Another year gone by

Well. I really am terrible at this. It's been a year since my last post. Life sure does change a lot in a year. Geez, my future has changed a lot just in the last week.... a year is SO LONG.

Josh is still with LaborReady and he's still going to school full time on top of his 50-60 hour work week. He's not loving it any more than he was last year, but I wouldn't say that he's hating it any more either. I guess that's a good thing. He recently got back from a three day trip to San Francisco for a thingy with work and it seemed to build his happiness a little bit. That's a good thing. :)

Lelah is doing great. She started at the Montessori school in October. (After our trip to Maui for Nathan and Josie's wedding) We love the school. I'm IN LOVE with it. It's the most amazing thing, and I just can't say enough about it. She goes from 9am until 3:30 pm Monday through Friday. It's kind of expensive and was a bit of a stress on our money situation but it's SO WORTH IT. I told Josh the other day that if I had say in where every pre-school age child we know went, I would choose this school for them. I can't think of a better way for them to start out their school career than this. Lelah's teacher is great, I love all of the teachers really, but Lelah's teacher especially is really nice. She's really strict but really nice and I'm so pleased with the school. Lelah is counting to 20, can sing her ABC's, multiple different songs- including Fifty Nifty United States & a song about the continents, most of her colors.... it's so amazing. She will go there until she goes into the 1st grade. The very first day she started she made a best friend. They are so sweet together, and I'm so pleased that she has such a kindred spirit in her life. (Wow, that sounded very Anne of Green Gables-ish, but I'm serious.) They really love eachother and it's so fun to watch little girl bestfriend-hood. It's ironic who the best friend is. Josh started working part time as a consultant/barista at Red Leaf in Kelso and it happens to be the owners daughter, Emily. The teacher even seemed to be amazed at how "attracted" they were to eachother from that very first day. It makes me happy and I hope that Lelah has found a lifelong friend. I recently realized that Desi holds such a special place in my heart because she knows SO much about my life- not because I told her but because she was there for it. Old friends are so special! Anyway. So Lelah loves everything pink, animal-related and frilly. Her favorite thing to wear to school is her "fancy boots" and her tutus. Seriously. She has these gigantic tutus that she wears every single week to school... if I had to guess how many yards of fabric was used to make them I would guess 10. She looks adorable though, let me tell you! One day before Christmas Logan and Lelah decided they were going to go "hunting" and Lelah went out in Logan's old Romeos "hunting" with her tutu on and her hair in braids. She's the cutest thing. She loves all things girly, but also playing with brother. :D

Logan is still going to school at CVG, but I think (I hope) this is the last year for that. I should be thanking my lucky stars that he has been placed in the best elementary school in the area, but I'm really not that pleased with it. I LOVE LOVE love his teacher but am still very disappointed in the school as a whole. Josh and I live such a different lifestyle and have such a different parenting style that I think we've gone so far from 'normal' that we just can't be happy with something that has such an intense "for the herd" mentality. It doesn't help that we're so thrilled with Lelah's school either. :( BUT just because we aren't happy with the school doesn't mean that's all I have to say about Mr. Logan. He's adorable as ever, pretty talkative and has a great imagination. I'm a little disappointed that we let him start watching TV because I would sure love to hear what his imagination would be like without all the comic book heroes and cartoons jading it. :( Live and learn, I guess. I've recently (this week actually) stopped letting him watch TV in the morning before school. It was a tough switch after most of this school year being filled with morning movies/cartoons/games.... but I think I'm going to stick with it because it makes the whole getting-ready process so much easier. He still really enjoys playing outside and today he even played out there in the torrential downpour. :) I know that probably makes me seem like a terrible parent in a lot of people's eyes, I truly think it's the right thing to let him do. He enjoys it, he's breathing fresh air and I can change him into dry clothes when he's done. :D The other day he came in from playing outside really excited yelling, "I found a bunch of eggs!!!" I went outside, to that area right outside the breezeway door that we don't use and there was a beautiful nest that the ducks (oh by the way, we have a duck- had two until last weekend when one of them was killed by something) had built and laid 23 eggs. TWENTY-THREE! I floated them all in cold water and none of them floated.... I guess that means I actually tested them. I also have been breaking them open into a bowl.... all of them are fine. I think because of our cold-ish weather, they kept fine. So neat! Logan was so excited and so proud of himself. :D I was pretty excited too, come to think of it. :)

So. Back in December we had a parent/teacher conference with Logan's teacher (Mrs. Hartley), the principle and Logan's reading teacher. I have to say now, before I go into the rest of this that I LOVE his teacher. And his reading teacher for that matter.... but his regular teacher is a complete angel and nothing anyone can say about her can change my mind. Not that anyone HAS said anything about her.... but I just needed to say that. I love her, and I wish that I could make her my friend somehow. She's a really nice and sincere person. I hope that we run across a lot of teachers like her in Logan's and Lelah's school life. She's amazing. The reading teacher was really sweet as well, but I haven't dealt with her nearly as much so I can't speak so highly of her. She's very sweet, very caring and very genuine. I hate the principle. I HATE her. I hope that I never have to talk to her again except to say that I don't like her. Ugh. Maybe 'hate' is too strong of a word. I don't like her-very much- but I suppose I don't literally hate her. :/ So.... Josh and I had decided after our first parent/teacher conference that we thought Logan should take 1st grade again. I know that makes us sound like terrible parents (wait, I see a trend here....) but Logan really seems to be doing better this year, but not to a 1st grader level. I feel like we placed him in school a year too early and I have this laundry list of examples of why I think that. Anyway. I expressed this to the angelic Mrs. Hartley and the first thing out of the devilish principles mouth was that "Retention is not something we talk about in December; it's something we talk about in May." (Well thank you for that *^%&# face, but we tried that last May and you poo-pooed it then too! Ugh!) It was an awesome way to start out the meeting, let me tell you! After she explained that 'retention' is the very worst idea that the public educational system had ever tried, we moved on to how they thought that Logan had an attention disorder.... disease..... problem? I don't remember how they worded it. Josh and I have been bracing ourselves for this conversation for years so we really weren't that surprised but it tasted bad after the *^%&# face attacked me about the best parenting idea I've ever come up with. So we have the ball rolling to have him 'diagnosed' for that. I have to mention how ironic it is that the evaluation that Josh and I and the teacher are supposed to fill out has a logo of a pharmaceutical company on the bottom of it. Gee, I wonder what this totally un-biased evaluation is going to find? (I wish I could insert an angry face here.) :( They seem to think that his problems are stemming from this disorder. DISORDER! That's what they called it. Well, glad I figured that out. Anyway, so they think that he isn't reaching his full potential because of this *disorder* and that having him evaluated (and surely diagnosed) that somehow will help him. Josh was quick to point out that we WILL NOT even consider using any kind of medication, but there are other ways to "help" so maybe this is a good step. I don't know. What I know is that I, the mother of Logan, do not want to have him diagnosed with anything. I don't want to admit that anything is wrong with my baby or that his life might be a tad more difficult than the average kids. :'( That being said.... I don't think that a public school is the right place for Logan. Whether he has a *disorder* or not- this whole herd mentality thing is starting to piss me off. Seriously... it sucks. :( Again.... seeing the way they do it at the Montessori school doesn't help my already strong beliefs. :( So.......

Did you wonder what made me start this blog back up? Well, this is it. I'm going to stop going to school. Seems like a random thing to say mid-story about Logan and his school, right? It's not. It's actually really connected. I'm quitting school to get a job. We are unsure what my job will be, but we've decided that it's necessary for me to get one to pay for the school we want Logan to go to next year. There is a private school in Kelso called Family House (or something like that) that Josh and I think would really fit the bill for Logan and his needs. They have a more child-centered approach and that is amazingly promising in my eyes. Again.... I feel like Lelah's school has changed my life and I can't tell you how much I regret/hate myself/wish I could rewind life for not taking Logan there for preschool. I can not even imagine how different his school life would be if we would have done that for him. Ugh. :'( All we can do now though is fix our mistake. So... this is the closest thing we have in town to the amazingness of the Montessori school and Josh has been telling me for years how much he loves the lady who owns it. Even before we were married he told me that he wanted our kids to go there someday..... so, I guess his wish came true. (Even if it was a wish he didn't put any thought into.) I sent off the email to express our interest in being on the waiting list, so we'll see what happens from there. We're both a little concerned with the school being "Christian-based" but Lelah's teacher put my mind at ease about it after we talked. As for the job thing.... I'm having a hard time figuring that out. I originally wanted to get a real job. Like one where I show up, work, leave, have a pay day. You know, that kind of thing? But after a few thing happening with the kids (that it was very convenient that I could come right to them) Josh and I are now thinking that we need to be a little more creative with how I make the money to pay for Logan's school. (Not to mention the things that my financial aid from school paid for that I won't be getting anymore. Oh, oh... I should mention that my car will finally be paid off come April, so that's one less $400 bill we have to worry about. :D) Josh thinks I should "sell something" again. I'm unsure about that. I'm thinking Pampered Chef might be fun... but I'm nervous that I won't do well with that. Josh also thinks that I should market myself as a doula better. I'm unsure about that also. My dream job would be one that I work from about 9:30ish until about 2:30ish Monday through Friday. Seriously... that would be perfect. I would need the summer off too. :/ Difficult and impossible is what that is. Ugh.

