Anything But Gray

to calm down….

Life has been insane the last week or so. I've barely talked to anyone and I feel like I'm being pulled in a million directions and right when I think things are settling down, something else comes along pulling me in yet another direction. I've got several friends and family members all going through big things that I'm worrying about. I'm worrying about Jaime and school, Ben and daycare, Zak and work….just so many things on my mind.
It's just crazy and it's been stressing me out, bad.

Yesterday I was working at home. I had the door open because it was nice out and in flies this little bird.
He flew into the window in his desperate attempt to get back OUT of the house and he stunned himself a little bit. I caught him and he just sat perched in my hand. I, ever so slowly, went and got my camera with this bird still sitting in my hand. He stayed there long enough for me to take a bunch of pictures, he even stayed while I moved around to different spots of the house to get better light! I wound up standing by the door and I was just talking to him and he regained his senses and just flew off.

Normally I would take this as some kind of sign. Cause that's just how I am. I am always looking for the little "signs" I believe God sends us to let us know certain things. I sat on this for the rest of the day yesterday and I was coming up with nothing. Absolutely nothing. Until this morning.

The best I've come up with is this was God's little way of telling me to relax and to expect the unexpected and just roll with it and to not get so stressed out by things because sometimes in those little unexpected moments….amazing things can happen.

I'm going to do that…expect the unexpected and realize everything will work itself out the way it's supposed to.

Bird in the house aug 2007 (11)

Travis is 16 today…wow!

My phone rang at 6:30am and I didn't quite make it to the phone in time. I looked at the caller id and saw it was Tina. I poured a coffee, thinking I'll call her back after I've had time to wake up. I call her back and Travis answers. I tell him Happy Birthday and he says thanks and then he goes on to tell me how Tina let him open one card this morning. He could only pick one to open and the rest he would have to wait until his party later on to open the rest.
He picked mine. 🙂
He tells me this and I'm honestly touched…then he tells me I should work for Hallmark!
I tell him, no, my cards are okay but nothing that Hallmark would hire me for. I laugh and he says "No way, Auntie Sunshine, you should work for Hallmark."

Now I am beyond touched. First of all a 16 year old boy likes that I make him a card. Second a 16 year old boy is still calling me by the name that started when he was a toddler. (Auntie Sunshine…) Thirdly…this 16 year old boy thinks I'm good enough to work for Hallmark!! lol.
And HE PICKED MINE!! Seriously, that made me so proud.

This is why I make birthday cards. This is why I do it. Because the people I love, love it. And I love to hear stories like this…the little moments that make me realize that people do enjoy getting my cards.
And that's all that matters to me.
That's it. That I am making the people I love, know they are loved.
When I get compliments like this….that's the icing on the cake, but the true reason is simple. I just want people to know I'm thinking of them and wishing them a HUGE happy birthday!!

Thanks for making my day, Travis and I hope you had a wonderful birthday!!!
I love you!
Love
Auntie Sunshine.

It's Shelly's birthday and I am so bummed I am not there, this year.
She turns 40.
I want to be there so I can take her out and act like we used to act when we were inseparable.
Back when we would cruise around every night and if we heard a song we loved on the radio, we'd stop the car and get out and dance. No matter where we were. No matter who was around.
No matter what…
Because we were young, because we loved to dance, because we loved to feel the moment.

To me, she isn't any older. She's matured and has just gotten better over the years.
Not older, better.
It helps that the girl doesn't look 40 either. lol.
And in her heart and soul, she's not even close to 40.
Not even close….

Happy, Happy Birthday Shelly!
Have an awesome day!!

Love you!

Zak and I were running around, doing some errands yesterday while the kids were gone.
We came home to grab something to eat and we had to go back to the store to pick up a prescription.
It was about 3:10pm and our conversation goes like this….

me. "hey babe….I think I'm gonna go get Ben now instead of waiting until 4pm. I miss him."
Zak "whaaat??"
me. "yeah, I know…this is what I've been waiting for and here I am wanting to go get him. I'm a wussy, I know."
Zak "Yeah you are."

And so I drive Zak back to work and go get Ben. I have him staying at daycare until 4pm now because I pay for full time and have never used her full time. I usually drop him off at 9am and get him at around 3pm. During the summer he stayed on Wednesdays until 4:30pm. So I am using his daycare a little more now.
And I just missed him.
Doesn't matter that 5 minutes in the door I was yelling at him because he was pretending to spill my coffee, I still missed him.
Had to go get him.
Just because.

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (72)

Here's a pic of my handsome little boy.

Love him so much.
Even though he drives me so crazy…I'm having to "adjust" to this later day, home alone, kids gone thing.

Weird.

Mr. Tom Brady's life just keeps getting better!

Now he's got 3 rings and a baby.

Tom Brady's Baby.

Congrats!!
I can't wait to see what she names him.

Off to wake up Thing 1 & Thing 2.

Jaime's first day went great! She said the bus ride home was too long (it's like 30-40 minutes!) but she still wants to do it. She was happy to see all her school friends and she enjoyed being back! Yay!!

Today is Jaime's first day of 1st grade.
1st grade…real school…full day. Wow.
I can't believe it.
On the one hand I can't believe I have a 1st grader. Can't believe she'll be gone all day. She'll take the bus home and she won't get home until 4:30!! That's like…all day. A part of me just can't believe how the time flies.
Then on the other hand….yes, yes, YES!!! I absolutely adore my kids. But staying home with them is hard, the hardest job I've ever done and I am relieved to be able to go back to work. I'm relieved that I can get back to my life and get back to being me a little bit more. It's a wonderful feeling.

