Our Beautiful Mess - Old

New Life = New Blog (Updated)

2011-06-13T08:51:00.001-07:00

*Sorry, I forgot to change the permissions on my new blog. It should be public now.

A new life means a new blog. I will no longer be posting at this blog address. If you wish to find me, go to www.betsysass.blogspot.com.

Just one more thing...

2011-05-31T08:39:00.000-07:00

I was going to put this video in my last post, but forgot.

When Logan and Bridget can't see each other (which is often, since they live in different states), they like to video chat. They especially like the effects they can play around with in iChat.

This time they were in the clouds.

A couple more things...

2011-05-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks of living in Port Townsend were pretty busy. There was a lot of packing, cleaning and tying up loose ends to do.

Logan doesn't like it when I am busy. We were getting more and more easily annoyed with each other as the busyness continued. It was getting ugly.

Enter Bridget.

Ahh. There we go. Life is always much easier with Bridget around.

Her and Logan sure know how to play and that leaves me with plenty of time to clean and pack.

Seriously, she was a life saver.

She was also able to go to preschool with Logan, which he loves.

Another thing he loves...

Pushing the girls on the tire swing at school.

They just climb on up and wait for him. He is always very willing to help them out.

As long as he can hop on for a ride along the way.

Goodbye Port Townsend

2011-05-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

Logan and I will be moving away from Port Townsend tomorrow.

I will miss seeing this every morning when I walk up the stairs

Not that this is the thing I will miss the most, by any means, but it has been kind of nice living a quiet life in the middle of the woods.

Don't get me wrong, there have been plenty of times where I have wanted to scream out of boredom and suggested we move to a condo in downtown Portland.

As I mentioned above, it will just be Logan and I leaving Port Townsend.

We will be taking this broken puzzle and somehow be putting all the pieces together into a new life.

Goodbye Port Townsend.

The Rock

2011-05-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

Every time we go on a walk, we have to stop at "The Rock" while Logan climbs up and slides down. Then climbs up again and slides down again. Then... well you get the point.

Sometimes, like this day...

Logan is pretending to be Luke Skywalker. On those days the rock isn't just a rock. It is a tower that reaches "almost all the way to space." Logan, I mean Luke, uses it as a lookout. He lets us know if there are any bad guys or tornadoes coming.

If there are, we (Jesse and I) run and hide while Luke battles them and saves the day.

He is awesome that way.

The Last of the Lost

2011-05-20T06:50:00.000-07:00

This is it.

The last post of the lost pictures.

I don't really have much to say about these pictures. Just my awesome (Logan's favorite word) boy listening to some tunes while working on his Puzzle Buzz magazines.

I just think they are adorable and must share them with the world.

Now on to regularly scheduled blogging... or irregularly schedule blogging.

The Crazy Girl We Call Madison

2011-05-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

(I mean that in a good way, Madison. You know we love your craziness.)

The pictures below are proof that you shouldn't leave your children with me.

Snow

2011-05-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it is May and I am blogging pictures of snow. That is as far as I will go, though. I refuse to actually write a post about snow on my blog in May.

I hope that what I wrote so far does not count as actually "writing a post about snow." I was just simply stating that I am going to blog pictures of snow... and not talk about it.

I better stop before I cross a line.

I think I probably already crossed that line, though, when I titled the post Snow.

The Empty Room

2011-05-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Our poor empty living room.

We had great plans for it when we moved in. A big rug, some chairs maybe a coffee table... but then a couple months after we moved in, the owners decided to put the house up for sale.

We weren't about to furnish a room in a house that we were going to have to move out of soon anyway, so there it sat.

Empty (mostly).

Hindsight now tells us that the house wasn't going to sell any time soon. It has been over a year now. I guess we could have furnished the room, but oh well. It made a great dance floor for the crazy dance parties that Logan and I have.

There was one time of year it didn't look so empty though.

I usually get anxious about taking the Christmas tree down the day after Christmas, but this year I left that thing up for as long as I could.

Flying Pumpkins

2011-05-17T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last October Logan and I headed to a pumpkin patch in Sequim with Logan's friend Zephyr (sorry if I spelled that wrong, Carianna... and sorry if I spelled your name wrong also), his brother Bruno and their mom, Carianna.

It had a hay maze, big slide, baby pigs, chickens, pumpkins (of course) and... a huge pumpkin sling shot.

The boys had fun picking out pumpkins to take home. Carianna had a rule for her boys that if they could carry a pumpkin, then they could get it. I think she regretted that rule in the end, because it turns out that Zephyr has super human strength.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the pumpkin sling shot.

It was a little hard for them to pull the sling shot back all by themselves, at least if they wanted it to clear the fence in front of them. There was a barrel in a field in front of the sling shots. If you made a pumpkin into the barrel, then you won $100. We (the adults) tried to help the boys make it into the barrel a few times.

Once it was very clear that we were not going to make it into the barrel, we let the boys go at it by themselves.

Which usually ended in this...

But every once in a while ended in this...

I think I am going to construct a huge sling shot at my parent's house and see if I can shoot a pumpkin all the way over the trees and up the hill to the house of the guy who is always swearing and yelling at his kids.

It could happen.

The Lost Posts

2011-05-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

As I was going through my picture files the other day, I found one titled "Blog Posts to Write." After downloading pictures from my camera, I would choose my favorites and copy them into this folder, thinking I would remember to go back and do something with them.

I obviously didn't.

I obviously don't know myself very well.

Instead of "hiding" the folder inside my picture folder, I should have put it on the desktop where I would have no choice, but to look at it every time I logged in.

Now the question is... is it too late for these poor, lost pictures? I think not! I don't care if some of them are from last October, they will not be forgotten!! They will have their story told!!!

(I really shouldn't take my medication before I sit down to blog.)

There are going to be some changes to my blog in the next couple weeks, and my goal is to get all of these lost pictures blogged about before then. Can I do that in the midst of moving craziness? Can I do that even though I just gave away my desk and am currently sitting in my computer chair in the middle of my office with my laptop on my lap (and everything else on the floor)?

The answer is a resounding...

Maybe.

Rope Swing

2011-05-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days at Aunt Sarah's house, where there is a rope swing out back, Logan decided that he wanted his very own.

This all started with a "lasso" that Logan was trying to throw and hook over our trellis... or arbor... or pergola... whatever it is. Once he had the rope hooked around it, he thought it would be the perfect place for a rope swing.

Normally, this is the point where I would say, "Yeah, that sounds like a great project for you and Dad to do," but this time I said, "Yeah, let's do it right now."

So we did.

And we are very proud of ourselves.

I mean, yes, it is just a rope and a piece of wood.

But we did have to cut the wood and dig out a hole in the middle for the rope. (Tom's drill was, unfortunately not around, so the hole took a little longer than we had hoped.)

We love it though, and we are pretty sure that Logan is not going to go flying off into the woods.

Two Sick Boys on a Couch

2011-05-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

(The lighting in these pictures was terrible, so I threw on a PW Photoshop Action and called it good. I am getting lazy.)

Mother's Day Swings

2011-05-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

I had a good Mother's Day... because I have an awesome son. In fact, he has declared that every day in May is now Mother's Day.

It was so nice and sunny that after we started the morning (which included Logan giving me the card and chocolate Tom had taken him to pick out the day before), we headed to the park and played and played and played.

We actually started a tradition last year at this particular park. The first time we went there, Logan found this big stick that he wanted to take home. I told him that we weren't allowed to take things from parks, but that we could hide it somewhere and see if it was still there the next time we came.

So we did... and it was.

Every time we would leave the park, we would hide it in someplace new (after checking to see that no one was looking), and it has always been there when we went back to look for it.

Since we will be moving soon, I told Logan that we could bring the stick home with us this time. He got really excited, but then brought up the point that we weren't supposed to take things from the park.

Oh yeah, that's right.

It took a while, but I eventually (somehow) convinced Logan that it would be okay for us to take the stick. I am sure I taught him some rule breaking in the process, but oh well.

Anyway, back to Mother's Day.

I have written about this before, but it seems like every Mother's Day I get a new porch swing.

These pictures are actually from a year ago.
We move so much and the swing always seems to be the thing that gets left behind.

This Mother's Day we were actually selling a swing. As I said, we are moving, and won't have a place for it. We sold it on craigslist and the people buying it happened to be picking it up on Mother's Day. Logan was not happy about this. He didn't think it was fair that we had to sell it on Mother's Day. I thought he might start a protest about it and chain himself to the swing. Instead, while we waiting for the people to show up, we laid down on the swing together in the sunshine and enjoyed one last swing.

I promised him we would buy a new one as soon as we had a porch big enough.

Star Wars Exhibit

2011-05-03T23:09:00.000-07:00

We hopped on a ferry the other day.

Bainbridge Island to Seattle.

Why?

Logan has been talking about the Star Wars exhibit at the Pacific Science Center for months, and after a long walk in the rain and a short monorail ride, we finally made it there.

Logan was so excited when we finally got to go, but was a little disappointed once we got there. There were a lot of cool displays, but Logan was not interested in any of that. He wouldn't even get his picture taken near any of them.

There were a few hands-on areas here and there which he enjoyed.

He got to do a little driving.

Build a flying car.

Figure out how to balance a robot correctly.

And build a robot.

He also got to ride in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon, which was the part he was most excited about. I didn't get any pictures of that, but Logan loved it.

Luckily, the rain stopped and we decided to walk the whole way back to the ferry instead of taking the monorail.

