Busy Mom's Blog

Our Memorial Day Weekend

2007-05-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

It turned out to be a bit different that we had planned, but the fact that we were able to camp during Memorial Day weekend with out a reservation meant we were really lucky.

Silly me, I didn't take any pictures of the funky (read:weird) camp ground we ended up in. It is an old mobile home park that the State Park is in the middle of converting to a camp ground...there were several run down mobile homes, some in use and some abandoned, and it was REALLY close to the train tracks!! But it was way better than turning around and not camping at all.
We went with some long time family friends and their kids...they were real troopers. We had at least some sound insulation being in the motor home, but they were tent camping. Very brave! The trains were really quite frequent in the night...and LOUD! But all of us agreed that we got more sleep than we thought we would...that said, our friends decided that one night was plenty, and they headed home after lunch. I totally don't blame them!
That first day we did the nature walk with the little kids, and the second day our family headed up Beacon Rock. It was really amazing how fast that hike was not that all the kids are old enough to do it with out needing any piggy back rides.
I see more good hikes in our future.

All in all, a great weekend!

My new laptop...oh yeah, I have a blog!

2007-05-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Long time no post.

Yeah, it turns out that I am not the best when it comes to getting around to sitting down and actually writing a post. And even when I did write a post, I was often quite hesitant to make it "real" by hitting publish. For a while I even thought about taking down the blog. The "not blogging guilt" was just one more thing draining my energy. But I have decided to cut myself some slack. I do not need to post pictures every time I put up a post. And it is not necessity for every post to be meaningful or entertaining in some way. Some times I can just ramble on about nothing if that is what I feel like doing.

We just got a new laptop for our big trip to China this summer. The plan is that we will be ble to use the highspeen internet in the appartment to kep in tough with folks while we are away.

One of the ideas is that I will keep a blog and post lots of picture and such so you al can see what we are up to. So I am practicing before we leave... please bear with me as I find my blogging legs. I am hopeful that having a new fun toy will help make blogging more fun and easy, but I am not making any promises!!

I am taking the first step right now by hitting "publish".

President's Day weekend

2007-02-26T10:09:00.001-08:00

My dad came out last week from the East Coast to spend the long President's Day weekend with us.
Saturday was WARM, so after I got back from my Team in Training run, we took the kids for a walk around a local lake while Craig got in his run by lapping us several times. Then the kids took Grandpa to their favorite sushi resturaunt. By the time we were done, the table was littered with empty sushi plates and grandpa was thuroughly impressed with both the quantity and variety of sushi the kidos managed to pack away. (I wish I had remembered my camera!!) The rest of the day was spent napping, playing cards...

...and playing a little Wii Tennis.

On Sunday we headed up to Mount Hood...we had our skis, but were a bit concerned about the weather and the rain. The last week or so had not been good for the slopes. As we reached the turn-off for Timberline ski area, it was still raining! But about 2 miles from the parking lot it switched to snow, so our ski day was saved.

Despite the wind blowing snow and sleet at us all day, the conditions were quite a bit better than I had tought they would be. With several inches of fresh snow, we got some good powder runs in, and despite the fact that the top of the mountain was closed, I think we all got a good skiing fix.
We met up with our friends C and M at the lodge so that the boys could snowboard together.

A is on the left...its kind of hard to tell with all the gear on!)

I am most proud of W's ski day. For the past year, she has been really trying to learn to snow board and decided after our last trip to the mountain that enough was enough!! So on Sunday she strapped on skis for the first time and had a blast!! After her morning lesson, during which she wowed her instructor with her quick learning, we took her to some more challanging slopes, and she did great!

I even got to ski a bit with K after I picked her up from her all day ski school.

We closed the weekend with chocloate birthday cake with fudgy frosting goodness !!

Happy Birthday Grandpa

I was going to show you...

2007-02-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

I was going to write about our great weekend with my Dad...

I was going to show you pictures of the kids skiing and snowboarding and bowling with their Grandpa...

And for those interesed in knitting I was going to show off some new hats and sweaters in progress...

But I have been having a few technical difficulties.
I thought this book might help...
But no. At least my tech support guy got back home yesterday. Maybe he can help me sort out some of my digital issues.

