New update on the wild cats...

Mary Kay actually caught a different wild full grown cat then the ones we were originally trying to catch! She heard all this clanging, banging, and growling this past Thursday night outside her kitchen window and she had thought her dog knocked over the trash can (it was about 9:30p); found out it wasn't Coco and that it was coming from the cat trap on our side yard. We were already asleep up on the second story with the a/c on that of course we heard nothing...to make a long story short, this WILD cat was jumping around and trying to get out of the trap that it made its head bloody...the next day she took the cat to the animal rescue shelter where you know this kind of adult cat was going to be put down. It was the most traumatic thing she'd gone through and since she's such and animal lover...she still wasn't over the experience 24 hours later. She ended up taking the cat trap down to our other neighbors house to hopefully catch the kittens there and not end up with some other wild animal; only time will tell after talking with her what she caught this time!!!

Office Space?

Philip painted what is supposed to be our formal living room a pumpkin patch orange it's called, yesterday & Saturday, and put together all but one piece left of our new office furniture. It looks so elegant in the front room now, I'm almost afraid to sit/work in it:-) (It is the Sauder Regency Road collection from Office Max). The kids are now only allowed in the front room to watch TV; we've migrated their toys upstairs to the loft and their rooms respectively. They've each (or will soon for Justin) have their own toy boxes and there's no need to have toys EVERY friggen' where in the house. Philip & I figure we can call the office our own space with our own stuff in it:-) All that's left is for Philip to put together the hutch and for me to find a lamp and window coverings/treatment for the window; currently for those of you who don't know we've only got faux wood blinds on the front window. Oh, and Ms. Mary Kay is going to help us stain our really nice mirror a similar wood finish to match the new furniture wood else we would've just had to get rid of it...it'll still fill the space nice on the large wall!

It was in the mid-high 70's (if not low 80's yesterday) and I took Justin and Jordan down to the park for one last hurrah before summer is over...the rain is due to come back this week and our temperatures get significantly cooler by this coming weekend; I think summer is officially over after this week:-( We are heading out camping on Friday over to Long Beach, WA for the long Labor Day weekend. It'll definitely be cooler, foggier, and rainier I'm sure over there so hopefully we don't again come home with a sick kid....Justin! I will get some pictures posted this week once Philip gets the camera loaded back to the computer since we had to 'gut' the entire room for painting and it's still about only 50% back in order!

To the doctor AND the dentist!!!

I took Justin to the doctor again this morning for a re-check since he's been coughing for the last 2 weeks...I really thought that he would have pneumonia, BUT he doesn't:-) Actually, his ears, lungs, mouth, and throat all look great. His nose looks like hell and he's got a cough with mucus, but not in the lungs...it's considered bronchitis which he's basically had for 2-weeks; I'm not sure why we can't seem to get rid of it. It's viral, so like anything you just have to wait for it to run its course. There are no antibiotics for it, however, the doctor put him on amoxicillan because he had a small fever yesterday and Wednesday in case it's not something more that he's fighting. The doctor also says through the stethoscope that he actually heard a slight wheeze as well which I can't hear and haven't heard with the naked ear:-) He sure plays and STILL gets into everything like he's not sick. He's been eating like a friggen' cow (i.e., whole hot dogs, buns and all in one sitting), and still playing all the time. He napped at school yesterday from 12-4p and then came home and slept his entire normal bedtime routine!!! I think he's in a serious growth spurt with one of his bottom bicuspid tooth popping through. This might be what's causing the snotty, runny nose...Kids always have issues, but at least it's nothing super serious TODAY:-)

Jordan went to the dentist and had 3 fillings done today as well on his big teeth on the left side of his mouth, two on the bottom, and one on the top. Like I mentioned a couple of months ago, since these are his big teeth that he'll keep until he's like 12, we couldn't let them go knowing that they would fall out soon anyways. He was very nervous in the beginning, but he held my hand and got his teeth drilled and filled (and no he didn't need a needle with anesthesia)! It took me and the dentist & assistant more coaching to get Jordan READY for the fillings then it took to actually do them...we were in the office at 4:30 and out by 5p, with probably only 10 minutes of it spent actually filling the teeth. He goes to Willamette Dental which caters to kids; the dentist did great showing Jordan all of the instruments and letting him touch them. The only one that made him very nervous was the suction tool. I think it had too much of a suction that I think it scared him more then anything!

Camping - Banks Lake, WA

This past weekend we went to Banks Lake camping & fishing! We stayed at the Coulee Playland Resort. This was our first camping trip we didn't stay at a KOA campsite and you know what, we had a great time!

http://www.couleeplayland.com/

We met a co-worker of Philip's there, Marlena, and her husband and family. We got there Friday at around 3p in the afternoon and we left Sunday at 12:30p to head back home. It is about 250 miles or about a 4.5 hour drive. Philip went out fishing with the men on Friday night, and then the entire families went to this off the wall property that Marlena's dad own about 50 miles away towards Wilbur, WA and fished on this private lake. It was like serious dirt roads the last 15 miles to get there and then an old gate had to be unlocked and we 4-wheeled our way into another 5 miles I believe or so to actually get to the lake. It was low 90's, high 80's for the weekend so that was nice, and I got a lot of sun to show for it:-) This area on the east side of WA has many lakes (Soap, Blue, Sun, Banks, and Moses); it was very nice and warm and it was really great just doing stuff outdoors and 'really' camping, not just visiting museum's and aquarium's!

Jordan caught about 15 fish all by himself! Philip would cast his line for him and then Jordan would hold the pole and reel the fish into the boat, and then of course Philip would have to take the fish off the hook. (I'll get pictures posted once the camera is loaded). I think I caught somewhere around 30 or so fish; they were all crappies...it was the kind of fishing I liked where I didn't have to pay attention and really fish because the fish just got hooked on my line with very little effort; in fact once I was putting sunblock on when one fish bit:-) Philip got to learn how to clean & gut the fish since he had to do some of the work to be able to bring 2 bags of the fish home! We are going to have a fish dinner in a few weeks when my mom and dad come out since my mom knows recipes on how to cook this type of fish...

Justin just hung out with folks around the lake this time. I didn't put him in the boat because I actually wanted to fish and not just hold him, plus he was a little off (sick) which I think he still is and is why I'm taking him back to the doctor on Friday. I think he has pneumonia again:-(

On the way home coming back over Snoqualmie pass on I-90, a vehicle crashed directly next to us in the fast moving lane. We actually saw dirt fly and the truck roll...towing a camper trailer and trying to safely stop is a hard task that Philip handled very well!!! We were lucky that the middle lane we were in and the slow lane didn't have a lot of traffic in it that everyone was able to safely pull off to the shoulder or slow down and stop without being hit. As soon as we stopped, we were directly next to the rolled over truck. All of the contents of the vehicle were all over the freeway, so Philip and other folks kicked the stuff over to the side off the freeway whilst this one lady was on the phone with 911; I'm sure she was in shock and all, but she had no friggen' clue where she was at! She had to ask Philip and myself what freeway she was on...clueless I tell you. To make a very long story short, the truck ended up propped upside down on the jersey barrier and the fast lane of the freeway which was VERY good for one of the passengers since she apparently didn't have her seatbelt on and came falling out the sunroof and end up under the car in the opening that was under the car. Needless to say everything could have been way worse, but of the 3 passengers in the truck, none of them died which is really amazing to me since the truck was pretty mashed up.

On a side note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister who turns 34 years-old today!

MADD (as Hell)!

I'm a Mother and (hell) yes I'm Against Drunk Driving!!!

Yesterday on my way home from the park and ride to get the boys from daycare, I was in front of this blue car and in looking through my rear view mirror as I usually do, I saw the lady passenger drink Jose Cuervo Gold from the bottle...and yes, if you're asking I could read the bottle and knew exactly what she was drinking. It was about 1/2 gone. I was shocked to say the least as this is the middle of the day at 5p rush hour traffic. I started to slow down so I could try and get license plates numbers but backwards through the rear view mirror is hard to do, so I slowed down and then watched her pass the bottle to the male driver who then drank as well...what the hell!!! Are people so careless and unconcerned about their fellow drivers that they risk their lives and everyone else around them! They couldn't have been but in their 40's, maybe 50's and they didn't even try to hide what they were drinking...in broad daylight they were drinking from a quart of tequila.

