B.S.C.

bsc-strikes again

I've had a sty or is it stye? (I've seen it spelled both ways. I don't really care how it's spelled, I'd just like it to go away) in my eye since thursday. It makes me want to itch my eyeball out of my head.  I SWEAR I got it from the eye doctor appt I had earlier in the week.

We got pinned in at the husky tailgate after the game on saturday.  We had to wait an hour before we could get out and that was only because some a-hole went around asking people to move.  yes, we benefited from this but he could have been nicer about it. He was NOT using appropriate social rules.

Eric thought we would need out car registration (as we were passing through marysville) when we crossed the border into BC. We pulled over and looked to it for 20 minutes...to no avail.  I was secretly happy that he experienced losing/misplacing something in a very innocent manner.  He of course wondered why I had to make it about me.  I think that was just so he wouldn't admit that I don't lose things on purpose.

Eric stood in line to buy some Pearl Jam concert shirts only to find out that they didn't take a credit card....that was the line on the far side.  so he bought a shirt with cash.  I went to the far side to get a shirt and they denied me because we were supposed to get the shirts in the line Eric was in and then the buy was supposed to put those on a table by the credit ringing guys and THEN we were supposed to get in that line.  confused?  We were.

Eric used all his cash for the PJ shirt so he tried to get money from the cash machine and neither of his cards would work.

Eddie Vedder apparently thinks Seattle fans suck because they don't get amped up enough during his show.  Well, excuse the hell out of me.  If you'd rather not have your Seattle fan base, could I have all the money my husband has spent on tickets, albums, travel and concert gear returned, plus interest? 

We were told there would be a ton of cabs available after the show.  Guess what?  By the time we got out of the crappy little event center that only had one exit (and I was praying there wouldn't be a fire or an earthquake cause we'd have gone down) there were NO cabs.  We exited said event center at 11:30.  

Guess what time we got a ride??

Go on.  Guess.

ONE AM IN THE MORNING.

and that was only because some angel in the form of a bus driver driving an empty city bus stopped and told us he'd take us where we needed to go.  

I thought "he's either taking us to the pig farm or he's like that angel from highway to heaven."

Thank You God, it wasn't the pig farm.  

The bus driver picked up a ton of people and took them where they needed to go FOR FREE.

The irony in this story is Eric's refusal to drive all the way home to snohomish after the show because he wanted to get some good sleep that night.  We didn't get to bed until almost two am. 

Needing to get on our merry way because I had a bridal shower I had to get together for the next afternoon, we headed out mid morning-ish.  Thinking we'd be super sly and go through the white rock border crossing, we picked the far left lane to wait in line.

And...shockingly...we chose wrong.

It was the only lane that wasn't filtering into more than one check point thing-y place. yep about 7...SEVEN cars passed up for every one car length that we moved.  

To say we were pissed would be putting it mildly. 

But that's how we Emans roll.

 

 

father's day and this and that

**this morning annie looked in the mirror and said "i think i'm having a bad hair day"

to which gracie replied "it looks like THAT EVERY DAY."

and annie said "well, THANKS sissy."

all said with great sarcasm.  i laughed hysterically. the apples don't fall far from the trees sometimes.

**we're watching true grit right now.  i feel like we're doing something illegal.  we hardly ever watch a movie let alone on a "school night." fortunately i have busy work to do while watching like, folding laundry, blogging, cutting out box tops (joy) and cutting out letters for VBS decorations.  

let me just tell you that if you think helping on the vbs decoration committee gets you out of actually teaching at VBS...well...you thought wrong.  

i'm in charge of a 2nd grade class.  not a helper, not doing crafts.  in charge.  now who thought that was a good idea?

**i did something crazy and unlike me.  i got in the bod pod at the club this evening.  it's this pod thing that measures weight and percentage of lean muscle mass.  it told me i needed to lose 6 pounds.

i promptly came home and ate a gallon of ice cream to drown my sorrows (not really, we didn't have any in the house). 

**i've been thinking a lot about my run last friday and why it was so, so bad.  i felt like there had to be other reasons, aside from my shoes, that were part of my demise.  

do you think that, maybe just maybe, eating a theo dark chocolate bar with almond and cranberries in place of lunch or half of your child's chocolate easter bunny in place of dinner is not proper nutrition?