Team in Training

2007-02-12T07:47:00.000-08:00

So, I have decided to run a 1/2 marathon this spring.

Yeah...that is WAY longer than I have EVER run before. So far in my running career, the longest I have run is 5 miles. 13 miles is going to be a BIG stretch for me. Both physically and mentally.

I have joined my local Team in Training group to help me reach my goal. In exchange for their training and support, I am raising money for the Leukimia and Lymphoma Society.
Please check out my fundraising page if you would like to make a donation. http://www.active.com/donate/tntor/tntorBSunada
I am already more than 1/3 of the way to my fundraising goal of $1,500!! (Thanks so much to those of you who have alreay "joined my team"!! )

I have to say that Team in Training is one well organised group. At every point in the process so far, I have been very impressed with this organization. They really know how to get beginner long distance folks like me up to speed. And they really know how to fundraise!

My training is going quite well so far. I run on my own 3 times a week and head over to Portland for a "long-run" with the team on saturday mornings. This weekend we did 4 miles...next weekend we will run 5 miles...then 6...and so on untill we are ready to do our race on April 15th.

I am trying not to think too much about the final distance...and how long it will take me to run it at my slow (but steady!) 11 minute/mile pace. I just keep trusting the team coach and believing in the fact that when the time comes, I will be ready for the distance. Meanwhile...I better get out and run today! This is exactally the kick in the pants I needed!

hats, hats, hats!!!

2006-12-07T06:56:00.000-08:00

I had some new knitting techniques I wanted to learn...and I have two snowboarders and one little skier who needed warm hats to wear. Put it all together and I give you a family of hats.

First up is A's Three Cable Hat.

I wanted to work on cabeling with out a cable needle, but needed to keep the hat relatively plain to suit the boy's wishes.
I have to admit that I totally faked the top of this hat. After looking at several basic hat directions, I just kind of mushed them together...and it worked pretty well if I do say so myself. I am particularly pleased with the way the cables continue up to the top.

K's Color Hat is the first stranded (or "fairisle") work I have done. I couldn't find simple pattern on line so I just made it up as I went along. It turns out that the actual knitting of this kind of knitting is not as hard as I thought...but I assume it will feel harder once I get ino the world of following complicated charts.

For W's Periwinkle Diamond hat I wanted to do something different. So rather than cables she got a purl stitch pattern. This was a lot of fun to work out. The top of this hat was inspired by looking at other hats, but again done with out a pattern. It is basically four evenly spaced decreases done as you would for the toe of a sock.

These are my first knitted hats. For some reason I had previously had absoloutly no interest in making hats...I thought they would be boring! But that was because I was thinking about plain old hats. Now I have discovered that not only do hats make up super fast, but they are also a great way to get creative with different techniques. I see many more hats in my future!

Knitting for charity

2006-11-14T09:51:00.002-08:00

Well, I am still learning about this Html crap. I tried like the dickens to get a button on my side bar for Knit Unto Others to have an active link, but I just couldnt figure out how to do it. I got the button...I got a link...I just couldn't figure out how to make the button BE the link.

Any way, I am getting together a few folks, including my daughters, to knit for various charities this fall. Not a huge thing, but I like the idea that we can spend a little bit of time making something that will help people in need. (Yes, I know there are lots of other ways we could help too, but this feels more active than just donating money...which we are doing as well.)

We are knitting for Caps to the Capital a project run by Save the Children and the Red Scarf Project which created care packages for kids who have "graduated" from the foster care system.

The coolest thing is the way that W and K are really digging the idea of making hats for the little babies! They are working with the "Knifty Knitter" looms, which are much easier for little hands than trying to manage real knitting needles. They both work at their projects when they are hanging out waiting for class at Kung-fu or when they are watching TV...It is super cute!!

I am currently working on my Red Scarf using this free pattern. I am also working on a couple of things for myself...A cool lace wrap called Cozy and the sleeves for my blue cardi (which is turning out quite different than i expected, but I think like it!). I really want to get started on another sweater, but think I better finish at least one of these projects before I move on to something else!

Some silly little quizzes

2006-11-14T06:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, I never really thought I had an accent...but this quiz got me pegged big time!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Boston You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine.
The West
The Midland
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

I guess my roots are showing

Dude! You're 83% from Massachusetts!

