Merry Christmas

Twelve

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Abigail

Abigail (Hebrew)- My Father is joy, My Father's joy.

On June 20th, my baby girl turned 9.

I love you, Abby.

Fifth Grade Graduation

We kicked off summer with 5th grade graduation. Times 2.

That's right. Next year I will have a high schooler, two middle schoolers,

and 2 elementary schoolers. Caleb and Libby will be leaving their elementary

school for the middle school down the road.

(Yikes! I may not be ready for this!)

This year it was a bigger deal because the principal who has been here longer than we have is taking a position at another school in our district. It was also a farewell for him.

Libby was one of the students chosen to read a poem for the principal at the ceremony.

We are going to miss our 5th grade teachers.

Luckily we have a few more coming up in the grades!

The Perfect (Birth)day

Yesterday I got to sleep in until 9:30. I woke up with a start because something was missing. I realized that I hadn't gotten the baby his 6:45 bottle. Grandma had to do that. I'm on vacation. I am on my anniversary vacation. The one where we don't go anywhere or do anything. It's a vacation from responsibility if nothing else.

After much laziness yesterday we decided to get up, pack a picnic, and get in our car. We started driving south and ended up in Ballard, a neighborhood of Seattle. There is a very nice park hidden at the end of the road, so we stopped there and had our picnic tucked up in a cove of dune grass, shielded from the wind. And then we laid like worms baking in the rare Seattle sunshine. I got a little pink.

We Strolled around Ballard and Sebastian found a bakery he wanted to try. He had a cinnamon roll and a coffee. I had a bite and a sip. After that we found the new location of my cousin's shoe store. My cousin has some amazing shoes at her store, Market Street Shoes.

We walked all over Ballard, then we stopped by my cousin's house to say "Hi." After we left we went out to Birthday/Anniversary dinner at Olive Garden, and then came home to watch a movie.

It was the perfect do-nothing kind of day.

Happy Birthday, Little Bit

On the 21st of February my Miss Elizabeth turned 10 years old.

She is full of sass and spunk, good will and good humor.

She is eager to please and easy to love.

Happy Birthday, Little Bit.

Love, Mom

___________________________________________

I realize that this post is long overdue.

I have had her picture uploaded for nearly 2 weeks.

I just needed to get past the fact that for the first time in her short life there will not be another birthday picture like the one below. This is the first time since she was born that Elizabeth has not shared her birthday with her great grandma. I'm sure Grandma's party was more spectacular than Libby's, though.

She would have been 90 on the 21st.

We missed her.

Resolutions

I gave up on New Year’s Resolutions a long time ago.
Nothing ever seemed quite right.
Too hard.
Too easy.
Too perfect.
Too ridiculous.
I decided I didn’t want to try to come up with a “perfect” plan just because it was a new day, a new month, a new year– besides, in two weeks I would break my resolution and feel lousy
anyway.
That’s the thing about me. I don’t want to fail, so I don’t want to try. I want to control the
outcome of my life. I want to be master and commander of my universe. It tends to get in the way of a little thing called FAITH.
Looking back on my life so far, the times that have brought me the greatest joy and have been the most fulfilling, though, have been the times that I have listened to God say, “Go.” and I went. Not the times when I asked where– not the times I asked why– not the times I asked for how long.
The times that I have gone simply because the Lord led me have been the most rewarding
because God accomplished great things in me and through me.
It’s a new Year. Listen. Go. Do.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations

1+1=11

Caleb turned 11 today.

I tried, and tried, and tried to get him to engage in planning a party.

He resisted, and resisted, and resisted.

Finally, Caleb asked me, "Mom, couldn't we just have my family over?

You know, Grandma and Papa, and my aunts and uncles?"

Well, duh.

I am all about a high energy party. Caleb is all about low key.

He had a great night.

He chose chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream, pizza, pop, chips,

veggies and ranch dip, and orange slices for his dinner.

Happy Birthday, Man.

You are you, and I love you just like that.

I'm Not That Old!

I am certainly not old enough to be the parent of a teenager.

But apparently, he didn't get that memo and turned 13 in August, anyway.

Which is pretty much impossible since I am only old enough to be his big sister. *ahem*

Happy birthday, Son.
I pray you grow into the man of integrity and compassion, just as God intends for you.

Parade 2010

What? Doesn't every one keep a stack of 5 gallon buckets on their porch?

Well, after the stack sat there for about a week, my husband started getting a little cranky with "the mess in the way," so I knew I had to move forward with my bucket stack.

I added support posts which gave me the right shape and something to staple my chicken wire to. I wrapped the top in some cardboard that a friend had on hand for various projects, and papier mached the bottom portion (Boy, if my husband hadn't liked the mess before, he sure hated it now!) to create...

a giant sized beaker! Actually, it's an Erlenmeyer Flask, but when you say that, people scratch their heads and say, "Huh?" If you say beaker, they know just what you are talking about.

This became the float for the parade in our small town. As the publicity coordinator for our MOPs group, it was my job to see to the parade float. MOPs International has given us the theme "Momology: The Art and Science of Mothering" which, frankly, I don't love, but I wanted to work with the theme.

Here we are all lined up for our parade on a grey and foggy Saturday morning.

We walked as a group with all the other MOPs groups in our area. There are now actually 4 groups in our town and neighboring areas. The newest group is MOMSNext, for moms whose kids have gone into elementary school.

We didn't have quite the turn out I wanted. The parade is always the first weekend in August, but a funny thing happened this year with Sunday being August 1st. I think people assumed the parade was going to be on the 31st of July, but it was actually on the first Saturday of August. Sadly, a lot of people already had other plans by the time they figured that out.

Any way, we got rained on, so I am sure a lot of people were glad to not be there.

And then my camera batteries died....

