"Mommy, it's raining outside!"

This was Ethan's very accurate observation this morning.
It was raining.
And we were dressed in long pants, jackets and socks and shoes. The days of shorts and flip flops are over and I think I'm glad.
There's something very cozy about the rain... when you are safe and warm inside that is! Time for fall baking, hot soups and evenings tucked inside with a good book or favorite movie. Yay!

Or...
We may be busy packing up the house to move.
We still don't know yet. But next month marks 3 glorious years we have spent in our current duplex and we have loved it - it fits the three of us and our occasional "dinner party guests" just right. Although, I still say just an extra half bath would make it that much better!
For now Sean is working.
That's right.
Sean accepted the job offer!
And the housing hunt has begun. So far, no luck. It doesn't help that in Monmouth we are competing with college kids from Western Oregon University who had their housing lined up last March! Now we're looking more in the Dallas or West Salem areas. Salem is a longer commute for Sean - not as long as it was from our house to OSB, but still longer than he was hoping for. Anyone in the area, feel free to keep your eye out for a 2-3bed/1-2 bath townhouse or duplex that is available to rent. :)

I am excited for October. It's one of my absolute favorite months in Oregon. I love seeing all of the leaves on the trees changing color. I love our annual trip to the farm for pumpkins and fresh kettle corn and feeding the goats. I love that Ethan is sure to like it even more than last year and will be able to play at the playground. I love baking pumpkin bread and am praying that the Libby's canned pumpkin shortage ends soon - yeah, it's for real.












Good thing we still have 2 cans left on our shelves from last year. Phew.
And then we plan on attending the A.C. Gilbert children's museum Harvest Festival and Pumpkin Merriment in a couple weeks. Again, good times.

[[sigh...]] Rain.












[[happy sigh...]] Autumn.

And, uh, thus concludes today's ramblings. :)

Wednesdays with the Wrights

This is sort of an old, overdue post, but I wanted to still be sure and get it documented because really, these were Ethan's first friends.

For the majority of the last school year (September 2008-June 2009) Ethan spent most Wednesdays with the Wright family. Shawna watched Ethan all day while Sean and I were at work and Ethan got to play with her and Jeromy's 2 kids. Abbie (now 4) and Isaac (now 2, just a week or so younger than Ethan) were his buds! We had our struggles at drop-off time (it came and went) but only because he wasn't getting to stay with mommy and it wasn't grandma Julie's house. He loved playing with the kids and I loved that he got some interaction with people his own age!
On his last Wednesday there, I left the camera and had Shawna take a few pictures of the kids playing together. Also, since then, Jeromy and Shawna welcomed their 3rd child into the family - Carolyn Rae. Oh, and the other little girl in some of the pictures is a cousin (I think) that she was also watching during the day.I love this last picture. Click on it for detail... it show the little boys playing with princess jewelry, etc. Love it!

Just Need Some Aviators

Seriously?

Seriously.
This jacket is da' bomb!!
I came home from work Wednesday to find Ethan wearing this totally sweet new flight jacket courtesy of my Uncle Steve (my dad's brother). He is a helicopter mechanic (who travels all over) and thought of Ethan when he saw this. It's even a 4T - so a little big now, but he'll grow into and be able to wear it at least all of next year/winter too! I was so stoked I had to double-check with my grandma (who brought it along when she watched Ethan Wednesday afternoon) to make sure it was really his to keep!Anyway, I just had to share... Now he just needs some toddler-size aviators and he will be good to go.
Thanks Uncle Steve!!

M.I.A... sorry

I know I posted on Monday, but it still feels like it's been a while since I've posted anything new - maybe because I'd wrote Monday's blog just after labor day, but didn't get the pictures put in until later.

Anyway.

I've been a little stressed, to say the least. Sean has a job offer. I say offer because he hasn't actually accepted the position officially. He got the call on Friday and asked for the weekend to think it over. Now, normally this post would have started something like: Sean got the job!! But for now my enthusiasm is slightly contained for a couple of reasons. 1. Like I said, nothing's official yet. 2. The job is in McMinnville. That's right I said McMinnville, as in not Springfield, not Eugene, heck not even Salem. McMinnville. Still north, but [very] west of I-5. What to do, what to do... Believe me, we have been on our knees in prayer a lot this past week - even before he got the call. Accepting this job will mean several BIG changes in our lives... Sean will have a job - that's a plus. I can cut back my hours at work to part-time so I get to be at home with Ethan - another plus. And we'll have to move. This can go either way.

The move is what I have been struggling with. In fact, I have been on an emotional rollercoaster since Sean called me at work Friday morning! One minute I'm excited and ready to move and embrace the changes. The next minute I'm freaking out. Especially when I think about how quickly this could all go down. I'm a Spring-tucky girl, born and raised. I have lived here my entire life. I've worked at the same job for 10 years. This is a big deal. It will not be easy for me. I have already cried several times - sometimes tears of joy and sometimes of sadness. In fact, I lost it when I got a text from a friend who's also a little stressed, but said one of the reasons for that was "my very good friend is moving soon." Like I said, this will not be easy for me.

