Life Changing, Washington 2008

On Sunday afternoon we started our trip back to Seattle from Newport, WA. This time we decided to take the southern route through the Cascades in to Seattle on I90. We stopped off a couple of times on this route, but really did not enjoy this route as much as we did the northern route.

We had a wonderful time on our trip. For Josh it turned out to be life changing, and for me it just reaffirmed what I've known all along which is, I belong in Washington.

I am grateful grateful grateful for Josh who got us discounts, and double discounts on our rooms while we were in Washington, AMAZING! Josh had a fantastic idea that we turn in our rental car early and stay at a hotel that would shuttle us to the airport in the morning eliminating some of the hassle before our flight. Because of Josh and his ability to win people over, we were able to stay at the Hilton in Seattle on our last night there for a truly unbelievable price.

I am grateful for being able to take the trip in the first place and everything that happened while we were there is a bonus.

I am grateful for Michael being in the NAVY which is what started this whole thing in the first place, 11 years ago. Sometimes I'm not sure I ever would have left my home town had it not been for him and the NAVY.

I am grateful grateful grateful for my mother who looked after my girls and checked on our pets while we were gone. We couldn't have done the trip without her.

I am also grateful for Karen who came and looked after our animals while we were gone.

Good things are happening for the people I love.

You my little free thinker, you.

Visit with the Andersons in Newport, WA 2008

On Saturday we made it to Newport around 6:30pm where we checked in to our Bed and Breakfast called The Inn At The Lake on Diamond Lake. We then walked across the street where we got to give big big hugs to Jess, Jeremy, and their three kids, Brea, Kayla, and Tristen. We were able to have dinner with them, play with the kids a bit, sit by the fire and have a nice relaxing evening with them.
Sunday morning we went back over to Jess's house where we had coffee, played with the kids and then went for a ride into Idaho to meet Shelby. On our way to Shelby's house we passed over the Pend Orielle River (I think that's how it's spelled) one of the few rivers that flow North! At Shelby's house we had some really meaningful conversation about several different topics which were educational to both Josh and I.
Then around 1:30pm Josh and I said our good byes to the Andersons and got back on the road.

Journey Through the Cascades 2008

This was the second adventure of our recent journey to Washington.

We arrived in Washington Thursday afternoon, we stayed in Friday Harbor until early Saturday morning. Saturday we got up at 4:45am to catch the 6am ferry back to Anacortes so we could start our journey through the Cascade Mountains to visit my friend Jessica and her family who live about 20 minutes from Idaho. It was a seven and a half hour drive, at 5am it seemed daunting, but once we got started we quickly found it to be just an amazing day.
We decided to take highway 2 through the mountains, which is a northern route through the Cascades that took us through Stevens Pass. It was gorgeous, we saw very little traffic and very few people. It was a beautiful day and we loved the anticipation of what was going to be around the next corner.
At one point our elevation was 4061 feet, we saw snow up there along the sides of the road which made us smile.
We eventually stopped at one of the state parks where we were able to get out, walk, and stretch our legs a little. We walked down along the Wenatchee River, I had forgotten how clear all the bodies of water are there. Just amazing.
After we came through the mountains and made it to the eastern foothills of the Cascades I saw a whole other world of Washington that I never knew existed. We got to see some of the apple orchards, and what an awesome time to see them, the fall color was breathtaking. As we went on, the climate got more and more dry, the ground and plant life got more and more desert like, it was really interesting to see such a drastic change. As we continued we came to the agricultural part of Washington where we drove through about 150-200 miles of nothing but golden straw fields. It was almost like the twilight zone, miles and miles of nothing. Eventually as we drew closer to Spokane we started seeing more and more life, trees again, houses, cars, lakes, and people. After three hours of nothing but straw fields it was nice to see a little civilization again.

Friday Harbor 2008

Today I am grateful for...

Doing some research before our trip so that things would be a little easier once we got there.

I'm grateful for Josh, ....asking for discounts on our hotel rooms and even getting secondary discounts sometimes! He saved us lots of money.

Friday Harbor house, what a wonderful place to stay.

Walking walking walking through Friday Harbor.



Thursday night we arrived in Friday Harbor, got a room at the Friday Harbor House and got a good nights sleep on their fantastic beds. We got up early Friday morning, had some breakfast, and headed out for a quick drive around the island before our whale watch trip. We visited Lime Kiln Point State Park, Josh enjoyed watching the fishing boats that were working right off the shore there. We saw a large part of the island before heading back to the marina.

