Packing

Getting ready to leave for our trip tomorrow morning, I had a little helper:




















I think even the Morgster is excited to go on vacation!

Good Story

Here is an article from yesterday's Tri-City Herald. I was very impressed with this young women's opinion and thought it was worth sharing.


Thursday, Jul. 24, 2008
Miss Tri-Cities contestant pulls out of swimwear competition, honored for convictions
By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer


Miss Tri-Cities contestant Dacia Ramirez of Pasco opted not to compete in the swimwear competition during Saturday’s program. As a result, the 19-year-old wasn’t eligible to be a finalist. But she did walk away with the Miss Congeniality award. “For me it wasn’t about winning. It was about the experience I took away,” she said.













Dacia Ramirez knew even before she stepped onto the stage Saturday night that she wouldn't be chosen Miss Tri-Cities 2008.

Ramirez, 19, of Pasco, had opted out of the swimwear event, which automatically disqualified her from being chosen as royalty in the pageant.

But the daughter of Andres and Rachel Ramirez made a good enough impression to win the title of Miss Congeniality and win the admiration of fellow contestants for quietly refusing to wear what she considered too-revealing swimwear.

"I'm a modest person, so I knew this would be an issue for me," Ramirez said Wednesday.
Ramirez, who is active in the Lighthouse Church in Pasco, says she wasn't trying to make a public statement, only to stay true to her personal beliefs.

Pageant coordinators, including director Dot Stewart, were unable to reach an acceptable solution to her concerns, so Ramirez quietly accepted the consequences and signed a waiver that she would not be a finalist.

"I'm OK with that. I was excited just to be in the program," she said.

Ramirez did not walk away empty-handed. In addition to the Miss Congeniality title, she received $850 in gifts as a contestant and the admiration of many contestants in the Miss Tri-Cities and Miss Outstanding Teen of Tri-Cities competitions.

"Many of them, when they found out, told me: 'You go, girl. You're such a role model. Stand up for what you believe. I'm proud of you,' " Ramirez said.

Her father, a pastor in Pasco for 11 years, and her mother, who works for the Benton-Franklin Health District, also encouraged Ramirez to continue and stick to her convictions, she said.
"I grew up in east Pasco, where not many people have gone to college or entered a scholarship pageant," Ramirez said. "But my dad taught me it doesn't cost any more to dream big than to dream small."

Her parents also taught their daughter to do right and think of herself as being an example for others, Andres Ramirez said.

"Winners make things happen, and losers wait for things to happen," he said, noting that the issue of modesty vs. swimwear reaches far beyond his family.

"What (my daughter) did will be seen by many of the youth in our church, many of whom come from broken families and have had bad examples in their lives," he said.

Dacia Ramirez said she feels like she did the right thing, but she also believes in the Miss Tri-Cities scholarship program.

"It's an amazing program. The people work so hard, and I have gained so much confidence," she said.

But she also believes her example should be a signal to others that skimpy and revealing swimwear need not be required to win a scholarship pageant.

Changing the swimwear to more modest apparel, such as the active-wear required in the Miss Outstanding Teen competition, would "open the door to a lot more ladies," she said.

She and her father also believe she was the right person at the right time for the right issue.

"During the whole time I kept going back to the Book of Esther (in the Bible). She was different than the other girls. She risked her life to help others," she said.

The experience hasn't soured her on pageants. She is considering participating again in 2009.
***************************************************************************

Here are my thoughts:
Having been in a pageant and being required to wear swim wear (although they had to all be one pieces) was not a horrible experience for me, I did not feel degraded or that I was being immodest. I'm not sure what the requirements were for the Miss Tri-Cities pageant, I know I've seen people wear one pieces in the past ( a few years back an LDS girl won and she was the ONLY one to wear a one piece swimsuit). I'm not sure what the circumstances were for this year's pageant and she had to have known that was part of the pageant before participating. However, I really respect the fact that she knew it would cost her chances of winning and she did it anyway to stay true to herself. I think that takes a lot of courage and confidence.

