I don't know why the armoire swallowed the dining room . . .

. . . . I guess it'll die.
So, we had an eventful Thursday night that involved renting a Penske truck (no- no one in our ward has a truck big enough for this and no, we weren't about to ask them to do what we did anyway), picking up Stephen at work amidst Mariners game traffic, navigating to 2 people's homes in unfamiliar towns 45 minutes South of here, many u-turns, loading a (500#) armoire into the back without a truck ramp, loading a bunk bed set at another house, a 9-1-1 call for the man that was lying in the street (everything turned out fine), and an 11:00pm un-load at our house with the help of our EXTREMELY nice friend Jake. Then we realized that the armoire was a monster! We were thinking the bigger, the more stuff it will hold, right? Ha ha. It's serving as our pantry. Well, live and learn and this monster is staying put- we'll have to take it out in pieces with axes if we ever move.
The bunk beds on the other hand, are perfect. They are the exact set I was looking for, not too tall, with a railing around the top and a ladder attached. The girls (and Aiden) bounced around on them gleefully and the girls just giggle for 5 minutes straight when I put them down. I hope the girls love these as much as I loved sharing a bunk bed with my sister and Stephen did sharing with his brothers. We used to lay in bed singing Silent Night in rounds and spent hours (it seemed) playing the try-to-catch-my-legs-if-you-can game. Thank goodness for space-saving furniture when you have some that seem to take up an entire room!

Camping

Last thursday night we took off for a campground just North of Mount Rainier Park, the Dalles. We had a great spot right on the White River. View from our campsite. The sound of the river was so soothing at night.
The girls jumped around shouting with joy for the first half hour, they were SO EXCITED to be camping. Ada's I'm-jumping-off-a-rock-so-I'm-so-brave smile

Odessa loved gathering firewood like Curious George does when he goes camping

That night while we slept, it started to rain and didn't stop all day Friday! Ok, so most of the time it was just a drizzle and it quit briefly for us to take a few little jaunts into the woods, but no way was I cooking outside in that "downpour"! I told him if he wanted a hot dinner, we had better get in the car and drive back to Enumclaw. Stephen took the tarp from under our tents and rigged it over the table so I could cook. I think he felt like quite a mountain man considering he had to climb a branchless tree and he didn't take off his camo outfit the entire time we were there since it's so much better in the rain than other clothes. He also can start a fire when it's been raining for hours- I don't know how he managed it. I think he should start a company- one you can call if it's raining and you want to give up and go home (like me). He can come in and break camp in the rain for you and deliver your stuff later. Should be a big hit out here in the Pacific Northwest. I was so NOT excited about the thought of packing up wet and dirty things. Thank goodness it stopped raining Friday night and we dried out enough Saturday before coming home. While it rained on Friday, we drove around Mount Rainier National Park and checked out a couple of hikes from our books, even played in the snow remaining in the passes. That pink spot in the picture is Ada, digging in the dirt behind a fallen tree, her favorite past-time.Stephen fashioned garbage bag ponchos for the girls that made them look like little Ku-klux-klan girls. Campers came out of their campsites to take pictures of them, they looked so comical.
There was some whining involved with the wet weather, but Stephen and the girls did their best to ignore it and enjoy themselves.

Ada's I've-got-hot-chocolate smile Pretty view from the drive around Mount Rainier

Happy Fathers Day

Hope you had a great Fathers Day dad,
from your (2) little princesses

body education

Odessa finishes her yogurt, burps and gets down from her chair, walks up to me rubbing her tummy and says with wonder: "whoa, I went farts in my tummy".

You can tell which bodily function we have been teaching her about longer.

Lessons learned

1. Always take free tickets when they are offeredFriday night we got to go see Adam which was part of the Seattle International Film Festival. A guy I met on the plane coming home from Manila volunteered for the Festival and offered tickets to us. We doubled with another couple and we all LOVED Adam- go see it when it comes out.
Saturday we took the girls to the Pacific Science Center. Someone at church had some free tickets and offered them to us (again, because she volunteers- I guess it pays to volunteer!!) She also had tickets to see an Imax show and they had a cute animal movie that was great for the girls. Fun weekend.

Odessa kept asking to see the dinosaurs


Ada loved the music room

Count down- blast off into space

2. Never leave the blinds up on your windows (you think this is going to be embarrassing, don't you?)
Our apartment looks out onto one of the busier streets in Magnolia (not saying a lot). It also is across the street from the park, so we can hear and see people walking on the street and coming and going from Albertsons, etc. But our apartment is not at street level, it's about 6 stairs up or so. Last Friday night I was up at the computer past 1am working on a church project (I know, WAY too late). Stephen was keeping me company by reading on the couch. Misery loves company. The blinds were open and suddenly there was a thundering "WHAM" on the window about 10 feet from where I was sitting. Of course I jumped and yelled "what was that?!" turning in time to see a punk pre-teen jumping off our ledge between the bushes. Then he ran across the street to loiter under the streetlight with his buddies while they watched what we would do. I couldn't believe their nerve! So I grabbed the phone and held it up in the air and pretended to dial 9-1-1. They shot off like rockets into the dark. Dumb kids. I couldn't fall asleep for an hour after that, my nerves were shot.

