Snow Day!

OMG, we got so much snow this year. I love when it snows, it's so pretty outside before all the cars get to it and make it dirty. I wanted to go sledding this time, but by the time I thought about it and set out to get sleds, all the stores were sold out. I will be sure to look for them in the stores and get a couple for the next snow fall.

Christmas Day 2008

This year was a little different. Gary decided to go spend some time with his family in Spanaway. I let the girls sleep in and I finished all the wrapping and stocking stuffing. It took me all morning. Once I finished I laid down for a nap. The girls were up but I told them we would wait for daddy to get home to open presents. They were ok with that. Gary got home late in the afternoon. By the time he got home, mom had showed up. When Gary got home we started opening the presents and by that time Grandpa was home from work. (Yes he had to work on Christmas....what a bummer.) We got all of our presents, Alans presents, and Grandmas and Grandpa's presents opened and then it was time to get Auntie Roe. She couldn't drive because we had so much snow on the ground. When she got there we started all over again with the opening of presents from Auntie Roe and too Auntie Roe.

By about 5pm Nyah had had enough, poor little thing was running on no nap and was shutting down. She didn't want to open any more presents. Taylor and Leanna came for dinner and we had the usual. The ham was given to Alan by his work and it was such a yummy sprial ham. I made mashed potatoes and gravy. We had corn, rolls, and other yummy stuff. The girls made quite the hall this year.

I am not in any hurry for next Christmas.

Work Christmas Party

Our Seattle office put together a cruise on Lake Washington this year. It was alot of fun. Gary and I headed up to the party around 4:30 pm because of such a long drive. The cruised didn't board until 6:30 pm so we had to head back up the street to the local shops and spend some time in one of the pubs there. The one we sat at was such a dive for such a cute little part of Kirkland we were in. Everything was all lit up on the streets with Christmas lights and it was very cold outside.

We headed back to the dock to board the boat and I was surprised to see that they were taking pictures of all the passengers who were on the ship that night. I thought our company was paying for this service but it turned out at the end of the night we had to fork over 10 bucks for our pictures.

Our boat the "MV Kirkland" was old but had plenty of room for our entire group. We were supposed to be part of the Lake Washington Christmas light parade for boats but the route they were taking that night would have decapitated the top half of our ship. So the captain opted out. We didn't get to see much of the lake as we were to busy eating and socializing.

Part of the group got quite rowdy and at one point one of the female employees announced she wanted to have sex with all the managers....doh! I don't know how many other people heard it but Gary and I sure did as we were standing alone on the bow of the boat. There was alot of Karaoke without the machine. The food was ok, and of course I had to find out if there was anchovy paste in the Caesar dressing. There was so the yummy looking salad was out for me. I had to load up with carbs.

All in all it was a good night.....I didn't feel very good the next day, I think I may have had too much wine even though I didn't feel like I had a typical hangover or that I was woozy at the party. I pretty much just laid around the next day after I took the baby to the doctor.

I look forward to our office co-ordinating next years Christmas event.

Oh Christmas Tree

We have taken up the tradition to get a live tree for Christmas. After having a fake tree for so many years I don't know why we didn't do it sooner. I love to wait for the first snow to go pick our tree. We go to the tree farm down off of 72nd towards Canyon Rd. I think it is called 4H or something like that. We were late this year and by the time we got there, they wouldn't let us cut any more so we had to choose from the pre cut trees. I told Veta to pick the tree. Nyah made sure she helped carry it. Real trees smell so good in the house. I hate to take it down.

Happy 2nd Birthday Nyah!

I can't believe my baby is 2 already....the time goes by just way to quick. I enjoyed my pregnancy and would have her all over again if I could. Nyah has been so much fun. She is so smart and so caring. She loves to give hugs and kisses. She loves puppies, stealing daddy's spots, reading books, drawing and playing with Play-Doh.

I can't get over her vocabulary and how she knows what to say.

