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!!!