Any place for sale in Portland?

Remember, I hate winter!!

This is our backyard on Saturday, cold, muddy, but little snow.

This is today with 8+ inches that fell.

Ryan snow blowing the driveway again, mind you it is 9pm and it is really heavy wet snow and he is not happy. If you think you're sick of hearing about it, imagine how it sucks to live here! I am so ready to move. Will you make me a house Uncle Todd?

Parenthood

Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen (sorry no pictures for you Amy) and I ran across the most delicious bottle of wine. No, I didn't drink it on the spot, just remembering how wonderful that winery was etc. So, I decided we needed a nice dinner so we could enjoy the bottle of wine. During the day I made homemade bread (in a bread machine of course), potatoes and veggies. I cleared a spot in the snow so Ryan could grill steaks.I didn't realize he was sleeping at the grill at the time.

We were just putting our lovely dinner on the table and Liam starts screaming because he has a stomach ache. We told him he could start eating without us, maybe he was just hungry. That didn't help so we sent him to the bathroom to try there. After we dig into our meal I hear a cry of MOMMY from the bathroom. He confirms that he does in fact need to go potty, but it won't come out of his "poop hole". You think you are taken aback by this language while working at your computer, try being there enjoying a nice meal downstairs of this action. I handed him a book and told him to come down when he feels better.

Then we had part two by Lance. He doesn't really like steak, he has trouble chewing it. This is due to the fact that Lance shovels in all foods and does not chew anything and you have to chew steak. Liam is still in the bathroom and Lance begins to get upset because he can't chew the meat and needs to get rid of it. We direct him to the garbage can. Instead of discreetly spitting it out, he lobs if from two feet away with a strange sound. Ryan snaps at him and tells him to be more presentable. Lance starts crying uncontrollably. I decided to leave the table until everyone calms down so we can enjoy the meal. Liam comes back from the bathroom with a full report. Lance runs to his room. Ryan goes to Lance's room and tells him to calm down and come back to dinner. We are all at the table again, trying to enjoy our cold meal.

I kept waiting for the wine to kick in, but Ryan said that I was doing that wrong. He said the right approach would have been to just drink the whole bottle by myself from the bottle and then dinner would have been agreeable.

The funny thing is that the boys are usually really good at dinner time. We had our years of unpleasantry, but now they are both old enough that we have a good conversation and enjoy dinners together. Next time I decide to have wine with dinner, I will wait until the other whines are in bed.

Wordless Wednesday-Spring Break Activities

Built a Fort
Watched a Movie about the Amazon here

Went to a Birthday party here

Played Survior card game (and watched last week's episode)

Sorted Star Wars cards to play a game when Daddy comes home

With all of this fun going on, mom got to clean for spring break! (let me tell you the fun, sorry no pictures available)

More Easter gifts

Grandma Becky sent a card the other day and a gift of STICKERS! How fun. Liam removed all of the stickers from the page and made a design in my favorite place, on his clothing! There is a design here...There is a large egg with a flower inside. Two green eggs fighting with grass with the red egg as the divider line. And two yellow eggs playing tag.
At the end of the night the stickers were then removed from the shirt and put on the stool he uses to get in bed in a new design. This was done at the suggestion of mommy because she has seen TOO many stickers in the wash. However, today I have found a sticker on the bottom of my sock and I see that 4 of the stickers have made it back on a new shirt that is being worn today. Thank you Grandma! It has been hours of fun for everyone!

Something to Ponder

Tonight Liam was all tucked in and falling asleep when he heard us upstairs putting Lance to sleep. He called Ryan into his room and asked this question:

Liam: What if Daisy eats the Easter Bunny?
Ryan: Don't worry the Easter Bunny is too smart and fast for Daisy.

HAPPY EASTER!

Snow Day

Today we got up to got ready to go to school. We drove through the 4 inches of snow on the ground for 20+ minutes and then we got to the school. We drove up to park and saw a sign that said "No School, snow day". We were already there and I was supposed to sub, so I wasn't the happiest camper. Plus it was the last day of the quarter and parties were planned, Lance worked really hard to earn the privillege to go to a special party today. Lance was upset and we had a horrific drive home in front of us, so I decided that I would call one of his friend's mom. They live close to the school so we went over and picked up his friend to spend the night. His friend has a little brother, so he came over also to play with Liam. This is what I decided to do with 4 boys stuck in a snow storm...I made them help me shovel the driveway. Sorry it was snowing so much you can't see their faces, but they are smiling. (Liam, Elliot, Oliver and Lance) They did a really good job and we were done in a half hour. It is really warm out so they stayed out and played in the backyard. The boys are staying until tomorrow morning, so it's off to find other things for them to do. (Not really, they are currently playing video games and they will do that all day if I let them and I just might).

