Tidbits of Thoughts

 A beautician recently told me that it would cost over a hundred dollars to color my hair since it was so long.  I was so shocked at the price I told her I would keep the gray.  Chad said he would do it if I bought the color.   I haven’t, not that I have a problem with him doing it.  I am just too cheap.  I feel the same way about haircuts.  I don’t like paying for them, so I wait until I can’t stand it any longer.  I have gotten to that point.  I did tell Chad I wasn’t going to cut it until I went back to Oklahoma, but I couldn’t take it any longer.  Jess offered to cut my hair.  At worst, I thought, I would go get it cut again.  At best, I thought, “Hey, free haircut!”  Jess cut my hair and did fine.  The next day she cut Ry’s.  Two free haircuts.

We have smoke alarms in the house.  They are tied together into the electrical system and have a battery backup.   When the girls take a shower the smoke alarms go off.  It starts with the one outside the bathroom , then, one by one they all join in.  We tried turning the breaker off, but the battery backup kicks in and the alarms never miss a beep (get it, beep instead of beat).  The first time it happened I had just turned on the stove which is fueled by propane.  I about hit the floor when they went off (duck and cover).  The alarms will finally turn off on their own.  You just have to wait it out.

Did I ever tell you that the squirrels here are gray not brown.   Well, at one of the parks we run at there are black squirrels.  They are so cute!  We couldn’t believe it the first time we saw one.  We have only seen them at this one park, but we have seen them on multiple occasions.

I got a bread machine the other day.  I haven’t used it yet.  It makes bread (obviously), pizza dough, and jams.  I can’t wait to make blackberry jam. 

I also bought an enameled cast iron skillet.  Cody was ruining my other cast iron skillets when she would make hamburger helper.  Nothing that cooking bacon in it wouldn’t fix, but I got tired of trying to season them up. 

The gyms here are VERY expensive, so we haven’t joined one.  They all have different sign-up fees and monthly fees, but they all have ridiculous prices.  One gym wanted me to pay a $120 sign up fee for me and $80 per child.  Then the monthly fee was going to be $80 for me and $30 per child.  All the gyms are like that, a sign up fee per person and a monthly fee per person.  For those prices I could slowly build my own gym here at the house.  I refuse to pay that much for a gym membership.  It’s just ridiculous.

On my computer home screen I have two weather gadgets, one for here and one for home.  It is funny to watch.  I get up in the morning and it is either warmer here or the exact same temperature.  Like today, I woke up and it was 48 degrees in both places.  It is now 54 degrees in Oklahoma and 52 degrees here.  It is 7:39 a.m.  Oklahoma will get up into the 70’s today.  It will stay in the 50’s here.  In Oklahoma the temperature rises quickly.  Here it just maintains.  Okay, well, it’s funny to me.  By the way, it has been raining for the past couple of days.  We were told, “Welcome to Washington winters.”

This one is for Miss Heather, but you can read it too.  We miss you too, Miss Heather.  Please tell Thomas and Sarah we miss them as well.  I don’t know why you can’t comment.  Dad can’t either.  I checked the settings and it says comments are allowed.  One day I will figure it out.  In the meantime, email us so we know you are still there.  And remember, book club and skype, we gotta do it.

An update on Psyche.  I still don’t know where he lives, but I am one step closer.  I know who his neighbor is (don’t know where he lives either).  Between me and the kids, that man is not going to know what hit him.  There is a scene in one of the shows where Shawn and Gus are trying to see who can get the most face time on a news camera.  The kids want to go to Vancouver, where they shoot, and do that scene to them.  They have it all planned out.  We just have to get the passports.

Chad’s sister bought Cody an OU shirt for her birthday.  Cody squealed when she saw it.  Jenifer told us her money doesn’t buy orange.  Right now it is all about the statement, so Crimson and Cream is just fine.

Cody’s best friend bought her an OU hoodie for her birthday. 

The other day I put forth a contest between the kids.  It started with a push-up contest and ended with a sit-up contest.  Noah did 210 sit ups.  Oh, yes, he did.

Look at his shoulder blades. 

Look Who's Here!

