The Last Song

I don't read. At least I used to not read. Several months ago, my mom gave me the book "The Last Song" to read. I put it aside. It made it's way from my kitchen table, to my dryer, to my computer desk. Then when we redid our family room, I moved it out to my new bookshelf. It's been staring at me for 2 months on the shelf. I decided that this was the week I was going to read it. I started it Wednesday night and I just finished it 2 hours ago. I couldn't put it down!

I have a nauseous feeling in my stomach, a pounding headache, and my eyes are swollen. I pretty much bawled my way through the last 1/4 of the book. Maisey was so concerned that I way crying that when Shaun got home tonight he went running to him and said, "Mommy's reading a crying book!"

Yeah, in general, it was a sad book, but it was all too familiar for me.

***If you haven't read the book and you don't want to know what happens, STOP reading now!***

An 18 year-old girl takes care of her failing father who she hadn't treated very kindly in the past few years. This new experience really brought the 2 of them together and changed her life for the better.

HELLO????? That was so me! Although, I was never as bad as Ronnie, I was definitely my parent's worst teenager. But I changed -- The summer I turned 17 and my dad got very sick. I spent my senior year of high school taking care of him. I hardly ever went to school, I spent every minute I could with him.

The intense emotions that Ronnie felt were so real to me. Even some of the same things that she said, I remembered saying! This part of the story was MY story. I was reading MY story. Almost like Nicholas Sparks was inside my mind during the summer of 2003.

The letters, the sun shining at just the right moments, the church leaders, sitting by the hospital bed holding his hand, gently kissing his cheek, and that final trip home to enjoy an intimate, special moment with his family (in my case, Christmas), EVERYTHING! It was all too real! With every paragraph I could picture the same scene with my own dad, my own family.

It was INTENSE! It was POWERFUL!

Not sure if I want to put myself through the movie. I'm pretty sure my eyes have had enough crying for the year!

What's your playlist?

This past weekend, I ran with music for the first time!

Usually, I enjoy my runs for the hour or more each day that I have peace and quiet.

And I don't like the way head phones fit in my ears. They hurt me!

But, I actually liked running to music!

So, I bought my self some new headphones that I think I will like better.

But I don't own an iPod!

I used Shaun's, therefore I listened to Shaun's music.

I might ask him if I can put my own songs on there.

What should I put on there?

What do you rock out to?

Please share!

Thanks!

Weekend Ramblings

This past weekend was jam-packed full. . . AGAIN!!!

Friday night, Shaun and I went out. We enjoyed walking around Bridgeport, eating at P.F. Chang's, eating pear flavored jelly bellies, and shopping sans kids. We did not enjoy the pouring down rain, the really bad accident and the snow we saw on the freeway on our way home. Oh yeah, and not to mention the police stand off we also saw -- guns drawn and all!!! It was a pretty crazy night.
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We woke early Saturday to attend the Keizer Iris Parade. The rain held out on us! Thank Goodness!

Our friends decided last minute to come with us since it wasn't raining! I'm so glad they did! Porter and Maisey had so much fun together. Maisey was really scared of the characters dressed up. There was one guy from Papa Murphy's walking around and Maisey was screaming. Porter said to her, "It's ok Maisey, he's just a pizza. He's not a bad guy!" It was so cute! And he shared all of his candy with her! What a sweet little boy!

These 2 crazies had a great time!

Gage cuddled with Grammy most of the time! He was captivated! I've never seen him sit that still before in his whole 13 months of life!!!

Our favorite "float" in the parade! Go BEAVS!!!

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We headed to the festival after the parade and it still wasn't raining. We decided to have some lunch and let the kids ride a few rides. Well, our luck turned on us mid-lunch when the rain started coming down in sheets! We made the dads go get the cars. We left the festival with one sad little girl who wanted to ride the "BIG ferris wheel".

