2 days off.....but busy!

So I had 2 days off this week. If I didn't have 4 kids it may have been relaxing but we don't have any of that stuff in this house!

Wednesday was set for Izzaks end of year conferences which went okay, well as well as we can expect anyway. The school says he is at the end of 4th grade level (he just finished the 6th grade) but I don't know if I agree with that. I don't see that his reading and comprehension has gotten better over this year and since it has been such a stressful year for him I'm not totally surprised.

After the conference I had to go to the courthouse. Did I not explain this? I thought I did but you know I forget what I tell people sometimes.... Any way it goes back to my accident in February. I had to fill out an accident report. Which I did a little later then supposed to but well within the time limit they gave me so I should have been okay. Anyway the weekend after Kelly left I got pulled over by the police because my license plate light was out....seems like they would have more important things to be doing on a Saturday night but oh well. Anyway when she checked my license she said I was driving with a suspended license, which was a surprise to me. I called the DMV that Monday and they acknowledged they had made an error and misplaced the report. Made arrangements for me to get a free replacement ID and sent me a letter to take to court saying it was suspended in their error. Can you beleive I was pulled over the day after my license was suspended? That only happens to me you know..... also when I went to replace the bulb I found out that someone had actually stolen the peices to the light for my license plate. Okay now you does that??? Also another thing that only happens to me. Anyway I thought that I would get it taken care of on Wednesday but apparently that was only the arraignment now I have to wait for them to send me a letter after they can supeona the police officer so that I can come back to court basically to show a letter that it wasn't supposed to be suspended.

After that I had to take the kids to church. It would have been a few minutes myself except I had a lot of errands I needed to take care of in a short amount of time.

Thursday was my second day off and I had more to do that day.

First Izzak was off again so we worked on the house a bit until the other kids got out of school at 11:17 (yeah weird) after that I took the kids to the elementry school for their conferences. They are student led so it actually takes longer because the kids tell you and show you what they did this year. Joshua is doing fine in school but he didn't try when taking his year end tests so he didn't do well but he even admitted he didn't try and so didn't do well.

Kenzie, well she is having some problems still a little behind in her reading but not as bad as Izzak and she doesn't seem to get math. I asked her teacher how she thought she was doing and the teacher said "Well she's a sweet girl and has a lot of commons sense, she just doesn't do well in school".....I wasn't sure how to take that it king of bothered me actually. Also she commented that she is very well organized while I was noticing the teacher had a total of 3 desks about a foot high with paper, cups and all kinds of crap....I'm thinking "uhm yeah your one to talk". Anyway I worry about her because she is very quiet and doesn't ask for help when needed. Hopefully next year when I am not working out of the house I will be able to work with her more and keep a closer eye on it.

Kenzies took a long time so I had to leave before Madisons conference to take Joshua to his eye appt.
He did well at first but then we had to wait for his eyes to dialate and he got bored....

Apparently bored leads to playing. Does he look like he is keeping himself entertained? The apointment went well. He did get talked to by his eye dr about not wearing his glasses all the time though. I love their eye dr by the way....he's awesome. He got a new prescription and he doesn't have to wear the bifocals anymore so hopefully that will help him keep them on more.

After that we came home and I took Madison so her conference which went well. She is outspoken says her teacher (nice way of saying she talks a lot) but she is doing faboulus in school and the teacher said she was the top student in the class. She exceeds in reading and totally has her numbers and early math skills down.....it is so nice to have one I don't have to worry about their reading and such......She showed me what she did this year and showed me things around the class

Madison at school from my4kidsdunn on Vimeo

Isn't she cute? I know I say that all the time but she is my baby and I can't help it! Also I am so proud of how she is doing in school, even though she gets in trouble alot.....

Also she insisted I take a picture of her and her Kindergarten teacher...

Okay I have lots of other pictures and stories to tell about this week but this post is getting long already so I will save that for tomorrow or another day....

Tagged for 2 things meme.

Okay I was tagged for the 2 things meme on the 10th by Emma and somehow I totally missed that post.....So I will get right to it. I really like doing meme's especially when I need something to get me started so here you go

Two names you go by:
-Mom seems to the main one
-and of course Terri

Two things you are wearing right now:
-camo capri pants
-a white t shirt
Exciting clothes today right? I'm not working today so I get to wear whatever I want, yeah!

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship:
-friendship
-Honesty

Two of your favourite things to do:
-scrapbooking
-apparently this blogging thing since it has competely taken over my life!

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
-August to be here so I can be with my Hubby who I miss like crazy and now that he is working I can't just call him any time I like!
-To quit my job but yes come August I will get that also!