Oh, and about me stopping with school.... I'm happy with this decision. Really. It won't be forever. I know that for sure. But I really need a break. Maybe once we are all in the swing of things I can start back up come winter quarter next year. But for now I'm burnt out and I need a break. A good break.

Phew. that was a long update. And there is still so much more. Since I'm not going to be focusing so much of my time and energy on school, I'm going to attempt keeping this blog up. Afterall.... if I'm going to be a real life stay at home mom, I might as well do something to record my children's lives as kids. ;)

Happy 2011

Well we had a nice Christmas and New Years... now we are all (except for Lelah) back into our school routines. :( Josh has a really homework-heavy load this quarter, poor guy has been spending about three hours each day on homework. We have decided that his advisor must be a real jerk. Logan still isn't enjoying school, but his name has become easier to read... I keep hoping to see that lightbulb that his teacher was talking about, but aside from his name being more legible, I'm not really seeing anything. :( Yesterday I realized that I wanted to mention something on here... even though Logan cries about 50% of the time in the morning when he realizes that I'm dressing him so he can go to school, and even though some mornings he tells me that he hopes that he missed the bus so he won't have to go to school; every morning when the bus comes up the hill his face lights up. I think the bus driver probably thinks that school is his favorite part of the day, cause based on what he must look like to her, I don't know how she could think anything different. :) This smile makes me think that maybe this hate for school on Logans part is just an act. He smiles the same when he gets off the bus. It makes my morning a far better place, because I don't hate myself for putting him through such torture quite so much.

Lelah went potty on the potty chair twice in the last two days, I'm thinking she's getting ready to start the real deal... she even wore undies all evening yesterday. This is a huge thing because normally she tells us that she doesn't want them cause she will poop on Minnie. :D While we are progressing on the potty training front, we are regressing on the binky front. It's my fault; I had held on to some binky's so that when Noah came over I would have them. Lelah found one the other day and was actually sad when I took it from her. To make matters worse, I thought maybe naptime would be less traumatic if I offered her a binky. I was right, but now she's attached to the damn thing all over again. We won't let her have it except in bed, but boy am I kicking myself for holding onto those things! The softer part of my brain/heart is saying that maybe she really wasn't ready to get rid of them, and that this is the right thing though. Naptime had become a living hell with 10-40 minutes of crying, and it was terrible. I had given up on giving her a nap every day because it was so stressful for both of us, and that made the evenings HELL... and then at night even though she was totally exhausted, she would lay in her bed playing for at least 40 minutes before finally falling asleep. Since the binky thing started (two days ago) both naptime and bedtime have been so much easier to deal with. And while I know that makes me sound extremely lazy, I can't help but think that me being able to say that Lelah doesn't use a binky anymore isn't nearly as important as her not only getting the sleep she needs but remembering that "time for bed" doesn't mean "time for torture." So, obviously this is upsetting to me, but I don't know where I'm worried for Lelah and where I'm worried for myself and how spineless I am. Either way- Lelah has a binky at night and naptime again.

I'm terrible at this

I was IMing with Zoe early this morning and telling her that she should blog. LOL... "You should blog, Zoe, because it's fun." Do I do it? Well, yes.... twice a year. ;)

So........ we are in the "new" house. Things are good. Hmmm, where to start?

Logan started school in September. Can't say that I love the school or the teacher, but I suppose it could be a lot worse, and I think that a lot of my problems with the teacher were mostly my fault. I think I wasn't communicating well? That's what Josh says at least. I feel a lot better lately, so hopefully the good feelings will keep on coming and by the end of the year I'll actually believe in the public school system (I think it's mostly that, not the teacher... afterall, she's trying to do her job). I'll keep you posted on that. :)

Josh started school in the fall with me. He took a full 15 credits and did well. It was a tad more than he was expecting, but he did good, and kept REALLY good grades. Jerk. It came so easy to him too. :(

We went to Kauai, Hawaii in October and had the TIME.OF.OUR.LIVES. :D Can't tell you how awesome it was, cause there aren't words to describe it. So awesome! Anyway, we were there for a week, and it was super great because we were able to fly mom home for the time we were gone (+ a week for me to visit with her) which helped us to really let go and have a great time. Having mom watch the kids gave us an amazing peace of mind. Thank you God for that! :)

We got home on Friday, October 22nd, and by the 24th we were in the hospital with Logan and he got admitted because his O2 levels were so low. Ugh. Boy we paid for that fun we had.... what a traumatic mess that was! Poor Logan- he still says mean things about the hospital when we drive by it. :(

Within two weeks of the hospital visit/stay, Josh had to replace the sewer main and boy was that crappy! Haha, funny, right?

We've been sick more than we've ever been sick in what feels like our entire lives since Logan started school. :( We've had the pukey flu twice, I think three or four colds each and I just got over what I'm POSITIVE was Influenza. The real deal, not the fakey stuff. Achey body and head for a week followed by another week of the coughs and weakness. Lovely is what that is!

Josh and I just finished fall quarter and we both did well. :) Grades come out tomorrow, but I think Josh got all A's, maybe a B??? I got At least one A- and either two B-'s or a B- and an A-. I don't know... teachers seem to neglect the grade book towards the end of the quarter. :( I'll know for sure tomorrow. :D

The kids and I are going to visit the Chicago family in February. I'm looking forward to that, and so are the kids. :D Lelah is "Happy!" and Logan wanted to know today, "When are we going to see that guy that lives far far away again?" :) I love them so much.

Crazy two weeks

I have more news... something I don't think many people would have been able to guess.

WE ARE MOVING!

Exciting, right? And confusing... at least I would think so if I were a friend or family member reading this. I love our house, and it has so many good memories and important moments wrapped up inside of it, but we're leaving it.

Two weeks ago mom told me that her and Tim were moving to Alaska because Time had gotten a job. Now, I kinda knew that this was coming because she thought it was a good idea to ask me to write him a resume. Ha ha. Yeah right. I told her that it would be a cold day in hell before I helped Tim get a job 3,000 miles away from where I live. Damn it anyway- Tim was able to get one without me. :( Anyway, I was pissed, and hurt and heartbroken. Still am, but some things have changed

Oh wait, you're probably thinking we're moving to Alaska with them? Ha Ha- no, not in a gazillion years! That's not going to be happening........ ever. Nope, we are moving to their house. aka Grandpa and Grandmas house. :D This makes me very happy and I can barely wait. :D :D :D This is perfect for us, and the whole situation played out so nicely!

Mom told me they were moving on Sunday

I told her we wanted to buy on contract on Monday

I told Kristina and Bob that we were selling our house on Tuesday

On Wednesday they told me they wanted to buy our house on contract

Can you believe how smooth that went? Everyone is nervous about the stupid "buying on contract" but whatever. I figure that no matter what, it's gonna be fine. I refuse to live a life of untrustworthiness. R-E-F-U-S-E This set up is good for everyone and it's gonna be fine.

This means that Logan will be going to CVG, not Wallace. :( This makes me sad because I was looking forward to Logan going to kindergarten where Josh and Joni did.... but that's okay. It also makes me sad cause I thought he would go to Robert Gray... but nope... they'd much rather us pass TWO elementary school to get to Logans. This does not make sense to me either.

The plan is that mom and Tim are driving up to Alaska with the trailer in a week from Friday. (August 13) Mom will be gone a total of 8 days, and then will fly back and Tim will stay in the trailer and start his new job. Mom will stay with us for about a month or so to tie up all the loose ends. This arrangement should be interesting since mom and I can't really handle more than a day of time together. We'll see how it goes. :)

Bye for now.

