Grandma and pa visit

Ahhh...the peace and tranquility that abound in my house when the GRANDparents come to town.
Soccer games, walks, talks, jokes, stories, bike rides, ice cream...

It is so lovely to have them in town. In fact I find myself with free time and not knowing what to do with it.
The kids on the other hand, always enjoy the little extra TLC they get when they come to town. Poppy was quite sad when we only read THREE books before bed tonight...
Thanks for Making the trip guys! You can move right on in when every you want! That is, if we can get rid of the little mouse that seemed to like to scratch the wall by your bed...sorry!

View from Oscar's lens

Smiley...from Oscar's view.

Poppy...whats with her dress ensemble?? Can you tell that she has her arm through a hole in the dress?

And because I am rarely the one in FRONT of the lens. Here is a semi picture of the forth-coming bump. I know not the best picture, but it was last Thursday and Oscar was picture happy, and I happened to be the subject.
I wonder if all of the pictures we have of me in years to come, will all be from my kids stealing the camera???

In other news on "the bump" I had my Dr. appointment last week and I got to hear the heart beat. The Doc said she would bet it is a boy because it was so squirmy (not that it IS a boy). Doc said she will put in her notes what SHE thinks it is, and since we don't actually like to find out, she will see if she is right...who knows???
She also gave me permission to run the half marathon next month, if I'm feeling up to it. She said the only risk is falling and that if I feel like I have the skills then I can do it...We shall see.

Musings...

It occurred to me about ten minutes ago while cooking dinner, that although my blog is called motherly "musings" I really haven't done a whole lot of musing lately. I'm sure it is somewhat related to the lovely little being growing within my body, but still...I need to muse a bit more.

Here we go...we are musing...As the mother of our clan I have recently been on this roller coaster of ups and downs. Ups because I have two great kids who really do love me but downs because sometime they hate me too.
Currently we are up...They are happily playing together outside (and have been for the past hour) . Contentedly they are making up games, sharing and keeping each other happy. I love it because I know that they miss each other lately because Oscar is a full time student, and I can't help but beam with happiness when they escape in to play land and love being together.
Then on the downs side...
Take for instance two days ago when the mother of the house had declared (early in the morning) that their rooms were a mess and would need to be cleaned before they were allowed a play day. To much weeping an wailing. Not to mention that BOTH of them explained to me in great detail that they do not know how to use their fingers to pick things up.
Oscar then informed me that he works much harder than I do and that i was the meanest of moms. I then explained that he coudl make dinner, so the laundry and clean up all of the other rooms int he house if he wanted to wage a worker war.
He informed me that he spent a lot of time at school in SCIENCE working on rocks!!!! It was very hard work!!!!!! (tune in the wailing and tone of injustice)

It was in this moment that I had a moment of clarity...here is my boy who indeed had had a very busy day at school with science. And was not allowed to do what he wanted to do all day long (like in the pre- 1st grade days). I suddenly realized that yes, he was indeed a hard worker and I love that, but I'm still NOT goign to be the one to pick up all of his mess.
I even gave him the opportunity for help by telling him to separate his clothes in to clean and dirty and then i would help him pick up the piles.

Finally, after a couple of hours. He hurried and finsihed things up and was done in 10 minutes.
That leaves the other 110minutes of play time totally wasted!

Poppy on the other hand still kept insisting that she did not know HOW to pick up the beads on her floor...I had already picked all of the clothes and the ONLY thing she had to pick up were her spilled beads. Alas, she took 3 hours and the help of a kinder, more gentle father who taught her how to use her fingers to pick them up.

It was a rough afternoon. Not to mention the fact that this mother had all sorts of fun things planned to do. I wanted us to do a fun trip to the library as a family, take some cookies to a friend, and have a fun FHE. All of which I tried to bait my kids with and was totally unsuccessful.

I suppose that is how it goes...I don't want to be the bad guy (truly I do not), and I certainly would have loved to help my kids with thier rooms, had they not been willing to help me. And at the end of the day I hope they have learned this lesson becasue next time...I really want to go play!

Day Four and Five...

