Due to my recent facebook posts I would first like to assure you all that I am not an old maid. Yes, I can jams, salsas, butters, etc. Yes, I knit, sew, and do crafts. Really I just like to learn new things, and try things out. I like to be able to tell people oh, you want to learn x, I can help you with that. I jump from craft/recipe/technique to the next. Two weeks ago it was canning, last week it was felt flower brooches, and this week it is knitting. To reassure you I would like to mention that most of the time I am doing these things, I am listening to Foo Fighters, Eminem, Iron &Wine, and other fairly trendy music (Ok, so most of what I listed to isn't considered trendy, but its what I like...). Btw, I cracked open a jar of applesauce I made, and it was really good, not as good as the apple butter, but it was homemade goodness.

In just over a week is my 28th birthday. This is the first year I have really wanted a party. I was people to come hang out and eat lots of food and listen to the music I like, play games, eat cake (thanks to Jen Tieman master baker) and relax. I would really like a big party with adults and a theme, but I just don't know that many people. So, I think I will wait for the big 3-0 for that one, think togas. My other friend Jen is a master party planner and was very disappointed that we weren't going to do that this year, but I am moving into my fall mood, which tends to be more of a hibernating, soup eating mood (Dh says no soup over 95 degrees, so just a few more weeks. Btw, I was meant to live somewhere cold and rainy.) So, if you want to know what I want for my birthday, makeup and books are always a safe bet. After my birthday party on friday night, we are farming the kids off with various people and then heading over to a resort at fort mcdowell. We were supposed to go on a hot air ballon ride and then go spend a few hours at the spa, but the balloon ride place is booked, and the masseuse is out of town. So, we are currently taking suggestions. Our options are to go to a different spa, maybe spend a few hours at crackerjax, or find something else to do.

Since Sydney is in preschool with Miss Barb and Dylan is in first grade I have been spending alot more time with Jordyn. I have come to the conclusion that she hates me, rather that the terrible twos have slowly quietly made her a host. She potty trained this week and we are no longer buying diapers, which is great. But if I don't take her out, then my house has become a minefield. We are going to toddler story time at the library tuesdays, playgroup at the clubhouse wednesdays, and clean the house together on thursdays.

we booked our next cruise, we are sailing on the carnival splendor, march 6th from LA. I think we will have a great time. While checking out our new cruise I got side tracked by youtube videos of cruises sinking etc. and I came across a ship getting smacked around by rogue waves. It looked very familiar and I was sure it was the cruise my mom and I had been on last May. Well I googled it, and it was the very same ship! Now when three rogue waves hit the ship it busted out windows in the dining room, and killed 2 people and injured more. How freaky is that!!

Zach needs a new car. HIs light went on this morning and he took it and got it scanned, the catalytic converter needs replaced, among other things. His air conditioning has been out for quite awhile, and he has 200,000 miles on it becuase it goes all over the valley. So it was dying soon anyways, so he is out shopping as we speak for a new car. He really wants to get a mini and I am not sure how I feel about that. If he works out a good deal it will be the same that we pay now, but it only has 4 seats. Now, I realize that since we are talking about getting pregnant within the next year, that even if he gets a regular car we wont be able to fit in it, but we already wont be able to fit now. I guess I can just wait and see how things go.

No new pics as I have been bust lately with my new calling, kids, and funerals, etc.

Well, as some things have gone missing from my blog, I have been spending some time getting a new template going, and here it is!

I have been spending the summer doing fun things with my kids, and now that things are settling down, I finally have time to update you all. Nothing has really changed except that Sydney will be in preschool this year, and Dylan is in 1st grade. Dylan likes her teacher, and I think things are going to be good for her this year, except she has been having trouble following directions for not only her teacher but for me as well. This has resulted in her cleaning her room and doing dishes alot, which is good for her to do anyways. She still has her best buddy Luc in her class although she has not been telling me as much what everyone is doing and saying, but more what they are learning. Her teacher has brought out the big guns and she is learning about rocks, compass pts. and various things about our country. Her PE coach has already called to tell us about how great she is doing, I think he is just buttering us up to get her on the basketball team.

I have gotten some great postcards this year through postcrossing. I have come to collecting postcards. They are like my way of traveling vicariously.

Guess where this is from! This is a homemade card from Rentz, GA.

This is a cityscape of Helsinki in Finland.

This one is from Thialand, and the stamps on the back are phenomenal, as soon as my camera starts working ill post them.

Women used to wear the national costume of Holland, but it is rare to see them today, the tulips however are still there.

