Ollie, Me, Max and B

Coming to terms with it...

2012-02-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

So, sorry blog land. I kind of hate winter, and this year has been extremely difficult. Hibernating has been my activity of choice. Well, I guess not hibernating, maybe hiding is a better description.

I have recently been diagnosed with Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding, Awesome Right!

I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I will most likely not have any more babies. So I think it is okay for me to hibernate for a bit. or hide, either one is good for now...

Way to set the bar.....

2011-12-02T10:34:00.001-08:00

After almost an entire year of anticipation, watching his friends wiggle their teeth and come into classes with holes in their mouth, Ollie finally lost his first tooth!

What a rite of passage, especially for this little man who wanted so badly to loose a tooth.

So of course I went above and beyond, making a path of glitter and magic appear in a trail from the window, writing out notes on burnt glittered parchment, even including a new toothbrush and glittered note for Max, you know in the anticipation of his teeth falling out...

The joy and excitement of finding a little glittered note and new tooth brush was so exciting for the boys, Ollie barely took a second look at the two dollars he was left....

So, than what happens when you loose your second tooth. I was planning on writing a little note and slipping a quarter into the tooth fairy bag my Mom had made Ollie (he lost it at her house, so cute) but I fell asleep, forgot about the duties of Tooth Fairy... So B picked up the slack and at 6 in the morning slipped another two dollars under his pillow (we need to re-think the cost of a tooth) but in the process of the exchange of money we lost the actual tooth! When I woke Ollie up, the first thing he did was lift up his pillow, and look for a note! A note that was not there, Oh the disappointment! Than Max woke up, and max too, flipped up his pillow looking for the tooth fairy, glitter, her magic, her inclusion of him on his big brothers shirt tails.... Tooth Fairy Fail!

Than guess what happens three days later, The boys find the tooth in their bedroom, Now they are convinced the Tooth Fairy had dropped the tooth, and was probably wherever tooth fairies live getting in trouble for losing a tooth... So Oliver puts the tooth under his pillow again. Guess what, the Tooth Fairy forgot about that dang frickin tooth! Again, the eager wake up grab under the pillow happened, this time to find the same thing he put under his pillow when he went to bed... Oh Tooth Fairy you are freakin killing me here!

So before anything else could be done this morning... Oliver had to write the Tooth Fairy a note.

Tonight gosh darnit, that Tooth Fairy better get her freakin act together, and next time maybe not overdo it out of the gate...

Master Chef

2011-09-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

I love cooking with the boys. I have always had them in the kitchen with me, even as babies, strapped in a front pack, these boys have cooking in the blood. Which has made my boys awesome eaters, they will (almost) always eat anything I put in front of them.

Last night we had some fresh caught Kokanee gifted to us from Grandpa lee, (he stocked our freezer up, making room for 45 pounds of salmon caught). We stuffed them with Rosemary (from the garden) and lemon, than topped them with olive oil, lemon, leeks (from the garden) and potatoes. Wrapped them up tight in foil on cooked them up. Seriously soooo good. I am huge fan of rosemary, and mix that with the butteryness of the kokanee, and lemon... you should totally make this!

We made...

2011-09-21T16:49:00.000-07:00

Today I helped out in Max's preschool class, I hate preschool. That is all I have to say about that. The teacher did have the kids do some leaf rubbings in class, which Max and I brought the idea home and made way cooler.

Love them.

keep calm, and carry on.

2011-08-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend as I was digging out a huge sliver from a squirming, crying, bleeding, 4 year old foot, I was paid the nicest compliment.

"You should be a nurse, you handled that so calmly"

Words laid on me by my friend Terra.

Than a day later, after a lovely weekend at sunriver with friends, the opportunity to keep calm and carry on presented itself again.

We stopped on the way home at my absolute favorite place on earth, Big Lake. We planned on making a quick stop, waving Hi to the mountain, maybe hiking to where my dads ashes are laid, and to take a quick swim in the lake, this was to be a quick little detour, slightly out of our way home, but a must for me. B and Max went to the car to grab some things, while me and Ollie stripped down to our suits and started blowing up an air mattress. As I sat on the rocks, admiring the gorgeous view, my feet being cooled by the water, and the calm coming over me, B came marching down the hill, carrying a crying Max, and not looking happy. B had handed the car keys to Max to hold while he got the stuff out of the car. Than he locked all the doors, than he shut the back of the car. Than he asked Max for the keys. Max had put the keys in the car.... oops...

Can you blame a 4 year old. Not really.

B was pissed, and not calm at all.

I sat on the rock, took a deep breath and kept filling up the air mattress.

What do you do, at 3:30 pm, on a Sunday, 15 miles from the nearest town, and locked out of your car. No food, No suitable clothing, and No spare key.

Keep Calm and Carry on.

B is not the best person when it comes to keeping calm. While he had his mild breakdown, I took over called our insurance company and had a locksmith on the way, to be there hopefully within the hour.

Than I went swimming. I enjoyed my afternoon, I swam with my kids, I stressed a little as the sun started to set, and we still were not back into our car.

B calmed down, and as a lesson to both of us, we discussed what anger does in a stressful situation. It does nothing, it accomplishes nothing. It helps no one.

We talked about it, we apologized to each other... we got calm and carried on.

On our, later than we intended, drive home, we talked about rafting. B told me he had only gone rafting once, and all he remembered from the experience was that he accidentally hit is dad with the oar while rowing, his dad got angry with him, and the rest of the trip all he wanted was for it to be done. Out of the whole trip, that is what B remembered.
Anger, accomplishes nothing, helps no one.

We stopped at 9pm for a late night dinner in Salem. B took Max to the restroom, they took forever, he came back and told me how he and max had talked about how mad daddy had gotten about the keys, how it was not maxes fault, and daddy had not been mad at him, how he was sorry he had lost his temper.

The sign of a great man is one that keeps learning from himself, and can admit when he is in the wrong, even if he thinks he has it all figured out. B is an amazing dad, and I am so glad he is my husband.

Contentment...

2011-07-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today I am having a ridiculous problem with being content. Today I want a different life, one filled with vacations... travelling to exotic, relaxing places, one working at a job that does not include serving two pint sized demanding monsters, one not being me.

Do you have those days?

The days you just want to be or do something else. Today my kids bugged me, my husband bugged me... My house bugged me... the cupboard that becomes a catchall for random and all pieces of tupperware or plastic especially bugged me (how do the lids always seem to disappear... it is so freakin annoying!) So I cleared the whole cupboard out, but have no plan on how to put it back so that it makes more sense, so here I sit at 9pm with a pile of crap on my kitchen floor... blah.

Last week, I hauled the boys out to Damascus to go Strawberry picking with the Manlupig fam. It was hot but fun, and I spent the next day easing my back (strawberry picking is not for the faint of heart) and making freezer jam. I like strawberry freezer jam way better than the cooked variety, it is like summer in a little frozen container, which we need here since summer has already come and gone. blah.

Today I was tired of waiting for the weather to get better, so I loaded up the boys and we headed out to Sauvie Island to get our raspberries and blueberries... It rained on us. It was okay though, the vines were full and we made a great haul with minimal effort. I am much more of a raspberry or blueberry picker... everything is at eye level pretty much.

First batch of raspberry jam is done... I really need to invest in some canning equipment.. but my old pots seem to work just fine for now...

if Ollie only chose to wear a black and white striped shirt for the rest of his life... i would totally be okay with that... haaa

created....perfectly buttered popcorn..

2011-06-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

I love air popped popcorn. I like some butter on it sometimes, but what I hate, is how the heck do you get the butter dispersed evenly. There is nothing worse to me than butter soaked kernels, mixed with completely unseasoned kernels, drives me nuts.
.

This is adapted from how I dress my salad, again I hate unevenly dispersed or over dressed salad, drives me nuts.

Spread some softened butter around the bottom and sides of the bowl. Pop your air popped popcorn directly into the bowl and toss around with a spatula as it comes out. this will evenly distribute the butter without over buttering some of the kernels, and leaving others dry.

add some Kosher salt, and some minced Rosemary and you are good to go!

...Brownies....

2011-06-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

There is nothing better than some choclately not to sweet scratch brownies.

There is nothing better than a really good scratch brownie recipe....

Perfect Chocolate Fudge Brownies
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Notes on this recipe and the ingredients:
1. Use a dark cocoa powder, the best you can get. Pale, light-colored cocoa just doesn’t have enough depth.
2. It is important to make sure your eggs are room temperature.
3. Do not overbeat the eggs into the batter because it will add too much air.
3. Check your brownies often while they are baking to make sure you don’t overbake them or you will not have the fudge-like consistency.

1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely (I used Lindt 70%)
8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal 9x13x2 pan. You can make a kind of ‘sling’ of aluminum foil or parchment paper by lining the pan in both directions with a folded piece of each and leaving the overhang out of the sides of the pan. You will need to butter the bottom and sides of that in the pan as well. You can use this later to remove the brownies in one large piece to be place on a board and cut.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
Fill a large saucepan about 1/4 – of the way with water and bring to a simmer. Place a large heat proof bowl over the simmering water (the bottom should not be touching the water) to make a large double boiler. Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined – you don’t want fast boiling water or the water touching because this can burn the chocolate and butter instead of melting it nicely. Once they are melting, the heat from the chocolate and butter that is already melting will help to melt the rest of the unmelted butter and chocolate in the bowl. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. If you stirred often when the chocolate and butter was melting then your mixture should already be at room temperature. If the mixture is still too hot, let it cool before adding the eggs so that you don’t scramble and cook them into your batter.

