Remembering...

It's Wordless Wednesday !

Patience Is A Virtue

It seems the theme of our house-building project is Hurry Up & Wait. To catch you up to speed on recent events, here is a handy bulleted list of what's been happening:

• We submitted our house plans, etc. and applied for a building permit.
• We found that we needed to start over with our house plans.
• House #1 was too big (i.e. too expensive).
• We had completely *new* house plans drawn up by the architect.
• We found out the septic design that the septic designer made was put in the wrong spot (by the designer).
• We had to have a new septic design made by the same people.
• And pay them more money.
• Which really ticked me off.
• We had to resubmit the *new* houseplans for a building permit.
• We need to get all new bids for work on the *new* house.

The good news is that I really like the new house plans. And even more than that, I like that we can (probably) afford this one without having to sell vital organs. Or live in the garage.

So, depending on how long the County drags their feet and holds up our building permit, we could hopefully be breaking ground by summer. Which would be great. Which would also involve us moving to a rental house closer to the actual property in order to keep a watchful eye on things. Which would be a hassle but could save us a couple hundred dollars a month. Which would totally be worth it.

For now we sit and wait for our permit and start figuring out how much the *new* house will cost to build. If patience is a virtue, I should be a saint by the time this is all over.

Moments for Me

Tammy at My Life has started a new weekly challenge called Moments for Me. The premise is that we, as wives and mothers, need to take some time to nurture ourselves. To focus on our needs and desires and work on our own happiness. It's so easy to get lost in the maelstrom that is caring for small children and tending to our family's needs and forget about the dreams and desires that we carried long before we carried our children.

I willingly and whole-heartedly threw myself into motherhood when Sam was born. Being a mom was a lifelong dream and I embraced it with everything I had. Three years later Zoë joined our family and I again immersed myself in the joy of mothering. She was a much needier, clingier baby so even when the old needs and desires started to resurface, I had to push them aside for the sake of my girl.

But now I'm ready and able to start refocusing on ME a bit more. It'll be a challenge to change my way of thinking, to start being a bit selfish again, but I think the benefits will be great. If some time to myself makes me a more happy, relaxed wife and mom then I owe it to myself AND my family to steal those moments. And that's not meant sarcastically. I grew up with the example of a mom who dedicated every waking minute to her family and it only made her UNhappy and probably resentful. Alot of what she did was out of necessity, but she also chose to deprive herself of even small things that could have brought her great happiness. I just don't think living the life of a martyr benefits anybody. I want to be a good example for my kids, showing them that I value myself and care enough about them to want to be the best wife & mom I can be. And that there's alot more to me than just those roles.

It wasn't a big deal, but on Saturday I stole some moments to just sit and soak up the sun. That alone improved my mood and energy level. The kids were playing on the deck with me and listening to them chattering happily combined with the warmth of the sun on my skin was absolute heaven.

Pancakes & Fire Trucks

This morning the local fire department hosted their annual Pancake Feed down at the station. It's a pretty good deal: $12/family and it's all you can eat of pancakes, ham, eggs, coffee and orange juice. Plus you can buy raffle tickets to enter in a drawing for dinner with the firefighters. They come pick you up in the fire engine and make you dinner at the station. How cool would that be?

After filling our bellies, we headed outside to check out the fire trucks and ambulances. What cooler thing than to be a kid and get crawl around inside real fire trucks and check out all the gear?

Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but I think Sam is going to make one extremely handsome heroic firefighter someday.


Zoe was fascinated by the seatbelts and I could hardly get her to look up to take a picture. Every seat she climbed into, she had to fiddle with the seatbelts. "I'm a safety girl." (Name that movie.)

She also tried her hand at pushing buttons. Something that, as her mother, I can confirm that she has a knack for.


Just look at that face poise! He's a natural, I tell ya.

Flashback Friday

Last year we went to visit the tulip fields for the first time. Even after all my years of living in this area, I'd never been to see them. I remember it was a rather chilly & windy day, and Zoë's boots kept falling off. Because it was Spring and it had recently rained, there were lots of puddles. Which meant the kids were naturally drawn to them, so we left the fields rather muddy and wet. But the tulips were gorgeous and to see hundreds and thousands of them swaying in the breeze was truly spectacular. I decided right then and there I would have a similar flower garden, just maybe on a smaller scale.

