So, This Is How It's Gonna Be...

I’m making a Christmas dinner tonight for my brother and sister (Jordan and Joanna and Jon), since my parents are out of town and we haven’t had a chance to have a Christmas together yet.  That being said, I have a bunch of things to do today that revolve mostly around the kitchen.  This morning, while making Jayden some oatmeal, pouring him some milk, and making myself some tea for the cold I’ve been fighting, this happened…

those little dots on the floor…well those are the almonds I roasted up last night, thrown there this morning by a little angel with a good case of bed head.

I can tell, he’s gonna be a lot of help for me today!

Getting what you REALLY want...

Royal, Jayden, and I spent all of Christmas weekend down in Kelso with Royal’s family.  My parents and Jordan came down to Kelso on Christmas Eve and stayed through Christmas.  Jayden made out like a bandit.  I was sitting on the floor and they kept passing me more and more presents for Jayden.  Eventually the stack of presents got so high, I could no longer see over it.  Royal and I kept trying to get Jayden over to us to rip into some of the presents, but there were so many people and so much going on, Jayden really didn’t want to have anything to do with it.  He wanted to be in the kitchen washing the dishes.  Usually, Jayden has a great time with presents, he loves ripping paper and sticking bows places, but I think it was just to overwhelming for him.  So, in order to get him out of the kitchen where he was demanding to ‘wash! wash! dishes!’, I opened the present that we were saving for last for him.  I knew if this present got opened, all the other presents wouldn’t be touched.   It was the present from Aunt Kay-Kay.  Jayden loves to clean.  He has a broom that he uses all over the house, and he is always getting into the closet to pull out our vacuum to push all over the house.  However, our vacuum is way too heavy for him, so he bangs it into the walls, gets it stuck and then gets mad, so Royal and I hid it from him in a different closet he couldn’t get into.  Well, whenever Kaylee was on the phone talking with Jayden, he always talked to her about vacuuming, and she always seemed to work him into a frenzy about getting into the closet to get the vacuum out.  So, for Christmas, Aunt Kay-Kay sent him his very own vacuum.  Battery powered no less, so it actually makes noise and sucks stuff up.  Once the present was unwrapped, Jayden looked at the box and goes, ‘VACUUUUUUM’.  So, I try to get it out, but the way those darn companies put toys in the boxes makes it nearly impossible.  This vacuum cleaner happened to be screwed into the box.   So, I had to go find a screw driver to get it out.  All the while, Jayden is trying to get through the plastic to get ahold of the handle, saying, ‘ready…ready….ready….VACUUUUUUM’.  FINALLY, I get the sucker out, the batteries in, and Jayden is in Heaven.  I’m pretty sure the vacuum was on all day, he pushed it all over the house.  The vacuum has been on ever since we got home.  Yesterday, I couldn’t get Jayden to finish his breakfast.  He had 2 bites and then he spotted his vacuum cleaner in the corner and that was all the breakfast he was going to have.  He vacuumed all day.  He even puts it in the hall closet where we used to keep our vacuum.  He finds his other toys that play music, turns the music on, and then dances while vacuuming.  The boy is out of control.  Although, it has come in handy, because the vacuum cleaner actually sucks stuff up, so he’s been going around with the dust buster attachment and sucking up little pine needles off the floor!

Christmas Cookin'

Jayden loves to do whatever I’m doing in the kitchen and now he’s discovered he can do it at the right height.   He stands on his little stool, which makes puts him perfectly at the counter and he gets into whatever I’m trying to do.   I usually just let him in on the action, unless of course I’m cooking at the stove, or using a sharp knife or something, then he just stands down the counter from me.  So, last night, Jayden and I worked on some treats for some Christmas tins we’re giving out to some of our friends.

Here Jayden’s waiting for me to finish separating the eggs, so he’s making sure the whisk is good and attached.

Here Jayden is pouring the sugar into the egg whites.  You have to keep a good hand on his wrist, or he’ll be more likely to fling it all across the room before he gets to putting it in the mixing bowl.

Jayden’s not yet good enough to help with the piping yet, but I’m sure that soon he will be, and it will probably be his favorite part, or maybe the part where you get to fling melted chocolate all over them.  Here’s our finished product!

Moving on to Wichita

Our trip to Wichita was successful.  We flew in on Saturday evening and got our car and to our hotel no problem.  It was freezing cold outside.  Of course, if anybody has been paying attention to the news, you all know that a huge ice storm just moved through the area, so there was snow on the ground and a super cold wind blowing.  Once we got to our hotel, we decided we would just eat there than try and get lost trying to find something.  Our waiter, decided to fill us in our why Wichita was so great.  One of his reasons was that there is hardly any crime.  People are nice, they are nice to each other, you don’t have to worry about someone shooting you in a dark alley.   We thought, “hmmm, great”.  Seems this waiter, who had lived in Wichita his entire life, never stays in the hotel he works in.  The first night we were there, I was laying awake in bed trying to go to sleep sometime after midnight, when I hear really loud yelling down the hall.  Some guy is just laying into some girl.  And this girl is crying histerically and he won’t stop yelling.  I try to wake Royal up to get his opinion if he thinks this is really bad too, but he pretends he doesn’t hear me.  My theory for why he wouldn’t wake up was because he probably thought I was going to send him out in the hallway to tell them to be quiet.  So, I get up and look out my little peep hole, but can’t see them, but I can still hear them.  I can only really understand the man, because the woman is crying so hard and then she starts going off in Spanish.   So finally, Royal wakes up and is like, ‘what are you doing?’.  I told him I was going to call the front desk and have them come check it out, just in case.  So, Royal gets up, tip toes down the hall to try and figure out what room they are in, and I call the front desk and they send security right up.  We never really found out what happened, but I did hear the women leaving with security, saying that she just needed to grab her stuff and she was going to stay somewhere else.  Sad…