Add three eggs to the chocolate and butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey instead of fudgy.

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate. Use a rubber spatula (not a whisk!) to fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Fold the ingredients together until there is just some of the flour mixture visible so that you don’t overwork the batter.

Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula (which will end up mixing in the remaining flour mixture at this point, which is why you don’t want to overmix before). Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotating the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

This recipe is my go-to brownie recipe from here. The only change I made is only use 1.5 cups of sugar. The 1 cup of white sugar, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Otherwise I found the brownies to be too sweet for my taste. I am gonna mess with the recipe and see about adding puree, like pumpkin puree for half the butter or something.... I will let you know how that works when I do it.

Enjoy!

11 days....

2011-06-21T09:43:00.000-07:00

Really I slacked for 11 days...... I have follow through issues.

So in my 11 days of slacking, Oliver graduated from kindergarten, I think it hit me harder than I thought it would. I try not to be too emotional, but having my little man graduate kind of put me on a teary edge. I am not ready for a first grader, I am not ready for the school year to be over, I want to shrink my boys and keep them little forever.

I think it is funny how tall Surin is next to Oliver, it seems like all the girls shot up in the class, and all the boys are short.

So please excuse my slacky-ness. I am dealing with Mama issues.

. ..The lost Baby T-Rex.. .

2011-06-10T13:35:00.000-07:00

My book: is called.

The Lost Baby T-Rex

By: Oliver Raetz

Title: Book

Once upon a time there was a baby T-Rex

(notice the little T-Rex and the big trees...)

The baby T-Rex was lost. Until the T-Rex grew.

(the trees are getting smaller, and the T-Rex is getting bigger...)

The T-Rex grew, and grew, and grew. And then the T-Rex grew huge.

Humongous. Huge, Huge.

(little trees, huge T-Rex..... I love it)

Huge, huge, huge. Huge, huge, huge, huge.

(tiny trees....)

Huge and humongous. Back to small.

(the orange circles are the T-Rex's dream bubbles...)

The T-Rex had a dream. The end!

I love this book.

Ollie loves to write stories... I have a huge stack of journals from his school, some of his stories are so funny and detailed, most involve one or more of the following.... dinosaurs (T-Rex's), a night fury (from how to train your dragon.... Mrs. Mash thought he was writing and drawing pictures of a night fairy.... which I think is kind of funny) monster trucks, skateboards, gorillas, his brother, his mom and dad, Mrs. Mash, and his friends... most of the stories have him riding something.

I have spent the last couple of nights pouring over his books. I think I am going to compile them in one big book. I just can't get over how awesome they are. I will post some of my favorites!

beyblade

2011-06-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

We do not have regular television in our house. When we were cutting back our expenses, Cable was of course, the first thing to go. Instead we stream Netflix through the Wii, and watch shows via Hulu, or from the network sites. This actually works quite well for us, there is no unintentional couch potato-ing. You have to really work at finding something to watch.

So one of the things about Netflix, it has kind of weird shows that the boys get sucked into. Like Voltron defender of the universe (from when B and I were kids). The boys favorite..... BeyBlade metal fusion.

The other day at Target, B and I were looking at Helmets, and the boys were allowed to go over to the toy aisles. They came back so excited pulling us over and exclaiming, "You will never believe this, it is what we have been dreaming and wishing for." Guess who carries BeyBlade toys, of course Target. With the boys piggy bank money, each got a Bey, and they got a battle arena. Pure Heaven for these two little men.

day 8... created clean...

2011-06-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

So Obviously I am using the term Create loosely. I don't mind. Today I created a clean kitchen.

Just in time to go to the garden and bring this mess in.

We washed and dried all our greens than put them in containers to toss in the fridge. So awesome having a fridge full of greens me and the boys grew with our own two hands.

...day 7... Garden...

2011-06-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

I love being part of a community garden. I love that is only a block from my house. I love digging in the dirt, and I love being able to make dinner from our Garden.

I wish the stupid weather would cooperate so that we can have veggies coming out of our ears this year, last year I made a lot of stuff with green tomatoes.

I am so stoked on our Community Garden, this year we have put in a watering system, apple trees, blueberry bushes and a seating area. We also got two flats of Tomatoes donated, so we have tomatoes all over the place.

I love our Community!

Monday... already behind...

2011-06-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today I kept my kids alive.

I am going with that, somedays as a stay at home mom, my biggest accomplishment may be just keeping my kids alive, well and I had an extra, so today not only did I keep My created ones alive, I was entrusted with keeping someone elses kid alive too!

Yay for me!

Bake Sale!

2011-06-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

Maple Bacon Scones, are you kidding me.

I figured since I invited a bunch of people to the bake sale for breakfast, I would need to provide something other than a bunch of cookies and cupcakes (although really for the kids, they thought they were in heaven, surrounded by cookies and cupcakes).

I wanted something that wasn't going to be too sweet, and had some substance to it.

I have a really great scone recipe that I love. So I tweaked it a bit, used Maple syrup and brown sugar for sweetness, and bacon instead of berries... next time I think I will do a brown sugar bacon, and maybe some cinnamon added. They were super good though, I personally prefer the straight up berry and lemon zest version, but always up to try something new
.

Here is the Scone recipe (with the cinnamon added that I think it needs)

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
3 tablespoons Brown sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 to 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
Salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 3/4 cup crumbled bacon
1 3/4 cups plus 2 teaspoons heavy cream
1/4 cup pure Maple syrup
1 large egg yolk lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons heavy cream, for egg wash
Coarse sanding sugar

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or rub in with your fingers. (The largest pieces should be the size of small peas.) Toss in bacon. Pour in cream, and Maple, and stir until mixture just comes together. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and pat into a 1-inch-thick round.

Cut into triangles or whatever shape you want. Freeze for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush tops of scones with egg wash, and sprinkle with sanding sugar. Bake until golden brown, about 28 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Drizzle with Maple glaze.

Maple Glaze

1 1/2 tablespoons Maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon milk (or water)

1/2 to a cup of powdered sugar

Combine all ingredients and drizzle over scones.

enjoy!

...watching Create...

2011-06-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, I sat on the edge of my mom's kitchen and helped her make bread for my bake sale. By helping I mean I drank coffee and talked, and talked, and talked. My mom bakes the best bread!

after I was done talking, I did make some more tiny pies.... So I guess I can say I did create too!

Speaking of pies in a jar.... day 3.

2011-06-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

I am heading up a Bake Sale this weekend for our Womens group at church. I made individual Strawberry Rhubarb pies in a jar that are frozen, who doesn't love home made pie ready to pop in the oven, and no mess in the kitchen (the pie pictured above is already frozen, that's what they look like when you open them up to bake them, super cute, right?).

I have made these a couple of times to give as gifts, but have had issues with labels not sticking and coming off, or just not looking the way I would do them myself (there are some free downloadable labels here).

So Ollie and I made labels for our lids, they turned out great and so far are not doing anything funky in the freezer.

Here is how we did it.

Using the ring as a guide draw a circle template, on some nice weight water color paper, with a super fine tip sharpie (I Love Sharpies).

I drew this little line drawing, than used some acrylic paint and water like water color to just add some color and detail. Cut out the circles leaving about a 1/4 inch of white outside the black line of the circle. just did this freehand with scissors, I am sure you could use an exacto if you aren't comfortable cutting freehand, just use the ring again but use the outside line as a guide rather than the inside.

Than we added some random stripes and painted the outside edge with Robins egg color, just cause I like that with the red...

I used Modge Podge to glue these, I dipped my brush in water first and brushed a thin layer of slightly watered down Modge Podge on the back. Pressed it to the lid, and than painted the top with another thin layer of Modge Podge. (make sure your paint is completely dry before you start glueing) I wanted to use a new Modge Podge that leaves a slightly raised clear layer, but this is what I had, and I didn't feel like heading to the craft store... Next time I will try the raised version though.

I love having the boys help me with projects, Ollie jumped in and wanted to do one. He used my design as a template, I must say his is awesome! Who can't resist a handmade label from a little man. I think I might have to make some of these for Ollie's teacher as an end of the year gift, all with his sweet little labels

... Love...

Next time I do these I am going to make sure I write the heating instructions on the label. For this bake sale I am just going to attach a small tag with the instructions. Really having it right on the label is so much more convenient.

day 2... hippie hair...

2011-06-02T18:44:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago I stopped washing my hair..

I know it sounds weird, I know it makes me more of a hippie than I like to admit. The reason I stopped, I kept seeing articles about how washing your hair on a daily basis just strips your hair of it's natural oils, than we try to replace them with all this synthetic crap that the "Cosmetic Company Man" was telling us we needed to have healthy, beautiful, hair. The constant cycle of trying new shampoos than slathering my head in conditioners, than putting in leave in conditioner, gel or serum, and hairspray.... soooo much crap. Just to get a good curl going, that was going to stay all day. What this left me with is the need to repeat the cycle everyday... or my hair was a big ratted mess (it still kind of is, but at least it doesn't have a bunch of crap in it).

