What day is it

I've been off work since Wednesday... techincally working from home but I've been lacking motivation and doing a bit here and there. I decided to buckle down this evening and dive in and get somewhat caught up.
A random thought I have- why do women wear high heels to the zoo? I am perplexed by this. Why oh why do you feel the need to put yourself through that much pain???
Guess who locked herself out of the house with her two kids? I took the kids on a walk Wednesday- normally I take my cell and my keys but this time didn't bring my keys. The batteries to the keypad to get into our garage had died. This was at 4pm and it would take Rick at least 45 mintues to rescue us. I called my mom first and left a message, she called me back about 5 minutes later thankfully she lives one mile from us and brought me our spare key.
I noticed today there is blue paint(??) on the front bumper of the minivan. I tell you- this car is destined to be hit with signs, shopping carts, shelving and now something blue. I'm thinking eventually they will just have to repaint the whole thing. The landscapers were by today to drop off wood to set up stuff. I am getting SOOOOO EXCITED.

Zoo and Washington Park

Blessed are we. Perfect day with the family, perfect day at the zoo and some family pics at Washington Park. Aidan fell asleep on the zoo train and then again in the backpack. Short little cat naps so we'll be in for it this evening. We were supposed to have family pics last Sunday but the photographer cancelled due to early labor... so I wanted to use our white shirts before the end of summer- we ended up using the self timer on the camera.

Carpets and Dirt

We had our carpets professionally cleaned today! Yippeee. We have a carpet cleaner but you know there is nothing like having someone ELSE do it for you. Landscaping starts next week- I can hadly contain my excitement. Rick's level of excitement is like a turtle. He handles his emotions with such serene tranquility that I am amazed. Daily. Anyway, It will be nice to see them transform our huge piles and potholes of dirt into something useable.

I am off work now for 6 days. The kid's school is closed for fall set-up/inservice so I'm 'working from home'. Rick is taking Thursday off so we can go to the zoo. Abby really wants to see the baby elephant but I don't think he'll be on display for awhile.

Rick took Aidan to get his MMR vaccine yesterday. I'm crossing my fingers he breezes through with no reactions... have to wait almost 2 weeks before they show up. Rick doesn't remember Abby's vaccine reaction so I am posting a photo to jog his memory. Can you see all her spots?

Monday Monday

Time

Where did the week go??? This entire week I kept muttering to myself I need more time. There is jut not enough hours in the day- ok there would be if I a) got up at 5am instead of 5:39 or b) went to bed at 11 instead of 10. Then maybe, just maybe I might be able to fit more activities into my day but sleep is oh so important.

I managed to run 20 miles this week. We signed up to run Race for the Cure in September and there is a 5 mile run Oct 5th that I want to sign up for but I don't feel all that confident in doing it alone. Any takers?????? Come on... it'll be fun.

The minivan and the sign- our insurance is going to bill the man directly. We have to pay our deductible. If he pays the bill we get our deductible back. That's a big IF. Backyard... waiting on a promising bid. I am praying and hoping that this one comes through.

I took the kids to Papa's for a visit today. They had some fresh picked blackberries. Tomorrow my husband is going to play some much needed golf. He needs to do something other than projects and helping me around the house :-)

Monday Monday

I only went to work for 2 hours today. Got the cyst in my wrist "drained." Hoping it looks better tomorrow- it's still swollen and bruised so I can't tell if it worked. We got the kids' haircuts today and she BUZZED my baby boy. It's not what we asked for- so... he has no hair. Took the minivan to the auto body shop to get an estimate- come to find out there are actually 2 dents in the hood and another scratch we didn't notice. ALL this from a flying Luis Palau sign. Go figure. Estimate is $569 I think not counting car rental and they will need it for 3 days. Rick is supposed to call the dude tomorrow. We are also waiting to hear back on whether we claim it on our insurance if it will make our rates go up. Normally you wouldn't think so but this is the 2nd claim on the minivan. The first also did not involve another motor vehicle. My husband was moving his shelves in the garage and one fell into the van and dented the front fender- right after we bought the thing. Rick has another landscape company over this evening looking at the yard. Still not having any luck. Happy Monday!!

