9/30/08 - Teddy Bear Parade

Every year the City of Gresham hosts its annual Teddy Bear Parade, and all the local businesses and organizations turn out in force.  I walked in the parade with our local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group.  I pushed the girls in the double stroller, decorated with Ben Bridge bears I collected during my jeweler years.  J  Both of them seemed a little dazed by it at first, but then they caught sight of Daddy waving from the sidewalk as he took pictures and video.  That got Amanda into the spirit, and she started waving and clapping as we went along. 

MOPS @ East Hill

Our local MOPS group starts up next month, and we’re very busy getting ready.  This year I volunteered to help by editing the newsletter and serving on the steering team.  I also made a tri-fold brochure for advertising, and put together a website on Multiply (http://easthillmops.multiply.com/), where we can post articles and events for our local MOPS.  I used to do a lot of desktop publishing when I was on staff with Kings Kids, so it’s nice to be using those skills again, for a good cause.  I’m really looking forward to getting to know more local moms this year, and having a chance to bless them.    

Child Care

Eva is enjoying new 3-year-old’s room at church.  They always make a little craft, and she’s so proud to show it to Daddy and Mommy after class, telling us, “I made that!”    Amanda has been more of a challenge.  Up until now, we’ve just taken her directly to the “crying baby’s room” with us, where we can watch the service on a big screen TV without disturbing anyone. 

 

But last weekend, when Dave had to work, I decided to give the nursery another try.  Now that Amanda is walking, she might be able to entertain herself better.  To my utter shock and amazement, she actually stayed in the entire service!  I even checked twice to make sure they weren’t just letting her “cry it out”, but she was quietly letting one of the workers hold her.  Miracles never cease!   I hope Amanda does as well in the nursery during the MOPS meetings, too.  It would be nice to have a mid-week break! 

 

Evenings are a different story, though.  We tried to leave her in the nursery while we got together with our small group, but got paged when she wouldn’t stop screaming.  That’s OK.  Several other parents in our group have their babies end up back with them during the meeting, too, and nobody minds.   

Little Climber

Amanda loves climbing on things, and you never know where you’ll find her stranded.  She’ll climb onto the toddler table or chairs, and then cry because she can’t get back down.  It won’t be long before she can climb on other furniture, too.   She loves pushing buttons, especially remote controls, and it’s a challenge to keep her away from the DVD or CD players.  She also loves any toy with wheels that she can push or pull, like the little block wagon.

Say Cheese!

Eva loves playing with the camera.  Now every time I go to upload photos onto the computer, I find pictures that neither Dave nor I have taken.  She’s not a bad photographer, either, and seems to have an eye for composition.  She likes taking pictures of little sister, toys, and her feet.   It’s kind of interesting to see what she considers worthy of photographic interest, and see things from her perspective (and height)!

 

Party Politics

The election is just over a month away, and I'm already sick of it.  For one thing, this has been the longest campaign in history, dragging on for over a year.  And now that we're in the home stretch, we have to put up with phone calls, people coming to the door, and endless campaign attack ads.  I try to mute them while watching the evening news, but Dave doesn't even want to watch the news anymore.  "Can I turn the lies off now?" he aks. 

One major issue for me is that I don't think senators or congressmen make very good presidents, and here we have a choice between two guys who have never governed anything in their lives.  All senators do is make pretty speeches, and show up to vote (and sometimes not even that - they can just vote "present" and not even have to make a decision)!   The only people they manage are their own personal staff.   At this point, my husband has had more executive experience than both candidates combined! 

For the most important executive post in the world, I'd prefer someone who had SOME executive experience, like Reagan and Clinton did: mayor, governor, executive of a company or organization - something that showed they knew how to manage and lead people and make crucial decisions under pressure.  I may not always agree with where they lead, but at least I know that they CAN. 

I'm also baffled by how many people base their vote just on what political party a person is from, or the latest rumor they heard on the news or e-mail forward, without doing their research.  Can people really be so lazy, with such an important decision at stake? 

I even wrote an article about it: "How to Be An Educated Voter"

http://www.ehow.com/how_4499051_be-educated-voter.html

I'm actually getting some pretty good feedback on it. 

9/24/08 - Quick Visit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David’s mom has been permanently moved to skilled nursing, so he flew down to San Diego over the weekend to visit with her and help clear out her apartment.  He was gone from Thursday to Monday (flying back on Sunday was too expensive).  

 

My mom unexpectedly invited me to come down for a visit to Grants Pass while he was gone.  Normally I wouldn’t attempt the 4 ½ hour drive with the girls by myself, but with Amanda being such a challenge lately, I thought a change might do us all some good.  I didn’t decide until the morning Dave flew out, and then I had only an hour to pack after dropping him off at the airport. It was so last-minute, I even forgot to ask our neighbor to feed our fish until Saturday (I left a week’s worth of food for the cat).    I stopped at the mall in Eugene to let the girls play on the indoor play park and burn off some steam.  Amanda automatically wants to do whatever she sees the big kids doing, so when they all started clamoring to go on the slide, she was jockeying for a position right in the middle of them.  She loved going down the slide while holding my hand, and couldn’t get enough.  At one point she got knocked down the few foam stairs, which scared her.  She was too afraid to climb it by herself, but she protested whenever I tried to help, too.    I could tell she was getting cranky, so it was time to get back on the road.  The girls slept for most of the rest of the trip.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eva really enjoyed visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Caleb and Aunt Barocha.  They have two international students living with them again this year, a brother and sister (ages 10 and 12) from Korea.   Dad and Barocha were gone on a retreat until Friday night, so they were surprised to see me and the girls when they got home.   One afternoon, we took a short drive to the river.  Eva chased a lizard with the big kids, proudly holding it in her hand.  Then she threw rocks into the water, trying to make big splashes like they did.  Finally she got brave enough to take off her shoes and try some wading.  There were tiny fish dashing around, but none came close enough for her to “catch”.   Of course, Amanda wanted to do what she saw big sister doing, so I took off her shoes and held her feet in the water.  She loves water, so I had to hold her under the armpits to keep her from sitting down in it.  She kicked and splashed and giggled, and had a great time.

Meltdown

Amanda felt comfortable enough to walk around the house getting into cupboards and drawers, though she kept a close eye on me and would start looking for me whenever I went out of her sight for a second.  On Sunday she really had a tough day, crying for hours while nothing seemed to comfort her except crashing into an exhausted sleep, only to wake and start screaming again. (It’s so odd, if my parents hadn’t been there to see it themselves, they probably would have thought I exaggerated about these episodes!)   I tried nursing, feeding, rocking, burping, playing and distracting, giving her Tylenol and teething tablets – nothing worked.  I thought she might be teething, but her back molars have been the same for the past month, and I don’t feel any bumps, heat, or soft tissue indicating they’re finally coming in.  After awhile her crying seemed more like a temper fit than anything else, upset whenever I tried to comfort her, then upset when I’d leave her alone.  She finally let up around 7:30 at night, playing contentedly as if she’d been happy all day.  What the heck??

Bathroom Breakthroughs

We had a great potty-training breakthrough over the weekend.  Up until now, Eva has had a prejudice against “foreign” potties (any toilet other than the one at home), afraid she might fall in, I guess.  I’ve kept a padded toddler-sized potty seat in the car to put over any toilet, but up until now she refused to use it.  But Grandma’s house put her in a big dilemma: she didn’t want to go in her training pants, and mommy wouldn’t “go home” so she could go potty there.  I brought out the padded seat and put her on it.  She protested and cried, but finally used it.  Hooray!  She got cheers and high-fives, and a cookie for being such a big girl.  From then on she went around saying “No go home, go potty.  Eva use Grandma’s potty!”   On the drive home several days later, she had another breakthrough by finally agreeing to use the public restroom at the mall (with the small padded seat, of course).   We’ve finally cleared another potty-training hurdle!   

