Super Sweet Son Bro

Arg Matey! I'm Capt'n Big Boy Son Bro!

My sailor boy....

Eye See You...

Sad little boy sitting all alone on hims pumpkin wearing his kitty hat :(

Rose colored goggles.

These are my favorite babies and some of my "Thavorite" pictures of them.

Chellsea the Composer!

Chellsea loves those video games. Especially Final Fantasy. She in particular likes the background music that plays during the game. She likes it so much that she decided to write lyrics to the music THEN she thought she would find somebody to sing the lyrics and she sent me a copy of the finished product. You are so very tallented Miss Chellsea! I Love ya!

Big Boy Bubba Son Bro

Bubba started preschool and at the age of four has finally become manageable. Cry baby, temper tantrum throwin, mean boy is gone and I am so pleased with the boy who had replaced him. I love to see my Bubba run because he swaggers his head back and forth as he goes. He holds a great conversation now and has changed his name to "Big Boy Bubba Son Bro".  Both Mia and Bubba have been fishing up a storm and I'm not sure about Mia but Bubba is definitely hooked. Oh and we found out that Bubba is allergic to the elastic in socks so we have been purchasing hand knit socks from a lady off the Internet and I've started learning how to knit him socks also. His ankles look so much better now. They were terrible swollen, bumpy, itchy, poor baby big boy!
Chellsea had finished up her testing and was diagnosed with ADHD-the inattentive type, which is a sub type of ADD. We have contacted a couple of people to inquire about life coaching possibilities and continue to try to keep her in college. She qualifies now for something called a 504 program at the college that will help her out by accommodating her needs while enrolled. We opted not to start her out on medication because of her Syringomielia. Come on Chellsea we know you can do it!
I made a super big batch of Jalapeno Jelly, canned a batch of fresh green beans, and jarred up some fresh strawberry jam. On Monday I'm mailing out a jar to my friend Randy and Alysa cause I love 'em. Might send some out to Kathy in Little Rock along with a care package.
Its just about time to start thinking about Christmas and I'm thinking that I should make maybe one more trip to visit the girls in Arkansas. I got some super sweet things knitting up for them on the needles but that trip would depend on air fair prices. Shuggies?! You wanna go?!
My friend Mary Lou's having a big birthday blowout with a trip to Cabo on a cruise ship. I'm thinking I might be able to go. Never been on a cruise ship before and you know I'm a little bit worried about the sea sickness thing but I might just prepare myself with some pills. Sure would like to go on a cruise but I would hate to spend it feeling sick the entire time also. I've still got time to think about it.
Sorry to see summer wrapping up. Makes me sad. I guess I'll try to keep myself busy though out the winter and maybe it will fly by. Each wet year that goes by makes me hate the weather more and more.

I had such a great vacation this year. I got to meet up with all m old friends. I spend time with Diana and Kathy in Little Rock and Sugary and Zoey were instant best friends again. We spend an entire day out on the river and hit every lake on it including Shoal Bay, Piney Bay, Cane Creek, etc. Didn’t see any snakes on the river, WheeW! Took Shuggies over to see her mama a couple times. They love each other so much. It’s so cute to watch them run around and play. I love Carmie with her super long Chihuahua legs! My friend Cris and her husband Jerry took me and Shugg’s out to Fugis for Japanese food. WOW! What a super cool place. I picked up some sweet Tee’s for my daughter Mia and spend another day with my friend Courtney. Did a lot of shopping with Chere’. We hit the county line sale. Zip lined in Ponca, Arkansas then rented a cabin and canoed on the Buffalo River! I super can’t wait till next year!

warm night

temp says102 degrees. thinking me and shuggies are gonna take a nice cool walk around the neighborhood after it cools off tonight. maybe hit the paris fair tomorrow night!

And they're OFF!

Heading out on vacation. 2 weeks of sunshine and canoeing on the Buffaloe River. Throw in a little zip lineing, some tandem paragliding in Oklahoma, a couple days out on the party barge in the Arkansas River, more sunshine, and there you have it-A vacation! Weve never stayed at these cabins before so I'm hoping that theyr nice. Shuggies?! You ready to go? Will post lots of pictures! Oh and a hot air ballon ride of course!....and a Harley ride or two :)

