A New Collection

#3 left for her choir Disneyland trip early this morning. The last thing she needed to collect before leaving was some money for food and mementos. Both my husband and I told her not to buy us anything.

In jest, I asked her to pick me up a napkin and straw from every restaurant where she eats while in California.

Well….it expanded from there….She has agreed to write where she was, who she was with, and what she ate on each napkin.

Silly, but I'm really looking forward to what she brings home on Tuesday…


Gotta confess....If I found a cookie wrapped up in one, I wouldn't be disappointed.

My Monthly Lunch Date

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a program called Visiting Teaching. In it, you are assigned a woman or two or three or four to go visit once a month. I've heard people say that you're "assigned a friend." Umm...Okay. This has annoyed many people. As for me, I love it!

Over the years, I've gotten to know so many great women, and when you live under a rock, that's a HUGE deal. The support system is awesome!

I also have Visiting Teachers that visit me. I remember one day a number of years ago when I was swimming in clean, dry, unfolded laundry. During their visit, these two women came in and offered to help me fold the massive mountain that was my reality on that particular day. It was such a kind, charitable act, and although it may seem like a small thing, when you're dealing with nine people's laundry (that was before I hollered "Uncle"), it's a HUGE deal.

I have a companion and three women to visit. I love them all. We each have common points in our lives--I have more with some than with others, but it's always entertaining to go visit with them.

With one of these women, we have decided that each month we will go to lunch together. Today is the day! The first time we visited with her, it was in her home. For the second visit, we decided to do something a bit different. We opted to meet up at my favorite Mexican restaurant. She had never been there before.

While we were munching on our chimichangas, we decided that this was such a fun thing that we'd do it every month. So far we've had Mexican food, burgers at the best burger place in town, and today, we're going to have gyros. I look forward to our outing all month.

The gyro place is great, but the gyros are HUGE. I have only eaten one muffin this morning in anticipation of overdoing the WW points during lunch.

I wish I would've taken advantage of this kind of Visiting Teaching in the past. My friend and I have decided that even when I'm not her Visiting Teacher anymore, we're still going to lunch once a month.

Gyros, here we come! Hmm....Now, where to go next month?....

Weekly Family Activities (with Lots and LOTS o' Links)

Monday night we sat down as a family and created a new and improved list of activities our family can do together. I was shocked at how many of them involved food (Ironic thing…as I went to write the last sentence, "at" came out as "eat"). One child would give an idea and another would chime in with, "Yah, and we can get ice cream!" or something like that. It was all quite comical. What can I say? We like to eat….Food is good.

Our goal was to come up with 52. Everyone moaned about this. They decided they'd each give two ideas, and we'd sit down again in a few months and do it again. Umm, no. Not going to happen. So, I forced the issue. It really wasn't that hard after we got going. We ended up with 71.


Here are the ideas we came up with:

