Newport Aquarium

After J1’s doctor appointment we met my MIL at Fred Meyer for lunch. The mister and I hadn’t eaten breakfast because we were going to pick something up on the way but didn’t have time. Apparently my fault because we didn’t leave when he said we should. Here is the scene: Me: running around trying to get the kids fed and dressed, make sure they have food for the trip, get dressed myself, change diapers, pack the diaper bag, gather my cameras etc. - The mister: lying on the couch watching TV. Par for the course. So as we are driving and he mentions that we should have left at 9 instead of 9:15 I asked him if it would work if I just gave him instructions on how to help me get ready. I made sure he knew I wasn’t being snarky, I just really needed to know. He said, “I guess”. My BFF and I have talked about this many times as it isn’t new and she has been saying I need to just give him directions. Even things I have read say this but I have been hesitant because I don’t want to be a nag. I guess there is a line between soliciting help and being a nag and I need to locate it so that I am not coming off as a martyr which is annoying. Anyway, we were starving so we went to Freddies because the mister’s friend works there and they also sell the fishing license that he needed to go fishing with said friend tomorrow. We loaded up on food and then headed to the Aquarium.

They have a couple of places where you are allowed to touch the sealife – skates, sea anemones, starfish and fish. Both boys really enjoyed that but I don’t know if it was just playing in the water that J2 liked. Then J1 and the mister watched them feed the otters and then on to the seals and sea lions. They also have an octopus but the only thing I have ever seen of that is part of one leg and this time was no different. They have an aviary but it was closed. I’m not too into birds anyway so I didn’t really care. The coolest exhibit they have there is the Oceans of the Deep which is a tunnel-type walkway that has fish 360 around you. Very cool! There was one floor “window” that was pretty clear and J2 found himself standing on it. He came to an abrupt halt, stared down for a minute and then very carefully stepped off. It was pretty funny. After that he made sure to steer clear of that area. That is really the last exhibit so we walked a nature trail to the kid’s play area and hung there for a while. Oh, we also stopped at a gift shop where Gramma bought each boy a prize. I tried to get J1 to get a stick with a track inside and with small BBs that rolled down it – I figured he would like it as a light saber (or light "saver" if you are 3), a gun and a ship – the three things he makes out of anything that even remotely looks like a stick. No go – he was torn between a stick with a shark head on the end and a diver guy bath toy whose flippers move. He chose the diver guy because “he flies like a superhero”. Well, he played with it for 3 hours and just now came up and told me he is done with the guy and now wanted the shark head. “We have to go back to the zoo and get it,” he says. Fickle boy - and funny he thought we were at the zoo! J2 got a stuffed clown fish – I liked the frog but he apparently preferred the fish. Oh well, it wasn’t for me. I did get an aluminum water bottle – red with the Oregon Coast Aquarium logo on it – very nice. We are back at the house now just chilling. The mister is headed back to Newport early to go fishing and we are stuck without a vehicle and no park so it should be interesting. My MIL has her friend so they are busy, understandably so. Oh well, we often stay around the house but at we do have a backyard with toys. Tomorrow night the mister and I are headed to our anniversary dinner at the Blackfish Café and the Grammas will babysit. Good times.






















































Not sure why the pictures are so random but I am just leaving it!

New Fall Collab Kit

Growing Pains-Scrapped has a new collab with The Scrappy Kat and Flower Scraps called October Road. This is a rich, colorful fall kit that will be great for all your pumpkin patch, Thanksgiving and fall pictures but would also work if you had a wedding, prom or homecoming with these colors. What about football pictures? Halloween? This kit would also work for those - especially if your school colors matched or if there were leaves and fall trees in your Trick or Treat pictures. Starting tomorrow you can get this collab for free - but just for a week then you can pick it up in the Stuff to Scrap store.

Here is Growing Pains-Scrapped's preview. Go check out her blog for her patterned paper and then head to the others for their parts!

Here is The Scrappy Kat 's preview:

And Flower Scraps' preview:

Here is my layout. It will be available as a brag book freebie page on Friday. I have so many pumpkin patch pictures but I wanted to show the versatility of the kit. This is my MIL and her sister at my rehearsal dinner. For those in the know, it wasn't actually a rehearsal dinner since we had already been married for two months. It was more of a let-the-families-get-to-know-each-other party, but let's face it, that is an absurdly long name!

Happy Anniversary to us!

Monday was our 6th wedding anniversary – not sure what the gift for the 6th is supposed to be but I am guessing something random like bronze so suffice it to say we didn’t go traditional on the gifts. Chris got me a fabulous Calphalon wok from the outlet stores here. I had been wanting one and although it isn’t a romantic gift, the card was very romantic and lovely and I am nothing if not practical. I got him iTunes gift cards, which he was very pleased with. We didn’t do much during the day as I had a terrible headache. There is an awesome playground about a two-minute walk from the lake house and the mister headed there with the boys while I watched the rest of Sense and Sensibility. He was back within about four minutes with an upset J1. Apparently they were treating the playground equipment with a stain/sealant that takes five days to soak in – basically the entire time we will be here! What horrible timing. So the mister asked the guy doing the work where else there was a park so they headed over there. By the time they returned I had showered, cleaned up the house and prepared lunch for them. Good times!

