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This is what 35 meals for 2 people look like. Marc and I are embarking on a new healthy eating plan. Let me tell you. We were so supersizing everything we ate. Even though I use the little plate, it was still so much more than we should be eating. That would explain why I haven't been able to lose any weight over the last year despite making many changes to my diet.

I've also found that I am a picker. I go into the kitchen and pick at something. Especially if that something was really tasty for dinner. Today, I cut out sugar in my coffee. I still use the creamer, but it is non fat. Baby steps. I used to use TEASPOONS of sugar (seriously, like 5 time 5 cups a day). I hope this helps. We are doing weekly weigh ins on Sunday's and I'm starting my transformation blog elsewhere. I will link to it once I get permission from my husband for all of you lovelies to peruse our gigantic effort to get healthy and happy.

(I am not endorsed or paid by NutriSystem. This was my choice of a diet plan to follow based on friends who have embarked on this road and had huge success. We bought the plan through Costco at a significant discount $259 per person instead of $299 for women and $309 for men).

So far behind, I must start over

Do you ever get to the point where you have a weeks worth of blogs written (in your head), but you spend so much time reading other blogs, facebook and your current book that you end up not posting anything?

That would be me. I feel like such a loser, but I know I'm doing this for me and it's a happy coincidence that such lovely people want to follow my misadventures. I would love to do a quick recap, but I'm thinking I will do the current thing first and fill in the blanks from my last two hectic weeks.

We went to California to see my Dad get married. Very good!
We returned to Washington to finish out the week of school while being in charge of the schoo food drive. Very rewarding!
We celebrated our 11 year anniversary. Very lovely!
We started Spring Break. Very fun, except for the torrential rain that decided to bestow itself upon us!

I will start with today (I'll try to keep this concise since I know my magazine length reading brain can only process a little at a time).

We finished our canned food drive at school last Friday. Each day I go around to all the classrooms and count all the cans. I then take the cans (or boxes) to the school stage to pack into banana boxes for the food bank. Lastly, I go out into the quad and update our progress charts to keep the kids competing against each other (class vs. class). A little competition for a great cause. It worked because 1 - 4th grade class brought in 276 items and on the last day, a 4/5 combo class started to catch up with 210 items. I frantically picked up all these items on Friday (and dropped off scrambled eggs for the teacher luncheon. Let me say, 36 eggs is not enough eggs for scrambled eggs for our teaching staff of 20).

So, back to today. I call the Food Bank at 9:30am to tell them I need to go up to the school to properly pack all the boxes and then they can come pick them up. I'm informed that the truck is on the way and they have been calling the school all morning. I inform her that it is Spring Break and no one is there. We agree to meet at 10am. Have you ever showered and ran out the door with 4 kids in 20 minutes? Ugh! I'm so glad they can all dress themselves and actually listen to me. We made it to school at 9:50am. The Food Bank truck arrived at 9:51am. I ran up on stage and was repacking those boxes as quickly as possible. They need to be 1 layer of cans with the lighter stuff on top. Luckily, they were really nice guys and were willing to help get the boxes ready. Our school custodian came over and helped load everything into the truck. I'm one lucky woman to have such great help.

My big job for the day done, I head home to drop off Miss M and her friend at her house. Then I get a call from two Mom's who need to get into school to prepare everything for our Spring Fundraiser. I head right back up to school and spend the most productive day going through all the Committee notebooks and cleaning up the stage. We even ventured into the overhead room that no one has been in to for 5 years. Turns out it's full of costumes for different school plays. Perfect!

I head out to pick up lunch for all the kids and then go back to make some die-cuts for a large sign Thanking the kids of our school for their generous contributions to the Food Bank. In total, we collected 1507 items. They did great! 

My ending to the day was to come home to two large boxes of NutriSystem food. Marc and I have decided to end our weight gain and make it a weight loss. Time to loss that baby weight and get back to a comfortable place. Let me say, 35 days worth of food (for 2 people) takes up a lot of room in my pantry. We start our first day tomorrow. Marc is having his final splurge of junk (not that he enjoys this junk) of movie popcorn. He volunteered to take the older 2 and a friend to see "How to Train a Dragon" in Imax 3D tonight. They are going to have a great time and I'm having a fun time with the little 2. We did some grocery shopping and are now enjoying watching 1 last episode of "Phineas and Ferb" before we head off to bed.

