Wall-E

I had bought "Wall-E" a couple of years ago off Ebay.  The littles loved it and watched it quite a bit.  And then it disappeared.  I had thought perhaps the neighbor had taken it when he was in our place while we were on vacation.  The only hang up there was I thought he would have taken the box also, not just the movie.  So the box has been sitting on my shelves for over a year with no movie and I keep thinking about throwing it away.  And then I don't.
So today we have been searching for Sylvester.  Either he escaped and we weren't aware of it or he has found a really good hiding place.  I suspect he escaped and will turn up tonight.  In my search I pulled the couch out in case he was behind it at the bottom.  And there stuck to the wall was "Wall-E"
Audrie and I have been enjoying watching it again.  It is almost like watching a new movie when you haven't seen it in so long. I love that we have the movie and the box. I hate having one without the other.  One of my quirks.

Lucia Falls

It is hot so we decided to go down to the river.  We went to Lucia Falls Park.  Way back in time there used to be a restaurant there and it had a great deck with stairs and landings going all the way down to the river.  Now it is just a decaying structure.
We picnicked before venturing down to the waterline.  There is suppose to be no water contact at this park because it is a resting place for salmon.  And yes those are my kids putting their feet in the water.  We walked around on all the great rock formations.  They threw rocks in the river.  And then we were just hot.  Audrie especially.  Her little nose was sweating.  Connor had poured out our water, so we headed back.
It was a nice evening with a nice walk even if it was warm.  And the littles had a good time.

Long Week

It is another week of full days for the littles and me.  They are spending the day at care house.  Audrie seems over her problem there.  So we have one more long day and then we go back to five hour days for me at work.  Yay!
I'm going to love my paycheck, but I'm getting tired.  Two weeks in a row with eights is a lot.  Especially when they came after a lull where I only worked one day one week and two days the week before.
I'm still on four day weeks though.  It's good.  Hopefully we can set a little aside to pay for our California trip this fall.  San Francisco......here we come.

When Will I Learn?

We have almost ran out of small hair bands.  They work best for Audrie's hair.  So while shopping I spotted a bag of 500 latex bands and thought cool.  I won't be out for a long long time and when they start getting lost it is no big deal as it was just a couple of dollars.
Well I didn't think that one through very well.  But I did when I was picking up 500 latex bands off the floor.  Although I did not get all 500 because they keep showing up.  I was a bit smarter at that point and put them up.  I can get them down as I need them.
So then I bought her a bucket of beads.  Yup, you guessed it.  I didn't think that one through.  Should have put over half of them away in the first place.  And I was thinking about that as I was down on the floor picking them all up.  Thought "man that seems like a lot for 500 beads."  Nope......looked at the bucket when I was done and it held 5000 beads.  They are now put up for awhile.  And when they come back down......at least 2/3 of them are going into a plastic baggie to remain put up.  Oy.

Wedding Fun

And the day finally arrived.  My friend and co-worker got married.  I got us invited and we went.  Belinda hadn't invited us because she didn't want to impose and thought we wouldn't come.  Ha!!
And she was such a beautiful bride and Tim was a wonderful groom.
Brenda and I arrived right on time due to a little detour my gps took us on.  But we got there.  Used valet parking for the first time ever.  That was hard for me and them.  They parked my car right outside the front door.  We were shown upstairs and the guests filled the room.
The ceremony was nice and performed by a long term friend of Belinda's.  And then we were ushered downstairs for cocktail hour.  Brenda had a beer....a ginger beer that is.  She didn't care for it too much.
And then it was time to go back upstairs for the dinner and reception.  Belinda's dad gave a speech and he was very eloquent.  Told us we were from all over including Shanghai and Hong Kong.  We ranged in age from 6 months to 96 years old.  His father was not the oldest at 91, but he did get the longest marriage thus far of that group at 46 years.  Methinks that was a second marriage.
Dinner was buffet style with prime rib.  Unless you were one of the few children who got served burgers and french fries.
Once we were done eating it was time for dancing.  And by dancing....I mean Belinda's whole family gets up and dances.  It felt kind of strange to be one of the ten guests or so who wasn't dancing.  It is my usual mode of operatus. And then I decided why am I doing that? So I and Brenda joined in and we did the limbo and the Congo line and just danced.  And we had a blast.  Dancing and watching others.
They had an open bar but no one got sloppy drunk and that was very nice.  I think it may be because of all the dancing.  ;p
The cake cutting was beautiful.  Both the bride and the groom showed great respect for each other and did NOT smash cake in either's face.  There were three different flavors to the cake and I can attest that the lemon was divine.
And then it was time to wind it down.  We all went outside and received very long sparklers that were then lit and we stood in two lines and Tim and Belinda pass under the sparklers for their festive send off.
I absolutely still believe in the institution of marriage and I send great love and light to Belinda and Tim and hope they have a beautiful long life together.  I loved the wedding, I loved the dress, I loved the party.  I had more fun than I have had in a long time. I'm glad I manipulated the situation and got to go.  And I'm glad I left the littles at home.

