Summer Fun

Today I shall start my post which will become the understood fact for all future posts. Time is not a fixed standard and I know this because it is passing much more quickly now than it did when I was 5 years old. We are all under a delusion which is perpetuated by the "clock" and it's lies of consistency. Now on to the rest of the post.... school starts in 8 days. Just yesterday I met a man who told me his wife had his youngest daughter for the summer except for vacation, and she was coming home next week. I asked the next logical question "where are you going on vacation then?". Um, no she's coming home for school to start, they had already done the vacation earlier in the summer. My mind was so boggled that i felt literally dizzy. What? I am in no way prepared for such a thing. not emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Yikes.
So since summer is almost over, I will share with you what we did with it. We had parties, we had swim team and swim meets, we had drama camp, we had Puppet Shows, we did a Beth Moore study, we went to a train show, we went to Panegyri, we did VBS, we went to the pool, we did supper with our M&Ms Sunday school class, we walked with friends, we rode bikes, we helped with yearbook, we had a yard sale, we had wednesday night dinners with the Gasts, we had family vacations, we had Dads in hospitals (all out now and doing great), we had swim championships, we helped friends move in up the street, we had swim ministry, we saw the bird show at the zoo, we had a family camping trip, we rode our first water slide, we had a day in Dollywood, we had Women of Faith, we went to Georgia and kayaked for the first time, we went ice skating in August, we packed meals for starving kids in Uganda, we helped with a friend's wedding, we were a bubble girl, we learned to recite Shel Silverstein, we listened to all of the Chronicles of Narnia on CD, we went to the pool, we had movie night, we wore out the expensive swim suits, we had a cousin get engaged, a cousin have a baby, a cousin get married and a visit from a cousin we haven't seen in *cough* years and met their beautiful baby, we had a great friend get cancer, we had friends say goodbye to Killer, we read books, we played pilgrims, we started a fort in the woods, we lost the owl in our woods, we put in a pond, we threw a wedding shower and we slept in late one time, or maybe two.
Although we didn't get around to making a list of things we wanted to do this summer, it's nice to have a list of things we did to help us get over the fact that it's almost done (at least as far as free time goes). now it's time to print off the school supply lists and hope the crayons and dry erase markers aren't all gone at Wal-mart.

little miss 'tude

This morning's glimpse into the mind of Veronica.

Veronica: out of nowhere grumps through living room
Mike: What's wrong Vee?
Veronica: Me go my room, me no have tell you.
Me: seriously? [snicker, snicker, laughing] 
Mike (to me): I blame you for this.
Veronica reappears from the hallway: You no "Ha Ha Ha"
Me: [Rolling on floor with tears in my eyes]

None of our other children have been nearly this bossy and sassy. And we did not laugh at them nearly this much. we are creating a monster.

When Suzy grows up

My friend Maggie picked up Suzy for a playdate the other day with her son. Grady and Suzy are in kindergarten together and Grady is the only boy that Suzy has even noticed in her class. She is so very different from the twins who each had declared a future husband by this time of kindergarten. But, I digress.... Grady is Suzy's friend and had invited her over to play, so Maggie picked them up from school and was headed back to her house and overheard this conversation in the back.
Suzy: Grady.
Grady: yea, Suzy.
Suzy: I wish I was my mom and my mom was me.
Grady: Why?
Suzy: Cause my mom does everything better.

There will come a day when she doesn't feel this way any more, but goodness, I'm really enjoying age 5.

Bee Baw Day

Veronica's vocabulary is expanding. Praise the Lord! although then it occurred to me that perhaps I need to write down the word that Veronica made up to be her all purpose pronoun. BeeBawDay has been her "go to" word for anything she doesn't know how to express or doesn't want to try to say. Because there are certainly some days where you say to her "Oh, would you like this purse? can you say purse?" and her answer will be "no, BeeBawDay" while pointing at the purse. Her current phrases also include: My Happy Day (we think this refers to her birthday because Suzy talks about her birthday a lot, but Veronica has a LOT of happy days), Dee Dee  (thank you, and those are just sweet words to hear), dja dja (her word for Suzy, although she CAN now say Suzy she just doesn't), Me too! (which is usually accompanied by a sprint as she follows someone doing something), Me Go! (this girl loves, loves, loves to go. go where? anywhere!), Meet cha buddy (she shook my hand the other day repeated this and broke out into crazy giggles. I have no idea where she learned it).  She does try to make little jokes now, she'll say things and then say "ha ha ha" in a little monotone rhythm. I love those little moments inbetween the normal screams of no! and "ready for my canny now mama".

My new Montessori school

Every so often I'll get a bug and start scouring the internet for "creative" learning ideas for the baby. She's my last one, so i vacillate between just barely keeping track of her in the chaos and spoiling her rotten because 'She's my baby!'. All in all it's probably the worst parenting combination to inflict upon a child that we will expect decent behavior out of later, but que sera sera.
Rainbow rice has become my latest 'must do this' idea. Why? you ask, because the water frog is dry and it's too cold for more water. (although i did bust Veronica trying to fill it herself the other day by carrying cup after cup of water from the bathroom through the kitchen out the back door and dumping the last tablespoon of water left in the cup into the frog) so here's a look at the super fun rainbow rice, what child wouldn't be inspired into increasing their IQ by playing with such wonderful stuff.

