Happy 2009

I'm contemplating a New Years resolution post, to come or not to come possibly tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this video recap of 2008. Let's hope for a better 2009.



By the way, if you are as confused as I was over the Rick Astley video mid-way through the clip, check out Rickrolling on Wikipedia. I'd never heard of it; guess I've been living under a rock this past year.

About the hearse . . .

Sorry, I forgot to reveal the answer to my trivia picture.

The answer to "Why do we have a hearse in our driveway" is . . .

. . . because our good friend, the local funeral director, couldn't get it in and out of his steep driveway during our winter snow storms. So we told him he could park it at our house.

Sorry. It's not a very exciting answer (not nearly as exciting as the idea of me finally snapping and knocking someone off). But still it was kind of cool having a hearse parked in the driveway for a week.

And it made a great shield for snowball fights!

More Adana . . .

I really do love my other kids and think they are equally cute and photogenic. But Adana just constantly provides us with one-liners and photo opportunities. Here are a few of her latest:

I'm sure you're all amply familiar by now with Adana's favorite hiding place under my computer desk. This is where I found her the other day, with a tin full of fudge. When I took it away from her, she jumped up, put her hands on her hips, and shouted, "Mom! I NEED chocolate in my mouth!"

Oh yes. The classic "Kid Wearing Goggles" picture. In the summer, it's swimming goggles. In the winter, ski goggles. Either way, I think it's pretty darn cute.

A few days ago, Adana was walking around the house singing, "My favorite color is orange. My favorite color is orange." I was busy (first mistake), so I just enjoyed the sweet song. Besides, I figured that she couldn't be getting into much trouble because I could hear her (and when she's doing something naughty, she's always silent about it). It wasn't until about 15 minutes later that I realized the bag of Doritos that I was going to serve with our taco salad was missing . . . She had left her "Favorite Color Orange" prints all over the house.

Snowpocalypse!

I stole the blog title from a local newsman whom I enjoy reading. He has a great way of describing things. And Snowpocalypse is precisely what it felt like this weekend.

I haven't heard any official totals on how much snow we received, but I know it is well over a foot - probably closer to two. It just kept falling and falling and falling . . . for over 24 hours straight. If you live in Utah or Colorado, where this sort of thing is common, then you probably can't appreciate how shocking (and exciting!) it is for us.

Here are a few more pictures, because you can never have too many snow pictures. Right? :-)

This was our backyard on Saturday morning, after our 1st (typical) snow storm. We thought this was a lot of snow. But it had only just begun.

Here is our backyard on Monday morning, after the weekend dump. Check out the difference on the bench and Adana's marigold planter.

My 4 little snow devils angels.

I love this shot of Adana in her snowsuit. She categorically refuses to wear her mittens (please note them lying in the snow next to her). She prefers to scream, "My hands are cold!" as all the neighbors scowl at me for not putting mittens on my poor child. I can't win.

Our snowman. Don't you think he kind of looks like Frank Castanza?

Church was cancelled on Sunday, so we took a family outting to the high school for some sledding. It has a great hill, which ends in the gym parking lot. The sled barrels down the hill and blasts across the parking lot. "But," your probably thinking, "don't most parking lots have cement blocks so that cars don't drive onto the grass." Yes, they do. Just ask my sore butt. You can see Jared bounce over one toward the end of his run. When I went down, my slightly greater weight caused me to not just lightly bounce over the bump. I whammed my tailbone full-force into the cement and probably cracked it (the cement) in half. I have to stand as I type this; I don't think I'll be sitting for a few days.

Take your best guess . . .

Yes, that's our house. And yes, that's a hearse in the driveway. Why???

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I was awakened at 5:30a.m. by my phone ringing. It was the Bainbridge Island School District, informing me that school was cancelled today due to snow. I peered out my bedroom window and saw the faintest skiff of white.

"Humph," I thought. "These people just don't know how to deal with a little snow."

Still, it was a nice excuse to sleep in. And when I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed at 8:00a.m., I found the snow coming down pretty hard and already covering all the grass, cars and street. It didn't stop snowing until this afternoon. So I guess the School District got it right this time.

We had a blast sledding and tromping through the powdery snow. One of the dads on the street brought out his dirt bike and pulled the kids around the cul-de-sac. Good times!

Happy 3rd Birthday Adana!

