Gobble Gobble Gobble

The best treat this Thanksgiving is having Pat at home all week long. We finally got some time to just chill and relax. He at least got to sleep in and not have to worry about work all week long. I enjoyed doing errands with him and I think is the first Thanksgiving when we did not yell at each other while preparing food :) - that only means we were both not stressed.

I got to workout before I pigged out on Thanksgiving morning and we basically spent most of the day playing. I taught Joshua on how to make origami paper boats and we raced or sailed our boats along the curves on our cul de sac all the way to the water drain. The rain didn't deter us to have fun on Thanksgiving day. In the afternoon, we watched Narnia and played some board games while waiting for dinner to be ready. The rest of the evening was spent watching TV while playing board games again. Overall, Thanksgiving has been really stress free and fun. We loved dinner - ask Joshua and he will give you his rave review. He ate half of the mashed potatoes and apple pie, he weighed about 5 lbs more after dinner last night - it was real nice to see him eat that much since he rarely does that. It is great to not have to cook for a while but we do need to keep making more mashed potatoes :)

Apple pie is the only thing I made for our feast. Pat cooked and prepared all the rest, namely -Turkey, stuffing, black cherry jello with bing cherries,mashed potatoes and gravy. The apple pie picture was taken by Joshua - that is how much he liked it since he took a picture of it (crazy kid).


jumping into the puddles is the best!
paper boats
paper boat racing

September

It is proving to be another busy month for us specially with school in progress for both Joshua and I and with Pat traveling to India for two weeks.

Despite of Shua's claim of how he hates going to school, he's so far coping well. No pink slips from the school or teachers so far and he's continuously improving his skill sets :) I have incorporated Mommy school again this term due to lack of homeworks during the recent weeks. He finishes his homeworks in 3 mins - that is how easy they have been so far. I had to do it otherwise most of his time is spent in front of the big tube!

My classes started last week, although I am registered and has been attending classes, I am still undecided whether I will continue with the program or not. I am actively looking for a job as well and so that is taking a lot of my time. So far, no success with the job search. I've done multiple revisions on my resume the past few days and will remain to be in constant change - he he he. Shua and I are still struggling with our asthma specially with our cough. Just couldn't shake off the stupid cough, it's causing me a lot of sleepless nights again. I don't see any changes or opening with our schedules for a while. It'll be busy, busy and busy for a while so there won't be much blog updates as well. I'll try to sneak in some photos now and then so "you all" can still remember us :)

The camping buzz

Our camping experience over the weekend has been fun but mostly traumatizing for me and maybe for Pat too. I am glad that I no longer hurt from the bee stings. My neck and ears have been swollen for a while or at least it feels that way and I know Pat felt as miserable too.

It all happened on the afternoon of day 1 during our camping trip with our boy scout pack. One or some of the kids seemed to have disturbed a yellow jackets nests and as expected the wasps came in full defense mode and attacked us. Several adults and 3 kids got stung several times all over our body. Pat got stung about 8 or more and I got 4. Now, I can understand why people are afraid of wasps. Fortunately, Joshua is left unharmed so that is a good thing. Apparently, there are a lot of wasps this year and has been causing a lot of problem. I can certainly agree to that!


The smallest but loudest tent at night :)
The kids having fun fishing, zipline, swinging, and just staying on the hammocks nearby.
by the ravine as we get closer to the "unfortunate" part of the trip.

Smiley P :)
The path to disaster...
View of Mt. Hood in the evening...
wake up sleepy head


Shua and Mt. Hood in the morning

Creature

Found this little fellow yesterday in our garden. He seems to not be bothered at all by me when I took the photos. I saw him again today so I guess he must really like hanging out by our garden. He makes the tomato look so huge.

Lame

I feel pretty bad about not driving to the airport this morning to pick Mom. I have been psyching myself to do it for the longest time and has not gotten over my mental blocks. I know I have very lame excuses for not doing so. I do feel ashamed of myself for not getting over my fears :(

I'll have to get over my stupid fears and will have to put it on top of my things to accomplish within the next month especially since Pat travels a lot. I am glad Pat is a very understanding person but I know it's about time I overcome my silly fear of bridges and free ways..

Ice Skate

Shua trying to catch Dad. It's his second try on ice skating. He went ice skating two days in a row over the weekend. He seems determined to learn how to do it so it's "all good". At least him and his Dad can do it together which is the best part about it.

More summer stuff

1. Shua proudly salutes the flag together with his cubscout pack.
2. Shua prepares for BB gun.
3. Shua did hit the target but no bullseye.
4. Shua got a bullseye on Archery. The only bullseye for their pack.


1. The Den flag bearer for the day.
2. Shua and his babysitters play "advance step" on Wii fit.
3. Shua got a perfect score on soccer heading without being hit or without missing a single ball.
4. Shua ice skates with Dad for two days in a row. He is determined to take hockey lessons this fall. We'll see.

