Showing Love

Leave it to Holly to tag me AGAIN!! This one is fun though! She awarded me this cute little blog award and now I have to blog about the top 5 things I love:

1: My husband and kids. Should be a given but it's the truth. I couldn't imagine life without them.

2: CBS Thursday nights, Survivor and CSI the original. I go through withdrawls when it's not in season time!

3: Card making this one thing I do when I am bored or just need to "escape" from my reality for a bit. There is nothing like the look on someones face when they get a homemade card!

4: Warm snuggly pajamas. I could stay all day in them. Flannel are the best.

5: Days with nothing to do. I live for my down days where there is no dance, soccer, pta, awana, karate.... you get the picture. The days where I can stay home get things in order and actually cook a real dinner. Those are the days that I love.

So now I am supposed to tag people. I didn't read Holly's list so sorry if there are duplicates.

Jen- Snapshots of a Life

Barb- Ramblings of a Retiree

Samantha- My life as I know it

Amanda- Jampac Clan

Snow, Snow and More Snow

So you would think with all the extra time that I have had being stuck inside I would be blogging like crazy...alas I have not. But here I am finally to report on our week so far. Aaron had all of 1 day of school this week do to snow and early release days. He was super stoked about that! We did finally get out of the house on Friday to go and see a movie. It was a must do or else I was affraid I would kill my children. I have also institued a new rule for snow play: You must stay outside for at least as long as it took me to get you ready to go out in the first place. I spend 35 minutes putting on gloves, fixing snowpants, hats, boots, coats, scarves only to have them get outside and want to come back in 5 minutes later. This snow does kind of suck though because it's so light it doesn't pack (see the exibit A picture below of the kids pelting dad with "snowballs") I have gotten quite a bit done being stuck. All of my christmas presents are wrapped, I'm getting my baking done and my laundry is ALMOST caught up. All in all it hasn't been that bad. I think it's pretty but it can go away anytime now!

Thirty ain't so bad....

So I turned 30 on Sunday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm actually looking forward to my 30's and figuring out me as a person... Saturday night a group of the bestest friends in the whole world met up with me for a night out on the town. We had so much fun and I got to act out my fantasies of being in the SNL skit about the Blue Oyster Cult... all I have to say is "I need more cowbell" I had an awesome time with friends from past and present. My actual birthday started with me dragging myself to church after staying out to late the night before. We got our Christmas tree in the afternoon and the evening was a nice dinner and family time at my in-laws. As I reflect back on my first 12 years as an actual adult I realize I have done so much and have been so blessed by the people that were put into my life!

Traditions

One of my favorite things about the holidays is the traditions. There are traditions in many forms. Some families have tons some just a few, but they are all special. My mother in law has started some fun traditions with my daughter. Now that she is getting older she is more of a help and she LOVES helping. One is she gets to spend the night on the day before Thanksgiving and help grandma with all the cooking. They were so busy they forgot to take pictures but I hear Lena was and excelent helper. The other is in the last few years she has been invited to help decorate my in-laws.... I didn't know this meant litteraly!! She loves being able to go over and help make the house festive. I am so thankful for the in-laws that I have and the fact that they try so very hard to make all of their grandchildren feel special in some way. My challenge to you as we go through this holiday season is whenever you find yourself doing something that is a "tradition" in your house hold I encourage you to stop take a couple of pictures and blog about your tradition. You never know who might love your idea or who you might get an idea from! Happy Holidays!!