So that lead me to researching natural home remedies to use on my hair, that was going to leave me hair clean, but not stripped. To let it be natural and not all gooped up. So this is what I do.

I use a combination of a couple of different shampoo methods, just whatever I feel like for that day.
Sometimes just a apple cider vinegar rinse. I add 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar to a glass of Hot water, I put it on my hair, massage into the scalp and than rinse with lots of hot water. Sometimes the smell of the vinegar bugs me, but my hair never actually smells like vinegar... just in the shower.

Sometimes when I want the squeaky clean feeling, I put a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in a glass of water and massage the crap out of me head and scalp. This leaves you with a really squeaky clean feeling head of hair. I usually use a small dab of a natural organic conditioner after the baking soda... I have dry hair (i have even used lite coconut milk on my hair for a really deep condition).

What I like most is just half a lemon. I just cut a lemon and take half in the shower with me, I squeeze the juice on my head and massage it in. I like this the most, it smells super yummy and leaves my hair looking great. It is on the drying side, so I don't do this more than once to twice a week.

Than to really kick the hippie up one more notch. I make my own hair gel... so freakin weird, right!

Well I love it. I put one cup of warm water in a bowl and add one teaspoon of plain gelatin, mix well and stick it in the fridge. Once it has set up, I whisk in a couple of drops of lavender essential oil. I keep my gel in a jar in the fridge... it lasts me quite awhile, and seriously it is the best hair product I have ever used on my head. I don't feel all producted up, and it doesn't weigh my hair down like normal gel does, and it keeps the curls nice so I don't have to wash and repeat with the whole hair thing everyday.

So today, I made a batch of hair gel, does this count as creating something... I think so!

..day 1.. sweet treats...

2011-06-01T15:47:00.000-07:00

Today I was baking for the Bake Sale I am heading up this weekend...

Super cute little Strawberry Rhubarb pies...

It is not fun when you are baking for a bake sale and you don't get any of the goods.

Seriously though... those pies are so freakin cute!

So Max and I made some little butterscotch pudding tarts to share with Ollie when he gets home.

First we lined some tiny muffin tins with left over pie crust. Cooked them up and than dropped a couple of chocolate chips in each one and let them melt.

Than we made our pudding and let it sit up, I much rather would have liked to use chocolate pudding, or even our Raw Chocolate pudding recipe (kind of on a chocolate kick) but we didn't have any, so butterscotch was our only choice... it did the job though.

and aren't they super cute... seriously I think anything in tiny little measurements is awesome.

It was so easy, and perfect cause we only had to make a couple of them. This actually is a dessert I have made a couple of times, when I just want that little baked something, but am not really in the mood to make a mess or take to much time in the kitchen! Yum! It made this really grey, yucky, rainy first day of June a little better... just a little.

...Max approved...

...30 days of Creativity...

2011-06-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

So my friend Sarah, who is always full of awesome ideas and information, challenged me to 30 days of Creativity....

As you may have noticed I have kind of fallen out of the blog-o-sphere. This just may be what I need to get me back blogging.

I hope to be here everyday, showing you what me and the boys intentionally created for that day! Great way to start the summer too (HA... Ha... as it is pouring down rain outside my window!)

.. .grey..

2011-05-26T13:50:00.000-07:00

Grey about sums it up...

My mood.

The weather.

This month has been non-stop chaos. I had three shows in three weeks, and in between a week in California, visiting the happiest place on earth, and most importantly Nana Barb.

This week, back to the cold of Oregon... the grey, I am finding my mood and motivation matching the color of the sky.

I keep forgetting to take my vitamins. I keep forgetting to drink my lemon water. I keep feeling overwhelmed by all the crap I get myself roped into. Overwhelmed by the unpacked suitcases spilling all over onto my bedroom floor. The unpacked show crap disorganized in the garage. And the looming bakesale that I am some how heading up.

My poor Max is bored out of his mind. He keeps asking for kids to come over and play with. Than when we do get some kids over here, fights with them, and tells them he needs quiet time from them. I am looking forward to school being out, but not looking forward to it either... cause that means I am going to have to entertain two monkeys. Hopefully I will be feeling better about life by that time. I think a change in the weather for the better would help, I must say the California sun felt great.

Okay done with my Whining.

..little athlete man...

2011-04-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

My Oliver has a huge interest in exercise.

Every Tuesday Ollie insists on wearing his track shirt, a shirt that actually says track on it. He wears it because Tuesday is running club at school, and Ollie loves running club. I went to the awards ceremony at his school on Thursday, Oliver and his friend Alyssa were recognized for running the most laps in his class..

I knew Ollie loved running club, all those marathons his aunties have run must have rubbed off on him... how come I didn't get that gene...

This morning Ollie woke up bright and early (6 am on a Sunday for gosh sake) and wanted to do his yoga kids. Which he did, while I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and drank coffee.

Than this afternoon I was feeling grumpy cause I ate pizza last night for dinner and a sugar cookie at a birthday party (okay 3 sugar cookies) so I put on biggest loser boot camp, Ollie did the whole thing with me, I gave him soup cans to use as weights.... the best little personal trainer a mama could ask for.

Ollie inspires me! My little athlete in the making....

.. ..coffee. ..

2011-02-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

I am a coffee fanatic... like to a fault, like have to cut myself off mid-day cause I could drink it all day and night. But not just any coffee, nope

Goood coffee... dark, oily, yummy, brewed correctly coffee.

Most likely this is the result of years working at a high end Coffee Roastery, Maybe it was the weekly cuppings I tried to attend, maybe it was the company meeting tasting's. Maybe it was the hours, years ago, spent in a room coffee tasting and listening to true masters of the craft talk about coffee and all it's attributes... maybe, um just maybe.

I got a Keurig for Christmas, I do use it, but nothing, and I mean nothing, can beat a french press good coffee, not even the little fancy k-cup single brew schmanzy machine.... not that I don't appreciate the Keurig... but... just sayin.

.. .max. ..

2011-02-11T11:58:00.000-08:00

This kid cracks me up, we spend almost every minute together (right now he is at the indoor play park with Dom and Leone, I almost didn't know what to do with myself). Every morning we walk Ollie to school, Max is included every morning just like a kindergartner, he reads with the kids, sits down with them in circle time and participates in the morning calender. Then we leave and it is just me and him for a couple of hours. My mom offered to pay for pre-school for him, but I must say I am kind of hesitant. Is that selfish of me to keep him home one more year, I mean he has to go to pre-school another full year before he makes it to kindergarten. I just kind of want to keep him all to myself, well most of the time I do.

At home we read, just me and him, I think he loves the one on one time. We snuggle, we laugh, we clean, and we goof off.

I see him learning things, making patterns, grouping colors, counting, adding, and even multiplying, all on his own.

I see him playing make believe by himself, telling himself stories, occupying his time alone, his time to play with any toy he wants and he doesn't have to share. He doesn't have to share me, and I don't have to share my time either. I love it, and I don't know if I will be giving that up.

This kid cracks me up, and I love him.

...a different view....

2011-02-02T15:37:00.000-08:00

I am not a big fan of January and February. I get sad about the lack of sun, the lack of warmth, and general darkness of my mood during these months.

but than I read this post today. It gave me kind of a new outlook, maybe I can embrace these months, without hating them so much....

...Bedtime stories and Sweets...

2011-02-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

The boys and I love bedtime reading, it really is one of my favorite parts of the day.

After baths, brushed teeth and clean jammies, time to snuggle up and read stories. It is amazing to me to watch Oliver (and Max too) learn to read. It has switched from me reading stories at night, to them reading to me. Oliver, my sweet little man, came in the other night when I had an early bedtime (that happens about once a week, I stay up late working on burdy, and than at least one night a week I am zonked out by 7:30) and brought a story to read to me. He cuddled up next to me stroked my hair and read me a story. So sweet.

Speaking of Ollie and his sweet spirit. Last week one of his friends in school, Gisele, who is an ESL student was having a really rough week. Every morning when her Mom left she would just cry, it was so sad. We were at the grocery store and Ollie asked if we could buy gisele a gift to make her feel better, something with a princess on it, cause he knows she likes princesses they are on her lunch box.

This is not the first friend he has helped at school. Joey, one of his classmates, also has some separation issues, we talked about it at home. He also has a hand that did not fully form when he was a baby. I told him he should just befriend him and ask him about his hand, he is no different than us. The next week at school, Joey's grandma told me how Oliver had pulled her aside and asked about joey's hand, and how much Joey has talked about his friend Oliver, which is a pretty big deal since she said they have had a hard time getting him to socialize with other kids...they are cute little friends. One morning when joey was having a particularly hard time, Ollie sat down next to him, rubbed his back and told him "It is okay, your grandma will be here at the end of the day." What a sweetie.

It is awesome to watch him grow into such a caring, sensitive little man.

boys.

