FFF - 4/24/2009

Here's my Five for this beautiful week. I hope you get an opportunity to reflect on your FFF!

1) Sitting outside a Starbucks, on a beautiful sunny morning, eating a Top Pot Old Fashioned donut, and reading my book. I felt so frivolous!

2) My husband -- once again he makes my FFF list. He is always so thoughtful and caring. This morning, knowing that I had been up with Sarah last night due to a high fever, and knowing that we ran out of children's Tylenol in the middle of the night, he went out before work and brought back the Tylenol AND my favorite latte for me! Before I even woke up AND before he went to work! He is so awesome! I just love him!

3) A beautiful evening for a baseball game -- It's that time of year again. Usually, here in Seattle, we don't get many nice evening Little League games. But Monday was absolutely beautiful! Doesn't Alex look cute playing 2nd base in his Oriole's uniform. :-)

4) Having my nephew, Jeremy, visit. We had such a wonderful visit with him. We got to play tourist in downtown Seattle and he spent a lot of time hanging out with his cousins. I think Alex broke his "laugh box" while Jeremy was here -- he couldn't stop laughing! And Sarah just hung all over him. Of course, Bobby enjoyed the video game time with him. The kids only get to see cousins about once a year, so it's nice when they get some extra time.

5) New Bras! FINALLY! I went shopping this week and got 3 new bras. I'm a new woman! Woo Hoo! Here's a link to my all time favorite bra: http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2890088/0~2376776~2374327~6010810~6010819?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6010819&P=1. I love this one and they come in such pretty colors now too!

Happy Weekend everyone!

Lisa

Friday Favorite Five -- 4/17/2009

It's that time again! Whoo Hoo! Can FFF be one of my FFF? :-) I love doing this post each week. I hope you enjoy my Friday Favorite Five!

1) I was so amazed at the Courage of our little Daisy Scouts this week. Every single one of them climbed The Pinnacle at REI. Several of them (including my little Sarah) made it all the way to the top and rang the bell! That took a lot of courage and strength! I am so proud of them! They are definitely one of my favorites.


2) The Tudors on Showtime. I love this show! I love most things about this time period and love reading about Henry VII and his wives. This show is so awesome with the intrigue and the sex and the hunky King Henry -- it's the only reason we have Showtime! LOL!



3) Hershey's candy coated chocolate eggs. I can't get enough of these. Why does the Easter Bunny put these in the kids' baskets? So that mommy can eat them! ugh! I do love them!



4) The Easter Bunny cake I made for our traditional Easter Sunday dinner. It was so yummy! Funfetti Cake mix with vanilla icing covered in coconut. It was so much fun to make with Sarah this year and it tasted soooo good! I think this will definitely show up next year.

My mom. I told you she'd make it to my FFF this week! She has given me some awesome recipes of "old school country food" over the years. My glazed ham recipe for Easter was the Bomb! And, of course, if it weren't for my mom I wouldn't know how to make my famous baked beans and my so good potato salad! Thanks Mom!! You're the best!

(my mom teaching Sarah how to make her famous Peanut Butter Fudge. She needs to teach me how to do this too!)

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great, sunny, weekend!

Courageous and Strong

Sarah's Daisy Troop went to REI last night to earn their Courageous and Strong Petal by climbing the Rock Wall. All of the girls did such a super job, but I am especially proud of my Sarah Beth. She was starting not to feel well from a cold that has kept her home from school today. But she was determined to climb that wall and ring the bell. And ring it she did! I am so proud of my baby girl Daisy Scout!

The last 3 pictures were taken from the 2nd floor of REI. You can see how tall (and scary) that wall is! In the last picture, you can see the tiny, yellow bell at the top of the wall that she had to ring. She totally rocks!

Poor Pathetic Dog

So, I'm not a good pet mommy. I admit it. I like animals, as long as they are other people's animals.

