my first and last, ahem, pole dancing lesson.

a friend of mine at work had this *fabulous* idea for all of us gals to sign up for a pole-dancing class. i succumbed to the peer pressure and, because i didn't want to be the only "uncool" kid, signed up for it. it was at dolphin dance exotic. it only re-confirmed my suspicion that i am *the* most uncoordinated and klutzy person ever. but hey, i did get out for a kid-less night with girlfriends, and had a yummy dinner at los cabos afterwards with some good friends and a kick-ass strawberry margarita. so it was all good.

one of those "awwww" moments.

katie is learning about the senses in preschool. yesterday they were supposed to draw a picture of their favorite sound. this is katie's (writing courtesy of her preschool teacher).



her rendering of our family, L to R: daddy, samuel in his highchair, austin (LOL about how much bigger katie drew herself to him), katie, mommy, and missy at the bottom.

her teachers were fawning all over her. they all thought that was the *sweetest* thing that she chose her brother's laughter. i hope she always feels this way about him.

missing! lost tooth!

last month katie lost her 1st tooth. one day she came to me and said "mommy, this tooth is wiggly!" and sure enough, it was. she wiggled and wiggled and wiggled some more, but it stubbornly refused to come out. daddy offered (more than once) to help her along by pulling it out with a string, but she declined. she does *not* like blood and when she found out that it might bleed when it fell out, she thought that maybe she would just leave it in there, LOL. after about a week of it hanging in her mouth by a teeny little thread, she ran into the kitchen one day frantically pointing to her mouth. it was dangling out of her mouth but still attached, so i plucked it off. in honor of the occasion, i made her a tooth fairy pillow from this tutorial. makes it *ever* so much easier for the tooth fairy ;0)



not even a week after she lost the first one (on 1-14-09), she lost the other bottom front tooth! her grown-up teeth are poking through now....

90 years young.

today was my gram's 90th b-day. holy cow. guess i've got some longevity genes going for me. she had a very memorable day....her family flew in from all over the country to surprise her. we went to molly ward garden's for brunch this morning. it was a very cute little eclectic place, though their menu was a bit high-falutin' for me. i ordered the ham and gruyere cheese timbale, even though i didn't know what the heck a "timbale" was. i figured it must have something to do with eggs. i was right, it was a custard-type egg dish, similar to a quiche but not quite as firm and no crust. it would have been really good sans mushrooms. (yuck). it'd be a *great* little place to go ~without~ kids; but samuel was a handful and then some. and there were lots of little "pretties" that he could break laying around everywhere, agh!

anyhoos. everyone met up a little early so we would all be there when my mom brought her in (she thought she was just coming to have brunch with me.) she was very surprised and emotional and teary when she walked in and saw us all sitting there. after brunch we all went back up to my mom's in port townsend to visit and have cake and presents. it was a hoot sitting around listening to my crazy aunts, LOL....they are a riot. i hope her 100th proves to be as much fun.

guess i need one of those bumper stickers now.

you know, the ones that say "my child is an honor student at such-and-such a school". because austin MADE THE HONOR ROLL!!!! woooot! for the 1st time since he's been in jr. high. he got 5 A's and 2 B's and comments like "student is highly motivated" and "is a pleasure to have in class". i think i actually *squealed* in excitement when he showed it to me.

a day at crystal.

yesterday we took the kids down to crystal for a day of skiing. (except for samuel, he stayed with the lovely miss robyn). the morning started out *perfect*; sunny with nice powder. it only lasted for about an hour before the clouds set in, but even with the clouds it was comfortable and not too cold. katie did a half-day lesson in the morning and ate lunch at the kid's club. we picked her up and her and i stayed on the discovery lift (aka bunny hill) while the boys went off to play on some more difficult terrain. austin skiied down some double black diamonds with nathan (i swear, that child has ~no~ fear). katie and i skiied for awhile and then went inside the lodge for a hot chocolate break. then we skiied a little more until the boys returned, and we all went up together. katie did awesome, nathan helped her about half the way down on some steeper parts, and then she went down about half by herself. her ski instructor was super impressed with her, she is a fast little learner and he said next time she should advance to the green otter class. the only comments on her report card were that she needs to "stay in control more and don't look down at your skis!" LOL i would say one of the highlights of my day wasn't on the slopes though; it was on the drive down there and back. on the way there austin and i spotted a group of about 3 elk in the forest, and on the way home nathan said "oh! there they are again!" no one else had seen them so we turned around and went back and there was an entire herd of them, about 20 feet off the side of the road in a grove of trees. there had to be at least 10 of them. it was *so* awesome.

i didn't take my camera yesterday, so here are some pics from last time we went to crystal...


discovery lift with daddy.

a helping hand from daddy.

a contagious headache; or, our recent puke-fest.

