Sunday, December 27, 2009

160



Smallish victories. Does this qualify as one of those? Maybe, in the scope of a lifetime, but this week, this was a major victory. We were able to get Mazie's room cleaned. I really wish I had taken a before picture of her room because it was worthy of an episode of the A&E series, Hoarders.

The large black bag is representative of one of my worst parenting moves today. Mazie spent nearly 4 hours cleaning her room today. I made her a list, told her what to pick up next, tried to encourage her to accomplish it herself. She didn't throw tantrums or balk at doing the work like she usually does. I figured the promise of a trip to Target to blow her Christmas gift cards was what was driving her to getting it cleaned. She was very compliant and would occasionally bring a small stack of trash (papers) out to me and say things like, "Better get back in there mom!". I was totally impressed, but didn't make periodic checks because I thought she was being responsible and doing the work.

At 5pm (I gave her a deadline), I went in to check out her work. I was anticipating greatness. Instead, her room looked like the equivalent of a plate full of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and peas. At first arranged artfully on a plate, but then rearranged to appear that it had been eaten with the occasional pea thrown to the dog. This is what transpired over the 4 hours she spent in her room. She just moved a couple of things around. And the trash (mostly Kleenex and what I call 'crazy papers'), dirty clothes and stuffed animals I directed her to pick up repeatedly were still in the same spot. When asked earlier if she had picked-up the trash and had all the dirty clothes back by the washing machine, she said "Yes..." in the nicest way. What the fuck was she doing for 4 hours??

That's when the rage set in. This is not something I've been after her to do for a few days, couple of weeks or even a month, this is a project I have been asking her to take on for nearly 6 months now. I realize she's only 7, but she's smart and is able to do the work - she just chooses not to. Anyway, back to the rage... I went and got that huge black trash bag and began stuffing anything in sight into the bag. As you can see, it's packed to the brim. And that wasn't even the bulk of what was laying on her floor. After I settled myself down a bit, I made Jason come in and help us while Mazie and I finished picking everything up.

As for the things in the black bag - well, that's going to be Mazie's project this week. I'm crossing my fingers.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

159



Wow, I really feel like a putz, a slacker, a person who can't complete a task...

While I was like a steam train for a while on this project, somewhere life got in the way. While I spent time on the computer for the last 2 months, I just didn't have any photos really to post. Even the batteries died in my cameras. I had to charge them just to take this photo of my kids the other day.

This was a fun day. My job at REI had ended, the kids were out of school and we were finally able to spend some time together. So, we got all gussied-up and set out to take some photos to give as gifts and to send out as this year's Christmas card. Of course, I'm completely behind and I'll be surprised if I get them all sent out. Fingers crossed!

In a moment of bliss, the kids actually decided to like each other for the photo. We took this on the Milton Trail and I love how it turned-out.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Saturday, October 31, 2009

158



The kids at Halloween - Mazie the Tooth Fairy, Jack the Surfer and Remy the Flower. "Remy the Flower" sounds like a preschool mafia name.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

157



Tonight, Remy got to come spend the night with us. She's wearing a yarn wig that Mazie had in her dress up clothes. She didn't hate it!



Later, Mazie and Remy took a bath together. Remy had so much fun splashing Mazie...

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

156



And Mazie is officially 7! These are the cupcakes that Grandma brought her before Mazie went to school. She had one for breakfast!

Monday, October 26, 2009

155



While Kelby surprised Mazie for her birthday by picking her up and taking her to a movie, we got to hang out with Remy. Here's Remy pinching Jack's cheek like she's his long, lost elderly aunt.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

154



The birthday girl is 7! Yay!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

153



Here's the birthday girl making her pistachio cake the day before her birthday dinner with the family.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

152



This is the skateboard taxi. My kids have been playing skateboard taxi for weeks. Mazie, of course, always get to ride. Jack is happy just popping wheelies with his sister in the basket.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

151



Here's the view from my walk today with Watson and Mayhew. The leaves are turning and it's so beautiful out there. Although, there's so many leaves and they are trapping moisture, which means there's slugs hanging out under them. This also means that you randomly step on a leaf and pop a slug. But, you're thankful for the maple leaf barrier.