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Next on our Saturday was a baptism of a ward member! Shaun home teaches his part-member family, and I am his primary teacher. We both felt like we should be there to support him, but some one had to stay home with the kids while they slept. I begrudgingly decided I should go because I felt like he would care more if I was there than if Shaun was. I hadn't shaved my legs in over a week and the weather couldn't make up it's mind so I didn't know what to wear. I had like 10 minutes to get ready and I was just not in a very happy mood!!! I threw on a medium-length skirt (that was WAY too big for me -- Kind of a nice surprise) and my knee-high boots to hide the hairy beasts, and my thick wool coat and headed out the door. Once I got there and saw the smile on this boy's face, my countenance changed! He was so happy to see me and all of the sudden, I was happy to be there! After the baptism ordinance, while the boy and his dad where changing, our ward mission leader shared with us the parable of the bike. And how the Atonement will make up our shortcomings if we give everything we have! I was able to apply this to my life and being a mother. Often times I feel like I fail as a mother, but if I give everything I have to my kids, my Savior and my Heavenly Father will make sure we do not come up short. I NEEDED THIS MESSAGE ON THAT DAY!!! I walked out of that baptism probably getting more out of it than anyone else there (except for the boy, of course)!

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Next task on the jam-packed day -- RUNNING!!! Man, did it feel good! I went just by myself and felt completely energized, like I could run all day! After about 3 miles it started POURING so I ran as fast as I could to the birthday party that I was going to meet Shaun and the kids at!

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Maisey's friend Ansen turned 5 last week and had a Super Heroes party! It was loads of fun and all of our friends were there!

Maisey with her Spidey mask on! (She is trying to make scary hands. . . that's the best she could come up with! What can I say? She is ALL girl!)

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On Sunday, Shaun went out to water out "grass" and actually found grass!!! It was so exciting! It's been so stormy here all week, so I wasn't sure if the seed got washed away!

But apparently not, because I see green stuff! YAY!!!

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Oh, I also tried a new recipe on Sunday-- Grilled Citrus Steak! I'll have to post a pic later this week! It was delicious!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Red Light, Green Light

I love nights like last night where we weren't running around all crazy and we actually spent some quality time with each other! Earlier in the day I taught Maisey how to play Red Light, Green Light. She caught on really quickly and was excited to play her new game with Daddy. We built the red and green lights out of legos!

It's a BOY!!!!

Luke William Curtis was born on Friday, May 14, 2010 at 4:40 pm. He was 7 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches.

Congrats to Christina, Clayton, Shayla, and Derick!

Welcome to our CRAZY family Luke!

Mommy and Luke were doing great after

quite the delivery story!!!

He was able to leave the hospital after 24 hours.

What a sweet little boy.

For the first time in the 30 years the Olsen family has been established, the boys now out number the girls!

BOYS GIRLS

8 7

Potty Face

Let me tell you what went down after snack time this afternoon!

As I was wiping up Gage, I sent Maisey to the bathroom to go potty. She came back out and asked me if she needed new undies?

I responded, "I don't know, are they wet?"

Then she proceeded to wipe them on her face to feel them.

SO SO SO GROSS!!!!!

At least they were only mildly damp and not dripping wet, but still. . . DISGUSTING!!!

P.S. I think she secretly wet in them on purpose so she could change into her Minnie Mouse undies which I washed today! :)

1 Year Old Photo Shoot

I finally got around to taking Gage's 1 year old pictures. I wanted to wait until he was walking and he's been walking for a few weeks now, but only when he wanted to! Well, I caught him in a good mood, in a good location, and in a cute outfit! So I took advantage!

Isn't he adorable, mischievous, kissable, lovable, silly, and cute?

And lucky me -- He's ALL MINE!!!!!

Our Mastercard Commercial

*Homemade "grass" rice krispy treats that Maisey kept sneaking before our friends came over = $6.00

*Gas to power this 3-man rototiller = $10

*Lime, Fertilizer and Seed for 1500 sq. ft = $80

* 2 bales of peat moss = $20

*1 hot lookin', hard workin' husband = $1,000,000 (just kiddin' hun! You're worth WAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than that!)

