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Dear Joe,

 

After 12 years of marriage,  you should know better than to leave your chocolate chip cookie unattended... I refuse to be responsible for my actions.

Love you.

 

Sadly, joke was on me.  Oatmeal raisin.  Blech.  Who does that?

My Tuesday Theory.

I've been avoiding my blog. 

It's been an overscheduled month, yes, but it's also February.  It might just be the doldrums.  But last month, when I was trying to track down pictures from this time last year, I had a hard time finding any.  I feel like this is the time of year that we all tuck our chins in, wrap the scarf all the way up to our eyes and just kind of get through it.  We've had a mildish sort of winter and some lovely springish days.  And we've certainly tried to take advantage of that. But I have no photo evidence to prove it.  And it's hard to remember the springy day when you wake up with frost on your nose cause you left the window open the night before.

February is like Tuesday.  January would be like Monday, and we are still kind of riding the high from the holidays (which would be the Sabbath rest of Sunday), and then we wake up and it's February (which would be Tuesday) and realize we have a bit of a ways to go before the next break (the weekend) when the warm weather comes, school's out, and we get to run around with bare feet in the grass.  I've really never liked Tuesdays for this very reason.  Plus, in my junior year of college, it rained every single Tuesday for two whole months.  (No lie.  Ask my mom.  Even if she doesn't remember, it's still true. I'm sure google could back me up here.)  Which would be all well and good if I was cozied up at home by the fire in my socks eating cookies.  Who doesn't like a rainy day in your socks?  But Tuesdays were never like that.  Tuesdays were the kind of day that I had to actually hit all three jobs, and hike across the entire length of campus 4 times cause my classes for that day were on all four corners of the 600 acres.  In the pouring rain. 

I've been frequently at the HIRC this month, as I may have mentioned :),  and sometimes I catch myself rubbernecking at the pool and thinking of all the lazy days we spend there, come August.  And I get all itchy for it.

But I straightened out my big girl pants, unloaded a few photos from the old Nikon, and put my party face on.  Things aren't really that bad.  After all, after Tuesday, comes Wednesday, and then heck, you're practically to the weekend!  I might just get out some of that face foil and get myself some much-needed vitamin D this weekend.  Surely that will help!

Happy Valentine's Day!

May you spoil your loved ones and be equally spoiled in return!

Soup for the soul...

....so, my mom was justifiably concerned for my health as evidenced by my last post and she swept in at dinner time this evening to cook up a ginormous pot of chicken noodle soup for me and the fam.  It was stewing when we got home from our latest 5 o'clock win at the old HIRC and I'll tell ya, nothing on earth can compare to mom's chicken noodle when you've had a bit of a tumble from glory.

 

I had the added benefit of getting the recipe from her, so that I too, can soothe the souls of my little people with a quick pot in a pinch.

 

And no.  There was no time for pictures.  We were hungry.

Thanks Mom.

Happy February!

Dinner tonight:

Cheetos, 3-day old donut holes, and (caffeine-free) Diet Coke. 

I could be real classy and arrange it nicely on a plate, but who am I kidding.  I earned this meal of red 40 and refined white sugar, with a side of aspartame.  This house has been beyond crazy the last couple o' weeks.  This week, with 6 scheduled kids' basketball games, two husband basketball games, and let's throw in one more basketball game, just for fun (count 'em, 9 basketball games, no lie), along with a quick trip to Spokane for some house stuff that had me hauling boxes across a three-lane one-way street with a four-year-old in tow, a dead car (again!), and my first bad cold in ages, I feel like I'm legitimately tapped out.  So, instead of getting to that load in the wash that I have now officially washed three times (the last time with white vinegar) cause I haven't had time in the last two days to fold the laundry in the dryer, I sit down to share my meal of insanity with you, and finally get a blog post up.

I should include a disclaimer that my kids had slightly more vitamins and protein for dinner, but just barely.  And I'm not throwing in the caffeine-free to be self-righteous, I just want to be able to sleep when my head hits the pillow of my unmade bed tonight.  If it makes you feel better, it's my 6th can of the day (the first five were fully loaded).

There.   That's all I have.  Full confession.

My sanguine child...

...makes even the dullest tasks more fun.  We were at Winco today and Ben was walking alongside me spreading all his love around.  We passed a woman with a two-year old standing in her cart sporting his footie jams.  Ben's strutting by him with all the independence of a nearly 5 year-old, and smiles up at the kid.  "You look really cute in those jams!" says he.  And all the women in the aisle look around to see this little charmer and his little cup sloppin' over with love, and they laugh.

********

Ben also likes to refer to himself as 'super-cute'.  In the third person.

As in, "Super-cute's gonna wear his new boots today."

It all started with the purchase of some jams that announced 'super-cute' all across his chest.

*********

And lastly.  We have a Cookie Day for Jonah at our school every Wednesday.  The kids can buy cookies and all the proceeds go to Jonah, our 10-year old buddy who was recently diagnosed with leukemia.  This fundraiser has been a confusing concept for the littlest students, as in, how can eating cookies help?  But Ben explained it to me the other day.