Almost an entire year gone.

Whoa. It's been only 19 days short of a year. A lot can go on in a year. I'm gonna try and get this up to date....

Josh lost his job July 3, 2009 due to being fired by a mean ugly ummm.... yeah. Due to the fact that the person that was his boss is an unhappy person.

Lelah turned 1 on July 9,2009. She had a pretty uneventful birthday and I feel like a piece of crap about that. The kids' combined birthday party was nice though, and Josh and I made all the pizzas by hand, and they were BEAUTIFUL! *If I do say so myself*

Zoe came to visit sometime between when Josh got fired and Lelahs birthday and we had a great time, as always, and were sad to see her leave.

Josh, Logan, Lelah and I got to spend the summer together, without having to worry about Josh having to be at his crappy job. :D Josh and I ran the morning breakfast at the Kelso Theater Pub for awhile, and that was fun. We hiked, backpacked, camped, it was GREAT!

Josh turned in a gazillion applications all over the place, and had a hundred interviews. (It felt like anyway) And finally, after like four interviews with the DM, he got a job at Labor Ready as the BM (hahahaha, funny, right?) at the Longview branch. But he didn't start for quite awhile due to our vacation to meet our niece/nephew.

We went to Delaware in September to be there for Jonis baby being born. And guess what, it waited!!! (It wanted Auntie Melissa to be able to be involved.) ;)

It's a BOY!!! Noah was born on September 5th after the longest stinking labor known to man. Seriously, I don't know how Joni lived through that. He ended up never coming so she had to have a c-section, and I got to nurse him for the first 36 hours due to them thinking Joni had an embolism. (Serious stuff, let me tell you!) What a lucky aunt I am, right??? I loved it. Noah didn't, I'm sure Joni didn't, but hey, I did. ;)

On our last day in Delaware we went to New York, that was awesome, but it would have been wayyyyy awesomer (lol) if I wouldn't have been so DANG exhausted. Ah well, someday we'll go back. :)

Logan started preschool at Winners on Ocean Beach Highway the Monday that we got back.

Josh started his job in October, left us for three weeks to train, and we missed him A TON! I took over for Josh at the pub and wow, that was a lot of work.

I stopped watching the boys. And they moved to Port Angeles. :( Really HUMONGOUS adjustment for poor Logan and Jameson. They went through BFF withdrawals, as did Jen and I.

Lelah didn't start walking until she was 15 months old. I know, right?

Joni and Noah came to visit at the end of October, beginning of November. We loved their visit and tried EVERYTHING in our power to keep her here. She even missed her flight out of town.... nothing to do with us though. I'm serious.

Joni and Noah moved home in December. Jason and Chris drove from Delaware to Washington in a really short amount of time.... ??? Can't remember what short amount of time = sorry.

I stopped working at the pub because I decided to go back to school to become a midwife. Yay!

Logan decides that he doesn't want to go to school anymore cause he's just "gonna work." As a police officer. :) Josh and I talk him into going to school to learn how to write tickets, and he says okay. :)

February I go to Seattle for my first class, "When Survivors Give Birth," taught by Penny Simkin. I know, exciting, right? Shes' amazing, just so you know! :D

Josh and Chris start the remodel on the bathroom with $$$ from our tax return.

I also take my birth doula training in February and on my first day of training ended up going to a naked spa with the instructors. Totally awesome, it changed my life. Seriously.

Going to school, being a mom and keeping the house clean proves difficult. The house is what loses. I scraped by with a C+ in English 101, got an awesome A- in Math 92 and a Pass in the typing class I took. (I apparently can type 102 words a minute) :D

Logan stops going to school in April. We can't really afford it, and it's about over anyhow, so yeah. Done with preschool.

At the end of April/beginning of May I take the prenatal doula training.

Bizo and Matt find out they are pregnant!

I take my Lamaze educator training. (I know, this totally doesn't make sense since I was a successful Bradley method student, but this is what they wanted as the pre-req for midwifery training.)

Spencer Daggett goes into a Diabetic coma on May 1st and never comes out of it. He dies at 17 years old on May 4th.

I register Logan at Wallace for him to start Kindergarten. :)

Josh and I celebrate our six year anniversary.

Bizo and Matt lose the baby. This deserves it's own blog as does a lot of these things, but since this is still so fresh, I'd like to say that this is devastating news to me. I literally cried for an entire day. My heart is aching for them, and I feel so helpless, as does the rest of the family. So so sad.

And today is June 3rd. Josh and I are leaving for our anniversary get-away tomorrow morning... the exact destination is a surprise. I know it's near Port Townsend and that it's a cabin with a private beachfront hottub. So exciting! :) My mom is taking both kids over the weekend, and it'll be so great! I'm turning 26.

Lelah is talking, walking and being the most beautiful little girl I've ever seen. Her hair is curly, she leaves her pony tails in and is a joy! She loves dresses and shoes, her purple teddy bear and babies, baths and washing her hands. She loves to eat... and drink cinnamon dolce flavoring in her milk. She refuses to say Logan, instead when we prompt her, she just says her name with a lot of force. "LALA!" So funny! :D She's afraid of the trains, and gets hysterical if she's outside playing with Logan when one goes by. Kinda funny, really.

Logan is such a big boy now. :( It makes me sad how much he understands and that he's starting kindergarten in three short short months. :( We've decided he definitely can't watch Family Guy anymore, or anything else that he used to not understand, but definitely does now! He has his very own police uniform that he has worn NON STOP since the day he opened it... thank you Grandpa and Grandma Chicago. :) He's excited for school, and I have him wiping his own butt (most of the time), dressing himself and putting his own shoes on. (All things they said he should be doing by now.) He knows how to count basically to ten. He knows the alphabet song, but not his ABC's, if that makes sense. Jameson is still "my baby" and he misses him as much as he did when they first moved. :( He often asks when he's gonna come over. Made me cry for the first six months... seriously. On emotional days I still do. I didn't know it was possible to be so attached as an adult to a friend, but I miss Jen terribly.

Alright, I'm posting this. I shall try to update on a more regular basis. :D

Logan turned 4

So yesterday was Logans birthday... he is four years old now. Officially a big boy. I'm having a really tough time with it. We didn't do a whole lot, but I think Logan felt special anyway. His birthday began at Grandma Lauries house... Grandma Laurie, Grandpa Chris, Ray, Karen, Kristina and our family were there to sing him the Happy Birthday song. Grandma Laurie had a present for him to open, and that was fun. We came home, went to bed and then woke up and he was so excited that it was STILL his birthday! He was so cute! So I sang him happy birthday on our way down the stairs, and he joined me in the second line and sang the rest with me. We went to Joshs store, got him, Olivia and Jameson some coffee (and my an iced tea) and met Vanessa and Jen and their kids at Chuck E. Cheeses. The kids had a really good time there, and I was so thankful because it wasn't busy at all. I think I had the best time I've ever had at Chuck E. Cheese... which still isn't like a good time, but it's something. :D After Chuck E Cheese we ran over to Target for him to use his gift card that Grandma and Grandpa Chicago sent him. He got a Spiderman car with a Spiderman guy to go in it. Logan tried to tell me that Lelah wanted this baby that crawled and said "dadadadada" but when I put it in the cart next to her she threw herself at the opposite side of the seat and started to cry. So we ended up just getting her some new clothes. :) After Target we came home and Logan, Lelah and I took a nap. After our nap we kinda started the Fathers Day stuff. We took papa his dinner and Grandpa Chris his card and ate dinner with them. I've decided that from now on for every gift-giving holiday, Chris is receiving salsa from us. He's so freaking difficult to buy for, so I'm just going to start doing the one thing I know he likes.... salsa. He seemed happy by that. :) We stayed there until 10 o'clock. We came home, Logan opened his present from us (a fan for in his room) and we all went to bed. Today Laurie called me to let me know that she bought Logan and Lelah a Zoo Membership for their birthday party. I think this is wonderful and know that we will really love having it. :D

