Playing Catch up!

So here is my last week/weekend in a nutshell! Saturday my co-worker Tasha and I did a yard sale with 3 whopping customers, then Tausha (Tersh) came from Boise and we visited and let our puppy's play (milo is awfully cute although he learned a new little trick to do to Myah :0). Sunday was my lazy day. I hung out and watched Miami vs NY in London. I sported the Dolphins jersey for Tob, but unfortunately they lost however I think lately they alway's lose. No offense to both my dad and Toby who are huge dolphins fans. Too Bad they stink the majority of the time. Anyway then Shaun came up with MaKenna, we hung out and then went up Bear Creek to let the dogs and kids loose. It was great fun to hang out and visit with them for the day. After dinner they left and I watched the last of the world series which I have already blogged about.
My week since Monday has been absolutely crazy. I spent Tuesday all day in LG so that I could get my stupid car fixed and they did NOTHING and managed to charge me $188.72. I asked what for? They said the diagnostics! Anyway I won't get into it. It was a mess but I did get a great hour to hour & 1/2 trail ride in with Sandy which was awesome until I got a flat, however that was at the end of the ride anyway. I was late picking up the kids but thanks to great friends (Tasha & Andy) I was saved again.
Halloween was good. I made the world's ulgliest pumpkin cookies for Alexyss' class and went to the school to hang out between both of their parties. They had a great time. Alexyss' class had all junk food and Nojah's was all healthy. The teacher planned the 2nd graders and Alexyss was on the planning committee of the kindergarten class which is why everything was unhealthy. We went trick or treating until about 7pm or so and now the kids ate a bunch of candy, brushed their teeth and are in bed. I know my week was a lot more eventful and busy then that but I should go clean the house or get kids ready for my crazy weekend. I start work tomorrow night and then I have to get off Friday morning take them to Melissa's in LG, come back work Friday night, Saturday night, go back to LG on Sunday and pick up the kids from my mom and dads and bring them back home so that Mon, Tue, and Wed nights our friends (Annette & Mark) here can watch them overnight while I work! Thank God for Family and Friends. We sure do appreciate everyones help when our lives go crazy! Well I should call it a night I have plenty to do before I drift off to sleep! Hope everyone had a happy halloween! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA! WE LOVE YOU!! ALSO CONGRATULATIONS TO LLOYD AND RACHEL WHO HAD THEIR BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL YESTERDAY AFTERNOON!

Yikes! Boston had a fantastic, kick a** series! I have got to say I don't think I have ever got into the world series like I did this year. I really enjoyed watching the games although I was a little disappointed with Colorado's performance in the series with a winning streak of 21/22 games during the season. I guess I expected a little more out of them although I really wanted to see Boston win anyway. They have a great team and play well together! Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

So Thursday night we carved our big pumpkin that Grandma Teri and Grandpa Wes brought us home from their vacation. We spent the evening carving the pumpkin, watching the Colorado/Boston game, and eating whopper milkshakes that Tob whipped up. All in all pretty good evening. Alexyss has been begging for the past week to carve pumpkins. I am glad we did it that night because Tob got was dispatched to California (San Diego area) friday morning. He was going to take the day off to help me get yard sale stuff ready for Saturday and then got a call at 9am and was gone by 1045. Should be gone for about 2 1/2 weeks. Huh, so much for spending the weekend with him. Oh yes you are all probably wondering why I said yard sale. A friend and I had a brilliant idea to have a yard sale this morning in her barn so actually a barn sale. It was roughly 15 degrees outside while we were setting up. The sale started at 8, we got our first customer at 1037 and then our second and third customer around noon when we decided to bag it. So maybe this isn't a great time to yard sale. Oh well the kids got to play, I made $7, and we had a great time visiting inside by her fire.

LEAF MAN

Picture #1
The other day Alexyss asked late in the evening if she could go outside. I said that was ok as long as she was going out back. She said "OK" and headed out into the back yard. She was gone for probably a 1/2 hour so I checked on her and there she was outside wandering around. Then she came in with the leaves that she would shortly turn into "LEAF MAN". She then proceeded to get out the tape, stapler and whatever else she needed to put him together. It was funny. These are the things she does all the time. So Leaf man sits on our fridge now. I don't know what inspired it but heck what inspires half her ideas, we'll probably never know.

Picture #2
Nojah and Alexyss waiting patiently for our family pictures to be taken yesterday. They looked so sweet sitting there so I took the photo.

Picture #3
Here is toothless! She has lost 3 teeth now at the ripe age of 5. Her first in Thailand when she was only 4. She lost one about 2 days ago and the other she pulled out on the drive to pictures. I asked her to just wait until after family pictures but apparently that was too much to ask. HUH??

