We Found Out....It's A...

It's a BOY!!

When the kids heard the news, Jared cheered, but Camryn burst into tears, crying, "I wanted it to be a girl!!!" After at least two sessions of crying about it, she came up to me later and said happily, "I thought it would be a boy, and it was!" So now she's happy about it. Camryn wants to name the baby "Michael" (after one of her friends).

In less exciting news, we found out during the ultrasound that the baby has an enlarged nuchal fold (the skin on its neck is thicker than it should be). While it doesn't tell us anything definitive, it does mean there is an increased risk that the baby has a chromosomal disorder such as Down's syndrome. While this is definitely cause for concern, in good news, the rest of the baby, including the baby's heart and limbs, looked normal and healthy (often in Down's syndrome babies there is a structural defect, a heart defect or the limbs are shorter than they should be). Next month they will do another in-depth ultrasound and a fetal echocardiogram to check the baby's heart closely. We probably won't know anything for certain until the baby is born-- there could be a problem or the baby could be normal and healthy-- but they will be monitoring the baby carefully during the rest of the pregnancy.

We're hoping for the best, but no matter what happens, we're excited to have a new member of our family on the way.

We love you all and hope you are doing well!

Love,

Karen, Dave and kids

Rain On My Parade

Hello everyone,

Yet another week has flown by.... You can tell we are back in survival mode when my cooking adventures have been along the lines of Hawaiian Haystacks, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Top Ramen, Burritos and chicken nuggets.

After a lonely weekend with Dave in Asia, Susan arrived on Monday, bringing peace, calm and Great Harvest Bread with her. We picked her up at the airport that evening and then went to Sweet Tomatoes on the way home. Between stopping for dinner and the kids using their very best bedtime delay techniques on Grama, it was almost 10:00 pm by the time they got to bed. =] On Tuesday I had an OB appointment-- I scheduled my ultrasound for next Tuesday-- and then the kids rode bikes to the park with Grama while I started getting the master bedroom ready to paint by taping, removing hardware, etc. I finished in time to go to the last hour of hour RS drop-in quilting day, and got there in time to tie two whole stitches in the last quilt before they finished. Oh well!

Wednesday dawned bright and.... rainy???? Wait a second, the rule in Portland is that you can count on it being sunny from July 5th onward. Well apparently that rule was just broken and we had clouds and rain, which unfortunately lasted most of the time that Susan was here. Susan took Camryn out to breakfast by herself (Camryn was so excited to get to do something BEFORE Jared) while I started priming and painting. Then Susan took the kids to a free showing of "VeggieTales: A Jonah Movie" at the movie theater (the things you have to endure being a Grama....) while I finished the first coat of paint.

That afternoon, we set off on Jared's activity of choice: going fishing at "Horning's Hideout," where his kindergarten class had gone for a fishing trip. After driving out into the middle of boonieland and going a mile or two on an unpaved road, we finally came to the place: a beautiful lake with a ramshackle house in the front of it. We went to the house and a lady came out and handed us fishing rods, nets, hook tools and a cup of worms. Then she started explaining... "When you get a fish, you use the net to pull it out of the water, then use the hook tool to slice through it's gills and take the hook out, then you clip it onto this chain. You don't want to put a whole worm on the hook or the fish will just eat around it instead of biting, so just use your fingers to pull off a small piece of worm and put that on the hook. Then when you're done, you come back here and you can use this space for gutting the fish with a knife." Susan and I gave each other looks of disbelief. I never realized until that very moment how much of a city-girl/wimp I am. Where the heck were my latex gloves when I needed them? She wanted us to break off a piece of live worm with our bare fingers??? This was downright barbaric and we hadn't even gotten to gutting the fish.

[Warning: The following contains scenes of graphic violence that may be offensive to some viewers.] Susan and I took all of our fishing equipment and the two kids to the edge of the lake. Then came the getting the worm ready for the hook.... I managed to get myself to touch the worm long enough to brush it out of the cup onto the ground. Then I used a piece of the chain to cut through the worm and break off a small piece, leaving two pieces of worm wriggling frenetically on the ground. I managed to stick the hook into the smaller worm piece without touching much of the worm with my fingers and scoop the bigger piece back into the cup.

