Happy Birthday Dear, Sweet Friend

Anna, (she's the Mom on the left back in Dec. '06) one of my closest friends, turned 30 yesterday. She's a wonderful wife and mother of three.

She's one of those people you can call when you have a problem and you just want to vent. She'll ask if there is anything she can do, and then she prays with you, before you hang up.

Anna, I love you and thank God for you. You are like sunshine; warm and inviting.

I honor you on the day of your birth. "You have let the peace of Christ rule in your heart, since as a member of one body you were called to peace. Anna, you have been thankful and have let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish others with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to God." Colossians 3:15+16 (I changed it to read in first person.....does that mean I'll go to hell?!?!:)

Love to you!

Oh yea, pictured in the photo (l-r), Grace (Anna's latest), Anna, Heather (cousin of mine) and Boston (Heather's son).

Revelations

I have found that I learn things in a few ways. Sometimes I learn by reading. Other times by watching others. Still yet, I learn by doing the wrong thing. I'm not talking about making, what we at our house call, God choices. Just learning about what we can and should put on ourselves. More of the preferences route.

Since camping I learned that:
*What is called the walk in camp sites really should be labeled, short hike tent sites. The sites were probably 100 yards form the parking lot and about 1/4 mile form the restrooms....oh yeah, and uphill both ways.
*I do not enjoy bugs on or near myself or my children.
*There are some bugs I would be happy to never, ever see again in my lifetime. We saw insects that I have never seen before. They were three times the length of a bumble bee and just as fat and furry. They also enjoyed trying to land on us. EEEEWWWW!
*My children have the ability to need the restrooms at the drop of a heavy hat. Did I mention that the bathrooms were about 1/4 mil. from us?


Now, don't be thinking that I was the only one that learned anything camping.

Ben learned that he would rather rent a home and take hiking excursions from that nice, clean home than camp. I told him that I was going to need a signed contract as evidence of that fact. Why? So I could show it to him next year when he wants to go camping again. This is absolutely not a joke. I am going to write up a contract and ask him to sign it. Side note:Ben would never ask me to do anything he really knew I didn't enjoy. In the beginning he offered to take the boys and give Es and I girl time. I love him!

Joey (last twin) learned not to try and watch (through the door cracks) what others are doing in the restroom stalls. :)

All in all, this wasn't horrible. We have great, funny memories (although some weren't funny at the time). I see that the kids are more gracious to each other and enjoy each others company. All is not lost.....just my peaceful sleep. I'll be having night mares about those enormous bugs for quite awhile....I just might have to call Oprah...

Camping

We're back and almost organized. I will be feeling better when I'm able to be 'normal' again.


Day one (Monday): our first night and the making of smores.

Every morning Ben would light up his pipe and relax.

Day two (Tuesday) we went on a 2.6 mile hike with the kids to Horsetail Falls(this is the one that the trail goes under the falls). This is one of many falls in the Multnomah (sp?) Falls area. I was so proud of all the kids! They didn't complain a bit about how long our hike lasted.







And here is were the tired Mama need her bed! So much laundry, so little time!

Pillow Tops, Swings and Canopies...Oh My!

As aforementioned, my wonderful Husband is a craigslistaholic. He's man enough to admit it too! He frequents the free posting the most I think. Two weeks before my birthday he brought home a two year, stainless, brilliantly white pillow top mattress. I am now like the girl in the princess and the pea story! I feel like I'm floating on a cloud when I lay down for the night! He also scored a metal porch swing (I think there's a pict of it one or two posts ago). And the newest item he got is a camp canopy. It's the kind that completely covers a pick-nick table and has walls of bug netting. All of this was FREE! Way to go Babe!

Enter now into the inner workings of my brain.....hummmm.....sounds scary!
Last night Ben and I got down and dirty with our goals and life desires. We want to be self-employed, but don't have time or capital to pursue this hope. Sooooo, our solution will be to: 1) sell our house 2) move to a rental 3)save like ants hording in the fall 4)when we have the set amount (at least 6 month expenses saved) Ben'll limit hours or quit his job 5)we'll continue to stay in the rental 'till the self-employment is establish and we have %20 down on a new home.
We crunched numbers until I was seeing double but now we have goals to achieve and we're quite excited. So sometime between next month and February, we'll be moved and hopefully stay in that rental for about two years total.
Whew! Now was that really so hard? or as scary as you thought? I hope that I was able to convey the facts without too much confusion! I'll keep you posted.....literally!

Tag....you're it!

I've been tagged...here's the rules:
1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (If you don’t have a blog, email me)
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Okay, I don't have ogles and ogles of time right now, so this will be short.

