Molly Lee Family

Exterior Painting: Done

2011-06-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

Sooo.... got the exterior painted and stained! How did we do it so fast? Easy, hire the pros.. Fresh Paint did the interior and so knowing that they were very good, we went ahead and engaged them to do the outside also.

Here's the front:

And the back:

Eventually, we'll do something about the doors (have them stained the natural cedar of the upper level), but this is about as much home improvement as we can manage for now...

Pretty close to done

2011-02-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

There are just some tiny details left (besides the back deck, which they're currently working on at the moment).

Above, you can see one of the bathroom faucets, the drain for the shower, the nice pendant light we got from Schoolhouse (you can't see the lovely design on the glass shade), the twin sinks, the cute additional storage for the custom cabinet, the cheapo fixture from Ikea for the front office, the last little bit of molding, the toilet and the view from the new bedroom.

Left to be done: the nice oak topper that will go on top of the wall overlooking the stairs and the glass shower door. And a couple of the drawers in the bathroom cabinet had to be shortened (to accomodate the sink trap -- no biggie).

And the deck, which is proceeding along really well.

The contractor says that we can move upstairs next week.

!

It just doesn't seem possible...

Tad and I bought some closet organizers from Storables (they had a huge sale in January. I wasn't willing to go all out, but we got a few basic pieces that we'll cobble together with some existing drawers, etc, to make the space usable and add to it as we go along).

Soooo... very..... close....

2011-01-22T11:54:00.000-08:00

The work inside is winding down so the contractors have moved onto the back porch. For the last six months or so, we haven't been able to step out the back door (the old porch was torn down and it was a bit of a step down to the ground).

Now they've framed in the floor and the roof of the new porch!

Here's the underside of the new porch roof:

The upstairs is all painted now. The tile guy (Rob) is currently working on finishing up the tile soon.

You can see the remnant marble slab that they put in for the countertop.

Yay!

Getting close! (we hope)

2011-01-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the upstairs. The lovely hardwood floors are covered up in preparation for painting the trim.

The bathroom. The sconces were originally way too low so Mike moved them up for us as they bothered him like that. We're getting a custom cabinet and a piece of remnant marble is getting cut to fit on top.

New stairs! I'm so glad I got talked into agreeing to move the stairs. They're WONDERFUL. They new
banister is just lovely (and surprisingly complicated).

There was some collateral damage done to our existing bathroom (a support beam had to go right through where our original medicine cabinet was, so that had to be replaced with one that wasn't inset into the wall (and moved to the right to allow door clearance). We repainted with a golden yellow which actually looks lovely with the bright white contrasting over it.

I'm planning on sewing a sink skirt, to cover the plumbing (but I can't find the &^%@#$% iron, so that little project will have to wait a while).

So, coming right along!

Another Progress Report

2010-12-31T09:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some more photos.

The new stairs. You can see the new front closet and the green color that will be the main family area color.

Tile for the bathroom. It will be hex tile for the floor and subway tile for the walls (not shown). Both of these are really inexpensive, but also classic and simple). The one tile splurge was the natural stone for the floor of the shower.

Bedroom. The color's really not as warm as shown -- it's more taupey. The hardwoord floors look nice!

The family area as seen from the top of the stairs. The floors look so nice we might have to institute a no shoes policy (our downstairs hardwood floors are trashed from wear).

We're actually quite a bit farther along than this, but I'm a little behind on posting.

Things are taking quite a bit longer than expected (the original optimistic estimate had this all done by Thanksgiving), but there were a few bumps along the way; it's not like the contractor hasn't been working hard to get things completed.

We're really looking forward to having it be done, though! The computer's had a completely nomadic existence, moving from spot to spot as needed (we've had to do work on the downstairs as well, because of putting in the support beams in the walls and also to fix some water damage on the ceilings).

More to come...

Progress Report

2010-12-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

Well!

It's been FAR too long since the last update!

It's been busy and the computer kept on moving from place to place, so things were difficult for blog updates.

Here are some photos -- more to come, I promise!

The top of the stairs. Those windows really bring in a ton of light to both floors....

The view of the shared family space from the hallway to the master bedroom. Those are just the drywall walls, they've since been mudded and more.

Here's the laundry room with some of the paint swatches we were looking at.

Halloween

2010-10-31T20:43:00.000-07:00

Ethan (aka the Duct Tape Warrior) is menaced by zombies Colin and best friend Elijah...

The zombies did their own makeup (and did a great job). Ethan designed and created his own duct tape shield and knife.

Totally scored on the candy, venturing up towards Mount Tabor, finally locating the legendary Jaciva's house (where they give out amazing chocolate suckers). I sidled up to the door hoping that they might be generous to a nice-looking mom, but no such luck... the boys have been resistent to bribes and threats.

Stairs!

2010-10-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

So the facades, front and back, are done!

(that's Ken, putting in an extra day on Saturday)

The cedar will remain on the new upstairs. On the lower part, the shingles will be painted the same color as the rest of the house.

On the inside, they completed the new stairs this week! There are windows at the top of the stairs, bringing in a lot of light to a previously dark part of our house.

Advantages to having a deaf cat

2010-10-17T19:50:00.000-07:00

When we were first talking to the architect about how our remodel would affect our lives, I asked her about the cats and she told us bluntly: "They'll run away."

Dang!

Luckily, as it turns out, that hasn't happened.

Gus (above) is nearly stone deaf and, honestly, doesn't seem much affected, other than having to regroup if his cat bed gets moved.

Joey is pretty mellow and, while the noise occasionally startles him, he has taken it in stride.

The contractors have been working on putting the pretty details on the back of the house.

Before:

And now:

On the front, he's removed the siding from the area right under our original roofline, exposing the natural 100-year old wood. This will be covered with new shingle.

The addition, above, is being covered with cedar.... pretty!

Here you can see the lovely cedar a bit better... The siding guys place each shingle up to make sure that there is a pleasing, random-looking arrangement before nailing it down.

So moving right along!

Siding is on two parts of the addition. Next week, the roof gets put on and the rest of the siding. Then they move inside! We may be getting a new staircase soon.... yeah!

So much progress!

2010-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since my last post.

The contractors have done a GREAT job since! See the upstairs really taking shape? They've added the decorative swooshes on the top and brought the roof forward to match the original roof, below... it looks wonderful!

Remember our dark, low, crowded upstairs?

The same viewpoint a few months later, when all was stripped down:

And now today... the ceiling is lots higher and there are fresh, lovely walls all framed in:

And, way back when, the back of our house:

And here's the back of the house now... you can see the new upper part. They are making it pretty now:

And another shot of the front of the house. You can see how the angles and decorative finishes are mirroring the original structure nicely:

Upstairs all framed up!

2010-09-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

We left for a long weekend and Mike and his crew had completed framing up the upstairs.

That last little bit on the end will remain. It used to be part of the playroom and will become either a mini-office or storage. It will stay to make the house look cute still from the front.

Above, Ethan hanging out the window that will overlook the new stairs.

And Colin joins him hanging outside the window.

Trusses going up!

2010-09-03T07:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the trusses started going up.

Mike's working on a third of the house at a time, demo'ing one section, putting up the walls and putting up the trusses. Today, he'll cover the trusses.

Here's the view from the back of the house:

It's really taking shape now! Seeing the windows really makes it come to life.

Roof coming off!

2010-09-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

At long last, despite rainy weather, the roof is coming off!

Mike's really been looking forward to this for a long time...

His plan is to stage things so that the roof comes off a third of the house at a time, starting with the Eastern third of the house.

We can only get in through a window at the front of the house now. Below is a view of the upstairs looking from the front to the back of the house:

You can see sunlight where the roof is gone. The new walls are on the sides, held up by supports.

Above is the wall on the south side of the house. The two windows on the left will be our bedroom windows. The little window is the one that goes over our toilet in the new bathroom.

With the windows in place, it's easier to see what the dimensions of the rooms will end up looking like.

Here's a view looking back towards the front of the house.

It's finally happening!

Totally Floored

2010-08-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

The contractors have put plywood over the joists, completely covering our original stairway opening (which will go away) and the new hole in the ceiling in our entry way (they'll cut a new hole for the new stairs later).

For now, the only way to get into the upstairs is up a ladder and through the window in the back of the house.

Here's the view from that window. You can see the plywood that is now the new floor. On the left and right are the glue-lams which are the beginnings of the new exterior walls.

Next week: they begin to demo the roof!

Glue Lams

2010-08-26T07:43:00.000-07:00

So above is the view from the front porch, looking into the house. Our entry way now has a huge hole in the ceiling where the stairs will end up being.

Climb up the ladder and you can see the upstairs in progress:

In the next day or so, they'll be laying plywood to be the new floors.

See that big beam in the background?

Here's a better shot of it:

There are two of them, running along the length of the house. They rest on the joists and are supported by all the supporting posts that they've been working on all these weeks, that go from the basement, through our main floor, up to the new upstairs.

They are the beginnings of the new walls of the new upstairs.

Here's the other one:

They're called "glue lams" -- spelling might be totally wrong, but they're basically ginormous beams made stronger because they're made up of smaller boards glued and laminated together.

Once the new floors go in, Mike will begin to tear the roof off.... yeah!

Sister Sister and Truss Issues

2010-08-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

You learn things when you do a remodel.

Apparently, the joists in our house where the floor of our second floor would be, are too small to support the weight of the new upper floor, so our contractor's had to "sister" the joists to build them up.

The old joists are the darker wood, above.

Mike and Ken have been busy sistering up the joists last week. After that, they'll put in a new floor (plywood for now) -- whoo hoo!

Last week, all the trusses were delivered (aka "the big roof-shaped things"). They're sitting out in the backyard now, serving as cat roosts for Joey.

Next week, Mike says he'll be able to start cutting the roof off. THAT'S when things will really get exciting!

Floorless

2010-08-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

Before:

Now:

Beat the Heat

2010-08-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

The boys found a way to cool off... zip lock baggies of ice on their heads...

Fun at the Beach

2010-08-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

One of my kids lost his head...

Buttoned Down

2010-08-09T23:03:00.000-07:00

So the holes in our walls are all covered over now. There's some kind of board covering them up now.

The plastic's been taken off the furniture (boy, I've never been so grateful to be able to use a dining room table before! Home remodeling really makes you grateful for the simplest of conveniences).

The city's inspectors have okayed the supports -- Mike (the contractor) says that they just sailed though things. We've really done well with all approvals from the city, from the plans on forward. I think we made some good decisions with the people we picked!

Next week, Mike gets to move on with the more interesting part of the job. Everything up til now has been laying the foundation and getting things squared away so he can get up to the upper level and really start on the new addition.

Exciting!

Not All is Dust and Toil

2010-08-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

We took the weekend off a week ago to go camping at Cascadia State Park. Great swimming on the South Santiam River, short little hikes to Soda Falls and to see petroglyphs.

Altogether a very refreshing experience!

You Want to See the Holes in Our Walls?

2010-07-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

I find myself luring neighbors over to our house to show them the state of our house. I don't know why I feel so compelled.

Our front entry is all torn up -- the front closet used to be towards the right. Towards the back, to the left of the shop vac, you can see our bedroom door. This used to be the door to our closet (now gone).

On our main floor, there are all these holes in our walls. This is where the contractor is putting in the supports that are coming up from the basement to help support the additional weight of the upper floor.

One of the beams happens to be going right where our bathroom cabinet used to be. You can see it already in place behind the plastic.

The contractor was kind enough to find an old mirror in our basement and hang it in our bathroom for us to use during this interim period. He says he'll help us find a cabinet to go to the right where we'll be able to keep our stuff. It's sweet how much he's doing to try to make this awkward period as pleasant for us as possible (he's gone above and beyond normal contract work to make life pleasant for us, cleaning the toilet and bathroom floor when things got dusty in there, wiping down all the things on our kitchen counters, picking up and boxing all the kids' toys when he had to be in their room, etc.

