Can Life Get Any Crazier?

Rehersal

2011-08-25T11:15:00.000-07:00

There was a lot of standing around and waiting at this rehearsal. I had nothing to do so I just took some snaps and heckled the bride and groom.

Maybe these boys had just a bit too much time on their hands. The wedding coordinator said that she would go over their duties the next day, right before the wedding. She had no faith that they could remember her instructions overnight. She was probably right.....

But then somehow everybody got all lined up.

They look ready!

A New Camera!

2011-08-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week my lens froze on my Nikon. It was my only lens too. I had been complaining about my camera for a while now, its old, in digital camera years anyway. So in order to have fabulous wedding pictures for his sister's wedding, Mitch went out and bought me a new Nikon.
Here is the first picture taken:

My crazy brother-in-law posing for the first picture with the new camera. Thank goodness it didn't break!

My son. He is growing too darn fast.

And my Ham.

Thanks for posing for the new camera boys!

Bridal Luncheon

2011-08-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, I know it has been a long time since I updated. But I figured it's about time I post some recent pictures and my sister-in-law's wedding seems like a good place to start.

Here we are at Kelly's bridal luncheon. I think I was only invited because I was driving Grandma up, because I was not in the wedding party. It was a fun and tasty lunch and good to meet Jeff's Mom, Sister, and his nieces. We could not have asked for better weather for an outdoor lunch!

Fall Leaves are a BIG Pain

2010-10-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

I imagine this spider feels a little differently about the fall leaves than I do. A leaf crashing into her house is like the whole tree crashing into mine. She worked for about 1/2 hour to get it out. I watched the whole time, wanting to help, but pretty sure that me pulling the leaf out would have done more damage than just letting her do it. She got it out, did some minor repairs and was back to waiting for more house crashers.

Water Polo School - Help T Score

2010-08-22T23:10:00.000-07:00

This was T-man's first year of water polo, and he had not yet scored a goal, so during the tournament this week, they launched "Operation Help T Score". This is how the operation went down.

First they tried just passing him the ball. Whoops, he missed, and the race for the ball was on.

Well that did not work out so well, T basically looks like he got run over by his opponent.
This move was repeated before a time out was called.

During the time out the plan was re-explained to T by J-dude. He was supposed to just go hang out by the goal and they would get him the ball.
BREAK!

So the third time was the charm - he hung out down by the goal, they got him the ball and he gave the ball a toss.

There was no "THWAP" sound, but in it went, and "Operation Help T Score" was a success. The photographer got a little excited about the operation and lost focus and the ability to take coherent pictures. We would fire her - but wait - that's me. After the game, and win, the whole team celebrated the success of the operation, and somehow T got player of the game. In my opinion the success of the operation says a lot about this team, they had to work hard to make that happen, and repeated the operation with some of the other younger players. Everyone felt good about that and had a great time, and THAT is what it is all about!

Water Polo School - The Steal

2010-08-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

Next we will demonstrate a steal.

First you approach the opponent stealth-fully, keeping your eye on the ball.

Next, give the ball a little tap, right out of your opponents hand.

Finally swim after the ball to complete the steal.
Try not to make it look like you dunked your opponent when you made the steal - because you will get a foul called on you. If your opponent is a good actor you will get a foul called on you anyway. Practice the "faking getting dunked" move - it comes in handy!

Water Polo School - The Block

2010-08-22T22:38:00.000-07:00

The block is very important - done properly you can make your goalies life way easier.

First - stay close to the person that you are guarding, so if they do try to make a shot you can mess it up for them. Again - you want to hear the "THWAP" sound, this time on the arm of your opponent.

Second step is to go after that ball that missed the goal. Relief for the goalie, ball retrieval for your team, sore arm for your opponent. Everybody wins. Well, everybody on your team anyway.

Water Polo School - GOAL!

2010-08-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to J-man's Water Polo School. Today we will demonstrate how to score a goal.

First make sure there are no defenders around you and that your shot is clear.

The second step is to throw. Hard.

Third - you should hear a loud "THWAP" sound as the ball hits the back of the goal. The sound is important because when you throw hard there will be a large splash that you will not be able to see through, you need the sound to know that your mission was accomplished!
GOAL!

A Perfect Place to Sip Sangria...

2010-08-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

Our old deck had rotting boards and needed to be replaced. So we decided to spring for new one. Isn't it pur-dee?

We also replaced the back aluminum sliding glass door with a new vinyl one. Now the windows match.

Mandi likes the new deck, or maybe she just likes having the use of the back door again!

And of course some bird had to poop on it already. Seriously bird, can't you wait and let ME spill something on it first? I think I am going to spill some Sangria on it this weekend. Probably something else too, but we won't go there.

A Sign that Fall is Near!

2010-08-18T22:43:00.000-07:00

It was 95+ degrees outside for the 3rd day in a row, but it was our last chance to go check out the "New and Improved" Seahawks at training camp. I was going to bring T-man, but he came down with a little bit of pneumonia, so he had to stay home. He was kinda mad that he missed it, but I promised him that I will take him next year with out J-man! Deal!

We sweated through the practice, and then we got to shove some people around. Okay, I admit it, I shoved them toward the first one. After they got that first autograph, they figured out how to maneuver to the next one, and the next one, and the next one.

It was hard work for those boys to get in there!

But I brought home 2 happy boys!

I'm looking forward to seeing what 112 roster moves (or however many they made) can do for this team! Go Hawks!

Seafood Fest Summer Fun 7/10/2010

2010-07-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

So we have finally got some sun here! We had one really hot week (to try and make up for the cruddy June?) after the 4th of July. Now we are back to normal 70's and sunny. So we headed to Ballard for the Seafood Fest.

T is making sure that he will not over heat. Very Important to stay cool in the summer sun.

J-man saw the sign for the alligator on a stick and insisted that he had to try that. The verdict? "Tastes just like chicken. Only a little dry." Our little food critic!

The Viking crew that we had at the seafood fest. Of course we had to get them the Viking hats and pose for a picture by the huge salmon. What is a seafood fest with out that?

Oh wait. You can actually climb up into the big salmon! It looks hot in there. I'll just wait out here. I would rather eat the seafood than crawl around in it!

Can we put the Gortex and fleece away yet?

2010-06-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

That is T hiding under that sweatshirt, because it seems like summer is never going to get here!

We need sun. And warmth. And Vitamin D.
Any help would be appreciated!!

My first trip to Disneyland!

2010-04-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a tip if you ever take 2 little boys to Disneyland. Get 2 maps. They must have their own!

The plotting, the planning!

The rides!

The ice cream!

The Villains!

The characters!

The nephews!

And somebody always ends up in jail.
Oh wait. Wrong vacation, nobody ended up in jail - only the Dog Pound at Mickey's Toontown.

Had to Go Get Me Some Sun

2010-04-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

T-man and I took a little trip down to Southern California with Aunt Spoilsmerotten and our nephew Z. Just thought I would post some highlights of our trip.
The Dolphin Encounter - definitely a highlight. Both boys could not stop talking about it. They gushed facts about the dolphins for days.
T: They felt like rubber!
Z: They talk out of their blow hole!
T: Not their mouth!
Z: Our dolphin is a Mom!
I could go on and on. They did!

The guy standing behind me while I was taking pictures asked me if I had my camera on Ninja mode. Apparently that mode is when you take 200+ pictures in 15 min. I told him my camera is always on Ninja Mode.

Did you know that April 25th was world Penguin day? Well it was. And you see that little cutie blond in front of the penguins? He is my newest (and cutest, shhh) nephew. It was nice to get to spend a couple of days with him. I would just like to apologize to my sister-in-law for messing up his nap schedule for those couple of days, I hope he is back on track now!

We also saw Shamu while we were there, the Sea Lion Show and got drenched on a couple of water rides. Good thing it was sunny and warm in San Diego!

Sandals and Socks Guy Does Exist!

2010-02-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

He is alive and well in Seattle, just in case anyone was worried about him.

This is How I Entertain Myself.

2010-01-29T22:14:00.001-08:00

Sad I know, but they are just so fun and cute. The little boy chatters at the red dot, but you can't hear it in the video. The dog cracks me up, she herds them and mouths them like they are her puppies. Nothing but fun here!

Kitten Update

2010-01-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

Here is a much better picture of Izzy.

She is doing good, running around and playing with everything like kittens do. This afternoon she was playing with a box of Kleenex. She could hook the tissues with her little claws and pull them out. That was fun for awhile, but then she ran out of tissues. So she needed to take a closer look and stuffed her whole head in the box. When she could not get her head back out of the box she went into kitten panic mode. She was running around the living room and thrashing about like a crazy cat - only backwards. It took me awhile to catch her so that I could pull the box off her head, mostly because I was laughing so hard. Next time I hope the camera is closer so I can video or at least take a picture!

Here is my T-man with his Johnny Cat.

