Masters Moments

I Tried the Tri

2011-07-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

And I survived!

Oh where should I start? Rewind about a year and a half ago when Megan K invited me to a sample sale at Run Like a Mother auther SBS' home. She pointed out some cute silver shoes and told me they were tri shoes. Hmmm, I thought....I'll never do a tri, but those are cool looking shoes! Sold! I guess you could say that it all started with a pair of shoes.
Last summer a friend of mine did a tri and the variety of events sounded more fun to me than just running. But I don't swim. What to do? Well, I have a year to figure that out. Fast forward this February and it's time to sign up. March, April, OK, I said I was going to do this and the first step is paying money for it. I signed up in April and with my confirmation email came a bonus side of throw up nerves. What have I done??? I'm not a swimmer, never have been, never in my life have I even swam laps for fun or punishment. I think I probably passed level 3 swim lessons at Lake Shore 30 years ago and that was it.
My youngest daughter has been reluctant to swim, so I thought we'd learn together and signed us up for private lessons. After a couple weeks of trying to learn the front crawl and a crash course of side breathing technique, I decided I'd stick with the side stroke. Once I settled into lap swimming with my stroke of choice, I felt much more comfortable. I took spin classes once a week and ran every once in a while. So I guess, I felt comfortable with my training.

Sorry this is getting boring....fast forward to my scary open water swims....
Kline line three weeks ago, slow as molasses, but I did it with one stop at the dock for an arm hang to catch my breath.
Frenchman's Bar river swim two weeks ago, probably my lowest point....freaked out, hyperventilated and got caught up in someone's fishing line. I spent the 12.5 mile bike ride afterward figuring out how I was going to get out of the swim portion. My dear husband quietly let me freak out and told me if I could just calm down, I could do it. I really didn't believe him at that point.

Frenchman's Bar river swim one week ago with good friends Michael and Lisa. Maybe having a friend there helped, I don't know, but it was NIGHT and DAY different for me. I guess I just calmed down or knew what to expect, or acclimated to the water better. Not sure. I did start my crazy breathing again, but my dear husband ever so sweetly yelled at me, "Knock it off, you can do this" It was what I needed to hear, it worked, I started breathing normal. Down the river we swam, slowly but surely. For the first time in this whole process I finally felt like I could actually do this.
Race week: I decide I should probably have a road bike for race day. Nothing like waiting til the last minute. My friend friend offered me hers. I picked it up Thursday had it adjusted Saturday, rode it around Saturday and thought ok, I'm set!

Race day we woke up to what I thought was sprinkling, but lo and behold it was POURING. Great! Well, maybe it'll let up before we start. We grabbed some garbage bags, got loaded up, choked down some oatmeal and got going.
We arrived at Frenchman's bar and the rain was tapering off as we set up our transition stations. We heard instructions and walked down to the start of the swim. Major butterflies were settling in. Lisa and I were in the first wave, so with ALL onlookers' eyes on us, we enter the water and try to acclimate with two minutes to go. Boom, we are off

and it's like the tortoise and the hare story. How can these people swim so fast?? Going as fast as I could, I slowly made my way and my awesome parents and friends walked the beach the whole half mile with me encouraging me and cheering me on.

It was slow going AND COLD but I finished. Ran quick as I could up the hill to strip off my wetsuit, grabbed my bike slipped on my awesome tri shoes and I was off. (I have to add here that my sweet humble friend Kristen approached the bikes just as I was getting on my shoes. Yes, she started the swim 10 minutes behind me and caught up at the first transition, wow, she's fast)

It took about 30 seconds for the first person to pass me, then another, then another, then another (yes, Kristen was one of them, she's fast on the bike too), you get the picture. I didn't think I was going slow, but I guess I wasn't going fast either. It would have probably helped to have the road bike longer than three days before the race to get in a little more practice :( I also knew the run was coming and it was going to be hard after biking. The bike ride was a little boring to be honest with you. I had no equipment on my bike to tell me how fast I was going, proabably not a good idea. I made both turn arounds without crashing...double bonus!!

When I was about 3/4 of the way done with the bike ride, I saw my husband pass the other way, I have to say that was really fun. We did a lot of training together and I was missing him during the race. We yelled encouraging words to each other and I finished up my ride just as the sprinkles were turning to rain. I did a quick transition from bike to run and I could feel the end was near. The rain turned to pouring rain. Yuck. Not to bad to run in, but I felt so bad for the onlookers and volunteers. The first mile my legs felt like jelly,but I guess it got a little better. I didn't walk and only got passed by a few, that's an improvement! Up the hill to the finish line in the sheets of rain. My parents, my daughters, friends, it was a great finish, especially crossing the finish line with my girls!

Would I do it again?? Probably if I was a better swimmer. Maybe a relay or a duathlon??

Thank you Nicci W for the wetsuit and tri shorts and lots of encouragement, Thank you Megan K for the bike jerseys, awesome race day pictures, encouraging posters and amazing support, Thank you Poppy M for the road bike, thank you Ryan for cheering us on in the pouring rain with no jacket or umbrella! Thank you Nana and Poppy for taking care of our kids and your heartfelt words of support and love. I have to say I was overwhelmed by all the texts, fb messages and phone calls. Thank you all for not letting me quit until I reached my goal.

One final note...after looking at all the race results, I couldn't believe what I saw....out of all the women racing that day, I came in 12th for quickest transition from bike to run (I was VERY excited to see my name on a top list)...I could be wrong, but I think it was those tri shoes :)

Some Good Advise

2010-10-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

We did our annual Corrigan family gathering in Sunriver over Labor Day weekend last month. One of the evenings, we gathered around the dining room table and toasted Nana and Poppy for celebrating 40 years of marriage on August 22nd. We each went around the table and shared a little bit and something my mom said that night has stuck with me and I hope it always does.

My mom and dad are humble people and have always been gracious and generous with what they have, whether it's a lot or a little.
In this day and age, it seems to be all about getting the next house, car, or whatever it might be. I'm as guilty as the next with seeing the world through materialistic eyes. My mom and dad on the other hand have ALWAYS been about people. Always. They invest in people and relationships.

As we gathered around the table in Sunriver that evening, my mom encouraged us to do the same. "Love people, invest in relationships. It's really the only thing we can take with us when we go."

Wise words, Nana....I took them to heart.

Here's Nana on her favorite Sunriver activity....the river raft float!

The pirate scavenger hunt that has turned into an annual tradition!

The kids' talent show...Nana manned the music for the girls to dance, she's always in the front row!

The Letter

2010-09-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

This has been a very different summer for our household. We've had a LOT of fun, but it's been very challenging. I hope to post some photos to remind me of all the fun we crammed into a few months.

Megan turned 8 on July 12th and it almost was like turning on a light switch to an attitude that I hadn't seen before. I didn't know if it was due to it being summer, her age, or the fact that I was primarily single parenting and on my own for discipline, etc. I don't consider myself a pushover, but since the girls hear my voice all day, it gets easy to tune it out and without a different voice to get their attention (i.e. daddy's voice) I seemed to get tuned out a bit and ended up using a voice none of us like! So began a vicious cycle that seemed to drag on all summer. It was very emotionally hard for me and I was deeply saddened that my little sweet girl might be making a turn to pre tween angst and attitude. I was not ready for this and just wanted my sweet girl back.

That leads me Wednesday when she came home early from school because she wasnt' feeling well. I don't remember what brought it up but sometimes our kids choose random times to share things. She shared with me that her friend (a boy we'll call J) gave her a letter and a little snickers candy bar. This little boy had a habit of giving her things over the years. They were in the same kindergarten class and 1st grade. His gifts were mostly toys and candy and one time he even gave her a $20 bill, but that was returned :) This year they are in different 2nd grade classrooms.

While volunteering in her classroom over the years, I've had the privilege to get to know most of the kids in her class. J is nice and sweet but I could tell he was a bit different socially. OK, back to the letter. As I was reading it, Megan shared with me that the previous day, J had approached her and asked her to be his friend. She promptly said yes, and then he told her that he had asked lots of kids in his class and everyone had said no except her. As he was sharing this, he started to cry. Megan said she reached over and wiped his tear away.

The whole thing brought me to tears. It saddened me that this little boy was lonely for friends and the fact that my daughter would befriend him just went straight to my heart. My sweet girl was still there, that was the best news of all for me.

Here's what the letter said:

Dear Magen I am vary Happy that I ask you if I can be your friend I always try to ask you.

I don't know what's down the parenting road for us, but for now I will hold this near and dear.

Thank you Lord for creating her with a compassionate heart to love those around her, may she continue to show Your love to others in this way.

Tea Party

2010-07-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

If you've never been to Myrtle's Tea house in Ridgefield, you are missing out on lots of girlie fun. We went recently to celebrate my mom and sister's birthdays. It was my and my girls' first time there and I can't wait to go back.

Pink hot chocolate...what could be cuter?

Katelyn was a little skeptical, but she couldn't resist!

All the food was fab!

Good-bye Myrtle...we'll be back soon!

Good Bye Pre K, Hello Kindergarten!

2010-06-25T23:06:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, it seems that Katelyn changed before my very eyes this year. She started the school year as a shy little 4 year old and by the time the school year ended, she had grown physically, academically and socially. She and her friend Kate really helped each other come out of their shy shells this year. There were days when she woke up in the morning and I could swear she was an inch taller than when I had put her to bed the night before.

(take a peak at the front door pics from the first day of school and the last day of school relative to the lock on the door...even though she is wearing sandals with heels on the last day of school, she definitely grew a lot this year!)

She is reading some starter books and shows a real interest in continuing to learn to read. It's exciting to see her excitement! I'm proud of you Katelyn for trying to new things and getting out of your comfort zone!!! I can't wait to see what Kindergarten brings!

First day of pre-k

First day photo with Mrs. Lo

Last day of Pre-k

last day of school pose by the front door

good bye Mrs Lo, we will never forget you!! Thanks for a great year!

Schoooools out for Summer!

2010-06-25T22:32:00.000-07:00

It's interesting and understandable how friends and family will notice your kids growing and looking older, but it's really weird to actually see it happen before my very eyes. This was one of those years where I feel like I woke up and they just looked different to me!

Megan had an awesome 1st grade year. She had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Miller, and made some great friends. I had the privilege to make frequent appearances in her classroom and am VERY thankful that Mrs. Miller was so welcoming to having Katelyn be a pseudo 1st grader when we visited. I have to say Katelyn blended right in and the other students genuinely enjoyed having her there as much as she enjoyed being there. Megan became a real reader this year. Super proud of you Megan!

First day of 1st grade!

I think this was the second day of school

Mrs. Miller and Megan during the first week of school

and a whole school year later on the last day of school....

Thank you Mrs. Miller for a wonderful year...we will miss you terribly!

Yankee Doodle Dance Machine

2010-06-23T12:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3qzaD84kq0

Trying to post this video is further proof that I'm not a techie! First of all, I video taped this from my dinasaur camcorder with a TAPE and all. Then I converted the tape to a dvd and tried to link it to the blog unsuccessfully. My last attempt was to upload to youtube and then link it, soooo I hope it works!

We had a really fun time at the recital although it was a LONG day and has taken us a few days afterward to recoup. Disclaimer on the video...Megan watched it and was quite embarrassed even though I think it's adorable, so please don't reference the finale with her, she will kill me if she knew I posted it like this, but it's too cute not to share!!!

Great job dancers!!! See ya next spring!!!

DWTS

2010-06-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

For most people, the day after Sunday is Monday, but this spring, the day after Sunday was Dancing with the Stars Day. I'm not sure how or when the obsession started, but it grows with each new season.

Dancer Chelsea and Jake the Bachelor were early favorites for Katelyn. She got really attached and this was a sad day.....

After I stopped the recording, there were REAL tears and lots of them!

But not long after they departed, her second favorite couple, Dancer Derek Hough and hip hop singer Nicole took first place on her list. This was them watching the finale. You can't really tell, but Katelyn tries to cover Megan's eyes because they were both too nervous to watch.

The thrill of victory and the agony of Defeat all wrapped up in spray tans and pretty costumes...can't wait for next season...

She's Crafty

2010-05-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

Not really, but every once in a while I give it a shot! I don't want my daughters to grow up and say that I never "crafted" with them! We started out with 6 prego spaghetti jars, scrapbook paper, mod podge and some paint brushes.

We had lots of fun and this is what we ended up with....

These cute little jars are actually money/coin jars. You see....we are starting our allowance program!!!

I'm excited to try this and REALLY hope it sticks. It's just as much work tracking as it is to actually do the chore, but two weeks into it and it seems to be working. There are plenty of ways to do allowance, but this is what we've decided to do:

Each child gets $1 per year old they are (Megan gets $7/week and Katelyn gets $5). From that they divide their earnings to each jar as follows:

50% savings

30% fun

10% giving

10% tithe

Each girl has their own chore chart and they have magnets for each chore completed. If they miss something, they are deducted. This program is as much for me as it is for them. I was doing too much random spending on them and it was not teaching them the value of money. The idea is that I will no longer purchase "random Target items" such as movies, toys, gum, etc. This will come out of their fun money. When their classroom has fundraisers, they can give from their giving jar. When they want to give the man on the corner with the cardboard money, they can. Savings isn't touched, we are just keeping that in their piggy bank.

Just yesterday, Katelyn and I were at the mall at Build-a-bear with a gift certificiate for $10 and that's all we spent. We looked through all the items and determined what she could purchase and she made her selection. Did she push for more?? Most definitely, but I reminded her that she could save up her fun money and buy whatever outfit she wanted. There was no whining or fussing. She is my "ask for everything under the sun and hope I've caught mom at a weak moment" girl, so I need this structure as much or more than she does. One small step towards financial $mart$!!!

So back to the crafting....I have a LOT to learn, such as a sheet is NOT a great protector of mod podge (called modge podge by yours truly up until quite recently). Thus, our kitchen table is currently being stripped down and restained. The mod podge was the last straw...the table was in bad shape! I won't give up the crafting, hopefully I won't wait 3 more years to attempt something new!

Wedding Celebration

2010-04-20T22:05:00.001-07:00

We had the privilege of attending Heather's wedding on a beautiful day on February. It was fun to get all dressed up with the whole family and join in the celebration

cousin of the bride!

Dancing with Daddy!

Daddy and his girls!

This photo has nothing to do with the wedding....Megan's class celebrated the 100th day of school and they were asked to dress like a 100 year old. I forgot until the night before, so I dumped the dress up box upside down and dug until I found this shrug and threw some baby powder in her hair! Happy 100th day!