What do you think?

SCORE

A few weeks ago I did a post about scoring some freebies and finding good deals from different websites. Walmart.com is an excellent place to request product samples from. I like product samples a lot because #1 they are free and make the perfect travel size for trips, #2 they give you the opportunity to try products you might not usually buy and #3 they make checking the mail every day really fun because you never know what might be waiting for you. Many manufacturers offer free samples and as a bonus a lot of these come with coupons as well. Double score! On my sidebar I have a link to Freebies 4 Mom, which is a great resource.


Every time I get a freebie in the mail, I put it in a box on top of my fridge. I keep it handy in case I want to grab something like a little tube of lotion to throw in my purse, or whatever. I'm starting to run out of room though, so it might be time to get a bigger box! Here is some of what I've gotten in the last two months since I started receiving freebies:















Some things not pictured that I've gotten for free were:
-mini boxes of cereal
-mini desserts
-free camera tri-pod
-awesome coupon booklets
-magazines
-recipe booklets
-child's sippy cup

Anything I don't need or want, I can give to other people. There are lots of free baby samples that come in the mail, (usually with really good coupons and sometimes whole cans of baby formula) and since my baby isn't so little anymore I can pass those on to friends and family that can use them. Excess items can also be donated or used for care packages, and they'd be great to send to college kids or missionaries, or tuck them away in 72-hour and emergency preparedness kits - lots of uses I can think of. Our family is going to the Oregon Coast for our summer vacation next week, and usually I find myself at the store buying last minute travel sized toiletries. But this year, I've already got shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, toothpaste, lotion, laundry detergent, baby wash, and a cute bag to zip it all up in. For FREE!


So don't be afraid to request product samples, (only the free ones, some ask for participation in other promotions and I NEVER do those) and have fun checking your mail everyday like me!


*If you already receive freebies in the mail, what is one of your favorite things you've gotten lately, or one of the best deals you've scored?

Wedding

Saturday evening we attended a wedding for one of Riley's friends he has known practically his whole life, Josh Bonderman. My mom came up to watch the kiddies and here's a picture she snapped of Riley and I before we headed out the door:

Notice the TV blasting some cartoons in the background? We Dodson's like to keep it real.

It was nice to have an adult evening out, albeit that it would be outside in hot summer weather waiting for a wedding to start (which we got there almost an hour early for), but still we were able to have some adult conversation without being interrupted by little voices demanding snacks, treats, bathroom breaks, or my personal favorite - "I'm bored!"

Their family's backyard was decorated with large white tents with lights attached and underneath were many tables decorated with beautiful flower arrangements. It was completely transformed. Riley and I kept doing double takes, it looked so different. Here are a few pictures I took during the ceremony:

I was trying to not get the guy down in front in the pictures, but it was very difficult. Why is it that no matter where you are, a wedding, graduation, school concert, there is always that one person in the way?!

It was kind of a tropical, casual theme. Everyone was wearing flip-flops including the bride and all of the bridal party had big beautiful flowers in their hair.

We enjoyed visiting and seeing Josh's family. It is always an adventure for me to meet old friends of Riley's and hear their stories from their younger, wilder days. Ha. We gave the new couple our best wishes and then decided to make an early exit before the party got in full swing. Since we were already dressed up we decided to go grab some dinner at O.G. and take full advantage of our night out.

Weddings always make me nostalgic, over dinner we talked about our wedding and reception and all of the things we would have done differently. I was telling Riley that for our ten year anniversary I want to have a big blowout party where we can do all of the the fun things we shoulda, coulda, woulda done. The most important thing about a wedding though, isn't the flowers, or the dress, or the big sparkly ring. It's the fact that you've found the person you want to spend your life with, all the rest is just the icing on the cake.

The Dark Knight

We've been waiting a long time to see this movie. It did not disappoint. Riley and I went to the matinee this afternoon and it ended all too quickly for us.

