From the Mind of Kristi

Snow post continued ….

2012-01-27T08:03:00.001-08:00

And it’s gone. Melted into slush, then melted into water and slid down into the river out to the Sound.

It was fun while it lasted.

The first day of the snow was lovely and quiet and fun. The kids were running around screaming, “Wheeeeee! Snow! Let’s go play!!” There was no school and everyone was very happy.

Next day, it was still kind of fun. Still more snow. Got up to 8.5 inches and it just kept falling. The kids were running around and happily shouting, “Wow! Snow! Let’s go out again.” There was still no school and everyone was happy.

Next day, it was nice. STILL more snow. Up to almost a foot of snow. Still falling. Cars were falling off the freeway. Cars getting stuck on the roads (I personally pulled out Thomas from a ditch). Nobody going anywhere and all local stores were closed. The kids were looking out the windows and saying, “Huh. Still snowing. Still no school though so we’re happy. Maybe we’ll just make another batch of cookies.”

By Thursday night/Friday morning, the thaw that was predicted to begin, began. Everything went to slush. School was still closed because, why bother opening the school for one day? We’ll just make everyone go to school until the first week of July (thinks the asinine school board that I really despise because they OBVIOUSLY have NO children attending schools and yet they continue to make the most ridiculous decisions regarding ……. ugh …. jump down from soap-box).

We ended making four batches of chocolate chip and sugar cookies. Luckily, they were all half-batches and luckily I had plenty of supplies on hand and luckily, I didn’t eat all of them. Luckily.

And again, I have been proven NOT crazy for buying my cross-country skis last year, even though I live in the Great, Green Northwest. I took the dogs out in the pasture, skied around the whole property and then took off up the road and skied around our two mile road in the neighborhood. It was wonderful.

True, it was no Mt. Ogden Golf Course and I didn’t have the pleasure of watching Conan attack my faux fur hat in the back of my Tracker after a day of skiing with my best buddy Leah …. but it certainly came very close.

It will now be known as “The Week We Lost In January.”

Snow Buddha (the one in the white, not the one in the hat). We don’t mean to make weird snow sculptures, but it just happens that way. We just have a hard time making the typical round snowmen. This guy lasted about two days and then ended up melting into a lump of slush. Sad ending to a very artistic attempt at snow sculpting.

Now to prepare for the floods.

And the children said, “Let there be Snow …”

2012-01-17T22:20:00.001-08:00

And did it EVER snow. Crikey.Measured at 10 am on Tuesday. About 8.5 inches

Then, not more than 2 hours after that: 11.5 inches. Gah.

Oh yes. Of COURSE there was no school. I USED to be poopy about that whole thing (I can tell I haven’t changed much however) and why in the world do they close school for snow? BUT this snow … well it’s a weird snow. It’s more like oatmeal than frozen water. It sticks to literally everything and won’t let tires move on the road. I actually got stuck in my own driveway THEN started sliding into my neighbor’s ditch when I was dropping off Robee to play with his friend. Crap.

But then there’s this:

and I look out over the snow and see the blue peeking out during a break in the storm and think, “Yeah, it’s kind of pretty.”

Then I realize I have to go pick up the kids and find myself, after driving through the snow (with others who have NO idea how to drive in ANY weather, let alone sticky snow) looking like THIS when I get back to the house:

Welcome to snow days honey!

Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Robee’s phone is connected to mine and he’s now found an app called “OLD BOOTH” and yeah, I tried it.

Actually, I don’t think I look too damn bad (and I say that NOW, almost 50). I’m keeping this pic and will compare it to the actual woman when she turns 70 … if I make it that long. And if my neck really looks that good, I’ll be happy.

#8

2012-01-15T13:36:00.001-08:00

I try to take a pic of me with all the grandkids when they’re little. This is grandbaby #8, Autumn.

I’ll have to find the rest of them and post them all for my future book.

I really do look like Keith.

2012-01-07T18:57:00.000-08:00

Okay, I confess. I'm NOT adopted. See, here is proof; I have Daddy's bald gene.

HA!
As I've mentioned in many many posts, my Crackberry is a piece of crap now. So for Christmas, The Spouse got me a new phone.

And with this new phone came some really great apps. And some really useless, albeit hysterical, apps. Like the one above called "Bald Booth."

Really??

Someone has WAY too much time on their hands to create something like this. And just so I'm not to blame - Robee also got a phone and because he is a minor (and I like to keep track of my kids), his phone is tied into mine. So whatever apps he gets, I get. THIS is his app.

Apparently there is also a Fat Booth, Skinny Booth and (saints preserve us!) a Naked Booth.

Yikes.

Annual Leavenworth Trip 2012

2012-01-04T12:33:00.001-08:00

And here are the kids during our trek to Leavenworth. We’ve been trying to do this for about three years now. It’s a good time for the kids to hang out with Thomas, especially since he’s been working long hours this past summer and fall and have not been able to spend a lot of time with him.

The snow? Not so much. It was okay – not as bad as last year where it was frozen solid but not as good as the year before when it was perfect. Hopefully, we can find it better next year when we go again.

I wish I had better pics but I forgot my camera and my Crackberry is acting up again (OH say it ain’t so!! MY crackberry NOT behaving??? Gah. I hate this phone) and I had to use Thomas’ phone.

And it was night. And it was a little pile of snow, pushed up by snowplows and the kids were trying to make the most of what snow there was.

Sad that they love snow so much and we live in the GREEN Pacific Northwest. Sad for them, not so much for me.

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T10:09:00.001-08:00

I try to remember what happened in the past year and … it never comes to me. My memory has to be jogged for anything to rise to the top. It’s nice to have written down some things – I’m not one who thinks I have to write down every little thing that happens, just the high points – and for that, I’m grateful for a little blog/diary/journal thing going.

Here we go into my grey matter and cobwebs:

January - The kids and I getting a weird flu/bronchitis/crap illness that put us out for about three days. Literally laying on the floor, not being able to do anything. And here are the meds we were taking, trying to feel better and get better.

March/April - I actually sewed Felix a huge skirt and finished it the night before she left for Washington DC. I had to get up at 4 am to get the kids to the airport by 5:30. So yeah, I was tired. But it was cute.

I took Robee to Utah for Spring Break while Felix was gone and got to visit my dad and tour the Air Museum. Have I mentioned lately I love my dad?

May – a VERY quick trip to Disneyland/Seaworld.

And a very spectacular firepit which Porter likes to climb into and drag burnt logs out of to chew on. Grrrr.

June – we began tearing apart our bathroom, closet, bedroom to renovate it and we figured it would be done by July. As it happens, we finally moved in JUST before Thanksgiving. And I started going bald.

July – one of the worse summers since we’ve moved here. Weather was horrible, wet and cold, and my garden struggled to grow. We got to the river once and even then, it wasn’t great. Keeping my hopes up for the next year.

August – my most favorite month … and still no sun. Sad sad sad for me. Also the fair, which Felix chose not to do this year. But her friend Caroline did with one of our chickens, Siobhan.

September – my LEAST favorite month because I hate Fall (I have to say ‘Fall’ now because if I say ‘I hate Autumn’ then I’m saying I hate little baby who was born at the end of this month) and I had no warm weather to recharge my panels for the winter. BUT we tested for our 2nd Degree Black Belt in Ocean Shores. After several months of waiting, we found out that Felix and I passed and the boys were a no-change! So they have to re-test. I guess we’ll wait for them. :)

Baby Autumn born – Grandchild #8

October – Surgery and Halloween. Two major events within 30 days of each other. And both were successful.

November – Felix and Robee involved in their many many activities. I spent most of the fall running the kids to their various happenings. Luckily, I don’t mind because it keeps them busy and it will give them some great memories. Also Thanksgiving added some stress into this month BUT Daddy came to visit for the week. That was BEST time ever with him.

Felix getting ready for her show, PRETENDING to smoke and getting much glee from this.

Robee, playing drums with the singing group, Keynotes.

December – Thomas plays Santa for our church party and the kids are elves. Seriously, the best group I’ve ever seen.

Happy New Year! Next year in 2012, we shall be vigilant in our quest to keep the doh-headed Republicans out of office and keep Obama plowing forward to repair this country! Heh. I HAD to add a little political humor. But I’m not kidding however about keeping Republicons out of office.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-27T08:57:00.001-08:00

Come and gone. Moving on.

Here are some visuals of the day or the days leading up to the day.

V masks. Amazing looking couple. Robee and Jack, The Tree.

Checking out the stocking.

Orange ….. really?? But it flies.

His fav, Reese’s.

Felix on the couch, inspecting hers.

Imagine my surprise to find a mixer under the tree for MOI! And yes, I asked for it while trying to make something with my possessed old mixer on Wednesday. But I’m surprised by the color.

Felix and her stuff. New laptop on the table for her.

This a jean quilt I started for Robee about ….four years ago. I finally decided to get it finished. On Friday night, while the kids were shopping with Thomas (buying my mixer) and hauled a** to get this done. Why would I put off something for four years that I could have done in two hours??? The iron-on pictures are from Mario, the computer game.

Clyde with my green tea cup in his mouth. I missed the recycle bin and he caught it.

The kids’ Gingerbread creations. Felix’s house and Robee’s tree.

Meet Jack Frost

2011-12-19T22:58:00.001-08:00

Welcome Jack Frost, our 2011 Christmas Tree!
The past five years here in Arlington, we've been getting live trees for Christmas. Then, after all the festivities are done in January, we plant it in our yard to re-forest.

By we, I of course mean ME, since I'm the one who plants them. Thomas usually says that he doesn't know how to dig a hole or that his arms don't work the same as mine or that he was never very good at digging holes and I'm way better at it. He really is Tom Sawyer.

Anyhoo ... the kids have had the opportunity to name each tree. There has been thus far: Ike, Charlie, Mento, Cratchet, and Alfie (not any particular order). Two died. One by the hand of an over-zealous landscaper who shall remain nameless and the other because I didn't get it into the ground in January. Actually I'm amazed any of them lived since I NEVER get any tree into the ground before January. It's usually around May or so.

This year I've made a promise to Jack Frost that it's root ball WILL be in the ground by the end of January.

I love our decorations. They're old and nothing matches and I'm perfectly fine with that.

Mom used to decorate our trees with traditional decorations. Then one year, she announced that she wanted a "Theme" tree - whatever that meant, we weren't sure. But we were to see very soon. She got rid of all our old favorite decorations and replaced them with theme colors. One year it was red and gold. The next, pink and brown. The next, white flocked tree with pink and gold. On and on every year with a color theme.

I was sort of sad not to have our old decorations but she said she was tired of decorating the same way each year.

So I've made a promise to myself not to change our decorations. It makes the kids so happy to see their old favorites. And if we add to them once in awhile, then great. Maybe something special from Leavenworth or a place we visit.

You know you’re old when ….

2011-12-15T22:24:00.001-08:00

Do I really want to play this game?

Sigh. Yeah.

Once upon a time, I bought a really cute sweater. I mean, really cute. It was the style of the day and it made everyone happy when I wore it. Especially me.

It was a Christmas tunic sweater. Brooke and I bought this sweater while we were shopping together November in 1989. I think it might have been from Penney’s or maybe Weinstocks. I can’t exactly remember. But I’m sure it was in the Ogden Mall.

It was no ordinary Christmas sweater; this one had LIGHTS! Green lights on the words to make sure the viewer KNEW that I was wishing them a very Happy Holiday and a red light on dear, dear Rudolph’s nose. I wore it for many Christmas parties and office parties. It also had gigantic shoulder pads. Huge. I would wear it with red stirrups and flats. Or black stirrups. As I said, it was a tunic so fairly long on me.

Fast forward ….. 22 years.

Yes, I have actually KEPT this sweater in pristine condition for 22 years, thinking that what? That I might wear it again? I have to think that’s why I did it. If you look really closely, you can see on Santa’s sleigh, the year 1989. It’s on the yellow sign. I purposely bought this particular sweater because of that; I always wanted to remember the year which I bought this gem.

It’s kind of hard to catch the blinking at the right moment when all the lights are on at the same time. I was hoping to get Rudolph’s nose when it was lit.

SO …. the other day, Angie is mentioning that she and Jen are going to a Christmas party and I vaguely heard something about sweaters. I happily said that I had a light up sweater she could wear. She was so happy and in my ancient mind, thought she was excited to wear a lighted sweater. She then said, “Great! We’re having an UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER PARTY AND THAT WILL BE PERFECT.”

Que? Huh? Did I hear right?? My lovely candy-stripe, lighted sweater was to be the guest of honor at Dinner for Schmucks? I, of course, played along because I certainly didn’t want them to think that I held a candle for my little Christmas sweater.

I came home and was lamenting to Felix about my sweater and she jumped up and said, “Terrific! We’re having UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER DAY AT SCHOOL ON THURSDAY. Can I wear your sweater?”

What the hell? Is this some craze that’s sweeping the nation? One that I haven’t heard of at all?

And so, being the kind of person that has finally thrown away my needle-point cat vest and my Hyper-color tee shirt, I have come to the realization that I will never in innocence, wear my lighted Christmas sweater again. It will now be offered up for gleeful laughter while reminiscing the awful styles of the 80’s.

But I will NEVER EVER wear stirrups with flats again. You can put your money on that one.

Arlington Hometown Christmas 2011

2011-12-03T21:46:00.001-08:00

It’s that time again, when Arlington holds it’s annual (but I’m not sure how long its been going on) Hometown Christmas Festival.

Walking on sidewalks, seeing all the lights, stopping and shopping, buying hot chocolate and taking pictures for my memory book in my head so that I can try to remember these days when my babies are all grown up --- I love this very much.

Free (FREE – how often does that happen?) wagon rides through the town.

Hot Chocolate!! Mmmmmmm!! And it was chilly outside too!! (Thomas and Felix are paying)

The Famous Walking Christmas Tree!

I love this wooden Snowman. Every year, Arlington puts out wooden snow people, depicting the different local shops and businesses. This one, however, is my favorite. I’m the one in the hat.

After the walk through downtown, things got really exciting. Ward Christmas Dinner! Yep. Time for that festive, all-you-can-eat funeral potatoes and jello dinner held at every Mormon church from here to the east coast. And guess who the special guest was THIS year??

Yep. They asked Thomas to be Santa. And of course, we just happen to have a Santa suit hanging around in our storage. Who doesn’t?

Don’t forget, Santa has to have his helpers.

Throwing together anything they had that was green, red or white with bells, the kids transformed themselves into Santa’s Elves. It pays to have a mom who collects weird things once in awhile. I had on my trusty Green Grinch shirt that I bought because I loved Owen’s so much.

I bought a pair of elf-ish looking shoes way back in my years at Weber State and Robee claimed those quickly. Felix was sad. What’s a girl to do who likes to make a splash?

Have her mom whip together a pair of elf shoes out of felt in 30 minutes. Thank goodness Angie had already planted that idea in my brain from Halloween. And again, why in the WORLD would I just happen to have red and green felt? The only thing I didn’t have was bells. :( I’m going to get some so that I’m never without them again.

Our Santa show was such a hit that I think we’re going to have to make this an annual thing and start hitting parties during Christmas – getting paid! Time for me to buy the Mrs. Claus suit!!

Me and my Santa.

Advent Time Again

2011-11-30T22:28:00.001-08:00

Each year (at least for the past four or five years I guess) I’ve been getting the kids an advent calendar. Not just any advent calendar with nasty chocolates in them that have been there since last year, but cool ones with toys from Playmobil.

It’s been fun and the kids are always excited to see each morning to see what might be behind the doors. Having put them together, I already knew but was excited for them. And then they would show each other what the other got.

However sadly it might be, the kids are getting older – Felix especially. The joy of toys in a paper calendar is not exactly what it used to be.

Sad for me since this is one of the very reasons I didn’t want kids; I HATE to see them grow older and lose that child “thing” – whatever that might be.

So while Daddy was here visiting last week, we happened to be walking down the streets of Mt. Vernon (because Robee was still thinking he might want a toy calendar) and came across a thrift store (my ultimate favorite places to shop) and lo and behold, but what to my wondering eyes should appear!! But an unfinished wooden advent calendar, just begging to be bought for a mere three dollars. So I did, never THINKING it would become such a great hit with the kids.

This is how it turned out. I even freaking SHADED the beard. I found gold sparkly paint and did the doors. Felix LOVED it ……. and so did the boy child. He started thinking that he would like one of those too and then I could put in whatever sort of thing be it candy or prize or toy I choose for them to discover.

