Recent Superhero Sightings

Batman was spotted in my kitchen the other evening…..
Yesterday I saw Superman in my bathroom!
Watch out folks you may see one in your home someday soon!

Family Fun Night

*oops...forgot to finish posting yesterday...*

Last night we took the kids out bowling...at least that's what we were going to do. We got to the bowling ally and were told it was double league night so they had no open lanes...bummer.

So the kids decided they wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese instead.

They had fun. We watched them have fun. Ate our fill of pizza and people watched.

A food for every letter

This morning I helped in Lucy's class room like I do every Thursday morning. At my table, we made pages for a book. The book is a food for every letter. So each kid picked a letter from the alphabet, then they had to think of a food that's name started with that letter. Sounds easy right? HAHAHA
Some are obvious, A apple, F fish, E egg....but then there were others that are not so easy....Y....Yoohoo! V....Velveeta! K...Kixs! Z...Zucchini! Any way, we were able to think of something for each kid. Fortunately there are 24 kids and 26 letters! We ended up with U and X left. I thought of Ugly Fruit for U, I drew a picture, not sure if its right, but still. So that leaves poor X....I could not think of anything. When I got home I looked in my dictionary, still cant really find a food that starts with x. Here are a few I did find that are edible....
Xylose-a white crystalline sugar used in dyeing and tanning and in diabetic diets.
Xanthan gum- a natural gum produced by culture fermentation of glucose and used as a stabilizer in commercial food preparation.
So if anyone knows of a X food please let me know!

Newport, Newport its a heck of a town....

We took advantage of the long weekend and went camping. Not tent camping, we gave that up years ago! In an Arctic Fox camper made for all kinds of weather. And we do use it in all weather!

We got really lucky this weekend though, it is never....NEVER! nice at the coast. We lived there for years, I know this, NEVER nice! But this weekend for what ever reason the weather was amazing! It was clear sky's, and warm! No wind until Monday. Great!

When we left our house on Saturday morning it was 32, when we got to the beach around 1pm it was in the high 60s!

We got a great site right next to the kids play area and set up camp. Then off to the water front of Old Newport. We wondered the streets and then toured the famous Ripley's Believe it or Not! It was cool, kinda spooky, all very dark. The kids were freaked out for part of it. But then they started to relax and have fun. I cant say it is really worth what you pay for it, but it was cool.

Then it was on to check out one of the many docks that cover the downtown parts of Newport. Saw some sea lions napping, some guys crabbing and a bum asked us for a bus ticket. Bought some fresh shrimp and oysters and went back to the campground.

Sunday was another beautiful day, so we went down to the beach for a bit. The kids got to ride their bikes on the beach and boy did they think that was cool. Caymus watched some surfers take on the HUGE swells, cool dude! Then we ran into the little girl the kids had been playing with in the play ground, so they started making sand pies and having a blast.

After lunch and more play in the play ground, we headed out to the OSU Marine Science Museum. This is a very cool place to visit! They have touch tanks, an octopus and lots of other marine displays. The best part is they run off of donations, not charging you a grip. Not that I am always looking for the cheep way to do things....ok I am, but some places just charge you so stinking much it makes it not as fun because all your doing the whole time is thinking "I have to see every single thing here to get my monies worth!"

The kids had been there in November with my parents for Lucy's birthday and all said it was great. That time Lucy got to put her finger in the octopus' tank and let her "taste" her finger. This time they said that poor "MIA" is getting way to aggressive and is trying to pull anyone who gets close enough in to get a better "taste"! So no fingers in the tank this time.

It was an amazing weekend for all, the kids made friends and played a ton, Marshall and I got to hang and watch our kids enjoy life. We had some great family time on the beach, watching movies in the camper, going to the museum's and just being close to eachother!

Modeling

Yesterday my friend Kelly (BeachMama Photography) came over for a little photo shoot. We went out side and she had me pucker and pose, do this and do that...no not really, she is super easy to work with and it was really fun. I really don't mind having my picture taken, like you could not tell from all the self portraits that cover this blog....here are a few of them that she had posted on her blog and some she sent me that I thought were fun.

A new Assignment!

Thanks Megan!


Ok here is the newest Blogging assignment...I will not "give" it to any one, but I do encourage everyone to do it! Peer Pressure!!!


Take pictures of your house right now, do not clean up anything, put anything away or hide anything. Post them! Yep its a fun one!

My Family room, including a part of my family!

The Dining room, kitchen, and family room.

Kitchen looking into the dining room and living room.Living room, finally got all my Christmas stuff put away this weekend! We actually use this room in this house, our last house it never got touched.Another view of the living room, looking into the dining room and front door.Caymus' room.
Lucy's room, neither kid has gotten their jobs done yet for the day. I may have to take another picture later after they get their rooms cleaned up and beds made.
The Master bedroom. Where all the magic happens......lol we call that sleep!

My mom made that quilt for us when we got married. I had picked out a few different fabrics when I was in high school and she then had to work with my crazy color selection. Sorry, but my favorite colors are Red and Black. I love it.

When we bought the house the walls in this room were baby blue, can you just imagine this furniture and bedding in a baby blue room??? Barf!

And there you have it! My house, I did just spend all weekend cleaning it!

Tagged!

I have been tagged by my dear friend Miriah at My life with boys.

