new one just begun. So many changes came in 2011... so much growth and adjustment with the kids, so many new friends and new experiences. I wonder what 2012 will bring.

Zoo Lights

2011-12-23T15:06:00.000-08:00

Brian's parents got us a zoo membership last Christmas and purchased the upgraded version, which comes with tickets to ZooLights. We hadn't been to ZooLights since the kids were really tiny. I remember strollers and babies, so it was a really long time ago. Now that we had free tickets I thought it was time to visited again.

I did my research and visited the zoo website for information. The website said that the parking lot usually fills up by 5:30pm on busy nights. We were going a Thursday night, so I wasn't worried about it being too busy. We left the house at 4:15, figuring we'd be at the zoo by 5:00. Well, by the time we reached the zoo at 5:09, the parking lot was closed and full. Oh joy. We looked for a spot anyways, but it was 20 minutes wasted wandering around those lots. We finally went to the alternate parking a mile away and found a spot, then waited in line for the bus. By the time we finally got to the gate of the zoo it was 6:00.

The one bright spot of the whole endeavor is that our upgraded zoo membership gave us a super short line and we didn't have to wait in the really, really, really long line at the ticket counters.

The first thing we enountered was this big penguin. Carissa saw it and wanted a photo with it, so here she is....

We then walked down into the zoo, where I made the kids pose for more photos...

We then just wandered the zoo, looking at all the lights and the beautiful displays. Here's a few of my favorites...

It was a pretty cold night, so we stopped and got hot cocoas to share. We saw almost all the lights, though had to skip the train ride around the zoo, as the line was 1 1/2 hour long!

We spent about an hour at the zoo and then left, snapping a photo of the sign on our way out.

The shuttle bus driver informed us that it is this busy every night of ZooLights, so I think that may mean it's out for us for a while. It's definitely not Brian's cup of tea, but I'm happy that we were able to go and enjoy a festive evening together.

Absent

2011-12-07T07:54:00.001-08:00

Yes, I've been absent from my blog for some time now. There are many excuses but it really comes down to life getting in the way. The blog just isn't my priority when I've got all those other things going on, but I'm going to keep plugging away at it, even if it's more sporadic than I'd like.

The big news, for me at least, is that I got a new computer! My old one kept crashing on me and one day it just ceased to work. Thank goodness for my good friend Melinda and her husband, who suggested getting a hard drive with a daily backup. I am so thankful for that backup! The only thing I lost in the crash was my email contacts, and that I can live with.

Here's the other big news...

That is Chase with his new drivers permit! He's pretty excited about it. I, on the other hand, drove with him yesterday for the first time and am less excited about it. Teaching a kid to drive is scary! Here's hoping I love through it all! LOL

Halloween

2011-11-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

In our house you stop getting Halloween costumes once you reach middle school, after which you need to use your own ingenuity to make a costume from what we have. Tristan did just that, using his clothes and assorted props (with the help of an old t-shirt, which I cut and sewed into his little hat) and became Shadow Link. Some sort of Legend of Zelda character... don't ask me for more information because I have no idea!

You may remember seeing similar photos of him, only in green, last spring on the blog, when he dressed up as original Link for character day at school.

Chase had some friends stop by so he decided to throw on a quick outfit and head out with them. I have no photographic proof of it, but he went as Shadow... I think another Legend of Zelda character. Yes, it's popular in our house right now.

With Tristan's advent to middle school, we had only one costume to buy this year. Carissa decided early on that she wanted to be Red Riding Hood, but she was pretty specific on what she liked and didn't like. I offered to make her a tulle skirt to go with this, but she adamately refused, saying that she doesn't like tulle skirts anymore. She was also insistent on having a long cape, not the short cape found with most Red Riding Hood Costumes. So in the end we pieced this together. The cape was for an adult but I cut it down to size for her. The skirt was hers already (score!) and the button up collared shirt was a thrift store find. I made the apron for her and bought her the boots (which she now wears to school and horse riding lessons as well). In the end, she was beautiful and unique. It really was just the perfect costume for her!

Oh, and not to be forgotten... here are our Jack-O-Lanterns this year. Chase made the funny face, Carissa made the evil cat and Tristan made the ghost and flames. Oh, the little Mickey head pumpkin was Carissa's too.

In this moment...

2011-11-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

... these two get along. It doesn't last very long... in another breath it's all over and they are annoying each other once again.

Fall is here!

2011-10-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, it has arrived. Much to soon for my tastes, but what do you do? We took advantage of the unseasonable nice fall days last week and took a trip to the local pumpkin patch, Bernet Farms. We walked the fields for a while before choosing pumpkins, then looked at the animals and headed on our way.

On the way out of the patch I really fell in love with the light and just plopped the kids down and started shooting.

(Tristan's "I'm a gangsta" pose. LOL)

Summer Wrap Up

2011-10-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know summer is long gone. I have been absolutely jammed with back-to-school, work and photography. I am thankful that it's all working out and I truly love doing it all, but it's been hard to juggle the needs and wants of my family, my work and my photography. I'm hanging in there though and feel good that I'm currently caught up on it all. YEAH!

Now comes the time for a bit of a close to summer by posting some photos left over from our summer fun.

In no particular order...

Carissa and the boys were all cast in a movie called "Pageant Girl" that was filmed here in Scappoose this summer. It's definitely not a Hollywood Blockbuster - it will be lucky to make it to a film festival somewhere. They didn't allow us to film on set so I got nothing of the boys, who both spent about 6 hours on set as extras. Carissa, however, was part of the pageant scenes, which called for paparazzi - thus I was allowed to take photos. Here's a shot of her and a friend from the neighborhood, Jami, while they were waiting to go on set as well as one of her on set with all the other pageant girls.

The boys went to Camp Parson's this year for their Boy Scout summer camp. I wasn't needed as a chaperone so I didn't go, however I did snag a CD with photos on it that someone else had taken. There's another set that I'm looking for that show the boys bouldering and rock climbing, but this set has a few that I kept for their scrapbooks. Parson's is up on Hoods Canal in Washington and is one of the premier scout camps. It was quite a wonderful week for them!

Tristan is in the grey sweatshirt above.

Chase has the opportunity to go on the Boy Scout 50-miler this summer, however because the snow still hadn't melted all the way they couldn't make the 50-mile trail. Instead they did 30 miles of backpacking through the wilderness and had a pretty great time.

Here they are just ready to take off.

And here they are along the trail.

One of the motorcycle club events this summer was a family picnic at the Indigo Ranch, an animal rescue organization that the club has done fundraisers for. The kids really liked the alpacas and got to feed them, even though they were a bit timid.

We went to Pacific City and stayed at the cabins this summer. We didn't have a chance to go last summer and missed it, so we made a point to do it this year. On the way we finally decided to stop at the falls... unfortunately I can't remember the name of the falls right now! We always see the sign when we're driving 101 south of Tillamook and this time we just decided to go for it. It was a great little hidden place with a short trail to the falls. The kids ran ahead...

When we got to the falls we took all sorts of photos...

Then I set the camera on a fencepost and put the timer on. I love this camera! I set the timer so it would take a series of photos about 10 seconds apart. We got some good smiling ones, but this silly one was my favorite.

Then we turned around and headed back to the van. The kids went at a run. I, however, did not! LOL

While at Pacific City we had our traditional dune climbing race. Little Miss Rissa has been the victor for the first 3 years we held it, as she could scramble up the dune faster than her brothers. This year there was a new winner... Tristan!

After the dune climb we all go to the west side of the dune and climb up along the side of the ocean. We ignore the signs (which apparently many others decide to "correct" by peeling off the extra word)...

... and g0t a little closer to the water. I didn't climb down there with them but stayed at the top to take photos.

After that adventure we went down to the beach and looked at the tidepools (which were mostly covered with water, as it wasn't low tide). Chase decided to climb atop one of the rock formations there. I love this picture of him!

While we were in Pacific City, it was Tristan's birthday. He awoke to a little birthday banner, a breakfast of donuts and ...

... an early morning Twinkie birthday cake!

One of his presents started making noise and when he opened it he found out why... it was a cell phone! He was so excited!

We made the requisite stops at the Tillamook Cheese Factory while in the area (twice!). I go for the cheesecurds (yummy!), Brian goes for the ice cream (double scoop of Caramel Toffee Crunch in a waffle cone) and the kids go for it all! We watched them make and package the cheese and then went back downstairs for ice cream. Since it was Tristan's birthday, he got his unrestricted choice of cones and scoops. He went for his favorite, Grandma's Cake Batter, in a chocolate dipped, peanut sprinkled waffle cone.

Before we left I made the kids pose for me for some cheesy tourist photos...

That's it in a nutshell. Summer is over and I'm already lamenting the loss of warm and sunny. But you know what comes next... CHRISTMAS!!!

Playing catch up...

2011-08-08T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here's an update of what we've been up to lately. Shortly after school got out we went to Newport for a weekend camping trip. Thank goodness we had a yurt, because it was soooooo wet! Jayde and Darla came one evening to visit us and I didn't even get any pictures, as we were stuck in the yurt all evening. Thankfully it cleared up a bit the next day and only rained a little. We were able to go walk the jetty, which was a lot of windy fun.

We also went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and played around for a while.
We flew a kite at the beach for a while and the dogs wore themselves out running around the beach.

And, with the rain, we spent plenty of time in the yurt playing games, reading and relaxing.

The kids all tested for new belts in Taekwondo. Carissa and Chase are now green belts and Tristan is now a blue belt. (Just to give you perspective, green is #4 of 10 steps to black, blue is #6 of 10). Here they are with their master right after testing. In June Brian and I went on a ride with his motorcycle club to the Stonehenge Memorial in Washington. I learned a few things along the way.
1. I am a fair weather rider.
2. I need new boots that don't leak.
3. When it's cold outside, it's hard to warm up when wet.

But I did survive and enjoyed the group of guys we went with.

While the boys were at scout camp, Carissa and I went to the county fair. She had attended "Fair Camp" that I held at the preschool and had lots of exhibits. She was so proud of her 1st place blue ribbon for her Christmas stocking!She got a 2nd place ribbon for her watercolor.

And a 1st place ribbon for her air dry clay sculputer of a Mickey Ears hat (that's my girl!).

Oh, and we had to enjoy some fair food, including these yummy snowcones. It was a fun day and I'm sure we'll be entering fair again next year.

Kitty, kitty...

2011-07-14T00:35:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago my beloved Mira cat disappeared. We put out "lost cat" signs and received a call from a neighbor who thinks Mira was one of three cats killed recently by coyotes. I was pretty down and out about it for a while, as Mira was my cat (and to be perfectly honest, she really didn't like anyone else and really only tolerated me). But I loved her nonetheless and have missed her since she's gone.

When it became apparent that Mira was really not going to return to us, I started the search for a new cat. I scoured craiglist until I found what I have been wanting forever... a silver-grey cat.

She's absolutely adorable and demanding and cuddly and abnoxious, all rolled into one.

We debated about names for a long time, going through all the Disney girl names we could think of and narrowing it down to our favorites. At the end we were left with our top three choices: Tiger Lily (Peter Pan), Alice (in Wonderland) and Marie (Aristocats). The votes were tied so I made the deciding vote. Here she is... meet our adorable Alice!

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-06-14T16:22:00.001-07:00

School is out (YEAH!!!) and summer is here... well, maybe it's officially here though the sunshine and great weather have yet to make a regular appearance. I hope they show up soon or we just might miss it!

I know I've been in and out lately and haven't posted much, but it's because I've been busy. First was the end-of-the-year stuff that comes with teaching preschool. We had projects to finish, parties to plan and a pretty great graduation to top it all off.

The other thing that has me busy lately is my photography. I mentioned taking Karen Russell's class and that has been great for me. And I got my new lens (which I *love*) that has also been keeping me occupied (you must play with the new toys, right?!?). I think I also mentioned that I started a photography business earlier this year. Now that the weather is finally getting nicer, things are picking up. Saturday was my very first wedding and it was a blast! I did walk away totally exhausted from the 3-hour shindig, but when I got home I hit my second wind and started editing photos. I spent the next two days sorting and editing some of the hundreds of photos that I took. In the end, I hope I pleased my client and have some nice photos to add to my portfolio. If you're interested in seeing those photos, see my photography blog at http://www.photographybyannette.blogspot.com/

More pictures...

2011-06-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

I'm on a roll now! I've been taking tons of photos lately for my photo class, and even though I haven't used all of them for my lessons, I have liked many of them well enough to edit and save them for use.

Carissa and her headphones. I want to do a scrapbook layout about her love of music and her current playlist of favorite songs. Plus I love how blue her eyes are here.

Oh yes, the teenage years are in full swing. This is often how I will find Chase after school, hanging in bed with his computer in his lap. LOL

Just a pretty one of Carissa that I took when I was playing with my new lens. Did I mention that I love it???

Chase leading the schools opening flag ceremony for the 8th grade awards. He also led it for the Evening of Excellence at his school.

I promise that I've also taken pictures of Tristan, however they are mostly with his Nerf gun, as seen in the previous post, because that's what he does in his spare time. :)

Snapshots of a Good Life (Week 4 Continued)

2011-06-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

The final assignment of week 4 was to take the lessons on focusing and do something creative with your focus. Focus in on something different or take a different perspective of an object or situation. Here's mine...