We had her birthday at Chuck E Cheeses. Renee, Cody, Ryan, Nae'ana, Jonae, Uncle Robbin, Aunti Roe, Uncle Alan, Gradma, Granpa, Taylor, Leanna, Bailey, Hunter, and Hayli all came to help us celebrate. We easily dropped over 150 dollars on pizza, sandwhiches, salad, chicken wings, and tokens. It was so much nicer than having it at home and having to clean up afterwords.

Zoo Lights

Steve, as a Cougar Alumni, gets special tickets to Zoo Lights. Mom buys a bunch of tickets at 4 dollars each and we gather a group of people and head to the Point Definance Zoo. This is our second year for this. We made sure to dress warmer and more water proof than we did last year.

The Coug Alumi have hot cocoa and cookies for us to enjoy while we are visiting Zoo Lights.

Our group this year was bigger than last year. We had Kayla, Veta, Nyah, Hayli, Felicia, Hunter, Bailey, Taylor, Leanna, Alan, Mom, Steve, Aurora, Gary and myself.

They had this area set up with a cute reindeer that they would take a polaroid of you for 5 dollars. They also let you use your own camera- thank goodness because the poloroids were so bad. I didn't even know you could still get film for Poloroids. It doesn't seem like there has been any improvements to them in the last 15 years. (That was the last time I used a Poloroid)

LEED the way.

Not to long ago I had my performance review for my job....I have been at this company for nearly 3 years and a couple of months ago, back in April I beleive, we got a new boss....things were going ok, it was a rough transition because we lost quite a few people to a competitor. Then the new boss and I butt heads. I didn't like the fact that he tried to take on the whole office himself and several of my administrative task that I would normally do dissappeared. They just stopped coming. Invoices were transferred to another person so that finances could be tracked better, so for months I sat here with literally nothing to do. Then came time for my review. My new boss of 6 months was now going to give me my performance reveiw for the past year.

I didn't fair so well. I was very upset by his words and was ready to find another job. I expressed my feelings about how my duties seemed to diminish when he came on board....long story short, it was all aired out and now things are better than ever. I still love my job here and have recently been asked to take the LEED test and head up our LEED projects.

I have been studying the best I know how for weeks and plan to take it on the 22nd of December. As an Administrative Assistant, if I pass this test, it will be a feather in my cap. I will have a new title as being an LEED Accredited Prfessional. I am also hoping that this will mean job security and more pay.

Carving Pumpkins

This year I made sure our pumpkins got carved. Last year we didn't carve any of them...we just ran out of time.

Gary was so funny. He tried to use one of those templates with the poker and he messed up. Kayla used one and completely finished hers.

For Nyah, I bought 2 sugar pumpkins and these kits that you just poke into the pumpkins to make faces. We did a puppy and a piggy.

Nyah got right in there and was helping daddy dig out the pumpkin brains.

Kayla wanted pumpkins seed so she was very careful to save all the seeds she could. We just love homemade pumpkin seeds.

Picking Pumpkins

Each year for Halloween, we drive all the way up to Buckley and stop at the same pumpkin patch each year. Fresh Farm Produce . I usually end up with the most amazing pictures from the pumpkin patch....I don't know why, maybe it is the vibrant orange colors of the pumpkins that just make the pictures perfect.

This pumpkin patch has a huge monster truck that has seats in the back for you to sit on. I think it is 5 dollars to ride and they take you 4 wheeling through all the mud. It looks pretty nasty. The first year we went there Gary, Veta and Grandpa rode on it.

This year Gary, Charlisa, Kayla and Veta did the corn maze while Aurora, Nyah and I snuck off to WalMart.

Trying to catch up!

I am so behind on posts! I keep losing the cable to my camera and I can't find my thumb drive and so I don't have pictures to put up with them. I will work on getting caught up and I will buy a new thumb drive to transfer pictures if I need too.

Stay tuned!

Cecilio & Kapono

Daniel and Lynn came up from San Jose for a visit. I sure wish they would make the move. We went to the Cecilio and Kapono concert at the Emerald Queen. They are a Hawaiian group very well known to the Chamorro people. The opening act was very Hawaiian and even had Hawaiian dancers. Cecilio and Kapono finally went on stage after it seemed like forever. The concert was alot of fun and the music was great. Drinks were a little expensive and I will be coughing up pieces of my lungs for days because of all the smokin allowed in the casio. I don't think the smell will come out of my clothes. YUK!

