Day 272

Fall has definitely arrived in Seattle. The wind has shown up along with the cooler weather and even the rain has made its appearance. We had all of the above today, but even the sun came out for a bit. I noticed one of the trees today and just love the bark and colors that are emerging. God's creation is just amazing and it's nice to stop and actually pay attention amidst the busyness of our lives.

Day 271

I have joined the social network of Twitter which has been an interesting ride. There are all sorts of people on Twitter trying to sell their business, ideas and some even just quote scripture all day. Two of the gals I follow are doing a contest today called Tweet Your Studio to see what kind of spaces people have and use as their studio. I snapped this photo of my craft/sewing/beading/office space I use for all sorts of uses. I doubt I will win as it's not the messiest and it actually somewhat organized, but not super organized. I know where things are and am very blessed to have the space to create.

Day 270

This morning my beading partner in crime and I skipped church to take a jewelry class by Scott David Plumlee. The gal who owns the beadclub in Woodinville managed to get him to teach some classes over the weekend, so we jumped at this chance. Normally, Scott teaches at beading shows and the cost is significantly more. Today we learned how to use an electric screwdriver to make components of wire and beads and then used jump rings to make a chain. I always enjoy learning new techniques and how to use everyday tools in creating jewelry.

Day 269

This afternoon one of Andy's friends had his birthday party at the park. Andy and I went and enjoyed the time with our friends celebrating pirate style. The boys had a treasure hunt for their goody bag items, ate cupcakes and just had a lot of fun playing together.

Day 268

Next weekend another consignment sale is coming up, so I thought I would go through the stash of clothing, shoes, bags and baby items that will not be needed anymore. The drop off day is next Thursday, but I want to get a head start on the tagging and getting the clothes ready, so here is the beginning of the pile.

Day 267

What better way to start off a day than coffee and an oatmeal chocolate chip scone? I made the scones yesterday, but lucky me, there was a couple of them left, so I enjoyed my morning coffee before our rush out the door to speech therapy.

Day 266

One of our favorite weekly activities is to walk up to the Sammamish farmer's market at the city hall. We normally walk up with grandma, but she was out showing clients houses so the boys and I went up by ourselves. Andy wanted some peaches and a cookie, so we purchased a triple chocolate chip cookie, four white peaches and then headed off to church to have dinner with dad.

Day 265

Yippee, it was my turn to visit the dentist today. Oh joy, a 45 minute lecture on how important it is to brush and floss your teeth, especially now that I'm pregnant. Honestly, it wasn't that bad, I'm very fortunate to have good teeth and I try to take care of myself. I do like getting a new toothbrush and travel toothpaste and floss.

Day 264

Somebody had fun in preschool today. The 4s class is painting a house to play in and the children painted both the inside and the outside of a cardboard house. When I picked up Andy from school, you could tell who spent the day painting and had a lot of fun.

Day 263

After church today, Andy grabbed a hold of Mike's hand to walk across the parking lot to our car and low and behold, Aaron grabbed a hold of Andy's hand and I just had to get a picture. It was just too cute not to share.

Day 262

The key to a successful time at the children's museum, three sleeping children. We have a membership to the Seattle Children's Museum and this year I spent the additional ten dollars for the guest passes each time we visit so we can bring along our friends. Today since Dana and I are golf widows, I thought we could wear out the kiddos at the museum. We all had a great time and I think the two in the very back of the car would have fallen asleep if the other one wasn't there to chat with. Another great part of today, I can get 5 car seats in my Mountaineer, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna have 3 more children.

sat child museum

Day 261

What's your best guess as to the picture of the day?

It involves my twenty three month old and my iPhone. The red is my couch and the white I believe would be his arm or maybe his leg. The picture would be his time playing with mom's phone while I sit across the room working on restringing a necklace he broke.

Day 260

Aaron had his speech therapy session this morning and he received a couple of stickers from his therapist. He wanted the Thomas the train sticker, but had to settle for Harold the helicopter. He also got a Mater sticker from Cars. I enjoyed watching him transfer his stickers from one hand to the other, but when we got home I didn't pay any attention to where the stickers were located. Later on in the day, we needed to run an errand and that's when I found the missing stickers, strategically placed on my console. Never a dull moment around here.

Day 259

This week is the beginning of the fall activities and one of Andy's favorite weekly activity is the Wednesday night program at church called Team 3. The first couple of years is Discovery Kids and starts when they turn 3. This year the children are learning about the attributes of God and I am a leader once again in Andy's class.

Day 258

I spent a few minutes pounding away on my metal rivets and completed my pieces. It's not the best picture because it was taken with my iPhone, but you kinda get the idea. Now I need to find the correct size of dowel to make the jump rings and the clasp.

Day 257

It's that time of year again, when the fall schedule starts and all activities begin. Today marks the first day of 4s preschool for Andy and it's so much different this year. I was sad that Andy was starting school last year, but this year, he's just excited and I'm excited he will be out of the house one extra day. I love the program he's in and can't be happier with our choice in school.

Day 256

My partner in crime and I were able to spend a few hours today at a local bead show. I was very good and stuck to my budget, but my sister-in-law was lucky enough to find these recycled glass pieces that she plans to make into a charm bracelet. We had a great time together and were able to catch up with each other and other beading buddies, too.

Day 255

Tonight we had the rare privilege of having some good friends over for dinner and an overnight stay. Nate and Judy are with Campus Crusade at Central Washington University in Ellensburg which is just over the mountains. We tried to stop by and see them last summer when we were camping in Eastern Washington, but alas they were actually on this side of the mountains. Mike and Nate have been good friends for many years and we also got a tasty treat of Mike's ribs.