Snapshots of Life, Week 4 (parts 1 & 2)

2011-06-09T08:02:00.000-07:00

This week I had a lightbulb moment. Reading all these things, changing settings and *gasp* turning on manual! It just clicked and I feel like I'm really getting it. Plus, I got my sweet new lens that I'm already totally in love with!

The first part of Week 4 was Exposure Compensation. That means overexposing or underexposing your picture according to your tastes instead of the cameras. For instance, here's a picture of the cat with the cameras settings (which were a little messed up because she was lying on a shiny surface in bright sunlight).
And here's the settings I prefered, a slightly overexposed version.
In playing with it, I found that sometimes underexposed shots are fun too. Here's an underexposed one I loved.

Part 2 of our assignment was to take a try at manual. Now that I'm understanding the bits and pieces of photography, it wasn't as hard as I thought. This one was shot in the shade, hence the more muted colors in this photo. Anyways, here's my first photo taken in manual. :)

As I mentioned, I'm loving my new lens. I love the lower aperature setting and am finally able to produce great bokeh in my photos, like this one:
I still have one more assignment to complete for this week and will post that when it's done. :)

It's picture time...

2011-06-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

I edited photos so I thought it was time for a catch-up post.

A few weeks ago the boys walked the "Cop Walk". It's a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and was a fundraiser for Boy Scouts too. They were only required to walk one 2.25 mile leg of the relay. Instead, they decided to walk all 12.5 miles. Here they are about mile 11... in good spirits and so happy. They did a great job and I was so proud of them. (Especially Tristan who forgot a belt and walked the whole way holding up his pants. LOL)

Brian and his new gig... man, is he loving marine! Now that the weather is nice he gets to wear polo shirts and shorts to work, with deck shoes on his feet. Not too shabby.

Miss Riss... holy, moly, is this girl growing up. I swear, she look older every time I see her.

OK, since there are never any photos of me, here's one. That's my way over-candled cupcake for my birthday. No, they didn't fit enough candles on, but they tried. This was my 37th birthday. I got a purse from my husband, who actually did a good job picking it out. I also got a giftcard to Kohl's from the in-laws and some money from my mom (which I'm saving for something I want for me... have no idea what yet). We blew off Taekwondo that night and just vegged at home. It was nice.

Theme days at school for both Carissa and Tristan. Carissa had a whole week of them, though this is the only picture I got. It's retro (80's) day. Can you believe I remember the "retro" years? LOLThis is Tristan on character day, where you get to dress up as your favorite book or movie character. He chose Link from Legend of Zelda. It was stretch to get this put together, but we pulled it off and he looked pretty great. He even made himself a shield (see it hanging on his back) and painted it and everything. He was adorable!

Brian got patched in to his motorcycle club. You're on probation when you first join up, so they can get to know you and decide if you're the kind of person they want in their club. Guess they decided he was pretty decent and he got patched in the day before memorial day. Here's the president handing Brian his patches.

And here's the other two guys who joined about the same time and who also got patched in that day.

On Memorial Day Brian and I went for a ride with the club. We went to Long Beach and it was beautiful there. Gorgeous and clear and not windy. A rare day at the beach. Unfortunately, in between home and the beach it was rainy. I've definitely learned that I'm a fairweather rider... riding in the rain is no fun at all! Thankfully, it wasn't too rainy but it wasn't fun to ride in it anyways.

Snapshots of a Good Life: Week 3

2011-06-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

We were warned about this early on - week 3 is tough. Really tough. A lot of reading, a lot of really technical stuff and starting to pull together all the pieces of the photography puzzle. It was a tough week, but it was good.

This week was all about aperture. Can I just say that I *love* aperture! The difference it can make in photos is amazing. She's even convinced me into buying a new lens with a lower aperture so I can make the most of my photography sessions. I ordered it last week and it should come on Monday. I'm so excited!!!

Anyways... back to aperture. Our first assignment was to have two willing subjects, set apart by about 1 - 2 feet. Then you play with the aperture, taking shots at all the full aperture settings to see how changing the aperture affects the shutter speed and how it affects the depth of field on your photo. I took several different tries at this, taking pictures of the kids themselves, then them with their pets. Here is my favorite and not-so-favorite photo.

This one is meant to tell a particular story... the story of how Tristan is starting to grow out of the shadow of Chase and how he's becoming his own man. It's for a scrapbook page and I like how having Chase in the background will help me tell the story.

Even though I like this one, it's my not-as-favorite, because Chase is just so blurred and washed out in the background.

The last part of the assignment was to play with depth of field and get a creative shot. This was one of those spur-of-the-moment shots. Carissa was playing at the park and kicked her flip flops off. I saw this one sitting in the grass and when I layed down on the ground to get a photo, I saw the sunshine and the little tiny Carissa (just under the sunshine). It was our first really nice, warm day this year and this photo captured it for me.
Next week is starting with focusing and here's where I really need help... and a new camera. My three measley focus points just aren't cutting it for this class, but it's going to take me a while to save up for a new camera with more focus points.

Snapshots of a Good Life: Week 2

2011-06-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

Our second week was all about shutter speed and both capturing and implying motion. Capturing motion wasn't so hard, though capturing something in motion and still beautiful was a little more difficult. Often you end up with wierd shots at wierd angles. I took the kids to the park for this assignment and shot them practicing for their Taekwondo belt testing that's happening next week. Let me tell you, these photos sure showed the kids where their forms and kicks aren't quite right. But we also caught some pieces that were really great. This was my favorite picture capturing motion:

I did find that implying motion (purposefully catching the blurred motion) was harder. Here's the photo I submitted, though I know that it's not exactly right (it's focused on the grass, not her).

The last part of the assignment was to play around with freezing and/or implying motion and then post your favorite photo. I did this assignment on the day it was due (thanks to all our rain!) and it happened to be a day I got to ride on the boat with Brian. Lesson learned... taking decent photos from a rocking, moving boat is NOT easy. When we were at the boathouse I did catch this bird returning to the nest with a stick and posted it as my favorite. Brian just let me know that this nest now has a bunch of little hatchlings in it.

Just a reminder that these are all SOOC, with no editing.

Snapshots of a good life...

2011-05-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to take Karen Russel's "Snapshots of a Good Life" photography class for a very long time. I have been on the wait list for the class for about a year and half, but it never worked out because the class was always full or the timing didn't work (natural-light photography class in Oregon in January... I don't think so!). Well this year it worked out perfectly and I was finally able to enroll.

My hope with the class was to learn more technical aspects... mainly getting my camera off of the preset settings (auto, portrait, landscape, sports, etc.) and taking control of my photos by going manual. I also really wanted to start taking better photos from the get go, so that I could spend less time editing. The class started a few weeks ago and I think it's heading me in the direction I want to go.

Each week we have mountains of pages to print off and read (about 70 each week for the last few weeks). We talked about equipment (which has now got me salivating over a new lens that I really can't afford. LOL), composition and are now on ISO, shutter speed and aperature. Each week we're given assignments to complete and post to the forums. I have completed and posted week 1 and just have one more do for week 2 (hoping to finish that when I'm out on the river with Brian tomorrow).

Sooooo... I thought I'd share my photos from week 1 and continue to share them as I go along this course. Two things you should know:

You are required to post two photos for each assignment - your favorite/best photo and one of your not-so-favorite photos. Then you have to post what you liked about the better photo and what you'd do differently in the not-so-favorite photo.

These are SOOC (straight out of camera). No cropping or editing is allowed. That is not how I usually post photos - I love my photo editing! LOL So consider this the stripped-down version of my photography.

Week 1, Assignment 1: Viewpoint (You had to take photos of one subject form different viewpoints - low, eye-level and high above) to see how that would affect the subject and background.

You have already seen these photos before, but these are the SOOC versions.

Fave:

Not-so-fave (I didn't like that you lost some of the story because you don't see her arms around the doll and the way she was hugging her. I also would have liked to see her more to one side of the frame, rather than the center):

Week 1, Part 2: Composition (Giving no directions, take a photo of an event with focus on thoughfully composing the shot. Things like the Rule of Thirds, filling the frame, offcentering, mergers, lines, etc.)

I have to admit to fudging this one a bit. It rained the end of last week and the family walk we had planned to take just didn't happen. I had taken these pictures during the week but didn't take them specifically for this assignment. With the deadline just hours away and rain still on the horizon, I just decided to make them work for me.

Fave:

Not-so-fave (I didn't like how the lines weren't straight in the background and I would have liked to have Carissa on one side of the frame):

Week 2 is due on Sunday and I'll post my photos here sometime next week. :)

On Stage

2011-05-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Both Tristan and Carissa had their school music programs a few weeks ago. This was Tristan's last program at Sauvie Island, as he moves on to Middle School next year. He played the part of a frog

and also played a mean recorder. ;) He did a fabulous job!

Carissa's 4th grade music program was fabulous. She played the White Bird of Hope and was just adorable. Here she is amongst the rest of her brightly colored flock. :)

She has arrived!

2011-05-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

Carissa has been asking for an American Girl doll for years... and I literally mean years. But with a $100 price tag, it just wasn't something we were willing to provide for her. We did tell her that she could save her money for an American Girl if she wanted her. Little did we know that she'd do just that. She has been saving money for months and months. She has saved her grade money and money that she received at Christmas and her birthday. She hasn't spent a dime since she started saving and has saved $65. Grandma heard how well she'd done to save money and decided to put in the rest to make Carissa's dream come true. As soon as we got home we ordered her doll and last week she arrived. So, meet Ella:

Ella is a "My American Girl" doll, meant to look like Carissa. She chose a doll with the same eye color, same hair color and length and the same skin color. As soon as she arrived Carissa squealed with delight and tore open the box. Since then Ella has been carried around and graces a spot on the bed next to Carissa's head. When Carissa goes to school Ella sits up on the bed by Carissa's pillow, waiting for her to come home. It's adorable how much Carissa loves her. :)

Weekend at Jimmy's - Wrap-up

2011-05-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

Our last stop on Saturday was to Deception Pass. We stopped just before the bridge and got out for a closer look. It was beautiful! It was a gorgeous day and the view was fabulous.
The kids loved it and walked part of the bridge. I stayed on solid ground... being up on that bridge with the wind blowing wasn't thrilling me so I let Mom take them instead.

It was a great pitstop and allowed Jimmy & Virginia to get a nap in for the kiddos. :)

Oh, and Jimmy finally had a chance to email me the pictures of our group from the tulip festival. This was his favorite... without him in it:

Though I did request the picture of all of us in it, even though it wasn't his favorite (maybe because he's butt is sticking out, though I look funny too so I shouldn't talk. LOL). Shortly after these pictures I got pretty sick. Then Randal got sick. That ended our weekend.

For Mom

2011-05-15T21:24:00.001-07:00

More pictures and the full story to come. Right now, this is for Mom...

Weekend at Jimmys - Part 2

2011-05-08T22:15:00.000-07:00

Our second stop on Saturday was the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We went to the "Tulip Town" site and ventured out into their fields. The first thing I noticed was that it was different than the tulip fields I usually go to. I missed the colorful windmill amongst the fields and the benches and tractors they have scattered throughout.

Im the beginning I also missed being able to walk in the rows of tulips. Tulip Town has signs everywhere asking you not to walk the roads. I thought I would miss that... I mean, you can't walk the fields? Only the edges? But in the end I loved it because it allowed me to get photos like these...

See? All those tulips and not a single person wandering the fields in the background. And since we went on a busy Saturday, you can imagine how difficult these would have been to get at our regular tulip field.

We did, in fact, go with family on this excursion. We even accosted some random stranger and asked them to take a photo of all 8 of us. Those pictures, however, are on my brothers camera. So I'm at his mercy and will have to wait for him to post them before I can share them.

I do have a few pictures with adorable little Randal in them though. He seemed to have a good time looking at the flowers and walking around with his family and his cousins.

(Not sure what happened in this photo... he must have his hands behind his back because it looks like his arms have been cut off. LOL)

As usual, I asked the kids to chose their favorite color of tulip to be photographed with. Tristan waited until the last minute and went with a field of red ones... but what he really liked was the random yellow and red streaked ones that were in this field. Not the red ones, the yellow ones.

He also got photos with these beautiful purples ones. Purple is one of his recent favorite colors so I was glad to see him choose some purple ones to be photographed with.

Carissa said that she wanted pictures with all of her favorites. I gave in and told her that was fine. She ended up with pictures in 6 or 7 different varieties, mainly pinks (imagine that, LOL). Here's a few of my faves of her:

Chase chose the reds as his favorites. They actually had some subtle streaks of white in them. They were really fabulous tulips! It was a big, thick patch of tulips too and I was thrilled to be able to get a photo with nothin but red in it.

