Halloween

Life has been so busy I'm hardly ever even on the computer. It's a little late to post Halloween but it's better late than never. I have wanted to make a tutu for Faith for a long time. With Halloween coming I took the opportunity. My neighbor was making one for her daughter but had limited sewing experience. She tried telling me what she wanted but I just couldn't see it. After looking on the internet for patterns, even looking at the adorable tutu that Kati had made for her daughter she had something different in mind. We went to a little shop in Snohomish where she had seen the ones she liked. I totally loved them and decided to use the same idea for Faith's. It was more sewing than other tutus but Faith's turned out so well I just had to make one for my neice Harlie and sent it off to get it to her just in time for her to wear it to school. She was so excited to have a costume made from her aunt Sara. Ethyn dressed up as Batman and Abram a skeleton. When I pulled the Halloween box out Abram had to pull out every costume that would fit him and try it on. He still wears the fireman outfit every day and insists he is going to dress up as a fireman for Thanksgiving. I have tried to explain to Abram that we don't dress up for Thanksgiving but true to Abram's personality he won't be swayed. He will be a fireman for Thanksgiving. Silly boy!!!

The kids on the porch just before we set off for the evening.

Our first stop for the evening was to stop and visit my Great Great Uncle Lenard and his wife Aunt Millie. It was good to see them and it was the first time I had seen her out of their apartment. I also realized, while we had all visited them at one time or another we had never been to visit them all together as a family. I had also never taken a picture of him so this one is a picture we will treasure. For those who don't know him, he is my Great Grandmother's youngest brother that just happened to move into our ward when we lived in Everett. I had never met him before. He is one of those great miracles in our families life and a direct blessings from moving here to Washington.

After leaving their apartment I decided I really didn't want to risk the rain or freeze (though it did end up staying mostly dry and was unseasonably warm, a miracle for the greater Seattle weather). We heard an ad on the radio for trick or treating at the Everett Mall. We'd never done anything like that so we went. It was great!!! Faith even got a Barbie movie from the radio station because she let them take a picture of her.

This was our ode to to Twilight (due out later this month). I am so excited to see it. I'm currently rereading Breaking Dawn for the fifth time

Chehalis and Portland

After the park and beach we went down to Chehalis to visit my great aunt and uncle. Aunt Len was getting ready for girls camp the next week so I she put me to working finishing their flag. We went on a drive to see the damage from the floods this past winter. Remember when 5 miles of freeway were under water? She was put in charge of the shelter at their ward building. Most things have now been fixed but the free way is still being worked on.

The next morning the kids and I drove to Portland. We went to the Oregon Zoo. We were supposed to meet up with Ann Gray at the zoo. I couldn't reach her on her phone and I couldn't find her anywhere. BOOHOO!!! I was so looking forward to seeing Shelby and catching up on life with her. We hadn't seen her in almost a year. We did enjoy the zoo but I didn't get any pictures because I still didn't know where the camera charger was.

We left the zoo at 5:30, can you say rush hour? I needed to find a laundromat to wash Abram's sleeping bag, I don't know my way around Portland, and it's rush hour. Thank heavens for the internet and map programs on computers. Even with all that I got lost 3 times and accidentally ran a red light just trying to find the Walmart. While at the checkout in Walmart I noticed I left my checkbook, including anything to pay for my purchases, in the car. I finally got out of Walmart and spent the next 1 1/2 hours trying to find a laundromat about 3 miles from the Walmart. I found it just in time so they wouldn't close before I was done WHEW!!! We finished the load just in time to get to the airport to pick up Heath only 2 minutes late. Who would have thought it would take 5 1/2 hours just to wash a sleeping bag? Not an adventure I want to repeat.

We were officially now on our trip to California.

The Start of a Big Trip

In July we took a big trip to Southern California. My parents had gotten a 'trial' timeshare. My mom so wanted to have the whole family together on vacation. But alas, life happened. My youngest brother is on his mission to Charlotte, NC, my other brother and his wife were working their summer away to prepare for the next college semester (they are transferring to the University of Idaho so needed more money) and my sister's husband had some more tumors show up (In April 2005 he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma) and would have to be in Maryland at the National Cancer Institute for another treatment (his worst yet). With all this I didn't have the heart to tell mom we wouldn't/couldn't go.

Heath was supposed to be in St. Louis for his annual training on the day we were supposed to leave. After checking Priceline for flights we found it would actually save $10 plus 1 trip to the airport if we packed up and all left the morning he flew out to St. Louis. The kids and I would spend that day and the next having fun and visiting my great aunt and uncle in Chehalis. We would pick up Heath in Portland the next day.

