Gas is Good

This weekend at the grocery store I saw a bag of the big campfire marshmallows. I could not resist them. I really couldn't. So, I brought them home with some graham crackers and chocolate. Tonight we threw out campfire tradition, turned on our gas range and roasted marshmallows inside. The smores were better then I expected indoors.

Gas is good for something! :)

Every other summer becomes chaotic as I jump into another round of bargaining at work. I can safely say that this year will be no exception and actually due to many other factors, it will probably be one of the craziest ever! :)

Here is how today went:

Up early to get Addy up a little early so I can help her wake up, get dressed and see her before I leave. Out the door to carpool with my girl Courtney by 7:20am. Starbucks on the run. Bargaining all day long. During breaks and caucuses on the phone and e-mail working proposals, issues, etc. Wrap at 6:00. Home to let dogs out, while cleaning up e-mail. Back in the car to go get Addy from parents house, making work calls on the way. Get home at 8:00pm realize I gotta go back in to work. Put Addy to bed and head back out. Home for the night at 9:30pm.

Needless to say sometimes I am tired. But I am so lucky to love what I do, work with great people and get exciting opportunities to challenge myself.

To add icing on the cake this year I was one of the winners of the Governor's Leadership Award. I still can't believe it. I was so incredibly excited and nervous!! I've never won anything like this before . . . me? That is crazy!?!

Last Friday Scott and I got to go to the Governor's Mansion with the Secretary of the Department for a luncheon. I was soooooooo nervous. At one point I actually told someone that I wanted to get hit by a car, not enough to be seriously injured, but just injured enough to get out of going. Seemed like a plausible excuse. :)

Of course once I got there I had fun. We had a wonderful lunch, met the Governor and got pictures in the fancy mansion. I even knew a couple of the other honorees and their families. All of our executives were there and Paula was so gracious in helping me to feel comfortable.

I was totally intimidated. They took a ton of pictures . . . yuck. I should get to see them at some point, cringe. There was actually a schedule we were given ahead of time reagrding all the different pictures. And when the Governor arrived it was very official with a countdown for her arrival. We could here the staff announcing to one another "and the Governor will arrive in 4 minutes, in 3 minutes, etc." Needless to say this is very different from my every day life. :)

Scott and I got a picture in the mansion dining room:

Department of Transportation Secretary, Paula Hammond and I (it was so nice that she took time from her busy schedule to come and spend time with us):


We tried to do an artful arrangement (the tea cup has the state seal on it, we ate off china that all had the seal on it!):



Can you see the lovely red and yellow velvety rose? So beautiful! And here is my beautifully wrapped package. I didn't want to open it. I have to remember this simple wrapping that looks so fancy for a gift in the future. ( I would give anything to be able to tie a bow that nice.)


I can't say enough about the impressive award winners we met at the lunch. They've kept us safe by creating new ways of capturing drunk drivers, saved millions of dollars with innovations, and even protected our coast from oil spills with heavy regulations and monitoring. It was really humbling to see all the amazing state employees out there working so hard for the citizens of Washington. And I can now say that during my explore Washington year, I even got to explore the Governor's mansion. :)

More Addy Art

The skillful use of scissors and tape. It speaks to you. The stickers add a certain depth and mystery to the piece. The pink lines are so raw, exposed. As if the artist is speaking right to you.

Art by Addy.

She is so random

I wouldn't be a true fan if I didn't blog about it once in a while right? And I know what you are thinking: Twilight, SATC, So You Think You Can Dance . . . which one am I actually going to blog about now?

Nope. As most of you know I am nothing if not loyal.

(And don't laugh at this photo, I had to take it like ten times to get a decent enough picture that you could kind of see my magazine.)


Yup. Its the 100 Greatest Characters in my EW magazine. Before I go any further - I really appreciate EW. I don't know all the editors but I want to be friends because they do a good job - 99% of the time I agree with them. Once in a while (like Homer Simpson being the #1 Greatest Character) they are terribly wrong. But most of the time they are oh so right.