Then the next morning, we get up, eat breakfast, and are waiting in the lobby for a real estate agent who was going to show us around the city and show us some neighborhoods and houses and stuff.   While we are waiting, this small little woman starts screaming at the front desk clerk.  Something about, the hotel didn’t let her boys back in in the middle of the night, because they didn’t have a key and they had to go stay somewhere else.  She was using every profanity in the book, ‘I didn’t pay f***ing $100 to stay here and you guys treat us like sh**.  I know I’m f***ing white trash compared to the other mother fu**ers that stay here, but…” blah blah blah.   Then her son gets in on the action and threatens to physically harm the hotel manager, who they wouldn’t let get a word in edgewise to explain anything.  Then they storm off saying they are “getting their sh** and getting out of there”  to stay someplace where they wouldn’t be treated so horribly.   Well, a few minutes later the hotel security walks through the door.   This is about the time our realtor shows up, so we have to leave before we see the conclusion to all the drama, but as we pulled out of the hotel driveway, 2 more security cars show up and 2 Wichita police cars.   Wish I could of stuck around to see what would of happened.  But so much for the waiter’s “super nice” city!

Looking at houses and neighborhoods was pretty overwhelming.  I couldn’t figure out where I was most of the time, I was completely lost.  The houses were great, really big, all of them have super big basements and doors from the basement into what they kept calling “storage areas”.   But, come on, we all know what they are.  Doors into big cement rooms with shelving, that are completely underground and away from all windows.  I’m sure they are calling them “storage areas” to not scare off people by calling them tornado shelters.  Because we all know, that’s where I’d head if I saw a tornado ripping towards my house.

The next day, we met with NIAR (National Institute for Aviation Research).  They were great.  The job sounds much better than what Royal is doing now.  A much bigger opportunity to be involved in lots of different projects.  Projects from what he is currently doing now with Toray, to working with NASA and the Army and the Airforce, to working with doctors on how to make artifical knees and hips that bodies won’t reject.   It just sounds much more stimulating and interesting.  Royal just wouldn’t have the opportunity for this at the job he has now.  Not to mention that they would pay for any of his graduate studies that he decided to do.  So, Royal is going to accept the job.

So, now we are going to put our house on the market and wait for it to sell.  The people at NIAR said they would wait for Royal until our house sold, so that we didn’t have to live apart, which is fantastic.  That was one of my issues that had to be resolved before I would be okay with moving there.  Time to start packing, I guess.

I’m trying to be excited about it, but that’s not going too good yet.  I’m excited for Royal, but I’m not excited to live in Kansas.  I’ve decided that I won’t totally form an opinion about Wichita yet, because it’s hard to figure out what all a city has to offer until you spend some time there.  But, it’s hard to imagine moving somewhere, where I know absolutely nobody.  I’m sure I’ll make friends, and I’m sure I’ll be fine, I just have to convince myself of it first.  I’m sure it won’t be that bad.  It’s an adventure.  I get to start over somewhere.  I get to get a new house, and that’s a little exciting.  We don’t know when we’re moving, it all depends on when our house sells, so really we could still be around for another year or so!!!

Here are a couple pictures from Wichita.

This is of the frozen Arkansas River that was right in front of our hotel.  It was getting down to 8 degrees at night, so needless to say, it was a bit chilly....brrrrr

This one is of the Wichita State University Campus, right outside the NIAR building.  Underneath all that snow is a golf course!

To Lie or Not to Lie

I’ve never really given it much thought as to what I would tell my kids about Santa Claus. But now being a mom, with friends who are moms, the topic seems to come up..what are you going to do, are you going to lie to your kids?

Some people seem to have really strong opinions about telling their kids that Santa Claus is real because it would be a lie, and they don’t want to lie to their kids.  That makes some sense to me.  But really, when I found out that Santa Claus wasn’t real, I don’t remember it being a big deal.  I don’t remember feeling devestated that my parents had lied to me all along, that my mom was the one who bought the stuff and filled up my stocking.  I do remember being super excited Christmas Eve about waking up extra early with Kaylee, and then later the rest of our siblings, to go through our stockings with a flashlight, being really quiet, and then repacking everything (which it never seemed to fit back in right) and going back to bed, only to wake up my parents a few hours later and going through them again, of course acting surprised like we had no idea what we were getting.  It was totally part of our Christmas tradition.  Even in the last few years, when we’ve all stayed at my parents house on Christmas Eve, the 5 of us kids still wake each other up, and now the spouses too, at 2 or 3 in the morning to sneak downstairs and go through our stockings.

Kaylee, as one example, really hasn’t told her kids about Santa Claus.  She hasn’t made a big deal about him, but she also hasn’t said that he wasn’t real.  So, a couple weeks ago, at the Chrismtas parade in Shelton, we were watching the parade from the balcony at the funeral home and the final float came by with Santa Claus waving to the crowd.  Brendan, looks at Kaylee and says, ‘I’ve never seen Santa Claus before!’   It was like all of the sudden, he was real to him.  He’d seen him in movies and books, but never in real life.  Brendan had figured it out on his own, and then was excited to actually see him in person.  Brendan though isn’t sure he wants to be friends with Santa, I guess later he told Kaylee that he wanted to give him a hug, but not right now, maybe in a couple of years.  ha ha ha!

Really, is Santa Claus any worse than any other fictional character?  Is it any worse than letting your little girl read princess books, and watch Disney movies, and then take her to Disneyland to see Cinderella in real life?  It doesn’t really seem so to me.  They are both lies.  Cinderella doens’t exist anymore than Santa Claus does.  Yet, I’ve never heard a big debate on whether or not going to Disneyland was ok, because it’s basically a big park filled with life-sized lies that you are going to have to explain to your kids later.   Is Santa a bigger deal because he revolves around Christmas, and we want our kids to understand what the real meaning of Christmas is?

