A Scrap of Life

It's been a while, yet again. And I know that I still have a few friends and family members who check this thing so I'm finally updating it. Lots and lots of pictures coming up... Brian sat down for session #2 on his new tattoo. This time they added the kids little turtles. The kids helped pick designs for theirs. From day 1, Carissa wanted a sunshine. Chase wanted a variety of things but finally settled on a shooting star. We were having a hard time with Tristan and thought about having a skull for him, since Brian calls him "Boney", but that didn't really fit in. In the end he settled on a moon. One more session to go and then this thing should be done! Tristan celebrated his 11th birthday last month. He had a sleepover/bowling party with a few of his best friends and a family party with us. The big gift this year was his Flip video camera. He has videotaped lots of very shaky videos so today I gave him my mini tripod to help out. I have a feeling t...

When I was a teenager, 35 seemed downright ancient. 35 year olds wore outdated clothes, drove boring family cars, worked stuffy grown-up jobs and had lost the luster of youth. And while this is somewhat true, 35 still isn't exactly what I envisioned. Sure, I'm older and the luster of youth is starting to tarnish a little. Yes, I drive a minivan. And no, I'm not trendy. But I do have a pretty great life. I have such an awesome family. I have good friends and a fulfilling job. I have a wonderful man that I look foward to getting old with. This is what 35 looks like - and it's pretty darned good!

On a whim we decided to make a day trip to the beach on Tuesday. We went to Long Beach for the Washington State International Kite Festival. We had never been to the kite festival before so this was all new to us. The weather was beautiful and it was the perfect day for kite flying. There were hundreds of kites in the sky - big twirling kites, huge animal kites, spinners and foils in every size and shape imaginable. They even had choreographed stunt kite teams flying to music. It was amazing to see so many kites in the sky at one time! By far our favorite display was this one: Hundreds and hundreds of kites lined up one after the other, streching as far as the eye could see (and then some). We were told there were 250 kites on this line, which is easy to believe. Just looking at it from the ground it seemed that they stretched all the way up to the sun. It was unbelievable! On our second time past this display the kite owner asked the kids if they wanted to try to pull the kite in a ...

As always, summer gets away from me. It has been hard to find much extra time between teaching summer camps, camping with the family and chaperoning Boy Scout camp. Thankfully this is my last week of summer camps this year and I get 3 full weeks off before returning to a new year of preschool. We're hoping to end the summer with a few more fun family activities and maybe a trip to see my brother, sister-in-law and adorable nephew. Boy Scout camp with Chase was good. We went to Camp Hahobas in Washington and it was a GREAT camp! The staff was amazing and the boys all had a great time. I only stayed a few days, just enough to help get the troop settled, get all the paperwork done and help organize the boys schedules. Then I took off and let Chase and the other boys enjoy some "non-Mom" time at camp. Chase earned another 3 merit badges there and brought home 4 partially finished merit badges. He also earned his star rank, one of only 4 (of the 20) boys in the troop to have a...

I admit that I LOVE summer! The lack of schedule, the relaxation, the not having to get up early. *yawn* Yet things are slowly shifting and changing. This year it isn't so relaxing. I am having to get up early (albeit 8am! LOL). I do have a schedule. And I don't have much time "off". So it's been a busy time already. We got out of school late this year, on June 17th. Had to make up all those snowy days right before Christmas break. I did actually have a little time off right away, time to decompress and take a few relaxing breaths. It was great. The next week we went on a trip to Newport. I hadn't been back in a while and we were really looking forward to it. We stayed in a yurt at Beverly Beach and it was fabulous! I love not lugging around a tent, I love having heat and lights but still hanging outside and having campfires. It was the best of both worlds. The first day we drove down to Newport and quickly met up with Darla. She is my late best friends mother...