Rainy Rose Festival Fun

Back to how I get excited to do fun things with the kids - we went down to Waterfront Village today for the Rose Festival! Thank you to Jen for telling me that the rides were cheap on Mondays, and thank you to the website for letting me know that admission is free before 4 - and sometimes even at 4:02 if you're really lucky! No thank you to parking in the wrong parking garage before 5 but that's a whole different, bitter, and not as fun story.
Anyway, what fun! I'm kinda sad Cooper missed out on the Daddy of all Dance-Off competition, but that's okay, the world might not be ready for that. His girlies still love it when he dances and I've always been a big fan of Bill Cosby so I like it too. Love you hun. But despite the fact that it starting raining on us, we had a blast. We ended up being there for 3 1/2 hours - which apparently flies by when you're trying to use up your tickets by finding rides that allow really really short customers.
So here we are in the featured dino exhibit:
This did not go well the first time. Despite numerous attempts to convince Jell that they were fake, every little muscle in her body was tense and she quickly announced she'd had enough. On our way out though, she wanted more. In the second picture, she was also supposed to be making a scary dino face. Instead, she looks cute and I look like a weirdo.
Then they got to go dig for dino fossils, which for them is just a good excuse to play in the sand. However, Meri was kind of confused as to why her shovel (brush) was so lame.
Later, we found a large group of hula hoops on the ground. Not sure why they were there, but nobody charged us any money so we played with them. Meri tried:
And I figured out how to hula hoop again after like 20 years of not remembering how - thank you to my husband for the very helpful type. I know, I'm a loser - who can't hula hoop except me?

Daddy showed off his skills, of which Jell was most impressed (the second picture is of her watching him - so cute!)












Gotta say though, the petting zoo ... kind of a let down this year. I mean, Jell laughed her head off every time a goat stuck its head through the bars at her, but last year we happened to witness a rabbit giving birth. Gotta tell you, brand new baby bunnies are not at all cute. Nasty really. But the girls were crazy excited that they could pet the bunnies while we were holding them. And when the bunnies had enough and started scratching our hands off, the girls rolled with laughter.











On to the rides! Jell totally surprised us (what's new?) and loved the rides! She was so brave, and it was so fun to see her full of such joy!
Sadly, Meri was only tall enough for the merry-go-round, but at least she loved it! Both times. The rest of the time, she watched sadly through the bars as Jenelle went on all the other rides. Sad!






























And as a treat, we bought them cotton candy. I was all excited for them to try it for the first time. Meri refused. She kept shoving it away and sticking out her tongue, which is Meri for "yuck." The child will eat paper - did she really think this would be worse? Jell had one bite and told us she didn't want anymore. Total disappointment. What's worse is that we found out we agree. I totally remember it being delicious as a kid. Go figure.
But all in all, a great Portland afternoon. However, according to the website, the WaMu Waterfront Village received the Gold Pinnacle Award in 2007 for having the best children's entertainment in the world. Now that sounds a little nuts. We had a good time and all, but either we missed out on a whole lot or uh, Disneyland isn't all I remembered it being.

What do you think?

How do you like our new look? We had so much fun doing it! It gave Cooper something to work on when he was out of work to keep him looking busy at like noon on a Friday, and gave me a chance to have fun with photoshop! Plus I just love any excuse to show more pictures. I'm nearly as bad as the girlies - one of their all time favorite things to do is look at themselves on the computer. I feel the same way, except for I'd prefer not to look at myself but at them. Anyway, I ramble and it's Friday night meaning I should be paying attention to my husband. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions to improve it! I kinda worry that with the pattern and all the pics at the top it's a bit too busy. Hopefully not. Anyway, have a great weekend!

Rainy day Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and ON AND ON!!!!