Fun Gifts!

Yesterday the Easter Bunny came (okay it was really the mail lady). She gave me this. It was such a fun surprise. I left it unopened until the boys came home and let them open it. The boys quickly picked out what they were going to eat first. (They chose the bunny cookies). Thank you Grandpa and Karma!!

Sick Day

Yesterday morning Liam woke us up at 3:30 am with a coughing fit. I don't do well at that time of morning, but then I couldn't go back to sleep because I debated keeping him home from school for the next couple of hours. I finally decided it was bad enough that I shouldn't send him to school to spread his germs, but I had to find a sub. (The bad news in our program is that we need to call and find our own subs). At 6am I began calling people and gave up at 7am so I could get Lance ready for school. After we dropped Lance off at school I got a call from our school secretary that she had found a sub for me. This is good, but it is its own story for another blog.

So, I got Liam all set up in front of the t.v. and started cleaning the house because I had the day off. Liam was bored. He watched t.v. for a half hour total. Then he wanted to play a game, so we played a game. After the game I suggested nap time. Nap time consisted of us lying in my bed, me trying to sleep while he read me books. He agreed to only 30 minutes of this and he watched the clock. The books were a little about his level because they were story books, so every page had a word he did not know and could not sound out. Needless to say I didn't get to rest. I suggested t.v. again. He wanted XBox. Number one rule in our house is no video games on sick days (make note to change that rule). Then he told me that I could still take him to school and he would just get a tardy. (maybe should have taken him up on his offer) He finally watched a little t.v. again. Then he was bored and wanted to play outside. I told him to play in his room. He said he couldn't because Lance wasn't there and he makes up the games. Finally after lunch I had to find some compromise because I was almost going crazy from the boredom he was experiencing. It was a nice day (about 45 degrees) so I told him to go sit in the sun and read a book. Every 5 minutes he was asking if he could move the chair somewhere else on the deck or go sit on the swings or in the fort or.... Finally I said the sun is better in the front of the house you can move there. Then it was can I go on the driveway, can I go on the grass, can I have chalk?

I guess he wasn't really all that sick. He went to school today and my day is much quieter.

Really we did have fun, but he was just so bored not being with friends at school or with Lance. I thought it was so cute when he was outside, he had his shades, his books and his iced tea and he was just reading and relaxing.

Note: Somehow I did get my dishes done and 2 loads of laundry (in a 7 hour day)

Wordless Wednesday- Spring!!

Cougars all the Way!

Well, the bracket is out and it is time for March Madness. Lately I never even watch a basketball game, college or pro, but when the tourney comes...I'm all over it. Of course I will pick Washington State Univ. to go all the way. I picked them last year and they were seeded a lot lower. I don't have any other picks yet because I just looked at the bracket for the first time, plus I have no clue who is good this year. I will probably let the boys do a bracket. We do it by mascots, they look at the match up of the mascots of the teams playing and pick who will win. You laugh, but they have had some pretty good picks.

Go Cougs!

City Driving

I am a suburbia girl. Today I went to the U of MN for an international adoption conference alone. Ryan got the pleasure of taking 4 children to a play we had tickets for in Minneapolis. I drove right to the campus and parked with no problems, in a little less than a half hour.
When I left the parking garage it forced me out a different way than I had come in. I kind of still knew where I was and I thought I was doing well. My gut told me to take a left on a street, but I saw a sign up ahead that said 35W, the freeway I needed. I went for the sign, the on ramp was several blocks away and then it was for the north. I was in the area of the bridge collapse so I blame that for my getting lost, but it was really that I don't know the city at all. I just kept driving and turning not even knowing which direction I was going in. Finally I called Ryan and asked him to map quest where I was and how to get home. He was doing work and talking to his "boss" on the other line, but he looked up the area and told me what to do. I started driving in that direction and thought "it's okay I still have gas", then I noticed that the car was overheating. I pulled over and went into the back of an office building parking lot. I called Ryan again and started whining about everything that was going wrong. He patiently explained how to put coolant in the car (a problem he has been dealing with for a while with his car and I feel it is time to get it fixed!). He said he would come to me if I just told him where and I was and waited a half hour. I told him that I could do this and I would be fine. I put in the coolant, called him again for more directions and started off again. His directions were great and once I got back to the freeways I knew my way around. I left the U at 3pm and got home at 4:30.
I am thankful for a patient, calm husband. That Minneapolis is a safe city. That is was daylight and not snowing. That I have a cell phone.
Rachel, I should have carpooled.

