Blogging break

My kids are out of school.

I. AM. LOVING. IT!

So, I am going to have fun with them and enjoy them without the computer for a little bit.

I will be back July 1st.

Love you all!

Hankerin

I just dropped off my four oldest children at their cousins house for a sleep over.

Jeff is playing with Henry and Nora in the other room.

And it is summertime.

School is out. No lunches to make in the morning, no alarm going off waay too early. No homework or projects to worry about (cuz when you're kids are in school, so are you-it requires a ton of parent participation in elementary school, which I hate. Does that make me a bad mom? I'm not sure).

The weekend is upon us and I feel spicy right now. I don't know what it is, my hair is a little bigger today, leaning more toward rocker than mom, I have dark purple eyeshadow on and my Converse. And I just feel ready for something.



Could it be Thai food? Is that the pizazz I'm looking for? Or a suspenseful movie? Or maybe making an appointment to get blonde streaks through my hair?

I know, I really live on the edge.

But something's up. Somewhere between dropping the kids off and sitting in really bad traffic for an hour and a half, I just felt something light up inside.

It could be the excitement of the two youngest in bed later, and Jeff and I just kickin it BY OURSELVES with popcorn, diet pop and a movie.

~(Or it could be that now I'm annoyed cuz I'm too nice to tell some guy who just called that I don't want to do the telephone survey that lasts 15 minutes)

So now I have to go get un-annoyed by doing one of those things I mentioned.

I think I'm picking Thai Food. I've had a hankerin for it for about a week. And I feel like rocker hair and Thai food just go together.

And yes, I just said hankerin.

Have a great weekend!

We're On

Well, we got the call.

The call that says, yes we like you and we want you and your family to be featured on our show.

The show?

It's TLC's HomeMade Simple.

When? I don't know yet. I just know they will be coming in August to film us for 4 days and hopefully leave us with happy memories and some creative re-doing of a couple of rooms.

And I promise, even after we've made it big time, I will still have time for you and will let your people call my people and maybe we'll do lunch sometime.

I'm kidding. I'll be way too famous for that.

Ok, I'm really kidding. I'll be lucky to not spit when I talk, trip down the stairs in front of the whole crew or have spinach stuck in my teeth.

My whole goal will be to not look stupid, to snatch my 15 minutes of fame, and have fun.

And THEN, I'll get my people to call your people, kay?

*smooch, kiss*

Going Home

Growing up, with two parents working, my brother and sister and I spent most summers and Saturdays at my grandma's house.
Most days we would walk across the field to my great grandma Mohar's house.

Her house was the first one on that road.

So they named the road after her family.



When my Grandma Mohar died in 1997, my grandma and her brothers and sister sold the farm. It was a hard decision for everyone.

We loved the old place.

Amazingly, the lovely man that bought it, kept it pretty much the same. He just build a new house on the property and left the house where at least 2 of my Grandma Mohar's children were born, intact.

I remember such great things about growing up around this place. Playing in the old cars in her field, smelling the wild roses growing as we walked up the road to her house, chasing down the peacock that ran wild on her property, playing in the barn, seeing chickens and cats (according to Maile's memory) everywhere, feeding baby lambs and reaching over the fence to pet the cows and sheep. Oh, and being reminded over and over again to stay away from the canal.

Every few summers we would have a reunion with my grandma's siblings and their kids and grandkids. I remember running around with my second cousins, getting scraped up and dirty and then running back for lunch and homemade icecream.

Well this year, the kind gentleman who now owns it, said we could all come back to the old homestead and have another reunion.

So on Saturday, we all went back.

With tears in my eyes I watched my own children and nieces and nephews play in the sames places we used to.

Maile and I sat on the front porch, reminiscing, listening to the wind in the trees, the sound of the little creek, and smelling the lilacs from Grandma Mohar's lilac trees that are still blooming.

Mt. Peoh, the little mountain that most of Cle Elum has a view of, looked spendid on Saturday. I remember being told as a child that we would know when we could plant the garden when Mt. Peoh had no more snow on it.

This is who is left now. Seated from left to right, my Uncle Norman, my Auntie Ann, and my Uncle Donald. My grandma and my Uncle Johnny have both passed.

It was with a weird joy that Nora came to me totally filthy. Just like a day on the farm should do for a kid.

