The rest of 2011

I'm not going to bore you with a witty introduction. We've got a LOT of ground to cover here, people. Ready?

September:
#1. The boys started school...and by boys I mean Dan, Jake, and Ty. Dan's still teaching middle school math for which he will receive many crowns in heaven. Ty's in half-day kindergarten, and loves it with all his heart. He has a new BFF and a wonderful teacher and teacher assistant (the same ones Jake had last year.) Jake started 1st grade, and he's actually in a 1st/2nd grade split which makes me proud. He's reading up a storm and has Dan's ridiculous math abilities.

#2. School starting meant the start of a glorious stage of life for me that includes a quiet house from the hours of 8am-11am. I've used this time in a variety of ways, my favorite of which is grocery shopping without needing to apologize to the check-out clerk for the 20 fruit roll-ups she'll need to put back because I didn't authorize their presence in this monstrosity that is the "car cart." Oh, and yes she certainly can ring up those ones that are mangled beyond recognition after a vicious light saber duel, and sorry bout that.

October:

#1. The boys played flag football for the first time. I keep thinking that someday I won't make a fool of myself when my boys score a goal or make a basket or catch a pass. Not gonna be anytime soon. I think Jake scored at least one touchdown in every game they played and I hooted and hollered through every last one of them. And when Ty got to run the ball or pulled a flag off an opponent, I just about burst with pride. I'm really not an emotional girl, but when one of my boys looks over at the sidelines and grins once they know I've seen their accomplishment, I have to fight back tears. Can NOT wait for all the games they'll play in the years to come! Jake and Ty, win or lose your mama will always be your biggest fan.

November:
#1. Thanksgiving was great, thanks for asking. My parents came over to my in-laws house with us for dinner and it was such a great time having both sides together! My sister and family moved to California in October so we were missing them a ton, but dry your eyes...wait til we get to December. Oh, we might be to December. Was November really this boring? Apparently.

December:
#1. NOT BORING. Jake stepped off the school bus on the last day of school before Christmas break and buckled himself into my parents van. I fed Ty some Dramamine and my mom headed the van towards Dan's school to pick him up. The 6 of us had an uneventful (this means good) drive all the way to down 1-5 to Redding before we stopped for the night. Then the next day we made it to good old Rancho Cucamonga. Yep. Rancho Cucamonga. Please read it out loud. Cucamonga. You couldn't help but shout it out, could you? I'm having flashbacks to Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles..."cowabunga, dude." Not that I watched TMNT. But just saying "Rancho Cucamonga" makes me feel young again. Because I'm so old. Hobbling to the bathroom with my cane to put in my dentures. But...I digress. Back to Cucamonga, dude.
#2. We were able to stay with the Franklins in their new Rancho Cucamongan house. They have a nice big Cucamongan orange tree in their Cucamongan front yard, so we were able to have fresh squeezed Cucamongan orange juice for breakfast each Cucamongan morning. We were able to go to their Cucamongan church (alright, I'll stop...the church is officially in Upland anyway) and listen to my bro-in-law preach a great sermon. It was so wonderful to see them all settled in, because as much as we miss them, Rancho Cucamonga seems like the perfect fit for them. Those Cucamongan's really know how to make people feel at home. I'm done, I swear. (Photos courtesy of my sister...whose permission I didn't receive, but I'm sure she would have said yes had I asked.)

#3. Two words. Disney. Land. Wait, that's not even two words. Well, those are occasionally used as two separate words, but not on this trip. Disneyland was epic. My parents couldn't have picked a better Christmas present for us! One day at California Adventure sandwiched between two days at the happiest place on earth. Ty got over his fear from last time we went (mostly) and rode Thunder Mountain 3 times and even put his hands up the last time. Jake's fearlessness was on display once again as he rode California Screamin' approximately 39 times. Here's a great video my dad took of he and Jake on that ride. Because you obviously have time to kill if you're still reading this post:

#4. We made such great memories with the grandparents and cousins and even just with our own family. One pretty chilly night we went on Grizzly Rapids right before we went back to the hotel and got SOAKED. We were so cold it was ridiculous but the 4 of us laughed so hard we cried. The boys were seriously shrieking with delight. Watching the Christmas fireworks show and having it snow on us on Main Street was unforgettable. Christmas in Disneyland is truly magical.

#5. We made it back to Gresham on the 23rd, so we spent Christmas Eve with the Stump family and it was fabulous as always. Great food and the best company. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I'm honestly amazed at how blessed I am to have married into that family. The only thing that could have been better is to have had Jane and her sweet family with us too!
#6. Christmas day was superb. We've always reserved the day just for our family, even when we were first married. I love that tradition! We had "Christmas breakfast" which includes caramel/pecan monkey bread, bacon, sausage, OJ, coffee, and a lot of love and laughter. Then we went to church and watched the kids perform a few songs and memory verses. Our dinner plans were originally going to be another tradition of Chinese take-out, but we were invited to spend dinner with some great friends and totally took them up on it. Thanks, Scott and Amber, we love you guys!
#7. All of December was a great celebration of the life we are able to live because of our Creator. All these wonderful things are just a tiny taste of the future we will have because of what happened on Christmas day. We're overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for sending his Son to this earth to live and to die and to rise from the dead so that we can spend eternity with Him!

And that, my friends, wraps up 2011. Don't look at your calendar. Just realize the fact that I, Angela Stump, have climbed the mountain called Months of Silence and have finished another year of blogging.

As for 2012. It's coming, I promise. Until next time...Cucamonga, dude.

Summer 2011 part 2

Some of you doubted me, I know it. I told you it wouldn't take me 6 months to give you Summer 2011 part two. It's only been 5 1/2 months, HA! So there. I do have a few more things to update you on besides summer. Like fall and most of winter. But better late than never, right? Where were we? Oh yes, August:

Oh Geez, August, sorry folks:
#1. "Take me out to the ball game!" What a PERFECT day we had up in Seattle at a Mariners game! Hot dogs, garlic fries, sunshine, happy children. Hmm, the order of my list might imply that I valued the food and sunshine more than the children...not the case, I can assure you. But seriously, have you had those garlic fries?

#2. Jake turned 7 and now I have to physically restrain myself from squeezing him to death when I think about him growing up so quickly. He is funny, he is smart, and 9 times out of 10 he passionately wants to do the right thing. He's independent but still loves to sit next to me and link his arm in mine. Oh sweet boy, never stop cuddling with your mother!

