One of those days...

Thursday was awesome (minus a bloody nose and fat lip). It was just one of those days where everything is nice and easy and you crawl into bed at the end of the day happy for no particular reason.

I woke up early and enjoyed nearly an hour of reading The Lovely Bones (my book of the month book and I am loving it) and watched the sun rise over the cascades (we have a decent view of them from our home).

The view of the cascades from the Sky-track at the YMCA.

After dropping Pickles off at the vet (so maybe Thursday wasn't as spectacular for him as it was for me) the girls and I headed to the YMCA where they played and played in the giant, sunny room while I headed to the sky-track: a small track that is partially covered on the roof of the Y where I put some miles in (while alternatively running 3 flights of stairs in between miles) since I'm officially training for THE BIG CLIMB! Please click on the link to make a donation to my team or better yet, JOIN my team! It's so rewarding and fun, and there is beer after. It's funny how the promise of beer is the incentive for so many of my races...

Natalie being eaten by the big shark in the play area at the Y.
The girls with their own cards. More crap for me to carry in my wallet, great.

After my great workout, the girls and I had a picnic lunch with Michael down at the marina, which was as wonderful as it was cold. After a productive trip to the library after school we headed home and made a yummy dinner (homemade taco-truck tacos) and enjoyed a quiet evening together before crawling in bed for some... more reading :)

I fell asleep feeling very blessed. And woke up today to a generous donation from Kate's Greek and American Deli for my Big Climb efforts. A big thank you to Kate (and Mike for doing my fundraising for me) :)

SIDE POST:

OH! Brady left early Wednesday morning for California! He and his dad flew down and are driving back up as I type. I talked to him yesterday and it sounds like this surprise trip is just what he needed.

And Boo has the sniffles, and ended up giving herself a bloody nose moments before her mom picked her up (nothing like a small crisis at pickup time).

And Natalie couldn't stop horsing around with a toy shopping cart and eventually popped herself good in the mouth and bloodied her lip pretty good (and of course this was 15 minutes before bed time!)

A quick catch-up

January escaped me... It was uneventful but busy, which makes for lackluster blogging.
Here's some quick snapshots of the month:

Yes, there is a little girl napping under all those stuffed animals.

Should his drag name be "Tess Pickles"?


So proud of my girl Tracy.

Freckles is my moms cat and is staying with us for awhile. She usually only shows up after the kids bedtime.
"SQUINCH"

My girls in their coordinating outfits enjoying our Starbucks date.

Dinnertime on the Down Low

Around here, the first kid done with dinner is the one who gets to choose dessert. Tonight Boo had a pretty sizable lead since my two spent most of the time trying to make deals ('can I just eat 4 bites?' 'can I eat raw carrots instead of these ones?').
Mike and I were having our dinner and talking when the next thing we hear is Brady proudly asking "May I be excused?" Poor Boo had 2 carrots left on her plate which she practically choked on trying to eat them to be first done as Brady had only one small piece of carrot left on his plate. Surprised at the speed he ate his dinner, I told B he could be done as soon as that carrot was gone to which he dramatically picked up and pretended to pop into his mouth and made a move that was highly suspicious.
I walked over and sure enough, his ENTIRE dinner was crammed into his pocket! Well out it came and back onto his plate it went (oh yes I did) and I added a couple extra carrots for good measure. 2 HOURS LATER the last carrot actually went into his mouth.

Natalie using the tried and true 'plug and gulp' method of eating my cooking (it was a pork chop and brown sugar glazed carrots!)
She was sent to her room 3 times over her theatrics.

4 Wheel Weekend

4 Roller skate wheels, that is. We've been inundated with Roller skating this weekend! It actually started Thursday night when Michael and I got to go to the Jet City Rollergirls scrimmage. We've gone a few times, and have gotten swallowed up into the derby... you hang around long enough they put you to work. So we're NSO's (non-skating official), complete with pink polo shirts, timers and whistles. We mostly like doing the penalty box, because we can still b.s. and watch the match at the same time. But Thursday night we had different duties, which were interesting but I left feeling like I didn't get to really watch any derby.
Saturday was Michael's niece's' 9th birthday party at the Skate Deck. Natalie was in heaven... where else can you dance, sing, and roller skate under a giant disco ball? I have a feeling this is where she wants her party next month (holy crap, she's 6 in a month?!) Makenzie was having a great time until they brought out the inflatable bounce houses (why oh why did they have to have those... it pissed me off) and that became her main goal: to get to the bounce houses (for only an additional $3... after the $6.50 we already paid to SKATE at the SKATE DECK). And B of course got completely overwhelmed by sensory overload, so he took it out on me...
And Saturday night we went to a bout between the Bellingham Roller Betties and Spokane... It was a 99 point victory over Spocompton.
Sunday and Monday bring more derby action...

And a couple extra photos that I never blogged:

Erin and I had 6 kids between us last weekend. After a couple of hours at the children's museum, we stopped at the port to say hi to Michael. He loaded all of the boys into his work truck and we went on a heavy equipment tour. I think he made them all very, very happy.
And at the museum, Erin and I caught our 8 year old boys holding hands... awww. I think they were leading each other around with their eyes closed, but still. They've been buddies before birth, and I love seeing their friendship still going strong 8 years later.

2010: A photo roundup

It's long, but the girls made me play it twice for them. I wish I could put captions under the photos but I'd have to upgrade from "free" to "premium" and I ain't payin.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hello 2011!

I wanted to start this year off with something we've never done before and I wanted it to be fun and exciting too. Well... driving downtown to Seattle at 11:20 was exciting, as was running from Lake Union to the needle at 11:35!
It was fun to be part of such a big event and it was fun getting to hold my favorite fella's (cold) hand as we counted down to the new year. And that smooch that I'd been waiting for all evening for was perfect; you might even say I saw fireworks (ba-dum ching)!
Here's a little bit of sugary-sweetness: Did you notice our cool '2011' glasses (courtesy of the children's museum)? I'm wearing blue because it's my birthstone and the color of Mike's eyes. And... yup, green is his birthstone and the color of my eyes!
Afterwards we raced back to the car and fought our way out of Seattle and over to Dick's, which is always an interesting place at 1:00 in the morning; but 1:00 in the morning on New Years? Wow.

Insers 2010 post here

I have grand plans to create a photo montage of last year but I also want to get my photo calendar done and ordered so I can have that before the end of January too... so it's a coming.

I am just so excited to say goodbye to 2010... I've had enough of the emotional extremes... just want the peace and joy that I think I've worked pretty hard to get. So I have a little something I'd like to say to last year:

2010 made me be stronger than I've ever had to be in my whole life and make choices that I had tried to avoid for years. It was/is very painful to go through but the reward has been worth the effort.

2010 threw a bunch of shit and Michael and I. A bunch. Right up to the last day. But we think we got it all out of the way.

I never want to see 2010 again. What a doozy. I don't want to write down everything that happened this year... but some highlights (lowlights?):
Moving. Twice.
False arrests.
Cancer.
Broken bones.
Divorce (well I'm still working on that one).
Financial nightmares.
Inept lawyers.
New Employment.
Unemployment.

So. Yeah. Eff you 2010.