They played all our favorite songs except for one. HOME. (Click on the play button to the right of the screen in the little black box.)

Cecilio Rodrigues was so funny. He would really make a good comedian. He was very down to earth.

Woodland Park Zoo

Daniel, Lynn, Jayde and Dylan came for a visit. It's always so fun to have them here. We took a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. This was our first time there. Daniel has a fixation with the Komodo Dragon so he was on a mission to see it.

I like the Woodland Park Zoo better than the Pt. Defiance Zoo here in Tacoma. There seemed to be a lot more animals to look at. My favorite was the girraffes. We were there just in time to get in on the last feeding of the day. We paid a small fee each, I think it was 5 dollars a piece and you could get right in their face and feed them branches. It was so fun.

We also saw the Flamingo's, which I think is really weird to have in the North West. I am used to seeing them in California or Florida attractions.

Columbia River

I just have to post these pictures. I love seeing this veiw and glad we got to see it during the day. On our way back Idaho we go over the Columbia River. These are some of my favorite views.

Labor Day Weekend

Ah, Labor Day weekend. I love this time of year. Mom and I coordinate to book camping sites at Silverwood Theme Park each year. We pack up the motorhomes and head out to Idaho on Friday and pull over at the Rye grass rest stop for the night and continue on the next day. Each of the girls had a friend with them this year. Kayla brought Kaitlynn and Veta brought Elizabeth

As we woke up the next morning and I got up to make the coffee. Kayla was waking up and we were talking about her piercing in her lip. She got up to look in the mirror and we were discussing whether or not it was infected. All of a sudden her head went forward. I thought she was going to rest her head on the mirror but as she got closer and picked up momentum she smashed her face right into the mirror and bloodied her nose. She snapped back and was dazed and confused and the passed out onto the floor. I yelled for Gary and thought she was having convulsions. I grabbed a towel for the blood. By now all the girls were awake. I left Gary with Kayla and headed out the door to Mom and Steve's RV. By the time I got back to ours, Gary had Kayla on the couch and I was calling 911. We had to have an ambulance come out to the rest stop and after evaluation Kayla, they drove her to the hospital.

What a scare, she turned out to be fine and additional tests showed nothing. The doctors just think she got up to fast and needs to eat better. We were so gratful she was ok, but it was a very emotional morning.

Mom, Steve, Leanna and Taylor headed off to Silverwood while we went to the hospital...by the time we showed up it was after lunch.

Usually we spend most of our time in a Cabana at the wave pool. This year mom booked two cabanas and they added another wave pool. The cabanas sit between the two pools. Unfortunately this year it was rather cold. We didn't get to use the Cabana's much as we spent most of our time on the other side with the rides because it was so cold.

We had 3 camping sites reserved this year. Taylor and Leanna pulled there trailer all the way to Idaho to spend the weekend with us. Leanna was in charge of the breakfasts that we had. It was so good. Mom and I took on the lunches and dinners.

Other than our trip to the hospital, it was another great Labor Day weekend. Next year we have 5 camping sites booked, just in case Lynn, Daniel, Robbin and Bobbie get the chance to go.

Living on the edge!

Gary and I had been thinking of getting tattoos for a long time. This would be our first tattoo ever. We decided to do it while on summer vacation. We went to several shops and looked around and made an appointment at one. On our scheduled day we went to get our tattoos and we showed up at the shop and they guy said that we had just called an cancled our appointments. I said "obviosly not because were are here" I was so aggrivated that the guy pretty much called me a lier. Well they had this girl working there, bleach blonde hair, terrible fashion sense and tattoos all over. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with this sort of person, as long has they have brains. I am guessing that someone called and said they were cancelling there appointment and she offered up our names?

So after a little arguing on my part with the guy, we finally sat down to get our tattoos.

