17 Down... 2 More to Go

The Patriots played the Jaguars today and (surprise, surprise) THEY WON!  Was there any doubt? lol
Two things I just want to make note of:

1)  I LOVE how people just hate Belichick.  lol 


I love him, I love that he is NEVER satisfied by what our boys do.  I LOVE that even when they make good plays - GREAT plays, like when they caused the Jags to fumble and recovered the ball for a turnover - he's sitting on the side lines with that same look on his face, shaking his head as if he's really upset with their performance!  It cracks me up, everytime! lol 

2)  I also love how everyone talks about Brady and Moss... 

Let me first be clear: Brady is DA BOMB!  True dat.


(And let's give the boy props for breaking YET ANOTHER record today.  He completed 92.9% of his passes (26 of 28), breaking the previous record of 88% (22 of 25) set by Phil Simms back in 1986.)

And Moss is simply FANTASTIC!  No denying that. 



But every game, the commentators say:  If you want to beat the Patriots, you have to stop Moss; you can't let Brady get the ball to him.  Let me just tell you, If you want to beat the Patriots, you have to do a heck of a lot more than just that!

In today's game, Moss had ONE play.  That's right, ONE play.  He caught one pass for 14 yards.  The Jaguars succeeded in "stopping Moss".  Brady didn't even attempt to throw Moss anything else simply because he was so well covered.  But that's okay because the Patriots ROCK - not because they have one really great "go to" guy.  They ROCK because they have a whole handful of "go to" guys!  Infact, in the first Patriot drive of the game (which did result in a touchdown, woohoo!), Brady completed 5 for 5 receptions and each to a different receiver.  What does that tell us?  It tells us that you can take one of our best players out of the game altogether, that's okay - we've got plenty more to go to.

Like...

Welker (one of my personal favorites!)


Or Watson


Or Gaffney


Or Stallworth


And in case you thought we ONLY had a passing game, don't forget these guys:
Faulk


And Maroney


So if you want to beat MY Patriots... GOOD LUCK!!!!  You're gonna need it!!!  lol...

A Familiar Fondness

You know that feeling you get when you see, hear, smell, or taste something that just takes you back to some other time, years prior? There are parts of Portland that do that to me. It's always the same areas and it's always the same feeling. A "familiar fondness".

I grew up in Sacramento, California. We lived a couple of hours from the Bay Area, depending on traffic. I have many memories of going there and all of them are positive, happy memories. Going with family, on a school fieldtrip, or with a church youth group, and later on dates. :) There was more than just the beach. We would go to the museums, the piers, the Gunnysack outlets, the Oakland temple, aquariums, sandcastle building contests... and of course, the beach too. ;) As a young adult, I would go to Sausalito to visit a marine mammal rescue facility in hopes to work or even just volunteer there. I never did get that opportunity and I really don't remember why, but I did eventually get a job at Marine World Africa USA in Vallejo (which isn't QUITE the Bay Area but it was almost there! lol). While my job had nothing to do with the animals, since I was an employee, I could volunteer with the research animals. I did that as much as I could! I helped to feed mama dolphins and sat for hours documenting observations on the mom and babies.

Even though I have never had the desire to live in the Bay Area, I have always enjoyed visiting there!

There are a couple of areas in Portland that really remind me of the Bay Area. One is on the way to the temple and the other is on the way to Ryan's work. Both are green, tree covered hills with slight turns on the highway. Yesterday, I went down to the LDS bookstore, which is very close to the temple, and I thought about the Bay Area as I passed that particular spot. I even thought about blogging it. But then the tornado happened and "blew" (LOL, I crack myself up) that idea right out the window. ;) Today, Rori and I met Ryan for lunch near his work. Again, with the Bay Area memories and that "familiar fondness". :)

It's funny too, because when you think of the Bay Area, you think of... oh gee, maybe THE BAY, or the super steep streets and trolley cars, or Alcatraz Island and The Golden Gate Bridge, or Rice-a-Roni, or Full House (lol), or something like that. But for whatever reason, I always remember the lush, green, hilly areas, especially near Golden Gate Park. (Well, at least these particular areas in Portland make me think of that. There are other things that remind me of those other parts of the Bay Area, but that's another post for another time.) And with those thoughts, come a "familiar fondness" that I really enjoy. :)

And then, the rainbow.

