The Rowdy Rowzees

A Rowdy Rowzee Christmas

2011-12-31T16:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted! It's been a really great first half of the school year, but a very busy one. We had a wonderful Christmas. I just love having my kids get a little older. The holidays get more fun as they understand more and remember traditions.

Avery and I both participated in the children's Christmas program at church. I co-directed it for the second year. I just love doing it! This is a cute pic of Avery on the set.

I wish this picture wasn't blurry. This is Avery and her two buddies striking a pose during the show.

I tried something different this year for our neighbor gifts. Hot chocolate stir sticks. They were really yummy!

Random picture, but it makes me smile. My sister got my Dad a giant catfish pillow.

Ok, this is just annoying! It wasn't sideways when I clicked on it, but whatever! You can turn your head to see this adorable picture of my oldest daughter getting her REAL American Girl doll from her Nana and Papa. Her name is Julie and she's from 1974 and we love her!! Avery is very grateful for just a memorable gift.

Fun with Gramma Ginny :)

It's Christmas morning and we can't wait to open presents!!!

The girls picked this OSU football pillow for their Dad and boy did they pick well! I can't get him to put it down! They are constantly playing catch with it in the house. He throws it to me all the time, whether I'm looking or not. I've started refusing to catch it.

Allie picked out the pink scarf for Avery's present. Avery painted a bowl for Allie. They were both thrilled with each other's gifts.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Rowzees!

Is it too late?

2011-12-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

It's well after Thanksgiving and 19 days until Christmas. Is it too late for me to post my Halloween pics?

My parents came to see SuperGirl and the Leopard Kitty.

Love all three of these girls!

I guess I never got a picture of just my girls this year! Oh well :) Happy Halloween!

Soccer Stars

2011-11-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

Every mom thinks their kids are stars. Both my girls played soccer this year and it was so much fun! Avery played for a year, but took last year off. This year she was put on a team that had already been playing together for a while and the girls were really good. After the first practice, Avery didn't want to go back. She learned right away that these girls were good and she was really behind in soccer knowledge and training. But after the second practice she couldn't wait to go back! It was really awesome to see her learn so quickly and improve so much in a season. I was so impressed as I watched her handle the ball! She never became the star player, but she got pretty good and earned the admiration of her teammates and coach. And now she loves soccer.

She especially loved playing goalie.

Team Roma!

Allie's team... Well, I avoided, for a few weeks, all the emails pleading for a parent to step up and coach her team. We finally had a practice that was run by the soccer club and they again begged someone to step up. Well, if you know my personality, you aren't a bit surprised that I said I'd do it. Never mind that I just started a new job. Never mind that I don't know anything about soccer. I do know sports and I do know how to coach. Another mom agreed to coach with me and that was that. I think Allie would have done a little better with someone else coaching - she's so clingy with me. But I'm glad Allie got to play. She was definitely the go-getter on her team.

My kids have athletic genes. Avery has the determination that will help her succeed at just about anything she tries. Allie has a little more raw athletic ability. Both my kids are a joy to watch on the soccer field! We had a soccer party for Avery's team and the parents played with the players. It was so fun! Rich even scored a goal in his dress clothes from work! Now I want to add soccer to my list of sports to learn in my adulthood :) The Rowzees love sports!

Finding my voice

2011-10-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

It's been over two years since my first diagnosis with nodules on my vocal chords. Gotta tell ya, it's been an incredibly disappointing thing to struggle with. Everybody's got their issues. This is mine. I love to sing. I love to talk. I'm raising two very verbal and expressive girls and I can't for the life of me figure out how I would raise them without my voice.

My life has always centered around my voice. My singing has always defined my identity. I can't remember being asked what I like to do or what I'm good at without answering "singing!" right off the bat. The last couple of years has eliminated that for me. No more choir. No more solos. I participated in our church's Easter choir and it just about killed my voice. I had nothing coming out.

I know God has allowed this for me. He has greatly humbled me. But I'm glad to know I have a very full life, despite losing my ability to sing for now.

I remember being pregnant and watching women move in ways my body couldn't do, thinking, "will I ever be able to touch my toes again?" Lately I feel that way when I hear people sing! It feels like I can't even remember being able to sing all of those soprano lines that I sang so effortlessly all my life.

Well, enough whining. I saw the ENT again today. A camera tube was shoved up my nose and down my throat and he said, "yep. You have nodules." If he took them off through surgery, I would risk permanently altering or damaging my voice. No thank you.

My personality is energetic and expressive. My voice reflects that. I will be trying to put into practice all I know about singing correctly and applying it to my speaking voice. If you happen to be around me and I'm talking loudly, maybe tug on your ear and get my attention. Please don't tell me I'm talking too loud. It will just upset, embarrass, and possibly anger me. Tug on your ear and hopefully I'll take it gracefully and quiet down my voice. I so badly want my voice back!!!!!!!

Hard thing about working

2011-10-16T12:44:00.001-07:00

I love teaching math. I love building relationships with jr. high kids. I love the quiet moments of prep and grading I get to have at my desk in the mornings. I really hate not being super mom.

Besides just not having as much time as I would like to clean my house and plan meals, the only negative thing about my part-time teaching job is that I'm not as available for my older daughter. I haven't been able to volunteer in her classroom yet, although I'm hoping to soon. I don't get to take her to school and she goes to a friend's house for a half hour in the morning before being taken to school. Evidently, she's fine with going to school with a friend, but she doesn't want to tell her whole class that her mom doesn't take her to school. What's that about? Some kind a second-grade pride thing... And I missed her jog-a-thon. I would have taken the morning off and run with her, but I was already taking the next day off to go with her sister on a field trip, so I needed to be at work. So sad! She and I love to run together and that is totally something I would have been at if I hadn't been working! A friend took this picture of her at the jog-a-thon and I just had to share it. What a pretty girl! I'm not sorry I'm working. I love what I'm doing and I know God planned it for me. It is allowing Allie to have an amazing, Christ-centered kindergarten year and she has grown by leaps and bounds already in just one month. But you just can't have it all. I'm missing my first-born a little bit...

Gotta love a crockpot

2011-10-11T17:41:00.000-07:00

If you're pressed for time and love to make your family yummy, home-cooked meals and you AREN'T using your crockpot... well, you're just making your life much harder than it has to be! I'm working every morning now and usually don't get home until at least 12:30 - and that's if I was able to keep my afternoon free to be home. Yes, there have been a few more nights of corn dogs and even a take-out pizza here and there. But I am trying to think ahead and I found myself needing a few more recipes for the crockpot. I tried 2 last week and we really liked both of them.

Slow Cooked Mac and Cheese (call me terrible, but I got this out of a cookbook I bought as a wedding gift for someone. I had to look through it and write a few down before I gave it to her!)

1 pkg macaroni
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 can evaporated milk
1 can condensed cheese soup
1 cup milk
4 cups shredded cheese
1/8 tsp paprika

Cook macaroni and place in crockpot and add butter. Combine eggs, evap. milk, soup, milk, and 3 cups of cheese. Pour milk mixture over macaroni and stir. Cook on low for 4 hours and add rest of cheese; cook until melted.
*I didn't claim this to be a light dinner! You could lighten it with skim milk and the low fat evap. milk. I used cheddar cheese, but I think it would be yummy with pepper jack, too.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stroganoff
I got this idea from a random stranger. She suggested I look up a recipe for a crockpot chicken stroganoff. I finally tried it last week and it was really good!!

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cubed but not cooked

1/8 cup margarine

1 (.7 oz) package of dry italian dressing mix

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese

1 can of cream of chicken soup

Cook cubed chicken with butter and dressing mix in crockpot on low for 5-6 hours. It sounds kinda weird with no liquid, but it worked well. Add cream cheese and soup and mix well (let it heat up a bit before you try to mix it too much). Continue cooking for another 1/2 hour or so, until all heated through. Serve over egg noodles.
*I got that off of allrecipes.com, but it's not letting me post the link. There were some good suggestions for variations for this recipe. I think it's a winner!

Here's the proof

2011-10-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

I have always loved Amy Grant. I grew up idolizing her and dreaming of getting to sing with her on stage. Nine years ago I won a contest on our local Christian radio station and won the chance of a lifetime to get to meet my favorite famous person backstage before her concert. My bestest friend, Connie, was able to come with me and it was absolutely unforgettable. And only she knows how silly I sounded when I finally got to talk to my idol.

In September, I celebrated my 33 birthday and Rich and I went to the Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant concert with Connie and Russ. It had been a long day and I didn't have time to even reapply my makeup. Connie told me, "You're going to be in a dark room. Nobody will even see you." So I rushed out the door with no makeup, and forgetting my camera and my picture from the time I met Amy Grant, just in case I was able to meet her again and have her sign it. I mean, what are the chances???

So we got in line to claim our groupon tickets right when we got to the concert venue. Almost immediately, a woman who worked for KLOVE came up to Connie and asked her if she wanted her last two backstage passes to meet Amy and Michael. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? She said we had to go right away. I didn't have time to buy anything for Amy to sign. I didn't have my camera. I didn't have my picture with Amy! I hardly even had makeup on. But whatever! I was about to meet her again!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were two KLOVE employees in line with us and they offered to take pictures for me and email them later. So these pictures are the best I have.

We met Michael W. Smith first. I told him I was at his "Change Your World" concert and he said, "That was back in '92..." I think Connie was pretty star-struck :) He was so nice and it was really fun to get to meet him.

Here I am, with my two best friends!

I explained to Amy that I met her 9 years ago and had NO IDEA I was going to get to meet her again, or I would have had my picture for her to sign. The first thing I did was just tell her I love her. She was so sweet! I also told her about the movie my good friend, Wendy, made for my 30th birthday. It was a slideshow of my life and it ended with my picture with Amy, saying we were best friends. So I told Amy, "So in case you didn't know, we're best friends." Yep, I was a dork the second time I met her, too.

I mean, come on. She's awesome! Next time I WILL get the courage to ask her to sing with me. If I've met her twice, I'm sure to get a third time someday! I can't wait!!

And the concert was wonderful!!

Porch Invasion

2011-09-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

This summer was so different for us. My girls spent almost every day outside on our porch - hours at a time. Our next door neighbor was usually over and they played "family" or something equally exciting. At times, other neighbors found their way over to our porch and my kids figured "the more the merrier." As I listened to them play outside, I couldn't believe we were at this moment. I've been a mom for seven and half years and it was so weird to have my kids home, but not. I could watch a show I wanted to watch. I could start a chore and actually finish it in one sitting.

It did get a little old that my kids were constantly coming in and out and hauling their toys to be spread out over our front lawn. And they were frequently asking to share popsicles with everyone who had found their way to our porch. But in a conversation with a friend this week I was reminded that I want our house to be one of those houses where all the teenagers are hanging out. I want our girls to stay here and bring their friends with them. But I guess we don't really need to wait until they're teenagers! They are already having friends over and passing out food. Eventually it'll just evolve from imaginary games and popsicles to movies, pizza, and pop. I hope our house continues to be "the place to be."

First Day of School

2011-09-07T16:48:00.000-07:00

I have to post every year on the first day of school. I can't resist sharing pics of my adorable girls. This year is a bit different, as I was also going back to school. Allie and I had our first day on Tuesday this week. I was heading for my first day back to teaching after 7 1/2 years off , other than subbing and tutoring. So with that day approaching, I hadn't really thought about the fact that my sweet baby was beginning kindergarten! We've talked about it for years and the day came! She was pretty nervous and worried. I got lots of hugs and kisses in her class as she had trouble saying goodbye. But I finally got her arms off of me and shed my tears outside of her room. I'm pretty proud of her :)

Entering kindergarten!

And what to say about this sweetie? She is growing up so fast. Second grade seems so old! She has a really great teacher and I know she'll have a great year.

Love my girls! And I love having elementary aged kids!

Bible Bee

2011-09-04T18:54:00.001-07:00

We made a giant commitment this summer in signing up for the National Bible Bee. I think this was the 4th year of its existence, but the first year for the Salem, OR chapter. I knew it was going to be a challenge. I knew there would be days where I would have to work hard to keep Avery interested and motivated. Well, I underestimated what a challenge it would be for our whole family. It's pretty intense. In the end, Avery participated in the "easier" level, which doesn't qualify to compete nationally. In order to do that, she would have had to memorize 250 verses in 12 weeks and take a 200 question test on the book of 1 Peter. As it is, the girl did amazing. She memorized all 50 verses (30 passages) for her level and division. We tried to stick with the 1 Peter study, but it was just too challenging for her reading and ability level (she had to take a 100 question test on 1 Peter). So we focused on the Scripture memory. After the 12 weeks, we had the local competition and my parents and Rich's mom came to hear Avery show her stuff. She was escorted into a room with 2 judges and had 10 minutes to say 25 passages. I knew that was nearly impossible. It was a little sad for me, since I knew she knew her verses and wouldn't get a chance to say all of them, but that's just my over-competitive side rearing it's ugly head. She did great! I could hardly hold the tears back. There's something pretty wonderful about hearing your somewhat shy child stand in the middle of a room and quietly quote the Word of God. I was so happy that her grandparents came to hear her. They were blessed, also. She got to one verse that she didn't know very well, which I was surprised. Turns out we had learned it a few weeks before and lost the flashcard for it, so she hadn't been practicing that one. Bummer! Of course that was the only she didn't know perfectly and of course they asked her that one! Again, mommy is too competitive...

This was her turn to be on stage and receive a certificate.

Not sure why this picture is so blurry, but it still documents that Nana and Gramma Ginny were there to support her.

Overall, my daughter memorized an amazing amount Scripture this summer. It took a lot of work and effort on my part to keep her motivated. I think we've decided that we'd love for her to participate next year, but it needs to be something she's sure she wants to do. We'll see what she's thinking when next spring rolls around. I'm really proud of her and thankful for the brain God has given her to be able to do what she did this summer!

Swimming lessons

2011-08-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

What's better than swimming lessons with your best friend on a hot summer day???

NOTHING!!!

(yes, they are the same age)

Well, maybe swimming lessons with your cousin on a hot summer day!

And this is a bit random, but I had to share Avery's crazy tan with you. Boy, that girl does NOT have her mother's skin!

My little garden

2011-08-18T06:22:00.000-07:00

I love summer. This summer has been filled with lots of imagination and running. My kids have this innate desire to run everywhere they go. Especially Allie! They've spent hours in our yard with their neighborhood friends and we've had lots of play dates at parks and pools.

And yet, I am finding myself at the end of the summer feeling frustrated and weary. I have spent my summer trying to teach them a little responsibility and a desire to "do their part" around the house. They're 5 and 7 - I think it's time. But it's not working. I still watch them bring out toys to play with in the front yard and then just walk in when they're done. Who does that? How do they not see all their Littlest Pet Shops and their radio sitting in the grass and pick it up? I don't think I'm asking too much.

So we started a "no tv" rule for when their stuff is a mess. What did they do? They didn't watch tv for 2 days. They complained quite a bit about it, but it wasn't worth it for them to actually clean up the mess so they could watch a Phineas and Ferb on netflix.

God is so good. All I have to do is pick up His Word and He calms my heart and begins to show me a better way. I see their laziness and I get angry at the sin. But once again I need to remember their age and be realistic in my expectations. I can't expect them to be perfect and not sin. And I can't expect to be their Holy Spirit. Every time I start in on a lecture, I'm drowning out what He wants to say to them. I love applying 1 Corinthians 3:7 to my parenting: "Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but it is God who does the growing." I can plant and water all I want, but no roots are setting in unless I get out of the way. Once again He reminds me to simply be obedient to what He asks me to do, which is be patient with my children, teach them in a loving manner, direct them to righteousness, and He will do the rest.

Another go-round

2011-08-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to share about a new season of my life and our family. Before I had kids, I happily taught at Albany Christian School. I was the eighth grade homeroom teacher. I taught 7th and 8th grade Algebra and Pre-Algebra, Science, and PE, 8th grade Bible, and music for the whole school. Yep, I think that's it...

Well, very unexpectedly I received an email asking if I would be interested in returning to ACS to teach 7th and 8th grade math again. At first I thought it was very unlikely that I'd take the job. I had no desire to be working every day in addition to running my household and raising my children. Anyway, no reason to drag it out - it became apparent that God was leading me down this road after all. I am very excited! Allie will be able to join me and attend kindergarten there while I am teaching in the morning. I will have 2 classes of around 16 students total and an hour of prep. Man, this is going to be good!

I love jr. high students and have really missed working with them. I have often thought about my days of teaching those young teenagers. I came to the conclusion quite a while ago that I would be a very different teacher, now that I've had children. I can't wait to try out my "sea legs" now :)

an additonal thought to Rowzee Bucks..

2011-08-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

I wanted to add one more little thought for those who have already read the post on our Rowzee Bucks. Not all of our rewards cost me money. A few of the coupons are free to me - like "30 minutes of extra snuggle time with Mom before bed" (not kidding, Avery bought that the first time in was in the store!), and "You decide what Mom makes for dinner" (Avery bought that one, too!). Allie thought about buying the dinner one last week and had decided we were going to have milkshakes. She opted for Jamba with Daddy instead :)

Rowzee Bucks

2011-08-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post about our little reward system we have going on in our house and we had such a good night last night as a result of it, that I thought I had to share about it. We borrowed an idea from a friend who has "done raised" her kids and they've have turned out pretty awesome, so we thought she was a good source for advice and suggestions :) Her family had a system called "Bernard Bucks", in keeping with their last name. They used fake money and rewarded their kids for good behavior. Beyond that, I'm not sure what their rewards were or how easily they doled out the dinero. I took the idea and made it my own.

