Special K & Kids' Camp

I'm known as some variation of Kelly, Kells, Kell-Bell most of the year round, but come the last week of July each year I take on a new identity...

I am...

SPECIAL K.
Camp Counselor extraordinaire!

The girls from my cabin this year.

 8 years ago I attended my first Kids' Camp from our church as a camp counselor and was nick-named Special K by the leaders there, and the name has stuck. Now Dave (AKA Brotha D) and I go each year, and have slowly taken over most of the responsibilities.  We lead worship, we teach, we plan activities, and make sure the kids have the time of their lives. It's three full days and nights of go-go-go and we bring a bus load of 5th & 6th graders home completely exhausted at the end, but it's wonderful.

The whole crew - 16 fifth graders, 6 sixth graders, 7 counselors

Showing off our silly sides

This year was an especially great year - everything from the theme, the teaching, the activities and the kids response to the Lord was easy.  Our children's pastors said that in the 17 years they'd been doing Kids' Camp that it was among the very best and I'm really glad we got to be a part.

It's not just fun for kids either - us counselors have the time of our lives too.  The beautiful thing about this age group is that they're old enough to be semi-responsible for themselves and yet young enough that they still listen to everything you say.  This is how we could send our kids to bed each night in their rooms and tell them to go to sleep... and they would.  This is also how us counselors would stay up for several hours longer playing card games, eating totally unhealthy snacks and laughing until the wee hours of the morning.

Serious frisbee golfing

 It's also how we were able to allow the kids to keep making runs on the Alpine Slide while we got in a game of frisbee golf down the hillside of Mt. Hood.

And it's where I got this nice sunburn after telling all my girls to wear sunscreen and then not applying any myself!

Sometimes not practicing what you preach is painful!!

However the view to get that sunburn was WELL WORTH IT!  We took the kids up to the Alpine Slides for the day and riding the ski lifts up the side of ski bowl gave us the most gorgeous view of not just Mt. Hood, but also Mt. St. Helens, Rainier and Adams all in Washington, and then also Mt. Jefferson and Sisters ridges on the Eastern side of Oregon. 

Riding the chair lift up

Part of the track of the Alpine Slide

View of Mt. Hood from the top!

The whole weekend was tremendous...and I'm so grateful to the Lord for the ministry He did not just in the kid's lives, but in mine too.  It's a beautiful thing how you spend all this time preparing to teach the kids and the Lord turns around and teaches you too.  Kids' Camp is a great platform for me to be stretched and move out of my natural comfort zones... while I've been leading worship for years now, doing more of the teaching/preaching side, prophetic ministry and leading pre-prayer still gets me a bit nervous, but the kids were responsive and the Lord was gracious and I'm already pumped up and excited for next year!

Leading pre-prayer before our first general session.

Having an awesome worship time with the kids

Teaching Saturday morning on "knowing who we are in Christ."

I was also so very proud of my dear husband, who has NO problem whatsoever in teaching/preaching/prophesying/ministering because he's AWESOME and was in rare form this past weekend!  Oh what an amazing man I married.  Watching him in action makes me fall in love with him all over again!

My cutie-patootie preaching machine of a sexy husband!

Who need s'mores when you've got something as sweet as him???!!!

Yep, I think Special K & Brotha D will be returning to Kids Camp for many years to come!

A Cautionary Tale

I recently decided to utilize the "self-clean" function on my stove.  It seemed like a fantastic option when compared to the "bend over and scrub and scrub and scrub" option.  I also thought implementing it during the late evening/night was a great time to try it out seeing as I wasn't planning on cooking while I was sleeping.

I'm good, but I'm not that good!

The following warning is issued for those of you have who may have pondered using this function yourself.

* WARNING * Use the self-clean option on your stove with caution.  And by caution I mean the following:

1.  Do not use while you're home - it stinks to high heavens.  And you feel really bad that the kitchen is right next to your children's bedroom and you're sure you're burning their retinas while they sleep.

2.  Do not use if you have highly sensitive smoke detectors... because it sends smoke pouring out the top of your elements, forcing you to open all your windows so that you don't scare the daylights out of said sleeping children.

