The weekend...

Happy Veteran's Day to all the Veterans! Thank you for your service and your sacrifices!

My favorite veteran!  Love you Mikey! :)

This week has been a super busy week filled with meetings, school, homework and all of the regular craziness at work. 

This weekend I am working on my homework and I have to take my re-certification for my Preschool CLASS certificate. 

I miss this kitty.  We got him when Alyssa was in kindergarten.  He was such a snuggly little kitty and he was the best cat ever!  He turned 17 this year and was getting pretty old.  He was mostly deaf and pretty blind, but he still loved to snuggle.  He passed away this summer and I miss him.

Merlin Magoo :)

We have a new little kitty now.  Alexandra's friend fostered an abandoned litter of kitties she found and Alex fell in love with the littlest one.  We adopted him at the end of summer and he is such a super snuggle bug.  I know it is Alex's kitty, but I really love him! ;)  His name is Oreo and he is black and white...named after Alex's favorite food! 

Alex and Oreo!

I am off to finish my English assignment and my CLASS re-certification!  Have a great weekend!!

November 2016

I can't believe that 2016 is almost over!  I am still in school, almost done with my ECE degree (just one more class!!) and then I am almost done with my AA in ECE.  I have an appointment next week to finalize my schedule and that should give me a graduation date also!

My cute little family is growing up!  Aiden is in first grade this year and Ryan and Elizabeth are in preschool.  They don't currently attend a preschool this year since Miss Patti 'retired' and is now teaching at the elementary schools, but they are super excited that mom is going to 'home school' them!  I have been sending crafts, books, and activities over for them to do! 

For the last few years, all I have wanted for Christmas is a current family picture.  This last year (these are from Jan 2016) I told the kids to meet me at Hovander because we were doing pictures!

Some silly poses...

...and some cute poses!

I was very pleased they all turned out!  I think we are all looking at the camera and most of us are smiling in this one!  I call that a winner!!  

One of my favorite of these two!!

I am off to finish up some homework before going to bed.  Tomorrow is going to be another long day and I need my beauty sleep!

December 2014

2014 has been a difficult year for me.  I am glad for it to be over and am ready to see what 2015 will bring.  I have started two new jobs (the first one closed after I was there for three months) and I have gone back to school.  My first quarter just ended and I did pretty well.  It was hard to juggle full time work, school, the girls soccer schedule and life, but I did manage it.  I also came away with a few tips on how to do it a little better next time.

Christmas was quiet this year.  On Christmas Eve, I went over to Alyssa's to do Christmas with them.  McKenzie came with me and Alex came over after she finished the paper route.  It was fun to see the kids so excited over their gifts, the ones they gave and received.  

After that, I took Alex and a couple of friends to see a movie (they went to Annie) and McKenzie and I went to the mall for a bit. We came home and watched a couple Christmas movies and went to bed.  

The nice thing about my children being older, is that they sleep in!  :)  I heard them moving around about 8:00 but we didn't get up for presents until about 9:30!  I took Alex over to a friends house for the morning and pick her up at 1:30 on our way to mom's house.  We stayed there for a couple hours and came home to watch more Christmas movies and just enjoy the quiet.  :)  I think we have started some new traditions!  I loved having Christmas Eve morning at Alyssa's house with her and her family!  

This is not a great picture, but the kids are pretty cute!!  :)  This was taken with my cell phone a couple days before it died and I had to get it replaced.  I have not figured out how to hook up my new phone so that it will load my pictures on my computer yet, but I hopefully will soon!

This is McKenzie right before her 7th grade Winter Orchestra Concert.  This is her third year of playing violin.  She really enjoys it and she even practices without me asking her or reminding her! :) 

Alex just got her drivers permit!  I can't believe she is already 15.  Time goes by so quickly!  Alex is doing great with her driving.  She is already a much more confident driver than she was just a couple months ago.

Back to school - Fall 2014

Today I made apple crisp.  In the crockpot.  Yep.  I really did!  

I have never made apple crisp in the crockpot before.  I really under use my crockpot.  There are about 3 meals that I cook in it and we love making applesauce in it, but that is about it!  I have decided to use it more.  I would like to use it at least once or twice a week for a different meal.

Tomorrow I am going to make granola in the crockpot for snacking on.

McKenzie and some of her soccer team are playing Futsal at the YMCA on Sunday afternoons,  She scored a goal today! :)  She is loving it and having so much fun!  I love it because it is so close! 

Go SEAHAWKS!!  My daughter, Alyssa decided to make some Seahawk hats.  She made one and posted it and said she was selling them for $12. (12th man...$12...I thought is was a great idea!!)  She has a waiting list of over 13 people who ordered them!  She makes them newborn (the front middle hat) up to adult sizes.  She has been super busy!  I went over to her house a couple days after she had posted it and she had made 5 hats!!  She is quickly ticking them off her list!  

She is so amazing! :)

However, no matter how amazing she is, she has a really weird cat! :)  The last couple weeks when I pull up in the driveway this is what I see.  Merlin loves to hang out in the recycle bin :)

The girls have been adjusting well at school.

They are in 7th and 9th grade this year.  I took them last weekend for "first day of school" photos.  I wasn't able to get them on the first day because of work, but we had a little photo shoot and I got some pretty cute ones! :)

I like this one of McKenzie.  She is usually a yoga pant/soccer tshirt/sweatshirt kinda girl.  I like that she dressed up a bit with jeggings and a nice shirt! 

I even got a cute one of the two of them!

Alexandra is getting so grown up!  She is a freshman in high school this year!  Just a couple short years and she will be in collage!

I can't believe how fast they have grown up!  In about six years, they will both be in college/out on their own and I will be "all a lonely" in this house! :)

I remember when they were little, they would say they were never moving out because I would be "all a lonely" here by myself.  Little did they know, that is not a bad thing!  Now Alyssa has gotten married, moved out, and has three little ones.  I think she is counting the days until she is "all a lonely"!  Alexandra has decided that she is going away to college.  Probably in Oregon (close to Seaside) but she is not super sure yet.  McKenzie is still on the fence.  She may move out, she may not.  She doesn't want to live at home forever, but she really doesn't feel like moving out yet.  I am sure that will change once she hits high school in a couple years though! 

I love fall...

Fall is back to school time (and all of those fabulous back-to-school supplies!)

Fall is crisp mornings and warm afternoons.

Fall is Soccer (although at this house, so is Spring, Summer and Winter!)

Fall is Cross Country.

Fall is leaves turning beautiful colors.

Fall is my favorite season!

McKenzie decided to use her tie dye kit that she got for Christmas (from Katherine) to make some back to school shirts. :)  Alex and I each made one also.

When this one was done, it turned out so cool!  She used blue and green and it looks very Seahawk-y.

All of the shirts we did turned out so cool!  Sometimes it works and sometimes it looks odd.  It is hard to mess up tie dye, but we were very pleased with how they all turned out!

Alex is playing high school soccer this year.  (She is #21).  It was a tough decision between soccer and cross country.  She is on the potential varsity list.  That means she plays varsity and jv until they decide which team she should be on.  There are 25 girls on the potential varsity list.  Some of them are on varsity (mostly seniors/juniors) and the rest are just "swingers".  (They play both V & JV).  Alex LOVES playing with the JV team.  She plays hard and is great!  

 She also has a ton of friends on the JV team (which always makes it more fun!)  She is not a fan of the Varsity coach or team.  She has already made the decision to go out for Cross Country next year!

On Saturday, we spent the morning at Civic watching the FHS Cross Country team participate in the Sehome Invitational Meet.  There were over 1300 kids racing!!  It was AMAZING!!!  Alex and her soccer/cross country friend (they both pick high school soccer, but wished they would have picked XC) were there watching.  It was a lot of fun to watch that many kids racing.

(McKenzie playing her team from last year at Baker Blast)

McKenzie is loving her soccer team this year.  They have played two games so far this fall and won both of them.  Last week they played and the game was tied 0-0 until the last 5 seconds.  We scored a goal and won the game!  It was very exciting to watch!  Both teams were really good and played great.  This weekend, the teams were not so evenly matched up and we won 6-0.  Not as much fun to watch when the score is so lopsided, but glad we were on the 6 side and not the 0 side!

(McKenzie playing her team from last year at Baker Blast)

The girls and I went out today to take some "first day of school" pictures.  Yes, I know school started a couple weeks ago, but with work, soccer and life, I didn't get any pictures until now!  They are still on my camera right now.  I haven't had a chance to edit them yet, but Alex is excited about a couple of them, so I will get them up and going soon!

Track meets and soccer games

Alex had her first track meet last week at Nooksack.  She competed against Lynden & Nooksack.  She had an amazing first meet.  She does the 800m, the 1600m, and the 4x200m relay.

