Oregon Camping

Troy's brother Tom came into town over the Memorial Day weekend with his wife Kim and their 4 kids (Tim, Malorie, Gideon and Emily). Tom had decided to camp while he was here so on Saturday night we all piled in two cars and drove out to Mount Hood National Park.

We set up enough tents that the neighbors probably thought we were starting a colony. Tom and Kim had this great screen room that we set up in the middle of the camp where we could sit bug free and eat a dinner of fried chicken, chips and multiple varieties of licorice.

Then it started to rain.

We watched as the water pooled into a lovely spring lake around the base of our tent, shifted further and further toward the middle of the screen as the water came in the sides and listed all the things we were grateful for in between lightning and thunder strikes. Among the blessings were: 'at least we're in a forest,' 'it sure is pretty out here' and 'can we go home now.'

Troy and I...expert campers obviously...forgot any sort of tarp or sleeping pad and when we moved our tent out of Lake Hood we weren't very careful about placement. We used a bunch of black plastic garbage bags as a barrier between the wet ground and our sleeping bag. Good thinking until it became clear that not only were we on a slope but we were on a rocky slope so steep not even the mountain goats would consider sleeping there. We slipped and slid down the hill all night to wake up a few minutes later and try to inch-worm our way back up. I had a "shoulder rock" (you know, the rock that pierces your shoulder when you lay on your side) that I used as a guide to know if we were back to the right place. We had zipped our bags together (how romantic) so when the couples inch-worm competition is on at the summer olympics, we're headed to Beijing. Yes. We were THAT good...or at least we were by 6am when we gave up.

The kids had a GREAT time. Malorie let Scout sleep in her tent and Scout has been talking about it ever since. Tim and Malorie were both really good sports and kept a close eye on the kids while they roamed, and by roamed I mean slid down, the muddy hill that towered over our camp. We brought two full changes of clothes and had used them both up by 10 am with all the mud. It was cold, it was slimey but I think the kids would be there still if it weren't for Troy and I being such pansies.

We made great memories that will be with us for a long time. I can imagine us all gathering around in twenty years talking about the Great Rain Camp of aught 8.

This camp needs a top 20 bottom 10 list.

Top 20:

1. Stealing Ketchup Packets and sharing them with the neighbors
2. Licorice straws too short for the bottles
3. giggling girls
4. that wasn't my blue bra
5. Tim and Rand being offended by the bad word wall
6. Watching Rand freak out about the book in the rain
7. Chips at every meal
8. Playing Gloom in the dark
9. Laughing so hard that we almost had to go use those portapotties
10. Laughing more when we listed 'constipation' as one of our blessings
11. When Kim sent Malorie to give the orphan neighbor boy a cinnamon roll
12. When the parents of the orphan boy finally woke up and when they got out of their tiny pup tent a giant dog came out too.
13. Setting the kids' tent right-side-up again after the whole thing rolled onto the door during the night
14. Mint 3 Musketeers
15. The off-switch of Random's Prince Caspian sword
16. Savannah walking around in muddy socks and flip flops.
17. That happy look on the kids' faces while they were following their cousins up and down the mountain
18. Extra changes of clothes
19. Garbage bags
20. Tom's relentless spirit that actually got us to go camping

Bottom 10:

1. Mountain lions
2. Portapotties that haven't been emptied since 1908
3. rolling up wet tents
4. Fireworks at 2 am
5. whose blue bra was that?
6. Rain
7. hypothermia
8. getting the kids to go to sleep when all they want to do is giggle
9. broken glass on the ground
10. uneven campsites with a stream running through it

Random's Birthday Bash!

Random turned 10 on May 2nd but we just had his birthday party on Friday. He's a Legend of Zelda freak (video game first released in 1986 but frequently sequeled. Most recently reincarnated as The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS in 2007) so we thought we'd center his party on that theme.

For the invitations I printed up these covers, made game inserts that restated all the information (time, place, rsvp etc) and put together an official party soundtrack (music from all the past Zelda games in orchestral form, techno remix and original midi glory). There was a big stir when Rand showed up at school with a big pile of Wii games and started handing them out. The case is modeled after the most recent Zelda game for the Wii...Twilight Princess.