So even though Star Wars was slightly disappointing, it was a fun day. My favorite part was the walk back to the ferry. (Especially the part where we stopped and played tag on one of the piers.)

The Search for Eggs 2011

2011-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

We did the normal scavenger hunt for Logan to find his Easter basket this year.

He loves it.

Although, this year he said, "Mom, can we stop pretending that it is the Easter Bunny hiding my basket. I know that it is you and Dad."

Later that day, Logan set up a scavenger hunt for me, all by himself. At the end I found a note that said, "I love you Mom."

I love that kid.

The day before Easter Logan and I were planning on going to an Easter egg hunt at the Jefferson County Expo, but Tom told us last minute that they were having one at work. Logan loves going to visit Tom at work, so we ended up heading there first.

After that Logan and I headed over to the fairgrounds for the Expo. We killed some time looking at old cars. (Logan liked all the red ones. It is his favorite color right now. He did find a nice green one for me and a cool orange one he thought Tom would like. He is very aware of the favorite colors of those around him.)

Then Logan had to go on the big slide, of course.

After that, it was time for the Easter egg hunt. While waiting for that to start, I mentioned that I was cold and wished that I hadn't left my jacket in the car. Logan took off his jacket and gave it to me, which I then put on my lap, assuming he just didn't want to wear it anymore. I noticed him shivering and offered his jacket back to him and he said, "I gave it to you so you could wear it and warm up."

Did I mention that I love that kid? He is so thoughtful and caring.

After the Easter egg hunt we went and watched some mud racing. That is something that I had never experienced before and I felt very Port Townsend sitting there watching it.

And that was our Easter for 2011.

Secret Volcanoes

2011-03-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

When you walk upstairs and find this...

You wonder what mischievous thing is going on.

I went in to get a closer look...

Nothing mischievous going on. Just reading about volcanoes.

Apparently, I wasn't supposed to know.

Don't tell Logan I told you.

By the way, Logan is obsessed with volcanoes. Well, lava really. I can't tell you how many times we have to hop from pillow to pillow (and whatever else I allow him to throw on the ground) to get around the house. It seems like our floor is always covered in lava.

The Forgotten Egg

2011-03-14T01:31:00.000-07:00

While stomping around outside the other day, Madeline and Logan found this.

Poor thing.

The forgotten Easter egg.

While crying over the fact that this poor egg has been outside, lost in a bush, with who knows what crawling all over it, I realized something...

I never posted pictures from last Easter.

The horror!

Well, I got on it STAT and went searching. I didn't have a lot to choose from. Apparently, I go through this anti-photography funk every year at this time. Or maybe it was the fact that we had just moved in the week before, and then hosted Easter at our house.

Thanks a lot for that suggestion Sarah!

(Alright, I will stop the act. I actually love hosting events at my house. I would host every family event here. I just doubt that everyone wants to drive the hour (plus) to the middle of nowhere that we call home.)

Anyway, here are the pictures...

Do I get points for getting these posted before Easter this year?

Our Exciting Comeback

2011-02-23T17:18:00.000-08:00

Life lately has been... well, yeah. I haven't really felt like blogging.

Yesterday morning I found Logan looking out a window, jumping up and down.

The reason...

I know that on some blogs snow might not mean an exciting comeback, but on ours it does. How can life not instantly get better when you see your child jumping up and down in uncontainable excitement.

We spent a good amount of time outside yesterday, having snowball wars, being pulled on the sled (Logan) and fighting off Sith Lords and villans from Batman (those always find a way in).

A lot of the time was also spent throwing snowballs to Jesse.

She is a crazy dog. Her favorite treats are ice and snowballs.

All of those pictures were taken yesterday when we only had a few inches of snow. We are up to about six or seven inches now and pictures from today would have been much more impressive, but we were having too much fun to bother with even my crappy camera phone.

The snow isn't supposed to stop, so we will see what tomorrow brings.

Blown Away

2011-01-25T22:28:00.000-08:00

Aren't they cute?

Sweet?

Innocent?

Blurry?

Just sitting there smiling for Mommy/Aunt Betsy.

Then... BAM!!!

They are practically blown away.

That's what happens when Daddy/Uncle Tom breaks out the shop vac.

In Tom's defense, they were begging for it.

Mother of the Year

2011-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

I think someone should nominate me for Mother of the Year.

Don't worry, I won't ask you to do that before I give you some examples of why you should nominate me.

I don't want to toot my own horn too much, so I will just give you a couple examples.

1. I spend a lot of quality time with Logan playing games that teach him important life lessons.

What games are these, you ask?

Well, there is Star Wars Battleship that teaches him what to do in case we get attacked by an evil Sith Lord.

There is Lego Batman on the XBOX. That, of course, teaches him hand-eye coordination, since it is a video game, but it also teaches him how to defeat villains like Joker, Two Face, Catwoman, The Riddler and many, many more.

Monopoly, which teaches him about handling money, purchasing land and building houses. Of course, we don't play it the real way and we usually end up just stealing houses from properties without paying for them, so forget about this one.

There are many more, but the most important one, I think, is Bang.

Logan is very serious when it comes to Bang.

Which is good, because it teaches him more than any game we play. First off, it teaches him Italian. See the cards below? They are written in Italian, with the English translation below.

Since I have you looking at the cards, I will point out another important lesson. Notice the card on the right? The one with the gun pointed at the guy's head? Look above the picture to see what the card is called. Yup, panic. You should always panic when a gun is pointed at your head. Very important lesson.

Now I am just going to throw out some quotes from Logan and you will see the other lessons that he learns.

"I am going to take this barrel from you so you can't hide behind it anymore when I am trying to shoot you."

"I just got a Volcanic. Now I can shoot you as many times as I want!"

"Yes! Perfect timing. I was about to die, but now I won't because I just got a beer!!"

"Darn it. I didn't draw a heart. Now I have to stay in jail."

"Aww man, you just killed me!"

"Can we play again, Mom? Maybe I will kill you this time!"

2. I encourage Logan to work on his talents.

I am not going to explain this one. I am just going to post this video.

(Warning: I couldn't bare to cut any of this video out, so it is a little long.)

So, what do you think?

Anyone willing to nominate me?

Disneyland - The (Long) End

2011-01-06T23:00:00.000-08:00

I am determined to make this my last post about our Disneyland trip.

You know what that means...

Lots and lots of photos.

Since I am not really in the mood to organize them too much tonight, I will just leave them as they are and comment as I go. It might get a little random.

Oh, Logan. He loved his little map.

He was always pulling it out and checking out where he wanted to go next.

Jill said that she refused to take her kids on It's a Small World. She says the song is annoying and she didn't want it stuck in her head. So... what do Tom and I do? The moment we are left alone with her kids, that is the first place we hit.

Tom made me do it.

The kids loved it, by the way.

They were constantly pointing things out.

Constantly.

Oh, and yes, Jill's kids were singing the song all night. (Insert evil laugh here.)

I am not sure why, but the kids kept making us go on Alice in Wonderland. Sophie wanted to take a caterpillar home with her to ride in.

The kids decided to do some dancing with nature while awaiting a trade off.

Aren't they cute?

Sophie and her Daddy. She always wanted to hold his hand and sit by him on the rides. Jaxson and Logan were always fighting over Madeline. We had to set up a schedule.

I forgot that it was Halloween time when we went. That is how long it has taken me to finish these posts.

My silly boys.

Adorable twins.

Have I talked about Madeline yet? I know I have mentioned her name, but have I talked about why she was there? You see, Madeline is getting to be that age where she can... babysit! (And what a great babysitter she is. She watched Logan one time when Sarah and I went out to lunch and they played spelling games the whole time. Maybe I should pay her to be Logan's preschool teacher.) Anyway... Jill wanted a little help on the trip and decided to bring Madeline along. She was such a great help and the kids loved having her there. We love our Madeline.

Toon Town.

We didn't spend much time there, but the kids got a kick out of some of it.

Personally, I think they should redo Toon Town. Just my opinion.

Tom and Jill are such wimps.

They wouldn't take the kids on Teacups.

John and I were they only ones that would go with them.

I love this picture. Sophie is so cute with her pigtails flying in the air.

Good ol' Dumbo.

Splash Mountain. What a good way to end the Disneyland story.

The first couple of times we tried to ride Splash Mountain with Logan did not go so well. He would do great and was excited about it all right up until it was time to step into the logs.

"Nooooo!!!! I don't want to go!!!!"

He would start screaming and clinging to the rails like we were torturing him. I had to peel him off of the bars so we could cross over the logs and get to the exit. That's always fun to do with a huge line of people watching you.

He wanted to try again, so we did. Same thing happened, except that this time Tom was the one who got to peel him off of the bars.

Do you want to know why he was so scared to go? It wasn't the 50 foot plunge at the end. Well, not really. It was the water in that plunge that was the problem. He didn't want to get wet.

Outfitted with a poncho, he wanted to try it again. And guess what? Again with the screaming and clinging. Finally, we gave up trying to convince him to go. It was sad though, because he really wanted to go but his fear of being splashed in the face kept getting in his way.

The last day that we were at Disneyland he said, "I am going to do it." We decided to give him one last try before we went home. He was nervous. He didn't want to get in the boat... but he did. No screaming. No clinging.

And he loved it!

He loved it so much that we went three times in row. (Thanks to the short line.)

He was so proud of himself. I was proud of him too.

He was a little upset that he couldn't be seen in the picture. Any of the pictures, actually. Every time he was being blocked one way or another. That's what you get for only wanting to sit in the back.