**we spent father's day weekend at the townhome. had a nice lazy saturday and invited some  new friends over for dinner since eric said i was cooking enough for 10. 

on the menu:  grilled new york and filet mignon, grilled garlic shrimp, grilled asparagus, homemade mac and cheese (you can find it here. it made a ton but we ate most of it.  it was so good and the kids liked it too. it will become a townhome side dish staple) cilantro butter for the corn on the cob the neighbors brought, a corn, tomato and cilantro salad

and cheesecake bars with chocolate ganache.  uh yeah, will be making these again. and again and again and again.  and surprisingly, 3 out of the 4 kids ate them.  once guess as to who wouldn't eat the rest of hers.  apparently it was "too chocolatey."  turd.

we ate our dessert at the neighbors and the kids made s'mores around their cool little fire pit.

and while making their s'mores, they got an education in what happens when crazy aunt sally drinks too much at the wedding that was being held at the club house-dances off on to the golf course by herself and then trots around the corner to secretly suck on a lug rocket.  so you know, we also got in a lesson about the deadliness of cancer sticks.  

always valuable. 

and us adults had a great evening entertainment with the fine selection of music being played by the dj. i guess there were some famous pro football players there. 

we didn't get the kids to bed until 10:30 that night.  

the next morning annie gave eric a special father's day treat by waking up at 5:30. fortunately she sandwiched her way in between us and managed to successfully hog the king sized bed for the next two hours. 

sunday brought beautiful blue sky and some pool time.  and all of us counting the days until we head back. 

 

it's late, i'm pooped, i have to get up early for work tomorrow

but sometimes ya just gotta post.  

i've been such a bad blogger.  evidence that june has been super duper busy for our family, as i am sure it is for most peeps, especially if your kids are in school and YOU yourself work in the schools.  so much to wrap up.  all the end of the year stuff. yikes!  throw in a few birthdays, extra work days, PTA stuff, a field trip etc. etc.

and at roughly 4:45 pm,  i felt the need to scrub my house top to bottom.  like self cleaning oven cycle, wipe down baseboards, clean under the kitchen sink kind of clean.  fortunately tomorrow i only have the kids rooms left, the toy room, my scrapbook room  and some light fixtures left to do. it feels gooooood.

i did manage to make the kids a home cooked meal but eric got taco bell for dinner. that's what happens sometimes when you get home late and i've already cooked one meal.

he thought he was so funny when he walked in the door and informed me that the beeping from the timer is what tells me dinner is done, NOT the smell coming from the oven. (it smelled all nasty burnt).  yes folks, he is super funny like that and he's all mine. 

i was at the girls' school early this morning to set up some food stuff and make the community room look at little nicer for this concert that we won through campbell's labels for education.  i schlepped the girls to starbucks--a bribe for getting up so early and being so helpful--and then schlepped them to school to wait with me while i set things up.  

thank you starbucks for being my one stop shop for breakfast and lunch for my kids. 

in the craziness of the morning...REALLY should have packed everything i needed the night before...we forgot annie's backpack. 

soooooo, when i took it to her at lunch time, i found her skipping around the play ground, shorts unsnapped, unzipped and her little brown belly hanging out.

apparently she went to the bathroom earlier and couldn't get her shorts snapped back up.  one would think she could have at least made an attempt at the zipper, but no.  

welcome to annie world. it's a magical place.

the irony of the story is that before we left this morning she put her coat on and only the bottom of the shorts were peeking out.  she fussed and cried that kids would make fun of her that she was wearing underwear????? WHAT????

do you see my point??  

and i guess the apple does not fall far from the tree because in my harried state this morning i threw on my work out clothes, went to school and did my thing and then booked to the gym.  

knowing that if i didn't pee before spin...well...you can make your best educated guess about how that would have ended up. 

anyway, i use the bathroom and realize that my underwears were on BACKWARD which totally explains why the ole' hanky pankies were so uncomfortable. 

i got my first blister from running this past weekend. ran the hill twice, AGAIN!  10 miles.  it knocked me on my rear. so I schlepped the girls to RUN 26 after school( GO THERE FOR ALL YOUR RUNNING NEEDS!!!). i brought my old shoes in to have them checked out to make sure i'd used them all up.  the kid was like  'OH MY GOSH, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU RAN IN THESE SO LONG!!!! they usually last about 450-500 miles. you've got 600+ on these. " i felt rather proud.  i couldn't wait to get home to tell eric that i wasn't just buying a new pair of running shoes willy nilly. 

now, i was a little excited about new shoes since i wear one particular type and they seriously make my feet look like that of an elephant. they're super bulky and heavy, but when i wear them i feel like i am running on a million pillows. i'd seen some of my friends' new asics-super cute white with purple- you know the ones.  not the kind i can wear, but i had hope i was going to get some cute new color/design. 

oh no. of course not.  they're grey with yellow and pink.  bizarre.  WHO THE HELL DESIGNS THESE SHOES? back to big ole' elephant looking feet.

