Family reunion

Our summer has been a whirlwind of events, and the West Family Reunion was one of the best.

We invited everyone, and some of my family members came for a little while as well.

Our bouncy obstacle course was a big hit with all the kids. 

There was plenty of food, fun, conversation, and lots of sunshine that day. What a blessing of a day for us!

Charlie brings out the guitar. Aunt Gerry and Colleen to his left.

We brought out the shade tent. It was a hot one that day.

A new addition to the family. Reece had a fantastic time on the inflatable.

It was an all-boy affair that day.

A little one prepares to exit the
inflatable obstacle course.

The new drum set arrived via Charlie. Sean's first set is
getting pretty beat up. 

Charlie was here for the summer. He landed some gigs in Seattle and needed a drum set. It made sense for him to buy one here instead of paying to have his shipped from Nevada. So Chuck offered for us to pay for the set and when Charlie was finished with it we could take it. 

Steve, Colleen and Cassie watch as Charlie helps Sean
set up the drums in the gazebo.

My Aunt Bennie and my Grandma with
Aunt Gerry.

The pool was a perfect respite.

Lilly made an appearance for a few minutes.

As the day heated up, the squirt guns came out.
Poor Charlie was the target.

West clan.

Memories on Monday: Driving with Mom

While driving through town last week I was suddenly transported to a space in time. It was more than a memory, really. The air was just right, I was traveling on a street in the city and St. Joe's hospital was visible to the left. I felt a strong connection to my mom. It was a street we had driven countless times.

I have a lot of photos of places and things I've done with family and friends, but some of those every-day activities I did with my mom have become the sweetest memories for me. I never knew that the mundane things we did together would bring such comfort to me after she was gone.

We drove a lot when I lived with her while she was sick. I took her to the Dr. a lot, and to her treatments. Whenever I had to take Sean somewhere she would ride along. If I needed to go to the store, she would come too. That was so much help. Sean would sometimes fall asleep in the car back then. He was a toddler, and was still taking naps in the car. She would sit with him in the car while I darted in to do the shopping.

Driving, eating at restaurants and shopping at Ross are things we did a lot.

So on that day the air had a feeling of autumn, the sun was shining on the hospital building, I was driving the same direction we had gone so many times, and I almost turned into the parking lot we used to park in for her appointments.

She's been gone almost five years, but I know I will always miss her. Sometimes I wish so badly that she was sitting in the passenger seat while I drive.

Sunshine for a while longer, please

Already the air has that feeling of autumn. I'm not ready. I want more summer. I want more days of swimming in the pool, gathering veggies from the garden, clipping flowers and foliage for pretty bouquets. And I want lots more barbecues with friends and family.

I love being outside, but I can tell we are in the midst of the last hurrah of summer. Soon it will take forever for the linens to dry on the line, the thought of donning a bathing suit will make me shiver, we'll be reaching for a jacket in the mornings, and the light of day will fade way too soon.

Autumn used to be my favorite time of year, but since moving to the Northwest I've decided summer is my favorite season. We don't get a lot of summer here. In fact this has been one of the best years for summer since I moved here. Autumn here is not that colorful, and it doesn't last very long either. We have a season I call grey, and it lasts for about 10 months.

But while I can, I am going to enjoy every minute of summer. So I'm going outside now to soak up some of the sunshine.

May I get you a drink?

Sean and I were blown away when we visited Wendy's in Port Orchard and saw this Coke machine.
It's a touch screen, and I think the sign says there are more than 100 flavors! There are even sport drinks and such on this one. I used a similar one at a convenience store near Sean's old school, and then suddenly it was gone. Didn't have 100 flavors, but it was a touch screen.

So I was excited to see this version. It seems cleaner than the old style, but you really do have to fill one at a time on this machine.

I'm pretty predictable, so I just got regular Coke. Sean was adventurous. He tried a couple of different Sprite flavors.

