The hits keep on coming

The day started and ended well. What a beautiful day it was today, and being a holiday and the fact that he works for a bank, Dave got the day off so we decided to take advantage of that and go to the Lakeview Farms in North Plains. What a fun place! We have never been there before. We got tickets to take the train to the pumpkin patch and Sam made a new friend. There was another little girl her same age named Sophia, so from the first 5 minutes we were there we made new friends that we got to hang out with the whole time. Fun for us, and for Sam. We all went and picked our pumpkins, took pictures, and then we rode the ferry back. It was when we got back that the trouble started.









Sam was playing on the gravel with her friend and like she is good at, she tripped and fell splitting her head open. I'm actually a little surprised this is the first time since she has started walking that we have had to take her to the insta care. She falls, A LOT. So we said our short goodbyes to our new friends and went to two different places in North Plains to try and get help but ended up driving back home to an emergent care place in Portland.


Luckily she didn't need stitches but will definitely have a little scar. Just a little antiseptic, and some medical glue and we were all set. Our first family trip to the insta care!
Like I said the night ended well. For family night we carved our pumpkins we picked today! Sammy and I worked on her pumpkin. She said she wanted a princess so we did Snow White! We could find Princess Belle, but Snow White was good. Dave even cooked the pumpkin seeds and they are delicious. I guess the only thing we didn't do was save the mush for pumpkin pie!

what...is...happening??

I leave the red eyes because this picture is like a representation of what has been going on around here lately. It's a crazy eyes look with "I'm about to get upset and start crying!" look


It's been a weird few weeks. Maybe I deserve this for complaining about a resident I don't know but it's almost like bad karma. The last few weeks have been more difficult. It first started with a nasty toilet Dave had to deal with in one of our apartments....fun for him! Then like the very next day he got in a bike accident when his bike got all jammed up and he went flying 10 feet from his bike, but thankfully not into traffic. He has a lot of scabs, and got a very bruised shoulder, elbow, and wrist having to wear a sling for a few days. Then me, Sam, and Taylor all got really bad colds and were sick for a week. Then Dave got it and got a really bad cough, and then gave it to me. Then I hurt my back AGAIN and can't play soccer. I've had some back pain on and off for the last few years but in the last month and a half, it has been pretty horrible where I can't even stand up straight. It took a lot of nudging from Dave for me to go and see a chiropractor, and having my legs keep giving out on me from just taking a walk. A couple of appointments later, and an xray, at least it's not surgical! I have to wear a heel lift in my right shoe because it's a little shorter for now, and am not supposed to pick up my fat baby...yeah right. I've been lying on the couch alot.
Then with my bad back, tonight I drove with the girls to pick Dave up from work and on the way home...BAM!...got rear-ended!! I have never been in a car accident before! It's true what they say about accidents, it's like they happen in slow motion! I saw her coming in my rearview mirror and she was not paying attention! And then whack. I was shaking for about an hour afterward, and was worried about the girls in the back seat. Sam was fine, but Taylor started crying. I think it startled her a bit, as it did all of us. So now we have to deal with that.

So I can't complain too much, because nobody died or got a serious illness or anything. It's just been a difficult few weeks. I hate feeling gimpy and lazy, and not being able to play soccer.
There have been highlights too though. We took the two girls to an OSU football game a couple weeks ago along with a couple of friends, and it was a lot of fun, despite the buckets of rain that fell on us. Sam made Dave the proudest dad in the world when she was cheering throughout the whole game saying "Go Beavers!"

she was very proud of her tatoo as well, and wasn't too happy when I removed it for church the next day.
I also went to a fun baby shower for my friend Sofie who just had her 2nd baby a few days ago! I felt so Portlandy....party at a Teahouse, eating delicious vegan desserts, and wearing skinny jeans. ha! It was great


Congrats Sofie on your beautiful baby boy!



