A Prost:

I like a Widmer Brothers brew called "Drop Top". They are pretty clever and put stuff on their bottle caps.

The past couple caps I have popped have said
"A Prost: To Pete's Sake" because what would we do without it? And
"A Prost: To Sleeping In." Now THAT one I can drink to!

It was an exciting day at work today. Apparently drinking and driving is a favorite past time lately. The last two nights almost all our law enforcement agencies have had a DUI arrest or two. But this is what happened that made it kind of an unusual day today.

We are a quick acting lot and trained a local camera to the river to try and find our jumper. Then we watched the rescue boat yard him out of the water. They FLEW to the boat launch as they worked him. Unfortunately not every story in my job has a happy ending. In fact, very few do. Sometimes I wonder how I handle it. Pretty much its a sick sense of humor that gets us through. Not everyone can handle it.

On a brighter note, we bought Miss I a birthday gift today (a Dora chair all for herself!) I wrote up a menu and shopped for the next week or so, the house cleaner came and did her fabulous job, laundry isn't too far behind and .... My sister is coming over tomorrow! All in all its going to be a great weekend!

What to say

How many ways can I say I don't have anything to say?

But I am committed, so I will write something. Plus I kept notes today just in case. I know, how pathetic is that? I actually had a to-do list on my desk today and at the bottom I kept notes of dumb things so I would have something to write.

My to-do list was this:
"DC2"
"Rebecca - clean"
"Homework - SPELLING!"
"bills (send)"
"eye doctor 66....."

There are check marks or times after nearly every item! Homework - Bubba is still working on that. I am teaching him to be just like me - wait untill the last minute. Its due tomorrow! And we/he is struggling mightily tonight. I don't know what his deal is, he actually got into trouble today at school. A "refocus" they call it. Kind of like a time out, only they have to write a note to mom and dad telling them what they did wrong. Of course, it was because he wasn't paying attention. No big surprise!

My notes look something like this:
"rained"
"snowed"
"b-day party scheduled!"
"cleaner sched!"

The first two are obvious (well to me) it rained and we watched it snow in the higher elevations. Nothing in town. I got Bubba's birthday party scheduled (that was DC2 on my to-do list) and the cleaner scheduled.

I am spoiled rotten. We have a cleaner come in every other week. She does all the things I don't like: tub, shower, toilets, kitchen & dining room floor. I love her! She is coming on Friday and I am relieved because we are having company this weekend. LK is coming to town! Yay! She encouraged me to get Miss I's birthday party planned which turned into getting Bubbas party planned too! Thanks sis!

Miss I, my MIL, my FIL and I all have birthdays in the first 18 days of November so we are going to do a everyone party on Saturday. It should be fun!

Mercy me. This child. "Quit writing on your hand, put your pencil on your paper and get your homework done." (You should have seen the look on his face when I told him to quit writing on his hand ... the classic "how did you know?" look. Sometimes being a mom is fun. That's kind of naughty isn't it?)

Trying ...

I've had ideas all day, but they are gone now that I have a few minutes.

My Mondays and Wednesdays are tight for time. I get off work at 3, pick Bubba up at 3:25, head home, get him a snack, changed for Karate, drive across town for class at 4:30. After Karate, I pick up Miss I at grandmas and then head home for dinner, getting ready for tomorrow (set out my clothes, make lunches for me and Bubba) dishes, visiting with My Honey and eventually bedtime. It can be a whirlwind. I usually try to throw a few minutes of homework in there for Bubba too.

When I arrived home from work today there was a little box on my porch.... My camera arrived safe and sound from my dads house! Yay! I don't have to go without anymore. Now I can post the picture of Bubba with blue hair!

Rain, rain, go away

We get about 20 days of rain here per year. Maybe. And by "rain" I mean "sprinkles" that usually last an hour or two. Today is not one of those days. It started raining sometime late yesterday afternoon or early evening and it hasn't let up yet.


