Clam Diggity

Last week we headed up to the Puget Sound to go clam digging. This is a family favorite activity. Rick really enjoys vacations where he works as hard as he does while in the orchard. Abby enjoys digging the clams, and had gotten to be a good clammer. Peter loves to dig and play in the water. Michelle likes to look for pretty shells and hold worms. I enjoy clam digging, but mostly just like being together as a family.

The day of the departure found me up early, with everything ready, ON TIME! We shoved the last of our stuff into our travel trailer only to find that we couldn't find the keys to the travel trailer. We spent many hours tearing apart our house. We looked in little worn jackets, under the washing machine, deep in the junk drawer, in sock drawers. We looked through my mother-in-laws house, the barn. Any and every place we could think of. Finally Rick looked in our van, and quickly located the missing set of keys. Rick asked my hours earlier to look there, but it was locked up, with the keys safely put away. Plus I was busy sweeping up the dust bunnies I found under the washing machine.

We made it to the campsite safely, and enjoyed several fun days filled with rain, clam digging, good food and math bingo. Rick's sister, brother-in-law and niece came over one afternoon. They helped as we shucked oysters, and gave the kids some cool flashlights.

One morning while Rick was visiting with our neighboring campers, I decided to start the propane grill. I couldn't get the long lighter to light, so I leaned in to watch a little closer and POOF. I smelled burning hair, and quickly felt to see if I still had eyebrows. I dashed inside to take a look in the mirror. Fortunately I still have eyebrows and eyelashes, they just aren't quite as long as they were. So long bushy eyebrows. The bangs that have recently grown back after having Cristine are once again short and sticking up, but I still have hair. Rick is still laughing at me.

Fortunately the lost keys and hair loss were the only mishaps. We had so much fun, we voted to return in April. Sarah and Anna do you guys want to meet us with us?

Happy Birthday Grampie

My sisters Wendy and Mary always have the funnest pictures and blogs celebrating our families birthday's.

Happy Birthday Grampie! Congratulations on being 24 again!
love you dad!
Heather

Overheard

My two big girls were playing. Abby told Michelle: We don't have to pay for anything here, because this is the FREE-dom.

What exactly are they teaching these kids in public school?

+++++
The SuperNanny is in Portland looking for problem families. Should I volunteer my family, or nominate the scary mom who screams at her kids each time she is in the store? A co-worker and I discussed this and decided that there are at least 4 families we see on a regular basis who we'd like to nominate. Do they take anonimous tips? They make my lack of vegitable consumption seem very minor!
Heater

Bit O'Bragging

Here's a quick update on what our kids have been up too:

Abby-performed a Hula in our ward's talent show (Wendy, I think she's ready to visit-maybe your girls can give her some needed tips on moving her hips).

Her 2nd grade class gets to go swimming for the next 2 weeks (how come Sonoma School never let us use the nice indoor pool on the same property?).

Peter-threw-up on the bus yesterday, adding another fun stop on our family's puke tour. He is learning to read, and it is fun to listen to him spell, fan, pan, ran, can, rat, pat, hat etc. He loves the book Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom and has been re-illustrating it, pages can be found allover our house.

Michelle-gave her first talk in Primary. She was so cute, spoke loud and clear, even though the microphone was broken. I am looking for more easy, kid friendly talks that go along with this year's Primary theme, post them to the comments if you have any!

Cristine-is now folding her arms when we pray, and mumbles her own words, throws her arms up, saying 'ahhh' and claps. She is starting to talk, saying 'ashe ashe la la down' (from Ring-Around-the-Rosie).

Rick-has been out pruning the last week or so, he's almost finished with all the big cuts, then the workers will shape the trees. Since my blog name is Orchard Girl, I plan on taking a few pictures of what is happening outside my door. I think we get to help in gathering up the brush.

Me-my headaches have almost disappeared and I got over the same stomach flu Peter had. This weekend I am taking a SCUBA course. I'm excited, but worried. I keep worrying that I'm not retaining any of the stuff I'm reading about, or I'll have a major cramp in my legs that keeps me from passing the course. Yikes! Wish me luck!

Heather

Major Pain

How do you handle pain?

I am going on day 7 of a major headache. Yesterday I visited the doctor, wondering if I had an ear infection. The pain has been located only on the left side of my face, usually centering in my temple, but often radiating under my eye, or down to my jaw. I frequently have a stabbing or pulsing pain. My sleep is often interrupted, today at one point it felt like someone was jabbing my ear with an ice pick. Advil is my friend. The doctor said I have a virus attacking my trigeminal nerve, ( I will try to explain this as best I can, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on t.v.) there is one trigeminal nerve on each side of your face. The nerve branches into 3 nerves near your ear and one part goes to your head, one is under your eye towards your nose the other runs down by your jaw.

My mother-in-law suffered from Trigeminal Neuralgia, constant pain, which would intensify when she was outside on a cold windy day. She has had lots of sympathy for me, and is worried it will develop into what she had. She finally underwent surgery to numb the nerve. I now have more empathy for her than I did when she was in pain.

I feel like a wimp. I don't like to take medication, I've had 4 babies without drugs, even endured back labor, but this is kicking my butt. I haven't slept well in a week, a few times I have almost cried. Waiting for the Advil to kick in almost kills me. I think I am Dr. Jeckle/Mr. Hyde. Once the Advil starts to work, I almost feel normal, but occasionally I'll have times when the pain is stronger than the medicine.