Here are the instructions:

1. Go to your documents file.

2. Go to the sixth file.

3. Go to the sixth picture.

4. Blog about it.

5. Tag six friends to do the same.

Sounds easy right? Ha, it has taken me a few days to get up the courage to do this assignment, I am not good at taking on assignments....

I followed the directions and it ended up being a picture of a conference I did not even attend and I have no idea who is in the picture or what they are doing....So I went to the next file and here you have it!

This is at the Coking.com Safety Seminar in Calgary Alberta Canada, September 2007.

The company I work for hosts seminars for people who work in Coker units of oil refineries. And for vendors who supply equipment and services to Coker units. (sounds interesting, huh?)

My job is putting together the event, coordinating with the hotel, catering, audio visual, decorating, shipping and so on. I also work closely with the vendors who come to sponsor and exhibit at the conferences.

This photo was taken at a sponsored dinner and tour put on by DeltaValve, one of our biggest customers. They host a barbecue at their manufacturing plant as well as a tour of their shop. It is of me, Ricky Ford (VP of Sales - DeltaValve) and Michael Gonzales (Marketing Asst - DeltaValve). This is one of my favorite functions to attend, partially because I don't have to plan it, (thanks Michael) and because it is so casual and fun. Great food, drinks, music and heavy machinery!

This photo is also used on our web page at http://www.coking.com/SeminarUSA/Attending.asp

Ok so there you have it! Assignment complete! I am so relieved.

And now for the last part of the assignment, to assign to others!

1: Missy @ The Yarbrough's

2: Gary or Barb @ Beach Bun's

3: Megan @ The Gardener's

4: Danielle @ The Desmond's

5: BJ @ The Suburban Life

6: Kelly @ BeachMama Photography

Neil Diamond

*Caution* Adults having fun!

Last night we went to see Neil Diamond in concert. That's right, I know some of you are so jealous, you closet Neil fans out there. Just wishing you had a 'I *heart* Neil' shirt to wear.
Justin works for Coke-Cola and they have a suite, so we were totally spoiled and got to sit in nice box seats!

We ate dinner at PF Chang's....yummy, love that place! Had adult conversations and got to enjoy my entire meal with out interruption.

The concert was great, he has some good ol' classic songs. It was really fun to watch all the die hard Neil fans! Justin is one of them...

Cathy, Justin, and Marshall

Marshall and Me, it was hard to take a picture in the total dark with my phone.....he really does have 2 eyes, I swear!

Three Kings Day

January 6th is a special day at our house. It is Three Kings Day. Marshall grew up celebrating the holiday and always felt like it was his own special holiday. It is mostly celebrated in Latin communities and in the Caribbean islands. He has passed on this special day with the kids and this year they all really got into decorating their boxes!

Since it is not my special holiday and I am not Puerto Rican, I do not know all the details but this is what I do know....the 6th is 2 weeks after Christmas and that is the day that the Kings arrived to give Jesus his gifts. (Lucy said "so its like Jesus' birthday party") Children decorate shoe boxes and leave them out and when the kings pass by they leave gifts in them. The boxes must have hay, grass or something to for the camels to eat.

I dug out some shoe boxes, they all decorated them, then left a piece of celery, a baby carrot and one skittle (for the kings) in them and put them by the fireplace. And in the morning, there were gifts in the boxes!!! Amazing!

This year when I was in Germany, we toured the Dom Cathedral in Cologne and apparently this is where the three kings remains are kept. I did not know this until we were there staring at the beautiful gold chest that is heavily guarded. Every year on Jan 6th the chest is opened and the bones are counted and they confirm that they really are the remains of the Three Kings. So there you have it folks! Happy Three Kings Day to all!

Roache Family Fun

When I was a kid our family would have "Pitman Family Fun". This was what we called just about everything we did around our property. Doing firewood, planting trees, weeding, building anything, cleaning out the chicken coop, mowing the lawn.....you get the idea. This was not always a fun time for us kids, it was work after all! But these are memories that I do cherish now that I am grown and looking back. We all laugh about some of the funny times we had also. Like every time we would get ready to go out to have "fun", my brother Reid was either "hungry" or had to "use the bathroom". Every single time, I don't think a time went by that he did not have to do either one or both.

But I did learn some good work ethic. I am not afraid to get my hands dirty! And now that we have property of our own, all that good work ethic is coming in to play.

Today we had our first official "Roache Family Fun" day. We had a big mess left over from all the snow and ice over the last few weeks and Marshall got a new chain saw for Christmas, so it was time for the clean up. We cut down branches and trees. The kids picked up all the fire wood and stacked it. They make a great team. It really was a lot more work than we had thought. But we got everything cut up and now we just have to pick up whats left and bring it to our neighbors burn pile.

It really was a satisfying day! Even if neither of us can hardly keep our eyes open!

A day at the Beach

It was a cold windy day on Lummi Island. The men spent some time outside with tractor, Marshall even got to drive it around. Again he is really getting into this farming thing.

The water is normally very calm on the beach there because it is protected by the islands, but it was wild today, it felt like to Oregon coast! We had fun playing, the kids had their "Horses" and Moka went wild.

We picked up some drift wood to take back home with us....ok a lot of drift wood! It will look great at the Roache Ranch.

We headed out first thing this morning. We woke up to several inches of snow....fortunately it was only up in the very northwest part of Washington. The rest of our drive was dry and easy. I can say easy because Marshall did all the driving.