Kimberly Dawn

I can really only think of two people that I prayed for before I met them. One of them is my husband. He got years of prayer.
And then there is another. The summer after I graduated from highschool, 1995, I prayed for my new college roommate. I prayed we would get along and become good friends. I prayed that we wouldn't fight and we could make it the whole year. Then the day came where my parents drove me up to school and dropped me and my belongings off. It is so exciting and scary. I met my future roommate and her very friendly parents. they immediatelly invited me to go with them to the State Fair that evening. I declined. Thankfully they still invited me to things through the years to come. Kim and I ended up becoming good friends. Of course we had ups and downs but I truly believe God had His hand on us when admissions grabbed two names and put them together. Kimberly has been a dear friend to me. She has been there when I fell in love for the first time, she was there when it didn't work out. I learned that she loves to stay up late and can party with the best of them. She can't handle her Nyquil and prefers Pepsi over Coke. She may not always have the cleanest car but she will willing drive ANYONE anywhere they need to go. The two of us also tried to have our own Science class in our dorm room, it may have smelled all the way down the hall. I was blessed to be roommates with her my senior year as well. This time she was there at the beginning of my love for my future husband. She has been with me through all of it. I am so blessed. Last night we had her bachlorette party! It is her turn to get married. I too have seen her go through a few relationships and am so pleased that she has found Dylan! He has many qualities others did not have and I know he will make her a good husband! I wish we lived closer so I could spend more time with her. I believe she will always be my close friend but I do envy those who can see her every week. But they too will gain things only being friends with her can bring to their lives.

13 years ago God answered my prayer with Kimberly Dawn! LOVE YOU!!

Moms

Thanks to my friend Beth A., I have this funny and very true video about and for moms. If you are not a mom but someday you will be -please watch.

Have a great Saturday playing with your presents!

Merry Christmas.

It is amazing all the work that goes into this day. I love Christmas. I love the time we make to do fun family outings all month. The food we allow ourselves to eat one time a year. Making sure we get to see family that lives far away. My mom's chocolate cake and homemade frosting for Jesus' birthday. I also love buying gifts. Ben and I are not big present buyers through the year so at Christmas we make up for it. We also wrap everything and anything they may need. So there was panties/underwear and pajamas (and lots of them) that the kids opened, besides the wanted gifts. This year the kids loved all their presents. They had such a great day with cousins and family. Ethan had a hard time falling asleep tonight because he wants to play! What's great is that they will get 6 days to play with their toys before we fly out and then when we get back they will feel like new toys again!

And there were a couple presents this year that were extra special. My dad made Alicia's American Doll a bed and mom made a quilt for it! It is so nice. And then Alicia wanted Ariel's wedding dress for WDW. Well, they do not make that dress anymore so my mom made one. It is so pretty.

I hope you all had a Christmas to remember. I know this year we did.

UPDATE

So as of now, my siter is in the Les Schwabs up ther getting the snow tires they have for their car put on. They really wanted to find chains for the van since that is so much better for traveling with kids but they couldn't find any. So they are settling. They are going to leave a day early and head down a way that adds hours to the trip and they won't some spend the night here they will head to our parents but they should be here for Christmas. I hope.

I have wanted snow. I have pouted and thrown quiet (and some not so quiet) fits about not getting snow. Saturday night I watched hours of news hearing about how everyone got snow. Even Salem. Not here though! I wanted snow. I wanted snow for the 2 weeks BUT I wanted this week to be RAIN. What did I wake up to today? Snow. Now I know you would think I would be happy for snow . . .finally. No, I am not. It was supposed to rain this week so that my sister could actually make the trip from Spokane down and spend Christmas Eve night at our house. The kids are so excited about a sleepover but it looks like it may be canceled. The Gorge is closed and more snow is to come. I am sitting here watching the snow that is just so pretty but I just want to cry. I want Christmas to be perfect and right now it looks to be that picture card perfect white Christmas that ruins my Christmas!

Okay just talked to sister and she said that if they can somehow find some chains they will try to find other routes down. But right now all stores up there are sold out of chains! We'll see

Sadness in the midst of the wonderous holiday

Last year, 2007, on Christmas morning Ben's grandpa passed away. I found something very poetic in the fact that the day we celebrate Jesus coming to earth, John was called Home. He was able to spend Christmas day singing praises to his Lord. It also snowed that day. It did not stick but the kids were able to run outside and catch snow on their tongues.

Last night as it started to snow, and as Gordon and Martha took a time out from being with Ben's grandma at the hospital to come see the Christmas program, Ben's grandma left her sick and tired body and entered into eternity with her Savior.

So as we enter into another Christmas week the Wilson's will once again be dealing with death. I ask you to pray for them. Specifically Gordon as he has lost two parents in less then a year at one of the most wonderful times of the year. Also pray for the others grieving her loss and for the ones that watch their loved ones go through this process once again. Also with this weather pray that everyone arrives here safely as they come to say goodbye.

Enjoy your days off

. . . We are off to school. :) I am kind of glad my kids had school yesterday and today. This is a big week and they would be missing such fun things. They have so much planned the next 2 days that I also sort of hope they get to go then as well. Plus I have gingerbread house stuff for 12 kids. If there is no school Friday I will be stuck with all the makings!!!

Enjoy your day off. I will be enjoying no kids! :) also no snow. :(

Also Alicia's teacher announced yesterday that she is expecting. So cool. I think the kids are going to enjoy watching her get big through the year. Congrats Mrs. D!

The Truth

you want the truth. . .
We have NO snow. Nope not any. Sunday it snowed in the morning and then by about 2 it had all melted away. At least my kids got to play in it before it disappeared. So Stayton is dry as a bone and Salem has snow! So strange. But the bummer thing. . . the kids had no school yesterday! No reason why and no snow to play in! What a boring day. Too COLD to go out and nothing to play in if they wanted to go outside!

So hopefully tomorrow and Thursday when you all get snow we actually get some too!!!!

First snow of the season!

So this morning I woke at 4 and saw no snow. I was sure that meant they were wrong again. But my wonderful hubby woke me at 6 to show me the snow!!! It is so pretty. And I just checked and they are saying it could snow off and on through THURSDAY! WOOHOO. O, How I love this time of year. I know there are those who hate the snow but I sure don't. I am glad we live where we don't have it all winter long but get a few days a year.

Sadly I think zoo lights is out for tonight. :) I am wondering if we may have to replace zoo lights this month with a trip some snow up the pass. Not your typical December!

O, we are off to drive around town before we get ready for church!! LOVE THIS

What do you think?

So do you think we will get snow? It is hard to get too excited. I would love me some - - - but they never seem to get it right.


AND onto other stuff
Ben was supposed to work tomorrow but Ethan has basketball tomorrow and Alicia's bball starts tomorrow so he is going to just work LATE tonight. I may take the kids around town tonight to look at lights and then throw them into bed. :)

Tomorrow is a busy day. Alicia goes to get her first real haircut. I have always trimmed it and I am sure I could cut it again but we decided to do the real deal. She is super excited. We will probably cut about 7-8 inches off! Then we will go to Ethan's basketball, then Alicia's and then we hope to take the kids to Kelsey's. She is raising money for China and is having an all day babysitting day. We went to the last one she held and the kids loved it. So we hope to take them there and then go to a movie and dinner. We like to get away once around Christmas and just spend some time with the two of us.

22 days

It is 22 days from today that we fly off to Orlando. Every day I do a little to get ready. Today I bought some snacks and medicine we will take. Yesterday i saw our one leg from Orlando to Portland on Southwest had gone down $12 a piece. The nice thing with Southwest is they allow you to reschedule the cheaper price and get a credit to be used within a year. Now we have $72.00 to fly Southwest again. Not sure we will but it is better then paying the higher price. :) If they go down again I would be happy because then maybe we could have enough to fly 2 somewhere close, say Las Vegas.

I have also been buying Christmas presents that will be used for the trip. I have been trying to decide what things will be Christmas gifts and which things will be surprises for the long flight. I bought a tote from Lands End, St. Nick deal of the day a few weeks ago, that I will use for a carry on so I have been storing things away in it.

I am starting to get very excited.

ipod help

Okay you readers! I need help.

I have an ipod I want to load with some books for our trip. The problem is I have no idea how to use any of this stuff. So you ipod users where do you go for books you can download onto your ipod? This includes you readers who lurk and never write. I really really need help in this please.

