Sparkle Shoes

For those of you who know me well, you know that I really enjoy good shoes. This trait has worn off on Nora Beth. She has been eyeing these shoes for about 1 year. Her friend got a pair last week, so that meant I could no longer ignore these shoes in the store.
She is so proud of them. They have even gone to bed with her. I should have bought them for her a year ago with all the smiles they have brought. Life is just to short to not have fun shoes!

Real Men Eat Quiche

It is Sunday again - that means FOOTBALL in our house. In order to properly watch the game, Lamar needs to be fed. This morning it was a ham and cheese quiche. It turned out very delicious. I served it with a fresh loaf of spelt bread - purchased from the bakery due to R2D2's untimely death. The boys chowed down on the food and made their home in front of the TV.

I returned home from my class to find out that the Vikings lost again. Lets hope for a better outcome next week. At least the boys will be fed well.

A death in the kitchen

OK - I know that I have been bad at posting the past two weeks. It has been so busy, that I was barely keeping my head above the water. We are all doing fine. I have taken a deep breath and I am now back on track.

Now to the death in my kitchen. I got up early today to meet a client for a procedure at the hospital. I started a loaf of bread for the dinner I was preparing for another client. I made it home in perfect timing to take the first loaf of bread out of the bread machine and put all the ingredients in for loaf number two. I headed to the bedroom to change my clothes when I heard the noise. It was a CRASH, GURGLE and SCREAM then NOTHING. I knew immediately what happened.

I walked into the kitchen to find the bread maker, of which I lovingly call R2D2, for it's resemblance to same named Star Wars Character. There were pieces scattered on the floor amongst the glob of bread dough. Fortunately there was no damage to my new floor, but I could not say the same for R2D2.
I called Mary Ann to tell her about my loss. She is the one who gave him to me when she attempted No Carb about 10 years ago. He served me well. Probably baked over 300 loaves of bread in him. Maybe purchasing a new rustic bread baking cookbook recently upset him and forced him over the edge. Who knows!

After I told Mary Ann about my loss, Nora Beth got on the phone and sang songs to her Grandma and Grandpa. Here she is singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

I went down to Shiannes school today for the Jogathon. This is the big fundraiser for the Parent Club. Shianne made it around the track enough times to equal about 1 mile. Running is definitely not an activity that she enjoys. Lets see how much she runs tomorrow in her soccer game.

Ping, Ping, Ping

This was a busy day for me. Shianne had soccer practice, we needed to to a corrective haircut for Nora Beth, bread store, bank, post office, store, etc. A few days ago I had picked some pears and apples from trees in my friends yard. These desperately needed my attention today. I canned 23 pints of applesauce and 21 pints of pears. The girls like to listen to the "ping, ping" that comes from the jars when they are cooling. This is a comforting sound to hear, since you now know that all your hard work resulted in a properly sealed jar.

I made a yummy dinner of manicotti with homemade sauce for dinner. I also baked a loaf of banana bread to take to my class tomorrow. I will get up early to make breakfast for the hungry football boys tomorrow. Lets see if the Vikings can pull one off tomorrow.

Mom, Look At Me!

Mom. Look at me. With these are three words that I have learned to take a deep breath before I turn around. I only left her alone for a few minutes while I was checking my e-mail. She was playing with her doll Baby Alex in her room. I assumed all was well. She soon came bounding into the office with the above mentioned proclamation. I turned around to find my daughter with some self inflicted bangs. I did not over react, but she could tell by my expression that playing with scissors was not the right thing to do.
We went into the bathroom to assess the damages. It could have been worse. There were a few chunks missing from her hair, and she now had bangs, but it was not awful.I took her for a corrective haircut today. She now has a Pixie bob with short bangs. It is only hair and it will grow. She is really proud of her new haircut.

This and That

Last week I got some pears from a friend. I put them in the garage to ripen up and I realized yesterday that they were ripe enough to can and dry. I was busy peeling and slicing for what seemed to be an eternity. Nora Beth had a great time helping me, although she ate every pear she could sneak away from me! It was not long until I had beautiful jars of peaches coming off of the stove. It is such a fulfilling feeling to create such wonderful food.

Lamar got me some very ripe tomatoes at the farmers market. I decided to slice them and place them in the dehydrator since I was not going to use them for dinner that night. The girls loved the results and this plate was soon emptied. The weather should heat up enough this week to ripen more tomatoes for us to process in the next week.

The girls said their goodbye's to Grandma Mary Ann last night. She had an early flight this morning. Each girl got some cuddle and story time. We all enjoyed her visit. Nora Beth woke up this morning and looked all over for her Grandma, and was very disappointed to see that she was nowhere to be found.

