The Path Gets Narrower.

I have noticed lately that each time I go for something of fairly significant change, I am starting to get stronger messages from God. Instead of where it used to be a subtle or gentle closing of one door...it has turned into slam. I am thinking my listening skills need a little adjustment.

So I didn't get that job with the virtual academy. I was kind of bummed at first, because I thought it would be such a cool thing to work from home. I will say that I ignored a lot of murmurings about some teachers working 10-15 hour days though. I also didn't fully consider the fact that I wouldn't get out as much as I do now either. So I am finding the silver lining in sticking with subbing. I really do like it and am getting better at meeting my quota (2-3 days) each week. I was really liking the idea of taking Lauren to school every day though, so I will have to let go of that one. She will most certainly live and so will I.

Super Fun Day Two

Adam's uncle was SUPER generous and gave us 4 tickets to the Seahawks game on 9/26. Adam and I were beyond excited because that was one of our favorite things to do before we had kids. Adam was fortunate enough to help out with the Seahawk's summer training camp back when they still had it at EWU. He spent a lot of time with them during those summers, so we have always felt so much nostalgia being at games or even watching them on tv. Getting to go in person is the ultimate treat though. We decided we would use the other two tickets to bring along the kiddies and start them on their road to being superfans. It was so much fun. Our tickets were way up in the 300 level where it is extra loud. I was a little worried about that factor and hadn't exactly thought that part through. Surprisingly, the kids loved it as much as we did and were giving high fives to all of the crazy, drunk people around us. Rylan was screaming like crazy and Lauren was loving the Seagals and made it all the way through the game. It was heaven.

One Super Fun Day

There have been two super fun days in the past week or so that really stand out to me. I love days where I can just be with my kids, with no agenda and nothing to worry about (i.e. laundry, errands, etc.).

Well, we ran into one of those days last Thursday when we joined Nonna at the Farmer's Market in Burien. The kids love roaming the closed off street in hot pursuit of the "ice cream man." Mr. Burton is a total grandpa, that crouches down right at the kids' level and gives them smarties candy and lets them sample every ice cream he has in his freezer. He is awesome. After we tracked him down and ate some devine watermelon ice cream (thank you, Nonna), Rylan was itching to find the nearby splash fountain. I took him down there and was very specific for him to "be careful" and not splash, since he was in his clothes. About 5 minutes in, he slips and drenches his pants. I knew I had a split second to make up my mind about what direction our afternoon was going to go...home or waterfest? Lauren excitedly came trudging down right at that moment, and I had my answer.

Not regrettable for one second. Love these two so much.

Still Learning...

I am starting to think that blogging is definitely something that has to be added to the to-do list. And not the to-do list that runs in my head non-stop throughout any given day. The one that is actually written in paper and pencil on my desk for me to see, and not to think about and then be amazed as it escapes magically into thin air. I know there are a variety of things that might make a person lose their memory, so I won't go into the particular details about what is the problem with mine, but it is definitely going- and I am hellbent on chasing it down. Point being, I need to add blogging to my to-do list. :-)

Last Friday I had an interview with Washington Virtual Academies. It is a program that works with homeschooled students in a virtual classroom setting. I would be a teacher with approximately 3o students from all over the state and would be able to help them meet the state criteria for their grade levels (K-5). I had initially applied back in late August, but there were some issues with the principal and his lack of communication, so I had pretty much given up on it. When a friend gave me a tip that the principal was on his way out the door, I re-submitted my stuff to a new contact and presto! I got an interview. This has so many exciting possibilities. Although I think it would be a very challenging job, it is almost entirely from home and would be full-time pay! I haven't had that since before Lauren was born. Needless to say, it would be VERY beneficial to us getting back into our own place, so we are really praying that it works out. Any good thoughts that can be sent our way would be SO appreciated. :-)

Bummer.

Well we had a little appointment at Children's Hospital yesterday for Ry. We've had some ongoing observation of his allergies, tonsils, etc. Basically, he has every ailment Adam has had in the sinus department, and we have taken him in periodically to check on whether or not he is within the range of normal. :-) When we moved in with Adam's parents in April, I switched doctors for the kids. We started seeing a nurse practitioner at UW Physicians and she discovered that Rylan's tonsils were very enlarged and put us onto a regime of no dairy. For some reason she thought his tonsils were linked to some sort of food allergy. TORTURE. Anyhow...long story short, we went back to her a couple of times and then she passed us on to Children's. Their conclusion: time to take the tonsils and adenoids out. While I wasn't overly surprised, I am definitely scared. Putting my little buddy out and then having him stay overnight in the hospital just makes me super nervous. Hopefully I will have time to adjust and toughen up. Surgery is November 12th.

Adam's Out of Town.

Last Saturday, Adam left for a business trip to Vegas. Sounds a little suspicious, doesn't it? Anyway, he drove his truck down, towing a trailer with a glass handling truck on the back! 19 1/2 hours later, he arrived unscathed and is now showing the truck for the Glass Association conference going on down there.


Needless to say, we are missing you, babe and just wanted to post a few pics to show you what we've been up to! See you in two more days!

Gotta love the ICEE.

Sharing is caring!

Bouncy slide with B-man.

Free face painting--Ry=frog, Lauren=unicorn

This bear actually was borderline obsessed with Lauren. I finally had to call her back!

This was too hilarious to resist of Ry.