Ahhhh, Sunday we decided to head back north to another set of tide pools. These were in the Ecola park area. We ended up at Indian beach. It was beautiful, and once again we were reminded that if you indeed want a great beach...follow the surfers.
The tide pools were great! Tons of rocks and we got there a few hours before low tide and had a lot of time for exploring. This was by far the best exploring spot. The rock pools were everywhere and the rock crabs were fun to chase.
Oscar spent from 9:30 am -2pm scouring the rocks. I finally convinced him that the tide was coming back in and that we should explore some other areas.
Poppy found a little fresh water spring shower, just her size. It was really cold water and she would run in and out of the spring.
We had forgotten sunscreen and because it was so warm compared to the other days, I had dressed the kids a bit too warm. They decided to wear their swim suits and we all got a bit baked!
It was really warm and very beautiful.
Oscar is standing at the look out above the beach. The rocks in the back ground were the tide pool rocks, after the tide came back in.
We went back to camp to once again shower and head off to dinner. We had a half way decent sea food dinner in a little town outside of Nehalem. It wasn't the best but it filled our bellies sufficient to sleep well that night.
Oscar had looked forward to a camp fire the entire trip and so as the last night there, we decided to have one. I asked him if he would rather have ice cream and watch the sunset or have a fire and smore's...

The fire won out. We still watched the sunset and enjoyed a beautiful evening on the beach, and then went back to camp for a fire.
Oscar ate a bunch of smores and then ran around camp playing with other kids, while Ricky poppy and I enjoyed the fire. It was nice. So, for those of you who think we really weren't "camping" since we watched dvd's and ate out everynight, you can be appeased that we had a fire at least ONE night.
The point of our vacation isn't exactly the camping...it is finding ways to spend the most amount of time on the beach. We do this by not havign to spend hours cooking food over the fire, and by not needing a fire because we spend so much time exploring that the DVD viewing is merely a means of mellowing out for bed.
The kids get so worn out and it is all about living these few days to the max.
Then, you wake up and it is time to go home... we pack the car and we head down the road.
At the end of day five, we are back in our own snuggly beds.

Way behind in the blog world...

Ummm...lentil chili. This is actually a post that should have been finished a week ago...alas my friends (my few readers) you get things a bit behind schedule these days.
The one thing that is VERY notable about the Lentil festival, is that it seemed to be the beginning of some better energy/not-so-nauseated days! I'm thinking it was the lentil chili. More scientific evidence will have to be conducted but really, after that lentil chili I have felt SIGNIFICANTLY better!
So much better, that I have actually gotten my Lazy rear off the couch, and have pick up my beloved past time of running.
I did have to recruit the newest locals to come support the cause of the lentil fest 5k. They were great sports and so fun to hang out with! I figured since I wasn't up for the 100k Tour de Lentil, I might as well run the 5k.
And as withl many of these small-town races, when you have a crappy race time and stick around for the awards, you discover that you actually placed 3rd your my age group! Not so bad for a prego-post morning sickness mom. Truly it was a pretty small pool...but it made me feel better. Maybe placing in my age group is the cure???
We then ventured down to the lentil festival parade and festivities. It was the first year we have actually experienced the ENTIRE lentil festival (short of the lentil pancake breakfast). Wyllie Gustafson was there, and if you have been a reader for a while you will already know that i am a lover of yodeling!!! And especially our local Yodeler. He was great and I loved watching Ricky and Poppy enjoy the music.
After Poppy's day of Lentil festivities you can see that snowcones, cotton candy, and parade candy to not make for a very nutricious diet. Thus the sugar low melt down.
This picture actually was her response to the lentil chili...do you think she liked it?

All good times at the lentil Festival. If you are ever in town in late August you'll have to stop by.

Dog days of summer...

(Poppy girl happy as a clam in the mud!)

I'm currently wrapped up in a warm blanket posting a blog about the toasty days of summer...Why you ask am I bundled in a hoodie and blanket? Let's just say that this summer mama is not accustomed to the 60 degree weather we have had for the past few days...therefore i will indulge in a little bit of some warm day recap!

(And here is clam #2 Ivy bug basking in the muddy goodness)

If there is one thing that can be said about summer, it would be the copious amounts of food snacks that get devoured at all hours of the day. In fact, as you can see all of these kiddies are loving the treats that us three mommies had to share. In fact I think there is an unspoken rule that if you are meeting for a picnic with friends be sure to include extras so that it can become a snacking feast.
Oscar ate nearly nothing (aside from the brownie Betina brought)...he was much more content swimming or laying in the sunshine.
And what summer on the Palouse could be complete without seeing a bit of the food chain. Here we see a barge full of the Palouse gold...wheat! So cool to see the wheat go from the green stubble in the spring, to the golden flowing fields in July, to the combine, grain truck, barge, bag, and then...to my wheat grinder where I always love to open the flour catcher to a dust of freshly ground flour.
There is something special about living amongst such active agriculture. I love it!

