Rambling of the day…

Yesterday was registration day at Star of the Sea, Hank’s school. It’s hard to believe that this year he’ll be a sixth grader…. I still remember sixth grade like it was yesterday. Can he be that grown up already? Did my parents feel as anxious about me growing up as I do about him? It seems like it was only yesterday that he was little, and as someone pointed out to me yesterday, now he’s almost as tall as I am.

Hank’s school really is wonderful. As much as I wish the tuition we pay for him to go there was going toward a vacation, car payment, or something fun, I honestly think that the money is well worth it. In public school class averages here are somewhere around 30-32 students per class. In his class at  Star there are 16 kids (up two from last year). This year 7th grade only has 6 kids. Hank should have his choice of girls ~ there are 12 girls and 4 boys in his class. What 11 year old boy wouldn’t love a ratio like that? We are protestants, and although we send Hank to a Catholic school his school does a great job of teaching general religion. They do celebrate the Catholic holidays, but in no way is it the mission of the school to convert each family to Catholicism. The parents of students at “Star” are awesome. They are truly interested in the education of their child and participate in their education. I was very suprised how many parents sent home gifts or cards with Hank when we had Brie.

On another note; when dressing Brie this morning (trust me, she’s looking as cute as ever in pink overalls, a onesie, and pink socks) I was thinking to myself about how unpractical some kids clothes are… Her overalls have five pockets on them. What 3 month old even needs pockets? I love anything practical or multi-purpose. It’s the practical side of me.

The itsy bitsy spider…

Anytime I sing her a song… this is the expression I get:

 

I can’t wait ’till she can dance!

~ and for the record…. last night she slept from 9pm-3am, had a little snack, and was out until 7am.

Happy Mama!

I think that right now I am the most well-rested that I have been since sometime in the middle of my pregnancy. Last night Brie crashed out in her crib at 9:30 pm and slept (uninterrupted) until 5:30 am. Yes folks, that means that I got a WHOLE night of uninterrupted sleep. EIGHT hours of sleep! – I crashed out at roughly 10:30 or 11 pm, which still means that I got 6-7 hours!!!  Lets hope this is a new trend!

~ 80 days until Alaska! Woo Hoo!

Where in the world would you like to go?

I love to travel!

I am also always looking for the best deal I can find. I found this link to a website and thought I would share with you all.

My parents are coming soon so I was looking for the best deal for somewhere they could stay. This site totally exceeded my expectations and blew away the options on other booking sites.  The rates were reallygood. Most websites don’t show motels or vacation rentals, but this one did. I am definitly going to check it out next time we need a room.

Hotel Reservations

I was pretty surprised to find that they have rooms around the world and offer special rates and gives promotion codes to get even better discounts when booking.

You’ll love it!!!

82 DAYS TO GO!

I had a very productive weekend. See, I am a do-er  J  

Hank’s football team had a car wash Saturday and washed about 80 cars in four hours. Final numbers aren’t in yet, but it looks like they made about $2000.

I worked on our garage and got a lot of things organized into storage tubs. The garage isn’t close to done, but I made a lot of progress. I have all of my maternity clothes packed away along with most of baby Gabrielle’s newborn clothes. I am now in search of a newly pregnant woman needing clothes for her expanding waist line to give all this stuff to, no more babies for us. We are done.  

After working out at the base Saturday and Sunday I picked a bunch of blackberries and made jam and a blackberry pie. They have a ton of blackberry bushes that no one had touched. Since moving to Oregon I have become a super berry picker. It’s not anything I ever did in Alaska.

On a much more important note: We just got our tickets to Alaska for Thanksgiving. I can’t wait to go home! We are going to fly out on November 17th and return on the 25th. I can’t wait to drop in on our old church! I am hoping that we are able to get some fish and deer while we are home too! 82 days to go!

Piercing thoughts…

 

 

For quite some time I have been contemplating the piercing of my daughters ears. Unless dressed in pink I will admit it’s a challenge to tell whether our baby is a he or a she. My hope is that the addition of some jewelery might add to her current genderless appearance. 

 

Three things have held me back from taking her in for the piercings.

1. I hate to see my child cry. Her reaction to having two sharp objects puncture her skin is most likly not going to be a favoable one.

2. What if she never wants her ears pierced? She could one day hate the things and forever be scarred with a hole in each ear lobe.

3. Could she become like me? I got my ears pierced when I was 4 years old. The day is still a very clear memory. We were at the mall, and they were giving away free lipstick with each piercing. What 4 year old girl doesn’t want earrings AND lipstick? My mom gave in to my piercing cries for earrings. I still love my pierced ears and have since 1984 I have gotten 8 more piercings. Current piercing count = 10! Like mother, like daughter. My mom has 6 piercings. So, maybe you can understand my fear. Will I have some freak child, who like myself wants to out do her mother in the piercing/body multlation department? Will she?