Aaaah! First off, let there be no mistake - I am an Oregonian through and through. I love it here. I miss it when I'm gone. I need to be surrounded by the gorgeous greenery and fresh beauty. I love being near both the coast and the mountains (although with gas prices the way they are, I'm unlikely to see either). I even enjoy the rain. It's relaxing. Perhaps even rejuvenating.
That said, enough is enough!!!!! I have seriously had it. This is like the worst weather year ever. Continuing to have gray skies and the aggravating drizzle this week makes me want to pull my hair out. And frankly, I don't feel motivated to do anything else. I am officially a bump on the log. And I would like to blame the depressing weather. Gotta blame something, right?
So in case the weather man is listening, I no longer want to see your stinkin forecasts. I want a little more of this, please:

(Okay, so I really wanted to include the pictures I took of the girls out back in the pool during those 3 days of 90 degree weather we had last week, but my dad hasn't returned my camera since he borrowed it for my sister's championship lacrosse game. To be added later. Oh, and she lost.)

Playing outside makes everybody happy. I just bought a bunch of shorts for the girls - I would like them to use them. Plus we already planted our garden. Now I'm no master gardener, but from what I understand, plants need sun to grow. Instead, they are drowning. And quite frankly, on behalf of them and me, I would like a little bit of global warming right about now. I'm freezing.

A child's faith and firsts

One of those moments that make being a mom the most rewarding thing in the world happened just now. I was putting Jenelle down for a nap. After fulfilling her requests for a Jesus story and Jesus song, I was walking out the door when she said, "Jesus loves me cause, cause he gave me my mom and dad. And he gave me my Meri and my Nana and Bopa. And Papa and Grammy and Ninnie. And he gave her her friends, and, and Adam too!" I got all teary-eyed. What a sweet heart!

Another thing I love about being a mom is watching them experience things for the first time. Like I just taught her to make a butterfly with her hands. She had that Christmas morning look on her face - bordering on a maniacal glint in her eyes. The other day I caught her trying to pat her head and rub her tummy while watching herself in the mirror. Thank you Sesame Street. And Meri is loving the warmer weather because now she doesn't have to wear onsies and she can find her own belly button whenever she wants! Endless amusement and outbursts of joy! Sorry, I diverge and wax all sentimental because of her cute little testimony.
My reason for bringing this up was cause I've been dying to include photos of me taking Jenelle to the movie theater for the first time. I know she's so young that the idea of taking her is just silly, but sometimes I get a little too excited to bring her to things for the first time! I just can't help it! I can't wait! So I took her to see Horton Hears a Who (okay, it was a few weeks ago, but I've been waiting for the pictures from my sister's camera to post). Here we are:
And yes, this is the ugly facade of Tigard Cinemas. First time I've been actually since they painted it flaming orange to go with the pastel mint accents on the stone walls. I've been boycotting the idiotic idea for years. I should give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the paint was donated by the blind or something. Jenelle didn't mind though, or at least she didn't mention it. She loved being there! It must have all seemed so huge to her! And the free bag of popcorn was definitely a plus! Overall she did pretty well. I was worried in one of the first scenes when the elephant is running through the forest - which is apparently terrifying! She grabbed Ninnie's hand (my sister) and covered her eyes! But she got used to everything being so big and only had to leave briefly for water/bathroom two or three times. We probably won't be paying that much to go again until she's older and can see over the back of the chair in front of her, but you know, she thought she was pretty cool and mom got to indulge herself at the same time! Everyone wins (except perhaps dad, who was at work, and Meri, who was napping)!

And he's out of the doghouse!

Good work hun! They make me smile every time I see them - I'm such a girl! And they smell so much nicer than what I usually am smelling around here :) Love you!