2011-02-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

I found these boats at SCRAP and had to bring them home. They are super cute and I can't wait for summer to be able to actually try and sail them. The boys keep begging to take them in the bath, I think they may only be good for looking at, not sailing so I keep putting them off till summer.

I love when the boys play together, they have great imaginations. It is rare they can find an activity they both enjoy, usually it is Max trying to do whatever Ollie is doing, and Ollie getting frustrated with him. They played for quite awhile, and our kitchen had become a great ocean for the boys to explore, with a T-Rex leading the expedition of course.

Love these boys.

what I traded...

2011-01-11T09:51:00.000-08:00

Back in November I abandoned (more like ran as fast as I could) the days of sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer.... Sometimes I admit I miss the steady paycheck, the hour long lunch breaks, and the shower every morning!

But, I think my trade is pretty sweet! One of the things we did after I quite work is cut down all our expenses, we took Max out of pre-school, which I was kind of sad about, and kind of not, I do all the same things with him at home that he did at school, and really this kid needs no socialization, He has nooooo problem being social.

What we traded was every day Max and I volunteer in Ollie's class. Max loves this, for an hour each morning he is also a kindergartner. He has his own book box and is reading.... That is right, the kid can READ and he just turned 4.

He does calender with the kids, and does the first math problem of the day. I think 5 hours a week in a classroom setting where he is challenged is a great trade for four hours a week at pre-school...

God knew what he was doing when Brian and I prayed about what to do, about work, about our family, about our decisions....and man oh man are we being taken care of.

So my days are now filled again with cooking and cleaning, and playing, and walks in the park...sometimes feeling sorry for myself, but I have done the other side, the working outside the home and trying to hold it together... I know where my place is, I know this time will fly, I know there will be plenty of work left for me in this world once my little men don't need me as much.

and I am happy being just where I am.

bloggers block... and welcome 2011

2011-01-03T09:28:00.000-08:00

life has been busy... so busy... and for some reason my blogging ability has been all plugged up. I still read all my blogs, but when I sit down to write one for us, I blank.

Here is to 2011! a fresh start, to work off that weight that has crept on with age, to chronicle the awesomeness of the boys, to strengthen our family and our goals!

Welcome 2011!

Weekend Mis-fire...

2010-09-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

I was really excited about last weekend. B and I were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary (don't bother doing the math, I walked down the aisle almost 8 months pregnant with max)..

It was supposed to be a fun getaway night for us, We were headed to Hood River, but me being lame and not realizing it, made reservations at a hotel in the dalles, I thought it was close, but guess what 25 minutes is not close. The hotel I chose looked great on the website.

I imagined a cool 50's modern vibe, with a pool that overlooked the gorge and a huge porch with a firepit to sip wine on. The reality of the hotel was an updated motel, that smelled likes vicks vap o rub, with a tiny little porch, that overlooked the freeway, the pool that was located in the parking lot, and the view from our room looked out over a mobile home park.... so disappointing. We made the call to leave the hotel, and search out something actually in Hood River, or even back in Portland.

We headed back to Hood River and decided to park and seek out our dinner destination. We didn't really have a plan we just walked around checkin out every ones menus. Taking our time to decide at 8:30pm was not the best idea, by the time we walked back to the restaurant we wanted to go to, they were no longer seating... BLAH. We ended up at a nice enough restaurant, but not where we really wanted to go. Our dinner tasted like old people food.

All the hotels in town were booked, as were all of our McMenamins stand bys... so we made the call at 11:30pm to just head home. We stopped at Voodoo donuts, just because it was late and we thought it would be fun, but the guy in front of us bought the last Maple Bacon bar, and the rest of their donuts suck. Bummer.

Saturday kind of redeemed us. Aunt Jo took the boys to coffee in the morning so we got to sleep in, and we had our coffees delivered. The weather was beautiful, and our neighbors shared their crop of tomatoes and Basil, so we decided to have an eggplant Parmesan throw down, my way versus the traditional way. We loaded up and headed to the farmers market in search of eggplant, and than spent the afternoon cooking. I will post photo's of that later... the eggplant Parmesan was awesome!

Than Sunday, we had to work in the kids community at church, which wasn't bad, but ya know...
After church I convinced B a quick trip to the beach would be awesome. It was rainy and horrible in Portland, We loaded up, took the 1 hour and 45 minute drive and landed in Cannon Beach. Got out of the car to drizzle rain that soaks you to the bone without you even realizing it, but I was convinced this was going to be fun. Headed down to the beach, the tide was way in and there was only about 3 feet of beach in some places. Within 30 seconds Max and I got hit with the biggest sneaker wave ever. Max actually went under the water and got hit against the rocks. The water was up to my waist. It was horrifying. So we went back to the car to calm Max down, dry him off as best we could and change his clothes. B and Ollie didn't get touched (good thing, I don't think Ollie would ever step foot on the beach again if he had gone under a big huge wave).

I had brought a change of clothes for the boys, but no change of clothes for me... BLAH, I was soaked. We decided to just grab lunch and head home. So I sat at Mo's dripping wet, gulped down some chowder and than drove home in a sweatshirt and no pants.... a total of a 5 hour trip... and only 30 seconds on the beach.

I plan on re-doing our anniversary weekend... for all the crap that didn't work out, we still had a good time, and got to laugh about it together!

an apple for the teacher..

2010-09-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

Here is Ollie on his official, first full day of kindergarten. He was so excited.

He is putting his long lashes to good use, they are workin like magic on his teacher...

see what I mean... Student of the Month, he has only been in school for 1.5 weeks... those eyelashes will take him far in life...

. ..happy.. .

2010-09-23T10:03:00.001-07:00

As a parent I always want the best for my kids, I want them healthy, I want them happy. The love I feel for my kids is so big, sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my brain around it. I look at my Mom, she had 7 kids, 7 kids that are all confident, that all think they are the center of the universe, how the heck do you raise 7 kids to all be healthy, confident, successful adults. Yes none of us are perfect, and we all have our smattering of issues, but on the whole we are pretty darn well adjusted!

It is funny to have that desire, that want for your mom to be happy. She deserves all the happiness she can get too. She wanted it for us, and again, maybe life wasn't perfect, but the woman sacrificed allot for us.

To see her last night, Happy... I mean Happy.. was again more than I can wrap my head or heart around...

. ...Warm and fuzzy... .

destruction and the re-build...

2010-09-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

The boys "love" helping put away their laundry (okay maybe we have to bribe them) but they do help, by cramming clothing into their poor dresser drawers so hard that the bottoms of the drawers break. Max still being a little short ends up opening the bottom drawer to use as a step stool to get into his top drawer. My poor $50 Ikea dresser could not stand up to the abuse, and finally gave out.

Here is the destruction.

(there are no clothes in the top drawer, it has not bottom)

So I decided maybe a dresser will not stand up to the years of abuse. I decided my favorite Ikea bookshelf with tubs for clothing rather than drawers might do the trick.Max and I got started on the project before ollie woke up..Such a good little builder!Ollie woke up and got to help with the building too....Can you tell we love these bookcases....The finished re-build, I didn't have time to put the bins in before running off to work, but let me tell you, this is great, no more broken drawers, and plenty of room for clothes...

Perfect!

work

2010-09-02T12:35:00.001-07:00

It is September... I have made it 6 months working... yay me!

breakfast..

2010-09-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

My boys are mine through and through.. did you know I am super cranky in the morning... like not kidding, not a happy person to be around in the A.M...

I have passed the trait onto my kids.

Max especially.

little foodie...

2010-09-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

You know you are a raising a little foodie when...

he prefers lemon curd and homemade raspberry jam on his pancakes...

he asks to taste your sauce and than says... "it needs a little lemon juice." or "maybe a little more salt." or "just a little bit of agave for sweetness."

When watching master chef proclaims.. "look they are using prosciutto, just like we have."

asks for goat cheese and apple slices as a snack.

Sushi is his favorite food.

tells you that your broccoli is cooked "perfect"

I love our little Oliver Beandip.

Max.. .

2010-08-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

.. .MESSY IS AWESOME.. .

C.H.A.P...

2010-08-09T16:38:00.000-07:00

stands for Childrens Healing Art Project, a super cool Non-profit kids art therapy program. They have an Art Studio downtown that kids can come in and make a huge mess, all to raise funds for their work in Hospitals.

What a cool place, seriously my dream to have a room like this in my own house!

.. .personality... .

2010-08-06T16:17:00.000-07:00

Is it weird that Ollie loves Yoga?

He gets his blanket out and spreads it in front of the t.v. and will do his entire Yoga kids DVD. All the poses, All the breathing... I think it is awesome!

but Max doesn't really want any part of Ollie's yoga-ing?

He spreads out his blanket and than just bugs Ollie, by acting silly...

...

Ollie is very serious about his practice.

freckle twins and lucky toes.. .

2010-08-06T15:59:00.001-07:00

did you know, Ollie and I have freckles on the inside of our left pinkies, in the same spot.

We have declared each other freckle twins, and even have a special pinky handshake.

Really, how weird is that to have freckles in the exact same, odd spot.

