Unique & New (day 307)

#81 - Take the boys on 10 unique field-trips

I believe that what I meant when I wrote this goal was "Take the boys on 10 field-trips to somewhere that they have never been on before".

I am clarifying my goal because, any of you with children (especially mine), know that ANY TIME you go on a field-trip you are most likely going to encounter a unique experience. For example: I took the boys to the grocery store (yes, we homeschoolers can even make a quick trip to get bread and milk into an educational field-trip), what should have been a quick in and out stop turned into an hour long "experience" which included a broken pickle jar, a cart full of unneeded items, and a now frazzled mom and two unhappy children who wished that their mother would take them on a "unique" field-trip that didn't require a clean up on aisle 12.

When our homechool co-op planned an Amtrak train trip to Portland for the day, I had not prepared myself for how "unique" this field-trip would be. Let me start by giving a big shout out to my mom who accompanied the boys and I on the trip. She was my a huge help and a great source of comic relief.

When my alarm went off at 5am, I knew that this was going to be... an experience. The train was scheduled to leave at 7:44am. We needed to be at the station 30 minutes early and it takes 15 minutes to get to the Tukwila station from my house, which meant that I needed to be out the door by 6:45am (I am not that bad at math... I added an extra 15 minutes in to assure that we would be on time).

Now for those of you who know me well, you can attest to the fact that I am not a 7am kind of girl. My alarm is usually set to go off at 7am and my day doesn't really start until around 8:30 or 9... at best!

Luckily I had packed most of the lunch and activities for the 3.5 hour train ride

the night before. This only left me with showering, waking up the kids, doing breakfast and getting everyone (and everything) into the car. One might think that 2 hours is enough time to do that... one would be WRONG.

My shower greeted me and beckoned me to stay "just another 5 minutes", my children pleaded from the comforts of their beds for "just another 5 minutes", who knew that breakfast at 6am requires "just another 5 minutes" and when it was time to walk out the door I was the one praying for "just another 5 minutes".

It was no surprise when we pulled into the train parking lot almost 15 minutes late. I was outwardly composed, but internally I was a tired and frazzled mess. I was relieved to see other moms arriving late too. Everyone was smiles and hugs, but I know some of them must have also been thinking "why in the world did I sign up for this craziness?"

It was a chilly morning and all of the adults stood huddled together chatting and reminding the kids to stay behind the yellow safety line, so that they wouldn't fall off the platform onto the tracks.

7:44 came and went, we found out that the train was going to be 45 minutes late... just enough time to run to Starbucks for hot cocoas for the kiddo's and a warm cup of sanity for mom and I.

45 minutes turned into an hour which turned into two hours. My body was no longer finding comfort from my latte, but rather an uncomfortable pain was beginning in my bladder. The kids were restless, Ben wanted to know "exactly why were you in such a hurry to get out of the house?" I was restless my sweet & gentle reminders to stay behind the yellow line were now sounding something like this "Do you want to die, because I can arrange that.... Get behind the yellow line NOW!"

The train finally arrived and we were off!

3.5 hours on a train is a loooong time. I had tried to pack light knowing that whatever I took would have to be hauled around with us. The boys sat a few seats in front of me with some of the other co-op kids and my mom and I sat with some other co-op moms. This arrangement worked out for the first 2 or 2.5 hours. I found out that I had not known what restless was on that train platform, NOW the natives were restless.

When we arrived in Portland I decided to go with a group that was visiting Voodoo Donuts (someone had seen it on the Travel Channel) and to Powells Books (the best bookstore that I know of).