I love it, it makes me smile. But let me just tell you, do i actually have any rainbow rice in my house? nope, it's on the to do list, and while this to-do list is a lovely thing, my baby is growing right on up regardless of whether or not i have done the things on my to-do list.
The good news here is that I'm already running a Montessori school. Yup, today's first session was compliments of not cleaning up the breakfast dishes. I found Veronica sitting at her booster seat this morning very carefully pouring the leftover juice from breakfast in and out of the 3 juice cups left on the table. She would combine them all into one and then pour a little back into each cup. Then two cups has juice and one was empty and then they all had juice again. Then someone was a little thirsty and then the levels were lower in each cup. I remember doing this exact thing with dried peas at the Montessori school in parkersburg under the watchful eye of Sister Fellamena at DeSales Heights. (although i'm sure i didn't drink the dried peas)

So here's to our little Montessori school, the Administration is a little lax but the teachers sure love their students.

My Auntie

If there was one thing I heard from my Auntie growing up, it was "slow down, don't eat so fast". I can only imagine the absolute joy in her heart up in heaven when she watches Suzy eat.

Suzy turned to me the other day with her eyes as wide as they could be saying "Mom, look at my eyes." so I looked deep into those beautiful eyes of my little girl and she says "are they twinkling mama?"
"Yes, my sweet girl, they are the prettiest things i've ever seen".

The Rest of the Story

I want to get the rest of our visit in before I forget what we did:) Already I'm a little foggy on what we did the day after the plumbers came. I think that was the day that Lee and I went to get pedis so our feet could look like they belonged to women who don't spend their days running after children, but perhaps like feet that spend their days on beaches or other exfoliating places. It was a very nice afternoon trip, the great irony being that Lee was saying on the way there that she wasn't sure she would be comfortable with a man giving her a pedicure and I chipped in with the ever intelligent "do men even do that sort of thing?", and sure enough I ended up with a man giving me my pedicure.  It was worth it, our toes looked lovely as could be afterwards.  While I'm not sure the hot wax/plastic baggie thing actually did anything to our feet, it was certainly entertaining at the time.


We did decide to adjust our camping plans. Upon learning that Bend was supposed to be 42 degrees overnight, we decided that a day trip would be just lovely. We started our day with a tour of the Columbia River Gorge. It has, hands down, the nicest rest stop I've ever seen:)

For the record, Mike would like the caption for the second picture to read "I just peed" and now back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

It was a beautiful drive. We saw several waterfalls before we stopped to hike to the top of the largest one, Multnomah Falls. It was gorgeous and very very tall.

Along the trail to the top, a little cave just big enough for a man, or a man and his brother who loves a nice close hug.

This was really the only time where Jeff's being a marathon runner actually came into play in our relationship. We lost them about 1/2 way up the trail (maybe a little sooner). When we finally got to the top, there were PB&Js all around and some great pictures. (not that I went anywhere near the edge to get them, that would be the handsome man i married)

If you click on this picture, you can see the bridge waaaaaayyyyyy down there. that is the bridge from the first picture.

From there we headed to a nearby town to get some good coffee and then off to drive the fruit loop (local orchards) to Mt. Hood. We visited the Timberline Lodge. It was beautiful and there was snow to play in, so that was a bonus for Ez and Hads.

 This picture is one of my favorites for doing its best to express the absolute blue of the sky that day.

 This was the view from the front of the lodge. Notice the vast amount of space before one would fall off the mountain? My kind of view. It was the details in the lodge that made it so spectacular. Sure it was neat to see how they basically used tree trunks to build the place, but the pictures of people from the 1930s gathered in the lodge socializing and seeing the "game" room with its ancient pingpong table and table shuffleboard (which apparently utilizes some sort of sawdust?) and what appeared to be a stage was too too charming. The picture of the guy with his foot wrapped burning his broken wooden skis in the great room fireplace was priceless. Then you get to the architectural details of the building itself. Like this door..

 I loved this door. I wanted this door. I wished i had a house big enough for this door. alas, i think this door would probably not work on a 1950s brick ranch in Ohio, but if any of my relatives ever decide to buy a castle, I know just where to start with their decorating suggestions.

 Note the ever present delicious coffee in the hiker's hand on the left.

Lee and I decided that we had to be brave enough to stick a toe into the little pond that was being filled by the melting pile of snow next to it. Almost 1/2 of the pond was an underwater iceburg. It was beautiful and it was CHILLY.
We headed home after some more exploring on Mt. Hood and enjoyed s'mores by the fire at home. 

Reeces Cups, Caramellos, or Hersheys were the s'mores options. Goodness were they tasty and rich! Ez was so jazzed about camping out that Jeff was #1 Dad and slept with him in a tent in the backyard while the rest of us snuggled comfortably in our own beds.

that was a very busy day, and now i am tuckered just writing about it. more tomorrow...