Meerie krismus!

If you don't get one of these for christmas you were jipped! Hope ya'll have a happy day and thank the Lord that Jesus was born so we all have an excuse to spend more money than we have and get lots of things we don't need.



On a sweeter note, Jesus was actually a little sweet baby. That's pleasant to think about. Do you think he would have taken a pasifier if they were available?

Word to the baby! Peace!

Ahh, Buzzards!

That's what I encountered as I turned the corner onto our road... Why would there be buzzards? The answer is inevitable. Something has died... Sure enough, one of our precious sweet kitties lay there, dead as a doornail. It was shocking and wretched all at the same time. I had left just a half hour before to pick up Aiden from school and said good bye to our three kitties as they sat in there spots next to the driveway. Who knew in that short amount of time I would loose a precious catty (which is what Izzy calls them). What a horrible feeling to see buzzards picking apart your freshly killed catty. I bawled as I called Ben to ask him what I should do with it. Then I had to walk up the road to it and use a stick to push it's broken little body off the road. I really didn't want to see it's guts so I genuinely hoped the buzzards would come back for dinner but they haven't. Now I'm just waiting for a friend to bring their shovel and toss it over the fence so my kids don't keep asking to see it again. Sad and gross and sad again. My first death in the old country. We did make a little cross in rembrance of Suzie, God rest her soul.

Chezam

Celebrate, one and all, in the birth of our dear friend Chelan. Today she turns 28 (just like me) and is one year closer to being older. "When are you older?" one might ask. That is something I, too, have been pondering. Is it when there's more silver in your mouth than white? Some could debate that. Is it when you have more skin than fat to fill it up? Some, too, could debate that problem. Maybe it's when you have a fair amount of grey hair. I'm afraid even that is debatable. Remember that one dude on American Idol that was totally grey? He definetely was not "older". What about losing memory? Then again, you could just be pregnant or it could be a coping mechanism to save you from horrible childhood memories. In that case, you might not be "older" at all! You know you're getting older when dinner time moves from 6pm all the way up to 3pm, and sleeping in means you wake up at 5:30am. You're probably getting "older" when you look at everyone around you and think "Why does everyone look so young?" If you thought to yourself just now, "I think that all the time," then face it, you might be "older" now!

Happy Birthday, Chezam!

MerryThanksgiving

I am reminded today about how great life really is. I have a wonderful husband who is thougtful, selfless and such a good reminder for me of what it means to serve and love others. I have three adorable children who are my delight and who remind me how to live genuinely and how to have fun. I have a warm home and food to feed my family. I have a church home with warm, loving people. I have friends and family who care about me. And I have three cute cats that live outside my warm home...

Isn't it sad that even though I have it all, I am continually reminded that I actually don't have it all. I don't have that shirt or that really expensive camera. I don't have lattes or a burger from Sonic. My kids don't have that paricular toy or those pair of cute pants. My children watch all the commercials on t.v. that tell them all the things they're missing in life.

Wouldn't it be great if television actually told you that you already have the most important things in life? What if commercials were to remind you to stay focused on serving others instead of serving self? Those Hallmark commercials always send me warm fuzzies... You know, it's not Christmas without big brother and then, low and behold, he shows up and life is complete... That's kind of headed in the right direction... Maybe...

My goal through the end of the month, especially, is to focus on how God has blessed me and to show to my children where my identity lies. I am content not because of what I have but because I have been given life. I am thankful that I am alive and I have been given such precious people to surround me and love me. Will you remain thankful amid christmas lists and amazing sales? Will you coninue to praise God for how he has blessed you when Thansgiving is over and the turkey is gone? Merry Thanksgiving to you.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I am twenty-freakin'-eight years old! Praise the Lord! The closer I get to thirty, the more confident I get that I really have earned the name adult. It truly is a pain having averyone and their mom think that you're eighteen...

Here is my birthday gift from my friend Aaron Metcalf. Try to get through it. It's my birthday and I'm worth it!