Okay, let me switch subjects completely and I’ll get back to the anniversary after. I am listening to the Harry Potter series on my iPod and have made it up to book 6 (but only ½ of book 3). For whatever dumb reason, I forgot to load book 3 before leaving and that is the one the mister and I started when we went to Eastern Oregon in August – we were planning on finishing it on this trip – mistake #1. I also didn’t think about loading book 7 just in case I finished 6 - which I just did – mistake #2. In addition, I am watching the movies after I finish the books and didn’t bring the 5th movie with us – mistake #3. Apparently even with all the extra hours at home waiting to sign papers I still didn’t get everything I should have. I guess I am back to listening to the Twilight books again. I do have other books on there - maybe I should branch out – well, maybe not! And on a related note, there are at least 3 people from the Harry Potter movies in Sense and Sensibility – Professor Snape (with much better hair), Professor Trelawny (with much, much, much better hair) and Delores Umbrage. The mister said he isn’t surprised because I guess he read an article that mentioned that they were running out of British actors for the last HP movie. Also, Hugh Laurie is in there but I totally had to rewind to check him out, as I didn’t make the connection while watching it. I think it was the “huge” sideburns and all the hair – also maybe the British accent.

Okay, back to the anniversary. We were having grilled chicken and stir-fried noodles with veggies. We also had sparkling wine (not champagne because it is from Oregon) and ate on the deck. We took J2’s highchair out there so he was contained. It was so hot in the house it was the only pleasant place to be anyway. We brought an apple pie from our freezer (made by my MIL) and my MIL and her friend stopped by to have some with us. We watched the season opener of House – which was great – and then off to bed early because J1 had a doctor appointment the next morning in Newport.

our view from the deck

So that story is - on Saturday he was complaining that his ear lobe kept going into his ear – random as of course it was not. I called our insurance company to figure out what was the best course for medical out of town. It wasn’t an ER situation so I saw no reason to do that. An urgent care place apparently just falls under our deductible, which J1 has not even started using yet so I wasn’t hot for that. If we could have found a convenience care place (those new ones cropping up in Walgreens and CVS staffed with a NP usually) it would have just been the $25 co-pay but there were none within 50 miles of here. Our last option was to see a regular doctor for the $25 co-pay but we had to find someone who would see us. Well, I did find one in Newport that had an opening on Tuesday. It would cost us $93 out of pocket but we could most likely get the $68 back from our insurance company I would just have to submit it myself. There was an urgent care place in Depot Bay so I called them to see if the cost would be less but she quoted me between $82 and $395 for a new patient – what kind of range is that?? Well, the Aquarium is in Newport so we just decided to do both. Turns out that most likely there was just too much wax and they cleaned it out. He did say that it could be something more and that the wax was just a red herring so keep that in mind with future ear things. May have to do some googling about that.

UPDATE: I check out a web site and found that the traditional 6th anniversary gift is Candy or Iron – iron? Maybe an iron? I could use a new one. The modern one is wood – I’ll just leave that alone.

Our Coast Vacation

Well, we were supposed to leave for Lincoln City at 8 or 9 am Saturday but we were stuck at home waiting for the notary to show up so we could sign the refinance papers for our home loan. We started the process about five months ago and it has been taking forever! I'm not really sure why, I heard many different excuses. At least they worked it so we still got the interest rate we would have gotten if it had gone through in a reasonable amount of time. Anyway, we *had* to close by Saturday because the appraisal was going to expire and since they didn't let me know until Friday afternoon about 3, I didn't have much time to get things together. It is (hopefully) done now and I am pleased - the rate went down a full point and the payment is down about $200 per month which is nice.

So we hit some horrible traffic heading out of Portland and were in the car probably 1 1/2 hours longer than we thought we would be but the boys did pretty well. We got to the lake house around 3:30, took an inventory and the mister and J1 were going to meet his family at the beach and then go grocery shopping. We stay at the house for free but everyone who stays is responsible for replenishing the consumables - dish soap, paper towels, laundry soap - that sort of thing. It is quite nice! Anyway, I was stayed home because J2 needed a nap.

Off they went to the beach but the mister brought J1 back before shopping because J1 was throwing sand at people and wouldn't stop. Oh well, we had nice snuggle time. The mister made bbq chicken for dinner and we just sat around and relaxed. I never have a chance to do that - there is always laundry to wash and fold, work to be done, playing on the computer - you name it. So, with a few exceptions, I am relaxing this week. I did bring J1's computer along so I can type up blog posts. It doesn't have internet at the moment but I can still type and upload later.

