Cotton

Cotton is our puppy. He is a blonde Pomeranian, and we got him for Christmas. After 14 years of marriage, "some day" has finally come for us. I knew we would have a dog eventually because my husband is an animal magnet. He loves them, and they adore him. Don't get me wrong, I like animals. During my life I have had pet cats, rats, hamsters & fish. I love to visit the zoo! But I'm kind of like a cat. They are pretty independent and can take or leave you, and I'm the same with them.
Dogs are different though.
Here's what I have learned about dogs.
1. Puppies are the cutest things until you've had them for 2 weeks and they are still pooping and peeing in your house.
2. Getting a new puppy is like having a newborn baby. Except puppies don't wear diapers.
3. When you take the dog out to pee, and he is in a mischievous mood, you don't care that your neighbors hear you screaming "get back here you dumb dog!". Especially when you are barefoot, in your pajamas, and your 3 year old is running after you down the street crying her eyes out because YOU ran off.
4. Some puppies take longer to housetrain.
5. A dog is a member of your family.
6. A dog wants to please you and protect you and play with you and lick you.
7. A dog has facial expressions and knows how to use them.
8. A dog doesn't understand when you all leave the room and forget to bring him along.
9. Playing "fetch" is a lot of fun.
10. Petting soft fluffy fur is soothing.

We enjoy Cotton so much. I have surprised myself by the fact that I love this dog. I love watching the kids play with him and love him. They have no trouble bathing him, feeding him or even with "poo day" when they have to clean up the yard. He is an energetic, sweet little body of fluff, and I can honestly say I am glad to have him in our family.

Lonelier as Slush

My dear and funny friend Karen sent me an email this morning with a fun link.

anagramgenius.com

If you go to their home page and click on Anagram Server, you can input your name and find your own anagram. I got a good laugh as I put in my name and the names of my family members. Mom and Dad Anglesey, if you are reading this, you both have pretty funny ones.

If you try it, and get a good one, post it here and let me know.

Thanks for the tip Karen (aka...darkened enemas)!!

Your friend,
"Lonelier as Slush" or with maiden name used..."Uselessly agile hen"

green thumbs

Is it time to start thinking about gardening yet? I'm ready!
On the way through the check-out line at the store the other day, I saw a garden magazine and grabbed it. As I looked through it at home, my heart was pounding! The anticipation! I can't wait for the color, the fragrances, the dirt-stained fingernails. Bring it on, I say!
I do not profess to be a master gardener, but how happy I am that gardening is in my blood. I remember my grandparents' garden, my mother's gardens. I love to see what my sister has done in her garden, and now I have 2 sisters-in-law whose thumbs are obviously green too. My grandmother-in-law is no longer with us, but her garden was amazing. She could grow hydrangeas and geraniums like no one else could in this desert-like area.
I have a blank slate out in my back yard. A huge one. It is a little overwhelming, because I want to plan and do it right. But at the same time, I think...how can you do it wrong? I'm going to plant what I love. Lots of flowers.
There is nothing so beautiful as flowers, I think.

boarding bug

Just thought I'd share a few pictures of my two oldest kids. They discovered snowboarding this year. Monkey A is almost 12 and Monkey B is 10. They picked it up pretty quickly and are anxious to go a few more times before spring sets in.

Heartstrings

As I type this, I have 2 little three-year old arms wrapped around my waist, and a long haired, dirty blonde head resting on my chest. The older kids are off to school, and my "baby" just woke up and climbed up here on my lap. She is going through an interesting stage. She is my shadow and won't let me out of her sight. I think I remember my other kids being younger when they went through their "separation anxiety" stage. But here she is, just barely 3 years old, and attached to me with that invisible string as I go about my daily duties. I have been complaining about it lately, because it just makes it hard to do anything. As I walked toward the bathroom yesterday, she yelled for me, and I had to turn around and basically ask for her permission to go to the bathroom by myself, please. It's that bad.
But as she sits here on my lap, her little heart beating against mine, and her sweet full cheeks all rosy from slumber, my frustration ebbs.
I am filled with love for this little one, and feel determination to just relax and enjoy the fact that she wants to be near me. She is my baby. My last. The other kids clung at one point too, but their time has past. This is my last chance. She may never want to be this close to me again.
I'm scooping her up, and we will climb the stairs together.
Heartstrings tied, we will face the day.