Okay, either you come from the western half of the state or from the Boston area. Still, it's not bad, so I'll give you the thumbs up. Cool!

How Massachusetts are you?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

But... at least I'm not stupid!

You are 18% STUPID!

You're not a complete moron, but you're definitely on your way if you don't watch out. Beware of brain farts!

How Stupid Are You???
Make a Quiz

But, Wendy made me take this quiz... now I don't feel quite as good.

You are 41% sucky as a person

Your a bit lame. What the hell is wrong with you? You want to cry?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do You Suck As A Person?
Create a Quiz

FFReunion 2006

2006-11-06T09:20:00.000-08:00

Better late than never??

I finally got my photos from this summer's reunion sorted and downloaded.

Enjoy!

Flack Family Reunion 2006

Kung-Fu fun

2006-11-05T14:51:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was not only about getting ready for Halloween, it was also all about Kung-fu!

K had her promotion on Friday night.

She received her Orange/purple belt

A and W tested on Saturday morning.

Wendy got her teen's Orange belt

Alex received his purple/white sash...a sign of his level of commitment and dedication to his school.

As part of his test he had to defend himself against multiple attackers.

I am feeling super lucky these days that we found such a great Kung-Fu studio. Sifu Tom and his family work hard to make sure that the whole family feels included. We are all taking class now, and everyone is working hard and looks forward to going to classes. Last week we even had a private Tai-Chi class with our Sifu where we learned the first 12 steps of the Tai-Chi short form. Every day we practice it together. How many families do you know who get to share in the same activities like that??

My knitting failures

2006-11-03T07:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it turns out that making knitted garments that actually FIT the intended recipient is much harder than it looks. Especially if you are an ADD knitter who hates to swatch!

When making a knitted garment you must be able to measure.
You need to measure the part of the person you are trying to cover with knitted goodness.

You need to measure a swatch (assuming you take the time to make one).
This is a problem for me on two fronts. I always want to jump right to the making the project part of the fun...swatching and counting take time and I want to start my project now!! And, I have never figured out how to REALLY count my gauge. I understand the theory and all, but in reality, its pretty easy to fudge a stitch or two in either direction depending on how much you stretch or smoosh the fabric of the swatch.

You also periodically need to take measurements of the knitted object in progress...And wait until you reach the desired length before you decide to move ahead to the "fun" parts. Close enough will not work! You will end up with a beautiful knitted tank top that just isn't going to fit anybody! It will be way to boxy and too short all at the same time. Trust me, I know what I am talking about.

Scarves and afghans are EASY...They don't have to fit anybody. Sweaters and socks are much harder. I have several pairs of sock that began life for W and got immediately handed down to K to prove it.

I am currently working on a sweater that, despite my falure to measure, seems like it might still work out. It will be nothing like what I was trying to make, but I think it will be lovely none the less. I am starting the sleeves today, and will try to post some pictures when Blogger decides to let me upload them.

The Halloween Report

2006-11-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

Halloween was a blast as usual.

Pumpkins were carved.

Power tools were used...No fingers were lost.

Our great friends had a super fun "Zombie Beach" themed party on Saturday, inspired by this classic movie.

It is so much easier to get creative with costumes when you have a theme to work with!!
We had done the zombie thing last year and wanted a new look this time.

C is the lifeguard from the movie, I am a beach towel, K is a sand castle, and A and W went as each other!

Halloween night was also a great success. The kids went to a party at Kung-fu in the afternoon and then got butt loads of candy Trick-or-Treating here in the neighborhood. Alex and his buddies stayed out untill they had visited EVERY house in our neighborhood. The girls each collected a one gallon ziplock bag FULL of candy...Alex almost doubled their haul!! There is now an obecene amount of candy in this house.

The kids are anxiously looking forward to Saturday afternoon when they get their annual "1-hour of all the candy you can eat" Halloween candy pig out. Should be fun!

A little video from W's Fall Concert

2006-10-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Well, Craig forgot to take the camera to A's band concert, but we I did take it to W's concert last night. Here is one of the two songs the 6th graders played.

W is the cello player on the far right... if you look closely you can see the top of her head peeking up over the top of her music stand.

