I'm married to an old man

30: Age my husband turned
100: percent chance of rain for the day
0: number of rain drops we actually got
1: number of brown bears we saw

Click to enlarge and see our stalker friend swimming in the background

3: number of fishing sites the bear followed us to
10: number of tourists on raft that floated down directly behind us and were frightened to death by said bear when he barreled into the river and charged them.

6: hours that all the men on the trip fished
30: minutes that I fished total ALL day- and caught more fish than anyone

"Look, mom.. don't I look boota-full?"

This is never a good thing to hear from a 3 year old. Ever. I left my mascara in the backseat of the car a couple of weekends ago. It is literally a 3 minute drive from our house to church but on the way home Jack managed to do this. :)

Summer Joys

We've had such a great summer. So many sunny days (excluding this week!) and WARM. I've been loving it, every day in the 70s or over 80. We've gone to the cabin every Thursday for the last few weekends because everyone at Jeremy's work was cut to 32 hours so every Friday off! Bad for finances, but FUN for us!
We are still homeless gypsies, it's a long story but let's just say that life is not always exactly how you plan, right!? We've been rolling with the punches. Life is still good despite the constant change of plans due to circumstances beyond our control.
Tate is still not walking but keeps up with the best of them. He's about half the length of me and as adorable as ever.
Jack is Jack. So much fun, such a handful. Here's an exchange that happened tonight:
Jack:"Dad, will you get me a spoon?"
Jeremy: "Why don't you get it yourself?"
Jack: "Huh! That's a funny joke, Dad."
He's dead serious. Yep, I'm in for it.
I've also been busy sewing like crazy. I've posted a few projects for a baby shower I went to recently! If you look close at the quilt and the towel you'll see a little applique that my embroidery machine did.
More pictures to post soon!

4th!!

We had such a great time this year up at the cabin with the family. Jeremy's parents came up as well and we ate, fished, 4 wheeled and relaxed. The weather was beautiful (4th of July tradition) and everything around us was even more beautiful.
I woke up the morning of the 4th to get started on the boys shirts (slave to the machine). Someday they will not let me dress them at all (let alone in matching shirts) so I'm taking full advantage while I can. Plus, I'm hoping that someday they will be grateful when I make them a quilt with all of these commemorative shirts I've made throughout the years.
I felt especially grateful for the men and women who fight everyday to make this country what it is. I cannot believe how lucky I am to have been born in such a great country and to a great family.
Hope everyone had a great 4th! Isn't America the best!!?

Enjoying Summer: Tate's birthday party, first haircut, a day at the cabin and Father's Day Float!

Jeremy floated down Willow Creek on Saturday with my dad and caught this rainbow.

Tate "before" :)

Tate in the sink with Grandma giving him a haircut!

The cabin in the summertime!

Jack and mom relaxin on a rock chair down by the creek.
We've been enjoying summer! Will blog more later, have more photos to add to this post but they're not on this computer yet. Oh and by the way, the Chinese Lunar calendar does not lie, my sister is having a GIRL! Congrats Heidi!!!

Can't believe he's ONE!!!

Elle helping Tate with his gift..

Gymboree gifts from best friend Elle! (He'll pay her back with dinner and a movie in about 18 years.. or 30 if you ask Bryce, right Tara!?)

Tate's birthday onesie!

Tate turned one years old today! I can't believe that I no longer have a tiny baby, sometimes I swear I still feel like I have a newborn until I see someone else with an actual newborn and it snaps me back to reality!
Tate is the funnest little guy. He says "mama" (constantly), "dada" and "buh-buh" (bye). He is all smiles and is the wiggliest kid on the face of the planet. I still look around at other kids at church that are his age and they are just sitting on their mom's laps!? Will. never. happen.
Another sunny Alaska day- so we went swimming!! I spent the morning making a birthday onesie for Tate (still having fun with the embroidery machine) and made some cupcakes so he can devour his very own after dinner. Tara brought over his best friend, Elle, and they had so much fun together!
Not much else has been going on. I ran another 12k after much prodding from my little sister, last Friday. I got sick to my stomach and had to walk between mile 4 and 5. Sad. Guess I can't take a month off from running after all? Not to mention the big dinner I had a couple of hours before... whoops. (What was I supposed to do, my husband took me to the best Italian restaurant?!)
We also have decided to rent instead of build this season. I know, we are crazy and change our minds everyday!! But we are moving into the townhouse July 1st, we have finally made up our mind for sure. We just don't feel good about building right now. So, that's that.
Anyways, Happy Birthday little guy, we love you!!!