*A totally awesome group of friends that worked with us well past dark (10 pm) = Priceless

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Hoopes' and Maughan's! You guys are AWESOME!

*3 of the cutest kids around (and the dirtiest I've EVER seen Maisey in her whole life) = Also Priceless!

We planted our grass this weekend! We've been working on prep work for the past 2 weeks. On Friday our friends came over. The men tilled and the women weeded! My garden is ready to be planted! YAY!!!! On Saturday, the kids spent the day with Grammy while Mommy and Daddy worked for 7 hours straight! We finished everything!!! Now we are just watering 2 times a day and praying that something grows!!! Updates and pictures to come, hopefully!

Our Trip To Idaho. . . Or Was It Washington?

Maisey was so excited to go on our trip this past weekend. She was telling all of our friends and her nursery leader at church that we were going on a trip to Idaho! The poor girl gets so confused because she does have a great grandma and grandpa in Idaho and her Grandma and Papa Grimmett are moving to Idaho in a few months, and the last trip we went on was a trip to Idaho. By the end of the trip she was convinced that we went to Washington and when her Grammy talked to her on the phone last night and asked her how her trip to Spokane was, she said, "Grammy, we went to WASHINGTON, not Spokane!" The poor girl!



Anyway. . . Reasons for going to Spokane -- 1) Papa Grimmett graduated with his PhD from Gonzaga! 2) Shaun's cousin, Amy, returned from her mission last Wednesday and spoke in church on Sunday. 3) It was Mother's Day, and in the 5 years we've been married we've never spent a Mother's Day with Shaun's Mom. 4) Because it was Mother's Day we got to talk to Uncle Ryan on the phone.

My favorite pic of the whole weekend!

My 2nd favorite pic of the whole weekend.

Other things to note: We enjoyed a nice lunch and delicious dessert at Dockside, The kids got their puppy fix in 'til the summer, Shaun also got his videogame fix in 'til the summer, and I caught up on my magazine reading. Needless to say it was a busy weekend, but thanks to Grandma and Daddy I was able to get in a nice run Friday morning and a LOOOOOONG run Saturday morning which consisted of rain, a creepy bum, and lots of hills!

Looking forward to seeing you all again, this time in Idaho,

Progress

We've made significant progress on our yard! I'm starting to feel a little better about the project.

This is a before picture! The whole area is rock and weeds!

A close up of all of the weed!

The weeds are all pulled, and the rock has all been cleared out! Except for that pile in the middle of the picture that our friends are coming to get this weekend!

I also pruned our marionberry bushes! That was quite a project! I had so many stickery branches stuck in my hair and in my coat! And I even sat on one at one point!

I feel so great about everything we have done so far, then I look at our yard and feel so overwhelmed because there is so much more to be done!

Owning a home is not easy! Yard work is not easy!

But hey, nothing in life is easy, so I guess I just have to deal with it!

Obsession Confession

I am insanely OBSESSED with these!

I eat like 3 packs a day! I'm an addict.

I have no self-control.

For the past 4 months I have been able to get them for free or close to free!!!

On Sunday, I opened our last box.

Today I got down to just one pack left.

ONE PACK LEFT!!!!!

What am I going to do?

I NEED another sale.

I NEED my fix.

My smart little girl

Maisey loves our Prophet! She loves to sing Follow the Prophet and she likes to tell everyone she knows about the Prophet.

We watched this video about Elder Holland's testimony of The Book of Mormon and Maisey was wondering if Elder Holland was a prophet. So we started explaining to her about apostles and the First Presidency. So we decided to pull up a picture of The First Presidency. Maisey learned their names quickly, except for she would accidentally call President Eyring President Ring Eye!!!

***Just a weird side note: Shaun was reading a story out of our FHE book and Maisey interrupted with this statement, "I'm going to go see Jesus in 2 months." And she kept repeating it. I'm not sure what she meant by it, but I feel a little uneasy about it! I'm sure it will be no big deal.