Rich wanted to call ours "Rowzee Rubles". We decided it was a little cheesy. So we just call ours Rowzee Bucks. I bought a couple packs of fake dollars at the dollar store and I keep them in my kitchen cupboard. I also keep a little "wallet" for each girl - they are little plastic note card holders. We give out Rowzee Bucks for anything from an extra kind word or going out of their way to help out, to helping Dad weed in the yard. Avery has been working on a ton of Scripture memory this summer as a participant in our local Bible Bee. Every Saturday she gets a Rowzee Buck for every verse card she can recite perfectly, as a way of reviewing and rewarding her efforts. Allie gets one for each verse she can say, too.

So, as for the rewards... I have a bin with various prizes all priced. I don't spend more than $2 or $3 for most of them. I also have coupons for different things the girls can buy, such as a date with Daddy to Jamba Juice or a trip to the carousell. It depends on how much the prize costs me as to how much I "charge" for them. A $1 ball from Walmart cost the girls 5 Rowzee Bucks. A date with Daddy to dinner at the mexican restaurant cost them 30 Rowzee bucks. We open the Rowzee Buck Store most weekends if we get around to it.

This system is working really well for us. It is hopefully teaching them the value of money and the value of saving for something they'd like to buy in the future. It gives me a chance to reward the girls with something tangible when I'm pleased with their behavior and a chance for them to earn something. I will say that there are times when I take away Rowzee bucks, too. I try not to do it very often, but there are times when it seems like an appropriate punishment.

Last weekend the girls each bought a date with one of us with their earnings. Avery bought a date with me to Limeberry (self-serve frozen yogurt) and Allie bought a date with Rich to Jamba Juice. Monday was a bit of a long day and Avery had had an especially hard day with me. After dinner we got in different cars and headed off on our dates. Rich says it was the best time he's had with Allie, just the two of them. Avery and I talked of school coming up and she crawled into my lap after she finished her yogurt since it had made her cold and we professed undying love to each other once again and all was well. We had such a good time, puts me in mind to start a regular date night once a month. We could switch kids every month. I'm thinking the first Monday of the month and spend no more than $5 on each date.

Thank God for my husband and kids! I'm humbled at the thought of how much He's blessed me. He is so good!

Adios... wait, that's Spanish...

2011-08-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the two weeks is over. We had a sweet 15 year old "daughter" who hardly spoke a word to us. I hope it's not indicative of our future with our own teenagers! Somehow, I don't think a loss for words is going to be our problem...

Ayumi loved our dog! I'm so glad. It could have been a big problem, since he is so darn friendly. Luckily, she was most comfortable when he was around to pet and play with.

We took her to the aquarium on her last day with us. I'm sure her lack of a smile has to do with knowing it was almost time to leave us...

If you come to America, we figured you have to roast a marshmallow and try a s'more! She loved it!

This is the last morning as we were seeing her off.

One last hug!

The 2 weeks didn't exactly end up how I thought. Actually, a lot of it did. I expected our student to not know a lot of English and for my kids to possibly overwhelm her with their enormous personalities and crazy antics. That was pretty much how it went. But I didn't expect to be dealing with a family of pukers and have to ship her off for a couple of nights to keep her from catching it. Thank the Lord Ayumi and I both were spared from the really awful bug that the girls and Rich caught.

It was such a good experience, sickness and all. God was in it and I'm good with that! Maybe we'll even do it again sometime...

Halfway

2011-08-01T01:22:00.000-07:00

Our sweet exchange student, Ayumi, has been with us for one week. For my mathematically-challenged readers, that's halfway through her 2-week stay. Overall, I'm glad she's here! It was awkward at first, since we can't have a whole lot of conversation. She doesn't speak much English, but we anticipated as much. She has had 3 years of English class in her school in Tokyo. I figure it's a little like me going to stay with a Mexican family back when I was in high school. Being surrounded by it and expecting to understand quick conversations is much different from learning nouns and phrasing in a classroom setting.

She has a very sweet spirit, though, and is a fun addition to our family. Allie has especially made it her goal to talk to and interact with Ayumi. She asks her questions all the time and I have explain again that Ayumi can't understand most of what she says! But Ayumi keeps trying and does her best to answer her back :)

Origami lessons.

I'm writing this in the middle of the night because I'm up with Avery. Allie got sick two days ago and threw up a whole bunch. I was hoping that was all we were going to have to deal with, but Avery has it now. Is it too much to ask God to not let Ayumi get it??? Rich and I are of the mind that her parents have shelled out a lot of money for her to get to be here and we really want to make her stay as interesting and enjoyable as possible. I would feel soooooo awful if she were to spend a day throwing up and missing out on all the activities the organizers have planned. But nothing is a surprise to God and for reasons I may never know, He chose to let my kids get this tummy bug at this time. So I'll do what I can and get through what He's got in store for me!

Feels a little crazy...

2011-07-26T02:13:00.000-07:00

When Rich bugged me several times a few months ago to sign up for hosting a Japanese girl this summer for 2 weeks, I was kind of surprised. He doesn't always want to even stop and talk to his own friends at church, much less hold a conversation with a young, female, complete stranger from another country who speaks very little English. But he thought it would be a really good experience for our family and I agreed. I think I had a more realistic view of the challenges it would bring, but I'm good with a challenge...

Well, she's here and it's a little strange! As we were waiting for our name to be called last night to meet our student, I felt really nervous! I'm sure she was much more so, though. I watched some girls cry as they were united with the first time with their American "family". So sweet! Our student is very shy. I'm sure knowing very little English has a little something to do with that, though! I bet if you stuck me in a Japanese family who spoke no English for two weeks, I'd become shy pretty quickly. The walk to her dorm to get her luggage was awkward. So was the car ride home. And dinner. And our outing to the grocery store to let her pick out some food.

I had to show her how to work our shower and bath tub. And I somehow explained to her that the tower fan in her room is a little broken and you have to just unplug it to turn it off. I forgot to show her how to pull the covers back and sleep under the sheets. It's the middle of the night right now and I'm wondering if she figured it out! At dinner, Allie asked if she was ever going to change her clothes. I have no idea if she understood her or not!

Our home can get a little crazy at times. I've explained a number of times to my sweet little angels that they better behave - or else!!! I'm excited, but very apprehensive as to how these 2 weeks are going to go. She will have classes and field trips every day from the Willamette University campus, so she just spends her nights and weekends with us. We have a few things in mind to do with her, but I would LOVE to hear any ideas from the peanut gallery!!! Please share :)

summertime porch

2011-07-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

Something that makes me SO happy is hanging baskets of petunias in the summer. I never feel like I can spend the money on those huge baskets already full and beautiful, but I always want them! For a few years I made my own in the spring and that was fun, but I almost spent the same amount of money making those as I would just buying a couple from a nursery. Well, this year I didn't think I could spend anything. But a few months ago I bought a few flowers for the large pot I already had that's in the bottom right corner. The next month I bought fabric for some pillows on the swing. I think I also bought a cute sign to replace the chipping "Welcome" sign I had by my door for $5. Then the next month I came across a wilting pot of petunias at Walmart that was on clearance. So I took a chance and bought it, then cut it down the middle and put it in the two hanging baskets I already had. We've had the clematis for several years, but it's never looked this good. Rich has been training it up the porch pillar and I just love it!

You can't see the sign very well, due to the morning sun's glare, but it says "Bless this nest". It's bright blue with pink and yellow and orange and a cute little bird on it. I'm pretty sure I spent around $30 on the whole porch. I'd say, considering one decent basket is at least $20 anywhere you go, that I did pretty well! I absolutely love coming home and seeing my flowering porch!

yep, it's been that long

2011-07-01T15:09:00.001-07:00

Eleven years, Babe!

It truly hasn't been easy! Marriage is wonderful - wonderfully HARD! But only at times :) Other times it is so wonderfully wonderful that I just can't imagine life without Rich by my side. I know I am enormously blessed to share my life with a guy who patiently loves me and is devoted to God and his family. Man, these days I know that's getting harder to find. He makes me laugh so much and always has time for a hug. I love you so much, Richie!!!

Avery goes "under the knife".

2011-06-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

Poor Avery has had a weird nasal congestion and sinus issue for about a year. Every time I insisted on some kind of treatment, they put her on another antibiotic, Sudafed, or allergy medication. We tried them all with no results. We just got so used telling her to blow her nose and what came out was not normal. It was so thick! I know, yuck, right?

So I finally just called our doctor and told him we didn't want to come in, I just needed a referral to the ENT. Over the years I have asked if Avery needed to see the ENT, with our doctor always saying it wasn't necessary. Even though she had many ear infections, I guess they just weren't bad enough. Even though we had documented hearing loss due to fluid in the ears. Hmm... maybe it's time to move on to a different pediatrician?

Well, the first thing the ENT did was look in her ears and ask me, "does she have problems hearing?" I said, "why yes, she does! It's all been documented in an audiology finding." Anyway, I'm not as miffed as I sound about it. When our pediatrician said that maybe she should have seen an ENT before this, I just told him I trust that God is in control and I'm just glad she's going to get taken care of now.

So, anyway, the ENT made a quick decision that she needed tubes in her ears and her adenoids removed. The purpose would be to improve her hearing, since she was filled will fluid (later the doctor said it was more like mucus - some sort of condition she had), and hopefully clear up her nose. My thoughts immediately went back to the day I was in first grade and we were leaving school one day. Mrs. Akers told the class that Erin would be out for a while because she's having surgery to get tubes put in her ears and to get her adenoids taken out. Same surgery. Same age. My scanner/computer isn't cooperating so I didn't get a chance to scan the cute picture of me on my hospital bed with my CareBear. I'll try to post it some other day.

So Avery had her surgery just 3 days ago. This is when her Daddy was carrying her into the hospital in her pj's.

Mommy and her cute little surgery patient.

Avery was a champ. She had been explained what would happen and still wasn't the tiniest bit nervous. We kept asking her if she was doing alright and she just replied, "um... yeah...".

Last pic before they wheeled her out.

After it's all done. Enjoying a popsicle and looking a little droopy.

She was just so good. Rich and I were so proud of her. She got a wheelchair ride out to the car and we were out of there something like 6 hrs after we had arrived. She's had some minor pain as she's mended, but much less than I expected. This morning she need a little Tylenol for her throat and she's been running all over the house. Thank you, Lord, for safe surgery and easy recovery! And she hasn't had to blow her nose for 3 days. Woohoo! :)

Thank Goodness!

2011-06-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness the school year is almost over! I don't really mean that to say that it has, in any way, been a hard school year. Avery has had a wonderful year with an awesome teacher. Her teacher is my parents' age, has been doing this forever (starting with homeschooling her own kids and then running a small private school with her husband), and loves the Lord. Not to mention that she seriously knows what she's doing when she's teaching kids to read. No, Avery's had a great year. I just can't wait to have her home!

Don't worry. I'm not delusional. I understand that having her home means that I will be donning my "referee" jersey full-time again. But I just plain miss her! It just seems too soon for her to be gone from me all day! So I'm going to drink in the summer of having my delightful, funny (her teacher just commented to me the other day how great Avery's sense of humor is), active 7 year-old with me all day. And seriously consider never letting her go back to school again...

Growing up, my mom always took us out to breakfast on the first day of summer vacation. I plan to carry on the tradition with my kiddos. Do you have any similar traditions you remember as a kid or that you do now as a family?

Rowzee girls like to run

2011-05-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since the girls ran in the Awesome 3000, but I had to post about it! This was Avery's second year participating and it was Allie's first.

They have booths set up and I had to take a shot of my two blondies digging through corn kernels for candy. They look so much like twins!
I thought this was a funny and typical pic of Allie :)

Allie had to run with the pre-K kids, so a parent had to run with her. I don't even remember what the distance was, but it was just silly! Allie and I joined a crazy-big crowd of parents and preschoolers and tried to run not-even one lap around the track. She fell once and I scooped her up for fear of her being trampled! Next year she'll get to run on her own with other kindergarten girls. Don't even bother looking for us in this picture - I don't think we're in it! But that's our group!

Getting Avery ready for her big race - a 1.5 km distance. That's .932 miles. This is the same distance she ran last year. I was still pretty nervous for her, even though she did wonderfully last year. It feels a little crazy to let your tiny little kid out into a giant crowd of 250 kids and go sit in the stands and wait.

Since it was Mother's Day weekend, it seemed like fun to have both grandmas come cheer for the girls. Rich's parents and my parents both enjoyed the excitement of the day.

This is Avery's giant crowd of 248 first grade girls. I was hoping the pink pants would help me pick her out from the crowd. Apparently Avery's not the only one with a genius for a mom. Next year we're getting bright orange hair spray paint.
The first girl back into the stadium was running like the wind. I couldn't believe it! Her legs had to have been twice the size of Avery's and she was book'n it! A few more girls came in, and then my determined little runner-girl came running in! Forget that I have some serious issues with my voice and yelling sets me back days without much of a voice. And forget that there was no way she could hear me! I was cheering with all my might!

There's no one else around her because there are 240 girls still behind her. I'm sorry. I know as a mom I'm not supposed to brag. But I am just so darn proud of her!

I love this picture. Her grandparents were quite proud, too. She has run with me off and on lately and wanted to stop here and there as we ran. She got winded. I really didn't know what to expect with this race. I think that's why I'm even more proud of her. She got into "race mode" and just pushed herself as far as she could. I'm exceedingly proud of that kind of determination. She came in at the same place that she did last year, but with 100 more girls competing against her - 8th place.

Crack of Dawn

2011-05-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

I know it's raining this week and that's a bummer. But it is still nice to not have to wait until 7:30 am to see a ray of light. Getting up for a run a little before 6 and have it already light outside is soooooo wonderful! However, NOT getting up for a run and have light streaming in everywhere and my five year-old daughter already up before 6 - not so wonderful. I can't get too upset at Allie for being up so early. After all, I'm awake, too! I can't sleep through sunlight. I know, I need to get room darkening curtains and do whatever else makes sense to get my room a bit darker. I've already done that for the girls' room and Allie is still waking up, though.

She's done this ever since I can remember. Every Spring I battle trying to keep her quiet in the morning so that her sister and dad can sleep. The kid doesn't know the meaning of "whisper". It's not physically possible for her. The girls share a room and I try to have her go in the playroom next door, but she gets the blocks out and bangs them around, sings a song, or plays the keyboard. It's always something!!!

So this morning it was 5:50 and I had already woken up around 5:15 and somehow managed to fall back asleep a bit, but she woke me up laying on the floor outside of my room. I was getting up for a run, so it was fine, but I had to figure out how to keep her quiet so the rest of the house can sleep. She lost the chance to watch tv first thing when she began arguing with me, so that option was off the table. I had her come downstairs and snuggle the dog (whose paws seem injured so he wasn't running with me). Evidently she feel asleep!

So all I'm saying is that this is a bit frustrating. I don't have a baby keeping me up all night. I have healthy, happy, secure children - one of which just likes to wake up early. Get over it, Erin!

What's for Dinner, Neighbor?

2011-05-16T19:15:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to blog about my dinner arrangement with my awesome neighbor, Candace. As I began making dinner tonight, I thought this sounded like a good night to share with you what we were having for dinner. I think it's been around 3 years since Candace asked me if I would want to share meals with each other once a week. We had already had meals together a few times and knew that we liked how each other cooked. And I don't care what you say, it matters if you like the food your neighbor makes you.

So ever since then, I double my family's meal once a week, and she does the same thing for me. Lately my night is Monday and her night to make me a meal is Wednesday. This works great for me, since we have gymnastics on Wednesdays and I don't get home until 5. So I come home at 5 with my kids and have a delicious hot meal waiting for me!

We both know some of each other's families' favorite meals. This is one of all of our favorite meals. Grinder sandwich with homemade fries. I buy a loaf of french bread (one for each family) and slice it down the middle. I top it with whatever lunch meat I feel like - tonight it was turkey pastrami and black forest ham. Next comes bell peppers sliced and then tomatoes. On top of the tomatoes I spread a mixture of olive oil, vinegar, basil, oregano, and thyme. After that I put whatever cheese I want, my favorite is pepper jack. Tonight I had cheddar. That whole bit goes in the oven under "broil" (without the top piece of bread) until everything looks hot and the cheese is melted - just 5-7 minutes.

Here's my homemade fries. Simply slice the potatoes, drizzle some oil on them, season with seasoned salt and pepper, and place them on a sprayed baking sheet and cook for about 40 minutes under 425 degrees.

Oh, and tonight I made some homemade guacamole and topped the hot sandwich with it before I put the top of the bread on.

And here's my plate! Yum! I wonder what Candace is making for me on Wednesday???

Here's Allie. She wanted me to take a picture of her, too. And yes, she wore her helmet for the whole dinner...