For his birthday party we went to Blue Lake Park and barbecued and played in the lake and in the Kids' Splash Zone. It was a great day, filled with great food and great people celebrating with us. A quick side note: Jake got the movie Newsies for his birthday and for the next few weeks went around belting out the song, "Carrying the Banner." Pretty stinking hilarious to listen to a 7-year-old sing at the top of his lungs in a bad New York accent, "That's my cigah/You'll steal anotha/Hey bumma's we got woik tah do/Since when did you become me muddah/Aw stop yah bawlin'/Hey...who ast you?" (How many of you are humming to yourself right now? Only me?)

#3. We packed up again and headed to the Oregon Coast to spend time with Dan's extended family. We'd been looking forward to this yearly trip to SeaKrest for such a long time; it's always a blast. Unfortunately the 5 day vacation was cut short when Jake woke up puking at midnight our second night in. All 4 of us were in one room with bunk beds and he sat up on the top bunk and announced he was about to blow. I went from a dead sleep to a sheer panic when I realized he was about to barf off the side of his bed and directly onto me and my blanket below. He barely missed my head as I sprung out of bed and grabbed the first thing I could find in the pitch darkness for him to finish barfing on...a pair of Dan's pants. Not ideal. It took me quite a while to tidy up the nursery after that episode, but I placed a sponge-bathed Jake and a designated barf bowl in bed next to me (after wiping off the vomit on my sheet and covering the wet spot with a towel.) Needless to say I didn't get a lot of shut-eye after that. As soon as the sun rose I knew we had to pack it up so we didn't spread the love around to the rest of the family.

The boys were devastated that we had to leave all the cousins and the fun. I quarantined Jake in the bedroom as we were packing up and brought him some dry cereal to get something in his empty stomach. A few minutes later he looked up in all his pathetic-ness in and said in a quiet sweet voice, "Mom I want a little more Cinnamon Toast Crunch." Then Ty speaks up, belting out angrily, "I want a little more stay here." And that's my second born, folks. Humor stemming from a need for some serious anger management.

Another great quote from The Tragedy That Was Our Vacation happened on the drive home. Jake was sitting in the back seat sipping on some orange Powerade. Then he suddenly stops mid gulp and says, "OH!" and starts frantically screwing the lid on. "What is it?" I ask, frantically looking for something other than Dan's pants to stop Spew Fest #2. "That sign..." he said, "I can't drink in here. The sign said 'please don't drink and drive.'"

As long as we're talking about funny quotes I believe I might have a few from the last 5 1/2 months that will amuse you. Or at least will amuse Jake and Ty as they look back on this blog 10 years from now. Cause heaven knows they're not going to be amused by their non-existent baby books. Sorry guys.

*Ty burped loudly and I waited, then said, "What do you say?" He responded, "Burp." I gave him a stern look and he assured me, "burp means excuse me...in Spanish."\

*Ty was being really whiny and Dan asked him, "Are you a big kid or are you a little kid, cause you sound like a little kid." Ty smiled and said, "I'm not a little kid, you're a little kid. You're a one-year-old...no you're...you're a not-even-born-year-old."

These ones I'm stealing from facebook (is it called stealing if you take it from yourself? Hm.)
*Ty picked out a pair of x-small yoga pants for me today while shopping at Old Navy. I said, "Oh no, honey, those are for super skinny mommies," to which he replied, "but you're a skinny mommy." I now have a favorite child.

*The boys were fighting in the other room and I went in to referee. Me: "What is going on?" Jake, in a very whiny voice: "I'm just trying to rule the galaxy and Ty's not letting me."

*I sprung for the "Deluxe" Kraft mac and cheese at Winco the other day. Today for lunch I started to boil a pot of water and Ty yelled, "YES!! Are you making the mac-'n'-splendid-cheese?"

*We were house sitting for my parents and Jake was looking the display of my senior pictures. "Mom, I think I would love you more if you looked like that (he pointed at 17-year-old me) instead of looking...like this." And then pointed directly at my current makeup-less face. Wow, thanks honey.

*Ty: "Hey Jake, you know one thing we will never EVER do?" Jake: "Play with Barbie toys?" Ty: "Well, yeah that too, but..."

Because I realize that I must be losing readers with each long-winded sentence, I'll cut it here. We'll continue September-January in the next installment. Which is actually WRITTEN already. I just have to edit it. Which shouldn't take me more than 5 1/2 months, I promise :)

Summer 2011

A warm aloha to my blogging friends! It's that time again. The twice yearly update. Let's see, I need to cover most of June, all of July and most of August in one post. Simple, really. Easy as pie. A no brainer. Piece of cake. A slam dunk. Easy peesy mac'n'cheesy.

Trying to recount 3 months worth of life will be easy? Heck yes. This from the girl who takes 30 paragraphs for one single story on one single day. But seriously now. How could writing about this summer NOT be easy? I mean, this post started out with the words "warm" and "aloha." So without further ado (or cliches), I'm proud to give you:

Summer 2011
June:
#1: Ty graduated from preschool and Jake graduated from Kindergarten. This means that I'll have graduated to a mother of 2 kids in school EVERY day come September. Are they really that old? Am I really that old?
Which brings me to:
#2: I turned 30. And I liked it.
#3: I had a grand birthday party with my fantastic husband and my fabulous friends.
#4: We continued our "Biggest Loser" competition with some friends that we started in February, and continued to see pounds come off because the dream of delicious empty carbs was not as big as the dream of not feeling mortified in swimsuits for our quickly approaching anniversary trip to Hawaii.
#5: Dan and I (mostly Dan) planned, and day-dreamed of, every waking moment we'd spend in Maui starting on the 4th of July.
Which brings me to:

July:
#1. I finished packing myself for Hawaii, the kids for 5 nights with G&G Stump and 5 with G&G Alcorn, and Felix for Doggy Heaven on Earth (AKA the Alcorn house...where my mom actually refers to Feel as her "granddog" and has Felix address her dalmatian as "Uncle Moses.")
#2. I stepped on the scale and mentally flogged myself for being 1 pound over my goal weight I'd set in January, and then I realized I had lost 29lbs. Not the 30 I was hoping for, but 29 pounds felt pretty gosh darn great!
#3. After giving Alaska airlines the deed to our house in order to check our luggage, we boarded the plane and I started the first of 9 books I read on the trip. Yep, nine. I'm pretty literate. And yep, I bought a Kindle before we left in order to save some of our retirement money that we'd have spent on checking the extra suitcase full of books. Literate and frugal. I'm quite the catch.
Which brings me to:
#4. My catch. The one I caught 10 years ago. The one that after 10 years of marriage I love even more than on our wedding day. Holy smokes did we have a great anniversary trip! We laughed and reminisced through the longest uninterrupted conversations we've had in 7 years (love you Jake and Ty), and then we had hours of comfortable uninterrupted silence. We had adventures like a helicopter tour and parasailing and almost dying on our boat ride back from snorkeling Molokini and spending a day circling and snorkeling Lana'i. And oh yes, we had food.
Which brings me to:
#5: Quite possibly the best meal I've ever eaten. In the most amazing location I've ever eaten at. Our victory dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse seated right by the ocean as the sun set. It was there that our friends Paul and Natalie (who were also celebrating their 10th) officially crowned us "Biggest Losers" as we inhaled our butter-drenched steaks and mac'n'cheese with caramelized onions and our fried potatoes...If there was a "Biggest Gainer" competition after eating just one meal, let's just say we would have owned that crown as well.
#6: Our completely wonderful relaxing and renewing vacation was the perfect amount of time away. The last night we were there, falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean, we looked at each other and agreed it was time to reenter reality. I absolutely love regaining the perspective that when it comes right down to it, I wouldn't truly want to live any other place but home or live any other life than mine, with any other people than the friends and family God has blessed me with.
Which brings me to: (am I not just nailing these segues by the way?)


August:
#1 Jake's birthday.

Ah, shoot. I'm actually thinking I should break this up a bit. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about rereading this to edit my mistakes. Not that I ever make a mistake...okay, spell check is my BFF. I've already written half of August, so you won't need to wait another 5 months for me to finish it. At least I'm pretty sure I'll finish it soon. O ye of little faith! Return soon for Jake's birthday, the 2 day vacay that was supposed to be a 5 day vacay, and some great one liners from Jake and Ty.


So until then, I'll leave you with these. Just a taste of our amazing vacation:

Could it be?

Well helloooooo there, blog! Feeling a bit neglected lately? You know what, I'm not even going to apologize. Okay, maybe I'll apologize for breaking cardinal blogging rule #1: not blogging about Christmas. And shoot, maybe I really should say I'm sorry for not blogging on Ty's 5th birthday. But honestly...not really very sorry.

I know it will come as a bit of a surprise to you all, er, to the both of you who still even remember that I once was a semi-regular blogger at one point in my life, BUT I'm fairly certain that I'm not going to be blogging very often anymore. I told you. Shocker. Why, you two ask? Because, my friends. Well...just because. I really don't have a great reason besides the fact that at a certain point I realized I was stressing myself out feeling like I had to record every funny/important/meaningful moment in our lives or I was destined to forget it all. I decided I really enjoy living it more than I enjoy writing about it. It's like when I realized I was missing just having a blast watching my boys' basketball games because I was so nervous I wouldn't get one of their baskets recorded on our video camera. I know it's sad, but I truly found myself thinking at certain times in the past "now how am I going to word this best when I write about it on the blog?" rather than just appreciating the moment.

There are times when I have really loved writing, but I'm not super passionate about it right now. Know what I am passionate about? My family. My husband and my boys are just about the coolest things ever. I just love being with them. Life is really good for us right now, and I'm pretty gosh darn excited to keep living it without as many distractions.

OH stop it, I'm not saying I'm quitting the blog all together, simmer down. I'll still post some memorable stories every now and then. Half the reason I'm not posting as much is because I told myself I wanted a record of my kids' childhood. Because heaven knows I'm not keeping up with any baby books. But my kids are growing up. They don't have as many crazy things happening to them (or because of them) anymore. They're kinda boring. And after experiencing the first 4 years of Ty's life, I'd like to take this moment to raise the roof for the word "boring." NO, boring is the wrong word. Really it is. They continue to crack me up on a daily basis. For example:

Ty recently stated on his way to swimming lessons, "I hope Carrot is going to be there." Carrot? "Yeah, my new friend Carrot." Um Ty, I think you mean Garrett. "Oh, yeah. Garrett."

When asked what he wanted for breakfast the other day, Ty replied, "Could you make some Sherman waffles? Sherman waffles are my favorite." Sherman waffles? I have no idea what you're talking about. He described the "Sherman waffles" in great detail and I burst out laughing. German pancakes...the child meant German pancakes.

Jake continues to grow like a weed on steriods. He and Ty have the same size waist but Jake's legs are approximately 9 feet longer which makes buying pants for him a little difficult. Whoever thought of the adjustable waistband for kids is a genius. Rock star brilliant. I mean I know there are people out there coming up with cures for horrific diseases, but my hat is off to the guy who made it his life's mission to make certain my child wouldn't go pantsless. Can I get an amen?

So anywayssss, Christmas was great. Watching the boys play basketball together on the same team was the highlight of my winter. Ty's Star Wars birthday was a little chaotic with almost 20 kids in my house, but he loved every light-saber-bearing-Darth-Vader-defeating-Jedi moment of it. Swimming lessons was one of the highlights of my children's lives. Ty graduated from preschool and Jake will graduate soon from Kindergarten which means I will have both kids in school every day next year (Ty will still have half days) and I'm a teensy bit world-rocked with what that will mean for my every day life.

Oh there's tons more, but I've spent too much time at the computer already today and so I'll sign off. With a promise there will be more blogging in the future. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon. And for the rest of our lives...

Here's looking at you, blog readers.

July in Christmas!

No, you didn't read it wrong. I said "July in Christmas." I know, the phrase is supposed to be "Christmas in July," but it's not July. It's Christmas. And I'm going to talk about July. When everybody else is talking Christmas, I'm talking July, baby. Wrap your mind around that one.

Down to business. And by business I mean the Happiest Place on Earth. It's Disneyland story time, folks. Only 5 months overdue. I actually wrote most of this post about 2 weeks after returning from Disneyland, but then there was Jake's birthday and then there was Dan's birthday and then there was soccer and school and Halloween. And I recall promising you this post sometime before 2011. Since it's against Blogger law to not post about Christmas and it's also against my own personal law to post a blog any earlier than 1 week after the event, I knew that I'd break my promise to tell you about our Disneyland trip before January 1...if I didn't do it tonight. There's no time like the present, right? That's my motto. Oh wait.