Since the forecast is for sun tomorrow and temps close to 60° (a virtual heatwave!) we may try to head out to revisit the tulip fields. Now that I have a fancy schmancy camera, I'd love to get some pictures, not to mention some fresh air and sun on my face.

Psssttt...

The sale at The Children's Place is still going on, only now things are 50% off! And the 15% coupon from Wantnot.net is still good. Today the box of goodies that I ordered a couple weeks ago was delivered and it's such cute stuff! Plus the pants that I ordered for Zoë were too big so that was my justification for rushing right back and ordering MORE. The selection was a big limited, but I still found some good stuff. I definitely could have ordered more than I did, but I restrained myself.

This time I ordered her two more pair of jeans (24 month size this time), a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of shoes, along with two pair of pants, two shirts and a pair of shoes for Sam. All for the bargain price of $47.46.

Just wanted to pass along the deal!

The Blahs

I've got a serious case of the blahs. I'm in some kind of unmotivated, slothful, lazy, uninterested, uninspired FUNK. I think a large part of it has to do with the weather. I'm pretty sure I get SAD every winter. Not *sad* as in boo-hoo, but SAD as in Seasonal Affective Disorder. When the weather is gray and cold for days weeks months on end, and there is no bright sunshine to bounce off my retinas, I seriously turn into a grizzly bear. I just want to eat, hole up in my house and be left alone. And if you know me outside of your computer, you know that's not typical Kate-ness.

I hate feeling like this. My brain is going at Warp III with all the things I want to/need to do, yet my body absolutely refuses to cooperate. I have projects that I could be working on while I'm stuck indoors, new recipes to try, closets to organize, things to do with the kids and yet some days showering is my big accomplishment of the day.

And it's frustrating to no end because I'm in the middle of my six days off from work, and yet I've done NOTHING. My brain can't even hardly decide what to make for dinner, much less find the motivation to leave the house to do something constructive. Boy, but when the sun comes out, I am a whirling dervish of activity and energy. There is a drastic difference between Fifty-second-Cloudy-Day Kate and First-Sunny-Day-Kate.

Long story short, I.NEED.SUN. And SOON.

My Hubby & Me

It's Wordless Wednesday!

This picture of the Hubster & I is from the archives (and one that I actually like of myself). We were on a whale watching cruise and weekend get-away for our 5th anniversary in May of 2006. Even though we saw no whales (they were too far north) it was a gorgeous day and we thoroughly enjoyed the time to ourselves.

How Daddy Stays Strong

Silly Saturday

Not much going on today, except for some laundry. Sam decided he wanted to help me get clothes out of the dryer yesterday, which apparently meant he had to go INTO the dryer to get them. Only a five year old boy would think to do this.

Flashback Friday - April 18, 2003

I've dug into the picture vault and brought out some pictures from five years ago today for Flashback Friday. Sam was almost 8 months old and crawling all over the place. As you can see from his smiles, he was such a happy baby. So good natured and easy going.

He loved being mobile and being able to go where he wanted. After only a few weeks of crawling, he started pulling himself up on the furniture and I thought for sure he'd be walking at 9 months, like I did, but he was content to crawl and cruise along for a while, walking confidently a few weeks before his 1st birthday.


Even though he loved his newfound independence, he was still a snuggler and was such a lovebug. Everybody couldn't help but adore him - he was so happy and animated with such a sweet baby spirit. He was the baby boy I'd always dreamed of, and so much more. I was completely enamored with him and often found myself reduced to tears at the sheer joy and overwhelming love he'd brought into my life. His daddy felt exactly the same way and we counted ourselves extremely blessed to have been gifted with such a little angel. He really was the perfect first baby.


Now he's a big ol' 5 and 1/2 year old, which a wildly active imagination, a curious mind, never-ending energy, a wicked sense of humor and still the same sweet heart. He's a typical boy that attracts dirt, bugs, rocks and trouble but I wouldn't have him any other way.

Mundayz

Seeing as I work all of them, I totally concur.