Yesterday (Dec. 16th) was Adana's 3rd birthday. (It was supposed to be NOV. 27, but I'm trying to get over the grudge that I hold against her for being born 3 WEEKS LATE.)

As per Russell family tradition, she awoke to a fully decorated house. It looked like some freaky spider had spun orange & pink streamer-webs all over the place. She was thrilled! The other kids enjoyed their roles of fawning over the birthday girl all day, and she loved being spoiled by them.

She had a great time opening her presents and played with them all day. She had to immediately put on her new Princess panties (from Micah), watch Tinkerbell (from Gma) and play with her My Little Pony (from Jared) and Dora Phone (that also hooks up to the TV as a mini-video game).

After lunch, a package came from Gma Russell with some adorable new clothes, which she promptly changed into.

We went to lunch at McD's with one of her little friends. While we were there, she kept grabbing her ear and saying it hurt. I just assumed that she'd bumped it, since she was under-the-table-climbing-on-chairs-running-around-back-under-the-table not really sitting still. But when I tried to put her down for a nap later that afternoon, she cried because her ear was really hurting her. So I took her in to see Dr. Walters. Sure enough, we have our 1st ear infection. Yes, I've had 4 kids and this is our 1st ear infection. Leave it to Adana. We're doing the "watch & see if it goes away" plan, because I don't like medicating unless it's unavoidable. I gave her some Motrin and she slept great all night.

When Nathan got home from work, we sang "Happy Birthday" and she blew out her candles. She loves that song and had been practicing singing it for weeks.

She had asked for cupcakes with ORANGE frosting (her favorite color). Then she decided that she wanted a cake frosted in ORANGE, PURPLE & GREEN. (Maybe we've been reading a bit too much Dr. Suess lately.)

All in all, despite an ear infection and bone-chilling cold, it was a good birthday. And I suppose I can no longer blame her outrageous behavior on the "Terrible Twos." Besides, aren't kids supposed to mellow out when they're 3??

So much for Divine Inspiration, OCD or Paranoid Mom

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of life with Adana , she does this:

I think she was trying to copy Emma's penguin art project that we did this afternoon:

All I want for Christmas is a NANNY.

**UPDATE: I just walked into the bathroom. Black, finger-streaked walls. Black glop all over the white pedestal sink. Black smears on the white hand towel. (What in the heck am I doing with so much white in this house???) At least she was trying to hide the evidence clean up after herself.

No, I didn't take pictures. No pictures of my now-speckled carpet & chair. No pictures of painted Adana (who I promptly sent to bed after the little "art" incident).

2 Plays & a Whole Lotta Food

**Note: Yes, I own a camera. Yes, I know how to use it. No, I never remember to bring it anywhere. It's just who I am. Love me despite my faults.

This is just going to be a re-cap of the last few days. It's December, and my calendar is full to bursting. Busy, but in a good way.

Thursday 12/4: We kicked off the Christmas season by going to see the Nutcracker. Nathan was one of the sponsors of our local ballet studio's annual performance, so we got free tickets. We took Emma last year and really enjoyed it. But this year . . . well, let's just say that they performed the Nutcracker, with a twist. Think familiar Nutcracker music, but with a funky techno beat; a break-dancing soldier doll; a male Mother Ginger with a scruffy beard; a seductive dance by "Sweet Tart." One thing I can say for the show - my boys thought it was great! :-)

Friday 12/5: I spent the morning taking Emma over to Seattle to see a Hand Specialist. Dr. Joneschild was wonderful and put Emma at ease. Fortunately, she determined that Emma's finger only has a slight fracture, no tendon damage. Phew! Friday evening, Nathan & I went back to Seattle with some friends. We walked around downtown. There was a Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest going on, with groups of carolers lining the streets. Then we took the monorail to the Seattle Center and ate dinner at the Melting Pot. YUM! We were back home by midnight, where we found all the kids tucked away in bed and the house cleaned up. Jared is a great babysitter! (Except for letting Micah watch the last 10 minutes of Haunted Houses on the Travel Channel. He had nightmares for days after that.)

Saturday 12/6: Saturday morning, I took the girls to see the Muppet Christmas Carol. It was a free showing at the movie theater, sponsored by Toys For Tots. We brought some toys to donate and enjoyed the show. Then I rushed Jared to his indoor soccer game. He loves indoor soccer - the fast pace, the play-it-off-the-wall-then-wham-it-in-the-goal thrill. Nathan spent the whole day getting ready for our annual Itsenaisyys Paiva dinner (Finnish Independence Day). As usual, we had a ton of yummy food. I look forward to this meal more than any other all year. We invited three families to join us, including two honest-to-goodness Finns.