It was AWE-SOME!

Without giving too much away, I'll just state the obvious:

-Christian Bale is a stud

-Heath Ledger is oh so creepy and psychotic (even more so than I expected)

-The plot twists and turns

-The supporting cast is great

-Super action packed

The ending of the movie left me a little uneasy, but I think that was the point. The next Batman movie can not come fast enough for us. Two thumbs up from Sarah and Riley!!!

Confucius Says....

If Kendle liked Chinese food, and she happened to crack open a fortune cookie this week, perhaps it might say:














She finally has not one, but two loose teeth! Both of her middle bottom teeth are pretty wiggly and she was freaking out this afternoon. She does NOT want me to pull them out, so I told her just to keep moving them around to help them fall out. So I guess we can count on a semi-toothless school picture this year. That Tooth Fairy better be on her game for the next little while; can't disappoint a first timer.

13 months and going strong

It's hard to believe, but my little guy is now 13 months old. He is a bucket of fun most of the time (excluding Sundays), and roams the house like he owns the place. His personality grows every day and he is honing his skills to annoy his big sister. He's already mastered hair pulling, sitting on her, pinching, and will sit down next to her and push her away with his legs. Could these all be defense mechanisms he's been developing from prior experience with her? Possibly.

Morgan loves to go outside and will stand at the sliding glass door and pound on it and cry until someone takes pity on him and takes him out. He heads straight to the rocks under the swing set and he's probably swallowed a few that I didn't know about. He really likes to follow Riley around and watch him while he mows the lawn. Strange that the vacuum still scares him, but not the lawn mower.

He likes to push things around. Strollers, chairs, toys, stools, basically anything he can get his hands on. The kid just likes to exert his physical power and show off basically. I was laughing so hard the other day when he was trying to push our big computer chair around and he actually grunted. Pure comedy. He makes me laugh a lot.

I've been teaching him where his head, eyes, ears, and mouth are. He'll point to most of them, but when I say "Morgan, where's your nose?" He always grabs my nose. I think I made that beeping and honking sound one too many times. It always makes him laugh though, and it's so cute.

I'm slowly trying to get rid of his bottle, and basically that means just trying to get him to eat more regular food and drink more milk from a cup. I think the night time bottle will be the hardest to let go of because it just comforts him to sleep. He doesn't need it to go to sleep though, so that's a plus. I was telling Riley, when Morgan can walk around drinking his bottle with one hand totally casual like, and then wave it around for good measure, it's probably time to be rid of it.

Overall, he is at a really fun age right now. He's saying a few words, communicates pretty well with what he wants (banging on the pantry door, or standing below the cookie jar and pointing is usually pretty clear that he needs a snack and he needs it now) loves to give hugs and blow kisses, and runs his chubby little legs into the ground every day. If you leave the remote where he can get it, he will literally sprint over to reach it before you get back. He thinks he's pretty sneaky.

Thanks for all of the fun little man!

Growing up in a small town

I find myself often comparing the way I grew up, to how my children are being raised and the environment of a larger town contrasted to small town life. And when I say small, I mean a town of less than 3,000 people. As children, my siblings and I would run and play until we were too exhausted to move another inch. We had a huge backyard with tons of trees to climb, and lots of places to hide. My mom loves to garden and we always had tons of beautiful flowers and plants growing all around our home. As a kid, I just loved my life.






















We had lots of freedom to roam, ride bikes, take walks, daydream, and use our imaginations. I remember during the summer time racing my bike up and down the little slope of a road in our neighborhood until it got too dark to see where I was going. We knew most, if not all of our neighbors (we still laugh about the ditch man and his mean dogs) and there was always something to do. We would have sword fights with our awesome home made shields and wooden swords (that should be a whole other post), made forts in the backyard, played army, ran through the sprinklers and played catch.


