August 2008 archive

The fun and the fiascos

August revisited:

We had a Murdock Family reunion at a beach house in Cape Mears, OR. It was a great family trip. We played at the beach, searched tide pools, had a few campfires, made smores, watched the Olympics opening ceremony together. Had some quiet time, had some loud time, cousins played. it was great.

On the less bright side, we had an incident where we washed the cell phone in the washing machine at the beach house. Whoops. My jeans stunk like a campfire. I wanted to wash them. I forgot to check one pocket, which happened to have the cell phone in it. Washed cell phones don’t work as well. I tried to live without it for a week and actually couldn’t handle it. No one ever calls, me on it really, but I sure call a lot of people on it. And I use the alarm function all the time and the timer too. It is my brain, I can’t live without it! When I went to just go buy a new one, it was gonna be $200 to buy the same phone again so we opted for the cheaper used option. It is amazing how many people sell their old phones on craigslist. We bought one for $25. Found out the battery wasn’t too reliable so we bought another one on Ebay. While we are waiting for it to come in the mail, another friend lent us his old phone that he had sitting in a drawer. If we had known that we were gonna get this phone, then we wouldn’t have bought the Ebay one. Whoops again. So now we have too many phones and only one line. Feast or famine. Isaac keeps telling us to give him one of the phones. Some kids in his grade have them. Mind you that they are going into 2nd grade now. I see no reason for him to have a phone at age 7 and 11/12ths.

On the even less bright side, as we were packing up the van to leave the beach house, we forgot to pack up THE FAVORITE BABY BLANKET and my favorite pillow. Devastating. Reece had a rough time sleeping without it. I was in such a panic that I almost drove back there that night by myself in the dark to go get it, regardless of who might be staying there after us! It finally came in the mail thanks to the management at Beach Break Vacation Rentals who manage the property we stayed at. It was a very rough week and a half until it came.

My favorite pillow didn’t get sent back to us though… maybe that is why I am having trouble sleeping?

I broke Roomba on accident during the month. I got some replacement parts for it, but Roomba still is having issues occasionally… I actually have to sweep again sometimes because Roomba gets all out of sorts. How sad. I love that vacuum. It was so cool.

We went to the Washougal river to play a few times and have had a great time. We bought a little raft and have let the kids float down the “rapids” in it. I am hooked and wish we had more warm days in order to go play in that river!

My Mom came to visit this month too. It was a nice trip. We went to Powell’s Bookstore, ate lunch just the two of us at PF Changs and had the most delicious meal… the lamb was amazing. I took her to IKEA for her first visit ever there. We took family pictures (already mentioned in a previous entry). We even went to OMSI. This time I even took the older boys on the US Submarine that they have docked in the Willamette river right outside the museum. Because of the tour, I have decided to never let my boys join the Navy or Marines. Overall, I think we had a nice time during her visit.

And now if I can get thru this week, I will say that August has been successful!

Posted by Ily on August 27, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Random sleeplessness

So it is the middle of the night. I am awake darn it. I should be sleeping, but my mind can’t stop panicking about random things. I figure I better write it all down so I won’t keep freaking out anymore or something.

So here is a list of what is bothering me:

I am helping a friend with her daughter’s wedding on Friday. She hasn’t returned my last email! Granted it was sent today, and I know she has been busy all day, but for some reason I am freaking out.

Isaac turns 8 next week! I keep thinking “why did I have a baby at such a busy time of the year?!!!!!” I have had fun planning for his baptism, but his party has gone horribly by the way side. It is hard to find a time when you can have a party because all of his friends are in and out of town and they are trying to get ready for back to school, spend family time together before schools starts, and whatever else busy stuff always comes up for the end of August and beginning of September. So he has chosen a simple enough party idea (he wants to go climb rocks at Lucia falls with his friends), but I don’t know if his friends can make it the day we chose and since he is only inviting a few friends I don’t want his feelings hurt if someone doesn’t show.

Isaac turning 8 means he starts cub scouts. When is his den meeting? When will I find time to go get him a cub scout uniform? Why did I have to think of this in the middle of the night?

I also read a very disturbing book for book club that is this week. I finished The Giver by Lois Lowry this afternoon. It made me cry. It made me so sad. It was one of those Utopia books that make you realize Utopia is awful… It was beautifully written, but very much disturbed me. I hate reading disturbing books. They affect me so much! I get depressed for way too long afterwards. Bryan is going to start banning books from our house just so I won’t go into fits of depression after reading them. Oh man, I am so wimpy.

Maybe I am awake from 3 am until now because I went to bed at 10:30 for once instead of later. I was dead tired. And now I predict that I will be even more tired tomorrow!

