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 is our second day at my moms place in Othello. Coming here is always interesting. I like to come because my mother is here and even though we drive each other crazy sometimes I love spending time with her. What’s sort of weird is to go to Wal-Mart, the local grocery store and hang out, and see people I went to school with working there. I don’t mean to sound snobby but I realize just how far away from an “Othello” life I lead. Sometimes I come and realize that I’m on a different plane than the people I see when I’m in my home town. I look around an reminisce about the times I had growing up in Othello and how much I loved it but the place and people have changed and yet it’s like they’re suspended in time. It’s very weird.

Today mom and I headed to Moses Lake to get the batting and backing for the quilts I made for our bedroom and the guest room. It seemed like we were there forever this morning but it was worth the time to pick just the right fabrics. Once we were done we had to go back to Othello and piece together the backing and then cut, fold and iron the binding for the lady doing my quilts in Royal City We talked design and all for a while. I really think the quilts are going to turn out super cool. I can’t wait to get the quilts back. I was surprised to find out that they’ll be done for my mom to pick them up the first of May so I’ll have them when she, Bob and Julie all come down in May. I’m so super excited. So I’ll get the quilts and my new ring, what could be better than that Today was a great day.

Tomorrow, back to Portland and building the raised herb garden and getting the garden ready, there’s another project I can’t wait for. Last year was super fun growing and harvesting food. This year we’ve got a better plan together. I got this cool book about square foot gardening and how to maximize your garden and yet get great results so we’re going to implement that strategy and try to have a garden all season. I can’t wait.

Today we headed to Othello for the holidays. We’re planning on going to my mom’s for about 5 days and then to Eric’s parents’ for about 5 days. Eric and I got up late today so we didn’t get out by 11 as we’d planned and I forgot to get the oil changed in the car so we really didn’t get out when we’d planned. Eric took the car to get the oil changed while I finished getting everything packed up and ready to go for our trip. Baylee was running around wondering what was going on too. I’d just gotten back from Boston and I think she was worried I was heading out somewhere else again. When Eric got home we loaded the car with everything, even the dog, got in the car to go and it wouldn’t start. Argh! So we called Eric’s dad and figured/hoped it was the battery. Eric went across the street to the neighbors, Brian’s, and got jumper cables to try and jump my car. We jumped the car and sure enough everything worked. SO we headed out at something like 2:30pm. It took us over an hour getting out of town because the roads were slick. Eric did a great job driving to The Dalles. At about The Dalles we changed places because the weather was getting really bad and the compact snow and ice is something Eric doesn’t feel comfortable in. I drove from there home. We went through bad snow storms and weather. There were a couple of times that it did get a little dicey too. I was so glad when we got to Othello safely.

This morning we all got up early. Mom took Eric up to the Warden Golf course to meet his dad and uncle Bruce for a round of golf. Mom picked up Kathy and Julie there. All the while they did that I tried driving my car to Tri-cities and got about 5 miles down the highway when my car refused to go. I mean it was on, I could give it gas but it didn’t go anywhere. After a lot of phone calls I finally got a hold of a tow company in Tri-Cities to come tow the car. Great, Here I was sitting in my car on a relatively hot morning waiting for the tow truck to come and who knew how long it would take them. I mean it’s not like Othello isn’t out in the boonies. Mom, Julie and Kathy came out to see how I was doing and brought me some much needed water while I waited. Then left to take Josh to PT and it wasn’t long after that the tow truck driver came. He was a really nice guy. We had the chance to talk about all sorts of things. He’s been in eastern Washington for over 20 years… blah…blah… blah… but it was nice to talk nonetheless.

I got to the dealership and it didn’t take long for them to tell me it was my clutch and it was gone. I couldn’t believe it. I mean my car only has something close to 47K for miles and the clutch goes out. I wasn’t worried until he told me it’s not covered by an extended warranty for the items because it’s considered a “wear and tear” item. I was totally bummed. I mean, now I had to come up with the money to pay for this. So of course I got on the phone with my mom and told her about it and that it was going to cost me a little more that $1,000. I’d just gotten a bonus from work and here it was going to my car. Argh! Take one step ahead and one behind. So I didn’t have a choice so I left my car to get fixed and drove off in one of their rental cars. Of course as I drive the rental car away, the RPM’s shoot up and the car isn’t going very fast. I was just about ready to jump out of the car and never drive again. That is… until I figured out it’s a “sport” Subaru Outback which means you can either drive it like an automatic or pretend it’s a standard and shift. Apparently, I needed to shift. Once I figured that out I was off and back to Othello.

So I got back to Othello and Mom, Julie, Kathy and I sat out back and sipped some wine and chatted. Women can talk… a lot… about a lot of things. It was a good time. I don’t even really remember what we talked about besides the fact we all couldn’t believe the clutch had gone out in my car and that it wasn’t covered. Not long after the guys got back from playing their round of golf and it was dinner time. Eric was the grill master again and did a great job. Mom really outdid herself with the BBQ. We had great salads with the burgers, chips and things. It was nice for everyone to sit outside and enjoy a great BBQ like that. Thanks MOM.

After dinner I got the call that my car was fixed so Eric and I headed down to the dealership to pick up my car. I paid them the money and got in my car to drive it and had a hard time. The clutch was a lot looser than before so it took a while to get used to that. We got home, had some dessert, packed the car to go to Ellensburg and were off.

While Eric and I were in Washington over the holidays mom and I went out to Israel and Penny Rodriguez’s and snagged two of the triplets for the day so the nanny got a break and we had some fun. Israel and Penny had triplets almost a year ago. Since then mom has helped them out on occasion with the babies. We went and picked up Cade and Alex. They’re so cute. It was so nice to play with the kids. They’re getting so big and SO cute.