Hiking at Smith Rock State Park

2011-05-01T21:27:00.000-07:00

We went on a quick getaway with my brother and his family this weekend to Sisters, Oregon. We had a great time! It's always nice to get away from your own house every once in a while. We went on a hike at Smith Rock State Park. I guess it counted as a hike. Josh's kids are even younger than mine, at 4 yrs, 2 yrs, and 8 months old. And my kids seem to have tons of energy for plenty of other things, but weenie-out when it comes to going on a hike. So we did a short little hike and enjoyed a beautiful view.

I lost a screw in my sunglasses - I kinda like the "crooked" look :) And I LOVE this picture of Allie.

Allie and her cousin Roderick are something else. They act just like brother and sister. I'm so thankful that they have each other. They were both walking their dogs in this picture.

My oldest daughter is really growing up!

Avery took this picture of one of the climbers. There were a ton of people climbing this giant cliffs! This one just got to the top.

Here we are, the Rowdy Rowzees!

Here's the whole group of us. Good times!

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

Rich and I spent the week of Easter at church every evening preparing for the Easter musical. The kids were there, too, and had a blast. The program was a giant undertaking with something like 150 people involved, including costume design, makeup, choir members, drama, set design, orchestra, childcare, tech crew, etc... Rich was working on the lighting crew and I was a choir member.

Last year I helped as a stage hand and longingly watched the choir with my voice down to a whisper. I have nodules on my vocal chords and have made quite a bit of progress in letting them heal, but a whole week of singing and losing sleep strains it beyond what it can handle. So I was just thankful to have any kind of voice by Easter morning. It was scratchy and I couldn't hit every soprano note I wanted to, but it was still there. Praise God! I found myself praying for everyone with solos and drama parts and simply asking God to let me have a voice to add to the choir. He was so faithful. As each song started, I had just a little more to give :)

Our church does an Easter egg hunt every year on Saturday of the holiday weekend and our girls are there, rain or shine!

This year I let the girls pick out their own Easter dresses, in the hopes that they'd actually want to wear them for the rest of the spring/summer season. I like their picks :)

We headed to my mom's house for Easter dinner. We actually had some sun for just a bit and the kids got to hunt eggs in Nana's yard.

This is my sweet niece Olivia. Seriously, SO cute!

Got a fun pic with my sister in law, Jana. Yay for SUN!!!!!!!!

Hummus Recap

2011-04-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

The first step on my hummus recipe was to saute two large sweet onions for 30-40 minutes. I just didn't have the time this week for any extra cooking adventures, so I just now got to it today. Did you catch the amount of onion the recipe called for? Two large ones. And I combined it with only 1 can of garbanzo beans. That's a whole lot of onions with not a whole lot of beans. It also called for quite a bit of lemon juice, garlic, and the famous tahini. I don't even have a food processor, so I had to use my blender. So, it was a hassle to make and in the end, I didn't love the result. I liked it pretty well, but it wasn't any better than the yummy store-bought stuff. So there's my verdict: I'm probably sticking with the no-effort, cheaper version!

Bedtime Theology

2011-04-12T21:26:00.001-07:00

Tonight as we were going to bed, Avery asked me a question. "Mom, how is it that God is so perfect that He doesn't sin? I mean, if He can do anything He wants, why doesn't He want to sin?" ummm.... That took some thinking on my part as to how to answer her. I told her that God is so perfect that He hates sin. Not sure how to expand on that, I was interrupted by my very intuitive little seven year old. She said, "So it's kind of like if I hated pickles and someone tried to give one to me, it wouldn't be hard for me to say 'no' because I hated them so much?" Wow, what a great analogy! I couldn't have explained it better myself. God hates sin so much, it doesn't look the least bit appetizing. Which brings me to another thought: some of the best talks with our kids are at bedtime. Some nights we are just anxious to get them to bed and be done with our jobs and hang up our "parenting hats" for the night. Yet if we were to do that every night, we'd miss out on some deep theological discussions that happen when the lights are low and bodies are worn out from the day. It takes a little effort to be patient at that point of the day, but it's worth it!

Fishing for memories

2011-04-09T15:01:00.000-07:00

My Dad found out about the Klineline Kids Fishing day at Salmon Creek pond in Vancouver, WA and decided to take Rich and my kids. The girls have talked about fishing with Papa ever since they can remember and haven't gotten to yet. For five dollars each, the girls got a t-shirt and a really great fishing pole! I guess it's a huge event and with the help of the WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, 7,000 fish get dumped into the pond for the kids to catch. Each kid gets a 2-fish quota and 45 minutes to fish. There were even volunteers there to clean the fish for each kid! My girls both caught their two fish and had a great time. They didn't allow catch and release, so Papa has the fish and is going to cook them up for us sometime soon :)

Rich is in the middle of the picture in the orange sweatshirt with the girls on either side of him. Papa shares his expertise with Allie :)

Allie carried her bloody catch proudly!

Hummus endeavor

2011-04-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

I've decided I love hummus. It has to be especially flavorable hummus, but I love it. I don't remember the brand from Costco that is so delicious, but I walked by it yesterday and didn't buy it for $5.99 because I had a recipe for "Lick the Bowl Clean Hummus" from my Taste of Home magazine and was planning on trying it out. I thought, "I'd better try to save the money and make my own." So today I went to Winco for my big shopping trip and looked for one of the ingredients that is evidently very important for good hummus. Tahini. Ever heard of it? I had no idea it existed, but evidently it is sesame seed paste. I guess Winco usually has it, but they were out today. I figured that out after I looked all over the store by myself and then asked someone and we discovered it was missing. So I decided to go to Safeway before I went home because I really wanted to make that hummus. Instead of learning my lesson and asking before I started looking, I combed the store and couldn't find it. By the way, if you need to find tahini, both Winco and Safeway have it stocked with the peanut butter. So a lady helped me find it and then came the extra-discouraging part. It was $6.99! Maybe you don't think that's a bid deal, but I was trying to save a few bucks. I had to buy the garbanzo beans and a few other ingredients and now I'm out much more than the yummy no-effort Costco stuff would have cost me. I know the tahini will last for several batches of the homemade hummus, though, so I hope it ends up being cost-effective! It's what I get for trying to save a buck. BTW - I'll let you know how the hummus turns out. I was way too tired to actually make it after all my shopping today.

What I want to do

2011-04-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, after I had made time to play Memory and Disney Rumikub with Allie, and was in the middle of changing sheets and cleaning bathrooms, Allie exclaimed something in frustration. Before I share her statement, I'd like to point out what she was doing at the moment she said it: she was jumping on her cool indoor trampoline. So as she was jumping without a care in the world, Allie said to me, "Mom, you always do what you want to do!" Her sister was gone at school and I guess she was feeling a little bored. Of course my reply was, "Do you really think this is what I want to be doing right now?" I'm sure I probably felt the same way she does when I was her age. I'm glad my kids see me working hard. Avery often comments on how hard I work around the house and recognizes how much I need those foot rubs twice a year (Mother's Day and my birthday). And I guess I'm glad that it at least looked like I wanted to be doing what I was doing. Honestly, I was happy to be taking care of my home and family. I get a lot of joy out of providing a comfortable and clean home for the three most important people in my world. But let's face it: if I had been doing exactly what I wanted, I'd have been... hmmm... what would I have been doing??? reading a book? ...watching a good movie and eating pizza and drinking a milkshake? ...sitting on a cruise ship in the sunshine with some strawberry lemonade? ...at a spa resort in Greece getting some sort of exotic mud massage? Now that's something to think about.... :)

Our Adventures in Disneyland

2011-03-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, Rich and I decided we should go to my college roommate's wedding on the first Saturday of spring break in Sacramento. Then I started thinking, "Why don't we just keep driving and take our kids to Disneyland?" So Rich asked me to come up with an estimate of how much it would cost and then gave me the go-ahead to plan our family trip. We did it extremely cheap. We got a super price on our hotel through priceline, brought in all of our own food, and overall had a great time.

I have a theory, though, that it could have been a dream vacation if we had spent 3 times as much by staying in a Disneyland hotel, bought all our food, and helped ourselves to any souvenirs we wanted. However, it would have been just that - a dream! This made it possible. Not to say that others shouldn't have their dream vacation, but this is how we did it and it was still a great family time.

I bought the girls Disney shirts on sale before we went left. They each had a new shirt every day for about the price of one of the shirts in the park. I love Mary Poppins! She was in the entrance on our first morning. Daddy and his girls :) One of the best things about our trip was that my parents came with us. It was so fun to have them! And it turned out to be an extra blessing that my mom broke her foot before we left Oregon. Bummer for her, but it caused her to need to rent a wheelchair and since she was in a wheelchair, we went to the front of every line! Mom, I promise we would have been glad to have you with us, even without the wheelchair!

Teacups! This is when it started raining.

Thankfully, this only lasted about an hour. I'm not sure we would have had a lot of fun if it had rained that whole day.

The girls taking a turn in Nana's wheelchair.

Gotta get a picture with Goofy!

It was so funny when we saw Minnie. I caught a glimpse of her and started dragging the girls and running! I'm so glad we got a picture with her.

Avery and her Daddy on the Jungle Cruise.

I tried several times to get a good picture in front of the castle of our family. Not only did the kids not cooperate, but you can't even see the castle very well.

My parents took the girls on a couple rides while Rich and I got a little date. It was so nice! We rode the Matterhorn (and had to wait 45 min. since my mom wasn't with us :) and shared a frozen lemonade in the sunshine.

One of my favorite things we did was the Princess Fantasy Faire. We waited in line for an hour and it lasted about 4 minutes. We didn't buy dress up stuff, get their hair done, or get their faces painted. But it was so great! Avery was so happy when Ariel was there. This was 2 days before Avery's birthday and we got her a birthday button to wear. In this picture, Allie is explaining to Ariel that it isn't really Avery's birthday.

I love this one!

Tianna from "The Princess and the Frog"

We were so happy to have Nana and Papa with us.

Here's another try at a great family pic.

I'm so glad we did this. The drives there and back were nuts - snow and rain and thunderstorms. But it made for an adventure. My kids were amazing on the drive. I don't believe we will be a Disneyland family, but we sure had a great time!

Feeling slightly crafty

2011-03-17T17:29:00.000-07:00

We will be celebrating Avery's birthday one day early this year, since we'll be in Disneyland. We'll be driving all day on her actual birthday and it would just be a shame to not celebrate it early while we're in "the happiest place on earth"! So I made her a shirt, in case the park is stingy and doesn't let her have a birthday button. I bought this shirt with the cupcake on it for $5 at Walmart and made my own appliques with some double-sided webbing and free-handed the letters. I can't wait for her to wear it!

Disney Adventure is Almost Here!!!

2011-03-09T07:56:00.000-08:00

That's right. We're actually getting to go to Disneyland! It's a trip I honestly thought probably wouldn't happen until my kids were twice the age they are now. We have the privilege of attending my freshman college roommate's wedding in Sacramento on the first Saturday of spring break. I got the wild idea to bring our kids with us and then keep on driving! My wonderful parents are meeting up with us after the wedding and doing Disney with us. Needless to say, we are beyond excited! Allie has just turned 5 and our last day in the park is the day before Avery's 7th birthday. I think they are at a great age to enjoy the park. A year or two ago would have been too hard, since they were still napping. And I just don't think we'd have had as much fun.

So I've done a few things to prepare. I'm making a map of our trip for them to mark our progress. I'm making a bingo game of things they will see on the way. I bought a kids atlas with activities for them for every state in the US. I've also purchased Disney shirts ahead of time - enough for each girl to have a new shirt every day. And Disney sunglasses... Oh, and I'm so excited about this one: a Minnie mouse jibitz (those little accessories for Crocs) for each of the girls - we love our Crocs!

So I'm looking for some more ideas for our trip. Tips on Disneyland? Tips for a road trip? I'd like some ideas for food - we're hoping to bring a lot of our own. I'm even planning on bringing a toaster for the hotel. Snack ideas? Games for the car? Anything!!!

A Change of Heart

2011-02-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

I love the quote from the movie, "Valentine's Day," where Jennifer Garner is telling Patrick Dempsey why he doesn't understand not appreciating the holiday. She says something along the lines of..." You wouldn't understand. But for the girls who remember having braces and playing saxophone in the marching band in jr. high, they have plenty of reasons not to like Valentine's Day..." She was basically describing me, except I was playing the trumpet in the concert band. Boy, those braces did a number on the inside of my lips as I jammed them into the trumpet mouthpiece... I remember listening on the intercom every year, hoping they'd call my name along with the hundreds of kids receiving flowers, candy, teddy bears, etc... Now, don't feel sorry for me! I never got anything at school from a jr. high boy, or even from my parents, but I came home to a loving family and always a gift from both my mom and dad. But I did really want to be one of the masses (it really was a mass of kids - the stage in the gym was packed with tokens of "love").

Well, I guess this year is my 11th Valentine's Day celebrated married to my husband. That's pretty wonderful :) We've started a habit of buying each other a cd on this holiday. I bought him a "best of the Beatles" cd and he bought me one of Nora Jones. A few years ago, Rich began buying the girls a gift just from him. He picks them each out a book. I figure that will change as they get a little older, but they still love it. I made a celebratory dinner for the family as my gift for them. We had sparkling cider, conversation hearts all over the table, heart pizzas, fruit salad, and heart-shaped brownies.
As my kids get older and we move into a new phase of life with them, I realize that you set the tone for what they will appreciate. If I buy them a ton of presents at every occasion, they will expect it and demand it. I love to shower them with things I know they will enjoy. But much more importantly, I want them to appreciate the relationships we share. So I'm trying to train my kids to appreciate the little things. My whole family loved just feeling special for the evening. They even got to eat the candy throughout the dinner (a tip from a friend)!

Valentine's Day is just another holiday in the list of those that are WAY more fun as a mom of two sweet, passionate girls and the wife of a great husband.

**side note: I don't whole-heartedly recommend the movie "Valentine's Day". I found it really entertaining, but as one who tries to be extremely careful about the movies we watch, there are a few questionable situations to be leery of...

Allie's Birthday

2011-02-15T10:59:00.000-08:00

My baby is five! She is so cute about it, too. She keeps thinking she can do things a little bit better, now that she's five. She'll attempt something, like maybe a cartwheel or something, claim that she can do it better now "because I'm five."

A couple days before her birthday, we met with a bunch of her friends at an indoor park in town. She's been begging me for weeks to take her. I thought this was a good reason to get over there. This is just about all the friends that came, all piled in the little-spinny-thing. What a cute bunch of kids!!

Time to pile out!

Pizza!

A few of the kids didn't want to cooperate, but here's a few of them back at our house for cake and presents. We are really blessed with a great group of kids for both of our daughters to be friends with.

Something has been funny on my photo library and I'm just wanting to get this posted, so I'm posting another picture sideways.

And another... this is Allie's present from us: a Koala pillow pet.

This one turned for me... Allie got a special doll from her grandma and grandpa.

We celebrated on her birthday by going out to breakfast with just the four of us. The girls think IHOP is about the best place on earth! It was a rare thing for us to do, so we really had a good time. We just kinda hung out for the afternoon, and then spent the evening with Gramma Ginny and Grandpa Rich. All Allie wanted to do was do a scavenger hunt, similar to the one I did a few weeks ago that I shared about. So I made some clues and we ended up at the pet store, the carousel, and one of our favorite places for dinner, Adam's Rib and Smokehouse. It was a great day!!!

Number 5 and She's Alive!

2011-02-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrated Allie's 5th Birthday. I can hardly believe it's been 5 years since I've had a baby! I was remembering how when I was pregnant with Avery, I used to worry a lot because she would stop moving for what seemed like days at a time. Avery turned out to be a pretty active little girl, but I should have known I was in for something with Allie. That girl was an active little booger in utero! She hasn't quit since. She runs EVERYWHERE she goes and has enough energy for all of us. She keeps me on my toes at all times. Lately I find myself saying constantly while we're out, "you need to respect people's personal space." I'm always apologizing to strangers because she bumps into them or just stands right up against them! But her hugs are worth it all! That girl gives the best hugs :)

Sorry for some of the photo positions. I just didn't have the time to switch them around, but I love the pictures.

Allie, I can't imagine my life without you! I'm sure it would include a few more restful days and a few less wrinkles on my still-young face, but I wouldn't give you up for anything. I pray for you constantly and look forward to seeing God harness that energy and passion into a young woman who will bless His name. You fill my heart up to its fullest!

A Rowzee "First"

2011-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

We were on a weekend trip with friends when the moment arrived. Avery said, "Mom, my tooth is hurting a little." My response was, "Well, I guess you could have a loose tooth..." So I tried a little wiggle and could hardly believe it - it was LOOSE! Avery sat in her chair, very calmly, but with a huge grin on her face as I ran throughout the house announcing to everyone that Avery had a loose tooth! I'm not sure why, but I have been anxious for her to get a loose tooth. She's nearing seven years old and it seems that every one of her friends has lost several teeth already. I just hadn't had that experience yet of having a child lose a tooth and was beginning to feel left out. I think it also has to do with the fact that I lost very few teeth as a child - most were pulled by the dentist. Not sure why, but my baby teeth would not leave my mouth without a fight! So I've just wanted to know that my daughters will not be becoming their dentist's best friend as I did.

It took nearly 3 more weeks of watching her wiggle it for it to finally come out. One night I just gave it a little tug - and out it came! She was shocked! I've already seen her do quite a few things in her life that she should be very proud of, but I think this was the proudest I've seen her.

