1- When you go on a trip to the Oregon coast ALWAYS pack for cold weather, including a hooded jacket.  (you'd think I'd would have learned this one LAST year)

2- We saw real live wild whales and seals.  We saw a seal while we were playing on the rocks,  He was watching us and waiting for us to leave so he could come up on shore.  pretty cool!  My husband also said he saw one swim between our two boys who were playing in the surf... I tell ya what, THIS momma was ready to pull the boys OUT of the water.  Here is a question for you Oregon folks. Do seals attack people?  Like little swimming legs!?

3- Our plan was to spend three days driving down the coast then turn inland. It was cold and windy weather the first two days.  Finally the third day and our last afternoon the sun came out and we napped on the beach while the boys made sand castles.  AAhhhhhhh.....

4-We also found an off the beaten path beach where there were fishermen.  We got to talking to one and he showed us how to fish from the shore.  He caught a few fish. Nothing huge but I had never seen a flounder before, very weird looking fish. I can't remember the name of the other kind of fish that he was after.  As he caught them he threw them in a bucket.  Brett was poking at one (not a flounder, the other kind) and you can't believe what happened.  Babies came out.  My boys then had to spend time squeezing this dead fish and "rescue the babies". We threw them back in the water.... I don't think any of them were alive.  The fishermen probably thought we were crazy.  He was a neat guy though and didn't seem to mind the boys. 

5-We had a close call when Brett stepped in a yellow jacket nest while hiking through a wooded area.  Tim turned around and a swarm was just rising from the ground at Brett's feet.  He reached over yanked him outa there.  Thank goodness they didn't decide to attack and no one got stung. 

6- Blueberries grow wild in Oregon.  Like the ones you pay big bucks for in Safeway. YUM. And our friend has raspberry bushes and several other berry bushes.  Oh I LOVE berries. 

7- Remember last year we got to volunteer to stay off an overbooked flight and got round trip tickets in return?  Thus this year’s trip was possible.   This year, our flight was cancelled.  What did we get?  Nuthin.  They did put us up at a hotel for the night, but no tickets.  Bummer. The hotel they sent us to was NOT ready for the extra people.  At the restaurant we waited an hour for our food.  Ever sit in a restaurant with 3 tired cranky children (not to mention the momma) for an hour?  Not fun.  Though I have to compliment my children, they actually did behave pretty well under the circumstances. 

8- It is true.  I’ve just proved that a 4 yr old can sleep anywhere when he is truly tired.  Any of you been at Denver International Airport?  You know the area where one waits for the shuttle to take you to your hotel?  “Island 3” .  It’s this little cement island between lanes of traffic. There are busses and shuttles going past on both sides of you. It is noisy, confusing and people are everywhere.  This is an area of complete chaos to my small town mind.  Remember I live near a town that boasts ONE stop light.  My Brett fell asleep lying on the cement with his head partly on my foot and partly on a suitcase.  I’m thinkin THIS is a blog entry for sure.   My camera battery was dead……. Oh how I wish I had a picture. 

For anyone who cares...  I did it!  I jumped and away I went.  I am no longer a zipline wanna be.  I crawled up the ladder to the platform singing to myself.... "not thinking, not thinking....just do it".  And I did!

Of course being the family photographer ..... I do not have any pictures of this amazing feat of fearlessness.  sigh - the story of my life. 

The zipline momma. 

A few weeks ago I was  asking for help in planning a trip to the east coast.    Plans have changed.   Tim and I were not certain we really wanted to go.  For some reasons we were both uneasy about the trip.

We aked the boys what they thought of going back to Oregon. They cheered!  It was unanimous.  Look out Oregonians, we are coming back. We'll be going from Portland over to the coast and work our way down from there.  DH even wants to stop along the way and talk to some real estate agents.

I can't wait to get to the ocean again!!   The only sad part is.  Adam will be in Nebraska. A family vacation without everybody.  Sigh.  I keep saying this but he is growing up soooooooooo fast.  Those of you with pre-teens.  The next few years will just FLY. Treasure every minute of it. 

I did this for a forum that I often visit so I  thought I'd post it here too. 

Just a day in my life.  01-31-2007

5:30 Alarm goes off – hit snooze button, hit it again, and again (I really need to work on this part of my day)

6:10 Stumble out to kitchen flip switch on coffee pot get dressed. Read my bible and sip my coffee, wish I had gotten up earlier and have more time.