He confesses to a bit of OCD, but I think for us, it's working to our advantage...

The current state of the upstairs. Not much has happened here -- he's working hard to get our main floor in order so that our lives can return to normal on that floor. He's getting the supports in the walls, after which he'll get the city to come and inspect. Then he'll get his drywall guy in and we'll be past the roughest part of things.

Honestly, it hasn't been all that hard, though.

My Life in Plastic

2010-07-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

I was surprised to come home on Thursday evening to find that the contractors had been busily moving all our stuff around and encasing it in plastic.

They have gotten to the point when they need to be working on the ground floor. They'll be cutting into the walls (in a move he describes as "surgical") for the supports that they'll be putting in to support that additional weight the new upstairs will put on the building.

Our upstairs is getting stripped away completely.

Sofa all plasticked up.

This might be a good time to find other places to be staying...

Cement!

2010-07-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today the cement truck showed up today, much to the delight of the little boys in our household.

The boys were armed with potato guns (at a buck per gun and a buck for a 5lb bag of potatoes, you've got yourself an afternoon of fun). The cement hose snaked into our basement.

The contractor was kind enough to let us know when the cement was ready enough to take some handprints.

Both my natural sons as well as their best friend, Elijah (my "third son") got in some permanent mementoes of the day. The cats, Joey and Gus were impressed as well.

There goes the dry wall!

2010-07-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

Our upstairs now looks dramatically different without the drywall.

View from the playroom -- there's still drywall on these near walls.

All those old beams...

That hole in the floor is where our stairs are -- the railings are down now.

That's the (impressive) effort for Friday... today the inspector checked out the holes in our basement and gave them the approval to pour concrete next week... yeah! Moving right along...

Finally: The Plans

2010-07-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here are the plans!

I was going to scan them, but they're kind of big, so you'll have to make do with copy shots.

The green marks are to make sure that they're not mistaken for the final plans, there were some modifications.

Below, the front of the house, as you've seen it, with the new second story:

The back of the house with new deluxe back porch:

This is the new main level. It's very similar to our current one, except that the stair to the upstairs have been moved to near the front entrance (on the left). You walk in and can then go upstairs or walk into the living room.

The boys will each get a bedroom (the two rooms at the bottom). The one who lucks out into getting our old bedroom, on the left, will also get a secret passageway leading from the back of his closet to the back of the front closet.

The new upper floor. You walk up the stairs and enter the new shared family space. On the left is a small room marked as storage that we might put the computer into. A new little laundry area will be just off the main area. Walk through a door and you'll enter parentland: bedroom, walk-in closet and master bathroom. Yeah!

The new profile of our house, as seen from the street:

The side of the house:

And this is currently what our upstairs looks like -- things will be coming down next week!

The holes in our basement

2010-07-15T05:55:00.000-07:00

So the holes in our basement seem like totally uninteresting parts of our remodel (an essential, but basically boring step), but I had a special request from a friend. So Mike? This one's for you!

Here's Joey (he makes a good size reference, maybe not such a hot mouser) sitting in one of the holes. This is one of the original support posts holding up the house. It has since been removed and now our house is being supported by the spindly looking temporary supports.

Spindly looking temporary supports holding up the new beam. You can see the square holes where the new supports (okay, they're called "footings") will go, with new cement.

Here's what a hole looks like. When they have all the holes dug out, they'll ask the city to inspect things before they can pour the concrete. I think this is supposed to happen this week.

Tad says he keeps on stepping back in the basement and almost falling into a hole.

This utility chimney, which was used to vent the furnace (which is now gone) and the hot water heater was taken down today.

So now the hot water heater is standing all alone and the final footing hole is ready to go.

Here's a shot up the hole where the utility chimney used to be. From the basement, you can look through our main floor, through our finished attic and up through the hole in our roof.

And they've closed up the hole where the chimney used to be in the kitchen. That plywood is where some wall used to be. Incidentally, that wall had the light switch on it. Now I can't figure out how to turn off the kitchen lights! Hopefully that will come back...

Maybe we can put in a dumb waiter where the chimney used to be. We can teach the kids to cook breakfast for us and send it upstairs....

So moving right along!

Utility Chimney is almost gone!

2010-07-14T05:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the back of the house now -- it looks so sad without our old back porch, rickety as it was!

Above is the rot on the house created because they poured concrete steps right up against the side of the house. Just a little unexpected surprise (can you say "change order?") that we've discovered. Happily, though, the contractor says that things are going really well, so it's not that bad (though tell that to the guy who had to jack hammer the steps away in 90 degree weather last week!).

Downstairs. Here's our old hot water heater, which will be replaced by a side-venting one. The utility chimney will come away, so this whole area will open up for us.

Here's our kitchen. The plastic is covering up where the utility chimney used to be. Our contractor says he'll frame this in for us when all is done.

A full kitchen remodel is not in the picture for us -- we're really at the limit of our budget as it is (though the contractor is really wanting to do something for us.... maybe a later date!).

To keep dust to a minimum in our living spaces, there's now some zippered vinyl leading to the upstairs (we have to be sure to keep our inquisitive cats on THIS side of the vinyl -- Joey's filthy right now).

And here's the big hole in our upstairs. The utility chimney came down from the top down.

The former playroom, less a little carpeting (and the Nagel).

So things seem to be going along! The contractor is very happy with the progress so far. He is very eager to get to the fun part (for him), which is when he gets to cut the roof off and build fresh -- I can't imagine cleaning up old stuff is all that exciting. He thinks that he'll get to that phase in less than two weeks.

Man, I'm glad I finally started this blog... things are happening every single day!

This is what we're doing

2010-07-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

So we live in a bungalow with a finished attic. This is fine, but the upper floor space isn't terribly usable -- the head room's not sufficient even for me, unless I'm walking right down the middle of the space.

So rather than just the low-headroom-attic, we're shooting for an actual, true second story. Check out the artist's rendition! Pretty cool, eh?

I promise to eventually scan in the floor plans...

The Remodel: Before Photos

2010-07-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

This To Do List had me and Tad running around the last few weeks...

Here's our existing stairs. In the remodel, it will be moved near the front entrance.

Upstairs. This is actually only slightly messier than it usually is. Note that it's kind of long and narrow and tall people can only walk down the middle five feet or so. The space on the edges, especially near the stairs, is pretty much wasted/storage space. We could only really use the space in and around the dormer. We used to have a futon sofa up here with a tv -- this was the family area.

Towards the end: my craft area. Messy! I've been clearing stuff out...

Through the open door, the playroom:

Note the Nagel in the background. Yes, we all have remnants of the '80s in our lives (admit it: you've got a Flashdance album hanging around in a box somewhere)

So, in the remodel, all of this is going away! They'll cut out a middle rectangle of the roof and put in a true second story.

!!!

We'll get a new master bedroom suite (bedroom, bathroom, walk-in closet), laundry room and family room upstairs.

Yeah!

The boys will each have one of the two bedrooms downstairs, so they'l be happy too.

House Remodel!

2010-07-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

For the last few months, we've been preparing for our house remodel. It's taken so long to get to here that it can hardly seem possible that we've overcome all the obstacles: party sewer lines, shared water mains, choosing an architect, figuring out financing. Figuring out financing AGAIN.

So many things!

Day one actually happened two weeks ago. I'd meant to post on this blog all our progress periodically, but, well, life gets in the way!

The story so far:

The contractor has cut out square holes in the concrete in the basement and dug down in preparation for the footings that will need to be put in in order to strenghten our supports, to hold up our bigger upper story. The back deck has been torn down and the unexpected concrete steps that emerged from under it has been jackhammered away. The contractor cut into some plumbing in the basement (of course, it's impossible to tell what's under there until you cut it away) that causes our kitchen sink to drain into a hole in the basement, rendering our kitchen sink and dishwasher unusable til it's resolved.

Sigh.

I will be grateful when it's done! It should be fine tomorrow...

Above is our current upstairs with holes cut in so the contractor could reach the utility chimney, which is coming down (we're switching to a side-venting furnace).

Tad and I have been working hard the last few weeks to move all the stuff out of the upstairs and our closets so that the contractor can get in and do what he needs to do...

Phew!

More to come.

A visit to Foster Farms

2010-04-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Philip Foster Farms, that is: http://www.philipfosterfarm.com/

The boys started asking if I could chaperone months ago. My initial understanding was that we were visiting a chicken factory. I was pretty sure that after that we would never eat chicken again.

Philip Foster Farm, though, is a historical site near Estacada. The kids were split up into smaller groups and we visited station after station, grinding corn, loading up a wagon, washing clothes, building a log cabin and more. The kids loved it. You can see Colin waiting his turn to grind corn, above.

I had a spirited group of seven boys and three girls. One boy in particular was... well.... spirited. The blacksmith was so annoyed at his lack of manners and inability to stop doing things that he'd been told that he simply refused to talk for long stretches. Ack.

By the end of the tour, I was pretty tired of taking this child aside and having stern words with him and trying to not turn into a total witch.

At lunch, we regrouped with the other students and chaperones, one of whom was Tad. He seemed surprised that I'd been stuck with a group all on my own. By contrast, his group had a total of four adults squiring around a much more manageable group of eight kids.

!!!!

O Possum!

2010-04-26T19:34:00.000-07:00

Colin and Ethan love digging holes. I think they might just like an excuse to get really, really dirty.

They spent much of Saturday afternoon digging a hole that they claimed would trap Joey, the cat.

On Sunday morning, Ethan ran out to see what they might have caught in the trap. Imagine my surprise when I heard him shouting that he'd caught a baby possum!

Initially, we put some sticks into the hole and left it to see if it would climb out on its own, but it didn't.

We got the critter into a container.

In the meantime, we'd raised enough of a ruckus to alert all the neighbors, one of whom shared some advice on who to call for advice on what to do with it.

Dove Lewis was kind enough to refer me to the Audubon Society, who suggested that we release the baby near where we'd found it at dusk, to increase its chances of being found by mama. Interesting fun fact: she advised me to give it water and fruit-flavored yogurt.

She also affirmed to me that I hadn't simply grown possum mommy goggles and that it really was as cute as I was imagining it.

Apparently, they used to nurse baby possums (but no longer did it) and that the staff really enjoyed doing this. She gave me the okay to handle it, but perhaps with a towel for protection.

Look at that cute thing!

That evening, we gathered up all the neighborhood kids and carefully tipped the possum out of its box. Imagine the squeals of a half dozen little neighborhood girls: "How cuuuuute!!!" (yes, my thoughts exactly)

Inwardly, I hummed the tune to Born Free as we all watched the baby possum realize that it was now free and scamper away.

Run for the Arts

2010-04-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

Last week, in iffy weather, the boys ran for Run for the Arts. It's an annual event where they beg friends, family and neighbors to sponsor them in this fundraiser.

The fundraiser raises money to get arts exposure for children. Remember the days when we were young and music and art was just something you took for granted? It's not that way any more! It's hard for the schools just to get the basics covered, let alone "frills" like art and music! Our school has to fundraise all year round to pay for things like our full-time librarian, a luxury that many schools cannot afford.

!!!!

In any case, the boys were jazzed to have a chance to make a little difference at the school, to have a part in bringing in some of the programs that they enjoy.

They love assembly, which is livened up with performances by live performances and artists.

Every year, the third graders put on The Portland Play, a musical that tells the story of Portland, from the time of the Native Americans, through Lewis and Clark to settlement and current day -- every child is given a speaking part, a solo or another little moment in the spotlight. The boys still talk about that play -- they loved it so much.

Each kid gets 30 minutes to run as many laps as they can. Both boys ran 11 laps. At a quarter mile per lap, that means that they ran just shy of three miles each. Not bad for a kid with short legs!

They finished tired and very happy and proud and certainly well-deserving of the popsicles that were handed round.

A great program and a very good cause.