THANKS

Date nights with daddy

The weekend is over! Well not really but the hard stuff. This weekend was the Bizarre our school helps with. Because I am the room mom I was in charge of the first grade booth. But I was sick. So as the weekend rolled around I started to dread it. Friday night I went down and set up the booth. By the end I was pretty exhausted. Thankfully enough moms had signed up for hours on Saturday that I didn't really have to be down there. Ben took 2 of my hours (after going to work very early to get his work hours in)so I only had to be down there the last half hour and clean up. After hauling all the boxes and tables out to the van I was done. But it is over and we made it through. I am so thankful to the moms who pitched in Saturday, and the amazing dad as well.

Today was supposed to be the day we went tree picking. It is now raining so I am not sure if we will. Hoping it breaks right after church so we can make a run at it. We did move Alicia's date night up to this afternoon. Ben takes Alicia to Build a Bear every December. It is their tradition. So tonight he will take her there and then to the Cheesecake Factory. I had bought the Build A Bear gift cards this summer when I had some money and also the Cheesecake Factory gift card! We also have a 10$ off coupon if you spend 50$ at BAB! So tonight is like a free night for them. Well maybe a prepaid night. (I am hoping for a piece of cheesecake to come home for me!)

Moving this night frees up a weekend day we had originally planned for their date! We are trying to leave as many days open as we can for the Zoo lights. We will go this month but are looking for a day that doesn't rain. Last night would have been good except Ethan and I were sick. Also Ethan had his date night with daddy last night. Polar Express was showing at the Star for $1 or canned food. Can't beat that!

WIN an IPod

At focusonthefamily.com they are giving away 3 ipods a day for the 12 days of Christmas! You can enter every day, you just watch the short short video and listen to the secret word. Todays word of the day is "shepherd." There are really only 8 days left as I found about this late. I would love to win as the ipod also comes loaded with books on it! Wish me luck, I would love to have this for the Disney airflight we have in January!

Sick Day

Today, well and yesterday too, is a sick day! Yesterday Ethan was pretty sick and then I came down with a lesser version of his sickness. So we are home laying around and drinking warm cider for our throats. I wish I liked tea, cider has so much sugar in it. I have such a good husband who stayed home this morning long enough to get Alicia ready for school and take her so Ethan and I would not have to get dressed and actually leave the house. He was late to work which he HATES to be. It meant a lot to me that he did that for us.
But I am looking at this with the cup half full mentality. If we get healthy this next week and take our vitamins and get good sleep then we should be in great shape for Christmas and our vacation! Better then being sick the week before, or the week of, the big events.
And maybe if I can be sick enough to not eat maybe I can loose some weight before those events as well! OK that may be asking for too much.

Tuesday

Today is errand day. Running around town and making phone calls. The good thing is that I have put off so much that I now feel good having this stuff done. I called to get our carpet cleaned, get hair appointments for Alicia and I, tried to call about movie tickets for the Christmas movie at the Star Saturday. I went to the bank to cash in the change we have collected for about 9 months for Disney, went to the post office twice, I forgot something so had to go back! I went to BiMart and was not a lucky Tuesday winner but at least I got the dishwasher detergent I needed. So I am now running dishes. I went to the gym and read to the Stayton Christian School kindergartners today. I finally threw away the pumpkins in front of our house and will put out our Christmas mat in just a few minutes!!

But I still have so much more to do. I will have to do some laundry, more dishes, clean the kitchen, go to the Star for tickets, get Ethan ready for his basketball practice tonight, etc., etc..

I was looking at my calendar last night trying to schedule in two events that HAVE to happen this month and I am now at the point of not being able to add a single thing to our weekends through January 11! EEKK! part of the problem is of course we want Ben to be a part of our fun stuff and with him working Saturdays it takes some finessing to fit everything in. But I love December as it is all fun family events that mean so much to us.

I wish you all a fun filled December as well. And remember the reason for the season! Jesus came to earth to give us freedom and eternal life, because God loves us!

So this weekend I got out my Christmas boxes. Well, I stood at the bottom of the ladder while Ben pulled them down from the attic in the garage. Ben was gone last night, out with the boys, so I started to go through them. I love going through the boxes and remembering how I got each and every object. One of my favorites is one Alicia made two years ago. It is a wall hanging with her small little hands making a wreath, and I believe it will be my favorite Christmas decoration for years to come. I also pulled out Christmas books, CDs, old cards and letters. I found pretty tissue paper and bags I had forgotten I bought the day after Christmas last year. I also have many many Christmas tins I have bought planning on making cookies and treats to give to friends and family. I have added to this pile of tins over the years and not been too good at actually using them. THIS year I plan on actually getting rid of these tins. I do not want to store them away for another year.

On to another subject
Tomorrow night I am making a Thanksgiving dinner! I like having left overs. When the holiday is not at your house there are NO left overs. SO I decided today to redo the dinner so I can actually eat more turkey and potatoes with gravy. My family is actually looking forward to it as much as I am! Plus there is no pressure of having the perfect turkey. It is just the four of us. No one to impress.

PS
Our countdown chain for our WDW trip is getting shorter and shorter. :) getting excited now!

Black Friday

So what did you guys get today? While I slept Ben got up early and headed out to one store before work. KMart had lego sets buy 2 get 1 free. So he went and got Alicia and Ethan some legos. Yeah right! He got himself some legos and gets to write the kids names on the tags! While he was at work I went online to see what I could get. There was definitely not as good of deals as last year. I did find Toys R Us had buy $50 get $25 off! So I bought some gifts for nephews. That is about it! I was looking for good deals on wii games but I saw better deals last week then I did today! I did also buy Ben a gift. But he occasionally reads this blog so I cannot post what it is. So sad because it was really the best deal of the day!

WHAT DID YOU find?

Christmas Reading

It is so nice to have a mom that loves to read as much as I do. When I was over there Sunday she let me borrow a bunch of Christmas books. I already had a Christmas book she had loaned me earlier this year but had saved it for the true holidays. I pulled that book out yesterday. It is Agatha Christie's, Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I am really enjoying it so far. I had forgotten how much I like reading Agatha Christie. Anyway this book is fun. A family, dysfunctional with the capital D, gets together during the holidays and the old man is murdered. Which family member did it, or was it the butler. I love who-dun-it murder books.

Last year I read a ton of good Christmas books, and some boring ones as well. I am looking forward to reading a bunch more this year! Do you have any good holiday books I should read?

Weekends

This summer our church did a service on the Childrens Church. I clearly remember them talking about how many weeknds you have left when they are 6, 9, 13, etc. That number got smaller and smaller and the time your have with your children dwindles. They were trying to impress on us to use our weekends wisely. This last weekend was one of the weekends I will remember.

Ethan had basketball Saturday so Ben took him to practice and I took Alicia on a date. I took her to a small bed and breakfast. They have a cute cafe there and we got yummy treats and hot chocolates. I am really trying to work on spending one-on-one time with her. It was really really nice. Then we came home and waited for the boys while watching a Christmas movie. About 10, Ben went to work and the kids went to take a nap. While they napped I got to spend about an hour with a really special friend. When Kim left I thought how nice it was to see her. It made my day.

Ben came home about 2:30 and we took the kids to see BOLT. This is a great movie. It even had Ben and Alicia crying at the end. I sat in that theater thinking what good day it was.

THEN on Sunday we drove south and saw my parents. My dad turns XX this week and I wanted to see him and give him his gift. Sadly the gift did not come in time, but we did get to take him out to lunch. The kids love going down to see my parents. It is so nice to see their faces when we tell them who they are going to see. They get so excited.

It was a really nice weekend. I thank the Lord for the days I have with my family. He has blessed me with a family who it is easy to love.

Free Dr Pepper

So for the next 13.5 hours Dr Pepper is giving away a free coupon for a free Dr Pepper to be used by February 28, 2009. Just go to Drpepper.com and on the bottom left hand side click on get your free Dr Pepper, the Dr is on call. Then you will either sign in or sign up. They have warned that it may take awhile due to the traffic, I actually haven't been able to get through yet. I was going to remember to do this right at midnight but forgot. OOPS

GOT MINE, with 13 hours and 16 minutes left

I like to start packing for trips in advance, far in advance. It helps when I think of something to be able to throw it in the bag. Last trip to WDW we used Martha and Gordons bags, as well as the ones we own, but they are going with us this time. So I thought maybe I would buy a good set of luggage. Now I think I may look at borrowing. I just can't get myself to spend the money at Christmas time. I want to try and fit as much stuff as I can into our carryons as now they charge you for checked luggage. Anyway I am in the market for borrowing a really good carryon or a nice size bag for checking, so we can fit as much as we can. So if you have a bag we can borrow, hey let me know.

