Ultimate, gratutaive, thankful, contented, bliss

This day, Thankful came in the form of Cheeseburgers,

Eaten in a restaurant 1/4 of a mile into the Pacific Ocean.

The longest boardwalk I've ever seen.

A late (3 o' clock) lunch.
Overly tired from walking,

overly pained with hunger,
One beautiful afternoon.

It was actually a bit nerve racking being so deep out there.
NO life preservers.

I got this strange feverish feeling coming over me.

I am pretty sure that its what a pirate feels like when sentenced to

Walk the Plank

Except this was by choice.

Make any sense to you?

Then Grandma Renee says:

"I like this one Ruby's restaurant better,

Because the other one fell off the dock into the ocean."

Seriously?

If only she knew the drowning dreams I have in my sleep.

She may have thought twice about that statement.

Actually, I think she said it on purpose.

Bliss is watching my sweet pea basking in a suny window.

Me watching from a distance sipping on a Coke

I'd swore I'd never drink (again).

What we all would have given to be in that sunny window asleep,
Waking as the food arrives.

The ultimate toy (menu) for the starving, anxious boy belly. Love is being together, topping off a meal with a strawberry milkshake.
In a 50's restaurant,

Quite possibly with a Great White shark or some other deep water beast swimming below.

They weren't as cute as they look on camera.

There was a lot of head-pushing involved.

Thanks to my family's knowledge of So Cal,

We were able to live it up and have a ball.

Thanks in part to Grandma Renee, It was a little scary too.

Hunnington Beach

Were here after a one day race to So Cal.

We shaved 2 hours off of our usual time.

13 hours instead of 15.

The poor kids were crying because of 'bottom aches'

Our first full day was filled with beaches.

And Mexican food.

And visiting with Grandma Renee's old friend Terry.

They have been best friends since college,

Terry and I met shortly after Grandma Renee and I met.

She still endearingly calls me "Holly Bolly"

Like when I was little.

It made me feel comfortable after all these years of lost contact.

I never realized that there were actually some pretty beaches down here.

I thought we hogged them all in Oregon.

The Oil rigs.

The Peeps had never seen these.

I had forgotten all about them.

They are a really pretty sight to be seen on such a clear day.

I found my inner cheese ball and took a selfie

In the bathroom mirror at the beach

( I was waiting for Lauren....... TMI?).

My little, but extremely big brother Drew:


Claire has had plenty of time to warm up to Grandma,
And she still isn't warm.
She's kind of been in a funk since we got here and I don't know why.



Lauren's picnic in the making.
My little sweetness.

The first family photo since...

The last time we saw these guys for a visit.

A great day topped off with some fishing, Mexican food,

Traffic, Naps in car seats, and hot tub time after dinner.

Thankful sums that up nicely.

Will cut hair.

I am riding shotgun down the longest empty road I have ever seen,

The worst part about the drive to my parents house.

I5 south. The clouds are wonderful and the sky is bright.

That's about it.

The best advice I could ever would be to avoid this road at all costs.

The second best advice would be to bring your wireless Internet.

Third, would have to be Benadryl, lots and lots of Benadryl.

I am using this time for a post that I saved especially for this part of the road.

My sister in law Meseret "Messy"

just flew home yesterday after a wonderful tree week visit.

For three weeks straight, I had a running buddy, babysitter,

house chore helper, aspiring cook, and wonderfully giggly company.

Here's one of the things we did together:

I gave my first girl haircut.

I've botched my way through Daddy's hair many times,

But never got to try out a girl do.

The problem:

Messy wanted a change.

Her wonderfully curly hair had been over treated and fried to a crisp.

She left the relaxing chemicals in her hair, just a little too long.

I told her she should have left it curly.

She lamented over her hair for three weeks.

On and on about how broken it was, how treated it was, how she couldn't brush through it.

How she wanted to shave it.

On a whim (and half jokingly),

I offered to shave it for her.

Her eyes lit up like Christmas.

And thus began the bonding, cutting, playful experiment.

Silas made a good sport of the excess hair,

Measuring his worth in length.
Along the road to a short haired new Messy,
I thought I would try to accomplish a few hairstyles.