As far as the town itself went, we had one semi-grocery store, a gas station, a mini-mart, two taverns, a post office, a grade school and junior high, one movie store or another, a shady motel, and that's about it. We lived close enough to the grocery store that we could walk or ride our bikes and get a pop or a candy bar. As a kid, what more do you need? We hardly ever ate fast food since the nearest McDonald's or anything else was about 20 minutes away. One of my earliest childhood memories of going into "town", was to see the movie "E.T." at the old Hermiston Theater. I think I was about two or three years old at the time. Mostly everyone in town knew each other and I went to school with a lot of the same kids all the way from kindergarten through high school. At the time, I thought that was kind of boring not having very many new people to meet, but looking back now I think it was pretty neat.


As I got into my teenage years, and my younger brother and sister were the ones roaming the neighborhood, times were starting to change. You had to be more aware of where they were, who they were with and so on. I had one terrifying experience when I was babysitting and my little brother went off with some friends without telling me and I did not know where he was. I couldn't find him for over two hours. There were some pretty questionable people who had moved into the area around that time and I was beside myself with worry. I thought I was going to kill him when he finally came back home.

Today I am very careful about where my children are and who they are with. I let Kendle ride her bike, but only in front of our house where I can see her. Sometimes I wonder if I am being too overprotective. I am kind of a worry wart about those type of things. I feel sad she won't have the same experiences that I did growing up. I wish my children would have room to roam, places to explore, and the freedom to run the day away. Like the old saying goes, "you don't know what you got till it's gone".

So ya, I grew up in a podunk, boondocks town. We didn't have sidewalks, cool stores, or a place to get a decent burger, but what we did have you can't buy nowadays.

F-U-N.

Crossroads

One of my favorite music shows on television is "Crossroads" on CMT.

Great music knows no boundaries. CMT Crossroads shows the far-reaching roots of country music by pairing country artists with musicians from other genres. Each episode will feature a different set of stars playing together, swapping stories and sharing their common love of music.

They pair up great artists that you normally wouldn't consider having similar styles, but could easily trade songs with one another and make a hit. One of my recent favorites was Sara Evans and Maroon 5. Her song "A Real Fine Place to Start" could easily be a new Maroon 5 song. Here's a clip:



Some of my other favorites included the episodes of:
-Bon Jovi and Sugarland
-Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris
-James Taylor and the Dixie Chicks
-Lindsay Buckingham and Little Big Town
-Pat Benatar and Martina McBride
-Kelly Clarkson and Reba McIntire
-John Mayer and Brad Paisley

One of the next new episodes airing on November 8th will feature Taylor Swift and Def Leppard. Can't wait to see what kind of interesting arrangements they will come up with for that pairing. I'm not sure on the exact show times, but if you ever happen to catch it, it's worth tuning in for even if you don't consider yourself a country music fan.

If you have the time, here are some of my other favorite clips:

Brad Paisley and John Mayer


Pat Benatar and Martina McBride

Letting Go

Sometimes in life there will be instances where no matter how much you try to control what happens, life will take it's own course anyways. Our family has been realizing this a lot lately. We've been watching some family members that are getting older and starting to have some difficulties. I know it's hard for Riley to see his mother suffering and wishing that she would let him give her a blessing.

We've been challenged as a family a lot lately it seems. I'm telling you, when it rains it pours around the Dodson household. Our life is a constant balancing act (as it is for everyone). It's exhausting trying to figure everything out. There are some days where I feel like I don't know ANYTHING. Here is what I DO know:

-You can't make people change if they don't want to
-You can't try to please everyone
-You can't tell your children to be kind if you aren't setting the example
-You can try your best to offer help to people, and if they don't accept it that's OK
-Everyday you can choose to be happy
-You can always start over with a clean slate tomorrow

I'm trying my best not to lose sight of the bigger picture. Our little family makes a pretty good team when we all work together.

