Oregon in the Spring!!!

Our 10 year old son, Kylin, doesn’t always hear things in the way or manner that they were spoken. He also tends to use words or phrases that don’t always mean what he thinks they do.

A couple of examples:
A few months ago, something came on the TV that the kids didn’t need to see, so I told them to “avert your eyes”. Kylin repeated it as “INVERT” your eyes. Kind of hard to do! He has it straight now though. Several times if there is something that he shouldn’t see or doesn’t want to see, he’ll say “avert your eyes!”.

Another example happened yesterday. I gave him the job of cleaning the toilet and it quickly became apparent that he needed some more guidance in that job. So my husband was showing him how to clean it and when I walked by the bathroom, Kylin said, “We’re organizing the toilet!”. Lately, we’ve been doing some decluttering and reorganizing and cleaning, so he assumed that “organizing” was synonymous with “cleaning”. I guess he’s partially right. But the joke for the rest of the day was “how do you organize a toilet?”

Since this weekend was the time to change the clocks ahead, Kylin also reminded us that it was time to check the smoke alarms. The boy thrives on a schedule and remembers when things are supposed to happen, like checking the alarms. So Kevin checked them and the boy is happy and won’t remind us again until November. I wish that he was as much of a stickler about the need to do his schoolwork.

Heather has been known to say and do some funny things, but she’s at the age where she’d be mortified if I blogged about them. I’m sure that I’ve done things unintentionally to embarrass her, so I really try not to do it on purpose!

However, the most recent thing that I did with Heather was to take her to see Kutless in concert. Concerts I had been to in the past were for Don Francisco, B.J. Thomas, Charley Pride (I was really little then), and Weird Al Yankovic. Fairly mellow, great acoustics, not too loud. The Kutless concert was held in a church that was built with the intention of having concerts, but this group and the opening acts were rather loud (and there was a lot of screaming…something else I wasn’t used to). It was so loud that I felt the audience was absorbing the volume. I had to laugh at one of the groups though. Long hair shaking all over the place and screaming rap (I wasn’t expecting that and neither was Heather). I was sitting in the back, where parents sit. My first concert as a parent. I felt a little old (but I’m not old, I’m only 40, and that isn’t old!). We’re going to see the Newsboys in a couple of weeks. I like them, and I’m hoping for better acoustics and hoping that the opening acts won’t scream at me….too much.

Lp

So January is coming to a close and I’m already feeling that time is moving too fast……..because it is.

We’re enjoying the dining room set immensely! About a week after the dining room set arrived, my father-in-law brought over my mother-in-law’s curio cabinet and it’s sitting in the dining room now (as shown in the above pictures). Already the way the house looks is improving!

The next few pieces of furniture that are due to come soon are “new” dressers for Kevin and I. So I’ve moved my dresser into my son’s room (because he’s been lacking a real dresser for a few years, because he was too rough on the last one he had, I think he’s ready for a real one again….I hope). So I’m currently living out of a couple of suitcases that are sitting in our closet (which one of our cats seems to want to use as his bed). We’re also getting night tables. So mine is emptied out and moved into my son’s room. My intention is to paint before any new furniture moves in, because right now, we actually have space to walk around and move the bed in order to paint walls.

The fast that I mentioned in my last post is nearly over (just in time for SuperBowl and all of the treats that go with that……my daughter has requested Oreos……..I will try to resist those…….or most of them!). It’s time to shop for some sugar (not much though)!

Lp

(I would normally share when I originally posted this blog, but the title is self explanatory)

It’s nearly 2 1/2 weeks into the new year. We’re back on our “schedule”. School is back in full swing. As I’m typing, my son is giving me the verbal inventory of his CARS collection (it’s not the first time I’ve heard it either). My church is doing a “Daniel Fast” which means that we are fasting caffeine (missing my coffee), meat (not a problem right now as I’m a vegetarian) sugar (really missing this too), cutting back on tv etc. So far, one week into it, we’re doing alright. At the beginning of the fast, my husband (who is not participating) offered to buy me a coffee (and I let him, it was my last one) and then made a joke about being the little devil on my shoulder trying to tempt me into breaking the fast. Before anyone might possibly get offended by his doing that, he was joking. In the past, he’s been rather understanding and has never intentionally tried to get me to break the fast.

The table and chairs that I mentioned in my last post have arrived. They are sooooo nice and they were so well taken care of that they seem practically new.

