I need a good speech writer!

This weekend we were in California for my grandma's service. I said I would speak, never dreaming that I would be the only grandchild that agreed to speak! We all (and by all, I mean all 4 of us, I have a small family) spoke at grandpa's service, but I think the reason we spoke was because grandma asked us to, and since we all love grandma we all "agreed" (meaning, we did it). So here is the problem I was faced with; what do you say about an awesome lady that lived 93 years, when you only have about 5 minutes? And here's the other thing, I think in themes, for whatever reason I do. Planning a party - need a theme and I'm on a roll. Planning the school calendar - give me a theme and off I go filling in the calendar. So what "theme" do you pick for your grandma's memorial service? For my grandpa's I did a very cute (if I do say so myself) "All I need to know in life I learned from grandpa" talk. My mom said she was reading Proverbs 31, so I couldn't use that; instead I created my 1 Corinthians 13 grandma. It went something like this:

Grandma was patient, she not only taught us all how to needlepoint when we were young, she sat thru countless organ recitals and LOVED every one.
Grandma was kind, it's hard to come up with one example of this because it's just how grandma lived her life, always doing something nice for others.
Grandma didn't envy, I don't think I ever heard her say she wanted something someone else had.
Grandma did however boast, about her family, of whom she was very proud.
She was never rude, she always showed respect.
She was not self-seeking, grandma always put others and their needs infront of her own.
She was not easily angered, I don't think I ever saw her angry, or ever heard her yell.
She did not delight in evil, she loved the truth.
Grandma always protected us, always trusted, gave us hope and she always persevered.
Now these three remain, grandma had faith, that gives me hope that I will one day see my loving grandma again.

So that is what I said on Friday, but mostly I cried, because I am sad she's gone, and I will miss her ALOT!

Airport Security

We just got back from our weekend in California. While we were finishing packing on Wed morning, I told the boys they could take a toy or two, so they would have something to play with at my mom's. So Jack gets his new Clone Wars, storm trooper gun, puts it in my suitcase, then yells down the hall, "OK mom, my gun is in your suitcase".

I Pray for Thornley's Future Wife

And I don't mean this in the "Somewhere in the World Today" overused wedding song of the 90's (sorry if I just offended you). No, instead I pray for her because this is the conversation we had today...
"Mommy, how many kids can you get?" (obviously Thornley talking)
"What do you mean, like how many can you have?"
"Yes"
"Well, you can have as many as you want."
"Good, because I want a whole clone army and the whole Skywalker family, so at least 300."

Jon & Kate Plus 8 watch out!

I'm Old Fashioned Like That

Usually our summers are full of Ponte people, but for some reason, this summer our Ponte time has been few and far between. Cori is the most organized person I know, and I guess she's had her summer planned since, well, last summer so when I call to see if we can hang out she's always busy (OK - just kidding Cori, but really, you are organized and you know I'm jealous of those mad skills of yours). The boys and I went out to dinner last night with Cori and her kids, but that is a separate post in and of itself (sorry people sitting by us at Tapatios!), so I knew that she had a playdate scheduled for today all ready. Last night we had been home for about 1/2 hour when Cori called to say Mason had a fever (wonder where that came from?), so I knew that Mason would be visiting the doctor today.
Thornley woke up this morning begging for a playdate with Lauren, and since I knew that Cori would be taking Mason to the doctor and imposing a nap upon him, I figured I'd give Cori a bit of a break. My stipulation was that Thornley and Lauren had to compromise (she would play Star Wars if he would play whatever girly game of pretend she wanted to play) AND do so without fighting because I needed to clean.
Now for those of you that know me, know my house isn't always the epitome of clean - far from it, but really if I wanted it to be clean at all times I'd be cleaning every hour and every moment (hey, isn't that in a song?) of the day, and Lauren had issue with my cleanliness (or lack there of) way back when.
SO.....Lauren arrives, people start playing, and I decide to mop my floor, so I say, "No coming in the kitchen, I'm mopping the floor". Lauren is watching me and the conversation goes as follows:
"Meghan, where does the water come from? How does your floor get wet?"
"Ummm, the sink, Lauren."
"Oh, so you put that in the sink and then it gets wet and cleans the floor?"
"Something like that, yes."
Now, I know Cori has a super clean house, but I also know she uses a Swiffer, so Lauren isn't used to the more "traditional" mop of days gone by.
Cori came to pick Lauren up and Thornley is screaming, "Hide Lauren, hide!"
So it was a win/win situation, my kitchen got cleaned and the boys and Lauren had fun playing.
Mason, on the other hand, has a virus and is now on antibiotics (wonder where he got that, oh wait, did I say that all ready?)
The boys had to provide safe passage for Cori as she was leaving - you know, we do live in the ghetto!