2.  Do not use while you're home on a really muggy night - because self cleaning means turning your stove as high as it can possibly go for a long period of time, and that sure makes things really toasty inside, and the windows open on said muggy night means you can't also use the air conditioning because that's just pointless! 

3.  Do not use if you have anything plastic on or near the vicinity of your stove.  My Kirkland brand Salt & Pepper Grinders DID NOT SURVIVE!

The bottoms are entirely warped, so they don't stand anymore.

 R.I.P. little grinders, I sure enjoyed you while you were in my life. 

If you adhere to these warnings - you'll be just fine.  And it did it's job - clean oven with minimal involvement from me.

My Life in Collage Form

Because this month has been so busy, I decided the most effective way to recap without making this post a mile long was to put everything together in collage form. (Click on any collage to see it bigger!)

So here's my look back at life in the first two weeks of July.

Dinner at our house & pictures taken at church together.

My Uncle Matt & Aunt Jenny spent a month in Oregon with our family.  They've been living abroad in England for the last two years and were on their way back to New Zealand before moving to Australia for the next couple years so it was great to catch up with them.  Matt is my mum's older brother and it was their first time visiting us since we've been living in the States.  They picked a fun time of year to come, and we had a great time introducing them to all things America over the 4th of July weekend, showing them around, making them letting them play with our kids and I really enjoyed getting to know them on an adult level instead of the relationship I remember as a little girl.  I feel like I really fell in love with them in a whole new way during their stay, and can't wait until the next time we're together.

Hanging at the Rodeo with Mum & Dad, Russ & Jodi, Matt & Jenny - and about 1000 other fans.

Saturday the 3rd we hit the Molalla Buckeroo... cowboys, cattle ropin', bull riding, barrel racing, bare back broncos, elephant ears & fireworks ~ that's what we call a rodeo!!

Some of the friends & family we "paraded" with this year.

One of my very favorite holidays (second only to Christmas) is the 4th of July.  This year we started our morning at our good friends (and new neighbors) Rob & Shay's for a french toast breakfast before heading to the Molalla Grand Street Parade, conveniently within walking distance of our house and watching it with our family and friends.  Hayden finally got the hang of the "candy getting" this year and stood excitedly with his plastic bag waving and cheering for the floats as they went by.  We told him the more he waved the more candy he'd get and sure enough - he came home with an impressive stash.

Tractors, horses and an occasional driving outhouse... that's what Molalla Parades are made of!

The parade was filled with the usual... tractors, horses, rodeo queens, Ronald McDonald and a couple favorites, the Clinkscales portable toilet and the Kell's Irish Bar Highland Band with their bagpipes.  But this year I was especially excited to see my dear friend LaTonya with her family walking in the parade representing her husband's insurance company... go Feauf's go!!  There they are in the middle left with the Country Financial sign.

Following the parade two of Dave's brothers and their families stopped by for lunch and a visit. It was the perfect weather and we ate lunch on the patio, the kids ran around playing and we relaxed!  Thanks Dom, Syb & Jesse for stopping by ~ it's so fun to be together!

Fun & friends at my parents BBQ

Then that afternoon/evening we had a big BBQ at my parents with family and some close friends. The kids swam and played on the slip n' slide, the adults sat in the shade and then around the fire pit as the day progressed.  We ate until we almost burst and had a wonderfully, relaxing, easy time together.  And Hayden for the second year in a row was terrified by the fireworks.  I really thought he'd be okay with them this year but no... poor little guy shook and trembled and clamped my hands over his ears while shoving his face into my chest... not quite the reaction we'd hoped for.  Oh well, there's always next year!

Mary Poppins at Keller Auditorium

One of my birthday presents this year from Dave was a ticket to Mary Poppins on Broadway with my sister and good friend Jana.  Wednesday, July 6th our day finally came and it was the perfect night... all the way from the weather, to the exquisite dinner at California Pizza Kitchen (Thai Crunch Salad... if you haven't tried it yet, it's a must).  We also learned that if you see a lovely woman waiting outside the theater and you notice that unbeknownst to her, her lovely black sheath dress has ripped completely up the back seam exposing her rear end and some lovely purple panties... the kindest thing you can do is tell her and then walk conjoined-twin-close behind her all the way back to her car so she can rush home and change. This is the type of kind gesture that my sister did for this poor woman... and she was incredibly grateful (and also mortified) that she'd stepped forward and let her know.  The play was wonderful - the props and set were unbelievable and the acting and singing was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!  I couldn't get past watching the young boy & girl playing Michael & Jane Banks, knowing they were the same age as my niece & nephew blew my mind for all the lines they learned, choreographed dances and songs.  The whole night was amazing!