And as you may have noticed I did not blog yesterday! I totally forgot until this morning! O, well. Now I can just blog when I feel like it. Phew!

My weeks project

I am cleaning my bedroom. It is a slow and tedious job. :) It didn't look messy but I knew what was hiding. So yesterday I pulled everything out from under the bed, vacuumed, then went through everything before putting it all back, or finding a new home for it. They day before that I went through the file cabinet. Boy lots of papers came out. Today I went through some of my scrap book drawers. Phew what a mess. But as I went through those drawers I realized that I haven't done anything in Ethan's book in years. Now, that is bad considering he is only 4! So I then went through all my pictures and started to organize what pictures I want to scrapbook and which ones I want to just hide away in boxes. Tomorrow I may head to Craft Warehouse and see if anything inspires me to get going on some of these pictures.

Cleaning this room is a process! So Tomorrow I plan to just go through my bedside table and probably Ben's as well. I need to get some wood polish and make these puppies shine. Next week I will start on my closet!

Random thought

DISCLAIMER: I am sitting here watching basketball, Ben is watching I am on the computer trying to act like I am listening to him when he gets excited, so that is the reason behind my random thought coming your way.

My favorite Basketball player is . . . Allen Iverson. Yep there it is. I like that for a short player, I mean 6 feet is short in basketball, he is speedy. He gives everything. He plays with heart. I enjoy watching him, I truthfully can stand watching basketball when he plays. Really. For truth.

So now you know something about me you NEVER knew.

Holiday help

If you are planning on buying DVDs for stocking stuffers this year I have a great spot for you to go to and save MOOLA! DeepDiscount.com! Right now if you use the code SUPERSALE they take off an additional 25% of already low prices. I always use them as they have the best prices and ship for free. Today I bought Wall-E for Ethan's stocking. I got it shipped for $13.40! (I already have Tinkerbell for Alicia!)

Go check it out. I am saving you MONEY!

My son, the basketball player

So Saturday ended up being so much fun. I was not sure how you have Pre K-Kindergarten play basketball but was excited to find out. We got there and Ethan was the first player there on his team. So his jersey is #1! There were four teams there and so we waited for all the kids to come in. Then they started to practice with the kids. This is comical. You have 4-6 year olds playing together. Believe me the height thing is an advantage to the 6 year olds, and Ethan is a young 4 years. Ethan will probably not make one basket this year. BUT he has some very accomplished teammates that may pull them through their short season. Anyway, they practiced for half an hour and then played a game against one of the other four teams. It was so FUN! They give kids arm bands in 5 colors so they know who they are guarding. Ethan was a bit distracted by this. He kept wanting to to tell the kids that "matched" that they were supposed to be together. So in the video that is what Ethan is doing. Also, the kids forget to dribble so they run with the ball. This one video I have is funny because at the end that is what happened.
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Ethan may not be a very gifted player this year but he is having so much fun. He was so excited and tried his best, never getting discouraged. It will be nice for him to have this start. I know as he does this every year he will just get better and better. I only hope he keeps the same attitude he had this year, carefree and excited!

Question for you

When do you put up a Christmas tree? Do you wait until after Thanksgiving, or the week of Christmas, or do you even put a tree up. Please share your tree traditions.

I am hoping to get our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We have friends from church that have a tree farm and will probably head out there again. We have gone many times with Ben's parents and will probably call them again to go with us. Last year it was an incredibly beautiful fall day. I hope for the same this year. I think we even got Starbucks on the way out. I like that tradition!

I was on my way to bed and realized I had not written anythng yet! I don't have pictures from todays basketball uploaded yet so that I will save for another day. Sorry I will get to it tomorrow! Promise.

But I will tell you I wrapped Christmas presents tonight! Feels good to have some things done!

I cannot wait until tomorrow when I get to share pictures with you. Tomorrow is Ethan's first day of basketball. It is through the Stayton YMCA and will run on Saturdays for about 6 weeks. He is so excited. I am not sure what a 4 year old can do. I mean they have practice and then a game. A GAME! Do they actually think they will make baskets? It is the middle school gym so those hoops are fairly high for preschoolers. I am looking forward to seeing tomorrow what really happens. I plan to take a ton of pistures to share with you my faithful readers.

Then a girl in our church is trying to raise money to go to China on a missions trip and is hosting a babysitting day at her house. I think Ben and I will take advatage of this and maybe go out to lunch tomorrow with NO kids. I know there are supposed to be a lot of great deals tomorrow but I have bought a lot of my Christmas presents already. But maybe I can find a great deal.

Have a good weekend everyone!

God cares for me

I have all kinds of thoughts and ideas rattling around in my head. But when I pick one out to write a post about I think of reasons not to. I am emotional today. Things are effecting me. So many people I know and care for are hurting or in rough patches and I feel guilty that we are not in those spots. But that is not a way to live. God does not bless us and then want us to feel guilty about those blessings. I also start to find myself wondering when the shoe will fall. Shouldn't it be our turn for bad things. God also DOES NOT work this way. Those are Satan's lies.

I have written many sentences just to erase them. Too many thoughts with no way to say what I am thinking and no reason to I guess. But nothing really to post about today, the 13th day of blogging every day for a month.

wasting a Wednesday

What to write, what to write. . .

Today I am not doing much. I ran a lot of errands this morning and then when I got home I got a call from a friend asking if Ethan could come over and play. So now it is just me and I have nothing to do, remember I already ran my errands, and am a bit bored. I am not bored enough to go clean that bathroom that needs cleaning though. I am bored enough to watch SNL top 100 funniest moments. They are funny. Some moments make me feel young as I have no idea what they are making fun of, some I remember and some I have never seen but are still very funny. If you are going to waste time watching SNL is probably a good way to waste it.

Laughter is good medicine. I am just trying to stay healthy for the family. It is all for them.

No School

So today the kids were home for Veterans day. I love school. I love sending my kids off for a few hours. So today I had to re-adjust my day. No me time. :) I decided to do some things we have never done. I got out moonsand that was a gift last Christmas and we had not opened yet. The kids loved that. I bought a pomegranate last night for today. That was also a winner. They had a good time eating the seeds and drinking the juice. It also took up a good amount of time. Right now we are eating caramel apples. I have never made them from scratch. I used to buy the caramel in sheets and mold them around the apple. Today we melted caramel down and dipped them. It was not a beautiful project but we had a good time eating them. In fact, Ethan is still eating his, about an hour later. He is so slow at everything! But today that is okay. It means he is not running around fighting with his sister.

It is now 3 o'clock and I still have a few hours before daddy comes home. Not sure what we will do next.

I also booked the last leg of our WDW trip this morning. Prices went down $16.00 each person today and that was enough for me. I want to make sure to get the flight time that I want. So now we are all set!

So we spent the last weekend at the coast, Inn at Otter Crest. We were afraid the weather was going to be just horrible but the place we stayed at was given to us free so we were going to make the best of it. I packed tons of board games and things to do indooors. I rented new movies and brought lots of books for us. I was going to be prepared to be stuck inside all weekend.

The weather ended up being very nice for November. We went to the beach, used the heated outdoor pool, went to the aquarium, went to the beach some more and even saw some otters. (On a side note the kids even saw their first snail on the path to our unit. They liked that.) We did have a flat tire on Saturday! Ben spent quite awhile trying to figure out how to get the tire fixed while I tired to entertain the kids inside our unit.

Overall we had a great weekend away and were very thankful that we were able to stay there for free. We may even get to go back some time later this winter. The owner rents it out but in the winter they have more vacancies. That is what we filled, gladly!

Random Post about Alicia

So I did a special post on Ethan while we were gone to the beach for the weekend. I thought I would also do one on one very special girl. The problem is this special little girl hates cameras. She will either jump out of pictures or ruin them with her faces. :) So here are some that show you what I mean.

This is Alicia warming up at Great Wolf Lodge. She wasn't covering her face until the camera came out though.


This is Alicia trying to ignore me and my camera when we had our special girl weekend this summer. We went to the Northern Lights in Salem and watched Kit. What a fun movie. That was a real special time for the two of us. I need to do more days like that with just the two of us.

