M.M.M. "Go Fish!"

Here's this week's Monday Morning Memory:

Left: This is me at age 3, in Alaska. Versii looks so much like me.

And on the Right: Here's Joshua, age 3 or 4, I think. He's got a fish on that line, but it's hard to see in the picture. Below: This is Dad and I, and Versii on Tuesday, with a few fish from Dad's fishing trip. They're as long as Versii. He kept wanting to touch them.

So this week's memory is about fishing, if you hadn't guessed.

I was born in Alaska and spend the first 1/3 of my life there. We lived on a canal and Dad owned a float plane and several rafts. He went fishing all the time. And he took us kids fishing on several occasions too. Once I remember flying into this remote lake and we just landed on the water and fished right off the plane. The lake was so full of red salmon, that when you looked in the water, all you could see was fish. Fish everywhere! I don't remember how many we caught that day, but I'm sure we had an easy time hooking them. We ate so much fish while we lived in Alaska, that I practically refused to eat fish for several years after we moved to Oregon.

Joshua and Dad took Kaden fishing once and he had the best time! Sorry, we don't have any pictures though. One thing that Kaden remembers is that he got to "pee off the boat." I don't think I'd want to be a fish swimming in that water.

Flashback Friday

The other day Josh and I were looking at some of his photos from when he was a kid. And we came across this one. Can you say, "mullet!" ---HaHaHa. I think it's so much fun to look back at how dorky we were as kids. --We're still kind of dorky, but at least no one in our house has a mullet right now. I'm not a fan of that hair style. Wasn't he a cute kid anyway? I think he was about 6 years old here.

Under the Knife

On wednesday, Joshua went into the hospital for surgery to fix his deviated septum and remove a bunch of polyps and widen the terbinates (Josh wanted me to add that last part). They chose not to put him under general anesthesia. They gave him local anesthesia and then some amnesia drug to keep him alert, but calm. He doesn't remember a thing, except that he apparently woke up during the surgery and jerked his head to the side. And at that point, he said the doctor grabbed his head to hold it still and they added more drugs to the IV. He doesn't remember anything after that. Anyway, what's funny is that the nurse thought he was so young, when she came into the family waiting room, she said, "Parents or guardian of Joshua Owens?" --I answered, "I'm his wife." And she said, "Oh, he looked so young. Are his parents here?" --FUNNY! Anyway, he's recovering well. He's not on any drugs, since they were making him too sick. He said that he'd rather be in pain, then sick. His nose looked huge right after the surgery, but the morning after, when he was aloud to remove all the gauze they packed it with, it looks normal again. He's still a little swollen, but I don't think you can tell. The doctor said the swelling inside will go down next week and he should be able to breath normally again.

Monday Morning Memories

"...Girls in white dresses, with blue satin sashes...snowflakes that fall on my nose and eyelashes...brown paper packages, tied up with string, these are a few of my favorite things..."

My friend Trenya started doing something called "Monday Morning Memories" and it was so much fun reading hers, that I wanted to do it as well. So here's my memory:

I randomly chose one of Mom's old photo albums this morning and I found this picture inside. And I remember, Mom said we loved the above mentioned song so much that my sister, Julie, and I wanted white dresses with blue satin sashes. Mom found the white dresses at the store and then added blue satin sashes for us. I am told that we loved those dresses very much. Anyway, this picture was taken somewhere around January of 1986. I suppose that would make me about 6 and 1/2 years old here and Julie would have been almost 5.

Maybe we'll find a picture of Josh for next week.

Windows and Doors, Oh My!

Ok Jewel's, Here's the update of the new house: To the right is the outdoor light we selected to go on the garage and by the front door. It coordinates with the glass on the front door nicely. And below, are all the pictures of the house. The electrical guys are coming today to map out where everything will be installed and then they'll get started with installation soon. After the electrical work is all in place, then the house will be ready for inspection. At that point, they can start sheetrocking. I'll take pictures or try to film some sort of virtual tour for you when things get further along. Everything should be complete before Christmas. But the landscaping probably won't be added until next spring. Because of the huge concrete retaining wall that had to be put in the backyard, we have to let the ground settle naturally for awhile before sod can be placed. Our little kiddos will have to wait a few more months to have a fun backyard to play in.

All I Need to Know I Learned In Kindergarten

Kaden started Kindergarten on Monday. Here he is standing in front of the sunflowers he planted at Kindergarten round-up. He's such a little character.


His first day of kindergarten went well. He greeted his new teacher with a "smile" and he seemed to have a great day. Although, somehow he's a little confused about how this whole school thing works. According to Kaden, his first day of school he was in kindergarten. The 2nd day = 1st Grade, 3rd day = 2nd Grade, and so on. If only it were that easy.

Survival of the Fittest

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Without going into too much detail, last Tuesday we had company come into town...and we had a very busy week. We went out to the Columbia Sternwheeler last Thursday. We had never been before. The Columbia River is just beautiful. We had perfect weather too. And after that, we stopped off at the Bonneville Dam Fish Hatchery to see the big sturgeon and feed the trout. Kaden loves it! (He's been 3 times already.) And I must say, it's the most beautiful fish hatchery you will ever see. The landscaping is amazing. Then we stopped at Multnomah Falls too! Thanks Moms for taking us out on this excursion!

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Then on Friday we went to Kaden's school for the Kindergarten Open House. Kaden got to check out his classroom and see his teacher, Miss Pruch. No sooner than a few minutes after arriving, Kaden made himself right at home. He wrote his name out, which they will do every morning. And then he sat down and dazzled the school staff with his reading skills. He read the "Cat In the Hat" from start to finish. And he even helped clean the classroom's play kitchen. Such a helper! I laughed as I was taking the picture, because I thought, "This may be the only time I see him willingly clean."

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Saturday we drove up to Vancouver and went to the Kids Club: Fun & Fitness. It's the Northwest's largest indoor playground. It was so much fun. Although I think I may have endured more fitness, than fun. It's hard work to crawl around on your hands and knees chasing a toddler through a maze of tubes, nets and bridges. It's kind of like those McDonald's playgrounds, you know the one's with the tubes and slides. Except this one is on a much much larger scale and cleaner too. I think that there were six slides there. I would only go on the open ones that are pictured in the slides. I just don't do tube slides...scary! The kids had a great time!
...And when we came home on Saturday. We found that someone had thrown a rock through our front door. Why?! The answer to that question we will probably never know.

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P.S. I did survive the week. We all did actually!