I guess I don’t have real strong feelings about making sure Jayden knows right now that Santa doesn’t exist.   I do have strong feelings about making sure he knows what Christmas is really about.   But as a kid, you get wrapped up in presents, who doesn’t like to get presents?  Especially ones that just magically appear!   I guess I figure if he asks me about it, I won’t tell a huge, elaborate lie just so he’ll believe longer.  And I’m probably not going to make a big deal about Santa coming either.  It all just seems to be part of this time of year.  And besides, last year, I knitted up these huge, kick-ass stockings for me, Royal, and Jayden, and gosh darn it, they are gonna get filled with stuff, whether it’s from me or Santa!

More Snow, More Snow, More Snow

It’s freezing outside and if it’s going to be so cold, it might as well snow!

Happy Birthday, Willie

What a Long Week

Hallelujia the week is almost over!!!!   Royal has been in Florida all week, living the high life in the Ritz-Carlton in West Palm Beach.  Alright, so he has been working, he had to go to a conference down there, and as I have been to many a meetings like that, I know they can be boring.  But while he does call to complain that he’s sick of the meetings and that he misses me and Jayden, I have a hard time feeling sorry for him when he tells me he just went for a run on the beach.   He’s going for runs on the beach, while Jayden and I are back here drowning in the northwest weather.  Sheesh.

I didn’t think this week was going to be all that bad, we had lots of things planned, so I figured it would go by fast….sadly, half our stuff didn’t work out.  Monday, Jayden and I were going to go to our baby bootcamp class, but that got cancelled due to all the flooding.  That evening, my mom was going to come over and babysit so I could go to my dance class at SDC.  Well, Shelton lost power and my dance class was cancelled.  But we did have some unexpected visitors.  Royal’s sister, Lisa, and one of her classmates carpool up to their classes at St Martin’s together from Kelso.  Well, when they came up, one lane of I-5 was open, by the time they were done with school, it was all underwater.  So they stayed the night at our house.  They made it back home on Tuesday taking back roads, which only took them 4 hours instead of the normal 1.   Tuesday, Jayden and I were suppose to do his swimming lessons, but I get a message on my phone that they were going to be doing maintenance on the pool for the next month, so all of our swimming lessons had been cancelled.  Bummer.  But my great friend Nicole, came and stayed at our house Tuesday night, just to hang out and visit.  That was great!  Wednesday was suppose to be my day to have a “break”.  I had an appointment at 11, and Royal’s mom was going to come up from Kelso and babysit Jayden.  She doesn’t work on Wednesday, so she was going to stay for the afternoon so I could get away from the house and maybe do some Christmas shopping.  Well, with all the flooding on I-5, she obviously couldn’t make it.  So, Aunt Jojee came over from Shelton for an hour so I could make my appointment, but she had to go back to work, so once again it was just me and Jayden.   Jayden and I made sugar cookies, he loves to help bake.  He stands on a stool next to me, turns the mixer on, licks the flour off the counter while I roll the dough out (saying, ‘mmm, nummy’), helps push the cookie cutters down, and steals little pieces of dough.  It creates a big mess, but it’s pretty fun.  Our neighbor, Dee, whose husband is now working in Alabama, came over in the evening and had dinner with us.  Thursday, we made it to our baby bootcamp class.  Jayden ran around with his friend Brady while I worked out.  Finally, I got to do something for myself and get a little break during the day!  And now today is Friday.  I’m worn out and can’t wait for Royal to come home.  He won’t be home until late tonight, but it’s nice to know it’s my last day as a single mom.  Jayden is in a frustrating phase, where he wants to do things, some he should, some he shouldn’t, and he can’t communicate very well.  So, it results in a frustrated kid who seems to be yelling at me all the time.  My nerves are about fried.  I was talking with Kaylee on the phone this morning, and she told me she was about to get off the phone because she couldn’t listen to Jayden whine and yell anymore. ha ha ha. Only half a day to go!   Tomorrow, Royal is taking care of Jayden, while I go for a 9 mile run and then do some Christmas shopping with Joanna.  I can’t wait!

Lots of Things Have Been Happening

It’s been a long time since I've posted anything.  Not because there hasn’t been anything worthwhile to post about, but because I have been totally preoccupied with a major life changing decision… Nope, I’m not coming out of any closets, I’m not pregnant, then what could it be????

Thanksgiving was alright.  It wasn’t as horrible as I thought it was going to be.  It was hard for sure, but on one hand I’m glad we got the first big holiday out of the way, and I’m grateful we had 7 months before we had to do it.  Kaylee and her family were here, which made it sooo much better.  Jayden got to play with his cousins, and I got to hang out with Kaylee and Rand.  On Friday, everybody except mom and Jordan, went to the beach to dig up razor clams.  Brendan and Jayden had lots of fun digging holes, playing in the sand, and picking up the clams off the beach.  Brendan carried his whole limit of 15 clams around in his clam bag!  They didn’t seem to mind it was freezing out.  Wyatt had fun until his hands got cold and sandy and he wiped his nose, then he was ready to pack it up and go home.  We dug up a total of 105 clams!  It was so much fun!  Poor dad and Royal had to shuck and clean all those clams (except for the little bucket of clams we gave Grandma Joann), but we fried ‘em up as fast as they could clean ‘em.  Delicious!!

