For the past week, my dear girl, Heather, has been away at church camp………….in another state……….in another time zone.  This was the first time for her to travel out of state without her parents and, needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway), she was a bit anxious and also excited.    While she’s been gone, we’ve been able to text each other so I was still able to tell her that I loved her before she went to bed.   So, she still seemed close………sort of.

It was also the first time that we’ve been apart on her birthday.  She turned 15 this week, while at camp.  I sent one gift (a “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” t-shirt) with her so that she would have something to open on her birthday, as well as some Oreos to share with her cabin mates (because this mama wasn’t able to travel to another state to bring cupcakes).  So here at home, on her birthday, her dad, brother and I had a cupcake in her honor.   Before she left for camp, she told me that she wanted to open her gifts as soon as she gets home.  That remains to be seen.  In the past, when I’ve picked her up after camp, she looks worn out, sunburned and just about ready to fall over.  I’m picking her up this evening, so we’ll see if, after a 10 hour trip, she has any energy to open gifts.   She might, and then she’ll sleep for most of tomorrow.

As tradition goes around here (sort of because not everyone participates), when someone goes out of town on a trip, be it business or summer camp, I write a short note for each day for the traveler.  One year, my husband went away on a business trip and left notes for the kids with clues as to where a gift or treat might be.  So my daughter took that idea and has been doing that with her brother.  My son, Kylin, never likes it when his sister goes to any kind of overnighter or camp (protesting starts two weeks ahead of time).  For the past two camps, at least, she has written a letter to him for every day that she’s gone and has left clues for him to find each day’s gift.

This year, she had 7 envelopes taped to her door

So he reads the letter

She drew a picture of his favorite characters (today’s was a ghost from “Pac-Man”)

Today’s clue indicates that the gift is on top of her canopy
And it’s a “CARS” folder (and Kylin is truly happy……….really, he is…….I swear)

Today is the last day for this little scavenger hunt, and the hunter is still sleeping!

Ep

Today’s post is in novel form, meaning, that I don’t have any pictures to go with it.

Yesterday started out as a fairly planned out day.  I had a “to do” list all typed out in my phone.  The plans included wrapping my nephews birthday present, cleaning the counters in the kitchen, show my son how to really clean a mirror (he thinks that he knows how, but the mirror always tells another story).  I was going to cut the kids’ hair, pay a bill or two, and make some meals to freeze.  The only thing that I did get done was to cut the kids’ hair.  So at least their hair is no longer blocking their vision.  I wound up needing to run a couple of errands.  So that changed my plans as well.

Then, in mid-afternoon, I received a text from Kevin, suggesting that we attend a city council meeting in a small town about 45 minutes away.  We, along with some of our friends, started a political watchdog group about a year ago, with the goal of keeping the public aware of discrepancies and such in our local government.  Kevin and the other guys have written articles for their blog about them as well (I wrote one about homeschooling).  Mostly, I contribute with ideas, and for when meetings were at our house, I made a lot of muffins.  So, part of what was going on at this small town was that a significant amount of money was missing and there were some in the town who were petitioning to have the mayor, and the city council recalled.  So, we went out to this small town, listened to what the people had to say, and at the same time, it provided another Civics lesson for my kids (who were bored, but they’ll remember it when they’re adults).

So for this impromptu trip, it meant dinner-on-the-go, meaning burgers.  To keep the ketchup and mustard on those burgers from dripping into the laps of those of us who want to be taken seriously at a meeting, I put those burgers in coffee filters.  They’re handy for now and make nice “catch-alls” until I can go to a Cash & Carry and get the wax paper burger wraps for future last minute, meals to go.

EP

My morning usually starts this way

I hear a cat meowing at the door at around 6:15.  So I get up and get ready to make coffee.  However, at least one of these is waiting to greet me.

Paws & Aslan
So we head downstairs and this is what comes next in our routine.

I hear a cranky meowing at the front door.  So I let Fonzie in and she promptly runs to the door leading to the garage (and the food).  So I let her go out there, and just as I think I have a moment to start grinding coffee beans, I hear Oscar meowing, betting to be let out of the front door.

So, out he goes, to wonder off to our porch furniture and snooze on it, leaving hair on the cushions.

So now we’re back to Aslan.  By the time this picture was taken, he had been out in the garage for food, then back into the house, then outside through the back door, then back into the house and now he wants to go back to the garage, as if something about it may have changed since he was there last.