Jimmy and his family were saints to put up with me. I take my sweet time, dilly-dallying around, taking tons of pictures of the kids, stopping to look at the tulips, playing with my camera settings so I can take artistic shots, etc. I forget what it's like to have little ones who aren't interested in hanging out at the tulip fields for 2 hours just because. LOL But I did get some great flower shots while there. Here's my faves:

The funniest moment of the entire weekend happened here. The paths were wet in places from the rain that had fallen that morning. Randal was in his cute little blue boots and wasn't quite watching where he was going. He hydroplaned on the slick, wet mud and landed on his bottom in a thick muddy patch. He got up saying "aaaa... aaaa... aaaa... there's mud in my boot!" And there was. There was mud on his bottom, mud on his legs and he'd fallen so hard that mud had actually fallen inside his boot. We just sat there and laughed, it was so funny! Then Chase decided to help and picked Randal up, holding him backwards against his body, coating his own self with a layer of mud. *snort* Oh well, we still enjoyed the rest of the festival. :)

Weekend at Jimmy's - Part 1

2011-05-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my Mom, my kids and myself went up to Washington to see my brother and his family. They have just been restationed in Washington and Jimmy is soon-to-be deployed. We made the most of the 3-week window between when they arrived in Washington and when he gets deployed and made a trip up there. It was a long drive, but it was worth it.

First off, my newphews are STINKING ADORABLE! My kids had a great time playing with Randal and were constantly trying to get Alden to come sit with them. We came in on Friday and spent the evening hanging out with them. On Saturday we headed up to Mount Erie to see the view. It was beautiful! I took lots of pictures of the kids up on the mountain, where they climbed the rocks and trees and looked at the beautiful view.

My favorite picture from the spot... Tristan, Carissa, Chase and Randal overlooking the Sound.

Getting All Crafty

2011-04-17T12:34:00.000-07:00

Lately I've really been into crafting. Some of it has to do with a new monthly crafting group, http://www.stickychickscrafts.blogspot.com/, that my friends Melinda, Hattie and I started together. We get together once a month to chat, eat and make a fun craft. We've only met three months so far, and we made this:

and these (the insides are interchangeable for the seasons... "HOP" for Easter, "I <3 U" for Valentines and "USA" for Memorial Day/4th of July are the ones we've made so far, though at a later group we'll also do "BOO" for Halloween and "JOY" for Christmas):

Last month it was this cool subway art:

This month coming up it's my turn to host and we're making pedestal frames and an apothecary jar. I can't wait!

Being part of the craft group has really got me in the crafting mode and I've started making things on my own a bit too. Like this little setup, made with things I found at the thrift store (and it was my try at making a pedestal frame before the craft girls got here).

Then I broke out the vinyl and decorated these buckets for our motorcycle stuff: and this jar, for our Disney change savings jar.

It's been a lot of fun crafting and I see many more projects in my future.

(Please pardon the less-than-fabulous pictures... taking and posting them off of my cell phone is so much easier but it doesn't take nearly as good of pictures.)

More Photography...

2011-04-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung and that means it's time for photography. I had a shoot Sunday with a beautiful family (which is posted on my photography blog... see the link on the right) and in preparation for that shoot we visited the park I was shooting at. The kids played on the playground equipment and Brian and I scouted around. We found some good places for pictures and I found these flowers growing in a clump. I gathered Rissa and asked her to take pictures with me. She happily agreed, regardless of the fact that I asked her to lay belly-down on a rock covered in moss and even a creepy crawly bug or two. She even managed to look fairly happy while doing it. :)

Gulity Pleasures

2011-04-03T21:10:00.000-07:00

One of my scrap sites does a question of the day. Today's was to list your guilty pleasures. It got me thinking about the things I love to do just for myself. Here are some of my favorites:

Staying up late, after eveyone has gone to bed and the house is finally quiet, to watch girly movies and scrapbook.

Curling up on the couch with a good book and reading all day long.

Shopping for scrapbook goodies on the internet

Driving in the car alone and singing along (very loudly) to my favorite tunes.

My spendy-but-fabulous Biolage shampoos and conditioners.

Sleeping in late on Sunday mornings.

Burgerville Raspberry Milkshakes (which I can only get in July!).

Midnight premiers of the Twilight Saga movies.

My new phase...

2011-03-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've been scrapbooking a lot lately. A LOT. At least, a lot for me. It's been spurred on by a couple of things: time off of work for Christmas and Spring breaks, girls scrapbook weekend and more success in getting layouts chosen for publication. I've completed 54 pages I've done already this year, which is nearly as many as I did the entire year of 2010. Here's some of my recent faves: And while I love that I'm scrapbooking more (and therefore using more of those fabulous supplies that I have), I do find myself in a bit of a rut... or a "phase" as I like to call it.

Now, I've had phases before. There was my white phase, when lots of my layouts had white backgrounds. There was my transparent phase, where I made see-through pages (you see one above and one below in theis posting). And I seem to be perpetually stuck in a patterned paper phase (I *love* patterned paper... I hardly use cardstock anymore. LOL).

My new phase is one that I would never have seen myself using... banners. I've seen them and resisted the urge to try them. Then I tried them, just once. Then again, then again... and now I can't stop! I just love banners!

So, in a hope to embarass myself out of using banners all the time, and to share some of my recent work with my family and friends, I'm going to post some of my recent banner layouts. Oh, and in case you think that it really isn't that many layouts, let me tell you that I have at least two banner layouts that were recently requested for publication (thus I can't share them online) and another layout on my desk nearly finished with some pretty banners too. :)

Thanks for looking!

SMS Basketball

2011-03-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

Chase decided he wanted to play basketball this year. Though he hasn't played the last year or two, he was interested in trying out a middle school sport and he really enjoyed it. He got to travel to Astoria, Seaside, Tillamook, Banks and St. Helens for games and got to miss school to do it. :) He had a team of pretty great kids and though they didn't end up on the winning end of the season, they did learn a lot and had lots of fun together.

Wacky Wednesday!

2011-03-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

My job is a little crazy at times and this day it was crazier then ever. In honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday we held "Wacky Wednesday", a day when we come to school dressed crazy and do crazy stuff. We painted on the walls (covered in paper) with crazy things (blocks and trucks and such), then we read the book and eat crazy snack. It's usually a fun day. This year we actually took pictures of all of us dressed up for Wacky Wednesday.

And here's one of Adrien and I (she assists in my 4's class) decked out for the day.

The only downside here was that almost our entire class forgot it was Wacky Wednesday! Adrien and I were nearly the only ones dressed wacky. But it was a fun day anyways. :)

OBOB

2011-03-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

This is our Scappoose Middle School Oregon Battle of the Books team. Originally called "The Funner Team", they went by "The Tribe" at regional competition this year. These four kids worked so hard! They read book after book after book, even when they really weren't interested in them. They beat out the 2 other teams at the school to become our representatives at the OBOB Region 1 competition, then they read even more. They had a hard loss in their first battle but came back with a sweeping victory in the second battle. When they went to announce the top 8 of the 24 teams competing in the middle school division, the entire team was on the edge of their seats. When they announced "Scappoose Middle School" as a finalist team, the entire group jumped up and yelled... squeals and cheers of joy that gave me goosebumps. And while they didn't win their semi-final round, they did leave the competition in 6th place, a very respectable showing for their first year. We're all so excited for next year, when they will be in the high school age bracket. This was our first year as an OBOB team and I've been so thankful to share the journey with these 4 bright and wonderful students.

For Linda and Melinda

2011-03-13T10:14:00.001-07:00

I was playing around with a trial of a newer version of Photoshop Elements (mine is 3.0... which is ANCIENT) and I loved how you could use actions on it. I've never used actions before but people who use Photoshop sure love their actions so I was excited to try them. I loved it! I told both Melinda and Linda that I'd post side-by-side photos for them to see. The first one shows the photo after I edited it to the best of my ability. The second photo shows what the photo looks like after the MCP Mini Fusion action. It really just brings the photos more to life... better colors, better depth. Yup, I love it! And I'm sure I'd find other actions I love even more. Now I really need to buy a new version of PSE. :)

2011-03-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

It's a new term at school and my school-loving teenager just came home. The first thing he emphatically tells me when he walks in the door is "I love being back in math! We have homework already." What a kid!

Snow Day!!!

2011-03-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

I LOVE snow and I recently was lamenting about our lack of snow this winter. Usually we don't get much, but we pull out a few snow days every year. This winter we haven't had a snow day yet. Well last week it finally happened. SNOW DAY!

The kids were pretty excited and we got up bright and early to go outside and play.I took this one of Carissa down at the park. She also loved making snow angels in the scant inch of snow we had. Tristan tried and tried to make snowballs. It wasn't good snowball snow, but he gave it his all anyways.

Chase was a bit everywhere and getting photos of him was hard! I was able to grab these two though. The second one looks like he's got a giant, perfectly formed snowball but really it was just a white volleyball someone had left at the park. LOL

The neighbor kids came to the park when we did and they all decided to split up for a capture the flag snowball fight. The boys had the "high ground" up on the play structure...

... while the girls had the low ground in the field. The boys had the flag (i.e. the volleyball) and the girls battled to capture it. They finally did, just as the snow started furiously melting. Within an hour the snow was gone! Bummer... but we still got a snow day out of it. :)

Day Trip!

2011-03-01T09:31:00.001-08:00

About this time each year we all start going a little stir crazy. We're ready for spring, ready to get outside and do things together as a family. Well, this year it's compounded by the fact that Brian is now on the water and no longer has weekends off with us. So when he got a surprise day off with the familky we took full advantage and headed on a day trip to the beach. We went to Long Beach, Washington, home of huge double-scoop waffle cones and Jake the Alligator Man. We walked the shops for a while, hoping and waiting for the rain to end. Alas, it didn't and the wind picked up too. In the end we never even made it down on the sand, instead watching the ocean from the van for a while before heading back towards home.

On the way home we decided to take a quick detour to Fort Columbia, something we've passed many times but have never stopped at. Thankfully the rain had passed on and the skies had cleared up some. The fort was beautiful! The history there and the old buildings were really neat. Even though we could only walk the outsides, we had a good time. This building was the most beautiful of them all.

And we got to walk around the batteries and see where guns were mounted to help protect the mouth of the Columbia River. It was pretty neat. At the battery nearest the ocean we took some pictures together...
... before heading back home. It was a quick day trip but fun and refreshing.

Wacky Wednesday (Am I the only one Wacky?)

2011-02-28T09:38:00.000-08:00

My job is really fun most of the time. The kids are great and I really enjoy teaching them. One activity we do every year is Wacky Wednesday. It's based off of the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. On this day we instruct the kids to dress up in their wackiest looks and we have wacky activities. For instance, we painted on paper taped to the wall and painted with toy cars, blocks, potato smashers, etc. Then we have a wacky snack... this year it was worms in dirt (gummy worms in pudding with smashed chocoalte graham crackers on top). Usually it's a really fun day... unless everyone forgets about it. And this year they did. It was in the monthly newsletter but by the middle of the month most parents had forgotten. So the only ones in our class dressed up for Wacky Wednesday were the teachers. So I looked rather ridiculous all on my own, dressed in pants with shorts on top of them, mis-matched socks, crazy hat and gloves and socks pinned all over my shirt. LOL Oh well, maybe next year it'll be wackier...

Having a hoot with her friends

2011-02-22T22:40:00.000-08:00

I finally got off my duff and found a project for Carissa's birthday party with her friends. She invited a group of girls over for a crafting birthday party. They made these cute bottlecap necklaces to start out with, the moved on to our big project - these adorable little owls!

The girls worked really hard on their owls. They chose their fabrics then sewed the bellies and wings on. Next were the pupils and beaks, then the eyes. This took the girls a good amount of time, as it was the first big sewing project many of them had done.

Then they brought them to me and I sewed the edges together while they munched on cupcakes and cookies & cream ice cream. Finally it was time to stuff them and sew up the final edge. In the end, they left with these adorable little owls, each just a little different.

While several girls didn't show up for the party, the ones that did seemed to have a good time. I was so thankful for my mother, who stayed to help with the party. I couldn't have done it without her. Thanks Mom!

Double Digits

2011-02-15T00:27:00.000-08:00

Holy moly, I can't believe my baby is 10!

Carissa celebrated her birthday with family. That meant lots of pink, foofy girl wrapping. She got lots of craft kits, some of her favorite things right now, clothes and money for riding lessons and boots. She was happy to be the adorable little center of attention.

And had lots of fun with everyone. She chose nachos for dinner (though the rest of us had tacos) and enjoyed a bit of double-decker marble cake with chocolate frosting. All in all, a pretty great birthday for her... until she came down the flu the next day. Oops! Sorry for sharing the germs guys!

Back in the Saddle

2011-02-14T00:14:00.000-08:00

Carissa has loved horses since she was little. She's not in the least bit afraid of them and took riding lessons when she was just a little tyke of 4 or 5.

She hasn't really ridden much since then but it's not for lack of trying. She has been asking and asking for a horse for years. Once she realized that wasn't going to happen she started asking and asking for riding lessons. I hoped it would pass, though I had a feeling that maybe it wouldn't (being a horse-crazy girl myself, I understand. I still love horses and want one of my own too).

When Christmas rolled around you know what she asked for... riding lessons. I figured it was about time she got them and Santa delivered, bring her some lessons. She got more lessons for her birthday and now rides twice a month and attends one horsemanship class a month.

First off is the prep work. Grooming, picking hooves and saddling up. She's working on it all but still needs help, especially with getting that saddle up on the horses back.

Then it was leading out to the arena for her ride.

Let me tell you, this girl is in heaven! When it's riding day she reminds me and reminds me and reminds me. I do have to say that I love the instructor and I love the horses and I love the smell of the barn and I love their soft little horse noses. But more than anything I love the smile on Carissa's face when she's riding.