The last picture is of a Wilson's girl trip we took to the beach this summer. It was very windy and rainy. Gotta love my sweetie.
Someday she will look back and wonder why her mom took so few pictures of her. I will show her this post and maybe she can forgive me.

Random Post about Ethan

I have been going through my pictures and came across some pictures that are special to me.

This is on the first day of school EVER, Ethan's first day of preschool. I love the look of the new crayons and pencil!


This next picture is of Ethan at his favorite part of the Great Wolf Lodge swim park. He spent LOTS of time sitting on those squirters.

Ethan loves his blocks. The first week of school he showed me he could make an "i" with his blocks. So cute.

I have loved having him in school for a few hours every single day! But I also love the time I get with him before Alicia comes home. He is very special and says things that are beyond precious. He is a good little boy!

I am showing you some beautiful pictures I got off the DISboards. That is where I learn everything one would ever need to know about Disney. I am very much looking forward to seeing the castle after the holidays when the lights are still up!

Last time we were in Disney my camera was stolen so I am looking forward to having some great pictures of my own to share with you when we get back from there! I let the teachers know today at the parent/teacher conferences that we would be taking them out of school for a week. They seemed cool with it.

So this blogging every day thing is weird. There are reasons I can go without weeks without writing a single word. One reason is my life isn't all that exciting, in fact MUNDANE. Like today I have been listing some things on craigslist, cutting out paper dolls and clothes for Alicia, doing laundry, etc. (The kids don't have school today or tomorrow, Parent/teacher meetings and grades) I also have been checking for Geo Trax on craigslist. See I have posted the hunting for GEO TRAX in like 3-4 posts but that is why I don't always post. It would be reruns. So today I found a great set at a great price but it is in the Vancouver area! Seriously. When it says Portland I guess I hope Tigard. haha.

Next I am off to put clean sheets on beds and clean MY room. Fun huh?

Stranger in my garage

If you read my Geo Trax post a few posts back you would know that I was going to list a few things on craigslist. Well last night I posted one item, a recumbant bike. I already have someone interested. He will be coming by some time today. I am so hoping to sell that thing. It was great and we have used it off and on for a few years but I like my gym much better. The money we get will go to a Christmas present. Probably new Geo Trax for Ethan. :)

Anyway he is supposed to be here at 3 today. If I do not post back letting you know how the sale went please come by to make sure I am still breathing! I am a little nervous about having a stranger to my house, even if it is just the garage. In the future, I think for smaller items I post on craiglist I will ask to meet at McDonalds. That is very easy place to find in town.

UPDATE: Just so you are not worried about me. :) It is 3:30 and he just called to say he is running late. So in half an hour he should be here. The mans voice sounds a bit like Christian Slater. :)

UPDATE UPDATE Okay the man came, I am alive, my children are alive. AND he bought the thing. $70.00! WOOHOO. Now to see what other things I can list on craigslist!

Election Day 2008

Today I am making fried chicken, baken beans, and a salad then have apple pie for dessert. A good American meal. We will be eating off of red, white, and blue plates, napkins and cups. Today is an important day in america and I want my children to learn early that it is important to our family to vote. Especially for the women who worked so hard to get this priveldge for the women in America!

Alicia mentioned a few days ago that she thinks President Bush is going to be sad to lose his job. I told her I am sure he will be just fine. :) Pretty sure he is not at all sad.


((((Okay it is hours later and I went to make dinner and I do not have what I need for my baked beans. It is raining cats and doggies so I am just going to take that off the menu and add something else. Sadly I do not even have potatoes.))))

59 Days

We have a really cute countdown chain made for our Disney trip in January. We are now at day 59! Every day has a cute picture of something Disney. very fun.

I have bought the plane tickets down for the 6 of us but I have not found a price I am real happy with for the way back. I have also ordered the pillowcases that I am going to make for the trip as well. I am going to iron on something special and am thinking of using them instead of autograph books. Just not sure on that yet. When they are done I will show you pictures! I will show you pictures of all the fun things I have planned to make!

Thanks

THANK YOU Amy for shamelessly helping me out in my quest for used Geo Trax. :) What a friend! (I know I can count on you to help in the quest for great second hand treasures!)

Looking for Geo Trax

So I have spent some time online lately looking for used Geo Trax. My son loves trains. I know most boys are fascinated by them but Ethan LOVES trains. We bought him the Thomas Train take-a-long sets when he was 2. Those were great but he really likes the Geo Trax.
They have remote controlled trains and. . . well he just likes them better. I have looked on ebay and craigslist but I am finding they are overpriced! You can buy what they sell used for cheaper new!! Amazing.
I am looking because I have decided I will get rid of his Thomas Trains and get some Geo Trax. Even if he only gets 2 more years out of them it will be worth it to see his face Christmas morning.
I decided to blog about this because YOU may know someone who is wanting to get rid of some. Maybe your friends boys are out growing them. Maybe you saw some cheap somewhere. Maybe you can post on your blogs that you are looking for used cheap Geo Trax, Just kidding on the blogging. But I would love to buy them, at a good price of course! I am not above giving my children used toys as presents! Ethan is going to love whatever he gets.

I am also going to try my hand at the craiglist thing. I am going to post Ethans Thomas stuff and see if it works! I also am going to list a stationary bike. I love my gym membership so the bike can go now!

So wish me luck on my 2 endeavors, finding some Geo Trax and selling my Thomas Trains!

My wish List--the KINDLE

My Wish List has only one thing on it right now. It is very expensive and will probably stay on it for a few more years. That is when I am hoping the price will go down. It is a KINDLE!! Oooohhh, just writing it down makes me drool. Amazon.com sells them for $359.00!! Oprah has a code out through November 1 for $50.00 off OPRAHWINFREY but that still doesn't get the price manageable for me ($309.00), even if it ships free. Well and that deal ends tomorrow. Maybe they will have a code out someday for $259.00! O, and you still have to pay to download books. But you do save trees and the downloaded book will be discounted a tad.

The kindle, allows you store up tp 200 books on it. You can read it anywhere, download a book you want from anywhere and have it in 2 minutes. If I am on a plane or on vacation the room this saves would be amazing. (I always go with at least 3 books) It lets you check the dictionary if you don't know a word when reading!, I could go on and on. I want this thing.

So do you guys have things on your "wish" list? What are they?

Camera Freaks

Okay all you camera freaks. Do you know that the last few weeks there have been some amazing deals on memory cards for your camera? Today I finally broke down and got one at Newegg.com
I got the 2GB as I heard the 4GB runs a tad slow. BUT GET THIS Right now they have free shipping, a tad bit slower then paying for shipping. I am in no hurry for this as most likely it will be a stocking stuffer, so I can wait. Here is what I bought! $5.99 for a memory card with no extra shipping. Beautiful!

I just may go back and get some more! you can also use these in your Wii, if you have one.

Our Surprise weekend

So Friday we told the kids we wee going on a long drive to look at leaves. I had packed bags and put them in the van without them seeing. They saw me pack the cooler but they thought it was for the lunch we were going to have along the way. So we drove and drove and drove. Ethan kept asking "have we gone far yet?" He was done riding. Really the kids were so good. They actually were really good. We stopped in Port Kalama for lunch at a cute little park. At this point Alicia thought we were looking for a good hiking trail. She was ready to "stretch her legs." We kept telling her that she would get lots of "moving" in. About this point Ethan decided to let us know frequently that he wanted to go home. :) We were laughing at him as we knew once he saw the place he would change his tune. The kids saw the Great Wolf Lodge as we passed by it on I5. They still had no clue. We drove into the parking lot and still no clue. Ethan started to get it but Alicia was clueless. Once Ben told them we were here for the night Ethan was very happy. Alicia though was unsure. She let us know she had no swimsuit. We let her know one was packed but she was still not looking too happy. It took her awhile.
So one child loves surprises and one would rather be in on the surprise. Good to know.

It was a fun weekend but not like the first time we went. They did have a scavanger trick-or-treat Dr Seuss quest. That was cute. We did not sleep well, any of us, so we were really tired the next day. We did not stay nearly as long as I would have liked to -considering the price. But it was fun. I was a lot colder this trip. I am not sure if the water temperature was lower but it sure felt like it. It isn't fun to be wet and cold. I think they need to turn the heat up!

