Saving the Planet Dilemma # 45

I was looking through Josie's Dec/ Jan 2008 National Geographic Kids magazine today and came across this "green list" article. It lists 6 actions you can do this holiday season to make a difference. Number 4 states to "Let It Cool" by letting hot food and drinks cool to room temperature before placing them in the refrigerator as hot items cause the internal fridge temperature to rise. Now I don't know about you but I've been told that letting food sit at room temperature is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. So what does one do: save the planet or save yourself from sitting on the toilet for 24 hours straight?

He's Everywhere!

Josie has had some zinger quotes recently. The latest one was driving over to Pullman yesterday. We have satellite radio and the display shows who's singing the song.

Josie: Mom, who's FT?
Me: FT? I don't know. Why do you ask?
Josie: Because FT sings on just about every song that comes on the radio. He must be really famous.

It took me a while to grasp what she was saying until I looked at the display and saw Madonna FT. Justin Timberlake. With all the collaborations on songs these days the FT stands for "featuring". Josie mistook it as one of the artists in which case she was right about one thing. FT is "featured" on a lot of songs!

Heron Trouble

I went to take Buttersctoch outside to do her business when I rounded the corner of our house and saw something in our pond that wasn't supposed to be there. Upon hearing my scream the heron flew onto our neighbors roof and perched itself there until discovering our neighbors backyard also sports a pond stocked with koi.

He soon made his way back to our yard hoping to stuff his beak full of succulent fish but Nate was there waiting with a handful of small stones. Herons are amazing creatures and we would've loved to have it hang out at our house if not for the fact we wanted to save our little fish friends from being lunch. We haven't seen the heron since.

What's your Smell?

The following is a conversation between Nate and Josie.

Josie: "You know how people's homes have certain smells?"
Nate: "Yes."
Josie: "Well, what's our smell? Robin said our house smelled good but I don't smell anything."

Happy Thanksgiving

Actually, Thanksgiving was two days ago but we're still here in Ferndale so it feels like Thanksgiving, especially since all we've done is eat turkey since we've been here. I'm enjoying a quiet moment at the Spain house. Nate's mom has both girls and Nate and his dad are preparing to plumb a water heater to Nate's brother's "house". Our T-Day was good and uneventful.

Thanks, Veterans!

Today is Veteran's Day and I want to give a big thank you to those who have served and are serving in our US military. I had considered joining the Air Force right after high school and actually had the recruiters calling me several times before I chickened out and went to nanny instead. I imagine my life would be worlds beyond what it is today had I made the decision to go. I'm sure my eyes would be open to a broader picture of the world had I joined the military but I have no regrets and just do all I can now to support the men and women who protect our freedoms and our country.

We've had family members join the armed services and I would like to recognize them now:

Delila Croucher - my sister's sister-in-law
Army - Radio Communitcations
Served during Operation Iraqi Freedom

Ray Fuhrman - second cousin
Army Ranger Combat Medic
Served during Operation Iraqi Freedom
Died in combat 2005
Purple Heart
Silver Star
Bronze Star
Many other awards

Nick Spain - Nate's brother
Army
Served during the Bosnian War

Bruce Spain - Nate's Dad
Army
Served during the Korean War

Roland Childs - Nate's Grandpa
Air Force
Served during World War II

We have several friends serving as well. We can't thank them enough for their service.

Quote of the Day

Lately the girls have been snipping at each other constantly. I'm hoping it could be sugar overload from Halloween candy. They were especially terrible this morning and I reprimanded them. Within minutes of getting a 50 cent deduction from their weekly commission their behavior turned from sour to sweet.

"My, God!" I cried. "How is it that you two can make me want pull my hair out at one point and then make me want to squeeze and kiss you the next."

Annabelle replied, "Mom, I think you're losing your hair on your own, not because of us."

ACK!

Blog Neglect

Thank goodness there isn't a blog protection agency that will take my blog away from me because it's been neglected. I have to admit I've been on Facebook a lot and have been posting a lot on it.

Now that our schedule has simmered down some I hope to make the most of all of my websites and update them when they need to be updated.

