Life as I know it.

My Favorite Picture from Christmas Morning, this was before presents and after brunch. I can't believe it's all over, it's always so hard after Christmas, the fun is over and all that's left is the cleaning and putting everything away. Christmas Eve day was very productive around here, I should have taken before and after pictures of Bug's room. His room has been a disaster for quite awhile now. Every time we get it picked up it's destroyed again within a day or so. So I told him 3 days before Christmas that his room had to be clean if he wanted to be able to bring his gifts into his room. Of course being our son he procrastinated till the last day, so I decided to go in and help him. We made a big pile of everything in his room and then he decided (from his lessons from FLYlady) to divide stuff into 3 piles: keep, donate and toss. We went through everything in his room and I have to say I am extremely proud of my boy. He tossed out a kitchen sized bag one of t

I love Christmas I even love all the hustle and bustle that comes before it. I think I am finally ready for Christmas. But as I type this I remember I still need to do the grocery shopping, so I guess I am almost ready.The house has been a huge mess, but between my cleaning lady and myself it is all pretty much back in order, (except Bug's room which is still a huge mess). I got some organizing done in Ashley's room, her room is fairly small and we just don't have all the room that I would like for her toys. In Mar I will take a trip to IKEA and get some organizing stuff, but in the meantime I am finding bins and drawers from around the house to put things in. Now that I have got everything from her birthday put away, she is starting to get her Xmas things. She got some art things a backpack and some new Jammies today on her visit and if her birthday was any indication, there will be more things from her family coming throughout the week. It is nice for her that they all

Saturday was so much fun. We overslept a bit but still managed to get out of the house on time (actually 3 minutes late according to Don). We got up to the Santa breakfast and found my friend Meegan and her family and joined them in line. After a bit another friend Kim was able to find us and we decided to save two tables so we could all sit by each other. The party was incredible, it certainly lived up to all the hype my friends had given it and other than the fact that we waited along time for breakfast Ashley loved it. To be fair, they did the activities in shifts and it just so happened that we sat at a table that was in the 3rd round for breakfast. Oh well we'll know better next year and feed the kids at least a light breakfast before we go. The trees were fabulous, each kid gets 2 tickets to put into the boxes at the trees to try to win them. Bug chose a tree with a DSi and a bunch of Mario ornaments and stuff, and Ashley chose a tree with a mini kitchen set and table and cha

This has been a really nice week. Full of mostly fun things. On Tue Bug had the stomach flu (not a fun thing), but was only sick a few times in the night and then was fine after that. So he laid around and listened to the 3rd harry potter book on cd and I got the tree up and finished the Christmas decorating. In the evening I went out with some of my MOMS club friends to the Melting Pot for cheese, chocolate and a drink, all of which were very nummy and the conversation wasn't bad either. It's so nice to just sit and chat with the girls. On Wed night my dear hubby and I went out for a nice date. We weren't up for a movie (our usual date night). So I suggested we go to Twigs and have a drink and visit. Apparently Don has never been to Twigs, unbelievable after living in this town so long. We had a fabulous time, just us, a couple drinks, a nice appetizer and then desert to share and a lot of uninterrupted conversation. We sat and visited for almost 2 hours, and we even manag

Today is Ashley's 3rd Birthday. We all had a nice day together. We started today with our Family tradition of Birthday pancakes. A bear shaped pancake with Happy Birthday written out. Which Ashley thoroughly enjoyed. Bug was the one that reminded me last night that we had to have pancakes in the morning. It's so nice when family traditions take root in our children's hearts. After that Ashley opened a couple of her presents from us. She was very cute, anytime she left her presents she would make sure to tell whoever was around not to touch it, that they were her presents. I'm going to take that as confirmation that she liked the presents. We then had an early lunch and put her down for her nap. Unfortunately Bug woke her up after only 35 minutes or so. So we hung out for a bit and then headed out to pick up her cake from Costco and head to the Y for her Party. The party went well, I forgot to bring candles, so we just sang happy birthday and then cut the cake. After

