Auntie Claire & Mom came for a visit!

After a loooong week over the mountains in Olympia and Yelm, we finally called it quits and caravanned over with mom & Claire back home! My wonderful mother-in-law and auntie Claire from Hawaii spent lots of time visiting with us at home, going with us over to Amber's house and my parents house. They even got dressed up with us Sunday morning and went with us to church (AND convinced Tim to go too, he's never been to church in his life!!). Some of the highlights of our trip were the meals we shared (including produce from our garden), eating cherries straight off the tree at Ambers house, shopping in all the little Mexican stores (they got a kick out of Fiesta Foods!), visiting my own mom & dad's house to harvest walnuts, listen to mom's harp playing, and my dad EVEN gave mom (mary) a motorcycle ride! She hasn't been on one in 32 years. Then church was a definite highlight, to share our beliefs with them even a little bit was very special to us both. We said a tearful goodbye this afternoon to auntie, she is so very special to us and it has been a treasure to get to know her better and make memories with her!

Our Trip to the WA State Capitol Building

The kids and I took Auntie Claire to Olympia this week. We went thrift store shopping (SO much fun! And -incidentally- that was where we were when Michael Jackson passed away) anyways, we found AMAZING deals on school clothes for next year! Brand name clothing barely worn woo hoo! So afterwards we got sushi for lunch & went to the Capitol building to be tourists for a while! We walked up the 60-some steps and went inside (forgot to take pictures of that), peeked in the Senate meetinghouse, and the govenors office, it was SO amazing the majesty and beauty of the architecture never fails to blow me away! But to share it with my kids & auntie was a wonderful experience!

Congratulations Rebecca & Jerry!!

We are so happy to welcome Jerry into our family! (for the 2nd time - but that's a different story) Our cousin Rebecca married her longtime sweetheart Jerry this week. The kids and I were priveledged to be able to attend the wedding and reception. The wedding was a beautifully simple affair at a park in front of the pond & fountain, with just a few family and friends. We then went to the reception (which was held in Nisqually Pines clubhouse, the same place where I met Jeff for the 1st time!) and enjoyed a huge and delicious luau-type buffet (thank you aunties!!) with beautiful decorations (we all helped) and music with dancing. We danced and ate and visited long into the evening, and were all exhausted the next day. A couple days later we were able to have another get-together BBQ at Rebecca & Jerry's house in Yelm. It was so much fun to able to share in their joy and spend quality time with them!! Rebecca is expecting a baby, about 5 weeks before mine is due, so this won't be the first celebration for them this year!

Memorial Day Weekend & Time at Grandmas house

4-Car fender bender

CRUNCH!!


That's what happened to not ONLY my Dodge Caravan, but also Jeff's mom & dad's Dodge Charger. What happened was this - we were all caravanning, on our way to Port Orchard to have lunch & pick up our Hawaiian aunties. We'd finally gotten over the Narrows Bridge & past all the construction, and had gotten off the freeway. We were ONLY 5 miles from our destination!! There was a stoplight & there was one guy stopped. He saw a car coming up fast & scooted forward to avoid being hit so the guy was able to stop in time, but dad wasn't so lucky. He wasn't able to stop in time (we heard his brakes squeal) and crunched right into the guys bumper. I was right behind him & I also wasn't able to stop in time. I swerved to the curb and struck dad's car's right rear fender with the door of my car. So all 4 cars got crunched! I couldn't roll up my window, and no sooner did the police show up than here comes the thunder & storm clouds & we got DUMPED on, buckets of water for the whole hour we were trying to straighten everything out! I consider myself lucky now to be able to open and shut my car door & finally got my window rolled up. I'm SO glad that no one was hurt at all, that we were still able to go visit our aunties & have a fun time, and that the kids were really good throughout it all! But dad was pretty shaken up. He loves his Charger, it's such a cool car! We're hoping our cars will be able to get fixed right up, good as new. Thank goodness for insurance!

Hello Camp Wonka!