Happy Anniversary, Stotchy

Butterscotch aka Stotchy aka Ms. Stotch aka Little Bodhi aka Butterball has been living with us for a year now. She's mellowed out a lot and we love her so much. Yeah, she does the annoying dog things like chew on practically everything but we still love her.

The Colors in Our Neighborhood

Our neighbor's tree

Autumn has officially become my favorite season. I love the colors. The bright oranges, yellows and reds against the crystal blue sky. The air is so crisp that you actually feel the chill come into your lungs.

It's so beautiful right now and we have about a week when the leaves are still on the trees and the colors are bursting. I walked around our neighborhood yesterday and this morning and snapped pictures of my favorite scenes.


A block from our house

How blessed are we to live in such a wonderful, colorful neighborhood? I had to pinch myself today as I think of all the places in the world I could have ended up. Really, it's weird to think about.


Our street

Sometimes I just go and stand out in the middle of the road and take in all the glory that is fall. My neighbors think I've lost it.

Just today it started to get windy and the trees are shedding their leaves. I'm glad I went out and enjoyed the autumn hues the leaves provided while I could. Next week the pictures will tell a different story.

Josie Loses a Tooth

Dear Josie,

Could you be more specific?

Love, The Tooth Fairy

Something to Ponder

If I have political signs in our yard for both political parties does that make me a maverick?

October 3rd Addendum

I was chatting with my sister, Carrie, and she said her sister-in-law had baby girl born this October 3rd as well.

So we each had baby nieces born on October 3rd, both were born before noon, & both girls' names start with the letter"M"....coincidence?

An Autumn Oregon Adventure

We finally made it to the Sisters/ Bend Oregon area to redeem our auction purchase of the vacation home, AKA the night Molly got drunk, thought she was rich and decided Bend would be a great place to take a vacation. The Bingely Family also thought this sounded like a great idea except decided they were moving one week before the original date back in February. Well, the Bingleys were replaced by Mom, Dad and Auntie Lisa sans Uncle Bro.

We left last Tuesday evening after school and met up with Mom and Dad at a hotel in Kennewick, WA. After a yummy continental hotel breakfast we hopped in the cars for a little geocaching on our way south to Sisters. One of the caches brought us to this tree filled with shoes. Now since the girls have seen this their thoughts have been "if shoes can grow on trees, why not money?"

We arrived at the vacation home on Wednesday afternoon and were not disappointed. The house was located in the Tollgate neighborhood in Sisters. The house had 4 bedrooms, three baths, a wonderful backyard that was adjacent to the wilderness. The most fun part about the house were it's three lofts that the girls had a blast playing in.


On Friday we went into Bend to try out the different microbreweries. Lots of beer was consumed on this day. Our favorite beer was from Deschutes Brewery but McMenamins definitely took first place in atmosphere. We walked through Drake Park and the Old Mill District. Bend is a neat town and we hope to spend more time in it the next time we are in the area.



One of the highlights on our trip was the lava tube cave south of Bend. It was pretty impressive how huge it was in spots. Josie and Annabelle loved to run ahead of us, hide, turn off their flashlights and then scare us.



My dad found a hiking trail at Belknap Crater. He, Nate and Annabelle went while Mom, Josie and I hung out in Sisters. Dad was very wiggly to have found a whole drawer at the house filled with topo maps and hiking books. My dad can't sit still for very long. He is one of the most active people I know.




Say the vacation isn't over! Here Josie and Annabelle get thrown in the Sisters Jail just long enough for a photo. Chalk up another wonderful vacation for the Spains.

October 3rd is a Great Day!

Morganne Sophia Spain was born on October 3 at 8:09 am. She weighs in a 6 lbs and is 18 inches long. Congratulations Nick and Bonnie!

Now I say OCtober 3rd is a great day because it is. My mom's birthday happens to fall on October 3 and it's also the day that Nate "officially" asked me out.....18 years ago. Now we have little Morganne's birthday so it makes October 3rd even more special.