Troy and I (also big Zelda fans) reviewed what we knew about Link (the hero) and modeled the party games after a Hero of Hyrule Training Session. We shot nerf arrows through targets (thanks to my Dad for holding them...and taking more than a few arrows to various body regions), threw boomerangs to see how far they could go (marking spots with pieces of the triforce with the boys names on them), used slingshots to take out the gold skulltulas (taped to balloons of different heights), fought deku babas with swords (blue & purple balloons of different heights with chompy mouths taped onto them...thanks to my mom for jumping in and blowing up more when they started popping) and broke pots (carried waterballoons over our heads and popped them on the ground).

We gave the kids rupees based on how well they did at the games and then they were able to buy prizes at the Hyrule Market (boxes of dollar store junk on the middle table). They were all excited to have their chance to buy but I realized I should have gotten more squirt guns and potty putty (you don't want to know).

We ate hoagies & chips, drank soda and ate cake (Hylian Shield shaped...that's the shield Link uses). We opened presents and then let the kids run around, replay whatever games they wanted to (bow & arrow was the biggest hit) and play with their prizes.

We hit a few snags along the way (100 degree weather, extra friends, razor sharp unmowed grass that kept popping the balloons, my inability to yell louder than 14 8-10 year olds) but with all the hard work from my mom & dad (thank heavens they were there!), Savannah & Scout (I owe them an ice cream cone!), Shannon & Wyatt's Moms (I can't remember their names but they were GREAT!), and the back breaking labor of Troy I think the kids all had a good time.

6 Quirks: Tag

Amanda's Top 6 Quirks (of which she is self-aware and willing to share--I acknowledge there are some that I don't know I do and others that are just too embarrassing to admit to):

Quirk 1: I fume with the fire of righteous rage when I'm at the check out of the grocery store and the checker doesn't scan the item closest to her or him but instead reaches over items as if to avoid making the conveyor belt move. I've tried my best to get them to stop doing it. I've arranged items by type (produce, frozen, boxes, etc), by size, by color, aroma, function, alphabetically, by place of origin, food group, dietary fiber, expiration date. It doesn't matter. They reach over things..often making bags too heavy and ridiculous to be part of any rational plan...just to keep the belt from moving! GRRRR! I hope you all notice this now too so we can stop the madness! WE'RE ONTO YOU CHECKERS!

Quirk 2: I never use lol. EVAR. I will rotfl, *giggle*, haha, hehe, and even, on rare occassion, lawl. I just can't bring myself to type lol without flashbacks to 1994.

Quirk 3: Folding Towels. I think everybody has their folding towels quirk. I fold mine the way I do because of the size of towel cupboard we had in the "mushroom apartment." Troy thinks it's weird but now I can't stop.

Quirk 4: I hate feet. Mine most of all. Keep those knobbly things away from me. I paint my toes and wear toe rings so that they look less like feet. It doesn't really work but at least then people are looking at the pretty colors instead of my toes.

Quirk 5: I LOVE peeling off those clear plastic protective sheets off of things...like the displays on new electronics. Troy saves them for me and will bring one out on a particularly bad day just to cheer me up.

Quirk 6: I'm very very very bad at phone talking. It's like I have a disorder. I ramble and get flustered and I certainly can't multi-task. I avoid it as much as possible. Troy has begun trying to talk to me while I'm on the phone because he likes to laugh when I just stop talking and stare at him with a deer-in-the-headlights look of someone whose processor has overloaded and had to reboot.

Troy's Top 6 Quirks:

Quirk 1: Troy doesn't respond to tags, forwarded email, bulk email or chain letters. So I (Amanda) get to fill this out for him! hehehehe WOOT!

Quirk 2: When he washes his hands he has to get his wrists wet or it doesn't count as a thorough washing.

(I'm running my ideas by him and he keeps saying "that's not a quirk" hahahaha...he's so quirky)

Quirk 3: He keeps his index and middle finger nails of his right hands a tiny bit longer than his other nails (a tiny tiny tiny bit...they're not at all long) so it will sound better when plays his guitar.

