I am going to make these!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/happy_sleepy/827459378/in/photostream

I love this idea! I found it on http://www.notmartha.org/ last year and was just thinking about it today. I think they would look so adorable on my picket fence gates (front & back).

Rain, Rain Go Away

I remember way back in December I said I wasn't going to complain about the rain anymore. Well, I am going to break that promise. I am so tired of dark, dreary, wet, windy & cold days. The only cure for a day like this is to make Golden Winter Soup. I made it a few times before Christmas and I am making it right now. This kind of weather just begs for a meal like this. The kitchen smells really good too. It almost makes me forget the weather outside. This weather is bad for baking though. I made peanut butter cookies yesterday that didn't quite turn out and I had the same problems with a batch of dog treats. I was going to make homemade rolls, but thought it would be better not to chance it (after my baking results from yesterday). So I bought a big bag of potato rolls instead. Can't wait for dinner!

**Omid doesn't care for 'velvet' soups, so I just puree the butternut squash & leeks and not the potatoes. It give the soup some 'substance.' I also added shredded chicken this time.

No means NO, dude!

This afternoon a young man came to our door and tried to sell me a subscription to The Columbian newspaper. I told him I wasn't interested as I can read it for free at work. Thanks, but no thanks. He wouldn't take no for an answer. He asked me several times if I work on Sunday. I told him no, and I wasn't interested in a subscription. Thanks, anyway. He started to raise his voice and ask me again. I must have been at the door for 5 minutes trying to tell him NO! I finally told him (very nicely!), "I'm going to shut the door now. Thanks!" He continued to talk to me and I just shut the door. I told Omid, the next time a paper boy comes to the door, he's on duty. It was exhausting!

Photo Tag

This is the 6th picture in the 6th folder (going from top to bottom). I didn't have permission (& am I sure would never be granted permission) to use the other photo that was actually supposed to be here. Darn it. Omid & Nas enjoying Baskin & Robbins last August.

Brenda & Arezou - I tag you two!!!

Sunriver

We went to Sun River for a few days with our friends the Kelloggs. We had never been before and it was a lot fun. We basically ate the entire time. I think I gained about 6 lbs. in 2 days. Ugh.

Ward & Omid trying to get Nas to smile.

Omid & his new hat. Cute!

Kids in the hot tub. Raccoons were very interested in the kids and advanced on them. We had to scare them away.

Lin & Ward

Chow time!

Icicles!

Omid cooking spaghetti for dinner.

20 Years!

Today (as I am sure everyone read on Facebook) is our 20th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary to us!

Happy Anniversary Omid! I love you!

Updates

Here are a few updates on past posts.

Yesterday Remy received his Canines for Clean Water bandana in the mail. He was so excited and pranced around in it. I received a free window cling too. It's teeny tiny (about the size of a smaller Post It note). Very cute. I will send this photo of Remy in to receive my free 'stool tool.' The kids will really appreciate it I'm sure. :)

Remember the walking stick pets I acquired about 10 months ago? I had 3 originally. Well, the last of the 3 passed away on Thursday. That was Sydney. Bill passed away about a month ago. I have two new babies who will be living in Sarah's classroom sometime soon. I am done having WS as pets. There is a lot of selective reduction if you want these insects as pets. I wasn't prepared for that & I don't like doing it (it has to be done if you don't want 100's of WS at once). Sad but true. I was cautioned about that but didn't really take it too seriously. :(

Happier times.

I really love sillouhettes and have two of my kids. I want one of Remy too. They are so darn expensive. I found this site and Nas is going to make one of Remy for me. She took this shot of Remy as a starter. A fun project for break. Here's a link if you want to purchase vinyl sillouhettes.

Here is an updated photo of Matty's cast. You can see MARY hogged up a whole lot of space so Omid & I had to write small. Sadly, we weren't the first to sign the cast. Sniff, sniff. Oh! Here's an interesting tidbit....I was hoping Matty would choose green...but he told me it wasn't my 'hope' that influenced him. He asked a GIRL at school to choose his cast color! Wonder if that girl is MARY. Interesting.

Matty + Cast = Happy Mom

Matty finally got his cast this morning. I called our insurance company and they confirmed I didn't need a referral for a cast (Thanks Patrick for the info!). I called Rebound the minute they opened and made an appt.

Matty chose the cast with the Gore Tex lining. It's waterproof (who knew!) and he doesn't have to wrap the arm in a bag while showering. Though I am so nervous...I just may make him do that.

Cool green !

Matty said once he got to school, the pens came out and it was covered in signatures. Once I got back to school, I called the Vancouver Clinic and I am sure scared the customer service rep to death (poor girl). I started a letter, but became so worked up, I decided to call instead. I gave names, numbers & incidents. We'll see what happens the next time anyone in my family breaks a bone!