I took action and got into the left turn lane hoping they would continue straight which they did. I wrote their license plate down and called 911. As I was sitting at the traffic light waiting to turn left, I gave the dispatcher on the phone who in turn patched me over to the right area/district to handle the call the car color make and model and then gave them the license plate number...as I was still on the phone telling the dispatcher they were heading west on 112th towards Canyon, a Pierce County Sheriff car with its lights and sirens blaring came blazing right past me so I knew they had them since the a--es were heading into some heavy traffic they wouldn't get far. The dispatcher had asked me if they were weaving all over the road and I said not really that I could notice, but I was only in front of them a couple few blocks and we were only going about 30 miles an hour but I said I know they are drinking Jose Cuervo Gold and the quart bottle was about 1/2 gone...she said nice attention to details!

It just amazes me how asinine folks can be! I would hope that other folks would do the same if they saw someone right in front of them drinking and driving...

Update on the (wild) cats!

We tried to catch the cats last weekend and do you know they are like ferocious bobcats!!! I've never heard hissing, meowing, scratching, and carrying on like I did when we tried to catch them. They all scattered...come to find out, one got in the garage. We saw it yesterday and between Philip shining a flashlight and me using a broom handle to push at the kitten, we were able to shimmy it towards the open garage door and it ran out. We are unclear where it actually went, but we really don't care as long as it's not in the garage. There is no way in hell someone would be able to pick one of those kittens up without getting their arms and whatever else it grabs torn to shreds!!! Those cats hate people and I'm not sure how anyone would be able to go about adopting them since they need to be domesticated. Mary Kay is going to work to trap them and see if she can't get them to the Humane Society of Pierce County...if I were a little girl looking for my first kitten, these for sure in the hell wouldn't be it!

It's winter time in WA...(and other stuff)

...NOT really, but sure feels like it!!! I'm sick with a very bad cold (runny nose, sore throat, head hurts, blahblahblah), it's rainy outside and barely 70 degrees today, AND Justin too has a really bad runny nose! Have I died and woke up in Alaska? I'm hoping Justin's is due to him cutting his last of his two fang teeth (the upper right one) and that he isn't sick like I actually am. Mine only started yesterday and I think it's because we went from summer weather to down right winter weather overnight and I didn't dress accordingly...I should know by now in the NW you layer it on to take it off:-) I've lived here long enough to know that!!! The good news is that this weekend we are supposed to be back up into the 80's which is great since we have my Annual company summer picnic at Vasa Park in Redmond. We were supposed to go last year figuring Jordan was old enough to finally have some fun, but with all the summer activities they had going on it ended up raining and was very cold so we didn't go...I'm really hoping to go this Sunday since Justin now too can enjoy some of the fun as well!!!

A few side notes/tidbits:
1. Philip made a bomb a-- meatloaf (actually 2 of them - different ingredients in each) on Sunday from scratch...I think Jordan has a new favorite meal if you can believe it:-) He was SO excited for leftovers yesterday; I said meatloaf was for dinner and he said the flat meat with ketchup...I LOVE meatloaf!!! When do you know a kid to love meatloaf...at least Jordan my most finickiest eater:-)

2. We didn't do much this past weekend. We just hung around the house and got some spring cleaning done; well, not all of it but 1/2 day worth was enough for me...I need a maid!

3. I made the Amish friendship bread that was passed to me from Ms. Mary Kay...It actually turned out pretty good (not as good as Mary Kay's though, not sure what I did differently except I used a bundt cake pan which you could use and MK used the loaf type pans). If your not sure what it is, it's kind of like a coffee cake tasting thing is what Philip and I said.

4. We found a couple of kittens (couldn't be more then 6-8 weeks old) peeking out from our raised flower beds in the back yard and when we went out Saturday to look, it was actually 3 kittens and a mom cat. We bet that she had the kittens in our flowerbeds and have been there ever since. We've never noticed, because if you know our backyard we've got very large bushes, plants, and shrubs that make an excellent hiding place for the new mom and her litter. We are currently working to feed them so we can catch them and take them to the humane society so they can be adopted. It's sad the folks just up and leave their animals:-(