I'll update when I know for sure what the plan is. Just know, I may get real busy, real quick with packing, etc. Ahhhh!!

PS: We're looking more at the Monmouth, Independence and Dallas areas to move to. Anyone know anything about the area??

Labor Day Weekend: part 2

Monday. Labor day. i.e. Paid holiday!! Gotta love that!

So for several days Sean and I had been tossing around the idea of going to the coast, maybe the aquarium, or Portland and finally decided Sunday night we should just go to the coast. But then we stayed up way late with family and then talking with Tory and then Ethan was up fairly early and I just thought, "That's it. I'm done. I am WAY too tired to go to the coast today!" But Sean got up and going and hopped in the shower and next thing I knew we were all getting ready for a day at the coast! Tory came with us and we decided right away that we would do dinner on the way back at the famous Gingerbread restaurant because Sean and I have never been. First stop was for gas and then by Veneta we decided we were all hungry and stopped and grabbed lunch at the DQ to eat on the way. We continued on to Florence and decided to keep going. We were hoping to go exploring in some tide pools, but we didn't check the tide tables before we left (or got going for that matter) and we just missed low tide. Oh well. We stopped at Strawberry Hill (one of Tory's favorite locations) and wandered around the beach and rocks, letting Ethan just climb and explore and be a kid. He loved it!

Beautiful day at the coast.

Playing in the sand.

Love the view!

I know it looks like it, but no, they are not holding hands... look closer!

Next we continued on North, driving through Yachats and then Waldport and on up to Newport. Destination: Yaquina Head. This is where I had really wanted to see the tide pools... next time I'll be sure to check the tide charts. We still had fun, though. Mommy and Ethan... hurry and take the picture!

The boys.

Yaquina head is a cobblestone beach - very different but pretty cool. And the sound! Waves crashing on the shore and flowing back into the ocean. Awesome. When we first got down to the beach we found this log with cobblestones carefully lined on top (in ascending, then descending size order). Of course, Ethan promptly made it his duty to clear the log of the stones! Ethan had fun picking up handfuls of the small cobblestones, waiting for a wave and then tossing them in.

But the FLIES!! Oh, the flies. Drove. Me. cRaZy. They were everywhere! And you didn't dare stand still for more than 2 seconds (like I had to so we could take a picture and document the grossness). I count about 40 on me in that picture. Finally we decided the flies were too much, plus some heavy, gray fogged had rolled in (which you can see in the pictures) and we went to downtown Newport. It was such a gorgeous day (other than the fog we had at Yaquina Head)! We went out onto the pier to watch and listen to the sun-bathing sea lions. They have quite a loud bark! Ethan got such a kick out of it and was not-too-happy when we left (shorts naps in the car will do that to a toddler)! We strolled past the small shops and decided a stop for salt water taffy in one of the old-time candy shops was a must.

And then it was time to head home. We did stop at the Gingerbread Restaurant. What a nightmare that turned out to be - not because of the food or the service, but because of our over-tired Ethan. Oh, what a headache! But the food was good - Sean and I just had burgers and fries and then the three of us attacked a divine slice of lemon meringue pie!

Labor Day Weekend: part 1

As per usual, our weekend was pretty busy - especially with it being a 3-day weekend. We took full advantage of it!

Starting not long after I got off work for the week...
Friday Night Football

Springfield High (my old stomping grounds) was having it's first game of the season. We met up with my mom, Lizzy and a couple of her friends. I made sure Ethan was in his blue and white best - he opted for the bright blue Lightning McQueen shirt to go over the white tee! Great game! The Millers came from behind and were ahead right up until the end of the 4th quarter when Dallas tied it up. They went into OT and Springfield had the ball first. They scored and got the extra point. Then Dallas went next and they got a touchdown, but tried for the 2-point conversion and didn't make it which meant... Springfield won!!! Final score: 28 to 27.Oh, and score! I caught both a free t-shirt and a free mini football!!
Saturday Morning Breakfast and Afternoon Bargains
Saturday morning Sean treated Ethan and I to a waffle breakfast. Mmm, mmm, mmm! We mainly just hung around the house cleaning, relaxing and catching up. After his nap, Ethan and I picked up Lizzy and headed over to Old Navy to see if they had any good end-of-summer clearance sales. Um, not really. We did get a couple pairs of shorts and a long-sleeve fire truck tee (I'm realizing I don't have as many long-sleeve tees lined up for Ethan as I thought I did!) and also his costume! I know, crazy early, right? Well, not really. Last year I decided what I wanted Ethan to be, but by the time I went to buy the costume (on October 1st!) they were sold out in the stores and online. Luckily he made a dang-cute bat, but that is not what I had planned on and was in a bit of a panic there for a while. So this year I went ahead and just snatched it up early. What is it? You'll just have to wait and see!