Two pets you have had:
-Two cats Merlin and Milo
-Ummm this is new to Kelly so if your reading this its a long story but we have 4 hamsters Harry Potter, Hermione Grainger, Ron Weasley and Ginny Weasley....yes the kids are all about the Harry Potter stories. We have 4 but we only paid for 1 the other 3 were babies someone dropped off at the Petco and they adopted them out to us for free and free is a very good price and my husband knows I am bad at turning down a good deal and since there were 3 that means all the kids get their own hamster! Yes Emma I cheated on this one a bit also but I always have to explain things....also I haven't told Kelly about the new hamsters yet.

Two people I would like to do this:
-Chrisb
-Alpha Dude
Will they? I don't know. I hate tagging people but I am curious about everyone so anyone who hasn't done it already is free to give it a go

Two things you did last night:
-Went to court about my suspended (in error) license although it was complete waste of time and I have to go again when they let me know......
-stayed up way to late on the stupid internet

Two things you ate today:
-nothing.....haven't been hungry and have had a very busy day even without working!
-

Two people you last talked to:
-Kelly of course I always talk to him
-My friend Megan on the phone also

Two things you are doing tomorrow:
-working unfortunatly
-haven't figured it out beyond that other then the usual feeding kids doing some laundry trying to get the house clean......yeah some of that probably won't really happen...kids will most likely be fed though

Two longest car rides:
-Oregon to Phoenix the day we got married we took our time getting there though
-Oregon to Colorado family trip when I was 16 to visit my Aunt and Uncle and their kids although it was made much longer because my brother was being a pain in the butt teenager and whined the whole entire time!

Two favourite holidays:
-Christmas
-Fourth of July- I love fireworks!

Two favourite beverages:
- Dr Pepper of course but I've said that one before
- My favorite alcoholic drink? would be Sex on the Beach.....really it is a drink and it took me years to be able to order it without getting all giggly saying that! I took my sister in law out on her 21st bday and made her order it also....she loves it and thats what she gets now but it was funny watching her get all red saying it!

Its been a busy day today. I had to go to conferences for Kenzie and Joshua. Joshua had an eye appt and we need to get him new glasses he is very happy though because he doesn't need to wear bifocals anymore so hopefully he will actually keep them on. I am on my way out to take Madison to her conference now so I should probably go.

Whitty Wednesday

I thought I would join in the Wednesday fun even though a little late for many of you. My dad sent me an email today with this

Very Sobering --- Gut Wrenching

This is a picture of a horrible highway accident in Germany . The picture maybe is kind of hard to take for some of you.

If you look closely you can see what appears to be some survivors of the accident still in the wreckage.

Although the picture is quite graphic, it makes you realize how quickly our loved ones can be taken from us.

My friend stayed on the scene to help, and even though he performed mouth to mouth on quite a few of them, none apparently survived.

Family

I received this in an email today included with the story below

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?
FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU

Family

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,

"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too;

I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.

We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told,

How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,

My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.

"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.

I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,

God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger,

common courtesy you use,

but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,

You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.

He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,

you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,

And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;

"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"

He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.

I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;

I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."

He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay.

I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,

and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

FAMILY

Are you aware that if we died tomorrow,

the company that we are working for could easily replace us in

a matter of days.

But the family we left behind will feel the loss

for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more

into work than into our own family,

an unwise investment indeed,

don't you think?

So what is behind the story?

Do you know what the word FAMILY means?

FAMILY = (F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER (I) (L)OVE (Y)OU

I received this as an email today and it hit home with me so I felt like sharing it with you. I know I spend all day at work being nice to people because its expected of me for my job. I then come home and am tired and sometimes I'm not half as nice to my kids as I was to all those strangers I saw at work today. That makes me feel bad to do that. People ask me why I am so excited to be able to be home with my kids again when we get to Alaska. This is the reason for one. I don't want to waste my patience on strangers every day at work only to get frustrated at my kids when I get home. I hate that I get home from work and we almost immediately start working on housecleaning or something like that thats not fun. I've been working on that though lately. I try to have at least a couple days during the work week where we come home from work and do something fun that the kids want to do in the evening.

Also sorry about bailing on the Fun Monday yesterday I was going to but just never got the chance to get pics taken or to post it here. I will participate in Fun Monday next week though!

It rained on my parade....

Saturday was the big Grand Floral Parade. This is the biggest of the 3 parades we have here during our Rose Festival. All of the floats are covered in some kind of plant usually many flowers and flower seeds tend to make up the design. It can be really pretty and some places come up with great designs. The first picture is part of the princess float. The one at the top gets crowned as the Queen of Rosaria (portland). Portland is called the city of Roses. The Queen and Princess are chosen from each of the Porltland Metro area High Schools after each school chooses their princess they all have to go together and compete for the title of Queen for a year. It can be kind of a popularity contest though they do have to be inteligent and involved in the community before to actually be chosen as the Queen. There are no swimsuit comptitions here...

