Tuesday, January 29, 2008

My sweet Kyndra is five...

I can't believe it. She is such a beautiful, bright-eyed BIG girl. I am so proud of every part of her. Her birthday celebration was really spread out. She and I shopped over a month ago for her first Bucks sweatshirt, which by the way Bucks is officially the first word she recognizes in any context... Go Buckaroos!!! Tony took her and her friend to a hockey game in Tri-Cities January 6th. They had a blast and even stayed for the over time shoot out. We had a few lunches with friends in honor of her birthday. Our little family of four dined at Sharis for a celebratory meal and the next day met the Sokos for dinner at The Golden Fountain. Tony took her to Denny's for alien pancakes on her actual birthday and finally this weekend we had a bowling birthday party with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. FUN FUN FUN!!! The part that makes me smile is that she was completely appreciative of every thing that was done for her. She told me the best part of being five is that she is now a whole hand, TOO CUTE.









From bad to worse

Anne told us... she really told us, "A really big storm is coming in, you may want to rethink your travels this weekend." Well seriously how many times have we been warned and just went anyway... those weather guys are never right. It was Tony's last weekend off for the next six months, so we said what the heck AND the weather reports for Saturday morning weren't "that" bad. We started out Saturday morning and had no troubles until we had just about reached Troutdale and BAM!!! dead stop for an hour. We passed all sorts of spin outs and fender benders, but we started out again and made it with only an hour delay. We thought well if that is the worst of it, no biggie. We enjoyed a great birthday weekend (to be blogged on a lighter note) for Kyndra's birthday. Sunday morning we went to Tony's Grandpa's birthday and were pretty nervous to get on the road. We didn't stay long only to walk out to a completely flat tire. Oh man, we can't have delays!!! Tony and his dad fixed the tire with some flat fix and so we could make it to Walmart where we were denied help, because we had done the temporary fix. Tony still wanted to hit the road and just depend on the can of flat fix, until we limped from air station to air station. I called my boss and said I really am stranded. We went back to Tony's parents and had a really nice night. I later heard that Pendleton schools were closed, so I was pretty relieved to not have to spend an entire snow day trapped in the trailer. That was about when it got WORSE... four hours and fifteen minutes was how long we were trapped in our Honda Civic (with its third new bumper due to my fender bender) behind a seven car pile up. The entire trip took nine hours. Anne gets a big I told you so, but I figure that completely covers our quota of gorge travel troubles for the next ten years or so.

View in front of us...



Similar view to the rear...



Girl on the edge in the back seat...


Boy REALLY on the edge way to close to me in the front seat (I had to draw the line)...


Kylee is always on the edge so this was really over the top...

Friday, January 25, 2008

Bothersome Boots

I was inspired by Stacy's hot wheel in the boot story to note another "something" in the boot story I had just experienced. A little boy in my class who regularly complains about EVERYTHING... even tending to use colorful language when he does complain came to school in his snow boots the other day. He was having a really great day until about midday when he started asking to take off his boots. I told him he really should leave them on, but he said that "no" he in fact was going to take them off because they were bothering him. I quickly decided this would not be the battle for the day and watched him remove his boots only to take out a chicken leg bone. We both started cracking up. He thought his dog had probably buried it there. It was a great moment to share with this kid.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

No More Tubes!!!

Kyndra visited "silly" Dr. Wiggly yesterday and he really brightened our day... He removed the tubes from Kyndra's ears. We got to watch a magnified image of Kyndra's ear as he reached in and took them out. It was kind of gross in there :) She was really brave... no fussing, I only wish brushing her hair was so easy. We are so excited to be done with earplugs for swimming. I absolutely never mastered putting those crazy things in and we weren't keeping her out of the water. We had actually lost the earplugs last week, so we were so relieved to NOT have to replace them. The audiologist did find that she has shallow hearing??? I need more information about what that means, but she assured me there was no reason for concern. I think the next process we will beginning with Kyndra is going to involve orthodontia. She will get a palette separator this summer and much more to come in the future. We are told the palette separator will put an end to thumb sucking.

We spent the evening shopping for a giraffe, because her favorite giraffe is packed and she has "G" sharing on Friday. She was really sad... every once in a while and I do mean only once in a while something about our living situation gets to her and tonight she REALLY wanted her special giraffe.

Well I must sign off, because I'm cold and Wife Swap and Super Nanny is on soon... hence my obsession with families.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Progress

We have walls... we have roof trusses ready to be put in place.

Left to right; girls' play room window, front door, den window, kitchen windows...

Garage and bonus room floor...

Back view; great room windows and girls' sleeping room window...

Our master bedroom and a smidge of the dining room windows...


Looking good, but it definitely hasn't been sunshine and roses lately with the process. We are having some significant problems with the city regarding the necessary placement of a driveway apron where our (and our three neighbors) private drive and the city road meet. They are being quite persistant that it get put in right away, but that will delay our progress due to our need to bring in heavy trucks. If we don't wait long enough it will surely get cracked. All parties involved are quite frustrated causing tension and slight conflict, which I am REALLY uncomfortable with. Yuck Yuck Yuck... I just keep hoping for this problem to go away.

Kydra and Kylee hanging out in our current living room, dining room, play room, den, kitchen, and most importantly "family room".

Lunch with friends

Today I had lunch with two dear friends from college. We lived together when we went to Western and then all ended up teaching third grade in Eastern Oregon. The first to land was Tiffany who ended up in Hermiston, the next was Taunya who now calls LaGrande home and then there's me who happily resides in Pendleton... RANDOM. It has been literally years (two to be exact) since we have been together, but there is just a special bond between people with whom you spent "those" years of your life. I am so proud of my friends!!! They are both beautiful, successful women.