BARBIE AND FRIENDS HOUSE

This is one of the things my girls like to do with their free time. Chandler loves to build things (she says she wants to be an architect someday...among many other things). This is a multi-room mansion that she built out of all of her Barbie accessories. The picture does not even compare to the real thing though. The real house had so many creative little details. I sat and looked at all of the rooms and what they contained for about 15 minutes! She thought of everything! She builds and rebuilds this house, adding new features every time. She has to rebuild it because mean ol' Mom says she has to put her toys away at night. I tell her that setting it up is the funnest part anyway. Kaydence then sits and plays with her animals and little people in the house Chandler built.

JUST LIKE MY BIG SISTER!

Here are a couple of drawings the girls did on our new easel. One of the pictures is done by Chandler, and the other picture is Kaydence's attempt to be just like her big sister. I smiled when I saw this.

BAUMAN FARMS

On Thursday, October 25th, we went to Bauman Farms in Woodburn with Michelle, Avery, and Cooper. What a fun place! The last time I was there was about 5 years ago when we went with Skye (Brent's sister-in-law) and Grandma Watts (Brent's Mom). Chandler was probably around 2 years old at the time. They have added so many new things for the kids since then! They have several hay mazes, an obstacle course, a big wooden fort with a covered wagon (from the outside it looks like an old war fort would have looked, i.e., Fort Vancouver), a great petting zoo with farm animals, indoor swings, and TONS of slides. Almost every activity contained a slide. The GIANT slides were the girls favorite part (they were super fast). We watched apple cider being made through an apple press machine, and we visited the quaint country store where there was an array of fresh produce, yummy baked goods and treats, enticing scents, and colorful flowers and plants. We bought a huge bag of caramel corn (a little overpriced) for an afternoon snack. We also purchased some small pumpkins to carve on Halloween. Bauman Farms also has a corn maze, but it was really muddy and cost extra, so we opted not to do it. On weekends they have hay rides, a zipline, a big inflatable jumping "haystack", and an apple slingshot and apple cannon.

I could easily spend all day playing at this place (so could the girls). Unfortunately, our visit was cut a little short because that was the first day I started to feel sick. We will definitely be going back again next year!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE BAUMAN FARMS 2007 SLIDESHOW

PLANS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

The picture above was drawn by Chandler. This was my favorite art pick for the week.

We do not have much planned for the week ahead. We will be focusing on school (that of course is plenty in and of itself), and on Thursday we are planning to go to a pumpkin patch that has kids' activities. Other than that, we are just taking it one day at a time.

Brent has recently been offered a position with another car hauling company. He interviewed with them this last week, and they told him that they want to hire him. He is still weighing the pros and cons of switching companies at this point in time. He has been making it home most every night with the way he is doing things now at his current job, but he has had EXTREMELY long days, and his new truck has proven to be a huge test of his patience. He hates his new truck, so it makes things rather difficult for him. His new truck takes twice as long to load as his old truck, so he is losing precious time and money. With the new job, he would not have the luxury of being home every night, but he would be making more money, and the job would be quite a bit easier. He is still trying to decide what he wants to do. I feel torn too. I love having him home more often, but the new job would actually be easier on him (not as stressful, more direct deliveries and pickups, less stops, Toyotas instead of HUGE Fords that are hard to load, terminal a little closer to home, etc.). The new company also has better benefits. We have a big decision to make this week. We could use your prayers! Until next time...

VISIT WITH GRANDPARENTS

On the weekend of October 12th through 14th, Brent's parents (Larry and Avalea) came down to stay with us. Friday night they arrived around 9 PM, and we sat and chatted a little bit before heading off to bed. The girls camped out with Grandma and Grandpa on the floor of our living room.

