AGAIN!?

I have strep throat case # 194,294 .... AUGH!!!

If you have time...

..... watch this video ... the facts this guy brings to the table about energy/oil/our country are amazing. Really brings light to a few topics ... it's an hour long and the guy rambles during the first half, but he starts getting to some very interesting things halfway through. Anyway ... it's worth it to watch ...

New Bike

Yesterday we got Maysen his first bike. As the summer days have clicked by (where has it gone?) we’ve watched Maysen play with other kids in the neighborhood and there is only so fast you can swing those legs around on a trike. He was having a hard time keeping up with the kids and he was ready. So he’s now a full-fledged neighborhood bike rider with the other kids. And he loves it! He has some trouble getting up our drive way and other small inclines around the street, but he’s working that out.

Jenn and Garrett were here on Thursday. We had a lot of fun meeting Garrett and hope we get to see more of him. He lives in Montreal, Canada so we have given him a hard time about moving to the states vs him taking my sister away!! He’ll have Maysen and Fin to answer to! We hung out, played poker and Scrabble (which our ending scores were amazingly close!), and then Friday we went Belknap Springs which was gorgeous! It was Jenn’s last full day with Garrett so we headed home and just as they were leaving it was discovered Jenn’s car was broken. Her belt had fallen off due to an oil leak, so you can imagine how frustrated she was. Thank goodness for small towns! As we were getting her new belt, a couple of guys standing behind us at the parts store offered to come and help. They helped us get the new belt on and at least get Jenn and Garrett back to Portland. It was a fun visit, besides the breakdown.

We picked up those teething biscuits yesterday and Maysen could never tear through one of those. They’re sort of designed to be sucked/chewed on and not just break up. Not only does Griffin tear into them, he breaks them up and chews them like nobody’s business. And MAN are they a mess!!! We’re talking bath time after he eats one of those. He’s pulling up on everything and even using his walker some. I didn’t think he’d be a quick walker like Maysen who walked at 9mo, but I’m starting to think different. He’s not quite 8 mo and he’s pulling up on the couch, pants, chairs, baskets and now even using the walker a tiny bit. So we’ll see!!

I’ll leave you with a photo of Maysen and Jurny playing in the sprinkler. This just solidifies my point that I have a nudist child, who looks like a prancing horse.

Take Note ...

That I have added a "Subscribe to my Posts" link on the bottom of the right hand of your screen under Blog Archives. You are now able to subscribe to my blog and you'll get an email when I update, etc. Feel free to subscribe ... and maybe then I'll call off the strippers I had arranged to show up at your door if you didn't subscribe. Total. Nude. Strippers. Try explaining that one to your spouse (MwwwaaaaHHhaaaaahaaa .... wait, isn't that the 2nd night of scary/insane laugh? Sorry.). No I'm only kidding .... but feel free to get notified when to stop by. Ok. Now I'm officially beating a dead one. Horse, that is .... night!

Commonality

This is Jenn, my sister. One of the things we like to do most in this phase of our lives is go on photo shoots together. This was one was done a few weeks ago when she came up for my birthday. I used to think that to be close and have things in common, that meant that our lives had to have the same things going (husband, kids, house, etc). But, we're sort of at a weird point in our lives where "lives"-wise, we don't have much in common. However, the stronger things that make us sisters is what we have in common - and that is our sense of humor, our hobbies, and what we find AWESOME in movies. Those things will remain no matter what is going on in our lives. I think having a sister is the coolest thing in the world. I have no one else on this planet that I can relate more to -- and that has nothing to do with the fact that we're on different life paths now. It's truly comforting.

I'm excited for her because she has her man (Garrett) here this week from Montreal, Canada. They are going camping and then coming to our house to visit for a night. I'm excited to meet Garrett and let him view the crazies up on this side of the family! MwwwaaHaaaaHaaa!!

I mentioned we went to the beach this weekend to escape the heat. Well, we went from 834 million degrees to 62 and fog on the beach. Yeah, one extreme to the other. I have mentioned before that I am a sick, sick person and actually like the coziness of fog, rain, and cold so it didn't bother me. We had a great outting and before heading home we stopped at to the outlet mall and I totally scored! Who spends $ 57 at Gap and walks away with over 10 items?! Of course that meant today was dedicated to cleaning out closets and getting them rid of too small clothes and the new ones in, which were school/fall clothes for the boys'.

