this is so true....a letter to the grandkids

We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like better. I'd really like for them to know about hand me down clothes and homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I really would.

I hope you learn humility by being humiliated, and that you learn honesty by being cheated. I hope you learn to make your own bed and mow the lawn and wash the car. And I really hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen.


It will be good if at least one time you can see puppies born and your old dog put to sleep.

I hope you get a black eye fighting for something you believe in.

I hope you have to share a bedroom with your younger brother/sister. And it's all right if you have to draw a line down the middle of the room,but when he wants to crawl under the covers with you because he's scared, I hope you let him.



When you want to see a movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you'll let him. I hope you have to walk uphill to school with your friends and that you live in a town where you can do it safely.


On rainy days when you have to catch a ride, I hope you don't ask your driver to drop you two blocks away so you won't be seen riding with someone as uncool as your Mom.

If you want a slingshot, I hope your Dad teaches you how to make one instead of buying one. I hope you learn to dig in the dirt and read books.

When you learn to use computers, I hope you also learn to add and subtract in your head.

I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush on a boy\girl, and when you talk back to your mother that you learn what ivory soap tastes like.
I don't care if you try a beer once, but I hope you don't like it.. And if a friend offers you dope or a joint, I hope you realize he is not your friend

I sure hope you make time to sit on a porch with your Grandma/Grandpa and go fishing with them.

May you feel sorrow at a funeral and joy during the holidays.

I hope your mother punishes you when you throw a baseball through your neighbor's window and that she hugs you and kisses you at Christmas time when you give her a plaster mold of your hand.

These things I wish for you - tough times and disappointment, hard work and happiness. To me, it's the only way to appreciate life.

Never a dull moment....even at 330 AM

Whoooo Hooooo, Date Night!

My mom said the kids could stay the night at her house. She just got back from Florida. Mason and Melayna asked every day how much longer till grandma got home. They missed her everyday.

Kevin and I decided to meet at Calapooia for some tater tots and drinks. We left the house and came home to watch tv and relax. Funny you finally get a moment with no kids and all you can think about is how wonderful your bed sounds. I woke up at 230 feeling kind of sick to my stomach and decided to get up and watch tv. The previous day Mason was throwing up all day so I thought I might have a touch of what he had. The news in the middle of night got kind of boring so I decided I better make myself go to sleep. I turned the tv off and heard a weird noise. I thought it was the dog, so I yelled Kolbe go to sleep. Then I heard it again, it was a swooping sound across my head. I thought I better get up to see what is making that sound. I turned the light on and BAT Was diving towards my head!!! I screamed and ran into the bed room to wake Kevin up. I said, KEVIN WAKE UP!!! There is a bat in our house. He was half asleep and said....Well kill it then. I said, NO WAKE UP I'm scared! He got up and put his hoodie on and opened the door. The bat was doing figure 8 thru the kitchen to the living room. Swooping down by our heads every pass. I was screaming and laughing at the same time. How the heck did a bat even get into the house? The little black hairy thing was BIG! Kevin was running around the house with the broom trying to get him out the front door.

So finally the thing flew out......Just to fly back in! It was too funny I had to record some of it. I didn't get him flying thru the house like a crazy bat I kept hiding in my bed room because he was trying to dive bomb me. The bat decided he was done flying around and made himself a little home inside the wall. In between the window and the sheet rock is open. We still are working on what kind of trim we want to put up.....never ending homeowner battle. The bat would not come out of the wall so we decided to shut our door and go to bed. Kevin had to be up in a few hours to go to work.

A few hours pass and it's time for Kevin to go to work. He looked in the wall and you could see the bat hanging upside down. He would look at you with his beaty little eyes but wouldn't move. Kevin said, way to go Trina buy some curtains that invite Vampires into our house! I couldn't stop laughing. I finally broke down and bought some new curtains....they said on the DIY network there supposed to start at the top of the window.

Later that night it started to get dark. We decided after getting input from Lisa (who used to work with bats at the aqauarium) that they are very delicate and we have to be careful getting it out of the wall. Kevin grabbed a rip rod from the garage and tried getting him to move. All the bat would do is bite the rod. It was actually really funny seeing his little mouth biting it. I was holding the flash light with the curtain half closed. FINALLY he flew out the window!!!

My Esty Account!

My Girl!

Last night concluded the final episode of Melayna's "most favorite show EVA" .