I thought about my mom with each new hairstyle.
Ma, you would have really loved this.
My mom cuts hair for real


This picture is especially endearing to me,
Because quite frankly, a was not really in to the mo-hawk.
I loved that she mistook the 'rock and roll' sign for the 'I love you' sign.

I never told her about the mistake,
Because it was just way too cute,
And fit her better.
I tried poofy.
She pulled it off well don't you think?

Her toes were next.

There's no way I was going to let the hair in her toes

Be longer than the hair on her head.

Ethiopian Santa Claus.

This one was fun.

She kept laughing and blowing all the hair right into her mouth.

SO glad I documented it.

The end product.

One beautiful girl

Inside and out.

Meseret, I am so glad we got these three weeks together!

You were such a big help and great company too!

Looking forward to our next visit!

Love you!
-Holly

Thankful 10.18 - popcorn celebration!

I was running some last minute,

skip out of town errands.

Things that need to be done when your gone for the week.

Gold fish sitter,
(just kidding, actually, we'll probably throw weeks worth of bread in there and let her buck)

return library book,

mail letters,

Bring Daddy lunch.

Came home to find a little brown package on the porch.

Oh how we all love packages!

I love receiving the unexpected treasures!

Why don't we send more packages?

I don't know a soul that doesn't welcome a little carton of sunshine on their doorstep.

I was told that if you freeze a fresh cookie, and mail it,

By the time it gets to its sender, it is ultra fresh and ready to eat.

My mom used to send us her friendship bread in the mail.

It came so fresh and dreamy, you would have thought it to be baked an hour before.

This package was....Brace myself!

My Camera!!!!!

Fixed and shined and ready to capture all our Thanksgiving.

We burst out in spontaneous popcorn throwing explosion.

Claire even ventures to taste it a few times.

I feel so fabulously content.

Even in my kitchen that was just spit shined,

And now trashed by little static filled popcorn.

I am usually a poor player when it comes to making a mess.

Not today!

I actually made it close to fifteen minutes before feeling claustrophobic

Because of pieces of garbage strewn about.

Clean up wasn't nearly as much fun,

This is why as a rule,

I don't allow much mess.

The best part about it?

It happened just a day ahead of our trip.

I was not expecting to have it for this time.

Ecstatic doesn't even touch that.

I'm back!

Thankful. 10-16

Tonight,

I am thankful that when 'official' school ends

(Actually, its pretty unofficial)

Life learning begins.

Exhibit A:

The mouse trap.

Pay no mind to the gargantuan mirror shard.

A necessary part of the trap.

This consumed the latter part of the afternoon.
The boy,
The chair,
The huge glass mirror,
Completely unsafe,
I was nearby, and gave him the 'play it cool' talk first.
Then prayed as I washed dishes and laundry nearby.

The Genius moment:

It works like this.
A cool sunny day on the mouse dock.
Mouse sees the cheese.
Mouse eats cheese.
And it is instant death by butter knife.

Because he's sure to bite hard enough to result
In his own hard, cold burial.

He blows me away.
He says to me
"Mom did you know that some Indians eat mice?"
Didn't know that either.


Did I mention we've been reading about pilgrims and Indians?
We've gotten a couple rented picture books from the library.
Nothing snazzy.

I love my job as Mom to Peeps.
Thats it.
I just do.

Simple, Abrupt, Sweet.

Thankful 10/14

I wanted to let 'yall know about my brother-in-law

Cody's new blog.

Its brand new, and I am so excited about it.

This is where I will be going with all of my cooking questions.

Its worth a look, and feel free to ask him questions.

Renee, I am currently in the process of squeezing out his

Navy Bean soup recipe.
Keep your eye out.

He is funny, creative, and the best cook I know.

My camera has taken a dive for the worst.

It just stopped taking pictures.

It's in the shop until quite possibly after Thanksgiving.

Poo.

Thank goodness for Daddy's smart intuition in getting the extended warranty.

Whew!

I am left to post random old pictures.

I so Super thankful for my Monkey,

Who fell on his head today,

Literally.

He was bouncing on my bed,
And managed to fall on his head.

It took a lot of rest to get over that one.

At one point, he beckoned me to come,

Because his cheek was cold and lonely and needed a kiss.

I loved that moment.

Tonight, I am thankful for free learning games (online).