(I wasn't about to pay for a picture, especially since you couldn't see Logan, so I just snapped one of the previews.)

That's it.

It's over...

...until next time.

Disneyland - Logan's Favorites

2010-12-31T09:59:00.000-08:00

When asked what his favorite parts of Disneyland were, Logan quickly answers, "Space Mountain and Jedi training."

Let's talk about Space Mountain first.

Logan and Madeline on the way to the fun

Apparently, Logan loves roller coasters. I cannot express to you in words how much that means to me, for I too love roller coasters. We spent very little time in the "kiddie" areas of Disneyland (Fantasy Land, Toon Town...) and spent most of our time riding roller coasters over and over again, per Logan, Jaxson and Madeline's requests.

(There was the time we spent 30 minutes waiting in line to see Tinker Bell, per Logan's request, but let's not talk about that...)

Back to Space Mountain.

Waiting to board the roller coaster car

Even though Logan met the height requirement, I was reluctant to let him ride. He really, really wanted to though, so I gave in. I am so glad I did. He loved it and was constantly asking to ride again. It is also a favorite of mine, so we did it as often as we could.

(Sorry about the lame pictures. Space mountain isn't the kind of ride where you can whip out your camera to take some shots. The above pictures were taken with my camera phone while waiting in line.)

Jedi training.

Oh, how Logan loved Jedi training.

The problem with Jedi Training, is that many come, but few are chosen. Logan was not chosen the first time he went. We had to just sit on the sidelines and watch.

He kept asking to go back and we finally gave in. We gave him some pointers to help him stand out and get picked this time. You know, jumping up and down, waving your arms, paying off the Jedi Master... okay, we didn't do the last one, but I was tempted. I was not going to sit through countless Jedi trainings while waiting for Logan to be chosen. (The kid sitting next to us had been 8 times and had not been chosen yet.) Luckily, our tips paid off and Logan was picked for training.

The kids who are picked are given a light saber and go through some drills to teach them how to use it.

Learning to duck is an important part of training.

All of a sudden some storm troopers show up and interrupt training. Darth Vader and Darth Maul also show up and have some "words" with the Jedi Master.

The Jedi trainees, then all have a chance to fight with either Dark Vader or Dark Maul.

"Uhh, maybe I don't want to be a Jedi."

"How does this thing work again?"

"I'll get you Vader!!!"

"Duck."

After the bad guys were sent home crying to their mommies, all of the Jedi trainees were given a certificate saying that they had become a Jedi. Logan was pretty proud of himself. He tries to use the force on me often and is always reminding me that he is a real Jedi.

Images of a Holiday

2010-12-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

Logan decided that we should make sugar cube houses this year instead of gingerbread.

Yes, Logan did sneak some of the treats that were to be used for decorating. Okay, I guess I can't really call it sneaking since I gave him permission.

Tom's sugar cube house.

He is such an overachiever.

Logan's sugar cube house. Yes, he did go a little crazy with the green sprinkles... I mean grass.

We decorated cookies for Santa, like usual. I can't believe I didn't get any close-ups of Tom's cookies. As I mentioned before... overachiever.

Christmas morning came and Logan just cried and cried.

Okay, I lied again. That was just a sneeze.

He would never cry after getting something Star Wars.

Or Batman.

He has been playing with this Batcave a lot since Christmas. Unfortunately, there was an accident yesterday. Robin fell off a ledge into lava and is now in the Lava Hospital recovering. Logan says that he must remain there for five days. He also made sure I knew that five days in Batman world is the same as five days in our world.

Poor Robin.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

We did something really strange this year.

We spent Christmas at home.

Seriously, this is the first Christmas that we have spent at home since we were married... and I loved it! Don't get me wrong, I love spending the holidays with our big families, but I have always wanted to spend Christmas Day hanging out with just our little family. Tom, on the other hand, thinks that is a little crazy.

The last couple of years we cheated and celebrated Christmas a day early, then drove to our families house that night and got to wake up and have Christmas all over again. It was a good compromise, but I hated having to pack up and leave a few hours after we opened all of our cool presents.

This year presented us with the perfect opportunity for me to get my wish. We got to wake up Christmas morning in our house and then spend the rest of the day in our pajamas, just playing.

Ahh... it was so nice.

(Don't worry, we will still get to see family. We had Tom's parents up for Christmas Eve dinner and we will celebrate Christmas with my family on New Years Day.)

Disneyland - Those Darn Characters

2010-12-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

A lot of kids go crazy over all the characters they find walking around Disneyland.

Jaxson and Sophie definitely did.

This was them as we happened upon the ending of a parade.

They were freaking out, pointing out all the characters they could see.

We all stood in line so the kids could get a picture with Goofy. As soon as it was our turn, Jaxson and Sophie took off and practically tackled him.

I asked Logan if he wanted a picture.

"Nah, I'll just watch."

That is how it went every time. Jaxson or Sophie would see someone and beg to stand in line to get a picture. Logan would stand in line and wait, but every time he declined a picture.

He just kind of stood there and looked at the character, deep in thought. Who knows what was going on inside his head.

There was this one time, though. He heard that Tinkerbell lived at Pixie Hollow and decided that we should go there. (Logan has a crush on Tinkerbell.) None of us really knew what Pixie Hollow was all about, just that it always had a long line. The kids really wanted to go, so we had the guys go grab us a couple of turkey legs and we settled in for the long wait. (Just a little advice here. I would never recommend eating a turkey leg while waiting in line. A table and about 100 napkins are a must.)

I have to say, Pixie Hollow was a huge disappointment. Especially to Logan.

"This is it?" He asked at one point.

He expected there to be some rides or something, but it was just a place to get your picture taken with different fairies.

And it was hot.

HOT!

Look at poor Madeline and Logan.

It was hot the whole time we were at Disneyland, but this was different. I thought I would go crazy before we could escape that place.

At least Jaxson and Sophie got to hang with some fairies.

Logan was excited about being able to see Tinkerbell, but when asked, of course, he declined a picture.

Disneyland - Buzz Lightyear

2010-12-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

I feel like I must warn you.

I have a lot of Disneyland pictures left.

A lot.

I am not sure how many posts it is going to take, but if I were to do it all in one, or even two or three, it would surely crash your computer when you tried to view it. So really, you should be thanking me, instead of cursing me in your head (or out loud, depending on who you are), whenever you see a new Disneyland post.

If the Disneyland posts are bothering you, I would suggest staying away from my blog for a couple weeks.

I know how hard that can be, though.

With that warning in place... here we go.

I think we rode the Buzz Lightyear ride more than any other. Is it because it is an amazing roller coaster with crazy ups and downs? No. Is it because it is full of princesses that Jaxson and Sophie had to see over and over again? No.

I think Madeline said it best...

"That isn't a ride, it's a video game."

We all became very competitive about it.

Just look at Tom and Logan.

It was very intense.

Don't pay attention to John's smile.

He was just as competitive as the rest of us.

Jill, though, was the worst.

Did you see her there in the background?

Here she is...

I was a little bit afraid of her. Even more so than normal.

It was very difficult for me to sacrifice my score one time to take some pictures.

The things I do for a photo.

Disneyland - A Bug's Land

2010-11-30T17:34:00.000-08:00

(I know... technically A Bug's Land is in California Adventure... deal with it.)

The first time we took Logan to Disneyland was not the ideal situation. He was under two years old and most of the stuff he was old enough to ride freaked him out.

(Even Winnie the Pooh. I understand though, those Heffalumps and Woozles freak me out too.)

The only place he found solace from the dark scary rides of Fantasyland was over at A Bug's Land. (See here and here.) Everything is outdoors and very, very tame. (Except for the 3D movie where you get stung in the back by a bee and sprayed with acid, but we won't talk about that.)

This year A Bug's Land was a little too tame for Logan, but we still spent some time there. Mostly because of this...

It was SO hot.

Of course, the moment Logan noticed me taking pictures this happened.

We rode on all of the rides there, but luckily the kids had bigger and better things in mind after that... like real roller coasters.

Here are some pictures from the kiddie rides at A Bug's Land.

Disneyland - Autopia

2010-11-20T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is getting ridiculous.

I have been dragging my feet on these Disneyland posts.

I finally promised myself that I would not post anything else until I am done with Disneyland. I better get started because my other posts are starting to pile up. (Which is dangerous, because once things start piling up I usually just throw my hands in the air and say "Forget it!!!")

Here we go...

Autopia.

We only went on Autopia once. There was usually a long line, and although it is fun, it is not worth more than one 30 minute wait. (At least not to me.)

Here are Logan and his crush, Kaylie, waiting in line.

Strange things start happening when you wait in line.

Logan took his responsibility as a driver very, very seriously.

"Logan... look over here."

"I need to drive, Mom."

"Come on Logan, I want to take your picture. It will just take a second."

"Oh, look. There goes Daddy."

We hit a corner right when Logan looked over to see Tom, which made the car jerk.

"See Mom! I need to focus."

"I just want one picture."

"No, Mom. I am driving."

I finally got my picture.

How did I convince him?

Traffic.

The People Scarer

2010-11-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Logan was very excited about scaring people with his Halloween costume this year. This was a big change from last year, and I was excited thinking about all the terrible things he could dress up as.

(Like those little Umpa Lumpa guys from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Those things freak me out.)

He, of course, decided on Darth Vader. I knew it was going to be something to do with Star Wars or Batman. Those are his two obsessions right now.