You know what else is special about Ollie, he has crossed toes. The toe next to his big toe, and the one next to that, cross over each other, have since he was a baby. The doctor said as long as it is not bothersome to him, he is fine. I told him it just means he is lucky... and he is one lucky boy.. and I am a lucky mama to have such an awesome little Oliver.

..weekend.. .

2010-07-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

spent the weekend at my new favorite campground.

we grew up camping at big lake, still love that place, but... a campground with no dirt and hardly any mosquitoes... you have stolen my heart!

want this... .

2010-07-20T12:44:00.001-07:00

Have you seen this book?

the secret lives of princesses

I can't even get over the amazing illustrations in this book! I know what all my nieces are getting for Christmas! and you know Ollie and Max will totally appreciate this book too, it is mostly for me though!

day dreaming list... .

2010-07-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

Our camera broke...

lame..

about a month ago.

So I have no new pics for you, but I do have a pic of the kids sailing origami boats... I am slightly origami obsessed... just slightly.. .

But Last night we got a new one, so just wait! I might go photo crazy!

Today I wrote a list of projects I want to get done by the end of summer... want to see?

finish 6 small paintings
get a stock of 20 (or more) dresses (i have a big show coming up in August)
make prayer flags for the boys room (screeprinted with their name)
make prayer flags for the backyard, intertwined with lights
paint the burdy fence
scoop up a bunch of the lame bark the previous owner used in the flower beds (hate that stuff!)
finally get the fabric dyed and appliqued for the couch pillows (I am really excited about this)
get the screenprinting equipment up and running
draw or create something everyday
enter a fabric design in the spoonflower contest
paint a portrait of each of the boys
get an artist group together to collaborate on a mural backdrop for the red sea sanctuary.

And I plan on getting this all done when?

growin like a weed..

2010-06-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Ollie bean is sproutin like crazy.. .

We hit a milestone last week, he no longer needs the step stool to brush his teeth.

He was very impressed with this! He better watch out though, we have a counter in the kitchen that sticks out, and the boys whip around the corner without even thinkin about it cause it is to high for their little heads to hit. Soon that will change, I am hoping that run in won't be so bad, we shall see, I keep warning him!

raw pudding...

2010-06-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

My awesome friend Kari turned me on to raw chocolate pudding. Yes the recipe sounds weird, but it may be my new go to dessert for the summer!

The kids ask for this all the time, kari and I talk about how we make it at naptime or after the kids head to bed so we don't have to share it.. this is good, I mean really good!

The other night we were celebrating something (maybe just the weekend) and made our raw pudding extra special. I processed two graham crackers and some raw cocoa powder with just a touch of vanilla and honey to help it stick together. than we layered it up and added gummy worms for fun factor!

We made dirt and worms... and it was fantastic.

So good, and so fun!

this kid...

2010-05-27T11:08:00.001-07:00

has the best smile ever...

farmers dinner... food coma...

2010-05-18T08:31:00.000-07:00

Last night was a night I wish I had taken photo's of. It was a simple night, like many nights filled with the normalness of family.

I got home from work and we all piled into our new Car... (yes, we got a new to us car... more on that later...)
We headed across town, crossing bridges, and weaving through the city all along the river that runs through Portland. It was a completely beautiful Classic Oregon early evening, Sun off in the distance and an insanely intense flash rain storm. We headed to the Produce Market to stock up on veggies and fruit. We bought beautiful red rhubarb, and sweet plump strawberries. Red beautiful tomatoes and fresh basil, small globe artichokes, and super green thin asparagus... so good. We picked up a hunk of goat cheese and farm eggs and a loaf of crusty bread. Than we headed home.

For dinner I sliced the tomatoes and tossed them with basil and roasted red peppers. I nestled the goat cheese in the middle and toasted up the crusty bread. I scrambled up a huge pan of farm fresh eggs, and steamed up the artichokes. I sauteed up some asparagus and dressed it with little olive oil and kosher salt. Than we set it all out in the middle of our table and dug in. It was so good. I love that the boys eat goat cheese and asparagus, and have a huge love of artichokes... if I fed them artichokes for every meal they would be stoked.

As I sat back and looked at our awesome spread with a glass of wine in one hand, I wished I had gotten up and grabbed the camera.. but instead a soaked in my little family and enjoyed listening to what they had done that day, and the hilarious search for the very sought after artichoke heart.

After dinner, while B cleaned up and the boys took a bath, I made up some little tart shells. I combined the super sweet strawberries and tart rhubarb with a little sugar and cooked it down to make a gorgeous red, sweet filling.

While the boys and b played wii, I whipped up some heavy cream and filled our tart shells with the sweet and tart rhubarb filling and than shared a little sweet dessert with the boys. Than we all piled up on the couch. No T.V... No books.. just cuddled up... and fell asleep. All of us. I woke up around 3 a.m.... slipped out from under neath my two little men, covered them up with another quilt and than b and I headed to our own bed. It was such a good, and simple night, a night that makes me thankful for my little family.

Mental Capacity... zero...

2010-05-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

It is so sad, when you have so much to say, and so much has gone on, and so much has changed. But you don't have the time or the mental capacity to communicate it right now.

We are here, We are all happy, We are all getting Healthy after a month stint with coughs and flem. I am surviving my cubicle life.

Brian's Grandpa Joe passed away and is now in heaven with Grandma and Jesus.

Life is weird, Life is short. Life goes on, but changed.

So instead of going into everything, we are busy, Street fairs every weekend for burdy, still working full time (yuck). Took two long rode trips down to Cali, and one very early flight for me to get home in time to make it into the office. I inadvertently got my boss fired... oops (she was a horrible manager, I was just the straw that broke the camels back)... B is holding down the fort at home and doing an excellent job. The boys are happy and loving their daddy time.

I love walking into the door to big huge bear hugs and a clean house. I don't think I have done dishes or really cooked since starting back to work (I do miss the cooking part, but not the cleaning)... love that man.

friends.... just friends.. .

2010-03-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

When Ollie started pre-k we would ask about his friends at school, he talked allot about Madison. One day picking the kids up, I made a comment to Madison's mom that we had big fans of Madison at our house. She laughed and said, "Oh, we have a big fan of Oliver at our house. The other night at dinner she told us she liked Oliver, and that she might start dating him." (Madison has tween aged sisters)
UGHHH.
So on the way to the zoo Ollie and Madison had to hold hands, and they had to sit next to each other. When we got to the zoo we met up with Madison's best friend, a little girl named Devon. Ollie was heart broken, Madison ran over and was talking to her friend who is in the afternoon class. Ollie sat down on the curb and hung his head. How could his best friend have another friend and still be friends with him. We talked, we moved on, and eventually Maddy made her way back to us and introduced Ollie and Devon. For the rest of the day, three little friends all held hands.

Now, you know, that pre-k little friendships are just that. Completely innocent. I was so irritated with the other moms. Making comments about "ooohhh you better watch them" and asking Madison "is he your boyfriend?" I thought it was so rude. Just let them be kids, let them enjoy whatever friendships they chose to make, let them be innocent.

Blahhh.

to whom it may concern. ..

2010-03-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

I am so bored.

This office air makes me feel like I can't breath.
sitting in a chair all day makes me uncomfortable and achy.
We as a society were not meant to sit at a desk all day tied to our computers.
I have a skylight above me. that is my only tie to the outside world. and it is frosted.

Yesterday was a good day. Today is not such a good day.

sincerely,
working mama, stuck in a three wall cubicle.
starring at a computer.

for the experience... .

2010-03-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

So on Monday I got the day off (yay) to head to the zoo with Ollie's preschool class. Part of the experience was riding the city bus, and catching the 2 Max trains to the zoo. It was tiring herding 15 pre-schoolers and their adults on and off a bus, on and off one Max train, onto a second Max train to finally end up at the zoo. But that was the fun of it, the experience, right?. There were a couple of the *cool moms* who drove their kids, I think they missed out.

At the end of the day we were treated to a sidewalk jam session by a paint bucket drumming street performer.

Super Fun! No public transportation experience would be complete without the downtown PDX flavah...

* two mom's made a passing comment to me and another mom, "meet you there, suckers" I was kind of offended. Sorry if they are way to cool to ride the bus. But our kids thought it was awesome!

.. .dumb moms. ..

Magnolia...

2010-03-16T09:44:00.000-07:00

We have the most beautiful Magnolia tree in our backyard. I love Magnolia trees and we always made a point of heading to the Sellwood park to admire all the huge Magnolia trees that bloom for such a short period of time in early spring.

But now we have our very own to admire through the entire, gorgeous, short little blooming season. Might have to plan a magnolia BBQ celebration before the blooms are gone.

don't you love how the little men's personalities show through their photos... Max the spastic, and Ollie the (semi) sweet bean.

1.5 days down. ..

2010-03-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

1.5 days down and 363 left to go... ..

It is weird being back in the office.

I have that strange feeling, like everyone is playing dress up and pretending that everything is soooo important.

The important stuff is happening outside the three walls of my cubicle. ..

How am I going to make it 363 more days?

Ugh.

Unrealistic Fears...

2010-03-03T08:59:00.001-08:00

Like.......

My kids are going to forget who I am.

