holiday shopping thoughts

Alright, we'll try this again. Just humor me. I like to get my shopping done before all the chaos starts. Make a list knowing it could quell a full blown panic attack. It's like starting with the charitable spirit early.

Tuck's list
dodge balls - the yellow ones that are soft that they use at P.E. ( Grandma Jan will know)
Nerf Football
WOW 2002 Christian Hits C.D.( MY favorite I've scratched from listening too much.)
Halo 2
Skateboard
Test Drive X box game
Light Saber


India's list
Kitchen toys with play food
joke book
Jeans from Old Navy Sz 10 slim - med. to dark blue
Rollerskates sz. 4
Home Decorating book with lots of pictures, like at Home Depot, etc.
Cat toys ( For all four of her babies )
Bubble Bath
Cranium for kids

Christian
The old Guesstures game...not the dvd one
Madagascar DVD
Pass the Pigs game like Aunt Mel has
Light Saber
March of Maddness 2006

water conservation

So gardening by the yard featured a potential solution (at least partially) for folks who are experiencing massive summer water bills. It involved a system of water collection barrels at the gutters. It was so smart. Some folks had one barrel, but you could really link as many of these in a sort of series as you want. When they fill, a simple bypass method can be used. Now what was really amazing about this is that a half an inch of rain yields either 200 or 400 gallons (on an average sized roof). This not only conserves water for when you really need it, saves money, saves fresh drinkable water, but it also relieves a tremendous strain on the sewer system. Larry, I really thought of you in particular on this.

staying in portland

The whole Porter clan will be spending Thursday and Friday night at the Oxford Suites near Janzen Beach. We're going to support our V.B. team at state. If any Aunts or Uncles or cousins want us/our kids to come visit let us know your schedule. Our hotel has a pool and hot tub! Tim and I will go to all the games, but the kids might get bored and want to play with their cousing. And you don't have to take them all. It might be cool for India is she had some "girl" time by herself with her relatives without the boys there. Is Ada busy, because India has some rubber boots she wants to try out on the trails.

Let us know and we can make some plans.

traci

And More Applesauce

Dad bought 5 bags of apples and we (he, Grandma FarAway and I) made a bunch more applesauce. We filled up every spare plastic container we owned between us. I don't dare have any leftovers in the near future because I have nothing to store it in.

I don't think this batch is quite as tasty as the last. I don't think the apples were quite as flavorful. Still, its much better than anything one can buy in a store and the apples were just $5 a bag.

I have mopped the kitchen floor twice but there are still sticky spots.

I'm trying NOT to think about snow. I always get disappointed if we don't get any.

Mom

gift ideas

If everyone could post some of their gift ideas, including kids since Tim lost all of the cousins slips, it would be very helpful. Grandmas and Parents please put your small and big wish lists too. I'll post my families when they get back from Church. Tuck and I are playing hookey since he still has a bad cough.

Tuck broke our fancy dining light with a bouncy ball, and India hit the living room fan light and broke a big piece of it last week. I'm not sure what her weapon was.

I want snow, but all we're getting is cold rain. Not much else is new. Trying to muster the energy to get ye old family picture taken. I finished off the pumpkin icecream and now am ready for the peppermint candy seasonal flawor.

How is Katia?

The Dean family woes

I had to smile as I read Traci’s or soggy pete’s day in the life with children.  Couples without patience and a good sense of humor- really should think twice..huh?   Emma has the flu….but with a dose of medicine is just well enough to cause trouble and be cranky.  She refuses to eat anything but candy- which is in ample supply in the boys’ bedroom after Halloween.  Kalena has taken to a high pitched scream as a general mode of communication- happy, sad or curious.  She’s just tall enough and strong enough to pull over chairs and stools- and all that gets stacked on top.  The big white plastic gate is up taking up a good portion of the living room after she reached for the pretty fire, leaving her with a nice blister on her thumb….(and just for the record- mom was not home at the time).  The boys are both having their dental/orthodontist night mares.  Nicholas had four teeth pulled and insists on the use of gas- adding an extra 50 dollars not covered by insurance with each visit.  Gabe has those lovely big front teeth- is this a Shull or a Sharp gene? He still has not reached the age where they’ve wanted to start the ortho work…Gabe has his own set of daily struggles with me though. He got a new kitten from the shelter- the first one he picked out (even after four hours of looking/trying to convince him maybe this wasn’t the most affectionate cat)…Boris-the one hundred dollar kitten- (now named Hunter) came home and promptly began to sneeze the next morning (like 80% of the shelter cats we looked at).  To top that event off- a student just had their cat give birth to a litter of FREE kittens- that were quite cute, friendly and not sick.  My play by play is not sequential- just high lights.  But I have to say I’m so thankful for each of my children…I think they are some of the cutest and brightest kids around.  When Emma isn’t telling me “she doesn’t like me” …she’s wanting to read stories, play make-believe and be my cleaning helper.  Nicholas’s reading teacher just visited my classroom and told me he is the nicest kid (her daughter Courtney- he talks about quite a bit…hmmm) and he’s the one who likes to just hang out with me, in the hot tub, up stairs on the couch…and reminds me that “he’s the one I’ve loved the longest”.  Kalena…well she’s a baby- and I’ve got that strange genetic program that dad thinks I should be frustrated by…but instead relish- that makes me like to just spend time holding and smelling her- that is when she will sit still.  Gabriel…the one that takes some true creativity in parenting---he and I have been working on our science and math challenges together.  I don’t have to ask about his homework- he’s proud of being in this special math group and I have to say the latest assignment on a magic square- had me stumped.  He lives his life with emotion- so I see the love the brightest in his eyes- and of course the defiance.  I announced the other day that the “family” would attend the Homecoming football game- no choices in the evenings events- he responded- what happened to my freedom.  I’m especially thankful for such a supportive husband- who has made dinner each night this week- and seems to know the right way to respond to Gabriel.  Well I should be grading papers.  So I’ll get back to the grind. 

