Haagan Daz ice cream

If you know me, you know that i love desserts. I have a sweet tooth. I believe I was born to love chocolate. Anyhow, Bobby just mentioned that he spent $9.00 on 3 boxes of Haagan Daz ice cream bars!! Crazy! That is beyond out of our budget! I would never buy that many . . . at one time. But he says, "if it keeps you quiet. if it keeps you not complaining about nothing sweet in the house. its all worth it, and its the best $9.00 I spent." How thoughtful huh? I had no idea! And there's just 3 bars left. And no, i did not eat 6 already. I've had 3 and Bobby had 3. Pathetic. I keep track of how many i have left. . . Oh, and i do love my husband, too. ;)

I'm a little tickled.

Now that Bobby works during the evenings - that means I have to do more of the cooking, and like most of you know, I don't cook! Well, I thought, okay, i need something different. So last night, I took out some shrimp, and quickly marinaded it in italian dressing - straight from the bottle. Since it was raining and I couldn't use the grill (good excuse huh? as if I would ever use the grill), i put the shrimp on skewers and threw it in the oven to broil. Quick, easy, and presentable! Over dinner Jadeline said: "mmm, Mom, You make the best dinner ever!! But Daddy too!" It made me giggle, but in my mind i was thinking, "hmmph, grr..... your daddy isn't even here." I was wondering if she thought her dad would be upset that she actually complemented me in making dinner. Go figure.

Incredible!!

Just when you think the Olympics were done, Hawaii's little league in baseball become world champions!! And what a day to win this! To me, it made the Olympics complete!! The spectators and commentators were skeptical, but with the kids 'Hawaii nature', they believed!

New Moon

I am the slowest reader. But then I'm proud to say that I've finished book number 2 New Moon! I have to admit, this series is good. Thanks to Troy who got me started in reading this.  At first I had no idea what this series was about. All Troy said was, "My friends says its a good book; let's read it together!!" So now i have to wait patiently for book number 3 and 4 to come thru the mail - I ordered it thru amazon since it was cheaper. But I plan to take my time in reading them.  It feels like I have no company without Bella, Jacob, and Edward. Yes... I really got into it.

Embrace

Its 2:15am, and am at work, and am beyond thankful, that its night #3 - normally my friday, but am working an extra shift on Friday. Working, but all of a sudden had a crazy idea to blog.

Ali Edwards (for you non-scrapbook people, she's a scrapbooker whose work i really do admire; and for you oregonians, she's the wife of our state rep, Chris Edwards ) And yes, I've met her, have taken pictures with her, and have taken classes from her (remember when I had Bobby drive us to Eugene?). Anyhow she had this idea to choose a word and have that be a focus for the year.

I chose the word: EMBRACE. And it stuck with me when over a year ago,when a good friend told me about her sister who's son is possibly having a sexual identity. It really made me think about what children can go through. And when I commented, "it must be tough to accept." When her husband said, their is a difference between 'accepting' it and 'embracing' it. And from then on, i realized how strong and powerful it is to 'EMBRACE'. 

How have i been living it??? Well, rather than being upset that Troy needs another phone (somehow it broke he said . . ), I took that opportunity to teach him a lesson, no phone for 1 month and thanks to Kam he gets a used gold phone. Rather than be frustrated with Ashton not following directions with his homework, I simply ask him, is that what its asking?? (And Ashton corrects it). Rather than being upset that Jadeline wet the bed @ 2:00am to clean up the bed and Jade. I find the opportunity to have her sleep in our bed - since she never does.  Has it made a difference? I believe so. No stress, always calm, and we look at the bright side of things. Oh, and between Bobby and I?? We haven't argued in months - well, i take that back, remember my story about our Krispy Kreme donuts?? Its been a moment we've embraced because we still laugh about it. 

Girls night

What do you do when your honey works evening shift and your son is busy hanging out with his friends? Have a girls night out with your daughter. Not ideal, but good enough. BUT i wasn't about to go to McDonald's - no happy meal, no apple pies and definitely no fries! So when i asked my date where she would like to go? "Mama, lets go to the place with the tiny dessert!!" Twist my arm why don't you!! So we  head to PF Changs.

And can you believe how much our bill was, with dessert? $15.00 Yes, under $20 for 1 bowl of white rice, 1 bowl of brown rice, mapo tofu, spinach and garlic, a strawberry sundae, a tiramisu, 2 fortune cookies, and 2 glasses of water! Oh, and of course you couldn't beat the company!!