Yep, that's Eddie Ray. He loves the trail, there's so much to smell.

Monday, October 19, 2009

150



Tonight, Mazie spied this giant mushroom in our yard. For reference, those are dogwood leaves on the ground by it.

Her conversation to entice me outside to look at it was pretty humorous:

"Mom! Come look at this mushroom in the yard!"
"I will, just a minute..."
"No, mom, NOW!"
"Why? What's the deal?"
"Mom, it's huge."
"Huge?"
"Yes, really huge."
"Hmm, ok, I'll look..."
"Mom, it's huge, I swear. It's as big as CANADA!"
"How do you know how big Canada is?"
"I just know, look there, see? I told you it was as big as Canada!"
"Wow! That really IS big!"
"Yep, you thought I was lying."

I really did think she was lying. And yes, it was huge.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

149



Here's one of the kids' sunflowers. I'm pretty sure we planted them way too late. They weren't able to grow into their full potential before the weather turned fall wacky. They are nice to see in the yard though...

Saturday, October 17, 2009

148

I'm baaaack! I've been on a hiatus for a few reasons, but I'm back. Good to be here...



Here's Mazie today at Kim Roscoe's house. She was cold after she rolled her coat in some kind of poop, so she asked if she could wear Remy's coat. It was so small, it held her in this scarecrow position.

Kim kindly hosts a pumpkin carving event every year. Kim makes a plethora of soups for the event and asks that you bring bread for the bread table. On today's menu was chili, squash soup, chicken noodle, lasagna soup and some macaroni and cheese....ALL homemade. The lasagna soup was divine and all the bread super fresh. There was even flavored butters to put on the bread. It was awesome.

From Kim's compost pile grew some beautiful pumpkins from seeds that must have been deposited there last year. Jack was able to carve one of those while Mazie carved a pumpkin given to her by Leanne. Leanne was so great about overseeing Mazie's carving action while we tended to Remy.



Oh, and Remy loved the chicken noodle soup. She kept staring and staring at it. I felt guilty eating it in front of her, so that's why I shared.

Monday, September 28, 2009

147



Detained.

Here's Grandma Kay this morning, detained behind a glass wall during the security check at the airport. She claims it was her artificial knees. The TSA claims it's the tube of toothpaste she's smuggling in her bag. Too many ounces. Mmm hmm.



This is when they found the culprit - toothpaste.



Here she is getting a full body sweep. I love how they single out a lovely little lady in white keds because she has the potential to be a terrorist.

For shit's sake, she's wearing a Morning Sun sweatshirt with a mock turtleneck collar. Yep, that just screeeeeams terrorist to me.



Today when we arrived at Disneyland. It was hot and we were all tired from getting up early. We did have a good time, however, and Remy was thoroughly entertained all day! She was SO good on the airplane and enjoyed the endless people watching (scrutinizing) at Disneyland today. Tomorrow is a new day!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

146



Here's Jack in action at his soccer game on Saturday. I know nothing about soccer, but I have noticed that Jack is a great defender. He doesn't have that aggressive nature to be someone who scores all the time, but he's great at keeping himself in front of the goalie and thwarting the other teams' score attempts.

Let's hope he loves soccer and wants to stick with it for awhile..

Friday, September 25, 2009

145



Friday morning, Jack and Remy just happened to have pretty damn near the same shirts. Remy was yelling at me in a way only Remy does.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

144



Remy transformed into the Cookie Monster earlier tonight. I would like to say she ate this whole biscuit, but she's in that 'cause and effect' stage. Eddie, being the genius dog he is, patiently awaited the moment she began to test the theory again.

She ate well over half the biscuit. But wow, it really kept her occupied!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

143



This is my buddy, Declan, on the trail this morning. I felt pretty safe from the wildlife with Wolverine at my side. He's wearing his 'Mt. Reindeer' hat that his grandpa got him at a gift shop on the mountain.