Voodoo Donuts was.... an experience. (If you are a sensitive reader then don't read the following paragraph, just trust me and know that this place was a "one of a kind" type of place that had decent donuts and a not so decent menu)

Usually I ask my kids what they want, this time I tried very hard to get them to not read the menu reader board. When asked what Cock-N-Balls was I was able to convinced them that it was referring to roosters (I was relieved when they didn't ask why it looked like something else, hence the name) I nearly choked when Micah asked what penetration was. I explained that Ben's choice, the Triple Chocolate Penetration donut (chocolate donut covered in coco-puffs) was named that way, because the donut was "penetrated" with chocolate. Micah got a Dirty Donut (donut frosted and covered with Oreo's) which needed no explanation, everyone knows that Oreo's look like dirt. Ben told Micah not to read the "Old Dirty Bastard" donut because it was a bad word that he shouldn't be reading (but it's OK for him too read it and then say it???).

If you want your children to stay innocent then do not visit Voodoo Donuts.

Powell's bookstore was a much needed break after our donut experience. We spent hours browsing through the books. I love bookstores and I am so blessed that my children have inherited this love.

The train ride back was much quieter, we were in a train car with one other family, while the rest of our group was in the other car. The boys read their new books and my mom and I chatted with another co-op mom while her child slept.

All in all it was a fun-filled field-trip for my children. They will hopefully look back on this experience with smiles.

Our next field-trip (also with our co-op group), was yesterday. The boys and I drove 1.5 hours north to the Golden Glen Creamery. We got to look through wire at chickens, look through pens at cows and look through a window in a door at a room where cheese is made (no cheese was actually being made at the time). It was very educational but not nearly as exciting.

#46 - Try 20 new recipes

I tried a new hummus recipe. It was easy, which may be why it doesn't taste so great. It's edible but not fantastic.

#88 - Try 10 new restaurants

I went out to reconnect with my cousin and have a much needed girls night. She suggested we go to Il Fornia for their free appetizer happy hour, it was a good choice. The appetizers were simple but yummy and free as long as you order a drink (diet cokes count).

#3- Update my blog every 3 months on my weight lose

Have you been reading this post? If you have you can probably guess how my weight lose is going. Donuts, creameries, recipes and restaurants do not make for a good diet.

My last update on this was in September, at that time I had lost a total of 13 pounds. I am happy to inform you that I have lost more weight, I am sad to say that it is only 2.5 pounds.

I wish that I could give you good explanation but honestly I can't. The winter months are always difficult for me. Now that we are out of the rainy season I expect for my number to go up, the loss number not the weight one.

With that being said, I am going to put my laptop away and take my kiddo's out for a walk. I hope that attempting to complete #5 will help me get #13 at a -60 and inspire me to blog about #3 on more regular basis.

Inspiration + Motivation= Day 305

I am proud to announce that #100 (inspire 2 other people to do a 101 in 1001) is complete!

I have been told by three people that they will join me on the quest to complete this wonderfully crazy personal challenge. One out of three of them has already made her list and begun her 1001.

I look forward to seeing what they come up with,. My job now is no longer to inspire, but to help motivate them to complete their task.

Woo Hoo... You can do it!!!

Now, how is that for motivation :D

Oregon or bust! (Day 297)

What an amazing weekend!!!

Brent and I went to Salem OR to speak for the student body of Corban University (our Alma mater). We decided to make our trip into a mini vacation (#74) and left a couple of days early so we could visit our dear friends in Eugene OR (#66 ). We are so blessed to have friends that will put us up, and put up with us :-)

While we were in Oregon, we (meaning I) decided that our friends were too cool to stay Muggles, so we introduced them to the joys of geocaching (#72).

On Sunday afternoon, we left our friends and drove up to Salem. The college had reserved a hotel room for Brent and I for the night. We spent the evening just vegging out, Brent finished a book and I continued to work on crocheting my moms blanket (wow... that sure makes us sound old & boring doesn't it?)

The college is about 10 minutes from the hotel so the next morning we weren't rushed at all. We enjoyed the continental breakfast and then packed up the car and headed over to the college.

There were around 300-350 students who attended the chapel service. I was nervous before hand but once I got up on stage I was flooded with peace and it felt almost natural. God was definitely present. The students were receptive and afterwards, we were able to speak to some of them and got some very good feedback.

