Christmas Letter

So every year I write a simple letter to the kids from Santa. You know like "thank you for the milk and cookies" and "you have been very good this year." But this year I found a book of Christmas letters to father Christmas written by Tolkien to his children and I couldn't help but plagiarize a bit and write my own. Tolkienesque letter to the kids this year. Who know's maybe it'll be a tradition for me too.

Anyway I posted a PDF here if you want to see.

Loads of Licorice Fun

I love black licorice -it is a psychological anchor that brings me back to my childhood when I would spend a great deal of time with my grandpa. The smell, the taste even just seeing a "red vines" pack of black licorice will stir up some warm feelings and fond memories of time spent with grandpa. (Hot chocolate and root beer floats have almost the same effect.) Luckily, I fell in love with a man who loves black licorice almost as much as I do. Granted he won't travel long distances for the delicious treat of black licorice ice cream, but he'll happily enjoy it with me. It's such an odd love that people do notice. Recently, a relative asked me for specific licorice types to buy us for a Christmas gift. I'm at a loss, really, because while I love the stuff I don't usually think about the specific types of black licorice that I'm eating. But we do have a friend from Holland who always shares his good licorice with us and so I sent him the question as to what some "good" licorice types are and I'll share his lengthy yet interesting response in a bit.

Licorice while being a delicious and different treat has many uses other than snacking. It is used in many cultures as a culinary additive and even some soft drinks and flavored waters. Though the only widespread use in America beyond candy has been estevia (a type of licorice root extract) which is a sugar substitute, it's 50times sweeter than sucrose and eliminates the nasty side effects found in chemically manipulated sweeteners. I'm told that it doesn't have the licorice flavor but has all of the sweetness as real sugar. Pharmaceutically, real licorice, taken on a regular basis has many clinical uses such as treating hormone imbalances, GI issues, and weight problems. But, as with anything taken in this manner, is not without side effects.

I don't know personally how well it treats the other two, but if your feeling backed up go have a two scoop Licorice Ice Cream treat. You'll feel better soon!

So here is my response from the local licorice buff

The 'really salty ones' that kenny refers to are called double-salted, and they are indeed horribly salty. One of the ladies at Amerion once brought some of those in, but I think I'm the only one who actually likes them. (And even then in major moderation. Doesn't take much of them to feel like you're eating a spoon full of table salt) The double salted are normally either the size of a nickle with the letters 'DZ' on them, or they look like very tiny, thin diamond shapes. (sometimes called 'wybert' and comes in a small blue & white metal tin) you probably wouldn't want either of those. you probably also won't like anything that actually has 'salmiak' as part of their name. I like those, but most of the American websites I've seen sell it tend to have a warning next to them that it's a bit of an aquired taste)

I looked at the website for the nut factory just now, and they don't have very much listed. the first one on the list (black kukaburra lictorice) is Australian. I tried them a while ago, and didn't care for those much myself. (They have them at Yoke's too, in the bulk bins) flavor is OK, but the texture is kind of rubbery.

The 2nd ones listed (black licorice wheels) do taste good. They're one of the few types of licorice they sell all over the place in Germany. Similar flavor to most Dutch licorice, but the downside is that they're too large to comfortable fit in your mouth at once. You have to unroll them a bit. (It's really a long rolled-up string. They have these are yoke's too. they should feel a bit soft and be bendable. If you can't bend them anymore they're stale and get difficult to bite through.

I haven't heard of the 3rd one, (French diamond licorice), but those do say that they are flavored with anise -- that's what they use for most American licorice, as opposed to the more traditional european ones that are flavored with actual licorice root. Personally I don't care for the anise ones at all, although they probably taste more 'familiar' to people used to twizzlers and redvines.

the licorise pastels are OK, although they are sugar coated and taste sweeter than plain licorise.

The neopolitan licorice are mostly coconut, and tend to be pretty stale at most places that sell them. (they should feel soft, but are often hard as a rock. OK if you like coconut, not much licorice involved.)

red licorice wheels: just pretends to be licorice. :-)

If they do happen to have others in person: the bad ones that kenny refers to are called double-salted, and they are indeed horribly salty. I think they taste OKish, in moderation, But even then I can only eat a few before you start to overdose on plain tablesalt. Normally these are either the size of a nickle with the letters 'DZ' on them, or they look like very tiny, thin diamond shapes.

Other good ones (if you see them) are the ones below. All of them are pretty typical Dutch licorice types, and many manufacturers make their own variations:

'boerderijdrop' (sweet, farm-animals & equipment)

coins (sweet, but a bit harder texture):

'kokindjes' (soft, sweet, little round drops often with the letter 'k' on them)

'katjes' (sweet, small, cat shaped. Good flavor, but with a hard texture, can't easily bite them in half)

A lot of the times I also just get some pound boxes of "assorted sweet licorice", "assorted mixed licorice" or "assorted salty licorice" which all contain different mixtures of varying types. I think that 'venco' is probably the largest manufacturer, and pretty much anything they make tastes good. (except possibly the double-salted, and anything that has 'salmiak' in their name)

Definition of Surgery

Our friends had their cocker spaniel spayed a little while back. She still has stitches so the kids have to be careful around her. On the way home from school there was a very interesting discussion about the whole thing.

Kenzie: Hey you guys should come over to my house and play Mario Galaxy!

Ainsley and Chloe agreed and asked permission. I said it was fine as long as Kenzie's mom said it was okay.

Kenzie: But Jedda is REALLY sick and we needed to take her to have surgery. Surgery is where you cut a dog in half and then sew him back up. That's what surgery is. So we'll have to be careful and not get her excited.

Chloe: Ya, Malcolm had that too. Mom didn't want him to have babies so we took him to get cut in half and they sewed him up again.

Meanwhile, I'm just driving and taking it all in with a big grin on my face. I love hearing their definitions. Somehow, when us adults explain things, the messages don't get translated quite the same in their little heads.

SuperStar!

Another Candy Cane Classic for the girls. It's where the kids get to have a faux competition. They practice routines on the floor, vault, beam and bars and then they have a meet. The judges are the level 4 gymnasts in the club... thats one step higher then Chloe's group, they actually compete in real events. Every kid get ribbons and place doesn't matter, it's all for fun and practice. The girls had lots of fun! It always surprises me how much they really know how to do. Ainsley is moving right along with her group (even though I always think she is too silly hearted to be focused in gymnastics, she actually performs quite well) Chloe is at the same level as the other girl her age in her group (most of the kids in her group are 10. She's got the skills down, she just needs to work on making them look pretty.

Another Class Off to a Great Start

I usually try to refrain from blogging about work because I want to keep this as a personal blog. But last night's class went really really well, so well that I have to share. I have a great group of students, a full class and some extras, a grandma and another local birth support person. Class went smoothly, they got it right off the bat and I think that all of them will get a lot of information out of it. One of the parents was so excited afterwards she wanted to share with everyone in the area and suggested that I get a newspaper reporter to sit in on a class. A bit intimidating for little me who enjoys small, infrequent classes so I can work it around family, birth support and Camp Fire. The class is 5 weeks long and last night was the first of 5 and I was quite surprised at the end of the first class when they clapped. It really felt nice. It's nice to be around people who appreciate and use the knowledge that you have inside you. I hold my tongue for the most part around friends and family and only answer questions when they're asked. But to be a teacher and have people come to me for advice is a great feeling.

The Real Banana Hammock

Look what I'm reduced to, the crappiest, crap quality of my precious cell phone camera which I can't even simply upload images to my computer from but I have to email myself a pix message. I'm being so raped by Verizon! My poor little cannon can't even hold it batteries in anymore and even if that worked I get the E18 message of death. I sure do miss posting my lunches...

