by jltitus on August 9, 2009
For the last three years I’ve been taking about a week off the end of July and heading to Othello, Washington (my home town). I go and hang out with my mom, visit with friends, and just enjoy being there for a time. This time was no exception.
I got to visit my friend Cyndee and her family. She and I had a great girls day in Tri-Cities while Ryan and Daniel went to the Puz’s so Daniel could play with his friend. Cyndee and I went to Tri-Cities and got a pedicures. It was so much fun. It’s not often that I get pedicures so it was a nice treat.
I think after that we ran around to a few other places and then headed back to Connell to work on dinner. Once we got back to Connell Cyndee and I chilled and chatted about everything from what’s she’s doing now, to old teachers we’ve worked with, and more. I miss being closer and visiting her more. I’m so glad she’s lovig her job and working in Connell. It’s great too that Ryan is working there iin town too, so much better than the trips to Walla Walla.
We ended up BBQing for the night. It was so much fun! 
Cyndee was running the grill while Daniel and I were playing on his swing set, trampoline and soccer. Daniel is such a cutie pie and so full of energy. After dinner we headed to the pool so Daniel could go swimming. I decided I wasn’t going to goo swimming so no suit for me. I was so surprised with Dainel. He’s walk up the four flights of stairs to the top of the slide. He’d then slide down. I couldn’t believe it. he’s only 5 years old and he just does it by himself. I would be totally freaked out if that were me. He’s just fearless! It was an awesome visit! Now I just need to convince Cyndee to bring Daniel down here for a visit. I think he’d love the Children’s Museum, the Zoo, and OMSI.
Friday July 24th was the annual American Cancer Society Relay for Life. I’ve been going every year for the last three years. Our team is a bunch of teachers, friends, and family. I love the relay it’s such a great community event. Othello is a small town, about 6K, with a lot of heart. There are so many people that come out for this event every year. I’m always surprised at how many come out. I think we started out about 7pm with a few words from people that have survived cancer. One of those that talked this year w
as my mom’s friend, Kristi Spohr. She was actually my French teacher in high school. She did such a great job talking about her experience in finding out she had cancer. I stood there listening to her tearing up and thinking I should really go and get my mammogram done soon. After the talks those that have survived cancer did the survivor walk. It’s the first round around the track and done by those that have survived cancer. It’s really cool because you see a sea of purple shirts walk the track. It’s neat, and yet bitter-sweet to see all those survivors. I know so many of them too. Some are even people I’ve gone to high school with. I’m so glad they’re survivors.
Every year we raise money and every year we try to do better than the last year. This year we raised $1,700 from our team, the Studs and Duds. I was so happy we’d done so well. I’m always happy if we make more than 1K, maybe next year we’ll make 2K. This year was a ton of fun too because “the kids” (Alex, Cade, Drake, and Gabriella) got to spend the night with us. I think they had a great time! I was proud of myself too because I walked 13 miles straight in the relay. I could have walked farther but I got a blister on my foot so the last 3 miles were hard.
Once the relay was over mom and I headed home. Saturday was a day of sleeping and relaxing since we’d not slept the night before. It was so nice not to do anything. Saturday night we went out to Penny and Israel’s place to have dinner and visit with the kids. I love hanging out there with them. The kids are so full of energy and just fun to play with. Cade had recently gotten a new goat so we went out to the pasture to see his new goat and everyone else’s goat too. We also got to see the new chickens.
Monday I headed to Ellensburg to visi
t with Eric’s parents. I think it’s so great that we have such a great relationship. I love my in-laws, they’re the best. Tuesday I got to go with Julie to her book club luncheon. It was so much fun. I love Julie’s friends. We all enjoyed a great potluck luncheon and chatted about all things from books, to movies, to computers, to potatoes. I can’t remember everyone’s names but here’s a picture of everyone in attendance at the lunch. A bunch of great ladies.
Later Tuesday night Greg, Hollie, Miles, and Beth came over to Bob and Jullie’s to visit and play for a while before we headed to dinner. I can’t believe Mile’s is going into 2nd grade this year. I think Beth has one more year before she starts school. I just can’t believe how much time has flown by. It seems like just a bit ago when they lived up the street from us and we saw them more often. I really wish we saw everyone more often but that darn work just gets in the way of it all.