Corn Maze and Holidays

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch in October. I can't believe Thanksgiving is this week and Christmas is around the corner. I am in love with this time of year.

Chillin'

Hey!!!
It's been quite a while. We moved. We lost our computer. We got a new computer, and now I am totally out of the habit of getting on it!
However I decided to get on today, and check a few things, including this way non-happening blog!
We love our house. Love it. We have made lots of new friends in our new area, and are finally feeling a bit settled.
It's nice to not be so over-focused on the house now. We have had some wonderful days visiting the corn-maze, carving pumpkins, hosting a Halloween party and trick-or-treating. Last night was great as we sat around the fireplace as a family and just laughed and talked and shared stories about this and that. We are finally starting to RELAX and it feels good.

still around

Yes, this blog has been ignored for a while. Just thought I'd fill you in on why. We are moving into our new home next weekend. This past month as been extremely chaotic. It seems we have had to run out to the house for this or that at least once a day. There have been meetings with these people and those people, and trips to Home Depot for this or that. Not to mention normal life and parental duties.
At the end of the day, Trev and I hit the pillows pretty hard. So, blogging has been put on a back burner. It will probably remain that way until we are more settled.

The bright side to all this is that the house has turned out so beautiful. A dream come true for Trev and I, and it's really exciting to see those initial drawings we made sit in reality right before our eyes. I'll post a picture as soon as I think to take my camera with me out to the house.

This week will be full of touch-ups and final fixings, and hopefully all will be good for us to go. I dislike packing and moving, but at least there is the excitment to push you through it!

Monkey A & Steve

My daughter is so sweet.
I have been very busy lately, so I am finally able to sit and write about last weekend.
Trev and I were out with a boatload (no really..a real boatload) of friends on the river early Saturday morning. The guys like to go when the water is like glass - great wakeboarding. The kids were with a sitter.
I answered the cell phone and it was Monkey A, though I could hardly recognize her voice. She was sobbing and I knew immediately that something "real" had happened.

Through her sobs, I heard her inform me that Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter, died.
I tried to calm her and help her over the phone but my heart ached for her, and I was done having fun on the river because all I could think of was that I needed to be there to talk with her about it and comfort her. When I explained my reaction to the phone call to all in the boat, a conversation ensued over Steve Irwin and his dangerous life, and they thought it was cute that our daughter was upset. But they don't really know my daughter, and it was much more upsetting than cute.

Okay, now to clarify this drama. MA has loved animals since she could notice them. ALL animals, slimy and scary included. She has never been afraid of worms, snakes, big dogs...you name it. So, she discovered Animal Planet long ago and has been a DEVOTED fan of the channel, and especially any show with Steve Irwin. She would frequently visit the website, and she knows lots of trivia and facts about animals, and about Steve personally. For about a year she has been telling everyone she knows that her dream is to work at the Australian Zoo, and someday to meet Steve. All her family has responded the same way..."Can't you work at a zoo in the U.S.A?" I think it's easy to laugh off the dreams of an 11-year old, but I think because of Steve Irwin's enthusiasm and obvious love of animals, she saw a kindred spirit, and she adored him.

Since then we have talked about his death, his life, and she has started a letter to the family (her idea). She had a rough few days, but seems to understand that this is part of life. She is determined to honor him in her own way. She continues to watch his reruns on Animal Planet every day, and has watched her copy of his Crocodile Hunter movie a few times this week.

So I guess I write this in honor of my sweet daughter and Steve Irwin. I am sad he is gone, and sad for her loss. But I'm proud of her reaction, and her ability to see good, and make the best of what has been one of the first heartbreaks in her life.

Back to School

When it's "back to school" time, I'm usually ready. This year has been no exception. The kids' arguing seemed to be getting a little louder lately, the excitement of playing outside seemed to be fading, and I think we've all started to miss the bit of sanity a schedule can bring.
So school started this week and I'm wondering where that sanity is?
I kind of forgot that with the start of a new school year also comes the start of all their other activities. They have to be driven to and from school each morning until our home is finished. Then they have to be driven everywhere else after school for scouts, ballet, Activity Days, piano lessons and whatever else they haven't signed up for quite yet.
I was looking forward to the moment I was home in the house with just MD, and a lovely level of quiet, just to hear myself sigh with relief, "Ahhh."
I'm still looking forward to that moment. I'm laughing at myself, yet I'm still hoping that I'll have a moment to look around the peaceful, clean home I envision and say, "Hmmm, what should I do today?" Don't laugh... it could happen!
Here's a rundown of Wednesday.
Got up at 6:00am.
Drive 20 mins. to get MA to middle school by 7:50am.
After MA dropped off, we sit in car at elementary school until 8:30am when other 2 kids start class. (not enough time in there to run home in between school times, but there is this whole 40 minutes of waiting. Gotta figure that out.)
Get home around 9:00, finish getting myself ready, and MD and I fed and dressed when MA calls to tell me she forgot her shirt (after dressing down for P.E.). Make a new 20 min drive out to school, and 20 min. drive home. Trev calls to tell me they messed up some paint stuff at the house, and I need to go over and meet with people.
After meeting, I'm on my way home again with the goal to get some exercise done, and house picked up a bit. But, phone rings before I make it home, and Trev needs a lunch brought to him at the office. He forgot one, and doesn't have a minute to run anywhere. Okay. Go home, make lunch, feed MD lunch, and head out to his office. Just about to drop it off when phone rings again. It's my mom. "Are you missing somebody?" she asks me. What? "Are you missing someone?" No clue what she is talking about. Turns out Wednesday is the kids' one early release day of the week, and I wasn't there to get MA so she walked to Grandma's house (luckily just down the street) and was waiting there. AH! I forgot about that! Okay, so I will drop off the lunch for Trev, and go get MA. Then I do the calculations and realize that since the other kids have early release too, I will have to go directly from the office to their school and get them first.
Okay...skip to the long drive to both schools, long drive home. I pull up in the driveway now (It's 3:00pm), and then I look at the car console and realize I have papers there that I was supposed to drop off at the builder's office at 2:00. I drop kids off at house, to turn right around and drive to builder's office. As I'm pulling out of driveway, Rachel shouts out, "Oh Mom! You need to go to the school office and get the picture packet for tomorrow!" Wasn't I just AT the school? Why didn't you tell me while we were THERE MA?? On my way to the builder office, I call the school. Luckily they are closed for the day. Unfortunately the builder's office is closed also. I drive home with a headache.
I walk in, tell the kids I need a rest for just a few minutes...fall on my bed and sleep for 20 mins. Somehow I managed to make dinner and help with homework after that.
I am not lying when I tell you that Tuesday was almost identical and of course Thursday morning MA and I had to go even earlier to school in the morning to get her picture packet before school started.
I filled the suburban gas tank on Tuesday morning, and by Wednesday night it was half empty. Hey, same as my enthusiasm and energy level!

House update

I know I have not been real good about posting updates on our house construction. I'm not sure why, because it's a major part of our lives right now.
Anyway, this photo is about a month old, so there has been even more progression than you see here. The columns have the rock on them, and the porch is done except for the stairway.

As of today, they are painting the interior walls. Cabinets will be put in next week. The exterior has not been painted yet. This is such an exciting time because we get to see our dream really come together. So far we have been thrilled with the progress and results.
The only snag was when our copper wiring was stolen a few months ago. The frustrating part was Trev, Mike and I were out there at the house while the thief was inside posing as a worker with broom in hand. As soon as we left, he cut the wires and fled. You can read a little bit about it in our Tri-City Herald. This was in the paper a few days ago.
CLICK HERE to read our new home's minute of fame.

I really will try to get a more recent photos soon.

The Cowgirl in Me

What a weekend!
Trev and I got to see the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Soul 2 Soul II concert in Seattle. It was so fantastic.
We spent the day at Seattle center. We strolled around, visited the Science Fiction Museum, and got our faces drawn by an artist near the Space Needle. How sweet of her to leave out the laughter lines around our eyes and smiles, leaving the picture of us looking about 10 years younger.
The weather was beautiful, the company sweet.
The concert started at 7:30 and we were thrilled to find our seats were only about 20 feet from the stage. We had a great view and saw the country singers up close. We really enjoyed ourselves. They were both wonderful performers. Faith can really belt it, and Tim knows how to entertain the crowd. And yes, she is as beautiful live as in all the pictures you see of her. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

We drove home the next day only to pack everyone up for a couple nights of camping near Mount Rainier. We got to hike quite a bit on the mountain, and enjoy the amazing scenery. The wildflowers were just gorgeous. Monkeys A & B were brave and swung from a rope swing into icy glacier water near our campsite. Trev and Uncle Mike were crazy and jumped from a bridge into the same icy water.
There is something I love about camping. Who cares how you dress or look as you hike around, roast marshmallows, and sing campfire songs. It's fun to chase bugs, mice, birds and deer in the woods. It's hard to beat going to sleep under a star-filled sky, the smell of campfire in the air and hot cocoa in your belly.
What more can I say? That was just a GREAT weekend.

Bored Mom

Have you heard about the "bored mom"?

CLICK HERE to read about this author and mother.

Here is a mom who finds her kids boring. She does not enjoy being with them, and they know it.
It makes me sad. Angry at first, but mostly sad. Just from my own experience of being a mother of 4 children, I feel that she is surely missing out on joy that can come from no other source. I feel her children are missing out on the love, joy, and security that can also come from no other source.
I'm pondering the reasons for the difference in our mothering attitudes. Is it innate? Is it the experiences we have each had with our own mother? Is it a choice of selfishness vs. selflessness? Whatever it is, I am glad that I have chosen to make mothering my priority. My life has been enriched in ways I can't explain. There is a deep sense of fulfillment and peace in choosing to view my "job" as one of extreme importance. I am raising the future. I am giving them of myself so that they will be taught well, but also so that they will always know that they are understood. They are loved and supported. That there is someone in their corner ALWAYS. Isn't that feeling of being cherished vital in a world like ours? Don't my children deserve to have a solid foundation in this craziness that surrounds them? Don't all children?

Every single night I have the pleasure of tucking my kids in. It's not always easy to drag myself away from what I am doing to go from bed to bed, singing each one their favorite lullaby. With 4 kids, this ritual takes my time. But after kissing each one of them, the air fills with back and forth "I love you's!" And it never fails as I walk down the darkened stairs, at least one of them always shouts , "You're the best mom in the universe!". That isn't why I do it, but it's things like that that keep me going. I know as they go into the teen years, I won't be hearing those beloved words like I do now. But that in no way discourages me. I will never regret the time, sweat, tears, and heartache that go with being a mom. NEVER.

Ich liebe sommer.

"Deep summer is when laziness
finds respectability."
~Sam Keen

We just can't help it! We took another mini vacation. Sorry that is all my entries seem to be about these days, but alas...it IS summer!

This time we rented a cabin for a few nights near Leavenworth, Washington. It was nestled in the forest with a swift, shallow river right in our backyard.
It was fantastic. We had planned to spend a day visiting the small shop-lined Bavarian town, and maybe rent a raft to take a long float down the river.
Instead we were taken in by the beauty right in our backyard, and spent the whole time RELAXING.
We fished in the morning. The kids spent a few hours in the river, collecting big river rocks to make their own dam. We roasted hotdogs over the firepit for lunch, and spent some time in the hammock. We went inside for a few hours and read books and took naps. We eventually drove into the Bavarian town and got icecream and visited the toystore, but then came right back to the little cabin to enjoy more laziness outside. The stars were abundant and amazing. The kids enjoyed a bubbly dip in the hottub, and then we called it a night.
We couldn't believe we were only there a couple of days, it really seemed like we were there longer.
I love summer.