Testing

Audrie has been doing so well lately behaving when we go places.  And then today she didn't.  I don't know why they feel the need to test the boundaries.  I don't understand temper tantrums when they know they don't work.
So today we are at lunch with Mona and Fred in Red Lobster.  We order.  We eat biscuits.  We color.  And then our food comes.  They were sharing a chicken strip plate because all she wants is french fries.  So I put some french fries on a plate for her and then it begins.  She wants the big plate that the food came on.  Well no.......So we go do a timeout in the bathroom that then gets moved outside.  I told her she would not get the big plate since all she wanted was some fries and if she continued I would pay the bill and we would leave.  She didn't want that.
So we go back to the table and she starts right back in.  The waitress must have been a mind reader as she came right over and then quickly got me the bill and to go boxes.  Yup.  We paid and left. Once outside she threw her milk cup on the ground.  Made her pick it up.  Got them in the car and she starts in on wanting the mini ipad.  I told her no.  She could not have it until she got home.  She kept at it.  I told her if she kept it up she wouldn't get it all day.  I am not rewarding temper tantrums.
Amazing.  She immediately stopped and was quiet the whole way home.
Guess Connor and I are having Red Lobster for dinner.  He fell asleep on the way home. And I bet she behaves next time we are out.  Unfortunately that will probably be awhile because I don't feel like a repeat any time soon.

Tired

I always love those really long work weeks right after a nice lull.  I worked 30 hours in four days and am exhausted.  I was by myself and the warehouse was and still is packed.  So it was work all week.  I got a lot done, but boy am I feeling it.
And I got next week to look forward to with 31 hours in four days and lots more work....going to start returns.  Whew.  When it rains it pours.
Looking forward to the lull in October.  I have decided we are going to make our trip in that month down the coast to San Francisco to see the Redwoods and the bridge and Jeremy.

Dave

I had a brief conversation with Tanya this week.  She had had a bad Dad day.  Missing him a lot.  Really feeling the sorrow of not being able to say good-bye before he died.  I wondered if that would ever bother her.  It didn't bother me because I knew it was coming and Dave came to me to say good-bye.
So I realized that I am still looking for that middle of the work day text he always sent me and the one I always got after work.  And every day I am disappointed.  Rationally I know it isn't ever coming.  It just feels like a let down every day and then I miss him.  I miss him anyway but I miss him just a little bit more in those times where we connected.
She said she misses him when she needs help with something.  Guess that is what Dads are for.

Making Up

So on Monday I walked into day care to pick the kids up and realized the field trip was this week.  Made a comment about our permission slip and was informed the slips had to be in last Friday and the call to Dizzy Castle had already been made with the count.  No exceptions.  Okay then.
I decided not to say anything to Audrie as she was going to be very very disappointed.  And I did hear about it when I picked her up today.  But we had plans to go do something fun and what did we do?  We went to Dizzy Castle.
They played for two hours.  The little man worried some woman because he escaped to go to the car to get some money.  He wanted a juice and knew he had a penny in the car.  I had watched him go and was watching him.  She kept saying but it is a parking lot.  Yup.  Sometimes I take a step back and watch what they do, especially when I'm not worried.  There were no cars moving in the parking lot and we were parked by the building.  Oy.
Anyway they had a good time and Audrie got over her disappointment of not going to Dizzy Castle.
Nana needs to do a better job of staying on top of things so things don't fall through the cracks.