There are not a lot of girls that participate in the longer runs, but she loves them!  That also means there is not a lot of competition.  In the 800m, there was only three girls.  Her coach told her to pace with the Lynden girl and then pass her in the last lap and sprint to the finish.  After the race was over, she told her coach, "Well, that was a nice warm up run!  The Lynden girl was so slow!"   

She came in first with a time of 2:48.  She is going to try and get 2:35 in her next meet (tomorrow).  

In the 1600m there were only 4 girls running so they got to run with the girls.  Alex doesn't like that because the 4x200 relay is RIGHT after the 1600m and she gets a little tired doing the two back to back.  However, she loves them both and keeps doing them!  She does love running with the boys because it gives her some competition and makes her run faster!

She especially loves it when she beats the boys! :)

Coming in first for girls with a mile time of 6:16!  Not her personal best, but very close! Her goal this year is a 6 min mile.  I know she can do it!

This is her relay team.  They are amazing!  They came in first.  They have great handoffs and Alex and Paige have amazing speed.  Alex runs the third leg and catches up to the first place team and then Paige runs the final leg and passes everybody to come in first.  So much fun to watch!

The second meet was at Blaine (last night!)  

This is Alex coming in first for the 800m.  She didn't try very hard, but she said that at Thursdays meet, she is going to try for a 2:35 800m.  I am excited to see if she can!

I love this one of the start of the 1600m.  I love that I caught the smoke from the starting gun.

Again, there was only one other girl so they ran with the boys.

The two Vista boys in front of Alex are pretty fast and she kept pace with them the whole time!  

This is the final lap and they pulled ahead a little bit, but she didn't give up!

It was a photo finish!!  The Blaine boy was not about to get beat by a girl and gave it his best shot.  (Alex did beat him by .02 seconds but he went in front of her anyway.  She let him because they were so close and she still came in first for girls and he was still 3rd for boys and it was so close!  If it was a girl behind her, she said she would have run faster to make sure she beat her!)

She finished with a time of 6:03!!!  She almost beat her goal!  She is going to try to beat 6 min tomorrow.

This is the hand off during the relay

She came from far back to pass this girl and the girl in front of her.  She caught the team up and handed off to Paige and Paige ran like the wind to get even farther ahead.  They came in first with a time of 2:05!  The record they want to beat is 2:02.  We shall see what happens on Thursday!!

Now for the soccer!!

GU14 Blue Rangers April 2014

This is the before the game shot.  They are in the Challenge Cup.  They played four game and the teams with the highest points goes to the quarter finals.  They made it!  This was the quarter final game.  It was a nail biter!  Each team wants to win to advance to the semi finals and both teams played so good!

The other team had a corner kick and if you look closely, you can see that Alex blocked the ball with her head.  Actually, it was with the side of her face! OUCH!!  Our goalie was ready for the ball in case Alex missed it, but she knocked it out of the way!

As a defender, Alex does the throw ins.  I love her expression in this picture as she is telling her team to get into position and open up for her to throw the ball.

I love watching her play.  She has such intensity and determination.  And she sticks out her tongue! :)

The game was tied 0-0 at the end.  Since it was a quarter final and the winning team advances, there had to be a winner.  So......overtime!  They played 20 min of overtime.  They played 10 min, switched sides and played 10 more min.  At the end of overtime the score was still tied 0-0.  There still has to be a winner, so that means the dreaded PKs!! 

 They are so stressful to watch and even more stressful for the players and the goalies!  

Our goalie made some amazing saves!  Each team gets 5 shots.  Only the players on the field at the end of the game get to participate.  They line up according to who gets the first shot, second shot, etc.  If after the five shots are taken and they are still tied, they let the sixth person shoot and then the seventh, until there is a winner.  Thankfully, we didn't have to go that far.  

Alex was number 6 in line.  She is watching and praying that Jordyn makes her shot and we win and she doesn't have to shoot!

I love this shot!  Right after Jordyn made the shot and we WON 4-3!!!!!  all the girls ran up to her laughing and hugging her!  And then they did it to the goalie too!  It was an amazing game!!  This means they go the the semi finals this weekend (Sat) and then if they win that the finals are on Sun.  It will be a busy weekend for sure, but also exciting!

This is the team picture I took after the won the game!  I love that they are so excited and happy!

Go Rangers!!