Feeding the birds with Chase and Auntie Kristen.

Off To Pre-School.

Today was Lauren's first day of pre-school. She is going to this darling school in the basement a church down the road from us. Once you go in the door, you turn the corner and there is this immaculate row of numbered classrooms, all with mini-cubbies and coat hooks for each kid. I died the first time I saw it. Being a teacher, I have a special appreciation for all school type decor, so right then and there, I knew this was the school for Lauren!

I have always been SO excited about the first day of school. Lots of anticipation and preparation...shopping for school supplies, getting the perfect outfit, etc. So I found it only fitting that I put Lauren through the same rigorous training. The big preparations started last night...ironing the outfit, printing off the family photo for her class project, hooking her backpack on the front door so we wouldn't forget...

Poor thing. She is not much of a morning person, so when I woke her up with my chipper enthusiasm, I could tell she wanted to throw her stuffed unicorn at me. Luckily she snapped out of it when Grandma showed up to come with us to school. I could tell she was a little nervous, but she did so well! She walked right into her classroom and got to playing. I was so proud of her. Of course my mom, Ry and I had to spy on her for a little bit, just to make sure she was ok. Then we were off to shop!

About 15 minutes into our adventure, I had the horrible realization that Lauren hadn't gone potty yet! I could only imagine her sweet checkered skirt changed into old sweat pants, with a little wet spot in the baby doll area...Luckily when we returned at 11:45 she was still in one piece--and I noticed on the wall posting that "potty time" is at 10:15. THANK YOU pre-school for being smarter than me.

Family photo for her little class project.

She's still not so sure about this day...but Ry is!

Such a cute little lady...still unsure about school though...

Warmin up for mama

Arrival! Sweet Teacher Gayla with Lauren!

Off to Crossroads

On another note, we headed off to Crossroads mall this morning for a relaxing adventure. We used to frequent this mall often when we lived in Bellevue, because it is perfect for toddlers. They have all of these quarter rides throughout the mall and it is just the right thrill factor for Lauren and Ry--putting their own quarters into the machine and then riding for 30 seconds.

Today was particularly busy, with other kids waiting their turn behind us at each ride. We ended our trip with the mini-carousel--quite the experience. As I was trying to teach my kids to "wait their turn," the mom in front of us gives her kid 10 rides in a row! Thanks lady! Way to confuse my kids about their "life lesson" for the day!

Rylan taking charge on the train.

I think Lauren thought this was a real bucking bronco.

My favorite ride for super cute pictures...the classic car. :-)

5...4...3...2...

Sometime ago we played this game with Lauren where we counted down from 5, and if we got to 1 before she got to us, we told her the room was going to explode. Sounds borderline abusive now that I am putting it in writing, but she thought it was fun and ran screaming to us like she was being chased by a werewolf. Well, Adam and I quickly realized that this was the key to managing her in all situations..."Lauren, back away from the candy....5...4...3.." or "Get in here and put your PJ's on, 5...4...3...2..." Works like a charm everytime. We were starting to think we should write a book or something, but then we tried it on Ry.

Rylan almost laughs at us whenever he hears our silly little countdown. Tried it in Target once and he just sat underneath the clothes rack grinning at me like, "What are you really going to do, Mom?" What a little sheist. I seriously couldn't have earned a cuter, little man than him, but sometimes I wonder how I am going to manage him once he really gets naughty.

Decisions, Decisions

It seems lately that every decision is a difficult one for me. What should we eat for breakfast? What should the kids wear today? Should we make set plans or just go with the flow this week? How much should I work? Where will we move next? Obviously some decisions are harder than others, but it seems that every question requires the same deep, serious thought from me. I feel bad for Adam because we could discuss an idea and feel like we have found just the right path to go down, but bring up the same issue a week later and I have completely changed my tune. Why can't I just have a little faith?

Ever since the rug pulled out from under us in our old house, I realized decisions really require more time and prayer than we had given them before. We really just lived day to day without giving much thought to our long term plans. And then it caught up with us...lots of debt and one move to the in-laws later and things are becoming so much more clear. But now I am overdoing it on the other end. Thus, the new, crazy decision making skills. Will we pull it together in our time here with Nonna and Papi? I really do think so. I just hope that I am able to chill sometime soon and stop making mountains out of molehills. I am making myself a little kooky.

This is "Theerious"

What a way to start my first blog post in 2 years...with a shout out to the Wonderpets. If you were around my kids for more than a minute, you would be using it in your everyday chatter, too! I am serious about getting ito the blog world though. I am always peeking around at other blogs and definitely see the value in journaling about life.

Adam took vacation this past week, so we have been off of our usual routine. He took the kids to the Museum ("Zoozeum") of Flight, we visited our friend and her new baby girl, and also spent the night up at the family cabin in Greenwater. That was a highlight, as we tried out the new cedar, fire-heated hottub. When we first got up there the water was brown!...stained from the cedar I soon found out. The kids LOVED it though, and did all sorts of dunks under the beautifully tinted water! We will miss Daddy-o when he has to go back to work tomorrow!

Rylan with his souveneir from the Museum



Lauren's list of to-do's, which included playing barbies, taking a bath(always good), and picking blackberries




and lastly...Adam's banana raisin cookie creation...

He is quite the chef when he wants to be and apparently I enjoyed this creation a little too much!