Sleeping Beauty

It's Wordless Wednesday!

Tackle It Tuesday

Ok, so I'm taking this Tackle It Tuesday idea for a spin to see if it actually inspires me to get some housework and projects completed. Misery loves company and it seems there are a whole host of people looking for the same support, accountability, and blogability.

So my goal for today was to turn these

into this:

We ended up with a plethora of bananas after Zoë surreptitiously snuck these in the shopping cart one day even though I had just bought a bunch of bananas, like, the day before. So I ended Up with some quickly overripening bananas.

To accomplish this task, I first grabbed what I needed from the pantry & fridger (as Zoë calls it).

Into Sir Mix-a-Lot (aka my KitchenAide) everything went...

Then into the oven for bake.

And voila!

Two words for ya.

YUM. BO.

p.s. I also made the beds, wiped down both toilets, made breakfast, read blogs, unloaded & loaded the dishwasher, packed Sam's lunch and took him to school, made a broccoli salad, packed my dinner for work tonight, washed dishes, and blogged. Now I head to work for 8 hours. Did I make a good tackle?

A Night Day at the Museum

On Thursday, I packed the kids up, told them we were going on another adventure and headed out. I kept our destination a surprise, which was pure torture for Sam. He kept trying to guess where we were going. The park? The mall? Chuck E Cheese's? A birthday party? The zoo? He was so sure that each and every guess was "it" too. Fortunately it wasn't a long drive and we arrived at our destination. The Children's Museum.

The museum had just had their Grand Opening after moving to a new location and being revamped and it was really cool.

This water gun area was fun, except for the kid next to us that kept aiming his water stream directly into Sam's, causing it to spray water all over us. No amount of glaring at him or redirecting Sam's water got the point across to him. Finally we just walked away. Brat.

Zoë loved this little playhouse. It had dollies in it and a crib, into which she very lovingly tucked the babies for a nap. (Note to self: Zoë must have a playhouse when we get out to our property.)


This was a really cool crane that all the boys loved. It had controls that made the arm swing back and forth (slowly), and a winch that raised and lowered to the ground. It had a hook on it where the kids could hook on burlap sacks and crates to move around.


There also was a coloring/craft area, so we spent a little time doing some coloring. I love watching Sam concentrate when he's writing and coloring. That little tongue sticking out cracks me up.

This was probably Zoë's favorite area. It was a produce stand, with bins full of plastic food, along with a cash register. She played here for quite awhile, filling up her basket with food, then dumping it back in the bins and starting over. Sam joined in and eventually a game of "restaurant" evolved with another little girl who was playing there too. I was ready to go home long before they were, but I couldn't bear to make them leave. They were playing so nicely and having so much fun that I just let 'em.

I remember as a little girl, probably about the same age as Zoë, going to a place similar that had a play kitchen area with empty spice tins, jars, cereal boxes, etc. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I've asked my mom about it and it was a preschool of sorts that I very briefly attended when she had to take a part-time job when my Dad got laid off of his job. Or something like that.

Anyway, my point is that I have great memories of playing in places like this and being able to use my imagination. And I want the same for my kids.

It was a really fun day. I love watching my kids play and pretend and learn. And altogether too quickly Sam's Spring Break flew by and now he's back to school. I actually really enjoyed having him home for the week and going on our adventures. So now I'll count the days until summer, when he's out of school, the weather's nice and we can play, play, play!

Let's Play Tag, Shall We?

Like my new internet buddy, Tammy at My Life, I'm very excited to have been tagged for my first meme. Man, with my new cool look and now a meme? I must be big time. LOL

What the heck is a meme, you ask? I don't really know the exact definition, but it's basically a little Q&A session of varying themes that you get picked to do. Kinda like those "Getting to know you" email forwards that constantly clog my inbox. (I secretly really like them.) So in true blogging tradition and in accordance with the rules, Tammy has shared the love and tagged me.

The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. So here it goes....

Fact #1 - I went to private Christian schools from 2nd grade all the way thru high school. I was definitely on the straight & narrow until my sophmore year in high school when we moved from a little po-dunk town in Eastern Washington to Southern California. Things changed then. Just a little. That's all I'm sayin'.

