Penny War

Today I learned not to underestimate my co-workers. I am the team captain for our Relay for Life team that raises money for American Cancer Society. We have been touched on many occasions by members of our work family having cancer. In our effort to help raise money for research, we hold monthly fundraisers throughout the year. Our latest and by far the most successful fundraiser to date, was a penny war. The object of the game was to collect as many pennies as you could and then sabotage your opponents by adding nickels and dimes to their jars. Each penny counted as a point, each nickel or dime was a negative 5 or negative 10 against the total for that particular jar. Quarters or dollars could be added to the jars as well, but wouldn't count against you in any way, just add to the total raised all together. In one day alone we raised more than half of what we collected over all. I am still in awe at what we raised. I am proud to work with so many generous souls.

On our vacation, this is one of the beautiful spots we stopped at. I love all of our adventures.

My favorite kiddos. Growing up so fast and amazing me every day.

Life is good again

I'd all but forgotten I even had a blog until one of my cousins and a neighbor friend started doing the one blog a day thing. Which of course my neighbor hasn't kept up with so I haven't had anything to read in a while. :) One can hardly blame her though since she's a mom of 3 kiddos and she manages the daily operations of their family owned business.

To say my life in the almost 3 years since I last had anything to say here has not been crazy would be an understatement. I quit working just before my oldest kiddo started Kindergarten. He has since gone on to 1st Grade, 2nd Grade and is about to be done with 3rd grade. My youngest has been to Kindergarten and is about to be done with 1st Grade. We've survived hubby being laid off, being on unemployment, a crappy replacement job for hubby, a nasty battle to get back on unemployment when that job went south real quick, my going back to work part time, hubby going back to work at the original job after being laid off for almost a year, me volunteering once a week at the kids' school and on field trips, baseball practices, baseball games, soccer practices, soccer games, basketball practices and basketball games. We didn't take "vacations", but made the best out of short camping trips to Sisters and to go hiking around Silver Falls State Park as well as bike rides around Champoeg State Park. Hubby and I laid awake many nights worrying about how we'd get all the bills paid each week and put food on the table too. Every time it all seemed to work out. We learned a lot about ourselves as individuals as well as what we can accomplish as a family. I think it is safe to say now though, after a year of both hubby and I working, that our life is back on track. Life is normal. Life is good.

pics from our vacation

Finally, I have had a little time to get some pics together for those who haven't seen the ones on facebook.

Racoon!!

Imagine my surprise early this morning when I looked out my front window and saw a racoon running across the street and into my front yard. I had been waiting for my hubby to hopefully come home from work, but had given up on that and was headed to bed. Doing my usual rounds of checking and double checking doors and windows, I looked out the window and caught a glimpse of what I thought was my cat running back to the house to be let in for the night. The closer the figure got though, the more I realized that the run was all wrong, the tail was much fluffier, the nose was much pointier and the coloring was ALL wrong. A silly racoon, which I'm assuming had been eating cat food across the street at the neighbors house, came bounding toward our house after being scared by the neighbors coming home. He didn't stay long, but long enough for me to get a good look at it as it crossed our yard and back toward the dead end where there are still plenty of trees to hide in. After he disappeared out of sight, I went into my bedroom and checked for my cat and found her tucked safely into my computer chair. No need to worry about her tangling with a racoon this time!!

Camping July 2008

Below are some pictures from our camping trip near Sisters, Oregon this last week. Enjoy!!