I don't know that I can ever give my kids what I was given as a child. All I have are my memories now. Although the gentleman that now owns the farm told us we could come back every year if we wanted to. Oh, I want to.

So much of my childhood was Keno and Maile and I. The places changed, grownups fade in and out of my memories. But my brother and sister are solidly in place amongst the happiest memories of my life. Oh how I love them.



And this guy, my daddy,

and my mom and my Aunt Cathy.

Thank you for being my family.

It really did feel like being home again.

(Upstairs in the old house.)



The End.

Julia at the top of Little Si

I was supposed to chaperone Julia on the Band field trip to the EMP in Seattle.

Well, due to some miscommunication, I thought it was yesterday, when in fact it is today.

I could not go today. I will have chaperoned everyone else at one point or another in the school year, so Julia was pretty sad.

But I came up with a compromise. I already had babysitters for everyone, so why not just have her skip school for the day and hang out with me?

She thought that was a brilliant idea. Which, of course, it was.

At first we thought of some indoor activities that we could maybe do, but it was too nice to stay inside.

So after some deliberation, we decided to go on a hike

.

We hiked Little Si. It's about 5 miles round trip, and we were both tired by the time we reached the top, but we did it.

And let me just tell you, Julia didn't complain once. Not once. We had a really good chat the whole way up and back down, and it was just a joy to be with her.

Afterward we had lunch at Jay Berry's, which was sooo good, especially since we were starving!

Then of course we had to get an ice cream cone before we headed home.

I wish I could explain how fantastic it is to have one on one time like this with my children. It's the only way to get to know them, what they like, what they struggle with, what brings them happiness and what they hope for.

I've never been so glad to have something miscommunicated. It really ended up being the perfect day.

What he learned

When hiding from mom, so that you don't have to take a nap, it's best to hide somewhere less comfy and sleep inducing.



But now he knows, mom always wins. Ha.

the Cutest thing and the Saddest thing

I love baby feet. I think they are without a doubt, one of the cutest things on the face of the planet.

I love to kiss them, put them against my cheeks and just revel in the beauty of the human baby foot.

After bathtime for Nora yesterday, upon the aforementioned kissing of her feet, I noticed little slivers in her right foot. Presumably from running barefoot in the mulch.

Now, as any parent or caregiver knows, removing slivers from the bottom of a child's foot can be near to holding down a cougar. Kids hate it!

And Nora is no exception.

Having a paranoia about leaving slivers in her feet, I sandwiched her between my legs so that I could hold her still enough to try and get at the 5 little slivers.

Needless to say, but I will still say it, she squirmed and cried and screamed and wailed. Even as I tried my best to be gentle.

Pretty soon the crying included her saying "mommy!mommy!mommy!".

If that wasn't enough to kill me, then she started crying "hep(help) me, hep me, hep me!" and reaching in the direction of the door.

That did me in. I kept telling her, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!, but she still looked at me as if I was the most wretched person in existence.

And I felt like the most wretched person in existence. And that is why, she still has 3 slivers in her feet.

Which I hope her daddy will be able to remove tonight. Then when she cries "hep me, hep me" I can swoop in and save her. And perhaps she will have forgotten what a mean mommy I am.

Of course, then she may think daddy is the meanest ever, but he's tough.

Unlike me, who turns into a big, mushy ball of sap when my babies are sad.

The end.

A word on being "cool"

When we were at the ranch, I wanted the kids and I to try a pose where we looked cool.

Cuz, you know, we're cool.

Nora is so cool, that she wouldn't even look at the camera.



Then, of course, we got a shot of the real us.


I didn't want Jeff to be left out, so I took a "cool" shot of him.


Funny how his "cool" pose is the exact same as his I'm-too-goofy-for-real life-pose. So I only had to take one picture.


So, are we cool because we're not cool? Or are we not cool because we try to be cool?

Do people even say things are cool anymore?


And have I now used the word cool so much that I'm no longer cool, cuz cool people don't talk about how cool they are?



Dang it.



And I so wanted to be cool.

Memorial Weekend 2010

Best. Weekend. Ever.

Ensign Ranch, Cle Elum, Wa.

Ropes Course. Canoeing. Rope Swing. Kick Ball. Bunkhouse. S'mores. Park/playground. Homestead Bbque.

Enough Said.