3rd Annual Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper Marathon

On Saturday May 28th, 2011, we had the 3rd annual Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper Half Marathon. What a smashing success! Thanks to everyone who helped out this year. We had a great time, and thanks to everyone who came out and participated. We had 54 recorded finishers. Great job everyone. A special thanks to Doug and Connie Asay who came out just to help, and Dave Burton to helped with the aid stations as well. We couldn't have done it without your help! Now, I only have one picture to post, sorry! That is what happens when I participate. It is of the wisest of the bunch who finished (way to go Grandma!) and one of the youngest (almost), great job as well, Chase!

I am not going to take the time to sort the times by first to last, so just scan down the list to find your number (if you remember it) and your time. Just remember, these were bikers, walkers, and runners mixed in. Next year I'll try to keep track of who did what.

301 Oakli Burton 1:49:08
302 Chase Burton 2:00:15
303 Bryce Burton 1:16:54
304 Ambri Burton 1:29:55
305 Kari Burton 1:48::45
306 Mike Dedera 1:55:55
307 Jodi Dedera 1:29:58
308 Maddi Dedera 1:23:55
309 Mya Dedera 1:28:58
310 Danny Dedera 1:57:53
311 Angie Dedera 1:29:13
312 Josiah Dedera 1:24:00
313 Lilly Dedera 1:29:13
314 Steve Farrar 1:54:12
315 Kris Farrar 3:04:16
316 Kraig Farrar 1:42:25
317 Joe Phair 1:42:10
318 Katie McGowan 1:58:28
319 Kyle Latimer 1:39:10
320 Goldie Burton 2:00:23
321 Jamie Stover 3:26:51
322 Raine Morris 3:26:47
323 Debi Burton 2:15:43
324 Jamie Pierce 51:36
325 Cody Bush 1:16:50
326 Garrett Burton 1:17:03
327 Jenna Burton 1:29:46
328 Sam Burton 1:39:28
329 Kelly Merrill 2:11:08
330 Sarah Merrill 2:11:08
332 Maria Burton 1:39:28
334 Tom Burton 1:39:30
335 Nathan Tolman 1:40:22
336 Nick Tolman 1:17:06
337 Satina Tolman 2:10:19
338 Tatiana Tolman 1:40:22
339 TJ Hafner 51:36
340 Heather Clark 2:05:42
341 Jason Hawthorne 1:28:09
342 Angela Smith 2:07:07
343 Bethany Marteeny 1:29:54
344 Doug Marteeny 2:28:39
345 Hannah Marteeny 1:11:08
348 Allison Parmenter 3:04:17
349 Jennifer Madsen 2:06:28
350 Rachel Madsen 1:21:01
351 Larry Sykes 1:18:57
355 Teresa Gardner 2:17:21
356 Rob Simmons 55:22
357 Andrea Simmons 55:22
360 Crystal Sublett 1:57:32
361 Paul Tappana 1:27:57
364 Brady Tappana 1:32:57
365 Ryann Tappana 1:27:57

If I have made any typo-s or left anyone off the list, please, Please, PLEASE, let me know. The list was very long this year (a good thing) and I could have made any number of mistakes. Feel free to pass the good news along to everyone who is on the list so they can check out their good work! I'd be happy to post pictures as well, if you would like to email them to me as well.



This is the logo that Bryce designed for this year's race. It was also on all of the finisher's medals. He did the design this year for his Art Merit Badge that he successfully completed after the race was over. Bryce is a Boy Scout and is now working on his Eagle Project. Awesome job Bryce!




Great job everyone, and thanks for coming out. We'll see you next year!

Thoughts from the 4-year old...

Today Oakli said:

"Steak is my favorite vegtable."

(short slience while she thinks for a moment)

"Mom, is it a fruit?"

Hunh.

The Room (finished!)

I have finally put the finishing touches on the girl's room. It seems like it took forever. I think that I painted last year, so one year start to finish, that's not THAT bad, is it??? OK, it is bad, but now at least it is finished AND blogged.

As a re-cap, here is what the walls looked like when I finished painting: Ambri and Oakli's Bedroom.

Here's what their room looks like now: (the walls in the previous blog post still look like that, they are on the other walls and I didn't get all of it in the picture.)