Izzaks favorite part are the military portions of the parade. Even the tank they drove through had roses on it!

This is an actual working tank with its crew riding in it there was a very large police presence walking along side of it! Izzak thought that was really cool.

Oregon has a lot of rodeos and there were a lot of horses in the parade from those and the mounted posse's from around the state.

And of course we always have the Anheiser Busch Clydsdale horses! This is always a crowd favorite! I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact people drink a lot of Budweiser here!

There was a circus float also with a Tiger made from flower seeds and a real flame circle the kids really liked that!

This year was the 100 anniversary of the Rose Festival so we had a lot of old fashioned cars and trucks and other older things in the parade this was one of Izzaks favorites. A model T truck.

Of course we leave for the parade about 2 hours early, you have to to make sure you keep your spot. The kids always bring a lotof things to play on here are Izzak and Connor riding on their scooters
A nice grin from Madison who has lost another tooth in front and that would be 5 teeth missing right now! She is a very toothless little girl! She wanted to make sure I posted this picture for her Daddy to see.
And Joshua and Kenzie peeking around their seats during the parade!

We had a good time even with the parade but we were lucky enough to have a tent over us to keep us dry so that helped!

On a side note please go by Melanies blog over at Our Happy Happenings. She has a request of all her readers about a little girl named Emma, who is 2 and is very sick with an uncontrollable high fever. She is lives in Haiti with her parents who are missionaries and they do not live anywhere near a hospital. I know this has to be very stressful for her parents right now.

Late post!! We did have fun on Saturday!

I keep promising Kelly I will post about our trip to the fun center and the Starlight parade. I am finally doing it only 5 days later!

First off though on Saturday I got a package in the mail from Beccy! I was her flapjacks and i was so excited to receive something all the way from Ireland! The kids insisted I open them right away and all had a taste. The kids loved it and so did I, Beccy! Thank you so much.

Okay now on to the Fun Center! The kids had a lot of fun and when we got there, there was no question in their minds what the first ride would be. Go ahead guess....

Yes bumper cars! This is a favorite among all the kids. How often do we get to get behind the wheel of a car and hit people with it on purpose? Honestly there are days when I am driving home from work where I wish I was in a bumper car......

The girls weren't tall enough to drive themselves but we convinced the man to allow them to ride with the boys and boy did they have fun!

There is another thing about my kids and rides at the park. They are really big chickens! All of them. Izzak got up the nerve to ride this one and I had to practically bribe Joshua to go on it with him. Izzak yelled the whole time "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!" Joshua got off and was excited! He said he had a lot of fun and he was the one I had to bribe! I have a feeling though with these kids it will be a long time before they are ready for rides at Disney land.

Before.....

After.....

The girls "patiently" watching the boys since they were to young and scared to try that one.

The girls got to go one their own ride after the boys and they chose this one which is a teddy bear that goes in circles and the bear spins itself also

Joshua displaying his strength!

Izzak on a kiddie ride with the girls. This was much more his thing. Funny the kid likes to jump on bikes, skateboard and rollerblade but when it comes to rides there is not much getting him to high or fast!

The girls on another ride.

We did let the girls get their faces painted again but only half this time also Joshua got to go with us this time and had spiderman painted on half his face. Izzak got USA and a flag painted on his arm. He thought it was pretty cool.

I don't know why they look so down in these pictures though, they were really excited but getting tired at this point.

Afte the face painting the boys wanted to go on the trampoline to jump high and do flips. Izzak wasn't quit coordinated enough to do much flips and actually made his stomach upset on the one he did do so he just jumped high. Poor kid inherited his grandmothers motion sickness!

Joshua on the other hand loves any kind of jumping and flipping and really isn't afraid of hights! His only dissapointment was that he couldn't quite get two flips in per jump!

Look at how high he went!

Madison riding her own ride on the fire truck. She is at the very front sticking her head out if the picture lets you blow it up you can see her waving.

And of course the reason we were downtown was also for the Starlight parade. Unfortunatly after all the pictures I took the week and day before my camera battery was running dead so the pictures didn't really come out that well. One of the big themes this year were Pirates. We saw pirates everywhere and there were lots of pirate themed floates and other walkers.

Anyway by the time we were done with the parade it was 10:30 and we still needed to catch the max to get home since I don't drive downtown, especially during the Rose Festival.....just to scary! Of course if you ask anyone about riding the max they may say the same thing but for some reason I do it every year. It get terribly crowded and they don't have any rules about how many people can be on it. So many people are standing up in the aisles.