On Saturday morning, Grandpa took the girls to the park in our neighborhood. The girls both came back with new and, bizarrely enough, exciting (at least to them) "ow-ees" to show us from all of their exploring. After their walk, Grandpa, Brent, and the girls started painting (actually applying primer) to the new cat house that Grandpa built for our cat, Blackie. It is such a cute little house! There was paint everywhere after they were done. They had it in their hair, on their clothes, and somehow there seemed to be little painted paw prints throughout the garage and on the protective paper...how did those get there? Bugsy (our dog) even managed to sit in the paint a couple of times. He just thought he was enjoying sitting calmly in the sun, but what he didn't count on was getting painted a brand new coat to match the cat house! The girls had a wonderful time "painting". All the while, Grandma and I nervously watched as they dunked their paint brushes and pulled them out, drenched and dripping with wet primer. I believe that both of us were thinking exactly the same thing, and it was taking all self-control to just let them be kids and enjoy the experience. When we finished "fun with painting", we ate lunch together and then took a trip to one of the city parks in Sandy. We played there for about an hour, and then we headed off to church for the evening. Our stomachs were rumbling after church, so we went to a local Sandy restaurant, The Tollgate Inn, for dinner. This restaurant is very quaint with homestyle cooking and has been around for many years (since the city of Sandy was first established). We enjoyed a variety of food including ribs, seafood platters, patty melt, hamburger and fries, PB&J sandwich, and berry cobbler and cheesecake for dessert. Brent and Grandpa agreed that the cobbler was the best part of the meal. Stuffed and happy, we went home and played a new card game that Grandpa taught us. The game is called "SKUM". I had learned how to play this game back when I was in high school, so it was a game that brought back a lot of great memories for me. We played that for a while, and then we hit the sack again. Once heads were on our pillows, that was it. We all slept VERY soundly after such a busy day. ZZZZZZZ...

On Sunday, Grandpa took Chandler on another morning walk. They explored the nature trails behind the high school baseball fields. They found all kinds of new paths and ways to get from our house into town. The rest of the morning the girls rode bikes and played with friends while Brent and Grandpa tinkered around in the garage working on various things. A little later in the afternoon, we went to Fran and Russ' house (Brent's Aunt and Uncle). We spent the afternoon there. The girls loved playing with Hannah (Fran and Russ' 5th grade foster daughter). After knowing Hannah for about 15 minutes, Chandler says to me, "Me and Hannah are really good friends." I thought that was cute. I love how easily kids make friends and how they have no expectations, prejudice, or judgmental attitudes toward people...so innocent. The girls swung on the tree swing and rope swing in the backyard, they chased Brent, Larry, and Russ around and threw balls at them (they were also attacked with balls themselves from some mischievous men), and they "planted" things in the garden (sorry, Fran!). A little while after being there, Hannah packed a bunch of food and items in a blanket, tossed it over her shoulder, and they went into "hiding" (as she put it) in the shop. Chandler referred to it as the clubhouse. After all of that, they finally came in and joined the adults in a game of SKUM. It was so nice to see Fran, Russ, and Great Grandma Watts for the day. The girls keep asking me, "When are we going to go back to Hannah's house?" We finally made it home by Sunday evening. We enjoyed a late dinner of marinated tri-tip roast on the grill, green beans, garlic bread, fruit, and ice cream. The rest of the evening we just sat around chatting. Once again, there were no arguments when it came time for lights out.

We all woke up fairly early on Monday morning and enjoyed a big breakfast together. We had French toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit. After eating, Grandpa took the girls on a short bike ride down the street. Kaydence had just learned how to ride a 2-wheel bike that week and still did not know how to use her brakes. By the time they got back from their bike ride, Kaydence knew how to use her brakes! Way to go, Grandpa (and Kaydence, of course)! Shortly after their ride, we said our goodbyes, gave hugs and kisses, and Grandma and Grandpa were off. Back to their "other" home.

I really appreciated being able to spend quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Watts. We built new memories that will last forever, and we learned lots of new things! I hope that we will do this many more times in the future!

EASILY ENTERTAINED

This last 1-1/2 weeks has been fairly lacking in excitement. We have actually been very focused on schoolwork, and the girls have been VERY productive. Kaydence is slowly progressing in her reading and handwriting, and Chandler has been very diligent in her weekly work. I can't believe how much work Chandler does. We have several 3-ring binders (all full) to show for this. It continuously amazes me that she never seems to complain either! What a great example for me! I don't really remember doing as much work as she does when I was in school. I guess maybe that is because it was so long ago!

We did have one FUN DAY on Friday, October 5th. We decided we desperately needed to squeeze a day of fun in because otherwise it would be a week of all work and no play. What kind of life is that?


Our FUN DAY started out by meeting our best friends, Michelle, Avery, and Cooper at JJ Jump/JJ Extreme in Clackamas, Oregon. This is a big warehouse just for kids that has huge inflatable jumping castles and slides, a rock-climbing wall, a zip-cord swing (very cool and VERY HIGH!), and video games. It was really loud and chaotic in there, and it smelled HORRIBLE. I guess a bunch of sweaty little kids mixed with that special effects smoke stuff does not make a good air freshener. ;) This event was organized by another homeschooling mother, and I was absolutely shocked by the turnout of homeschooling families there. I had no idea that so many people homeschool in this area! I am thrilled! We are going to try and get more involved with some of these planned events in the future so that we can make new friends. Sorry that I do not have any pictures to include. The ones that I took did not turn out very well (it was very dark inside this place).