And in an effort to relieve some of my back pain, and give me some sanity, I bought this little gem off Craigslist for CHEAP for Taylor to bounce and play in. So far she hasn't completely warmed up to it yet, but she is getting there! She is 6 months old now as of yesterday! The time is flying by.
Hopefully the next few days start looking up! I know. Our insurance will cover a brand new car for us after our accident tonight!! :).....wishful thinking.

Sometimes......

Sometimes I just hate being an apartment manager! So much so that I will even post something on Facebook about it...and I never post anything on facebook!
Ugh, today was the Second time one of my residents yelled at me. So this person paid his rent late today, and as per the Rental Agreement, you pay late, you get a $50 late fee...BLACK AND WHITE! I checked my box this morning around 9ish and his check wasn't there. We left and did some shopping, come home, check the box, and it's there but without the late fee. So I called him telling him that today was the 6th and he would have to pay a late fee. "What!! That is ridiculous, it's a holiday weekend, the check won't even show up today, I didn't want to wake you up by bringing it by at midnight last night (yeah that was a good one), you're just being arbitrary, I'm on a fixed income (always love that one)!" etc etc etc....I was trying to be as professional as possible stating "I understand but your rental agreement says....you are responsible"...but he kept yelling at me like I'm singling him out to pay a late fee. So I start to get upset and am like "please don't yell at me, I will talk to my manager and see if he wants to overturn your appeal, but I will not hear from him until tomorrow so I will let you know TOMORROW!" pause: ya know how you start to get upset when someone is yelling at you and you are trying not to yell back at them but your voice starts to quiver and get shaky?...yeah that was me.
So he keeps yelling at me and then says "what are you trying to put on a performance right now for your husband?" and by that time, I was DONE talking to him. "LOOK, SIR, you are NOT listening to me and I CANNOT talk to you anymore so when I hear back from my managaer I WILL LET YOU KNOW!!....and then I hung up on him...........*sigh*
what a jerk. People just pay your rent on time



Ahhhhh I feel better.






Oh yeah this is what we did this weekend. Baseball. Free. Fireworks. Friends. Transvestite. Fight. Fun!

Where's the Cheese?

Ya know how you reach the end of summer and then ask yourself "what have I done this summer?" and then get this desire to go on a trip? That was us this weekend. We haven't seen Dave's sister Kristin and her family pretty much the whole summer so we went with them and Tracee to Tillamook on Saturday. It was fun although I had problems with the drive because my back still hurts. We went first to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Did you know it takes 10 pounds of milk to make a block of cheese? It is kind of fascinating watching all the factory workers processing these HUGE blocks of cheese and breaking them down into small blocks. And of course you can't go to the cheese factory without getting some ice cream. Cookies and cream, and strawberry cheesecake...yum!
After we went to the coast and it was sunny for about half the time we were there. Then it got a bit windy and cloudy, but at least we did have some sun and it was still enjoyable! There was this big cliff and at the bottom there was this long dark tunnel you could walk through to get to the other side. It was weird how the weather was very different and a lot more windy on one side than on the other.
It was nice to get one last beach trip in before the end of summer and go with fun people.






Last week we also started some solid foods for Taylor. I think she is going through some growth spurt or something (I mean is that even possible?) because she is wanting to eat at all hours of the night. It is still so funny to see babies eat foods for the first time and how fascinated they are by the spoon! funny kid



On Friday Sammy's cousin Eric came up to play for the day while everyone helped Tracee move to her new abode. It was a fun day going to lunch with Lacey and making sugar cookies! I found some really cute alphabet cookie cutters at a garage sale that are from Williams Sonoma. I told Dave we have finally made it because we now own something from Williams Sonoma, we have moved to middle class! :)

All in all it was a fun weekend! And, my soccer team won the championship this season! woo hoo!