Sunday 12/7: We debated inviting people over to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional with us. But in the end, we opted for a quiet evening alone. Nathan made snickerdoodles and we all enjoyed the beautiful Christmas messages. (Well, we tried to enjoy it, in between Adana peeing on the floor and Emma spilling her soda.) :-)

Monday 12/8: Monday evening, we were invited over to make gingerbread houses with some friends. We all had a great time and the kids made some incredible structures. They were swimming in gummie bears and hot tamales and sour Skiddles . . . all "glued" together with some incredible gingerbread cement. That stuff is stronger than super glue.

Tuesday 12/9: Micah, Adana & I went over to Seattle to see The Wizard of Oz at the Seattle Children's Theater. It was very well done - amazing set, great acting. I was a bit apprehensive about sitting with The Living Cyclone for two hours in a theater, but thanks to the full bag of treats that I brought she did pretty well.

Divine Inspiration, OCD or Paranoid Mom

I get my OCD tendencies from my dad. I'm constantly tidying. I can't stand to have pictures hanging crooked on the wall. I love lists, straight lines, closed cupboard doors, a well-made bed, and an organized refrigerator. I've even been known to alphabetize my spice rack (until Nathan decides to cook and messes the whole thing up. Grrr...)

So this morning, while I was passing through the laundry room, I paused to make sure that all the spouts on my spray cleaning bottles were twisted to "OFF." Even as I was doing it, I was mentally mocking myself for being soooo Type A. I mean, the bottles are up on a shelf, inside a cleaning basket, and totally out of reach of little hands.

Still, I'm OCD enough to know that I have to follow through when I get these urges, or else the thought of spouts in the "ON" position would torment me the rest of the day.

A few hours later, I was working in the kitchen when I had that horrible, nagging feeling . . . the house was too quiet. WHERE was Adana? And WHAT was she doing?

I finally found her in the laundry room. She was holding a bottle of Clorox bleach, desperately trying to spray it ALL OVER MY LAUNDRY. But not a drop got out, because the spout was turned to "OFF!"

Disaster averted. Thank the Lord (And my Dad's genes. And 2+ years of experience living with this pint-sized tornado.)

Beware of the Doghouse

Nathan is a great gift-giver, so I don't anticipate ever needing to send him to the doghouse. Unless, of course, a guy can be sent to the doghouse for buying his wife a really nice gift, EVEN THOUGH WE AGREED NOT TO BUY EACH OTHER ANYTHING THIS YEAR.

Deep breath.

Hopefully, after watching this video, he won't want to risk it.

http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=5e32d548

(Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to embed this one.)

Thankful Lists 2008

One of our family traditions is to make Thankful Lists each November. Starting on November 1st, the kids list one thing each day that they are thankful for. We end on Thanksgiving Day.

They are also not allowed to ask for/beg for/mention anything that they want for Christmas during this time. The idea is that, for the month of November, we just focus on what we have been blessed with. Here are their Thankful Lists for this year:

JARED
1. Health
2. Soccer
3. Physical abilities
4. Muscles (noticing a trend? He's a bit of a soccer fanatic.)
5. Food
6. Wolves
7. Two Fat Guys (It's a pizza parlor in Utah.)
8. God (I teased him that HE came after Two Fat Guys.)
9. Priesthood
10. Jesus
11. Scouts
12. The sun (We'd had quite a long stretch of cloudy days.)
13. Non-contract school days (Basically, a day off school.)
14. Girls (Oh yeah, we're to that age . . .)
15. Honey Graham Oh's (His all-time favorite cereal)
16. Holidays
17. Money
18. Family
19. Parents
20. My body
21. Music
22. Wii
23. My motorscooter
24. Refrigeration (This came the day that our fridge broke.)
25. Warmth
26. My iPod
27. Grandparents