I feel great getting this down. I really will get those photos up of the wedding. It was the best part of our very fast vacation. (Man I'm long winded).

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I ran the school food drive last week. Thanks to the generous
donations of our parents and students and teachers, we collected 1507
cans of food for the food bank.

selfless promotion

While I'm all ADD feeling today, I remembered it's Friday in Austrailia and there is a most wonderfully funny mum there that hosts this awesome link up to other moms called Flog Your Blog Friday. I have found some wonderful blogs to follow and gathered a few friends to read my interesting boring little life. I actually like to write all about myself and LOVE to read all about you. It's like having a ton of close friends (though none of us seem to have time anymore to go out with friends with the sports and school events 4 kids require).

Without further ado, you can always check out my Flog Your Blog page at the top of this blog. It has all the links from the past 4 weeks and the current week. You might find somebody who totally makes you happy.

She has a few rules, that Brenda at Mummy Time I'm copying and pasting them here and if I remember I'll include Mr. MckLinky on here too.

Okay, listen up newbies. FlogYoBlog Friday is a meme that I have started a couple of weeks back. Here's a quick summary. FlogYoBlog is all about promoting your blog, sharing the love and connecting with your fellow bloggers (most of whom are moms/mums, by the way). The interwebs is loaded with gazillion blogs and it can be quite a daunting task finding that one or two or three bloggers that you can actually talk to, exchange emails with and hopefully be e-bff's with. So if you are looking for them, you have come to the right place, baby. 

I do have some rules though. So, please read through them and *try* to follow them. Do not make me get my dusty voodoo dolls. Because they really scare the bejeebus out of me. Also, if you do get a follow as a result of linking up.  Could you please at least go to their site, say hi, leave them some comment or if you're feeling the loveydoves then subscribe to their feeds or follow their blog? Law of Reciprocity. You know what I'm saying?

On that note, please assume your position in The Circle of Friendship as we start with the linky love.

And........GO!

 

So there you go. My first Flog Your Blog link up that I did at home on my computer instead of from my phone while out and about. Speaking of, I need to go get my kids from the bus. I'm so easily distracted. 

 

Happy Thursday/Friday!! 

 

 

laundry

Where to begin. Where does it end. 

We went to California last Thursday to attend my Dad's wedding. It was beautiful and will take at least 2 posts to capture the photos and words.

I've been so busy reading the blogs I'm behind on (I'm OCD enough that I HAVE to read them and not just mark "all read"). I'm loving reading them though. I just finished reading "the Glass Castle" which I loved and now I am reading "the Help". I need so many more hours in the day. I feel like I'm in fast forward all the time. My books keep arriving at the library with a little tag saying it's in high demand and I need to return it in 2 weeks. The Glass Castle was 5 days overdue. The Help is due tomorrow (it will be late too). And I just picked up Shiver which is due in 2 weeks. Ugh! I love to read, but feel so far behind.


My kids school is holding their annual food drive. While this is a great cause and a lot of fun, I am in charge since I'm the head of the Jr PTSA. Which means, every day I'm up at the school going around to each classroom with a trolley and paper to count out the cans and take them to the stage. I have these great posters I've made up to mark where each classroom is at. Tomorrow is the last day and then everything is packed up and sent to the local food bank.


My 11 year anniversary is this Saturday. Marc and I take turns for who is in charge of planning the event (since it's only 6 weeks after Valentine's). We switch who does Valentine's and who does our anniversary. I'm stuck this year. We just got back from California and we are to go away for a weekend in 2 weeks with my brother and then the following weekend with Marc's family, plus Easter is next Saturday. That's 4 weekends of events and a limited budget. I'm still trying to figure out if I should plan something fun for him to go do or for both of us or for the family. I hate to ask my brother or Marc's sister to watch the kids again. We seem to be begging a lot from our free baby sitters.


I'm feeling a little ADD today, but I think it's from being tired. Staying up until 1am to finish a book and then Miss R decided to get sick last night at 3am. She sat up, in my bed, and said, "I'm going to throw up". I said, "run". We try and train the kids to run to the toilet. But, No. She barfs all over the end of my bed and onto the pile of clean laundry on the floor. Yes, the clean laundry.


