Update!

     It's been a while.  This blog was created to keep in touch with Liv while away at school but it morphed into a way for me to be a little creative in my mostly uncreative life.  It became a little cathartic, and I say "little" because there's really only so much you can say when you know people who know you, are reading.  My husband stumbled upon it one day and was concerned that he came across as a bumbling dork.  For that I am sorry, I just report.

     Liv has been home so much, the 1.5 hour drive isn't enough to keep her away her my awesome mothering, that I haven't needed to keep her updated on our doings.

     Liv ended  up at Western and is in fact finishing up her quarter next week.  She'll be home, back to the basement bedroom for a few months and has procured a position with the "City" as a fire hydrant painter for the summer. 

     Sam moved back home in January, down to the basement as well.  She broke up with that guy, and is a very happy, single, working 23 year-old.  I'm happy to have her back, in every way.

     Other than that, I really don't have much to report.  We are hoping for some positive changes next month, which I am not at liberty to discuss until such changes occur, which they better.  So send positive energy our direction. 

     I anxiously await a weather change, Seattle has been mired in rain and clouds all year.  We finally hit 70 degrees last week.  Seriously, end of May.  My mood is bad, I'm usually feeling a happy bump in my brain by now but this daily darkness is not working for me.  I fantasize about moving to a sunnier clime on a daily basis, but my large brood of children keep me grounded in the realization that being away from any of them for any amount of time would counter the effects of sunshine in my eyes. 

     Camping season will commence this weekend with our annual trip to Leavenworth.  I give that a sincere yahoo!  Finally!!

Not too bad...

Um, Liv, if you're reading this, I have some bad news.  We suffered a slight bit of flooding this weekend due to the aforementioned blog entry entitled "Aloha".  We lost about 1/4 of the carpet in Liv's room, luckily I put in the stick down squares so we were able to just pull up the wet ones and can replace them with new ones.  I did not panic or freak out, you would have been so proud of me.  I was very zen about it, especially after watching the news on Sunday and realizing that we got away with very little damage compared to so many other people.  The rain was freaky though, it never stopped all night, most of the rivers here in the great northwest jumped their banks and lots of people lost everything.  Mike and I were out in the midst of it checking gutters and putting down tarps around the house.  We had to end up stapling a big blue tarp to the south side of the house and sloping it down like a tent to direct the water away from the foundation, so far so good.

We stayed hunkered down for the weekend and watched the rain come down in sheets.  It was cozy.  Grace and I have almost managed to beat Donkey Kong Country Returns but that last boss is a real beezy.  We watched a lot of TV, cleaned house, read, and cooked...my ideal weekend, I never got out of my sweats, I even slept in them.  Ahh.  I even finished wrapping all the presents I have bought so far, that's a big deal as I'm usually up until 3:00 a.m. on Christmas Eve finishing up.  Not this year!

Picking up Liv tomorrow night at 7:00 and then Sam is off to visit Kourtnie and Trevor in El Paso on Wednesday morning, she'll be gone for a week and is sooo excited, it's Trevor's 2nd birthday already.  Crazy.

A milestone and a couple crappy things...

My oldest has flown the nest...again.  We moved Samantha out on Sunday and we only broke one window in the process.  Mike was trying to strap Sam's boxspring onto the top of the Yukon and the bungee snapped and hit the rear window like a gunshot.  Shattered.  Oh well, it's already back to good and Sam is out.  I'm excited for her, she is doing a great job decorating on a dime.  I'm going to start working on turning that basement into a cute Liv's/guest/video game/t.v. room when I have an extra second.  Which I won't anytime soon on account of the third paragraph.

We also scrubbed the front steps so that the little trick or treaters wouldn't slide off our previously treacherously slippery stairs.  We had about four groups of kids, mostly under 6.  Which also means I'm about to gain another 5 pounds finishing off the Halloween candy, why am I not smart enough to buy the gross stuff, like black licorice.  Ack.  Hey, maybe I should keep a pictorial blog of my growing ass...you wish.

Lastly, I woke up this morning to the depressing sound of water dripping.  Extra depressing as it was dripping inside my house.  The roof over my bedroom is done doing what it's supposed to do and we are now going to be doing a major tear down of most of the drywall in my room.  We will also be re-roofing as soon as it stops raining.  We live in Seattle so that may be a while.  Oh, and we don't really know how to re-roof, so yeah.  It's grandpa Steve to the rescue, again.  We are trying to figure out if homeowner's insurance will cover this, but I'm not an optimistic person.  *heavy sigh*  I would now like to officially request to the universe that I win the lotto cuz I need it more than ANYONE else in the world.  Seriously.  Sometimes life is a real bitchosaurus rex.

Jack o' Lanterns

The only thing I like less than carving pumpkins is dying Easter eggs.  Although, this year was less awful than most.  The pumpkins seemed to have less guts than usual, and more seeds? 

Obviously, Jack and Grace are a little too young to handle the butcher knife part of the event, so I end with the job.  Mike was texting Gawd knows who and watching baseball all evening, so...of no help whatsoever.



   

     We ended up with these beauties

Another view...

And with dog... 



Another Happy Birthday...

Having five children means lots of birthdays.  I have a little bit of an April cluster, I have no idea why but three of my five were born in April.  There is another mini-cluster in the Fall, Grace is September and Samantha is Today!  Happy 23rd birthday Tammy Teetower! 

I think that no matter how many children one gives birth too, the event is indelibly and forever burned into your memory.  I can conjure up that moment in a flash.  Sam's birth was my first and was the most difficult, they used forceps back then and she was facing the wrong direction.  After a long, exhausting, 26 hour labor she was pulled and twisted out of my body with the use of a medieval torture device.  She was also my most difficult newborn, colic was our life for 10 weeks, non-stop crying for 4 hours every night.  It would start as soon as her dad got home from work, she would turn bright red and scream, and then it would stop as quickly as it started, exactly 4 hours later.  She didn't take to gaining a sibling too well, she really liked being an only child and welcomed newborn Drew into our house by promptly peeing on the floor even though she was fully potty trained.  Potty training restarted and it took months to get back to trained.  She really taught us.

Sam has had her fair share of issues, 2009 was a horrific year for her and us, but we got her back and she's is working hard to rebuild her life, credit, and relationships.  She confounds me at times, but she is a great girl.  Sweet, fun, and she cares about those she loves.  Little kids love Sam most of all, that speaks volumes to her sweet spirit and sense of humor.  I'm proud of you Sam, I love you!!

Sam and I picked up Liv at the airport on Thursday night for her whirlwind weekend visit.  It was bittersweet, it was fast, it was fun, it was over too quickly.  She requested her favorite meal, chicken pot pie, for dinner on Friday night, but was to busy to fit in any other dinners.  She had lots of friends to see, she had the Husky game on Saturday, lunch with her dad on Sunday, a little bit of homework sprinkled here and there.  But, we did get in some time shopping and lunch on Saturday and baking cookies to take back with her.  I was worried that the separation would drudge up the whole separation sadness, and it did, not like the first time but I'm really feeling her absence again.  Six weeks until Thanksgiving.  :-).