Sports, Sports & Sports...

This track season has been a good one for Mac. He's is getting really good at the relays. He can run well and seems to enjoy it too.

He does ok with shot-put and pretty well with javelin throwing. You can see his javelin up pretty high in the picture below.

Lilly is still loving soccer. I think it's a sport she will always play. She scored another goal in her game today!

GO LILLY!

This is Griff today at Lilly's game. He was kind of grumpy...I think he sensed that I was about to leave him for a week. Yep...a whole week. We are leaving for Disneyland in just a few short hours!! YEAH! We are all very excited.
Momma B and Jim came to Lilly's game and we did "the swap" with Mr. Griff right after the game. I have been dreading it for a few days. I knew it would be tough...and it was. I cried as I buckled him into their car. I know he will be very well cared for while we are away, but it still makes the temporary good bye difficult. He will be going back and forth from Momma B's to Grandma Kathy's, so I know he will be entertained and very loved while we gone.

We will have a great time and I will miss by baby boy!
Ta-Ta for now.

Happy 18th Britty!

Happy 18th Birthday Brittany!

We got together at Urban Fondue (Yum) to celebrate Brittany turning 18. Had a great time. The food and drinks were delicious! We wish the best in everything for her first year at OSU, Go Beavs...and her future journeys. Love ya Britty-

Girl Scouts Daisy Troop Events

My Daisy troop has been a group of busy little gals! We have done a lot of fun projects over the year. The picture above is our Mother's Day planters. The girls painted a pot and then planted a geranium to give as gifts. They had a really fun time!
The picture below is of our Community Service Project. The girls chose to clean up around their school grounds and plants some flowers and bushes. It was a lot of work, but they did an outstanding job and worked very hard to earn a Community Service Badge.

The next set of pictures is from our first Girl Scout Day Camp at Camp Howard. We all got up early and headed out for a much anticipated day of fun. The girls were very excited. I only had 4 that could go for this event, but it turned out later that it was a good thing there was only 4 of them!

The girls learned all bout fire safety. They learned how to build a campfire site, strike a match, how to properly put out a campfire and even about Stop, Drop and Roll!

Snack Time!

We ended our day a lot earlier than expected. The first few activities they had planned were great for Daisy's age level. Unfortunately, as we got to the lunch piece of the day, things went a bit sour. It said on the schedule our lunch time was 11:30, good thing because the girls were very hungry by this time. When we got to where we thought we were going to eat lunch, we found a very different scenario than what we expected. They wanted the girls to cook all of their lunch...not a bad thing by any means- only one problem...
They wanted them to cook vegetable chicken stew, cornbread, mac-n-cheese and something for dessert as well. They handed all the girls plastic knives, a 10 pound bag of potatoes, carrots and even a big bag of onions. They were suppose to cut/chop up all these veggies with the plastic knives. I thought, WOW...this will be interesting! I tried to stay positive and encourage the girls to do what was asked of them. After about 35 mins of knives breaking, a few stabs on the fingers from broken plastic knives and a few tears from different girls- I was fed up. None of the troops were making any progress and everyone was clearly upset that this was how they had planned a Daisy level troop lunch. I found the lady in charge and asked if there was something else we could do because all the knives were broken and the adults didn't even have any knives to help move the process along. She walked away and came back carrying 3 big bags of frozen chicken breasts!!! She said that the chicken needed to be cut up first so they could start boiling it. I looked at her like she was nuts...I blurted out that my troop was not handling raw chicken, nor did we even have the proper utensils to cut up ANYTHING. I told her that it was very un-sanitary and dangerous health-wise to have a bunch of 5 - 6 year old's handling raw meat. She then glared at me and replied with "how do expect them to learn to cook then?"
I didn't respond to her question, I just said that there had to be something else that we could do. She then said well, I guess your troop won't have anything to do. I could not believe how she was behaving in front of everyone and that she was OK with saying that to me in front of all of those girls! I was furious! Luckily, many of the other troop leaders spoke up and said they didn't want their girls handling raw chicken either and this whole activity was becoming a bit ridiculous. By this time an hour had gone by and we didn't have all the vegetables even chopped up, much less cooking on the camp stoves! Not to mention that we were outside and it was very windy and cold. My hands were so frozen, they ached. I have no idea what happened after that because we booked it out of there. My girls were beyond done and even the two parent helpers I had with us were very ready to go. I am sure it's safe to assume that those poor girls didn't get lunch for a LONG WHILE!!

So, we checked out and left. I felt bad, but was mostly disappointed. The girls had been talking about GS Camp for months and we were all very excited about it. It was a big let down. I will definitely be filing a complaint. It was very unreasonable, poorly planned and unfair to our girls!
I didn't want the day to be ruined, so we took the girls out for pizza and played some games there. We all warmed up after a bit and talked about the fun parts of camp and then headed home. I hope next year goes a whole lot better!

