If You Move to the Motherland . . .

You should get together with friends before you go and celebrate the unique cuisine of the motherland by eating green jello with marshmallows, tater-tot casserole, mac n cheese with hotdogs cut up in it, biscuits from a tube, unnaturally blue kool-aid and rice crispie treats. Serve on paper plates with paper towels for napkins. You could also throw in some oddly colored carnations in a mason jar for ambiance.
I think that would be cool.

The Pros and Cons in No Particular Order

(Sorry I've been blog-absent for a while . . . Twins+Colic= No time or sleep.)

I have mixed emotions about leaving Portland.

Looking forward to:

Our own yard

Kiddos walking to school

Being close to more family

Michael having a job that doesn't completely exhaust him daily (I hope.)

A kitchen that will fit more than one person at a time

The twins in their own room (ours is getting crowded!)

Sidewalks

Storage space

A walk in closet

Buying a real piano

A park in our backyard

Bear Lake

Reconnecting with old friends

Mountains and canyons within walking and hiking distance

This:

Not looking forward to:

A shopping landscape dominated by Walmart

Uprooting the kiddos

Chapped lips

The air quality (or lack thereof)

Maybe I'm a little bit nervous about living so close to so much family

Shoveling snow

Sales tax

Not gonna miss:

The parking situation in the 'hood

The perpetual plumbing problems

Coyotes

Living next door to Chester the hillbilly Fabio

Hearing Chester's same playlist on repeat every day, all day

Cramming seven people into 1300 square feet

The carport

All the lice infestations at school (is it the climate? I never remember having this much lice around whilst growing up in the desert)

The vast number of people who erroneously believe their dog's happiness and freedom trumps my child's safety and well-being

Michael's work schedule

Gloomy rainy weeks

The dehumidifier in my room

Gonna miss:

The big city malls

Costco

Target

The incredible elementary school

Good friends

Date night swaps

The air quality

The pool

Ducks in the pool

Trader Joe's

The blonde neighbors

Well, most of the neighbors in the 'hood . . . except for Chester the hillbilly Fabio

The amazing ward

The "Keep Portland Weird" bumper stickers . . . never really understood why, but they made me laugh

Living in the forest

Fleece vests as a wardrobe option for any occasion

Driving to the coast

The Oregon Zoo

Afternoons at the lake

OMSI

The brother and sister in law, the cousins

August in Portland

Tillamook yogurt and ice cream

The professional jazz pianist upstairs who practices my favorite songs every afternoon (this reminds me of how sad I was to leave the old church on our street corner in Boston . . . it used to play hymns from the bell tower every day at noon and 6pm.)

Dave's Killer Bread

Hand picking our own Oregon berries and peaches

Mall walking with the grannies

The Perks of Spending December in the Motherland

Snow . . .



It is really easy (maybe too easy) to follow my doctor's orders to eat 600 extra calories per day.

We got a house-shopping preview. There is a whole lotta brown stucco and sandstone out there, people.

The kids appreciate their own school much more now that they've been home-schooled for a month.

And I always enjoy talking and playing with the extended fam.

Spring Break Pilgrimage to the Motherland

The Hike

The sister-in-law and I drove our six kids and two cars for 14 hours each way without our workaholic husbands.

Thomas barfed 3 times in the car.

The nephew barfed once, but it was big.

So both our cars stank.

Both of our portable DVD players were not functioning.

But the trip wasn't actually so bad, because everyone was happy to be going to Grandma's house.

And then the sick ones were better. Well, the nephew was finally better after a few hours in the emergency room and some intravenous fluids.

We hiked.

We ate KFC.

We fed ducks.

We ignored our kids while they played video games and we caught up with family.

We tied a quilt for my Getting-Married-Sister.

I met her fiancee. He passed inspection, but I didn't get to know him too well because he was WAY more interested in her than in me.

Which is okay.

We scrubbed out rank car seats and hosed down chunky floor mats and prayed that we wouldn't have to do it all over again after the return trip to Portland. Prayers were answered.

We ate my all time favorite ice-cream that is only available in the motherland.

We played Farkel at midnight and made copious jokes about the word "Farkel" that were significantly more funny at midnight than they are right now.

I bowled a 121. Not the best, but I won. So there.

We let the children revel in mounds of attention from their doting grandparents, aunts and uncles.

I finally saw The Blind Side and The Princess and The Frog. I also took in an extremely mediocre The Bounty Hunter. I think I'm done with Jennifer Aniston movies.

I met my brand-spanking new baby nephew. (Note to nephew's parents . . . if you decide not to keep him, I've got dibs.)

Helped my little sister celebrate her birthday by making Better Than Chex cake. She wanted something chocolate and gooey, and I had to oblige.

Bumped into people I hadn't seen in ages, missed some friends that I was really hoping to see.

And I felt like a terrible parent when I had to wrench my weeping children away from their grandparents when it was time to return home. Sometimes a week isn't enough. I guess we'll just have to move back there.

Relay for Life: Cancer Can Eat our Dust!

While we were in the motherland my family had the opportunity to participate in the Relay for Life to fight against cancer. Cancer has really bombarded my mom's side of the family. We have four fighters and survivors that we gathered to support. The relay turned out to be an extremely cool family reunion. Thanks to everybody, especially Josie, for throwing it together.

You couldn't miss our team in the dazzling green t-shirts.

The event went for 24 hours. I eventually sent the punks home with Michael's parents for the night (they are full-service grandparents . . . thanks again guys!) and Brianna and I stayed up almost as late as the teenagers running, walking and partying. Poor Michael, he had to work.
Here we are walking with some cousins early the next morning . . . looking (in my opinion) only slightly worse for the wear.
These are our fighters and survivors, Grandma, Aunt Denise, Uncle Deloy and my cousin's son Tucker. Eat our dust Cancer!
Love this fam! This should be an annual event for us, I had a ball!

My running was slightly sub-par. The knee is still on the mend and the altitude was kicking my patootie. On the plus side, after returning to sea level, the endurance has really kicked in. I guess if you ever need to train hard for a race, Utah is the place to do it!

Photos courtesy of my cousin Tamy, because I, like an idiot, left my camera in Oregon.