A quick background on why there are TWO missing teeth. She cracked her top tooth as a 1 1/2 year old and the dentist eventually had to remove it.

Soon after I realized she had a loose tooth, I decided I had to make her a tooth pillow. I had one as a kid and can still picture it in my mind. I decided my daughter needed one, too! You have to have a little pocket for the tooth and for the tooth fairy to leave the little treasure!

We've never really encouraged belief in fictional characters. I wasn't prepared when the question came up about Santa, so I just told the truth right away. I've never dispelled the tooth fairy fantasy, although I haven't exactly encouraged it, either. So I got a real kick out of Avery's comment the next morning after she got a dollar in her pillow. She said, "Well, I guess I know now that the tooth fairy is real!"

Family Fun Night

2011-01-21T19:40:00.001-08:00

We love family fun nights. We usually have them on Fridays, but sometimes I'll just plan one in the middle of the week if I'm getting the "vibe" that our family needs it. I sat in a special little mothers' brunch this morning and was encouraged to put some effort into making some memories with my family. I had already told the girls, as I dropped Avery off at school, that we'd have a family fun night tonight. Avery likes to go through her day knowing she has that to look forward to. I thought it would be fun to make up a few clues and do a kind of scavenger hunt around town with our little family of four. However, I couldn't come up with a lot of things we could do that didn't involve eating at every stop and spending a ton of money. Perhaps you'll think my destinations less than wonderful, but this was last minute and on a limited budget!

Here's our first clue:

This is a really good place to go.

Your mother and father are telling you so.

So will you put on a smile and buckle up tight

And get ready for a really fun family night!

Avery actually laughed when she guessed Goodwill. She thought it would be ridiculous that we would go there. She said, "It's not really Goodwill. That's not fun." um.... my thought had been that we'd go pick out a new-to-us movie or a game. So I showed my little bit of disappointment at their lack of enthusiasm and Rich sent me to the car and had a little talk with them. Whatever he said worked! They were quite grateful and perfectly happy the rest of the night. We ended up picking out a game and got home and realized there were no directions!

I really only had a short while this afternoon to come up with anything. So, we only ended up with two destinations. I had a lot of fun with it, though, so I'm thinking I'll do this again and maybe spice it up a little more. :)

Second clue:

Next is the rock that's the opposite of hot.

Something salty to eat, it is not.

Creamy and sweet, it's always good to eat.

We'll end our night with a fun treat.

I'm so glad I did this. We all had a great time. My favorite part is the fact that it made Rich really happy. Several times throughout the night, he just mentioned how fun it was that I planned something different for us. My sweet daughters thanked me over and over at the end of the night for their scavenger hunt. I asked Allie as I tucked her in bed what her favorite part of her day was. Before I share her answer, I should explain that she got to play with a good friend at church, and then went to the carousel and McDonald's with her Papa and cousin. She had a day full of Allie-size fun! So of course my heart melted when she said the scavenger hunt was her favorite part of the day.

One of my other thoughts for a destination was the library, but it closed too early. Please share if you have any good ideas of a cheap (or better yet, FREE) evening family activity to include on a future Rowzee family scavenger hunt!

Joy not grief...

2011-01-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

As I write this, my oldest daughter is complaining about school and I'm getting frustrated! My other daughter is provoking her. I'm trying to stay calm. I remind one daughter that we do not allow complaining and arguing and the other not to stir up trouble. And it's not even 7am yet!

Being a mother is full of so many joys! I see my sweet daughters growing in so many areas. They are such a delight. And other times they're really not. I was finishing Hebrews this morning and a little gem struck my fancy. Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you." How could I not apply that to my parenting? I am the "ruler" over my children, along with my husband, as I truly watch out over their souls. I have such a huge job! I can't do it when they are not submissive to me, which is more often than I'd like. Oh man, my daughters are fighters! My biggest battle is teaching them to submit. But the big clincher for me is that little bit toward the end - "Let them do so with joy and not with grief..." Now, I realize they contribute to whether or not I can do so with joy, as they submit, but there is still an encouragement to me as the authority to teach them with joy and not grief.

Avery's New International Readers' Version says it this way: "Obey your leaders. Put yourselves under their authority. They keep watch over you. They know they are accountable to God for everything they do. Obey them so that their work will be a joy. If you make their work a heavy load, it won't do you any good."

Boy, I sure could have stood to hear this when I was a teenager! I have a feeling this is going to be a verse I end up going back to many times over the next decade and half...

Avery's worst part of the day

2011-01-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

There are so many things we have to do every day that are not a whole lot of fun. Of course my complaints are very different from Avery's. She six years old. I mean, really. What does she have to complain about? Wanna know what makes her break into tears almost every night and takes her 5 times as long as it should? Brushing her teeth. She whines and complains and takes FOREVER to brush her teeth. Many nights she stands in the bathroom crying at the mirror with the toothbrush just hanging out of her mouth. And my sympathy goes right out the window. I can't feel sorry for her at that moment.

So, she has grown in so many ways. Her prayer request on more than one occasion recently has been that she can brush her teeth without getting upset. At least she recognizes her struggles! Avery is far from perfect, but she is such a delight... just not at the moment I tell her every night to brush her teeth...

That's what friends are for...

2010-12-26T21:08:00.000-08:00

We always like to do a little Christmas celebration with our good friends, the Libbys. We had them over for dinner a couple nights before Christmas.

Allie loves her Uncle Russell.

I guess all the kids love him!!

We had the kids get in their pajamas and I gave them tickets for the "Honda Pilot Express". We headed over to a popular spot in town to check out Christmas lights. It's just a normal neighborhood that every year goes all-out in their light display.

Who knew way back when Connie and became friends in high school as we sang in a singing group and cheered on the cheerleading squad together, that years later we'd get the blessing of sharing such a family friendship? God knew and I am so thankful for such a gift. It's truly priceless.

And I don't know whose idea this was, but there ya have it!

A Rowzee Christmas

2010-12-25T20:40:00.001-08:00

My kids are "nestled all snug in their beds" on this Christmas night. We've had such a wonderful holiday! Once we got through a very rough first few days of Christmas vacation, we settled into a happy rhythm of enjoying the holiday. We sure had a tough go of it as Avery tried to adjust to being off of school. Wow. But it got much better and then it was Christmas Eve!

I kinda wanted to skip it, but decided it was worth the mess and we got our Christmas cookies done. We hardly ate any, but you just have to have the memory of making them together.

The Rowzee girls at our best.

Ok, maybe this is a little better...

Christmas morning! I remember every Christmas morning, waiting at the top of the stairs while my Dad video taped us "patiently" waiting to be allowed to come down. Such happy times!

What a great dad! Rich kept us all at the top of the stairs before they came down and read to us the Christmas story. I admit I even squawked a bit when he started with the birth of John the Baptist. He gingerly pointed out my teenager-like behavior: even I didn't have the patience to sit for more than one chapter! The girls were troopers and sat fairly still and listened well.

Allie and Avery had each picked out a present for their sister. Allie received a play-dough set from Avery.

Allie picked out a pillow-pet for Avery. They both loved their present from their sister!

"Thanks for my present, Sis!" I promise that's not a headlock - it's a hug:)

We had such a wonderful Christmas. For a change, we were home all day on Christmas, having celebrated a week before with Rich's parents and on Christmas Eve with my family. We had all day to test out the presents and enjoy being together. I was really happy to have my parents and sister come for the afternoon and have dinner with us.

However, we heard early in the morning that a dear, sweet gal from church went to be with the Lord this Christmas day. Needless to say, I baked my pie with a heavy heart and prayed throughout the day for so many people I know who had a very difficult Christmas day. Beth Bartruff was an incredible woman of God and I can think of nothing more amazing than knowing she's in her perfect, heavenly body with her Savior right now.

Man, what a reminder this year of just how fragile life is and how much I DON'T want my life to be about my possessions. The moment Beth left her earthly body, anything she ever owned on earth became meaningless, besides what brought her closer to her Savior as she walked closely with Him. May we be captivated by Christ more every day and I pray that "the things on earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."

Showtime

2010-12-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

I grew up singing in a children's Christmas musical just about every year. For the last 8 years that we've been at our church, Salem Heights Church, I've watched the wonderful kids' musicals around the holidays and dreaming of seeing my own child on the stage, singing her heart out. I couldn't believe this was the year! It became more than just that, though. It became a family affair. I agreed to help my good friend, Wendy, direct the program this year. So we began rehearsals in October and I had so much fun that I don't think Wendy's going to get rid of me, even if she wanted to! Rich has become quite skilled in our church's lighting system, so he took on the job for the event. Allie provided for entertainment and extra bathroom breaks for me, since she just tagged along the whole time.

There's something about a kids' choir. I watched the audience during the first performance on the first song and watched the smiles grow wide the moment those kids opened their mouths. It's something you don't hear every day: 40 or so kids singing their little hearts out. And the best part is: people will listen. They don't feel intimidated or "pointed at" by sweet, cute little kids. We sang to three packed-out audiences and brought down the house every time! I was busy during all the performances, so I didn't get any pictures of them on the stage, but here are a few pictures of Avery and her friends before the show.

Hailey and Avery

Hailey's in a "Rowzee Sandwich"!

Now doesn't this just melt your heart? Our sweet friend and next door neighbor, Esabella, and her brother both sang in the program. We're SO GLAD to have them at church with us now!

And this would be Allie and a couple of her buddies before the peewee choir went on. I haven't read it, but I'm sure it's in the "Four Year Old Handbook" to be as uncooperative as possible when your mom really wants a picture. At least Allie's translation has it...

God was amazing with what He enabled us to pull off this year. The kids were awesome and the message of salvation was so clear! Can't wait for next year!

A New Kind of Christmas

2010-12-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

As soon as my kids were old enough to understand the concept of receiving presents, I approached every Christmas with the plan to keep the amount of presents to a reasonable amount. It somehow always seems to grow a bit out of control, though! What parent doesn't love to buy gifts for their children? The result was a bit sickening. My kids get to the end of Christmas day and don't even care what's in the box, they just think there's more presents coming and they're entitled to anything left under the tree. That attitude is so far from the one I want Christmas to encourage in my daughters; the attitude I know Christ wants to see in them as a result of His miraculous birth so many years ago.

So, not only did we scale WAY back this year, but we decided to focus on someone else for a change. I suggested to my sisters-in-law on Rich's side that maybe we should sponsor a needy family or something instead of buying presents for the nieces and nephew. It was decided that we would all three families look on our own for a family to sponsor, buy presents and other needed items, and document the experience to share with one another. I don't know what else I expected, but God has already done amazing things through our endeavors. My sister-in-law in the Chicago area shares that after buying a few toys for "Toys for Tots", she stumbled upon a coworker in a great need this Christmas. She got help from others and they are putting together clothes and presents for this coworker and her daughter. This sister-in-law is bursting with joy! How much more exciting than simply adding another present under the tree for our very privileged children? Not to mention a wonderful teaching experience for our kids that will last much longer in their memories than any toy we could buy them.

So our family decided to inquire with Avery's school counselor about perhaps helping a needy family within our school. We went shopping as a family to pick out presents and then wrapped them together.

We delivered these gifts to school, along with a bag of groceries and it felt so good! Of course, I couldn't pass up a chance to share the love of my Savior and wish the family the peace of knowing Christ in a cute little Christmas card :) James 2:15 says, "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?" I hope this is just the beginning of my children learning to put feet to their faith, and I pray that the family we were able to bless this year would be much more touched by the love of a Savior, than a few simple gifts at Christmas.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-12-08T19:24:00.001-08:00

A few years ago I was having lunch at a friend's house and she had these delicious cookies for desert. I made sure I left with the recipe! There is something great about these cookies. They always turn out soft, even if they're overcooked a little. I freeze them in balls on a sheet for a couple of hours, then pop them in a freezer bag to pull out in a hurry to bake. I also bake some and freeze them in packs of one or two to pull out for school/work lunches. The peanut butter flavor is pretty mild, in case you're not a huge peanut butter fan. I am, though, and I love them! I had a couple people ask for the recipe, so I thought I'd post it.

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tbs. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
additional sugar

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt; add it to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.

Roll into 1 inch balls; roll in additional sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes, or until golden brown.

Again, I freeze them once cooled, and also in balls before I bake. Of course I bake a few to eat immediately, too! I usually make 3 batches at a time. The longest part of the process is just rolling the balls in sugar - but it's worth it! Please leave a comment if you end up making them and tell me what you think!

Merry Halloween!

2010-12-04T21:35:00.001-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but today Halloween is on my mind. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Some of my best childhood memories are of dressing up and trick-or-treating with all the neighbors for what seemed like hours. So, as a mom, I have so much fun with my kids on Halloween. This year, Avery was a kitty cat. When I continued to ask Allie what she wanted to be, she finally decided on The Cat in the Hat. Perfect description of my daughters: Avery wants the be the authentic, pretty kitty and Allie wants to be the silly, cartoon version.

I had a ton of fun painting Avery's face this year. What a cute kitty!

Here's my little Dr. Seuss kitty. She looked adorable, but that silly hat wouldn't stay on!!

I couldn't bear to let my "honorary" niece and nephew, Hailey and Ethan, spend Halloween at church in the childcare while their parents went to small group, so they trick-or-treated with us. It was much more fun with them along!! We added a "China girl" and a "skateboarder" to our family for the night.

Our neighborhood just isn't the best on Halloween, so we went to a friend's neighborhood and had such a great time! The girls were worn out on the very short drive home. Allie's face paint was looking pretty scary by the end of the night!

Life Abundant

2010-11-24T06:50:00.000-08:00

With Thanksgiving approaching, I can't help but document just how thankful I am at this moment in time. The thing about being thankful is that it gets your mind off of discontentment. If you're thankful, you can't be discontent. Colossians 3:15 says, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts...and be thankful." It's quite clear that God's peace comes when we're thankful. Paul talks in Philippians 4:11 of being content whatever the circumstances. He had learned the art of pure thankfulness - no matter what.

There are moments in life that are easier than others to find things for which to be thankful. I'm in one of those moments. Our heat was broken for a few days. Oh my, was it COLD!! I'm convinced God just wanted to stir me up a bit and remind me that nothing in the world is guaranteed - not even my warmth. It got fixed right before the freezing cold moved into the Willamette Valley. Thank you, Lord!!!

My family is healthy, my husband is still enamored with me after 10 1/2 years, my daughters' friendship is blossoming, and we're surrounded by family and friends who love us. These are just a few reasons why life is good. However, there are so many more things to be thankful for.

I'm saved! I did nothing to deserve the peace I have in knowing my Savior. I have recently had the amazing opportunity to see a friend come to a saving knowledge of Christ. This is a friend I've prayed for for over 3 years and have worked so hard to maintain a relationship with, though we often saw things very differently. Of course we did! I had a Biblical perspective on life; she had a worldly one. But over the last year or so, she began to change. Before my eyes, I saw her soften and begin to listen to the Spirit calling her to Himself. Then, one day out of the blue, she told me she and her kids would like to come to church with me. Then we began to study the book of John together, just the two of us. During the second lesson, she began to realize that she was still part of "the world" and didn't want to be anymore. She had been striving so hard for the approval of people (and we all know how successful that can be) and admitted that happiness had eluded her. So, while we held hands and I listened, she spoke to the Lord and gave her life to the One who had given His life for her. I was shaking out of shock and joy! And in the last 3 weeks since her rebirth in Christ, we have had conversations that we never could have before. We are truly sisters in Christ and it is apparent to me that her faith is real.

As a result of this amazing experience with my friend, I have seen God's Word in a whole new way. As I study, I look through her eyes and am blown away with the beauty of His truth and the power of a transformed life. I can't believe the awesome privilege of getting to be a part of her experience with the Lord. Not only did I get to plant seeds, but I got to be a part of the harvest and now the discipleship.

So at this moment in time, I just can't help being thankful for the simple things. I'm saved, Jesus loves me - flaws and all, my children are learning of Him, my husband is walking with the Lord, and our house is HEATED! Thank you, Lord, for giving me abundantly more than I could ask or think.

Platforms

2010-11-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I found Avery trying to tie some Duplo blocks below her shoes to add some height. She was getting pretty upset that it wasn't working. I told her that even if she could get it to work, I wouldn't let her wear them to school. Avery continued to be upset and said she wanted to be taller at school. We continued to discuss the fact that there is only one other kid in her class that's small like her.

I'm sorry, Avery. There is no avoiding your genes. I was the smallest in my class, too. I had a friend from Laos named Vilavonne. I'll never forget her! She and I were smaller than all the rest. Everyone wanted to show that they could pick us up and carry us around.

Avery, just embrace it. There is absolutely nothing you can do about your height, except perhaps putting on some platforms. Preferably not made of Duplos. Although, we might be looking at a new fashion statement...

Things that make you go GGGRRRRRR!!!!

2010-11-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have a laptop. I haven't figured out what button it is that I randomly push yet, but it's my enemy. I had a very long, boring, informative post almost complete on how much I love not drinking caffeine and somehow I pushed "the button" and BAM - it's gone!!! The whole post. I went to edit my post hoping that it hadn't auto-saved the deleted post, but it had. Now you, my loyal reader, will have to wait for another day. I know you'll be waiting on pins and needles, but I just can't subject myself to another 45 minutes of rewriting it. Where the heck is that button???