I kept track as to how often I was opening and closing doors in the morning.  The number on this day was 11 times within a one hour period (before I saw any of my human family members).  There was a short time frame in which I did get coffee made.

No one can tell me that I do not exercise! 🙂

EP

I’ll give an update about my last post.  My son seems to be handling the passing of of his favorite children’s pastor well.  We weren’t able to go to the celebration of life service because we had been sick, and were still recovering.

So, on to new business.

My youngest is now a teenager.  However, he is still young at heart.

He started the day with presents (even before breakfast).

The theme of his party was “Spongebob Squarepants” and this pillow/throw came from his sister (that third eye on Spongebob is actually the tag……..so it’s not a mutant version).

The day was off to a sugary start: Donuts for breakfast!

Later in the day, the birthday boy wanted to play at the nearby park.  His sister, also young at heart sometimes, joined him on the swings (everyone else who were there age and height, were playing basketball nearby and swearing loudly).

From the park, we took the kids to our local mall, where the birthday boy wanted to buy a case for his new iPhone with the money he had received that morning.  We also stopped at the bookstore, which was selling everything for half off and my daughter found a “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” hat for a great deal!  Then my husband treated everyone to an Orange Julius (I had forgotten how tasty those were!).  Another full dose of sugar………..

Then we went home and had these after dinner……..

Then, the sugary weekend continued, two days later, when we had his birthday party and this treat……..

And then this happened…………

Ouch!  I gave Spongebob a splitting headache!
He was a good sport!

Ec

Well……………

I was planning to write about my son’s birthday.  He turned 13 last week.  However, I’m in more of a sober frame of mind today.  One of my kids’ favorite children’s pastors, “Pastor Ron” passed away yesterday, and it just either doesn’t seem appropriate to post about a birthday party just yet.

My daughter, has been grieving as any normal person would, there have been several tearful bouts around here.  For my son, this is probably the first time someone that he’s felt close to has passed and the idea of what that means, is going to be a slow realization for him (Autism serves as a bubble that keeps him from really understanding these things right away, at least in his case).  Right now, he isn’t feeling like he needs to cry, but as he puts it, “I’m just sad in general”.

So, probably in a few days, I’ll get back to how we ushered another child into the teen years.

Ec

Last Saturday evening, while the kids and I were at church, my husband stayed home and spent the quiet time, hanging up mirrors, pictures and any other wall-hanging that needed a place.  Amongst the things needing hanging was my whiteboard/corkboard.   I thought that the whiteboard would be handy for writing down things to add to my grocery list or menu or schedule.  However, once it was hung, the kids wasted no time in finding the dry-erase markers and filling in the space.

My son has been pretending that our new kitchen is a department store restaurant and that our pantry (which is around the corner from this board) is an elevator.  So like any department store, there is the sign giving directions (just in case anyone who is also living in the house, might lose their way.  The picture on the bottom half is my daughter’s drawing of the main character from the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books.

I may need to get a new white board for myself……….and hide it, LOL!  Just kidding………….sort of.

Elizabeth

I’m sorry that it’s taken so long to get back to my moving story.  I’ve been busy trying to unpack, keep our lives going, and get back into our school routine (which could be a different blog post because I’ve noticed some things have changed in the routine since moving).

So moving day arrives………….We have friends lined up to help us move, and a box of VooDoo Doughnuts and a fresh pot of coffee ready (to keep them happy as our friends).

The boy spent a lot of time in and around the U-Haul, not wanting to miss out riding in one.  I think that to him, this was the equivalent of meeting a celebrity!

I had a few bags of things that I had bought to decorate the new kitchen with, and I really felt the need to get those new coffee themed place-mats out.  A friend has referred to this as “nesting” and they were right.  I was anxious to nest before the boxes were unpacked!

This was my husband’s version of “nesting”.  The tv needed to be set up and running.  I would agree on this one.  A tv sometimes is nice background noise when working.  We don’t have cable, so we also had to have some favorite DVD’s on hand.  The original plan was to have some movies to watch that dealt with the moving process.   However by time time of the move, we weren’t too choosy (and yes, we chose to watch some “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.  Always good!).

Valentine’s Day also fell at the tail end of the moving weekend.  Knowing that this was going to happen, I shopped a few weeks earlier and had everything prepared so this “holiday” would still be celebrated.   It’s also rather nice after a big move, to get some new things for new rooms.  The kids received lot’s of chocolates, and new books (which was nice for them since their books were still packed and in storage) and trinkets.

French toast for breakfast!  I didn’t have anything to cut them into the shape of hearts, but I don’t think that my family cared.  French toast is always tasty, especially when covered in sugar!