MICAH
1. Hockey
2. Phantom (his kitten)
3. Food
4. Ocean (see blog title)
5. Electronics
6. Animals
7. Music
8. The gospel
9. Scouts
10. Cats
11. Candy
12. Sports
13. Money
14. Girls (Sigh.)
15. Coltrane (BFF #1)
16. John (BFF #2)
17. Books
18. My parents (He put this a day before Jared, so we like him better.) :-)
19. Hot cocoa (He drinks at least 3 cups a day.)
20. Me being funny (He prides himself on being a "class clown.")
21. Blessings
22. Mork & Mindy (I got this on Netflix. I forgot how stupid it was.)
23. Church
24. Clothes
25. My iPod
26. My new basketball
27. Thanksgiving

EMMA
1. Food
2. Mom & Dad (Oh yeah! She's the favorite.)
3. Family
4. Clothes
5. Heavenly Father
6. The Bible
7. Scriptures (Wow, she's sure got better priorities than her big brothers.)
8. Toys
9. Games
10. Friends
11. Body
12. The sky
13. Animals
14. Fin (her goldfish)
15. Shelby (our dog)
16. Numbers
17. Phantom (kitten)
18. Things to cook with
19. A mom & dad that can cook (too many nights of left-overs, I think)
20. Milk
21. Sports
22. Stars
23. Blankets
24. An oven (so long as there's a mom & dad who can cook, and things to cook with)
25. Plants
26. Flowers
27. Eyes

ADANA (100% in her own words)
1. Chocolate (Actually, she said "Chocolate" everyday when we asked her what she was thankful for. It's in her genes.)
2. Strawberries (especially if they're dipped in chocolate)
3. Toys
4. Princesses
5. Chicken
6. Water
7. My potty
8. My scarf
9. Abi's & Micah's balls (This one sort of caught us off guard, until we figured out that she meant their soccer balls.
10. Mommy (No prompting there, I promise!) :-)
11. Lollipops (I'm just shocked that I ranked before lollipops.)
12. Pizza
13. Ice cream cones
14. My present (She is obsessed with the idea of getting presents.)
15. Babies
16. Maren (her good friend who moved last month)
17. Dora
18. Abi (aka Jared)
19. Phantom (I don't know why everyone is so thankful for that crazy kitten)
20. Juggleball (her name for her favorite little bouncy ball)
21. Cereal for breakfast
22. Computers (strange, considering she isn't allowed near ours.)
23. Zebras
24. Hippos
25. Penguins
26. Shelby
27. Octopuses (that really is the correct plural form)

Someone is watching out for me after all!

I was starting to think that the universe was out to get me. In the past few days:

• Emma fractured her finger
• our refrigerator died and a repairman can't come until next Wednesday
• my garbage disposal froze (but handyman Nathan was able to get it going again)
• Adana has decided she is a big girl and wants to pee in the potty every 15 minutes.
• Shelby (our dog) got into something that smells like a cross between rotten eggs & vomit. I've been bathing & scrubbing her to try to get that nasty smell out.

So when I woke up today, with a To-Do list a mile long, I was almost afraid to get out of bed. I mean, really . . . what next?

But then the heavens decided to shine down on me (literally - it is a gorgeous sunny day today!). But it's not just the weather that has cheered me up.

What, you are wondering, could possibly be so great that I now have a smile on my face and a skip in my step??

Five words: Dora the Expolorer TV marathon.

All Dora, all day on Nick Jr. (cue angels singing).

My Bruiser Girls!

I have 2 sons. They are your typical boys - rough & tumble, love to wrestle and play hard.

One of them is a soccer fanatic and would rather play with a near-concussion than admit that he's hurt.

The other is a hockey nut (not known to be the safest of sports) and considers a helmet & protective gear to be "optional."

So how is it that this Fall I have made TWO visits to the Radiologist for TWO seperate fractures . . . for my two LITTLE GIRLS!?

Fracture #1 - falling out of a tree house.

Fracture #2 - last night, Adana slammed Emma's hand in her bedroom door. It was an accident, (have your kids ever screwed around at bedtime rather than just Going! To! Bed! like they were told a million times?), but her pinky immediately swelled up bigger than her thumb, turned a nasty shade of purple, and kept her awake in pain all night.

So I spent this morning shuttling between the Doctor's office and the Radiologist. Luckily, it's a minor fracture (I'm thinking: "Luckily it wasn't severed!"). But we still have to wait for the swelling to go down a bit to make sure no tendons were damaged.

And NO (Jessica), I didn't faint. But I sure came close a couple times. Blech.

