Come one! come all!....But please RSVP!

It is July again and for the Bray household that means

PARTY!! PARTY!! PARTY!! PARTY!!

Well at least 1 party! LOL! Since 4 of the 5 of us have a birthday in July we are throwing one big party to celebrate! It should be fun! This year the theme is Hawaiian Luau!

You should be able to read on the invite above all the particulars, (except my address and phone # which I blocked out) if you open the photo into a new window. I have also sent some invites out in the mail. If you want to attend I would appreciate an RSVP for just planning purposes! So email me, call me, or leave a comment!

Hope to see you there!

I Love our backyard!

How could you NOT love a back yard when my beautiful kids are playing in it!

It was a very hot day and they wanted to play in the sprinkler.

For some reason they liked putting their butts over the sprinkler.

Even Mason got in on the fun!

Then they discovered that if you cinched the hose it would stop the sprinkler and then when you let go you could squirt the unsuspecting sibling standing by the sprinkler.

Like this:

And This:

Mason stayed out of the way and just enjoyed watching!

Then it was Kaleb's turn to get Jasmyn.

Her reaction is hysterical.

What did she THINK was gonna happen?!?!?!?!

Here are a few more of Mason.

Sitting on the porch next to Dad watching his siblings get wet.

And then he got brave and went back into the yard.

Here is one of my new favorites of Jasmyn. All sweet, a little sassy and lots of wild curly hair.
This really does capture her personality!


I love my backyard because my children enjoy playing in it so much.It reminds me of the house I grew up in on Ruth Street. The yard was fenced in and green and David and I spent many hot summer days playing in the sprinklers, watering the grass, doing yard work but mostly having fun. I love that my kids get to make those memories in our back yard! They get to climb the tree, dig holes in the yard to drive their cars in, pick the neighbors flowers that peek through our fence, pick Dandelions and act like they are prize roses when they give them to me. I love that they find bugs to play with, pull leaves off the tree branches to make "salad", and bury their past beloved pets out by the fence. This was really what I envisioned when we bought this house and starting making our family. I am so glad to see my dreams come true in such simple and wonderful ways!

Open Book

Someone that I know and love recently connected with this blog. She was SHOCKED at the content and how much personal stuff I share. I think the most disturbing to her was the period updates and the TTC stuff. LOL!

If you didn't know this about me already.... If you ask I will tell you. If you don't ask but I want to share I will tell you. If you don't want to know but I think you should know to help you understand me, the situation or the issue better, I will tell you. I am kinda an open book.

It is actually comical because I was just thinking last week that there are a few topics that I would LOVE to blog about, but due to confidentiality agreements I can't! Who Knew.... here I thought I was actually censoring myself!

All I can say dear readers is that I try really hard to title my blogs so that you have an idea what I am gonna talk about. If you don't want to hear about my TTC journey, my period, or my cycle.... Don't read blogs with those labels or tags!

I hope that you continue to read and that you understand why I blog! And if you don't then perhaps you should read this!

The Circus! *updated with Pictures*

My friend Sara called me on Friday and invited our family to the Shrine Circus. It was on Saturday at the Fairgrounds in CDA. When we arrived Sara immediately spotted a cute little blond headed boy that she recognized as FUTURE! She pointed him out to me and I then saw his foster Mom Arlene along with his brother and sister and a few of Arlenes own kids. Future seemed a little shy in seeing us. I am sure it is confusing to see us now that he is back with Arlene. He did seem happy to see the kids as they were very happy to see Future.

Arlene and I decided to sit together so we could talk and I could see Future. We chatted a bit until the Circus began. Then we both were focused on the kids and making sure they had a good time. I did get some pictures of the kids, but they are on Sara's camera as my camera battery died. I will be getting the pictures from Sara in a few days and will be posting them here. Sara also got some cute ones of Future eating Cotton candy. He is so cute!

I also got to see Raife, Future's younger brother. Raife is doing very well. He is walking and moving around well. Arlene did say that he still has some problems with his neck. But from what I could see in the 2 or so hours that I was there, and Arlene agreed that he should be able to live a normal life. I am so happy for him. Arlene said "but for the grace of God" he is doing well.