Anyway, on with the blog posting! My sister came down for a pre-christmas week with her family and for her baby shower... while she was here some friends visited ken and I and we were discussing a banana hammock that was given away at a white elephant gift exchange they went to. My sister is pretty ignorant (innocent doesn't really apply to her) and thought she knew exactly what they were talking about. "You mean one of those fruit thingies they sell at Pier 1?" she said. All in the room were somewhat confused by her comment, I for one had never heard of this "version" of a banana hammock and I'm not sure anyone else in the room had either. We clarified that we were talking about a male thong, she turned red and laughed and we all thought she was a little nutty in the head.

A few days later she wanted to give Kenny and I our Christmas gift early since she wasn't going to be in town to see us open it. Low and behold it was a banana hammock. I opened it and smiled, "You know, we WILL use this a lot!" (We buy out the produce section each week, it'll be nice to have another place to store some of the fruit.) She laughed and said, oh no it was supposed to be a gag gift not something you'd take seriously. It was funny and appropriately timed. Anyway, thats the story. Now I have a Real Banana Hammock!

Nic's Room is Sparkling Clean

The girls have been doing a pretty good job keeping their rooms tidy. I'm not sure if it's the looming anticipation of Santa's visit or if their actually just trying to keep them picked up. However for the past two weeks I've been pulling Nic's arm trying to get him to pick up the disaster area that was his room. I was afraid he might disappear amongst the mega blocks and dirty laundry. Unfortunately he doesn't quite have enough stuff for me to pull a Mrs. Piggly Wiggly.

Hubert refused to clean his room. After a few weeks, it was in such a state that he could no longer get to his bed, nor to the door, and he slept atop a pile of toy parts. His mother made him meals which he hoisted up in a basket from his window. After things had gotten as bad as they possibly could, up came a note from Mrs. P-W with lunch - "the circus is coming to town, and we're going to go see it! Come play with us!" Toots of horns and happy shouts and a parade of kids (led by Mrs. P-W of course) came trotting past outside the house - oh, but Hubert couldn't even get to the door! Galvanized, he put away his toys in a furious hurry, got out of his room and caught up with his friends.

While it wasn't nearly as bad as Huberts room, it was still pretty bad. I talked with him about cleaning his room.

me, "Nic, you have to clean your room."
Nic, "But it...will...take...for...ev..er." (if you know nic, you know he takes a breath in between syllables when he's really mad)
me, "Santa doesn't give presents to little boys with messy rooms. Don't you want santa to visit and leave you toys?"
Nic shruggs and shakes his head! (HE'S ALREADY GIVEN UP!!)

It took me about 4 days of no Wii or Computer games (he can live without santa visiting but shut down the computer use and we have motivation). I also spent a few sessions helping him in his room to finally get it accomplished. I had to get creative too because if it wasn't fun or "his idea" he wasn't going to do any work. Quite a few times I went up there and started to "help" him only to leave after 5 minutes of doing the work all by myself. So, we played a few games... such as 10 minute pick up, and I spy. I actually said, "can you find" and then named the object.

me, "Can you find the red train bridge and put it in the yellow toy box" etc etc etc.

In the end he actually suggested that we go clean his room and it ended up working the best by me grabbing an object and handing it to him to put away. It probably took us two hours or so once we focused and got down to cleaning.

He actually went up there of his own volition today and did some maintenance cleaning on it which is nice. Now if I can get that same urge and clean the house so that when I have company come to the door I don't have to think twice about inviting them in.

Club Penguin

I got the girls some accounts on a fun, kid friendly site last night. A virtual place called Club Penguin. Chat's are always moderated with severe disciplinary actions for even the slightest bullying, or profanity used. Parents also have the option of getting the "super" safe membership where kids can only use pre-set chat messages such as, "hello" "how are you?" "okay".

The game play is fun with a little community where you play simple games and earn coins to buy stuff for your penguin like hats, instruments or pets. (I think I found another incentive game to entice the girls to keep up on their chores.) It'd also be fun to get some of the girls friends to log in and play penguin style connect four with each other. So, if you think this could be fun for your kids, make an account and check it out. I thought it was cute. I even played awhile on the Wii to test it out for them. The ability to use our real keyboard on the Wii makes logging in to stuff much easier. http://www.clubpenguin.com/ click on PLAY NOW to start a free account.

They do have a pay membership for those that want to let their kids use the coins they collect to buy "good" penguin merchandise and participate in more areas of the game in more ways. I may do that in the future. It's a good way to help grow basic math skills and even the basics of how money/saving works.

Club Penguin rules

Respect Other Penguins, club penguin does not tolerate any swearing, bullying or mean behavior toward other penguins. Disciplinary action will be taken should any one of these occur while playing.

Never reveal your personal information. The best way to stay safe online is to NEVER share your real name, phone number, address, email or passwords.

The kids had to agree to these rules when they got their account. So it gave me an opportunity to talk about internet safety and how we can't know for sure who the other penguins are and they might be bad guys. So, it was a 1st grade level introduction to this topic and I thought that it was a lot easier for the girls to understand than just talking about generic IM's. (Though I've got them on the "super safe" membership and they only have a list of chat messages to pick from.)

Heck they even have their own virtual way to be involved in real charity http://www.clubpenguin.com/coins-for-change.htm

I just have to keep editing this! :) There is also gift cards you can purchase so you can tuck a paid membership penguin in a stocking this Christmas.

Smoovies, My New Retreat

Had a local Doulas meeting at Smoovies the other day. I had no idea what it was, the title of the place says to me "they must have smoothies there" and that's about it. But it is a pretty fun place to go and relax and chat with friends. There's toys and games and TV's and a small (home size) movie theater in the back. It's a great place for the kids and the adult's who want to still play with toys and games and watch movies. It's comfortable and pretty quiet for a building that has a Wii and Playstation going at the same time. There's board games and foos ball and even a chess area. Nic actually passed the video games by and went to the toy room to play with the little play kitchen (of course) he had a great time just cooking away!

Oh ya and they serve yummy smoothies. Mocha's or Hot Chocolate for those nippy days and they have added some bagelwiches and some pretty delicious hamburgers to their menu recently too (In case you need something more than smoothies and some fun time). I've been there twice in the past week and I hope to frequent it a lot more and give them a lot of business, I really like it. In the summer time they set up an outdoor screen to show free family movies on while people slurp on their delicious smoothies.

Anyway it's a unique little place to go in the tri-cities. It's in the Victorian shopping mall on Keene Rd in West Richland. If anyone wants to go and hang out there with me give me a call and we'll go enjoy lunch away from home.

BTW they have settlers of catan there, we could have some all afternoon setters fun.

Ainsley Nip

I've come to the conclusion that Sister-In-Law Melody excretes some type of pheromone with an effect to Ainsley similar to that of cat nip to cats. When ever Melody visits Ainsley looses all control and just becomes the most playful ball of giggles ever, she can't pry herself away from the magnetic pull of Melody. Melody was here yesterday, I don't think she was able to shake Ainsley loose at any one point in time. Ainsley and her are "best friends" in Ainsley's mind. It's really cute, though I'm sure Melody must get annoyed.

There's only one other person that has a similar pheromone, that would be Matt. Though his magical wiles affects all my kids. When he visits they ALL turn retarded.

The Nag

Probably for the last 6 months or so, with the exception of a few single player games, Kenny has been waning in the video game play time. His time after work is usually spent doing homework or watching TV anymore, Hero's especially.

I bring up the fact that he doesn't play video games with me anymore, more and more. It makes me sad :( I really hate watching him work on his laptop even if he is in the same room. He's occupied and off limits, I also feel like I'm missing out on something that he's doing whether it's homework that is above my head or wasting time on slashdot. He's not really with me when the laptop comes out. So, I nagged him a bit about playing video games last night and he was annoyed. Hey he's a pretty lucky guy, how many wives out there actually want their husbands to play video games instead of watch boring TV.