i've been MIA for a few days, i know.....last wednesday austin came home from school with a throbbing headache. he laid down on the couch as soon as he walked in the door and immediately fell asleep. i woke him up awhile later to see how he was feeling and his head still hurt so bad that he was crying (and let me tell you, he is no wimp. so for this to be accompanied by tears, i *knew* it must be bad.) i gave him some meds and he laid back down. 5 hours later his head ~still~ hurt. i was comtemplating taking him to the ER but decided to just drug him up some more, let him get a good night's sleep and see how he felt in the morn.

thursday morning he still had a headache, but he said it wasn't quite as bad. i didn't send him to school and he just chilled in bed all day, sleeping and watching t.v. intermittently. by thursday evening he was feeling better for the most part and was up and walking around and wanting to get on the computer (a sure sign to me that he was feeling better.)

fast forward to friday night (actually saturday morning) around 3 a.m. and i wake up to katie crying. she said that her head hurt really bad. strange. i'm thinking, a contagious headache? hmmm. i drugged her up with some tylenol, and in the morning she seemed to be doing better.

valentine's morning we all opened our valentines and then got ready. it was austin's last day at the merit badge clinic for boy scouts. so nathan ran him up to that while i got myself and the other kids ready. when he got back we went to the Y and worked out, then stopped for a skinny-blended-mocha-with-whipped-cream at cafe perfetto (yummilicious!) on our way back to pick austin up. we all came home and got cleaned up and had lunch and then we went out for an afternoon drive. in the middle of the drive katie starts complaining about her head again, so we tell her to just lay it on her brother and close her eyes and rest. we had planned on going out for pizza, but decided to just pick it up and take it home since she wasn't feeling well. good thing, too, because as soon as we got home she took 2 bites of pizza and promptly puked *everywhere*. herself, the couch, the rug, me, the kitchen floor.....covered. i do not usually have a weak stomach, and i've been puked on plenty in my day.....but this made my stomach churn. the sheer *amount* of throw-up and the green, chunky consistency as i was trying to push it into the dustpan made me almost warrant a bathroom run of my own (aren't you glad you are reading this now? LOL) thankfully, she was feeling waaay better this morning. but, that is why i haven't had too very much computer time the last few days. i hope to do better this week.

i hope i never forget.

the funny things that katie says. one of my all-time favorites was as i was tucking her in one night. she had accidentally smooshed a caterpillar that had been in her bug catcher earlier that day (if you don't know my katie, she is a *huge* bug lover). we were talking about him being in "bug heaven" now, which led into talking about God.....and she asked me, "mom, how did God get in heaven? did somebody squish Him too?" the earnest way she looked at me and asked made it all the more hilarious.

10 years.

and 2 days. that is how long we've been married. wow.

we celebrated by going down to Crystal and went skiing. all. by. ourselves. it was *so* nice to get away. it was also nice because our hotel had no phone, tv, or internet, so we had to find ways to occupy ourselves in the evenings. the lobby of our hotel had a nice seating area in front of the fireplace with cushy leather couches and rocking chairs. we sat around and talked and played games; i still can't believe that my husband (the world's worst speller) beat me at scrabble by 1 point. the humiliation. we ate at the Snorting Elk deli the first night and then sat around the bar and listened to the Shed Boys, who played some jammin' acoustic bluegrass music. on saturday we drove into Greenwater and checked out a couple local shops and then ate dinner at Naches Tavern, one of those little local hole-in-the-walls that oozes the character and ambiance that i *heart*. sunday for lunch we ate at the Summit House, which is at the very top of the mountain and has the most *spectacular* views. it was a great (and much-needed!) getaway.

our hotel


the shed boys

katie's funny for the day.

this morning i was doing katie's hair. i was brushing it up, and she gazed over at me, still in my jammies (fleece jammie pants and a tank top). she says, "mommy! you are turning into a man. you have fur under your armpits." sheesh! so i skipped a day of shaving.....i didn't think it was *that* noticeable.

you get what you pay for.

i was *so* proud of myself for snatching up this awesome wooden dollhouse for katie's b-day at an even *awesome-er* price, until tonight when nathan and i broke out the tools and started putting it together. it is a big wooden piece of crapola. *nothing* fit together right; he had to break out the drill and make at least half of the holes bigger for the bolts to fit properly, one of the pieces of wood was bent pretty noticeably, causing the 2nd story to sag, and in general it was just one giant headache. it took the 2 of us about 2 1/2 hours to put together what should've probably been about a 30-45 minute job. i do *lurve* gettin' a good bargain, but sometimes it backfires and you get what you pay for. grrrr.




ETA: katie *does* like it, so even though it was a giant PITA, i'm glad we got it. nathan was able to fix the 2nd story sag with some gorilla glue, so it all turned out good.