I’m going to make this quick because I should really be heading for bed right now. So about a week and a half ago I was outside talking to Brian, on of our neighbors, and his girlfriend about the 4th of July and what we all had planned. We got to talking and the idea of a 4th of July Celebration in the cul de sac developed. Nothing super impressive but a BBQ and potluck where all us neighbors in the cul de sac get to really meet each other, socialize and shoot fireworks. So we both talked about it and of course me being me, I said that I’d take care of letting everyone know and plan it. Well Monday I made these simple little invitations and took them around to each of the houses. The plan was to knock on the door and introduce myself and invite the family to a BBQ, unfortunately only one house had people answer the door so I just stuck the invitation in the door to the other houses. I was sort of bummed thinking a person would get the invitation, wonder who the heck was this Jona person as was the invitation legit. Well today it was confirmed. I got two emails from family that I’d left them invitations and they said they were coming. WOO HOO. That along with Eric and I, Brian and his girl friend and Sammy and Pla, the people that were home and are great friends, I’ve got 5 of the 8 houses confirmed for the celebration. I’m so excited. I think it’s going to be a great night.

OK. off to bed.

It’s 1:10p, Wednesday and I’m sitting here at work trying hard to deny the fact that I really am here at work and I need to do something and the iPod and “surfing” isn’t doing it, so what should I do? Well, I realized that I have yet to post about this last weekend and Father’s day. So here goes…..

So Friday Eric and I got to Ellensburg for the weekend. Jim, Eric’s grandpa, was there too and the plan for the weekend was that “the guys” would be golfing sometime on Saturday while Julie, my mother and I hang out and did, “woman things”. OK, so we get there on Friday and of course it was but a millisecond that Eric sat down with his grandpa and watched golf or some other sport. I had wanted to go around and take pictures of places I remembered from my childhood. Julie and I decided we’d drive around and do that since neither of us wanted to be subjected to sports. So we jumped in the car and headed out. Here’s the pictures:

1) This was my childhood home, just off Tamarack street and down the street from the park. Man, I loved that house and living there. I have many a story about that place and the adventures there, but I’ll save it for my “Book of Me” scrapbooking I’m determined to work on.

Ellensburg House,

2) The “Castle House”, this was the coolest ever place when I was a kid. My parents used to drive by that place every day on the way to the sitters or school and I’d dream about the place and wonder…. What if..

Castle House,

3) Mt. Stewart Elementary School
I went to kindergarten and first grade at that school. My best friend was Barbara Mann. He dad was a cop in town, if I remember. It was there that I had my first crush, Jeff Rainey, wonder what ever happened to him.

Mt. Stewart,

4) Mrs. Shore’s house. Mrs. Shore was my babysitter. She lived just about a block from school. I had a blast there. I have such fond memories.

Mrs. Shore’s,

5) CWU indoor pool, the first one. It was here that I learned how to swim. Mrs. Purser was my teacher and man was she mean. I mean she’d throw us kids in the water and tell us to “swim”. Oh the stories. The best though was when she’d make us go off the high dive then jump in (she was LARGE) after us. When you hit the water you really swimming for your life!

CWU Pool,

Saturday the guys went golfing in Mattawa. Julie and I met my mom there and took off for Othello and “hanging out”. It was a nice day, especially the authentic Mexican food in “little Mexico”.

Sunday was the best day. Greg, Hollie and the kids came over for brunch and we all hung out for a while. Here are some great pictures of the day. It was so nice to spend some times with the whole family. After brunch we got to go to see Greg and Hollie’s new house. It’s super cool and bigger, which is a great plus for them. I can’t wait to see it when they’re all in and it feels like them. What an exciting time for them.

Miles,

Yesterday was my birthday and it couldn’t have gone better. I had so much fun, I think I’m going to do that every year. SO what did I do? How was my day? Well, it all started when I was served breakfast in bed by the most handsome guy. I love my husband Eric, he’s so sweet. He made me breakfast in bed and coffee. It was such a treat to wake up and be made a wonderful breakfast. He’s the omelet king. I could get used to that sort of treatment every day.

After breakfast it was off to shower and get dressed for the day. Eric had to work so I planned a “girls day” with two of my best friends here in Portland, oh, and they just happen to work at Intel in the same group I do . I headed to Julie’s and then we went to Natalie’s, picked her up then we were off for a three hour drive to Seattle and Ikea. I’ll be so glad when they get the one built here next year. I love that place and can’t get enough of it. We all armed ourselves with our shopping lists and a cart of each one of us and descended with vigor on Ikea. I think within the first hour all of our carts were pretty full. We had to take a break about halfway and get Swedish meatball lunches so we could make it through the rest of the place. In total I think we were in and out in three hours, which is pretty good for all of us, of course we didn’t get any furniture this time. After Ikea it was Cost Plus and then the South Center mall. Natalie had a funeral she had to go to in the next week or so and she wanted to get some clothes so we helped her find the perfect skirt and top. It was fun, brought back memories of high school where we’d get together and go shopping for the day. We even hit Bath and Body Works. I love that store and always find things I like there. This time I found some coca lotion and scrub and this comfy robe. I sort of wanted to get it all but then the realist entered my head and I couldn’t help thinking, “You don’t NEED this, yeah it’s nice but you don’t NEED this and with Eric’s school not yet determined, do you really think you should buy this?” Then I thought about what Eric had said before I left, “You go and have fun, you know the budget amount and don’t feel bad if you spend that. You need to go have a fun day!” SO I broke down and bought the fun girly things. It was a hard thing to do but it was sort of next to have a bag of splurged on things.