Photo Shoot

My sister in law is just learning how to take photos and become a photographer so she seemed like the natural choice to take our family pictures this year. We decided to do them up at Lairamont Manor very neat landscaping and areas for pictures. To our dismay we showed up to a wedding... on a Sunday... who gets married on a Sunday?? So we went down to Fairhaven park instead. It was frickin freezing!! I think we got some good shots despite the fact that we were frozen to death. I can't beleive she was able to hold the camera still!! These two plus the one at the top of my blog were done by Jen. Thanks Jen for the great pictures!!! http://www.jenjenphotography.blogspot.com/

Tag again... yeesh

So I was sitting here all nice and quiet and thought I would catch up on my blog reading little did I know what Holly had in store for me I've been tagged AGAIN!! This time the instructions were to drop what I was doing and take a picture of the area where I blog... This is my office it is where I spend a lot of my time. If I am not at the messy computer desk (gosh I really need to clean it up) than I am directly behind there at my craft table working on projects there. Now I have to say in my own defense I just completed a craft fair and there for my room is a total pig sty and hasn't been cleaned yet. It drives my husband crazy who gets a small little desk to the right of this picture and that is his space to work in... I have erupted all over the room!! The second half to this fun little game was to take a picture of your living room.... This is my living room! Now I like Traci got very lucky because I happend to host a baby shower at my house a few days before so the living room was fairly clean! Yeah!! We just got the new furniture you see in the picture about a month ago so the living room tends to stay pretty clean for the most part. We have new very strict living room rules that must be abided by!! So now here is the fun part I get to tag 3 people to play the game so I tag...

1.) Jennifer of Snapshots of a life

2.) Samantha of My Life as I know it

3.) Amanda of The JAMPAC Clan

Have fun!!!

I've been tagged

My friend Holly had a fun post on her blog and I couldn't resist the temptation to play along. The game is to go to your 4th photo folder and pick the 4th picture and blog about it so here it goes. If you have read this post and you are a blogger you have now been tagged!!!

This is Lena and her friend Taylor at their other friend Ashli's birthday party. We went to Langs Horse and Pony farm in Mt.Vernon. It was cold as Ashli's birthday is in March and the parents leading the horses were given big rubber boots. Thank God you should have seen the mud!! We had about 15 kids on horses and went on a trail ride through the woods. It was really fun! The girls had a great time!!

Craft Fair

This past weekend my mother in law, sister in law and I participated in the Bellingham Covenant craft show. We have done this for 5 years now. This year I decided to try something new and Barb and I put together a ton of handmade cards. To our suprise they sold like crazy!! Yeah!!! So now I will spend the rest of the next year coming up with designs and making new cards. We're going to try and have a card making day once a month to stay on top of the game! It's fun to have your stuff sell and to realize that you are not the only one that likes your work....

10 years... how time flies

My husband and I just celebrated out 10th anniversary. It's amazing to me that 10 years has gone by so quickly. It really doesn't seem like it's been that long. We have come a long way in our 10 year marriage.... a house, two kids lots and lots of ups and downs but we have over come it all... I thank God everyday for sending my wonderful husband!! Here's to another 10 years and beyond!!!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween has come and gone again!! We had a wonderful time.. we first went to Grandma and Grandpas so we could see them and cousin Carley..we also needed to wish Aunt Jen a very Hallow Birthday! My sister in law was born on Halloween! We trick or treated up the street to Great Grandma Sadies house and then did the neighborhood around there for a bit. We then hopped in the car and headed to the Eldridge Neighborhood. These people know how to do Halloween up right. Almost every house had trick or treats available and a ton of them actually decorated their houses with lights and scary things.. there was even a guy on stilts standing on a corner dressed up as Frankenstein.. he was like 8 feet tall it was SO cool! Over all my kids took in a haul and had a very wonderful night!! Until next year Happy Halloween everyone and Happy Birthday Jen!!!