Valentine's Day 2010

2010-04-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

We had our 2nd annual family Valentine's Dinner. The girls remembered it from last year and requested to "eat with candles" again like we did last year....looks like the start of a fun tradition! They selected Tator Tot Casserole for their main entree and Damon and I had prawns and steak. Megan decided she liked our prawns better than the casserole (who can blame her) and proceeded to eat a few too many. How do I know she ate a few too many? The tummy ache started around 9 and ended around 1am when she surrendered the prawns into the big white porcelain bowl so they could start their own flushed away adventure. Poor thing...I must have mumbled something about the prawns being too rich because for the whole next week before she ate anything, she asked me if it was "rich" or not.

I made home made valentines again this year for the girls, a poet I am not...my brain was sore for quite some time afterwards!

Even though Valentines Day is advertised as more of a romantice holiday, I have chosen for it to be a day to celebrate those special people that I LOVE with all my heart.

Our matchy matchy things are far and few between now, so when I see it, I must document the cuteness! I love you sweet girls....Happy Valentines Day!

Sock Hop

2010-04-20T21:20:00.001-07:00

WAAAAAY back in February, Megan school did a "family fun night" sock hop dance. A FUN time was had by all. Thank you to the volunteers that gave up lots of time and energy to make it so enjoyable for all of us!

I have to give myself props for Katelyn's little outfit...It was Friday before Valentines day (heart shirt-check), it was also the day of the opening ceremonies of the olympics (red/white/blue USA scarf in hair-check) AND we did our best to look the part (50's outfit-check)

Don't look for any poodle skirts here folks, it was a quick 5 minute scramble to see what we could throw together!

she hula hooped her little heart out!

Everyone had a great time!

We can be quiet.....

And we can be LOOOOOUUUUUUDDDD!!!

Our Baby Dolls

2010-02-16T23:26:00.000-08:00

Grandma Sherry outdid herself with these cute hand made doll outfits. The girls will cherish them forever...Complete with tights and sweaters. Wow, I'm in awe....especially since I still struggle with getting a button sewn on...

SURPRISE....It really did snow in Vancouver

2010-02-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

Nice snow angel Megan!

This might be the first time Katelyn has enjoyed the snow!

Nothing brings the neighbors together like snow!

Katelyn's had enough, she's checking it all out from indoors!

Wow, is that ME in a picture....that's almost as unusual as the snow! The snowman is coming right along!

In my 32 years of living in Vancouver, I do believe this bit of snow we got in late December was the biggest surprise snow we've ever had. Anyone who has grown up around here knows that if snow is even on the radar, we hear about it for DAYS before it happens, IF it even happens at all. This came out of the blue and surprised LOTS of commuters. It only took Damon 2.5 hours, which was good compared to the horror stories I was hearing about.

Anyway, snow is snow whenever it comes, so we enjoy it while it lasts.....which, in this case, was about 24 hours!

Christmas Day

2010-02-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhhh Christmas morning!

Grandma Sherry hand knitted outfits for the girls dolls, even tights! We missed you this Christmas Grandma and Grandpa!

For some reason, this Strawberry Shortcake doll was Katelyn's obsession, she simply had to have it. I think she's played with it twice since Christmas...

What a gorgeous day it was on Christmas Day! So fun to get outside and enjoy it! Megang got a new scooter, so we took it out for a spin.

It was a small Corrigan gathering for dinner. Brian brought a friend he knew through living in Dallas, so we had one extra (he's taking the picture!)

I borrowed Katelyn's snuggie for gift giving!

family photos~

The best Nana and Poppy~

Christmas Eve

2010-02-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

We headed over to my sister's home on Christmas Eve after we attended our church service. The kids were up to their normal behavior in no time!!

My two little precious gifts from God...besides sending His son Jesus, these two will always be my favorite gifts from above....

Meeting the Big Guy at Macy's

2010-02-16T22:33:00.000-08:00

What started out as a family tradition, somehow slipped to the wayside about 5 years ago...whoops! Well, no better time than the present to enjoy the festivities!

I don't know what's up with blogger, but I can't figure out how to post these pictures in order and it won't let me move them around, soooo please enjoy them in whatever order they appear...thank you!! The girls wrote their letter to Santa..

Santa didn't look any different than I remember him 5 years ago!! Wow!

Waiting until December 23rd to head to DT means waiting in a line for almost an hour, what a patient daddy!

Sad that my kids missed out on this tradition! Megan was not quite 3 the last year they actually ran the little cars around the track.

What a fun little playland!

I reallyhope it isn't 5 more years before we visit again!

More December Fun!

2010-02-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

We soooo enjoyed a nice visit with Uncle Brian who flew in from Dallas for a couple weeks in December.
Katelyn's preschool Christmas program with her friend Kate(they are known at school as the Kates)

Brian and I at a Blazer game. Why are we wearing Husky gear you ask? Well, three Husky alum suited up that night, so we wanted to give a shout out to UW!

Megan's classroom Christmas party. We made candy trains!

The teachers are sooo smart...they included a stick of gum in the kids' supplies so the kids would chew gum while they made their trains...love those teachers!

Later that night, I got to go to Amy's annual ornament exchange. We started a tradition, probably over 10 years ago to get our picture taken...lookin good ladies!

At Katelyn's class party, they made snowmen out of tube socks...cute!

Katelyn's class memorized Psalm 23, loved hearing them recite it!

Early December activites

2010-02-16T19:27:00.001-08:00

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....catch up

Here's Damon and I at our favorite Christmas party!!!

The hostest with the mostest, thanks Lisa and Michael for all the work you do to make a fun evening for your friends!

The tradition continues

Adventure Dental always throws a really fun party for the kiddos!

Our home group "grown ups only" dinner

I'm racking my brain to remember the name of this church that hosted this Bethlehem Village celebration. It was such a great evening, we unfortunately had to rush through, but next year for sure we will get there early and take our time to enjoy all the wonderful activities. The church was on Mill Plain up in the heights near Devine.

Our blessed little Christmas tree...what a great beginning to a fun Christmas season! It was Katelyn's turn to put the star on the tree...great job Kate!

If You Ever Wondered....

2010-02-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

If you ever wondered what it would be like to do a photo sitting at JCPenny with all the grandchildren, you are in luck. I just happened to hit record on my camera when the chaos was in full swing. You might think this is funny, you might think this is sad, either way, it's a snapshot into what it would be like to photograph 10 children ages:
5 mo,
11 mo
2 1/2
4
4 1/2
5
7 1/2
10
11
12

Most of the footage is of my niece, little M, who is going through a stage of being scared of the photo studio. We offered everything from candy to trips to disneyland (that one was my idea and I got major stink eye from my brother). With out further delay....

After all that, I'm pleasantly surprised that the picture turned out as good as it did! The young little potographer did a great job. After MANY unpleasant experiences at JCP, I'm happy to report, this one went fairly smoothly considering all she had to work with!

Behold, the fruit of our labor...

If you look really closely, you can see a little piece of candy in the hands of sweet little M!

A November to Remember

2010-01-13T16:20:00.001-08:00

We had a wild, crazy and FUN month of November.....

We had a fun playdate with friends before they moved far away :(

Katelyn's class went on a nature walk to collect nature items with all the different fall colors. It was a cold but pleasant day. All but one of the kids enjoyed themselves....hmmm, who's missing from this class picture?

That ONE child who wanted to go home! I have a growing collection of pictures very similar to this....still love ya Katelyn!

Jenny Cochell shared this fun idea for a fall activity: paint egg carton sections with fall colors, then take it with you on your walk and "collect" items of each color.

Hot chocolate wiped away the tears and we got a "sort of" pleasant look going...that was as good as it got folks!

We had a blast this evening on our family date night. We started off at Mcmenamins, then headed over to Big Al's to play games. We will have to do this again very soon!

All aboard for The Polar Express train ride....

Jammies were a must wear!

The big guy made an appearance and was well received!

Katelyn warmed up to Santa by the time we had to head home...

Great time with family and friends

CYT's production of High School Musical 2 combined with a birthday party...what could be better?

Katelyn's preschool class Thanksgiving feast

Then off to have lunch at Megan's school. We got to watch the principal get"silly stringed" by the 5th graders for making their goal collecting donations.

Thanksgiving at Nana and Poppy's

Pretty as a picture!

Festival of Trees at The Quay...we had lots of favorites!

Off to get our Christmas tree...I think I took this shot, but not sure...we are in the truck on the way.

We had extra helpers assist with picking the BEST tree ever!

Great Photo Katelyn!

And that's a wrap for the month of November....now only one and a half months behind....woohoo!

Fall Family Fun

2009-12-26T19:53:00.001-08:00

I guess I'm like a lot of you out there. I'm struggling to maintain the blog! Facebook takes up my time and even when I sit down to update my blog, I somehow find myself logging on to facebook instead. It seems easier and quicker, BUT, documenting family activities on the family blog is something I'm going to try to do better in 2010!

To kick off my better intentions, I'll do a clean sweep of family fun from the fall and begin to bring us up to date!

For the first time in about 7 years, we headed out east to Joe's Place farms for our family pumpkin patch outing. We hadn't been out there for fall fun since Megan was about 3months old. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and we had a great time! We started off with a hay ride and they gave us some yummy apples to munch on during the ride.

Next we were off to pick out our pumpkins. Not sure how many more years they will be able to hop on for a ride, but they were able to talk their dad into it again this year!

The girls and I with the lovely fall sun beaming on us in 2009.....

and just about the same spot and time of day 7 years prior. That's Megan in the front pack. That year, we tried to pick out a pumpkin that weighed as much as she did!Here's that sweet baby girl 7 years later having a "hay day" in the hay maze. Wow, the years fly by so fast! We found hay in her hair later that night as her hair was almost the exact same color!

We enjoyed attending our cousins football games! Nothing says fall quite like the helmets crashing and whistles blowing! The girls loved cheering for their cousins (the fact that Casey's team was The Bears made it even more fun! How many 7 year old girls out there have their own Bears jerseys??)

In late October, we took the girls to Disney on Ice. I remember going as a kid (they were called Ice Capades back then before Disney ruled the world) and it's something we've wanted to do with the girls for quite a while. I'm actually proud of myself for holding off for as long as we did. I typically jump the gun and want to take them places when they aren't quite old enough to enjoy it. They were the perfect ages to enjoy it for the first time. We all had a blast (Nana came with us too) and can't wait to go back!

Megan wanted to dress up like a disney princess but Katelyn did not. I promise you, when Megan left the house, none of her belly was showing....lesson learned by mom!

I got to chaperone Megan's class on a fieldtrip to the Fire Department. We were close enough to walk and had a great weather day. They learned about safety and what to do in case there was a fire at home. They also each got to knock over a cone with the fire hose. What a fun outing!

I am so thankful that Megan makes friends fairly easily. Her best little friend moved away last month and I'm very thankful she has made some new friends making it a little easier to not see her friend every day. This is a picture of Megan and a new classmate. They really enjoy each other's company and every time I volunteer in her class, her new little friend tells me what great friends they are! What a couple of cutie patooties!

To be quite honest, Halloween is my least favorite "holiday" with the kids. We focus on the non-scary and spooky aspects and do our best to celebrate the fall harvest season instead of THE actual Date. Katelyn made cute Dorothy and Megan made an adorable little kitty. Here are some front door shots before we headed out for the evening. Megan did a great job of staying "in character" for each photo op!

Before we headed out to our harves party, we stopped by our neighbor's home to say hi to our friends. All the girls looked so cute!

family photo!

We had fun at First Evangelical's Harvest Party. Katelyn attends preschool there, so she enjoyed seeing some friends and they both enjoyed playing games and winning prizes.

Our last stop of the evening was a drive-by to the Storaci's neighborhood to say hi to a few friends in the neighborhood. What a fun night!

Top 10 Reasons Katelyn Needs her Own Camera

2009-11-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

A photographer in the making? Possibly. She is petitioning hard for her own camera and her petitions have not fallen on deaf ears. The childrens digital camera has already been purchased and tucked away for Christmas. Shh, don't tell. In the meantime, I will rest assured that my camera will soon be just that, MY CAMERA and little hands will not sneak it away for a session of self portraits. If she wasn't so darned cute....

Hurry up Christmas, Katelyn NEEDS her camera!!!

Girlfriends Run is Done!

2009-11-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks since the big run. It was an amazing experience.

I was a bundle of nervous energy the morning of the race, but once we got going, I tried to just put it in perspective...I was just out there on a nice Sunday morning going for a nice long run with over a thousand of my girlfriends. The weather was perfect, the course was nice and flat and the scenery was beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a better day. Before the race even started, I ran into a bunch of people I knew from a variety of places and instantly I knew it was going to be just fine because I was going to turn it into a social thing, and that always makes working out more fun! One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing all the dads and kids and families along the race route. It was also fun to cheer on the leaders and other friends that passed us on the way back. It was such a great encouraging environment.

The highlight of my day was seeing my own family along the way. They had made me a poster and cheered me on from three different locations. Damon and Megan even rolled it out right before the finish line so we could run through it, it was priceless. My mom and dad were there and my mom was so proud of me she even teared up!! Wow mom! To think that my finish line would have been a half way point in a marathon is sort of out of my realm of thinking! I have absolutely NO DESIRE to EVER run a marathon. In fact, I really want to buy the t-shirt that says "13.1 isn't half of anything" because I couldn't agree with it more! I was sore for about three days, just in my quads, but it was really painful. What's the saying? No pain no gain??

To think it all started with a friends suggesting it and me of course saying, NO WAY, I'm not a runner. But sometimes it just feels good to prove yourself wrong, or just have a goal and go for it. I still don't consider myself "a runner" and I'm not sure I will do it again, but to start out barely being able to run 3 miles and to pretty much run 13, it was a feeling of "I did it!" There were women in all ages groups, there were runners, joggers, run/joggers, jog walkers and walkers and it really didn't matter, we were all there encouraging each other and being encouraged by those along the course.

I just watched a video clip that the organizers put together from the run. It actually shows footage of Lisa and I crossing the finish line and in an instant I was right back there! I was feeling the excitement, the accomplishment, the comraderie (if that is even a word) of girlfriends all around me. I was also feeling the pain, fatigue and soreness, but the excitement certainly trumped pain!

It felt great to cross that finish line. It felt even greater to cross it with my girlfriend!

Tamara invited us over for our "last supper" before the race, I ate A LOT!

Damon is running backward trying to take a picture of us!

