Quote of the day

"Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more."– Louis L'Amour

I get these in my email everyday. Some days they are good, some days they don't really do anything for me. I like this one. It is inspiring. I need inspiring! Well, here I am in the middle of the night again and wide awake. Its rather odd... I seem to have learned to survive on less sleep, although I'm not sure surviving is good...

We seem to have a warm front these days, everyone complaining about how hot it is. Which really stinks when you don't have air conditioning... like me : ( I really try not to complain because I was reminded yesterday about the snow, yes, I actually live somewhere that will have snow. And I'm in denial. I do not want to live somewhere that has snow. I want to visit that place, and then go home.

Darrinn will be home this weekend. The kids are really excited. I feel kinda bad for him cuz theres a pretty big "honey do" list waiting for him and I'm sure he wants to relax since he has literally worked every day since he left June 17th. Did I mention the freezer died. Yes, the freezer that was housing my KING CRAB. Ugh.

Long time no blog.

Wow. I don't even remember the last post, but its pretty funny. I'm funny sometimes. Well, things have slowed down a bit since my last post. I'm only working one job full time instead of two. I do some fill in work for a friend with another woman, but other than that I'm down to under 40 hours a week instead of the 60 I was doing. Whew.

The summer appears to be almost over. I achieved a huge goal this summer... check off one of my items on my "bucket list" I am an official certified open water diver. Amazing. I got to go diving last weekend too. The fun part was that my instructor was someone I went to high school with. It made the learning fun, could have been the goofy young boys that I had to have in class too. Either way, it was amazing. I can't wait until the next dive.

I feel awfully scatterbrained with this post. No focus. Oh well. Gotta run.

Muah!

Monday....yuck...

What is it about Mondays? I had to work yesterday, so all evening I kept thinking it was Monday. Not so lucky, I get to have Monday today. I don't feel like doing anything today, yet I have to get out the door to work in the next 5 minutes. Phooey.

I want a down day. I want a day that I don't have to do anything. A day of sitting, in my pajamas even! No responsibilitie, nothing! While I'm dreaming, I'd like a hot tub on the back deck so I can go do nothing out there too. And a personal chef.... to fetch me whatever I like while I'm perfecting my nothing...

While I'm dreaming, I'd like it to be about 80 degrees! Sunny, with a few clouds here and there and 80. uh huh.... what else? How bout a winning lottery ticket.... with no taxes on the HUGE amount of money I win.

Reality check.... it is payday today... but the word HUGE isn't going to be the word that I have regarding the check... guess I better stop daydreaming and go to work.

Have a good day ....

Granny's Memorial

Granny, Andy, Ken, Keith, Matt, Kelle & Kevin

(yep, the only girl cousin for awhile)

Pictures Pictures Pictures. I was put in charge of the slide show to be on the tv in the background during the food after the memorial. I diligently scanned all the pictures and burned them to a dvd. Nothing fancy, because it never fails if you spend a large amount of time on something, there seems to be something that goes wrong. So, plain and simple slide show. Done.

I decide about an hour before the memorial that I better make sure it works. I go to Fairview and pop it in the dvd player and sure enough... it says bad disk. Uh huh. Great! No time to panic, I start knocking on the residents doors asking to use their dvd players. (this is when its a good thing that the residents like you) Finally, three dvd players later, I find a dvd player that will play the disc. Whew...

Would you believe the disk I have is of Dylans birthday party last month? No, I'm not kidding! Yep. I grabbed the wrong disc. Really, is this really happening to me? My life saver runs back home and promptly returns with the correct disc. We pop the correct disc in and yes ma'am, it works. Well, kind of. It has a mind of its own and sometimes changes pictures and sometimes doesnt. And when it reaches the end, do you think it could be gracious and just loop through again? Oh no. It just stops.

Are you kidding me? Nope. I finally gave up and sometimes it worked, sometimes not so much.

The memorial was fabulous, especially considering it was created and planned the day before. Yes, 1 day preparation. It all came together really well and was over just as quickly as it started. Over 100 people were there. Granny was loved, despite her grumpiness! Fortunately, no one got greedy with her belongings that she left in this world. Things have been sorted and shared with everyone. Granny didn't leave much behind, just many many loved ones that are anticipating seeing her again one day!