I'm not saying I don't get angry when I'm cleaning and he's got his face in front of the lap top (even if it is really important homework). Because every once in awhile his "work" seems to turn into surfing the internet while I'm doing the dishes, laundry and making everyone lunches and I notice and start seething. I usually hold back on the nagging about helping around the house, I know his school work is important and his job is sometimes stressful. But if I'm feeling lonely and want to play video games with him I don't hold the nag back... too bad it's the same as nagging about housework. It doesn't accomplish anything!

Luckily there is a writers strike and all our favorite shows (with the exception of BBC stuff) are affected. So perhaps the video game time might go up. Maybe I'll actually finish GWEN one of these days.

Procrastination Hangover

In an effort to prevent myself from spending yesterday fretting and cleaning in Thanksgiving Day preparation hubbub. I spent the entire day with friends doing precisely what one should do when one wants to properly procrastinate. A nice casual lunch out with a friend followed by a lengthy break and then closing the night out with dinner and card games till the wee hours of the next morning. BTW, I'm not too impressed with the new game Kenny introduced called "BANG", but it may have been just a bad experience. I guess I'll probably end up giving the game a second chance. It's weird though because I've lost at new games plenty of times before and still enjoyed them immensely, like Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan.

Well, now I'm even furthering the procrastination almost to the point of no return. I sit here in the filth and clutter typing away at my blah blog post avoiding the inevitable work that I have to do today. I was pulled out of bed by the alarm clock so that I could shove Chloe out the door. Then I crashed on the couch till 11:30 (hey, we didn't get home till 3am) and then had to wake up to go get Chloe from school (early release today). Kenzie and her sister are here with Mario Galaxy, luckily I made them play the clean up game for 15 minutes before they could play. Give everyone a grocery sack and have them race to see who can fill their sack up the most with garbage for 15 minutes. The house looks a lot better. But now I'm sitting here again doing anything to prevent me from really getting into cleaning. Guess it'll hit me tonight at about 10:30 or so when I go into frantic cleaning mode and I'll stay up all night vacuuming.

My turkey is still a block... getting nervous that it'll never thaw.

Another Day

After I got REALLY sick last week I canceled all my appointments and Kenny's mom took the kids this last weekend. I slept a ton!!! I slept, and slept and slept and slept.
I felt bad about canceling ALL that stuff I had to do, but it was worth it. I feel much better now. And if there is a birth soon, I'm in much better shape for it.

So, now it's another day of cleaning to destroy all the germs and make the house presentable before my grandmother comes to our house for the first time. Haven't been close with my grandma really since my grandpa died and the rest of the family took over her care. My uncle told me that "everyone" has always hated my husband and they can't stand his family. This from a man that has met Kenny once or maybe twice. So, my mom is bringing my grandma, who has had a stroke and her internal monologue switch is broken so she says anything that comes to her mind no matter how rude and hurtful it is. Anyway, a lot of baggage that I carry around inside me. Luckily it's just grandma thats visiting. Isn't that horrible? I'm probably the only wife in the world that would rather be around her In-Law's than around her own family.

Thanksgiving will be much smaller than I was anticipating. My brother and his wife won't come till the evening and my sister probably won't make it at all. So just mom and grandma and us. Traditionally we spend the day with Kenny's family, but because of an emergency that option wasn't even available to us.

So, the day after thanksgiving is actually the day I'm planning for some real, you know, family time. I invited some family and some chosen family and am planning to have a small cake for Nic's birthday.

Until then, time to tackle mount schmidt(laundry pile) and the grimy kitchen.

IM Savvy

Below are two conversations Chloe had using my IM account yesterday. I was resting, if you've noticed from previous posts, I've been ill. I'm moving around okay today, much better, though the annoying cough and achy muscles are still hanging around. Anyway, she's pretty good at holding a conversation, guess it's time for some internet safety talks. I bet I can get an officer to give a talk to the camp fire club. At any rate... If I always read her IM's and post them to my blog for the rest of her life, that should help right.

4:06 PM me: matt this is me chloe
matthew: OH. Hi Chloe!
4:07 PM me: mom is in bed
matthew: I think this is the first time I have ever chatted on the internet with you.
4:09 PM me: whele i did this onc
matthew: How are you?
4:10 PM me: good
4:11 PM yes
4:13 PM matthew: What are you doing?
me: playing
4:14 PM matthew: What are you playing?
4:15 PM me: ratatouille
4:16 PM matthew: Isn't that a movie?
6 minutes
4:23 PM me: yes
matthew: What game are you playing then? Pretend?
4:26 PM me: it''s on the competer
4:27 PM matthew: Oh.
Are you playing by yourself or with someone?
4:28 PM me: it''s realy fun
4:29 PM but no
4:33 PM i am palying by myself
4:36 PM matthew: Oh.
4:38 PM Ok. I have to go to pray. Jesus loves you and so do I. Tell your brother and sister that I love them. Bye.
4:39 PM me: bye

4:10 PM Ken: Is this Chloe?
5 minutes
4:16 PM Ken: Chloe?
me: yes
4:18 PM Ken: Can you and Ainsley get your leo's on? I will be home soon to take you guys to gymnastics.
4:20 PM me: i am taeking to matt
4:21 PM Ken: Yeah, that is what he just told me.
me: wow
4:22 PM Ken: Do you have your leos' on yet?
4:24 PM I am coming home now.
4:25 PM me: no
12 minutes
4:37 PM Ken: I am on my way home. Make sure you are ready.

Very Sick and Tired

The majority of the symptoms are the same, mild cold symptoms that we had earlier. But my tonsils/adnoids do not like the infection. They're swollen and tender and "plugging" my ears (for lack of a better term). I don't have a sore throat, like strep throat. I have sore neck muscles and glands. My ears are really killing me. Like being under water for a day or so, lots of pressure and itching and soreness.

I don't really have a bad cough... just whatever my body does to get rid of excess sinus drain. So very annoying.

I have two parent/teachers meetings today, a doula/ob/patient meeting tomorrow and two doula/doula meetings on thursday... Camp Fire on Friday. I'm on call for a birth. Ainsley is out of school for the week and Chloe is halfdays this week, Thanksgiving is next week, Nic's birthday is on Thanksgiving. Kayla is having her baby shower here on the 1st. NO wonder I'm sick, It's murphys law.

I hope I made you all feel better with my grumbly complainingness, but I'm really miserable.

Sick and Tired

The family has a cold... we're all a little sick and I'm especially tired :) It's one of those sinus drain, sore throat, occasional wimpy cough, mild cold that lingers forever. I might have to see if I can't get our humidifier working. Kenny came home on Friday looking like death was looming, complete with pale skin, sweat and bloodshot eyes. I thought maybe they might be finally cracking the whip at EMSL and enforcing some new slave labor policy. But no, he caught a cold and then brought it home to share. He's so thoughtful.

We're going rollerskating today, it should be fun... I'll just have to remember to take some Tylenol for my throat.

I told Nic that it was time to get ready to go to Daniels for rollerskating. He got really excited and jumped around a bit then said, "How will I get to Daniels? If I rollerskate, I might get tired." I chuckled under my breath and said, "Well we COULD take the truck." He joyously responded, "YA! that's a great idea!"

Insurance Woe's

Allstate was purchased by some 'other' company and is wrapped in new packaging called Allstate Blue. I probably wouldn't of even noticed but I glanced down at our premium rates to see if they'd gone down at all and... HOLY CRAP they went up $549.25 from our last premium! So then I decide I better read the whole package this time.