Machine in Action

Did this little outfit for Tate tonight! Turned out cute, love it!!
I downloaded the design from Urbanthreads.com, changed the colors and the wording, used PE-Design to input a true-Type font from off my computer and pressed "start". So easy!

Memorable Memorial Day

Another Holiday!
We had a great day up at the cabin with our friends Tara and Bryce and their darling little girl, Elle. We headed up after church on Sunday and bbqed some tri-tip, did a little fishing(well, the boys did), and hung out on our own little sandy spot of the shore.
We ended the night with a little Arrested Development (we are all about electricity when we're roughing it!) .
The next morning we were delighted to see that we were going to get some serious sun, and we were actually hot sitting in it! The boys did some 4wheeling while we hung out with the kids.
Such a fun weekend!

Busy May!

In our family we make boys by the wagon load!

Last week, I went in to work a couple of days, had a birthday, and took a shopping trip to Anchorage for furniture. Jeremy got me a Brother 750D embroidery machine for my birthday along with a couple cases of embroidery thread, some gingher curved handle scissors and all kinds of extra accessories. I was so excited! I've been wanting one for a long time so that I can do custom gifts- towels, onesies, and names/monograms on quilts etc.
It has been ridiculous gorgeous here every day for weeks now. Perfect sunny, beautiful weather! Maybe we won't move afterall (we've been threatening to since last summer's horrible trick)
Sooo excited for this weekend, we are going to my parent's cabin tomorrow after church and staying the night to 4wheel all day Monday. Have a great Memorial Day everyone and don't forget to remember the brave who make this the land of the free.

Mother's Day

Momma to be and me

Before the race

Someone get me something other than flats!

The only reason people run: The Tshirt

How sad that all of my posts lately are Holidays? I will get better at this! I guess maybe I am wasting too much time on facebook, or digital scrapbooking or sewing.. or sometimes I even take care of my kids. Hmm.
I just got back from Portland and ran my 12k around Lake Oswego, I LOVED it!! It was one of the best days of 2009 yet! The weather was great, the run was challenging but amazingly gorgeous and the town of Lake Oswego is my dream place! I'm sure the fact that all the houses were 1.5 million plus had something to do with it! The homes were beautiful and had so much craftsman character. Just looking at the architecture was enough to keep me entertained throughout my run. I ran it faster than I thought I would although not fast ( I am slow). I ran an average of an 11 minute mile-- (Finished the 7.5 miles in 84 minutes).
My sisters and my mom enjoyed Mother's Day weekend together and had a blast! Pedicures, shopping, eating, Japanese gardens, shopping, eating.
In other news, Jack is GOING POTTY ON THE POTTY CHAIR!! Many thanks to Debbie for letting me borrow her potty training book and also many thanks to Red Vines for providing the perfect bribe. The poop thing is still hit and miss but at least there's hits! No pullups for a week and a half...yessss!
Tate is 11 months and still not crawling, I think one of these days he's just going to stand up and walk away. I am not pushing him though, limited mobility is not a bad thing! Haha, I am such a mean mom I know!!
We're still plugging away with the house, everything is going good so far! Hope to meet with the bank soon and get this show on the road!

Easter 2009

Having boys is not quite the same when it comes to some Holidays, Easter being one of them. What do you buy boys for Easter Sunday? When I was little, I was that girl that had on the hat, new dress and some years, gloves. Then I realized that for $11.99 each I can buy matching sweater vests- pair them with existing white shirts and khaki pants- and I've got some Easter outfits. Boys are great!
I am officially in love with the sun. The snow is mostly gone and days are loooong. Spring is the literal light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. We have so much planned for the summer, and hope to enjoy every minute of it!
Also, we have decided to owner-build this summer! I know, we are crazy and this changes almost every day but we dropped a cool amount of cash for the house plans and there's no going back now. I guess I have a new part-time job?!