Now we were finally ready so we dropped the hook into the lake without tangling too much of the line. Jared informed us impatiently, "No, mom, that's not how you're supposed to do it. You're supposed to cast off." Sure, enough, the other people fishing in the lake were sending the hook and line flying gracefully over their heads into the middle of the lake. After moving the kids sufficiently far enough so they wouldn't get skewered, we gave it a shot. The hook and line flew awkwardly for about 3 feet and then fell into the lake at our feet. We were obviously missing something. After trying unsuccessfully several times and then standing around and feeling utterly incompetent, we went back to the house and ran into a different lady who worked there and asked what we were doing wrong. She instructed us in the art of casting off (there is a piece of the rod you have to move for the line to keep flying) and then directed us to a good spot. We did several extremely elegant looking cast-offs (and quite a few not-so-elegant ones that involved massive tangles of fishing line) and waited with our hooks in the water, but no fish seemed to bite. We did manage to catch a lobster-looking crustacean that fell back in the lake. After spending about two hours with no luck, we finally gave up. Jared was disappointed that we didn't catch trout for dinner, but he bore it well. As for my part, I wasn't exactly broken-hearted that I missed out on the chance to gut my first fish. Some firsts can wait for another time.

We drove back to civilization and the kids went to Safari Sams with Grama for jungle gym and mini-golf while I went to a meeting. After I came back, we had some pizza together and negotiated exactly what prizes you could buy with 11 tickets (3 army men or a plastic bracelet and a mini-koosh-looking ball, in case you were wondering). Then we went home and put the kids to bed.

Thursday morning I painted the final coat of my bedroom while Susan took Jared to breakfast. I finished just in time to go to my cooking group, where we assembled over 40 freezer meals in 2 1/2 hours. Whew. We spent the afternoon swimming at the YMCA. Susan accomplished the astounding feat of swimming for 45 minutes with her camera in her hand and not getting it wet. I kid you not. It was quite impressive. Then we went to Burgerville and completely ruined our appetite for dinner by getting a fresh raspberry milkshake and a huge (not semi-huge) order of Walla Walla Onion Rings. Yes, it was a fine day. We spent the evening less pleasantly engaged in trying to put my bedroom back together. It would have been fine except that we encountered EXTREME difficulty getting up the hardware for the window blinds. Despite my confidence in wielding an electric and cordless drill and my sheer brute strength at turning a screwdriver manually, we had a dickens of a time trying to get the hardware back in. We spent over an hour and a half standing on bar stools struggling with screwdrivers before we finally got the blinds up again.

Friday morning we set off to go berry picking, hoping to get some raspberries for Susan to take home to Grampa Bruce. We were out picking for about five minutes when it started to rain. Yes, in July. Jared left his post of trying to get everyone to dump their berries into his bucket and went to the car for the umbrella. Susan and I put on coats and kept picking berries while Jared and Camryn argued over who got to hold the umbrella. At least we didn't have to worry about sunscreen.... After we got home, the rain got worse, so we went to the YMCA to play "basketball" on the sport court. We stopped by Rose's Deli to pick out a special cookie for the kids and pastry for the adults, then we went home and got ready for Susan to leave.... =[

Despite the fact that we left at 3:00, we hit horrendous rush hour traffic. We got Susan to the airport 40 minutes before her flight. Miraculously, she still made her flight. I decided to burn some time to avoid traffic, so the kids and I stopped by a bakery in Portland to pick up a loaf of handmade artisan bread. The kids saw a store called "Saint Cupcake" (sometimes you wish your child couldn't read...), so we had to go in and let them pick out a cupcake. Then we braved the freeway. The traffic was horrible. By the time we got back within 20 minutes of our house it was already 6:30, so I decided it would be a good time to go out for dinner. I was thinking of getting some pasta or driving through Wendy's, but when I started to list options to the kids, Jared protested, "No, mom! I don't want to go there. I want to go to the Thai place that we go to with daddy and get the sweet pork." Camryn chimed in, "YEAH!! And I want to get the yummy noodles." I was shocked, really. The kids were lobbying to go someplace besides McDonald's? They wanted to go to the Thai place?? Despite the fact that I didn't really feel like Thai food at the moment, I thought it was so cute that they wanted to go there (or maybe it was sentiment because that's "where they go with daddy"), that I said, "OK. Why not?" Major lapse in judgment.

We went to the Thai place. I ordered the yummy pork and the sweet noodles, as requested. I was going to get a stir fry with peanut sauce, but Jared said "No. I don't want that." I asked him if garlic sauce was better, so we got broccoli beef with garlic sauce. When our food came, sure enough, Jared gobbled down the pork, but he wouldn't touch the noodles (which he usually eats). He wouldn't eat the broccoli beef either-- which I had ordered in the hopes of the kids liking-- because it had sauce on it and he doesn't like broccoli with sauce. When I made him try a bite (in order to get his cupcake for dessert), he gagged like he was eating fried larvae in worm sauce. Camryn ate very slowly as usual, coming over to my seat in between each bite to give me a huge hug with sticky hands just as I was about to take a bite. The final insult was that because I got the extra (untouched) broccoli dish so we would have a vegetable, the bill came to $30 with the tip. I can't believe I threw away $30 on a dinner that I didn't feel like eating just because the kids "wanted it" and then half of it didn't even get touched. OK, that was downright stupidity--- and that's the last time I let the kids pick where we go to dinner.

