A Scrap of Life

I was editing photos tonight and came across something that shamed me to no end. Tristan's birthday is in late August, the last bit of summer. I took tons of pictures of his party. It was an event ... bowling with his friends. 12 kids in all. Cupcakes. Presents. Chaos. I captured it all. Even remembered to do some posed shots of him on his 9th birthday. Fast forward 2 weeks to Chase's birthday. Mid September. School has started. There's a soccer game. And the Sauerkraut festival. Chase has a slumber party with his 3 closest friend. I take one picture of him ... and a horrible one at that. Ugh. I suck!

because I'm officially a loser. Life has been so busy that I haven't taken the time to update my blog in weeks. So this is my catch-up post for you all. We did change the kids school. They started a week and a half ago. It's definately a change for us all. The frienship pool is smaller, since there are only 80 kids in all of the K-6 school. I think it's been a bit hard, especially for Chase, to make new friends at this school. Thankfully he still has his neighborhood friend Brenden and we've promised to try to have his friends over more often now that he isn't going to school with them. Tristan is a bit luckier, as he has one of our neighbors in his class. Plus he's already make friends with a boy who lives on the island. Good for him. Carissa is, of course, the social butterfly and has a new BFF, Gyllian. She seems to be doing well with that and is enjoying her new school. Academically the changes have been quite big. Carissa's teacher does individualiz...

Seriously. Why can't we just be mean people for once? Today Belle's previous owners called... again. It was our 3rd call from them since we adopted her 5 days ago. This time they were calling to ask us if we could find it in our hearts to give her back. Debbie has apparently been crying since she gave her up and realizes now that she should not have done so. They really wanted her back. After much deliberation between ourselves and after talking to each of the kids we decided to give her back. We just couldn't deny that our 5 days worth of attachment was nothing compared to the 5 months worth of attachment that Debbie had. And Belle had a good home with Debbie. None of us are particularly happy with the situation. We liked Belle. She fit our family. Sure, she had a lot to learn but she was doing fairly well here. But we really wanted to be good role models for our kids. We wanted them to learn that we must think not only of ourselves and our feelings but the feeli...

I won! I am one of Scrapbook Warehouses Queen of the Crops! I was the winner of the contest for the Newport store and will soon go pick up my prize package of $300 worth of scrapbook products. Thank you to all that voted for me! I truly appreciate the support. The other pressing subject is one that has me constantly worried. It's school. We have fairly good schools here in Scappoose. Sure, the class sizes are slightly large but the schools still have some extra programs and are fairly well supported. They work for most families, but I'm not sure they're working for ours. See, our kids are special. Really. I'm not just saying that. Tristan and Carissa are well ahead of most of their classmates. Chase in particular is a very, very bright child. I remember our first school experience with Chase. He was days shy of turning 3 and we decided to send him to 3 year old preschool. We walked into the classroom that first day and he asked where the puzzles were. Th...

Seriously? Why do I do this? Today was Tristan's birthday party. 8 boys invited blossoms into a total of 12 kids. It was at the bowling alley. There were 12 cupcakes, 4 pizzas and 3 pitchers of pop consumed. $5 worth of quarters were gone in a matter of minutes. Utter chaos I tell you, but Tristan sure enjoyed his 9th birthday party. We came home and low and behold the neighborhood friends want to play. We have a great little group of friends here though so I didn't mind. Then Tristan wants his friend JT to spend the night. Then Chase wants Brenden to stay. And Carissa wants Anwen. So guess where they all are right now? In my house of course. I started out with 16 kids in my preschool class. Then had 12 kids at a party. Now 6 kids to spend then night. Oh, I also have that 8 month old bulldog who loves to stealthily steal the kids shoes and toys. Why do I do this to myself?!?

Day 2 of school and we're already back in the swing of things. I started teaching again today too and I feel like schedule and order have taken over the chaos of summer. It is SOOOOOO wonderful! Of course, I must always complicate my life a little more. I guess I should say that BRIAN must always complicate my life a little more, since this next complication is all his. Meet Belle, the newest addition to our family. Belle has been a long time coming. Brian has wanted an English bulldog for as long as I can remember, but one look at the price tag convinced him otherwise. So for years and years he's planned for the day when we could afford one. No, that day did not come. Luck while doing a good deed came. You see, Brian's mom's dog died about 6 months ago and she's been looking for a new one. So he was being the good son and scouting CraigsList for her. Well, one of the days he was doing that he came upon an ad for an English bulldog. The owner was away from home 12-1...