My Baby

My baby is THREE! How can that be? While we were at Tall Dude's basketball game, Caboose noticed the popcorn machine. We don't typically buy snacks at events. We bring snacks from home, but in order to stay within our budget, we teach our kids to not even ask for snacks at concession stands. Well, except for Caboose . . . on his birthday. He's always had a thing for popcorn. So while we were watching the game, he very politely asked me if he could have some popcorn. How could I resist?







Happy birthday, my sweet baby! You are such a joy to our family and can't imagine life without you!

That smile melts my heart!

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That Crazy Time of Year

We have hit that time of year where our hours are consumed with baskeball and volleyball.

Here's Tall Dude playing basketball after missing about 10 days of basketball due to pneumonia. Can you say 2 points? He's so happy to be playing again. Oh, and at the doctor, they measured him at 6'8" - he's grown another inch - yikes!

And here's Pearly girl doing the thing she loves most: volleyball. They went in for the kill and she got the block. Yea!

And now I seem to fighting similar symptoms as Tall Dude. I've had a fever since Friday and a very deep cough. I'll get that checked out day.

It is not so easy to knit when your kids are playing sports. There are great intentions, but usually the knitting stays in the bag. Oh well, it can wait. My kids' games can't!

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Tagged

I normally don't do the tag/blog things, but this one is kind of fun. I was tagged by Northwest Ladybug (long-time online buddy) with the following instructions: "Go to the 4th folder with pictures on your computer and then upload the 4th picture in that folder. Discuss."

So, here is the 4th folder, 4th picture on my computer:



I took this picture of a picture in my house in Dec of 2002. I had just bought my first digital camera for the primary purpose of selling on eBay and so I went around the house taking pictures testing it out and I have no idea why it was never deleted.

This picture does have an interesting story. My husband was active duty Navy and we were stationed in the Philippines in 1988-1990. Filipinos are famous for copying things and they do it remarkably well. During this time, my husband was sent to Bahrain during the beginning of the build-up prior to the Gulf War (Desert Shield). He was obviously feeling lonely for me and found this card and sent it to me with the instructions that I was to find an artist to paint it because he wanted to hang it in our bedroom. That's exactly what I did. I love this painting and the story behind it.

What I think is particularly funny is that every one of our children has thought that it is my husband and me, despite the fact that in the picture the lady shows cleavage and wears heels. My boobs can't "do" a cleavage unless I'm nursing and get into weird contortions and I do not wear heels, tyvm.

Okay, so now I will tag 4 people and hope they will think this is fun:
Audrey's Playground - mommy of 2 gorgeous daughters, tackling life's twists and turns with optimism, and is having fun with her fairly new camera
Global Nomads - an expat living in the Persian Gulf who takes gorgeous pics of her life/journeys - oh, and she knits!
There's nothing like a daughter to love . . . - another mommy of 2 gorgeous daughters (one is a redhead) and who recently bought a new Nikon and enjoys photography
My Life as Mama Jodi - a sweet lady I met on a scrapbooking board years ago

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Go Mustangs!

It's volleyball season for Pearly. She is a starter and thrilled about that. Her 6'2" height definitely has given her an advantage in this sport. I'm glad for her because it's hard to be extremely tall and in volleyball, being tall is an asset. Thankfully, she only has eyes for volleyball and seems to be taking the height in stride. We're looking forward to a great season. We love this team with great coaches. This is primarily a homeschool team and they compete with private schools up to 3-1/2 hours away.

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Day 1

Day 1 of potty training

7 accidents on the floor and/or carpet
2 times on the floor around the toilet, but not in the toilet
2 times on the floor and IN the toilet
1 time completely successful (well, minus a couple drips)
Total Cost = lots of mama's patience, siblings' patience, lots of dirty towels, lots of gummy bears and apple juice

I don't ever remembering it wearing on me so badly. Last 2 times, dh took the duty on himself. I wish I could give it to him this time, but it's my turn :(

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For Coffee Drinkers Only

Back in late September, some online buddies were discussing how they like their coffee from a French press. I was clueless. We don't drink a lot of coffee - maybe only with desserts and so I skimmed their comments. But when these ladies kept at it, it made me wonder what was the big deal. They told me that when you use a filter, it also filters out the natural oils from the coffee beans that keep the coffee from being bitter. That made sense to me as it was the primary reason I did not like coffee - that bitter taste. My husband's birthday was just around the corner, so I bought him a French press since he started drinking coffee more regularly (due to his office making it available to employees).

No doubt about it - French press coffee is definitely different than coffee from a coffee maker. We were sold.

