Eight

Today I ran EIGHT MILES!! Nuff said.

Surfs Up!!

Notice any changes? Tonight my friend Heather educated me in the fine art of cutting and pasting. Not like kindergartners do...like people with actual computer skills do. I really can't believe I've gone all these years without knowing how to do this. It's quite embarrassing, actually. But anyways, I have some exciting news to share and I wanted to roll it out with a little bit of fanfare, so now I can! Drumroll please....
For our 15th wedding anniversary in November Chris and I will be celebrating in the sunny and beautiful land of Costa Rica! And because I'm not too humble to boast, I'm posting the link to the resort that we'll be staying at.
Go to http://www.occidentalhotels.com/grand/Papagayo.asp
I'll be expecting all of you to visit the website and drool all over your keyboards, OK? Oh, and sorry about the Beach Boys music. I just couldn't resist. And the tropical surfer background, too. And I'm apologizing in advance for the countdown thingie that I'm hoping to post, too. (If I can figure out how) By the time we actually leave for this trip you are all gonna hate me and will probably vow to never ever visit my blog again. But I feel like I can brag about this one because we rarely get to take trips like this. Like once every 15 years. If we did this every year and were torturing you with the details I could see how that could be nauseating. But I think you can handle it once every 15 years, can't you? And be happy for us?? OK, thanks I appreciate that. Cuz we're going anyways.

Curious??

Many people have been asking me how things are going with our new oldest son, Daniel. I realize that I haven't really posted much about our new adventures of having a high schooler. (Insert excuses of being busy here) So here we go.

This is one of our few pictures of him. It was taken on the Deschutes River in August. We had planned a day trip for some more rafting, just knowing that the weather would be nice and HOT at the end of August. But wouldn't you know it-we had this weird cold front move in and it was windy and 70. That is way too cold to be sitting on a raft in a cold river. But the guys toughed it out and had a good time anyways. The kids and I were happy to drive the shuttle and take pictures from the road. But anyways, I'm getting away from my original subject matter.

Daniel is a very nice boy, and gets along well with the kids. They anxiously await his arrival every evening after cross country practice. His english is very good, and we don't have any problems communicating with him. He is always happy to go along wherever we are going and to do whatever we are doing.

I think he is somewhat of a novelty at school. In a small town like Hermiston, you don't get much exposure to other cultures. When we went to get him registered before school started, I noticed a lot of people looking at him, and he got the royal treatment when scheduling all the classes he needed. He told us last night that when he was walking down the hall yesterday he smiled at some girls and one of them was so busy staring at him that she walked into a garbage can! How embarassing for her, but we got a good laugh out of it.

This picture is from the Hermiston Invite last week.

Carson, Jantzen and I helped out and were able to watch the races from where we were. Daniel did really well, and said that he passed about 12 people. Lots of the kids who run cross country do it all year in preparation for the season. But Daniel doesn't have many opportunities for athletics in Germany so he is at a disadvantage in that respect. But he is doing really well and is improving very quickly. Naturally, I love to hear about his workouts and races because I'm involved in the same thing right now. I could never come close to competing with these kids. I'd probably be the one coming in last that everyone feels sorry for.

All in all, everything is going along quite nicely. It really has been a fun experience for our family. I would definitely recommend hosting an exchange student to anyone who has an extra bedroom and a little extra food in their pantry.

Preschool Rocks!

Yesterday was the blessed first day of preschool. Jantzen was so excited, and had been counting sleeps for a long time in anticipation of the first day.

Notice the backpack hanging almost to her knees!

On Tuesday she and I took a shopping trip to Tri-Cities to get her a few things for school. She needed some comfortable stretchy pants because at her preschool they do gymnastics also. We always have trouble buying her pants because she is so skinny and small for her age. (I know, she'll be a perfect gymnast! The next Shawn Johnson!) The 3T fit in the waist, but was a little too short. The 4T was a little big in the waist, and also a little too long. The girl is almost 5! Shouldn't she be wearing a size that corresponds to her age?? But I opted for the 4T in hopes that it would shrink. Why am I telling you this boring jibber jabber about her pants? Well, partly because it's a major dilemma in my life, partly because I don't really have a life, and partly because these are some seriously SPECIAL PANTS! You see, yesterday when I told her to go get dressed she ran to her room, so excited to wear her new clothes. For the first time in her life she actually did what I told her to do. I went in to check on her a few minutes later and caught her standing in front of her mirror, admiring herself. And then she said something that I'm not proud of. Something that may be an ominous sign of things to come. Something that totally blew me away. She said, "I look so good in these pants. These pants are going to make me popular." Please send help.

