Hunt Family Connection

Race for the Cure - Remembering Aunt Marg

Every year I try to participate in one of Komen's Race for the Cure events - I've walked in Minneapolis and Portland, and "slept in for the cure" when my family walked in Madison. It's been even easier to participate these last two years because we now have an annual Race for the Cure event right here in Eugene. Last year mom and dad came to walk with me, and this year my Aunt Linda came for the walk!

Last year the weather was just miserable and it rained on us the entire time. I had the kids in a double stroller and they weren't incredibly happy about being out there. This year was much improved!

The weather was a little cloudy, but it was pleasant...I was very comfy with a sweatshirt and yoga pants to walk in. Jim and Chery were able to stay home with the kids so we could walk a little faster. And I was able to take some pictures!

We went early to walk around the sponser booths (to collect a few goodies!) and then we got lined up with everyone at the starting line...

Walking with me this year were the lovely Aunt Linda....

And the wonderful Kenny...

There were a lot of people cheering everyone on and entertaining us along the route....

...And we enjoyed a beautiful fall morning.

I always get a little bit teary-eyed when I get to the finish line, 'cause I can't help but think of my Aunt Marg, who unfortunately isn't here to walk with us anymore because of breast cancer. I continue to walk for her, and I feel passionately about helping to find a cure for this.

After finding our way back to the car (we took the shuttle from Valley River and that worked out great!) we picked up Faith, then made a stop at VooDoo Donuts and got treats for everyone...

I really do love participating in the walk and it's even more special to me when people take the time and energy to do it with me. Thanks to everyone that made it a very special day :)

Pumpkin "Harving"

For whatever reason, Graham is having a hard time remembering that the word is CARVING and keeps calling it pumpkin harving! Makes me giggle every time!

After naps and rest on Saturday Kenny and Faith came over for dinner. Kenny worked all day on YUMMY ribs and brought a gigantic pan of them and Faith helped bake and frost a very tasty cake. We had the sweet corn from Hentze Farms - Kenny wrapped them up in foil and cooked them on the grill. (Have I mentioned that Kenny cooks?? I really like that!)

After dinner we decided to carve pumpkins and picked out patterns to use.

Kenny and I popped the lids on a few pumpkins and tried to convince Graham to help dig out some seeds. He really wasn't into it and certainly didn't want to touch the insides with his hands.

Faith tried to convince him it was fun and showed him how to grab a big pile of seeds...

He eventually stuck his hand in and grabbed a few seeds out, but he didn't love it as much as I thought he might.

Carving....

And finally the finished pumpkins all lit up :)

Mine is the one on the left (kitty cat), Faith's is the one in the middle (headless horseman - isn't it awesome?!), and Kenny's is the one on the right (bat on pumpkin). I think they turned out pretty cool, and as much as I was a bit worried about the mess, I have to admit I had fun doing it :)

 

Visiting Hentze Family Farm

Linda got in on Friday afternoon - I went and picked her up at the airport and then we headed down to the Hilton to pick up our things for the Race for the Cure. We shopped some of the pink goodies and then left to go meet the kids at the house. We had a fun dinner at Red Robin and came home to open presents that Aunt Linda brought - new books for them both! (Thanks Linda - the kids both chose their new books to read last night at bedtime!)

On Saturday morning Grandma Chery had tipped us off to activities going on at Hentze Family Farms, including tethered hot air balloon rides! Unfortunately, by the time we got out there, they had to take them down and put them away because of wind. We managed to find other things to do though...like checking out the chickens....

pretending to ride the tractors.....

and riding out to the pumpkin patch....

where I magically got the kids to pose for these shots with pumpkins!

Graham was actually asking to go back home when we were done - poor guy was worn out and said he wanted to go home to rest! Aunt Linda bought peaches and sweet corn before we left and then we headed home for lunch and nap/rest time.

Not quite what I had expected, but still a great time. It was a nice little farm that wasn't so crowded and crazy like Lone Pine. We needed our rest for the evening activities...more on that soon :)

Auntie Linda was here!

Auntie Linda was here for the weekend....to visit and to participate in the 2nd annual Komen Race for the Cure here in Eugene. She just left today.....

...but while she was here we had a wonderful weekend packed full of fun stuff.

I just finished editing the pictures and will be posting them with the stories of the weekend in the next few days so as not to overwhelm anyone (or myself!)