MOSS Photos

Orientation at MOSS


The evening sunset at Payette Lake


Josie and Kammi huddle together to keep warm


The view from my napping spot


A team building exercize




Walking back to home base


Josie and Kammi try to find a quiet spot to reflect on their surroundings

Nate's Text

Since Nate can't chaperone in Josie's cabin (for obvious reasons) he gets to hang out with nine 6th grade boys. He was looking forward to it though as he called it his "recon mission" to scope out what the boys were like seeing as how he has a daughter.

Here's a text I got from Nate when I got home:
Cabin just went silent.
Good kids in here.
They make me laugh.
Smells like ass!

MOSS

I just spent 3 days at MOSS - the McCall Outdoor Science School in McCall Idaho. I was a chaperone for 6th Grade Science Camp. It is a wonderful outdoor learning experience for the students and chaperones alike. Josie is having a great time there and I look forward to hearing about her experience when she gets back tomorrow. Nate took over chaperone duties for me last night and will stay through tomorrow.

The day consists of getting up out of the cabins at 7:45 am, followed by chores and breakfast, afterward we take off on a hike through Ponderosa State Park and learn things along the way, such as: the difference between a managed and unmanaged forest, habitats in sage meadows, lake habitats etc. Our field guide, Patrick, was a great leader and is very in tune to nature so we'd have a lot of 'Sense of Place' time which really was a lot of quiet time to hear, smell and see our surroundings. In other words, great times for the chaperones to have a nap. We have lunch while out in the field and then continue on until 3:45. From there it's 30 minutes of inside cabin time followed by 30 minutes of outside free time. 5-6 pm is chores and dinner. 6-8 is teambuilding and evening program - this also marks chaperone free time (if we want it) where we can rest or go into the kitchen to make hot cocoa becasue it's chilly out. The from 8-9:30 is showering and bedtime rituals. We tried to get the girls to sleep by 10:30 pm which was hard the first night but as the week wears on they are pretty much begging you to go to sleep.

Josie did alright having me as her chaperone for her cabin and her small group - Team Spongebob- they named it that as they called their field guide, Patrick Star. We did have a few Mother -Daughter moments. I, of course, knew nothing and why couldn't I be like Kammi's mom in letting her wear her backpack slung to her knees and pajama bottoms.

All the kids were great and they have a wonderful sense of humor. I found myself laughing a lot. My favorite times were listening to Simone's night time stories in the cabin, Josie's abilities to find the best hiding spots in a very small cabin with just bunkbeds, Kammi's sense of style -PJ bottoms and her black sweatshirt hood tied so tight she looked like she was a ninja. I loved that all of the six kids in our group were very cooperative - one of the 5 C's at MOSS, they asked great questions, listened to Patrick and got along well with each other.

I tend to take for granted that while our family does get out in nature by camping, biking and taking small day trips, a lot of the students that came to camp don't get that experience. Despite the fact that Patrick sometimes turned a little preachy about the environment, it was a wonderful time and I hope I can chaperone for Annabelle's class when she goes in 2011.

Nate has the camera with him so I'm hoping to post pictures at a later date.

It's a Hard Life for a Cat

I wandered into the living room to grab my shoes and came across this scene. Ella is stretched to the max, sound alseep in the sunrays coming through the window. What a rough life she has!

A Josie Funny

This morning I climbed in bed with Josie. She was really toasty so I told her, "Josie, you're really putting out the BTU's."

"What does that mean, Mom?" she asked. " Does it mean I stink?"

Fair Dancin'

Here's a short clip of Josie, Annabelle, Chapin and Arden Sprott getting their groove on while waiting in line for the Scrambler. We went to the Palouse Co. Fair last week.

Forgive me for the angle of the video. I forget that you can only shoot video one way with the camera and I tend to take a lot of vertical photos so I just went with my usual position. Oops!

First Day of School - August 27, 2008

I now have a 6th grader and a 3rd grader. I'm still in complete shock at this. Where did my babies go? Josie has this last year left of elementary school. I can't believe it. Annabelle was more excited than Josie about starting school again. Jos was enjoying sleeping in and eating an endless amount of food while lounging in the recliner and playing her Nintendo on our "off" days of travel and camping.


