From whence I came. A slideshow!

Yesterday Madeline declared "I am not leaving the house tomorrow and I'm not getting out of my pajamas.  I've been gone from the house all week, and tomorrow I'm spending the day at home."   So thank you, Miss Madeline.  We've all enjoyed hunkering down and enjoying the first rainy Saturday of Autumn.

A few important things to note before watching the slideshow:

• I liked the background song before I began.  The singer is Brandi Carlile, a musician from Seattle, and I love her stuff.  But after editing the slideshow 9023 times, I don't ever want to hear it again.
• I am well aware that this slideshow is heavily weighted towards my youngest daughter. There are a few good reasons for this.  First, she looked unbearably cute in my dad's cabin hat and I couldn't stop taking pictures of her.  Those adorable lips!   I just want to eat her up.
   And second, Madeline was off exploring every inch of the cabin property and out of reach of my camera most of the time, so I just don't have as many pics of her.   
• Look closely at the horny toad and snake Madeline and Macady are holding.   You can see the injuries on the horny toad's back from that ferocious snake.  The snake was busy eating the horny toad when they found them on the road and Madeline literally saved the horny toad from the jaws of death. (Or maybe she saved the snake from choking--I think he was dreaming if he thought he could swallow that toad.)
• And no cabin or camping trip is complete without a baby bathing in a bucket.  I'm glad Breezy obliged.

Cabin July '08 from jami on Vimeo.

Things to do with 27 hours to myself every week

In an effort to avoid filling up my allotment of Me Time with hours of VH1 every day, I'm making a list of things I've wanted to do over the last eight years but haven't had time for.  That way, when you call me (and you will!) and hear "Stupidest Celebrity Moments" in the background (you might), you can remind me of the much more rewarding items on my list that I should be enjoying.  

In no particular order:

• Get a season ski pass and ski at least once a week
• Yoga
• Train for another half marathon 
• Learn to kayak
• Take bass guitar lessons
• Catch up on "Simpsons" and "Arrested Development" while I fold laundry
• Read The Economist magazine weekly
• Find some rewarding volunteer work 
• Cook and bake more
• Learn to play tennis and golf (we have both in our neighborhood!)

This all goes back to creating a "bigger smaller life."   Things have been so crazy and complicated and busy for the last few years.  The move hit the reset button.   I know if I get into nursing school next year, things will get crazy again.  But this year, I'm on sabbatical.  I have some control over what fills up my schedule at this point, so I'm going to choose wisely.  

In the past, I've always volunteered in the girls' classrooms.  And here's a horrible confession:  I've always hated it.  So I'm not doing it this year.  I've done it for five years, hated it for five years.  Enough.  I'll do classroom parties and field trips, and I'll do some committees so I can meet other parents and help us settle in.  But that's it.  

However, I am going to find some volunteer work that feeds me.  Right now I'm considering two options:  the Ronald McDonald House, and hospice.  I'm filling out applications for both, so we'll see where I end up.

And the other stuff, it's mostly me finding me again, remembering what I enjoy doing now that I don't have to figure in the cost of a babysitter and I have a little free time.   

Now go away so I can finish this episode of "My Super Sweet Sixteen" before the kids get home.

Finally, the first day of school

The girls finally started school, after the two week extension to their summer for the teacher strike.  I took a bunch of cute pictures on the morning of their first day, only to discover I didn't have a memory card in my camera.  But I did snap these photos when I picked them up at the end of the day.  They were both hot and tired, but loved school.

Tonight Amelia told me "When I'm at school I forget about you.  But when I go to recess I remember you and I cry."  Poor bug!  She's in all day kindergarten, so this will be a bit of an adjustment for both of us, especially after our summer of extreme togetherness.  

Clearing the air.

Let me just say, in case you got the wrong idea,  that I have the best Mom in the whole wide world.  And yes, she did create that wonderful dish we call Hot Dog Pie (remember to say it with a Southern accent). But she NEVER stooped so low as to make it with instant potatoes.  

Home Cookin'

Last night we had our friend Nancy over for dinner (her husband Alex was out of town).  Kolby had been gone all week, so I was thrilled to finally be cooking for people who appreciate food that isn't breaded and shaped into nuggets and/or smothered in cheese and dipped in ketchup.

I saw this recipe for grilled halibut and bread kabobs in my Sunset magazine, and let me just brag a bit and say they turned out FANTASTIC, and were every bit as beautiful as the ones in the magazine.  Kolby grilled them to perfection.  The halibut was perfectly flaky without being dry.  The bread was chewy and crunchy and delicious.  I used prosciutto instead of pancetta, but I doubt it made any difference.  We had it with heirloom tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a caesar salad and it was the perfect summer meal.  I'll be making it again this week for sure.

But I'd hate to give you the wrong impression.

So let me just share a little dish I made for dinner this week while Kolby was away.  It was 5:00.  We were all hungry.  I had low motivation.  But I had the following ingredients on hand.  