We happened to be heading down to Portland that weekend for a wedding, so we were lucky enough to spend another Halloween with Bridget and her family. (We were also lucky because Uncle Andy and Aunt Lindsay came up from Utah for the wedding.) Jennifer was nice enough to take the kids trunk-or-treating at Bridget's church the night before Halloween. I didn't get any pictures of the kids that night, since the rest of the adults were at the wedding, but I made the kids dress up in their costumes the next morning before we left, so I could get a picture.

Bridget was missing a few pieces of her costume, but she was Sheriff Uniqua, from one of the Backyardigan episodes. Which, apparently, meant she carried a ping pong paddle.

I asked her if all sheriffs carried ping pong paddles. She just looked at me with a very serious face and said, "There is only one sheriff."

I just nodded and walked away.

You learn not to mess with that little girl.

We headed back home on Halloween, but stopped in Port Orchard first to do a little trick-or-treating with Jaxson and Sophie. I mean, Woody and Jessie.

Hmm... looks like one of Darth Vader's eyes turned into a nose.

I asked Sophie... I mean Jessie, how a Deputy stands and this is what I got.

Looks pretty good to me.

Logan got very excited whenever anyone would call him Darth Vader. One person even told him that he was very scary. He came back from that house with a huge smile on his face.

Success.

31

2010-10-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

Tom had a mod podge kind of birthday.

A little of this, a little of that... a little bit here, a little bit there.

He had to work ALL day on his birthday, so we had to get creative. Especially since we had just used up all of our dough in Disneyland. (Yes, I know I still have more Disneyland posts to blog, but I am not feeling it at the moment, so you will just have to wait.)

I won't go into all the details, but his birthday (days) included... homemade cinnamon rolls (those were good), a homemade book made by Logan (with illustrations and all), a car (more on that later), dinner out, miniature lemon meringue pies (they were so cute), and a day of fishing out in our raft.

So, about that car...

I know I said we spent all of our dough on the Disneyland trip, but what we didn't know was that waiting for Tom when he got back was a bonus. (A well deserved bonus, I must say. He has been working his Sass off.)

We have desperately been needing a second car since we moved from Portland, the land of MAX, to Port Townsend, the land of... well... living in the middle of the woods.

So we took his bonus and bought a car.

It was the first time in our married life that we bought a car and didn't have car payments. That means that it is also the crappiest car we have ever owned. I don't have to take Tom to work anymore, though, so I think it is the most awesome car we have ever owned.

Enough about a boring car though. I did snap a few pictures of our fishing expedition. I didn't dare snap them with our "real" camera and risk dropping it in the lake, so I just brought my camera phone. That is why the pictures below have been photoshoped to death.

Enjoy the dead pictures.

Tom trying, unsuccessfully, to hide under his hat.

Come on Logan, look alive.

Why does he insist on having his tongue out of his mouth half of the time these days?

Alright, after five hours on the raft, I suppose it is time to go home.

California

2010-10-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

"Uhh... whoa."

I image that is what Logan was thinking in the above picture. That was his reaction when we first stepped into Disneyland.

He just stood and stared for a while... taking it all in.

He was also pretty tired. We arrived at the Long Beach airport that afternoon and after dropping our luggage off at the hotel, headed right to Disneyland.

The Junior family was with us also, and if you think Logan was in awe, you should have seen Jaxson and Sophie's first reactions.

Although, I think seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle was the highlight for them.

The first couple of days we were also joined by some of John's family. That is when Logan met Kaylie.

Logan immediately adored Kaylie. They had a blast causing all sorts of trouble for a couple of days and Logan was crushed when she had to go home. Tom even heard him talking to her in his sleep.

Here are a few pictures of our first day.

Walking down Main Street.

Standing in line for our first ride, Peter Pan.

Closing out the park with Dumbo.

Overcast

2010-10-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

We hopped onto another airplane Friday night.

We were heading home and we were tired.

When the pilot announced the weather on arrival, I had never been so excited to hear the words "62 degrees and overcast."

(I think I am almost recovered from our trip to California and will possibly start sifting through photos soon. Maybe.)

Heat Wave

2010-09-28T23:32:00.000-07:00

We got on an airplane Monday morning.

It was rainy and overcast when we left Seattle.

Our destination was California.

Logan enjoying the in-flight entertainment. He was watching iCarly.

We knew it was going to be hot when we got there. (We know how to use weather.com.) It was supposed to be a high of 98 degrees. We were prepared for that.

It was 107 degrees when we landed.

Heat wave (as the pilot said) indeed.

Anxious

2010-09-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

I just dropped Logan off at Preschool for the first time. I am feeling a little anxious about leaving him to a room full of possible bullies and three teachers that I have only met twice.

Logan was not feeling anxious.

He was all smiles when I dropped him off. As long as those smiles are still there when I pick him up, I think my nerves will settle down... until next time.

Batman or Water?

2010-09-10T07:54:00.001-07:00

Logan made a list of all the different kinds of birthday parties he might have. I told him he had to pick just one, but try as he might, he just couldn't do that and decided that he wanted to have a Batman/water party.

So that is what we did.

You might be asking yourself what a Batman/water party is like. Well, let me tell you...

It starts with some lunch on Batman plates.

If you are going to make people drive over an hour to get to the party, you better feed them something.

After lunch, you line them up for a water balloon toss.

Which quickly turns into a water balloon war.

Everyone was disappointed when the water balloons ran out, so that is when we brought out the squirt guns.

Next, you eat Batman cake.

Tom made the cake. I think it was awesome. He will want me to tell you, though, that he wanted the sky to be darker, but he ran out of food coloring.

After cake, we let the kids beat up Batman while chanting, "Give me candy!"

Okay, there was no chanting, but they did do a good job of beating him with a bat. Some of those kids obviously have some pent up aggression.

Logan opened presents after that and then some headed home and some headed down to check out the bunkers and the beach.

Thanks again for coming everyone!

(Sorry about the picture overload. I already deleted so many that I wanted to use for this post and I just couldn't do it anymore. Each time I delete one it rips a little piece of my heart out. What? I am not dramatic.)

Lucky You

2010-08-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

I have so many posts (in my head) ready to be told, but we have been a little busy.

August is a busy, busy month. (Although, I think September will be even busier. It's okay though, I like busy.)

Logan and I are staying at the Junior house for a few days and while that means lots of fun, it also means not a lot of time for blogging. I was really hoping to at least get some pictures up of Logan's birthday party, but it seems that my camera bag was a little light when I brought it inside. Yes, I brought the camera bag, but left the camera full of pictures on the bookshelf at home. If you are lucky, I might get Logan's 5 year post up on his blog sometime in the next couple of days. (I do have pictures for that.)

Wait... you are lucky! Just because I don't have my camera, does not mean that I don't have my web cam in which to capture some pretty cool dancing by Logan and Jaxson while they were playing Happy Feet on the Wii.

I think the below videos would be awesome with some rockin' music, but I have already taken my medicine for the night (and have to continually correct typos... thank you Firefox for the dotted red lines that makes that easy... although I really do want to say rockin' not rocking). I am afraid of the songs that I would pick in this frame of mind. So here they are... sans rockin' music.

Marshmallow Peeps

2010-08-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

No, I am not talking about those disgusting Easter treats.

I am talking about these guys.

(Ignore the angry one.)

I saw this post on Color Me Katie and decided to try it out while we had Madeline visiting.

First, you paint faces on with food coloring.

Don't they look so happy.

Add some icing for hair and...

Ta-da! You've just made your self some new friends... that you are probably going to eat soon. Maybe we should call them strangers instead.

Madeline decided to let her peeps mingle.

That is when tragedy struck.

Mustache guy was so brave.

So very brave.

He didn't even scream at this point.

He just kept trying to talk the lion down (even though his voice was a little muffled now).

Then...

... it was too late to scream.

Missing Bridget

2010-08-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

When we left Portland, the most heart breaking part was leaving Bridget and her family. Bridget was more than just a cousin to Logan. She was a best friend... an almost-sister... an accomplice in all sorts of fun and mischievous things.

Like putting spells on me.

Her parents became more than just Aunt/Uncle/sibling/in-laws to us also. We were able to become friends in a way that wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't moved to Portland.

We miss them everyday.

When we left, Jennifer made a little photo album for Logan with pictures of all the fun Bridget and him had in Portland. That inspired me to do this post.

I started it in March.

Here it has sat, unpublished, for months and months. I came back time and time again to finish it, but never did. I blamed that on being overwhelmed by all the pictures that I wanted to post. I spent an hour or so going through my picture folders looking for photos of Bridget and Logan.

I found hundreds... and I loved them all.

It was painful, but I finally narrowed them down to around 30 or so. I felt like that was still too many to put into one post, but I just couldn't delete any more of them. I can be stubborn sometimes... and this was one of those times. I uploaded all of them to Photobucket and inserted them here, in this post.

That is when I realized the real reason I never finished this post. Looking at all of the pictures just made me miss Bridget too much, darn it! It made me think about making plans to steal Bridget and move to Alaska with her. I could be happy living in a remote village if I had Logan and Bridget... and Tom too, of course. (Just kidding Byron and Jennifer. Sort of. No, really, I wouldn't do that. Probably.)

Well, this past Monday was Bridget's birthday. Unfortunately, (really, really, really unfortunately) we couldn't be there. Instead, we sent her a DVD with a video of us singing "Happy Birthday" and a slide show of pictures. As Logan and I watched the DVD the other day (for the 50th time) I remembered this post. I was determined to finish it.

So, here I sit.

Instead of making you scroll through all of those pictures, I will just post the video. I think it is precious. I am a little biased though.

