Good News and Bad News

A letter sent to Justin this week.

The good news is: that the leak is fixed in the main bathroom. The bad news is: everything under the sink, including the TP and the nebulizer are toast. More good news there, the bathroom floor is really, really clean now.

The good news is: the yard is ready to plant. The bad news is: I don't know what to do next. Still trying to decide. And whatever it is, it's going to cost money.

The good news is: your truck started up just fine after having only started up once in the last month. The bad news is: instead of the exhaust coming out of the tail pipe, it comes out from underneath the truck and makes lots of bluish smoke.

The good news is: your kids are cute. The bad news is: their mom is crazy.
Love you.

What Does Your Garden Grow?

I was so excited to finally be able to get my garden in. I am not all that behind the times for our area, so that is good. The sweet McCormick's came last week and we had a very enjoyable time cleaning out the raised beds in preparation for this years garden. It was fun to visit with them while we worked and we got it all done. I would have probably gotten distracted 5 times and never gotten it all the way done.
Then last night we had a super fun Family Home Evening with some friends. We talked about planting and planning a garden and had a great time planting. Meg and their little boy (the same age) had a great time throwing rocks and dirt in each others hair. He filled her hoodie up with gravel and dirt and that was an unexpected surprise later. They jumped on the trampoline while we planted and Adam supervised. Hey, no one ended up in tears, which I count as a very successful FHE.
So what does our garden grow this year? Tomatoes, of course. Broccoli, carrots, radishes, peas, beans, cucumbers, green onions, and a sad little pepper plant I am not so sure is going to make it. Missing this year, the zucchini. I will have lettuce in a window box, but haven't gotten that far yet. We also transplanted geraniums into the planters next to the swing that look lovely. We are on the right path. We can't wait for the harvest, but we know there's a lot of work in between.
What does your garden grow?

Our Cutie

I finally got around to taking Meg's 2 year pictures. I had to wait for the ear surgery to get done, the Fifth's Disease rash to clear up and the dentist to have time to work on at least one of her rather chipped front teeth. Then there was a bruise on the forehead from who knows what and the watery eyes from allergies. How much can one little girl take? In any case, we found some time when she was pretty happy and I decided I could edit out the rest. I am her mom, but I think she is the cutest little girl I have ever had. Her personality really shows through in some of these pictures. Enjoy!

Pinewood Derby Fever

Today was District Pinewood Derby competition for Adam. There were a ton of people there and competition was fierce. People were very, very into the whole thing. When I asked one spectator if I could leave after our heat if we didn't win, he looked at me like I had 3 heads and asked me why on earth I would want to leave before the trophies were handed out. (Um... because I don't get it... Maybe it's a girl thing, but there were lots of Mom's there who were way into it too, so maybe I just don't get it.)

Adam had a great game face, but his car lost out in his second heat. Maybe next year. We were with some friends from church and one of our Weblos won 3rd place in his division. He was very excited. Here are some pictures from our day.
Spending some time waiting with Sister.

WTG kiddo!

Lost and Found

In early February I took some impromptu photos of my cousin and his sweet family. It was a quick shoot, no one had much time and it was a sad day with lots of people around. I was using the trusty Minolta, so it was on film and I was hoping I got some good shots for them. Later that day I went with Mom to Costco to get the film developed, but it was gone. I searched everywhere for it and couldn't find it. I had to tell them I had lost the film, and that was awful. I have never lost any one's pictures before and I just felt so bad.

Fast forward to yesterday when I was again tearing the car apart, this time looking for my lost ID card. Must have that, can't loose it when Justin is gone to help me get a new one and the Power of Attorney has expired. That makes life difficult to say the least. In any case, in my motivation to find the ID, I dislodged the lost roll of film from a spring under the seat of my car. Who would have thought? No wonder I couldn't see it by just looking under there. In any case, I was excited to call and let them know the pictures were found and now I get to share them. Cute family, aren't they?

Our Weekend Adventures

We had a pretty good weekend. Or good start to it anyway. Full of the kind of adventures you can only have with kids in tow.

We left straight from school to go and visit Grandma Cozette and Aunt Linda and Uncle Jim. The kids got to meet the goats right away, and that was fun. Except they wanted to climb all over Adam and Meg would have rather been looking at the chickens.

Meg refused to go to sleep that night until after 11 and then was up bright and early with the sunshine. Adam played with cousin Maddelyn and had a great time. The next morning we planned on going to the Snohomish Easter parade. Until we discovered someone had locked the keys in the car with Meg. Adam talked her through it though and before AAA could get there had her opening the door for us. Good big brother.

We headed on out to the parade, where we missed this float with cousins children showing off their beautiful hand made Easter Bonnets. Good thing we got to see the pictures.

Then we watched the Pirate Easter Bunny lead his crew of Seafair Pirates down the street and light fireworks as they went. They passed out candy and silver coins. Adam complained it was too loud and he wanted to go home.

Next the boy scouts came by. They looked like they needed a little more practice marching, but to be fair, those unicyclists were really distracting.

Every community member was invited participate in the parade if they wanted too and it was really sweet to see some of the people headed down the street. They had wheel chairs, dogs, and even bunnies. There were marching bands and even bands with "older folks" that played the Bunny Hop. Fun was had by all. Except Adam.

Things overheard at our house on a typical school morning

If you were a fly on the wall at our house on a typical school morning, here are some things you might overhear:

From Meg:

(at about 6:30 am) Hi Mom. Meggy's wake up.
Meggy needs milk.
I hungry. Wake up Mommy.
Meggy's poopy. Mommy, GET UP.
Mommy, milk please.
I need a banana, Bug. (banana is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable.)

