parenting

I heard this senetnce on Masterpiece Theatre last night; "If you can control your children you have been a poor parent". Might be true. Kids should be raised to be themselves within gospel and societal bounds and to develop thier potential and interests.
bunga

westview lost

WESTVIEW LOST! goodbye football. :(

wills christmas pictures

Today Will and I had some fun taking pictures of him and here are a few of them.

Christmas list

Nice to see everyone at T'giving dinner, especially Amber, who we seldom see. Thanks to Jenn & family for thier hard work.
Here is my Christmas wish list: (sorry for the crassness)
Croc's size 10. (Yes I know they are ugly) Sports Authority on Cedar Hills blvd has some. Earth tones. Dried cranberries, Martinelli's, a morsel of quality chocolate, a book about Burt Munro, the New Zealand motorcycle speed record setter, a Porsche or a MiniCooper for a few days, round the world airline ticket, world peace, lucidity for Melanie, sun, heat, trip to Argentina to ski during our summer, and I guess thats about it. It would be nice to see little g. bush and his playmates running for the border, never to bees seen or heard from again.
I'm looking forward to the music and trees and kids of Christmas and to a good life for Courtney & Dan.
Munga; or is it bunga, I can't remember.

Will-gymnastics class performance

Will has his last boy's gymnastics class on Monday,December 3rd, 4:45 pm at Cedar Hills Rec center.The teachers allow guests in for this last class.Come if you want.They do uneven parallel bars,beam,vault and horse.Will climbs the rope up to the top of the ceiling faster than I ever could.

Go Cats!!!

Well-The Wildcats did it again.They beat Clackamas 28 to 14!! This Friday the y will play Tualatin at Westview.Come join us for the game!

Thanks to Jennifer

Thanks, Jennifer for hosting the shower for Courtney!! It was wonderful and Courtney received lots of very nice gifts. You, Susan and Madeleine really made it special. A few of the gifts were a little racy and it was so much fun to watch Courtney blush as she opened them.

I can't believe there are only 28 days left until Courtney and Dan tie the knot. What a cute couple!! They have a bright future ahead of them.

Homecoming 2007 # 2!

Here are all of jonathans homecoming pictures!

When courtney was watching us while my parents were away we did chin- agains. we had a fun time and were laughing so hard!

Jonathan Homecoming 2007!

Jonathan went to homecoming this year with Brittany Fisher.

A time of giving thanks!

It's turkey time! Remember Thanksgiving @ our house @ around 2:oo. I have some fun things planned!!!!

Grandkid/cousin photo

What do you think of trying to get a photo while Andrea and her family is here for Court and Dan's Wedding? Of course our dear Justin is not here and Court may be too busy to be in the photo. Or we could do some less formal ones with our own cameras?

busy mom

Jon's football team creamed South Salem last Friday.51 to 0-final score.Westview will play Clackamas this friday @ Clackamas.Jon finally got to play!!!

Soccer season ended for Maddy.

We had the missionaries over for dinner last nite.As we were eating-Jonathan asked the Tongan elder what his favorite food was to eat back in Tonga.He hesitated quite a bit.He did fially tell us that his favorite food was dog!!. Our dog Buddy was in the house at the time-in his kennel.We will have to tell you the rest of the conversation at Thanksgiving.(while not at the table,eating)
Kim and I mentioned that we knew a Tongan member named Uloki soni Kalamafoni and his caucasian wifeMarie Claire and they lived in North portland.Elder T (name is too hard to remember) said that he knows Rocky from where he had previoisly served and that Rocky is the Stake President out there.

Will had a Baptismal seminar last nite since he will be baptized in May.Wow! my baby is getting too old.

First rant from "bunga"

Grandpa the grump is now going by bunga, one of Amber's baby names for me; munga for g'ma. Last Saturday I went to a talk by Paul Krugman, a NYT columnist and Princeton econ professor. He fits my biases. He said we are now in a second "gilded age" (the first was just before the great depression where there were a few very very rich and the rest were fairly poor). We now have the same skewed income distribution where a few financial managers are vulgarly rich and the middle class and poor have seen no real income growth in decades. This stems from the "compassionate" Christian takeover of the republican party who see the unbridled free market as the panacea for all our problems and that to provide a safety net to the poor and "have nots" is "weakness". "Toughness" on the part of the gov't is an attribute. An example of this toughness is the conservative opposition to universal health care. 15% of Americans don't have health coverage and 24% have inadequate health insurance. Yet it would cost a family of four $14,000 to buy health care coverage. Average income is about $55,000. After paying rent and food, who could afford it? We are the only industrial nation who does not provide universal health care. (My thought; health care coverage is complicated by several things. First 50% of our U.S. health care costs are due to treating our poor lifestyle; obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and drugs. )
Krugman also said that if g. bush said that the world is flat, it would be reported in the press as, "disagreement on shape of the world". Krugman said that there are nevertheless some hopeful signs of the future. For one, the republicans will soon be out of power. I'm reading his book."Conscience of a Liberal".
Me talking now: I think Hillary is gonna be the next Pres. She's not all bad, but she is beholding to big money like the r's and I think she has a lot of dirt in her past. Given 8 years in power, the d's will end up as corrupt as the present regime. But at least they can't do anything as stupid as invade another country based on lies and deceit - or can they?
I've enjoyed a couple of good rides on my motor bike in the hills and curves before the rain came back.
More rants will follow. I'd like to hear from Amber, Laura, Jonathan and Maddog.

