Moth Sightings Part II

I thought the first moth we found was a one time deal, until I was taking out the trash the other day. I happened to look up and see this strange thing hanging from an eve. I thought it was some weird debris falling out of the gutter or something. I honestly had to stare at it for a good 15 seconds before I realized it was another cool moth! I called Adam out to try to get it down. He was obviously successful. This one was a reddish color and a bit smaller than the other, and had a striped body. It's so fun finding new and interesting wildlife!



Soren didn't like it when the moth jumped on him...he was a bit upset =(

At the River Beach

I finally downloaded some pictures of our day at the jetty almost two weeks ago! That was the day of our anniversary...Adam wasn't there, but everyone else was. We had a really great time! It was a bit windy, but since the area we went to was in sort of a lagoon, the water was warm. The kids enjoyed the sand the most and only ventured in the water when carried....they shivered all the way. The rest of us (excluding my dad) ended up in the water after much coaxing (chasing) and a few "sand grenades." Only Chris and Elise had swimming suits, the rest of us had to go home soaked...good thing it's only about a 7 minute drive =)




Henry, Elise, Me, Mom, and Chris (Elise's fiance)

Check out this moth!

Adam found this moth fluttering by our front door late Sunday night! He kept it in an empty red vines container until he could show the kids the next day. Look how big it is in porportion with the container and Adam's hand!

Happy 6th Anniversary Honey, I miss you...

This summer has been busy, busy, busy! I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've probably seen my husband a total of two weeks in the last month an a half...and the times we do see each other, we are usually busy playing catch-up with all our "chores." So where is Adam today? Chicago. Where was Adam 2 weeks ago? Louisiana. Where was Adam a month ago? At work working 12-16 hour days for the big mill shut-down for 2 weeks. Where will Adam be in a week? Alabama. Let's just say, we're ready for a break.

Most know that our year has been unusually stressful. A little over a year ago we put our house in Cornelius on the market and that's when all our troubles started. I severely hurt my back and was bedridden for a month, Soren had brain surgery that ended up being a month-long ordeal, did I mention we were trying to sell our house and search for a house, AND a new job for Adam amidst all this?...ANYway, Adam finally landed a job at Wauna (Georgia Pacific) in October. We found out just as we were finishing putting new siding and windows on our house. In fact, we spent most of the summer improving our house while it just sat on the market. If anyone of you have ever tried to sell a house while living with toddlers....well, you can understand my pain. As if selling a house wasn't stressful enough! And then there's the whole "looking for another one to buy" part...geez! Don't even get me started! So, as I was saying, Adam got a job! We qualified for a wonderful relocation package that allowed us to sell our house to the company if it didn't sell within 3 months. We moved in with my parents while the house sat and Adam started his new job. Long story short...house didn't sell, company bought, we found a house, our first offer was accepted and we moved in exactly 3 weeks shy of a year of when we started!!

It was great to finally be in our own place and finally unpack things that have been in boxes since we moved from Corvallis almost 4 years prior. We've moved 3 times since getting married 6 years ago (not including moving in together) and I've just about had enough! We plan to stay in our current house either until we die or decide to downsize. The house we bought is a work-in-progress, and will be for several years. We LOVE our "new" house! It sits on 3 1/2 acres in an area 15 miles outside of downtown Astoria. It's picturesque, quiet, and...well, it's just lovely. I can't complain...but I can't wait to do some remodeling and redecorating.

The day we moved in, I was already painting, and I have since painted the entire upstairs and have stripped some pretty ugly wallpaper. I've also been sorting through all of our boxes and preparing for a big garage sale that I had planned for this weekend. I brought boxes and boxes of stuff to my parents house to have the sale there with my mom and sister. The sale was a huge success, and I now have a few extra dollars to pay my outrageous bills this month.

Bills. Everyone has them, everyone hates them. As I was laying in bed last night (or rather, the couch in my parents' basement), I was trying to think of the last time Adam and I had a proper Anniversary celebration. In most years past, we opt to not make a big deal...because of...you guessed it...bills. And this year especially, that still holds true.