View from the top

Good news!
Trevor is back from his 2nd Mt. Rainier climb. Didn't I say there would have to be at least one more? Happily, they summited this time. He said it was the most physically challenging thing he has ever done. While doing the summit climb, they had steady, freezing winds that had gusts of over 60 mph. Yikes.
Yes, that is him brushing his teeth at the top. (Had to take that one for the office).
He returned home red-eyed and dead tired, but somehow in his zombie-like state we still drove out to see the new house progress (that update should be my next post), and as you can imagine he dropped as soon as he hit the bed.
I'm proud of him! Thanks for the picts Trev, as I will most likely never go up there to take them myself!

Where was Mr. Broccoli?

Maybe this is one of those things where "I guess you had to be there". I'll share anyway.
My sister and her family stayed with us the week of July 4th. She brought her A&E copy of Pride and Prejudice to share with me since I had never seen it before. While she was here, Monkey A and I watched the first half with her. We didn't get time to watch the rest, so she left it for MA and I to finish.

So the next day MA and I watched it together. When it was over, she turned to me and said, "That was such a good ending! I'm so glad that Lizzie and Mr. Darcy got together at the end."
"But Mom, why is it called "Pride and Produce"?

I am still laughing.

*Just a note - I did not make fun of my daughter, and we both laughed together when I explained her mistake to her. And I do not continue to bring it up to her either. It just pops into my head now and then, and I have to giggle. Out loud.

frog beach

We took a daytrip to Clear Lake, near Packwood. It was beautiful! We enjoyed a pic-nic lunch by the lake, then took a hike through the surrounding woods. We had to take a little detour down the road to get some mosquito repellant, but after everyone was sprayed down, we continued on.

The kids enjoyed trying to count tree rings and they were very excited over the tree we found that had been chewed down by a beaver. MC dug through the wood shavings, and found a beautiful piece of wood that she named "dove's wing" because of it's shape.

We found a bit of beach a little later that was covered with tiny baby frogs! They were the size of small crickets and there were thousands of them. The kids caught them and chased them, and we wondered at the way they would let the waves take them from the sand to the water where they would pump those little legs to try and swim. I've never seen anything quite like that before. There were just so many of them. So after naming the spot "frog beach", we left for home.

One of my favorite parts of the day had to be the drive through the forest though. You just can't beat the strong, heady smell of pine trees. The hint of woodsmoke mixed in added just the right touch, and made us vow that we will spend many more of our summer weekends in places like this.

I am a hamburger.

She is grilled chicken and I am a hamburger.
She is the perfect lemon bar and I am a killer brownie.
She is "Pride and Prejudice" and I am "X-Men".
She is a low laugh and I am a cackle.

We are both tea and toast for breakfast, NOT cereal.
We both avoid apple juice for fear of the same stomach ache.
Miles apart, we both choose the same fabric for our curtains and throw pillows.
We sound the same on the phone.
Family rules for both of us.
Rob Thomas rocks both our worlds.

We both have an incredible sister who is also a cherished friend.

Happy 4th!

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." ~Erma Bombeck

Have a safe, happy and fun July 4th!

Lovin' Those Dog Days

One hundred degrees and rising.
Those are the temps this week. We can always count on a few weeks of very hot weather around here. This makes for GREAT boating days!

Saturday morning I made homemade potato salad and oven-baked chicken legs. We packed them up along with some other snacks and drinks, and took off to Levy Park on the Snake River.
It was the perfect day for being out on the water. The warmth of the sun made it so you wanted to jump in and cool off. We had a great time swimming off the boat, tubing, waterskiing, wakeboarding and surfing. We enjoyed our picnic lunch as we floated along in the boat.

We love days like this. I love that feeling of coming home afterwards, warm-skinned, bodies tired from activity and sun, and full from good food and family togetherness.

ps- Had to share these great photos I took of Trev!