An Amazing Vacation

I just spent the most amazing week with my husband! We went on a cruise to the Caribbean. Our first stop was in Nassau The Bahamas. We spent the day snorkling and laying in the sun. They even fed us a pretty yummy lunch! We had to be back on our ship at 2pm to ship out. We didn't get much time there but it's beautiful and I am told the Atlantis resort is amazing! We spent the next day at sea. It was so relaxing there was no schedule or anything that we had to do. We slept late, ate breakfast spent sometime on our balcony reading, went up for lunch came back and took a nap.. of course our favorite place on the boat was the casino... well at least for me I won a little over $500 on our trip! Our next stop was in St. Thomas where we shopped, shopped and shopped some more. We got lots of little trinkets and Jason bought me a very pretty ring for our anniversary. We took a tram ride up to what they call "Paradise Point" and you should have seen the view! You could see all of St. Thomas as well as the island of St. John. We got about 11 hours in port there. It was HOT and very humid.I swear I sweated off about 10 pounds!! We sailed overnight and spent the next day on the island of St. Maartin. This was by far our favoite spot. We shopped a little bit and then rented beach chairs and a big umbrella and spent the day on the beach just relaxing. At the end of the day we set sail for the good ol' u-s-of A. We were at sea for two days on the way back. They had a fab. show in the theater it was Vegas style and 80's themed it was so neat. Over all it was I think on my top 3 of favorite vacations we have taken. If you have ever thought about cruising DO IT!! It was so amazing. It was also so much fun to be able to spend some time alone with my best friend and remember why we traded vows 10 years ago!

Day One

After a rather sleepless but smooth flight we made it into Miami about 20 minutes early. We decided since we had time to go ahead and spend 50 bucks and get a hotel room for a few hours. We got what you would expect from a $50 hotel room but the bed was soft and the shower wet and we were able to get about 3 hours of sleep. We boarded our boat at about 1pm after about 30 minutes of line waiting. I swear I thought I was in Disneyworld for a second! Our room wasn't quite ready yet so we headed up to the Lido deck where they were serving lunch. WOW you should see all the food on this ship!! Now I see why people gain so much damn weight on these things. Maybe I can counter act that by going to the fitness room in the mornings....or maybe not!! In any avent I don't think I will be lacking in nutrition while we are here. We're about to debark in about an hour. I'll update tomorrow night after we visit Nassau. I think we are going to go on a pirate treasure hunt! They just made our set sale announcement!! Bon Voyage we'll see you tomorrow.

Today's the day

After 8 months of anticipation I am off on my vacation tonight. We fly out of Seattle at 9:25pm and land in Miami at 6am. We are allowed to board our ship at 12:30pm and the ship leaves port at 4pm. I am so excited to be traveling to a new place and seeing new things, and the best part I am doing it with my best friend of 10 years!! I am amazed that it has been 10 years already it seems that it just flew past. I am glad we are taking this trip to get away from the regular grind to relax and unwind and reconnect. It's so easy to get caught up in the everyday... I am planning on updating my blog as often as I can on our trip so if you feel so inclinded you can follow along!! Talk to you all soon Bon Voyage!!

Getting ready to go....

Well this is it the final countdown (enter bad Europe song)... we're finally leaving on Saturday after months of anticipation! I am very excited but stressed at the same time as I have yet to get myself and the kids packed to go! I will be taking a laptop with me and frequently updating my blog on the cruise so stay tuned!!!

Fall

I love this time of year. It's so pretty with all the changing colors, the kids are back in school, the weather is cooling and I can drag out my crockpot! Yee Haw!! I just love living in Washington with all the specific seasons. I think Fall though by far might be my favorite one of all! The picture here was taken by my sister in law. I just love how the water drops stand up on the leaf...

Bunco!

I have bunco tonight! I love bunco night! It's so much fun and a chance to get together with girlfriends and have fun and chat with NO KIDS!!! Our group has been dubbed the "Dicey Divas" with pink being our thing. I made these cupcakes for tonight!! I am pretty proud of how cute they turned out!!!

New hair!

I got my hair done yesterday! I love it. She did a really cute layerd cut and I got blonde and strawberry put in my hair and it is super cute!! Isn't it funny how doing something as simple as getting your hair done can make you feel so much better about yourself!? I love it!

SURPRISE!!!