Here are some of the pictures from our recent trip to Seattle, the quality isn't very good, since they were taken with one of those disposable cameras. Ashley just off the monorail, doesn't she look thrilled. It was a long walk to get to the Seattle Center and she hadn't yet seen the toys. Ashley playing on the obstacle course at the Seattle Children's Museum. This is the kids working on a Paper Mache pumpkin, doesn't Bug looked thrilled? He kept wanting to go wash his hands, he did not like the way the paste felt on his hands. The kids working on their desk in the building area of the Seattle Children's Museum. All of us together with the finished desk. Ashley with her buddy Ernie at the Seattle children's Museum. Bug performing in the play he made up with some of the other kids and then dragged all of the adults that he could to watch him. The other kids ran the lights and the sound effects. Seattle Children's Museum. Bug and Ashley with Big Bi

I spent today cleaning out a cupboard in our living room and came across Bug's old Comp. card from when he was a baby. Even back then he was a little ham. These were taken when he was 7 months.

It always amazes me how quickly time flies. I get on here in what seems like a couple of days and it turns out to have been a couple of weeks. We had a great trip to Seattle for Halloween. We got in late on Fri, the 30th and stayed with my sister. After a leisurely morning, we headed to the Tacoma zoo, with my sister and her 2 God children (my niece and nephew's, brother and sister who's mom died last spring). Ashley loved the animals and Bug loved running around and playing with DJ and Aji. We hung out there until around 4 then headed home for a quick dinner and to get everybody ready for trick or treating. We ended up getting up to the neighborhood after 6:30 (we have gone to the same neighborhood, every year for about 8 years). We met up with my friend Tonia and her girls and slowly made our way around the neighborhood. I had Ashley in a stroller so she could keep up with all the big kids. We ended up with 10 kids in all between the ages of 14 down to Ashley at 2. They all e

Yay, it has now been just over a month since we got Ashley. She is adjusting fairly well, though of course still has moments of sadness, or asking about her daddy. We have been very busy though, so it generally passes very quickly. Last Sunday after church we went out to our friends Mike and Cheryl. Ashley was in hog heaven, she loves animals and kept calling their place a farm. She got to see the horses and pet the dogs, she just loved following those dogs around, throwing the ball for them and petting and hugging them when she could. It was nice for Bug to get to spend a day playing with his buddy E, we have all been so busy that they haven't seen each other since Bug's bday party. We headed home at around 7 and I figured out about half way home that I had forgot my cell phone. So when I got home, I called Mike to have him look around for it, unfortunately, I must have lost it when I was out riding the dirt bike, so I had to call the insurance company and have them send me a

Ashley seems to be adjusting well to living here. She had a sad day this morning missing her mom and dad, but we cuddled and talked about it and she seemed to feel a little better. I met with her new social worker today to see what the plans were for her. Right now they are going to start services for her dad to help him develop the skills to take care of her independently. I guess they also have 2 family members that they are still looking at as possibilities. One lives out of state and one isn't returning calls, so I guess we will see what happens. But for now we are perfectly happy to have her living with us. She is starting to say please independently, but still doesn't say any hellos, goodbyes or thank yous but we are working on it. She is getting used to the routine around here, although she still hates baths and generally cries at some point during them. She has stated playing little jokes though, giving us a little push or dropping something and then looking at us like

Here are some pictures of the kids from our trip to the pumpkin patch last Friday. There was no school that day due to teacher in service so Bug got to have one of the older school kids from MOMS club to hang out with for part of it. We went to a local farm that has a huge corn maze with a castle in the middle. We actually made it to the middle without cheating for the 1st time. The kids had a good time on their quest. After the maze we went and rode on these big pedal cars, they look like go carts only you pedal them. Then the kids went on the little train ride and then we went on the big rain ride all together. And finished the day off by finding some nice little pumpkins for all of us.

