Having Ourselves a Very Merry Christmas

This evening we find ourselves at the end of Christmas 2007. We're done baking cookies, we're done with eating 10,000 calories a day, done with wrapping, the frantic shopping, done with crafting gifts for family and friends and done with recieving 5 catalogs per day from LL Bean. Now I can sit back, reflect on the season and sigh a great big "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."

We did have another great Christmas. The girls were spoiled with Nintendo DS games, DVDs, clothing for their American girl dolls, clothing for them, MP3 players and a variety of books. I was bestowed with a Cricut much to my surprise but the biggest of all was my very own American Girl doll, Molly. Growing up I loved dolls and Barbie and when the girls started getting into the American Girl Dolls I was the one having way too much fun dressing them and doing their hair. I've told Nate recently that if I ever ever get the urge to have another baby to just buy me the doll instead. Well, I haven't even mentioned babies and he got me one anyway. What a guy! Nate was given the well intentioned gift of a personal groomer given to him by us as his nose hairs are only slightly scarier than mine.

My mom traveled from Libby to Moscow last Thursday and we had a great time shopping for those last minute gifts, hot tubbing, eating our weight in chocolate and cookies and drinking lots of adult beverages. My brother and his wife, Lisa arrived on Sunday from Boise. We had a ton of fun together and with the glut of presents that were displayed out on two (not one, but two) tables we decided to stretch out the Christmas cheer by opening a present each every couple of hours until this morning. This was great in that we all enjoyed each present for a few hours rather than ripping and tearing all at once.

Sadly, all of our guests retreated back to their homesteads this morning and left just Nate, Annabelle and I (Josie went to stay with Grandma for a few days by herself. We'll pick her up this Friday) to veg out in front of the tube and take some well deserved naps. Ahhhhhhhhhhh....indeed.

Happy 8th BIrthday, Annabelle!!!!

My baby turned 8 today. She was so wiggly for her day to arrive. She woke up at 5:30 am asking if she could open her presents. We finally were up at 6 am.


We celebrated her birthday at school on Wednesday as her class winter party is this afternoon.


Last night she flushed #7 down the toilet.


She woke up to a big dragonfly balloon and lots of presents.


Among the gifts: Julie- the 70's American Girl doll and clothes, Pokemon, a new bathrobe and slippers, books, a fish bank, sling chute, photo album and lots of sweet moolah.

We'll top off the evening with dinner and dessert at Applebee's.

Disaronno vs. Molly

Winner: Disaronno

Molly is going back to bed while she vows never to drink an alchoholic beverage again......at least until Christmas.

The Glasses Have Arrived

Annabelle is now the proud owner of specs. They arrived on Tuesday and they made their debut at the girls' winter concert. Annabelle is very excited to have them and enjoys wearing them. We're happy that we can still see her big shiny eyes.





While trying to get a good picture of Annabelle in her new glasses I shot this photo. I just think it's cool to see her face through her hands. She was moving fast.

Don't Have the Perfect Gift for the Kids Yet.....

........I have the solution and it's FREE!* Josie and Annabelle aquired a big box yesterday. Let me tell you, they are having the most fun with that thing. They've made it into a cave, a bed and a special reading place. The options for this box are limitless.

I have a feeling that they will play more with this box than they will any of the expensive toys we'll be getting them for Christmas. So, if you don't have that perfect gift for little Jimmy or Susie yet just wrap up a big empty box. They'll love it! Be sure to have the video camera out because if they end up hating it at least you'll have great reaction film to send in to America's Funniest Home Videos and you may win $10,000. So it's a win-win situation really.

*meaning you get one from the back of an appliance store or ask Nate to save out a Jacuzzi Tub box for you. This is, by no means, an excuse to go out and purchase a 72" flat screen TV, brand new fridge and/ or washer and dryer just for the box.....but if that works, then, go for it!



Josie and Butterscotch playing in the box just a few minutes ago.

Didn't They Do This to Me Last Year?

There's only seven more school days until Christmas break. That's seven days of shopping for the girls, sewing some projects, wrapping their gifts. Seven days without them around to bake cookies and to actually have some cookie dough left to bake. Seven days of mommy time..........

You guessed it. Josie and Annabelle are home sick. Damn!