#1. I thrive on organization and time management. This is a gift that can be a fault. I often think of ways that I can cut out a step or do something in a shorter amount of time. I love the sentence work smarter not harder. I find myself competing against myself; ie. I set a time of completion for emptying the dishwasher and become crazy woman to beat the clock.

#2. I tend to have high expectations of others, myself and situations. This goes along with #1.....do I really need to explain myself here??? :)

#3. I love to laugh with my family. There is nothing better to hear or feel than my children and hubby laughing (you know, the really great big laughs) together. Ahhhhh!

#4. I'm weird and don't really care! Some comments I make I think are funny and I'll laugh at my own remark, but others around me totally just don't get it. Oh well! On the flip side, I can say something that some might consider harsh, if the situation calls for it. I am of the belief that frankness is a necessity and saves time. I don't have a problem with confrontation.

#5. I just ate 4 slices of deli turkey for lunch:)

#6. I have to be careful to not be overly concerned with my weight and body size.

#7. I feel guilty often. I find myself thinking things like: I ate too much, Ben works sooo hard I need find a way to pamper him more, I need to spend more time with the kids, I need to clean.....insert the dirty item here. I have a long list of 'to do's' in a single day.

#8. I desire to own a hot tub someday soon. I LOVE to be warm and would move to a warmer climate at the drop of a hat!

I'm not gonna' tag anyone so, if you want to follow the instructions, great! If you don't, great! Do what you want with it!

Should be in Bed

You got that right. I'm an early to bed, early to rise kinda girl! Yet I had to post one thing.

This past school year we, with lots of prayer and God guidance, decided to educate our children at home. I was scared, to be honest. I decided to go with the same curriculum that their private school was using. I was not in the mood to take the time and make a tailored fit study for each individual child, so I just used the same curriculum for all subjects and all ages. Simplify right?

Well, through the year of teaching and learning (I'm referring to my learning here not the kids') I realized that this straight across approach wasn't working or benefiting the kids and it was making me frustrated. So, I mixed and matched for Es and Sam. BOY! Let me tell ya it made SUCH a difference. The kids are done sooner and they had fewer problems and better attitudes throughout the whole school time today. YIPPEE!

This is a complete answer of prayer for me, probably for the kids too! God is so good. He is always good. Thanks Lord.

Primitive Camping?

We're going camping next week. We are thinking of really 'ruffing' it and using a primitive site. (Did I mention that I've never camped in this fashion before?)Primitive means: no: running water, restrooms or electricity outlets. Now with that written there maybe questions......where does one , eh, shall we say, use the facilities? Weeeel....for lack any social propriety.....find a bush and squat! Now, just try and imagine 'training' four young kids to do this! It's not set in stone yet, but there's a good chance we'll take the challenge.

Okay, the first picture is from last week when we watch our cousins. At one point we had seven children in the car and one adult! We all had a BLAST!
And the second was our dinner tonight. Sam was being rewarded for a valiant accomplishment at the Dr.'s today. We'll just say he had a painful visit.

I Will Probably Never Run a Complete Marathon....BUT

It took all I had this morning to run just 3 miles. I was disappointed at first and then I remembered (thanks to God!); just 3 or so months ago I had only ran 1.5 miles at one time. I also remembered that I need to be glad that I've come this far. The next thought was "Maybe God didn't create me to run a marathon?" I could be trying to achieve something I wasn't created for and thus, it will be tremendously difficult to attain.
Synopsis: For now I'll continue to run up to 7 miles or so, BUT I'll not kill myself to run 26 miles!
Ahhhhh. (that was a sigh of relief from me!)

Extraction

What a trooper Sam was today! Without going into detail.....

It took about a total of 20min. to numb the teeth (5 min. for the front and back of both teeth.) yet only seconds to actually get them out. The Doc said later that he didn't even flinch. Mind you I DID NOT watch the procedure. I was in the room looking at the ceiling the whole time. Why at the ceiling you ask? Well I really wanted to turn completely around and face the wall like a naughty little girl still in school, but then Sam wouldn't have been able to see my face. So you can just call me Super Mama! That's right, I did it for you Buddy!

Above are the teeth. Actual length app. one inch. Oh, does he look drugged in this photo to you? Honestly, he's just had a store brand Tylenol and the numbing stuff (the scientific name is evading me at the moment, though I remembered it ALL morning long:)

29 and 4

I left 28 behind yesterday and turned 29! I am so excited to turn 30 because I feel like I've earned my twenties. This last year will be exciting, not dreadful!!!!Yea!