So I don't know if I mentioned it in the last post or not, but Josh and I are seriously considering buying the Kelso Theater Pub. It's something that Josh has always dreamed of owning at least a part of, and awhile back... probably a month or two, Mike Julian planted a seed that has been growing bigger and bigger every day. We finally called Mike after we talked a tiny bit with Tom and had it confirmed that yes, they might actually want to sell, and sometime at the end of the month we will be setting up a meeting for us all to talk numbers. There is some question as to whether or not the Pub really is making that great of money, so it'll be really nice for us to sit down and really see the numbers. Every day that passes I get more excited, and think of more that I want to do with it. My latest idea has me very excited... flowers. Totally not a money maker, but I wonder if it would make it a little more appealing to walk up to, or to drive by, or maybe even more interesting to look at and maybe could get us a few more customers. I should probably say before I go any farther that I have it in my head that it's pretty much a done deal. In my head it's not a question of 'if' we are going to buy it, it's a question of 'when'. Anyway, so I had asked Josh a long time back if there was a way to get up on the top of the roof. He said yes, and explained that it's out a window (I think in one of the bathrooms... must be the womens) by the marquee. Josh and I have always wanted a rooftop garden, I've always been fascinated by them. Anyway, so my thought is to have planters along the top of the roof with hanging type flowers... or vines or something. Something to add some color and prettyiness. I think (if I'm picturing things correctly) that we could have them not only by the marquee, but also on the very top rooftop. I'm not sure how to get on the very top, but I'm sure that we can figure something out. I'd also like to plant a real garden up there. This is totally a personal wish, nothing really to do with the business except that it would be housing it. Anyway, so back to the hanging flowers... I wish I could draw. I really think it would make the building so pretty... and just more welcoming. I'm not sure how expensive it would be, but I'd sure like to do it. Maybe it's something we couldn't do until next summer (I mean, we probably won't even have any kind of ownership until this fall) and maybe it's not something that could be there all year round, but I'd really like to do it. It's funny because now that I've pictured it, I think the building looks so dull without it. lol Jen said that she'd help me. :) I also think it would be really beautiful to have two rather large pots on either side of the entrance to the cafe.

Becoming Greener

So I've been wanting to compile a list of what we've done to move towards our New Years Resolution of being greener.  Yes, our resolution also included the word "leaner" in it, but since we haven't really made any progress towards that, there really isn't much to talk about there. :(  So, on with the greener (and much more successful) part of our New Years Resolution for 2009.

One of the first things we did was buy a water cooler.  While it's not as green as I'd like it to be, it's still a large step up from the water bottles we were using.  At the same time we bought the water cooler we bought our little recycle thingy... yes, it's a laundry sorter for most people... but it's our official recycle bin.  Hey, it looks pretty nice. I think I might do this in list form... it'll be more impressive I think.

*Water cooler instead of bottled water

*Recycle bin, we now only have our garbage emptied about once a month instead of 4 times

*Making our own laundry soap

*Using ok-for-the-environment dishwasher detergent

*Using ok-for-the-environment dish soap

*I wipe the kids' noses and my own nose with burp cloths instead of toilet paper or kleenex

*We have a compost pile

*We are vegetarian

*We use cloth grocery bags

*I re-use our containers from sour cream, cottage cheese, and feta at least once.

*I stopped using Ziplock bags

*I stopped using saran wrap 

*We've cut way down on using foil and parchment paper

*I save the bag from cereal boxes to use in place of wax paper

*Logan doesn't take as many baths as he used to (probably 3-5 a week instead of 7-14)

*Josh and I both have re-usable Starbucks cold cups that we use in place of Venti waters... this is pretty huge I think.  We would both get one every time we went there, and Josh would bring one home every single day.  We would reuse them, but we still probably went through at least 7 per week.

*I save most of my produce bags and use them to wrap our bread in

That's all I can think of for now.  If I think of others I might just come and add to this list.  :)

Scooting Lelah and becoming vegetarians

I can't believe I haven't mentioned it yet... Lelah is now mobile. :)  She's not crawling though... she's scooting.  She started around Easter, and just keeps getting better and better at it.  She's ruining her socks, pants and diapers. lol  If she drools on the ground, or drips water on the ground from her sippy cup, or somehow the ground is wet, and then she scoots over it, what a mess!  It's pretty adorable how she does it.  She squeezes her legs together like a little frog and then pushes them out straight in front of her and pulls herself.  I think she's got to have the best leg and core muscles out of everyone in this household. :D  When she wants to she can get going pretty dang fast... it's so adorable! I plan on videoing it sometime soon so I can post it on my hippy site, and probably on myspace too... I really feel like we need to record it so that we never forget how adorable her mobility is. :)

Josh and I decided on Tuesday that we are going to be vegetarian.  It's been going really good... I'm quite impressed at how easy it is.  I have an appointment on Thursday to talk to a dietician just to be sure that I'm not missing anything.  I gave all of our meat to Jen and Jeremy on Tuesday after we decided.  We've been eating so well.  We're really loving it so far.  We have had vegi stir fry on yakisoba noodles, a new macaroni and cheese with cottage cheese, parmesan and sour cream, made with broccoli.  I made manicotti tonight with ricotta cheese (that I made myself!), parmesan, mozzarella and spinach, with the no knead bread that we love so much and a beautiful salad with cheese, red onion, cucumber, tomato, red pepper, sunflower seeds and pine nuts.  I've also made a "taco" salad made with kidney beans seasoned with taco seasoning, and then all the regular fixings.  Saturday night I made a pasta salad that was "complete" according to the mayo clinics "lacto-ovo vegetarian food pyramid" complete with whole wheat pasta, vegis, and legumes.  It was super yummy, and everyone in the house enjoyed it.  (Josh and I have decided that Lelah enjoying something doesn't count for much though since she enjoys EVERYTHING.... lol)  I've made a list of all the dinners we've tried... I don't want to feel like I don't have anything that I can cook.  One thing is for sure, we're getting way more green vegis, and since we've moved to the baby greens, I feel like we're being quite healthy.  Today I made some seitan, which is a vegetarian (and vegan for that matter) meat alternative, and it's okay.  I'm hoping that I can find a recipe that will make it a bit more firm.  Right now it's awfully spongy similar to tofu... and while I don't mind the taste, I would really like to enjoy the texture just as much.  This stuff is seasoned in a oriental-type way, so I figure we'll have it in like stir fry and maybe fried rice or something.  

Okay, that's it for me.  

TBall, Teeth and Turning Seasons

So, I think that spring is officially here.  We had a week of weather that was out of this world beautiful.  In fact, it actually made me wish we had nice weather all the time.  And maybe I've done this before, but this year I've actually been appreciating everything Washington has to offer... rain, snow, hail, freezing rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain.  But anyway, as we were walking back to the car last Sunday, I was thinking to myself, "I could handle this temperature all year round... it wouldn't ever be too hot, never too cold, maybe humid sometimes, but I could handle it."  It was like 77 degrees or something.  Absolutely beautiful!  With the nice weather comes Joshs intense need to be outside.  He's of course been working in the garden, planning (and executing) hikes and I'm sure any day now he's going to tell me that he has a weekend off and we are going backpacking.  So far we've gone on I think three hikes.  The first was before the beautiful weather hit, and it was at Multnomah Falls.  I feel like it shouldn't really count as a real hike because it was in such a well traveled area, but it was still a hike.  How long??? I don't think long, but that hill was hard, so it felt pretty tough.  Then we went on a 5 mile hike down past Tillamook.  It was three hours just to get to this place, but it was so gorgeous, and the trail had so much to offer.  Oh, I think I might have already mentioned this hike.  Anyway, it was to Cape Lookout.  In case I didn't mention it, Logan found a geo cache and now that we've looked into it we're wishing we would have known more so we could have started. :(  We should have opened the box because maybe there would be like directions or something.  Ugh.  Anyway, last Sunday we went to Oswald West and went on a 4.6 mile hike.  The beach we ended up at was amazing... Hideaway Beach, or something like that.  On one side was a river, and on the other was a beautiful waterfall, with little tide pools at the bottom of it.  It was amazing, and if someone told me that I had to live there, I wouldn't really complain.  Amazing is what that place was.  (It's just too bad that so many other people think so too.)  On our drives to these places we read the Twilight series, and it was so good.  We've finished them now, and I'm kinda bummed we raced through them so fast.  I miss my friends... and I wish I could get them out of my head.  I'm still dreaming about them, which is pretty ridiculous.  

So Logan started TBall at the beginning of the month.  Today was his third game and I think he's doing better.  I still think it would be best for him if the games/practices were only 30 minutes instead of an hour, but I suppose it's good for him to learn some focus.  I think it might have been a mistake for him to not be in preschool this year because he seems to prefer being alone... I really hope this is something that he can get over by the time school starts.  We're somehow going to have to figure out how we can afford to have him in preschool at least two days a week this coming school year... I really think it would benefit him a lot.  