This past weekend was a very good friend of mines 30th birthday. This year has been abnormally difficult for her so myself and two other girlfriends decided that we were going to make her birthday weekend something she would never forget. On Saturday we planned a scavenger hunt for her and took her all over the town revisiting important places from her past. At each spot she would get a goodie and another clue. She looked rather crazy by the end but it was so much fun!! Then on Sunday her mom convinced her to go out to dinner. Little did she know we had that planned out too! We invited a ton of her friends from past and present and suprised her! She thought she was going to dinner with her parents and family she wasn't expecting a room full of her friends!! It was so awesome! I can't beleive we were able to pull off two days of surprises without her knowing!! I hope it was a weekend to remember and that her next year is a super happy one!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Not feeling so hot

Uh oh! It's that time of year again. I woke up feeling kind of blah today. My stomach is bothering me and my nose is running. The kids get back in school and bring home all kinds of stuff. It's lovely. I wouldn't mind so much but I've got Carley today and when she's here I like to be 100% so that time that I dedicate to her is quality. We're going to run some errands this morning and hopefully I'll just start feeling better. I think I have a case of the blahs!!

Whatever happend to M-F/9-5??

I swear I know I am married but it hasen't felt like it lately. Jason took last Monday and Tuesday off and this weeks days off are Saturday and Sunday so he is working 10 days straight. And it isn't like he works a normal 9-5 shift. On a good day he leaves at 7 and gets home sometime between 5:30 and 6. Yesterday ended up being a 7-7. With all the things going on in life I feel like we never see him. I love the benefits we get from his job and the fact that it allows me to stay at home with the kids but sometimes I just feel like saying screw it all and opting for less money for more time. Normally it isn't this bad but 10 days straight with no help with the kids gets very wearing. Especially when it feels like all I do is drive from one activity to the next. Thank God soccer will be over soon and we'll only have dance and awana to worry about. I can handle 2 days a week!

Enjoy The Silence....

As I sit here in my dead quiet house (except for the crazy cat who is running back and forth) I can't help but enjoy myself!! My house has been a flutter with little voices for the last eight year and now all of a sudden it's quiet!! I will admit the first few days were just plain weird I had to actually turn on spongebob at one point just so I wouldn't go crazy from the silence! Now though I LOVE my quiet time. I can get stuff done at my craft table or even do the dishes and not have to play referee to anyone. Don't get me wrong I love my kids and I love being a stay at home mom but sometimes it's nice to just to get to be alone. Which mind you doesn't happen very often! I never knew what a luxury going to Target by yourself was!! To all of you that are at this phase in life or past I celebrate with you... for those of you that haven't gotten there yet... be strong it's coming and faster than you can imagine!! Relish the time you have because this one snuck up on me really fast! (hence the needing to listen to spongebob)!! I love you all my fellow moms!!!

Girls Day Out

A couple months back I saw that Phantom of the Opera was coming to Seattle. This show has been on my list of must sees since I was about 12 and sang a medley of songs from it in middle school. I searched for tickets and found some great one's in the 10th row center for $27 a piece.. to good to be true? I called my mother in law, my sister in law and my best friend Tammi and asked if they wanted to go with me. At $27 a ticket how could they say no?? They couldn't!! So after a few months of waiting we were on the way!! With a small disclaimer from me stating if the seats sucked I wasn't to blame after all they were cheap! We got to Seattle early and did a little shopping then headed to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We ate and LAUGHED!! It was so much fun!!! BIG SHEET!!! Anyway, after lunch it was time for the show. We headed in to find our seats and where amazed at how awesome they were!! $27 got us 10th row center tickets with NO obstructions!!! The show was amazing and I ended up with goosebumps from the singing! I am so jelouse that I can't sing like that! I am so happy that I was finally able to see the Phantom and that I was able to share it with the 3 of the most important women in my life!! Thank you ladies for helping me to have such a good day!! Little sheet!!!

