How do you rate as a wife of the 1930s?

58 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

Really... Average?!? I guess June Cleaver and I wouldn't be getting together for playdates or afternoon tea. Good thing I'm a kick-ass wife in the 2000s!! :-) haha

Beautiful

I've done my fair share of complaining about the weather in the Seattle area this year, probably the most complaining that I've done since we moved here 5 years ago.  But to give this area's weather its due, when it's good, it is very, very good.

This weekend we are experiencing a heat wave - temps in the 90s!  And to feel that glorious heat on your skin truly makes up for the months of rain and cloudy skies.  People who live here will always tell you, if you can make it through those soggy winter months, the summer will be your reward.   Warm daytime temps, cool nights, amazing mountain scenery, not a mosquito in sight, no humidity... it really doesn't get much better than this.

Yesterday we spent just about every minute we could outside - eating, playing, relaxing.  The kids had a blast on the slip and slide.

 

Today, maybe the pool.  All we know is that we will soak in every minute of this amazing weather - because come December, I'll probably be begging for a Happy Light from Santa again!! 

Happy Summer!!

Hurray!

Today is a glorious day at our house.  I could hardly sleep last night in anticipation of this day.  I've finally convinced everyone (aka Leif) that this growing baby in my belly (although cherished and loved already) is stopping me from doing the things necessary for me to live tranquilly and in a nice state of peace with my surroundings.  Its not the baby's fault.  I take full responsibility of my neurosis. 

The great news: there is a solution.  A solution that is arriving at our door in just a few hours!  Yeah, I can hardly wait!!  She's a Molly Maid, and she's coming to bend and stretch and dust and breath in all the cleaning chemicals she wants - all the things that I haven't done very well for the past several months.  And with her, comes peace, glorious peace to this household.  No more nagging Leif to scrub the shower floor, no more bribing Campbelle to dust the mop boards with her socks, no more letting Christian run and slide down the hallway in hopes of gathering all the dust.  The lady in pink will take care of all that.

At this point we only have her scheduled for a few cleanings over the next few months and until after the baby's born.  But I can foresee a love relationship already forming - one that I may never want to end.  (But I'll have to keep you posted on that!)

Photoshop Fun

Tammy is way better at 'photoshopping' pictures than I am.  She has a book 'Photoshop for Dummies.'  I don't even get that that level of dumbness when it comes to Photoshop... but I still like to mess around with all the automatic stuff. 

I did these after Campbelle's ballet recital but never got around to posting them.  Tammy's recent post made me think of them.

Here is straight from camera:

Here is some highlight thing applied:

Here is what I call the Andy Warhol effect:

But here's my favorite... I thought about lying to you all and saying I freehanded this pencil sketch... but I thought you'd catch on:

Happy Birthday Uncle Tor!!

We hope you had a great birthday Tor! Love and miss you! Looking forward to seeing you in November!!

"Look who me sees!!" (as Christian would say)

I told you we were headed to find some sun. Turns out we really didn't have to travel very far... about 20 minutes from our house and over the mountain pass resulted in sun, glorious sun. But we decided to just keep on going. And going, and going and going...

2 days or 19 hours of driving through some really beautiful and unique landscape ... and finally, just look who we saw!!

Plus a whole bunch of other family in my hometown of Eureka, SD. My Grandma and Grandpa had moved into an assisted living home this past winter and decided to have an auction sale to really downsize all their stuff. It was a fun day of visiting with all my family and being at the sale. For those of you who've never been to a small town auction, it really is quite a bit of fun.

Trailer beds are piled full of boxes of stuff and the yard is laden with all the furniture and other big items. People rummage around looking for items that interest them. Then you wait until the auctioneer gets to your item. It is amazing what people buy, and sometimes amazing what they pay for it! It makes for a fun day of visiting with lots of people. Click over to Tammy's blog for more auction specifics.

The kids took a break from the sale and made it to the school park for some playing around.

Later that night, we even hit the town bowling alley. It was a first time for my kids to bowl, and based on the final score, it seems to have been Tammy's first time too! :-)

Then on Sunday, as if we hadn't quite had our fill of the mini-van... we drove another 5 hours to the Gallagher's in Minnesota. But first we made a stop at the my aunt and uncles ranch along with way.

The kids got to explore some of Richards machinery and Maddie and Will even got to feed a baby calf. Well, at least until the momma cow chased them down.

Now I don't know anything about cows, but that baby calf has to be bottle fed because there is something wrong with that momma cows utter. Do you see the size of that thing?? Something is definitely wrong!

And I just love this picture. It's like a great showdown... but I don't think I'd wager too much money on those city kids.

It was a fun stop at the Ranch. I think the kids would have loved to stay much, much longer.

Then it was further on to Minnesota.

There we got to meet up with our friends the Strangs. The kids play so well together - it's crazy how alike they are, especially these two big dudes.