Quirk 4: No one should ever ever wear socks to bed. He imposes this rule on the entire family...we still haven't figured out what that's all about.

Quirk 5: He reads 3-4 books at a time. Talk about multi-tasking. I don't know how he keeps the stories straight.

Quirk 6: He reuses his sandwich bags (as long as they aren't icky). This is a habit from when he was growing up and reinforced by his eco-friendly nature.

If you read this, you're tagged. Don't think I won't know...and don't think for a second you aren't as quirky as we are. If you need help here it is...Quirk 1: You read the Gomm's blog.

Rounded Up!

Scout went to Kindergarten Round Up this morning. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

We walked in the door of the school. We had been there hundreds of times before but until now Scout had been the tag-along, the little sister, the "Aww look it's Scoutie." A line formed to the left. It was obvious by the short well dressed hyper-excited folks holding the hand of the nervous slightly disheveled tall folks that this was the line for us.

We checked in. Scout got a name tag with a purple dot. I got a red folder with information about buses and school supplies and learning processes. Down the hall a few feet and I went right while Scout went left. Holding the hand of Lindsey whom she met in line less than a minute ago and now best friend, she looked up at me, very quiet. "I'll see you soon." I smiled, she gripped Lindsey's hand a little tighter and followed Aaron--5th grader, elementary school expert and KindergartenWrangler to the purple room.

Moms and Dads stood in a line waiting to state the name, sign the form, promise to bring the shot records, fill out the allergy protocol and be Wrangled ourselves into the cafeteria for our orientation. In line there were smiles and looking away while we sighed, wiping away a tear for the baby we just sent down the hall with Aaron and Lindsey. "It gets easier" say the veteran moms. "I hope so," say the ones who just sent their oldest into the world with a hand-squeeze and an encouraging look. I'm not sure I believe that, but it's a comfort to think somehow we'll pull ourselves together by the time we fling number 3 down the hall with a wink and a nudge.... I don't know. I still blinked pretty quick and tried to think about anything other than Scoutie, alone, brave.

We heard the education coordinator cheer for the curriculum. Watched the video put together by the kindergarten team about social interactions, sorting, charting, reading, playing. Listened to the counselor explain speech therapy, behavior plans, character development, counseling, feel-free-to-come-by-anytime. Identified with the parent volunteer, nervous, telling us of the joys of PTA, Site Council, Raffles, Meetings, helping where we can...please please, we need you. The transportation coordinator, the ELL counselor, the Speech counselor, the coordinators, assistant psychiatrists, nurses, secretaries, 5th graders who had enjoyed their experience, all the people who would take my little Scout and help her find her way. Veterans who would catch my rookie mistakes, turn Scouts ththth's into Sss's, check her for lice, make sure she's immune to the Hepatitis ABCs, get to school and home again healthy and happy.

Then we were released. Full of information but eager to get down the hall to the purple room and our brave little adventurers. We were orderly, calm. No running in the halls, shoving, pushing, elbowing. Just orderly, walking, faster toward the end. "Is this the purple room..." and there she is. She's just finished tidying up her place. Petals glued onto an enormous sunflower. Her first kindergarten craft. Another first to add to the box of childhood artifacts ("See, you were happy, and you glued things onto paper. I was a good mother. Here's 50 bucks for your therapy co-pay.").

She's so happy to see me. But not because she was afraid. Not because she missed me. She wants to show me everything. Here's the flower I made, the book I read, the teacher, my new friend...I don't remember her name. Come here Mommy let's plant this seed. I'll show you how.

We left the building, stopping by to say hi to big brother and big sister...old hands on the elementary school scene. We carried home the giant flower, the red folder, the plastic cup with soggy dirt and a pea.

We're all rounded up...all set to begin. My Scoutie is cleared for take off.

Can we go again tomorrow? No, not tomorrow. Mommy's not ready.

Happy Limerick Day!

You guessed it. It's another made-up-holiday-day. This one is supposed to be a celebration of the writer Edward Lear. Here are a couple of limericks that I found around.