So I needed to get the bedspreads done and a different wall hanging, along with a new lampshade. The new lampshade provided a new challenge of a bed stand as well, so why not take it all on, right?

So here's the bead spreads that I did. I did a combo of lots of different fabrics on one side, and then on the plain brown side, I didn't want it to be so plain, so I did their names on the back.

Here is now the "underside" of the bead spread. It was supposed to be the top. I guess a girl is going to have, what a girl is going to have.

Here are the "tops" of the bead spreads.

They were supposed to be the undersides, and they could flip them over once in a while if they wanted to, OR simply to just tell which blanket belonged to which girl, but alas, all has changed.

The girls are so proud of them, that they both want their names showing all the time. (Sigh...)

This is what I put on the wall. While I was in Utah over Thanksgiving, I bought wood letters to spell out each of the kids names. The letters for the girls are fancy, and really pretty big. This was the only "plain" wall space that I had left. I covered each letter with scrapbook paper that was brown/pink/white, or brown, pink, or white and hung them from a curtain rod that we just attached to the wall. "Ambri" hangs from cream tulle, and "Oakli" hangs from brown tulle.

The girls have had a pathetic lamp in their room for a long time now. Of coarse, as kids do, they ruined the first lampshade that they had. It was a cheap paperish type of a shade. We never replaced it because Ambri was keeping the lamp in the window sill so she could reach it without getting out of bed, AND if we gave her a new one, it would just bang into the window. So if I wanted to "help" this poor lamp, I'd have to start from the bottom up. Literally. I found a used crappy-looking shelf type at St. V.d.P. Stopped at H.D. on my way home for some brown spray paint and headed home. It's nothing fancy to speak of, but it is doing the job. I also sprayed the base of the lamp. Here's the little shelf now:

So lastly, the lampshade. I just picked up the cheapest one that Target had, and took it home, traced it for a cover, added 1" to each side, just to make sure I didn't totally mess it up and then cut my pattern out of matching fabric that I used on their beds. I had the seam pretty well tucked under, but added the strip of ribbon just for fun and I love the way it turned out!

One last thing that I wanted to try for their room was one of these: Here's how mine turned out for the girls:

I made one for each of them and I think they turned out well. Instead of stuffing them, I just bought pillow forms and did a "fold and tuck" method on the back side. I know, really technical... just think of the shams that you get when you buy a bedding set...that's what I did, but I overlapped it a TON more, so the pillow forms are NOT coming out without a fight.

And there you have it. A year's worth of work (on and off) is finally DONE!

The boys want to know when it is their turn. (Sigh...)

What I've been doing...

Well, because blogging about what I do on a weekly basis clearly didn't work, here I am today. I guess I can only do what I can do. Today you get pictures! Yea. I can't remember how long it has been since I posted with pictures. I guess I just could go and look. I wanted to actually show some of the things that I've been up to. I'll also tell what the kids have been doing as well.

First off, I'll SHOW what I've been doing, I'm super excited about this, and so are the girls. They are begging for them:

and

The problem for the girls is that they are too big because I made these to fit my wrist. I guess I'll be making some smaller ones for them today. I can't wait to make a black one too, that is next on my schedule. I'm thinking of putting them in my etsy shop, what do you think of them? Do you think they'll sell?

I have also been making more watch bands. These can be found in my etsy shop.

I also made these:

So that's the "crafty" stuff that I've been doing, at lest that I have pictures of. I have more projects in the works, so I can't wait to get started on those.

Other things that have been going on:

I'm still doing my 5 miles a day, every day. It is hard, but still worth it. I have a new cell phone (Yippee) that I don't know how to use (um, yeah). I got it for Christmas and it is awesome (I think), but I know it's better than the last phone I had. The kids love it because it makes the transformers sound every time I open it. I did get a hands free device (Thanks a lot OREGON) for it that I love/hate. All the kids are doing swimming right now. They all love it. Bryce and Ambri are having swimming lessons at school every day and Chase and Oakli are doing their lessons at night. It makes for a crazy Tuesday night, but it is worth it. Bryce has scouts on Tuesday nights and soccer practice just started up again for him on Tuesday nights as well. Ambri is loving achievement day (which is at night), also on Tuesday nights... did I mention that Tuesday's are our FAVORITE (not really - or crazy, or something like that...). Bryce and Ambri also continue to very well with their piano (thankfully that is NOT on Tuesdays). Doug is super busy trying to get all the blueberry plants pruned and it is taking a LONG time this year, but he is doing a great job with "Hose-A" and Hose-C". (For those of you that don't know, "Hose-B" quit a while back... really... hehe...)