So, this Bonjour Unbreakable is the one I bought after talking with a customer at the store who already had one. The carafe is unbreakable plastic and I thought that might be a good buy because so many people had posted reviews on other French presses that glass carafes break easily.

After a couple months, my husband noticed a crack on the plastic press. Within a week, the press had broken to bits. This is what it looked like after 2-1/2 months of use (click on picture to enlarge):

Okay, let me just add by this time, we had gone from occasional coffee drinkers to daily coffee drinkers and only from the French press. One day, the husband took the French press to work since he didn't have enough time to make his coffee in the morning. Wife was not happy.

Now we had a broken French press and dh was resorting to using his engineering degree to invent his own French press with a strainer.

We needed a replacement, and fast. I went online and after reading quite a few reviews, decided to purchase this at Clive Coffee not only because they had the best price online and reasonable shipping, but also because they are local and I could hopefully get it more quickly. Not only did I get this gorgeous French press, the people at Clive Coffee included a bag of Tres Rios hand-roasted coffee beans from Costa Rica! Woohoo! I ordered it on Friday and received it Monday.

I also sent the husband pics of it so he can drool at work. So far so good. The quality is superb and the press part looks well made. There are no plastic parts. My first cup was excellent.

Happy days are here again!

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Sewed In and Blog Anniversary!

While a lot of people were complaining about being snowed-in a few weeks ago. I was blissfully sewed-in. The boys were outside sledding all hours of the day, the house was quiet, and much was accomplished.



Here are 4 of the 14 prs of pj bottoms I sewed with the help of Pearly who did a lot of cutting and prep work. It was a great team effort. The brown was for my daughter, Hannah, the blue pairs were given to my 6'3" sister, Denise (hi, Nise!!!), and the pink for my Mom. My absolute favorite part of Christmas was the thrill of watching my long-limbed family try their pjs on and see the excitement in their eyes when they noticed that they fit in length. My mom actually did a little jig, and once she put them on, refused to take them off even though we were having another family over for Christmas dinner. Well, that was all the encouragement I needed to remain in my pjs. So, that's how we ate our dinner - some of us were in pjs! Fun!

I made a pair for Tall Dude (who was 6'7" the last time we measured him), but they were about an inch too long. So I told him I'd quickly go hem them and he retorted, "Are you SERIOUS????". Ummm, I did not hem them. He's never experienced pants that drag on the floor, so he wanted to keep them that way. I originally wasn't even sure he'd wear them, because he typically wears his gymn shorts to bed, but he's been wearing them every night.

I had to laugh at this one morning when I went downstairs to begin my sewing. I'm trying to ignore the fact that my beloved Rowenta iron got knocked over, but check out the army guys all lined up ready for battle. And be sure to check beneath the ironing board - we have a paratrooper who snuck down to get in a better position. For what???? I do not know. Boys!!

I also happened to notice that it's been 4 years since I began this blog. It first began as a place to document my knitting projects so I wouldn't forget details like name of yarn, needle size, gauge, etc, but now it is a diary of the happenings in our home as we raise our remaining six children. I am amazed at how many people from all over the world are interested in our seemingly mundane life, but thank you for your supportive posts and communication along the way.

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Facebook Reconnections

Well, these past few weeks have been an emotional whirlwind to say the least. Finding the answers to my questions about my biological father and family so suddenly was amazing. I'm still sad about the fact that I never got to ever see or talk with my biological father. That is a pain in the soul that is very hard to find words to explain. How could I have love for a father who seemingly abandoned me, yet then find out that he carried my picture in his wallet for years? I was told awful things about my father my whole life. Most of them were true. But yet, I still feel an unconditional love toward this man. So, that chapter of my life was taken from me in his death, yet a new one unfolds with the meeting of my new half-brother and sisters and extended family. I still haven't met one half-brother and I'll probably leave it in his court since he knows how he can get a hold of me. At least I know about him and he is in my thoughts and prayers.

Interestingly, since all of this transpired, I posted my reunion story (the same story I posted here) on my Facebook wall. What I didn't know was how many other people have similar stories. Two people e-mailed me privately on Facebook telling me their story and how my story encouraged them to look for long lost friends/relatives. One person actually found her maid of honor after 25 years of no contact. Isn't that great? After that, I decided I should try to find friends from our college group where dh and I met. We were a close-knit group and it was during a pivotal time in all of our lives; yet as often happens, we lost track of each other.

I was able to find two friends from that college group on Facebook. We decided to make a Facebook Group so we could have a central location to reconnect, share stories, and pictures. In less than one week, we've found close to 20 people from that old college group and now pictures and memories are being posted. I thought I'd share a few here from my younger years.


