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Saturday, August 25, 2007

The Lighthouse

Ian loves lighthouses. He's fascinated with them and has asked us many times if we could visit a real lighthouse. We always promised that someday we would, thinking they would involve a long trip. Just this week I realized that there is a lighthouse only 45 minutes away from our house. Today we made the short trek to Westport to visit the lighthouse. Ian was so excited. He got out the dollars from his piggy bank so he could buy a souvenir and packed his camera so he could take pictures.
It was cool and misty when we arrived, but we took pictures from the road and then walked to the lighthouse. We walked the five flights of spiral staircase to the top. Ian was very nervous about the stairs, but he did a pretty good job. I went in front of him and Colin went behind. At the top we saw the lens and were able to look outside and see the ocean. The lighthouse isn't right on the ocean any more. The ocean has brought sand to the shore and now it's about a 1/2 of a mile from the water. They no longer use the lens, but the coast guard still uses the lighthouse. They have a beacon light set up on the outside upper railing.
Coming down the stairs was even scarier for Ian, but he did a great job! After we left the lighthouse, I wanted to go down to the beach. Colin wasn't really wanting to go, but we went and after we got almost to the beach, it started pouring down rain and we had to make a dash back to the van. Well, Colin and dashed and I walked, I figured I was pretty wet already so it really didn't matter. By the time I got closer to the van it was only sprinkling, so Ian and I stopped for a minute to take his picture by a big driftwood log.
After our beach misadventure we headed to the Maritime Museum in Westport and saw lots of old boating equipment and cranberry harvesting equipment (that's right, cranberries grow in Washington) and then we got to see a huge lens from a lighthouse located on Destruction Island. I took pictures, I'll try to post some. The lens are amazing. They are made with prisms to use the light to their best advantage. In the Grays Harbor lighthouse we learned that they keep curtains up during the day because the sun shining through the prisms could cause a serious fire.
We had a great day making one of Ian's wishes come true and we learned some new things!

Do you know what's in your food?

Last night our family helped serve dinner to the missionary builders who have been helping build the new church for the church we're attending. While we were there one of the ladies who has been a children's church teacher shared a story with me about Ian and some of the other children.
It seems it was time for their snack. They got out the snack and immediately one of the little girls wanted to know if there were any trans fats in the snack. Well, of course if she wanted to know that, then Ian certainly wanted to know if there was any corn syrup in the snack. Then he decided to share a little bit of information about Tootsie Rolls with one of the other little boys. "Do you know what's in Tootsie Rolls?" He asked. I think he asked a couple of times before the other little boy answered him. "I like Tootsie Rolls. I eat my vegetables. I don't want to know what's in Tootsie Rolls. Leave my Tootsie Rolls alone!"

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Tooth Fairy Should get Paid Overtime

The tooth fairy is going to be busy at my house tonight! This morning Ian was having one of his creative breakfasts (read: he was up before mommy and decided he was hungry and would take care of it himself). He was eating baby carrots (a healthy, yet odd choice at 7:30 in the morning) and when he bit down one of his loose teeth came out. He came and told me. "Hey, mom! I lost a tooth, but it's okay, I put it in a bag." That was pretty low maintenance for me, he did it all himself.
So far, Ian has had an interesting experience when it comes to losing teeth. He's now lost one to an apple, a slice of pizza and a baby carrot. Daddy has helped pull a couple and I myself have "pulled" one out. I'm not really sure pulled is the right term to use. I was checking his tooth to see how lose it was and I wiggled it toward me and it fell out. That was this winter, I think.
Well, we were ready for the tooth fairy to visit. It was just about time for Ian to go to bed. We sent him to brush his teeth. He returned shortly to tell us that he just lost the other loose tooth while he was brushing his teeth. So now he's lost one to a toothbrush. Just in case you're worried, he didn't swallow it. Both teeth are in a Ziploc bag under his pillow waiting for the tooth fairy to pay him!
By the way, he knows who the tooth fairy is. After he lost his first tooth today he told me that daddy was going to have to cash out at the bank today so the tooth fairy could pay him!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Colin's Birthday