Lelah got her third tooth on the 23rd, and it looks HUGE!  I wonder if they would look so big if I weren't so used to those two little bottom teeth.  I'm hoping that the second top tooth will come in soon so she won't look like a snaggle toothed baby... which I specifically remember thinking when Logans first tooth came in, so I'm sure it will, but it's still a bit of a vain worry for me. ;)  She started scooting at some point last week... I think probably Tuesday-ish.  Like around the 13th or so.  It's really quite adorable.  Sometimes she'll lean forward and do it, but most of the time she's sitting perfectly upright, sometimes with her hands on her lap, sometimes with them up in the air above her head, and scoot all around.  It's so cute!  I think she must have been hearing me when I would say that I wasn't ready for her to crawl, so she's found a way around it.  

This is weird, but I feel like sometimes the world is trying to let me have what I want in some weird way.  I have a list of these things, and it's very interesting.  It was like the world showed me with Logan that just because you want white, if you get black you can love it more than you ever imagined you would have loved white.  I don't know if that even makes sense, but here is my example... I wanted a girl so bad with Logan... I got Logan, but I'm so thankful that I got him because I would be missing out on sooooo much.  Having a boy is a real blessing, and I'm so thankful that I have him.  He's better than that girl I had been hoping for.  As is Lelah.  I of course, also wanted a girl with Lelah. I got her, and then everything fell into line after that.  I wanted a shorter labor, which depending on how you look at it, I got. (or didn't)  While the pains that at some point turned into labor pains started 12 hours before I had her, I really only had an hour or so of intense labor pains.  I didn't want to go late, and I didn't.  She has brown eyes, more beautiful than I could have asked for, sleeps better than I knew a baby could (most nights), is a super nurser, loves to eat, favors me over anyone (which I know sounds super selfish, but I have to say, it's something I've always wanted).  I'm sure the list could go on for a lot longer.  But I feel like I might be spilling my guts and don't really know who all reads this, so I think I might stop at this.  I guess what I'm getting at is that with my beautiful boy and beautiful girl, I have more than most to be thankful for.  It makes me wonder what the heck kind of person I must have been in my last life to deserve this kind of luck.  You know?  

Alright, I feel like I should be done now.  I've entered into a very sentimental part of my brain and probably would bore everybody on how I feel, so I'm off.  

Remembering Smiling Eyes

So I was changing Lelahs diaper the other day and thought of something really random that I wanted to document.  I'm afraid that it's one of those things that with time I'll forget, and it's something that I want her to know about herself as a baby.  She was smiling at me while I was changing her diaper and it made me think of what a happy baby she is, and always has been.  I remember well before she could smile she would look at me and I could tell that if she could smile, she would be... cause her eyes were smiling.  Sounds totally corny and stupid, but it's true.  And when I was changing her diaper, I thought of her smiling eyes when she was just days old and it made me happy.  

Josh and I are reading the Twilight series... we're totally obsessed over it.  We started Twilight like maybe three weeks ago, and we're now on Eclipse. I've read Midnight Sun also... I'm going to be glad when we're finished because this is getting ridiculous.  Seriously.  lol

Easter (and Zoes birthday) are on Sunday.  We're going to do an Easter Egg hunt at Jen and Jeremys house... I'm anxious to see if he likes that.  

Alright I'm going to go.  Logan just irritated me royally so I can't fogus at all.

Chicagoans visit, teeth, food, sprouting and beach cleanup... whew!

So Dad and Jamies visit was fun.  It was actually Dad, Jamie and Zoe... that was a total surprise! :D  I don't think I've ever actually been that surprised before... it was GREAT! Logan really loved everyone, especially Jamie and Lelah really loved dad.  They both liked Zoe a lot, Logan was a nice boy during her visit this time.  That was a bit of a change since the last visit. ;)  They weren't here for long, but we did make it to Long Beach and that was a blast.  Jamie had never been to the Pacific Ocean before, and it was a BEAUTIFUL day.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  Well, okay, so it could have been warmer, but it was really a pretty day. Not a cloud in the sky.  The ocean was kinda mucky, but it wasn't too bad. I had a really great time.  

Lelah got her second tooth sometime between the last post and now.  She's had it for at least two weeks.  It's so cute.  Just two little teeth half way grown out.  :)  So cute!  Lelah is eating really good.  So far, the only thing she didn't really love that I've given her is the noodles from last night.  She's eaten so much already... homemade taco mac she couldn't get enough of, green beans, applesauce, prunes, cheerios, rice, rice cereal, celery, cucumber, kidney beans, chili, bean soup, ham, hamburger, chicken, bread, yogurt, orange, lemon, oatmeal, oatmeal cookies, no bake cookies, and the list could go on for awhile.  She really loves to eat.  I'm trying to make sure I nurse her before she eats anything because I think she would totally fill herself up on solids if I let her.  But from what I'm reading, that's not really a good idea for the first year... their main nutrition source should still be breast milk.  

Logan has started a new attitude, and it's pretty aggravating.  He's started telling us, "I want to kick you in the face!" when he's mad at us... we know right where he's gotten that from.  It sucks because when Josh and I say that we're totally joking, but Logan really doesn't get that. :(  We really need to start watching what we say because he repeats like EVERYTHING!  I think this is him becoming a 4 year old.  :( That is so sad.  I can't believe he's going to be FOUR YEARS OLD in just three months.  Really it's only two... it's the end of March now.  Ugh.  My baby isn't a baby anymore.  And he'll tell me just that.  "No mama, I a kid!"  LOL

So about a week ago I started on a new adventure.  Not sure how long this will last, but I'm really into making stuff.  First thing I started was sprouting wheat berries.  That is a ton of fun, and so interesting to watch them grow.  They grow SO FAST!  It's so cool!  Currently I'm sprouting my second batch of wheat berries and some "Zesty Sprout Mix"... the wheat berries are for bread and the sprout mix is for sandwiches.  Or maybe bagels and cream cheese because Laura told me that is really yummy.  I put the leftover wheat berries from my first batch in my pink planter by the sink, and it's so interesting to watch them grow.  I swear they grew 1/4 inch just in the 6 hours I slept last night. It's so crazy!  I really am enjoying this!!!  I also made a lot of different breads last week and this week.  I made (my favorite out of all of them) bread from the wheat berry sprouts, our own sandwich bread in moms breadmaker, and something called "Peasant Bread" that took me three days to make.  Oh, and this WONDERFUL "No knead bread" that is definitely a close second to the sprout bread.  The peasant bread started out with boiled potato water.  Weird, right?  It was yummy... very wheaty.  Mom toasted it when I was over at her house, and then put butter on it... that was really good!  Oh, and I made my own deoderant, that is working FANTASTICLY!  I'm so excited about the deoderant!  I think I'm going to make some laundry detergent and maybe even some hand soap.  It would be greener, and you know, part of our New Years Resolution was to be greener... it was "To become leaner and greener."  And hey, I'm not working on the leaner thing, but truthfully that's a pretty selfish thing... being greener is better for EVERYONE. :)  

Alright, so today we have quite a busy day.  We're going to Cannon Beach with some of Joshs partners to clean that up with SOLV like we do every year.  Stupid Starbucks isn't involved this year which really irks me, but whatever.  I just have to say... what the hell?? Their new mission statement talks about community service... but this is the first year that they aren't being involved?  They really are going to hell in a handbasket.  I think they only added the community thing to look good. I think they are so busy trying to make money for the stockholders that now they won't even do community events. :( It really bums me out.  I used to be so proud of the company that my husband works for.  Anyway, after the beach cleanup we're running home and I'm whipping some stuff together for dinner tonight with Jerry and Amy.  It should be fun. Logan really enjoys playing with Shelby and I'm really enjoying their company.  I've had a lot of fun both evenings we've spent with them.  So, I must be going now to get ready for our busy day. :)

A little tooth...