They start off by really sugar coating the change in management with... blah blah blah... I am pleased to offer your Allstate renewal for another six months... blah blah blah... You are a loyal customer so we are offering you our loyalty bonus... blah blah blah.

Then they say your total premium reflects a combined discount of $605.01
(the increase from your last premium is $549.25)

Really the loyalty bonus is "free" roadside assistance and eligibility to receive more bonuses like a home ownership discount etc. So, nothing about the new policy was really much different except the $600 price jack.

Time to call the agent and say, "I've noticed a serious price increase on our policy, I'd like to talk about it." It was silent for a moment while she pulled up our file then I heard her say, "Whoa, I guess so!That's ridiculous! It's time to go shopping Erin" She recommended some other insurance agencies in the area and told me she was sorry, that with the new management some peoples insurance rates went down and others went up.

So I went shopping yesterday. Not really hard, I don't like talking to people on the phone especially insurance people.

I decided on Esurance. Something about Quote Buy Print appealed to me and the quote they gave me was $40.00 cheaper (monthly) than my last policy. Not to mention Erin and I have the same first name and same initials (that's totally a good reason to choose an insurance agency right?).

The Grown Ups

Well here they are the grown up costumes

Luigi and the Mesmer in her 15k enchanters armor.

Exterminate

"Exterminate!" Here's the Dalek costume I put together for Chloe.



Some problems I had in designing it were:

When you look at it, you should think DALEK!
How can I make it so she can sit down?
It has to be comfortable for her to wear all night?
She needs to be able to go up and down STAIRS with out the command, "elevate"
It needs to be easy to take on and off?
She needs to be able to see and speak...
She needs to be able to have a lot of arm freedom for candy collection.

After A LOT of thought, the best solution was to skip all recommended dalek costume designs using cardboard, foam board, concrete tube forms etc and just bag it! Make a sack she can wear with appliques that resemble dalek design. Think 80's R2D2 costume. I wanted it to have a general dalek shape so I made a collar out of cardboard to hold the bag around her. It also gives the appearance of a more flat dalek like surface around her neck. I used cheap bulk bin black fabric for the base and more expensive silver fabric for the roundules and other dalekish shapes on her costume. Yes it's all sewed on, fabric bonding didn't bond well with the two slippery fabrics. Yes it took a long time, there are 40 circles sewed on it. But I did a little every now and then all month long so it didn't seem like so much work.

I skipped a mask or entire head piece and opted for safety and comfort with just a hat. Many homemade daleks use salad bowls or paper cones I whipped out a bike helmet. It has a strap to hold it on and padding to make it comfortable. I used aluminum foil to cover it. The eye is the guts of an old pop up sprinkler I found in the garage. The "energy difusers" on top (that's what they really are, they release small amounts of built up energy so the daleks don't explode)Well those are caps from laundry detergent bottles hot glued on. I have flashy lights for them tonight but didn't tell Chloe yet, don't want her to waste the batteries.

To finish it off she has a plunger and a kitchen wisk for her Dalek arms. It's easy for her to get on and off. It doesn't drag on the ground. It has 4 arm holes, the two up front and two on the side at a more comfortable level. I'm definately driving them around this year and showing them off to everyone, they're so cute :)

A Bit Disturbed

I have been disappointed to hear that my happiness with NBC's new lineup is rare. I was curious what could possibly beat them out. I've been perusing the Nielson's website to get a better idea about what America was watching and I'm a bit disturbed at how popular Dancing with the Stars is, I knew Americans enjoy watching suck-tacular TV like American Idol and Survivor but really, Dancing with the Stars!? Frustrated that Nielson families seem to be WWE fans and enjoy putting Spongebob Squarepants in 3 of the top 10 watched TV show slots. I don't know how to react. Just upset that people even support "real" TV let alone worship it.

Watch Chuck at least please... that one must stay.

Captain Awesome, "Are you a tucker or not?"

From the Mouths of Babes

We were watching "The Big Bang Theory" using Joost yesterday. It's a behind the times comedy/sitcom about ubernerds who work R&D at a local university. They're inept in the social skills department and always trying to include the hot neighbor girl in nerdy group activities. Of course theres plenty of sexual tension between main character ubernerd and hot neighbor girl, which makes for lots of laughs... right?

A show comprised of one liners and serious over use of a laugh track, "The Big Bang Theory" somehow makes you feel like the sitcom hasn't died yet. Watchable but not loveable. With the huge introduction of geek media into the mainstream this fall with great shows like Chuck, Journeyman and The Bionic Woman, I find it hard to dedicate a free moment to the show. But for those rare occasions where I can't get involved in a story line and just need a few laughs "The Big Bang Theory" hits the spot.

Speaking of laugh track...

While watching an episode last night, one of the main characters sat down and tried to get comfortable in his chair and was turning his head a few different directions. Laugh track ensued and with perfect timing Ainsley asks, "Is he looking for the people who are laughing?" That cracked Ken and I up, much to Ainsley's confusion. She really was wondering where the laughing was coming from.

Hanford Tour

**cameras were not allowed on the tour these pictures come from the http://www.b-reactor.org/tour_photos/60th_anniv_tour/60th_anniv_photos.htm. We went to these exact same places and even the same people led the tours**

Ken and I went on the Hanford public tour today. Ya, I know it was a miracle that we were able to sign up for it. It WAS our second attempt. We tried during the summer to get on the list but 4 minutes after it opened it was all full up. Luckily, this time, I was logged in and signing up right as enrollment began and was able to get us in.

The tour started off with a trip around the HAMMER training facility which was quite interesting. Got to see all the props and buildings they have out there to train people to handle many different public and environmental crises. Next was a long trip on an old stretch of
road through what was once Hanford and White Bluffs. Unfortunately it was foggy out and the tour consisted mostly of the white fog line on the side of the road. Eventually we ended up at the B reactor which is the shining star on the tour so we all got out and into the first reactor to go critical in the world. I had a great time. They've got it set up very museum like with video presentations and models and posters. But I guess nothing compares to the actual reactor face right there in front of you and the cooling tanks behind it. So ya, I'd say it was a pretty cool experience.

We saw several more reactors most cocooned one working one at Energy Northwest... lots of aging buildings, shacks, tubes, tanks, industrial stuff in the middle of the desert :)

We toured the construction site of the vitrification plant which was really neat. A very knowledgeable inspector led the tour and informed us of activities that were happening at the site now and what the buildings would be responsible for in the future.

The tour started at 7:30, we had to be out there at 7:10. So we had a super early morning. Thanks to all the people that helped us get kids off to school. It was a privilege to go on the tour and we couldn't of gone on it without their help.

In Shock

So Kenny and I graduated from Kennewick High in 1997. While we attended we had the fortunate opportunity to know Mr. Pickerel a long time teacher of the Kennewick School District. He was an old eccentric fart that somehow knew how to motivate even the worst behaved students. He took no crap and let kids know it at the beginning of the year by informing kids that he was the star in his classroom. Anyone that disagreed was welcome to leave. He had map drawing contests, penmanship contests (and he was a social studies/history teacher)field trips. He attended a huge number of sporting events and all pep rallies. This was a famous teacher in Kennewick, beloved by all. They even named a building after him after he retired.

Anyway he's now a 72 yr old substitute teacher and I am shocked to see him plastered all over local news after he was arrested this week under 2 counts of sexual misconduct with a minor! At first I was in total denial, this must be the act of some mean misguided student or something. Pickerel would never hurt a student, but with mouth agape I read this morning that he confessed to performing oral sex on a minor in his home. My poor heart is in shock. I feel ill. I just don't know what to think. God if he can be a sexual predator... you just can't trust anyone.