So stay tuned for stories about our trip to Hentze Family Farm, ribs and pumpkin carving, the Race for the Cure, and other fun stuff :)

Big Girl Happenings!

She's quite the big girl all of a sudden! A couple nights ago I couldn't find Ellie's pacifier (out of the millions it seems we've had over the last 4 1/2 years it was the last one standing) so I decided that was as good of a sign as ever that we should try sleeping without it. I really had no choice since I couldn't really run out and get another at bedtime, and really she's just too old for it anyhow. It was more of a habit than anything, so I very casually said that the "nuk" was missing and we'd just have to go to sleep without it. I got her a little sippy cup of Propel (an acceptable substitute for the nuk apparently) and that was the last I heard from her that night. Yay!

The second night went just as smoothly, and the following morning when she got up I asked her if she needed to go potty before getting dressed. She said yes, so I thought I'd get her on the potty and see what happened. At the risk of over-sharing, she pretty regularly (every morning like clockwork actually) has a dirty diaper within the first hour or two of being awake...I thought I'd try and take advantage of this knowledge :) She sat on the potty with a step stool under her feet (so she felt sturdy on the seat) and a book to look at. I am happy to report that Ellie did ALL of her "business" on the potty - woo hoo!! I'll give that another try this morning and I know that Sabrina puts her on the potty throughout the day too - hopefully we're on our way to no more diapers!

My baby girl is growing up and I'm pretty excited for her. I'd like for her to go to preschool next year, so these are all good steps forward. And can I just add that Graham was soooo adorable and supportive when Ellie used the potty...he shot out of bed to come congratulate her (and admire her work - LOL) He even gave her a little high five :)

Big and important days here!

Day Trip to the Coast

Saturday was supposed to be a nice day, so Kenny suggested a day trip to the coast - sounded great to me! We ended up on a beach between Newport and Depoe Bay and it was gorgeous!

Kenny knew this was a popular spot for surfers...it was fun to watch the handful that were braving the chilly water...

We did a lot of walking along the beach and ran into a couple of these....

...quite a few of these....including this particular one that escorted (or followed/stalked depending on how you looked at it!) us along a pretty long stretch of beach....

....and we even ran into a couple panning for gold (no lie - Kenny asked!) here....

After leaving the beach we had dinner at Georgie's in Newport and then made our way home as the sun was setting over the ocean...which we stopped to stare at for a bit

Such a great day - no schedules, no worries

Happy :)

More about getting my iPhone

It's no secret that I have struggled with my relationship with AT&T - I dread going to their stores because I know we'll be treated poorly and won't leave feeling like the valued customers we have been for many years now.

Since the cell phone plan is in Wil's name we needed to make time to go in together to figure out what to do with the plan, and since my contract with AT&T was up and I was due for an upgrade, I decided it was also time to make the move to the iPhone! I had done some research about different plans as Verizon and Sprint are also selling the iPhone and I was ready to negotiate....especially after having read this blog entry: Recipe for a new iPhone 4S upgrade & $730 annual savings...

Past experience told us it might be a better idea to skip the AT&T store and head straight to Radio Shack - remember "Krazy Keith" anyone?? Well Krazy Keith wasn't there, but Sherry did a pretty decent job of getting us started. Wil was grandfathered into an unlimited data plan for his iPhone, but according to the data I pulled up through our account, he doesn't use much of it. We were hoping that there was some way to switch the unlimited data plan to my number (same acct., different number....doesn't seem too tough right?!) Wrong...apparently that's impossible. I know this because three different customer service agents told me so.

Once Sherry got on the phone with customer service it was clear she wasn't going to be quite as aggressive as I was prepared to be with them....I was out of contract after all! So I asked if I could take the phone and talk to them....she was fine with that. While talking to the first agent she picked up on my statement about leaving AT&T and pretty quickly moved me up the chain of command. After talking with that guy for awhile and still feeling like I was ready to jump ship, he got someone else on the line. I spent some time with him trying to convince me it was silly to move to Sprint for a variety of reasons (none of which I really believe) but I stayed firm on my position. (I want to assure everyone that knows me that I remained calm, friendly, and was even joking around with this guy from time to time!) I told him that I understood we weren't going to get the unlimited data plan moved to my line, but that it seemed like it was all going to end up costing me more if I stayed....that it was a shame that Wil had been a loyal customer for so long and they weren't really working with us to get us to stay...and I finally just laid out how much it would cost if we both got unlimited data plans at Sprint (essentially $80 if I went with an individual plan, or $140 if Wil and I both went to Sprint and got a family plan) I got put on hold for a little bit while this guy "worked on it" - he came back with a solution :)