Megan ran out to run with me for a bit...it was so encouraging seeing my family cheering me on!

Lisa being goofy!

see ya at the finish line!

Megan and Damon held the poster for us to run through right before the actual finish line!

My awesome and supportive family. Katelyn is upset because I tore the poster :)

We made it, friend!

Nicci, me, Amy, Lisa and Tamara after the race

Me with Sarah Miller (our salmon creek running scheduler) and Lisa

Nicci personified the word girlfriend by running with Tamara even though she was a bit injured and didn't officially enter the race, she ran almost the whole thing!

Megan took this picture of us post race!

I know you can't see it, but my name is on this list. I finished about 10 min behind my goal and it only bothered me for about two minutes! I let it go and enjoyed the moment!

Kristi and I after brunch after the race

Darcy (another salmon creek running buddy) with Sarah and myself

The party after the party at Lapellah, yummy breakfast! Kristi, Sarah, Ashley, Julie, Ashley's sister, me and Michelle...great job ladies! Ashley gets the trooper award for crossing the finish line with the worst injury! You are a champion in my eyes Ashley!

One Week from Today!

2009-10-11T18:55:00.001-07:00

Yes, the big week is finally here! The Girlfriends half marathon is a week from today and I have to say that I'm more excited than nervous. That fact alone is a complete miracle, but then again, I have six days to get those butterflies humming! I am so thankful for a group of girlfriends that have all helped me with my training. The list is very long and it makes me smile whenever I think about it. When I say help, that means a word of encouragement all the way to advise for training, all of it has helped prepare me.

So, is the next goal a full marathon, NO WAY! To be honest, I'm looking forward to getting back to my normal workout routine. My spin classes and cardio/weight circuit training classes are calling my name. To be honest, I feel like I'm in better shape after doing those classes than all this running. BUT, it has felt GREAT having a goal and working hard to get there. I NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER thougth I would do this. I have never run longer than a couple miles before, so each long run was the longest I have ever done. This Sunday at the race will be the longest I've ever run at 13.1 miles! My knees are not liking the running and my feet are quite sore, but I will press on to the goal I have set for myself. It is going to feel amazing crossing that finish line and seeing all my friends achieve their goal as well. If anyone out there is considering doing this, GO FOR IT!!! I am not a runner, if I can do this ANYONE CAN DO THIS! It has, however, taken quite a bit of training time that I was not quite prepared for. Some of these ladies with really little kids, WOW, I don't know how they are doing it, so thank you husbands out there for supporting us and allowing us to achieve this goal!

The countdown is on and I can't wait to check this one off the bucket list!!! Let's go get em girlfriends!

Gebhardt Gathering

2009-10-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

My cousin Matt and his family visited from Ohio in June and what a great time was had by all! Matt's sister (my cousin Sarah) lives in Sherwood/Tualitin area and hosted a gathering while they were visiting. Matt and Tonya have two girls Alexa and Aeryn who are almost exactly a year older then both of my girls. They had a blast playing together. We are so thankful they made the effort to visit us out here and we hope to see them again VERY soon!

Goofing around! These girls essentially had just met for the first time and they all just clicked! We wished we all lived closer!

All the girl cousins! Thanks Sarah for hosting such a fun afternoon!

And all the LITTLE girl cousins, wow, what a cute group of girls!

What family gathering is complete without a talent show? Alexa plays the violin beautifully and we were all in for a treat when she played a few songs for us!

Megan sang her favorite song "Jesus take the Wheel"

A lovely sunset to enjoy on the drive home!

School Days

2009-09-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

Here we are a few weeks into our school year and it's going really well! I have to admit that I was somewhat dragging my heels into September knowing that with both of my kids in school it represented an end of an era and that can be bittersweet. Gone are days at home with mom with no agenda and no where to be. We are on a tight morning schedule racing out the door earlier than we want to but it's going surprisingly well. Megan is happy when she wakes up in the morning and is excited to go to school. Even though none of her girlfriends from last year are in her class, she's busy making new friends and keeping the old ones too! I LOVE her teacher, I'm absolutely thrilled that she's in Mrs. Miller's class. Megan is doing great in school and we are very proud of her!

Katelyn is loving pre school at her own school. Hosanna is the perfect place for her and she's got a great teacher! She's making her own friends and having her own school experiences. My baby girls is growing up right before my eyes.

I've already gotten to volunteer in both their classrooms and I LOVE it. They love me being in there and it's a blast! It's going to be a great year and even though I get a little lumpy in my throat, I'm looking forward to all the school adventures waiting for us!

Katelyn started preschool a week before Megan, so she had her own very first day of school!

Megan and Katelyn together on Katelyn's first day of school.

Mrs. Lo, Katelyn's teacher. Mrs. Lo has taught Megan and cousins Casey and Jake!

Megan's first day of school

The girls' first day of school together...sad and happy all rolled together!

Megan's desk. Her teacher let's the kids sit on exercise balls so they can get their wiggles out while they learn.

Mrs. Miller...we can't wait to see what 1st grade holds!

Just for fun....my sweet little cutie enjoying football season with her favorite team, the bears!

Corrigan Back Yard Fun

2009-07-31T16:24:00.001-07:00

The end of June we gathered with my family for a couple of celebrations: Paulette's birthday and my brother and his wife's soon to be baby #3! It was a nice warm summer evening and we took full advantage of the kitchen downstairs. Since my grandmother moved to an assisted living home in November, we had full use of the kitchen downstairs which made it perfect for eating outside on the lawn. It was a great time and I hope we can do it again soon!

A little bit of relaxing

A little bit of croquet

A little bit of back yard soccer

A little bit of ice cream

A little bit of "swimming"

A little bit of beer....wait, you dont look 21....

A little bit of baby Annalise

A little bit of celebrating

A little bit of s'mores

A whole lot of family love...thanks for a fun afternoon Nana and Poppy! We love you!

Kindergarten Memories

2009-07-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

What a great school year Megan had! She loved her teacher, learned a lot and made great friends. Her favorite part about going to school was riding the bus with her bestie Allison. We can't wait for all day school next year!

Megan and Allison waiting for the bus

Megan bringing donuts to school the last week to celebrate summer birthdays

Last ride with Miss Karen, the VERY best Kindergarten bus driver!

End of the year BBQ. Katelyn and I joined Megan's class for a yummy hot dog lunch!

Katelyn showing me her "school work" at home

Annual "end of the year stand by the front door" picture

Kindergarten graduation day. I know a lot of people think the whole thing is silly to celebrate kindergarten "graduation" as if they are graduating from something instead of simply just heading into 1st grade. However, I think it's great to celebrate all of life's fun things, so I was pleased to celebrate with all the moms, dads and grandparents. It was a very cute little ceremony!

Megan and Katelyn before the ceremony

Megan's name on the list of graduates

Auntie Paulette joined us for the ceremony

Receiving her diploma

Proud Mama!

Megan and Allison after graduating

Megan and her teacher Ms. Hochhalter

Last ride home for the school year

Good-bye Kindergarten, Hello 1st grade!!!

Things that Bring me Joy

2009-07-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with sadness lately. The tears that I fight seem to flow freely a lot more often that I'm comfortable with. I'm dealing with it and one of the things that helps is focusing on things that make me joyful.

This little video might not make you laugh, but it makes me laugh. I love hearing the people I love laughing. Casey, my nephew, recently bought an Ipod touch with his saved money. He found some sponge bob cartoon thing on there and whatever it was, all four of these girls (my girls plus my two cute nieces) thought it was the funniest thing ever.

My sweet husband makes me happy AND makes me joyful. He 100% loves me unconditionally and completely accepts me just the way I am, even in a mood and even when I don't deserve it. Date nights make me very happy too, and this one was an exceptional date night.

Making ice cream runs in the mustang....how much better does summer get?

This precious little curly haired girl that challenges me daily but warms my heart all at the same time. This little lump of love that snuggles in with us in the middle of the night and cuddles with me in the morning. I gave up fighting it and have instead just enjoyed each moment of it.

My first born daughter, nurturer, helper, navigator for her younger sister. Sweet and sensitive, goes at her own pace and embraces all that life has to offer. Hugging her each morning and just loving on her makes me so happy.

I'm trading my sorrow for the joy of the Lord.....

Making Memories with Nana

2009-06-27T22:25:00.001-07:00

My mom started a tradition of taking the grandkids on a train ride for their 4th birthday and last month, it was Katelyn's turn! Nana brough a special goody bag of treats and even Katelyn's own disposable camera to capture the activities (my scanner is broken, so just trust me on a bunch of cute Katelyn angled pics). My mom has a dear friend that lives in Longview, so she and Katelyn climbed aboard and arrived in Longview before they knew it! They had lunch with my mom's friend Vicki and hung out at their house for a bit, then headed back to Vancouver. It was Katelyn's first train ride!

I love so many things about my mom, but now that I'm a mother myself, I can reflect on my childhood and realize that my mom's priorities have not changed in all the years that I can remember. Her priorities are the people she loves. Always have been, always will be. Thanks mom for making us all feel special and loved. Thanks mom for making special memories with my kids. They will always know how much they are loved by you!

Getting checked in at the Amtrak counter (this Amtrak lady did not want to be in the picture, but we convinced her it was necessary :)

Waiting for the train

All aboard!!!

And they're off...

about three and a half hours later, they're baaaaaaack!

Megan ran ahead to greet them, welcoming them back from their long trip away from home :)

Thanks Nana for a fun memory!

Our Last Lazy School Day

2009-06-16T21:32:00.001-07:00

While tomorrow might be the last hectic school day for lots, it will be the very last lazy school day for us! Forever! (well, I guess there is that ocasional late start day right??? Ok, no need to be so dramatic)

We have thoroughly enjoyed PM kindergarten and no preschool. This translates into lazy school days. Don't get me wrong, we do actually get up and out the door eventually. I've been quite faithful in getting to Lake Shore at least twice a week (for my 10:15 class) and Summit View Mom's twice a month. Here's a dirty little secret: I've only had to set my alarm about 15 times this whole year, that's barely over once a month (for the school year). My darling children usually sleep in until 8, sometimes it's a little earlier. I have LOVED every minute of it. Jammies until we feel like getting dressed, leisurely breakfast, cartoons, games, puzzles, reading books and whatever else we feel like. If you've noticed, quite a lot of our pictures are in jammies (like the lost tooth....I think it was around 10am), but who's keeping track :) ??? When the doctor or dentist tries to schedule our appts for 8am or even 9, they are met with a blank stare and a shaking head and a "what other times do you have available?"

I admit to feeling an occasional pang of guilt, but then I quickly realize how soon this luxury will be gone, so instead I've just tried to enjoy my time with my girls. I know full well sleeping in will be a distant memory when September rolls around. My Megan is not a morning person and neither am I, but this will change when all day 1st grade forces us into a new routine. Soooo, when the rest of the world is looking forward to lazy summer days, we will very soon be in training mode to prepare for September. Good-bye lazy school days, I love you and will miss you more than words can say!

The First Lost Tooth

2009-06-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

She waited and waited and waited and waited. She saw all her friends lose teeth. She asked when it would be her turn and was told the tooth would get loose and come out when it was ready to. She's over six and a half so any day we knew it would happen then lo and behold after checking for a wiggle, she was soooo excited to feel a little movement. There was no turning back now, this tooth was getting looser by the minute. A couple weeks later during the daily wiggle-fest and while watching some morning cartoons, I heard a scream and was informed someone was bleeding. I was on the computer and ran in to see who got hurt. The scream sooned turned into a squeal of excitment. It was out! Her first lost tooth! We rinsed it off and almost lost it down the drain in our adrenalin rush, but it made it under the pillow that night and off it went with the tooth fairy! What a fun milestone to experience!

Now we can gear up for the "big wait" for boobs and periods....oh joy! Luckily I have a few years :)

Her new "look"

making all her calls to share the excitement!

Masters March Madness

2009-06-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

March is a fun but busy month for us. Katelyn's birthday, my birthday and St Patty's day. My family is Irish, so we have fun celebrating as an extended family each year. We settled on a bunny theme for Katelyn's birthday party. Why a bunny theme? Well, Kate's bday is March 12th and target and the dollar store are stocked full of Easter stuff, so I figured it would be a good theme! We wanted to keep it simple, so we invited a few girls over after school was out and played games and had a cupcake. Everyone had a great time!

We tried the cupcake cake and it turned out really cute! The lady at Safeway (yes, I bought it) said it was her first attempt at a bunny and I thought she did great.

One of the games I had planned was Chubby Bunny. As we got set to play it, I realized that it would be a bad idea to have the kids choke on marshmellows, so luckily Daddy was home and we made him do it! The girls thought it was hilarious!

Party girls!

Happy St Patrick's Day! The Corrigan family gathers each St Patrick's Day to enjoy a traditional Irish meal together. It's always a great time! My brother Kyle and his daughter came from Hillsboro, my parents and my sister and her family Even Build-a-bear dressd for the event!

My mom, sister and me!

March birthday girls!

For the final March event....my birthday! As usual, my birthday request involves some pampering and tranquility. Shannon joined me for a mini spa day which included a facial and a massage. We then finished the evening at PF Changs for dinner. For my actual birthday, I got to pick the dinner location (Beaches) and then we attempted to go bowling afterwards (it's something we've done for the past two years on my birthday) but apparently it was league night everywhere so we called it a night!

My girls and me at Beaches

Date Nights

2009-06-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

One of the benefits with having two kids is the ease in which we can do one on ones with each of them. There's just something about having them alone that makes the time special and, frankly, makes for just about perfect behavior!

We were debating about whether or not Damon should take both girls to the Daddy Daughter Dance and he decided he'd like to take them each separately to get more quality time. He decided to take Megan this year and Katelyn next year. I can appreciate that, but I'm the second born and it just plain stinks to be left behind! I was praying for a special activity Damon could take Katelyn too for our first Friday Date Night and was thrilled to find that Beauty and the Beast was playing at Washougal HS, what could be better for a little four year old?? Megan and I decided we would hang out at the mall and be "mall rats." She then decided she didn't want to be a rat, so we would be "mall mice."

Katelyn and Damon before they headed off to Beauty and the Beast play

My lovely girls!

Megan had a build a bear gift card, so we took her build a bear with us to pick out an outfit. She dumped her entire piggy bank in her pink purse just in case she needed more money for the outfit!

