Sister friends...

Leisha, me, Jenn, Sandy, Eden and Kelly

I coined the term "sister friends" a few years ago, because I realized that although I didn't have sisters, I felt as though I did because I am so fortunate to have a dozen or so "sister friends." A few weeks ago, a friend of mine said, "sisters are the friends you get to choose," and I thought, "how did I never hear that quote before now!?" That is the perfect quote for me.

These are five of my oldest friends, and we planned like six months ago to get together for some consolidated time to work on projects. They all came down here and we enjoyed a "slumber party sans kids and got lots done at the same time!

Ruby the joker...

Ruby is full of jokes. She's really believable and very witty. I never get around to posting her funnies, but I happened to be sitting here now while she decided to play a joke on Chris.

She came down from upstairs, and said very seriously, "Dad, I think I found something special to you. I think it might belong to your cell phone."

He was in the john, but was curious enough to open the door.

In her hand was a container full of dead hair that she's been collecting from brushes just to play a joke on him.

"Here." She said.

My Aesop...

We've been struggling with Language Arts this year. It was annoying me because it should be our favorite subject! We finally settled on a curriculum that is now working well for us, and we are studying Aesop's fables, memorizing poetry and all the while learning about sentence structure and proper grammar.

Here are Ruby's versions of two of Aesop's fables:

The Turtle and the Hare

Once upon a time, there was a rabbit teasing a turtle. He said, “how fast can you get to the breakfast table for breakfast? Let’s plan a race.”

So they did. “But someone needs to say who wins. Let’s ask that fox.”
The fox said, “On your marks, get set, go!”

As the rabbit leaped and was way ahead, soon, the turtle could not see him. From all that jumping and leaping, the rabbit thought that he could take a nap. But while he was taking a nap, the turtle went straight past him to the finish line.

The turtle wins the race! But the rabbit said, “but I’m the faster runner!” But the fox said, “The turtle wins the race!”

And that was the end of ‘slow and steady wins the race.’

The Lion and the Mouse

Once upon a time there was a lion taking a nap under a very leafy tree. A few minutes later, a mouse came scrambling over on his way to the leafy tree where his home was nearby. But he accidentally stepped on the lion’s tail and right away, the lion woke up.

He picked the little creature up and said, “how dare you disturb me, I will eat you for that!”

“Oh, please, please don’t eat me, I’ll pay for that sometime. I’ll help you when you need help, I promise!”

He was confident about his promise that he let the little mouse go.

Several weeks later, the lion was hunting. He didn’t see a net on the ground from hunters. He stepped in the net and suddenly he fell right in. He began to growl until the mouse heard him.

The little mouse came scurrying over and nibbled on the net, until it was all done. The lion shaked his mane and finally said, “Little mouse, I am so grateful that I let you go, you are so small that I couldn’t believe you, but I was wrong.”

They lived happily ever after.

The End

And once again, the little mouse saved the lion.

Camping Labor Day part 1...

Oh wait...we weren't even camping by Labor Day because of the RAIN!!!

For those who don't live in the northwest, you might think that we just have to live with the fact that the weather can spoil our outdoor fun. However, it's a pretty safe bet that if you drive 2-3 hours east, you'll be rain free. Eastern Washington has an entirely different climate than Western Washington.

So our annual campout with our life long friends was intentionally planned East of the mountains so that rain could not inhibit our plans. We were going to swim in the Columbia River, soak in the sun, play cards, eat good food and enjoy quality time together...

...or just go bowling...make a tent city...run to walmart from dry clothing...go home early...lose sleep...

Missing tooth...

Finally, my Ruby who is going to be seven years old next month LOST HER FIRST TOOTH!! She lost one off the bottom, and the other one will follow any day now. The new teeth are already coming in where the first one fell out, so we are hoping that they straighten out and that the stubborn baby teeth get out of the way fast enough. It's stressful now thinking that whatever happens to her teeth in the next few years will determine if she needs braces, etc. AND, once she gets the real ones in, she will have those teeth until she moves on to dentures...what responsibility!

So I was out with my girlfriends, and Chris started working on Ruby to let him wiggle her super loose tooth. Finally, he just took a car key and pulled the tooth forward and it was out. Ruby was freaking out because she saw some blood, but quickly calmed down and was really happy. She asked him, "Daddy, is this a dream?"

The tooth fairy brought her 4 quarters (though she only saw three...who knows where the 4th was) and some gum that claims, "cleans teeth". She was in heaven and awe and it was a fun time for the tooth fairies as well.

Photography Contest...

In getting my website content written, I came across a little photography contest. It isn't for money or anything, it was pretty simple and will just feature winning photos on their website, but it only took a second to apply, so I did. I have one more photo to email over, so I'll add that (maybe) when I do. You can enter five images.

Forgiven...

In this economy, it really surprised me today to get a letter from Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority forgiving the balance of my student loan! This wasn't solicited by me. I just opened the letter today and was told that based on my diligent payment history, the remaining $600 was forgiven. How great is that?

I was lucky to finish school with only $5,000 in debt. My parents were great support, and I took it slow toward the end when I needed to work full time to pay for my life and school. Then I fell in love with Chris and didn't want to spread out my last fifteen credits over two semesters, so I applied for my first loan and have been paying the payment the past 8 years.

