Christmas 2015...

 Our littlest princess, Roslin doing her best reindeer impersonation!!!

 Mahoney and Roslin dressed in their "gonna go see Santa" clothes.  I love that they are so impressed with the tree decorations.  They are very gentle with them...it also helps that they are wired on to the tree. 

 Roslin's word of the week is "Santa"...kinda sounds like "tanta"

 We all agthered on Christmas Eve for pizza and presents.  Roslin...and Mason, checking out the loot in their stockings!

 Roslin, shirtless because we just finished dinner...loved the flashlights in everyone's stockings!

 Mahoney and Roslin are getting a dress up closet for the play area at their house.  We got them a couple costumes on the Halloween clearance a couple months ago...here is the debut of the mermaid costume!

 ...and Cleopatra.  They also got a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz dress.

Playing with puzzles...we tried real hard to get mind stimulating toys, like musical instruments, puzzles, coloring books...but, I am a grandma and there was a Barbie and a Mickey Mouse tossed in to the mix too.  Mahoney also got a helmet and a basket for her bike she has at out house.  She is pretty excited to ride that around, she has plans to fill the basket with toys.

Our tree, I never realized how much red there was on it until this year...but I adore it!

Need A Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute...

I love heading to Seattle at Christmastime! I only had one weekend day off all of December, so on the 13th Lee and I hopped on to the ferry and headed over.  We enjoyed some Starbucks and the Sunday paper during the ride over.

After pulling in, we figured out how to get to the taxi stand in front of the dock and headed to the Cheesecake Factory.  Since we got there around 10am, we opted for breakfast.  I swear it was the most delicious omelette I have ever had, and the potatoes...I cannot even begin to describe their goodness!

After breakfast,  a stop to see Santa and picking up a couple ornaments at Macy's, we wound our way down to the market.

The Christmas tree at the market.  The market was crowded with holiday shoppers and tourists.  I picked up a holiday bouquet of Christmas greenery.

They are putting in a new sea wall, which makes the water front pretty much a mess.  I was bummed to find out that the Starbucks I usually hit before the ferry ride home, was one of the businesses that had to close during construction.

The whole day was filled with live music, in the stores, streetcorners and even in the ferry building...it made it very easy to feel the Christmas spirit.

It was a very gray day, but no rain!  Thankfully the ride home was a lot less choppy than the ride over that morning!!!

Yup, I really made Lee take a picture with Santa.  Lee and I even wore  "Christmas Vacation" themed t-shirts!!

Merry Christmas!!!

For Christine...

Dear Christine, 

Over 32 years, can you believe it.  We survived breakups, divorces, the loss of your baby, the loss of my mom, raising our boys, and a million other things.  But, for some reason you left this earth...and my heart is feeling shattered.  Why were you taken away from us, unexpectedly and without explanation?

You knew me when I had different last names, shoot you knew me when I was thin!  You know my secrets, talked me through post partum depression, believed in me, when I could not believe in myself and you were my blog's biggest fan.  

The term "best friend" gives me anxiety, but you were the best friend a girl/woman could have asked for.  You would be annoyed by the amount of tears I have shed.  As I was about to go to sleep on Sunday, I told Lee I really needed to call you.  It will forever be a huge regret, that I didn't get on my phone and do just that. On Tuesday you died...I just want to text you one more time, tell you that I know you are smoking while we talk on the phone, I just want to hear your voice.  I wish I had saved your voicemails, now all I have is a voicemail from Jonathan telling me to call him...

Jonathan said you loved me so very much, and I did not realize how deep my love for you was until it was too late.  My heart has an ache, is it because I am holding you in there now?

I will miss you, but...I will forever cherish the friendship we have.  May you find peace in your heart and soul, my friend.

Pumpkins and a Promise...

While at a pumpkin patch one year, Elliott promised he would always go pumpkin hunting with me.

Of course, he was a teenager then.  Now that he is away at college, he surprisingly continues the tradition.  Elliott lives a 5 minute walk away from an amazing glass museum, where you can find unique one of a kind pumpkins.  He remembers the little things, like, that I really love a great stem on a pumpkin.  

