Count Down to Relay for Life

One of Kylie's end of the year assignments in Social Studies was a "Make a Difference" project. She chose to form a Relay for Life team and raise awareness of colon cancer. The Relay is an 18 hour event where you have to keep at least one team member on the track at all times. Here's the link to her team page:

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeGreatWestDivision/757892640?pg=personal&fr_id=4995&fr_id=4995&px=6926555

To start her fundraising efforts, she set up a snack stand at Ordway field. She was there for four hours today and plans to be there next Saturday as well. I'm so proud of her determination and enthusiasm! When she puts her mind to something, she doesn't quit.

Girl Time!

On Thursday, I did something new! My sister, Corey, took me out for a pedicure as a birthday gift. How did I manage to reach the age of 36 without ever having a pedicure?! It was the ultimate in pampering. Sitting in a large reclining massage chair, soaking my feet in warm water, then getting them massaged and scrubbed and toenails painted....ahhhh! I'm spoiled!


After our pedicures, we went to lunch at Julia's, a restaurant at the top of Queen Anne hill. The restaurant used to be a Victorian home and was decorated with all kinds of antiques, old photographs and beautiful stained glass windows. It reminded me a lot of my Aunt Karen's house in Portland that she lived in when I was a kid.

Corey and I tried to take a picture of ourselves at Julia's...do we look like sisters?


We had a very nice afternoon together and I think I'm going to have to treat myself to a pedicure more often than every 36 years!

Pizza, Movies and Mora

Our friends from North Bend came over to spend Memorial Day with us yesterday. We've developed a tradition of eating pizza, then going to see a movie and topping it off with a trip to Mora. We've been looking forward to seeing "Prince Caspian" with them ever since we saw the previews together, and their girls have been talking about going to Mora again for months!

It was raining all morning at our house, so our plans of eating pizza in the park didn't sound so fun. When I went to pick up our friends from the ferry, it was like we went to a different climate...no rain, even a few sun breaks! We ended up going back to our house anyway since Brad's back was hurting.

Here's John commiserating with Brad.


At the theatre, we thought we were going to get a private screening! We were the only ones there until about five minutes before the movie started.


Ben and Annabelle love the movie displays!


They also love Mora! Ben always gets Lemon Sorbet with sprinkles. I forced myself to order something other than Coconut and went with the Dark Chocolate Mint. It was wonderful, but very rich!

Stop the ride! I want to get off!

Gas is $4.05 a gallon at the 76 on Bainbridge! (Diesel is $5.00 a gallon!!!) I had to run to Safeway to get dogfood, yes I just went to the store yesterday, and no, I didn't check first to see if we were running low, so yes, I had go a total of 12 miles to get ONE thing. Fortunately I just got gas at Costco on Monday and paid ONLY $3.67 per gallon. But next time I fill up, it will cost me at least 20 cents a mile to drive my van (and that's only the cost of gas, I'm not figuring in all the other complicated costs of driving). So my little jaunt would cost me $2.43 in gas! I'm halfway thinking about trading in the van for a six-seater bike!

International District Field Trip

Today I got to chaperone Nathan's International District field trip! I haven't been down there since I was a kid, so I really enjoyed it. I hardly ever go over to Seattle, and when I do, the International District is not my destination. But now that I've been to Uwajimaya, I'll have to make a better effort to get over there more often. What an amazing place! I could have spent all of the time there, but with five teenage boys to guide, I didn't get a chance to browse as much as I wanted to. We did get to sample some octopus, which was seasoned with something very tasty. I don't think I can say what octopus actually tastes like since the seasoning was so strong, but I liked it!

We were given a list of different places to visit and a little historical background on each. Our first stop was the Danny Woo Community Gardens, a terraced P-Patch at the north end of the ID. It was almost surreal walking along the paths, seeing the small garden plots carefully organized to take advantange of as much space as they could and then looking up to see Safeco and Qwest Fields, Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound, tall office buildings surrounding me!




Our next stop was at Kobe Park. This cement lantern was a gift to the Japanese Americans in 1976 from the citizens of Kobe.



Then we stopped at the Fortune Cookie factory where they sell these huge 5 lb. bags of "unfortunate cookies". We opted for a smaller 2 lb. bag since we didn't want to lug the big one around! The boys also bought bags of flavored fortune cookies...chocolate, pina colada, strawberry, apple, I never knew they came in all these flavors. One of the boys, after eating almost a whole bag of fortune cookies said, "I'd better stop before I overdose on fate!"

This arch was dedicated earlier this year as the offical gateway into the ID. Beautiful!

Along the streets are these amazing dragons hanging from the light poles. We counted 8, but I heard there are 11 scattered throughout the ID. Each one is different.

This grand pavilion is at Hing Hay Park. It was constructed in Taipei in 1975. The mural below was designed by Seattle native John Woo and depicts the struggle of the Aisan pioneers in America.

I didn't take any pictures at Uwajimaya, but we enjoyed looking at all the interesting things there. We ate lunch in the food court...lots of yummy Asian restaurants to choose from. I had some wonderful green curry chicken. What a fun day! Although, when I got home, I have to admit I was very glad that I'm not usually away from home all day. Everything I left behind was there waiting for me...laundry, cleaning, cooking...oh well, it was worth it to spend the day with Nathan and his friends!