...

looks like my "new attempt" was not so successful. i suppose i could blame it on being busy, or reading other cool blogs, the fact that Bryce had another birthday (darn that kid, stop it!), the laundry continuing to pile up...even though i don't want it to, or maybe the fact that that i did Christmas cards, made awesome gingerbread houses at kindergarten with Chase and Oakli, reading hordes of Christmas cards (thanks!), took Chase to the ER on Christmas Eve to get "glued" back together, had a great Christmas, cleaned up Christmas, put away all the Christmas decorations and celebrated New Year's too. maybe it is that i've re-discovered crafting again...in many different forms, swimming lessons for Chase and Oakli, scouts for Bryce, Achievement days for Ambri, 5 miles a day for me (still), sewing projects (only the necessary ones - darn those scout shirts!), movies, a messy house that i haven't cleaned, jewelry projects that i want to get done, messes that i don't know how they got there, a new church calling that is giving me "panic", major kid drama, ice skating on our pond, Doug's new High Council assignment with the Spanish branch, Ambri's (I mean Bryce...) careful planning each day to get her hair and clothes just right for school... maybe just maybe it is one or two of those things... or maybe it is just sheer laziness.

in any case, i'm still here, in one form or another.

A New Approach

Well, no big surprise here, I didn't come back to make that blog entry. I have just been so busy, but who hasn't, right? I read a new friends blog today and I decided to steal her new approach to blogging. I'm at least going to give it a try and see how it suits me. She did more of a journal entry for the week. (Thanks for the idea Madeline.)

Last weekend we took the kids to Bend and we had such a great time. Apparently we missed a pretty "awesome" rain storm. I use the punctuation marks because it must have rained a ton. We had awesome sunny weather and it only rained a smidge for us, which was mostly at night. It still amazes me how different the weather can be only 2.5 hours away, just on the other side of the mountains. We had a great time swimming, sight seeing and just relaxing. We always love going to Bend.

Monday saw us back to the usual routine, although Doug, Oakli and I did go to Salem for "lunch". Doug made it quite clear that it was a date, and not a reward. You see, we have this standing deal, that if I clean the house, he'll take me out to lunch at my favorite restaurant that week. We happened to go there, which is the "Best Little Roadhouse", not to be mistaken with "The Roadhouse". We had to go to Salem to the scout office to get Bryce his new scout things, now that he isn't a cub scout any longer, so why not, right? It was the best. I don't ever get anything special, just a salad, but there is just something about that place! I have tried to re-create the salad and bread, but I just can't seem to get it right.

We have a former neighbor who was a fighter pilot in WWII. He passed away 5 years ago and was buried in a family cemetery about 1 mile from our house (on family property - we don't live by a cemetery, per se)... so for FHE we decided that we wanted to do service and clean up the cemetery in his honor. Because Veteran's Day on Wednesday, we thought it would be nice because his widow may come out to visit the grave. We don't know if she was able to come, because she is VERY sick, but it was nice for the kids to do some service anyway. The grass needed mowing badly and the leaves had not yet been cleaned up, so it was a great opportunity for our family. Right when the kids got off the bus, we grabbed them and ran down there. We were loosing daylight fast, so we needed to go quick. We had 2 lawnmowers, 3 rakes, 2 garbage cans, 1 edger, 1 blower, 4 kids, 1 dad, 1 mom, 2 girls that had to go pee, (hello, why don't you go when mom tells you to BEFORE we leave the house???) and 0 complaints. We got the job done and it was amazing. Bryce and Doug ran the lawn mowers, I ran a rake, and the 3 youngest kids ran their 2 arms picking up wet piles of leaves. We even had to work some in the dark, but we got it done.

Tuesday found Oakli and I spending the day at Kindergarten. Oakli loves it because she thinks she is part of the class. She joins in with everything and loves it. She blends in well and you can hardly tell that she is not a "kinder". I love going to help out, but it is so exhausting. Mrs. Graham is the best and needs so much help to get all the projects done. I normally go in only once a week but try to help out as much as I can with things at home. (My Cricut is working double-duty as I am typing, so my hand doesn't have to do all the cutting out of candy canes for her... boy- or girl- am I smart!)