The house is going to self-combust.

I am going to miss out on everything.

My brain is going to be sucked out of my head by a computer screen.

The kids and B are going to starve to death because I won't be home to cook, or grocery shop.

I am heading back to the office next week. I am kind of happy. and kind of not.

pre-school...let down... melt down...

2010-02-20T08:18:00.000-08:00

Is it spring yet?

Our standard two weeks of teaser sun is out.

I love these couple weeks in February when the trees start blooming and everything is thawing and drying out from our wet weather. I know it is just a teaser, but find myself wearing flip flops and heading out to the park, soaking up as much sun as I possibly can. Yesterday we were at the local park, and seriously there was about a dozen mamas and papas out with their kids. All soaking up the sun, it is like a mass exodus takes place in these two weeks.

It will end, the rain and cold will come back, I am not letting it trick me.

Ollie started pre-school on Wednesday. That was a hard day. I don't know what I expected exactly from pre-school, but the first day did not live up to my idea of Ollie's first school. Last year when we were toying with the idea of enrolling him, we visited a school in battleground. The teacher was awesome, she was a farmer and brought a pet pot bellied pig to school named petunia. The teacher was really Joyful, you could tell she loved her job, she was quiet with the kids, every kid that was around her, it was like she had a secret she was sharing with just them. The kids kind of glowed around her. There was a reason she had been a pre-school teacher for 20+ years, she truly loved it, and you could tell.

I know I can't expect every pre-school to be soooo awesome, but I guess when you start with that expectation, everything will be kind of a let down.

Ollie is attending the pre-school at the local community center. I like the teacher, and I think she will grow on me. She just doesn't have the same way with the kids that the other teacher had.

The first day I took him in, I stayed for about an hour and than took Max to play at the indoor playpark. I went back to check on Ollie, they were getting ready for snack, he got confused because he washed his hands, than decided he needed to potty, than was told to wash his hands again. He got confused, and got kind of upset, this is where I walked in. Than they had to line up for snack, my heart melted as I watched my little man being herded around, head dropped, and big tears started forming in his eyes when he saw me. I wanted to scoop him up, and take him away. I guess he had a meltdown before the bathroom incident because he was making a play dough T-rex and he wasn't finished when it was time to put the play dough away. He always gets to finish a project at home, and he didn't understand why they would put it away before he was done. I know these are things he has to learn. The teacher also had no assistant on Ollie's first day, so it was her against 14 wormy, squirmy 4 and 5 year olds, with most of the class being boys, that could explain some of it....

But it just broke my heart to watch the conformity! you know like they were all little robots, standing in line, being herded from one activity to the next. It just kind of broke me. I guess I was never really one to conform.

His second day on friday was much better. He is starting to get the swing of things, and so am I. I signed up to help in his class next week, and twice next month. Ollie has made friends, and gets really excited about going to school. So we will roll with it. I know this will be a great foundation so we don't have to go through this in kindergarten.... ohhh kindergarten.. We are looking into some charter schools here in Portland to start him in next year. They are based on Waldorf, or Emilia Reggio philosophies, but are funded by public funds, so they are free like regular public school, but a different style of learning. I am more drawn to these schools, but if we don't get in (they fill slots by a lottery system) than I am okay with that, and public school will be just fine.

No matter where the boys end up going, B and I know that parents play the biggest role in the shaping and education of their kids. I know we are going to be involved and supportive no matter what direction we end up going.

made II... excel love.... Big News.. and a confession

2010-02-13T10:56:00.001-08:00

I mentioned these paper elephants from howaboutorange on one of my last posts.

This morning Max and I made one. We did this one on 24lb paper, I think I might do the next one on cardstock so the little men can handle him a little more without me cringing. Seriously can you be in love with a 3-D paper object, I just might be.

I took this pic last night as I was working again on burdy books. I have a love hate relationship with excel, in my previous professional life, I spent hours pouring over and creating spreadsheets. There is something comforting and disturbing about spreadsheets. Anyway I glanced at the kitchen that was clean before I made dinner, why do I have to spread all over the one counter we have, it isn't a huge mess, I just need to learn how to put things away as I go... I am so irritating...

And the BIG NEWS.

Like flipping a switch, Max decided yesterday he was potty trained. He took his diaper off in the morning, He climbed on the potty when he had to go, and He yelled for me when he was done pooping and needed help wiping. We have tried 3 times to do the potty training thing... THREE times... we tried rewards... fail... we tried bribing... fail... we tried forcing it every 20 minutes... fail....

But like what i had read, but didn't really believe, when they are ready... they are ready. Max decided when he was ready, and like no big thing, He is now Potty trained... already pooped on the toilet today, all by himself, no marshmallow reward, no sticker, it's like he has been doing it every day his whole life... tear... my little man is so growin up.

and my little heart confession...

I am having urges for another baby. Maybe because the boys are growing so fast. Both boys were not planned, more of an oops. A couple of months ago I had my IUD out, and B and I decided we were not going to try to have a baby, but we weren't going to try not to either. Every time I feel bloated, or kind of sick I think I am pregnant. I am not. It is kind of sad looking at the prego tests, wanting it to say No, and say Yes at the same time. I am not to worried, but a little torn, do I really want to do the baby thing all over again? or are we really done. In the meantime people all around me seem to be popping out babies, so I guess I will just get my baby fix from them, and still get my full nights sleep.
This is little Mr. Emmet, only 7 lbs and 1 month old. So precious. Wendy Joy brought him over to share for the day yesterday. I got my baby cuddles in.

Nested...

2010-02-12T15:10:00.000-08:00

This is what I was staring at while doing taxes and burdy books the other night... does'nt our living room look so warm and cozy! I love it...especially my asparagas green wall..

made...

2010-02-12T14:04:00.000-08:00

I am notorious for starting projects, while I usually have a few projects already going on. Than I get irritated that I have a couple million half finished projects, and nothing complete to show for all my craziness.
all my own doing of course!

So the other night I was working on burdy books for 2009, (last year I vowed to keep great books, and total everything every month... Ya right, I spent the evening running over the last years bank and credit card statements... oops) I started our taxes, was working on burdy spring orders, and started cutting out some really cool paper elephant projects I saw over at howaboutorange.blogspot.com.

As if that wasn't enough, earlier in the day instead of working on burdy stuff (like I should have been on B's day off), I made B and the boys help me start on the sock monkey kits aunt jo got the boys for Christmas.

It is a good thing I am craft inclined, cause these were actually kind of hard. B helped Ollie stuff his monkey, and I was helping Max. I think Ollie and B got a little over zealous. They ended up making a plus sized monkey, I had to perform some lipo and a cellulite treatment to get the poor thing to a more appropriate size... the poor striped sock was being stretched to it's limit.

The boys love them, even though on the monkeys first morning of play I had to perform two emergency surgeries to fix busted seams... poor little monkeys.

my hearts all a flutter....

2010-02-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

So... This year we have been going back and forth on whether to enroll Ollie in pre-school, or just work with him at home.

When we first moved to this neighborhood I put him on the waiting list at the community center for there pre-school program. At the time I figured we probably wouldn't get in for this year, and I was okay with that. Well a spot opened.

I just enrolled Oliver bean into pre-school. I feel really anxious about this. I know he will do awesome, I know it is mostly for socialization, but..... he will be away from me three mornings a week for 3 hours. I know it is not that big of a deal, but it feels weird. It is going to be awesome for him, and awesome that Max and I get some one on one time...

but I didn't think it would be this hard letting the little people out from under my wings....

Conversation with a three year old...

2010-02-08T18:21:00.000-08:00

At a table next to us sat a man with a Prosthetic snazzy looking leg. Max was enthralled.

Later in the week...

Max... "Our skeletons are made out of robots."

Me... "Well not really, our skeletons are bones, covered in muscles and stuff... "

Max.. "No, our skeletons are robots, I saw them."

How do you explain that, we went through the doctor book, max is not convinced. I guess they are kind of robots, controlled by our brains... poor kid thinks he has really snazzy robotic looking bones, just like the mans prosthetic leg.

...5... ...

2010-02-02T10:09:00.001-08:00

..My Oliver turned 5..

please time slow down... my little heart can't take it.

YAY for soccer!!!

2010-02-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

Check out Max's black eye... poor little guy, not that a black eye slowed him down at all, I am sure it is most likely the first of many!

I love the boys soccer class, the coach is awesome, his goal is to run the kids as much as possible. Sounds like a great plan to me.

Ughhhh... blogger is having some issues uploading photo's.... Soccer... to be continued....

Chopped.. .

2010-01-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

I really love cooking.... I also love watching cooking shows, me and the foodNetwork are tight. One of my fav shows is Chopped. I think every person who makes home cooked meals allot has experience cooking chopped style. In the show three chefs get a mystery basket full of ingredients and have to cook three courses with the ingredients provided. Which is pretty much the same as digging through your cupboards, trying to create a meal without having to go to the grocery store....

My Chopped meal was..... hmmmmm Gross isn't exactly the right word... Ollie ate two helpings. I pondered calling B on his way home from work with a warning, and a save yourself message. But than I looked at the huge Pot of the Glop I had made, and couldn't stand to throw it all out, so I figured B would just have to suffer like the rest of us...

