Turkey Lurkey Day

Yum.. Dinner is over, we've stuffed ourselves silly and eaten way too much delicious, scrumptious turkey, and mash and all the trimmings and now it's time to veg out in front of the TV falling into a turkey induced coma... Okay we haven't really done that. Actually instead we took a great walk around Reed College (the weather was beautifully sunny and crisp and EXTREMELY cold) - Milo even got to get off the lead and run around himself and the kids got to have a good runaround before it was time to eat way way too much food. Darren pulled out all the stops today and whipped up an amazing turkey dinner in our brand new oven which was repaired in the nick of time yesterday afternoon. The kitchen is almost finished.,. I'm sitting in the kitchen at my desk now typing this blog - Monday the countertops are being installed and on Tuesday the plumbers come back to hook up the final part of the faucet, then on Friday the floor guys come back one last time to finish off the floors for us. We are still waiting for the back-splash on our stove which has been on back order for what seems like forever. We've picked out the tile and hopefully that will be in for pickup sometime next week and Darren will have a chance at the weekend install it hopefully before Pap arrives in two weeks. I cannot believe how fast this year has whizzed by... I am in no way ready for Christmas this year. I haven't even thought that far, by now I'm usually done and the Christmas cards are written and sent - or at least ready to send. I can't even get my head around this fact. I'm hoping next week to take the kids to a tree farm so we can do our Christmas card - otherwise I will have to come up with something else and fast.

I've been busy also finishing off my "Beautiful World" Shopping bags to sell at the School's Home Tour Boutique which is in 2 weeks from tomorrow and I still need to finish off my tiles. I plan to get as many of those done this weekend so that I won't be in a mad rush over the next couple weeks. Yikes... Where oh where has this year gone I feel like it's accelerated at a break neck speed. Could we just hit pause so I can catch up please.

Oh yes as if that isn't enough Morgan lost her second tooth today after wiggling it around - I didn't even know it was loose - and then she lost it quite literally on the stairs of course Darren came up trumps finding it just before bedtime - although Morgan had already written a note to the tooth fairy explaining that she dropped her tooth on the stairs, but she was very relieved to have found it in time for the night. Okay that it's it. Going to go veg in front of the TV now... ta ta

Going around (the) BEND

Not just figuratively but literally we went round Bend this past weekend. A town/city 3 hours east of Portland where you can see almost all of the tall mountains of Oregon, along the cascades. Especially as on Saturday it was overcast and cloudy, unlike Sunday which was crisp clear and beautiful if not a little on the cold side. Bend is considered to be high desert and it sits on the Deschutes river. It was very picteresque. We had to be out of the house because of having the floors refinished in the kitchen. So we bundled ourselves off to Bend with the kids and the dog, drove up and around Mount Hood through the countryside of Oregon. It was really quite amazing. You don't expect to see such contrast in Oregon, to me it always seems to be lush and wet and green but once you got past the mountains and head east the surroundings changed quite dramatically to a much drier and sparse enviroment.We arrived a little later than planned on Friday afternoon and decided to explore downtown Bend itself and had dinner at The Pine Tavern which was very nice and we lucked out having no reservation we managed to snag a cancellation and got to eat right away. It was an interesting place as part of the restaurant was built around two pine trees that were growing in the middle of the room. The following day we decided to venture to on a cave tour. There I was thinking it would be with stalagmites and the such came with camera in tow only to find out it was a tour of the lava caves under ground and completely dark. Not only was I not dressed for such an adventure, I found it a little daunting being underground in the pitch black with only the lights on the provided helmets to guide us through the caves. Being somewhat caustrophobic I had show no fear or the kids would've have completely freaked out. But they thought it was great and enjoyed it immensely even after a bat whizzed past my ear in the dark. I drew the line on sliding on my belly to get to the another part of the cave and waited with another family while Darren, Owen & Morgan and the guide disappeared into the darkness to continue their exploration. I was very VERY happy when we got back however, to terra firma that was under my feet and not above my head and we got to be outside again. It was definitely an adventure and the guide was extremely informative.

Sunday after a very nice breakfast indeed we headed out to the High Desert Museum, which was also very interesting and the kids really enjoyed going to the old homestead where a couple of ladies (pretending to be) from the 1800 were sitting making candles and stew and doing needlepoint. They also got to check out the sleeping river otter and a bunch of birds of prey before we headed back to rainy old Portland and a very nicely finished floor resplendant with a house full of dust. As nice as this kitchen is going to be I cannot wait until it is finally dust free. THere is a fine layer of dust all over this house and it's a losing battle.Yesterday - Monday, Darren got stuck in putting in the cabinets that arrived friday and today they came to measure for the countertops and the plumbers came by to hook up the dishwasher, sink water to the refridgerator and the waste disposal. YEAH... we still need to pick out tile and finish painting the trim but I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Of course Thanksgiving will be a challenge as we are STILL missing pieces from the stove and will not have countertops in until after turkey day... should be very interesting.

Owen scores a goal, Morgan loses a tooth and Halloween all in one week.

Phew what a week.. Darren finally made it home on Halloween morning at 1030am after leaving Palm Springs the night before at 6pm.. not an auspicious start to the week. Plus we had his dad and girlfriend come for a visit and actually arrived before he did. I picked them up from the airport and we managed to carve the rest of the pumpkins and then sit down to a pot of stew for dinner only to find (much to my horror) that Nancy doesn't eat meat - at least not beef. Then we got stuck into the madness of Halloween once Darren had managed to squeeze in an hour or so of sleep, while I drove to Krispy Kreme's to purchase 24 + 6 glazed doughnuts for Owen's classroom, only to race back again to go and watch the big Halloween parade at the school followed by the numerous parties that I was to photograph for each grade.
After which we came home and they all got stuck in decorating the yard. It wasn't as crazed as last year with Milan but busy enough and we had a ton of compliments on our graveyard. Of course, I was a little freaked out by that fact that we had burning candles and nothing to stop the kids from walking into a burning flame, so next year we need to figure out something different because I could just see the costumes going up in burst of flames. Even so the night was not without a little drama as Owen got really mad at me because he lost me in the crowds but as with every year, their favorite part was not really the trick or treating but the handing out of candy and by the end of the night, our house was definitely the place to be as they were handing out armfuls of candy so that we could get rid of it before calling it a night.

The rest of the week was a little less crazy, I had a photo shoot to do with one of the girls in Owen's class and I'm happy to report that her mom was very happy with the results. Although I had a heck of a time uploading them to the website Pictage, still if she is true to her word I might get some more clients out of her. Here's hoping. I managed to finish Lisa's photobook for her mom, and now just need to design 4 sets of 4 coasters (and make them) and figure out my bag that I finally finished the design on. Me busy? Nah.... Saturday morning, Morgan finally lost her first ever tooth. Lots crying at the sight of blood and squeals of delight when the tooth fairy brought money the following day. Still if you look at where she lost her tooth you would be hard pressed to see it missing as her new tooth is already growing in and has replaced the missing already.

Then Sunday morning at their last soccer match of the season on a team that has sorely lacked the aggression needed to win, (and alas this day was not unlike any of the others) Owen finally playing center forward with the help of his team mate Tate, scored his very first goal ever. It was the most amazing sight for me, especially as I think that next year he will end up playing his strengths which belong without a doubt in the defending position.