Way to go Lilly!

On Saturday Lilly made 3 goals in her soccer game!! Way to go Lilly! Unfortunately, I missed the game because I was working the OTPA sale/fundraiser at their school. Pat didn't take the camera with him, so we have ZERO pics of it! Bummer. Will make sure we have it next time!

A nice day

My Mother's Day was a really good one. We didn't have any big plans other than maybe doing some work in the yard and just taking it easy. Mother Nature didn't cooperate for yard work so that left us even more time to just get some R & R. We did meet up with the family at Tebo's for some of their famous Strawberry Shortcake. The place was packed and a bit nuts, but we all enjoyed our desserts!
Griff really enjoyed his...he also felt that eating strawberry shortcake was serious business!

Tarver and Lilly enjoyed some too.

Happy Mother's Day Grandma Kathy. We love you!

This card, by far was my favorite. I loved all my flowers and other cards too...but the one Mac made me just really tugged at my heart. The front says "Happy Mother's Day" in Chinese.
The inside....ahhhh, makes being a Mom totally worth it!

It says- "you make my life so awesome and fun. You're always there for me. You care about me so much. I'm the luckiest kid alive."
I am the luckiest Momma alive. It's an honor and pleasure to be "Mom" to my kiddo's!

OTPA Japan Tsunami Relief Sale - Update

We had our sale this past Saturday and all I can say is "THANKS SO MUCH" to those of you that donated items for this great cause and/or came and shopped the event. We raised a little over $1, 800.00!!!! We exceeded our goal.
All proceeds are going to Mercy Corps in Portland to help with aide for the Japan Tsunami victims.
Way to go OTPA!

Some MoM RaP...

Ha! Couldn't resist.
Wishing all ya'll Hip Momma's out there an AWESOME Mother's Day.
Peace Out!
PS: I so hope this embarrasses my kids some day (:

Happy Mother's Day!

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on, pooped on, chewed on or peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,

I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much. I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body.
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night

every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth,

the joy, the love, the heartache,

the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,

before I was a Mom.

May you always be overwhelmed by the Grace of God rather than by the cares of life

Student of the Month

I am proud to say that both of my kids have now been Student of the Month! Lilly was chosen back in January and Mac was chosen for the month of April! They are both just doing awesome in school and we are so proud of them! Here is a link to the school web-site with Mac's picture:
http://www.oregontrailschools.com/299820111917106820/site/default.asp?
The theme for April was honesty. Mac is definitely honest and always very helpful. I am so proud of him! Way to go kiddo! Also, I have to brag about his state math test score... he got the second highest score in his class!!!! AWESOME!

Also, here is the link to Lilly's student of the month picture-
http://www.oregontrailschools.com/299820111917106820/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=58314
The theme for January was cooperation. I had to chuckle a bit because she doesn't always "cooperate" for me, but she sure does for her teacher!! Ha-
Way to go Lilly!

A short trip...

Last week we took advantage of the kids having a 3 day weekend. We took off for La Pine and made the best of the time we had. It was nice for all of us to get away. The weather turned out perfect. When we first got there, I wasn't so sure because there was a bit of snow on the ground and it was cold! Luckily when we awoke on Friday, the sun was out doing a great job of thawing things out. It warmed up nicely and the kids could not wait to get on their bikes. Mac's chuck-wagon from Grandpa Tex is holding up nicely over there and fits in with the scenery very well!

Griff did his best on foot trying to keep up with the bikes. He wants to ride sooo bad!

I eventually strapped him to back and took him for a short ride. He LOVED it...and don't worry all you Grandma's out there- I never took the bike out of first gear. I was very careful and went very slow! So no calling CSD on me!

Mac and Lilly even brushed up on their shooting skills...

Henry, Oh Henry...he did his best of keeping up with everyone, even the moto's. Poor Pup, he's getting up there in age. On Saturday night he was having a hard time getting around because he was so stiff and sore. It made Pat and I realize just how long we have had him. He is 11 now. He is such a good boy!

We found this riding lawn mower for Griff when we went into Bend one day. I was hoping it would help with his jealousy of the motorcycles. It only worked for a short while... at least I tried!

It was a fun trip and we are looking forward to spending some more weekends there this summer!

Oregon Trail Primary Academy Japan Tsunami Relief Sale

Hey All,
Make time to come out to Oregon Trail Primary Academy (my kids' school) this SATURDAY from 9:00 - 2:00 for a HUGE Upscale Garage Sale. All proceeds will be given to Mercy Corps of Portland to help the Japan Tsunami victims. Mercy Corps is doing amazing things for them! There is something for everyone! We are also taking donations until this Friday.

Thanks!