Mike & Linley Meisch - June 9, 2011

And then lastly on July 9th I was the wedding coordinator for my cousin Linley's wedding. Hayden was a ringbearer, along with his cousin Blake and Kendall was the flowergirl/Jr. Bridesmaid.  The kids did GREAT, and it was a really fun wedding that totally screamed Mike & Linley,, including wedding "planking" during the photos!  The only bummer of the day was my ill-chosen shoes that tormented me for 90% of the day!!!

My extremely talented friend Shay of Be Photography did all their photos and I can't wait to see the finished product  I stole a couple of her shots she posted on Linley's facebook page for this collage!

And folks... you're basically caught up!  Whew!

Now I'm going to go harvest some incredible fresh herbs and veggies from my garden (pictures forthcoming) and get dinner going for this family of mine!

Ooops!

Well... I HAD great intentions of writing a terrific recap this evening of our wonderful fourth of July weekend, complete with pictures and a full rundown of everything from my line dancing expo at church on Sunday (big step for me), to the rodeo, the parade, BBQ's and all the inbetweens... BUT....I just plugged in my camera only to find I left the memory card at work today.  GRRRR

So instead I will leave you with a couple tips for the night:

1.  IF you look at your photos at work because you're excited to show your co-workers how your fireworks setting on your camera worked... DON'T forget to put said memory card back into your camera.  It's really a hindrance on blog updates when you don't bring it home with you!


2.  IF you find you can't update your blog and you're home alone with two boys (because your hubby is helping friends move) and you decide to let those boys stay up late as a treat and go for a lovely walk around the neighborhood at their normal bedtime because it's such a nice evening, and then stop at a friend's house on your way and visit for a while... please make sure you're not low on anything at home... because arriving home at well past their bedtime is a bummer of a time to notice that you're now going to have to pack them into a car and drive them to a store to buy necessities such as toilet paper... and bread... and milk.

Which leads us to this tip:

3.  IF you are running to the grocery store at 9:00pm because you have NO TOILET PAPER IN THE HOUSE with two children who are tired and cranky, and you're hot and sweaty from pushing them around the neighborhood in 80'F weather and wearing workout clothes it's ALMOST A GUARANTEE you'll run into someone you haven't seen in years, and that's just the impression you want to leave with them... "wow, she's really let herself go and she's got unruly children... why aren't they in bed at this hour??"  Not that they said that, but that's what I imagined because it's exactly how I felt after that experience.

And lastly because it was just the topper:

4.  IF you finally get home, get your children in bed, put away your groceries and then go out to water your garden and take your BRAND NEW PHONE out with you in case your hubby calls... think carefully about where you place it; because finding it completely drenched in water as a result of overflow from your vigorous "come back to life strawberry plant" attempt, is NOT how you want to end your evening!

And with that... I leave you.
Fourth of July recap tomorrow!

User Error

Earlier this year I bought a set of awesome travel mugs from Costco.  They have a vacuum auto-seal and require the user to push in a tab on the side before you can drink so they're spill-proof.  They keep my coffee nice and warm in the morning and I like that even if I accidentally knock it with my elbow sitting at my desk at work and it tumbles down my desk, onto my keyboard and lands in my lap ~ the lid doesn't fall off and my beverage is safe and sound.  (proven fact)

It's a good travel mug.   And isn't it pretty?!

About a month ago I found this lovely purse.  It was on sale for only $7 and it was such a happy color, and matched my outfit that I was wearing at the time so perfectly I could not pass it up. I brought it home and loved it, and it's gone everywhere with me since then.  It's nice and big and holds everything I need.  And did I mention it's a happy color?