UPDATE: 1:05
The rain stopped around 10-ish, the clouds lifted off the mountains and guess what? SNOW! Not in town, but on the mountains. It's not a great picture, what can I say, I only have my phone right now. But if you look toward the top of the mountains, right under the lightest part of the sky, you can see the white stuff. (For the locals, that is looking west on Stevens St, WHS is directly in front of me.)


I should save this one for another day, but it just cracks me up! I took a picture of this sign in a dressing room at the mall. The store is Gilly Hicks, which is quite a treat if you get to one. It is nothing but lounge wear and pretty bras that are too expensive, not to mention too big, for me, but beautifully displayed none the less! And clever signage.

That sign sits on a dresser (or maybe a "bureau") full of bras in the dressing room. Each drawer has black bras of a certain size in it. All you have to do is find your size (if you're lucky enough to have boobs) and there is a drawer full of the different styles of bras they carry for you to try on so you can find the perfect fit! Then you go out into the color-coordinated, perfectly stocked sales floor and pick out the one or ten you want (at $35 or more each.) Now, if I had boobs, and could have such nice choices for myself, I might like this store, but as it is, it left me kind of bitter over my flat-chested lot in life! My Dad's wife was kind enough to buy us all a foo-foo lotion and body spray tho. MMMMM its yummy.

Okay, so day 4, pretty good. I am 1/7 of the way there! I go back to work tomorrow though, not sure when I will fit this in. I keep thinking about it ... What if I got up 15 minutes early and did it before work? That would be at 3:45. IN. THE. MORNING. I don't think that is going to happen. So that leaves me with after the kids go to bed, before I go to bed. Hmmmmm.

Day 3

So I had this great idea that if I couldn't write, I would post a (new) picture. Guess what? I left the camera in Issaquah. So much for that. Unless I make a special trip over there, or they send it to me, which I really don't think I want them to do, I wont see it until Thanksgiving. Boo hoo.

The colors were so beautiful driving from Eastern Washington to Western Washington on Friday, I wish I had had a little more time to get some photos. Unfortunately, I didn't. Then I had hoped to take some pictures on the way home, but that didn't work out either. I left the camera and it had rained (and snowed!) for two days so the leaves were all fallen off the trees and it looked kind of messy.

We were all excited to see the (very light) snow on Blewett Pass. Just enough to get us in the mood for winter. Miss I was hollering to make a snowman, ("meek now man") and Bubba was hollering every second he saw snow ("Lool! There! LOOK!") and I was just wishing they would be quiet for a few minutes.

The drives to and fro are always the worst. My kids don't sleep in the car and they don't shut up either. Its talk, talk, talk, talk, talk all the way where ever we are going. Grocery shopping, Karate, church, where ever. On a drive more than 90 minutes I am totally exhausted by the time we get there! We tried a portable DVD player which works for about an hour, but guess what I did when I was installing it last week? Dropped it on the ground. Now both screens don't work. UGH.

Oh well, we are home, safe and sound, ready to sleep in our own comfy beds! The trip was nice, the Halloween event was fun and the grandparents loved seeing the kids!

Fall Back

Fall back ... where?
Fall back ... into?
Fall back ...

I am a little jealous of LSL's new blog design. (Okay maybe a lot.) So I think I will do some hunting around and see if I can find that one that is "me". I had also been thinking about the NaBloPoMo and thought I would give it a shot.

am I going to fit it into my day? I have no idea, but that's the point right? So here we are day 2. I am 100% so far!

Trick or treat

Duuuuuuuuuude


We had fun! When we arrived at my Dad's the kids dug through the costume box and Miss I had a little dress up fun with Auntie Dani. Then we got into our "real" costumes, turns out her dress up costume was much cuter huh? Maybe next year!

I am feeling a lot like this again. I have a ton of stuff going on, but most of it isn't stuff I post about. I am still trying to find the right outlet for it.

Lets see, the blogable highlights:
I am taking the kids to my Dad's house this weekend. It should be a fun time.