Menu, Picnic, Conversation, Wrist Bump...

and not in that order. I am skipping ANOTHER day of running in favor of an ice cream sandwich, my new (used) book and the Olympics. Or maybe a movie. Tomorrow I'll get back on the wagon- it's supposed to be cooler. I feel like I've gained 10 lbs. I'm too afraid to check.
This my conversation with Rick tonight- we are trying to talk above two very loud children
Me: We need to talk about Aidan's MMR shot
Rick: we need to talk about dinner out?
I still crack up only because we have conversations like this ALL too often. Tomorrow I am going back to the dr. for my ganglion cyst in my wrist. I've had this sucker for about 18 years- you know the old school method of having someone hit a book over it- that's not going to happen. I've been in about 3x over the years and they keep giving me a wrist brace to wear which I don't. Needless to say all the lifting I've been doing with the kids has caused it to become larger. Photo is below. Can you say ewwwwww
Menu for the week got a bit switched around since we ate out last week and my mom surprised us with dinner one night. So... chicken veggie stir fry, ravioli bake, teryaki chicken sandwiches, crab melts (ohhh yumm), chicken salad sandwiches, chili, fajitas. Super easy week. Yeah for me.



Yes of course snowman (me-me) still goes everywhere



Getting a ride with Uncle Mark

Is it hot enough...

Haven't been able to run the past 2 days- too hot!! Tomorrow too- even with the AC in the house it's 80 degrees upstairs. When Rick got home from work this evening I decided to go grocery shopping at 8pm- ALONE. Didn't want to drag the kids there tomorrow in the heat so got it done and over with. We were unloading groceries and he apparently is putting the bag of mini carrots away and mentions to me that he doesn't want carrots in his lunch anymore. OK I get it. No egg salad. No carrots. I could think of a milllion zillion smirky comments to insert here. He's still wonderful :-)

How can someone NOT want baby carrots in their lunch??? even with the little ranch dipping cup.

Kiddos

Wednesday Already

We had margaritas last night :-)

After work yesterday Rick met me at Abby's school and we headed up to OHSU to see my friend's new baby. What a precious little thing she is. Welcome to the world Ashley Nicole, you are beautiful!! We took the kids on the tram- I have to admit that was pretty cool. Aidan kept signing "more more." I love that both kids use their sign language even after they can say the words. Speaking of, Abby's ASL teacher at her school gave notice... I am hoping they continue with that class.
Ok so we are walking from the hospital back to our car- and you know how OHSU is always busy- with students, interns, nurses, drs, patients, dental people, patients, visitors etc who stand outside and wait for a bus or a ride or I don't even know... well we are walking and I am holding Abby's hand and she says- and loudly I might add, "Mom you are stinky, you need to take a shower." She thinks this is funny- she likes the word stinky and uses it often. I am fairly certain and confident that I did not, in fact, stink. However, she says this in front of ALL those people standing outside. I think I even saw one guy snicker- a part of me hopes he was just on his bluetooth wireless thing and was talking to someone on his phone.

I made 2 loaves of zucchini carrot bread today. SCRUMPTIOUS.

Monday Monday

Well... our dishwasher cost $460 to get fixed today. OUCH. Hey dishwashers, cars, backyards... maybe the trees we had cut down were in fact money trees and we should have left them. Ok so the guy who hit our car (well not him- his SIGN) isn't insured. (see previous post). So now what??? call the police? File an accident report with a Luis Palau sign? What do you put when it says describe the the other vehicle??
Sometimes you gotta laugh. After work I stopped at the store, made dinner and threw together Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies for my husband. I figure he could use a little cheering up. So far I have eaten the most ;-)

Nontheless we are blessed. Blessed. Truly Blessed.

My friend Laura is in labor as we speak. I was telling Abby on our walk tonight that we will go visit the baby in the hospital tomorrow evening. She wanted to know when the baby can come to our house and I told her that we will be having the baby shower at our house. She says, "Will dad help?" and I said probably. Then she says, "Do we need water?" I said no and contemplated why she asked this. Then it hit me-duh.. baby shower. Makes me laugh- I had to explain it was a baby party instead.

Here is Abby the other day riding her scooter. My Aunt Jenny in Hawaii made her this dress and she wanted to wear it with her scooter. She is ALL girl.

Spend 8 minutes with me- Cardboard Testimonies

Sunday...

Can we just start the day over? and more car issues- seriously. I'll get to that later. From the time Abby woke up she has been a crying, whining, sassy, MESS. Before church, I said to Rick "is it to early to drink?" We don't drink either... he had the famous reply, "it's noon somewhere." This particular morning a bloody mary or a mimosa sounded pretty good. I think we have a drink once every 4 years so I'm due. I don't know what is wrong with her but it's been a very trying day. I've never had high blood pressure but I'm convinced that today it's off the charts.

