Christmas in July

I haven't really talked about the weather in an out and out 'talking about the weather' kind of way for a while, so I'm going to talk about the weather in this here, short little post.

Disclaimer:  I am FULLY aware that the rest of the country is experiencing sweltering, unbearable, and evenly deadly heat.  I feel awful for them and hope it passes soon.

I, on the other hand, am experiencing the coldest, grayest summer of my life.  Granted, I lived in Southern California for the first 18 years of said life, and summers there are pretty fabulous as a rule.  But, as long as I've lived in the Pacific Northwest the summers have been pretty good.  Occasional rainy periods but always long bouts of sun with temps exceeding 80 degrees for extended periods of time.  Perfect really.  This summer on the other hand, went AWOL.  I'm freezing most of the time.  I have a space heater aimed at myself every morning and evening.  Yesterday it was 83 degrees, the pool was filled and we spent the whole day on the deck basking in what would be a fluke, cuz we are back to the northwest gloom today.  I awoke to booms of thunder and gray skies.  Ack.  It's killing me.  I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder) so I NEED the summer more than anyone else in the whole entire world.  I wait and wait, I anticipate the sun's glorious rays shooing away the darkness in my head.  Not good.  I can't wait to get out of this God-forsaken place in August and head towards warmth, desert, dryness.   If things don't improve soon around here I'm just going to get the Halloween decorations out and call it a lost cause.  Ho-ho-ho.

Aloha!

This blog has become some sort of depressing weather report lately.  Saying that I will go on to mention that we are battening down the hatches for some record breaking rain heading our way, one of our famous Pineapple Expresses.  Sounds so tropical and it is, kind of, it's a stream of rain and warm air caught in a system trough coming from Hawaii and heading towards us, we could get a couple inches of rain.  So Mike is at Home Depot getting some gutter extensions to lead the water away from the house, he added and adjusted tarps to our leaky roof areas and cleaned out the leaf-filled gutters.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we are prepared enough and won't have to deal with anymore water issues here at the homestead.  Liv is arriving on Tuesday evening, hopefully not to another "weather event".

One more week until Christmas Winter Break,  I'm almost done shopping now, awaiting a couple more packages by FedEx.  I will have to brave the elements and my mental state to do some actual shopping to finish up.  I've assigned Mike some tasks, like picking up gifts for his littlest nephews and taking care of Brynn's gifts.  We decided not to buy gifts for each other this year but that always bites me in the butt, so I have been grilling the kids about whether or not Mike is getting me a gift, just in case.  So far they say they "don't know anything" but they are terrible liars and I'm concerned. 

We watched "Eat, Pray, Love" last night, so good and such beautiful scenery.  It was between that and Twilight Eclipse, I figured I'd give Mike and break and chose the chick flick over the tween drama, that poor man.  Anyway, I'm going to grab my couch blanket, a cup of mocha, and watch Eclipse while the Pineapple Express has it's way with us.

Bah Humbug AGAIN

As if my life isn't filled with enough anxiety and depression, cuz that's pretty much my constant state of being from mid October through April, with little sprinkles here and there the rest of the year, my effing roof is leaking again!!!  Flat roof over the bedroom, which we FIXED already, starting leaking again during another torrential Seattle rainstorm last night.  Luckily my hero, Drew, showed up at exactly the right moment, forget that he actually showed up for leftover chili, and saved my ass.  This is a new leak, where the flat roof and the slanted roof meet.  Drew climbed up in the downpour, in the pure darkness, and threw a tarp over the leaky part and stopped the stream of water landing in the center of my bed, on my newish Pottery Barn comforter non-the-less.  It seemed to work, although in order to stop the leak I had to remove the tarp from the other flat roof, over the kitchen, which started leaking on Thanksgiving day.  It's a small leak so I found an old ski jacket one of the kids left in the storage room and crammed it around the stove vent, the source of the leak in the kitchen, and so far so good.  I come from pioneer stock.  In case you are wondering, Mike is out of town, another one of those "Mike coincidences" that pop up so frequently.

Crazy weather has been predicted for the northwest this year and we have not been disappointed.  This morning it rained harder than I have ever seen it rain at my house.  Thunder and lightning, it was like nighttime at 8:00 this morning when I took Jack to school.  I actually like dramatic weather so I'm pretend complaining about that, except when the dramatic weather falls on my super adorable comforter.

Like I've inferred above, my anxiety is over the top right now, I'm trying to finish up my Christmas shopping on a shoestring budget, I'm almost done but my seasonal affective disorder is not allowing me even go near a crowd of any sort.  Luckily our closest shopping center is an outdoor mall, which helps as I'm not forced to get too close to other humans.  Blech.  I've even managed to avoid the Center's annual Holiday Party, which features a chocolate fountain, my worst nightmare.  Seriously, so gross.

I tried to cheer myself up the other night by watching a late movie (anxious sleeplessness), FYI...don't watch "The Lovely Bones" when you are depressed.  Derr.

Bah Humbug

Seattle did finally thaw out.  It's been a beautiful sunny, cold weekend and yesterday was a perfect day to head to the tree farm for our annual Christmas tree hunt.  We found a lovely one, had some hot chocolate and headed back to the homestead for some decoratin'. 



Live Tree



Dead, but lovely, tree.



Grace and I decided to have a little sleepover down in Liv's room to check it out.  She is correct in stating that her bed is very comfy and I slept like a log.  I thought it might be a little creepy in the basement but it really wasn't, it was cozy and warm and the big window is so pretty in the morning.  Only 8 more days until Liv is home again.

Our day started out a little scary, Elke got out of the yard yesterday morning and we didn't find her for 3 hours.  She has been getting out and I warned Mike not to let her out unattended until he fixed the fence.  I awoke to hear him calling her and knew immediately that he probably hadn't heard me (again) and hoped that he hadn't removed her collar like he usually does (she jingles and wakes us up in the morning).  Unfortunately, he had...insert signing sound.   I was trying not to imagine her lifeless body lying in the road and what that would do to my children.  Turns out a good Samaritan found her and took her to the vet to scan her microchip.  I was introduced to a NE Seattle Moms group page and was so grateful to find that this network of mom's led Elke right back to our door, neighbors I don't even know.  It was heartening to see that our neighborhood is a lot more neighborly than I knew.  Today Mike is fixing the fence, it's only taken him five years and a giant scare but he is getting it done.

I'm immersed in Christmas shopping and taking my Ativan so that I can sleep through the stress of it all, and trying not to gain my usually holiday 5 pounds...I think it might be too late for that. 

We are all trying to recover from nasty colds, me, Liv, Sam, Jack and Drew all got walloped but I think the worst is over.  Back to the grind, I can't wait for January so I can start my official countdown to May and camping season.  I don't have a good attitude about January, February, March, or April.