6:45 Start breakfast have it ready by 7:00 – hurry! - 7:15 breakfast is ready, almost made it. Fix Tims lunch

7:30 Tim leaves for work B is up as Tim is leaving. C,G up shortly after. Go get A up

7:45 mom on computer - Boys do morning chores and eat brkfast while I am vegging out on Internet. (I should be reading to them)

8:45 Off computer - Start load of laundry (this should have been done already)
Adam normally leaves for woodturning on his bike at 9:00 but it is cold and foggy out so we decide to skip it today - Call teacher to cancel
work with Adam, he is doing a memory skills course and needs to memorize a peg word list

9:15 We recently rotated chores so a bit of reminding is needed on new chores

9:30 household chores
mom- clean up kitchen, straighten up living room, other misc.
Collin- mop kitchen
Garrett – clean up downstairs – dust vacum
Adam – clean up room, fold clothes.

9:45 work with Collin on missed spots on kitchen floor.

9:55 Move laundry – Ohh I found 2 dollars!! Along with a soggy handful of toy cardboard money.

10:00 Read aloud – Man of the Family - Moody -This is the favorite part of my day!!
only 2 phone interuptions – usually I let it go to voice mail but we are selling a truck so I needed to answer phone calls regarding the ad.

11:10 Reading time over -Boys go do math –
I move laundry again – I found another 51 cents.
Fold 2 loads and put most of it away.

11:35 fix lunch- leftover chili – thinking of 3 of my friends who are going out to lunch today (sigh)

12:00 Kids listen to Odysey cd as they eat.

12:15 Show truck to someone

12:30 Check e-mail – Adam went down on the 4 wheeler to check ponds

12:45 move and fold laundry again – unbelievable I found another dollar!  No I don’t usually find this much cash in the laundry. Wed is my day to focus on getting all laundry done. I do loads most days but I like to get it all caught up on wed.

12:55 go clean up kitchen- from lunch, empty dishwasher blah blah blah.  
C and G work on school work – independent stuff, drills, spelling, comp, science, history etc.

1:15 Adam is back – boys watch Mnt Vesuvius / Pompeii video.

1:30 while boys are watching video start some bread – again I should have already done this. start supper prep.

2:00 Video done, B fell asleep. Boys finish up schoolwork.
Laundry again. Finish casserole, It’s ready for supper yeah!!  That much less to do tonight.
Call friend to arrange for ride to AWANA for A.

2:25 Make extra copies of workseets for Collin. (Sigh) he’s having a bit of an attitude today.

2:30 Bouncing from child to child to kitchen to laundry. Whew!

2:45 Show truck to someone else

3:00 Shape bread loaves and set to rise.   Kids done with “school”.  Free time

3:20 Sit down with 2 cookies and catch up on bible reading

3:30 Decide I can’t concentrate on reading so I am taking a 30 min nap!!!

3:40 Can’t rest either… Turn on oven for bread, remember phone call I need to make. So much for my rest. Call about ROTC program – leave message

4: 30 Drive Adam to my friends house to catch ride to AWANA. Finished bread sometime in here. And finished dinner prep.

6:00 Tim gets home, eats, and is off to play volleyball – he started playing once a week. I went at first but they have a babysitter to watch the kids so us adults can play and we all chip in. The kids watch videos the whole time so we weren’t too keen on paying someone 10.00 to watch our kids, watch movies, which I have no control over picking out.

The rest of the day went by in a blur. Didn’t get it recorded and so I have no idea what happened when.
I do know I made lunches for tomorrow – we are going skiing. 
I also got the kids in bed, the kitchen cleaned up and ready for morning. 
I then made sure I had all our snow stuff for Brett and I. 
Prayed that the boys did as I said and have all thier gear together too, so the morning will go smoothly.  Tim and Adam got home around 9:45.

We like ice skating.   We have a couple of ponds that freeze up enough for skating most years and the boys found that the ditch below our house can be pretty fun too.   A few weeks ago we went to an ice arena.  Ohhh I get it, Ice is supposed to be SMOOTH!  What a revelation.  They had these walkers for beginners to skate with too.   Look at the grin on Bretts face.   He was Sooooo excited. 


We got there a bit early so the man in charge of maintenance brought us in the back and showed us the workings of how the ice is made and kept at the right temperature.  Did you know that the ice should be colder for hockey than figure skating? (Or was it the other way around?)  I always thought ice was ice.   He also showed us the Zamboni.  That is the thing they drive around and clean the ice with.  That is why it is so smooth. 

