Class of 2000, and Moving (up?)

Last weekend was my ten year high school reunion in Sierra Vista. There were three "events," and my favorite one was the formal-ish dinner on Saturday night. Even a picture of myself from my senior year pinned to my dress didn't ruin the evening. The food was forgettable but the company was great. Rus and I shared a table with Amy Quinn (Kovacs) and her husband Jake, Sarah Kehl (Little) and her hubby Adam, and Lindsey Blau. After dinner was a trivia game with each table acting as a team, and questions like "What was our senior float?" We lost, naturally, and realized quickly that none of us were ever that involved/peppy. But it was still fun and we shared a lot of laughs.My two other favorites of the weekend were ONE: meeting up with Sarah and Amy from cross country and walking our old cross country course. "Walking" is key. Amy could have run it, and I would have liked to but my toes are currently sidelined. Sarah didn't mind at all. :) Here we are after our walk looking super cute, Sarah and I in our shirts from high school, with Amy's girls.And TWO: Tyler and his girlfriend Gina came down for the weekend, too, and put on a delicious pancake breakfast for anyone who was able to come. Amy, Jake, Sarah, Adam, Lindsey, and April Uhlig were there. It was a really fun morning with delicious food, and we all enjoyed pouring over the yearbook and remembering who was who.
Oooh and this reminds me of my other favorite part of the weekend...When Lindsey and April showed up on Friday they came over for lunch and after talking for a while we realized that each of them had brought three different outfits for Saturday night...so FASHION SHOW! It was really fun...Lindsey even made out with some super cute heels that my mom had that matched her outfits perfectly. She has sexy ankles, you know.
Saturday night felt like prom, getting dressed up, doing hair, posing for dorky pictures:It was a really fun weekend and I am happy I went, although there were so many people missing that I would have loved to see. Really. If you weren't there, you're one of them.

And now the other part of this post...
We are moving up to Albuquerque. We're listing our house in the next week and when it sells we will be buying Rus's Grandma's home (Grams-the one who passed away a few months ago) from Rus's parents. It is the same square footage but a one story; it's 36 years old and in need of a lot of remodeling, which I am very excited about. It will be a wonderful adventure but I will really really miss Los Lunas and all of my friends here. Who I will bribe to come see me every week, naturally.

Bekah the Great Six Year Old

Six years ago today I was at church, large, uncomfortable, overdue...angry at anyone with a smart remark about how I hadn't popped yet. Six years ago today was my last day as just an ordinary wife and just-graduated college student and Lumbermen's employee.
Six years ago I didn't have Bekah. Yet. I didn't know anything about butterfly kisses at bedtime and snuggles every morning and long conversations about nothing.
Now I have this lovely little lady to spend my days with. She is a sunshine (with intermittent clouds)...she is smart and fun and energetic and funny and imaginative, thoughtful and passionate about things like not closing her door and not getting her hair brushed.
Bekah's favorite color is purple...and pink. She loves to swim with a kickboard, play with her brother Jacob, play games on the computer, listen to music, "play ball with Beau's ball," (she says), talk on the phone, hug me, have "girl time" without any boys around, chew gum and blow bubbles (a newly acquired skill), go shopping, plan things, write lists, sing, smell flowers, and more. She will be your friend in an instant and brighten your whole day.
Here she is getting a present from Grandma Cutesy Cutesy:"Oh no! It's just a box?""Okay, I guess I'll open this card...apparently my only gift...""A Walmart card?""TWENTY DOLLARS!""Time to dance!!"

Hahaha! LOVE this girl!! Happy Birthday Beautiful!