Easter Day

2010-04-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

We had a terrific Easter Day. We invited the in-laws in for Easter dinner:

It was yummy (is that okay to say myself?)! Prime rib, lovely salad, decadent potatoes, oven-roasted brussels sprouts and yorkshire pudding:

I was pretty pleased with the yorkshire pudding. Having read all the "All Creature Great and Small" books, loads of Agatha Christie and gobs of other British literature, I've always been curious about it. After reading the Joy of Cooking recipe, I was surprised to find that it's basically a German pancake, but without the sweet stuff.

It was pretty yummy!

The day's activities included egg dyeing:

And, later on, a neighborhood egg hunt:

I'd write about the dessert (THREE kinds! Almond macaroons, eclairs and flan!) but I'm feeling too bloated...

Hoping for Snow

2009-12-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

So a friend posted a note on Facebook, mentioning that she'd told her daughter that if you wore your pajamas inside out, it would make it snow.

The boys have been all over this, as you can see (what you can't see are the underpants, carefully turned inside out as well). We even got our cute neighbor girls on the bandwagon -- it might just be a matter of telling enough people to get some critical mass to make it actually happen.

Seriously. Bad. Car. Karma.

2009-09-29T18:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, I thought I was done with the car issues with the last traumatic post, but sadly no!

It's relatively minor, compared to getting cars stolen and sideswiped, but...

Tad reported the newly-found OLD car (which we'd signed away possession and title to the insurance company, dutifully sending them all our keys) to the insurance company, giving them the address that it was at. They asked him to notify the police department.

When he did, they sent a tow truck to tow the car away, which puzzled the agent that the insurance company had sent out, who called Tad, who, of course, had no idea that the police had acted so quickly.

The impound lot called Tad, wanting him to pick up our car that had been towed away. Tad explained that it was no longer our car, though the insurance company had not yet had time to transfer the registration, so as far as the police were concerned, it was our car and therefore our responsibility to come and get.

Now, mind you, our experience with the Portland Police Department had, up to this time, been stellar -- in fact the officer who took down my report the first time my car was stolen actually had located it for me on his own accord.

This particular officer, though, got a bit cranky with Tad as he couldn't keep up with the chain of events.

Eventually, though, the insurance company talked Tad through the procedure to call the impound lot and officially release the automobile to the insurance company.

After that, my faithful green Honda disappeared from our lives altogether.

Meanwhile, I finally received the title for the new car and trotted down to the DMV only to discover that the paperwork that the seller and I had worked on wasn't going to work. The DMV clerk informed me that I would have to return to the original seller and get him to fill out more paperwork.

"But he's in Bangkok!" I told her. No pity.

Luckily, I had his email address and he provided me his address to mail a package off to. Haven't received it back yet, but I'm ever hopeful. In the meantime, I guess the car's not really yet officially registered to me yet.

Then last week, someone yanked the emblem off the back of the new car.

Dang!

I'm knocking on wood that we are DONE with this all!

Portland Pirate Festival

2009-09-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

The boys and I went to the Portland Pirate Festival on Saturday, with a caped friend of theirs (not sure why he insisted on the blindfold).

Ethan got this idea that he wanted a "tan" shirt to wear as a costume the night before. We found an old sheet (that had previously been used as a ghost costume) and dyed it with tea.

He sketched out a pattern, which was basically a "t" and I cut out the fabric using an old t-shirt as a size guide.

They came out really well (Colin decided he wanted one as well), especially after Tad pointed out the the eye holes leftover from the ghost costume were bullet holes.

Ethan's undersized, raggedy blue corduroy jacket actually worked with his costume (he's worn that thing since kindergarten). Colin looked swashbuckling in one of my longer blazers. Bandanas finished off the look.

It rained that morning, but other than creating some wave action coming down the slides in the bouncy area, it didn't really dampen our enthusiasm. We've gone to every single Pirate Festival since the beginning and we're not about to let a little rain keep us away.

The highlight for the boys wasn't the puppet show, the sword fighting, the bouncy house activities, having parrots climb all over them, the cannon battle or the other entertainment. No, it was the discovery by Ethan of a little miniature dagger set (two little knives plus a sheath) for only $4.

Even the non-knife-loving person in me had to admit that this was a good deal.

He and I discussed the matter at length and I finally let him purchase it with some ground rules.

The evening of the Pirate Festival, I wouldn't let him bring the daggers to the neighborhood block party (duh!) but he went around the entire neighborhood making appointments with all the neighbors to show it to them the following day.

We spent much of today on his agenda: Paul and Tricia got the first viewing in the morning. Alan got a look at it after that. We went by Dan's around 11. We were due at Ken and Lenore's at noon, and so on.

I can't believe how blissfully happy this has made him. He seriously has had this incredibly happy smile on his face for much of the day and I know it's because he's thinking of his daggers. At least he's being responsible with them and following the rules...

Race for the Cure!

2009-09-20T14:28:00.000-07:00

Did it!

Race for the Cure was this morning. Glorious morning. Thousands of people all united for a single cause.

It felt GREAT!

Above, the Daimler Trucks North America team. Go DTNA!

Recycle Yourself

2009-09-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

While most people are marking an anniversary this week for a memorable day eight years ago, the Craig (Lee) family is marking a different anniversary. For us, September 10, 2001 is a special day because that is the day that Tad donated his kidney to his father, John.

Coincidentally, the annual Donate Life barbecue is held around the time of this anniversary, so we typically spend the afternoon with a lot of other kidney recipient donors and recipients and their families, eating burgers and hot dogs and meeting one another.

Dr. William Bennett (above) updates us about the past year and distributes certificates to the people who've been part of the program the last year. We met a woman, Debbi, from Silverton, who received a kidney nine months ago from her son-in-law's father.

The boys' favorite part every year has got to be the gelato, donated by Alotto Gelato. Dr. Bennett explained that the proprietor had received a kidney from the program some years ago and while he didn't actually threaten his former patient, there was talk of coming back for the kidney if he didn't return with his much-appreciated gelato cart.

Each recipient/donor pair are given a number by the group. Tad and his dad's is 70-something. This year, they got up to the 700s. Remarkable. Each of those numbers comes with a story. Just about every story involves a dramatic change in someone's quality of life.

We use that phrase "You saved my life!" so often nowadays that it's almost meaningless, but in this case, every one of the recipients had their lives changed utterly for the better because of the amazing generosity of a donor.

It makes me very, very proud of my husband.

For a simple way to possibly make a huge difference, sign up to be a donor and make sure that your family is aware of your wishes.

(for a hard way to make a huge difference, donate a kidney to someone who needs it -- we all have a spare!)

First day of school

2009-09-09T20:30:00.001-07:00

Can't you just feel their excitement?

Last Chance Summer Bash

2009-09-07T06:03:00.000-07:00

We had a low-key potluck gathering last night, prompted by the realization that summer was quickly coming to a conclusion. Just a few families with boys and my friend Beth (aka, my reliable party guest with the ability to mix with any crowd I put together).

Naturally, the only photo I got of the evening was of Joey, who had been spending an inordinate amount of time hovering near our basement/garage door the last few weeks who finally caught the baby mouse he'd been after.

Race for a Cure Giveaway

2009-09-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

In honor of two friends who were diagnosed with breast cancer last year and who each went through many months of agonizing treatment, I've decided to run the Race for a Cure this year.

In order to raise money for this cause (money which will go to pay for mammograms, treatments, research and life-saving procedures) I am asking for my readers to sponsor me.

http://race.komenoregon.org/site/TR/Race/General?px=1794584&pg=personal&fr_id=1110&et=ur9hrGcLbcxMnuzd69Xngg..&s_tafId=21160

As a special thank you, I will send you my "Take THAT" Cancer pull-tab card. It's the one card that I hate to make a sale on, as when I do, I know there's a sad story behind it. On the other hand, I really love it's message of empowerment at a time that can feel lacking in hope.

(make sure if you sponsor me that I have your address! You can email me by clicking on my profile link on the right or by sending me a message via etsy)

Sponsor me by clicking on this link!

Southern Oregon, Part II

2009-09-03T06:27:00.000-07:00

Here's one of the cats we saw in Cave Junction at the Great Cats World Park when we were down last week. I'm a little wary of visiting any kind of animal park because I'm afraid of getting depressed at seeing the little enclosures that the animals have to live in or see them get cowed into submission.

I was impressed with the wide variety of animals at this habitat and with how the owner obviously seemed to love and respect the creatures (many of them cozied right up to him).

Apparently this is one of the few organizations in the world that are allowed to simply release their animals into unenclosed locations, to allow photographers to shoot them in a natural setting (the cats return to them when called). In fact, the guide related that about 50% of the commercial photographs that you see of great cats (leopards, lions, tigers, etc) are of their own cats.

Anyway, while I still felt that the animal's enclosures were smaller than ideal, I walked away impressed with the experience.

(and the boys loved it, of course)

The Saga of the Civic: Bad Car Karma?

2009-08-30T05:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, there's my little Honda Civic in the background. I apparently never took an actual photo of my faithful commuter car and after finding numerous shots of our hulking Ford Taurus station wagon in the background of many an outdoor shot, I found this snippet of a shot that Tad took of me when I got overrun with card orders one weekend.

So the story starts about 3-4 months ago when the Civic disappeared from the front of the house. I walked out, to go to work, then walked in and asked Tad conversationally where the Civic was.

Together, we walked outside and stared dumbly at the empty spot that it had occupied the night before.

The police were actually great. After finding out that I was on my way in to work, the dispatcher said she'd send a cop out as soon as possible to take my report. The friendly police officer arrived only minutes later.

The report was painless and I was on my way to work without losing much time. I think I was actually only there for about 40 minutes (just long enough to soak up major sympathy points from my coworkers) when he called me to let me know that he'd discovered my vehicle parked only a few blocks away.

Tad walked over with a spare set of keys and retrieved it, none the worse for wear. There was no damage, nothing stolen.

So, about four weeks ago, almost the same thing happened. Walk out, back in. "Honey, where's the Civic?" Dumb stares. Call cops.

This time, however, no friendly cop took it upon himself to drive around the neighborhood looking for the car, but I asked Tad to take a different route home every day and I tried to hit all the side streets in our area. Alas, to no avail. This time, the Civic seemed like it was really gone.

The insurance company seemed eager to settle the claim quickly, so we filled out the necessary paperwork and, in return for the title and all the keys, they sent us a check for what Tad thought to be a fair amount for the car.

While I wasn't happy to be taking on car payments again, I shopped around and picked up a 2005 Honda Civic Hybrid, this one with a good car alarm.

We took possession of the new (to us) car the day before leaving town on a weeklong trip to Southern Oregon. The whole time, I fretted that the unattended vehicle would be stolen also, however, it was still there when we returned yesterday evening.

Today was arguably the first full day that we actually had full possession of the shiny new car and Tad and I took turns driving it about. Sadly, on Tad's turn out, he was sideswiped by another car on Hawthorne, resulting in some nasty scraping all along the driver's side.

!!!!!

Then later in the evening, after dinner, we got a call from some people who realized that the vehicle parked in front of their house for four weeks had been abandoned and found our contact information in the glove compartment and called us.

!!!!

Sadly, if they'd only thought to do this a few weeks ago, it would have saved us a TON of hassle and car payments for the next few years.

But, bright side: all the library books that I'd been fretting about that were inside the car were still there, along with a few stick bug habitats and a few other odds and ends.

Unexpected bonus gift from the thieves: a wicked little pocketknife that must have fallen out of their pocket as they searched the Civic for something more interesting than the scraps of paper and books that they found.

[Sigh]

Oregon Caves

2009-08-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

I have sadly neglected the family blog in favor of my card-making blog lately. I recently discovered that there are people (like two actually. Hi Jess and Mike!) who actually read this blog, so, rather than continue to disappoint them, I've renewed my resolution to try to be better about the occasional updates.

We've just gotten back from a week in Southern Oregon. The first few nights were at Cave Junction, with the main attraction being the Oregon Caves nearby.