1st Anniversary = New Look

Happy Anniversary, Blog! I've managed to keep it up for an entire year. That's more than I can say for a lot of other things I was hoping to stick with (what diet and exercise regime???).

It was also time for a new look so I changed it. I picked green not because it's the "in thing" to be but because of the Christmas season. Maybe after the first of the year I will change the look again.... or not.....

Season Size Me

'Tis that time of year
Where upon we load ourselves up with good cheer
Consisting of food, sweets, alcohol and beer
That goes straight to our rear

'No Regrets' we say
Tomorrow's another day
Bring more goodies this way
But soon our bodies say "Hey!"

Enough is enough
Get some excercize and stuff
Eat something that's rough
Green and leafy, is that tough?

Green and leafy? What a thought
Until another plate of cookies is brought

Have You Had Your Eyes Checked Lately?

We recieved a call from the school nurse early last week saying that Annabelle's vision in her left eye was very bad. We knew that she had vision problems last year when we noticed her reading while covering up her left eye. We had ataken her to our optometrist and he patched her eye for a month and got her left eye vision to 20/30. Since then Annabelle has never complained about her eyesight regressing up until about a month ago and then the news from the school nurse. On Friday we took her to Spokane to see a pediatric opthamologist and was told that she has Amblyopia - poor vision in an eye that did not develop normal sight during early childhood development. She needs glasses and will have to go through patching treatment to attempt to get her eyesight back to 20/30 the best it will ever get in her left eye. Unfortunately laser sugery will never be an option for her as this is more of a brain development issue.

Since this is something we could've caught at an early age but didn't I am really advocating that those of you with young children to have them get their eyes checked. We didn't do that and now we regret it.

Puppy Love

We have been enjoying being dog owners. Butterscotch has been a welcome addition to our family and is getting along marvolously with us all......even our cat, Ella. The girls love to snuggle up with Butter especially when they aren't feeling well or want some unconditional love and understanding when I yell at them for not picking up their clothes off the floor.



Butterscotch has found a great retreat underneath our tree. Notice we have no presents under it, there won't be any this year as we aren't taken any chances for her to chew up gifts. You also notice the ornaments are hanging a third of the way up the tree. She has been great with leaving the tree alone though but loves to hide her rawhide bones among the branches.



Butterscoth and Ella asleep on the couch. They love to play with each other and chase each other around the living room. A hilarious sight indeed. It makes all the trips outside in these freezing temps to take her out for walks and potty worth it.

What's This Growing Out of My Nose???

33 days marks not only the end of the year but I will be 35 years and 1 day old. I took a good hard look at myself in the mirror this morning and reflected about the last 332 days. I thought about what my accomplishments were and what things I really was hoping osmosis would take care of but, as always, didn't. Or, as my dad so eloquently put it, "Shit in one hand, wish in the other and tell me which one fills up faster."

I also took a look at my body. Starting at the top of my head I noticed my fair hair getting even thinner - thanks paternal side of the family! , I am having to color my hair more frequently than ever to cover up the now probably 65% gray -I don't know if that's an accurate number but I will never not color my hair now to find out. My eyes move down to my forehead - now I may be "almost" 35 but my skin still thinks it's a teenager in the throws of puberty, down to my eyebrows - starting to thin out as well, though not in a shapely fashion with some wild squirelly eyebrow hairs making their way to forming a unibrow. I am now staring at my own eyes - the eyelids are starting to sag and a few teeny crow's feet are branching out. I am now looking at my nose - I have to say, I've always liked my nose but what's this?! This is something new. It's a big black hair curling around and out of my nostril making it's way out into the world! I screamed and reached for the tweezers. I told that black barb "Hasta La Vista, Baby!" only to realize that I had a battle on my hands as this hair had many friends and they were all not going down without a fight. I finally overcame but was in tears and a sneezing fit.

I had to postpone my reflection for another day when I can resume my self- examination of what my body has turned into after 35 years of living. I wish that Doctor 90210 was actually Doctor 83843 so I could get myself a complete overhaul. Oh well, shit in one hand..........

A Time to Be Thankful

I am writing this from the dining room of my brother's house in Boise. We are warm and snuggly, watching a movie and our bellies are full. It's hard not to think of those less fortunate than us, especially during this most wonderful time of the year. While I think of those who are suffering from loss, illness, lack of food and shelter, and lack of money I still can't help but be whiny when my brother serves me regular Coke and not Diet Coke.

