Spring Break Visitors

My sister, Shelly, who lives in the Seattle area, recently left her manager position at Chase Bank to accept a manager position at Boeing Employees Credit Union. In between the two jobs, she had two weeks off work and made an impromptu trip down to visit us. And by impromptu I mean we made plans on Friday and she flew down on Tuesday.

And she didn't come alone! She brought along my 4-month-old niece, Madeleine. We were all so happy to finally meet Maddy.

My kids were on spring break the week she was here so they were able to spend lots of quality time with Aunt Shelly and their new cousin. I did a little juggling with schedules but enjoyed my time with them immensely.






Josh liked holding Madeleine but she's usually cry shortly after he started holding her. He started to take it personally.


Josh and I took care of Madeline while Shelly took a nap. He got the chance to give her a bottle, which was their special bonding time.






Since the kids were home for the week, we spent a lot time playing at their school or playgrounds to get outdoors. Carley would pack picnics for everyone.


And since Easter was a few days away, we colored Easter eggs.






Maddy had a poopy diaper blow-out and my kids took a lot of interest in it.


They even had to watch Aunt Shelly change the diaper to see just how bad it was and then they pretended to faint.


So poopy baby got a bath in the kitchen sink. It's not like we have baby stuff around anymore so we improvised.


Shelly and Madeleine stayed for four nights. It was so great to have them here.

Thanks Shelly for making the trip down... baby, stroller, 56 pound suitcase and all!

Move More, Eat Less Update

I'm off the wagon. WAY off the wagon. Move more, eat less? What's that?

I'm not going to stop talking about it because that means I give up completely.


The last time I ran was March 4th. MARCH! That's well over a month ago.

I have gone mountain biking since March 4th, but not much. Probably only once.

As far as Weight Watchers goes, the last day I tracked my food for a full day was March 31st. MARCH! That's nearly a month ago.

The good news is I've stayed about the same weight; 20 pounds lost since December.

The bad news is since I haven't been exercising but have been eating no so well I'm probably losing muscle.

The point of this "confession" post is to get me in gear again and let you know I haven't given up. Yet.

Discover Scuba

One of the classes I'm taking this semester for my GE credits is a recreation and leisure class through the RPTA (Recreation, Parks, and Touring Administration) department. Wow! This class is right up my alley and I only signed up for it because it fit my schedule (online) and satisfied credits I need for graduation.

Anyway, this class "makes" me experience activities I haven't experienced before and write a paper about it. So far I've taken meditation classes (one of my life goals) as one of my experiences. Next week, Walt and I will be doing a go-cart Mini Grand Prix at a local place called RPM with my instructor and classmates. And on Josh's birthday, Josh and I took a "Discover Scuba" class with classmates at a local diving center, Dolphin Scuba Center.

Walt is a certified diver; he got certified years before I met him. Walt and I did a tourist open water dive in 1998 when we spent a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. And Josh, of course, hasn't experienced anything like this before. I was so happy to have the experience with him.

Josh did great! I was so proud of him learning everything he needed to know about hand signs, clearing his mask underwater, and finding his regulator if it got knocked out. Luckily my professor sent someone with an underwater camera to get pictures of us.













The scuba instructor had a underwater scooter he let us try out. You hang on to the handles, push the button, and the motor pulls you through the water. Josh said he's seen one on a James Bond movie. It was a lot of fun and much faster than kicking.

For now, Josh and I only had the diving class in the pool to learn the basics of scuba diving. I look forward to either taking an open water dive with Walt and Josh or possibly getting the whole family certified.

A Wedding

We spent our weekend in Fort Bragg to attend the wedding of Chris and Wendy. I had the pleasure (and a little self-inflicted pressure) of photographing their special day. The weather was wonderful and the ceremony was perfect. We had such a great time.

I'll post more about our trip and their wedding soon. For now, I'm hitting the books.

Four Fools and a Birthday

Josh's 11th birthday is tomorrow. Last night, he had a couple friends sleepover to celebrate. The sleepover happened to fall on April Fool's day and I couldn't resist pulling a couple pranks on the boys.

First of all, I felt compelled to continue my tradition of April Fool's Day food.

It all started in 2007 with 'chicken nuggets'. Josh nearly puked when he discovered it was banana, peanut butter and graham cracker crumbs. I can't find a photo or the recipe.


2008 cupcakes.


2009 fish sticks.


2010 spaghetti.


2011 grilled cheese sandwiches


My kids are on to me though. Josh noticed something was up as soon as I handed him his plate. His friends almost took a bite before they figured it out but the oozy "cheese" stuck to a finger and he was shocked to learn it had the texture of frosting. Ultimately they had their cake before dinner and everyone still had a good laugh.

Besides fools food I put Vaseline on doorknobs, hid a couple whoopee cushions and sewed sleeping bags shut. I'm sure his friends think I'm a crazy mom but my kids are used to it.


Josh had the relighting candles on his brownies too. He requested them recently and they were quite appropriated on April Fool's Day.


Those candles were awfully smoky.


The friends assisted. Only a couple kept relighting.


Video games and gamer stuff was the hit this year.


The night was low key but quite fun. Josh is having a happy birthday weekend.

We celebrate with just us tomorrow. Biscuits and gravy is his breakfast choice and tacos for dinner. Yum.

Eleven, already.