Love this place.

A few weeks ago we took a long weekend and headed out to the island to help my mom with some projects.  We got a lot done and managed to squeeze in some quality time with the family as well. Nothing like 10 people in a 500 square foot cabin to bring a family closer together.

Waiting for the ferry.

The whole group reading to Dutch.

Sweet Dutch.

Peacock sighting.

Grandma, Royal and Annie.

The boys with Tami's dog Nuggett.

My precious brother.

My precious children.

bringing out my inner artist

It was in there, it took a while to find, but with the help of everyone on staff I found it.

For the record we painted Riverfront Park in Spokane.  Matt gave me the "what is it?" when I got home.  After I told him I got the "yeah but what's that brown thing below the clock tower?"  I gave him the "I'm an artist, don't make me explain my masterpiece" and went to bed.  Wait.  I didn't go right to bed.  I took down a different painting in our living room and hung my masterpiece up for all to enjoy.  Then I went to bed.

Bloomsday with my family.

This year, for the first time, the whole family came out for Bloomsday.  I usually run it and Matt stays home with the kids.  I pushed Charlie in a stroller once (which is why he's wearing a 2007 shirt below) but other than that it was everyone's first time.

All together in line, ready to start.

Me and my dear friend Angie, whom I give the credit to for making me a year round runner, rather than a 'train for Bloomsday and quit for a year' runner.

Charlie and Colin (Angie's son), they've been buddies since they were 2.  This was the 1st Bloomsday for both of them (not counting the stroller year).

Matt and Crazy waiting for the race to start.

Giving me some more crazy faces.

Annie being darling along the course.

We lost Matt and Charlie right away because Annie needed to do some walking.  Walking turned into hiking in the bramble somewhere around mile 2.  Something every serious Bloomsday runner should try.

Necessary Otter Pop stop.  Also something only serious athletes do.

Happy to be done!

Having the shirts is proof we finished!  Felt like I should take lots of pictures of Matt wearing his since no one would believe it otherwise!

Annie came home and said she wants to skip next year but will try again when she's 8.  Then Charlie told her about how if you run on the left (we stayed on the right with the slower traffic) someone hands you gummy bears at mile 3.  So now she's back in for next year.  Obviously!

my new obsession

I used to love Weight Watchers.  I loved counting my points, figuring out the points in everything I ate, being able to eat a Peppermint Patty instead of an apple because they had the same point value, etc. etc.

It worked for me for a time in my life but the last few years I've been off the WW wagon.  I kept trying to get back on but the excitement was lost.  I never found a meeting I loved over here in Spokane and I got tired of being hungry and depriving myself.

In January, after several months of feeling soft and sad (about my dad but also about the softness that was my body), a friend introduced me to Isagenix.  Now I'm an Isagenix freak!  They're more focused on overall wellness rather than just being skinny.  Their shakes are made from organic whey protein which helps build lean muscles.  They encourage you to cleanse your body of toxins and they provide you the products and the support to do so.

I feel better than ever before, I sleep better than ever before, I have more energy, AND I've lost 13 pounds.

The tricky thing about Isagenix though is the cost.  It's spendy, about $11/day for the 30-day plan.  They're set up as a multi-level marketing company so now I'M SELLING their stuff with the goal to get my own paid for.  Not something I ever thought I'd do but in an effort to get my stuff for free I'm doing it.  I'm about 1/2 way there.  I'd love some help getting the rest of the way there. 

Below are some links about why Isagenix is great.  The bottom link is to my page they set up for me.  If you're reading this and you're curious ask me!  I can add you to a private Facebook group where you can see lots of before/after pics, read about other's successes, and learn more about what the products do for you.

A little something about protein:
http://www.isagenixhealth.net/lose-the-weight-not-the-muscle-with-more-protein/

A little something about toxins:
http://www.isagenixhealth.net/yes-your-fat-is-toxic/

A path to get these products ordered and into your system:
http://jeannettering.isagenix.com/

Thanks for reading friends!
Jeannette

Tax Day

I've taken a hiatus from the blog (obviously) for a variety of reasons.  The main one being that my dad's cancer started to get the best of him in December and I didn't have a lot of "happy" days where I felt like a blog post about my kid's weirdness was ever really appropriate.