Soccer in the Pacific NW

Saturday was Jared's last soccer game of the season. His team, Demon Pandas, has been playing together for 3 years now. They ended the season by participating in the President's Cup tournament, a regional tournament of select teams.

Unfortunately, they were required to "play up" a level this year, so they were competing against teams that were 2-3 years older than most of the boys on our team (a lot of our team members are already "playing up.") Result: They did pretty well in the first round, but they got whomped in their final game on Saturday.

The game was played at a local high school football stadium. The fans (all 20 of us parents & siblings) had to watch from the bleachers. It was near-freezing, and FOGGY!

Here are some pictures that I took of the not-so-exciting game:

Here's Jared doing an impressive slide tackle to get the ball away from the opposing team. (If you squint and sort of jiggle your screen a bit, you can kind of get the idea.)

This is Jared working his fancy footwork up the field. He's on the far side of the field, so you'll just have to trust me on that.

We are really looking forward to the boys winter sports: indoor soccer & basketball. All inside! Yeah!

Better than the real thing

I found this funny spoof of the Twilight movie on my sis-in-law's blog. Since I liked the 1st book, yawned through the 2nd, and absolutely hated the last two, I thought this video was great. I'm guessing the spoof will end up being better than the actual movie, with it's intense music, unnaturally gorgeous characters, and contrived lines.

Comments question

I am seeking advice/opinions from all you fabulous bloggers and blog readers. My questions relate to how you deal with Comments on your blog.

1. As a blog reader, do you like it when people respond to you when you post a comment on their blog? More importantly, do you expect a response?


2. If so, what is your preferred method of response? A seperate email? A post on your own blog? A response in the comments section of their blog?


3. As a blogger, how do you typically deal with comments in your Comment section that you want to respond to?

I, of course, LOVE getting comments on my blog (it's Nathan's favorite part of my blog - he reads the comments more avidly than what I actually post.) But I've never come up with a tried-n-true method of responding.

I also enjoy it when a fellow blogger responds to something that I've left in their Comments, but the truth is that I don't always check back to see if they've responded. I mean, honestly, I can barely keep up with reading all the blogs that I enjoy; I rarely have time to also go back and check all the comments that I've left.

I've tried subscribing to a post's Comments feed, so that I could receive by email any further comments that were left. But that drove me crazy. I would get email after email from random people that I'd never heard of, commenting on a blog post that I had pretty much forgotten about.

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts with me. No promises, though, on receiving a response. :-)

Nearest Book

Here are the rules:

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

Here's mine:

A Scout knows there is strength in being gentle. (From the Cub Scout Webelos Handbook.)

I wish I had something more intellectual or interesting laying near me, but those are the rules. My intellectual & interesting books are on my night stand (where I think about reading them each night . . . just seconds before I collapse into exhausted oblivion .)

Mommy, according to Emma

I pulled this off a friends blog and thought it would be fun to do with Emma. I don't know if I have the guts to do it with the boys; maybe I'll do an edited version.

1. What is something mommy always says to you? I’m busy. (Ouch.)

2. What makes mommy happy? A kiss.

3. What makes mommy sad? When you don’t behave.

4. What is something mommy does that makes me laugh? Play hide-n-seek with me & Adana.

5. What was mommy like as a child? I don’t know.

6. How old is mommy? 23 (That's my girl!)

7. How tall is mommy? Medium-tall

8. What is mommy's favorite thing to do? Make dinner

9. What does mommy do when your not around? Make dinner (Do I spend too much time in the kitchen?)

10. What cool thing does mommy do? Take us to fun places

11. What is something mommy's really good at? Cooking (OK, I'm starting to get a complex.)

12. What is something Mommy's not very good at? Building tables and stuff (Her first answer was "You're good at everything!" Then she changed it to this. Humph.)

13. What does mommy do for her job? Take care of kids

14. What is mommy's favorite food? Turkish soup

15. What does mommy do that makes you proud of her? Cook (I need to show her there's more to me than food. But what that is, I really don't know . . .)

16. What do you and mommy do together? Do homeschool

17. How are you and mommy alike? Our eyes

18. How do you know your mommy loves you? She kisses me every night.

Speaking of Jell-o . . .

I have a very good friend who can do simply amazing things with Jell-o. I once saw her bring a Jell-o salad to a church potluck. I swear that thing had at least a dozen different colored layers. It was a work of art (and it really made my contribution - probably a bag of Cheetos - look lousy.)