Just crank up the heat and put on some flip flops and sunblock and pretend I'm not the worst procrastinator you've ever known.

July in Christmas:

On July 11th we packed up my parents' swagger wagon (not the official Toyota Sienna, but still a wagon with some swagger to be certain) and picked up Dan's parents and headed south. And by the way if you haven't seen the "swagger wagon" video, you're seriously missing out and need click this link immediately. So...official start time was 8:24pm and Dan's goal had been set to drive through the night as the kids slept and reach Anaheim in 16 hours. I, being the encouraging wife that I am, laughed in his face when he told me that goal. Two small children with two small bladders, and two small attention spans that were going to be stuck in two small carseats did not equal 16 hours in my humble opinion.

Who knew that after picking up Dan's sister Jane, Curtis and little Bekah in northern CA, we were actually on pace. And then we decided to stop for lunch at In&Out (my mouth just started to water as I typed those words) before crossing the Grapevine. Ah, the Grapevine. You know, that windy stretch of I-5 in SoCal with no exits that takes you up into the mountains, and then out into the valley. We were pumped to pass this milestone and not stop til we high-fived Mickey himself. And then we went around a corner. And abruptly stopped.  For the next 3 hours. Seriously, we drove 4 miles in 3 hours. It sorta makes me exhausted all over again just thinking about it. God bless the Swagger Wagon and its DVD player. The kids did awesome. I, on the other hand, probably lost a few years off my life due to my blood pressure reaching limits it had not seen before. I'm not exactly the most patient of drivers. Although it was great to get to catch up with Jane sitting next to me in the front seat. In fact, she probably lowered my stress meter down to non-lethal levels. Here's to you, Jane.

We found out 3 hours later as we passed a charred semi-truck what the problem had been. Well, like I said, we had been on pace to completely miss LA traffic, but of course now we were stuck right in the middle of it as we exited the Grapevine. Our 16 hour trip turned into a 22 hour trip. But long story (not even remotely) short, we made it!

Oh, Disneyland. The Happiest Place on Earth. My boys were in awe. We had 5 day hopper passes between Disneyland and California Adventure. The first ride we went on was Thunder Mountain Railroad. We assumed that Ty would be the daredevil (this in keeping with his typical fearless behavior) and that Jake might be a little more cautious. So we decided not to tell the boys how fast Thunder Mountain would be. Jake rode next to me and Ty next to Dan. Jake was whooping it up, screaming for it to go faster and grinning from ear to ear. And evidently Ty was clinging to Dan for dear life and asking him "are there any more fast parts?" after the first turn. Who'da thought?

After that Jake was giddy about the thought of more fast rides and Ty was a little unsure about what we'd gotten into. Dumbo was his highlight because he was able to control how high and low the flying elephant went. When he's in control there's no stopping his fearlessness. When he's not...well let's just say he had a death grip on Dan's arm during Pirates of the Carribean and there was no reasoning with him after Star Tours. Dumbo and Peter Pan and the carousel were better options. He still had a complete blast.

Jake, on the other hand, insisted on getting in line for California Screamin' when we went over to California Adventure. You had to be 48 inches to ride, and low and behold he was exactly 48 inches. 0-60mph in 5 seconds, upside down loop, crazy drops. And Jake couldn't get enough. He had the need...the need for speed. Wow, thanks writers of Top Gun for coming up with that catchy phrase to cleverly end this paragraph.

We had a great hotel that was super close so we were able to walk to the park each day. The only downside to the trip was that tiny detail of it being the hottest week in the history of mankind. It was close to 750 degrees (give or take) every day we were there. The kids were champions and barely complained. But that's probably partly because I made them drink 4 times their body weight in water. Dan and I are bigger so we only drank 3 times our body weight, and probably lost approximately that much fluid through our pores as we stood in line after line.

But in all honesty, looking back I don't remember the heat as much as I remember the sheer joy on my kids' faces when they met each character, or the shrieks of delight while riding their favorite rides. What awesome memories! So glad we got to share it with my incredible in-laws. Thanks Gram and Pops for making it even more special.

The trip home was much less eventful. I don't recall at this moment if we did make Dan's goal of 16 hours but it sure didn't feel like it when we pulled into our driveway.

We felt like we could have and should have slept for days, but alas, life goes on.

Aaaand, 5 months later...Disneyland blog done. Promise kept. You can turn the heat down now. I'm done with July. That's right, it's December. Put your Snuggie back on and go back to the fireplace and turn on some Christmas carols.

See you in 2011.

Happy Halloween

Oh, Halloween. What a love/hate relationship we have. The love part started, of course, when I was little. Wearing makeup and getting buckets of candy pretty much sums up my life's goals as young girl. I mean seriously...when a 7-year-old sporting a homemade Mary the mother of Jesus frock with a baby Jesus doll (wrapped in swaddling clothes) under one arm gets to slather on some red lipstick and blue eyeshadow, go to a "harvest party" and get a pillowcase full of cinnamon bears and tootsie rolls...how could it not be love?

The hate came when I realized that I was no longer young enough to pull out one of my mom's old prom dresses again and be willing to walk around the neighborhood in the rain. I guess driving myself around the neighborhood would have been an option. But I was also not young enough to appreciate smarties and sweet tarts anymore. Seriously folks, is the chocolate that much more expensive? Yes, (the adult in me has to interject at this point) it is that much more expensive. But oh so worth it.   

The love came back when I had tiny kids and got to dress them up in a-stinking-dorable little costumes and walk them around town nodding at the exclamations of just how cute they were. It also didn't hurt that I got to eat all their candy because they couldn't chew on a Cheerio yet without risk of imminent death.

And that hate part came in again when, for really the first time, the kids wouldn't let me talk them into (or out of) certain costumes. Of course I drew the line at a certain point, like no devil-children or Scream masks. Thankfully Jake picked out a Darth Vader mask at Goodwill that I was able to work with and thanks to my seamstress mother-in-law and her cape making abilities, he actually turned out to have one of the best costumes yet.

