P1010252.JPG,

One of the many things I got the chance to do while in Arizona on vacation was to meet up with my old manager from Intel and her new baby, Charlie (really Charles Jr.). The little guy was so cute, hard to believe he’s not even a month old yet. It was really nice to spend time with Kristi, Chuck and Charlie. I had forgotten how light and little newborns are. Charlie is so cute and small. I had a blast sitting there holding him while he slept, talking with Kristi. it was funny too because Kristi and CHuck both mentioned that Charlie is either sleeping or hungry right now. They kept waiting for him to wake up and each time he’d move aroudn they’d joke that the crying would be soon because he wanted food. I was very proud of myself when he slept the whole hour and wasn’t fussy at all. he’s so great. I can’t imagine what he’ll look like when he’s older. It was nice too to get the baby fix but the leave Krisit with the diaper changes.

P1010171.JPG,

As promised, this it the new stain glass window my mom made Eric and I. All I can say is, I LOVE IT!!! This is in the guest bathroom upstairs and the window faces out to the street so you can see the light house, etc from outside too. Love that. It’s also cool too that the land and less opaque glass goes up half way so you don’t have to worry about flashing the neighbors. I love, love this window. It goes great in the bathroom which is sort of a coast, beach theme.

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

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.

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.

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….