"Drink fast or Dump it!! "

as said by Jadeline to her daddy drinking his bottle of propel. Kids can say the craziest things! We bite our tongue and often wonder, 'did she hear that from me?'. It was funny - we're still laughing about it.

We went to Blue Lake Park in Fairview. One of my little adventures I like to do for the family. I heard about it from one of the girls at work, so i thought with a 103 degree weather, I need to get the children out. (Oh, and knowing that it would only cost me $4.00 and gas $$, it was in the budget.) Sometimes my adventures don't turn out well because you never know when you haven't been there. But today was an exception. It was nice. Jadeline loved the water spray ground, Ashton swam in the lake, and Bobby and I sat back and relaxed under the hot sun!

Back to what Jadeline said. The reason she told that to her daddy was because she wanted a bucket. Well, given we haven't been to this water spray ground, I didn't think of bringing a bucket!! So Jadeline had this clever idea of using her daddy's bottle for a bucket ONLY if he would quickly drink up the propel!! She was entertained, she was having fun, and what once was just a bottle of propel, quickly became a 'bucket!' See photos.

EXPENSIVE!!

• size 12 converse and size 9 adio shoes: $54.00 (thanks to Uncle Mikey's 40% discount)
• 2 pairs of adidas shoes: $56.00
• another size of adio shoes: $30.00
• 4 pairs of abercrombie jeans: $48.00 (found on clearance)
• 2 abercrombie jackets $40.00
• 2 macy's mens jeans: $24.00
• 2 gap kids jeans: $20.00
• 2 khaki shorts: $24.00
• 1 jeans, 2 shirts, 1 skirt, 1 short: $25.00
• 1 Quicksilver jacket $12.00
• 10 mens tshirts: ~$100.00
• Recycling last years backpacks - $0.00

Clearance, Outlets, friends discounts, and still an expensive price tag to get 3 growing kids dressed for back to school. Incredible!! And how much was the school supplies? ~$30.00

Couldn't we just send them to school in their halloween outfits??

One word poll

A fun little poll I found on Amy's blog. You only type one word for your response.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Where is your significant other? Work

3. Your hair? Short

4. Your mother? Hawaii

5. Your father? Home

6. Your favorite thing? crafting

7. Your dream last night? None

8. Your dream/goal? happiness

9. The room you're in? livingroom

10. Your hobby? crafts

11. Your fear? Death

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? traveling

13. Where were you last night? St. Vincents

14. What you're not? singer

15. One of your wish list items? lens

16. Where you grew up? Hawaii

17. The last thing you did? eat

18. What are you wearing? clothes

19. Your TV? Jadelines

20. Your pet? Maltese

21. Your computer? Macbook

22. Your mood? sleepy

23. Missing someone? Troy

24. Your car? Rav4

25. Something you're not wearing? socks

26. Favorite store? craftwarehouse

27. Your summer? relaxed

28. Love someone? unconditionally

29. Favorite color? white

30. The last time i laughed? lastnight

31. Last time i cried? ??

Reading

I'm late on the ball - on reading the Twilight series. I'm on book 1. I am the slowest reader. Although I'm on page 434 - I am making progress. I'm not one of those that will start reading a series because everyone else does - again I'm tooo much of a slow reader. Anyhow, it was Troy who 2 month ago asked that we read it together. Not knowing what the book is about, I asked my honey to pick up a copy for me. (Now do you understand what I mean about me being such a slow reader?) Its 2 months later and I am still reading it - but have just 54 pages left while book number 2 waits for me in my work bag. ;)

Staying busy

In a nutshell:

• Back from Washington.  Took the kids to Wild waves. Ashton and Bobby had their thrill on the roller coaster rides and big water slides. Jade hanged out with her crew in the toddler activity area.
• Finished my on going projects. Finally put together a coworkers stamp necklace. And sent nana her bag. Received my 1 cent pictures from snapfish. 100 pictures for a whole dollar!! Ready to scrapbook!! And finished Jadeline's hunting dress. 
• Been hanging out at Washington Park. Jadeline loves that sandbox.
• I got a new haircut. I'm still working out at the gym. (Taking a few days off - i was working on my abs on that medicine ball. Well I literally rolled off the ball and fell off onto the feet of a bench. Ouch!! That hurt. My back has been killing me.)

7 years

7 years of changes.

7 years of challenges.

7 years of finding each other.

7 years of accepting habits.

7 years of adventures.

7 years of laughter and tears.

7 years of embracing each other. . .

 

On July 27, we made 7 years. 

**photographer: Jadeline Rivera.