Taylor’s first drive - Eeek!

OK, this may seem like a pretty standard picture, not very exciting, not a lot of creativity, but it’s fairly significant to me.

Taylor got his Learner’s Permit! It’s both exciting and scary for me. He takes everything in stride, so not a lot of outward excitement, but I could tell he was happy to start learning. He’s sort of smiling in the picture because he can’t believe I’m taking a picture of him while he’s trying to drive.

I’ve been asking if he wanted to take Driver’s Ed ever since he turned 15 and he never seemed interested… that is, until he girlfriend signed up for the class. Then, he couldn’t get signed up fast enough. Go figure. I’ve been replaced! I’m no longer the leading lady in my son’s life. Once again, exciting and scary for me!

After work today, I took him over to our church, which has several parking areas, plus a road going all the way around so that he could practice. After mastering that parking lot, we headed over to the Evergreen State College and he drove around campus a little. There were quite a few more cars out there, moving and parked. By 7:00, I decided we should head home. The native’s were getting restless in the back seat and wanted dinner.

I took over the wheel and drove out to the elementary school near our house and let Taylor drive the rest of the way home. You could tell he was a little nervous (although probably not more than me), but he did awesome! He’s got to put in 50 hours of drive time before his class ends in July, so we’ve already logged an hour and a half.

It’s FINALLY Saturday!

Even with the holiday on Monday, this week certainly hasn’t seemed shorter.  We’ve been so busy at home that I’ve fallen behind on my blogging and commenting.  Just so you know I haven’t been slackin’, here’s what we’ve been up to recently.

We’ve been dreaming of a garage/shop since the day we first put an offer on this house…. which was almost 4 years ago.  Since then, we’ve been storing our “junk” in one or more storage units.  In the past year, the storage unit has been so overrun with stuff, that’s it’s been more than a little difficult to find anything. I’ve missed my books and kid’s movies!

While we’re still not completely done with the garage, it’s finally time to move our stuff home.  Jason gave notice at both storage unit places and we’ve been on a deadline this week to get moving.  We had to empty one by Wednesday and the other by today. It’s amazing how a deadline can move things along!

Here’s a before picture of our backyard, taken last summer just after Jason setup the kids’ awesome playset and cleared the spot for the garage.

Here’s what it looks like now. Keep in mind that it’s not done, but my point here is to show that we’ve been busy!

I also thought it might be fitting to show Jason after a hard two days of priming and painting. You now he’s just going to be SO flattered that I posted this pic.  : )

What’s up for this weekend you ask?  Well, it started out with chocolate chip pancakes that I made for the kids… which I later learned tasted like total poop.  (I don’t want to know how they know what poop tastes like!) And, I’m currently hanging out at Sydney’s dance class.  She has a performance in June, so we’re not allowed to see what they’re practicing, so I might as well get caught up on my blog, right?

I Heart Faces - “Silhouette”

I tried several different ideas for this week’s contest. I live at the bottom of a steep driveway and our yard it surrounded by trees, so getting low enough to get under my subject was challenging, but fun at the same time! I finally caught this pic of Chase on his swingset in the backyard.

If you’d like to join in on the fun, hurry out and capture a silhouette and post it over at I Heart Faces, or just check out all the other great photos!

My new favorite blogging tool! Windows Live Writer

I’ve been blogging for a few months now and I may be the only one doing this, but typing in that little box and uploading photos that mess up my spacing is driving me insane.  I have also noticed for awhile now that many of my photos that look crystal clear in Adobe Photoshop Elements are quite blurry once I post them.  I’ve looked at several other blog sites and found that their pictures are much more clear than mine.  I finally got up the courage to ask someone what they were doing.  This tip was given to me by Angie over at The Arthur Clan.  She’s co-founder of another blog that I’ve fallen in love with… I Heart Faces.

I’m currently typing this in Microsoft Windows Live Writer. It takes a little bit of time to download and install the program, but I’m typing in a screen that looks just like my live blog.  Flower border and green in the middle.  I can actually see both paragraphs as I type. And, the coolest part of all, once I upload a picture I can click and drag a corner to resize it instead of editing the HTML.

