Sold!

I think it's official. We got an offer on the house, accepted it, and relocation company took over the rest of the headaches. As the saying goes, "the check is in the mail" now. Can not wait! I am so ready to move out of out apartment into a bigger place, and have my life back. I feel like I put everything on hold. Pretty much everything is in boxes in storage.

Last weekend in February

Nice quiet weekend. Most of us had either a cough or a sore throat, so we took it easy. Poor Jon is getting over an ear infection and a strep throat, but he was a little trooper, not letting that slow him down.

We went to a Diabetes Expo on Saturday and had pretty good time. Admission was free but we had a difficult time getting a parking spot. After circling facility a couple of times, we finally found a spot.

I think we got there right around the time when Jon takes a nap at daycare, so he had a 5 minute melt down, where he climbed under the bench and refused to get out. We even pretended like we are leaving him, and that didn't bother him a bit...
Larissa had her face painted and she requested a "pink guitar", to match her earrings. As you can see on this picture, she wouldn't smile for me. She is still going through the stage where she makes a really sad or mad face when anyone takes her photo. Also, turned out her glucose level was dropping rapidly. She tested at 51, had a 20 gram snack with no insulin, and 30 minutes later barely climbed up to 65.

Gabe, inspired by the TV show "Gladiators", took a stab at wall climbing. It was a little harder than he expected and he only made 2/3 of the way up, but what a great effort!

We finished a great day by making a stop at Uwajimaya store for some red bean ice cream ;-)

Sunday I felt a little better, but not well enough to do much. Jon, Larissa and I took a long walk to get some cat food. Now that I got my stroller, I can include Jon in our walks.

Just another crazy mid-week

I don't know exactly what happened this week, but it turned out to be extra busy. You would think that with a day off from school on Monday it would fly by, but No! So much extra events got packed into it...

Monday Tim stayed home with the kids and I worked, so that I could take a day off on Tuesday. Kids were happy to not have any school, but even happier to see me home. I think they were cooked up in the house for too long.

Tuesday was our big household delivery day. We got just the nicest group of mover too. They were on time, polite and very careful with our boxes. Despite their best efforts, we had quite a few furniture mishaps. Not taking into account a damaged coffee table (who knew, you can't park a lawn mower on top of it and not damage it...), clothing box soaked in gasoline (again, who would've guessed that storing a pressure washer on it's side on top of the clothing box might create any issues), out biggest and most fragile item was delivered in somewhat questionable condition. Out plasma TV crate was completely falling apart. We had to wait for the insurance assessors to take pictures and open it up, before we could even see if it was OK. Turned out to be just fine, but you can clearly see that packing guys in CO did a crappy job protecting it (not even screwed in on the bottom, one board is missing, cardboard pushed in...).

Wednesday went by so fast, I don't remember it...

On Thursday Larissa had a school concert, but earlier that day Jon got sick and I took him to the doctor. He had an ear infection in both ears and a strep throat. We took the other two kids in to make sure they didn't have it too (nope, safe there), but that made us all late for Larissa's performance. We run into school and JUST missed her class' song. She was a little upset, but she got to wear her new dress and shoes and that's all that REALLY mattered.

Pre-President's Day weekend

Long weekend before President's Day means late nights watching TV and playing games, sleeping in, and no homework.

On Friday night we decided to give Old Spaghetti Factory another shot. But, to be on a safe site, we didn't tell our waitress about our free certificates (that I got mailed in lue of bad service at an earlier dinner). I was too paranoid that a manager might do something nasty to our food to get his frustration out. After all, I complained to his superiors...

Despite our best efforts, I think they were "on" to us. We got a lightning fast service, with a manager personally taking our drink orders and food at the table five minutes after ordering it. Either that, or they are trying to improve their service.

Service was impeccable, but food was only slightly above average. Saturday was our, now typical, Crafts at Michael's. We made Lincoln Log cabin out of popsicle sticks. No two looked the same. Gabe and Larissa both surrounded it with an interesting selection of animals. Larissa's collection included a cat stuck in a chimney and a pink bunny, and Gabe's had birds and a beehive.
On Sunday Larissa told me that she has a class performance coming up this Thursday and she needed a dress... I wasn't sure what the theme was (she didn't know either), so we went with the more neutral colors.
Our search started off at the local Mall, but pretty soon we decided that their prices were a bit too high for us. We spend some time throwing coins in the fountain, which Gabe pointed out to me was NOT a wishing well, then went to our favorite store ROSS and got a perfect dress (and shoes to go with it too).

Happy Chinese New Year 2008!

This Saturday we went to Oregon Convention Center to celebrate Chinese New Year. Event was not as large as I thought it would be, but still nice. I wish we didn't have to pay any admission, since with this many people it adds up too fast. Lucky for us, there were plenty of samples, so kids were all set.