Declan is no stranger to the transformation capabilities of the costume. I've seen him in all sorts of garb and he pulls it off with a confidence that only a 4 year old has.

Rock on Declan!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

142



So, today was a busy day. One of the things we do as a PTA organization is hold an annual fundraiser to cover our operating costs and hopefully have enough left over to give back to the schools in the form of grants requested from the staff. Last year we were able to give about $14,000 back to both schools. We have very generous parents and usually have successful fundraisers.

Of course, the key to every successful fundraiser is a kick-off to get the kids excited since they are the vessel that bring the catalog and information to the parents. We had some scheduling conflicts and other minor catastrophes that forced us to do some creative kick-offs today.

This morning, our fundraiser rep, Thomas, came to Endeavour (the 2-5 school) to do the kick-off there. He brought a Mac with a detailed PowerPoint slide show, some swirly disco lights, a giant stadium speaker on wheels and a projector that connected to the Mac. As the entire student population filed into the tiny gymnasium, Thomas had some exciting BMX and skateboard video running on his high falutin' set-up. The room was full of oohs and ahhhs and a lot of excitement was building. Thomas' presentation was concise, exciting and full of jokes that the kids understood. He executed superior crowd control and was able to keep the kids silent for most of the presentation. After he was done, he told the kids a cocka-mamie story about an invisible key that turned off their mouths. As the kids filed out, they were silent; just as Thomas instructed them.

We still had the Discovery (grades K-1) school to go, but Thomas had another engagement that he had to do in the afternoon. Thomas drove 2 hours from his home to get to our school and then had to go back another 90 minutes to his last venue. So, Leanne (our Fundraiser committee chair) and I decided we would do the kick-off assembly for Discovery. Thomas kindly put his stellar PowerPoint show on a jump drive so we could have the same tools he did. Leanne and I studied his technique earlier and we were confident we could entrance the kindergarten and first grade audience just as he had...except for a few things. 1. We had a PC to do the slide show with, so it didn't translate quite right. There were no BMX videos to enthrall the audience. 2. Thomas had to take all his gizmos with him to the other venue, so we didn't have much in the way of prizes to show the kids, but we did have a poster. 3. All the jokes and audience behavior tricks Thomas exhibited kinda went up the highway with him.

Leanne did well for her first fundraiser presentation. The kids clapped when we mentioned ice cream and I'm pretty sure we lost them after that. The principal got stern with the noisy kids, but they did like it when I put on the fake eyeball glasses after we told them they could win them for selling 2 items. Later, many of the kids wondered why the glasses weren't in their packets they had to bring home. They really didn't put the two together.

I enjoyed the glasses so much, I took them home. That's why I'm modeling them here. It's hard to figure out the appropriate mouth to make in glasses like that, so I went with the Mary Kate and Ashley look. My friend Mike once read that the key to getting a perfect MKandA pout was to say the word 'prune' as your picture is being taken. I think it works pretty well.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

141



Today we went to what was pretty much the last hurrah of the summer; Brandon's birthday party. Brandon chose to have a pool party at Donna's friend's house in Gig Harbor. She lives in a millions of dollars home on the water. She also has a kick-ass pool, hot tub and all around awesome place to have a party. We had a blast.



This is a home that would probably be featured on MTV's Cribs. It's got this great waterfall and water slide that dump into the pool. Here's Mazie with her safety dollar store life ring.



Here's the birthday boy taking the final crack at the pinata.



The MOTHER-LODE!



Mazie's turn at the pinata left the motorcycle with only one wheel. Mazie smacked the hell out of it and busted the wheel off. It doubled as a handy container for the bounty contained inside the pinata.