Wednesday saw us all home. I still don't understand why they can't celebrate Veteran's Day on a Monday or Friday if they are going to give the kids the day off school. It was a bit crazy having them all home in the middle of the week. It was only yesterday, and I really don't know what we did yesterday. I do remember vaguely that I had them clean and do some chores. The kids did get their piano practicing done, but looking around right now, I'm not sure what else they got done. I do remember giving them chores to do. Funny thing that is. Mess, I guess that is life, right?

As for some random thoughts, I am enjoying helping out in the kindergarten class a lot. Mrs. Graham has 30 kids in the morning and 30 kids in the afternoon and she has no help except for when parents come in and help, so I feel like I need to be in to help when I can, except that I don't think that I can help more than once a week, because it is so draining for me. (Some years she gets an assistant, some years she gets no help.) I would never make a good teacher. Some days I come home with a migraine. Some days I feel like I should have done more. Some days I wonder why she does it. Some days I can see why she does it. Chase is the 3rd child of ours that has had Mrs. Graham. In years past we have been able to help out the kindergarten in the financial department than we are able to this year, so I feel bad about that. Maybe that is why I feel like I need to be in the classroom helping more. When Bryce and Ambri where in kindergarten I couldn't be in the classroom as much because Chase and Oakli were little babies. (Sigh).

I still can't keep Bryce "in Books". He continues to read me and his teacher out of every book he checks out from the library. He always has his limit checked out and can read through a very large book in 1 day. It truly amazes me. I can't even keep up with what he is reading. He also loves to play the computer and DS as much as he loves to read too, so he isn't a "nerdy" child, thank goodness!

This year has been very hard. I hope next year is a better year. I do have to say though, if this year wasn't so hard, I wouldn't have learned the lessons I needed to learn.

I'm very behind on my jewelry making. Bad, Kari. Another side effect from Kindergarten. The kids are addicting. Well, maybe not the kids, (that sounds bad, but it is different when it's your own kids...) but I do feel a strong urge to help out wherever I can. I guess that is why there are still no pictures posted here. (Sorry Jaclyn). I was thinking that on the long drive maybe I could post some. Yes, I just said it, ON THE LONG DRIVE... for those of you that are reading this that are "Utards" (and I say that so affectionately - because I still consider myself a Utard - that is what Doug and I call us - you, me, I, whatever) we are coming for Thanksgiving. If Mom doesn't know, I sent her a text. I do need to call her. See... I do have procrastination in my veins. I'll email, I promise. This is one of the most "last minute" trips I think I've ever planned, except for a funeral trip.

The Think Method

I'm using the think method today.

Today I'm thinking that I'll do a *real* blog post. (This one doesn't count.) I've been browsing my pictures and trying to get them organized. I honestly have so many soccer pictures from the fall (12.4 GB so far) that it is overwhelming. I still have Bryce's last game to finish. I'm hoping that there is a great picture of each child in there somewhere for a great soccer post. Then I can delete like 10 GB of bad soccer pictures.

Then I'm hoping that I can find one decent picture of Oakli in her Halloween costume. She is "literally" the most dramatic child I have ever met. She can make more faces in 2 seconds than anyone I have ever met. That includes hand and arm gestures. She is amazing and I never know if I am going to get a normal picture. I guess that is just her personality and it will probably never change. So that is my *thinking* for today. The rest of my *thinking* will go out the window because I am heading to kindergarten today. There doesn't seem to be much thinking going on in a kindergarten classroom, although we'd all like to pretend that there is. I don't know how kindergarten teachers do it, it is more like organizezd chaos, but somehow Mrs. Graham gets it done, and she is the BEST! Anyway, it is Chase's "sharing" day today and he wants to bring Oakli for his sharing. Go figure.

I'm on Strike!