The boys were probably most impressed by the enormous beetle they rescued from the pond in front of the nearby diner. But I do think that they learned something about geology from our tour. The rock formations were incredible.

Kids do need to be taller than 42" to go on a full cave tour because of the cave's open and steep staircases. But even if they can't go on the whole cave tour, you can take them in on a sneak peek, where they can see the first room of the cave. And there are junior ranger booklets with lots of activities for kids and parents to partake in, and those trails at the monument are fun to discover. http://www.nps.gov/orca/forkids/index.htm

(and also, if you have older friends, be aware that it can be a bit strenuous, ask my friend Wendy who brought her aging grandparents)

We did the No Name trail -- breathtaking!

It was great fun. I highly recommend the experience if you have young kids (if I were to do it again, I would have allowed more time to explore the trails near the caves as they were just gorgeous).

More on our trip in later blog posts... for now, we're safely back at home. The boys are happily "playing with" ants in the front yard.

Camp!

2009-07-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

The boys are back from a full week of overnight camp at glorious Camp Collins.

This year, several of their Glencoe third grade friends also went at the same session, which had to be a lot of fun.

And me? I took the week off from work with the intention of completely organizing the basement, redoing our closet, sorting through our files, finishing up the crafty space makeover and a million other things. I only actually completed a fraction of my ambitious list, but it was still amazingly satisfying.

Tad managed to lure us away to Rockaway Beach for two nights, just to relax (I was reluctant to leave all the projects, but we really had a lot of fun! It was our first beach trip as a couple since the boys were born).

So.... good times!

Homeless Helpers

2009-05-20T21:26:00.000-07:00

When I was younger, living and working in the downtown Portland area, I was approached for handouts. A lot. Men, women and street kids all asking for change. Sometimes I'd give to them, sometimes not.

I began to realize that some people were obvious scam artists. One man was desperate for gas money to get to Beaverton because his wife was having a baby. He made the mistake of approaching me in successive weeks with the same story. One thin woman was dubbed "Heroin Lady." She was famous for being seen on her non-panhandling days. On these days, she carried a handbag and dressed normally (it was on her begging days that she dressed the part of a destitute woman on the streets). The paper ran a story where they had a reporter beg for money at an intersection -- they earned as much as $400 a day.

Over time, I developed a hard rule to never, ever give money to people on the streets. I reasoned that it would be better to donate to groups that helped homeless people. Otherwise I had no idea where the money was going to: alcohol, drugs, etc.

I stuck with this rule for many, many years. But then, something changed. As I was getting into my car, a homeless man approached me. As he began to ask for money, I was ready for my pat "Sorry, no" response when something stopped me. He told me that he was hungry. Somehow he struck me as being completely sincere. For the first time in years, I looked a homeless person in the eyes and something touched me.

I broke my rule and rummaged through my purse and gave him several dollars worth of change. He was very thankful and shook my hand and as he walked away, I wished that I had given him more.

Over the next few days, I told that story to several different people. Each time, I surprised myself by becoming emotional and tearing up.

I realize now why this story affected me so much: I believed this man when he told me that he was hungry.

A man was hungry and asked me for help and I told him "no."

Over the many years of my hard and fast rule, many people have asked me for help and I turned them down.

I felt like the villain in a Victorian novel.

With every "no" a thin layer of varnish coated my soul, helping me to live with that decision.

But somehow, one man managed to pierce through that hardened shell. and I understood that all that denial had not been good for my soul.

Over lunch with my friend, Shawn, I pondered this problem with her: I wanted to help people that were in genuine need, but how could I? How could I tell the scam artists apart from the real people who were truly down on their luck and needed something to eat?

Shawn suggested a solution that a friend of hers came up with: she filled bags with healthy, non-perishable food in them. When someone asked her for money, she would offer them the bag. Sometimes it was easy to tell from the reaction that the person was just trying to scam her. And sometimes her offering was accepted with real gratitude.

Excited with the concept, I made up my first bag that very weekend.

Monday morning, it went into my car.

By Tuesday afternoon, as I got in to drive myself home, I was already getting discouraged. When would I ever encounter someone in my car to whom it would be convenient to hand a bag? That stupid bag would sit right there, cluttering up my car for months...

Ten seconds later, I saw him: a man in his twenties with a dog and a sign that said "Anything helps."

Half expecting him to reject my crumpled up paper bag, I slowed down, rolled down the window and asked if you would like something to eat. The relief in his face as he accepted my offering was palpable.

As I pulled away, happy happy happy, I could see him eagerly looking into the bag.

Being me, I naturally instantly regretted not having more in there (it contained an apple, some dried mango, a baggie of almonds and some granola bars) -- it was really just a good snack.

And there was nothing in it for the dog.

That night, I raided the store for more food for bigger and better homeless helpers. I'm thinking that I can get some gift cards for fast food.

Next time, I'll even have a can of dog food ready as well.

Why You Shouldn't Allow Your Eight-Year Old Twins to Use Your Digital Camera Unsupervised

2009-04-20T16:57:00.000-07:00

Mighty Hunter

2009-04-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

For weeks, Joey could barely be peeled away from the kitchen, where he crouched vigilantly, staring at the stove. I recognized the stance and chided him for his thinking that there was prey underneath there -- I thought that some movement was keeping him fooled.

Imagine my surprise at coming across a dead mouse deposited on our living room floor, then!

Joey was completely vindicated.

After posing with his catch, I hunted about the house for a suitable box to stand in as a mouse coffin, finally pulling something out of my gift stash, a cute box that once held something pretty. I wrapped it in some tissue paper and, lacking an immediate funeral plan, put it out on the front porch for later.

The next day, Tad came across the box and, thinking that a kind neighbor had left us a present, eagerly unwrapped it.

Now Joey seems obsessed with the underside of the dishwasher... eek!

Spring Break

2009-03-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a wet, rainy, chilly spring break week on the Oregon Coast.

Did I mention that it rained?

We splurged on six whole days. After just two days of wet weather, Tad and I were both going through painful internet/email withdrawals. How do people live without internet access? I have a neighbor that refuses to go online -- we even offered to share our own access with her (she's convinced she'll be beset by viruses as soon as she logs in). Honestly! How does she check the weather, look up spellings, find directions to places?

But I digress.

Despite the weather, we all had fun. There were enough little breaks here and there to get us to the beach for a time almost every day. I had neglected some key pieces of papercrafting supplies (unfortunately, not the big, heavy ones -- Tad is incredibly patient when it comes to my insistence that I DO need the printer/fax/copier/scanner with us on our beach trip), meaning I couldn't go into card-making production mode, forcing me to relax and read my book and take it easy. It was kind of tough for me, but probably really good for me at the same time. Like brussels sprouts. Or yoga.

The boys discovered some great classic board games in the loft, like Stratego, which they enjoyed for hours. We had a nice hot fire, watched some movies that were left there (I would never have rented Crocodile Hunter, but the boys loved it and, I have to admit, Steve Irwin's wide-eye, seemingly genuine enthusiasm amused me).

So, a good time! (but maybe we'll skip the beach for spring break next year)

Facebook

2009-02-08T06:43:00.000-08:00

I've never been a fan of anything that I've viewed as being an online time-waster. Online games, random surfing, joke-of-the-day, all those activities just do not appeal.

A few months ago, I half-accidentally signed up for FaceBook and my view of this social networking site changed dramatically.

Within a few days, I'd reconnected with friends I had lost contact with decades earlier.

Over the next few months, like a friendly virus, more and more of my friends joined.

We posted daily mini-updates about what we were doing at the moment. We scrounged up old photos of each other and posted images of past events (it seemed like a new "80's album" was being posted every week).

It's even gotten me closer to new acquaintances (this refrain keeps going through my mind: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold.")

It has been quite amazing and, for me, demonstrates one of the great powers of the internet.

Anyway, the reason for this long testimonial on my card site is that I have just set up a Facebook page for my online card store. By becoming a "fan" of this page, you can participate in discussion forums, share photos and send me notes by writing on my "wall."

Click here to view my Molly Lee Cards page and become a fan on FaceBook! (the link to become a fan is in the upper right-hand corner)

Dirty baseballs

2009-01-25T18:57:00.000-08:00

The boys were talking about their "dirty baseballs," which I knew nothing about, really. They turned out to be enormous jawbreakers their Uncle Johnny gave to them.

Ethan appears jealous of Colin's creative application of jawbreaker to his face.

Whack job.

2009-01-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

For my friend Sue. http://www.locksoflove.org/

Firetruck racing

2009-01-17T05:25:00.000-08:00

Tad posted this video of the boys. When they were tiny, they were amazingly agile with the firetruck ride-on toys that their grandparents gave them when they turned two.

Link to video

The amazing generosity of crafters

2009-01-11T07:37:00.001-08:00

Our school's foundation holds an auction every year to raise money to help pay for our librarian, after school sports, band and other programs that have otherwise been slashed from our dwindling budgets.

You may know that I have a store on etsy. As a vendor, I was recently contacted by a local mom who was soliciting for donations for her own school's auction. I'm very happy to send her some cards to help with her efforts and, after thinking and consulting with our own auction coordinators, I contacted some of the etsy sellers whose work I most admire (looking first to local vendors but not limiting myself by geography) and gave them a really low-key pitch (I know that you can't contribute to every cause that comes along).

The response has been wonderful and gratifying! The etsy community of crafters is such a generous and supportive group.

So far, I have contributions coming from these wonderful people:

D's Chic Boutique (a bag, matching cosmetic bag and wallet)
Barking Bird Art
LittlePutBooks (she generously allowed me to select whatever I wanted from her store. I chose a set of forest blocks, pictured above)
Cat Ludwig Studio (a 5x7 matted print and notecards)
oh fransson! (a quilt)
Karrie Welborn Photography (notecards)
Happy Goat Soap (soap gift package)
Broken Teepee Design (jewelry)
TieDyeTodd's (tie-dyed shirt)
Piddix (royalty-free art)
Rose City Soap Supply (soap)
Chaucer's Chewy Chirashi (cookie/egg roll/2-piece sushi combos cat toys)
Galinblack (two pop-up cards)
mollylee (pop-up cards) (okay, this is me and I would have done this anyway)
oola (children's clothing and cards)
TCWitchFactory (cards and giftcard holders)
TreAnelli (stackable rings)
BlueDogCreative (jewelry)
LushPDX (girl's capelet and hat set)
LuciousNaturals (natural beauty products)
Treehouse28 (arm warmers)
LuckyFrog
Christym113 (Twilight pendant and cards)
DaogreerEarthworks
aandvdesigns (bag)
SewnNatural (quilt)
berkleyillustration (pair of prints)
Caelista
johnwgolden
LittleMamasDesigns
AutumnComfort

I'll keep this list updated if I hear from any more people. I'm just so pleased with the response I've gotten already. oh franssom! is actually making a quilt for us! (she attended a Portland public school and her mother was a school librarian, so she was very supportive)

Please, check out the wonderful stores of these generous donors by clicking on the links above!

Tiny Bubbles

2009-01-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

So, after a hard-working mommy gets her second child going in the tub and sneaks off to do a little papercrafting on her own (and completely loses track of time), what does she NOT want to hear?

Her husband, wandering into the bathroom, exclaiming: "Oh, my....! Does your mom know what you're doing????? MOLLY!!!! I think you want to get the camera!"

Pedicure

2009-01-02T16:53:00.000-08:00

I know this sounds weird, but the boys REALLY love giving us pedicures. They are especially fond of rubbing callouses off and trimming toe nails.

Tad's also gotten them trained to fix him coffee (which he never really managed to get me to do).

Next up: we're getting them training in the art of shiatsu massage.