That was the look on her face despite the fact that it was freezing cold outside (literally, it was freezing... it was maybe 30 degrees as a high this day). She rode on the lunge line for a bit, to get a feel for the horse again, and then started solo doing things like starting, stopping and weaving through cones.

Then it was on to the trot.

She is just thrilled to be back riding. I'm not sure how long she'll be able to do it, but she's definitely having fun while it lasts.

Crossing Over

2011-02-13T12:02:00.000-08:00

Chase had an opportunity to participate in his second Crossing Over event, a ceremony in which Cub Scouts are officially transitioned over to Boy Scouts. The first time Chase himself was crossing over into Boy Scouts. The time, Chase was part of the ceremony.

To be part of the Crossing Over ceremony, you have to be a member of the Order of the Arrow. It's called the "honor society" of the Boy Scouts, but it's designed to help the older boys give more service to Scouting and to participate in activities aimed at the older boys. Chase was inducted into the Order of the Arrow last spring so this was his first year being eligible to help out at the ceremony.

Just a few weeks before Chase had gone to a special Order of the Arrow campout to start making the pieces of his Native American costume. He made the ribbon shirt, belt and medicine man bag and purchased the moccasins. The headpieces the boys used are all owned by the troop.

Chase served as the medicine man for the ceremony, beating the drum and keeping the time as they entered the gym.

He started the ceremony with a few words and then the other two boys seen here

began parading the boys around the room then up to Chase, where he drew the Arrow of Light on their forehead (this is something the boys earn as Cub Scouts before advancing to Boy Scouts).

Once the boys get their Arrow of Light they cross over a bridge and are welcomed by the Boy Scout troop. It was a great ceremony and a lot of fun to Chase on the other side of this. Giving back and being part of the magical ceremony that all Cub Scouts look forward to one day participating in.

Dance

2011-02-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

Carissa has danced for the last few years, but this year she left her Dance 4 Fun class and instead chose to join Next Step, the new youth dance team in Scappoose. She had her first competition in January. It was quite a day.

We woke up bright and early (5:30am... *snore*) and rushed right to the local high school. Miss Riss had slept in her curlers all night, so she'd have curly hair to dance in. All morning long she looked like this...

The kids practiced once on the big gym floor and then loaded the bus for the ride to the competition. I went along as a chaperone and team Mom, but rode with my good friend Melinda.
Once we arrived the chaos was on. First up was practice on the competition floor. We got a whole 8 minutes per team. Scappoose has two teams, one for the younger elementary kids and one for the older. This is the adorable little kiddos of the Mini Makers team during their practice time.

After practice we headed back to our team rooms and grabbed some snacks to eat. After snacks it was time to start glamming these girls up. First was fitting costumes, which had just arrived and which hadn't yet been fitted to the girls. Then it was time for hair abd makeup. The girls did a good job of keeping themselves entertained while all us team Moms worked to get them all outfitted and ready to perform.
Next up was the makeup, and wowee, did we do it all! Carissa has hardly ever worn makeup, even at her dance recitals. A little bit of lipstick and blush, but that's about it. Well this was the full meal deal - everything from foundation and eyeliner, to bright eye color, glitter, lipstick and lots of blush. The first thing I told Carissa that this is NOT how we actually put on makeup. Can you imagine her looking like this every day? LOL

We took a break for lunch then came back to finish getting the girls ready. As soon as they were all done I snuck Carissa out into the hallway to get some photos of her all glammed up and ready to go.

All too soon it was time for the competition to start. The girls all sat down in the bleachers with the other teams to watch everyone perform.

The little teams went first but then came the division for Carissa's age. She was so excited to be out there and put on her best smile. She danced her little heart out!

Grandma Imlah and Grandma & Grandpa Pixley came to watch her dance, so she got to say hi to them both and later got back to our team room and found balloons, a t-shirt and some jewelry sent to her by them. She loved it! (Grandpa Imlah filled in for me at home today and spent it with Tristan playing video and board games and taking him to his basketball game. Thanks Dad!)

After their dance was over it was back to the bleachers to watch all the other teams dance. It was a long day of dancing, but they toughed it out.

In the end her team came in 6th (out of 6) in their division, but they had a great time and it was a good start for their fledgling team. After the competition was over I gathered them all together for this fun group pic.

We finally returned home at about 5:30pm. It was a long and grueling day but also a lot of fun!

sigh

2011-02-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 - Brian had just been transferred to the marine division and was scheduled to have the day off. In the end, however, he had a court case and then stayed at work for a jet ski training class that would never happen. I was at work myself, then came home around lunchtime.

A few hours later I got a call from a good friend. She asked if I had heard from Brian. Those words sent a chill down my spine, as her husband is in law enforcement and we both know that that question can't mean good things. I told her I hadn't and she asked if I'd heard what was happening in Rainier. It was then that I learned that Rainier Police Chief Ralph Painter had been shot and killed in the line of duty.

I admit that I was numb for a while. I talked to her on the phone for a few minutes more and then got off. I sat around for a bit as the news sank in. I tried to give Brian some time, knowing that since he was on duty he was probably there on the scene. I eventually gave in and texted him, just wanting to hear from him that he was alright. He called back a little later to tell me that he was indeed alright physically, though you could tell that emotionally he was not. Brian truly liked and respected Chief Painter and to have to deal with his death was a heartwrenching and horrible thing.

In the end, I was very thankful that Brian was okay, but we were both entirely saddened by the horrific loss of such a wonderful man and public servant. It was a very difficult time for a while. We both came to face with the reality that someday that could be Brian, that his life could be lost in duty and that, despite the quiet county we live in, the life of a cop is a dangerous one.

10 days later I rode with Brian in the procession for Chief Painter. The procession took 20 - 30 minutes to pass and stretched at least 10 or 15 miles long. There were hundreds of officers and fire fighter there to pay their respects to Ralph.

The outpouring of support from people in all the communities we rode through was just awesome. On nearly every sign in every city were messages of rememberance for Chief Painter.
Schoolchildren from across the county came out from class and stood on the roadside in respect. Boy Scouts from Chase's school dressed in their uniforms and formed an honor guard, holding an American flag and standing at attnetion for the length of the whole procession. What got me most were the little kids with their hands over their hearts and the big men in hard hats, holding them over the hearts with tears in their eyes. It was touching to know that Chief Painters sacrifice was appreciated and respected so much in the eyes of the community.

The procession started just outside of Rainier but ended at the University of Portland. Just before entering the University we passed under and American flag strung between two firetruck ladders.

Portland firetrucks were posted along the road, all firefighters standing at attention

and the Patriot Guard, lining both sides of the street with flags.
The memorial was was filled with the solemness of the occasion. Family photos were especially difficult for me, partly because there were pictures of some of his grandkids, who were in my preschool class a few years ago, but also because of his love of Disney and all the happy photos from there. The bagpipes truly tugged at my heartstrings. Hearing them play Amazing Grace broke my heart. But it was the final call out that really got me - when the radio calls out the Chiefs call number, gets no response, calls again, still no response, and then calls out his end of watch. Even now thinking of it brings me to tears. I never want to have to hear the last call out for my own husband.

2011-02-03T17:52:00.001-08:00

I've got to admit, I've been TERRIBLE about posting on the blog lately. It's now basketball season and I've got 2 boys playing with seven total practices a week and three total games a week. Then there's Carissa's dance team, riding lessons, Taekwondo for all three and Boy Scouts. Needless to say, it's been difficult just to find enough time at home to do the laundry or the dishes.

I don't have much to share in the way of pictures right now, so I'll share layouts instead! Over Christmas break I rekindled my spark with scrapbooking. I've already done 12 pages this year. Wahoo! Anyways, here's some of my recent work. Thanks for looking.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-22T20:06:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's late. Really late. We had some big stuff come up right after the New Year (which I'll post about later) and I never got to post about New Years. This year Brian got to be home for New Years so stayed up until midnight with us. We watched movies, hung out and watched the ball drop. It was pretty great. As always, we took a photo right after the strike of midnight - our first family photo of 2011. The dogs and a guinea pig joined us to celebrate 2011.

The Santa Sign

2010-12-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

We've had this Santa sign forever... and I mean forever. We had one before Carissa was born and replaced it with this sign in 2001 after she was born. Each year the kids put it up just outside our door before Christmas so Santa knows exactly where they live.

I have pictures of them putting it up from when they were really little... when Carissa was so tiny she fit UNDER the sign itself. While I don't have those scanned into my computer, I do have this comparison picture from just 2 years ago. Look how much they've grown and change in just those two years...
*sigh*

Pajammie Jam

2010-12-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

As a child we never celebrated much on Christmas Eve, but we always got one present. It's a something that my parents did when I was a child and that I've carried over with my children. Every Christmas Eve we got to open new pajamas, which we wore that night. This year I found the MOST ADORABLE Grinch shirts (and coordinating pajama pants) for the boys to wear and a cute Christmas nightgown for Carissa (who is all about the nightgowns right now!).
Don't they all look so happy and excited for Christmas?!? Well, they are. This second picture captures it a little better though.

My friend Catherine (http://www.callen86.typepad.com/) is the mother of 5 and her kids like to make funny faces and motions in their photos. I always thought those photos showed a little more the true side of her kids and I've been trying to be more free with that when the kids want to mess around. Well, they were in entirely the right mood for that this night. I guess Christmas Eve brings out the crazy in us all. LOL

Pre-Christmas

2010-12-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

To help get in the Christmas spirit we let the kids open their presents to one another on the days leading up to Christmas. On the 22nd they open on gift,

(Chase got a hatchet from Tristan, Carissa got a Webkinz horse from Tristan and Tristan got a dragon Megabloks from Chase)
on the 23rd they open another.

(Chase got a vibrating back massager from Carissa, Tristan got a fedora from Carissa and Carissa got Little Pet Shop puzzle and figure from Chase.)

They open their pajamas on the 24th (watch for that post next!) and then we do the big day on the 25th (where I take almost no pictures and just enjoy the day).

Moostache

2010-12-29T23:47:00.000-08:00

Well... maybe this should be titled "reindeerstache", but I love the moosetache book so that's the title I went with. Anyways, on with the story.

For Christmas we always do a little gift exchange and party amongst the teachers at the preschool. The craftiest and most creative lady is Teacher Tamera, who always puts so much thought into her gifts. This year her theme was Santa and his reindeer. There was a Santa bag in the package with some yummy goodies in it and a Santa sack that was a wrapped gift. Santa's reindeer, however, were made of root beer bottles.

In our house only two people like root beer... Brian and Tristan. And Tristan LOVED that his root beer had reindeer antlers. He started using the antlers as a moustache, then Dad started doing it too. In the end we ended up with these two adorable moustached men cheesing it up for the camera. :)

Great Wolf

2010-12-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

Now that the kids are getting older and needing fewer things for Christmas, we've decided that our big family gift each Christmas will be time away together. Last year we had the ultimate time away - Christmas in Disneyworld! This year we had to go a lot smaller so in early November the family went to Great Wolf Lodge.

This was our first trip to the lodge and we had a great time. The room was great and had enough room for our family, which is a struggle sometimes with a family of 5. As soon as we arrived we checked in then went to play in the water!

First up were the water slides! We went on the two big ones first - Howlin' Tornado and River Canyon Run. These were both multi-rider slides, so 2 or 3 of us sat together on a raft for the ride. Both were fun, but the Howlin' Tornado was pretty awesome, swirling you around a huge funnel for a while. We rode each big slide about 6 or 7 times during our stay.

We tried the medium water slides next. None of us were too impressed and I don't think we rode them again.

Then it was time for the kids to hit the play areas. They really enjoyed these lily pads. Carissa had the advantage of short stature and less weight so she got across most of the time. The boys struggled more, since they had to crouch under the rope and still try to retain their balance. They sure had fun trying it and went on this about 10 times during our stay.

That was attached to a play pool where you could swim, play basketball and climb on floating animals.

We took the kids nextdoor to the wave pool, where they swam around and jumped in the waves. Brian and I joined in and had fun too.

Up next was the Fort. The kids walked all around this thing, shooting spraying water at one another and waiting in line for the slides.

I did eventually tempt them over to the front so I could get some pictures of them in front of the Fort. They stood there waiting expectantly, knowing that sooner or later that huge barrel on top was going to fill with water and dump on them.

It didn't take too long before that happened!

They got drenched but so did I! The camera was WET! LOL Good thing I brought my old Sony camera and not my good Nikon.

We played in the water park for a few hours and then went up to our room to change. The kids really wanted to play the MagiQuest game they have there, this game they have with Magic Wands and quests and lots of running around the hotel. I was prewarned that EVERYONE is playing the game and that our kids are going to want to do it too. Thankfully I came prepared, but I still wasn't pleased with the $70 we spent on wands and the game. Sheesh! Thankfully the kids brought their own money, so we didn't shell our much. I will say that the kids got the most out of their money and played this game for hours on end while Brian and I walked around the lodge, sat and read books, had a hot cocoa and just relaxed. (I love that Chase has a cell phone now so I didn't have to worry about losing them!) See the wands the kids are holding and the brown compass hanging from Chase's beltloops. Those are their MagiQuest items.

We eventually went back to the waterpark that evening for another hour or two, though Brian and I were both disappointed in the lack of "hot" in the "hot" tub. Brian and I picked up dinner at a pizza joint nearby and grabbed some donuts for breakfast. Then we spent the rest of our evening vegging and relaxing while the kids played MagiQuest until it closed at 10pm.