I was just commenting to Marc that it feels like the laundry is never done. We started it on Monday night after we got back from our trip. I did more on Tuesday and was finishind Wednesday. I seperate all the clothes into each kids pile, adult shirts, adult pants and towels. Mr N's clothes were the pile Miss R threw up on. So, today I'm running the sheets, Mr N's clothes and a few of the other casualties from last night explosive fun through the sanitary wash of the washer. I'm looking forward to the weekend and more of that wonderful sunshine we had yesterday. Am I making sense or just whining.


I'll tell you whose whining. Miss R, but I guess she has the excuse of being sick today. After a long, hot bath she is feeling much better. She snuck into my make up and put on some mascara. She's 5. She did pretty good though, but she has black under her eyes from where she rubs them.


So, my life, almost caught up and feeling so happy and relieved to get my blog post done. I felt like such a slacker not writing out my daily life and thoughts. So, off to drink some coffee and sit with Miss R to watch the end of Ponyo (strange movie). And maybe move the computers downstairs. And maybe... it never ends. Does it?

76/365

Last look back leaving California. We had fun. We'll miss you. See you
soon!

75/365

Dad and Betts got married today. More photos later. We are off to the
reception. Robot-me even teared up a little. Held it together to enjoy
the ceremony though.

74/365

Wedding #1:
Desiree & Robert Morgan
Pleasanton, CA
BEAUTIFUL

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Driving from Seattle, WA to Redding, CA

Quick trip to California

Hello my lovilies. It's Thursday in the states, but it's Flog Your Blog Friday by Brenda at Mummy-TimeMummy Time (the best blog) a few hours and a day away in the land down under (why isn't it over? Who made North mean up?)

Anyway, join us in our quest to find wonderful new bloggers to follow and follow us.



Anysun, about California. We are making a whirlwind drive and visit to California. We left home (Seattle, WA) at noon on Thursday. By "we" I mean my lovely, glad he's home and I'll stop sniveling now, husband, me and the 4 kids. We've packed our bags (1 for tonight, 1 with our wedding attire, and 1 with our regular clothes for the day to day). And now we are in Oregon. It takes us 12 hours to get to Redding, CA. We are hoping to make it in 11 hours today. Then we leave Redding Friday morning to my brothers in Sacramento. And then (remember Dude, Where's my Car? With Ashton Kutcher... And then? No and then! And then? No and then! I love that part).

Back to my crazy quick trip. Marc and I are going to a wedding Friday night in Pleasanton and then (lol) back to Sacramento. Saturday we are all attending my Dads wedding. So happy I may cry (and I never cry. Marc says I'm a robot. Thanks honey). Sunday morning we are having breakfast with our bestest friends and then heading home. It's 15 hours from Sac so we will be getting a hotel on the way home. ETA is Monday. My own bed and hopefully we will bring back some of the 70-80 degree weather. I love the sun and warmth.

Finally, speaking of hotels and traveling with 4 kids. The Hyatt Place sleeps 6 and are very nice with 2 beds and a sectional with a pull out bed. They are near business parks and only $71 a night this weekend. BUT I went to Priceline and found there were only 2 - 3 star girls in that area and placed a bid of $50 a night. I won my bid and it's at Hyatt Place! I'm most pleased to get my preferred hotel for even less.

Til tomorrow - traveling Heather signing off.

69/365

Sat, March 13:

I worked!! For the first time in 7 years, I worked. It was only for 3-1/2 hours. But I made $10/hr to help out a friend with her wedding dress alteration. I answered the phone. I instructed the brides and bridesmaids to enter the changing area. I hung the dresses into bags. I put away jewelry they had tried on. I got veils down and even helped most of them get their shoes on (that was a little weird). But, I had a great time. My kids were in the house playing with my friends kids (her store is in the remodeled garage). She so knows what she is doing. She picked the most beautiful earrings to go with the dress. She discussed how to lace up a corset like dress. I'm in awe that she gets to work with such beautiful dresses. It's like playing dress up everyday. The smiles on the brides faces are priceless.