When Sarah was 2, Bob and the boys convinced me that we needed a puppy. We lived in Utah at the time and had this great big backyard. We researched online and found a local breeder for Beagle puppies. One night while I was scrapbooking, Bob took the kids to the breeder and they all fell in love with these adorable 6 week old Beagle puppies. If you never seen a beagle puppy, they are irristible! The all came home with stories of how this one little puppy (soon to be Daisy) was chasing after Sarah and tugging on her little dress. So, of course, I (stupidly) replied "Go get me that baby puppy!" I honestly think I was wanting another baby or something.

(Random baby beagle puppy, not Daisy)

So, now I had to potty train Sarah (which was a task in and of itself) and the puppy!

Skip ahead several years, we've moved to Washington, bought a travel trailer, taken Daisy camping -- she's quite acclimated to the family now. Sophie, the killer cat, tolerates her. The kids love her. Daisy loves everyone (including everyone's food). We now have this fat (overweight), sweet as can be, beagle dog. Yes, puppies (like children) grow up.

I grew out of my puppy love for Daisy, but she and I have this "understanding". I'll be nice to you....if you don't pee on the carpet, get in the trash, and chew up my underwear. sigh....

Anyway, somehow (since I'm the mommy, I guess) I have taken on the responsibility to taking Daisy to the vet for check ups, grooming and boarding appointments. Usually I don't mind. But I draw the line at actually medicating the dog. I'm just not that good of a pet owner! I'm a bad pet mommy!

Today, of course, I had to take Daisy in for an appointment for excessive scratching. I just KNEW it would be cream and pills for the next upteen weeks. Well.....yes.....that's what happened. Not only do I have to apply this nasty yellow cream to her tummy twice a day, but I also have to give her these antibiotic capsules twice a day! And, here's the kicker, she has to wear one of Sarah's old t-shirts so that it covers the affected area so that she won't lick the ointment off! Seriously? This is extreme!

But, because I'm the mommy, I wrestled her to the ground this afternoon (47 pounds of resistance, mind you) and slathered on the cream, forced her into this ridiculous t-shirt, and fed her the medicine (I found these treat capsules at the vet that may have been a Godsend! You put the pill inside the treat and she just eats it! Miracle!)

She looked at me with those sad puppy dog beagle eyes. And I looked back and her and said "Mommy knows honey." Maybe I am a good pet mommy.


pre-t-shirt Daisy

poor pathetic Daisy now....

Apring Break 2009

FINALLY! I have my pictures uploaded and stored on Snapfish. Whew! That took forever.

We have learned, living in the Pacific Northwest the last 4 years, that you MUST get out of here during Spring Break to find the sunshine! If you don't, it feels like winter lasts for 9 months. That is why this year we headed off to Clearwater Florida to enjoy the sunshine and spend time with some extended family.

Here are some highlights of our trip to Clearwater Beach Florida.

We stayed in a lovely neighborhood about 3 miles from Pier 60. We rented a little 3 bedroom house with a fantastic screened in sun room and an awesome pool.

We visited with Bob's grandma who lives in Palm Harbor. His mom flew down from Indy, so we got to hang with her too. And his Aunt Katie drove over from Stuart to spend a few days with us. We are so blessed to have such a great family!

We spent several days just hanging out at the beach. We had a beach access that was 3 blocks from our house. It was perfect! The walk was through the beautiful neighborhood and it was close enough for us to run back home and get anything we forgot to bring with us. We had lots of sunny days to spend at the beach and in the pool. We spent our days boogy boarding, relaxing in the sun, making sand castles and catching lizards!


We took a Pirate Cruise one afternoon, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The pirate crew kept the kids entertained all day and even had Bobby dress up as "Peg Leg Pete" to help with a water gun fight. The parents enjoyed free cocktails and we even spotted some dolphins while out on our cruise!

Pier 60 was fun with many activities for the kids -- bungee tramplines, vendors and entertainers along the boardwalk, and lots of ice cream!

We even took a ferry ride one day from Honeymoon Island to Caladesi Island, which was supposedly the best natural beach in 2008.?