Well, in her honor, I recently made a batch of JELL-O COOKIES. TaDa!

Granted, my friend would probably have made them multi-swirled-colored-frosted-super-size, but we can't all be a Superwoman like her. :-)

Here's the recipe:

1 1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 pkg. Jell-o (3 oz)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1/4 cup water

4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Combine butter, sugar, Jell-o, vanilla, egg & water. Mix well. Add flour & baking powder.

If you have a cookie press, put the dough in and squeeze it out onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Otherwise, you can just roll them into little balls and flatten slightly on the cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. (They won't look browned on top, so lift one up and check underneath to see if it is starting to brown a bit. Don't overcook or they'll be too dry.)

I get to eat the heart!

Sunday dinners have always been full of tradition. When I was growing up, I have many fond memories of going over to my grandma's house on Sunday afternoon for a feast of roast beef, potatoes & carrots, rolls, and Jell-o. Yum!

Around here, Sunday dinner has taken on a new tradition. Most weeks, we have voi leipa - Finnish open-faced sandwiches, with lots of salami, good cheese, and sliced cucumbers & tomatoes.

But occassionally, when artichokes are on sale, we FEAST on piles of steamed artichokes, with melted butter and basalmic mayo for dipping. Double Yum!

As everyone knows, the best part of eating artichokes is the heart. Here is a video of Adana experiencing her first artichoke heart. Looks like we'll have to start buying more for our Sunday meals, 'cuz she loved it!

(By the way - apparantly Nathan didn't realize that I was videoing Adana. He thought I was just trying to take a picture. Thus the "Are you having a hard time?" comment at the end. He kept setting her up for a great shot and couldn't understand why I wasn't clicking.) :-)

My eyes! My eyes!

What is that bright, glowing orb in the sky!? I need to get out my umbrella to shade my poor, sensitive eyes. (You know you're from the Pacific Northwest if you scoff at the wimps who use an umbrella on a rainy day.)

This is for those of you who have been watching the national weather and have worried (and snickered) that we need to start building an ark soon.

By the way, if you were wondering what Adana was hiding behind her back in the first picture . . . She was sitting on a whoopy cushion. She is her Baba's girl.

Jellyfish!

Emma & I are studying Animals in science this semester. After each lesson, I try to have some sort of project to go along with the animal, to put in her science notebook. On Friday, we learned about jellyfish, so she made some yummy ones for us to eat after dinner.

Today is National Men Make Dinner Day!

Thanks to my friend, Cool, for clueing me in to this very significant holiday!

As with all important things these days, this one also has a website. Make sure you check out The Rules and Glossary.

A couple of my favorites Rules:

Rule #5: Man goes shopping for 'all' necessary ingredients. Bonus points if he takes inventory of cupboards and fridge first, before shopping trip. So you don't end up with two 64 ounce jars of pickled pimentos.

Rule #10: Man sets table, candles are lit, beverages are poured, no ketchup bottles, sour cream containers, or big boxes of salt on table.

From the Glossary:

BOIL: to heat liquid until bubbles rise and break on surface. Looks similar to something you may see in your bath-tub.

STRAIN: to stretch neck around corner of kitchen to see what wife is doing while you're making dinner.

Affiyet Olsun! (Bon Appetite!)

Poulsbo's Fish Park

Today was supposed to be the only day this week that it doesn't rain, so we headed out to visit a local park that I've been wanting to see. It is called Fish Park, and it is located right in the middle of Poulsbo. I've driven by it countless times, but I had no idea that such a fun, secluded little park was nestled just off the road.

The kids & I had a great time exploring all the trails and extensive boardwalks, and watching for wildlife. We saw bunnies, a bald eagle, a red-winged hawk, and the ripples in the water of spawning chum salmon (but the water was too murky to see them well.)

The park is ringed with this great raised boardwalk. Excellent for "hiking" on a wet Pacific Northwest day (and for scaring your little sister that there are crocodiles lurking underneath.)

Just when I finally convinced Adana that there were no crocodiles in the park, she found this sign. She spent the rest of the time convinced that there were sharks nearby, just waiting to bite her toes.

There are two of these platforms, overlooking the water that comes in from Liberty Bay. They are great for spotting salmon, heron & eagles. (But no sharks or crocodiles. We checked.)

All 4 of my kids are in this picture. There is lots of room to run and roam and explore.