This was where we held retreats at the Oregon coast. I was probably 20 years old. I'm right smack in the middle with the blue sweater and dh is to the left of me with the gray/striped sweater. This was probably the beginning of our courtship.

And what I found more interesting is the guy who took the above picture was also connected with me in the youth group and youth choir I was in when I was about 16 years old. He was an avid photographer back then and saved every slide! I was thrilled to be able to see these old memories.

This was when we were on a choir tour when I was probably 16 years old. What great memories! I am the far left person in the top row.

This must have been a quick stop at a convenient store for snacks, just a guess. I'm in the back with the light blue sweater.

And here I am sleeping on the tour bus. Seriously, who keeps these kinds of pictures for nearly 30 years?! I love it!

Now this picture really got me. I recognized the guy and befriended him on Facebook when I saw him posting on our mutual friend's picture. I remembered him from the high school choir, but then through our correspondence, he told me that he remembered me from further back than that. He was a student teacher in my choir class in 8th grade and remembered that I also played the piano for the class. This guy remembered me from over 30 years ago! That floors me. I remember looking up to him as an 8th grader because he played so well and aspired to play the piano just like him some day.

So, do you have lost friends or loved ones? Start searching on Facebook! And if you do find someone because of my post encouraging you, please drop me a note. I'd love to read your story!

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Any Resemblance?

My new sister sent me some pictures of the dad I never knew. When I saw them, I was amazed at the resemblance, so I had to crop head shots for comparison.

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Put a Smile on This Mama Bear's Face

See that flyer posted on my fridge? That is the flyer that was sent out to a lot of people informing them of camps available for children, mothers/daughters, sons/fathers, etc, this coming year at the camp we go to each summer. Do you see that picture in the upper left-hand corner? That's MY boy, affectionately known as Orange Boy here.

I take lots of pictures at camp of my kids (of course) and random pictures of campers. Last summer, the staff asked if they could make copies from our memory cards to use for slideshows, etc. Unbeknownst to me, they used my picture of my boy for this flyer. It's not the fact that my picture was used, it is the fact that they chose my boy - the boy who has a prominent birth mark on his left cheek - specifically a Portwine Stain birthmark right smack in the middle of his face - and made that the largest picture on the flyer. Do you get what I'm talking about? This is the kid who gets stopped in public all the time with strangers saying, "Who beat you up?" "Wow, what happened to you?" "Did your sister do that to your face?" I have had a police officer ask me what happened to him (and then went to a neighbor to verify). Countless (yes, countless) medical professionals have asked what happened to his cheek. This is something that is very noticeable, yet someone at camp decided that his face was worthy enough for the picture to be blown up and used as an advertisement for camp.

So, when talking to Orange Boy, he mentioned to me that he was surprised that they used his picture because of his birthmark. I told him that they probably never even noticed the birthmark - that the excitement shown on his eyes and face is what made them choose this picture. What a gift they gave my son (and his teary-eyed mama).

PS - We are aware that there is treatment available for Portwine Stain. It would require numerous laser treatments. The treatments cause scabbing and staying out of the sun for days. At this point, Orange Boy has decided that he is not interested. The ball is in his court and we will support whatever decision he chooses.

I've told him over the years that God must have been kissing him an awful lot on that cheek because it is sooooo soft. I sure love this kid.

Here's the original:

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Reality Check

I made a cheesecake for Christmas and followed the instructions to a tee, but still ended up with a crack in the middle. So, when we were invited to a New Year's Eve party, I decided to try it again with a different baking method to see if the crack could be avoided. Woohoo - success!!



Until I had a little help from Caboose. It really was too good to be true. Heavy sigh:::::

Oh well, it will be topped with homemade loganberry sauce and will still have the same delicious taste. Reminds me of a verse I know - "Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart". So true.

Happy New Years, everyone!

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A Very Special Gift, but Bittersweet

This is the only picture I have ever seen of my parents together and me. (I zoomed in with my camera to take this picture and the following pictures - the originals are quite small.)

Forty-something years ago, my mom was married to Frank VanC___. I was born during that first year of marriage. My parents did not have a happy marriage. They divorced after one year. Frank had issues with drugs and the ramifications of a lifestyle with drugs. He wasn't a good dad or husband at that time. My mom remarried when I was 3 yrs old and my step-dad legally adopted me. My new dad and I didn't have a great relationship and I always wondered about my biological father, Frank. I only had three very small pictures of Frank. That was my only connection to this man because legally, he had no more connection with me. As a child, I found myself staring at them wondering who this man was and what happened to him.