Family Vacation on the Columbia

We did some fishing this year on Lake Roosevelt which is part of the Columbia River. Totally misleading to say that its a Lake when it clearly is not. Too me, a lake is a body of water that is cut off from the direct river. A rivers, a river, a lakes, a lake. DOH! We did however find some actual lakes such as Lake Ellen which was much much warmer than the Columbia so we were all able to swim and lay out on the dock. Two thumbs up for Lake Ellen. We never caught any fish that you could count. The measly little baby fish that Kevin caught certainly didnt count. It was almost as big as the worm he used to catch it. We saw tons of wildlife. Turkeys, deer, eagles, and bear!
We did alot of hiking to Lily Lake, Trout Lake, and Emerald Lake. These three are basically a chain of lakes that you can hike to from two different sides. You can drive up to Trout Lake then hike around to the middle lake which is Emerald. The trail really doesnt skirt the lake like you would think but instead takes you up on a very high ridge around all the lakes. Good exercises but rough on the legs muscles. Kettle Falls is almost a six hour car ride from where we live but certainly worth the drive. Beautiful Ponderosa Pine trees and lots of great things to do outside. We had perfect weather for our trip and lots of great sunshine. I cant wait for out trip to Arkansas in August. I hope theres lots of the same. Sunshine and lazy days. :)

Fathers Day

Fathers Day. Oh Bubba you most definetly got those ears from your Grandpa John. Just look at the size of those babies. Thanks for the curse dad! And if you'll notice that all four of us in the family photo attached have them too! Well...as grandpa always says, "It is what it is" and you know what? Surgery will fix what DNA has given :) I had a great time going through all the old photos looking for these pictures. Found some super funny ones and posted them on FaceBook. I would say about 90 percent of the pictures I ran across were fishing pictures, go figure! Found some great ones of Dad and Grandpa Banks fishing and boating. Funny how those pictures bring back both good memories and bad memories.

Oh Bubba your so funny!

Roll those eyes. Your so funny Baby Boy! Bubba, "I not baby! I big boy!"

Mia's Birthday

Happy 10th Birthday Mia! Yea, We had a really nice birthday. Maka brought cupcakes for Mia's entire class which was a big hit then we celebrated with Mint icecream and Maple bar doughnuts at Mia's request. So much sugar. I dont think any one of us actually finished their doughnut. Mia got a painting of herself blowing bubbles, a Zu Zu puppy, and most importantly she got the cash register she was asking for. Now she can play restaurant and grocery store and "movie phueter". Mia's running in the Fremont 5k on Friday and then Saturdays the Big BBQ and Birthday party. Grandpa Dick and Mutti will both be there along with all our friends and their children. I hope you have a super great day Mia because you deserve it. I love you my little lovely girl :)

It was a beautiful day!

What a beautiful day today was. Super sunny and super warm. The whole family spent the day outside enjoying the warmth. We mowed the lawn and trimmed up the yard. I love our yard and i love the smell of the dirt when your weeding. Fresh cut grass and earth. Nice. Mia made a nice little picnic for us out in the lawn in the shade. Shuggie took a moment today to roll in some neighbor dog's poop. Great, Shuggie. That's just nasty. Bath time.
We had running races in the yard between Mia, Bubba, and Shuggies. Wonder who won? I gotta say that Mia was a close second to Shuggie. Mark, Set, GO!
Scraps caught a mole today and left it in the grass for me of course I didn't see it until I durn near ran it over with the lawn mower. Nasty.
It was such a great day that even Bubba commented and said, "I like today". Well, you know what Bubba? I like today too! I'm glad your my boy and I enjoyed our day together. I hope tomorrow is just as great. Thank you Mia, Bubba, and Chellsea. Cant wait to lay out in the sun tomorrow and do another BBQ. Yeah for Sunshine!

Graduation Day

They called his name to come up on stage, "Mercer Downs" and he jumped right up on the stage and took the microphone. Miss Mary asked him to say his name and he says, "Bubba"! Does he like to fish? "yeth" does he like to play with playdough? "yeth". Oh little boy you were so lovely tonight. You made me smile the entire night :)

Surgery

Getting everything ready for surgery on Friday. Had my pre-op appointment today and met with the doctor who was very interesting. I guess he was in Iraq for a couple years preforming facial surgeries on soldiers and then when he came back to the United States he continued to work on soldiers until he decided to open his own practice. Turned in all my prescriptions, started taking my antibiotics, and purchased the other "necessities". Chellsea's gonna drive and drop me off in the morning and my bosses wife is going to pick me up afterwards and take me to her house for the first 24hours. I've got my travel home outfit laid out and I'm ready to go. I'm crossing my fingers that this goes the way I planned.
Bubba and Chellsea went to Mukilteo beach today and checked out the sea anemones, crabs, and Seagulls. Funny, little Boy called seagulls "Monster Birds". I think Miss Chellsea had a good time also. She came home with her Beach Finds. I love you Chell's. I love you because even when you do wrong you do it with the biggest and best intentions.