Just in case you want the "recipe"... here it is.

1/2 pound bacon chopped

1 Onion chopped

2 red potatoes finely chopped

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 package chopped spinach

4 oz cream cheese

2 packages organic annies mac and cheese

1 cup shredded misc cheese

Start by slicing a random half pound of bacon leftover from breakfast over the weekend... start rendering the fat and crisping.

drain fat, and add a chopped onion. Than decide that your husband will eat anything with potato in it, so add two very finely chopped red potatoes. Open a bottle of Wine, and pour yourself a glass.

Decide to be fancy and deglaze your pan with the wine you are drinking... take another drink for yourself.

hunt through the cupboard to find something to go with this. Decide the pasta dish Giada made on her cooking show looked good, so go the pasta and cheesey route. Only pasta you have is Annies organic Mac and Cheese, take another drink of wine, and think... Ya that will work.

Get water boiling for the pasta... decide this "meal" needs a veggie, throw in a bunch of chopped spinach.... and like Giada's recipe a half cube of cream cheese...

drain the pasta and prepare the packaged cheese sauce...

add the pasta and the cheese sauce to the bacon, potato, onion, spinach hash stuff.... take another drink of wine... and than throw in some grated cheese, because melted cheese fixes anything... right...

sit back and take a look at your creation... hmmmmm maybe I should have paid more attention to my cooking than my glass of wine.

ughhhhhh...

quiet...

2010-01-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

quiet is not something I get allot of around the house....

.. ...Thank you lego's for a half hour of peace... ..

Sunday morning...

2010-01-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

tailgating at the The Flavour Spot... the local waffle cart... Seriously who knew waffle sandwiches were so good.

another rain walk...

2010-01-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

rainy dayz...

2010-01-20T15:09:00.001-08:00

We have been hitting up the indoor play park at the local community center. It is awesome to be able to take a 5 minute walk and let the boys run all their pent up wiggles out. Plus, I ran into my old boss from Coffee Bean who is also now a stay at home mom... It is great having a play date for the boys and me!

We are heading into the winter lull waiting in anticipation for Spring... the rain seems to be never ending. Which I don't mind so much, but it does kind of ware on you. I just keep reminding myself that the rain is what makes it so beautiful and green here, that helps... a little.

I picked up some cheap umbrellas at Ikea last week... The boys were super stoked, I had checked at freddys, but didn't want to shell out 15 bucks a piece...

I guess I should have known Max would need a heartier umbrella, this is how his cheap umbrella looked by the time we made it to the community center... seriously only a 5 minute walk.

So guess who had to give up her umbrella for the walk home. The boys stayed nice and dry, I was soaked.

house is coming along...

2010-01-20T14:54:00.000-08:00

We are still here and alive... Our house is getting settled in. We have been painting, and building shelves, arranging and re-arranging cupboards and closets...

Things I Love about our little home..

It is comfy, super, super comfy. It is the first house we have really felt at home in. We loved the little milwaukie house, but our landlord... who was super awesome... was around allot, we never really felt like it was our home.

I got to paint a wall in the living room, beautiful and horrible asparagus green... I love it.

Like the Milwaukie house, every window I look out I see green.

My bedroom is big... It is painted a deep warm grey color... and has dark brown roman shades.... It is like a comfy cave, I sleep awesome in there.

I got a portable dishwasher! Awesome, I may be in love with that appliance.

We have hardwood floors throughout the house... I love them.

I can walk everywhere I need to go, and am only 5 minutes from NW Portland, and I get to drive over the St. John bridge allot. I love it!

The backyard is perfect! and as soon as I finish the garage, my work space is going to be awesome!

We are still working on the house, I will post pictures as soon as we get everything settled. Right now I am working on finding the perfect robins egg color to paint the small space between the cabinets and backsplash!

December.. ..

2010-01-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

December 2009 was crazy busy and stressful. I am glad it is done... I hope you all had a joyous wonderful holiday season, I am already looking forward to spring.. ... I hope this winter goes by fast....

We are all moved in to our new house, we are re-adjusting to living in a small house. I seem to move furniture everyday trying to make the best use out of the space. We love the neighborhood, we have an awesome 12 year old neighbor boy named August...ummm coolest name ever. He loves the boys, and has taken the red cross babysitting class... total score for us! That means we may get more date nights without having to beg people related to us.

The backyard is great, and will be perfect for the summer, But I don't have a dishwasher and this is killing me, like seriously killing me. ...

oh burdy... ...

2009-12-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

I love seeing my stuff featured...

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

moving out, and moving on... ..

2009-12-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

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....

2009-12-04T12:40:00.000-08:00

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..

2009-11-24T13:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-24T12:11:00.000-08:00

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. ..

2009-11-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

Pattern Making.... oh the possibilities

Birthday....

2009-10-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

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

happy pumpkin hunting...

2009-10-26T10:28:00.000-07:00

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.. .

2009-10-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-10-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-10-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

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....

2009-10-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

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

wow, october already...

2009-10-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

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..

2009-09-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-15T18:50:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Soaking up the last days of summer....

2009-09-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

The Yard clean-up...

2009-09-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

It is 90 degrees today... what, I have to admit I like it. I was kind of stoked last week when it was grey and raining... than I had to leave the house and do a bunch of stuff, I realized the rain kind of sucks... and I am not ready to give up my flip flops yet, so I will enjoy this bright sunny weather, leave my skirts and tanks on for a couple more days at least. And than maybe I will be prepared to enjoy the change of seasons. I need rain boots!

We finally broke down and hired someone to come out and clean up the yard. It is an insane yard and we just couldn't get our heads around it. Michael was a crazy gardener, and left the yard in a horrible un-manageable mess! There was way to much stuff crammed into the yard and not enough time in the day to keep it from looking like the set of jumanji....

before.....

after..... (oh my gosh there is a house there)

before....

after....

Our friend Dan came out and did it in one day with his crew, they are amazing! We still have allot of work to do, but at least we are starting from a semi-clean slate, rather than an over-grown weed pit. I have to admit I wanted the yard crashers to come in from HGTV and re-do the whole thing... Dan was a good second best though!

potty talk

2009-08-28T10:31:00.000-07:00

My life has had way to much bodily fluids in it lately... here are some little stories all on the topic of potty.

First, Max is potty training. I don't remember it being this difficult with Ollie. Maybe these are things you just block out. Max seems to be taking full advantage of potty training. I swear he squeezes out the smallest amount of potty he can, just to get the sticker, or marshmallow, or jelly bean I have chosen to use as a reward that day. We stopped the reward system for potty, know he only gets a reward for poo. I spend most of the day reminding him to use the potty and begging him to try and poop on the potty. Only one successful poo so far, with a couple of messy undie incidents... gross! Needless to say we are taking a break from potty training this week. We will try again in a couple of weeks.

Second Potty tale.

A couple weeks ago B and I decided to load the boys up and take a stroll through Ikea. We needed a new duvet cover and felt like a late night (8 p.m. ohhhh were such night owls) walk around would do the boys good. We were enjoying pretending all the little living rooms were ours and the boys were running around with paper tape measures... Ikea is always a good time, unless it is a Saturday or Sunday during the day, B and I have an theory that weekends at Ikea could be the cause of many divorces! especially if you are totting around toddlers...

Anyway as we were making our way through the 595 sq ft of fake house, Ollie mentioned he needed to use the potty, I told him we would find a bathroom after we got through this little house. B and I were very busy admiring the storage space above the cool modern looking bed and discussing how we could use that in our room, B turned around and exclaimed, "Ollie, what are you doing."

Smart little Oliver had found a bathroom himself. There he stood with his pants around his ankles and a puddle on the top of a fake toilet.....Max standing right next to him as an innocent bystander.

In the cute little 595 sq ft of a fake house.

Ikea is smart, they screw the lids down so you can't open the toilets, but when you are a kid and you need to go, and get all ready, something like a lid being screwed down can't stop the stream.

How Embarrassing!

I left B and the boys guarding the puddle, what a bad mom I was, no wipes, no napkins, and no diapers in my bag....

I went and snooped through the employee station, they have nothing in there! so I had to run around and flag down an employee... who laughed... I thought she would say something like "oh that happens all the time." but guess what it doesn't. Has never happened while she had been there at least.... so at least I gave the ikea employee a story to pass around the break room.

and the third most disturbing potty tale...

We got tickets to see the Flaming Lips out at Edgefield....AMAZING... is all I can say about that. Becki and Nick were in town from Austin, Jo met up with us and my friend from Cali Laura. It was so fun to feel semi-younger again. Being a grown up is hard and exhausting!

Anyway we had a couple of beers and when the lips took the stage we made our way down to the front. A couple of songs in, crammed up against other people trying to get the best view and wanting to be part of the show.... I feel a warm splatter, stream HITTING MY FOOT (I was wearing flip flops)! It took me a minute to figure out what the heck was going on, I thought maybe someone had spilled a drink, but it was warm, body temp warm. Than I notice the dude in front of me, slightly to my right, zipping his fly up. THE DUDE PEED. In the middle of a concert crammed in between people. It is not like the bathrooms are that far away.... just right up the hill, COME ON.

