Just Me!!

We are at the end of the month (with the same voice as Grover in The Monster at the End of this Book)! What a whirlwind. I'm getting older and days fly by faster (or maybe I'm just loosing time in my OLD age). I turned 43, Ethan turned 15, and Val is soon to darken the ripe old age of 17! For my birthday, I spent the day at the Spa with my sister (I returned today to repeat that well loved and craved activity), was taken out to birthday dinner by the kids, given new pots and pans from Mark and #thepioneerwoman, given a coupon for my Nail Salon by my parents, and received a gift card to my favorite restaurant Trappers, from my family. The kids have been extremely busy with school (yuck), sports, and mid winter breaks. Mark has been too. He has been commissioned to write a couple essays for a literature collection, and is gathering data to start a new novel! I CANT wait. Although I miss Kavi (his last character).  I am in limbo. Working, but possibly wanting to start something ne...

We are working on our bedroom finally! We have made small strides in the past such as the light above the bed, the bed itself, and the small recliner in our TV nook. At Christmas Mark purchased me my favorite rug for the tv room, and a set of three pictures of the boardwalk leading to the above water bungalows in Bora Bora. We have seen this set of pictures the last two years at the fair and have loved the peacefulness of them and had contemplated purchasing them, just never did. Now we own them and they are begging me to get them put up on the wall. I love them. They represent a time in the future when Mark and I will go to Bora Bora! I told him that I won't go till I get skinny so that I can wear a cute swim suit! They represent something to him too, I suppose! Anyways, I now have quite a few elements that are coming together to finish our room. Tomorrow I plan to spend some time at Bed Bath and Beyond searching for drapes and bedding. Offer up is also my go to store for cheap fu...

  I think this was the best venue for a birthday party since we started planning parties 16 years ago! It was so inexpensive and everyone loved it, even a few adults participated too. The kids got to skate for 4 hours, party in a private room for 45 minutes, and then they cleaned up everything for us. We provided the cake and they provided the pizza, pop, cups, plates, napkins, forks, and decorations! It was perfect! Charlie had all her "friends" there, which is her cousins, and she invited Owen. By the end of the skating session Charlie was skating without the white walker! She is amazing, fearless, smart, and beautiful. I am blessed beyond words!! There's nothing better than skating with friends and listening to good tunes...except maybe watching the Seahawks dominate the Cardinals while skating! Oh and it snowed on her birthday. She even got to sleep in the next day due to 2 hours late start. Charlie presents by memory: Doodle book Reading book Pink Flamingo ...

Happy New Years. Stole a few days away, for just US. Love these crazy kids and my handsome husband. We had a relaxing time of it. Toasted the New Year in right! Charlie even managed to stay up till 1245, although Ethan was snoring by 10p. He was gone the whole week prior at a soccer camp so he was exhausted! 

Charlie leaves out meat and cheese for HER Santa Ethan looking all awesome, starts with stockings! Blessed by these Three Charlies 1st Castle! Valerie's first Mate gourd with a Bombilla Valerie drew this free hand and colored it for me! A very special gift! My new Pandora Charm from Mark Eating with cousins at the kids table!  My first Christmas off in a long while. It was a quick day of trying to relax with the whole family. We did our Christmas early around 730-9, the Wegley's from 1000-2p, and then the Nagel's from 3p-7p! It was fun though. I had an awesome Christmas full of lovely, thoughtful gifts from the kids and Mark! At the Wegleys we chose names and gave a 15.00 gift and then something used from our homes. I got a beautiful colbalt bowl from Mark's mom that belonged to his Grandma Abston's mother! In our family the adults exchanged names and played the white elephant game! We had some great unique gifts and we all had fun exchanging and stealing gifts. The...

Mark's Christmas gift from me was two tickets to the Seattle Seahawks vrs the Cleveland Browns on December 20th.  Christmas came early for us both! We drove up, stopped in Bellevue to pick up Valerie's shirt, and parked near Quiajimia for the game. It's a pretty straight distance From there to the stadium. There was so much green and blue everywhere. We played around in the 12th hall before going in and even got a free picture taken near the fake 12 flag. It was my very first game and we were lucky to get face value tickets from Vicki's friend who hold season tickets. We had a blast.