Now if this Pregnant mother could learn how to cook again, we might be in business. Seriously I think my family may throw me out and never let me come back! i wouldn't call myself a Fabulous cook, but I have been known to cook some tasty food, that is when my taste buds are in normal order. Let's just say last nights dinner was not so great. It may have something to do with the fact that I CANNOT taste test the food during preparation without it becoming a black listed food.
Sad dinner days at the Edge house...fair warning to all who dare to share a meal at this house!! That is, unless Ricky is on duty and then all is well.

Catching up...

The Fix...Poppy's new cut reminds me of the lovely 70's haircuts. It does blend a bit better but knowing her Edge family hair genetics...I'm afraid it will be quite some time before we see the sight of golden locks. On a side note, I"m not really surprised that she cut her hair. Evey time we cut Oscars hair she says she wants to buzz her's off too. Crazy girl.

In Spokane last Saturday while at the Riverfront park, Poppy was giving Rick and i some big fish stories...this is her in action. She is so animated!
Big Boy news in the edge house: Oscar earned his new bike! It even has gears!!! I am constantly amazed at how far and fast this boy can ride. Monday when riding to meet Rick from work (6mi round trip) he says "Mom but I wanted to go for a real LONG ride..."

He seems to never tire...he even can climb our entire hill (which is no easy feat) and has mastered going to and from our house to school...for those of you who have been here, you know what kind of hills he has to climb to get there.

I love that he loves his bike so much. The only hard part is that he wants to do it every waking minute. Here he is just before the purchase...can you see the look of anticipation and annoyance at his mother trying to get the last shot of him on the green fire bike?

Lastly (but certainly not a comprehensive catch up) we got our first tomatoes from the garden this past week. Ummmm....nothing quite like a fresh homegrown tomato.
Other things harvested: Beets, Basil, lettuce, spinach, and strawberries.

Out and about town

(Weekly ride to the Farmer's Market in Moscow)

This summer has been a summer dedicated to more biking. You may or may not know that I had a hip issue that still isn't quite back to normal. Therefore, this summer I have determined to make it a bike about town summer.
Oscar is a camp on his little bike and despite the fact that he has a single speed, tiny chain ring, he peddles that little bike about town. It is about 2-3 miles each time we ride down into town and we have lately been doing it pretty much daily. That doesn't even count the miles he rides behind mom and dad's bike. (I think Saturday he rode 20 miles behind my bike and then an additional 3 on his own!) This boy was born to ride!
We are looking into possibly getting him on a bike with gears. It shure would help him out with our big hill we live on.
Currently we try to set a goal each time we ride our hill. We count the Lampposts. So far he has made it to lamppost #4. Lampost #6 is almost at the top. Somedays are better than others, especially depending on how much he has worn himself out at the pool.
The other day he and I were riding down our hill (it was 97 degrees outside) and I thought to myself, wow it dosen't even feel that hot out here. The bikes really create more wind and it makes riding around town much more comfortable than riding in a hot car!
Poppy on the other hand is quite content to ride behind me in the trailer. Here is a picture of her priming in front of the mirror.
The other day while she was screaming in the store, one of my spinning students saw us. Yesterday in my class she commented on how well behaved Oscar was...and that Poppy sure seems to be feisty...Yeah I think so.
Sunday we spent the afternoon reading some books and enjoying some Jello in the back yard.
FHE @ The pool. What better place to hang out as a family than at the pool.
Not to mention that dad make a great fish friend. Oscar loves to be a fish too. He even goes off the high dive (which I belive is 12 feet).

I lvoe being a mom to my two cute kids. This summer seems to be super full of fun activities and things to do that it seems we are all exhausted by the end of the day.
Today we opted to hang out at home and catch up on some house work...I think I woudl rather be out playing.

Summer Break!

The past two weeks of summer have been jam packed with all the fun we can stuff into a day.

Picnics at the parks...

Playing by the Poppies...

Biking all over town (notice the new member to the bike family! By new blue commute about town bike!)...

Hiking at Klemgard Park

Hiking at Kamiak Butte,

Playing with baby goats at our friends farm,

Daddy's been kissin' the lamas...