If you’re all smarter than me, you’ve already found a cool tool to use and it’s just me that’s behind the learning curve, but if you’re not and you’ve been doing it the same way I was, let me know and I’ll send you the link where you can download the software.  This is only my second post using it and did I mention that it’s AWESOME!!!

Thanks again Angie!

SOOC – Time out with my favorite Girl!

Here’s my submission for this week’s SOOC over at Slurping Life. On Saturday, after dance class, Sydney and I went to the salon and got pedicures. It’s so much fun to hang with my favorite girl. This was her first pedicure. She got her nails done, too. Luckily, she’s 1/4 of the price, so it’s not too crazy to take her.

Sydney picked out her own polish, so I thought I’d share her lovely nails with everyone. Aren’t they just the cutest?

All Dogs Go To Heaven

Tonight we had to say goodbye to Jason's buddy of 13 years, Bo. While my heart just breaks for Jason and his loss, I just felt compelled to celebrate Bo's life and share the things I will remember and miss most about him.




Bo ...

Was a sock lover, but not an eater...

Had to be the biggest, heaviest lap dog I've ever seen...

Was the stinkiest farter on the planet... (ok, not sure I'll miss that part)

Was a bigger bed hog than Jason...

Made me feel safe when he was around....

Loved fetching a ball and always wanted to play...

Loved playing in the water... and riding in Jason's truck...

Loved to be where ever we were and followed us from room to room...

Chased rabbits in his sleep... (at least that's my guess...)

Would pop tires if given a chance (pressure washer tires, bicycle tires, whatever)

Thought Taylor was a chew toy once when Jason was holding him up in the air...

Could "Sit, Down and Rollover" with one command... SIT.

Had the silliest grin I've ever seen on a dog... always made me laugh...



Bo will be forever missed.

True Story Tuesday - The Things Teenagers Do

Just thought I'd share a blast from my past. You may have to be from a really small town to know that this is fantastic fun when there's nothing else to do after 10:00 at night on the weekends! (My parents said the only thing you could find after that time was trouble! - and they were probably right.)

I'm sure most of you have been TP'd someones house before, known someone who has or at least seen someones handiwork. I don't know why when I was in high school, we felt the need to twist even the most common traditions. In my class, the funny thing was using Saran Wrap to wrap someones car doors shut or in extreme cases, Fork someones yard.

On one particular night, I slept over at my best friend Serena's house. I'm not sure how we knew, but we had the sneaking suspicion that the boy's (there were 3 of them... and I can't believe I'm so old that I can't remember who it was. If I had to guess, it would be Fred, Tommy and Jim) were going to TP her house. We kept the lights off and periodically checked to see if we could catch the boys in the act. By midnight we guessed they must have changed their minds.

That was... until we looked out one last time and just saw streaming toilet paper in all the trees right outside Serena's bedroom! I'm still totally baffled as to how we didn't catch them. We ran out the front door to survey the damage and that's when we saw it.... they'd forked her entire front yard. I wish I had a photo because it's something you'd almost have to see to believe. They had bought boxes of plastic forks, spoons and knives and stabbed them all over her yard, circling the flower beds and lining the sidewalk. There's nowhere you could have walked in their front yard without stepping on a utensil. (It must be a great aerator!)

Serena's Mom came out and told us to get to work cleaning it all up. By now it must be 1 or 2am. By the time we'd picked it all up, we had a Piggly Wiggly (here's a link in case you've never heard of Piggly Wiggly) paper sack full! After much begging and pleading, Serena's Mom gave us about a 1/2 hour to go out and get our revenge. We forked all 3 boys lawns in one night, which must have been a record! We broke all the utensils in half so we'd have enough to sufficiently cover all their yards. It was "classic"!

OK...maybe you had to be there.

Sorry Mom & Dad... this is probably the first you've heard about this. ; ) I'm sure my kids will do worse!

If you have a True Story you'd like to share, head on over to Once Upon A Miracle!