Vinegar

Okay, I know...weird. But I found this really cool article online yesterday and I want to be able to go back and read it again. I also thought that you all out there might be interested in it. The article is TONS of things you can do with vinegar. It's very interesting. You can find the article here if you wish to read it. A real blog will be coming soon.

Ellyanna

This is Ellyanna....

This is Ellyanna on Jam....

Any questions?

A series of traumatic events

Yesterday was HOT! Josh and I decided to stay up late and watch the Olympics downstairs where it was cool before heading upstairs where it was not. So we stayed downstairs I would say until about 10 pm before we headed upstairs. We stayed up until I would say about 11pm or so, watching TV (yea, for Michael Phelps!) and then we decided we were tired and turned off the lights. Not too long afterward, I began hearing this weird noise. Sort of like a flying insect trapped in jar...mixed up with another sound that I did not recognize. Immediately assuming it had something to do with the bats outside of our window, I raised up my head and pulled back the curtain to look out the window. Josh who had already fallen asleep woke up and wondered what I was doing. I told him I was hearing a weird noise. At that moment he also heard the noise and then I FELT something hit my head! Completely terrified, I reverse screamed (you know, inhale instead of exhale, but still with noise) and climbed on top of Josh in my terror. We both jumped off the bed as I'm totally freaking out. (Poor Josh...he was half asleep and I'm not sure he knew what was happening at that point) My entire body was shaking, because I KNOW something just flew into my head. Josh wrapped the bed blankets around me and told me to go downstairs. Which I did, gladly, but I'm surprised I was able to make it without falling my legs were shaking so bad.

A few minutes later Josh came down and assured me that there were no bats in our room, it was probably only a moth and he had killed a little moth. However, I saw the moth...it was not that big. Not big enough for me to have felt what I thought I felt. But by then, I was thinking it must have been partly at least my overactive imagination alongside my intense fear that bats are going to fly in my room and get tangled up in my hair. That can't happen, right?

About 30 minutes or so later we were still awake..it was probably past midnight at that point. Through the light downstairs that was streaming in to our room, I saw something fly into our room. Dear God, let that be a moth. I screeched to Josh that something is flying in our room. He said, "Okay, it's probably just a moth." I folded myself into a little ball and pulled the sheets over me entirely (It was my only defense) as Josh got up and turned on the light. Under the sheet, I heard some flapping wings, some shuffling, and then some squeaking. Then I heard Josh rush down the stairs and go out the back door. From a distance I heard a thump, thump, thump. So as Josh came back up the steps I uncovered my head. We just looked at each other for a long time. And then with my last glimmer of hope I said, "was it a moth?" He looked at me for a long time and said, "I don't want to lie to you...can I lie to you?" Yes...there was a bat in our house...in our room...AND IT FLEW AT MY HEAD!!!

We slept downstairs.

We are calling an exterminator.

Got Eggs?

My dream of having lots of chickens and a surplus of eggs is finally coming true! Over the weekend I was able to acquire 7 adult chickens and I was so thrilled! I currently own 13 chickens. and since bringing them home on Friday night we have gotten anywhere from 4-7 eggs per day. And I have at least 5 that are not even old enough to lay yet, so in a few months I will be almost doubling the amount that I have now. So although my family eats a lot of eggs, we don't eat this many! I have now finally reached my goal of being able to sell eggs. I will post an ad on craigslist, but I thought I would advertise here first. I will be selling my farm fresh, organic chicken eggs for $3.25 a dozen or $4.50 for 18. I will also be offering a $.25 discount if you bring your own container. Let me know if you're interested!

One of my girls doing her "duty"

I just had to throw this pic in of Jayden. This is 'his' chicken named Bobbi. We've raised her from a chick since Easter and now she lets the kids pet her and pick her up and carry her around. Plus, apparently she likes to swing.

Fabulous

Even though this isn't the purpose of this particular blog, I thought I would mention that over the weekend I went to a birthday party for my friend Colette. It was an 80's themed party. It was a lot of fun, but the funnest part was seeing everyone dressed up. To see pictures, check out Allison's blog or Colette's.

