Worn Out

Have been waiting on pins and needles all day for the email that may change our lives forever...nothing...not a word.

So maybe we won't have the answer today that we so desperately want.

I am giving up all the email checking every 5 minutes, upset stomach all day, nervous energy, speculation, and uncertainty.

When we get the answer we get the answer, and until then I keep telling myself that the right baby will make it's way into our life at the right time.

(I would like it to be this one though!)

Tomorrow will be a big day!

I just found out that we will have our answer tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow we find out if we will be parents in 8 weeks!

Sick to my stomach with anticipation!

Parents. In. 8. Weeks!

I'm so ready!!!

(Gave up on not getting my hopes up!)

Relay For LIfe of Lakewood Meeting

We went to an amazing Teams Meeting/Survivor and Caregiver Ice Cream social last night! The Lakewood event has the best teams meetings I have ever been to. Yes that includes the two years I ran the Tacoma meetings and the two years I chaired the Tacoma event. I have no problem admitting when someone else gets it right and does it better than me!

The meetings are full of energy, information, recognition and I walk away from every meeting feeling like the entire community is involved and excited!

When making the decision to move from the Tacoma event to Lakewood I had a little bit of uncertainty going on. Even though I was 100% committed to the move I was worried it would not be as fun, or I wouldn't like it as much, but was I way wrong to spend even 1 second worried about it.

Not that I didn't enjoy being part of the Tacoma Leadership team and chairing the event, especially the honor of chairing the 25th Anniversary, but being able to take a step back and "just" be a team member has helped my find my true Relay joy again! I had forgotten how much fun it could be when you can focus on having an awesome team and participating in all the theme laps, decorating the team tent site, and having time to just sit down and take in the event. I'm so looking forward to enjoying this years event without all the pressure!

Keep up the good work Lakewood Leadership team!

Baked Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal is my new favorite thing! I got the idea from Shelley over at Life On the Farm, and have made it almost every week for the past few months! I make a batch Sunday night and between breakfast every morning, and Mark thinking it is dessert it will last until about Wednesday, or Thursday if I'm lucky.

Baked Oatmeal:

3 cups old fashioned oats

1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I use 1/4 cup)

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/4 cups milk

1/4 cup oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 can sliced peaches, drained and chopped (I use frozen peaches...they are less slimy)

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen (I use frozen)

1/3 cup chopped walnuts (I skip this part...don't care for nuts in my oatmeal)

Combine oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together eggs, milk, vanilla, and oil; add to dry ingredients and stir until blended. Stir in peaches and blueberries. ; Transfer to a baking dish and sprinkle with walnuts. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees, for 35-40 minutes or utnil top is lightly browned. Serve warm with additional milk if desired.

This last batch I sprinkled with cinnamon on top and we both loved it!

I have seen other recipes that use cranberries, apples, and raisins. I was thinking dried apricots would be good. Lot's of room for customization with this one. Plus if you use the full amount of brown sugar you could almost turn it into an oatmeal cake and have it for dessert.

Enjoy!

Life is good...

Mark is home from Vegas, spent Friday night with some of my favorite people, spent last night at a good friends b-day party, having lunch with girlfriends from HS today, and the sun is out!

We may have exciting Adoption news in a few days...stay tuned.

Yes indeed...life is good!

Does HS Ever End?

It seems like High School repeats itself throughout life. Friends do stupid things, act immature, sometimes I do stupid things and act immature, feelings get hurt, gossip and rumors are spread and it goes on and on. I really thought that once I graduated that would all end, but here I am at 35 and it still happens. And, the worse part is I was part of it.

Sorry if this is a little cryptic, but trying to leave out names and details so that further rumors and gossip are not spread.

I have a friend that I have lost touch with and this person has had a huge impact on how I feel about a few specific people. I have taken this friends word for how these other people act and behave and have never questioned her opinion of them. Unfortunately I let this friends feelings shape how I view and think of these other people, and I feel really bad about that. I have made some harsh judgments and formed some strong opinion about others based on what I was told. I don't usually do that...I usually take everything I hear with a grain of salt and give myself time to form my own opinions.