Cooling Down

The five days I spent with family were sunny and comfortable, giving us a last chance to extend our summer and escape the rainy weather that swept into Portland in our absence.   Grants Pass remained warm and dry, but as I made the 4 ½ hour drive home, I began encountering drizzle and gray clouds.  The further north I drove, the colder and greener it got.  By the time we arrived home, the rain had passed, the sun had broken through the clouds, and Mt. Hood was newly crowned with the first snow of the season.   Fall has officially begun, and chilly weather is here to stay.  During the day it stays in the 60’s, and dips into the 40’s at night.  Looks like it’s finally time to pack away all of our summer clothes. 

Mt. Hood Summer '08

Philip Foster Farm

The Alpaca Fair!

9/17/08 - Alpaca Festival

We went to Philip Foster Farm this past weekend, for their annual Alpaca Festival.  Families from all over the state brought their beautiful animals and wares made from Alpaca wool. Several local Mennonite families came out to join the festivities.   One woman brought out her pet Alpaca for Eva to pet, and she was impressed by how soft they were.  Amanda was a little more cautious.  They make really funny noises, like a humming sound, and when they call each other, it sounds exactly like a toddler whining.  I actually had to do a double-take a couple of times because I thought it was my kids instead of the animals.  LOL! 

 

As a “living history” farm, they have people walking around in period dress, an old-fashioned blacksmith, a woman spinning wool into yarn, life-size Lincoln logs for kids to try and build their own cabin, a station for hand-washing clothes with a tub and washboard, and a barn where you can try out pioneer tools.   The house is set up as a museum, with original furniture, clothing, toys and household items on display.  We decided to leave the double stroller in the car and just bring the umbrella stroller for Amanda.  Of course, Eva didn’t want to walk if Amanda got to ride, so she insisted that Daddy carry her pretty much the whole morning. 

 

We got some sodas from the gift shop and sat down at a picnic table to listen to a country band and eat the lunch I had packed.  Amanda really enjoyed the music, and started swinging her legs and shaking her head to the beat.  At one point she started head-banging, and smacked her forehead right into the table!   She got a shocked look on her face and started crying, but started right back up again the minute I sat her down.  Toddlers!

 

Mt. Hood

After the farm, we drove up to Mt. Hood.  I’ve been wanting to see it all year, but there’s always been too much snow.  That’s definitely not a problem anymore.  We drove up to the Timberline Lodge and took a look around.  I can imagine it gets pretty crazy up there in the winter, with all those skiers.  Then we went down to Government Camp and walked through the town, and got the girls some ice cream.  We hear about these places all the time (especially in the winter, when they’re snowed in), so it was nice to finally see them.  It’s a beautiful area, but I definitely wouldn’t want to be there in the winter.  Even in the summer, the remaining snow on the mountain makes for chilly breezes. 

 

On the drive home, Eva kept complaining that she had to go to the bathroom.  She won’t use any toilet except at home, so we told her to just go in her training pants.  She cried and said “I need to go home, go potty!”  It was an hour drive home, but she actually held it until we got there.  For a three year old, that’s pretty impressive!  Now, if she would just agree to use another toilet, she could spare herself the torture of waiting. 

 

Summer Winds Down

We’re enjoying summer’s last hurrah right now: a 90-degree “heat wave” which belies the changing seasons.  I’m leaving the windows open as much as I can to enjoy the fresh air, before it gets too cold.  The days are already noticeably shorter, getting dark by 7:30.  This Sunday night will be the last time our “little church” small group will meet for a potluck picnic, and we’re meeting an hour earlier in order to have enough daylight.  After that, we’ll be moving our gatherings back indoors. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the luxury of shorts and sandals, we’re already starting to see color changes in the leaves, and some are starting to fall when the wind blows.  Most of the trees are full and green right now, but soon they will be full of explosive fall colors.  Fall is the best time of the year to be in Oregon.  The glorious array of autumn leaves, pumpkin patches, fresh berries, and the best apple cider you’ve ever tasted, fresh off the farm.  There are a few local harvest festivals we’re hoping pay a visit to in the coming weeks.