We had such a wonderful vacation. It's always good to soak up the sun, and the family time together. We can't wait for next year!

Here are a few from our last night in Florida. Check out the beautiful sunset!

Easter 2009

"Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping Down the Bunny Trail. Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way...."

I can't believe I have forgotten all of the cute Easter songs I used to sing to my kids when they were little. What a bummer. :-(

We had a nice, quiet family Easter Sunday. We started our day (bright and early at 6:45am) with Easter Baskets. Actually, Sarah came in our room some time in the middle of night and said "Mommy! The Easter Bunny put a toy in my basket!" I promptly told her to go back to bed. But, at 6:45am, I let my very tired husband sleep in, and I got up and watched the kids open their baskets.

Basket Highlights:

Sarah = new nightie and days of the week panties. Sarah was talking to Bob on Monday and told him "Daddy, I'm wearing my Monday panties. I think tomorrow I'll wear my Tuesday ones." It's the little things.....

Alex = Toy slingshot (defnitely an outside toy since Bob nearly knocked the clock off the wall) and a t-shirt that says "Just one more level" and has a game controller on it. Totally Alex, but it should've said "I just need to save first."

Bobby = A new atlas for him to map out his after high school USA trip and a Chuck Norris T-shirt. "Chuck Norris can grate parmesan cheese with his beard."

After Easter baskets, I hurried to start making our traditional Easter dinner -- brown sugar basted ham, baked beans, potato salad, and deviled eggs. It's a good thing I got up so early! Then it was off to church for a very nice Easter service at our church.

When our family started going to church a few years ago, I promised myself we would always go to Easter service together. And I'm so glad that we do! However, it was a good thing Sarah didn't get a new Easter dress this year, because once again she was picked to be slimed at the Slime Time event in the KidZone on Easter Sunday! She was thrilled!

After church we had our scrumptious lunch (I make a mean ham! Thanks mom for the glaze recipe!) and then we did mundane things like laundry....taking the trailer to be serviced.....taking a nap.....playing legos.

However, after dinner of even yummier leftovers, our neighbors came over for a little bit of Rock Band and the ever famous "Bunny Cake". This Bunny Cake was a tradition in our house when I was growing up. I am happy that I have carried this tradition to my own family. We may not have it every year, but the kids just love it! And Sarah was thrilled to help make the "Easater Grass" with coconut and green food coloring. Thanks, again, Mom! (I think my mom may make my FFF this week!)

I love holiday traditions!

I'm so glad I finally posted some pictures! I still have to post Spring Break....but hopefully that will happen by the weekend.

Friday Favorite Five - 4/10/2009

Well, I had hoped to have done a post about our fabulous Spring Break Vacation. But alas.....I haven't had time to upload my pictures! Sigh....maybe this weekend.....

So, here's my FFF for this week:

1) I am so glad I waited to do this post. My number 1 FFF is definitely seeing my husband slimed at church tonight! Slimed at church??? Yes! Our church, Gold Creek Community Church, is having extra services for the Easter holiday and Bob and I signed up to help in the Kid Zone for tonight's service. Little did we know that we would be asked to be captains of the boys and girls teams for the competitions to see who would get slimed! Yes, folks, similar to Nickelodeon's Slime Time! The texture is like applesauce. Ick! Well, the first competition was trying to get a teammate to eat a donate, covered with chocolate sauce and syrup, from a stick and string. The girls won that round! The next competition was a teammate picking out Tootsie Rolls from a baby diaper (made to look like poop) with their teeth and then dropping it in our hands. The boys won that round. Figures. Boys are grodier. The final competition was having one teammate shoot marshmellows into a pool of slime while the other teammate tried to find them and pick them out of the slime, all while blindfolded. Luckily, the girls won that round and the total competition, so the boys were slimed! Yay! Bob was all covered up with paper coveralls, goggles and a shower cap, and he STILL ended up with this icky slime down his shirt. It was pretty gross and pretty funny! I WISH I had a picture to show you!!! Super fun!

(This is what the slime looked like.)