Wannabe

So I guess I'm supposed to be running a 12k in a month!? Time has flown by and the training just hasn't been happening like I wanted it to. Except for now. I joined the Valley Womans Running Team (sounds professional but is open to anyone! All levels! Including level 0, which is where I'm at) Our first day was a trail run up Wolverine Canyon. In the snow. We were instructed to just stay on the snow machine track and to watch out for bears. "If you sense a bear, just make some noise", says the leader of the group. Thanks, I'll be sure and scream while I'm being eaten.
We ran 35 minutes up the hill in somewhat soft snow that gives way much like running in sand. Don't worry, I was only in the very back of the group that consisted of several 50+ year old women. Luckily, coming down was just gorgeous and renewed my resolve. The entire run was only an hour but I felt it for days!
Last night was our track run but we ran to a local hill again ("Mormon hill" as they call it.. right next to the Palmer chapel) to run more hills. I guess I'll be getting into shape whether I like it or not!

At least we don't have hurricanes..

So Mt. Redoubt has been blowing for days now. My poor friend Tara and her family have been trying to leave for Mexico since Thursday evening and their flight keeps getting cancelled due to the ash. So much for the timeshare week! We had a light dusting of ash on the truck this morning as we left for church but unfortunately no ash fall advisory for today in our town so church wasn't cancelled!;)
Anchorage seems to have it worse than where we are and Kenai area (hundreds of miles south) is really getting hit hard. The snow (yes, we still have it) went from white to completely gray within hours.
We spent the weekend helping out Holly at her new house. It's adorable! Jeremy took out a window in her dining room and put in sliding glass doors so she can actually access her big back yard. We bought some slate tile to tile up the back of her raised bar area in the cute little island we put in her kitchen. That has been such a fun project!
Jack and Tate are doing good. Jack is as mischievous as ever. I joke that I've given up on him and I'm just going to focus on Tate. ;) He still WON'T potty train but I'm confident that by the time he goes to college we should be good.
Tate is the smiliest baby around and loves ALL food. Surprisingly, he's not near as chubby as Jack was but I swear he eats more. (Must have his dad's genes!) We have the hardest time finding pants for that kid since he's so tall, if they fit his waist they are so SHORT and if they fit his legs the waist is huge. Yeah, I've never had that problem.

STILL winter?!

I have been in a bit of a funk. The days are longer and the sun seems a bit warmer but the SNOW is relentless!
2 weekends ago (wow, am I behind at blogging?!) we spent Saturday up at my parents cabin- snowmaching, snowshoeing, and... well, eating. I broke out my new snow shoes for the first time since Santa (AKA Jeremy) brought them. The day was absolutely gorgeous, snowed HUGE flakes all day outside while the cabin stayed cozy inside (albeit not really warm save the loft which was toasty) considering the insulation is now half done.

We found an old abandoned cabin that was almost buried in the snow!

Around the cabin..

and through the snow!

We have decided NOT to break ground on May 1st as we had originally planned. Things are just too up in the air now where Jeremy works and the last thing we want is to build our little dream house and then not be able to get a loan to close on the house because we have no income if Jeremy were to get laid off. (Apparently, they frown on that?!) (Although from the current state of the housing market it's clear they haven't always frowned on that..)
SOO.. it's looking like fall at the soonest that we'd start. I think we will just get an apartment and rent while the house is being built. I thought I'd be so heart broken about waiting longer still.. but I really don't care. I would rather be safe than sorry.
Tate has 2 teeth now (Wow, I still dont have pics of that. Poor 2nd child Tate..) He's saying "Mama" and "dada" now although conveniently enough always says my name when he's crying and needs to be fed, changed or just held.

Tate

I can't believe he is 8 months old! I am getting so sad when I look at him and see how BIG he is getting! We are done for a while, so I am trying to enjoy Tate everyday as much as possible because I just LOVE this age! He is SO smiley and has the brightest blue eyes ever!

Here's Tate at cousin Vyrl's 1 year birthday party. What a cutie!

Jeremy and I with Tate on Christmas Eve.

Jack sharing his safety glasses for "working" with Tate.
It's FINALLY staying light past 5 (yeah!) and is starting to feel like maybe spring will actually come someday. We have another meeting with the builder on Friday. We are unsure of what to do since things are slowing down at Jeremy's work. It's so hard to know when to build, what the interest rates will do, what Jeremy's company will do (lay more people off?) Ugh, I know it will all work out but I hate worrying about it!

