Sunshiny Saturday

After a week full of weather like this...



...the sun came out and has provided absolutely fabulous weather. Miss Potato got her first taste of beef enchiladas, left over from the night before with Rory & Dianna.



She loved it! Especially the sour cream. She wanted more.



After Jeremy finished his lunch, we took him back to work. Lowe's does workshops for kids. The project was a flower planter. Pix and Bear were very determined with their hammering



Potato supervised.


When Jeremy got off work, we picked him up and drove south to Olympia for the Wooden Boat Fair at Percival Landing. We were hoping to get there before the Farmers Market closed, but alas, they were packing it up after closing at 3.

The kids mostly wanted to just look over the edge and look at little tiny fishies swimming in the murky water. Landings are filthy areas. There were plenty of vendors. The one we selected had mediocre lemonade. Honestly though, we only selected it due to the fact they were peddling deep fried Twinkies. We had to try one! We'd been talking about doing it ourselves only weeks ago. We weren't disappointed.
After we had finished up our Twinkie, we headed back north. We're looking for a new place to live, and decided to check out a couple of houses I had found on Remax. This brave little bunny didn't seem the least bit bothered when Jeremy pulled the van in towards him to turn around.



We had planned to go to the newly built Sonic for dinner. It was packed. Ridiculously packed. Absolutely Insane!! There was a line to the staging area, which was full. Yes, they have a freaking staging area for the drive in!! It reminded me of having to wait for the Ferry, while the ferry is having engine trouble and there's a long wait. Except the wait would have been longer for Sonic. We dismissed the thought and resigned oursleves to lunch at Sonic in the future, on a weekday lunch break. I;ve never had Sonic, I can wait. I did however get my completely necessary Cafe Adamo fix in the form of an iced carmellito with whip. What more does a girl need to end a beautiful day?

Friday Friends

Yesterday, we went over to our buddy Rory's place. The kids love it there. I was going to make eclairs, but ran out of the right type of flour. Substituting with whole wheat flour was not a good idea. No rise, no empty lil pocket for pudding filling. No eclairs. Ohsie Wells.
Potato has finally reached the point where the dog, Gus, does not freak her out! It's a terrier sized dog. When we first went over there, she wouldn't let anybody put her down. She screamed, cried, and clutched every time the dog came near. Now, only a few visits later she's the one going for the dog. She's so gentle with him, and he's so tolerant of her. It's adorable when they are both sitting on Dianna's lap. Potato pets Gus with her feet as they all sit there cuddling. I finally won a Wii bowling game. Sitting down really is better, but it seems like that kind of defeats the purpose of the Wii. They bought Wii fit a few days ago, and Rory wouldn't let them open it til we came over for dinner Friday. It was torture to their son, Nolan. I'm not sure Shantelle was bothered by it, she's more focused on driver's ed. Eek, teenagers. They're really good kids, but it reminds me of how close I am to having teens myself. I'd rather not think about it.
It's strange to have a free Friday night to spend with friends. But it's also wonderful! Usually we're driving to Ellensburg and back, either to pick up MonkeyBug, or to drop off Pix and Bear. It's a damper on social lives all around. Starting summer we'll only do the drive every other weekend. What a novel idea. Monkey will begin living with us again. Yay! This month the ex-husband has Guard the first two weekends, and ROTC the third weekend. He can't make the drive due to when he has to report to his duties. His live-in girlfriend, who is supposed to be a part of their lives, really only seems in it as long as she isn't inconvenienced. She has issues, she needs psychiatric help, and her medication adjusted... again. It'll be better on their relationship to have the kids every other weekend and for school breaks. I do worry how things are going to be this summer with them having the kids for 2 weeks at a time. Not for their sake, but the kids. Instead of splitting the summer in half, we'll be doing two weeks on, two weeks off. It makes better sense.
This weekend is sunny. I'm hoping we can cram in some park time. I won't have Monkey with me for Mother's Day, and I am not happy about that. Plus, my boyfriend works from 7-4. We're probably not doing anything, so I'll just get the van from him at his lunch break and spend the afternoon in the park with babies. Maybe we'll go down to the water front and look for shells and such. Maybe at high tide we'll see some jellyfish. The kids would love that!
Well, time to get the babies dressed and sunblocked. Mmm, Coppertone.

First Blog

My days are mostly mellow, with chaos thrown in strange ways to mix it up. We have a very full house with four kids and two adults. The oldest, my MonkeyBug, lives with her dad near Spokane. That will change this summer. PixyChick keeps begging for a dog, hamster, fish, any sort of pet we'll let her have. While Monkey is my physical carbon copy sent out into the world, Pixy is my characteristic carbon copy with her love of animals and artistic abilities. Bear is still potty training at 3 1/2. We've tried everything. He's stubborn as a mule and my baby brother. Then there's Potato. At not quite a year, she is into everything. In fact, today she found the sour patch gummies and chewy fireballs her daddy left laying out. She loved them. She's hilarious. We're in trouble. lol I know we have strange nicknames for the kids. They came about, and they stuck. Especially Potato.
My boyfriend and I know we need a new place. This one is just too small for our horde. The problem is A) finding a place we like that is actually still on the market and B) affording it. I've been unemployed since October. It's tough, and things are tight. But, it's actually ideal right now since we are down to one vehicle.
The Audi is limping around while in 1st and 2nd gear. The so called professionals who are experts in german vehicles have no clue. Thanks for nothing, Too Quicks of Tacoma, WA. So the boyfriend gets to try to squeek it back towards his sister's garage and tinker with it. Where he'll find the time, we haven't figured out. He has a beetle in there already. It's in pieces. Lots of pieces. As in the engine is sitting on the floor against the wall, parts are in rubbermaid bins, and the body is on dolleys while the frame is on the other half of the shop awaiting a welder or some such thing to piece it together. The frame needs a few peices also, like the front beam (?). Whoo hoo. We also need the hood. It was in a front end collision, hence the front beam being bent. SO if anybody knows where to get a hood compatible with a 67 Beetle for cheap, that is not banged up badly, that would be sweet.
But now it's time to get going. Having only one vehicle to coordinate transportation, I have to go pick the boyfriend up just in time to begin heading over to pick Pixy up from school.