Happy Fourth and Beau's Birthday...and a week with my sisters

I would like to begin by assuring you that if you ever break your toes, the proper thing to do is just sit on a couch with your foot raised 18" above your head and eat bon bons all day. This will lead to a smooth, speedy recovery.
If you would like a more adventurous recovery, be sure to invite your sisters in to town. Last Sunday I went to bed crying, wondering how I would ever keep up with my kids, but more importantly, how would I keep up with my sisters and my mom on our Christmas in July week that we had been planning forever?! So my first item of business Monday morning was to get to an orthopedic doctor so I could get a little more help for my foot. Heavenly Father was really watching out for me (despite my tearful griping), and I was able to get an appointment that morning. (AMAZING!) So my mom drove me and the kids, and Amy and her kids followed behind, and we all filed into the elevator, and we all terrorized the waiting room, and we all rushed up to the window when they called my name. I could have kissed the doctor when he presented me with a snappy new boot - half velcro, half steel, that eliminated my need for crutches. (he confirmed two broken toes...I'm still kicking myself for not asking about torn ligaments, especially now that I find I can't bend my toes...does anyone else find that disturbing?).
After being mobilized like that we couldn't just go home, so we all drove over and stormed a free lunch at a park in Abq (they do them all summer at many of the parks in Abq and Los Lunas; the lady at this park had to know if we'd be back the next day since we "stole" lunch from her "regulars"); we went to Hobby Lobby; we crafted...and then throughout the rest of the week we went swimming, went the the balloon museum for their free story time (really fun), (Sarah came along, she's so brave and fun! Here she is with Amy's Sarah)(Luke, Preston, Joshua)went to a dollar movie, made a welcome sign, made a cute 2x4 4th of July flag (found here), made a wooden Christmas tree countdown sign, made dress up skirts for the girls, (Sarah, Madison, Bekah...how fun is it that we each have a girl!) made and enjoyed blueberry pie (my new favorite), made purses, went to Hobby Lobby again, enjoyed Chik-fil-a, fell in love with banana pancakes (a healthy version)...
We were busy and we had FUN! (and I am now recovering) My sisters and my mom are so amazing!
Jakey loved Amanda and would do just about anything for her.Amanda and Amy both had to get back home for the Fourth, so Rus and I got to have my parents all to ourselves. We invited Rus's parents down, too, and did our regular dinner-and-fireworks-in-the-cul-de-sac routine. Here is Bekah with my sorry version of Make-It-And-Love-It's Flag cake...I ran out of frosting and so the outside was naked. Rus announced at the beginning of the night that we'd know how much fun he had by how many fingers he burned. The only one he burned was Beau's, and I don't think that counts. But we did have a lot of fun. Beau was really fun to watch stomping on the poppers; Bekah loved the sparklers; Jacob saw his life flash before his eyes when a rogue firecracker headed his way and spent the rest of the night sitting very close to Grandma Payne. Rus and I played around with the camera and got some fun shots with the sparklers.And now to shift gears, today is Beau's birthday! My little man is TWO! We went to the aquarium and botanic gardens today to celebrate. Jacob was mad because he wanted to be in the middle. Bekah and Jacob were both so good to hold Beau's hand.My pretty girl, picture by Jacob.Here are some of my favorite things about Beau:
He calls Rus "Rus", and not daddy. We don't know why, but I love it.
He will run get anything that you ask him to get. Even if it is upstairs. This guy understands everything. If you tell him his shoes are upstairs in his room, he will go get them.
Beau loves his shoes. He puts them on first thing in the morning, and until recently, never took them off, even for naps. He still wears his magic shoes (brace) at nights; we think that has something to do with his obsession.
Beau is a great hugger/snuggler.
Beau can brighten any day. He is really a sunshine, just about bursting with fun and happiness, with just enough rascal in him to make things really interesting.
Beau talks alot. Not all of it is intelligible, but he knows what he's saying.
Beau cusses people out (generally Jacob or Bekah). It's just jibberish, but it's hilarious.
Beau is a bully. This is not something that I actually love about Beau, but it is a definite part of his personality, a trait that I hope will turn into something useful and admirable.
Beau runs with his arms way up by his chest. It is super cute. Come visit; just to see that it's worth it.
Beau thinks he's just as big as the other kids. He expects to be treated just like one, too.
He says "cheese" when it's time for a picture...and gives you this wonderful cheesy smile:Happy Birthday Beau! I love you!

Purple Toes

This past weekend Rus and I had a few days to ourselves...my mom supplied as the babysitter, two motorcycles for entertainment, an astro van loaded with a mattress, food, and gear, (no maps - whoops, Rus), and a vague idea of where we were going and what we were doing. Rus loves to be "fluid." Meaning flexible. He'd just say that, but he's an engineer and unwilling to dumb things down for the rest of us some times.
Thursday we said goodbye, headed south, had lunch at a great little place in Magdalena, took some pictures of windmills on the way down (Rus has a sort of obsession), on a road Rus had never been on before (that never happens),and stopped at Monticello box canyon with plans to ride our motorcycles there. But the sky looked like this, and the canyon is full of this, so we thought it smarter to save that for another day.