The only problem with that plan is that this calendar was the 2008 model and the 2011 models were crap. The doors were tiny and mostly all broken.

New plan – drive all over, call all over, surf all over looking for a comparable advent calendar.

Thank you Fred Meyer!!

Yeah, I didn’t paint it … nor sparkle it … nor personalize it. But it was the best I could find. The big doors open to 24 little drawers to hide the surprises. Robee was so happy to have his own calendar. I told him that next year, I can repaint parts of it so that it’s really his.

Tomorrow starts the countdown! Christmas here we come!!

A bit more from the Actress and the Drummer

2011-11-25T21:12:00.001-08:00

Felix in her “Thank you so much for coming to see the show” line. And with one of her most favorite teachers, Clarkie. Felix looked gorgeous.

Robee playing in his first Keynotes concert. Rainbow tie. Yeah, his mother helped pick that one out. And the girls LOVE it. I love his hair.

Stop the World, I want to get Off.

2011-11-18T09:49:00.001-08:00

Gah. I am going to take five minutes to do this and then I’m off on another series of “have to do’s today” list.

Seriously, I do NOT think God meant our lives to be this chaotic. I don’t like it and I really do better in calm. I’m like a cat. Of course, if I were really like a cat, I’d be peeing all over in my house in protest of chaos. I just might do it.

The reason for my series of small strokes??

I have two kids (and thanks to birth control, common sense and old age, no more than that) and both kids are involved in school and after school activities. Don’t misunderstand; I love them to my toes, but keeping them busy is crazy. I also have 82 animals but I can sort of throw food at them and move on.

Robee is the drummer for both Keynotes and Jazz bands in school as well as taking drum and guitar lessons. Felix is in piano lessons and was fortunate enough to land an understudy role and extra in the high school murder-mystery “Rehearsal for Murder.”

Rehearsals for band are at 7 am every morning which means we leave at 6:35 each crack o’dawn. Rehearsals for the play were everyday after school until 4 ish, lengthening as the show drew closer to opening. Piano is also after school so we had to re-arrange her piano to 6 pm on Fridays.

We also have TKD on Tuesdays beginning at 5. However, since the surgery, I’ve been on leave until the first of December which is my date of clearance from my doc. Then we have church/scout activities on Wednesday nights. Guitar is Wednesday afternoons. Drums are right after school on Friday. That doesn’t count our yoga classes that are at 7 am on Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday or watching the little kids on Mondays and Thursdays.

Guess, just GUESS how many miles I put on my truck? Guess how many times I have to fill up the tank?? It’s freaking unbelievable. There was one day two weeks ago that I spent from 6:30 am until 5 pm running around. I’ve decided to start wearing a diaper and installing a small kitchen/bedroom in the front seat of my truck. Why bother finding a bathroom? Just do as the babies do.

Okay. So Felix and the show. Here are some pics from her understudy show night. She was quite excited. And she smokes AND drinks coffee in the show. THIS she thought was quite exciting. Yeah. She’s a Rebel.

That’s me helping out with hair backstage. I only burned the girl once. She got off easy. Robee is just so cute, I had to put in a pic of him too.

And there is so much more to November (as I can see, it’s the 18th and it will be Thanksgiving next week) but I have used up my five minutes with an extra 10 minutes so I have to leave. Next time.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-28T00:31:00.001-07:00

Here it is again. Man, that year went REALLY fast. It seems like I was just writing about last year’s Halloween. Crikey.

And here are the decided costumes for this year:

Robee is The Joker and Felix is a Forest Fairie.

Felix vacillated between a 50’s vampire and something else that I can’t remember but then came up with the Forest Fairie. We had to figure out a way for her to sit in the car with those funky wings. Ugh. Her make-up was an experiment that turned out quite well. Especially those vine-y things running down her arms. I wasn’t sure about those.

Robee somehow found a purple blazer and purple pants that fit him (with just a small adjustment from the sewing machine). Then one day later, I found the orange shirt and he has a green tie (I have no idea why; another thrift store purchase). The make-up was a blast to do.

Again I say unto you, having done theater for about 15 years certainly has paid off. I love doing their make-up for things like this and I LOVE that they LOVE it too. Makes it all worthwhile.

All costumes came from the thrift store. I love the thrift stores out here. For some reason, they’re not the same as the Deseret Industries in Utah. I think they have one of those here but it’s clear in BFE (or Bellevue which I refuse to drive to on any given day), so forget it. The Goodwill and Value Village are such great stores plus all the smaller, independent thrifts as well. Typically we hit Value Village; Felix thinks that store is cleaner and more organized.

Then there is me. Yeah. I didn’t do anything this year. I didn’t even decorate. I feel awful about it. I don’t think I ever NOT decorated for Halloween. Christmas, yes. But Halloween? Unthinkable.

Yet here I sit at ….. midnight ….. with all my decor still in a box in the garage. I have no costume for me. No lights up. No skeletons on the door. No pumpkins carved. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I can’t seem to muster the … whatever … to get it going. I guess I can pull the “I just had surgery” card, but I feel that excuse is wearing a tad thin. Sadly, I really don’t feel ready to drag out a bunch of stuff just to put it away next week. I’m not feeling its because I’m sick of celebrating; I really don’t feel like going there. I’m hoping that it really is because I’m still getting back to “normal” … whatever that is … and I’ll feel better come Thanksgiving and Christmas. If I’m stressed now about decorating, I’ll really be a mess for those holidays since I’m stressed about them on a normal year.

Luckily I have very nice, thoughtful kids who do not pressure me or whine about the decor this year (at least not to my face which is probably wise). I appreciate their consideration. I know they notice the lack of decorations and miss it but we did get the fantastic costumes together and that I think, will hold them for this year.

Well, the insomnia isn’t going away so I’ll do something else to try to go to sleep rather than read about my own boring life.

October …. rhymes with nothing.

2011-10-18T20:50:00.001-07:00

As was stated in several posts, my lovely surgery was the 4th of October. I’m now in the beginning of my third week of recuperation. Saw the doc on Monday and she said every thing looks great. She did warn me however (again) that just because I feel great doesn’t mean I can go run a marathon; I still have four weeks of easy-does-it-without-being-a-slug recuperation.

AND I found out that I’m not going to be able to lift anything heavy for another three to six months. WTH??? Are you kidding? That’s what I do BEST. I’m freakishly strong. Poo.

However, she did give me the okay to attend yoga and walk --- which is great. I can’t go back to Taekwondo quite yet so SOME sort of exercise is wonderful. And Thomas really needs to get back for his stress level rises each time he doesn’t go.

Felix finally got her glasses. Luckily she’s not as blind as me (20/800 vision, clinically blind – lovely) but does need them to see the board in class. She has a much wider choice of frames than I did and her lenses aren’t two inches thick. Lucky girl. Try being eight, with two-inch lenses and cat-eye shaped frames. Not cool. And the yarn bow didn’t help at all. Really Mom? You thought this looked good??

She also attended her first Homecoming Dance with her friends. No, she wasn’t asked and even if she was, she knows that’s not going to happen while she’s 14. There are some things that make sense and that’s one of them (besides no nose or eyebrow piercings). She and Leah had a great time and she had on a terrific dress she found at a consignment store. That’s my girl!

Yeah, she’s gorgeous. And I will say it all day long.

October …. and Halloween is coming up soon. The big dilemma ---- WHAT to be??

Try to remember, the parties of September

2011-10-18T17:33:00.001-07:00

Yikes. I am SOOOO behind. Whatever.

So in our family, we have several birthdays plus other fun things in the month of September. We’ll start at the beginning and work through to the end; it’s easier that way.

Right smack dab at the start of the month, is Robee’s birthday. Had the doc had her way, he would have been born later or born dead – or both. I forced the issue to start me as soon as she got back from vacation. I really wanted to have him in August but … well this is what we got. He was two weeks early, 10 lbs, 9 oz and grey as paint. I truly believe that had I not threatened the doc, he would not be alive today.

Happy 12th Birthday!

Two days after that, Jen has a birthday. Sometimes we combine celebrations, sometimes we don’t. It depends on time and days and what’s going on.

Two days after THAT, Thomas and I have our anniversary. This year, we celebrated 15 years. I don’t know that we actually DID anything special. School started the next day, work also was the next day, it was on a Tuesday which is right in the middle of the week. So many things, so little time. I think we sort of celebrated by going to Cle Elum at the end of September for a judges conference – which when you think about it, isn’t really very romantical – but that’s about it. However, I still think that celebrating during the year as a surprise is more important than trying to fit it into one day.

Scoot ahead to almost the first day of Autumn and we have Greg’s birthday. Greg got a great present (actually on Jen’s birthday) from Jen which gave him the opportunity to play baseball in Qwest Field in Seattle. Apparently, for a person who really loves (REALLY really loves) baseball, this is a big deal. He was quite thrilled.

He’s down there on the field --- somewhere.

Then four days after his birthday, mine comes winding around. During that time, we had the conference, Greg got pneumonia, Jen was due at any minute, Owen got strep throat and I was preparing for my surgery. Getting together for dinner was not working out. Then I found out that Emilee and Lori were coming in to see Jen’s baby, so we decided to put off our celebration dinner until the first week of October.

Three days later, while we were in Cle Elum at the conference, Jen’s baby FINALLY decided to join us. Autumn Emilee Leigh.

September is a bissy, bissy month.

Healing nicely

2011-10-12T12:59:00.001-07:00

It pays to be healthy. It pays to exercise. It pays to eat right and do the right things. I never realized this until now.

The nurses after asking me several health history questions, said that I was the healthiest person that they’ve seen in a long time. I don’t have to take any medications; I don’t drink or smoke (yeah, yeah – anyMORE I don’t). I keep fairly active (I’m really lazy so this one is hard) and I take vitamins – true, when I think about it but at least I do. I don’t have high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, liver problems, kidney issues …. and on and on and on. All these ailments that they were listing, I kept saying “no” to.

Thomas and I started taking yoga in July. I knew that I wanted to strengthen myself in another way besides our Taekwondo and this was something we’ve always wanted to do together. The girls were teaching yoga classes for a couple of years but the times never worked out for us. Early mornings work the best and we finally found a place to go.

I fully believe that taking that class has helped with my recovery. Here’s what I’m supposed to take:

And I haven’t. I haven’t had any pain since I left the hospital. None.

What I have taken is GasEx because, yeah … full of gas. Even worse though, is that I’m full of air. They pump up the body cavity with air to separate the organs and then the body just has to absorb it as time goes by. THAT is painful. If I could have a pin to pop me, I would have.

This is what I got:

Get Well Cards!!

Since I can’t vacuum for five weeks! This is my birthday present from the big kids!!

My job: account input for the office. This is my new workspace. I have Lappy (the Toughbook laptop), my tea cup, phone, pillows, remote, and chocolate truffles within arms reach. Life is good!!

Since I have to be down for the next week, Thomas has put me to work doing some accounting for the office. He is so behind and why not? I literally cannot do anything for the first two weeks.

I’m not supposed to drive because I’m supposed to be on the pain meds (oh right – like half of Arlington ISN’T driving while taking drugs. Pul-eeze) but since I’m not on pain pills, I can get the kids to and from their school stuff. I have to; they’re live goes on and I have no choice. But as far as anything else, done.

According to my doc, the first two weeks is the most critical for healing. This is so hard. I’m always doing something because there is always something to do around here. However, to keep me as healthy as I want to stay, I am directing myself to take it easy.

There are some benefits to this whole taking-it-easy. First of all, the really lazy person in me is sighing in contentment. Second, the thought of being in the hospital for longer than one night is horrifyingly awful. My doc said that if I don’t stay down and take care of myself and undo everything she’s done, she’ll put me in for a week. Yikes. Stab me now. No way.

Third, my kids are helping out wonderfully. They were so worried about me and what might happen. They’re carrying in my bags and opening doors and lifting and helping and doing so many things. Robee taught me how to hold in my sneeze to stop it so it wouldn’t hurt my stomach (hold the top of the nose and say “watermelon” over and over – it works!!). Felix is cooking food and bringing me drinks and socks to warm my feet. I love my kids.

Fourth, I get to wear yoga pants all day! I have four small incisions on my abdomen that form a diamond and there is no way I can wear anything that’s going to press on them. That’s from the laparoscopy. Seatbelts kill. I keep threatening to show the kids my scar … just to make them scream. Heh heh.

My post op appointment is scheduled for next Monday and then she will say yea or nay for me starting back on easy exercise. If she says yes, then I can start back at yoga, just doing easy breathing and possibly small moves. I can also start watching the kids again that Thursday and then go back to two days a week. I just can’t lift them anywhere so thankfully, Ivy is strong enough to climb into her car seat …. which Thomas will have to carry to the truck for me. Ha! Slaves are fun.

Which is why I have the time to sit here and blog my experience with my first and hopefully LAST surgery!

Thank you to those of you who called and wished me luck and those that helped with my kids and those that helped out anywhere.

Here I go on my next adventure …. WITHOUT my uterus. So long sucker! It’s been nice but you have outlived your usefulness and I’m ready to be free! When I feel better, I’ll do my “I Don’t Have My Uterus” dance that I tried to do for Felix the other night.

Pre and Post Op

2011-10-12T12:11:00.001-07:00

Arriving at the hospital at 0’Dark Hundred and rain. I checked in at 6 AM and then sent Thomas on his way.

I did this for two reasons: first, because I knew that Robee needed to leave for school at 6:35 and then Felix was going to be taken to school at 7:20, so he would need to be at home. Second, because as I have mentioned, Thomas worries. I could see his skin was grey and he was nervous. I would prefer him not to be there while they’re prepping me for surgery. What would be the point? I’m going to be asleep soon and I wouldn’t know if he were there or not. As much as I love him, he doesn’t help me to calm down because he’s too nervous. I would prefer to see him after everything is done.

As the nurse and aesthetician are taking my vitals and asking the same questions (my name, birthday, and what I’m going to have done while here), I’m thinking nothing. Actually, I’m calmer now than I was last week. I was freaking out last week. But now that I’m laying on the table in a purple surgical gown with a mushroom covering my hair, I feel good.

They keep asking me if I’m allergic to anything: meds, foods, etc. They ask if I’ve ever had adverse affects to anesthesia and I’ve only been under once when I had that lung biopsy in St. George. When I came out of that, I felt fine. I’ve heard some people get really sick but I’ve been lucky. Then Dr. Hoffman comes is and does the same questioning that I just had from three other people. They start to wheel me into another room and she says, “I’ll see you in there but you won’t remember it.”

I can feel the medication start to work and the last thing I remember (I think) is me looking at my hands and telling the nurse, “No, I don’t get my nails done at a salon,” and then …………..

“Kristi. Kristi. Are you awake?”

I’m blinking in the light and someone is talking to me. A guy. Asking me how I’m feeling and what day I thought it was. I believe I answered correctly because he said that was a good answer. I did mention that I hurt right here and I pointed to my stomach and he said he would fix that.

I have to prove that I’m fully awake and I tell them my full name and birthday and my age. I’m now being wheeled to my room and I’m looking for my glasses because everything is blurry. I realized later than I had them on; it was blurry because I was under anesthesia.

The pain I was feeling is gone now and I can hear my nurse and another person talking to me about my surgery. That it went well and I came through great. I hear them talking to me about my uterus and what the pictures show.

While I’m crawling out of my fog, I ask the nurse if I can take my uterus home and bury it in my backyard with the my other animals.

After a few minutes of muffled giggles, he says, “Uh no. It goes to pathology for tests and they’ll take care of it for you.” Drugs are fun.

I find out that Thomas had come back after the surgery to check on me while I’m sleeping it off.

I finally fully wake up around noon or one. I have an IV in one arm, a BP cuff on the other, a catheter tube, and a oxygen clip in my nose. Way to wake up.

I spend most of the day dozing off and on and I feel really good. There is a slight cramping feeling (she did take it out, right?) in my abdomen but aside from that, hardly any pain at all. I am on something through the IV but only when I ask for it.

What I am, however, is STARVING. I haven’t eaten food since Sunday (all liquids on Monday) and I’m empty. I first get to munch on ice. And then Surprise! My lunch is … clear liquids. Yeah. Whoo hoo. However, Dr. Hoffman says if I keep improving as much as I am, I get to eat real food tomorrow. Finally.

