Fun with cups!

Cheap fun = Dixie cups!

The boys love to stack Dixie cups into all sorts of formations. Ethan made these towers. The first one was taken yesterday. The second one was taken last week on the 14th.

Anniversary getaway!

Mike and I got to go on a little getaway by ourselves for our 10th anniversary. We went to down a place called the Skamania Lodge, which is right on the Columbia River, about 45 minutes east of Vancouver, WA. What an amazing retreat! It's gorgeous there and we had a great time just getting away. We dropped the kids off at Mary & Jay's in Port Orchard and then took off. We left on Monday, 2/16 and came back on Wednesday, 2/18. We were able to relax, eat some amazingly good food, and just enjoy ourselves without an agenda at all. On our way down (and back), we stopped at Multnomah Falls. What an amazingly beautiful piece of nature! On Tuesday, we visited a museum across from the hotel that is all about the history of the Columbia Gorge. We watched a little film about how the gorge was formed and then got to see all sorts of neat things relating to the area. Then we took a very scenic drive over to Hood River, OR and spent the day in that quaint little town. There is so much history there. It makes me want to study the Lewis & Clark expedition now! Hood River was fun. We found a little pub to eat in and just sat there for a good hour and a half, with no stress about getting anywhere. The whole trip was a blast and we can't wait to do it again!

Sick, sick, sick

The GI crud that's been going around made absolutely sure it shared itself with the Harris house. :-( It all started Tuesday when I got a call from the school nurse telling me I had to pick up Evan because he had puked everywhere. I didn't think too much of it because he and Ethan had gotten into a bag of candy that morning and I just figured he had overloaded on sugar. He has a sensitive tummy. Well, that theory got blown out of the water when he puked again... and then again. I believe the next day Ethan started puking. Overall, the boys had a pretty mild case. I can't say the same thing for myself...

I went to work feeling a little queasy. I mean a VERY little. I just felt sort of overly full. No biggie. As my work night progressed, I started feeling more and more uneasy. At about 4am, I told my charge nurse I thought I should leave because I could feel "something" brewing. She told me to go. Thankfully, we were busy. I left at 5am exactly. Thank goodness I live close. I crawled into bed at 5:17am. And at 7am, I ran to the bathroom. There I lived for the next couple of days. THANK HEAVENS Mike had taken those days as vacation days. I spent my 10th anniversary running between my bed and toilet. Fun. "In sickness and in health..." hahahaha. I hadn't recalled being that sick since I was pregnant with Ethan! I felt like a truck ran me over... and then backed up and ran over me a couple more times! UGH. Mike only got a touch of it. Mike took really great care of me. I lived on ice and jello for a couple of days. Then he went out and got me some hot pho and that really helped.

I am soooooo thankful that the sickness hit BEFORE our getaway! It would have been very sad if we had had to cancel that! Anyway, I guess this GI bug is making the rounds. I've heard many, many people talking about it. I'm just glad our household is DONE!

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY!!!

Happy 10th anniversary to Mike and me! It was 10 years ago today that we knelt across the altar from each other in the Seattle temple and made eternal commitments to one another. It's been the best ten years of my life. They have been so full of fun and adventure! Thanks for having me... thanks for loving me... thanks for taking care of me... thanks for 10 years of awesomeness!!!

I LOVE YOU!!!

Tongue Twisters!

For language arts today, we studied a little bit about tongue twisters. We had so much fun... Ethan and I were laughing so hard we could hardly even get any words out of our mouths! Here are a few we had the most fun with:

Bill built blue bridges with big blocks.
Sue saw sheep in shoes.
Trudy tried three free things.
Wendy went to rent one red room. (I soooo kept wanting to say "Wendy went to rent one wed woom!")

FUN!

A beautiful message we can all learn from...

Hemming pants

I know that for most of general population, hemming pants isn't a big deal. But for me, it most certainly is. You see, my mother tried to teach me domestic things but I what can I say? I was a rebel. And being the stubborn child that I am, these domestic things have to be my ideas or else I'm not really all that interested. Hmmm... sort of reminds me of that scene out of "Father of the Bride"... where Stanley Banks suggests to his daughter that she take a coat with her and she shrugs him off and says she'll be fine. But then her fiancee makes the same suggestion and she turns around and grabs the coat. Fast forward to 1:33 if you want to see it!



Anyway... here's the story. The boys needed pants. Badly. So we went out to JCPenney two nights ago because we'd had good luck there before. They are both difficult to shop for, Ethan especially. They are both shaped like their dad... they are tall, but have longer torsos and shorter legs. They are also not skinny children. ;-) This means that if the length is good, the waist is too small. If the waist fits well, they are much too long. This shopping experience was no different. Secretly, despite repeated disappointment, I cross my fingers before each shopping experience in hopes that I will actually find pants that work for both the waist and length. In the words of Westley (Princess Bride), I should really "Get used to disappointment"!

So while I was perusing the sea of pants available in the boys department, I found a clearance rack of really nice corduroy pants! And I could tell by the sizing that Ethan would be able to wear them. These were originally nearly $40 a pair! No way would I spend that much on a pair of pants, but these things were marked down to just $7.50 a pair! So we picked up two pair. The bad news? They were WAY too long. I knew we'd either have to hire someone to alter them (therby giving away part of the discount on the pants) or I'd have ot suck it up and learn how to hem them.

Last night, I googled "How to hem pants" and came up with a FABULOUS YouTube video on how to do this. I was so excited to find the video and immediately set to work. I couldn't believe how easy it was and thankfully, I now have two pair of pants that look really good! (Well, if I do say so myself, that is.) Here is the video as well as a picture of the finished product!




I should add here... I almost didn't hem these last night. Ethan was sick and I didn't want to run out and purchase the right colored thread. Well, it must have been an omen because I opened my little sewing box and found only two spools of thread (besides the standard black and white)... and the two colors were nearly an exact match for these two pair of pants! I saw it as a sign and set to work!

Free breakfast!

On Tuesday, Denny's was offering a free Grand Slam breakfast to anyone who showed between 6am and 2pm. We were game! We decided to meet one of Evan's school friends (Nathan) and his mom around 10am before the boys headed off to afternoon kindergarten. I knew it was going to be busy but WOW! There were roughly 30 parties ahead of us. Surprisingly, it was only about a 30-40 minute wait. The most hilarious part of the experience was watching Federal Way police and Federal Way Schools police round up truant high schoolers by the DOZENS! They had them all lined up outside and sitting on the curbside. Too funny! Anyway... it was a lot of fun and we're glad we braved the crowds and went!