The girls were extremely goofy as they usually get when I pull out the camera. Today has been drizzly and cool which I guess is better than warm and beautiful as we are not ready for summer to end.

Summer 2008 - By The Numbers

What an amazingly fun and adventurous summer we had this year. Other than softball and soccer at the beginning of summer we had no ties to keep us in one spot for too long so we made the most of it. Here's highlights of our summer - by the numbers:

4 - lakes we swam in and stayed at with friends
1600 - miles put on the mini van since July 18
4 - states we visited this summer
2.5 - gallons of Captain Morgan consumed since June
1000+ - times we listened to the song "Lolli Lolli" cranked up to 11 in the mini van
3 - puzzles completed
8 - pounds I've gained this summer
11- nights camped in Trudy - with more to follow this fall
2 - nights camped in a tent
4 - bee stings
$100 - for 2 bottles of wine at the B & B - Ouch!
16 - geocaches found
2 - church camps
2 - tetnus shots
4 - times Nate took the girls out fishing
56 - episodes of the X-Files watched
1 - X-Files movie
100 - gallons of movie popcorn consumed - no popcorn lung....yet
50 - SPF sunscreen
13 - times we made it to the pool
1 - book read all the way through - we started a bunch
0 - times we made it to the library
4 - times the lawn got mowed
73 - days of complete laziness and sheer happiness by all of us

Summer 2008 was incredible and I'm very sad to see it go.......

One Last Hurrah!

This Monday we took our annual "Last Fun Day Trip Before School Starts" adventure. Paige Beuhler -rallied the troops and told us to to be at Boyer Park. We scurried around the house Monday morning to gather our towels, swimsuits, lunch and beach toys and made it down to the park at noon. By 12:30 the clouds were coming in. At 1 it started to sprinkle with a downpour hitting us by 1:30.

When we arrived at home, both girls threw on their fleece footy pajamas and snuggled into their beds leaving me to do the paper route in the cold rain.

RIP: Leroi Moore

My brother shared with me the sad news of LeRoi Moore's passing. He was the saxophonist for Dave Matthews Band and we had the privilege of seeing him in concert many times. I thought he was the most talented musician in the band although Nate would beg to differ given that he is a huge Carter Beauford fan - those drummers tend to stick together (no pun intended).

Nate and I were just listening to one of their concert CD's and saying we needed to get back to the Gorge to watch them. Heaven is ringing with beautiful music today.

Olympics Fever

Yay! The 2008 Summer Olympics games are here! I love watching the Olympics on NBC. I'm all about the pagaentry, tradition and sheer wonderment that makes up the Opening Ceremony. I love the back stories of the athletes and learning about the countries they come from. I sit in my chair with Josie's $10 globe in my lap feverishly trying to find the countries before the next nation is announced (just where is Borneo and Latvia?). I can't wait to find out who will be lighting the Olympic torch and the new creative way it will be lit. Unfortunately for this years games I missed out on that as it was apporaching 11 pm and I fell asleep. I was going to make up for it today though by turning on the tube and watching all the coverage I possibly could. Three hours into beach volleyball, a bike race and a few swimming events I got my bi- annual "Olympics eye-strain headache" and had to shut down the action. Bummer.......

The Cousins are Here - Days Three thru Ten

We have been busy! Day three of the visit consisted of hanging out at the Moscow pool. Later in the afternoon India became ill and was out for the rest of the day.

Day Four - Annabelle had a wellness check-up and then grocery shopping which took a grand total of four hours! When we arrived home India was finishing up her recovery. Nate set up the little pool in the back yard and the girls played for several hours outside while I packed up for our McCall adventure.

Day Five - We hit the road for McCall shortly after the paper route was finished. We ate dinner in Riggins. The girls were so tickled to catch a glimpse of some elephants as the circus was in Riggins. We arrived in McCall at 9:30 pm to which the girls all ran down to the beach and soaked their clothes.