"My teacher said that Jonah had a whole lot of cookies.  And his teacher told him that he had to eat them all.  And so he did.  But that made him really sick.  So we are going to eat some of his cookies so he doesn't get sick anymore..."

http://cinnamonrollsandbacon.blogspot.com/

Kayte's first score!

Kayte's first game of the season.  She knocked our socks off.  She may be small in stature, but she makes up for it in spirit.  Her defense was like glue, and you better not just hold that ball anywhere near her grasp or she will fight you for it.  She guarded girls that were head and shoulders taller than her, and if they wanted a shot, they had to work for it.

And the best moment ever.  She shot.  She scored!  First basket ever.  First score. 

...and the crowd goes wiiillllldddd! 

So.proud.

Ben:

Me:  Ben, how much do I love you?

Ben:  I love you one hundred!

Me:  Well...I love you infinity!

Ben thinks a moment and digs in the treasure of his little preschool brain:  Well...I love you on two planets!

Ben plays dress-up...like a boy.

For Ben, dress up is always about being fully protected.  It starts with shorts and two tees (that one he just learned.  Two shirts are better than one.  Findfish rule.)  Then the necktie, to protect the neck.  The boots are necessary, simply because they are his newest item of clothing.  Then shinguards.  Cause it's January and the front of your leg shouldn't show.  These are new to the ensemble.  I don't know how we protected the shins back in November.  I will have to check the archives.

Finally, the super-hero cape, cause that is what he actually is dressing up as.  A super-hero.  It was either that or a cowboy.  Mom's choice.

And when pulling the cape down from the dress-up bin, we spied the fireman helmet, which doubles as face protection.

Now he is sitting across from me, waiting for damsels to find distress.

I can't get enough of this kid.

Sara:

"You know how when you are different ages you have different faces?

And do you remember when it was just Kayte and Will and me, and Ben wasn't even alive yet, he wasn't even in your tummy, you know.....he wasn't even an invention yet?

Well.  That was my favorite face.  I liked that face best."

Oh really?  You mean this one?

You're right Sara, this face is one of my all-time favs.

The LAST DAY of VACATION!

We were all very sad to get up and get going this morning...we've spent the last two weeks being super-lazy and enjoying all our new toys.  No schedule.  Nowhere to go.  Nothing to rush off to, or get pretty for.  It was the best.  But this morning I actually had to wake Will up.  For 17 days he's been up and at 'em early, but somehow today, the first day back at school, I knew he'd still be snuggled up in bed when I got up.  Isn't that just the way?

Anyway.  We were super-fortunate to get a blizzard on our last day of freedom.  I hustled the kids into their snow clothes and we invited ourselves over to the Driskill house where there is a handy little kid-friendly hill just on the corner.

Super-fun!

 

 

This kid.  Not so much a fan of being white-washed on his way down the hill.  He'd really rather be skiing.

(And yes, that's a girl's coat.  It was the handiest one.  He really didn't mind.  Really.)

 

Jem couldn't figure him out.  She was having a great time!

 

These girls are in it for the chit-chat.

Such a beautiful winter day!  Buh-bye Christmas vacation...see you next year!

Epiphany

Tonight we celebrated Epiphany at the Casebolts' with some prime rib and king cake.

Ann decorates in gold and passes out gifts wrapped in gold.  Harper found the dime this year, and she was crowned queen!  Such a beautiful winter night!

Getting closer....

By royal decree:

A Bouquet of Donuts.

A belated nod to our anniversary....Joe knows me so well :)

 

AND...I fixed blogger all.by.myself.

Booyah.

 

...I need to go update my facebook status....haha!

Poo.

Good thing I didn't resolve to only say nice things about google this year.

It's giving me problems again.  No pics.

Argh.

Happy New Year!

So today is the day of new resolutions and reinventing oneself.  Besides the usual health resolutions (lose those 10 holiday, fall, summer, vacation, and general livin-it-up pounds) I actually have a few goals for the year.

1.  I'd like to stick to my Bible-reading plan.  The booklet I have covers the New Testament twice and the Old Testament once.  Last year I gave it a try, but this year, I'm making it a requirement.  And now it is written here in stone, so consider yourself one to hold me accountable.

2.  I'd like to try another half-marathon.  And I'd like to do it under 2 hours.  But mostly, I'd just like to do it.  Crossing the finish line was a feeling like none I'd ever experienced.  And more than anything, it made my husband kinda proud of me, which would drive me all the way through a whole marathon.  Almost. 
Cause that's plain crazy.

3.  Lastly, I'd like to regularly dispense some advice to my kids on paper.  Let me start by saying I'm a bit of a hypochondriac.  I've convinced myself of 4 different fatal diseases in just the last year.  Besides the fact that everytime I drive on the highway,  I'm certain it will be my death.  Rain or shine, I will die in a car accident, but only on a highway at least 2 hours from home.  Otherwise, I'm fine.  Needless to say, I feel like it might be a good idea to tell my kids stuff that I might never get to say to them, for any number of reasons.  Really important stuff.  Or simply the mundane.  Like I really really love 'em, and even when I go totally bananas, I'd turn around in the same moment and not hesitate to die for them. 

