Cleft Bottles

I'm looking for a little help. Some teenage cousins are going to Beijing to perofrm in the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. They are willing to transport special cleft bottles to a woman there who is willing to pick them up where the girls are and deliver them to the babies in desperate need. These bottles are not available in China and must be brought in by caring people. Each bottle can literally save a life. Cleft affected babies are three times as likely to be born into an Asian family and without these bottles they have little more than a 10% chance of survival. Most are abandoned because their families can't afford the necessary surgery. Many never grow or gain enough strength to be candidates for surgery due to an inability to form a suction and get nutrition from a bottle. I could go on and on but the bottom line is that I would really like to send a case of these bottles with the girls to Beijing in a few weeks. They cost $17 for 6 bottles or $144 for a case of 72. Really, such a little thing and really not that much money but it would literally save lives. I am looking for anyone who might be willing to donate a couple of dollars. I plan to pitch in what I can but on our present income that isn't much. Even if I could just raise $100 it would so awsome! Please won't you consider it? You can leave me your e-mail address if you want me to send you my address or if you already know it and want to send something please feel free. Seriously, I'm not looking for more than maybe $5 from any one individual ever dollar will help! I do have to get on this quickly though in order to get the bottles here and to the girls before they leave at the end of the month. Thank you!

A couple of pictures...

Our new short-haired girl! I still swing between liking it and feeling sick. I cut it myself for a couple of reasons. 1) It is so fine I couldn't do anything with it anyway (pony tails always slid out of the holders) and 2) I wanted to eventually even the sides up with the back so it could all grow the same length. Now seemed like as good a time as any, especially with the heat of summer!
Trying to stay cool in Aunt Karen's pool. This was our first swim of the year and the kids were so excited! Paige is doing MUCH better than last year and really seems to be liking the water.

Caden wacking the pinata!

We went to the HOLT family picnic today in Portland. It was probably the hottest day of the year and must have reached 100 degrees! Holy cow were we hot. We ate a picnic lunch and the kids had fun on the huge playground for a while. Then they did two pinatas which of course the kids loved! The second one was a unicorn and after the second kid the rope broke off so they tied a noose around it's neck only to have the whole head fall off next! It was hilarious but thankfully Trace was finally able to put it out of its misery! Unless I get to know some people in the area that are with HOLT I don't think we'll be going again next year. It wasn't all that fun not knowing anyone. On our way home we stopped off at Aunt Chris's place to go for a quick swim. It felt sooooo good to get cooled off. The boys tired themselves out and Paige used me for an underwater jungle gym. Seems like we are having a contentedly busy summer - not chaotic just busy.

Life (just venting not whining)

It is starting to look like monthly or maybe bi-monthly updates are all I'll ever get around to! There honestly isn't much going on though. I am still trying to adjust to our new life. There are days when I just really wish we were back in Chicago. I miss the neighbors, the kids playmates, having Rick home in the evening, and just - our life. So I try to remind myself that the neighbors really weren't around all that much, the boys got tired of always having to play with someone else, Rick was generally crabby because he hated his job, and I desperately missed having family around! Life is never perfect and for now it is what it is. Rick is much happier which in turn makes the rest of us happier - or should. It is just incredibly hard to not be able to run to the grocery store for one quick item without hauling three kids, or to never manage to get the dishes done because I am barely able to get dinner picked up before it is time to get kids into bed. By the time I get everyone in bed and actually asleep it is at least nine - and I start by SEVEN! So then I stay up to have two hours of my own then am too tired to get up before 8:30 in the morning by which point the boys are fighting and Paige is whining (and justifiably since she is hungry and her brothers won't feed her!). Whew, that was one long run on! Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is that I probably expected too much of this move but generally I'm 99% happy we made it. A lot of the stresses from Chicago are gone which helps tremendously and if I can just get my kids to get along life will be all rosy! I ran into a mom at the library yesterday and when I asked how her summer was going she said, "oh, it been just w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l! We are having so much fun. How about you?" Uh-well, the boys are fighting constantly, I feel like all I do is yell and they don't listen anyway, I'm on overload, and oh-yeah, how many more days until school starts? Actually I just said, "well, it's going." What's wrong with me how come we aren't just having a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l summer?

I know, it's been a while!

The end of the school year is always so much fun. Teacher gifts to figure out, classroom parties, field day, 1/2 days... You get the idea! Caden's last 1/2 day is tomorrow and Trace is done on the 17th so we are almost there. Then I of course decided to throw in a trip to the beach with all three kids by myself! We packed that little Hyundai until we couldn't fit anything else in then hooked the bikes on the back and took off. It was supposed to be a beautiful weekend but true to the Long Beach Peninsula a cloud bank decided to sit there all weekend except for a couple hours late Saturday. It wasn't miserable by any means just not the 70+ degrees everyone else was having back home. Oh-well we had a good time anyway. It only took me about an hour and a half to get the fire going (and a whole bag of fire starters). It turns out that old, dry wood burns better than new wet stuff. Um, yeah I knew that at one time long before my mommy brain took over and made me look completely incompetent! Apparently I did a good job after that though because we got a really HOT fire going. The boys, of course being boys, were having lots of fun 'helping' me keep the fire going. About 8:30 we decided to drive down to watch the sunset, which was beautiful until the last ten minutes when the clouds blocked everything out. While we were sitting there waiting Caden asked me to look at his hair and tell him what was in it because it felt sticky "or something". I took one look and immediately started laughing - he had somehow managed to scorch the top of his head! Trace and I were laughing but Mr. Style was so embarrassed that he was crying. I took a couple of pictures (against his will) which he grudgingly smiled for. I'm still getting a chuckle out of that one. We spent over 4 hours on the beach Saturday hunkered down in the dunes to avoid the wind and the kids had so much fun. They dug until they couldn't dig any more and we all got a little sun on our cheeks. Well, on Sunday when we finally made it home we couldn't find Tigger who normally greets us at the door. I had my suspicions which were prooved correct shortly when we found him crying in the backyard. That darned cat thinks he should be an outdoor cat despite the fact that he has had no shots and has no coller. So now do we make him and indoor/outdoor cat? Or keep fighting an endless battle? So in short we couldn't start a fire, Caden nearly burned the hair off his head, and we left the cat out with no food or water for two days - but it was a great weekend!

Paige Singing Veggie Tales

"Hi Daddy!"

Paige just wanted to say "hi" to Daddy from her new slide. If it would quit raining and let the sun come out I'm sure she would be on it continuously! The only problem she has is with the "spiders" which can barely be seen but for some reason seem to freak her out - oh puuleees!

Memorial Weekend 2008