life flight (reach) helicopter:

This year's safety fair, held lat Saturday, had a BIG BIG attraction... Sure, we still had the fire truck and the police cars, and a K9 cop demonstration and the rescue boats, but this year we had a LIFE FLIGHT HELICOPTER!The crew was ready for Indiana, a helmet waiting just for him...Let's look a little closer at this helmet, just to show you what i mean by "ready": See... it's got his name right on the helmet!

Indy even got to take his turn in the co-pilots seat!

Honestly, it was just awesome! we enjoyed all the events and demonstrations, we learned a few new things... like how to make watermelon salsa! We watched firefighters climb a ladder truck, we watched the county k9 unit run through his commands, we enjoyed a massage from the local YMCA, and laughed our butts off as Oncle Nate put on the "drunk goggles" and tried to run the obstacle course.

On a different note...

Last night we had our neighborhood watch formation meeting... i have lots to do as leader of the new neighborhood, but its all worth it. We have a wonderful neighborhood. Most of the hard work has been done in the last few years, getting the drugs and alcohol out of our park and making it a safe place for our children to play, and all of us who live here have been getting to know one another.

off the course:

Although the pictures frame of reference may not be immediately obvious, it is my favorite amongst the pictures taken at the golf course today. Indy was looking through the "slice net" that protects innocent viewers from Oncle Nate's golf swing:

He's just a beautiful baby.

a good time was had by all:

We had a GREAT time bowling!

We received a coupon in the snail mail good for a free game at the local AMF bowling alley (up to ten bowlers, shoe rental not included). So, we loaded up into two cars with seven people and off we went! It was awesome, we danced under the black lights, and rolled balls down two lanes for nearly two hours! Anastasia took this video for us... and although normally it wouldn't see the light of day, since i am in it... bowling a big fat gutter ball, it is just so fun of Indy and his daddy that i had to share it. (Anastasia is a wonderful teen-aged neighbor girl of ours... Nate, his girl Volinda, as well as our fun neighbor Tina rounded out of group of rowdy bowlers.)

Tomorrow: the new Italian place in town!

its time for ten things about ME again!

Yes, that's right... the perpetually self absorbed mother of fabulous sons has decided once again to tell the world (ok the whole world doesnt read this mommie blog, but they should) some facts about herself:

1) I am 34 years old and it took me a damned long time to like myself, but now i do. I am not real concerned about people who dont.

2) I am returning to the world of higher education this fall, after a 13 year sabattical. I intend pursing my RN degree so that i can continue to care for my mother in law as her medical conditions deteriorate.

3) I do not currently have a valid drivers liscence. I didn't miss it until we bought the new PT Cruiser. now i think its time for me to drive again.

4) I am a slacker. There is always so very much for me to do, and often i dont get it done, just because... but thats ok, as i age, the memories of time on the porch with friends and family will be better than the memories of laundry washed and folded.

5) I am currently married to a southern redneck who can backyard barbeque like nobody's business. (i have been married a couple of other times as well, but they couldnt grill like chris can)

6) I go through periods of "obsession". I find a song i like and listen to it over and over, i find a place i like to eat and go no where else for days, i find an author i like and compulsively read all of their work.

7) Contrary to popular opinion, i am not an idiot. i have found the center for my focus and dont pay a lot of attnetion to things outside my mein. it works for me.

8) I currently reside in Oregon. I was born in this very town actually, although i have not lived here my whole life. i did get out, i just chose to return.

9) i cant think of very much else interesting about myself... but i can think of a millino things about my children... go figure.

10) i spent almost an hour trying to come up with 10 things about myself... and had to cheat on two of them, so i think i will now go think about myself for a while. oh wait...

Swing Baby!

It's all about Big Bad Voodoo Daddy tonight!

Riding Double:

Indy took his best girlfriend out for a gallop on the neighbors wooden horse. The two rode double up and down the sidewalk for ages, chasing butterflies and kittens and other children.
All the laughter and shouts of glee reminded me of my fortune that i am able to stay home with him, and not miss these moments.

Sometimes we grumble about not having that second income. It's hard to see our friends with extra cash to play golf or see a movie or buy a new CD; i feel bad that i cant afford to take my kids out to lunch or shopping at the mall, but really... it's worth it. There's always a picnic of homemade sammies (sandwiches) at the park across the street, and it's nearly free to walk to the lake a few blocks away and feed them old bread (there is a bread outlet near here that will sell a grocery bag full of "animal feed" bread for a dollar!). Ice tea is inexpensive to make and wonderful to sip on the porch.