But even with all this, I know I am going to miss her today and I'm going to be so anxious for her to get home.
Here's some pics….

Jaime 1st day of school 1st grade

Jaime 1st day of school 1st grade (2)

Jaime 1st day of school 1st grade (5)

Jaime 1st day of school 1st grade (10)

Enjoy!!

Zachary went fishing with a guy he used to work with.
They spent all day out on the boat and it was cool.
Zachary never gets to do that and he actually does enjoy fishing.
They wound up catching a couple salmon and Zachary brought some home.
(All cleaned and filleted nice and pretty–Thank you Mike!!!)
I found a recipe online and cooked it for dinner.
It came out AWESOME!!!!

And let me tell you, I was strutting around like,
oh yeah…check me out….all acting like a real live Alaskan wife!

Watcha think, Kim? Don't I earn some kind of badge or something for that?
I even cooked it twice, it was that good.
(plus now I know the first time wasn't a fluke)
Ha!!

Seriously….I was really proud and thought it was neater than shit. lol.

Jaime seriously dug that her Daddy went out and caught a fish and we got to have it for dinner.
She was impressed. 🙂

Just an all around awesome thing.
Fish is so incredibly good for you too and I really love fish, all seafood actually.
So yay for us!!
Whoo-hooo….we just might make Alaskans out of us yet!!

okay, okay…I'm kidding…there is no way I am a true Alaskan (a true Alaskan wouldn't be caught dead in those sweater boots I posted the other day….) and I feel guilty even trying to claim it because I'll give the true Alaskans a bad name, but I just had to throw that in there…

I have a major, major shopping problem.
Well, truthfully my self-control and responsibility are in check so I don't know that you'd call it a problem, really.
But how much I love to shop is not normal…
I don't know if I've posted this on here or not, but I have an analogy for shopping. You know how you feel after good sex? That totally blissful, content, you just want to curl up and sleep feeling? That's how I feel when I come home with bags after shopping. That is honestly the kind of feeling I get. So not normal and I am not even ever going to try to analyze that.
I think when we get back to civilization and normal shopping malls and stores, my husband is screwed.
I am so a recreational shopper. It is, indeed, a sport. If hunting gets to be called a sport than I seriously do not see how shopping is not. It's so the same concept. We hunt, we stalk our prey and we capture it. See? Totally a sport.
Anyway, I have a couple pairs of boots that I have been wanting forever. Since, like, last winter. Luckily (depends on your point of view…) they haven't gone completely out of style yet. Now they aren't trendsetting by any means, but they aren't outdated, either. And quite frankly, I don't care anyway. Being on top of trends has never been a priority to me. As long as my clothes are in the right decade, I'm good. I have no desire to spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothes that last one season. So not into that, at all.  Especially given where I have lived the majority of my adult life….

So this is what I have been looking at.

Sweater boot

Slouch boots

I want the sweater ones in white and the slouch ones in gray.
Aren't they awesome??
I want them.
Bad.
Really, really bad.

This is when it totally sucks that I don't get paid for my job.

I am very proud and excited to be Lindsay's emergency contact but I forgot to mention something.
It's not my first time. 🙂

I have been Cierra's emergency contact for as long as she has been in school. She's going into 2nd grade.
Cierra is Jaime's very first friend and I haven't talked much about her over the summer because she hasn't been coming over. Jaime has been going to Rally to have their "playdate" together. Once school starts we will work something out so that Cierra comes over for a visit at least once a week. I love that they have been friends almost Jaime's entire life. Jaime was born in April and Shannon, Travis and Cierra moved in next door to us in July. So Jaime cannot remember a time without Cierra. It's a very, very cool thing.

I just had to mention how much I loved when Shannon asked me to be Cierra's emergency contact and how good that made me feel and STILL makes me feel. 🙂 We don't get much visiting time anymore or hanging out time and it's nice to know I'm still important in their life. Even though you know it, in your heart, it's nice to get a little bit of proof here and there. When Shannon told me I'm still Cierra's emergency contact, that was just a little validation and it's cool!

Have I ever mentioned that I hate, no loathe, chopped liver??
Can't have that hanging around….ever.

🙂

Tah!

We have bears around town. A lot. There are ordinances about how you can put your trash out because of the bears.
People see them all the time. I have seen them only a few times since I've lived here. Including the one that tried to climb over my fence on 4th of July a couple years back. (That was just a little too close for comfort for me..lol.)
Anyway, there is a trail out at the glacier where they have built this cool deck path over the creek, so you can go there and really check out the bears. My friend Kim told me how they have been out out there a lot lately. So she came out with us tonight so we could go check them out.
So freakin' cool!!!
No matter how many years I spend here there are certain things that I will always be awestruck by.
The eagles are one of them and the bears are another. When I am watching a bear from just literally a foot away fishing in the creek for salmon, that's the moments I realize how truly lucky I am to live in Alaska. It's just amazing.
And I love that I could just hop in my truck and take my kids to see their first live bear….just like that! No paying an entrance fee for a zoo. No watching them in a cage…bears in their natural habitat, just doing what they do….
Very lucky indeed!

Here's some pics….

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (15)

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (7)

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (1)

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (17)

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (3)

Checking out the bears aug 2007 (41)