I should be cleaning, but this IS for a good cause

I should be cleaning the house, and then heading off to work to clean our classroom. Yesterday, Andrea, Laurie and I spent the morning pulling everything out of the cupboards and drawers and keeping what we wanted and tossing what we didn't. We had HUGE piles to throw away, and now are left with the task of putting stuff back in an organized way, hoping that we remember what we have! The joys of 2 new teachers inheriting a classroom. Really, I am excited about the upcoming year, but there is so much to do, I get overwhelmed and don't do anything. Very similar to my house being extremely dirty, and I don't know where to start, so I'm sitting in front of my computer, dorking around.
Today I got an email from Eddie Bauer with some stinking cute shoes pictured at the bottom, so of course, I had to look, because I love shoes and I love Eddie Bauer. I clicked on the picture and was taken to their website and saw that you can support breast cancer by purchasing some of their shoes. I'm all about supporting the cause. My grandma survived breast cancer, our neighbor has breast cancer, a friend from church is also a survivor. My friends, Arlene and Darla, started this company where part of their proceeds from their pink ribbon line go to the Susan G Koman foundation http://www.purlstitchdesigns.com/Pink%20Ribbon%20Apparel.htm
Anyway, back to my point, so I found these cute shoes, not totally practical for life in Washington, especially as we're approaching fall, and by the looks of the clouds it may rain today, but hey, it's about supporting the cause.

The shoes cost $50, but I see no mention of how much goes to breast cancer research, and then I spied the fine print - get this, they only donate $2. I'm thinking, really, only $2? Even if they'd given $5, they could have said 10%, which is only $3 more, but sounds much better.
OK, now I think I'm officially rambling and must head to the bathrooms with Lysol and scrub brush in hand!
But they are really cute......

Move over Michael (Phelps, that is)

I love the Olympics. Love, love, love them! Especially the swimming, diving and gymnastics; I've stayed up far later than I should have watching the Olympics lately. One of the best things about Sunriver is there is a tv in the bedroom, so I could lay in bed at watch the Olympics both at night and then in the morning when I was too lazy to get out of bed (I was after all on vacation, a memo my children failed to read, since they woke up at 6:30 every morning). Another thing I loved about our vacation, was watching the boys in the pool. This was the first year that they really got into it. They'd both wear their life jackets and cruise around the pool. Thornley was even brave enough to take off his life jacket and swim in the shallow end. His favorite part was diving for our dive sticks, but the chlorine was bothering his eyes, so we bought him some goggles, and VOILA! happy swimmer, happy mommy on the lounge chair watching!

The Portland Zoo...

I could have named this post, Holy Shit!, but that may have offended some. I digress...
We are on vacation in Sunriver, Oregon. Besides visiting my family in California, this is about the only place we vacation. We enjoy Sunriver. I like walking to the Village and having coffee and purusing the shops. The boys like the tennis courts, swimming, and the big bath tub. Adam likes sleeping on the couch, and taking the boys fishing.
It's our usual tradition to stop in Vancouver and see some of Adam's friends on our way to Sunriver, and then stop at the Portland Zoo on the way home. This year we decided to stop at the zoo on the way. If you will read a few posts back, when we went to Woodland Park Zoo on Monday, it was poop-palooza. So we get to the Portland Zoo and hightail it to the polar bears. We had to wait a few minutes before they came out, but when they did...yep, pooped (and peed, bonus!). We rounded the corner to the sun bear, yep, pooping.
Seriously, what's the deal?! Whatever, it just makes the boys enjoy the zoo that much more!
We'll see what happens when we go to the stables in a few days and look at the horses!