Fact #2 - I think I was a pioneer woman in a past life. I'm not 100% sure I even believe in past lives, but if I did, I'm pretty sure I was a pioneer woman. Not THE Pioneer Woman (I wish), but one who traveled west in a covered wagon and homesteaded somewhere.

Fact #3 - In high school, I was in the choir and we traveled and performed all over the Orient the summer I graduated. It was SO much fun.

Fact #4 - I love to cook & bake. I seriously considered going to culinary school BK (before kids), but then I discovered that cooking because I had to took the fun out of it. Besides, I didn't want to be stuck in some hot, noisy restaurant kitchen, churning out plate after plate of food and never get to see people's faces as they enjoyed my creations. I still maintain that if I ever won the lottery I would go to culinary school, but only to learn how to cook awesome stuff so I could throw the best dinner parties around.

Fact #5 - I would love to write a novel. I started writing stories when I was about 9 years old and ever since have always had it in the back of my head. I always am on the lookout for an idea or a setting or a character that I would use to get started. Maybe someday. I think maybe this November I should participate in NaNoWriMo.

Fact #6 - My friend Brooke and I have a fabulous idea for a business, one we have been thinking about for a while now. And I think we're going to start trying to make it a reality. Both our husbands are supportive, our town has nothing like it, and we both think it would be wildly successful (because we ourselves have wished for a place just like it). Friday night is our brainstorming session.

Fact #7 - I've already read 18 books this year. And we're only 15 weeks into the year. Yowza. I think that officially makes me a bookworm.

So that's it for me and my 7 random facts! Did ya learn something new? Are you even more scared/leery/skeptical of me now??

Now it's YOUR turn. I tag the following people:

Chelle at Life With Alexander
Suzie at Up the Hill Backwards
Scarlett at Scarlett's Own Little World
Heather at Crouching Mommy, Hidden Laundry
Jen at A Good Life
Deanna at Domestic Chicky
Stephanie at Books & Flowers

Ok, so that's it. My first meme complete. Your turn!

So Whaddya Think??

Don't you just love my new digs?? I'm so super excited to have a new look for my little corner of the blogger world. I feel much more comfortable and at home here and hope you will too!

So who, you ask, is responsible for this magic? Certainly not me, for even trying to read the tutorial on how to create a blog banner made my eyes bleed. (Note to self: Buy HTML/Web Design for Dummies book.)

The other day I dropped by Domestic Chicky's and noticed that she had an adorable new banner. So I left her a comment telling her how much I liked it and how I was jealous of her new look. She promptly emailed me and said "I can make you one." So I promptly emailed her back and said "OK!! YES!!" After a bit of discussion and WAY too much over-analyzing on my part, I kind of just gave her some basic ideas and left it in her hands. (She might have a different version for you.) And my, what capable hands they are! I'm thrilled with what she came up with. It's a much more accurate representation of ME. And yes, if I were a color, I'd be red. I'm definitely not a "standard template that's available to everyone" kind of gal. So this totally makes me happy.

A huge thank you to Domestic Chicky for sharing her mad skillz with me. And for being so patient with me and my incessant indecisiveness. (My new self-admonition: "It's not like I'm tattooing it on my body.") If you're in the market for a new look for your blog, go see her. You can see more of her designs here.

Oh, and let me know what you think!

Flashback Friday

So I just had a brilliant idea! Fridays here will be Flashback Friday where I will try to post a picture from the same date in previous years (or very near the date).

This week's selection is from April 11, 2006.

Zoë was 7 months old and finally starting to get some blonde fuzz on her head.

What a sweet baby she was...

Deal of the Century

As I do every morning, I grab a cup of coffee and turn on my computer to check my email and Google Reader. This morning Swistle posted about doing some clothes shopping for her daughter at The Children's Place, who is having a 30% off sale, and that wantnot.net has a coupon code for an additional 15% off!

So I trotted over, got the code, and headed to The Children's Place to see what they had on their sale rack. I've been trying to find Zoë some new clothes, jeans specifically, because it seems overnight that everything is too small for her. She's grown about 2" in the last six months and her clothes are starting to show it. I tried looking at Old Navy the other day and, I kid you not, they had 3 pair of jeans. Not 3 styles of jeans, but 3 pair of jeans period, and not in her size. Everything that is on the racks is for spring/summer, and it is definitely not warm enough here yet to be dressing her in miniskirts and tank tops. That, unfortunately, is months away.