Thomas brings the kids to visit when he finally gets out of the office because for some reason, he was scheduled with clients. Grrrrr. So they finally come trooping in at 7, fairly reluctantly. The kids are not ready to see me, their Mom, in a hospital bed. The most ill they’ve ever seen me is when I had bronchitis and they had the flu. For most of their lives, I’ve been pretty healthy (except for that iodine poisoning that I had but they were too little to remember). So this is a new experience for them.

However, I’VE been in and out of a hospital since 1976 when my mom first got sick. I’m so used to hospitals, that this seems perfectly normal to me.

In fact, I had the weirdest experience while I was laying in the bed. I was reaching for my cup of ice with my IV arm and my vision sort of wavered and then I saw Mom’s arm reaching for the cup instead, just as I used to when I would visit her when she was recovering from whatever ailment she had at that moment. I blinked my eyes and then it was my arm again. It was a weird moment. I’m not sure what it meant.

Back to the kids ….

Robee was happy to see me but Felix was having a hard time. I’m not sure why but she really did not want to be there. I sort of wish I hadn’t asked them to visit me now. There wasn’t a need for it; I was fine and would be home the next day. I don’t think I looked that bad; a little swollen from the IV.

I’ve looked a LOT worse than this, trust me.

Catch up continued …….

2011-10-12T11:11:00.001-07:00

And on to October.

Since May and June when my hair started falling out, I had been considering having a hysterectomy, the old woman scoop out. Actually, since I had Robee, I’ve been advised to do this.

But with the iron loss because of massive bleeding during my periods, it was time.

This was a very scary, very personal decision. There were horror stories from both camps; for and against. I didn’t know who to talk to since Mom is gone now and I didn’t have a lot of friends who had had one that I could ask (actually I don’t have a lot of friends period here in Washington, so it was even harder).

If you go to the O Holy Internet, you can be sitting at your computer until next week reading every post, news article and personal blog regarding this subject.

Just try, TRY talking to a guy about it (ie, Spouses). Men get so squeamish when it comes to women’s health issues. I’d love to know why. I can say “Testicular Cancer” until the cows come home, but to have a man utter CLEARLY the words “uterus,” “ovary,” “vagina,” or “cervix” - well, they become completely tongue-tied. Unless it’s associated with sex and even then, it’s slang.

Thomas is squeamish about it because it’s a health issue; he dislikes any sort of illness or ailment. Brooke was the same way but it was because he didn’t like to be inconvenienced in any way – unless he could call in sick at the same time when I had the flu. That used to bug me so bad when we worked together. Ugh. Sorry. Moving on …..

Thomas hates it because he worries about everybody all the time. Ben and his stomach. Jen and the baby when she was pregnant … just to name a few. He worries constantly about each and every one of the kids. You should have seen him during the Maxito tumor episode. I thought he was going to implode.

So talking to him about THIS, about me going in and having a major organ cut out of my body while under general anesthesia … forget it.

I finally made an appointment with an actual OBGYN that was recommended to me by a friend and bravely went in to discuss a solution.

Dr. Hoffman is a no-nonsense doctor, very little bedside manner who says it like it is. Love her to pieces. I don’t want coddling; I want someone who will tell me the truth and be as blunt as possible. The only thing I didn’t like – but I understand why she has to do it – is that she wasn’t too happy about my decision to leave in my ovaries. But there is no possible way I’m going to try to recuperate AND slam into Menopause at the same time. I’m nuts enough as it is; I don’t need that too.

Taking out your uterus is a weird thought. Here is this organ that has provided me with two kids. I’m lucky to have a functioning one and I’m happy to have my babies. But I’m done with it. Quoting a friend who said “When their service is up, they should just shrink away.” Yep. When I was 40 and my GYN suggested I take it out then, I was really hesitant. I felt like I was betraying myself or that I wouldn’t be considered “female” anymore. Such conflict we women put on ourselves.

Fast forward to now.

Surgery was scheduled for the end of September but then the conference came up and I really wanted to feel good to go so I put it off until October 4th. Schedules had to be rearranged, rides provided and supplies increased for the kids and animals. I wasn’t going to be able to do anything for the first two weeks. Nothing. No driving, No bending. No lifting. No stairs. No stretching. No major walking. Think slug. Dead slug.

I talked to the kids about what was going to happen. Felix, being female and having gone through those silly maturation classes at school, understood better than Robee.

My first response to his “why are you having surgery Mom?” was to tell him that I was going to have the doctors make me another anus so that I could crap twice as much as other humans. I thought that was a great answer but … I have always made it a point to be as honest as possible when the kids ask me questions.

So then I told him that my uterus, which was an organ in my body that holds the baby before it’s born, was going to be taken out. Not surprisingly, he liked the first answer WAY better.

All week and weekend, I did chores in the barn and yard and house, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do much for almost 6 weeks. Extra bird feed loaded, stalls mucked and laid out with shavings for the goats, cleaning some garden boxes, shoveling dirt to fill in holes from Clyde …. all the things I could think of before leaving.

Monday before the surgery was Bowel Prep day and just by those words, one can imagine what that means. It means ingesting awful stuff so that the intestines can clean themselves of everything bit of whatever is in them. I spent about every 10 minutes in the bathroom. Special. Luckily I only had Evan to watch, which made it much easier.

I had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am. I got up at 4 (like I really slept at all that night), showered, packed and mentally prepared myself. I kissed my babies goodbye, loaded up the car and Thomas and I took off for Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington.

Playing Catch up

2011-10-12T09:51:00.001-07:00

I’m way behind. It’s now the second week of October. It was a busy end of September/beginning of October.

Birthdays were celebrated, babies were born, kids got involved in extra curricular events, and organs were removed.

First: Birthdays. Greg and I have birthdays within a week of each other. His the 22nd of September, mine the 26th. So in the family tradition of going out to eat for one’s birthday – we didn’t. Greg happily acquired pneumonia during his birthday weekend and Thomas and I left for a three-day Judges conference right after mine. And my birthday was on a Monday. Really tough to gather people together. So we postponed our combined dinners until October.

The older I get, the less I’m worried about celebrating my birthday or having a “special” day. I mean, it’s nice to hear from people wishing you a Happy Birthday; you know you’re still loved and wanted. But as far as being treated differently, I think its kind of dumb. In my family growing up, you pretty much did the same stuff on your birthday as you would any other day. No one treated you special. We would have a family party, never a friend one. I have never had a friend party for my birthday. None of us did. Isn’t that weird? It seems so normal to have a friend party for kids and yet, we were never allowed to have one. Too much mess for OCD Lucy.

However, I did get some lovely, lovely flowers from Thomas and cupcakes from the girls. That made it a special day for me.

Moving on ….

Our other birthday to celebrate was a new one. Jen finally (finally!) had her little girl on the 29th of September.

I was hoping she could have her on my birthday and take over my day so I could bask in her celebration. But some people don’t like to share birthdays and maybe she would hate it later. Actually, I’ve hated my birthday anyway because it’s in September and I really hate September because the first day of Autumn is in September and this is my LEAST favorite season next to Winter. The only good thing about this season is that Halloween is coming up and after that, there are only five more months until Spring.

Moving on ….

The day after my birthday, Thomas and I went to a place called Suncadia in Cle Elum Washington to attend a Judges Conference. He spoke, I relaxed. Sometimes its good to be the spouse. I left Felix with Leah so she could get to school and Robee with Reilly for the same reason. Kelly came to watch the animal farm and keep the house looking occupied.

Cle Eum is about two hours from our house and is located in a high mountain area. It reminded me so much of Flaming Gorge. Big Pines and the mountain breezes I remember from when we used to camp up there. I was able to rent a bike and go for wonderful two hour ride. Then, as I was on a fairly deserted road, my bike chain fell off and I was stranded. And my cell phone didn’t work. And did I mention I was on a deserted road? Yeah. My mind started freaking out, thinking of everything awful that could possibly happen. Luckily, in my wise new 49 year old brain, I shook those thoughts out, fixed the bike and calmly pedaled back to the lodge. No harm done.

Then I changed (after taking a rest and eating a bagel) for a swim in the heated pool and soak in the hot tub. I brought a book and just sat and read. I haven’t done that in …. I don’t know how long.

Moving on …..

Both kids are really involved in extra school stuff this year. Sometime this summer, Robee suddenly decided he really liked the drums. He’s been in the band playing snare drums but he wanted to try his hand at a drum set. I found this kid at the Arlington 4th of July party (I say kid; he’s about 20) who was willing to do lessons and yard work for a really great price. We found a drum set on craigslist and away he went. He loves it. So now he plays both the guitar and the drums. He auditioned for the drummer position in Keynotes (the singing group that Felix was in last year) as well as the Jazz Band – and he made both. Good and bad. Good because … well that’s obvious. Bad because he now has to be at school, every morning at 7 am. Which means he never rides the morning bus. Which means someone has to take him every morning to school. Which is me. Normally. There goes our 7 am yoga class. Oh well.

Felix auditioned for a part a school play and she got the understudy, which is amazing for a freshman. The ironic part? - besides the fact that she loves being on stage as much as I do – the play she is doing is “Rehearsal for Murder,” which is a show I did at Heritage Community Theater around 1992 or so. It’s a Who-Done-It type of play, where its a play with-in a play. Her character is Bella, who is the producer. The really cool thing is that there is a show just for the understudies prior to the run. She will get to shine for that show and she’s also an extra in the regular show. She is just now realizing the amount of time one puts into being in a show. And she hasn’t even hit Hell Week yet. I’ve been asked to help with make-up and costumes. Ha! I’m so psyched for her! She is going to have so much fun.

Moving on ….. October is another post.

Introducing, Cedar, the squeaker

2011-09-21T11:22:00.001-07:00

This squeaker's name is Cedar. Robee said he never gets to name the babies so this one was his to name. We still don't know if it's a hen or a cock so I just say it, for now. I might have mentioned in some post that the nest mate to this one died. I still feel bad about that but it happens.

This baby is almost 4 weeks old but it is as large as my other two I hand fed who are almost 3 months old. That's what happens when a human gets a hold of an animal; over feed and over weight. I really don't think it's over weight, just a lot bigger than a normal, pigeon-fed baby would be.

It is finally out of the office as of Sunday. Getting way to big for the box and starting to crawl or fly out of it.

The crap all over the front of it’s chest is the liquid bird food I've been feeding it. It is a messy process each time but at least I'm not having to force feed the bird into it's crop. That was scary every time I fed because there was always a chance I was going to miss and shoot food down the wrong pipe. After that, death.

Hopefully we won't be feeding any more baby pigeons. That season should be over for the year. Today I'm cleaning out the pigeon coop (finally) but first have to run to the store for a gas mask to prevent me from getting Pigeon Breeders Disease. Boy, does sound like fun or what?

Symptoms of this lovely health issue CAN include but are not LIMITED to: wheezing, and dry coughs that shake the entire body as well as chills, sweating, aching, and fatigue. Ooooo …. goody goody. I can HARDLY wait for that to hit me.

The great thing is that I don’t actually have to be working with just pigeons to get this. It’s also know by these other names: bathtub refinisher's lung, mushroom picker disease, mushroom worker's lung, laboratory technician's lung, pituitary snuff-taker's lung (what in the hell is that?), plastic worker's lung, epoxy resin lung, maltworker's lung, maple bark stripper's disease (a really good reason NOT to move to cold Vermont), bagassosis, wheat weevil disease (dang, and I love weevils so much- especially in meatloaf), farmer's lung, ventilation pneumonitis, and cheese-worker's lung.

I feel SOOOOO much better about shoveling pigeon sh*t now. Tons.

15 Years and Counting ..... Down? Up?

2011-09-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

Better late than never I suppose.

On September 6th, 2011 -- Thomas Robert Dale and I (whatever name I go by) were married for 15 years.

15.

I'm still shocked by that number. I feel like its only been five years. I know that's not possible because ... well ... I can still do math ... most of the time.

Obviously, the first bit of math is the glaring one ... my baby girl is 14 years old.

The second is that I'm nearing upon the age of Forty-Freaking-Nine years old. WTH?! When did this happen?? When did I turn my mom's age?

So, if we do The Math .... 2 + 2 = Yeah. We've been married 15 whole years.

Have they all been lovey-dovey and romantic and roses? Nope, Nope and Nope. Honestly, the first few were shaky to say the least. Even though we started popping out babies right away, it was still weak.

Things got better once we moved to St. George and found ourselves depending on each rather than family or friends; that can be more hindrance than help at times.

Then we moved to Washington and found that we can be really good friends with each other. In fact, he's now my closest friend. As it should be.

We've never not had kids with us; from day one, there has always been a child in our couple-dom.

How will it be in four and six years when Felix and Robee are off on their own adventures in college and we'll actually be all alone with just each other?

I predict that it will be ................

A-FREAKING-MAZING!!!

I, for one, cannot wait to sail out on our own adventure, just the two of us, being friends. By then, most of the animals will be dead and gone and we can be a little less tied down to do some things we really want to do.

Until then, however, I'm going to continue being the Mom-taxi for the kids, the go-to babysitter for the grand kids, and zoo-keeper for the mini-farm.

Here's to 15 more years with Thomas. As we age together, we begin another adventure with silver hair, wrinkles, poochy stomachs, creaking joints, and laugh lines.

My wandering Mind has another victim

2011-09-11T08:49:00.001-07:00

The garden has finally been growing. We’ve had some great weather (thanks Mother Nature – AFTER school starts) and so the veggies are doing great.

I have three favorite vegetables that I like to plant and eat: cucumbers, tomatoes, and beets. I really do like all the vegetables I plant, but I adore those three. I adore them so much that I planted 10 Sweet 100’s, 20 beets and seven or eight cuke plants.

I’m always excited when I see the beets start to come in. When I was young, I only ate canned beets, which are good, but nothing compared to fresh beets from the garden.

I have found beets are a great and easy produce to plant. You can plant them in the early spring and have beets to pick from June until early October. They can handle cold weather (except severe freezing), which makes them a good long-season crop.

They're versatile. You can cook the beet (bulbous part) and the greens as well. Cook the beet greens as you would spinach. They're very sweet and yummy.

Beets are also an excellent source of folate, potassium, and manganese. There have been several studies that show that beets have anti-cancer benefits and fiber-related benefits. The combination of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties in beets makes this food a highly-likely candidate for risk reduction of many cancer types. Well, yeah for that!

FUN FACT: An estimated 10-15% of all U.S. adults experience beeturia (a reddening of the urine) after consumption of beets in everyday amounts. I'm not one of the 10-15%; I can eat beets all day long and never pee any other color but what you’re supposed to. However, The Spouse IS one of those select groups who DO pee pink/red after eating beets. He has a funny story about his first discovery that he was one of those lucky ones, thinking that he was going to have to run to the emergency room after seeing red after using the bathroom.

Back to beets - this is how I cook my beets: washing the beet, I cut off both ends and then cut them up into quarters and put into medium glass pan, drizzle with olive oil and adding whatever spices I like (for sure pepper). Then in a 400 degree oven, roast them for about 30 minutes.

You can also steam them for about 15 minutes which will hold in more of the nutrients.

I was making some beets the other night for myself. I was excited to bite into the red, sweet beet rather than eating the cardboard pizza my kids were eating.

So I got my lovely beets all ready for the oven. I knew I had about 30 or 40 minutes to just walk outside and look at our one apple tree. I had been looking at an apple for the past week and wanted to see if it was ready to eat. I would be right back.

Here is some cooking hints for cooking beets:

Don't - whatever you do - DON'T put them in the oven and go out and pick apples, feed the goats the apples, wander down to the pond to look at the trout, walk up to the garden and turn on the water, eat cherry tomatoes, gnaw on a cob of corn, feed the dogs the slug-chewed zucchini, water the greenhouse tomato plants, stroll back to the barn, look for eggs in the coop, check on baby pigeons and feed them, ponder the night sky while sitting by the fire pit debating if you should start a fire, realize that it's a school night and kids have to get to bed, skip with the dogs and go back inside the house, and as you're walking past the oven and wonder why it's so hot, you open it, only to find your blackened, toasted, roasted, burned beets that you were going to have for dinner. Time? 3 1/2 hours later. I put them in at 6:30 pm and took them out at 9 pm.

Don't do that; they're not very tasty. Just a bit of advice.

Goodbye Summer. :(

2011-09-02T09:04:00.001-07:00

Yes. That’s a sad face. Sad, sad, sad face.