Ethan has gotten more brave since the last time we went. He even went into the wave pool for awhile this time. Last time he would not even let us hold him out in it. This time we had a great time just laying on a tube together. He is a brave little boy.

I still highly recommend that you all try this place out at least once. I think once the kids get a bit older it could be a real blast. Ethan is not at tall enough for the big slides and Alicia is scared of them. Since one of us has to be with the kids we didn't get to go down these as much as I would have liked. But once Ethan can go we can take him with us! WOOHOO!

I love weekends

I love weekends when Ben is home and we get to do things as a family. More time together, more fun! I cleaned my house Thursday and Friday decorating with my fall decorations. It was great getting my house clean for Friday night small group as we were going to have friends over Saturday monrning. So Saturday we got up and my kids were so excited that the Dempsters were coming over. They have two kids the same ages as our kids so they can each have fun. We had lunch and some leftover dessert from our small group. Then we all took naps! Well the kids and I did. I don't get those very often so it was a great treat. Then I got up and started to get all dolled up for Ben's work party that evening. We went to Caruso's in Keizer. It is a very nice Italian restaurant. I haven't been to a place with their kind of ambiance in a long time so it was a great evening. Ben works with really great people so it was a fun evening. Even better that I can get dinner and dessert and not have to pay for it! Today we went to church and now we are waiting for our schools family fun night at the pool. This is a very important event to my kids. It is a great time for our schools families to get together and fellowship. With the school going through some MAJOR changes this year it is important that we are involved and support the school. The sad thing is that we may not make it to another event that was going on tonight. Some friends from Idaho are in Salem and we were supposed to go over and see them with our other firends! I am really bummed about that but I will get to see them in January.

Next weekend we are suprising our kids with a special weekend. But you will all have to check back to see what we are doing with them. We just plan on getting up Saturday and telling the kids we are going on a drive to look at fall leaves. Should be a great surprise.

Columbus Day

Every year for the last 4-6 years my mom, who has Columbus Day off, comes up to Salem and we go shopping. It is a kind of birthday present to me. There have been years we have had to take the kids, years where I called Ben and asked him to take the kids away from us after trying to shop with them, years with babysitters, etc. Yesterday I dropped the kids of at school and had a babysitter scheduled for the afternoon with Ethan. We went up to the outlet mall and shopped. Last year we had the BEST food at a little shop callled New York Burrito. So all year we have been waiting to go back. Finally after shopping a few hours we went to eat and found they had recently left! We were very sad. But we had a great day shopping. It is nice to spend time with just my mom, one-on-one. We talk and talk and when the day is over we look forward to next year.

4 codes out for swagbucks

Well for a short amount of time today they had 4 codes out that totaled 11 points. They have all expired, except one, now. Hope one of you swaggers got in on some of them. I got all 11 swags! There is only one swag code left right now and it is only worth 1 point. But 1 point is better then 0.

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Crockpot contest

This is not one I am doing but a contest that a favorite blog of mine is doing. See the names of all the blogs I like on the right hand side? Well go to her site and you will see she has a contest today for a new crockpot. Now I did think about not telling you all so I had a better chance of winning but . . . I do love you all and think you should win too. Good Luck to all, but I so want that crockpot. :)

And if you do not win here is a great site to buy a new crockpot. They even have a $5.00 rebate going right now! I just bought a new one last week!

Secrets

So today my old friend from college had a wedding shower! I am so happy to see her find a great man. So Ben drove me into Salem with the kids dropped me off and took the kids to the mall to shop for my birthday. :) For the last few days they have been thinking of things and then whispering quite loudly to daddy their ideas. I was not sure how they would be able to buy something today and then keep it a secret for another week. So after the shower they picked me up and we were on our way home and I said "you got a Orange Julius! No fair." And Ethan responds with, "but at leat you got candy for your birthday!" :) So no they could not make it a week. When we got home they showed me my present. :) Chocolate covered gummy bears. My favorite!

Ben had really wanted to get me a crock pot, mine broke two weeks ago, but I ordered one this week. So I just mentioned this morning not to buy one of those. He was not happy. He had thought he had finally thought of the great gift. O, well. I much rather get candy for my birthday!

Pizza

We do not have small group tonight so we are off to a small pizza place here in town. :) YUMMY. Just wish Paddingtons was here. I love their pizza.

The kids have no school for the next two days. I have told them tomorrow is sleep in day! But they are early birds so they will ignore me. :) I have a few things planned. I found a really cool countdown chain on the DIS site that we will make for our Disney trip, and I think we will go swimming one day. Next week they have the annual EZ Orchards field trip! I love this day as much as they do! I love to bring home apple cider adn apple cider doughnuts! WOOHOO Love October!

Solomon, Sex, and Jesus

This is the series our church has been on for the last two weeks. I cannot say enough about how incredible our pastor has been on covering this subject but I can give you links to his messages. I think all chuches need to actually cover this subject more faithfully. We, the church, have made sex seem gross and something needed to be talked about in secret. But if we don't cover it and gives some guidelines then our children will never know how to handle the big issues. I am impressed that Foothills cares about us enough to preach on it and Pastor Tim to do something that is uncomfortable!

I was also impressed that he said today that couples that are staying together, not divorcing, for ther kids sake are doing a good thing. He said he applauded them for that effort. He did also add that he hopes they work on staying together for Gods sake, but I loved that he gave them props as divorce does hurt kids. I think more people need to hear they are doing a good thing and not told to divorce and take care of themselves. What a selfish idea!

A family first

So yesterday was a big day in our house hold. Last year the school had two fundraisers we were unable to attend. This year Alicia was begging to go to the first one. So last Thursday, when we had small group and the kids had to go to bed here as well, we bribed them. If they stayed in their rooms and no one knew they were even here they would be able to go to this fundraiser. So last night arrived. I went and picked a cousin up, Miss Anna, and then when Ben got home we raced off for Chuck-E-Cheese's. I had been dreading it. I did not want my kids to know such a place existed. I had heard horror stories of the food and the prices. But we used an entertainment coupon and really we had a great time! The kids were so happy. They almost floated as they ran around. Cloud Nine! I was asked how many children I brought as Ben was having a good time playing games, too. Afterwards we headed to Cold Stone Creamery for the free icecream social. It was a great evening. BUT I have been feeling so incredibly icky that by the end of this night I was done. So when I got home I went right to bed and have not seen my blessed Greys! I was heart broken that I would not see it last night. There is something about watching it ON the first night. I hate being sick. And tonight we have small group at our house so I will be cleaning like a mad woman today and then staying up late tonight. All I really want to do today is sleep so I can be well rested for my day with the girls. Well that settles it- - -Let the children fend for themselves, and small groups can meet in dirty houses as just as well as clean houses. OK, I am off to bed.

cold season?

So I think I am catching a cold!!! It seems like whenever I have a girls day I am sick, so of course we have a girls day planned for Saturday. I am not sure why that is but it frustrates me to no end. So I took a a nap, drank OJ and then had some airborrne. Tonight I am going to take Nyquil and hope for a great nights sleep and wake up perfectly healthy. Wish me luck!!!

DVR wonder of the world

I feel bad that I haven't posted in over a week! So I am going to tell you about something we just bought! We got directv and a DVR! It is great! Now I can record my shows when Ben watches his favorite shows on Monday! And then tonight Ben went out HWY 20 to find Levi who had shot an elk. Gordon and Ben went to help pack it out. So while he is gone tonight he will have his shows recording! I love this machine.

And by the way, Thursday Greys Anatomy starts! I am so excited. It will be even better in January when LOST starts and Thursdays become the best night of the week by far.

O, and while the HUGE entertainment center was out from the wall, getting the new directv cables, we painted. Okay so I am coming back to edit that "we" was more Ben. :) I watched. Well I taped and removed things from the way, does that count?
I am still getting used to the colors but it is really fun having some color in this house. I cannot wait to buy all the decorations the room now needs. So in this picture the little black box is the DVR and you get to see two of the three colors we used in our rooms!
So now you have a current post. (But at least I post more often then my friend Karrie and my friend Heidi!)