Little Clarity is doing well too. She looks just like her Mother. Her hair is strawberry blond and she has the most beautiful blue eyes. A cute little round face and petite features. When we got ready to leave I told Arlene how great the kids looked and how great of a job she was doing. Arlene gave me a hug. When she stepped away, little Clarity held her arms out to me for a hug, too. She gives great hugs. She wrapped her little arms around my heck and hugged so tight. It was so touching that I started to cry.

It was the best Circus I have ever been too. And not because of the elephants or the acrobats.

I got the photos from Sara tonight so here they are in no particular order....

Rowan in the stroller then Keagan, Sierra and Jasmyn

Arlene and Raife. Looks like he is excited about something!
Jasmyn Katie and Mason. Katie is our new babysitter. We love her!
This is Raife. I love that he is standing in this picture. When he was born we weren't sure he would ever be able to...but for the grace of God!
Our little group Me with Mason on my lap
Rowan in the stroller and Kaleb next to him
Keagan, Sierra and Jasmyn
Keagan and Sierra
Future with blue mouth from eating Cotton Candy
Raife and Future
Future eating Cotton Candy
Clarity. Isn't she beautiful?!?! Even with Chocolate on her lip.
Rowan and Sierra eating licorice
Sierra

Future with Blue Face
Arlene with Clarity and Raife
Katie and Mason
Future with Cotton Candy

Arlene, Clarity and Future

Clarity and Future
Sierra, Jasmyn & I riding the ponies
Kaleb riding the pony
Sierra and Jasmyn on the ponies

My Grandma and the collander

Anyone that knows me even a little bit knows that I had a very close relationship with my Grandma Jean. We lived across town from my Grandma, but anyone who knows Sandpoint knows that it only about a 10 minute drive. We were just very close. Maybe because I was the only Granddaughter out of 3 other boys until Ashley, Dyani Brook and Laura were born. But for a long time I was the only granddaughter. I think Ash was born in 89 so I had a 14 year run of just me and Grandma as far as Granddaughter go. We spent lots of time together. She taught me how to cook, how to shop on a budget and how to balance a check book. When her hands were sore with arthritis I would help her pay bills. She would sign the checks and I would write them out, fill in the register, and stuff the bills in the envelopes. Then I would walk around to Hardware store, Larsons, The city of Sandpoint, the light company, and the IGA to pay the bills. I would bring the receipts back and she would reward me for a job well done with a piece of candy and getting to watch whatever TV show I wanted. This is all while I was maybe 10 or 11 years old. Yeah it is no wonder that I take care of the finances in our home now. I was taught by my Grandma to budget and to "borrow from Peter to pay Paul". I remember one year when she was mad at some company for poor service and she insisted that we just pay them $5 a month. She figured that if she made a payment each month they couldn't send her to "collections" and it preserved her credit. She paid that bill $5 a month for years and years. I don't know if they ever wrote it off for her or not. But she just simply refused to pay more than $5, this of course was back in the days before high interest rates and such. But I have to admit I once did this with a Drs bill that I felt was over billed. In the end they ended up writing off the last $80 of the bill because it was costing them more money to pay the accountant to process my $5 per month payments than the $5 they were making per month. LOL!

I am so glad that before Grandma died that she got to met Tim. I know she liked Tim, even if she did think we were too young and she worried that he hadn't found his vocation yet. But I think she saw that he was a good man and if nothing else appreciated his sense of humor and how well he treated me. Tim & I during a stressful time in our lives lived in Grandma basement for a spell. When it was time for us to spread our wings and move out, Grandma helped us by giving us household items to set up our home with. Among those things were towels, dishes, pie plate, plastic mixing bowl and a plastic collander. She gave these items to us in the spring of 1996. They have made it through about move after move after move. We moved 6 times, the last being into the home we now own.