I had an amazing vacation! I actually extended it to include Thursday and Friday so I could spend time with Eric. I was go glad I took the time off.
Tagged as:
connell,
cyndee,
relay_for_life,
washington
by jltitus on December 12, 2006
by jltitus on November 26, 2006
by jltitus on July 28, 2006
This weekend we’re up in Washington. We’re really here for the Jazz and Wine festival in Ellensburg and to visit with family. Last night we drove through the night to Othello and got there about midnight. I was so surprised to see my mother, who is the sort of person in bed at 10pm, up and waiting for us. She rocks!!!
So we get in, go to bed and get up this morning. It was a great morning. We all sat out on the back porch sipping coffee and talking about things. I can’t remember what we were talking about but being there with Eric, my mom and brother was really nice.
One of the reasons we were there in Othello first was because I needed my mom’s help and advice in sewing my very good friend, Natalie’s, wedding dress. It sounds all complicated but it’s not a typical wedding dress and is made up of about 5 pieces. so nothing too hard but still a challenge. So my mom, gotta love her, helped me with the dress today. It was really nice working on it and asking her advice and us getting a long the whole time. It’s nice when we can do that. Sometimes we try and we end up butting heads and it’s not a fun experience but today, today was different and really nice. My mom is so cool that when it came to putting in the zipper, a “blind” zipper which I’ve never done, my mom did the whole thing. I was so happy she did that and thankful because that was the part I was really worried about messing up. SO here’s a shout out to my mom, because I’m not sure she knew how thankful I was for her help and advice.
MOM…. THANKS A MILLION TIMES FOR YOUR HELP TODAY! I DON”T THINK I COULD HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU. THANKS FOR BEING THE GREATEST MOM EVER!!!
Love your daughter 
Tagged as:
linda_crosier,
othello,
sewing
by jltitus on July 2, 2006
Today my friend Chad came over for a bit to get something working on his TiVO and we sat and talked forever. It’s been too long since I’d talked to him. It was great!! We talked about all sorts of things but the best part was that he said how happy he is right now, how content he is with himself and he’s OK that he’s not dating. SO this launched into a whole discussion on happiness and living your life. He’d gone to this conference in the last week and one of the key note speakers talked about living life and how people need to live now, not fret about what has happened in the past or worry about the future, yeah you need to plan a bit for the future but you need to live life today and enjoy the experiences. I really liked the thought, I mean how many of us are worried about things we’ve done or our future and we’re not living today, enjoying the people, places and things around us.
It was interesting to talk about all that. I mean a lot of people in this world are not internally happy, they think things like “if I only buy (x) then I’ll be happy”, or “I wish I was like (x).” I think the thing that people really fail to realize is that if you’re not happy with yourself, you’re never going to be happy. I mean you may be happy for a moment but not for long term. It’s like I was telling Chad, a person can’t be in a truly happy in life or love until they’re happy with themselves, it’s internal. A person or thing can’t make you happy. You have to make yourself happy. How many people do you know that aren’t happy with themselves? They’re always looking for the next thing to make them happy, they’re counting their friends like pennies and determining their value by the number of friends they have. They’re the person keeping up with the Jones’ and wondering why they’re not as happy as the Jones’ seam to be. It’s silly really, trying to keep up with the Jones’, trying to one up a person, etc. It’s sad really. The whole conversation was a great one. It really made me happy for Chad but happy for myself and very satisfied with things in my life.
Tagged as:
chad,
daily_life,
happiness
by jltitus on May 29, 2006
I was scrapbooking a bit today and came across this picture in the process. I love… I mean LOVE this picture.
This is Baylee and Ethan. Last year, while Ethan’s parents were in Alaska I took care of him for 13 days. This picture was taken during that time. Ethan loves Baylee. I love this picture for some many reasons. I love it because it’s got my wonderful, well behaved dog being as gentle as can be and letting Ethan give her a kiss on the nose. Something to note too: Baylee does not let anyone else kiss her on the nose but Eric, myself and Ethan. I guess that shows how much she loves him.
