Pop's Truck

 Poppy's truck was 

played with,

loved,

cared for as only a little boy knows how, 

enjoyed, 

 adored,

admired, 

And still looks like it's brand new; at least it was to one very special 5 year old boy!

(Poppy can thank his toy truck and Jake for getting his garden ready for planting!)

Read more...

Lola's Report Card

If you've followed my blog awhile, you know that our dog Lola has her issues. She really is quite an easy dog with the exception of her defiant behavior when we leave her for vacation, and- well, I'll just admit it- her secret overeating addiction. You may remember her sneaky ways into my pantry pulling out and eating an entire loaf of bread, all but two cookies from a new pack, and then there's the fish. She ate ALL of the fish I cooked for dinner when I ran out quickly to pick up Ally from soccer. Oh, and the time she pulled the  dining room tablecloth off to get to the Hershey kisses. Remember the defiant behavior while we were on vacation time and time again? Peeing in the bed of the kind soul who was dog sitting for us? She also regularly pooped in his shower! She never poops or pees in my house; she was just darn mad we left for vacation without her. 

So this vacation, we boarded her. Wait - it was a "pet hotel".  Although I didn't, I could have paid for the suite with the tv.   Not.Even.Kidding.  I did buy some "bundle" that included doggie soft serve ice cream and biscuit night and a peanut butter kong. (I keep accidentally thinking bong; maybe I've already lived in Oregon too long. Hehehe!).   This hotel was run by the PetSmart people who booted Lola's butt out of their grooming service despite her diploma proving graduation from their obedience school. I considering placing her there under an alias, but didn't want to risk her being thrown in the slammer and all. 

She stayed for a week during which time I called to ask them to bathe her prior to her check out. They kept saying how sweet she was and mentioned they had two dogs named Lola. I figured they must have been talking about the other one! They even said she played well with other dogs.  Lola? Play? Whaaaat?    We picked her up late Friday night, and they handed Eric her report card. 

A+

Can you believe it? I know what you're thinking. I'm paying them so what were they going to say, right? But her report card reads:

Sweetheart! Lola had a great mini-vacation. She loves to get all the attention! Lola is very sweet and loves to greet all our puppies! - Hope to have this sweetheart again!

I'm still in shock.  Must have been that soft serve doggie ice cream that made the girl happy! 

Read more...

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

A good visit home is a wonderful cure for homesickness! Kids have been dually spoiled with attention from all grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends! Just what I needed too. 

Unfortunately, not a ton of pics. Just plenty of visiting. 

With maybe some proud moments of winning.....

okay, make that losing.

(thanks, Uncle Dave. Used a couple of your pics)

 Introducing the Men's Putt-putt golf team

They even had coaches.

But the girls won in the end! Great week home!!! (You'd think Eric and I would have some hefty airline miles considering the distances we've traveled in the last 10 years alone! Home and back was 5,600 alone)

Despite traveling all day and having a three hour time difference, we did great jumping back into the swing of things. Grant and Eric went to batting clinic for a little over an hour in the morning, then off to one of those "heavy duty" runs at Cost-A-Lot, then on to a 2 1/2 hour ball practice for Grant and a soccer game for Allyson. Jake was in the mix somewhere, promise. 

On know this will leave readers on the edge of your seat, but just wait till you hear about Lola's vacation! Coming soon to a post near you!

Read more...

Enjoying the Sunshine

Read more...

Leavin' On A Jet Plane

MIDNIGHT MOVIE MADNESS

Read more...

Hello East Coast!

Flying home on the red eye for a quick visit. Wonder how many sleeping kids Eric will be able to carry! This could be interesting. Considering I've never really been able to sleep on a plane, I just may need a nap by the time we get home! 

Read more...

100 Square Feet

Through Pinterest,  I came across Michael Wolf's photos of 100 pictures of Hong Kong's 100 sq. ft. apartments. Wow. Makes you put into perspective what we live in today. And how many square feet do we offer our prisoners in their overcrowded cells? 

Read more...

I Found A Little Boy

I found a little boy today. No, literally, I did. I was driving to the gym two hours earlier than I normally do and saw him.  He was an adorable little Hispanic boy about age three or four running down a busy street first on the sidewalk, across a bridge, and then into oncoming traffic. I turned around in the road as quickly as I could, pulled off into an entranceway to an apartment complex and told Ally to stay with the boys. This little boy was not leisurely running either. He was running with a purpose! Another woman caught his hand as he turned away from the traffic back towards me. With one hand on him, I dialed 911 and started walking back over the bridge thinking his mom would be running after him any second worried to death. 

