Stool Samples and Tea Parties all in one day!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. My cholesterol is 10 POINTS UP since I started taking steps to lower it. I don't even want to go there right now, but I'll share the great MD visit stories later. I'll just give you a little teaser of the fun yet to come, though... do it yourself stool sample kit! Merry Christmas to me!

Driving home, I had a short list for Target. Cat liter, tights for Carlie to wear to school tomorrow, candy for Christmas stockings, warm fleece gloves for a boy and a festive umbrella for a girl. That's it. Easy. On the way to Target, I drove past Kmart. The parking lot was EMPTY. Seriously. Like five cars. I thought what the hell, I'll just get my short list of items at Kmart. The scuzziest Kmart store in America, which I never, ever go to. Yeah, I'll just go in there.

I walked in, grabbed a cart, walked about six feet, abandoned the cart and left. The place is just plain gross. So... big fat Christmas shopping fail. Oh well.

Also went to Trader Joe's today to buy three boxes of Candy Cane Joe Joe's for Carlie to take to school tomorrow. Tomorrow is her birthday celebration at school since her birthday is over the break. If you have not had TJ's Candy Cane Joe Joe's, you need to go buy a box NOW. Seriously. It's like an oreo, but the cream filling is soft and smushy and filled with broken bits of candy cane.

While I was there, I stocked up on supplies in case we get snowed in. And by supplies I mean two bottles of Prosecco, two kinds of hummus, chips and salsa and cookies. After I got home, it occured to me that I probably should have gotten stuff like bread, eggs and milk. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Final adventure for the day: when I picked Carlie up at 1 pm thanks to our school's two-hour early release today, we headed north into a glorious winter wonderland for a tea party. I wish I had taken my camera, or that I could find a snowy picture online. But we were to here...We had cucumber sandwiches, scones, gingerbread (just to name a few of the treats!) and delicious vanilla black tea. It was a lovely afternoon in a beautiful setting with one of my favorite friends and her girls. The snow was gorgeous and the girls had a blast playing in it, which meant loading into the car with four SOAKING WET and freezing cold girls for a 40-minute drive home. They survived it, though.
So many adventures, so little time.

Urban Adventures

Today we are going to get one of these...

No, not another supermodel for the household, but a Christmas tree. Our "family tradition" for several years was -- and I am not making this up -- to hike three blocks up Main Street to "City Liquidators" and buy a $15 douglas fir from their parking lot and carry it home. Great fun! But last year we accidentally discovered the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad and since we are going for a second year in a row, I guess that makes it our new family tradition. Which is much better and family-fun-ish than hauling home a half-dead ghetto ass tree from the City Liquidator store. Trust me on that one.

We're going here...

On this...

We'll be riding the restored antique steam engine from Yacolt to Lucia, with a stop at Moulton Falls, where we'll have a meet and greet with Santa, some hot cocoa and cookies, and select our Christmas tree.

It's cold out, but the sun is shining, and everyone is hopped up about the adventure. After yesterday's adventure as a chaperone on the LONGEST EFFING FIELD TRIP OF ALL TIME to the Festival of Trees, I am thinking things can only get better for me this time around.

Just FYI, yesterday's field trip included:

1. driving my car full of middle school girls (plus my nine year old) (and PS-middle school girls talk, a lot, all the time, without ever stopping, and especialy about Twilight)

2. hauling a cart of band equipment through the bowels of the Oregon Convention Center with the help of an 8th grade boy

3. being locked out on the loading dock of the Oregon Convention Center (by and with my 8th grade compaion) and then

4. hiking 128 miles around the outside of the freaking Oregon Convention Center, with said 8th grader, to get back in.

5. Oh, and then leaving Portland at 4:30'ish pm, JUST IN TIME FOR HELLACIOUS TRAFFIC, so it took 45 minutes to travel the less than 10 miles back to the school, with the car full of now rummy and hungry middle school girls, plus my fourth grader, who was now late for a sleepover and God help us all it was an IMPORTANT sleepover.