Matty - Update

If you remember on Tuesday, we rushed to the Urgent Care to check out Matty's wrist. The doctor on call told us it wasn' t broken just severely sprained. Matty should take it easy and not injure the wrist again. I asked for a note to excuse Matty from PE, but the doctor said he could do PE as long as he took it easy. She said the Radiologist would call us if anything turned out to be different. I thought we were out of the woods when we didn't receive a call from the Radiologist yesterday. Not so!

When we arrived home from school today, there was a message saying Matty did indeed have a broken wrist and needed to get to the doctor's asap for a splint as he was not to move his wrist! So Matty and I jumped in the car and you better believe the doctor got an earful from me. No doctor's note for PE - guess what Matty had to do today? Push ups! She was horrifed and apologetic. Now we have to wait for a referral for a cast. I was surprised that only orthopedists put casts on broken bones now. More waiting (I just hope they don't have to rebreak his bone!). I told them to rush the referral as we are leaving town soon for break. We are going up to the mountain. Matty isn't allowed to ski, snowboard or innertube. Poor guy! I wish we were going to Disneyland instead. At least then he could participate!

Boys + Longboards = Doctor Visits

Today Matty fell while longboarding and hurt his wrist. I knew he was really hurt this time as he was on the verge of tears (+ the wrist was pretty swollen). Usually he just shrugs off the falls. So...I scraped meat paste off my hands (I was knee-deep in making Persian meatballs) and took him to the Urgent Care near our house. I was totally avoiding the ER (SWMC). We had such a bad experience there a year & a half ago with Matty. We only had to wait about 20 mins (yay!). Matty received an xray and thank God nothing was broken. His wrist & hand are very swollen, but he is on pain meds now and not feeling the pain so much. Once again, I have to say a prayer that we have health insurance!

Reality Bites

Omid bought me a new phone this weekend. It comes with all sorts of bells & whistles. I can add stuff too. One 'tool' I added yesterday was called Lose It! It's a neat little site where I can add each & everything I eat or drink in a day. I added this because since I've turned 40, my metabolism has changed and I can no longer eat what I want. It was wonderful for 40 years, but now it sucks. It really does.
I have been ignorantly eating and 'estimating' my calorie content. I am not so concerned about the fat content as I am the sugar. There is hidden sugar in everything! I would occasionally write down what I ate, but never the calories, fat or sugar information.
So yesterday, I put my current weight in the application, then added the weight I want to be. The phone calculates how many calories I should be eating everyday. I can also add exercise (walking, etc.). It also estimates when I will lose the weight (if I stick with this program). I could pick .5 lb, 1 lb, 1.5 lbs, 2 lbs, etc weight loss per week.
We'll see if this program helps me or not. So far...I am starving on the 1600 calories I am allowed each day. It makes me miss the 2500+ diet I used to have. Here's the formula without the phone application: The formula is 14x (the weight you want to be)=How many calories you should eat daily
**I wish our school was doing the Biggest Loser. Another school in our district is and it sounds fun. Everyone puts in $5 and the person to lose the most weight at the end of the year wins the pot. Cool!

Out & About

Last night we went out to dinner with Lin, Ward, Jeff & Tammie. We haven't been out to dinner with them since December. Too long! Jeff picked the restaurant, A Cena in Sellwood. It was really good & not too expensive. TIP:We have started bringing our own wine with us to restaurants. It is much cheaper to pay the corkage fees than buying off the wine list. It's ridiculous how much the markup on wine is. We brought in 3 bottles and paid $15 a bottle corkage fees. This was good as the cheapest wine on the list was about $30.

Lin sampling a breadstick.

Lin & Tammie

Ward & Omid

Jeff (feeling cranky Texas lost in basketball yesterday).

Jeff (feeling happier after I told him Nas is looking at UofT as one of her college choices).

Omid & I eating chocolate lava cake.

Ward, Omid & I
After dinner we drove to Touche and played many, many games of pool. I was overconfident that I would do well (as I grew up with a pool table in our rec room). It seems its been way too many years as I played terrible. I sunk the ball in only two times. TWO! Unbelievable AND disappointing.

The girls.

Hey! If you look real close, you can see Omid making a face in the background. Ha!

Getting a much needed pool lesson.

Canines for Clean Water!

Remy & I joined Canines for Clean Water this morning. If you sign the pledge online, your dog receives a free CCW bandana. If you email in a photo of your dog wearing the bandana...you will receive a free 'stool tool' for your yard. Cool!

Brown Belt!

Nas had Karate graduation last night. She moved up to a brown belt! She has one year left to become a black belt! So cool! Graduating class.

Exhausted teen!


While Matty & I were watching the physical testing, a bunch of kids were playing right next to us. I was constantly distracted by one boy's filthy feet. I just had to take a picture.
With flash.

Without flash. He also had dirt underneath every toenail & fingernail, but I could never get a good shot of his fingers/toes. Other than dirty feet & hands, he seemed clean.



Here is a short video of Nas receiving her brown belt. There were only two kids receiving that color & I didn't want to miss Nas' name in case they called her first. So...if you watch the video, you can skip ahead to Nas (about a 1/3 of the way through).

Happy Nowruz!

Happy Nowruz to everyone!