Are you ready for the results??

Me too! Unfortunately, we will all have to wait until January 27th to find out the gender of our baby. :( After 20 weeks of waiting, Mark and I and Maggie went to Dr. Rowles' office to find out if we were having a boy or a girl. The very nice technician tried her best to find out for us, however BabyLee3.0 wasn't quite cooperating. Not that he or she was being shy, just super active and wouldn't stop squirming around. It's a good thing this baby will be active, because we don't have one of those already! :)
So, the tech suggested that we come back at the end of January for another looksy. Not just to determine gender but for other measurements....this child would NOT stop moving! She did think that the baby COULD be a girl, but told us not to go out just yet to buy pink. So, you'll just have to wait and see. Stay tuned for the update!

What Month Are We In??

So Saturday, we decided it was finally time to rake up the leaves in our yard. Our neighbors have some great Poplar trees that provide us terrific shade in the summer. However, come Fall, the trees drop all their leaves into our yard. I guess that's the price we pay for getting the shade. As much as we are disappointed that we haven't had snow yet, we are blessed in the fact that we haven't had snow fall on our foot or so of leaves that have been sitting since October. So, since I am getting my energy back and breathing better, we decided we should tackle this job. We bundled up and headed out to the cold.

My job was to rake the leaves from the corners and out from under the swingset. Mark's job was to run the lawn mower over the leaves and frequently empty the mower bag into the dumpster. Maggie's job was, well, to keep busy and stay away from the lawn mower. As I started raking up leaves, the piles began to get really tall. So, we created a new job for Maggie. She got to kick the leaves to make a smaller pile for Mark to mow. What child, or adult for that matter, doesn't enjoy kicking huge piles of leaves that have just been raked up?

It was such a beautiful (allbeit, chilly) day, that we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were in the first week of December and not the first week of April.

Every once in awhile, Maggie took a slide break while Mark and I took a coffee break.

It's a strange feeling to already be reminiscing about when she was "smaller." I mean, she's only 3 for goodness sake! But, as we were taking our break, we were thinking about when we first got the swingset. Maggie was terrified of the slide. Then, when she wanted to use it, we had to lift her up to the top of the slide. Last Spring, we were teaching her how to climb the ladder, with one of us standing right there to catch her when she missed the top step. Now, she goes up and down like she's been doing it from birth. It's amazing how fast she is growing up and how much she needs to learn from us.

I didn't intend for this to be a PSA, but these thoughts just lend itself to what Pastor John preached about last week. How have I been spending my time, especially when it comes to Maggie and her spiritual growth? Yes, climbing slide ladders is an important part of childhood....but what about the most important part of her life? The part where Mark and I are supposed to be guiding her and instructing her in the path of righteousness?

Yes, Maggie is only 3. Next year she will be 4 and so on and so on. When is it the "right" time for this? NOW. Not when I think she is "ready to handle the gospel truth."

Now.

Can I Ride My Bike, Mommy?

That's what Mark and I heard this past Sunday afternoon at about 4:00. Mark had been trying to get her back tire to stay inflated, and had finally succeeded. Maggie knew this and woke up from her nap that afternoon wanting only to know if she could ride her bicycle. I tell you, you can't tell a 3 year-old she can do something before and nap, and hope she forgets about it. At least, not this 3 year-old! After trying to explain to her that it was getting dark and it was pretty cold outside (33 degrees and dropping!) she still wanted to ride her bike. Knowing that we are pretty blessed to be in December and still even have the option of taking a bike ride, we decided we better take advantage before the snow comes...or if it comes, I guess! We bundled up and headed out.

Here she is with gloves, hat, helmet and coat...oh yeah and capris (who dresses this kid, anyways...) ready to ride her bike.

Maggie really enjoys it when Mark gets his bike out, too. Fortunately, Maggie isn't so fast that I can't keep up with her just by walking next to her. We'll see if that changes next year!

Praise God for Albuterol!