Ashley on her 1st morning here, no smiles for the camera . Today is the mark for our 1st full week with Ashley, it has been a good week. She is slowly coming out of her shell and showing us more of her personality. I had to work at the JBF sale, on Thur - Sun, so she got to spend a lot of time with other people, but has still adjusted fairly well. Ashley "helping" Bug with his piano lessons on her 3rd day here. On Thursday she was watched by my mom, she calls her grandma and already is very attached to her. We figured this out on Wed, the 1st 2 times she met her, she didn't really say much. Then on Wed morning when she came upstairs to leave for work, Ashley went running for her saying "gwama". She has adored her every since and she and grandma and Bug had a great time together on Thur. Ashley taking a nap on her 4th day here, she apparently read herself to sleep . She went and stayed with my friend Meegan and her 3 little ones on Friday, she seemed to do w

As you can see from our other posts it has been a big week for the family. But I thought I should catch up with what is going on in Bug's life. He is in 2nd grade this year, still being schooled at home, but now goes to school 1 1/2 days a week, a regular day on Wed and and an enrichment day on Fridays. He is really enjoying his away school this year and came home from his 1st day saying I love school (but finished that by saying he wouldn't want to go every day.) Homeschooling seems to be going better this year, whether that is because he is getting older or because I am attempting to be more organized this year I am not sure. We also changed our curriculum this year and we both seem to really enjoy this new one. I have also started putting all of his work for the day in folders labeled Sun-Sat. Then at school time he goes down and finds that day's folder and starts to work, then when the folder is empty he is done with school for the day. Also we added school to his chore

This morning Ashley had her OT assessment, which she passed with no problems, she scored a 38% which is a smidge low, but well withing normal limits. I wasn't too concerned about her after just observing her the last couple days, she colors well and can put the top clip on her car seat together and a couple other things that seemed right on task. After that we went to my friend Brenda's house to do her and her husbands massages. She was very quiet and well behaved while we were there, she loves to pet Brenda's cat and see her fish. After that we grabbed a bite to eat and took it home for lunch, then I laid her down for a nap, the next door neighbor kept an eye on her while I ran to work to do a massage. When i got back she woke up and we went up to Bug's school to pick him up. It was fun at school taking her around and introducing her to everybody. Of course everybody thinks she's adorable, she just kept looking at everybody like "who are these people and why d

Today was a pretty mellow day around here. Ashley slept through the night, although she must have woken up at some point because we closed her door completely after she fell asleep and when I got up at 6:30 it was open but she was still in bed sleeping. She is an early riser and gets up around 7 and comes out to hang out with me. We gave her a bath for the 1st time which I had been warned was something she did not like. It went much better than I thought it would. No high pitched screaming or kicking or anything, she didn't want to sit down in the bathtub and would whine when I poured the water on her. But overall she did really well. When I got her out of the bath and dried her off I slathered her up with lotion since she seems to have a touch of eczema. Then we got on her diaper, (she is not potty trained yet) and got dressed. She even let me put her hair in 2 little piggie tails, very cute. We had a bit of confusion with getting dressed, since she wanted to pick something out of

We went and picked up our new foster girl Ashley this morning around 9:30. It has been a good day, we started out by taking her shoe shopping. She came with quite a few bags of stuff but only one pair of sandals. I have been wanting to try out a shoe store downtown that specializes in fitting children's shoes. I always worry about having good shoes for Bug since I have always had foot problems. Anyways we ended up buying 2 new pairs of shoes for each of them, and then headed over to where Don is working answering phones while he is out with an injured foot and had some lunch with him. Then we brought her home and showed her, her new room and her new stuff. She is very cute, with dark blond hair and gorgeous blue eyes. She seems well taken care of, she is quiet and tends to repeat what you say to her, she also likes to color and will color on any paper if handed some sort of writing utensil. She really likes animals and was very excited when we stopped over at my friend Brenda's

Bug had his 2nd football game of the season today. He is playing upwards flag football, he enjoys it but as with most sports he drives his dad and I nuts. He gets out there and dances and plays around while the game is going on. The boy with the ball could run right by him and he would never even notice. But I guess we should be thankful he is a good sport and always cheers on his team and is having fun. He has 2 boys on his team that do especially well, one is the shortest boy on the team, but he runs like the wind and the other one must be close in age to Bug and really does a good job of keeping his head in the game. I ended up going to talk to one of the league officials today, Upwards has a lot of very specific rules especially about rotation of players and making sure all the kids have equal playing time. Well at the last game Bug was supposed to be a starter and the 1st thing the coach does is sit him out, so I thought well that is strange but just let it go, then I figured out