Picture #4
Nojah and Lex roasting marshmellow's after pictures. Actually we were stuck on the other side of the pond for awhile as a group of elderly people drove in and did a baptism ceremony. They dunked the lady in the pond when it was only about 45 degree's out with winds. I wasn't sure she would live through it. But they put a coat on her she jumped in the car and off they went (probably to Grande Ronde Hospital).

Picture #5
Nojah and Lex with Grandma Val on Saturday up at Buckhorn lookout. Her, Tob, and the kids went for a drive and on the way home his fuel hose fell of the truck and they lost all of their gas. Besides the fact that they had lost a lot of money and polluted the environment they were stranded 30 miles from home. Cell phones (as well as cell service) are great things. Friends are great too. His friend Adam brought him some gas and he fixed the fuel line and off they went. Anyway that is our past week in a nutshell. I am on my week of work so since all I do is sleep, and work (and eat of course) I don't get a lot of time to post.

Australia v.s. New Zealand

I was going to go mountain biking today, however Nojah's school called and he didn't feel well so here I sit while little man sleeps. Anyway got to thinking about our next big adventure. I have the travel bug now and if we don't start saving and planning then it won't happen for a long time. So for the past several months we had decided that our next destination would be Australia, however the more and more I think about it New Zealand is more appealing. I think it is the mountain's and lush greenery, waterfalls, etc vs ocean and desert. I think that tramping (aka hiking/backpacking in U.S. terms) would be great fun. They have lots of trails that have small cabins to stay in along they way which would be great with the kids. We are planning another 1-2 month trip if work allows for that. Probably more like 4-6 weeks, which we have considered a month in New Zealand and 2 weeks in Australia or vice versa. Nojah studied Australia in 1st grade last year after we returned from Thailand so he is really set on going. Hence he is the reason we are headed in that general direction. I know we will do one or the other or both, I guess I need to do more research! The plan is right now March or April of 2009 which gives us 18 months to save and plan. That's about how long we spent getting ready for Thailand and it comes up quick. We would love to hear any thoughts or ideas from all of you out there.

Foofal Doodle

OK so I didn't know what to title my post! Yesterday was the kids last soccer game of the season. They were undefeated this year and had so much fun. After the game the coach bought pizza and then we played kids vs parents. The other team thought that looked like great fun and jumped in as well. It was a blast. We had a few Dad's with cowboy boots kicking pretty hard. Even though I was a little fearful that somebody would get killed there were no injuries while we were there. It was kind of fun to watch all the parents participating. After the game we went to Grandpa's Neal's house. The kids fished in his bathtub pond outside for the majority of the time. It kept them pretty busy. After that we drove back to LG and dropped off the fish for Grandpa Wes and Grandma Teri except they were gone and their pond was empty. They had had a unfortunate accident a few weeks or so ago where some monster ate all of the fish. My guess is raccoon??! Anyway point is no water was in the pond so we just left the bucket o fish and left. We still had a drive in front of us and it was late but I did call them this morning and warn them they have some new friends for the winter :0)

WoW hOw TiMe FliEs!!

Wow, I just looked at the date on my last post and realized it has been a week and a half! Oops. Well I have been working for the past 7 days but now I have 7 off so maybe I can make up for it. Last night we went to Enterprise for the kids soccer game. I love having soccer in the fall. They had a great game. I don't think they have lost a game yet actually. After the game we went to the Enterprise vs LaGrande (4th grade-6th grade) football game. La Grande did awesome! My nephew Jake had a great game with a touchdown. I think the score was 42-0 (ouch, considering in a couple years that enterprise team will be Nojah's). Hopefully there is some improvement between now and then. This is their first year offering Elementary school football in the county so we have room for improvment I think. Myah is doing awesome, she has her first vet appointment later today. Let me tell you crate training sucks, but now that we have had her for a couple of weeks she is doing really well. I called my friend Tausha almost in tears after the first 4 days of NO SLEEP and she helped me through it since she is going through it as well. They have a 9 week old Chocolate lab. Thanks Tersh! Dakota is hanging in there. He doesn't really care for the little fluff nugget but he is getting better. She tugs on him and bites him all the time so I don't blame him. We just try to give him lots of love and space from her. Anyway, not much else is going on besides kids games, dogs, and work.

Meet Myah

Good Morning!!
Sorry I haven't posted anything since last week. We had a busy week with a long weekend. On Saturday I ran the 10k Grande Ronde Rehab Run and the kids had a soccer game over here at home so Tob drove over after the game and we took off to St Helens OR to pick up our new sweet Myah. She is a 7-week old Alaskan Malamute. We weren't suppose to pick her up for two weeks but the breeder said that she was doing really well and we could come get her whenever we were ready. So we drove over to St Helens on Saturday afternoon, picked her up Sunday morning and got back home at about 8pm last night. She is very sweet (for now anyway) and we are glad to have her. Dakota is still plugging along and seems to tolerate her just fine. If he lives very much longer I have no doubts that he will fall in love with her as she has already with him.