5 Years!

On Saturday, Jeremy and I will celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. While this may be a small number to many, for someone who still feels like she's in high school most of the time and is only masquerading around as a "grown up"-- this is hard to believe. Before Jeremy, I never had any "long-term" relationships. I really didn't even have any boyfriends (beyond a few months, hardly counts), mostly boy friends. He is the best decision I ever made.
I'm not sure what we'll do.. but sometime on the date I'm sure we'll take a vote and see if we want to stick it out another year;)
Jeremy is off every other Friday so tomorrow he is going to the cabin to work on the electrical (yeah! One step closer to insulation) I love that about Jeremy, he can do almost anything... electrical, plumbing, anything mechanical, woodworking, etc. For a "white collar" guy, he's quite impressive! I seriously think the man can fix, install or solve just about anything. I LOVE that about him!
Jeremy is also the best father, sometimes he seems to have more energy than the kids when he gets down on the floor and plays. I think he was meant to have boys.
Here's to many more anniversaries!

Is it too soon to start Botox?

So the other day my sister Holly and I were in the grocery store when the gentleman working there so politely referred to me as Holly's mom. Umm.. Holly is 24..we're 4 years apart. 4 years!!! Do I look that old? (Please say no) What a dramatic change since 2 years ago when the flight attendant on the way to China almost kicked me out of first class because she thought I looked 12. (And who TELLS someone that anyways-- "I thought you were 12!") I can only hope that I look the same as I do now when Jack turns 24 (21 years from now, thank goodness)
We went to the cabin on Friday (my sister has pictures posted here), but since there was no insulation in the roof or floor, we FROZE. Jeremy seemed to think the cabin would still get warm sans insulation-- turns out it is somewhat essential when it's 15 degrees outside. Hmm, who'd have thought? So we didnt spend the night, we came home at mignight. I told Jeremy I wasn't going to attempt a sleepover there again until it was insulated or it was May, whichever comes first!

Apparently I can't let Christmas die..

since I still have my Christmas themed header up and I'm too lazy to change it. Maybe by Valentines!:)

It's only appropriate though since I'm just NOW getting around to writing about Christmas. Except now I've waited so long that I don't have much to say other than Christmas was great as always. We are so blessed with a large, healthy family and enjoyed the spirit of the season.

I made my parents a quilt for the cabin that is "outdoorsy" themed. The quilting pattern is salmon, since the cabin is right on a fishing river. It almost was a Bass, which Jeremy informed me was NOT acceptable since apparently there's no Bass in Alaska? (Who knew?)

Since the 62 degree temperature swing since last week, I am finally coming out of hibernation! Still bad at blogging though...

An Inconvenient Truth? Really?

So it has been just a little bit on the chilly side lately:

It has sucked all the energy out of me and I havent left the house for days. (Would you??) Not only that, but the last time I DID leave the house I got stuck. On flat ground. 1/8 mile from the house. The wind was blowing so hard that it made a huge snow drift in the middle of the street that when I tried to drive through, turned out to be 18" deep or so. The Pathfinder would have made it, but since the Pathfinder is in the shop, we are driving the "loaner" which is a cross-over.. (that cannot cross over much, apparently.) There are more stories behind that but I'll spare you.

I guess staying inside isn't so safe either since yesterday as I was standing about 7 feet away from the kitchen window it completely BLEW OUT all over the kitchen for no reason!? It was scary and wierd... although thankfully it was just the inside pane and not the outside so we are still toasty warm. SO- who wants to come visit?:)

Christmas was good- I will do a christmas post once I get all my thoughts and pics together. 2008 was another good year to us and I am just amazed every day at what I have. I find joy in everyday life and love it! May 2009 bring much joy, happiness and prosperity to your lives as well...

Busiest time of the Year

I have been loving Christmas (as always) but have felt so busy this year. Part of that is having two kids, part of that is doing a few homemade gifts, wrapping up loose ends on the closet business (which I dont know if I ever mentioned that we quit doing... it was too stressful) and now I'm also taking on some work for the Interior Design company that I used to work for.



We met with a builder on Friday, I feel really good about him and am excited to get things finalized. After hours of tweaking this is what the exterior of the house looks like that we plan to build (barring unforeseen circumstances like the economy completely falls under and houses go for next to nothing... then, we'd buy instead of build obviously)

To be able to "get in" to this house, we are only finishing the main floor which has 2 bedrooms (technically a guest bedroom and a den but it works), a bathroom, the great room, kitchen, and dining. I hope all goes well and we can build because now I've got my hopes up! :)

I hope everyone has a great week, and has better time management skills than I!