From Mom:

Come cuddle with Mommy for a while, Meg. It's not time to get up. (in my dreams)
Adam, the alarm went off, time to wake up.
Adam, time to get up. You have had 10 extra minutes.
No, I don't know where your pants are. Have you checked your drawers or put any laundry in the laundry room lately?
Do you remember what you have to do after school today?
Where's your lunchbox so that we can get that going?
What do you darlings want for breakfast this morning?
Time to get off of the heater vent and get ready to go. I will turn in down to 60 if you don't start listening and getting ready to go.
Do you know what time it is now? What's left on your list, Adam?
List reminder: Dressed, breakfast, shoes and socks, brush teeth, lunchbox and back pack.
Turn off the TV. We can't watch that and get ready at the same time. We need to focus.
Let's go, we are going to be late for the bus if we don't leave now, and No, I don't know where the other shoe is.
Ok, let's go back and get the keys so we can take you to school. We were so close that time. I think that driver is faster on Thursdays.

From Adam:

No, not getting up this morning.
Meg, go away. I don't want to get up yet.
Where are the rest of the bananas? (Not having looked where they usually are.)
Mom, do you know where my pants are?
Mom, there are no socks.
I will get my own cereal. I don't like it when you do it.
I don't know where my pedometer is. If I loose it again I have to buy a new one myself.
Do I have Cub Scouts after school today?
My feet are cold.
I will be out in a minute, get started without me.

Hmmm... looking back over all of this, I think maybe we need an organizational make over. I'll have to get on that, sometime.

A Letter from Meg

While Dad is gone, I encourage my kids to write him letters. This is a recent one from Meg, telling him what she's been up to lately. Enjoy!

Sunday, April 5

Hi Daddy. It's Meggy. Mom thought I should tell you what I have been up to lately. I have decided that since I have turned 2, I am a big girl now and should be able to do big girl things on my own. I like to sit on the potty now, but not go. Just to play with the "paper towels" hanging there next to the seat. I like to take off my own pants, ask mom to take off the rest and go climb on the potty. One day while mom was doing dishes and Bug was playing Wii, I went into the bathroom, locked the door (a girl needs her privacy) and decided to do some washing. I played in the water for a while before mom realized what was going on and tried to get me out, only to discover the locked door. Ha, ha, I am a big girl now.

I don't like to stay in my bed anymore. I want to sleep in the big bed, the Grandma bed, in my room. I like to climb up there and bounce. Mom says I can't sleep there yet, but I have woken up there a couple of times in the past few weeks. My nightlight is broken and that means mom leaves the door open when she puts me to bed so I don't get scared, but it also means I can get up whenever I want. I like Mom to put me back to bed 7 or 8 times a night. Super Nanny doesn't know what she's talking about when she says to be consistent and keep doing that, I just keep getting up anyway. If Mom's still up, I should be too.

On a related note, a while back Mom and Bug had a Harry Potter marathon and watched 3 movies in one sitting. It was too much for me, but I liked the popcorn. The next morning, I woke up early, before everyone else because they stayed up way too late. I didn't go wake up Mom, I was trying to give her a little break. I went into the kitchen, pushed a chair to the counter, got the popcorn bowl with the rest of the popcorn in it and then I spied my ear drops. I know I need them still, they make my ears tickle and I like them, so I grabbed them too. When Mom got up she saw that I had gotten my own breakfast, popcorn, and added something special to it. Eardrops. I couldn't get them in my ears myself, so I decided I could sprinkle them on my breakfast and they would do just as well. Not exactly tasty and Mom wasn't as happy as I thought she would be. Mommy is silly sometimes.

That was the same day I broke out with the rash. It was a huge, red, awful rash all over. It was owie and made me unhappy. Mommy said it's Fifth's Disease and it would go away on it's own. It still isn't gone today, and it's been a week. Hurry it up already.

I also went to visit Big Grandma, Grandpa Duane, Uncle Rob and Sheri and see the cat, the trees, and eat ice cream. That was fun, but on the way home Mommy said there was a problem on the pass and we just had to sit there in the car for over 3 hours, not moving. It was awful. I got to go and play on the freeway though. There was a back up over 15 miles long, and we were towards the middle. Something about avalanche control gone bad, but I don't know what that meant. We did make it home finally and I was SO glad to be out of that carseat.

I miss you Daddy. I keep asking where you are. Mom tells me you are on a trip on the boat, but I know I saw you get on the bus and I don't know anything about a boat, so I don't know what she's talking about. I can't wait to have you home with us again. Loves you Daddy. Be Safe.
~Meggy

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Spring!!!

It's about time, isn't it? For a glorious spring day? Time to play outside in the sunshine, to enjoy the blooming spring flowers and shrug off cabin fever? That's what we did today and it was, as Meg says so well now, Awesome.

We went to Leavenworth with Grandma for the day and walked the shops and read all of the signs.

e packed a pic-nic lunch but all we ate was pretzels, a cheese stick, a few carrots and fresh chocolate chip cookies, so we could save room for ice-cream.

Meg progressed from a huge chocolate ice-cream cone, to using a spoon, to having ice-cream in a cup. She enjoyed every chocolate bite of it.

Adam enjoyed every last drop of his cotton candy flavored ice-cream too. It showed all over his face.

What a glorious spring day. And that was good ice-cream.

Happy Birthday to My Sister

Happy Birthday Katherine. Yep, she was born on April Fools Day. Maybe that explains why she's a little squirrly. She has smart, beautiful kids and she's a cleaver mom. You have to stay on your toes with that brood. Hope you have a great day, sister.