So even though we are thankful for the clothes on our back and the food in our tummy. Thankful for family and friends and the usual things to be thankful and grateful for, we thought we'd share some very "superficial" things we are thankful for this year.

Nate - kahlua and cream, sleeping in, microbrew, watching good looking women on TV especially those with big boobs

Josie - Nintendo and wi-fi connections

Annabelle - Pokemon

Molly - being able to choose from over 100 restaurants in which to eat tonight, doggie boarders, egg nog

What are you thankful for? We hope your Thanksgiving weekend has been joyful.

Back It Up!

When it comes to parallel parking I would win the Olympic Gold. Backing up into our driveway, however....let's just say even the Special Olympics would reject me.

The Five Year Plan

I'm always on a five year plan. In five years we'll go to Disney World, paint our bedroom walls, get a home bar put downstairs..........and so it goes. The problem with the five year plan is that it seems time always stands still. Ask me next year when we're going to Disney World and I'll say "In five years." In fact, I have been planning on going to Disney World since 1993.

I've noticed another five year cycle for me that happened this weekend. Only this thing did happen five years ago almost to the day. I got really drunk. I wasn't praying to the toilet god or anything like I was in 2002 but there are moments of the evening I don't quite remember and the next day I was moving awfully slow.

We went to the Moscow Bears HS Booster auction and sat with some friends. I threw some (alot of) Captain Morgan down the piehole and proceeded to feel like I was the weathiest person in the room spending a good chunk of change on a trip to Bend, Oregon (actually we split this trip with some friends of ours who were feeling equally giddy and generous), an iPod and a ride on a firefighter truck - for our little three year old buddy Matthew Rembert - who loves "farfighters". All in all it was a blast (what I can recall anyway) but now we're sitting here with an empty wallet and no savings for Disney World. Oh well, we'll get there ..........in five years.

Annabelle's New Look

Annabelle lost a top tooth. Her look has totally changed now.

The Puzzle

Another hobby of mine that doesn't get much mention because I hardly ever do it is to put puzzles together. Once I get started I can usually put together a 1000 piece puzzle in a metter of days. I've done a double sided puzzle and even a puzzle that came with just a picture potion of what the thing was supposed to look like. The above puzzle, however, took me 6 weeks to produce. It doesn't look that hard and I even did the Constance Sprott method of laying every piece out on a seperate table (I usually start with the edge pieces and then pick the other ones out from the box). This particular puzzle was called 'Bits and Pieces' meaning that no two pieces were a like, didn't go staright across like other puzzles and were literally in little bits and pieces.

I purchased a table at a yard sale for our living room. I wanted a space to look out the window and drink coffee (I don't drink coffee just Pumpkin Spice Lattes). Anyway, after buying the table I told myself that the next puzzle I saw for sale I would get and it just happened to be this one. It does have a few missing pieces. Now that I've finished it it's off to our church garage sale to make someone else agonize over it. Good luck with that.

Complete Chaos

Those are the words I am using to describe the state of our house at this moment. I have tried in vain to find a multitude of items and I have an idea of where they may be but inevitably they are never there. It's at this point my body starts to shut down and I get agitated, depressed and stressed out. We've been so busy running from place to place that things get thrown on the counter with the intention of it getting put in it's proper place. The "I'll get to it later" mentality is ever present by the stacks of unopened junk mail, unfolded laundry, unfinished craft projects, dirty dishes and unread magazine piled up around the house. You know it's bad when you can't even eat at your kitchen table because of the clutter that has taken over the only flat, unavailable surface in the house. It's at this point that I take a deep breath and dive head first into the mess. It will take me days even weeks to get everything in order. Hopefully, it will all be in satisfactory condition by the time Christmas rolls around.

And then the process will start all over again......

Pumpkin Spice is my Vice

I am addicted to all things pumpkin spice at the moment. It all started when I had a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks, one of the most delicious drinks on the planet. I, being an amatuer mixologist myself, am trying to duplicate this intoxicating taste. It hasn't come to fruition yet but I have tried some Pumpkin tea (not even close) and International Coffee makes a Pumpkin Spice flavor (not bad) . I still have yet to find a worthy replica of the Starbucks. I've had several other coffe house Pumpkin Spice Lattes and they are poor duplicates.

