Just Me!!

We celebrated Fathers Day for Mark after the fact because I had to work the weekend prior. He chose to pack us up and head for Port Townsend for the night! We seem to be able to relax a little more when we are out of the house together! We started listening to our first family book in the car on the way up there. Great characters already for a Sci Fi book;). We stayed at the Waterstreet Hotel for 58.00! Great deal! I will post more pics of my crazy 13 year old swimming in Port Townsend's cold waters tomorrow.

School is over and keeping these kids busy might take some work! We completed our Summer Bucket list which I included on the side bar. I don't limit the kids on the number of submission but I do ask that they also include some of their own aspirations. They all had great suggestions, except Charlie's which was all about eating chocolates and marshmallows. I will add those in a different post and maybe on my side bar. Monopoly is one of the kids' favorites. We do STAY home at times and it is usually the first thing suggested after I make everyone do their chores. Our last game took 3 hours and Val bankrupted everyone! Whoever wins gets to sign the board (this rule came from whoever owned this board before we bought it at Goodwill) in whatever fashion they want. We love that the kids are to this stage but feel bad that Charlie has to hang out while we do big boy and girl "stuff" too. She usually ends up playing with the extra board tokens, and managing the housing ...

Kept Kylie for an over night on Sunday. She enjoyed watching Charlie's swim lessons but she couldn't understand why she wasn't getting into the water with her. We spent the rest of the day at the zoo. They rode camels, saw sharks, fed budgies', and observed penguins. I wore them out so much, that when they got in the car they were asleep in three minutes! Best of friends,those girls are!

During my last stretch we had so much going on that I was exhausted by the end of it! There was Father's Day, our Anniversary, my new sleeping schedule on certain days, concerts to attend, and working around the kids' last few days of school. Thankfully I was LC'd for 4 Saturday night and was able to watch my baby dance through the whole Roman Holiday concert, and then 12 on Monday night for our Anniversary! My present for my Anniversary...12 hours off work! Best present in the world is time with my honey! We ate at the Olive Garden and then came back home and enjoyed catching up on SYTYCD.

Last week we took time to enjoy the one wonderfully sunny day we had in Tacoma. Kat, I, and all the kids went to Wright's Park to enjoy their recently built spray park. We had a great time chatting, laughing and watching the kids play. We brought snacks and drinks and hung out for nearly two and a half hours. I really enjoy spending time with my brother's girlfriend. She is a great match for him. Nice to see him happy. The men, Jeremy and Mark were spending time golfing, drinking, and movie watching with Chris Slaughter. They deserved a night off. Val resisted going into the spray area for about a half an hour, until she couldn't stand it anymore. She said, "Mom, I'm getting too old for that." We left the park with her soaked from head to toe. Funny girl!

18 years ago I married my best friend and love of my life....

Charlie is working on her 2nd month at Kinder Swimmer. The prices are crazy high, but the instruction and set up is great. She is starting to use her hands more and should be getting close to using one foam piece on her back soon. She looks forward to our Monday mornings more than I do. Side note...two and a half days left of school...yeah!!!

Our weekend was busy, but fun. Char, grandma, and I went shopping in Olympia at the massive Blue Willi's sale. I Purchased a cute long sleeve shirt,and have big plans to get skinny so that next year I can rake in the savings and plump up my closet. They have really cute clothes and very stylish, plus they seem to be very age appropriate for this soon to be 40 year old. I would feel sexy and sophisticated in Ilse Jacobsen's clothes. After shopping (had to drag my four year old from the store;) we drove back to Tacoma and stumbled across a freestyle motocross-show (FSX) in the parking lot of Tacoma Mall. Charlie begged to stop and watch, so we did. Those guys are crazy, and brave. The flips and somersaults were incredible. Our tasty bite at Jimmy Johns concluded the day. Saturday evening we piled the kids up in the car and headed to Maple Valley Days for a Ben Union concert. The kids love his music as much as we do, and he is rarely in a kid friendly place, so we knew we couldn...

When I work off Sunday mornings I hate to go home, wake everyone up and kick them out of bed, so I can curl up and go to sleep! So this particular morning the water was calling for me. I grabbed a latte, my clunky purse, and headed out to walk Schuster Park Way! Surprising enough I survived without being killed or raped! My mom instilled in me this fear that if I went anywhere alone, especially in a secluded place I would most likely be nabbed, stolen, and never seen again. Somehow my sister doesn't harbor this childhood fear! So with her will power I drove to the waterfront. The morning was crisp, cool, and filled with silence. How refreshing;) I walked, prayed, and spent time listening to nature. Thinking I might make this a ritual and a routine....

I had big plans for gardening this year, and even purchased my veggie starts on my last stretch off, but I put off the planting because I wanted to do it all at the same time. Bad idea! My plants suffered for it. Last Wednesday, while I felt a cold coming on, we rented a roto tiller and started in on ripping out our side yard. We tilled, removed dirt, weeds, grass, flattened out the dirt, put black plastic down, and covered the side yard with 7/8 in rock. Mark even created me another garden box for my squash. My brother was a huge help, and we were able to finish it all in a days work. We also purchased Tegro planting soil and freshened up the back yard with it. My plants are mad at me for not planting them right away, and in the process of waiting to plant them, I've misplaced some seeds that I just purchased. After all that, now I just have to sit back, and wait to see if my plants are forgiving enough to grow this year.