When I was about 19 years old, my mom helped me to try to find Frank. We found Frank's parents' phone number and called. That was the first time I had ever spoken to those grandparents. They were very sweet and asked about my life. They didn't have Frank's phone number because he had recently moved, but gave me an uncle's phone number. If I remember correctly, we did call an uncle, but I lost the courage to call Frank. Many years passed.

I don't know anything about this picture except that the man standing in front of the car is my father.

Ever since internet searches have been available, I have searched for Frank. Last summer after a Google search, I found an old address in Salem, Oregon for him and went to the house asking the resident and neighbors if they knew or had heard of Frank. No one had heard of him. On the 20th of December, I typed Van C in the search field on Facebook and scrolled through the names. I knew the names of my uncles and some of their children. I e-mailed one person whose name sounded familiar and she e--mailed me - no connection. Then I found a Facebook group for people who are connected with the Van C's. There were several Van C's listed. I joined the group and posted on the wall that I was looking for a Frank Van C.

Today, I found the answer I've been looking for. Jeff Van C. read my note on the wall and contacted me saying that Frank is his uncle. He called Robyne who is my half-sister and gave her my phone number. Within one hour of the original note from Jeff, I was on the phone speaking for the first time with my half-sister, Robyne. It was then that I found out that I had been living in the same city where my father died and was buried. Although I was not living in Oregon when he died, I was living in Oregon for many of the years he was living here.

It is sad that I never had the opportunity to see his eyes, to hear his voice, to touch his hands. But it is comforting to know that he spoke of me to his daughters. He did think of me. I wish I could have told him that I have his wavy red hair and his love for music. I always wished I could have seen his expression when telling him that he had seven grandchildren - and they are all TALL (he was 6'5").

This is the only picture I have of Frank where his eyes are open and looking at the camera. These three pictures were the only pictures I had of my biological father. I don't know how many times I looked at this picture wondering about this man who fathered me.

So finally, the missing pieces of my puzzle have been found. I don't understand why I didn't contact Frank earlier when I had the opportunity, but am thankful for the new relationships I will have now and thank God for the amazing sequence of events on this day.

This is Carrie and Robyne - my half-sisters on the day my father died.

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Driving in Portland Metro Area in the Arctic Freeze '08

You all are probably tired of me posting about snow. How many days of snow have we had now? I've lost track. I went out today and took a couple pictures. This is why so many businesses are shut down. What you see on the normally busy 2-lane road is compacted snow and ice - maybe 4-6 inches deep. Along with the hazard of ice, people not knowing how to drive in snow/ice, is the big hazard of manholes. The manholes have been piling up ice like a volcano - sometimes one feet high. So cars have been dodging the manholes in addition to trying to stay on the road. It is pretty crazy here.

Below is a 4-lane street. This road is notorious for traffic. Thank God it is not now. Again, it's hard to see, but what we're dealing with is tire ruts in the road. The ruts could be 6 inches deep. Trying to change lanes can be very dangerous. The ruts in the road when crossing a major intersection is another big challenge. I counted an average of two cars getting through on one green light because it took so long to maneuver the ruts. There are simply not enough plows to clean this mess up. We won't even talk about neighborhood roads. It's amazing to see how many people have just hunkered down and are riding this thing out. There is a median - can you see it? Neither can many other people - quite a few people have driven up on the median without knowing it was there until too late. This can really wreak havoc on drivers who are unaware of the topography of the area. Another popular site is downed mailboxes - "oops, was that a curb I just hit?".

The mall tonight had stores closed at 8 pm. Crazy - on the eve before Christmas Eve! Oh, another weird thing - not too many stores have shoveled their sidewalks. I think we need to learn some snow etiquette here!

They are expecting more snow on Christmas Eve. We will have a white Christmas!

PS - When they sell snow shovels here, they are typically plastic. Go figure!

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Snow Day and Sew Day

We got a major dump of snow in the Pacific NW - between 6-12 inches depending on the elevation. This is a rare storm for us. We haven't seen it like this in the last 8 years we've lived here. Last night we got freezing rain and here you can see Orange Boy holding up the top layer of ice.

The house is pretty quiet and so I have been sewing a LOT. Here are my new flannel PJ bottoms that are long enough for my nearly 6'4" frame.


I've never had a pair of pjs that fit my long legs before, so it is a delightful treat. I will be wearing them all day, thank you very much. I've lost track of how many pjs we've made for the family (Pearly has been helping, too). Pearly and I are also making other clothes. We just discovered that Pearly wears the same size top as me. She's now 6'2" at the age of 14, and still growing. Oh yes, baby, she IS learning how to sew. Because of all the snow, our church had the services on Saturday morning. That was very smart because we wouldn't have been able to make the drive today. I love this weather. I love being snowed-in. We have our pantry stocked, wood stove going, hot apple cider, stew or chili ready to put on the stove. This is the life.