Oh, and then there's Ty. He changed his mind about every 2.3 seconds and I ended up insisting he wear the Ninja costume I bought for him, again at Goodwill. I'm pretty passionate about second hand Halloween costumes, especially for boys who will inevitably rip them to pieces minutes after consuming ungodly amounts of Halloween candy. I was fully happy with the Ninja costume. Wow was he awesome in his full get-up. 

Except for the fact that after he got in his full get-up, he decided it wasn't to be. The knight's helmet and breastplate we'd gotten at the dollar store 8 months ago was just too much to ignore. Except he didn't have an outfit to go underneath it. He became so passionate about the knight idea that I was certain he'd agree when I told him he'd have to just wear underwear beneath it because we didn't have time to go get another outfit. So...long story long, he decided to be a ninja knight. That child. At least I'm not worried about him ever giving in to peer pressure. When he's made up his mind, there will be no stopping him thank you very much.  

We went to downtown Gresham, as is our tradition, and trick-or-treated with the six billion other children, and even got to meet up with the cousins.

Another tradition we have is not getting a good picture of the 4 of them together. Or even one where they're all even remotely looking at the camera.

We also tricked and treated around our neighborhood and had a few "brave" moments at scary houses, and filled those pumpkin baskets to the brim with candy. Love/hate that candy.

That about wraps it up. No rambling paragraphs from me tonight. Jake's been asking me to play the game Aggravation with him and I told him I'd be done 15 minutes ago. So if you'll excuse me, I've got a date with a 6-year-old Darth Vader and some marbles.

These are the alliterations of our lives...

Goodbye summer and sunshine. Hello school and soccer! Goodbye trips and time. Hello teachers and teammates! Goodbye California and chillaxin' (I know I'm not cool enough to use that word, but I'm trying to alliterate here.) Hello cold and classrooms! Goodbye organized chaos and once-a-month-blogging. Hello order and o...o...ONLY-going-to-ignore blogger-every-once in-a-while! Dang, alliteration is harder than I thought. Shoulda left the O's alone.

Okee dokee. So just a few things have happened since Dan turned 30 on September 1. The most monumental and shockingly absent on the blog (til now!) was the fact that Jake had his first day of kindergarten and Ty had his first day of school EVER. They're both loving school, and I'm loving the fact that on Thursday and Friday mornings from 8:25-10:55 I'm childless. Well, I guess Jake and Ty are still my children, I just don't have to watch them like a hawk in the grocery store so they don't stealthfully slip 300 fruit rollups in the cracks of the cart, or throw in 9 packages of Danimals Crush Cups that inevitably end up directly on top of the fluffy bread.

Here's some first day of school pictures:

And I'll give a shout out to my friend Faith who was a better mom than I and actually brought her camera to the first day of kindergarten. Faith's daughter Peyton is in Jake's class. And will hopefully go on at least one date with him someday.

 

Speaking of children dating, I have a funny story. Actually it's not at all funny to me now, but will hopefully someday be funny. Maybe. The first week of school I asked Jake (aka Most Social Kid of All Time) if he had made any friends. "Yep." Shocker. What are their names? "Well, there's Emma, she sits by me." Ooooh. Emma. Okay. So who did you play with at recess today? "Emma." Um, who else did you play with at recess? "Wellllll, Emma doesn't really like me to play with other people." Oh my good gracious. Does it really start this early? Needless to say, I was quite insistent about the fact that he needed to tell Emma to find some other friends, hopefully some GIRL friends to possess, I mean to play with. Case closed. He's now playing with the boys at recess and has made a great friend in our neighborhood by riding the bus (which by the way, comes at 7:12 to get him to school by 8am). So he spends 45 minutes on the bus when it would take me approximately 45 seconds to drive him down the street to the school's front door. But he insists on riding that bus and has a grand old time every morning. His teacher is wonderful and I get to go volunteer in his class once a month.

And Ty is loving preschool on Thursday and Friday mornings. His teacher is also wonderful, and he just skips right into that classroom. This from the kid who screamed when I tried to leave him in the nursery until he got old enough to go in the same class as Jake. My baby's growing up. He's no longer little brother following big brother around. He's a true blue bonafide school goer who has his own friends and his own homework that he works diligently on. Such a little man, I just am so happy he's grown out of a lot of his craziness. Not that he doesn't still get into mischief now and then. I posted this on my facebook wall the other day, "Ty cleaned the bathtub for me last night. Don't be too impressed. "Mom, I used Jake's Spiderman washcloth to clean the bathtub. I just put it in the toilet to get it wet..." Oh man, that kid. How boring would my life be without him?

Alright moving on to soccer. It's so awesome that both our boys can be on the same team this year! Jake has improved approximately 900% since last year, and is one of the best on the team, and Ty is one of the youngest kids out there, but has got himself some serious skills as well. I'll give most of the credit to Jurgi who played more hours of soccer with my boys when he lived here than he probably slept. We miss you, Jurgi! We think of you every time Jake scores a goal. Which is quite often, as you'll see (oh, and we got a new digital video recorder that is Dan's favorite toy at the moment, so kudos to him for creating this masterpiece): **OKAY, I've tried for 2 hours now to get this video to upload and can't do it. Stay tuned, I'll figure it out. No, Dan will figure it out and post it. Until now, just enjoy the pictures, courtesy of Auntie Jen who braved the rain last Saturday.**

Okay, enough of the updating? Thank you and goodnight.

Yep, I'm still not forgetting the fact that I have yet to post about our Disneyland trip. You've all probably forgotten, but that was really my plan. Now I can creep it up on you and you'll be shocked and amazed. So don't be checking every day. Just chillax. Spontaneous...that's the way I roll.

The big 3-0

30? Didn't we just discuss how 6 seemed old? Oh yes, that was a month ago, but still...those were the words I left you with, no?

Thirty years old. Let me just clarify that it's not me who's turning 30 today. No siree. My cradle was the one that was robbed...we'll discuss my thirtieth birthday in the muuuuch distant future. Today my household is celebrating the birth of our patriarch. Daniel John. Dan. Dad. Daddy-o. Dude.

It's true. As of today I'm married to a 30-year-old. And it's not even freaking me out. You know why? Because I made a list. Yep. A list of all the things about Dan that keep him young at heart. Yes I realize that I'm talking like he's turning 80. I really don't think 30 is old, but the list is funnier if you picture him on the verge of needing a cane and denture cream.