My sisters are bothering (I know its in love) me about the kids' birthday parties. I guess I should get on the ball about that. Especially since Miss I's is less than 3 weeks away. I cannot believe she is almost three! She was acting every day of it today! Everything was a battle. "No Mama!" was her answer to just about everything. I am exhausted and its only 1:00. I think she isn't feeling well since she is actually sleeping right now.

We are doing our pumpkin carving tonight. Just in time to throw it away :) Isn't that naughty of me? Halloween is one of those holidays that I just don't get into. I could, but I really don't. I put out some decorations, get a pumpkin, but as for dressing up, well, not so much.

I have been helping in Bubbas class at school. I sure hope I can continue to do that kind of thing for both kids as they progress through school. It has been very interesting. I have a heart for the little boys. There are a couple girls in the class who have glommed on to me, but its the boys that need me. Thankfully there is enough of me to go around, since there are only 7 or 8 of them.

I have helped one little guy, E, for the past three weeks. I think at first he was a little afraid of me but we are getting to know each other a lot better. He is very black and white. If you tell him that a capital letter goes at the beginning of a line, he will put a capital letter at the beginning of the line, even if its in the middle of a sentence.

A light really went on for me working with him yesterday, so I hope we have some success this year. There is another one, L, that is kind of a live-wire, class clown kind of kid. He did so great yesterday sitting reading to himself that I forgot he was in the class. When I checked in with him, he was doing good and I asked if he would read to me. I totally expected him not to read well (I know, how bad is that?) turns out he reads a little better than Bubba! Thats what I get for judging a book by its cover!

And then there's work ... not much to say on that front.

And thats about it. The car needs a cleaning before we leave town on Friday, and this afternoon is probably my last chance. I better go get it done.

Reptiles

Some kind of Python
The Crocodile

The Reptile Man was a hit! He showed off several snakes, a turtle, lizards and a crocodile! Miss I, Bubba and I all petted the croc. He was only about 3 feet long. The kids reactions were so great, from squeals to laughter, and some were just kind of in shock. Very cute. Miss I really enjoyed it "Daddy I go tee a take!" (Some day she will say all her letters right.)

The rest of the week is kind of busy, picture day and karate tomorrow, I have a Big Event at work on Thursday, snack day on Friday and its my work weekend.

Halloween is fast approaching and I think I have it figured out for the kids. Miss I inherited some pretty dresses from Auntie Shel. Bubba wants to be a black spider. What if they are Little Miss Muffet and the Spider Who Sat Down Beside Her? Cute?

I am probably going to take them to My Dads for trick or treating. They have an event each year in their neighborhood where the cars line up and they decorate them. I wonder how to tie the car theme in with the kids? Maybe a spider web? How would you make a "tuffet"? Anyway.

I also broke down and signed up on Facebook. Honestly, I have no idea what to do over there! Why you ask? Well, it all has to do with a 20 year class reunion. And that's all I am gonna say!

Change

The morning sun was shining through a crack in the curtains illuminating a vase of sunflowers I had on the kitchen table on Sunday morning.

More change is in the air. Miss I has all but stopped taking naps. Its the dread of every parent when the kids cease to nap. I screws up the schedule. Thankfully she will still rest in her room for an hour or so, but she's done with sleeping. Now I have to find stuff to fill the time.... Today we are going to go to the school for their assembly with the Lizard Guy - or what ever he is called. Reptile Man, that's it. More on that later.

Am I crazy?

One of the things I wanted to find on my trip was a new purse. I had success, but at a high price.

There is an outlet mall here in Lincoln City. One of the stores is "Coach." As we walked by I said "There is no way I would spend $200 on a purse." But there was something that drew us into the store. I think it was the crowd. Seriously, there had to be at least 150 people in this store. For why we wondered, so we checked it out.

Have you ever been into a Coach store when they are having a sale? Well its like Nordstrom's half yearly sale. There was this electric buzz, women and men in a line that snaked 3/4 of the way around the perimeter of the store, not to mention the zig-zag at the check out.