The perspective of a six year-old

2010-10-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

As I was working with Avery on her lesson for our Tuesday night kids' church program (Club Rocksalt, very similar to Awana), she made a pretty profound statement in my mind.

"All the things we have on earth are just to keep us from being bored while we're waiting for heaven."

Memory Lane

2010-10-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

We've settled into a great school year routine. Avery's doing really well in first grade and Allie and I are loving our time together. I have plenty to do with home, family, and church, but I'm not overwhelmed like I have been in the past. So I just decided to look back and enjoy a short stroll down memory lane.

I always loved this picture of the girls. Allie ADORES her big sister :) That was back when those happy moments were few and far between. They still fight, but have realized how much fun it is to have a sister around as your best friend.

I don't know why, but I just love this picture of Avery and her Crispix! Kids are so funny :)

Making Cider and Memories

2010-10-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

My Dad has an old apple press that he got from my grandpa. He makes delicious apple cider every fall and we all love it! He promised the kids this year that they could help him make some cider, so we went over for the afternoon to help and got to see the whole process.

Allie, Papa, Roderick, Makinley, and Josh picking apples in the backyard.

Tons of apples being washed.

Papa feeding the apples into the grinder.

Look at that cider coming out!

Avery got to press the apple grinds down first.

Avery and her Papa.

Roderick and his Papa pressing the apples.

Allie gets her turn to press the apples.

Allie gets the first taste!

So first they pick the apples. Then, the apples get washed and fed into the grinder. Next, the apple grounds get pressed and every bit of juice gets squeezed out. Finally, the juice gets strained and poured into jugs. It takes a lot of work!

The kids each got to fill up a jug to take home.

This is just about my favorite picture ever! These are four of my favorite people in the whole world! There's a lot of love in this pic! :)

Tonight, as I sip on my mug of warmed cider that I regularly enjoy, I'll be even more thankful for it, knowing all the hard work that my Dad goes through to make it. I'm so glad my kids got to share this fun memory with their cousin and Papa.

Cheering for the Bolts

2010-09-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I can't avoid it. I'm a Chargers fan by marriage. Rich is die-hard and I love that about him. It's fun to care about something your spouse cares about! The Chargers finally came to Seattle during the regular season and it was on the perfect weekend - two days after Rich's birthday. We asked our good friends, Tracy and Deanna Jones to join us. Of course they are Seahawks fans, but we haven't let that hurt our friendship :)

As we had parked and were walking to the game, Rich saw a Chargers foam finger propped up against a light pole. He said something about wishing he could have it. The homeless lady sitting nearby said someone left it there hours ago and she was sure we could just have it! So we took it!

This just made me laugh. This is the line to get into the building next to the game (they had games and promotional give-aways for fans). They searched each person, so they had separate lines for men and women. This was the one time the men's line was MUCH longer!

These are the women waiting for their men in the other line :)
Deanna and I waiting for the boys. What a good friend!!

These were not our seats, but we walked down and enjoyed the view for a while.

Beautiful Seattle! The Space Needle is in the left side of the picture.

Chargers taking the field.

Seahawks taking the field. It was fun when they called out the starting lineup and each player came out alone. The crowd was crazy!!! My ears were ringing the whole time. I've got to give credit to the Seahawks fans - they love their team!

It didn't take long for the guys sitting next to me to move over! Maybe there weren't willing to sit next to Chargers fans.

Tracy and Deanna cheering for their team.

Look at those pretty blue eyes on my handsome guy!

Qwest Field is just really pretty. I love that we still had a view of the city.

Sooo.... sadly the Chargers lost. We were quite surprised since they were expected by most to win. It was a close game, though, and we were on the edge of our seats. I was reminded that I really enjoy watching football. Sunday afternoons are good for so many other things and I seldom make the time to sit down and watch a game with Rich. It was just a blast to watch in person, though. This is the last Bolts touchdown that didn't actually count, since Rivers unfortunately didn't get the play off in time.

Exciting for Seahawks/Annoying for Chargers: 2 kick-off returns in one game - both by Leon Washington for the Seahawks. This is what the crowd looked like after the second one. Crazy!

I would have loved to have seen the Chargers win in person. However, the loss had very little affect on my enjoyment of the whole experience. I got away with my husband and some really good friends. We had great conversation, lots of laughs, and made some wonderful memories. Rich and I got up early Sunday morning and had coffee at Starbucks while Tracy and Deanna slept in a bit. This weekend was really about getting a bit of a break and remembering that we're a couple. Children are blessing - time away from them is a blessing, too! :) And what's this? I'm holding my husband's hand? Oh yeah, baby!

Ramona!

2010-09-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

We recently watched "Ramona and Beezus", which is SUCH a good movie. We don't buy a lot of movies, but this will be one we definitely try to own soon. I highly recommend it to any of you families who, like us, are touched by healthy, loving, family relationships being portrayed in clean and entertaining movies that the parents can actually sit through without wanting to jump out the window. Anyways, the whole movie, I just kept thinking, "this is soooooooo Allie". I've begun calling Allie "Ramona" at times, usually as I clean up another mess or watch her do something crazy like Ramona would do. You see, like Ramona, most of Allie's scrapes do not originate from a decision to be naughty, it just ends up looking that way. For example, she and I are eating our lunch and I just looked over at her and all 10 of her fingers are dipped in her chili bowl and she's lifting them to her mouth. That girl!

She started her second year of preschool today. We changed schools and she is in a preschool that is part of the Salem-Keizer Public Schools. Her teacher seems excellent and we picked this one on recommendation from a good friend, whose son is in class with Allie. I was a bit sad to be dropping her off this morning, but come on. It's 2 1/2 hours 3 days a week. I think I'm still going to have plenty of time with "Ramona". She has become my buddy, though. She's my shopping buddy, cuddle buddy, shower buddy (TMI?), baking buddy, and probably a few more.

I don't really have an explanation, other than... Ramona!!!

I think this is going to be a good year for us. She and I will still get two days a week to spend home together. I'm missing Avery quite a bit at this point. I keep wishing I could go see her at lunch, but I did that last week on my birthday and she had a hard time when I left. We both are struggling a bit with the adjustment. God has great things in mind, though, and I want to be a part of it! Anyway, Allie is such a blessing and I'm excited for all she's going to get to experience this year in preschool.

Ready for the bar exam

2010-09-16T16:21:00.000-07:00

I really hope I'm not breaking some sort of oath by making it known to the general public that I have recently served on a grand jury. Today was my last day. Last week I showed up on Tuesday and the clerk asked me if I was here for grand jury. In my ignorance, I didn't even know. Then I glanced at my jury summons and noticed that, in giant bold print, it said GRAND JURY. hmmm... Maybe I'm not the person they want on their jury if I can't even pay attention to something that obvious. I didn't even know there was a difference. As we finished our last case today, I reflected back to what seems like months ago (which was only a week and a half) and was amazed at how much I've learned about law, law enforcement, and crime in my own community.

So, since I imagine many of my readers are as clueless as I was, I'll explain what a grand jury does. We were picked by a judge last week and were told we would serve every other day for two weeks. Half of us would be on Tuesday/Thursday and the other half would be Mon/Wed/Friday. The Tuesday/Thursday group would have an additional service requirement of touring a prison facility. That's right. I went to prison. Anyway, we got about a 2 hour crash course in law and crime and learned everything from the difference between theft, robbery, and burglary, to what kinds of questions we're allowed to ask witnesses, to what amount of money stolen turns a theft into a felony ($1,000 in case you were interested). Then we were "ready". Basically, the District Attorney's office brings cases before us, almost always including at least one witness, presents any other evidence that is available, and we vote and decide if there is enough evidence to send the case on to trial (an indictment). We don't hear from a defendant and usually there is a lot more evidence yet to be uncovered.

What more can I say? I was not prepared for the severity of some of the cases. I am not fearful of my community now, but I am shocked at the nature of the lives that other people lead within blocks from my home. I cannot summarize this experience without giving my hearfelt gratitude and expressing how deeply I am impressed by the law enforcement officers in Salem and the surrounding areas. I have no idea how many patrolmen, detectives, sheriff's deputies, and drug officers I met. Every one of them was incredibly professional, extremely courteous, and it was apparent they took their job very seriously and were giving their absolute best effort every day to protect our community. I just can't say enough how impacted I was by my contact with them.

I must say, I had more than one person ask why didn't I just try to get out of it. First of all, if I believe God to be sovereign, then I have to believe He had this in mind for me. I have enough support that I was able to find childcare. I am not a breastfeeding mother. I possibly could have claimed that I was the sole caregiver of my children, but I'm not sure the judge would have excused me. More importantly, I felt pretty strongly that I needed to serve. I figure that if I was accused of something, I would want someone like me on their jury! I'm thinking that the person that has no life, for whom it is no inconvenience to be on a jury, one who is making minimal contributions to society - this person I'm not too excited to have on my jury.

On top of all the experiences concerning our cases, God had other things in mind. I began a conversation on our second day of service with the man who sat next to me. He was a retiree and was reading a book that I had noticed was about the apostle Paul. Well, we proceeded to "discuss" Christianity for the next 45 minutes. He disagreed with just about everything I had to say and was quite patronizing of my faith. His final request was that I admit that others could be right. I apologetically said I just couldn't agree with something that contradicted the Bible. During this whole conversation, only one person had left the room. I was in a room with 5 other people, very plainly claiming my faith in Christ for my salvation and my belief that the entire Bible is inspired by God. It doesn't get any better than that for growing your faith!

The other thing I would expand on was something I mentioned earlier: I went to jail. Yes, I spent time in the slammer. Every prison is legally supposed to be toured by a grand jury every year. We toured the Oregon State Correctional Institution yesterday. We saw many inmates. We talked with two men serving time for murder. We saw their cells. It was quite a sobering experience. I'm not sure why we have to tour the prison, but one of my thoughts is that because of that, there are people in our community who have seen inside prisons and are telling others of what they witnessed.

This whole experience, in fact, was just so eye-opening. Of course I was not naive enough to think bad things weren't happening around me. However, as a result of this experience, I have a broader understanding of pain and struggles that are happening literally down the street. Also, I have had direct contact with the real-life faces of "law" and "order". Those DAs are working so hard to get and keep criminals off the streets. I really have a renewed faith in our legal system. Even my fellow jurors took their job very seriously. Boy, these last 2 weeks will not be quickly forgotten.

A First for Avery

2010-09-08T09:42:00.001-07:00

Well, I did it. I dropped my firstborn child off for an entire day of school. I won't see her again until 3:15. For a mom who has been home with her children since their birth, this is a big deal. I can't begin to explain the pride I have in this sweet girl. When I think back to our struggles when she was 2,3, and 4, I can hardly believe the moment we're in now.

The other day I was reminded of the first time I tried to take Avery on a bike ride. She screamed her head off the entire 5 minutes from the back of my bike. She was 2 years old. I attempted a time or two more, but she hated it every time. Now she rides her 2-wheeler with confidence and begs me to let her ride her bike.

Allowing and encouraging your kids to grow up can be a scary thing. But that's what my job is all about - giving her wings, teaching her to fly, and then letting her do it.

So here she is: my first grader!!!

We went on a search for the perfect backpack for Avery. She's not your typical 6 year old American girl - Barbie and Tinkerbell are fine and all, but MARIO takes the cake! So when we found a pink one, we knew it was the one!

Walking into her classroom.

I sure wish I could be a fly on the wall today! I wrote her a note, sent her favorite (bite-size) candy bar in her lunch, and left her to her day. Her teacher is the age of my parents and I hear she is a neat Christian woman. She is a seasoned teacher with her "ducks in a row", so to speak. I was thinking about why I feel so peaceful this morning, and I know a lot of it is because I'm so glad about who her teacher is. However, I'd like to think God has been growing and preparing me in all my anxiety about letting her go. I feel so blessed with where He brought me and has placed Avery! It is going to be a wonderful year!

Pepper Jack Meatloaf

2010-09-06T18:13:00.000-07:00

I tried a new recipe tonight that I thought I'd share with you. First of all, it's from "Taste of Home 5-10-20" cookbook. All recipes either take 5 ingredients, 10 minute prep, or 20 minutes to the table. My mom got it for me for Mother's Day and I've got a ton of recipes flagged to try. There are a lot of pictures and the whole idea of the cookbook is right up my alley - good, homemade food that doesn't take all day to prepare.

Pepper Jack Meatloaf

1 egg

1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1-1/2 lbs ground beef

1 cup grated pepper jack cheese

-Combine egg, bread crumbs, onion, salt and pepper. Add beef and mix well.

-Press half of the beef mixture in a greased 8x4x2 inch loaf pan on the bottom and sides.

-Sprinkle 3/4 cups cheese over the meat.

-Pat remaining beef mixture over cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 50-55 minutes until beef is no longer pink and meat is 160 degrees. Sprinkle remaining cheese and bake 5 minutes more. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serve with salsa if desired.

Here's my in-process pic, before I added the top layer of beef.

All done!

Here's my plate before I devoured it. It was so good!

So, Erin's review is that it was a delicious and simple recipe that took minimal work on my part and my family LOVED it!

Sunrise moment

2010-09-06T06:43:00.000-07:00

I can probably count on two hands how many times Allie has slept past 7 in the past year, maybe two years. She is my early riser and I can't fault her for it, since she gets it from me. She just always tells me, "I'm not tired!" I've tried many things to get her to sleep later and now I'm constantly telling her to go to the playroom and be quiet until someone else wakes up. That doesn't work, either. Anyway, I wasn't surprised when she was up at 6:20. I was awake, too, so we went downstairs to start our day.

We decided to wrap up in a blanket and sit on the porch to admire the sunrise. As we snuggled outside, enjoying the beauty of a quiet morning, Allie asked me, "Mommy, how did God make outsides?" That kid just melts my heart! It was not only an adorable question, but it was yet another opportunity to share with my sweet daughter about God's greatness. His incredible power to create from nothing by simply speaking is just mind-boggling. Then I said a simple prayer aloud, thanking God for His power and creativity.

Do you take those opportunities with your children? When they ask a simple question, do you take to time to once again share God's truth? Those quiet moments can be so influential to their hearts. It's not a sunday school lesson, just a quick moment when we get to tell our impressionable children of God's goodness.

And even I've been guilty of thinking my job as "Mom" can be a bit boring or just simply made up of being everyone's personal servant, merely filling everyone's physical needs. That's only my masquerade - it's what gets me in the door. My REAL job is pointing my children (and anyone else who will hear me) to our Savior. Pretty good gig, I'd say!

Found a Little Sun

2010-08-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

Just about all summer long I've heard friends tell of a trek to the coast, only to be met with overcast skies and tons of wind. So when I saw on the news that the coast was supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny, I decided I'd better get my kids over there to enjoy the beach for the day. My neighbor and friend joined me, along with her kids. We reached Lincoln City and were quite sad to see the brown, foggy sky just over the ocean. Behind us was a beautiful blue sky, but over the ocean was just depressing. We didn't have much time, but we decided to drive the coastline a bit and hope to find some sun. We found it! Literally, one little patch at Siletz Bay was glistening and sunny. So we parked and had a great time! Mackenzie's older son is so sweet and plays great with his sister and her friends. Her daughter is Avery's very good friend who will be going into first grade at the same school.

Here's my tan blondie!

Good buddies!

Allie show'n off her sandy body. She's a nut, what can I say?

Our attempt at Superman!

Buried alive!

Oh man, there was so much sand everywhere when we got home! I'm so glad we took the kids and made the memory. We love our neighbors and are blessed to have them for friends!

Short Summer

2010-08-24T14:39:00.001-07:00

This has been the shortest summer ever. Hands-down. I know we've done a few things and have had some fun, but it just plain hasn't been long enough! I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact that two weeks from tomorrow I will be dropping off my firstborn daughter to first grade. I'll wave goodbye to her at 9 am and won't pick her up until 3:15. How in the world did this become necessary and expected for a mother to do that to a six year-old? Let's be honest, Avery will be just fine - great, even. But what about me??? It's only been six years since I gave birth to her - I've just begun raising her!

As I explained my struggles to a friend whose children are several years younger than mine, I realized that I have already had Avery for 1/3 of the time that she is likely to spend living in my house. That fact really hit me. There's a reason we don't wait until they are 18 to start kicking them out the door. They've got to start developing an understanding of who they are when mom isn't there staring at them, waiting for them to make a decision (ok, prompting them..).

So, instead of dwelling on all the reasons I am so reluctant to send her (such as: will she actually eat her lunch?; will she choose good friends?; I'm going to miss her!!!), I'm really trying to focus on the many reasons she's going to love first grade. She'll get to go to music class, p.e., eat lunch with friends (hopefully), make new friends, and that little brain of hers is going to soak up all that knowledge like a sponge! But, boy, I'll be so ready to see her when she runs out of those school doors every afternoon!

Recent Family Pictures

2010-08-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

Earlier this summer we had some family pictures done. My good friend, Wendy Kivett, is a great photographer and did a great job capturing my kiddos' spirit!

Don't know how many pictures I have of Allie sucking her fingers. I also don't know when or how we're going to break her of it! But she sure is cute when she does it!

My soon-to-be first grader! What a sweetheart!