On a less cheery note, the girls and I just had the most terrible morning! We got this great trailor thing for Christmas (pictured here, back when we got it and couldn't wait for good weather to use it). It is fantastic - so much fun, I absolutely love it. And, as long as I supply them with enough snacks to fight over, they love it too. For some reason I've always loved bike riding, I think the wind in my face clears my head. I used to jump on my bike for a quick spin around campus to take cramming break right before taking tests in college. Weird, I know. Anyway, it has always worked great for us, until today. Turning out of the post office parking lot, trying to go onto the sidewalk and be safer, it hit the edge of a curb and tipped! They were buckled in, but Meri ended up on top of Jenelle, Jelly hit her head on the ground (there is already a terrible huge purple bump - add it to the list), and the whole thing toppled into the street. They went nuts - the poor dears were terrified! I couldn't get them to stop screaming for like 10 minutes as I hugged and tried to kiss it all away on the sidewalk. And you know what?! Not one single person came to see if we were okay. Honestly that just makes me want to go kick something, or better yet, pop all their tires. There were two cars pulling into the post office when it happened, so they watched the whole ordeal, and as soon as I got the cart righted, they just pulled into the parking lot and went about their business. I am totally apalled! Not only am I ready to sell the darn thing, because let me tell you, they girls are totally tramautized - Meri cries every time I went over a bump and Jenelle started screaming to slow down every time I got a tiny bit of speed when we rode home from my parents' hours later. The poor babies! Breaks my heart. Oh and before we even got back in it, Jenelle made me promise not to let her fall over and get more owies again. I'm a terrible mother. And all those stinkin people that were at the post office are not nice people.

Oh and while I'm complaining about not nice people, while we were at Home Depot the other day, some lady walked right by us with this monster-big dog. Granted, my daughter is unreasonably, unjustifiably, and un-calm-downable scared of dogs. Drives us nuts. She totally loses all semblance of sanity whenever one comes near. Actually, sometimes she loses it because "there must be a dog." (no clue) She's nuts. But why exactly is it okay for people to bring their dogs into Home Depot anyway? And this was a rather large dog and Jell didn't see it until she turned around and it's snout was blocking the sun and drooling in her face. Slight exaggeration ... but only slight. She screamed so loud that everyone in the vicinity probably has hearing damage - Man, she can be high pitched! The lady visibly jerked but didn't stop walking at all or say anything to us or Jenelle. Instead, as she saunters on, she says to her dog, "It's okay now, that scared me too," and then looks back at us with a dirty look. I sure hope the dog wasn't startled. Heaven forbid. I just might go pop her tires too.

Bottom line though is we're all okay, the girls are napping peacefully, air conditioning is wonderful, there are actually nice people in the world, I got all that off my chest and I think I'll go smell my pretty flowers to make me feel better again.

2-Man Weave

Howdy, folks! In an effort to deflect attention from my post yesterday, I'll post again. Just wanted to tell everyone that I started a new sports-themed blog called The 2-Man Weave. My buddy, Shaun (of shaunandjanelle.com fame), is bloggin' with me. We're having way too much fun.

If you're into sports at all, give it a looksee and let me know if you like it. Actually, to like it you'd probably have to be very, very into sports. Regardless, we try to have a decent mix of seriousness and lightitude. So have fun! Thanks!

P.S. There will always be a link over on the sidebar.

Confession Time

I have a confession to make: I didn’t get my wife anything for Mothers’ Day. I’ll wait until you’ve finished cussing me out in your mind before continuing.
…
I pride myself on being different from the stereotypical husband—I try to do a lot of dishes, change diapers, remember dates, listen to my wife when she needs to vent, surprise her every once in a while, etc. I’ve thought less of men my whole life who didn’t take as good of care of their wives as I thought they should have, believing that it really can’t be that tough.

You know what? I was right. It’s not hard. In fact, as any man who has treated a woman well will tell you, it’s fun to do. It’s fun to think up surprises, even more fun to give them, and fun to serve and give our wives a well-deserved break. So why did I space Mothers’ Day?

Unfortunately, I don’t know. I have no excuse, no matter how hard I’ve tried to come up with a good one.

Both I and my wife have been told repeatedly by friends and relatives what a good husband I am, and how they wished their husbands acted like I do. My wife, being the sweet woman that she is, never outwardly disagrees. (In fact, it’s even very possible that she agrees inwardly too, somehow.) Perhaps the purpose of this post is to try to help anyone reading this appreciate what they have. Because any time you see me or any other husband do or say something that you fancy as particularly sweet, I know it can be a temptation to wish your husband did the same. Fight the temptation! You know what to think instead?