He's a fine wine, my husband...better with age...get it? Except for the fact that he hates wine. Cheese maybe? Doesn't some cheese taste better after it ages? Ahh, I've got it. How about aged beef? Dan will appreciate that one. Except eventually even the greatest of steaks gets rotten if you don't eat it. Oh forget it. Back to the list.

Things about Dan that make him seem young (even though he's not anymore):
* He teaches my boys WWF moves as they wrestle on the living room floor
* His favorite cereals are Reeses Puffs and Fruity Pebbles
* He just got a Seahawks jersey and has been wearing it around the house multiple days in row
* He gets a high pitched giggle when someone really makes him laugh
* He still prays for snow days that will cancel school
* He ate pizza for 3 days straight when the boys and I were gone last weekend
* He tried to get me to tell him what his birthday presents are
* He couldn't sleep the night before his fantasy football draft because he was so excited
* Speaking of the draft, he wrote a trash-talking poem to read to the guys in his league before any picks were made
   
There are tons more. But the greatest part is that there are also tons of things that he does that prove he's a mature responsible adult. Like working a good job, taking care of his family, taking out the trash, making wise decisions, and being an all around great example to our boys of what a godly man looks like. It's true. He's pretty much the best combination of young and old. But he's mine and you can't have him.

Happy birthday, dude! I am proud to be your wife and I am so excited to grow old with you.

And I'm also excited about the fact that you're the one who will grow older first.

Jacob Gary

Unbelievable. Seriously unreal to me that I have a six-year-old. Six years ago today, well not today, but on August 3rd (I know, bad blogging mother, get over it) Jacob Gary was placed in my arms and I knew life would never be the same. Six years ago. 6? Six. Five is a milestone, six is just plain old. It's like turning 21...cool milestone. 22...old. And not only is he old, he's also ginormous. Not one ounce of fat on his body (he and Ty have the same size waist), but he is as tall and skinny as a...shoot what's tall and skinny? My 19 inch baby has turned into the six-year-old equivalent of Yao Ming. And I can't for the life of me find a full-body picture of Jake in all his tall glory, so that one will have to do. For those of you who haven't seen Jake in the last 24 hours, he's already grown another 4 inches. He's 6 years old and approximately 6 feet tall. Ok, obviously I'm kidding. But I swear that when I stare at him for a few minutes I can actually see him growing.

Alright already. Besides the fact that I can not get over his height, I also can not get over him losing teeth. He's lost his bottom front 2 teeth, and now he's got one upper tooth that is hanging on for dear life and makes him look like he's got a snaggletooth. Wonder if spellcheck knows what a snaggletooth is. Nope.

Enough about Jake's physical characteristics. Except I'll just throw in real quick that he's got me terrified about how many girls are going to be calling my house giggling in a few years time. Lord help me.

My happy, laid-back little baby boy has turned in to such a sweet and tough and funny young man. There's moments where my heart actually hurts I love him so much. He was getting out of the car to go to a backyard Bible club the other day, and he jumped out, started running, then abruptly stopped all by himself and said, "OH, I forgot," and came running back to the car to kiss and hug me. "Love you, Mom." Yep. Heart squeezing.

He's also quite a little missionary. There's been multiple times lately where he'll strike up a conversation with someone at the store and ask them if they know Jesus, or tell them about our church, and that he's learned the names of the books of the Old Testament by singing a song in his Sunday school class. We were on our way to the dollar store a few days ago and he announced from the back seat, "The dollar store is the best thing EVER. Oh, no wait, Jesus is the best thing ever, and THEN the dollar store." He prayed for Jurgi every night that he was here, and he also rarely forgets to include in his prayers, "and thank you for my brother and my mom and dad."

As sweet and tender-hearted as he is, he's definitely all boy. He got a rapid-fire Nerf gun for his birthday and he and Dan and Ty have been running around the house for days yelling and shooting and laughing like crazy. And that's when he's not outside playing basketball or making soccer goals out of 2 shoes. His favorite show on TV (besides cartoons like Handy Manny or Arthur) is Wipe-Out, which is pretty much just laughing at people who hurt themselves. All boy. And the birthday theme this year? Batman. It's been Hot Wheels (4th birthday), Transformers (5th) and Batman. No lace doilies in the decor at one of Jake's parties. Or any party I throw...but you get the point.

Living with Jake is constant comedy. I got him some shoes a while back that were 2 sizes bigger than the ones he was wearing that I bought (too big for him) 9 months ago. I laced them up and he proceeded to go strutting around, and my heart stopped for a second. Then I said, "Dude, you look like a man." To which he quickly replied, "YOU look like a man," and we both burst into laughter. Then just tonight he was wearing a new hat that Auntie Becca gave him (Stud, with a capital S) and he had it twisted sideways. He looked in the mirror and stated, "I look like a DJ." Dan and I laughed and said, "A DJ?" And he said, "Yeah, you know those guys who go...pssshpssshpsssh" and he was moving his hand like he was spinning a record. Who needs TV with this kid around? Hysterical.

Here comes a Disneyland preview. I'm not forgetting. Avoiding...yes. Forgetting, no.

Jake, you are my delight. I love you more than you could ever understand, and I am so excited to watch and cheer you on as you grow into a little man. Happy birthday, baby!

Summer...part 1 of 36

And now the moment you've all been waiting for...the summer update. Now I know what you're thinking. How could she possibly write a blog explaining the 4+ weeks of silence we've just experienced, when it typically takes us 4+ weeks to finish reading even one of her ridiculously long stories? Or, sentences, in this case. What would that blog post even look like? Well, it could look something like this:

Token apology for not updating readers. Assurance the author will not ever again wait so long between posts. Confusion about where to begin the update. An aha! moment and clever segue into the first of many stories. Picture. Attempt at brief explanation under picture. Repeat until author runs out of time and or energy. Concluding remarks. Second promise of timely next post. Witty final sentence.

Sweet. I guess I'm done. No? Allllright. But seriously, you may want to grab a drink, put a movie or 2 on for the kids, be sure you've emptied your bladder recently, do a little stretching...cause you're gonna be sitting here for a while.

