Just Me!!

Yesterday I celebrated my 39th birthday. I don't like to get older but my wise daughter said yesterday, " Mom, you're going to get older anyhow so you might as well enjoy it!" True, true. I slept until 330p and then got up to a wonderful smelling chocolate Paleo cake. It was so yummy. We ate the whole thing before dinner, and then were so full that we didn't even need dinner. The cake apparently had 10 eggs in it! My husband spent the entire day running around for ingredients, cards, and gifts. What a wonderful man I have. He bought me my whole sidebar wish list...

My sister Shannon wrote in her last blog post, " I've been a basket case. Up and down. Some of the stress is caused from my job , had to work all 40 hours this week plus an extra 3 to fix a big mistake. It was hell. Not a good way to start off the week. Some stress is probably related to my obsessive compulsive behavior about having everything just right. " I just read my sister's blog post and decided to copy it so I could paste it here. It is so funny how much we are alike. Our crazy moments of control must've come from my father. I think. My mom is so easy going, and loves everyone. Don't get me wrong, my dad is awesome but he is a little crazy about tidiness in the house when we were growing up. So we MUST get it from him. Tonight, of all nights, the crazy angry person came out of the woodwork. It started with the laundry. I swear it is always full, never completed, and a constant battle. PLEASE. I ended up folding my daugthers' dirty clothes, and ha...

Slept with the girls last night. Waking up to them was wonderful. Charlie leaned over and gave me a great big good morning kiss. The girls laid in bed and watched a little Dora until Ryan joined us, then it was all running, giggling,and screaming;) After breakfast at 1pm, we headed out to the slopes. We found sledding hills right in Roslyn, across from the town square. Charlie tolerated one ride down the slopes, and the other kids ended up trying different sleds just to see which one would catch the most air. Charlie, I, and Valerie made a Mr. Snowman while Ethan practiced his best ever air jump. Caught on tape. Awesome. We topped off sledding with a yummy hot chocolate (I had tea) at Mountain Mermaid. Great coffee shop, friendly service. Valerie begged and offered money if I would get her a lemon bar. I didn't. She understands, but wasn't too happy. Thirteen days of Paleo down. They can make it, minus the hot chocolates. He hee! Mike grilled us all steaks, broccoli and carrot...

First full day off with my family. I talked(forced) the family into a "romantic" snowy day walk. Little did I know the snow was pretty much ice, and the streets were full of water puddles! We ended up walking to Angelea's and enjoyed some tea, coffee, and hot chocolate(for my kids who have been great with their new Paleo diets). We had a better time of it walking back because we took the side streets and shortcuts home. As soon as we arrived we began packing for our spur of the moment trip to Roslyn Wa. My sister asked us to go with them to stay in a cabin and spend time this weekend playing in the snow! I was ready to go! When I'm done with my work week, I just Want to get away! Mark was unable to make it because he had to teach classes on Saturday morning! We miss him terribly! Hey, the hot tub is calling your name hon! We made it over the pass.... Very proud of the Independent woman I've become....he hee!!!

The news has been warning us of this impending storm for nearly a week. It finally hit us Tuesday night around 1am. The girls at work watched Komo 4 Doppler to see the storm creep towards our region. Our HUC even went home so that she didn't have to drive in the storm. The snow didn't stop our labor checks from coming in...guess babies don't care how cold it gets, or how bad the roads are. The hospital always fails to clean off the side roads and it causes major problems for nurses when we try to go home. I think they deliberately do this so that we will stay at the hospital and be available to work extra, or so that we don't call in sick for the next shift. I wasn't going to stay and sleep on first medical, where they saved us a block of rooms. My mom graciously said she would pay for a room at a hotel (as she heard me screaming at another car, "you better not slide into me!").I made it home though. Cops were in the ditches, cars were parked on the freew...

December 31st...Ringing in the New Year together. Tacoma put on their annual New Years celebration, and we participated this year. We purchased our buttons at the Tacoma Art Museum. The buttons allowed us to spend all day at the TAM, and the Museum of Glass. It was our first trip to the MOG, and we didn't spend nearly enough time walking around before it closed for the evening. We spend about an hour in the Hot Shop watching a vase that was designed by the MOG patrons, be created. Very awesome, and full of details by the creators. After everything closed we headed to the festivities in Tacoma where they were not short of concerts, parades, cartoon drawings, and various dancing from break to Irish tap (oh and let's not forget the larger belly dancers that danced without inhibitions). We had a chance to catch a quick mini concert of one our favorite bands, Roman Holiday. I will say that Ben Union could rock those boys out the door! He He! One of the funniest moments was having V...

Christmas is always very busy, so by the time it is over I usually go crazy and crave time away from the house, with the kids and Mark. Since Mark loves the Ocean, we headed to Ocean Shores for two nights. It was so relaxing, minus the beds at the Hotel. We walked on the beach, shopped, and ate out one time at the local Mexican restaurant we love. We played a couple games in the room, swam at the Sheraton, and visited the Christmas House display in the lobby. We don't always spend a ton of money, but these quick vacations are Very important to our family. It helps us refocus, regroup, and reconnect. I wish I'd have blogged about this, sooner because I am sure I had more to write. Lessons learned: Bring your own silverware if your bringing Cup o. Soup Shilo's beds suck Shilo's lattes are okay Prime Rib isn't available on the week days, only on weekend There is more to explore in this town than we originally thought

Christmas is always incredibly busy for us! Usually I have to work either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so Christmas Day it was! We attempted to pack ever bit of family time we had between the time of 0630a to 630p. We started with our Christmas promptly at 0630a. The kids were semi surprised at their gifts from Santa. Toshiba computers for the older kids and a PRINCESS bike for Charlie. Santa really came through this year! Mark was more than generous with his iPad2 gift to me! Love it,and hopefully will never have to wait for another PC to load blogger for me! I love APPLE, definitely an amazing product for the dollars spent! Thank you sooooooooooooooo much honey! 0930a-Promptly at the in laws for an awkward celebration. awkward because Mark's sister and brother in law don't have any respect for family. They sat in the living room the whole time, minus dinner, and barely talked to a soul! Disrespect like that will never be allowed from my kids, no matter how much I love th...