This pumpkin addiction doesn't stop at coffee drinks either. I have made a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and have even purchased pumpkin flavored ice cream. If you look at me really close you will note that my skin has taken on an orange hue. Keep it coming though. I love Pumpkin!

The Big Cave In

Last Sunday we bought a puppy. We caved. The girls (especially Josie) have been asking, no, begging for a dog for years. We kept making excuses such as, not until you're older, not until the fence gets put up, not until the yard's ready etc. etc. Well, none of our conditions are met and now we're the owners of a canine. How did this happen?

I was away at a scrapbooking retreat and Nate took Josie to the pet store to pass the time. There they fell in love with this cute little Dachsund/ Cairn Terrier mix puppy who was so soft, cuddly and angelic. Aren't they all when they're confined to a cage? I came home from the retreat just as Nate and the girls were pulling out. "Hop in the truck," Nate said. "We're going to look at puppies." Josie announced. I just figured that they were heading out to give them something to do until I came home. Little did I know this was the third trip to the pet store.

Well, she won my heart over also once I saw her and the pathetic little looks the rest of the family were giving me. How could I be the cold-hearted witch and say no to my family? Besides I was well rested and relaxed after my retreat. I looked at how tiny this little puppy was, how tough could she be to take care of anyhow? And the next thing you know we're carrying her around the pet store while an employee is loading us up with dog food, toys, treats, teeth chews, fleece doggie jackets and yes, even a $50 dog brush!

It's been a week since we've had our little Butterscotch and I am wearing thin. It feels like I've had a newborn in the house what with the waking up in the early morning hours. The girls are already not living up to their bargain of helping take her outside to go potty which can last up to 30 minutes at times and is extremely painful given how cold it's been outside.

We're thankful Butterscotch, or Butter as I call her, is an easygoing puppy and so far has been relatively quiet (no howling or barking), very easy to train and is just a riot to play with. I'm hoping in the coming weeks my schedule will get back to normal again as I haven't had time for much else except be the dog trainer.

Oregon Memories

We took a small family vacation to the Oregon Coast - Seaside, Astoria area last week. We definitely needed a break with all of the work Nate has been doing. He worked weekends and evenings just so he could be caught up in order for us to go. We arrived late Wednesday evening.

We stayed at the KOA and rented one of their Kamping Lodges. Nate's parents joined us as well.


Thursday morning we woke to clear skies. A miracle considering that Accuweather said it would rain the whole time. Those weathermen are full of crap!

We went into Seaside to eat at the Pig 'n Pancake and then onto the Seaside Aquarium.


The girls got a big kick out of feeding the seals at the aquarium. They were more excited about hitting the beach and chasing waves. Within 10 minutes they progressively kept getting deeper into the waves which soon lapped up over their rubber boots. They became soaked so we had to cut our Seaside time short and went back to the KOA for a soak in the hot tub.


Bruce and Leslie met us at the KOA. We ate lunch and then went across to Fort Stevens State Park to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale.


The Peter Iredale Shipwreck was a highlight of our trip as we visited it several times. The beach their was pretty vacant having gone in the month of October. The kids (and Nate) loved climbing aboard the ships hull.


Annabelle on what used to be one of the ships masts.


Nate inside the hollowed out hull. When the tide cam in the waves would crash into here.


On Friday we toured the Fort and then made our way here for a bonfire and s'mores. Another beautiful day.


Nate and folks around the campfire.


A shop in Cannon Beach. COuldn't help but snap a photo given the name.


And right next to Josephine's was Bella. We walked through some Cannon Beach shops, grabbed some ice cream and Grandma bought the girls some more Webkinz to add to their collection.


The weather turned south on Saturday. We walked out to Haystack Rock and it took us about 30 minutes to get there as we walked into the driving wind. To get back to our car only took about 10 minutes. We still had a great time.

We left on Sunday and went to the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria before we made our back to Moscow. Nate of course, had to make a stop at the Full Sail Brewing Company in Hood River, Oregon.

We had a wonderful time and were sad that it came to an end. Looking forward to visiting this place again.

My Arm Made the Front Page!