New Vet

Well, Malcolm's incessant gnawing on himself finally got to me and we went to a new veterinary center on Sandifur parkway to see if we'd be interested in going. We walk in the door of the pet supply side and Malcolm takes a few steps in and then decides he better lay a dookie there in the middle of the store. Admittedly I was embarrassed but the staff cleaned up after him and assured me that a dookie was standard greeting for a new location especially a veterinary center and not to be embarrassed. We walked around for a bit. Malcolm was frantic because there were other dogs in his presence that he wanted to play with. Getting Malcolm to sit was quite a challenge.

We went ahead an scheduled a check up with the vet tomorrow, possible vaccinations and a look at Malcolm's obvious skin condition.

I'll have to be sure to walk him really good and see if I can't prevent another load of bricks from being dropped in the clinic.

Joost

Erin gives Joost 5 stars!

I watch DLTV and Cranky Geeks off my tivo download regularly. When a new great thing called Joost was brought up on DLTV Ken and I just had to check it out.

What's Joost?

It's video – more than 15,000 shows, with more added daily.
It's online – all you need is a broadband internet connection.
And it's free. So what are you waiting for?

The best mix of internet and television, Joost provides good quality, full screen viewing of television programs and movies. Shows are provided by media so that it's nice and legal and best of all FREE. I knew it was a good thing when we were able to watch the original transformers cartoons full screen on my 42" tv in the living room!

I think this is the next big thing to come to media viewing. Download what you want when you want it and not have to worry about some copyright police coming down on you for watching a pirated copy of CSI.

So check out Joost, watch some Ren and Stimpy and enjoy!

**Watch out it is kinda a P2P thing for speed reasons. So no work systems should be involved.

Why Bento?!

great article

freakin tasty bento

My camera has been on the blink... notice the small grainy picture of Mario below... Been getting a "your camera is dead" error message 9 out of every 10 attempts to turn it on. It comes and goes. Even if I don't get the message, the camera doesn't take pictures like it used to. With that dilemma, I've gotten outta the habit of posting bentos though I still make them every night for my loved ones.

The plan is to start making them for the rest of us too. I don't eat well during the day and then wonder why the hell I'm tired and grumpy in the afternoon/evening. It could be that I had a dt. dr. pepper for breakfast and child size portion of pb and j for lunch. MMM I think that might be it. So, bento is my cure. Portioned nutritious food for mom = less screaming and overall bitchiness.

It's a Me, Mario!

Just finished the hat today. It sits a little high on his head but it'll work great for a one time use costume.

I found the pattern here, http://www.instructables.com/id/Hex-Hats/?ALLSTEPS

I cut it out much smaller than the original (for a small head) but it'd probably fit better if I didn't take it in so much.

Have to collect some white mittens for the guys and make some faux yellow buttons, but other than that I think this one is done!

A Keeper

Here's a great shot of Nic watching Sponge Bob. Yes, his Spiderman underpants are on backwards!

This pic is definitely a keeper.

Dr. Who

overly gelled hair
suit jacket
suit pants
suit shirt
the right tie
white converse sneakers
LED sonic screw driver

=VERY happy Dr. Who, I mean... Ainsley.

Needle Free

Couldn't stand the angst any longer and had Kenny drive my sorry butt down to the ER for some x-rays. 3 x-rays and a comment on my thinness from the doctor and I'm happy to say I'm needle free. I can rest easy and hopefully the "lump" in my throat will go away now that I know it's not a needle.

WAL MART GOES GREEN !! HAHAHAHA

They must of read my blog a few days ago when I mentioned that they didn't have reusable shopping bags, because now they are touting the handy things as their effort to be considered a green store. Too bad everything else about WalMart is just about as far away from green as it gets. No other store has as much packaged packages wrapped with cellophane available for our discount shopping pleasure than the huge garbage producing monstrosity that is WalMart.

Anyway, I have a feeling that these steps are simply being taken by stores to reduce the chance that national legislation will be passed restricting plastic bag use. There are other countries, states and cities out there that have banned the things already...

Woman Dies from Stick Pin Injury to Lower Intestine

Will that be my death notice in 20 years?

So, last night I was busy sewing away. I'm almost finished with the base of the Dalek costume for Chloe. I was feeling pretty good. I was holding a few stick pins in between my lips when I felt like I needed to wet my throat or swallow something so I grabbed the pins with my hands and swallowed to clear my throat. At that moment I got the dreadful feeling that I may just have swallowed a stick pin. It didn't hurt, just a weird feeling that there was a chance one had slipped into my throat hole. Kenny wasn't home and I began to freak a little. So, of course, I began to seek assistance from the all knowing all powerful internet. I guess cats and dogs eat needles all the time and the needle is expected to pass uneventfully, though the pet always sees a vet. There is a large history of people swallowing needles accidentally and not finding them until they work their way out of the body or cause physical issues months or even decades after the fact.

I don't even know if I actually swallowed a pin. I think I feel something pin like but is that from a pin or from my brain thinking there's a pin in there. I expected Kenny to come home and be all worried. He just said, "you'll never do that again" and "I don't know what to tell you". Not very comforting or reassuring. In the meantime I'm eating all the bread and fiber and water I can manage and hoping that I didn't, in fact, misplace a pin inside my body.

Costume Time

I love sewing costumes... you can sew like ass and still get a decent looking costume made. I'm making my mesmer costume right now and I think it's pretty good. Shoddy sewing and no measuring or pining - but it looks like a mesmer 15k enchanters armor. Ya the +60 chamise :)

It's better pieced together than some store bought thing and even though it's practically a nightgown at least it's not see through like the flimsy Egyptian (gouald) outfit I paid lots of money for last October.

I'm basically done with the outfit, just have to sew up the Karcaws Minions cape and touch up some accessories. I have great earrings that my friend Maylyn got me but no holes in my head to put them in. I have to raid some craft stores and see if I can't get some clip on adapters or something.

I picked up some overalls and sweatshirts for Nic and Kenny. Nic decided that they were going as Mario and his brother :) So I am happy to oblige with such an easy request. Ainsley's Dr. Who garb was as simple as a trip to the thrift store, while Chloe's dalek outfit has become a challenge for thought (how do I make it so she can sit down in it at school?)

Crash Course in Crochet

Most of you know I can knit, it was a natural talent that I discovered when I decided to do booties and cap for Dominic during my pregnancy. It was my first time knitting and I whipped them out in a few hours and decidedly became a knitter. I have since then enjoyed knitting and was looking forward to knitting a few things for some gifts this winter... Already on my list is a warm cap for Kathy and an item for our gift exchange. I've never done a blanket and I decided I'd try my hand at it and make one up for Nic's birthday. I love having deadlines, it really gets me working. I decided on a SpiderMan theme blanket, I'd say SpiderMan was his favorite character but it's a toss up between SpiderMan and Mario. In my search for a SpiderMan theme knit blanket I came across a cute little crochet piece of a web blanket in SpiderMan colors. Ah man, I don't know how to crochet. Haven't tried since those potholders in 3rd grade.

After talking it over with some crochet experts they assured me that crochet was much easier than knitting and that if I could knit, I could crochet. So I got the yarn, I borrowed the needles and I set out last night to temp fate and crochet Nic's 4th birthday present.

From a knitters perspective it's a bit more tricky. There are a lot more stitches to choose from and get wrong in crochet... in knitting it's basically picking up every stitch somehow. If you missed a stitch you know it. In crochet it's pretty random where you'll be poking your hook through. Trying to interpret instructions and pictures of how to do certain stitches was a job for your most seasoned boyscout. It wasn't until I frogged my work 10 or so times that I found some tutorials on youtube... quite good ones in fact. I seem to have some of the needle work figured out.