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Snow, Snow, Snow

We got snow yesterday. Church was canceled and the kids played their hearts out - until 11:30 pm!! I hope there wasn't a curfew in effect? LOL

Pearly Girl took all the pics except the one I took of her. I stayed in my pjs all day and sewed. What a great day!

Brown Eyes

Orange Boy played the most - from morning until 11:30 pm!

This is the wonderful hill just a few houses down from us. All of the neighborhood kids come to this hill to sled. I wish someone would put barricades at the top and bottom of the hill so the people showing off in their SUVs don't trash the good snow on the hill. My kids watched 2 SUVs go in the ditch. I'm not sure that I feel sorry for them.

Caboose was thrilled - and actually stayed out quite a bit.

This little strawberry-blond is turning into a carbon copy of Orange Boy - he can't get enough of the outdoors and is quite the trooper.

They are calling this storm the Arctic Blast. We will continue to have lows in the 20s for the rest of the week. More snow could come on Wednesday and Sunday again.

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Sweetness

We enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls the night we decorated our tree. We like to do something a little special. Orange Boy, immediately grabbed the camera and started snapping pictures. I've got a bunch of Blogger Juniors here. I think perhaps they will be great photojournalists as they get older. That's not a bad thing.

PS - I did not take one of these shots. I'm glad they are capturing these great memories. (Click picture to enlarge.)

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Oh Christmas Tree

We were running late to get our Christmas tree and I was really bummed because I knew the pictures wouldn't turn out. Well, most of them didn't. But we were greeted with such a beautiful sky. This really is a family shot (missing 2 kids) silhouetted, but check out the sky!

On this shot, we moved so the sun was facing us and I had to lighten it up quite a bit.

I love the pink hues in the sky from the glorious sunset.

And once again, the sunset provided really cool lighting for this picture of me and Orange Boy.

This is the 2nd time we've cut our Christmas tree from this farm. They are friends of ours and have 6 acres. They use no pesticides and we got a gorgeous noble fir for $30. Gotta love Oregon!

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In seems our new cat has prompted a little bit of art practice on drawing cats. I love how interests lead to other interests, skills are learned, subjects are studied without realizing they are "doing school". This kind of studying needs no tests - they are learning because they want to learn and soak up information like a sponge. No time is wasted and pure pleasure is attained in the learning process. Now why couldn't I have "done" school like that?!

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A New Addition

No, not that kind of addition. My parents gave us this cat. We originally didn't want the cat (or I didn't want the cat). It's not that I don't like cats, I don't like dealing with the negative aspects of animals (poops, clawing, hassle of finding someone to watch animal when away, etc). But my parents were very desperate. They said they would pay for his food and any vet bills AND "he's an outside cat". When my husband went to visit my parents, the cat came out and met my husband and kids. My husband, being a big sucker for animals then called me on the phone giving me some sort of poor kitty story. I told my husband that I wanted no part of this decision. The cat obviously won my husband's heart.

Well, for the first week or so, he was an outside cat . . . . until yesterday. I was in the kitchen drinking my breakfast smoothy and heard him meow. It was very cold outside. I opened the door and that was the end of that "outside cat" story.



He is a beautiful cat with a great temperment - especially considering my kids have been pet-deprived and can't keep from touching him. This cat has never known such love. Okay, I admit it - he is pretty sweet. Even sweet enough for me to grab the camera and take a few shots.

Isn't he handsome?

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Boys and Their Toys

One of the wonderful blessings of homeschooling is that a lot of our schooling takes place in life, not in a school with four walls with texts, class interruptions, etc. A bigger blessing is that we are able to take advantage of wonderful resources around us to enrich the learning process. Not long ago, a semi-retired man from church asked us if our boys would like to learn welding. Orange Boy, in particular, took an interest. One thing led to another and now this welding class has turned into a go-cart building class. The "boys" (as in Papa, Orange Boy, and our semi-retired friend) meet weekly to learn skills, talk about plans, etc.

Not wanting this project to be a huge expense, we were able to find a used tractor lawn mower on Craigslist for $140. This tractor has been disassembled by Orange Boy and a large percentage will be able to be "repurposed" for the go-cart. Here you see the tractor and then the process of disassembling. (Click the picture to enlarge.) I'm really excited about this school project. The little boys don't know about the go-cart. They will sure be in for a surprise! More updates to follow!

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