Can you see the upper left corner - do you know who that is? That is the #2 Greatest Character - Buffy Summers.

A couple days ago I was talking about Buffy like I do (great for quotes) and someone asked me, " what is with you and Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" . I promised I would explain it at some point.

Sigh. I am not sure I can explain it fully. It was a coming of age show when I was coming of age and regardless of the vampires, demons, etc. Buffy was a hero for the everyperson. A misfit kickass girl that didn't ask to be a hero - but did her best. Like all of us, everyday. She wasn't popular, rich, or stylish. She struggled with her place in the world, like we all do. She wanted to be normal. She wanted to be free. She did what was asked of her. She failed once in a while. She kicked some butt. She had friends that were loyal forever and in their way made her better and she did the same for them. She felt pain and survived. She met the fight. Sometimes she ran. She was relatable in even the most silly story line moments.

So, that is my story . . . the story of my favorite character. Congratulations Buffy. And thank you.

Who is your favorite character?

Musings

It seems like I blink and we've traveled down the road without me realizing it. I guess its time to catch up. Here are some of the random things we've been doing:

Addy has continued her love affair with tape. Her new thing is taping her other favorite thing - scissors. So now her scissors are useless because they are cocooned in tape. Some of her latest work:

If you click on this picture you will see the amount of tape used to secure the picture to the wall, not to mention the tape used to create the fine work of art.


Here Addy took bits of her fruit snack and taped them to the top of the Mystery Machine. That was about 2 weeks ago. They are still there going strong. I think we will save them in case we ever need a secret ration of food.

Most surfaces that Little has regular contact with look like this. It is quite common to walk around our house and find tape stuck to your feet.


I got motivated to try some new recipes recently. This one turned out really good!

After all the scary stuff Addy has been immune to with Scooby Doo and rides, etc. she finally met her match. We recently bought the Princess and the Frog. Addy has been waking in the night because of nightmares about the Boneman. So sad!

I haven't let the rain (have I mentioned it just keeps raining and raining and raining) stop me from getting at least some of my flowers planted. Actually, I prefer to plant in the rain, well a light drizzle. It smells so good, negates the need to water and the soil is so easy.


But finally the downpours took us indoors and we brought out an Easter gift from the Peltons. The pumpkins are a-growin and just waiting to be planted outside. I need to find a good spot for them. :)

And can I tell you that I have been feeling pretty down about my resolution? Between crazy work, random family flus, colds, etc. and rain, rain, rain it has been slow going. This weekend we said screw the rain and we headed up to the Folklife Festival today. Yea for us!

We had the Peltons to help us enjoy the day, and the rain even stayed away for the most part. We ate yummy food, saw lots of fun (weird) people and got wet in the fountain.

Heading in . . . we look ready for June right? What a laugh, pretty sad when you are double layering and packing rain gear and a change of clothes in the stroller on Memorial Day.

All the kids had a blast (and got very wet) playing in the fountain.

Dancing (jumping) at one of the stages.

It was really fun to get out and explore a little. Boy was Addy tired tonight.

And so we look forward to the start of "summer", June and more adventures!! Oh and did I mention that SYTYCD is back on???? Woo-hoo!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all!

And a final note . . . a heartfelt thank you to all the men and women that serve our country, yesterday, today and tomorrow. What a blessing you are to us. Thank you also to all the families that sacrifice while their loved ones serve. All of you deserve to know that your dedication and sacrifice are honored.

Joys of Childhood (& Beyond) Friends

This is a picture of the ladies returning from a very fun event last weekend. We got to go to a baby shower for one of my most cherished friends. I was so lucky to grow up next door (or technically directly behind) a wonderful family with two daughters that were/are two of my best friends. The funny thing is that Marta and Britta are 4 and 9 years younger then me respectively. I am a firm believer that age doesn't really matter when it comes to friends and family. We made some amazing memories over the years. And we still have a fondness for new construction, playing travel agent and motor home babies!

It was fun to spend a morning with their family and my mom and my little one. Marta will be welcoming her little one in July (which is the best month to be born of course) and I can't wait.

