Head em up, move em out

On our way out tomorrow!

Should be a whirlwind of a couple weeks but some fun adventures. 

By mid July we should be moved for good.

I have been Terrible at taking pictures...

We're moving at the PERFECT time of year in Oregon.

If you haven't been here in the summer, DO IT.

Small Lessons

I have been thinking a lot lately about all the INCREDIBLE people we have met living here this year. I am fascinated with people's stories; what they do, what makes them tick, what they've been through.
There are SOOO many people here that I admire.
Many of them have taught me life lessons. Here's a couple:
One friend taught me:  cooking meat should either go low and slow or fast with high heat (a very practical piece of advice but literally has changed cooking for me!). Sometimes depression is simply a need to take a walk outside every day consistently. Exercise and fresh air can do wonders. She teaches my son in primary and said the secret to keeping their attention is to study and know your stuff and then just talk and teach without the book. She truly teaches by the spirit. Cody still talks about old lessons they had from her.

Another friend told me once about a friend she had with lots of questions about the church. She had to do a LOT of studying and praying and would come up with tiny bits of answers from hours of time and effort. This friend is very smart and I'm sure some of that is attributed to her diligent effort.

Coeur d'Alene, ID
Kansas State
Mississippi State
Alabama (Auburn Univ.)
Ohio State (Columbus Ohio)
Nampa, ID (Caine Center)
Boise, ID (Idaho Equine)
Idaho Falls, ID (Willow Creek Animal Hospital)
Kentucky (EPS)
Seattle, WA (Emerald Downs)
Oakridge Equine (Oklahoma)
Oakdale, CA (Pioneer Equine)
Lexington, KY (Rood &Riddle)
St. Louis, MO (conference)
Seattle, WA
Three Forks, Montana
Fort Collins, CO
Ames, IA
West Lafayette, IN (Purdue)
Raleigh, NC
Chicago, IL (conference)
El Paso, TX
Snohomish, WA
Oregon City
San Juan Capistrano, CA
Decatur, TX

Several months ago we made a list of places Ben has visited in the last couple of years for school and work. I'm cleaning out and this isn't making the keep pile, but I do love lists:) so I'll post it. Some of them were weekend trips, some were month long trips and most were somewhere in the middle. Sheesh!

Last Days

Cody and Macey had their last days of school.

Macey had a little "graduation." Ann said something cute about each kid and said that Macey was an incredible thinker and she would carefully and deliberately weigh every decision she makes.

We love this cute class!

I pretty much dropped the ball and forgot to take pictures of Cody. I've been a little scattered with moving. But he shed a few tears as he got in the car because he didn't want it to be over!

True to the irony of the school mornings, the very next day after school was over Cody was awake before 7:00. But every single day of school he was fast asleep until I woke him for school at 8:00. (8:00 for kindergarteners is early, right?)

A half an hour after he had woken up we were just finishing breakfast and he announced. Mom. I'm Bored. And summer has just started...

We went on a walk/bike ride while it was sprinkling. It turned into a decent rain and we got SOAKED. But it was really fun!!

Movie night with dad!

This last year Ben has been working with the fourth year veterinary students a lot when they are on their equine and large animals rotations. The hospital kind of works like Grey's Anatomy hospital - so if you've seen that you'll understand. The Oregon State classes have about 60 students so smaller than WSU, but they are a pretty close class. The fourth year students do an end of year review and they gave Ben an award. He also got a nice plaque for his fellowship.

Here's the rest of the picture:)

Ben's award...The Shuffler!:)

Cody played soccer this year. I coached his cute little team. I would way rather just come and enjoy the games but it was pretty fun working with the kids, they are pretty cute at this age. I didn't get a chance to take any great pictures or really enjoy Cody playing as much as I would have liked. And they thought I was so good at soccer. ha! So easy to impress:) 

Learned and Found

Miss - Green. Everywhere. All year.
Not Miss - Rain. Often. Allergies. Can't breathe.
Actually it's all relative. It's just a misting rain not a virtual downpour. And no tornadoes or extreme weather accompany it. Allll relative.

Miss - The biking trail.
Not Miss - Car break ins from trail thieves.

Miss - Open floor plan in our house and friendly neighborhood.
Not Miss - Squeaky (I cannot emphasize that enough) floors in our house and a certain mischievous neighbor kid.

Miss - Small town (4,000 people), good people and open spaces.
Not Miss - Everything closing down at 6 pm. Grocery stores with salad dressing priced at $10 or a longer drive to better prices.
Not excited for - Big City (4 million people). Claustrophicly close houses and no open space not inhabited with 25 other people.
Excited for - good weather and fun!

We found a house!!!!!