So, we aren't living in a big house, with an even bigger mortgage. So, we aren't driving matching Expeditions. So, we spend less time in restaurants than our contemporaries... less time on the golf course than our friends. We have Indy, riding double with his girlfriend on a borrowed stick horse. I feel bad for my friends... i am sipping tea on my porch watching my baby play and grow and learn and share and THRIVE, they are at work.

Parkrose Paint Party '08:

We had a heck of a volunteer crew come out and help College Pro Painters!

We had a great time. There was a whole herd of us painting, talking, trimming, eating, babysitting and just getting together in a wonderful community effort to make our homes look beautiful. Even Indy got to do the painting bit...Honestly, it warms my heart to see our neighbors come out and help one another. Today it was suggested that we might do a small community vegetable garden next year. we have our first neighborhood watch meeting to start our group next month. and we have our community safety fair coming up, too! Great Things are happening in our neighborhood!

Oh, and I am being put forward as a resident/candidate to sit on our board of directors for our partnership housing community. Wow.

Keeping the boy(s) busy:

Well, Duck says (and i quote), "I DON'T DO WORK!"

Indy, on the other hand, had a great time painting. Our neighborhood partnership had lots of volunteers to paint the buildings in our community. We all received t-shirts, and a nice lunch was provided. Tomorrow the paint crew (and of course all of us neighbor-hood volunteers) will be finishing the trim on my neighbors home and beginning on our house! Hopefully i will have more and better pictures to share then.

WOW!

i LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture:

Duck, Indy, and Desiree... aren't they adorable! (i didn't take the picture, no. and for those not in the know: that pretty girl sitting next to my sons is Duck's girl.... i kept asking for a picture of them to share and he came through for me)

may you live in interesting times:

So, as i mentioned before, we all who live here were given notices that there were to be no fireworks in our community due to extreme fire danger. The neighborhood parents didn't listen and let their children play with fireworks anyway. Through their negligence and lack of supervision of their children, we had a small fire.
The children (not Indy obviously since he is only three and supervised to the nines) lit a firework that got away from them, scorching the back fence and fire-ing a small patch of running from the back fence clear to the back road. the fire department came out to put out the remaining flames and hot spot or two... Random passersby helped put out the fire on the road side, and neighbors with pitchers of water from their homes put out most of the fire on our side of the fence. It would have been easier to extinguish if our exterior faucets worked, but the property managers deactivated the faucets to keep residents from washing cars and having swimming pools or watering the back yards.

no one was hurt, and the culprit(s) were not formally apprehended, although all the children in the neighborhood are talking about who did it. The day following the fire, after the police, fire fighters and apartment managers had come and gone, all who were involved in talking to the police (again except us) had their cars vandalized, presumably by the fire-starter(s). I assume we were left unmolested because most of the children in the area adore Indy, accept me, and fear Chris's wrath.

Let's Catch Up:

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

condolences to a friend's family:

my explanation, quickly, of why i haven't recently blogged: the printer isn't hooked up to our pc at the moment... that's where the camera card reader is. thus, i cant access the pictures with the pc meaning i cant put up any new pics of Indy and Duck up here... and we all know the real reason ya'll come here isn't to hear me ramble, its for the pictures!

today i decided i would ramble a little and show an old picture of a friend.
I met David years ago. His cousin John was dragging him around somewhere, or maybe it was the going away party, or maybe later it was a bar. the "when" is lost in the mists. David was a nice man, with a big heart, who life didn't play fair with.
i heard this morning that he left us last night.
I will miss his occasional rides past my home: he would ride his bicycle around town, and if we were out on the porch he would pull up and chat. we had him over for a few bbq's last summer and he was even at the block party for labor day weekend '07 (that's when this picture was taken). We always waved when we saw him walking his sister's dog. We weren't close friends, but i feel the nice guy lost, just the same.
To his family and loved ones, I'm sorry for your loss.

posting

i havent posted lately... but i will, eventually i promise.

Avery Park, Corvallis:

We journeyed to the neighboring town to visit Avery Park . Avery is a 75-acre park on the Marys River which features a wonderful rose garden (with over 1200 plants), a beautiful rhododendron garden, a sweet 1922 mikado locomotive (rigged out to play on), unique playground equipment, trails to walk and bike, several covered picnic areas and ball fields, even a very large dinosaur bones sculpture! We had a wonderful family afternoon! Here are some of my favorite shots:

future hearthrob?

Those sensitive eyes and the "pouting" mouth, nearly a cupids bow; the silky soft hair, with its little "spike-y do"; the arches in those eyebrows, the strengthening chin. He's a mighty handsome three year old.

Yep, pretty soon the neighbors will be locking up their daughters.

things that make you go "awwwww":

Everyone likes to tease Indy.