Joe bought me 2009 of my blog for Christmas this year.  I haven't made it all the way through yet cause it's fatter by quite a bit than 2008.  But it's a bit of the legacy I want to leave for my kids.  And this will just be a way of adding to it.

So notice taken.  This year, 2013, is all new and fresh, with only today's mistakes on it so far.  Brush off 2012, and every year prior, and start fresh!

2012 Highlights

I don't normally do this post.  Picking one photo to represent 30 whole days is an exercise of discipline the likes of which I do not possess.  But I like to wrap things up neatly, so I gave it a try :)

January, roadtrip with my firstborn, so.fun. :

 

February, teaching my baby to ski:

 

March, selling.the.house.  Finally:

 

April, the ladies, wowing us with their ballet skills:

 

May, Kelly and I celebrating the half with our families:

 

June, at the ocean:

 

July, breaking ground!!!!:

 

 

August, family camping trip:

 

September, first backpacking trip:

 

October, racing cars at the Wallawas:

 

November, catching steelhead:

 

December, me and Joe, playing with our Christmas toys:

Wow!  What an amazing year!  So many blessings....here's to 2013!

The Anniversary.

It is days like today when I wish I'd carefully recorded our last 11 anniversary celebrations.  There are some that definitely stand out, like the first, mini-cruise to Mexico, plenty of adventure there to make that one memorable.  (Joe locked in an ATM in the ghetto of Ensanada, me alone at a Mexican bar with an unpaid bill and no means to pay for it, wondering if my husband had been kidnapped, and listening to the sound of the horn from the cruise ship announcing her imminent departure.  Yeah, that cannot be stricken from our memories.)  The second one, I know we spent at a bed and breakfast in CDA.  Memorable because it was the first time we'd left our two month old Kayte overnight.  We've escaped to somewhere every time, but they all tend to blend together into one big memory.

But this year, as anticipated, we were on lockdown at home.  Joe woke up Sunday morning, the only member of the family that still felt like death.  He tried to rally by the evening, but we decided to just keep it chill at home, and save our evening out for a time when his head was clear, and he didn't fall asleep into the soup course.

But I felt pretty great, and determined to celebrate! 

The breakfast sick-tray:

Our evening in :)

By the time we tucked the kids in bed, Joe was alive enough to mix me my favorite drink and prop himself up for a girly movie.  He thoughtfully took his water up so that it would seem more celebratory.  That's true love, my friends. :) 

And my cup overflows.

Counting my blessings.

So eventually, Kayte was back in bed.  More fever.  More coughing.  Lots of phlegm.  Sara kept sleeping.  The boys seemed to have escaped with just the cough and half the misery.  On Thursday, Joe woke up half-dead, and me with a sore throat.  Let's just say, the boys logged a lot of time on the Wii that day, and the rest of us, plenty of time on the pillow. 

I was pretty desperate.  The girls had been so sick since Christmas they had yet to play with their new toys, let alone find a place for them to live.  The house was totally blitzed.  I was alive enough to be aware of the problem, but too sick and fatigued to have the energy to do anything about it.  So we Netflixed us some Matilda, ate popcorn for dinner, and went to bed early.

On Friday, yes Friday, six days since Kayte's first little fever, I woke up to the same DL.  Except me.  I was ready to put a moratorium on sickness in this house if it meant propping people up in their chairs and force feeding them.   Seriously.  Kayte and Sara hadn't eaten in days, and bones were starting to protrude.  I was convinced it was the house that was making them ill over and over and over again...so I loaded up every down comforter in the house and dropped $20 at the laundromat to rid the beds of disease.  11 loads of laundry and 8 hours of detoxing the house later, I could breathe again.  I thought I could fight it with sheer will.  But my babies were still sick....

It's Saturday now.  Kayte spent today in bed.  Sara's looking better.  Joe looks like he might be getting a second round of it.  I went to Walmart and bought stock in Vick's VapoRub and anything else that said menthol on it.  I bought a gallon of Nyquil.  Sorry.  That's the only size I could find. Besides their horse pills.  Which even I can't swallow on my best day.  I think Kayte's given up.

I went out to my mom's tonight so she could make me and my three half-healthy kids dinner and give me a boost.  It was a life-saver.  What would we do without family?

Tomorrow, Joe and I celebrate twelve years.  Our plans are up in the air.  And they weren't big and fancy to begin with.  But honestly, we have a whole lot to be thankful for.  A week-long cold is really nothing in the whole scheme of twelve years.  And when I really sit down and think about it, if it comes down to me and Joe, surrounded by four sick kids with blankets watching movies all day, well, that actually sounds mighty fantastic. 

Happy Anniversary Joe, in sickness and health, I love you more than life.  I'm having the best time ever with you.  And I'm so super-happy that you gave me all these stupendous kids.  Runny noses and all.