The towels are tattered and have been reduced to rags. But I still think of Grandma every time I use one of the blue, thin, ragged towels. The plastic mixing bowl was throw away last year. I tried to mash potatoes in it and it is so old that the plastic would flake off and into the potatoes every time the hand mixer hit the sides. After we ate blue flecked plastic chunked mashed potatoes for dinner Tim made me throw the bowl away. I am pretty sure I cried as the garbage men took the bowl away. The plates she gave me are chipped and some pieces have broken over the years. We have since bought 2 new sets but the pieces remaining of the set Grandma gave me are in the basement in a box marked: Dishes Grandma gave me. DO NOT throw away. So all I have left is a pie plate and a plastic collander of the gifts she gave me to set up my own home. The pie plate is my favorite one of all the pie plates I have. Mostly because it came from her own kitchen. The edges have some brown stained on the handle, probably from a pumpkin pie overflowing at Thanksgiving. The pie plate is deeper than any of the ones I can find on the market today. It is deep dished and a full 9 inches wide. I love making pie in the plate. Especially Pumpkin. I can still see her sitting at the round kitchen table eating a piece of cold pumpkin pie for breakfast. I hope that the pie plate never gets misplaced or broken. I want to teach my children how to make pumpkin pie in that pie plate, even if it is just with Libby's pumpkin. Mostly just because I want to tell them the story of her eating cold pie for breakfast.

Now the collander is on it's last legs. The bottom is falling out of it. My Mom and Tim have all suggested I throw it away. I just can't do it. I have other collanders that I use for general cooking. About 2 weeks ago my friends Sarah and Sara were here for dinner. We were all cooking together and when the pasta got done Sarah grabbed the closest collander and drained the pasta. Well about 1/2 the pasta fell through the bottom. She pointed out to me that the collander was broken. I knew that Sarah would understand since she not only had met my Grandma and knew of our close relationship but she recently lost her grandmother of whom she was very close. I told her "My grandma gave me that collander and I just can't bare to throw it away" She smiled and nodded. Then she said, " ya know what this collander would be good for? Washing strawberries." I honestly had to choke back tears. Sarah understood so quickly and knew what to say to honor the moment. Thank you Sarah.

So here are a few picture of my well loved and well used collander:

It is hard for me to believe that Grandma has been gone for almost 11 years. So much has happened in that time. It seems like 11 years isn't that long until you consider all she has missed: Tim & I getting married, the purchase of our home, the birth of our 3 children, and so much more. I miss her so much. I don't know what the fate of the collander will be yet. I will probably wash strawberries in it this summer at least.

Goodbye Lady Goodbye

Today is a sad day. Our pet hamster named Lady has died. We tried to save her but it was too late, or perhaps our efforts made the illness worse.

2 days ago I noticed some whitish discharge that looked a little like pus coming out or around Lady's penis. Oh yeah, Lady is a male hamster. Jasmyn insisted that we name him Lady. Well the milky white stuff was alarming but upon doing so research I learned that hamster pee is milky and pus looking when the hamster is healthy. Lady seemed to be drinking and eating and eliminating just fine. But I called the Vet and asked what we should do. They thought that Lady should be seen by a Vet because it was likely he would need antibiotics to get rid of the supposed infection. So yesterday I took Lady to the vet. The vet removed some of the white stuff and thought Lady might have an abscess on his penis, probably from the other hamster biting him. Lady and Elephant often play fight or maybe real fight for dominance, all of which we read was normal behavior. So the Vet messed with the abscess trying to clear it out. She did remove some of it, but not all. She sent us home with some antibiotics, and something to help reduce the swelling. We gave Lady the dose last night. He seemed fine.

This afternoon when I was getting ready to re-dose his with meds I found him curled up on some bedding. He didn't move when I opened the lid of the cage. I nudged him and he wasn't breathing. Poor Lady was dead. When I turned him over I noticed that his penis was crusted with blood as well as the white stuff. I don't know if he died because we didn't catch the infection soon enough, or if the vet messing with it made it worse, or the meds were too much for his system, or if the trip to the Vet was too stressful for him. Either way he is gone.

The kids were very sad. They wanted to bury Lady in our back yard. Together we dug the hole. I wrapped Lady in some soft napkins and placed her into a tea box. Kaleb, Jasmyn, Mason and I gathered around the hole and each took turns holding the tea box and saying a few words about Lady.