Sleep Disorders, continued (The True Craziness Begins)

2010-08-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

Remember this post about my sleep disorders. I was so excited and confident that I was going to take this "magic pill" and all my craziness would go away.

I was wrong.

The first couple of weeks on my new medication, I didn't notice any changes. So I called my doctor and she told me to double what I had been taking.

I did... and that is when the true craziness began.

Day One:

It said to take the medication at bedtime, but the first night I took it about an hour before I went to bed. (You have to take it with food and I don't like eating right before bed.) So, I take the pill and go about my business. Washing my face, making sure Jesse gets outside one more time, putting away laundry... that is when I start to feel funny. My knees just aren't going to work anymore. Tom found me sitting in the closet, crying. Don't ask me why I was crying, I don't know. In fact, I don't even remember crying, but Tom says I was.

Tom helped me to bed at this point and then fell asleep. That is when I remembered that I had a load of laundry in the washer and I wasn't going to let it sit there all night. I stumbled out of bed and barely made it to the laundry room. (I think I might have crawled part of the way.) There was no way I was going to be able to stand and move clothes at the same time, so I sat on the floor (thank goodness for the front-loading washing machine) and proceeded to stick the clothes in the dryer. It was difficult. My arms weren't working either.

I must have woken up Tom, because there he was again, helping me to bed and saying that he would switch the clothes.

As soon as I hit the pillow, I was out.

Day Two:

I was smart this time. I took my medication and hurried to bed. I would like to say that I quickly fell asleep and slept soundly the whole night.

I can't say that though.

I wanted to talk to Tom about something. Some scheduling or something like that. He was in putting Logan to bed, so I forced myself to stay awake. I waited and waited and waited.

Tom didn't come.

He had fallen asleep in Logan's bed.

By the time he came to bed I was a mess. I won't go into details, but it wasn't pretty. There were tears and "plans" (about what, I am not sure) and a lot of strong emotions. It took every little thing I was feeling and multiplied it by a thousand... maybe more.

Oh, poor Tom.

Days Three through Five:

After that I decided that maybe that dose was too high for me. I went back down to the lower dose for a few days, but then the dreams and sleepless nights started again.

Day Six:

I decided to try the higher dose again, but this time to actually go right to sleep when I took it.

Hallelujah, it worked!

I slept through the night and didn't turn into a crazy person.

Phew.

I still have to be careful not to take the medication too early. One day Tom saw me take it and not head straight to bed.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I need to go wash my face and brush my teeth."

"Well, you better run!"

I don't think he wanted to have to drag me to bed again.

Battery Kinzie

2010-07-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

I think I have already talked about the love Logan and I have for Fort Worden. If I haven't talked about it, well then let it be said now.

Logan and I love Fort Worden!

During one of our visits a month or so ago, we heard a lot of ruckus while we were walking to the light house and decided to check it out. We followed the noise and found Battery Kinzie, a concrete Endicott Period Battery (yes, I got that last part off of wikipedia). It was filled with a busload of high school kids and there was a lot of laughing, screaming and running around. Logan wanted to go check it out, but I decided that was something we needed to explore with Tom. Something about the pitch-black rooms and hallways inside did not sound appealing to me at that moment.

Anyway... we finally convinced Tom to go check it out with us last weekend.

First we ate Subway.

Then we ignored the warnings. We're not scared! (At least not now that Tom is with us.)

It is pretty cool. They left a little space between each room inside, which made narrow passageways that were completely dark. Luckily, Logan had his headlamp.

Logan had fun running around and checking out all of the different areas.

And dancing on top.

We might get a little bored up here sometimes, but it sure is a beautiful place to live.

The Dangers of Sequim

2010-07-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Tom and I don't go to Sequim anymore.

They have too many cops for our liking.

Not my picture

Tom got pulled over by one the other day. (He was going 9 miles over the speed limit.) Logan was pretty excited about this. He was all smiles. When the police officer came to the window Logan said loudly, "We've never done this before!"

While the police officer was in his car, trying to dig up the dirt on Tom, Logan was getting excited about the prospect of visiting the jail.

"Do you know how to get to the jail Daddy?"

"Can we follow the policeman there?"

"What will we do in jail?"

Logan was a little disappointed that we got away with just a warning (and a threat that we better get Washington license plates... or else).

Three Stomachs, Two Brains and One Awkward Conversation

2010-07-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Tom called on his way home from work a few weeks ago and said that we were going to go visit a baby horse. Apparently, one of the horses of Tom's friend had just had her baby.

Picture stolen from Louie

Logan started talking non-stop after this news.

"When daddy and I were at Louie's house the other day, one of the horses had a baby in its tummy. Remember when we were reading my Andrew Lost book and they got stuck inside a blue whale. That whale had a baby in its tummy also. Did you know that blue whales have three stomachs? It's true, they do. That is what Thudd told Andrew and Judy in my book. Isn't that crazy?!?"

Picture stolen from stranger

I was just kind of nodding and saying "uh-huh" throughout all of that. Then he asked, "Mommy, how do babies get out anyway?"

That got my attention.

"Uh... there are a couple different ways."

"What is the first way?"

"Um... well, you see... uh... with you, the doctor had to... uh, take you out."

"How did he do that?"

"Well, he... uh... it's kind of hard to explain."

"Okay, then what is the second way?"

"Uh... well... um... so blue whales really have three stomachs? That's crazy!!!"

"Yeah, it is crazy! I wish I had three stomachs. Actually, I wish I had two brains, then if someone fell and their brain fell out I could let them borrow my other brain until they could get a new one."

Phew... that was close.

Logan asked Tom the same question later that night. Tom calmly (and um-less) said that a special hole opens up and lets the baby out when it is ready. Logan was satisfied with that answer and didn't ask anymore questions. How come I can't think of quick answers like that?

Onion Tears

2010-07-16T11:40:00.001-07:00

As I was dicing up onions the other day, I explained to Logan how they can sting your eyes and make you cry.

"Why do they make you cry?" Logan asked.

As I answered him, he intently watched my face, waiting for the tears to come.

Watching and waiting... watching and waiting.

"You aren't crying."

He sounded disappointed.

Not wanting to disappoint, I moved my eyes a little closer to the onions.

"I might not be crying," I said, blinking like crazy, "but my eyes sure do hurt."

After some urging from Logan, I inched my face closer and closer to the onions. The closer I got, the more pain filled my eyes. Finally, big tears starting rolling down my cheeks.

Logan smiled in satisfaction.

The things you do for your children.

Return of the Triplets

2010-07-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it just a couple days ago that I thought about turning the heat back on?

Yes. Yes, it was.

Now I am cursing the fact that we don't have air conditioning and am dreaming of last summer in Portland when I could make my house feel like a walk-in freezer if I wanted to... and often did.

Oh well, the heat does mean more outside fun. We had lots of fun with the Junior twins this past week.

The kids played in the pool.

They thought about squirting me. Luckily, they realized the consequences of squirting me while I held my camera were not worth the fun they would have doing it.

They did, however, squirt Jesse without compunction. In the picture below, they are trying to squirt her as she hides under a bush. Luckily for Jesse, she has a whole forest in which to hide.

I finally filled up some of the water balloons I bought weeks ago.

The kids had fun throwing them off the deck and watching them burst on the rocks below.

They also had fun hiding in the bushes and throwing the balloons at Tom when he got home from work that night.

(Sorry, no pictures of that. I wanted to be part of the fight and I knew that Tom would try to retaliate, which he did. He caught a couple of the kids balloons. He has good aim.)

The "triplets" did not have fun when I sent them out with bags and instructions to find all of the pieces of the popped balloons.

To lighten the mood after that, we decided to have a dance party. Cleaning up might not be something those kids enjoy, but dancing definitely is.

While they danced, I decided to mess around with some of the settings on my camera, just for fun. I didn't expect any of the pictures to turn out... and they didn't. There were some pretty funny ones though, so I decided to post them anyway. I had fun with a couple of them in photoshop.

Those Junior kids are a lot of fun, but they tire me out. I think I am going to go sleep for a couple days now.

Sparklers

2010-07-06T10:43:00.000-07:00

I love taking pictures of sparklers.

Logan loves playing with them.

I wonder if he is a pyromaniac, like me.

Growing up, I used to sneak out to our backyard and light paper on fire. Probably not a smart thing to do in the heat of an Arizona summer.

I better go hide all of our lighters and matches now.

Sleep Disorders

2010-07-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

I have posted before of my... uh, nightly activities.

They haven't gone away.

In fact, I think they have gotten worse.

Tom started threatening divorce if something didn't change. (Not really, but he does sleep on the couch sometimes. He says it is quite comfortable.)

"Fine, I will go see a doctor."

My doctor referred me to a sleep clinic. The sleep specialist started throwing around words like Sleep Apnea and Parasomnias. She thinks I have a combination of both and wanted me to have a sleep study done. You know, where you get to sleep at the hospital and they hook you up to all sorts of wires and then they videotape you as you sleep. As fun as that sounds, I didn't like the $2000 price tag that came along with it.

"Isn't there something else we can try first?" I asked.

She said we could focus just on the Parasomnia and try to treat it with medication. I did an internet search on Parasomnias and here are a few quotes...

"...extreme panic and a sudden, loud, terrified scream during sleep, followed by physical activities such as hitting objects or moving in and out of the bedroom. Persons with this disorder can injure themselves...

...patients act out distinctly altered dreams that are vivid, intense, action-packed, and violent. Dream-enacting behaviors include talking, yelling, punching, kicking, sitting, jumping out of bed, arm flailing, and grabbing...