Well, last weekend, on Sunday, February 22nd Lelah got her first tooth.  It was pretty amazing because we didn't even know that it was about to pop through... it totally surprised us. :D  A very nice thing to be surprised at.  Teething was really a pain just a week before, so the fact that it popped through without us even noticing really was amazing. :D

Friday, the 20th Josh and I had been together for 11 years.  Crazy... I think I said earlier that it feels like it's been so much longer, yet not even half of that time.  My mom watched the kids while Josh and I went to Costco, Camas (to pick up something for Logan) and to Clackamas to eat at Macaroni Grill.  It was fun but kinda anti climactic.  I missed Lelah a lot, but she seemed to have had a good time, so I think it's good for both of us to be away from eachother for an extended amount of time every now and then.  We picked up a Pluto, Mickey Mouse, Daisy Duck and Goofy in Camas that I found on Craigslist for Logie.  He was so excited when we brought them in!  See, "Santa" brought him a big Mickey Mouse for Christmas (because he really wanted one) and since then Logan has been asking us why he didn't bring him a Pluto to go with him.  (In his Christmas movies, Pluto is a big part of the Mickey parts, so I can understand why he was confused. )  Pluto licks us a lot, and Logan is having a fun time playing with all of them.  It's amazing how happy it makes me when he enjoys such simple things... it's no wonder that he's so spoiled, some of the reason I buy him stuff is for selfish reasons. ;)

Saturday we kinda just hung out at home and Josh and I just played the Wii.  We went to Galateas party at Vernies and then went straight up to Lauries house.  I made hot artichoke spinach dip and carbonaro... it was for Nathan, which is why I made the carbonaro.  It was fun.  Everyone got totally wasted, but that was even enjoyable. ;)  

Sunday we were supposed to go to Jovonnies 3rd birthday party but Sherres family was sick so we didn't go there.  It was re scheduled for this weekend.  Instead we went to the beach.  It was fun.  We took Max though, and shouldn't have had him come on the bike ride with us because we just about killed him. :(  We rode our bikes on the paved trail from Seaview all the way to that campground by Waikiki beach.  It was an amazing ride, very pretty... and very full of surprises.  Josh and I didn't even know that the trail went that way.  And then we ended up somewhere we totally weren't expecting.  It was really cool.  We think Logan might be ready to not be in the car anymore though.  :(  He was pretty bored through the whole thing, so I think we're going to look into getting him one of those attachements that you attach to an adult bike so it's sorta like a tandem.  I think he could handle that, and that would be way more interesting for him than the cart.  Lelah seemed to like the cart okay... she didn't like her helmet, but she did okay. :)

I didn't have the boys all week this week.  Which was nice but I didn't get a damn thing done all week, which was totally ridiculous.  You'd think I'd get more done when they aren't here, but the truth of the matter is I get way more done when they are here.  I'm supposed to have them Monday and Tuesday and then Mateo and Jovonnie on Wednesday, so I should get stuff done.  I've got to because Dad and Jamie are coming to visit.  They fly in late on Thursday night. :)  I'm pretty excited.  I always wonder what the heck we're going to do though because they aren't big on planning things, and Josh and I really like to be more prepared then that.  Oh well, we'll have fun even if we just sit at our house the entire weekend. :D  

Alright, it's taken me 12 hours to post this, so I'm off. :)

Clapping for Obama...

So last night I was on Katie Petits facebook and saw a youtube video that said something about Obama... I clicked on it and it was a music video.  So, Josh, Logan and I were all clapping and dancing around singing along with it.  Lelah was sitting on the floor getting excited, smiling away and rocking back and forth having such a good time, and all the sudden she started clapping with us!  It was the cutest dang thing!  I wish I could have gotten it on video or something... she was so stinking cute!

Lelah still is pretty sick.  Josh has been taking Zicam every four hours because he's pretty sure that he's getting sick too, and this afternoon when I was on the phone with Joni I started feeling like I was stuffed up, and then my throat started to hurt a little.  I think we're all getting sick. :(  I'm totally bummed... this will be the third month in a row that I've gotten sick.  That's ridiculous! I think a lot of it because I haven't been getting real good sleep, and my immune system just can't keep up.  It's terrible.

Tomorrow Josh and I have been "together" for 11 years.  Eleven years!  It's unbelievable.  It sounds like such a long time, but it sure hasn't felt that long.  Something funny- when I told my mom how long it's been, she said to me, "That's it, eleven years???"  Eleven years ago I was 13. Yeah that's it, that's a LONG TIME for a 24 year old!  I think we're going to go to Portland for dinner.  I'm going to give Josh a card for us to go to a Yoga 101 class at "Yoga Union".  It's a free class, but I figure while we're there we can pay for both of us to take the beginners hot yoga.  Joni was telling me about that today and that sounds like it might be fun.  I just wonder if they have showers there or something.  Anyway, I think Josh would totally dig that. :D

We've got a super busy weekend ahead of us. Tomorrow, we are going to Portland, and then Saturday we have Galateas party at Vernies at 5 o'clock and then Nathans thing has been moved to Lauries house at 6 o'clock because Grandma Largent died yesterday.  Poor Doreen, she sounded really sad today when I talked to her.  I always feel bad that I don't know what to say, but I just really don't feel like anything can make your heart hurt less when you lose someone.  Even if it was their time to go, it's still so hard.  Anyway, I'd like to get her some flowers... and write a little note in her card to explain why I hadn't called.  I just am a very personal private greiving person, so I guess I just assume that is what everyone needs, you know?  Poor Doreen, I can't even imagine how hard it is to lose a loved one that you've taken care of for so long.  

Then on Sunday at 1 o'clock we have Jovonnies 3rd birthday party to go to.  I told myself that I needed to get the house picked up and ready for the weekend and the fact that I'll totally be neglecting it, but I haven't done a damn thing.  Maybe I can talk Josh into helping me get some stuff done tomorrow... because I'm sure that if I'm getting sick, I'm not going to want to play catch up next week when I'm feeling even worse.  This is ridiculous... just when I'm getting over one thing, another thing starts, and I never seem to have the house in order so we don't live in a pig sty the whole time that I'm sick. :(  Sometimes it's tough to be the person in charge.

Alright, I'm so ready for bed.  My eyes feel like they are going to burn out of my skull, and Lelah is asleep, so all I have to do is go to bed.  How nice. :)  Since Josh is closing, I think I'll just tell Logan he can get in bed with me, then I won't even have to do any tucking in.  

Lelah has RSV

Well, I think it's a good thing that when you are a mother of two you have first had the experience of being a mother of one.  Sounds weird, yes, but wow, it's sometimes a lot harder.  Lelah is sick yet again, and I just can't believe that she's been so sick two times already.  I don't remember Logan being sick until he was over a year old. :(  I was kinda feeling bad about it, but then I started thinking and it really does make sense.  I mean, not only because Logan is here, but because we go out a lot more with Lelah than we ever did with Logan.  I thought that we went out a lot with him, but we mostly just went to peoples houses, you know?  We went to Grandmas and moms, and yeah, we went to the store and out to eat, but I think we do more now.  Anyway, so Lelah has RSV.  When Dr. Ayoub told me I had a moment of panic because of the scary ads I've seen in magazines and at her office.  I think Lelah must have a mild case of it.  I was reading some stuff about RSV today and it could be so much worse.  Thank goodness.  

Two weeks ago I wrote a message to Amy Skeie from high school asking if we could bury the hatchet.  I mean I didn't really say that, but that's pretty much what I meant.  I couldn't even remember why I didn't like her in high school, and I thought it was so silly because we really do have a lot in common.  She is a mom of two kids, and is married, has a house and all the responsibilities that come with all of that.  So, last Friday (2/13) we had dinner with her and her husband, Jerry and their two girls, Shelby and Lexi.  It was really fun and I enjoyed myself a lot!  I made calzones and we had brownie sundaes for desert. It was really fun!  We played games and the kids played well together. Logan really loved Shelby.  He wanted me to keep telling everyone what her name was and how she came over to our house.  It was pretty cute!

On Valentines Day Josh and I and the kids went to Portland and spent a ton of money. It was fun. We bought a laptop (which I'm using right now, and it's sooooo nice!), a wireless router for our modem, a Wii and a Wii Fit.  I must say that I like to spend money, I just wish we had more to spend. LOL Of course, the reason we never have any to spend is because we spend it so fast. LOL  Oh! And the most exciting thing!!! We bought our tickets to Delaware on Valentines Day too!  Woo Hoo!!!  We're going from September 2nd until the 9th.  That will be from 41 1/2 weeks until 42 1/2 weeks.  So, hopefully she'll have the baby either before we get there (which would be really great for her) or while we're there (which would be so awesome!!!).  No matter what, I really want to meet this baby. I'm so excited for her that she's having a baby and that we're going to be mommy's together.  