Last year he got me the pumpkin on the left.  I assumed the tradition was over.  But, it was not.  I visited Elliott a few days ago, and complimented that I love the pumpkin he bought himself (the weekend before), and what a great stem!  He looked at me like I was a little crazy, and said he had gotten the pumpkin for me!  

I know it is silly, but I was so touched by the gesture.  As my boys get older, and don't need me much anymore, the fact that I cross their mind at some time during their day, is a wonderful thing.

I cherish these little pumpkins and the years of pumpkin hunting memories they hold!!!

My Baby Is Sick...

My baby is sick....my technological baby that is!  Even worse is that the doctor is away at university...becoming a better Doctor!  

My laptop is almost 8 years old, poor old thing still runs Windows Vista.  Our issue is that it won't let me run virus scans.  I have done all the things on the list Norton provided me with...now we impatiently wait to see what happens.

It would not make me such a nervous wreck if it weren't for the fact that there  are almost 200gb of pictures, documents and stuff on there.  Ninety percent of that is likely photos...mostly mine, but some of my moms too.

I admit that I use my phone for a lot of my personal computing...I can even blog from my phone...as I am right now.  But, I have gone through a lot with this laptop and I would be devastated if it crashes .  We have weathered Lee's deployment to Bahrain, 6 years of blogging...geez, I was on my laptop when I found out I was gonna be a grandma!

So, let's all send up a little prayer, that I can fix this and if I can't...lets hope Elliott can!

Holding my breath and crossing my fingers!!

Wedding Bells...

Saturday, we went to a wedding!!! Arrielle's sister married her love, Ian!  I was excited to go, because I had been hearing about it for months!!!  Arrielle was the officiant, Mason was a groomsman and Mahoney was going to be a balloon girl (a flower girl, but with balloons).  The wedding was held at a horse farm in Olympia. The venue was beautiful and it was a wonderful first Saturday of Autumn!

When Lee and I arrived, this was the first thing we saw! Our MJ...she saw us and the first thing she said was "I don't want to be a princess anymore!".  She had been up since 7:30am, running around and checking out the horses.  It was a little before 4pm when we saw her.  Within minutes she was...

Crashed on Grandpa!!  She ended up missing the ceremony.

I followed the rules and did not take pictures during the ceremony...but I wish I did!  I got to see Mason and Arrielle walk down the aisle together! It was so sweet!  The ceremony was very nice and Arrielle did a great job (she has married two other couples), even when she cracked and cried a little as she pronounced Chelnesha and Ian, husband and wife.

Chelnesha and Ian just after the ceremony.

Roslin, our littlest princess, walking in her fancy dress!

The beautiful bride, Chelnesha.

Chel and Ian, dancing with their parents.

The speeches were awesome and so funny! Ian and Chelnesha laughing as Moneica (Arrielle's youngest sister) reminded them of their first date.

MJ, done being a princess...let her mane of hair down...and dug into her dinner! She actually had three plates of food...covered in ranch dressing!  Brad, Arrielle's dad (and a small crew from the restaurant he works at) made the meal, and it was delicious!

Ian and Chrl's first dance as husband and wife! I hope they always remember to dance!

We left as the after party started...taking home Roslin and MJ with us for the night so their mommy and daddy could get their groove on.  

A couple more pics...

Could she be any cuter???

Mt. Rainier in the back ground, it was such a pretty day!

Just a couple of the many horses.

It was a beautiful day, and I cannot wait to see what the future holds for Chel and 

Ian....hopefully some more babies in the family!!

Aarrgghh!!!!!

Do you ever just wake up pissed off? I am having one of those days.  One of those nights when you go to bed late, wake up early and it all goes crazy from there.

I went to bed after midnight and was woken up by Lee getting out of bed earlier than normal. I check my phone to see the time, and notice a bunch of texts from Elliott...then I spend the next hour assuring him that he likely has not been a victim of identity theft. From there, I decided to pay the bills...happy that for the fact the bills are covered for this pay period, but unhappy that my savings account is stupidly low.  My mind is racing with what if's and plan b's all the way through z.