The other reason I love this picture is that Ethan is in it. He’s the sweetest boy in the world. Eric and I had talked about having kids and determined that if we could have a child as great and wonderful as Ethan we might consider it. I mean Ethan doesn’t have temper tantrums, he’s very sweet, well mannered and a total joy. I could eat him up. I love too that he calls me “Aunt Jona”. I didn’t even encourage it, his parent did. Ross, Ethan dad, and I are such great friends that we do feel like family. This coming weekend I have Ethan over night. We’re planning on heading to Corbett for the pancake feed and ride the firetruck. I bet he’ll have a great time.
Tagged as:
baylee,
ethan
by jltitus on August 26, 2005
Tonight was so much fun. Today was so much fun. I worked from home today and got a lot done on this project I’m working on. The crazy part of it is this HUGE project is due in just a couple of weeks. It’s wild to think that what I’m working on is going to go out to the entire company. It’s a lot of pressure and means a lot of working day and night, week days and weekends to get it all done by the deadline.
Tonight was great though because we went over to our friend Ed and Livia’s house for a BBQ dinner. Ed and Livia have three kids that are just adorable. The youngest is Emmy a little girl about 4 years old. She’s so cute I wanted to just scoop her up and hug her all night. She’s a little monkey too and spent most of the night climbing all over things, especially her mom. Alex and Grayson (the boys) are so incredibly cute and the most well-mannered boys I’ve ever met. Ed and Livia should be proud.
Last night Eric made some great salmon, Livia made a wonderful spinach salad and we had rice too. Oh and I made dessert of cobbler. It was such a yummy dinner. It was great that we all helped make the dinner too. Ed broke out some great wine. I forget what it was but it was tasty and one of the wines served at our reception last year. The night was so nice. We sat and joked, laughed, chatted about all sorts of things and enjoyed a wonderful relaxing night with friends. It really made me appreciate my friends. On the drive home Eric and I talked a lot about friends and how great they can make you feel. How you can go months and not see or talk to a good friend but then you talk on the phone and the months seem to dissolve and it’s like only a day has passed. I think that’s really true from my very best friend LeAnne or Jim. I can go months without talking to either of them and then either I pick up the phone or they do and we talk forever. Friends are great!
Well, it’s late and should get to bed. I’ve got a great book to read right now….
Tagged as:
bbq,
dinner,
ed,
eric,
friends,
livia
by jltitus on July 23, 2005
Today we went to the dog park. We took Baylee to play with her friends and Ethan and I had a picnic at the tables while Eric was with Baylee in the park area for dogs.
Later Eric took Ethan to the swings and pushed him high in the air and swung him for what seemed like a long time. I took Baylee back over to the dog area.
On the way to the car we showed Ethan how to run the bases. He would run from home to first, to second, to third and then back to home with Eric. We they got to home Eric would call Ethan safe. He would just laugh. It was too cute.
When Ethan got up from his nap today we went to the park down the street to play. He had a pretty good time playing there. He likes to pretend he’s driving a car or flying in a plane on the jungle gym there. He also likes to run around and play in the trees or better yet, throw rocks down the drain and hear them splat in the water. Today he played with Baylee for a while too.
Tagged as:
dog park,
eric,
ethan,
jona
by jltitus on July 22, 2005
Today Ethan and Eric spent sometime outside in the backyard looking at all the plants and tomatoes. They had a great time out there checking things out and playing with Baylee.
Later in the day we went to Chuckie Cheese’s for a late lunch and early dinner. When we got there Ethan and I looked all over for the ball pit but they didn’t have one. We went back to the corner with the things for toddlers and waited for Eric and the pizza.
Ethan rode on several things. He really liked the Bob the Builder ride and the Barney ride but his favorite was the phone machine. I don’t know exactly what it did but he’d pick it up and talk for quite a while on that thing.
We ate pizza and rode on the big truck and played basketball with Eric. It was a lot of fun.
Tagged as:
eric,
ethan
by jltitus on July 21, 2005
Today Ethan slept in for a while and was pretty wiped from the day before so we took an easy day. After he woke up we went to my house and had breakfast with Eric.
We didn’t do a whole lot today, just a lot of playing pretend and firefighter and hanging out in the pool.
Tagged as:
breakfast,
eric,
ethan,
jona