Meanwhile, Dave is in Korea. He flew to Korea to help with the installation of a new tool for a customer (he worked on this tool before he got transferred to his current project). After spending several 12+ hour days in the Samsung cleanroom (with no-padding shoes, steel floors and not a chair to be seen), he flew to Singapore for a customer meeting. He had been in Singapore for a whole two hours when he got a call from his boss telling him that they had a serious problem with the Samsung installation and he needed to go back to Korea. So as soon as he finished the presentation he got on the next red-eye flight to Korea. Back in Korea there were big problems, plus, while they were trying to fix it, every so often the local team would interrupt them so they could precision-tune the machine flow. Flow is important, but not if half your machine is in pieces on the floor. As Dave put it, it's kind of like scrubbing the baseboards over and over while your kitchen is piled with dirty dishes and dead rats. Priorities anyone?? Then once they got the machine put together, working and a good baseline for the film, Samsung decided that they didn't like the film layer and wanted one with totally different properties... in 24 hours. Yes, it's been a fun trip for Dave. Last week when I took Camryn to a friend's birthday party, the dad asked me, "So, I hear your husband is going to Korea and Singapore. Does he really enjoy the chance to travel?" I didn't really know how to answer that.... "Well, it's not exactly a pleasure trip..." I said. That's the understatement of the year. What am I supposed to say? "He really loves cleanrooms with flat shoes, no chairs and too-small face masks." Or maybe "It's given him the chance to see lots of Korea: from the airport to his hotel, from his hotel to Samsung and the inside of the Samsung cleanroom." At least he's gotten to eat at Mr. Pizza, "The only pizza designed specifically for women." Yes, I'm not making that up.

Today we went to the parade for the Sherwood Robin Hood Festival. Despite ominous clouds, it didn't rain while we watched the parade. The kids were ecstatic because each got a lunch bag full of candy. We went home for lunch and then went to the festival itself. As soon as we got in the car to go it started pouring. (Did I mention it's July????) It let up a bit once we got there but then poured again and sprinkled at intervals. We made good use of our umbrella, got snow cones and Robin Hood hats for the kids and had a good time despite the rain.

Now we are anxiously awaiting news of when Dave will come home. The Taiwan part of his trip was cancelled, so hopefully it will be soon!!! Hope you are doing well.

Karen

------------------------------------------------------------------

Quotes of the Week:

Camryn: "If we walked-ed to Bountiful it would take 100 days and 100 nights. Well, it's easier to use a car."

Jared: "Camryn, do you want a China Chip?" (handing her a tortilla chip sprinkled with ramen seasoning)

Jared: "Do you know what I want to be when I grow up? A race car driver. So, I'll have to save these [referring to his Hot Wheels sunglasses]. [putting the sunglasses on] How cool do I look?"

[please pardon this one, it is a direct quote] Me: "Are you excited to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl?" Jared: "Yeah. I want it to be a boy." Camryn: "I want it to be a girl. If the baby is a girl it will have the same bottom that I have; if the baby is a boy, it will have the same bottom that Jared has."

At the Thai restaurant, there was a sign that said, "Pregnancy and Alcohol don't mix." From the drawing next to Jared he made the following deduction: "Mom, that sign says if you have a baby in your tummy, you shouldn't stand and carry a drink."

The Condensed Version of "Rain On My Parade"

The brief summary of the update for Chris and other time-challenged parties... =]

Paragraph 1-2: After being in survival mode for several days, Susan arrived on Monday to rescue us.
Paragraph 2-3: I started painting my room. Grama took Camryn to breakfast and kids to a movie. It rained. Hard. In July.
Paragraph: 4-6: A detailed description of our squeamish introduction to fishing, including our savage attack of a worm.
Paragraph 7-8: Safari Sams with Grama. I finish painting. We swim at YMCA, get Burgerville shakes and onion rings, and spend two hours putting up window blind hardware.
Paragraph 9: Berry picking. In the rain. Played basketball at YMCA and got a cookie.
Paragraph 10-11: Susan makes her flight after being stuck in traffic. The kids and I get bread and cupcakes in Portland, then sit in traffic. I waste $30 taking the kids out to Thai food which they hardly ate because they asked for it and I thought it was cute.
Paragraph 12: Dave's wild trip to Korea and Singapore-- and back to Korea.
Paragraph 13: Robin Hood Festival and Parade. In the rain.