Kaleb: "Well, Lady you were Elephant's best friend. And now your just dead. Poor Elephant. I love you. Good bye Lady"

Jasmyn: " I love you Lady, I miss you and I wish you weren't dead.

Mason: (pats tea box) "Bye bye Lady".

Jen: " Lady I am so sorry if I did anything to cause your death. I tried to do the best I could by taking you to the Vet, even though now I fear that may have caused your death. I hope you weren't in pain when you died. I loved you because you brought joy to the kids lives. Thank you for being so patient and being such a good little hamster. Good bye Lady you will be missed."

Then we placed the tea box into the hole and we all helped cover it up with the dirt. When we were finished the older kids headed inside. Mason patted the ground and said "Bye bye Lady" and then waved at the grave site.

*sigh*

We went to the pet store and bought Elephant a new toy to play with and some bright colored bedding (yellow) to brighten his cage up and hopefully cheer him up after the loss of his best friend Lady.

Update & The White House Grill

Hi all my readers out in blog land. I hope that you are all doing well. And I hope that I don't bore you to tears with all my updates! LOL!

So my period arrived and the first day I was encouraged that it might be a nice and easy one. By day 2 my dreams were crushed! I feel like tampons at this point are a little like spitting into a hurricane, or in other words: useless! Last night Tim and I were celebrating Father Day by going to a Movie and to dinner. We saw "Don't mess with the Zohan", which was very funny, but way too long for a girl in my condition! hahahaha

We also went to a restaurant in Post Falls called The White House Grill. They serve Mediterranean food. We ate Lamb and Chicken in the best sauces and with the best pasta. It was heavenly. When we left we both felt like we were seeping garlic from every pore. Good thing I LOVE Garlic. It was so good and I would recommend it to anyone, but especially those that love garlic and trying something new. Also they have a belly dancer for entertainment on Thursday nights. She was very good and extremely friendly. I really would love to have our next girls night out there on a Thursday night. We could all try belly dancing with her. It looked like loads of fun.

On my way home after dropping the babysitter off (and running to wal-mart for more period supplies) I was blessed to see the beautiful Moon. She was low to the ground and oh so full. More yellow than white, and simply the most beautiful Moon I have seen in a long time. Seems fitting that the Moon was low and full considering the state of my uterus at the same moment. It made me smile.

This morning I had to cancel our plans to drive to Seattle to see my friend Stephanie and her family. Her children Duncan and Sophie are turning 6 and 1. Their party is this weekend and I really wanted to go, but between the period from hell and the Metformin still doing a number on my stomach and intestines, I figured I should not be locked in a car for 4 hrs. Stephanie was understanding, but we are both very disappointed. When Sophie was born last year I drove over to help Stephanie and Mark while she was in labor and got to witness Sophie's birth! It was really awesome, so I was so looking forward to celebrating Sophie's 1st birthday with Stephanie and her family. Ugh. I am disappointed that it didn't work out. Dear little Sophie.... I am with you in spirit and wishing you and your big brother Duncan a very special Happy Birthday!

1950's Theme Party

We threw Clare and Rowan a birthday party this weekend. When I say "We" I mean Sara (Clare's Daughter and Rowan's Mom), Sarah (friend of all of us) and myself. We wanted it to be a special party for Clare and Rowan since I don't think in all the years that I have know Clare have we ever made a big hoopla out of her birthday. But turning 60 was a huge milestone and we had to make a big deal out of it. And how cool is it that she shared her party with her grandson Rowan who is turning 1!!!!!

Here are the guests of honor, Clare & Rowan.

Here is a group shot of us girls.

L to R: Joanne (Clare's sister), Sara, Me, Sarah, and Clare

Clare & Rowan blowing out candles on birthday cakes

Rowan & his cake face

Sarah, doesn't she look cute!

Sara and Gerry.

He wanted to wear a poodle skirt for some strange reason.
Sara, isn't she beautiful?!?!

Sierra and Kaleb dancing.

Tim & I
Jasmyn in front of the giant soda fountain
Here are some pictures of the decorations we did for the party