Saturday, Royal and I went to the Apple Cup.  Kim hooked us up with some tickets and she gave Royal’s sister her extra one.  So, Royal and I put our Husky sweatshirts on, and Kim and Lisa had their Cougar colors on.  The seats were great, right behind the student section.  We got to see a lot of kids get thrown out of the game.  ha ha ha.  Kim, with all her connections, of course knew an owner of a boat that was driving over to the game.  We got on at South Lake Union and rode it over to the stadium, which is way better than driving and trying to find parking.  The boat is owned by a Husky (as you can see from the picture) and every year, there is a bet on board between the Huskies and the Cougs.  The losers have to jump in the lake on the ride back home.  Did I mention it was 35 degrees out?  I wore my dad’s battery powered heated vest under my sweatshirt and I was still a little chilly.  Well, if you watched the game, you know who won.  So once we got back on the boat, the owner and the now loser of the bet, was downing quite a bit of scotch, which I probably would of too if I had to jump in the lake.  But I was totally impressed, he didn’t back out, he put on a shorty wet suit and jumped off the top of the boat.  Brrrrrr  All I can say is thank goodness for battery powered heated vests!!!

This past week, Jayden started swimming lessons.  I can’t say it’s going to well, I think Jayden might be getting traumatized.  But we’re sticking it out, I’m sure he will love it by the end of the session.

On Wednesday, Kaylee, Joanna, Kim, JC, Amy, and I headed up to Everett and watched the So You Think You Can Dance Show.  It was awesome!  Once again, thanks to Kim for the hook up!  Way better than on TV.  They showed some clip about the 5 worst falls in SYTYCD history, and the #1 clip about killed me.  I don’t think I have laughed that hard in a really long time.  What does that say about me, the I couldn’t stop laughing at someone else who really hurt themselves?  I was laughing about it a good 30 minutes later in the car, on the way home.  But the dancing was great, I was so glad I got to go.

Today, Royal, Jayden, and I went Christmas Tree hunting.  Luckily we got our tree before it started snowing.  So our little tree is now in our living room waiting for me to decorate it.  I love it when it snows!!  The hotdog stand wasn’t open at the farm while we were there, so we stopped by Costco and got hotdogs there.  You just can’t hunt for Christmas Trees without getting a hotdog afterwards.  Jayden obviously agrees, because once we got our tree and were heading down the road all he kept saying was, ‘hot dog, hot dog, hot dog’  And we don’t even eat hotdogs very often at all.  The last time, was when we went pumpkin hunting.  So once in Costco, we settled down with our dogs and Jayden ate the entire thing.  I couldn’t believe it, I figured Royal would be having to finish Jayden’s off, but nope, I was wrong.  Jayden downed the whole thing.  Little piggy, I’m totally impressed.  He does have Lovingfoss gene’s after all!

So, now that you’re all caught up on the latest happenings, I guess I will tell you what is going on.  While Royal was off on a business trip last October, he got offered a job.  I wasn’t too surprised, Royal always seems to get offered jobs when he’s traveling.  Obviously, he’s a smart guy and knows what he’s talking about, and these people are impressed.  Who would of thunk???   So, when he called home to tell me about this one, I didn’t think anything of it.  The job would be at the National Institute of Aviation Research.  I didn’t really know until he got home that he was serious about this one and he wanted to look into it.  Come to find out, one of the main draws for him was that they were going to pay for all of his graduate work, he could get his doctorate for free.  So, I told him to go ahead and look into it, we might as well have all the info before we make any decisions.   Well, so far everything has panned out.  What they are offering is good, they really want Royal to work there, and Royal thinks he’d like what he would be doing there, so the job is his if he wants it.  So, in 2 weeks, Royal and I will be flying out to finalize some details, get things on paper, look around at houses, and make a final decision on if this is what we really want to do.  ‘Where are you flying to?’, you ask.  Wichita, Kansas.  ‘Where?’  Yes, you heard me right, Wichita.  ‘They have tornados there’  Yes, they do.  ‘It’s flat and there are no trees’  Well, that’s so you can see the curvature of the earth and there is nothing around the stop the wind…  I know, I can hardley believe it myself.  I never even really wanted to visit Kansas, much less move there.  Greg and Linda, if you are out there…we’ll only be about 4 hours away from you!

So, there’s the big news.  There is still a chance that we might not do it, but at this point it looks like that is what is going to happen.  We would be there for around 5 years, until Royal can finish up school, and then I plan to catch the next tornado out of there back to the northwest.  Who knows, maybe I’ll like it there.  It is the 4th sunniest state, and I like the sun.  And I already checked to make sure they have a yarn store.  I won’t be moving anywhere that doesn’t have a nice supply of fibers for me.  So, we’ll see… :)

Fish On, Little Brother, Fish On

I just recently found this picture of Willie, Royal, and Mikal with some fish they caught. I love this picture. I miss him more today.

For Kaylee

Kaylee keeps complaining that she is tired of looking at my Hallowig.  Well, I say “keeps” likes it’s plural, really she’s only said something once, but it was said with such vigor that I had to immediately move into action.  It obviously had been building up in her for awhile.  :)  So, this post is dedicated to her.

I’ve been kinda bored this week, haven’t felt on the creative or funny side.  Royal’s worked late every night this week so far (he told me he was coming home early today…we’ll see!), so Jayden and I have just been doing our own thing.  I’ve been working on my knitted Christmas presents, so, I can’t post any of that or people would see what I’m making.  Oh! If there is something you want, now would be a good time to put your order in.  I’ll be visiting one of my favorite places on earth tomorrow…the yarn store!  Oooooh yeah!

So, here’s a new picture for you to look at!

Yeeeee Haaaaawwww!

So it Turns Out...

you really CAN knit anything!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Pumpkin Hunting

Today we went to the pumpkin patch.  A little late in the season if you ask me, I like to go at the beginning of October, that way we can enjoy our jac-o-lanterns for a good while before they rot on us.  But we’ve been busy every weekend so far, so this was when we could go.  We went right when they opened, which was a good thing, because by the time we got back to our car, people were driving around the parking lot like circling vulchers.  We went to the petting farm, but Jayden wasn’t too excited about touching the animals, he just kept staring at them like, ‘that’s a sheep?  you've got to be kidding me’.  The only thing he was really interested in was the little orange kitten that was running around.  So, we grabbed our wheelbarrow and started out into the field to do some pumpkin hunting!  Royal had to carry Jayden most of the time.  Jayden kept tripping over rotten pumpkins and falling in the mud.  Poor kid.  But, it looks like we were successful!