“My husband didn’t forget Mothers’ Day.”

I don’t mean to lecture. I hope that’s now how this is coming across, though I fear it. The point is, I love my wife. She does more in a day than I could ever dream—and she does it on less sleep, with less appreciation, and with no rewards. She is raising two beautiful, smart, artistic and surprisingly level-headed daughters. What do I do with my time? I sit in front of a computer all day wishing I could be with her. And on one of the few days a year set aside specifically to show her how much I appreciate all she does, I don’t take advantage.

I’m sorry, babe. Please forgive me, though I know you already have. It won’t happen again. I love you.

The Proper Care and Feeding of Children

Chapter 1: Table Manners - how to make dinnertime enjoyable
First, You must always make sure to touch your food. If mom and dad are sneaky, and get a bite in before you get to it, put your fingers in your mouth, pull out the food, examine it, and then put it back in if it is acceptable. You never know what they might try and stuff in there when you're not looking. Heaven forbid you eat a carrot!












Then, since your fingers are now deliciously messy, rub them in your hair. Yummmm. Doesn't that feel nice?












And just when mom and dad think matters can't get worse, play a rousing game of peek-a-boo!












Oh, and this will always get em - open your mouth big and wide ... until the spoon gets there. Then the food smashes all over your face, which you can stick your fingers in, and start the game all over again. You win!












Or you could enter the stage that Meri is now perfecting, in which you decide you should always feed yourself. With a spoon or fork. Except for the fact that you don't have any idea how to do such a thing. So you should then get frustrated, and throw it all over the wall, newly cleaned floor, or, if you can reach, mom or dad. Jackpot.

Chapter 2: Personal grooming and appearance
If at all possible, make it really embarrassing for mom and dad to go out in public. You could do this with this look:












(I swear, she did this by falling on a rung at the park. Doesn't it look terrible though?)
Parents love all the suspicious looks and questions.

To be continued with more great pearls at a later date.

What's wrong with the world today:

On Friday we went to Whole Foods Market for the first time. There they were selling a magnet that said, "I have puppies instead of children. I'd rather ruin my carpet than my life." I am really quite upset to learn that kids don't ruin carpets. Mine must be the exception. As to the whole meaning of the message, I'm at a total loss for words. I can only say it is really what is wrong with the world today. And it makes me angry. If I were Dr. Laura, I would have lots to say. As for me, my kids provide free entertainment, a ridiculous amount of personal growth opportunities (such as the chance to learn patience), exercise, meaning, reasons to laugh, excuses to get out of stuff I didn't want to go to in the first place, and on and on. They ruin my carpet but they are my life. I couldn't imagine or buy a better one.

Ready for show biz

So this is what a house full of girls is all about:












They play dress up all the time on their own. In this case, I suggested it to distract from a traumatizing owie, or scraped knee. And it worked - not sure how much longer I'll get away with tricks like that. Usually when they dress up on their own Meri gets a necklace and purse and walks around waving bye-bye to everyone. Jenelle however, is a ham. Doesn't she look like some crazy old lady (with 10 cats) out to celebrate with some friends? All she's missing is the flourescent pink lip stick. I'll have to look into finding some for her. However, as I make fun of her ... does this apple really fall that far from the tree?












Just scary really. Our kids really have no chance of ever being cool.
Oh and as a bonus pic that I couldn't resist adding, guess which of the four of us this is:

HELP!

I give up. My vacuum is killing me! It's a Hoover Turbo something or other 3100, which sounds great but it has most certainly seen better days. It barely sucks up anything - making me go over the same spot half a dozen times and then bring out the extensions which seem to work better but which are not intended for extended use. And it smells. We recently changed the filter in a last ditch effort to give it some new legs but it really should be put to rest. How long should they last? It's been nearly 4 years for this sucker and at this point all it is actually accomplishing is making me feel more inadequate as a housewife.
Anyway, my point in complaining to you is not only to keep me from kicking it and hurting my toe, but to ask if anyone has a good recommendation for a vacuum that I won't regret buying. Any suggestions?? Of course, on the other hand, if I had a good one, I wouldn't have my current (lame) excuse for not vacuuming in the first place ...