EVERYTHING was at least 30% off PLUS, if you bought a $1 coupon (that went to breast cancer research) you got an EXTRA 25% off. NO KIDDING. Me, I like the close out section myself, and I found a cute little purse and started to stand in line. And we stood there and inched our way up to the register ... 45 minutes later. (Un)fortunately I found a little black number like the closeout one and a matching wallet and something for My Honey. Over $200 later, but not for just ONE purse, I finally got out of there. Crazy I tell you. Simply crazy.
Cute aren't they?

For a girl who never carried a purse regularly until maybe 10 years ago that's quite a purchase. I better take good care of them!

South on The 101

Boiler Bay
Yaquinta Lighthouse
Near a pottery shop in Lincoln City

If I had only known

THAT is dinner. All homemade. Even the rolls! What you can't see is the pork roast that had to be "braised" what ever the hell that is!

I am being spoiled like you wouldn't believe here! I don't know how I will go back to macaroni & cheese, hot dogs and chicken nuggets. Oh wait, yes I do, I will be the one cooking, so its out of the box, easy stuff on my menu!

These women are amazing. Pies! I only have pie at holidays and that is because someone else made it. Home made rolls, same thing. My mother-in-law makes rolls for holidays and I scarf them down like candy! "Braised" pork roast ... riiiiiiight. Not in my house. If it has some kind of marinade its the one that came on it in the package. Sad, I know.
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I headed south toward Newport today. I had to stop at the Rogue Brewery for more Dead Guy Ale. Guess what happened there? They were having a Columbus Day sale. I bought a different variety, Dads Little Helper, instead of Dead Guy Ale this time (since it was 1/3 the price). And I found one more reason to love the Rogue Brewery, they thought I was 27! HA! I haven't been 27 in over 10 years. I love those guys. The guy serving beer samples studied me hard, asked me if I was 21 and then guessed me at 27. Yeah, I love those guys!
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AND, Oregon. I don't know what to do when they pump my gas. Do you tip the guy, do you wash your own windshield? What do you do? I hate feeling helpless and that's how the gas attendants make me feel. I am used to pumping my own stinking gas and I don't know what to do when someone else does.... Its just so weird.
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Ahhhhhhhh

THAT, my friends is my path to the beach! Actually its a spit, but same difference, right? Its just a few yards away from our deck!

I made it, even though my internal compass is screwed up. Thank goodness for the one in my rear view mirror! Seriously, south feels east to me and west feels north, I am totally unreliable to get myself someplace!

There is a hot tub, there is quietness, there is a TV, if I so desire (which I don't) and books. Chairs by the windows looking over the spit to read the books in, and a second house where there is a lot more activity going on if I want a break from the quiet. There are also several outdoor fire pits. I am pretty sure we're gonna have a fire one of these nights, just gotta get us some dry wood and pray for a clear night. Last night would have been perfect but we weren't prepared. Oh yeah, and internet access.

Preparation

Camera - check
iPod - check
Batteries - check
Wine & beer - check
Cash - check
Phone - check (in fact its brand spanking new!)
Books - check
Books on tape/cd - check

What have I got left to do?
Pack- still waiting on laundry to be done
House cleaned up - not gonna happen :) Well, some of it will, but I am not going to do a huge cleaning, the kids and My Honey are staying home.
Clean out the car, pack the car
Haircut, that happens at 2, but I think that's it. Oregon Coast, here I come.

Happy Fall

Sunnybank Farms, Lake Chelan, WA
Sunnybank Farms, Lake Chelan, WA

Nefarious Cellars, Lake Chelan, WA


What a great weekend!

My sister arrived safe and sound on Friday evening. We had dinner, got my kids to bed and then went to get our cousin from my Mom's house.

The three of us went to my favorite wine bar and had some wine and great conversation! It was amazing how much the three of us have in common. I learned some fun stuff about my sister, and lots of things about my cousin.

She lives in southern Oregon and we don't get to see each other much. When we were kids we saw each other a few times a year, then her family moved to Minnesota. We kept in touch by mail off and on through school. It was a treat to spend a lot of time with her this weekend.