Now for the football update. Monday Night Football started up last night. I made some delicious Chicago Style Pizza to eat. Chad came over and we all watched the game. Halfway through the game we realized that the pizza was going to be the best part of the event. Part of being a Viking fan includes more dreams than actual trophies, or rings. Here's to another season!

Farm Play

Today, Mary Ann, Nora Beth and I went to Bauman Farms The flowers were beautiful. I had an "I want" list that was out of control! Hidden amongst the flowers were pumpkin plants. This hit me like a ton of bricks. Fall is just around the corner! I am still adjusting to the fact that it is September!
The farm is a great place to visit. Not only do they have beautiful flowers and produce, but they have a whole area for the kids to play. Here is Nora Beth climbing on the play structure. This climbing scene is one that we know well with Nora Beth.

She had great fun going down the slides.

This cow had a face that was so sweet.

Nora Beth had fun feeding the animals. This was a much better experience than the wildlife park we visited two weeks ago. The animals were in pens here. Although there was one goat that escaped, I saved it from roaming freely in the barn.

There was so much to explore at the farm. Nora Beth had so much fun. Around every corner was a new adventure. Here she is standing in front of a tepee. She did not like going in the tepee, even when I ventured in with her.

As I mentioned before, the flowers were beautiful. I really would have brought home a whole van load if I thought I could get them past Lamar without him noticing. Nora Beth liked to smell each kind.

Writing lessons

The girls are having a great time spending time with their grandmother. Mary Ann pulled out some antique slate writing boards today. This was a huge hit with Nora Beth.
Mary Ann worked with Nora Beth on numbers and letters. Here she wrote her name on her own. She was so proud of herself.

First Day of School

Today was Shianne's first day of school. Not only was this her first day of 4th grade, but it was also her first day in a new school. We decided to send her to our local school instead of driving across town. This is a decision that made her happy.

The summer went by so fast. It is hard to believe that school has started.
Nora Beth wanted to go to school with Shianne. She got her "lunch box" out and insisted on walking to school with Shianne. Nora Beth will start preschool in October.

Shianne was excited that she already knew a few of the kids in her class. She even had a student that attended her old school in her class. She gets to walk to and from school each day with her friend Holly. I am sure she will loose this enthusiasm as soon as the weather changes!

Wine Tasting

Ever since Memorial Day weekend we have been planning a Labor Day weekend wine tasting day. It fortunately worked out for this event to happen. We got several of our friends, two vans and two designated drivers and headed towards McMinville. We are so fortunate to live in the heart of Oregon Wine Country. There is a small town nearby called Carlton that has several tasting rooms and specialty shops. We headed that direction and made a few stops along the way.

We had a great time in each tasting room. Some of the locations were not quite prepared for our rowdy group, but we did not let that stop us. I think our designated drivers were embarrassed to be seen with us at times. I am sure that if they went home and told their parents what we were doing they would never be allowed to drive for us again.

This is mid-day of our tasting adventure. Obviously Lamar is having a good time with Chad in the background egging him on!

We happened to go past the fire station just as some firefighters were returning from a call. They were nice enough to pose for pictures and put up with our harmless flirting.

Speaking of harmless flirting, Mary Ann (Lamar's Mom) had the quote of the day when she mentioned to one of our friends that if she "was 50 years younger she would let him park his shoes under her bed anytime!" The whole group broke out in laughter.

We had a great day drinking wine, eating cheese and laughing with our friends. We came home with more wine than we have places to store it. Lamar has his mind up about making a wine cellar in a room off of our garage. It looks like I have a project ahead of me. We had a great time and are already planning next years wine adventure.

Labor Day Weekend Labor

It seems appropriate that a mama would labor on Labor Day Weekend. The adoption mama finally decided it was time to birth her baby. This mama really surprised me. I know that I had issues with her when we first met and when she stood me up. When labor happened all my pre-conceived ideas about her were thrown out the window. She was amazing in labor. She really listened to her body and did what felt right. The other doula I worked with was also amazing. I am so glad she was there because I had a busy weekend with my other clients and Lamar's mom flying into town. The other doula knew when I agreed to help with this birth that I would have some times that I would be unavailable.



I left the birth so I could go to the airport to pick up MA (Lamar's mom). This was supposed to be a quick trip, but it turned out to be an ordeal. The traffic was crazy both directions and the plane was delayed. We finally made it back home and I felt bad that I had to leave so quickly to go back to the hospital, but that is what I do.



The baby boy finally made his appearance in the evening. His mama was so happy to finally see him. I had no idea how the next few days would play out with the adoption, but this moment was beautiful.