Tid bits

Kyson is just a fun kid. He is known around our house as the cartoon character. But there are other times where he just says the cutest things. The other day (in the car once again) he said, "Mom, when Kambrie was a baby I wanted her to be a boy." So I pointed out that he didn't know Kambrie when she was a baby because he wasn't born yet. Without skipping a beat he responds, "Yes I did Mom, Jesus showed me a picture and I knew it was a girl!" I guess he told me.

Then Kambrie tells me one day, "I have all these questions that nobody can answer." Silly me said, "like what". She said, "Who made God? Why can't boys marry boys, and girls marry girls? where does the wind come from?" Well, we chatted a bit and I cleared up the marrying issue, and tried to explain the wind, and told her we would all have to wait to find out on the first one. Then she keeps peppering me everyday with what kind of dog can she have, would I like this one or that one. And why oh why can't she have a dog and on and on! I really thought her helping with the neighbors dog would help the dog craving she has, but it seems to have made it worse.

Becca seems happy this last week, which is a good thing. She goes through these phases where the least little thing will upset her. The other day she was just sobbing and told me that she misses her mom (birth mom). It is hard for me to see her hurting so much, and it is hard to not get defensive . . . the little voice in my head yells, "I am your mom." There are just emotional triggers that bring this to the surface and I never really know what they are. But we have talked and showed pictures and told as many positive stories that we can about her first 3 years and that seems to have helped. I know this will continue to be a struggle for her, I just hope we can continue to help her through it.

I love Blogs

I love learning about other people by reading their blogs. I just read a friends 100 things about her list, it was great. I'm not sure if I will tackle that one, but I loved reading hers, and I have another one I want to read, but Kyson is begging for a turn on the computer, I guess I better set the example of sharing.

Is it really April 26th????

Today the girls and I had to be at the soccer field at 8:15 a.m. for team pictures and a 9:30 game. In watching the weather I knew it was going to be chilly. . . but I wasn't prepared for exactly how stinking cold it was. I had checked the temp. before we left and it was a lovely 34. So we layered and grabbed coats, hats and gloves and headed out the door. When we got out of the car at the soccer field, my breath was taken away. . . the wind was blowing so hard and it was incredibly cold. I wanted to hop back in the car and go home, but trying to set a good example for the girls, I adjusted my attitude and we made the best of the situation. I think the soccer pictures are going to be the funniest soccer pictures ever. Kambrie's long hair was blowing in her face, half the girls kept on their hats and gloves, and everyone was shivering really hard. It will be fun to see those. Then we warmed up in the van and waited to go play the game. Our fingers and toes had just reached normal warmth when we had to brave the elements again. You know it is cold when the teams that are done are running to their cars. I kept thinking, "it will warm up, it will warm up." But it didn't happen. . . I think it actually got worse. So we started the game, and the girls that weren't playing were huddled under a blanket on the side line. I really wish I would have had my camera (it's in WARM CA with the boys). All the girls had really good attitudes. The other coach had brought hot chocolate and as he was pouring it he was shaking so bad, that just gives you an indication of how cold it was. At the half, the ref. came over and said that he had heard they were going to start cancelling the games and wondered if we just wanted to play another 14 minutes. We said yes, then decided to run over and see what the other coach wanted to do. Before we could say anything he said "do you want to call it?" Yea, we all wanted to leave. That sounds great enough, but making it to the car was another feat. The wind was so strong it was hard to even walk to the car. I know I haven't been out in that cold of weather for that long. . . and I haven't been able to warm up all day.
Then Kaden keeps calling me from CA and telling how hot it is. . . it's a good thing I can't reach through the phone and smack him!
UPDATE: I just checked my e-mail, and the games were officially cancelled at 11 a.m. They should have been cancelled MUCH earlier!!!!!

Happy Birthday Kaden

It's Kaden's birthday today. . . and I can't believe he is 13! Time has gone by so quickly. And we won't be celebrating together as a family because he and Phil flew to L.A. early this morning for some fun in the sun. Phil needed to go there for work, so he took Kaden along as a great 13th b-day celebration. Kaden has already called many times to tell me about all he is doing. He hasn't been to California before so it is all new to him.
Here are just a few pictures taken in the last few months that capture his personality.

Now I remember!

Now I remember WHY we paid to have painting done at our old house! I'm so tired of painting! Yucky painting. I've pretty much been avoiding it all day, just finding other things to do, like be on the computer. And yesterday while I should have been running errands, I snuck 40 minutes in to one of my favorite activities. SHOE SHOPPING! It's amazing how therapeutic that is for me. . . so 2 pairs of shoes and $20 later I was happy and rejuvenated. (Partly because of the major deal and because of the shoes) Yup, I'm weird, not too much new there.

Another Brother

This last Saturday, Phil's brother Brad and wife Shelly stopped for a brief visit on their way to PA. We haven't seen Brad for about a year and it's been several years since we have seen Shelly. We all had a great time for the short time that they were here. The kids always think i t is great when family visits. They have 3 boys, so Shelly rough housed with the boys and chatted with the girls. We wish they could have stayed longer. Now we just need to get MY brother to visit!

If only . . .

If only I were this productive and on top of it every morning! Fresh baked bread (yesterday) by 8:30 a.m. Very unusual, but a great way to start the day.