I have whined all summer long, along with the kids, about how awful our summer was here. I still love the Northwest, but I’m really not happy about how the season panned out. If I were a Republican, I would blame it on Obama. Ha!

My last post was 11 days ago. So let’s see what happened between then and now, eh?

Stinky Dogs

Porter Rockwell, also known as Old Man now, had a birthday on August 3 and turned 13 (91 in human years). Old man decided to climb into the fire pit and pull out a charred log to chew on for the afternoon. Maybe he’s missing some mineral in his diet?

Nice and clean and smelling like lilacs …. and wet dog. Hard to cover that smell.

Chainsaw Art

We went to a town festival (I love small town festivals) and bought at an auction, this chainsaw bear bench for the fire pit. Albeit functional and fun, just doesn’t seem like something we would buy. Which makes it even more fun.

Heart, Hands, Health, Head - 4H

Felix, Tyger the Goat, and I attended a 4H Meet and Greet at the WSU (not Weber State U, but Washington State U) Extension. She was there to represent and encourage kids to join 4H, possibly in Fiber Goats since our member numbers have dropped. We were sure it would be lame but turned out to be a lot of fun. And Tyger only pooped once in the truck which was great.

Pow Wow Wow Wow

We FINALLY attended the Festival of the River at the Stillaguamish River in Jordan Park. Since we moved here, I have wanted to go but there was always something else going on. There was food, games, vendors (Felix and I bought some beautiful handmade earrings) and a Pow Wow that was amazing. Sadly, there were loud bands playing on a stage in the far field and it was hard to hear the Native drums and chants.

The Farm

I am now feeding two more pigeon babies. The mom laid the eggs on the floor and typically, they die since the other pigeons will peck the babies to death when the mom leaves the nest to eat. Sometimes though, I have a feeling that Felix likes to bring me the babies even if there might be a chance that they will live in their nest. This is the youngest I’ve ever tried to hand feed. The syringe feeding seems to be working with them as well as the older babies. Just call me The Bird Whisperer.

However, they almost died last night. I got home late and was too tired to check on them and then took the kids school supply shopping and didn’t go to feed until 8 pm. In that time, they moved themselves out of the warming light and one was stiff and cold and the other barely moving. Working fast to warm them up under the light and then getting some warm food in them is the only way to save them. Thankfully, they’re doing better this morning. Now call me The Almost Bird Killer.

Second Degree Black Belt Test in Ocean Shores, Washington

This was a nerve-racking test. In front of a panel of 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Degree BB Masters who are critiquing every move. Ugh. If I hadn’t stopped my hair loss this spring, I’d be bald now. It was crazy.

Ocean Shores is a coastal town directly west of Seattle (as the crow flies; not as I-5 drives). It’s a struggling tourist town set in the middle of depressed former logging, railroad, and crabbing towns. It reminded us a little of Long Beach where we used to live except that it wasn’t quite as nice. The town was a little too far in to reach by foot; Long Beach’s boardwalk was right next to the beach and quite accessible. It made us want to drive right to Long Beach to visit! It was nice to smell the ocean again.

And that’s the end of August in a nutshell.

School will begin in six days. We bought clothes and supplies. I guess we’re ready for the new year.

Sigh.

Summer, summer … where art thou?

2011-08-20T10:46:00.001-07:00

The weather has been awful this summer. Perfectly awful. Just ask Felix and Robee. We've had NO days with 80's (until this week that is, but it's the end of August) and very few days in the high 70's and even FEWER days with sun. Our river swimming has been cut WAY back and I don’t see us getting to Jetty Island this summer as gasp school begins in two and a half weeks.

Gardens must have sun, must have warmth to grow. Even though last summer I got my garden in rather late (mid-June), it still had a great production by July. Not so much this year. However, as I said, we finally have had some good sunny days and here is the outcome:

I will have a few ears of corn in about a week.

These are rainbow "green" beans. I see blossoms and they should be getting on in a week or two.

First (and so far, only) pumpkin in the patch.

This is the saddest picture of all. See all the blossoms and leaves? This is not how a good producing tomato plant should look. It should have fruit on it. When the weather has not enough sun or warmth, the tomato plant pushes out lots of leaves first and then tries to get out blossoms. Too many leaves suck out what can be put towards the fruit and then when it finally gets blossoms, not enough warmth or sun can't move that blossom into a fruit. So either way, I, the fruit eater, loses.

BUT the good news is that there ARE a lot of blossoms and if this weather can hold out even a couple of weeks, I could be munching on Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes very soon. Mmmmmmm.

Oh ... and three zucchini which were given to Jen and Ang to make bread. Actually there were four, but Porter the Vegetarian Dog, ate one right off the vine. If he weren’t 91 years old, I’d pull out his teeth .. except that he’s already lost most of his teeth. I’m kidding of course; I do not begrudge the Old Man sneaking a snack once in awhile. Better him than the goats.

Benefits of water

2011-08-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

There are so many benefits of water, I don’t think we actually appreciate the fact that we – here in the U.S. in Washington State – have nice, clean, safe water right in our homes.

After living in Thailand for the time that I did, I really did come to appreciate water. We were one of the lucky ones to have running water into our home and had a shower and toilet as well. Believe it or not, many homes did not have those luxuries 1975. Our shower and sink water, however, did not run to any sewer or septic. It ran right out of the pipe into the yard. Yup. There it was, draining into the grass and out to the klong - Thai word for reservoir. Yes; our “grey water ran into a reservoir which then grew water plants which fed water buffalo and the local people who swam and played in this klong. Sounds lovely, yes? No.

The problem with the running water in the house is that you couldn’t drink it because it came from the above klong. You could wash clothes in it (our clothes were washed outside in a hose) and shower in it (as long as you didn’t open your mouth while showering) and flush the toilet. That was pretty much it. You couldn’t brush your teeth or drink it or wash your food from the market in it.

Since I don’t spray the garden with any pesticides, I always feel really comfortable about eating the veggies without washing them. I will sit in the garden and munch on tomatoes, cucumbers, raspberries, blueberries, and corn without feeling like I HAVE to wash them. They don’t have wax on them; they don’t have spray. Why not? Perfectly safe.

Until ……… tonight. I was ever so grateful that I had running water in my house that was safe to wash my salad greens. Because I found a friend:

Yeah. That’s a slug. A tiny one to be sure but ……. ACK. I cannot imagine the pure awfulness of biting into that thing in my salad. *shudder*

I typically don’t care about little bugs or ants or things of that sort. But I think that finding a slug in my lettuce would absolutely put me over the edge.

I will still eat the veggies in the garden but for those veggies that have hiding places, I’m going to give them a good washing with clean, safe, fresh water from the house before indulging in a nutritious salad. Yup.

Siobhan in print

2011-08-07T07:43:00.001-07:00

Sadly, she didn’t win overall in the fair. BUT she’s in the paper and in MY book, that’s pretty darn close. Here’s the story:

Felix’s friend Caroline really wanted to be involved in fairs and animals and such but lives in town in a rented house where you can’t have animals and her dad is not really involved with the whole animal thing so we’ve sort of pulled her along with our involvement with fairs – except for this one this year since Felix decided to take a break. Luckily, Caroline wanted to do the fair enough that she entered without Felix.

Last fall after the Evergreen Fair, Caroline bought two chickens (Jersey Black Giants) and they’ve been staying with our flock. She entered them into the Silvana Fair – first fair of the season - but didn’t do as well as she would have liked. So she invited a local chicken show-er/judge/owner to our coop and let her pick which ones she thought might do better in the Stanwood Fair. She selected our Buff (Siobhan), Rhode Island White (Trouble), and Barred Rock (Kiki) and told her to pick the best two. In the end, Caroline decided on the Buff and the Rock since they are a heavier breed and ours are pretty good sized.

(Kiki in her nesting box)

Side note: if the animal has a name, it doesn’t get eaten. It was the deal we made with the kids.

Well, after all the judging was done, Caroline and the chickens didn’t end up with a rosette (the best) but instead got a blue for the Buff (Fit and Show) and a red for the Rock (Type). Not great but not bad.

However, during the fair the 4H kids are encouraged to handle and show the public their animals. While Caroline was showing Siobhan and letting kids pet her, the pic of that made it into our local paper. Here’s the link:

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110806/NEWS01/708069931/0/frontzoom

THAT’S pretty darn exciting in my opinion. Congrats!!

Welcome Welcome, Month of August!

2011-08-02T22:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome Welcome, month of August, favorite month from all the rest!

Welcome Welcome, month of August, I hope you know that you're the best!

Some facts:

William Clark, a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, born August 1, 1770.

Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," born August 1, 1779.

Maria Mitchell, American astronomer, born August 1, 1818.

The United States annexed Hawaii, August 12, 1898.

Lucy Stone, women's rights leader, born August 13, 1818.

Annie Oakley, sharpshooter, born August 13, 1860.

Meriwether Lewis, a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, born August 18, 1774.

Orville Wright, pioneer American aviator and airplane designer, August 19, 1871.

Philo T. Farnsworth, engineer who discovered a system for electronic television, born August 19, 1906.

Amendment 19, giving women in the United States the right to vote, proclaimed, August 26, 1920.

More than 200,000 civil rights demonstrators staged a march on Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963.

What a lot of wonderful things!!! Welcome back August for the next 31 days! I hope to linger in your light all month.

It won't kill him

2011-07-30T21:07:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, we were moving from St Geo to Long Beach Washington. Angie had just left for her year at college in Seattle and thankfully had helped me pack a bunch of boxes. However, we still had the entire house with furniture to move into the trailer and moving truck. Felix was six and Robee, four. We had no one to help us except a homeless man named Eldon, who we now think was Jesus because out of all the people in neighborhood and church, he was the ONLY one to come to our aid. We did pay him since he was homeless, but I know he would have done it without pay since he was that kind of guy.

Anyway here we are - Thomas, Eldon and myself - trying to move rooms of furniture and boxes of stuff for three days straight. And what of my little children, Felix and Robee? I plopped them down in front of the TV and had them watch "Little Mermaid" and whatever other Disney movies we had on hand. And to eat? Felix had Kentucky Fried Chicken pretty much every day and Robee had Apples, Cheese and Fishy Crackers. Every day. For three days. For three meals.

Did I feel guilty? Probably not. I was so tired and frustrated trying to pack that I was grateful that they had something to eat that they liked. Did it kill them? Nope. They were fine.

Why tell this story? Because for the last month, Robee has been having this for at least two meals during the day, at least everyday:
Strawberry Shortcake.

For some reason, he has become obsessed with eating Strawberry Shortcake. And I have to make it a certain way, with a certain type of shortcake, with a certain type of whip cream each time. He's lucky we had such a late strawberry season since there are still plenty of fresh ones to be bought.

Will it kill him, eating the same thing everyday? Doubtful. I have discovered that sometimes kids want to eat only certain things for a period of time. It used to freak me out, thinking they weren't getting something important in their diet or getting too much of something else. Luckily, kids' systems are a lot smarter than us and they will regulate themselves.

At some point in time, he will get tired of this wonderful dessert but until then, I know one of our memories of his life will be the Summer of Strawberry Shortcakes. I love him for that.

Trying to find summer

2011-07-21T23:46:00.001-07:00

It’s been really hard. This summer has been almost non-existent. Even the locals are having a hard time with this rainy, cool weather.

Our typically wonderful Strawberry Festival was a bit of a bust. The parade came through but the picking and selling and eating of strawberries was delayed and sadly not as wonderful as it had been during our past years of June.

Luckily for about a week, there was some warmer weather with sun during the first week of July and people were able to get out and harvest their berries then. And just as suddenly as the sun came out, it hid it’s warm face behind the clouds again.

So, while we had family visiting for a bit, we tried to make the best of it and pretend it was warm and sunny and warm and sunny (yes, I’m quite aware I repeated myself). I guess I’m still part desert rat; I don’t mind this weather during the fall and winter but my bones really do need that hot, bright sun to get me ready for the next season to come. August is our next great hope, because after that is my least favorite month and season, September and autumn, and then school starts and the kids and I will be sad not to have been able to soak up a little summer sun, swim at our wonderful Stilly River, and lounge at Jetty Island. Very sad indeed.

Blueberries trying to gain their color.

One tiny zucchini trying it’s best to grow nice and big for bread.

This dog (Porter) ate the first large zucchini in the garden. This is problem of having a vegetarian dog.

Kids at Kayak Point beach. When I told Max that we were going to the beach for some play time and beach combing, he promptly donned his swimsuit ready for the surf. He is not used to our beaches and water, which even in the warmest summer days, do not hit higher than about 60 degrees. He was a tad disappointed.

We will keep praying and wishing and hoping for our very late summer to finally come. Until then, hoodies and wellies are always waiting by the door.

Pumpkin, pumpkin ….

2011-07-21T23:21:00.001-07:00

This is my pumpkin patch. Can you see the pumpkins? You probably can't unless you look really close. Really close.

Can you see any pumpkins yet? No? How about now?

There they are!! Little stinkers hiding away inside all those weeds.

Since we've had so much rain this past ~~month~~ ... ~~season~~ ... year, the ground is really soft and so those weeds come and out of the ground with one little tug. It took me about an hour to clean the whole patch.

Now if it would only get warm so the little darlings could grow. At this rate, I won't have pumpkins until NEXT fall.

This summer so far, has been rather dismal and dreary. The strawberry crop came in a month late. The corn crop was put in a month late but is still not growing well. Farmers in the area are scratching their heads, wondering how to buck their hay when it's so wet.

C'mon Summer Sun! Shine down!

Random July stuff

2011-07-16T08:45:00.001-07:00

Here it is, almost the middle of July. Some things to note:

There is still no floor in the bedroom. We put in the cork floor but it was such an odd color that we took it out and are now looking for another wood color. The bathroom does have a sink, shower head and toilet, so that’s good news.
The weather has been crappy for growing or swimming. I don’t mind the grey as long as it’s warm but we could really use some heat (as I say this, the Midwest is sizzling) to help the gardens in our area. Especially the tomatoes. The slugs, however, are growing nicely. Ugh.
Our annual 4th of July Duck Dash came and went and it was a little lame. I’m always sad when they decide NOT to dump the ducks in the river; that is what makes the Duck Dash. They instead dump them on the ground and a lame old man dressed like a duck jumps into the mound and hands off random ducks to another old man dressed like another duck who then puts them in baggies for the Grand Prize drawing of $5000. I realize that they’re worried about the safety of the kayakers who are herding the ducks off the river (two river drownings so far) but its definitely an anti-climatic end to the day (minus the fireworks).

As per usual, a grand kid in my watch did a face plant. I’m going to start an album soon of all the injuries. That should make great dinner conversation.

Balls, anyone??

2011-07-07T07:18:00.001-07:00

This is what I did yesterday:

This looks gross. This sounds gross. This is gross.

But it has to be done.

Each winter while walking on a damp floor, the pigeons get a buildup of wet goo which then form into balls

on their talons and toes. It’s quite hard not to have this happen since we have very wet winters here.

So once it gets nice again and the wet dries up, these balls harden on their toes and makes it a little hard for them to walk around. I can hear them clanking around on their perches when they land.

I then, since somehow I’ve evolved into some sort of pigeon-handler, have to (when I have an hour) take a pair of pliers and break open these “poop balls” and free their little toes. Sounds appealing, does it not? I would say not.

I will say though, that there is little comfort on my end. Even if I walk into the coop with "bird handler" mentality, the birds don't see it. I'm in there thinking, "as soon as the pigeons notice that their friend's toes are free, they'll come flocking to me, all wanting to have their poop balls removed. Lining UP, even, for this wonderful service." This is what I was thinking.

Yeah right. Felix and Thomas have this gift of being able to catch birds but it didn't fall to me. I'm in the coop, trying my best to be sneaky so that they don't know I'm trying to catch them. Guess what? They're not that stupid. I jumped and scurried and leaped and grabbed for a half an hour while they were all just barely escaping my grasp. I actually ended up with a scratch on my head and several on my arm from their talons as they were flying wildly around the coop. I'll probably end up with some sort of pigeon-scratch fever or ... even better ... bird DNA will penetrate my body and I will finally grow wings and fly.

At least we all got some exercise.

But it makes the bird feel so much better, so I guess it’s worth a little discomfort on my end for a bit of relief on their end.

The best thing is that I only have to do this once a year. The worst thing is that I forgot to wear my gloves. Ugh. Next time.