The purpose of this blog is to share some exciting news with my blogging friends. As some of you may know, I have been working out consistently now for about 4 months 3x per week. This is very significant for me. Normally, when I begin to work out I do it for a couple weeks and then give up or lose motivation. When I first started, my motivation was to get toned up so I could show off my tattoo. Then after I got my tattoo, I continued because I wanted to be able to show off my tattoo. (Also because I really just wanted to start getting toned up). Well, around the beginning of July, I had been working out for 3 months-ish and although I was losing inches, I wasn't losing any weight. I didn't begin the process to lose weight, but after three months, I was beginning to get discouraged about it. So I had a conversation with my sister who had been looking skinny the last few times I'd seen her about what she had done to lose some weight. She shared her "secrets" which basically was eating more fruits/veggies, eating a light dinner, eating several small meals throughout the day. I decided to change what I was doing which was (sort of) counting calories and concentrate more on eating small meals throughout the day and adding in more protein.

I am thrilled to announce that I have finally reached my pre-pregnancy weight! I had no idea what a mental and emotional accomplishment that would be for me. But it's been huge for me. I have been stuck at a weight for a long time which never seemed to budge. I not only have gotten under it, but have reached a weight that I didn't think I'd ever be at again. Now, the unfortunate part of this story is that right before I got pregnant with the girls, due to medication and crazy whacked out hormones I gained 5 pounds...plus I was already about 5 pounds more than I wanted to be...so although I'm thrilled to have reached my pre-pregnancy weight, it's definitely not the end for me. I'm working on 10 more. However, for now I'm thrilled because it gives me hope that if I can reach my pre-pregnancy weight, then I can keep losing and it's not such an impossible task for me any longer. I don't have to be stuck where I am (or was). And the most exciting thing....the reason that I wanted to share this on a blog....I put on a pair of shorts this morning that I've been avoiding because although I could get them on and zipped I would hang over the top and it just didn't look good. So I tried them on this morning...I didn't have to suck in to get them buttoned or zipped...and I don't hang over the sides! At all! Hallelujah!

My Prayer

Dear Daddy,

Thank you so much for the gift you gave me in my daughters. I love them with all my heart. I cherish them. They bring a lot of joy into my life and my heart.

But God, please help me make it through the terrible twos. I am already so weary of the screeching, the hitting, the fighting, the coloring on the walls, the spilling of everything all over the floor, the dumping out of everything imaginable, the getting into drawers, the climbing, the defiance, the house that can never be clean because they make messes faster than I can clean them up and the not ever able to get anything done.

I am only one person. How does one person deal with 3 two-year-olds as well as their older brothers and still be able to run the house and get things done without breaking into tears of despair? I need help.

Amen.

Short and Sweet

Last night after the kids had been tucked in bed for a while, Josh and I were upstairs watching TV. We kept hearing this kind of thumping noise. So I sent Josh down to see what was happening. He came back up and told me that all three girls were sitting on Kynden's bed and banging their heads agains the wall and saying "ow....ow...ow"....I thought that was hilarious! Those girls!

Catching up

I can't believe that it's been over a week since I last posted! Well, scratch that. With the week we had last week, I guess I can believe it. But this blog is all about catching up, so here's what our last week was about.

VBS: This last week I was involved for the first time ever in our VBS program at our church. I was asked to teach a class and I said yes. I was really nervous about it because, while sometimes I like kids (I certainly like mine...it's just those other ones that sometimes I have a hard time with) they're not my area of specialty. Some people are called to be teachers. I am not. However I choose to teach 5th grade based on the idea that none of my kids are in 5th grade...so I'd still be getting a break from my kids. I actually ended up loving it! I had NO discipline problems. My kids were great and fun and we had such a fabulous time! What I didn't realize is that teaching VBS, although being only from the hours of 9am to 12:30pm was totally a full time job. I woke up at 6:30 every morning to get myself ready, eat and get the kids ready and out the door. Then every afternoon on the way home, I had to work to keep the girls from falling asleep in the car. I put them down for their nap when we got home and then started to catch up on housework and figure out dinner. Then after dinner I got the kids ready for bed, looked over the next day's lesson and then gathered up everything I needed for the next morning. Clothes, shoes (for 5 kids), what I needed for class, packed the diaper bag, filled sippy cups....you get the idea. It was a very long, full week. But I will do it again next year.

Kitchen "Remodel": Well, last weekend before VBS started, I decided once and for all that I was fed up with my kitchen cabinets. You see, I have always liked the look of painted white cabinets in the kitchen. So in every house I've lived in, I have painted the cabinets. There were two things wrong with this idea in this house, however. First, I didn't do a good job of painting (I was in a hurry to get them done for some event happening at our house) so I didn't prep them well and I didn't seal them well so the paint was chipping. Secondly, I've never had white cabinets with triplets before. They were stained and always covered in something sticky and pretty much always looked like crap. So I decided I needed to do something different. I took the doors off of one side of the kitchen and decided to paint them black. The painting part was easy. But since the fronts of the cabinets are just flat and plain I decided to make them look nicer and I added some inset moulding to them. Anyway, that took a while before I could find the time to do this, so the cabinet doors were off all week. But finally yesterday I was able to get out there and finish it. I put the doors on, painted the moulding to match and I totally love it. I'm so excited. Soon, we are going to replace the counter tops in our kitchen and add on some cabinets which in turn will add much more counter space which I desperately need. I'm so excited!