I know I mentioned Colin's birthday in my last blog, but I wanted to share a little more about his birthday.
We planned your typical backyard BBQ party for his birthday, only it was raining so that meant that I BBQ'd in the rain and Colin and his parents worked on Ian's clubhouse in the rain. It did seem appropriate as it had been pouring down rain when they set it up.
We had purchased Colin's birthday cake earlier that morning. I know, I know, not homemade birthday cake??? Let's just say there wasn't enough time in our busy schedule to make a homemade cake. I know Colin would have liked one.
Shortly before everyone arrived I realized that I didn't know where any birthday candles were. I went into deep search mode, but the only candle I discovered was the number 6 candle from Ian's birthday party in April. I am of the mind that you must have a candle to blow out on your birthday cake. How could you make a wish otherwise?? So when it came time for my 34 yr.old husband to blow out his candles, he blew out a number 6! I do have the pictures to prove it!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Busy Weekend

We have had a lot of fun this weekend, but we have been SO busy! I think it started on Thursday. Ian and I to town to pick up supplies and take him to see Ratatouille. I'm mostly sure that it's a great movie. I'm going to say that I'd recommend seeing it, even if I did miss at least three parts of for little boy potty breaks. That's the last time I take him to the movie by myself and not monitor his beverage consumption by the teaspoonful! At one point in the movie (don't read this if you don't want to spoil it, although I don't think I have enough details to spoil it) the rat was caught in a trap by the bad guy and by the time I returned from the potty break, the rat was cooking in the kitchen! AAAhhh! How did he escape??? I really wanted to ask the lady in the seat next to mine, but I thought that would be rude. I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, why didn't she ask him to hold it a bit longer??? I tried that. I'm sure the other movie patrons enjoyed the loud whining that followed that request! Needless to say, I'm looking forward to the DVD release so I can watch the movie and pause it when Ian needs a potty break!
Friday night we had two couples (who are part of the missionary builders that are helping build a new church building for the church we've started attending) over for dinner. We had a good time. I made Mexican food so they could assemble their own taco salad or nachos, whichever they preferred. It was a good time. Ian tried to sell them At Home Products during dinner! What a salesman!
Saturday was Colin's birthday so we had a party with his family. His parents came a little early and helped work on Ian's clubhouse. Ian was very grateful. Nothing had been added to his clubhouse since grandma and grandpa had helped get it started in April!
Today we went to church and then we had a picnic in Lacey at a park near where we used to live. It was for my At Home America team that I'm on. It was fun. Ian got to play (he loves that park) and I got to talk to grown-ups and Marsha, my team leader/mentor/executive gave us some cool gifts. Fun!
I'll try to post some pictures from the weekend!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

New Boots

Ian has new rain boots. I ordered them from Amazon.com. They look like cowboy boots. Ian absolutely loves them! He wore them all day long, even though it didn't look like it was going to rain today. It did rain a little this afternoon. I teased Ian and told him he must have made it rain since he wore those boots all day long. He was showing people everywhere we went the new boots. Of course, they all ooo'ed and ah'ed over the very cute boots and the equally cute boy wearing them!

Pork Chops

Ian and I had a busy day running some errands in preparation for our very full weekend. We ended our day by watching Ratatouille, but before that we shared lunch at Panda Express. We sat down at a little table and Ian started looking at all the things on the walls. At one point he told me, 'look, mom, I see pork chops!' I couldn't look because it was behind me and it was sunny. I told him I would look when we were leaving. Right before we left he reminded me to look at the pork chops. I looked on the wall behind me, but I didn't see anything that looked like pork chops(I had wondered why a fast food Chinese restaurant would have pork chop decorations, but, hey, you never know). I started telling Ian that I didn't see any pork chops on the wall when it dawned on me what Ian was talking about. I started laughing. "Oh, Ian! Those aren't pork chops! Those are chopsticks!"
"Oh, that's what I meant." Ian told me. What a cute mix-up!

Baptism

On Tuesday, after Ian had asked Jesus to be his Savior, I was explaining about baptism to him. I explained it was the next step after salvation, to proclaim that you belong to Jesus and that you want other people to know that you belong to him.
I explained that he would be dunked in water in front of the church. It wouldn't take long, I assured him.
He wasn't so sure he would like to have a part in this baptism thing. I explained it just showed people that he loved Jesus.
He thought about and then told me, "I guess it might be okay, as long as they don't open the curtain!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

The Angels in Heaven Are Rejoicing!