A nice Saturday

This morning we got up, went and picked up two cousins, and headed to Olsons Farms. We picked some apples and then went to EZ Orchards hoping to grab some apple cider and apple cider doughnuts. Well they don't sell that stuff until the end of September! So we got their blueberry doughnuts instead. It was nice to have the kids (ages 6, 4, 4, and 2) all run around looking for apples together and then munch on them later. I think there is something to eating something you have picked yourself. After we took the kids home later that day we started making applesauce! What a long day. I am so blessed though. I haven't used my canner before, it was my grandmothers I think, and it needs a new ring sealer thingy so Martha was going to come over after we cooked all the apples up and use her canner. Well she cannot use her canner on our burners. SOooo she would come to our house, pick up the cooked apples and take them back to her house to can. It worked out pretty well. Then we were able to have Martha and Gordon over for dinner. Sadly she had to go home after dinner and finish canning the last batch, while we were all done on our end. But it is kind of disappointing to be done and not see the results. We have tasted it though, and boy was it good. I love homemade applesauce!!! This will be so good to eat this winter.

Frustrated!

I just wrote a nice long post complaining to you all about our poorly ran YMCA here in Stayton but decided to erase it. So you all are saved from my rant.

Hope you all have a great Thursday. Ususally Thursday nights are Ben's basketball nights but he sprained his ankle TERRIBLY last week so tonight he will be hanging with us at home. :) Wish I had a picture to share with you all. His toes are purple and his ankle is about 3 times its normal size. Poor guy.

Matt Damon on Sara Palin

I have really enjoyed watching Gov Palin speak and move into the spot light. I have thought about doing a post on her but decided not to. I don't need to push my political views on you, my readers. . . but I just read that Matt Damon is afraid that she will be like a bad Disney movie and added that she believes in creationism! The gall. To believe the Bible! He also mentioned that she believes in censorship, which has proved to be another really bad rumor. Some of the books she has been said to try to ban were not even written until after the said banning. I am not sure how Sara Palin is making it through all the lies that have been thrown at her but I guess you are doing something right when the extreme leftists have to try to tear you down.

If Matt Damon is against Sara Palin I am pretty sure I am ALL for her.

not for the prude!

Okay I saw this video and I am laughing still. Not quite R rated but not PG13. :)
It is kind of a spoof on those sexy love songs.
Okay moms---my mom and mother in law. be forewarned!

Go watch this video!

first week of September

It has been a busy week and a half. I was a little sad to enter September. I love the back-to-school feelings BUT hate saying goodbye to the good weather. I thought the weather was changing and had gotten abit depressed about that. But thankfully the good weather has lasted. The kids both started school last week and both are enjoying it. Ethan even more then Alicia, which says a lot as she loves her school. :) Sadly there is no air conditioning at the school so they come home pretty hot and sweaty. They are ready for fall. :)
I joined a gym the first day they went back to school. So a lot of my alone time has gone to that. I Love it. So nice to get out and see grown ups every morning and get in shape. My goal is to have something to show for it by January.
We are also painting the inside of our house. Yep, 5 years later we are adding color! Last Thanksgiving we painted the dining room and I knew which colors would continue into our halls, kitchen and great room but here it is MONTHS later and we are just now doing it! I think with small group starting back up we both decided it was time to paint! I am so happy about this. But this runs us into othe expensive problems. Like what to decorate these newly painted walls with. I have all kind of ideas but our newly constructed back yard does not have a money tree!
What else, hmmm. . . I won $25.00 from expotv.com for amazon.com! I had referred someone and that entered me in a contest! I WON! I need to give thanks to Rachel for actually taking me seriously when I mentioned expotv.com and for signing up under me. By the way, since joining at the end of February and that first initial post I have made $943.00! Yep that is right. Over $900 dollars, too bad it has already been spent on Disney tickets! Don't you wish you had signed up then as well. :) Well here is another shot. If you have any questions I can answer them. But right now you can do 20 videos a month and get $10.00 a piece. Sometimes the rules change month to month but it has been like that for about 3 months now.
O, and I also finished The Shack and am going to do a post on it soon. Just thinking over some stuff in it.

My friend Karen

I met my friend Karen in 1999. I had started college and my friends from my hometown lived across the hall from her. By December we had become good friends and today we are special friends. I love her. We have gone through much in 10 years and a lot of my college memories have her in them in some way. The sad thing is that every September I have these really good intentions to remember her birthday! A few days ago I thought okay I will remember but here it is a day after her 32nd birthday and I missed it again! The sad thing is I do this almost every year. It has nothing to with my love for Karen or the kind of person she is, but it says a lot about me. I am sorry Karen!
Karen is one of those friends that everyone hopes they get to be friends with. She is loyal, caring and honest. I know I would not be in touch with all my other special friends if it wasn't for her keeping us accountable to meeting monthly. She is a bit like glue, the good glitter colored glue!

I LOVE HER! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Karen!

The Shack

So I started reading The Shack yesterday. I am reading it differently then I would read any other book. With all the hoopla about it I am seeing both sides of the arguements. I am marking things I think were really well said and Truth and things that are not biblical and a bit far fetched. But I have to say that it is a very very interesting and well written book. I am really looking forward to finishing this book and seeing how he pulls it off. I do believe it will be a book I will recommend to everyone. It can really get you thinking about how you view God and get you back into the Word to see why you believe what you believe.

Do you hear what I hear!

It is the sound of mothers everywhere in Oregon singng "hallelujah!" Tomorrow my two are off to school. I will probably shed tears in the morning as I take their first day of school pictures but tonight I am so excited! I have grand-grand plans for the 2.5 hours I will get every morning to myself!! And really Ethan is fairly easy by himself for the remainder of the day. O, the bliss!

Big Day for my Little Boy

My husband is not a hunter but he comes from a hunting family. Every year the men go off to hunting camp, otherwise known as eating safari, and invite my hubby. This year he decided he would go along and take our 4 year old son. My boy has been so excited to be able to go! benadn him plan on taking hikes, playing in dirt, reading and having a great time while the guys hunt and then eating with the men when they return. I love that he is going to have some alone time with just daddy! Also his Papa has had a major arm surgery and is not allowed to pull a bow this year so he gets some good time with his papa as well!
So this morning at 3:15 am we got our baby up and into the van! This is the picture I got of him! I just love it. He looks so happy
Ben called at breakfast and said Ethan did not sleep at all on the first 4 hours over. They were hoping leaving so early would help Ethan sleep. Then when they stopped for breakfast he asked if they could "get it in bags" so they could stay on the road and get there faster!! He is on a high! I wish my husband had a camera this weekend but I kept it for the girl weekend I am planning with my DD6!

A little Disney update

So today I pre-ordered a Disney Photopass. When you are in Disney there are people with cameras all over all the parks. They will take pictures for you and copy them on little plastic cards then hand you the card. When you get back you can order the whole disk with all the pictures or you can order just a few to be done as prints. Last time we went I did not take too many and did not want to pay $125.00 for the CD! Seems a little high. So I started a photopass share over at the DISboards and the cost of the preordered CD, $99.95, will be cut into 6ths now. So we will pay about $20.00, this includes copying onto a disk and shipping to them, and I will just copy the disk when it gets to me and send it on to the 5 others in the group.
I am glad to get another thing marked off my list. And excited that this trip I will take more pictures where I will be in them! When it is paid in advance I will feel like I must get my pictures taken to get my moneys worth!

Need Your HELP!

Okay ladies, and gents,
I am going to be blessed with a weekend with just my daughter. Ben is taking Ethan away for hunting camp, also known as eating safari, and I will have just Alicia. Alicia is my hard child and I really want to make this weekend a blast for us 2. We will go see either Kit Kittridge, if it is still at Northern Lights, or Fly Me to the Moon. I plan on doing a "spa day" but am not sure what that will entail. We will paint our nails but may need more creative ideas for this. What I really need is some really original ideas from you all. I would like ideas that are cheap, even FREE and I have her for 3-4 days so lots of ideas please!
I will admit this is going to be a hard weekend for me. Alicia can get under my skin in about 5 minutes! To have a whole weekend without buffers is going to be interesting. I love, love my girl so I really want to make this weekend special for us.
So bring on the ideas guys!!!