Home

It took seven hours to come home even though there was less traffic in Seattle. I think we had more seat belt stops.
Before leaving up north we visited the cemetary where my great-grandparents are buried. I didn't find them.  It was so hot and no shade there.  I looked at well over a quarter of the graves.  Found some of the other relatives. Next time I will have directions as to where they are in the cemetary.
It felt good to get home and out of the car.  And then we had the flea fiasco.
We had cat sat last week.  Audrie went to see John and found out the Sylvester has fleas.  Oy.
Well when we were getting ready for bed the little man called me over to show me some little bugs.  As I went to pick them off of him he told me to stop that they tickled.  Yup fleas.  So then Audrie told him it was fleas and they were going to bite him.  About that time I realized my legs had a lot also.  Once she told him about biting he started screaming. Poor kid.  We finished getting ready for bed and out of the flea zone.
Today after work we bombed the apartment.  We will not have fleas.  And I found it funny that I found bombs, but the neighbor upstairs had told me you couldn't buy them anymore because people used them as weapons.  What a joke.

Family Reunion

Marcia has a beautiful serene place on the water.  She is in an inlet and the tide goes out and come in.  It did both while we were there visiting and eating.
Google said it would take 4 hours and 15 minutes to get there.  Ha.  Maybe on a good day when there is no traffic and no little kids in the car.  Took seven hours in each direction with all the potty stops, belt the seat belt back up stops and meals.
On the way we took a detour due to an accident.  Looked horrible when we came back by it.  Well turns out that accident had happened much earlier in the day and was horrible.  Someone shot some people on the freeway.  One guy in that car survived but it created a traffic jam.  Then a driver of a big rock rig with an extra trailer cut through the medium and collided with like 13 cars that were stopped because of the shooting.  All we saw was a burnt out car, a damaged car and the turned over dump truck with trailer.
We arrived at Marcia and Roger's house just in time to eat.  They had a salmon bake and bbqed burgers and dogs.  People brought potluck food.  Except for us.  We just crashed the party.
It took awhile to start getting my dad's cousins all worked out.  By the end of the night we had it pretty well down.  We didn't even start on the next generation.  It is a large clan up there in Bellingham.
The littles made friends and played in the water.  They started to learn about tether ball.  They got muddy and mucky and wore out.  Once they fell asleep they didn't move all night.  Yes.  Score.

Harvest Day Cruise

And again we made it to the Harvest Day's Cruise.  Saw some really nice cars.  The little man loves the loud revving of the engines.  Loves race cars.  Was disappointed that Lightning McQueen was not here again this year.  He remembers it from the first year.
We met lots of dogs, naturally.  Saw lots of people and a few that we knew.  We missed Grayson as we started out a little late.  The kids were fascinated with the burn pit where the cars made smelly smoke.  We did not touch any car.  The littles were really really good about that.

Sylvester

We are cat sitting Sylvester this week.  John had to work in Seattle and it is just far enough he didn't want to commute.  He did when he worked in Olympia.  So we have had Sylvester all week.
 It took Sylvester a couple of days but he managed to escape.  He likes to go outside once in awhile.  And once he is out, there is no catching him until he is ready.  So he stayed outside all afternoon into the evening.  And then he came back to our place.  He is a pretty smart cat.  He knew where he needed to go when he was done.
Sylvester is the sweetest, most tolerant, and friendly boy kitty.  It has almost always been my experience that the sweetest, most tolerant and friendliest cats are boy cats.  And he sure fits that to a T.
The littles have so enjoyed him being here.  They have loved him, played with him, mauled him a bit and gave him space when he needed it.  It is like a need they have, to spend time with a cat, and then they go outside and play.
We are all looking forward to the day we can have a kitten named Treeleaf.  Wonder if she will still want to name one that when we finally get one.

Another Call

I got another call on Dave's behalf yesterday.  That makes three. This one wasn't sharing information though.  Maybe that has something to do with whatever it was, I wasn't ever attached to it.  No clue how they got my number though.
Wish Doug would just do his job and get it done, but I guess that isn't how he rolls.  As long as he procrastinates he still has control over people.  At least in his mind.  I become less and less impressed as time goes on.  And here I didn't think I could become any less impressed.  Dave must be so proud.

School Supplies

I stopped at Fred Meyer's and saw all the school supplies.  Was walking out and thought no I should look at that.  The class supply lists were out so I grabbed Audrie's.  Almost everything on her list was on sale so I went ahead and bought it all except the spiral notebook.  I know I will find those cheaper than a dollar between now and school starting.
And so it begins.  I will again be buying school supplies for the next fourteen years or so.  So it is time to start a supply box and keep it filled when I find really good sales. A couple dollars here and a couple dollars here are never a problem and then I don't have to spend the $20 at the beginning of the year.
I don't complain about it.  I just plan for it.  I hear a lot of complaints about the cost of school supplies.  And I don't get it.  It's not something you don't know is coming.  Every year while your child is in school.  And yes we didn't have to buy supplies when we were in school.  That was then, this is now.
For me at the start of Audrie's school career it feels like a rite of passage.  She is a kindergartner and on her way to growing even more.  I love it.  And I love school supplies.  And the cost of them do not break my bank.  Maybe it is because education in all its forms are important to me so it is my priority.

Play Date at the Park

After we were done counting today at work for inventory, my friend Michael asked me if I wanted to meet up with her and her little man at the park.  She was hoping that being with my little man on his bike might entice hers to ride his.  Well he did get on it and tried.  I figure that is half the battle.  Anyway all the kids had a good time at the park and got some energy expended.  Audrie spent most of her time on the tire swing.  She sure loves that.
I got to visit with Michael away from the work setting and it was nice.

At the Park

We spent the afternoon at the park.  Spinning and running and climbing.  We walked over and back.  They each found a cool bird feather on the walk and discussed pine cones.  Every trip seems like a learning adventure.
When we first got to the park a whole group of Little Tigers were there.  So Audrie just joined right in playing with them.  Funny how they all had to say bye to her when they left.  I noticed she played with the boys, not the girls. Hmmmm.
They got soaked in the water feature.  It was my real reason for going to the park.  And then the little man practiced some more rock climbing.
They were worn out.  Bet they sleep well tonight.  Or at least I hope so since we have to get up early tomorrow.

Growth

I am always amazed at the growth of the littles.  I don't notice it as it happens.  It just kind of hits me up along side the head at some later time.  We still misbehave, we are still naughty, he is still sneaky, she still throws temper tantrums.  But we don't do those things as often.  We can go to the grocery store now and not have a meltdown.  She has learned how to remove herself from a situation until she calms herself.  They both do the deep breath thing that helps calm them.
I am really thankful for some of this because we lost our local babysitter.  She went to Alaska at least for the summer. That means taking them with to the store and all the other errands I have to do.  I still use Elizabeth for important things but I'm leaning towards not using her so much.  And she is looking for a paycheck job which means she won't be available anyway.  That works out well.
I listen to their play and they are getting so much more imaginative.  She is in a mama place.  Pretends she has a baby in her tummy.  He plays with the big boys and their swords and nerf guns.  I find it interesting how he didn't have to invent the wheel so his imagination came so much earlier than hers.  It may be that smarter thing.
And while they are growing there are still times they just want cuddles from Nana and it warms my heart.

Something For a Memory Table

Suzie contacted me today.  I have known Suzie since Mike was in second grade.  Her stepson played sports with Mike.  She went to school with Dave.  Small world.  Anyway she and Dave went to their 30th high school reunion ten years ago.  They had a blast.  I didn't feel the need to go but encouraged him to go.
So it is now time for their 40th reunion.  Suzie said they will be having a memory table for those classmates who have died.  She asked me if I could put something together to go on the table.  I felt honored and remembered as a major part of Dave's life.
I am going to make a small photo book that includes the things he loved.  The littles, the girls, his hobbies, etc.  Suzie told me I had till the end of August.  I told her I need to do it now so I don't procrastinate too much.

Busy Saturday

It was WIC day at the Farmer's Market.  First time in several years that I had to take the littles with me to stand in the hour line to pick up the checks for the Farmer's Market.  This year the process seemed slower and took an hour and a half.  But we got our checks and then made our way to the fountain.
They got good and wet.  And then they were done.  It wasn't the warm day that we had last time we played in the fountain.  Made our way back over to the market.  Bought some cherries, peaches, tomatoes, donuts and flowers for the neighbor.  Finished up with the playground.
Spent four hours at Esther Short Park and then headed home for a nice nap.
After that it was time to head to Big Al's for some bowling.  Eban, a neighbor boy turned eight and we were invited to his birthday party.  Turns out Big Al's has a summer thing going where kids can bowl two games free a day.  So we signed up.  Only had to rent shoes and then I bowled one game with them.
We didn't use bumpers on the first game.  We used bumpers on the second game.  I did just fine.  I haven't bowled in over 15 years and was a tad concerned how my wrist was going to do.  All good.  The littles said they liked it and want to do it again.