Today I happened to be driving up the exact same stretch of I-5 at the exact same time as I had been yesterday when I saw the storm clouds that moments later had become a tornado. This time, as I looked up at the clouds (not nearly as many and much whiter this time), there was a beautiful rainbow! It was right over the city!


Ryan gives the NorthWest a hard time sometimes because of the rain. I guess if you go to work before the sun comes up and leave after the sun's gone down, you really wouldn't know if there had been sun that day or not. He views the period of time from October to April as 6 months of rain. And that is so not true! There is a lot of rain. But it is not everday and aside from the actual dead of winter, it's not even most days! We have so many sunny days, and I'm not talking about "bright" days where it's still cloudy but so bright that it hurts your eyes. I mean honest-to-goodness, blue-sky, sun-shining-down-on-you sunny days! And there are also RAINBOWS!!! Lots of rainbows! I've seen full double rainbows and once, I saw a triple (though they weren't all full)! I love the rainbows! And I really don't mind the rain. Sure, sometimes it's annoying but mostly, I really enjoy it.

I know that to the people who are dealing with a real big mess right now, a rainbow isn't going to make it much better. But it sure did make me smile. :)

Twist and Shout!

Okay, not so much shouting... but a heck of a lot of twisting!!!

Today started out pretty good. Ryan was staying home from work, sick. That part wasn't good but it was nice that he'd be around. Rori woke up doing great! She had been sick yesterday but she slept soundly for over 12 hours last night and I think that really helped her. I had a little headache, but other than that I felt great!

To give Ryan some quiet time to rest, Rori and I headed out to run errands. It was so nice and warm! We just wore sweatshirts and enjoyed our shopping. On the way back home, coming up from Portland, I saw some big, dark clouds over Vancouver. "Joy", I thought. Then I saw lightening - and a lot of it! Multiple strikes shooting straight down at the same time. Wow! If Ryan hadn't been sleeping, I would have called home to tell him because he loves a good lightening storm. I remember wishing I had my camera with me (as if I could have 1) taken a picture while driving, and 2) would have actually gotten a shot of the actual lightening strikes, lol).

Shortly after I got home, I saw that I had missed a call from my friend on my cell phone (Thanks for turning my ringer down without telling me, Honey!) so I called her back. "Oh, I was just calling to tell you about the tornados," she told me.

"WHAT?!?!? What tornados? Here???"

"Oh yeah!" She told me that we were under a tornado warning and that at least one had touched down, here in Vancouver! She saw that my car wasn't home and tried to call to let me know. Thankfully, I had been south instead of north, since that is where it had ended up going.

I should have turned the news on right then, I'm sure we had continual coverage seeing as how we NEVER get real tornados. We've had funnel clouds before, heck I've seen funnel clouds here... but we never get real, honest to goodness, categorized tornados. But by this time, my headache had turned into a migraine and I was in bad shape, and that was more important,so I just went to bed while Ryan watched Rori for me.

I finally got up about half an hour ago (my head still hurts but it's not as bad as before, thanks for asking ;) lol) and turned on the news. Sure enough, an F1 tornado touched down in Vancouver in at least 3 different locations. It's winds were 86-110 mph, the path was 2 miles long and 1/4 mile wide. Fortunately for us, it was all west and north of us. Unfortunately for those in those areas, thousands are out of power still because of it. :( There are a lot of home movies and pictures coming in, some are pretty impressive!