As soon as we came in, there was a table giving away plastic bead necklaces. Gabe went for the "bling" look and got a gold and a silver one and actually wore them all day.
Larissa went for the "girly" colors (pink and purple), and, predictably, Jon got a green one.
Little that I notice, they were in a shape of dice, given away by a local casino...

As we were checking out displays and samples, we made our way to the back of the exhibit. Local fire department had a fire truck there, letting kids climb in and take pictures.
All the kids took turns sitting in the passenger seat and really enjoyed it.
Then, all of the sudden, the sirens went off (as you can see from the picture, Larissa holding her ears closed) and I see firemen running toward the truck, franticly trying to turn them off... Immediately, I assumed that Larissa flipped some switch off, since she was the closest to it. But, after looking at Gabe I realized that it was him. I have no idea how he did that and got out so fast that (as you can see in the picture) by the time sirens went off, he was already outside... We quietly made our way away from the truck...

When we were all done, we took a long walk around the Convention Center, in search of a place to eat, but all we could find was a Starbucks and an Indoor Paintball place. I felt that since we paid $8.00 for "all day parking", I needed to take advantage of it, LOL. No luck though, we ended up giving up the spot and driving back home.
For lunch we went to a Mongolian Grill and kids really enjoyed only getting the food they wanted on their plates. Gabe ended up with a variety of meats only and it took some convincing to have him add some noodles to it...
Our Sunday was filled with taking walks and going to the stores. I finally decided to catch up on my scrapbooking and that got (the oldest two) kids all fired up about making their own book, so I had to take them (after MUCH begging) to JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts store for their own supplies.
Both have allowances they could spend, so I really didn't want to tell them "no". All I could do is make sure they got a good bargain and the right product.
So typical though, Gabe got everything he needed for the scrapbooking and then some toys, and purchased it, Larissa selected a bunch of "pretty" things, then changed her mind at the last second and put it all back!!! She decided that since she only has so much money, she would rather spend it in "Build-a-bear" store.

February 2nd weekend

I think I am going to call this weekend "Many Phases of Jon"...

Other than eating a cake this weekend, we also managed to do a few other things around town.

Michaels' Saturday Kids Craft club is always a safe bet. It starts late enough to sleep in, cheap enough to be affordable, and short enough to last through most of the kids' short attention span...

This weekend we made, appropriately enough, "groundhog puppets".

However Jon didn't quite last through it. About 20 minutes into it, he completely lost any interest and tried to run away... I reserved to strapping him into a shopping cart, which didn't please him at all.

After he cooled off and everyone finished their projects, we shopped around a little, then had lunch (as described in a separate chapter), went home and watched a movie, then decided to head out to a Members Only Family Night at OMSI. Saturday was a first day of their new Dinosaur exhibit.

There were so many people that I don't know if it really was a "benefit" to go there during the special hours. I think we need to see what it's like early Sunday morning.
It was special though for the kids because Daddy joined our fun. It was also very helpful for me to have another adult keeping an eye on the kids. We discovered a whole second floor filled with hands-on displays. Jonathan really liked the Puppet Theater. First he watched it for a while,

...then he got behind the scenes and put up a show himself.

Typically, a full day of fun, eventually leads to nap... However, in this case, it was a result of being sent to his room for trying to throw his lunch in garbage (didn't like it). Not even discretely, right in front of Dad... That's Jon for you!

Groundhog's Day 2008

So it is here, the Groundhog's day. Which also means that I am another year older...

So far this year I have been wished a "happy 40th birthday" and "happy 41st birthday". I am neither yet, and I guess I finally got to the age when you are actually too afraid to say your real age out loud. As if I won't get older if I just don't say it... Oh, I wish that was possible.

Saturday morning was a little cool, but I got up before everyone else in the house and was totally motivated to go for a short run. Nothing was going to stop me! Not even a rain. A quick search through my husband's closet produces a baseball hat (I hope it's not his favorite...) which I needed for sure. Twenty minute run and I was totally soaked, hat and all. But it felt SO good!


For my birthday lunch I got to pick where we got to go. I love Japanese and someone suggested "the best sushi place in town" to my husband, so that's where we went.

Syun is a small place, tucked away behind an old library with a comfortable atmosphere. The service and the food was most excellent! I have MY favorite Japanese restaurant picked out now.

We ordered a couple of Sushi combos and a couple of side orders of sushi. Plenty of food to go around.

Everyone had their favorites picked out. Jon liked the rice and pork, Gabe liked the rice and the tiny little (misago) fish eggs of the California rolls, Larissa liked the Spider roll with rice and miso soup, and parents got to eat all the delicious sushi.

What a nice day, just for me!