5. Philip is next door to Mary Kay's house for the quarterly home owners association meeting. He is in fact the VP and all...MK is the President. There seems to be lots of issues over on the other street; I'm very glad we live on the street we do cuz we've got such great neighbors around us! They were having a cop or somebody come to go over how you would go about setting up a neighborhood watch...what do I need watched? I've got my friend Kareena across the street watching my side and Ms. MK next to us watching Kareena's side of the street:-) They both work from/stay at home all day! I'm guessing the price is expensive to set up, but I mean get real nobody even shows up to the HOA quarterly meetings...I think the neighborhood watch would end up being a total flop...SORRY for being the pessimist of the group to all my neighbor readers. Everyone would be gung ho at the beginning and then it would slowly peeter off...I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

6. Justin ate his dinner and then ate a WHOLE banana tonight...yes, the whole thing by himself without so much as a nibble was I or Jordan allowed; Jordan & I actually had to share a banana! I'm gonna have one stopped up boy in the 'poop' department:-)

Justin's New Trick...

Justin went down the stairs all by himself beginning on Saturday. First he took a step or two down from the top of the stairs (standing on two feet mind you) and I about had a heart attack racing and tripping over my own two feet to get him before he fell; instead he sat on his butt and slid down a few steps and then must've made the realization that there has to be a faster way to get down the stairs so he turned over onto his belly and came racing down all of the stairs. After that, it was over, all he wanted to do was hang around on the steps going up and down...he was driving me nuts:-) After I finally told him to make up his mind about up or down, he came down; I put the gate up and he had a HUGE fit! Like a total meltdown because he now wanted to go back up the stairs. I got him sidetracked soon enough and he was able to move onto something else pretty quickly:-)

More random tidbits...

Philip will be home tomorrow before we go to bed; he actually thought he got home later then he actually does, which is good since there are a few things I want to do around the house on Saturday:-) A good nights rest will do Philip good!

On a side note, I've been getting Jordan to bed no later then 8:15p and he's not procrastinated like he usually does...I'm thinking it's because his alone time with Daddy is spent getting ready for bed, so of course he draaaaaaaags it out as long as possible...makes sense! I'll have to see if my theory holds water starting tomorrow night.

I think this weekend is going to be spent getting things done around the house, i.e., cleaning stuff I haven't cleaned it what seems like ages (blinds, our shower...). The weather here is actually supposed to be pretty crappy with rain making its way back sometime this weekend. Today it didn't even reach 70 degrees; it capped out at 69, which is a BIG drop from the very hot weather we had been experiencing up until now.

Justin has started talking a lot more...yesterday he point to a dog and said 'puppy'! He also is having a lot more nightmares which are common his pediatrician said when we were there last month for his 15-month check up. The nightmares seem to have really started this week and I'm wondering if it's because he's dreaming about still tubing down the Wenatchee River:-)

Seaside, OR (July 4th Weekend)

OK, not so bad for this trip seeing as it was only a month ago:-) Below is a slide show from our trip to Seaside, OR for the 4th of July weekend. Jordan got to ride bumper cars, jump on a huge inflatable 'pillow', and visit the Seaside Aquarium (I know another aquarium, but Jordan & Justin really like fish & stuff). At this aquarium, we got to get close up to the seals as other folks fed them...we didn't want to get to close and get wet, plus pay for food seemed to be a waste as well! Justin tried to do the jumper thing, but was just too small...We again went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory and we bought about $50 worth of merchandise; not the ice cream/cheese/etc. since we get that here in WA, but more of the items specific to only being at the cheese factory like the large cheddar curds and fudge. Justin got up real close and personal with a new best friend during the visit!!! There are like hundreds and hundreds of people visiting there and for the price of 'stuff', I can't imagine how much they make in a day; it kinds of seems astronomical when you think about it.

http://www.tillamookcheese.com/VisitorsCenter/

http://www.seasideaquarium.com/index.php

The weather was OR coast weather for this time of the year and not at all warm and actually started to rain the very last night we were there, so we did luck out in the rain department for the entire 4 days we were there. Justin ended up getting sick again on this trip as well as he did when we went to Lincoln City over Memorial weekend...I think the coast weather and not being warm plays a big part! We did a lot more sight-seeing this time around then we did when we were there two years ago (Jordan was 2 and we rented our RV for our first camping trip). I hope you all enjoy the pictures; we had a great time!!!

He's on the move....AGAIN!