Posted by Ily on August 27, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Changing Tires

Here are more pictures that Ily’s mom took while she was here. This is Reece helping me get the knobby tires on my bike in preparation for my cyclo-cross fun.

Posted by Bryan on August 26, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

Family Portraits, Summer 2008

We borrowed a really expensive camera from work while Ily’s mom was here visiting. Dagmar took some really nice family pictures for us with it, and I just wanted to share.

Posted by Bryan on August 25, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

I Bike, Therefore I Am

When you are paid to sit at a computer all day and think about abstract topics such as polymorphic inheritance, you develop a need for concrete, physically challenging activities. At least that’s what happens to me. Usually I play Ultimate Frisbee or go for a bike ride at lunch time and this serves to reassure that I still exist in the physical world. This week, a co-worker, Brooke, invited me to actually use the off-road tires that came with my cyclo-cross bike and join him in a cyclo-cross training session. I was excited to see what this was all about and so consented.

Thursday night I wrestled the knobby tires onto my rims and Friday at lunch time we rode over to the park that’s on work property and started riding loops around the outside, making tight turns around trees, bumping over roots and gravel, and having a good time. Then came the little PVC pipe barriers Brooke had set up. As we approached he hopped off of his bike, hefted it and himself over the barriers, and then hopped back on, all without losing any speed. I swerved and rode around the barriers. When we took a break I asked him to show me how in the world he did the dismounting and mounting on-the-fly like that. After some instruction and several warnings to go slow until I have it down, I was making some tentative attempts. It felt awkward, but fun. It reminded me of some of the crazy stuff my friends and I would try on our bikes as kids. Here’s a video of a guy doing pretty much the same thing Brooke was doing so you can get the idea:

So there I was, getting confident, and attacking the barriers at a faster speed. As I cleared the barriers the last time, I went into the re-mount. In one fast fluid motion I swung my right leg up and smoothly landed on my bike. Sadly, it looked nothing like what you see in that video. You see, I didn’t land on the seat (or saddle, for you serious cyclers). No, I landed on the left side of my bike. Somehow it had fallen over onto its right side and my left knee landed squarely on the rim of my front wheel, with the left pedal digging into my left shin. Embarrassing, and painful.

When I stood up and examined first myself and then the bike, I saw that my shin was swelling up nicely and that my front wheel wouldn’t turn. I had enough adrenaline flowing that my shin didn’t hurt, so I started to examine my bike more closely. Brooke came over to help and we discovered that my rim was bent somewhat into the shape of my knee and that bulge was preventing its rotation. Brooke, being the expert cyclist that he is, whipped out his trusty multi-tool and began cranking on the spokes in order to straighten my rim out enough for me to be able to ride back from the park. I’m very grateful he could do that for me.

The wheel was fully straightened out at the bike shop the next day for $10. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. The swelling on my shin went down by Saturday afternoon too, though Sunday morning I discovered a few more bruises and scrapes. As for this experience reassuring myself that I am really alive, I have to say, “mission accomplished.”

As a postscript, I also discovered that Brooke is actually somewhat famous around here as a cyclo-cross rider. If I had known that I might have taken his sage advice to go slow more seriously. Maybe.

Posted by Bryan on August 25, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

A walk down Memory Lane

This could be fun. And jog my memory of a lot of the crazy and ridiculous things I have ever done. Or just remind me of good times. Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Thanks for sharing!