I ran four miles at .5 incline. At one point I felt like I was moving to slow so I gradually increased my speed to 5.5 (I was running previously at 5.3). Then, as I neared the 4 mi. mark I ran at 6.0 (at this speed one can run a 10 min. mi.) for about a minute and a half. It was hard at the end and I wanted to quit. I started counting my steps to help distract myself and learned that counting one thousand steps is a half mile. Now this is something I never thought I'd learn.
Total Mileage: 5. Total Time: 1hour. Total Calories:550. Meeting the goal: Priceless!

Sam did NOT have his teeth extracted Thursday. En rout to the Dental office, ONE minute to the appointment time, the receptionist called my cell and said in her cheery voice"We're over scheduled today. Could we reschedule Samuel for Tues. or Wed. next week?" Your kidding right? Without getting into all the details we'd already had a 'problem' with the appointed time two weeks ago. So I'm driving and trying to remember what we had on the calendar without actually looking at it and thinking that now I get to tell Sam. Poor Sam! He was excited to get the procedure all over and then I had to tell him he'd have to wait even longer. I was mad. I did call her later (after I made sure I could talk nicely) and ask to make sure our app. was set in STONE, because Sam's emotions had been jerked around and I wasn't going to let that happen again. I'll post how it all turns out.
Oh, did I mention that I had intended to give the nice ladies at the dentist's a thank you note last week for they're outstanding attitudes and overall cheeriness? He, he, he. I'm glad I procrastinated because they won't be getting one. No body messes with my babies and gets thanked for it!

Say What?

Sam's teeth extraction is today. We have a busy morning and the past couple days have been the same as our morning.
In preparation for busy days, I try and let the kids know where we'll be going and estimate how long we'll be there. So, I gave the boys the run down of our errands (Es was still in bed) and they reacted well. About 5 minutes after I gave the 'run down', Zach came to me and said "Where are we going after the Dentists'?" Now, remember I just talked with them just 5 min. before. I'm trying not to get frustrated as I explain there is nothing after the Dentist. He tells me that Sis said we were going somewhere after.
Now, at this point I'm thinking that this is getting more involved than I want to get for this very BUSY morning! For heaven sakes! I still have to do my kick boxing video!
I go to Sis and asked her what she told Zach. She says "I told him that we have to go to the archaeologist's after we go to the dentist." I , trying to muffle my giggles, ask why. She responds "So he can pull out Sam's teeth!" Both of us had a good laugh as I explained orthodontist versus archaeologist.
Thank God for precious moments, we cannot get hung up on schedules and miss time to laugh.

Home and Running

She's baaaaaack! I think she grew an inch. As I was looking as some pictures Ben's Mom took, I was wondering who the young lady was standing with Hannah.....maybe a neighborhood girl or something? It was Esther! She looked so tall next to Hannah in the picture!

Oh, I ran the street this morning. I think the total was almost 2 miles. Easier than last time, but still not 'easy'.

The Lewis family got together today for our annual August pick-nick. So, so fun, and tiring. Ben and I are ready for a nap. The kids you may ask, how are they? They're ready for more family fun! Sorry kiddo's.....we'll be glued our spots in the family room. Maybe they'll be ready for an early bed time???? I'll post pick-nick photo's next time.

Crazy or Bold and Pool Tag

I'm posting a new hair picture. I took it this morning.....no make-up or shower and still in jammies! I must be bold or CRAZY!

In order to view this picture correctly just tilt your head to the left....I can't rotate pictures! Sorry.

My boys and I were frolicking in our pool yesterday, playing whirlpool (our version does NOT involve bodily functions! We all walk around the pool in the same direction and are eventually 'swept away' by the current) and tag. I had sooooo much fun! This morning when I woke up I was hurting. My back aches and my thighs hurt. I started thinking. I didn't get to the gym yesterday, why do I feel like I lifted weights? You guessed it! It's the ever popular Pool Work Out! I've heard it's the rage in California. I don't think I'm going to be the one to familiarize it to the Northwest though!

Hugs and Hair

No, I didn't say hairy hugs! Eeeewwwww!

Sis has been gone for 4 nights. We've talked to her every day, with the exception of Sunday, and my mother's heart is aching. I hear her voice and all I can think is that my arms are empty! I sooooo much desire to just pat her head, or better, give her a good squeeze! Saturday can't come fast enough.


Now for the hair portion. I went to my favorite salon today and had my hair cut! I realised last week that my hair was taking control of me. It no longer was me and I felt like I couldn't be me with my hair the way it was. Okay, that may sound weird to you (and actually writing it down looks weird:) but that is the best way I can describe it. But the best part about it (other than the fact that I was kidless for almost FOUR hours! Ben and I had a lunch date and then I went to the mall alone and was amazed at the quite I discovered:) is that I LOVE it! Thanks Kristin!