The End

Karen

The Condensed Version of "Rain.."

The brief summary of the update for Chris and other time-challenged parties... =]

Paragraph 1-2: After being in survival mode for several days, Susan arrived on Monday to rescue us.
Paragraph 2-3: I started painting my room. Grama took Camryn to breakfast and kids to a movie. It rained. Hard. In July.
Paragraph: 4-6: A detailed description of our squeamish introduction to fishing, including our savage attack of a worm.
Paragraph 7-8: Safari Sams with Grama. I finish painting. We swim at YMCA, get Burgerville shakes and onion rings, and spend two hours putting up window blind hardware.
Paragraph 9: Berry picking. In the rain. Played basketball at YMCA and got a cookie.
Paragraph 10-11: Susan makes her flight after being stuck in traffic. The kids and I get bread and cupcakes in Portland, then sit in traffic. I waste $30 taking the kids out to Thai food which they hardly ate because they asked for it and I thought it was cute.
Paragraph 12: Dave's wild trip to Korea and Singapore-- and back to Korea.
Paragraph 13: Robin Hood Festival and Parade. In the rain.

The End

Karen

Rain on My Parade

Hello everyone,

Yet another week has flown by.... You can tell we are back in survival mode when my cooking adventures have been along the lines of Hawaiian Haystacks, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Top Ramen, Burritos and chicken nuggets.

After a lonely weekend with Dave in Asia, Susan arrived on Monday, bringing peace, calm and Great Harvest Bread with her. We picked her up at the airport that evening and then went to Sweet Tomatoes on the way home. Between stopping for dinner and the kids using their very best bedtime delay techniques on Grama, it was almost 10:00 pm by the time they got to bed. =] On Tuesday I had an OB appointment-- I scheduled my ultrasound for next Tuesday-- and then the kids rode bikes to the park with Grama while I started getting the master bedroom ready to paint by taping, removing hardware, etc. I finished in time to go to the last hour of hour RS drop-in quilting day, and got there in time to tie two whole stitches in the last quilt before they finished. Oh well!

Wednesday dawned bright and.... rainy???? Wait a second, the rule in Portland is that you can count on it being sunny from July 5th onward. Well apparently that rule was just broken and we had clouds and rain, which unfortunately lasted most of the time that Susan was here. Susan took Camryn out to breakfast by herself (Camryn was so excited to get to do something BEFORE Jared) while I started priming and painting. Then Susan took the kids to a free showing of "VeggieTales: A Jonah Movie" at the movie theater (the things you have to endure being a Grama....) while I finished the first coat of paint.

That afternoon, we set off on Jared's activity of choice: going fishing at "Horning's Hideout," where his kindergarten class had gone for a fishing trip. After driving out into the middle of boonieland and going a mile or two on an unpaved road, we finally came to the place: a beautiful lake with a ramshackle house in the front of it. We went to the house and a lady came out and handed us fishing rods, nets, hook tools and a cup of worms. Then she started explaining... "When you get a fish, you use the net to pull it out of the water, then use the hook tool to slice through it's gills and take the hook out, then you clip it onto this chain. You don't want to put a whole worm on the hook or the fish will just eat around it instead of biting, so just use your fingers to pull off a small piece of worm and put that on the hook. Then when you're done, you come back here and you can use this space for gutting the fish with a knife." Susan and I gave each other looks of disbelief. I never realized until that very moment how much of a city-girl/wimp I am. Where the heck were my latex gloves when I needed them? She wanted us to break off a piece of live worm with our bare fingers??? This was downright barbaric and we hadn't even gotten to gutting the fish.

[Warning: The following contains scenes of graphic violence that may be offensive to some viewers.] Susan and I took all of our fishing equipment and the two kids to the edge of the lake. Then came the getting the worm ready for the hook.... I managed to get myself to touch the worm long enough to brush it out of the cup onto the ground. Then I used a piece of the chain to cut through the worm and break off a small piece, leaving two pieces of worm wriggling frenetically on the ground. I managed to stick the hook into the smaller worm piece without touching much of the worm with my fingers and scoop the bigger piece back into the cup.

