home improvement

I went to a big-chain home improvement store Friday night with my younger sister Leah (she's 20). I needed to pick up some paint supplies and a new retractable screen door for the front door. We found the door section and there was an employee sitting there, so I went up to him to ask him a few questions about retractable doors. He started telling me that there are three different screen doors that they have (didn't bother to ask me what I really needed). Anyway, the first option, "the Cadillac" version included installation and was around $400 and had a 20-year warranty. The next option, I can't remember what car manufacturer he used for this, maybe Ford was around $150 and you had to install it. At this point the guy says, "well maybe this option will work for you if your sweetie can help you install it." To which I replied, I think I can figure it out myself (and thought, you're a male-chauvinistic pig). The third option was a little cheaper, like $120 and he referred to it as like some really crappy car brand, I can't remember the name. It didn't have multiple positions that it could stop at like the middle and top priced options. But, it was all I really needed, since I only want it opened or closed (and it seemed to have the same quality as the one priced right above). He showed us where they were and then when we were looking at the third one and I said, this is all I really need. And then he says, "Maybe you can have your daughter help you install it." Ok, so Leah is 20 and looks pretty close to her age and I said to him, "she's my sister" (in an annoyed voice). So, he says, "well, that's a compliment, isn't it?" So I said, "no, it's actually not." Luckily he walked away after that. I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe I still bought the thing from that store. I should have gone to the other one up the street, I still might take it back, just because of that guy.

father's day

My parents live down near Rochester (south of Olympia). A bunch of us gathered together to celebrate my dad. Luckily, it was a nice day and we were able to play some croquet. It wasn't a regular game of croquet, though. We set up the wickets in random places, like under the trampoline and along the driveway, to make it extra hard. The second course was kind of too hard. My dad had no mercy the first game. He couldn't just win, he had to get poison and knock everyone out of the game, so there was no 2nd or 3rd. He's lucky it was father's day.

Here's my dad with Beren and Asher. He loves being with the grandkids (and me, of course). My dad's a cowboy at heart. They have a little property at their new house and he has a bunch of horses and a donkey. It was always his dream to live on a big ranch, but I don't think my mom shared that dream. And this father's day did not make that dream come true. At least he gets to play with the horses. We didn't really have any while I was growing up at home, so I haven't ridden too much, but I'm thinking I need to get down some more and go riding with my dad. He would love it.

They recently got chickens (I think my dad said he did it so it would teach my younger siblings some responsibility). Beren and Asher were so excited to feed the chickens with my mom and they even found 2 eggs. I doubt Colin, Julie or Emily get excited about feeding any of the animals. Kylee really wanted to pet the chickens (since we got to pet a horse and the dog). They wouldn't stand still for her, though. You might think she looks pretty dissappointed, but she often has this look on her face.

We found some flowers to pick and that made Kylee's day.

moses lake

Leah and I drove over to Moses Lake to camp and watch Leslie and Jane compete in a sprint triathlon. It was nice to get away from the pouring rain in Seattle. After we drove through Snoqualmie Pass, it stopped raining and we saw this pretty rainbow. It was a sign that we were in for a fun, sunny weekend.Leslie and Jane did great in the triathlon. The weather was perfect for them, except maybe a little windy on the bike ride.

Their bike ride was 13 miles and a couple of us decided we would try to catch up to them in the car, to cheer for them along the way. The road they were riding on was still open to traffic and the first mustached sheriff let us drive through, but then we got to these not so nice sheriffs and we couldn't drive any further. So, we ended up watching their race from the transition area. Indiana thought she would help out with the directions for the bike riders.It was at a nice park and Leslie's kids enjoyed themselves while we were waiting for them. They were somehow able to pull themselves away from the park toys to cheer mom and Aunt Jane the last stretch of their run. Yay for Leslie and Jane!We camped at Cascade Campgrounds on the lake with Jared and Jane and some of Jane's family. It was a nice campsite, especially the ones we had, since they were tucked back at the end. The only two drawbacks were that it was windy in the evenings and there was a boat launch near the campground that the boaters left from at 5am both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Saturday was worse than Sunday morning. There was some fishing competition going on, but please, do they have to leave that early in the morning? I guess that's why I've never been fishing before. The sunsets were very nice and even though the moon was small, it was so pretty each night.It was good to get out on my first camping trip of the year, not that we were roughing it too much. And we were lucky to have Jane's brothers to make really good, warm fires on the windy evenings so we could sit and stare at the flames for hours. We kept asking ourselves, why is fire watching so addictive? We couldn't stop and that is about all we did once it got dark out.

Me and Jane trying not to freeze in the wind.

We also got to play at the water park they have in Moses Lake. It was pretty cheap to get in, probably because there weren't a ton of water activities, but the lazy river and slides were fun. I didn't make it onto the wave machine thing, but it looked like the boys enjoyed it.

We mostly ate food at our camp-site, but we kept driving by this little burger joint called Woody's and the mural drew me in to try it out. I love this guy. He kind of reminds me of a badly drawn South Park character. The burgers were so-so, probably the thinnest burger meat I've had, but it was worth looking at the fat Woody's man while we ate.

We were so glad we made it over for the weekend, we had such warm weather, it was kind of like having summer. And now we can't wait for our next camping adventure.

birthdays

There have been a few family birthdays in the past week or so. Corinne and Lance's on the 26th and Asher's on the 2nd. For Corinne's b-day a few of us got together in Vancouver to celebrate. Sorry to Lance, but Cheney is too far away. Corinne's bbq was fun. We even had a great game of wiffleball, well, until dad pulled his hamstring. I hope you have a great year, Corinne!

And thanks Corinne (and Nathan) for letting us have Kylee to enjoy. She is a sweet little niece. She was willing to strike a pose even though she missed her nap. She's like, "oh, please, this party is so boring."

Asher is a lucky 4-year old. Check out the awesome robot cake Leslie threw together for him. I think the coolest cake I ever had was when I turned 13. My friend's mom made me one that had a bear sitting in a wheel-barrel full of jelly beans. I couldn't believe she could make a bear out of a cake. The fanciest cakes that we had from my mom were made from this cake pan that could make different letters. I know I had an "A" at least once for a birthday, maybe even a full "ANN", if I had been nice that year.

I'm pretty sure Asher enjoyed his TMNT (that's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle) that I found for him at Ross. Beren was more than willing to "help" him play with it.

beren's graduation

My nephew, Beren, took a big step in his life yesterday....he graduated from pre-school. I don't really understand why they have a pre-school graduation, but it was fun to see all the little 4 and 5 year olds in caps and gowns. It was hard for me to even get a picture of Beren because everyone else kept standing up to take pictures, too. I guess that's why they had a graduation, a big photo op. The graduating class sang us a few songs. Much more entertaining than a high school graduation. It can't beat hearing a recording of "Forever Young", the Alphaville version. That was our theme song for my graduation. How embarrassing.

Indiana even decided to pick a present out for Beren. She is so thoughtful. Don't worry, Beren, we wrapped it up in some tissue so you can treasure it forever.

Beren's crowning moment.Asher could only handle watching so many kids get up and wave to their parents. I am glad I was able to make it to the graduation because I know it meant a lot to Beren. He was so excited about it. But this means I now don't have to go to your high school graduation. Good luck in Kindergarten next year!

alabama

I went on a work trip last week to Alabama. The place I was in is literally in the middle of no where (you should look at the google aerial link I have above). I really don't know where they get the people to work there. I stayed in Meridian, Mississippi, which was about a 50 minute drive and there are quite a few of the employees that live there, too. I can't imagine driving that far every day.

I thought about taking some pictures of some of the dilapidated houses that I saw near the mill, but I didn't have time, plus I didn't want to give everyone an impression that all the houses look a certain way. I did see some nice houses, too. I'll try to take more pics on my next trip.

I only took this one picture of the sun setting off of the freeway entrance, the calm after the storm. This was the day that it poured the entire day, I had to go to Wal-Mart and purchase a cheap rain coat, so I wouldn't get drenched when I walked into the mill. There was some heavy lightning from this storm, too. There were a few strikes that were right above me while I was driving, kind of scary and they kept having tornado warnings on the radio. I'm glad I didn't see any of those.When I'm in paper mills, I normally don't ever see the end product, the paper. I spend most of my time in the pulp mill. But this time, I was lucky to be given a tour inside. They make tissue at this mill (tp, paper towels, napkins). The tissue-forming/drying machines are much more compact than a paper machine that makes paper that you write on or paper that is used to make boxes. And they move a lot faster. I then saw the area where they cut the rolls down to size and package. It's all automated, even the fork-lift trucks were automated. I felt like I was on the Discovery channel's, how it's made show.

While in Meridian, I ate at a Thai restaurant that was recommended to me by an engineer at the paper mill. I had my doubts, since I've found that a lot of Asian restaurants in the south aren't that great, but she told me it was really good. After getting lost trying to find Faraway Places, I found it in an industrial part of town. I still had doubts when I pulled up, since it's in a double-wide and when you first enter, you can see a living room area with tv and couch in the corner. I thought, this is a weird place. I still decided to stay and ended up having some spring rolls and a red chicken curry dish. It was great, just as good as a Thai place in Seattle, but with very nice Southern hospitality. The owners are Thai and the wife told me her daughter lives in Seattle. I was also told to try this Mexican restaurant while I was there, but knew it would be just like any other Mexican restaurant in the south, bland. They don't use anything to flavor their chicken or even their salsa. The salsa is like tomato sauce. I guess they cook for the southerners, but I don't understand why they don't like any flavor and have to use lots of cheese. Maybe I'll find a good southern Mexican restaurant someday....

mother's day

I saw a lot of my family on Saturday while we were celebrating mother's day/Paul's b-day. We had a big picnic at mom and dad's and all got to hang out. We even played a little pictionary by using dry-erase markers on a window in the living room, it was a really good idea hatched by Leslie, I think. It was a little too cold to stay outside. I'm glad I have a mom like mine. I know me and my 11 brothers and sisters love my mom a lot. Thanks for all you do mom! And then for my own mother's day gift to me, I ran the Kirkland half-marathon (13.1 miles) Sunday morning. I had a sore throat and kind of thought I shouldn't go out and run it, but I'm glad I did. I even beat my last half by a couple of minutes. My final time was 1:54:05. Yay, Ann! I was lucky to have Leslie come cheer me on at the finish line. She got up early on her mother's day, just for me. Thanks Leslie.
The other thing that made my weekend so wonderful this year was going to a birth-mother's day brunch with a bunch of other birth moms and a couple of women that have adopted in the past. It was like having group all over again. I miss that environment. I loved hearing everyone's story and then being able to share mine. I feel so lucky to have the relationship I have with Savannah and her family. There really aren't too many other people that get that opportunity. I think the funniest thing about hearing everyone's story was that a lot of the women there have found out the name of the family that adopted their child (most of the adoptions were closed with pictures and letters only). I did it, too, before everything was open between Savannah's family. I just think it's sad and disappointing that there are so many people that think that birth mothers are crazy and would go steal back their child if they were able to have an open relationship. I'm glad that I at least get to have a friendship with Savannah since I wasn't able to be her mom. I guess the reason I'm writing about all this is so if you think I'm not a crazy birth mom and you know people that have adopted, then you need to let those adoptive parents know that a lot of birth moms want to know what is going on with their children and might like to have a more open relationship.

Anyway, enough of that, I didn't want to make this so personal, but I feel really strongly about adoptions and feel that people assume too many negative things about birth mothers, if they want to still be part of the child's life. Stay tuned...I'm heading to Alabama tomorrow, there has to be some good stories from there.