so, that was my day.  

i tell ya what, i am so looking forward to going to work tomorrow.  4 hours of peace and quiet.  well, if you call the intermittent screaming from one of our special ed students on the other side of my office wall and the occasional scent of a fully loaded diaper, peaceful and quiet, then i can't wait to go to work. 

my goals for tomorrow are simple

1. underwears on correctly

2. pants (cause it's PE day, you know) that annie can manage herself.  (when i saw the school's occupational therapist today, i told her the story and asked "shouldn't that be automatic qualification for motor therapy?"...there's no need for standardized testing here.

night.

wow - facebook is deadly.... Nice Pics

so i had some real nice photos of me posted on facebook the other day. some pictures that were taken as sample high school senior photos.  

not good.

there are some instances where you just want to turn back the clock and have a do over...

this was one.

eric didn't say anything about it for a couple of days and then i got this email from his on my drive over east yesterday:

Hey:

Good to know who your friends and enemies are – posting of high school yearbook shots…..  Deadly!

Now for my personal critique – not a great choice of shirt, horizontal lines w/ a shot from the waist up.  If you could see the bottom half you would look much thinner  you tree hugger….

 As for the ski shot, priceless just priceless.  I will say your expression is one of constipation, what the hell is going on there?  I think you are supposed to be serious about skiing?  The picture suggests otherwise…..

 All for now, this is good humor though and has made 15 minutes of my day a bit brighter.  Love you and if you are reading this (and laughing) while driving stop, watch the road!!!!

 Love ya and have fun over there….

 Eric

he's a funny man, folks.  

HE'S SKIING ON ONE SKI!!!!

as you should know by now, emans' family adventures are never without some bumps. and for this little adventure we all had our own story.

we skied twice president's weekend.  i think i blogged about the first day?  annie cried the last 20 minutes of the lesson.  

here's the highlights from ski day 2:

annie: well, when we headed back to the mountain on sunday, she flat out refused to take a lesson. i even had crazy ol' joe talk to her. she went to the daycare.

mom:  went on a couple of runs by herself while dad and gracie had their lessons.  so that was great.  not so great: i bit it on an incline carrying crazy joe's ski jacket.  he had taken gracie up the lift and didn't have his jacket. when they decided to go again, i told him i'd ski ahead and get his jacket.  that was a great idea until i realized he carries half his belongings in his jacket. so i've got this heavy jacket, my poles, and i'm trying to hike up (on my skis) on this little incline to get back to the lift.  somehow i tripped and fell.  it was super graceful. 

gracie: she did the rope tow for an hour with joe when he decided she was ready for the chair.  they practiced sitting and getting off the chair on this little practice chair by the lessons center. i was so nervous for her...for two reasons...i still get nervous getting on and off the chair.  why? i don't know.  and two...totally irrational fear of my children falling off the chair.  so they slowed the chair down and she got on just fine.  joe kept her preoccupied all the way, pointing out animal tracks, grooming tracks.  he's such a great teacher. we get to the top and i'm a chair behind them so i can see everything.  he's prepping her to scoot forward and stand up when her skis hit the ground. well, she doesn't stand up.  he's half way off and she's still sitting there.  he grabs her arm and pulls her off the lift.  she goes flying in the air. 

my heart sinks.

she'll NEVER do this again.

i get off and go to them and she's on the ground crying, without her skis and complaining of her leg hurting.  

and then, by some miracle, she calms down, they get going and i ski off the other way because she does much better when i'm not around.  

i meet them half way down the hill and with all the vigor and smiles i can muster.."are we doing this again?"

and i am met with a smile and a hearty YES!!! 

THANK GOD.

and that was that.

which brings us to eric's story...

he took his first two runs with his instructor and did great.  on the third run, i was standing under the lift waiting for give crazy joe his jacket.  eric had just gotten on the chair. i look up and he's only got one ski.  so i called up to him "you only have one ski!" cause it looked like he didn't notice. 

he tells me later.."NO you shrieked it (and then does a fine imitation)and how the hell would i NOT notice i only had one ski?"

so i was like did you ski off the chair with one ski?  like charles de mar from better off dead, i say "he's skiing on one ski!"  

and all the way home on monday one of us would bust out with "he's skiing on one ski" at random intervals and completely crack up.

we were definitely made for each other.

the videos

i posted:

#1-gracie played "good king wenceslas" at church this evening as families were arriving for the kid friendly service.  we were SO PROUD of her!  she's only been learning since mid september. this was the first christmas song she learned and she has memorized it.

as she was heading up to the piano my heart was constricting and i could barely breathe.  then when she got up to the piano and looked at it, i realized that she would not know where middle C was--the base where she always starts from.  on our piano it's to the right of the i in schimmel, but on that piano...ack!