The next morning we were up and ready to swim again. We spent another few hours there, hitting our favorites one last time and having a family game of "fish" basketball (the "horse" basketball game, only renamed in honor of the conditions). We showered up and headed out, taking this last photo on our way out the door. We had a good time at Great Wolf, though I can't imagine spending more than one night there at a time, unless we had some good friends come with us to hang out with... ;)

Photography by Annette: Christmas photos

2010-12-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

My newest venture... photography. Click on the link below to see the newest blog posting on my photography blog. :)

Photography by Annette: Christmas photos: "This month I took photos for local preschoolers to give their parents as Christmas gifts. I went with red accent pieces to leave in color an..."

DO NOT LOOK IF YOUR WORK WITH ME (Melinda, this means you!)

2010-12-15T22:17:00.000-08:00

I finally finished up the little crafts that I'm giving to my co-workers at the preschool. They were easy and pretty fun to make. Made me realize that I need WAYYYYYY more glitter than I currently have. LOL But I made do with what I have and my house has a nice coating of glitter too. ;)

The "Noel" template came from the Elle's Studio's blog. The snowflakes are old IKEA ornaments that we've had for many years, which happened to be hanging on my tree this year.

They're getting older...

2010-12-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

... but they were all good sports when it came to seeing Santa. Carissa and Tristan were excited, Chase not so much. But he stuck it out so I could get a photo for my "photos with Santa" pictures that I display every Christmas.

O Christmas Tree...

2010-12-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

I love Christmastime and the symbol of Christmas, for me, is the Christmas tree. Every year our family goes out to one of the local Christmas tree farms to pick and cut down a tree. This year we visited a new place right in town that had noble firs for a fabulous price. Many of the trees were huge and the rest were pretty small. We opted on the big size (I always do! LOL) and walked away with this huge tree.

Now, given that Brian is 6'4", I've got to estimate that the tree is about 10' high. But it was big and beautiful and that's all that mattered. Brian and the boys carried the tree to the van, where we tied it on top and brought it home.

When we got it home we realized that it was, as you might have guessed, too big. We have vaulted ceilings so we could have put it in the middle of the room and been fine, but I wanted it in this corner where the ceilings are the lowest. So out came the trusty handsaw. We chopped off several feet at the top, where it was tall and gangly with hardly any branches. And we chopped off the first level of branches at the base of the tree too. We had to take a second cut of the top, as the angel still wouldn't fit on, but we finally got it cut down to just the right size.

We let it dry for a day or two and then the kids got to decorating...

And here's the kiddos with their finished product:
All in all, a pretty fabulous tree and one that will happily grace our front room for the month of December.

Giving Thanks & Christmas with the Cousins

2010-12-07T20:12:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have most of our family join us. My Mom, Dad, Grandma, brother, sister-in-law and nephews all came to visit and we hosted them all for dinner. We narrowly averted disaster when my oven quit working with the turkey inside. Thank goodness for neighbors who let me use their oven to cook the huge turkey. But in the end we were able to enjoy a tasty meal.

My brother is in the Navy and is leaving this week for Florida, where he'll be stationed for 4 months of training before heading to his new base in Whidbey Island, Washington. He'll only be in Whidbey for a few weeks before he's deployed, so Thanksgiving is likely the last time we'll see him for the next year or so. :(

We made the most of the visit though and celebrated Christmas along with Thanksgiving. The kids all exchanged presents and played with their new goodies while we at nanimo bars and spritzer cookies. It was a great day and a reminder of why I will miss my brother and his family so much when he's gone.

Court of Honor

2010-12-06T21:05:00.000-08:00

November 7 was the big day - Chase's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. This is a day that he's been anticipating for years, ever since he was a little 7 year old Cub Scout. And now the day was finally here.

Chase worked really hard on the program he chose for his Court of Honor. It began, as do all Court of Honors, with the lighting on the candles that signify the points in the Boy Scout Oath and Law. Then came the lighting of the trail to eagle, signified by the "Eagle Mountain" display. Chase chose one boy at each rank from his troop and asked them to signify that rank by lighting the candle and reciting a blurb. As you can see, his brother was asked to be here as were Ty and Cameron, the two boys to Chase's left who were in my original Cub Scout den when they all first started and who have been on this road with Chase for the entire journey.

Chase lit the Eagle candle and did his blurb. As you can see, we forgot a candle holder so we improvised - play dough works just as well. LOL

One of his adult leaders recited "The Call of the Eagle" and then Chase took his Eagle Scout Oath.

One of his scout leaders is this gentleman, who recited "100 scouts" for the group. Here is the original text of that, though Mr. Radke made some wonderful additions to the list.

Of any one hundred boys who become Scouts, it must be confessed that thirty will
drop out in their first year. Perhaps this may be regarded as a failure, but later in life, all of these will remember that they had been in Scouting and will speak well of the program.
Of the one hundred, only rarely will one ever appear before a juvenile court judge.
Twelve of the one hundred will be from families that belong to no church.
Through Scouting, these twelve and many of their families will be brought into contact with a church and will continue to be active all their lives.
Six of the one hundred will become pastors.
Each of the one hundred will learn something from Scouting, and all will develop hobbies that will add interest throughout the rest of their lives.
Approximately one-half will serve in the military, and in varying degrees, profit from their Scout training.
At least one will use it to save another person's life, and many may credit it for saving their own.
Two of the one hundred will reach Eagle rank, and at least one will later say that he valued his Eagle above his college degree.
Many will find their future vocation through merit badge work and Scouting contacts.
Seventeen of the one hundred boys will become adult leaders and will give leadership to thousands of additional boys.
One in four boys in America will become Scouts, but it is interesting to know that of the leaders of this nation in business, religion and politics, three out of four were Scouts.
This story will never end. Like the 'Golden Pebble' of service dropped into the human sea, it will continue to radiate in ever-widening circles, influencing the characters of men through unending time."

What does the Eagle badge represent? It means that a Scout set a
goal and worked to achieve that goal. The Eagle Scout badge stands for strength
of character. The Eagle Scout badge is a symbol of what a boy has done but, more
important, it also represents what the boy will be in the future as he grows
into manhood.

Next up was the big moment - the pinning of the Eagle Scout medal. I was given the privledge of pinning it on him and I felt such a moment of pride and awe at how far he'd come.

Up next was a poem called "It's Only A Pin." I won't share it all, but will share this first line that really summed up the moment for Brian and I...

Two fond parents watch their boy where he stands
Apart from his comrades tonight,
As they place on his camp-battered tunic, a badge...
An Eagle, the emblem of right.

Chase now presented me with my Mothers Pin.

Then Brian presented Chase with his Eagle Scout neckerchief.

And Chase presented Brian with his Fathers Pin.

Chase recited "Voice of the Eagle". He was rather fond of all the Eagle scout poems that he found and included quite a few in his program, though I think they were well-placed and very meaningful.

Now, as a surprise to Chase, we presented him with this flag, flown over our nations capital in honor of his Eagle Scout. We asked a few of the older scouts to present and fold the flag for him and it now sits in a flag box in his room.

And the surpises weren't over. Chase called his family up and presented all the women in our family with a red rose.

I was given seven, one for each rank of Boy Scouts that he earned on his way to Eagle. Aren't they beautiful!

That was the finale of his Court of Honor. It went really well and we now hunkered down to enjoy the two big, beautiful (and tasty) cakes. There were so many people there (around 120 or so) that we finished off both cakes and several jugs of juice. We milled around, speaking to all the guests, which included family, friends, old Cub Scout leaders and Senator Betsy Johnson.

While I'm glad the Court of Honor is over, I also think that it went wonderfully and will be a moment that Chase will be able to remember forever. He is so proud of himself and looks forward to many more years as a Boy Scout.

Advent 2010

2010-12-04T21:38:00.000-08:00

This year I decided to make another advent calendar. What I learned from last years advent calendar craft was that using a plastic background sure doesn't hold up over time. The paper doesn't like to stick to the plastic base, depsite the prep work I did on it. This years calendar is MDF and is made to last! I glued each and every piece solidly and coated it all in modge podge. Here's a peek at our new advent, which the kids are already happily opening every day this month. :)

Oh, and this year I added a little surprise - every few days there will be a tag in the box that gives them a task for the day. These are things like "make Christmas cookies" and "watch a Christmas movie". Today's task was all for me - taking Christmas photos! They weren't too excited by that one but the pics came out great. Look for them on your Christmas card this year. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2010-11-25T00:15:00.000-08:00

Aha... it's 12:16am so it's officially Thanksgiving Day. That means I get to be amongst the first to wish you a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We have so much to be thankful for in our life this year. Here's my top 10 "thankful for" list for this year:
1. I'm thankful for heat. It's freaking freezing outside, which makes me thankful for my nice warm house, my nice warm van (thanks to the new thermostat Brian put in yesterday - in the freezing cold I might add), my nice warm bed and my nice warm snuggie. Yes, laugh if you want but my snuggie keeps me happy and warm while your toes are freezing. So there!

2. I'm thankful for friends. This last year or two I've finally put down enough roots in this town to make friends. I've always been a bit solitary but I've found a few great women (you know who you are!) that are at a similar place in their life, who like what I like and who are fun to hang out. I forgot what it's like not to always be "mom" and having friends has reminded me that there's still a little "me" in this body.

3. I'm thankful for books. Yes, books. Lots and lots of books. I love cuddling up in my snuggie and reading a good book and I'm thankful for the moments of adventure I imagine while reading them. I'm thankful for my book club, who remind me to stretch a little and read books I might not otherwise pick up.

4. I'm thankful for scrapbooking. Still. I started scrapbooking nearly 10 years ago (thanks again Bek!). I have found such a joy in both recording and rereading the memories that I've captured in my pages. And despite the economic downturn and closures of several big scrapbook magazines, I've been successful in continuing to be published this year. I have my 75th page coming up for publication this spring and I will diligently continue to scrapbook all the precious memories.

5. I'm thankful for my Grandma. I know it seems odd to mention her when in truth I'm thankful for so many members of my extended family- mom, dad, in-laws, sister, brother, sister-in-law, nephews. Although I don't visit her as often as I should, I'm particularly thankful for Grandma right now. Thankful that she always makes cookies when she knows we're coming to visit. Thankful that she's a great-grandparent for my kids, sending them cards and showing her support for them. Thankful that she's a role model for the kind of person I want to be, the kind of person who is caring and giving and resilient. Thankful for the strength and honor with which she lives her life.

6. I'm thankful for Carissa. The little imp that she is. I'm thankful for the cuddles and hugs she still love to share, the kisses she gives, the giggles and the pitter patter of her still little feet running up and down the hall. And yes, I'm thankful for the attitude she gives us, a reminder of her strong and willful soul.

7. I'm thankful for Tristan. This creature with so much character and life. I'm thankful for his easy laughter, for his questioning nature, for his love of writing and animals and the way he asks questions by saying "There's something I don't get...". I'm also thankful for the glimpses of the man that I am beginning to see in him.

8. I'm thankful for Chase. So strong and solid, helpful and forgiving. I'm thankful for the way he's constantly growing (I think he's almost outgrown his new school pants!) and the huge appetite that he's beginning to have. I'm thankful for his love of learning and his yearning to know more. I'm thankful for the hints of mischief that remind me that he's still a little boy inside that young mans body.

9. I'm thankful for Brian. My rock. The person I still turn to each and every day to share my stories, my worries, my problems. The one I can trust to protect me and care for me, the one I protect and care for in return. I'm thankful for the 17 years we've been together, for the laughter we share, for the private jokes only he and I understand, for the joy that his love has brought into my life. For without him, none of this life would have been possible. And for that I am eternally thankful.

10. I'm thankful for the struggles. For the tough times that remind me of all I have to be thankful for. Because despite our minor worries, despite the hardships we sometimes encounter and the hills we have to climb, we have been blessed with so many things. We have each other, and the struggles remind me that having one another is what life is all about. The people we love are the legacy we leave behind in this life and I am so thankful for those people and how they fill my life with happiness.

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-11-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

Halloween has come and gone and with it we've ushered in a whole new era of celebration here. To start off with, neither of the boys really got into it. They're sort of graduated from costumes and just took things from previous costumes or from their rooms and just made costumes out of them.

Chase started out as a cow, went to a unicorn, then a zookeeper and finally ended up as some sort of skull something or other. I never did figure out exactly what he was.

Tristan put on costumes from previous years. He started out as a vampire ninja ghost but dumped the ghost and ended up going as a vampire ninja with chains around his wrists. Again, not sure where that all came from.

Carissa was the only one we purchased a costume for. She was Cleopatra this year, beautiful in her gown and crown.

The kids really went solo on their pumpkins this year too. They drew and cut on their own with little or no help from us. Brian helped Carissa a bit with all the intricate parts of her design but the rest was all them. They even scooped them out on their own. YEAH!

The kids went trick-or-treating on their own this year. They didn't even ask us to come along and we let them have the latitude to go on their own. They did great and came home with tons of candy. It was such a beautiful evening and perfect for going out. They had fun. I felt left out. So it is that we're left behind as the kids grow and change. *sigh*
On a similar side note to Halloween, we visited the town right next to ours, St. Helens. Years ago they were the site of the Disney movie "Halloweentown". They're attempting to revive the town a little and capitalize on the Halloweentown theme. They recreated a view from the movie in the park where it was filmed. We took the kids there and took their photos. It was beautiful. Though the kids went cheeseball for a few minutes.

