breaking up is hard to do

i have tried at least 3 times between my last post in june and now to write a new post, but i failed each time (obviously).  i almost decided to break up with my blog.  but something about shutting it down made me feel really sad.  so, i haven't done it.  :)  then, a friend who recently moved to a little town in idaho started a new blog and i've been visiting it to see how things have been going for them.  i've REALLY enjoyed reading her posts.  so much so that i've been prompted to finally post an update!

(these pics will take you all the way back to the summer)

we took a whirlwind road trip over the summer to visit my grandma.  she's doing great, but aging quickly.  i miss her and still remember how much i loved having her live with us when i was young.

while on our trip to california, i was feeling very nostalgic so we stopped by to see my old elementary school.  glenmoor elementary looks much the same!  the classroom on the back left of the pic was my kindergarten classroom.  i still remember my teacher was mrs. mueller.

the kids loved flying high on the playground!  my second and third grade classrooms are in the back.

my three turkeys got cabin fever on our drive home.  they decided to surf and model on the top of the car.  :)

our friend claire's 6th birthday!  so glad she is back from japan!

canon beach camping trip.  SO FUN!

the kids wanted to bury chester, and a view of haystack rock in the background.

downtown canon beach.

the girls got their ears pierced on 7-11.  emma was SOOO brave, but her little face caved a little right after she got pierced.  it was so cute.  here is she being brave again showing off her newly adorned ears!

elise was super excited about getting her ears pierced, but refused to go after emma (even though emma didn't even cry).  we asked her if she wanted her ears pierced.  she said yes, but that she was scared.  so allan had a heart-to-heart with her about not letting "fear" overtake her, and she agreed to do it.  you can see she shed a few tears.  :(  boy, were we glad we had two piercers on the job!

a typical summer day in the park.

and just for fun, i gave myself a french manicure because i always think they look so nice on others.  but, they're too fancy for me!

ni hao!

a couple of months ago allan and i got a chance to travel to china and visit with some good friends of ours.  we didn't do a great job of taking pictures and keeping track of places we visited, but here are some from our trip.  we had a great time seeing old friends and making new ones!

poor amanda had a severe ear infection and we're here at the hospital to get it treated

hot pot lunch

traci, angela, and me

these guys treated us to an awesome "simmer pot" lunch

simmer pot of some sort of fish...yummy!

in front of confucius temple

me and my love

most of the gang

jess and me

gangstas

me and maria

steven's trying to be my height (does he really think i'm that short?!)

normal (this guys speaks awesome british english, btw!)

goofy!

i SO wanted to take this for a spin!

emma turns 6!

our beautiful birthday girl, emma grace

emma is our fun-loving, craaazy, outspoken, silly, sweet, caring, independent, and typical-middle child of a girl. we love her to pieces and she turned 6 this month.  here's a quick list of what she's into: horses and puppies (all animals, really), crafts, drawing, coloring, playing make-believe with her sister and transformers or ben ten with her brother, doing cartwheels, washing dishes, dancing, and wearing a dress/skirt whenever she can.  there's a lot more i can put on this list, but a typical day would include most of these things, if not all.  but she only wanted to do one thing for her birthday...hit the rollarena!  so we did just that and she was so stinkin' cute!  even elise was brave enough to hit the rink!  after some skating, we walked across the street to baskin-robbins and all the kids got to choose amongst the 31 flavors of ice cream (is that really true, or are there less/more?).  it was a simple and easy birthday party for us to throw, and emma had a great time being honored and celebrating with her friends.  i'd say it was a hit!

anja was so excited to give emma her present!

eliana, you've got it!

my cutie-patootie looking like a natural

tory was fearless out there!

the birthday girl showing off her skills!

vicky and owen came to see emma in action

what a great group of kids!

office transformation

a looong time ago i promised to show some pics of my new office. many moons later...ta-da!

from the doorway...

to the left...

a place to sit down to work...

and some lovely shelving for storage.

it's not huge (tiny, in fact) and it's nothing spectacular, but i love it.

when we moved into this house about 7 years ago, the previous owners had turned the storage closet under the staircase into a pseudo-office.  it was an awesome idea - they even had an outlet and a phone line installed in there - but it was very utilitarian, which was fine.  the closet is right off of our kitchen, so it is really nice to be able to do "officey" things like check my email, pay a bill, read a blog post, etc. while prepping dinner.

anyway, a little over a year ago allan agreed to help me transform this storage closet into an office space just for me!  we weren't going to use it for storage of any kind anymore (it had become a hot-spot to drop off our things).  he was super sweet to let me have a space of my own and even more sweet to do all of the work on it.  he painted the room, painted shelves and installed them, put in a new desktop, and installed a new light fixture.  once all of that was done, i put on some finishing touches to make it my own.  it is now a space i love to spend time in, though it is super small, because i can shut the door and go about a task or a phone call as uninterrupted as possible with three sweet kids running amuck!  :)

what school looks like for us

we went to lucas' and emma's student showcase last night for their homelink classes and we all had a blast!  elise loved watching the choir performance so much that she wouldn't leave when the older kids asked to go.  the kids got to play some carnival games and won fun prizes.  we won a prize from the raffle, which was a big deal because we never win raffles.  and, it was really neat to see the projects and art pieces all the kids made in their classes.  elise and i volunteered in lucas' cooking class one afternoon and we (mainly I) taught them how to make wontons.  i had so much fun seeing the kids learn something new.  watching them focus hard on something, looking proud of themselves for what they made, and then tasting it and liking it was such an awesome thing to experience.  many of them even came back wanting more!  this is one of the reasons i love homeschooling my kids.  there are many more reasons, like wanting to spend as much time as i can during these precious short years i have with them.  they are going to grow up so fast.  it's happening already...

lucas in front of the gingerbread house he made with his group in cooking class with mrs. winn

emma's pointing to the bunnies she learned how to draw in her animal art class with mrs. brooke

and these are just some peeks into what
homeschooling looks like for us...