Later, Mazie kneed herself in the eye on the trampoline. It's getting close to shiner-ness. We told her to tell her friends at school that she spent the weekend honing her cage fighting skills.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

140



Today, we went to West Seattle Golf Course for the First Annual Berg Open. Brian's friends and Kelby want to set up a golf tournament/invitational every year around the anniversary of well, I don't need to say it. Kelby had t-shirts made and about 23 people came out to golf. I think next year there's a possibility of making it a fundraiser and a much larger event. Either way, I hope I'm invited back because I really had a good time.



One thing I discovered is, I'm not a golfer. I can put some distance on the ball when I do connect, but I have ZERO accuracy skills. What I am good at is flagging down the girl in the beer golf cart, drinking the beer and driving my own cart around. Today, I drove my 69 year old Aunt Diane around. She was our ringer for this 'best ball' tournament. Kelby and her friend Jen were also in our group. They were good golfers too. There were a couple of times that I made a good enough hit that we used my ball as the best ball for that shot. But, it was literally my first time, so maybe I didn't do too bad. I did notice that the part of the Saxwold Genome that determined competitiveness was prevalent in all of the Saxwold lineage that was on the course today.

Oh, and did I mention that it rained? It rained hard on the first 9 holes. My 2nd cousin, JR, manages the restaurant portion of the West Seattle Golf Club. He saw my suffering and brought me a raincoat straight out of the pro shop. He was gentlemanly enough to bring me a size smaller jacket, which caused a sausage effect around my mid-section, but what the hell, it was better than the alternative. When I wore the jacket, it stopped raining. When I took the jacket off because I was sweating, it would start raining again. It was a vicious cycle. My hair really took a beating. It was soaked and ended up with uncontrollable curls. It looked like hell, but I think Diane's looked worse.



Here's my dad, Brian's dad and fucking Richard. No, I don't have anything against Richard, but it's just fun to say that. I like Richard, he's a good time and always good for a laugh.

What a day!

Friday, September 18, 2009

139



So, for two days in a row, I went walking with my lady friends on the Milton Interurban Trail. It's a constructed trail through the woods of Milton, but actually starts on the outskirts of Fife. If you walked the who thing to and fro, you would walk 5 miles. The parking area is actually around 1/3 of the way in. From where we parked and walked it's roughly 3 miles (1.5 up and 1.5 back).

Anyway, the walk is incredibly shady and beautiful, but you get a real sense of being deep in the woods (when it comes to strangers). The consensus is that we won't be walking it by ourselves, or we shouldn't rather.

On the way back, out of nowhere is this Russian-esque lady walking the trail in her Russian housewife clothes. Ok, she was probably Ukrainian because we really do have a large Ukrainian population around here. I thought she was alone, but then a couple more women, who were the younger version of her, came up the trail behind her.

Hard to get a covert cell phone picture, but it was really strange to see her on the trail, so I had to try...

Sunday, September 13, 2009

138



On the heels of our emotional departure with the squirrel, Eddie discovered this baby possum in our yard this morning. The dog would not stop barking. He was so annoying. Anyway, Jason went out to find out what all the ruckus was.

What is going on? Why do these baby creatures show up at our house?

We're leaving this one alone. All the Googling I did on possum said if their bodies are longer than 7 inches, they're old enough to fend for themselves. I'll take their words for it because this was one scary little dude. Look at those teeth!

Also, went to the season opener of the Seahawks. What a blast, not only watching the game, but people watching. I don't know a lick about football, but they made some good plays (or what looked like good plays to me) and won 28-0. I think I annoy the crap out of Kelby by asking her too many questions about football, but what the hell...she keeps inviting me.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

137



Today was Jack's first soccer game. Of course, he didn't wear his uniform this way, but wee were laughing at how long the dang socks were. Jack did great at his game. He was a little timid and observant, but this is how he approaches most things. I have a feeling he'll be more aggressive on the next game. All I know is he loved it and had a great time, which is how it should be.



Also today came the end of our tenure with the squirrel. I had a long talk with the kids about how he would have a better chance if he was in the right hands. I explained that the squirrel would soon get out of control because it had grown into a young adult squirrel. Also, since we're going to Disneyland on the 28th, it would be impossible to find someone who would be willing to watch the squirrel for us while we were gone.