In this case I trusted this friend so much that I took their word for it. I am truly sorry I did that. (Especially after learning something last night that changes my opinion of said friend.) Maybe this friend was right in their opinion about these other people, maybe not, but the bottom line is I formed opinions that I should not have because they were not truly my own opinion.

Life's twists and turns have taught me that until I am in a similar situation I can't judge others and I should never, ever judge others based on word of mouth, gossip and bitter hurt feelings of others.

I am trying not to make too harsh of a judgment against said friend, but patterns over the last months have reveled that perhaps they were not as good of a friend as I had thought. A conversation is in order to give this person a chance to state their side of things (I don't want to repeat the mistake of using word of mouth to make a judgment call, but there is other evidence as well) but it does hurt to learn that someone you thought was a good friend who had so much influence may not be the friend or person you think they are.

It is a bit of a relief though...I have been torn for months as to what a good course of action is and now feel like I understand a few things a little better and can stop feeling so torn.

I am disappointed in myself that I let high school'ish behavior dictate how I think and treat others who probably deserve a much high opinion from me than I have given.

Home Alone

Mark is in Vegas this week for work, and I am hanging out at home alone for the week.

For the most part, while I miss him when he is gone, I enjoy having the time home alone. I get a break from cooking, I can watch chick flicks and TV shows, I can spend a whole evening laying on the couch reading, and I can eat pizza and beer and not feel bad that he can't have any!

The only bad part is that I can't sleep. I hate sleeping alone, and miss having him to cuddle with. He keeps me warm and I know if any "bad guys" come around he will take care of it.

When he is gone for a whole week usually by Wednesday I have lost my sense of humor because I'm so dang tired, and resort to tequila shots to knock me out so I can get at least one good nights sleep. This week I made it to Thursday. I am tired, my eyes hurt and I just want to sleep tonight. I'm meeting a girlfriend for drinks/dinner after work, then am going home for a killer work out and maybe wine so that I can sleep!

Mark comes home tomorrow and I can't wait to pick him up and have a good nights sleep!

My Dad is Bigger Than Yours!!!

My whole life my Dad has been a big fit guy and all of his big fitness was on display this weekend at Emerald Cup! I think he looks amazing, especially for a 58 year old! I am so proud of him competing at his age and fighting his diabetes the whole time he is training and cutting! I love seeing him on stage looking so good and having so much fun! A few pics from Saturday...

Dad is on the far Left.

Maybe this look is what always scared the boys off?
Look at those abs!!!

No wait...it was this look for sure!

Wow...legs...just wow!

Dad also competed in the mixed couples division this year with Julie. During the performance portion of the show they did a swing dance routine that brought the house down. (I was too far away to get good shots of that...they moved too fast and the lighting was messing with my camera). Dad is in the middle and Julie is the girl on the right side of the photo.

View of their backs...again Dad is in the middle and Julie is on the right side of the photo.

Dad...I am so proud of you! Everyone sitting around me kept saying they could tell how much fun you were having and they LOVED your smile and the swing dancing.

The best part of the night was when Julie said to me, "Your Dad is a special man." Yep I know! I have always felt like the luckiest girl in the world to have him as my Dad!

Weekend Yard Work

Originally we were supposed to go camping this weekend, but Bishop ended up with an infected gland that required meds and regular flushing if the infected gland, so we decided camping and being in the dirt all weekend was not a great option for him.

Since the weather was beautiful we took advantage of it and got a bunch of new plants. Mark had spent the last few weeks creating a plant-able border around the upper yard, putting landscape fabric down to keep out the weeds, and getting it all ready for plants. We spent Friday night and some time Saturday buying plants and figuring out where we wanted them to go.

I have to say Mark had the hard part and that was digging the holes. We have rock hard soil and some of the holes required him to use a pick ax to loosen up the dirt enough so he could use a shovel. While he was doing that I was planting flowers and decorative plants in pots that needed to be filled.

It was a nice weekend and Bishop is doing much, much better!

Mark starting in on the first hole that the Japanese Maple would go into.

This is just a shot to give an idea of the boarder Mark created and the space we need to fill with plants.

Another shot of the boarder and space that needs filled.

Nice but shot!

The Japanese Maple in it's new home. We have had that thing in a big pot for a little over 5 years. Let's just say there were a lot of roots!