Chris and I haven't ever bothered to pay the loan off because the interest rate was only 3% and there has always been better places to put our money.

Anyway, what a great surprise!

Wicked...

I love Wicked. I saw it last year with my old friend Kelly Keim and we loved it. This year, I bought with a big group and wound up taking Ruby too when a friend had to cancel. I am so glad that Ruby got to go. I hesitate so much as a parent to give her everything fast, you know? I knew she'd love it. She is a little performer and she knows all the music and has watched countless clips on youtube, but I couldn't help but think that a 6 year old should have to wait for this kind of a night. Anyway, I still kind of think that, but since a ticket came up, I snagged it for her and I'm glad I did.
Pictured left to right...Mimi, Jen, Monica, Sarah, ???, ???, Laurie, Suzanne, Anna, Tasha, Miriam, Tess and me and Ruby in the front.

Going private...

I have heard too much lately about information, images and video from blogs being used by sickos of the world to exploit and abuse children. This is not a small issue, I personally know someone who had a video of her one year old taken by a pervert from her personal blog and posted on child porn websites for gross people to view. Can you imagine how powerless she is in that situation? Her baby in a bath (no privates showing) on porn websites for viewing. I am cautious about posting pics of my kids' skin, but that might not be enough. I don't really feel comfortable posting some things that I'd like to document knowing that people could misuse the info, so I am going private.

The change will happen in a month or so. Please email me at rebeccapierce2001@hotmail.com if you wish to subscribe to my private blog.

My girls...

We finally did a real photo shoot for my girls! It was fun. We went to a neighboring town and found some decent places to shoot. It's always fun to find some new places to take pictures. They were pretty cooperative and I got some decent pics. Here's my favorite so far, though I haven't worked on very many at this point.

Since I've really decreased my blogging time, I have to indulge in a post about both of our girls. They are growing before my eyes on a daily basis, people at church are commenting on how old they look all of the sudden. We have a Peter Pan syndrome at our house that discourages all "getting bigger." Tonight the girls and I were having a picnic at the school across the street, and I told Ruby she was just looking so old to me all of the sudden. She said, "Don't tell Dad!" Alice has asked for permission to get bigger only until she learns how to swim by herself, and we were okay with that. Swimming is important. Even for a teeny, tiny baby like Alice.

RUBY...

Ruby has a LOOSE tooth. Her FIRST loose tooth, at almost seven years old! She is excited and scared. I took her to Wicked the other night and she loved it. It was so fun on our way home afterward because she talked the whole way home. Here are some samplings from our conversation...

Ru: Mom, can I tell you something?

Me: (nervous) Sure, what?

Ru: I can see air.

Me. Really? You mean when it's cold?

Ru: No, all the time. I can see air right now. (11:00 PM)

Me. Oh, what does it look like?

Ru: It looks like white stuff all over the place.

Me: Sounds like maybe you need glasses!

Ru: Some people wear ugly glasses.

Me: Well if you need glasses, we could pick some out that you like.

Ru: You know, some people wear big, round glasses like grandpa Pierce. (ouch).

Me: Yes, older people sometimes don't like the new styles.

Ru: Well, I think I'd want some that were flatter, you know like ovals or rectangles. More stylish, like Uncle Matt's.

Ru: I don't know why, but when I say, "hello," all I can think of is "yellow!"

Me: Interesting.

Ru: When I say "popular" all I can think of is "popcorn!"

I love talking to my girl. The other day, Alice fell asleep and so we got to spend some time together alone. She was like, "remember when Alice used to take two naps and we were always alone together? That was awesome." I couldn't help but say, "But she's super fun to have around, I'm so glad she's part of our family." Ruby's reply? "No mom, she's all bad news." So not true!!!

Today, she decided after wiggling her loose tooth, that her nose was also loose. Chris of course fed right into it, and pretended to wiggle his nose while she wiggled hers...only he didn't move his at all. So he agreed with her, it was loose and was definitely falling off. She was super worried. Later, she started wiggling her ear and again was convinced it was falling off. It just wiggles so much! Thank goodness they are still young inside, even when they start to feel so old!

Alice...
Alice is our second born. She is pretty much the opposite of her sister. We love her. She's very curious about everything. I can hardly move a muscle with out her wanting to do it for me. She wants to hook my bra, put the detergent in the washing machine, break the eggs into the frying pan...nothing is ever accomplished with out her involvement. Alice hogs all the puzzle pieces, when told not to do something, she'll always do it immediately a second time to see what the response will be, and she likes to avoid consequences by telling us whatever we want to hear. She's a hands on kind of gal.Alice loves to wear skirts and dresses. She rips through her own snarled hair and actually gets all the knots out! She loves to stress out the simple past tense angels. She's known to say "watched-ed", "goed-did" and other overly conjugated verbs. In spite of the fact that Alice wanted a little sister, she had a dream that our baby will be a boy baby, and she is 100% adamant about that fact. She tells everyone.

Alice laughs so much, with such abandon, I can't think of anything I'd rather hear than her laugh. It is infectious.