Posted by Ily on August 17, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

July revisited

Lots has been going on this month that has not been blogged. We drove to Oklahoma, which was documented but after that we did stuff do, but were too tired to really write it up until it was family newsletter time and we had to turn in our entry. So pardon me as I actually cut and paste from the newsletter… We have filled the rest of our month with blueberry picking, too much game cube, playing outside, and general recovering from our OK trip. We did dog sit Trixie again and the boys thoroughly loved it. Some day I would love a dog! Trixie played keep away with Reece’s binky which was completely hilarious (aside from the heartache felt by the littlest one at our house). We also implemented a chore chart to help me not go insane this summer. We bought a new bed this month. King size and so much better than the other one (a sleep number bed). I actually want to go to bed these days. Usually I want to stay up late doing stuff, but I am excited to go to sleep now! It feels so good to sleep in that bed! We also painted our bedroom finally. Since I want to be in there on our new bed, I wanted the room to be more comfy and inviting with a fresh coat of paint. We chose a light blue color. It is the last room in our house to need painting. It took me five years to get through the whole house. So now I get to start over painting or I get to work on floors or something else. While shopping for a new bed, we found out that sleep number beds have had a problem with getting moldy and that there has been some unfavorable media out there about them recently. So when we made room for the new bed, we opened up the old sleep number bed and found it had mold too. This would explain headaches and general bad sleeping as of late. So we contacted the Select comfort company and they are sending us replacement mold-resistant parts for free which add up to a whole new mattress. That is amazing customer service. Especially since we bought that bed used on craigslist and weren’t the original owners. And now we have no place for it since we got a new bed for us so it will just have to be a good guest bed that gets blown up occasionally. Anyone want to come stay and try it out? Or more importantly, anyone want to buy it? The weather is insane here in Vancouver. Earlier this month Benj and Melinda (our brother and sister in-law) stayed at our house while we were out in Oklahoma so they could hang out in our A/C during a heat wave. Then on July 29th we actually had to turn the HEAT on because it was too chilly inside and very chilly outside! We have had a “why stay here in the Northwest?” moment. Isaac gets baptized next month on September 6th. He is excited for this event and for seeing all of his family. We have been planning the program with the other family that is involved and I am getting very excited. This is going to be a really cool event! I can’t believe I am old enough to have an 8 year old! Reece is officially a “ food stuffer.” I have heard of other kids who do this, but I thought they were myths really. Now I have one. A “food stuffer” is a kid who stuffs his mouth so full of food that he can’t really even chew. Reece has taken to stuffing his mouth with dry cereal and snacks at church which gets very messy very fast. As he realizes his mouth is too full, he starts to let the food dribble out and down his chin onto his clothes (yes it looks just as icky as it sounds). I could care less about this on play clothes, but I am not happy with it on his church clothes. He is getting pretty darn loud if we try to limit his stuffing so we now have joined the ranks of families with unruly toddlers. At dinner one night Reece accidentally burped REALLY LOUD and sent the boys into fits of giggles. He thought he was so funny that he kept fake burping thru the rest of dinner so he could get more laughs and attention. We tried not to laugh as good responsible parents should, but it was impossible to keep straight faces. I worry that we have created a burping maniac now! Isaac and Micah have started summer soccer and are having a ton of fun with that. Micah is a regular brute on the playing field and he loves it. He is confident enough to chase the ball down and steal it from others and even score a goal, yet goofy enough to just sit on the field occasionally and act like a nut when he gets bored. Isaac’s games are getting more interesting to watch since they are playing with more strategy and rules. They have positions that they play and they have more skills that they use. Reece always thinks he is on the team too, so we always have to bring a ball for him to games and practice. As long as every boy has a soccer ball, everyone is happy at our house.

Posted by Ily on August 13, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

A big mean dog ate my binky

A few weeks ago we watched Trixie again. Trixie is a big dog. She is a boxer pit bull mix and a sweet dog. Our boys love her. They have played with her in the yard all afternoon, chased her around, thrown apples for her to retrieve (not happy that the kids pulled them off the trees, but at least they were being creative with their choice of toys), thrown balls, wrestled, played keep away… It was just great fun for them all.

We didn’t bring any of Trixie’s toys over today which proved a sad thing for Reece. Trixie must have seen how much Reece loved his binky so she started playing keep away with it as soon as she could get a hold of it after dinner. Poor little kid. He had a sad little pout on his face as he watched his brothers valiantly chase Trixie all over the yard trying to get the binky back. Unfortunately, Trixie thinks the game is only getting better when she gets chased so much so she gets more animated and more energetic as she runs.

It was a very long round of keep away to say the least and the binky is ruined. And just maybe we shouldn’t let our son suck on it after it had been in a dog’s mouth either.

Trixie got her pay back for him sitting on her all afternoon I guess.

So don’t feel too bad for Reece, he is a two year old boy who still sucks a binky. We tell you this story not because you should really think Trixie is mean, but because it was so comical and hilarious to watch that we just had to share!

Posted by Ily on August 12, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments

the elusive toilet bowl cleaner

Ok, so me and the toilet bowl cleaner aren’t getting along too well right now. Each time I try to go clean toilets, I can’t find the stuff. It is really bugging me. I go buy new stuff, and then I can’t find it either. I even had my in-laws buy some for me at the store since I can’t seem to be able to bring it home. I found it in the bag of purchased groceries, I put it near the cleaning supplies, and NOW I CAN’T FIND IT!

Will my toilets ever be clean again? Is this some sick joke that someone is hiding my toilet bowl cleaner? Do I blank out each time I am near it and then move it while I am not aware to some secret hiding place? Do I have a split personality? Is my other side of myself hoarding toilet bowl cleaner?

Oh my, too many questions, too few answers.

Ily

Posted by Ily on August 12, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments

OKC Adventure Log: Pictures, Part 2

Here are the rest of our pictures from the Adventure. Enjoy!

Posted by Bryan on August 3, 2008 | Filed under: Family News | 4 comments