As far as I know it's the only one like it around here. After doing a little research I found out it's called the "Freestyle," and I guess we are one of the last areas to get one. Coke has been sprinkling them around the country since 2009.
I never knew.
It is pretty cool. Lots of flavors I had never heard of, such as the strawberry Sprite that Sean tried.

Bird attack!

So, we've got these chickens. And for months I've had a close relationship with all of them. I have spent time inside the enclosure crouched down talking to them and petting them. I go into the enclosure every day, at least once and usually twice.

The chickens love me. I bring them food and water, and when they see me coming from many feet away they start to get excited and gather around the gate that leads into the enclosure.

So yesterday I got their water bottle out and cleaned it and refilled it, and when I went back in some of the hens were gathering around my feet. They like it when I talk to them and sort of sit with them for a while and pet them. I've done this countless times.

I went inside and crouched down to talk to one of them and when I reached out to pet her the big grey rooster flogged me.

I was shocked because he has never been aggressive toward any of us. I know he was doing his job, and he perceived something I was doing as a threat to the hen, (or his manhood or something) but I wasn't having it. I decided he needed to know I was the boss, so I got a stick and lightly tapped his wing and scolded him.

He's so beautiful, and I love him, but I hope he isn't going to become a mean rooster.

This is Luke back when he was Lula. Lilly named him
Lula because we thought he was a girl. He was so cute!

Still Lula, and so much smaller than the girls.

King Luke, clearly a rooster. 

Memories on Monday: A Boy and a Bear

I consider myself one of the luckiest moms in the world. I get to enjoy a relationship with two grown children, and I also have a wonderful little boy who keeps me informed on the latest technology, Legos, Goosebumps books, and has taught me to love snakes and spiders.

I am a sentimental kind of gal, and I have kept a baby book for each child, tried my best to write down the things they were doing at different stages of their childhood, and kept millions of drawings and crafts they did in school and at church.

Though I used to think I was keeping all of those things to give to them when they grow up, I know now those things are really just for me. Each item has a memory attached to it. There are only a few things my mom saved of mine that mean anything to me, and already my grown children have shown they don't have any desire to have most of the things I saved of theirs.

Memories are our own. We remember things differently. I think memories are fascinating. The way we retrieve them and store them is of great interest to me. Recently a television show triggered a memory for me. I was transported back in time to when my oldest son was less than two years old.

He was fascinated with the Snuggle fabric softener bear on the television commercial.  As soon as he heard the voice he would come running into the room to see the bear on TV.

I know he doesn't remember that. He loved it so much that I ordered a stuffed Snuggle bear for him through one of those Sunday mailers that comes with the newspaper.  I'm sure that I could never convince him of how sweet it was to see his reaction to that bear, and I know I could not convince him to see that bear with affection now.

I know that if I try to share this memory with him I will get the inevitable flat, "I don't remember that," response. If I shared that memory it wouldn't mean anything to Dave.

It only means something to me, because it is my memory. And I am so blessed to have a lot of them.

Fabulous Friday

These are the desserts you dip into the dessert fondue of your choice.
It is soooo good!! We loved it!

There are so many great things to do and see where we live. We've had the great fortune to experience a lot of it. Some of these things we can't do often. We save them for very special occasions.
Such is the case with The Melting Pot restaurant.

We have several of these restaurants in our area, but we've only been to the one in Tacoma. Each time we've eaten there it was a special reason. Our first two times were in celebration of a rare date night, and the third time we took the kids there to celebrate the end of the school year. Both of them will be moving up to another level at school, so we thought it was an appropriate way to celebrate.

If you've never been to The Melting Pot, it's a very nice restaurant that serves a four-course fondue dinner. You start with cheese fondue and dip bread, veggies and Granny Smith apples into the cheese fondue. You get a salad, your entree, which is more fondue in a different fondue cooking sauce of your choice, and then dessert fondue. That is my favorite part, but really the whole meal is great.

The fondue pot sits on a hot plate at your table and the server brings the mix to the table and prepares it there. If you've never had fondue, you should try it. It's delicious. One of the best parts of the meal for me is the time I get to spend with the people at the table. This meal takes a while, so we have plenty of time to sit and talk. The kids love it, and Sean was especially impressed with being able to cook his own food right there at the table.

