The ants go marching one by one...

Another busy week has come and well, it isn't quite gone I guess. I'm just trying to keep up with this blog. Saturday started off with hubby bringing me breakfast in bed. I thought that was especially sweet. Then I carted the kids off to spend time with some friends to celebrate their little boys' birthdays (turning three and seven). It was held at the home of the parents of my friend Rosalee. They held a BBQ and the kids got to swim in the pool or play on the slip 'n slide. It was a great day as I got to hang out with good friends, some of whom I don't get to see all that often.

On Sunday, hubby took the kids and I to Arby's for lunch. We all had some curly fries with our meals, something I am quickly becoming addicted too I think. We then shopped at Costco for some necessities and splurged on a new digital camera that we can't afford. In our defense, the other one went belly up on Saturday. It began taking pictures that resembled a melted Picasso painting. It was like it became possessed all of a sudden, very strange. One minute the pictures would be fine and then become all wierd-looking. Anyhow, I love taking pics too much to go without, so we decided on pretty good one I think.

We also spent part of Sunday dealing with another ant invasion. They somehow discovered a way in and took over the kitchen counters. They were everywhere. We had accidentally left out some breadsticks and they all came a running. You can imagine my neurotic nature taking over as I tried desperately not to freak out. I was very proud of myself and didn't overreact to the situation. Hubby stayed with me the whole time as we cleaned that kitchen from top to bottom. I still have some parts of the fridge and pantry to get to, but overall the kitchen looks immaculate. All week I have been keeping it spotless as the ants keep trying to come back. One day they invade the dishwasher and the next they come out of the outlet. They seem to be finding every nook and cranny to crawl through. I must thank them though, whenever they pay us a visit...I go into my cleaning frenzy. Does a dirty house good! Anyhow, I love nice and organized the kitchen looks now. It finally gave me the kick I'd been needing to attack the rest of the house. Bit by bit I've been tackling various parts of our home. Slowly but surely, it's becoming less cluttered and more classy.

I did get another interview. It went well I thought, but will see what happens. Mostly, I spent this week running a bunch of errands and taking the kids to and from their classes. Today, hubby stayed home sick. I should've stayed home and worked on my daughter's room as it has been struck by the tornado that is K, but instead I packed up the kids and we went berry-picking again. We had gone through the last of the last batch, and were craving some more. I want take advantage of the great prices while they are still in season. This time we picked a bunch of Siskiyou Blackberries and what was left of their Willamette Raspberries. The blackberries were so easy as they were plentiful and came right off the vine. We had planned to pick Boysenberries too, but K was really tired and cranky. I bought some of their pre-picked blueberries also to make some yummy pancakes this weekend. I was fairly drained myself, so I ended up taking a much needed nap.

Anyhow, the week is drawing to a close and I will hopefully make a dent in K's room tomorrow. If I feel ambitious, the kids and I might have a little picnic at the nearby park the next neighborhood over. I also have a hearing test at the audiologist's in the late afternoon. It's been almost two years since my last one, and I can tell it's long overdue for this one. Here's hoping for good things on the horizon and keeping those pesky ants at bay.

A berry good day

This particular TGIF takes on a whole new meaning. It has been a very crazy and super busy week around here. The week started off slow, with only not much going on. I spent most of the day applying for jobs and such. Tuesday and Wednesday I ran errands and took the kids to their classes and going to the park and/or library. Wednesday-Friday morning I went to three interviews in a row, so that was a bit nerve-wracking. On Thursday after my interview, I went to the pharmacy to pick up something for hubby, went to my MIL's to pick up some things from her, went to a friend's house to let their dog out (they were gone camping), and then finally made it home to pick up the kids at the sitter's. When I arrived home, I found a bunch of ants crawling all over my living room floor. They had come in with some dog food bags that had been left outside for a short time. Anyway, I spent the next several hours getting rid of them and cleaning up my downstairs. Anyone who knows me well can attest to my neorosis about ants. Hubby often jokes that if he wants the house clean, he just has to mention ants and it sends me into a cleaning frenzy. The bright side is that my downstairs looks far better than before and the dog food is safe once more.


On another note, I have also been dealing with stressors regarding another weekend's plans that seems to be hitting every roadblock possible in our efforts to arrange it. This whole other blog, so we'll leave it at that for now. Then today after my last interview, I changed clothes and picked up the kids. While we were out and about, I got another dreaded rejection call, but the silver lining was that I was their second choice (yet again) and they wanted to invite me back to interview for another position that had just opened up. Will try for it, but not holding my breath...but I digress.