I have no idea how we fit everything we packed into that van. We should have gotten a picture but the idea never occurred to me until now. So, on Thursday we dropped off Heath and drove to Olympia. In Olympia there is this park that has trails down to the beach. On the beach there are sand dollars everywhere and I am not exagerating. We just happened to get there at the perfect low tide. What are the chances of that?!?!?!?! How lucky!!! I showed the kids how to tell whether they were still alive or not so they could throw the live ones back into the water. After picking up about 50 of them (I am not kidding) for keepers I told the kids over and over we had enough.

After picking up all the shells and running through all water and muck we sat on the beach to eat lunch and so the kids could 'write in their journals.' I don't know why that was so exciting to them but they loved doing this all week. I had picked up a spiral notebook for each of them at 5 cents a piece. Best 15 cents I ever spent. I gave me 5 minutes of peace and quiet. These were the only 3 pictures I got that day. The camera ran out of batteries and I didn't know where in that fully packed car the charger was put. This was just the start of our camera problems for the week.

The End of Summer??

It always amazes me how fast the summer passes. Where did it go? Every year I make a promise to myself that I just won't let it get away from me this year. I will lay on the lawn and watch the clouds. I will live up the sun and water. We will travel. We will go the the zoo, the beach, hiking, fishing, camping and everthing in between. Did it happen this year. Yeah for the most part we did all those things. . .but. . . it still seems the summer got away. Maybe no matter how good the summer is, it is still hard to let it go. Especially when this darn Seattle weather gives you the cold and rain the last week of vacation. I am going to try the next little bit to catch up on our busy summer.

I had planned to get that done this week but alas, the week got away from me with one bad thing after another. The vans transmission is going out EEEEERRRRRRRRGGGGGG!!! It would cost $4,000 to get it rebuilt. My sewing machine's timing went out in December and I forgot about it until this week when my ward is working on newborn kits for the humanitarian center. And the EQ Presidency was coming to visit and the house had to be cleaned (this was actually all in the same day). The EQ Pres. message turned out to be the bright spot. A scripture in 1 Nephi to gently remind me that Heavenly Father is at the head of our lives and to trust in him. So thank you EQP and Nana, the lesson goes on.

The New Place

The house here is not a whole lot to speak of. The spacing is weird, it's old, and it has a funky smell that I cannot get rid of no matter how much I clean and scrub. It reminds me too much of our first house. However, we are on 3 acres with a pond and a treehouse. Everything children dream about. They love catching snakes, slugs, tadpoles, frogs and salamanders. Ethyn seems to think he needs to keep them all as pets. EEK!!!! He even turned the old litter box into a place to put all the baby salamanders. I think these 3 kids are determined to drive me absolutely insane!!! Today the older 2 had come inside, I asked them, "Where's Abram?" "Playing on the porch with a snake." I walked out there thinking surely they are just teasing me. Nope, he was happily sitting on the porch playing with a 2 foot garter snake. I hate snakes. I absolutely HATE snakes and here my baby is playing with one.





With all the rain, comes all the slugs. The kids took a Costco milk jug and went out gathering up the slugs. The jug was 4 inches deep with slugs. They left it on the front porch, without a lid, last night. You can just imagine what Heath found when he stepped out this morning. About 20 or so slugs (the big 3-4 inch ones) crawling on the porch and a few headed up the front door, and yet there were still 2 inches worth left in the jug. EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! You can still see the trace of the trail they left behind. The picture below was actually taken at Heath's uncle's house in California.


They catch the cutest little tree frogs. Now, when I say small, I mean small. 2 of them were smaller than the tip of my pinkie. I do not care for frogs but these were just too cute and of course Heath had the camera. He always has the camera. One night Abram was supposed to change into his PJ's. He was acting funny, kinda worried about his pants. Turns out he had a 1 inch frog in his pocket. I'm not sure exactly what he planned to do with it and I'm not sure I really want to know. Needless to say, we have had many discussions on where these animals belong and where they don't belong.




There was I time years ago that I swore my children would never be into these things, especially my daughter, but eventually I gave that up and instead insist on bath time.

Back In Seattle Again

So it's a little late to post this but I moved back to Seattle the beginning of July. As I drove into town the tune 'Back in the Saddle Again' came to mind only I changed the words to "I'm back in Seattle Again". I don't know I thought of the similarity but I keep humming this toon over again. We are out in the country. While I do not like the house at all, the kids love it here. I will post more on the house later. Life has been so crazy since moving here. Trips to Southern California and Idaho, then Heath has kind of monopolizing the internet card.

