Life...

So obviously life is passing us by, and I need a serious reality check. Here we go.

I missed posting about Ambri's 9th birthday, sorry babe! Here's a picture of the AWESOME cake! No, I didn't make it. It seems that our tradition includes Safeway. Our kids have come to expect the annual trip to the bakery to pick out their cake. Sounds good to me. This year Ambri adapted the Mother's day purse for her own purposes. It turned out cute. She also had a huge sleepover for her party. She invited a lot of friends, thinking only a few would be able to come, and I think they ALL came. What a bash!

Oakli is seriously my dramatic child, and she is hilarious! She has a sense of humor that is second-to-none! We were driving in the car 2 days ago (remember, she is 4) and she was looking out the window just talking to Bryce (who is 11, so naturally, he wasn't listening) and then after she made a random comment she said, "did I just say that out loud?" Um... hello??? I better watch what I say. Sheesh! She is freaking funny!

Okay. Other things on the agenda. We have been so busy! Doug just ran the Newport marathon again. He did so awesome! After working really hard to get ready training only (well, I shouldn't say) not as much as he should, he came in only 30 minutes after last year's time. That is REALLY GOOD because his goal was to finish before they stopped taking time and he blew that goal out of the water. I'm sure no one ever feels completely ready, right? This year's marathon makes 3 years in a row. We didn't take the kids over this year, so I got to go 8.5 miles with Doug on the course. It was great! I only got sunburned on one shoulder. Guess that is what happens when you only put sunscreen on once, and you do it yourself. Doug put it on like 4 times. Good for him!

Life has been super crazy with end of the year school activities, assemblies, field trips, and parties. We still have a few days to go, but I think we are going to make it. Ambri got the Academic Achievement award for the 3rd graders for the semester. Go Ambri! It was great to go surprise her at school. Chase had kindergarten graduation, and it was fun too. Just like the older two kids, and it was fun to see Bryce and Ambri singing the songs, even though they wouldn't admit to that. Oakli can't wait to be in Kindergarten next year! She has gone with me to help out in the classroom so many times, she is an honorary member of the class, and gets angry when I won't let her do the projects, because I know she gets to do them next year, even though Mrs. Graham would gladly let her do them.

The horrid spring rain hasn't stopped here in Oregon yet. It's pretty sad, actually. We had flooding last week. This is JUNE, people. This is worse than in the winter. Do you hear me people... FLOODING... IN JUNE!!! Oh, when I said that my shoulder got sunburned, don't let that fool you, that was at the coast. That doesn't count. That was FAR away from here. :-)

Bryce has been working really hard on his scouting stuff. He is one camp out away from getting his 1st class rank. (That camp out is tomorrow!) Yippee!!! He has been doing so great. He turned 11 in December, so he has been really working hard. He has also earned 2 merit badges. He is going to try to earn the 4 centennial merit badges this summer as well. We'll see how that goes. If he can do that, then he'll have his star earned before he turns 12. That is his goal. You go Bryce! He is also super busy with Soccer, still. All the other kids finished up, and Bryce kept on going. He had try-outs for a new team. He actually tried out for 2 clubs. He made both of them, and decided to go with VFC. (Valley Football Club, which is actually Soccer. - Think Spanish, people.) The team is very good and making great progress. It is kind of a new team because most of his old team is on this new team with him. So it is really a good fit for him.

Broken arm boy: AKA: Bryce. Don't tell the Dr. that he played soccer with a broken arm, or this mom will be fired. (YOU DON'T SEE THE CAST IN THE PICTURE BELOW... YOU DON'T SEE THE CAST IN THE PICTURE BELOW...) Bryce's coach even put him playing an offensive position, which is a position that Bryce normally doesn't play. Bryce got a chance to play up during this game because his team was totally creaming the other team.

Bryce normally plays defense, and is really good back there. Okay, back to the broken arm. Bryce was riding 4-wheelers with a friend and his friend was in front of him on a quad and stopped. Bryce wasn't watching and rammed right into the back of his friend on his quad and flipped off his quad, and fractured his arm. We made him go to practice that night and play in hi99game the next day with the broken arm, before we even knew it was broken. (It happened on a Friday.) We didn't take him in until Sunday afternoon, which happened to be Mother's day. The Dr. at the urgent care, said absolutely NO soccer. Um, I don't think the mom was there to hear those instructions, because she made him go to soccer try-outs on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. Actually, I think he played soccer 5 nights that week. Scratch that, make it 6, he had a game on Saturday and played with his card cast on. The ref came over to make sure he didn't have any weapons INSIDE his cast. Hello??? Whatever. The next weekend I took him to the game and that ref wouldn't let him play with the cast on. He said it was too hard. Luckily it was one of those hard casts that was just held on with a couple of ace bandages. It was Bryce's last game, so being the executive decision maker, I told Bryce to take it off, and play with just the ace bandages. Being the last game and all... you know, priorities. All was well, we never went back to the Dr. and he stopped wearing the cast after 3 weeks. Oopsie.

Overall we are stressed out, overwhelmed, and super busy, BUT, we are making it. Bryce now has soccer practice 2x a week in Corvallis (which is 30 minutes away) for 2 hours, and they call it "training". I guess that means you are big time. Well, no "guessing" about it. You know it is big time when your coach goes to England to get your teams uniforms while he is on his way to the World Cup. Kind of embarrassing when I had to explain to Bryce what the World Cup is. I told him not to ask anyone at practice training what the World Cup is, because they are taking the next month off of practice training for the World Cup. I guess they are hard core.

Blueberries are "trying" to ripen in all this rain. I guess the one good thing is that Doug hasn't had to run the sprinklers much.

Hunh.