oh burdy... ...

I love seeing my stuff featured...

check out presents of minds gift guide... what a cute little robot.. ..

moving out, and moving on... ..

Hey remember this post... and this post...

Well, the a** that left last year at this time, is coming back. And guess what since we didn't want to buy him out, or sign another year lease, (we were planning on moving in June/July) He wants us out. Are you kidding me! He wants us to move out by December 31st. He e-mailed this to us on Thanksgiving. I guess he felt since he made the holiday season so sucky last year, he was going to try and out due himself, and boy has he! What a mess I got my whole little family stuck in!

The sad thing is he is being an ass. The saddest thing for us, is we aren't surprised... Looking back now I wish I would have been more convincing on getting my mom to move out of this house in the first place. But I wasn't convincing enough.

My little Milwaukie house is now the home to a cute little old lady. I asked my old landlord if he could just kick her out, obviously he couldn't... haa haaa

So we started the scramble to find a house! The good thing is we are working with a mortgage lender to start getting our credit in order to buy next year... but in the meantime it is still renting for us!

I found a couple houses... one was way out in SE in Suburbia... convenient for commuting, very safe for walking to the park... but waaaaayyy out and super suburban and lacking allot of character... I am not a huge fan of suburbia.

The Second, was a really nice house in the Kenton neighborhood, It was the cheapest of the three. Super cute outside house built in like 1912... but inside, the owner had gutted it and made it all super modern... like glass and chrome coffee table modern, I felt like he kind of ruined the house.

The Third and Winner of the Raetz house lottery, was the cute little 1950's house pictured above. It is only 800 sq ft, so little may be an understatement, but every square inch of that house is usable and open... I think we are really going to love it. The huge draw of this house is it is in the St. John Neighborhood, right down the street from the St. John Community center. Great Park, Great classes, and a great Pre-school. Also we have restaurants, coffee shops, a theatre pub and tons of fun little places right down the street from us. I will barely have to use my car... and I am sooooo stoked on that, after being stuck in the Couv where you have to drive EVERYWHERE it will be nice to be able to just walk to where ever we need to go.

The Bonus, a huge, clean partly finished detached Garage, that is going to be an awesome work space for BurdyFlyAway.... I just have to do some insulating, otherwise I may freeze out there.

my personal sweat shop....

We are busy over here... getting christmas shop orders out, and working on crafty wonderland stock... yay.... glad I can con my mom and sister into being my little sweatshop workers...

mmm breakfast. .. egg bacon muffin thingys..

The other morning me and the boys were trying to think of something different to make for breakfast. Usually we are pretty laid back over the first meal of the day... oatmeal or cold cereal seems to be the extent of my morning cooking.

I had bacon left over from Potatoe Soup the night before and decided to get fancy.

I remember my mom making something like these when we were kids... I believe she called it sizzlean surprise or something like that, using sizzlean, which I think was like turkey bacon, maybe?

It was super fun to make, the kids like anything they get to help with. I think we are going to make them christmas morning for breakfast... they are super yummy.

Here is how we made them.

What you need:

Bacon (you could use turkey bacon, or veggie bacon)

Eggs

whole wheat bread for toast

spinach

Par-cook the bacon and set aside on paper towels to get the excess fat off. Toast bread and let the kids cut out circles to fit in muffin tins with a cup or cookie cutter. line the muffin tins with bacon and push the toast circles into the bottom. have the kids put a couple of pieces of spinach in each muffin on top of the toast. Have the kids help crack the eggs into each muffin tin on top of the spinach. I have the boys crack the egg into a bowl one egg at a time, that way they can still help and you can keep your egg muffin bacon things shell-less. sprinkle each egg with a little bit of salt and some pepper. Cook in the oven at 325 till the eggs are cooked to your liking. I hate runny yokes so mine get pretty cooked. You can also scramble the egg and than pour it on the toast too, if you don't like the yolk looking at you.

They are so good, and really cute too!

little boys + guns = one confused mama

I have little boys... I was raised in a family of mostly girls, and really don't have that much experience with boys.

I get insecure on some issues of raising good little men. They are super active, kind of aggressive, and interested in a whole realm of things I know nothing about.

Max likes guns, and super hero's, and good guy/bad guy play I don't really understand.....

Ollie has never really been interested in any of these things, it is weird to see the two personalities and interests of the boys develop.

I know B and I aren't the best at keeping the boys sheltered from watching movies and shows that may be to violent for their age. Brian and I discuss this often, b shares allot of his childhood movies with the boys, star wars, transformers, indiana jones.... the stuff he loved as a kid. The problem is he forgets that he may have loved this stuff when he was older, not at 3 or 4, the young ages he is starting them out at.

Max has always turned anything into a "shooter" sticks, lego's, hairbrushes.... anything and everything..... We decided (kind of on a whim) to get him a toy gun for his birthday. I wish I would have thought about it more. I don't think I am cool with my decision anymore. Max has not put the "shooter" down since he opened it.

So now what do I do?