Anyway, at this point I was feeling a bit low and discouraged as I had actually thought I might get this job. I took a moment to just breathe. Then I decided to take the day off from all the stress drove out to a local berry farm with my kids. I'd never actually gone berry-picking before and neither had they, so it was a lot of fun for all of us. I was thoroughly impressed with how careful the kids were. K in particular had a keen eye when it came to picking out just the right ones. N did really well too, he was just having more fun scanning the rows and humming along to himself, then getting in there to grab them off of the vine. They've both helped my MIL in her garden a lot, so they already kind of knew what to do. We talked about the differences in color and ripeness, concepts they quickly caught onto. After we filled our three buckets with both raspberries and marionberries, we decided it was time to go eat lunch and get of the hot sun.

We let my friend's dog out again and ran a quick errand. Then the kids voted on having Arby's. It'd been ages since my last time eating there, so it was especially yummy. The kids had ham and cheese sandwiches, I had their signature french dip, and we all had some seasoned curly fries. After our bellies thanked us for filling them up, we started to head home. However, the kids happened to see the county fair and pleaded with me to stop in. I was tired, but got a second wind after lunch, so I agreed to go there for a little bit. I warned them we were only staying for a short while. Well, you can probably guess that notion went out the window the minute they saw the rides. The kids rode the big and little roller coasters, slid down the super slide, drove bumper cars, whirled around in the swings, and raced on carousel horses. We skipped the carnival booths, but we caught a wild west rope trickster show as the kids enjoyed snow cones. I also had them sit down with a caricaturist for a keepsake picture. We made a quick pass through the animals section to look at the draft horses, cattle, sheep, and alpacas. On our way out, we had to walk by the 4-H pig show and wow was that a powerful odor.

By the time we made it home, it was dinnertime already. Hubby was out with his buddy to go see The Dark Knight, so we were on our own for the evening. I was in no mood to cook, so it was a cereal night (lunch was plentiful enough). I washed all the berries and dished up some for the kids with a little sugar sprinkled on top for their dessert. All in all it was a really amazing day we had. I love having times cherish like this with them, which is why I love being home with them in the summertime. They were so tired, they crashed early and I am not far behind. My legs are jello from all the walking, so I am ready to prop them up and go lay in bed with a good book or watch some TV. I'm gonna go enjoy a few berries myself first and go from there. As Strawberry Shortcake herself would say, we had a berry good day!

Clutterbug Be Gone

A disorganized household has always been my nemesis. Some of you know exactly what this feels like. I've always envied those moms that are totally together and run their home like a well-oiled machine and everything has its place. I aspire to that sort of greatness. I generally keep things clean, but I am such a clutterbug that it tends to overwhelm me at times. I try to keep up on keeping the kids' rooms fairly organized and other areas that are easily messed up. Every couple of months, I do a clean sweep of various areas of the house to get rid of and sort through clutter.

The areas where I am a repeat offender include the laundry and important papers. It's not that I mind doing laundry, it's just that I can't keep up with it. We're only a family of four, so I couldn't imagine what larger families go through. This is why I know I was done after two children. As much as I'd love another baby, I would drown in the laundry pile alone. I have a basket next to my bed that holds the umpteen thousand single pairs of socks. Once in a blue moon, I dump it onto my bed in hopes of reuniting long lost pairs and do so with some success. This is when I make the executive decision to let go of the singles that have wiled away their final hours alone for far too long. Then as soon as I do that, I usually find their twin. It never fails.

The other area that I am really bad at organizing is our papers. We have a file cabinet that was organized at one time, but is dire need of rearranging. It's amazing how hard I work to keep my files in order when I am on the job, but can't at home to save my life. Now I am trying to bring that anal-retentive nature home so that I might magically get our stuff sorted out. My coffee and kitchen tables have become vortexes that until now I just turned a blind eye too. The other night I got fed up with the mess and just piled every random paper or piece of mail into one pile on the floor. I figured if I could see the wood again, I could start from scratch. When it is all spread out, it's too much for me. When it is in a stack, I can go through each item and discard or keep. It's the ongoing keep pile that I need to actually stick into the file cabinet and get that organized as well. It's a haphazard system that I am trying to perfect, so it's a when I'm really-in-the-mood kind of project.