The car... and not the Nissan. On the way to church this morning, our minivan got hit on 217 by a flying Luis Palau sign. (hmmm maybe that is a sign in itself) You know those yard signs that are everywhere with the metal frame- that's the one. We were behind this old beater blazer and apparently he had the sign fixated to his front bumper where it dislodged itself and came flying at us. Scratched our hood- we had to pull over and get his info. I'm not sure what to think- or what Rick is thinking. The whole exchange between them seems shady- I am letting my husband figure this one out. Needless to say it was hard concentrate on the sermon at church due to this very BIZARRE incident... but it was a GREAT sermon and I took lots of notes because it certainly pertains to me. Do you ever feel like you are sitting in church and the sermon is about you, for you, directed at you, and you want to slink down or look around because you just KNOW that everyone knows this sermon is for you and you only? That was me today. Gosh I just thought, what if I blabbed all of that and no one else ever has those moments. Open mouth insert foot.
You want to know more about the sign situation don't you? It's strange I tell you. In the back of the blazer there was a ton of stuff- like one of those people who collect trash? or he's living out of it? I wasn't sure if he was intoxicated but Rick says he didn't smell anything. Apparently on his insurance card the only car listed as covered is a Mercedes- so is this old blazer even covered under the policy? The guy doesn't want us to call his insurance because he is trying to get his bus license and doesn't want this incident to affect that. ?????????????????? Things that make you go hmmmm.

I'm scratching my head at this very truly strange day.

Abby has this church friend, Julia. She talks about her constantly and even names her babies Julia. Today we found out that it's Julia's last week in Abby's Sunday school class because she is moving up to the kindergarten class- she turned 5 today. When we picked Abby up after church I asked her if she was sad about Julia and she says "Mom, I gotta turn 4." Also on the way home Abby likes to point out the train tracks that run alongside the freeway. She is still having issues with some of her words- today she says, "There's the shoo-shoo sane tacks" and Rick says, "You mean choo choo train tracks?" She says, "THAT IS WHAT I SAID." Sassy little thing I tell you.
Nick and Ash came over today for a much needed, long awaited visit and by much needed- it was was a great deterrent for Abby- she switched off the crying meltdowns and was somewhat back to normal. Costco and the libray now wait for us to visit. Maybe I can convince my husband we should eat out tonight so I can have a margarita. A very big one.

ps. speaking of dinner I figure I would start posting our menus so all of us blogger readers can start swapping dinner ideas. (and if you don't blog but read ours- we can swap by email).
M- crab cakes, cous cous and asparagus
T- ham and potatoes and some veggie
W- tacos
TH- teryaki meatballs over rice and fruit
F- chili and cornbread
S- ravioli bake
S- chinese chicken salad

Bless My Mom

My mom called late this afternoon asking if I wanted to meet her at Target- well what woman wouldn't want to go there? Bless her heart- she spent a fortune on us. Thanks mom for all that you do for us... we love you.

Here is a picture of Abby in her new princess jammies with her new dog purse.

Ouch!!!

The check engine light came on in our car. It's a 99 Maxima... it's paid off. Rick drives it to work and I drive it to work on the days he is home with the kids. The estimate we got today. $2,200.
NO JOKE. Ouch. We have a friend who works on cars so he might be helping us out and getting our business but the car probably isn't even worth $5K. Do we keep it? Do we figure out how to purchase something else? I jokingly said, "is this your plan on getting your motorcycle?"
Then the estimates on our backyard- we had the trees cut down- we want to redo the entire thing. Rick wants to do most of it by himself to save money. Well, we've had some bids this week for doing some work to help him out- rock wall, leveling, and sod. The first one- four grand, the second one six grand. DOUBLE OUCH considering when we moved in four years ago we had the ENTIRE yard landscaped for six grand. What is going on people??? So if you know of a good landscaper who doesn't charge an arm and a leg and half your torso pass on the info. Well maybe not. Now that I think about it we'll probably be getting the car fixed instead of the yard.
In the meantime, here's a photo. The top part closest to the house we want do a flagstone patio. The bottom part we want to make level and all grass for the kids play-swingset. It looks level in the photo but it's not.

Stroller Races

We love...

wearing dress up shoes!!

Where is Gamma?

Down in the Dumps Sunday

Today my husband robbed me of seeing Abby ride her scooter for the FIRST time.
AND... both kids' VERY FIRST visit to the ice cream man's truck.