WHERE THINGS GO DOWNHILL:  This past Sunday Dave poured me an amazing cup of fresh brewed coffee in my travel mug to take to church.  All the way there I resisted the urge to sip it knowing it would be too hot, but anticipating madly how good it would taste once I got to our destination.  Upon arriving, I was struggling to carry the beautiful purse, the coffee, one wiggly pre-toddler, diaper bag and hold another small child's hand so I took my beautiful spill-proof travel mug and threw it in my purse to free up a hand.

Can you see where this story is going??

Fast forward 20 minutes... service is starting and I grab my purse off the floor to pull out my coffee because I'm SOOOOO ready for it, only to find a 99% empty travel mug and a dripping wet purse.

Say it with me, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I spent the rest of the service trying to clean up my soggy mess - dry off my camera which thankfully was not damaged... try to rescue my birthday card for my brother and dry out some rather important documents that survived, but with major coffee stains.

I rescued ONE pathetic sip of coffee from the bottom of my mug.

The worst part is, I can't even blame it on the travel mug.  It was completely user error. I didn't screw the lid on correctly, as was pointed out to me by my very helpful husband in my moment of grief.   

Thanks honey for your support! And thank you also for realizing that may have been a mistake and buying me a donut to get back in my good graces.  It worked!!


* FOR THOSE CONCERNED CITIZENS * I am happy to report that the purse survived.  It was touch and go for a while, but it's made a full recovery.

What I Learned This Weekend

Is it really Monday already? 
I'd like a do-over of my weekend please and thank you!

Here's what I learned this weekend:

1.  If you stay up late scrapbooking to get your pre-made layouts done for an upcoming event you're part of... your children will undoubtedly wake up an hour early the next morning.  Fact!

2.  If you stay up late scrapbooking AND then wait up some more to wait for your husband to come home from California... he will want to sleep in the next morning since he drove straight through 14 hours to get home to you, and this will leave you to get up with your children when they wake up AN HOUR EARLY.  Also fact!

3.  If you stayed up late scrapbooking, AND then waited up for your husband AND then had to get up at the crack of early with your children, it will all be worth it because did I mention the husband is HOME!  Can I get a hallelujah?!!

4.  Dirty Dancing on Netflix may have also helped immensely with the staying up late - I forgot how much I love the music in that movie.  So many classics.  So much fun.  "Nobody puts baby in a corner."  Makes me smile every time.

5.  Black Eyed Peas RUINED the theme song from Dirty Dancing in their new cover, and you won't convince me otherwise.  I'm sorry, "Dirty Bit" doesn't belong in the song... it just doesn't Fergie!

6.  Two nights of staying up LATE scrapbooking has proven to me once again... I'm the world's slowest scrapper...sigh.  BUT all my pre-made layouts are done for give-a-ways at our Scrap Around The Clock and that makes me happy.

7.  I like three of my layouts SOOO much I want to keep them, but that means I'd have to make another three layouts to give away.  Which means more late nights, and more waking up early... and the cycle continues.  Oh the dilemma! 

AND ON COMPLETELY UNRELATED TO SCRAPBOOKING NEWS...

8.  There has been a LOT of Donkey Kong in my house lately... Hayden loves to watch his Dad play on the Wii, and on occasion try to play himself.  He calls it the "Monkey game" and he's a bit obsessed with it.  So much so that he's renamed his blankie "Diddy Kong."  Not kidding.

9.  I don't have my mother's green thumb.  I try, I really do - but plants at my house just seem to die.  I don't get it, I water them, I give them sunlight, I say nice things to them like "Please don't die, live I tell you...live!"  Alas... I fear plastic houseplants may be the only hope for me.  

But to make my mother proud, and my hubby happy... we got out in my yard this weekend and gardened (translation weeded) the entire back yard. Next step pouring our concrete mowing border around the lawn, and then I finally get to have flowers and shrubs and plants back there (outside I have more luck with plants than indoors).

9b.  While gardening weeding, I learned my back yard is the neighborhood litter box... ewwww, ewwww, ewwww.  Not a fan of cats right now!!

10.  In related news - we had another breakthrough in potty training with Hayden this weekend.  We had three instances of "big potty" on the toilet, with all three times him telling me he needed to go.  Saturday, we were completely accident free and all weekend long he's been dry all night long.  Oh light at the end of the tunnel... how I needed to see you!