LAST soccer game of the season!

just to let evrybody know my last soccer game is this satrday @ water district park @ 9:00 AM.

You shouldn't have...

Let me have control like this. Sorry I changed the colors, but the dark just bothers my eyes to read. If there are huge problems, let me know. I didn't ask first....

I'm signed on

I'll be posting my politial rants from time to time among other things.

Calling all Authors

I went into admin tonight on the blog and granted admin priviledges to everyone over 18. That means you can play with the format. I specifically want you to be able to add to the monthly happenings section, so we know when games and activities are for different family members. Also things like anniversaries, birthdays, other celebrations.

To add to the happenings for the month log into the blog and go to 'customize' on the upper right. Then go to 'template'. On that page you will see where it says "Nov. happenings'.....let us know so we can celebrate and participate with you. Val

update

Just an update--

Jonathan's Football team won their game against Sunset last Friday-So Westview is in the State playoffs.They play Friday night against South Salem.

I Changed My Display Name to Munga

Guess it's time I posted directly to the blog instead of just posting to comments.

I'm so glad Valerie started this blog. It's a GREAT way to stay in touch with each other.

This has been such an exciting year ~ Justin graduating from Century High School (2006) and leaving on his mission to Russia; a beautiful new grandson; Mark finishing residency requirements and receiving his degree; Andrea able to discontinue medical transcription so she can catch up on much needed sleep and devote the time to family. Now that she is the mother of four children, 8 and under, she continues to amaze us with her excellent parenting skills and gourmet cooking to name just a couple. Ryser family moving nearer to us and building a beautiful new home in Draper; Courtney showing what she's made of by graduating from Pacific University and Army Basic Training with all its rigors; Courtney and Dan getting engaged and soon to be married; Brooke being baptized and Garrett being blessed; all of our grandchildren committed to getting good grades in school; Amber taking the initiative to find a new job entirely on her own; Jonathan choosing to play football and LaCross and giving it his all; Madeleine and Laura choosing to play soccer and doing their very best; Will choosing to take piano lessons and practicing so he could do well at his recitial which we enjoyed very much; Brooke, Anna and Lainie choosing to take dance lessons and drama ~ the list goes on and on. We are so blessed in so many ways.

I wish Valerie's life could be easier but I admire the way she has perservered in spite of the obstacles which have been placed in her path.

I wish Jennifer could be relieved of the pain she has to endure on a daily basis but she continues to be a good wife and mother and is so loving and caring about everyone around her. I hope I haven't left out any milestones, but if I have, chalk it up to old age.

We are so thankful for Kim, Mark and Dan who are so good to our daughters and Courtney and grandchildren.

I am so thankful to my good husband who has always been such a good provider and helpmate.

Thanks to Jennifer, Melanie is seeing a new psychiatrist and has started on a new medication. We hope and pray that she will begin to have a better quality of life.

Know that I love all of you and am so blessed to be your wife, mother and grandmother.

Yeah!

I'm so glad everyone is posting!

I've been busy this month and have had the kids all month up until this weekend. I spent 3 days at Breitenbush Hot Springs a few weeks ago. I took a workshop called "Qi Dancing". It was a combination of Qi Gong and Ecstatic Dance. The first night when we were dancing I remembered when we were little and mom would turn on music in the house (I think in Concord), and we would just move and dance and I remembered how good it felt. It is that same kind of 'dance'....just free dancing.....movement as free expression. It was like being a kid again. I shared a cabin with 2 women from Washington. I just ate healthy food and rested and soaked. It filled me with new energy. Sometimes it gets tiring and I feel so sad that I can't be the kind of mom I want to be; at home full time and to have my kids with me all the time; where I didn't have to worry about earning a living. I want my focus to be where it was before, on being a mom and cooking and cleaning and nurturing, however, life has put me on a different path and I accept it as God's will and do the best I can with what this life has offered me. And there are gifts in this path as well. I have been truly blessed with great children and continued good health. I use to think life would be easier when the kids got older, but what I find is that those baby and toddler years were the BEST! Andrea........SOAK IN EVERY MOMENT OF THOSE KIDS IN YOUR FULL CARE! Being a mom to young adults is a lot more mental stress as you watch them make life choices that will effect their entire course, and to have them on the other side of the world and not be able to talk to them. They grow up so fast. There is no part of me that wants to have more babies, but I find recently that as I watch babies I feel a new excitement at sharing my life with grandbabies. My goal is that I can have a work schedule so that I can be available to spend time with them regularly, and not be too tired to do so. I want to have my house paid off in no more than 10 years.