Jayden was really happy to be out of the fields and back onto familar ground - ROCKS!

I’m with Jayden here, screw pumpkins, lets just get a Christmas Tree!!!!

After a long day of pumpkin hunting, it’s just not a trip to the pumpkin patch without a hotdog!!!

Cute Little Sweater

I taught a knitting class this weekend on sweaters.  The pattern we used is great for people who have never knit a sweater before, because the whole thing is knit in one piece.  So there are no seams to sew and no arms to sew onto the sweater when you are finished.  The toughest part is making sure your arms are the same length.  We knit up a size for an infant, obviously because it is smaller and you can get it done faster, but the adult size is exactly the same, just with a few more stitches.  That way it is easy to convert to any size you want.

I decided I would make a sweater along with the class, but the only yarn I had that would fit the pattern is blueish-purple with specs of other colors in it.  A little girly for Jayden.  So, this will go in the drawer that has all the other stuff I’ve knit up for a girl.  Sheesh, would somebody have a girl already?

Nike+ Half Marathon

So, I completed the Nike+ Half Marathon yesterday!  I am so glad I didn’t get rained on at all.  Boy, did I luck out.  I strapped on my shoes with my sensor securely fasten, strapped my Ipod with the receiver onto my arm, and headed out the door.  I started out from the Lovingfoss house in Kelso around 9:15am.  Royal’s sister, Lisa, decided that she would keep me company for part if it.  She did the first 2.5 miles with me, over the bridge and down Ocean Beach Hwy to Lake Sacajawea.  There Lisa left me, but my great friend Pam was there waiting for me.  We did 2 laps around Lake Sacajewea together, which was about 8 miles.  The last 2.5 miles back to the house, I did on my own.  The last mile and a half were a little tough, as it was pretty much all up hill, but it was great to hear in my ear phones, “1 mile to go”, just as I crested the top of the hill of the bridge that goes over the Cowlitz  River.  At the bottom of the bridge, I stepped funny off the sidewalk and tweaked my ankle, and then a couple blocks later, I almost got hit by a truck, coming down a side alley, that didn’t see me.  I tell ya, once you start running around towns, you become a much more cautious driver as you approach sidewalks.  This guy obviously doesn’t use the sidewalks very often.  Luckily, I saw him coming and slowed down before the driveway, because he drove right through my running path.  Then, did he back up, so I could keep going?  Nope.  I had to stop and wait for him to pull into traffic before I could go on.  Sheesh, people sometimes…  Anyways, I turned the corner and headed up the last quarter mile hill that leads to the house, took a left and ran the last 4 blocks.  I got to the house and my earphones said, “400 meters to go”.  Dang!  So I ran around the block to get my last 400 meters in, until I heard, “Workout Completed!”  Yipee!!!  I felt pretty good, I was glad to be done, my legs were pretty tired, but it is the best feeling when you finish a race.  Granted, this was a race where you got to pick your own route, so there was no big finish line, no big crowd cheering you on at the end, but it is still something to complete 13.1 miles.  This was my 5th half marathon, and the only one I’ve ever trained for alone.  It made the training much harder, to not have someone dragging you out the door to do your long runs with, but it’s nice to know I can do it myself.  I’m taking the week off to rest my legs and then I’m going to go get a new pair of running shoes.  I think 1 year and 2 half marathons is enough for one pair of shoes.  I probably should of gotten new shoes months ago.  :)  Only 12 weeks to go until the next race! Phoenix Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon, here I come!

Top 5 - JOANNA!

I think my sister Joanna should start a blog.  She says that she refuses to do it because she doesn’t have anything interesting to say.  I personally think she’s funny and she has LOTS of stories that she could be telling.

So, here are my top 5 reasons why Joanna should start a blog.

1. She could write about what the heck happened to her cell phone.  How it got ran over by the mail man and ended up in her mailbox.  Intrigued aren’t you?  You want her to tell you the story.


2. She seems to always be going on vacations.  Down to Phoenix, Mexico, her anniversary is coming up and supposedly she’s going somewhere and I’d like to know about it and read about it on her blog


3. She could go on and on about how rad Ordinary State is.


4. She could post videos of her interpretive dancing.  Everyone needs to witness this at least once!


5. Because I want her to and probably so do lots of other people!!!!

Happy Friday, Jo!

A Rockin'

Jayden’s aunt Brynn made him this rocking chair with airplanes all over it.  He drags it, while saying ‘rock, rock’, all over the house, so he can sit in it in different spots.  Once he climbs up into the chair, he starts rocking and says, ‘airplane!’ over and over.  I’m not sure, but I think he thinks the chair turns into an airplane once he’s in it.

I think he likes it...

Go Seahawks!

Well, the game was pathetic, but it was fun to get to go!  Kim got us some tickets, so Royal and I asked our long lost Seattle friends Jason and Nicole to go with us.  It was so fun to get to hang out with them.  We ate at Elysian Field before the game then went into the stadium to watch the pre-game warmups.  Of course, as it is with my luck, we were sitting right in front of a really loud Saint’s fan, who of course had WAY too much to drink, and he kept hitting poor Nicole on the head, as he couldn’t contain his excitement as the Saints were kicking our tail.  However, we did find out near the end of the game that the Saints are his #1 team, but the Seahawks are his #2, so towards the end of the game he stopped cheering on the Saints and started yelling at the Seahawks to play better.