Acadia shared with us (maybe I'll have her post it in her blog too) that they were out at their lunch recess when the teachers started to yell at them to run inside. She said they were "herding" them and yelling, "Run, run, run!" She said she and her friends were thinking, "This must be serious, they NEVER tell us to run!" They were first guessing that their school was under "lock-down" but once inside, they were instructed to get on the ground with their heads on the floor and their hands over their heads, an exercise they've practiced before in "tornado drills", and they were told that there was a tornado in the area. She told me that a friend of hers was crying and I asked if she (Cadi) had been scared, she said yes. She said it kind of hurt to stay in that position, too. (I bet!) But she said that afterwards, the teachers talked to them about what had happened and assured them that the tornado had ended up being on the other side of town, but that they had needed to stay in that position just in case and kind of as another practice. I told her that since tornados are so unpredictable, it was really important for everyone to be careful because they can change directions and move so fast, you never know where they'll go next.

Fortunately, there have been no real injuries from the tornado but there has been a bit of damage. There was a boat house completely destroyed on Vancouver Lake, 90% the boats were destroyed too, it looks like. And there are lots of trees totally ripped out of the ground in the areas that were hit (several falling on cars or homes), as well as a lot of roofs stripped of their shingles, some with even the plywood torn off. (Mom, the pictures made me think of your house this weekend, the pictures from the air showed homes with large sections of just wood exposed and people were rushing to get tarps put over them before it got dark since we're expecting rain for the next few days still.) I don't envy them - especially since we JUST got our new roof put on!
Since no one got hurt, some of the stories that are coming out because of this are pretty entertaining. One man was working in some sort of construction, went to use the port-a-pot and as he was in it, the outhouse was lifted up and toppled over! Luckily, the guy had just been "finishing up" and was just "tossed" out the door before anything "unpleasant" got on him! (This guy headed home from work only to find a tree had fallen on his house! Double whammy, poor guy!) Other construction workers were digging a ditch when the tornado went right for them, they had to dive into the ditch they were digging to stay safe. One business put this on their billboard today, "Auntie Em It's a twister!" lol

So that was our excitment today! A tornado right here in Vancouver, WA!

Come on, Baby! Let's do the twist...

It's Christmas all over again!

I know people feel bad when they don't get their gifts in the mail in time for Christmas but I have to tell you, that getting Christmas presents even after Christmas is over is FUN! :)

Yesterday, a package arrived from my sister.  It was full of fun and thoughtful gifts that I know we'll all enjoy!  (I've already snacked on the chocolate! ;) lol)  Here are the girls with their gifts since they both loved them so much!









So, Thank you Miriam! :D 

She's such a sweet little deer.

I promise to post some pics and fun stories about Cadi soon.  She truly is equally fun and cute, but she's in school half the day and that leaves twice as much time to get good dirt on Rori as it does for Cadi.  I'll work harder to get some good material for you soon. ;)

Rori has this cheap little Disney Princess vanity that I bought at a thrift store months ago for only $5.  She loves to open up the mirrors and talk to it.  Lately she has been pushing up this little box that holds her blocks, using that as a seat, and sits there in front of the mirror, reading books.  I finally got a few pics and thought I'd share them...







If you will remember, Acadia got sick during the last couple days of school before the Winter Break.  This was especially sad because it meant that she missed performing with her classmates in their musical. :(  She was additionally bummed that she wouldn't be getting her reindeer antlers to keep like the other kids.  When she went back to school on Monday, they had saved hers for her!  She was very happy to get them, even if she didn't get to perform with everyone else. 

Rori loved how they jingled and just likes playing with anything of Sister's anyway, so she had them on more than Cadi did yesterday! lol  Cadi asked me to take this pic of Rori and since she's such a sweet little dear, I did. :)

Mommy's Little Helper

One of Rori's favorite games is to unfold the laundry.  As soon as she sees a nice, clean, folded pile of clothes, she makes a beeline for it and starts to toss the articles of clothes all around the room.  Isn't she helpful??? ;)

Yesterday, she planted herself next to a pile of her sister's laundry and started to toss.  Apparently, one particular item caught her interest and instead of tossing it, she tried to put it on... Her head!!!

Before I post the pics, let me re-emphasize: THE CLOTHES ARE CLEAN!!!  lol