Both of the kids understood, but they didn't take it very well. There were a lot of tears, but we drove him to the drop point, which was a vet clinic in Renton. The wildlife rescue, Sarvey Wildlife Center agreed to take him and asked we take him there and accompany the drop-off with a donation. We wrote a check for a small donation and hoped for the best.

I wondered as we drove away if this was a legitimate rescue because of the 'drop-off' at a random vet clinic. What if they euthanized the little guy right there and cashed my check? I would like to believe we gave the squirrel a better chance at life than if he had stayed sitting out in the openness of my yard. We gave him at least 2.5 days more than he would have had we not discovered him. What a great experience it was for us too. We all enjoyed having him around for a few days.

Friday, September 11, 2009

136



Squirrel Saga: Day Two

So this kid is really growing on us. Jack was in tears this morning before school. He thought that I might just get rid of the squirrel while he was at school. I assured him I wouldn't, but that I would call a rescue to see if someone could take him within the next few days. I found one at the recommendation of a friend. I called them and didn't hear back from them until this afternoon. They said they would take the squirrel at their Renton drop point and would appreciate any donations with the drop-off.

He's still sleeping a lot, which I think is good because we don't have to worry about him while he's snoozing. We changed from hot water bottle to heating pad set on low. I am not comfortable with running a heating pad all the time, but I dunno - they seem pretty safe.

Today, while the kids were at school, Jason and I went to Marge's funeral. Jason came home around 3:00 and was going to show Annie the furball, but when Jason got here and unraveled the layers of the box, the squirrel was nowhere to be found. He had escaped. Jason looked around everywhere and finally found him huddled in a cozy ball under Eddie's dog pillow. Whew!

Anyway, here's a little video of the squirrel eating this evening. It's pretty much the cutest thing I've seen all day.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

135



Jack found this widdle squirrel late this afternoon. He was doing his best to sit up and look alert, but he kept falling asleep in between his valiant efforts. I assume he fell out of the tree above him. But there he was...exposed, not afraid of us. I'm not sure if it was from illness or injury, but he clearly was not scared. I don't know if he's old enough to function like a normal squirrel, but he's a little quirky in his steps, sorta like he's just figuring it out.



So, what did we do? Yep, we picked him up and put him in a box. It was clear he needed some help. Now, I know squirrels are pests. I most certainly wouldn't have shown a baby rat this much empathy, but this guy just got kicked out of his nest. Poor kid.

I went to the pet store and got some kitten milk and one of those syringe feeders. Turns out he was pretty hungry. He ate some of the kitten milk and immediately fell asleep. He's been sleeping ever since; on the hot water bottle, on a t-shirt, in a box, nice and cozy. I know we can't keep him, I don't want to keep him. There's no way in hell we can co-exist with a squirrel in the house. They're ready to be on their own at 12 weeks. I think this little dude is about 5 to 6 weeks old. I'll call a shelter in the morning. He just wouldn't have a chance here.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

134



This is my friend Tracy. She turned 40 today. Who would've thought, in 1969, that Tracy's 40th birthday would fall on such a cool date like 09/09/09?

I know Tracy through school activities. A group of us met at Puerto Vallarta restaurant today to partake in their delicioso lunch buffet and celebrate Tracy's big day. She's posed here next to Big Red, her Suburban, that has a gazillion miles on it, but they were all put on by taking the journey between Fife and Milton at least 5 times a day (about 2 miles each way) for many years.

Happy Birthday, Tracy - you deserve it!

Sunday, September 6, 2009

133



Some time ago (end of July?) we decided we would attend one of the stock car races at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe. After our last journey to the races at South Sound Speedway and some reading up on the events at Evergreen, we decided that it would be more excitement if we attended the ones in Monroe. They boast plenty of figure 8 races, school bus races, rollover cars, Mr. Dizzy the stunt driver, boat races (boat chained to a car and raced in a figure 8) and demo derby among many more.