I need to get my mind back into its happy place! I am headed to my dad's today, and I am taking my niece along...who leaves for boot camp on Monday!

So, in order to do that, I will sip another mug of coffee, glance at some pictures of my beautiful granddaughters and remember to breathe!!

Holy Cooties Batman!!

Two weeks ago, I had a Monday without little grand girls to play with. Roslin was sick and her mommy wanted to stay home with her.  My eye felt kinda funny...I assumed it was allergies.  It has been hit and dry, so I was sure that was it. On Tuesday, I had to call in sick to work...my eye was swollen shut.  I thought "gross, I have pink eye".  That was just the tip of the iceberg! Wednesday brought a trip to urgent care.  I knew it was bad because the urgent care doctor made a face when she walked in.  At this point, my eyeball was swollen with edema.  I looked like a prize fighter who lost the fight.  

Just some of the pretty pics I took  while sick!

The opthamologist managed to see me that afternoon and said I definitely had some pink eye, and due to other symptoms...sinus pain, a really bad sore throat, fever and chills...the doctor deemed I had adenovirus.  Nothing you can really do but wait out the cootie.  On a follow up visit, the other eye decided to join the party and the swelling in the right eye had caused the formation of a pseudo membrane.  Not good! They have to numb your eye and scrape that membrane off.  Gross!  The swelling also caused hemorrhaging in the right eye and made me look like a demon!

The doctor excused me from work for 10 days...it was miserable!  I had another scraping of the eye and the addition of some steroid drops.  The virus wears you out, I took a lot of naps and fell into an exhausted sleep each night.  

I returned to work last Saturday, my eyes pretty clear.  My vision has changed, so after my next check up I need to get new glasses.  Which is a bummer, these glasses are barely a year old!  Having an eye swollen shut for a week reminded me what a blessing vision really is!!!  

Tali's First Year As A Temple...

The very first picture we saw of Tali...I was smitten!

Mahoney meeting Tali....he adores the girls and they cannot escape getting a kiss from him.

Tali is very cat friendly.  He shares his bed with Texas.  He and Kitty do a little chase and play, that is really funny.

Tali got this stuffed dog for Christmas...quickly beheaded it an got stuffing all over the house.  We found another on clearance, and he is much more loving with the second one. 

This is his "are you gonna eat all if that?" look.

We would have named Tali, Mrs. Kravitz (after the nosey neighbor on bewitched)...he is always wanting to know what's going on!

Two Months....

So sorry for the slack in blog entries.  

Not a lot going on here lately.  Fairly calm is nice.  We have adjusted to being empty nesters, and actually really like it.  I wish I could say we have done something amazing, like trips or other adventures...but that is not in the budget.  We use the coupons on the back of the Fred Meyer receipt to save at Azteca (Mexican food) and binge watch historical dramas on TV.  Sometimes we venture to Poulsbo for doughnuts on the weekends.  We are pretty boring and love it!

Speaking of binge watching tv....we have recently watched Bloodlines (Netflix) and Vikings (History channel) both were fantastic. We need to find the next one.   

Easter was nice, the kids brought the girls over for a little bit.  Mahoney has not been too keen on leaving grammy's lately....I sort of take a little pleasure in that, it means she loves being here. Here are a couple pics of the Easter sweetness...

Miss Roslin, 9 months old.  She just got her two bottom teeth!

Miss Mahoney, and Roslin's noggin!  Mahoney is three months away from turning 3!  Her vocabulary is growing like mad!  

Elliott, when we all met for doughnuts a couple weeks ago.  He is doing great at UW.  He put in his application for his major, and he should find out in the next couple weeks if he was accepted into the program.  I am choosing to think positive...because we have no plan B, if he does not get into the IT program.

Then there is this...my beloved Suburban is about to roll over into the unknown.  200,000 miles!!

Thank You Seahawks!

Yeah, I know you are wondering...why in the Hell is Jeanine blogging about football again???

When I learned we would be moving home in 2012, I decided to figure out how the game of football was played.  Yup, it's true, all I knew was they ran the ball down the field for touchdowns.  I paid more attention to their uniforms, and gathered just enough knowledge to make polite conversation.  

