I'm Never Playing Settlers Again Without This Card

You Might Have Noticed

As you can plainly see, the blog is going through some changes. New template. New colors. New Sidebar stuff.

I'm messing around with the title section, trying to find a good background to go in there. Also, I've discovered that blogspot supports polls, so please participate in our fist ever poll (on the right). The outcome could change the future of this blog.

No dog unless it's this one

On the way home from the gym:
Mom: Oh Beren look at those cute little doggies! They have sweaters on.
Beren: Awwwww . . .they are cuties. Oh, don't even talk about it. I want a dog so bad I can't take it!
Mom: We're not getting a dog until you are old enough to help take care of it in a serious way and I don't mean just feeding it. Dogs have to be bathed and taken for walks and you have to pick up their poop . . .
Beren: Ew! No way! That's your job. I'm not going anywhere near poop.
Mom: And that is why we're not ready to have a dog.

Maybe this one.

Who thinks we should have a puppy? I want you to look deep into his eyes and ask yourself.

Yes, He's a Gamer, Folks!

After informing Beren that he wouldn't be able to play Portal yesterday, he asked if he could at least watch me play. That sounds like something I would have said at his age (and probably did say). He's fizzled out on the board games a little bit, but I'll take what I can get!

With our combined forces, we will be unstoppable. We will have our Wii.... oh yes... we will have it (and a puppy... maybe... though Heather seems to actually be talking him out of that... which is weird, because I'm like "It's a puppy! What little kid doesn't want a PUPPY?!!").

Dang! The kid can read.

Beren's kindergarten teacher sent home a booklet today with Beren that he was supposed to read to us. The booklet is designed to match whatever reading level they've tested him at: Level P. Whatever that means. Nevertheless, we were impressed with the results. Mind you he just got the book this afternoon. He also got something in his eye during the video, but he kept plugging away ;).

A new hat!

My mother-in-law, Mary, got me a cool new cloche hat for Christmas. Not only is it stylin' for its own sake, but it is also characteristic of the time period of the character I played in my show. Snazzy, eh?

Berenisms

The day after Beren's Blanchard grandparents returned to Las Vegas, he emerged from the bathroom holding a paper cup with grandpa's name on it:
Beren: I want to keep it.
Mom: Uh . . .well Bear, I think Grandma said that Grandpa had a bit of a cold so I'm not sure if you should use that cup.
Beren: I don't want to drink out of it, I want to keep it! Like as in a museum.



A couple of weeks ago when I came into the kitchen after rising I saw a paper towel on the counter covered with with a huge mound of rainbow goldfish crackers.
"Beren, I said, "What is this?"
"You don't know?" he asked, incredulous.
"No," I affirmed. "You wanted a snack?"
"No. It's for Santa."
"Um, you know it's not Christmas yet, right?" (The fish were covering the writing when I first looked)
"Yes. I wanted to do it early. I thought it would entertain me."

We made it! We made it!

On December 26, 2008, Eric and I celebrated our ten year anniversary. I know, we don't look that old, but it is true:). We took a break from family time and went off by ourselves to commemorate this milestone. I wore the same dress to dinner that I wore away from my wedding for nostalgia's sake. We also went out to eat at Olive Garden which is where we had our post-wedding luncheon and where I told Eric (5years later on a separate occasion)that I was pregnant with our son.

Christmas 2009

One of our favorite present opening moments this year involved the "tie-chain" my mom ordered for my dad. When he pulled out that giant piece of bling I almost wet myself! Mom swears she will never order through a catalog sight unseen again.


No one says "no" to Mrs. Santa. No one!


We had a new Christmas breakfast this year called breakfast pizza. I will be eternally grateful to Melissa's family for passing along that tradition. There is no such thing as bad pizza anyway, but this took breakfast to a whole new level! There were no dissenters.


Melissa, Theona, and Ashley Prepared a tub of sugar cookies to die for. Beren did his best to eat his share.


We all gathered at Reid and Melissa for the big day. Fortunately,Santa found us all.

My Return to the Stage

After 12 long years I finally was in the right life situation and had summoned sufficient courage to try out for a show again. Gresham Little Theater was doing auditions for their Christmas offerings, one of which was "The Gift of the Magi." My dad used to read me that classic story when I was younger and I always loved it, hence I was thrilled to be cast as Della. We lost 4 of our 9 scheduled performances to the snow, but many friends and family were still able to come. I enjoyed myself more than I can say. It is so satisfying to reconnect to a part of yourself that you haven't seen in awhile.

Let it snow . . . and then let it quit!

Wow! I've never seen anything like it in all my 32 years as an Oregon resident. Snow that came and kept coming, and then came some more. It was not a singular event this time around. In some ways it was so cool, but by the end I could no longer raise even a weak cheer when the little alabaster flakes began fluttering down once more. At least we had some handy shovelers snowed in with us.

Raquetball Rules! Heather Dominates!

So yeah, I love raquetball. I learned the basics a couple of years ago, but decided to take a class at Mount Hood Community College this fall to expand my skills and have a ready supply of partners. Beren went to kindergarten at just the right time so it was meant to be.

Thanksgiving at Amy's

We traveled to decidedly un-snowy Utah this year for Thanksgiving. Beren was extremely happy to see his cousins and aunts and uncles again. The poor guy gets lonely knocking around our house with no sibbies. Eric's sister, Amy, prepared a lush feast which we were happy to scarf. The popocorn kernals were tied to a story of what the starving pilgrims had during one of their hard winters. Compared to the bounty we were enjoying, it was easy to be thankful.

Halloween

We used Reid and Melissa's house at our base camp this year. We had a lot more adults than kids, but so what? One of the reasons I had kids was so I could reclaim some of the awesomeness of childhood that I was too complacent to appreciate the first time around. Anyone of a similar mind is welcome to join me in whatever right of passage Beren is currently journeying through :). True to form, Landon's question after every house was "More candy, Mommy?" Beren's comment was, "My feet are getting tired, mom. I've got enough candy. Let's go back to the house."

Pumpkin Patch!

Holly and I teamed up to set our sons' feet on this important ritual; the choosing of the pumpkin that will become the hallowed out jack-o-lantern carcass.

Grandma of the Year

Well, my mom just couldn't take it and got on a plane after only a month and a half to come see us. We were glad to have her close by for all the halloween doings and she definitely improved Beren's quality of life.

Uncle Scott is Da Bomb!

Well, we finally made it to Seattle to see Scott's hip condo pad. Beren wasn't overly impressed with the house like we were; he just likes hanging out with his uncle.