More on the Mulch - from the girls' perspective

The day of mulching wasn't that bad after all! We got to play outside ALL day, and got away with all sorts of stuff because Mom and Dad weren't looking - like eating dirt! We got free rides in the wheelbarrow from Old McDonald (who needed more of an arm workout):












Then we started to get into everything in the garage, and found all sorts of fun stuff to do! Mom and Dad should really think about organizing their lives some time, instead of just throwing everything out here! (Oh, in this picture, check out the placement of Meri's legs/feet - really, can that be comfortable?)









When we started to get bored and make them feel bad for us (and worried about us sucking on the lawnmower, trying to move cans full of paint, or things like that - which of course are just imaginary examples that didn't really happen because our parents are responsible), they let us play in the car!









What a great idea! Sure, mom's chapstick got eaten, the rearview mirror got "uh-oh, I brote it off," fish faces were made on every conceivable inch of window, the car went nuts when mom and dad turned it on again(windshield wipers, blinkers, hazards, full-volume radio - you name it) , but we were kept happy and occupied while it rained during the last 30-45 minutes of work.
And we gotta say, mom and dad did an excellent job. The yard looks great, and it didn't even take all day. We'd go take a picture of it to show you, but not only would it not do it justice, we're not allowed to cross the street.

Sound tempting to anyone?

Anybody in need of exciting weekend plans??
How about this:
I'm excited. Meredith can't even find the words to describe her excitement. Jenelle will be rolling around in it for pure joy, and Cooper ... about now he's wishing we had a house-full of boys, instead of princesses. In fact, looking at this massive pile of mulch (it looks small in the picture, but don't let that fool you), makes me actually consider having like 10 kids. For one, it would mean I'd basically be pregnant for the next 10+ years, which apart from all the down sides, means I would get a doctor's note excusing me from back-breaking labor such as this. And additionally, they would all grow up to be happy little helpers, wanting nothing more than to spend their weekends doing whatever we wished, and loving being covered in expensive animal poo.
So again, if you're bored tomorrow, you know where we'll be - from sunup until sundown. Any takers?

A little artistic license

So Jenelle LOVES to draw faces. Really, apart from the scribble, circle, line, or occasional letter by accident, it's all she draws. Oh and she always wants us to be drawing them. Here's two examples of her happy faces:
(In case you were wondering, the circles on the sides of the faces are ears, not arms.)


And this is a surprise face with the open "o" mouth, which she herself makes while drawing - cute!









I tried to get her to draw her mad face but she was drawing real people (the magenta one on top is me), and didn't want any of them to be angry. So pretty much all of her happy faces look the same, except for one. The following is my sister, Anna, or Ninnie, as she's called:



(I love watching her add the hair, she just goes nuts and says, "Ninnie has LOTS of crazy hair!" I can't stop laughing about it.)



Oh, and to make Ninnie feel better, here is one of her senior portraits. As everyone can see, she does not have hair growing out of her chin and nose. In fact, she is very beautiful and has hair most girls would give an arm for. So please Ninnie, don't be offended.

"Cherish is a word ..."

Since hearing that a friend of ours suffered a heart attack over the weekend, I have not been able to stop thinking about what happened, and in particular, about how it affects her kids. She is recovering well, which is an absolute miracle, but we didn't know that yesterday, when we taught her 5 year-old son in our Primary class. Unexpectedly, my eyes kept welling up with tears as I looked at him or heard him announce that it's his birthday this week. It was really breaking my heart and made us feel the responsibility of being his teacher so much deeper. And as I couldn't stop thinking about it, I've felt such a need to hold my girls a little longer. Thanks to all the reflecting, I didn't even get mad when they woke up WAY too early, and am so grateful because I pulled them into bed with me instead - one on either side. I think I might have fallen asleep (hard to believe with the crazy loud surround-sound binky breathing going on), and when I opened my eyes, I saw that they were stretching their arms across me to hold hands with each other. I wish I could've pressed pause on that moment (and thus have avoided the tantrums and lack of patience on my part that came later as my sensitivity wore off). I just needed to write to remind myself to really cherish moments like that. I try to tell myself that all the time when I'm frustrated and not handling "situations" as well as I should. I just hope my family never doubts how much I love them.