Day Six - We all hung out at the beach all day. The girls got along fabulously with all of the children. We played in the water, at the neighbors water trampoline, water skied, tubed, kayaked, and ate a lot of great food.


Day Seven - A lot of the same. Butterscotch passed out next to this Corona bottle. She'd dig a hole in the sand and then fall asleep.


Nate, Ray and Chris play some beach music while Sydney sits and listens.

Day Eight - Time to pack up and head home. Awwww! It was so beautiful and relaxing. Yes, with 10 adults and 15 children running a muck it was still relaxing it could've been the full bar that was ever present.

Day Nine - While the girls are still sawing logs from all the excitement and activity over the weekend our day will consist of going to Ferdinand's Creamery in Pullman and watching 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'. Mom and Carrie will be arriving later this evening and then India and Sydney will be heading back to Libby sometime tomorrow.

We sure have enjoyed their company and hope we can make this summer week visit an annual event. They're special girls and we are privileged to be related to them. Great job, Kurt and Carrie!

The Cousins are Here! - Day Two

We woke up to overcast skies so I knew immediately that today was the day for the "photo shoot". After breakfast we quick got our hair done and threw on the new outfits. I wanted to go to the UI Arboretum but knew how squirelly the girls were already being so just went the few short blocks to East City Park.

The shoot lasted a mere 30 minutes for everything as trying to keep four active kids to sit still for longer than that is quite impossible.


Josie, as always, was the first to jump ship and declare "I'm done with the photo shoot!" after only 10 frames.


Sydney was much better at holding still.


Annabelle could have had her picture taken for hours with India running a close second.










After the shoot we came home for lunch and some much needed FOOF - feet off of floor - TIME. Tonight we take Butterscotch to her Rally Dog Obedience class and a viewing of UHF - a Weird Al movie as India is a huge fan of Weird Al.

The Cousins are Here! - Day One

Annabelle the dog painted by India

We picked up India and Sydney after our fun weekend at Silverwood and brought them to Moscow to spend 10 days with us.

Our first full day together was spent driving to Lewsiton to watch the Kit Kittredge movie. Each of the girls dressed up our American Girl dolls and took them down to watch the film with us. We met up with the Rembert family as well. The movie was cute and all the girls (and Matthew) enjoyed it.

After the movie we shopped at Wal*Mart and noticed it was lunch just when the Remberts called to see if we wanted to meet them at McD's for a bite and some play time. It was a brilliant idea so we hung out there for a spell.

When we got home Josie and India did the paper route. Late in the afternoon I found the girls totally ensconced in face painting. here are the results of their art work.


India the Clown done by Josie


Josie the Clown done by India


Sydney had a lightening strike painted by Josie. Her arm was done by her.


The wild and crazy girls. Shortly after they washed their face and jumped in the hot tub.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Nate and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary at the beautiful Cameo Heights Mansion located 25 miles west of Walla Walla WA. Josie is enjoying a week at Twinlow Junior Camp and Annabelle is getting some good one on one time with Grandma Linda and Pocka Bill.

Nate and I left Butterscotch in the care of Windy Ridge Kennels and then took off with some carefree attitudes. We geocached along the way and stopped at the Soggy Bottom coffee shop in Pomeroy which is a quaint little place with great coffee drinks.


We stayed at the Bed and Breakfast the entire time we were there and enjoyed all of the home's amenities. Our highlights included watching a Dave Matthews Band concert in the home theater and lounging by the pool most of Wednesday afternoon. We were spoiled with delicious meals and afternoon lemonade. We highly recommend going here if you're looking for a romantic getaway.


We stayed in the Greek Suite which had it's own private entrance to the pool and hot tub. It was lovely to just hang out, play a few games of Yahtzee and have real conversations with each other without being interrupted as well as watching what we wanted to on TV and not the standard Hannah Montana that's usually on at our house.


Nate enjoys the wake up service - coffee and a homemade danish - before making our way upsatirs for the real breakfast. It was hard to come home after being so relaxed.

Next stop: Silverwood to pick up the kids!