I am determined to defeat this. Tomorrow I will not go back to bed after the kids leave for school. I will stay up and go jogging, maybe with the pain in my face, I won't notice the pain I feel when I jog. I will also be kinder to my kids, less grouchy. I will smile.

To all those who suffer from chronic pain, you have my fullest sympathy and support.
Heather

Book Tag

Mary tagged me for this.

The Rules of the game:
1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people.

Well the closest book was, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but page 123 was rather boring. The first 3 sentences were: Take a good look at each sound. Say it slowly if you can. Don't get fooled.

So I reached for the next closest book, Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentime. It only goes to page 67.

So I walked a bit further to my library stack. Waiting for me is Indian Summer by John Knowles, for background he wrote A Separate Peace and Peace Breaks Out. I enjoyed both of those while in High School, and I was excited to find another book by him.

The voice, which was low, clogged, and expressionless, asked the routine questions. Squirming nervously but gazing with his levelest green stare past the nose into the glazed eyes, Cleet responded as though under oath. Eventually the transaction was finished, and turning, executing virtually a military about-face, Cleet crossed to the entrance of the building, looking neither to right nor left, experiencing some of the emotions a youth leaving a whorehOuse for the first time might feel: relief, revelation, shame, discomfort, deflation, impatience, and a battered sense of new maturity.

Wow, sounds interesting, I'll have to finish my Dick Frances book tonight so I can get started on it. Never thought I'd type the word whorehOuse on my blog.

This was fun. I now tag: Deanne, Wendy, and Laurie

------
Yesterday I helped in Abby's second grade class. I decided to stay and have lunch with her and Peter. Eating lunch at school is a learning and enlightening experience. I am always amazed at how little the kids eat. One girl, who was telling me that some days Abby will just drink her juice, eat 1/2 her half sandwich and all of her cookies, only had a slice of pizza and chocolate milk for lunch. She took about 4 bites and ran out to play. Several other kids had the pizza, and a few apple and orange slices, but I didn't see very many of them eat the fruit. Very few kids brought their own lunches. Another of Abby's friends had chocolate milk with her sack lunch, she only ate her peanut butter and butter sandwich, throwing the rest away. Watching how fast the kids stuffed their faces was like watching the Nathan's Hot Dog contest, see how much you can eat in 2 minutes so you don't waste any recess time.

I then went out to recess with Abby and Peter. We played tag, or as Peter calls it, tag-your-it(one word). We wanted to jump rope but couldn't find a long jump rope, so I spun around holding a short one while the kids jumped it. After getting very dizzy some of the other kids took turns. Trying to jump while your head is spinning is about impossible. After Abby's recess ended, Peter and I chased each other around the jungle gym. Kids flocked to watch me squeeze through different climbing things. What a great workout!

We watched the movie Super Size Me a while ago. I think a cure for the poor lunch choices/decisions for teenagers would be to give them 1/2 portions, 2 minutes to eat and a jungle gym. Make the teens play tag, jump rope or play hot lava monster for 30 minutes a day. I'm thinking I need to eat lunch more often with my kids!

Clean up-clean up

At work, I've been helping in the floral department. Being a bit artistic and creative, I've really enjoyed myself. I've had fun trying to make arrangements, but mostly I've been there to unpack boxes and clean up.

Valentine's Day was crazy. Watching men frantically try to pick out the perfect arrangement was fun. Watching my manager and co-workers start to unravel was also entertaining. I felt like I was running a marathon, I'd ring up one customer, with several in line, the phone would ring, and I'd try to hear and figure out what that person wanted. Then I'd have someone ask me a question, so I'd go out on the floor to try to answer it, only to get mobbed by several more questions. I was in charge of getting the deliveries out, and organized....etc. If your loved one picked out flowers for you, there is more of a thought process involved in it than I realized.

Yesterday I my co-worker called, saying the mess was huge and they needed my help. So I went to work early and was amazed by the aftermath of Valentine's Day. The department looked like a war zone (not that I've ever seen one) or maybe like a hurricane came through (never seen that either). The young girls who closed up decided they were tired and left without doing any of the cleaning they were asked to do. Not knowing where to begin, I started in one corner and with a broom. Then I went back through and put things away. I finished my evening by cleaning out the tool drawer. Since I was the one who closed last night, it was nice to go to work this morning and have everything still clean and in it's place.

All the cleaning and organizing made me look at my house. How is it that I enjoy condensing and straightening at work, but ignore it at home? Tonight after being unsuccessful in trying to locate a pen in our junk drawer, I cleaned it out. It only took about 10 minutes, but it is so nice. Abby keeps opening the drawer saying, "look there's our scissors, or look I can find a paperclip". My goal is to continue with the straightening and organizing. The computer box from may find a new home, and maybe I can finally get Rick to take his tools back to the barn. And if I'm feeling daring, I may even take down our Christmas lights so I can put that box away, it will have to stop raining on my days off before I attempt that though.

I remember hearing a story once when I was in Primary. A little boy lived in an old run down town. One day he found a can of paint and painted his wagon. Later that day he parked his newly painted wagon in front of his weathered picket fence. When his dad came home from work, he saw the wagon and the old fence. He gave the fence a fresh coat of paint. The neighbor saw the nice fence and decided to paint his house, this continued on until the entire town was clean and rejuvenated. Maybe my clean junk drawer will be like that, the catalyse to a clean and organized house. (I also think that when I do my weekly de-cluttering of the counter tops, only to find it in the same condition the next week.) Maybe I just need to teach everyone around here to put things away when they finish using them. Maybe it would be easier to hire a house cleaner.