Chinese Thanksgiving

2008-12-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, this isn't really Chinese Thanksgiving, but we used to always celebrate my uncles birthday (November 11) by making gow-doos, a traditional chinese dumpling so the two holidays became linked in my mind. I think gow-doos might be traditional, but I've never seen anything much like it at any asian restaurant, store or cookbook. (It took me years to discover that my mom's "traditional" coconut bao were filled with a variation of German Chocolate cake filling that my Aunt Phyllis showed her once, so the gow-doo might possibly be an entirely made-up Lee family delectable.)

This process of squishing dough into rounds and making each gow-doo by hand is a mainstay of many Lee family gatherings. Traditionally, the youngest child is in charge of the dough squishing. In this case, it's young Nora who's very ably taken this on.

Sister-in-law Carol and her daughter (my niece and Nora's mom) help fill, along with my mom, the family matriarch and keeper of the gow-doo secrets (despite pleadings, she seems unable to actually make the savory filling in front of anyone, preferring to do her chopping and cooking of mystery ingredients in unlikely early morning hours (4am)).

Later on, dozens of these little dumplings will be consumed, seasoned with soy sauce and washed down with hot tea.

Good times!

Lee Family Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

Typically, the family spends Thanksgiving with the extended Lee clan. This year, the family was almost complete, was you can see in this video clip.

This extended tracking shot required many takes, as you can imagine, to simulate Lee clan life so realistically.

Careful! Your face will freeze that way!

2008-11-28T07:19:00.000-08:00

Taffy pull

2008-11-22T07:20:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the first apartment in college in which I lived on my very own, I threw a housewarming party. I designed the invitations (printed on my state-of-the-art dot matrix printer) and planned the refreshments and party activities.

Always the party planner, I wanted to go beyond the typical tipsy gathering that characterized college social life.

In retrospect, combining frozen daiquiris with a taffy pull might not have been one of my more brilliant ideas...

Last week, I pulled out that same recipe (from ever-reliable Betty Crocker) and shared the fun with the boys.

Clearly this illustrates that the same activity in different settings can have wildly different results (Making taffy with little boys = fun for all, very rewarding. Making taffy with drunken college kids = kind of a mess).

Good times.

Kitty drinking fountain

2008-11-17T17:08:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, after years of Tad caring for it, I became, via a shift in our chore roster, the primary care giver of our acquarium.

Since my takeover of our little underwater biosphere, I've added multiple water plants, a snazzy little "moss ball" (like a green tribble), a cute little tiger-striped eel thingie, some shrimp and a frog to our population of mostly guppies and a flock of impossible-to-kill zebra tetras.

I've really enjoyed being the god in this tiny aquatic world.

I found it odd how often I had to replace the water in our aquarium, but chalked it up to evaporation, until I caught Joey, lapping up water from the little waterfall in the back, fountained up by the filter.

It actually makes a very convenient kitty drinking fountain for him.

It's about love

2008-11-14T05:41:00.000-08:00

There are many who may disagree with the assertion that "it's about love," but I don't. Personally, when I see two people in a loving, committed relationship, I do not feel my own marriage threatened in any way.

Keith Olbermann's statement that there's little enough love in this world already, so why would we take the time and effort to quash out love that doesn't meet our own narrow guidelines really has resonated with me.

I am very aware that it was not so long ago that my marriage to my husband would have been illegal in some states.

Behold.... Lockman!

2008-11-12T18:51:00.000-08:00

Beware evildoers of Portland, Oregon... a new superhero takes to the stage to root out crime and protect the innocent.

Yes. It's Lockman!

As mild-mannered Colin Craig explains, Lockman has locks. You may see a few a few tucked into the waistband of what may appear to be simply a pair of Fruit-of-the-Loom underwear.

When pressed for details about Lockman's particular superpowers, Colin becomes a bit evasive. "He has locks," he explains.

Ethan immediately signed up to be the trusty sidekick, Lockboy, but only minutes later, Lockboy decided upon taking on the persona of Chinese Yo-Yo Guy.

It's a new day

2008-11-09T14:41:00.000-08:00

Whatever your political affiliation (and it would not be difficult to divine mine), what happened on election day on Tuesday was nothing but absolutely historic.

To see, in the crowd, people who actually marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King in the civil rights era, who have experienced segregation and who have had grandparents who had been born into slavery, to see tears streaming down Jesse Jackson's face as he watched an african-american ascend to the highest office in the nation was indeed an absolutely monumental sight.

We have come so far.

I am so proud to be an american this week.

Obama's victory speech said it all for me, and still brings me to tears: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

Jumping Beans

2008-11-08T06:12:00.000-08:00

This was an essay that Colin recently wrote:

Jumping Beans

The day after Halloween our mom came back from running. She gave us a paper bag she found with jumping beans in it. Inside the bag we also found a piece of paper that told us how to care for jumping beans.

Jumping beans look like half an apple with a little ridge in the3 middle and a milky brown spot on top of the ridge.

Jumping beans jump at light and warmth. Do not expose your jumping beans to very hot climates. Do not drop your jumping beans it will hurt the larve inside. Once an a while give them a little spritz of water.

Get a jumping bean at www.jumpingbean.com

------------------------------------

Top photo: Colin with Beanie Boy. Bottom: Ethan with Junior Jumper, the livelier of the two beans.

Cats are creatures of natural dignity and grace.

2008-11-05T20:09:00.000-08:00

Olimpia's Birthday Party

2008-11-02T18:24:00.000-08:00

Our ex-neighbors, who moved in next door to us last Christmas eve and who have since purchased a big white house near Lloyd Center, hail from Italy, where children's birthday parties are a little different than here in the states.

I first got a whiff of this when I learned, earlier this week, that Davide had gotten a good start on party planning by purchasing all the wine that would be served at the gathering.

We were among the first guests and when we showed up with a set of brightly wrapped gifts, Olimpia (Olympia if you're americanizing it) was given a choice of doing it as the Italians do (which involves ripping off the wrap on presents upon arrival) or doing it as the Americans, which involves waiting for an appropriate time during the party and all watching the birthday child go through the show of opening each present and having the parents say, from the sidelines, every few minutes: "Say thank you to Aunt Polly," or whatnot. After the first few gifts, this can be a somewhat tiring exercise for all involved.

Given that choice, naturally Olimpia chose the Italian method, which nicely spread the gift opening session out quite a bit.

In addition to the carefully selected wines and champagnes, Davide had prepared a nice selection of appetizers, including a hunk of parmegianno-reggianno about the size of smallish person's head. See photo with Mickey Lindsey's head near it for a handy frame of reference.

There was also an excellent aged goat cheese. How often do you discuss excellent goat cheese at a nine-year old's party?

The kids simply ran crazy through the house while the adults socialized and ate good food. The birthday kidhad fun as part of the big pack, rather than reigning as the supreme princess/emperor of some elaborately planned out day. It felt more like a large family celebration which was a nice change of pace.

My favorite part: getting Olimpia an Easy Bake Oven with all the trimmings (extra mixes, coordinating apron, etc). I think half the reason you have kids is to be able to live out your own childhood toy fantasies through them (0r their playmates). I may need to offer to babysit Olimpia sometime soon...

Video is here (but probably not of interest to anyone other than the family and friends, although one cannot help but admire Davide's ability to fend off little boys' hands as he cuts the cake with what looks to be a really sharp knife).

Trick or treat!

2008-10-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

The boys' Halloween costumes this year were totally homemade. Colin decided to be the Headless Butler, a costume idea selected from a Family Fun book (always a reliable source of clever family-oriented crafts), and Ethan chose to be a squire, which, from the picture, was basically Robin Hood, only not green.

Tad, thankfully, constructed Colin's costume from posterboard. Ethan's tunic was simply a belted piece of black fabric with a slit. The dagger was a flattened wrapping paper tube covered with foil and electrical tape.

It was all simple and came together really well. The boys were very pleased, which was all that mattered.

Trick or treating took place with the neighborhood kids and involved going from door-to-door with some of the parents screaming "Say THANK YOU!" every few seconds from the sidewalk.

Back at our house, we munched on popcorn balls and cookies and told real scary stories about possible frightening results from the upcoming election.

Beef Shank

2008-10-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

We recently split a cow with some neighbors and assorted acquaintances. Our neighbor, Dan, invited us to sample some beef at his home, provided by Cami Brown, the extremely congenial mom of the clan that operates JS Angus Ranch.

Carried away by the tastiness of the various steaks she grilled up for us (and totally sucked in by her descriptions of how all the cattle are raised (without hormones, antibiotics, in a very humane way), we decided to sign up. Officially, the smallest share of a cow you can elect to purchase is one-eighth, however, we found some folks to split that with and each purchased one-sixteenth of a steer.

We picked up the meat last week. After all was tallied up and we split up our meaty booty with our neighbors, we loaded up the freezer with dry-aged, natural beef.

In addition to an assortment of the regular cuts, we were given our choice of various other bonus bits, like the heart, tongue, shanks, etc. She had mentioned that the shanks make good stock, so I spoke up for that (I also claimed a tongue -- childhood thing).

Anyway, after asking for it, I found a tasty-sounding beef shank recipe online, so, that ended up being the first beef test case for us.

If you check out the the recipe, you might note that it calls for four beef shanks, weighing about 6 ounces each.

The sawed off piece of cow leg we received weighed probably eight pounds all on its very own.

This was a problem when I attempted to flour, then brown the meat.

Even in our biggest frying pan, only one edge of the thing actually rested in the pan, allowing me to brown a spot roughly the size of a silver dollar.

I ended up pulling out the griddle, which worked okay.

The rest of the recipe turned out tasty, although I wasn't able to serve each family member their own beef shank. Pretty much, I put the huge cow leg in the middle of the table and invited all to pull off pieces.

Yummy. I wonder where Emeril gets those miniature, dinky cows?

Economic Woes

2008-10-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

This photo amused me (though, of course, I don't necessarily endose the sentiment)

The recent 700 billion dollar bailout has been so much on people's minds lately.

There are some who don't believe that we should have anted up the money, viewing the act as a handout to fat cat financial types who made poor decisions and got themselves into the mess to begin with.

My brother, who lives in conservative, rural Medford, has coworkers who've protested that action.

I don't pretend to know all there is about the economy, but I do know that everything in it is interlinked and troubles in one quarter can quickly ripple to other areas.

The company that I work for has recently announced upcoming layoffs, will be closing two plants and is dropping and entire product line.
My old workplace, The Columbian Newspaper, is facing possible bankruptcy.
I ran into a coworker who I happen to know is very interested in his finances. In the course of conversation, it came out that his financial portfolio took a 40% dip in the recent financial downturn. As he is nearing the age of retirement he doesn't have as much time as the rest of us to allow his portfolio to again grow to where it was and beyond.

While I don't feel in imminent danger of losing my job, the truth is that no one is invulnerable to this possibility. If that were to happen, with the current state of the market, it might be tough to find something else.

No matter what your political views, our country is at such a critical juncture. If you haven't already, read up all you can and vote with an informed mind.

VOTE!!!!

Li'l American Gladiators

2008-10-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

Tad enrolled the boys in gymnastics, which is great. They're not particularly interested in athletics -- they're protested loudly at any idea of signing them up for soccer or Little League or the like. Luckily, they didn't mind gymnastics too much, otherwise, their skinny little bodies might start to atrophy.

It's also, appealing to us, as it's an activity that they enjoy that doesn't involve whacking each other with toy swords or pretending to otherwise incite violence upon one another. I'm not one of those parents who get really freaked out if they want to shoot at each other with nerf shooters, however an entire weekend of gratuitous mayhem can get a little wearing.

That's one of the reasons we decided to bring them to their gym (The Children's Gym) one Saturday.

We paid for a full hour, but after a while, their interest began to wane, so I got the idea to set up a half-pint version of American Gladiators, which perked up their interest quite handily.

(if you're on Facebook, you won't see the video until you click on "View original post" and go directly to the blog)

Hmmm... a violence-free weekend?

What's a pirate's favorite kind of sock?

2008-10-18T13:45:00.000-07:00

Aaargyle, of course!

