Riding the Monorail to the Space Needle

 Pictures from the front seat of the monorail

Raegan's awesome pictures:



Free Willy!

Saw this outside the "Curious" shop and the whale reminded me of the whale carving Jesse received from Randolph. The biggest difference, other than the fact that this one is about six feet long and Jesse's carving was closer to six inches, is I spotted this one in Seattle whereas the story of Free Willy takes place in Portland, Oregon.

The First Cut is the Deepest

Spring has arrived, and with it comes yard work. Today I attempted to give the backyard its first mowing of the season. With all the rain we have received the last few weeks, our grass is growing out of control. I spent two and half hours to mow about 1/3 of the backyard. Here are some shots of the mowed lawn next to the unmowed portion.

Ivar's Restaurant

We had fish and chips and clam chowder at Ivar's Restaurant. The food was sooooo good! The seagulls were waiting anxiously for handouts from patrons. Watching the harbor and the seagulls while we ate dinner was delightful.

Waterfall Garden Park, Seattle, WA

The Waterfall Gardens were closed by the time we made it to their location, so we took some shots through the fence. I loved finding the birthplace of the "United Parcel Service" preserved in a garden in the middle of the city. The garden was also beautiful. I took the first few pictures and Raegan took the last two.

VooDoo Doughnut

Voo Doo Doughnut is a Portland, Oregon icon. We went there for their strange, and extremely yummy, doughnuts. Words don't do the doughnuts justice so I posted pictures of the doughnuts they had on display. We did not experience any VooDoo. We did experience a gothic, yet friendly, atmosphere that was totally unique to the doughnut shop.

  

Freezer List

My friend, Margot, recentlly purchased a freezer. One day when we were visitng about food storage and organizing our freezers she told me about a wonderful idea I will call the "freezer list." She discussed how she wanted to keep track of what was in the freezer and described how she wanted to make a list of everything in the freezer and keep the list in a plastic sleeve on top of the freezer. I was delighted with her idea because having a list would reduce having to dig through the freezer hoping to find what I was looking for and not knowing if it was there. I asked her if I could steal her idea to use with our freezer at home. She said I could, and so I did. I already feel more organized and that I have a better grasp of what is in our frozen food storage. The list is nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. Thanks for sharing your awesome idea, Margot!

 The list on top of freezer.

A close-up of the list

(I write the description and then the number so I can cross through the number while having plenty of space to update it without having to cross through the description as well.)

The Space Needle

 Awesome panorama using four photos to create!

In Seattle, we road the monorail to go see the Space Needle. It reminded me a lot of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. We didn't ride to the top. We just enjoyed taking pictures from the plaza surrounding the Needle. The building reflecting the Needle is the "Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Hall of Fame" museum. The monorail goes through this building that looks like a smashed guitar from the sky.

The Gum Wall

According to Wikipedia the "Market Theater Gum Wall" in Seattle, Washington is "one of the top 5 germiest tourist attractions in 2009." We were there yesterday and my friend, Raegan put some gum on the wall and I had to pass. While I found it interesting to look at, it was definitely not something I wanted to touch.

Fire Station Visit

For playgroup a couple of weeks ago, we went to the fire station for a tour. Bekah was fascinated and Ryan was happy to be in the Baby Bjorn.

"Premonition"

I have wanted to watch this movie since it came out, but it received so many mixed reviews I wasn't sure it was worth watching. Last week, I checked it out from the library. The movie was totally not what I expected. The first 30 or 40 minutes were really dark and disorienting and I could not quite figure out what was going on. If I had turned the movie at this point, I would have believed this movie was horrible. Because I like solving puzzles, I finished the movie and I am glad I did. This movie was not about foreseeing the future in order to change it. Nothing she did changed the outcome. What did change was her perspective on the outcome and her perspective about herself. She never does discover why she experiences everything out of order, or why what happened had to happen but she does discover what love, faith, and forgiveness mean. I found "Premonition" to be a very intriguing and worthwhile show. I came away feeling encouraged to reevaluate my perspective on life, love, and what has happened to and around me. Very worth watching if you want something to think about.

Comfort in Preparedness

On Sunday morning at 4 a.m., we woke up to a hungry baby only to realize the power had gone out. My brain started analyzing the situation to determine what we could do and what had already been done. I knew there was a flashlight in my bedside drawer, the propane heater was in the basement, we had plenty of food that did not require cooking or heating, we had a propane stove if we did need to cook something, we still had running water, and our phones were charged if we needed to make a phone call. I used my phone to look up the phone number for the electric company and placed a call to let them know our power was out. Then I remembered that General Conference was going to be on at 10 a.m. I guess I don't have a backup for the TV, but the Stake Center hopefully had power and we could go there to watch conference if we needed. I found comfort in realizing we were prepared for a power outage even when it was snowing outside. I don't know if anyone else woke up while the power was out, but I am grateful we did so I could realize the blessing of comfort that comes from being prepared for emergency situations. The power did come back on shortly and we were able to watch conference at home, but we had everything we needed just in case.

