Sunday, May 9, 2010

A COUPLE MOTHER'S DAY HIGHLIGHTS

As you know, my Mother's Day gift was a day of abandoning motherhood. Today, the actual holiday, was just a normal day. We went to church, ran an errand, and puttered around the house. It was perfectly mellow. There were, however, two highlights to the day.

First, Silas came running up to me at church with something in his hand. A box. A purple box. A purple box of Girl Scout cookies. A purple box of Girl Scout cookies that he'd been told to give to me. Do you know what kind of Girl Scout cookies come in a purple box? Samoas!

A friend from church, who also happens to be the Girl Scout leader I buy cookies from, brought a box of Samoas to church for me. With the exception of three cookies I shared with the kids ... ok, wait, I better explain that. The boys bought their own Girl Scout cookies this year and shared with me, so I'd promised them a sample of my Samoas stash. Anyway, each kid got the first, and last, Samoa they'll ever get from me, then I ate the rest of the box throughout the day. Don't they look delicious?!



The second highlight came later in the day. Amy and Linda, some of my pseudo-inlaws, stopped by to pick up our moving boxes today. Linda had sent me a Mother's Day card earlier in the week and Amy brought me some flowers today. They were so pretty!

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MOTHER'S DAY - 2010


The Queen B with the three little Ws on Mother's Day.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY ... TO ME!!

Husbands, want to know the best Mother's Day gift you can give your wife? Particularly if she's the mom of young kids? Give her a break from motherhood!!!

I got an e-mail from my friend Sarah yesterday telling me that we were hanging out today. Evidently Tim had secretly called her and arranged for me to get a break from parenting. As soon as I read the title of her e-mail, "girls' day out", my heart skipped a beat. I didn't even know the details yet. All I knew was it involved girl time and included getting out of the house. I was sold on the idea before I even read her note!

She picked me up around 11:00 this morning and brought me home about 9:00 tonight. We did some shopping (both errands and just for kicks), had a lunch of Costco samples (hadn't been in a Costco in several years), iced our stomachs (the phrase Sarah's husband, Charles, taught me for eating ice cream) and chatted for a few hours at her house, then ended the day with the two of us and Charles scarfing some Chinese food. It was wonderful!!

Major "good husband" points to Tim for giving me the perfect Mother's Day gift. Thanks to Charles for sacrificing his wife for the day. And last, but not least, a honkin' thanks to Sarah for a really fun day!!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

5/6/10 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that Wednesday was a fairly normal day, so much better than Monday and Tuesday.

What's one thing that you're thankful for?

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

THE RAINBOW

Today stunk. A lot. So did yesterday. I'm not going to elaborate on the reasons why, but it's safe to say that I have not been a happy camper. Not at all.

I was just about to hop into bed, eager to end this day, when I remembered a picture I took exactly one week ago. That evening I was hacking up a lung for the 16th night in a row, Naomi had an earache, and I was finishing the packing of our house. Another night, like yesterday and today, that didn't make the "happiest days of my life" list.

As I was coughing and Tim was rocking Naomi, the setting sun broke through the storm clouds and this is what I saw out my living room window. If you look closely, then you can barely see the double rainbow in the left corner.
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Isn't that pretty? I love it!

Genesis 9:8-16 tell us that God promised Noah there would never be another flood that would destroy all life on earth and that the rainbow would be a reminder of that promise. Here's what I think is cool - rainbows only come when the weather is lousy. They don't come on warm and sunny days, but on rainy days, serving as a reminder that the storm brewing outside isn't the end of the world. You know what else is cool? A rainbow can't exist unless some sunlight is breaking through. No matter how dark and cloudy the sky may be, a rainbow proves that the weather isn't all bad.

Tonight this picture is helping me to keep things in perspective, reminding me that my current frustrations aren't going to ruin my life, and challenging me to look for the positive aspects of my situation.

I needed that rainbow tonight. I need to remember it tomorrow.

And now I really need to go to bed.