It was so much fun to see the, even if for a short afternoon stop.

With the Gallagher's, we got to spend a few days relaxing and just enjoying our time together. The girls played alot of Barbie Dolls and the boys did "boy things" as Christian recalls.

Ahh, life is good, very, very good when you get to spend time with the people you love.

We had such a great trip - it was well worth the 52 total hours spent in the car. And really the kids were amazing travelers - they didn't seem to mind or complain at all. In fact, the only time anyone said anything was when we were about 2 hours from arriving in Eureka and Christian let out this huge sigh and said "this is just too far, maybe we should turn around!!" Ha!

Last day of Preschool

The kids had their last day of preschool a few weeks ago.  For Campbelle it is truly her last... and Christian will be attending a new preschool, closer to home, next fall.  Each class gave a little recital of some of the songs they had learned throughout the year.  Christian's class sang the Planet Song and The Lord's Army.  Campbelle's class did the Bear Hunt song and J-E-S-U-S (Which is like the B-I-N-G-O song and believe me, she's be practicing for weeks!!)

Here are the kids with the preschool coordinator and Christian's teacher this past year - Ms Stacy.  Both kids have had her as a teacher and she's really such a wonderful person - the kids adore her.  We will miss Glory Days Preschool (through our church) next year - but had a great three years there!

Funny?? not so much

Seriously, the weather has been this bad here. 

We are headed to find some sun - we'll go as far as we have to.  I'll keep you posted.

Ballet-o-rama

We are in the midst of a ballet weekend at this house.  The culmination of year long ballet classes is today and tomorrow.  She has really enjoyed ballet (much more than I have - that's for sure) and was so excited to show off her skills.  And talk about being excited to wear make-up - oh lordy do I fear those teenage years (or heaven forbid any earlier).  She was in heaven!  According to the 'rules of makeup application' that was so kindly provided by the dance academy - she had to wear all types of different stuff that I didn't even own or let alone know about (a highlighter for under your brows?!? what?).  And don't get me started on the whole hair, bun thing - making one of those has been my 'Achilles heel' all year long!  But we primped, spritz and sprayed, sprayed sprayed.....

...and this afternoon I got the "looking good" comment and "no need for reapplication" from her teacher Miss Katie (whom I know severely doubted my beauty talents).  Ha, I showed her!!

But this weekend could not be more exciting for Campbelle.  She loves to dance and really likes to perform.  She did such a great job and really looked relaxed and calm and really pretty graceful for a 5 year old!

But would it make me a bad mom though if I breathed a great big sigh of relief when she told me she'd like to give soccer a try next? 

Relay for Life

The Issaquah Relay for Life was this past weekend.  The weather was just fine (read, not raining, but not sunny... so us Pacific NWers call that just fine.)  There were about 70 teams and over $200,000 was raised for cancer research, education and advocacy.

My team the Red and Pink Hat Society was made up of 10 really amazing women.  We walked our shifts, shared stories and laughed and cried during the 20 hour event.

Here are a few highlights:

Leif and the kids spent most of the day with us at the track.  It was fun for them and Christian loved to walk around the track.  (yes, that is me and my big pregnant belly... and yes, can you believe I still have 8 weeks left!?!)

A fruit eating contest is always a big hit with the younger crowd.  (That's my friend and teammate Susan, running the show).  The object is to eat an orange, apple and banana the fastest... and you would not believe how fast some of those kids can consume those three things - seeds, peels and all.  It really is quite disgusting! 

And here's Campbelle, she was a dancing fool.  Literally was dancing for hours.  The band was giving away an iPod to the best dancer and she was trying desperately to win.   She had no clue what an iPod was, but really wanted one.  She wasn't the grand prize winner, but she did win a baseball cap for coming close!

 

At one point I even saw her dancing - like holding hands dancing - with some high school boy (trust me, harmless) and then a group of high school girls were teaching her a line dance and later conga line.  Yikes!!  It really was cute to see her dance with such inhibition.... she just let the music move her and didn't care who was around her. 

Christian decided that the 3 (0 yard line) was the place for him to hang out.  Do you think he needs a haircut??

Leif and Christian headed home after dinner, but Campbelle stayed with me until after the luminaria ceremony.  She had decorated bags for Grandma Karen this year and was anxious to walk the track at dark, looking for her glowing bags.  It was really very sweet and I regret not taking a picture, but one of Campbelle's bags was a picture of her as a ballerina - when she was finished decorating it, she handed it to me and said "This is for Grandma Karen, it's a picture of me, but I'm pretty sure she already knows I'm a ballerina."   "Yes," I responded, "I'm quite sure she knows all about it!"

The Relay was a huge success and a very fun filled and emotional experience.  I'm glad to take part every year and as the kids get older and start to ask more and more questions about Grandma Karen and cancer, I'm glad that we are able to participate as a family and instill a sense of action in each of them as well.