Allie without her fingers in her mouth.
I've got one more year before this girl's in kindergarten.
Say it isn't so!

The rowdy Rowzee girls.

I love this picture, except for Rich's unfortunate face he's making. This won't be on our wall, but it almost made the cut!

As I write this, I'm in a moment of discouragement with the kids, just wondering if Rich and I are doing anything right. There is nothing in the world so challenging or more likely to make you feel like a complete failure than parenting. I think I especially feel this way as a mother who so badly wants to parent in a godly manner. These thoughts are really for another post. I will say, however, that God's Word is the best source of comfort and I was renewed as I read it this morning. All of this to say, it's so nice to have good family pictures to remind me of the beauty of God's creation, that is my family!! My daughters really do love each other and we are a happy family - at least in our pictures! :)

Too private for facebook.

2010-08-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

Because I need to post something, as it's been way too long since my last post, and because this was just not quite appropriate to share with my 300+ "friends" on facebook, I'm sharing this little "diddy" with you faithful readers (all 5 of you). Granted, this website could technically be read by anyone on the internet and in that sense is a less private way of sharing details of my life. However, I'm sure many more people would stumble upon my facebook status as they read everyone's status updates, than people who stumble upon my blog.

How's that for an intro?

My rare moment of quiet reflection was interrupted by a sweet little voice and a roving hand pushing around my shower curtain. Allie exclaimed, "Hello, Naked Lady in the shower! I love you!"

Not sure when, or if ever, the whole idea of privacy comes into the mix when you're raising daughters. For now, I'm just happy to be loved by such a sweet (and spicy) little girl.

Love me some pizzas on the "barbie"!

2010-07-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

My friend Emily introduced me to barbecuing pizzas a few years ago and we've been doing it every summer since. I've done it with all kinds of pizza doughs, too, but I've found my favorite, so I thought I'd share. Also, I apologize for not having pictures. We just made it two days ago and I meant to take pictures, but I forgot and a couple people have asked for tips and recipes, so I thought I'd better just post this. Maybe I'll do another post later with pics.

I got this recipe for pizza dough out of my church cookbook. You know a recipe out of a church cookbook is tried and true!

Erin's Favorite Pizza Dough
4 1/2 c. flour
1 T. rapid rise yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. very warm water
3 T. olive oil

In large bowl, combine 3 cups flour, undissolved yeast and salt. Stir very warm water and olive oil into dry ingredients. Stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead dough on lightly floured surface (or in a mixer with the dough hook). I use the dough hook in my mixer and run it on medium speed for just a few minutes. Knead or mix until smooth and elastic, about 4-6 minutes. Spray with cooking spray and cover for 10-30 minutes until it's about doubled in size. Punch dough down and split into 4 balls. (if you're just baking pizza in the oven, you could just make 2 balls. However, for the grill, it's easier to work with smaller pizzas.) Roll into desired size and top. Bake at 450 for 15-20 minutes (or grill!).

Ok, so that's my dough recipe. Once you have the dough ready, brush the top of the rolled dough with olive oil (or veg. or canola oil if you're feeling thrifty). Then, make sure you have all your toppings next to your preheated grill, ready to top. Keep it pretty low, so the dough doesn't burn. Place the dough on the grill, oiled side facing down. Oil the other side and then close the lid for 3-4 minutes to let the dough start to cook. Then flip your dough over and put your toppings on quickly. Once you have all your toppings on, close the lid and give them all time to melt and get hot. Check the bottom every few minutes to make sure it hasn't burned. Once you think it's done, take it off and impress everyone with your delicious pizza!!!!

Here's a few ideas for topping your pizza:

BBQ Chicken - instead of pizza sauce, use bbq sauce. Then top with mozzarella, grilled chicken strips, pineapple, red onions.

Greek Pizza - instead of pizza sauce, use a pesto or a creamy garlic sauce. Then top with feta instead of mozzarella, grilled chicken, olives, and artichoke hearts.

Gosh, the possibilities are endless: a salsa/refried bean base with taco toppings for a yummy taco pizza; canadian bacon and pineapple for a hawaiian pizza; I prefer a combo pizza with pepperoni, bell peppers, onions, and olives. Sometimes, because I need life to be simple, I only make pepperoni and I love it that way, too.

I gotta tell you, I love good pizza in any form, but pizza on the grill has an entirely different flavor and it's SO GOOD!!!!! Please give it a try and leave me a comment and tell me how it worked for you!

Ode to Marriage

2010-07-01T04:07:00.000-07:00

I went to find a recent picture of Rich and me to introduce this post and I couldn't find one. Sad! I found plenty of pictures of us, just not together. We're always the ones taking the picture of each other with the kids. Avery's always asking to take pictures, so I guess I'd better let her more often if I want to document the fact that we, indeed, are happily married and are together at all these activities we do with our girls!

Today is our tenth wedding anniversary. The fact that it's very early in the morning and I've been up a while with a bit of a tummy bug and we have plans to go away is not important...

I feel like I could write a book already on marriage and all that Rich and I have been through. If anyone out there reading this has been married much longer than us, I assume you're thinking, "Just you wait..." and I'm sure you'd be right in the assumption that there is so much more ahead for us to learn. However, God has not wasted a moment in the last ten years as He's sought to stretch us far beyond what we thought was our breaking point.

Think : Paula Abdul. I tried to quote a few lines from the song, "Opposites Attract", but I couldn't remember enough of the words. Honestly, I think it's one of those songs that I mumble quite a few of the lyrics of anyway, since I can't understand half of what they're saying. However, I think you get my point that I'm leading into the thought that Rich and I are OPPOSITE!!! Of course, the longer we've been married, the more we develop similar interests and passions. But at the core of our personalities, we really couldn't be more different. At the end of a church service, he can't get out of there fast enough, and I can't seem to get out of there at all! He likes to avoid conversation as much as possible (we've even gone through phases where he tries to use shortcuts, like saying an entire sentence to me using only the first letter of each word. ie: "Yes, I put out the trash" becomes "Y-I-P-O-T-T" and when I ask for an explanation, he says he wants me to figure it out, to improve my analytical skills. Yep.) and I crave lots of conversation. He is truly a pessimist (but making great improvements) and I, being a natural optimist, have become so even to a fault, as a result of combating his frequent negative expectations. I could go on about our differences, but I won't drag it out.

I'd say we first realized we were like everyone else and were going to have some struggles in our marriage when our first daughter was born. Suddenly, he wasn't quite so perfect and didn't live up to every expectation I had for him in life. And, I dare say, he probably thought the same thing about me. From there we really struggled. There have been times when I just wasn't sure how things were going to get solved.

I think our biggest struggle, at the root of any issues we may have, is our desire to fulfill God's design for a marriage. We very badly want to do this, and know that it's possible with the help of His Spirit. God wouldn't desire something of us and not equip us to achieve it. My nature very much desires control, and my stupidity believes myself to be right just about all of the time. Rich's nature is to let someone else take control. Not for him to be controlled, but just to let someone else do all the worrying and dirty work. I've had to apologize when I've realized I've slipped into a bad habit of correcting him in his parenting, or simply telling him to take a different route on our way to church. He's had to ask me to encourage him to make decisions, rather than just taking care of it myself. I don't share this lightly. It breaks my heart to think of what a struggle it is to please the Lord in this way. Tears come to my eyes as I remember how much I've failed as a wife in my desire to be right.

I have often found myself jealous of couples that seemed to me more compatible or that more easily fit the mold of a godly marriage. And those thoughts were lies meant to deceive and discourage me. No marriage is easy. No marriage is devoid of struggles and pain. I'll never forget the time my good friend Karin said to us, "You two are one of the most compatible couples I know. You're so sweet together." And Karin knows us!!! It was about the most wonderful thing to hear that someone who knew us very well believed this about us.

Marriage (along with parenting) has stretched me and brought me to such a deeper understanding of God and my salvation than I ever thought possible. Rich is such a wonderful husband! He is so sensitive to our daughters and grows daily in his desire to lead them in the ways of the Lord. He makes me feel like the most adored, beautiful woman on the planet. He loves to tell me he can't believe he "got me".

If you can relate to anything I've shared, I hope it encourages you that you are not alone. Satan wants to destroy the Christian marriage and loves it when sin starts to eat away at God's masterpiece. Whatever your struggles are, I'm happy to share that my marriage is an example of God's great love and goodness. He is faithful to His children when we call on His name.

We fail daily at our goal of a perfect, godly marriage. Some days are much worse than others. But we have really come a long way, Baby. I love Richie so much and am trusting God to keep working on us for as many more years as He chooses to give us, until one or both of us is before Him, face to face.

A "Must-Read" for your kids

2010-06-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

Rich's mom bought this book for the girls for Christmas. It's called "The Jesus Storybook Bible" by Sally LLoyd-Jones. A friend of hers had told her how wonderful it was and that was all it took for Gramma Ginny to buy it for her granddaughters. As soon as I started reading it, I understood why. It's really wonderful. It is in chronological order, of course starting with the creation of the world. Each story is pointing directly at Christ. It explains in a clear, but interesting way, why each story was included in the Bible - to point to our need for a Savior. Moms, dads, grandparents, this would make a great gift for any young child in your life - I'd say any kid under 10 would appreciate and really enjoy it.

I'm about half-way through reading it with my kids and we have just barely reached the arrival of Jesus. So far I have come across a repeated phrase that I think is neat. "Because God loves us with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love..." and they go on to explain something wonderful that He did in preparation of Christ's coming.

I'll include one more quote from the book. On the page right before it introduces the birth of Christ, it has a story of the prophet Ezra. The story ends like this:

"It had taken centuries for God's people to be ready, but now the time had almost come for the best part of God's Plan. God Himself was going to come. Not to punish His people - but to rescue them. God was getting ready to wipe away every tear from every eye. And the true party was about to begin..."

I think we could all use a reminder of just how vast His plan has been from the very beginning. And with that perspective, I seem pretty insignificant. Yet He calls me His child and chooses to use me, freckles and all!

Get the book and read it to your children! I guarantee it will spark some conversations and questions that can only point those little souls to Christ.

Camping in the Redwoods

2010-06-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

We've been talking about camping with our good friends, the Libbys, for a few years now. However, there was just one problem: we hate camping. Not really - we like the idea of camping and the thought of our children having fond camping memories, but the few times we've tried it since we've had kids, we just haven't had much fun. I was optimistic enough to think that probably had a lot to do with crawling, napping, young children. If you REALLY love camping, you're ok with putting up with that. If you are a fickle camper, like us Rowzees, it's just not worth it when you have young children. So we thought this might be the year for us, with children the ages of 4 and 6. I also think the key for us is the term I've dubbed "Destination Camping". I've always wanted to go to the redwoods and suggested we try that this year. So we booked a campground, sight unseen, and headed to Jedediah Smith State Park near Crescent City.

I'm sold! We had the most amazing trip. Other than Allie's CONSTANT desire for food, even though she's not hungry (it's a "bored" thing and it's not exclusively saved for camping), and her ability to hurt herself every 10 minutes or so, and both my kids' ability to need to use the bathroom at the most inopportune moments... it was a blast!

Gotta have some campfire pictures. Connie just had to get the giant campfire marshmallows we've spotted recently. Ethan was the only one that loved them. The rest of us found that we could not handle that much sugar in one blow! Thus, Connie's "this-is-way-too-much-sugar" face.

Avery and her smore.

Avery roasting another marshmallow that she didn't want to eat.

Avery and Hailey roasting hot dogs.

The Smith River runs right outside of our campground and we spent quite a bit of time out there. It was just beautiful! The guys fished, the kids did a little bit of everything, and the moms lounged and read our books (in between searches for a potty for our kids... or tree... or just a big rock...). Despite Allie's struggles, she is such a sweetheart! I just can't resist a snuggle from that girl!

Her Uncle Russell can't resist her, either. He helped her fish a little.

I really love this picture of Allie and Avery. Of course, they didn't fish for long, but it was a fun experience for them to try.

Avery fishing on her own.

Rich had decided he had to fish on this trip. I don't think he caught anything, but he had a really good time trying!

Those pretty girls dipping their feet in the water!

We went on a couple of beautiful hikes to really get a good look at the redwood trees. I was really blown away with the size and beauty we found. It's one more glimpse in the the size and creativity of our Great God, to have imagined and designed such a sight!

Avery peeking around a tree.

Connie snapped this one of Avery and me walking on a fallen tree. Doesn't it just seem like an Ewok will jump out at any moment?? :)

The Libbys and Rowzees in front of (what we thought to be) the biggest tree we came across.

This was taken right in front of our campsite. Really, this trip was one of the most fun times I've had with my family. I'm so thankful we did it and I'm VERY thankful for such amazing friends to share it with! I'm looking forward to many more trips just like it in the coming years!

She can't wait

2010-06-13T21:01:00.001-07:00

I love all of Avery's journal entries from kindergarten. She brought home her journal last week and this entry, one of her last ones, just made me smile.

translation: "I can't wait for all of the fun in my life."

She explained later that she was mostly referring to the things she was looking forward to about summer. Sometimes I worry that she's a little too interested in having fun, but then again, I don't think that's much different for the rest of us!

I lost my marbles... then found them again.

2010-06-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

If you keep up on my amazingly interesting life (not), then you may remember a post a while back about a hard time we were having with Avery and I came up with a solution that worked almost like magic. The marbles. I had a happy jar full of marbles and a sad jar that started out empty each day. Any rude speech to sister or disrespectful speech to parents made her have to move a marble to the sad jar. Then she had consequences for so many marbles moved. It worked literally overnight. I don't think she actually ever had to have consequences for marbles moved. She only ever had to move one or two a day, three at the most.

So fast-forward a month. I had put the jars away because we hadn't used them for a few weeks. Things started getting ugly. I mean U-G-L-Y. I got to the point again where I knew I was way too emotionally involved in my kids' rude behavior. We are a house full of girls (until Dad gets home) and we are very verbal and expressive. Many times those qualities manifest themselves in very positive ways... and other times it's very negative.

I didn't know what to do. I was beyond discouraged. I prayed, but my heart was feeling pretty stubborn and not very yielding to the Spirit. I justified my complaining spirit. My daughters wouldn't stop fighting - both with each other and me!

Then, in His timing, when I was finally willing to listen, He reminded me of THE MARBLES. Now, Avery is not the only one stirring up the pot in our house. However, she has a lot to do with the direction of the mood of the house. If she's watching her mouth and practicing discipline over her attitude, Allie is more than happy to get along, usually. And if the girls are getting along, I'm most likely to be very content. So the next day we brought out the marbles, with a few more raised standards: any complaining or arguing will now be cause to move a marble, in addition to the previously mentioned offenses; and there will levels of consequences with each marble moved.

Guess how many marbles she moved the first day? NONE. She's only moved one marble since was started a few days ago. This kid needs to a visual reminder, a tangible way to see the effect of her behavior. I really don't think it's even a fear of the consequences that's driving her, it's simply a better way to call it to her attention than mom lecturing again about her rude speech. It's hard to admit my words weren't being heard, but I think all of us moms can relate. I really do have a bad habit of turning my words into a way to punish my child - make them listen to me get my frustration out. Wow, what a great example of tempered speech, mom... ouch...

Anyway, I'm SO thankful for God's goodness and His faithfulness to me, His child, as I continue to attempt to point my children toward Him. And to somehow create a home where "self" is not served, but Christ.

Spring Soccer

2010-06-09T12:58:00.001-07:00

First of all, I think we decided against spring soccer for the next few years. The weather is so unpredictable here in Oregon in the springtime. Plus, I think we're just busier in the spring. So it was harder to be committed this season. If it was bad weather, we just stayed home! We did have a wonderful day a couple of weeks ago, and I caught some shots of Avery in action.

Gotta love that face!

Here she is heading for a goal!

This is just to prove she's not all buttercups and sunshine. :) I'm not sure why, but this is definitely a sulk.

I absolutely love to watch her play soccer. We're going to try out gymnastics this summer, and I'm sure we'll pursue a few other sports along the way, but she's got the makings of great soccer girl!

Today was a doozie...

2010-06-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

I have several reasons why today was kind of a bad day. None of them really matter, though. My husband, in a gentle, but sarcastic way, always seems to bring me back to reality. Nothing that I face in my every day life is really that terrible. I fed my family well (not that they ate it willingly), my children were healthy enough to fight with each other vigorously, my husband was a little late coming home from a good job, and I happened to feel a bit under-the-weather, which is quite rare. But, for whatever reason, today got me down. Finally taking a shower at 3 in the afternoon helped tremendously. Praying in the shower helped even more. I told the Lord that I needed to remember that I can only control how I respond - both to Him and to others around me. I can't make my children quit being selfish and I can't stop the words and actions that come from them. I can't even control my own passions on my own. All I can do is submit to His Spirit and let Him work on my heart.

I'm working on a study on God's sanctifying work in our lives. He truly desires me to be holy, as He is holy. Do I desire that? Do I really think that possible? Am I willing to let Him work on my kids in His timing? I have to, or I'm going to go crazy! I don't know how many calm "talks" I had with the kids today, trying to gently explain how awful they were being to one another. I'm not sure why today happened, actually, since they have really seemed to move into a good phase of being very good friends. But these days happen. But my words were just floating out in the air, not even going into their heads, much less their hearts.