Right now, if you had the same mama I had, you know exactly where this is headed.   The Hot Dog Hall of Shame, that's where it's headed.   But guess what?  I'll do it again.  Because the kids freaking loved it! 

And you know, the only improvement this meal really needed was some cheap full-fat hot dogs.  I won't needlessly waste good Hebrew Nationals on it again.   I think some plain ol' greezy Ball Parks would have been tasty and really would have suited the tone of the meal a little better.  But I was in a pinch.

What do we call this meal?  I have no idea.  I think we always called it "hot dogs, mashed potatoes, and cheese casserole" when my mom made it.  (And let me just say, we LOVED this meal growing up).  But I'm gonna call it Hot Dog Pie, and I'll always say it in my best Southern accent.

Game Night

We've been playing a lot more games lately, and it's nice to be at a point where the games don't always end with someone in tears.   Although we are still working on convincing Amelia that games are not fun if you cheat.   She begs to differ.  

Madeline got a couple of fun games for her birthday that have already found a place on our favorites list.  

These are the current hits around here:

Wig Out! Is a game that can be played in 12 minutes or less.  It's fast, portable,  Amelia somehow wins 80% of the time without cheating, and it's not the end of the world if a card or two gets lost.    We took this on the whale watching trip with us and it was a hit with the other kids on the boat.   I'd like to try some of the other 12 minute games this company makes.

 
Amelia got Sequence for Kids from Emma and Charlotte for her birthday.  The kids can play without me, and it's not mind-numbingly boring for me to play (like Candyland).  So it's an all around hit for a kids' game.  Mia and Ethan loved playing this together, so she's been a little emotional about this game lately.  ("I wanna go back to Portland.  I miss Ethan.")

Our friends Tessie and Ryan gave us Hyper Dash, and we have had so much fun with it.  We can set it up indoors and the kids can run from room to room playing, or set it up outside (my preference).  The electronic tagger tells you which target to go to next and it times you to see who completes the sequence fastest.  The kids are in absolute fits of giggles as I run around trying to tag the targets.  Hurts my feelings a little.  It has varying levels of difficulty, and you can play as teams too, but we haven't tried that yet.  And it's another one they can play on their own.

This game is actually not a great game to play with the kids, but it is our favorite game to play with friends.  If your blood runs cold when you see that Cranium logo because you're an embarrassment when you hum, act, or draw,  you'll actually love this one.  I am still recovering from a really horrific humming experience with Cranium, and yet I love Pop 5.  It still has the same categories, but you get to choose which "skill" you will use to get your team to guess the words.   So if you were there for that humming horror 10 years ago, be comforted to know it will never happen again.

So there you go.  Unsolicited product reviews for you,  from me.

What I Did This Summer

So apparently, I blog like I diet.   "I am going to be better this week.  I am going to commit to it.  Oooooh, what's that?  A brownie? OK, tomorrow I will start."    

So, no witty daily, or weekly, or even monthly updates on the Blackham family. But I can at least commit to finishing this one measly post about what we did this summer.  It'll be epic, but you can pretend it was written all summer and just read a little at a time.  And of course you'll read all of it--what if you don't and I say something snide about you and you miss it??  Or maybe you don't care and you'll just scan thru and look at the pictures because this is a pretty gratuitous post.  

June 13 school got out and we headed out of Portland for Seattle to stay with Kolby while we continued to wait for our house to sell.  We stayed in downtown Bellevue where we could walk to shopping, restaurants, parks,  and Lake Washington beaches.  I got up and ran thru the Bellevue skyrises most mornings before Kolby went to work.  The girls took swimming lessons at the pool in our building.  Kolby went to work and enjoyed coming home to his family.  And he actually got to unpack his suitcase for a few weeks.

Lake Washington

Swim lessons

We had lots of guests in that 1200 sq foot apartment--The Nellies with their three kids, the Krivens girls, Jen and her kids came for a few days while Anthony studied for the bar, Jeff came with Emma and Charlotte for the 4th of July while Sara was in England.  

And with all those guests we explored our new city.  We visited the Space Needle, the Aquarium, Pacific Science Center, children's museum, Pike's Place, Snoqualmie Falls, and spent lots and lots of time at the beach.

Lunch w/ the Nelsons and Burlingames

Aquarium w/ Krivens kids

Pike Place w/ Burrell kids

Pacific Science Center

Snoqualmie Falls

4th of July at Downtown Bellevue Park

Seattle Center w/ Emma and Charlotte

By far, my favorite thing about Seattle is the water.  Everywhere you look, there is water surrounded by gorgeous fir trees.  Lake Sammamish, Lake Washington, the Puget Sound.  And there is no other way to describe Seattle on a sunny day than "Sparkly."  It is breathtaking.

