Tae Kwon Do

When soccer finished we immediately started looking for another activity for Brendan because everyone seems so much happier when he has something to keep him busy. Luckily, his school had a Tae Kwon Do class for a few weeks that seemed to channel some of his energy.

At the end, they put on a show and had an official "Board Breaking" ceremony. If you are not a grandma or grandpa, you may not be interested...but we thought his little performance was quite cute. Especially as he tries to keep up with the other kids.



Let's just say he is quite pleased with his performance...

Oh, and we signed him up!

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A Driveway with a View

Who says Oregon winters are dreary and gray?

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"Santa is all I can think about!"

Today Brendan said to me, "Mom, when it's Christmas like this, Santa is just all I can think about."

He left, and then after an usually quiet fifteen minutes, he came back and said, "Mom, I'm sorry to tell you that as I was counting the Christmas presents, my biggest present ripped open. All I could see was some black, so I don't really know what it is. I repaired it with some orange paper."

Now didn't he do a nice repair job?

Other Christmas comments by Brendan:

"Santa doesn't really go down each chimney. He just flies over each chimney and drops the presents down. He has to hurry because there are so many houses."

"Santa has a pocket with every garage door opener in the world in it. That's how he really gets in."

"Santa doesn't get to sleep. He just has to keep delivering presents to all the houses."

"Santa is already delivering presents. It takes him so so long because there are so many houses. So he has to start now."

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Way Behind

I hope our blog readers (both of you) aren't feeling neglected at our lack of posts. This blog is not the only thing that we are behind on. Although we did get our Christmas tree, half of our Halloween decorations are still up. And this will probably be the first year of our marriage that we won't be sending out Christmas cards. Apologies to all. We promise to make them extra-glittery next year.

But we just might get a couple of new blog posts up soon. We certainly have plenty to blog about. Just don't hold your breath waiting for the new posts!

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A Typical Saturday Morning At Our House

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"The Worst Mom"? "Dumb"? Ouch!!

On the way home from grocery shopping on Saturday, Natalie casually mentioned that the kids in her class think that I am "the worst mom" because I don't make very good lunches since I don't put many treats in her lunch box.

Well, I believe that fruit snacks are equivalent to gummy bears, that goldfish crackers are essentially cardboard, and I actually follow our pediatrician's and dentist's advice to cut out most juice, especially the juice box-type drinks. So if that makes me "the worst mom" then I guess I am, in fact, the worst mom. But, ouch, that hurts my feelings! I don't want to be the worst mom. I don't want the kids at school to think Natalie has a witch for a mother. This is not a fun feeling.

I then asked Natalie how many kids' moms write notes to them on their napkins that are packed with their lunch? She could only think of one other child in her class. So I felt happy that at least she knows she's loved when she gets her napkin note from mom every day at lunch.

Now this morning as I was packing her lunch, she mentioned that the kids in school think that I am "D-U-M-B" (yes, she spelled it out for me) because of the things that I write on her napkins. Ouch again! I do write rather silly things on her napkins, like "Boom Shaka-Laka" or "10 days til Halloween" or "Thanks for making your bed so nicely this morning". I can picture the kids sitting down at their lunch table and someone saying, "So, Natalie, what did your mom write today?" in a mocking voice and everyone laughing. Again, not a fun feeling.

I expected peer pressure to come someday on clothes, music, going to sleepovers, etc., but SACK LUNCHES? I must confess, that every once in a while, I DO buy fruit snacks, goldfish crackers, and red-colored sugar water mislabeled as "juice", mainly because I recognize that a sandwich and fruits and veggies can get boring day after day. But I guess an occasional treat is not enough for my daughter to escape ridicule.

Should I just ignore the pressure and take satisfaction in knowing that she is eating healthy? Or should lunches from our house become a pre-packaged party of sugar and cardboard?

Signed,
Lisa (aka "the Worst mom")

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Lightning Brendan

Brendan played on the Purple Dragons soccer team. The kid is fast if you just can keep him moving in the right direction.

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Natalie Soccer

Natalie played on the Purple Panthers team this year with a crew of her friends and did great. \

Check out the war paint she put on to keep the sun out of their eyes...wait...this is Portland in October...there is no sun in your eyes!

(Hint: You can click on the picture for a larger image)

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Summer Doing What She Does Best

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Halloween

Two pioneer girls, one pumpkin, and one Boba Fett with a laser gun (that makes an awful noise). The funniest event of the evening was seeing this 8 year old pioneer girl run around with a laser gun...

Lisa made the pioneer costumes, don't they look great!


And AJ had a great time.

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Carving the Pumpkins

We originally planned to go the pumpkin patch, but after unending weeks of soccer, we were exhausted. On the way out of the last soccer party we saw a pile of pumpkins at a grocery store and offered root beer floats and one pumpkin each if we could just pick one out and go home...boy I'm sure glad the kids like root beer.

As can see, the kids designed them and then we helped cut them out. For the first time, Natalie scooped everything out by herself.

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Summer Smiles

It's been appearing randomly for a couple of weeks, but today we finally captured it--Summer's smile!

"Should I smile for Mom?"
"I guess maybe just a little smile."

"Okay, you can have a big smile."
"Here it is!"

"Now give me back my fingers to suck on!"

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Move over applesauce, Amanda's got a new favorite food

When she gets hungry, she knows just what to do--head straight for the freezer for some Tillamook!

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Visualization of Hood to Coast Results

Remember, I'm an absolute data geek...so please have patience with me.

When I ran Hood to Coast with the Team "Runs in the Family", we placed 201st in the Mixed Masters group. So I grabbed the race results and plugged them into my new favorite website - Many Eyes. The site takes your data and plugs it into different visual graphics. Just think of user friendly Excel that helps you visualize results and interact with the graph.

So how did our finish time compare to other teams?


The professional teams are to the far left. My team finished 201st.

How fast were the teams from the different cities?


Each color represents a city. The larger the circle, the slower the time. If you mouse over the circle you can see the team name and place they finished.

And lastly, the distribution of where we finished.


Thanks for listening...I got the "That's nice dear" look from Lisa when I showed her...

I promise to not show any more math or running posts for a long time...

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Friends Come to Visit

We had some fun when some friends from California came to visit this summer.

In mid-July, our good friend and former across-the-street neighbor Melodi came to visit. She and her two children, Nehemiah and Adie were visiting her mom in Eugene, so they came up for dinner one Sunday afternoon. We met Melodi's mom and were able to catch up on what has happened in the year since we both moved from Lorelei Ave. The kids got to play Legos with Nehemiah (just like old times) and we were able to meet Adie for the first time. The only thing missing was Ken, who hadn't arrived in Oregon yet.

Then last week, Tom and Mindy and their three girls from good old Lakewood 3rd Ward came by. They were driving through Portland on their way to a family reunion on the coast. They stopped by to say hi. We ate pizza and the kids kept busy on the trampoline. I had wondered if the kids would be shy around each other, but after about 10 seconds of shyness, it was like they had all seen each other yesterday. Good times!

So if anyone out there is making travel plans, please note that if you come to the northwest, you can get a free dinner at our house! We love visitors!

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