I am going to be helping her out 2 Saturdays a month and a few days a week come summer. It's great because the kids can hang out and I make just enough to pay for my addiction to starbucks!

 
(image credit)

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Fri, March 12:

We are working on wisely spending blowing through Marc's bonus in record time. First we had the truck repaired. Now I am having the carpets cleaned. Not just a little bit, but every square inch of this house. We skipped getting it done last year and they are just plain gross!!

I moved toy boxes into closets, trunks into the bathroom, exercise equipment under the stairs, desks onto beds, a bed into the garage and exposed as much of the carpet as I could.

The end results are better than they were, but we are hoping to replace the carpet upstairs with hardwood next year. So, here's my blank slate and cleaner carpets.

67/365

Thurs, March 11:
The day that leads to my lame rant. Today is a busy day that will lead to many more busy days. 

1. Marc takes the kids to the bus and says goodbye.
2. We drop off his truck to find out why it grinds while driving (need new wheel bearings - $450, fuel injection service - $300 and spark plugs). We agree to the wheel bearings and hold off on the rest.
3. Drive to Ikea to buy Mr C's bed. It's wonderful to have Marc with me to help put the 75 pound boxes in the van. Mr N and Miss R make a plan to play together in the middle of Smalland and when they don't want to play with each other, they will go to their respective ball rooms. They are so smart.
4. Have lunch with Marc (not at Ikea), but my favorite Japanese steakhouse. I love how yummy the steak is cooked there.
5. Drop Marc off at the airport to fly to Austin.
6. Drive home in time to get the older kids from the bus.
7. Prepare for the kids and their friends to come and go and ebb and flow. I need to breath in and out.

So, my photo you ask... well, it's 10 AM on a Thursday. We are driving from the north end of Lake Washington to the south end and there is actually stop and go traffic on the freeway. IT'S 10 AM PEOPLE! I think it's because it was raining. Yes, I know the irony of living in the PNW and people being scared of driving in the rain.

66/365

Wed, March 10:
Today is the last of the last of our basketball season. The trophies are bought and the pizza is ordered. We met at a local pizza parlour to pass out the trophies. Our coach even made it. We all had a fun time talking about the season and what we were doing next. 5 of the 10 boys played Fall Soccer together and are moving forward to play Sping Soccer (or is it ok to call it Futbol?).

Anyway, I forgot my camera and this is the cruddy remembrance I have of the evening, besides my memories that may fail me someday.

 It's not so bad at the small size. Most of my photos are taken with my iPhone because it's the easiest fastest way to upload (although you wouldn't know it with me being behind by 10 days).

65/365

Sun, March 7:

We decided to have a family fun day that includes a trip to Ikea. Yes, I know...everyone's favorite family fun day. We are out looking for a new bed for Mr. C. He has our hand me down queen size bed. Sounds great until you look for cool sheets for a 7 year old in queen size. Plus, the bed takes up the majority of the room.

We arrived at Ikea and we straight to Smalland to check in the youngest two. Everything went well for about 5 minutes. Then I was paged to come back. Turns out Mr. N (4 years old) and Miss R (5 years old) have to go into seperate ball rooms because the age cut off is 4. Mr. N was having none of this. He wanted to play with his sister and wanted to come out. He did a great job in the store, Marc and Mr. C found a bed while I was getting Mr. N and we were able to browse ideas for our house for the next 1/2 hour until it was time to pick up Miss R.

F

Finding inspiration for my home: $399

Swedish meatballs with lingonberries: $1/plate

Feeding a family of 6 for $6: priceless

where, oh where, art thou?

For I have been missing. I've worked so hard to make new friends in this blogging experiment of my life. I LOVE reading your blogs. I HATE being a single Mom. And I think it's because I KNOW I'm not single. Marc has had to travel 3 of the last 5 weeks and it's a little old to me. I find myself sitting here wondering if I'll even care that he's home. I'm so used to doing my daily routine and being with the kids. It's hard to find time to miss him. It's probably because we haven't talked in about 6 days and my son cried himself to sleep tonight saying how much he missed him. (he's our emotional one).