It never fails to rain when you have visitors

2011-07-03T09:40:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, I flew to Utah to bring back Maxito, Miss Biss, and RyRy for a visit. Em and Eric were going to drive here on Friday night with Baby to stay the next week.

The whole time the kids have been in Washington, it’s been great weather. I had them on Monday and then Tuesday we went to the park and beach and ate a picnic and just played. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday they stayed with the big kids so Owen and Ivy and Evan could play with them. Still, great weather. Yesterday, all the kids went to a splash park as the weather was perfect (we stayed home and did some much needed maintenance – again).

Now, it’s today. Today Greg had this great plan to go crabbing and fishing (crabbing season just opened) with those who wanted to go and of course ……. it’s raining. It looks to rain all day. Last time they planned a crabbing trip, the wind gales made the company where we were to rent the boats shut down the bay for crabbing.

I told Emilee it was her fault; every time she visits, we have some sort of crazy weather. Thanksgiving, the year of the Big Snow where we were homebound and had no power for almost four days, was their first visit. Last summer when she was here, the temperature was at an all time high for Arlington.

Or maybe ………. it’s because of Eric?

I feel like Dr. Doolittle

2011-06-29T16:19:00.001-07:00

Thank goodness for other people and YouTube!

Continuation of baby pigeon saga: I still hadn't figured out a way to feed this little baby even though she was older than the typical "squeakers" I've had to hand feed. I always felt there was a safer way of doing it rather than shoving the meal down their crops, which can prove deadly if I miss the crop – and sadly, I have missed on occasion which has killed the baby. So I’m quite fearful of feeding new babies; I don’t need their deaths on my head too!

Research research research ..... and I find a guy on YouTube who has figured that a latex glove finger over a syringe provides the suction needed for a squeaker to suck out the meal.

Baby pigeons are fed from their parents by sucking out the food rather than the parents pushing food into their mouths. This is instinctual for the baby to do. In the past, I’ve squirted the liquid food into their mouths which is hard on them and me.

Taking a horse syringe (60 cc) and cutting off the top, I put the end of a latex glove finger over the opening, rubber banded it on, and then cut a really small hole in the top for the baby to put it’s beak into.

Mixing the Kaytee baby bird food with hot water to a watery-cake mix consistency, I poured into the bottom of the syringe, pushed the plug in, jiggled out the excess air and then put it up to the beak of the squeaker.

She shoved her beak right inside and sucked out all the feed! She's eating finally! And there is enough water in the mix that it keeps her hydrated as well.

So now she's eating, she's warm, her head is recuperating and she when she sees me, she goes crazy knowing that I'm going to feed her. Happy day!

I’m no longer scared of baby pigeons when they’ve fallen out of the nest. I know that I can help them survive better than ever. Bring it On!

Felix the Singer

2011-06-21T06:37:00.001-07:00

Felix had her last Keynotes (school vocal group) concert in June 2011 where she was able to sing a solo.

We talked and debated what song she should sing. Last year, she sang the Helen Reddy hit, “Angie Baby.”

Obviously, I have influence over what the kids listen to in the car and on their iPods. Heh heh. Felix has been listening to music that was popular 40 years ago since she started riding in the car at four days old and being that this is case, we usually find something fairly eclectic to sing.

This year she did the Nancy Sinatra hit “These Boots are Made for Walkin’.” It was amazing. Amazing for two reasons: first because she did such a great job (yeah, I’m biased), and second because she was one of four performers who did NOT sing (or play as in Leah’s case) some forlorn, airy, breathy, femme fatal song as the other fifteen did.

She sang the ‘Boots’ song, a boy sang 50’s song ‘Stupid Cupid,’ Leah (good friend) played a beautiful piece on the piano called ‘Winter Wind,’ and a quartet of girls sang a song that they wrote and composed.

From the past to the present and moving on. Never really realized time does move at lightening speed when you have kids.

Love you babycakes.

Dear Body of Mine:

2011-06-16T22:42:00.001-07:00

ATTENTION!! To those reading this entry – there will be a photo after this dialogue that may be, to some readers, disgusting and gross. You might want to turn your head and move small children and animals out of the room. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Dear Body of Mine: I realize you’re under a fairly large amount of stress lately.

The bedroom and bathroom and closet and hallway are still torn apart with progress moving at a banana slug speed.
The person who’s in charge of this renovation is less than dependable which adds to this chaos.
School will be out in a few days and even though my kids are older, there still are lessons to get them to and running them here and there to friends’ houses.
You have people coming to stay in a week for two weeks while the house is still chaotic and this is stressful.
Trying to maintain five acres (actually four now with Mario!) and the huge garden plus animals is a little stressful.
You have a second degree Black Belt test coming up in August that you really must and want to pass and the back is still not cooperating.
Your daughter wants to start painting and re-carpeting her room as soon as the mess in your area is done (say somewhere around 2015).
You’re still sleeping in the cave basement with a third of your clothes in one room and another third in another room and the last third hanging over chairs and couches.

And I agree that all those things can cause a certain amount of anxiety in one’s life; I’m going to give that to you.

BUT, this …. THIS is absolutely unacceptable:

This is what is happening each time I wash my hair and has been going on for the past two months. I’m actually afraid to wash my hair for fear of losing so much. I know I’ll be bald in a couple of months. Then I will look like Daddy.

My hair is falling out en mass. It’s all over the car, on my rugs, in my bed – wherever I lay or sit or stand. When I brush it, the pile looks just the same, which makes me not want to brush it. Since I’ve been rather lucky that I’ve had really thick hair all my life, this is a shock to my head and senses. My ponytails are considerably smaller in size and hair combs that used to not fit all my hair, are now holding it perfectly.

I finally showed The Spouse what was going on (I try to not worry him since his stress exceeds mine by 200%) with my hair issue. His eyes almost fell out of his head.

He and I went to the O Holy Internet and I picked just the first four causes of massive hair loss.

Obviously stress and lack of sleep (which I have both) were causes but surprisingly, a shortage of iron came up as the third (the fourth was lupus which was quickly dismissed). This I can see since I’ve cut my food consumption way back (trying to fit into my pants again and training for the BB test) and apparently, I cut some other nutrients as well.

So I’m back on some major iron and trying to eat more artichokes and eggs, which are high in iron.

And I certainly don’t want the conversation I had today with Owen to happen again:

Owen: Kiki (with arms folded, serious face) … does hair fall out of your butt?

Me: (trying not to laugh) Why … no Owen. It doesn’t (at least I’m thinking it doesn’t). Why?

Owen: Well, I just went potty and there’s a whole bunch of long hair in the toilet.

Me: Oh … that’s just because I’m losing my hair.

The other things – stress and lack of sleep – will have to heal a little a time when things calm down. I hope.

FYI

2011-06-12T16:41:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Em and Jen, I am now blogging with the help of Windows Live Writer.

Trying to blog with Blogspot. com has been the biggest teeth-gnashing, bone-breaking, hair-pulling, frustrating experience thus far (and that’s on a good day). Adding pics, moving text, editing … all that was next to impossible with blogspot. So awful it was, that I decided to give it up and only blog on my Farmer101 blog about Urban Farming.

But where that is a more general blog about learning to mini farm, this is almost of a journal nature for me to use … someday, hopefully … as a photo/diary/memory book that I will someday, maybe, hopefully get into print as a reminder of what has happened for the past four years … or at least since I started writing stuff down. So I was quite reluctant do drop it like a hot stone.

So thanks much ladies. I’m glad I get to keep doing this as well as my keep my hair on my head. It’s falling out on it’s own anyway from stress, lack of sleep, and iron deficiency and needs no help from blogspot.com (but that’s another story).

Old Man Porter Rockwell

2011-06-10T22:39:00.001-07:00

Porter, our almost 13 year old Golden, has been having the worse day.

I've been painting most of the day (bedroom re-modeling going on) and he's been on the floor, not moving, except to bite, pull out hair and basically scratch some all over his body itch.

He’s had this skin issue since we moved to the up here, first in Long Beach, which is when it started. The vets called it "The Long Beach Itch" as if that were supposed to make it all right. He would scratch night and day, yank out fur and basically chew himself raw. The easiest solution?

Steroids.

And wow! They did a great job. He finally felt better. But I never had much like for steroids. I'm not against them; they really do help shrink the swelling as well as stop the itching - which in turn stops the scratching. But I hated putting our then five year old dog on steriods. They do carry some bad side effects. I remember Mom’s bones becoming so thin and porus from the overuse of steroids and I’m probably a bit paranoid about them now.

Fast forward to the present.

I really thought we had the problem under control with his diet. I found a wonderful food that contains no grains called Wild Bison or something like that. It’s pure protein. Grains are a dog's biggest problem when they have allergies; the primitive dog didn’t eat grains, only meat and sometimes veggies, but the cheaper brands of kibble put grains in as filler. This food is pricey but we had to try something. Within a few months, we found that his skin issues started to fade - slowly to be sure - and he started to feel better.

However, for the past few months, we have all noticed a decline in his behavior. Obviously, his age has something to do with his behavior; he IS almost 13 in August (the 3rd is his birthday) which would make him 91 in dog years. The average age for a Golden is 9 - 11 years old.

He's also been swimming in our pond a bit too much now that the weather is warmer. That pond .... well, let's just say that it's great for the trout and the bullfrogs and the occasional duck that lands there once in a while but not so much for swimming. Felix, when we first moved here, tried swimming in it and came out with a rash exactly where the water line hit her skin. Several oatmeal baths and calamine lotion later taught her and I a valuable lesson: stay out of the pond.

So I'm sure it isn't much better for a sensitive-skinned, almost 91 year old dog.

I know that we will only have him for probably another full year, so I'd like him to have the best year possible.

Even MORE renovations

2011-06-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

On the east side of the house, there is a small garden bed that was once full of lovely plants. Pampas Grass, Rhodies of all colors, Honeysuckle and small Red Cedar trees (which is the trademark of the Northwest). And in it's day, when it was first planted, I have no doubt that it was lovely.

However, it now looks like this: The cedars are growing so fast and so big that they are starting to overtake the side of the house. A willow tree also decided to set down roots right next to the cedars. The pampas grass was overthrown by regular grass and the honeysuckle, sadly, met it's demise by another who's name shall not be mentioned.
Not only were the essential plants being covered but to have a cedar growing that close to a house - let alone EIGHT cedars - is not a great idea. They do tend to tip over during a storm. They don't allow any light during the winter months for natural heating. There were just too many of them.

After much deliberation, we decided that the whole entire area had to be cleaned out and the trees taken down. This job was going to be too big for just the two of us when we only have maybe one, sometimes two days a week to work on the yard. And when you have five acres, maintenance is ongoing.

Mario to the rescue! Thomas (again with craigslist) found Mario and his crew to come and help us out.

And now it looks like this:Now I can plant more rhodies in more colors in that bed as well as pampas grass.

To be clear, I am a huge fan of trees and like to plant them all over the place, but I also know when a tree needs to come down. The kids were quite upset about the loss of the cedars but I have vowed to replant more trees to replace the ones gone. Especially down the fence line to cover up the monstrosity that was built next door; THAT will be a pleasure.

Another job crossed off the list. Only ..... 30 more to do. Yeah!

Anyone's guess

2011-06-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

Okay folks. Time for What's my Line!

During this past winter, I had been noticing a large metal object starting to protrude from under the ground.

Living on this land where a man (who used to be a dozer) dumped LOTS of parts, I've gotten sort of used to finding Objects D'art hiding amongst the leaves and grass. However this is one that had me stumped.

On Saturday, while Ben was doing his penance mowing, he high-centered the mower on this thing that had finally come all the way up to the surface.

He and I pushed the mower off the "thing" first and then Thomas and I got a shovel and starting/prying it out of the ground.

This is what came up:

It was too heavy to lift (at least 200 pounds), so I hooked up my chain to the truck and yanked it out of the ground.

After much deliberation and hemming and hawing from the three of us, we finally decided that it is a left-over stabilizer foot from a backhoe. That would make sense for several reasons:

He used to be a backhoe and bulldozer operator (as well as a taxidermist and the man who would shoot kids if they touched his mailbox),

He has left more metal in this ground than there is in a mine field because he didn't throw anything away; too expensive. So he would either bury it or let the blackberries grow over it. And,
Who doesn't want a stabilizer foot in their grass?

I - dragged?drugged?drug? - pulled the "thing" over to where the trailer sits and where the mower doesn't go and won't get high centered.

Problem: what does one do with a 200+ pound stabilizer foot? I can't lift it to put in a truck to take to the metal recyclers. I can't put in the garbage can. I can't even rebury it since it obviously was buried before but the ground spat it back out.

So it sits on the side of the roundabout, out of every one's way. And it will stay there until I can figure out what to do with this "thing."

Thank you Jim, yet again, for really adding something extra to this property.

Thank you Sunny Days

2011-06-04T08:15:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be so grateful for sunny days. After living in St. Geo and always, always having sun, one would think I would be used to it.

We've been here in Arlington for five years this past February (six on the 4th of July in Washington) and I now totally appreciate and USE sunny days. Some many things to do; biking or hiking with the kids, walking the dogs, swimming the river or THIS:

Spending time in the garden. Extremely therapeutic. Wonderfully enjoyable. AND I'm in the sun.

I love seeing my Owl, watching over my veggies and keeping bunnies at bay.

Or pulling all the weeds from around the raspberries, cleaning them out so I can enjoy their berries.

How about putting out the new blueberries, ready for planting.I don't even know how to pick one so I'll do all three!

Felix left to spend time with her friends, Robee was hanging out with his friend and I had the whole afternoon/evening to myself.

Heaven.

Still dealing with bedroom/bathroom/closet/hallway remodeling, is making me crazy. Having crap laying all over the house in total chaos is making all of us into zombies since we're not sleeping well.

But working with dirt, weeds and green, growing things puts life back into perspective and I know that the house won't be in chaos forever and that at some point in time, items will be back where they belong. As Mom would say "A place for everything and everything in it's place." She was definitely Queen of that statement.

Breathing again.

Something for Thursday

2011-06-02T05:52:00.000-07:00

Introducing .... Chicken Soccer!

I'm always trying to find something to keep the ladies active in their run. Here is something they really enjoy: chasing a head of lettuce.

Even chickens like greens so sometimes when I'm shopping, I'll grab a head of lettuce (it's still cheap so far) and poke a wire through the stalk and hang it from the roof of the run. The chickens can poke at it without it rolling around on the ground (which is kind of fun to watch too) but this thing swings around and they all chase after it, getting their salad at the same time.

I still love the chickens; they have been a really fun addition to our urban farm.

Happy Birthday Mom

2011-06-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

This is when I miss Mom most of all - remembering when she held my babies for me. She really enjoyed holding the kids.

She was the first to discover Robee's two dimples on his cheeks.

She would hold Felix for me when I went to visit her once a week for a respite from my screaming child.

We didn't always get along and we didn't always agree.

But there are days when I really do miss her. I miss calling her and talking to her when she was healthy. I miss visiting her. It's weird not to have your parent alive, especially when they've been a huge part of your life - for good or bad.

See you in the next life Mom.

June 1, 1935 - March 7, 2009

All is not lost

2011-05-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

So right now, our bedroom, bathroom and closet as well as the hallway are pretty much .... disheveled and torn apart. The hallway had the popcorn ceiling scraped off and is waiting for me to paint it. The bathroom is getting a new look with tile and is .... well .... waiting to be finished (don't get me started on that). The bedroom is going to be getting a new cork floor as soon as the person finishes the bathroom (again, sigh). The closet is being redone as well with a new storage by another person (who is not as bad as the bathroom/bedroom person). All the coats and shoes from the hallway are either laying on the table or sitting the foyer. Our clothes are half in the basement closet and half in the red room. We're camping out in the spare room until things are done. There is a fine layer of dust on most of the furniture, picture frames and anything else that is in the area. And I believe Thomas and I soon will be having separate nervous breakdowns for various reasons.

But ... one of our projects actually got finished ON TIME and looks great; the fire pit.

Two years (?) ago or maybe only one year - have NO idea since my short-term memory is completely shot - the big kids gave me for my birthday or Mother's Day (again, have no clue) a wonderful metal fire pit. I LOVE burning stuff and having bonfires. It can be so peaceful. Honestly, one of the best presents I've ever received.

However, the Northwest rain and hot hot fires can play havoc with a metal fire pit. This one has seen it's last days, I'm afraid.

