our first snow in our new house

leo leo wanted to bring his popsicle baby in...but no. it had to stay outside.

apparently the wind blew. there was snow even on the chairs and table.

it looks so big all white!

view from the front

and yet another view from the front.

the kids were out in it early. two hours was long enough. now we're in for crazy coldness for these parts. looks like this isn't the end of the snow for this week. woo hoo!

these are pictures!!

ah ha ha! finally got film for my old fashioned camera and a sunny day at 3pm in november produces excellent light...

so here are pics worthy of having my name attached to them!

look at sweetie in the corner!

an inside shot that turned out nice

this one is just gorgeous. i LOVE this picture. :)

discovered costco does an excellent job of transferring my film to digital format. so stoked to have found this out! woo hoo! gives me hope that i will indeed survive a bit happier until i can afford a truly awesome digital camera.

our first christmas tree in our new house...

so here it is...our tree (flash off). it's 7 ft tall. our tallest yet...so we don't have enough ornaments.
but we should next year. altho' there is the kitty issue, so no ornaments on the last bit anyhow.
but a squirt of lemon water seems to do the trick. we're still in the learning stage however. :)

and here's our pellet stove all a-glow keeping us toasty warm. so wish i didn't have to use the flash...

and here's leo. just cause he's so cute. :)


we are so excited for our first christmas here! since we have a big enough house we're hosting a christmas party for rob's side of the family (all but my mother in law lives in oregon). its hopefully the first annual family christmas party. we're so stoked we can do it! i have such amazingly fond memories of the carey christmas parties, i feel blessed to begin a similar tradition for my kids.
and since we are having it next week (the 13th), yesterday (the 2nd) was the soonest we have ever purchased a tree. it looks so perfect! we couldn't have found a better one and only $25. next year we'll add lights to the outside. :)

'cause its a cozy sunday night...

here is rob w/ our goddaugher eilidh. it's celtic and pronounced "ailie". no, we are not catholic and neither are the parents but godparents we were asked to be and we gladly accepted. she was born 11/21/08.

here are the kitties (who are much bigger now. when do they become cats?) in a basket that used to be in ryenn's room w/ them. aren't they cute?

ah...and here they are on another favorite spot, the top of the chair. they're wild and crazy and when sleepy quite cuddly. we love having them!

and this picture i just couldn't resist taking! look at them so cute on the couch. old dog sparky w/ his dad...it is true love between those two. :)

pot roast

attempting my first pot roast today. cooking it slowly in the crock pot. doing how hillary said so. i have discovered that, unlike rob and izsak, i do not prefer the smell of pot roast. ALL DAY LONG. therefore, i do believe that i shant be making it that often. i did, however, find out that hillary to has spent a week of experimenting with new recipes like rob and i. isn't it fun when weird things like that happen. its even more fun when your sister states she's attempting chicken pot pie and you'd just done that for the first time the night before. course the recipes never have enough seasonings and rob cooked the chicken in a teeny bit of liquid smoke and lots of sundried tomatoes in oil. yummm...i of course added more cream cheese than stated, but hey! it was fat free! and the salmon chowder we had last week was sooo good and only took two salmon patties. so here's slow cooked soups (the only way to make soup i've discovered) and weather to eat them in. bon appetit!

veteran's day

this is my vet. he served with the oregon national guard in kuwait/iraq in 2003-2004. dealing with the repercussions of combat has not been easy and is an on-going issue four years later. rob has been diagnosed with PTSD. and it is odd to actually honor a vet on veteran's day the last few years. before rob went overseas i had no interest or care about vets. my, how that has changed. i care greatly about vets now. i truly understand the sacrifices made by the vets themselves as well as their families and that is who i'd like to honor today.

please say thank you not only to the vet, but if the vet's spouse or children are with them, express gratitude to them as well. they too have sacrificed for this country. they are separated from the soldier for long periods of time. their families (especially for guard/reservists) have to maintain the household and sometimes a business as well as care for the children, if there are children to care for. they too experience periods of loneliness and difficulties.

it is when the soldier returns home that can be so hard. that soldier is not the same person that left to go to war. most soldiers have been profoundly effected by war. particularly disabled vets (mentally and physically). the role of spouses or parents caring for their disabled vet hasn't been addressed at length that i am aware of. there are a stories of a parent quitting their job and moving to the state that their soldier is being cared for in to help. they sacrifice an income and time. spouses must learn to re-adjust to a disabled vet. this is not easy, especially when the vet refuses to get help. or is struggling despite the help being given. for men, being disabled (particularly if its not a disability physically obvious) can be emasculating and relying on their wife is difficult and hard to accept. it can be overwhelming for spouses and parents alike who are thrust into the role of caregiver.

so i ask. please give consideration to the families directly involved in a disabled vets life. they quite possibly are feeling a lack of appreciation for the sacrifices they make as a result of war and what their country has asked them to do.

i do hope to honor those very people by assembling a collection of stories (past and present) of how families have managed or are managing life after a soldier's experience in war.

thank you.