Okay, so for the last, oh.... 6 weeks or so I have been hacking up a lung or two every night at approximately 6:15 until about 7:00 every night. Now, those of you that know me know that I have a pretty high pain tolerance, which means I usually don't go see a doctor when I need to and wait until someone makes me. So, after scaring the heck out of Mark and Maggie last night, I finally called the doctor to see if what they can do about the cough. I felt kind of silly going in, considering that during the day I show no signs of my cough or any illness. I was bit worried that the kind doctor may think that I was some freakazoid that was making stuff up...(does this explain why I put off going to the doctor??) Of course, when I got there, there was no cough to be heard and when he checked my lungs he was just as confused as I was. However, he didn't think I was a freakazoid, and still prescribed me some Albuterol. I asked him if there was a way to definitely check if I had asthma or not, he said, "Well, yeah, I could send you for a series of tests. Or you can just try this tonight when you start coughing and if it works, then you have asthma. If it doesn't then we'll check for something else." Hmm. Okay, I thought. I'll try it. I picked up my prescription this afternoon and waited for 6:00 to come. At about 5:45, my cough began. I used my inhaler thingie (yes, I am now not only a computer geek, but I have an inhaler to complete the outfit...)...anyways, it is now 9:20 pm and I have not had a coughing freak-out!! Woo-hoo!! I am so thankful!! If only I had gone in 6 weeks ago when this all started......

Tagged! By Rhyan

Maggie was tagged by Rhyan, so does this make her an official Blogger? Wow..kids are more technologically advanced these days....
Name/Meaning: Margaret Noelle Lee.....Her first name was my maternal grandmother's name (not my favorite name, but I loved this grandma dearly...) Her middle name was our first daughter, Rebecca's, middle name. Her last name is Lee...well, duh.
Age: 3 years and 1 week
Nicknames: Maggie May, MagPie
Favorite Activities: "Playing" Wii Bowling, playing any board games especially Hi Ho Cherry-O, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and CandyLand, any puzzle, reading to Gary.
Favorite Foods: Cantelope (only from Red Robin...) Chocolate Milk, Bread and Butter Pickles, Cereal
Favorite Music: Song: Chicken Fried or Johnny and June (yes, our daughter loves Country Music!) also anything from Laurie Berkner.
Favorite toys: Train/Car tracks, her Lil People toys
What Makes Her Happy: One word.....Gary!
What Makes Her Sad: Being "forced" to do anything...especially going potty before bedtime.

Maggie tags Shelby (Tara) and Camden (Tara)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Maggie!

I can hardly believe it, but last weekend, we celebrated Maggie's 3rd Birthday. We invited close friends and family to Abbey's Pizza and filled their party room! (okay, so there was one guy up there no one knew....but he checked out okay with Mark's mom and dad.)

Here's our nephew Camden, eating his tiny little piece of cake. Tiny bite by tiny bite. :)

Maggie had a lot of helpers when she opened up her presents.

This microphone was the hit of the night. Who knew that a hollowed out piece of plastic with a spring could be so entertaining??

We feel so blessed to have had these years with Maggie. There are times that I get sad that she's getting older and she is not a baby anymore. She gets more and more independant everyday. And as her personality develops, we can see just what a great little girl that God has given us.

Happy Halloween....a little late....

Although this wasn't Maggie's first Halloween, it was her first Trick-or-Treating Halloween. This was even the first time she picked out her own costume, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She's never seen the movie. However, if you are a parent, you probably know that awhile ago McDonald's ran a Happy Meal promotion where they gave away Madame Alexander min-dolls. The theme for these dolls was The Wizard of Oz. You can guess which doll Maggie got the one time we went during that promotion . Once we saw the costume at Target, she had her mind set. Mark even splurged for the red sparkly shoes (which were probably as much as the costume...but they'll get used during the holidays...).