The house is on Devil's Lake in Lincoln City and it is a great place. It is two stories with basically a bedroom and bathroom on the top floor and another bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen on the bottom. There is also a nice deck and property down to the water and a dock. With the kids, we generally just gate off the 2nd story and live downstairs. The bedroom is quite large and we all sleep in there. We set up J2 in his portacrib, unroll J1's sleeping bag on the floor and the mister and I share the king sized bed. We *need* a king sized bed - I love it. We have a queen and it is a nice memory foam one but still, our bedroom has room for a king. Won't happen though since we do have the memory foam one and a queen sleigh bed that matches our bedroom set but it is nice to dream.

The boys are back on ranch time - getting up at around 8 am. My theory is that they may wake up at that time at home but just turn over and go back to sleep but when we are away, they look around and think "where the heck am I" and get up. Oh well, I don't have things to get done in the morning so it doesn't bother me much.

Today (Sunday) we went to see if we could meet up with the mister's family at the beach and they were on their way back up to my MIL's timeshare by the time we got there. We stayed and had lunch and then headed back to the beach. I wasn't looking forward to it with J2 since he *loves* the water and I was worried he would make a beeline for the ocean. Well, he did but the mister and his BIL helped and it wasn't bad at all. He got completely soaked but loved every minute of it. After a while, he was done with the water and stayed in the general area playing in the sand. He needed a nap so I took him back up to the timeshare and he got a quick bath and then his bottle. Everyone else came back shortly after that and J1 and his cousin GG both took baths and J2 was trying like crazy to get in the water again. Never saw a kid like it. At home when he hears the bath running, he gets all excited and then bangs on the bathroom door screaming until both kids are ready and I open the door. Just a water boy!

We were supposed to have everyone over for a spaghetti feed but the mister's sister and her family wanted to get back home so they left around 3. My MIL still came over for dinner and we built a fire in the fire pit. We tried to roast marshmallows for s'mores but it just didn't work. Oh well, my MIL came in and made them in the microwave - almost just as good! It is time to head to bed now. Oh, a final note. J1 said his favorite thing about the day was the beach, seeing his uncle, his aunt, his cousins, the other girl (GG’s friend who does have a name but J1 called her “the other girl” so I will too), and his Gramma – basically everything!

Hey, check out this new kit by Growing Pains - Scrapped:


I love the deep colors in this kit and, while all the elements are great, I especially love the flowers and the hearts! You can pick up the kit here. Oh, and check out the layout I made - yes that is me! I listed the date as late 70's but after considering it for a bit, I have decided it is actually from the very early 80's - gotta go change that date.

Check out the upcoming sale at Stuff to Scrap. Head to the store to get the *stuff* you have been wishing for!

Video Catch Up

I have been meaning to post this video of J1 singing happy birthday since July so here it is:

and my future baseball player?

I also have another great video but it needs editing and I have to find and load the software on my new computer and haven't done it. Hopefully I'll remember later.

Goings on

Here is our backyard picnic. J1 loves eating in the backyard for some reason. It was J2's first time and, really, it didn't work out so well. He didn't understand the concept of eating by just sitting on a blanket but who cares, we had fun anyway. The main problem was that he kept walking on all the food and then stealing all of J1's pretzel sticks. He had hands full of them and still kept trying to take the rest - dropping the ones he had trying to get new ones.



J2 then moved on to eating strawberries - not sure why we still have some but at least he always has a snack when he goes outside. Sometimes he eats the greenery too but I guess that is good fiber.



Another day I was taking pictures of the garden and the fruit trees so J1 decided he needed to take pictures too. He has this great kid's digital camera that he got for Christmas or his birthday (who can remember when they are 5 days apart?) - I have never taken pictures off of it but it will be fun to do. That will be it's own blog post I think.



On a "cold" day we were again outside - I think J2 looks so much older when he is wearing long sleeves and long pants. The picture of the hand is J1's pet slug. He kept playing with it until he squished it and then was telling me it was sleeping before going to find its mommy. Poor slug!



J1 looks very happy in this picture but shortly after that he was throwing a fit - can't remember what about. I had him go sit on the stairs which is sort of like a time out but I only do it when he is having a meltdown. I take him there, very calmly, and just tell him to sit there until he is done. He still cries for a bit but at least he is out of my sight and I can't hear him well. This night he fell asleep for a bit - he must have been very tired which probably led to the meltdown in the first place. I can't believe he didn't fall off the stair.



On another note, I will be on a couple of scrapbook designer's creative teams starting next month. This means I make some layouts with their kits and promote their work around the digi scrapbooking world. I am very excited - look for the posts in the future right here. Along with it I will probably get a new look for my blog and hopefully be posting more often.

We recently went to the zoo and I have new garden pictures so I'll get those posted soon. I keep thinking that it takes a really long time to post here but his only took me about 15 minutes - I just need to keep that in mind.

I am watching the season finale of Gray's Anatomy right now - to get geared up for the new season starting next week. I'll have to see if I can talk the mister into letting me watch it, but if not, it will be on the DVR!