A Day In The Life

Dave is usually the first to wake in our house, and Eva and Amanda are close behind, waking at around 7:30.  Dave knows what a night owl I am and how much I love to sleep in, so he usually feeds the girls breakfast and wakes me an hour later, before he goes to work.  That’s especially helpful when I’ve had a rough night, up with Amanda every hour. 

 

Eva likes to watch Sesame Street or Dora The Explorer in the morning, and then we run an errand or go the library, or play in the backyard for a little while.  Amanda might take a short nap, and then Eva gets to play with the “chokables”, as I call them: toys for preschoolers with small pieces.  She knows the minute Amanda falls asleep and says, “Mommy, can I play with bugs?”  We have a “Busy Bugs” game with colorful plastic bugs used for sorting, matching, adding and subtracting, and a shape sorter set with a variety of foam shapes that you arrange together to make pictures.   She knows to start putting them away whenever Amanda wakes up.

 

After lunch, the girls play for another hour or so, until Eva goes down for a nap.   If I’m lucky, Amanda might take a nap around the same time, but not always.  If not, I spend the majority of my time making sure she doesn’t wander down to the bedroom and crawl into Eva’s bed, trying to wake her up so she can play.   By 4pm it’s time to start dinner, and by 5 the girls are starting to get tired, hungry, and cranky.  I’ll feed them dinner and try to wait for Dave so we can eat together, though it doesn’t always work out that way.  Some nights he doesn’t get home until 7.

 

By that time, I’m needing a break from the kids, so I’ll go grocery shopping or work on one of my eHow articles.  My goal is to write one article per day, and so far it’s going pretty well.  Right now I’m up to $1 a day.  I confess, the computer is my escape quite often, and writing is my outlet.  If I’m not writing articles, I’m blogging, reading the news, checking our balances, uploading and organizing photos, or chatting on a couple of mommy message boards.  Dave jokes that if he unplugged the computer it would be pulling my “umbilical cord”. 

9/12/08 - Don't Mess With PMS!

I’ve been a crabby, bitchy mess this week, and I HATE it!  I’m taking B-Complex vitamins by the truckload, trying to get enough sleep (Amanda’s been waking every hour), and have a steady supply of Advil and chocolate at my disposal.  Still, little things get under my skin too easily and I find myself snapping at Dave and the kids far more often than necessary. They say a person’s character is revealed by the person you are when under pressure. If that’s true, then I’m one sorry mother right now. 

 

What set me off this morning was a simple call to the homeowner’s association for our condo in San Diego.  We gave them our new address, but they’ve still been sending everything to our old apartment.  I called them this morning to correct the error, but they won’t talk to me because I’m not Dave.  “We’re sorry, our records show that your name isn’t on the title”.   Apparently when we refinanced a couple years ago, they took my name off “temporarily” because it was easier to do the paperwork, and then forgot to put it back.  (Maybe Dave’s trying to edge me out? LOL!)  Dave has been working crazy hours for months and hasn’t had time to fix it.  So I told this lady, “I’m the one who pays the bills in this house, and if you want your money, you’ll talk to the woman who writes the checks!”  Of course she refused, so I told her she’ll just have to wait then, because my husband works 70 hours a week and has more important things to do than track her down for an address change, and hung up!  Grrrr!   Maybe it’s time for another thyroid check. 

Home Improvement

We got a letter from the gas company, saying that our rates were going to go up about 30% this winter.  Letters from the electric company and trash collection weren’t far behind.   We decided to take advantage of a free Energy Efficiency Home Assessment from the Energy Trust of Oregon.  Their inspector went all over our house, from the attic to the crawlspace, replaced any remaining incandescent bulbs with free energy efficient ones, and then gave us a list of recommended improvements, including extra insulation in the attic and floor.  They’ll reimburse us for a good portion of it, and the gas company is giving cash incentives, too.  Looks like we’ve got a lot of work to do before cold weather sets in, but it will definitely be worth it!