A Short Story by Aaron Metcalf

Jen slowly takes her seat by the large bay window overlooking the Salmon River and picks up the most recent picture of her third grandchild. She looks lovingly at the photo and places it perfectly on a page of her latest scrapbook. This picture completes her scrapbook, which makes 157,543 scrapbooks to date; some of which have won Jen some prestigious awards in the elite craft world. Jen smiles inwardly as she polishes her, “Scrapbooker of the Year” award given in 2020 from, “Scrapbooking Today” magazine. She chuckles softly to herself as she carefully and artfully glues the picture of Aiden’s firstborn son, Bubbles, to the blue page. “Oh Aiden,” Jen thinks, “Who would have thought you would one day be a father?”
Just then the phone rings. It is Emma. Emma has just finished her law degree and is currently living in Boston with her husband, Reade, and their two boys, Paul (14) and Simon (9). Emma entered Law School when Simon was 4 and is currently using her degree to write a much anticipated law thriller titled, “The Eldest Daughter” –it is a book about inheritance. Emma’s charming voice rings through the handheld phone.
“Hi Mom, I hope you are doing well. I just called because I was wondering…uh…how much are Grandma Brenda’s earrings worth?”
Jen, who has received dozens of calls similar to this from Emma in the past week
answers, “Emma, I just don’t know.” Jen gives a deep sigh, “Listen honey, please paint me in a positive light in this book.” There is silence on the other end of the phone, which is broken only by the sound of a loud toilet flush.
“Oh sorry mom,” says Emma, “I was, ummm, busy. How are you feeling today?”
“I am feeling pretty well,” Jen begins, “Ever since I have begun teaching Yoga I have noticed more flexibility. You know, when I was making those Yoga instructional videos I found that I had to start and stop a lot for the cameras. It’s different when you’re in front of several thousand people showing them new techniques. I’m so glad I made that pilgrimage to Asia to learn more about the ancient undiscovered art of…” Jen’s voice is stopped by Emma’s shouting,
“Paul, do NOT throw that football in the house. I don’t care if you’re the best athlete in your school or if you just won the best award a fourteen-year old can win! Do not throw the ball in the house!”
“Is everything ok dear?” asks Jen.
“Oh sure mom,” Answers Emma. “Paul has just really been acting up ever since his dad won the super bowl.” Emma’s husband, Reade Barber, plays for the football team closest to where they live (Ben, insert some football team or whatever you want, just try to be funny). Reade is a well adjusted, and certainly well built, man who is compassionate and treats Emma like the princess she is.
Jen smiles as she hangs up the phone and glances at the clock on the wall. It is almost 1pm. Ben and Aaron should be home soon. They have been camping again right down the road at Green Canyon Campground. Jen can’t understand why they go camping every single night, but it is frankly nice to have them out of the house. Adam and Aris go with them, obviously, which is nice because otherwise Adam tends to just stay in the Ries’ home and eat their potato chips.
Just then Bubbles runs into the room and hops up on Jen’s lap. Aiden is right behind him and is carrying a fresh diaper. “I just don’t understand it mom,” Aiden says in his high pitch voice, “I just can’t seem to potty train Bubbles. Just when it seems like he is potty trained he goes in his paints again…”
Jen nods her head slowly and pretends to really listen while insight she is dancing and knows that there is, indeed, justice in the world. “Tell me more,” Jen says trying to hide her glee. It is really nice to have Aiden and family visit. Since he has been dancing on Broadway it is really hard to get him to vacation. Furthermore, his duties as a firefighter, preacher and ice skater keep him really busy. Good thing his wife, Ella, is so understanding. Ella has recently won a Pulitzer for her fiction writing and is as patient and as perfect as a person has ever been. Some say that she can walk on water.
“Oh, I’ll tell you about it later mom,” Aiden says. “I have to go watch cartoons.”
Jen holds Bubbles close to her and shows him the scrapbook she has just completed. He squeals in delight at the pictures they took of him in Greece when he was running naked on the beach. The vacation they took with the Metcalf’s in Hawaii years before, likewise, makes him laugh out loud. There is one photo of a dolphin splashing his Grandpa, Ben, who is shouting obscenities because the water nearly splashed in his, “cough medicine.”
“That’s me!” shouts Bubbles at one photo in which Bubbles is riding on Aaron’s shoulders through the current mega-church in which Aaron is serving. Aaron’s line of self-help books and instructional videos has won him international acclaim and regular spot on Oprah as a guest, “self-help artist” (as he calls himself). “Deny Your Cross and Follow Yourself” is his most recent work of “art.”
Chelan has joined him in these efforts by putting Aaron’s work to rhythmic words using African beats and synthesized noises. Her work has earned her two Grammy’s and her own line of perfume. Chelan, in fact, is in the other room watching Tevo’d Oprah and sipping on “cough medicine” waiting for Jen to finish so they can go fishing like they do every afternoon.
The whole family—minus Emma and family who will fly in later today—have gathered for the wedding of Miles and Isabel. The two have been making hit pop songs together for some time and have finally decided to tie the knot. With Izzy’s raspy voice and Mile’s screams they have broken through that fine line that once existed between soft jazz and heavy metal. “It’s Norah Jones meets Metallica” Rolling Stone magazine raved. Some have even said that their union, musically, is the leading cause of the world peace that the world now enjoys. Jen looks at the picture of Izzy and Miles receiving the Nobel Peace prize for their humanitarian efforts and is glad that they have finally decided to hitch up.
Jen turns from her window and releases Bubbles to go watch cartoons with his dad. She looks at her shelves stuffed full of the scrapbooks she has made over the years and feels her heart swell. So many memories. So many stories. She feels blest to be a part of such a beautiful world and thanks God she has received so much. Not just awards and family achievements, she has received love and fullness. Ben comes in the room and Jen walks over to him slowly and places her head on his shoulder (Ben has shrunk over the years from working in the circus—that’s another story) and feels her eyes well. Her life is full. Her heart is jammed pack with memories and fulfillments.
Jen notices a card fallen to the ground out of one of her scrapbooks. She received the card years and years, ago from Aaron and the message inside reads,