After shopping we went to Claim Jumper for dinner. I love that place. The servings are HUGE and the food is GREAT. We had to wait for more than an hour to sit but once we did we ate like kings. It was such a fun ending to a great day. After dinner we hoped in the car and drove back to Portland. BY the time I got home is was something like 1am Sunday morning. I couldn’t believe that we were gone that long.

AWESOME DAY!!!!

A very BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Eric… Happy 31st. Eric turned 31 today and I have my birthday later in the month. Woo Hoo. I’m super excited for May though because my mom and Eric’s parents are coming down for a weekend and we’re going wine touring and out for a wonderful dinner. It’s going to be so nice to do adult things together. I love wine and tasting and having my family together is the best present ever for both of us. Woo Hoo… Just four more weeks for the tour.

I’m not one for resolutions most of the time, mainly because I have a hard time keeping them. SO I’m not going to make any, I’m going to choose to change a few things in my life for the better. Of course there’s my determination to loose 30 pounds this year. I want to do that for myself, my health and of course to look good in the mirror. The other item I’m planning on working on this year is relaxing and stress free living. I have issues with that. I have a hard time not being stressed about something. I think in part a lot comes from my history and my need to control things so then they don’t feel out of control. It’s like if I can control the things around me, I don’t have to wait for the other shoe to drop. I don’t have to worry about being a nervous wreck about things and having that feeling that everything is out of control. SO, I’m determined to do something about it. I’m going to take 30 minutes a day, just for me. Just to do nothing but relax. Not worry about anyone, not really do anything except something for me. I don’t do that enough and then I’m jealous of those that do. I know it’s going to be hard because I’m one of those people that always has to have something to do, something I can show accomplishment in. When other people relax, I’m thinking of a million things I need to do. I start mentally writing a list of them, prioritizing them and then figuring out when to do them. Then, I’m like a steam engine, or people at work call me a bulldozer, I just start going and I don’t stop until it’s all done. This whole “30 minutes for me” is going to be a HUGE challenge.

Tonight I started on the “30 minutes of me” time. I took a bath. Julie bought me these fantastic bath salts and things and so did Eric so I gave them a try. I put the slats in and climbed in for 30 minutes. It felt fantastic. I haven’t taken but maybe two baths in this house since we moved int because in a standard bath you’re not covered all the way, but tonight, it didn’t bother me. Tonight I just soaked and listened to the fan so my mind didn’t wander to making a list of things to do. Now, I’m writing this while I wait for me tea. When it’s ready, I’m going to take it upstairs, read my book and sip my tea until bed time. Lucky me, Eric’s at basketball tonight. Hopefully I can do this more. I want to do this and I really want to start my book of me this year.

Wish me luck!

This year for New Year’s Eric and I, and his parents, went to dinner and Mamma Mia at the Keller. I was so glad I did it. It was such an awesome night! It all started a bit before Thanksgiving when I heard that Mamma Mia was coming back to town. They were here last year and we didn’t go because a number of reasons. So I had been thinking about it for a while this year but kept hemming and hawing because of the cost. During Thanksgiving I brought it up with Julie and she thought it was a great idea and mentioned that she and Bob hadn’t been either so I asked them if they wanted to go with us and make a night of it. I had left it pretty open not really sure if I’d buy the tickets or not and really commit to it, then one day I just called Julie, asked her for a date that worked for them and bought the tickets. It was sort of funny too because Julie was a little concerned that she and Bob would be imposing on our night see as how it was going to be New Year’s Eve when we went. I thought it was so cute and funny at the same time because I didn’t think of it as an imposition or anything. I guess that’s the difference between getting along with your in-laws and not. I love my in-laws. Talking to Julie is almost like talking to my mother. Sometimes the similarities are scary.

So New Year’s Eve day Eric and I hung out and did much of nothing during the day and waited for Eric’s parents to come. Once they got there Eric and his dad watched some sports game while Julie and I headed to the scrapbook store. I love Scrapbook Attack. Julie bought a QuicKutz letter set since she bought my old tool from me when she was here last. After that we went and bought a car battery for my car since it has been having issues lately, then we headed home to get ready for dinner and the show. We went to this fantastic restaurant, Carafe. It was just across the street from the Keller and had valet service. We started out with drinks and I had this great espresso martini. It tasted like and iced coffee but better. It was fantastic. We each got something different for dinner and each sampled each others food. Eric had an awesome steak with fries. Those fries were the best ever. I had a pork chop with this cream white polenta and savory pears. It was tasty.

After dinner we headed to the show. It was so neat seeing all these different people, some dressed to the nines and some not. We sat in our seats in the first balcony. Man, they were good seats. I was so excited because I’d never been to a Broadway, or off Broadway show before. The house lights went down and the stage lights went up and so the production began. It was AWESOME! I loved hearing all the ABBA songs and the story line was very cute too. I sat there so happy and having such a great time. The best was when they sang, “Knowing you, Knowing me”. In the song the lyrics go something like;
“Knowing you, knowing me… ahhhaaaa”
Well, Eric’s mom and I did the same thing to the song. We would mouth the words and then to a hand gesture where we’d dip our hand down and then back up, like a wave. What was funny was I noticed Julie do it when I did (Eric was sitting between us) and then asked Eric to watch his mom and he noticed we were both doing it at the same time and he chuckled. At the end of the show they did an encore and even sang Waterloo in these flashy costumes. They also sang Dancing Queen again. Julie and I stood up and clapped to the music along with the rest of the audience. It was great.

When we got out of the theater our car was waiting for us. It didn’t take us much time to get home either. We had about 30 minutes to kill before the new year. We put on some ABBA and Eric, Julie and I danced a bit while we waited. Of course Bob was in the corner, ear buds in listening to the Mamma’s and the Pappa’s on his new ipod. When we had just a few more minutes we turned on the TV, watched the ball drop and toasted the new year with champagne.

What a great New Years!!!!