Poor kid is going to have a complex, he he.

Anyways, Indy and Tooti have a running bit going in which Indy shouts "blow-y flower" and Tooti shouts "Dandy-Lion"! The two of them can go back and forth with this bit for AGES.

so. here he is blowing on whatever it is:

It really doesnt get a lot cuter than this.

keeping busy:

It's a good idea to keep your children busy; out of trouble! Make sure they have plenty of activities and learning games to keep them occupied. When that fails, make them wash the truck!Actually, our buddy Terry wanted to wash his truck before heading over to the thriving metropolis of Baker City,Oregon and he thought that Indy might want to give him a hand! We are having a bit of unseasonably warm weather, so we had a great time... Indy turned the house on Terry, so i enjoyed the visit.

today, Indy and his girlfriend played in the park on Indy's portable teeter totter... it appears that both of my sons have good looking girl-friends...

now if Duck would just share a picture of him with his girlfriend with me...

All in all... another nice walk through our little slice of the world.

There are wonderful flowers to see and smell on our walk to the lake; irises, daffodils, daisys, tulips, lots of flowers i cant identify, but my mother can...even some early roses!when we get to the lake there are critters to be fed! We enjoy feeding the geese... This time they acted like they hadn't been fed in a very long time! There were seven or eight geese all together when they accosted Indy, taking bread out of his hands and off the bench behind him, bumping and shoving him to get what they wanted. Finally they settled down into a more orderly group (including this little set of three in the photograph)...
When a six block walk includes: our green park, a beautiful blooming tree (or 5), more flowers than we can count, children on bicycles, a beautiful house that i would give anything to own (which is for sale but we just could never afford), teen aged girls sitting on porches talking on the phone, a nice pit stop at Grandpa and Grandma Leys' house, one house even has railroad ties for Indy to balance on as we walk along... and we end up at the lake where the path goes all the way around and we can feed the ducks, geese, sea-gulls, and various other birds. there are benches to be sat upon, and tables to eat at... there is a small dock for the paddle boats and the pre-k fishermen....

well...Albany isn't as bad a town as i make it out to be.

i go out walkin'

With the mild weather, and so much to see, we walk walk walk and walk again... maybe mommy can shed a few pounds. probably not.

So, one of this years mothers day gifts that i have already received is a new mp3 player (my dell gave up the ghost). Indy commandeered it for our walk today... he dances when he walks... it is way cuter on him than it would be on me.

There is so much to see and do. the vacant lot of last week is a construction site now... big back-hoes, track-hoes and rollers to be watched. there are ditch diggers around the corner as well! there are ducks to be fed, swings needing swung, dandy-lions to be blown, blossoms to be sniffed and slides to go down: no wonder i am exhausted!

spring finally sprung

the trees are blooming and we are getting "out and about" a lot more than we did in the winter!

so, hopefully, there will be lots of beauty to share in the coming months.

growing up in town:

A beautiful day demands a walk...

when i first saw the vacant lot near our home, i thought it looked sad, neglected, and a little like a wasteland.

then we got closer and I realized its a wonderland:

We spent nearly half an hour playing with the "blow-y flowers" and enjoying a warm day in a new way.

artistic:

something about this photograph captivates me.

i can explain no more than that.

THREE:

Today is 16 April 2008.

Indiana is THREE today.

his reaction?

"I DON'T WANT TO BE A BIG BOY!! I'M TWOOOOOO! (sniffle sniffle)"

It's going to be a long day at the Chuck E Cheese.

fun faces:

Ok, Indy...

show 'em your TOUGH GUY face!

Washed and Waxed:

The new cruiser just got its first wash and wax.
It took us a couple hours, but it was fun and she looks beautiful.
Indy helped.

pics from the park party forthcoming

Take my Breath Away:

To be honest, this picture doesn't have anything to do with what i wanted to say today... i just like it.



I had to share this:
Yesterday, as Indy and I are doing the mambo together in the living room, he jumps down off his dancing perch on the coffee table, wraps his arms around my legs and tells me, "I love you, momma, you're my best girl".
Now, i don't know where he heard that, but i had the instant watery eyes and thought to myself... for all the complaining i do, for all the times he screamed until i wanted a drink, for all the piddle i wiped off the floor because he can't aim yet, yeah, its worth it.
(its not that i doubted it before, but that was one of THE MOMENTS if you know what i mean)

I drive like Oncle Nate:

Indy had a minor accident, giggles, and shouts :

"I drive like Oncle Nate!"

I nearly wet my pants.

Long Live Senor Crash!

(its an O not U in the word "Oncle" on purpose, i prefer the french spelling and pronunciation)