I discovered that I like Hummus this week. I was at a ladies Bible study and one of the snacks that was brought had it. Very tasty!

On a lighter note, at 9AM today when I announced that it was time for school to start, my son was rather distressed because his clock was about 5 minutes behind so he thought that I should wait for school until his clock read 9:00. He said that the other clocks in the house were experiencing “technical difficulties”.
Suuuuuuuure……..

Lp

So, the first full day of the new year is nearly over. The 3 packages of cookies (chocolate stuffed Oreos, Nutter Butters, and Keibler Grasshopper cookies) are now gone (hallelujah! no longer a temptation to snack on!), the Christmas decorations are packed away and the tree is out. Our dining area (where the tree was) looks rather empty……for now (my father-in-law is giving us his dining room table as he’s getting a new one, and as soon as he finds out that our tree is down, he’ll bring it over).

New Years Eve seemed to be rather long. Maybe it was because this year, we told the kids that they could stay up until midnight. They were very excited and had certain foods that they wanted to snack on (hence the cookies!). We thought we’d try a cheese fondue this year as well (Kylin reminded me that he didn’t want to dip anything in cheese sauce……he has issues with sauces on his food……except for macaroni & cheese). I also made some artichoke dip (very close to what serve at the Olive Garden). Kevin declared it very tasty. The kids chose the movies to watch. By 9PM I was beginning to wonder how wise it was to let my son stay up so late. Kevin and I were already tired and Kylin was pretty sugared up and busy. Kevin took a nap at some point and I read a book until about 11. From then on, we watched Dick Clark’s New Year’s eve special and the kids watched the ball drop in Times Square.

We had hoped that the kids would sleep in this morning. I think they managed to sleep until 8. We would have liked for them to sleep in longer, so we could sleep in longer. We have 2 more days to sleep in (I can’t on Sunday), and then Kevin’s vacation is over, he goes back to work and the kids start school back up again. This “vacation” of Kevin’s was so busy that it really doesn’t feel like we had one. Maybe the next time he has vacation time, we can relax a bit more.

On another note, my desk seems to be the place for the cats to take naps. As I’m typing, I have one cat snoozing on my monitor, with her tail swishing across the screen, and another cat who is snoozing so close to my mouse, that when I’m using the mouse, the cat decides to rest his head on my hand like it’s a pillow. I’m not a huge cat fan, but I tolerate these “rugs”. They are a bit entertaining at times.

Lp

Another year is coming to a close and it’s about this time every year that has me wondering what the new year will bring. And as I get older, each year progresses faster than the year before (something my dad told me would happen back when I was in Jr. High).

This past year has been an interesting one. It started off well and then life threw a bomb at me that I wasn’t expecting, and it’s taken the rest of the year to recover from that. LIfe happens when you’re making plans or think that you have things all figured out. So for this year, and the years after that, I have no intention of making resolutions that will frustrate me if I don’t keep them in the time span of a year. I’ll make goals and give my self a bit more time to accomplish them. I won’t say what those goals are because I’ve discovered that if you tell people what you’re trying to accomplish (such as losing weight), then they constantly ask you about it (“How’s that diet coming?”) or try to “help” you (“Is that slice of bread on your diet?”). So, I guess, as I reach each of my goals, I’ll write about them then.

2008 started off alright, and then at the very end of January we lost my Granddad Lloyd. He was one half of my favorite set of grandparents. He’d had dementia for quite awhile and finally had to move to a facility. I did visit him two weeks before he passed and he knew who I was (he didn’t know my name but he knew that I was his granddaughter) . So February started with a funeral for us. My granddad was flight instructor in the Air Force during WW2 (he didn’t want to crawl on the ground like the Army so he joined the AF and graduated at the top of his class). He was a dairy farmer and was very successful at it (Last month I met a guy who grew up drinking milk from Lloyd’s Dairy). He liked to build things (bunkbed for my dolls, a playhouse for my sister, rigging a swing off of the back patio with some rope and a flat piece of wood). Granddad Lloyd loved my grandma very much (he once told me that he would look my grandma and just think about how lucky he was that she chose him), and he loved his family, and we all miss him very much.

On a lighter note, we also saw Bill Cosby perform a show at the Hult Center. He was really entertaining and definitely worth the money we spent on the tickets.

In the Spring, my “baby” turned 10 and we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary by going to see the new Indiana Jones movie. Such a disappointment (the movie, not the anniversary).