Adam is currently on a plane flying home from Chicago. He was a groomsman in one of his best friend's wedding. The original plan was for us to go together and make a weekend of it, being that it was our anniversary. We even had the trip in our "mental" budget and thought we could pull it off. But, owning a house in the country requires a lot of "stuff" that pretty much eats up money saved for trips to Chicago =) So, here I am, spending our 6th anniversary blogging on my parents' computer. I actually had a great day today...but I still miss my honey.

So, with 6 years under our belts...what have our anniversaries consisted of?? Well, let me think...

• Our 1st anniversary was quite lovely. Adam was living with friends in Beaverton while interning at Intel, and I was living and working in Corvallis. We didn't see much of each other that summer. But, we pulled out our wedding cake from the freezer and actually had a few bites (it wasn't bad!)...and we spent the weekend being tourists in Newport and went to the aquarium. It was great fun!
• 2nd anniversary. Hmm...I was 3 months pregnant with our first bundle and spent the summer babysitting for a ridiculously low wage for two of my former preschool students. Adam was commuting to U of O to complete his master's in chemistry. I think we may have gone to a movie and went to dinner with friends....or was that for their anniversary???
• We had a very nice 3rd anniversary. Synnove was 5 months old and we took her to the "duck pond park." I can't remember the name of it, but it's in Beaverton. We ate at the Greek Deli over in West Union off of Cornelius Pass and headed over to the park. We fed the ducks, and went for a stroll. It was nice.
• 4th anniversary. This one I actually think I kind of remember. My sister was going to GFU and spent a lot of time at our house. I remember making a nice pasta-ish dinner for all of us (Elise included). I bought Adam some nice new shorts and a polo shirt from the Gap....I don't remember if or what he got for me. Ha ha...we must of actually had a few extra dollars that summer! We went to the movies; Elise babysat.
• Our 5th anniversary just didn't happen. Soren was still recovering from his surgery, and frankly, so were we! My mom-in-law offered to babysit, and we did intend to go out, but it never happened.
• 6th....well, here I am. Maybe I'll dig out a Papa Murphy's coupon for dinner tomorrow??

Ha ha...I'm not complaining. I love my husband dearly, and thankfully, we don't need special anniversaries to remind us how much we appreciate one another. I have a beautiful home, two beautiful kids, and a beautiful life. That's enough for me.

New Brother?

This morning I woke up, made the kids breakfast, then made my way to the bathroom. Synnove then gets up from the table to visit me (like kids often do) and says in a mumbled voice, "I want a new brother." Instantly, the thought of having another child makes my heart skip a beat...two is enough for me...at least that's my current feeling. So I ask, "why do you want another brother?" She doesn't answer...so I ask again. Finally, she says, in an even more mumbled voice, "I don't like him."

Ha ha ha! PHEW!! I thought I was gonna have to pop out another one =)

Our Annual 4th

So, I've decided to start a blog. I have no reason to start one...I'm just curious if it will catch on. I've never been one to start a journal..."why waste time writing my thoughts if nobody is gonna read them?" Blogging is an interesting phenomena...like reality TV. Real life is so much more interesting than fiction...we get to see a bit of what other people are really like and compare it to ourselves. Most of the time we realize that we are all very much the same, and it's comforting. I'm a huge fan of the show "Jon and Kate Plus 8". Watching them struggle through life gives me the motivation to keep striving for perfection. Even though I only have 2 kids and they have 10 we share the same frustrations. Besides, Kate is truly amazing...if she can do it, so can I!

Well, enough rambling, and on to blogging...here goes!