As most of you know, we went through all the hoops to get our foster care license this summer so that we could bring a daughter into our home. We are planning to do foster care and eventually to adopt a little girl. We are looking for a girl aged 2-4 years old, somebody past the baby stage, but still young. Well we finally got a call yesterday, on Monday we will go pick up our new foster girl Ashley. She is 2 years old and will be 3 in Nov. Sadly her mother is deceased and her father is unable to take care of her. Right now she is in voluntary placement while her father tries to get things together or they try to find a family member that can take her more permanently. If neither of those things work out she may stay more permanently. Bug is beyond excited to bring her home, when we went to meet her last night and I told him it was time to go, he thought we were taking her home with us right then and there. He was disappointed to find out that she had to stay where she was for awhile l

This has been Bug's 1st week of school. We are doing things differently this year and so far so good. We are using a whole new curriculum. We have been using K12's curriculum the last 2 years, but have moved on to a more eclectic, mix and match for this year. So far I like the looks of it and the math seems like it will be good for Bug. We are using horizons math and the pages are brightly colored and easy to follow. Another change we have made is I am trying to be more organized and I am putting his work into folders each day. He has 7 folders that way he can go down each day see what is in his folder and know up front how much work he needs to get done. then he can go through and pick out what he wants to do 1st. That way when his folder is empty he knows that he is done for the day. We school 7 days a week, but we usually do the more entertaining things on the weekends, like create a book or do his book reports, plus history which is his favorite subject. It will be interest

This afternoon we all headed down as a family to Pig Out in a the Park downtown. Lots of good food hard to make a choice. We started out with some corn on the cob, and pink lemonade, then I had fish tacos, and Bug had a cheese quesadilla and Don had a really good Philly cheese steak sandwich. Then I had a frozen turtle dipped cheesecake and Don had a chocolate dipped banana and Bug had a chocolate dipped strawberry. I guess we are all related after all, chocolate must run in the genes. Afterwards we walked around for a bit and Bug rode the carousel a couple times , then we hopped on the bus and headed back home. It was nice to get out and spend time as a family.

I had my 1st time at my new location for work today. Don was home this morning so I spent time setting everything up this morning, then came back and had my 1st client this evening. The people seem really nice and I love being so close to home. The new room is nice it is painted a pretty color, the floor is a nice color and it has a little alcove at one end with a cabinet and a counter top with lots of space underneath. I'm hoping to put some sort of covering over the windows to make them more opaque and need to organise underneath the counter top. I still need to get some sort of rug for the floor and something to block noise from under the door. But the decor is up and the table is ready and the clients are on the books.

Today we had a fun end of the summer BBQ at our house for our MOMS club playgroup. I had bought "How to Host a kids Party" Safari addition, last fall for Bug's birthday this year and then he decided not to use it. So we used it for our end of the summer party, it was fun. It comes with a tape that tells a story about an animal preserve and a missing lion cub, then it gives you a place to go look for a clue and a skill to practice (game). When the kids run off to the suggested place they found a paw print then came back to listen to the next part of the tape after leading a merry chase around the house they found the missing cub in the bathtub. Then the kids went out to play and I started up the grill and cooked up burgers for everybody and we had a nice BBQ. After everybody headed out we headed to my old work and picked up all of my stuff and dropped it off at my new location. I am definitely not going to miss commuting out to the valley. My new location is 3-4 minutes fr

Bug and his fellow pirates "Arrggg Matey" We have been celebrating Bug's birthday week, since Mon. I love birthdays and never feel like a single day is enough so we draw the festivities out for a week, with little things. So on Mon Bug and I went out and lunch at Red Robin and got his free kids meal and they sang him happy birthday, then Tue we met Don at the Spaghetti factory for dinner and Bug's free birthday meal and they sang him happy birthday, on Wed I had to work so Bug hung out with daddy all day. Then on Thur I took the day off and we went to Silverwood Theme park for the day. Also Bug got his big birthday gift that day, a new Netbook. He has been using Don's old laptop for the last year and has been asking for something newer, that worked a little quicker. On Friday, his actual birthday I had to work again, so he went and spent the day running around with Uncle Martin and then had his 1st football practice in the evening. It was so cute to see him runni

My friend Brenda's little girl celebrated her 1st birthday today. We ended up running a little late, because we had to run and pick up my car from the shop today (it is finally fixed from my little accident last month, when Don was out of town.) They had it at a local park between her house and mine. It was a nice party, Brenda had one of her church friends and her 3 girls and her mother and sister came up from California for the weekend and then Bug and I. The kids just ran around the playground and Lady bug showed what a monkey she is trying to climb up all the slides. Then they brought out the cake ( a lady bug shaped one for her) and she did a pretty good job of tearing into it. She was a little hesitant at 1st but she did good once she started going.