...vivid nocturnal events that can cause feelings of fear, terror, and/or anxiety..."

Yup, that sounds about right.

I can pick up my new medication later today. I am going to sleep well tonight.

What we've been up to...

2010-06-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

We added some spunk to the deck.

(Yes, that's right... you see Bridget in that picture. I was able to steal her a couple times this past month. Oh, how we miss that girl!)

We got a little sand between our toes.

Finally, we relaxed with a little reading.

It's been a good June.

Seriously?

2010-06-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

We spent the evening in the ER last night.

Again.

This time because of a bike accident. We thought Logan's thumb was broken. It's not broken though, just badly sprained.

I am just grateful that this was an ER we have never been to before. If they had known about all the other injuries Logan has had, I am not sure they would have allowed us to take him home.

I think I am going to make him wear something like this at all times.

That should be enough padding to protect him, right?

Dog Shower

2010-06-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

(Warning: Do not read unless you are really bored and have nothing better to do. Seriously.)

One of the problems with being a dog owner is that if you don't want your dog to stink, you have to bathe it. Maybe that isn't a problem if your dog weighs 10 pounds, but when she weighs 90, it is a bit annoying.

We had a great place in Portland that we took Jesse to, but when you move to a small town your options seem to be limited, if not taken away all together, and we have yet to find a replacement groomer.

I put it off and put it off, hoping to wait it out until summer truly came and it was warm enough to hose her off outside. Unfortunately, I have an extra sensitive nose and it can only handle so much.

To the bathtub we went.

I threw a treat into the tub, crossed my fingers, and hoped that Jesse would hop on in. Yeah right. That was never going to happen. Darn lazy dog. I crouched down, grabbed her front legs and tried to lift her in. It took me less than a second to realize that wasn't going to work.

That is when I spied the shower.

I opened the door and threw a treat in. Jesse sauntered in and I shut the door.

Success.

Sort of.

Now I had to get in there with her to finish the job. It took a while and I got soaked, but she eventually was clean enough that I could pet her and not feel like I needed to stick my hand in a bucket of sanitizer.

(Tom, could you please install a hand-held shower head? Either that or you give Jesse her "showers" from now on.)

I may have gotten soaked, but at least Jesse could take a shower and Logan could take a bath at the same time.

Visiting RaB

2010-05-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

As you know, yesterday was our anniversary. Tom had four days off so we were making plans to drop Logan off with family for a couple of nights. We decided to just stick around town and take advantage of the "night life" that Port Townsend has to offer.

Then we thought, "Hmm... Rust and Brit don't live that far away. Seven and a half hours is nothing."

That was all it took. Our plans were changed.

At one (of the many) pit stops on the way to Idaho...

...Tom suggested that we stretch our legs and take a little walk...

...up a mountain!

"Logan wants to see the horses," Tom said.

(Logan's impression of a cowboy)

(I must say at this point, that all of these pictures were taken with my camera phone. That is going to become very obvious.)

After a while I told the "cowboys" that it was time to hit the road and we eventually made it to Idaho.

We didn't do much... hung out, went out to eat, played at the park, watched Grey's Anatomy and Myth Busters, tried to go bowling, saw Shrek Forever After instead, played interesting games of Hearts, Texas Hold 'em and Settlers of Catan, ate some doughnuts... and it was awesome!

(See Brit. No need to worry.)

Oh, and some of us rode a bull.

Before our trip, I was trying to explain to Logan how long he has been friends with Ashlyn. He wasn't getting it, so I showed him these pictures.

(Logan - 4 months, Ashlyn - 1 month)

(Logan and Ashlyn about 2 years old)

(2 again)

These pictures were taken this past weekend. (Remember... camera phone.)

What I didn't tell him is that they are betrothed. I will save that conversation for a later date.

"You see Logan, you don't have to date. You will be marrying Ashlyn. You are not allowed to do that until you are at least 35 though."

Oh, and Ginger, your niece and nephew are still very, very adorable.

9 Years

2010-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary Tom.

(How did we ever survive without digital cameras?)

I love you.

For our anniversary we went to visit Rusty and Brittany in Idaho, of course.

More on that later...

A Favorite Thing

2010-05-18T10:54:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law, Nicole, shared Color Me Katie with all of her readers a while ago.

I have been a fan of Katie's ever since.

I dare you to watch the video below and not smile.

Couldn't do it, could you?

Katie's blog is a great place to go if you are having a bad day.

Logan's Pictures

2010-05-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Logan loves taking pictures, but I have a hard time handing my camera over. Instead, I hand over my phone. Thank goodness for camera phones.

Most of the pictures end up looking like this.

Or this.

Sometimes he catches sweet moments.

Like Tom holding my hand.

Sometimes he gets me in trouble.

"I took these pictures while you were taking a nap, Mommy," Logan proclaimed loudly after Tom came home from work one day.

I was so exhausted that day and fell asleep on the couch while Logan was reading to me.

Sometimes he takes pictures of a best friend.

"Oh, Chessie!" (Quoting Sophie)

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Tom has to work all day today.

As a Mother's Day gift to myself, I am thinking about letting Logan play video games non-stop.

(In all seriousness, and so Tom doesn't get mad at me, we celebrated Mother's Day yesterday and it was very, very nice. Thank you Tom and Logan!)

Guesstures

2010-05-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Logan and I have been playing a lot of Guesstures at our house.

That kid is hilarious.

Sometimes Logan will misread a word. Like hop. He thought it said hope. It was cute watching him try and act out hope. He grasped his hands together and looked off into the distance with a pleading look in his eyes.

Tom was very proud of the fact that when Logan was trying to act out the word cast, he pretended like he was casting a fishing pole. It is always fun to see where his mind goes.

I do have to be careful with what words I choose. When I was acting out the word hurt, Logan got huge tears in his eyes and gave me a hug because he thought that I really was hurt.

Apparently, I am a really good actress.

More silly Logan...

Goodwill

2010-04-23T16:50:00.000-07:00

Logan and I will visit our local Goodwill every once in a while to see what they have to offer. We will browse through the books and video sections, but we like to spend most of our time looking at games. Granted, it does get a little tiring looking through the boxes to make sure all of the pieces of the games are there, but it can pay off sometimes.

Like last week.

We totally scored.

Star Wars Battleship.

Two of Logan's favorite things in one game. He played non-stop the first day.

(Don't worry, I sanitized every piece before we played.)

The Triplets

2010-04-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have three 4 year olds at my house right now.

Yes, I did give them scissors and glue.

No, I am not crazy.

Oh, and yes, I did walk outside and see two naked bottoms at the edge of the woods. Apparently, Jaxson and Logan needed to pee.

"Mommy, I love you..."

2010-04-15T09:25:00.000-07:00

"... a million times a million... plus twenty-three... minus one hundred."

I am not sure what I did to earn the negative points, but I will take it.

Goodbye Limbo, Hello Reality

2010-04-04T19:19:00.000-07:00

Moving boxes...

More moving boxes...

And yes, even more moving boxes.

This One is for Tom

2010-03-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

Tom has been complaining about my lack of blog posts. He says that the blog is the only way he knows what is going on in our lives right now.

That is sad, but true. With us living so far away from his work right now, Logan does not see him most days.

So here you go, Tom. This is what you are missing out on.

We swing everyday. (As long as the rain isn't pouring down.)

Sometimes Jesse gets in the way.

Logan rides his bike. Which is a lot more fun now that he has a new "big" bike.

You should have seen him in the toy store looking at bikes.

"Wow! I need this one!!!"

Tom tried to convince Logan to get a cool orange bike that looked better built, but Logan would have none of it.

Logan climbs to the top of the trellis. (I know, I know... not a smart thing to let a kid who has already had two broken arms do.)

Logan and I clear out a path in the woods.

I have bruises and scratches all over my body, but it has been fun. Only halfway left to go.

Goodbye Portland, Hello Limbo

2010-03-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

After we left Portland, we have been stuck in Limbo for a while.

While in Limbo...

Jesse made some new friends...

we met some of Jaxson's "friends"...

and Logan and I stay in our pajamas until noon.

Limbo is coming to an end soon. I will be sad to see it go, but I am excited to move on to our "real" lives.

Today's Activity

2010-03-03T21:42:00.000-08:00

Pillow fight!!!

Hotel Living

2010-03-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

Tom was heading down to Salem this week for work, and since we are somewhat homeless at the moment, Logan and I decided to tag along.

Living in a hotel has it's advantages.

The pool being one of them. Logan is very excited about going swimming everyday.

The lack of responsibility is another. No cooking/cleaning/laundry leaves a lot of free time for...

Logan to play Spider Solitaire.

And me to try to (unsuccessfully) redesign my blog.

Memories

2010-02-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Before the sad, sad day that we had to return Tom's iPhone to his previous employer, I downloaded all of the pictures he had snapped recently. Among them were examples of things that we will miss about Portland, and things that we will be happy are only memories now.

Here are some of the things we will miss...

Oaks Park Preschool Mornings - Logan and I really took advantage of the discounted mornings last summer.

Fishing at Horning's Hideout with friends.

Making funny faces at the Rose Garden.

Now for a couple things we will not miss...

Surgery

Banging our heads on the table at a local fast food restaurant???

Although we will miss the play areas at those fast food restaurants. There is only one fast food restaurant where we are headed, and it does not have a play area. What are we going to do on all those rainy days?

Mario Kart

2010-02-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

I like this song.

Please know, though, that just because I like this song does not mean that I like Mario Kart.