4th of July 2008

Friday the 4th we headed downtown Pasco for the annual 4th of July Parade. We sat right by the pool since Kendle had swimming lessons, and since hardly anyone showed up she got to go down the big loopty-loop slide a dozen or so times. After her lesson she came and joined us for the rest of the parade and made a valiant attempt to retrieve as much candy as possible. There wasn't a ton to be had this year, but she did score two coupons for a free milkshake at McDonalds. Not too shabby. Morgan didn't enjoy the parade so much, but did perk up a bit when the firetrucks and ambulances came by. Other than that he was content to look for sticks and rocks and try to run away. The parade weather was comfortably warm with a slight breeze, much better than it's been the last few years. I'm bummed I did not get a picutre of our family with everyone decked out in their red, white, and blue.

After the parade we grabbed some lunch and headed back home to get ready for the BBQ we were having that night. We had invited some friends and family over to celebrate with us and it turned out to be really fun. Riley grilled some hot dogs and hamburgers and we set out big tubs of pop and ice in our backyard. Thanks to our guests we had lots of yummy sidedishes, chips, cookies, popsicles, and icecream. It was fun to just eat, relax and visit with everyone. The kids had fun playing on the swing set (thanks Riley for finally fixing it) they played limbo with the garden hose, and probably drank enough pop and ate enough sweets to last them until Halloween. They also had fun with the bubbles we got them:

The little ones enjoyed chasing them around. I got a kick out of how excited the kids were and how well they all played together.

I guess you could say the suckers were a big hit as well:

We're thankful for all of our friends and family that came and helped make it a fun time.

After everyone headed out, we grabbed some chairs and blankets and sat out in the front yard with my parents and grandparents to watch the fireworks from the stadium down the road. Little did we know we'd be getting a second free fireworks show from our neighbors two houses down. And little did they know, that a police man had been sitting there watching them with his lights off for a good ten minutes before he came and busted them. I don't know if people are just ignorant, or think they are above the law, but the city ordinance banning fireworks seemed to be one of those pick and choose laws for a lot of people in our neighborhood and surrounding area this year.

It started to get a little breezy during the fireworks and we all had sweatshirts or were wrapped up in blankets. Morgan was very laid back, drinking his bottle and leaning on me while he looked at the big explosions in the air. He clapped and said "yay" a few times. The fireworks were beautiful and while we were watching them, my grandfather told Kendle the story about how Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner". It made me think what it would have meant to live back in those times, and through the dirt and grit and horror of war, be overcome with hope and a renewed spirit to see the American Flag still waving high in the air after a desperate battle. My heart is thankful.

After the fireworks were over, my parents offered to take Kendle home with them for the rest of the weekend, (yay) so we packed her a bag and sent her off down the road with a smile on her face. I'm so thankful to live close to my family, and it makes me happy that my children love to spend time with them. All in all, it was a great way to celebrate the 4th of July, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Independence Day

"Freedom is never free." ~Author Unknown





















On July 4, 1776, we claimed our independence from Britain and Democracy was born. Every day thousands leave their homeland to come to the "land of the free and the home of the brave" so they can begin their American Dream.

Here is a section from the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

To read it in it's entirety go here. I highly recommend it, it was truly inspired. I am in awe of the bravery of those men.

I am so thankful to live in such a wonderful country. I pray that we as a nation can endure the trials ahead, stand for what is right, and never forget the price paid for our freedom.

Question Of The Day:

How long is too long to wait in your pediatrician's waiting room with a cranky, high energy baby before you get up and leave and never come back? Is 45 minutes too long? And then after that, you wait in the little room for the doctor to come in for another 20 minutes or so. I need answers people. I can't take it any more. Do you think doctors owe their patients an apology for running that far behind schedule? How about to the little 1- year-old who waited that long, who missed his nap and was hungry, only to get three shots and be sent on his way? No fun I tell you, no fun at all. We have a saying in our household: "If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy." But in this case, it's if the baby ain't happy, and the little Morgster was NOT happy. I think I'll send Riley next time.