Then I sit down to do my study and read Philippians 2:13 "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." And once again I'm reminded that He is the one who does the sanctifying work in my children, not me. And I so badly need Him to be working that out in my own life, if I ever hope to be the example I want to be to my daughters.

Grandparent Love

2010-06-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

I was just reminded recently of what a blessing it is to have grandparents around for our kids. Not just any grandparents, though. Our family is so blessed to have grandparents who really love our kids and genuinely love to spend time with them. Thank you, Nana and Papa and Gramma Ginny and Grandpa for being such a blessing in our lives!

Gramma Ginny (Rich's mom) was our "veterinarian" for Avery's "doggie party" birthday.

Papa (my dad) and Allie's birthdays are just 6 days apart, so they always get to share a cake!

Avery sat with Grandpa (Rich's dad) on a carriage ride through the town they live in.

Nana (my mom) and Allie have matching dimples!

I love that our parents have such a distinct role in my daughters' lives. Each grandparent brings something unique into their lives. I am truly thankful for each of you!

Spider-swinging gals

2010-05-13T19:22:00.000-07:00

I have a couple of really silly, fun-loving girls. And I'm so glad I have a swing set.

Sometimes all it takes is to open your mouth...

2010-05-09T07:24:00.000-07:00

I just finished a year-long study in the book of John and decided to move on to Acts. I have read John many times before and I was especially struck this time with a better understanding of the disciples' experience. Their world was turned upside-down and the whole time they were following Jesus, they really didn't have a clue of what was going on. Then He tells them He's going to die and go away. The next thing they know, He is brutally killed in front of them. Um... this man was supposed to become king and overthrow Rome and give them a place of importance. These uneducated fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots had left their commonplace lives and followed Him for three years and then it was over (in their minds). So they hid in fear. However, it truly was only the beginning. He appeared to them and proved that He had overcome death.

Then it all started coming back to them... all the things He had said. They slowly started seeing just how big was the picture Christ was painting. Then, in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit comes. It was the Helper that Christ had promised. Suddenly, they are bold and full of amazing words, even words in many different languages for all of the thousands of people in their audience. Peter gets up and speaks in a way I'm sure he never thought he'd be capable of. Wow, the Holy Spirit took men who just days before were hiding, scared, and doubting, and turned them into courageous men willing to risk everything to preach Christ resurected.

I am especially struck with a certain phrase I've found a few times in Acts. In chapter 9, verse 35, Phillip is led to witness to an Ethiopian eunich. He walks up to the Ethiopian and sees that he is reading from Isaiah, but doesn't understand what he's reading. So when the Ethiopian asks who the prophecy is speaking of, it says, "Then Phillip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him."

Later, in chapter 10, Peter is brought to the house of Cornelius, a God-fearing centurion, and is asked to share what God has commanded Peter to speak. Then, in verse 34, it says, "Then Peter opened his mouth and said..." and he went on to share that the message of Christ was for all people, not just the Jews.

Earlier, at Pentacost, all Peter had to do was "raise his voice" (vs. 2:14) and about 3,000 people came to Christ. I just love the obvious power of the Holy Spirit. We, as believers, just need to open our mouths and the Holy Spirit does the rest.

Are you willing to open your mouth? Do you look for opportunities to share the Gospel? It doesn't take all the right words or a whole lot of knowledge, it just takes a willing spirit and faith in His Spirit.

Awesome 3000!

2010-05-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

I sincerely apologize if you've already heard my outrageously proud description of Avery's race this past weekend. I had to post these pics and brag at least once more! This past Saturday, Avery ran in the Awesome 3000 in Salem. It's sponsored by the Salem-Keizer Educational Foundation and any kid in the Salem district can participate. This was Avery's first year. She's been looking forward to it for a while and kept asking me over the past month or so if she could go running with me to train for her race. When I saw her out on the soccer field completely winded after a few plays, I figured I needed to help her get in shape a bit. Don't get me wrong, she's VERY active, but it's been raining and cold for the past 6 months and she just didn't have a lot of endurance. I was a bit worried, though, since it was a 1.5k, which ends up being just under a mile. And there was a HUGE crowd of people there! I really second-guessed myself just letting her go into a big crowd and do a race all by herself. It was very well-organized, though, and several measures were taken to make sure kids were kept safe.

This is Avery and her good buddy, Blake. Blake is in kindergarten, also, but they were split up by gender, so they didn't get to run together.

Avery is somewhere in that giant crowd of kindergarten girls with the volunteers all in blue. They were getting ready to start and I was nervous!

Ok, so the pictures of the start of the race are just a mess of girls running. After about 8 1/2 minutes, a few girls come back into the field. That's right, they didn't just run on a track. The course took them through the park and ended up back in front of the crowd. I was SHOCKED when I saw Avery enter in the very front of the crowd! She's in the middle area of the picture with the volunteer pointing her toward the finish line. She's all alone! I found out later that a big reason she was alone was that the girls all got stopped right after she entered the track because the boys had started their race a bit late and needed to get through. That was really disappointing for them, I'm sure. I don't know if anyone would have passed Avery before she finished, but her time was accurate.

Here she comes rounding the corner to the finish line!! Needless to say, I was screaming and jumping wildly!!

And she finished! She was 8th place out of 163 kindergarten girls! I am still so amazed at her! She said she wanted to stop and was tired, but I don't think it even occurred to her to actually stop when she was so close to the finish. Her time was 9min, 18 sec.

Did I make my point that I'm SO PROUD of my girl???????????

Earth or Heaven?

2010-04-28T06:42:00.001-07:00

Satan has made this world so alluring. He's been working hard from the very beginning to keep man's mind focused on the trappings of this world, rather than on Heaven. He's sneaky, cunning, and truly masquerades as an angel of light. Plus he often has lots of help from our own sin nature. Ouch. The thought of aiding him in his attempt to lure me away from my Master (just in focus, not in position), just hurts.

I'm finishing up a study on the book of John and came across a new thought. I don't think I've focused a whole lot in the past on this short little dialogue that Christ has with Peter at the very end of the book. Jesus tells Peter that he's going to die a horrible death someday, but still calls him to follow. Peter's reaction: but what about him? Peter points to John and wants to know if his friend's fate is going to be better or worse than his own. Jesus response is basically, "I'll do what I want with your friend. You follow me."

It's possible that we women struggle a bit more with this, but I think this is basically part of all our fallen natures to want what we can't have and be jealous of someone who has it. We do with everything. We wonder why someone else never has to diet, why they have such a good job, how in the world they paid for their car, why they have such easy kids, why they always get asked to teach or speak, why they're invited to every party, and the list goes on.

It seems so shallow to see it written down, but I think most of us fight these thoughts almost daily. It can creep in so subtly. Lately, I've caught myself accusing my husband of being part of some conspiracy against women: why do men get to wear baggy jeans and even carry a little extra weight and no one notices or cares? And we women are expected to wear nice-fitting jeans that show every extra pound that we're not supposed to gain??? While I think there is something to that, it's definitely not his fault I gained 5 pounds and my jeans are too tight. And if I were honest, my real problem is with the One who created my body and allowed its flaws and my attitude says, "it's not good enough."

Colossians 3 tells me to "set my mind on things above, not on earthly things." God says my life is hidden with Christ, even that He is my life. Philippians 3 warns me to be aware of those who don't love Him and whose mind is on earthly things. So, we should daily ask the questions, "Is my mind on things of heaven, or things of earth? Am I looking at someone else's path and situation, or am I following Christ?"

...and the table came tumbling down.

2010-04-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

I guess Rich has told Allie a "few" times not to stand on the patio table. And I guess I was not paying enough attention, because she was standing on it this afternoon. Then I heard a crash. Then I heard Avery running and asking me to come quick. Then I saw a giant pile of glass in my backyard. The table had toppled and Allie slid right off and somehow managed to not get a scratch on her. UGGHHH! Now I have to buy a new patio table! Oh, and I'm very thankful that my crazy daughter did not get hurt. AND I have to clean it up and keep Raleigh from hurting himself... And who said the life of a stay-at-home-mom is EVER boring??

"Take your kids to work" Day

2010-04-22T20:49:00.001-07:00

I figured it was not quite the year for just sending my kids to work with Rich for the day. Not sure the tax payers would approve, since I'm sure very little "accounting" would get done at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife with those two gals around. But we did make an appearance and bring Daddy two of his favorite candies (black licorice and Snickers dark). This picture is in front of the fountain outside of his office.

I love this picture of these two! Look at those crinkles between the eyes - like father, like daughter!

One of the favorite things for the girls when they visit their dad at work is all of the taxidermied animals throughout the office. It is the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife... Each animal has a description and explanation of how it was acquired (it was sick or whatever).

Allie liked the mountain goat.

This cougar is on the top floor right next to people's cubicles - so weird!

Rich put the girls to work at his desk. He had them circling entries or something. He explained later, for his benefit more than theirs, that he doesn't just circle numbers all day!

We are so thankful for Rich's job! I know God has provided amazingly through it. I have to say how proud I am of Rich, though. The guy went back to school so he could make sure he'd be able to get the kind of job that would provide well for his family and earned his CPA on his own (with flying colors, I might add), and worked hard to get where he's at. And that's where I leave it, because God is the one who gave him the intelligent brain he has, and has allowed the opportunities to use it. Thank you, Rich, for going to work each day and caring so much about your family!

got milk?

2010-04-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

We got to go on one of our favorite field trips last week with Allie's preschool class - the dairy farm! Allie came last year when Avery's class went, so she was all geared up to get to feed those calves their bottles.

Fear is not in Allie's vocabulary. While most of the other kids hid behind their moms, my kid reached out to every cow she came near.

This is a classic Allie face. When you say, "smile for the picture," this is the face you usually get out of her, along with a really awesome dance move.

Now that's a face ANY mother could love! The kids get to climb on the giant pile of cotton seed that later will get fed to the cows.

We love to come to this dairy. It is family owned and they're so great to take kids on tours around the place.

This is Allie's whole class at Judson Baptist Preschool. Yep. 6 kids! They even have an assistant who wasn't able to make it. Ms. Wood is on the left and we just love her!

that's the story of... that's the glory of love.

2010-04-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

Silly title, I know. But I had to quote the song from "our movie" (Beaches), even though we didn't get to watch it together this time around. Leslie came last week to visit and it was wonderful! Our friendship has been through the wringer - including living across the country from each other for the last 15 years. This visit, she finally got to meet the daughters that we've spent so many hours talking about across the miles. Having three darling daughters of her own, I think spending so much time with mine helped her not miss hers quite so bad. Allie especially loved having a house guest for several days who was willing to spend every available moment holding and playing with her.

Leslie wouldn't say no to any requests for attention, so they put together quite a few puzzles!

We went out for desert with some of my girlfriends and snagged a picture together.

Ok, I happen to believe we live in a really great area of the country. The coast is close enough for a day trip and it's gorgeous, when it's not raining... Seattle is a major US city and a cultural icon and it's only a 4-hr drive... Even San Fransisco is only a 9-hr drive and you can see it in a long weekend. However, I had trouble deciding what we should do, since the weather at the coast sounded pretty dreary and we didn't have enough time to do a longer road trip. So I decided we should go to the tulip festival in nearby Woodburn. I happen to think it's awesome! Rich disagreed and said it was lame that we were taking Leslie there. However, I couldn't handle the pressure (brought on only by myself and a bit from Rich), and we went to the tulip farms. And I am NOT sorry! It was gorgeous and we had a great time together. And Leslie got to see me in my "relaxed mode", not caring that Allie got totally muddy in her rain boots. What's the fun in being a kid if you can't walk in the mud in your rain boots?? :)

And then my camera battery died. And I forgot to charge it the rest of the time she was here. LAME. The next day we left the kids with Gramma and Rich and Leslie and I had a great day in Portland. If you live nearby and haven't been to Mother's Bistro, you have to go! Our late breakfast was amazing and it's very Portland-esque. Then we wandered around Pioneer Square, which is one of our favorite Portland spots. We stopped in and got cupcakes at Cupcake Jones (I got my fav - peanut butter and jelly!!!) and then ended up shopping the Woodburn outlets. We closed the day watching on of my favorite movies, "13 Going On 30", since Leslie had never seen it.

What a great time! I woke up and took Leslie back to the airport on Sunday morning and we had a great conversation in the car, the last we'd have face to face for a while. I am beyond-words-thankful for the friendship God has allowed us to keep even though I moved away so long ago. It is very different than we had pictured years ago, and very, very different than it was when we were 15, but it's still so sweet! So then I decided to watch Beaches alone the next night and totally cried my eyes out. Why do I do that to myself??? I miss you already, Leslie!

one of those posts..

2010-04-17T12:56:00.000-07:00

This is one of those posts that only family cares about seeing. I just wanted to get this year's Easter documented. I guess this picture is actually including all the Pierce cousins, since Jana's littlest one is hidden in her tum. :) Wish I had a better one of cute little Jeffery, who is sitting next to Roderick on the chair. This group is Nana and Papa's pride and joy!

Allie showing off her new Easter basket.

Avery has no idea how to pose for a picture and she really hates doing it... :)

After a lunch and egg hunt at Nana's, we had a relaxing evening at Gramma Ginny's and Grandpa's house. The girls had to pose on the bench.

I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to get away with matching them at Easter. When we walked into church and the comments started coming, Avery was immediately annoyed. I don't think she minds actually matching, it just seems to bug her when everyone comments on how cute they look. Not that she minds any other time!! I told her it makes me happy so just grin and bear it! Oh, a mother's vanity!!

Wow, what do you say to that?

2010-04-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

Ok, I had no good reason to have a short fuse today, other than being just plain tired. The girls were being fine, but I was just ready for them to get to bed already! So, when I asked Avery for about the millionth time to stop goofing off and put on her pajamas and she didn't do it, I guess I started to sound a bit "frustrated". Please give me some credit - I sounded very nice and patient for the first 999,999 times. Then Avery started to complain that "it wasn't fair." When I probed her in my previously-mentioned "frustrated" tone about what she meant, she said, "It's not fair that you get to lose your temper and we don't." Bam. There you have it. I had no answer for that. I simply admitted that it wasn't fair and I am not allowed to lose my temper either. I apologized to her and asked for her forgiveness. She graciously forgave me and all was forgotten. One thing I notice about my kids is that they so quickly forget my infractions and are ready to hug and love all over again. I guess I still have some growing to do with the whole patience thing. Thank you, Lord, for the difficult reminder to make sure I'm setting a good example to my kids and holding myself accountable to the same standard I hold them to.

The Boutique Experience

2010-04-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Next time you're driving around Salem and feeling the deep, burning desire for some new jewelry, you should stop by the Mission Mill.

You may just find yourself standing outside the big, white doors, opening them, and walking into an adorable store called Danner and Soli.

You would walk in and say to yourself about a million times, "that's so cute!" as you meander through the store full of home decor, handmade clothing and bags, and tons of seasonal items.

You would eventually find yourself at a gorgeous display of all kinds of jewelry (remember, that's why you're there). Then you would look closer and...

You'd see MY JEWELRY!!!

Connie had this cute apple crate and I hammered a bunch of well-placed nails in it. Each nail has a few varieties of a letter of the alphabet. The chains to the right are not the ones that will normally be sold with them. There will be some ribbons and chains in the future. Customers will be able to purchase charms individually and add a necklace, if they want.

I'm pretty stoked about this little adventure. The owner is a friend from church who stumbled upon someone wearing some of my charms and asked the lady about them, curious about trying to sell them in her shop. Turns out we're in Bible study together and I emailed her, and now here we are! Danner and Soli is seriously a great store. I came in today with 66 charms to sell and left with a new pair of earings that I had been eyeing for a while! There's even a bunch of awesome stuff on sale right now. Yay! I'm so excited I have some stuff I've made for sale in an awesome store! Thanks to all you friends who have encouraged me to pursue this fun new hobby.

Home Improvements

2010-04-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

We've been doing some minor work around the house, just trying to improve it a bit. The biggest project we did was add wainscoting in the hallway. Two very good friends (thanks Russ and Ryan) came over and gave up their Saturday last weekend, helping Rich put up this very pretty addition to our home. I think they did such a great job!!

Our dining room is really just a dining nook. We are planning on putting the wainscoting in there, as well, but it didn't get done last weekend. So I painted all the walls, rather than just the top half and the wainscoting will hopefully get done a month or so. The color is "Chocolate Truffle" and I wish I had done it the day we moved in! I think it does the trick of making it feel like more of a separate room. This is the best picture I came up with..

Lastly, the girls' room used to be "Raspberry Fizz" and then I moved them to a different room and painted over it with grey for the guest room. I missed it too much!! This time we added a chair rail and painted the bottom-half white. It helps make the bright pink a little more palatable to the general public. We girls in the house can't get enough pink! Avery often quotes me, saying "you can never have too much pink." Gramma Ginny (Rich's mom) paints signs and custom-made this one just for us! It's perfect!

As I've said to many friends and family, we are not "project people". It was a big deal for us to take these on, but I'm so glad we did. Of course it's easy to say now that it's all over. And I'm really sick of painting.

Deep thoughts from a Walmart shopper...