We headed south and west and finally pulled over on the side of the road just past Poverty Creek at a dirt road that looked fun so we could enjoy the bikes. We rode about eight miles in until we ran into a barbed wire fence and had to turn around. We had gone only about a mile when I rounded a corner, realized I was going too fast, panicked, locked the front brakes, and got a close up view of the ground rushing past my helmet. I felt my toes get crunched and the first thing I had Rus do after he turned off my bike was take off my already half-off boot. (Fashion Born boot, not a motorcycle boot...good lookin,' not so tough.) Then he took off my sock to reveal crinkle cut toes - all my little toes just looked smooshed, almost like a bike had fallen and smooshed them into the ground...wait...(here they are, three days later)

He made me put my boot back on so it wouldn't swell too much and not fit anymore. Then he had me show him my arm were a nasty bruise currently resides, but besides that I was fine. Well I was in maybe a teeny bit of shock, nauseous and shaky and about to cry but trying to not look like a wimp. Rus wanted me to get back on the bike and finish out the seven mile to the van, and while the Rambo Keri wanted to be accommodating, the Broken Keri was a wimp and rode out on the back of Rus's bike, leaving my bike off to the side of the road, alone. When we got back to the van (alive!) Rus wanted to go back right away and get the other bike. Rambo Keri would've said yes, but Broken Keri crawled into the back of the van (yay for the mattress!), and cried while Rus secured his bike.
It took us two hours to get to Truth or Consequences to the ER, (we saw a beautiful rainbow!)and in that time Rus almost lost his bike when a strap snapped in the rain, going 50mph. Somehow his bike stayed on the trailer and just got a nice dent in the gas tank (which he has wanted to replace anyway...are you keeping up with his new toy list? Boots, check. Bigger, better gas tank, check.)
Anywho, to make a long story short, we made friends at the ER who told me that my two little toes were broken, my next toe was okay, the next toe was "probably" dislocated, and "maybe" there was a fracture in my big toe. I don't know where they got that guy but he was gooood. I left with crutches, a funky bottom cast/ace bandage doohookey, and vicatin. The nice guy that Rus is put me up in a hotel that night. A second floor hotel room. In a hotel without an elevator. Not complaining here. Just stating the facts. I proved to Rus that I was really in pain by not sleeping well that night, despite my regular intake of vicatin.
Okay I want to insert here that day two of our trip might sound a little one sided. And it is. This is my blog, right? (And of course there was a day two, we had a sitter at home! No way we could cut this thing short!) On day two we headed back the two hours to get my bike back. I spent this time alternately trying to keep my foot elevated, my stomach down, and my head from snoozing. I found I did not like vicatin at all. I was happy to stop and let Rus out to fetch my bike just so I could crawl in the back and take a nap. I kinda wished he had taken longer, actually. Our awesome astro van made it in far enough on that wonderfully rutted-bumpy-muddy road that Rus only had to hike a mile to get the bike. The Lord held off quite a thunder storm until he got everything tied down and secured, and then we headed back out to the main road.
Then we drove.
And drove.
For Five. More. Hours.
On dirt roads.
Bumpy roads.
Windy roads.
Do you know how hard it is to keep your foot elevated in the front of an astro van? Mine hung out the window most of the day, except for when my butt got too numb. I even had to apply sunblock to my toes. Here I am taking a break and showing off my bruise.The scenery was absolutely beautiful. We were on a road that bordered the Gila Valley Wilderness area on one side and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness area on the other. We passed Wall Lake (more like Wall-Large-Pond). It was breathtaking. And super remote. We passed two cars the entire time. And it was totally fine that there was no place to eat lunch because I was nauseous anyways! (silver lining, right?)
Needless to say, when we got to Silver City we went no further. And the next day, after a wonderful day with Lloyd and Carolyn in Lordsburg (a.k.a. the convalescent home: Carolyn was recovering from gall bladder surgery, Lloyd has a broken wrist in a cast, and then there was me with my gimp foot), we headed back up to Los Lunas. Via the freeway. Rus hated it, it was such a smooth, boring ride.
The best thing about this whole "vacation" was Rus. He really is my best friend, and as much as I have teased him and despite breaking my toes, I really did have fun with him this weekend.
Plus now I have this awesome story. :)