Saturday Night Pizza at Chuck E. Cheese
Ethan already loves to go to Chuck E. Cheese... The games, the rides, but especially just running around and taking it all in. So after shopping, Lizzy, Ethan and I met Sean and Tory [I had sent him a text asking if he'd like to join us at Charles E. Cheddar's] for pizza and games. We hang on to the coupons from the paper, so we got a great combo deal with pizza, drinks and game tokens. Ethan found a new love for the kid-size air hockey table and a few other games. Sean always likes to stick with the skee ball and a few random games. Lizzy tries it all. Tory played a couple basketball, street ball and skee ball tournaments. And we all tried the Raging Ape voltage test! Our big wins of the night, though, came when both Sean and I won the max tickets in the Deal or No Deal game. Check out our ticket strand! We always go late, after 8pm, so we miss the crowds and almost have the place to ourselves. Sooo much nicer!

Sunday Family BBQ and Pit Party
Sunday was church and then we had my family and Tory over for one last BBQ dinner. Of course, there were downpours off and on all day Sunday, but it cleared up just enough to let Sean outside to grill us up some yummy burgers (or veggie burgers in my dad's case) in addition to the pasta salad, chips and apple cinnamon cake concoction I had made. Basically like girls camp dump cake, but with apple pie filling and my "secret ingredient" (ie Sprite) to add a little more liquid to the mixture. It baked up wonderfully and was quite tasty! After dinner and Ethan was in bed, we played several rounds of the card game Pit and then one round of one our new favorite group games, Cranium Hoopla. It always gets us laughing! We especially love when Tory has to act something out! ;)

Stay tuned for Labor Day Weekend: part 2... what we did on Monday!

August Recap

Since my last post of randomness didn't generate much response, it's time for more randomness, but with pictures! Just like I promised. Alright. Here we are. August recap. And.... GO!

* I'll just start off right away with our date-night-movie-of-the-month: GI Joe
We give it two thumbs up! A little "hokey" in some parts, but Sean and I are suckers for blockbuster action flicks and this definitely fit the bill. We went on a weekday night to see this... totally uncharacteristic of us.

* We have a new niece! And Ethan has a new cousin!! Ryan and Amy (and Jonathan and Ella) welcomed Leia Dianne to the world August 5, 2009 at 11:26am. All of Ethan's (first) cousins currently come from Sean's side of the family - now with two boys and two girls!I like this picture... shows Dr. Ryan Southworth in action with his new baby girl.

* Sean spent the week after I got home from Girls Camp with some of the young men in our ward for their high adventure activity. They left Monday morning and headed to the White Salmon River in Washington to go rafting.Then headed to Eastern Oregon where they stayed the night at base camp, then hiked 9+ miles up (from 5000 elevation to 8400 and back down to 7200) to camp for the rest of the week. Beautiful location... unfortunately they got rained out. They learned they don't call it Swamp Lake for nothin'! Friday they hiked back down to base camp and were supposed to stay there for the night. But with all their gear soaked and the boys exhausted, they decided their high adventure activity was over and spent the night "roughing it" at a Super 8 motel and ordering in a pizza.

Meanwhile, Ethan and I had the week to ourselves. Monday we rented a movie and ate popcorn. Tuesday Ethan was an awesome helper and we washed the Explorer. Wednesday we had a Costco date night. Thursday was a cleaning party (oh joy!) and Friday we had Danae and Sam over for dinner/movie - ok, that may have been more of a mommy girls-night-in, but whatev, it was still fun!

* Speaking of which, in case you couldn't tell. We have new friends!! Not that Sean and I have trouble making friends, but we don't have a lot of people, other than Tory, that we really get together and do stuff with, you know? The Winders are our people. We love having them over for good food, good conversation and game nights! Seriously. Good times.
* Love these early morning pics I snapped of Ethan this month while he was eating breakfast one Saturday morning. My baby boy is getting so big!
* Garden update: The cucumbers are done. Have been done. I don't think that the plant I bought matched the outcome. They were supposed to be "straight 8" cucumbers but they were big and fat and rather yellow. Next year I am getting lemon cucumbers. Our tomatoes are still growing like crazy. The early girls are just about done, but we still have plenty of romas. Three tomato plants have been more than enough for our little family. Our jalapenos are also finally ready - now that the season is ending. I had really hoped they'd be ready a lot sooner so I could make fresh pico de gallo. I guess I'll still do that, but I wanted it more for BBQ season. Oh well. Live and learn.

* Auntie Cassie celebrated her Sweet 16 Birthday... while in England!!Lynnie, Alysha and Cassie were in England to visit Lynnie's family. Among other things I know they enjoyed seeing the Billy Elliott musical and a Beatles tour (Cassie loves the Beatles!). We sure miss Auntie Cassie and all of our Southworth fam in SoCal and Penn. December will be here soon... I hope!!

* And finally, more Ethan phrases we are loving...
- "It's a stain!" (this does not refer to an actual stain on carpet, clothing, etc. but instead any sort of scab or scrape on Ethan's skin!)
- When he's looking sleepy we'll ask him, "Ethan are you a little tired?" and he responds, "I'm a BIG tired."
- "I fixed it!" or "I did it!" (said when he completes various small tasks like throwing away his dirty diapers, etc.)
- "Ta Da!" (also used when he accomplishes something)