Here's the outfit she picked out. She thought it was neat that we could make the bunny stand on the table by itself in the heels! Megan and I had THE BEST time together. It was so fun just walking around holding hands and not being rushed off to another activity. I'm pretty sure she's a "quality time" love language kid. I can't wait until our next date night together!
Katelyn and Damon also had a fab time....this little princess didn't make it all the way home before she tuckered out!

Our next Friday night consisted of Megan and Damon enjoying the Daddy Daughter Dinner Dance. What a special time they had!

Megan loves to dress up....so does her Daddy.....NOT!

This was not only hard for Daddy, but Mommy too. She eventually just carried it with her! We'll opt for the bracelet one next time!

Sister picture

Katelyn and I decided to go see Bolt at the theater. A movie is always a hit with her!

Me and my girls!

Damon took the camera with him but Megan moved just a little too fast and he never got a shot of her dancing from the front.

Daddy's girl!

Valentines Day

2009-05-24T23:47:00.001-07:00

So I'm playing catch up with the blog. I know it's almost June, but I need to back track a bit and get caught up one all the "moments" that I haven't posted! I have this need to be chronological, so I'm jumping back to Februrary to get bring myself to June eventually!

Valentines Day is a special day in our house. Even though this holiday is typically for romantic love, I have enjoyed making this day a day I can show love to my girls as well as my husband. I think Valentines Day should be about taking time to tell those special people in our life how much we love them!

During the afternoon, Damon took the girls down the street to get their nails painted. I was envisioning a quick paint job and they'd be back in a half hour or so. An hour and a half later, they returned to show me their fingernails AND toe nails painted. After viewing the pictures, I realized they had gotten full spa pedicures and manicures, complete with nails painted and little white flowers on all the nails. Wow, what a treat from Daddy, because mommy wouldn't have paid for all that (I humbly admit to a bit of a Jon and Kate plust eight moment of getting a fairly annoyed at him spending that much money on the girls since they are still quite young, but later apologized. How can you be mad at a guy for wanting to spoil his little sweet girls a bit and making a fun Valentine memory?). They felt very special and loved by their daddy!

Under the dryer

The finished product

Beautiful nails girls!

For the past two years, I have made home made valentines cards/poems for Damon and the girls. I am certainly no poet, but they seem to enjoy me making silly poems for them to express my love for them. I hope I have enough creativity to continue this tradition! This year, I made a special dinner (notice I didn't say gourmet dinner). I made the girls favorite dish, chicken puffs. I tried to think of other things I could make that would be either pink or red or heart shaped and came up with coloring apple sauce pink and also made chocolate dipped strawberries. For dessert, we made rice krispie treats and cut them out in heart shapes and decorated with red hots. We got to eat in the dining room with candles and no one got burnt! We had a great evening together!

Our days of matchy matchy are coming to an end, but I couldn't resist one last possible matchy opportunity. For Valentines Day, I got the girls matching shirts and took a few pictures to make cards out of. They indulged me for a couple posing pictures

So cute!

I threw in these last two pictures just for fun. Some of our favorite books are The Little Critter Books and Megan was attempting to duplicate his little standing pose that he does in the beginning of the books...I thought it was funny!

To Cabo and Back with no Swine Flu

2009-05-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am, back to real life. Obviously we decided to go. It was not an easy decsion, but we weighted all the facts and decided we were going to go for it. Can I just tell you I'm soooooo glad we went. We were VERY diligent about washing our hands and wiped down our airplane seat and our entire condo unit. We could see that MANY others decided to cancel. It was quite slow down there. We didn't mind, we had a great time! I brought masks, gloves, airborne, vitamins, my own hand soap, hand sanitizers and used all but the masks and gloves. A few people wore them on the plane and most of the employees at the Cabo airport wore them but other than that, we didn't see any!

For those of you that facebook and blog, these might be a repeat, but when I'm having a bad day or when the rain comes back, I will go to my happy place and remember what a fun and relaxing trip we had (sigh...........). So there's your warning...I'm posting way more pictures that I should but when you travel with another couple, there are sooo many more photo ops! Speaking of travel partners, thank you Michael and Lisa for being such great travel partners. Laid back, go with the flow, just here to have fun....that's what I like! Also a HUGE shout out to the greatest husband ever. He gave me the BEST gift that week (besides just going, that in an of itself was HUGE), he handled EVERYTHING! All the money, all the paperwork, all the documents and I just got to me an arm decoration for the week, it was heavenly! It was a TRUE vacation from normal life!!

So here we are on our first day in Cabo. We are not at our resort, we are just finishing up with a time share presentation. Yes, we stooped that low for free stuff. I have to say we did not go looking for this. Time share sales are a HUGE business down there and it's very competitive to even get people to the presentations. We stepped off the plane and were bombarded immediately with sales reps. I tried to steer Damon clear of them, but he had free golf on his mind, so he "went to work" so to speak. Don't feel bad for these people, because you see, 8 years ago, we were the "suckers" that bought down there, so ever since then, we have NO problem saying no and since they hounded us in the first place just to attend, we figured, why not?? So that was the airport scene. Then we checked into our resort and were heading out the lobby and Damon wanted to stop to "activate" our free drink ticket. Before I could intercede because I knew it was a ploy to get us to attend their presentation, he was at the desk and the lady was VERY intent on getting us to THEIR presentation, so what do you do? Yep, you go to both and see how much free stuff you can score: Between the two couples we got $400 cash so the guys could go golfing, a dinner cruise for four, a massage, and $400 credit for our resort restaurants (there were four to choose from). I thought that was a pretty good haul for 5 hours of "work" don't you??

Finally done with the presentation....let's get to the sun!!!

Here's a view of the main lobby from our "wait for the shuttle" spot. Lots of pictures taken while we waited. Kind of a down side to that resort. It's built into a hill, so it's quite steep from the bottom to the top. Getting around the resort is easiest by golf cart shuttle, so we waited quite a bit!
Our second night down there we went in search for the bonfire at the sister resort next to ours. Apparently there was NO ONE down there enjoying the bonfire so they turned it off and even after we pleaded and begged they still would not turn it back on! This is the best picture of my spray tan face. I thought I had a great idea of spray tanning before we left so I'd alreadyhave some color on my when it was 90 degrees out and I wanted to wear my sundress or shorts. Well, it was a little darker than I would have liked AND I forgot the whole pool factore and how the chemicals will fade the tan quicker and since it was HOT, we were in the pool a lot, so note to self, better to skip the spray tan next time!

Ahhhhh, relaxation!! Hey honey you look HOT!! He dropped 20 lbs from January to May pretty much just by modifying food choices and portions. Way to go!!!!

Lovin the sky pool. This pool was at the top of the resort, great views! They closed this pool mid week due to low occupancy...sad, we loved having it to ourselves.

Our attempt at the "Oh what a feeling", you remember the old Toyota commercials?? So, this pool also closed mid week...check out all the empty chairs!

More pool pics...you can tell where we spent most of our time!

Making our way back up the hill in the golf cart!!

Out for dinner at Mi Casa....our last mask sighting for the week...we thought it was funny!

We had the place to ourselves basically. The Marachi band played a really good Santana song!

Hello friend....so glad you guys could join us!

The boys at Hemingways. It was a really cool cigar bar. Cubans are big down there and they "needed" one for their golf day!

The wait staff wasn't very busy so we had lots of opportunities for foursome pics!

The infamous "free" golf game

Our sunset dinner cruise. The boat had probably around 40 people on it and my estimate is that it could have held around 150, but again, we made the best of it and enjoyed the lovely sunset and nice people we met! The lady that took this pictures was so funny, I think Michael was making a joke and asked if she could get "our boat" in the picture with us. She took him seriously, so here is a pic of us with our "boat" in the background.

It's an up close pic of "our boat" nice huh?....notice the helipcopter on the back of it???

The much anticipated sunset picture on the sunset cruise!

I've been on enough of these to know better than to wear a poofy dress....guess I forgot again. I ended up tying a knot in the side of the dress to keep me from giving the guests more than they bargained for on the trip!

Down at the beach! We only went in the ocean water once. The waves a had a wicked strong undertow and almost took me out a couple times. I felt much better pool side!

Out to dinner one night...Lisa thought my dress was a nice accent to the wall art!

Stayed in and enjoyed a game of cards!

Enjoying our last evening in Cabo. I think we started planning our next trip over dinner! We decided both couples passed the "test" and we'd go again together!

Last moonlit picture.....

Last group photo as we loaded up with our suitcases to go check out

Last few minutes to soak in sun from the lobby deck

Our view from the lobby deck

Last pic of us in Cabo...thank you sweetie for the best week ever! Happy anniversary!

At the Portland airport...Lisa's family brought her flowers for Mother's day....how sweet!

Speaking of sweet....oh how I missed my sweet girls!!! We were sooo happy to see them!

Grandma helped the girls make welcome home animals out of bath towels and they were waiting on our bed when we came home. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for taking such good care of our most prized possessions!

That's all folks!! If you've lasted this long in this post, bless you! If you haven't, I understand! Great trip and Great to be back home!

A little nervous

2009-04-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

This trip to Mexico has been planned for almost a year. The stars basically have to align to be able to do a kidless vacation. My inlaws are arriving today from Chicago to watch the kiddos while we are gone. The winter has been long cold and wet and one of the only things that has gotten me through it is knowing that soon I'll be in the glorious sun and getting quality time with my husband and also get to enjoy some time with great friends.

Swine Flu.............Don't travel to Mexico unless it's completely necessary..........

What are we supposed to do???? Mexico is a big place and Cabo San Lucas is quite a distance from Mexico City where this is originating from. But still, we don't want to minimize the sitution. 99% of me is screaming out "MY TRAVEL TO MEXICO IS EXTREMELY NECESSARY!" But that last 1% feels really nervous about entering "the danger zone" of swine flu.

I guess it's never easy to leave town. The last time we went to Mexico I didn't get my passport until the day before we left. It was delivered Fed Ex and it had me on pins and needles until I had it in my sweaty palm! This time it's a little different, but still has me a little nervous.

We decided last night we will for sure go if there are no cases reported in Cabo, but if there are......I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!

10th Anniversary!

2009-04-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

10 years wow! What a journey it's been so far and lots more to come. I'm so thankful for my husband! When you get married you think you know your soon to be husband, but you don't really know this person until you live together day in and day out. It's kind of a gamble. Well, I hit the jackpot. I married an amazing man. He's hard working, selfless, laid back, agreeable, helpful, a team player, fun to be around, very loving. I am blessed! Has every day been wedded bliss?....no, but I can honestly say that we've been able to talk through just about any situation and wake up the next morning to a whole new day. I am more in love today than I was back then. God brought my heart to his and we joined together as husband and wife 10 years ago today. I was very thankful then and I am even more thankful today. I'm looking forward to each year God gives us together!

Now for something completely funny....

My girls have been going through my wedding scrapbook lately and they've been quite curious about my wedding dress.

Megan: Wow mommy, that dress is really pretty, do you still have it?

Me: Yes, I still have it.

Megan: Where is it?

Me: It's in my closet

Megan: Can you put it on?

Me: I don't know, I guess I could try and see....

Ta Da....what do you know, 10 years and two kids later, it still fits.....well most of me is the same, just a little "relocated" if ya know what I mean

10 years wiser, 10 years happier, here's to many many many more!

Happy 4th Birthday Katelyn

2009-03-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe my baby girl is four! I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane and share her "birthday" story! When I was pregnant with Katelyn, I worked PT at Vancouver School District in the HR dept. It was a desk job and somewhat low stress, so I planned to work up to delivery (same as with Megan). It was a Friday, March 11th, I stopped at Albertson's on the way home from work and picked up a few groceries and a movie for our entertainment for the evening (Ladder 49). The young male checker asked me if I had any big plans for the weekend and I said "hopefully have a baby!" His eyes got big and I stepped back to show him my big belly...he kind of looked embarrassed and I thought it was funny!

I went home did dinner, played with Megan, put her to bed and it was around 9:30 and we plopped on the couch to watch our movie. Soon after it started I felt my first contraction. I'd had contraction on and off for a couple weeks,so I didn't make anything of it. But they didn't let up through the whole movie. So, it got over and it was almost midnight and I finally mentioned to Damon that I kept having contractions. He got a piece of paper and a watch and we started tracking them. We were at that moment of what do you think we should do??? We headed upstairs and I laid in bed still tracking them while he started shaving....yes, shaving. I was like, what are you doing? He says, well, if we are going to the hospital, I should probably shave.

I responded, maybe we should think about packing my bag (it was on my list of things to do that weekend), or maybe put the car seat in the car (also on the list). I wasn't due for 10 more days and Megan was only four days early, so I just didn't figure she would come this early.

It was now 1am and I realized my parents were overnight in McMinnville and my sister and her family were in Disneyland and that was ii for in town family...hmmm what to do for the 2 1/2 year old asleep in the room next to us??? The contractions were still coming, so we decided to call my parents in McMinnville. Their cel phones were turned off, so I had to wake up my aunt so she could go wake up my parents...I felt really bad, but what better reason to wake up a sleeping house than for the birth of a baby! This better be for real, I was thinking!

They got to Vancouver around 3am and off we went! The contractions were getting a little uncomfortable now which was good, it meant it was the real deal! Damon was excited to "speed to the hospital" because when else do you get a good excuse like that to speed? He wanted to safely "run" a red light too, but no one was on the streets and we got all greens :) Poor Damon!

We got to the hospital and what do you know...my neighbor the nurse checked us into triage! That was funny! It was great having a friend help us out like that. I was a keeper at 4-5 cm, so we transferred to our room. I sort of wanted to see how long I could go before an epidural, but after an hour or so, I thought bag this, I know I'm getting one, so let's cut to the chase! Let's get those fluids going and ring the anesthesiologist (ok, I just guessed at that spelling and spell check just said it was spelled right, so I'm impressed with myself!). I eventually got the guy with the large needle (around 6:30am) and can I just say, it was NOT the lovely experience that I had for the first child...bad nerve pain and for the first hour of the epidural, my blood pressure dropped and though for sure I was going to hurl, but I did not and I eventually stabilized. Gone was the pain, but also almost gone were the contractions....so here comes pitocin to get things going again. They broke my water and started pitocin when I was still at 6cm at 9:15am. They checked me at 9:50am and I was fully dialated and started to push. After pushing through two sets of contractions, they noticed the baby's heart rate was dropping, so they decided to help her out with a vacuum. On the third push, out she came at 10:03am! I was thrilled to see her so quickly (much better than 2 1/2 hours of pushing with big sister!). I learned a bit later, that her umbilical cord was pretty short, so as she was moving down the birth canal, it was stretching and causing stress to the heart rate, so the vacuum worked great to get her out quickly!