Goodbye Cable, Hello Internet!

So the time has come to say goodbye to Cable TV - really meaning that I will miss John and Kate Plus 8, What Not to Wear, Sportcenter's Top 10, Fox News, NBA games, and the occasional movie on tv. I gave Cooper cable for his birthday, but it was just through the end of the Blazer's season - which, seeing as they didn't make the playoffs, is over. Hopefully this means less vegging in front of the tv (unfortunately Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs are still available on our tv, meaning it will be on more than I would hope)!
However, in its place we have finally left behind the Dark Ages (as my sister said) and have the internet! Meaning I can actually blog when I want to, look up random trivia we're arguing about, check my email more than once a week (I'm really sick of there being like 30 new emails to look at!), play Text Twist, and whatever else it is that people do on the internet. Yet since they counseled moms not to waste too much time surfing the internet at conference (does blogging count?), I will try to not spend every spare second sitting in this chair (define "spare second" please). And it means I can post fun pictures of us. So here goes!

Here we were enjoying "swimming" in my parent's hot tub today after the longest day of weeding in the history of the world - but hallelujah for finally having a sunny day ... which we spent doing yard work. Wahoo.
She loves this, I find her here ALL the time!
And here too, which I think is as funny as she does.
Now this, is just totally freaky. It appears to be one of those things that somebody thought was a cute idea, but it doesn't really work out the way they imagined. I hate this binky.
And how could my little Yenta not be cute? I am sorry Jenelle for the lack of pictures of you today - the preference I'm showing Meri might have to do with the fact that you've been caught out of bed half a dozen times already tonight. For the love, can't you please just stay in bed???

Pictures from Mexico!!!

Here's a little slideshow of the best pictures from our trip to Mexico. We had a blast! It was a little hot and sweaty, and we always smelled like sun block, but the accommodations were amazing, the company was great, Meri was an angel, and we really got to do everything we could have asked for (including the super fast crocodile slides into the refreshing pools). We were both having constant mission flashbacks as I was always speaking Spanish and we were wandering through Brazil-like slums, which we both loved. My only regret is that I didn't have Spanish pass-along cards - I know, I'm a nerd but the fact that I spoke Spanish led to constant discussions about the church - including our taxi driver that drove us to the airport who nearly started crying as he talked about his 2 year old that had died. Broke my heart. Hopefully missionaries find him, or he actually goes to http://www.mormon.org/ like we suggested. And honestly, Meri put up with everything we tried to do with a smile on her face - dazzling all the Mexicans with her sparkling blue eyes. Now however, I think Meredith is bored to be home. But we were thrilled to be back with Jenellie - we REALLY missed her but we all made it, even through the crazy long trip back on the tiniest plane, which was miserable. But I can't complain, we got to go to Mexico!

Reasons for Rejoicing!

In the words and decibel level of my exuberant Jenellie, “Hip Hip Hooray-yay!” We have good news! Cooper got accepted to the MPA program (Masters of Public Administration) at PSU – which we’ve been waiting to hear for forever. Now we basically have a lot of discussing, praying, further researching, and number crunching to do to figure out for sure if we’re ready for this and if we’re headed down the right road. Does this mean we know what we want to be when we grow up? Hah. Pretty much it means a door has opened and we think we like the view. I’m excited. I think Cooper is too.

On a less life-changing note, I have finished my paintings for the show, which at least deserves a really lazy night of lounging around, doing nothing to celebrate. Or something gooey and chocolatey. I have a total of eight for the show (the two buildings on the hill and the English garden weren’t accepted) and I’m really relieved to be done. Now, of course, we have to start spending our tax refund on matting and framing the lot. But no need to dwell on that sour note – here are the last two images that will be included: