Drawing

Addy has been busting out the people drawing lately. One day she just started drawing faces and stick figures. She also really likes to draw beds (?), castles and boats.

I can't explain it

There was a time that you told Addy to pose and she would give you a sweet smile. Then there was a time when you told her to smile for a picture and she hid her face. Now this is what she does any time you attempt a picture.



The only way I get a remotely normal picture is when I say things like:

If you want to go to the (fill in the blank) then you have to smile nice.

If you want (fill in the snack) then you have to smile nice.

Probably not my best mom moments, but otherwise all my photos would look like these. :)

Happy Independence Day!!

We got ready to celebrate this morning . . .


And decided to do some exploring by going to the Tumwater parade . . . never been in 33 years. What a cute home town parade.


Our friend Todd manages the entire Tumwater 4th of July spectacular (what a job, better him then me). He stopped by long enough to say hi!



Great community spirit and a wonderful way to remember all the things that are important on the 4th.

Crack Up

Exploring Fort Warden

Spent Saturday at Fort Warden with friends. Great trip, lovely sunshine (thank you, thank you, thank you) and beautiful location to hang out and play!

Road trippin' it on the 101, lovely views:

This was Addy from the moment she hit the beach!















And here is Little 15 minutes after we left. It was so cute.

Exploring

Last weekend we were up in Seattle for Scott's work. I got Saturday to hang out on my own. Have I mentioned how much I love to wander all alone sometimes. I guess its probably part of being an only child or something, but I love alone time.

So, instead of rushing right out for shopping (don't worry I did get to the shopping thing) I wandered and explored as part of my explore Washington campaign.



And then the shopping started. This is one of my favorite stores ever. I love when I get to visit.


Saturday night before dinner we had a drink at the bar. Coconut Mojito. Yum.

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.