The reason we chose to adopt

I saw this on someone else's blog and I just had to steal it (Thanks Jenny). I haven't really written a statement as to "why" we have chosen to adopt, but I think this sums up our feelings pretty well.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ADOPTIVE PARENT IF ...
1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love & family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who've experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's "real" parents.
7. You've been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)
8. You'd no idea how you'd afford to adopt, but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing He'd provide. (& He does!)
9. You've taken an airplane half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart's for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart & family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word "Dossier" means & you can actually pronounce it correctly!
13. You've welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child's so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you're the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

Wordless Wednesday- Above 40 degrees

Epilepsy Stroll

Oliver is in the green, his two siblings and our boys (and of course Daisy).

Thank you to all of you that have donated to the walk Lance is doing. I just wanted to give a little update on Oliver these days. Even though he is not officially part of our family, Lance spends a lot of time with him and he is over at our house quite a bit. Sometimes kids at school (not in their class) think that I'm the mom of Oliver's family, not Lance's.

Anyway, Oliver has been having a hard time these past couple of weeks. In the past 7 days he has had 4 seizures at school, I don't know how many others he has had lately. Today Lance said he had two in class. My heart just aches to help this child and we are so helpless. If you could say a prayer for Oliver that would be wonderful and if you haven't donated yet that would help also. I wish we had more to give because this kid is so great and I'm sure there are a lot more like him that need our help also.

Thank you.

Bed and Breakfast Havens

We have been married for almost 12 years now. We didn't have a honeymoon so we treat ourselves to a Bed and Breakfast every year for our anniversary. I usually book it in Jan. or Feb. for May and it helps me get through the winter. Well, this year due to budget constraints we aren't able to go to on our annual B&B trip. However, just because we aren't going doesn't mean you can't go. I have included websites of some of the ones we have visited over the years. You can take either a virtual tour or you can book your own. If you don't live in the area my friend's site can help you find a good one for you.
Last year we went to a B&B in Iowa. The website isn't much, but it is really nice and the town is great. The one in Wisconsin the year before wasn't what we expected, but it had a drop dead breakfast. This one in Duluth is our all time favorite. We love the city, the rooms, the food (they have cookies available all of the time). This one has mixed reviews. I liked the area, the rooms, but hated the food. The food is very important to me if you haven't noticed. This was our first one, we liked it at the time, but now we expect more from a B&B. This was an early one also, but we liked it and it was good for the money. Nice town also.
There have been others, but a few have gone out of business. I hope you have the chance to get out and visit your local B&B. I do have one rule that I follow for picking a B&B, they must serve us breakfast in our room because I don't want to get up early and get ready for the day to eat with strangers.

Philippine Day

Today we went to Philippine Day and we had a great time. There was a lot of food to try, booths to look at and entertainment. The entertainment felt more like watching a talent show. There were a lot of different acts, only a quarter were traditional songs or dances. One of the best parts of the day was that we got to meet other families that are adopting from the Philippines. I am a member of an online group and we all met each other in person. In fact one of my good "on-line friends" became our "real friends" today. We carpooled together and then they stayed a little after at our house and we chatted. (Nice to meet you Rachel and Dave).

The day was fun and Liam got to go up on stage and sing. He was nervous at first, but he did fine and he is happy with his performance.

We borrowed this shirt (Barong) from someone in the group. Liam liked it a lot and wants us to buy him one when we go to the Philippines.

Going Broke

I should change the blog name to the our losing family because Liam has lost another tooth. The tooth fairy gives the boys $2 under their pillow for every tooth and I think that she is going to stop coming to our house soon because she is going broke around here. However, I do have to share the new cute photo.

Missing Tooth Update

Yesterday Lance lost a tooth on the way to school. No picture is included because the missing tooth is in the back part of his mouth and the new tooth has already grown in beside it. I just thought I should give fair mention to the big kid, even though the missing tooth isn't as cute as those front ones of Liam's. (Let me tell you the tooth fairy is going broke from these kids!)

Wordless Wednesday- Another tooth has gone missing