Going private

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Paint colour

Here are two shots of the paint colour we went with on our upstairs walls.

The rest of May

Friday 14th - Our ward had a wii bowling tournament as a fundraiser for YW's camp. Ryan and I started out in different teams and demolished our competition. I shouldn't brag, but I never usually beat anyone because I'm always playing against Ryan so it was fun to win for once. Then I had to play against Ryan....Yes, I lost. But he beat out everyone in this second group so he continued.

He ended up coming in 3rd in the entire tournament and we won a nights stay at the Marriott hotel. Yes please. Ryan's dad is out in Florida already and has been for about 3 weeks now, but his mum is still here until the 29th June. So she came up and watched the wee ones while we took advantage of our prize.

We went downtown in Portland after checking into the hotel. We got Ryan a new suit for work, had some dinner and then went to see Iron Man 2. It was very odd not having to worry about being home by a certain time.

The next day we bought some new book shelves for our living room and some paint. I was really eager to get something done with our upstairs. It was incredibly boring.

Thursday 27th- I started painting our upstairs living room and got 2 walls done by myself in between "busy boy" Pete's naps.

Friday 28th- Ryan and I then stayed up till 1am finishing the job. It's very bright, but I really like it.

Saturday morning- Jack said, " Mum, the wall is green." Me: "Yes it is, do you like it?" Jack: "Yes, I like it, it's really nice." Me: "Awww, thanks wee man." Jack: "You're welcome mum."

What a sweet lad.

Sunday 30th- I got a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day....never happens... pure dead brilliant.

That night I watched a 4 hour long BBC version of Emma that I got for my birthday with Ryan's mum who was staying with us for the weekend....also pure dead brilliant...I want to watch it again.

Today (Monday 31st)- It is Memorial day so Ryan has the day off work. Ryan got up with the wee ones and I stayed in bed until 9:30am. I got to finish a book that I have been working on for about 2 months. Ryan's mum is still here and playing with the boys....while I sit and jot this down. Later we're having a BBQ, Ryan will be grilling. I feel like I'm on holiday.

I will post pictures of the living room later.

Only 111 days to go!

I'm so flippin' excited! I just bought tickets for our whole family to go to Scotland! We head out on the 5th Sept. and return on the 21st Sept. I have been unbelievably homesick for about two weeks and on a mad hunt to find us some cheap tickets. After having a slight melt down on the phone to my mum yesterday and crying for most of the day, I refocused and found us a really good deal on some US Airway tickets. It's a 1 stop flight, which is ideal when travelling with the wee men. I'm so glad that Ryan is coming with me too. He's only been once in 2006 and I really can't even begin to imagine travelling by myself with the two boys.

It's still a little ways away, but I am so ecstatic to see the "bonnie bonnie banks" of my homeland again.

Another year older

On Sunday it was Mother's Day here in the States (it was on March 14th in the UK). Ryan made me breakfast...it was supposed to be breakfast in bed, but I kinda got out and made the bed. So all four of us sat on top of the bed and shared it.

As much as I love being in YW it was nice to be able to go into Relief Society with all of the women in our ward. The men took over all the women's callings for the last hour, it was great..plus I didn't have to prepare a lesson, that's always a lovely bonus.

Later in the day we had Ryan's mum and the Sister Missionaries over for dinner. I felt spoiled, I got some really nice gifts.

Then yesterday the spoiling continued as it was my birthday. I have made the most wonderful friends since moving here to Newberg. One friend surprised me with a delish cheesecake and balloon on my doorstep first thing in the morning. I got some beautiful tulips from my friend, Val, and my amazing visiting teacher brought over a loaf of homemade artisan bread. The boys and I met Ryan at the mall later in the day and we ate dinner at the cheesecake factory. It was the perfect place to be with my noisy children. There were tons of people having 'Happy Birthday' sung to them .... I didn't and the pathetic dessert freebie wasn't enough to convince me to change my mind.

Here's a photo of me with wee Peter at the restaurant and then with my wee Jack the lad.