In the summer, my grandma turned 90, my nephew turned 1, my daughter turned 12 and my dad turned 66. That’s about the extent of our excitement. Oh, yeah, Kevin went to a concert up in Portland as well. So he had a little more excitement. We had many hot days, and always thankful for our air conditioner! It would have been really nice if we could have traveled somewhere, however the price of gas was a bit much for us.

My sister-in-law, Lorrie, came to visit in the Fall to spend time with my mother-in-law who has Alzheimer’s. Just before Thanksgiving, my MIL moved to a care facility for Alzheimer’s patients. It’s quite an adjustment for everyone, but mostly on her.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I turned 40. During the two weeks before my birthday, I really wasn’t happy about the new number, but now I’m ok, and life is moving along. My husband tried to have a surprise birthday party for me, however I found out about it one week before it was scheduled. Then it was postponed due to snow that was supposed to come on that day (and didn’t until the next day), and then it was cancelled due to weather again. He felt rather bad that the birthday party didn’t happen, and I appreciate him for trying. I suggested that he wait until my 50th.

Christmas has come and gone, and now I’m feeling a great need to put the decorations away and clean and organize around the house.

If we do anything for the new year, I really hope that we’re able to travel somewhere. We’ve talked about possibly going to Crater Lake. That would be fun. I haven’t been there since Heather was 10 months old. She has no memory of the trip and Kylin hasn’t even been there. There has also been talk about going to see some waterfalls as well. Both destinations would give me a chance to practice taking some awesome pictures with my camera!

So hopefully, in the new year, I’ll have some interesting things to blog about as I try to meet some goals, major and minor.

Lp

We’re sort of in a lull between snowfall sessions. It’s still very cold outside. More snow is supposed to arrive in a couple of hours with freezing rain this afternoon and then more snow this evening. The weather guy also commented that we could have a white Christmas after all. I just hope that the roads are safe to drive on by then.

Another concern that we have about this weather is that one of our cats never came in last night. Kevin went out to look for him and he never turned up. So hopefully little Emmett found a warm place to spend the night. He loves the outdoors but he usually comes in at night. Hopefully he’ll turn up today.

Since we knew this freezing rain was coming, Kevin braved the roads and made a store run for things to get us by in case we were housebound for more than a couple of days.

Even though other kids are having no school or delayed school, my kids are still having school today. One of the perks of homeschooling. Unless they’re sick, they shouldn’t have a problem getting to school (the kitchen table or tv trays in the living room).

On another note, I cut and paste my blog on 3 other sites. Someone had commented about yesterday’s blog and had asked me if as I had gotten older, did I wish that I had had more children, as that’s how she was feeling at having just turned 39 and had two older kids. Since she posted anonymously and I couldn’t find her blog page to answer her, I’ll answer in this general blog here, and hope that she sees it. So, yes, I do wish that I had more children. I’m very thankful for the two that I have, but one of those dreams that had died for me was to have a larger family. I was an only child for most of my childhood (my sister came along when I was nearly 15, quite a large age difference there) and I didn’t care for not having siblings. After my second child, we had two more opportunities to have another child (but they didn’t make it) and we even tried to adopt and that didn’t happen either. So, yes, I do wish that I had had more children.

So, there’s the latest…………….. so far. The snow saga continues.
Lp

Well, this is my first post as a 40 year old, and I don’t feel any different! For the past two days that I’ve been 40, I’ve been ok with the new number. When September first arrived, I knew that this day was coming, but it didn’t bother me that much. I was busy enjoying Fall, teaching my kids, running my errands etc. Then about two weeks ago, it hit me that I was almost to the middle of my life (I plan to live to be 100 ) and I wasn’t at the place in my life where I had hoped to be at this age. When I turned 30, I was just fine with it because I was where I had hoped to be at that age. However the past 10 years brought with it unexpected things that weren’t pleasant at all, and pretty much changed the course of how life went and the dreams that I had had, slowly died, and at times I have felt like I was dying inside as well. If I didn’t have Christ in my life to depend on, I don’t know what kind of choices I could have made. God hasn’t “rescued” me from the hard times and the difficult issues, but He’s certainly helped me through them and is still helping me. (ok, this is probably the end of the not-so-perky-depressing part of this post).

So 40 was coming whether I liked it or not. My sister-in-law and another friend have told me that the 40’s are much better than the 30’s. I hope so, or it’ll be a dull ride. I’ve also heard that the 40’s go by fast. They did for my dad, but I think that had a lot to do with the fact that he was busy raising my sister and watching her get older and not necessarily realizing that he was also getting older. I really hope that the 40’s don’t fly by so fast that I reach 50 and wonder “where did that time go?”

So, anyway, my birthday started kind of early. We were supposed to have some snow, and I woke up early (on my own, because I just don’t have the ability anymore to sleep in), peeked out of the window into the semi-dark early morning and I could tell that the back yard was still green and not white. My husband sleepily asked if I saw any snow and was disappointed when I said “no”. He was able to sleep in a bit longer, I couldn’t. I did finally doze off after Kevin left to make breakfast for me (as the routine goes, Kevin cooks and serves breakfast in bed on my birthday and Mother’s day). I didn’t doze for long because I could hear the kids talking to Kevin as he was cooking. While I waited, my dad called and I visited with him. I think that he’s had a harder time with me being 40 than I was. He just can’t believe that he has a kid who’s 40. He still feels like he’s the one who should be 40 still. Our chat ended just before breakfast arrived. Breakfast consisted of biscuits & gravy, vegetarian sausage, fried eggs and O’Bryan potatoes (I love potatoes for breakfast!) and a vanilla latte, and several presents. My husband gave me a card that reads “More and More over the years, you and I see things the same way. We hold them up close and squint”.

The snow that was forecasted for my birthday, didn’t come. It was pretty cold, and I stayed home because I didn’t want to go somewhere and then have it snow while I was out and then have to drive home in it (for anyone who might be reading this, we only get snow about once per year and it never lasts long so we’re not well practiced in the art of driving in the snow and we all tend to stay home and close schools). I just kind of relaxed a bit during the day, sitting on the couch watching “Gilmore Girls”. While I was watching that, Kevin made a birthday cake (from “scratches” he said as he scratched the box of cake mix–funny guy!) So I had a very good birthday and 40 doesn’t look so dreadful after all.

The snow finally came yesterday. I realized just how ill prepared we were for it. Last year for Christmas, we bought the kids snow gloves (after so many years of knitted gloves, we thought that they might like being in the snow longer if their hands weren’t cold and wet) and we kept them in the kids dressers. So yesterday, the snow is here, and the gloves aren’t in the drawers and we can only find one. So, the kids went out in knitted gloves and they were cold and wet, and the snow wasn’t rolling right for a snowman (according to my daughter) and they were back in the house within 15 minutes. My son decided that he will stay in the house for the duration of the snow. So, I’m on the alert and looking out for the missing gloves (and other gear) so snow will hopefully be more enjoyable to them.

While the kids were outside, I came out with my camera and took pictures of the white neighborhood. The kids noticed that a hummingbird was at the feeder and were calling for me to take a picture. I’ve only seen a hummingbird at the house 3 times in the 11 years we’ve lived here and this one hung around to have his picture taken which was cool. I was able to take about 5 pictures of him while he was in our maple tree. I hope that the little guy stayed in the tree because there were 5 cats roaming around on the ground below who would have loved to have him for a snack!

So today is day two of the snow. Yesterday, the roads were more icy and the bus that Kevin was riding to work bumped into the curb a few times. After work, Kevin had to wait in the freezing cold nearly an hour for his bus to arrive to take him home. He was pretty cold when he finally arrived home. This morning, it was 11 degrees outside. Kevin told me later that the roads were better and he made it to work on time.

So, that’s the latest update here.

Lp

Thanksgiving has come and gone rather quickly. Christmas is just around the corner. The kids keep lamenting how slow it is in coming, but I’m lamenting on how fast the time is flying and hoping that I’ll be ready in time.

Our week was off to a rather sad start. My mother-in-law, who has Alzheimer’s, was moved to a care facility on Monday. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about 2 years ago (as I was writing this, I asked my husband how long ago it was that she had been diagnosed, and his reply was “I forgot”. Yes, we did have a brief chuckle about that). We’ve tried to help my father-in-law out by staying with her on Fridays. My husband and I took turns, so every other Friday, she was with one of us. Now it looks like we’ll be visiting her on Fridays, and another other day that we can.