 

My mom has decided to accompany my daughter and I next month to take Brie in to get her ears pierced. I figure with a little childrens tylenol and a good father (who I know will not condone excessive piercings) our little girl might be ok.

Thanks Janeen!

Well, Melissa wrote a blog about being a planner or a do-er… Janeen commented on it, and felt the need to tag people to discuss whether they are planners or do-ers.

Hmmm… well, I am both. I get more planning done than anything, and I can plan like no other. I am a total list person. At any given moment I have a list going with things to accomplish. Ever since middle school I have been the one that could be called on the plan any given event…. and it’s still that way. Whenever our family goes somewhere I have a list indicating each item we *could* possibly need, then see to it that every item is packed…. I usually get thing things on my list done. Sometimes life throws a wrench in my planning efforts slows down my productivity.

 I suppose for an objective opinion you could ask my lovely spouse if I am more of a planner or do-er… but then again, this is MY blog. Ha ha ha.

Crazy Neighbor

Many of you already know our neighbor is NUTS…. and if I for some reason I die unexpectedly after posting this — he did it!

We have lived in our house for just over three years now. About a week after moving in we learned that the landscaper at our house had been shot at, and a past resident had a bloody woman screaming on their doorstep, and there was also a drive by which resulted in their living room windows being shot out. — No one “bothered” to tell us this when we were looking at the house….and I should point out that we specifically asked about the neighborhood and neighbors. I’d also like to point out that we live in a nice neighborhood very close to the Kindergarden Cop School and the Goonies house. It’s not like Astoria, Oregon has a getto — well, does Warrenton count?

We have never had any any bullets fly by nor noticed any domestic violence in the three years we have been here.

To point out the wierd stuff our neighbor does might not seem like a big deal, but being totally random, it’s just plain weird. The man digs on the hillside between our houses at every odd hour of the day or night. I am convinced that dead bodies are hidden up there. When he mows the grass he mows his yard, and the hill — up to about three feet of our house. He has decided that he owns the entire hillside. In fact the hillside separating our house is a street which the city declared unusable. They gave him HALF and us HALF…. Our half is substantially more than the three feet he chooses not to mow, but we don’t bring it up, and he keeps mowing.

Our neighbor (according to city records) bought his house for $105,000 like 10 years ago. In all honesty I would love to have his house and renovate it… It’s a huge, old victorian house, build in like 1900. Anyway…. his house is totally bare bones and in dire need of repair, updating, paint, etc. Usually two days a week (I’m not kidding) Mr. Neighbor has a for sale sign in his window. Occasionally he goes as far as to put an “Open House” in the yard advertising an open house on the upcoming weekend. Sometimes come Saturday the house is still on the market, sometimes all for sale signs are down, the lights are off, and no one is home. The sign in front of the house listing the price changes weekly. Currently the price is $265,000 but I have seen it range from $250,000-315,000. He also advertises that his house comes with two buildable lots — which according to the city THEY ARE NOT. It cracks me up… it seems like the price of the house and weather it’s for sale or not changes as frequently as the weather… and in Astoria, that is a lot!

Currently the house has an OPEN HOUSE sign up and is being listed at $265,000. Please, come buy it! Heck, I am sure he’d take significantly less. I haven’t seen him work in quite a while.

You know you’re a mom when…

Your husband, or anyone for that matter, greets you and says, “You smell like puke.”

~ahhhh, endearing isn’t it?

Tuesday update

Last night as I pulled into the gas station I was pleasantly suprised to find the price of gas was $2.81 per gallon. That is the LOWEST I can remember it being in a long time. Knowing we are well into hurricane season didn’t bring any relief, and the realization that a large percentage of American oil supply is in the Gulf of Mexico (hurricane zone) made me cringe. I remember all too well how gas prices shot up last year as hurricanes hit oil rigs. For now, I’ll keep hoping that they stay away, FAR AWAY.

Last night our softball team won. I think that the final score was 24-2. They started a rule that once we had seven runs in an inning we were out and the other team was up to bat… oh well, it was a nice night and we all had fun. Tonight we have another game, and next week is our last two games of the season.

Hank (and team) got their helmets at practice last night. This usually brings on headaches for the kids that are not used to the added weight. Hank did great, no headache! His football team is doing a fundraiser car wash so bring your dirty cars to the Astoria Dairy Queen Saturday for a good scrubbing!

Hood to Coast is also this weekend. My goal is to be part a team next year provided Uncle Sam (aka: Coast Guard) doesn’t decide to send us packing to some distant location. We should have some definitive plans by January. Right now it looks like we have the green light to stay put in Astoria!!! Hooray!