Because I don't.

I actually dislike it very much.

And yes, I dislike it because I am terrible at it.

Really terrible.

Depoe Bay

2010-01-30T12:58:00.000-08:00

Where the stress in life is washed away with the waves.

Well... Logan had one more thing to stress about at the beach...

Luckily, he was able to...

break free...

eventually.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

Goodbye Portland

2010-01-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

I will miss you.

I thought we would have more time to spend together.

A lot more time.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. And while I am very (very) excited about what might lay ahead, my heart is breaking as I leave.

I do not regret you, though.

I almost do, but I cannot.

You have given my family some good friends and fun times. You have given us relationships that we will cherish always. You have given us a new outlook on life.

I love you Portland. I really do.

Until we meet again.

The Last of Them

2010-01-24T19:31:00.000-08:00

I promise.

These are the last "Christmas" pictures.

We like to take advantage of the Junior's Zoo pass whenever we can. We all headed to Point Defiance Zoo while we were up there for Christmas.

More Christmas

2010-01-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

Random pictures from the Godsey house.

I am sad that I don't have any pictures from the Sass house. (I forgot my camera.) You can find some here though.

Our Christmas Morning

2010-01-17T14:56:00.000-08:00

Stockings

Presents

A candy cane for breakfast

Listening to some tunes

Playing knights and pirates

Sticky Rolls!

Toy Story

2010-01-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

Apparently our toys really do come to life while we are gone.

Fourth Quarter Nap

2010-01-14T11:18:00.000-08:00

The 4th quarter of the Blazers game last night was a little too boring for these two.

Warning: The pictures were taken with my terrible camera phone.

Catch Up

2010-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

We are back home now.

It feels weird to be on a normal schedule again.

For those of you who don't know, my brother's wife gave us all a little scare.

Well, a big scare actually.

A HUGE scare.

We have been up in Washington since Christmas, trying to help out anyway we could. She is out of the ICU (still in the hospital, but in a normal room) and off the ventilator, breathing on her own, so we decided to head home. It was hard leaving them, knowing that there is still a lot that can be done. That is the great thing about having such a big family though (and most of them living in Washington, close to them)... there is a lot of help. I just hope that she is able to wow the doctors and get home in record time.

Now that I am home, that means catch up time. I had a lot of posts floating around in my head during the Christmas season, but I might just have to consolidate them into one or two.

Hmm... you will just have to wait and see.

Hair Woes

2009-12-22T09:19:00.000-08:00

Logan doesn't like the way I do his hair.

He will redo it every time. That usually involves him getting the front wet and flattening it with his hand until it is sticking to his forehead.

What is my solution?

Buzz it.

Go ahead Logan. You can do your own hair every day.

Impatience

2009-12-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

I am very, very happy that Christmas is coming a day early at our house. (Click here if you need an explanation.) I don't think I could stand it if I had to wait another day.

I don't know why I am so excited this year, but I can hardly contain it!

Houses of Gingerbread

2009-12-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

Can you guess which one is Tom's and which one is Logan's?

Logan's has bars on the side window.

It is to keep the animal cracker inside. We don't want that to get out and run wild in the neighborhood.

Tom even made a pond with a little bench.

We didn't have any blue food coloring, so Tom tried to melt a piece of blue candy. It didn't work very well.

The Decorating

2009-12-11T14:46:00.001-08:00

Ever since we have been married, our Christmas tree has been blue and silver. The last couple of years Tom has wanted to change that. I always fought him on it because I didn't want to spend the money on new ornaments.

This year he won. (Halfway)

Red and Silver.

We decided to make our own garland out of cranberries and Cheerios. Tom wanted to buy the generic Cheerios for $1.59. I wanted to splurge and buy the Frosted Cheerios for $2.79.

I won.

(And I will add that I think the white frosting on the Cheerios added a special touch. Tom claims that you can't even tell that they are frosted, but if you get really, really close (and have a magnifying glass) you definitely can. I also like the fact that our tree smells like sugar. Unfortunately, Jesse also likes the way the tree smells. I find her sitting a little too close to it quite often.)

We had some little helpers with the decorating and garland making.

The Hunt

2009-12-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

We went to our favorite farm to find our Christmas Tree.

Experiment

2009-12-04T20:24:00.000-08:00

We wanted to sell our crib on Craigslist.

I would have given it away for free, but figured that we might as well get a few bucks out of it.

We posted it for $40 with this picture.

Nothing.

Well, a few scams and a couple solicitations, but nothing good.

I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Yes, the picture could have been better, but all the other decent cribs on the Portland Craigslist were $75+.

So I raised the price by $20 and posted this picture instead.

We sold it that night.

Maybe it was the bear.

Spells

2009-12-03T17:40:00.000-08:00

I am not sure what I did, but these two spent all day casting spells on me with their "wands."

A Cold Windy Beach

2009-11-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

... is perfect for kites.

Logan, Bridget and I headed up to Ocean Park, WA last week to meet the Juniors and to help them celebrate Jaxson and Sophie's birthday. Those kids have so much fun together. Our last morning there, I woke up to Logan and Bridget having a discussion about wanting to stay there forever. If only cousins could live next door forever.

"Run Like Hell!"

2009-11-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

That is what Tom did.

A while back he decided that he was going to run in the Portland 2009 "Run Like Hell!" race. (It was Halloween time and yes, costumes were allowed. Oh, and sorry for using the word Hell, Mom. I would have said "Run Like Heck," but that was the name of the kids' race and I didn't want to offend Tom.) It was his goal to run in the half marathon, but even with consistently waking up early to train, he did not quite have enough time to make it all the way. He ran in the 10k instead, and is still training for a half marathon later this year.

Good job Tom! Maybe at your next race, it won't be so early in the morning (and Logan won't have just broken his elbow the day before) and we will actually come see you cross the finish line.

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T23:37:00.000-07:00

I decided that I wanted to do something homemade this year for Logan's costume. I wanted him to be something scary, but he wouldn't go for that. He said that he didn't want to scare anyone.

We looked at a lot of different ideas online before we settled on "A Windy Day". Logan didn't want to wear anything that was too big and bulky, so it was perfect. It was also very, very easy, which I appreciated. Logan's broken arm did hinder us just a tad. He was supposed to carry an umbrella that was inside out (like the wind had blown it that way), but since he only has one fully functioning hand he decided that carrying his candy pumpkin was more important.

Logan had fun with our little photo shoot. It was the first time that Logan was upset when we had to stop taking pictures.

Friday night we went to a Halloween party at a friend's house. I am not sure if it was the Oxycodone that we had just given him, or the excitement of all that sugar, but Logan was hyper and hilarious at the party.

Saturday night we went over to Byron and Jennifer's. Bridget and Logan had fun trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.

The (Poor Little) Elbow

2009-10-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ask anyone that knows him, and they will tell you that Logan is (usually) a calm, cautious child. Why then, I must ask, has he had two broken bones by the age of four? (Read about broken bone number one, here.)

Broken bone number two happened Friday night, and was a little more serious than number one.

We were getting ready to pick up Tom from the MAX station. Logan was in the bathroom washing his hands (while sitting on the counter, apparently) when I heard a crash, followed by a scream that no parent ever wants to here. I rushed in there and he was so upset.

"I... I... I ALMOST DIED!!!" he said while screaming and crying.

As we rushed to pick up Tom, Logan was still screaming, but was also trying to tell me how much it hurt.

"It hurts this much," he said while trying to hold out both arms. He realized that he couldn't move his left arm and that wasn't going to work, so he said, "It hurts more than I love you!!!"

By the time we picked up Tom, Logan was exhausted from screaming so much that he fell asleep. Tom didn't realize, when stepping into the calm, quiet car that it had been full of screams and cries for the last 15 minutes, and therefore thought I was joking when I told him we needed to go to the emergency room.

"Are you serious?" he asked with a smile.

"Very," I said.

After some x-rays, the doctor informed us that he had broken his elbow. They put a splint on his arm, gave us a sling and some vicodin and then told us to call an Orthopedic Surgeon on Monday.

Orthopedic Surgeon.

Surgery.

The bathroom counter isn't that high.

We saw the Orthopedic Surgeon yesterday afternoon who said that yes, Logan would have to have surgery. He had broken a piece of his elbow and it wasn't where it was supposed to be. If it healed that way, he would not be able to bend his arm all the way. The surgery, luckily, would be quick and easy. They would push the bone back into place and put a couple pins in to hold it there.

Today was the day. We woke up at 4:45, got ready and headed to the hospital. As we were driving to the hospital, Tom was reminding Logan about a toy we had gotten him the day before.

"Remember that special toy we got for after you wake up from surgery?" Tom asked. "Do you remember why we got it for you?"

Silence from Logan. (Pain medication apparently makes him annoyed with us. Most of the time when we ask him something, he just glares at us.)

"Remember? You got it because you are...?"

"Useful," Logan finally said.

Tom was looking for brave, but I guess useful works too.

Logan was scared about the surgery. He kept asking about needles. Luckily, they did all the needles once he was asleep. After he was all ready for surgery, they gave him something to drink that made him loopy, then rolled him away for surgery. He was happy and smiling at that point, which made it easier for me to let them take him away.

Surgery went well. As I said before, it was quick and easy. He was upset afterward, but once they gave him something for the pain, a few popsicles and a movie to watch he was feeling better and we went home.

(Taken with Tom's phone.)

He has an appointment to take off the splint and pull out the pins in three weeks.

Life will (hopefully) be back to normal after that.