Mothers Day

Its been a rainy rainy mothers day. I wasnt able to get out to work on the deck so we spent Mothers Day inside. After a super yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs, potatoes, and fresh strawberries (I used my new fry pans-Thx MAKKA) Mia and Bubba made a super cool camping trip on the bottom bunk of there beds. There were tropical trees and sleeping bags (even Shuggies had one) and Mia was so funny with her binoculars. She is the best big sister ever. I love how she doesnt mind to play with her Bubba. She doesnt complain about him. She loves her Bubba. She has such an imagination and he justs lets her do whatever she wants. Usually she will make Movie watching areas for them both with special seats made out of laundry baskets or tupperware bins and blankets. She'll make nice little snacky plates for them to eat while they watch movies. We also dressed Bubba up in his "Risky Business" outfit and he was such a ham. He just danced away with his dark sunglasses on. Chellsea sang me a great song in Japenese and Mia made me a super nice activity box. But Bubba gave me the best gift today. He was just super lovely and yummy. He craweled up into my lap and let me rock him in the same rocking chair that I rocked 3 of my babies when they were little. I remember how beautiful Chellsea was when she was a baby. Definetly my most beautiful baby. Mia was my sweetest. She has the biggest heart and Bubba, hmm...well Bubba, I guess you could say he's my most challenging so far and I havent yet figured out his best trait :)
We had homemade spagetti for dinner with cornbread and now everybody's showered and ready for the sack. Time for movies-Yup, its been a great Mothers Day.

Top Pot 5K

We had a great time at the Doughnut Dash on Greenlake. Mia ran like the wind...but only at the end of the race because she didnt finish the 5k in time to run the kids dash but I think I'm going to sign us all up for the Fremont 5k so we can give it another shot. We had a line up of tutles on the lake checking us out as we ran. Not sure if they were laughing at us or chearing us on. Got a prize winning shot of Mia's bathroom break at the sani-can! She's gonna kill me if she see's that one. Chellsea and Chris finished right at and hour. I'm going to push her to try to beat that time at the next race. After the race we had a super yummy lunch and ate like it was Thanksgiving day. Cant wait for the next race :)

Top Pot 5K Run

Top Pot 5K
Wowie Zowie! I got my best girls to run with me in the Top Pot 5K Run! Chellsea and her boyfriend are both running and Mia is running in the Kids Dash. I’m sure Mia will be the winner of the Kids Dash because she was born with the heart of a wolf and what’s faster than a wolf with sneakers on? Run little Mia RUN! I can see her hair flyin back and those wonderful teeth hanging out front. Of course she’s the fastest wolf girl on earth! Maybe Chellsea will get a taste of the running bug and start taking it up. I’d love to see her get excited about exercise. I’m going to up my pace and see if I cant get a better time on this race. Its going to be around Green Lake which is a really pretty run. Were picking up our shirts and shoe chips early on Saturday and I think its going to be a great opportunity to spend some time with my peeps. Maybe some lunch on the lake in Seattle and I’m thinking about takin them to the Imax to see Born to be Wild or maybe Gasworks park? Hmmm.

2011 Whidbey Island Marathon

Me and my friend Deb stayed the night in Whidbey Island so we could get up early and prepare for the Whidbey Island Marathon. It was supposed to rain that day but we lucked out with NO rain. Renee and Stacey Lane met us that morning for the run. Sorry you couldnt run cause of your hip Phylangy :( but you got some really great pictures of the run! As usual the first mile was hard. Mile 2-7 werent too bad but when I hit mile 8 I really started feeling it in my legs. I kept telling myself that if I just could get to mile 10 the rest would blow by real quick. I always think of "she who shall not be named" when I run. I cant help it. It just kind of creeps up into my head. I run without seeing anything around me. Sometimes I just run and follow the white line on the side of the road and I think. I wonder how did I get where I am and I think of the things I should have done differently in my life. Then I think...what good is it to look back and try to figure out what you did wrong when you cant pass that information on to anyone cause they wont take your advice and you cant go back an change anything. It is what it is but still I think about these things.
When I get to the 10th mile my legs are really hurting. My left knee is hurting with every step and my right leg muscle above my knee is tighting up every time my legs hits pavement. I change my pace. Longer steps. Feels alittle better, not much. Im not going to walk. Im not gonna do it. I'm running this race to the finishline and I make it! Done deal. I did it! Whens the next run?!

Mazatlan!

