Think Pink

I've never really been a girly girl. So why oh why would I paint Gillian's bedroom pink? Well, For one, I find her completely irresistible (sometimes, like when she's not whining). She was soooo thrilled that I actually did it. After all, it wouldn't be fair if Drew got her room painted yellow and Gillian didn't get to pick a color for her room. I had to steer her away from some of the Pepto-type colors she had chosen to a more muted pink. I think that it turned out just how she wanted. One night Darren called me in with my camera to take a picture of Gill in her sleep mask. Silly cute girl!

"Crazy Kid" Day at school

Batman

I've got crazy neck again. Richard and I like to call it Batman neck because you have to turn your whole body to look at something. When I showed up to CrossFit last night Nick took a picture of me to show me that indeed I do NOT look like a person that should be working out. I didn't believe him until I looked at the picture of my posture. He said that I look like I have scoliosis. Why does it take a picture to prove to me that I should not work out? Stubborn (and stupid) I guess.

So Cal birthday

I had a wonderful birthday last Monday, even though I turned 42. My parents flew me down to Newport Beach to stay with them at the Mariott Newport Coast Villas. So beautiful and sunny. We had a fantastic view of the ocean from out suite. Suzy, Laura, and Rob all visited. And best of all, Mary and Georgia had a sleepover on Friday and Saturday night. They are so darn cute. Alice and Suzy visited during the day and went to the pool. Alice was not so fond of wearing clothes.

I had a good long run on the beach at Crystal Cove on my birthday.

On Friday we waited at the beach for the tsunami that never came after the huge earthquake in Japan. No tsunami but plenty of sun!

Corn Silk

Drew has been after me for a while to paint her room. She finally decided on a happy yellow color named Corn Silk. She said she wants sunshine in her room, I don't blame her. We have a severe lack of sun here. The nice thing is that she wanted to help me and now she's old enough to do so. I have always painted alone so it was nice to have the help. Today we will be spending the day finishing up.

Image

Drew had her first riding lesson yesterday on an arabian horse named Image. She learned how to care for the horse, tack it, and finally ride around the ring by herself. She was so excited and caught on pretty quick. After a while I lost all feeling in my fingers and toes due to the cold but it was well worth it. Forecast this week is snow, we've had some off and on today already.

My one true weakness

I've been watching a show called Larkrise to Candleford, kind of like a British Little House on the Prairie. Suzy brought it last week with her and then I watched it again in Castro Valley this past weekend. There is a lady in it with the unfortunate name of Dorcas Lane who often claims that food, baths, sweets, or whatever is before her at the time is her "one true weakness". I also have lots of "one true weaknesses" but I think that I've come to the conclusion that family is my one true weakness. Parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins--they are all so awesome.

I took a quick trip to the Bay Area this weekend for my cousin Marianne's wedding. It was lovely to relax and to see my family. Tyler, Kristen, and their kids stayed with us at mom and dads house. Their kids are so dang cute and well behaved. Little blonde curly haired blue eyed girls and two darling sweet boys. The boys were content to hang out with us grownups and play on our i-phones. Carden even said that he would have danced with me if we had stayed at the reception longer. Such a sweetie!

Johnny took me up to the trap shooting range and let me shoot his shotgun. It was pretty fun but I only hit 8 out of 25 traps.

Marianne looked so beautiful in her wedding dress and her new husband seems like a really great guy. It was great to see all of my cousins and it only makes me wish that I could see them a lot more often.

Now it's back to reality. I'm back home in Washington, the girls both have colds, and the kids have no school next week. Awesome.

Blink

I realize that I don't post very much. Really, I do. And I feel bad about that. In the blink of an eye it seems that a week passes. Time just seems to fly by and I find myself exhausted by the end of the day.

Suzy came to visit for 4 days last week and it was soooooo fun to have her here. I made her come to CrossFit with my twice because Mike told me to make sure she had fun and relaxed. I think that pull-ups, pushups, running, and lifting weights is fun, so why wouldn't she? Maybe not so relaxing but she enjoyed it, even though she had trouble walking the next day. Mostly I just loved having the company of my wonderful, beautiful sister. Darren laughed at us for playing Scrabble with each other on our i phones. We played electronic Scrabble and watched our "stories" (something about a Lark and a Candle). So nice.

Suzy said that she thought that she kept blinking when Darren snapped the picture so I thought I should probably blink too.

"Words with Friends" on our i-phones

In other news, Gillian is having trouble staying in her bed at night and going to school in the morning. There have been many tearful mornings where I've had to plead, threaten, and finally drag her to school. Oh, the guilt!!! Tears rolling down her cheeks, complaints of tummy ache, or sore throat, or headache. She wants to be home schooled. No way. I can't get to the bottom of it and she says that it's not because of anyone. She just misses me. Anyway, I hope that she outgrows it soon. For now she has been staying in her bed because she has a new bedmate named Holly. This sweet dog dutifully joins Gillian every night. She gets under the covers and lays her head on the pillow next to Gilli and licks her cheek (ewwwww!). But it works and I won't complain of dog hair on the sheets.

Gavin worked pretty hard on his art project-- a knife (of course) that he made from a railroad spike.
Drew has been very busy with school work and orchestra. Her school was chosen to be in a special concert in Bellevue. It's apparently the first time that an elementary school orchestra has been chosen for such a big event. She is getting really good at the violin.