Bats: We have discovered that we have bats living in our house. Josh and I were out on our hammock on Saturday night talking and eating blizzards when we started hearing this high pitched squeaky noise. Soon after we started seeing bats flying out of a crack in our house. Now, let me tell you, I am TERRIFIED of bats. This was very traumatic for me. Needless to say, I haven't slept well the past few night for fear of bats flying in through our window and flying around my head. Josh worked hard last night to hopefully seal up any entrance they could have into the house and make a way for them to get out but not back in. Hopefully we will be rid of bats soon.

Chickens: As some of you may know, one of the things I wanted to do after moving to Corbett was to get chickens. Soon after moving we did. Several of our chickens have gotten killed over the months here and it is very hard for me. We never knew what was the cause. I ended up selling my adult chickens several months ago because they weren't laying and at Easter I bought 3 baby chicks. We've raised these chicks for several months. One was mine, one was Bryce's and one was Jayden's and we each named our own. It's coming up on the time to where they are going to start laying. Sunday morning Josh looked out our bedroom window to see the neighbor's dog chasing one of our chickens. He yelled out the window and raced down the stairs but by the time he got there it was too late. So we lost another chicken. And likely it was the neighbors dog that has also been responsible for our other chicken losses. I'm very angry about this and not exactly certain as to how to handle this and still keep good neighbor relations. It seems like they would have said something to us and/or tried to keep better track of their dogs after they have seen this keep happening. I have written them a letter both because I'm not good with confrontation and for documentation sake if we should need it. We'll see if Josh lets me deliver it.

Well, that's about it for all the big things that are happening at our house this past week! I'm hoping that this week of catching up will be a little less eventful.

An up close and personal experience with our friendly, neighborhood firefighters

This weekend is an extremely busy weekend, which is preceding an extremely busy coming week. Yesterday (Saturday) I was at our church for the majority of the day decorating my classroom for VBS, for which I have been coerced...I mean volunteered to teach a class. Immediately following my arrival home from the church, I then got the girls ready to go and headed out the door again with my mom to go to a picnic that a friend from work was throwing so that she could show me off. Wait, I mean so she could show off the girls. They are definitely cuter and more exciting than me. We got back home around 8:30 pm. The girls went straight to bed. In case you're wondering where the boys were during all this excitement, they're off having some excitement of their own. Josh took the boys camping. They left yesterday afternoon and will arrive home probably later this evening.

So, this morning I hemmed and hawed about whether to attempt to get the girls ready and go to church all on my own this morning. The thought of having to sit all alone wasn't really even a deciding factor..although it usually is. But in the end, I decided that due to the coming busyness of next week, I would forgo the time/effort/work that it takes to get everyone ready and out the door in time for church. So instead I decided to get some errands run. Everything's a little easier with 2 less kids, right?

First on my agenda for this day was to go to Home Depot. I have decided to go a new route in my kitchen decor and needed to pick up a couple things. So I made it to Home Depot, made my rounds, asked some questions, and headed to the check-out with my purchases. I decided to do the self-checkout lane since there was no line. The very nice checker girl oohed and ahhed over the girls and thought they were very cute. (And of course, she was right) She noticed the fascination that the girls had with a couple of balloons that they had attached to the register and offered to make the girls some balloons. I accepted her offer, knowing that the girls are nuts over balloons. So we patiently waited while she inflated them some balloons.