Saturday, my sister and I picked up the rest of the girls (Cousin, Sister and Auntie) and we all went to Lake Chelan for wine. Lots of wine. I was actually wined-out by dinner if you can imagine.

We visited six wineries and then came back to town. It was a lot of fun. There are some beautiful wineries, some po-dunk wineries and some average wineries. I only bought a bottle at one of them. I REALLY wanted to like with wine at Vin du Lac, because their labels are so cute, but it really wasn't that great to me. It was "earthy" and we had a few more descriptive words, but I don't want to dis them too bad, someone out there likes them!

All in all, it was a great start to my vacation! My cousin reminded me at the first winery that I was on vacation, I am still having trouble remembering. Come Tuesday, when I start to pack I should be pretty well there!

Ahhhh

My work day usually ends at 3 provided someone isn't out sick or on vacation.

Today I had a meeting at 1, so I was scheduled off the floor. The meeting was canceled, which was fine, but I just kept thinking of all the things I could do with 2 hours ... Grocery shopping being number 1. It's not that big of a deal, I really should have done it yesterday, but just didn't get it done and it was stressing me out, "When am I going to get it done? Tonight is Karate, tomorrow I will have to take both kids to Safeway AND Costco. UGH." So now its done. I made a menu at work for the next two weeks, planning easy stuff for the days I am out of town and even remembered to plan for this weekend while LK is here! Took the time off, hit Safeway and Costco (alone) got it all put away and had time to spare before Bubba was out of school! I may even walk down and pick him up instead of drive ... I know, "what a stud!" :)

Two more work days! Yay

Plans

Only 3 work days left till I am on vacation! That is if I don't lose my voice first. I had a sore throat last week for a couple days, no biggie, I worked through it, but now my voice is totally froggy. No, more like a 12 year old boy whose voice is changing. Hopefully (?) I have enough voice to get me through the next three days. If not, oh well, at least I will "feel" fine while using sick time, I just won't sound great! Its the weirdest thing when my voice does this. I remember all through school when it happened to other people (you know when they would get laryngitis, or yell at a football game till they were hoarse) what a bummer it was that it never happened to me. Now its my turn. And I didn't even go to a football game or anything. Just a change in the season or a cold that caught hold of my throat somehow. Oh well.

My weekend plans are coming together! LK and my cousin will be here Friday! Yay! Several of us are planning a drive to Lake Chelan to visit the wineries. There are 13 of them, not that we are going to visit them all, but maybe 4 or 5. OOOOH, and its "crush" time with special events going on the first weekend of October, lucky us!! That should work out to be fun.

Vacation plans are all set. The house is rented, I just have to check the weather and pack. Kids are all taken care of while I am gone (My Honey took a couple days off work) but I should plan some meals. And that's about it. Hopefully there will be internet access this time and I can post the hundreds of photos I am going to take!

Fall into ...

Well, it came and went. The first day of fall. It was a windy, cold day here. Didn't get above 60 degrees. Makes me sad. I hate to see summer end. Oh well, I do have a lot to look forward to this last quarter of 2008.

For instance, starting October 4th I am on vacation from work for 10 days (I know, "again?" How lucky am I?) 5 of which I will actually spend ON VACATION, with a gaggle of girls, in Oregon for our Second Annual Female Family Gathering. Yay! My cousin will be in town for part of the days I am off, and my sister (LK) may come over too. That will be a great time, my sisters, my cousin and I ... oh yeah!

The part of the trip I am most looking forward to? Taking the jeep, my ipod and whatever music I want for the drive down. Alone. All by myself! And then the return trip, the jeep, my ipod, my music, all by myself. I am also looking forward to seeing the relatives, getting to hang with the girls I don't see very often, sampling some yummy wine and taking some great photos - weather permitting. My plan is to drive down through the Columbia River Gorge, it was so beautiful when I came back last year, but I was in a hurry and couldn't stop to enjoy it, or I would have been late for dinner!