I'm a little late with this post, but had to mention our fun day at the Portland Pirate Festival. We've been going for years, from its inaugural festival til now and we wouldn't miss it for just about anything.

The tickets might seem a little spendy, but you have to keep in mind that once you're in the gates, everything else (except of course, concessions and gift items) is totally free. This is especially a good deal for a family, as your children can indulge in as many of the bouncy, blow up activity thingies as their stomachs can handle, see puppet shows, juggling shows, check out some friendly parrots (left, Colin seems a little dubious, while Ethan gets a tickling), see Captain Bogg and Salty, likely the greatest pirate kids band in the history of the world, talk to roaming characters in amazing garb (we usually get gifted with some pieces of eight from one particular friendly buccaneer, but this year, we didn't see him. There was, however, a very credible Captain Jack Sparrow who was wandering the premises who very much thrilled my coworker Shirley Karr, who has, to put it mildly, a "thing" for Johnny Depp)(she would also drub me soundly for how much this sentence is running on, but she can complain at her own blog), play some pirate-ish games (whack the rats is one, pictured below) to earn a prize, watch a cannon battle, watch some swordplay and much, much more.

This year, we also got to see a real blacksmith and received some elaborate knotted things from a knot-master.

I couldn't resist buying the boys some wooden swords with some nifty black leather scabbord thingies, which have brought them a ton of joy already.

It was a long day (10 til 4) but we had a blast.

My advice: go early, before the lines form at the bouncy castle thingies (and get them out of the way first -- later on you'll see lines form). Don't miss the cannon battles or Captain Bogg and Salty.

Time Warp

2008-10-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

We went home to Medford a few weeks ago to visit my mom's house, aka the home that time forgot.

My mom is a big proponent of weird, generic dollar store "bargains."

There were about a dozen bottles of "L.A.'s Totally Awesome Window Clean tucked away in a spare bathroom. Wouldn't most people make the assumption that any product called "L.A.'s Totally Awesome" anything might be slightly suspect?

Anyway, I put the cleaner through its paces and found that it was really pretty much blue food coloring and a hint of ammonia to make it smell useful.

There are also quite a few products that my mom seems reluctant to throw out, although I can hardly believe that she's keeping that petroleum jelly for sentimental reasons. I took a few pix of some various items.

It was only a few years ago that the threw out the bottle of Jean Nate that I had bought in high school... ummm.... a few years ago...

Anyway, take a look at a few of the things I found at her house.

Doesn't that Beef-flavored Smack look totally delish?

I swear we really do feed these boys.

2008-10-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

The derelict look of this photo is enhanced by the work that Tad's been doing on the front porch, stripping, etc.

I mentioned how thin the boys look when they really suck in their guts, leading to this photo op.

Maybe I should solicit donations?

Perception Test

2008-09-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

I was sent this video as a perception test. The presenter prefaced the video with remarks that there was a difference in how the sexes were able to catch the number of times the ball was passed between the people wearing white shirts.

Watch very carefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX2BJC12uXQ

This blew my mind away!

This isn't a political blog....

2008-09-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

... but....

This blog was originally created to support my card-making venture on etsy. Then I got carried away adding in tidbits about the family and our goings on. I never really wanted to make any kind of political statements.

Until now.

I really hate being lied to, especially when it is so simple to check up on the facts.

When it was announced that Sarah Palin's teenage daughter was pregnant, I inwardly groaned. Another distraction from the things that really mattered!

Then I was pleased when Barack Obama spoke against making this an issue. "Let me be as clear as possible," Obama said. "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president."

He further said that "if I ever thought there was somebody in my campaign that was involved in something like that, they’d be fired."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/01/palin.daughter/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02PALINDAY.html?em

Finally, someone in politics takes the high road!

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Sarah Palin said this in an email solicitation after her nomination: "I cannot tell you how special last night was for me and how enthused I am to be John McCain's running mate," Palin said in the email solicitation, adding: "Unfortunately, as you've seen this week, the Obama/Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain. The misinformation and flat-out lies must be corrected."

Frankly, I was appalled. A search of reliable news stories online revealed her lie (and there's really no other way to characterize that statement) many times over:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/09/04/1347741.aspx

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/09/04/Palin_ObamaBiden_Democrats__vicious/UPI-68551220578244/

http://mediamatters.org/items/200809050018

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/palin-accuses-o.html

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews/article_212169879.shtml

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_palin

This is so disappointing to me. It is exciting to see a woman (and a mother) get ahead in the world, even if I may not agree with her views and policies, but when I see someone who should be an inspiration and a role model engaging in such outright falsehood, it makes me doubly discouraged.

It also disgusts me that a political figure has so little respect for the intelligence of the American public that they would tell a lie that is so easily checked upon.

I hope that these types of tactics do not prove effective!

School Days

2008-09-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last week, Tad had told me that the first day of school was Thursday, so I blocked out that day on my calendar so that I could take the boys in and meet their teachers. I found it odd that every other parent I talked to thought that school started on Wednesday.

On the weekend, I asked him what sort of school supplies they would need on the first day of class. He told me that a list hadn't arrived with their teacher assignments and he assumed that we would receive a list when they showed up.

Luckily, over the weekend, we discovered the truth on both counts, otherwise, we would have shown up a day late, completely empty handed.

A fellow Glencoe School mom, Emily, pointed me to the Glencoe School Supply List online. (Emily and I both worked on the Glencoe School Foundation website over the summer, for which I am very grateful. Prior to that, we had launched her own website for her freelance writing after she purchased my services at the last foundation auction.)

The school supplies list is such a blend of old classics (24 count crayons, a Pink Pearl eraser (I remember wondering as a child WHY Pink Pearl???), wide-ruled paper, notebook) and new, unfamiliar ones (why do they need clipboards? What are the Post-it notes for?).

So, tomorrow's a big day for the kids! Third grade is when they get to go up to the second floor of the building, leaving the little kids behind on the ground floor.

Labor Day activities

2008-08-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

This Labor Day weekend, I'm taking time off from endless summertime activities to do a little work, which sounds awful, but is actually a bit refreshing.

The past three weekends, we've been out of town, trying to cram the last bits of summer into our busy August. We've been camping near Newport (South Beach), camping at the Gifford Pinchot (Panther Creek) and hit the Kite Festival in Long Beach, staying at Toni and Jim's beach house.

This weekend, I am finally getting back to finishing up some things. My polka-dot party invitations are, finally, completely finalized and approved. Now I'm just waiting for the final transaction to take place before I can get these all printed up and assembled and mailed off.

A few months ago, the boys and I were walking through the neighborhood and saw some kids on scooters about their age. Always one to find new neighborhood playmates, we returned with their scooters and they scootered happily, side-by-side, without ever talking, as kids often do.

As the social experiment seemed to be working pretty well, I took the next step and located the overseeing dad and introduced myself. We exchanged pleasantries, names and the names of our kids. In reponse to his query about the boys' ages, I told him that they were eight.

This was followed by the inevitable question, "Oh, are they twins?"

Now, any parent of a new child gets a certain amount of attention, but when you have twins, you get a lot of attention and curiousity, especially when they are babies and adorable. Even today, though, I have a certain amount of odd pride in the fact that we have multiples, so I did as I often do, which is to look down, feign modesty and say, "Yes, yes they are."

This time, though, I was immediately one-upped when he told me that his kids were triplets!

(and, as if this weren't enough, both he and his wife were also identical twins)

Ka-zing!

Anyway, the triplets are over this morning for a playdate. They playroom door is closed and I don't hear sounds of destruction or anything, so I'm going to say that all is well. I went in a little earlier and was immediately pressed into building Lord Vladek(or something)'s castle, demonstrating how the Imaginext volcano worked and trying to pry hot wheels out of the hot wheels track. I quickly extracted myself and am making myself busy at the computer and things are a lot simpler now.

I might make a peach pie for dessert. Our neighbor, Tricia, is making us dinner tonight. Earlier this year, we started a dinner exchange program. Every week, one of us makes the other family dinner -- since it's often just a matter of doubling all the ingredients, it really is not that hard and it's so wonderful, every other week, to receive a home-made dinner, delivered to our doorstep. It gets us to try things that we normally wouldn't have ventured to try. The boys are more likely to give new foods a chance if they are made by her.

I love Portland Parks and Rec

2008-08-29T06:06:00.000-07:00

I love my city. One of the wonderful things about living in the Rose City is our wonderful, active Parks and Recreation department. Among the things that it offers are free summer concerts. The Washington Park Summer Concert series, which takes place in August (and is sponsored, with a lot of pride, by Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA)) offers a fantastic variety of family-friendly musical acts. Above is some footage of the Lions of the Batucada. Can you spot the DTNA employee?

They were super fun, as was the Locust Street Taxi, that we saw at Employee Night the following week.

The Washington Park amphitheatre is a wonderful, grassy spot to bring a picnic dinner and relax while watching topnotch entertainment. The kids, if they get bored, can dance near the stage, purchase kettle corn or snacks and form those instant friendships with other children (why can't adults make friends so easily?).

In addition to the concerts (which they host all over town, all summer), they are also responsible for a number of other wonderful activities in which we've participated. The boys and Tad went to the Dive In Movie and saw The Bee Movie, while floating around in wonderful Creston Pool. This summer, the boys went from fairly tentative swimmers to boys who feel comfortable swimming in the deep end of the pool (for parents familiar with the parlance, that's going from penguins, zipping past otter and landing firmly as seals in this last session before school begins again).

In past years, they've taken classes (gymnastics, art, etc). I know some parents rely heavily on these programs over the summer while school is out.

We have such a wonderful city and the Parks and Rec department is one of the best things about it!

Panther Creek

2008-08-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we spent camping with our friends, Jan and Bill and also Val and Jim. We'd been out once before with Jan and Bill, who are old friends from way back. They are the boys' godparents, in fact (and have, indeed, sworn in front of a congregation to keep Satan's influence from our children). Swift Lake with Jan and Bill was delightful and we've meant to do it again, but we have not been successful the last few years.

This year, we decided to combine everybody and do one big happy camping trip. We were originally going to do Swift Lake, which is a tradition with Jan and Bill (who have a boat and can access the remote parts of the lake), however an earlier trip revealed that the water levels had overrun the beaches, the mosquitoes were rampant and loud, music-loving yahoos had invaded their sanctuary.

With just a quick week to figure out new plans, we settled on Panther Creek, in the Gifford-Pinchot, somewhat by accident.

The trip had the potential for disaster written all over it. Not only had none of us even been to the campground (and there were few reviews written about it online), but one of our party was overcome by nausea Saturday morning and spent much of the first day vomiting on the side of the road or trying to ignore the rest of us as we talked in hushed whispers and wondered if it were something more deadly than food poisoning. Eventually, he retired to his tent and felt chipper enough the next morning to make a run out to Carson for coffee and cigarettes at 5 in the morning, so all was well by then.

The other alarming development was the heat advisory for the weekend that was all over the papers the previous day. I checked the online weather reports and everything indicated that it would spike at 100 degrees or higher and that people were advised to lie low, check on elderly neighbors and to avoid going out in the heat as much as possible. It felt a little foolhardy to leave our nicely air-conditioned home for this type of extreme weather, but we could hardly back out of it by this point.

Happily, all the portents proved to be false ones.

For starters, the site was a very short drive from Portland (a little more than an hour got us there), the campsites were large and generously spaced apart from one another. Tall trees shaded our sites. We were a short walk to a lovely watering hole at the nearby Panther Creek. While the water was icy cold, the day was quite warm and those of us who dared the depths were rewarded with a feeling of pure refreshment.

While it was quite warm in the afternoon, it never felt that bad near our watering hole and we returned to the site only after the heat had subsided.

We hit the Panther Creek Falls, ably directed by our camp hostess, Jackie (dubbed "Calamity Jane" for her fetching pigtails and irrepressible attitude), who seemed to take a personal interest in all her campers. They truly were beautiful, but we decided to leave the Falls Creek Falls (given a spectacular 5 stars in one review) for another trip.