Laura and I took a day last week and played hookie and went to Cannon Beach to enjoy the sunshine. It was PERFECT. I especially enjoyed that we didn't have a time frame and could wander through the galleries at leisure and share our discoveries with eachother. We went to the beach in the late afternoon and watched the sun set behind Haystack Rock. Nature continues to be such a good teacher for me. I noticed as the sun drops in the sky, right before it completely disappears, it seems to move many times faster than before. It brought up the feeling that I wanted it to slow down. It occurred to me that is what life is like in so many ways. Right at the end of certain phases, time seems to speed up so fast and leave us with this feeling that it's going too fast. I thought about how natural it is for us to experience daytime and nighttime. We don't fight the sunset, or curse it or panic that it will not rise again or ask God to let the sun stay in the sky....because we KNOW that it is not gone, just out of our sight and a time for rest and regeneration for us. It is God's perfect rythm and balance. And yet, when it comes to birth and death, we struggle with that rythm, and yet death is like the sunset, and right before we die I wondered, and imagined if it may be like that too.....like all of a sudden it's all going too fast. And whether it is us, or a loved one, do we rail against it, and ask God to not let it happen, and yet, it is the most natural part of life. And if we truly have faith in God, then we understand that even though we cannot see it, the timing is perfect, and that person is not gone, we just can't see them, and our relationship has entered the other side, or the darkness, but they live on still. But just as they have moved on, so will we, and we will see them again. Our work is within our own hearts and minds, to live within the time of grief and darkness in their absence and keep open to life and all the emotions that this grants us the opportunity to experience and to trust in God and seek out the messages and lessons this new phase has for us. I want to live each day so that at the sunset of my life I know I soaked in every moment so that I have no regrets. Ever since spending time on my quest this summer I have come away with a new ability to relax in the moment and play more readily. I can meandor and relax like no one's business and it doesn't cause me the stress it did in the past. I know (from my own experience) that enjoying the moments is what it's all about. I had an online class this morning, but no other commitments in stone today, so I did what sounded fun and went to Saturday Market by myself and that was new and good, because I could spend as much time as I wanted at each area. I have been wanting to get a Native American Flute for months now, and so I did that and got some ice cream. I stayed until I had seen it all and then came home and spent more time outside taking the dogs to the dog park. Amber and I love to do that. I think it's because watching the dogs run and play is so enlivening. They are truly in the moment and when they run it is pure freedom in motion, and I think I soak in the joy. I heard one man call it "Disneyland for Dogs". Then I came home and sat in the back in the swing and played the flute. The dogs even like the sound, although I need to work on my skill. Namaste..........Val

Happy Hawaiian Baby

I love this picture of Garrett in his Hawaiian shirt at Hanauma Bay. Mark and I tag teamed watching Garrett on the beach and snorkeling. It was beautiful. Mark was hoping to see a sea turtle near the reef and he DID!!

Our house is coming along. . . . .

This is what our house looked like last week. The only difference now on the exterior is that the stucco is up, but it is not painted, just dark grey. Nothing exciting. They have textured the drywall and laid all the tile. They made some big mistakes on the master bathroom tile. It looks really bad. Hopefully they will be happy and willing to fix it.

First Day of Preschool

Lainie was so excited to start preschool this year. I am going back in time a little bit here, but I thought this picture of her was so cute! She was waiting for her carpool to come get her that day.




Lainie reminds me a little of me when I was small in that she has a tomboy streak in her. She has no fear of bugs, dead or alive, or snakes for that matter. She sees a bug and automatically picks it up. It's so funny because on the flip side, she is quite a girly girl, second only to Anna.

My Darling Little Boy

I am officially ga-ga over this little angel named Garrett. He is quite demanding of my time, so he better be cute!! He has three teeth on the bottom and he is cutting his second tooth on the top. He has a cold this weekend and isn't sleeping so well with that and the teeth coming in. Lainie just had to get in the picture with her brother!

We went to Lagoon last Saturday, since it closed for the year last week. The weather was sunny and not too cold. We had a great time and stayed until after dark.

Trick or Treat

Wow! I am actually posting to a blog--something I thought I might never do, as I sometimes look at friends' and acquaintances' blogs and feel embarassed for how much of their personal life they are disclosing for who knows who. This is a great forum to pass on some pics of my kids, something I have not been good at for various reasons. I am sort of guessing how to do this as I go, so hopefully this will work. . . . . .

My kids had a blast trick or treating. Mark's mom made Anna's fairy costume. It came out so cute. Brooke was excited to be Hermione as she has been devouring the Harry Potter books this last year or so, although she is taking her time with the fifth one. She has gotten a little bored with it. Lainie is obviously our little super girl. Garrett was a giraffe, and I am sad to say he didn't end up in the pictures! We got him on video, but it was like pulling teeth to get them to stand still for a couple of pics because they were dying to start trick or treating. I just had to do it as complication-free and as quick as possible.