And with that I'll leave you. 
Happy Monday everyone. 
MUST.FIND.COFFEE!

The Car Caddy

I recently stumbled upon Cheri of I am momma hear me roar and I've become slightly addicted to her blog.  She is amazingly talented, and creative, and she has two cute little boys just like me - and I want so badly to be able to do things for them like she does for her kids.

I'm just going to get this off my chest - her blog has given me a bad case of "envy-itis."  Almost every day I look longingly at her creations, sigh over and over at her "oh my gosh that's so adorable" and "oh I want that so bad" ideas and then file them away in the "one day when I have oodles of time....and/or own a sewing machine" catalog of the brain.

But this week she posted an idea that I was actually able to recreate, all on my own and I'm loving it!!!

This is our new car caddy that sits between the boys in the backseat.  It's a multi-functional, organizational, and entertaining little unit and has already been of great use this week.

The caddy itself is a cleaning tote and was a whoppin' $3.50 at Walmart.  It's so nice having everything in one place and handy, and if need be I can switch it over to the other car easily. 

Hayden's still learning how to put on his own glasses... nice try son! 

I also love that Hayden can reach everything himself (and one day Elijah will too) AND he can put things away where they go when we get to wherever we've gone.  Hayden loves all his options now for entertainment, and thinks that having his sunglasses accessible (even if he can't put them on correctly) is the coolest thing ever!  He also loves having so much entertainment within arms reach...especially for the big drive to Grandma's... because you know 10 minutes in the car might as well be  2 hours to a 3-year old and heaven forbid he get bored!

This is where my Leapster goes Mom!

So it's been a win-win.  Hayden's been totally entertained and my drives have been peaceful and quiet all week.  Thanks Cheri!!!

I'm A Big Kid Now!!

This past weekend I turned 33, and I celebrated like every adult woman should - by throwing myself an 8-year girl's birthday party!!

And it was awesome!!

There are several rules that should be followed when throwing yourself the party of an 8-year old.

#1 rule - NO BOYS ALLOWED!  
I'm not anti-men by any means, and I love my husband and my boys with all my heart - but sometimes you just need girl time, so I took this rule very seriously.  While Dave stayed home with the kids I hit the town with 7 of my closest girlfriends and we giggled and laughed and filled the car with tales of extreme estrogen and it was glorious.

#2 rule - I'LL TAKE FRIES WITH THAT!
When I was growing up my idea of a huge birthday treat was going to McDonald's... my tastes have grown up a little since then but sometimes nothing beats a great burger joint.  So we hit up Red Robin - a place with truly magnificent fries and where even at 33 you'll still get balloons and be sung to by the wait staff (which I would have been REALLY okay without) but my fish n' chips made it worth it.

Me and my girls at Red Robin

Did I mention they make you wear the balloons on your head while they sing to you?

#3 rule - EMBRACE YOUR INNER CHILD!
Ever since my sister went roller skating for Valentines Day I'd been longing to let my inner skater child out to play ~ luckily my girlfriends were all up for it too and so we went prepared to laugh at ourselves (and each other) and no matter what, stick together for moral and perhaps real life support too.  Turns out skating is a little bit like riding a bicycle... you never really forget but you might start out a little wobbly.  That doesn't mean you won't feel every muscle as you work away around the rink... 'cause oh my... you will... my hips, my knees, my ankles all protested loudly but I reminded them they were pretending to be 8 and that shut them up enough to keep going.

Ready to get our skate on!

I had no idea that roller skating rinks were becoming so popular again, or perhaps they never lost their draw and I was just oblivious... the place was packed out with all ages represented and all clothing "styles" too... we had a good time laughing at a group who'd come in "disco" attire courtesy of goodwill.

My girls represented well too:  Enjoy their best skating poses.

Amy the "Atta-Tude"

"Punky Bruiser" Halverson

Superaina

"Cole-inator"

Tricialicious

and yours truly - the birthday ballerina!