So, back to Halloween. Our original plan was to meet with Matt and Tara at Mark's parents house and have dinner, then take the kids out for a little trick-or-treating, just for the experience. Then, according to the plan, we were supposed to go to Westside's Fall Carnival. However, the kids were totally into the trick-or-treating experience. I think the idea of getting candy made the whole thing more enticing. We wound up trick-or-treating until the kids were too tired and houses were out of candy. What a great time!

Here's Camden and Maggie...I mean Buzz and Dorothy doing their thing.

A New Job!

Well, it's official. Wednesday morning at 10:00am, I was hired to teach 4th grade at Mountainview Elementary School, here in Yakima. I am ecstatic!! A little nervous, but very excited! The school happens to be the same school that I did a long term 2nd grade class last year, so I already knew that I liked the staff and the principal. (There's nothing scarier than going into a school without knowing at least someone!)

The last couple of days, I have been busy with district seminars so I haven't had much time in my classroom. I am very fortunate to work with some very helpful and giving people who have worked hard to make sure I have furniture in my room. (I'm in a portable that was previously a before and after school care room.) Today, I have a "New to the 4th Grade" class with a seasoned 4th grade teacher at a different school. She will be introducing us to the curriculm, report cards and such. Hopefully, between now and next Tuesday (when school starts...) I will have a chance to get into my room and organize everything, maybe get some desks for the students, write some lesson plans, put up some whiteboards, cry, weep, re-write my name tags because my class list will change, re-organize the room because "it just doesn't look right"....you know the drill.

Like I said, I am super excited about my new job. I am up every morning at about 3:30 or 4:00, wide awake, thinking about my classroom. I know I will be running on adrenaline and Folgers (maybe a little Starbucks) for the next few weeks until I get into a groove. I'll let you know when that happens.

Until then, I'll just stock up on coffee and under-eye concealer.

Are We REALLY In the Mountains???

This past weekend, Mark and I took Maggie up to the mountains to do some camping. We have been once this year with our church group, but that was at a park near a lake. We had a great time, and looked forward to some camping in the woods. Mark had Friday off, so we left on Thursday night, hoping to get a walk-in site at the mythical Ohanapecosh campground. Unfortunately, due to some fallen trees, a lot of the sites were off limits and people who had actually reserved their sites were moved to the walk-in sites. Alas, we were looking for a campground to set up our monster tent at 8:00 on Thursday evening.

We didn't have to go far to find La Wis Wis, a campground Mark and I had been to with his brother and sister-in-law years ago. We were familiar with it, and were excited that they had quite a few spots still available. So, as the sun began to fade and darkness set in, Mark was setting up our tent.

Let's go back a bit, though. Back home in Yakima, we were facing the hottest weekend of the summer (our house registered at 106.9!!) and Mark and I were really looking forward to getting up to the cool air in the mountains. However, as we got further and further up the pass, the thermometer numbers in our car did not seem to be getting lower. In fact it was still about 90 when we got to the campground at 8:30pm! Add the moisture in the air to the temperature, and we're looking at a whole lotta' fun!!!!!!!! NOT! Wow! It was so stinkin' hot.

Anyways, Mark set up the tent, we got Maggie to bed and we sat and relaxed in front of the glow of our lantern. No way were we going to start a campfire in that heat!! The next morning, Maggie was anxious to ride her bicycle around the campground, so she and I went for a little walk. We didn't get far, when we noticed a campsite about 3 down from ours that was quite a bit bigger and a little more secluded. It happened to be open, so Maggie and I went back and told Mark about it. After hemming and hawing, we figured since Matt and Camden would be joining us, we should move to the larger site. Mark and I threw all our stuff into the Yukon, tossed our air mattress on top and carefully drove to the new site. We walked back to the old site, unstaked the THREE ROOM TENT and carried it, YES, CARRIED it to the new site. Needless to say, we got a few glances from our camping neighbors.