It is always a blessing when you can celebrate with such lovely friends!

Mother's Day Magic

For Mother's Day my wonderful Mom took Addy and I to Disneyland!! How great of a Mother's Day is that? We were at the happiest place on earth to celebrate. We had a wonderful 6 day trip. We got to spend lots of time at the parks and spent one day at the beach too. For the most part (return flight cancelled and delayed at the airport an extra few hours) the travel was good, Addy did well and outside of a little too much sun and sunscreen - we had a GREAT trip!



We are still unpacking and recovering - but I wanted to get a few pics up!


We did the princess breakfast the first morning - what a fabulous event. Great food, all the pretty little ones in their princess costumes, and all the princesses . . . it was magical. Addy continued to talk about it the entire trip. Clearly it was a highlight for her.

Another highlight for me was that Addy was tall enough to tackle a few more rides. She was able to do the Matterhorn and Splash Mountain (two of my all time favorite rides). And was she scared of either of them? Heck no. This girl is a thrill seeker. As soon as we completed the huge drop on Splash Mountain Addy said "lets go on this again". And she giggled (not kidding) through all of the Matterhorn. :) Man, I love this kid! Here we are on Splash:

We saw lots of characters. We did the autograph book thing, and that went okay. We had to keep it away from Addy because she wanted to scribble over every signature! But, she seemed to enjoy getting the signatures.


(We saw a ton of characters and some multiple times, I will spare everyone all the pictures.)

But I have to share these. Addy really wanted a doll at the park one day and so we picked out this super cute Minnie Mouse doll. She was hooked. At breakfast one morning at Goofy's Kitchen, Addy was treated to a visit of hugs and snuggles from Minnie herself. How cute is this??


I am always amazed at the thoughtfulness, caring and joy of the characters. They are so wonderful with the kids and even the adults. They are patient and kind every time. It must be so hot and frustrating at times and it never shows.

I always love the landscapes at Disney parks. Just sitting and looking around is a joy. Soon we'll have flowers like this here:


The babies have arrived and there were about 5 disney staff watching that these guys got a safe crossing. No fear there, I think the whole park stopped to get a shot and cheer them on their way.

One evening we headed back for a relaxing tea party at the room. Mom did a great job putting together a wonderful tea party.

We got to see a couple of parades. I LOVE parades. The anticipation, the build-up and the delivery is always worth it.


We had wonderful weather. Sunny and warm!

Addy had a wonderful princess bed to sleep in each night. And she made sure her babies were just as cozy as she was.

Grandma to the rescue. I can't do tea cups.

We got a chance to hit the hotel pool.

My oh my! I forgot what a beach outside of Washington looks like. Beautiful! Brown sand, blue/green waters and blue sky. Not a shade of gray in sight. Amazing. (I still love our beaches better - really!) But it was really nice!




Thanks Mom for such a fun-filled week! Addy and I had the best time and made so many great memories we won't forget.

Only 2 More

Can you believe it? I am on the edge of my seat to see how this wild ride ends. I have some many questions - who has the answers? Anyone?

Are you brave?

This is the worst thing to ask me when I am sitting in your chair to get my hair cut. You know what the answer is going to be. Oh, yeah! I am not one of those people that comes back front the salon and says things like, "wow, look I got three inches cut off" and you can't even notice, or "I really went dark on the highlights, crazy huh?", and people are thinking what is the difference. Nope. Not me.

So here was what my hair probably looked like at 11:30 today:

And here I am at 2:30, trying to do a self-portrait. Yeah, I have brown hair now. Not just brown - dark brown. My stylist convinced me to close my eyes and so I didn't see anything from the time she started washing out the color and a few highlights to the time the cut was totally done. Amazing.


I really like it because it is so different. At least people won't miss the fact I tried something different.! They will notice, as soon as they realize its me! Wow, I can't believe I would describe my hair as dark chocolate brown. :)

I like it. A lot. I think. It is like a reinvention. Me, only . . . darker!