We just got back from our annual 4th of July camping trip, and it's sad to be back home. Camping is one of my favorite things. Sitting around the campfire doing nothing is probably the greatest "non-activity" ever. Back in my childhood days, we would go to Fort Stevens (probably 3-4 miles away from my home). We would take up probably 10 spaces and fill them with family and friends and stay for one whole week every year. It was great fun! Since we were just at Fort Stevens, people didn't have to get time off of work to go on a big camping trip...they still went to work each day. That tradition finally ended shortly after my grandmother died and we wandered around like lost puppies for a handful of years when 4th of July came around. It wasn't until my lovely parents decided to purchase a little piece of heaven over in Naselle, WA that we gave our annual tradition another go.

Now our camping trips are better than ever! Their property is conveniently located near miles and miles of logging/private trails perfect for motorcycles and ATVs, AND is right on a creek. There is no electricity or water out there, so we charge up our trailers with generators and pump water from the creek. Over the years, my dad has done his fair share of tinkering out there and has built an out-house, shower, woodshed, and a HUGE shelter. Every year there is something new. This year my dad wired the shelter with lights and and plug-ins that allows everything plugged into the generator be switched on and off by a simple flick of a switch. Now, taking hot outdoor showers is a much less arduous job. He even has it set-up so that we can take showers at night. He's thought of most everything.

Here's how it works: We arrive at the property and dad unloads ALL his stuff. He's got 3 motorcycles, 2 ATVs, Synnove's mini-ATV, chain-saw, line-trimmer, generator, extension cords, pump, buckets, hoses, BBQ, propane tanks, large gas burner for 10-15ish gallon pot, plus all the stuff required for camping. He then takes the pump down to the creek and feeds it into a HUGE 300 gallon 'tote' that Adam (my husband) acquired before he left his job at a "high tech company in Hillsboro." Once it's about 1/2 full they retrieve the pump. Then, when someone wants to take a shower, dad fills a large pot with some of the water from the tote and heats it to the desired temperature. He then flips on the generator (if it isn't already on) and the lights come on (including the one that lights the shower behind the shelter). He then sticks a pump that's connected to a hose that feeds a 5-gallon bucket hanging in the shower into the pot and flips it on. The person who will be taking the shower then hollers at dad when the bucket is full. Then the shower is ready! A shower spicket is connected to the bucket and water trickles out of it when it is turned on. It's not a full-blown stream, but it works well enough. The shower is actually quite large; built out of wood-scraps, old doors, and corrugated tin and is equipped with shelves, hooks, and a dressing area. You can see the tote and the pot in the background of the picture with Soren and the sparkler.

There are a few other camping traditions we have adopted over the years as well. One of my favorites is what we like to call "cowboy breakfast." Every morning we all have breakfast together cooked over the campfire. My talented cousin Daniel built a cooking grate for the fire, and my Uncle Don uses his seasoned cast-iron pans and griddle. We eat farm-fresh eggs from my Aunt Alice and Uncle Don's chickens (and recently ours as well), 4-H auction bacon (often smoked by my dad), hash browns, and blueberry pancakes (cooked on the BBQ). Every morning is something different...and it's really good!!! We ALSO plan a huge dinner where lots of people are invited...not just people camping and we bury and huge hunk of meat in a "pit fire" that cooks for several hours in the ground. My uncle Jack is usually the mastermind behind that...it's a 2-day process.



There is never a dull moment when we're camping. There is always something to do...4-wheelin', paint-ballin', crawdad catchin', critter trappin', target shootin', sun bathin', creek wadin', smutty magazine readin' (ie, People, US Weekly, Star Magazine, Seventeen, and others), Sudoku figurin', Pictionary playin', and LOTS of junk eatin' =)

Here's a few pics from camping the in the last 4 years...

The first "full" paintball crew in May 2004

Cousins take a ride September 2006
Jessica and I in 2004, I'm pregnant with Synnove



Novie with Grandma finding rocks in 2006



Finally caught some crawdads! 2006

Synnove's first camp chair 2006

And the race is on! 2006Soren on Daddy's back 2007
In 2007 my cousins Kamille and Heidi painted a rock for everyone in camp...this pic was taken a few days ago =)