"Clean Up on Aisle 13, Please"

Tonight, my child was “that” child.  The wild one at the grocery store, running around crazy.  I needed to get some food, so there was no choice in the matter that I was going to the store.  But it has been rainy all day here, so Royal wanted to come with Jayden and let him expend some energy running through the aisles.  We do this often at Costco on rainy days because the store is so big, you usually aren’t in anybody’s way.  :)  Anywho, I was making my way through the store, and Jayden and Royal were off running around, Jayden carrying a bag of lemons - one of his new favorites foods.  I hear over the intercom, “Clean up on aisle 13, please”.  I was thinking, hope it’s nothing big, ’cause that’s the direction I’m heading.  A few minutes later, Royal comes up behind me with Jayden and said, “You’ll never guess what Jayden did”.  Well turns out, Royal turned his back for a second, and when he turned back around, Jayden had opened a carton of eggs and was dropping them one by one onto the floor, just like on starfall’s letter E.  He was very proud of himself.  I thought it was hilarious.  I come around the corner, and they have it all coned off, eggs all over the floor, and some highschool kid with a mop cleaning it up.

Royal did find someone to tell them what happened, and said that we would buy the carton of eggs, but the lady told him not to worry about it.  That it happens all the time.  She said they lose about 4 dozen eggs a day!

Hats

Royal and I are going to go the Seahawk’s game this Sunday, and since it is a night game, I thought I might get a little cold, so I decided I would knit myself up a hat.  Last night, while watching Heros, I knit up a quick little hat out of some super soft yarn that I stole from my mom’s house.  Jayden wanted to model it for you.

This got me thinking about all of the hats I have made since I started knitting.  I found a box in our office that was full of nothing but hats that I have made.  Looks like I have made a few, and this doesn’t even count all the hats that I have made for other people.  These are just the ones that I made for the heck of it and are still floating around.

I think most of my favorites have been the ones that I made for Jayden. (I’ve also made some of these for Kaylee’s boys)

Does anybody have a cold head?  If so, you should come over and get a hat, I obviously have plenty to spare.  For now, back in the box they go!  Here are a couple more that Jayden picked out to wear…he likes the ones that look like they have little crowns on them…hmm…wonder what is he trying to say…

Rock 'N' Roll

I’m so excited!  I just signed up for the Phoenix Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon.  This is the first race that I will have done outside the Pacific Northwest, and I think I picked a good one.  Let’s see…Phoenix is a desert, which means warm temps in January and the ground is flat!  Oh yeah!!  I’m sure this will be my fastest time ever!  Well maybe…we’ll see.

This race should be a ton of fun.  There is a band every mile and they have 40 different cheer squads from around the area there to cheer everybody on.  And, this means I have to go to Phoenix to visit Kaylee.  I can’t wait!!!

“Sunshine, on my shoulders, makes me happy” (who can name that song/artist?)  (songs seem to be stuck in my head lately and they are eeking their way into my blogs…)

So, all you other suckers out there, who keep threatening to do a half marathon with me, sign up already!!!

Heat Wave!

This is an island in the sun! Oi! Oi! (whoever can name that movie first wins major bonus points with me!)

So, the heat fixer guy came today.  Hallelujia!  Jayden’s hands and ears were freezing this morning, despite the warm feet pajamas he was wearing (once again, thanks Kaylee for the hand-me downs).  The guy shows up around 11 and I show him the problem.  He says some circuit thingy got overrided or something and he couldn’t find the manual override to flip it back.  I, of course, stare are him and say, so does that mean you can’t fix it?  He says that he’ll have to order the part and it probably won’t get here until next Wednesday or so.  I was like, you gotta be kidding me.  I say, “There’s no way you can fix this today? Because we’re freezing!”  He says he’ll take another look at it.   Jaydo and I go inside to start getting lunch put together.  A few minutes later, the fixer guy comes in and says that he thinks he’s got it fixed.  I’m like fabulous!   So we go out to the garage, he holds some little button in and in a minute I see fire!  Oh yeah!!!  So, he puts the panels back on, and we perform the final test.  We go inside and turn the heat on.  Within seconds there is hot air blowing from the vents.  HOORAY!!! I tell the guy thanks and how much I appreciate him fixing it.  And he goes, “Well, you kinda guilt tripped me into taking your furnace apart once you told me your son was cold.  I have a son that is about his age and I started thinking about how I would feel if he was cold because the furnace was broken.”  Thank goodness for inadvertant guilt trips!  I am so never turning the heat off again!

Brrrrrrrr

I’m freezing.  The house is freezing.  Jayden, well he doesn’t complain, but I’m sure if he could he would tell me he’s freezing and ask why I don’t turn on the heat.  Well, let me tell you why… because it’s BROKEN!  That’s right, my heat is broken, all that the little vents around the house do is blow cold air.  Doesn’t help much when you’re freezing.

Royal tried to fix it, he changed the air filter…I didn’t even know there were air filters…yeah call me stupid, but I blame my dad for letting me live such a sheltered life.  I went out there today and tried to read the directions and reboot the sucker.  No such luck, still just cold air blowing.  So, I called around town and the earliest someone can come look at it is tomorrow.  So that means another day and night with freezing cold temperatures.

I’m wearing ski socks, my fuzzy acorn slippers, a pair of jeans, a shirt, and a fleece lined sweatshirt.  Jayden is wearing some great fleece lined jeans (thank you Kaylee for the hand me downs), a long sleeved shirt, some socks, and a sweatshirt when he starts feeling too cold.

I have a gas fireplace, but I haven’t turn it on because I don’t have a screen for it, and I’m sure Jayden would melt his toys or his hands against the glass.  So, as soon as he gets up from his nap, we are going hunting for a screen, so that I can turn on the fireplace.  I’m thinking I just might sleep in front of the fireplace tonight.  I’m about to start cooking, so the oven will heat up the house.  Dinner tonite?  Well that would be hot chocolate because our house is too cold to defrost any meat.  Ok, I’m exaggerating, but not really…  I could probably open the fridge and warm up the house that way.  Ok, it’s not that cold, but it kinda is…

Hurry up, heat fixer dude, hurry up…

Everyone Needs One of These in Their Kitchen...