What a wonderfully beautiful Wednesday morning her in sunny Mazatlan, Mexico! We made the transfer from Phoenix to Mexico without a hitch even though we only had 40 minutes in between flights. US Airways is actually a very nice airlines. Maybe they just seem pretty nice cause all I’ve been riding is crappy American Airlines for so long that anything would be an upgrade!
So we were super scared coming down to land in Mexico because everyone had told us all their “Tales of Mexico” and we watched the news with all the cancelled cruise ship news and Pirates killing American hostages. But we ended up meeting two other people. Edie from Africa and Mickey from…hmm I think she said she was from Europe? Anywhooo, they babied us through all the airport stuff which wasn’t bad at all. There was a super nice guy and a woman named Fabiola who picked us up from the airport and answered all our questions on the ride to the El Cid Resort. We even asked her about the cancelled cruise ship line and she told us that officials were actually meeting that day to discuss starting them up again. That would explain the extra police everywhere. There was even a police checkpoint to get into and out of the city. The coppers had on thick uniforms, probably had armor on and stocking masks over their faces too.
So we asked Fabiola about the Pronotour Company, which handles most the tours in the area, because we had read bad reviews. She whipped out a form and started filling in a free Stone Island Tour, Mexican Fiesta, and Old Town Tour. Then she added a bottle of Tequila and some free dinner to Senior Frogs! Of course we had to sit through a 90-minute speal about El Cid Membership, but it wasn’t bad at all and they were really nice even though we said no at the end.
So when we checked in we told them this was our first time to Mazatlan and they upgraded us for free to a one bedroom, 2 baths, suite with a freakin awesome view! We could see the ocean from one side and the pool area and entire town from the other!
The staffs here have been beyond nice. They almost follow you around waiting for you to need something!
We grocery shopped at the Mega Mart and took an Aurega (little red truck) to the store with Edie and Micky and one of their friends named Dottie. Its so funny cause the grocery store is actually on the second floor and theirs an escalator that takes you AND your cart up and then down when your finished shopping. I wondered how in the world did they keep their carts from rolling down to the bottom of the escalator but when we jumped on we soon found that the wheels where made to slip into groves on the escalator. I felt like someone here did not work smart but worked hard on that escalator idea.
I gotta say I know what it feels like now to be a minority again because when I was looking for vanilla some store worker boy came almost running over when I stuck my hand in my pocket for my iPod and some dud ran up and stood RIGHT next to me like I was gonna pocket the damned vanilla. It was really embarrassing.
The people on the street are pushing time-shares pretty aggressively and the people driving the carts and small vehicles are always honking trying to get your attention.
Today we are scheduled to take a boat out to see the sea lions and them to Stone Island where we will be snorkeling and horseback riding. When we get back we will be watching the Mexican Fiesta.
Oh I forgot, We went to a small dance presentation and won the exact silver earring that I had been looking for and a $100 gift certificate. I found a great deal on a leather purse and we picked up a dress for Mia and a toy for Bubba.
Theres a great restaurant her at the hotel and you can eat out by the beach and while your eating there are Iguanas running in between your feet and you can watch the band on the beach playing. We took a look at a sand vendors silver and I wanted a pair of these silver and mother of pearl earrings but the guy wanted $45 dollars for them so I said no and “tried” to walk away. They guy kept going “ok you give me $35 dollars”. I said no thank you. He says “how much you give me then?” I say$20. NO NONO he says. I walk away and take pictures of the sunset. He says “You give me something over $20” I say-$25. It now belongs to me J
We just got back from our Stone Island tour and It was so much fun. Edie was dancing with her new friend Rudolpho and the captain of the boat was calling it their Honeymoon today. We met so many new friends today and a great couple from Chicago. Everyone was dancing on the boat on the way home and we spent most of the day on the island doing Kayak rides and wagons rides through the town. We saw papaya trees and mango trees, iguanas. When we first got off the boat these three amigos ran up to me and started throwing Iguanas and snakes on me so we took a bunch of pictures. OMG it was gross and funny at the same time. The snake was a baby python. Eeeewwww.
Poor poor Edie, why would you shot so much Tequila?! I was doing great with the margaritas and tequila sunrise. No no no shots please! But I gotta say you we cracking us up dancing with your “honeymoon” man! I sure hope our friends from Chicago hook up with us at least for dinner before we go home. Maybe we can all hit Valentino’s for some dancing?! Wouldn’t THAT be fun?!
And we are fixin to take off to the Mexican fiesta in just a couple minutes!

Another Hard Day

Slowly, slowly, oh so slowly, our family is starting to heal. Its time. Time helps. The less you think about the source of the hurt, the less it hurts. At first it hurts all the time because you think about it all the time. You wake up with fresh dreams. You start out on a bad foot but if you keep yourself busy you find that you think about it less and less and the next day is better. Take down all the things that remind you. Cut out all the people who ask questions. Drive down different roads. Dont talk about it. MAKE yourself think of different things.
Finally when you hardly even realize it, its been almost a year and when you DO think about it you find it doesnt hurt so much. I think I'd like to forget all together for awhile. It hurts me to see my children hurt. How can I help them forget. Should they forget. How would it help for my children to continually bring it up, to talk about it, to wish for things that will not happen. I see no benifit for them to want for something they cant never again have. So things will stay in storage, pictures off the walls, we will not talk about, and until our hearts are stronger we will continue with what we know, whether it is right or wrong. Its all we know to do and anything else is still too hard.