Our first impressions of her was that she was a little peanut and she had big bright eyes. She weighed in at a whopping 6lbs even. We weren't completely set on her name, so we took a look at her and decided she looked like a Katelyn!

I just happened to have Damon take this picture about four hours before labor started March 11 (it was in the 70's that week...far cry from this week!)

This was the next picture on my camera, about 14 hours after the above picture taken...it's actually 3/12/05, not sure why the camera date was wrong

new mom...

family of four!

Big sister

Two months old...by this time, I was being made aware of this little personality, or should I say big personality. She knew what she wanted and what she didn't want and that was that. She did NOT want a bottle, she did NOT want to sleep without screaming for a long time, she DID want to see me at least every three hours all night long...at this point, I think she was sleeping in the swing...whatever worked to get her to sleep. I was being made aware that me sleeping all night would not happen for a LONG time. But isn't she cute???

Megan loved being a big sister...she's been a great one since day one!

Katelyn's first birthday pictures

First birthday party....I made her a ladybug cake and little ladybug cupcakes

2nd birthday! Sleeping all night probably 5 out of 7 nights....whew!

reluctantly she'll smile for the camera!

3rd birthday...yes, finally getting a full head of hair...look at those curls!

cute girl!

My big four year old girl!

My dear Katelyn,
You are smart as a whip with the cutest belly laugh! You keep me on my toes and challenge me to be the best mom I can be! You are persistent and rarely give up when you want something which will serve you well in the future, but it can be hard on a mom! Even when you are in a "mood" I can always pick you up and you just melt in my arms for a sweet sweet hug. I don't mind when you sneak into our bed in the middle of the night to cuddle, these days will soon be gone. I love to watch your little mind at work, always thinking. You love puzzles, games and playing with your big sister. I love being your mom and I'm so thankful God chose you to be my daughter. Even though he's blessed me with the opportunity to raise you, you are God's first and foremost. Happy Birthday sweet daughter, I cherish each moment with you and I love you with all my heart!

Love,
Mom

Mommy, you look pretty!

2009-02-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

Be careful if you give your not-quite-four-year-old real make up. (This is my girls' FAVORITE thing to play with right now)

Be really careful if you agree to let her put some on you. You might look like this.....

But it's all good when she tells me I look pretty!

but if you are a 10 year old boy...run for your life! Casey wasn't "down" with being their next model...even though they said they weren't letting go until he gave in....they eventually let go!

and settled for hugs instead

My Surrender Date

2009-01-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

I was watching Oprah a while back (disclaimer-I take Oprah with a grain of salt) and she had a therapist on helping a couple with some issues. She gave the husband an assignment. She asked him to take his wife on a surrender date. This wife is a typical wife (I could identify with her anyway). She's the household manager/planner/CEO/Controller. She plans meals, trips, outfits, dates, dr appointments, you name it. The husband has settled into this agreement and has long since spoken up to have a say in anything because they have settled into their roles, and that's the wife's role in their household. Anyway, the therapist instructed the husband to plan a surrender date. This would include arranging for the babysitter, deciding where they would go, what they would do, and my favorite part, he would decide what she would wear. The wife had to surrender ALL control on every level to her husband. This sounded like a fabulous idea to me, so I shared my desire for this type of date to my husband and he agreed to it.

I don't think my husband has planned a date for us since we were dating. It's not his fault necessarily...I just sort of took it over and never looked back. I even planned our honeymoon. I've planned every date, every vacation, every overnighter. I guess I'm a control person and I decided it was time to let it go! We were in a date night "rut" and needed to climb out of it!

So last night we had our surrender date. He informed me last week to be ready for our date at 5pm. He did share with me a few days prior that we'd be going to a blazer game. He decided it didn't need to be a surprise, he just needed to cover all details. He rose to the occasion and did such a great job that I'm hoping this will be a regular thing for us! At times I found myself butting in and asking questions and he told me he had it covered, don't worry about it. Giving up complete control was harder than I thought it would be. He arranged for child care (two different sitters were needed since it was Awana night...one before and one after), he picked the restaurant (Standfords at JB), got us AWESOME seats at the blazer game and he helped pick out my outfit the night before. He did such a great job that I told him he gets to plan our 10 year anniversary weekend :) Thanks for a fun date night sweetie!

Our seats were in the 9th row...we've never sat that close, it was a real treat!

I didn't get a full shot of my outfit, but he picked out the jeans and the hat and also helped me pick out the top...he requested that I wear something with the blazer colors!

My only action shot of the night..."LA" had a great game!

I know these guys are tall, but I never realized how tall they were...I think Greg Oden must wear size 18 shoes!

They won the game with double digits....a fun time was had by all!

Status Update-Mara has completed her dance class!

2009-01-24T23:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, I've been on facebook, big surprise!

I've discovered (as lots of you have too) that it's hard to maintain the email, the blog, the facebook, etc etc! So something's gotta give and it's the blog....so, I'm playing a little catch up. I like how you can quickly post a status update and be done, or quickly post pictures and be done. But sometimes pictures have a story with them and it's fun to share the story! So please excuse the redundancy of my pictures on facebook AND my blog.

The cons of facebook is that it can suck you in and before you know it, it's midnight, and I'm supposed to be in bed and I'm not and on it goes! And that's why my Christmas post is a month late, but at least I got it posted!

So anyway, a while back I was tagged on my blog and I shared a surprising fact about my desire to take a certain type of dance class. Well, when my friend called and invited me to join her "book club" (it's a group of ladies that get together and don't read books) outing to "that" type of dance class, I decided it was time to put up or shut up, so how could I turn that down? Here was my chance!

So, it wasn't really a pole dancing class, but it was along that same vein. I would describe it as an exotic dance class. It was a lot of fun once you got past the initial embarrassment of it. A coctail prior to the class helped :) So anyway, we got to the dance studio in Portland and found some dancing shoes in all sizes for us to try on and get used to! It was fun! My camera was non cooperative, so I only have a couple pictures and none of me dancing, so I guess you'll just have to trust me on that one... I was sooo sore the next day. My hips are not used to that type of movement :) Anyway, it was a blast to try something new and I would HIGHLY recommend this activity for a fun girls night out!

I'm proud to say I did not fall in these shoes!

My good friend Jen that I've known since I was 14! There's nothing like an old friend!

Christmas Celebrations

2009-01-22T15:46:00.000-08:00

What a fun month we had from playing in the snow to gingerbread houses, to baking cookies to getting to see cousins. The snow was extra special and it brought out the whole neighborhood which is a rare thing in the winter. I feel like the most special time for me was our family's advent time (I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it, oh well, I was enjoying the moment!). All the readings and prayer time was just priceless! Here's a recap of our special moments~

Baking cookies...the girls loved the cutouts the most!

Our gingerbread house tasted as good as it looked...yes, that's right, we let them eat the candy off it, a little bit each day until it mysteriously disappeared one night after New Years!

Oh the snow days...our first snow pictures showed kids sledding on concrete since the light dusting didn't stick around for very long, but oh how the big snow did come. This one was my favorite sledding action photo!

Daddy sledding with the girls. Megan lasted lots longer then Kate, but I was proud of her for trying it!

Shoveling the drive...he missed me by inches with this large shovel full of snow

Snow angels on the deck

Our own Frosty the snowman on our deck. We used left over candy from the gingerbread house to decorate his face. The girls were genuinely sad to see him melt a little bit each day.

Going for a walk to return our neighbors wagon

After one of the many neighborhood sledding outings, all the kids snuggled in for a movie at our neighbors house

Christmas morning. I think this was the first year that I didn't do matching jammies...they are getting so big! As the snow was falling on Christmas morning it was such a warm cozy time together. I told my girls that they might not see snow on Christmas again until they were all grown up with kids of their own. I guess I can't expect a 6 and 3yr old to "get" that :)

A new Belle floor puzzle for my puzzle girl

A Barbie Jet so the barbies can fly in style!

A Barbie dress up dress. (This year gift opening was a bit of a free for all, so I didn't get as many gift opening pictures as I would have liked!)

Our Happy Birthday Jesus cinnamon roll

Blowing out the candle

The weekend between Christmas and New Years, we gathered as a family at JJ Jump for a family party. We did a gift exchange and had a great time playing together! We're turning in to a pretty big group!

And that's a wrap for the Christmas season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Who Loves Santa??

2009-01-02T23:31:00.001-08:00

I thought it would be fun to recap our Santa experience since Katelyn's been born. Megan has always loved the big jolly guy and I just figured her sister would too. I apologize for the poor picture quality I'm posting. I did a shortcut and just took a picture of the picture and it wasn't until I downloaded them that I realized that was a really bad idea and I should have scanned them in, but my ever efficent husband had already packed up all the Christmas stuff including Christmas pictures and I've been told in no unspecific terms that having to get the boxes back down is his least favorite thing.....so, please forgive me for the fuzzy pics!

2005 - 9mo old (my favorite one....she could not get off his lap quick enough!)

2006 - 20 mo old (Megan is completely unaffected by the screaming....this girl has always known how to pose!)

2007- 2 years 9 months....getting better but still wouldn't sit on his lap or have her picture taken without mom

2008- 3 years 9mo....we love Santa! She hugged him over and over....even when we left she walked back over to him and wanted one more hug...so cute!

A better picture with their Christmas dresses!

Mad Dash in the Dark

2009-01-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

The plan was all set early in the week. We were going to get our tree on Friday because it looked like the best weather of the week and we'd beat the weekend rush. How great would that be....get our tree early in the weekend, have all weekend to decorate the tree and house, what a great plan!

I noticed the weather cooperated and it was a sunny day as I was going about my day at home on Friday. I made my late afternoon call to Damon....oh, it doesn't look like he can leave work early, something came up....darn! OK, we can still make it, we'll just have to hurry! He finally gets home and we're all ready to go and then comes the "put your coat on and get into the car" and that's where we stalled yet again. Katelyn, you see, does not like wearing a coat. ALL coats are too puffy. We begged, pleaded, bribed and finally just put our foot down....put it on or you are not going. She fussed and whined but gave in. Off we went to Glenwood tree farms.

It was starting to feel dusky by the time we got there so there was a sense of urgency....we parked, hopped out and off we went in search of the perfect tree. In past years we have been able to find the perfect tree in under 10 minutes. This was not the case this year. We seemed to find something wrong with each one. It was getting darker by the minute and we are literally running all over. It was narrowed down to two trees and Megan cast the deciding vote since little miss K was still fussing about her coat. We did end up with a great tree, but it just wasn't the smooth sailing we had experienced in previous years. We were loading it into the truck when we suddenly realized we told my mom and dad we'd pick up a tree for them...Yikes, it was really getting dark now. We jumped in the truck and drove to a different area of trees. We hopped out and again starting running. This time we couldn't see the stumps as well...oops, we better not run anymore! In case you were wondering, it really is possible to pick out a lovely tree in the dark!

grumpy girl with her puffy coat

cutting down the tree

quick self family portrait (notice how dark it is...this is before we found my parent's tree)

all's well that ends well (all smiles after a candycane!!)

When we got home, my parents came over to celebrate St. Nicholas day and did our advent reading together. It's our family tradition to celebrate St Nicholas Day on Dec 6 (St. Nicholas was a real person and the idea of Santa orginated from him, I believe he died on Dec 6, kids put out their shoe outside and St. Nicholas fills the boot overnight). Anyway, my mom brought over their Christmas gifts early so they could enjoy them and spread the gift receiving out a bit (very nice idea!). My parents are so thoughtful and always go the extra mile to make everything so special for the kids....thanks Nana and Poppy!

We enjoyed the rest of the weekend by decorating the house and the tree. Katelyn loved her tinkerbell ornament and both girls decided they needed a turn to put the star on top!

Last but not least, I couldn't resist adding this cute picture of my mini me!!!

Let the Christmas fun begin!!!

Turkey Bowling

2008-12-21T22:46:00.000-08:00

My sister Paulette hosted our Thanksgiving gathering this year. She is a great cook and has the gift of hospitality. Her home was warm and inviting and the meal was excellent! All the kids played great together, what more could you ask for??

After dinner and dessert (Paulette made the best chocolate pumpkin cheesecake!) we thought it would be fun to take the kids bowling, so off to Hazel Dell Lanes we went. It wasn't too crowded and we all had a great time!

Rhys was all smiles seconds before I took this photo...guess you'll just have to trust me on that one!

Our First Nutcracker....

2008-12-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a weekend! What started out iffey, turned up all roses by the end! Megan peformed in both shows Saturday and prevailed through the snow last Sunday for the finale performance. Although the butterflies were going pretty strong before her first performance, she did great! (Even after getting a bit scared backstage when she got separated from the rest of the mice after their scene and didn't know how to get back to the dressing room....a back stage helper found her and brought my tear stained mascara smeared cutie back to me!) All the rest of the shows went just as planned!

One side note that was really special for Megan was meeting Megan S. (a member of the senior company dancers). She took to Megan early on in rehearsals and mentioned that several people thought they looked alike and she said she looked a lot like my Megan when she was younger. It was so sweet of her to send a nutcracker ornament to my Megan before her first performance!

Thank you so much to our friends and family that came out to watch....what a great memory for her (and me!).

all the mice with the mouse king

my lollipop before her first show

Her friend Kate got her this lollipop for being a lollipop!

cousins Jake and Casey came to watch

flowes from her daddy

Big Megan and little Megan

Megan with all her flower from her thoughtful friends and family

My Mouse has Recovered!

2008-12-14T08:12:00.000-08:00

Thank you for all your prayers! Megan danced yesterday and last night! YEAH! She slept all night Friday with no further incidents and woke up yesterday with much better coloring and felt much better, but was thirsty and weak from no food. She SLOWLY ate some toast and took some small sips of water and slowly but surely, she returned to her old chipper self by mid morning. She made it through both performances with flying colors and LOVED being on stage and performing! Two shows down and one to go today at 3! We are so proud of our little mouse and lollipop!

My Sick Mouse

2008-12-12T21:05:00.001-08:00

The show must go on. But it will have to go on tonight without my mouse and lollipop. We are all so sad to miss Megan's debut in The Nutcracker.

The day started out just fine. After a late night at dress rehearsal, Megan slept in until 8:30 or so and we did or normal lounging until it was time for school. I got her on the bus and dropped Katelyn off at my mom's so I could help with Megan's ornament party at school. While I was in her classroom, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, although she did tell me her tummy hurt one time, but thought she was hungry so she helped herself to some rich candy snacks.