Do-over! Do-over!

So when a person, a couple reach that stage where they think having a family would be a good idea, I want to go back there. And I want to travel the non-children route.

I took the children to get their head gear and all that, and Tuck has been sick, so we propped him up in the back of the van and took him with us. Tim has homecomeing week and so I get stuck with all of them. Then Tuck throws up in the van...not something we expected since his symptoms were mainly fever and a cough. Then we ride in this nauteous smell all the way to Bend and back. After we get back home, India has to go to the dentist and get Six teeth pulled, and her front gum slit open to make room for her other big tooth to come in since it's about a year behind. That's five shots and the aftermath of "how can you let them do this to me, your daughter. The pain mother! And now I have no teeth! How could you let them?!. We walk to the van, her mouth filled with gauze, and after a long conversation I convince her that it's better to get those teeth pulled because they were rotting, and two of them were keeping a big front tooth from coming in. And really you couldn't see all those baby teeth because they were hidden under her lips, (that's if she didn't smile) and so she's not happy with me, but thinks socially she might survive, "even though they've already teased me about missing so many teeth." And I'm thinking she'll have to chew everything with her four back teeth for a while, and how that might be interesting, but not sharing that with her. Then we go inside, and Christian is impressed with how many shots she endured, but says, "you've got no teeth now." and I shoot him the evil mother glare, but it's done. And India starts crying in earnest, looking in the bathroom mirror, glad that the blood is oozing out of her mouth and enhancing the whole drama. I ask her to rinse out her mouth and we'll put in new gauze, but she refuses, and lets the blood drip down on the sink and her clothes, crying and slobbering.

Tuck is coughing like crazy in the living room, and I know Tim won't be home until 7p.m. Then Christian says India is faking it and being a baby- which she kind of is- but that's not what we need. So I send him away, and India shoves a towel to her mouth and heads off to her room.

I make dinner, catch up on laundry, and all the while the children are bickering about whether to watch Old Yeller or the new Star Wars DVD. India gives me the silent treatment. Tucker takes a bath, leaving a big puddle which our super watercat Sherbert, plays in and then walks through leaving paw prints all over the clean floor. And the dog's shocker won't work, and she's barking, and Christian, the hypochondriac, thinks there's something wrong with his braces, and wants me to check. I check, and i see braces. He says there's something "back there" kind of pinching on his lip. I offer him some wax, but he declines because it's a more general pain, not a wire kind of hurt. Finally, after everything settles down, and India grants me a truce, Tim comes home.

He's all chipper and somehow I lose my temper with him because he asked if I was going to wash the kids' cool new shirts they got from the orthodontist. I'm thinking, he just doesn't get it. And he's thinking very bad thoughts of me because we don't speak. And I leave to the nursing home, and it is such relief to be with little old ladies who bless me for folding their blankets and shutting their blinds, and who tell me I'm sweet to visit all the time. And I feel slighly guitly that I'm escaping the madhouse in guise of kindness to lonely old people. And my best moment of the day is in telling Robin how awful my day has been, with all the details, and she gets this big grin on her face, and then we slip away from reality into Scarlet O' Hara and the big ball with the hansome Ashley who is about to announce his engagement to Melanie Hamilton.

Wanted: pictures

Dear sisters,
I am sitting at my office desk and notice that my pictures of my nephews and nieces are 2 years old. I have received other sports pictures but I would like the school pictures for my office. I like the 2.5 X 3.5" size. Just a hint. And I remember asking my mother for her school picture but haven't received that either.

I am eagerly awaiting someone to post some Halloween pictures also.