I pulled the choo choo wagon out to our car, unlocked it, put my purse in the back, dropped in my keys and then proceeded to unload the girls from the wagon. Rather than getting in and out of the car, I did my 'new' routine and just unbuckled each girl from the wagon and set her in the car. Then when I had all the girls unloaded I only have to climb inside one time and buckle them all in, no problem. Well, unbeknownst to me, while I was in the middle of unloading everyone, Adelynn had climbed into the front seat and pushed the 'Lock' button on the door, which in turn, locked all the doors. I did not realize this. So I buckled all the girls into their seats, closed the sliding door on the van, (so as to not let the balloons blow out the door). I then loaded the choo choo wagon into the back of the van, closed that door and headed to the drivers door. It was locked. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped. But no problem, right? I have 4 other doors to check. One by one, I checked every door. They were all locked. I literally felt my stomach hit the ground and all the color drain from my face. I had no idea what to do, my mind was totally blank. Not only were the girls inside, but so were my keys, my phone and everything. I raced back into Home Depot, the whole way saying, "ohmygosh, ohmygosh over and over, not knowing what else to do. My only thought was that there was nothing I could do just standing there and maybe they sold things that unlocked car doors. I went back to the girl who made us the balloons. I'm not real sure why..I guess I just thought that she would remember who I was. She made some calls in different departments to find out if there was anything they sold that could help (besides a hammer or something). FYI: Home Depot does not sell things that unlock cars. I then made a slew of my own phone calls. To my mother in law at home, on her cell, to my father in law, to my mom...no one answered. In reality, I don't know what any of those people could have done to help. Josh has the only spare key and he was probably 2 hours away.

A very nice employee came out and walked out to the car with me. Then a manager came out. They were told by someone over the walkie-talkie to call 911. I've never had to have someone call 911 for an emergency with my own family. It's very daunting, humbling...I was trying so hard to suppress my panic at this point. I so did not want to be "that" person that loses control when something bad happens. But man, did I want to sob. Some tears did leak out, but overall I think I kept my panicked feelings under strict control. It helped very much that one, the girls were not crying or upset at all. They kept smiling and waving to me. And two, the lady employee kept talking to me in an upbeat way and about other things such as why when they landscaped the parking lot of Home Depot, did they choose to put in bushes with thorns. I've always wondered that myself. And the manager waited out there with us too and told me a story about leaving his kids in his truck and having the truck roll away and locking himself in the family car when he was 6 because he didn't want to get a shot at the doctor. God bless these people. Seriously. I would have totally been a wreck had it not been for them.

The fire department finally came. I say finally...it was really only like 5 minutes or so. But it felt like a lifetime. The 4 big firemen climbed out of their truck, asked me about the procedure to unlock the car and used this tool thingy to make a space between the window and the frame and they slid in this long blue thing towards the unlock button. Then they pumped it up with the same thing that they use to pump up the arm band to take your blood pressure. I wish I could have seen better what they were doing because it looked really interesting. All of a sudden the unlock button pressed and we flung open the car doors and saw three pink-cheeked smiling babies looking at us while playing with their big, red balloons. The firefighters all gathered around and looked at the girls and commented about how adorable they were, and how they all looked different, etc and they felt them to make sure they weren't overheated. The girls were fine. I thanked everyone several times as much as I could without breaking into sobs. I got into the car and had to sit there for several minutes to compose myself. "All's well that ends well", I guess...whatever that means.

Unusual insect life

We have lived in Corbett now for about 10 months. (It's hard to believe it's been that long!) And I like almost everything about living here. I love the scenery, I love the fact that I pass waterfalls on my way to and from places, I love the river, I love viewing the farmland and the rolling fields, etc. I love the schools. I really cannot think of any place in the world where I'd rather live right now.

However there are a couple things that I decidedly do not like about living here. The first thing is all the bikers. For some reason that I have not figured out, there are no bike lanes anywhere, which is odd because there are ALWAYS bikers in the road. In fact, I believe the Gorge area is one of the most popular biking areas in all of Oregon. And I find it very annoying to be driving along minding my own business and have to come to a halt because of some bikers riding in the middle of the windy road with not even a shoulder for them to ride on.

The second thing that I have decided that I don't like about living here are all the bugs. Our former house in Gresham was literally only about 10 minutes away, but there have been so many types of insects here that I have never seen in my whole life! It's really odd. And I'm not a huge bug lover. Actually, I'm not a bug lover of any shape or form. I kid you not, every single day, when I go to take a shower there is at least one mosquito eater flying around in the bathroom. I hate those things. I'm not scared of them, I just hate them. Well, let's be honest. I'm a little scared of them when they fly at my face for no particular reason. For some reason, our bathroom is a huge attraction for many of the insects that invade our house. There must be some swinging night life in our bathroom. Maybe it's like a club or a bar for insects. (I'm picturing the scene from Bug's Life) I don't know. What I do know is that in addition to our unusual insect life we also get some nasty a** spiders . The only good thing that has come out of these nasty spiders is: 1. At least they're not recluse spiders (I looked it up online) I think they're just some sort of common brown spiders on steroids. And 2. The intense fear that I have for these big spiders has taken away any fear I had of smaller spiders. I guess there's always a bright side.