The only uncomfortable thing I have issue with is feeding the yarn into the piece. In knitting, it fits comfortably in one hand and is wrapped around the needle quite easily. In crochet the wrap around the pinky and interwoven between fingers thing quickly got tedius, tight and frustrating. For the most part, I've given up on the "book" way to hold the yarn and I'm trying out some Erin ways to hold it. I got much quicker just as I was thinking about bed and had to put stuff away so I think I'll be able to move along more tonight.

It's a Baby

Was a doula for the first time on Saturday. It was my first hospital birth I've ever been too and because of special circumstances it didn't go exactly as planned. But, it was a perfect birth.

It gave me insight into a different side of birth that I've not witnessed before and I cherished every moment of it.

Mom was great, she did a fantastic job. She was so happy with her labor and thats what I'm there for so I feel that I did a good job too. I'll go see them later today and make sure they're doing okay.

The hospital staff was great and I'm surprised at how included they made ME feel. They let me help move mom around since she was incapacitated, I got to hold her leg up to help her push during the birthing. They also approached me about most of the medical circumstances and let me discuss changes that were taking place with her. This openness between me and the staff was very essential to helping me fulfill my role in helping mom make decisions and feel like she is a part of the process. I was actually quite impressed. Though there was one moment the doctor was pressing mom to do something and I had to ask him to leave the room so we could talk it over. It was a much easier decision for her to to make when he left and I was able to completely explain why I agreed with the doctor. He really didn't give her the why he wanted her to do something which was very frustrating for her.

After looking back on a few moments that were scary for her, I'm so glad I was there. I really helped her out when she needed someone to look to for answers and support.

The hospital staff was impressed with me and has asked me to provide them with a card so they can contact me when they get moms in that don't have anyone to look to. She told me of a story of a Dad dropping off his teen daughter in labor at the front door leaving and coming back to pick her and the baby up after it was all over. (That's quite a dad, I think it should be a crime) But I would of been a great tool for the hospital keeping the young mother calm for a healthier birth. For me to get kudos from the nurses there and get the smiles and tears of joy from mom was incredibly rewarding. I was able to walk the line between the natural birth and medical birth community and I was able to ensure a positive birth memory for a wonderful woman.

Vaginal Birth, 15 hour labor, Baby Girl, 6lbs 1oz, 17in long, black hair, wide open eyes and happy :)

Camp Fire Is Affecting My Choices

Being a Camp Fire USA leader is great. I love helping the kids and watching them grow. It is a very rewarding job, so is my Birth Assistant work (which I have a birth coming any moment now) but that is another blog.

Last year, I kinda floated through the curriculum doing the best I could with the resources I was given. But the kids were in their first year too, most of them kindergarteners, so they were floating along doing the best they could as well. We had fun, learned a lot and did a few service projects.

I think the kids are ready for a whole lot more this year. I got a voter pamphlet in the mail yesterday and Chloe was very interested in voting and how it works. Camp Fire made it easier for me to explain since we decide as a group what to do and the kids pay dues to pay for activities. So taxes and programs were easily explained as dues and projects. I'm sure she wouldn't have passed any social studies test after our conversation but it was a crawl in the right direction, which I'm sure we'll go more into during this Camp Fire year. The kids are going to inch into more group decisions, eventually when they get high enough in level they're supposed to be mostly member run with just adult guidance which will be cool for them.

This year I see Camp Fire affecting my lifestyle more and more. How can I be a good Camp Fire leader and teach conservation if I myself don't even recycle (even just pop cans). And how can I teach nutrition lessons if I don't have good food choices at home for myself and my family. I really have become aware of this this last summer. Even yesterday I was looking up how to start a recycling program here in my home, which we still don't do. I'm only on step one of the three R's. I've been making serious efforts to reduce our waste which in turn has helped us eat better. Most foods with little packaging are usually more healthy... like fruits and veggies and we eat a lot more rice now which I buy in large bags instead of small boxes. (though I still can't figure on how to ditch the clear plastic produce bags completely. Things like bananas and oranges I don't worry about because they have a thick peel, but tomatoes go in the bag.)

The lunch box that Chloe has was an effort to do both reduce waste and give her healthy lunch choices (and it's lots of fun for me). The typical American school kid generates 67 pounds of discarded school lunch packaging waste per school year (how many sporks and paper sacks is that). It won't do much to just have Chloe doing it, but I have that whole service project lesson on "everyone does a little and something big can happen". So, I have to put aside my pessimism and teach her to be optimistic about her good choices.

I've finally bought some reusable grocery sacks, which happily I get a small refund for using. It's a pittance but they will eventually pay for themselves. Every store (except the evil WalMart) seems to have these, so some people must be thinking about this. The hard part is having them when you need them. I read somewhere that reusable sack users should keep the bags in their car so they're always there. I should stuff mine in my truck right now!

Anyway, I still eat meat. Hopefully that will never change. I love meat and I truly believe that humans are naturally omnivorous and supposed to eat meat. It's a the natural thing to do. (Though perhaps the small farm approach is a bit more environmentally friendly than stock farms. Maybe I'll look into buying half a cow from a small farm.) And I still wash myself with soap and lots of hot water (I'm so wasteful :D) But Camp Fire is getting me thinking about how much waste my family produces and how much crap we feed ourselves. These things have been on my mind and affecting my habits for 6 months or so. Kenny has noticed the changes and asked me if I was going all organic on him now, which he seems to like (I cook a lot more interesting dinners now). It's hard to be a good role model and teach the kids to be healthy and good stewards of the planet, but hopefully all my efforts will help them make better choices in the future when they're in charge.

Now if I could just get off my ass and be active once in a while.

3 Going on 10

Nic has the next birthday in the family. It lands smack-dab on Thanksgiving Day this year. We've talked about his SpiderMan birthday several times to get him excited about the happy event.

Every time I ask him about his birthday and how old he's going to be on his birthday he responds, "I'm going to be 10". He wants to be 10 so bad. I don't know what is so special about 10 but it is his magic number. I'll correct him and say,"no, you're going to be 4 this year!". He just either gets a little sad or most often, he makes his face like Mr. Furious from mystery men and gets angry with me.

He's so cute sometimes. The other morning, when I was still in bed, he came into my room and said, "look my legs are bigger. I'm little but my legs are big!". And whenever I call him baby or big boy he corrects me by saying, "I'm a little boy." I think my favorite way to tease him is to call him dude or mister. I always get a response of, "I'm not dude, I'm Dominic!" It makes him so mad.

I wonder if after his birthday he will tell people he's 4 or 10. Will I finally be allowed to call him big boy?

CampFire USA Leader Training

So, my co-leader Lori and I went with another local club leader, Carrie, up to Spokane Valley for a day long leadership training for CampFire. It was a great opportunity to share ideas and talk about the direction the council is going in. I had a blast with my caravan group. There were moments where I didn't think we'd ever stop laughing.

Lori's husbands cousin :) put us up for the night. Waking up at 4 and driving up for an all day meeting just didn't sound like any fun. It was a lovely home out in the countryside of Deer Park. Unfortunately it wasn't heated and it was around 40 degrees outside, so it was cold. We made use of the many heavy blankets available to us. We were served a warm breakfast and we had some lovely company from our host. It was a nice stay. The house was about an hour from our destination point though, we had some interesting dilemmas with logistics. But we just left the house at 7:30 in order to get there in time.

We got to meet the new council program manager whom I just think is great. She is quite charismatic and her experience and background will add a lot to the INC. She has a lot of great ways to get kids active and involved and I'm positive that even though she has one of the most stressful and underpaid jobs in the world she will be terrific in her new role.

I really underestimated the importance of the paperwork that I'm supposed to require parents to do and Lori and I will definitely be more diligent this year in our registration, insurance, field trips and financial records. That was some of the most useful information that I left with. We shared a lot about our website and expressed the desire for more clubs to head in that direction. It would help so much to be able to see what other clubs are doing.

