What you call blackberries

So, what you call blackberries we call weeds up here in the fertile northwest. Growing all over the place. There are frequent signs along the road advertising blackberry eradication since the vines can get so overgrown in a short amount of time. We kind of like it. For the most part you can always go out for a walk or whatever and stop for a little organic treat. We took the canoe up the Willamette a mile or so and got out at a park for a rest and just picked berries till we'd had enough. We didn't get much of that in Boise.

There's a rather large area close to our neighborhood that is vacant and is basically just used for dog walking that is perfect for berry pickin. Tiff took the boys out for a while and gave Braden and Chris clippers to cut paths through the shrubs so she could get to the berries. They loved it. Braden is so content with sharp objects... or fire... or anything he can identify as a weapon I guess. He's been begging everyday to go back and pick blackberries ever since.

So, we're set with berries for the winter probably. Good for Tiff's killer pies :)

Ellie (belly) is really trying to walk now. She's so proud of herself. A couple of wobbly staggers always get rewarded with squishes and kisses. She thinks she's pretty big. Tiff sure likes having another girl in the house. She finally gets some of her old identity back. Ellie is teething now, so she's had a pretty high fever and has been getting up for a few hours at least twice a night. Poor little girl seems to be having the hardest time of all the kids so far with teething. That didn't stop us from taking her out camping last week though. Prolly not the best thing for her - or us really. It was good to get out, but camping with a sick kid is more work than it's worth.

You couldn't swing a dead cat....

New favorite saying from church...
" You couldn't swing a dead cat in ancient Jerusalem without hitting a scriptorian."
Not sure what I like best about it - maybe the visual of someone swinging a dead cat, or having a dead cat carcass wrap itself around someone's face. I'm sure the saying has been around for a while, but it's a first for me, and oh am I glad it came in sunday school. We get all kinds of colorful stories and jokes to start off and during our meetings. Another good one was the story about the gynecologist who took a mechanics coarse at the local community college. For the final exam he got 200 points out of a possible 100 points. When he asked the professor how he got so many points he was told 100 points for rebuilding the engine and transmission perfectly, and another 100 points for doing it through the tail pipe. The teacher didn't really try to tie it into the lesson at all -- not sure how he could of, but it was appreciated none the less.

Anyway - we're doing well. Chris turned 6 in July and Tiff refused to acknowledge another one of her birthdays just a few days ago. We've just been enjoying the outdoors around here. We got a canoe and have been down on the Willamette river a couple of times. The kids like it when the ski boats run past and we get to ride their wake. The canoe is large enough we can take all the kids with us and Ellie seems to really like the rocking back and forth. Plus the water police came up to us and gave us coupons for free ice cream for having life jackets on all the kids.

Here's wish'n the Olympics weren't on so late. Both me and Tiff are sleep deprived, and given that I'm normally just ornery - you all probably want to stay away until we can recover. It's been a lot of fun watching all the events this year. I just wish we could turn the TV off before 1 a.m. You should all see my Michael Phelps impression. It's a little nasty since I'm not as clean shaven as he is, but I think it's pretty accurate. We'll have to get a pic to post for you all. That oughta keep a number of you coming back with anticipation.

Where DOES the red fern grow?

So the boys got to fulfill one of my boyhood dreams. Gotta love living here in OR. Apparently the boys went out and treed a family of 'coons that live in our neighborhood. A mother and 4 little Kits. Sounds like the method of choice was to chase them down and throw rocks at them. Can't say that I would've come up with a better method given the quick required response time. Kind of a risky endeavor since raccoons are notorious for being a bit ornery under normal circumstances - let alone times when their trying to protect their young. I have a hard time envisioning how I would react if they were to get attacked by a protective raccoon. I'm pretty sure they would've had to have sustained a near life-threatening injury for me to react with any sense of urgency. In fact once the 'coon backed off I might even egg them on to give it one more round. I'm bad huh :) Builds character, puts hair on your chest. They'll thank me later.