Lost Blankie

We could not find Ethan's blanket today! He has had that blanket since he was old enough to have one and he NEEDS it for bed. So I cleaned house looking for it. Finally we sent him off to bed without it. He seemed fine without it but it BUGGED me. I lay in bed thinking of places it could be. Finally after Ben was snoring away I snuck out of bed and looked everywhere. I am sure the neighbors thought about calling the police as I snuck into our backyard with a flashlight and opened both cars up. Anyhoo I could not find it. I gave up, sort of, and decided I wasn't tired enough to go back to bed. So I ordered some clothes for the kids online and then started to think more about where it could have walked off to. The only place I could think of was our closet. Ethan likes to crawl under our hanging clothes and hide. But Ben was sleeping so I would have to wait until morning. Unfortunately Ethan has not slept well. He has been making sounds and just a bit ago he came out and said he "needs his blankie." He "cannot sleep" with out his blankie! So I snuck in and found that naughty blankie right in our closet where I thought it may be. Ben never even broke stride in his vibration of respiratory structures. When I handed it to my baby boy he curled up in bed and went uuuuhhhh! Best sound in the world to mommys ears.

This is not a picture from tonight. I decided that even though I would love to show you how he is hugging his dear blankie he may not appreciate being woke up by his momma at midnight. This is a picture I took about 4-5 months ago. But you can see that blankie.

The Summer Reader Winner!

I have been really interested to see what books came in over the week. There were books I have read and also loved, the Dee Henderson Series for example. I read that series on the plane to China 2 years ago! So it has good memories for me. I also thought Ray Blackston was a lot of fun to read. Perfect summer reading, light and fun. Then there was books I had not heard of that are now on my reading list, The Shack and Better. And then there are books I may never get to reading like Psychology Core Concepts or Dog Breath, The Horrible Trouble With Hally Tosis. Not that I have anything personal against these books but they just are not on my list. hehe.
So this morning I pulled the winner. I was excited to test this random.org site as I have heard a lot about it. So I put in the number 10, there are 11 posts but someone posted twice and 1 of those does not count, and out popped 5. So the winner is. . .drumroll please. . .Karrie Brown! She wins with the book Fairy-Tale Detectives.
I had a really good time with the contest! So much fun in fact that I plan on doing more contests through the life of my blog. I will ask for different things and give different prizes but it will all be tied to books and reading. So make sure to check back frequently to see what you could win! Add me to your favorites or to your blog lists so your friends can be part of the fun too!
Thank you all for making the contest fun for me and having such different reading choices. Now I am off to ensure I have Mrs. Browns address to send this gift card to!

Good News for Nicholas Sparks fans

I have read every Nicholas Sparks book there is. I even have his next book to come out (The Lucky One) pre-ordered. :)But that is for another post. This post is for his book titled Nights in Rodanthe. It has been awhile since I have read this book but what I remember is that a lady decides to help her friend run an inn for the weekend. Her life is in a bit of chaos as she doesn't know how to deal with her feelings left from her ex-husband leaving her for anothe rwoman and raising teenage children. Not soon after she arrives a storm hits the coastal town and she is left there with one visitor. He is also dealing with his own problems and feelings and they are forced to spend the weekend together.

Now I know that isn't all that descriptive but I know I liked this book and I always enjoy the love stories Sparks writes about. And this movie should be great as it will star Diane Lane AND Richard Gere! I am very excited about this movie that comes out in September! It looks like the perfect movie to with girlfriends to or to watch on DVD the one time of year that my husband will watch a "chick flick" movie, Valentines Day. Here is a trailer for the movie.

So if you like to read books before you watch it in the movie you should go out and get the Nights in Rodanthe!

You ask I will answer!

So in my quest to see what you have been reading this summer someone asked about The Shack. Well I hadn't heard of this book yet. I am not sure why as it seems to have caused quite a stir in the Christian community. So I have ordered it online. I will not get this book until mid September as it is combined in an order of 2 other books I want that are not even out yet. I pre-ordered Devil Bones and Death Swatch. They are both books by authors and in series I really enjoy. I did not want to pay more shipping to have The Shack come in it's own order so I have to wait. BUT I will read it and I will let you all know what I think of this book.

Blubbery Mess

Okay! I am a blubbery Mess. When Shawn won the gold medal I was relieved that she would finally get what she deserves! But then when they said her parents have more then once mortgaged their house to keep her in gymnastics I LOST IT! I can relate as a mother. I just hope that as my kids grow up I can be as in tune with my kids to find that "thing" they are made to do. That I find it and back them 100% as Shawn's parents did! These parents deserve gold medals as well. I admire Micheal Phelps mom. Add I know behind most gold winners their are similar stories. I want to see my daughter smile, n beam, as Shawn did as she triumphantly waved to the crowd and listened to the National Anthem of the United States of America! I want Alicia to find something to be proud of, something God has made her for. O, I am a blubbery mess and you all got to be a part of my mess on paper. I think it is the lack of sleep from watching Olympics every night for way too long. They are too blame for the emotional state they have thrown me into!

Girls Day

Today the Wilson's had a girls day. This was the first time Alicia had gone on a "girl's day." She reminded me that I have gone on lots of these special days but this would be her first. Martha, two of my sister in-laws, Rachel and Donna, Donna's daughter Anna and my daughter all went to Lincoln City. We left Ethan with his boy cousins here at my house with a brave babysitter.

When we got to town we grabbed Ben's grandma who is staying at the beach and headed to the outlets. If you had 7 people you could get coupons and a $5.00 Gift card from Tangers Outlets. So we added two more wonderful ladies from church who just met us for the bucks and then sepereated from us. It was a fun day. We shopped, then had an icecream, shopped some more, ate lunch, then had our girls convince us this was a beach trip and we should actually go down to the beach. We weren't there very long as it was nasty weather but also because not 10 minutes of being there my sweet niece, Anna, got swallowed up by the waves. She was pretty wet. We adults tried not to laugh too much but it was so funny to see all of us running AWAY from the waves and one little one run sideways IN the waves ~and finally just eat sand. As we went up the stairs back to the SUV she made sure we knew she does not like the beach. Later she let us know her dad is strong and protects her when she was in the ocean with him.

A Reminder: Please read the post below to enter the book reading contest I am running until Friday. After reading your comments I am now planning on doing one book review every week. There are so many incredible books out there. I want us to find the good ones and stay away from books that would be a waste of time and money. So stay tuned for that!

Contest

So a few posts back I said I may have to think of something to get some of you to come out of hiding here on my blog. I think I have come up with an idea. . . . So to help you all come out, and LEARN to post, I am hosting a contest. If you post with a book you have read this summer and a review of it you will be entered in to win a gift card to Borders for $15.00. I will give you all one week. The contest will end Friday the 22nd at 8:00 am PT. Then I will randomly, or random.org will, a winner on that same Friday.

You may tell your friends to enter as well. I always love hearing what others are reading and love the idea of helping someone buy their next book. Have fun and GOOD LUCK!

Random Thoughts on the Olympics

In two years with the 2010 Olympics in Whistler, Canada I will not have to stay up until after midnight to see the good stuff!! We Pacfic Coasters will be in the same time zone!

China has incredible Divers! Wowzers. We watch the synchronized divers and it is like watching a man dive in a mirror. They are so good. Unlike the American men tonight who had a dive that was actually perpendicular to each other. Someone needs to tell them they needed to be parallel.

Maybe you can answer me this question. Why, when the divers come out of the water, do they grab towels that are sitting in the water! Can't figure that one out.

My daughter asked me this question: Why are there 5 rings? So here is the answer for you. The five rings represent the five major regions of the world: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Every national flag in the world includes at least one of the five colors, which are (from left to right) blue, yellow, black, green, and red.

I haven't been real happy with NBC. During the day while when we watch even more olympics they are advertising their primetime shows! I don't really need my children to see some of the previews!! Isn't Olympics a family event. I may be a conservative family but still!

Can you tell it is late. I am just rambling. But these are thoughts I have had for the last week. :) Watching tv this late sure does make me tired during the day! I am actually looking forward to next week when I can sleep more. I am not a big track and field fan and really, Jill~ cover your eyes, I am not a beach volleyball fan. So I can go to bed before midnight next week!!

Did you see it?

Did you see the USA men win in the 4x100 freestyle relay!? I stayed up while Ben went to bed because I knew this was supposed to be a good one! But I had no idea how good. The French had trash talked about "smashing" the US team. The commentaters were saying we would probably take silver maybe bronze. Then the race started and Australia was doing well. At the last turn we started to see the US gain on the French. I sat up and started to yell at the t.v.! I can't believe with 3 sleeping bodies I was yelling. I am still so stoked! Incredible when Jason Lezak barely outouched the French team to break a world record and take GOLD. You would think I just swam or one of these swimmers are great friends of mine the way I feel. Great to be an American!