I LOVE that Marc has a job he enjoys and makes enough money for me to stay home. And I know that this is the first time he has had to travel, so much, with this job. It's hard to keep it in perspective when my own life with kids and volunteering seems to be spinning faster than I can hang on.

I have taken some time to take them to the park and I was blessed enough to have my neighbor spend all afternoon with the kids and I and then turn around and invite us all to dinner so that I didn't have to cook. She rocks!

But, now, Marc's flight should be landing in 10 minutes and the taxi or shuttle will bring him home. I find that I am getting butterflies in my stomach and am excited to see him again. We have one more day of work and life before we leave for California to attends my Dad's wedding on Saturday. We will get to spend 24/7 together for 5 days. Will it be too much after being apart for 24/7 for 6 days? I will tell you soon.

Now, back to (hopefully) my regularly scheduled posts (I would like to do daily updates, but our life is so normal) and I have finally finished "The Book Thief". A great book that took it's time ripening and then finished with such enthusiasm. I'm hesitant to move on to "The Glass Castle" which is due in less than a week and just move onto "The Help". Many decisions, and many hours of travel ahead of me. I'll take them all and hope for some alone time with my books to dive into my favorite cheap escape from reality.

fill in the blank friday

I thought I would try something new and participate in the awesome fill in the blank friday brought to you and me by Lauren @ the little things we do.

1.  The best day ever was:  a toss up of my wedding day and the birth of each of my 4 kids. It's amazing how many best day evers I can think of right now!

2.  My favorite meal of the day is: actually a drink (mocha) because it's feeds my addicition and need for warmth while living in the Pacific Northwest.

3.  This weekend: I am working for the 1st time in 7 years. My friend does wedding dress alterations and needs someone to help out in the shop Saturday. I am going to see how I manage to have my 4 kids in the other room playing with their friends while I work. (Her business is run out of her home). Then I plan on staying in my pajamas all day Sunday (with the kids) watching movies and reading. Marc, the spouse, is in Austin for 6 days.

4.  Never in my life have I: hmm.. do I have an "I never". I have never jumped out of an airplane. This is something I've thought about doing, but with having kids and finding I don't particularly enjoy heights anymore, this may always be an "I never"!

5.  The only thing better than: sleeping in is staying up late reading a book.

6.  I could really do with some: motivation (besides the mirror) to work out daily. It's so easy to start, but so much easier to stop. I need a constant, daily, something fun workout.

7.  The most recent thing I bought myself was: acne medicine and hair color. Am I mid-life crisising? I can't figure out why I keep breaking out. And they are not pretty little ones (TMI) they are large and under the skin and don't pop. I am using a face scrub, and acne pads and spot treatment. I'm so sick of them popping up on my neck and hairline. The hair color is just because I love to play with my hair and I'm not ready for a haircut.


If you want to join in, copy the questions and post your answers on your blog. Make sure to link back using the McLinky so I (and others!) can read your post!

Friday Harbor

We went on a wonderful wander last Saturday (March 7).

After our last basketball game (thank god. no more saturday games), we drove up to Mt. Vernon, WA to see if the tulips were in bloom. Every year there is a tulip festival in April. Our weather is so great, I thought they would be up. The green was up, but not the color. There were fields of daffodils though. (photo credit)

So, we wanted to salvage our wandering and the sun was shining and there were blue skies everywhere...we drove a little further north to the town of Anacortes. We decided to walk on the ferry to go to Friday Harbor (on San Juan Island).
 
(photo credit) 

Friday Harbor is the only port on the ferry run that is walkable (that we know of). The other islands require a car to get anywhere and the car adds $38 to the price. For the 6 of us we paid $40.40 to walk on and take a beautiful, leisure ride through the San Juan Islands. We arrived at Friday Harbor at 2 PM. We pulled out our phones to find the nearest park. We ended up at the Middle/High School (they have no playground) and then walked back into the main town. There are a bunch of cute shops, ice cream stands, restaurants to visit.