Our Trip to China

2006-10-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well, after wasting many hours trying to upload images to Blogger and Flickr, I decided to try Picasa's Web Album feature. Wow...that was EASY! Too bad I didn't try it earlier!!!!!
Anyway, with out further ado, I give you my Web Album of our Trip tp China.

China September 2006 slide show

Its been a while

2006-10-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

You know you haven't posted in a while when you have to re-learn how to use blogger!

I have successfully added a Flicker button to my sidebar. There aren't too many pictures there yet, but I am hoping to get a few of the China pics up later this week, as well as a few blog entries to tell you all about that fabulous trip.
(**Edited on 10/24: Oops, I have just run out of downloads on Flicker for this month...I am going to have to do a little research to find another way to show you all those pictures from China!)

My Crazy Life
Could some one please press the slow down button for me?!?! Things are getting so busy around here I can hardly catch my breath!

'A' has started 8th grade Jazz Band which means I have to drive him to school at 6:45 three mornings a week!!! That, by the way, is really EARLY!

This week I don't think we will be having a "normal dinner hour"...Not even once! Both of my middle schoolers have their first concerts of the year on Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I have the first of my Modern Dance Season Tickets...Craig and the kids will be pumpkin carving with a bunch of our friends while I am gone. Friday night K has a kung-fu belt test. Followed by A and W's belt test on Saturday morning. Then we will all turn out for the Clark's Annual Halloween bash on Saturday night! Sunday we will all sleep late and maybe, just maybe we will all sit down to diner at the same time!!!

Then, next week C will be getting ready to head back to Asia for two weeks, and the rest of us will be gearing up for K's 6th birthday!!!

Then it will be Thanksgiving...And before we know it we will be leaving for Christmas in Hawaii!! Man, not only this week, but the rest of this year is going to be a BLUR!

For those of you who come here looking for kid pics, here are a few of our recent activities.
(I have been trying to add more, but for some reason Blogger is not working right now)

W and her friend S practice their Cellos together once a week.

K and her class went to visit the Pumpkin Patch.
This is K comming out of the hay maze.

The first day of school

2006-09-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are...Its 8:00 and W and A are already at school!

This neighborhood is particularly nice for W...We have 5 sixth grade girls within a 1 block radius of our house!!! They made quite a parade on the way to the bus stop at 7:15 this morning. One other mom and I were the only ones who came to the bus stop...We didn't need to, but our girls kind of wanted us to. Tomorrow they do it on their own. (sniff...sniff...My baby's all grown up!!!)

Later today the real sniff sniff moment will be when K hops aboard the kindergarten bus with out much more than a smile and a wave.

**Posted later**

K waiting for the bus on our front porch.

K's first bus ride to school!

Mrs.R's class...and a few of K's new friends.

As expected, she had no problem getting off to school on the first day.
So far Kindergarten has been a great experience all around. K has made several new friends...her favorite part of the day is recess...and I get to volunteer in her class every Friday!

Heading to the Coast

2006-09-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, its Friday, and the family is headed to the coast for the last weekend of summer. We will be camping in Pacific City with our good friends.

Now, camping means different things to different folks. For us it means getting the trusty Motorhome out of storage, filling it with food, clothes, and gas. Not exactly roughing it, but honestly, way more comfortable!! Not to mention the fact that tent camping in the Pacific North West, with all its damp, cold weather potential, is totally unappealing. I much prefer to stay dry, not have to hike to the nasty campground toilets with the kids in the middle of the night, and have the option of using the heater if things get chilly.

Our motorhome has had a long and adventurous life...See...She may not be much to look at, but we love her!

Now we are not super campers. We are not out spending every weekend in the woods. We don't go out more than a handful of times a year. We love it when we go, but we are a busy family, and this is what we can manage. Anyway, there are often LONG periods where the motorhome is just hanging out all by her lonesome in the storage place...Just waiting. With her battery loosing its charge. So, we have had to develop this little routine of going to fetch the motorhome battery and charge it before we can go anywhere. Last night Craig and I took the battery back to the storage place, plopped it in and hooked it up. Nothing. Bummer! So we started the "try to jump-start the motorhome" ritual. Nothing. Tried again. Nothing. And again...For like, 10 minutes. Nothing. BUMMER!
On a normal weekend this would have been no big deal. We like to camp on to he fly. We don't usually have reservations, just the idea that 'camping this weekend would be fun'. But this weekend we are meeting our friends on the coast, and we do have reservations, so we really needed to get this motorhome going!