halloween 2008

so here i sit. its oddly quiet considering how many kids live around here. only two have come.

rob has taken the kids out. i want to be by the door so i'm busying myself on the computer.

as you can see, i decided upon a 1940s type woman. my little button says "buy war bonds" so its

as apparent as possible (ya know...that i don't normally dress as i did in 7th grade...)

here are the kids--the joker and aerwyn

doesn't izsak look fabulous?!

ah...an elf w/out her ears (she didn't want to wear them even though rob made her some)

i got the whole outfit second hand. i lucked out totally!! i think it cost about $10-15!

ryenn's i made from my old jr prom dress that had been moved to the costume box in about 2000. It's been embellished w/ fabric from another faux velvet dress from that era and a shirt i used as mirthril when izsak was frodo.

all in all though. it is weird its so quiet and i'll be glad when everyone is back home. i now totally wish i went w/ them but i thought the door would be non-stop. next year i'll know better. course next year we hope to have a big party!

pumpkin carving

Fun carving pumpkins...look at sparky begging...

here they all are!

this is rob's. if you look close you can see the detail...some sort of monster/ork thing

this is ryenn's. it's crying...for joy apparently (that's what she said)

here is izsak's. it's Jaws....

and here's arian's.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN '08!

pet horrors

This is a flea. It is a nasty nasty thing and invaded our house. With the new pets, we switched to a vet nearby. This vet told me (at sparky's appointment when i complained about our flea dilemma) that washing a dog/cat before apply Advantage (the flea rx) doesn't let the Advantage work because skin oils are missing at that point. Washing a dog or cat anytime after also undoes the effects of Advantage. Oh my gosh! Advantage leaves this greasiness on the fur and we've often bathed Sparky the day after. How he never got fleas I'll never know, but I am very glad to have switched vets because our previous vet never told us this. So, I Advantaged Leo when we first got him home from the Humane Society and the next day washed him. So...I counteracted my measures to counteract any flea encounters. :) So, we discovered the kitties had fleas, which meant the dogs had fleas. Sparky only got them this weekend (post his grooming appointment). But the kitties. Oh poor kitties. They were big fleas and tons of them. It was soooo gross!!!! So terribly disgusting! Ah... but I didn't know the bit about bathing and Advantage, so I gave the kitties a bath and then put Advantage on. No good. So I readvantaged them yesterday (post Sparky's appointment) and learned that there is a tablet for dogs! Woo hoo!!! Much easier to administer on a large puppy than getting him to be still for the Advantage. I have boraxed/salted the rugs and carpets. Rob vacuumed the heck out of everything. I'm still doing laundry. Have vacuumed everyday and bought spray to make sure no eggs hatch. Sigh. It has been a creepy and horrendous experience that I'm choosing to share publically so you can all feel very sorry for us. :) Now...if only flea rx was a hell of a lot cheaper, all would be wonderful. :)

lone pine farms

today we went to lone pine farms

it is a huge farm 1 1/2 miles outside eugene

it is a great place for picking out the pumpkin,
but i obviously got distracted by other items growing w/ the pumpkins

look how huge this sunflower is. considering i have no eye hole on
my stupid digital camera (nor any film for the old fashioned one)

i thought i did ok.

here are the beautiful horses used for the horse/hay ride. the line was

too long...we opted to walk.

my kids off in the fuzzy, windy distance. i didn't know it wasn't in

focus until JUST NOW (thank you again to those of you

who have contributed to my camera fund)

ah...miss ryenn and her pumpkin. guess who really carried it back.

ah...izsak and his huge pumpkin. guess who carried that back...

actually rob carried izsak's pumpkin, izsak carried ryenn's, i carried rob's

and ryenn carried mine.

and there we are, off to the pumpkin patch wheelbarrow free. silly us.

it would've been so much easier. :)

But we had fun, just walking and talking and standing in the credit card/debit line for

FOREVER because its dial up there outside town.

next year we'll take cash.

Lucky for us though, it was a beautiful, mud-free day!

FINALLY!

ah...my son finally got his dog

after much patience and a some disappointments


we decided to adopt from the humane society

after complications of adopting a dog from aunt mandee

so here is Leo. a 10 month old lab. he's a handful already!

and so far sparky is ok w/ it...we'll see how it goes. :)

ryenn's a mommy...

ah...my baby has her own babies now

izsak has to assist of course

they got in the dollhouse on their own,

the kids swear its true!

they're still not so sure of us and hide under the bed

this is Gaiden (as in short for Ninja Gaiden...a ps3 game ryenn can't even watch)

and this is Sweetie.

Their both boys and we got them from a grandma neighbor lady a block over. There were only the two in the litter and she wanted them to stay together and we acquiesed. we're crazy. advantage (flea rx) for four pets will be something! Looks like the puppy will come next week instead of this one which is probably a good thing. so far old dog sparky hasn't even been curious. he hasn't officially met them, but he hasn't really been concerned about cat smells about.

Its so exciting adding animals babies to our family! Maybe one day we'll get a lizard... :)