2010-03-26T20:20:00.000-07:00

I went to Walmart today with my daughters. Avery had some birthday money to spend and I needed some paint for my dining room (yes, I buy my paint at Walmart!). We wandered the whole store looking for the perfect $10 item for Avery's birthday (she ended up with a metallic-blue wig. I was hesitant, but it's absolutely adorable on her!). As we walked by the giant ball basket-thingy, Allie had to test just how bouncy the balls really were. So she and Avery each took a turn with a ball and then, as I was putting it away, several more balls came tumbling out and I made a move that looked something like a very ungraceful jumping jack, trying to stop every ball that was escaping. About ten minutes later, I was standing at the paint counter and noticed another young mom turn the corner in front of the giant ball basket-thingy. I watched as her two young daughters, who appeared to be near the ages of my own, each took a turn with a ball. Then the mom pulled the same move I did as she tried to capture the runaway balls that were evidently just begging for a new home. It was so funny to observe another mom in the exact scenario I had been a pawn in just moments before. Later, I took the girls to the bathroom and met this mom and found out her daughters are 6 and almost 4. I told her I watched her at the balls and we had a little laugh together.

I was already planning on sharing that little story, but was planning on ending it with the bathroom scene. It struck me, as I was talking with my girls at bedtime, that it's the perfect example of just how much we moms share in common. Since I'm sure of this fact, I'll share another more serious struggle in the Rowzee household. We are having a very real struggle with anger, heated words, and fighting. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone! The sibling fighting is enough to make any mom want to jump straight out the window and end her misery. My children have entered into a new era of fighting. A couple of years ago, it was simply taking a toy and giving a little swat at sister and it was pretty much over. Now it's joined with a quick temper, name-calling, and really angry voices. Thankfully my children haven't been exposed to names too terrible yet, but they are said with such angry tones!!

Anyway, that's just part of the problem. My newly six year-old has always been really passionate and verbal and is now struggling with the desire to be disrespectful and dishonoring to her mom. It's pretty hard to hear. I've prayed aloud with her a hundred times and a thousand on my own. God is still teaching me and growing her in His timing, because it hasn't changed a whole lot. ANYWAYS, all of that to say, life as a mom can be pretty tough.

God gave me a window of hope today. I bought two jars and filled one with marbles. I drew a smiley face on the full jar and a sad face on the empty one. Avery will begin each day with a full "happy jar" and be asked to move a marble to the sad jar every time she is rude to her sister or disrespectful to mom or dad. Daddy will deal with discipline according to the number of marbles in the sad jar. Today, on her first day, she ended the day with 3 marbles in the sad jar. I definitely saw resignation and remorse in her eyes when she had to move a marble. Score one for mom!!!

As I put the girls to bed, I read from Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit. Avery can tell you all 9 of them and Allie knows quite a few. I explained that just like an apple tree should produce apples, a follower of Christ should produce evidence of God's Spirit being in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Before I ended it, though, I explained a few of the examples given in Galatians 5:19-21, the works of sin in our lives. These include idolatry, hatred, fighting, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, and stirring up trouble. They had fun giving examples of both fruit of God's Spirit and of works of sin. I'm encouraged by their hearts as we discussed this pretty profound truth: each one of us is producing either fruit of the Spirit or works of sin at any given time. Wow, I'm once again blown away by God's amazing Word!!!

OK, I know you've all fallen asleep by now, but I had to share one more Walmart observation. A few minutes after I observed the other young mom who was attacked by the killer balls, a dad rounded the corner with his two young boys both in the back of the cart. The boys were around 2 years old and standing up, but dad didn't seemed concerned (like us moms who are constantly bugging our kids to SIT DOWN if you're going to ride in the back of the cart!). He walked by the giant ball basket-thingy, picked two balls out, handed one to each boy, and walked on, never to be invaded upon by the runaway balls. How do they do it?!?!?!?!?

New project: what do you think?

2010-03-08T19:46:00.000-08:00

So, I've had an empty wall above my bed since we've moved into this house over three years ago. I don't put pressure on myself to have everything decorated perfectly because I just don't care that much. I like pretty things on my wall and I appreciate beautiful decor, but I don't have the money or motivation to have a perfectly decorated home. However, I want to continue looking for ways to beautify my home.

I had some canvases sitting around and had been planning on painting something to put above my bed. I noticed some cute artsy pieces at the craft store that were covered with fabric instead of painted. So I set out to find some fabric that I could afford to cover three 16x20 canvases with. I finally found some at Walmart. That's right. Walmart. Want to know what I paid for it? $1.50. Yep! I already had the canvases, so my cool new wall art only cost me a buck-fifty! I'm kind of proud of it!

What do you think?
(positive feedback only, please :)

Brownie Bites

2010-02-25T15:46:00.000-08:00

So, over Christmas my friend Alena shared a yummy desert with me and I just had to get the recipe. It was basically a brownie bite with a fun surprise inside. Since then, I've tried several versions of it and last week, I hit the jackpot! It's very simple to make: mix up a brownie mix as the box directs, add evenly in a mini-muffin pan (very generously sprayed with cooking spray), and then add a Hersey kiss to each one, not completely hiding it in the batter. Then bake them for about 20 minutes. Alena's were delicious with a peppermint Hersey kiss in the middle, then with an added topping made of heavy cream and chocolate chips. I couldn't find the peppermint variety, so I tried a mint truffle Hersey kiss first. It was pretty good. A few weeks later I made them with a carmel kiss in them. Again, pretty good. Last week, though, I just loved them. I admit that these kisses had been in the cupboard since the first time I was going to make them and Rich went to the store for me. I didn't like his choice, so I never used them. On a whim, I decided to make some to bring to my brother's house and went ahead and used the dark chocolate kisses I had available. They were the bomb! Oh man! Yum! I don't even bother with the chocolate topping - it makes it much less complicated and it's still delicious. So, there's a tip for a quick, already-have-the-stuff-in-your-cupboard desert to share with company, or just your own family who totally deserves a fun treat sometimes!

Old Friends

2010-02-20T07:13:00.000-08:00

There is just something about having a friend you've known more than half your life. Even at 10 years old, having a friend for five years would be pretty great. I'm sure at 80 years old, having had a friend for more than 40 years would be amazing. As I am 31, having a friend whom I've known since I was 11, which makes it a 20 year-long friendship (and counting), is pretty super. Having moved a lot as a kid, which I explained in a previous post, surely explains my fascination for knowing someone for very long and continuing to be friends. I have so many people in my memory who live all over the country and were important to me at one time, but became memories almost as soon as they became friends. However, we all have people like that in our lives. Don't you remember every school year - you were in a different class and almost had a whole new set of friends every year? What ever happened to those people??? Ahhh... the wonders of Facebook! :)

Anyway, I wanted to write some thoughts and give props to my friendship with Leslie. I walked into Sunday School at a new church, in a new town, in a new state, in a new region of the country one morning, looking for a girl named Leslie. Her step-dad worked with my dad in his new job and Larry had invited our family to his church. Leslie was my age and I was going to be her guest (she was set for a prize for having a guest in SS:). That was it! Almost instantaneously we were best friends. We were in fifth grade. I've never had a friendship like I had with her during those years. This is mostly because of the time of life we were in. Junior High is brutal! We didn't go to the same school, as the church we attended together was in a different town from me. I lived and went to school in Clayton, NC, and she lived and went to school and church in Garner, NC. But we talked for hours on the phone every night and spent just about every weekend together. I didn't do anything without Leslie by my side.

Boy, what an amazing security for a junior high/high-schooler to have - a best friend who is totally loyal, totally committed to you?? With everything that's going on with your body and brain, to know you have a friend who absolutely adores you and loves you to the core? Someone you know wouldn't want to spend time with anyone else, rather than you? I'm sure it had a huge influence in shaping who I am today. I can only pray that my daughters have friendships like that someday. I believe encouraging selflessness in friendship right now, teaching how important it is to be a good friend, and exampling good friendships in my life for them to see can help them toward that goal.

I was remembering recently the night Leslie and I said goodbye as I was moving again, this time from NC to Oregon - literally one coast to another. It was over Christmas break of my junior year in high school. Talk about SAD! Our friend Velvet was also there and we just sat for hours in my empty bedroom, talking about memories and crying. However, we still have a beautiful friendship. It isn't what we dreamed - rooming together in college, living next door as wives and mothers... But we still love each other and talk regularly. We both got to see each other get married. I went to visit her in NC a year and a half ago right after the birth of her third daughter. I actually held my beloved friend's baby girl!

What a gift! We had such a wonderful few days together as I bonded with her sweet children. Now it's her turn - she's coming to see me in April! Boy, do I have plans!! I can't wait for her to meet my daughters (funny, we both had all girls) and see my life up close. I love you, Leslie!

You know you're a mother of young kids when...

2010-02-17T13:39:00.000-08:00

You know you're a mother of young kids when you are CONSTANTLY scrubbing food and who-knows-what-else off you kitchen table and chairs.

2010-02-08T12:19:00.000-08:00

So, this post is pretty much a bunch of pictures of my recent "dream vacation" with a few of my best gals. We were gone from Monday -Friday and had a wonderful time with a little bit of everything: rest/relaxation, exploring, shopping, good food, and a ton of laughter! What a memory!

This is Connie and me in front of our room.

I think my favorite day was Tuesday, when we spent the day on Catalina Island. The only town on the island is Avalon. A few of us got off early and went for a run in the morning, got back on and cleaned up, ate lunch, and then we all got off and explored for the afternoon. What a beautiful place! None of us wanted to leave!

Good friends together in a beautiful place! How cool is that??

This is El Casino, which means "meeting place" in Italian. It was built to debut the first motion picture with sound - "The Jazz Singer".

We were the last boat back to the ship, out of more than 2,000 people on board!

Gotta have an elevator picture!

Karin and Erin posing pretty...

This was our attempt to take a self-portrait with our towel elephant. You'll have to use your imagination!

I said before I even left that what I really wanted from Mexico was a "designer" bag and an authentic taco. My Gucci is pink and I got a delicious fish taco! Richie says that's not really authentic - that fish tacos originate from San Diego and not Mexico, but it's good enough for me. YUM!

This is all of us enjoying our tacos.

Connie and me in front of La Bufadora, the blow hole, in Ensenada.

Um, this is so cute of Connie! What a haggler - I was glad to have her with me! Well, I'm always glad to have her with me, but you get my point!

This was our "at sea" day. We had so much fun reading on the deck in the sun! We also got to participate in a beanbag toss contest and be witnesses to a truly amazing event - the "men's hairy chest" contest. Trust me, you're glad I don't have pictures of that! :)

This is Wendy and me at the beanbag toss. I smoked 'em!

This is me with our servers, Joy and Jadeesh.

Seriously an amazing adventure with 7 amazing women!!!

A day in the life of..

2010-01-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

Ok, we've been pretty much home-bound for six days. I've broken the rules and taken the girls the Walmart and I snuck out a couple times in order to regain my sanity, but my daughters and I have been pretty much staring each other in the face for almost a week. They really only had a cold, but Avery's fever lasted 5 days and Allie has been an emotional wreck! Fun times!

Today things were looking up, but I kept Avery home since she had a low fever yesterday and there that whole "24-hr rule". So we (SSSHHHH!) went to Target and the library. Is that terrible that we went to the library? I sanitized their hands and we didn't stay long! Anyway, this morning, before we left, Avery was watching an OPB show and shared her observation that the mother pteranadon (sp?) on Dinosaur Train always says "Yes" to her kids when they ask her for something. I stared at her and then explained that that's because she's a pretend mom. What's more - the kids are pretend kids. They only ask their mom for things that she CAN say yes to. To Avery's credit, she pretty much understood that. I think her comment was more out of surprise than jealousy!

So then we left for Target. As we walked in, Avery went straight to a shirt that wasn't even cute, and asked if we could buy it. After I said no (because I'm not pretend), she said something like, "We never get to buy the things we want." I tried to ignore that until she decided to continue with the pouting. I reminded her that I'm not a pretend dinosaur and there are a lot of things that I have to say "no" to. I love her and she gets so many things she wants - yada,yada,yada...

Then we went to the library. Thank the Lord one of my children didn't pee all over herself (sorry, Anna, I had to say it!), although I definitely wouldn't put it past my youngest. Allie lost me for a minute, though, and a mom found her and she came crying to me - so sad!!! The trip was a bit stressful, though, and I was very ready to leave. As we were walking out, I was thinking to myself, "these trips are more frustrating than they are worth." While that thought was going through my head, though, Avery said, "I just love going to the library!" Well, folks, there you go. So many things we do as moms are frustrating for us and quite testing of our patience, but that comment sure put it all in perspective for me.

Then we met Rich for lunch because he was meeting an old coworker who kind of wanted to see the whole gang. The girls ate jello and oranges. At least it was cheap. As we were driving off, I'm not kidding, Allie asked me, "What's for lunch, Mom?"

The afternoon was fairly uneventful, except Emily called, since she had my dog for a doggie-playdate, and informed me that Raleigh had dug a hole to China in her backyard and she had to give him a bath. Super. She was very gracious and wasn't at all mad! What a pal!

I had almost gotten the kids to bed after making dinner and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, when Allie said her ear hurts. An hour later I finally had her drugged and sleepy and back to bed. Guess she's not going to preschool tomorrow and we'll be heading to see the doctor. Never mind that I really need to get in myself, but that will have to wait! Really, I'm not bitter about it. The grace God has given me over the last week is clear - I'd have lost it days ago without His sufficiency! "We hold these treasures in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." Amen!

Not sure how tomorrow will look, other than I will either please Him or not. I'll walk with Him, or not. I'll be victorious, or not... You get the idea!

Did I mention I'm going on a vacation next week??????? Oh, man...

Another Avery Observation

2010-01-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

Avery and I were watching "Prince of Egypt", which is a movie VERY loosely based on the Biblical account of Moses and the Israelites' flight from Egypt. As she's observing their construction of the pyramids and statues of their gods, she says, "How can those be their gods if they have to build them? It's just made of brick and it doesn't even answer your prayers or save you from your sins."

Yep! That's the thoughts from my five year old. As I write this, though, I'm also compelled to consider whether I have built up any gods before Him. I don't believe so at the moment, but I know I have been guilty of having idols. I've been known to make an idol of trying to be thin, of pleasing others through good works, of trying to keep a clean home, of trusting in financial security over God's always sufficient provision. I'm sure I could add more to the list. None of those things can hear or answer my prayers and they CERTAINLY cannot save me from my sins. I'm so thankful to my mighty God Who does all that and so much more. And I'm extremely thankful for my sweet daughter who, with her innocent observations, encourages me to put my trust solely in Him.

Barbie

2010-01-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

I very often have conversations with Avery that leave me astounded. That kid is so perceptive and on top of that, she thinks about things. I guess that'd be first part Erin and second part Rich. Not that I don't think, mind you, but, well...

This evening, Avery was practicing her ballet and trying to imitate what Barbie does in "Barbie in the Nutcracker". Avery said to me, "I wish I could do what Barbie does when she sticks her leg straight up behind her and balances. She's amaaaaazing. I wish I could be like her." Horrified, I quickly pointed out that BARBIE IS PRETEND. SOMEONE DREW HER. To that, Avery answered, "Yes, but, they made her too fascinating. People just want to be like her." I just stared at her.

Yes, Avery, they did make her too fascinating. I can't help staring at those long, animated legs and wondering what it would feel like to walk around on a pair of those! God didn't make any of us that way - especially not us, daughter. However, you're incredibly beautiful and were created by the true Mastermind and He finds YOU fascinating!

The Holidays part 2

2010-01-05T13:12:00.000-08:00

Our preschool always does a cute little Christmas program. This year they did the ABC's of Christmas. Allie's line was "D is for Donkey." It was our family homework to decorate a poster with her line in mind. Poor Allie had a pretty unimpressive poster, compared to the glitter and pizazz of most of the other letters! Sorry, honey!

This is Allie in the crowd of preschoolers on stage. She sings all the time at home, but can't seem to open her mouth much on stage. I'm pretty sure she'll grow out of that!

Rich's mom, Gramma Ginny, was able to come see the program. I really appreciated her making the 45 min. drive to see Allie's event.

I had just gotten done telling a friend that Rich wasn't going to be able to be there, due to just plain too much to do at work, but then he showed up! Allie-girl was pretty happy!

Seriously, this girl is one of the best people in the whole world to get a hug from!!

Need I explain?

Christmas morning with our girls!!

These are the gifts they got for each other. Avery and I made a "fuzzy" pillow for Allie. Anyone who knows her knows how much she loves her fuzzy blanket (that's what she named it) that Aunt Jana made her last year. You know, the soft fleece no-sew blankets with all the ties. Allie and I picked out a cute hat and gloves for Avery, something she loves to wear. Those gloves are supposedly Avery's size!

I just thought I'd throw this in. Rich's mom made us this sign and I just love it. It's in my hall above a family picture already. What a great gift!

Truly, the best gift of all is our salvation. The knowledge that Christ gave up His throne in heaven and came to earth the live as a "man of sorrows" and pay the debt I owed - unbelievable that my King should die for me! Shame on me for ever complaining about any discomfort I may suffer here on earth, compared to what my Savior did for me. And compared to what I would be suffering were I not to know Christ. This earth will pass away and I will be with Him. When you look at it that way, it's pretty hard to justify many of the things we seem to struggle with daily. Lord, that I would live my life under the constant recognition of your sacrifice!