Monday, May 3, 2010

THE BIG MOVE

We could not have asked for a better moving day. Seriously. It was perfect!
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Let's start with the weather. The forecast was 80% chance of precipitation. The reality? Not a single drop of moisture fell from the sky.
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Now let's talk about the time frame. People arrived at our house in Beaverton at 8:00 Saturday morning. Tim walked some of them over to my grandma's. A truck was loaded at each location. By 11:00 both trucks were completely unloaded in Wilsonville. That's right. Two homes with the belongings of six people were totally moved from Beaverton to Wilsonville in three hours. Amazing!
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How about the Nomes-a-licious? She was going to hang out with Brianne and Rowen, but she came down with a cold. Not wanting to share the germs with a preggo and her toddler, we decided to just keep her with us. Well, I decided to. Tim, however, got all sneaky on me and asked Sachi, who had previously offered to help with the kids, to take her. So, she did. She picked her up at 8:00 and brought her back to us around 2:00. Not only that, but she brought me a bouquet when she dropped Naomi off.
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The crew? I must confess I was a little embarrassed once I realized how many people were coming, as it seemed a bit excessive. However, having a big crew is what enabled us to bust the move out in record time and allowed those who had offered to stay all day get back to their homes and families around lunch time.
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A big thanks to Charles and Sarah, Sarah's mom (I'm totally blanking on her name, but I'm sure that loading boxes was the highlight of her weekend visit), Steve, Matt, Mike S., Jay, Jered, Pam, Mike W. and Tiffany, the six offspring of Mike W. and Tiffany, Bobby, Eric, and my dad. That's twenty people, not counting Tim and I!! I think I got everyone, but if I left you out, then know I was grateful.

An extra thanks to Pam, who stayed at my grandma's for several hours and helped her get settled in while we were working at our own place. And an extra thanks to the guys who made sure all of our beds were set up before heading home. It was nice to know we could fall into bed, even if we were surrounded by boxes.
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The next day? Naomi spent much of Saturday night hacking up a lung. So my dad, who had offered to come and help us move because his annual "come till the W garden in May" trip was no longer going to be possible, offered to be the one to skip church with her so that Tim and I could both go. Needless to say, Papa's youngest fan enjoyed having him all to herself for a couple hours.
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Today? Carol came over with some homemade cookies and all the ingredients for a big pot of chicken noodle soup. She had everything chopped and ready to go. I just had to dump it in the pot. That was a total blessing, as I had to do my "beginning of the month" shopping trip tonight, a few days later than usual because of the move, and didn't feel like cooking. The soup was fabulous and cookies were even more fabulous.

The kid's rooms are put away. The kitchen and bathrooms are put away. The living room is just about finished. Our room is almost done. Our closet is filled with boxes that need to be dealt with. The back patio and storage closet are disastrous. No pictures or decorative things have been hung on walls. I do, however, have the perfect spot for my framed work of creative genius that I told you about a while ago.

I'll add one more thing in, just for the laugh. Have you ever said or written something that didn't come across the way you intended? Well, that happened to me. On Saturday night, after the move, I glanced at the label on a box and chuckled to myself. I knew what it meant, but it's not what it looked like. I mentioned it to my dad, who then let me know that the crew who loaded our house had also commented on the label. Lovely. Here's one of the boxes with the label in question.
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Just for the record, the books in the boxes with this label aren't scandalous. They're just not children's books. Next time I think I'll just label these boxes "books" and leave the clarification of ownership to the kids' books. Lesson learned. Laughs given.

Oh, can't forget this. You can see my dad's pics of our stinkin' cute kids having fun at our new place right here.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

MENU - FIRST HALF OF MAY 2010

We've got a crew loading up all our belongings into a moving truck, so I thought I'd take a break and do a little blogging.

Kidding! I'm writing this on Thursday and post-dating it for Saturday.

BREAKFASTS
oatmeal with the following topping options - brown sugar, raisins, milk, & sauce
granola (crockpot)
oat & almond breakfast bars (make night before)
morning glory muffins (from freezer)
pumpkin bread (from freezer)
blueberry oat muffins (doubling and freezing half)

DINNERS
leftovers x2
tacos x2
new chicken recipe (not a flop, but not worth posting)/rice/salad
easy enchiladas/beans (crockpot/freezer)/broccoli
creamy tomato & rice soup (crockpot)/biscuits
chicken broccoli divan (crockpot)/rice
chicken soup & dumplings
crustless quiche/salad
baked lentils & veggies with cheddar cheese
rice cooker mac & cheese/frozen veggies
black bean & rice burritos/frozen veggies

DESSERTS
snickerdoodles
apple brownies/vanilla ice cream