Oi! My back

This week has been fun...but very painful. I have realized that I am an old lady because last week I threw my back out! And a few hours later played a double header with my co-ed soccer team! Looking back I probably shouldn't have done that. I took the two girls to a parade last Saturday and went to pick up Taylor...and zing! Wow I have a really bad back, although have you seen the size of that baby lately?! It's no wonder I threw my back out. So this week I have been so sore and in a lot of pain, but have still been trying to keep moving. I think I need a couple of really good days to rest my back.
I still tried to do some fun things with the girls this week. I took the girls to the zoo the other day because it was the baby elephants birthday! We were sitting down for the bird show they were putting on, and they have the birds fly across the audience to a podium. Well this one big hawk missed his mark and went into a tree, where a lady was sitting under and was about to eat her lunch. Right as she is about to take a bite, plop! The hawk aimed a deuce all over this lady and her food! It was so sad, but I could not stop laughing!! poor lady.


The next day we went to a fun lunch with some ladies in the ward. We hung out eating, while all the kiddos ran around playing. It was so much fun and even the babies had a party hanging out together lying on a blanket. There's something so rejuvenating about hanging out with women and jabbering! Fun!



And last week Sammy got a haircut that she was in desperate need of. Now she has a cute little bob!

Goings on!

I feel like we have been really busy doing stuff the last few weeks, or maybe I have just not been able to organize my time enough to blog about it. But have been doing fun things.
A couple of weeks ago we went to downtown Portland on a Friday night and they had the "flicks on the bricks" where they showed "The Three Amigos" on a huge screen right in the middle of the square! It was so much fun and there were tons of people. Of course! It's a classic! We also went to the Washington County Fair, and Sammy was all dressed up in her pink cowboy hat and pink cowboy boots!

We also had these ginormous corn dogs that were delicious! And yes we did eat the whole thing!

Taylor has hit the 4 1/2 months old mark. Wow time is flying by! And she is still as huge as ever, and just as sweet and cuddly. Her favorite place to be is in the baby bjorn sling and she is as happy as can be! And that is probably the easiest place for her to fall asleep too. Last weekend we went to the Bite of Oregon downtown and Dave had her strapped on to his chest. He noticed there was a lady across the way that was secretly taking pictures of her, because she had fallen asleep and looked so cute. Dave caught her eye and she finally came over almost crying saying what a beautiful baby she was! It was a little crazy, and she may have been a little drunk too.


Lately with Sam I have been trying to find a Preschool which has been crazy! One, because she's old enough to be in Preschool, and two, it's hard to find a Preschool that isn't $800 a month! Ridiculous. Unfortunately we are in the bracket of making too much money to get any scholarships or financial assistance, but we don't make enough to afford these outrageous tuition costs! And I'm really not interested in a co-op right now because I have another kid and half the reason I want her in a preschool is to have a little time to get other things done and errands run while she gets to have fun.....sigh....I think I've found a good place though, but it is a little expensive. We'll see.

Nostalgia

The other day I went to a community garage sale with a couple of my friends. I have mentioned this before but I LOVE garage sales! Oregon has great community garage sales every summer and I love going to them and finding great stuff for really cheap. This summer, a bunch of brand new outfits for $1 a piece, many including Janie and Jack brands, a $150 brand new kitchen aid blender for $20, tons of kid books, a big bin of the entire alphabet cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma, and the other day I found a movie that I have always wanted but could never remember the name of it. Growing up as a kid we had many movies recorded onto our VHS blank tapes, and on one such tape we had the Mickey mouse cartoon of Jack and the Beanstalk! I looooovvvveed it! And the other day I found it for $1 brand new in it's package! Apparently the name of the movie is "Fun and Fancy Free!" I was so excited! Okay it was a VHS, but that's all we have is a VHS player because our DVD player is broken. I know, we are so behind the times....we don't even have a flat screen tv! Anyway, when I brought it home I sat down and watched the entire movie sitting in front of the tv with Sam just like a little kid! It made me so happy, and I love the song from the beginning of movie that the lady harp sings "what a beautiful day!" I could wake up everyday to that song! It makes me smile and I hope it makes you smile too!
Now I just need to find "Lambert the Sheepish Lion!"