• movie night at a theater (most likely this one)
• restaurant - this is my favorite at the moment, but who knows, this one's close to home and there's something for everyone--plus, there's pie! I guess it will depend on the night when we do it.
• zoo - this, for our family will require a membership, but it's such a deal compared with regular admission.
• OMSI - again, membership
• -children's museum - for this one, there is a free night once a month. It's surprising how much fun we all have here.
• Portland art museum - they have a free night too.
• picnic
• hot chocolate - in our family's opinion, this is the BEST hot cocoa, especially when prepared with milk.
• swimming - we buy a membership to this one too. It's a GREAT deal for a large family.
• Gilbert House - One of our favorites, and yes, you guessed it…membership. Only, the OMSI and Gilbert House memberships can be used for each other, so you only have to have a membership for one or the other. With the Gilbert House membership, you also have free access to the Children's Museum. Plus, the Gilbert House membership is a bit less expensive.
• park - we particularly like this one.
• water fountain - there are a few around our area, but I think we like this one best.
• basketball at the school
• Krispy Kreme - no explanation required.
• water fight
• temple - you don't have to be LDS to visit the temple grounds. It's a very peaceful place--a good place to go when you need to collect your thoughts. We will visit the visitor's center while we're there. The kids really enjoy the things they have there.
• the Columbia River Gorge - my favorite place in the world!
• pizza movie night
• barbecue
• Ikea - #6's favorite place in the world (and the kid's been to Disneyland?!) It's all because of the meatballs.
• marshmallow construction
• cookies - it'll be these without the M&Ms.
• chubby bunny - not being enormous fans of marshmallows, the hubs and I might just sit this one out and cheer the others on, but who knows.
• Waffle Window - What?! Food?
• Saturday Market 
• hot dog eating contest - I don't know, this might rank right down there with marshmallows. But for the sake of good ol' family fun and competition, I might be able to choke down one or two.
• Goodwill scavenger hunt - something was said also about everyone looking for the most hideous outfit. The winner buys it and the losers take turns wearing it. 
• basketball game - this is the kids' favorite family activity.
• tie dye
• soccer game - we usually buy a pizza, sit of the field and eat, and then go kick the ball around for a bit.
• make pizzas
• make wrapping paper
• make Christmas ornaments
• hike Council Crest
• family pics - this, believe it or not, was one of the kids' ideas.
• hide and seek
• frisbee
• capture the flag
• library cultural passes
• Powell's Books
• candy bar game - we did this last night, and I, very joyfully, ended up with my three favorites. Here's a very brief overview (our friends, the Boswells, taught us this game)….You get a bunch of candy bars (more than the number of people playing), two or more dice, and a small bowl for the dice to be shaken in. Everyone sits in a circle. The candy bars are placed in the center. Various people are given a bowl and a die. Those people roll the die one time. If they roll a six or a one, they get to grab a candy bar from the pile. They pass the bowl to the next person. Any time a six or a one shows up, the person who rolled it gets a candy bar. When all the candy bars are taken, a timer is set (we set ours for five minutes last night), and the play continues, only you grab the candy bars from each other. At the end of the game, some will have quite a few bars, some will have none. In our family, those who have lots share with those who have few. You get to eat what you win….Imagine that…Food.
• drive-in movie - we only have one of these left in our area that I'm aware of.
• game night - this is the new game we got for Christmas. The kids love it.
• Sauvie Island
• Skate World
• Candy Basket
• Voodoo Donuts
• TCBY
• ice skating
• froyo - #1 worked here before her mission. Of the places we've tried, it's our favorite.
• Simon says
• sardines - this is one of our most favorite games. It always surprises me how creative our kids can be.
• coloring night
• heart attack
• fork
• make blankets
• KFC - I wonder whose idea this was…..Hmm…I don't know….
• movie marathon - Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Mr. Bean (the series, not the movies), and others have been done in our house, but the BEST by FAR was this marathon which we did one New Year's Eve.
• Donut Day - better than Krispy Kreme, in our opinion. Plus, the owner's kids used to go to the school where my husband was principal, so we like to give them our business….a lot.
• go to a school play
• Pita Pit
• Rocket Fizz
• geocache
• frozen chocolate, die, clothing, fork and knife game - instructions for this game came from my dear Aussie friend Leanne. Her daughter's serving in the same mission with #1. You have a frozen bar or block of chocolate, a dice, gloves and other pieces of clothing, and a knife and fork. You decide which number a person has to roll before they can dive into the chocolate. When you roll that number, you jump up and start putting on the gloves and other clothing items. After all clothing items are on, you grab the knife and fork and attempt to cut into the chocolate. You get to eat any piece that you cut off. When someone else rolls the number, you're done. You put down the knife and fork and remove the clothing. That person puts them on and it starts all over again. (Leanne, I hope I got this right. If not, please correct me. Thanks!)
• Spoons card game
• Uno
• Apples to Apples
• root beer floats
• minute to win it games
• Farmer's Market
• Taffy pull

If you didn't catch the link earlier, here's how and why this all started. I hope this somehow helps your family as well.

Enjoy!

Preparation Starts Today

Three shots and a pair of glasses. That's what we're after today. The shots are diphteria, tetanus, pertussis, typhoid, and influenza. The other required immunizations were all up to date, so that saved her a bit of stress. Thank goodness for small favors.

image: vactruth.com

#1 just called about the shots. Sounds like they'll have to be paid out of pocket, and it's not as easy as I thought and hoped it would be. We have to wait for a call from the "travel office" either today or tomorrow. They want to know her itinerary. Haha! Yah, right. Okay, so did we jump the gun on this one? All we know is that she'll probably be in the Philippines in August or September-ish. Looking back at what I learned, Asian languages stay in the MTC for nine weeks, so probably more like September.

