What's going on around here?

What has happened to my wonderful Northwest weather? One of my favorite things about living up here is the MILD weather! I kid you not... I even took a picture of the thermostat in my car after work today that said it was 112 degrees! (I may post later) OK, so it probably wasn't quite that warm, but it was definitely over 100 for sure.

I know what you're thinking... "You grew up in Georgia. What's a few days of 100+ degree weather?" Well, I'm acclimated to 60 degree weather and absolutely detest anything over 80! If I wanted heat like this, I would go on vacation to Arizona.

So, here I am getting ready to turn off my PC and go lay on the tile floor downstairs! There has to be a cool spot in this house somewhere and I'm determined to find it.

My prayer for tonight is the quick return of cool weather! I would give you all hugs, but I'm too sweaty... so SMOOCHES!

Happiness is making up for lost time…

I can’t believe I’m finding it so hard to put together posts during the summer.  I’m unbelievably distracted by a million other things lately.  I’ve got to get back into the swing.  This is the primary way my family gets to see pictures and see what’s going on with us and the way I learn more about some of my bloggy friends that I want to get to know more.

Right now, I’m typing away on my desktop keyboard which is once again attached to my laptop.  Mr. Chase has annihilated my laptop keyboard AGAIN!  Who would have thought he would have done this twice!  I didn’t bother taking more pictures of it this time, but here’s basically what it looks like, except remove about 15 more keys! Thankfully, they’re pretty easy to replace and only cost about $30.

Now, to the good stuff.  This was a super busy weekend for us.  The weather was amazing so I wanted to get out as much as possible.  I took Thursday off work.. Just Because!  Yeah Me!  I  spent the morning going to see Harry Potter, which was great.  I need to re-read the books before the last movie comes out.  I already forgot tons of stuff.  I’m a little sad that they’re going to make 2 movies out of the last book instead of one!  They’re just looking for ways to get $7 from me… over and over and over.  Friday, I spent the day with Jason and the little ones.  We made a day out of a trip to Bremerton to ride the ferry over to Seattle. It was Chase & Sydney’s first ferry ride. We were in no real hurry and really just took our time getting there.  We arrived about an hour before the ferry left, so we wandered around the Puget Sound Naval Museum for a bit. OK, so Jason and I chased the little ones through then entire thing and couldn’t wait to get out of there!  Why lie? 

The ferry ride was fun for everyone! It’s hard to see in the picture, but Mt. Rainier is just over the top of my head.  Gorgeous views!

Saturday we did like most people around here and spent a few hours downtown at Lakefair.  OK, so I wasn’t brave enough to take all 3 kids down to the food and rides, but they got to see their first parade.  (It was a big weekend of “firsts” for my little ones!)  Taylor’s girlfriend plays in the band and he asked to go, so we packed up the car and headed out.  We scored really good seats to watch all the floats, motorcycles, cars and horses.

There was also a guy walking down the street offering a free “Pie in the Face”.  The kids next to us were first in line.  I couldn’t get any of my kids to do it, but it was fun to watch.  (Notice the great placement of the balloons to you can’t see the guy at all!)

Taylor is becoming more and more handsome!

Chase waved at everyone!

What is Sydney doing??? Chase is still waving.

Well, that’s about it for pictures.  Sunday was another great day.  We made it to church and even decided to be somewhat social and stay afterwards for a BBQ.  It was *hot* outside.  I nearly melted!  My brain must have decided to take a siesta because it wasn’t until much later that night that I realized I’d left my crock pot of baked beans at the church!  Somebody pray it’s still there next Sunday!

If you’re not asleep yet from reading all that, you’re doing better than me.  I’m turning in!  Hope you all have a great week!

The Visit

It was such a hard decision to move so far away from my family 15 years ago.  In a year and a half, I had married, graduated college, had my first child and moved 3000 miles away from the only home I’d ever known.  Then, within 1 year of moving, my grandfather and cousin had passed away and my Dad had gone through a 6 bypass surgery. Needless to say it was a stressful time. 

Since then, I have really come to love my new home.  I’ve had lots of experiences (good and bad).  I’ve gone through a divorce, been a single mom for about 7 years, remarried, had two more children and moved a bazillion times.

Through all that, I’ve always had the loving, caring support of my parents.  My only sadness is that they don’t live closer and that my children haven’t had the daily interactions with them like what I had with my own grandparents. My kids are really missing out on some of the things that were my favorites growing up… spending the night at my grandparents, going to the GA mountains to see the leaves change with my grandparents, riding horses, spending time on the farm, and holidays with the entire family.

Well, I’ve re-written this about 20 times now and if I don’t go ahead and post it, I may never.  So, here’s a couple of pictures I took of my parents and my kids this past weekend.  I miss them already. I hope they know how much I love them and how grateful I am that God gave me the greatest parents in the world. 

 

On a Break

Yes, I've been on a break for over a week now. My parents surprised me last Monday with the news that they would be stopping by for a visit on Thursday. While this may not seem like a surprise to you, my parents live 3000 miles away and were driving to my home on their motorcycle. So, while I haven't been blogging, I have been very busy. We spent a couple of days getting our house cleaned up and ready for their visit and then spent Thursday through Sunday just visiting. I haven't seen either of them since last August. I plan to write more about their visit and post a pic or two, but tonight it's catching up on bills and all the other odds and ends around here.

Hope you're all having a great summer!

SOOC – Straight out of the Camera Saturday – Teenager in Action

It’s not that often that I actually catch Taylor in a photo, and it’s even less often that I catch him not texting, so this latest photo will have to do.

For more SOOC shots, visit Melody at Slurping Life!

We were walking around the track at the high school waiting for Taylor to finish up his last drive in Driver’s Ed. Jason and the little ones found the watering hole for the football players and decided to spray down innocent passerby's. Some of them seemed to enjoy it while others looked at us like we were crazy! (not SOOC)

Wishing you all a fabulous 4th of July! Be Safe!