Now we were finally ready so we dropped the hook into the lake without tangling too much of the line. Jared informed us impatiently, "No, mom, that's not how you're supposed to do it. You're supposed to cast off." Sure, enough, the other people fishing in the lake were sending the hook and line flying gracefully over their heads into the middle of the lake. After moving the kids sufficiently far enough so they wouldn't get skewered, we gave it a shot. The hook and line flew awkwardly for about 3 feet and then fell into the lake at our feet. We were obviously missing something. After trying unsuccessfully several times and then standing around and feeling utterly incompetent, we went back to the house and ran into a different lady who worked there and asked what we were doing wrong. She instructed us in the art of casting off (there is a piece of the rod you have to move for the line to keep flying) and then directed us to a good spot. We did several extremely elegant looking cast-offs (and quite a few not-so-elegant ones that involved massive tangles of fishing line) and waited with our hooks in the water, but no fish seemed to bite. We did manage to catch a lobster-looking crustacean that fell back in the lake. After spending about two hours with no luck, we finally gave up. Jared was disappointed that we didn't catch trout for dinner, but he bore it well. As for my part, I wasn't exactly broken-hearted that I missed out on the chance to gut my first fish. Some firsts can wait for another time.

We drove back to civilization and the kids went to Safari Sams with Grama for jungle gym and mini-golf while I went to a meeting. After I came back, we had some pizza together and negotiated exactly what prizes you could buy with 11 tickets (3 army men or a plastic bracelet and a mini-koosh-looking ball, in case you were wondering). Then we went home and put the kids to bed.

Thursday morning I painted the final coat of my bedroom while Susan took Jared to breakfast. I finished just in time to go to my cooking group, where we assembled over 40 freezer meals in 2 1/2 hours. Whew. We spent the afternoon swimming at the YMCA. Susan accomplished the astounding feat of swimming for 45 minutes with her camera in her hand and not getting it wet. I kid you not. It was quite impressive. Then we went to Burgerville and completely ruined our appetite for dinner by getting a fresh raspberry milkshake and a huge (not semi-huge) order of Walla Walla Onion Rings. Yes, it was a fine day. We spent the evening less pleasantly engaged in trying to put my bedroom back together. It would have been fine except that we encountered EXTREME difficulty getting up the hardware for the window blinds. Despite my confidence in wielding an electric and cordless drill and my sheer brute strength at turning a screwdriver manually, we had a dickens of a time trying to get the hardware back in. We spent over an hour and a half standing on bar stools struggling with screwdrivers before we finally got the blinds up again.

Friday morning we set off to go berry picking, hoping to get some raspberries for Susan to take home to Grampa Bruce. We were out picking for about five minutes when it started to rain. Yes, in July. Jared left his post of trying to get everyone to dump their berries into his bucket and went to the car for the umbrella. Susan and I put on coats and kept picking berries while Jared and Camryn argued over who got to hold the umbrella. At least we didn't have to worry about sunscreen.... After we got home, the rain got worse, so we went to the YMCA to play "basketball" on the sport court. We stopped by Rose's Deli to pick out a special cookie for the kids and pastry for the adults, then we went home and got ready for Susan to leave.... =[

Despite the fact that we left at 3:00, we hit horrendous rush hour traffic. We got Susan to the airport 40 minutes before her flight. Miraculously, she still made her flight. I decided to burn some time to avoid traffic, so the kids and I stopped by a bakery in Portland to pick up a loaf of handmade artisan bread. The kids saw a store called "Saint Cupcake" (sometimes you wish your child couldn't read...), so we had to go in and let them pick out a cupcake. Then we braved the freeway. The traffic was horrible. By the time we got back within 20 minutes of our house it was already 6:30, so I decided it would be a good time to go out for dinner. I was thinking of getting some pasta or driving through Wendy's, but when I started to list options to the kids, Jared protested, "No, mom! I don't want to go there. I want to go to the Thai place that we go to with daddy and get the sweet pork." Camryn chimed in, "YEAH!! And I want to get the yummy noodles." I was shocked, really. The kids were lobbying to go someplace besides McDonald's? They wanted to go to the Thai place?? Despite the fact that I didn't really feel like Thai food at the moment, I thought it was so cute that they wanted to go there (or maybe it was sentiment because that's "where they go with daddy"), that I said, "OK. Why not?" Major lapse in judgment.

We went to the Thai place. I ordered the yummy pork and the sweet noodles, as requested. I was going to get a stir fry with peanut sauce, but Jared said "No. I don't want that." I asked him if garlic sauce was better, so we got broccoli beef with garlic sauce. When our food came, sure enough, Jared gobbled down the pork, but he wouldn't touch the noodles (which he usually eats). He wouldn't eat the broccoli beef either-- which I had ordered in the hopes of the kids liking-- because it had sauce on it and he doesn't like broccoli with sauce. When I made him try a bite (in order to get his cupcake for dessert), he gagged like he was eating fried larvae in worm sauce. Camryn ate very slowly as usual, coming over to my seat in between each bite to give me a huge hug with sticky hands just as I was about to take a bite. The final insult was that because I got the extra (untouched) broccoli dish so we would have a vegetable, the bill came to $30 with the tip. I can't believe I threw away $30 on a dinner that I didn't feel like eating just because the kids "wanted it" and then half of it didn't even get touched. OK, that was downright stupidity--- and that's the last time I let the kids pick where we go to dinner.