Dining was awesome, with Val providing a unique and spicy Cincinatti-style chili the first night with cornbread. We made pasta carbonara the following night, which is a favorite camp dish with us. By mixing up the goop and frying up the bacon ahead of time, all we have to do at the campsite is to boil the pasta and toss everything together. It was also very well-received.

Jan and Bill provided a truly wonderful breakfast fry up on Saturday morning -- potatoes, red peppers, sausages, onion.... pure yum! Sunday was more laid back: cereal and fruit.

Toss in killer brownies (Val) (definitely not South-Beach-friendly) and you have yourselves some very happy campers.

The verdict: Panther Creek rocks! And the group, which has never camped together before, may do it again next year.

South Beach Fun

2008-08-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend before last in South Beach, which is just past Newport. We had planned to come with our friends, Mark and Lisa and Ava -- we'd talked about camping with them for years, ever since we met them after Ava and Colin both ended up in Mrs. Abel's kindergarten class and all of us clicked nicely but things never really got going until after Lisa simply took charge and made reservations for us.

The weather, going in, looked frightful, and our friends decided to skip Saturday and show up on Sunday. Hating to miss out on even a single day's worth of vacation, we went down as originally planned.

There was some rain on Saturday evening and we were further inconvenienced by the fact that we managed to leave one of our two well-packed camping bins at home, which meant that we had no pots and pans or dishpan or dish soap. We did, however, have some metal skewers and a packet of hot dogs, so we made do with that quite nicely.

The beach was conveniently close. The next morning, Tad officially lost his title as "Safety Parent." This is the title given to the one parent who is quite a bit more safety conscious than the other one -- there has to be one in every relationship, otherwise the children would never survive to adolescence. In our case, I lost any chance at that designation when I was left alone with the boys one afternoon. When Tad came home, he came into the bedroom where I was relaxing and demanded: "You gave the boys KNITTING NEEDLES to play with????" In retrospect, giving a pair of active little boys two pointy steel rods with which to practice their swordsmanship may not have been the best choice of playthings.

In any case, on this day, I managed to drop one of our walky talkies into the soft, dry part of the jetty. It landed on soft sand and I could clearly see it about six feet beneath me. The hole was wide enough so that I could probably have shimmied down after it, but I would have been quite cagey about doing so.

I waited for Tad to show up and when he did, I outlined the situation to him. I fully expected him, as S.P., to simply write off the $40 G.I. Joe's walkie talkies, but instead, he said: "Well, I think Ethan would fit down there, don't you think?"

Now, the truth was, the same thought had crossed my mind, but I was slightly horrified, less at the danger to my second-born son, than the realization that we had, with one blow, lost the designated S.P. in our family unit.

The boys are doomed.

In any case, I pinch hit and convinced Tad that even though he felt like he was "pretty sure" that he could fish Ethan back out without any difficulty, the fact that he had to qualify his response might perhaps indicate that there was a small chance of not retrieving our child again without a lot of trouble. So that was abandoned, though Tad lobbied for it at length and probably only gave it up when Ethan showed a less than enthusiastic response at the scheme.

Eventually, Tad fished the thing out with a long stick and some string he found on the beach, so all ended without any significant tragedy.

On Sunday, our friends arrived and we spent a perfectly lovely day on the beach, marvelling that we actually felt a little hot (!) on an Oregon beach. It was wonderful, especially as they made us a lovely dinner that night. The boys had a lot of fun building dams and hunting for sea critters with Ava (Colin is shown at the top with a crab he caught in the jetty).

We did a few hours at the Oregon Aquarium on Monday afternoon and then vamoosed back home.

Sugar Shack gets an upgrade

2008-07-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

I arrived home from work last week to discover that Tad had appointed himself the Sugar Shack's marketing manager.

As such, the Sugar Shack underwent a decided upgrade.

A colorful umbrella was set up to attract customers and shade our proprietors. Signs were printed up on the computer. The price of cotton candy was reduced from $1 to a much more reasonable $.25 for a small bundle. He even helped them purchase popsicles, which were very popular.

Colin came up with the Sugar Shack's slogan, which he shouted at bicyclists passing on the nearby bike path: "Get your snacks at the Sugar Shack!"

That day, the Sugar Shack raked in between $5 and $6 for each partner, which was a record high. They also disproved my assertion that the Shack would only be profitable on weekends.

Mommy isn't always right.

Ethan and Colin's Sugar Shack

2008-07-23T06:33:00.000-07:00

The past two weekends, the boys have picked up a few dollars cash by selling cotton candy and juice out in front of our house.

Ethan, in particular, was motivated by getting enough money to purchase Bitil, a new Bionicle/Lego figure.

They needed help to get set up with an extension cord, seats, etc.

The cotton candy ended up being "cotton candy balls" that they rolled up and served in a bowl, like so many snow balls. I thought it was terribly overpriced at a dollar each, but they managed to sell enough (and got very positive reviews from kids) to make it worthwhile. The juice was only $.10 for a small cup and that sold fairly well. One day, I picked raspberries and they sold those as well.

Sales mostly went to neighbors and people that we happened to know, but there were some very kind passersby as well.

The name, "Ethan and Colin's Sugar Shack" was coined by Ethan.

The boys each made three or four dollars each on each day, even on the day that the neighbor girl helped out and the money got split out three ways.

On Sunday, we treked out to the Lego store and ordered a Bitil figure, which should be arriving in about a week. Well earned!

Campy camp camp

2008-07-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

Well, I discovered the answer to the question of whether or not soap and shampoo is provided at camp: it is not. The answer to the question of whether or not a child would willingly spend money on toiletries at the camp store when they have a choice between something that would make them clean or, say, a disposable camera or a cunning little frisbee that folds into a tiny pouch is a decided "no."

When we picked up the boys, there was actually bits of dirt and goo crusted on their faces. The fronts of their shirts were well beyond what any industrial-strength detergent could possibly get out. The boys were not unproud of the fact that they had not seen the inside of a shower for three days (at which time, they simply rinsed off -- no soap or shampoo, remember?). Ethan had brushed his teeth once and Colin only twice. They were able to tell me, with some certainty, that it takes three days for face paint (as painted on them for Capture the Flag) to wear off your face if you don't wash it.

I sometimes will give them a sniff and pretend to be horrified at the funk, but this particular time, I didn't have to pretend at all. These were truly filthy children.

After their baths, which they were subjected to immediately upon arriving home (to avoid dirtying up the rest of the house), they left a crusty layer of sand and grime at the bottom of the tub.

They have come home with silly camp songs, stories of their camp counselors ("Bigfoot's favorite color is PINK!!! No, it really is! PINK!!!!"). (The counselors, by the way, all have made-up names, like Bam Bam, Bakes (the boys' counselor), Jingles, Seatbelt, Incoming and the like. It's like some teenage witness protection program designed to protect their true identities). They slept one night on the beach. They did Campfire on many evenings (singing songs). They participated in a Talent Show (somehow drinking two glasses of water constituted some measure of talent). They were thrilled to discover chocolate pudding in the salad bar one day at lunch, at which they were allowed as many helpings as they desired. This was lunch one day, followed by dessert.

Did they have fun? Oh, my yes! Here's some photographic evidence, as posted on the Camp Collins site.

One of the pix shows Colin holding up a tooth that came out while he was at camp, which he subsequently lost. Luckily, the photo that I printed off the website seemed to be enough evidence to satisfy the tooth fairy, who left him a nice silver dollar that night.

Vacation Begins

2008-07-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

We (I) spent much of Sunday obsessing over the Camp Collins packing list and making sure that they had everything that they really needed (soap and shampoo weren't on the list -- does that mean it's provided????).

In the end, we got the boys packed in the car and got ourselves away.

As we drove towards Gresham, I was suddenly overcome by a very strange feeling of unease that centered in my belly. It took me a bit to realize that I was suddenly quite anxious about losing the boys for an entire week, in stark contrast to the fit of hilarity I'd shared just a few days prior with the postal clerk.

But then we checked the boys in, went out to a spontaneous dinner, then hit a movie at the local theatre/pub and I felt much better.

Summer Camp!

2008-07-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, we take the boys to Camp Collins, a YMCA camp not far from home, and leave them for a week of learning new skills, fun and becoming a little more self-reliant and responsible.

I'm a little freaked about the prospect of their first week without family supervision, but the boys are really looking forward to it and I think I'll be able to enjoy being child-free for the week with a minimum of guilt.

As suggested by the Family Handbook, I mailed them each care packages on Friday so that they would receive something from us soon after they arrived at camp.

The clerk at the Killingsworth Post Office (which I like because the clerks are always so cheerful) commented on the short distance the envelopes would be travelling and I explained about my kids heading off to summer camp. He asked what we would be doing while the boys were out of town. I explained that my children THOUGHT that we would be spending the week weeping, clutching photos of them and generally counting the minutes until their return (the truth is that we're both looking forward to some carefree days off this week).

He and I laughed out loud as we imagined the scene that might be staged upon the boys' arrival home: mom and dad, weak with grief, sitting, surrounded by family albums, piles of crumpled tissues scattered about.

Cat House for Rent

2008-07-10T06:06:00.000-07:00

The boys built this cat house for Joey, who actually has slept in in. The sign, if you can't read it, says "for rent, cat haws."

Fat Squirrel

2008-07-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

We spotted this guy at Milo McIver State Park, where we went for the day with the boys' friend, Elijah and his parents.

He, of course, disdained the carrots that we tossed him in favor of Doritos, which I forbade the boys to throw to him.

Even wildlife should eat healthier than that.

Family Reunion at Lincoln City

2008-07-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

So, as I blog about personal stuff, I run up against the problem of showing images and talking about other people. It seems like there may be some folks who may object to having their pix shown online without permission and, of course, that's okay, but who has time to ask for every little posting? So, it's often expeditious to leave those pix off and try not to say anything too offensive about people.

Hence the many pix, above, of innocuous refrigerator magnets -- who can object to those?

They were a little art project that the boys' uncle cooked up that ended up being a lot of fun for all of us.

We all stayed in a rented house at Lincoln City, called Sophie's Place. It was lovely, with a beautiful gourmet kitchen and was only a short walk to the beach, which I very much appreciated (last year's family reunion house required a short drive to the beach, which complicates matters).

We ate a lot of food: lasagna (from Cooking Illustrated -- always a hit), pasta carbonara (with bacon from Gartner's, a real butcher in Portland -- to die for!), Grandma's special tacos, cinnamon bread, muffins, pasta salad, potato salad, sandwich bar, bagels, pecan pie, banana cream pie, strawberry shortcake and a whole lot of other things that weren't on my diet.

I gained three pounds over the weekend. But it was very delicious, nonetheless.

The boys introduced their innocent young cousin to the joys of gunplay and his parents very gamely purchased plastic doubleshooter rifles for all three children, who turned two armchairs into forts and bunkered down for the duration of the trip.

Great fun was had by all. We'll definitely do something like this again (though we're still looking for the perfect beach house that doesn't require a ton of driving from the airport (as some of us must fly to Portland, just for the first leg of their journey), is close to the beach and has enough beds and bathrooms to accomodate seven adults and three kids comfortably.

Hug Your Man

2008-06-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

So, the other day, my husband and I had one of our typical little spats. We rarely ever fight, but we occasionally get tense at each other when one party begins to feel resentful over something like division of labor and the perception that the other one isn't pulling his or her own weight.

When you've been married for ten years, there are many things that can begin to irritate.

The day after that, I talked to a friend who confided in me that she and her husband were getting a divorce. She discovered that he had put up an ad stating that he was single and looking.

She is such a wonderful woman. This behavior seems so inexplicable and inexcusable. It really put the whole "you're not picking up enough around the house" tension into perspective.