It has brought up way more conversations and questions than I would like to have rolling in my head. At first I thought very non-chalantly about the gun thing, what's the big deal it is just a toy, but really do I want him playing with something that is designed to kill, even if it is a toy? I don't think so!

I am planning that the toy will get "lost"........

I read up on some different websites and here is a comment posted... I thought it was a great response to the "gun decision".....

I, too, have agonized over the "gun decision." At first, I swore my son would never have a gun. Then, when he confiscated all the toilet paper spindles for guns, I gave up and bought him a water pistol. My husband owns both a gun and a rifle (which I made him put away and render inoperable), and he and my son often play toy guns together and have the greatest time. (Oh, how I wish it were basketball or baseball!)

I decided I needed to either change my attitude or go bonkers. I thought about the role weapons play in our society and others. In Japan (a much less violent society than ours) a warrior earns respect and honor. Native Americans trained young boys to become braves and thus reach a higher position in their society. I thought about the kinds of play my son did with his gun and other weapons; it was good guy against the bad guys. We rely on our police officers and our military to protect us from the "bad guys" and threats against our country. After observing my son and his friends, I have come to believe that this protective and fighting instinct is as natural as the nurturing and mothering instinct, stronger in some than in others.
I explained to my son that the desire to protect others is a wonderful thing. Our society needs police and the military, and the person who risks his personal safety to help others is a hero indeed. It is okay for a little boy to play at these roles, but he needs to understand that fighting with others is not okay.
In the meantime, I do not allow my son to watch violent programs on television, or movies containing violence.
While I encourage him to play in other ways, I've accepted that he (and his dad) will continue to play guns and fighting games.
--Linda G., Vienna, Virginia

Maybe it would be different if Brian hunted, or if we owned guns. Maybe I would have a different view of guns. But I think this house may do away with toy guns, like the cool cap gun rifle thing we ended up handing over to our three year old.

Man, Parenting is hard. .. ..

i want this. ..

Pattern Making.... oh the possibilities

Birthday....

at the beach.... I turned 32... I was cranky... but in the end it was fun.. . hello old!

happy pumpkin hunting...

Yay, the week of the pumpkin... me and the boys are doing, and planning, lots of pumpkin-y things for the week... carving, baking, and eating.... and guess who turns 32 this week.... yep ME.

just slightly obsessive.. .

I have a small touch of OCD. Things like I have to check my e-mail multiple times a day. When parallel parking I have to finish by driving forward, even if I am totally positioned fine. I have to start cooking in a clean kitchen or I get frazzled and cranky... you know just weird little things, that sometimes I just can't explain.....

You may have noticed I love black and white photo's with the color accent. I get a little crazy with it and have to make myself take normal color photo's. Well my new obsession is Polaroid... well Poladriod.net. I love it...

I will try and spare you from a whole set of pumpkin patch polaroid photo's.

Okay so maybe I could'nt resist just showing one photo.....

Enjoy my latest obsession and hopefully it won't turn all my photo's into Polaroids,

but you have to admit, it is pretty freakin cool.

the last harvest...

The other morning the boys were getting pretty restless. Our weather has turned fall like, cold, and dribbly, which has meant I have lost complete interest in my garden... it had become the land of lonely veggies.

I was trying to get work stuff done, so in their jammies I bundled the boys up and sent them into the garden on a mission to collect all the sad looking green tomatoes. What started as a tomato hunt ended up being a last of the veggies hunt.

They actually made quite a hall.

So we took all those yummy end of the harvest veggies and made lunch.

The boys were super impressed with these teeny tiny green peppers, they actually were really good. Next year I might plant more pepper plants and harvest them young.

The boys helped cut the swiss chard with their school scissors.

and with all those teeny tiny veggies, we made end of the harvest yellow curry rice noodles. So yummy!

Halloween around the corner...

making an appearance for the third year running... the monkey and the chicken... time to get some new costumes. At least add to the mix...

my heart full of laughter....

3 boys under the age of 4, so much fun! Patiently waiting for yummy terriyaki.

wow, october already...

where has the month gone?

All the sudden I am diggin out sweatshirts, long pants, and rain boots. Nothing fits Max. Was'nt it just last week we were still having warm weather..... running around in flip flops and shorts.

I thought I was excited for fall...

But maybe not so much anymore.

I still miss our old house terribly, this house and neighborhood does not feel like home.

Our old house had a ton of trees.... old trees... great big 100 year old trees.... Fall is one of my favorite seasons, I loved watching all the trees out our windows change to fire tinted hues.

I don't have that view anymore... bummer.

We did spend the first weekend down in Medford visiting the Meier family farm.... it is like a petting zoo. We had a ton of fun, the kids now say often.... "I wish we had a zoo."

he hee he

sounds like life...

My sister sent me a song this morning, at her clinic they listen to country all day, so she started sending me her favorites that remind her of me.... to funny... even though country is not my favorite, those country folks are sure great story tellers....

Sounds like Life to me...

