time marches on

We had a nice visit with my parents, and saw lots of the sights in the vicinity. Some were new to us, and others were fun to see again. We drove to Tillamook to the cheese factory and out to a light house near there, along the coastal Highway 101. We rode the trolley and went to some museums, as well as across the "big bridge" as Hunter calls it into WA state a couple of times. We took my dad to several of the local museums, and we all toured the Flavel House which is an antique Victorian mansion built by the renowned Captain Flavel. The children were terrors, naturally, and the lady working there had a fright and got after them a couple of times. I need to put a pet carrier on wheels and stuff them in it when we take them out in public. If only!

I did tow the car to St. Helens, and it wasn't too bad, surprisingly. Another set of problems was fixed, only to find more. It's funny - I was pleased all this time that we never had a single problem with it, until starting at about 75,000 miles it seems to be falling apart. Dean's Sentra goes into the shop tomorrow. Will it never end?

We had Super Saturday here for Home, Family and Personal Enrichment (or Homewrecking as my sister would say) a few weeks ago. I taught how to make ribbon wreaths, and learned to make a scripture tote from a placemat. I showed Dean the placemat I had picked out before hand, and he clearly didn't care for it. But it is a hit with everyone else (especially me), so that's ok! It is very simple to do, and here's a link for how to do it. I didn't do the foofy embellishments, just put the handles on and sewed it together. http://www.jcarolinecreative.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=JC&Screen=PLACEMAT

We had occasion once again to call poison control recently for Kyler. I sent Hunter out to pick the mushrooms growing in the back lawn (to throw away). Apparently people come here to our development looking for psychedellic mushrooms in the fall. I don't recommend that, as the locals have stories of people who have died doing that - not to mention that I don't recommend getting high in the first place. Anyway, Hunter has learned to manipulate Kyler into doing his assignments for him, and later in the evening I was praising Hunter in front of Daddy for picking a whole bag of mushrooms. Hunter then said that Kyler did it, and ate some. Oh, great. "Let's take him straight to the ER" said the in-house veterinarian "as the poisonous kind shut down the liver and cause death within a couple of days." "Let's look it up online and call Poison Control" said the rational, penny-pinching homemaker. We opted for the latter, and Poison Control was on top of it as always. Apparently they are more likely to be poisonous if they are growing right under a tree, which they weren't. We watched for the symptoms and talked to P.C. a couple of more times over the next 24 hours, and he was fine - so apparently whatever he ate was not toxic. In the past Kyler has managed to dine on Vitamin A, Pinesol, nail polish remover, and possibly more but that's all I can think of now. The Vitamin A was apparently the most potentially harmful, and I actually gave him syrup of ipecac (it was either that or take him to the ER, said the P.C. person). I had a doctor's appointment soon after, and was holding him with the doctor and nurse in the room one of the times he vomited. Oh, the joys of parenthood!

The piano is back up on its broken leg, and my giant bruise has healed. It itched as it was fading.

Halloween was fun, for the children. They didn't seem to know what to do most of the time they were trick or treating and would just stand at the door. Kyler would sometimes wander into the house, or jump in the bushes, or chase the family pets. We had to prompt them to say "trick or treat" much of the time; Kyler was often first to say "thank you". It feels so much like door to door begging to me, so I just took them around our cul-de-sac and let Dean have them after that while I passed out candy at home.

latest move and tribulations

We moved again last week, into our new home - finally! I despise moving, and hopefully now that we've bought a house we'll stay put for a while. We hired movers to do most of it. We love the house and the neighborhood.

The weather has gotten a bit cooler here, but is still nice and mild. It is getting dark earlier in the evening. People have put out halloween decorations all over, and the city has some witches that have "flown" into the light poles down town. I do enjoy the changing seasons.

Yesterday Kyler and I walked Hunter to the bus stop. Upon returning I found the door to be locked. I had a feeling the other day that I should put a key outside somewhere, but didn't get around to it. Dean was at work. I checked the other doors, but they were all locked. From the inside the handle will open whether it is locked or not, so I didn't realize it was still locked when we rushed out to not miss the bus. A lady from church is just a few houses down, and is an at-home mom as well, so I sheepishly went over to her house. I didn't know her well before, but she is nice and actually teaches Kyler's nursery class at church. Fortunately she was home, and was planning on going into town anyway, so she took Kyler and me to Dean's place of work. How nice of her! I still haven't put a key outside somewhere yet.

Our dodge intrepid, which is what I drive and what we use when we go out as a family, is on the fritz. It had been leaking water for sometime (then would overheat) and the transmission has been slipping and sometimes won't automatically shift. It has 80,000 miles on it now. Some mechanics replaced the head gasket and fixed one of the heads. They had it nearly a week. Yesterday we tried to drive out to the beach for a family walk, but it wouldn't shift, then started rattling. We turned around and came home. We took it back to the shop and they said the computer is spitting out some codes that only the dealer can take care of. The engine light has been on for a while too. The dealer here in town can't take it for two weeks. My parents are coming up for a visit in one week, so we need it. Dean drives a little nissan sentra, which sure wouldn't hold everyone. So, I called a dealer in a town about 60 miles away who can take it this week. Everyone says not to drive it and do more damage, so Dean wants me to tow it there with his boss' pickup. Ugh! That is so not appealing. We'll see! Now that we're officially "house poor", we can't just run out and buy another car, though Dean would certainly like to.

Last night as Hunter was supposed to be upstairs brushing his teeth before bed, I was downstairs and heard a few loud thuds. I waited a moment to listen for an explanation. Hunter whimpered a bit. I came upstairs to find him in the bathroom with the shower curtain and spring rod in the bath tub. I asked him if he had been climbing it. Yes, he said. I asked if he would be doing that again. No, he said. I asked a couple of times if he was pretending to be spider man, which he eventually said "yes" to. Hmmm. There were some big knots on his shin so I "iced" them down with frozen blueberries for a while. He seems to have another ear infection, by the way. We still have antibiotic drops for people with tubes in the ears, so we've been giving him that.

Earlier in the evening, for FHE I attempted on my own to move the parlour grand piano (a little smaller than a baby grand) so that I could open the top and pull out the music stand. Dean was in the kitchen. This was awfully foolish on my part, as I was vaguely aware that the back leg is not actually attached to the piano. The piano is just sitting on it. The piano rolled surprisingly easily, and right off that leg. I found myself screaming my head off trying to hold up the piano. Dean was trying to return a phone call from a client and ignored me desperation for a while. He eventually casually wandered over to finally watch me drop the piano to the floor. It is still with its back end on the floor and looks utterly ridiculous. I have a huge bruise on the front of my thigh. I'm not sure if the piano was sitting on my leg or hit it on the way down. Whenever we can recruit some help we'll stand it back up on it's leg. In the meantime I'm trying to find someone who could potentially fix that problem, as we sure wouldn't want to lose a child if they horsed around with it and it fell on them. So, I couldn't very well give Hunter much trouble after what I had done!

As soon as I find the digital camera and take some pictures, I'll figure out how to post them. We're still going through boxes...

Weekend ends, Fall begins

Tomorrow we will begin yet another week in this dreadful Victorian house that we do not call home. It's as though we are in purgatory, seemingly with no end in sight. It feels like we have been here for ages (but in reality 2 long months). Hopefully we only have a couple of weeks left before we can move into our real home and actually unpack and settle. Hunter has no school tomorrow due to the monthly teacher inservice. After two weeks of Kindergarten they've learned the colors and shapes. Hmmm. He already knew those, but I guess they have to cover the lowest possibilities in the class.

We had a lovely weekend. Becky coerced Dean to help with some housework before he and Hunter spent Saturday fishing. They didn't catch anything big enough to keep, but had a grand time at it. Last Saturday they caught a 16 inch rainbow trout, which we cooked up for dinner. Becky enjoyed a quiet day at home, working on some cloth gift bags. Next month is Super Saturday and everyone is supposed to bring 5-10 of some gift item they make to exchange to help with Christmas gift giving. Recommended items were candles, soaps, crocheted handiwork, ornaments, etc. I don't do such things and was rather stressed about what on earth I would take. I did an internet search for "quick easy gift project" and got the idea to make re-usable gift bags. I don't sew terribly straight lines, but hopefully no one cares. I went to Joann's (the closest thing here to Hobby Lobby - from which I am still having withdrawals) and got a few items from the remnant box, and the project goes very well. I am impressed with myself that I thought to use a twin-sized white fitted sheet that was just not working on Hunter's bed as a lining for the bags. I cut numerous linings from it, and now don't have to feel guilty for wasting the sheet (which I wanted to trash every time I made the mistake of putting it on Hunter's bed.)

Today I (Becky) was set apart as Primary Secretary in our ward. So I figured I should attend today. The Junior Primary is quite young, as explained to me by the president, which is why they were so restless and noisy and not paying attention. The counselor who was giving sharing time had a nervous break down and others had to fill in for the Senior Primary's sharing time. I had thought she was doing a marvelous job. Hmmm. I guess we'll see what's really in store for me.

This afternoon we took a lovely family walk here in Astoria. We were gone nearly two hours. We don't move along very fast when we stop at all the blackberry bushes along the way and partake. I can't stand them myself as they are much too tart for me, but Dean and the boys can't get enough. I hope I can get all the blackberry stains out of their clothes.