The only thing that could have been better about the weekend was us. Both Brent and I were struggling with the tail end of a stomach bug. My stomach was unsettled as was his but he had the added bonus of his "tail end" producing all sorts of nasty smells.

Busy, busy, busy! (Day 287)

Busy is a 4 letter word (see my 2/5/11 post), and busy is the best word to use to describe the last couple of months. In fact I have been so busy accomplishing my goals that I haven't had time to blog about them (this is my attempt to excuse away my unfaithfulness to my blog... it's working for me, hope it works for you too :-)

I am going to make a list of what I have been working on so that I don't forget to blog about anything that I've done. In order to keep you on your toes, I will not be writing about them in that they are listed.

16. Go to 10 group exercise classes
25. Make 10 bibs for Des Moines Pregnancy Aid

26. Help serve a meal at the Union Gospel Mission

40. Learn Geo-caching

46. Try 20 new recipes

47. Bake 3 cakes from scratch

48. Crochet a blanket & give it away

82. Invite 3 of our neighbors over for dinner

87. Visit 20 new parks/ playgrounds

94. Go to the Ballet

#48. Crochet a blanket & give it away

My mom went in for surgery last week which gave me a great excuse to get out my forgotten crocheting and try and get it done. I had begun this project months ago, I was almost half way done and thought I may actually complete it. That was until I (with the help of my mother) realized that I was dropping stitches.

For my non-crocheting readers, this means that if I continued on, I would indeed still make a blanket. It would, however, be triangular. Seeing that the blanket is being made for my mother, I tried to sell her on the idea that everyone has normal boring rectangular blankets, but triangular.... that's UNIQUE!

I do believe that ripping out half of a blankets' worth of stitches takes almost as long as crocheting it does. I am now 1/4 of the way completed with a beautifully normal blanket.

# 94. Go to the Ballet

I have been told that I am "lucky". If there is a $20 bill or a diamond ring on the ground, I am the one who finds it. I have entered drawings for concert tickets, deep freezers, a gold bracelet, mariners baseball tickets, and a slew of other things, which I always seem to win.

I loved the Steven Curtis Chapman concert, use my freezer from Dream Dinners on a daily basis, have a bracelet that I rarely wear, and went to an amazing baseball game where the man in front of us just happened to have tickets to the next days game, and out of the blue, gave them to me.

It is no surprise that my son Micah would inherit my "lucky" gene. A while back, the boys and I went to the Seattle Center. Just so happens, that Radio Disney was also at the Center on that day. They had a drawing that kids could enter, so I had both of the boys enter the drawing. A few weeks later I got a call informing me that Micah had won 4 tickets to the Ballet.

Micah decided that he would like to invite a friend of mine and her daughter along. He knew that my friends' daughter was in ballet and thought that she would really enjoy seeing Cinderella at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. As you can see, he also inherited my sweetness gene :-)

So off we went, the ballet was good. Afterwards I was talking to my girlfriend and came to the realization that I am one of those people who appreciates ballet, but by no means, am I an enthusiast.

#46. Try 20 new recipes

I love to cook, hate baking, but LOVE cooking. You may be asking yourself "if you l

ove to cook so much then why haven't you got this goal accomplished already?" That is a good question. I guess that when I think of the phrase "new recipe" it means something completely unlike anything I have ever made before. I am one of those cooks that takes a recipe and ma

kes a variation of it. That to me is not a new recipe, just an altered one.

Last night I made "Panera Breads Broccoli Cheddar Soup". I make potato cheese soup all of the time and I would assume, removing the potato and adding broccoli does not a new recipe make. I found a recipe online and decided to give it a shot. The way that they had me make the roux was a little different than how I made it for my soup. The recipe called for nutmeg which I would never have thought to add to my potato soup. It wasn't until I tasted the thick green gooeyness, that I decided it was indeed a new recipe worthy of blogging about, and one that I will be making often. YUM!