Meanwhile, Dave is in Korea. He flew to Korea to help with the installation of a new tool for a customer (he worked on this tool before he got transferred to his current project). After spending several 12+ hour days in the Samsung cleanroom (with no-padding shoes, steel floors and not a chair to be seen), he flew to Singapore for a customer meeting. He had been in Singapore for a whole two hours when he got a call from his boss telling him that they had a serious problem with the Samsung installation and he needed to go back to Korea. So as soon as he finished the presentation he got on the next red-eye flight to Korea. Back in Korea there were big problems, plus, while they were trying to fix it, every so often the local team would interrupt them so they could precision-tune the machine flow. Flow is important, but not if half your machine is in pieces on the floor. As Dave put it, it's kind of like scrubbing the baseboards over and over while your kitchen is piled with dirty dishes and dead rats. Priorities anyone?? Then once they got the machine put together, working and a good baseline for the film, Samsung decided that they didn't like the film layer and wanted one with totally different properties... in 24 hours. Yes, it's been a fun trip for Dave. Last week when I took Camryn to a friend's birthday party, the dad asked me, "So, I hear your husband is going to Korea and Singapore. Does he really enjoy the chance to travel?" I didn't really know how to answer that.... "Well, it's not exactly a pleasure trip..." I said. That's the understatement of the year. What am I supposed to say? "He really loves cleanrooms with flat shoes, no chairs and too-small face masks." Or maybe "It's given him the chance to see lots of Korea: from the airport to his hotel, from his hotel to Samsung and the inside of the Samsung cleanroom." At least he's gotten to eat at Mr. Pizza, "The only pizza designed specifically for women." Yes, I'm not making that up.

Today we went to the parade for the Sherwood Robin Hood Festival. Despite ominous clouds, it didn't rain while we watched the parade. The kids were ecstatic because each got a lunch bag full of candy. We went home for lunch and then went to the festival itself. As soon as we got in the car to go it started pouring. (Did I mention it's July????) It let up a bit once we got there but then poured again and sprinkled at intervals. We made good use of our umbrella, got snow cones and Robin Hood hats for the kids and had a good time despite the rain.

Now we are anxiously awaiting news of when Dave will come home. The Taiwan part of his trip was cancelled, so hopefully it will be soon!!! Hope you are doing well.

Karen

------------------------------------------------------------------

Quotes of the Week:

Camryn: "If we walked-ed to Bountiful it would take 100 days and 100 nights. Well, it's easier to use a car."

Jared: "Camryn, do you want a China Chip?" (handing her a tortilla chip sprinkled with ramen seasoning)

Jared: "Do you know what I want to be when I grow up? A race car driver. So, I'll have to save these [referring to his Hot Wheels sunglasses]. [putting the sunglasses on] How cool do I look?"

[please pardon this one, it is a direct quote] Me: "Are you excited to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl?" Jared: "Yeah. I want it to be a boy." Camryn: "I want it to be a girl. If the baby is a girl it will have the same bottom that I have; if the baby is a boy, it will have the same bottom that Jared has."

At the Thai restaurant, there was a sign that said, "Pregnancy and Alcohol don't mix." From the drawing next to Jared he made the following deduction: "Mom, that sign says if you have a baby in your tummy, you shouldn't stand and carry a drink."

A Guide For Chris (to Hitting.. or Missing the Target)

As requested, a synopsis of the update:

Paragraph 1: Establishing Portland's superiority to Utah in summer climate, despite heat wave.
Paragraph 2-3: A detailed description of a 2 hour trip to Target to choose cookies for Utah trip. Moral of the story- be a dictator and don't give your kids choices.
Paragraph 4-5: Had a good family reunion. Dave and I left on time despite our indecision.
Paragraph 6-7: An account of a 3 1/2 hour shopping trip to Costco and Winco, complete with two trips to the restroom in 30 minutes.
Paragraph 7-8: I did Quicken and called credit card customer service, during which Camryn nearly flooded the kitchen cleaning the floor to make it "sparkle."
Paragraph 9: Dave left for Asia. We went berry picking, swimming and to Sweet Tomatoes, amid unsuccessful attempts to clean.
Paragraph 10: My belly has popped (not literally)

The end.