Anyway, I totally hit the motherlode. I got her 2 pair of jeans, 1 pair of khaki capris, 5 shirts, a dress and 3 t-shirts for Sam for the bargain price of $62! And that included tax and shipping (which is only $5). Now, I may be putting the cart before the horse in my excitement. According to their size charts, her height & weight put her in a 3T, so that's what I ordered. But I worry that the pants will be too big (although they have adjustable waists and she will grow) and that the shirts will shrink and be too small. So I'm cautiously optimistic and will anxiously await the arrival of my package.

But I wanted to share the links in case you're in need of some new kid clothes. Let me know what YOU get.

Coming soon: Yet another post about our Spring Break adventures!

I won!

This bag is now coming to live with me! I "won" it off of Ebay, at the wise suggestion of my friend Chelle. Can you believe it?! The exact bag I was dreaming of, was just waiting there for me to adopt it. And I got it for about $25 LESS than I would've paid had I bought it retail. Total scorage.

Not sure why I didn't think of looking on Ebay myself. I mean, I'm totally on friendly terms with Ebay and spend quite a bit of time visiting there, but sometimes my brain just isn't capable of UN-fixating on something and looking at alternative sources. Sometimes ya just can't see the forest for the trees.

Dinosaurs and Butterflies and Vomit, Oh My!

It's Spring Break! Having a school-aged child for the first time, this week-long reprieve from having to drive back and forth to school, pack lunches, track down hidden library books and adhere to some semblance of a schedule is a nice break for me! My only goal for the week was to do some fun and "special" activities with the kids so that I we didn't end sitting around the house in my our jammies all day reading blogs watching cartoons.

Yesterday we headed down to the science center. My co-worker and friend, April the Amazing Shrinking Nurse, joined me for the field trip, along with her little boy, G-man. There were some really neat things to see and do, although I have to admit, some of it was geared towards kids a bit older than our's. We would have loved to have visited the Planetarium, but alas, children under 4 were not permitted, which ruled out 2 of our 3. And we didn't have a stroller so we couldn't just strap the two little ones in, throw them a handful of crackers, and go enjoy ourselves. JUST KIDDING!! Who would do that?

Instead we totally took advantage of the tot area, letting the kids run and play, climb and explore. Of course, Zoë aka "Little Miss Soggyshorts" was only interested in the water trough, where she managed to thoroughly soak her shirt and sleeves in about 2.7 seconds. The girl is part otter, I swear. She spent the next hour holding her shirt away from her stomach and up under her armpits in order to keep the cold wetness away from her tummy.


After that, we headed into the dinosaur exhibit, which was pretty cool. The lighting wasn't great anywhere in the place, and since I'm still learning how to turn my camera on and off, configuring the Nikon to suck up what little light there was and capture clear and detailed photographs while trying to keep track of two children who were running in different directions was just slightly out of the realm of my parenting capabilities. Ever heard the term "herding cats"? Yah, try doing it in the near dark.

Instead, I turned my lens on the large inanimate exhibits and they cooperated quite nicely.

Next we headed over to the Butterfly House, giving my two hoodlums-on-foot very strict instructions about NOT touching the butterflies. The House was really very beautifully done - lots of lush greenery, a touch of humidity...I almost forgot for a minute the drizzly grayness outside that is spring in the Pacific NW. I've never seen so many different butterflies in my life! And so brilliantly colored and intricately detailed. I could have stayed there for hours, watching them flit around.

Sadly though, partway through the Butterfly House G-man started throwing up. And if that isn't bad enough, April was carrying him and ended up covered in vomit. So we hastily exited the tranquility of the Butterfly House and made a beeline for the bathroom, where she attempted to get herself and G. cleaned up as well as possible. We then bid the science center farewell and headed home. All three of the kids fell asleep before too long so the drive home was quiet and uneventful. Even with the abrupt and unfortunate ending to the outing, it was a lovely day.