This year my sil came with us but had driven her truck so she took two of the kids (Joshua and Kenzie) home and I took Maddie and Izzak with me on the Max. Honestly I don't know why I insisted on taking her though. Somehow I managed to get a seat this year which was good because by the time we got on the train it was 11:30 and I had been walking or standing since 1:30 that day so I was pretty well worn out and legs hurting after all day and the night before. Anyway Madison sat in my lap so that she didn't have to stand. Izzak is big enough to stand. Madison has this problem with her bladder. She has a spastic bladder and basically if she notices (if she notices is the biggie for her) there really is no time unless you get her to a potty immediatly. Well anyway there is no bathroom on the Max and what happened? Maddie had to go potty and true to form there was no waiting or holding it, she just can't. She wet all over my pants since she was in my lap! You could barely tell with her but when I got up I was wet all up front down my legs to my knees! I was so embarresed. I guess its a good thing I probably will never meet any one of those people again. Next time if we go somewhere like that she is wearing a Pull up! Izzak thought it was hilarious though and laughed at me and so did Kelly!

Today I bought a web cam and Kelly is going to get one tomorrow. I am so excited for tomorrow or Friday when we figure them out! I get to see Kelly. It may only be on a screen but its better then nothing right now!

Fun Monday number something....

Todays Fun Monday is brought to us by Karmyn whose challenge was.....


And on June 4th - I will be asking everyone to show me their "CRAFTY SIDE"....let us see something you've made - it can be ANYTHING - a table you made from 8th grade Shop class to your most recent burnt pot roast or lopsided knitted sweater. WHATEVER - just let it be your handiwork.

People that know me personally...I mean my nonblog friends know that I am a scrapbooker. Unfortunatly I haven't gotten a lot of time to work on them lately but that is my favorite thing probably why I take so many pictures all the time. I'm always thinking of a new scrapbook page even if it takes me forever to get around to making it.

I thought I would share some of my scrapbooking with you but I had a hard time choosing just a few so here is a grouping of the girls pages......

And a few chosen from the boys books......

Also to answer Amy's question. Yes Kelly reads my blog. He didn't before he left for Alaska but he does now. I think mostly for the pictures and to see what I have to say that I haven't told him. I can't convince him to make any comments though.

I also still need to post about our trip to the Fun Center and Parade on Saturday. I have some interesting stories to tell and Kelly keeps asking why I haven't posted about it yet. I will post and I have lots of pictures but probably will post that on Wednesday.

Fireworks! and facepainting

We had fun last night.

I only had 3 though as Joshua had to go to my parents house he got in big trouble and we decided that he couldn't come.

We went to the fun center first which is in the same place where the fireworks are done, on the waterfront. The girls really wanted to get their faces painted here they are getting them done.

Kenzie of course picked out a pretty purple and pink design that went well with her dress she was wearing. Kenzie wouldn' t like it if she didn't match you know....

Madison is all about the blues and purple and hers was actually my favorite

And after gettiing their faces painted........

At the fun center the favorite treat every year is the food! The kids all like the Elephant Ears the best. I don't like the name but they are a tasty treat!

Of course your probably all wanting to see if I got any good fireworks shots. I was excited to try this with my new camera that has a feature for taking pictures of fireworks. It did pretty well actually I was pretty happy with it. It was a little harder to do though because you have to hold the camera up for awhile for it to work right. What do you think?

It was a late night especially after school and work all week but we had fun. This is the girls by the time we got home...
This I have to say is one of my favorites of Madison right now. Look at the look on her isn't it adorable!

And this one is really cute of McKenzie

And what happens at the end of the night with some very tired kids.....

Izzak is totally gonna hate me for posting that one!!!

And for the finale on this post?

The Grand Finale of the fireworks of course. The first part is part of the regular show but about 30 seconds in is where the finale starts and it was a pretty good show. Enjoy............






Rose Festival fireworks finale from my4kidsdunn on Vimeo

Good news!

Kelly got a job today!! Yeah!!! Its a good job to he will start out in Anchorage but we may be moving to another part of Alaska if he chooses in September. We will see.

We also sold the trailer today so that is great news because we needed the money.

Tonight I'm taking the kids to the fireworks for the Rose Festival which is how they start off the festivities. This is a big event here in Portland every year tomorrow we have the starlight parade which is a parade at dark the kids love it and next Saturday is the big Grand Floral Parade. On Sunday we have a birthday party to go to.

Apparently I have another VERY full weekend. Someday things may slow down. I wouldn't miss the Rose Festival stuff for anything though especially since we are moving this summer and won't be back most likely for it again and we have gone every year since Izzak was 1.