So, yeah, a train ride "THROUGH THE HISTORIC LOGGING COUNTRY OF BEAUTIFUL NORTH CLARK COUNTY, WASHINGTON. FROM YACOLT TO LUCIA STOPPING AT MOULTON FALLS PARK" which includes "A TRIP THROUGH A 330 FOOT LONG TUNNEL, A TRESTLE CROSSING THE LEWIS RIVER AND A HALF HOUR LAYOVER AT MOULTON FALLS" should definitely help erase the emotional scars inflicted by yesterday's Festival of Trees.

We are so Hollywood

Tonight Carlie and I went to a screening of the movie Up by Pixar. I screwed up and invited a friend and her kids to go with us, only to realize that we needed to RSVP for how many people we were going to bring. I called to say we had extra people in our party, and was told that was a big fat NO because all seats had been reserved. Crap.

And they were not joking. The place was PACKED. The line was LONG, but the popcorn was FREE. And Carlie was beyond thrilled that she was chosen to be one of 20 (out of over 300) for a focus group to critique the movie. Very exciting.

The whole event was actually pretty exciting. While we were standing outside in the LONG line, two black Suburbans pulled up and unloaded a bunch of movie industry types who were scattered throughout the theatre during the screening, watching us watch the movie.

We were searched and wanded upon entry, to make sure we didn't have cell phones or cameras on us. There were a ton of people working the line, chatting up the kids, telling the kids what to watch for during the movie (Make sure you remember your favorite part, think about who your favorite character is, etc.). In the theatre during the screening there were six to eight people stationed along the walls with binoculars, scanning the crowd, I guess looking for recording devices.

The movie is not finished, so in some sections it was completely tricked out Pixar animation, in other spots it was animated but not fully colored in, and in some spots there were just sketched storyboards, kind of like panels in a comic book.

It was a really exciting night for Carlie, and she did a good job in the focus group afterwards, articulating what she did like (the adventure, the dogs) and didn't like (the gun, not enough girls) about the movie. Me? Personally? I didn't think it was all that great. But then again, I am the mom who brought a flashlight and book to "Finding Nemo" and "Madagascar," so who am I to judge.

Sometimes these little adventures just kind of fall into our laps. But I really wish I'd get chosen for something like the Twilight movie or Johnny Depp's first full frontal nude scene.

Sunset on the Columbia River

hiking and biking today

She was biking, we were hiking, hence the no helmets on the grownups. If we were all biking, we would totally have had our helmets on.

Today's Urban Adventure

Today I had to trek into Southeast Portland and pick up the school uniform order at Dennis Uniforms in the industrial area of town because SOMEONE volunteered to be the uniform mom and even though SOMEONE has been trying to get out of this job for the last year, NO ONE is volunteering to take it over.

Anyway, while we were in the industrial area, Carlie and I made a pitstop at another one of my happy places, City Liquidators. At Cinetopia, I can nourish my inner snob. At City Liquidators, I can feed my inner thrift store slut. When we pulled up, under the sale flags, Carlie said, "Are we still in Portland?" and I have to admit, there is a very third world nation kind of feel to the area. Festive!
Carlie was a little bit disappointed that the "toy aisle" was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape and not accessible. Drats!
The only purchase we made was a pair of lime green fake Crocs for Carlie and a pair of pink sunglasses, also for Carlie. Crocs on me, sunglasses she used the money from her violin tip jar.


And though we didn't purchase a crushed velvet men's suit, available in red or blue, we did admire them and take a photo, because, frankly, how often do you come across a men's suit in crushed velvet?

Lunch was Carlie's choice, and she chose Taco Bell. Wearing fake Crocs and eating Taco Bell, oh the stories my little debutante will have to tell at her coming out party some day!

cozy

Movie night essentials: camping chair, sleeping bag and chocolate.

Daddy can I sit on your lap?

The Goonies

Filmed in Astoria, where we got married. And 15 miles from our riverfront casa, aka The Camp (because where I come from camp IS a noun).

big turn out

Grrrr

I TOLD you to go before we left the house!

primo seats

Front row or bust, baby!

Our Urban Adventure Begins

Loaded down like pack mules with our blankets and heading out to see the Goonies!