We watched a movie in the historic theater nearby (also a set used in the movie) and came back later for more photos, this time with the pumpkin lit and the kids a little more cooperative. ;)

Pickin' Pumpkins

2010-10-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

We decided to try something new this year and bypassed the huge pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island in favor of the new one that opened here in Scappoose, Bernet Farms. I love not having to go as far to get pumpkins and supporting the local businesses, BUT it was a big flop! The hay ride wasn't running at the moment, not that there was that far to go but still, it's part of the pumpkin patch. And apparently they didn't plant their pumpkins soon enough because the pumpkins were nearly all still green! We took forever looking around and looking for good pumpkins and finally ended up with 2 mostly green ones and one decent orange one.

The kids chose huge pumpkins, so hauling them out was quite a chore.

Daddy had to help a little bit too.

It was a gorgeous day and we did walk away with 3 big pumpkins for carving, so it worked out.

Neglectful

2010-10-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, I realize I'm being neglectful of my blog. But when you're as busy as we all are, sometimes it happens. We've been keeping busy with all the normal stuff - scouts, cheer and taekwondo. Thankfully cheer is almost over, though dance will begin and take it's place. Makes my evenings busy, but it's a small price to pay for happy, well-rounded kids.

Sundays are my favorite day of the week. That's the one day off for all of us as a family. Last Sunday we all were feeling a little stir-crazy so we just decided to get in the car and take a day trip to the beach. I made travel bingo, which the kids heartily played during the drive. Who knew how hard it would be to find railroad tracks. Or see a plane. But they tried and it was a lot of fun!

We started in Seaside, where the kids rode the carousel, we walked on the beach (and the kids played on the swingsets in the sand) then got some ice cream. We headed north towards Astoria, where we FINALLY took a break to go visit the Astoria Column. I've been bugging Brian about visiting this FOREVER but we always ran out of time or were too tired so we've never done it... until now.

When we arrived the sun was starting to go down and it was getting a little dark. Here's the kids at the bottom.
It was beautiful but it's a LONG climb to the top. Brian felt a bit dizzy on all those winding stairs. I did great on the way up, though it was quite a long climb. Near the top I caught this shot of the glass roof of the tower.

It was a gorgeous view from the top. Windy and chilly, but beautiful!

As time went by we watched the sun set and saw the moon peeking out between the clouds. It was absolutely beautiful!

Next up was the climb down. Ummmm... I knew I don't like heights but I didn't know it was going to freak me out to go down. It was definitely a difficult descent for me. But I made it and by the time I got down the column looked like this.

It was a fabulous way to end our trip as a family. And hey, we've finally done the Astoria Column climb!

When it rains, it pours...

2010-09-28T13:31:00.001-07:00

This has never been more true than right now. It seems like that anaology is the driving force in our life lately. Here's a couple of reasons why:

We were a bit worried about Brian's new job, as he had to take a pay cut for the first year (you don't get incentive pay/education pay until you've been employed a year). So we knew it was going to be even tighter than life already is. The sheriff did mention that the guys get overtime most of the time so we had hoped he would get enough to make up that pay cut. Little did we know that he would be on the other end of the spectrum - tons of overtime. So for now, it's raining overtime and we're thankful for the relief of stress that brings to our finances. However, I'm a little saddened that that means more time away for Brian and more stress on him.

You know how I mentioned that it had been months and months since I'd received a call that a magazine wanted to publish a page? Well, since that post I've received two more calls. Guess I'm not as dried up as I thought! LOL So it's raining scrapbook publications and I'll thankful and happy about that.

Lately, it's also been raining stuff... all that stuff to do. Scouts and cheer and taekwondo are the leaders in my life, but I've also been volunteering at the kids schools and have book club and scrapbooking night for myself. Plus there's scout leaders meetings, school parents organization meetings, curriculum and planning for my job at the preschool, etc. Needless to say, I'm just overwhelmed. Too many things to do and not enough hours in the day to do them. And I'm not sure where to draw the line and what to drop. I did finally decide to take a term off of school and see if that would relieve some of the burden. I'm also trying not to take anything more on and hope to better balance what I do have. But it's hard sometimes. I want to be superwoman and I'm not and the raining down of stuff is soaking me.

I know there's more that's raining and pouring in my life, but those are the three I could think of at the moment. I must admit that we still lead a pretty great life and my slight complaints are nothing like some others must have to deal with.

I'm thankful each day for the life, family and friends all around me and for the things in life that rain, pour and shower me in happiness.

The big announcement...

2010-09-27T14:07:00.000-07:00

Brian has been looking for a new job for a while now but he's been pretty picky about his criteria for a new position. He was looking for a department with a lot of opportunity for growth, with the chance to do new things and learn new things, with a department that's more of a brotherhood. Well, when it finally happened he was left with 2 choices. He chose the Columbia County Sheriffs Department and started work there at the end of August.

So far he is very happy, finding what he was looking for in this department and feeling positive that he's found a department that will better serve his needs. The guys there have worked with him before and know him and how he works. They accepted him very quickly and are genuinely happy to have him on their team. All in all, a great move and one that has brought happiness and relief to Brian.

No picture of him in the new uniform yet, but I'll try to get one soon. :)

Back to School Bows

2010-09-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

I have never made hair bows before but my good friend Melinda makes the most adorable ones for her girls. Since her daughter and Carissa are in cheer together this year, Melinda and I decided to make all the cheer girls hair bows. They came out pretty adorable, thanks to Melinda's expertise and a little bit of clumsy work for me. But by doing the bows with her I began to understand a little bit about how they were put together. So one night I sat down and decided to make some bows of my own.

I quickly learned that it would have been easier if I actually had a stash of LONG ribbons, but since I have lots and lots of shorter lengths of ribbon (after all, I only use it for scrapbooking!) I had to make due. Here's what I came up with:

Now each of these bows was made to specifically match an outfit Carissa has. Like these:

I made two little blue and yellow ribbons that are only about 1 1/2" across. These are on tiny ponytail holders. Carissa has taken to wearing her hair in two braids down the side and these can go right on the ends of those braids. Plus they match one of her new fave outfits.

I did find a length of bright pink wired ribbon and pulled a prodded and shaped it into this cool looking flower. It has way more depth in real life, since it's wavy and can be shaped because of the wire. But it's pretty cool and Carissa's new fave.

So there it is, my first foray into bow-making. At the rate Carissa is growing I won't be able to make them for her much longer, but for now they are adorable and so fun!

Fall Fashion

2010-09-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

I always take pictures of the kids school clothes before school starts, just so they can remember the kinds of things they liked when they were younger. This year I decided to have the kids do a fashion show for me and took pictures of them in their new gear.

Here's Carissa. As usual, she chose mainly skirts. She definitely has a unique style that way. This particular outfit is from one of her fave stores, Justice. Unfortunately, we can't afford Justice most of the time but they were having a sale and we got her this one adorable outfit.

This one Brian's parents bought for her... skirt and shirt again. Go figure. You can't see it in the photo, but this shirt matches an adorable black and white polka dot skirt with pink foofy trim.

This one is adorable too... more like a dress with leggings, which definitely fits her style too.

And the surprise of the new wardrobe is this outfit... a cute shirt and JEANS! And now just any jeans, but acid washed skinny jeans with zippers at the ankles. These remind me so much of my teenage years, where skinny zipper ankle jeans were the style. It's adorable to see them return.

Chase this year was all about the Quiksilver. All of his shirts came from there. His jeans were a bit more difficult this year, as he's on the cusp between boys and adult jeans. He likes the slim straight fit jeans (not baggy, not skinny) and he had to try on lots and lots of both kids and adult jeans before he found some pairs that fit.
Tristan, following in Chase's footsteps, choose many shirts from Quiksilver. He has progressed to adult jeans, which I'm so thankful for since there are many choices for waist size and length and you can find a pair that fits well. Of course, I made him try on TONS but he finally found some we both liked.

Back to School

2010-09-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

School started a few weeks ago and the kids are all doing really well. Carissa is in 4th grade this year and in the brand new Petersen School. It's a beautiful school and her teacher, Ms. Hall, seems very nice. Carissa tested into a high math group, which is such a relief after some struggling with math previously and hard work at making sure she keeps up. So far it looks like it's going to be a great year for her.

Tristan is in 6th grade this year. It's his final year at Sauvie Island and with Mr. Sipp (they have mixed grade classrooms so you're with the same teacher 2 years). I'll be sad when this year is over because Mr. Sipp has been such a wonderful teacher for Tristan, really encouraging positive behavior and allowing Tristan to be creative. Tristan really, really idolizes Mr. Sipp too. So it's been a great place for him.

Chase is on his 2nd year of middle school. He does get to attend the high school for one class a day, for Geometry, and he has an AP Language Arts class this year. We're looking forward to seeing how this all works out for him. He's in his final year of mid school and goes on to high school next year.

Birthdays

2010-09-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Both Tristan and Chase recently celebrated their birthdays, turning 12 & 14. It's amazing to think that they are this old... gone are the days of toys and trinkets for their birthdays. Now it's all about the big things. Well, the books and the big things. Tristan got a new internal frame backpack for his birthday, which he picked out from REI and which will hopefully last him a very long time. This went with his pile of books, new dragon (to go with his collection) and adorable new fedora.

Chase got the much-coveted Starcraft 2 game for his computer, which he promptly loaded and played. He also got this new chair (hard to see, but he's sitting on it) and a big bundle of books. Good thing my kids like books so much or I wouldn't know what to get them anymore! LOL

Labor Day Outing

2010-09-20T08:47:00.000-07:00

We always plan a fun, outside activity to celebrate the last day of summer. This year Dad offered to take us out on the river in the boat and we were happy for the opportunity. We met at the Scappoose Bay Marina, where the tide was out and the water was very shallow. It was slow going but we finally made it out to the river. We tootled around for a bit, heading first to see the Warrior Rock Lighthouse.

Then we headed turned around and Dad kicked it into gear, giving us some speed to enjoy. The kids, especially Tristan, were laughing and smiling and having a grand time.

Next we headed for Sand Island, where we docked up and had lunch. It was beautiful weather and we enjoyed the sunshine and the company while eating.

We got back on the boat and headed up the Multnomah Channel a bit. We even caught a bald eagle soaring above the river. We went as far as Coon Island before turning around and heading back.

Dad let the kids (and Brian) each have a turn to drive the boat. Some were better than others and Dad stayed close for when they started to stray to one side or the other.
All too soon it was time to head back to the marina and load up for home. We had a great time with Dad and Linda and it was a wonderful way to enjoy our last day of summer.

Victory!

2010-09-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

This is what Chase looked like on the evening of September 4...

That look can only mean one thing: Chase has successfully completed his Eagle Scout Board of Review and is now offically an Eagle Candidate. What this means is that he has completed all the steps he needs to in order to earn his Eagle Scout. His paperwork is now being forwarded to BSA National Office. As soon as it gets processed there Chase will be an Eagle Scout. Now and forever he'll be able to carry this distinction with him. We're so proud of him and how much he has accomplished and learned on the road to Eagle. And now, for a more dignified look...

The other side of the story...

2010-09-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Earlier I shared the pictures of my family from when my sister was here. Well, the days before those pictures were taken Brian, the kids and I spent a few days at the beach with my brother and his wife and kids. I totally adore both Randal and Alden. Randal is growing up and is so much fun! He likes to hang out with my kids and they spent a lot time playing at the playground getting coated in sand. Alden is such warm, smily, chubby little baby and I enjoyed being able to hold and enjoy him when we were there.

We stayed at a KOA outside of Astoria, where we stayed in cabins and enjoyed each others company. The kids played camp games and miniature golf but their favorite thing was this jumping pillow.

We went to first day of the Washington International Kite Festival in Long Beach, where we enjoyed the kites despite the overcast day. It started clearning up as we left but at least we got to see some of the wonderful kites flying (and enjoy our favorite big ice cream cones from Long Beach! LOL).

Our final day we finally made it to the beach. There was this huge hut made of driftwood. Someome took some time to build it, as you could crawl inside and get out of the wind. The kids liked it on top better! LOL

We also flew kites. The kids have had these huge, beautiful kites for years but we haven't flown them until now.

After our day at the beach it was time to head home, where we had a family dinner at Dad's and then got prepared for the family gathering where we took those pictures I previously posted. All in all, it was a great time at the beach with Jimmy and his family. I truly hope we can do it again sometime soon.

Wahooooo!

2010-09-08T17:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've been able to say this, but I got a page requested for an issue of Creating Keepsakes. It's one I absolutely LOVE and have been hoarding for a while. Today they picked it up and I couldn't be more thrilled. YEAH!

Scrapbooking

2010-08-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

I really have not spent much time scrapbooking in the last year. It just hasn't been a priority in my life. Between part-time work, full-time school and all the kids activities it's hard time to find time to scrapbook. The only saving grace is that I went to my girls scrapbooking weekend in April and a group of us get together every month or two to scrapbook at the library. Beyond those there's been very little scrapbooking at home. Regardless, I thought I would share some of the work I've done in the last few months.

Oh What a Knight!