Sad News

Yesterday my cousin, Doug, age 67, died suddenly of a heart attack. He has been struggling with his health for years, but this was very unexpected. In fact yesterday before we heard the news my mom and I were talking about the fact that he had been having a hard time recovering from the flu.
Doug was an ever present person in my life when I was growing up, or now when we visit, he was just there. He was always around when I was growing up, just lived about 1/2 mile up the road from my parents house so I think I saw him practically everyday. He was the town barber for many years. One of the those quaint little barber shops where all the men would gather for the daily gossip. Years ago, when I was still in high school, Doug had a kidney transplant and was very sick for a long time. My mom reminded me last night that I had baked him some cookies and went and visited him during that time.
After my dad became disabled, Doug would always help where needed. He would stop and visit, remove the snow from their driveway, or any other task that my mom needed help with. My kids even know him as "Grandpa Doug" because they play with his grandchildren that live just across the street from my mom's house. They have been over to his house to help feed the sheep or some other farming thing that they think is so cool. It is really going to be weird when we visit Wyoming again not to see him driving by in his old blue truck, or walking through the field with his big straw hat and bib overalls. He will be missed.

Painting, Painting, oh and more Painting

Just a quick blurb before I get back to more painting. We are all doing well. Just exhausted from all the house projects. The bathroom is painted, we just need to pick out tile and get that done then we could finish it. The living room is about half done, the window seat is started. I'm really loving the colors and how things are looking. Everything is going to look great when it is done. I feel like that is never going to happen, but we just keep plugging away. Thankfully we have great friends who are helping, have helped or will help. Friends are great!
The girls start soccer tonight. It was cancelled last week because it was too wet (and cold). But we are on for tonight. I was hoping for another week off since I am the assistant coach it will take time away from projects. But it will be fun!
We are all looking forward to this Saturday. It is the much anticipated Blue Man Group Concert!!! We are all going and it should be a great time. A wonderful reward for all the hard work we have been doing.

Uncle Jeff

Phil's brother Jeff and son Noah came to visit us this week. It was great to have them here. We solicited Jeff's expertise in dry wall repair, it saved us a bunch of time since we don't know what we are doing. Thank you Jeff! We really miss our family and so enjoy them when they come. Kaden loves having Noah around, they always get along so well. The other kids enjoyed Noah as well, but Uncle Jeff was their favorite. He was very tolerant of their constant wanting to play, wrestle and cuddle.

Cat In A Bag

This is our silly cat. She has a thing about playing in plastic bags. I'm not even sure where she found this, but she stayed inside the bag for a long time. Silly Kitty.

Spring Break Under Construction

Did we have a fun spring break? Sure we did some fun stuff. . . but mainly we tore our house apart. We have been planning on updating our house since we moved in. Now we have an event at our house on May 10th, so we are trying to cram it all in in the next month. These pictures capture the current state of our house.




This is our small bathroom just off the breeze way entry to our house. All the fixtures including the toilet are sitting outside on our front porch. I'm sure the neighbors love seeing that as they drive by. There will be a new vanity, faucet, paint and tile.

Our living room void of furniture and in the process of dry wall repair so we can paint.












Our front entry way. Oh, here is some of the furniture that is usually in the living room. I didn't take pictures of the kitchen/family room area. I'm not sure we are going to tackle that. We did add lots of lighting. I guess when you build a house in 1979 you don't add any overhead lighting. So we are loving the brightness of our new lights!

This room is technically a dinning room, but we feel it would be wasted used as such, so we are turning it into a library/music room. A window seat is going to be built, replace the lovely light fixture and of corse painted. Lots and lots of painting.

This is a picture of the outside of our house. Taken several years ago. We love the location, the fact that we have 2 wooded acres for the kids to explore. . . we knew we would have a lot of updating to do, but it has a great floor plan and it will be worth it when we are all done. If we surive. I will post pictures of the finished rooms. I'm so excited to get it done.

Three Princesses

Our good friends came to visit the first of the week, and the girls love to play together. They think it is great that they have matching night gowns. In fact, Megan "snuck" this night gown in her bag so she could wear it while they were staying here.

Kambrie's dream come true

Last spring Kambrie came up with a wonderful idea. She studiously made a flyer and handed it out to all the neighbors announcing "Kambrie's Pet Care". Much to her dismay she didn't recieve one call about her wonderful business. She would even remind our neighbors when they were out walking their dogs and they would very nicely turn her down. The main reasons being, they could do it themselves, and their dogs are all very big.
So this weekend Kambrie made friends with a cute little dog and his owners that live three houses up from us. They just moved in this fall, so they didn't receive the flyer. So once again Kambrie pitches her business and finally has a taker. She is to walk Jackson every day. She is beyond excited! She even made a card for them congratulating them on being the first customers of Kambrie's Pet Care. It was really cute. Then last night she was talking to me about designing a t-shirt to wear while she is walking him (great marketing) and getting bandannas to give to the pets she takes care of. I'm so glad this happened for her. She has a passion for taking care of animals and our one fat cat just isn't enough for her. And she is getting paid on top of all that. It is fun to see this finally happening for her. She never gave up and it finally paid off.

Nice Joke

It was a joke after all. The weather is great (considering where we live). The sun is shinning and most of the snow that came is gone. Nice one Mother Nature.

April Fool's Day

A very disturbing sound woke me up at 5:30 a.m. The awful sound of a snowplow going by! What a great way to start April 1st. The sad thing is that it isn't a joke, the snow is really here and it is really cold. I really need a vacation somewhere warm!