A cold front is moving in bringing much cooler temperatures, which can only mean one thing when you bring massively hot temps and mix it with rain and cooler weather. THUNDERSTORMS! And that means I'm going to go sit on my porch - at 1:00am - and watch the lightshow for a while....

Ba Bye!

We were going to head to the county fair today, but considering it's going to a million and a half degrees outside, we decided to head to the beach!!! See you on Sunday .....

Foster Lake

Our first official family camping trip is complete. Now, I have talked before about my non-desire to seem homeless in the cold woods eating nuts and berries, so this was my type of camping. We had just bought a huge tent to accommodate 6+ people. We fit our queen sized air mattress (complete with down blankets), our port-a-crib, and Maysen's bedding all in this thing. Dad and Jo were traveling through Oregon on their way to their new job in Southern California, so we met them up at Foster Lake near Sweet Home, Oregon. We fished, swam, had fires, and had a really good time.

Ok, I did have some nuts and berries packed away - but it was in cereal form which was housed in Dad's 40ft 5th wheel complete with shower.

Doesn't he look cozy?

Fin actually slept all night long until about 6:00am. But he'd go back to sleep until 8:00am. The only thing that was not-so-desirable is that there was a Weyerhaeuser (the company Nate works for) right near by and .... they work. All. Night. Long. So, we had blazing lights, trucks blaring, and fire alarms (??) going all night. Besides that, we all slept well.

So, let me back up. Although this was a great, fun trip, it was a rough week. On Wednesday I had another "attack" like I did last month. The pain was different and I immediately ruled out kidney stone. It felt like I was having a charlie horse in my uterus. I knew that I needed to get to GYN. Nate rushed home from work and by then the pain had calmed down but I still wasn't feeling well. Thursday I left for camping feeling better, but really sore. I had a call into my doctor, but she wouldn't be in until Friday. They called me back on Friday while camping and they were setting me up with a pelvic/abdominal ultrasound.

We came home on Saturday. Nate took a different way home, since he had his truck there (he had come up after work and I'd been there all day) and he called me about 5 miles from home that the transmission in his truck had gone out. He had called a tow truck and they were on their way. That'll be a nice $2,000 bill - if not more. He had to ride the bus to work yesterday and will be renting a car through his corporate card until his truck is fixed.

Sunday we went to the coast with dad and Jo - their last day here. It was a gorgeous day on the coast and I regretfully didn't take my camera! There was barely any wind, blue sky, and about 70 on the water. We got home around 4:00pm with intentions on going to dinner, when Jo fell ill and had to immediately leave without saying goodbye.I hear she is feeling better, though which I'm thankful for.

I had my ultrasound yesterday and Dr F called me today to let me know that overall it looked ok. I did have a cyst on my left ovary, but it looked intact (hadn't burst or anything). She feels that I am ovulating through my birth control, which could be causing the painful ovulation (because I'm not supposed to ovulate!) that coupled with the cyst. So! We are going to look at changing my BC so I don't ovulate. I know some of you didn't need to know that, but there you go!

Need to leave, as it's time to pick up Nate. I'm so glad we have 2 vehicles ... just wish they both worked! Until next time....

Charles Manson

As I worked for my old doc last week, I updated him on the latest “happenings” around my house. Specifically the dog/pooping incident described below if you were lucky enough to have missed that particular posting. He informed me that I had incidentally misspelled Maysen’s name, and missed an “N”, for MANSON. The most recent lovely incident with Maysen had not yet happened, which would have solidified his comment. It happened like this:

Papa and Sherrill happened to be over visiting, when Maysen decided he needed to show them his new fishing pole we purchased so he can fish with Grandpa Dave when they come this week. He was gone for an inappropriate amount of time, and when he reappeared into the house, Nathan says, “Maysen! What is that on your face?” You see, he had happened to “pass by” the black spray paint on his way to the fishing pole, pulled the cap off, and the nozzle (thank goodness) happened to be pointed in a weird position. Thankfully, it only got half his head. Yes, he was covered in black spray paint on the right side of his face/head. Papa and Sherrill were here to back up our true testimonials on the livelihood of raising our darling Maysen.

I haven’t posted any pictures of Fin’s latest two teeth. He is our “Two-Toothed-Tooter”. Try that one real fast 5 times. He is now crawling warp speed when he sees something he wants, and will pull himself up on your hands if you put them in front of him. He wants to be walking so bad and cranky while crawling as if to say “this is SUCH a waste of time”. Sounds like a grouchy old 80yr old.