Kenny worked on a little program for me last spring (in order to fulfill graduation requirements for Regis) It is a web based program for scout style groups to use to keep track of their individual accomplishments. Specifically tailored for Camp Fire, it can be a useful tool for leaders and members to record trails completed and track service hours. It was brought up at the meeting and they were quite excited about it. It may be something that scout groups all over the country will utilize... I think thats pretty cool.

Strange Volunteers

I've had a few strange volunteer plants this fall. I'm used to lots of weeds but this is ridiculous. Amongst the weed infested backyard remarkably 2 tomato plants have started growing. We've not had a garden and the neighbors don't have any tomato plants to speak of so mysteriously there are these vegetable plants growing in September, in my back yard. In my lawn no less (weedy as it is). Not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm just surprised. They even are growing fruit this late in the season, though I don't think they'll make it to maturity. There is a possibility that the soil that was brought in contained some tomato seeds. If that was the case I wonder why we didn't get any other tomato volunteers all over the back yard.
Probably my most delightful volunteer is the corkscrew willow that volunteered to come up amongst the weeds. It's so strange, willows propagate through limb droppings. The branches fall and the woody limb starts roots and grows up a new tree. There isn't a willow tree in my neighborhood, not anywhere close enough for the wind to be a player in this mystery. The filters our irrigation go through may be congested enough to malfunction and allow weed seeds through but twigs from a tree I highly doubt. An interesting scenario would be that a bird was taking it home for a nest and dropped it in my back yard. That'd make a neat children's book wouldn't it. Quite a journey for the little twig. Now the only problem is where do I move it?

Can a House Suffer from PMS?

If I were to imagine my house as a typical woman I would find her to suffer from PMS like clockwork.

For a few weeks a month she is collected, organized and comfortable. She's slightly unkept here and there but it's nothing she can't handle. She does have a few runs in her stocking (ie. the master bedroom and garage where all the homeless junk piles up.) But for the most part her face is nice and her appearance is somewhat clean.

But then there is the time of the month when she totally looses it. (like now) Dirty laundry flows from every room mixing in with the clean laundry and other crap on the floor, every flat surface has a collection of wadded paper, dirty dishes, old bills empty pop cans, broken toys and various other garbage. Dishes pile up out of the sink and spread out over the counter. etc, etc... She's completely exhausted, worn down and a chaotic mess. Can we use the term manic for a house? It doesn't last forever, just about a week. Then things roll around again to the semi collected state that they should be. Trash gets removed, laundry gets organized, toys get picked up, homeless items get piled in the master bedroom and the dishes get done. My poor house suffers from PMS can I get her a pill?

Chloe's Actual Birthday

Today is Chloe's actual birthday. She is also the star at school today, I'm not sure if that was planned or not. So the star, gets to take attendance to the office, help the teacher, be line leader, show and tell something etc... She decided to show and tell her Camp Fire vest and a poster of pictures from Camp Fire we made last spring. I'm going down to the school in a few minutes to help her show and tell and to pass out fruit snacks to the class in celebration of Chloe's birthday. Pretty exciting!

Last night we bought Chloe her first graphic novel, comic book or manga... whatever you want to call it. She likes reading so much we thought she'd enjoy a comic book. For those of you concerned about the content, it's W.I.T.C.H. the same manga they based the JETIX show off of. She likes it, I'm sure she'll read through it quickly. I plan on using them as an incentive for good report cards. Their much cheaper than - say - video games or movies. But they are still fun for Chloe to collect.

Well I have to get going to get to the school in time. I've posted a slideshow of pictures Mr. Nate took at the party we had last Saturday.

Holy Cow, 8 Years Already

Tomorrow is Chloe's (actual) 7th Birthday. That means that today is Our 8th year Wedding Anniversary. (Ya we didn't waste any time with that baby makin') But now we have 3 great kids and a good life. I can't believe it's been 8 years and we were inseparable the 6 years before that. At our high school reunion, Kenny wasn't recognized until I was standing beside him. It probably should have said Kenny-n-Erin on our name tags.

The first time we held hands was during Star Trek The Next Generation (It wasn't a re-run it was still on in those days) Our first kiss was shortly after that. Our first date was to the movie Cool Runnings, it was at the Pasco Family Theater... it's now all boarded up. Kenny proposed to me at a friends cabin. It was my birthday, he gave me a wrapped CD case but when I opened it up it had a note inside that said "will you marry me" and then he was in front of me with the ring. Corny, but we were 18. I was going to basic training in South Carolina and he wanted to hook me before I went away.

We don't really have any big plans for our anniversary, but I think a date night will work.

Everywhere I Look, There We Are and Wow Wow Birthday Party

So I visited the Camp Fire Inland Northwest Council Website today and again I see our group photo featured on their website. We're the poster club for Camp Fire!

Yesterday we had Chloe's 7th birthday party. She says it was the greatest birthday party ever :) It was a Wow, Wow Wubbzy theme party with a wubbzy cake and some wubbyz/birdy bird decorations. Chloe and Ainsley and I made up the games played. There was a Widgets Workshop craft time, a Kickity Kick Ball game, Waldens Bookity Book Balance contest (yes the kids had a contest to see who could keep a stack of book on their heads the longest), they also played tug o' war and KOOKY Karaoke with Wubbzy songs to sing along with. I made a wubbzy cake with twinkie legs, arms and tail and it was supperiffic. Chloe got lots of great loot... books, clothes, dolls and games. She had a great time. When Mr. Nate sends me the pictures I'll post a slide show for you all.

How to Build a House

Ainsley just brought this picture to me. It's instructions on how to build a house. We don't have the top to bottom down yet but I think it's pretty nice :)

Yoo Hoo the Bento Box Arrived

I anxiously awaited my new hobby to arrive at the door. All dayI was contemplating what I would initiate the new bento box with. I even found a Rubbermaid facsimile at the store for Kenny and got it so that he too could enjoy a bento-riffic meal. My hobby has made MAKE magazine. Looks like I just barely beat the geek mainstream to this art.

See what I made for the family today www.flarinfoods.blogspot.com

First Effort for Vegetation in the Backyard

Yesterday I went to Mac's Garden Center on the corner of court street and rd. 68 (I like their plant selection and prices. Usually less than half the cost of Beaver Bark.) And purchased a small fortune worth of plants. All of them are full sun, heat tolerant perennials. I always spend more on perennials, I hate the idea of replacing plants every year. There is a full year guarantee on the plants so I better keep the receipt around. Anyway, thats what I did yesteray. Now I should work on the next tier and get their water working so I don't have to drag my hiney out there every day to water.

Before and After

Here's a few pictures of my main floor bathroom that I redid last Friday. It's one of the few rooms thats not still contractors white!

Almost Famous

Our kids were "almost famous" again. I got an invitation to a Camp Fire benefit wine and poo poo's night in Spokane. The invitation was sent out to probably the entire council and numerous supporting corporations and individuals. On the front cover was a big picture of, you guessed it, our club. Nate says it's funny how they are starting to use pictures of our group instead of more local ones. We're really the only club so dedicated to photo journaling the events. When the council PR lady is looking for pictures and our club has the bulk of pictures available to her, ours get chosen. It's pretty neat anyway. It's nice to get junk mail that has your kids pictures on it once in a while. LOL

American Style

Yesterday we went to the fiery foods festival... yummy foods, fun entertainment and lots of people. We went primarily because of Ainsley and Chloe's gymnastics exhibition. The exhibition went great. Grandma and Grandpa were proud.