The red flag went up when she informed me that she felt like she was going to throw up while we were driving to pick up Katelyn. She made it to my mom's with no incident. I didn't know what to make of it....was it nerves....was it something she ate?? She didn't feel warm to touch, so I thought we'd just press forward. She actually fell asleep in the car ride from my mom's to our house...another red flag. I scooted her upstairs to lay down, hoping she would sleep some more, but no such luck. She still appeared ok, seemed to be herself and was indicating that she was nervous about the performance. This is normal butterflies, right??

By 4:30, there was no pukey, so I made the decision we were going to go for it. We got some snacks and all our stuff together and were on our way to Camas by 5:30. It was dark and rainy. We were just about to the Mill Plain exit on 205 south when she said she "had that feeling" again. So I quickly dumped out my little gift bag type handle bag that was next to me and handed it back to her (keep in mind it's pouring down rain, I'm in major traffic) and with about three seconds to spare, the much anticipated vomit arrives. By this time I'm trying to merge to catch the Mill Plain exit while trying to assure her everythings ok.

My mind is going a million miles a minute....first thought....YESSSSSSS, I've contained car vomit in a bag........second thought.......I'm so sad, we will miss her performance that she's looked forward to for three months...........third thought....would you PLEASE let me over to get to this exit.........my fourth thought is interrupted by Megan crying and informing me that the bottom of the bag just gave out and now the neatly contained vomit is all over her lap and booster seat and car seat and floor....The last comment she makes is the icing on the cake....."See, mom, I told you I didn't feel good and we shouldn't have gone tonight....Nice, a heaping layer of guilt to top it all off.

Yes, she had told me she didn't feel good, but how many times do you hear this, and how was I supposed to know the difference between major butterflies and true stomach illness. It's so hard being a mom and making these major decisions!

So, we made it home without me puking from the car smell and my wonderful husband took car cleaning duty and I took clean up the ballerina duty. She appeared to be better but didn't give up the bucket the whole night. Before we headed upstairs to bed, she took a drink of water, apparently too much water. We didn't make it up the stairs without filling the bucket again. She's asleep now with her bucket next to her.

What will tomorrow bring? We have performances at 2 and 7:30 and Sunday at 3. I'm praying with all my might that she's well enough to dance in at least one if not all. I guess keeping water and food down will be an important component to our decision.

Want to know the ironic thing? As I was helping in the dressing room for dress rehearsal last night, I was looking around at all these giggly excited girls (probably around 35 or so) I thought to myself, what are the odds that one of these girls gets sick this weekend? It didn't even dawn on me that it would be my little ballerina! Ah such is life!

I'm so glad I snapped a few pictures of her in the dressing room last night, just in case. I have full faith that she'll get to perform at least once, but here are some cute ones, just in case!

She wasn't excited about being a green lollipop, but I think the color looks great on her!

Megan mouse with neighbor and friend, Kate

and with her friend from pre school, Devan (who happened to be her lollipop partner)

Please, oh Please God, make her well!!!!

School Days

2008-12-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

Megan has settled in to a great routine at school. Afternoon Kindergarten is the best! She loves riding the bus and playing with friends. I've really enjoyed being in her classroom for a couple of the parties I've helped coordinate. Here's what she's been up to!

Here's Megan and her best bud Allison waiting for the bus

crazy hair day!

Megan's Thanksgiving Feast....she was a Native American and the other class were pilgrims!Gotta throw in some sister lovin too!

Baby Elephants and Bob the Builder

2008-12-01T21:30:00.001-08:00

We set out on a Friday morning looking for adventure! Some might just settle with the zoo OR the Children's Museum, but why not do both?? Yes, a bit crazy! We started out at Children's Museum and met up with Aunt Lisa and Maddie and Marin. They have a Bob the Builder exhibit that is a lot of fun! We did the usual digger area, face painting and water area too.

Daddy would be so proud!

Mom....what is this thing?? I think it's a cow??!

We ended that adventure and started another one across the parking lot. We were in search of that cute little baby elephant!

but we've always got time for a quick pose on a goat!

When we first arrived to see the elephant, the mom and aunties were being very protective of the baby. They were shielding him from the paparazzi. Seriously, when the baby would move the mom and aunties would move with him. It was cute!

But then, they finally let him wander off a bit and play. Have you ever seen anything cuter???

Who could resist the elephant ear stand after that?? We sure couldn't! It was nice and warm!

Then on the way home we got stuck in really bad traffic, so we killed time by taking pictures of each other! Katelyn was asleep within minutes of our drive home.

Megan loves being the photographer!

What a fun day with my girls!

We went to Chicago, just me and my Dad...

2008-12-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

We love the Little Critter books, so the title just seemed to fit! Megan got to join her daddy on a long weekend trip to Chicago in October to visit friends and family. His best friend Gary turned 40 and blessed us with a buddy pass to come help him celebrate. It was a fun party and Damon and Megan thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I was pleasantly surprised that Megan didn't suffer too bad from the jet lag of a quick trip!

Megan love seeing Grandma and Grandpa

They visited a pumpkin patch and look what Bizi doesn't have?? Camel rides! Check out the Bears jersey that Megan is wearing...she loves that football team!

Better Late than Never!

2008-11-30T21:34:00.000-08:00

Our fall adventures started with our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. Although Bizi farms is great and the kids love it, I'm growing a bit disenchanted with the expense and crowds and might vote for a more remote location next year! We did have fun and fall wouldnt' feel like fall without the pumpkin launch!

You can't see me, if I can't see you!

Oh, much better view!

Vending machines at a farm....hmmmm

Washa washa washanicey nicey clean!
Must use power tools to carve pumpkin! The "eyes" had to be perfectly round!

Megan's class had a "spider party" on 10/31. Apparently they were doing a lesson on spiders that week and they ended the week with a party on 10/31...hmm, what a coincidence! Since I"m the class party mom, I helped coordinate the party. You know how much I love spiders, so it must be true love for me to attend a spider party!

Megan's spider cookie made of pretzel sticks, oreos, frosting and mini m&m's

friends from class

I realize that Thanksgiving weekend is the kickoff to the Christmas season, but I can't officially start all that fun until I've at least documented the fall fun that we've had. I am quite tardy in posting these events, but since this blog is titled Masters Moments, I better post some fun fall moments that we've had together!

I know the princess thing is way overdone, but the day is soon upon me when my two little princesses will be way beyond it, so I was pleasantly surprised that they still wanted to be the belle of the ball for one more night!

We joined the masses at Liberty Bible for their Harvest Party. So many people were so kind to make it a fun night for my family! Thank you Thank you!

The cutest thing happened at the end of the night when the kids were turning in their tickets for prizes.....Grayson picked out a ring and wanted to "buy it" for Megan....priceless!!!!

Shout out to the hubby

2008-11-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

What a special gift I received yesterday from my husband! He let me go shopping almost all day yesterday (it's sort of tradition with my family to do the crazy day after Thanksgiving shopping). When I got home he showed interest when I showed him "my haul" AND he had put away all the fall stuff. That's not all....he had pulled out all the Christmas stuff and had put up the larger items and was getting the Christmas lights hung up outside....wow, what a guy!!!

In honor of my sweetie, I'm posting a silly little clip of the girls. They were being goofy when they discovered one of their daddy's nicknames that his friends sometimes call him. I'm sure your favorite part will be my bribery offer to Katelyn when she did her normal "I won't do it if the camera's on" trick.

I love you sweet husband!

Friday Funny

2008-11-21T20:01:00.001-08:00

Last night at bedtime the normal chaos was reining. Kids running around instead of getting PJ's on, brushing teeth, I was probably on the computer instead of overseeing this process. Damon was upstairs and I headed up there to pitch in. I went into the kids bathroom and Megan was brushing her teeth and told me there was a spider in the bathroom. I was assuming it was a little one, but I guess it was more like the size of a quarter or something. That sounded very large to me. I casually asked Damon, "you got it, didn't you?" and he responded, well, it was on the door and blah blah blah, it moved quickly blah blah blah. I needed him to get to the part where he said he got it, but he did not. It snuck through a crack in between the cabinet and the floor molding. Nice. He quickly offered to go get the bug/spider spray that he sprays the exterior of the house with in the late summer. I quickly said yes, go get it and spray it into the crack. He came back upstairs with a water bottle and said he mixed up the last of it. He sprayed and that was that. I knew the stuff worked pretty well because we dont' get many inside in the late summer/early fall. So tonight he calls me on the way home and says he needs to swing by Home Depot and get more light bulbs and bug spray. He then told me that we've been out of the spray for a while. I'm confused. He then shared that he'd actually only sprayed water into the crack. Seriously. He said he knew I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I knew there was a creepy crawly in the house and he wasn't in the mood to tear apart the cabinet. I didn't know what to say. He did have a point, but still....a fibb is a fibb! I've been duped!

She's a Stubborn One

2008-11-19T21:30:00.000-08:00

So we've been having bedtime issues. I knew this would happen when I let Katelyn sleep in my bed last month when Damon went to Chicago. I thought I'd just deal with it. Well, we're dealing, but oh man, she's stubborn! She also appears to be a light sleeper. This is a good thing when you consider she's only wet the bed once in the year she's been potty trained. This is a bad thing when she wakes up several times in the night.

Just getting her to bed has been a challenge lately. She's thirsty, she has to go potty one more time, she's scared...on and on it goes. We're sort of used to those last minute pleas, but she's started a new one this week. She said she doesn't like her bed and it's uncomfortable. I don't really have a response, I just want her to go to sleep. Damon, however, decided to throw some love and logic at her. He said she has three choices...she can sleep in the rocking chair (which is in her room), on the floor in her room, or in her bed. With that, we closed the door and headed down the stairs. Within seconds we heard the "thud" of her getting our of her bed and I started to head back to her room, but since she didn't open the door, I just let her be. That was the last we heard of her that night. When Damon headed for bed he called me upstairs....quick, you gotta see this.....and this is what we saw in Katelyns room:

Yep....she chose the floor to sleep on! She grabbed her pillow, her two buddies and her blankie and snubbed her nose at us!! I'd like to report that all is well at night. It is not all well, but it is getting better. We no longer have a night time visitor in our bed. Not because she realized her bed is just perfect for her, but because Damon started locking our bedroom door. Yes, it's kind of mean, yes it's kind of necessary. I wonder what adventure is next!

Rested and Relaxed

2008-11-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

This past weekend started off with a fun jump in the leaves at Nana and Poppy's house. It only got better from there. Although Damon had to work on Saturday, he was home by 2ish and I figured I'd also work to get all my chores done so we could enjoy the rest of the weekend. And we did. Before the weekend started I checked all my calendars (don't ask me why I have more than one) and I couldn't believe it....both days were blank. I got really excited, almost giddy at the thought of a REAL weekend. You know, the kind where you relax and everything. I'm not sure how it started, but somewhere along the way weekends evolved from relaxing into "cram as much stuff as possible into two days so you are exhausted on Monday" kind of weekends. I mean it's always good stuff we're doing....birthday parties, family gatherings, church, date night, home group, but running around isn't quality rest time. So anyway, with the chores completed, there was time for napping, family movie night, sit on the couch and read the newspaper while you are watching your football team lose, puzzles, more naps, eating and reading. It was nice, I hope we can do it more often!

The very messy "art supplies" cabinet got a make over

So much better...I've wanted to get this accomplished for MANY weekends! Now I know what is actually in the cabinet!Cousin Erin came to visit from Oklahoma! We wish you lived closer!

family nap time....don't you love my Christmas flannel sheets! So Cozy! The kids were both up until 10pm that night...now I remember why we don't do naps anymore, but it was blissfully quiet for an hour!

Katelyn's braids. I'm no hairdresser, but she loves for me to braid her hair and this weekend I said yes, because I had time! I hope we get another restful weekend soon!

Tagged!

2008-11-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Meredith tagged me a couple weeks ago! I know I'm overdue, but better late than never!

before I get started, I have a Katelyn funny for the evening. Tonight when we were reading our devotional, it asked a question about what we can do for someone to show them that we love them. Katleyn replied...."like, we can push them on the swing"....how cute was that? But seriously, what three and a half year old already says "like" to start out a sentence????? OK, here's my list!

1. I'm an introvert. I think I've always known this about myself, but when I heard a definition a while back, it totally confirmed it for me. Extroverts gain energy by being around a group of people, and introverts are exhausted after being around a large group of people. I need to hide in my cave for a while after being around a group of people. I tend to overanalyze things and replay converstations in my head, etc, etc, it's tiring! I'm more of a one on one person.

2. I'm a news junkie. I love reading the newspaper. Everyday. Cover to Cover. I wish I was as excited to read my Bible everyday. Sad but true. I need to know what's going on in my local area, the whole country, and the world we live in. I need to know the weather for the week, local sports, national sports, business news. The whole shabang!

3. I love watching sports. Watching on TV is fun, but live is sooo much better. I went to my first NFL game this fall and it was so much fun! Qwest Field (home field for the Seahawks) is amazing. It's so loud with lots of non stop action. A few years back I had the most amazing weekend in mid october: I watched a world series baseball game on Friday (on TV), went to a Husky game in Seattle on Saturday and went to a pre-season Blazer game on a Sunday. Now that's a fun weekend! (I'm thinking that must have been before kids!)

4. I love being a mom. I loved the pregnancy experience. We would love to be blessed with more children. This is completely in God's hands and in His timing.

5. I can recall two specific times in my life where I heard God speak to me loud and clear. One of those incidents was when I was in my mid twenties and I had this friend named Damon. I had put him in the friend box where I was assuming he would stay. He was easy to talk to and fun to be around, but when he asked me out, I kept him at an arms length knowing he would stay in the friend box. God spoke to me and said to open my heart to the possibility of more than a friendship. He's an amazing husband and father and my best friend. God knew what I needed in a husband and I am blown away by the way he loves me (and puts up with me).

6. I love the sun. Summer is by far my favorite season. I love being warm, I love feeling the warm sun on my skin (I know this is so bad and I have gotten way better about sunscreen in my old age). I love that it stays light out late. Fall is nice too, but I struggle through winter and spring is ok when it doesn't rain 24/7, but nothing compares to summer!

7. I love getting good deals. It's like a high or something! I have a lot to learn from my egg farming, grocery gaming, soap making friends, but I think I'm on my way! Here's my latest great deal....guess how much I spent for all this stuff at Old Navy a couple weeks ago

$16.27! Seriously!!!! It's all brand new!

