Bear Out There! Part 3

Not to bore anyone to death about the bear subject, but I don't have any local friends yet. I can't call someone and be like, "Oh my gosh! I just saw a bear!" or anything.

But I did!

Once again, My Pathetic Doberman alerted me to the presence of something in the woods. My babies (IJ, S, and E) were playing right out in front of the house, not too far from where MPD was guarding. I called, "All kids in the house!" which I told them was a command they had to obey, especially when the dog was barking. I wasn't sure what she was barking at, but I didn't want to take any chances.

I got my pellet gun, just in case Rocky the Pit Bull was lurking nearby. When the kids and dog were safely in the house, I stood quietly and listened. I could hear loud, slow crunches in the woods near the pond. Then I heard splashing. And I could see him! He raised his head and looked at me! George the Dum-Dum!

I tell you, Flight or Fight responses are crazy! I felt like something in my stomach pulled me back toward the house. I guess I will have to keep the kids inside until My Good Doberman tells me its safe out there.

Bear Out There! Part 2

This morning, My Pathetic Doberman was heard barking on the hill. She came when she was called and was obviously upset. M thought she saw a deer. Or a bear. She was an extra alert whenever we went out to play today and did annoying things like bark at the wind. Here is one of the trails leading up to the Upper Pasture:

Now, I posted earlier that the big garbage can water storage idea didn't work. So M invested in some Ooze Tubes to keep his precious baby trees hydrated.

Mr. Bear found those too. Perhaps he thought they were big juicy donuts! You can see the perfect imprint of his teeth:Now the trees are fenced and we will see if the bear is too lazy to get through the fence for a drink of water.

Here's our house!And here is who came to visit tonight:My Pathetic Doberman saw him from the back door and gave a warning bark. M grabbed the camera and went outside to sneak up on him and take this picture. E thinks we should name the bear Dum-Dum because he pulled up one of the baby trees. M thinks we should name him George because he is very curious.

Grass Fire & Enjoying the Pond

One of IJ's first memories is when we had a grass fire in the summer of 2005. We were burning and the fire escaped the fire ring. I was changing S's diaper when IJ said, "I smell fi-yah!" in a funny voice. I looked up, saw the smoke, leaped over a baby gate (pregnant with E) and put the fire out with a garden hose. Small fire, no big deal. Same thing happened yesterday.

This time M said, "A, go get a bucket!" while he ran to the back of the house for the hose that didn't have holes. I said, "S, go get a bucket!" because I was busy soaking an old towel to beat out the flames (Ma Ingalls style) with the water coming out of the holes in the hose. S ran and got a bucket and filled it at the hole in the hose while I was putting out the flames. He ran his little bucket down to me and I poured the few inches of water on the little fire. The fire was out in just a few seconds; really, there wasn't anything to worry about. But S was so proud of himself for helping. M decided since the hose was already turned on, he would water his pear trees. S helped him, and every few seconds he would mutter wonderingly to himself, "I'm a hero!"
I've been working too hard. So I decided that I would work on unpacking and organizing for the first half of the day and play with my kids the second half of the day. Yesterday M and I took them down to the pond for some swim time. It is really neat having our very own pond! I wanted to capture some cool animal tracks with the camera, but all I found was this bull frog:We discussed swim lessons again. But I don't really want to drive for an hour (one way)to get to a real pool twice a week. So this is how the kids are going to learn how to swim:And we can't have a day at the pond without tormenting My Pathetic Doberman! M has never had a doberman that would fetch. Or willingly go into the water. But this one will go into the water to retrieve her toys. So we throw the toy farther and farther out, to see how deep she will go:

Adventures in Moving: Part 5

Combining homes is always hard. Before I left the old house, I gave all my nice glass plates to L. This is why:I now am the proud owner of all these plates. And there are at least two more china sets (one plain, one super fancy) in the cupboard. How can one person accumulate so many plates? Well, one person can't. The blue and white at the bottom left was my grandmother's. The blue, white, and brown above it was my parent's. The yellow and whit in the center were from M's parents moving to Colombia and their belongings getting delayed for so long, they had to buy new furniture etc. The other three sets belonged to M's grandparents and parents. M's parents used to entertain, way back in the day when military officials and their wives were expected to host large parties. So they have many different kinds of flatware to fit those occasions.

Party anyone?

"I'm a Kite Ripper!"

We managed to unearth our kites this evening! We flew them, running up and down the pasture, until IJ ripped one and yelled, "I'm a Kite Ripper! WAH!" Okay, so he didn't cry. But we had a lot of fun.

Adventures in Moving: Part 4

The big day came... and went... so quickly that details escape me. I remember being completely panicked when five testosterone-driven men starting hauling my furniture out of my house...I remember nodding in agreement that we should just "get things done," and "move." By evening, M was tossing loose things in on top of the furniture and nicely packed boxes. Garbage bags were stuffed with clothing and anything still loose in the house.But I just don't remember what went into each box/bag and where those boxes are now stored at Twin Firs. I did find my mixer and cookbook today under the desk in the garage. Can you believe the size of this truck? And it was full even after we brought a 14 foot truck down a few weeks ago... I showed up at Twin Firs a few hours after M and missed the first part of the heavy unloading. This is how I found him (inside the truck):Because of the hectic departure, we did forget a LOT of stuff behind, including the contents of my entire spice cupboard! Thank goodness the new owners didn't move in the next day and L could get in through the broken garage door!