It was so much fun.  We enjoyed the music, the people watching, we marveled at the group of people break dancing in the middle of the rink with the crazy skills, and the little7-year old kid who was out-skating everyone else and weaving in and out of people doing all sorts of fancy tricks.  We laughed, we ached, we made fun of ourselves and amazingly enough we managed to go the entire night without falling flat on our behinds.  I call that a success!!

Fabulous cheap entertainment - thanks Oaks Park!

#4 rule - DON'T SKIP DESSERT!

After all that exercise skating,  I felt we more than earned the right to eat dessert.  So on our way home we stopped at Yo Top It, a new frozen yogurt joint to reward ourselves for doing so well.

Hello lovely - you were delicious!!

It was the perfect end to a great night out.  Who knows, maybe I'll turn 8 again next year too!

Blast from the past

I'm still trying to recover completely from this blasted head cold that doesn't want to release its grip on me - so that's how I came to be alone on the couch Wednesday night with my throat lozenges, my blanket & my kleenex while the hubby and boys drove off to our midweek service without me.

And that's when Picasa sucked me in...again.

This whole face recognition tool I've discovered that creates folders for people and quickly locates every photo of that individual in my entire system regardless of when the photo was taken has been so fun for my organizing, administrative, creative mind!

All that said... I came across the following photo.

Me ~ AKA the fairy-princess-ballerina (1987)

 Meet 9-year old me.

My 5th grade year (or standard 3 for those in New Zealand) our school decided to throw a "square dance."  Throw away your preconceived notions of some barn dance with an overall wearing deejay screaming "swing your partner dosey doe" - this was a serious performance and I remember it was a BIG DEAL!  For a couple months our class spent time every day learning and practicing all the steps to perform a semi-choreographed recital for the entire school body, our parents and family members to watch.

I couldn't tell you one dance move I learned but I remember two things very clearly:

1.  It was a "fancy dress" ball which meant I got to dress in a costume.

I took this very seriously!  Opportunities to become a fantasy fairy-tale character were NEVER taken for granted by me!  I chose my costume carefully.  I practiced my poses - after all I was not just a fairy... I was a ballerina fairy and felt qualified to be so given the one year of ballet I took when I was six.  I'm throwing in the princess too because my favorite past time growing up was pretending I was a princess in real life that was being forced to live as a commoner with a peasant family because my royal family was in hiding.  Wow, I was a special child.

2.  Our teacher paired us all up into couples - and I was paired with Kade Hutchinson.

Kade Hutchinson was the CUTEST boy in my entire class grade school and the object of my first serious crush in grade school.  However, being that he was the cutest and most popular boy he was also the object of every other girl in my class' affection and I instantly became the least liked girl in the grade since I got to hold his hand.... and they didn't.

And I might have accidentally rubbed that in a bit.
Okay...perhaps not accidentally.

But let's skip ahead to the night of the fancy dress ball... I arrived ready to wow my dancing partner with my amazing costume (wings & fancy wand handmade by my mother) and to have a magical evening dancing away with my fairy prince while the rest of the girls in my class looked on with envy.

Kade came dressed as a fisherman.  (small bubble burst)

The dance started, the music played away and we went through our planned steps - all going well until Kade spun me.  As he lifted his arm to allow me to turn beneath it - my fairy wings got caught on one of the fishing hooks that were secured all around his hat...and we got stuck; his head bent down at a funny angle right into the middle of my back.

He immediately tried to yank himself free - but I was scared of him tearing my wings so I made him stop.  But I couldn't see behind my back to unhook us and he couldn't see above the rim of his hat... so we just stood there helpless.

Doesn't seem like a big deal now - but then it was traumatic.   Imagined or real, I noticed every smug glance from the other girls as they danced away incident-free with their partners. (bubbles bursting left and right now like bombs)

I don't remember how long exactly we stayed in the middle of the dance floor looking awkward but it felt like an eternity.  His teenage sister finally came down out of the balcony and rescued us and we returned to our dance.  Kade was apologetic but the evening was ruined for me.

Who comes to a fancy dress ball as a fisherman?  Really - where's the imagination??
That could have been avoided if he'd come as a superhero - that's all I'm saying!


Later that year we had another opportunity to dress up in costumes - I don't remember the occasion but I do remember that I chose not to be a fairy ballerina this time.