I pretty much picked out Gary's.... I love the arm bands and think they are sexy as hell. Because of the size of his arm, the band we picked that would normally fit around the average persons arm, didn't go all the way around his and they wanted extra to fill it in. Gary wasn't having it. I wanted something girly. My initial thought was to get a fairy, but I couldn't find any I liked, so I opted for some dainty flowers.

Here is the outcome 3 hours later.

Fisherman's Wharf

For summer vacation we took our anual trip to San Jose California to spend with our family. One of my favorite places to visit is Pier 39 on the Fisherman's Wharf in San Franciso. This year we got to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe, see all the Sea Lions sunbathing, we had a beautiful view of Alcatraz, and visited the Aquarium of the Bay again. We took Jayde with us and Nyah got to touch her first Starfish.

The food at the Hard Rock Cafe was pretty good. The weather was beautiful but a little nippy this time. We all got some icecream with a wonderful chocolate covered waffle cone. I got my favorite of course, chocolate chip mint. The best icecream flavor in the whole world!

Camping, Quadding and Card Making, OH MY!

The last two weeks I have been extremely busy. The week before last we took our first trip to Straddle Line ORV Park. This park is made for off roading with dirt bikes, quads and other vehicles of that type. The girls learned how to drive the quads and Nyah even got to ride. She had so much fun that when dad brought her back she cried when he took her off of the quad. The girls got to bring a friend each and even though we had no hookups we still had a great time. The girls all rode and drove and when they weren't playing on the quads then dad was. I tested it out once and Gary, Nyah and I went for a short stroll on the trails, but when I wasn't riding or watching Nyah....I was card making for our troops.

Everyone had so much fun that we had to go back again. So for two weekends in a row we were camping and quading. This time Taylor and Leanna went with us and brought there new trailer. Looks like we have many more weekends of fun ahead.

If you look really close at the picture with Veta (my little mamma) and Kayla ( my princess of darkness) you can see that Kayla is smiling and having a good time. We don't get to see that very often with the princess since she is at the age where mom and dad have the plague. It is a very nice thing to see.

Totally For Troops

I have been busy making cards for our soldiers. There is an organization here in Washington that will collect hand made cards and make sure they get to our troops over seas so that they have cards to send home to loved ones. You can find their website here http://www.totally4troops.org/ .

They do have some rules such as no metal. ACK! no eyelets, no charms, no brads, oh my. So I will be blinging mine with lots of glitter. I am going to try to use my scraps as much as I can to make cards. I am also using stickers and items I probably wouldn't use on a page, but look really nice on cards. I have tons of cardstock pre-cut from my Stampin Up days that I will be using up. I have probably made about 30 cards or so. It feels really good to be able to give back to the men and women who insure that we live in a free country.

Give it a try if you have lots of scraps and paper just sitting around. Here is a picture of just a few of the cards I have made.

Let Freedom Ring!

We weren't really sure what we were going to do this 4th. I really wasn't looking forward to walking a whole lot. I did want to go and see the Tall ships which I miss every year. By the time the late morning/early afternoon rolled around we decided to head down to the Freedom Fair on Ruston Way with Taylor and Leanna.

We met up with Tracy and his son when we got down there. Tracy is one of Gary's friends from the gym and he is also an police officer for one of our local cities. We hung out at the beer garden for a while. Taylor nor I drank but the music was fun. Nyah was loving the dance floor. The beer garden was hosted by the Ram restaurant so we were lucky to spy a table later that evening that was empty outside and Gary sweetalked the host into letting us have it. We grabbed our table and ordered some dinner. It was great, we had to weight a long time for the food because they were jam packed but our food came out before the fireworks show and the the fireworks started. Other than the outdoor light from the deck over the water, we had an awesome view of the fireworks. Nyah was afraid of them and went from person to person for comfort. I didn't have batteries for my camera. I was going to buy some on the way down but totally spaced and then couldn't find any when we got there.

We went home after the show and I dug out some REALLY old sparklers that I had found in my scrapbook room while organizing. A few of them fizzled out but a couple put on a nice glow.