January 1st he decided to go off the chemo since it was making life so difficult to really live.  Once he stopped getting the medicine into his body his downward progression was fast.  Faster than any of us had anticipated.  Had we known we would have fought harder for him to keep going.

By mid January he was pretty much confined to the house, he didn't have enough energy to do pretty much anything.  As a family we spent as much time with him as possible.  We enjoyed watching the Seahawks 1st superbowl win together, we brought the grandkids over so they could entertain him with their silliness as much as possible, and we shared many meals together always trying to talk about happy subjects while trying not to think about what was happening to Dad.

On February 15th we moved him to Hospice of Spokane's Hospice House because his care was getting to be too much for us to handle at home.  We wanted him to be comfortable and have actual trained nurses caring for him in his last days rather than his wife and kids who were learning as they went.

The 2nd night he was there I stayed overnight in the room with him.  I just couldn't imagine him passing without someone he loved holding his hand.  I spent most of the night talking to him even though his eyes were closed and he could no longer speak.  I lied in the recliner next to his bed with my hand on his arm most of the night.  I couldn't sleep, it was all too surreal what I was about to witness.  I finally fell asleep at about 4:30 and when I woke up around 6:00 he was gone.  I truly believe he waited for me to fall asleep so I wouldn't have to actually witness his last breath.  Even in his last moments on Earth he looked out for me.

I feel thankful that he got his diagnosis when he did so we could all cherish the time we had left together.  His friends and family made the most of the 18 months he lived, never taking a holiday/birthday/sunny day for granted.

I've found that I miss him at funny times, like today, Tax Day.  His birthday was April 9th and growing up we hardly ever celebrated it with him.  He worked ridiculously long hours up until April 15th and then we'd get him back for a while, so Tax Day was always a happier day than his birthday for our family.

I bought his car from him in January when it was clear he wouldn't be getting better.  He had taken the time to program some numbers into his bluetooth in the car.  So now everytime I'm driving and my mom or sister or brother calls I get to hear his voice say "Irene cell" or "Charlotte cell" or "Pete cell".  Matt pointed out that now we can never sell the car, and that's perfectly fine with me.

So there's no good way to end this post other than to say time is making it easier, but that doesn't mean I don't still miss him terribly.

Christmas is here.

Hard to say who's most excited - the dad or the kids.

And then we got a dog.

We've been thinking about a dog for a while now.  About 5 years really.  It was Christmas and Charlie was 2 and he was opening a small box that held Mac the Truck from Cars.  I hear him whisper "please be a dog".  That's when the conversation first started.

I needed a few more years to birth his sister, and then get them old enough to be able to use the bathroom on their own and dress themselves.  So now that they can do all that we decided it was time to take on a new challenge.

Friends Brenda and Danielle (both dog lovers) were here for a weekend so we decided to drag them along to a pet fair in Idaho at a car dealership of all places.  Several pet rescues from around the region were there with their dogs, probably about 20 in all. 

We got to walk around and see if any of them spoke to us.  I was drawn to the little dogs, Annie was drawn to the kitties, Charlie couldn't focus - there were just too many to choose from, Danielle found a basset hound with the same name as her boyfriend (Gunner), Brenda made friends with all of them, and Matt found Trapper.

We thought we should maybe go out to lunch and talk about Trapper before committing to adopting her.  As we're trying to make a plan another couple comes up and starts asking Trapper's handler all these questions, they looked super interested in taking her home.

So I motion to Matt from across the room, giving him the now or never signal, he says now and I interrupt the nice couple and say 'stop asking questions, we saw her first'.  That's basically how I remember it going down.

She jumped up on my lap on the way home.  Freaky for the driver.

Then she jumped back to Brenda and Danielle.

Finally home.

Escaped from her kennel when we went out to dinner, chewed all sorts of important things.  We're learning (how to pick stuff up and how to latch the kennel properly).

Charlie is in love!

Annie is in love as well, she expresses her love through art though. (she's wearing a kitty headband in the drawing)

Glad Charlie finally convinced us to get a furry friend!