Day 254

I was driving in Redmond today and noticed the sign is up for Trader Joe's. There is a TJ's in Issaquah, but I shop more in Redmond because I live on the north end of Sammamish. I'm just super excited for a Trader Joe's closer to my house and hoping it's a little bigger than the Issaquah store.

Day 253

Some days I just have to have the camera ready for anything and today was definitely one of those days. Aaron did not want to have his snack in a bowl, but rather just eat right out of the box. Mom relented only to see the snack on the go. I also think Trader Joe's must be something addictive in those crackers, because it's quite interesting how much he likes the Gorgonzola crackers.

Day 252

Tonight was the fall orientation meeting for the 4s pm class for Andy's preschool. The meeting was longer than most of the monthly meetings we have, so the boys were in bed by the time I got home. I went to check on both of them and had to laugh at all of the items Aaron had in his crib. I guess whatever works to get him to sleep.

Day 251

The picture of the day definitely fits into the random things we stumble upon in life category. We spent our last morning of vacation playing in the pool before we needed to pack up and start the drive to the airport. One of our stops along the way was the Harley-Davidson dealership of Anaheim/Fullerton. I needed to use the restroom before we continued on our way to LAX and what to my complete surprise was the motorcycle faucet. It was just longing to be the picture of the day.

Day 250

Happy Birthday Mike!! What a better way to spend your birthday than at the beach with your family playing in the water and sand. God has blessed me tremendously with such a wonderful, godly man who is such a great husband and father to our two boys. It's been such a ride of peaks and valleys, but Michael, I couldn't imagine my life with anyone else. I love you!

Day 249

This evening, a dear friend of mine, Elisabeth was getting remarried to a wonderful man, Michael and my Michael and I were very blessed by God to be able to attend the wedding. The wedding took place at a home in San Juan Capistrano in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The views were just spectacular and the party was so much fun. The wedding was very relaxed and low key so you could mingle with friends and meet new people as well. I am truly blessed by my friendship with Elisabeth and I wish her and Michael many, many happy years filled with God's blessings for them.

Day 248

Today was such a fun, busy day. We left dark, rainy Seattle in the morning and landed in sunny, warm Los Angeles by noon. After picking up our sweet , super fabulous price, rental car, an Infiniti QX56, we grabbed In-N-Out for lunch and headed up to see Mike's aunt and uncle who live in Thousand Oaks. After a wonderful time with Tom and Marie, we checked into our hotel in Santa Monica and headed out to find some dinner. We ended up on the Santa Monica pier to do a little sight seeing. On the way back from our fun outing, we walked right by The Hotel California of course made famous by The Eagles. I thought the sign would be a fun picture because you can always take pictures of the adventures you did, but you never know what you may happen upon.

Day 247

All day long I've been looking for my wand that would magically complete all the laundry and the packing would be complete. Unfortunately, I don't have a fairy godmother, so it's all me. We are leaving in the morning for California to see family and attend a friends wedding. I am really looking forward to this trip as it will probably be the last time we get to play in the warm, sunny weather until next summer in Seattle.

Day 246

I didn't finish my bracelet in the riveting class I took last Saturday and I really need to give back the tools I borrowed. This inspired me to get myself downstairs during nap time and pound away on some metal. I didn't have time to complete the piece I was working on before Aaron woke up from his nap, so I brought him downstairs in hopes that he would sit and watch tv with his brother so I could finish. Aaron isn't my couch potato like older brother, so he decided to come help mom. It's a super close up picture because he was sitting on my lap, but Aaron did a really good job being gentle with the hammer. His curiosity is on fire everyday and I want to encourage that little curious mind to explore and learn.

Day 245

Meet Mr. Bean, he or she will become the newest member of our family on or around April 2nd. I had my first prenatal appointment this afternoon and Mike and I were able to see the baby and see the heartbeat, but it's too early to hear the heartbeat. Everything looks great and it's amazing how you can see the little arms and feet already.

The boys were staying with grandma for this first appointment and when I picked them up, Andy declared that baby is his new baby brother. Earlier, Andy was very adamant the baby was a girl, but he seems to have changed his mind. Whatever the sex is, God has blessed us with another child. And no, we won't be finding out the sex this time either.

Day 244

The weather seems to have turned to a bit fall like already, so I was in the mood for some tomato soup. Safeway has some good soups in the deli section, but the regular creamy tomato soup has too many calories if you want to eat anything else with your lunch. There was a new organic tomato basil soup that has 100 less calories so I can have a bowl of that and a grilled cheese sandwich without having too many calories for lunch. The soup was also quite tasty and I decided to have an english muffin with my soup today.

Day 243

I thought I would start off the week by making my boys pancakes. We ran out of our normal pancake mix and have yet to make it to Costco to replenish, but I have a new cookbook that has a recipe for pancakes. It's your basic recipe of flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, eggs, milk and butter. I added baking spice to add a little more flavor and the pancakes turned out okay. I don't care for the baking spice, but the boys ate them up. You can tell I had a little helper who was hungry and ready for mom to start cooking and not be taking silly pictures.

Day 242

One of my Gerber daisies has decided to bloom another flower for me to enjoy before it comes to its demise again. The yellow daisy seems to have gone from a nice yellow to more of a cream color but that could be because I don't get much sun in the back. I'm also thinking maybe I should move my flower pots to a place where little hands can't get them.