Philip is traveling again this week to Kentucky and Chicago.he'll be home late Friday night...He got up at 0230 yesterday morning for a flight out at 0610 which ended up getting significantly delayed due to mechanical problems. I got an e-mail message from him around 12:15p with the subject line: Still in Seattle. He was due to leave out instead at 1p or so and arrive in KY at 11p when he was originally due in at 3:30p for an evening appt. over dinner with a vendor and other folks that were down there from Seattle. That was an obvious miss:-) He was upset that he could've slept in longer and I was upset because I could've made yesterday a normal work day for me!!! Mary Kay is picking up the boys for us this week and yesterday when I got home, they were outside watching the neighborhood bunny two houses down for our house (on the other side of MK's house)...Jordan was so excited that he had to show me once I pulled up in the driveway and then of course Justin had to show me too in his finger-pointing/grunting way that he does:-) Today they are going to try to feed the bunny carrots...I'm sure it will be kind of comical:-)

Justin & Jordan just love Mary Kay that you can see it now when she leaves; they both have to give her hugs & kisses and say 'bye'! It's SO cute!!!

Leavenworth, WA - Camping Trip

OK, so this past weekend we went camping over to Leavenworth, WA (not the military base Ft. Leavenworth, KS) and we had a great time! We left Friday (7/31) and came home yesterday afternoon. The temperature over there on the east side of WA was high 90's - low 100's which is not unusual for this time of year...however, since the weather was cooling off here at home, it was kind of unnerving to know that we were going camping to somewhere where it was still really hot!!! Of course, the trailer has A/C...I couldn't imagine a trip like that without it:-) We are going to definitely make another trip over there since as we were 7 or so miles from the house, I asked Philip if he grabbed the camera, he said no thinking I grabbed it when in fact no one grabbed it! We didn't have anything really planned for this trip, so we kind of basically hung out at the campground, though we did make it into town to Leavenworth (it's a Bavarian town like Frankenmuth, MI for all my MI readers) and spent a couple of hours early morning after having breakfast at Sandy's waffle house. They were having a weekend music and art festival this past weekend so we got to enjoy that as well, but I'll have to say the BEST part of this trip was that the entire family went tubing down the Wenatchee River!!! Yes, the ENTIRE family to include Justin & Jordan!!!

It was a 2 mile stretch from the KOA campground down to where you got out of the river and the KOA van met and shuttled you back. Philip and Jordan were on one tube and Justin and I were in another tube...during most of the trip, Philip and I stayed connected by holding each others handles of the tubes; other parts of the river we were fending for ourselves since we had to protect our butts from the rocks in the river; actually more like boulders! Philip and I kept trying to dodge these rocks, but of course most of the time we didn't and our butts drug over and every once in awhile we got stuck on top of the rock with the tube and had to shimmy ourselves loose:-) At the very beginning of the ride, was the most rapid, choppy part of the river that threw water up onto us and right of way I was thinking what the hell have I gotten myself into with a 16-month old; I need to turn around somehow and get off and go back to camp, but of course after that was pretty much smooth sailing except for a few fast rapids (without the throwing up of water)...basically we had the boys in our laps between our legs. Justin basically sunned himself and enjoyed the entire ride, though when it was all over I asked him if he liked tubing down the river and he said 'no'! I'll tell you 'no' is his new favorite word which he basically says to everything you ask him, but it was cute...Jordan liked it, though I think he was unsure if he wanted to do it again either! Jordan was talking, laughing, and having a great time the entire ride...we saw a few animals along the river as well as fish in the river; all in all it was ANOTHER great adventure for our memory book!!!

Jordan also got to go swimming for the first time in the big pool at the campground...he floated (not too far out:-)) on his own and didn't seem at all too afraid of the water; I think I'm going to put him into swimming classes starting this fall, but first I've got to look around and get the logistics...I don't want them to be afraid of water, and I definitely want them to be able to swim on their own if the need should ever arise! Right now they wouldn't be able to save themselves out of a wet paper bag:-)

For all those of you keeping track, our next camping adventure is in a couple weeks back over to eastern WA towards Moses Lake for some fishing. We've got our poles (Jordan included) and can't wait to see who can catch the biggest one!

Justin is 16 months old today!!!

Isn't he just the cutest!!! These pictures were actually taken 5 days ago, but close enough...

Look at ALL my teeth...it's not hard to make me smile:-) I love to put on my funny face & make mommy and daddy laugh, BUT....

I can also be serious.:-)