I looked on craigslist at rentals once briefly before everything was nailed down. (I vowed not to waste time looking into anything until it was a done deal. I've made that mistake before. We didn't know for sure until Ben passed his boards.) I at least wanted a feel for places and prices (high! sing that in a falsetto it sounds more dramatic). From looking on a map I found an obscure little area that looked promising. I also found a house that looked perfect and noticed it had a temple hanging up on the wall. Curiousity piqued I called the realtor for the house. Found out he was lds. That house was rented but we arranged for him to show us other rentals while we were in California. I went without doing a lot of research (I didn't have much internet access since I went a week after we were sure we were going and we were out of town that following week.)

He showed us several homes. One area, as we drove up, just felt like home. The house we looked at there, which was already rented, was perfect! We found out it was near impossible to get a house and started panicking. With three weeks left I told the realtor just to apply for every home in our price range. He called that very day saying he had the perfect house. The new renters were moving out. As he sent me the info on it I realized it was the very house I had first seen online. It has a similar layout to the house I loved, in the area that feels like home, of the town I loved.

A small answer to a lot of prayers! Now we'll start praying that our neighbors are not drug addicts and a small band of thieves do not routinely break into cars! ;)

The Sky's the Limit

From earlier this year in school,

A pilot or an engineer is the latest desire for when Cody grows up!

I love to see these!

I am excited to see what he does do 'when he grows up'

 And this is Macey's beautiful rendition of the temple

Last Chance Visit

Steph, Ryan, Clayton and Brody are living in Washington this summer while Ryan does a Boeing internship. Steph decided to visit us!

We went to the river nearby:

 We caught the tail end of strawberry picking season.

 My berry pickin baby 

 After a pizza dinner

We had a strawberry delicious treat

 Strawberry Tarts:

1 pkg. cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

2 1/4 c flour

Press into muffin tin and Bake 350 degrees for 15 min.

Heat:

1 1/2 pkgs strawberry Jell-O

1/2 c sugar

1 3/4 c water

strawberries

Add: 1/4 c cornstarch and cold water mixed

Pour into cups when cool.

Top with fresh strawberries.

Eat with reckless abandon.

 Strawberries and babies are just messy.

We went on a walk that was going to be a hike. But it was just a walk that we never got to the top of. We had a picnic at the "top," a barn. type thing.

Perfect for running and kicking up dust.

Steph took the coolest pictures here that I just know she will post:)

  They got a sleepover in the tent, allll by themselves (babies not included. and Clayton is hiding)

 On the deck:)

Cody asked me several times to sit down and 'make a list' with them of things they could do when Clayton and Brody got here. Then he asked every 5 minutes the day they were arriving when they would get here:)

Such a fun mini four five day adventure (we'll have to double check you don't leave things next time!)

It was sooo nice to relax and enjoy visiting with my sister and ignore the fact that I have to box up my house soon.  Hopefully we'll see you again soonish?!

Going Out With a Bang

As Ben's last official week of being on call on the weekend until we move, he made it a good one. Thursday night - not on call ironically - he went in at 2 am and worked until 3 am Friday morning. So that's not one hour, but 25 hours. Then got up and went in again 4 hours later at 7 am and worked a full 12 hour shift. Without laying out all the times and details, it has been like that all weekend. I'm glad for him that this is the last day of the weekend (he's working now, of course) and that we're on the count down of no days off and no overtime pay! It's been a great year for him, but time to move on.

(Have I mentioned lately how glad I am that he is not doing a residency?:))

Luckily he was here for a BBQ last night with our good friends. It just makes summer official!

And. We may or may not be living in a tent on the beach instead of a house. Apparently applying for a house to rent is like entering the lottery. Or takes bribery. Not sure. Could someone in OC please move and give us their house?

Thanks.

Potty Training. Who is really trained?

So interested in going and so excited about it, Mackayla used to DEMAND that I take her to the bathroom at regular intervals. Really. When we got home from Hawaii we only had one diaper left. I kind of thought...ready or not! But when something suddenly becomes required...that's the end of that fun.

So, as far as potty training goes.
Mackayla was potty trained for one week.
She still is, but now she's had three accidents since my last posting. One on the lovesac. Cleaning advice?
It could for sure be worse. At least she's poop trained. (Maybe I just jinxed myself!)
I am potty trained. I don't love being potty trained. Today, neither does she. Frankly I'm not that vigilant. The part we 'negotiate' the most is wiping and getting pants back on. So she often goes naked.

I've discovered there are many definitions of potty trained.
For the record: POTTY TRAINED to me now is knowing you have to go, pulling down your own pants, going, wiping, pulling up your own pants, and not wearing diapers to bed. That is going to be a loong way down the road. :)

In summary, if I could rewind one week I would do and tell everyone I know...to wait until you can negotiate deals with your kid! or at least til they can pull up their own pants:)

How much is a homemaker worth?
According to that article, $96,000/yr
I have always wanted to find that answer. They forgot to add potty training, that should be expensive!