When I got home, I gave Tad a big hug and let him know how much I appreciated him. Minor irritations aside, he is a really wonderful man.

Give Me Sexy

2008-06-23T17:39:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went to two very different birthday parties.

Since having the kids, our social life got automatically curtailed a bit, by default, so it was unusual for us to be double-booked. Normally, I would simply have picked one thing and ignored the other, but both were quite important.

One was for my Uncle Charlie's 80th birthday party. The second was for my friend Jen's 40th birthday party. The two were in deep contrast.

My uncle's was at a Chinese restaurant (actually, it was a joint celebration for him and my Aunt Susan). I had thought that it would be a simple family affair with us having maybe three tables or so to accomodate the extended family, but they had booked the entire restaurant. There were probably 150 people there.

It was a full on Chinese banquet. If you've ever attended one of those, you will know that there is no shortage of food. We had, among other things: fish maw soup, peking duck, crispy chicken, whole sea bass, seafood stir fry in a crispy taro root bowl, long life noodles and several other dishes, to make up eight courses (plus soup, not to mention the sew bao (little peach-shaped bean paste buns traditional at birthdays).

They went all out for this celebration. At each table were goody bags for the guests with chopsticks, bowls and candy to take home. Balloons festooned the tables. They even had karaoke (I've never seen karaoke at a chinese function, ever).

Now, one thing about the chinese is that we (they) place a lot of value on things like color (red and pink are lucky colors and will always figure prominently at traditional weddings) and numbers (my mom had advised me to donate $30 to the institutions of my aunt and uncle's choice and I, not knowing the significance of this obeyed. All I know is that to give four of anything is very bad form, as four ("see") has the same sound as death in Chinese).

I'm pretty sure that it's because of the desire for lucky colors that our goody bags were pink Victoria's Secret bags. They were lovely bags, to be sure, but the slogan ("Give me sexy") was not something that I tend to think of when I think of my Uncle Charlie....

The balloons were also pleasingly inappropriate: Happy Birthday Barbie balloons.

I mean, "Give me sexy" notwithstanding, I can almost understand the Victoria's Secret bags (they're sturdy, glossy and perhaps some family member got a stack for cheap), but the Barbie balloons, with the big color image of Barbie on them were a little more inexplicable...

After hearing some somewhat painful karaoke (well, the important thing is to have fun, though, and I certainly could not do better, so I should just shut up), both in English and Chinese, and having some of the very beautiful cake (two giant sheet cakes with decorative dragon and phoenix, representing the husband and the wife), we departed to deposit the children at home with a babysitter and to go to my friend Jen's 40th birthday.

Two big milestone birthdays, but very different occasions.

John and Jen pioneered the Poetry Slam home party. They had the first one perhaps 10 or more years ago. The rules are that each guest must bring a poem, written piece, song or other material and read or perform it in front of the others. Guests are, by necessity, fortified with a certain amount of liquid courage before the curtain rises. Over the years, people have performed many wonderful, amazing and creative pieces, some better than others, but all, no matter what, received with great encouragement. They're always fun.

This one, as it was for Jen's 40th birthday (FORTY, I tell you! We're all getting OLD!!!!), had a slightly different crowd, but all still very fun, wonderful people. One man that I didn't know, that must have been a work person, shouted funny things from the back and reminded me of no one other than a prominent exec I know and admire. In very non-exec style, he and some friends did a very hilarious take on the old SNL Sprockets skit ("Touch her monkey!")

We had a great time, it was wonderful to see people that we haven't seen in a long time.

One of the great people that I always look forward to seeing at these types of events is our friend, Terri. Terri had some sort of stomach-stapling type surgery for weight loss last year and SHE LOOKED WONDERFUL. Her piece was about how her life was beginning to open up, that she was dating (and loving it) and how exhilarating this all was for her. She gave me a link to her blog and later I read, with great fascination, about the incredible shrinking girl. Check it out, she's funny and honest and it's a really good read...

My own piece focused on the birthday girl, but I have to tell you that it's sometimes not so easy to find rhymes for "Muir" (pure? cure? manure?)

Last Day of School!

2008-06-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

A thrilling day for the boys: "No more homework, no more books. No more teacher's dirty looks!"

Off for the entire summer with nary a structured activity in sight.

I looked through some of the work that they brought home. I found this essay in Ethan's pile of papers:

Wuns I went too monotana. I canot remembr haw old I was. There was a rir and ther was a briige ovr it. The watre wusnt very swift and it has a litl sand. Then mom sau a frog and we cot it. We spent the hol day with it then we went to dinr. The necst day we went to the othr sid of the rifr. We cot a fatr frog. Then the thrd tim we went ther we did not cech a frog.

Yes, I know, tons of mistakes, but I'm still so proud....

Below a photo of the first frog, named Sweetie Pie.

Here is a journal entry from Colin along the same theme:

10 Best things About Summer
Camping
Sun
Swiming
no home worck
fishing
redeing

Apparently, he couldn't think of anything pleasurable after "redeing."

Spider Cake!

2008-06-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

My coworker, Maria (henceforth to be called "Auntie Maria") is, in her non-corporate life known as The Cake Lady.

She was kind enough to make a birthday cake for the boys, check out how adorable her spider cake creation is!

The boys were delighted and it was truly delicious....

Her creations are truly spectacular. This summer, she has been commissioned to do a wedding cake in the shape of the Starship Enterprise. I am SO looking forward to seeing that one!

I'll post a link to her website as soon as I can!

May the Force be with you

2008-06-03T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ideally, of course, children should be used as accessories to perfect their mother's best costumes.

Thirty some years after their mom was initially afflicted with a Star Wars mania that lasts to this very day, the boys were hit with the bug as well, resulting in easy store-bought Halloween costumes.

Happily, I was able to scrounge up my Princess Leia costume from the bottom of my costume box and -- voila! -- my very own Star Wars trilogy!

The pix were taken at a New Year's party, when the boys reprised their popular roles as clone troopers.

Best circus party ever

2008-06-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

ll, in retrospect, the theme really should have been a carnival party, rather than a circus party, as any elephants, tigers, trapeze artists and other big-top attractions were sorely lacking, however, the carnie atmosphere permeated everthing.

Guests were greeted at the door and given a paper bracelet that read "Admit one • All games" on it. Tad's parents then offered them a balloon animal (they had practiced creating hats, swords and a basic animal shape -- they were quite good), then they were shown into the back yard to begin the fun.

(bracelet as shown on young party guest's wrist as she plays the duck lasso game)

I showed them their goodie bags, each marked with their names. I told them that this party was not one where they would simply be given goodie bags at the end, but that they would have to earn their prizes. As they did, they had a ready spot to stash their loot.

We had five games that the kids played to earn tickets with which to "purchase" prizes:

Ring Toss (shown below), a lawn game that I picked up at Freddie's for 40% off. They got four tries and were given that many tickets.
Duck Lasso, with floating ducks that kids tried to lasso out of a galvanized metal tub. When they got a duck, they turned that duck over to find a number (1 to 3) and were given that number of tickets.
Clown Dunk. I hung a laminated clown face in a tipped over wastebasket and invited kids to try to bean him with a collection of water balloons that I'd spent party of the morning filling up.
Go Fish. This was a magnetic fishing game I got for the boys at Target many years ago and which they never really played with much. My carnie counted to 30 while the children tried to get as many of the fish as they could.
Bottle Splash. Party goers tried to knock over number of plastic drink bottles with super soakers.

One last game was the Candy Count. Kids could guess the number of pieces of candy in a jar. The guesses were written on tickets, so they could have multiple guesses, if they wanted.

I was very gratified to see how quickly the kids dived into the games and really got into the spirit of things. Of course, the big reason why they got jazzed so quickly over the games was that the tickets they earned could be redeemed for candy and toys at the concession stand, below.

My husband, Tad, manned the concession stand. You can see him spinning the cotton candy above (note: cotton candy does not keep well if you spin it and let it sit -- it attracts moisture and dissolves! You can save it in ziplock baggies, if you need to). Over the last few weeks, I picked up little things I thought kids would be interested in wherever I could find them cheap. Century Novelty was a good find. I got foam glider kits, body glitter, squirt guns, clown noses and other little things from them. At other spots, I picked up lip gloss, puzzle sets and a bunch of assorted candy. Some sparkley headbands with mylar flowers and technicolor feathers were a huge hit with the girls. Tad found some great party favors at Target and brought home wooden snakes and whoopie cushions. I sorted things into various baskets and marked them with tags that let the guests know how many tickets would be needed to redeem each item. Small pieces of candy were worth one ticket. The foam gliders and lip gloss were relatively luxurious and worth five tickets each.

Once kids got the idea, they dove into each game enthusiastically, quickly filling up their goodie bags (below).

A lot of the fun of the games goes to my enthusiastic "carnies," who are known, in their other lives, as the kids' grandma, grandpa, Uncle Johnny and godmother Sarah. They were great and kept the kids going from one fun activity to another.

My boys, above, are looking over the concession stand. Later in the party, the kids would virtually wipe it out (which was good -- I didn't need the sugary leftovers in the house afterward!).

I polled several of the kids after the party and even the most jaded of them pronounced the party a great success!

Thank goodness it's over for another year, though. And what a relief! I love the backyard birthday party (last year the boys had voted for a bowling party, which was not nearly as much fun for me to plan) and am soooo glad that this one was so successful!

They grow up fast

2008-05-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

So, this is a more recent photo of the boys (they grow up fast). In a couple of weeks, they'll turn eight. In the photo above, they are showing off their stripes for Run for the Arts. This program raises money to pay for those little "frills" that our school system can no longer afford to pay for with our very slashed budgets, like arts and music.

The stripes indicate the number of laps that they ran (Colin nine laps, Ethan eight).

After a chilly run under skies that threatened rain and wind that ended up blowing over the tent that was covering the volunteers who were doing the logging, the kids were treated to frozen popsicles.... brrrr!

As I mentioned, in a few weeks, they will turn eight. The theme for their party will be Circus/Carnival. I picked up a cotton candy maker a few months ago at Goodwill (works wonderfully) and they're completely jazzed about putting it to use with their friends, so we worked out the entire party around it.

The invitations have been sent out. I'll take a photo of them and post them soon. I didn't have as much time to devote to them as I could have used, but they still came out pretty fun...

A Fishy Party

2008-05-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, the boys' third birthday party revolved around a fish theme. Above, you can see Colin on the left and Ethan on the right behind the first of their two birthday cakes (I have it on very good authority from an identical twin (who happens to be their godmother, Sarah) that it is de rigeur to have a cake for each child, even if they are so lucky to have a twin sibling).

The cakes were frosted with tinted buttercream and seaweed was piped onto the sides of the cake with a leaf tip. Crushed graham crackers stood in for the sandy sea bottom. The decorations were made of melted meltaways -- they're like white chocolate discs that you can melt in the microwave and then tint with candy food-coloring (you can't use regular food coloring). Then you can pipe shapes onto wax paper, which quickly cool into candy confections. I got this technique from a wonderful book called "The Whimsical Bakehouse: Fun-to-Make Cakes that Taste as Good as They Look!"

The decorations were great as I could make them far in advance and only have to worry about doing minor things to the cake the day of the party.

One of the games we had was fishing, of course. I got a ton of little foam fish from a party supply place and hot-glued washers on the backs. I got some bamboo from a friend for fishing poles, had my husband cut them down to size and drilled holes in one end for string and a magnet. The children were given little buckets and fishing poles and sent out to the backyard to go fishing, where fish galore lurked all over the yard. The smaller children got poles with shorter strings which made it easier to catch the fish.

Crepe paper streamers hung down from the ceiling to simulate the ocean and seaweed.

Since the boys' party, I've reused this basic invitation twice for friends' parties. One had a Finding Nemo theme and the other was a pool party. In all of these instances, the invitations were a huge hit and really helped set the stage for the entire party.

Have other ideas? Please comment! I'd love to hear from you!