Bag Tag

My sister, Corey, tagged me for Bag Tag, so I have to post what I have in my bag, or purse. I'm so glad I'm not in baby mode anymore! I actually have a very clean purse and realized I could get away with a much smaller one.



The purse itself I bought about 4 years in San Diego at Wilson's Leather...it was on sale for $40, I think, regular $80 or $90. It's held up really well except the zipper doesn't work anymore. I like it so much, though, that I can't get rid of it!

As for the contents, starting at the top, one pack of SuperMint Extra, one pack of Cinnamon Orbit...depending on my mood! A mirror, Advil in a Tylenol case, three hairbands, bandaids, my wallet (also from Wilson's Leather), my Washington Mutual check register (yes, I still have an account there, even though Brad works for their rival next door!) an envelope of temple cards, my name tag from Bainbridge Athletic Club (I only worked there for 6 months over a year ago...don't know why I still have it...), an OB tampon, Chapstick, a measuring tape, my kid's immunization records and my grocery list! That's all folks!

Attention Parents of Picky Eaters!

If your child refuses to try new foods, eats only a few very specific foods, or has ever been labeled a picky eater, she (or he) may really have Sensitive Tastebud Syndrome or STS. (I was going to call it Senstive Tastebud Disorder, but I figured STD would get a little confusing.) STS was identified by Jillian VanAken at the dinner table last night as she struggled to eat the Penne Arrabiata her mother prepared for the family's dinner. The suculent combination of Penne pasta, chicken, tomatoes, tomato sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes was too overwhelming for poor Jillian. Upon taking the first bite, she declared, "This is disgusting! I can't eat it!" When encouraged to eat a few noodles and two slivers of chicken, she discovered the syndrome. "It's not my fault I have sensitive tastebuds!" she proclaimed. Experiments to discover if STS is a genetic disorder or a result of enviornmental factors will be conducted in the near future.

I Believe I Can Fly!

Ben was chosen to be "Kid of the Week" at preschool. We're supposed to make a poster showing five things he's great at, so we were taking some pictures this afternoon. I never knew he was great at flying!

Other things he's great at:

Catching frogs (and being really gentle with them, he says...notice the crushed leg...)

Riding a bike (super sized training wheels!)

Cooking (Tie-fighter Ties from the Star Wars cookbook)

Building "rocking cool" lego ships

Dancing (to Electricty by OMD, of which he said "This is really good music, mom!" I agree!)

Beach Field Trip

Ben's preschool class took a field trip to Lytle Beach today at low tide to search for sea creatures. They found all sorts of interesting things, like this beautiful sunstar.

Mace's Dad, Peter, showed the kids how to spot a geoduck...watch out, you might get wet!

Teacher Tifanie (a.k.a. Aunt Tiffy) found a giant seastar!

Teacher Ellen turned over rocks to find crabs. The kids would yell "Crab Festival!" when there were lots of crabs scrambling to get away. Ben found a crab...it was dead, but he still wanted to keep it.

Warning: the following video contains a scary crab

Ben's Mother's Day Poem

Ben's preschool class had their annual Mother's Day Tea party yesterday. I forgot my camera so I don't have pictures...hopefully I'll get copies from someone, but I loved this poem Ben gave me and I wanted to share it with you!

MY MOM

By Ben, May 2008

My mom mostly works on the computer.

She washes dishes.

She cooks food.

My favorite is hot dogs with ketchup.

For fun my mom goes on a date with my dad.

My brother and sister take care of me.

She watches moms and dads movies sometimes.

She reads.

She plays on the Game Cube with me.

My mom has yellowish hair.

She's tall.

She likes to wear fancy clothes when she's on a date.

I love her!

My mom doesn't get mad that much.

I would buy my mom a jewelry from Jared because it has all these jewels.

It would be mostly white, like diamonds.

She would wear it on a date.

I love Dad.

I love my Mom!

I love her to infinity!!

Without my mom I woudn't be born.

Jenny and Kylie's trip to Salt Lake City

When Nathan turned 12, Brad took him to Salt Lake for General Conference. Now that Kylie is 12, it was my turn! We went from April 3 to 6 and stayed with our good friends, the Hosmans in their brand-new, gorgeous home. On Friday, Tammie and Rachel acted as our tourguides and took us all around Salt Lake City. We went to the church history museum, temple square, Beehive House, visitors centers, Joseph Smith Memorial building...it was a full day and very memorable.

Kylie and I had tickets to the Saturday afternoon session of conference. It was so amazing to sit in the Conference Center and see the Prophet walk in. Everyone stood and it was very reverent, even with 21,000 people. Kylie had forgotten to put in her contacts and she was upset that she wouldn't be able to see very well, but she said later that the spirit was so strong, it was OK that she didn't have her contacts in. I really enjoyed spending the weekend with Kylie. She's an amazing girl!

Spring Break

Our weather this spring has been so unpredicatble that we are learning to take advantage of the few sunny days we get. Over spring break, we went to Fay Bainbridge State Park to fly kites. It was a beautiful day, but quite windy, perfect for the kites. Nate and Jill got theirs up right away, but after half an hour, Kylie and I still couldn't get the trick-kite flying. We determined there was too much wind!

It's T-Ball season!

After seven years, we're back to Saturday T-ball games! Ben's team is the Blue Jays. It's hilarious to watch the team, all five and six year old boys, learning to hit, catch and throw!

Ben is the team's official daisy picker!