It's Beginning to Look a lot like the HOLIDAYS!

The holidays are upon us - I can tell this because we have started embarking on some of our annual holiday festivities.
Holiday Festivity 1:
Each year we try to attend a holiday show. We used to go see The PNB Nutcracker. Then last year I shook it up a bit and we went to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Show.  I love the Rockettes and had always wanted to see their show.  This year we went to see A Christmas Story: The Musical.  It was fantastic! A Christmas Story is Tony's favorite holiday movie.  We are subjected to the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story on TBS every year on Christmas day. When I found out that the Fifth Avenue was doing it as a musical I knew it was the holiday show we HAD to see!!

Tony and Amelia are by the tree (it was a bit dark)

Holiday Festivity 2:

Going to see Santa at Nordstrom flagship store in Downtown Seattle. 

We waited patiently in line for only one hour this year.  

(Previous years we have waited up to 3 hours). 

We do this because the Nordstrom Santa IS the only real Santa!

Shoe Shine!

It's hard to put down a good book!

And then finally it is our turn!!!

I am really hoping the photo that the professional photographer took turns out better than the one's Mrs. Claus  took:

Holiday Festivity 3:

Riding the downtown Holiday Carousel.

Unexpected Holiday Festivity for this Year:

SNOW DAYS - 2.5 days of school cancelled, 1 day of work cancelled, lots of snow, and some sledding and celebrating in the freezing cold.

Just a Festivity: (not really a Holiday Festivity, but nonetheless a "Festivity")

On Veteran's Day we went to see the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum.  In my continued effort to inspire culture and creativity in my family, I thought this seemed like a great opportunity.  

Two fatal flaws with my plan were: 

-Since it was a holiday it was PACKED with people (I really hate crowds and other people breathing my air). I thought since they make you buy a ticket for a specific time, that they would limit the number of people for each time slot.  It seemed they calculated the number of people for each time slot by taking the amount of people allowed per the fire code regulations and then squeezing in 10 more people per time slot.

-I should investigate the artist prior to embarking on a cultural experience.  Picasso's subject matter was not the most appropriate artistic venue for the 9 year old (and in some cases the teenager or the 40ish folk).  Amelia put together the fact that Picasso lead a very exciting life and that he had 2 mistresses at one time.  She increased her vocabulary with words such as promiscuous and phallic. She also discovered that the painting her art teacher has in the art room is one of his mistresses- "Do you think my teacher knows that is his mistress that is in the artroom"!

The day ended with a lunch of fudge and chocolate at Rocky Mountain Chocolate factory and a stop by the "Gum Wall" in Seattle on our way back to the car.  What is a gum wall you ask? It is disgusting - it is a wall under Pike Place Market that people put chewed gum on - and some of it is shaped into designs and words.  Not sure how this began - it is so disgusting I cannot bring myself to look it up. I could almost feel the germs emanating from the wall - EWWWWW!!

The only picture we took to chronicle our day of creativity and culture:

Amelia by the Gum Wall

End of Summer/Beginning of Fall updates

Finally an update from the NW – sorry, I have not felt much in a blogging mood since July.

Here is the story - after I wrote the last blog - I was cleaning up the goat pen and cut my heel on the fence - resulting in driving myself to the hospital for 8 sutures, then the pool deck replacement became this horrible experience (and it still is), we became proud parents of a teenager, school started, I was "promoted" at work, my employee quit, searching for high schools, and on, and on - therefore to tell the truth I have not been much into or had spare time for the blogging scene of late. Who wants to hear about our troubles? OOPS you just did! Thanks for listening -

Please know that I am thankful for all that we have, and I realize that things could be way worse. I have been focusing lately on what we DO have and how lucky we truly are, so I think I might have my mojo back and might be out of my funk, so will try to update and share the last 3 months happenings. Not unlike anyone else - so many changes in our life are taking place.

The Before and After:
Back fence area before (first day) Goats:

Back fence after Goats:

Here is a video of the pool deck remodel showing the before, during, and after:
(Side note -as mentioned above the pool deck remodel has turned into a giant fiasco – it seems during the process, System Pavers broke some of the pipes that lead back to the pump – so now if we run the pump – we leak water into the ground wasting water and seeping air into the pump!! Contract we signed with System Pavers says "not responsible for broken pipes..." Now in addition to being out the $$$ for the pool deck, we will need to sink more $$ into fixing the plumbing. I would say let’s just fill in the pool – except we are so far into this, to turn back would be even more fiscally irresponsible!!! However we may take a year or 2 off of the pool and regroup prior to the fixing the plumbing problems. I can only imagine how much the plumbing repair is going to cost)

The W family from Reno (my old sis and her crew-yes T &B I used that term you so hate "crew") came up to see us for a STAYCATION - we had a great time - riding bikes (so many bike rides that finally Kit said "NO MORE BIKE RIDES"), swimming in the pool, beach-combing, celebrating K's 13th and Uncle C's ?? birthdays, riding light rail, seeing the sights, X-box Rockband, and having some good ol' family fun with the cousins and aunts and uncles:




Speaking of K's 13th - much fun and many parties were had - in addition to the one mentioned above there were these as well:
Co-celebration with E - E turned 3 - one week after K turned 13 so we had a double party - just us girls!!! J & Little E are just the cutest!!!


And the big finale birthday - was at Great Wolf Lodge Indoor Water Park - hooray for J riding the big slide!!



K & Kit on the first day of school this year:

A look back - K & Kit on the first day of Kindergarten:

Random Updates as to what we are doing these days:
K is addicted to Irish Dancing – she is doing great at it and works so hard –here she is getting ready to perform at the Portland Feis (I didn't know you are not supposed to take pictures during the competitions-oh well no one stopped me!)

Kit has begun horseback riding lessons – she is doing quite well and it is amazing to me that she gets on this huge animal each week and controls all that it does (this is Amigo with Kit):

T is working hard and for now hardly traveling - yahoo!!! He has been to a sleep doctor for a sleep study - guess what - the snoring is actually sleep apnea - how surprised I was to hear this - NOT!!! Sometimes when he snores - I poke him during the long silences to be sure he is still breathing and not dead - turns out I was right - he does actually stop breathing during the snores. Well instead of me poking at him, the doctor thinks he should get a CPAP (breathing machine thingy) he can wear while he sleeps. He will return to the sleep doctor for the CPAP later this week. We will see how this plays out - I am hoping that he will be very rested as a result of the breathing machine thingy and the abscence of sleep apnea and he will be full of energy to do all the things we never have the energy to do (house cleaning, yard cleaning, goat tending, children tending, etc...). If he is not well rested and the breathing thingy does not work out - we can always go back to me poking him (it has been working for the last 17 years).

As I stated - I received a "promotion" at work. When I told my mom about it, she pretty much summed it up for what it really is- "So you will be doing your old job plus the job of someone else and managing the employees she used to manage? Oh honey!" (with sincere but definite pity in her voice). So yes in addition to my "old job" I am now supervising 2 Project Coordinators and a newly hired Administrative Assistant. It has been a very intense learning curve and continues to be one, however I am enjoying the challenge and being part of other programs. I have been in my own "little world " at work for so long (15 years) and it is great to be seeing the research being done by other programs. I am fortunate to be working with some of the world's most renowned cancer researchers. Might I also add - I know I am very lucky to have a job with a promotion in this economy.

In addition to my promotion - turns out that a new employee benefit is rides for the family in my boss' sports car - thanks GBM!


(Teaching Kit to wave appropriately)


So that is it for now - Blog to you again soon!

All Alone/Heat Wave

On Monday morning I dropped the girls off at an overnight horse camp. T left for Dallas on Sunday for 2 weeks and so I was looking forward to this time by myself - the first time in 13 years where I have been JUST ME. It is now Wednesday and as I suspected would happen - I miss them all terrible. I dropped the girls off with a counselor named Krypton. I am not sure how to spell that - she is from Eugene - so probably a quite common name in Eugene!! Seemed like a very nice girl - looked so young to be taking care of MY kids. I saw their bunk rooms - K wouldn't let me leave until I saw the rooms, Kit wanted me gone as soon as we arrived!! Camp looked so fun - dunk tanks, swimming pools, zip lines... and the horseback riding. How lucky they are - I wish I could go to camp. Today I am so worried - are the girls drinking enough water? Are they having fun? Are they remembering sunscreen? Should I call? No news is good news? I am going with "no news is good news" - if I am needed they will call. Right?

The Seattle area just broke the record for the highest temperature EVER - the official reported temperature was 102 for today. Our temperature shows this:

(it says 104.7!)

I have been keeping busy so far this week - we are still in the midst of pool deck reconstruction (this gets its own blog post if it ever gets done!), work is busy, I rode the light rail and streetcar to work today, on Monday I tried to shop after work - no money and the heat sent me home to find the goats laying by the pool - they had broken out of the pen, and taken a dip in the pool and were laying by the torn up pool!! I was able to coerce them back in the pen and secure it - I think they were able to get under a part of the fence. I can now add "hammer fence post into hard dry ground" to my list of accomplishments. I found out on Tuesday that the workmen saw they were out and tried to get them back in the pen, but with no luck. Enrique kept saying "I looked and they just appeared on the wrong side of the fence!" They had tried to create a secure enclosure - but Taz and Rusty are quite crafty and were able to break out again and take a dip in the pool. So far no more break outs - but I think they are just too hot to try. This morning I created a little shade area for them -

They seem content with it. Tons of places are offering refuge from the heat - libraries, community centers, malls... I am wondering if I can bring the goats and cats? Actually we are very lucky and have central air at our house- it was one of those unplanned, non-budgeted, splurges sold to us with the new furnace that we did, and until this week, I maintained wasn't necessary - now I am very thankful to have the central air. I have contemplated bringing the goats into the house - but I am concerned how I would contain them - I was thinking K's room or the playroom - they could eat through the mess!! Problem is - they are not selective in there bathroom habits so this could create a whole other set of problems!!

I had an entire list of things to accomplish while I was ALL ALONE - however it is so hot I have not accomplished any of them (I know - I have air conditioning and should be able to accomplish cleaning up the mess inside). Oh well - the tasks will always be there for me when it cools down!!

Friday at 1:00PM I get to pick up the girls and have an afternoon at camp with them - I can't wait!!

Camera Found/First Feis

The camera has been found!!! I am glad that it was located - just in time for K's very first Feis yesterday. What the heck is a Feis? A Feis is an Irish Dance competition and K competed in her first one yesterday. She had signed up for the "First Feis" category, but then because there were not enough people signed up in this category - they moved her up to Beginning Level. The exciting part is that she placed 3rd in the Single Jig in this higher level - way to go K!!!

The other events in the camera -

Drive In Movie - back on a Friday night in June - K, Kit, and I decided to go to double feature drive in movie - we saw The Proposal and Up -all for $9.00. It was super fun - K and I had the front seat, Kit had the back seat, we were in our pajamas/sweats, had homemade popcorn, packed sodas and candy and made a night of it. One problem was that we chose the night of the Summer Solstice, so it did not get dark until about 10PM, which meant we were out until about 2AM - we slept until 11Am the next day!!!

Kalaloch Lodge; Forks (Twilightville)

K had been wanting to go to Forks - the setting for the books Twilight. So we had a mini vacation to Forks and the NW coast area of Washington.

Forks is an old logging town in the far NW corner of the state. The Twilight excitement has revitalized the town of Forks. It is now tourist heaven for fans of the book Twilight - there is even a chain of stores called "Twilight" and some local kids dress up as the characters in the book and walk around town letting tourists snap pictures of them. The movie Twilight was not filmed in Forks - not sure why, but I am told that it was filmed in another town close to here - so we might venture that way some day soon. This was the first stop on the mini vacation.

The next stop was to Kalaloch Lodge. They even had the Twilight theme going on - we had the Twilight room package which included 2 Twilight water bottles, a map of the locations in the book, and a Twilight dessert (chocolate decadance with raspberry puree). Kalaloch Lodge was great - it was right on the ocean with miles and miles of beach, no cell phone reception, and no TV. The weather was great - we had a bit of NW misting on Saturday night - but we were able to walk the beach and then retire to the room to read. We had a great time and plan to go back.

(note the girls are blue - the water was freezing - it didn't stop them - they had a blast)

The true NW beach gear!!

We also ventured to the Hoh Rain Forest for some trail hiking. On the way we found a side road that led to the largest Western Red Cedar. Two items of note - how do we know that this is the largest cedar? How can anyone know that something is the "largest"? The sign - note the graffiti - I read the sign, took the picture, hiked around it and still didn't see it - can you? T noticed it right off - and then proceeded to point it out to the girls - and once the girls saw it they thought it was hilarious - I never knew the mention of a body part could be so funny!!

July 4th @ Camano Island

The last 3 years we have been invited to one of Kit's friends birthday parties on Camano Island. Her birthday is July 4th and they have a barbecue at their place on Utsalady Cove/North Side of Camano Island each year. They invite about 2-3 other families -all the kids are about the same age and they get along great. It is so beautiful and the kids have a blast.

Kit wrangling the aligator! And yes the water was freezing!!!

K and Kit on the rock.

Not sure I want to know what the plan is for that glob of seaweed. She no doubt has a plan or an experiment in mind!!!

Wallingford Parade

Here is K in the Wallingford Parade. Kit did not want to walk in the parade - two reasons - 1) It was ghastly hot and 2) She figured out last year that if you walked in the parade, then you didn't get any of the candy that is tossed to the parade watchers.

And finally the last photo from the camera -

(Warning - if you are Republican - do not read any further)

If you are Republican - and are reading this - it is not my fault!!!

You really should listen to directions better!