A little sumfin'

I made Izzy a video card for her birthday this year. It spans her 12th year, from beginning to end. I hope you like it. I loooove it. It might seem a little long - 10 minutes or so.

It's the best 10 minutes of my morning.

Every morning.

I can't get enough of her. I can feel her slipping away as she gets older. I hug her at random times. She let's me. She is cool that way.

I don't really watch it every morning. That would be ridiculous.

IzzyGU13_0001.wmv

My Popsicles

I went grocery shopping yesterday. The kids begged me to buy them some popsicles while I was there. Oh, and could I get them some ice cream too?

Because I have been working a lot, and not spending time with the kids, I decided to buy their love and get them both the popsicles AND ice cream. Yum.

While I was there, I happened to see MY favorite soy ice cream snack. So I bought some of those too. I came home from work today, and thought to myself how much the girls must have loved their icey cold treats today.

I looked in the freezer and did anyone eat the ice cream? No. Did anyone eat the popsicles? No. Did EVERYONE eat mom's soy ice cream treats? Yes.

...sigh...

Thankful

I am thankful for duct tape. You see, duct tape has kept my children occupied for most of the summer. They have made purses, large wallets, small wallets, gift card holders and roses. In all kinds of colors. They are self taught, and I had nothing to do with it. That's the cool part! They are making enough money selling them to keep them in stock of various patterns of colors of new duct tape every week. I told them when their inventory gets back up I will take some pictures for them! Then I will send them to China to have their products mass produced and I can quit my job.
I am thankful that I only WATCH soccer practice. Tomorrow Maria's team is running across the I-90 bridge. I hope none of them freak out. I would freak out. Then my knee would break and I would probably fall. Then I would start crying to have Morrie pick me up and carry me the rest of the way. Then he would tell me we haven't left the parking lot and could I just act like an adult. As I said, it's a good thing I just watch. Morrie is probably glad I just watch as well.

I am thankful for my camera! Isabelle had really long hair way back when, and I didn't take a picture of it before she cut it. It made me sad not to document it in it's full glory. Maria is about to cut her hair this week so I rushed her outside to snap a few photos. I can look back a few years from now and exclaim "Wow! It really was long!"

Now Isabelle can point out how once again, we have figured out how to do things with our second child that we screwed up on with our first. Sigh...Then I will tell Isabelle it's not a competition, but I did take her for a mani/pedi yesterday and not her sister. So there! Then Maria will tell me I owe her a mani/pedi (like she already did this morning) and I will tell her...shoot, I'm lost, I can't keep up, why do they always do this??

Cute!

Oh my god! So cute! Someone has too much time on her hands- well I don't have extra time, I should be doing something productive- but I found some things that brought a smile to my face. For real, sometimes you just need to smile! We've got belly buttons, cute food, baby animals, baby shoes, I mean really, what could be more cute?

Maria seeing the wonders of the belly button for the first time. OhmyGod. Look at that foot! I think my heart just cracked.


This is what I feel like at the end of the day sometimes. Especially when the bus ride has taken extra time.
So delicious looking! These cupcakes are adorable. I especially like how they are organized so perfectly.

OhmyGod! Shoes for small feet!!

The baby dachshund just kills me. Wanna come home with me puppy?

Stress and Obsessions

Just so you know, even though I don't get to posting as much (or as often) as I would like, I do think about it a lot. In fact, on many of my bus rides home, I write complete posts in my head- and they are pretty funny. I'm sorry you all are missing out actually.

However, on the 2 hour (no, that is not a typo) bus ride home today, all I could think about was 1) How did the downtown gridlock get to such a horrific magnitude? and 2)why on today of all days do I have a brand new driver on his very first route EVER and someone from metro riding with him telling him every nuance of every stop? I literally thought I was going to scoop my eyeballs out with the red emergency latch from the window. But now that I think about it, if I was able to wrench that off the window, I might have been able to jump in the lake and swim home faster than the bus could get me there.

I mean really. Two hours? REALLY? Really Seth and Amy? REALLY? Two hours in which I sent scathing texts to 2 people full of swear words because I wasn't even out of downtown after 60 minutes. Luckily, I had just the perfect stress reliever when I got home.

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that I got completely drunk aren't you?

Well, I didn't. In case you haven't noticed, in times of stress, I have a little habit. Some might say an obsession.

(soccer!)

I went and laid down in a sunny patch of grass and watched Maria's soccer practice. Ahhhhh.....so much better.

Soccer Camp on Whidbey

We spent the weekend prior to Izzy;s birthday up on Whidbey- the girls at soccer camp and Morrie and I crashed at a friends cabin (a 3,000 sq. ft. cabin!). It was a lot of fun!

We saw tons of deer, rabbits and eagles, too many of each to count, and somehow not a single picture of one.

Whidbey is beautiful!

This is how much fun Maria was having. Poor kid.

These are some horses that Maria fell in love with. We drove by them a lot.

We stumbled upon a horse show and parked the car so Maria could watch. She informed us it was a "Dressage" competition where riders are judged on trotting, and walking, or whatever it is that horses do. She knows a lot of horse stuff.

This is pretty much what I wore the whole time, my most comfortable jeans, sweatshirt and uggs. Comfy cozy!

Loved the views.

Especially the views of all the kids playing soccer! This is where they practiced- Isabelle had 11 hours of playing time over the weekend, and they slept in the barracks. Just what she needed!

Birthday Girl!

I can't believe Isabelle had the audacity to turn 13! It totally stinks that my baby is getting so old. I had to go into her room this weekend (which I don't usually subject myself to) because I was missing a comb, a brush, lots of my ankle socks, a camisole, several water bottles, hair ties, an ice pack... the list goes on. I did find everything though...eventually. I guess this is what it means to have a teenager. Here she is on her birthday, with her most favorite June comrade, Kiana.
They met when they were 3 months old. I remember the day Julie emailed saying she was going into labor. She apologized to me. Leaving me high and dry with no labor in sight. I was already 7 days overdue when I read that email, and I was pretty sure I just had a swollen belly from eating too much. Fifty pounds too much. Thankfully Isabelle was born 2 days later- needing a medical induction - she was content to stay where she was.

Here she is all these years later. We honestly had a pretty difficulty time arranging a time to celebrate with my family. Between the 2 families, we have 5 June birthdays and 5 family calendars to contend with. This party occurred right after Isabelle had a 2 hour soccer practice and we are blowing out candles at 9:00pm.

However, we were all together, and that is what matters, especially when we can get the 19 year old to work it into her calendar as well. All the kids love Sam and when I say "love", I mean idolize and worship.

Isabelle and Sam lead the group of 8 (almost 9) grandkids, and are the only 2 that look sooo much like one another. I think one of the reasons Sam was born was to help Isabelle along in life. Isabelle doesn't feel out of place being the only redhead in her class, or on her team, because Sam has carried a confident attitude her whole life. When Isabelle started a new school in 2nd grade, Sam walked her to her class, held her hand and checked in with her all day long. Youth group is cool to Isabelle because she has watched Sam be a huge participant in it for 6 years.

Every year that Isabelle gets older, I think of Sam when she was that age, and if I think Sam's years have flown by, I am afraid that Isabelle's will go all to quickly as well. Can I just put them in my pocket and carry them around with me as they are right now? I made Isabelle a 10 minute video for her birthday that encompasses everything she did during her 12th year. Maybe I made it more for myself, as I have watched 5 times this week alone. That's okay. It's my way of honoring her, and perhaps keeping her 12 for a bit longer.