Once our move was completed, the heat started to set in again, we found our way down to the river. Whew! What a difference some passing ice water makes in the temperature! It was a good 10 degrees different down by the river! We stayed for awhile and Mark taught Maggie how to throw rocks into the water. We spent most of the day down at the river, we even brought down our chairs and set them in the water just to keep cool.

That night, we did light a small fire to roast some hot dogs and cook some s'mores. Maggie really likes all the components of "the s'more," but for some reason, when you put it all together, she won't have anything to do with it. Go Figure.

On Saturday, Mark's brother, Matt came up with our nephew, Camden. It was Camden's first camping experience, and we were very excited to be a part of it! We thought it would be fun to pile in the car and go up to Mount Rainier for the afternoon. Of course, we all thought it would be quite a bit cooler, but again, we were wrong. From what I understand, it was one of the hottest days on record up at the visitor center. So, we had some ice cream, looked around for a bit and then headed back to camp. When we got back, we took Matt and Camden down to the river to throw rocks and cool off. Aside from Maggie nailing Camden in the back of the head with a rock, I think we all had a great time!. ;)

Again, that night we lit a fire and roasted some hot dogs and made s'mores. Here is a picture of two very tired Lee's, ready for bed.

The next morning, it was much cooler.

Of course, because we were on our way home!

Some Things Never Change...Or Do They?

So, I was looking through some pictures tonight, and came across these of my nephew, Cameron. Mark and I took Maggie to San Diego this summer and I have told friends about how shocked I was to see how much Cam had changed. I know, I know, that is HAS been 3 years since the first picture was taken (October, 2005), but still...he looks totally different!

I did think it was funny, though that he has the same intense look on his face in each picture. And of course, each time, he DID get the brass ring!

San Diego Bay

This is kind of out of order, but hey, just be happy I'm getting my updates, in, right?

On the Sunday of our trip, we met with some of my Aunts, Uncles and cousins down at San Diego Bay. I always like to visit with family, unfortunately, it never seems like there's enough time to visit with everyone.

Maggie had fun digging in the sand. Give her a shovel, and she's content for a good hour at least. She really wanted to go in the water, but after mommy and daddy discussed it, we decided ug, I mean, uh, no..

This is what a little girl who has had too much fun looks like. She hardly ever falls asleep in my arms, and after playing in the sun and the sand, she just passed out. !pobrecita!

Weird Al

Okay, Okay, so I am a dork. I honestly thought Mark would have blogged about this concert, but I guess I will have to.

Mark and I had the, ah hem...privilege to see Weird Al at our local fair last summer and when we saw that he would be playing at the San Diego County Fair while we were there, we figured we had to go, and we had to take Cameron, too.

You see, I had no intention of going to the concert last summer, no offense, Al, just didn't have any desire to go. However, I do love my husband and thought that I should go because he wanted to go. We almost didn't get to go last summer, but thanks to some friends of ours who saved us some seats (the concert was free), we were able to see it. I have to say, this guy is a great performer! He really did put on great show and was very entertaining.

So, when the opportunity came to see him and take our nephew with us, we had to do it. Mark introduced Cameron to Weird Al when Cam was only about 3 or 4 years old. Cam was infatuated with Star Wars and Weird Al had just come out with a few Star Wars parody songs, Cam loved them. We had to play them over and over again any time he was in the car with us. When we asked Cam if he wanted to go to the concert he was so excited. When we go to the concert, he was so excited. He decided he had to call one of his friends to gloat about being there, and lo and behold his friend was sitting in the same box seat section that we were, just 2 rows behind us! Thousands of people at this concert, and this kid and his family are within the 25 or so in our box. Amazing. Needless to say, that made Cam's night even better. Good Times.

Balboa Park and The Zoo (Pt Two)

After the Polar Bears, we also had enough of the walking and enough of the heat and met my parents up at the Merry-Go-Round. We were really looking forward to this part. I think my parents were, too, since they had their own car and could have left straight from the zoo! My dad had already purchased a good handful of tickets so that we could all enjoy the 5 minute ride many times! My sister met us there with her 3 kids, so Maggie had a lot of fun with her cousins.