I have asked Lee a million questions!  I finally figured out a 2 point conversion a few weeks ago.  At times, I am totally lost on how downs work...and kinda still am! Then Lee tells me there is a point where they have to punt...what? Why??  As, I learn more, I love it more.  

I am put off by one huge thing...trash talking!  My dad LOVES football, and I cannot recall him trash talking an opposing team. For goodness sake, he accidently cheered for the Seahawks while surrounded by Raider fans, and he himself was a huge Raider fan!  An example...I follow the Seahawks, Russell Wilson and Richard Sherman on Instagram and when they post something...I swear half the comments are from people who hate them!  Why follow them if you hate them so much...is it so you can be an asshole under the guise of a screen name?  After yesterday's loss, my Facebook feed was full of hate and rude comments from those that don't like the Seahawks.  It was like salt into a wound.  I just don't get it???  I guess it's part of sports.  You won't hear me change the name of a team to something derogatory or decide my team sucks because of how they played.  I don't read the sports page, or NFL stuff...all my feelings come from what I have seen while watching games, quick post game interviews and how the Seahawk players act in the Seattle community.  It is these actions that caused my tumble into the Legion of Boom, and the desire to get a 12th Man tee shirt.

So, I am counting down the moments until pre-season begins.  Russell Wilson says he won't let this one play define his career, so I won't let the trash talking of others define the love I have for my team!

Go Hawks!!!

Thoughts and Stuff...

First a little princess fix!  Ahhh! That's better!

So, I have been stressing lately...the usual, money woes!  Mainly, thinking about my truck, and it's needing repairs. It's old and not worth much to anyone else but me.  I think we have decided to keep the truck, and get a small car for everyday driving.  But, financially...that is a year or so down the road.  We have some credit card debt that needs lots of attention and that is a focus, before we apply for a car loan.

Then, I do our taxes....ugh!  I get all our info in there and holy shit balls...we owe $1120!  We did not have enough taken out of Lee's regular pay.  I have fixed that and we should be ok next year.  I just want to break even.  I do miss the fact that the money the Coast Guard gave us (while Lee was active duty) for rent was untaxable!  Now, we use Lee's Coast Guard retirement for rent and utilities..and that is taxed, that amount also raises our income just enough to put us just barely into a higher tax bracket...and a bigger tax liability. Yippee!

While I am freaking out over how I will pay our tax bill, a close friend essentially lost every penny she had.  Really! Every stinking penny!  She is a single mom with three great kids and even though she is stressed beyond reason...she still laughs every day, pulls herself up by her boot straps and carries on. Motivated by the giggles of her children.  I am inspired by her tenacity to keep going.  It's  a good reminder that shit happens, it can be a stinky mess...but, it serves no purpose to wallow around in it.

On a good note...one of my resolutions for January was to blog more! That resolution is crossed off my list! Yay!

Are You Ready For Some Football...

So...you may have heard, but the Seattle Seahawks are headed to the Super Bowl AGAIN!!!  I have come to love football! I miss most of the games due to work, but I was able to watch a few this season.  

Last Sundays game was insane, I listened to it on my ear piece at work...we actually got play and score updates from employees in the electronics department.  The banter was fun, especially from one of our managers who is related to Colin Kaepernick from the 49's, who hates the SeaSquaks (as he calls them).  Then, I snuck back to the breakroom and got to see the last two minutes...I had to go back to work as overtime began.  I think I held my breath the whole time, until someone said "We gotta touchdown! We are going to the Super Bowl!!!!"

Part of what I love about this team, is that when they were signed/drafted to the team they were kind of like a bunch of misfit toys.  A bunch of players that together make something amazing.  I am touched by Russell Wilson's humbleness, Richard Sherman's cockiness is the perfect blend of wit and education, Marshawn Lynch, may only say one word to reporters, but we get to see silly plumber commercials here, his smile makes me smile.  

I still have not figured out what the downs are...a patient Lee tried very hard to explain it to me.  I am hoping that by February 1st I will figure it out, and that I have the day off to watch the big game!