Now, as for me nothing too exciting is happening. I just have been doing the usual cleaning and organizing frenzy. I did spend sometime reading all of the Twilight series within the last two weeks. Thanks to my teenage neighbors for lending me their books. I enjoyed reading the juvenile books and now I look forward to another vampire book I borrowed from a friend - a continuation of the other 9 series books I read over spring. I guess, I like vampire stories afterall :)

As for Pat, he is exhausted from being all over the place as usual. Shua and I owe him lots of massage and proper care. Perhaps I need to buy that Dr. Laura's Proper care of a husband book soon - Tee hee!

Michigan Visit

The album says it all ..... it has been really a wonderful trip.

Friday and Saturday photos : Arrivals, Family Reunion, Eva's Bday and camp fire by the beach.

Sunday: visit with Aunt Rita and Uncle Chet and Shua's 7th Bday.
Monday: visit to the Sleeping bear sand dunes, Mary's farm, kayaking at the beach and camp fire at the Coleman's cottage.
Tuesday: Beach day and camp fire at our rental cabin.
Wednesday: dinner at Happy Hour, Petersons Park, beach and D&D game with the boys.
Thursday: beach, Leland trip and more D&D games
Friday: headed down to Troy...
Saturday: Pat's 20th Highschool reunion
Sunday: Back to Oregon

Schedule

It has been crazy busy since we got back from Michigan. Last week was mostly spent at Camp Ireland for Shua's boyscout camp. Saturday we went to a barbecue party from 4 to 10:30PM. Sunday afternoon, we went to a kiddie birthday party. This week is all chores and getting ready for another busy weekend. Pat is in Idaho tonight til Friday night and I am having a couple of my girlfriends over for movie night. I owe this two ladies some quality time since I almost never invite them over to our house...so it will be Twilight night tonight since I haven't seen the movie although, I am almost done with all of the books. On Friday night, we were invited again to a get together at one of my college friends house. Saturday is off to ice skating with the other den members in Shua and Pat's boyscout. I am hoping we can get Sunday off. Then the following week is another busy week. All of our weekends are full - crazy.

I can not believe how this summer has been. Classes starts September 1 for Shua and so I am doing my best to let him have his much needed "alone time" i.e; watch TV, and do nothing time.

Yesterday afternoon was pretty nice, I had an 11 and 13 yr old play with Shua while I scrub our bathrooms and finish up with the laundry. Believe me even Joshua noticed how clean the bathrooms were. It's great to have great neighbors - that always helps!

Now, I am heading out to rent our movie. Too bad I can't rent it on Bluray right now. Apparently, I can not rent it using Pat's membership since I am not listed under his name. He is in Idaho so I guess it'll just be Redbox dvd for tonight.

Ok, I will post some photos soon. I promise I will get to it eventually.

Our crops

crowded planter box...yikes!

Early girl and big beef tomatoes
Shua and Lola Teresita spends a lot of time picking plums in the backyard everyday.
Green pepper
Banana Pepper - I had it in our Sinigang ( a sour soup)
the very generous zucchini. my mom loves cooking the flowers and it is pretty tasty actually.

I have ginger, cucumbers, red cabbage, long beans, chayote squash, sweet tomatoes, leeks and onions in there as well....hmmm crowded eh? Oh believe me, it could have been worse!

Farm

The berry season has finally arrived and of course we've already gone to pick our usual favorites.

Wow, not sure how he got her to do all the work...
the kids at the blueberry farm...

Lola Teresita and a handful of berries for our jam!

the wagon ride after picking...

Here are several of the berries,we checked out recently as well.

Organic Red Raspberries - I made it into jams.



Black cap blackberries - not yet fully ready but has a pungent taste to it.
Black Currant - I am not a fan!
Gooseberries - really tart and sweet but very dangerous to pick. I will probably try this next year.
Red Currant, my Mom likes it but I am not a fan of this one again.
Yellow Raspberries - super tart, sweet and really juicy. My favorite of all the bunch so far but is not yet ready for picking. I did a taste test of course at the berry patch - ooops bad girl!
Thornless Blackberries - still not ripe that day, perhaps we'll visit again after we get back from our trip.

P and J at the parade

Pat and Shua's cub scout pack participated at the 2nd biggest parade in Oregon this weekend in line with the celebration of 4th of July. Their float won 2nd in the youth division with the theme Cubscout adventure. Shua had fun, his favorite was sharing candies to the crowd and of course riding on the float pretending to be fishing. It was hot that day but we all did pretty well. My mom even walked the whole thing too which was a surprise to me since she rarely goes for a walk...he he he. Anyway, here's several photos.

Proud scout after the parade.

Tiger and wolf mascots. Whew, they did great in that hot suit.
Shua, spreading candies to the bystanders.
the crowd loved the mascots although they kept confusing them with Tigger and a Bear...
the float had boys pretending to roast marshmallow, one is fishing and another one just playing the guitar by the pretend bonfire.
Cubmaster Pat directing the kids as we head off the start of the parade.

The whole team before the parade
Shua trying out the Tiger head costume.