My husband didn’t forget Valentine’s Day either.  The card was appropriate since he’s very much into karaoke these days……..

For an afternoon snack, I bought a couple of red velvet cupcakes for the kids.  I would have made them, however, my baking pans were still packed and I didn’t know where they were.  It’s a good thing too, because I really didn’t need extra cupcakes tempting me along with all of the chocolate candy that was still available in the house 🙂

So since Valentine’s Day, this has been the reality that I’ve been faced with.  We’ve been figuring out where to put things and what stays and what goes.   Fortunately, this time, we have in house, able-bodied helpers to help move some of this stuff around (they aren’t as excited as their dad and I are about that fact though, lol).

Ec

Well, in reality, it came and went…………nearly a week ago.

But I thought I’d recap the events, just not all in one post.

Last Friday

We signed the papers, got the keys to the house, and rented a U-Haul.  I would never, ever want to work at a U-Haul center.  Those trucks were parked sooooo close together, and I was amazed that the employees could drive them out onto the lot without scratching the trucks on either side.
They follow the “6-inch rule” very well!

We took the U-Haul home, much to our son’s delight (he had been talking about U-Haul’s and drawing pictures of them for at least a week, so he was thrilled to see a “real life” one in our driveway.  We loaded up the couches and dining room furniture and as many boxes and containers as the truck would hold, and took them to the new house.  As you can see, the boy is resting in the new living room, tired from all of the excitement (and possibly because it was after 10PM).

Our new dining area, which we fully intend to eat all of our meals in (the rest of the house has carpet, and I’d like to avoid as much food spillage as possible. There is definitely more room to get around.   Breathing a sigh of relief!

Take a look at those shelves!  I’ve never had a cupboard with shelves that swung out.  How convenient!

So that was Friday………..

I’m still unpacking and we still have a storage unit to empty out, but I will try to post more later.

Elizabeth

We aren’t really tried and true sports fans.  We don’t follow really any sporting events on tv or on the radio.  However, when the Ducks are playing, we do pay a bit more attention to how their teams are doing.  We had the opportunity to buy tickets for the first Lady Ducks basketball game (vs. the OSU Beavers) at the new Matthew Knight Arena.  The tickets were only $2 each, so for a family of 4, that was a pretty good deal for entertainment.

Because it was a sold out game, we decided that we’d avoid the trouble of trying to find parking near the arena, and take our town’s rapid transit system.

What we didn’t know was that our RTS, which runs every ten minutes during the week, only runs every 30 minutes on the weekends.  So when the bus came, a crowd of people crammed onto the bus and it sped off, and we thought “Oh, it’ll be here in a few minutes.    The picture above is of my son, waiting too long for the bus.

This is just my attempt at an “artsy” pic while we were waiting for the bus.  My son also informed me that he was “done having pictures taken”.  Well it’s not of his face, and he didn’t have to pose, so he has nothing to worry about.

My daughter would have been so bored without her phone and Facebook!  (My husband and I were on our phones with Facebook too!)

The cool new score board in the middle of the arena!

Dear Daughter sitting next to her friend and having a fun conversation!  I love her smile!

Occasionally, there would be a sign on the scoreboard that read “MAKE NOISE”, which my son loved!  Permission to make noise is a great thing for him.   So this is the “Noise Meter” to let us know how loud we were.  Dear son, enjoyed making noise for a short time and then he was done, and he was ready for everyone else to be done as well.

We had some popcorn of course.  Once it was all consumed, my husband put the bucket on our son’s head, hoping that it would attract the attention of the camera guys go get him on the scoreboard screen.  It didn’t, but hey, we tried!

I hope that everyone had a safe & happy new year’s celebration!

I asked what everyone wanted for NYE snacks and Heather asked for Oreos and Nutter Butters.  To her, that would be adequate.  We also bought a tray of cut veggies, which we wound up not eating.   In the past, we’ve had things for dipping into a fondue, however, since Kevin has switched to a vegan diet, we didn’t do that.  On top of that, I wound up coming down with a fever and napping for 3 hours in the late afternoon, and that necessitated just getting a pizza.

Just a little humor from our New Year’s Eve.  We had some Martinelli’s sparkling apple-grape juice to ring in the new year with.  However, my son refused to have any, because it’s an “alcohol wanna-be” and he’s planning to never drink alcohol (Momma has such a good boy!).

Here’s to a happy & healthy new year, and praying for good things!

Lp