(This is an example picture what Bob looked like after being slimed, but with coveralls on.)

2) My Neighbor, Krissy. She has motivated me, once again, to GET BACK IN THE GYM! Thank you, Krissy, for talking me in to joining you today for Power Sculpt and for tomorrow's Kickboxing class. Now tomorrow, I may be cursing you.....!!

3) My children's laughter -- tonight in the car, we were reminiscing about when the kids were younger and some of the silly things they used to do. I love listening to them talk and giggle over stories. Alex in particular has such an infectious laugh! It was so nice listening to them giggle and laugh rather than fighting!!

4) The Power of God -- I forgot to mention this on last week's post, but my Dad has, once again, been healed by God! He was scheduled to go in 2 Friday's ago for testing on his Carotid artery to see how blocked it was. (for those of you who don't know, the carotid arteries are the main veins that run to your brain.) The original test showed 70-90% blocked. About 3-4 years ago, his other artery was 99% blocked and he was rushed into immediate surgery. We were all very worried that this time would be a similar situation. Before the day of this test, my dad received prayer from his minister, and we all prayed, that he would be healed of this blockage and not have to have surgery. The results of the test were that my Dad's artery was NOT BLOCKED AT ALL and, just to be on the safe side, the surgeon checked the other one and it is ok too! Praise God! Prayer works, people!

(my mom and dad with some of their grandkids last summer.)

5) Free lunch and brunch at work. -- On Thursday, my boss, Liz, made the most amazing fiesta chicken soup for all of us at work. It was so Yummy! The recipe calls for fresh cilantro on top as a garnish, and this is the best! Then today, before our training seminar, she and Tanya made a fantastic brunch of breakfast burritos, a potato and cheese casserole, fresh fruit and muffins. Do I work at a great place, or what?

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

Friday Favorite Five -- 4/3/2009 -- From Florida!

Happy Spring Break Everyone! As I'm sitting here, in the screened-in back porch, watching the kids swim in the pool (even though it rained this morning and is quite cool), I am reflecting back to what my favorite five have been for this week. Admittedly, there are more than five! But I'll try to limit it this week so that I have SOMETHING to post on my blog from our vacation.

1) Coconuts -- I love coconut, especially in the form of pina colada's, ice cream and donuts! Thankfully, florida has plenty of all Three! Gotta give thanks to Coconut Rum, Coconut Ice Cream Bars and the Toasted Coconut donut at Dunkin' Donuts! Yummy!

2) My Blackjack phone -- I love my phone because it allowed me to stay up to date on facebook and my home email. Every morning I would sit out by the pool and check my email and my friends's facebook status updates. It was my 20 minutes of alone time, sipping my cup of coffee and enjoying the sunshine.

3) My daughter's idea of a party -- "Mommy, can we have a family party?" she asked on Monday morning. "What kind of family party, honey?" I asked. "The kind where we grill hamburgers and hot dogs and it's night time and we swim in the pool while it's dark!" The idea of swimming in the pool at night time was her idea of a party! Woo Hoo! Gotta love being 7!

4) Family -- it's been so much fun seeing Bob's grandma this week! She will be 91 years old in June. Amazing! I love looking through old pictures with her and hearing stories of her youth and the kids enjoy having Great Grandma dote on them and give them little gifts like party hats and silly costume glasses. We've also been able to spend time with Bob's mom, who is here on vacation with us, and also Bob's Aunt Katie who drove over from the other side of Florida to visit with us. It's so important to spend time with extended family. I'm glad the kids have been able to reconnect with their great-grandma and great Aunt Katie!

5) Sunshine and warm temperatures -- I have thoroughly enjoyed soaking up the sun this week and basking in the warm air. Even with it being cloudy and overcast today, it's still warm outside. I miss the sun, living in Seattle. More than that, I miss it being 85 and sunny! I am thankful that we have been able to go on this vacation and be reinvigerated with Vitamin D!

I will try to update this post with pictures. If not, look for my spring break vacation post next week!