7 1/2. Ok, I know I'm really posting 8 things, but I have one last outrageous fact that could be filed under the "weird" category! I would love to learn how to pole dance! I've heard it's a great work out! Not to perform for anyone other than the special person listen in item number 5 (who has said he would install one for me....guess how quick that home improvement item would get done???)

Ok, enough about me, I'd love to hear from Paulette, Heather, Meleea, Lisa, Sarah, Rachel and Annette

It's almost done!

2008-10-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

The shower is pretty much done except for the door needs to be installed. They are coming out to take care of that next week, so for now, I get to just look my husband's handiwork. He did a great job! I think it turned out pretty nice (the only thing we were a bit disappointed about was the grout color with the stone on the floor, we thought it would darken a bit when it dried-oh well!). He also framed in a niche in the wall for shampoo or whatever and I'm thinking, wow, I guess I can go for that Costco size now!!!

We had to stay with the original stone color for the shower but we mixed in a new inset tile and a new floor design....so here's a couple pics!

Hopefully I can hold out for another week and the door will be installed and then it's nice long showers for me!

One on One

2008-10-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

Damon and Megan left for Chicago on Thursday. When we took them to the airport, I wasn't prepared for what I was about to witness. Tears from Megan. But they were not for me, they were for her sister. When they hugged goodbye it was genuine, they both said they were going to miss each other. I wish I had a picture. I wanted to freeze the moment and put it in a bottle and put it on my shelf forever! When Megan hugged me goodbye, she already had tears in her eyes. She's my tender sweetheart. I am so glad they do genuinely love each other and for the most part enjoy playing together.

As we drove away I did have a twinge of sadness that I would miss both Megan and hubby, I looked in the back seat and saw Katelyn and I got really excited for some one on one time with just her! Having just one is special (not to mention there will be no arguing for a specific cup, plate, bowl, step stool, toy-did I mention they usually get along :)

Katelyn and are having a great weekend...we went to the movies, had a pajama day, played games, did puzzles, had pizza, and we're only on Saturday morning! She's our "you can put me in my own bed but I'll eventually get in your bed at some point during the night" daughter. So, I'm letting her sleep with me while they're gone. I know this is setting all of us up for disaster on Sunday, but who cares, it's our special weekend and I will spoil her! Yes, you may pick out a movie from the red box, yes you may pick any candy from the candy aisle, yes you can stay up late and watch Barbie and the Diamond Castle, yes I will sit and watch it with you. Saying yes is fun.

Having a weekend with just her and me allows me to really appreciate this little person God has created and allowed me to parent. She's feisty, she's smart, she can be moody (I don't have any idea where she gets this), she's really missing her sister this weekend (she keeps asking me...is it Sunday today?), she's very entertaining, she's 100% loveable. I love you to pieces Katie bugs!

Katelyn being feisty

She's a smart one....she only needed a little bit of help with this 100 piece puzzle...she loves puzzles!

Katelyn being moody (don't take my picture...I will not smile for you!)

feisty or moody-take your pick!

I love my sister!!!

She's quite entertaining. This Little Tykes tape player has gotten a lot of mileage, esp with the disney songs tape. I'm pretty sure she can sing "A whole new world" word for word complewith dancingso sweet, so cute, so loveableShe's my girl......

And we're off to enjoy our weekend!

He cares for me!

2008-10-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

Before I go into explaining the title of this post, I have to start with explaining my very hectic day. It's a day I'm sure lots and lots of moms can relate to....packing as much as possible into a day and leaving NO time to deal with a meltdown, tantrum, etc!

I realize I'm lucky to not have to set an alarm for one more year. We are blessed with afternoon kindergarten. I take advantage of the fact that my girls will typically sleep in to 8 or so. Any wise person would get to bed at a reasonable time and enjoy a nice night of sleep, but not me....I stay up too late catching up on blogs, reading the paper, folding laundry, etc etc. so I'm tired in the morning and I'm not a morning person. Anyway, apparently Megan had too much fun this weekend and didn't get enough rest because she was in rare form this morning. When she's over stimulated or tired, she gets quite the attitude. She fought me on everything. I was determined to get to Lake Shore this morning for my class, so I tried to get the girls ready, get their lunch packed and get out the door.

By the time we left, we were 10 min late, Megan had lost TV watching and taking the bus to school(her favorite thing) thanks to her mouth that wouldn't quit. Kate had fought me on what she was wearing and I was frazzled. I did make it to class and from there it was a race to get Megan fed and to school, deal with a wardrobe issue, race back home, race to Mom's in Touch (a wonderful prayer ministry), drop off my application for volunteering at Megan's school and then play a quick game of "beat the bus" to get Megan picked up from the bus stop...phew, I'm tired!

So, there was a little snafoo while dropping off my volunteer application. They needed to see my driver's license. Not a big deal, I'll go run out to the car and grab my purse. After I had dumped most of the contents of my purse on the counter of the school office, it became apparent to me that my driver's license was not in my purse. I had no recollection of taking it out and no possible clue where it could be. I smiled politely to the clerk and told her I'd have to come back another time with it.

As I was heading home I felt defeated, tired and completely frustrated that I had no clue whatsoever where my license could be and also just from the craziness of the day. I was talking out loud about these frustrations to Katelyn and I just started praying out loud with Katelyn. I prayed that God would reveal to me where my license was. I was literally still praying and I knew exactly where it was. It was in a weird place and had God not revealed to me its location, it would have been a LONG time before it was discovered. It was in my big beach bag, the bag we used to take to the pool at Lake Shore all summer and on that last nice weather day, the girls and I went to Klineline to put our feet in the water and play in the sand. I had thrown it in there so I didn't have to take my whole purse with me in the car. It had been over a week since that outing and we all know the sun is long gone and the bag was tucked way for next summer. I drove home and went straight for the bag and there it was, my license just where God told me it was. I felt so cared for and loved by my Heavenly Father. It was a silly little thing, but it just meant so much to me that He heard my prayer and answered it so quickly.

Cast all your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you....." Psalms 55:22

Total side note....tonight when I was putting Katelyn to bed I asked her "What do you love best about Mommy?" (yes, I was needing some mommy props and am not ashamed to admit it) She answered, "your eyes!" and then I asked her, "no, what do you like best about me on the inside?" She answered, "your teeth!" OK, I guess that's what you get for begging for a compliment! I got a good laugh and that warmed my heart!

What do ya do??

2008-09-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I met Megan as she got off the bus. I noticed something tied around her waist. It was a rope looped through her pants. I did not send her to school with a rope belt. Hmmmm. I asked her why she had a rope for a belt and she looked at my very sheepishly and said that today was PE day and she was running around and her pants fell down. Poor little thing! Apparently the adjustable waist was pulled so tight it broke. I swear I feed my kids, but you might not believe me after this next story................

I picked Katelyn up from Awana's last Wednesday and she immediately showed me her owie on her knee. I picked her up and she buried her head in my shoulder seemingly embarrassed about something. The kind lady that worked in her classroom told me that during game time, they were running around the gym and and her skirt fell down and she tripped.

Seriously, both kids....same situation, same week! So, I'm still trying to fatten them up! Here Kate....lick that spoon!

Unplanned remodel

2008-09-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

So there was this drip we saw out the kitchen window. It was coming from the patio ceiling. A drip is not that big a deal considering the great NW we live in. But we saw this drip on a 90 degree day with no rain in sight. That's a problem....

My husband is a task man and before I knew it, the patio ceiling was ripped apart to find the source of this leak. We narrowed it down to our shower, but where in the shower was it coming from? By process of elimination we figured it out and good thing because it has probably had a slow leak since we built the house four years ago. Say no more, let's get this party started. My husband, being the task man he is, looks at me with the "let's get er done" look and starts ripping out the shower and floor. .....this is what my shower looks like right now

even the floor got ripped out....in fact you could see outside from my bathroom floor. The girls thought this was cool. They ran downstairs to look at us through the hole in the floor. I'm happy to say that the hole in the floor got patched up right away, but my shower is still just visible pipes. I'm hoping this changes very soon.

Sometimes procrastination isn't such a bad thing....I kept putting off a bleach treatment to get some mold buildup cleaned up (I always have something better to do than that!) and what do you know....I get a new clean shower instead :) Cascade Flooring, here we come! btw...this is me trying to have a good attitude about this large unexpected expense. I was just about to go pick out my new family room furniture....guess that will have to wait a while!

Summer Snippets

2008-09-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm no longer in denial....summer is over! We were so busy this summer having fun that I didn't do as well as I had hoped with posting all of our adventures! So, with little fanfare, I will post a few (ok a lot) of pictures of our fun summer!Checking out a GIANT slug! Cool!Our first attempt at rasberry freezer jam-Success!

The girls participated in a VBS and got to share the songs they learned at a Sunday service (complete with hand motions!). What joy it brings to watch your kids sing worship songs!

For Megan's birthday, she got to have her first manicure! She loved it of course!

Good ole Clark County Fair! Poor dad could barely get his legs inside this ride!We loved seeing all the animals!

I do have girly girls, but they love their "monster trucks!!" Can I get a "yee haw?"

Believe it or not, this was our first family vacation to the beach. It was high time we enjoyed the coast up close!

They dipped their toes in until they turned red from cold!

Sausage Fest fun!

We spent a LOT of our summer at Lake shore, so I thought it would be appropriate to wrap it up with some pool pics from LS! We decided LS was always more fun with friends!Megan conquered the slide on our last day there this summer...she's hooked! Can't wait until next summer already!

So there you have it...summer of 2008 in the books and as I scan over these pictures, I'm realizing I left a lot out....picnics at the park, learning to ride bikes, roller skating at Oaks Park, family reunions, picking berries, ice cream runs, fun in the mustang....

ok, moving on to fall...but here's to wishful thinking for a warm spring :)

Where were you?

2008-09-12T14:27:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a day late with this question, but with the anniversary of 9/11 I've been thinking back to that day. I remember that day vividly. It was when we were a DINK household (double income no kids). Hubby was already at work and I was doing my normal morning routine....get up groggy (I was not a morning person then and I still am not now), head to the kitchen for breakfast and watch the Today show while I ate my daily bowl of cereal. So I turn on the Today show and get my breakfast going and that's when I realized something BIG was happening. I shook off my morning grogginess immediately when I saw the TV. Katie Couric, Tom Brokaw and Matt Lauer were live in the studio, not replaying the original east coast morning show. I walked over to the couch and was glued to the tv. I couldn't stop watching. I knew I should be getting ready for work, but I couldn't tear myself away from it all. I called my sister to see if she was watching. I watched the towers fall, I watched the news anchors try to stay composed.

I was late to work and didn't care (I really do a have a good work ethic, I promise). I worked for Vancouver School district at the time and there were meetings to discuss what should be discussed in class for each particular age group, etc. I remember feeling relieved that I did not have kids at the time because I can't imagine how hard it would have been to know what to say or how much to expose kids to what happened.

Needless to say, not much work got done and we were all very sensitive to the fact that our boss previously worked at the Pentagon and was waiting for word regarding former colleagues. He lost two friends that day.

I'm a news junkie and for days and days I remember watching and reading story after story. I was touched by them all. I remember by that evening there were already taped interviews of survivors that were still dusty from escaping the collapse. I also remember thinking that the journalists must realize this was the story of their lifetime and they were under pressure to document it thoroughly. But I also remember feeling so far away from all that was going on, even though it was in my own country. I felt sadness, but I knew it couldn't compare with what so many people on (mainly) the east coast were feeling.

So....that leads me to my original question.....where were you that day? How did it impact you? It's one of those days that I'll never forget.

It's Tradition!

2008-09-11T22:20:00.001-07:00

The whole Corrigan clan!

No, I'm not talking about the Sausage fest, I'm talking about the annual Labor Day weekend trip to Sunriver! For the last 13+ years, my family has traveled to central Oregon to just "be together" for the weekend. I don't think I've missed one year! Even when Megan was just 6 weeks old! We have one family from Seattle, one from Hillsboro, three from Vancouver and one from Dallas Texas!

family pose

My dear parents (esp. my mom) spends hours and hours preparing for this weekend with games, food, planning activities! You have to have quite a plan when 20 people are involved (we've expanded to two houses). This year my mom even wrote out a schedule (kind of like supernanny does after the big talk with the parents)on a big poster board-I meant to take a picture of it, but forgot! She even posted it on the wall in the house we stayed at. We had a ping pong tourny, foosball tourny, texas hold em, phase ten (I know there's more, I just can't think of the rest). We all bring a gift card and put it in a basket and when you "win" something, you get to go choose a prize!

The little kids don't miss out on the fun either....my dad started a tradition of "pirate island" years and years ago (way before the pirate craze of late). A few years ago, he even drew up a map. (Each year it gets a little more elaborate with costumes, etc. ) The kids go on a scavenger hunt and find "buried" treasure. They love doing it and even the big cousins who have outgrown the hunt, get to help Poppy plan it.

The kids are getting ready for their scavenger hunt to pirate island!

Megan just learned to ride her bike without training wheels a couple weeks before our trip

Kate has "mastered" the trike!

There's a story behind these cookies......so it's late and it's our last night in Sunriver and we've tried to eat leftovers so there isn't much food to munch on and my sis in law and I decide cookies sound really good, but the stores are closed and Bend is too far away....so let's make some! Easier said than done since we are in a rental house and who knows what baking supplies we could...we soon found ourselves on our own scavenger hunt! We found sugar, flour, butter baking soda or powder, I can't remember....we found a half a dark chocolate bar (it was mine) that we promptly started crushing....hmm not enough for a whole batch....then we spotted a Costco size trail mix bag....sweet, m&ms.....so I started sifting through the bag to get to all the m&ms....we're in business.....until we discover we have no eggs...deal breaker, but alas other sis in law pulls out a secret tupperware container in the fridge (anyone from a large family knows you have to hide stuff to save it), anyway, she had brought the eggs for her one year old's meals....back in business. So we started throwing in ingredients and low and behold, they turn out....sort of....come to find out, baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable, but that's ok, it did the trick and we had a yummy treat (they were pretty hard by morning!!!!) So anyway, that's the story behind the cookies!

Yes, that is my little girl climbing that wall with NO fear whatsoever (I think the wall was about 20ft high)!!!! I couldn't believe it....she did it three times and rang the bell each time....she's a monkey!

There's a really fun indoor pool that the girls had a blast playing in!

Since Labor Day weekend also coincides with the kick off to college football season, we always get to watch the Huskies (my three brothers and two sis in laws are alums). You may not be a Husky fan, but how cute is she???? She even made up a cute cheer (too bad the Huskies got spanked!!!!)