Alright, we're off to spend more money.  (We got our tax return on Friday- $3368) One of Joshs employees gave Logan a V tec game so we are going to go buy the cord that he needs so he can play it.  And then we have to buy some dog food and some toilet paper.  

Christmas, New Year and a new baby on the way!!!

Wow, it's been over a month.  A lot can happen in a months time.  

Christmas was nice.  It was our first white Christmas ever!  While it was pretty neat to have it be white, it also was kinda a pain in the butt.  Laurie and Chris got stuck in their driveway and were late for Christmas breakfast (but hey, at least they made it!) and Chris' family Christmas thing was moved to our house last minute.  Kinda a bummer, but it all worked out fine.  Logan was a total Joy to watch opening presents... he was excited about the smallest things.  Lelah was adorable as always, and thought everyone and everything was so interesting. :D  She looked beautiful in her Christmas dresses. Yes, dresses.  She wore Ellas dress from last year on Christmas Eve and then a pretty red dress that Grandma Laurie bought her for Christmas day.  Christmas Eve we went to Bob and Pattys house and spent the evening there with Aunt Char and Uncle Bill and my parents.  It was really nice.  Christmas day both sets of parents came over for Christmas breakfast, which was so great.  I love this new tradition.  Joni said that when she moves home she'd love to do the same thing, which will work out fine because Jasons family won't live here, so we'll take turns spending the night at eachothers houses.  I asked Joni if my mom could still come the years it was at her house and she said of course! :D  That will REALLY be great!  Anyway, after Christmas breakfast and opening presents here, mom, Tim, Logan, Lelah and I went up to Grandma Carolyns house and visited with them.  Josh stayed home so he could pick up the house before Chris' family came.  When we got back to town (which was quite an endeavor considering how icy the roads were) we went straight to Debbies and visited there for about an hour before we came back home for Chris' family thing.  It was moved to our house because it was originally supposed to be at Theolas house, but they canceled VERY LAST MINUTE and Chris and Teena were pretty bummed about it.  Anyway, Theolas family didn't even show up (totally rude if you ask me) and so it was just our family, Chris and Laurie and Teenas family.  It was nice, and dinner was okay.  After they all left we went over to Tricia and Joes house and played a game or two.  It was a good Christmas, and I think Lelah really enjoyed it and I KNOW that Logan did. :D

Jen and Jeremy came over on New Years.  We had yummy food and pink champagne and sparkling cider.  It was fun.  The boys banged spoons on pots and pans at midnight, and it was so much fun!  I can't believe that it's 2009!!!  Lelah and Joel were pretty tired by the time midnight rolled around, but they made it. :D

Did I mention in the last post that Joni is pregnant?  Yup, she is, and I'm gonna be an aunt!  I'm pretty excited about it.  She's due on August 24th.  Josh and I are thinking that with our income tax return we can go there.  We're all hoping that we'll be there when she has the baby, but we all know how unpredictable the little buggers can be.  We'll see. :)  She's feeling a lot of morning sickness, but other than that everything seems to be going well.  She has an ultrasound to make sure she is really due at the end of August on Wednesday... I'm so excited for her and Jason to see their baby! 

Lelah started sitting up this month, and started sitting up without anyone needing to be by her last week.  She is now an old pro at it. I can put her on the floor without having to really worry about her.  Every once in awile the boys get a little too rambunctious, and she gets knocked down, but she's getting better and better and keeping her balance every day. :D

I think that's it for me.  Oh wait.  Josh and I started dieting on Jan. 1st.  Josh has lost 16 pounds, and I've lost 7.  This has been the hardest it's ever been for me to lose weight.  I'm not sure what it's all about.  I'm thinking that it has something to do with nursing, but I'm not really sure.  I might just be giving myself too many points?  I don't know though because I'm following the program well.  Anyway, it's coming off, just not half as fast as it usually does. :(  

Okay, that's really it.

The sickness is finally over

Well, that was just about terrible!  I said in the last post that Logan came down with croup during the first week of December.  Then Lelah got sick- really sick, and then I got sick... with a sinus infection.  I'd never had one of those before, and boy is it terrible!  I felt like the side of my face had been hit by a small truck or something.  Dr. Ayoub showed me how truly wonderful she really is... I called desperate to be seen on Saturday and it turned out they were closed but Dr. Ayoub just happened to be there.  She listened to my symptoms and prescribed me some Amoxicillan.  She's so wonderful!  Through the week that Lelah was really sick she called every day to check on her.  She's so amazing!!!  

Joshs birthday was yesterday.  He wanted a white birthday so badly, and he got it!  I'm so happy because I feel like I totally let him down when it came to gifts this year so at least Mother Nature was a good gift giver. :)  It literally snowed all day.  We went up to my moms to play in the snow and tried getting up the hill three times in Joshs car.  After the third time we finally gave up and my mom drove down and picked us up.  We played there and visited for a few hours until we were ready to go home.  Some guy stopped us half way down and told us that it wasn't safe to drive down... so we strapped Lelahs carseat to the sled and her and Logan rode down the hill on that with Josh pulling on the front and me pulling on the back (for brakes.)  It all started to melt last night around 8-ish but only for about an hour so not much left.  Then it got cold enough to snow off and on throughout the night.  We woke up to snow again and it snowed off and on all day today.  The roads are a complete sheet of ice.  There is a chance that we might have a white Christmas, which I think would be SOOOO wonderful!  I've never had one of those and neither has Josh.  We'll see though, all the weather stations are saying different things... only time will tell. :D

We're through with Christmas shopping.  Which is good because we're more than out of money.  I think we over-did Logan again this year, but it's a lot of small stuff, so that's okay I think.  My parents got him a tractor with a trailer that he can drive around with Tim and bring wood to the basement.  I think he's going to LOVE it.  :)  I'm quite excited for him to see it.  Yesterday while we were at my moms she showed Josh and I and boy is it ever cute!  It's a John Deere and the trailer is so cute!!!  

So our plans for Christmas are as follows... of course, the weather will dictate whether we do all of this or not.  Christmas Eve we're spending at Bob and Pattys house with my parents and Aunt Char and Uncle Bill.  It's an appetizer party. I'm bringing the artichoke spinach dip that we love so much and I think also bacon-wrapped water chestnuts.  (I got that recipe off of my hippi site. :D)  I personally don't think they sound so yummy, because I don't like water chestnuts, but both my mom and Josh think they sound wonderful, so I think I'll do that.  I'm sure I'll end up bringing something else too... I love appetizer-type foods!  Then Christmas morning, we're having Joshs mom and Chris over and my parents for Christmas breakfast.  We were originally thinking that we could have breakfast burritos (because I could make them in advance and pop them in the oven) but Chris told us the other night that he'll need the egg substitute, so I don't know if we're going to do that or not.  Then we are going up to Grandma Carolyns house (this is where the "I don't know because of weather conditions" comes in) and then to Debbies for a Christmas thing there.  Then I think we're going to go to Theolas for Chris' familys thing.  I just realized though that Debbies is at 2 o'clock and that Theolas is at like 3 o'clock.  Hmm... well, we'll see what happens there.  

Well, I think that is it for me.  

Lelah is sick...

Wow it's been a month since I last updated... I'm terrible!  

First things first, I'm going to go backwards.  Logan came down with croup last week and ever-so-kindly shared whatever bug it was that made him sick with his baby sister. :(  Poor little things.  Logan was so sick... and he kept telling me that, "I'm so sick mama..."  I felt so sorry for him.  Then on Saturday Lelah came down with it and so I went from snuggling Logan and comforting him to snuggling Lelah and trying to get her to calm down enough to breathe.  Logan never got sick when he was such a little baby, so I feel like a new mom all over again. :(  I took her to the doctors yesterday and they thought she had whooping cough but the test came back negative, so thank goodness for that!

Thanksgiving day Lelah found out who's been making all the noise around here. (The noise that wasn't big brother.)  :)  It was adorable! While I was making the rolls she was sitting in her swing yelling and screaming and laughing outloud at herself.  She was so impressed.  Thanksgiving weekend she also started blowing raspberries and I'm not sure when but is also now grabbing at toys.  Oh, and Thanksgiving evening she rolled over at Aunt Char and Uncle Bills house.  I've seen her do it before, but she did it with purpose this time.  Since then she's become a pretty good pro at it. :)  

That's it for now... I'm going to get current on MySpace before she wakes up again. :)

We have a new president...