All week long this week Keira attended Camp Wonka. Every year the High School drama department holds a fundraiser day-camp for school-age kids. They go for 4 days, 5 hours a day. The school feeds them lunch and snacks and they enjoy art activities, games focused on helping them learn to be little performers, they learn songs, play games, and have lots of fun! At the end, there is a performance put on by all the kids. Last year the theme was Dr. Seuss, but this time they did Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Keira was an Oompa Loompa. Here she is with her homemade props! A lollipop & a bubble-gum hat, and she's standing in front of the boat that's supposedly floating on the chocolate river. Fun fun!! Woo hoo Keira, my little drama queen!

It's a boy!

She said he's already fetal-breathing, which isn't very common for his age. Strong lungs!! He also was VERY squirmy in there!




Absolutely NO question about it! I saw the proof! Another wiggle worm rambunctious boy! And I have mixed emotions about it! We were hoping to have 2 of each. Keira really wanted a girl, Jeff & I really wanted another girl. BUT on the other hand, once they're past the rowdy & wiggly toddler/preschooler stages, boys tend to mellow down and are generally easier to raise. Now HOW I am going to squeeze three boys in one bedroom, I have NO idea! So I guess we have a lot to think about with trying to organize the boys closet to accommodate another one! Boy or girl, we're SO happy to have another little addition to our family, and with 3 siblings he will really be loved! New due date: November 9th

We adopted a baby chick

YES people, a CHICKEN! We were at a friends house & she'd bought tons of baby chickens & turkeys. One of the baby turkeys was mean to one of the baby chicks & hurt its leg. So she had it separated from the rest. She gave it to us for the kids to nurse back to health. SO we have a baby chicken in our den for the kids to look at and feed/water (but not touch yet). Kalani named it "tweet". Tweet seems to be doing OK, drinking water and eating food, limping around on one leg in its wood chip/paper bedding. The kids just LOVE watching him/her move around in its cage & talking about their baby chickie. We'll see if it survives! (as soon as my camera's charged we'll get a REAL picture up here).... um, and if it survives & grows, WHAT on earth am I going to do with a chicken????

Carbomb Last Night! Whodunnit??

In the middle of the night, about 3am we heard an insistent pounding on our front door. I peeked out & I could see one of our neighbors pacing outside, his face lit up with an eerie glow. It wasn't until we got dressed & went outside however that we discovered what that "glow" was. Apparently someone drove by & bombed our next-door neighbor's car that was parked on the street. It was really close to our trash cans & maybe 30 feet away from our own cars, so we had to move our vehicles to a safe distance. We could see small explosions in the fiery inferno, they were loud enough to wake Keira up & bring her out to stand with us. It was several minutes before the firetruck came, Even longer before the police showed up. As we watched the firefighters hose the flames down, I got to thinking about whodunnit??
Here are my options: 1. Stupid kids out to have a fun time/random act of violence 2. Someone who didn't like my neighbors (but they're really nice people) 3. The security system salesman who seemed a little wacky, he was at our front door last night talking about the rise in crime. Cooincidence? Maybe not, hahaha! Jeff & I were pretty clear that we didn't want/need a security system. WHAT if WE were the target? (When he came Amber's car was parked pretty close to this one on the road - Good thing we chose to trade vehicles with her last night instead of this morning!) OR What if our neighbors were really rude to him & he flipped out? Have I been watching too many suspense movies? What do YOU think?

Ultrasound - Waiting Oh so Impatiently!

With Becky getting her ultrasound, cousin Becca already had several, I'm squirming in my seat, chomping at the bit with anticipation to have mine & see that little baby, to know if it's a boy/girl & have that special experience!! Well, I have an appointment on Tuesday so I'll keep everyone posted. That weekend is going to go Ooooh sooooo sloooowly!

A fave recipe from the party

Oriental Veggie Pizza:

Ingredients:
Refrigerated Pizza Dough, 1 pkg cream cheese, 1 clove garlic, 1 T. Soy Sauce, 1/2 inch piece ginger, grated carrot, chopped snow peas, chopped broccoli, chopped green onion, chopped red bell pepper

Directions:
Prebake the pizza crust, Crush garlic & shred ginger, Add garlic, ginger & soy sauce to cream cheese. mix Well. Spread on cooled pizza crust.
Grate/chop veggies & sprinkle on top. You can also add leftover grilled chicken. YUM!