3. Appreciate what you have
I saw a clip on Rachel Ray while folding clothes of an apartment makeover in NYC. The apartment was 290 square feet!! After it was over, I looked around at our apartment that I had been thinking was a bit too snug and felt like it was some kind of mansion.

I had a birthday gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket so my friend Mandy and I went to spend it. I wanted to get a black dress and we found a cute one for 40% off. A saleswoman in a wheelchair helped us into the dressing room. I have what I call "trunkles" also known in some circles as "cankles" and I try to hide my legs as much as possible. When I complained about this while modeling the dress, the saleswoman simply said "love your legs, they run when you want them to". She said this with no bitterness and I could only be humbled, not shamed.

The last 10 days have made me a wiser woman in many ways!

The whole story and a recipe

Here is the link to the recipe in the picture below. It's from Rachel Ray, it doesn't serve 4 (it serves like 8) and I would cut back on the kalamata olives and oh yeah, I only used 6 oz feta because that is how they come in the packages!

Your perm stories prompted the rest of my perm story, not shown in photos. Stephen gave me a gift certificate for my birthday to an Aveda salon to get a massage. Instead of unwinding I decided to make my hair as uptight as I am. I was assigned to the "perm expert". She had very long, very blonde, very permed hair. She looked nothing like the hipster waifs that were cutting hair at other stations. Frankly, she looked like she was stuck in the 80's and I was tad worried. But we had a swell time chatting and my appointment went late into the night.
The next day I realized some of my hair did not take the perm well. It was flat, it was blah. We scheduled a re-do and I was nervous, but she was nice about it.
She re-rolled the top half of my hair and then I thought she was going to melt it off! It really started burning and she would come check it and say something about steam. I figured if there was steam coming off my hair, then stick a fork in it, it's done. Was she waiting for the smoke alarm to sound?
Despite my worries, it came out rather fine and I am happy to have a scrunch and go hairstyle. I keep telling Stephen "you know what the next step is, don't you?" He replies begrudgingly:
"cut it all off."

Comparisons

When I told my sister I was getting a perm she said "do people do that anymore?" Well, that's what I was beginning to wonder too. Was it really just a trend of the 80's?? I was just grasping for some hairstyle I could scrunch and go with. Smoothing my hair straight was such a pain.

On my way to my hair appointment



All curly


and a food comparison . . .

I put dinner down on the stove and it was next to the magazine open to the recipe. I had to document it since it's the first time in 5 years what I made looked like the magazine picture-
ha ha.

and what do you get?

Take a belated birthday cake for me and Ada: homemade spice with 1 inch thick cream cheese frosting . . . . . .

and add . . . .

Homemade dark chocolate cake with caramel and chocolate buttercream frostings one week later for a babyshower

=

2 more inches on my waistline!

Time to start the challenge again I guess.

and then there was peace

prequel to yesterdays post:
The girls got to bed at 11 PM!!! wednesday night because of the too-much-fun open track meet their dad ran in that night in SHORELINE. Needless to say, mommy got to bed even later. when they both woke up before 7:30 (usual time) I knew we were in for a bad day. Everyone was SO CRANKY, apparently no one more so than myself indicated by the conversation between Odessa and myself.
So we did the unthinkable. We went to Costco. THEN to QFC. I know. Then we ate lunch and then I laid them both down (not much protest from Odessa), buried the home phone in a bucket of toys so I wouldn't hear it ring (how can a phone these days not have a turn off for the ringer??) and went straight into my room, pulled the blinds and turned on my fan. We then slept the sleep of the dead for over 2 hours. Ada interrupted my dream about a High School Halloween party by yelling "mommy!!' and pounding on the wall. So bizarre. And that is why at 7pm last night when Stephen finally made it home from work, everyone was still smiling and we had waited for him to eat dinner. I even baked a rhubarb crisp, imagine that.
I am sure he thought we were all on drugs since usually an unplanned delay in dinner and daddy relief can lead to wailing children and hair loss on my part. Ahhh yes, that euphoric drug called sleep.
(ps- Stephen got second place in the 800 meters with a time of 2:20. Way to pull it out honey- almost as good as my 2 hr nap).

need a nap

Odessa- "You need to try harder. Can you just try a little harder?"

Me- "Try a little harder at what?"

Odessa- "At not being cranky. . . . I think you need a nap."