They are so much more fun for the kids than a school book.

I am becoming more and more aware of some positive effects of computer/video games.

Silas is learning a lot and doesn't even know it.

It really is too bad that they have been given such a bad reputaion.

I wish that I had researched for myself rather than listen to all the nay- sayers

Tellling me that my kids would end up being

Chubby lumps of Jell-o

If I let them play a vidoe game.

Here are a few of the sites I use:

Starfall

My Mother In Law showed me this one.

Its great because it starts with letter identification,

And works all the way past reading to upper level games.

Spelling City

I love this one.

You can type in spelling words,

Then select

'Test me, Teach Me, or (my favorite) Play games'

The Play games button allows you to

Type in spelling words and it makes all kinds of word games.
My personal favorite is the word search feature.

Let Them Sing it For You.

This is just plain silly.

You type in a sentence or two....

Or a story for that matter,

And it makes a song out of the entire thing.

I have learned a lot over the last few weeks how much

someone really can learn from a game.

Especially a video/computer game.

There is so much more to learning than the books that we call "school".

Any other suggestions for the free game sites?

Thankful 10/10

Tonight I am thankful for dinner.

Chicken Florentine.

My dinner of choice.

The dinner that I make for Daddy's birthdays,

I have made it for absolutely every family member or friend that has ever greeted my dinner table.

My first culinary masterpiece.

Something I am sure my daughters will come to know.

The only thing that makes it better tonight,

Is Jake's sister here to clean up after the mess.

For that, I thank her from the bottom of my heart.

I am also thankful to be typing one handed tonight.

My other hand around a busy minded little lady,

Watching toy story 3.

"Whats going to happen?"

"Is he a bad guy"

"That looks like fun!"

"That's so sad."

"Mommy I love you SO much in my life!"

"Whats happening?"

"Is that a bad guy?"

"I'm hot because of you."

That's a new one.

She is quite toasty.

Its a good thing I'm not trying to actually watch the movie.

We had sun today,

That was a real treat.

We even got a chance to air out our moldy, soggy feet.

"Mommy, Does God pour the rain?"

-Lauren

I have some terribly sad, horrible, no good day, awful, tearful news.

My Alicia moved away.

This was the lady who probably managed to appear on my blog more than I have thus far.

She escorted me to every doctors appt. While pregnant with Claire.

She was there for every ultrasound,

And gave Jake the phone call telling him

"It's a girl!"

So The doc could actually do the

'important parts' of the ultrasound.

Every appt. was a 2 hour drive.

She even came when I made the gruelling drive once a week.
She was my only visitor at the hospital after Claire was born.

(because it's a two hour drive)

And was kind enough to bring the two older Peeps

So they could meet their new sister.

Alicia and Lauren.

Every time she came over, She would tidy after the Peeps,

just like I do.

She has kissed their boo boo's

Wiped their noses,
Cleaned my house on numerous occasions.

She once removed my stitches for me.

She was my wing man.
Our camping buddies.

I searched high and low for the picture of her and Silas
after the longest 28 hours of my life (the hospital pic).
Wish I could share it.
Its priceless.

Now she is off and gone,

And I am a little lost.

I am thankful for time,

That will Show me how to adapt to life

Without the every day dose of Alicia.

I am not one who enjoys change.

I don't want to ever move from this cardboard house,

Simply on principle.

My kids have always lived here.

I hand painted nearly every nook and cranny.

Do you know how much works that is?

I have organized and re-organized a million times.

It's mine!

The night before Sterling and Alicia moved away,

Lauren came out of her room with her Hello Kitty bag all packed up.

(cookie jar, baby clothes, jump rope etc.)

She says she's moving to "Idako"

Alicia is moving to Idaho, did I mention?

I think I am most thankful for the relationship Alicia had with Claire.

They were buddies for sure.

I just wish Claire could know what they had

When she's grown.

I wish that for all my kids.

I'll just have to tell them over and over I suppose.

About my best friend- who now live in Idako,

Who used to live here,

And became like family.

I guess Idako would be a nice place to visit someday soon.

Thankful

I am among the many homeschoolers,

Bloggers, and happy housewives,

Who are using the Month of November to

Count all the things they are thankful for.