Friday afternoon we went out on a whale watch boat, it was a fantastic trip. Our naturalist, Chris was great at answering questions, explaining things and sharing information. We saw lots of islands, one in particular that had a lot of exotic wildlife on it, the intention was to import all of these animals for hunting, but the island was so small the hunting was too easy and the idea never took off. So now they have an island full of imported deer, rams, and other animals.
We also saw sea lions, bald eagles-which are huge by the way, I never realized they were so big!
We saw some transient whales while we were out, two males and four females traveling together. We saw them make a kill and then do some celebrating by breaching, spy hopping and tale smacking. It was really exciting.
I'm grateful for the conversation I had on board with Chris and being shown all the families of residents and hearing their stories.
We also saw Dolls Porpoise as they were playing off the bow of the boat on our way back in to Friday Harbor.

We then had dinner at Downriggers where I had the best Bloody Mary ever!
We got a good nights sleep and then got up at 4:45 to catch the 6am ferry back to Anacortes.

Covered Bridge Festival

Today I'm grateful for....

The girls had a half day on Friday so Josh and I took them out of school so we could share some family time. We got up early to drive the two and a half hours down to the Covered Bridge Festival in Mansfield. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, the fall foliage was wonderful and there were lots and lots of smiles.
I am incredibly grateful to Josh for carrying my giant clay turtle all the way across the festival for me :) Such a great guy.

Saturday was fun as well, Kelsey left for her Quiz Bowl meet at Culver Academy around 6:30am, their teams placed first and second. Later that evening we dropped her off at a friends house for another cast party, I'm so glad she's keeping in touch with the cast members from The Mikado. Also, we recently found out the whole cast is coming back to participate in a couple more shows of The Mikado at Harrison in the spring!

Saturday evening Josh and I went to dinner with some friends and then got to go to a cd release party for a local band, my rockstar girlfriend sang backup on their cd. During the show they called my girlfriend up to sing backup with them and then to sing by herself! It was lots of fun to see her up on stage with such a fantastic band.

On Sunday I got to go to a baby shower for my friends Kathy and Aaron, they're having another boy! It was fun to play games and see someone I hadn't seen in many many years, .. I've never seen her so proud of her son, and with good reason, I gave her big hugs before I left.

I'm almost finished cleaning out and organizing my closet! I have a shelving unit left to go through and then I'll be completely done! I've shared clothing, donated clothing, and made $150 by selling some of it!! :)

I'm sooooo grateful for Nancy who gives extra services so freely to me and helps me to relax and feel rejuvenated.

I'm grateful for Karen who is going to take care of our animals while we all enjoy our fall break.
I'm grateful for my mother and Josh's parents who are going to take care of Kelsey, Taylor, and Calli while Josh and I get some much needed time alone.

I am sooooooooooo grateful that Josh and I figured out a way to make our trip to Washington become reality! We leave in a couple of days and we just can't wait to get there. I will be thinking of Jones, Sobe, and Michael the whole time :) More adventures await!!!!!!!

Yesterday morning our family woke up to a wonderful little surprise on our front porch :) One of the neighbors started a sort of secret santa kind of treat giving for Halloween, so much fun! So they left a treat bag on our porch with instructions to pass two new treats on to two more neighbors within two days, I love it!

I'm grateful to have a partner who encourages me and helps me try to stay balanced.

I'm a proud proud mamma! Taylor got all A's and B's on her report card!!!! We haven't gotten the other girls grades yet.

Lots and Lots and Lots of fall color!!!!!

Signs of life from Vance :-)

Good things are happening for the people I love.

You my little treat bag, you!

A Grateful Couple of Weeks

We've been very busy over the last few weeks, here are some of the things we've done....

Today I'm grateful for...

Time with Josh at the Robin Williams show! We had a very political conversation with an older couple while waiting for the show to start, they were delightful to talk to. Then we laughed our behinds off for two hours! We had awesome seats and a wonderful time.

Then a couple of days later Kelsey and I had a girls day together. We went to Indy to visit with Jones, had a wonderful brunch with lots of conversation. Then Jones took us to a Japanese market so Kelsey could do a little shopping, she finally found some new chop sticks,....she's been looking for a long time. After that we went to see Bill Mahr in "Religulous" it was hilarious, we loved it.

That same evening, I went and met Josh at the Wildcat MX track where he was working for the weekend. We got to watch the race together, listen to good music and hang out with friends, lots of fun.

A week later it was time for The Mikado! Jones met us at Lafayette Brewing Company for dinner before we went to see Kelsey's performance at the Long Center along with my mom and Dennis. The show was lots of fun and had us all laughing most of the evening.