Jayden has “drawers” that are his in the kitchen, the bottom drawer next to the stove, and an entire cupboard across the kitchen.  The bottom drawer next to the stove holds all the tupperware and now measuring cups because he loves them so much.  Multiple times a day, Jayden empties this drawer by throwing things out saying, “Oh, yeah!”.  Today was no exception.  I heard him behind me saying, “Oh, yeah!  Oh, yeah!”, while things were clanking on the floor.  Then I turn around and discover he has figured out how to climb into the drawer and he was sitting there chucking things out one by one.  He’s a clever kid, that Jayden.

Forts!

One of Jayden’s favorite things as of late has been “under”.  Under bridges, under legs, under the piano bench, under just about anything he can crawl or walk under.  So, today we built his first indoor fort to hang out under!

The Fort!

Reading and Relaxing on 'Pillar! (while inside the fort)

Peeking out

And DESTRUCTION!!!!

'Tis the Season for Felting!

Finally, the weather has cooled off and it doesn’t seem so ridiculous to be sitting with a lap full of wool yarn.  That’s right!  Put away that cotton, it’s time to start felting!  It’s felt more fall like the last few days, today I actually turned the heat on in the morning, I’ve got a pot of chili cooking on the stove, some beer bread in the oven, and while I’m trying to refrain from putting in a Christmas CD, I did play a few Christmas songs on the piano.  So, to go with all the changing of the seasons, my knitting projects are changing too.  The baby blankets are done, a cute cotton hat that looks like a red berry for Jayden is done (not that he’ll wear it, but it’s still cute), leg warmers are done, zori-socks are done, wristlets (at least the cotton ones) are done.  The cotton is being put on the shelf!  And I’ve dug through all my wool yarn and have finished my first felting project of the season.  I love felting!  It’s like magic!  You knit something up that is totally huge and looks ridiculous then you stick it in your washing machine with some hot water, let it agitate for a little bit, and VOILA! you have a fantastic looking finished product.  Any mistakes that might have been made are hidden (yes, I make mistakes, but I’m not going to show them to you), the yarn now looks like fabric, and it’s shrunk down to a normal size!  I love it!!!

So here it is....my circle purse!  Currently it's stuffed with plastic bags to help retain it's shape while it dries, but soon you will be seeing me around town with it!  Oh yeah!!

Christmas Time Is Here...

Is it too early to start with Christmas music?  Usually I try and hold off at least until October, and then I phase in Christmas music with some of the fall/harvest CD’s that I have.  All day I have been humming “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” and “Christmas Time is Here” (from Peanuts), and I have been feeling a little strange since it is 90 degrees outside.  Maybe I’m singing chestnuts because I feel like I am one, roasting on the open fire thanks to it being so hot.  But I finally gave into my Christmas self and found my piano music and played “Christmas Time is Here”.  Royal was eating dinner and said, “That sounds like Charlie Brown music”.  Little did he know that is was Charlie Brown Christmas music.  I feel much better, but I also feel like I am ready to start looking for a Christmas tree.  I wonder if it would survive…  Maybe I’ll just get out some Christmas lights and string them up in the office, then I could sit in the office, spin some yarn while listening to Christmas music and looking at twinkling lights.  I am liking the idea more and more!  Christmas time is here, Happiness and cheer, Fun for all that children call, Their favorite time of the year…..

Strong Opinions and Crocs

Sadly, I have had no funny things happen to me lately, so I have no material to use for a true, but funny, rambling story.  Pathetic, I know.  Guess I need to put myself in some situations that might result in something comedic happening.  We’ll see what I can come up with.

In the mean time, there is always Jayden…

What I want to know is, when do kids start coping an attitude?  When did Jayden decide he had opinions and he was going to let me know what they were?  Granted, as great as his talking skills are for a 16 month old, he really can’t communicate very well, so his way of telling me whats up is screaming at the top of his lungs until his face turns red for a few minutes, and then most times he starts laughing.  Like, man, I am so funny…  He laughs whether or not he actually gets the thing he was screaming about.  I haven’t quite decided what I am going to do when he does this, so for the most part, I just look at him like nothing is happening.  Like, nobody is yelling at the top of their lungs, and if someone was, it really wouldn’t bother me.  But on the inside, my brain is short circuiting, I feel like I might be developing a twitch in one eye (could that be why he laughs?)

Some of the things Jayden has new opinons on are

1. Sleeping - he has decided it is no longer a priority during the day.  A nap of 45mins to an hour is long enough.  Sheesh, not long enough for me, especially since he is only taking one nap now.  I’m sure he’ll figure out how to sleep again and I cannot wait until that day!


2. He likes to throw things that he likes (water, milk, binks) across the room, and then he wants me to go pick them up.  This is the one that involves the most screaming, and he usually is trying to climb up my legs while he does it.  It’s fantastic, my most favorite part of the day.


3. Computers - if Jayden and I are upstairs and I step into the office to check my email, Jayden has an opinion on what website I should be looking at.  It has to be starfall and if we are on starfall, then we have to watch the letter ‘D’.  If you try and do another letter before you do ‘D’, all you hear is, “D! D! D!”  Then once you do the letter ‘D’, you have to watch the Dinosaur Dance at least 4 times.  “Again!  Again!  Again!”  I suppose some of this might be my fault.  When I was working from home, Jayden spent a lot of time up here in the office with me, on his own little keyboard, banging away…What have I done???


4. Clothing - for the most part, clothing is optional, especially shoes.  Jayden has decided that he HATES shoes and getting them on his feet is a challenge.  That little bugger is strong.  But I’m bigger and I’ll sit on him if I have to.  But for the most part, I let him run around in just his g-diaper.  It is summer, after all.