Oh what a week

I have always prided myself with being dependable. I am always on time if not early. I will do pretty much whatever is asked of me as long as I am able. I don't know what happend this week but I turned into someone I don't like. First of Wednesday I had a play date set up with one of Aaron's little friends from preschool. We were going to get off the bus and head over there to play for a couple hours. However I got asked to work and went in from 9-2. Not a big deal except I forgot about the playdate and didn't show up, didn't call... so not like me. Then yesterday I headed to Seattle to see the Phantom of the Opera. Such a wonderful day only to be over shadowed by what I found out when I got home..... I forgot that I had said I would get the neighbor boy off the bus and if I couldn't I needed to let his sister know so that she could... I didn't tell her. Wouldn't have been a big deal except Lena didn't ride the bus home yesterday so there was no one there to get him when he got off the bus and he had to go all the way back to school and have someone pick him up there. I am so frusterated by my actions. This isn't me and it isn't who I am.... I think it's time to take a step back and re-evaluate my schedule because obviosly I have way to much stuff going on.....

Work Day

So I had an actual work day today. I had to get up get myself and the kids ready for the day which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I then worked from 9-2 because King St. is short 5 staff persons and would have been running 5 short for lunch. Not a good thing at one of the biggest stores in the company. It really wasn't that bad. I only wanted to kill one person during the course of the day and I was able to leave right on time which is un-heard of! But I must say going back to work after 5 or 6 years will be quite tough and I think I'll have to ease into it. I thought I was ready to go back but I must admit I'm not quite there yet.

First day of Kindergarten

Phew! I made it and I did better than I thought I would. My baby started kindergarten today! He had a wonderful time and loves his teacher. I just am having a hard time grasping the fact that my child is in kindergarten. I came home to a completly quiet house and to be honest after a while I had to turn on cartoons for background noise! I am sure I will get used to it but for now it's still very strange. He rode the bus home and really liked that. It made him feel like a big boy!

Who is this young lady?

Wow! That is the only thing that comes to mind. Today is the first day of the 3rd grade for Lena. I can't even begin to tell you how I feel. I have a 3rd grader!! I can't be that old. I look at my little baby and realize that she isn't a baby anymore. She is growing into a beautiful young woman! She is kind and compasionate and one of the most amazing little people I know. She loves dancing and playing soccer and reading. I am so lucky and grateful that I was blessed with such a wonderful little girl. I just wish she would quit growing up so fast! Where does the time go?

AWANA

I don't know what it is about htis club that keeps me coming back from year to year.... yes I do it's the kids. Where else can you spend a couple hours a week with such a wonderful group of little people that truly have a heart for God. It's amazing to me how he works in these little people and how much joy they get out of learning his word. I am going to be trying a new position this year which is a tad scary for me as I have spend the last 3 years as a secretary but this year I will be a director of sparks. It's a different possition than what I am used to but I know God has a plan for me and he put this in front of me for a reason. I am looking forward to seeing AWANA in a different way!

What a wonderful day

I spent a few hours today at the home of my good friend Amanda's parents. Amanda grew up here and I remember many a summer day hanging out at their house playing in the lake and learning to waterski. It was so much fun to bring my kids there to play and experience some of the things that I got to experience as a kid. It was also fun to get to sit and chat with my friends and do some re-connecting. Thanks Amanda for letting us come and play!

Long time...no blog

Okay so it's been over a year since I've been on here but my friends blogs have inspired me to start it up again. The summer seems to be flying by and I just can't get over how fast my kiddos are growing up. Lena is going to be in the 3rd grade this year. That is just 2 years away from middle school and then there is my little man... he's going to be in Kindergarten this year. I have having a really hard time with the fact that my baby will be going to real school. I am trying really hard to embrace the situation but it's just to hard. I will spend the next year enjoying my last year off as next year I will be re-entering the adult world. I think I will be headed back to Whatcom to persue a degree in Buisness Adminitration with an emphasis on hospitality and tourism. I am hoping to open my own wedding and events business... we'll see how it goes!