Hair Care

My cousin, Mallory, wants to grow her hair out. In one of her recent posts labeled "Hair Envy", she discussed six things that are suppose to help you grow your hair out faster. I've been growing my hair out for over a year without trying any of these things. Mostly that happened because I haven't been able to get a haircut from my mom, my friend who cuts my hair moved out of state, and I am too cheap to pay actual money for a haircut from someone I don't know, not because I was intentionally growing my hair long. I love having long hair, but taking care of it has been a bit of a challenge because when my hair gets long I get sores all over my scalp. I've tried a number of things to solve the problem without impressive results. I decided to try some of her haircare tricks to see if they would provide a better solution. Low and behold, one of them worked! Part of tip #4 says "on days you do not wash your hair just use water and conditioner." I tried this trick and my scalp is less dry and the sores are gone in a matter of 10 days. Amazing! Thanks for sharing, Mal.

Librarian & Tutor Fall Under My Job Description

I took this picture at the library one day when Benjamin was sharing books with a new "friend." As a mom, I get to take my kiddos to the library about every other week or so (we used to go every week, but we have a lot going on and can't get through all of our books fast enough) and pick out books to read. We read books about behavior, animals, cooking, seasons, science, history, holidays, movies, choices, and lots more.

I also have the privilege of keeping track of the library books at our house and making sure they get back to the library on time. We have a system that we have worked out to keep track of the books and which ones we have read. On the bottom shelf of one of the bookshelves of our family room, we put all of our library books after we check them out. After we read the books we put them back in our beach-bag-sized library bag so they are ready to go back to the library. It has taken a couple of years to get the system down, but now that we all know how it works our system works very well.

Going to library and learning new things also includes tutoring. I don't tutor my children in the formal sense as much as I try to help them learn about the things they are interested in and show them which resources are available to them. Now that Benjamin is in school, I also get to read his school books with him and help him with his homework. We do math, science, reading, writing, spelling, and a variety of other things. I am so glad that I am able to share this process of learning with him while watching him grow and increase in knowledge every day.

Yes, Librarian and Tutor definitely fit into my job description.

I Thought it was Just Me

Today we had our neighborhood playgroup and while I was talking to one of the other moms who is always super busy we discovered we are having the same challenges with our 3 year old daughters who also happen to be middle children with an older and younger brother. One of the things she said was, "I thought it was just me!" Her comment made me realize how comforting this concept is in the process of parenting children, especially when I spend all day with my kiddos and don't have the opportunity for a lot of co-worker interaction like those who work in a professional office. I find myself saying this a lot to strangers when I go out or even to people I know at church. It is so comforting to see others are facing the same challenges I face in trying to attend meetings, teaching manners, completing grocery shopping, and taking children out to eat. I also find comfort when people come up to me and say things like "I remember those days," "My kids act the same way," "She/he must be about X years old because my child/grandchild acts the same way," etc. I am developing a larger appreciation for the compassion that comes with the phrase "It's not just me" and sharing my appreciation with others.

Precious in Pink

Bekah is our beautiful girl. She asked me to make her a pink hat with a pink flower. Last Sunday Bekah asked me to straighten her hair and we found out her hair goes halfway down her back, and after church she was so cute in her pink hat and outfit I had to take her picture to capture her cuteness.

Orson Scott Card

I just finished reading Orson Scott Card's "Rachel and Leah" and I absolutely loved it! I have tried to listen to his books before and they require too much thinking to listen to. Our neighborhood book club put it on the reading list for this month. I was intrigued by his imaginative interpretation of the story of Rachel and Leah from the perspective of the women and their handmaidens. The story was rich in detail and descriptions that made the story come alive for me in a whole new way.

I know the story line of this book is based on the Bible story and that all other details are made up, but I really enjoy creative interpretations that make the characters seem more alive and easy to relate to. Then, I want to go back and read the actually story again and try to learn more about the true story. I gain a greater understanding of the characters as real people not just a story we can learn from to better ourselves and our lives.

As for listening to his books on CD, I could probably go back and do it now that I have read one. Rachel and Leah was easy to read just thought provoking, and it is easier to pause and put a book down to thing about what I just read than it is to pause a CD and think about what I just heard. This book was one of my favorite books so far this year. I want to go back and read the other books about the "Women of Genesis" he has written. I also look forward to reading the next book in the series when it is finally published.

One More Reason to Buy a Boppy

After we found out we were having Ryan, I had to re-invest in a lot of baby stuff but since this was our third child I had a better idea of what I really needed. I knew I would need another Boppy, I sold the one I had, and was delighted to find one at a thrift store for $5. I love this pillow for holding and feeding the baby. My back and arms don't ache as much when I use this nifty pillow. Now that Ryan has developed the muscle capacity to and is interested in sitting up the Boppy come in handy for something else. Its shape and weight provide just enough support and counterbalance to help Ryan sit up without the help of Mom or Dad. He still has to be supervised and readjusted to remain upright but he loves sitting up!

Yesterday I sat him up next to the frog toy he loves and his delight was evident as he tried to grab all of his toys from a different angle.