Got a call last night from an old friend’s wife
Said I hate to bother you
Johnny Ray fell off the wagon
He’s been gone all afternoon
I know my buddy so I drove to Skully’s
And found him at the barI say hey man, what’s going on

He said I don’t know where to start
Sarah’s old car’s about to fall apart
And the washer quit last week
We had to put momma in the nursing home
And the baby’s cutting teeth
I didn’t get much work this week
And I got bills to pay
I said I know this ain’t what you wanna hear
But it’s what I’m gonna say

(Chorus)
Sounds like life to me it ain’t no fantasy
It’s just a common case of everyday reality
Man I know it’s tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
It sounds like life to me

Well his face turned red and he shook his head
He said you don’t understand
Three kids and a wife depend on me
And I’m just one man
To top it off I just found out
That Sarah’s 2 months late
I said hey bartender set us up a round
We need to celebrate

(Chorus)
Sounds like life to me plain old destiny
Yeah the only thing for certain is uncertainty
You gotta hold on tight just enjoy the ride
Get used to all this unpredictability
Sounds like life

Man I know its tough but you gotta suck it up
To hear you talk you’re caught up in some tragedy
Sounds like life to me
Sounds like life

how did i not know about this?

Last weekend I did a fundraising event for the Rose City Rollers, Portland's local roller derby team. It was super fun, and I can't wait to take the boys to see the roller derby meets.

A couple of weeks ago we went rollerskating for Chloe's birthday, I was getting all cocky on my skates, I was starting to brainstorm my own derby team. Than I fell on my butt. I am still healing my poor tail bone! My derby dreams are out the window, cause that flippin hurt.


The event took place at Oaks bottom park, which I have walked by many times on the spring creek corridor, but never really gave much thought too. Well that place is pretty cool, on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings they open for pre-schoolers only. They only have pre-school rides open, do a storytime and give the kids milk and cookies. We found out about it just at the end of the season. Next week is the last week for the summer, but after that they take it inside and do a pre-school skate at the skating rink, which will be pretty awesome too! Can't wait for rainy days at the skating rink...

glimpses..

last night I had a glimpse into our future.

It was one of those feelings you want to freeze, or bottle and hold onto. We made breakfast for dinner, because for some reason I was on a Mexican food kick grocery shopping and just couldn't cook Mexican food for the third night in a row.... eggs and pancakes are always on hand and super easy....


The boys were sitting at the bar in the kitchen while B and I were cooking, they were fighting over a discarded graham cracker box I had found floating around the pantry empty. Ollie was pretending it was a hat, which only made Max want one to. So I cut it in half (not the first time I cut something they were fighting over in half, did I ever tell you about the blanket saga?) They weren't really big enough to actually fit on their heads like hats, so I cut them and extended them with the skills I remember from preschool..... measure your head..staple..staple... instant hat.


We than made them into crowns, Ollie wanted to be the king, Max wanted to be the princess..... haaaaaa, we don't assign gender roles, we just roll with it here.
Anyway Max wore his crown all through dinner. He kept us giggling by trying not to use his fork to eat his pancakes. Weird kid.


Ollie is super into racing lately and winning (competitive little sucker, we are working on good sportsmanship, he gets downright grumpy if max or I beat him at Candyland). He challenged Max to a pancake eating contest.
My two little men sat side by side and gobbled down pancakes, a glimpse into the future.... this will be my table for many years watching my two growing boys, racing each other, and heckling each other trying to shove the food down the fastest....

oh what did I get myself into.

Oh Max...

Terrible two's in full force... Max has great language skills, too bad he likes to use those skills all the time. He seriously argues with me.... since when did this kid become the boss. We are doing some serious parenting work over here. It is good though, rather do it now than when he is older. He totally has my personality. But look at that little face, how can you resist that!

the jury is still out...

On my homemade granola bars. I needed something to grab in the mornings that was quick, easy and healthy. I looked through a bunch of recipes and decided to give this one a try, I was stoked because it is basically a raw food. Well the buckwheat has to get cooked, so that throws out my raw food statement but whatever....

I had never cooked buckwheat, and I think I overcooked it. I had to add an extra 1.5 cups of oats and they still didn't dehydrate quite right, so I packaged them individually in wax paper and threw them in the freezer. I think they are awesome, Max thinks they are the bees knees, Ollie gets really excited to have one and than leaves most of it on his plate... Brian just rolls his eyes when I offer him one, but he will cross over to my raw food, natural sugar dark side ... he just doesn't know it yet....(I even added carob chips to half of them to entice B, it didn't work)So the jury may be out on my granola bars.... but a couple weeks ago, when our weather was teetering on fall like for 3 days, I made curried lamb pasties (Australian meat pies... pronounced pahhhsties.... not paaasties (those are the weird stickers woman sometimes use on their ladies... who thought of that, and who really needs them?))
I must say this will for sure be a fall and winter staple in this house! If you have never cooked with lamb before you should! I was really scared of it at first..... I have had some really gamey tasting gross lamb... but the key is to drain as much of the fat as possible, most of the gamey taste is held in the fat, at least that is my theory and I am sticking to it.
My family loved these and gobbled them up, the boys loved having their own little individual pies, and our table looked pretty fancy too.

I can't wait for fall. Pumpkins, soup, stews and warm drinks.