Okay, June 28th was the last day I updated you. Jurgi had only been with us for 3 days, but we knew that he was a perfect fit for our family. For the next 2 weeks, our days were full of activity. I couldn't help but throw another baby shower in the middle of it. Cause that's what I do. (We miss you already Matt and Sharon!) We had barbecues with friends, Jurgi and the boys shot approximately 8 million baskets and made 3 million goals with a soccer ball, and Jurgi toured downtown Portland where he became passionate about someday eating a bacon topped donut while looking at the line winding around the block at VooDoo Donuts (the bacon donut dream was realized before he left). Jurgi inspired us to have a new appreciation for soccer while faithfully watching the World Cup even in the early morning hours, so we took him to a Portland Timbers Soccer game with the boys. We played tennis after I dusted off my racket and my old bones. I'm definitely not going to wait another 8 years to do that again. Jurgi went with us to a 4th of July barbecue with Dan's family and then witnessed Jake's near death fireworks experience. Dang, I guess I have to explain that one. Oh, here I'll just put a picture instead and attempt a brief explanation under it. Sparkler + wind = shirt bursting into flames and 5 year old grabbing the chunk of flaming sparkler and obtaining 2nd degree burns on his fingers. Oh and on his chest of course. Right underneath that charred hole in the shirt in case you were wondering.

And then we went to Disneyland. Next post. Oh crimeny, Jake's birthday is tomorrow. Next to next post. I cannot ask you to sit through the stories of my kids' first trip to Disneyland on top of all the other things I'm jabbering on about...mainly because I'm just plain refusing to write them right now because I'm getting carpal tunnel just thinking about it.

Okay, so when we were in Disneyland getting heatstroke (but still having an insanely good time), Jurgi got to go to the Washington Family Ranch for a week at camp. He said it was an incredible time, which makes me excited because I get to take the kids there the last weekend in August. I get to be the camp nurse. For a group of First Responders. Because I'm sure they'll need me to tell them what to do in an emergency.

Back from Disneyland and back to our last week with Jurgi. We went up to Mt. Hood to the Alpine Slides and the other adventures they have there. Mountain sliding, go-cart riding, bungee trampoline-ing, putt-putt golfing. Oh yes, and then there was the bungee jumping. Jurgi got talked into strapping himself onto a bungee cord and launching himself off a 100 foot platform. I prayed the whole time that he'd survive so his mother wouldn't have to come to the USA and kill me for letting him do it. He said it was awesome, and that he's got to do something terrifying again if he comes back next summer, so we agreed that I would go skydiving with him if he comes back. So save up your money, Jurgi! Not to pay for the skydiving. To pay me to get on that plane with you. Me and my big mouth.

We had a final dinner with all the Basque students, where they cooked us a traditional Basque meal. I would definitely not lose weight over there.

The week flew by and soon it was time for Jurgi to go home. We shared our last bacon donuts, watched our last American movies together, the boys played their last games of Wii (Bowser Castle, Jurgi!!) and I packed up a tupperware of chocolate chip cookies to cram into his suitcase, gave him a photo album of his time here in the US, and we shared some hugs and said our goodbyes. Jake and Ty couldn't have loved a big brother more. Just the other day Ty said, "I wonder what Jurgi is doing right now." We miss you, Jurgi!
And now for the witty final sentence. Yep, I know I'm skipping the concluding remarks. I like to switch things up now and then. Until next time. Yikes, that should be tomorrow, because tomorrow is Jake's 6th birthday. But I really can't write about it until he has his parties. I have to have pictures after all. That gives me a good 3 days to avoid Blogger.

I'll write about Disneyland sometime before 2011. That you can take to the bank.

Stay tuned

Three weeks with Jurgi, a week at Disneyland (the boys' first time) with Dan's parents...it's a teensy bit overwhelming how much stuff I have to blog about. Jurgi leaves tomorrow, so maybe I'll have time on Monday to update you. Before we leave for Sun River with my family on Tuesday. And then for sure I'll have pix and stories from Sun River before we leave for the Oregon coast with Dan's extended family. Oh good golly I'm stressing myself out. Pictures at least are coming soon...I think. I hope.

My boys

There they are, my three boys. They've been outside playing soccer and basketball every waking moment that they're not watching World Cup. Pretty stinking cute, aren't they? And...anybody notice that Dan already has Jurgi converted to Huskies purple?

Foreign family

He's here! Our son-for-a-month made it to the US of A!

First of all, I'll apologize for not keeping the blog up to date. Before Jurgi (pronounced Yurgi) arrived we exchanged multiple emails with him and got to know him a little bit. Part of me wanted to just copy and paste those emails here on the blog, but if I were Jurgi's mom, I probably wouldn't want a complete stranger posting details and pictures of my son's life all over the internet! So I'll be careful about how much information I share about him so no one can steal his identity or do whatever it is that the crazies of the internet do with people's personal details.

So Jurgi (if that's his real name) arrived on Friday night at a little after 9pm. Jake and Ty helped me decorate a welcome sign for him. Actually, we had to go over to my creative and artistic sisters 'crack' house (see old blog for explanation if you're ready to call the cops on Karina) in order for her to draw some bubble letters. It took her 1 minute to do what would have taken me approximately 1 day to do on my own. I painted her bubble letters (with her paint) and that was my entire contribution to the sign making process.

Anyway, Jurgi loved the sign, and gave us all hugs when he got off the plane, and gave me a kiss on each cheek and I felt very European. Or like I live in the Hamptons and say "fabulous" all the time. Whatever.

We got home after 10pm and we were all exhausted, but Jurgi pulled out some presents for us. During our emails back and forth, I had told him all about Jake and Ty and what they liked to do. Jurgi told us that he loves sports and plays soccer, so I told him that Jake had played on a soccer team last fall and loved it, and that Ty loved all sports but especially basketball. Well, sweeter than sweet teenage boy brought my boys presents that absolutely could not have been more perfect. For Jake: a soccer uniform, right down to the socks, from the official Basque team (in the perfect size), and for Ty: a full sized basketball (and a shirt with cartoon sheep and Basque writing on it, also the perfect size.) So in other words, my children will now pretty much lay down their lives for Jurgi. He's the best surrogate big brother! Ty actually slept with the basketball that night, and Jake wore the soccer outfit the entire next day.

There's tons more intimate details that internet stalkers would LOVE to get their hands on, but honestly, I'm tired and I'm also about to leave to get a one hour massage from Dan's cousin (a birthday present from my fabulous in-laws. I'm definitely kissing them on the cheeks next time I see them.)