I've had such a lovely couple of days. I love my wee family and was glad I also got the chance to talk to my family in Scotland too. My dad said, "well....28 years ago today we had the pleasure of your company". I said, "yeah, I know, I'm getting pretty old....but not as old as Ryan, he'll be 30 this year!" Ha. I won't be laughing when it's me.

They're moving.

I can't believe my luck, both wee ones in bed by 7pm. Jack usually goes down this early, but Pete lingers around until closer to 8:30pm. Anyway, I thought I'd just jump on and give a run down of our weekend. Friday afternoon I got a call from my father-in-law saying he'd got the job in Florida. As I congratulated him I got a wee bit teary eyed which kinda surprised me. I knew it was very likely that he'd get the job, but I guess another part of me thought this one might fall through like some of the others he had interviewed for. We came to Oregon to be close to Ryan's family since there is no way we're headed over to Scotland anytime soon to be close to mine (for some reason Ryan isn't so keen on the idea of going through law school again...can't imagine why?).

Well, Chris asked us to come over for dinner on Sunday as he would be leaving Tuesday....what! I was pretty shocked. We had plans for dinner with a family in our ward, but under the circumstances we cancelled so we could go say farewell to Chris. Liz (my mother-in-law) is going to leave at the end of June after school gets out; she works as a teacher's aid.

We had stake conference this weekend. Ryan had priesthood meetings during the day and when he returned I headed out myself to the Saturday night session. It was really wonderful. I haven't cried like that through a session of stake conference...well...ever.

During the Sunday morning session both kids conked out. It was fabulous. My children have never been so well behaved at church(if only they would always dim the lights during sacrament meeting! It was being broadcast from our stake center to our home building). When Jack woke up 5 mins before the end he turned to me and said, "Mum, I'm sick. I need to take a nap". Before I could say a word, he started to cough that dreaded cough (the one that sounds like barf is coming). I grabbed him, and ran as fast as I could to the closest bathroom...he exploded all over the sinks. Poor kid. And poor me. I did not want to clean it up, but of course I did.

He took another 2 hour nap when we got home, but seemed grand as sand when he woke up. We decided just to take him to Ryan's parent's house even though we were still a little unsure about him...mainly because this would be the last time he'd see his Grandpa for quite a while. Minutes after walking through their front door with him he exploded all over their carpet. Oh, motherhood. I tended to the wee sickie for another hour before he zonked out again. Bless.

It was an "interesting" visit...dealing with wee sick Jack, meeting Callie's(ryan's sister)new beau, hearing about Casey's (ryan's bro) new life on a chicken farm(he came in from Cali for 1 day to collect all his furniture that was stored in his parent's garage), and hearing about all the plans for their move to Florida.

Oh and Pete just woke up and he has a temperature...smashing.

Tulips

Our friends invited us to come along with them to the Tulip Festival in Woodburn last weekend. I had actually been looking at someone else's pictures of their visit to the festival a few days prior and was in complete awe...it looked truly breathtaking. I wasn't disappointed. It turned out to be a slightly longer drive out there than I had anticipated and Ryan even made the comment that he didn't realize we were going to California to see the tulips, but it was a pleasant drive (with both weans asleep) and lovely scenery.
Of course I attempted to get the boys together for a nice photo in amongst the flowers, but it went as expected...no one co-operated.

I loved this brilliant old steam tractor...I thought Jack would too, but for some reason he was a little unsure of it and threw a massive fit as we walked towards it.

Pete and I sat for a few minutes in with the tulips and got a couple of cute wee shots together, before grabby Pete thought it would be more fun to behead the poor things.

Jack told me over and over and over that he wanted to go in "that house"(the windmill)...of course it was purely decorative and so he was pretty disappointed when he finally got over to it. He did make an attempt to launch himself over the railing around it, but I'm no fun.
We have been enjoying some beautiful sunshine here in Oregon and I hope it continues a wee while longer.

In other news, Ryan's parents are waiting to hear back from a job interview that might take them to Florida. It would be sad not to have at least one set of grandparents close by for the kids to grow up around, but if that is where Chris gets a job then we'll be happy for them. And really I don't think I'll be that upset about having to take a trip to Florida to visit them...Disney world here we come(...maybe).