I found a great website that gives some valuable tips on how to get organized. While I don't plan to use them all, some of them were really useful. Go to http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/how-to-get-organized. Ever since I was pregnant with my firstborn, I've learned to be content with accomplishing at least one great task a day and working towards the next one another day. Today I finally made a bunch of phone calls to make appointments for the dentist, the car, and such. Now I think I'll tackle the dog hair that has accumulated on the stairs. Maybe I'll make a huge checklist of what I'd like to accomplish and that way I can enjoy the feeling of crossing items off of it. Will keep you posted on my progress.

The Colors of Costco

This is gonna sound really strange, but read on. As I was sitting with my kids in the food court at Costco, waiting for hubby to bring us our hot dogs, something very wonderful struck me. My kids were jabbering away as I glanced at the many families surrounding us. I first noticed the family next to us. There was a black man with his white wife and their two beautiful toddler boys. Then my eyes wandered around and saw an elderly white gentleman in a suit, learning how to say some words in Spanish from the Latino family sitting at the table next to him. Next, I saw about three or four families of varying Asian descents. About four tables over, I noticed another interracial family. The husband was white and the wife appeared to be Filipino and they were busy admiring the cute kids of the first family I mentioned. Across several more tables, I saw one of my former Latino students with his family, who spoke only minimal English. He had moved here with them when he was a 3rd grader. Why does any of this matter? It matters only because Martin Luther King, Jr. suddenly popped into my head as I sat there people-watching. His dream was for people of all creeds and colors to be okay with one another and this day was an example that dream finally coming to fruition. Maybe it was a naive observation on my part and I don't know if other people notice things like this, but it definitely put a smile on my face. I pointed it out to my husband and he thought it was pretty cool too. We got to talking how it would've been amazing if MLK had lived to see such a thing. At least his wife, Coretta, was able too. It's especially poignant considering his first grandbaby was born earlier this year. Anyhow, I guess it was just one of those profound moments when you take time to smell the roses and take it all in. And that's a good thing in my book.

Freedom Writers

Awhile back, I got a great deal on some DVD's at a nearby video store. It was a buy two get two free deal. I picked up Dreamer and The Last Mimzy for the kids, while I got Ocean's Thirteen and Freedom Writers for hubby and I. It took me forever to finally sit down and watch Freedom Writers. I had heard so many wonderful things about this movie and was expecting greatness. I knew it would be intense, so I had to be in the mood to watch it. Finally, I did see it the other night. It truly lived up to the hype and is really an inspirational film. It follows the story of Erin Gruwell, a first-time teacher that finds herself teaching language arts to a newly integrated high school in the heart of LA in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict. The LA riots left the city in ruins and the kids reeling from racial tensions. Erin, in all her enthusiasm and idealism, sets out to buck an uncaring system and make a real difference in these kids lives. She takes Luanne Johnson's methods from Dangerous Minds to a whole new level. She works two extra jobs to pay for incredible field trips and to provide unique learning opportunities for her students in and out of the classroom. She is met with resistance from her students at first, but soon they realize this class is the place where they can truly become a family. Erin Gruwell give them an opportunity to give a voice to their experiences. This film was based on a true story and told from the students' perspectives from The Freedom Writers' Diary. I was impressed, inspired, and appalled at what these children lived through. Anyhow, it is definitely a must-see film and will move you. As a teacher, this is the kind of movie I love for obvious reasons, but also because it helps me aspire to be as good as Erin.

Around the Bend

We had a long and busy weekend as I drove the kids and myself to Bend for a visit. Hubby had to work, so he didn't go. Just outside of Sandy was a traveling exhibit for veterans. It was a ton of American flags planted in the ground, just waving in the wind. We stopped and paid our respects as both my grandfathers' fought in WWII. IT was truly an amazing sight and you could feel the history behind the flags.

We stayed for about five days with my folks, since we hadn't seen the whole family since Christmastime. We tried to drive through Warm Springs, but got detoured about an hour out of the way (up through Maupin to hwy 97) due to a fire burning over the ridge above town. The smoke was pretty thick and you could even see the flames. Made for a longer trip, but exciting I suppose. The kids were very tired by the time we arrived though. We were supposed to go to Munch 'n Music (concerts in the park) with my folks in downtown Bend, but ended up missing that due to the detour.

