What are you grateful for?

I'm grateful to have friends and family who love me and support me in my decision and do everything in their power to help me plod along.

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Women!

Why on earth do we have to have so many of the annoying things to deal with. We get menstration which why is something that happens every month to a woman have to be called "men"stration? I mean what does a man have to do with that? Not only do we bleed but we get to deal with unbearable cramps, bloating and irritability but when we get to be without all that we get to be pregnant. I mean come on we get to go through the pregnancy with all the anxieties that come with it not to mention the morning sickness that can occur, plus we get to actually go through the birthing I know I know some women believe it is most wonderful thing in the world, well I'm not one of them.

LOL I mean I am glad I had my babies but I totally could have done without all the rest what it takes to get them here. Plus we get to worry about every cotton pickin' thing ... I mean how do we turn our brains off? I could do on but there is nothing I can tell you that you probably don't already know about women LOL I really just want to say teach us to be more like men and we'll gladly give you a awful trait we got stuck with.

Words to live by

Those of you that know me, know how much I love song lyrics. I love all kinds of songs for many different reasons, this song to me is so inspirational. You may have heard the song and never really listened to the lyrics then again maybe you have. I love the lyrics of this song because they are words to live by so my song for you all to embrace is:

Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten

I am unwritten,
Can't read my mind
I'm undefined
I'm just beginning
The pen's in my hand
Ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten, yeah

Oh, oh

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries
Are outside the lines, oh yeah yeah
We've been conditioned
To not make mistakes
But I can't live that way oh, oh

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
the rest still unwritten

(Gospel)
Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live you life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins

The rest is still unwritten

The rest is still unwritten

Inside Tapiola Park

Here is a look down into one of the Victorians


Our truck out one of the windows in one of the Victorians.


A nod to the shipping industry, a tug boat for the kid'lls to play in.


If you go to Astoria you can ride the trolley that goes along the river front, my kids totally enjoyed their trip with daddy, here is the trolley in the tot's section (Fort Clatsop area), Zachy looking out at mama.


Here I am sitting on a bench in the Fort Clatsop area looking back towards the park.


Just a view of my kids playing just inside the Fort Clatsop entry...yes that is my biggest kid on the left hiding from our children.

Tapiola Park part 2

This is a view from the backside of the park where you park your rig. I took it in three shots to give you full idea of where things are.

Looking down near the Free Willy tribute, you can see the swings off behind it then over by the playground you see one of the slides coming out.

Here you can still see a little of that slide, the entrance using the Astoria-Megler Bridge and just on the other side of the bridge is the (pirate) ship climbing wall all the way over to one of the Victorian houses.



This one is from that same Victorian house down over the kiddie area that is in Fort Clatsop area.


This is an over view from inside the playground. Yes Scott and I were both in the middle of this playground with the kids.

Here is the view of going in, at his point I am past the Astoria-Megler Bridge looking towards what I am guessing is a nod to the Astoria Column, you can see that same green slide going out of the play area.


You can see Scott down with the kids here, viewing from up near the Flavel House down towards the Fort Clatsop area.


In my same location this view is back towards the backside of the ship climbing wall towards one of the many Victorian houses.

Tapiola Park part 1

We found the coolest kids play structure on our last camping trip. Well we didn't find it like it was hidden but I found this book on Astoria, as I was browsing through it I came across the mention of this park. I thought it sounded pretty cool so I programmed it in as part of our stops for the day of exploring. This park has won awards, I can totally see why. When designing this park they asked kids what they wanted in it so in essence the kids helped design it and it has many of the sites from Astoria replicated to play in.

The Flavel House tribute


Fort Clatsop tribute


Free Willy tribute


Astoria-Megler Bridge tribute


Ship tribute: this could be due to the Goonies ending ship or it could just be towards all the history Astoria has in the shipping world, you decide.

"Calgon take me away!"

Ever have one of those days when you just want to cry?

My daughter is giving me a run for my money. Zach had the terrible two's which to be honest were a breeze. I think the worse thing we had to do with him was work on him with animals. I know he just wanted to play with them but he thought it was funny to push them off the couch or where ever they were purched. Time outs worked with him.

Zoie on the other hand was a breeze through her two's. I was beginning to think this parenting thing wasn't so bad. LOL Then the horrific three's came. YIKES Am I being recruited for that Nanny show? OH yes that has so crossed my mind, but like I want my disgustingly dirty house on TV for the world see, or worse my hiney LOL! She really throws the worst fits I have ever seen, well I've seen some good ones on TV but man where are they coming from? They started with just one on a very rare occasiion, then as time has progressed they seem to creep in more and more.

I've tried time out: I take her to her room, she comes right back out, I put her back she comes right back out {mind you she's screaming at me this entire time}, I put her back, close her door this time and repeat each time she comes out. OY the screaming would someone stop the screaming... please I beg you, no she isn't throwing a fit right now but the screaming just gets to me. I have even gotten down on her level to talk to her. I also tried holding her down while she was kicking and screaming repeating "fits get you nothing" over and over. All that got me was kicked and screamed at to get out, that fit brought me to tears. Which stopped her fit dead in it's tracks, asking to hug me and kiss me. Now some of you may be against spankings but I have even tried a spanking to stop it, all that does is make me feel worse for feeling I had to resort to that form of punishment.

I was talking with Doris about different game plans. Since the above are obviously not working for us. For one the two of them are in this "competition" constantly telling me "boys first" "no girls first" "no boys first" ...repeat until mommy's head spins around. This I am going to take a page out of Doris' parenting book and make a calendar each day with either have a "boy" or a "girl" on it, the one that is on will get first everything for that day. First choice, first to brush teeth, first to do chores etc...obviously they will change as the ages do. I am hoping this will assist me with the fits, this way I can refer to the calendar for those fits that stem from "girls first", "Is it a boy or a girl on the calendar?"

I got these little dollar tree teacher aids that are 2x8 in size that she can stick stickers too, each day give her 6 stickers. Each fit gives mama a sticker, if she ends the day with say three stickers she gets a Dora to put on the sticker card. Once the card is filled up she can go with mama or daddy to the dollar tree and pick out a toy.

Now of course I am such a procrastinator so I haven't done anything yet but yesterday she threw a fit and as she was doing it I went out and got a gogurt and gave Zachy a frozen gogurt and said here you go Zachy you get this because you are being such a good boy. She stopped her fit after a few minutes of more no Zachy doesn't blah blah blah... For the rest of the day she asked for a gogurt and I stood strong and said no you threw a fit, fits get you nothing. Today we managed to go all day with no fits. She got a gogurt after nap today.

Now I ask you, have you had these kinds of fits? If you have how did you attack them?

What have YOU been up to?

I've been working on my trailer we picked up off craigslist...you can find some good deals on there!

Here is our new baby...



Here are some inside views

(before)looking into trailer from doorway



(before)looking from front couch towards doorway/bathroom



(before)shower stall, previous owner added fishies



After views:

Since the previous owner had added fishies to the shower stall I wanted to add some whimsy in the bathroom so I found this fabric to use on the bathroom windows, they are hard to see but I added two fish buttons in the middle of the curtain to keep them shut.



I decided on plaid for my curtains and denim to cover the cushions.



the plaid has yellow in it which I wanted to incorporate the countertops & appliances



After we made all the cushion covers except the largest one for the couch; the cushions were all sewn together so it would have been hard to make one I got a brainiac idea to look for a futon cover for it and to my surprise I found one in denim. I was beyond estatic over my find!