My New Piano!!

Two days ago, my Mom called me and told me that my Grandma had gone to a Goodwill by their house and they had a piano there for sale for $39.99! Grandma tested out the keys and the tone and said it was a nice one and wanted to get it for me!! My Mom told her that she didn't think I would have room for one, but I told her I could make room. Our place we're in now has more room than our little duplex in Eugene had! I was so excited and they said they would get it for me!! They know how long I've been wanting my own piano in my living room!!
She told me that my Dad and Uncle Dan would be loading it for me from their house they would be bringing it out on Friday, and then we would have Jason and Celso help him bring it to the house.

So, yesterday, I organized the living room a bit, emptied the bookshelf and moved it closer to the corner about 2 more feet or so and it gave me a good spot for the piano.

This morning, my Mom called me back and said that my Dad would need to bring it today because he starts a new job (YAY!!! He only ended his other job on last Friday!!)and would be going tomorrow to Pendleton to start on Friday.

So, he and Annie came to bring it. Luckily, Uncle Chris left his flat dolly in their garage to use and that helped to put it into the rented U-Haul trailor, and also to bring it out of the trailor and into our house. The three of us were doing ok bringing it, but was having a hard time getting it go up the two steps we have on our front door. So I went next door and asked our neighbor if he could help. I haven't even met them yet, they just move in a few weeks ago. He said that he's seen and met Bella (She's met most of my neighbors somehow!), but I had yet to be introduced. Anyways, he came right over and with no time, they had it in my house and situated at the right spot!!

It's so wonderful to have a piano in my home. I had a beautiful one that my Mom bought for me when Boni was working at the retirement home and it stayed in my garage in our duplex in Eugene, but sadly, with the elements of the cold and heat, and just the age of it, it got into pretty bad shape.8 or so keys lost the ivory on top and it has always needed to be tuned. I played it many times, especially when I served at the pianist for the ward choir and for the primary.

I'm hoping that after it gets tuned up and looking nice enough, I'll be able to teach lessons and bring in a bit of income that way. My piano teacher, Ruth Hall, was an awesome teacher. She stayed home to care for her physicially disabled son, and she always had at least 30 students at a time. She taught so many, that when we would have our recitals, she would have 2 seperate ones so that it wouldn't have been a 4 hour recital!

So far, both Girls are enjoying it, and I'm hoping that I can teach at least one of them soon to play. I'm not sure if Sofy would ever understand how to play, but I think Bella would!

Princess Bella

I wanted to write this down so I don't forget it, it was just too cute!

A conversation with Bella and I:

Bella: "Hi Mommy, can I tell you a story?"
Me: "Sure, I'd love to have you tell me a story."
Bella: "Ok!" "once upon a time there lived a pretty princess. Her name was Me!".
Me: "Wow, Bella. You are the princess in the story?"
Bella: "Yes! I want to be Cinderella when I grow up!"
Me: "That would be fun!
Bella: "Oh, yes, Mommy! I really really really want to be Cinderella!"

I just thought that was so cute. Another funny thing was when I was getting her ready for church, I found her Cinderella shoes for her to wear. They are light blue and clear, and light up when she walks, and so pretty. They are REAL Cinderella slippers. I was putting them on her and I was having a hard time getting them to fit, and I didn't realize that she's almost outgrown them now. and I say to her, "Wow, Bella you're one Cinderella's step-sisters trying to fit into her slipper." and she says to me, "Oh no Mom, I AM Cinderella." and she proceeded make them fit and sure enough she got them on. Not sure how tight they must have been on her, but she got to wear them for church at least for one more day!!

Sofy's Tooth!

I heard Sofy up this morning, and took one look at her and found she had a hole in her gums. Sofy's lost another tooth!!!!
What's so funny is that the tooth next to it (The top front left one) has been loose for several weeks, if not a couple of months. Sofy just doesn't get what most kids do when they have a loose tooth, most wiggle it around until it comes out, which usually only takes a few days or weeks for the it to come out. But with Sofy, it's SLOOOOWLY coming out and even still not ready. It's quite attached to the gums. So, I was surprised to see the tooth next to it to come out first, and it didn't even seem loose!!

Oh, and I searched around her bed and couldn't find the tooth anywhere. When she went to bed, the tooth inside her gums, and she woke up with it gone, so my guess is that she lost it during the night in he sleep and she probably not even realized she swallowed it!