This Carousel has been around for a very long time, it was one of my favorite things at the park when I was a kid. Something really special about it, is that it still has the Brass Ring game. You know the one, or maybe you don't. There is a machine mounted up high that releases lots of iron rings and one brass ring per ride. When your horse (or whatever animal you happen to be on) passes the machine you can reach for the ring. If you get the brass ring, you win a free ticket to ride again. When I was a kid, I was terrified of reaching up to grab the ring and falling off of my horse. So, I took the plunge, or the reach and......I got it!! I couldn't believe it! On my first try, I got the brass ring!! I was very excited, as you can see from the photo. :)

Maggie loves the carousel and the only reason she got off was because we were leaving to go on the train at the park. This was another thing that I loved when I was a kid. Of course, the seats have gotten a lot smaller than they were when I was little. Or could they be the same and I'm not so little. NAH! If we would have let her, Maggie would have gone around and around the train all night. Alas, Mark and I had already purchased Weird Al tickets for our nephew and had to leave for the San Diego County Fair.

This is Maggie and her cousins, Cameron, 13, Blake, 6 and Kayla, 5. We took Cameron to see Weird Al. We all had a great time. Cam even talked Mark into going onto a few "fun" fair rides. :) Uncle Mark is SO cool! :) hahaha

Balboa Park and The Zoo (Pt One)

On Monday, during our vacation, we went to The San Diego Zoo at Balboa Park. My dad took the day off from work and we made it into a real family trip. We started off our zoo trip by taking the tour bus in the park that hits the main parts of the zoo. It was fun to pass Maggie back and forth between ourselves and my parents to see the animals.

When we got off the bus, we took Maggie into the Children's Zoo, so she could pet some animals. We were a bit disappointed when they only had goats available, but Maggie didn't know any different, so I guess that's okay.

After walking around a bit, my parents decided they had had enough walking (if you ever go, prepare to walk...a lot!!!) and they waited for us up at the Merry-Go-Round outside the park. Mark and I took Maggie on the sky buckets to go see the polar bears, which are a must-see at the zoo. Walking into the exhibit, you could sense the polar bears were having fun, because the viewing area was packed with on-lookers. The bears were definitely putting on a show, playing with their toys and rolling around in the water.

Vacation To San Diego

This is Mark, Maggie and my brother, Neil

Late in June, we took a real family vacation ( our first, I believe) to San Diego to visit our family. Mark has a lot of our pictures on his web blog, Dad's Point of View. I didn't think I needed to add the same info onto this blog, but thought I'd fill in some gaps.


First of all, we had the pleasure of staying with my brother Neil and his wife, Liz, the first night in town. They took us to this really fabulous dessert place for dinner, and of course, dessert. The restaurant was called Extraordinary Desserts. I've tried to explain to everyone just how delicious our dinner and dessert was, but really, you HAVE to look at their web site to see for yourselves what I can't explain in words. After searching the menu for something for Maggie, the very helpful, um, waiter/ess, helped us decide on a grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, at this restaurant, it couldn't be just any grilled cheese. It was a smoked mozzerella pannini to be precise. She loved it!! I was glad, because it was probably the most expensive grilled cheese she's ever ordered (and ever will, unless we go back someday...). It was a lot of fun, thanks Neil and Liz for a great night out!

The next day, as you can see on Mark's blog, we went to visit my brother's old fire station on the beach. Maggie really enjoyed driving in the big truck. After the fire station we walked down the boardwalk to get a coffee. Neil and I visited while Mark took Maggie down to the water. It was really nice to see my brother. He and his wife are super busy, so I was glad that we got to spend some time with them.