Choosing Life and Love

I had a great conversation with John about raising girls and how important dads are to the process.  I totally agreed with him.  Dads teach girls their worth and how to be treated.  He shows this by how he treats her mother.  Then I commented about Audrie and how I need to keep John in our life for a long time.  He is one of her positive role models.
The conversation then turned to raising children and raising them up, not pushing them down. Choosing life and love over death and hate.  Empowering them and how words have all kinds of meanings.
It was a good reminder to watch how things are phrased and how tone sounds.  We have such a big impact on our kids and sometimes we convey things we don't really mean when we are tired, angry, overwhelmed.  Thanks John for the conversation and the things to think about.

Lacamas Lake

We went out to Camas to play at Lacamas Lake.  There is a nice playground there and lots of nice trails.  We brought our dinner and ate it there. David met us since he just lives close by.  We always enjoy a day with David.  Walked up to the damns and checked them out.  The little man managed to fall in the lake and he cried and cried.
David told us there are lots of things to do and look at up there.  We made plans to go to the pot holes next time.  David was surprised at the littles. The little man was actually talking to David and the little woman kept holding his hand.  It may have helped that David was in a really good mood and was playful.  He pushed the swings and turned the go round thing.  He was teaching them about the various kinds of plants we passed.  Life is all teaching and he was doing things I can't do.  Filling those Papa shoes for a moment.  We learned some of the history of the damns, the tunnels and the ditches.
We had a great time.  Thanks David for being our friend.

Challenged

The only time I really use the mini Ipad is during my breaks at work.  I play candy crush.  Well since it is broken and the game doesn't play well on the gen one I am just out for playing.  And that is annoying this week when I have three breaks every day.  So I decided that maybe it was time to download the game onto my phone and then I could play.
I spent my whole lunch break trying to figure out how to do that.  I am so technology challenged that I never did figure it out.  I had had an issue on my phone where google did something and a whole bunch of things were running in the background and would drain the battery in a matter of hours.  So I had shut all that off and somehow lost google play.  Tried from the browser and was told it wasn't supported anymore.  Oy.
Guess it is time to replace the mini Ipad.  And since it is mostly for the littles they may be paying for it.  Papa had given them some money last summer and we may just use that.

Camping Fun

Pat's friends Lynn and John were at camping again and again she was plastered.  So pleasant and when she starts in on him we all just want to be elsewhere.  Pat also invited Deion and Tanya and they were great.
I don't think my mom is going camping again.  Yurting will be okay.  We discovered that she can't get up off the ground.  We sleep on air mattresses on the ground.  So we had a fun night the second night.  And the dementia was kicking in and she was trying to get our covers and telling us to scoot over so she could get in.  She sat on Audrie.
We survived the trials and tribulations.  The kids had a blast and that is what counts.  But next time we do it sans mom.

The Dust

And another one bit the dust.  Last week I discovered that my new expensive charger for the Ipad had gotten broken.  Grabbed the other new charger that was normally priced and it, too, was broken.  When they get just pulled out without thought the little end can get pulled off the cord.  Yay! So I decided to wait until I went to work and get another normal priced one.
Inventory is coming up and there are no chargers on the shelf for I-pads.  If there are any they are already pre-counted and can't be touched until after inventory.  Oy.  So I go home and find one of the old chargers that don't work right but can slowly slowly slowly charge.  The I-pad ended up on the floor and then lo and behold it got stepped on.  Yay!  Major cracks all over the screen.
Audrie made it work.  The cracks didn't lift up so you couldn't feel them so she wasn't getting cut.  Then someone who shall remain nameless, but he is of the male persuasion pulled the usb end off that one slow charger.  Well I'm not buying a new charger for a broken Ipad. And so it finally bit the dust.
I'm not completely heartbroken.  This Ipad was one of the ones Papa bought that was refurbished to begin with.  It has had its screen replaced once already.  And every once in awhile it would work really slow.  We have had it for a couple of years so we did good with that one.
So I have been debating about whether it is going to be replaced or not.  I'm not sure why I'm debating because I know I will replace.  The questions seem to be whether I get another Ipad and the big pro there is all the apps that I have paid for and can just put on a new one.  Or whether I want to get them a kid one because they are designed for kids.  The big pro there is they are cheaper.
In the meantime I am using it all as a learning tool.  Audrie is using the old gen one Ipad that Papa gave us as a back up.  A lot of stuff won't work on it anymore because the operating system is so outdated.  The biggest thing being the YouTube app.  Oh my gosh.  "But Nana, I NEED YouTube."  Well sorry kid if you would have been paying attention to what you were doing you might not have broken the mini one and would have the normal YouTube experience.  I set her up with YouTube on the browser but it isn't as easy for her to use since she can't spell.  