We had a really rough day yesterday. In fact, the past few days have been very rough with Ian. He had entered into a phase that I found extremely disagreeable. He was sassy and disrespectful and very much into telling everyone that they were wrong and he was right, parents included. He also was trying to hit me. He ended up with several consequences. Early bedtime for three nights. No t.v. Actually, I think the no t.v. is a good idea in general. He behaves much better when he has no t.v. or only 30 -60 min. a day. Sometimes, he gets too much t.v. even though we try to limit it a lot.
Today was the day of no t.v. Ian has been playing with his toys and being creative and he has a much better attitude. I'm cleaning for company that's coming this weekend. Dinner Friday night and Colin's b-day party on Sat. Ian and I started talking about his behavior yesterday and what God thought about that behavior and then we started talking about salvation. I asked Ian what it meant to be saved. Did he know what sin was? Who are sinners? Things like that. We kept talking and I asked Ian if he had ever asked Jesus into his heart. He told me, 'I think so, but I'm not really sure." I told him that if he had asked Jesus into his heart, he would remember (or I would remember for him) and I asked him if he wanted to pray and ask Jesus into his heart to be his Savior and he said 'yes'. So Ian prayed with me and asked Jesus into his heart. I double checked to make sure that he didn't say the prayer just to please me. He told me 'no. I did it because I need Him.' Hooray! I am rejoicing and I know the angels in Heaven are rejoicing, too! Happy Birthday, Ian!!!!

Friday, August 10, 2007

Savory Faire

I took my friend Dottie out to lunch for her birthday today. Her birthday was Sunday, but we celebrated today at Savory Faire. I love the place! They make all their own bread and desserts and everything is so delicious and incredibly filling. I learned after my first trip there to only order half a sandwich because their bread slices are very big. Today Ian had half of a grilled ham and cheese, I had half of a roast beef saute and Dottie had a Reuben on their homemade Swedish orange rye bread.
We ate outside in their patio garden area. What a treat. For dessert we all shared a cinnamon roll, a pecan bar and a Savory Faire bar. The place is simple, yet elegant and gourmet in a relaxed sort of way. The kind of place that looks like it stepped out of the pages of a book.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Dressed in Our Finest Attire

Sunday morning Ian woke us up around 5 am. Too early to be up, so we went back to sleep only to awaken at 8:15 in a panic to get ready for church. We all hustled to get dressed quickly. We gave Ian some nice clothes to put on to go with his nice new shoes for church. Colin's parents were coming for lunch so I quickly put the food in the crockpot and we dashed out the door to get to Sunday School.
We were fifteen minutes late. We dropped Ian off for his class and headed to our class. After our class Colin picked up Ian so he could be with us in the sanctuary until it was time for Children's church. We sang songs and listened to the announcements and then we were listening to a presentation by a member of the Gideons. Ian was, of course wiggly during the presentation. He had finally settled down so I could listen to the man speaking. I happened to glance down at Ian at just the right moment and I noticed a button on his pants. I thought it seemed strange to see a button on the front of his pants. Then I realized (in the middle of the nice man's presentation) Ian had his pants on backwards! I had a silent giggle fit. He had gone to Sunday School with his pants on backwards and as far as I knew, no one had noticed! I pointed this out to Colin who joined me in a silent chuckle. He decided to take Ian out of the service and to the bathroom for a quick wardrobe adjustment. I giggled silently a little more when Ian stood up and turned around. Poor boy. Not only were his pants on backwards, the zipper was unzipped, too. They were buttoned at the waist which tells me that he left them buttoned when he put them on because I know he didn't reach to the back and button his pants!
In our defense I can only say that we were rushed, the boy dressed himself and he had a baggy shirt that was not tucked in. I don't think anyone else noticed!

Saturday, August 4, 2007

New Toy

Wow! I am typing this using a wireless connection on my new laptop. We got it so I have a reliable computer of my own when I'm processing orders and things. Colin got tired of me taking over his office while I was doing my work. My old computer has been making some odd noises and freezing up some, so I don't trust it while I'm placing my orders for At Home America.
So I am enjoying learning this new computer and the freedom of movement! Really, it's my new toy. I plan to have fun with this!