I had had a couple of beers, and was furious, but what do you do, the dude peed on my foot. Okay and I am not a quiet person. So I knock on his shoulder, I don't know what I wanted, maybe an "OH, I am sorry, I didn't think anyone would notice." Maybe a lie... Like "Oh I just spilled my drink".... Something anything would be better than the guiltily defensive 6 foot dude saying "uhhh No." and than turning around trying to ignore me saying loudly to everyone and anyone... (i did have two beers in me)..."that guy just peed on my foot!" Needless to say he moved away from us... SO DISGUSTING.... His Girlfriend or wife or whatever was right in front of him. She moved away first, giving him one of the looks I give Brian when he does something ridiculous.... but never, never would Brian Pee in the middle of a sea of people, during a concert!

pretty things...

2009-08-16T10:47:00.000-07:00

I had a booth at the multnomah days street fair yesterday, oh what fun. I love doing street fairs and hate them at the same time... It is allot of work to get all your stuff out there to sell, and I always wait till the last minute so am usually up all night with only a few hours of sleep before the event....burdy did pretty good though, we've got some cash in our pockets.

Every craft event we do, I always seem to fall in love with an artist and their work, I have a little art collection going of pieces I buy at the fairs I do. I bought this piece and want to buy more of his work... they are so beautiful and bright!

The artist Christopher was so great, his booth was right next to ours so we chatted it up on and off during the day. He is from England, and I have this total romanticised view of European countries, I am always shocked when people chose to live in the states rather than Europe... He had some good reasons though, it made me kind of proud of our little corner of the U.S....

Check out his work... he is awesome! www.iambibby.com

River wandering....

2009-08-10T10:13:00.000-07:00

working nine to five...

2009-08-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

Actually it was only 8am to 11am, and only for one week. Really not even a whole week, just Monday through Thursday.

I covered the front desk at my old work... Coffee Bean International. I can't believe it has been 2.5 years since I worked there. It was great catching up with everyone, basically all I did was gab most of the time I was there. It was like I never had left. It was nice being there without the stress I had when I actually worked there. One of my old positions just opened up, one of the less stressful ones....the manager came and talked to me about it and I seriously considered it for maybe an hour.

Do you know how nice it was to not have 2 little men following my every move? How nice it was to do paperwork in quiet. To have actual conversations about other peoples lives, that don't have kids, to talk about weddings, and concerts, and yoga classes......to remember that I did have a life before kids.

Even though it was so great to have a little break, and act like I was working (seriously only working for 3 hours a morning can't really be considered working). It was great coming home to the boys, I missed them, I missed waking up with them (I won't lie though, getting up before they were awake, showering and actually getting dressed and having somewhere to be, was really nice). This time I have with them is precious, and will be gone soon... i keep telling myself that.

The Money does not add up right now, I would be paying most of my paycheck to have someone else be with the kids most of the day. Plus I wouldn't have much time for burdyflyaway, which is my job right now. It would be so nice to have someone else just pay me for showing up and picking my nose, rather than me having to stress about getting all the crap done in order to get a paycheck!

It is kind of fun being on temp status at work though, and to have an office that likes me! Every once in a while working for a week here or there is enough to remind me being at home is the best thing for all of us right now! And thank GOD I have Brian and have that choice, there are allot of women that have to work, they don't have the options that I have, so now I will stop complaining and get these freakin wholesale burdy orders done and out the door, can't get paid if the crap is not shipped!

Big camping adventure...

2009-08-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

So the end of June we took a camping trip to Harris Beach... We met up with Brian's mom, we figured Harris Beach is about half way...

this was the run down of our first camping attempt...

camp spot reservations at the beach, 6 hours from home.....$65.00
food and snacks....$120.00
hotel room to puke my guts up in and die in privacy...$125.00
filling the tank with gas to drive home stopping every 2 hours to let your husband puke out the passenger side door......$35.00
creating memorable family vacations.... priceless!

Last weekend we loaded up and attempted the second camping trip of the summer.

In total our crew had 4 kids under the age of 4. I was worried, I kept telling myself if we make it one night and it sucks, we can come home, the lake was only about 2 hours away...

It was awesome, we had a great time! The kids did really well, and we only had one hair pulling incident on the last day, but other than that they liked each other... and No one puked.

We were so busy swimming, soaking up the sun, getting dirty, and trying to keep the kids occupied we didn't get any pics... the one Kari captured... tooo precious.

..little brown boy and lily white..

summer has gotten away from me....

2009-08-02T08:28:00.001-07:00

I took a break... I took a break from blogging, from facebook, myspace, etsy, and limited my e-mail. Sometimes how we live in 2009 is to much for me, I miss the look and feel of a hand written letter, a conversation that is not notes passed through facebook. Instead of constantly checking my various lines of technological communications, I have been checkin in with my real flesh and blood ones.

So since we have been up to to much to blog about all of it in detail, and allot of the details have escaped me, and may only be interesting to me anyway... here is a list...

My garden has failed miserably, weeds have taken it over. I don't know what is up with my vantucky dirt, but my veggies don't really like it, and it has way to many weeds in it. I think my landlord at our old house must of secretly weeded my garden, it was always so pretty and none weedy. one more reason why I hate it here.

We spent an awesome weekend in Seattle. Jo was graduating with her certification in Ultrasound therapy in Bellevue, so we made a whole weekend out of it. We ran the boys all over the place. We got to bum around Seattle and I got to share the city I love with the boys. After a weekend in Seattle, it made Portland feel like the not so cool younger brother.

We have spent many days wondering around parks, and trying to keep cool. We have had record high temps, the Northwest is not meant to have temps like 107.... this is why I had to leave California, and now it is following us here. It makes everyone cranky and irritable. Thank God we have air conditioning, but that just makes me want to hole up in the house and not move out of my cool cave, which is not so fun for the boys.

We have found a couple of lakes locally to swim in. I love swimming, Max does too, Ollie not so much.

Max has started potty training, we have not mastered it, I am taking the same approach as I did with Ollie, Laid back, and naked... hopefully within a couple of weeks diapers will be a thing of the past!

BBQ's, Sunburns, Friends, Popsicles, and Ice Cream... pretty much sums up our summer so far... Hopefully I will get back on the blogging band wagon!

oh daddio...

2009-06-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Brian and I have an agreement on our special days (father's and mother's day) in celebration, the non-celebratory genetic donor has to plaster a smile on their face, and go along with whatever the celebrating genetic donor wants to do. Diaper duties, clean-up, bath time, and bedtime also are all duties on the non-celebrators, without one complaint.

It is a good thing Mother's day comes first and B is so good about it, it means I have to hold up my end of the bargain when father's day rolls around.

So for B's celebration of being a genetic donor.....

He woke up to coffee on the nightstand (okay, well, I wanted to wake him up with coffee on the nightstand...he does that for me, i love it, and wish I could pull myself out of bed before him.... he was up by the time I rolled out of the house in search of coffee)

We went and ate way to much breakfast at biscuits cafe on sandy...

He got some very sacred alone time in the afternoon....

Than we hit up Russell street BBQ for dinner....

Way to much food in one day... and way to much eating out, but it was his day, so I just went with it, with a smile plastered on my face... it was pretty easy though.

morning harvest...

2009-06-22T23:56:00.000-07:00

This morning we picked a large bowl of raspberries, a small bowl of strawberries and a huge bundle of lettuce....

Oh, how i love eating straight from my backyard...

crafty crafty....

2009-06-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been pretty crafty.... I have gotten a few projects done that have been sitting on the back burner for awhile...

This was a set of bowls I painted when Max was a newborn. I went down to paint pottery with my friends mom's group and got to sneak in some old pieces to get fired too. It was pretty awesome to get these fired up since they have been sitting around for a couple years.
I got the curtains finished for my room... finally, they still need to be ironed, but I am stoked with them.

I also got the curtains done for the boys room... again I am super stoked on them. I am going to work on a small mural for one of the walls... just some hills, and asian style clouds... I heart ikea fabric....

Also, I am working on burdies spring line for next year, and even though I am usually happy with how everything turns out, I am especially stoked on this design... It is an adaption from one of the designs I do on the women's dresses and I think it is awesome! I also added tank dresses for little girls, and cut back the pant and tee sets. I am super stoked for this years spring line....

Oliver

2009-06-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

and the rainstorm

garden tour....

2009-06-02T13:38:00.001-07:00

My garden is off and running. I have learned allot over the last couple of years gardening. I learned what my family eats, what plants do well and where to put them. This will only be my third year with my very own garden. I have to keep myself from cramming as many plants as I can into my garden space. I know the plants will get big, and will bear more fruit this way, I just need to leave them alone.

I got a little creative, planted the zucchini up on a wall, and planted my beans along side a climbing Clementius. The yard is definitely starting to take shape and feel more like my own space. We are working on a patio area this week. I will post pictures when that is finished... can't wait for nights around the fire pit and white twinkle lights in the apple and pear tree!

this is what the boys do while I am watering the garden... nothing like starting the day off muddy....oh lovely.green, dirt, sun, water, and coffee. The perfect morning.