Johnny was not having such a good day. He seemed to be sleepy while his sister was running in circles (backwards ones) around him. So I decided that since I was planning on taking them to the vet to get them checked out anyway - maybe now would be a good time. Sure enough the vet found that he had a temp of 104. So while it is probably a viral kitty cold that he picked up while he was in foster care, we went ahead and started him on some antibiotics just in case. He did run around with his sister a little bit tonight, so I hope that means he is feeling better. And I really hope that Izzy doesn't get it too, or that if she does the vet is running a 2 for 1 special.

Mandi is completely smitten with the kittens. Tonight Mitch gave her a rawhide chip and she was happily munching on it in the dining room. Johnny Cat came up to see what she was chewing on and she gave it to him. Just handed over her raw hide like she was sharing a cookie with her buddy. Now I am not sure that I want the kittens eating raw hides, but what a dog. And I was worried she might eat the kittens!

Our house just grew by 8 feet.

2010-01-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

Well technically they are 8 paws.
Today we adopted Izzy:

and Johnny:

Their names were originally Bella and Edward since they are from Forks, but the boys wanted to pick their own names for the new cats. They are 4 1/2 months old and not from the same litter, but were bonded in foster care. We have been playing with them all evening, they are so cute and playful. We introduced Mandi right away, and it is going pretty good. The kittens are not afraid of her at all. Mandi keeps trying to grab them by their scruffs and wants to carry them around. I guess that is the Mom in her.

We are keeping the kittens in J-man's room for a few days until they get used to everything, and give them some space from Mommy Mandi. I am also hoping that the kittens bond with the boys, instead of me, for Mandi's sake. Poor girl, I hope she doesn't think she's been replaced.

This is the kitties tunnel, complete with faux mice. They love to run through it and Mandi loves to try and catch them coming out. It's going to be pretty entertaining around here for awhile!

My Favorite Dinner

2010-01-18T15:14:00.000-08:00

We just had this the other night and it is my (and Mitch's) absolute favorite dinner - Cranberry Chicken. The original recipe came out of the Portland's Palate cookbook. I have modified the recipe a bit and will share how I make my favorite dinner.

First of all - I think everyone needs a cookbook holder. My sister in law gave this one to me for Christmas. Love it!

You will need:
1 Tbs. Butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2/3 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs. Cider vinegar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen Cranberries:

These guys - no craisins or any of that nonsense, the real thing fresh from the bog. And give them a good rough chop.
Take your butter and your onion and put them in a 9x13 baker in a 400 degree oven until the onion is starting to get translucent. Then just shove the onion over to the edge of the pan and plop your chicken thighs in the pan. Bake the chicken for 25 min. While that is baking you make your sauce:

Mix the ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar and dry mustard with your cranberries.
After your chicken has been in for 25 min, take it out of the oven and scoop out those onions and put them in your cranberry sauce. Mix it all up and pour it back over your chicken. Now put the chicken back in the oven to finish cooking for another 25 min or until the chicken is done. You will have something that looks like this:

Only your pan will still be full of chicken. This is hard chicken to keep in the house though - because it is really yummy!We have this a lot when we have company coming for dinner. So invite your self over and I'll make some. Mitch makes sure I always have plenty of cranberries in the freezer!

Winter Fun!

2010-01-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

So the boys, and a few of their friends, have started ski school. Mitch takes them up and he gets to ski while they are taking lessons. They are all having so much fun, and look forward to the next lesson.

T is in the red, E is in the pink and J-man is in the brown.

T and J-man are waiting for class to begin.

J-man has mastered the ski lift and is going down the slopes.

T is still on the rope tow, but will probably try the lift next weekend.

And me? What am I doing while my boys are all off skiing? Me and my little girl hang out. And go to the dog park. And go to Starbucks. And it's quiet.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

2009-12-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

We got a ton of stuff done this weekend! We are making our lists and checking them twice. All that's left now is a trip to the post office, and several trips to the grocery store. Christmas cards are going out tomorrow and we even got our Santa pictures done! So maybe life won't be so crazy this Christmas. Maybe.

Belt Exam Day!

2009-12-05T22:59:00.000-08:00

This morning T-man had a belt exam. He is testing for his green stripe. He said he was not nervous, and he did a great job. There were big smiles on his face during the exam - so he must have had fun too! We have to wait until Monday at class to see if he earned his stripe, he is confident that he did.

Kicking the shields.

Doing his forms.

Good Job T-man!

Black Belt!!!

2009-12-05T22:55:00.000-08:00

Today was a very proud day for our family. J-man earned his black belt!
The test was intense and more than 2 hours long. Master Dan said that if nobody threw up he would be dissapointed - but they were all tough and nobody threw up (I was kind of glad about that). They worked really hard the whole time, doing kicks, forms, sparring, special technique, kicking the bag and finished off by breaking some boards.

Our yard was a MESS!

2009-11-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

I was out in the back yard with Mandi, watching her do squirrel patrol, and had a brilliant idea! I ran back in the house to recruit my workers and had grand plans of getting the back yard all raked up. After all it has not rained in 6 or 7 hours, and after several rain and wind storms this may be the longest dry spell we are going to get this fall.
So much for my helpers. Look how much they helped.

Thanks boys.

It's a Girl!

2009-10-24T22:32:00.000-07:00

Introducing our newest family member! Her name is Mandi Mae, she is a year old Lab mix. We found her through a search on Petfinder.com. She was brought into a shelter pregnant and was taken in by an area rescue so that she could have her puppies in a safe place away from the shelter. They said that she was a good mom to her 7 puppies and they all found good homes. Now she is part of our family and she is the best dog!
We had a nice long car ride home, and she is good in the car. We came home and had a bath (not one of her favorites), a trip to the vet(flea preventative anyone?), and then a trip to Petco - we needed a new collar and tag!

This is the tag maker at Petco, Mandi and the boys were watching her tag being engraved. Her new collar is reflective!

It was a pretty exhausting day for everyone. I think she is going to be very happy with us, and this is just the fur therapy that I needed.

Isn't she the cutest?

Another sad day for us

2009-10-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Yukon had a bad fall down the deck stairs last night and this morning Mitch and I took him into the vet and said goodbye. It was so hard to let him go, we just couldn't let him suffer in pain anymore. The whole family had a big cry this morning. T-man broke my heart when he said that Yukon was like his brother.

I am going to miss you Yukon - you were the bestest, dumbest, most lovable dog in the whole world. Thank you for loving us, being gentle with my babies, being rough with my boys, and always knowing the difference. Thank you for being my constant shadow, willing and ready to go anywhere or nowhere, and never complaining when you got left behind. Thank you for cleaning up my floors, all the food you thought was "extra" and for always entertaining us. I am so glad that we got to be your family.

Yukon Jack
June 28, 1998 - October 13, 2009

Comic Relief

2009-10-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

So this is the conversation between myself and J-man while sitting in the kitchen this evening.

J-man: (Farts Loudly)

Me: What was that for?

J-man: Paybacks for earlier.

Me: At least I warned you.

J-man: Yeah, but not early enough so I could leave the room!

This is why I love having boys! I needed a few good laughs today too, it has been a rough week!

So Monday morning at work, I got notified that my position was being eliminated. I was shocked. I will be able to finish out the year at my current job, and then I can either bump someone with less seniority in another department, or sit on the re-hire list and hope that somebody quits or retires. I started coping on Monday night with large quantities of wine. When I woke up on Tuesday I was sill laid off, so that didn't work. Now I just have to put up with the pitied looks I get from my co-workers for the next 3 months. I was not the only one laid off, 145 people were notified on Monday county wide, so I am now referring to Monday as "Black Monday". A lot of the fellow lay offs were my friends and co-workers. It really sucks.
So the next three months could bring lots of change to my family, we shall see if it is good, bad or ugly.
On a positive note - our application was approved for adoption! Woo Hoo! Yes, we are adopting - we want another dog in our house. We filled out an application for Lab Rescue and I was just notified today that our application was approved. Now we are just waiting for a dog that will fit our family. Our request was a dog that was good around kids and other dogs, since that is what we seem to have a lot of in our house. Hopefully we will not have to wait long, I want Yukon to have a buddy. I think he has been missing Ditto too. I know I have.

My life is crazy cause I make it crazy.

2009-09-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty exciting day around here. J-man turned 10, a very big milestone!

He is a decade old.

Double digits.

I think he is officially a tween.

And I have to stop telling people I am 29.

See, I told you it was exciting.

So because it was his birthday, and a school day, we had to go get birthday treats. Baking treats was not an option, because the kitchen is still, well, not usable. So J-man decides that he wants to bring donuts. (Doughnuts? Donuts? Dictionary anyone?) I figure that is a safe, easy treat. Everybody likes donuts, right? So after we got ready for school this morning we head out to get the donuts. It was 8am and we had plenty of time for a slight little pit stop at Starbucks. Mommy needs her fix you know. And then we can go to the grocery store.

There are 29 kids in his class, so that means we need 3 dozen donuts. Guess what? Our grocery store didn’t have 3 dozen. So we got the 22 that they had and went to the other store across the very busy, and under construction, street. Crap, that store didn’t have any. So we got back in the car and headed to the next closest grocery store. They had plenty, so I got the remaining donuts and we headed home.

I was supposed to be home for the appliance deliveries. Eeek! It is now after 9am and they are there! At my house waiting for me! I had to keep apologizing for being late, who knew that a quick run to Starbucks and the store for donuts would take so long! So they start doing their thing and I had to start running around for them – turning on and off breakers, showing them the dead appliance graveyard in the garage and emptying out the refrigerator.

And then the boys tell me its time to go to school. What? 9:30 already? Nope 9:45, RUN! (By the way – I just love late start Fridays – yeah, my eyes are rolling.)

I tell the guys that I will be right back, I have to run the kids and the donuts to school. So the boys and I get back in the car and head to school. When I get to school the boys go to line up, or what ever they do and I head to the office with my stack of donut boxes. Guess what? J-mans class has a nut allergy. So even though I bought a nut free treat, the donuts are made at a store that makes other donuts that have nuts. Cross contamination. Damn. So the donuts can not go in the classroom. J-man doesn’t know this. He is going to be disappointed. I leave one dozen donuts for the office staff and take the others with me, promising them that I will be back with a nut free treat for the class ASAP, but I have to get back home quick because I still have 3 appliance installers at my house. I hope they like donuts!

I head home to bad news. They hooked up the stove and no gas came on. OMG. I am ready to kill me a plumber. I say “Are you sure?” Like they don’t know what they are doing. “I paid a gas plumber to install that gas line with that shut off valve. Did you turn it on?” DUH. Did they turn it on. They start telling me I am going to need the gas company out to turn the gas back on. Ummm, it was never off. All my other gas appliances still work. Then I remembered about the shut off valve outside, got excited and went to flip that switch.

When I got back inside they said it still wasn’t working. Damn. Called the plumber and left a message. I hope I did not sound as b*tchy on the phone as I did in my head.

But then some good news, the fridge was in place, with the water hooked up and it all worked. Ahhhh. Thank you for that one piece of good news. The dishwasher was also in, and working. Amen.

Still do not have nut free treats, or any idea what to get, so I called my friend. Her daughter is also having a birthday and is in J-man’s class and I was supposed to bring the treats for both of them. I left her a message that our donuts got kicked out, the appliance delivery guys were enjoying them, but I need some nut free treat ideas, so I do not disappoint our kids. Please, please call me back.

Of course we were not done with our appliance problems yet, the microwave hood needed to be plugged in. Wha? Huh? Yeah, we had just a fan in that spot before and it only needed the wire that was sticking out of the wall, but this new appliance needs its own plug and breaker. So he installed it, but there was no power source. He left the plug just sort of hanging out in the cupboard above. Damn. I guess 2 out of 4 appliances isn’t too bad, right? Yeah, it is bad. Very bad. So I need a plumber and an electrician. Damn.

Meanwhile – I go to fb and post a plea for nut free snack ideas – and STAT.

Then the plumber calls back. He can be here at 2. Grrrr.

Pretty appliances, huh?

Oreos. Fb friends and the birthday girl’s Mom all agreed that Oreo’s are safe. So I race back to the grocery store, load up on snack packs of Oreo’s and head back to school. I still have a dozen donuts in my car and I am passing a fire station. DING. I park just as a fire truck pulls in. Yes, a crazy lady with a dozen donuts is at your fire station door. I try explaining that the donuts got kicked out of school, but I sounded even crazier, so I just said I wanted to make somebody’s day sweeter. And left. Back to school.

I drop the Oreo’s off without incident. I told them I called Nabisco from the grocery store to confirm that they are made in a nut free plant. And they are. Of course when you call Nabisco they want your name and phone number and e-mail address so they can use you for marketing and research. I said no thanks, I just need the nut info. Grocery store stock boy thinks I am crazy too – who calls Nabisco’s 1-800 number in the aisle of the grocery store? I do, apparently.

So it is now 12:15 I have to be home by 2. I have no gas. And I need to get to Costco to shop for the Cub Scout camp out tomorrow. Do I stop for gas in the neighborhood, or pray I can make it to Costco? Remember – I am crazy. So I am praying all the way to Costco. Please don’t run out of gas, please don’t run out of gas. Luckily my van has this trip computer that has a DTE countdown. Distance til empty? Well I hit the freeway at 10, 9, 8, hit the second freeway at 7. Up the hill, 6, 5, 4, approaching the exit, 3, on the exit 2. Off the freeway 1. So, so close. Still praying. I don’t have time to run out of gas! 0. It says zero and I am still driving.

I pull into Costco and there is a huge line for gas. Of course, its Labor Day weekend and everyone is gassing up to get out of town. At least if I run out of gas in line I can push the van up to the pump. I am sure that the drivers in line behind me will help push because they want their gas too. And if a few more people think I am crazy does it really matter? But I make it. I inch my way up in line to a pump with the thing saying zero for a good 2 miles and about 20 minutes. Good to know for next time. (Just kidding Mitch, I promise never to do that again.)

I got home from Costco safely and in time to meet the plumber. The plumber was able to get gas out of the line and start up the stove. Hmmm. Whatever. I am up to 3 out of 4 appliances working and nobody got hurt.

Time to go back to school! I volunteered this week to help get kindergartners to their buses. It’s like herding cats. So I went to school to herd some cats, I mean kindergartners, and get the boys. I think everyone got home safe from school this week. Even though the crazy lady was there!

Tonight we had a nice dinner out to celebrate J-mans birthday with his Grandparents. I finally relaxed, now that all my running around was done for the day. Phew this was one long day. And phew, this is one long blog post.

Happy Birthday J-man.

Downer Day Here

2009-08-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

It was a sad day here in our family. Our cat Ditto passed away this morning from kidney failure. I have 16 years worth of memories with Ditto, and I will miss him greatly. I put together a collage of some of my favorite Ditto pictures, and this is how I want to remember him. Even the shaved cat with the cone on his head, because the boys called him "naked Ditto" after his kidney stone surgery and we still laugh about it.

RIP Ditto.
April 1, 1993 - August 31, 2009

Rockin Out

2009-08-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

We now have rock in the kitchen - granite and slate that is! There has actually been a lot of progress in the kitchen, yet it seems like not much to report. We got the granite counter tops in on Saturday and now have a sink. Mitch spent all day today trying to get that sink functional. I spent all day going back and forth to Home Depot.

This is the granite counter top with the new tiles that are up, but not finished. The tile is off white and the decorative strip has slate in it. The floors will be slate also. But that is later this week. I hope. I need the contractor stars to align - is that too much to ask?

Here is the new sink. Doesn't the granite look good? I hope so, cause we are now broke! Mitch installed the faucet, the sprayer and the garbage disposal. So far nothing has leaked. Or should I say nothing has leaked since he took it apart and put it back together again. And suspiciously the power is still turned off to the garbage disposal. It is a bad combination of electricity and plumbing that he messed with for way too long today. I suggested we call the plumber to do it, he said why would we waste the money. Yeah - you working for several hours on something the plumber can do in a few minutes and the co-pays at the ER when you electrocute yourself will be much cheaper than just calling the plumber.
Maybe I am just bitter about being sent to Home Depot twice today. Well technically I went through the registers there 3 times today because I got a phone call when I was leaving the second time that we needed one more thing. At least I hadn't started the car yet. And on a happy note - if anyone needs to know where anything at Home Depot is, I can probably tell you. I even know the isle numbers. Oh, oh - maybe I can even get a job there now! But I would have to check out their health plan first - you know - in case Mitch electrocutes himself.

A little closer everyday......

2009-08-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well this is what the kitchen looked like when I got home from work today. It is actually starting to look like a kitchen again!

Now all we need is - well the list is long: counter-tops, floor, back splash tile, more paint and lots of other stuff.

I am wishing those lights above the glass doors were about 4 inches to the right. Frank might shoot me when he reads that. :-).

Hello Cabinets!

2009-08-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

This morning our kitchen looked like this:

Like the color? That is Ralph Lauren Khaki. We still need some touch up work - but we had to stop last week so the walls could dry in time for the cabinets.

But what a difference a day can make! Today the cabinet guy unloaded a truck full of cabinets! Into my house! Woo Hoo!

Aren't they pretty? Don't they look good with the paint?

Apparently they need a lot of these for installation:

And a lot of these:
I can't wait to see them all go together over the next couple of days. I hope they don't mind if I snap a few pictures - wait - who am I kidding? I'll take them anyway :-).

Water Polo Time

2009-08-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Water Polo only lasts 4 weeks in the summer - but it is J-mans favorite sport. And today, as I watched him play, I figured out why. He is pretty darn good. He had some amazing defensive plays, was a total team player and even scored a goal. So proud of him. He is number 4 in the white hat. I still haven't figured out the hats yet......

Recognize this Kitchen?

2009-08-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

I do not! Can you even tell it is a kitchen? Well it was and it will be again. We got it all primed last night and ready for paint.

Today the gas plumber is coming out to re-plumb the gas line into the floor and to re-plumb under the sink to give our new fridge a water line. This afternoon I hope to get the ceiling and walls painted so that it has a few days to dry before the cabinets get here.
It is coming right along! Woo Hoo!

July Wrap Up

2009-08-12T22:51:00.000-07:00

First - remember J-man and J-dude going Draggin? Well I made sure that it made it into the scrapbook - in style. They will thank me someday, maybe when they are 40 or so, but someday.
July went by really quick. We spent a lot of time at the pool. Swim meets were every Tuesday and Thursday, and both boys had good finishes to the season - T-man even won a heat at Champs with his relay team and they got 2nd place overall - that is a medal my friends. Not bad for his rookie season!

J-man waiting for his event.

T-man at Champs.

Of course, we couldn't make it out of July unscathed. T-man slipped while climbing onto the diving board and smacked his face up. Real good. He was sore for a few days and lost a baby tooth, but he was excited that he was on a "diet" of Popsicles and soft foods (rx'd by the dentist). He told EVERYONE about his "diet". Until he got sick of it and wanted some real food again!

We had a fun 4th of July - just stuck around the neighborhood to enjoy the picnic in the park, 50th Anniversary celebration at the pool and Fireworks over the lake. We had a nice visit with Aunt Kelly and her new boyfriend that weekend too.

The boys decided that they wanted to march in the River Days Parade with Cub Scouts. It was a hot, muggy July day, with a long wait to even start marching in the parade, but they thought it was a great time. And can't wait to do it again next year.

Gotta love a cute little man in uniform!

J-man carried the Pack Flag the entire length of the parade. All the other boys carrying flags took turns and passed them around. Our Cub Master kept checking on J-man to see if he wanted to give up the flag carrying - but he refused and proudly carried it all the way to the end of the parade. The Cub Master said he is one determined boy. I say he is stubborn like his dad, but determined sounds better, huh?

We also had a few dive meets in July. T-man did pretty good - going from being too scared to jump off the diving board - to can't stop jumping off the diving board - in a matter of a few weeks. He got the diving basics down this year. Look out next year!
J-man had an awesome dive season. He was diving great this year. Mitch took a bunch of videos of his dives, I have to figure out how to put them all together into one video. I can just learn some new software in my spare time, no problem!

And we got a family hike in during July too. It was a nice hot day, and we headed up to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area first thing in the morning and had a nice 5 mile hike with a 1200 ft elevation gain. This was Mitch and J-man's training hike for Mt. Si in August.

And there it is - The July wrap up.
Maybe now I can get back to some regular posting.
Maybe.

Light Rail - It makes people happy

2009-08-12T21:48:00.000-07:00

In July a monumental thing happened in Seattle - we finally got light rail. Working, people moving light rail.
We voted on it waaaay back in the 1990's (1995 I think?, 1998?) and it seems like it took forever to get built. So when they announced that on Saturday July 18th they were having the inaugural rides - and that it would be free to ride - I knew I was going to go. I have been excited about this! Light Rail! In Seattle! It only goes from Tukwila to Westlake right now, but they are adding on in multiple directions, and linking to Seatac airport in September.
So on July 18th I took my boys, and niece and nephews to Tukwila and we rode the new Sound Transit Light Rail on its opening day into Seattle.
Sound Transit threw a party on that day - and they were expecting the big crowds. The lines were long, but the wait was short - and we were entertained while we waited to get on board.
This was a magician that had the kids help him with his magic tricks, and it seemed like only a few minutes had passed and it was our turn to board the light rail cars.
The ride was nice and smooth, and very scenic. We had a great view of Mt. Rainier! And as we got close to Boeing Field, a plane was landing and seemed oh so close. And at every stop along the way there was people waving to each other. When we arrived in Seattle the kids all got Inaugural ride stickers. I am so glad that we went and took that inaugural ride - and I hope the kids remember it and when we have light rail all over Puget sound they can say they rode it on the first day, way back when it only went from Tukwila to Westlake.

Today - while I was in the bus tunnel waiting for my bus I was approached by an older Asian gentleman. He asked me if this is where he catches the light rail to go South. I told him that yes, he was in the right spot.
He got a big smile on his face and said - "This is my first time." He was so excited it was cute.
I clapped my hands and said "How exciting!"
He even got out his transit pass to show it to me - it was brand new and shiny - he was so proud. A few minutes later I heard the light rail coming, so I told him where to go stand so that he would be able to board. Right before he boarded he turned back to me and waved. I waved back. Then after he had gotten his seat, and the light rail cars started to pull away - he waved again. I love that he was so excited to ride the new light rail, just like I was super excited 3 1/2 weeks ago to ride for the first time. And waved - just like everybody did on that first day.

Light Rail makes me happy - and I am glad that I am not the only one. Smile.

Shooting the birds

2009-07-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

With my camera of course.
Remember our friends from a couple of years ago? They're back. Reproducing in our eves. Again.

Man are they loud. When we come any where near our house they start screeching warning each other that the people are there. I have not seen the babies mouths out the hole yet, so I am wondering if they hatched a little later this year than last.

The opening to the nest looks so dirty. Do you think I can get them to clean that up before they move out?

Yeah, I know you see me. And I know you don't like it that I am there, but guess what Mr. Bird? You are squatting in my eves and you just have to put up with us coming in and out of our front door if you want to stay. The screeching and dive bombing are not necessary, and please, stay out of my blueberries.

Draggin

2009-06-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

So the swim team has themes for the swim meets so the kids can show their team spirit. The theme last week was Jamaica and we didn't really dress up for that one. This week the theme was dress like a coach. So J-man and his buddy J-dude and I were having a conversation about what they should wear this week for dress like a coach week. They wanted to dress like coach Mike, cause he is so cool. I suggested that they go in drag. What is that? - they asked. I said that you could wear a girls swimsuit and dress like one of the girl coaches, after all there are three of them. They said they wanted to do both, so we spent last Saturday shopping for white v-neck tee-shirts and the perfect hat. After several stores and lots of "No way. That is way too expensive." from me, we finally found what they were looking for.
Here is the result:

Pretty darn good, huh?
But remember the suggestion that I made about going in drag? J-dude remembered it too.
So in the car on the way to the swim meet tonight the conversation went like this:
J-dude - holding up 2 girls swim suits: Hey J, which one do you want?
J-man: Huh?
J-dude: Remember? We're draggin!
J-man: Oh yeah!
Me - hysterical laughter!
Here is the result:

I think the picture says it all. I love these boys - they are constant entertainment for me!
And yes - this one is going in the scrapbook - and the title will be.....
DRAGGIN!

Boys Wear Swim Caps Too

2009-06-16T21:17:00.000-07:00

If they refuse to get a haircut, they wear a swim cap.

And J-man refuses to get a hair cut.
He swam 2 events tonight also, this was his backstroke start.

This is the freestyle part of his 100 IM, and this was the first time he swam this event.
I'm going to have to check his time and see if I can swim it faster than he can. I might have some work to do!

Just keep swimming

2009-06-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hey! Who is that? Is he in a swim meet? Oh my, T-man had his first swim meet today!

Look at him go! Don't pay any attention to the fact that there are no other swimmers in the pool because they have all finished - just watch T-man!

Well, it is sort of side breathing..... with a smile on his face!

And he hits the wall! Way to go little man! We are so proud of you! I'll have to update this when we get his time. It can only get better from here!

UPDATE: T-man's time was 47.78 in the 25yard Freestyle.

Hmm... Stand by... Technical Difficulties

2009-06-15T23:17:00.000-07:00

Not sure what is going on with the blog background.... will get fixed ASAP, when I have a few spare moments!

The Dust May Never Settle

2009-06-10T21:52:00.000-07:00

Are you kidding me? I have not blogged in 3 months? I kept saying that I will blog when I am not so busy. Well I realize that may NEVER happen. More stuff keeps coming up. School is almost out, but we still have stuff planned every night and nothing is really winding down. And in the midst of it all we took a week off and went on vacation.
Ahhh, vacation. We flew back east and spent a week on the Atlantic Ocean, playing in the waves and swimming in a pool. It was a fabulous vacation. So before I get back to the reality of daily life, let me share some vacation photos.

The Pool. Many hours were spent in this pool by all of our family members.

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C
Exhibit D
Exhibit E & F

Exhibit A, C, G, H, I & J

And these three peeps are the center of it all. My Aunt Michelle, Uncle Paul and Mom. They along with their children and grandchildren (holy moly they have 9 [almost 10] grandchildren already!) had a family reunion last week. We stayed together in the same house for a week with peace and harmony. Okay, maybe there was not a lot of peace, but we all got along and had a great time!

A new view! And its Golden!

2009-03-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

I got an early birthday present! A new lens! So now the D50 is up and running again and I will be able to take (and share of course) lots of pictures. I got it early because Mitch wanted me to have it for J-man's taekwondo tournament this weekend. Thanks Mitch!

Look at that gold medal! Try not to be distracted by the shaggy hairdo, concentrate on the LMA Open Gold Medal. Oohh, Aaahhh.

This was the first match. J-man was in the red chest protector thing. They are also wearing arm pads, feet and leg pads, head gear and mouth guards. No head kicks are allowed.

This was J-mans last match and he had to switch to blue.

This is the results of that match, it was a close one and fun to watch. That is if you like watching kids kicking each other around.

Then we headed to the medal table!This is J-man with Grand Master Lee. He was hosting the tournament today.
It was a good day for J-man, a big confidence booster and his parents are very proud of him.
Now we have to switch gears slightly - baseball season has started!

VD at Pike Place Market

2009-02-14T11:34:00.000-08:00

I mean Valentines Day of course. We headed there this morning for some fresh fish and veggies for our dinner tonight. And look what just arrived! Tulips! Of course I could not resist them......

And the boys favorite part about the Market? The mini-donuts. J-man got his with frosting and sprinkles (pink and red for valentines day of course) and T-man went with the classic cinnamon and sugar.

90 years old? Let's Celebrate!

2009-01-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

Well Grandma Marge actually turned 90 back in December. But the snow spoiled our plans for a party then. We tried again over the weekend, a month late. We surrounded her with family and friends, sang Happy Birthday, and ate cake.

Looks pretty darn good for 90 huh?

Her great-granddaughter looking at her cards with her.

These are the youngest 3 of her 5 great-grandchildren. They look ready to party, don't they?

The other great-grandchild not represented is my oldest nephew. About to be 13. He called me shorty all weekend, I'm not sure he deserves a picture posted. Well thanks to my crappy camera, I don't have a good one anyway. So there. And I am not short.

I am really missing my big camera. I hate having a really old, really slow, crappy point and shoot with a bad flash. I need to find a way to get the big guy repaired, not only do I have bad pictures from Grandma's party - not having good pictures of anything is slowing my blogging down. On the other hand, less pictures taken means less $ getting prints made.

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Did you have a Merry Christmas?

2008-12-27T22:23:00.000-08:00

We did! I loved their Christmas pajamas! We had a nice day, our first White Christmas too. Aunt Kelly was with us Christmas Morning and then we went to Grammie's house for Christmas Dinner. The boys got plenty of goodies to play with, and as soon as all this snow goes away J-man can take his new bike out for a spin! Meanwhile T-man is running around the house dressed as Anakin Skywalker with a Storm Trooper blaster. The snow is finally melting, and I couldn't be happier! I got my Christmas, I mean New Year Letter done and will be putting that in the mail next week.
Normally I would have a lot more pictures, but my little camera is all I've got, and it sucks. I really wish I would not have broken my poor Nikon, cause it is going to cost me a lot of money to either get it fixed or buy a new lens. I broke it too late to ask Santa for a replacement, Santa already got me a pair of earrings!

T-man reporting the news

2008-12-24T19:22:00.000-08:00

So I had a camera tragedy last night. My beloved Nikon D50 has a broken lens. Smashed, cracked and broken - I did it, can't blame anyone but myself. Its a bummer, but it has forced me to take out the little camera and it can take video. So I took quite a bit of video of the boys in the snow and of our icicles.
T-man turns into a total goof with the camera out and it was even more entertaining when he found out I was using the video setting. He started reporting from King 5 news. I just got a little snippet of it, but had to share. I need to get better at this video thing.....

A video of the Icicles. And its STILL snowing.

2008-12-24T19:12:00.000-08:00

Mitch wanted to correct me - Leafguard - the gutters are Leafguard.

We got the tree up. Finally.

2008-12-21T21:01:00.000-08:00

We put minimal effort into it, only 3 strands of lights and half of the ornaments in the box, but it's up!

Aunt Kelly got stuck here - who knew they would cancel ALL Alaska Airlines flights today? No worries though, the boys are providing her with warmth and entertainment!

Yukon is depressed. The snow is making it hard for him to go outside with his bad hips and knees. When it was just a few inches it was fine, when it hit a foot, the poor dog needed a path carved out of the yard for him. Good thing his Daddy went out into the back yard and dug it for him.
I'm too depressed about the snow to take any more pictures of it. There is just so dang much of it. Over a foot. Wish me luck trying to get to work tomorrow!

Who needs icicle lights? We have icicles!

2008-12-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

Icicles have formed over the gutters in both the front and back of the house. Mitch is grumbling about needing more insulation, but I think they look cool! And thanks to Mother Nature, we get to keep them for a little while longer. She knew that we did not have time to put up our icicle lights this year and thought we might want a little festive look. Thanks Mother Nature!

Snow Day!

2008-12-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

We have been waiting all day for it to stop snowing so we could go outside and play. But it has not stopped snowing. So my pictures suck. They are blurred with tons of flakes falling from the sky. But here we are playing in the snow, looks like 4 inches and still coming down.

T-man wanted to build a snow man, but could not stay out side long enough to get the job done. The snowman parts are started out there, but we had to come in and get warm and dry before making an attempt to finish.

Yukon is having a great day, he has been out to roll in the snow about 50 times today. He is currently napping - that takes a lot out of an old guy!

J-man just wants a snowball fight. Nobody would take him up on it, so he settled for trying to make a snowman with his brother. He might have lasted longer out there if he would have zipped up his coat and put a hat on, but what do I know, I'm just his Mother.

Doggie Snow Angel

2008-12-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

We may only have an inch, but it is enough for my Yukon. He LOVES the snow. He makes little doggie snow angels all over the yard. Another favorite snow activity is licking the snow. He will do laps in the yard making lines in the snow with his tongue. Crazy dog. Hopefully the boys and I will get out there and play later, now that school has been cancelled. I have to find a way for them to burn off that little boy energy with out driving me crazy.

Go See the Clam Lights!

2008-12-13T11:49:00.000-08:00

We saw the Clam Lights on Thursday. It seems they have expanded this year and it looks just beautiful. I thought I would share!

I love how the lake looks at night, especially with all the lights! It was cold out, but not raining (shocking, I know) and the boys had a great time looking at all the lights. Now if I could just get some up on my house...... or maybe get a tree......

Decked out for the holidays!

2008-12-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

I dressed up my blog for the holidays! I am hoping to put my self in the mood. Not much shopping happening here and no decorating. Yet. I guess I need to get my butt up in the attic and pull down all the decorations - cause there is only 18 days left before Christmas. I have even gotten 2 Christmas cards already. Those over-achieving friends - you know who you are! - I'll get mine done and out in time for Christmas. Or New Years. I hope. I did buy the boys their matching sweaters already. I keep waiting for the year they refuse to wear them.... Hope it's not this year! Hope to post pictures of some Holiday activities soon!

A trip to the Aquarium

2008-11-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

We did not go out and spend tons of money for Black Friday, instead we contributed to the economy by visiting the aquarium!

This is the new HUGE tank at the entrance of the aquarium. We missed the part where a diver goes in the tank and feeds the fish and answers questions from inside the tank.

We did however get to see them feed the octopus, Popeye. Aunt Jack is checking him out.

The touch pools are always fun.

Callum enjoyed the aquarium, he actually watched the fish swimming around. I'm not sure he understood any of it.... but the colors were so pretty!
After hanging out in the dome part of the aquarium listening to Burt talk about fish tacos and J-man pointing out which fish he wanted to eat as his appetizer, we decided that we better go eat. Does the aquarium make other people hungry? Or is just us? So we headed over to The Fisherman for some seafood. Okay - it is weird.

Thanksgiving!

2008-11-29T11:42:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun on Thanksgiving! The boys got to meet their new cousin for the first time! And they got to play Wii lots with Uncle Burt. I even played Wii so much that my arm is sore! We ate a ton of food, drank a lot of wine (the adults, not the little boys) and had plenty of dogs around to help clean up any little morsel that might have hit the ground.

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa

Grammie with the boys.

Aunt Kelly with T-man.

Aunt Jack and Uncle Burt

The Wii playing arena.3 of the 5 dogs - Whiskey, Yukon and Angus. Grandma brought her little dog Pebbles with her and we also have Sunny (who was sleeping on her bed the whole day).

Elfin Myself

2008-11-29T09:29:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Recap of Our Vacation in October - in Photos

2008-11-23T13:36:00.001-08:00

Fall in Pictures

2008-11-23T12:57:00.001-08:00

Where in the world?

2008-10-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Do you suppose this sign is?

Well that is where I was!
There was sun. There was sand. There was turquoise water to float in. There were drinks with little umbrellas in them. Can you guess where?
It was a great vacation, we celebrated our 10 year anniversary and missed our boys like crazy.
I will post more pictures with details (not all the details ;-)) after I have caught up a little around here.

Tree Planting

2008-10-12T10:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we work on a community service project in our neighborhood. The city had some trees to be planted and I had a group of cub scouts who need community service and needed to plant trees to help earn their badges. We had a great time and planted a lot of trees. 50 or so? I did not count.
The organizers gave us a tree planting 101 lesson and then set us free on the trail with color coded flags marking where the trees should go. Everyone pitched in, the boys did a great job. We finished our section in about an hour, and then we had to head out, others stayed and helped finished the other sections. They were trying to plant 300 trees in 3 hours. I wonder if they finished?

J-man was very into digging holes. He was also trying to see who could dig out the biggest rock. When he would find a big one he would make a lot of noise and hold it over his head. I guess you do what you can to entertain yourself....

We planted 3 types of trees; Douglas Firs, Western Hemlocks and Cedars. They even got some extra trees for the volunteers to take home and plant in their yards. Mitch said no, he thinks we have enough trees :-). These trees are close enough that we can visit them whenever we want. In fact, I think I will take the cub scouts on a hike in the spring to go visit the trees that they planted. I wonder if they will remember us?

How to entertain yourself with a shiny countertop

2008-10-12T10:08:00.000-07:00

It's Football Season

2008-09-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Flag football that is. Today was the boys first day of practice followed by their first game. They both had a great time and we had the perfect weather for it. Ask me how much fun we are having when the rain starts!

T-man is #1!

Look at this Q-T!

J-man's game was a little more exciting. They were all just getting used to each other and learning play.

J-man is passing the ball. They sort of tried them out at all positions. Supposedly we can go on-line and get their "stats" after every game. I'll have to check that out and see how J-mans "stats" look. To be continued. I'm sure next time in the rain.

Somebody had a birthday today!

2008-09-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's hard for me to believe, but I gave birth to this guy 9 years ago today at 3:57am. He weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces. Now he weighed in at 83 pounds. Amazing what can happen in 9 years.
We had a little family party for him tonight with Grammie and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. J-man helped bake his own cake - and frost it. There might be egg shells in the cake, and the frosting knife might have gotten licked a bit too early, but we still ate it. And because T-man will not touch chocolate with a ten foot pole, we had to make a yellow cake with vanilla frosting for him. Mitch is not too fond of chocolate either, so we made them sit at the other end of the table to eat their non-chocolate cake. Freaks.

This kid was serious about his blowing out the candles! All 9 of them!

Ripping open his presents, he is very excited for the MIB movies. He thinks they are cool. I think that it is scary that MIB is a decade old. Yep came out before he was born. Oh well. More partying will be taking place this weekend. In the meantime, to keep him busy since his teacher is not sending any homework until next week, I made him a list of who he needs to write Thank You notes too.

First Day of School

2008-09-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

Yeah! It's back to school for J-man and the first day of Kindergarten for T-man. We made it to the bus stop 10 minutes early thanks to Mitch, and the bus was on time. Amazing. T-man asked J-man if he could sit by him on the bus and J-man told him (in his snottiest voice) "No, you can't sit with me. Kinders sit in the front of the bus!"
Bubble burst. Before school even started. Bummer.

Waiting at the bus stop. By themselves. 10 minutes early. Wearing sweats. On the first day of school. I decided not to fight the wardrobe choice. Not a fight worth fighting. Until picture day.

The bus was the choice of transportation today. Even though I had to go to school with the overflow of supplies that were needed. So I met them at school. Again, pick the fights worth fighting.

So T-man seemed rather shell shocked by Kindergarten. He really doesn't know any of the kids in his class very well. All the neighborhood kids and baseball buddies are in other classes. He said he had a good day today and he has tomorrow off. We will have to get another update after he goes back on Thursday. Speaking of Thursday.... Thursday is a big day around here......Lots of planning going on........
T-man was also very excited about his Hulk Backpack. Hopefully he can remember to bring it home every night and also remember to give his teacher the stuff that is supposed to go back to school. Unlike his brother who needs his mother to call his teacher to make sure that it got turned in. Hopefully we won't have to go there this year. Hopefully.

More Weekend Pictures

2008-09-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

Everybody got to take a turn riding horses. Well except me. Did you see that horse stick out its tongue at me? They don't like me and I like to look at them, but last time I rode one I had some difficulty walking afterward, and have not forgotten that. Anyway... The boys were having fun!

J-man

My nephew - A cute package of Trouble.

T-man. Very concerned that in some of the pictures you can see the rope. He wants it to look like he was riding that horse all by himself. As if.

Mitch got a little riding time too. Unfortunately the horse sat down on the job, ending Mitch's ride. Mitch said it made it easier to get off, so it was a good thing. Plus we got to make fun of Mitch all evening. He will claim that he said "Sit!" and the horse was just following commands, but that is NOT what happened. That's our horsey story and I'm stickin to it!

More Pictures - My Niece

2008-09-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

I only have one. And she is growing up fast. She is so cute and look at her saddling up her horse.
She can do it all by herself (Mom helped a little).

And She's off.

Hi Auntie!

And a little ride with Dad leading the way. A perfect afternoon.

Way too many pictures - Continued

2008-09-01T22:57:00.000-07:00

I told you he got to drive farm equipment. Not just to play either - he actually did something useful while playing with it!

This is a donkey who thinks he is a dog. T-man was not to sure about this guy....

This is how the horses felt about me. Quit taking my picture lady!

Yukon kept trying to get at the horses to sniff. Then he discovered the water. He ignored the horses after that and just drank.

I took way too many pictures this weekend.

2008-09-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

Way too many. 416 to be exact. We headed east of the mountains for some fun on the Palouse. The boys got cousin time, we got some sun, played in the pool, jumped on the trampoline and rode some horses. Mitch got to operate some farm equipment with his dad, and my brother-in-law got some cheap labor. A good time was had by all.
Friday the boys had to occupy themselves while their cousins were still at school. The pool occupied them for a couple of hours.....

The tent was set up in the backyard for the kids to all sleep in. During the day it was a lair for the Spidermans. Did you know there was 2?

They laughed, they cried...

2008-08-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well the first game of the tournament they creamed the other team 12-2. The second game was a really good game, but in the end they lost by only one point. It was a heart breaker. Then the third game they rallied and won again. It was another close game, and they played great. The fourth game we started out strong, but ended up getting creamed 8-15.

J-man had a great steal in the 3rd game.

They were so happy that they won the 3rd game!

Then J-man played goalie in the fourth game. The other team scored 2 goals on him, and he sort of lost it. He tried to pull it together and finish the game, but it was a rough game and a rough loss. Tears were shed.
At the end of the day J-man said that he still had fun, that water polo is still his favorite sport and asked if he could play winter water polo. So I think all is well.

And then there is this guy. T-man has no desire to play water polo, but still wants me to take pictures of all of his funny faces that he makes. Less he be left out....................

It's tournament time!

2008-08-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Today kicks off the water polo championship tournament! And we are off to a good start. Our kids won their first match 12-2. Nice. Lets just not mention the fact that we had 15 or so kids and they had 6. Which means they were one player short and had no subs. We just won't mention that.

J-man had a good assist and played some good D.

All our kids got to play and they played really well.

J-dude scored at least twice and got to play goalie.

That # 7 girl in the white hat was really good, they had to watch out for her!

More updates later as the tournament goes on............

Outside its crawling with kids!

2008-08-17T22:25:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for slip and slides and play structures. Otherwise what would we have done with all of these kids? We had a nice afternoon BBQ and watered the lawn while cooling down kids. I sipped wine and watched, took a few pictures and ate food that somebody else cooked. Who could ask for anything more?

What a week!

2008-08-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

It was a crazy week. I left San Diego and my really, really, really cute nephew on Monday night. That was hard. I cried. Jack cried. I think my brothers eyes were tearing up (though he will never admit it). But it was time to go home and back to my boys.
I had to pick up t-shirts at the airport for the boys, cause I was a little distracted while I was there and did not visit any tourist-y spots. I did not find one that Mitch would like, so when they picked me up at the airport I broke the news.

Me: Sorry Mitch, I only found T-shirts for the boys - I didn't get you anything.
Mitch: That's okay. I didn't clean.

Nice.
So yes, the house was trashed, they ate out every night and saved all the laundry for me. Thanks guys.
Some little boys may have had some behavior problems from lack of Mom attention as well, and saved them for me too. Wasn't that nice of them? So glad to be home.
The house has mostly recovered, though the efforts were hampered by 90 degrees and no air conditioning. Vacuuming will be done at some point, but it's not supposed to cool down until Sunday, so nobody plan anything here this weekend. That means you Mitch.
This morning we had to wake up bright and early for WATER POLO! J-man had an 8 am game. It was exciting, went into overtime and they WON! Then I had to go to work and missed the second game. J-man says that they won and - drum roll please - HE SCORED A GOAL! Yeah J-man! That was his very first one. He usually hangs back on defense, so this was pretty cool. Here are my shots from the first game. J-man is #2.

Hurry up and find somebody to pass it to so they don't drown you! Man, Water Polo is a brutal sport!

Home Already

2008-08-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

Last night while I was watching the opening ceremonies with my girlfriend Michelle (very pregnant) and eating a fabulous dinner prepared by her husband Ken, my new nephew escaped from the hospital. Well, they technically released him and his Mum (she's Scottish you know) to go home. So I missed the home coming pictures, but I didn't miss this pathetic site this morning. Yes Whiskey, your life is changed forever. (Pretend you hear dog whining)
And just in case you can't get enough baby pictures (like me) here are some more. Thank goodness his parents just let Auntie take as many pictures as she wants!

Don't you just love those baby burritos?

And baby makes me an Auntie

2008-08-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

Finally little Callum arrived at 5:17pm weighing in at 8pounds even and measuring 20 inches long. He is very handsome, I must say. Not sure who he resembles most yet. He was alert and awake and only cried when they were messing with him. The happy parents are both doing good, although could both use a little sleep (too bad that's not going to happen for a few years). I'm so glad that I was here to share this with them. Now I am going to have myself a good nights sleep. Is that mean of me?

No baby yet.

2008-08-07T12:45:00.000-07:00

My poor sister in law. She is currently being forced into labor and it is not fun. I am just sort of hanging out and waiting and wishing that there was something else I could do for her, shes working so hard. I guess that is why they call it labor. Just praying for a safe delivery and waiting.....................

Well I arrived in San Diego

2008-08-07T00:30:00.000-07:00

It was an AWESOME flight. I had a row to myself. A row. Nobody sitting next to me or blocking the aisle. It was fabulous. I got a nap in with my legs stretched out on the other 2 seats, ahhh. Best flight I have had in years. Here is an awesome pic of Mt. Rainier as I flew over it at sunset. The other side of the plane got the awesome sunset, but I would rather have the mountain.

So I land in SD and get shuttled to Burt's house where I got a quick tour, complete with blue sticky notes highlighting important stuff. Then they left to go to the hospital. Hopefully tomorrow I will be updating you with fabulous pictures of my new nephew. I love being on Aunt-ernity leave!

That wraps up diving

2008-08-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

It was another cold dive champs this morning, 3rd year in a row. At least it wasn't raining. We had to get up at the crack of dawn for warm ups and J-man only got 2 warm up dives. If you ask me they were cool down dives, because after they got wet, they were cold. Once the meet got started J-man dove pretty darn good and took 4th in the league.

Here it is, fourth place ribbon! Go J-man!

Somebody Got a Blue Belt Today!

2008-08-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, T-man had his game face on today. He did a great job on his test. He did his forms great, had nice high kicks and broke his board on the second try. This was the first time I have seen him so serious about this.

Here it is. A blue belt. No more messing around and lots more forms to learn now!

Okay, maybe he wasn't 100% serious today. There is the T-man we know and love. He was just soo excited to have gotten promoted.

Boys are made of Farts - And they are proud of it.

2008-08-01T23:38:00.000-07:00

So tonight Mitch and the boys drove into Seattle to pick me up from work. Mitch apparently doesn't trust the bus system to get me home in time for him to go play poker. As soon as I got into the car, excited to be done with work and see my family, my nose was assaulted with the most vile of smells.

Me: OMG what is that smell!
::Hysterical laughter from the backseat::
J-man: It's me!
::More laughter::

He is PROUD of it. He goes on to brag about how bad he has been smelling all day long. Nice. Welcome to the car Mom.
We stopped for dinner (and fed him more WHY?) and when we got back into the car we were assaulted again.

Me: J-MAN!!! Did you wait until we got into the car?!? You should have done that when we were outside still!
::More laughter from the backseat::
J-man: Yeah, I'm gonna rot the house when I get home!
::Hysterical laughter from the backseat::

I have boys. They brag about how they are made of dirt and farts or some such nonsense. They're goal is to smell up my house. Nice.

J-man is all smiles today.

2008-07-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

Look at that smile. That is the "I got a 7!" smile. That is right, his front jump was so good, he got a 7. Pencil straight with lots of height and a nice hurdle.

Then there was this forward dive. Very nicely done. Had a nice hurdle, good height and went in nice and smooth.

Then there was this back dive. Nailed that one too. Actually jumped, good height, went in to the water smooth.

Look what that earned him? Woo Hoo, his very first - 1st place in diving. Look at how happy that kid is! And nobody was more happy for him than his buddy J-dude, who also got 1st place as an A diver.Good Times.

Tennis

2008-07-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

So T-man started tennis lessons this summer. I can't play tennis (other than on the wii), but it looks fun and they wanted to do it, so what the heck. Mitch took him to get a racket and I was not the least bit surprised that it has Spongebob on it. (is Spongebob one name or two? Sponge Bob? Like his last name is Bob?) The first lesson that I watched was very painful, but I laughed a lot. Today, after 5 weeks of lessons and a lot of $, he can hit a tennis ball.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Amazing. He has one more week of tennis lessons later on in the summer. Pro tour - oh yeah, any day now.
J-man is also in Tennis this week. They play all kinds of games and he is in the class with a couple of his buddies, so lots of fun for everyone.
They play 21, so in addition to learning to hit the ball and keep it in the court, they are practicing math! His teachers would be proud.

Maybe Mitch and I need to sign up for some tennis lessons so our boys don't kick our butts at tennis. I'm pretty sure that my pro status on the wii won't fly out on an actual tennis court. Ya think??

Catching up....

2008-07-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

Summer is just flying by! The weather has been just fabulous around here - 70 and sunny everyday. A few morning clouds just to keep things cool, I love it. My offspring don't feel the same about the morning clouds however. A J-man quote from this week:

"We can't walk to the pool, its only 56 degrees outside!"

First of all when did my 8 yo start checking the weather in the morning? Secondly - have you heard of a sweatshirt? Pants? Coat? It's called layering son, and if you are going to be a Washingtonian I think you need to learn this concept. And quick.

We ended up driving, but not because it was cold, but because I was running late and it was faster. Next week - back to walking!!

Yes, we are still spending everyday at the pool even though swim team and lessons are over. We still have dive team, tennis lessons and water polo starts next week, plenty of stuff to do for the rest of the summer.

Here are some pictures from B Champs last weekend. J-man was sort of disappointed about swimming B Champs after swimming on the A team all season long. Well at the meet he got 2 firsts (medals) and forth (still points for the team!) and at A Champs he would have been lucky to make it out of prelims, so I think it turned out pretty darn good for him!

T-man was there to cheer for his brother.

This is the chaos also known as lining up for relays. YOWSA. Glad I didn't have to organize that mess!

REACH FOR THE WALL!! J-man had a great swim season, had lots of fun with old friends, made a few new ones and got in great shape for water polo!

Dive Meet and more crazy hair.....

2008-07-24T21:44:00.000-07:00

J-man had another dive meet today. This is actually the first one since the whole swimmers ear week. You will all be happy to know that the swimmers ear is gone. Yeah. This is J-man by the board with one of his coaches.

This was J-mans last dive, his back dive. I forgot to pick up the camera before that. Whoops.

Luckily once I picked the camera up nobody is shy......

Are we loving this hair or what?

Hey look at that - 2nd place. Way to go J-man. One more dive meet and then Dive Champs! Summer is still flying by........

A little swimmers ear doesn't stop us

2008-07-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

This was kind of a rough week for the J-man. He had made some mentioned that his ear was sore over the holiday weekend, but in sort of a casual way, so I thought nothing of it. Then Tuesday he swam one lap and got out of the pool crying. He couldn't even let me touch it to look at it. So I dialed up the peds and got him an appointment. Diagnosis: Bad case of swimmers ear. Needs antibiotics and no pool for at least 2 days, or until its not painful. Bummer. So J-man missed practice for 3 days and missed a dive meet on Wednesday.
But today...I bought him some of those wax ear cover things. We shoved the wax over his ear opening, pulled his cap down over his ears and let him swim in the meet. Don't tell my Pediatrician!!!! I guess I am not up for Mom of the Year. Oh well. We had fun at the meet tonight.

No swimmers ear for this guy! While the T-man was playing in this pool.....

The J-man was in this pool. Here he is in the back stroke, trying to find the wall. I got a pretty good shot of this one because he was in the outside lane!

Now time for a little butterfly. Check out that wingspan. This was the first time J-man had to swim butterfly in a meet all season. Except time trials. Well it wasn't pretty, but it was legal and speedy. He took 4 seconds off of his time that he had at time trials. The coaches were shocked when they saw his time. We had a good laugh about that today. Now that is 2 events that he can't swim at B-champs.

We always end with the relays. They are fun to watch, this one was close at the end and got pretty exciting. J-man's crew (in the middle) got 3rd.

No complaints about the ear were heard. Except about the part where he couldn't hear. Imagine that with and ear full of wax. And now we are letting the ear heal up and dry out over the weekend. More fun to be had in the pool and more swim meets next week to get better for.

I love Smilebox! 4th of July!

2008-07-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Fireworks

2008-07-05T00:07:00.000-07:00

We had a blast at the fireworks tonight. It was a nice walk to the park and we got to hang out and listen to a great band while we waited for it to get dark. The fireworks show was about 1/2 hour long and it didn't even rain. I think that makes it a perfect 4th!
Happy Birthday America!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

Here we are at our neighborhood party in the park, celebrating the 4th of July. We got to play on the fire truck, get cool hats, get our faces painted, got to eat hamburgers, jump in the bounce house and visit with friends. The best thing of all was that T-man got to do all of this with Z-man - the bestest cousin a boy could have.

Celebrate Freedom.

Good News, Bad News

2008-07-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

The good news is that J-Man took 2nd place in his dive meet today.

Go J-man!

The bad news is that it took several hours and the rest of the dive meet was cancelled. We had to start and stop a couple times because of thunder showers that moved through. Now we know a little rain won't stop Seattle kids from doing outdoor activities, but apparently lightning and thunder clears a pool for 1/2 hour. They kept having to reset the clock with every rumble and finally the lifegaurds said forget it. Bummer. So only the young kids got to dive and none of the older ones.

Now lets talk about the hair - should I make him get a hair cut? Or let him have crazy hair for the summer and chop it off when school starts? You should see some of the bed-head this kid wakes up with. As a matter of fact - I will be taking pictures of that too. Maybe I am just jealous of the white blonde that his hair is turning......

Gone Fishin'

2008-06-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Bye Mom! We're goin fishin with Grammie!

Fish On!

Well T-man caught a fish. With his brand new Spiderman fishing pole. J-man was bummed that he didn't catch a fish, but not to worry, T-man let J-man eat his fish! Not bad for his first time fishing, outside of a stocked pond that is!

Guess Who's Having a Birthday?

2008-06-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Yukon is TEN! Today!
First of all, I am shocked that he made it this far. He was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 2, had bad hips by 6, blown his knee by 8 and was most recently diagnosed with diabetes at age 9. And the people that we got him from said that he got into rat poison when he was a puppy. Can YOU believe he made it to 10? Well I guess I have my local vet, my sister-in-law (long distance vet :D), pharmacist and the drug companies to thank for helping keep our much beloved Yukon around for so long.

We can't have a birthday celebration with out the family Birthday Hat!

This is a happy dog, in his very own pool.

And he has a buddy over for the weekend! He loves Angus like a long lost brother and they have lots of fun together when they get together. Here they are sharing the pool, also know as an oversize water dish!

Happy Birthday Yukon!!!

Super Hero Swim Meet

2008-06-27T22:52:00.000-07:00

Here is our own little Justice League. Watch out anyone who is trying to mess with our swim team! They will be faced with Superman, Batman, the Spiderman Thing, and Princess Mouse Batgirl (I may have messed up that name slightly - it was hard to remember).

So after we paraded around in our super hero costumes, it was time to get down to business. Swimming. And timer-ing. I had to be a timer for the 2nd half of the meet.

This is J-man doing the backstroke - again. He dropped another couple of tenths of a second and improved his time.

Here is the Freestyle Relay. Our boys took 1st and 2nd in this relay. Its nice when all of their hard work all week long pays off during the swim meets.

Last Day of school!!

2008-06-20T10:54:00.000-07:00

J-man and his Bud waiting for the school bus this morning. They were pretty excited that it was the last day! And it was field day! Nothing more little boys like, than to run around and play all day!

I also went to school today to volunteer for field day. Field day is where the whole school goes out and plays at organized activities, some of which involved getting hosed down. They also slid down hills, ran, had faces painted and had a snack station. The weather turned out just fine for today and my goal was to get there early so I did not end up with a station that involved water!

Did you know pigs could fly?

Well with a parachute and a few buddies working together - they can. The flying pigs station that I volunteered at was fun for everyone, I got to work with another mom from J-mans baseball team that I really liked and there was no water involved. Great day.

This is J-man running in some sort of screaming race. I avoided that one too. But they looked like they were having fun! Happy last day of school!

First Swim Meet of the Season

2008-06-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

We had our first swim meet of the season today! It was a fun meet with some great swimming and a little bit of sunshine. J-man swam in 4 events. No argument this year about the swim cap - he does not want a haircut! Here are some shots from the meet.

I have no idea what he just got done swimming :-).

I know this one - Backstroke!

Swim buds. J-man and J-dude waiting for thier relay to start.

This is the freestyle relay - I'm pretty sure they came in 1st. There is going to be a lot of excitement tomorrow when J-man gets to pick up his ribbons!

Fathers Day visit to Northwest Trek

2008-06-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Where do you go when you want to see some wild animals? Maybe some Moose? Elk? Bison? Northwest Trek!

We met Dick and Becky out there for a Fathers Day outing. I was excited to take the tram and see the new babies! While we were waiting for the gates to open, we visited the big bronze moose out front.

Apparently T-man has learned a few things from his brother and he has made Poppy an accomplice. Oh well, I took pictures anyways cause we're classy like that.

The tram ride did not disappoint. The moose was on the wrong side of the tram, so I got no moose picture -but we saw her! Then we found some mountain goats lounging on the tram path. At first it didn't seem like they were going to move, but then they decided they didn't want us hanging around any longer than we had too. They didn't move to far:

And man are they looking shaggy! There was white goat hair tufts all over through out the tram area.

These are the Big Horn sheep mama's running away with their babies. Come back! I wanna see those babies!

Here are the Big Horned Sheep daddy's. They must know its Father's Day and that is why they are just laying around doing nothing.

Oh and the Bison! They are looking a little shaggy too, losing all their winter coats and those fuzzy little calves are soo cute!

These are a family of Caribou and a couple of black tail dear. They had found a nice shady spot by the lake, and I have to agree that they found a nice spot to lounge. I would have liked to hang around longer, but the hour long tram ride was over and we had to get off. Bummer.

That's okay there was lots more to see!

River otters - my favorite!

Raccoons - Are you lookin at me?

They also had lots of native plants and most were in bloom still (blame it on the June-uary). We had a good time at Northwest Trek, and learned lots about all the animals we saw. Did you know a moose needs to eat 27,000 calories a day? And they are herbivores. That's a lot of greens.

Mitch has a Playdate

2008-06-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

At the brew fest. I dropped him off with a couple of friends at St. Edwards State Park yesterday so that they could spend the whole afternoon drinking beer. This is not any ordinary beer. This is the beer of beer snobs, microbrews. A whole big beer garden full of snobby beers. I gave him a camera and asked him to just take a few pictures.

Here is Mitch drinking beer.

This is the bottom of his beer glass. He told me that this was his "artistic" picture. Thanks babe.

He doesn't know if he meant to take this picture of Ryan and the beer glass or not. Okay - there is Ryan and a beer glass and a whole lot of sun.

Here is the crowd at the beer fest. They lucked out and had some good weather - maybe our June-uary is finally over???
Oh yeah - they did Blood Alcohol Counts on the way out courtesy of the sherrifs department. Mitch blew a .034 - not even legally drunk, even after 5 hours of drinking! Sad - I think. No matter, they had transportation arranged - it was after all a playdate!!

Stone Soup

2008-06-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we were treated to a play! J-man's class is putting on "Stone Soup" all week. He was in the first cast. It was riveting.

Here is the rest of Cast A. Aren't their costumes cute?

J-man stirring the soup and reading his lines. After telling me every day that he knew his lines and didn't need to practice. Apparently I should not have listened to him.

The whole cast taking their final bow.

After the play, the cast took questions from the audience (which was full of parents, kindergartners and a few other classmates). It was really cute.

Time Trials

2008-06-08T11:52:00.000-07:00

This was the only picture that I took at time trials. Time trials is how the coaches decide who is on the A team and who is on the B team. It is also the base time for the kids to improve on as the season progresses. All the kids swim every event, except relays. I did not get to see J-man swim any events, only warm ups. I was busy on the other side of the pool deck helping the dive team get signed up. While I had a good time chatting away with lots of people, I missed all of time trials. Bummer. It was cold out side too. I felt really bad for all of the cold wet kids. So we will know next week if J-man is on the A team or the B team and then swim meets start the week after that! I sure wish that the weather would get better so that we could have some sunny poolside afternoons!

Swim Team Picnic and Lake Plunge

2008-06-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well someone must have heard our prayers because it stopped raining right before the picnic started. It was pouring earlier today and windy. The high today was supposed to be 56 degrees. While we were eating our dinner we could see our breath. The beautiful grassy area of the park was saturated with water. But after we had finished eating, the sun was beginning to come out. Amazing.

Luckily we live in an area that is used to a little bit of rain, and the picnic must go on. Just under the covered area.

Before the lake plunge they run around and play all kinds of silly games. Today they had a balloon race of some sort followed by a get the goldfish out of the whip cream game. It was some messy, tasty fun!

Then it was time to jump in the lake. Beautiful Lake Washington. Temp was in the 50's. Yeah, I think that I will just stay on the dock in my turtleneck, sweatshirt and fleece jacket. Y'all just jump right in.

And jump in they did. CRAZIES all of them. J-man got a little shocky and felt like he couldn't breath, so we got him out pretty quick and warmed him back up. Good thing I brought blankets just in case I got cold!

We ended the evening with s'mores from the barbecue before we left to get J-man warmed up and to bed. Big day tomorrow - Time Trials! Go J-man!