Memorial Day Fun

                      

    This weekend, we had a barbecue with our friends at the Golbek's house. Mark's dad had discovered a volleyball net in the garage at their house, so Mark and Scott set it up. We all had a great time playing, the kids tried to play, but they more just avoided getting hit and then threw the ball over the net.  Notice the clouds over the hills? They made the barbecue very interesting. We played through the rain, until all of a sudden, we just got a down-pour. At that point, we decided it was time for dessert in the garage.

Soon enough, it was nice again, and the kids wanted to play outside. It actually got so nice, that the kids decided to turn on the sprinklers. Maggie discovered Regan and Cade's t-ball set. I think she has a new favorite game! She also had a great time chasing the "big kids" around. Just to see the look on her face as she runs around with them is worth sitting in the rain any day!

   

Welcome to McDonald's, May I Take Your Order?

Last week, as a fundraiser for our school, one of the local McDonald's held a McTeacher's night. It's a great, quick and easy way for our school to raise money (without selling magazines or cookie dough). I was lucky enough to be the only teacher they allow to use the cash register, thanks to my many years as a cashier in my youth :). I have a new-found respect for those that call McDonald's their place of employment. We had a restaurant full of hungry and excited children and all of the employees were very friendly and helpful. Thanks to McDonald's who helped us raise almost $500.00 in just 3 hours!

Bloomsday 2008

Well, who would have thought that I would have not only started, but actually finish a 12K (that's 7.46 miles to the layman )? On Sunday, May 4th of 2008, I joined a group of friends to partake in the nationally recognized race in Spokane, WA. We walked among 43,640 others on this rather unusually warm day in May. We had many different forms of entertainment along the way that ranged from an old man playing the accordian to a pretty decent group of young rock n' rollers to a couple of people dressed as gorillas. We also saw some very...ahem...different styles of running/walking attire. Some walked the entire thing in flip flops, some in high heeled boots. How? Who knows...! There were clowns, teenagers in 70's get-up, and apparently there was a man earlier in the race that ran in a french maid's uniform. It takes all kinds.... There were some very inspiring people too...like the teenagers that pushed, yes, PUSHED their friend in a wheelchair the entire way, or the woman that appeared to have prepared herself to run this race but somehow broke a leg sometime before and did the entire thing (even Doomsday hill) on crutches.

I have to say that I was quite proud of myself (and of course the other ladies, too!). Some people may be discouraged to hear that they came in 31,536th place. But knowing that at least 12,000 people finished after me helps take the ouch out of that placement. I also had the best pace I've ever had per mile since high school. I wasn't sure I was even going to finish the race before they closed the route, but I did! It took me 2 hours and 19 minutes to complete Bloomsday. Next year, I am shooting for 2 hours or under. I'll let you know how that goes! :)

Happy ??th Birthday, Grandma!

On April 19th, we celebrated Grandma Lonni's birthday. She decided that for her birthday, she wanted Maggie to help decorate her birthday cake. Mind you, Maggie has never done this before, so of course, Mommy was a little apprehensive of giving Maggie a knife loaded with frosting. Note the look of surprise on grandma's face when Maggie starts to wave the loaded knife around.

Here, Grandma is showing Maggie how to do the sprinkles.

Here, Maggie is putting the candles on the cake and Grandma is giving Mommy a look of love after Mommy asked Maggie if she knew how to count "that high."

New Dad's Point of View....

Hey, I just thought that I would mention that I (Mark) am going to try and voice my point of view... I started a blog years ago, and never did anything with it. Now I will try and share some tidbits, or points of view of our home blog. (warning, may contain gratuitus nerdiness at times...)

the link is at the side of our page. enjoy

-Mark

Day With Camden

Earlier this month, Mark took Maggie on a Saturday to spend the day with Matt and Camden. They had a great time playing at the park with their cameras. Oh yeah, and they played with the kids, too! :)

I'm not sure who took this picture of Camden, but it was too cool to leave out!

The guys tried to get a group shot of the cousins, but neither of the kids would stick around long enough for a good picture. I thought this was pretty cute of Maggie checking in on Baby Shelby.