Now, don't go getting any ideas now... I'm still:

I don't know that it was ever officially discussed before, but I think it was mentioned previously how difficult it was to blog every day for a whole month. I'm not saying it can't be done for some people. I know there are a lot of people out there that make a lot of money doing it every day. I'm sure that if someone wanted to pay me a lot of money, I'd change my attitude really fast. But, because no one is beating down my pathetic front door, my attitude is still the same, blogging everyday is not for me. I will, however, be back. Just not yet. I think about it often, so I wanted to let you know (if you are out there) that I am still here. I am still trying to enjoy the last few days of sun that we have in Oregon. I am swamped with soccer 6 days a week (but loving it!), canning, and am now enjoying what is a quiet afternoon once in a while. Chase is in school now in the afternoons, and Oakli still loves her naps, when she gets them. I am proud to say, some afternoons it is quiet. Sitting here thinking about what happens during those quiet hours, I cannot even begin to recall, but I'm sure that something productive happens (I hope!)

Once the rain starts to fall and soccer ends for the Princesses, Elves, Tornadoes, and Renegades I'll post pictures of the kids in action and begin work on scrapbook pages (I hope) and who knows what else, but until then, we are still here and I'm still reading your blogs too!

Spiderwebs ~ Day 27

Oakli wanted me to let the whole world know (because you don't know) that all grown-ups have "spider-webs" in their noses.

Hunh.

Sisters... Naw, couldn't be... ~ Day 26

I took this picture today at the neighborhood picnic. Ambri and Oakli are looking more alike each day.

Sigh (not "hunh" today).

Day 23 ~ It's gonna get hot!

Here's the birthday invitation that I am doing for Chase's birthday party that is coming up. I decided against a car or train invitation because it is going to be so hot next week.

Poor Oakli doesn't understand why she isn't having a party with friends. My kids start their friends parties at the age of 5, and then they only get a "friends" party on the odd year. She turns 4, 10 days after Chase turns 5. I guess we'll just have to try to figure that one out 10 days later.

On another not so happy note, Doug chopped Oakli's glasses up in the lawn mower today. The kids have been swimming in the pool every day, and I guess she got too lazy to walk up to the deck with her glasses and just laid them on the grass. I guess that right there sealed the deal for the glasses. They would have either been lost or stepped on anyway. All the kids brought me were the lenses. No frames, just 2 lenses with small chunks missing from each of them; just past the point of the lenses being salvageable, and at the same time my mind (note the word MIND, not lips) is screaming, "why are you bringing these to me?" I guess I can't say that I'm that mad, Chase hasn't been able to find his glasses for the last two days, and I haven't done a thing about it. It must be summer.

Hunh.

A Humorous Take ~ Day 12

Right now we are having a thunder and lightning storm (with rain, of coarse). Oakli just woke up from her nap and came down and promptly informed us all (remember, she's just 3) that the clouds are "peeing".

Hunh.

Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper Half Marathon

Doug was very kind to set up a half-marathon for us this past weekend. We invited many to join with us, and we had a great turn out! Here was part of his announcement:

We are making final preparations for the first, possibly annual, Super-Duper-Cooper-Looper-Half Marathon on June 6, 2009 at 7:00am. Yes, 13.1 miles of pure fun and joy (well, it can be). The course is set to run on flat, paved roads going through beautiful, Willamette Valley farmland in the Dever-Conner area of Northeast Albany. The race will start and end at the Burton’s home. Anyone of any age, that thinks that they could finish the course is invited to participate. Running, jogging, walking, biking, blading, crawling (bring knee pads if you are going to do that), are all permitted this year. If for some reason someone is not able to finish the course we will arrange for a ride to the finish line. Aid stations will be at miles 2, 4, 6, 9, and 11 with bananas and orange slices at the mile 6 station and bathrooms at miles 2, 4(?), 9, and 11. At the end of the race, at the finish line we will also have some drinks with some light foods and snacks.

Here are the results of the marathon. If you don't find yourself right away, check for another category. The results have been broken down based on the method of completion. (I've left off your last name for privacy. If you want me to put your last name up on the site, just email me.)