Although, Jayden has decided he likes barefeet the best, we discovered something that he loves this past weekend.  We were all in Sportsman’s Warehouse getting some things for our camping trip next week and we walked by the Croc’s display.  I looked around for some for myself, but alas, it is the end of the summer and they are practically out of them.  However, they did have some to fit Jayden’s monster feet.   So I grab one off the display, take his sandal off, and put one of the croc’s on and let him walk around.  He wouldn’t take it off.  If it fell off, he came running back, ’shoe! shoe!’  So, I decide that these might be a good purchase.  Since then, Jayden wears his crocs everywhere.  If we’re in the house and he finds his crocs, he brings them over to me to have me put them on.  He asks to go for walks all the time, just so he can wear his crocs.

Here is Jayden, today, playing outside with his pool, sans clothes, but with his new crocs...

What The...??

I leave the room for one minute, and this is what I come back to…..

Sweet Shirts!

Royal made it back from Boston!  But instead of his flight getting in at 11:30, he was late (of course) and he didn’t fly in until 1:15am.  That means we did not get to sleep until around 3:00am.  So, lets just say I am a wee bit tired today.  The good news is, Royal decided to not go into work today.  YEA!  I think it’s great, especially since he flew out to Boston, Sunday morning at 7am.  That’s right, that meant I had to get him to the airport at 5:30, which meant I had to get up at 4:00am.  Who books these flights?  Are they even legal?

Here are the sweet shirts Royal brought back - yes I know we look a little tired, WE ARE!

While the Cat's Away...

I believe the saying ends…the mice play.  But really this has nothing to do with mice, it has everything to do with poor little Scooter.  Yes, I figured it was time for another installment of Scooter’s Scary Life.

Royal’s off in Boston for a couple days at the American Chemical Society Convention.  Yes, say it with me…NERD ALERT!  He is pretty darn proud of the t-shirts he picked up Jayden and I.  Jayden’s says something to the affect of “Chemistry is Everywhere says the Mole” (get it mole? pay attention in class next time!)  and mine supposedly says, “Experiment with your Chemist”.  Royal thinks it’s pretty hilarious that America is sexing up chemistry now.  But while he’s away, I’m here defending the roost.  Jayden and I have had a pretty uneventful time so far, until just a few minutes ago…

I wasn’t feeling too tired, so I figure I’d just keep working on the knitting project I have going.  As I was sitting downstairs, I hear a rucus outside.  I turn down the volume on the TV, and I’m like, ‘dang, those stupid cats in the neighborhood are fighting right in the backyard’.  It quiets down, and then I hear it again.  Then it dawns on me.  ‘Oh crap, my cat’s outside’.  I forgot I let Scooter outside after dinner and I forgot to let her back in.    So I jump off the couch, run over to the door, flip on the light, and open up the slider.  There is the biggest of all the wild cats that roam around the neighborhood ready to eat Scooter.  I mean, this cat pretty much looks like a lynx.  Ok, not that big, but you get the point.  Scooter isn’t the biggest of cats, she’s kinda small, and let’s not forget she has a snaggle tooth and she drools.  I’m sure the other cats probably make fun of her.  I scare off the big orange cat and Scooter goes and hides under the BBQ.  She won’t come in the house from me calling her, so I slip on my shoes and go out to try and coax her back in.  She just stays there and growls at me.  Each time I get close to snagging her, she hisses and trys to bat my hand.  So, I go and get her favorite thing.  Food.  As soon as she hears the shaking of her food, she runs right into the house.  Well, not runs, sprints, she’s like a streak of lightening.  I pet her over to see if she got scratched or anything, crossing my fingers that she didn’t, because the last thing I need is another absess.  I didn’t find anything, but I’ll have to wait and see if anything develops.

I have to say, I am pretty proud of Scooter.  When I opened the door, Scooter was standing her ground, even though the orange cat could of eaten her in probably two bites.  The last time we were at the vet after the last attack by a racoon, the vet said that it looked like from her injuries she really didn’t run away or fight back, she just took it.  So props to little Scoots!  She’s becoming a Lovingfoss!  Lovingfoss’ like to fight, and they only fight to win.  I don’t fight, I’m still alot McComb, but I married a real big guy and he can do my fighting for me!

This doesn’t count as one of her lives, right?  I mean, I saved her so she didn’t have to use one, right?  So, sorry Royal, it looks like Scooter still has 6 lives to go!

Nike+Yarn = Cute Shoes!

I went and bought the Nike+ system today.  I am training to do the Nike+ Half Marathon in October, and I figured I might as well train with the system I will be using during the race!  For $30, really what you get is a glorified pedometer, but it’s sweet!  You plug the receiver into your Ipod and put the sensor in your shoe and it talks to you!  It keeps track of distance, speed, calories burned, and then you can upload it all to nikeplus.com to keep track of your training.  I’m so excited to try it out, I almost want to go wake Jayden up and get him in the stroller, but having a cranky kid is not quite worth it for me.

I refuse to buy the Nike shoes that the little Nike+ sensor fits into.  I personally don’t like running in Nikes, but that wasn’t going to stop me from using the Nike+ system.  So, I started to look for solutions to how I could attach the sensor to my shoe.  I have an old shoe wallet that I used to use in Seattle to hold my keys when I ran after work, but it’s too big for the sensor and I couldn’t get it strapped down tight enough so the sensor didn’t move around.  Then I thought, why not just knit a little case for it???  Genius, I know!  I know it’s not waterproof, but when the weather starts changing, I’ll go look for a more water resistant case to use.  For right now, I’m going to be stylish!

Here’s the little sensor (it’s a little blurry I know, but I’m not a photographer, I’m a runner…well right now I’m hardly a runner…stupid knee needs to heal)

Here’s the little case I knit up

See, the little sensor just wants to get in there and be cute!

The finished product with the sensor safe inside and some loops to run my laces through

The Boring Before Shoe and the Stylish After Shoe!