For Thanksgiving, we went to my dad’s, as we have for at least 11 or 12 years. My little nephew was there too. He’s walking now, which means that he’s more interested in everything that my dad has around the house and wants to touch it. His parents were saying “No” alot because my dad’s house isn’t baby/toddler proofed. Eventually, my nephew was frustrated with the limitations, not having anything to play with really and he was due for a nap. So my sister and brother-in-law rushed through their dessert and left. They were going to the other grandparents’ house and fortunately for them, my nephew had mellowed out by the time they got there. Plus there were little cousins for him to play with there. Hearing all of his fussing at my dad’s house though, made my husband very glad that our kids were not that age and no longer in that stage of life.

After leaving my dad’s, we came back into town and visited my mother-in-law at her new home. She was really happy to see us (especially my husband). We visited for about an hour. We were able to check out the facility and see her room and the courtyard. It’s a really nice place. The kids drew some pictures for their grandma so she could hang them in her room. The ladies that worked there brought out a game for the kids to play with so they wouldn’t be bored. So it was a good visit, yet a difficult one. No one wants to see this happen to their parents and it’s hard when it does happen, and in this way. I can’t really understand what my husband is dealing with, really. When my own mother died (from cancer), I had less two weeks notice really that it was going to happen, and when it did, it was sudden. Alzheimer’s is just cruel and slow. For now, we’re grateful that my mother-in-law remembers us (not our names, but she knows who we are), and we plan to visit as often as we can with the kids (though I think that my husband plans to visit daily).

Anyway, on Friday, I did not get up before the sun to catch the sales. The tradition we have is to put away the fall decorations and get out the Christmas ones (I think that I have about 9 Rubbermaid containters of them now…..time to purge them maybe?). My husband cleans up the front yard, and gets all of the lights (I think we counted about 8 containers of them) and starts planning the “outdoor illumination”. Today, he spent most of the day outside and was even up on the roof. He’ll probably be out putting up lights tomorrow too. Yes, it’s that time of year, where the lights will come on at dusk, and during that time, we won’t be able to use any hairdryers or vacuum cleaners (we know our limitations during the Christmas season, from experience).

So that is all for now,
Lp

(Originally posted in my old blog on November 19, 2008)

Well I thought that I’d take advantage of the time that the house is quiet to blog again. Kevin and the kids are out in the garage at the moment. Kevin is practicing his drums, Kylin is playing with the model train set, and Heather is videotaping everything that is going on out there. There is also the possibility that a cat or two has joined them and will be in Heather’s “movie”

My daughter has a job for next week cat “sitting”. The cat will stay in her own house and I’ll drive Heather over every day to make sure that she has food and water and that anything needing cleaning up will be taken care of. This is one of those perfect jobs for her as she loves cats!

Yesterday, the kids and I went with my grandma to Shari’s restaurant for lunch. I was in the mood for soup and their menu showed this very delicious looking baked potato soup. So I ordered that, without the bacon bits on top (we don’t eat meat). The waitress said that there were bacon bits in the soup too. So I switched to the soup of the day which was Wisconsin Cheddar. Well they didn’t have that either because they had forgotten to order it and were replacing it with a chicken & dumpling soup. Well that just wouldn’t do……so I ordered a veggie omelet with hashbrowns (I still had a potato in some form!). Still having a craving for potato soup, I made a batch when I arrived home. I blended a little sour cream into it too. It was soooooo good! I did eat too much of it, but I got the craving out of my system. I have about a cup of it left, in the freezer.

Tonight, I thought that I’d make chili, which is what Kevin likes. I also chose a cornbread recipe that I hadn’t made for my family before. It was called Cheesy Corn Spoon Bread. It was alright. I guess we’re used to the Marie Callender’s sweet corn bread (really it’s more like cake). The chili was declared delicious, the cornbread will take some getting used to. Kylin declared that he liked Marie Callender’s cornbread best.

The kids are getting anxious for Thanksgiving to arrive next week. The Macy’s parade is something the kids will get up early to watch. Then we’ll go to my dad’s for dinner. My sister has been telling me that my nephew walks and has started saying a few words. So Thanksgiving at my dad’s may have some extra entertainment this year! The kids are also excited about the day after Thanksgiving as that is when we put away the Fall decorations and get out all of the Christmas decor. Kylin has a singing snowman that he’s looking forward to seeing again. We usually put fresh batteries in it when we get it out and then let them run out of power. It only takes a few days. While I’m inside with the indoor decorations, Kevin will spend most of the day (and into the evening) putting up the Christmas lights. By Christmas day, aircraft flying overhead will know where we live. 🙂 Maybe next time I blog I can post some pictures of the goings on during “decoration day”.

Lp