Come FLY with me!!!!!

I had a huge realization the other day! Since I got sick a couple of years ago, I have had a hard time keeping my house clean. It has been very frustrating. Lately I have been in a vicious cycle. I take a day or two and clean my house top to bottom. It is clean and I feel great, but at the same time I burn myself out. I spent so much time and energy getting put back together that then I didn't want to do anything. And with 3 young kids, a hubby, a dog, and a very small house, things very quickly get out of hand again. So I am not only frustrated that my house is a mess again, but I am also very discouraged that I could not keep it clean. I go in a downward spiral, until I hit my breaking point. The mess is too much for me to handle and I start the cycle all over again. If any of this sounds familiar, you know where I am coming from.

So I wanted to share something that I just found the other day. I stumbled over some notes I took several years ago at an MK event. In there was a website for an organizational website. I thought well what does it hurt to go take a look. I was shocked. I fell in love with the system that had been put in place to get your home and life out of chaos. Then and there I committed to myself to try this program for a month and see what can happen. The best part is that it is completely FREE!

So here is my challenge to you, whether your house is out of control, a little cluttered, or you think you have it covered, come join me on this 30 day adventure. There is always something for us to learn. Check it out at www.flylady.net Then, enter your commitment on my facebook wall . We will use my wall as a daily accountability and source of encouragement. I am so excited to take this journey and I would love for you to come along with me! Are you in????

Abe's apple

I think this is one of my favorite things that happened today. Abe absolutely loves apples!!!!! Anytime I say it is snack time, he runs to the fridge saying bapple, bapple. He does not however, like the peel right now. He eats all the apple around it and then spits it out. Today, he finally got to the core of an apple. What came next was rather funny.

Be mine

Today Brayden and Carly had Valentine's Day celebrations at school. These are the boxes they made. It is so much fun to see their excitement and remember doing the same thing.

Special Experience

For those of you who may not be aware, Boise is hosting the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games. Well, I decided that this was not an every day event (duh!), so Scott and I took them to take part in some of the festivities on Wednesday. I was hoping to get a picture of us in front of the Olympic Cauldron. However, much to my dismay, we found out that they had moved it to Sun Valley that morning. So after my moment or two of disappointment,we saw this ice sculpture. The kids thought it was great and so I decided that it would be okay and could heal my disappointment. I did try to talk myself and Scott into driving to Sun Valley to see the cauldron. And although it was very tempting, I finally came to the conclusion that is just was not practical right now.



There was a "Sports Experience" area set up at one of the venues. Brayden had a lot of fun playing floor hockey. We almost couldn't get him away from it. He did a great job at it too.




















One thing that I thought was great, was that all of the events were free admission. It gave us the opportunity to take the kids to see some of the competitions, as well as support the wonderful athletes competing. The event that we when to see was Figure Skating. The kids had a great time, although their attention span was not very long. They also got to see the Zamboni. It was one of their favorite parts.

All in all, we had a great time and i am glad we were able to take part in these great events.

Where have you gone . . . .

Wow!!! I think it has been awhile since I have posted. For those of you who may have wondered, I am still alive. It has been a trying several of months, but I think I made it through. I am making a new resolve to put forth more of an effort to keep my blog up to date. We will see how it goes. Wish me luck!

My baby is 1 year old!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! ABEY BABY

After many attempts . . .

Here is what Brayden's tooth looked

like just before it was so gently removed.

This was his "I'm not so sure about this Mom" look.

I was trying to tie a string around it to shut a door on it.

This method was not so effective.

And finally after much anguish and
trying, we were finally successful!!!

Brayden's Surprise

Well, we had some excitement happen today!

But I don't want to ruin it. I will let this video talk for itself!

The Pier and Pike Street

We took a walk around the pier and Pike Street after our Underground tour.

Brayden got caught up in all the fun, but it was just too much for our little Abe.

Brayden had fun walking with the pigeons. When they saw this pig, Brayden and Carly knew they had to take a ride.

This was a huge piece of driftwood which found a home in a small plaza. It was just too tempting to keep the kids away. While looking at the pictures today, Brayden found a whale hiding in the wood. Can you find it too???

The Great Crapper ? ? ? ?

Okay, so call me crazy but while in the museum at the end of the Underground tour I discovered something that caught my fancy. Please let me explain . . . Carly decided that it was time to go potty. So we took the great adventure of finding the restroom in a new place. (At times this can be something of a challenge.) Upon entering the above mentioned room, I came upon my great discovery . . . . . . . . . the TOILET!!!! Yes, that is right their porcelain throne. Now I am sure you are wondering why a toilet? What can be so incredible about a toilet? Well take a look for yourself


I have never seen such a "pretty"toilet before. So yes, this very unexpected sight (as strange as it may seem) caught my eye. And I was compelled to capture it to share with all who will read this post.

Adventures Under Seattle

After Scott got done with all the job interview stuff, we had some sightseeing fun. We went on a tour underneath the sidewalks of Seattle. Yes you read right. UNDERNEATH the sidewalks.

For those of you who are a little shocked right now, there is a "secret underground sidewalk" in downtown Seattle. Okay, so it really is not all that secret, but it is really cool. When Seattle was first settled, there were many problems with . . . yes you guessed it . . . their toilets. The problem being that they would back up when the tide came in and the would have raw sewage coming out of their toilets. Sorry, I know it's not such a pleasant thought, and I'm sure not very pleasant to live with. They also had a huge fire that destroyed most of the city.

To help solve the toilet problem, after rebuilding, they raised the streets of Seattle and incorporated a new drainage system inside the streets. This created a new problem however. The sidewalks were about 12 feet below the street, so then they extended the sidewalks as well. They left the original sidewalks intact so that they people of Seattle could still easily access all the buildings 1st floors. If you would like to read the story in a little more detail, and better than I can say it, you can follow this link Seattle Underground History or this link Seattle Underground.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our underground adventures. Brayden did not want to go down at first, but by the end, we almost couldn't drag him away.

Tucked away

While we were waiting for Scott to get done with his oral board with the Seattle PD, we found this really cute little park. Since none of the pictures below show the park very well, I will tell you a little about it. It was at the top of a hill and layed out along the top of this hill. There wasn't a lot of grassy spots, but some nice walkways and flower gardens. It was mainly for the 50+ apartments and Japanese apartments built next to it (yes there were apartments specified for Japanese occupants). There was also a community garden for any of the apartment residents who wanted to care for a small plot. It had a nice serene feel to it. And best of all the kids had fun playing while we waited.

This last picture was the view from the top of the hill and entrance to the park.