Every tuesday night we all get together to watch the Discovery series - Out of the Wild "The Alaska Experiment". In these show they have a group of every day people (mostly city people) that are dropped of at the beginning of winter in the middle of Alaska. The do not get paid a large amount of money for winning.......it is strictly volunteering. You are there to push yourself to see how far you can make it. The people are given a map and a compass. With just this and some basic materials they have to hike back to civialization.

Melayna fell in love with all of the people on the show. She would talk about it during the week and always ask how many days till Tuesday, so I can watch Alaska Experiment. She would say Dad, I really want to go on that show. I know I would be able to eat squrriel :)

Melayna was born with an extra big heart. She has always had her own way of thinking and the way she does do them makes sense to her. I remember when she was little she was coloring a picture. Grandpa said "Melayna you need to color inside the lines" she said "but why grandpa? I like it like this". Grandpa smiled and said well Princess I don't know why you have to color in the lines" If that is the way you think it looks pretty than you do it how ever you want. From that moment on I knew she was going to be different, and I LOVE IT!

Back to the story, last night the final four finally found a train track, which meant they found civialization. Melayna was sitting on the couch and Yells...... YES!!!! I knew it, I'm going to cry now. I said, Melayna are you really crying?? I looked over and she had big crocodile tears running down her face. I said are you ok? She had a huge smile on her face and said "I'm just so happy"!

In the future I see Melayna as an avid outdoors person. She loves camping and just being in the outdoors. She can't wait till she old enough to go hunting with her dad.

360 degrees

Wow, how things can change in the matter of months. Some days I wake up and I feel like I'm on that movie "Click" the one with Adam Sandler and things just keep getting hit in fast forward. I keep trying to hit the pause button but it just doesn't work. My daughter is already eight and next month I will have a baby that is already 5! Seems weird to me cuz I remember like yesterday I was changing diapers and mixing formula. Everyday I'm so thankful when I wake up.....I have an extremely awesome husband, two healthly kids, a mother and father that are still married and more important still here, an extrememly funny sister, an very supporting mother and father in-law, and a few friends that I can still trust that love me for who I am! No matter how bad of a day I have I still remember all of this :)

The Mystery Van to Splash for Melayna's 8th Birthday!!

This year for my Melayna's birthday we decided we were going to let her have a few friends go swimming. It started with inviting 2......well then turned into 10. She has too many people in her life to leave one out. She is so thoughtful.

Since I did a terrible job of planning her birthday I have to figure out last minute how I was going to get twelve people up to Springfield for her birthday party.

The transition from being a stay at home mom (for two years) to working full time has been a difficult one for my whole family. I was always there at everyones beck and call, but now that is more difficult.

I was thankful to find a cargo van that Mark Thomas motors rented out. I got very lucky because it just has been serviced and was going to be put up for sale Monday. The receptionist said she would rent it to me for the whole weekend.

Saturday arrives and all the kids start showing up. Melayna had invited 5 boys and 5 girls. I decided since we are going swimming I was going to feed the kids so they had at least 45 minutes for there food to settle. I did an easy hot dogs and french fries :) Right of the bat, I realized there was going to be the girls against the boys. One of the boys was in the kitchen I head him say ewwww that's got girl germs on it....LOL! I said, I will spray it for you....and pretended to get the cooties off of the plate. We were waiting on my sister and dustin to make it before we could leave. They wanted to come and watch the kids play too. They arrived and we loaded up the van. I felt like Thelma from Scooby Doo, I told Kevin this reminds me of the "Mystery Van" :) Shawna and Dustin decided they were going follow behind us because Dylan was to shy to ride with the other kids. I said come on, Dylan there is lots of room and I know it will be fun!

We started off down the road and my phone rings.....Shawna says can you drive my car Dylan wants to ride in the van but won't go without his dad. I said no problem, so Kevin pulled over and started following the van. You could see all the kids from behind, I felt so bad I left Kevin :) He had it under control.

We got to Splash in Springfield. The boys went with Kevin and Dustin to the boys locker room and the girls with me and Shawna. The girls decided they all needed there own lockers and had to do there hair and go to the bathroom and dilley dalley arounds :) They all held hands and walked down the hall, it was soooo cute. I said, now there is only a few rules 1. You have to wear a life jacket, I know you girls know how to swim but it would make me feel better 2. If you have to go potty you have to check with me first, if I don't see you I will freak out 3. If there is anytime you want to call your mom or your done swimming let me know. They all agreed and ran screaming into the water.