I do not recommend quick moves. Now we have to sit around and wait for the new carpet to be installed in about a week. We are carpeting four rooms, so all the furniture for these rooms has to stay outside until then! All so the new family wouldn't have to camp out.

Bear Out There

After two trips to Twin Firs in two days, I am a bit exhausted. We thought traveling at night would get us to Twin Firs faster, but we didn't realize the highway was under construction. We rolled in about 1:30 am. And Grandad woke us up before 6:00 am because there was a bear in the pasture!

We have rain barrels around the property so we can water our special trees in the summer without dragging hoses for fifteen acres. But this last week M saw that someone vandalized our water barrels! To the point where they no longer hold water!

So we went on a bear hunt.

And found that someone with big teeth has been chewing on our rain barrels and squashing them flat!And I don't think it was this guy:who can barely (bearly?) chew his food now that his front teeth are falling out!

All Packed Up...

...and ready to go! The Big Day will be Sunday.

M, IJ, and S all had one more Taekwondo test this last week. They all passed! I'm especially proud of M, who tested for his third degree black belt. For every degree, one has to take several Level tests. So earning another degree is like earning a whole entire black belt all over again, only harder! M is now the highest ranking student at our local dojang, and there are only two people who can adjudicate his tests from now on. Leaving Taekwondo is really hard for us. I think we are going to work out a way for M to keep coming up to judge promotions and train under his Master here.

Goodbye Cub Scouts! Goodbye Favorite Beach!

I feel like we are starting to check off our "Before We Leave We Want To..." list.

Last night we had our final meeting with the local Cub Scout pack. IJ crossed over from being a Tiger to being a Wolf. S became a Tiger. And I got a special award for my service (the neon cape)! I was really sad to say goodbye to the people that I have only known for one year.On the way out of the park, I remembered that we were one of the places that M and I spent a lot of time working together before we got married. It is also the same place M conducted the work that earned him his Master's degree. So I took a picture of our kids on the bridge (where M first winked at me). Not to get mooshy or anything!And today, during the appraisal of the house, we all went to our favorite beach. This beach has always been special. It is where M used to take L and A when they were little girls. It is where M and I used to stroll before we were married while we dreamed of our future together (mooshy! mooshy!). It is where L dropped IJ in the sea when something bit her. Its where our favorite family picture was taken. Today was F's first day walking on the beach by herself.We found all sorts of cool things under rocks, and M and I played our favorite game of who can name the most marine invertebrates by scientific name. M always wins. Pisaster (near E's feet in this picture), by the way, is the purple sea star.As the kids exclaimed about what they found, my joker hollered, "Look! I found SAND!" His brother found a crab and chased him gleefully, making S scream.
My Pathetic Doberman drank a bunch of salt water and got sand in the peanut butter and barked at seagulls. You can't beat a day like that if you're a dog!

Why Everyone Needs to Know Math

The other night, M was groaning about all the work he still had left before we could have a proper home inspection. How could he possibly finish the porch and install the new sink faucet at the same time? I said, "I can install the sink faucet for you." M scoffed at the idea of me doing anything hardware-y, even though I spent a few years working customer service at a hardware store. I considered his scoffing a challenge and decided that I would indeed prove that I can install a sink faucet just as well as he could (and probably without bad words and extra trips to the hardware store).

I started by reading the instructions (this right here is where we differ in our methods). Step 1: Remove old fixture. Fair enough. But how? Well, there was no way I was going to ask how. I had to do this on my own. But then the light went on... all I had to do to remove the old faucet was read the installation instructions backwards! Oh, ho! I am a smarty! So I started with Step 6: Attach water supply hoses. Which meant un-attaching the water supply hoses. And turning off the water. Which I wasn't strong enough to do. Which was the first time I had to call M in from his deck building to help.

Step 5: Attach faucet to sink using bolts. Which mean un-fastening the old faucet from the sink by removing the old bolts. Which were rusty. So I went looking for wrenches. I looked in four different tool boxes and finally found them in a plastic shopping bag outside on the deck. I rummaged through the bag and found a wrench that seemed to fit well enough (size 12 mm). The second bolt was too rusty to fit the 12mm wrench. I found a 10 mm wrench, but that was too small. I needed a wrench that was 11 mm. Easy enough; I understand millimeters. I had to call M again. He decided that we needed to use the circular end of the wrench to get the rusty nut off the bolt and started fitting: 1/2 inch wrench was too small and 5/8 inch wrench was too big. What size is between 1/2 and 5/8? [This is when we have to remember how to convert fractions to common denominators] If our wrenches were in properly marked spots, we wouldn't have to do math. But to the organizationally challenged individual, math is a valuable tool. The answer was looking for the 7/16 inch wrench.