In November I have another 10 days off work at Thanksgiving. We are making our bi-annual trip to Guemes Island to spend the holiday there with my Dad, his wife and her family. It is always a good time. And of course we have birthdays in November; my mother and father in-law, Miss I, and me, plus Bubba in December and Christmas. So this 4th quarter should keep us pretty busy. Not to mention work, school, karate, and I was thinking that Miss I might like to be in either a swim or dance class ...

(See girls, I just needed a little encouragement, now you can't shut me up!)

Encouragement

Thanks Girls! With that little bit of encouragement in the comments, I will tell the Cowboy story. (PS I am totally jealous of LK quitting her job, but on the other hand, that means I get to see her more!)

Last week ... lets see, where to start? My Honey was going out of town Thursday through Sunday for a golf tournament with a group of guys so we had to do some creative planning to get the kids taken care of. Since I work at 5 am, we asked his mom to keep the kids overnight Wednesday and Thursday, she was a lifesaver, as usual, and helped us out tremendously. (Thanks Mom V!)

Wednesday was Bubba's Karate class. Afterward we were headed home to get his overnight stuff and then to Grandmas to sleep over. As we were driving home I was reviewing my expectations of when we got home, I had a hot date with My Honey at 5:30 and didn't want to be late because Bubba was lolly-gagging around the house.

"We are going to go home, you change your clothes, get your backpack with the overnight stuff in it while I make your lunch and grab the snacks for class tomorrow. No fooling around, we need to get it done pretty quickly okay?" That was pretty much my instructions to Bubba. This is the conversation that followed:

"Oh yeah, mom, I forgot I have a date tonight." (Oh, here we go, I thought.)
"A date? With whom?"
"With ML."
"Really, well, we aren't going to be home tonight remember?"
"Oh yeah, that's right... She is going to come to grandmas for dinner."
"Okay, well we still need to get that stuff done so we can get to grandmas"

... these kinds of conversations are pretty regular when he is trying to get out of something, I don't know where he gets that creative bent (ha ha ha) and its usually all I can do not to laugh out loud at his outrageous imagination! ...

"Well, I want to dress nice, is that okay?"
"Sure, as long as it doesn't take too long." (Always focused on the task at hand.)
"And I want to do my hair nice too." (Hair, oh no ...)
"Well, why don't you do your hair at grandmas?"
"Okay."

At this point we are near home, I repeat my directions to him and we're off.

After he rummages around upstairs getting ready, he comes down and says to me "Mom, how do I look? I decided to go like a cowboy"

I really should have taken a picture! I nearly did, but I was focused on the task at hand ...

He was wearing camouflage rain boots with jeans tucked into them, a white long sleeved, button up shirt with red and blue pinstrips (the one you gave him for Christmas LK), that is nearly too small, untucked, a blue fleece vest, that is at least 2 sizes too small, and to top it off (no pun intended) a blue and red straw hat. He was so pleased with himself. And it was so cute! I really regret not taking a picture. Seriously I can't even do him justice by describing it! I told him he looked awesome and we were off to grandmas.

Funny, funny kids, that's what I have! I don't take nearly enough time to enjoy them. I am trying, it just doesn't always come naturally.

The rest of the week was just as chaotic, I picked Bubba up from school on Thursday, he had a Karate promotional test, which he did very good at. And then back to the school for open house night. His teacher did a great job of telling us all the stuff they are doing, she had a fun little scavenger hunt so the kids had to tell us about a few corners of the class room, show us the music room, the reading and computer labs. And then back to grandmas.

Friday I picked up Bubba from school, Miss I from grandmas and we were off for two nights at my Dad's house. It was really nice to get away for a couple nights.

Miss I didn't even seem phased that she hadn't slept at home in 2 days, or seen much of me. She was perfectly content to "pen da nye ah gam-ahs. I booked home and packed ... I took the kids to Issaquah for the weekend. So all in all its was a pretty busy week! Hopefully it will calm down a little this week!