In our discussions today about Thanksgiving

And my curiosity about what 'thankful' means to the Peeps,

My boy genius said:

"to say thank you"

Correctomundo.

I love this.

It gets better.

We had an impromptu story time breakfast.

I had a book from the library that we hadn't read yet:

Its about a boy named Thomas.

The book never says in print,

But Thomas is blind.

The entire book is black.

The pictures are hard see,

But they are raised.

You can feel them better than view them.

"Thomas says that yellow tastes like mustard, but is as soft as a baby chick's feathers"

I decided to discuss the fact that some people are unable to see.

The Northern lights,

My newborn Baby,

the color of my girls eyes,

The sight of my strapping groom,

Have you ever seen a really blue sky and had

Your breath taken right out of you?

I thought it was brilliance

When I made Rico close his eyes and try to navigate around the room.

The point was to see how hard it would be to not loose his sight.

It was a huge hit.

It was more fun than it was insightful to him.

P.S. I gave him a really big stick as a walking cane.

I was not anticipating the spasmodic jump-n-spin,
And Claire be given the blow to the head.

Outside next time maybe.

Anyway...

This was my favorite 'feel-istration'

Clever right?

The picture makes it seem more pronounced than it really is..

"Black is the king of all colors. It is soft as silk when his mother hugs him and her hair falls in his face."

Okay, I love my short hair. I love everything about it.

Its cute, functional and incredibly easy to maintain.

It practically maintains itself.

This page made me ache for my long hair again.

I miss tickling my kids with it.

Claire used to bury and twirl

her little plump fingers in it.

She was comforted by it.

*sigh*

I woke up about 2 this Morn.

Not feeling too well.

Unwell enough to steal a precious hour of sleep.

I got to thinking about the here and now,

And how nothing is in the guarantee

as far as life and death and uncertainties of tomorrows to come.
I admit, I shed a tear or two.

I know I am not the only one to ever picture my children's lives without me in it.

Most of us are too uncomfortable to discuss the undesirable possibility.

I think we are hard wired to think ourselves to be immortal,

To not ponder the possibility of death as we go about our every day.

It would drain the spirit and zest out of life

To think of these things day in and out.

I'm just saying,

A sleepless 2 am is some serious pondering time.

And I was thankful to be alive right then.

Don't get me wrong.

I know my fate.

As far as eternity goes,

I am signed, and sealed,

just not yet delivered.

I have four dynamite reasons to enjoy every instant.

Daddy and the Peeps.

Then, I was thankful to hear My toddler-babe cry.

I could have used that cuddle.

By the time I got to her,

She was asleep.

I just stared for a while,

Then all at once,

I was ready for bed.

Another thing I am thankful for.

The few that read and encourage,

helping me want to do what I do

even better.

Walla Walla time.

I had forgotten about all of the open ranges and flat lands that make the drive from Jake's Mom's house to my Mom's house so beautiful.

Again, Fall makes it even more captivating.

The air was so clear and crisp yesterday morning for the drive,

Just looking at it was refreshing.

The old farm houses are dreamy.
We took a detour down memory lane,
This is the building that housed all my 4H meetings as a girl.
We were Valley Chapel Boots and Jeans.
The building is at least hundred years old,
But I would guess a couple hundred sounds about right,
It smelled of old wood and creaked like a grandma's rocking chair.
I have vivid memories of chili feeds here.
It smelled of old wood and chili
I can still smell it.

We also made a detour to Jake's old family homestead,
But that deserves it's own post.

Uncle Nick giving Silo a spin on his long board.

Claire's Great Grandpa thought she was the bee's knee's.

Because she is!

She loves keeping her options open,

Getting passed around is the name of her game.

Pioneer Park.

Stunning on its own,

spectacular when fall arrives.

The old cannon read:
"The gratitude of one's country,

Is the greatest reward
It's defender can receive."

The park has a wonderful bird aviary

With exotic ducks, peacocks,

and other birds that were very intriguing to the Peeps.

Still not as much fun as the playground though.

Lastly and the best part,

They had their first encounter with an

Ice Cream Truck!!!!

Everything we ordered was out of stock,

But we managed to find something to suit the taste buds.

And plopped down for some curb time.

Normally We don't do ice cream before dinner,

But Pizza is not much better for a person than ice cream right????