#82 Invite 3 neighbors over for dinner.

I invited some neighbors over for dinner, they came, we talked, we ate.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening (side note: I would have invited them over even if this wasn't one of my 101 items so it feels a bit like cheating... oh well)

#16 Go to 10 group exercise classes

I was at the YMCA with the boys one afternoon and I was ready to go but they were begging to stay in the teen zone just a little bit longer. It just so happened that there was a Zumba class at that time so I thought "what the heck, I'll give it a try".

What the heck is what I was thinking for most of the hour long class. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the class, but I'm pretty sure that if I was earning my living through using my Latin inspired dancing skills...I would starve.

#26 Help serve a meal at the Union Gospel Mission

I did not actually complete this exactly as it is written, but I am marking it complete anyway.

The family and I went down to the Dream Center on a Saturday morning and helped to prepare sack lunches for the homeless and others who are less fortunate. It was fun doing this with Brent and the boys. I was so proud of how my boys jumped right in and started working and we are all looking forward to going back and doing this on a regular basis.

I figure that my intentions behind this goal were to help prepare a meal for others. With that in mind, I feel like I did complete this goal, just not at the Union Gospel Mission.

Micah was a great "runner" and made sure that 2 sandwiches went in every sack.

Ben was the master mayonnaise spreader

Brent was the master mayonnaise eater!

#87 Visit 20 new parks/playgrounds

The boys and visited a playground in Des Moines. We didn't spend long there because, it honestly wasn't a very great park. I know, your dying to know Why would we go to a not so great park?

#40 Learn Geo-caching

This is the answer to why we would visit a not so great park!

In my mind I had built up geo-caching as this difficult and complicated thing. It is not!

I found a great website that took all of the difficulty out of it for me http://www.geocaching.com

What is geo-caching? It is basically, a treasure hunt using a GPS, or in my case my iPhone (they even have an app for it).

So now that I understood the concept, I decided to take the boys out on our first geo-caching adventure, which is how we ended up at a not so great playground.

Here are the photo's to prove that we are true geo-cachers!

The boys with our very 1st Geo-cache

Ben searching for the second cache.

We found our second cache just as it started to rain.

I was recently told that I am a geo-caching addict and it very well may be true seeing as I have gotten my children, husband, mother and a few of my friends hooked.

I can't say too much more because some of you are most likely geo-cache "Muggles".

#25 Make 10 bibs for Des Moines Pregnancy Aid

I bought the material to make these ages ago and finally decided to take a crack at sewing my very first bib. It actually turned out OK.

I used a pink flannel frog print for the front and a coordinating yellow flannel for the back. I put quilt batting inside for extra absorbency.

I still need to add the Velcro but other than that I am pretty pleased with myself.

#47 Bake 3 cakes from scratch

As you know, I really do not enjoy baking cakes so this is biggie in my book.

In our house we have this crazy tradition called "torture mom" My children know that their mother is a pushover when it comes to birthday cake requests. They come up with an idea for a cake, and then they bat their big brown "irresistible to say no to" eyes and I am a goner.

I love my children and want only the best for them, which is why I don't buy the cheap $0.99 cake in a box mix. I go all out and have been known to spend upwards of $1.89 on their boxed cake mixes.

This year I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make Micah's cake from scratch. This was not done out of love for my child, but rather loathing of a certain goal that I had to accomplish.

When Micah declared what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday I nearly passed out. Here is what our conversation sounded like

Micah: Mom I think I know what kind of cake I want for my birthday

Me: Really buddy, what kind?

Micah: A chocolate cherry one.

Me: Sounds yummy! What shape do you want it in?

Micah: Mine.

Me: I know you want your cake, but what shape do you want it in?

Micah: I want a mine cake!

Me: A mind cake? Like, grey brain matter?

Micah: NO! A mine, like a gold and jewel filled MINE cake.

Me: What?!?!?