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I've seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
-Author: Unknown

Last night I stayed up quite late
To watch the entire Debate
There was no war of words
They behaved like two nerds
Who were out on an awkward first date
-modified from jimerick.com after the last Hillary/Obama debate

Your units are wrong! cried the teacher.
Your church weighs six joules — what a feature!
And the people inside
Are four hours wide,
And eight gauss away from the preacher!
-Physics Limericks posted by David Morin (Harvard Physics Department)

Sprouting Sprouts

I sprouted some Mung Beans. It was way more exciting than it should have been but I loved seeing them soften and split open and grow. It only two days to go from these tiny hard little green things to these slightly larger softer green and white things. Ahh the miracle of life.

They taste kinda like fresh sweet peas. We all think they're a delicious snack and apparently they're nutritious. I guess the sprouts have vitamin C which...weirdly enough...isn't in the bean itself. It's like magic. Water+Mung≥Orange. Luckily, they're also low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Show me another vegetable that can say THAT...oh...wait...nvm.

I read another helpful hint on the internet about mung beans. It's too funny...I'll just quote it directly. This is from Great-Workout .com

The nutritional value of mung beans makes them ideal for:

• Weight loss
• Maintaining optimum health

Don't include too many mung beans in your diet if you're interested in:

• Weight gain

I don't know about anybody else but when I'm really focused on weight gain I tend not to include any fresh fruits or vegetables whatsoever. I guess when it comes time for the holidays mung beans are going to have to clear out for the stuffing, pie and home-baked goodies of the truly dedicated weight gainer.

Till then, I think I'll try growing something else...maybe lentils. It was easier than I thought and fast enough that the kids even kept interest.

Whoopsuh

What's worse than finding a sticker on the orange pepper in your curry?



Finding half a sticker on the orange pepper in your curry.

*Ba-dum-Ching*

For Posterity: Bubbles and Showers

I've decided that there are a couple of things I need to make sure are recorded...you know...for posterity...and lots of laughs/blackmail fodder once the kids are parents.

I suspect this will be a recurring topic. :-)

Scout: When will we be able to blow bubbles inside the house?
Amanda: Umm...Hmm...Never.
Scout: When I'm a grown up and I have my own house my kids can blow bubbles inside all the time.

Random: I'm never going to make my kids take showers on their birthday.

Rawberry Shortcake

OK so the rice I had been soaking for the next raw recipe I wanted to make ended up smelling like fermented wood. We opted to put that particular dish on hold while we learned how to soak rice without also creating an intoxicating beverage. :-D

I had all the ingredients for a dish that was supposed to be the Raw-ists version of Strawberry Shortcake. The kids loved it and it definitely satisfied that craving I get every once in a while to have something so sweet it sends me into a sugar coma.

Raw Food: hehehehe

I made raw "Spring Rolls" which was a hilarious thing to name this particular pile of vegetables. Apparently you're supposed to "tie" them with carrots. I was at that part of the recipe when I began laughing hysterically and Troy ran in to see if I had finally 'snapped.' Turned out I was just having a good old time making a huge old mess and some really pretty...and not THAT bad tasting... food. By the way, carrots don't make good twine...if you were wondering.

Later that night we were lying in bed talking about the day and I told Troy that if we decided to go "Raw" I would definitely have that recipe in our repertoire. He said he agreed but that he would phrase it more like this: If someone put a gun to my head and forced us to go "Raw" or die, I'd probably eat that recipe again.

Next up: Raw Asian Rice. It's been soaking for 48 hours and smells like dirt. This is really fun! hehehe

He's TEN!

Random finally hit double digits. Much to our chagrin. It gets harder and harder to convince ourselves we're still 22 when he keeps getting older!

Random had a spectacular day. He requested scrambled eggs, sausage, muffins and chocolate milk for breakfast. We brought donuts and rootbeer to his classroom for a special treat. Troy kidnapped him and took him to lunch at Chili's and then out to see Nim's Island. They went over to the Lego Store, picked up their first Lego Mindstorm's kit and wandered for a little bit around Oregon Scientific before coming home.