After exhausting ourselves at JJ Jump, we drove home. When we arrived home, I realized that I was actually REALLY tired and ready to crash any minute, so I suddenly, and impulsively, decided that we needed to get up and go somewhere else before I fell asleep. Hmmmm...There is nothing like getting home and then piling back into the car again because your "insane" Mom tells you to. The girls looked at me like I was crazy. I just did not want to take a nap, and I wanted to be awake when Brent got home later that evening around 10 PM, so we jumped in the car and went where it took us. The car coincidentally took us to some of my favorite places...the fabric store, Ross Dress For Less, and Borders bookstore. The girls kept saying, "Mommy, this is so much fun! What a fun day!" I never thought that these places would interest them, but I guess I was wrong (easily entertained)! The girls especially loved the fabric store. Kaydence kept "oohing" and "aahing" over all of the striped pattern fabrics, and Chandler loved all of the bright-colored silks and satins. They said, "This is one of our favorite places!" They also loved looking at all of the hundreds of toys at Ross (this store looked like it had been hit by a tornado by the way), and the bookstore was like a dream come true for them. They went to the kids' section of the bookstore, picked out half of the merchandise there (or so it seemed), and lined all of their items up on the bench just like they wanted them (they can be rather particular about this sort of thing). They then went to town looking at all of the gorgeous, colorful illustrations; reading the magical stories; and exploring the fascinating, new toys. It was kind of like being in Santa's Workshop!


I also was able to sit and enjoy reading some books for a little while. The girls did not want to leave! I think this might become a regular outing for us when we are bored...it's free!

We also went to Panda Express for dinner because the girls begged me for "Chinese" food. During our dinner, I saw Kaydence looking intensely out the window. I asked her, "Kaydence, what are you looking at?" She turns to me and says in a very serious voice, "I am just looking at that girl who is talking to those other humans." I thought this was funny. As if some of us are aliens and some of us are humans, right?

On Saturday the girls played with their friends outside, and then we went to church to work with the kids. Sunday for me was filled with lesson planning for our upcoming school week and taking care of my other regular duties as a wife and mother. Sunday for Brent included working on his car, catching up on things he needed to get done, and playing with the kids outside. We then spent Sunday evening watching a movie together and playing the "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" board game. This is our usual weekend.

This coming weekend, Brent's parents are coming down to stay with us. I will let you all know about that adventure next week sometime! We love and miss you all! TTFN (ta-ta for now)!

RELAXING WEEKEND

Our weekend was very low-key. It was raining all weekend, so we played around in the house doing a 1000-piece puzzle (or starting it anyway), watching movies, and just enjoying each other's company. Obviously we can always find things that need to be done around the house, but we just felt like it was time to take a break for a little rest, relaxation, and enjoyment. Brent and I did teach "Sunday school" at Kid's Church on Saturday night. That is always very fun and rewarding. I have been feeling really restless the last couple of weeks though, and I almost feel like God has another plan for us, possibly in addition to working with the kids. I guess I just have to continue to listen and keep an open heart and mind. He will lead us to where he wants us in his own timing.

Brent's week with his new truck was rather interesting. He spent 2 nights in a hotel, he came home at 1 AM the first night and 6 PM another night, and then he worked on Saturday. He said that the new truck is very difficult to use, and it is going to take him at least a month to really get the hang of it. Once he does, he thinks he can manage to be home before 6 PM every night. That would be wonderful! I have not had him home every night for 6 YEARS! I can't believe it has been that long already. We have managed as well as we can around here without him, but it will be nice to be a "normal" family for a change. I will keep you all updated on how it is going for him.

We took last week off from school because we had a really crazy, hectic schedule with multiple doctor and dentist appointments and friends and family visits. This week we are back on track again, and going strong! Today in science we learned about God's creation of man and woman. This was the first lesson in our Human Body series. The pictures you see below are self-portraits done by Chandler and Kaydence while they were looking in a mirror. They love to draw and color, so this was a very fun assignment for them. My self-portrait was NOT so cute. I included mine just for a good laugh. I cannot draw whatsoever, never have been able to. I guess the artistic side of me was not lucky enough to receive this gift. Oh well!

Don't ask what that thing on top of my head is. I have no idea. I think I might be able to hear pretty well too...my ears are huge! Chandler and Kaydence said, "Mommy, are you an ogre?" I just about fell off my chair because I was laughing so hard. I am so lovely?! Do you think that I subconsciously view myself this way?