He is here for 3 weeks.   The lady with him is my cousin Verna.  She lives less than an hour away, so at least we have family nearby.  She’s a hoot!  Anyway, the first full day dad was here I took him on a walk around Lake Padden.  It was cold and misting before it was all said and done.  We walked 2.44 miles that day.  About four or five years ago dad walked in a mile fun run/walk with Noah.  It took them 24 minutes to complete the mile, and I couldn’t figure out why.  I mean, let’s face it, that is slow.  Well, I found out the hard way.  It took me and hour and three minutes to complete two miles at Lake Padden.  I say me because I finally started to walk ahead of him, not far ahead, and Noah and Ryan stayed with him.  When we got done I asked him how far he had been walking back home.  He told me he didn’t go by distance, but walked fifteen minutes at a time.  So, he went from about a quarter mile walk to 2.44.  Go Dad!  Today we took him to Whistle Lake.  We went kind of late and it got dark before we could get back to the truck.  We had to use our phones to see since we forgot our lights.  We walked 2.08 miles today and the trail was mostly uphill.  Chad and Jess ran it while we walked.  I think he now appreciates how flat Oklahoma is.

Okay, so I have to tell you the story of him coming.  The only child that knew was Jessica.  Ry did find out that morning.  Anyway, Cody and Jess were dog sitting for a friend the day dad flew in.  Jess kept telling Cody, “Today is going to be a good day Cody.  I can feel it.  It’s going to be a good day.” We planned to meet Chad and Dad at a restaurant that evening.   We got there first and my poker face started to fail the closer we got to the time that Chad and dad were supposed to meet us there.  My face started to turn bright red and I just started laughing.  The kids wanted to know what was so funny so I had to make up a story.  I told them that one of Chad’s coworkers had a wreck and he was dropping him off at the hotel.  Jess who knew what was going on decided to have a little fun at my expense.  She kept asking me to tell them about the wreck and why was I laughing about him wrecking his car.  I told her, through the laughter and tears, that it was a funny story and that I would leave it up to Chad to tell them, since he could tell it better.  Anyway, Chad finally walked in, alone.  After the kids did their “Daddy!” bit Papa walked in.  They were so excited and totally surprised. 

It has been nice to see a familiar face.  I wish all of you back home could be here to experience this new adventure with us.  Writing about it just isn’t the same as you experiencing it with us.  You don’t get to hear the laughter of the kids as they slide down the snow, or see them covered in mud because they ran out onto the ocean floor as the tide was out, or the screams of excitement of them seeing a starfish in the water (it was a big starfish), or watching them watching the eagles soar right over our heads.  I just have to rest in the knowledge that God is a sovereign God and He has a plan for us.  Right now that plan is for us to be in Washington.  Hopefully, one day, that plan will bring us back home.

How to Make Friends

I have this habit that I got from my mother.  At least I am going to blame her for it.  I do it to get a rise out of Cody, and it is easy to do so.  All I have to do is pat her on the rear end when I walk past her.   She jumps in the air and spins around, arms flying everywhere, trying to defend herself, all the while screaming at me to, “Watch it!”  Jackie Chan would be proud.  Soon it became a habit.  Anytime I wanted the girls’ attention I would pat them on the rear end.  When we would go into a store or someplace similar and they were in my way, I would pat them on the rump and say excuse me.  Now I just pat and walk by.  They know the drill.

Anyway, about two weeks ago we went to the library which is rather small.  The girls and I were looking at the movies when one of the girls got in my way.  So I patted her rear end and said, “excuse me, please”, and walked on by.  The instant I patted I knew that rear end did not belong to me.  I looked up and saw this blushing 70ish woman looking at the movies where, previously, my children had been.  As I apologized to the lady, my girls, who witnessed it all, began laughing, hysterically and loudly.  Unfortunately, the girls and the poor lady involved were not the only ones who witnessed my mistake.  One of librarians saw it all and began to laugh just as loudly as the girls were.  Tears were shed that day.  Luckily, the 70ish women took it all in stride, although, she never said a word, only blushed and smiled.

We went to the library the other day to turn in some books and movies.  When we walked in the librarian looked at me, and with a huge grin said, “No butt grabbing today.”  She then began to crack-up all over again. 

As a side note, Cody has been going around doing her “happy dance” while saying “woot woot”, because, she got a job at the library, an actual job not a volunteer job.  Go Cody!