she looked at the piano for a minute, found it and gave it a go.  when she finished...well, i don't think i've ever been quite so proud.  i think i felt that feeling those parents of sporty kids feel when they score a goal or hit a home run.  i pray that she continues with piano and her love of music continues to grow. she's definitely got it in her genes.      

video 2: well, that's just a train wreck.  since gracie was a babe, eric has been reading T'was the night before christmas at bedtime on christmas eve.  a couple of years ago my mom came across some of the christmas books i had as a child so now he reads that version.  my parents and mother in law were over this evening and to be fair, we'd had a bit of wine.  so when daddy was reading we kind of got the giggles at certain parts. if you listen carefully, you'll hear what he says under his breath after the word "mount."  yes folks, that's my husband.  he may be juvenile sometimes, but he makes me laugh.  and the kids just think he's crazy.        

the girls didn't get to bed until just after 10.  santa filled their stockings a left a present.  daddy put the bows on my presents.  as he was doing so he sighed a big sigh.  he does that a lot.  if you work with him, i am sure you hear it every 5 minutes. anyway, i told him i didn't like it when he sighed his frustrated sigh when he was putting bows on my presents.  to which he replied "i don't mind making presents pretty for you at all."  i LOVE that man. 

i have so many BSC stories from disneyland but i just don't have the time or mental energy to go into that.  we'll save that for another time.  

i do want to wish my all my friends and family a Very Merry Christmas! May you treasure this time with your loved ones and rejoice in the birth of our Savior!

sometimes i wonder

i am always proud of the effort eric puts forth at work.  he works a ton. he takes pride in his work and he does it well.  because of this, i rarely talk to him during the day.  he usually doesn't pick up the phone when i call so i will text him if there's something important i need to tell him. 

so when i get a text like this in the middle of the day on a friday 

"nic may not be with us tomorrow"

and the accompanying photo

i can't help but think "WHAT IN THE SAM HELL DOES HE DO ALL DAY?"

and...i continued to get updates with photos on nic's progression in eating the "what's that burger"

apparently nic will eat anything on a dare.

here is it's description on the menu at John Howie Steak

* The “What’s That?” Burger, 3⁄4 pound ground prime chuck, Swiss & cheddar, tempura bacon, onion rings, drive in sauce, layered between two grilled cheese sandwiches

there wasn't much left when nic was done with it. he didn't eat dinner that night and his wife came home that evening to find him on the couch in a food induced coma.  he survived the evening though because he was able to manage 7 hours of tailgating + the husky game the next day. 

impressive.

note to self

do not go on vacation for 10 the same day you run a half marathon.  you might come home to scary things in your refrigerator. remember i was incapacitated after the run?  lucky for my family and i that we were all packed.  i just wasn't up the to the task of cleaning the dishes in the sink or cleaning out the fridge. 

bleech.

friday morning eric and i were woken up at 5 am to the awesome sound of a low flying aircraft.  

we had to go out on the deck to see what was going on. it wasn't until the sickeningly sweet smell of poison wafted through our nostrils until i ventured to guess what it was.

turns out it was a helicopter spraying for mosquitoes.  it was awesome.  i am sure we inhaled enough poison to turn our lungs black. 

thank you for the lack of warning grant county or whomever was in charge of that.

i made some festive blueberry muffins laced with mosquito poison

 

we spent some time in the poison infested swimming pool later that day.

 

saturday we went to lilith fair. 

we got there at 3:30 and stayed until 10:30. i still can't really believe they lasted that long.  the girls enjoyed hearing colbie caillat and sugarland.  that erykah badu has a major potty mouth. fortunately i was walking around with the girls most of the time she was singing. 

at one point i headed to the bathroom by myself where i saw one of the most horrific  sights i've seen in a long time.  the image was burned on my retina and i might need to give myself a lobotomy.  it was all kinds of wrong and it doesn't include 

a. the man i saw with the mohawk who shoved his thin cotton shorts into his underwear to make it look like he was wearing a banana hammock

b. the man who was dressed as a woman wearing a polyester, long skirt with thin pleats all the way around, a silky floral blouse, patent leather sling backs and a long blonde wig.  i really don't care that he  was dressed like a woman  but seriously, dress for the venue.

c. the drunk hetero dude who looked to be in his mid to late 40's who stopped the girls and i because he liked annie's hat.  he drunkenly slurred out that he had a 12 year old who he wished would listen to music with him.  then he thanked me for bringing my girls.  i really think he was there to pick up on chicks, but DUDE you have the wrong venue for that.

yeah, so what i saw was worse.  i can't even talk about it.

sunday was the big 4th of july parade.  i really fell short on my holiday parenting for this 4th of july. totally forgetting about the parade and being in it in the golf cart. i didn't even buy any festive holiday crap to wear. you know like necklaces or silly headbands.  I AM A TERRIBLE MOTHER.

fortunately i was the only one who was disappointed in myself.  the girls were thrilled to watch the parade and get candy.

