8th birthday, baptism, and Heather's wedding

The past couple of weeks have been very busy. Gillian turned 8 on May 7th and got baptized on May 8th. Lots of family came for the baptism, which was really great. Grandma and Grandpa Crockett came for a couple of days. After she was baptized Gillian followed me into the dressing room and was so excited. She said "I want to do that again!". She couldn't stop smiling.

Then this past Friday my niece Heather got married. Hard to believe that she was 3 years old at my wedding. Wow.

I was gone at the wedding/lunch all day and when I came home I found that Holly had eaten my Gerber daisies that I had just planted. There were 3 before I left and now there are 2. I mean she ATE them. Gone. Weird.

Gillian had 9 little girls over for her birthday party on Saturday. It was crazy. It was fun. We decorated flipflops with cloth flowers and stick on gems. They turned out really cute. Later in the evening Gillian was in tears because we didn't get to do everything that she had planned on doing. If we had done everything that she wanted to do the party would have lasted 10 hours.

Drew was a great helper with the activities.

Gavin strapped on his knife, got his survival pack on and followed me around wanting to talk about airsoft guns and knives. Not very helpful. And yes, he does own a gas mask. Never know when that could come in handy. Especially at a girl birthday party.

Just breathe

I really hate dealing with numbers. I would rather teach 5 cycling classes a day than balance a checkbook. So now I have a new job. Doing bookkeeping for the office. The weather has been gloomy, I've been teaching at the gym, I'm tired and the house is dirty. The dogs go out and run around and come inside before I have a chance to wipe off their feet. My beautiful carpet (HA!) is getting even more lovely! Yesterday I was supposed to be at Drew's class at 2:00 to do an art lesson. I remembered at 2:15, right as she was calling from school. I was deep into doing Quickbooks and just plain forgot. So now I get to do it today, along with all of the other things I didn't get done yesterday. I guess it's better to be busy than not.

14, 4th place and other stuff

This is a very dark picture but it will have to do. Drew placed 4th at her gymnastics State meet on Friday night. Very exciting. She is long and lean and looks more like a ballerina but she does well at gymnastics. It was a very LONG meet on Friday night but fun to watch.

Ok, I can't believe that my firstborn is 14. What the heck happened? Am I really 41 and he's 14? He went on a hike to Mt. Si with Darren and the scouts on his birthday and later went to a movie with Darren and Spencer. No more Rescue Heroes, matchbox cars or GI Joe's. He just wanted a multi-tool gadget and a pair of Vans.

Spring skiing

I was a bit surprised when Katie Knopf suggested that we bring our swimsuit tops to go skiing. It hasn't been that warm up skiing this year, but we brought them just in case. After our first run in the slush we had sweat dripping everywhere so we thought it might be fun to try. It really was a beautiful day, and we couldn't even get up enough speed (due to slow slushy snow) to crash if we tried, so we braved the swimsuit idea. No gloves, no coats, no goosebumps! Really, I was surprised at how warm it was.

On the drive home, just outside of Sultan, is this tiny chapel. I've always wanted to stop and see what it's about. So we did.

Easter

Easter was spent at Bub's an Jo's house. The kids had fun hunting for eggs and the dogs had fun playing.

They look viscous but they are just having fun playing.

Mac and Holly

George did his best to keep up.

So tired after a long day of playing.

George and Holly have become very good friends.

Mistaken identity

Don't all yellow labs look the same to you? I mean, I had never seen this dog before in my life. I was just the clever detective who put 2 and 2 together and returned the dog to the rightful owner by putting it in the yard and letting him get rain soaked all day and then locking him in a filthy cluttered garage (with the cops' help). Two different neighbors and two cops both confirmed that he was this lady's dog. Imagine coming home with your dog and finding it's twin locked in your garage, howling and confused. Kind of funny, except now I don't feel so smart.

I got a call yesterday afternoon from a man named Kevin. He got my number in a very round about way from talking to his daughter who heard from her classmate about the dog who followed the kids home. So by his detective work he asked around until he got my number. He said that he thought I found his dog Jake. I told him that no, it was a dog named Rocky and I returned him to his rightful owner by putting him in that person's garage. But what a coincidence! He lost a yellow lab on the same day, what are the chances? I told him good luck and maybe call the animal shelter. He wasn't buying it. I didn't get it. I mean, there were at least 4 people who confirmed that it was Rocky and helped me lock him up. So I described the blue choke collar and he said "yep, that's Jake." It finally started to sink in and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry (I laughed hard). So I met him and took him to the house. Jake was back in the yard. We asked the neighbor what happened and she apologized to him and said that she really thought it was Rocky. I bet that Rocky's owner was really confused. I know I was.

Pretty sure the Bothell PD will demote me now.

Cagney and Lacey and the bloody paw

It all started after school when the girls came home from school and I could hear Drew screaming from downstairs for me to come quickly. I looked downstairs and saw a huge yellow lab in my living room pacing around. I was confused and for a split second thought that maybe Holly had morphed into a bigger version of herself. The girls excitedly told me about how this dog followed them home. So now he was in my front room leaving muddy paw prints. One of his paws was bloody so every other muddy paw print was a muddy-bloody paw print. (Muddy-bloody rhymes, I know). I had never seen this dog before but he seemed nice. So I decided we could keep him. I mean, I need 3 dogs, really. JUST KIDDING! So anyway.....where was I?..... Oh yeah, we walked him around the neighborhood on a leash, no luck. I had this weird feeling that I could figure out where this dog belonged (he had no tag on his collar). I remembered a story that my friend Rebecca had told me about one of the 911 calls she got last week to the mobile home park. A lady was complaining about kids playing outside. Yes, that qualifies as an emergency here in Bothell apparently. I remember her saying that the lady had a really cool yellow lab that was trained to open doors for her (she has MS). So I called Rebecca as she was getting ready to go to work and asked her exactly what house it was. Lo and behold I found the house, asked the neighbor and he confirmed that it was the lady's dog. She wasn't there so I put the dog in the yard and closed the chicken wire fence. Good deed done..... NOT!

Later in the evening I took George and Holly on a walk (11pm). It was raining and cold but I really wanted Holly to potty in the great outdoors. Bec texted and asked if I was up so she could come get a snack and show me her cool cop car. So I said yeah, I'm walking in Hollyhills. I had heard a dog howling most of the evening so I went down to check and see if it was the yellow lab. As I was getting near the house a cop car pulled up and spotlighted me, so cool. It's almost like she's playing cop or something, but it's real. Anyway she asked if I had called 911 about the dog cause someone just called about it. Coincidence. So we went and checked it out. I asked her if I could break in to the house and let the poor dog in. We giggled as we maneuvered through the yard avoiding dog poop, old sinks, garbage, etc.... She had her cool cop flashlight as we pounded on all the doors and peeked in windows. No luck. So we put the dog in the garage, talked to the neighbor who called it in. She's worried that something happened to the lady and filed a missing person's report. Then went to my house for a snack. Kind of crazy that it was Rebecca that helped me return the dog earlier in the day and ran in to me on the way to the 911 call. I think we should be partners, like Cagney and Lacey. It was kind of fun, but then it was 11:30pm and I got to change into dry pj's and Bec had to go to the station to write up a huge report on the case of the dog and the missing lady. I'll keep my detective work limited at this time. I've got laundry to do.