Happy 30th Birthday Stacey!

Stacey and I have been friends since 8th grade, so since we were about 13. On July 24th she turned 30! We joined her family and friends to help her celebrate this important day. I can't imagine my life without her kindred spirit. It was wonderful to be there, or should I say to have her here all the way from Connecticut. Here is an awesome tidbit, Stacey's birthday is exactly three months before mine, and on Stephen's mom's birthday; Lyn, Stacey's mom's birthday is exactly three months before my mom...weird! I love "coincidences" like that!

Stacey with her favorite...Jamocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream

Stacey and Joe with some photo nightlights from us. Joe loves night lights just like me!

Our gift to Stacey, a signed CD of Michael Allen Harrison lullaby music for her classroom

Stacey and my little guy...he hears a truck outside!

The Rainier to Pacific Relay Walk

Last weekend I competed in The Rainier to Pacific Relay Walk with my team "Striding Mac Moms." I have been training for about seventeen weeks. It was hard but also a lot of fun hanging out in the van with the ladies and getting to know each other better.

My first leg was 7 miles at about 5pm. It seemed sooo much longer! But I did manage 14 miute miles. My second leg was 3.5 miles at about 12:30 am. Thankfully we had a night system down by then so the van followed me the whole way and talked to me as I walked. Actually, we even did Madlibs through the window. However, this also slowed me down to about 16 min miles! But I was very grateful for the distraction! My last leg was 2.5 miles at about 5 am. This was such a beautiful and peaceful time to walk; 5 am used to be my favorite time of day when I lived in France and when I was in college. I loved to watch the world wake up. Nowadays it is hard to get me up at this time except for camping! During this last leg my hip and knee were really bothering me, so try as I might I still only did 18 minute miles! Yikes!


The last mile we all walked togehter, well, except I had to sit in the van because my knee felt like it was about to snap. That was very frustrating! All in all we walked 97.78 miles in 22 hours and 48 minutes!


I am so glad that I finished, had a good time, and haven't been too terribly sore or tired this week. I look forward to doing in again in the years to come, and improving on my times! It has kept me walking and exerciseing even when I didn't feel like it and has given me something to look forward to and be proud of! Thanks ladies for a fabulous time!

Peek-a-boo!

Okay, okay, I 'm jumping back on this thing. We have had quite a few fun events around here. First off Truitt now has six teeth! Four on top (plus an eye tooth that will be around shortly), and two on the bottom!

He is such the little communicator lately too! Maybe not with words we can understand, but with gestures, movement, mumbling and laughter (and crying too), he sure does let us know what he wants!

In our flicker account you can see photos of all these activities from the past month:

Father's Day hike
Trip to the zoo
Bubble hair
Park Concerts
....And more!

Just click on the flicker box in the right hand column.

A Poppy

Beauties in the Garden...last week before the cold snap!

Peonies Bloomed

June-uary

So while we wait for summer to actually begin (we lit up the wood stove last night, and it felt so good after being chilled all day long!) we have been busy getting caught up on house projects after the busy month of May (some photos will be added in the next few days...while a lot has been done, some things still haven't):

#1 best thing done: The Learning Chair

Now Truitt has a safe place to stand and watch me cook, wash dishes, and just hang out as I bustle around the kitchen and get things done. It has helped tremendously! It is so much easier to get the kitchen chores done now that he can watch!

#2 better late than never: Planted my Victory Garden

Okay, it really isn't a "Victory Garden" however, we are against the war, and we did rip out our front yard, and we did end up filling it with seeds for things we can actually eat. But all of these events did not happen on purpose. I wanted some vegetables, and it just happened to be the only space available. I did consider putting up big signs that say "Food is Beautiful" or "Make Food not War" or "All we are saying...is give food a chance", but then I imagined rabid conservative teenagers demolishing my yard, plus, it seemed slightly hypocritical as this was not our intended goal, and Stephen hates to make a statement that is hypocritical.

So now our parking lot drive way is a courtyard for tomato and bean plants. Our front yard will soon be filled with: chives, rosemary, lavender, cilantro, nasturtiums, butternut squash, zucchini, pumpkins, fennel, sage, thyme, and artichokes. I tried planting carrots and beets under the trees, but my dad says they probably won't grow. Also, how long do seeds live for? The pumpkin seeds were from 2002, do you think they will grow?

In the back I have basil that was potted and the mesclun seeds in pots (that have been dug up slightly as the neighborhood cats used the pot as a litter box!) I also have flowers waiting to be put in hanging baskets. I picked up some cheap planters at Lowe's ($1.47 each) and a bunch of cheap annuals for about the same price each. So for the cost of one hanging planter I will be able to make 5! And if you want to be really cool and cheap, you can actually use plastic grocery bags as hangers! Once the flowers grow and hang you will hardly be able to tell it is a bag!

#3 Re-selling stuff we don't use for money

We cleaned out our clothes closet and got a huge box of clothes. Then I went through the attic and found a ton of home decor items we don't want. They can all be resold and hopefully next month we will be a little richer!