I really thought it would be the opposite--making the eye appointment would take forever and we would be able to walk right in and get the shots. Do you see what an education this is going to be for me?

image: shopping.aol.com

We are also now in search of Crocs crossmesh ballet flats. I can find them in lots of places, actually, but so far not in her size (8). As far as clothes go, we're looking for things made of natural fibers that will keep her cooler in the heat. Funny, but I never thought she'd be sent to a tropical place. So glad we didn't buy anything until after she received her call. To be honest, it was very tempting to do so. The trickiest thing is finding dresses and skirts that go just past the knee. They need to be at her knee when she sits down. We're looking for cotton and linen. It may be time to invest in a sewing machine. The one I have is broken. It would be great to have #1 making some of her own skirts.

Yesterday, a friend from many years ago came forward saying that Olongapo was her mission. She gave a lot of useful tips. She said that #1 would need to plan for clothes for hot and hotter and wet and wetter. So, that's what we're after. We did find one skirt in her closet and one blouse in her sisters--what are the chances we can talk #3 out of that blouse?

image: javaphoto.com

We also found a food cart in downtown Portland that sells Filipino food, so we're going to head down there one of these days really soon for some shopping and to give the cuisine a try. I've also found a few recipes I'm going to give a try at home. I threatened that I would make pigs feet stew, and I think she thought I was kidding, but really, I wasn't. I think I'll make it and serve it some night without anyone knowing.

This is going to be so fun!

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New Friends in Tillamook

image credit: chenected.aiche.org

Last Friday, because family was in town, we went to Seaside and played in the sand for a bit and then headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I love that place! We always watch the cheese making process, taste the cheese samples and get an ice cream.

image credit: gogobot.com

While we sat eating our ice cream, my older brother, who is the adventurer of the family, leaned over to me and asked if the three people sitting at the corner table were Japanese. I told him they were. He asked how I knew. I shared that one of them was holding a book with the title written in Japanese. 

He told me to go over and talk to them. I refused. He couldn't understand why I wouldn't do it. I explained that, first of all, my ability to speak Japanese is more than rusty; it's actually almost non-existent (sad, huh?) and that, in the past, when I've done similar things, it's seemed like my speaking Japanese to them was like a slap in the face--basically saying that I don't think they can speak English when, in reality, they spend every year from at least middle school on up learning English.

He didn't even hesitate but got up and walked over to their table. Before I knew it, these three beautiful Japanese faces (my brother described them as doll-like) were sitting across from me at the table and we were talking--in English mostly. They were a young couple who had just been married and the wife's sister. The wife and her sister would return to Japan and then the wife will return to be with her husband in about half a year from now.

I just heard from the wife tonight via email. She's back in Japan. When she moves back, I hope to be able to get together with her. We talked about helping each other with Japanese and English. Should be fun!

On our way home from Tillamook was when the crash happened that was mentioned by my daughter on Facebook. I will share more on that, like I promised on Facebook, in my next post.

Single Mom in the Summer

February 2011

#2's been gone on a scout high adventure for the past week. I've missed him. He's a TOTAL crack up, and I miss his joking around. He's also a huge help around here. Watching him interact with the younger kids is one of my favorite things. He has a special bond with them.

The Warden went to join him on Thursday. I don't sleep well when he's gone, but I think I've finally gotten the single mom thing down to a science. I can do it for a few days, but I can't imagine doing it long term. My hat is off to women who do.

We took a little drive into Tigard yesterday. The Festival of Balloons is on, and I was so hopeful that a few of the balloons had taken off. Sadly, they hadn't. To console us, we drove into Sherwood and stopped in at Sweet Story. I sent #s 3 and 4 in with some money with the instructions to bring back something breakfast worthy....I had woken them and told them to get dressed and hop in the car. They didn't know where we were going. Thus the great disappointment over the lack of balloons.

We got the house cleaned up. #1 made dinner--veggie burgers (not my fave, but I kept reassuring myself that I was becoming more "healthy." We sent the younger kids to bed and watched a movie.

Today they return. I think tonight will be date night. I have a thing for old, greasy spoon, burger joints. I have found THE BEST in the area, and maybe, the best I've ever had. The Warden hasn't been there. I haven't told him anything about it. Maybe it's time.

On our way home from decorating Rose Festival Floats, we stopped in (#2, a friend, and me) just to try it out. We've passed it SO many times. My curiosity finally got to me. The burgers were AMAZING, and we bought an "Elvis"--a vanilla milkshake with bananas, peanut butter and....get this...bacon. My curiosity, again, overcame me. It was SO GOOD! Really. It was. The only disconcerting thing was spooning the bacon out of the remains of milkshake at the bottom of the cup after the shake was all drunk.

Yup. I think the Warden will love the Canyon Grill!