First Day of School!

We're sad to see the summer end, but at the same time we're excited about beginning a new school year. I welcome in the change in seasons and the chance to get back into a routine. Happy Fall!

What I Learned in Church Yesterday

Topic: Strengthening Marriage and Familes
Question: What is love?
Answers: Patience, kindness, respect.....humor....being on your best behavoir....
person sitting next to me #1 (whispers): What is "being on your best behavior"?
person sitting next to me #2 (whispers back): It means not passing gas in bed.
#1: No. That's part of humor.

Ghostbusters in Hillsboro

Is it crazy that I totally want to go to this theater after reading this article? Death of a Salesman runs Sep 23 through Oct 11. Read on and see if you dare to go with me:

Ghosts stirred at theater? Unexplainable events bring paranormal investigators to Venetian
Posted by Susan Gordanier, Hillsboro Argus August 26, 2009 04:30AM
Christa Seyferth / The Argus

It's closing time at the Venetian Theater and Bistro, and a staff member heads into the auditorium.
A tall, gray-haired man remains in the back-most row of seats. "It's time to leave," he's told. He does, only not through the door. He simply disappears.
Saxony Peterson, co-owner of the theater at 253 Main St., says the same man has appeared three different times and to different people too.
If this were the only odd occurrence at the Venetian, it might be blamed on late hours, power of suggestion or the overactive imaginations of a weary crew. But it's not.
Peterson said, during play rehearsals, Bag and Baggage's Scott Palmer has heard unexplained footsteps crossing the stage. Staff returning from the upper dining area reported turning off the lights and music, only to have them come back on as they started down the stairs. This happens regularly, she said.
Normal work flow in the kitchen was once interrupted by water streaming from above. After mopping up, the crew removed the ceiling panels to find the leak's source. Peterson said they found no water pipes, nothing there containing any water. Strangest of all, the removed panels were not even damp, even though a flood had passed through them not long before.
Then there's Dale Buck's experience. One night she was alone in the auditorium, on her way to check the rear exit door, when she heard whispers coming from the left side of the room. Then a "big rush of cold air came past my left ear," she said. "It was colored gray and black, and as it passed my ear, it whispered 'stop.' "
So Peterson and Denzil Scheller invited a team of paranormal investigators, volunteers from the International Paranormal Reporting Group, to conduct an investigation. IPRG, which itself has allied teams in Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Germany, is recognized by The Atlantic Paranormal Society. TAPS, for fans of events that defy scientific explanation, is the group behind the Ghost Hunters show on the Syfy network.
The team came to The Venetian on July 25. They brought digital voice recorders, infrared cameras, temperature sensors and K-2 meters for reading electromagnetic disturbances.
Greg Gieler, who led the IPRG investigators, reported back to Peterson and Scheller Aug. 18 with IPRG's findings.
Gieler set up his laptop on a table in the Venetian Bistro. He explained how he'd pored through hours of recordings made at The Venetian searching for electronic voice phenomena. Such EVPs are disembodied voices, or sounds with no explainable source, that are picked up by recording devices but are not audible to people present at the time.
Passing headphones around the table, everyone present took turns listening to the examples Gieler had discovered. In one, recorded in the theater's projection room, a voice could be clearly and slowly, saying, "Sorry ... I'm sorry ... sorry."
Gieler said paranormal events, by their very nature, have no scientific explanation. That's why they are "paranormal." IPRG, first of all, tries to find a verifiable cause for its findings. The EVPs, like other such incidents don't have one. That doesn't stop ghost hunters from speculating on their nature. In this case, Gieler said, spirits may make use of some actual source -- perhaps a chair sliding back -- and draw it out to create a word.
Investigators also had a strange encounter in the theater's projection room.
As background, Scheller emphasized that room is the only climate-controlled space in the building. The heat given off by the projector in a confined space makes it necessary to keep a constant temperature of about 68 degrees.
Gieler said, he could feel the temperature warming while he was in the projection room, so he asked the presence to raise the temperature to exactly 70 degrees. His sensor measured 70. Then, by steps, he asked for 71, then 72, then 73 degrees. Each time the temperature rose to the requested point and held until asked to go higher.
Gieler said he then said aloud, "If you make it go to 78 degrees, I promise I won't ask you to go higher because I know it's really hard." That happened. And the process repeated this time in reverse, back down to 68 degrees.
Gieler thinks The Venetian is an interesting enough site to warrant further investigation. He asked Scheller whether he would be interested in hosting a TAPS boot camp, a ticketed event in which up to 60 paranormal investigators gather.
In the meantime, Bag and Baggage is preparing for its first play of the new season. Peterson says the unexplainable events seem to increase whenever more people are in the theater's space.

A Child's Prayer

Translation:

“Heavenly Father, We’re thankful for this day. Bless the food. [We already ate] And bless that Daddy will go to the big test. [the bar exam was two weeks ago] And bless that my girls to not fight. [her sisters are her “girls”] And bless…and bless that Snow White and the dwarfs and the wicked witch. And bless Sleeping Beauty will loves Prince Phillip. And bless Jasmine will hide in our walking place. [she means the market place] And bless Cinderella to marry in her blue dress. And bless Ariel loves Prince Eric. In the name of Jesus Christ, Aaaaaamen!”

OMSI

We spent Saturday up at OMSI as a family. After nearly seven hours we still didn't see all there was to see (but we spent a lot of time in some of the areas). What a great way for Todd and I to spend our 12th anniversary :)

blowing bubbles with her hands



Claire oblivious to the relative positions of her bum and Sophie's face

Happy 12 years!

Sophie wanted to take this home

Being a CSI and solving a crime

On the news

Claire learned all about "babies in mommies' tummies"

Dancing Queen

Sophie participated in the Polk County Fair this year, clogging to Abba's Dancing Queen. She's had limited experience clogging - gone to a few classes with me, then a month or so ago started learning this dance. We were pretty impressed with how quickly she picked it up and got some of the finer points of the technique down. Here's her performance, just please excuse the shaky videoing, especially at the beginning:

A Pair of Eights

My girls turned eight this week - I still can't wrap my head around it. In my mind they're still three or four years old, dressing up and arguing over who gets to be the princess and who has to be the prince.

For their birthday party this year, they wanted to have a cookie theme. It turned out to be a fun party, and thanks to my friend, Maria, who stayed up with me till 1:00 am the night before helping with the cake, making cookie dough and sewing aprons, we got everything ready in time.

The cookie cake (artwork on the cookies done by Maria -thank you!!) Looks a little

Dr. Seuss-ish, which wasn't intentional, but it tasted great nonetheless

Playing "Mix the cookie dough"

Making their own monster cookies in their lovely aprons:

mmmmm - yummy

A little of the relay race - Leilani, the first person to go, used her softball skills and slid into the table of cookies knocking them over. Everyone else had to eat their cookies with a side of dead grass :)