Just for you nana!!!!!

Hello!!!! I'm alive!!!! Can you believe it!! Sorry, not funny. I don't mean to run out on everyone. Life just always seems to be busy. You can all thank nana for harrassing my husband enough to harrass me. Not that anyone really is watching for a new post anyway. Joke, ok not funny either.

I too am like what Whimsy wrote about in one of her posts. I write blogs in my head all day long. When I go to check everyone else's then write one myself, my mind goes blank. Nothing is interesting enough, I don't have a new baby to brag about, I don't have a crazy neighbor with wind-chime phobia, I don't have ducks nesting in my flower bed. It's just me in the country, back on a farm trying to keep my 3 crazy kids in line (not that I am ever actually able to get them in line). Sometimes I can come off a little negative. Sorry about that, I don't really mean too. For me vocalizing my frustrations helps me to enjoy the good stuff in life a little more.

So here goes: I am helping my parents build their house. This is something they have been working on for over a year now. You think it would be done now but they are literally doing it themselves. I guess you could say this is my time and season for learning hands on construction. I have learned how to wire a socket. Such a simple little thing we all use in our daily lives. I can actually wire one and I've gotten pretty fast at it (for me anyway). I learned how to install can lights. Mom and I laid the backer board for the tile in one day. About 2,000 screws. I cannot even tell you how much my back hurt that night. For the next 2 days I couldn't bend over. Mom thought it was quite funny. We haven't laid the tile yet as the water is not hooked up to the house yet. Dad is dragging his feet. My main responsibility is painting. I have learned a lot by trial and error on how to paint with tape and not have it bleed and how to get perfectly straight lines on the edges. Lame but I'm pretty excited about it. I'm pretty sure that by now half of whom ever is reading this has already gotten so bored they have switched to someone else's blog.

Once a week I mow my grandparents lawn. They are 79 & 82 years old. I love spending time with them and being able to help them. They just can't keep up with the yard and house anymore. I think in many ways my grandma is revitalized by me being here. I am pretty sure she has spent more time in the yard this year than in the last 2 years combined. I've always had a special bond with my grandma and grandpa. I think all the difficulties my family had with my dad's parents made me appreciate my mom's parents so much more. When I was younger I loved to spend the night at my grandparents house. I remember how much I loved putting on my grandpa's very large irrigating boots (they are almost too small now) and head to the barn to help milk the cows (at least I thought I was helping anyway). I remember waking up in the middle of the night a time or 2 because the cows had gotten out and had to be rounded up. I remember when we ran out of milk we didn't head to the store (who bought milk at the store anyway?) we grabbed a pitcher and headed to the barn and got it out of the tap on the huge vat. My grandpa taught me to drive a stick shift. I don't know how he ever kept his patience with me. No one has ever known my grandpa to be patient in any circumstance. My times with grandma were spent watching 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Little House on the Prairie'. She would tell me all sorts of stories about my ancestors. My favorite was always about the Holladay's being converted to the gospel, freeing their slaves and traveling with the Mississippi saints to Salt Lake. I get a lot of my personality from her. This time with my grandparents is reminding me about all these times I've been blessed to share with them and many more. I am truly blessed to have my children here with them. My great grandma Holladay died when I was 3. I very much remember her and treasure those memories. My children now have the opportunity to have these beautiful moments with their great grandparents. I love to watch my grandma as she sits on the porch and visits one one one with him. As I watched this scene play out one night I just stopped and felt the true blessings in that moment. It was almost like seeing eternity being played out right here before my eyes. A bridge between not only the gap between my generation and my grandmother's and mine but my sons and hers. A 69 year gap. I have many of these moments as I see my wonderful children interacting with my grandparents. This life I am living is far from easy but I do it because of these moments. I am truly grateful for my grandparents and the times they take with my children. They will never know how much they will affect my childrens lives.

So now I have rambled on and on. There is no way I can catch up on the last however long it has been. I will try to do better. I promise.

I should make one note however. I dearly love the Seattle area. I don't know exactly why, I can't put it into words. My favorite thing though would have to be the people there. I was born and raised her in Idaho but a part of my heart will always belong there in Washington. I found a true home there. Not the house/apartment we lived in but a place where I could truly be myself. We didn't have our families there but I found family never the less. My children had grandparents. I had true friends, the kind that you swear you've known forever, the kind that take care of you and watch out for you, soul sisters I guess you could say. I think part of the reason I didn't post sooner is that it just seemed too hard. I miss it there so much. I miss all of you.