Balancing Bliss

two new mantras.....

i have everything i need..................i do. i am blessed beyond what i ever thought my life would receive. the most secure and loving spouse, a house full of healthy children, each with a beautiful spirit that amazes me each day, a dad who has been my rock which every girl needs, friends that have been there to see a journey from the beginning (thanks meg), a passion for creativity and to know that there are still more dreams to dream.........and come true.

and the other; not helpful......one may need to look a situation or a reaction to a situation and ask themselves "helpful or not helpful?" and if you find your reaction is not helpful then there is your answer. i will not be listing my many not helpfuls because well.........they aren't.

that is my tribute to "the last lecture". read it, it will change your life. Randy Pausch lived. his best advice he left us was to "tell the truth" and his other most important words were "all the time". he said these were the most important 3 words. the above phrases i borrowed from his wife.

life is a blessing. live it.

Almost ready to exhale.....

    the past few weeks (well most of summer) have been planned out, full, fun and exhausting. Two more events left; Brians graduation party and the Big One.......moving.

    1st camping mt. rainier was nice. always love some fresh mt. air. highlights would be 1. teaching luci to pee outdoors (freakin heeelarious) 2. eli blu running across camp, tripping, falling, eating dirt and spitting a tooth out in the process 3. gaven making friends with so many extended cousins and no fits from him 4. we hiked into an old growth forest to see a 35' around tree, unfortunately it was not an intimate setting as planned but one with 200+ people. seriously. still mt. fresh air.

  2nd my first garage sale went pretty well. we made a couple hundred bucks and got rid of a ton of stuff. i know i am going to sound emotionally cheesy but hey i am......it was nice to see things go to where they were needed. example; a couple with little $ came with a 2month old baby that they had previously put in a $10 umbrella stroller (not good for a tiny baby who can't sit up) and bought our decked out yet used european stroller, or the couple that has a school of rock (corvallis 3rd st.) and went through all of brians cd's at the end of the day and bought the entire box for their students. how cool is that? it went were it was needed and that makes me feel good. an added plus.......i don't have to pack 1/4 of our house because we sold it.

 now onto brians party. i am having a potluck. i am buying two costco cakes. any suggestions about a main dish for 50-70 people that i don't need to cook there? anything? please?

 as far as moving goes.........your guess is as good as mine. if you are of the praying kind. PRAY. we aren't sure if spokane will happen right now. maybe later. opportunities coming up in cali and wisconsin. might settle on portland. i feel like a fraud since i have been "it's our last year here" but after being in the southern states.........i love oregon so much i am not sure at leaving at all.

 so i have been overwhelmingly busy. today however my load has been lightened. swim lessons are over so no more getting out of the house by 9am with 3 kids and myself ready. ahhhh for the love of hanging at home with a cup of coffee in hand in pj's. cleaning my house, yes it is a sickness however it makes me freakin over the top happy where as most of you would be bogged down by it. i have let it get out of hand with packing and unpacking for trips, swimming, and going through everything for the sale. now the fun begins.......cleaning up the mess. i am excited and it is such a good day.

 even though i made 200-300 at the sale there was no offer from my husband to get that camera i have been DYING to get. so i am still on photo strike and will most likely blog less and less until i get one. my character is to speak through pictures.

last year at this time .........i was taking pictures of this sweet girl being free.

hey amy! good to hear from you. hope your summer is restful and beautiful, you are so deserving of it. so from my post i am sure you can see we are undecided on the move. i do NOT want to walk into that office and say "hi penny ummm ya about that registration card...i AM going to need one after all"

much going on with gav. he has been a pretty good kid all summer. he tested a tad too bit with little bro and sis this last week but i think that is over. who doesn't get annoyed with siblings? however..one must learn to treat their family with love. something big....he wrote his bio and has waited like over 2wks for the guy to send something back and cries everyday on the way home from the mailbox. now i asked the mediator before starting this if bio wanted to participate in this and he was ALL on board. hmmmm.... funny how things never change. so i guess gav is going to learn about being let down earlier than he should ever have to. so with that said i might have some behaviors coming my way or he is going to understand how much the family he DOES have loves him.

there is your gav update. love to meet up with you one day at a park and chill on the lawn while the kiddos play if you are up to it. if that is allowed..hehehe. my email is [email protected]

ps  we went to indigo girls in veneta a few weeks ago and i had a feeling you might be there?

update coming soon....

 we have been so very busy enjoying the outdoors. so busy that we took today off to just veg on this beautiful overcast day. in my robe sipping coffee and soon to head to my creative corner (aka scrapbook room).

speaking of robe. i always found it weird when a saw an older woman in her robe out watering her plants with coffee in hand. guess who became that lady?!