5X7=Me!

35 things:

1. I got up and exercised for 20 minutes on my free elliptical machine. I've had it for a few weeks, and 20 minutes is still hard. I did challenge myself to 25 minutes one day this week and I did 2 15 minute workouts one day.


2. I weighed myself and liked what I saw.


3. I sent my husband out to get doughnuts before the kids left for school because I just didn't want to get out of bed yet.


4. I just ate one.


5. I took Jonah to his preschool party.


6. I got so bored that I came home and cleaned the kitchen. Bad, huh? I went back to pick him up when I was done with the kitchen.


7. I folded and put away all of my laundry. That includes hanging all my clothes and putting away the baskets.


8. I took Jesse to get a haircut.


9. While I was there I asked to have my eyebrows waxed and a 'do done.


10. I picked up the girls I babysit.


11. The kids and I made home made ice cream and had cake since one of the girls I watch is my birthday twin.


12. I told the kids all I wanted for my birthday was a clean house.


13. I instituted slave labor and had the kids clean the family room, the game closet, and the play room.


14. I should have included the bathrooms in that list!


15. Sebastian brought me a bouquet of red roses and white lilies.


16. They are on the counter next to the anniversary bouquet of pink carnations and yellow lilies that I bought for him on Monday.


17. He also brought me a package of Milano cookies, since they are my favorite.


18. I made the kids mad by not opening the cookies.


19. Before you think my husband is a cheep skate, on Mother's day he brought in a huge box and said. "Happy Mother's day. Happy anniversary. Happy birthday." It was a stand mixer.


20. It was exactly what I wanted.


21. My dad called and asked if I wanted to go out for dinner.


22. We went to Mexican.


23. I had a margarita. I thought it was REALLY strong, since I was still tipsy after my dinner.


24. I made Jesse order off the kids menu.


25. We both ordered enchiladas suisa. I got 2 he got 1.


26. We should have just traded plates since he ate my second enchilada!


27. We came home from dinner, put the kids in bed, and watched Alias on dvd.


28. Correction: Sebastian watched Alias. I watched the inside of my eyelids. But I was already ahead of him since I watch it in the morning when I work out.


29. I guess that makes us officially old.


30. Tomorrow my friend and I are going to go to Canada.


31. If you recall, we usually go out to dinner and a movie.


32. This year I wanted to do something different, so we are going to Victoria, BC. That's different.


33. Only the blond and the brunette are going because the red head can't get away.


34. I'm not bitter... I'm not bitter... I'm n....


35. It kind of messes with the whole joke. "A blond, a brunette, and a read head go to Canada...."

A Red (,White, and Blue) Letter Day

Three letters. actually.

USA

After nearly 13 years, our family has reached a major milestone. And when I say "our family," I really mean the whole family. Almost 13 years ago we sat in the Federal Building with our infant son and interviewed for a green card. About a year later, and pregnant with our second son, I watched the proceedings in INS court. We were blissfully unaware when we started our proceedings that there were open orders for deportation. I sat in that court room, surrounded by family and friends, prepared to say goodbye to every one of them. I didn't have to.

Another year later, the green card finally arrived in the mail.

We rode that peaceful ride for 10 years- until this year when it was time for my husband's green card to expire.

Jesse, the baby we took to the initial interview, is almost 13. He did the initial work of finding the right form, downloading and printing it out.

I filled it out as much as I could, filed paperwork for Sebastian, and made MANY copies.

Sebastian, of course, did all the interviewing.

There are a few small details like a passport and registering to vote that still need taken care of, but we are glad have gotten to this resting point on the journey!

The End Of An Era

Does any one care to guess what this is?

If you said, "Well, duh, it's a gumball machine." you would, technically, be right.

But actually, it is SO much more than that.

It represents the end of an era at our house.

Let me back up and explain this to you...

When I was young, and single, and childless, I had a lot of nieces and nephews- and I took notes.

My oldest sister, Karyn, had a rule at her house. No gum until you are 5 years old.

When I had kids I realised why....

So, I adopted the 5 year old gum rule.

And the milestone has been reached wherein my baby has turned 5 years old. (Truthfully, I wondered at my past rate of conception if I would ever say something like that.)

And for his birthday he received a gumball machine.

He requested a MONSTER birthday this year, so this is the cake idea I stole off the Internet- with the exception that I added coconut "fur".

We sang happy birthday and let him spit all over the cake blow out his candle.

We played with friends- and our favorite baby who DOES NOT live at this house.

Happy Birthday BIG BOY! I love you!

P.S. I really hope you didn't find anything good up there- especially since I am wearing those jeans again today....

I'm Cool Like That

On October 8th, Caleb turned 10.

Unfortunately, on October 8th, his sister brought home the flu. Not the swine flu, thank goodness, and not the puking flu either, but the high-fever-want-to-die flu. And she shared.

Finally, on October 25th we were able to have his party.

Being nearly Halloween, Walmart had these cool black light bulbs for a dollar.

So we decorated the house with white.

And we colored on the table with highlighters- they glow really cool!

This is what my pictures looked like when I used flash.

And this is what it looked like in real life (except the highlighters glowed much better).

We even had glow sticks to brighten up the night.

Every one left a message for the birthday boy on the table- even our baby cousin.

Here's the cake I made in keeping with the black and white theme.

Remember the cake I made last year? This time I made 7 minute frosting. I maybe should have made 5 minute frosting. It was hard. And crunchy- but no one complained.
And a very happy ten year old opened his gifts.

Of course, no party is complete without a few crazy games...

I kept trying to rescue Baby D from the middle of the chaos- but that was where he wanted to be, so I finally had to let him go and let it go.

A parting shot. I hope it isn't a lampshade in a few years!

Happy Birthday Caleb!