Arachnophobia

We’ve had a mini invasion of creepy crawlers recently, but mostly a crazy looking spider that nobody seems to know how to identify.  It crawled right next to our friend’s foot when we were eating dinner on the patio a couple nights ago, and then I saw another one on our screen door, and then another crawling along the wall in the living room.  It’s about the size of a quarter, light tan all over with an almost translucent look, and a bug bubble butt.  Most of you know that spiders totally creep me out (my worst stress dreams always involve them).  But I spent an hour on the internet, shuddering while looking at photo after photo of spiders, trying to find this particular species. 

From what I could tell, it looked like a cross between a Brown Recluse and a Hobo Spider, but I still don’t know what it is or if it’s dangerous, and that freaks me out!   If it’s a recluse, I know that spraying poison around the house won’t help because they’re attracted to the dead insects, and can apparently live long periods of time without food, water, or even air.  So all I could think to do was get out the power hose and spray every spider web and dead insect away from our windows, doors and foundation.  Hopefully that will keep whatever it is from coming in to the house.  Scary! 

9/7/08 - Grandma Geri

Dave’s Mom isn’t doing very well right now.  She’s been in and out of the hospital for weeks, and doesn’t seem to be able to bounce back.  It’s now becoming apparent that she’s at a level of care that assisted living can’t provide.  We’re looking at all our options, and skilled nursing seems the best choice right now.  It will be a difficult transition for her, being more like a hospital, with no private rooms.  But since she seems uneasy about being left alone right now, that might actually work for her.  It’s difficult to be so far away and unable to help, watching a lot of the burden fall on Aunt Nanci, who is the only one who lives close enough to do most of the footwork.  Dave is considering flying down for a few days to help, so we’ll have to see how feasible that is. 

Bountiful Harvest

Considering the fact that we didn’t have a clue what we were doing this year, our garden has given us a pretty good crop.  It’s a great feeling to just walk out in to your backyard and grab whatever fresh produce you need for dinner, knowing that it’s not only organic, but a lot more flavorful.  It’s a very new luxury for me, but I already know I’m going to miss it come winter.  The lettuce plants gave us fresh greens for weeks, but they flowered the week we were on vacation, so now the leaves are bitter and no longer edible.   The broccoli never flowered, and the spinach died due to their sunshine being blocked by taller plants.   

 

We planted the carrots too close together, but still managed to get a pretty decent crop.  The zucchini exploded in size and nearly took over, and has produced a constant flow of fresh zucchini despite the fact that we mistakenly planted them only 4 inches apart.  The green beans gave us a good crop, and are now dying off.  We haven’t seen anything from our pumpkin or watermelon vines, and I assume now that it’s too late in the year, so we’ll have to wait until next season.  The tomato plants are finally giving us a bountiful harvest, and I may even try canning some, if we get enough.  We’ve learned our lesson about trying to cram too much into too small a space, so next year we plan to triple the size of the garden and space everything out more properly.

 

WAAAM 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the Annual Fly-In at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River this weekend.  Small plane enthusiasts from all over flew in for the event, pitching their tents under the wings of some of them to camp overnight for the weekend festival.  I’ve never seen so many antique aircraft in my life, and most of them were still flying!  The museum has a good collection of antique cars and World War II memorabilia, too, which was fun to see.  Eva was so excited and couldn’t stop talking about “hairplanes” for the rest of the day. 

 

9/3/08 - Little Toddler

Amanda is a toddler now, in every sense of the word.  At home she pretty much walks all the time now, though she still crawls when we go out or the surface is uneven.  When Daddy comes home, she breaks into a huge smile and lifts her arms up to greet him, calling “Da, Da, Da!”  When she wants me, she says, “Ma, Ma, Ma”, and she recently learned to wave and say “bye-bye!”  

 

Eva notices when we gush over something cute that Amanda does, and will occasionally start imitating her baby antics when she wants attention.   Whenever I get out the video camera, Eva wants me to turn the little screen around so she can see herself.  In most of our recent home videos, you can hear Eva calling “I want to see Eva!  I want to see Eva!” in the background.   She recently outgrew her car seat, so we had to upgrade her to a booster seat with a 5-point harness.  What a big girl!