I know it is almost time for school now that we had our "getting ready for school" homeschool get together. My church has quite a few homeschoolers, so last year we started getting together as a group once a month. It's a nice opportunity to talk things over, get encouragement and discuss different topics. We have had topics about different types of curriculum, local field trips, how people schedule their days and various other things last year. Today was an especially large group and we had a local gal that sells various homeschool curriculum and games come out and show us some different options. Also it was a chance to see how many of us there are and get to know each other a little better. Also to give those who are thinking about homeschooling in the future a chance to see what it's all about. There were some very interesting games there, but I am trying to not but anything else until we have gotten started with our year and tried out the new curriculum that I bou

This morning we went and picked up one of Bugs friends Ev and went to the last summer of the movie program and saw Imagine That. Bug and I had already seen it at the drive-in back in June, but it was cute enough we decided to go see it again. After the movie we went to drop Ev off and ended up staying there and playing for an hour or so. It was nice to have a chance to visit with Kelli (Ev's mom) since I hadn't seen her much this summer, since she was at our house for 4th of July. The kids had fun playing whatever downstairs while we visited. Then I had to take Bug over to his friends L & L's house to play, so that I could go to my dentist appt and get my teeth cleaned. They used some ultrasonic cleaner, which did a good job, but made a horrible sound. I plugged my ears the whole time, but that only works so well , when the sound is coming from inside your head.

Today we had a fun playdate for Adventure Kids, our school age playgroup for my MOMS club. We got together at our friend Angie's house and she taught the kids to make Pizza Pinwheels and fluffy peanut butter dip. The pin wheels must have been good, the kids gobbled them up quickly and the peanut butter dip was fabulous. Bug really enjoyed making it and we had all sorts of things to dip in it. Bug liked the strawberries best and I liked the apples, but there was also oreos, graham crackers and a couple other things. Afterwards the kids all ran around Angie's big back yard and played some sort of boy/fighting game, while the moms got to chat. Afterward Bug and I headed to a dentist appt for me at a new dentist. My friend Brenda told me about this dentist awhile ago and I am just finally getting around to getting in. The whole office is very nice. Everybody had to stop in and way Hi or introduce themselves, the dentist sat and talked to me for quite awhile about how my teeth are a

We had our girls weekend away, for my work this weekend. One of the gals from my work has a lake place over in Idaho and plans a weekend away for everybody from the salon. Of course not everybody goes (there are about 20 of us at the salon) but i think we ended up with 11 of us total. I slowly worked my way that direction on Friday and ended up getting there around 5 or so. It was a rainy evening so half the gals were inside and the other half were huddled on the covered porch. Everybody was drinking and talking and having a good time. It cleared up some in the evening and so we even had a fire and took a moonlight dip. On Sat, Stephanie wanted to go for a run, so Kathy and I decided that we would walk, we ended up walking 6 miles and Steph went 7. She caught back up to us around 1 1/2 miles from the trailer and walked the rest of the way with us. It was a beautiful walk, nice woods on either side, although there are some pretty trashy houses around there, but what else would you expec

Yesterday we went on a really fun outing with our MOMS club to take a tour of Cold Stone Creamery. We got there a little late, because we stopped in at a K12 get together and had a drink (it was at a coffee house). I got a chance to ask if they were changing over to the new math this year. Which they aren't so that made me feel better about my decision to drop K12 this year and go a different direction with our homeschooling. Anyways at Cold Stone, they broke the group up in to 2 tours and they then took them through the back and showed them how to make the ice cream, then showed the their super sized fridges and freezers and how to make waffle cones and cups , then let them have taste of the ice cream they saw being made (see pic.) After the tour was over the kids got to order their own scoop, with whatever they wanted. There servings are always so huge, even though Bug got the smallest size he still tossed half of it away. But it was delicious while he ate it. Later in the aft