2010-08-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

If you've followed my blog at all you've probably seen these play posts year after year after year. Yet again, the kids went to River City Childrens Theater camp this summer. This was Chase's 6th year, Tristan's 5th year and Carissa's 3rd year. The play this year was "What a Knight!", a medieval tale. The play was both hilarious and entertaining.

Chase got a pretty great role this year as the evil villian of the play, The Dark Knight. He did a great job of learning his numerous lines and the big chunks of monologue (which always began with "Life is like a game of chess..."). I was pretty impressed with the job he did.

Tristan played Earl Axminster, the leader of the squires. He was the leader all right and had the booming voice to prove it. He had a lot of lines too and even earned the "Diaphram Award" for using his diaphram to speak loudly during his part. Here he is doing his solo.

Carissa was one of the the royal guards, Sniff. (The other royal guard was Scratch. Scratch and Sniff... get it? LOL) She was adorable and was very good at announcing the arrival of the king and queen. Her most common line was that announcement: "King Arthur and Queen Guinevere!"

All in all another great performance from the kids and a great play from RCCT. The kids are already looking forward to next years play, "Rapunzel".

Congrats!!!

2010-08-24T23:18:00.000-07:00

Just a huge nod of congratulations to my kids, who endured another long belt testing day on Friday, August 13th. They all came out victorious and sporting new belts - yellow for both Chase and Carissa and green w/stripe for Tristan. They all rocked at testing and really earned their new belts. Congrats kiddos!!!

Still Life

2010-08-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

I've been really enjoying my photography class this term and I can't believe it's almost over! My final assignment was due today and the theme was still life. I really didn't have any idea what to do for still life and moped around for 10 days or so before settling down to take photos. And since I didn't have many ideas I just perused the house for things to take pictures of, like this shell:
and my beloved Mickey Mouse musical figurine.

Then I hit the kitchen - the refrigerator, the pantry, my china cabinet - and started to get a little more creative.

I added a little 7up to liven things up a bit

And then there's this one - my 2nd fave of my entire portfolio. Again, photoshop helps me turn the raspberries blue. I LOVE photoshop! Just wish I could have it on my own computer instead of using the ones at school!

These adorable little cups from the china cabinet, some juice from the fridge and a bloom from my geranium all put together. I digitally manipulated this one, as the paper and juice were originally shades of yellow. I decided to go all pink.

The teacup got me thinking about the teacup ride at Disneyland, which is based on the Mad Hatter's teaparty in Alice in Wonderland. Inspired by Alice, I made my own little ode to the movie using these adorable little brownie bites in my fridge (which I got free with coupons - score!). Before long the kids were bringing me things to photograph, some of which I used for my final assignment. These are Tristan's knitting/crocheting supplies. His 3rd/4th grade teacher taught him how and gave him the yarn to keep working with.

Here's some of Carissa's toy horses and blooms from my friend Melinda's yard. A little photoshop magic on this one turns the tiny horse into a beautiful unicorn.

This one wasn't brought to me, but I've been meaning to take a photo of Chase's bear for some time, as it's been with him since the beginning and is still well-loved.

The school supplies were hanging about and so were the wrapping supplies (I'd just wrapped Tristan's birthday gifts) so I put them together for this one.

And last but not least, one of my fave photographs - the bottom of a handblown glass bowl that I received when my cub scout den toured a glass blowing foundry years ago.

So there you go. The end of my journey in Art 140-Digital Photography. Thanks for putting up with all my photos. I learned a lot and think I'll use what I learned in my photographs for years to come.

Family Reunion (or as close as we get)

2010-08-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

We have a very small family. In my entire lifetime I can't recall ever going to a family reunion, mainly because we have so little family that I'm aware of. So this week was as close as we come to a family reunion. And it all centered around on key event - my sisters visit to Oregon.

Last week was my sisters high school reunion so she flew back to Oregon to attend. I haven't seen her since I took her to the airport 8 years ago. She now lives in Texas and neither of us gets the chance to see once another.

My brother and sister-in-law came to Oregon to visit too, planning their tirp to coiincide with Wendy's visit.

Today was my turn to host the family and the final time we got to see one another before my sister left for Texas. We had dinner and german chocolate cake for my dads birthday then walked to the park for some family pictures. These were my faves...

Here's where we started - mom, dad and us three kids:

Here's just us kids:

And all of our kids - the grandkids:

And here we are all together, one big family shot. Who knows, it could be 8 years before we're here again. But it was good to have this family time.

Read It Forward

2010-08-12T19:29:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to share this site with all the other book lovers out there. It's called "Read It Forward", a site supported by Crown Publishing. Each month they list at least 3 books that will be released soon. Then you can put your vitrtual "name in a hat" to win any that strike your fancy. I've put my name in for three months. I won that first month and received a decent but forgettable book that I passed along to some of my book club girls. Then today another package arrived on my doorstep - another free book. Score! I think tomorrow the drawing opens for the new books so stop by and put your name in the hat... you never know what might magically appear on your doorstep. :)

http://read-it-forward.crownpublishing.com/

More deals...

2010-08-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

This one ends today, but if you've got a computer and a Safeway then you're in luck! Such a great deal on both cereal and cheese this week there. Here's what I got:

10 boxes of Kellogg's cereals, 6 packages of sliced cheese, 2 cartons of Welche's juice and flour (which was on sale but no coupons). And the grand total for this?$14.40! PLUS I have a $5.00 coupon good off my next order. Can't beat that!

This deal is almost up (today is the last day) but here's a post about next week's awesome cereal, granola bar and fruit snack deal. Good luck to you on saving money. :)
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/2010/08/safeway-general-mills-buy-4-save-4-promo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FODHU+%28The+Krazy+Coupon+Lady+%29&utm_content=FaceBook

Photography Class - Assignment 2

2010-08-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

Our second assignment was due today - portraits. As I previously lamented, we were told no kids and no pets. Well, I wasn't about to take a pile of pictures of our pets, though I certainly could especially since we have 9 pets to choose from. But no kids? Seriously? Kids are so much of my life - both at home and at school - and I was a bit lost with the thought of taking photos of other grownups. Thus my pictures are either of family,

good friends

or absolute strangers that had no idea I was photographing them. LOL

Overall I'm okay with how I did on this assignment, though it's I wouldn't say I was too impressed with myself. I probably should have been more outgoing and asked more people to do photo shoots with me, but I wasn't so I'll just have to deal with the grade I'm given.

Mommy & Me Weekend at the beach

2010-08-05T17:23:00.000-07:00

Carissa and I were invited to spend some girl time at the beach with one of my good friends, Erica, and her daughters Linsday and Allison. Her family owns a little cabin on the Nestucca River just outside of Pacific City. I was only able to carve out 2 1/2 days (this summer is CRAZY!) while the boys were gone to Boy Scout camp and so we called it our Mommy & Me weekend.

The cabin we stayed at was quaint but adorable. It just barely fit us all, but that was fine with us. We ate simple food (including pizza dip the first night... my new fave food!) and just relaxed and enjoyed ourselves.

The first night we went to Pacific City and climbed the giant sand dune to walk along the edge of the cape. It was beautiful and blue skied. It was huge fun, though I haven't yet edited those photos so don't have pics to share. I will admit to taking lots and lots of photographs of strangers, hoping to catch something good for my portrait assignment in photography class.

We came back to the cabin where the girls played Polly Pockets and then watched a movie while I gave them all pedicures.

The next morning we were at the beach again, this time for 6 hours. First off was the tidepools. We saw lots of starfish and anemone's and even saw a few fish and crabs.

We tried to fly kites but it was oddly calm that day and there was no way we were getting them up higher than about 6 or 7 feet. Carissa ran so she could get her seahorse to fly, as we've forgotten to take it for several beach trips and she was DYING to finally get it in the air. Lindsay and Allison got theirs off the ground for a few minutes too.
Then the girls relaxed in the sand, building a sandcastle and attempting to form a bridge across this little stream.

By the time this day was over they were totally wiped out. But we had a great time at the beach with our friends and enjoyed our Mom and daughter time.

The Look

2010-07-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, it's getting that time. The girl has developed "the look"... that look she gives you when you say something stupid or embarassing or when you do something she doesn't approve of. She's gotten pretty good at "the look", see...

Chase's Eagle Scout Project

2010-07-22T15:34:00.000-07:00

June 26 was Chase's Eagle Scout project. He chose to do a Bike Safety Fair for the kids of Scappoose, something we've never seen in the 7 years we've lived in this community. He put in so many hours planning this event, looking for donations, coordinating schedules and volunteers and gear for the event. There were huge issues in the days leading up to the event that he weathered - the biggest being the "you can't have the area we promised to you for your event." AAAHHH! It was a huge undertaking but he rose to the occasion and did such a fabulous job! The day went off without a hitch... he had it planned so well that it pretty much ran like clockwork. YEAH!

Upon arriving eveyone checked in with Grandma (my Mom) at the registration desk. Each child got a big filled with color books, activity books, pamphlets and a Scappoose Police color-changing pencil.

Then they were free to wander the stations around the perimeter of the bike safety fair.

He had a few games, like a ball toss and a ring toss.
And he had the important safety stations, like a bike safety check (huge thanks to Bike Gallery for sending out a mechanic!)

And the helmet check (this one made a huge impact... sooooo many kids had their helmets on incorrectly).

He also had some learning stations for the kids to visit, like First Aid and Rules of Road, where they learned hand signals and how to legally ride their bike on the street.

After that it was on to the fun part, the huge "Chalk Road" that he'd set up. It included things like a stop sign, crosswalk and a railroad crossing with volunteers stationed to help the kids remember the proper way to proceed. This was a lot of fun and some kids rode it over and over again! (There's my Dad in the background... Chase had all of his grandparents there to help!).
After riding their course and playing games one more time the kids were all treated to a popsicle. It was a beautiful day and the popsicle was a great way to cool off. All in all the project went wonderfully and I'm so proud of Chase and all that he accomplished to pull this project off. Kudos my boy!

Welcome to summer!

2010-07-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Every year I'm so excited for summer. By the end of spring I'm ready to be done with teaching for a bit and done with getting up in the mornings, going to school, having meetings, etc. So when summer comes I'm always excited for the chance to not have that structure and chaotic schedule. Yet each year when summer comes here I am again... busy, busy, busy. This year has been much of the same. I've taught 3 summer camps, taken Chase back and forth to National Youth Leadership Training, gone camping with the family and painted and moved the kids into new rooms. It's been a busy, busy summer thus far. And in the midst of it all I'm taking a full score of college classes, one of them being a photography course.

I must admit that I love photography and have for a very long time. Lately I've really been trying to work on more beautiful and better composed photos and thought I was doing well... until I started this course. It's much harder than I expected to get great photos. We're required to take 250 photos and then submit our 10 best photos for critique and grade. Our first assignment was due last week and was 10 landscape and/or architecture photos. I took about 400 photos for this assignment and these are the 10 I turned in:

My next assignment is the one I was most looking forward to - portrait photography. I was looking forward to this one - until he told us NO KIDS! Ugh... no pics of kids. I have to photograph adults. That's much, much harder. We'll see how it goes...

2010-07-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been bad at posting lately. As always, life gets in the way of blogging. And lots of life has been going on lately. Life is definitely keeping us busy.

The good news is that I am DONE teaching summer camps for this season. YEAH! Now summer can actually begin and maybe I can get some stuff done around here ... like cleaning the house! LOL

On the other side of the coin, life is still busy, busy, busy. I'm just about ready to head off to take Chase to National Youth Leadership Training for Boy Scouts. He is soooo excited that he was chosen by the troop leaders to go to this week-long leadership camp but even more than that, he's excited to learn how to become a better leader and scout.

On a similar note, Chase held his Eagle Scout project a few weekends ago. It went remarkably well. I can't wait to blog about it and share pictures, but that will have to wait for another time.

For now, here's pictures of some things I've missed posting.

Chase and Carissa tested for their first belt rank in Taekwondo. They started 3 months ago, when Tristan moved to a new dojang. We've all been so happy with the move and with Master Maye and the kids are all enjoying it. Here's Chase doing forms,

doing some sparring,

and breaking boards.

And here's Miss Riss getting some pointers from her sparring "coach" (the kids coach for each other, giving each other pointers on how to do better while sparring),

kicking some butt in a sparring match,

and breaking boards.

Here are the two with their new belts (white with black stripe) and their instructor, Master Maye. They were supposed to be doing their fighting faces here. LOL

We also went to Newport for a few days of rest and relaxation. We had a great time. Here's Carissa with a what's left of a HUGE smores... we found these giant marshmallows that make a double-size smores, but they are also a huge mess. See all the marshmallow in her hair? Oh well, it's awfully cute to be covered in marshmallow. My late best friends daughters, Jayde and Kaitlyn, came with their grandma to come visit us at the campsite. Jayde and Chase are the same age and were having some fun together. Jayde decided to wear Chase's hat

so we thought it only fitting that Chase should wear Jayde's headband... with a little "help" from Dad.

Chase and Tristan participated in the "gummy bear challenge." They are working on actually remembering their boy scout knots (they do them but forget how a day later). So we held this challenge to see who could finish knots first. Chase won one round, Tristan won the other. And since the winner got gummy bears, they were happy to participate! LOL
We took the kids to Yaquina Head Natural Scenic Area and to this place - the lighthouse near where I grew up. It was windy and a bit chilly, but fun anyways. This is my favorite pic from the trip, the kids walking up to the lighthouse.