How to Sell Lemonade

This past weekend the kids and I helped Rus's parents have a two day garage sale for all of Grams' stuff.
Lots of stuff!
Four tables, fully loaded, with boxes underneath, with more boxes in the corners of the garage, with an additional nine totes of quilting fabric, with at least a dozen boxes of books perched on the trailer nearby.
So. Much. Stuff. It was a quilter's paradise and some ladies came by both days, filling their husbands arms while emptying their pockets.
I knew the kids would need something to do so we built a lemonade stand. We made brownies and white chocolate popcorn, and we mixed some mean lemonade.
The first day of selling, Bekah and Jacob made a joint income of $16.00. They were both SO excited and were immediately planning what to buy with their loot.
The first thing I heard Saturday morning from Bekah was,

"So Mom, the cuter I am the more lemonade I sell, right? Can you help me pick out my clothes? And do my hair?"

I was having an internal fit of laughter and astonishment at this point. Who knew my little girl could be so bright? And calculating?
I did her up cute as could be and we went off to Day 2 of the garage sale. She started approaching people, giving them lemonade, and asking for a quarter, and that's when Rus's dad took her aside, bought out her stand, and encouraged her to just give the lemonade away, free of charge. Well that took the wind right out of her...she pocketed the money and went inside to watch cartoons!
I am not sure at all that she learned the honest old-fashioned value of work this weekend.
Anyways, the garage sale went great and things flew off the tables, especially when prices were drastically reduced from $1 to $.50 to $.25 for a pillowcase full. In the end we only had a trailer three-quarters full of boxes that was hauled off to Goodwill. We did pretty dang good, I thought!
In other news, the kids just finished up with 2 weeks worth of swimming lessons. Bekah loved it, always one to be a teacher-pleaser, while Jacob...um...not so much. The first week was not great, he cried everyday because he was cold. (Flashbacks to tball...ugg). Then I bribed him with goggles and all was well. It really helped that his teacher was a girl and he is such a ladies man. The last day he got sunblock in his eyes and pretty much hated everyone and everything again, except for the eye doctor, who he said we had to go see, right away.
And here are some random pictures...Please forgive me for not having any pictures of the lemonade stand or swimming lessons! I have a cute picture of my SIL DeAnn with a really, really cute purse we made while she was visiting, but I can't figure out how to convert it from a raw image to a jpeg, so you're outta luck for awhile. (My purse is almost done, too, DeAnn! Yay!)
Jacob in the awesome, slightly girly shirt I made him from one of my old shirts. The neckline needs some help...and so do the sleeves. It might get lost in the laundry for a week. Or two.A dog will wreck your yard. Here is proof:Bekah was given this dress at least three years ago, and yesterday she wore it to church because it finally fit her. She looked super cute, even with her gummy smile.

Natasha Rides

Last Saturday Rus and I hired a sitter and met up with the local motorcycle gang.
The over forty gang. (Rus and I brought down the average significantly).
Riding dual sports (mostly).
Organized by Rus's dad via adventure rider dot com.
We rode up to Lamy, NM, which is just southeast of Santa Fe, where Rus's mom and friends had lunch ready. Then we saw the Lamy train station and made the loop back around through Stanley and Edgewood to Cedar Crest, where our Astro van was parked. Rus says, "What's more manly that a minivan? TWO minivans! And loading two motorcycles in one of them!" It's true...we had both bikes in there, easy as pie, and we felt pretty cool about it too.
It was really, really fun and hot and pretty much exhausting. Who knew?!
I actually rode on roads with traffic and everything. I swear using my blinker has been the most difficult skill to master on that bike. My favorite part of the ride was a winding dirt road with lots of cattle guards. When my butt got numb I just stood up on the bike and welcomed the breeze. :)
Did I mention my bike tops out at 55 mph, 60 if I push it? And look at me..."my" bike...I've already grown attached. It's actually Rus's seventy+year-old uncle's bike. We were admittedly kinda happy to hear that he broke his hand punching a dog who was chewing on his dog's ear...now we can keep the bike a little longer. (Sorry, Uncle Lloyd about your hand!)
Anywho...here are some pictures as proof...Don't Rus and I look hot? No really. It was close to 100 degrees. I'm sporting Rus's mom's motorcycle jacket. She doesn't ride, but Roger is slowly getting her into the sport, fashion first. Want some interesting trivia on this picture (below)? The guy behind me in the blue only has one eye. He got a little out of control going around a corner right after a cattle guard, slowed down significantly, and just barely missed getting hit by the chic behind him in the red. She was not so lucky, however, and dumped her bike to avoid hitting him. I missed seeing all of this, darnit, as they were behind me, but everyone was okay, just some scrapes and no permanent damage.
In case you are curious, we are still working on our themes...last week was transportation and we went to the ABQ balloon museum where they have free storytime (and thus free entrance) every Wednesday morning at 9:30. The kids had fun; I was kind of a grump...something about them running off every two minutes. We also made box-cars one day...that was pretty much it. This week is sports and we have started swim lessons and we're planning a big family baseball game. We're going to learn about bones and muscles and we're going to try different exercise videos. Should be lotsa fun...