This is another plant we have had in a big pot for over 5 years and just never had a good spot to plant it in the ground. I have been a big advocate for this plant (it is not Mark's favorite) so I was glad I was able to talk him into planting it for me!

Some ferns we got for under the trees. There is nothing but shade so had to go with plants the will do will with very little sunlight.

One of the miniature rhododendron's we got! Mark has always said NO rhododendron's in the yard, but the guy at the nursery we went to helped convince him that not all of them are huge with sticky flowers. I'm so excited to have not one but three miniature rhododendron's for the yard! The other two have yet to be planted...still deciding on placement and building up strength for the hole digging!

I don't remember what these two plants are, but they have the most beautiful variegated leaves! The leaves start out a dark green, go to a light green, and end up a pretty red color. They don't lose their leaves so will look wonderful year round!

We still have a lot of ground cover, decorative grass, and a few plants to plant, but we have made a great start. Once everything is planted we will cover the empty space with mulch and at that point if there are any gaping holes to fill will get more plants as needed. We don't really want it to be crammed with plants though. It has to be easy to maintain as we are gone almost every other weekend visiting friends, camping, and whatever else fun we come up with to do.

Birthday Weekend

Last weekend was a lot of fun. I was waiting for the photos before posting...but this is a busy week.

Friday night we had the Nibble and Quibble auction for Relay For Life. Our team hosted a table which means we secured 3 silent auction items, a dessert for the dessert auction and sold 8 tickets to fill our table. It all came together very nice and the event ended up raising over $23 thousand total. Each team that participated gets a portion of that posted to their team total. I think we get around $993 or something like that!

Saturday was my birthday and I started it out with a little Zumba, came home to Mark having done all the dishes and making a jump on the laundry, had lunch with a girlfriend, got my hair cut, and chilled at home until it was time to leave at 6:30. My surprise was dinner at my favorite place to eat, The Melting Pot, with my favorite people, Bob and Michelle! We tried out the new Pacific Island menu and loved it! The lobster was amazing!

Sunday was spent at the Parents house for Easter egg hunting, brunch, and the family birthday celebration.

It was a low key birthday which is just what I wanted and a nice busy yet relaxing weekend.

Literacy

I have been reading a lot of information as of late regarding the importance of reading to children and some of the information is scary, sad, and shocking!

A few facts to consider:
-37% of children in the US start school without basic pre-reading skills

-In low income communities there is on average 1 book for every 300 children (these are probably the kids that need books the most!)

-Reading difficulties increase the odds that a child will drop out of school and have a criminal record: CA and IN factor in the number of 3rd graders that are not reading at grade level when planning future jail construction!!! (I can't comprehend the idea of looking at 3rd graders and already having a good idea of which ones will end up in jail!)

I think everyone thinks that the way they grew up is "normal" and that everyone else grew up the same way. Coming from a family that valued reading the above facts shocked me! I remember my Mom reading to my sister and I every chance she had. She read us the whole Little House on the Prairie series while waiting for the bus every morning. We wanted to get to the bus stop early so she would have more time to read to us! As we got older she would bring bags full of books home from the library and I would literally spend all day reading books all summer long.

I realize that not every family is as fortunate as Mark and I are. We can afford our life and that of a child without having to work extra jobs, we don't have health issues or family situations that take up our time in the evenings and weekends, so we have the time to read and the money to buy as many books for our child as we want. I know that not every family has that opportunity, but it still amazes that some can't even find 5 minutes to read to their children. Library books are free...it does not have to cost money!

To this day Mark and I are both readers...we love to curl up with a good book, and I still love those days when I can read for hours at a time! Now I know Mark and I don't have kids yet so it is easy for us to say that reading a book before bed will be a nightly habit, however that is our goal non-the-less. I know reality will strike some evenings and it may not happen, but we are both pretty set on making reading an important part of our child's life! If you teach a child to read there is not anything they can't learn or become if they want to. It may be the most important life skill ever!

Bring on the books! I will read her 20 books a day if that is what she wants! It seems like such a simple little thing but if reading to my child will help her learn better and keep her out of trouble (yes I know it take more than just reading to them!) then I'm going to take every opportunity that I can and read to her!