Runners:

1. Matthew K. (#128) 1:27:00

2. Kyle M. (#117) 1:49:00

2. Bill H. (#129) 1:49:00

3. Larry S. (#127) 2:00:00

4. Maria B. (#123) 2:31:00

Walkers:

1. Kari B. (#114) 2:45:00

Adult Bike:

1. James C. (#135) 49:00

2. Brent B. (#131) 50:00

3. Preston B. (#124) 59:15

4. Jaclyn B. (#116) 1:25:00

5. Bart B. (#115) 1:25:00

6. Afton B. (#119) 1:35:00

7. Steve B. (#118) 1:35:00

8. Paul T. (#134) 1:39:00

9. Charisse B. (#130) 1:59:00 (ran 4 miles, then biked)

10. Tom B. (#122) 2:31:00

Youth Bike:

1. Jordan M. (#105) 59:35

2. Sarah M. (#104) 1:00:41

3. Sarah C. (#106) 1:00:42

4. Bryce B. (#101) 1:08:00

5. Ceana B. (#109) 1:08:00

6. Matthew H. (#112) 1:15:40

7. Chase B. (#113) 1:25:00 (rode with #116)

8. Oakli B. (#103) 1:25:00 (rode with #115)

9. Brady T. (#132) 1:30:00

10. Kerry T. (#133) 1:39:00

11. Kaeli B. (#110) 1:40:00

12. Caiden B. (#111) 1:40:30

Other:

1. Tyler B. (#121) Roller Blade

2. Jace B. (#107) (rode with #121)

3. Traeden B. (#108) (rode with #121)

4. Porta Potty (#136) 2:27:00 (Tractor)

Ambri and Oakli's Bedroom

I finished painting Ambri and Oakli's bedroom today. It took me a week to do, and I'm beat! I've wanted to paint it like this for a long time. I saw the idea and thought that if I waited long enough the idea would wear off, but it never did. The painting bug hit me a few weeks ago, and this is my 3rd room. The other 2 rooms I painted "normal" though. Bryce is lining up for his room next. The problem is, I'm worn out!

I like the walls so much, I don't know where to put the girls beds. Up until right be3fore I painted their room, we had them bunked. Mainly to keep Oakli up on her bed during naps (she was on the top bunk and she couldn't get off) now they are both on the floor. I really just want to put both beds outside with the "shracoons" (that's what my younger kids affectionately call raccoons) and have all the walls showing. Does anyone object?

Did I mention how much I now dislike pink? Let me start by saying, I've always liked pink and brown together, I think they look really classy together (don't knock the blog background). Sure pink is a great color for clothes, jewelry, flowers, cotton candy, subtle nail polish, shoes, hair ribbons, stickers, bathing suits, toothbrushes, stuff like that. But paint in large coverages... I think I'm going to have to re-evaluate my thinking on this one. I knew there was a reason that I never wanted to paint their room pink. The other two walls are plain pink, 2 different shades. One wall has the closet on it, the other wall has the window. Their room glows pink. It's like... radiation pink. Pepto pink. The brown wall and flower wall is awesome. It's just too bad that you don't see those walls first thing when you walk in. You have to turn around after you go in. You have to get radiation poisoning first, then feel like you are going to choke, then turn around and try to realize that there are two really cool walls in the room. The cool-ness factor has worn off, and by now the flower walls are only semi-cool, because you are suffocating in the radiation poisoning you have just committed yourself to. I wonder what would have happened if I would have painted the closet doors pink as well? (I did leave those white.)

It's all good, because I'm still super, euber proud of the (awful) (awsome) pink, and slightly brown room that I slaved over for over a week on. I am awesome!

~Kari

It's Official....

Well, not that. No, our family weight-loss competition is NOT over yet. 5 more days.

Chase and Oakli have officially been branded into the 4-wheeling family now. They have been taught to drive the 4-wheeler on their own. Bryce brought it to Doug's attention that He was 3 when he learned to drive the 4-wheeler, so the 2 youngin's should learn. Doug got right on that. It was a nice sunny day yesterday and he got right to work! Chase and Oakli took right to it and didn't crash into anything! (Well, how can you with a back yard like that?) I guess there is the tree, the trampoline, the play set, blueberry plants, and not to mention maybe going into the pond... but they did quite well. They were out again today and had a great time! I'm sure they can't wait until they get to ride the more "sporty" version, but for now, this is the "learning" model.














~ Kari

Hmmmm...