Memorial Day in Flagstaff

twisted pinon and juniper trees on red mountain

Last weekend we headed west to Flagstaff. Two parents and four children, if you count Colonel the dog as a kid. Don't. That's dumb, and totally not true. He might be as much work as our other kids, but you can't put them outside when they're bad, darnit.
We got to Flagstaff Thursday night, in time to enjoy the stars and put our kids to bed in Clay and GrandMary's downstairs room. We then got to chat with Clay and Mary while admiring Clay's matted spot on the carpet where he falls asleep in front of the TV every night.
I love Clay and Mary!
On Friday we hung out with Amy's kids, fixed them crepes, introduced Colonel to Luke's tshirt, welcomed Tyler and Gina when they arrived, talked about food, made food, ate food, talked some more, welcomed my Mom and Dad, and took the kids to the climbing wall at the aquaplex, saw Amy every three hours, and went home exhausted.
We decided to be more productive on Saturday.
We went garage sailing (I can spell it like that if I want to), went on a hike to Red Mountain, ditched the kids with a bewildered teenager so we could go eat lunch at Salsa Brava, went thrift store shopping, skipped dinner, decorated for a fiesta, ate Tyler's three layer Banana cake that was for Gina's birthday, ate smores with Grandpa, went back to Clay and Mary's, gave our kids a three minute bath because they were both screaming bloody murder for some reason (Bekah stayed with Sarah the whole time, lucky girl!), put them in bed, talked with Clay and Mary, and went to bed.
Phew.
On Sunday I was determined to not miss Tyler's pancakes like I had the day before. Buttermilk pancakes with sliced bananas, brown sugar and butter that all turned caramely on the skillet. Oh my yum. Tyler totally has a thing going with bananas...a good thing. We dawdled around until church startedat one (passing time by going to the park and rescuing Luke and his shirt again from Colonel). You know how it is just so fun to have grumpy tired kids, and then dress them up in their finest clothes (whilst crying) and then take them to church! Yay! It actually wasn't too bad, especially after the kids found that Grandpa's pockets were loaded with m&ms and Beau napped through one of the talks. My kids even went to their classes, all of them! All kids in all classes! (That means Beau went to nursery. Be excited for me.)
Sunday night Amy and Mike outdid themselves by grilling us some yumma chicken, boilin' some 16cent corn on the cob, making vanilla custard ice cream, and making a fresh blueberry pie. Eating is essential, so make it good. Right? That is totally my family's motto. And Chick-fil-a's.
We went to bed that night exhausted and full.
On Monday I stretched Rus to the full extent of his manly limits by taking him to Savers (the thrift store...notice a trend?) for its mega half off sale. Sixteen bucks can buy you a lot, but don't be surprised if your hubby winds up in the van with all the kids half way through and demands a Dr. Pepper after that. We made it back to Amy's in time to load up tons of goodies, say bye to Tyler and Gina, load up Colonel, and head out to Lake Mary for some water fun and hot dogs. Really our purpose was to completely exhaust our kids and Colonel for the drive home.
It worked...too well actually, I was tired too and it has taken me days to recover from the entire weekend. But it was completely memorable and fun and I LOVE my family!