Memorial

me·mo·ri·al (mə-môr'ē-əl, -mōr'-) n.
Something, such as a monument or holiday, intended to celebrate or honor the memory of a person or an event.
A written statement of facts or a petition presented to a legislative body or an executive.

adj.
Serving as a remembrance of a person or an event; commemorative.
Of, relating to, or being in memory.

I've been to a couple Memorials in my lifetime. The last few days have been filled with planning and creating and scheduling for a short moment in time to remember Granny. My husband made a good point today; we went from a small intimate gathering to a big huge, 2 room, 100 people, food and coffee, slideshow and roses event. The funny part.... he said Granny would probably refuse to come...

So, shes sitting in Heaven right now thinking we're crazy... all this work for her... definately crazy.

Everyone has their own idea and their own way of honoring Granny, so the Memorial isn't really for Granny, its for each individual...

Until we meet again...

Granny passed away today, very quietly in her sleep. She has always had to carry an umbrella with her as her skin was very sensitive to the sun. Skin cancer was an enemy of hers and she was not interested in another battle with him. This morning as the sun arose into a record low day of 6 degrees, it cast itself peacefully onto Granny's face without the fear of skin cancer.

Granny has gone to be with Jesus!

Grandpa's Little Helper

 

Dylan loves to help Grandpa!

Tanner Bananer

 

This is what happens when you let Taylor and Robyn babysit...

Happy Birthday to Dyl!

Here's some pictures of some presents being opened this morning. His big party is Saturday.

Happy Valentines Day!

Here we are... supposedly the "romantic" day of the year. Last year at this time I was sitting in the bar at "The Crab Pot" in Long Beach, California. Some dearly think of Disneyland... but when people talk about the "happiest place on earth" its definitely The Crab Pot for me.

I couldn't be luckier! When we lived in Seattle, there was one down on the waterfront downtown, which equated to about a 30 - 45 minute drive (depends on who's behind the wheel). When we moved to California, there was one on the waterfront in Long Beach, which equated to about a 10 - 20 minute drive (again... who's driving). Everyone knows what the answer is if you ask Kelle where she wants to go for dinner.

Back to the story... we were waiting for our table. After a 45 minute wait our table was ready!! We sat down, ordered and waited... for about 2 minutes when I received the call from Taylor that Meg had fainted. Fast forward to February 16 and I'm a grandma! So Valentines Day is no longer thought of as a day of romance, but the day my adventure towards finding out how I could possibly have more unconditional love in my life.

This Valentines Day I find myself 283.25 (yes I mapquested it) miles away from The Crab Pot. No shot of hoppin in the car and running over there for dinner. I worked last night so took a little nap this afternoon and awoke to a different smell. My fabulous husband recreated the Crab Pot experience and made me my own Alaskan King Crab Feast.

Who says romance is dead?

Northern Lights Brewery

Last night was girls night. I met Stacy and Kaylene and Monique at Northern Lights. Stacy and her husband own Northern Lights, so everyone kept asking why we would go there, why wouldn't we let Stacy go somewhere else....

Truth be told... I loooove their Blueberry Ale. Its just something I want if I actually get a night out. Not to mention, they have fabulous food... I'm not just saying that because my friend is the owner... they reallllly have good food.

We sat and talked for 5 hours. (well lots of laughing really) My friend from work was supposed to stop by but she couldn't make so we'll be expecting her next time!! And hopefully some more friends can join. (hint hint)

We had so much fun we've decided that we will plan on doing it once a month... we deserve it!

Tanner Bananer

Victor, Leslie and Tanner Bananer came to visit last weekend. I can't vouch for Leslie, but I think she and I both were curious to see how these two little boys got along this time. Its been a few months since they were together and Dylan has since started walking and Tanner is definately running. Those two little boys got along really well. There were a few little toy taking episodes, but no drama at all. They pretty much coexisted and did their own thing most the time. Feeding times were a little hectic for Leslie because she ended up with two mouths as Dylan seems to be a bottomless pit.

I've posted this picture because whenever Leslie tries to take pictures of Tanner he runs or turns the other way. He was HAPPY to come running to me when I had my camera out and let me take his picture. I'll post a few more down below just so she can be even more frustrated! He's so cute though, dontcha think?!

Wow am I behind...

Its been over 4 months since I last posted. Can you believe it? Life has sure changed in the last 6 months of my life. If someone had told me last January that I'd be where I am today I'd have laughed myself silly. No way. That being said, its been very nice spending time with friends and family.