Princess Kelly ~ 1987

The princess thing though... well that stuck.
Once a princess forced to live as a commoner... always a princess!

Happy Friday everyone!

My Valentines Day

Yesterday was Valentines Day - so I am dedicating this post to my love, my best friend, my hard-working hubby and my forever Valentine ~ Dave.

We decided to celebrate early with a date night Saturday but Dave got the weekend rolling perfectly by jumping out of bed first thing in the morning (and he's NOT a morning person - so I appreciated the sacrifice) and taking care of the boys so I could lounge in bed and pretend to sleep in.  He fed them, changed them, entertained them and then brought me a Valentine's card, white chocolate lindor truffles (my faves) and orange juice in bed. Oh and let me tell you, the warm gushy love feelings flowed!!! 

Dave's mom offered to watch the boys for us that afternoon/evening so we could enjoy our date night, and so we headed out mid-afternoon to make the most of our time alone.   And we did things right - oh yes, we hit Starbucks FIRST!

Let's be real - I needed caffeine by 3:00pm if I had any hopes of staying up for date night!

From Starbucks it was off to Typhoon, one of our all-time favorite restaurants at their newest location in West Linn.

Hello Thai food... I love you and your sweet peanut sauce goodness!

The food was spectacular as usual.. my only disappointment came at dessert time.  Dave and I first fell in love with Typhoon while we were dating; and on our very first visit there we shared their signature dessert - mango sticky rice with coconut sauce (heavenly).  It became a tradition after that, every time we dined there (which was fairly often) we'd finish with "our" dessert.   

So imagine the sadness when I learned mangoes are not in season and they were not serving it.  I think I felt a little bit like Jesus when he didn't find any figs on the fig tree... I decided not to curse the restaurant though!  Their Pad Thai was really good after all!

From dinner we drove to Clackamas Town Center, where at Dave's suggestion we strolled around window shopping (huge act of love for Dave who's melancholy nature finds window shopping abhorrent since it achieves nothing and therefore is a waste of his time) until our movie started.  

On several friends recommendations, we watched The King's Speech.  Growing up in a commonwealth country, I knew some of the background and so found the storyline extra captivating, but Dave who knew nothing of the royal family's history really enjoyed it too.  I totally understand the Oscar nomination for Colin Firth for his role as King George VI and I thought Helena Bonham Carter made a wonderful Queen mother.

Waiting for our movie to start.

So date night was wonderful. We laughed, we talked, we kissed, we cuddled, we ate, we drank Starbucks, we held hands and looked at each other with googly eyes.  We teased each other, we talked about our kids... we loved just being together.  

And so there it was - my perfect date night, with my perfect Valentine! 

Things I've learned from my mother

Recently I downloaded Picasa's free software onto my laptop to organize & edit my photos.  Then my good friend Laura introduced me to the "people" feature in Picasa and I have since lost a few many hours days naming photos and watching them automatically go into people catagories for future reference.

It was during one of my "naming" sessions that I came across the following photos that have taught me a valuable lesson from my mother!

LESSON #1

There is a time when it is acceptable and even cute to dress your children alike when they are small.  

Jan, 1981 - Aren't we adorable in our matching red short suits?!

Early 1982 - rocking the blue jumpers!  Does anyone else see Blake's "cheese" in Jodi's smile? 

But there comes a time when matching goes from cute to just plain awkward and embarrassing, and it's important to know the line before you cross it...

Coming to you straight from Little House on the Prairie. 

Welcome to the line crossed.

Me and my prairie sister, would like to present you with our version of "What Not To Wear".  I still remember that horrid purple dress vividly... oh how I hated it!  

As I looked at these photos I couldn't help but wonder what on earth was my mother thinking?  But then I came across this picture that I took this past Christmas.

My boys... matchy-matchy!

And I totally get it now. 

Dear Hayden & Elijah,

It is clear to me now that I am destined to become my mother!

So I apologize in advance for what photos

I may take of you as you grow older. 

Please know it's only because I think 

you're the cutest things EVER.

And if I take photos of you later in life, 

that you deem to be embarrassing...

I want you to blame your grandmother!

Love, your mommy!