My arm graced the cover of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News last Thursday. Can you see it? It's right behind the little boys face. I'm just glad my butt was strategically placed behind the kid. I was there volunteering to help Annabelle's class put in native plants in the outdoor classroom of their school.

This photo was taken by a Daily News Staff person.

Goth Girls

Today I took the girls' annual Halloween picture for the cards I usually send out although it's been about three years since the last time I did that. These photos were taken in the Moscow cemetary to get the right feel. The above one I left in color so you could see what the outfits and make-up looked like. Lots of mascara, eyeshadow and eyeliner - pretty much any black make-up in the house was used on the eyes - short of a Sharpie marker.

The girls weren't too thrilled with getting all dolled up so I had to bribe them with a $10 modeling contract each.


Josie's attention span was done after about 10 snaps of the camera so Annabelle appeased me. These were shot by the only mausoleum in the cemetary. I loved the wrought iron fencing.




I took 40 pictures in about a 20 minute span in various places around the cemetary. I am very pleased to report that the only "souls" I captured on film were of my daughters.


This shot was the winner. The hard part will be assembling the cards and getting them mailed out in time.

Something I Like

It's always easier to write about something that perturbs me. I am a happy person, generally so I am going to make it a point to follow up my Pet Peeves posts with something I like.

I love beautiful warm autumn days like today in Moscow. The sky is a vibrant blue, the trees are turning colors and leaves are skittering about the ground. The noises outside are becoming still and the air smells crisp and clean (a nice reprieve from the grocery stores).

Pet Peeve #29

Stinky People.

I've had two encounters with stinky people in the last week and they both happened in grocery stores. Last week I was in the Moscow Food Co-op and mind you, it's a Co-op, where scents of Patchouli, incense and organic foods abound along with the majority of the shoppers being neo-hippies. I get that some of them are saving the aquifer by not bathing everyday but at some point they do bathe. I was in the store getting some tea (and I admit...incense) and while in the tea aisle a co-op volunteer stopped next to me to load up some shelves and the BO was so overpowering I had to grab whatever tea I could get to first and high tail it out of the aisle. Now I understand the conserving water aspect for not bathing regularily but what exactly happens to the air quality around you??? Believe me, taking a shower will not the end of the world be.

Today I was in Winco and I rounded a corner just in time to get a huge whiff of BO, stale cigarettes and alcohol. I looked up to see a 40 something who was shopping with his mother at the end of the aisle. I could tell he hadn't seen the inside of a shower for days by the crumpled clothes and 5 days of growth on his face. This guy still lives with his Mommy and she probably had to force him out of bedroom to help her with bagging the groceries. He probably pissed and moaned because he'd been on a 5 day bender of playing the new Halo game or was surfing the net for porn. He reminded me of an Ignatious Reilly-type from 'Confederacy of Dunces'. I could be completely wrong though as I could only take about 2 seconds of the stench before I had to change my grocery shoppping plan and skip the aisle that they were in and avoid them altogether while I completed the grocery task.

There is no way I could've lived before the invention of scented soaps and deoderant. Being around stinky poeple just makes me want to gag and well, you all know how I feel about that.

A Streaking Party

JOSIE - BEFORE

I've done it. Josie has "officially" taken after her mom and will never be content with her natural haircolor now that I've gone and tampered with it. My mom spent the week with us and we had a salon day in our kitchen. We cut and colored hair and I put highlights in my moms. I didn't attempt my own given the bad luck I had with it a few years back. When Josie came home from school she saw how much fun we were having and asked to have her hair done as well.

At this point I could say "The Captain made me do it!" as mom and I were partaking in some afternoon recreational drinking of Captain Morgan and Diet Coke which is why I probably said "sure" to doing Josie's hair. You can tell I did an expert job of foiling her hair. haha!

After the allotted time was done we de-foiled and checked out Josie's new lightened locks.


JOSIE - AFTER

I have to say I am intrigued by the whole hair cutting, color and styling process. I always have been to a point (which you wouldn't be able to tell by my pathetic thin, short and always unstyled hair). After having done Josie and Mom's do's I am considering going to cosmetology school, or more likely, going the extra cheap route and getting the "Haircutting for Dummies" book.