The girls and I went to the beach almost every (sunny) day.  Bellevue has beautiful beaches on Lake Washington, with playgrounds and sand and grass and flowers. We met Nancy and the girls at Chism beach, and played at their neighborhood beach a few times too.  Both girls jumped off their high-dive into the lake!  We also explored a few beaches on Lake Sammamish, one that is just down the hill from our new house.  Our favorite spot was a beach called Timberlake Park (picture in a previous post of the hike in to that beach), down at the South end of Lake Sammamish.  It's the only beach Gabby can go to with us, and she'll swim for hours with the girls riding on her back like she's a dolphin.  I'll have to lift her back into the car because she's too exhausted to move by the time we get done.  Or at least that's what she says.

We also drove around neighborhoods for a while most days trying to decide where we wanted to live.  I'd drive until the girls started screaming, and then we'd find a park where we could play and eat lunch.

Kolby and I took the girls to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to see Josh Ritter in concert.  He's one of our favorite singers, and it was fun to hear the girls singing along with him.  Here's a picture of him.  Let's pretend he's our friend.

Mid-July the girls and I flew to Utah to visit family.  Jodi miscarried her baby girl, Emerson,  a couple of weeks earlier, so we went to hug and love and grieve with Jodi.   Sadly, Kolby's aunt, Paula, was in the last days of her battle with breast cancer, so we also spent time at the hospital saying goodbye to her, and crying lots with Kolby's family.  She passed away about a week later, so Kolby flew home for her funeral. 

Despite the sadness, it was also probably the best trip I've had back to Utah.  We packed in so much fun.  We went to the cabin for a couple of days with my parents and siblings.  I loved watching the girls explore the property with their cousins like I did as a kid--they took multiple trips every day to the old deserted cabin I was always fascinated with.  They rode 4-wheelers with Grandma and Grandpa, shot the guns with their cousins, and the highlight of the trip was Madeline catching a horny toad which was in the process of being eaten by a snake!  All three (the snake, the toad, and Madeline) survived the encounter, which is rare.  Usually Madeline loves her critters to death.  But it was the toad's lucky day--she saved him from the snake, and he didn't die from her excessive affection either.

We also went to Classic Waterslides in Utah, swam at Clay and Court's pool, went up Big Cottonwood Canyon for a weenie-roast with the Blackham clan, and played lots and lots and lots.  

I forgot to take my camera.  So no pictures of Utah until I bum some off my mom and sister-in-laws.

Madeline and my nephew Aidan

After our trip to Utah, we got an offer on our house.  What a relief in this housing market (88 days on the market)!  We headed back to Portland to get ready to move.  Kolby was traveling lots thru all of this--NYC, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Salt Lake, Seattle, and Portland.  The girls loved being back in Portland, having the Brown boys and Lauren next door to play with.  They played for hours every day in our backyard, which was definitely bittersweet for all of us.

Madeline turned 8, so we had a big birthday/going away party for her with the Reptile Man. She was in heaven, of course.  

The girls did Willowbrook Art Camp and Amelia did soccer camp while we were in Portland.  I might have to plan for some time in Portland next summer so they can do the art camp again--what a great set-up. 

Amelia and her best bud, Ethan 

We closed on our house, and had the easiest move ever with professional packers and movers.  I literally read a book (Breaking Dawn) while my house was packed up.   Thank you, Microsoft.

Isn't Bill Gates cute circa 1983?

Kristin and Nellie threw us a going away party before we left.  I wasn't sure I wanted to go.  I was so sad to be saying goodbye to all the wonderful friends we've made in Portland over the last eight years.  They have been our Portland family.  But it was good.  It was fun to see everyone, and we know we'll still see them.  Seattle is only 3 hours away, and we'll be back and forth lots.

Then we headed back up to Seattle on the 12th of August.  Actually, Redmond.  We had two weeks before we could move into our house, and we were in a different corporate apartment this time.  And it was kinda yucky.  It was a very typical crowded apartment complex in suburbia.  And it was either blistering hot, or a torrential downpour the whole time we were in that dark apartment with views of the parking lot.  Luckily, it was only temporary.  The girls made friends with 4 or 5 little girls in the complex, and they had a great time playing beauty shop at the playground and swimming at the pool.

As a family, we booked a whale-watching trip on the Victoria Clipper for our last Sunday before the move.  It was amazing--the Puget Sound is so beautiful, and the San Juan Islands were really breathtaking, even in the rain.  We saw a couple of Minke whales, and had lunch in Friday Harbor.   We will definitely be booking a house in the San Juan's next summer.

And finally we moved into our house!  We spent the last week of summer unpacking and painting the girls rooms, going to Target and Ikea for organizing stuff.  It was great to finally be settling in!

Jeff and Sarah came up for Labor Day weekend and we had a very relaxing weekend unwinding with them before school started.

Except school didn't start.  The teachers went on strike the day school was supposed to start, and a week later, it is still summer and I'm still the cruise director.   Back to the lake, back to the parks (we ride our bikes/scooters back and forth between the school playground and the neighborhood park). I'm hopeful that school will start later this week.

So that's what I did this summer.  Although there are no pictures to prove that I was actually there.  Because I'm always the one behind the camera.  Except for this one time when the kids got me with my camera phone outside of Safeway...