We had been pumping up the kids for this event for weeks. It never occurred to us that the weather might be crappy.

It poured and poured this morning, thundered, hailed...it was cold; just miserable. There was even a tornado that happened in the Enumclaw/Lake Tapps area. We went back and forth on whether or not we should go. We made alternate plans which included going to Dad's for dinner and then going to a movie at the $2 theater. The kids were all ready to see a movie. I even checked the local radar images and saw the rain bands that would be heading through Monroe. Jason provided no opinion on if we should go or not. I then made the executive decision that we would just suck it up and go to the races. They had covered bleachers and seating for 7500. What the hell.

So I packed our warm clothes, snacks, hats and gloves. I called my dad and told him we were going to the races, he said he wasn't interested in sitting in the cold for a few hours. I told him no big deal, we'd go without him. He then invited us over for dinner and we had time to go. Went to dad's, had dinner, then dad announced that he and my cousin Taylor would be going with us.

Evergreen Speedway did not disappoint. They had hornet cars (hondas, toyotas, etc), school bus races, 3 car train races, junior hornet cars (driven by 14 - 18 year olds), Mr. Dizzy jumped a truck and horse trailer, demo derby, 2 rollover cars...whew. Then, they capped off the evening with a fireworks show (of which we watched while walking back to the car).

Best of all, it didn't rain. One single drop.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

132



Here's the kids, watching the rest of their summer washing away with the rain. At least that's what they thought until they saw the 5 Day Forecast and decided not all was lost. We'll be having some mid-70s and 80s by the end of the week.

I enjoy the occasional summer squall. It's free yard watering to me!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

131



Tonight, Remy came over for a sleepover with us. On Monday, when my mom took the kids school shopping, she called within an hour of leaving my house and asked, "How do you feel about leopard velour?" I knew right away that no matter what I said, Mazie would win the battle. Sure enough, she did and this outfit is what she came home with.

Mazie spent Monday afternoon modeling it for my sister, cousin, mom and dad, and myself. She was full of pride and leopard sound effects.

When Kelby went home, she discovered Remy's leopard print outfit that my cousin Robin bought for her. Kelby thought it would be funny to tell Mazie that Remy absolutely needed to have an outfit just like hers because she loved it so much. Kelby brought Remy over today in the outfit before Mazie got home from school.

When Mazie got off the bus, hers eyes LIT UP and she was super excited to see Remy in the outfit. "REMY GOT ONE TOO?", she said. I told her yes, because she wanted to be like her big cousin. I'm pretty sure it made Remy's day too.



I thought this picture was funny because it looks like Mazie took it herself. Like it's one of her first self portraits.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

130



First day of school.....FINALLY.

These past few days have been filled with frustration, yelling, boredom and anxiety. My kids were apprehensive about going back to school. Mazie and Jack were both ready, but of course the draw of staying home to eat ramen and watch the Wizards of Waverly Place or ride bikes was kind of winning out. Jack was mad at me for needing them to go back to school. I tried to explain to him that he needed to be away from the house too, away from his sister and close to his friends. He wasn't buying it. I think he thinks it's time for video games and candy for me and it'll be an all out feast without them here.

I wonder where the time went and Mazie suddenly became a first grader? She looks like a college student in this picture and that's a little scary.

Both came home on the bus today, burst through the door and exclaimed what awesome days they had. I think it was fun for them to see all their friends again and to be at school independently. We'll see how day 2 goes.

After school today, we went to have some First Day of School Celebratory Ice Cream at Ben and Jerry's. We met our usual circle of moms and kids and I think we really overwhelmed the lady behind the counter. Yeah, one chick. I felt pretty bad for her, but she really held the place down and was completely organized and smiling the whole time. I joked that we looked like a group of parents who home-schooled their kids. I guess you had to be there to relate to that.

Anyway, this comes to my other picture of the day. This handsome fella below is my friend Leanne's youngest. I told him that he made ice cream look good. He agreed.