The only downside is there are WAY too many people skating.  And you can't have a  campfire!  and go home smelling like smoke.  Or eat hotdogs.  Seriously, I really like that kind of stuff.  (not necesarily the hotdogs... but the whole atmosphere of it)  I just need to get a walker for Brett.

Here is a  picture of Garrett on the ditch.
 

This is last year by our pond with some cousins and a fire and hotdogs. 
Doesn't get any better that this!!!  

Hey mom you wanted to see the snow in my yard?? 

Guess what else we have been seeing!

I just spent some time with my husband playing Canasta....or should I say getting slaughtered at Canasta.  Is it really possible for a loving husband to be happy while he beats his wife 2180 to 6205???? 

In the last hand of the game he had 4 natural canastas, 2 mixed canastas, all 4 red 3's, and 610 points in cards.  Unbelievable!  

While the self absorbed part of me can whine and be incredibly irritated at the gleeful way he won.  The good wifey part of me is soooooooo glad he took the time to play a game of cards with me before he went back to work. 

He had to work a late shift tonight doing some changeover stuff with the phone lines.  Changeover stuff.... what's that you say?  I don't really know,  except it had to be done in the middle of the night (it's 11:00pm).  There will be a few lines cut off temporarily and at night it'll have the least amount of impact.  Unfortunately it has been snowing all day and it is still coming down so my poor husband is huddled in a snowstorm under a tarp doing all this stuff.   I hope you all appreciate your phone guys!!  Or as my nieces call them the "worker guys". 

I love my "worker guy".

My Husband is reading For Men Only.  It is about women and how we think etc. 

One morning as I was cooking up pancakes and sausage, my husband was at the table reading.  He looked up at me with this quizzical look on his face, laughed, and said "I refuse to believe that you are this complicated".

Who me!?  Complicated?!?!?

Both For Women Only and For Men Only are good books by the way.  I reccomend them. 

Spunky Chicks Book Club will be discussing For Men Only starting October 23rd.  . 

In my last post I mentioned going to homedepot as not being a 'special' date.   ronandjess  mentioned that going to home depot IS a date.  And she is right!!  I wanted to clarify that.  When I mention 'special' date I mean the type that a WOMAN would think of as special.  You know a sit down dinner, anniversary/birthday, gazing into each others eyes, thinking back on your dating days, type of date.  

My husband and I do refer to homedepot as a 'date night'.   You know what makes it a date??  OUR ATITUDES.   Guys have a different view of romance.  To them just being together can be an attempt at romance. We need to encourage that.  Because you know what? Going to Home Depot with my sweetie can actually be fun.  Especially if I can liven things up a bit by.....  skooching over and sitting next to him... hanging on his arm in the cement aisle with a smile on my face... being interested in the projects he is working on.  It makes him smile everytime.  And you know what???  My sweetie has a GREAT smile. 

There is a book that I want to recomend. 

For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn

As my husband says "I don't know where she got her information, but she hit head on". 

We are having a discussion about this very topic of men and thier ideas of romance here.  Spunky chicks book club. Go and check it out.  Some really good ideas and encouragement are going around.  I also have the link in my sidebar.

I now declare today (whatever day you are reading this)

MAKE YOUR HUSBAND

SMILE DAY!!

How to make your husband smile. 

• Skooch over and sit in the middle on the bench seat in your truck using the middle seat belt.   
• Even if it means that you have to twist your legs around so you won't be in the way of the stick shift.
• Especially when there are no kids or carseats with you,  so there really is no reason you HAVE to skooch over.
• Even when you are just going to homedepot and not on a special date or anything.

Yep it finally happened.  I went driving with my 15yo.  What an experience.  I didn't think I would be so nervous. 

We took the back roads to town yesterday and he did very well.  So did I.  I restrained my backseat driver instructions unless I really felt like we were going off the road.  Only on one corner...  "turn, brake, turn, brake uhhh POND turn!   Whew. 

We really weren't going in the pond.  It just FELT like I was so out of control.  He was driving nice and slow and very protectively made sure all brothers were buckled in before we started.  We stopped and switched so I could drive through town.  I guess he was a bit nervous too.

For some reason my 3 yr old didn't like it that his brother was driving.   He kept saying "I don't want Adam to drive!!" in his best whiny voice. 

Sigh. I can't believe he is growing up.  ( the 15yo)

Anyone have first time driving stories they wanna share?  I would love to read them.