 

waiting for the parade to start

 

the cresent bar firefighters start off the parade.  thank you grant county fd and the neighboring counties who kept the fire out of cresent bar yesterday.

 
 

the theme was aloha from cresent bar.  there were some funny participants.
 and some cute floats

there's janette, cory and friends with her festive golf cart

the rest of the day we spent on the boat (that was an experience.  almost all of my hair fell out while waiting for eric to bring the trailer around for trailering.  imagine small body of water, a current from the wind, two boats dead in the water, the sheriff  and several other idiot boat owners jockying for a spot at the dock or waiting to be trailered.   it was my own personal nightmare.  but i did it.)

at the pool and finally hunkered in the town home while we watched the hillside burn.

where's waldo

today we were drifting in the river when eric spotted some goat families on the rocks.  there must have been about 15 of them.  i didn't have my zoom lens, so i'll let you play where's billy...

  they blend in nicely huh?

eric wakeboarded again.  i LOVE our boat. he pops up like a cork. seriously!  i can't wait to ski behind it. the water is just so incredibly cold and it hasn't been super hot so i just don't want to get in it.

the girls played in the sand at the dunes while i read the short life of bree tanner.  and that was kind of a waste of 45 minutes.  

gracie and i made friendship bracelets

yesterday the girls and i ran in to wenatchee to get the above dmc floss so that we could make friendship bracelets.  

we didn't put the boat in because eric's uncles came for a day visit.  it was super nice to see them. 

then the girls and i went to the pool

they are turning in to fish... it only took 8 years for gracie and 5 1/2 for annie.  my persistence in forcing them into the water has paid off.  i'm sure i'll pay for the therapy when they're 30.

 

gracie, riding the alligator.  

 
 after we cleaned up from the pool we thought a little game of putt putt would be fun.  

apparently, we were wrong.

gracie hit annie's hand with the putter, on accident of course but if she had listened to our constructive criticism and NOT tried to hit the ball like she was driving on the tee and annie HAD paid attention and NOT walked right in front of her the evening wouldn't have fallen apart. 

that was on the 3rd hole. 

proof of gracie's swing...

really? 

gracie said she was done.  annie held on for a few more holes.  

she had a style all her own.

 

really?

she made a darling flag holder though

 

then annie got a new hat
 
 
 

and a picture kay c. sent me from monday.  all the girlies! i'm so thankful our friendship has withstood the distance.  i LOVE her AND her family. except when kyle told me the only way to prevent chafing of my underarms was to run topless. and now i know why him and eric get along so well... 

 

another day in paradise

but first, dude...who read my blog yesterday? it got 132 hits.  that's a lot for me. did you enjoy reading about my festival of pain from the half?

it's almost 10 and we just put in disc 3 from season one of the muppets.  LOVE this time with the girls, laughing together. LOVE watching their sense of humors develop.

anyway, this morning annie was the first one up.  and she SLEPT until 8:30.  we all rolled out of bed until 9 and were at the pool by 11.  after spending a couple of hours there, the england's had to make their trek home. after lunch and packing up it was a sad goodbye.  

our little girlies were exhausted after the england's left so we put a movie in for them and they recharged their batteries.  they totally rallied and we took the boat out for almost 3 hours in the late afternoon. at one point we were in really choppy water.  it was so choppy there were white caps.  all of the sudden the water calmed down and the boat was riding smooth. annie was laying in my lap and gracie and i were leaning up against each other. i looked at eric and the beautiful landscape and inhaled deeply.  my heart was so full.

let me just say i successfully backed the boat off the trailer, picked eric up, PULLED HIM ON THE WAKE BOARD, and put the boat back on the trailer all by myself!!! well, he was there to catch the boat before i ran it into the dock.

i've been so nervous about all these steps as the new boat is bigger than our old boat the the steering is a bit trickier.   i was also nervous about pulling him wake boarding.  he popped right up and yay for perfect pass.  let's just say that although i trailered the boat, i really could use more practice.

and i'll leave you with a picture from yesterday...annie burying herself in the sand

 

not long after this she had to poop.  THAT was awesome.  let's just say i NEVER want a dog.  it's bad enough picking up your kid's crap let alone the crap from a dog.