enjoying the beauty the pacific northwest has to offer.......

 so we have been doing some of this;

and this; then some of this;

with a little of; love how thumbnails never let you see enough to let you know your kids look stoned before you post it!
and we stay there until; ahh sweet oregon;

then we did some of this right before we left; and as you can see these are photos from the last 3yrs since my camera is no longer with us; my dad always likes to say "why do you take pictures of the back of their heads?" heheehe  then i reply "you don't appreciate that it captures the moment" or that i am a scrapbooker thinkin of a page!

so now we are off to; to do some of; yes that is snow and it was 90* that day.

although these pics are beautiful and it was a fun trip down memory lane..........they don't even describe the aaahhhhhh of the mountain air filled with aroma of evergreens or give credit to our heavenly father who created all of this.

hope we have as good as trip as we did last time....one word......AMAZING

absent......

                    i just have not been inspired to blog since the death of my camera.

 there is so very much going on here:

* swim lessons every morning for all 3 kiddos which means leaving the house by 8:45 every morning for 10 days ( yes trish and melissa i hear you giggling at me you early birds!)

* camping @ mt. rainier this weekend and packing for it.

* cleaning and de-cluttering of the house to prepare for my garage sale the following weekend.

* planning brians graduation party for the weekend after that.

* looking for jobs, housing, and cost of living in various cities.

* yearning to pack and go already yet hesitant to say my goodbyes.

NOW here is the real kicker.......sunday something hit me like a ton of bricks. my throat felt a little scratchy but i just assumed it was the air conditioning. later that afternoon i felt dizzy, by evening i felt ill. now it seems to be all in my chest. if i do something (you know like from the list above) i get exhausted, out of breath, and dizzy. on to the best part.......it feels like pneumonia AGAIN which would be odd for most people in july but i have had it 3 other summers in the past.

so i don't leave you with nothing but an overwhelming to do list and a whine and bitch about my yet again (possible) case of pneumonia.......

here are my bits of *goodness*
i got my creative juices flowing when i scrapbooked saturday, went to a crop on sunday where i did NO scrapbooking but visited with friends, my kids are adorable in their swimsuits and show me they are proud of themselves with their smiles, luci and i water the plants everyday and bond while doing so, fresh cut hydrengia in a tiny little vase in my kitchen window, shampooing my carpets, kids making little homes for ants in luci's plastic barbie dinnerware, a new wii game to keep the kids busy without whining while their sicky mom gets better!  don't let me forget, i get to take her baby and stroller everywhere i go!

just a bit much........

 i have not been able to post my pics or story of texas because 1. i am overwhelmed with my schedule and
2.my camera won't upload my photos (thanks once again airlines)

my family is throwing my "gramps" 80th birthday saturday so tomorrow is preparing for that.

i am yearning to CREATE next week.....be it by blogging, scrapping, invitations, baking, painting, or what hits me.

looking forward to a much more positive week ahead and enjoy your weekend. (if you are in oregon........go hug a tree, be happy we have them)

speaking of................COUNTRY FAIR IS THIS WEEKEND IN VENETA 
must have tickets before you go they do not sale them there. cheap tickets are friday and sunday. best time spent, i promise..................
where else would you see a tree man on stilts and a baby butterfly?

i will leave out the pics of the naked parade (totally harmless, just a bunch of hippies painted with glitter or mud of their choice running through the forest every so often).

but one might see more of this.... and yes that is uncle sam chugging gasoline ;)

but for the most part it is about MUSIC, ART, FOOD....OH THE FOOD, MORE ART AND TO KNOW THERE ARE OTHER SOULS OUT THERE LIKE ME. OR THIS ONE... i started this blog "just a bit much" and i leave it with much peace........................

bow your head and say a sad goodbye.....

my dear dear friend that has recorded my family's history for a few years now died today.(thanks airlines)

i know i know..........i wanted a rebel xti but i did not want to say good bye to this old friend.

i use  my camera daily. DAILY. literally. i probably use my camera more for daily happenings that i do on christmas morning.

i wanted to take a pic of my kids walking all in a row (we like to call it ducks in a row and you can hear me say it loudly sometimes when we are out in public and they quickly form a line) across the parking lot.

i wanted to take a pic of my oldest son walking to the mailbox with a letter to his biological dna of a father (a story for another time) because he has never met him and he was so brave to do that. i wanted that pic for me because i knew almost 10yrs ago this day would come.

i just miss my camera already.

 post coming soon on my trip to texas. i did get a pic of eli blu standing next to the "welcome to texas" sign and funny thing..........there was another sign hanging below it saying "home of president bush"  yay me