Before I got married I thought travel was one of those things I would never have money for. After I got married I wasway too busy with school and working. Now I am having kids, and watching them grow, and wishing I had traveled more before I got married. I now know that travel is not as expensive as I thought, as well as having family in Italy and Wales that I could have stayed with. Maybe as the kids get older, the grandmas might be more willing to have them over for longer periods, who knows. Some day I would like to go on a senior mission with my hubby. Until that day comes, you will find me checking my mail for post cards and travel brochures, planning out my future travels. My first journey will be taking a road trip up to Indiana and Ohio to do some family history searching, and New York to see the houses my ancestors built (they are historical buildings now). Then I plan to follow my mothers heritage to Italy, Trieste and Venezia. I would love to travel then to Wales to visit my second cousins, and then to the Netherlands, where my family is from way back when. Then for fun I would like to go to New Hampshire, and Calgary.  AKA I should have married a richer man...

I know that a lot of moms are not as happy about summer coming, but i am ecstatic! The reason being that I am now free. In our school kindergartners have to be brought to school and picked up by a parent or older sibling. So for the past year I have been faithfully taking Dylan to school every day, and picking her up everyday. Next year however I get to sleep in (I know it is not likely, but I like to live in my deluded mind) because next year she will be walking to school. Yes she will be only 6, but since we live across the street from the school and there is only one street to cross, I will probably only have to walk her across the street and she can walk from there.

I am sad however that my first baby is done with her first year of school. Next year she will no longer be the baby on campus. Today we went to a end of the year assembly where the kids sang some songs and we watched a slide show of pics taken throughout the year. I am definitely going to miss her teacher. She was the best teacher for Dylan. As soon as I get a copy downloaded I will add the link to the assembly for anyone who wants to watch.

Last friday night was girls night in. When Zac has poker on Friday nights, we do all the things that he doesn't enjoy. We has curry and asparagus for dinner, then we watched a new anime called Ponyo while we cleaned, cut, and colored our nails. Now, I love anime, and I wouldn't say that I didn't like it, it was just different. It is a Japanese version of the little mermaid. My friend Gareth who I borrowed it from said that the kids would like it, but he wasn't sure about me. He apparently didn't like it as well. When you figure the things coming out of Studio Ghibli, you can't say that most of thier movies aren't a little screwed up, but thats kinda why I like them. When I was about 14, I saw the second half of Grave of the Fireflies. It was the first anime that I had ever seen. It was so powerful to me, even thought I didn't see why the kids were living in a cave, that I looked for it for years. Netflix came along and I finally was able to see the beginning and it broke my heart even more.

We did a bad thing and had a cheese platter for dinner a few nights ago. I was at Trader Joes and I can't walk by the cheese aisle without wishing I could taste all the different cheeses. Now, I do like my cheese, but am weary about spending a boatload of money on something I am not going to like. My top cheeses are Part Salud, and Havarti. My love of cheese however for shadowed by my intense stomach pains, and slothiness for the next two days.

This week we went through many babysitters as it has been the first week of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Normally during the week I tell Zac to take a friend, but since it is the playoffs and an experience like no other, I had to go. Wednesday night I was not feeling well, but went anyways, and tinnitus ensued. You know when you hear a bomb go off, or a gun shooting at close range (because people hear these things often) and you have that period where you kinda have the fuzzy hearing? Well that's what it was like, I could hear the crowd chanting just fine, but couldn't hear the guy sitting next to me talking to me.

Sometimes I wonder where my inner hippyness comes from then I come across pictures like this of my dad

This is my dad holding me and my older sister for what I can assume is my first christmas. Then it dawns on me. People are mostly about, where they came from. When you go back in my family, they are basically middle income, alot of military, easy going laid back type people. I have family on both sides that lied on thier military records in order to serve, one of which got found out, and kicked out of the air force.






I started doing my family history this week. I have way back on my fathers side, but have no pictures or stories about them, and then my mothers side doesn't go back farther than my great grandparents, but I have over 400 pictures now scanned in and stories typed about them. Here are some pictures of them:




This is my grandmothers grandmother's memorial

















This is my granmothers brother Andrea climbing the Alps.











And this woman with the flowered dress is my grandmother, Fernanda









My family may not have classical beauty, but darn it they have European cuteness!
I am proud of my heritage.

I can never think what to write when I am sitting on the recliner with my laptop open. I mean, I have ideas of things I want to write, like short stories, and such, but nothing to write here. I get my ideas when I am driving.

Today I met my new visiting teachers. One of them Mandy, is really nice, and I have met her quite a few times but have never sat down to talk to her. She is really nice and it was good to get to know her. Jen is the other one, she is a convert like me and is the same age and has kids the same age. I am really looking forward to get to know her. She is nice, and I think she is going to make a great friend.