We perused the many ethnic food vendors looking for something unique and you know, ethnic. Something that taco bell doesn't serve. Immediately, fried bread caught my attention. Little gortita rounds topped with spicy slow cooked beef, cabbage and salsa. It was definitely traditional Mexican cuisine and I was very interested in getting some for my belly. Two LARGE elderly women peeked over my shoulder and said, "boy, that looks good. They're so small though." I chuckled a little to myself. It was a normal single serving, they've obviously not ever eaten at a taco truck or authentic (not Azteca) Mexican restaurant.

As I start to stock up on recipes for Bento lunches, I notice the difference in size between Asian Bento and American Bento. We are piggies arn't we.

It clearly says, on one of my recipes, serves 2-3 American style 4-6 Chinese style. Thats even worse, we're piggies and the whole world knows it. You know I don't think that it's exactly because we want to eat that much, we just like to feel like we get more for our money. Even if we don't need it. A world of excess eh. So, after we've eaten like that for a few generations, we have begun to expect that much food and when we don't get a family size "individual" portion we are disappointed because "they're so small though".

I've always known this, but it's come up in my observations of the world in recent days. I do partly blame the government for the ridiculously huge amount of food requirements are in the food pyramid. But it can't all lie there. We have to have some responsibility for what and how much crap we put in our bodies.

A little tidbit from my brain. Have a good American Style dinner, we sure will.

Mad About Bento

There is a new interest revin' up inside of me. I am becoming addicted to Bento Boxes. This hobby is absolutely intriguing. Artistically beautiful lunches that are healthy and fun, that require no excess packaging, sign me up! I have become lost in the thousands of photo blogs of Bento Boxes and sucked into this strange culture of artistic lunch boxes. I lost control yesterday and ordered our first Bento Box. The Laptop Lunch Box, it's an American version of this Japanese tradition. I have been searching through the Bento group on Flickr for ideas and have been coming up with my own fun ways to make lunch.

I've been windows shopping on Ebay where the Bento supply stores are seemingly endless. The stores have great stuff like Bento Boxes and bags, sauce bottles, rice shapers, cookie cutter, food dividers and cute shaped food picks. Super fun egg molds have caught my eye. My kids love hard boiled eggs, they'll love them even more when they're shaped like a star, bear or even Hello Kitty.

I want to share Bento, is there such thing as a Bento Party?

(you're right, I have lost my mind! Do I sound like a scrapbooker yet?)

At any rate, its very affordable and Chloe needs lunch everyday. So, I have motivation even if I'm feeling tired. So it's a hobby I can manage to sustain. I think that is the best thing about it. I think I've found a sustainable hobby.

There's a Party in My Tummy

Nickelodeon has been having these shorts between shows on Nick Jr. It's a series of previews of a show called 'Yo Gabba Gabba'. At first and even second glance they are extra retarded. But somewhere between the almost nostalgic puppetry and the catchy dance beat I find this clip cute and funny.

Nic can't get enough of them and the other kids enjoy them too. It never fails, at meal time I hear at least one of the kids singing this song. I just thought I'd spread some of the silliness. Enjoy!

Erin? A Routine?

Well, it's been a over a month now, so I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm actually starting to form a routine. I know, unbelievable, isn't it?

I've been washing my face in the morning and at night, separate from my shower, for most of the summer. I've never worn makeup so I've never been worried about really washing it at the end of the day. But my achne was starting to cause me physical pain and since my dad had to have some cystic achne removed surgically when he was my age I figured I should really crack down on the problem. I've caved and purchased proactiv (yes, the stuff from TV). I've been using some store bought face wash earlier this summer and it wasn't doing the job. I have to say I feel that while there have been a few small surface breakouts, my overall complexion is better and I haven't had any painfull cystic achne since I started the Proactiv system.

I'm doing laundry each night before bed, two loads washed AND FOLDED AND PUT AWAY EVEN. I'm excited that I'm actually getting the folding and putting away part done but extremely DEPRESSED that even with the two loads a day I cannot keep up with the amount of laundry a family of 5 produces. It's more like 4-5 loads a day. I have to proclaim that little laundry bags are genius and anyone with kids needs to have them. The kids put their dirty socks and underwear in the bags at night and a few times a week I wash the whole bag. No more sorting and searching for socks, that save me a lot of time and headache.

Nic is pretty much potty trained now, poop and everything. He still suffers from constipation that hurts him so much. But he goes willingly to the toilet and sits there for the 40 minutes or more that it takes him to cry the stool out.

I've got the kids doing chores again, they're being very good about it. Rarely do they complain and they don't ask for the TV to be on if they know they've not done enough of their tasks. Right now Ainsley and Dominic are creatively playing (not zonked out in front of the TV), they've done enough chores to watch 1 show but it hasn't occurred to them yet because they're having too much fun! (LOL I just heard Ainsley say, "Whoa, THAT WAS STUPENDOUS!")

The chore list is as follows:

• make bed
• bring down laundry
• 30 minutes of outside play (it may seem silly but it's really important)
• 20 minutes of reading
• Homework or Coloring Time
• Chloe loads the dishwasher, Ainsley empties dishwasher and Dominic Feeds Malcolm

So, for my family who likes to sit and watch TV or play games, that 30 minutes of play time is important. It gets Chloe used to physical activity outside of gymnastics and helps get her blood flowing to her brain so that her homework sticks better. I've seen a tremendous change in the kids activity level, without complaint, since we added the play time to the list. Before, when I'd suggest that the kids play, I would get some whining about the weather or about being too tired. It's nice to just ask if they've done all their chores and to have them figure out what they need to do and do it themselves.

So, now is the precarious, "will we keep this up" stage of the game. I've been in this nirvana before. Just after I start to think we've got it down, a wrench is thrown in the works and we seem to get thrown out of our happy little routine.

My backyard is in serious need of weeding. I've been trying to get out there for a few weeks now, but I don't want to go it alone. The lawn is 6" too long and our lawnmower blade needs to be sharpened. I have a birthday party to plan and our 8th year anniversary is coming up. Camp Fire is just around the corner, need to get moving on some lesson plans. So I foresee a lot of "wrenches" in the next few weeks.

Can she avoid getting thrown off track? Will she be able to add new tasks to her already dauntingly busy schedule? Will her children mutiny against the 30 minutes of required playtime?

Tune in for the continuation of Erin in Nirvana....

Okay, So I'm a Nerd

We rented the Last Mimsy today. It's the first movie we've rented in 5 or 6 years. But my family was over visiting and we wanted to show off our nice new TV. So, we went down and got an account at Blockbuster so we could rent The Last Mimsy and How to Eat Fried Worms.

I really enjoyed the movie. It has that ET feel but with a much updated storyline. The kids were entranced and everyone was happy at the end. It is a good family movie with a lot of heart and imagination. We all knew that Rainn Wilson (from The Office) was in it but other than that there were very few actors I could name and as stated in a blog I did from last year, I'm pretty good at doing that. Kenny pointed out Michael Clark Duncan (from The Green Mile). Other than a few vaguely familiar faces, my star naming ability was not happening.

Then I saw Brian Greene, one of the worlds leading string theorists currently he is a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia University in New York. I realized, that of all the people to recognize I recognize a famous physicist. I have again helped solidify my position on this earth as a Supreme Nerd, a title given to me a few years ago by an online "how much of a nerd are you" test. I am so interested in math and science now, wish I had focused a little more in school.

Ainsley at the Fair

Ainsley is in the back row... those kickovers are sure hard!

Ainsley Riding the Bus

Here's some pictures of Ainsley waiting in the front yard for the bus to come pick her up. It was really cute when she got on, a little boy in the front seat behind the driver stood up when she got on and offered her the window seat next to him. I've got to keep my eye on these smooth talking 5 year old boys.