After getting our hopes up when a realtor called to do a private showing over this last weekend, we spent 5hrs on Sunday cleaning. When the time came for the realtor to come, he called saying his clients were “no-shows”. Augh!!! Last night we talked with our realtor and agreed to come down $6K. In the meantime, we found a lot we are in love with, and after watching 2 others we loved sell while we’re waiting, we’ve decided to do what we can to just buy it that way it is ours when our house finally goes. We’re required to come up with 20% down cash (OUCH), so we’ve been busy and stressed with that venture. Onward Ho!

We're getting a lot of use out of our Wii. Here is Nate, boxing! Tomorrow we are going camping with my dad. They have left KY and after stopping through Kansas to visit Jo’s family for a few days, they entered Oregon a few hours ago. We are meeting htem at the lake tomorrow and then they’ll follow us home this weekend where they’ll remain until they find new jobs. So nice to have them back.

I think that’s it for now, and Swimming Lessons are calling my name. Until later….

PS: Our thoughts and prayers are with my sister-in-law’s family as they mourn the loss of her grandmother. Drive safe, have a safe trip, and we love you!!

ERROR!?

If anyone is having problems with IE stating "Internet Explorer cannot run site, Operation Aborted" or something to that effect -- the problem lies with Sitemeter and their new migration. Read more about it here. I temporarily deleted my SiteMeter, and it has resolved the issue with me.

Plastic HooHa

Before y'all flag my site for pornographic material, pause and read full post before doing so. CAUTION: Adult discretion is advised!

So, growing up "Camping" to us was the "stay in the RV, make s'mores, shower every night, clean bedding, leave your shoes at the door, come in and watch a movie"-Camping. When I married into the S family, I quickly learned that I was very jaded in my views of what this term really means. I heard the words "no shower, tent, blow up mattress? HA!, nuts and berries for dinner, water filter" .. wait, WHAT?! You mean .... homeless? I soon learned that this was "fun" for the S family and being the new member in, I'd better think this was hunky-dory as well. That was, until I wasn't so fresh in the family and just said what I felt, and that was there was really no cold day in hell I'd be participating to that level.

To show some sportsmanship, we visited REI, which is a really neat/fun store. However, as we're mingling through the $8,388 sleeping bags (which I learned you needed a $2489 fancy cover called a "bivie" to go over this ridiculously expensive zippy blanket), I stumbled across the above "item". Unfortunately Mase was with me and he spotted it just as I had, except in the store, the front of the box actually shows a lady wearing it, in an illustrated form. I heard it. "Momma!! What's that???" ..... beads of sweat start to form as I know what this appears to look like, but there must be a more reasonable explanation. Finally I have to read that it simply is for the "convenience" of women for urination. This way, they don't have to squat in precarious positions to pee. Ohhhhh, I see ..... so jacking the tube out of your zipper as you let 'er flow standing up would sure make me more happy to be a woman. Ahh, the conveniences out there for us ladies these days!! And in a way, I totally get it and there probably are some women who swear by these, but to just stumble onto something that looks like ... well, a makeshift plastic penis, if you will, was quite shocking. I left the store with 3. (kidding).

On another note, Nate told me today that as of next week he has ALL of Friday off now. Up until now he's been working long hours during the week, and only going in for a few hours Friday morning. That's been nice, but with gas $4/gall, the commute time to the office for 3hrs seems silly. So, he's going to work 10hrs all week and then he gets a 3-day weekend every week! I've told work that I'm really free a lot of Fridays, so they've been asking me to do some triage which is fun to get back and dust off the nurse hat.

Today was one of those days I was glad that I "have" to work tomorrow. It entailed a lot of poop: Maysen picking through dog poop, pooping on the floor to watch the dog's reaction (we all know what that was), "wiping" consisted of leaving a 2 ft "extra" of toilet paper, and just as I was picking up Fin I hear "thump-thump-thump", then passing breeze. I turn in time to see toilet paper in mid air whip around the corner as I hear squeals of delight, "I've got a wipe tail!". Thank goodness for my neighbor who relieved me of my duties after hearing my tales of woe. I got a 45min nap. I love Jackie!

With that, I must prepare for work, as it is 1am. Until next time ....

PS: Happy Birthday, Jess!! This is really what I got you for your birthday. Oh, and can I borrow it, too?? Do the pee-swap. That is, unless you want to constantly wear it? Hehehe, ok. I'm losing it now. Love ya birthday girl. Hope you had a good one!