Javier to the rescue! Thomas found this wonderful guy on craigslist who came out and created a lovely place for us to sit and have a fire. AND it was finished on time, with no excuses.

S'mores are calling to me!

And another one bites the dust ..........

2011-05-29T21:49:00.001-07:00

At least this time, I know exactly who it is.

Living on a "farm" with about 82 or so animals, one cannot help that a few of those animals will pass on to their next life at least one a year, sometimes more.

So it is with "Lovely" a beautiful cream/red bar Birmingham Roller pigeon. This pigeon came with us from St. George, traveling in an open trailer in a large dog crate and lived in that trailer in Long Beach, Washington, for almost 9 months until after we moved here, and was finally moved into the now-standing pigeon/chicken coop. That ALONE should have killed this bird. It would have killed me, but these are stoic pigeons.

His leg band read 2004, which would put him at seven years old. Pigeons are typically not long living creatures, with a life span of about six to eight years. So he had a good life, a great "wife" (Crocodile who died four years ago), and lived out the rest of his days eating, drinking and pooping. What more can one ask for, eh?

He stayed in the barn freezer until Felix could come home to positively identify him and then get him ready for burial. We will bury him in the Zen garden with our other gone-to-animal heaven animals. (BTW; Owen, Ivy and I FINALLY got Elliott's headstone finished - just needs to cure a few more days then put into place - only three more to make)
I would like to say THANKS to Bob and Kathi (Ang's in-laws) for giving us that great freezer. Not only has it held all our salmon from fishing, but also Sam the Cat, Frenchy the Leghorn and now Lovely the Pigeon (all triple-bagged OF COURSE!!!) until I could find 30 minutes to dig a proper grave. I'm sure it's not what was supposed to be used for but you gotta do what you gotta do, eh?

My Neil Diamond Fix for the Spring.

2011-05-23T21:54:00.001-07:00

This is not posted for anyone else but me and all those who love and adore Neil Diamond. He closed out the show with his wonderful humility and wit and talent.

He is untouchable.

Thank you Neil for being there when I was sad, happy, lost, giddy, confused, exuberant, or just needing a spiritual lift.

Have bike, will travel

2011-05-20T21:08:00.001-07:00

Finally. A decent day. Not just a decent day ......... but a perfectly, lovely, sunny, warm, bright, heavenly day. Thanks be to Mother Nature and all that is holy.

I'm perfectly willing to live in a place which is dominated by rain; I RARELY complain in the fall or winter. I expect rain. I'd MUCH rather have that than snow or sub-freezing temps.

However, by the middle of May I am kind of ready for a little bit of sun. Throw me a bone, a sliver of sunlight. And Thursday was that day.

Thursday is also the day I watch Owen and Ivy and I was really looking forward to NOT sitting in the house again. I love being outside when it's nice.

Anyway, since Owen is finished with school by noon, I was definitely planning to walk to his school to pick him up. BUT I wasn't too thrilled about pushing a double-stroller with a almost two year old (actually, she weighs as much as a feather) and a five year old. Been there, done that, don't really want to do that again.

My brain was thinking all Wednesday - how to get around the whole double-stroller thing. Then, I got it: lash his bike onto my stroller, push Ivy and the bike to the school then HE can ride the bike back home.

This was a great idea for several reasons: first is the obvious - no massive stroller but second, Owen LOVES to ride his bike. He's so good at it at this age that it would be a crime to not let him ride a mile home (that's how far it is to the school). And of course third, I got my two mile walk in for the day.

Time to leave. I have my map (for the life of me, even though Jen has given me several maps and directions SEVERAL times, there is no possible way I can remember how to maneuver my way through the drunken sailor streets of Pioneer Trails), his helmet, extra water, sunglasses (yeah for the sun to wear my sunglasses!!!), my stroller, Ivy of course, and Owen's bike, bungee corded to the back. I was ready.

No stroller ride with a bike lashed to the back is complete without a purse.

It wasn't all rainbows and ponies - there was a couple of times things went awry: the map flew out of my hands, I let go of the stroller and it started to tip backwards and Ivy thought that was great! I caught in time and reminded myself it was going to be top-heavy. I ran into garbage cans on the sidewalk and knocked them into the street (what the h*** are garbage cans doing on a sidewalk anyway??). I tripped twice because I couldn't see the sidewalk between the tires of the bike, but all in all it was actually a nice walk. All I could think about was how excited Owen would be to see his bike.

Pulled up to Owen's school and ................. total defeat. Owen looked at his bike and said, "Kiki, I am WAY too tired to ride a bike home. You didn't bring your truck?"

Sad for me.

Then I said, "Well, why don't we walk part way across the busy street and then see how you feel once we get to the neighborhood? Sometimes when you're too tired to walk, it's easier to ride a bike."

He was willing to try what I suggested and off we went. Got across the busy street (and WHY is there NO crosswalk on that intersection?? Un-freaking-believable) and into the nice, calm neighborhood. Owen said he had to drink something first and then he got geared up for the ride.

Yeah! Sigh of relief. It worked. We all had a great walk, got our Vitamin D allotment and enjoyed a lovely day outside.

Talking Turkey with Thomas

2011-05-16T08:17:00.001-07:00

I have about .... I don't know ... at least six copies of this picture. Not of this exact picture but of Thomas noshing on a GIANT smoked turkey leg.

We've been to countless fairs and festivals and none of them are complete without Thomas buying a smoked turkey leg.

However, no giant turkey leg eating episode is complete without him trying to pass that turkey leg on to someone else or at least telling everyone to taste it with him. There are many of us who obliged.

He makes me laugh, he makes me cry, he helps me to be better than I thought I could be, he makes me frustrated, he makes me happy, he makes me proud the way he helps others, he makes me nervous with his crazy ideas. He makes my life very interesting. He.

My life as a sitcom

2011-05-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

I saved a different blog for the weird, funny, and/or outrageous stories of this trip. How fun can a trip be without funny stories?

Arriving in LA, we drove to Anaheim to find our hotel which, according to the brochure, was located .25 miles from Disneyland. This was a benefit in two ways: first close to the hotel so we could get back and pick up Felix from the airport when she flew in Saturday night and second, not having to pay for parking since we were in walking distance.

Get up fairly early Saturday morning - as I mentioned, the park was closing at 5 for the premiere but to make up for that faux pas, it was to open at 7 am. That was a tad early for us, since we dragged in at 10:30 so we opted out of the early morning rides. We did get there around 9 and let me tell you, that was no .25 miles. We walk 2.5 miles every other morning and it was closer to 1.5 miles than .25 miles. They were blowing smoke up our butts.

After the park closed and people were running over to California Adventure (it was staying open an hour later to accommodate the early closing of Disneyland), we needed to head back to the hotel. Walking 1.5 miles after you've been walking all over the park all day is next to impossible. I could feel my hip sockets seizing up. Robee was barely lifting his feet. Thomas, however, was walking faster than I've ever seen him walk. He was on a mission to get back to the hotel and he was going to get there as fast as possible.

Robee opted to stay at the hotel rather than come with us to pick up Felix. I told him to lock the doors and not answer if anyone knocked or at least check the peephole and to keep his phone and close by. I'm just a tad paranoid leaving children in hotels ... alone ... in a new city. Even if it is Disneyland.

We pick up Felix (20 minute ride) and head back. Go up to the room and use the key card to open the door. Red light. Slide it in again. Red light. Again. Again, angry red light. Not working. So Thomas goes to the office, gets a new card. Back again. Slide the card. Red light. WHAT?? How can this be? Are we putting it in wrong? Check it. Slide again. Red light. I go this time since Thomas' have seized up now.

They've closed the office but there is a night person through a 3" thick window. I tell her that our card still isn't working. She makes sure I'm putting in the right way. Get a new one. Jog - painfully - back up ... by the way, on the third floor - to our room. Try the card. RED LIGHT. Arrrrrrgh. What the h***??? I jog BACK down to the office. She finally thinks we're complete idiots and comes to the room with me. SHE puts the card in. HA! "Red light for you too," I think.

I should mention too that I can see Robee sound asleep in bed through a small opening in the curtains. Sound. Like a coma. We knock on the door. Nope. Knock louder. Louder. Pound. Knock on the window. Nothing. He doesn't stir. Finally the guy next door comes screaming out of his room to tell us to shut up and quit pounding on the door.

Back to the woman. She gets a red light too. Then she says, "Is the security lock on?" Oh dear. I do believe that was me who told him to lock and double lock the door. Apparently, when the security lock is locked from the inside, no card can open the door. Now that I think about this logic, it seems like this may be a bad idea. And why doesn't she have a special hotel manager card that no one else has in case of emergency?

But I wasn't thinking straight because we were locked out of our room, with a soundly sleeping kid in bed, in a hotel in Disneyland that was completely booked solid.

Our next attempt was to call the hotel room and try to wake him that way. Called and called and called. Over and over and over. He never heard it ring. I tried his cell phone. Nothing.

Thomas was tired and freaking out saying that we were going to have to sleep in the rental car and Felix was looking like she wished she had stayed in Washington. I told them we were not staying in the car while he was in there alone. I thought about the window. It was a long shot but ... I pulled off the screen and pushed on the window and BAM!! It slid open! Albeit only two feet open but enough I could put my head in and shout to Robee. Which I did. Repeatedly. And he never woke. Luckily, Felix is not built like me and she slithered through the window and got us in. I replaced the screen, good as new. I leaned over Robee, who was still slumbering, and told him we were home. He barely opened his eyes and said "okay" and went back to sleep.

Robee never knew what happened. He didn't remember a thing.

Some may say "Wow! That sounds super dangerous that that window was unlocked and can be opened like that." Yeah, probably. But I figured by the Grace of God it was unlocked so we were able to get back into our room, so I wasn't going to question the safety at that moment. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.

More to come. The ride home.

Quickest Trip ever

2011-05-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

We just (and I do mean just) got back from a whirlwind trip to Disneyland & SeaWorld.
The kids had testing (Mom's Against MSP's - I'm a member) and according to their schedule, couldn't go the six days that the other family could. I find out after we book air that Fridays and Mondays are free days, which is irritating, but what to do.

And then Felix had a tournament for her Robotics Team that same weekend and she didn't want to let her team down so opted to stay for Saturday then fly out that night and join us for SeaWorld on Sunday (we hit Disneyland on Saturday).

After much discussion, we decided to get her a ticket, make a quick early morning trip to Disneyland again so she could ride some rides with Robee and not miss the day too much. Then we high tailed it out to SeaWorld to meet up with the rest of the family.

It was a great time, albeit quick.

It looks like we brought our rain with us, although we were hoping for a little sun, since we haven't seen it for quite some time. There were some nice breaks in the clouds and sure enough, we got a little burned. Didn't see that one coming! That's not why Thomas has that poncho on; he's getting prepared to ride the Shipwreck Falls, a ride at SeaWorld and one can find themselves a little wet afterwards!

I live by them and I still love them. Orcas.

The Big O and I. We sat together during the Orca show. He shared his chillo (churro) with me.

Waiting for the Jungle Cruise to begin.

So here's the strangest part of this story (actually, there are SO many stories to tell about this trip): Disneyland closed early on Saturday because of the premiere of "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" (which better be better than the third one; I tried to poke out my eyes during the movie just to save myself the torture of having to watch it) and they were having a big party and celebration there at 5 o'clock.

We kind of hung around there, waiting to see what was going to happen (I was actually filling out a lost and found report since my earring decided to fall out of my ear on Indiana Jones - ugh) and then people started arriving for this premiere. We were walking back from the office and then stopped to watch. I saw some famous kids from Disney and Martin Short walked by. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough for him.

Harry Hamblin and his wife Lisa Rinna (lips seem to be downsized) walked by.

Then the monkey from POC came with his/her handler. Pretty cute little animal.

And then finally the screaming crowds were graced with none other than Capt. Sparrow himself, Johnny Depp.

He's in the grey fedora. He looked totally sheepish and almost embarrassed by the crowd's reaction to him. Take a look at the twitterpatted chick next to him. She's near fainting. And that was as good a pic as I could get. People were crowding and pushing and jumping up and down. Madhouse. I never got to see Penelope Cruz or Geofforey Rush (who I was really wanting to see) because we decided to get out of the crush and get an ice cream since no one was in any stores.

So, not a bad trip all in all. Next blog will be the stories. I can't write anymore. Too pooped.

One of those days

2011-05-06T08:50:00.000-07:00

See my little girl? Although I have to admit, she's not so little anymore. She's only about 1/2 inch from the top of my head (5'8") and still tries to sit in my lap even though my legs lose circulation in 5.3 seconds; she's like holding a giant, she's so tall.

She looks lovely in this photo from one of her Keynotes concerts. I think this is when she sang a solo from Queen, "We Will Rock U" and did a wonderful job of course.

She looks poised, regal almost. Like a dancer or young princess. Except that she's fooling you. I truly believe she will kill me before she's 18.

I volunteered to be a chaperon for a band concert/field trip to Puyallup (pronounced pew-all-up) last weekend. First they went to a middle school and to learn and play with several different band teachers. While she's playing at the middle school, I finally arrive to hear the last of the songs from the guest teacher.

She sees me and when they're excused, she comes running up to me to hug me (which is lovely still that she will hug her mum) .... and smacks her alto clarinet into my mouth, chipping off the front of my tooth.

Really. Luckily, it was a small chip, just enough to keep rubbing it with my tongue and thankfully not needing any Bondo to hide a gaping hole.

Now, off to Northwest Trek, which is a wildlife/nature preserve. The land (all 700+ acres) was donated by a pediatrician and his wife back in the 70's or 80's and they have several species of animal herds (bison, elk, mountain goat, etc.) free ranging as well as some predators in separate contained areas (bobcat, wolf, bear, etc.). There is a walking path as well as a tram that will take you around the whole area to see the animals. It's an amazing place and I hope to go back when it's a tad warmer (April in Northwest Washington - Brrrrrr!) and with less kids; two to be exact! They're easier to keep track of - two kids, two eyes and my kids listen to me whereas the others were sort of "Meh, we don't see you."

AND with better shoes.

So Felix, in her rush to get out of the house before leaving for the field trip bus, dons a pair of hemp-ish, beaded, slides that she recently bought at a thrift store and no jacket whatsoever. In my haste to get her to the school, get me back to feed and then drive two hours to Puyallup, didn't even think what she was wearing nor myself. I wear my usual comfy, motherly slip ons and a thin jacket.

that's her foot, my shoe by the way

Truth be told, neither of us knew WHAT Northwest Trek was or did or anything. Ignorance on our part left us unprepared.

So it's a little cloudy and some sprinkles on and off (typical) and cool. Felix is freezing and I (somewhat reluctantly) offer my jacket but thankfully another parent who drove happens to have a bright green hoodie in her car. Yeah! And we're off ....................

Wait. Felix's feet are freezing now. So I again offer something else from my body, my nice comfy shoes for trade so my little girl can enjoy her field trip (I've ALWAYS said children are like parasites, feeding off their parents from day one .... in a loving, nice way of course).

After all, I'm just a mother; what does a mother need with comfort or warmth? I'm sounding a little Jewish now. Oy vey.

So we trade. Not more than 15 steps walking to the front gate, Felix STEPS on the back of my/HER shoes and rips the side almost off. Only a small stitch is keeping the slide on my foot.

So now, not only is my foot freezing, but I'm also hobbling in a broken shoe.

Notice how happy her foot looks next to my sad one. Not to mention, my sad foot really needs a pedicure. Yikes. Maybe that's why it's sad ..... nah.

Sigh.

Finally, the last little stitch, struggling to hang on with all it's might, cannot do it anymore with the shuffling steps of an slightly pudgy, pigeon-toed woman and snaps off. Now, not only am I NOT in my own comfy shoes (did I mention my shoes are REALLY comfy??), but I'm walking with one summery slide and one barefoot. On asphalt. In April. In a rain forest. Humph. What to do?

Suddenly, Keith's voice comes to me in a revelation .... from Hill Field, Utah ... "All you ever need is Crazy Glue and Duct Tape."

O Wonderful Father of Mine! You're right!

I run to the main office ... okay maybe not running since I've got one shoe on and one shoe off, but I was pretending to run ... to ask for duct tape. They must have something like that, working with animals or equipment or men.

I burst through the door, run to the counter. A really young girl/child is holding down the fort. Has no idea what duct tape is but .... well .... this is what she had:

Cellophane packing tape. Young girls. Honestly. AND the girl/child wanted to only give one full wrap-around! What?? I've got to hoof it all over the place with this thing. I need at least two if not three good wraps.

It lasted through the trek, the walk back to the car, to the park to eat pizza and then it broke again. I promptly found a store and bought myself a new pair of shoes. Ah! Peace of mind finally.

And now Felix is wearing them to school today.

Uh ... I have to confess something

2011-05-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Sigh.

So much for me being the great "Chicken Whisperer." Yeah. That went out the window on Sunday when Felix was out feeding the animals.

"Mom?"

"Yes honey."

"Did you say you thought Puzzle died?"

"Yeah it was Puzzle, the White Rhodie. Why?"

"Well, no. It wasn't Puzzle. She's standing right here. It was Frenchy, the Leghorn."

"WHAT??!! Are you sure?"

As I walked up to the coop, sure enough, there was Puzzle, scratching and pecking like a good hen. I was missing a Leghorn. Good thing I didn't have to have a burial for her and create a headstone (I'm behind three already) with the wrong name. Crikey.

So much for me knowing all my hens. Ugh.

Electric v manual???

2011-05-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm talking about toothbrushes.
My kids recently had their bi yearly dentist exam. For them, the dentist is not a horrible trip since they've had no cavities, just cleanings (and I certainly hope to keep it that way!). I have never been afraid of going to the dentist and have tried to instill in them the same. Perhaps it's because I've had really good visits too; one or two cavities in my adult years and no real problems. AND a good dentist is essential. Dr. Paul .... I miss YOU!!

Anyway, I have found a really good children's dentist in Everett. She has been their dentist for past four years (it took me some time to find one I liked when we first moved) and they do like her. There are some things they do hate at the dentist: they both hate the taste of the prophylaxis treatments and Robee hates the dental x-rays because he says doing the bite wings hurts his mouth. So to accommodate him, they're using the smaller bite wings. See? Wonderful dentist!

I was wondering to their dentist the difference between electric toothbrushes and manual ones (since they always get that little goodie bag with a toothbrush and floss). Is one better than the other?

She said that when kids are little and their manual dexterity is limited, electric brushes are very good in that they (the brushes) get to places their own hands cannot. Especially the ones that are a rotation type of brush. Another great thing about an electric brush is that it helps kids stay on the task of brushing; they won't get bored or just stop after 30 seconds. Many electric toothbrushes have timers on them now, timing each brushing for two minutes (recommended time for complete cleaning).

Some kids' brushes have songs on them that play for two minutes, entertaining the kids at the same time!

Let me just say this - no possible way on heaven or earth would I EVER get one of these.

I would rather jab a hot poker in my eye.

Therein lies the problem with electric brushes: they have to be powered by battery or charged on a charger.

Chargers are nice except if you are traveling for an extended period of time with no way to plug in the charger (sometimes it's hard in other parts of the world to find the same types of outlets).

Then there is the battery option but what happens to the batteries after they're done? Into the waste and there goes more into our landfills. I do believe some places have a place for battery recycling.

If you're going batteries and trying to efficient, you could also use rechargeable batteries.

However, there is still need for the use of electricity and if you're trying to keep your carbon footprint tiny, then what???

What is an environmentalist to do? It's a tough world for us, to be sure.

So what have I decided?

First of all, I believe what my dentist says that little kids have a harder time reaching those far back places. I know Mom was kind of psycho about things BUT I totally believe that one of the reasons us kids had almost no cavities as children when the rest of my friends at school were having holes filled, is because she brushed our teeth for us until we were probably six or seven or at a time when we could actually get to those places where cavities are usually found. I've told other people this and they mock her but when I tell dental friends (usually at the DHP at Weber) this story, they all nod their heads and say more parents should do this as well until the child can effectively do it themselves. The most important thing my dental friends told me is to get the plaque off the teeth; one doesn't even need toothpaste. Just brush the crap off.

And so, ingoring a page from "I'm Going To Be Different From My Mom" book, I also brushed the kids' teeth until they were about six. I let them brush too, so they could learn how do it but then I would finish.

Second, I had a REAL problem with electric toothbrushes. I felt that they were a silly purchase.Thomas was all for buying one but I resisted since I had never had one growing up or as adult. After many MANY heated debates (really?? over a toothbrush??), he finally convinced me and now I really love mine. I was so convinced I bought Felix and Robee one as well. I had a bit of a struggle talking the kids into using an electric brush, but once they tried one, they loved it. Getting them to brush twice a day is the issue! Running off to the bus, so tired at night ... they sort of let it slack off.

Third, to make up for the charging of electric toothbrushes and my guilty conscience, I do this: if I'm not charging the brush, I unplug the charger. At least then, I'm not using ghost power when it's not needed (this also applies to ANY electric device that's not being used, i.e.: blow dryers, toasters, phone chargers - I would my microwave but the plug is so out of the way to reach each time).

So, electric or manual?? In a pinch, the manual is a forever thing (the first toothbrush recorded in history was made in 3000 BC, a twig with a frayed end called a chewstick), but for daily brushing, I've been baptised and converted to electric toothbrushes.

As always, IMHO.

Goodbye Puzzle

2011-04-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

It’s always difficult when a family member dies.

No less difficult, when an animal member of the family dies.

I went out to feed my girls today and found Puzzle, the lone Rhode Island White in my clan, dead in the coop. I don’t know how long she had been dead, I don’t know why she died. They had water and no food, but not so low on food that she would have starved to death in one day.
I went over and over in my head, trying to think of what she could have gotten into that might have not agreed with her little chicken system. Trying to think of a treat that I might have given her that wasn’t meant for chickens.

Nothing.

I guess sometimes, animals die and I suppose I could take her to the vet and have an autopsy done on her. If I had more that died or if I find another one dead in the next few days, then I will. There may be something going through my flock and I need to know about it.

So …. goodbye Puzzle. We will miss you.

Change is good

2011-04-27T09:23:00.001-07:00

So yeah, I changed my blog's name.

When I started this thing, it was sort of under the encouragement of the big kids; they were doing one and thought I might like to join.

They were right; it's been fun and it really HAS helped me remember what has happened in the past. I have such a horrible memory for some things (and not for others which can be frustrating) and this has been great to go back and read. What I'd really like to do is to take each year and make it into a photo/scrapbook of sorts. I don't scrapbook (if God had wanted me to scrapbook, he wouldn't have invented shoe boxes) so this is a great help for those of us who are craftily-challenged.

However, I've always hated my blog title. I wasn't really sure what to call it when I first created it; other's I've read have these clever little titles (some nice, some a little too cutesy for me) and mine just said "Kristi's Blog" ... all in caps no less. Ugh. Blech. Poo.

So I changed it. Not that it's a WHOLE lot more creative, but I feel better about it and that's what counts anyway. If I had wanted suggestions, I would have asked. Perhaps I should have a contest?? :-)

Maybe not.

Anyway, so here's to the first post of the new name.

My Hero, My Dad

2011-04-26T18:01:00.001-07:00

My dad, standing in front of the plane he flew during the Vietnam War (F-111) with Robee.
If I said anymore, it would ruin the picture.

Love you Daddy. Love you Robee.

When are you too old?

2011-04-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

This statement was considered in my head when a woman commented on my thought bubble that I had to find a night with the kids to dye Easter eggs. She mentioned she has kids around the same age (and some older) and said "Oh, my kids are way too old to do that now. That's one of those things that is nice to not have to worry about as the kids get older."

Hmmmm ............. when ARE you too old to dye Easter Eggs? How about dressing up and Trick-r-Treating? Watching fireworks? Riding scooters? Swinging on the swing set? Skipping?

Someone out there is trying to make our kids grow up way too fast.

As for me and my home, we STILL dye Easter Eggs. Yes, it may be at the daunting hour of 10:30 pm (as I mentioned, trying to find a night). It may be with store bought eggs (ugh! but they dye better than brown ones). But we are going to keep this up as long as possible.

Still sewing

2011-04-12T12:38:00.001-07:00

My second .. no wait ... third attempt at sewing skirts. This one is also for Ivy since Lyla is still crawling and dresses are a little difficult for babies to crawl in. I never put Felix in a dress until she could walk; same with shoes.

This is another "super easy" pattern I found for a little girl's skirt which I can actually modify to any size I need or want. This was easier than Felix's skirt due to the fact that it only had three tiers instead of five .... which was tiring.

I'm color-blind to matching colors; I have THE hardest time matching or contrasting colors. I must have missed that talent when it was being passed out. Which is why the two major colors in my closet are either black or white because I can match those colors with anything. Thomas is much better at that than I and so I leave the decorating to him.

I was nervous about picking out these colors but luckily, fabric shops are very helpful to those of us that are color-matching challenged. Colors that can go together or that can contrast each other are placed in a very helpful way, so I don't have to depend on my own judgement. And if that doesn't work, I can always ask one of the clerks who will always offer their help. Even total strangers sometimes will chime in. Thank goodness.

As a side note: I guess my sewing bug has latched on to Felix because after she arrived home from Wash DC (had a GREAT time by the way but it was SO wonderful to see her again), she wanted to sew something.

I think that's great; I think it very important to have some sort of sewing skill even if it's just the basics. It's cool to create something from a piece of material.

HOWEVER, Felix's brain works different. It works like Thomas'. She doesn't just want to sew something; she wants to make a cat. A stuffed cat. Right now. This minute. I can hear Thomas now as a child, "Ethel dear, I need two turtle doves for our Christmas pageant. Let's go."

So we race to the fabric store and she finds fur, eyes, noses, wire for the legs and extra thread. Back home we go and she THEN searches for a pattern for a cat. She finds one, but can't really figure it out for layout. I help her do that. She cuts it out (white fur is flying everywhere) but can't really figure out how to put the head together because in her excitement about sewing, she decides to pull a body pattern from one site and a head pattern from another site. So we have to figure out how to put the two together. And when I say "we" I really mean me. It is rather complicated for a person who has no lessons whatsoever so I drop my skirt project and focus on the cat.

Two days later, we finally finish this cat.

So the question is: Does my daughter, who has a vast collection of stuffed animals including several hundred cats, really NEED another stuffed cat in her room?

I guess the answer is yes, especially if she made it. And we had fun making it together ... well not at first since I was a bit exasperated with the whole Franken-kitty pattern issue but as we progressed and it started taking shape, it became an interesting project.

Wouldn't do it again, but once was an adventure. Twice is insanity.

Whoot! Honor Badge of Courage!!

2011-04-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

I did it! I got TWO babies to sleep at the SAME TIME!!

No small feat when considering both babies wanted my lap all to themselves. There was a little bit pushing at the first, making sure one wasn't taking more room than the other; as though I had an imaginary line running down the middle of my body. Then the sound of rhythmic breathing, baby-body twitches and long lashes closing together and I realized that I finally got them both to sleep at the same time.

I don't know that I can duplicate that moment, but it was fun.

Of course, then I realized I was stuck there with two babies in my arms, not able to move. Luckily I didn't have to pee ...... so I cat-napped with them since I'm an old woman and need my sleep too!

Felix's skirt

2011-04-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

Here is the pic of the finished skirt. It is now .... 11:35 PM ... I don't have to get up until 2:50 AM so I'm way ahead of where I thought I would be with this thing.It actually turned out rather cute. I'm very surprised. The first couple of sections were pretty easy. Then as I got down towards the bottom tiers, things got a little tricky. Matching up the sides and making sure that the panels were all gathered evenly -- I am NOT a perfectionist which is bad when creating something because one tends to slide on the details.

BUT I finished. And she can take it with her to her field trip to Washington DC. Just as I promised.

I think of Mom and know there is no possible way she would have let me go on something like this and I'm so proud that I'm able to think about her and how much she will love this trip.

Because I love her more than my life. Because when she steps on that plane, a part of my heart is going to go with her. Even if she is going to have one of the greatest adventures of her young life, I'm still going to hold my breath until I can hug her on Thursday night. Because that's what moms do.

And I will cry as I leave the airport, driving my car home when she can't see me because I will not spoil this wonderful moment for her.

Sew are Ewe

2011-03-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

Holy Cats. It's been a MONTH since I last blogged. Ugh. I'm definitely going to Hell. Just for that reason alone, not counting all the other stuff.

Moving on.

Lately I've got the sewing bug. Have no idea why. Not pregnant (whew! never again - two is plenty and I'm WAY too old) so I'm not "nesting." Not bored. There is NO possible way I could be since I rarely sit down.

Whatever the reason, I feel like sewing.

My first toe-in-the-water project was leg warmers for Ivy and Lyla. First of all, I don't like leg warmers. I had to live through them when they were in style and I don't really like rehashing bad fashion (I stopped using giant shoulder pads in 1994 along with scrunchies). But they seem to be all the craze for little girls now and they don't make their ankles look near as awful as adults' ankles (or cankles). When the kids and I were shopping for Christmas presents this past December, we found a lot of them in those mall kiosks but for cryin' out loud; they were $15 for one pair! Really?? For a toddler?

So, I was just sort of surfing around one day and came across this really easy pattern for little girl leg warmers. I mean REALLY easy. My sewing knowledge comes from a couple of classes in High School and little bit from Mom who used to sew all our clothes but really never taught me. She did help me put in a zipper that I was struggling with once and then the teacher at school violently ripped it out because she didn't want me to learn "tricks" but actual sewing. I was turned off after that.

Then when I was about 20 or so, Mom gave me a sewing machine (I think in hopes that it would direct me to the marriage alter) and it kind of sat for a bit and then I got to use it off and on. Then I actually put it to use when I made Felix a "Dorothy" costume for Halloween when she was three or four. So Mom, a belated thanks for the machine.

I digress (yet again; I do that in my regular life - why should this be any different?)

I was so psyched about these super easy leg warmers that I went crazy and made 10 pair or so and gave half to Ivy and half to Lyla. Ha!!!

Then I stepped a little deeper into the sewing water and found a super easy little skirt pattern. SUPER easy. I'm all about super easy.

I run to the fabric store and realize that there are HUNDREDS upon HUNDREDS of bolts of fabric stacked all over the place. Blues, purples, pinks, yellows, patterns, solid, linen, cotton - Ack!! What's a novice to do? Stick out my finger, close my eyes and make my best pick. I find a lovely daisy pattern (my fav flower) and a green ribbon for the hem. But wait! I see a navy and fuchsia print (yeah, daisy again) with a fuchsia ribbon for the hem. What to do now?? Buy both of course! Ha!

And this is what I came up with:

So freaking cute! And SUPER EASY! I want to make more of them! I'm just sad that Evan, Owen, Max and Ryan are boys; they're not as fun to sew for, ya know? But the boys are fun in a different way. :) By the way, the shirts are NOT homemade - I'm not that nuts and I don't have a surger.

Then I made the HUGE mistake of seeing this really cute pattern for a tiered peasant skirt. I thought to myself, "wouldn't Felix look SUPER cute in this?" ... so I bought it. I brought it home. I showed it to Felix. She freaked out and wanted to go to the fabric store RIGHT that MOMENT. Which of course we couldn't because our REAL life is on a very tight schedule.

Finally after a week of begging, we hit the fabric store, she found a great pattern and picked her own thread and plopped it in front of me and said, "Ok! Here you go!" Darling child.

At this moment, I have two more tiers to sew on and it's KILLING me knowing that I have to get this done by tomorrow (she leaves on a field trip for DC on Saturday) and it's SOOOOO boring pinning and gathering and sewing panels. Ugh. I must have some sort of ADD that I can't stick with skirt.

It will be cute though if I can actually drag myself through it. I even called my go-to Gal for sewing (Love you Leah!!) regarding the word "gathering" and how exactly to do this thing. I'll pop that pic on once I finish it --- I'm sure at 2 am Saturday morning. Heh.

Being sick is NO fun

2011-02-19T16:07:00.000-08:00

My past post mentioned that I had been coughing for weeks. It's true but actually, I've had this cough since the end of December. It would come and go. And then I got some sort of sinus thing after that which put me down again. Then Robee and Felix got some flu bug last week (thank goodness it was at the same time on the same day) and the day before that, Owen was sick, barfing every 10 minutes. Evan had been sick two days before that, with Angie following the next day. Owen was running a fever again today but wanted to play his last game of basketball. I know that if he felt better, he would look a little more excited about his trophy.

So you could say we've had an overload illnesses.

So the cough was getting worse each day. On Monday, Owen was sick AGAIN with a fever and then on Wednesday, Felix was feeling a little under the weather. I sent her to school but then as the day progressed, I started feeling the same as her. Felix and Robee both were sick and running fevers after school. So I went on to TKD, feeling like I was going to be leaving early. And I did. By the evening, all three of us had fevers, chills, and were whiny (they get that from me).

I didn't sleep much that night and woke again at 3 coughing my lungs out. I coughed so hard, I was gagging (and I NEVER throw up) and I think I even pulled a rib. I took my temp and it read 105. Yikes. I said, "Okay, you win. I'll go to the clinic first thing in the morning." Tabs of Motrin and a cool compress later, I was back to a more normal temperature.

As soon as the clinic opened, all three of us staggered in -- and I do mean staggered. After coughing, sneezing, fevering all night we were a mess. The kids had basic colds that were to be watched if the fever continued for more than three days. I got lucky (ha) and had bronchitis and a sinus infection, so I'm on antibiotics (with lots of yogurt). I am now the LEAST infectious of everyone which is great!

The three of us then spent all day on the floor or couches sleeping and watching TV, with a repeat on Friday. I actually think the kids are finally tired of TV. I know that I'm feeling a little cramped, people-wise. After being cooped up with the kids for the past three days, I'm ready for some major alone time.

So this is our table. Ready for any illness. Pain/fever meds, vapo rub, nasal spray, Halls, thermometers, and Nyquil for sleeping. We've already gone through two boxes of tissues. Thomas is the last to have this and then we should be all done ..... we hope. I am going to open all the windows and spray the house with Lysol and wait for Spring to heal us.

Heal thyself

2011-02-16T21:24:00.001-08:00

Now it's been five weeks and there seems to be no relief. My cough gets a little better and then gets worse.

Today, I started running a fever and my head filled up AGAIN and my sinuses plugged up AGAIN and my cough has gotten worse .......... AGAIN. I'm freezing one minute and then sweating the next.

The kids are also getting sick AGAIN. Owen got sick AGAIN. This has GOT to stop. I guess it's time to go to the clinic. Ugh.

But in the mean time, I'll throw up some other random pics just for the sake of conversation. Also for the sake of conversation, I've started another blog (yeah, cuz I do SO well keeping up on this one - bee ruther) which I invite anyone to come and read. It's called http://www.farmer101.com/ and it's a blog about Urban Farming ... something I'm learning about little by little.

This is Robee and his friend Rielly. They are in the Robotics Club together at school. They built this ... whatever it is ... together and they were at the local pool testing it out to see if it would float and maneuver through the water. I think it failed. As a side note: I can't wait for Robee to get some height on him; but he is a year younger than all his classmates. I think by the summer he'll shoot up like Felix did.

This is my latest FAVORITE candy EVER. I don't even have to unwrap the damn things; just pour them down my pie hole.

Do you realize how dangerous this can be to my thighs and butt?? Do you??

Curse you Reeses!!!

Robee has started guitar lessons. This is such a great pic. Even though Ben is about 17 years older than Robee (I have to think about that one), he is such a great role model and such a great big brother. This was at Thomas' birthday dinner this past Sunday. Thanks to Ben for encouraging Robee to practice and for teaching him "Happy Birthday."

So if I'm not dead from coughing up my lungs, I hope to be writing from a healthy body by this weekend. Ack.

The worse part of coughing so hard?? Peeing my pants almost every time. Poop out two ginormous children and THIS is what happens. I TRIED to talk my OBGYN into giving me a C section, but NOOOOOOO. Didn't want it on her record. Grrrr. Apparently, I still have some issues with that woman. Hmmmm.

Random Thoughts

2011-02-04T08:45:00.000-08:00

So February has begun. January went by like a flash as per usual. Nothing major occurred. No deaths. No crashes. No meltdowns. Fairly calm.

The chickens are laying again. Chickens have a down time for laying during the winter months. It has to do with daylight - or lack thereof. For great laying, they must have 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. We have a timer for the lights but .... well .... there are at least 23 projects that are on the Neeleman/Barker Family To-Do-List and when we only have two days per week which, because of karate half a day Saturday and church half a day Sunday, only equals to one full day to work on stuff, it makes it hard to get everything done.

Back to the chickens. So now we're back up to 18 layers. I've added two Black Jersey Giants which only one is mine. The other is Caroline's, who is a friend of Felix's who is not allowed to have chickens at her house (unbelievable). So I'm boarding her chicken.

Thomas and I went to Leavenworth for our weekend last week. It was nice but not as much snow as I would have liked since I finally bought myself some cross country skies. A "Play It Again Sports" opened up by our favorite restaurant (Asian One: yummy crab fried rice and green curry chicken!) and I was able to, over a few weeks, grab skis, boots, poles. All I need is some gators and .............. well SNOW. I was hoping to use them there but it's been a sparse snow year.

I've had hacking cough for the past two weeks. We were driving home from a wedding reception in Granite Falls and something just took over my head. Pounding headache, cough and sinus pain like crazy. For no reason. I hear in passing however, everyone has had this and it lasts about four weeks.

So here are some random pics that I had and thought I'd throw up here. Jen is going to get me a better blog writer since I HATE this blog writer. It's so un-user friendly. Ugh.

Felix and Robee at her Honor Jazz Band Concert. She plays the Alto Clarinet and was asked to play! Very great. So proud of her.

My Robee with me at the concert. His hair is looking like a brown football helmet.

Felix before the concert. I LOVE her new hair cut and so does she. She can pull off short hair so great. Mom would love it too. She adored Felix as a baby (and older too!). She was able to spend more time with her than Robee when they were babies because I visited more.

Felix riding. She wanted horse riding lessons for Christmas. She has loved horses since the first time I put her on one when she was one year old at the fair.

Her and the butt of Tucker the horse. This horse is 27 years old. Crikey. She's disappointed because he doesn't really like to trot, lope, canter or run. HA! 27. That's like ... what ... 130 in human years? What is the horse to human age ratio? Hmmm.

The Terrible Trio. l to r - Clyde, Porter, Abbi. They are sitting so lovely because they think they're getting a treat.

And so February marches on to March.
And then to April.
Then to May.
Then to June and summer begins.
I can do this.

Happy Birthday Neil!!

2011-01-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's my annual tribute to Neil Diamond. His birthday is today and he is 70 years old!!! My hell. How time flies.

I remember the first time I heard his voice. My brother Jeff brought home an album called "Tap Root Manuscript" by this guy called Neil Diamond. My mom was always very hesitant about the "new" music that was coming out during the late 60's, early 70's. Made most parents very nervous.

But she heard his voice and she was hooked. We bought the 8-track of Tap Root Manuscript and listened to that thing in the yellow station wagon all the way from Virginia to Las Vegas when Daddy was stationed at Nellis AFB. Lisa and I knew every song by heart.

And though I know lots of people make fun of me when they see this post or hear that I love Neil Diamond or see that I have about 100 songs from Neil on my iPod, I don't care. Because hearing Neil's voice brings back such great memories and his songs are a part of my life.

He's a youngster here!!

Old but still great. 40+ years in the music business and sold out concerts. Can't touch that.

New favorite person ............

2011-01-21T22:34:00.000-08:00

Ben.

The other night we were having dinner and talking about Robee's new guitar teacher. He's an English bloke that plays just about everything very well. I've toyed with the idea of taking up the fiddle, but since my music knowledge is .... lacking, I've sort of been hesitant about it.

Anyway, we were discussing me taking from this English guy who is about 55 or 60 years old. Thomas said jokingly that he was worried that I might run off with this guy if I started lessons.

Ben was shocked and said, "No she wouldn't. He's an older guy."

I looked at him and said, "Um ... Ben. So am I."

Ben started laughing and said, "That's so funny! I always think of you as being 35!"

New favorite person. For now anyway. :D

Technology .... I loathe thee.

2011-01-18T15:52:00.001-08:00

Okay, maybe not LOATHE but I really hate when things like this happen.

Sigh.

So reading from past blogs, I can see my high tech camera that I got for last Christmas is now sitting on my desk, after being dampened by Puerto Rican rain and a loose water bottle cap still not fixed. I'm attempting to make my way to Seattle to a camera shop.

Until then, I turn to my trusty orange, WATER RESISTANT camera as a back up. Takes good pics and is water resistant so I'm sure NOT to ruin this one.

Oh, but .... what about the camera card, eh??? Is that water resistant too? Destruction proof?? Or more importantly, KRISTI PROOF??

Nope. It's not. I am making copies of some pics of the kids for my dad to send to him for Christmas (yeah yeah, I'm a little late - so sue me) and I LOSE the bloody card. Gone. All those pics. Gone. I'm searching through the recycle bin looking for it, the garbage bin looking for it. EVERYWHERE looking for it. Gone.

Then winking on the sidewalk, my darling spouse sees my precious card and returns it to me!! Oh thank the heavens! O Wondrous of all Wonders! My pics are back!

Crap. It was raining and it's NOT water resistant. I plunk it in the camera - no pics. Hoping against all hope, I put it in a bag of moisture absorber so that it will suck out all the rain and my pics will indeed, be restored.

No possible way this can work.

I'm back to using my phone camera with sucky pictures. Sigh. Sometimes I really miss 35mm film.

I'LL say when it's over ... THEN it's over.

2011-01-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

Okay. It's over.

I've announced it: CHRISTMAS IS OFFICIALLY OVER.

As the pic above shows, I finally took down all my lights from the outside and the inside. There is a winter storm advisory for tonight (if I were in Utah, I might expect two or three feet of snow; here, it could be up to *gasp!* 2 INCHES of snow) so I thought I should finally take down the lights.

It takes about four or five hours to put up the lights outside and another two hours to decorate inside. To take down? Two hours tops. Linc the Tree is defrocked as well. I'll get out to plant him this week.

So NOW I can officially say Goodbye to Christmas 2010. We'll see you again in 11 months when I open the storage door, turn on the light and see the sparkle of Christmas yet to come for 2011.

Where will I be next year? No one knows save for a few special spirits. I may be here, I may not. Life is quick and fleeting. After the tragedies that have happened this past week in Arizona, we cannot predict what our future will be. We should strive to live each day by helping others to enjoy their own lives. It's really all we have.

Bring on 2011!!

Felix and the salmon

2011-01-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

This picture is important for many reasons.

First, the fact that my darling daughter loves salmon; most kids her age turn their noses up at this fish. Even the ones who live here where salmon is the KING! (pun intended)

I started feeding her fish when she was quite small and luckily she kept that taste bud for it even though she went through the normal ups and downs of picky food eating.

Second, the fact there is no possible way that Mom would have EVER ever EVER let me try and cook and clean up my own food creation. Ever.

Not because she was being mean ... but because ... well, to this day, I don't really know why. I hope that one day I'll understand Mom's erratic behavior. I may never actually.

Okay. I don't want to start a therapy session about my mom. THIS is about Felix.

Third, the fact that she is the most beautiful girl I have ever met, inside and out. Perhaps it's because she's my daughter that I feel this way. She's also one of the most together girls I've met and I have met lots of girls her age since she has friends and I teach 12-13 yr olds in church.

She seems to have no fear about anything; just goes in and tries whatever she needs to do. I want to take responsibility but I know I can't; she is her own person and whatever roads she takes, I know she is making thoughtful choices about where to go.

Love You Baby Cakes.

The Snow Dance

2011-01-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

This is snow falling on the Prius tonight.

My kids are happily awaiting the prospect of sledding tomorrow or making snowmen or (dare we say it??) a snow day for school on Monday.

First, it's very wet snow. So I know that it will be fair for snowballs and snowmen. There could be a slight possibility of it being good with a disk.

Second, it will be clearing by tomorrow afternoon (if I can REALLY believe any forecaster around here) and therefore, it will melt.

Third .... there is no third. There will be no snow day for Monday.

It is pretty on my lights outside ... uh .... yeah. I still haven't pulled my butt outside to take down lights. Last week it was still pretty cold and I didn't relish freezing my fingers off. So I cleaned the kids' rooms instead.

Next week Tacky comes down.

FOUND

2011-01-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

This hat was given to me by Jen. Not as a gift for anything but it developed a hole in the top and she decided to get another one while I fixed this one and then she said "Why don't you just keep that one" and being the person who loves free hats, didn't say no.

Fixed the hole and this is the hat.

That was last winter.

Felix decided she wanted to wear it one day ...................... it JUST reappeared two days ago. She's had it stashed away (not maliciously but forgetfully - and since my memory is terrible, I'm not going to come down on her too much) and I kept asking her about it, where it might be, where was the last place she wore it, that sort of thing.

Nope. No recollection.

We were going to Leavenworth last weekend and the kids needed a bag to put their stuff in and I just happened to look in the tiny closet that tries to pass for a real hall closet and there is her old messenger bag and inside the bag ... my hat. Her thermal shirt. Her khaki pants. All which we've been looking for since last winter.

I don't EVER remember borrowing my mom's stuff. I wouldn't have wanted to (and there's no possible way she would have ever let me borrow her stuff) because her stuff was motherly. But for some reason, she takes my slippers to wear to school, my gloves, my hats, my shirts, my jackets. The only thing she doesn't borrow are my jeans because mine are gigantic and would drown her.

So maybe it's good I'm big so she'll leave my jeans alone.

Anyway, my hat is back. Nice to see you again.

Summary of 2010

2011-01-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

Crap. I was supposed to do this whole "look what happened in my life during 2010" during the week BEFORE the New Year. Oy vey. Didn't happen.

Soooooo .... I'm going to try to sum up in one post from the year. I think (if this stupid blog post will work) that I can do this going backwards. For some reason, posting pics on my blog is the most user-un-friendly thing ever.

Here we go! Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Dec 2010 - CHRISTMAS!!

Nov - THANKSGIVING!!

Nov - The tragic untimely death of my wonderful Uncle Paul Van Alfen (second man from the left). I flew back to Utah to attend his service. This is what is left of my mum's brothers and sisters and their spouses.

PUERTO RICO!! Family Trip the first of November

The Whole Fam Damily

BIRTHDAYS FOR MY BABIES!!

Robee in September (11 yrs old)

Felix in July (13 yrs old)

TIME FLIES!!! ack ack

FAIR DAYS - Silvana in July and Evergreen in August.

Swimming at the river in the hot summer days. Best thing in the whole world.

4th of July in Arlington and Famous Stilliguamish Duck Dash

JUNE - Ben Lomond HS Class of 1980 - 30th Reunion. What a surreal event THAT was, yes indeed.

JUNE - Aunt Virginia and Uncle Ray 50th Wedding Anniversary held in Clinton Utah. I have never been so grateful as to have been able to attend and see my aunts and uncles and cousins again (some of them for the last time it turns out). :(

MAY - The birth of Baby Lyla! This is #7 grandchild in the family.

MAY - The final of the Four get married, Ben. This was a bittersweet day as this would be the last time we would see Ben's best friend Riley, who would be killed in an accident about two months later. (Ben, Robee, Riley)

JUNE - My garden. Due to the awful "Junuary" spring weather, I wasn't able to get my garden in until the middle of June. However, it proved to be a great move as nothing in my garden was rotted out.

APRIL - The latest addition to our animal family, Clyde. He is the great-nephew of Porter. Notice the resemblance?

APRIL - The arrival of Abbi's darling puppies. She had six beautiful babies; four merles, one black bi, one black tri. Sadly, we had to euthanize the first girl Pastel due to a cleft palate (center top). The others we were able to sell - ALL to wonderful families.

JANUARY & FEBRUARY - Home remodeling jobs: new carpet in the front room and a new office/laundry room.

JANUARY - Pinewood Derby. Robee's first (and last) but he won 2nd Place!!

NEW YEAR'S EVE - Evan's birth.

Okay. Technically, he was born in 2009 BUT he's too close to the end of the year to put in LAST year's summary so I wanted to include him in this post. And he is the first exciting thing to happen for us in 2010!!

And ............... There it is. A quick bird's eye view of what happened to me and mine during the 2010 year.

What would I like to see happen for 2011?

Healthy, happy kids.

Continued work for our family.

My dad and sister to remain healthy and happy.

NO DEATHS PLEASE.

To look a little better in a swimsuit (those Puerto Rico pics were too awful).

To get my back fixed so I can test successfully for my 2nd Degree Blackbelt.

To begin to like Clyde a little more.

To actually accomplish something in my day.

To help someone else once in awhile.

Welcome 2011.