Our Soccer Star

Annabelle had her first game last week and had a blast. It's so fun to watch the kids run around like crazy and go balls out (pun intended) when they actually get the soccer ball. More often than not the ball is out of bounds and when it is in play it's a mad scramble to get to it. It's also great to see the kids outdoors and getting some excercize while I sit in my lawn chair and snack on treats and soda.

It's Official...I'm a Soccer Mom

Annabelle has been asking to play soccer for two years now so we finally humored her. She had her first practice today and her first game is tomorrow. She only practiced a grand total of 30 minutes today and having never played soccer before in her life she absolutely loved it. I have to say she was doing pretty good. I even gave her a few shout outs ...much to my embarassment as I am not one for hootin', hollerin' and carrying on.

So buying our minivan 8 years ago wasn't in vain after all, but please stop me if/when I prepare to paste one of those "My kid is an honor roll student" bumper stickers on it.

Something I Like

Since I've whined the last two entries I thought I would add something that I like. I really like the sound of the dishwasher running. It means that I accomplished at least one thing today.

Pet Peeve/ Phobia #1

Barf. Chunder. Hurl. Upchuck. Spew. Vomit. Puke.

Nothing churns my stomach more than witnessing the contents of one's churned stomach. We went to the fair this evening and I have never in my life seen so many people get ill as I have this evening. It was awful to catch a glimpse of an ashen gray/ green face only to quick look away about 5 seconds too late. It was terrible. So terrible, in fact, that I had to write about it.

I don't know when this phobia kicked in but I think it may have been back when I was in grade school going to Libby's Logger Days when I (once again) looked at precisely the right moment and saw someone lose it on the Round -Up and just when I was feeling brave enough to go on that ride too. Or was it in second grade when a kid spewed in class. Thankfully I didn't see that one happen but I heard the kid next to me yell, "Albert threw up!" but what I heard was, "Albert blew up!" and by god, I wasn't about to look at my now exploded classmate. From then on out I was terrified that I would get seated in front of poor Albert.

So now you know my weakness. You can put me in a pit full of snakes and venemous spiders or even make me bungee jump from the tallest bridge but please.....please.....just don't hurl in front of me.

Pet Peeve #426

I will announce it to the world right now that I am not an English major. In fact our blog is littered with grammar and puncuation errors but this doesn't stop me from pointing out one of my pet peeves: The use of the word HEIGHTH.

I was somehere the other day when I was asked, "What is your heighth?" I wanted to reply "5'4" and would you like my weighth as well?"

Heighth is no longer a word, people!

Super Plumber

Nate did some plumbing work at a friend's home last week. Their son a.k.a. Superman had a good time chatting with Nate and giving him some pointers while he did the plumbing work.

RIP Luciano

I am not an opera buff nor have I seen many Luciano Pavarotti performances. The only two I can think of off hand was hearing one of his arias while the Bellagio fountains were dancing and when Pavarotti sang at the opening ceremony for the last winter Olympics. For some reason, today, I am saddened to hear of his passing. There are few celebrity deaths that cause me to pause throughout the day and think about. John Ritter and Steve Irwin being the only other two.

So Mr. Pavarotti.... RIP. I bet, right now, heaven is ringing with your beautiful voice.

First Day of School 2007

Second Grade here she comes! Annabelle sporting her favorite color.




Josephine the Fifth Grader. I vividly remember the fifth grade. This is when the drama starts...and the boys.....

School started Wednesday for the girls. Annabelle loves the fact that she has her very own locker now. Josie really likes her teacher especially the fact that Mrs. Bradway encourages the students to bring snacks so they can keep their energy up throughout the day. I have really appreciated this also as the past few days she's come home she hasn't had her big attitude and whined "I'm....SOOOOOOO...HUNGRY!!!!"

I am still adjusting to the schedule. This week has been busy with errands to run so next week I hope to have a meditative moment to reflect on what my goals will be for this school year.

Cards

I haven't been able to stamp as much as I wanted to this summer but here are a few cards I was able to eek out. I have made a bunch of the one above to put into geocaches.


This one was made for a friend's birthday.


I made a set of these for another friend's birthday.

I hope to be more crafty now that school has started.

Summer-lutions: The Results

Today I was thinking of things I'd like to accomplish this fall and then I thought what have I accomplished this summer. Let's recap my summer-lutions and see how I did, shall we?