After much banging, fiddling, key turning, and getting nowhere, we decided that the battery was indeed dead. The elegant solution...We took the battery out of Craig's car and put it in the motorhome. Then we pushed Craig's car into the motorhome's parking place and left it there to hang out with the RVs for the weekend. We will figure out the battery mess later...After the camping trip. (I told you we were great procrastinators!)

So, we are heading out in a few more hours. I have to go pack, check our supplies and go grocery shopping for camping food like hot dogs and s'more fixens.

I'll leave you all with some pics of the kids giving the motorhome her annual shower.

Have a great weekend!!

Our summer renovation project

2006-08-31T10:34:00.000-07:00

This summer we decided to re-do the Kitchen-Familyroom floor. OMG what a task it was! We had a great time doing it thanks to the help of the "Tile Goddess" and her husband.

We did the tear-out, with the whole family pitching in, in mid July. Then Sherry and I went to work laying the tile while Craig was in China on business. Working part time, and with several late night tile cutting sessions, we got it ALMOST finished by the end of three weeks.
When Craig got back from China he helped seal the grout.
Now all that remains is the little transition strips in the doorways, which should get done in September.
Dang...why does construction always take so LONG!!
It was a lot of work, but totally worth all the effort!

Check out my Flickr page to see more pictures.
(I will be adding a few more pics later including the all important AFTER shots so you can see how great it looks now!)

Later this fall we will be completing the kitchen make-over with painting the cabinets and maybe even tiling the counters!

mmmmmm...cotton candy!

2006-08-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

The kids had a great time yesterday at Oak's Park. It was a bit cloudy, but the rain held off long enough for us to get our fill of fun for the afternoon. This was a fun "End of Summer" field trip.

School starts next Tuesday...Yippee!! (I'm doing the happy mom dance!!)

A's guest blog session

2006-08-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

To: my mom's blog readers

This is A here, with my 1st issue of "annoying stuff that my mom does"

Oh my god does she ever stop knitting? All she ever does with her spare time is knit and kick me off of the computer to read knitting blogs. Even when I am practicing reading online (well, actually, It's reading comics on the internet. potato potahto). When I am at my kung fu class, I look behind me and, SURPRISE! She's knitting. And once, when she was knitting a pair of socks, she got bored and unraveled the whole thing into yarn balls! Knit knit knit, unravel. Knit knit knit, unravel. It is so annoying.

The only good thing about my mom knitting is that she cannot lecture me while she does it. She lectures me so often that now, in order to save time she just says something like "Treat sister nicely lecture". Which is nice, but it took at least 5 years of really boring, real lectures to get there. TOTALY worth it :). OMG my mom is coming! I gotta stop! Don't know when I'll post next, see ya!

He is a real sweetie pie isnt he? Look for more guest posts by my kids in the furure.
Betsy

My new blog

2006-08-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well...Here it is...My blog...Isn't it cute?

I am starting this project as a place to keep and share my ramblings about life, my knitting progress and more immediately as a place to post pictures about my trip to China next month.

Let me introduce myself...As if anyone is even going to read this!!!

Some facts about me:

I can't spell! I will do my best to remember to spell check, but I can't promise that things won't be miss spelled into his blog. It doesn't bother me, so it shouldn't bother you.
I am very new to this blog thing (and a bit of a technophobe) so it might take me awhile to learn the ropes when it comes to publishing a blog.
I am a total procrastinator supreme! So don't be surprised when there are long gaps with no posts whatsoever.
I love to knit! One of the things having a blog will let me do is get more involved without he "knitting blog community". I have been a serious lurker for months and months, but now I will be able to join in the knit-blog fun! I will be sharing pictures of thigs I am working on and probably entering a swap now and then. If yu think knitting is boring, you can feel free to skip those entries.
I have three great kids and will spend lots of time talking about them. A is 13, W is 10, and K is 5. School is about to start, so there will be lots to talk about.

I hope you enjoy my blog...I hope I enjoy my blog.