Feeling Philosophical

I road my bike along the river this morning....nothing special....just another day on my bike. I was alone today so the only person I could talk to was myself....I'm really good at that, by the way. Well, today, I forgot water. I told myself that it wasn't any big deal. I could handle the 15 mile ride without it...I was right...I did handle it....but I wanted water!

The whole ride took place right along the banks of the Columbia River. I was surrounded by water but none that I could partake of. I passed a park with a drinking fountain...it worked but just a small little stream came out and I wasn't willing to risk sucking on the mouth piece after who knows who. At the end of my ride, I stopped at the Hippie convenience store not far from where I parked....closed....couldn't get water. I ended up drinking my old water from yesterday's Taco Time lunch!

Here's where the philosophical part comes in. How many times do we want something so badly, we're surrounded by it, but it's still out of our grasp? Are you a smoker who has quit, a recovering alcoholic, someone with the right credentials for a job and your just waiting for the phone call to tell you YOU'RE HIRED! Whatever the case may be, it's a sucky feeling. The best we can do, is prepare our spirit and our minds and deal with things as they come.....ok, I never said I was a GREAT philosopher.

Memorial Day

We celebrated Memorial Day over the weekend....not necessarily on the day itself. This weekend was all about family. So fun....we mostly hung out at home but, man, we had a great time doing it!!!! Bob and Wendy came to town for the weekend and we enjoyed visiting with Aunt Lorel and Uncle Dan, Aunt Vera and Uncle Jim, and cousin Carol and her husband Gary.

On the News

Madison made it to television. Follow the link to see the story she is in.
Go to www.ksd.org and scroll down toward the bottom (under the photos) to where it says Desert Hills Middle School Student Store and click on it. A video will come up.

Yak Attack

So, by the title, did you think I was attacked by a yak? Come on, admit it....you did! Actually, the Yak Attack is a soccer tournament we spent all day Saturday at in Yakima where Caden and his team played 4 "speed" games of soccer. They were 24 minutes long on a smaller than normal field with a smaller than normal goal and less players on the field. I couldn't believe how intense the game was and felt!!!

The theme of the tournament was The Movies and Caden's team was called The Force. Each player was a different superhero and Caden was Dash from The Incredibles. We tied our first game and won the next 3 games. It was a fun day in the beautiful sunshine and I got to do one of my favorite things....watch one of my boys play soccer.

Dermahealth Ribbon Ceremony

Sid and Rosy and their kids are family to us....they are also our partners in our Dermacare Skin Care and Laser Clinic. Sid is a Dermatologist and opened up his own Dermatology clinic and surgery center called Dermahealth and today was the ribbon cutting ceremony. Congratulations, Sid and Rosy!

Guns and Gardens

Madison















Caden















Christian








Our three older kids are taking a hunter's safety course. It's 6 days of classroom for 3 hours a day and a Saturday range day which was this morning. The kids LOVED it. Madison is a really good shot! Caden was chosen by the instructor as an example because he said Caden did it perfectly keeping his finger off the trigger until time to pull and then taking it right of the trigger into the correct position. Caden thought he was in trouble when he was called up! I have video of it but can't get it uploaded right now.

Tonight, we planted our garden. We've been trying to plant for two weeks but between schedules and yucky weather, it didn't happen til tonight. We aren't excellent gardeners but it's fun.

Name Rankings

I read an article on CNN this morning that prompted me to do something kind of fun! If you go to www.ssa.gov, they have their annual list of the 1000 most popular names for kids for 2008. I plugged in our names to see how popular they were. Here's what I found.

Madison ranked 4th to come out on top in our family.
Christian ranked 23rd.
Caden ranked 95th.
Ken ranked 136. (I can't believe his was more popular than mine!)
Leslie ranked 147th.
Macy ranked 281.

Macy's name surprised me. I really thought hers would have beat mine and Ken's. Try it out. It's really fun!

The most popular name for girls was Emma and for boys Jacob.

Hood Park

My parents like to camp at Hood Park. It's not very far from home but it still gets them "away" when they don't have a opportunity to leave town to do it....plus they can commute to work if needed.

Last weekend, we went and spent the evening while they were camping. We had fun playing soccer, fishing, climbing trees, and our favorite.....EATING! I do love a good smore!!!!

Almost Brought Me to Tears

Today I had one of those MOMMY MOMENTS that brought me very close to tears. Now, to some of you, your going to go, "Huh?"

Caden had his last regular season soccer game at 8am this morning. I am truly a soccer mom. I love love love love love to watch my boys play.

At 9am, Christian had one of two games he was to play. His team was down a player and, in order to not forfeit, Christian's coach asked Caden to play. Caden is 8 and the boys on this team are 10 and 11 year olds.

Caden was very hesitant to play. He's practiced with Christian's team but he was nervous to play. With a HUGE push from Mom, he played.....and he was FANTASTIC!!! Five minutes into the game, Caden's nerves were gone as he realized he could play with the big boys. It made me so proud!!!! But that wasn't the MOMMY MOMENT.

The MOMMY MOMENT came when Caden made a sweet pass from the right side across over to Christian and Christian shot it in for the first goal. That was my MOMMY MOMENT. Christian and Caden ran up to eachother with big smiles and high fives. They did it....together. They did it two more times in that first game and couple more in the second.

My excitement wasn't so much for the fact that goals were scored....although that was fantastic. It was the common (excuse the pun) goal the two were going toward together and accomplishing....TOGETHER...and then celebrating....TOGETHER.