We played along the waterfront on a seal statue and then found the local elementary school. We walked the .6  miles to the Friday Harbor Elementary school and played for about an hour. The kids had a blast. There was tetherball, playground and a sand pit. Then, we walked back into town to get some ice cream and catch the 5:20 PM ferry back to the mainland. We didn't pay attention and this ferry was the long ferry (it stops at each island). We enjoyed watching the sunset and then lounged on the benches watching cartoons (on our phones). We got back to Anacortes around 7:30 PM and promptly went to the nearest fast food to feed our hungry kids. If we did it over, we would have ate at one of the restaurants in town (Friday Harbor) and then took the 7:30 PM ferry from Friday Harbor.

Overall, it was a great little day trip that was relaxing and absolutely beautiful. If only we can figure out how to work from there so we can live in such a beautiful place.

(p.s. check out the mclinky page above to see other most wonderful bloggers)
Thank You Brenda at Mummy Time for this fun selfless promotion

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Saturday, March 6:

We took an amazing little wandering to Friday Harbor today. It will
have it's own post. But here's my photo of the day. This is what I
looked like for a few hours.

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Friday, March 5:
I had a wonderful surprise yesterday. Marc texted me to ask if he
could take the 4 kids to dinner. I have PTSA Thursday night and
grudingly volunteered to take the little two with me. His generous
offer to take them to dinner was for a work gathering. He said he
wanted to take all four. OK says I. I dropped them off at 5:20 and
warned them to be super good for daddy's work friends. They went to
sichuanese and I asked him to bring me the "fire" chicken. That would
be what my photo is. It's a plate of hot peppers with some of the most
delicious fried chicken bits. I love it. But don't touch anything if
you eat with your fingers. Boy did my nose burn after I scratched it.

62/364

Thursday, March 4:

School day. We had class pictures and individual photos taken. I had
to actually fix my hair since I am the Jr PTSA leader and we were
taking group photos too. I wonder how embarassed the kids will be to
see me in their yearbook? I'm sure it will be just those wonderful
tween/teen years. I am very buay at school this year and next year
will be even more.

61/365

Wednesday, March 3:

Absolutely disgusting looking. I know. But, I made Brussels sprouts
with heaving whipping cream and Parmesan cheese. Mr C (age 7) asked
for 2nd and 3rd servings. I'm impressed. There is no way I would have
ever ate sprouts at that age.

60/365

Tuesday, March 2:

Flog your blog Friday!

I'll make an awesome blog after my PTA meeting. Doing it from my awesomer iPhone is a little hard. But big thanks to Brenda for living us. (that should be loving us)!!

Anyway, I had this great blog all planned out in my head last night. I'm debating on what level to reveal my craziness to all you wonderful bloggers. I started this for me and then added my grandfather, father and aunt to get updates every time I make an entry. Mostly because my 365 project is photos of my day. Not incredible photos, but a photo that reflects something about what we did that day. It gives us a moment to "reflect" (did you watch the marriage ref last night) on what we did that day. Be it a boring stay at home, watch movies and read books kind of day...or all out adventure to some park near or far.

What was I saying? Any who, my craziness and my amazing blog that I composed in my head will not come back to me for anything right now. I'm thinking I must need more (or have I had too much) coffee to get those little cells to move about and make a connection.

Thanks for flogging. I look forward to reading your blogging. (it's definitely needs more coffee).

-Heather

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Monday, March 1:

Today is Mr N and I time. The three older kids are in school. The oldest two are in school all day, but Miss R is in school for 2-1/2 hours. Mr N and I run errands and play. Sometimes I sit at the park and read while Mr N runs around. We do a little exploring and I realize how wonderful he is.

Today, we went to Costco to get some groceries, but we also stopped to get our passport photos. It's unusual to the rest of the world that we Americans don't have passports, but up until last June, we were able to drive into Mexico and Canada with just a birth certificate and drivers license. We the Winter Olympics being only 2 hours away, I realize that I missed out on a huge opportunity to take my kids up there because I didn't have my passport. They can still get in with birth certificates, but it's time we all get one. Marc has his and I'll take the other 3 kids to get their photo and apply for them on Friday. Now, there will be no missed opportunities and some new wanderings to be  planned.

The point of my photos: Mr N is precious. We sat at the table outside of preschool and Mr N ran around the pond (a water retention pond) and threw rocks into the water. He came running around the edge and handed me this weed flower. He said, "smell it". So I did. He was so cute and asked him to pose. He is the best at holding still and letting me get his photo. He is just too cute (and desperately in need of a haircut, which he refuses to let me do).