Out of the Mouth of my Babe

Last I heard, grandma is declining, but still with us, see what I mean about being Survivor?! She is a little fighter, that's for sure. While it is sad that she will soon be gone, I am so thankful for sweet Thornley who keeps putting things in perspective for us. We are leaving for vacation tomorrow, to spend a week in Sunriver. While I was packing, the boys asked how long we were staying, and I said hopefully a week, but it depends on Gigi. Thornley asked if she was suffering, because he knows none of us want her to suffer. I said I didn't think so, she had been given some medication this afternoon that would help her feel better if she was. Then he asked, "Will her celebration be in California mommy? You know, when we celebrate her and her life". And I thought, wow!, my 6 year old is one smart kid, and I'm so thankful that he is around to remind me of the other side of grief, the side where, while you're still sad they're not here anymore you can remember and celebrate the time you had together.
How DID he get so smart?
Oh, I did get to "talk" to grandma today. Mom held the phone up to her ear so I could say hi and tell her I love her. That made me happy.

My Grandma

My grandma is awesome! I love my grandma. If my grandma was a reality TV show (which is the upmost praise from me, being compared to a reality TV show) she'd be Survivor. She survived breast cancer, a heart attack, 75 1/2 years of marriage (ok - so technically she didn't survive that, she loved my grandpa and they amazed us all when they reached the 75 year mark), and that has all been within the last 10 years or so. Grandma had a stroke late Sunday night/early Monday morning. Grandma is a woman of routine, so when her neighbor noticed grandma hadn't picked up her paper Monday morning, she was concerned (thank goodness for the neighbor) and rightly so.
I remember praying when my grandpa passed away a year and a half ago, that God would give us a few more good years with grandma, and thinking what in the world will we do when the dreaded day comes and grandma passes away. Unfortunately, it looks like that might be something we have to figure out now, which makes me super sad because I adore my grandma! At 93 1/2 she has lived a fabulous life, and as Thornley reminded me yesterday, "she is old and old people die, but she is happy mommy". While all that is true, and does give comfort that I've enjoyed 38 years with her (well, actually about 34, since I don't really remember the first few years of my life, but I'm sure they were good), and she has gotten the chance to know my boys and Thornley for sure will remember her, which not many people can say, it still makes me sad that the day is fast approaching that we'll say our goodbyes. And then I'll have to speak at her memorial, which as I said at my grandpa's service, makes me so nervous, I could puke, but again I'll do it because my grandma is awesome and I love her!
The picture is of my mom, grandma, and aunt at my grandparent's 75th anniversary party in May of 2006 - isn't she a cutie?!

Zoo Poo

No, it's not just a book, it is reality! Today Cori and I took the troops to the zoo, and what a bonanza it was! We saw the flamingos, the butterflies, the day & night exhibit (which was extremely awesome this time), and then rounded the corner to see the Komodo Dragon, who was out pacing around. Cori and I were noticing it's drool and telling the kids it was going to come eat them, when Thornley starts squealing with delight that it is pooping. Yes, indeed, after it moved on we saw that it indeed pooped. Does it get any better than that?
Well, I know you're thinking, absolutely not, but IT DOES!! We saw a few more animals, ate lunch and went to see the bears and otters. The bear was very active, walking around, acting like it was going to jump in the water, very fun, I LOVE the bears! We were watching the otters swim when the crowd around the bear starts laughing. Upon turning quickly towards the bear we notice it is pooping! Thornley, Lauren, Jack & Mason made a mad dash to the window to watch. The word I would use to describe them is giddy. They were laughing so hard (well, weren't we all, to be honest), it truly made their day.
We stopped by the lions on the way out to see if we'd get some action from them, but they were asleep - bummer!
Never had a better zoo day!
Sorry no pictures, we were laughing so hard, I didn't have time to pull my camera out.