Oh, man! I'm a blogging slacker! It's not that I don't have anything to write about. It's just that, well, um, nevermind the excuses. They're boring anyways.
So the best news is that SCHOOL STARTED THIS WEEK!!!!! I used to complain that we had to start before Labor Day, but now I'm wondering...What was I thinking? This totally rocks! All the boys head out at about 8 and then it's peace and quiet around here. Well, except for Jantzie. But she'll be starting preschool in "six sleeps." I had forgotten what it was like to clean a room and have it stay that way for more than 15 minutes. I could swear I did the dishes at least 20 times a day during the summer. And nevermind how many times I wiped the counters. My dishrag wringing calluses were getting really big, I tell ya!
Ever since Daniel arrived the kids have been extra... well...let's just say...energetic. They love having a big brother to wrestle with and to exchange wedgies and titty twisters with several times a minute. (Is that how you spell titty? Now that's a word I've never put in writing.) Anyways, they're worried that they'll get "man-boob cancer" from all of this, but apparently not worried enough, because they haven't stopped.
We were lucky enough to have visits from Grandma Shanna and Grandma Fay in the last couple of weeks. The kids always love to show them what they've been up to. Mostly all at once within the first two minutes of their arrival, but hey what can I say? They're excited!
Things with my Scentsy business are really taking off. The booth I had at the fair turned out to be very beneficial, and now I just have to figure out how to fit it all into my already full schedule. All of a sudden I have a kid in preschool, a kid in elementary school, a kid in middle school and a kid in high school. Whew! This is gonna be hard to keep up on! My calendar looks like graffiti on the side of a bridge with everything trying to squish into the boxes. Tonight at dinner Chris asked if maybe I'd like to have a palm pilot or something (maybe because I triple booked myself for two separate days next week), but my first thought was that it would just take too much time to use. I rather like my old fashioned squish it into the boxes on the calendar method. Besides that, I think I'd rather have one of those rockin' nike plus things that works with your ipod to tell you how far you've run, how fast, and whether your butt is still jiggling like it did three months ago when you first started running regularly. OK, just joking on that last one. And speaking of running, I'm still doing it. I'm not sure if I'd say that I'm enjoying it or not, but I like that I'm about 10 pounds lighter while still eating whatever I want. In the past I've heard runners talk about how good they feel afterward, how they grow to like the pain, how it's not really that hard to run far, etc.. And I've always rolled my eyes and thought that they are just some weird breed from Neptune or something. But I'm getting to where I feel like that too. I started running for the first time just shortly after Jantzen was born, and I was so proud when I could run a mile without stopping. In all my years of playing sports growing up, running was always really hard for me. But now four miles is considered a short run, and I don't even bother bringing water with me. A while back I bought some of those energy cube things with electrolytes and stuff in them for my long runs. And it's funny that I haven't used them yet because I don't think I've had any long runs yet. Three years ago I would have thought seven miles was a long run! It's amazing how your perspective changes when you set your sights on 13.1 miles rather than the 3.1 I would always run in races. Anyways, I guess what I'm saying is that it's true what those crazy runners say. You just gotta get out and try it.
And oh, yeah, Chris is going to be gone all next week for HAZMAT training in Portland. But don't worry. He'll be home for a whole week before he leaves again for more of the same. Now would someone please spill some chlorine or gasoline or acid somewhere so that he can put all this knowledge to use? Then at least we would feel like these FOUR WEEKS of training in Portland are not wasted. Thank you very much

Catch up. Or is it ketchup? Whatever. Let's call it an update, OK?