So, Sofy will get a visit from the Tooth Fairy tonight!!! Growing up, we would get a $1 bill and a pack of gum. But since she doesn't chew gum or care about money yet, she'll be getting a "Super Size" bag of M&M's, her favorite candy!!! It's the next size bag up from the normal size, and they cost only cost a Buck!!

I know it's been several weeks since I've updated my blog, but I just kind of let it slide for a while and thought I would share what's been going on lately!

The kids ended another great school year. Alex did well on his testing and got excellent grades! Social and other issues arose and in May, the school disctrict and I came to undertand that Orenco is not the right school for him, and in September he will start to go to Quatama Elementry. It's a smaller school geared toward Special Education and for children at his grade level that have social and behavior issues. I'm hoping and praying that he will take the transition of a new school well. His teachers, the Autism Specialist, and I feel that it will be the best place for him!
Sofy had an awesome year of 1st grade! Somewhere around December, she was integrated with the regular 1st grade class for her reading, math, and writing. She also was in a modified PE and the teacher said that her motor skills are improving so well! She didn't realize that she was a slow walker, and she said that it makes sense that she still has difficulty with kicking and running, but has made improvements all around! Her Autism teacher just loves her and she said that she is amazed at her progress and how much she has improved. I am so grateful that she is doing well. Since her diagnosis at age 3, that is what my worries were about, about her to be educated and to understand it, and I have been in awe at her writing, reading, and math abilities! It's awesome!
Bella ended her preschool life and had so much fun being in Preschool! The teachers and bus drivers just loved her and it's great f0r me to have a child that LOVES school, is interactive in her classroom and with her peers! On May 19, Bella had her little graduation.

The end of May, Boni and Lexi, Mom, Grandmama, and Annie went to Disneyland and brought the girls along with them! Every day, Sofy would ask if would go EVERY DAY, and I am so grateful to them for taking them! It was a magicial 3 days for both of them, but most of all for Sofy. Sofy loves the classic characters and her favorite are Mickey and would hug him as if she was meeting her idol for the first time. In her own little world in her mind, these characters are real to her and she just loves them! It was awesome to hear (And to see the nearly 300 pictures taken) of how she would run up and hug them all! She NEVER hugs anyone, even me and I'm her Mom, and here she would be so affectionate to them!
Bella loves Disneyland and her favorite character is Cinderella! She loves all the princesses too and it was magicial to see her meet those beautiful women!

Here's a few pics of their trip! I have ALOT more on my Facebook page, but thought I would share my favorites!




Bella and Grandmama

Bella and Sleeping Beauty. Her favorite, Cinderella had

to leave just before they got up to the princesses, but Bella

was ok with it, she was told that she was late to see her

Prince and they were to have a Tea Party.

Bella and huge stuffed Pooh Bear

Bella and the Classic Mickey Mouse.

This one you meet at his house at Toontown!

Sofya and her favorite, Mickey Mouse.

Sofya, Lexi, and Bella, doing their cute posing!

My Favorite from their entire trip!

This picture is priceless and I love how

she is hugging him so tight!

Bella and Sofy meeting Minnie

The kids are having a great Summer so far. We've been able to sleep in, relax in the mornings, and not having really very much planned for the day. It's been nice! We've seen a few movies, I've taken them to the park, and just yesterday I took them all out for McDonalds for Lunch and for them to play in an indoor playplace! It's been a cooler Summer and even rained alot in June, but now on July 7th, it's suppose to get to 95* and could break a record for warmest day! I got about 2 or so weeks ago one of those little 6ft. kiddie pools and Bella's been having alot of fun playing around in it and will be nice to use it today to cool off!!

Our 4-Day Weekend!!

Last week, the kids last day of school for the week was Wednesday because of parent/teacher conferences. It was nice having a couple of extra days off!! It was also gorgeous and in the low 70's and so nice and warm out during the Spring time!!

On Thursday morning, Sofy had her IFSP meeting and it went well enough, even though I had to bring the 3 kids with me to it. The girls were great, Alex got kind of bored and when he does he gets to bugging Bella. Luckily, the meeting didn't have to last long.
Sofy's teacher said that she is doing SO well, and we're both amazed at her phenomonal progress this year. She's spends her day with the mainstream 1st grade class, and has the SC (Social Communications Classroom, fancy name for Autism room), as basically her home room. She has grown so much this year, and I'm so amazed at her progess with the academics. She's reading, writing, spelling, and doing fantastic in math. She also has music and is in a modified PE. That teacher didn't realize that Sofy was a late walker until the meeting. She works on Sofy's kicking, throwing a ball, both under and over-hand, running, jumping, and all the other physical movements.
Because Sofy has been in the mainstream class, she's qualified for summer school this year!! Last year, she was the only student from the SC class to NOT qualify for it. They need to show either a slow growh, or a regression, to qualify for it, and this year they went based on the normal 1st grade curriculem.