We went to the store and had a hotly contested scavenger hunt/race to pick up the last few items for our picnic dinner. We drove out to Champoeg park for some flame-broiled burgers, potato salad and a few presents. While we were there we were harassed by a couple of squirrels and had a lot of fun chasing them off. Random got a nerf gun, a scooter and of course, a helmet. Champoeg was the perfect place for skooter-izing with its paved pathways and huge empty parking lots. After dinner and clean-up we went back home for the last few presents and Triforce cake (that's from The Legend of Zelda for you video game noobs). Troy and Random spent a little time building a basic robot with their Mindstorm kit and Random got to play a little of his new Pokemon DS game before bed.

When we were out at the park Random took the camera around and shot a lot of really great pictures. The images in the slideshow (without him in it) are mostly his work. Troy and I were impressed with his natural sense of composition.

Raw Food: What Have I Gotten Myself Into

Every week on Monday I sit down at the computer and try to figure out the week's menu. I'm in charge of the nutritional health of my family and I was struck first by my own ignorance and then by this wave of frustration that there were other people out there who would have been better at feeding my own family. In 2008 I decided I would begin a serious study of nutrition and figure out what the fuss is all about.

January 1st I went to the FDA's website and learned about the current recommendations by the government agency that was clever enough to completely screw up the food guide pyramid (see picture...totally unhelpfully striped right? grr). I chose to tackle the green stripe first. I knew for sure that we weren't eating enough vegetables so starting there seemed logical. It was quite eye-opening and affirmed my decision to take things slowly and only try to wrap my head around one thing each week.

So I now understand and have implemented the guidelines set forth by the United States Government on what I and my family should eat. I have my own fancy excel sheet to tally up all of our individual requirements. I'm still experimenting with new dinner recipes and trying to find more healthy sources for whole grains but I'm no longer overwhelmed by the idea of the vegetable group being divided into 5 distinct categories of its own.

Moving beyond the safe stripey slope of the food guide pyramid has been the completely fun part. Troy came up with the idea for our next experiment: Lycopene. We had a truly tomato-licious week trying to fit in 10 servings of the vegetable...no, fruit...no, vegetable, into our dinners. We decided a life of nothing but tomato based family dinners was not a life we wanted to lead...even if it gave us a 45% better chance at being cancer free. We found a new source for organic vine ripened cherry tomatoes that fit into our budget and voila, tomatoes shifted to a lunchtime responsibility and we're down to only one tomatoey dinner per week (and yes, I know processed tomatoes have more lycopene but Troy's vitamins will have to fill in that gap :-P). Thank heavens since it turns out that tomatoes are Scout's arch-enemy.

We've been working on vegetarian meals next and that's really helped with fitting beans into our life. Our favorite recipe is Black Bean and Salsa Soup...so yummy and so easy. This week taught me that there's a unique balance that each family has to find. Food must be healthy, appealing and financially appropriate all at once. We're still experimenting to build our Vegetarian Portfolio.

Next came eating locally which we're still trying out. May is the month that the local farmer's markets really get going so I'm excited to continue this journey. I never would have known the horror of a bad rhubarb recipe if it weren't for this. ^_^

The kids have really learned to trust me through all these weird experiments. If it's edible but not so good, we all try it. If it's too disgusting to describe without using the word "mucus" and even I can't handle it we grab the leftovers out of the fridge and chalk it up to experience.

This week is a really crazy idea. I first heard about Raw Foods a week and a half ago and suddenly it's everywhere I look. I figured, why not find out what that's all about? It's the biggest task I've undertaken so far. I'll need more than one week to figure this sucker out...not to mention grow my own oat sprouts and whatnot. We're having our first raw meal tonight so I'll keep you posted. I'm reading the book The Complete Book of Raw Food by Lori Baird and found a really interesting series on Steve Pavlina's blog.

In some of the literature I've been reading it was suggested that the benefits of raw eating can be seen from eating 50% raw. I think we're going to aim for that particular threshold as a family. I don't know if I can convince Troy that dehydrated groats and seaweed covered in a little tahini is a sustainable lifestyle. hehe

So what's next? I don't know...but I'm excited to find out. Wish us luck and let me know what you think we should try!