So, today is the day... Barrack Obama won! WooHoo!

But on to more important stuff, that Logan and Lelah can't find anywhere on the internet in 20 years. :) First off, Logan is being quite the little pest. He's going through this ultra hyper phase that is just about driving Josh and I mad. It's worst when he's happy and tired, but those aren't the only times that he's wearing us out. Anyway, some nights I lay in bed praying to God that my precious little boy isn't changing into a monster. :( He still is precious, it's just sometimes there is quite a bit of time between precious times. He's still completely in love with Lelah, and she shows the same amount of admiration towards him. Yesterday Josh got Lelah to laugh out loud by jumping towards her... a couple hours later, she was in her swing and we saw Logie doing the same thing. It was so cute cause he was trying sooooo hard to get her to laugh... when he finally got her to he was so proud. Logan is learning more and more words every day. He's talking in sentences most of the time now, and I think he's probably understandable to the majority of people probably at least 50% of the time. Not the whole sentence, but I think most people can get the gist of what he's trying to say. :) I'd say that Josh and I understand him more like 95-98% of the time. :) Two days ago he came up to me in the kitchen and said, "Mama, why is my dog sad?" I don't know what Max was doing that made Logan think that he was sad, but apparently he looked or acted sad. Logan was worried. :)

Baby Joel was born on October 15th, and since October 10th Logan and Jameson haven't gotten to see eachother every single day like they are used to. Jen says that Jameson is having a hard time, and I know that for the first bit Logan had a terrible time. He cried every morning for the first three days. He still (it's almost been a month now) will ask me in the mornings half of the time if his "baby" is coming today. Jen and Jeremy decided that Jameson should come still on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I'm able to tell Logie, "No, not today, but tomorrow" or something like that. It's holding him from being sad now. He's still not happy when baby Max comes... which I think is partly my fault. I get so aggravated with his crying, and I think that I take my aggravation out on Logan... so he's taken to saying, "He needs to go home now." whenever Max is here. :( I'm hoping he doesn't have the same reaction when baby Joel starts coming. I'm also hoping that I can somehow get him into some kind of preschool program when Jameson and Joel come back for 5 days per week. We'll see though. I'm worried that since they will be coming in the morning that there will be no way for Logie to get to any kind of preschool program, even if we have the money to pay for it... he still has to have some kind of transportation. I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out.

Josh just got back from New Orleans. He was there from October 25 to October 30th. I missed him so much it was ridiculous. Especially that since he's been home he's been a butt. :( Oh well, I figure it's a hard transition going from a manager, talking work talk every hour of the day for four days straight and then coming home and having to be a dad again. Anyway, butt or no butt, I'm glad he's home. I've decided I'm not meant to be a single parent... that is some tough stuff right there. Josh also found out (right before he left for New Orleans) that he won't be having an Assistant Manager anymore. He's happy and sad at the same time. Anyway, he didn't have Katie Petit anymore, because she was promoted to manager of the Triangle store, so it's not too big of a loss. He hadn't really gotten to know the new assistant before she was also transfered to her own store.

Lelah is doing wonderfully. She rolled over for the first time last Wednesday... on the table in front of Crystal and I. I think she probably would have done it sooner but I never really give her the chance, and if she has the chance she doesn't have any reason to do so. She's been giggling out loud for awhile, but in the last week she's really started laughing a lot. It's really adorable, and Logan gets her to do it more than anyone. They are already starting a bond... they love eachother so much already. It's really amazing. Today Logan was falling asleep on the couch and Lelah was up there with him and it was so cute because even though he wasn't moving all around, she still stared at him until she fell asleep too. It was sooooo cute! I never thought I would feel this way, but two kids is soooo much better than one! Watching number one with number two is absolutely amazing and watching number two with number one is just as great. I love love love having two children.

Alright, Lelah is finally asleep... I think I'm basically torturing her by feeding her my breastmilk right now. Something I ate (I think the new recipe for Zuppa Toscana I made the other night) is giving her terrible gas. Poor little thing... I've given her so much Mylicon today. :( Hopefully she'll sleep okay. Good night.

Logan and Jameson

Okay, so I just listened to the most hilarious exchange. Logan and Jameson are so cute, sometimes I have a hard time not just busting up.

This morning I forgot to bring down Logans potty chair when I came downstairs, so when he had to go to the bathroom, he went upstairs. I hate carrying that thing down, especially when there is pee and poop in it, but it's my own fault, so whatever. So he goes poop, and I carry it down, empty it and go on my merry way. I go to the bathroom a little later and then I hear Logan telling Jameson that he is going poop, he'll be down in a minute. It was something like "I pooping upstairs baby!" And I was like, "No Logan, I brought your toilet down here..." and then I saw that no, the toilet wasn't in the bathroom where I left it. He had taken the damn thing back upstairs! So as I'm coming up the stairs I'm yelling at him that I don't like to have to carry it up and down the stairs, why the heck did he bring it back up the stairs right after I brought it down. By this time, I'm up the stairs, he's sitting on his toilet in the spot at the end of the hall where we always keep it in the middle of the night and he's pooping telling me, "It stinks down there!" :) This totally cracks me up. That makes perfect sense... if I needed to go poop and could move the toilet that I was going to go on to a place that didn't smell like someone elses poop, I would too. Totally makes sense. Anyway, so by this time, Jameson is now upstairs too. Logan is saying, "Come on poop!!!" and Jameson is saying, "Chocolate milk?" Apparently he misunderstood Logan. To this Logan responds, "No baby, I poop!" Then Jameson says, "Oh, pee?" "No baby, I POOP!" Then Jameson looks at me and says, "He poop." LOL

This whole thing just totally cracked me up because it was like listening to the drunks that Bill Cosby talks about. It's so hilarious!

More than a month!

Wow, it's already been a month since I last wrote... geesh! We took a little vacation from the internet due to the lack of money. Sad but true. Someday, I'm sure that we won't actually have to let things be turned off just so we can afford our bills... until then, I'm sorry to say, internet is a luxury.

We're back on for now though, so I might as well do an entry. :) One of the biggest highlights since the last time I wrote is Zoe came to visit. It was so nice to see her, and I'm so thankful that I got to get to know my sister a little better. She's quite a kick in the pants, and Josh, Logan, Lelah and I had a ton of fun with her. Logan was his usual jerk-self... telling her constantly that she was a "bad guy" but I think that he actually enjoyed her. He just seems to think it's so great to remind people over and over again how much he doesn't like them... with a smile on his face. :) I'm hoping that he gets over this soon... I'm sure that it can hurt peoples feelings, and I don't know how to make them feel better. Maybe that he is that way with everyone??? On a VERY SAD note, Josh lost our camera while Zoe was here. :( I am so sad about it... I actually get kinda sick to my stomach every time I think of it. Ugh, I'm so sad. That is something that we won't be able to replace anytime soon, and that is just so depressing to me... especially considering how young Lelah is. So depressing!

Lelah started really smiling while Zoe was here. She had smiled here and there a couple times, but she REALLY is smiling now. She's very happy in the mornings, which is such a change from Mister Logan. She's pretty happy in the evening too, and really I can't say that she's ever really that sad. She's so content. Again, such a change from what Logan was when he was a baby... I think he was probably happy in the mornings too, come to think of it. I don't remember him being cranky like he is now. While Zoe was here we went to the kite festival at Long Beach and had SOOOOO much fun. I think all of us can agree that it would have been just as much fun without the kites though. :) We played and played and played on the beach... it was such a great time! We went to the end of the beach, by Beards Hollow, but the tide was up too far, so we parked, my mom watched Lelah and Josh, Logan, Brittney, Gregory, Zoe and I all got chased by the waves trying to get to the other side. It was such a fun time! We all ended up pretty soaking wet, but it was so fun!!! Also while she was here, we took her to Siouxon Creek, and I think she liked that. But I do think she liked the beach much more. :) Josh also took her to Mt. St. Helens, which is where he lost the camera. It was pretty much a wasted trip from what I hear. It was cloudy, so they didn't even get to see the mountain.

I still haven't sent out the announcements, and I'm really starting to get down about it. I've decided that instead of doing one like I did with Logan, I think I'll do one of those letters kinda like I do at Christmas time. I thought I would include a couple pictures of them. I should work on that maybe tomorrow.

Alright, I'm going for now. I'll try to keep up with this better than I have in the last month. It should be considerably easier since we now have the internet again. :) Bye for now!