Fun Fourth

Natalie trying to catch the breeze.



Mentally preparing herself at the start of the race, oops I mean parade.

Aiden, Christian, Natalie, and Brady waiting for their heat of the sack race.


I love you, you love me...

Yesterday was an all-around great day. We headed out to meet a group of dear friends and their families at Elizabeth Park. The kids decorated their bikes and paraded around the neighborhood before settling down for a picnic and some old-fashioned American games: Potato sack race, 3-legged race, and the Wheelbarrow race.
Then we went up to the Res. in Ferndale and bought a bunch of fireworks (ran into our neighbors too, so we collaborated on what to buy).
My mom came back over to our place (she joined us at the park), and we BBQ'ed ribs, and salad. I decided to break out one of my bottles of Blackjack (the winery from the movie Sideways) wine that I got at Cowgirl weekend in Solvang CA. It was delish. So we opened a bottle of Chuckanut Ridge Bad Bunny, which was also wonderful, even if I bought it simply for the label (a smoking rabbit).
Mom left after Larry started setting fireworks off a little to close to her new car (we teased him on his "3 simple steps to get your MIL to depart"). My mom said the nicest thing to me before she left as we were watching my kids play in the front yard. She said "I"m so glad I moved up here." Feelings mutual, mom.
We topped off the night with our neighbors and their children, enjoying the company and fireworks.
And the rain didn't return until this morning!

My proud pyro.

I love watching kids go cross-eyed watching something...
Deuling sparklers. Daddy brought out the big stuff.

Happy 4th

I'm too buzzed to blog (oops I typed blob intstead of blog!)...

My Saviors

Today was such a crummy day, and my children woke up picking at each other. I had a sinking feeling I might pull a Homer on Bart(Brady) if I didn't get create a distraction.
Enter a dear group of friends to rescue me (and Brady)! Brooke, Kate, Beka, and Maggie all came over and we let our children run amok downstairs while we gulped coffee and ate. It was nice to reconnect and the children all got their wiggles out. I think that stretch of fine weather got them used to having non-stop action (able to play outside all day, all the neighbor kids are out, no limits). Then when the rains return, they just don't know what to do.

After everyone left, the kids and I jumped in the hot tub and had a good time playing and talking. And we figured out how Daisy the cat gets onto our back deck, I saw the claw marks on the post, and the kids watched her jump from the railing on our downstairs deck up onto the upper deck. Very impressive, except she can't go anywhere unless I let her in. She has spent more than one night out there on the back deck.

The only drawback to hot-tubbing is that Norman LOVES to drink the water. It doesn't matter how fresh the water is in his bowl, nothing beats 101 degree bromine water apparently. When we scold him to quit drinking it, he resorts to licking the side of the tub or one of the children when the get close enough. I don't get it.

And then at bedtime... Natalie had an empty snail shell in her fish tank. I reached in to retrieve the carcass (skeleton?) and... the fish that ate the snail had gotten himself stuck inside the shell and died. Geee-ross. Of course the children were fascinated. The fish tanks have been a great tool to teach the children the circle of life. It's getting to the point where they're pretty nonchalant about a fish dying. I hope they aren't like that when one of the dogs or cats goes.

Thunderstruck!

So last night during the thunder and lightening show (while I was dreaming of something I can't remember now, I was the main character in a movie). I could faintly hear the thunder rumbling deep in my subconscious. Then, even though I my eyes were shut, I could feel the strobing of the lightning (we usually only get sheet lightning here, no exciting bolts). Then I realized that I wasn't facing the window, I was actually feeling my eyes moving during REM sleep! It was so weird feeling, and then I started to get dizzy because I was becoming conscious of my eye movement, so I kind of woke up and forgot about my dream (too bad, it was a fun one). Then this morning I started to wonder if this is how my vertigo starts. Ponderous man, really ponderous.

Wonder mom moment

After work today, I promised (bribed) the kids ice cream if they behaved during my meeting (they did). So I sugared them up, and then they thought they could get me for a trip to McDonalds (Uncle Spencer bought them lunch at Applebees not 20 minutes earlier, and they ate it). Ummmm, No.
Then we get home, and Brady asks me "Can I have a scoop of ice cream on a cone?" He still had a chocolate goatee from the ice cream he just inhaled! Ummmm, No.
We played outside and washed my van, then met Julie at Costco to do our 4th of July shopping together. The kids were starving, so they were little a-holes throughout the store (I usually get pizza first and make them eat on a flatbed while I shop. Classy, that's me) We made it through (only $115, let me insert the #1 Costco joke told to me by dozens of members throughout the year: "They should call this the hundred dollar store!" Thank you, I'll be playing all weekend at the Commodore. Don't forget to tip your waitress.)
I ordered a whole pizza (Costco size pizza), and the 4 of us (Julie, me, and the kids, Larry was building lockers in the breakroom. Glad to see that the salaried managers are doing the really important stuff around there...) Julie and I each had 2 smaller slices. I left with 1 slice of pizza left. There were 16 slices! My children ate 11 slices of pizza between them. They do it everytime too, it's not like this was a fluke!
What the hell am I going to do when they hit puberty? Thank god our membership is free.


Oh... right now we are in the throws of a terrific thunderstorm. And of course it started just as the kids were getting ready to bed, and now they have a renewed energy (at 10:10pm). But the kicker is that Larry took the scooter to work today. Should make for an interesting ride home!

My backyard

Here is a quick tour of my back yard:

Our elephant garlic is about 6 feet tall, I thought it was a renegade corn stalk at first. (please ignore the neighbors' back yards).



The infamous climbing wall on our back patio, under our deck (how do you differentiate between a upstairs deck and a downstairs deck? What's the dif between porch, patio, deck, veranda, etc?) Sorry, the lighting was bad when I took this.


Katie, our lard-ass retriever, and my beloved hops plant. She killed one last year by lying on it too much, so I bought another ($6 at the Farmers Market) and this is it's 2nd season. Larry wants me to get another one and start it on the other end of the railings. More pictures when it "blooms", it's really cool.

Manual labor

I don't think I've sat still the last few days... yesterday I worked and then Larry spent the afternoon/evening golfing. I don't mind the sport in general, it's that it takes 4-6 hours to play it. I'm done after 9 holes, I really can't see spending that long on a hobby/sport. I started hammering the nails back down on our decks (relieving a little frustration) and when I got home Larry decided we needed to refinish the decks. I agree, but didn't think about starting it at 8pm.

So this morning I woke up and pressure washed the front deck while Larry sanded parts of the back deck. Then I spent this afternoon sanding the whole front deck (and missed the phone call letting me know that Jamie was in labor, and could I watch her kids? Some friend I am.) and now I'm trying to decide if I'm going to stain it tonight after the kids go to bed (because then I don't have to scream at them to stay off of it all day tomorrow.

Oh, and BTW, if you've tried to call me lately, you'll notice that I don't have a land line anymore.
Larry has taken over billing, and wants to see if we can live life with only our cell phones. We'll see. So you have to call me on my cell, and if you don't have it, email me and I will give it to you.

Photos of the deck (and barstools!) to come. And I sold 2 of my old barstools today on Craigslist, yea!