The boys were already in the water so I didn't give them the same rules. I was immediately a stress case. I seen mason out in the middle of the wave pool and no one around him. The waves kept going over his head and he looked a little stressed out. I told Kevin, ummm no! we can't let him in there anymore. I can't see him do that again....so he was demoted to the kiddie pool right in front of us. He still grinned from ear to ear being in the kiddie pool. I did so many laps around the pool, always making sure I could see all the kids. My sister laughed at me. She said you always get your self into these sitituations. I kept watching the boys more than the girls. The girls were following my rules. I seen Iyan sitting on the side and it looked like he was crying. I went over and asked him what was wrong? He didn't answer me....I said you want to call your mom? still no answer...I said you really need to tell me what is wrong. He started crying and said he got sucked under by a wave and almost drowned. I'm sure he just got scared not almost drowned there were lifeguards everywhere. Any ways I had him go chill out in the warm kiddie pool and 5 minutes later he was ready to head back into the wave pool with the kids. I said there is one rule you have to follow and that is put a life jacket on like eveyone else. He was not very happy with me.....It made me feel better thou.

Melayna walks up to me and said Mom look! Her front tooth was hanging by a limb. There was blood coming out of her mouth. We went into the locker room and she took a tissue and it just fell out.

The end of two hours I was ready to back up and head home. We got all the kids out of the pool. Kevin called me and said where are you? The boys and I have been waiting by the van. The girls and I where walking out to the van and the boys already ripped into the cupcakes. No big deal, I was smiling and taking pictures of the kids eating there cupcakes and I saw Kevin have a smurk on his face. I said, what? He said look by the tire of the van. I looked down and there was a used condom on the ground. I just started laughing....gross!! I didn't want the kids to see it so I moved them to the other side of the van. I said what are the odds, there are hundred parking spots and this is the one we choose.

The cupcakes were so big the kids that I think only one kid finished the whole thing. He were on our way home and all the kids say where thirsty :) So we pull off the next exit and Kevin ran in and bought them all a Dasani Water. We made it home to let the kids watch Melayna open her presents. When she was finished we loaded up and took everyone home. It was a very good birthday. It was a very good 8th birthday party. Melayna had a blast, and I pretty sure the rest of the kids did too!

The season is all over :(

Call me a football nerd but I was so excited about college football this year!

My first college football game was against USC in 2006. I fell in love! It was so much fun. The sun on your face, the crowd jumping up and down, and the smell of fresh air and hot dogs :)

Kevin and I sat by the USC band. I still can hear there theme song in my head. I don't think they stopped playing it over and over the whole game. It was almost as bad as the Disney ride it's a small world after all. The same night was also a huge halloween party and we were supposed to head to Lebanon to meet everyone. I was so exhausted from the game I didn't even have any energy to get ready. I knew everyone was expecting us so I pulled myself together and went to Lebanon. The next day I remember looking at Kevin and said I'm hooked. I want to go again. He said really? You liked it that much? YEAH, let's get season tickets.

Fast Forward to 2008*** I was so excited this year for our season. I'm finally starting to understand the plays and love our Beaver Players! I probably know everyones stats and injuries more than a dude. I would look forward to every saturday to watch college football every weekend.

Doug at Kevin's work asked if he would like to start some kind of poll every week. Doug would pick the games for the top 10 games of the week and he would give them to kevin at the beginning of the week. Kevin said to Doug can Trina play with us? Doug and Robert laughed, is that something she would want to do they asked? Kevin said yeah she is getting good. They said ok, but let her know who ever loses at the end of the season they have to buy everyone lunch. I said, I can do that! You like costco hotdog right? lol

So walking up to the civil war game I was really sad. Knowing this is the last beaver game of the season at Reeser stadium. I was also excited at the same time because I had already reserved my tickets to the Rose Bowl the night before. I had no doubt in my mind I wasn't going to go home and start packing for Pasadena, CA!!! The beginning of the game I saw Doug and just smiled.....I was thinking in my head HA that's what you get for making fun of a girl!! I placed second in our polls!!! Doug LOST! None the less everyone was pumped for the game. The guy in front of me kept high fiving me before the game even started :) The first play you felt it.....we didn't come to play. I felt my gut start to hurt. I looked at Kevin and said I'm confused what's going on??? We had lost our star "Quizz Rogers" but I had no doubts about this game.

Well it ended badly and I was heart broken. The Ducks ended up walking all over us and I seen the dumb mascot walking around with a Rose n his mouth. They took it away from us. No cali trip and I'm still in disbelief. I'm sad it ended that way but still had an amazing year of football. I'm sad it's over!!!! Who would have ever known I would love it so much. I'm already looking forward to next year. I have big plans for our Beavers! I can't wait to bring my kids.

GO BEAVERS