Getting Older

For the first time in my life I feel old.

Last night, I found my first gray hair.

And my second. And my third.

There may be more lurking in the back, but if there is, my husband was being too kind to mention it.

OK, as I think about it, I don't actually feel old. At all.

But I feel like I must be getting old.

I mean I have *actual* gray hairs.

My reaction was surprising to both myself and C.B.

Because I definitely had a reaction.

I was really affected by this. I really can not believe it.

I kept searching my scalp, tilting my head to change the reflection of the lighting.... the grays were there, no doubt about it.

I didn't think I was the type to be bothered by this kind of thing.

And I'm probably not, really.

I'm just in awe that it's happening NOW.

I feel WAY too young to have gray hairs!!

So even though C.B. thought he was being funny this morning, don't call me Silver Fox just yet.....

I've plucked out all offenders.

I Have a Dream --by Luke L.

I have a dream that one day our earth will be clean and people would always recycle, and people would stop chewing tobacco and smoking, and I want there to be no gangs in the world.

I have a dream that people will keep recycling and those who don't will start. I want this earth to be clean so I want you to start picking up every piece of garbage you drop. I also want people to realize that our landfills can only hold so much so I want people to start recycling everything they can. Now I want to tell you our earth only lasts so long that we can't just leave our cars on for a quick trip in, we have to save our atmosphere so the best thing would be don't even ride a car, get on a bike if you can, or even better walk!

I want people to live longer so if you do anything involving tobacco stop! Smoking can kill you so if you know anybody who does, try to stop them. Now, stop chewing tobacco. I don't know if it can kill you or what, but I do know that it can be dangerous! This time it is the fact if you start it's hard to stop, and if you don't stop it could kill you, so don't start!

If you know a group of people who do bad stuff they're called gangs and you really don't want to be in or near one. First, gangs do graffiti which is vandalism. Next, gangs could really hurt you so watch out. Also, well just keep your eyes peeled because gangs can do some very bad things.

After you hear this I hope you recycle and don't do anything involving tobacco and keep out of and stay away from gangs. I hope you enjoyed my story about how I would like to change the world. The End.

-written by Luke

-MLKJr. Day (Jan. 18th), 2010

-4th grade writing assignment

(some spelling and a little punctuation was corrected for this entry, but the words are all Luke)

when has this ever happened....???

Today was the twins' 6th birthday party, and we decided to have it at Rodeo Lanes, the bowling alley here in town, since our lawn in the backyard is dead and the house is still not completely unpacked. (I'm quietly cursing all those who said to 'relax, it would take a year to move in'.... I have since slowed the unpacking process way down, almost to a complete halt...).

Anyway, back to the story....

Second game of bowling, girls (5 of them) on one side, and boys (4 of them) on the other lane. Caroline (Chelsea's cousin) bowls a strike, then Kelsey bowls a strike. Weird.

THEN....Reilly bowls a spare, then Callie bowls a spare.....and, yes, then Chelsea, bowls a SPARE!! Five little girls, all in a row. Yeah, I know....weird!!! We're talking 5 and 6 year olds here, with the exception of Caroline, but she can't be more than, like, 8!

Quick Comfort

Just a quick entry before I go to bed...

'cause, you know, I'm so good about blogging anyway.....

Tonight one of those great, warming parenting moments happened to me, and I really want to remember how awesome it felt....

Kelsey has been quite sick with a cold and congestion, and she definitely has the most trouble at night.  Tonight she was in and out of sleep while I was across from her room folding laundry.  At one point she got really worked up and was calling out, so I went into her room to see if I could comfort her.  I picked her up into my lap and snuggled a bit, and tried to ask what was bothering her, did she need a tissue or some medicine??  No response.....she was completely asleep, sitting up in my lap, hand resting on my chest.  That fast.  SO awesome.  I didn't want to put her back down, so I just held her for awhile and appreciated her.  Sometimes I feel with the twins that I rarely get special moments with just one of them.  Sometimes I feel that I don't really know each twin as an individual.  It was wonderful to connect with my little Kelse like that.  Gotta cherish these moments....

Isn't She Lovely?

I have wanted her for a long time now.  A laptop I can call my own, and not one of CB's hand-me-downs.

I decided to try a Mac.....and I am convinced (after 24 hrs) that I made the right decision.  I LOVE her!

I am excited to have a laptop that the battery won't fall out of and lose all my work.

I am excited to have a laptop that CB won't decide all of a sudden that it is the one that needs to be at the practice to support some function or another.

I am excited to have a computer where I can store all my photos and not have to worry about a kid downloading something onto it and glitching everything up.  A computer that doesn't just shut off or freeze for some unknown reason.  And a computer that will turn on again if it does get turned off!

She runs like butter and is so intuitive to use.

I LOVE her iPhoto!  And she's fast.

I hope I'm going to blog a lot more now....

All dressed up and nowhere to go.....

I have wanted to blog about these pics since I took them well over a month ago, but alas I have not made the time, as indicated by the date of my last entry. And I have been hearing about this from my 'blogger upline', so now I'm going to play a little catch up!!

On this particular day, the kids and I and Nana Ida (who was visiting from Corvallis), were all going to go for a little walk around our neighborhood to check out the new spring flowers. It seriously took us about a half an hour to get organized to leave. In that time, Miss Reilly got into the winter wear, found Luke's old Spiderman mitts and Canada flag hat, her winter boots, and her old back pack from Presby nursery school (they don't use them this year at Kids' Korner), complete with a snack or two packed inside. I don't know how long she thought this walk was going to take, but I guess long enough to need nourishment along the way.

Just as we stepped outside, it started to drizzle, and by the time we got down the length of sidewalk in front of our house, it was clear that the drizzle was turning into full-on rain. Since the rest of us were not dressed as smartly as Reilly, we decided to bag the walk for that day.

I couldn't resist snapping a couple (OK 12) photos though before we came in.

(PS - I think it's so funny that the junior-sized backpack is as big as her whole body! The twins may be small for their age, but they must be growing.....when they started at Presby at barely age 3, the backpacks went down to their knees!)

ooooohhh......I am going to have SO much fun with this.....

Make a slideshow - it's easy!