After the meeting, the kids and I found a park near our house so that they can play, and I brought some sack lunches to eat for a fun picnic outside. They played for about 30 minutes, but it was already getting pretty warm, and the play equiment was kind of hot already. So we thought we would go to a nearby pond and feed some ducks with about 1/2 a bag of hamburger buns that had gone stale. The kids had fun, and there were some new ducklings with the Mama that LOVED the bread!! Bella LOVED feeing the babies.
Afterwards, we were just driving home when I noticed a huge rock on the road next under the sidewalk and I thought, "Is that a turtle?" So, I stopped, and had Alex get out and check it and he came back excited and said "Yeah, it's a turtle!" It was very dirty and probably came from the pond, but I've never seen a wild turtle out from a pond before, only those as pets. We saw a guy walking by and I asked him if he thought it was ok (I thought it had wandered pretty far from the pond), and he offered to take it back and away from the road.
We went home after that and Bella still had preschool about an hour later.

On Friday, we spent it as a great free day off, and I spent it cleaning the house, made cookies with the kids, and felt great to just relax all day!!

Jason has been the past several weeks working on helping to restore a PT boat, so he was doing that both Thursday and Friday. The boat is set to be shown during the Rose Festival in a couple of weeks and he's been having so much fun, and in his element working with historical ships. If he wasn't type 1 diabetic, he would have been in the navy so quick!! But, because of that, he could never serve in the military. I think I'm actually kind of relieved to not have to be a navy wife!

On Saturday, we knew we wanted to spend the day together outside (It was still in the 70's that day), so we thought we would go to the beach. We usually go to Cannon Beach or Newport, but we thought we would go to Tillamook that day. In all honesty, I WAS the one that wanted to go, I was having a need for some good ice cream! Hahaha.
So, we drove to Tillamook, which I realized we're only an hour away. It has been a while since we've drove out that way, and it's nice to know that we're just as close to the beach than we were when were in Eugene and only an hour to Florence.

On the way out, we went through the Taco Bell drive-thru and we ate our lunch as we drove out. We drove a few minutes outside of Tillamook and got into Oceanside and found a nice, more secluded beach access. It had a small vacation condo rental area and so it was quite calm. We found though that the coast wasn't nearly as warm as it was back in town. It was very windy, but the sand was nice and warm, so as long as we kept our coats on, we were great!
We were at the beach for about 2 hours, and Jason (Who goes off the two dogs while I stay back with the kids), came back soaking wet. Apparently, he was throwing a stick to Boudreaux (The 6 month old puppy), and he went into the ocean to get it, and didn't quite come back up. Jason saw his little head barely up on top and he went in to save him, and Rocky (our almost 7 year old one), saw him struggling and also went into "Help". Jason got both the dogs back, but was soaked!! So, we figured it was time to end our day. As we were leaving, the girls found a cute play structure that was probably build for the condo rentals that had a couple of swings, slide, and they also had a pirate flag, a plastic cannon, and telescope. So we let the girls play for a few minutes and rounded Alex and our stuff up.
We then went to a Fred Meyer for Jason to get some clean, dried clothes. We then made it over to the cheese factory. Bella loved it, and Sofy was actually quite into looking down in the production room. We made it back downstairs to the tasting area and there was quite a line and Sofy got so antsy to get to her cheese! After we tasted them all, we met up with Jason and Alex who got some cheese to buy, including Sofy's Tillamoos! She LOVES cheese. It's probably her favorite food!
We then waited in the VERY LONG LINE for the ice cream. Jason got a malt, I got my favorite flavor of all, Wild Mountain Blackberry, Alex got a wafer bowl with chocolate and nuts coating around the top with his favorite cookie dough, Sofy got chocolate, and bella got Black Cherry! We enjoyed our ice cream and decided it was time to head back home.
Just as were getting back in the car, Jason got a call from his Dad to see if he could help move a couch in the house. Their house in December got flooded when a two pipes burst during a big freeze we had in Portland. They had been in renovations since, and when we got over there, we found that their new wood floor was all put in the living room, the walls painted in a pretty green and beige colors, and looked so great! The kid wanted to play at the Pirate Park and so I went with them and they got to play for another 30 or minutes. We visited a bit more with his folks and we were all so tired and left. It was about 8:30 by this time. We got some McDonalds for dinner (Too late and tired to have me make something!) and ended our day with Kids getting baths and going to Bed!!!! We had a fun weekend and it was WONDERFUL being able to sleep in (Even Sofy slept in until about 8:30, which is pretty late for her in the morning. She can be up at 6:30, even on our days off!), spend time with the kids outside, and be together as a family!!