A trip to Newport isn't complete without a trip to the Marine Science Center. Who can beat free? We were bummed to miss the octopus feeding, since we've watched it online via their live web cam. Guess we'll just have to watch it online for now and go see it in person another time.

While looking through the exhibits the kids climbed behind this one and peeked through the glass. See their faces in the background? We stayed at South Beach State Park and went to the beach there, which was beautiful and calm in the morning. Brian's dad kept walking with the boys

and Tucker had a hey-day running around and chasing his floaty toy in the surf.

This, I think, is one of my fave pics of the boys together. They're always doing this - hanging out with one another. They still are good friends and I love that about their relationship!

Well, that's all I've got time for now. Off to NYLT we go...

Silly fun

2010-06-26T13:08:00.000-07:00

The first day of summer and we decided to just let the kids have some fun. This is what it looked like 3 bottles of silly string and a huge mess later.

Fully Animated

2010-06-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

Tristan has always been rather animated. He's loud and outgoing and a rather personable character. That was never more true than in the final week of school, when his class presented their "Wax Museum" of historical characters.

Tristan chose to be Napoleon Bonaparte. He did the whole thing on his own - researched and read books then wrote a whole long paper about Napoleon. He made a big display board for the event (see it in the background?). He even convinced me to attempt to make him a Napoleon hat... which was only marginally successful. But by the day of the wax museum he was ready!

If you look at the photo below you'll see a little sticker on his hand. That was his "on" button. Whenever someone pushed the button he gave a speech to inform them about his character. Well he got quite into it and gathered quite a following of kids! He spoke with such conviction and was so animated that they all loved him. And Brian and I couldn't help but notice that he always drew quite a crowd. The kids would push his button over and over just to hear him talk and he was quite happy to entertain them all.
Of course, it doesn't hurt if you're brandishing a sword too! LOL I only wish that I had our video camera that day to capture his spiel. I was truly impressed with him and his entire project.

Schools Out!

2010-06-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

School is out and I wanted to share these pics of Carissa at field day at her school. She was having such a great time and really enjoyed the last of her time at Warren school. Next year, it's on to the brand new intermediate school!

A New Stripe

2010-06-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Chase and Carissa started taking Taekwondo about 4 months ago and last month they both tested for their white belt with a black stripe (or, as they like to call it, their black belt with 2 white stripes. LOL). Testing went well and they both walked away victorious. Here's a few pics from the testing.

Here they are with their new belts and their teacher, Master Maye. They're supposed to be giving their "tough" faces... Chase breaking boards,

sparring,

showing his self-defense,

doing his form,

and receiving his new belt.

Carissa doing forms,

sparring

discussing strategy with her coach,

breaking boards,

and showing self-defense.

All in all a great first testing for both of them. Up next month: it's Tristan's turn. This time he'll be testing for his green with a black stripe. Wish him luck!

Meet Mrs. Earth Day

2010-06-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

For Earth Day this year Carissa's class was tasked with making a creation out of recycled items. This project was right up her alley and for days and days it was all she could talk about. When the day finally came for us to make Carissa was ecstatic. She kept finding tidbits to use, things to add, ways to make it bigger and better. I'm not sure she could have made it much bigger or better because she turned out fabulous! She was huge (nearly as tall as Carissa!) and stylish in her recyled fashions. She had plastic bottles for arms and legs, a box for a body, pop bottle lids as dots, painted newspaper head, milk jug caps eyes and strips of bottle labels as hair. She even included a stomach that opened to reveal a room inside, complete with battery chairs and tables and two swinging chandeleers. She was a pretty amazing project and Carissa was rewarded with the top prize for most creative project. Way to go Carissa!

How I Know It's Summer...

2010-06-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Summer is finally here, though you could never tell it by the weather. It thinks it's still spring or something, as the rain and gray skies have been hanging about. Despite the weather, it surely is summer. Here's the sure signs in our house:

The kids are all "camping" together in one of their bedrooms.
The board games have seen the light of day once again.
Books are everywhere and the kids are keeping track of their hours read for the library and bookstore reading programs.
My toenails are brightly painted and waiting for sandal weather.
The refrigerator smells of cherry jello jigglers, made today by Carissa.
The heat is off, though the A/C isn't running just yet.
I'm staying up until late at night again, happy to have some quiet, creative "me" time.
Mornings are lazy and quiet, with kids waking up to read for a while before slowly traipsing out of bed in search of breakfast.
The kids are hanging out together and talking over one another as they act out some imaginary scene that they've devised.
S'mores ingredients are sitting on the counter waiting for a campfire.
The street outside is filled with the noise of kids playing.

Book Club

2010-06-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Living in Scappoose for so long has finally meant we've put down roots. We've met a lot of people and are involved in the community. I've made friends, mainly through work and scouts. But what's most precious to me here, besides my own family, is the book club girls. Book club was started about 2 1/2 years ago and started out with a group of scout moms and a few of their friends. Our numbers are up to 7 now and we meet monthly, rotating houses so everyone hosts. I really love how book club makes me go out of my way to read something I otherwise wouldn't or to see life in a different way. I truly love my book club and look forward to our meetings, which involved food, book talk and idle chit chat. The book club girls are my friends and I'm so lucky to have them.

Our (not so) little dancer...

2010-05-31T11:54:00.000-07:00

Last week was dance recital for Carissa. It was a whirlwind day! We spent all morning at dress rehearsal then came home to have dinner with Mom, Jimmy, Virginia and the kids. It was so nice to see my little nephews, as well as Jimmy and Virginia and Mom. We don't see them often enough. Then it was to the recital and home with Jimmy and Virginia's boys, who are 3 years old and 5 months old. Aunt Annette got them both to sleep so Jimmy and Virginia could go to a concert in Portland. Great day, but a busy one.

Here's Carissa in her tap number, "Good Ship Lollipop". She was adorable with her long ringlets and sailor outfit. It was her first year tapping in heals and she did a great job!
Her second number was a jazz number called "Hoop Dee Doo" and included hula hoops. She got her recital hula hoop, which was larger than she had been practicing with so she was having trouble with a tricky move that involved throwing her leg over the spinning hoop. Well she nailed it and was so proud of herself!

Remember how I talked about Carissa switching schools over Christmas break. One of the big reasons was the lack of social interaction and friend choice at her other school. With only 6 girls in her grade there wasn't a lot of friends to chose from. Well she's all settled in her new school (and looking forward to the brand new Intermediate school that will open this fall) and has really found some good new friends. A couple of them do dance with her and I talked them into a few photos in their Hoop Dee Doo costumes. Aren't they adorable?

Frou-Frou Girl

2010-05-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

Carissa is such a girly girl. Her favorite color is pink, she loves to wear skirts, she adores hair flowers and really doesn't like jeans at all. So when I saw this skirt I knew it was her. I was so right! She LOVES it. She looks adorable and loves twirling in it. It's so frou-frou, just like her!

Girls Disney Day 3 & Heading Home

2010-05-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

After our late night at the parks, the air conditioner didn't bother us as much. They had worked on it but it was still really loud. We were just too tired to care and both slept well.

I awoke the next morning with both anticipation for todays fun in Disneyland and dread at the thought of leaving. We really had seen and done everything we wanted to in the last 2 days so today was just cake, but I also hated to leave. I did miss my husband and my kids though, and was happy to be returning to them soon. While Bek and I had fun, being at Disneyland did remind me of the fun of having your family to share this with. Now I'm even more desparate to get my family back to Disneyland soon.

But I digress. We woke, prettied ourselves up, packed the last of our stuff and toted our luggage down to Bek's car. Then we headed off for the park. It opened early this morning, at 8am, and we were in the gates about 8:30am.

First up was a quick stop at the partners statue, featuring Walt and Mickey. It was pretty empty this morning so we were able to take pics of a family and then get some of our own without other random people in them. I love this statue and want a copy of this statue for my house... I love it!

We headed straight for Pixie Hollow in search of a visit with the fairies. Not too soon after we got in line they opened it. There was this adorable older gentleman with a New Zealand accent who was the cast member when you entered the tall grass of Pixie Hollow. He was so funny! Kept talking to us all like he was a fairy and saying that Tinkerbell doesn't like to wait for anyone, so she'd be seeing us and the other fairies would join her shortly. Well, that was fine with Bek and I as we were really just here to see Tink.

I love how you enter Pixie Hollow and become miniature, like the fairies. How the grass is so tall, how the flowers are so big and all the little details in between. I had to snap some pictures of the incredible details. First is the big banner for the "Fall Revelry" that hangs in Pixie Hollow. Next is a beautiful flower that stood about 4 feet tall.

Usually some of the other Pixie Hollow fairies are here and this is one of those spots where one stops to greet guests. No fairy though, just Bek and I. ;)Then it was time to see Tink! I was so sad my photo didn't come out crisp. :(

And here's Bek with Tink.

Then it was time for both of us. Tinkerbell instructed us to stand like her and be "sassy" so we did. I love that I can be such a goofball in Disney. LOLThat was the big plan for Disneyland so Bek and we turned tail and headed to California Adventure.

It was a long hike from Pixie Hollow all the way to Paradise Pier, but we took our time and enjoyed the Disney feeling, knowing we were soon leaving.

Next up was California Screamin'. Time for one last ride, right? So we jumped in the line and waited the 15 minutes to get on the ride. Thankfully this time it actually did work and we screamed and yelled the entire time. This is a horrible picture of the screen showing us on the ride, but had to share it anyways. Bek and I are in the back row...

We had yet to go on Toy Store Mania so that was our next goal. When we got to Paradise Pier we saw that the line was really long outside the ride. We didn't have anything else we had to do so we decided to go for it, especially because we saw that they'd just opened the attraction and there was a huge gap in the line. Sure enough it did move pretty quickly and we ended up only waiting about 15-20 minutes. This is always a fun ride and I beat Bek in point total, though I must admit her hurt hand didn't help her out.

The only other major attraction on our list today was to see the full production of Aladdin. Since that didn't happen for a while we headed for one of my must-dos for today - the Animation Academy! Here a young animator taught us to draw Donald Duck.

He was hard! Much more difficult than others I've drawn, with lots of curves and lines. The animators go pretty quickly too, so it was a rush to keep up. I loved every second of it! Here's my take on Donald...

We also learned stayed to learn how to draw Mickey and Grumpy. We spent so much time here today but I loved it! If I were a youngster I'd want to be a Disney Animator some day. It was so fun and I really loved the results.
It was now time for Aladdin and Bek and I went plenty early so we could get a good seat. Standing out in the sun wasn't very fun, but we found a tiny bit of shade and sat down there while in the line. We got great seats about 15 rows from the front, so I had a much better chance of getting some great shots without the flash. Thankfully the entire show went off without a hitch so Bek was able to see it all. The music was fabulous and the genie was hilarious. It was soooooo worth the wait!

*sigh* That was it for California Adventure. We walked by Soarin' to see if we could sneak a ride in but didn't feel we had time to do that and still get to Cafe Orleans for the beignets that we just had to try. So we big California Adventure a fond farewell and headed back to Disneyland.

Our whole plan here was to hit Cafe Orleans and pick up all those last-minue souveniors we hadn't yet grabbed. Bek went to the nearby store to get a cool sweatshirt she'd seen for Kayli and I checked us into Cafe Orleans. In only 5 minutes we had a table, again outside. We ordered another order of the scrumptious Pommes Frites and an order of Beignets. Holy moly, I could sit here and eat these foods forever and be perfectly happy. SOOOOO yummy! That berry puree was pure heaven. We tried the vanilla anglaise sauce but both of us preferred the berry puree, so we ordered more and sat back and enjoyed. YUM!

After stuffing ourselves on fries and beignets we sat and people watched. We soaked in the last bits of California sunshine and Disneyland magic and then grudgingly bid Disneyland farewell. We had a fabulous time to share with one another but it was now over.

Thankfully we still had a plane ride home together. Bek was coming back to Oregon with me as stop on her way to her hometown of Forks, Washington where she was looking for a HOUSE! Bek is moving back! They really aren't enjoying Arizona and miss the Northwest. In just a month they will be home for good! Unfortunately they won't be as close as they were before, when they lived in Battleground. But she'll still be just a 4 hour drive away, close enough to go visit on a weekend and close enough to once again see each other more than once a year. YEAH!

Bek and I both flew JetBlue home and she was as impressed as I was. The captain actually came out and said hi to passengers. We enjoyed some TV while we flew, watching some thing about mothers and their little girls being beauty pageant queens. It was one of those train wreck shows that you couldn't help but watch yet at the same time you had to roll your eyes at the ridiculous parents in them.

When we arrived home I was due to ride with Bek, who was staying the night at our house before heading to Forks. She was sooooo jazzed to go and got more and more excited as the minutes ticked closer to touchdown.

Imagine my surprise when I came out of the gate area and found my husband and kids waiting for me with a big sign that said "We missed you Mom!". Awwwww... They all hugged me and I was so, so glad to be home!

In the end, Bek was too keyed up to come home with me instead deciding to just drive the 4 hours to her hometown that she missed so much. We bid goodbye at the airport, knowing that in just a month we would see each other again.

I'm so glad I took this vacation with her and got to spend some time doing stuff for me, but I had missed my family dearly and I was glad to be home.