That's it for now, but things really couldn't be better here around the Stump house. I'll get a good picture of him and the boys and post it soon. I promise.

Summer time...

(Disclaimer--I sent the first part of this blog out as an email to some family and close friends. If you think we're close friends and you didn't get it #1 I'm sure I thought I sent it to you, or #2 I tried to send it to you and I don't have your current email address, or #3 maybe I don't like you. Regardless, here it is. I'll let you know when I'm done plagiarizing myself and I begin writing new material.)

Seriously? Summer is almost here? We’ve had a few sightings of the sun here in Gresham lately, usually immediately preceded (and followed) by torrential rain. But sun or no sun, life is good here around the Stump house, and it’s about to get a whole lot better! This summer we’re anticipating lots of things, including: Dan being off work, kids frolicking in the sun, Ang sipping caramel frappucinos, Disneyland in mid-July, Alcorn family Sun River trip, Stump (Milliken) family trip to the Oregon coast, meeting our third child, a possible trip up to Seattle for a Mariners baseball game, and a lot of smokin’ good BBQ. Did I lose you for a second?

Don’t worry, you didn’t miss any news about another pregnancy. That was just my clever intro to an amazing opportunity we have this summer! We are inviting a 17 year-old high school boy into our home for a month. He is from the Basque country (a region that sits between Spain and France on the Bay of Biscay.) His name is Jurgi and looking at his application, he’s going to fit in perfectly with our family! He will stay with us for 1 month, from June 25-July 25, and learn about American culture, practice his English, eat our food, be followed around by our kids, become fluent in fantasy football, and be loved by our family, our church, and our God.

So we’re writing this letter because we absolutely need your prayers. Inviting a high school boy to live in our home where he will get to see all of the good, bad, and ugly is a little intimidating. But we hope that as Jurgi becomes a part of our imperfect and ordinary lives, he might be able to see a perfect and extraordinary God!

Okay, sorry to bore all of you who read this previously. Read on for all of my exciting, original never-before-seen blog thoughts.

Sooo...yeah. We're excited about summer. And I promise to post pictures and embarrassing stories about Jurgi just as if he were my own. Just kidding, Jurgi. If you're reading this. If not, then I'm 100% serious.

Um, what else? Jake graduates from preschool tomorrow. Whoa nelly I'm going to have a kindergartner. Yep, then pretty soon he'll graduate from high school, get married, give me lots of grandkids and have to put me in a nursing home where my dinners will consist of pureed steak and potatoes through a straw. It's right around the corner. And that's pretty much how I'm feeling about that.

I should clarify that right now it's 12:55am and I'm writing this from the triage desk at work. Therefore if any of the "original" sentences above make any sense whatsoever, I probably don't deserve my paycheck tonight. Typically nights in the ER don't lend themselves to frivolous things like emptying your bladder or blogging. Tonight on the other hand...I actually considered praying for a major city-wide catastrophe so time will go by more quickly. But instead of wishing harm upon the citizens of Portland, I'm choosing to blog. Maybe not very well, but blogging I shall continue. It just took me 10 minutes to write and re-write that sentence. I'm getting paid for this, folks.

Ha, just when it was about to get boring: a little amusement in my night. I have a screen at my desk that shows me various views of security cameras in our waiting room and outside the front entrance. A wildly intoxicated woman just walked by the automatic glass doors and jumped about 3 feet when they opened for her. I laughed out loud. And I'm considering asking one of our security officers how I can play the tape back so I may laugh once again.

Alright, I'm done. Please don't stop believing that someday I'll write an entire rational post. Summer is coming. Sunshine is coming. Sleeeeeep is coming...

Pictures and thoughts

It is getting ridiculous how many weeks go by before I actually post some of the pictures that I take. Why must I always be compelled to write seven thousand words to explain them all? Not today, friends. I refuse to give in to my compulsions. Here's some great pictures with very brief explanations. And some with just a little briefer than usual explanations. Ok, some will be semi-brief to normal. Maybe normal to not-quite-long-winded. Dang it, somebody stop me.

Jake is still pretty passionate about cars. I should have taken a video of him touching each of these Hot Wheels individually and quoting their make and model (the year isn't usually specified on the box, which is frustrating for him.) But I guess a video of him naming 97 cars might have destroyed my attempt at brevity right from the start. How'm I doing so far? Right, sorry.

We took Ty to a Blazer game for his birthday. Ha! You see, I CAN do brief! Ok, more pictures, more explanations. Yes I realize Ty's birthday (and therefore the Blazer game) was a month and a half ago. It's still interesting, isn't it? Oh my goodness gracious sakes alive, did he absolutely L-O-V-E being at that game. Probably one of the highlights of his life. He was a bit overwhelmed at first, and sat on my lap for most of the game. But towards the end he started screaming like crazy when the Blazers made a shot. Every home game if the Blazers score over 100 points the whole crowd gets a ticket for a free chalupa from Taco Bell. After they hit a shot to make it 101, Ty yelled out at the top of his lungs, "CHALUPA TIME!!!" Oh, great memories.

A few weeks ago Dan's sister Jane and our niece Rebekah were up here. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is not a cuter little girl on the planet. Seriously, look at this cuteness:
The boys and I went to the zoo with Jane and Bekah, and mother-in-law Ann and other sis-in-law Becca and the kids she nannies for, Claudia and Charlie (2 of the cutest kids who are not related to me) and friend Stacy and girlies Piper and Chloe. There had to have been an easier way to say all that. BUT, I'm too tired to edit it, so there you go. Here's the kiddos minus Charlie and Chloe who were sleeping in their strollers:Piper, Ty, Jake, Bekah, and little miss Claudia.

Ty pretending to be a monkey. At least I think/hope that's what he's doing.

This lioness charged us and actually jumped up with it's huge front paws on the glass. It actually made my heart skip a beat. But mostly made me wish my camera wasn't buried in my pocket at the time.

Enough zoo. Actually, enough blog. For now. The sun is starting to come out, and I've got places to go, people to see...laundry to move from the washer to the dryer. I know, you're jealous. I'll leave you with one more picture of precious Bek:
We left her alone for 1 minute and she found Ty's shorts and Jake's shoes and put them on all by herself.

C'mon, who doesn't want to be like those Stump boys? Speaking of those Stump boys, it is WAY too quiet in this house right now...