Have I told you lately that I LOVE the Olypmics.

One World One Dream

I took this picture from the Great Wall of China in August 2006. It seemed weird to see an Olympic symbol 2 years before they were to occur but now it is so cool to have this picture!

I loved the opening ceremony tonight! I am not sure if part of it is that I have been to China. I know how welcoming the Chinese people are. I have seen the "bird nest" in the beginning building process. I know how HOT it is in August. Sweltering. I can believe that some of what we are seeing is not smog but humidity. Take a look at my picture! You can not see the nest very clearly there either. Being there at the SAME EXACT time 2 years ago I can imagine what these athletes are working through.
I love hearing all the little bits of China's long history. But WOW the show was amazing. Such beauty. I am not sure how 10 people can sychronize something let alone have thousands of people move in such harmony. Then watching each country walk in in all the wonderful colorful outfits. Hearing the stories for athletes or the country itself. It gets me excited for the stories they bring all week long. you know, the ones that make me cry.

I love that once every few years all the world gets together and at least try to get along. As Morgan Freeman states in the VISA commercial, "We don't always agree. But for a few shining weeks we set it all aside and we come together to stand and cheer and celebrate as one. We forget all the things that make us different and remember all the things that make us the same."

It gets me to thinking about heaven. When we get there we won't be different anymore. We will be one family. There will someone from every nation praising Jesus TOGETHER~~ FOR ETERNITY! We will lift our voices and sing as one. There won't even be a whisper of war! What an amazing thought! How beautiful that will be!

Embarassing Fact about Me

I love So You Think You Can Dance! I don't care for American Idol, or Dancing with the Stars so I am not sure why I love SYTYCD. I started watching two years ago and now I look forward to it every summer. I watch the dancers and wish I could just dance a tiny bit as good as they can. I am amazed that within a week they learn 2-3 dances that they may have never learned before, fox trot,jazz,etc., and then dance them beautifully. Also last night Josh danced 5 dances after being in the hospital for 3 days for dehydration! Can you imagine learning these dances in 4 days! These kids are incredible! Anyways, this year I really liked Joshua. From day one he has been my top pick. I have watched as America actually got every week right and the right people went home and the best dancers stayed behind. Last night was the final competition. Tonight we will find out who America chose! I am so afraid it will not be Joshua. Last night I belive Twitch showed he may be the best! But also he is 25 whereas Josh is 19. So Twitch just has a presence about him that comes along with maturity. I do like Twitch, he is likeable but O, what about my Joshua!!! There are 4 dancers, 2 couples, left. I do not believe that the girls have a chance against these guys. Though I do believe Katee could possibly make it, I know that as much as we all love Courtney she just won't win.

This video is one of Joshua. He is dancing with Katee to a bollywood routine. You don't have to watch the whole thing but watch the dancing! You will be amazed by him!

I do have to say that last year my all time favorite dance routine was by Hok Konishi. This is a rough video of my favorite all time routine. He is a hummingbird she is a flower. It isn't as hard as some but if you watched all season you saw how this really fit their personalities and was so beautiful to watch. He moves just like a bird!

After watching some videos I am more in love with this show!!!! The finale is tonight so if you have missed the season you can start watching tonight!

Are you out there?

Okay if you can look at my last 3 posts not one person has posted a comment! I know I have gotten emails about my blog but really no comments? I feel a bit sad when I check into my blog and see that no one -not one- has posted a comment.

How can I get you all to come out of hiding? I might rack my brain for a bit about this. I am already getting a few ideas. :)

And just for the hay of it here is a cute picture of a boy I love taken last Christmas. I didn't get to share it with most of you then so I am now! Enjoy

Redwood trip continued

Day 3
So we woke up and had the breakfast offered at Clarion in Eureka. Not bad, waffles, biscuits and gravy, cereals, etc. We headed South looking for The Avenue of The Giants. This is a road about 33 miles long right off of HWY 101. It was great. I had bought a book on great hikes in the Humboldt Redwoods. This really helped us find some hiking paths that are not clearly marked. We had such a good time looking at the huge trees and trying to find as much wildlife as we could. We found bugs, a banana slug, deer and a snake. The trees in this area are HUGE and there were a lot that have fallen over so we could walk on them and check out their roots. We also went through a tree with the van towards the end of the trip. Alicia was not real happy about this. I think it scared her pretty good. :) It was a tight fit. The truck in front of us had to back out as they could not fit through. We were tired by the end of this "avenue.". We headed back home to Eureka. We stopped of at a small town that had a cheese factory. Ben and the kids had their fair share of cheese. When we got back to Eureka we thought we would have the light dinner offered but we tried their chicken nuggets and decided we would go out to eat. They were hard as bricks! So we headed out to the Samoa Cookhouse. It is VERY well known in this area. It was so good. YUMMY. They serve it family style and you eat whatever they are serving that night. We had fresh made bread and a soup. Then they brought salads. Next was 2 different kinds of meat and baked potatoes, and a side vegetable dish. We then got our choice of desserts. So good. And the restaurant is in a building with all this history. Lots of pictures of men cutting the Redwoods down, old saws, anything you might find at a logging camp. Just really cool. After dinner we headed back to out hotel for another swim in their pool.

DAY 4
Today we had to check out of our hotel. We went down and had breakfast. Then they decided to go swimming again. I kind of cleaned the van out while they swam. Then we packed up and headed to Brookings for our next part of the trip. We were going to stay in a yurt in Harris Beach! The kids were looking forward to this most of all. On the way up 101 we stopped off at a Redwood hike in Lady Bird Johnson State Park. It was really foggy and made for some really cool pictures. BUT the Redwoods on the Avenue of The Giants are some of the BEST in the World so these Redwoods fell a bit short. I guess you should leave the best for last. After the hike the kids were tired of hiking so we headed North again.
We got to our yurt about 3 and were allowed to check in early. We loved the yurt.We kind of unpacked and headed to the nearest Fred Meyers to buy bike helmets! We had packed the kids bikes but forgot the helmets! So we got helmets and when we got back they rode bikes and checked out the park. Then we headed down to the beach on feet. We got down there at low tide so we looked at some tide pools. It was a great time. It was getting late so time for some hot dogs and smores! YUMMO. Then it was time to try those beds in the yurt. Boy, yurts are great. You get beds, a heater, electricity- which we used to recharge phones and camera batteries!

Day 5
This morning I was trying a new camp recipe. I put eggs, cheese and ham in small freezer ziploc bags. Then you throw them in boiling water for 15 minutes and out plopps an omelet.
Ben was a bit leary of this but he ended up loving it. Easy clean up as well! After breakfast we rode bikes, played in the playground and went to the beach throughout the day! We also took a nap so we could stay up late for the seal and seal lion show at 9. That nap was the best thing we did all trip. We all woke up with energy and in great moods. The show was fun and the kids keep bringing up information they learned that night. Like elephant seals can go almost 1 mile under water! We then got back to camp and had smores and hot chocolate. This was our last night of vacation! So sad. Where does the time go?! We headed off to bed and all fell asleep fairly quick.

Day 6
We woke up and started to clean up. Alicia was going to the State Parks Jr Ranger program at 10 so we had to stick around for that. She had a great time and we are looking forward to more years of this. Sadly she lost her passport somewhere along the way back to our camp so we will have to start all over next time. We took off ad decided to go home back HWy 101 rather then I-5. We are glad we did. It was fun to kind of remember parts of our trip on the way home. We stopped off at Cape Blanco for a potty break and fell in love with this beach/camping area. Next summer we have decided to go back here for our summer vacation. They even have small cabins instead of yurts here. We stopped off for Ethan to go potty and 2 hours later we were on the road. :) We all had so much fun on this deserted beach. LOVED THIS PLACE.

We continued on home and made it around 7 o'clock. We were so excited to go see what our back yard looked like.

So that was our trip. Ben and I have thought about this trip a lot. We adults enjoyed the Redwoods but the kids could have cared less after the first few BIG trees. To them after you see a big tree there is no need to see more. :) They did like to hike but we may have hiked a bit much for them. They loved the beaches and hotel pools. And of course all the animals we saw. We even got to see the Roosevelt elk along the Hwy on our way home. That was fun. So now we are looking forward to taking the kids to Yellowstone in 3 years. They will be older and get to see so many cool animals. Before we can take this trip we are going to the Grand Canyon with my family in 2010. Don't you just love vacations?!