I'm not really sure what I'm going to blog about yet, I just figured it has been a long time since I've posted anything, so I'd do a quick post b3efore I head off to bed. 5 words ago spurs a nice opening for this post. I've explained this to a few people, now is as good as any a time to tell the r3est of the world that I seem to have this interesting relationship with the "3" on the keyboard. For some reason many times when I type an "e" I also hit the "3" on the3 keyboard. Usually it takes just as long to explain it once to someone and then move on and leave the 3's in my words than to keep erasing them. So from now on when you see the 3's in certain words next to "e"s, it is not because I love the number 3 so much, or I am just retarded... well, maybe I am retarded, I'm just not sure yet.

Right now my life still mainly consists of walking, A LOT! We have 2 weeks and 1 day left in our family weight loss challenge. At this point I don't really care who knows how I am doing, because if you aren't doing as good as you want to be doing, it is pretty much too late. I feel like I am doing really good. I am proud of myself for how well I have done. Whether I win the money or not, I have worked so hard and I have lost a lot of weight and I have to say, "good job, Kari!". I get up in the morning, weight myself, then de3cide how far I am going to walk that morning, based on the scale. I know it sounds silly, but hey, I'm in it for the money. After my 2 weeks and one day is up, then I'll revert back to probably weighing myself just 3 times a week (which is what I did before this competition starte3d) and walking 5 miles a day, which I did NOT do before this competition started. I have resolved that if I want to keep this new body that I have worked SO hard for, it is going to probably take walking about 5 miles a day to actually keep it, so that is what I am going to do. So anyway, aft3er walking, what seems like forever, e3ach morning (in reality it is only one Raechel Ray show and part of Oprah or American Idol, or part of some other show that gets me through 64 minutes of walking on the treadmill) I feel great that I finished it! The day can b3egin. Now what? It has been nice and sunny here in Oregon? My kids keep asking if it is spring. Chase keeps asking if it is summer and when our birthdays are going to be. Poor kid. I digress. Well, I didn't really have a point to b3egin with. I'll move on.

I've been doing jewelry again. It has been a lot of fun. I've got a shop on etsy. As soon as I have a few more things posted I'll put a link up and send out a mass email for anyone that is interested in seeing what I've been up to.

Other news... Chase and Oakli both broke their glasses in the same day.


I can't think of much else to write about for now. I'll be heading to the Neurologist tomorrow for a follow-up appointmen3t. If anything exciting comes of it, I'll let you know.


Oh, I know, we took the kids to Monster Jam this last weekend. We went with our good friends the Newells. We got tickets several months ago and we had a great time with them. They all loved seeing Grave Digger and we got to go early for the "Pit Party". We got to go down and take pictures with all the trucks up close, that was great. One of the moster trucks even rolled, it was great fun. Did I mention that it was loud? Oh yeah, it was loud.

I SAID ALL THE CANDY WRAPPERS GO IN THE GARBAGE!

Yeah, whatever, Mom.


So another Halloween has come and gone.

Here's how they rank: Bryce was a sumo wresteler, Ambri was Wonder Woman, Chase was a knight and Oakli was Cinderella.

The kitchen is a disaster with halloween candy and wrappers everywhere. I guess when I threatened the kids with disposing of all the candy if they didn't take care of their wrappers was a hollow threat. The good news (sort of...) is that the candy is almost gone. It hasn't even been 24 hours yet. Is that a good thing?

Ambri came home last night from the Trunk-or-Treat and told me that she didn't know why all the grown-ups knew who she was, but the little kids didn't. Go figure. We've definately watched our share of Wonder Woman on YouTube. She's also go the moves down to block the bullets on her wrist bands.

Chase was very sweet with his costume choice this year. He realized that Oakli was going to be Cinderella and he wanted to be a knight so he could protect all the princesses from the dragons. He will tell you first thing that "trains, cars, and firefighters are my favorite" so I don't know why he didn't pick one of those. We found a cheap costume at Wal-Mart, so I wasn't going to challenge him on it. I spent a good amount of time looking for a Thomas the Tank costume, but couldn't find one anywhere. Don't press your luck, eh?

Our trip is drawing ever closer and I can't wait! I'm starting into panic mode, realizing how much I still need to do. I havn't planned our days out for the Australia portion of the trip yet, so maybe I should go think about that now!

TTFN!

"Put my stuff in the bag, Please!"

Oakli came to me with a grocery bag and asked me to put her stuff in the bag. The first thing that popped into my mind was that she was the stuff. Here's the proof!