Klemgard park hiking

Poppy Playing at the park

This is all unorganized and mush mashed together...and it doesn't even include pictures from the frog pond, the library, the movies, the farmer's market, the walks for ice cream, etc. That is because it is too much work to re-format it all and to get it all on here. Suffice it to say that we have been so busy lately that I haven't had the energy to post much. I'll try to do better.
Oh, and I have been taking an adult "Hip Hop" class this week and have been refining my dance groove! :0)

*&$%# SNOW!!!!!

Do these peonies look happy to you??? Yeah, they look like how I feel about this snow storm!

My poor, poor garden!

This was before the weighted collapse.

Oscar and Poppy were excited to get the snow gear out again.

For the record today is in fact JUNE10th! My tomatoes that I have painstakingly taken care of since February, are in the ground. The basil was going nicely and it was finally looking like we might actually get summer...
I have had a cold for the last couple of days and in my sickly-sleepy brain I heard Rick tell me to look outside...It's snowing!!!!
I seriously was hoping that I was still in dream world, but alas I placed my spectacles on my face to discover that is was in fact SNOWING!
After trying to find some plastic to rescue the poor plants, I ended up using our bed linens, a kiddie pool, gunnie sacks, and anything I could find to try to protect them. And when they were finally caving in from the weight of the snow, I had to come up with plan B. I began using buckets from the garage (which I should have thought of in the first place!) and removing heavily weighted bed sheets.
I don't know if I was able to save them...I know there are definitely some that I could not save or cover. I just hope that the majority will pull through! I have a feeling that our local nurseries are going to find a bunch of tomato plant customers in the next few days.

Now, I hesitate to even say this out loud for fear of being cursed...but please, please, please, I AM READY FOR SOME WARM WEATHER!!!!!
I want to leave the snow clothing in the cupboard for at least 4-5 more months. I want to place the snow shovel in the very back of the shed and I don't want to see it for a very long time!!! I want to lay by a nice warm pool and watch my kids play in the water. I want to see big healthy tomato plants growing in my garden, I want to ride my bike without getting my feet wet! I want to wear flip flops and shorts without freezing my extremities...is this too much to ask?????

Oodles of catch-up

Wet, rainy ride.

When a group of mom's have their children cared for, and have scheduled a ride, they won't easily be persuaded to forfeit it due to a little(or a lot) of rain. Thus we freeze our appendages, and huddle like bunnies on bikes just to be out and enjoying being alive. We did cut the ride shorter than the planned 42mi. We will settle for 25 (The return half with a headwind and strong rain).

This is the garden progress...ahhh, to see things getting green. I am seriously considering getting a air-soft gun for Ricky's father's day present, to fend off the ravenous bunnies. They are not adhering to the liquid fence rules!!! We are going to have to call in for reinforcements. Our Home teacher said he would shoot them, but he can't in city limits....darn.
Smiley has been fired of bunny duty...he is NOT doing his job!!!
Ahhh...the new chariot. We have seriously been breaking in our new Jogger/ trailer. Kids love it, and the parents like to push/pull it.
Goal for summer: Master pulling the tike's to the top of our hill, without being breathless. Going nicely thus far, but looking forward to the giant Quads I will have at the end of summer.
Oscar's class field trip to the High school's "AG days" Yes, this brought back many FFA memories. A little uncomfortable to remember those awkward days of the past (notice cowboy clad HS student in his "cowboy-up" cool gear and his sweet pair of aviators to round out the outfit, yikes!).
Oscar seemed to love checking out the tractor. Maybe Rick will live vicariously through his son when he decides to become a farmer.
And since we can't be real farmers, we make it a hobby in the back yard. The seven chickens are growing up nicely, however they seem to be racist. The golden ones leave out our black and brown ones. They will pick on them and will keep them from getting food. Luckily the two outsiders are feisty and can hold their own. Oscar is a good caretaker and loves to catch, pet and care for them.
This is also the sad picture of the going away dinner for the Weikins...we will miss their fun family (and delicious bike treats). Otis (on the far right) enjoyed playing with the chickens too...maybe his parents will get some chickens when they get to Vermont???
Frog hunt! Lately we have been frog hunting. Current frogs caught total is 4. No we haven't brought them home, merely catch and release.
Rainy frog hunt. Due to the cold rainy weather we just had to get out of the house. No frogs were found this day...too cold. We were cold too, but happy to be out and about.

Life is full of busy fun times lately and I always think of a million things I want to post. Then it requires me to actually sit down do it...I'll have to work on that. In the meantime, you can rest assured we are in fun spring-time mode and look forward to school ending this week and having the summer (if it ever gets warm around here) to play!