Dear Jen,
Words cannot express how much you and your family have meant to us over the past few years. You have given advice, support, comfort and most of all laughter to our family in our times of need. Thank you. Your life is a blessing to so many and I cannot wait to see what God has imagined for your future. Though our families are separated now by many miles we still feel close to you and we anticipate a day in which we can once again meet daily for TV shows (minus the sound during commercials, please), games (sometimes…agh), laughter, fellowship, and most of all we can meet daily for life. Enjoy your night.
Love,
Aaron

Bad Blog

Folks, I truly didn’t mean to have all my work displayed for an entire week so that you could compliment me and tell me about how great I am and about how many people I’m going to bring to the Lord through my ministry of photography. So because of that I’m going to take some time to share with you all the things I’m not good at…

I’m pretty bad at keeping up with the dishes. Are you surprised? Don’t get me wrong. I do them. But not before there is a large pile and it bleeds onto the countertops… I’m also not too good at keeping animals alive. They don’t all die… I. am. horrible. at. sending. thank. you. notes. Even my mom can vouch for me on that one. What’s the point, though? 90% of the time I’ve already thanked them in person! …One time I even woke my husband up from the nap I gave him permission to take to ask him what I was bad at because I couldn’t remember anything… I am bad at taking bad pictures. That’s for sure… I’m bad at calling people. I don’t like picking up the phone when I have a million other things I should be doing… I’m not good at keeping a schedule for my children. I know it’s the best environment for them but I figure, what’s the fun in that? Let’s mix it up and be crazy!

…I have a long list but I don’t want you to know all of them! And just so you know, this is not a ploy to obtain more compliments. Just take it all in and allow this information to balance out the great things you’ve learned about me thus far. For aren’t we all really the same? A little salt, a little pepper… A little sugar… Some just have more than others…


whew! I did it! I thought that was going to be a hard one!

I've got mad picture skills!

Take a look at these suckers. They're of my friend Krista, her husband, and their new baby Miriam. I took them yesterday and here's just a few of them.










Unfortunaetly, for me, I borrowed their camera to take their pictures... Don't despair. I'm starting a camera fund, like, yesterday!

How good are you really?

Alright,everybody. Let's see who's brushed up on their children's movies...

1. "You're afraid you're going to get sucked out!"
2. "Beware of the groove..."
3. "Die... die...die.."
4. "What's a motto with you?"
5. "Let's name the zones, the zones, the zones..."
6. "You're makin' him lose his focus!"
7. "I can't push the fire button and jump at the same time!"
8. "We found fifth avenue! Number one fifth avenue!"
9. "Shame on you! Scaring things weaker than you are!"
10. "But what would I wear?"

Movie Trivia Time

Isn’t it the perfect time of year to cuddle up by a fire, put on some slippers and watch a good movie? Let’s test your movie line skills…

1. “Bees. Frank was always allergic to bees.”
2. “This is a well oiled machine, my friend.”
3. “Do you have anything besides Mexican food?”
4. “I’m signin’! You’re signin’! We’re all signin’!”
5. “Listen. Do you smell something?”
6. “Sell crazy some place else. We’re all stocked up here.”
7. “He lacks the physical strength and the opposable thumbs.”
8. “Skin that smoke wagon, see what happens.’
9. “Oh wait. Wasn’t she that real big fat person?”
10. “You came back to tell me that I’m odd?”

Some are easier than others. Good Luck!

Campout the Bird

A Poem

This was my bird but now he's gone.
His life fell short...just before dawn.
Ben awoke and out of a deep, deep sleep
when fluttering and flapping but not a peep
did come from our bird so quiet and still.
What have we done? A bird, did we kill?
His normal habits were hissing and pooping
So such disturbance led Ben to some snooping
He searched around for some other source
but what he found led him to deep remorse
The noises had quieted because... it was dead.
Poor Campy was jammed in the corner on it's head.
What did we do? Or what did we not?
All we know now is an empty cage, we got!

Amen. And Amen.

God rest his soul...

Ding, dittly, ding, dittly, ding, dang, blog!

I tried to post earlier this week and I lost it! Then I became a ticking time bomb or maybe a ball of fury as my dad took his laptop away from me to continue working... Then, I think my children were screaming and crying or something like that! This is the first time I've been able to calm down and write something new. I think I'm doing okay.

Well, on my last post I said something like,"We are having a great time here on the west coast and it's been a real blessing to be here. We've had busy times and quiet times and times with family and times with friends. It has been a perfect blend."

Thursday was Survivor which is always good. We also got to watch it with Aaron and Chelan and Aris and Christy who have always been our Survivor buddies. It was a little different this time, though. Instead of there being three or four children, there was six. We could have been man-to-man but Ben wasn't around... It wasn't as quiet but we actually managed to watch the whole thing!

So, as Survivor began, so did a toothache. I slept horrible and by the next afternoon I was calling my dentist in Abilene for a drug prescription. I've been drugged ever since and I'm gonna be real pissed if it doesn't let up. I can't drive, obviously, so that puts some kinks in my plans. Wish me luck! I'm sure it will be fine...

Bear with me. It's worth it!

So Thursday morning I woke up at 6am and rushed to get ready. I hurried out the door at 6:40 and headed off to Abilene. I pulled up to the Hospital and went to the appropriate waiting room. I was suppose to be there at 8am and wasn’t able to be taken to my own personal suite until well after 9am. Normally my sweet and thoughtful husband would be by my side as my support and witness but unfortunately the combination of school-aged children and a weekend course of his own prohibited him from fulfilling his husbandly duties aside from a ten minute, heart felt, drop in on his way to school. So my good friend Shelley was more than willing to be my temporary companion. A nurse came in and poked and prodded around my left hand to get a needle into my particularly minute veins and failed. She then went for my right elbow pit which went much smoother but prevented me from moving my arm much. Shelley and I talked and talked until the nurse got the phone call saying the doctor was ready for me and then I was given some valium and some pain killer. I waited… Was it working? Maybe, maybe not… I hopped into a wheel chair and my valet took me through a maze of hallways to an ultrasound room. After waiting some more along with three other nurses and my companion, the doctor arrived and the fun began. The yellow soapy cleany stuff was smeared all over my neck and the needles were taken out of there packages. There were sterile things all over the place and it smelled like vinegar. “Here comes a poke.” Sure enough, my neck went numb quick enough but unfortunately I was still awake! Shelley remained by my side and watched what I would never be brave enough to watch. I prepared myself by closing my eyes as a scalpel moved toward me. Then came needles and pressure and more needles trying to get the best sample of tissue from the cyst on my thyroid. The doctor used an ultrasound machine to help guide his freakishly long needles past the liquid filled cavities of the cyst and into the really hard crap. Yah, that was painful…I was freakin’ out ‘cause he was totally going to puncture my esophagus! Meanwhile, Shelley is rather intrigued with the whole procedure which you might not have known had you seen her faint half way through! Good times! Once the doc finally had the best sample ever, the nurses bandaged me all up, making it nearly impossible to move my neck. Well, I’m trying not to make this heck-a-long but I’ve failed miserably… Anyway, I had to have a volunteer drive me home a freakin’ hour away ‘cause I wasn’t allowed to. Then I continued to care for my children and be the Superwoman I am!

A day in the life of me...

These are pictures of the hotel I just got back from. I got to go to a MOPS convention for four days and it was the bomb. This is the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN. It is beautiful, amazing, and gargantuan, to say the least! It covers 300 acres and all that you see in these pictures is inside the hotel. We heard Nicole Nordeman, Mark Schultz, and a children's group called Go Fish who were fantastic! Kim Hill led our worship throughout the convention, too. I am very thankful for all I received during that time. It's always good when you've been equipped with tools that make you ready to walk back into your living room and be the best mom you can be... It was a getaway, yes, but I was excited to return to life. These pictures only give you a glimpse of the whole place!

The Price is Right!

All right all you bloggers... Chelan's baby is coming any time and she has her own game showwhere all of you need to guess the date and time she will have Miles. Let's all bless her with lots of comments and participation. I'm probably going to beat everyone because I'm really smart, I KNOW how to play, and God blesses me more than any of you! But good luck anyway!

Hope

Hope. Hope is a powerful thing. I shall try to share a bit about hope today. My mother is a woman of hope. She put her hope into action these last four weeks and searched and prayed and searched some more for a way to fly me and the kids to Portland. She tried to think of ways to make money (Don't we all?) and she looked and looked at plane tickets without money to pay for them... But... we have come a step closer...We are coming to Portland. The tickets have been bought, the blood has been shed, and the bags will get packed. Prepare your hearts and your minds for the Ries' for hope has prevailed once again!

Hope. Hope can keep you alive, can't it? I hope so. We got some new kittens two days ago and they are adorable but I hope they make it...

The kids are having a blast...

It's so hard to not squeeze their guts out...

They've already recieved an unwanted bath in the drinking water...

...and been put in scary places...

...but hopefully love will keep them alive... I hope...

(Their names are Stripers, Sara, Suzie, and Sally and they live outside. They are very good kitties!)

Welcome to Sidney

This is our humble abode.

Can you see our well out front? We fetch water every day and boil all the impurities out. Then we dig a hole deep into the ground to help cool it down to soothe our parched throats from the exhausting heat...

This is our back porch. We have lovely grass and a lovely tree, perfect for climbing! There is also a lovely swing built for two and a third swing from our tree. On hot days we pull out the pool and lounge peacefully in the water. The children slide down the sweet little slide and splash playfully into the water. Refreshing...

This is our place of worship. We gracefully hike across the rocky parking lot each week and partake in the body of Christ. Glorious...

And so it is... The Church of Christ, Sidney...

Bring it on!

That’s what I’m talkin’ about! My youngest child is already portraying characteristics of Christ… Bare buns and all… One of the most important things to teach your child is how to serve. “Am I right or am I right? Right? Right?” (Movie?) Seriously, though, if people are prepared to serve others no matter what then everything else will work itself out!

How proud can a mother be when her own child willingly washes the dishes? I’m so proud I’m going to write her a sweet little poem.

Oh, darling dearest,
Bring it on!
You asked to wash my dishes
And I say, “Bring it on!”

You started out so selfish
Oh, darling, bring it on!
All you wanted was milk from my breasts
And again I said, “Bring it on!”

Then you got a little bigger and brought sunshine into my day
Bring it on. Bring it on!
You learned to speak and bless our souls
Darling dearest, bring it on!

And now I witness you scrubbing so hard
Oh, baby, bring it on!
Sending water all over the place
I’ll live, so bring it on!


Be like Jesus. Wash my dishes!

Some Important Information

I just wanted to make sure that I do my best at keeping everyone in the loop about what is going on in our lives... Just two things at the moment that I thought I should share with you.
1. Izzy has now come to understand the intense problem Emma has. We knew it was not good but today in the car Izzy broke Emma off and said,"Emma, don't lie!" Yikes!
2. Aiden has decided to switch career paths. Instead of being a superhero, rescue hero, spiderman, a firefighter, and a preacher he has decided to be a bear hunter! He's gonna eat the bears and the chicken inside the bears! Good luck with that!

Maybe his cousin Cal can teach him a few things...

As long as he can differentiate his sister from a bear, we'll be in good shape!

Our unique and smokey evening

Well... Last night we had to evacuate our house. We had a small thunder and lightening storm and it caught someone's land on fire nearby. We saw it smoking for a while in the distance but it got way big and there was tons of wind. That's never good. We've got it on video tape, so that's good. It was quite a strange feeling needing to take into account what we should take with us. I thought we were going to have time to pack a few sets of clothing for everybody but that wasn't the case. I ended up grabbing an extra pair of undies for myself and a set of clothes for each of the kids, toiletries which were still kind of packed up already and I managed to remember shoes for everyone. We grabbed all our pictures and our important documents, blankies and some random pillows along with Ben's laptop. That was it. Unfortunately, for Aaron and Chelan, we forgot about our bird who would have been fried, so that's sad. Anyways, we loaded into the car and started driving. Emma asked us where we were going to go and we had no clue. We thought about folks in Abilene we could stay with but was that overkill driving an hour away? We ended up pulling up to Jack and Johnnie's and knocked on the door... "We can't stay at our house...", We said. They invited us in and we hung out for a little while. Jack felt confident that it wouldn't get close to our house because the wind had died down so Ben felt like going back to the house until we really, really needed to leave. One of our neighbors were the one's who advised us to head out and Ben thought maybe we could just wait for the policemen to kick us out... we loaded into the car and back towards our house only to be stopped by a police road block which answered our questions! We stayed the night at the Lusk's and prayed for the best. We took the kids to school in the morning and headed back to our humble abode. It looked just as we left it, thankfully, and there was no remnant of fire anywhere hear our house. The crazy thing is that I drove around to see exactly where it spread and it is so much further away than it looked. We could see so much firey blazes that I can't understand how it was where it was. There is probably fire areas that I can't see from the road which might explain something... That was a first for all of us and I hope we get some rain soon...( Nobone elses houses were damaged. Emma did say that one of her friend's cows got burned up... That's sad) I cleaned a lot at the house today and put back all our picture so that's good...

A Nice Update

Well, this weekend was a nice one. We picked Emma up from school a little early and picked Aiden up from school and headed to Dallas. Ron was in town visiting Bryan and Tracey before they head to Africa next week so it was a great time to make one more trip to visit everyone. Emma and Graham have a great time being together. They laugh almost all the time. I'm pretty sure they were close to #1 on each other's summer highlights lists. We have really enjoyed getting to hang out with Bryan and Tracey and are so glad that we have been nearby during this furlough. We took the kids to a park near Bryan and Tracey's home to fish in a nice creek/pond/fountainy area (That's Bryan, his youngest son Owen, and Izzy in the picture above). I got the kids little kid fishing poles last month and this was our first experience using them with hooks on them. It worked out and nobody got hooked. Unfortunately, Isaac got a little wet when he fell in, but he survived which was good. We caught a lot of little fishies that we tossed back in. Izzy caught at least two. Most everyone caught at least one. It was very fun!

On Sunday, Ben threw up while preparing to speak and ended up having to stay home. I decided not to worry about taking my children to bible class where I would have to teach them and we ended up just going for worship. As I was putting the kids in the car another car drove into our driveway. Krista and Jason Hill popped up! I was like,"what the...?" Well, something like that... It was crazy! They popped in to see barfy Ben and then they came to church with kids and me (which they had already attended the previous hour for a bible class that Ben did not teach). Don't you see how this blogmunity ties us together? Those crazy kids thought, "Hey, we're in Abilene. Ben and Jen couldn't be too far. Surely we could find Sidney." And they did. We got to go to lunch together at Aaron Metcalf's favorite restaurant that just opened back up while Ben had toast at home. Needless to say, my weekend had a few more highlights than his...
For those of you who noticed, I bypassed the F.F.F.F. on Friday. Screw it. I blogged less once I started having to post every Friday, so I think it's in everyone's best interests that I talk about my friends on any day I please! I'll talk about you. Don't worry. It just might be on a Monday!

Out of Place

Here are some things that are just out of place. Why does the wheel chair-accessible bathroom stall at my church building have a power outlet? Is some person in a wheel chair going to need to blow dry their hair before church or something? What's up with that? My house in Gresham had two bathrooms. One had a single outlet and the other had absolutely none. I guess you know what I'll be looking out for in my next house purchase! In this house we have ceiling fans which is awesome. I do not dis ceiling fans like they do on Trading Spaces! However, they must have been an afterthought because we have ceiling light fixtures and a separate ceiling fan. Do you know what that means? Disco dance! That's right. A built-in strobe light! I wonder if anyone would want to come over for a dance party...
I have been looking forward to helping my children learn how to ride a two wheeler. I thought that since we wouldn't be living on the busy street that we used to live on I would have a better chance of my kids not getting hit by a car, or at least not running into a parked car (Ryan). Nope. who wants to ride a bike or run next to one when it's freakin' hot outside? Bikes don't belong here. Why even sell them? And besides, our bikes were in the back and the street was in the front... Inconvenient! Now I live on another freakin' gravel road. My kids are going to be retarded, I think. they're never going to learn how to ride a bike and they're never going to learn how to swim. I'm a bad parent. That's what it comes down to. At least Emma can go under water without plugging her nose... Good luck with that.

A little show and tell

I have found much enjoyment taking pictures in the last few years. I don't find it necessary to take my kids into Walmart anymore... I just thought I'd share some of the ones I've taken over the years. Each post can only have five pictures each for some reason so I posted thrice. Hope you enjoy them.





Isn't that duck scary?

Here's some more...

I did take pictures of all my children but it is a pain to have two computers with different programs and different pictures... I do have great ones of Aiden... and of Izzy...

...and last but not least

I intended for these pictures to go first so it could be more sequential but I obviously didn't know enough to do that right!





Thanks for lookin'. Peace out!

F.F.F.F. is out the window this week... How 'bout life?

Forget it. Friday's past. I'm posting something else. I wasted a lot of time trying to find a picture and I couldn't find one. Forget it!

Emma starts first grade tomorrow and she is really excited. She's gotten some new clothes, a new hair cut, and new teeth since last she stepped through school doors. Her new teacher goes to our church which is fun and so does her bus driver. This will be her first time riding the bus and she is very happy! Thankfully here it doesn't matter how close you live to the school, you can still ride the bus! I dig it!

Aiden starts pre-school on Thursday! I am making my son an honest man! (At least in this particular area. He still tries to steal things from everywhere but we're continuing to show him the path he should take...) He is very excited and I am very excited for him. He got a real cool nap bag for nap times that has a cool frog pillow. He also got some new clothes. We get to go to his school tomorrow night to see his classroom and we get to eat dinner there. He thinks that is very cool.

Izzy has taken the initiative to use the toilet and has been doing a pretty fantastic job. It's fun that she's about to be the only one at home with me. I am happy for her. She's talking really well but is definately not the chatterbox that Ella Metcalf is. I'll have to figure out how to put a sound clip on here so everyone can hear her smoker voice. It's hillarious.

Well, for all you out there that this will affect, the kids and I will not be coming to Portland. We are doing our best, though, to save up for a great vacation next summer to P-town and disneyland as well. I will only be able to see the Vartanian and Metcalf babies via pictures and it breaks my heart but thus is life sometimes...

I hope God is blessing all of you. May you look for opportunties to show Jesus and learn the comfort of being inconvienced, at times, and maybe uncomfortable. I will try to do the same...

Julia Gulia (A Friday Night Special)

This post is for my good friend Julia who thought I should write about a friend who actually exists...

I met Julia last year when Chelan and I went to MOPS together and we all sat at the same table for the year. Since then we have both volunteered to help coordinate the MOPS program with other women for this year.

Hanging out with Julia is almost like being in heaven. Don't get me wrong. The other friends I have are amazing but I have not had one such as Julia. I'm pretty sure she would not call me a scrapbooking natzi because she is in her own right a natzi herself. OH, it's divine. We get together to work on a project and she says isn't that centered? I say no and she says you're right and we love each other all the more. We've spent five minutes arguing over what color paper to print with and we think it's fun.

I will say it is a lot easier for her anal retentiveness to be present because she cares for not three, not two, but uno childo! Let's trade kids for a week and see how she handles that chaos! Booyah back to ya! It's kind of funny to see how she handles my children's volume problems... She didn't think of Braden, her son, as quiet until today!

I'm thankful for Julia. And for all you who haven't met her, she really does exist... Chelan can vouch for me. By the way, this picture is of her and her husband, Mason, but I'm not sure he exists... I did talk to some male on the phone once... Maybe that was him! I'm sure I'll meet him soon. Those air force guys are always flying somewhere...

The superhero power I would wish for Julia would be Major Multitasker Mama. She could do amazing things if only she could do more than one thing at a time! Peace out!