Karen

P.S. Is this supposed to be an exercise in embarrassment at how little useful information is included in my multiple pages? =]

Hitting... or Missing the Target

Hello Everyone,

We are back after a week at Dave's family reunion in Bountiful, Utah. After a week of being dehydrated by Utah's dry heat, I think I must have been a bit too smug about returning to our much superior summer climate... the heat seems to have followed us home have had several days of being roasted alive (OK, don't laugh you Phoenix people). =] It has cooled off some and it is supposed to cool off more next week, so here's hoping!

I guess our major events of the past few weeks were getting off to the reunion and getting home. I wanted to do something to make the drive more fun for my kids, so I decided to take them to Target and let them help me pick out some treats for the long car trip to Utah. We don't usually buy a lot of junk food, so I figured this was a great opportunity to regress. Two hours later we walked out of Target with our treats and the few items we needed to buy, still all alive and speaking to each other (barely...). In the process of this two hour trip to Target, I learned a few valuable lessons. 1) Don't try to do things for your kids that are fun or exciting. It only gives them new material to fight over and they will whine that they aren't getting more than you are offering them. 2) Never offer your children choices and try to come to a point of mutual agreement. Democracy is overrated. 3) Don't negotiate with your children. Diplomacy is overrated.

In the process of trying to choose cookies, chips and candy to take on the trip, I spent about 90 minutes on the treat aisles listening to my children try to persuade each other to the merits of Pringles vs. Cheetos, Swedish Fish vs. sour watermelons and EL Fudge vs. Scooby Graham Cracker bones. The argument over cookies was particularly bitter, with Jared lobbying hard for scooby snacks and Camryn insisting that her life could not be complete without EL Fudge. Instead of doing what a good mother should have done (leaving the store immediately with no treats), I thought, "This will be a great opportunity to learn to discuss and compromise on a disagreement." I obviously had either forgotten how old my children were or had not spent much time recently around 4 and 5 year olds. We ended up indeed reaching a compromise: Jared and Camryn each chose a box of cookies and mom chose everything else, along with a threat to throw it all away if there was so much as a whisper of complaint. As a postscript, after Camryn's valiant battle to get EL Fudge, she was so excited when I finally gave her one to eat in the car. She took one bite and said, "Mom, I don't like these."
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The family reunion was great... all of Dave's siblings were there and we had a blast. I suppose there wasn't much eventful to write about... it was all fun and anybody who would care to hear about it was actually there. We had a formal family photo taken (which involved two hours of intense wardrobe deliberation to coordinate outfits for the ladies), went to the lake to do wave runners and have a picnic, went bowling, and made the requisite trip to Cafe Rio. We filled in our time with ping pong and speed scrabble tournaments. We also enjoyed a fabulous 4th of July meal, courtesy of Dave, Jen and myself. =]

Alas, too quickly the trip was over and everyone went home. Except Dave and I. We debated intensely for half a day whether the kids and I should stay longer or go home and at the end of it we all ended up going home too. Dave and I are both hyper-analytical and tend to operate under the assumption that more deliberation and analysis will lead to a better, swifter outcome. I think we have proved that this is not true, in fact it is often the opposite... sometimes you just have to pick one and more deliberation doesn't add anything.

So home we went. We made it through Sunday, but Monday morning dawned with no groceries. Given our trip to Utah and our other upcoming trips this summer, I thought it would be a good time to turn over a new leaf of economy and thrift-- at least in my grocery spending. So I decided that when I went to Costco that day, I would go to Winco (located across the street) instead of the more expensive but closer to our house option of Safeway. We went to Costco and with the help of $1.50 hot dogs and lemonade made it through in reasonable time. Then we went to Winco to pick up 5 or 6 things that we needed that they didn't have at Costco. We weren't 5 minutes into the produce aisle when I was greeted with a chorus of "I have to go to the bathroom...." After a 10 minute detour we returned to our shopping. We slowly made our way through the store and I was perusing the dairy case when Jared urgently announced his need to go to the bathroom-- again. "Jared, you just went!" "But, mom, I really have to go!" Unfortunately his unusual walk combined with his taking the opportunity to sit on any low object he could find convinced me of the sincerity in his request. So off we went to the bathroom again. By the time we got out of the bathroom a second time, my brain was in total meltdown and my capacity for making logical decisions was at zero. Not only did I not stick to my list, but I spent about 10 minutes debating whether or not to get ice cream (should we get yummy treats or stick to the list? should we get yummy treats or avoid empty calories?) and another ten debating whether to get "Udderly Chocolate" or "Vanilla Bean" (should I go with the tried and true or try something new? the new may be yummy, but it could be too sweet like the last new ice cream flavor we tried... maybe I should just get strawberry) Maybe there is actually an inverse relationship between the amount of time spent deliberating and the positive outcome of a decision. We finally made it out of Winco. My "5 things" that I picked up came to almost $100. Maybe I would have been better off going to Safeway. We left for home a mere 3 1/2 hours after we left for our little shopping excursion.
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Luckily, I had the foresight to throw our cooler in the trunk so all of our Costco groceries weren't rotten by the time we got out of Winco. We went home, put the groceries away and I took advantage of the time while the kids were watching a cartoon to look at Quicken and try to figure out where we are and reconcile the accounts. I spent a fulfilling two hours trying to close a savings account with .08 in it, finding out that I CAN'T close an old checking account from California over the phone because it has no money in it, and realizing that my Mastercard account wouldn't balance because they had automatically given us a new card with a new number (why we would need this I have no idea) and were transferring all purchases to the new card.

