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Tomorrow is our tenth anniversary.  When I woke up ten years ago tomorrow, I didn't even know it was going to end up being my wedding day.  The whole thing was so spontaneous, but I'm glad we did it.  Two beautiful children and seven moves later, here we are about to celebrate a pretty big milestone.  Well, maybe - we don't have any plans yet.  We have a babysitter lined up, but don't know what we want to go do.  Probably out to dinner?  I don't know.  We will see.  Hawaii was my birthday celebration and our anniversary present to ourselves rolled into one trip. (image by Chris Craymer)

I finished reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in two sittings.  It was quite suspenseful and really grabbed a hold of me.  I have the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire and started reading it last night.  The wait list at the library for this one was pretty short.  I think there are 250 people ahead of me on the wait list for the third one.  Hopefully that will go quickly so I can finish up the series.  The librarian told me that the author, Stieg Larsson, had written the books about 10 years ago and died shortly after.  If the second two books are as good as the first one, it's a shame that he didn't get to write more.  I made a deal with Jen that she would read Twilight and I would read the first Harry Potter book.  She's been resisting the Twilight series just as I've been resisting Harry Potter, but the theory is you can't have an accurate dissenting opinion unless you're fully informed, so here we go on our reading journey.  Plus, I sent her Twilight before she left for Germany thinking she could read it on the plane, and she has conveniently misplaced it.  LOL.  Now she can find it and put it to use.

I got a really good deal today at Joann Fabrics, I got some fabric to recover the throw pillows on the couch for $3.50/yd thanks to a great find in the clearance section and an additional 50% off.  I went in to get another fabric that would have been $14.99/yard, so this was quite a bit cheaper, even with extra yardage in case I am not as talented as sewing as I like to think I am.

We picked up Natalie's new glasses yesterday and it took less than 24 hours to break one of the pairs.  I took them in today to get them fixed under warranty.  I think I'm going to take her other flexible frames in to have new lenses put in because they lasted nearly a year, and we only ordered something new because the lenses were so scratched up.  I think I'll go in to order those some time next week.  Natalie has also started to become a thumb sucker lately.  While I'm glad she has found a way to soothe herself, we still can't get Lauren to stop, and I just see visions of orthodontist bills dancing in my head.

We did separate the girls' rooms, so Lauren has her bed in the playroom and Natalie has her own room.  The toys and clothes are in separate rooms, though, which will hopefully keep laundry and toy clean up simple.  Ben's first night back, everyone slept in their own rooms and it was great.  Very peaceful and I think I slept 8 hours straight through.  Ahhhhh.

Crabbing season starts up again in just a few short weeks (less than 3 I think?) and Ben is getting excited for that.  I'm still hoping that the weather here will improve and we'll have some days in the 70s with no rain so I can wear  some cute espadrilles and maybe even a dress.  I don't know if the PNW sees this in my future or not.

So far, my thirties have been good, I don't know why people freak out about them so much.  I just generally feel more confident and happy with myself.  I think that comes from having different priorities than I did at the start of my twenties, as well as caring less about what others think and caring more about what *I* think.

Busy with the Usual Stuff

Well it seems to be the theme that I feel worn out and busy but don't really have anything to tell from it.  I took Lauren to ballet this morning and then we took a quick trip to the PX and then watered the garden.  We got home and straightened up a little bit and then Stephanie came for Natalie's home therapy appointment.  Since it was sunny today and over 70 we sat outside for therapy.  Since then I've done some laundry and made lunch and just have been kept busy with the girls.  I'm very hungry but in the mood for Chipotle and just looked it up to find it will take at least 30 minutes to drive there.  With evening traffic, over an hour?  I don't want it that badly.  Cooking for myself and the girls is tricky since Lauren doesn't eat that much and Natalie doesn't, either.  Cooking even a small portion of a main dish and two sides would mean leftovers, and those usually just end up being thrown out.  Anyway, we'll come up with something.

I'm about to start reading "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson because some friends on Facebook recommended it so highly.  It's supposed to be really well written and very suspenseful and one friend said she was over 200 pages into it in the first sitting.  Sounds good to me, so I checked the wait list at the library and it was about 70 people long - I just bought it instead.  I'm being a bit impatient and really wanted to get a new book to read.  I have not been keeping up with reading as much lately and need to get back on track with that.  I also really want to get out and take more pictures with the girls now that it's sunnier and warmer.  I miss taking pictures.  I do take TONS on my iPhone, but they're only 2 MP and I can't control the focus, exposure, etc, and of course, they're just BETTER with the SLR.

I bought some cute office storage boxes at WalMart this week in green and yellow so that I could get my desk under control.  First step was just getting everything out and throwing out the trash and next I'll organize what I decided to keep and pare down more.  It'll take time, but eventually it'll get clean, right?  I need to become a better tosser, I keep too much stuff and we just don't have the room.  I need an attic like Candy Spelling has.  Man, that would be awesome.

Anyway... back to real life for now.  Tomorrow I'm getting up to make pigs in a blanket for our potluck dish for an FRG get together and next week I'm driving up to Everett to visit my friend Andrea from elementary school.  I think it's been about 13 years since the last time I saw her.  Natalie is also having a feeding evaluation this week and Lauren has her ballet recital.  I need to dust off the video camera for that one, I'm really looking forward to it.

Five Question Friday, take one

Blogghopping one day I came across Five Crooked Halos and started following her site.  She's been participating in Five Question Fridays for as long as I've been reading her site, and I always intended to do this at some point, but never got around to it.  Until tonight!  So here I go:

1. Take your pick...date night, girls night out, or night out alone?

Probably a girls night out,  but I haven't had one of those in a long time.  I really enjoy getting out with friends.

2. Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

Only if I push the tip of my nose down with my finger.  :)

3. What is your favorite flower and why?

Probably a Gerbera Daisy or a tulip, but I can't really say why.  They just both seem so friendly and sunny to me.

4. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself?

If I could go back I'd tell myself to quit worrying so much about what other people thought about me and about trying to fit in, and to cultivate my own interests more.

5. If you won the lottery, what is the very first thing you would do?

I'd call my dad.




Today I took Natalie in for her last follow up from eye surgery.  She'll go back in the fall for another of her annual eye exams.  I ordered her new glasses today and we should get them in  a week or two.  Lauren got to go to daycare today and was just thrilled about it.


Our garden is growing beautifully, the peas are taking off the most so far, the corn and spinach look good and the peppers and broccoli are right behind.  We've been busy with just the usual stuff around here - ballet and physical therapy and the usual stuff.