But she didn't. In fact, I spent 45 minutes with the little guy and never discovered his name or age despite several people asking him in Spanish and English. He was perfectly content just sitting there and really kind of acted like we were interrupting his afternoon plans. Proudly he showed me his penny he had in his hand.  His mom or dad never came looking for him. He never once asked to go home, never asked for his mom, or dad, or aunt, or grandparent even when the police officer came. He had absolutely no desire for the cookie, the balloon, or the stuffed animal he was offered. He was wearing his Lightning McQueen pajamas with a suit vest underneath of his shirt and two different pairs of shoes which were on the wrong feet. He just sat contentedly inside the apartment rental office that I took him into to warm up and dry off. 

I don't know that they found his family yet. But I'm trying to remember that we don't always know the circumstances of events that occur. However, I wish the old adage of, "Finders Keepers, Losers Weepers" worked with children because he'd be mine in a heartbeat.... I'd just need better running shoes to keep up with him! 

Read more...

That Kid's Mine!

Some cute, adorable, little boy sang with his class in church today. Sorry for the lousy pic. Taking a picture with an iphone while trying to be a little discrete does not make for good photography! Jake did great and belted out the songs whether he knew all the words or not. Of course, I waved several times. Okay, I may have stood up so he could see where I was. And I may have taken several more lousy pictures during the performance. 

Today at lunch, he sang the "Fishers of men" song, but he's was slightly different from the original. It went something like: "I will make you fish!" instead of fishers of men. Ah, to each his own! 

Grant has been attending children's choir. You know how that boy does love to sing. He's in a musical. Evidently, it's a jazzy version of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo.  Looking forward to this one! 

This particular church we've been visiting now for several weeks and seems to be a good fit overall. It includes a large homeschooling community as well as an Asian community in the church congregation. It also includes a private school where children attend 3 days a week and homeschool with a parent for 2 days out of the week. It wouldn't be possible to get the boys into this school for next year as the wait list is very long. I was planning on homeschooling them anyway though. We are considering this option for Allyson though. No firm decision yet. 

Read more...

Flashback Friday

 Ally posing for a pic while I was in Kazkahstan

Our first hotel room in the Kazzhol in Almaty, Kazakhstan. (I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're staying there with a guy that has muscles)

One of her favorite places: The Beach!

And his too!

I don't why either one of us has to age!

My beautiful brown baby!

I absolutely love Grant's face. It couldn't describe his feelings any better as this was Ally's first day of school. He wanted to go so badly!

Read more...

Ally's Art

Just posting pics of my kid's artwork again!

Read more...

Conversations with Jake

We were sitting in a restaurant tonight eating dinner when the manager came over to check on us. All three kids immediately asked him for refills on their drinks. With cup in hand, the manager asked Jake, "What is this?".

To which Jake replied, "Empty!"

. Now that's a funny kid.

Read more...

Bits and Pieces

I know, just about a week has gone by without so much as a hello. Blogging didn't really fit into life this week. We've been enjoying being busy and playing outside too. But, man, I'm exhausted! Hopefully this weekend brings some relaxation since we are expecting some rainy weather. 

Little League tryouts for Grant are this Saturday for two hours. Really? What do 8 year old boys need to be doing for two hours? (Just go ahead and interprete this sentence to mean: Gosh! I hope Eric takes Grant to sit in the rain and watch ball tryouts for two hours!)

I don't think I told you all just how "nice" H & R Block really is, did I? After confirming and reconfirming our bank account number repeatedly (say three times!), our tax professional kindly entered someone else's checking account number for the IRS to deposit our tax refund. So generous of them, isn't it? Needless to say, momma ain't happy and gave them a piece of my mind - I don't have much to spare these days-.  Eric said that after I got done with them, the manager was sooo very happy to talk to him instead! Guess our refund will take a while just like last year with the adoption credit issue. 

That's okay because in 14 days, I'm heading home to see my family.  A while back I had a couple of rough weeks of homesickness. I may have moped....maybe cried.......maybe pouted just a little. We all have our faults, right? Trying to make a happy wife, Eric bought us tickets to see our family! Homesickness vanished and we're looking ahead. 

Totally unrelated, I've followed a blog for a while that I found interesting; not educational or really uplifting, just intriguing.  Evidently the blog author is getting paid quite a bit of money for the ads on her website, and I've noticed over the years that she has frequently had more and more riveting experiences in her life. Then, while perusing the internet, I discovered a whole other site that was dedicated to many naysayers of her calling her out on all the lies she supposedly has told with specific details. I've always known I am a bit on the naive side of life, but I'm finding that both sides of the story put an incredible amount of time and emotion into "exposing the truth".  Someone has to have a nose longer than Pinocchio somewhere! Realizing that bloggers have scandalized people in the past by weighing on people's emotions and eventually money, I just find weighing both sides compelling, but I still don't understand why people work so hard to hate each other either. 

Read more...