1. Spend less time on the computer - I think I did OK on this one, meaning I probably spent 5 minutes less each day than normal.
2. Lose 5 pounds - well... we attended three birthday parties this last weekend. I have managed to gain five pounds on top of the five I didn't lose
3. Log in at least 25 geocaches - I think this may be the only one I got done. We logged quite a few on our Canadian trip and more since we've been home
4. Attend 3 Fresh Aire concerts at East City Park - Nate's band is playing at one this Thursday. Sadly, it will be the only one we make it to.
5. Keep my grass from burning to a crisp - Oh, it's burnt alright
6. Get current on my scrapbook - That's a negative
7. Go to Ferdinand's Creamery for ice cream once a month - We've only been once this summer
8. Clean our bedroom - Nate did this one while we were away up north. It's since gotten messy once again.
9. Have a yard sale/ go to yard sales - Yay! I did accomplish something this summer. We've gone to many sales and have had one.
10. Spend more time with the kids outdoors - We took them on a canoe outing a few weekends ago and have gone camping a couple of times. We did go to the pool a lot also. So I'd say we were able to accomplish this goal.

Golly! I didn't get a lot of these done. For my Autumn-lutions I will make a copy of the list and put it out where I will see it. I'll keep you posted.

Can You Get High from a Book?

I picked up a Dave Matthews Band book at a yard sale today. I started to read it and 15 minutes later I think I was stoned. How would I know having never been before? I was lightheaded, giddy and when we got home I devoured a box of Hostess Donettes.

Our Canada Trip - August 2-6, 2007

Fort Whoop, Up - Lethbridge, Alberta

We left Libby, MT at 5 pm to head to the great country of Canada the belated wedding reception for my brother, Bryan and his wife, Lisa who were married last November. Crossing the border was a breeze and we began our travels. We drove to Medicine Hat for the first night. It took us quite a while as we geocached our way across the provinces. The kids loved it as it gave them a chance to stretch their legs and finding treasure was always good motivation.


We arrived in Medicine Hat at a decent hour so the girls were able to swim and we took a small detour to a park hoping to find some play equipment. We didn't find any climbing structures but we did come across this very cool chess set by the town's library and city hall.


A geocache led us to the teeny village of Tompkins, Alberta. We stopped at this sod house and signed the guest book.


We arrived in Montmarte, Saskatchewan at 4:45 pm and then overhauled ourselves in less than 30 minutes for the wedding reception at 5:30. We must of looked like we were going into a Nascar pit stop getting ready. Clothes were flying, make-up was getting thrown on.....it was hilarious. The reception was a ton of fun. Lisa is from a very large family: there was 1 Pepper for every 20 Baumgartners at the party. We ate, drank and were merry for a good while then headed back to our "bartel" - our rooms were in the back of the town bar. You have to love small towns.


We were awakened by the rumbling of thunder and were treated to a fantastic thunderstorm. The breeze felt wonderful after sitting in a car during 90 degree heat. We gathered our stuff after the rain left and went to the Baumgartner farm for a little toast and coffee.

We then went back to the reception area for brunch. Then on to a night in Regina and a more close-knit family dinner at Tony Roma's.


Back in Lethbridge. Above the Fort Whoop Up

As I'm writing this Josie says "No, mom it's not Fort Whoop Up."
"Well, what is it then, Jos?"
"It's Fort Whoop Ass"
"What????"
"Well, that's what Auntie Carrie calls it. I am man enough to say that word now anyway."

Oh dear.....


Canada has many hand painted signs along the road advertising ice cream. I was bound and determined to get my tastbuds on a scoop after reading all these signs. Naturally when I made this decision there wasn't an ice cream cone to be had and DQ and A & W weren't the answer. We finally found a spot in Mountainview. A neat town on a scenic route we took. As you can see we weren't hurting for ice cream. Those are the single scoops! I was in heaven and later on had a tummy ache.

Frank Slide, Alberta - The pictures of this don't do it justice. We couldn't even imagine the sound this must've made when the side of the mountain fell.


What's a road trip without seeing something large, like the World's Largest truck, a tourist trap du joir. This was our last stop before heading back to Libby. We had a great time traveling with Mom, Dad, Carrie, Sydney and India. We put on 1400 miles in 5 days! A new record for me.

Best wishes to Bryan and Lisa. May you live long and prosper together.