Tom's Birthday Weekend

2009-10-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

I always said that I wouldn't marry someone younger than me... but I did. I am not sure if it even counts though. Tom is only 2 months and 1 day younger than I am. Most of the time, I can convince myself that he is not actually younger since if asked our age, we would reply with the same number. There are those two months though. Two months where, if being honest, I would have to reply one number higher than Tom. This year was even worse. In August, I had to turn thirty, while Tom was still safe in his twenties.

Today everything is better though. Today Tom has joined me in the thirties.

Happy birthday Tom!!!

We celebrated his birthday all weekend. Here are a few things we did...

-Logan helped me decorate. (I gave him pieces of tape and rolls of streamers and he went at it.)

-We gave Tom his present on Friday, since we are impatient. (Logan and I are impatient, not Tom. Tom could have waited another week. Actually, Tom would have preferred not to get anything at all, but Logan and I are selfish and like to buy him things.)

-We bought Tom his favorite pie... Lemon Meringue. I have made these in the past for his birthday, but as soon as I found out that October is Pie Month, I decided to take full advantage of the pies on sale.

-We all went fishing in the rain. That was definitely a present from me to Tom.

-We went to IKEA, bought dishes and ate meatballs. (That has nothing to do with Tom's birthday, but it was fun.)

-We relaxed at home.

-Last, but definitely not least, we went to a Blazers game.

(Logan at the Blazers game. Taken with Tom's phone.)

Our House and the Zoo

2009-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

Our renters moved out a couple weekends ago and we had to head up there to clean our house and move in the new tenants. It was hard cleaning our house for someone else.

I miss it.

I don't miss our life there though. Tom worked way too much, we lived too far away from anything interesting, we didn't have any family nearby and there were way too many Canadians. (Yes, that last one was a joke...mostly. It was annoying having to listen to only Canadian radio stations. I do appreciate not having to convert Celsius temperatures into Fahrenheit anymore.)

I am very happy with our life here... I just miss our house.

Alright, I will move on to the pictures. On our way home, we went to the Zoo with Logan's cousins, Jaxson and Sophie. Those kids have so much fun together.

Here are way too many pictures for you to enjoy...

Sorry, Not Yet

2009-10-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

I want to upload pictures of the zoo trip we took with the Junior Family and try to come up with something funny to say. I want to tell you all about how we have spent our time holding a bowl in front of Logan to catch, well... you know what, coming out of his mouth. I want to break the sad news of Slingshot Cowboy's devastating passing.

I really do.

The thing is, I want to play a game of online Catan even more.

Corn on the Cob

2009-09-21T08:38:00.000-07:00

I know, more food. I guess that is the only thing I have to talk about lately.

Tom and Logan went to our favorite local farm to pick some corn and a few other vegetables.

Apparently Logan loves corn on the cob.

We had to remind him that he had other food on his plate also.

It's Been an Oatmeal Kind of Day

2009-09-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

When Logan requested oatmeal for lunch, I quickly obliged.

Yachats

2009-08-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

I have been dragging my feet with this post. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because I am not happy with my pictures. I am determined to not stand up until this is published. Here we go...

A couple weekends ago we headed to the town of Yachats. It is a small town on the Oregon coast. The occasion was Andy and Lindsay's wedding. We rented a house on the beach and hung out with family for a few days.

I love the beach. I want to retire in a little house on the beach. I would prefer a warmer one though were you can actually swim in the ocean without getting hypothermia.

The wedding was beautiful, of course. It was extremely windy, but that just added to the beauty of Lindsay's dress. She did look freezing though.

The kids all had a blast on the dance floor at the reception. I didn't know Logan had so many great dance moves.

On our last day there, I realized that I hadn't even taken my camera out of the bag. I was determined to get some pictures, so I grabbed the camera and Logan and we headed out to the backyard. It was the windiest day yet! Logan was not happy with me and it took a lot to get any pictures of him not looking grumpy. It was also noon and the lighting was terrible for pictures.

Here are some I could salvage, sort of.

(Edited to add: I was just showing Logan these pictures on my blog. When I showed him this one I said, "See you threw the horse shoe." He said, "Yes, but I quite missed it.")

It was a great long weekend. Thank you Andy and Lindsay for giving us an excuse for a little vacation and congratulations!!!

I am Officially Old

2009-08-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

"Really, really old!" as Logan says.

I have been thirty now for two days.

So far, it's not so bad.

Speaking of birthdays... Logan is four today!

Happy birthday Logan!!!

We aren't really celebrating his birthday for another week and a half, but he did get to pick out a fish today.

He named him Slingshot Cowboy.

Stealing Bridget

2009-08-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

What do you do when you can't have another child of your own?

You steal one.

At least, that is what I did.

Okay, maybe steal is the wrong word. We did get the privilege of watching Bridget for a few days though.

Logan made sure that I took a picture of him hiding under his blanket. He also made sure that I put it on my blog.

I wanted to keep her, but her dad said no.

Blaze vs. Timber Joey

2009-08-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

We went to a Timbers game with Byron, Jennifer and Bridget on Saturday. It was my first professional soccer experience. It was good. Not my favorite sport to watch, but it was fun.

The kids didn't have as much fun as they have at Blazers games. I think the mascot had something to do with that.

They LOVE Blaze.

Timber Joey...

...not so much.

We rode MAX into downtown and as I was going to buy my ticket one of the workers offered me a free all day pass. He said that he was waiting to give it to someone who looked like they had good character and that he could "feel the Jedi force coming strong from me."

Uh. Okay.

If he only knew how little Jedi force I have within me. I didn't tell him that though. I took my free ticket and ran.

Thank You Kari

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

Tom took Logan fishing this morning.

I am taking this opportunity to turn the music up loud and scan some pictures.

Wedding pictures.

Again.

Yes, I am redoing our wedding album again. It's not my fault this time though... well maybe it is. I had it all done. Ready to send to the printers, then we switched computers. I had some files backed up, but apparently not the right ones. Therefore, I get to start all over. It was good anyway. We have a new scanner now that will make the pictures better quality.

Anyway... that isn't really the point of this post.

While scanning, I came across many pictures that will probably inspire some posts. This being one of them...

I love this picture. I loved my bouquet. My wonderfully talented sister, Kari, made it for me.

Thank you Kari.

Thank you very much.

Too Many Words

2009-08-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

There have been way too many words on my blog lately... with no pictures. That will not do. I took these pictures for you yesterday. The last is my favorite.

"But I don't want to be an adult."

2009-08-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Tom reminded me that my birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Ugh! Please don't remind me of that.

I really, really, really don't want to be thirty.

Thirty.

Ugh!!!

I know, I know... thirty isn't old anymore. Tom told me the same thing and then said, "You won't be a kid anymore. You will finally be an adult."

That is when I screamed out the title of this post.

"Okay Logan," was his reply.

Logan had been crying to me earlier, saying that he always wanted to be a kid. He did not want to grow up and become an adult.

"Adults don't get to play with their friends!” he said with tears rolling down his cheeks.

I tried to convince him that he wasn't going to be an adult for a very, very long time, but even that was too soon for him.

"Believe me Logan," I said, "when you are older you will want to be an adult."

I was remembering being seventeen and freshly graduated from high school. I was so ready to leave everything behind and venture out on my own. I wanted to be an adult then.

I suppose I still want to be an adult now. I don't want to go back to curfews, homework and asking permission to drive the car. I enjoy my freedom. I enjoy my life. I enjoy my family. I enjoy being an adult. I do.

There is just something about your twenties.

I am reluctant to leave them behind.

I hate being wrong.

2009-08-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

I have been wrong a lot lately.

Logan and I were having a conversation about Super Why the other day in the car.

"...and there was a rainbow and they slid down it to the bottom!"

We have been talking about real and make believe lately, so I asked, "Do you think that was real or make believe?"

He quickly responded, "Real."

"Actually, buddy, you can't slide down rainbows in real life. It is fun to pretend that you can, but that is just make believe." I said as I crushed his little rainbow sliding dreams.

He was not convinced.

"You will have to watch it with me Mom. Then you will see that I am right and you are wrong."

Then after swimming the other day Logan blurted out, "You were wrong Mom."

"About what?"

"Stephanie (his swim teacher) said that if you get water in your eyes you are supposed to blink. You told me to wipe my eyes."

"Well, you can do both." I said, trying to defend myself.

"Stephanie said that it will hurt your eyes if you wipe them."

I thought that parents weren't supposed to be wrong until the teenage years.

"Shh... shhh... go to sleep"

2009-07-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

I have been getting cramps in my leg at night lately. Not sure why, but it sure is annoying.

Last night I got a bad one. A really, really bad one.

I couldn't move my leg and oh the pain!

"Ow, ow, ow... Tom!” I screamed.

"Shh... shh... it's okay... go back to sleep..." was his annoying reply.

"No, it's not okay! Help me!!! Bad cramp!!!!"

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he realized I needed help and was able to get the cramp to go away.

I should probably explain why he didn't come to my rescue sooner.

It is my fault.

You see... I wake up Tom at night.

A lot.

Maybe even nightly.

I don't do it on purpose.

I don't even remember doing it most of the time.

I have bad dreams quite often.

Sometimes those dreams are about people trying to hurt me (or Tom or Logan), sometimes they are about spiders.

Sometimes those dreams make me scream, sometimes they cause me to hit Tom.

Always they wake him up.

Poor guy.

Visitor

2009-07-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Madeline came to stay with us for a week.

Logan loved having another kid around all the time.

I loved having another girl in the house.

We didn't want her to go home.