Anyway, we had a great time and especially loved the family prayer time when we share what's going on in our families and share praise and prayer requests. Thanks Mom and dad for all the efforts to make it a fun weekend year after year!

Poppy and Nana with all the grandchildren (and Lisa)

Me and my siblings (from left Me, Kyle, John, Paulette and Brian)

One Brave Lady!

2008-09-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

Damon's Aunt Pat lost her husband to cancer not quite two years ago. She and her husband lived in Peoria, IL (Pat still does) and in the winters, they'd take off in their truck pulling a large trailer and would be gone most of the winter heading south and avoiding the cold midwest winters. They have done this for years and years. When Al passed away, Pat wasn't sure what she was going to do in the winters. Well, this brave lady sold the big truck and big trailer and bought a smaller RV and a little Chevy cobalt and decided she'd keep on going.

So, Aunt Pat came for a visit a few weeks ago. We had such a wonderful visit. She drove her RV and pulled her little car all the way from Illinois to Washington. She did this alone (except for Hugamee, the cutest, most babied little dog you'll ever meet).

Did I mention she'll be 73 in October?

This trip out west was not without some bumps and bruises (a major car repair that her car dealer better reimburse her for!!!) but the important thing is that she is continuing to live. Yes, she still misses her husband of 52+ years every day and wishes with all her heart he was still with her, but she isn't sitting home wallowing in her sorrow, she's living her life.

Here's to you Aunt Pat. I admire you and I can only hope I'm as brave as you one day! We love you!

The Big Day!

2008-09-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of kindergarten for Megan and what a day it was! I'm telling you, PM kindergarten is the best! We can still be in denial that summer is basically over! We took our time getting ready this morning, played, picked out what to wear (not an easy task!), had lunch and off to the bus stop we went! Before we left, we did the annual picture pose in front of the door. My little girl is growing up!

Next, we killed time waiting for the bus by taking pictures of each other. My girls are actually pretty good picture takers!

What a super dad! He drove all the way from downtown Portland to see his baby girl on her first day of school! (yes, he went back to work!)

The bus is here!!!!!!!

This is when we were politely shooed out of the room, so school could REALLY start! Megan said she had fun, but apparently a couple boys were teasing her and she did not like that....I told her the boys always tease the cute girls....she responded that she did not want to be cute then. We'll see how day #2 goes! She REALLY REALLY REALLY wants to ride the bus home tomorrow (I wanted to pick her up from school for a while)...guess I better let my little girl fly out of the nest!

Trying Something New

2008-08-26T23:12:00.000-07:00

The dinner table is a sacred place full of family time and shared information and meaningful conversation. Well, most evenings, it goes something like this:
Katelyn: I don't like this (said in a whiny voice with a scowl on her face)
Dad: If you fuss you go sit on the step
Megan: I'm not hungry
Mom: I'm not saying anything, I'm just trying to eat dinner while it's still warm!

Tonight I tried something new and it wasn't well received by the little ones. Oh well, my hubby and I liked it! It was a Mexican lasagna and contained foreign objects like green chilies. What was I thinking puting green chilies in their dinner! But, it did make for a funny exchange from Megan. This is how it went down:
Megan: What are these?
Mom: Green chilies
Megan: Why do they call them chilies when they are hot?
Mom: hmmm, I'm not sure....it's just what they are called
Megan: Well, I think they should be called hotties because they are hot, not chilies
Well said, Megan....well said!

Close Call

2008-08-21T22:08:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've all experienced it before.....you're driving down the freeway and some crazy driver zips by you going way too fast and it sort of startles you and rattles your nerves a little. Well, it sort of happened like that, only it wasn't a freeway.....

Megan and I were leaving her dr appt and were driving north on 87th ave. We were on a two lane road (one lane going north, one south) and a white car races by us on the left, basically entering oncoming traffic. I shake my head thinking, wow they are going way too fast and aren't even in a lane. In a split second we came upon a median with landscaping in it leaving no room now for the car to continue to pass drivers. I thought for sure now they were going to have to slam on the brakes and hopefully get in the lane......this did not happen. Without even braking, the car hit the median jumped up and slammed into a minivan two cars ahead of us. The minivan flipped around and the white car slammed into a brick retaining wall and wedged itself between a light post and the brick retaining wall. My immediate thought was that the white car driver must be having a medical emergency and passed out or something.

The rest of us that witnessed the accident pulled over and good samaritans ran over to the cars and checked to see who might need help. What I saw next broke my heart. One child was pulled out from the back seat....another child was pulled out from the back seat. Some smoke was coming out of the engine and they were trying to get the passengers out. Here comes the ambulance now. Then I noticed the "helpers" were starting to leave and I jumped out to make sure someone could stay to wait for the police. I told them I could stay....I then asked if something was wrong with the driver and one of the guys that was helping the passengers said he was pretty sure the driver was intoxicated......then it all made sense....the crazy driving, not even braking before he hit the median and slammed into the other car, and then my observation of his somewhat oblivious attitude to his injured child passengers, but it was 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon, it was the furthest thought from my mind that it could be a drunk driver. Yes, I know I'm jumping to conclusions and I have no actual proof that he was drunk but the whole thing just gave me the chills watching it all play out in front of me. By this time the police were there and I gave my statement and watched two firetrucks pull in.

Now keep in mind my daughter is in the back seat and has also witnessed everything I have seen. As we were waiting for police to arrive and she saw me call 911, I was able to talk to her about what happened and we were able pray together for the kids. Here I was with my daughter driving home like any other day and we were spared a serious accident by a couple car lengths. That's why we pray for safety.

I must say that I also have a newfound respect for first responders. They show up to scenes like that and do their job day in and day out.

Thank you Lord for keeping us safe.......

GO USA!

2008-08-10T23:36:00.001-07:00

I'm tired, but it's a good thing! I'm staying up way too late to watch the Olympics. Record them you say?? Yes, I'm definitely recording, but you can't watch each day and record from the previous day....you'll get too far behind and miss something exciting....like what I just watched with the men's 4x100 freestyle relay! Wow, what a finish! Way to Get er done! So exciting! I love the commercials and the songs recorded specifially for the games. I love Bob Costas commentating, no one could do it better than he does!

I LOVE the olympics and can't get enough of all of it. I'm a sucker for a story and get wrapped up with the emotion of all of it! Just imagining all the hours of training, the commitment of the athletes and their families, it's overwhelming to even consider the road that got them to the Olympics. My favorite is the women's soccer. They lost their first game and won their second, so they're still in it!

So back to the topic of recording.....my husband and I have been talking about getting DVR for months and months and when we finally decided to do it, it was summer and everything was in reruns, so we decided to wait until the fall. But wait, the Olympics....we have to have it for the Olympics. So a quick call to comcast and they were here the day before opening ceremonies and after a quick tutorial on how to use it, we are in business! Can I just say I LOVE DVR!!! How have I gotten by this far without it? The best part was we took advantage of the Comcast bundle program and we are now saving almost $50 a month (that's with adding DVR!) Gotta love that!

OK, totally change of subject, but my daughter Megan had a rough, I mean ruff day today.....poor little thing. She loves loves loves dogs. She always asks to pet dogs everywhere we go. She's really good about asking the owner before she pets them. So today we participated in service Sunday and went to a family's home and did some yard work. The family owned a little Shi Itsu (spelling???) and was cute as can be. Megan spent most of the day with the leash in hand walking around the yard and loving on this little dog. The dog was really great with the kids and all was good......until the kids were invited to give the dog some puppy treats. Apparently Megan dropped her treat and thought the dog couldnt find it, so she went to pick it up and try again and the dog got very aggressive and acutally bit her a couple times. Five bandaids later, she decided she did not like THAT dog, but still liked dogs....whew....thank the Lord she does not appear to be traumatized by this isolated incident. Way to hang in there Megan!

ok, gotta go....there's a medal ceremony I'm missing! Go USA!!!

Fun in the Sun(river)

2008-07-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

We had soooo much fun in sunriver! Beautiful weather, good friends, fun times! Here are some highlights of our trip! We can't wait to go back for Labor Day weekend! YIPPPEEEEEEEEEE! Sorry these pics are all over the place...I'm still figuring out the whole format thing!

Look mom, we see a squirrel in the tree!

Family picture with our bike helmets!

Sunriver is always more fun with friends!

Pool time!

If you look really close at the bottom of the slide, you can see half of Megan's body flying out! (Daddy's getting ready to catch her)

Sore buns from lots o bike riding!

If you look closely at the back of the bike trailer, you can see a little Megan face poking out....sorry it's blurry, but I'm riding my own bike behind them and we were going up a hill...yes, I'm quite talented!

Little Katie Bugs on her own bike!

Fun at the park!

Going to feed the deer some bread

Getting hot in the hot tub!

Yes, these are dilly bars....here's a quick DQ tip if you are heading towards central OR, or back home....get the kids meal in Madras, then stop at the one just outside of govt camp to redeem the treat!!! DQ bliss!

Water Bottle Magic for my Curly Girl

2008-07-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

My dear sweet youngest daughter gets soooo many comments and complements about her cute curly hair but I thought it was fair to show you all what I am greeted with most mornings....cute yes, but definitely high maintenance hair!

My curly girl in the morning

While it's safe to say that we most definitely use our share of mousse and conditioner after a bath, most mornings we turn to our dear friend, the water bottle....and let it works it's magic

And her after picture....(that is, after the water bottle.....) here she is picking her hair accessory for the day

I do hope the curls are here to stay!

Bye Bye Baby

2008-07-21T21:53:00.000-07:00

My emotional reflective phase continues!

I had a garage sale this past weekend with my sister. I'm a big fan of going to them, so I was sure I'd have just as much fun having one of my own. The jury is still out about whether or not it was worth all the work involved, but the kids really enjoyed their lemonade stand (I think they drank most of it!) and I cleared about 7 bags/bins of clothes out of my spare bedroom, so mission accomplished. I also got rid of my baby stuff along with the baby clothes. It was sort of emotional seeing all my baby stuff spread out on tables and hung up. I had moments of panic....did I save enough of it.....should I keep this or that???? As people would come and buy things I would drift back to a memory of one of my daughters either playing with the toy or wearing a particular outfit....so I'm curious....is this normal?? Am I the only one that has gone through this process of "grieving" the babyhood of my children? I know that the future holds more fun and many more memories as my kids get older, but I admit.....I'm sad....it's really hard! I'm sure I'll get over it soon enough, but for now, I think I'll just look at more baby pictures and tear up a little!

Happy Birthday!

2008-07-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

Where does the time go? My first baby girl turned 6 yesterday and I've been in contemplative mode all week! I've been looking at old pictures and remembering the day we brought her home from the hospital and little memories all along the way. I am so blessed at the young little lady she is becoming. She is sweet, nurturing, giggly, thoughtful and helpful. She loves special time with mommy (in fact she calls it ST, so Katelyn won't know) and playing with friends. She is very social and seems to make friends easily where ever we go.

Megan on her half birthday when she was three

Happy 6th birthday sweet daughter! I love you~

My big 6 year old girl!

Dinner's Ready!

2008-07-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

A few months ago my wonderful friend Kristy invited me to join her cooking group. What a huge blessing this has been! I am not the world's best cook, not even close, so I appreciate some other input and ideas! I've been a huge fan of the retail establishments that have offered this for a premium, but when you do all the work yourself, you can save a huge amount!

This is how our group works: one person does the selecting of recipes and shopping, we gather in the evening about every three weeks and just jump in and cook! It usually takes 2-3 hours, and we try to leave the kitchen clean as we found it. We get cooking done as well as lots of quality girl talking time. I do admit, it can be taxing on the brain to have to calcuate recipes and multiply and divide and figure things out...by the end of the evening all our brains are fried, but who cares.....dinner's ready!

This is Kristy loading up everyone's boxes!

This is what I brought home!

Time spent: 3 hours

Money spent: $46

Not having to figure out what's for dinner for the next three weeks: PRICELESS!!!!!

Seeing the World through the eyes of a child

2008-06-30T22:27:00.000-07:00

This phrase is so cliche and probably over used, but in just the last couple days I've had a new appreciation and understanding of seeing the world through the eyes of my children.

My three year old was in church with me during worship and it was so cute how she knew quite a few of the songs. There are fewer things more precious than hearing your children sing praise songs. So before I continue, I'll describe what she was seeing: A group of people up on stage, playing instruments and singing and behind them the stage along the back wall was decorated with big tall black panel/curtains. Anyway, the worship teams paused for prayer or announcements, I can't remember which, and Katelyn leans over and says, "Mommy, at night time do those people go behind the curtains to sleep?" OK, how precious is that??? Little minds always thinking about the world around them!

Then, just today, I was making us a picnic lunch and I was in a rush as usual to be out of the house for 9am swim lessons. I needed some lettuce for my sandwich and my almost six year old daughter offered to go get some from the garden. I was so excited to see this display of enthusiasm to help!!! I briefly explained to her how to pick it out and she responded, yes mom you get it from the root. I said yes, grab the lettuce leaf from the bottom and break it off. So, this is what she brought to the back door.....the whole lettuce plant, root and all.....God bless her. Guess it might have been a good idea to show her....oh well!

FORE!!!!!!!!

2008-06-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Here I am in my mid thirties and the only golf club I've ever had in my hands were the much loved Steakburger clubs. Something must be done about this!!! My husband is having too much fun with this sport, so I figured I'd give it a try, I mean how hard could it be to hit a little white ball in a hole?? Well, I have no idea how hard it is because I'm struggling with just making contact with the little white ball.

WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have completed one lesson and the pro thinks there's hope for me....that remains to be seen. I have NO patience with myself. I expect to be good from the get go...not gonna happen! Another reason for taking up this sport is to get good enough to go out with my husband. Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy a sport/activity together?? Something we can enjoy together in retirement (if that day ever comes).

WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's the sound of me missing the ball again, but wait, I'll try again............Contact, that's very exciting..........oh, but look, I just hit a good sized divit of grass out of my own front yard....lovely....maybe I can put it back before my husband sees.....too late, but he's not mad....whew!

So, I guess I'll keep at it and maybe I'll improve enough to show my face at an actual golf course, but for now I'm sticking with the privacy of my own yard!

My maiden voyage

2008-06-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

Well, here I go....
I'm on my way....
guess I better think of something good to say

or I'll just turn this in to a poem....

To all my friends encouraging me to do this...thanks...I think it'll be fun!