The next morning Taylor had a speech meet at Wea Ridge. She and Stephanie placed 3rd and 5th on their two speeches, they do a demonstration speech and a duo. Every time they have a meet they place a little higher! It's fun to see them improve every couple of weeks.
After the speech meet we came home and I found water dripping from my bedroom ceiling, went up stairs and discovered the toilet had been overflowing all day while we were all gone! It was a mess! I called Josh for support and then Kelsey, Taylor and I worked as a team to get all the water cleaned up as quickly as possible. Then when Josh got home from work he and I both worked with our carpet shampooer and the shop vac to get all the water up out of the carpet. It was so nice that we were all able to work together to get the mess cleaned up as quickly as possible. The damage isn't bad, we will have to cover some water stains on the ceilings downstairs, and if we shampoo the carpet upstairs one more time everything should be fine.

Later that evening Josh, Taylor and I went back for the final show and met Karen and her husband, Mike at the Long Center. It was another great performance and it was especially fun to hang out after the show and see the cast stripping off their wigs and costumes and just being themselves.
Outober fest was happening downtown that evening, just around the corner from the Long Center so we let Kelsey go along with her friends and some of the cast members, she got to see a comedian, and stayed for the drag show before heading to Spurlocks for the cast dinner. Spurlocks opened the "mafia room" for the cast to hang out and have dinner, she said they had lots of fun.

The next day Josh and I rode the Harley down to Bridgetown to see a friend of his that he's not seen in about 4-5 years. It was a beautiful day, it was warm so we didn't have to wear coats on the bike, the leaves were starting to turn and the sun was shining all day. We went to Bridgetown by way of Shades and then came home through Mansfield, it was dark by the time we got home, but it was a spectacular ride.

Kelsey made the Quiz Bowl team and she is at her first meet right now! I really want to go watch, but spectators aren't allowed at the meets because they're worried about cheating. I'm anxious for her to get home so I can hear all about it!

Today and tomorrow the girls have half days of school due to parent teacher conferences. So Kelsey and I took the opportunity to go and apply for her passport today! We applied for her social security card, and then her passport, we should have both back within a few weeks. It was nice to have her all to myself for a few hours, even though we were driving a lot and waiting a lot, we were still able to have lots of conversation.

Tomorrow Josh and I will be taking the girls out of school so we can all go as a family down to the Covered Bridge Festival. We will be going to Bridgetown and Mansfield, and we're all very excited.


I am grateful for all that has happened and all that is to come.

I am always inspired by Michelle and Craig, but was especially inspired after seeing the simplicity of their newly de-cluttered home and am currently working harder at getting our house simplified. I've been de-cluttering and simplifying over the last few months, but just haven't really been able to see results. We are now getting down and dirty as a family and simplifying room by room.

I am proud of Josh for sticking up for himself at work and demanding that they straighten out his pay situation. I am grateful in advance that it gets taken care of quickly and ends up being a very prosperous situation for him. He works hard and deserves to be paid what he's worth.

Today I took a big step myself, I have set up an ebay account and am going to sell my artwork online. I will be putting photos of my artwork on the ebay site later this evening. I am grateful for lots of easy sales and shipping in advance :)

I am proud of myself for taking initiative, setting some short term goals, and taking care of some things I've been putting off for quite a while. So, Kudos to me for TAKING ACTION ON MY INTENTIONS and actually getting some things done!

Good things are happening for the people I love.

I am grateful for the Thai lunch I had with Kelsey today.

Girl Power!

You my luscious fall festival, you!

The Things I Know For Sure and What I've Learned

Today I'm grateful for....

Telling the truth is always best. Being truthful with yourself and with everyone else, about everything.

Falling in love is easy but loving for a lifetime takes work.

Doing the right thing even when you don't want to is always best.

Going to bed angry never fixes the problem, it's best to talk it out, kiss your partner, tell them you love them and go to sleep happy.

Handling an uncomfortable situation with tact and grace is a rare thing these days and something that I admire in other people and hope to master.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Which for me applies to my behavior in my relationships with family and friends. Changing my behavior and the way I handle situations really does make a difference in their behavior and my relations with them.

That balance is key in all aspects of life.

Worrying leads to stress which leads to illness.

Meditation and deep breathing really does help.

Being in a mindful state of gratitude absolutely changes your thought process and lets you live a more positive and fulfilling life.

Setting goals and planning makes life easier, helps you accomplish more and helps keep you aware of your life.

Giving 100% is important.

We all have a purpose.

Good friends are hard to come by.

Good things are happening for the people I love.

My life has changed, been turned inside out, left me infected and raw, and has taken me in directions I never would have dreamed of, but I've picked myself up, done the work and saved myself. I've learned to push through the fear, remain calm, come up with a plan and know that plans change :)

Today I am grateful for my life, just the way it is.
And I'm grateful for having you in my life.