Parisienne

I have wanting to know how to do this for YEARS! 

I'm going to be trying mine out tomorrow...

(I  stumbled upon this from a great little blog that I follow, Tap In, which led me to the YSL site. I will be adding this to my iGoogle Homepage!

Experience Parisienne

Soccermania

Working for a soccer giant like Adidas, it is no surprise that it has taken over our home to a degree...We have a poster to track all the brackets, jerseys, and soccer balls. Monday, Burgerville along with the Timbers owner came out to the Village to feed us (you had to pay) and to give away free t-shirts along with 2 tickets to last night's Timbers game. We rarely get to go to any events due to either money restraints, Graham's work schedule, or lack of child care...We were so excited to have a chance to do something like that with the whole family, although a bit apprehensive on how the boys would do.

Oliver wasn't in the best of moods when I got home (he has decided to stop taking naps the past 2 weeks...) but he finally settled down and did a great job eating his dinner. (he LOVES soup, so it wasn't too hard!) We had to stop at the employee store to do some Father's Day shopping and Oliver went into total meltdown mode. We didn't know how a 2 hour game was going to work out, hoping that we could make it to at least half time!

Once we arrived, Graham immediately found a Timbers scarf. That made him a happy boy. Next we headed toward our seats and also found the happy hour/Thirsty Thursday beers, so once again Daddy was happy. (side note: the beers at the booths in the front were charging $8.75 for a large beer!) We then grabbed a bag of kettle corn in attempt to keep the boys preoccupied, it worked!...We found our seats and they were AMAZING. Only 5 rows back on the corner and we even lucked out with a counter too! How perfect! Oliver freaked out for a few minutes from the sound as he is pretty sensitive to loud noises (kinda like his Mama..). Once we told him the horns were like Thomas the Train, he was OK. He loved clapping and even clapped for the other team. Everything went really smoothly (expect for the Timbers losing 1-0) and Oliver only started to fall apart the last 10 minutes! One thing I loved about the game was the fact that the clock is actually the play time, no timeouts. Only a few minutes to count for injury and penalty kicks.It make the whole thing a lot more manageable when you have squirmy little ones.

We had so much fun and Oliver was even talking about the game this morning. In an ideal world, we would by a flex pass or partial season tickets. I know the prices are going to skyrocket next year when the Timbers join the MLS. For now, hopefully we can make some more games as our seats only cost $17 each AND kids 2 and under are free (as long as they sit on your lap)...

I forgot my phone AND my camera, so no pictures....

:(

Plot Twist

Things have take a turn in our house. Graham took Roxy in to the Humane Society today to be put down, but she passed the temperament test with flying colors (the test results didn't really sound anything like her...) So we have an appointment on the 28th for her to be taken in and set up for adoption. At that time they will do a couple tests again to confirm her temperament. She will hopefully be adopted to a home with no children or much older ones who will know not to touch her back end or pull her tail....

It is bittersweet. We don't want to give her up and we don't want her to be put down. Of course our ideal situation is for her to go to someone's home that we know that can love her and take care of her, either until the boys are older or just so we can visit her. She is our first baby and now 7 1/2 years old. Such a hard place to find ourselves....

Zoo La La

On Memorial Day, we actaully had a while day off together as a family. It has been a couple of months since that happened and we were anxious to get out and do something. With the nasty spring weather hanging around for WAY too long, we decided to take the boys to the zoo. The morning started off a little cool and cloudy, but by midday it was a perfect, sunny spring day!

(somehow that happens every time we go to the zoo...)

 

Henri in my new Ergo carrier. I heart it SO much! I have tried so many different carriers, but if I had it to do all over again, I would only use this one....

This month the dinosaur exhibit was brought back. Oliver was really excited to see it...but that quickly faded...

 Especially after Daddy tried to feed him to one!

 After a couple of elephant ears, we decided to finally take Oliver on the train. He has been obsessing about trains and since we didn't have the stroller, we felt like it was a good time to go.

 

Having fun with Henri's foot...

This is my favorite series that Graham captured. I have titled it:

Anticipation

 TRAIN!!

 He had so much fun. He spent about 80% of the time just peering out the window watching the tracks. For days he kept talking about it. We will never be able to go to the zoo again with out a train ride!

 Henri enjoyed it for the most part as well. He had a bit of a rough time as he was so sleepy and hadn't had his nap ...

 And then the soothing rocking of the train car lulled him to sleep....

Hardest Decision

WE have had to make the hardest decision of our lives up to this point. We are forced to put down our 7 1/2 year old pup Roxy. Many of you know that since she was about 2, maybe a little younger, she has had problems with her knees and hips. The orthopedic vet said she needed a $5,000 surgery, something we couldn't afford to do. We put her on glucosamine for the time being until we could afford the surgeries. Much to our surprise, she got better and adapted so that her front legs were stronger to compensate for her weaker back end. Over the past year or so, she has been showing signs of pain. She hates her back end being touched and has gotten snippy with any amount of pain that she feels.

Unfortunately, that doesn't go well with having young children. Oliver has had a couple of nips in the past, only 1 of which drew a small amount of blood. Last week she got him good, poor little man has 4 scratches on his hand and was scared of the dog for 2 days. Graham was in the kitchen when it happened so he wasn't sure exactly what happened, but after asking Oliver a few times over a couple of days, the answer has been the same. "i touched her foot/leg"

With no options for her to go to another home, we have to make the decision to put her down.

Such a hard one. I know if I was home with Oliver when it happened, I would probably not feel as much guilt. We know she is in pain and can't be living the ideal life, but at the same time we feel such guilt. We just can't take the risk of something else happening and something even worse. Imagine the guilt we would have then.

I found that we can take her to the OHS to have her put to sleep. Graham has to be the one to take her, i just can't do it. It will be hard to explain to Oliver that she will be gone. Hopefully we will find another sweet pup to rescue in the next couple of months. We also want to add a little Manx to our family as well, most likely closet to Fall when Graham is working full time.

 Roxy at about 9 weeks old.

 Crazy wild puppers!

 

1 or 2 years old.

Backyard of the Brazee House.

Roxy and I hanging out in the park September 2006.

 Her favorite spot at the Brazee House.

Our first day in San Francisco as a family. At Grey Whale Cove. 

November 2006

 

 

San Francisco days...

 At the Canon Beach Summer 2009

 At the park with her boy while visiting Gramma & Poppa Rick.

Summer 2009