• We were able to lower the base cost of our plan by $10 and to make sure we "never have to pay for any overages" he gave us 3000 more rollover minutes to add to the ones we already had...bringing us to 6000.
• The plan he changed us to has 450 minutes/month, but for the life of the 2-year contract he said he would throw in 100 more each month to bring us to the 550 we orginally had.
• Wil got to keep his unlimited data plan and we added the 2GB data plan on to my phone - this automatically got us our free mobile to mobile minutes for any carrier
• I'm not sure how, but unlimited text messaging is still in there for both phones and in fact there is some deal going on right now that will get us free texting for the next 6 months
• He also threw in some sort of $50 rebate

So our current bill for both lines has been about $137/month. Our new bill (keep in mind we added services!) will be $134/month - $67/person....below the numbers I gave him to shoot for and it will actually be more like $124/month for the next 6 months because of the free texting. YAY!

It may not seem like much, but if I had gone out on my own to an individual plan at Sprint it would have cost me about $960/year. I will be paying AT&T about $744 this year, a savings of $216. Every little bit counts....and on top of it all, I feel like AT&T really worked at keeping us....and that counts for something too.

As luck would have it, Radio Shack had ONE iPhone 4s left to sell (the rest they had were all pre-orders and they couldn't give me those) and I got it so I was able to leave the store with my new phone! They were able to transfer all my contacts over to the new sim card and they put on a great protective shield for me. Again - I can't say enough good things about Radio Shack's customer service...we had another really good experience working with them :)

I LOVE my phone and have been playing with it all weekend. I also updated my operating system on the laptop, so it's been a very tech-filled weekend. I have MUCH to learn about what my phone and computer can do together and separately...but I'm having a blast trying to figure it all out!

I own an iPhone!

I've waited a long time for my iPhone and today was finally the day. I'm beyond excited and snapped this picture to prove it!

So psyched that I can update the blog from my phone now!

Neighborhood stroll

While the weather was so nice last weekend, we took a stroll through our neighborhood before lunch. Ellie was happy to walk, but Graham wanted to take his bike.

I took my camera with - it was such a beautiful fall day!

We had to take a little break right here before heading back home....

I think this was my favorite shot from the walk...

Pa-Paw came over after lunch and watched the kids while I went out on a bike ride myself (thanks Pa-Paw!!) I want more fall days like this before the rain comes to stay....

Lone Pine Farm - the annual adventure!

Saturday was beautiful! It's been so rainy and dreary and they say more is on the way, so when the weather guy said that Saturday was going to be the one sunny day we'd see for awhile, I decided it'd be a good time to get out to Lone Pine to get our pumpkins and hang out a bit.

Jim and Chery joined us for the adventure (thank goodness!) and I think everyone had a pretty great time :)

When we got there we started with the child size maze made of straw bales. Graham was a pro at finding his way out, and Ellie enjoyed running around....

A quick break to humor mommy by poking their heads through this thing :)

And then we split up to go our separate ways. Graham and Pa-Paw headed into the corn maze...

Ellie and I went to look at the goats and horses, and then Grandma Chery joined us for the cow train ride. Ellie wasn't so sure about the ride at take off (she did beg to go on the ride....couldn't tell by looking at her, right?!)....

...but it didn't take her long to get into it and start smiling :)

After the cow train Ellie and Grandma Chery went off to play and I waited for G and Pa-Paw to emerge from the maze. I waited a long time, but finally I could hear Graham chatting on his way out....

The cow train had stopped running by the time they came out - I thought Graham would be really bummed, but he handled it quite well :) We stopped by Batman to see how tall we are....

...and then on to a few more of the cut-outs for fun photos.

We met up with everyone else to have a little dinner - hot dogs! Then we were off on a mission to find pumpkins for the front porch. The kids had a blast looking through them all and bringing me their picks....

Graham called it the pumpkin maze!

We got it all paid for and loaded up in the Trailblazer to head home....the sun setting on the best day we've seen in awhile :) The kids helped me bring the pumpkins up to the porch and then were kind enough to stand still for a moment next to the whole display....

We watched a little Diego and Backyardigans to relax and settle down for bedtime - they both fell asleep quite fast once their heads hit the pillows.

I leave you with one last look at the front of the house - feeling very fall and festive!