Here's a video of the kids hiking. (Note: Jared is terrified of spiders.)

The perfect end to a great afternoon - Sluys Bakery. YUM!

A SURE CURE for nail biting

These bad boys may not seem like a big deal to many of you (I know a few readers of this blog have claws that would scare a tiger), but they are loooong for me. In fact, this is one of the few times in my life that I can remember seeing the white part.

I am a nail biter. I have bitten my nails all my life. I think it may be a genetic thing. My father bites his nails, and probably his father before him. (Heck, his father was from Arkansas; he probably bit his toenails.) :-P

But no more. Never again. I am here to share with you the secret to my sudden, cold-turkey nail biting cessation:

Pinworms.

Up until about a month ago, I lived blissfully ignorant of the existance of these nasty creatures. I never even considered the possibility of slimy, creepy worms living in unsuspecting intestinal tracts and emerging only at night to lay their eggs around some poor soul's anus.

Then a friend posted on her blog about how her son had them.

And how a parent goes about discovering if, in fact, your child has them. (Read this funny story to learn more.)

And how a person gets them. Which is the clincher . . . you get them by eating them.

Why, you are probably asking, would anyone EAT pinworms?! Well, most people don't do it on purpose. Rather, they are hiding - lurking - Underneath Your Fingernails.

ACK!

So, my friends, consider yourselves informed and warned. Now go forth and spread the word. All it took for my kids was telling them how pinworms are discovered. I haven't seen them biting their nails since. (PHEW!)

A Bainbridge Island Halloween

It was a Dark and Stormy night . . .

Actually, it was a beautiful sunny evening, with a great marine fog settling in among the trees to set the perfect Halloween ambiance.

Here are the 4 Russell kids, decked out in their 2008 costumes:

Jared "Grim Reaper" - there is a fine art to picking a costume when you're a tween. It has to be cool, and sort of scary (but not too scary or your mom will veto it). Black hoods are always a plus. Personally, I think he's still pretty dang cute! He Trick or Treated with us downtown, then stayed at home to give out candy while I took the other kids around the neighborhood. I know for a fact that any cute girls who knocked on our door got a nice big HANDFUL of candy. :-)

Micah "Weird Al Yankovic" - he is such an awesome, unique boy. Micah's current obsession is Weird Al, so he pulled off this costume with style. He can sing all his songs, and knows his moves. It was fun to hear the adults laugh when they recognized who he was. (I don't think most kids got it.)

Emma "vampire" - no frou-frou princess costumes for this girl. She wanted to be a vampire, and a scary one! I wouldn't let her put red "blood" dripping from her fangs like she wanted. Of course, being the fashionista that she is, her vampire dress was trimmed with silver sequins, and she wore black leather knee boots to finish the look. As for the hair - it took an ENTIRE can of black spray to get it like this. It looked really cool, but it was a PAIN trying to wash it out. As soon as I'm done here, I get to go scrub my now-black shower.

Adana "chicken" - back by popular demand (and the fact that it still fits and I didn't want to buy another costume), Adana was an adorable chicken again this year. She definitely melted the people giving out candy and she walked away with almost double what her siblings got. She totally figured out the whole Trick or Treating thing this year. She would boldly walk up to the door, yell "TRICK OR TREAT" as loud as she could, flash her bright smile and say, "I want to pick it myself." Whereupon, she would look over the whole bowl of candy and pick exactly what she wanted. Then she would hold up two fingers and say, "I want 2!" Inevitably, the people would chuckle and give her another turn at the bowl. Yep, she's good!

We started the evening Trick or Treating downtown. It is the quintessential small-town experience. The whole community comes out, there is spooky organ music playing, and everyone dresses up in great costumes! (In case you were wondering, Emma was at a birthday party, so she missed this part.)

Here are a few of the costumes that we enjoyed:

Some friends from church. If you live here and you didn't see them downtown, go ahead and take a guess in the Comments on who you think this is. (Hint: the baby is a give-away for 2 of them.)

Joe the Plumber.

This was the costume of an 8-year old kid. What little kid wants to be a presidential candidate for Halloween!?

The best part of the evening! Mora's gave out FREE ice cream cones! Yes, you are all welcome to come join us next Halloween.




Last, but not least - The Loot. That is a cavity waiting to happen. (But in these tough economic times, the dentist's wife in me hopes that every house on the island has a similar size pile.) :-)

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!