A Groove

Apparently we have found a groove.  I'm not sure when it happened but our mornings and evenings are much smoother.  We used to have some epic meltdowns during those two times.  While we are still not always happy we are much better.  We must have found a good routine that we all can live with. So we get out the door when we are suppose to and we go to bed when we need to.
I'm really happy that we seem to have missed the night terrors with the little man.  They are pretty tough to deal with.  Especially the first one when I had no clue as to what it was. Feeling blessed that the little woman only had about five of them.  And hers lasted a good 45 minutes each time.
I'm not sure if we found a groove or if the littles are just getting older and used to how things need to be.  Either way I am happy that our days are a little easier in this way.

Fourth of July

The Fourth of July included playing in the river and with a dog named Romeo. He loved having his ball thrown in the water and then chasing it.  They got to float on Uncle Pat's floatation device with him and without him.  Audrie loved riding in the bucket of the tractor.  She said is was so much fun and so scary at the same time.  Connor said he wasn't scared at all.  And then there was the Safari Ride right before the sun went down.  It was a short ride due to the number of people on the island for the fireworks.  Somehow Audrie managed to ride twice.  She is a girl who knows what she wants and sometimes how to get it.  Then we got to watch a most spectacular display of fireworks.  My understanding is this guy usually fires them off somewhere else, but was told not to this year so he came to the island.  And we were glad he did.  Sat with Mom and Pat and watched them.  Audrie started off with a friend and then came and joined us.  Connor fell asleep and missed most of it.
It was another great camping trip with Uncle Pat.  Creating memories.

Camping Back At the Island

We went back to the island to camp over the holiday weekend.  The littles love camping.  It is about the only time they get soda.  Connor tried flying a kite.  Audrie and Connor both got to get in the water this time as it was so hot.  You can walk about about 50 yards and it only comes up to their waist.  They started off close to shore and when they were ready to venture further they got to wear life vests.  They liked that.

Jeremy

My best friend's son and his family took a road trip in this direction.  We met up with them for lunch.  He had never been up our way even though he has lived in CA for quite awhile.  We both thought it was very cool that my grandchildren were playing with her grandchild.
I hadn't seen Jeremy since he was ten years-old.  He has grown up into quite the man.  You can tell some things from facebook, but not even the tip of an iceberg.  He is extremely intelligent and has some clear concrete thoughts.  I enjoyed my time with him.
We made plans to meet up again when the littles and I take a road trip down there.  Maybe we will have more time to visit and let the kids play.  There is only so much playing that can take place in a restaurant.  ;p  If I procrastinate long enough it could be for a wedding.

Camping

Getting things ready for our weekend camping trip for the fourth of July.  Mom is going this time.  I think I have it arranged for Pat to take her out there.  My car will be pretty full.  I'm looking forward to it, but I'm also apprehensive.  It is suppose to be hot and Mom doesn't do hot well.  And we already know she doesn't do 24/7 littles well.  We will just see how it goes.

Natalie

I had time before work to take a walk.  Walking past the VA and this man and his dog were walking towards me.  She stopped, I stopped....I said what do you want to meet me?  The man told me her name is Natalie.  Cool.  And she is a love bug.  She stood up on her back legs and just cuddled in to my shoulder while I was stooped down to pet her.  No licking, just cuddling.  She reminded me of my Mishka.  The man and I both agreed that we all three needed to get our walks in before it got too warm.