While I was spending these satisfying minutes on the phone with customer service asking "Why am I seeing additional transactions that are the exact opposite of every transaction I have made" I see Camryn walk by the office with a bucket of water and rags. "What are you doing?" I ask her in between sentences. "I'm washing the house," she replied. "What exactly are you going to wash?" I queried. "The house," she responded. A few minutes later I wandered out with the phone to find her splashing a window over the carpet with her wet rag. "Camryn, please clean something else that's not on the carpet. I'm on the phone..." I heard her say something about the floor and that sounded better so I said OK. Five minutes later Jared bursts in the room announcing, "Mommy! Camryn is making a huge mess! There's water everywhere." I go downstairs to find that Camryn had indeed been trying to create a river on our kitchen floor. "Camryn, what are you doing?" I asked. "Look, mom.," she said, "I'm washing the floor and now it sparkles!"

Anyway, to summarize the rest of our week, Dave left on Wednesday for a ten day Asian tour of Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. We had a fabulous day on Thursday picking raspberries and marionberries and swimming at the YMCA with friends. We had a less-than-fabulous couple of other days involving attempts to clean the house, going to a birthday party and otherwise trying to pass the time. Last night I took the kids to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner (I calculated that if I worked it right it could kill about 2 hours before bed). Unfortunately, Camryn fell asleep on the way there, there was a 20 minute line when we got there and then Camryn spent most of dinner with her head on my lap in between my attempts to prod some mac and cheese into her mouth. Jared, on the other hand, had a great time. Every time I turned my head he was heading back from the buffet: "Hey mom, I got more pizza" or "Look they have watermelon jello!" He was particularly proud of his ice cream sundae, making several return trips to perfect the toppings, ending with a 1/2 inch layer of oreo crumbs.
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In pregnancy news, I'm now 18 weeks (19 weeks on Tuesday) and this week my belly popped out. Not that I looked un-pregnant before, but now there's no mistaking it: it's quite large. Not that I like being bigger, but it's at least nice that you can tell I'm not just putting on weight. I can feel the baby move pretty much every day now. (I felt the baby move for the first time at the family reunion.)

So, yes, lots of excitement and earth-shattering events. Hope you all are doing well.

Love,

Karen
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Quotes of the Week:

Jared: "Mom, I have a joke. Why did the clock go to the restaurant? Because it wanted to spill all of the food dishes." (Laughter from Jared and Camryn. Silent groan from mom for the umpteenth time.) Camryn: "Why did the chicken go to the park? Because it wanted a soda!" Silence. Jared: "That's not funny."

We usually watch cartoons on PBS, but Jared has figured out how to use the remote control, so sometimes I catch them watching Nick Jr. or other programming. I think I have taken our former lack of commercials for granted.... Jared: "Mom, did you know that the chocolate milk with the bunny on it has more vitamins than regular milk?" Me: "How do you know that, Jared?" J: "Because it said so on TV. And if your bathroom smells bad you just need to get a thing that you plug in and it will smell good." Camryn: "Yeah, it even works while you are gone." J: "Yep, every 15 or 30 minutes."

Camryn: "Mommy, mommy! My primary teacher has a real baby! I was so nice to it. I held the baby and didn't even drop it. When we have a baby, I will be a good big sister. I will hold the baby and be gentle and not poke its eyes."

Camryn: (After cutting a pet food ad out of the paper) "I cut out a coupon for pet food for our dog." Jared: "Camryn, we don't need it. We don't have a dog yet." Camryn: "But we're going to get one." Jared: "But not for like five years."
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Jared: "Mom, what will happen to a starfish if you touch it?" Me: "Good night, Jared." J:"Will it bite you?" Me: "No. Nothing will happen. Please put your head on the pillow, the lights are out already." J:"What will happen to a dried-out starfish if you put it in water?" Me: It will get squishy and yucky, a dried out starfish is dead. Have a good sleep! I'm going out now." J: "What if it's not dead yet?" Me: "GOOD NIGHT!!!!"