On my last post I mentioned that our life might be a tornado, and judging by how far behind I am in my blogging I'd say that's true. But things are starting to calm down a bit and so now I'll try to get updated before any kids wake up screaming for breakfast. Soooo, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, RAFTING!!! As always this is one of our favorite weeks of the year. We met up with the Brodericks, Royers, Savages and Petersons for some rip roarin' good times. We have the women's favorite tradition of breakfast cooked by the men. No cereal and pop tarts here. We're talking hash browns, gravy, eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage and fresh fruit every morning. We wouldn't want to get hungry on the river, right?

After we have clogged all arteries and packed on some pounds it's time to get serious about some fun. It's a little crazy figuring out who's going and who's staying in camp and who's driving and who's picking everyone up at the pull out and who's cleaning up breakfast and who's watching the little kids and who's gonna put on the pink tank top and act like a girl. Wait. What? Oh, Jake's got that last one covered. Thanks Jake! That was funny. We can always count on you for some laughs. And some dancing to Hannah Montana/High School Musical/Camp Rock music.
Getting ready to start our journey down the river.


Poor Jantzie, she looks like an orphan with all that messy hair. But actually it doesn't seem like she really cares.

This is our crowd taking off. We actually had 2 rafts and 3 kayaks, but I guess I missed the others when I took the picture. See? Nice and calm, nothing to worry about. Just a walk in the park.

Now check this out! We're heading down Oak Springs, the biggest rapid, and we're gonna hit it just right, meaning that we're all gonna have to change our underpants after this. HEHE!

Hold on! Are we gonna tip over?

No way! But the boat filled with water and we all screamed for our mommies.

We took some "redneck showers", too. First you jump in...

Then you soap up and jump in again!

There's this great little cliff right by our camp that provided entertainment while we weren't on the rafts. We all jumped in except for Jantzen. She thought hard about it. She had her life jacket on and was standing on the edge looking down, but in the end she couldn't bring herself to do it. The fact that she even thought about it makes me proud. I don't want her to be too prissy, you know? Anyways, we had so much fun and can't wait to do it again. Good thing we only have to wait until Thursday. We're totally addicted, and yes, we're going again.

And now onto other things...

Keaton went to Boy Scout Camp and earned 5 merit badges!

I didn't know this, but apparently they have one in bodybuilding now. Keaton and cousin Blake both got that one.

Also...

Our exchange student from Germany arrived.

As you can see, Jantzen was very excited. Everything is going great with him. He is a very nice boy and he tolerates our craziness quite well. I mean, he hasn't gone running for the nearest airport yet, anyways. It's been hot here, about 95-100 degrees. He says it feels like Spain. I guess I'll just have to trust him on that one.

Our life is a tornado

It's been a while since I've posted. We've been crazy busy, and it doesn't look like it'll be changing for at least another week. It all started last Tuesday. We were just about to head out the door for our annual camping/rafting trip on the Deschutes, when we got a phone call from PAX, the company that is working with our exchange student. It seems that the authorities in Sierra Leone don't want to let their students come to our country, so they denied all of their visas. Things are not looking good right now for Alimamy's trip to the United States. But PAX wanted to know if we would be willing to take a different student on a temporary basis in the meantime. Hmmm. This is all just a little bit too much to digest at once. So we darted off on our trip with the promise of "We'll think about it." (We had a great time, by the way. I'll post pictures and details later this week.)
We arrived home on Saturday afternoon, unpacked, did a million loads of laundry, took some serious showers then began packing bags for Keaton and Chris to go to boy scout camp the following day. We also made the phone call saying that we would host the other student. Today was the set-up day at the county fair where I have a booth for my Scentsy business. Carson and Jantzen went to Krista's (see previous paragraph where I mention that Keaton, my prime babysitter, has gone to scout camp) and I spent a good portion of the day at the fairgrounds. Then we went grocery shopping because I was feeling like Old Mother Hubbard. I received an email stating that Daniel, our 15 year old German student would be here Friday. FRIDAY! So I begin cleaning the house that has been sorely neglected for the last ten days. I'm about half way done. I'm supposed to run 5 miles today. It's not gonna happen.
Tomorrow looks worse. Would someone please put their feet up and relax for me? Let me know how it feels.