 

58/365

Sunday, February 28:

It started out as a decent PNW day. The sun was shining and it wasn't freezing cold (a blessing in these parts). I called my brother and his family to see if they wanted to play at a new park with us. He said Yes and we were on our way.

We went to Saint Edward State Park. It's in the Kenmore, WA area right on Lake Washington. There is a fabulous wooden playground with loads of things for the kids to climb on and run around in. There is a paved trail that would be perfect for bike riding (we never remember to bring bikes). And there are some hiking trails to meander on that lead down to the waterfront.

After consulting the map and not thinking too much about the level, we all (11 of us - 4 adults, 7 kids (4 of which are 4 years old)) headed down the "difficult" path that is .40 miles long. It was easy enough to walk down, there was no way in hell I was walking back up that thing without having a heart attack. Anyway, it's narrow and the left side is steep and the kids did a wonderful job "trying" to stay to the right and away from the heart pounding edges. We made it down without a single fall!! Woo Hoo!! Now it was time to try and keep them out of the water while they played at the edge. For one, it's cold. For two, they would whine all the way back up the path with their wet, soggy shoes and socks. For three, they are young and we are dumb.

Actually, they managed to stay dry and loved throwing rocks into the water. We watched a float plane come across the lake and land just out of sight. We waited for the sun to break back out, but it never did. I guess this is good because the .62 mile hike up the moderate trail was very sweat inducing. The kids whined the last little bit and asked to be carried. No freaking way! I told them they could stay there and look for bears, but I was heading to the top and there was no stopping to whine. As we neared the top, my brother Scott, got the fun idea to toss rocks and sticks into the woods on either side of us. The kids were constantly in a state of "what was that?" I asked, "was it a snipe?" "No!" "It was a bear!" That was the consensus of the youngest kids (the 5 that are 4 and 5 years old). They had fun looking into the woods and trying to spot something and were very ecstatic to realize we were at the top of the hike and back on the Seminary building.

Great fun was had by all. And the kids who were "so tired" "I'm dying" where full of energy to run back out on the playground to play some more. It's a very fun place to go spend some time on an early afternoon.

 

57/365

Saturday, Feb 27:

Marc is back and he is tired. I believe he fell asleep around 8 last night and we didn't get up until about 10am this morning. I love to sleep in, but usually Marc gets up and entertains (feeds) the kids. But he is seriously jet-lagged from a 3 hour time difference suck it up! Seriously though, we are both tired. Being a 24 hour Mom with no break in site for the week was exhausting (a little). I actually had it pretty easy this week. We got into our routine and did our thing. I actually made a great dinner every night and managed to get them all in bed at a normal hour. Usually Marc does the nighttime routine and I just get frustrated that they are still awake. I've learned some patience and appreciation for having a husband around. He is a really big help (and part of our lives). 

That being said, my honey bear of a man decided we needed a night out after him being gone. We debated about going out with friends (last minute = no one available) and then dinner vs. a movie. Personally, I like popcorn movies better. He wrangled up a babysitter (thank you Aunt Becky) and we went to see "Valentines Day". I'm the lucky one who has a husband you will sit through romantic comedies with me. He has my brother to go with for those scary, gory movies. That aside, we had a great Saturday and enjoyed sitting in the dark, holding hands and eating buttery popcorn (diet be damned).

(image credit)

56/365

Friday, Feb 26:
Marc comes home today. This is his second week in Atlanta. We miss him
and I am ready to be a assisted parent again (not a single parent). We
do well without him here, but it's so much better when he is here.

Miss R, Mr N and I headed over to the mall to burn off some energy.
They are at the verge of being too big to play here. They have such a
great time. With as much as it rains and is cold, you would think
there would be more indoor playgrounds. I have a great idea for one,
but lack the funds and time to start up a company right now. For now,
we play and shop (had to visit the Disney store since it's 2 doors
down from the play area).

55/365

Thursday, Feb 25:

Math night at school. It wasn't very well attended, but my kids had a
blast. They had to visit 7 stations to get a sticker on their card. At
the end, they received a math night ribbon and goodie bag. It was
great for them and I got a chance to talk to their teachers.