Friday was fairly eventful. My dad took the kids and I to the park to feed the ducks and explore a little bit. They always have a grand time when we go to Drake Park. It is quite expansive and reknowned for the duck, geese, and the occasional swan that inhabit Mirror Pond (for which Mirror Pond Pale Ale is named). We also had lunch at Dairy Queen. The kids each had their first Dilly Bar. =)

Then my cousin Tereasa drove us (they were trying to help me conserve gas for the trip home) to their (my cousin Ron too) place to see the progress on their home they've been building for almost year. The kids got to ride their horses bareback. It was K's first time ever on a horse and Nicky's second time. Tereasa led K around the corale (sp?) and N's horse just followed along like they were on any old trail. They were so cute and had such a great time with that. I think it was the highlight of the trip for them. Tereasa was fearless as she stomped through manure and antpiles in her sandals to lead the horses around. The kids were enjoying themselves so much and didn't wanna leave.

On Saturday, my mom and I got up very early to go to the Sisters Outdoor Quiltshow. It's an annual event that my mom has been going to for years, but it was my first time. We got there in time to get a shady spot right in town. Guess my mom gets that same spot pretty much every year. As the day wore on, people had to park way out of town and walk quite a ways, so we were lucky. We immediately went to find my mom's quilt submission entitled, "Moon Over Mountain." Her quilt pattern was simple and beautiful. I loved the colors and fabrics she selected. It really stood out in a good way in the sea of more traditional pinwheels, rings, and such. We ate hot dogs for lunch and soon called it a day. After about 3 or 4 hours of walking around, we were both tired. Since we still had to go to a birthday party that afternoon, we decided to go to Walmart to kill some time.

That afternoon, we went to a park in Redmond for my cousin Val's daughter's one year birthday celebration. Her husband, Isaac, arrived to find that their reserved spot was occupied. Since he paid for the spot, he was entitled to ask them to move. Let's just say that the other people were not budging for anything or anyone. Val arrived with the paperwork to prove it was reserved and the police had to come to get the other party to move to another location. It was crazy and just plain drama as these people raised a big stink about it all. I felt so sorry for Isaac as he was not feeling well to begin with and just wanted his daughter's birthday to be fun. Anyway, the party finally got under way and a good time was had by all. Both sides of Val and Isaac's family were there, so we were well-fed. We ate good BBQ and cupcakes for desert. My mom left early due to her not feeling well either. After spending all day in the sun, I was feeling a little baked (not in the herbal way) and just wanted to go vege at the house.

By Sunday, I was feeling very mellow and tired. We had planned to go up to the lake to swim, but that didn't work out. I wanted to do something fun for the kids, but couldn't decide on what. Finally, my dad took us downtown to the summer festival. The kids played in the hands-on children's museum booths, ate lunch, and waded in the river. N kept climbing on the rocks and tempting the current. It has a bad undertow and since didn't have a life jacket, he wasn't allowed to swim. He wouldn't listen to my warnings to stay near the shore and be careful. Just as I was about to take him out of the water, he slipped and fell. He wasn't hurt, just got his clothes all wet. I couldn't help but laugh and tell him "I told you so." Not very nice of me, but he got over it pretty quickly. He definitely learned his lesson the hard way and didn't like the feeling of wet underwear. We BBQ'd that night (yes I felt like I was Od'ing on BBQ) and visited with more family.

On Monday, we packed up to leave. I agreed to drive my niece, M, home to her mom's. First though, we met my best friend from high school at a nearby park. We hadn't seen each other in years (not since N was under 2) and so it was great to catch up. The kids played together and it was great catching up with Jen. Poor M waited around for us to gab for about an hour. I made it up to her later though. We finally go on our way, only for the kids to complain about needing to go potty in the middle of nowhere. Well, we stopped at lovely viewpoint of the Three Sisters Mountains and tried to get K to squat in the brush. That didn't work out, but N was successful. Yes, not at all classy, but when you gotta go you gotta go. We finally got to Sisters and K did her business at last. We made a pitstop at the Candy Bin (much to M's delight) to stock up on a few goodies for the trip back. I dropped her off in Salem with her mom and then made it home.

It was another crazy busy time, but made more memories that will need scrapbooking. I also got a phone call from a school district that wants to interview me, so it put a smile on my face for the remainder of the drive home. I am now home and facing mounds of housework and projects that need to get underway. It's amazing how fast the summer days go by. I was in awe that Target is already stocking up for back to school supplies. Where does the time go?