Bella had her Pre-Kindergarten appointment with her pediatrician, for her 5 year check-up, and to also get caught up on the shots that would be required for her to go in the Fall.

She was measured for her height and weight. She is now 41 3/4 inches tall and weighs 38.8 pounds! They also tested her eyesight with a kid version of an eye test and they said her eyes are normal and also checked her hearing and is perfect!

The doctor came in and checked the rest of her and said that she is super healthy! Bella did great and followed all of their requests for her exam.
Then the time came for the nurse to give her the shots. She had to have 4 today!! I didn't know how many she would be needing, but I did prepare her that she would needed them. She kind of fought the nurse and I and I really had to hold her down, but once they were done, she was fine. She chose a sticker and a pencil for her reward and was eager to leave!

When we got to the van, I told her that since she was such a good girl, she could pick somewhere for her and I for lunch. She chose Costco! She loves their churros, and I love it that since I only had $4's on me, that it would be perfect to go there. I got the hot dog w/drink, and she got her churro. After we had ordered and got our food, there wasn't anywhere for us to sit, so we went out to the car to eat our lunch. We then went back in and got their swirl frozen yogurt for dessert! It was a perfect way for her to cheer back up and she's doing great now.

It's kind of funny though, because she thinks that she was going to go to Kindergarten today, but she does't quite get that she has until September for her to go! She's so ready to go and will have so much fun and will love it!!

Daddy/Daughter-Papa/Granddaughter Date

On Friday, Alex, Bella, and I picked up Sofya from school and headed over to my folks to spend Easter weekend with them. We had some yummy Pizza Hut pizza for dinner and during the evening, my Dad saw an Ad on tv for McGrath's and they are having their Shrimp Fest right now.

So, he said that he was taking Bella and I on a date with him for Bella to get some Shrimp!! Bella is a little shark when it comes to food! She's my one child who loves shellfish! Shrimp is her favorite food, and she also loves crab, lobster, and clams! She can be kind of obsessed with it times. Last weekend, Annie, the girls, and I went with my Dad to Safeway for some grocery shopping and at the fresh seafood section of the store, they have a big picture of shrimp on the wall and she saw it from way back in the isle!

On Saturday, my Mom and Dad had errands to run, and when they returned around noon, Bella and I were ready for our Papa/Granddaughter date! As we were leaving, Sofy started to get upset because she wanted to go too and he couldn't say no to her, so she came along too.

We had a fun lunch out for our date. The girls loved the pond next to the restaurant and would talk about what animals they would see as they were watching them. Dad and I got the shrimp Trio special, which was wood-fired skewers, shrimp pasta, and coconut shrimp! I got a salad with mind, and my Dad got the chowder, which he gave to Sofy and she ate it up! She loves soup!! We also got her the kids quesadilla, and Bella got her Popcorn Shrimp!! The kids meals were huge, and I tasted some of Bella's and the popcorn shrimp was really good. It was lightly battered, so the shrimp was nice and whole and had a better flavor than most.

After our meal, we went to a couple of grocery stores and got things that we needed for Easter dinner.

Growing up, we would have these fun times with just ourselves and my Dad and we loved it. For Annie and I, he was our first real date when we turned 16!! For mine, we went to Chang's for dinner (My favorite place in the world!) and we saw Mr. Holland's Opus, which at the time was exciting because it was filmed in Portland and it even had a few people in our ward in it!! My good friend, Dawn, is in the front section during the dramatic climax of the end of the film and the song that Mr. Holland directed. There is also our friends' daughter, Jenna, who is singled out in the audience when the character plays the music at the School for the Deaf.

Annie said that they went to out to eat (Can't remember now which place) and bowling.

Thank you Dad and Papa for the fun date with a couple of the girls in your life. We love you and are so grateful for all you do for us and for always being there. Thank you for being a fun and loving Papa to my kids!