This week seems like it is going by fast, but when I realize when it is, it is never as far as I think. This weekend I had the best time. We had Ben and Desi over to spend the night, well sort of. They came friday night and we played Magic at a my friend Jen's. Then, saturday I went to Zach's cousins bridal shower. When we got home she left and we had Jen and another friend Robbie over to play Magic again. Then that night we had Jen and her hubby scott, ben's brother, and a friend named Darrin over for Magic again... needless to say we played alot of magic this weekend. It was fun though.The girls spent alot of time playing with thier cousins and friends.

I finally got Dylans birthday invitations done and passed out. She wants a Easter themed birthday, so we cut scrapbooking paper into the shape of eggs, glued a 6 on the front and the info on the inside. We invited our immediate family, a few family friends, and 5 kids from her class. Dylan wants sandwiches and chips, so I am thinking about getting a big sub for the adults and buying uncrustables for the kids. It is going to be at the park behind our house as that is where she likes to play. We were at build-a-bear a week-ish ago and there was a party and I asked her if she wanted to have a party there. She said she liked having it at the park. At $9 per kid I wasn't going to argue with her.

I am watching Eagle Eye while I watch this. One of my top 5 movies (the other 4 incase you are wondering are Dan in Real life, In the Land of Women, Howls moving castle, and Little Women in no particular order), I appreciated the fact that it is Even Stevens first movie as an adult. I tend to like movies that might actually happen, although I realize that Howl's moving castle is a bit of a stretch...LOL!

I hate summer. Not actually summer, but how it makes me feel. I love to swim, I love the heat (well ok, hate it, but it's not the end of the world) But every summer I start to get headaches, it messes with my hormones, and I am usually burned to a crisp by the time is hits 70 4 days in a row. But, I am excited to have Dylan home. Last week she had spring break and was home, ie at the park/etc As stressful as it was, I liked having her home. It was nice to have a conversation where we weren't both mostly confused.

All my plants except my green beans are dead. Some of white flies, some of fungus... I decided that other than flowers I am done until I get my own backyard.

Ok, I know I promised I would update this, but I have been super busy. Today I decided that if we are going to be in this house atleast another year and the blah color of paint can't be changed (i.e. I am too lazy to paint it back) then I should decorate the girls rooms. Maybe they would like playing in it/sleeping in it more if I make it more pleasant. So, I got paint, curtains, and butterfly decals. I painted thier dresser (which has been painted by yours truely atleast 3 times) just darker than peptol bismol pink. Then I put the decals up around the room and am just waiting till Zach gets home to put up the curtains. Then I will be taking a picture to regal you all with my handiwork.

Now, since this is the first time I have been online today (even thought it is 4:30 which is not normal for me, I am online like atleast 5 hours by now) I did all the usual surfing, checked out woot shirt, fed all my characters and checked out the food porn on foodbuzz, which is a daily reminder of food I would love to eat but are too cheap and incompetent to make myself. This reminds me I need to find somewhere in the valley that makes grits, becuase they are never as good when I make them. Anyone?

Dylan had field day today. Her teacher told her that she could wear shorts, hats, and sunglasses. Now, it has been cold and raining for days, but yesterday the rain let up and alot of the water dried. Today was glorious weather for a field day, then as soon as I left to pick her up, it started to blow and now it is sprinkling. They had hula hooping, jump roping, bean bag tossing and more. Her favorite was the hula hooping and they came home with ribbons, and water bottles.

I transplanted my zucchini last Friday. With all this weird weather, half of my plants look like they arent going to make it. Although both the zucchini plants have half a dozen blooms, but no leaves. I can't wait to have my own backyard, I am putting a gate across half the backyard, and use half for raised beds, and half for a swingset and a little dog. I want a fig, almond, and an orange tree.  As you can see I have this all planned out. I want to be as self sufficient as possible. Since we eat alot of fruit and veggies, this is the best way, since I have no idea how to butcher a chicken. Now when Zach and I buy a couple acres in southern Oregon, then I will have chickens for eggs (again, not to butcher, thats gross! I prefer my meat dipped in ammonia and wrapped in plastic. See Food INC)

Last weekend we went to the renaissance fair and the kids had a blast. We went with the Holewinski's. The little girls got leather bracelets, but Dylan didn't want anything. But the highlight of the trip other than the 50 chicken nuggets on the way home was meeting TWIG the fairy. The girls sat on her lap and got pictures taken, and she gave each of them glittery fairy rocks.

Well, off to finish my favorite stew (ie beef, chopped potatoes, and trader joes fire roasted vegetables).