After a long, drawn-out, awful search of the whole house and a threatened trip to the hardware store, I found the 7/16 wrench on the desk, right in front of the computer monitor in plain sight. Sigh...M goes back to the deck, I get back under the sink (photo courtesy of IJ). M comes back in because he ran out of screws [this is when one would count how many screws they need per board and multiply that number by the number of boards]. And he has to go back to the hardware store. While he is gone, I finish installing the new sink. All I have left is re-attaching the water supply hoses. I attach the hot water with no problem, but the cold water hose is now too short! And M didn't bring a cell phone with him, so I couldn't call him and have him bring a supply hose home for me. So as soon as he walks in the door I say with a big grin on my face, "Well, now its my turn to go to the hardware store!"

My project ended quickly after that, with no drips or leaks. I'm very proud of myself. The deck project is still going strong, now on its seventh day. M is back at the hardware store as I write, picking up more 2x2's (I added extra screws and drill bits to his list). Yesterday we had to figure what would be more efficient: buying 10 or 12 foot lengths of board for the stair steps (which were cut too short the first time around). Today we had to figure how many more 2x2s we would need to finish the stair railing. Lots of math. Lots of measuring. Lots of multiplying, dividing, adding, subtracting, fractions, and geometry. Lots of algebra. Lots of patience and gas money. But check out this deck:
M is the best!

Temper, Temper!

Its hard to say where my kids get their feisty personality. But I'm fairly certain they get their temper tantrum throwing from me. F bangs her head when she gets mad. Here she is banging her head on the floor: I usually walk away from her when she does this; I don't want to reinforce her negative behavior (think dog training). But what a pain! She will do it in stores! To complicate things, she has a big red spot on her forehead: It makes her look like she is actually damaging herself. But this big red spot is actually from falling on cement, but still. She is driving me crazy with this habit. She has also started biting her siblings when they make her mad! I've never had a biter!

Boys Will Be Boys

Yesterday my kids had the best day of their lives. They got to spend the day at Rainbow Ranch with IJ's best friend (one of them) and his seven siblings. M and I came to pick them up around dinner time and ended up staying ourselves for a few hours! I can't believe it took us five years to get together for dinner! I love Rainbow Ranch. I want to live there too!

After dinner, IJ took one of the boys down to the field for some Taekwondo lessons. The boys (eight of them) ended up in a fighting match. IJ sparred three boys in a row, kicking and getting kicked, punching and getting punched, until my friend and I had to leave. Our husbands were watching the match, everything was under control, but us moms could not take another second of it. I could not believe how hard these kids were hitting each other and LOVING IT.

On the way home, I tried to understand why boys like this kind of activity and why their dads think it great. M said I would never understand.

I asked IJ this morning how he felt about the fighting yesterday. A grin sprang to his face and he said, "I loved it!" Even when he got punched in the eye.

And this is the same boy who did this:

She's Graduated!

Congrats to the Grad! And the Dad! They did it!

One of the Best Days of My Life!

Ding dong the porch is dead, the rotten porch, the ugly porch! Ding dong the rotten porch is dead!At this point what you see is in a pile in my backyard and a brand new porch has been built in its place!

So while we cooked with the door closed all day (to keep kids and pets from falling to their death), I tried to take cute pictures of my kids. I got this: and this: E is asking, "Can I please have some candy?"

This could have been the best picture of IJ until it was ruined:This could have been a really cute picture of F playing with shoes (until it was ruined):And this gobblin is who ruined my pictures and thought it was funny:And this is what I get for trying to have cute pictures of my boys:

But the best news is the people who offered on our house the first day it was listed, really want our house! They are paying the full asking price! But they want us out by the end of the month. That my friends, is in three weeks.

Gasp!

Sob!

Sniff.

Adventures in Moving: Part 3

We listed the house on Monday afternoon and had two offers by Tuesday night. Scary! M and I have been working madly to fix the little broken things and erase all evidence that people actually live in this house. I steam cleaned the carpets yesterday. My two biggest enemies are: At least the other three are happy playing video games all day and don't track in mud or spill food. But it helps that I won't feed them inside and won't let them play outside. Today I get to focus on keeping the kids out of the wet paint upstairs.

Adventures in Moving: Part 2

Our septic system passed inspection today and our house is now officially on the market! It is strange looking out the window and seeing the For Sale sign by the hedge M worked so hard to grow. Stranger still will be a 30 minute warning to get myself, my kids, and My Pathetic Doberman out of the house so a potential buyer can come see the house. Thirty minutes. I've read that every family should have a 30 minute plan in case of an emergency evacuation. But this is the exact opposite. Instead of grabbing essential food, water, and documents and leaving the toys where they fall, I'm going to have to be able to clean my entire house and find the shoes and the collar and the leash in under 30 minutes. I don't think it can be done, but we will see.

We spent another weekend at our new home finishing Grandad's room and releasing 1500 ladybugs: in our orchard: