We need a new sign in the gym- No guns!

Tonight while Andrew was having his gym practice and Maddie's tumbling was ending a young man (20's) entered the gym. He was dressed like an old cow poke. On his hip was a long pistol and around his mid section he was toting belts full of bullets. He walked up to me and one of the other gym moms and asked us some question. We couldn't understand him so he said it again and then walked past us. Our eyes got big when we realized he was carrying a gun.

That mom jumped up and quickly got on her cell phone to the police. At this time he walks towards another group of people. He tells them he is looking for Tiffany. No one knows who Tiffany is... so, the one Mom walks him outside towards the other gym building.

You may be wondering where Jay is while all this is going on....he is sitting at the desk working on the computer for the coaches. So, he has no clue anything is going. I run outside to get something out of the van (it is after 8 pm). Right outside the door is the "cowboy" guy on his cell phone. I hesitated and then ran to the van to grab something and then headed back towards the gym. At this point the head coach was right there....and the "cowboy" was trying to re-enter the gym. The coach stopped him and asked him what he wanted. And he wanted to talk to the Supervisor. He told him that he was the supervisor. I slip inside to get out of the way.

The Coach comes back inside and tells us to stay inside and to get away from the doors. The police and k-9 unit were on their way. The Coach says now he will have to make a new sign for the door "No Guns!" We all laughed so hard. He has a sign on the door that says "No food."

So, around 8:30 pm we were able to leave. The police had him handcuff and "Tiffany" was in the parking lot. Maddie's tumbling class is actually all highschool girls except for Maddie and one other little girl. The girls are either high school cheerleaders or cheerleader wanna-a-be's. Tiffany hasn't come for almost a month now. So, I don't know what happened if she was skipping out on the class or what. But Cowboy was acting weird and seeming a little on the crazy side. I guess the police thought he seemed off also.

The police had him handcuff right by my van. I hurry and get in the van and I'm trying to open the slider doors for the girls to get in. But they won't open and another police car pulls up and wants to park right next to me...so, the girls have to jump through the passenger door. I start to drive away and the van is beeping at me because the doors are "open". I call Jay who has just pulled out of the parking lot. He turns around and comes back. He figures out what the problem is: the doors are frozen shut. He fixes the problem for us and out of the parking lot we go.

Never a dull moment in our household. Luckily we are all fine. The kids were a little shaken up about the whole thing but they are fine.

A Christmas poem...not written by me

Twas the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*See the PC Police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
* December 25th is just a "Holiday".*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd! *
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
* At Lowe's the word Christmas - was nowhere to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*;
* Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate "Winter Break" under your "Dream Tree"*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*
*Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS, not Happy Holiday!*

Christmas With a Capital

A music video letting people know it is okay to say "Merry Christmas"

Teeth be gone

Today Maddie had 5 teeth removed. 3 on top and 2 on the bottom. Her teeth were so crowded that her permanent teeth were growing sideways because they had no where to go. So, the dentist pulled her baby teeth to make room.

Maddie had no clue that any of this was happening today. She did not like the medicine she had to drink to relax her.

She told me that while she was laying there it felt like she was on a roller coaster ride (a slow one).


She didn't get dizzy. She was pretty relaxed through the whole thing.

It took 3 hours for the drugs to wear off. When she got home Andrew took her to the bathroom and told her to look in the mirror where Andrew informed Maddie that she had lost her teeth. She was excited to see her teeth gone. Samantha thought it was funny that we didn't tell Maddie that her teeth were being pulled and she didn't even know that they had pulled her teeth. Samantha was at her math class while Andrew and I were at the dentist office with Maddie.

10 year old birthday

For the last 7 months Andrew has dreamed of going to Paintball Palace for his 10th birthday. You have to be at least 10 years old to play at Paintball Palace. We agreed to take Andrew, his gym buddy Owen, his gymnastic coach Svetlio and Jay.


They are getting ready to go get their gear.

Andrew coming back after battle.

After all is said done the boys had some war wounds (welts) left on them from the paintballs.

Thanksgiving Feast

The girls are ready for the Thanksgiving feast.


Here we are enjoying way too much food. Neli brought dolma and baklava. They were both very yummy! Andrew even tried the dolma.

Here is what we do after we are all done eating. Notice Jay has two computers.

This picture was taken after everyone has gone home and we were relaxing.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the day! :) I stayed up until almost 2 a.m. working on the rolls. Of course they aren't done but the dough is rising.

Maddie and I are working on making cracker jacks.

I remember my first Thanksgiving with Jay (13 years ago). Jay was very homesick and wanting the traditional Thanksgiving. My dad took us to Marie Calendar's for Thanksgiving dinner. Poor, Jay! 3,000 miles away from family and having to eat the biggest meal of the year at a restaurant. :) *hee hee*

Well, I better get back to cooking (pies are in the oven).

9 a.m. here!

Preparing for Thanksgiving dinner

I did my final shopping today for tomorrows dinner. I ended up calling Jill while I was shopping because I couldn't find "sweet potatoes" at the store and I needed to know if the recipe I'm using of hers really needs sweet potatoes. They do. So, while Andrew is at the gym tonight I will be searching for sweet potatoes.

We are having dinner at my Mom's house. There will 13 of us:

• 5 of us
• my Mom
• Andrew's gymnastic coach & family
• My Mom's friend, Loretta and Loretta's son, James

I'm in charge of making and bringing:

• homemade Kahlua and cream
• sweet tea
• dip for chips
• homemade cracker jacks
• cheese and meat tray (another thing I couldn't find at the store)
• pumpkin pie cake
• yams and sweet potatoes (side dish)
• green bean casserole
• rolls
• mashed potatoes
• cranberry relish

I think that is everything. I wonder if I'm forgetting something?! If so I'll be driving back across town to get it or we will be without it.

I've made everything on that list above except for the yam/sweet potatoes and the rolls. The rolls are scaring me. I decided to print out the recipe so I could refer to it when I'm making them. IT IS 18 PAGES LONG!!! These are the rolls that Jay is requesting so I'm up for the challenge...I just hope they turn out good.

For Andrew's one coach, Svetlio, tomorrow will mark 1 year he has been in America. He is from Bulgaria. So, this will be his first Thanksgiving dinner. I sure hope we don't disappoint him. :)

15 minutes until Oprah starts! I'm recording it because Hannah Montana is Oprah's guest. Along with the American Girl doll. Yesterday was Oprah's Favorite Thing show. It would be so much fun to be in the audience for that taping.

The Revolve Tour

Samantha went to The Revolve Tour in Portland with some girls from the Youth group from church. The Revolve tour is the teen version of Women of Faith conference.
This first picture was taken from Samantha's camera.


Leaving for Portland on the youth van


Returning home

Maddie's candy cane cookie

Aquila and Priscilla's had yummy looking cookies.




Maddie picked out a cinnamon candy cane cookie.

Relaxing and eating her cookie at the coffee shop.

1st Quarter Report Card

Today Samantha received her first ever report card. We are very proud of her for how well she has worked this quarter. When she first heard about this school and how she was going to take math there she was very unhappy with us. After the first class she came home all excited because she had made a new friend and her teacher didn't care if she got the "right" answer. That concerned me so I called Mr. N he assured me that he was teaching a concept and he needed the students to get past worrying if they got the right answer all the time.


Below is her report card. You may click on the picture to see it better.
An "A" for attitude.

A "B" for her overall math grade.

Kahlua

A month ago Jay and I made Kahlua. Okay, I did more watching and tasting then I did helping.
This was our first time trying to make any alcoholic drink.
We are tried the Kahlua with creme. It is yummy (more so if you like coffee)!

Here is the original post that talks about the Kahlua for those of you who want to "try this at home." :) Thanks for Barb for motivating to try something new.

Need a photo idea for your Christmas card?

Here is a link to a post full of fun Christmas photo ideas. And if you want to see another cute photo for a Christmas card here is a blog you might want to look at!

Anyone else have a cute Christmas photo idea?

updated yard

After the seed was laid down we had days of massive rain that washed the seed everywhere. It was a mess. We are finding grass where we didn't plant it. :(

Since the sun only hits half the yard we had the issue of only the sunny side grass growing. The shady part of the lawn is finally starting to fill in with some grass.

Below are a couple of pictures of the grass.

Halloween 2007

A week has gone by and I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of the kids.

Maddie was a Duck cheerleader.



Andrew was Annikan Skywalker.



Samantha was Darth Vader.

All 3 kids infront of house getting ready to go trick-or-treat!

My Birthday

Today is my birthday! I've always loved my birthday because my family would throw me a party. What kid doesn't like having a birthday party?! One of my favorite birthday traditions is when my G'ma Betty calls me on my birthday and sings "Happy Birthday" to me. My G'ma called me this morning to sing the birthday song to me. It was great! Jay has continued to keep the tradition of spoiling me on my birthday!

We had lunch out today and then a drive out of the valley to where there was some sunshine. The valley was covered in fog.

My Mom watched the kids while Jay and I ate dinner at Oregon Electric Station. Yummy!

The above picture is of the kids hugging me before we headed out to lunch. Samantha was grumpy (if you can't tell by the sour face). She was like that all day. She has hit that fun age of preteen.

Thank you, Jay, kids and mom for a fun day!

Thanksgiving time is coming fast!

It Never Rains in Autzen Stadium

Here are more pictures taken from the sky box.

GO DUCKS!
SEE YOU AT THE BEAVER GAME....hear that, Jay, I want to go....no taking your friends over your wife. I know you took me this one because it is my b-day tomorrow. For the last 4 years Jay has been taking friends and Andrew to the games but this year I got bit by the Duck bug and I want to go the games!!!

DUCKS!!!

Jay came home on Thursday with 3 Suite passes and front row parking.

Jay got a new camera before the game and here are some pictures from the Suite.

This is our friend Kaila who is a Duck cheerleader. The camera was in love with her because she was the most "featured" cheerleader of the game.



Andrew with his game day face!!!


Jay and I (Andrew took our picture).