Micah: Oh and can you make mine carts too.... that would be soooo cool! (this line is delivered with batting of eyes and a big toothy grin)

After a minor panic attack, help from a dear friend, and a ton of baking (the first cake failed and was replaced by a good old $0.99 box mix) this is what we ended up with.

The bottom sheet cake is the non ruined home made chocolate cherry cake. The mountain is made by good old Betty Crocker.

4 letter words (Day 231)

LAZY is a 4 letter word that I have grown rather attached too . I love being lazy, bumming around the house in comfy clothes is my favorite way to spend my day.

WORK, another 4 letter word, is the opposite of LAZY. Work makes lazy not possible. WORK is one of my not so favorite 4 letter words.

I have very little to blog to you about because I have let the "L" word take over lately. I don't want to be a lazy person, but I don't want to not be one either. So, I there I was, stuck in the middle of a battle between lazy and work, and it appeared that lazy was winning.

That was until some dirty nasty 4 letter words began to take sides with lazy. When SLOB, MESS, and UGLY joined in on the fight I knew that LAZY had the upper hand. That was until WORK pulled out all of the punches and invited KIDS, GILT (that is how Micah spelled guilt on his spelling test), LOVE, DUTY, and of course BLOG. With so much ammunition poor LAZY didn't have a fighting chance.

So there you have it folks, I am back after more than a month of allowing lazy to rule the roost. I fell off the blogging wagon but I am pulling myself up by my BOOT straps and kicking LAZY to the CURB.

Ketchup (Day 197)

I have a few items to blog about I'm going to make it quick seeing as this is my second post for the day and my creative juices have been thoroughly juiced.

The holidays were wonderful. We were able to spend a lot of time quality family time together and in doing so I have been able to turn a few item bold (formerly bold and green, the blog is no longer letting me use colors for some crazy reason so now they are bold and black)

#93~ Over Thanksgiving, we had a freak cold front roll in and we ended up with around 6 inches of snow which allowed for us to build a snow fort. It wasn't the best snow fort, but the boys called it a fort so that is good enough for me.

Pre-fort picture of our house after the first snow fall.

#30~ The North Hill Community Club nominated me to be the "chair" the annual Christmas potluck. I know how to use chairs, I know how to purchase chairs and I even know how to throw chairs but when it comes to officially having the chairing title this was a first.

The event was a success and I have heard rumors of future chairing coming my way.

#60~ In all honesty, this is the reason that I haven't blogged much recently. We have nearly finished the kitchen remodel. I am SOOOOO happy with the progress that I am marking it as complete even though we still have a little bit of painting and a few cosmetic things left to do.

As far as remodels go I think we did pretty good, we are still married and mostly sane :)

This is the new breakfast bar. Not the greatest picture, but it is the only one that I have as of right now. I will post before, during and after photo's in the near future.

Got Milk? (Day 197)

It seems as though no matter how hard I try I go into a store for just a few items, I end up coming out with several bags and a receipt that is 8 feet long.

When I put #41 (make a grocery list, go into the store and ONLY buy what is on the list) I was hoping that it would compel me to become more organized about what I really need to buy. I have a knack for attracting junk food, kitchen gizzmo's and of course the "meal in a minute" cook-azines (not really a cookbook and not exactly a magazine) that are always near the check stand and never have a single "minute" recipe in them.

I am of course proud and yet a bit irritated to announce that I have completed #41. Next time I make a 101 list, I will spend a little more time thinking of items for the list and make sure that the goals are really something I am going to enjoy doing.

I know, I have lost most of you (that is assuming that anyone is reading my ramblings) and the rest of you (once again making the same assumption) are thinking "get to the point!"

Here is the point, I went in to buy milk, I walked out with only milk. I then went home put my milk in the fridge and drove right back to the store so that I could buy cereal at 75% off that I just happened to have a coupon for an additional $.75 off. I bought 3 boxes of cereal for $.27 each. THAT is amazing!!!! I probably spent more on gas than I did on the stinkin cereal.