It can get pricey, but there's a special 3-course dinner through September for $29.95 per person.  That's a deal, because some of the 4-course dinners can run almost $50 per person.
And kids 12 and under eat free on Sundays and Tuesdays.

The whole experience takes at least an hour. So, if you're looking for a way to celebrate a special occasion, or want to get to know someone better and spend some time talking over dinner, The Melting Pot is a fabulous choice. I would say it's a fabulous Friday choice, but if you have kids 12 and under it might be a more fabulous choice on Sunday or Tuesday.

Disclaimer: The Melting Pot is not giving me anything for free, or even discounted, for posting this on my blog. 

New experiences, zoo style

When I flipped the calendar to August I suddenly started to feel an urgency to start doing. Summer will be over before we know it.  I hadn't even taken the kids to do anything fun yet.
I thought a trip to the zoo would be fun for both kids, but Lilly didn't want to go. Sean did, so I asked if he wanted to invite his friend Kyle to go along.
We picked up Kyle and did the Point Defiance Zoo for a little while. I got the yearly pass so we are planning to spend some afternoons there when school starts. Sean and Kyle attend different schools, though, so I'm going to try to fit in another zoo trip before summer ends.
The zoo can be quite expensive. Once you get inside there are still a lot of things that cost. We've never done those extras, so I splurged this time and let the boys experience some new things.
Here are some highlights.

I think it was $2, but they enjoyed the
hurricane simulator in the aquarium building.

We've never ridden the camels, so I paid the $5 per kid for
this fun experience.

Luckily we were treated to a free show
by the ever-elusive octopus. This was only
the second time we've seen him or her. 

A voice inside

My schedule has changed. I am no longer a slave to deadlines and no longer at the beck and call of a staff of people. I am now free to schedule my days as I see fit, and I can actually spend some time doing things that need doing around the house. I can weed the garden, wash the car, even read a book, all without that nagging feeling that there are at least 5-10 emails that have arrived, sitting there waiting on me to check them.

It feels great. I am free. I have a very different job now that requires a different skill set. I am still adjusting, but I love it. I am on a break from most of my volunteer responsibilities this summer, so I have a lot more time to be home.

But because I have more free time my inner voice is very hard on me, and it's getting louder. It tends to compare me to some ideal, perfect person, and I never measure up. I do my best to ignore it.

The other day I looked around the living room and saw that the laundry I put in the chair to fold was still there because I got distracted by a phone call. The pile of things to take to charity was still in the same place I piled it, and the bill I set out to pay was still waiting to be paid. That voice asked, "What did you do all day? You've been here, and you don't have that demanding job anymore, so why can't you get all of this done?"

And for a moment I started to think, "Yeah. Why can't I get all of this done? This house should look like a showroom. What is wrong with me?"

But when I went through the list of things I did do, I realized I got a lot done. Before 10 a.m. I had two loads of laundry finished, breakfast made, the dishwasher emptied and reloaded. By 11 I was stripping the beds and putting on clean sheets. With that accomplished, I was on my way to scrubbing the downstairs bathroom. By noon that bathroom was scrubbed and the floor mopped. I made lunch, then went out to weed the garden and water the flowers. I did more laundry, and by 3 p.m. was on the road to return some items to the library. While I was out I stopped off at the paint store to turn in the application for credit for the business. I went to the church to set up the materials for Sunday school, and then stopped at the grocery store on the way home, and when I got home I made dinner.

That seems to quiet the voice for at least the rest of the day. But it always comes back. And now it's nagging me to get off the computer.

Life is Good

This was the view from our table on the deck. 

Last weekend we took the kids to lunch at Famous Dave's, then to see the latest "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," movie, and then to their other parents for the weekend.

We visited Chuck's dad and stepmom on Friday night, who just moved to the area, and then we went out to eat at Olive Garden. Our waitress had just taken our order and brought us our glasses of wine and our salad when the power went out.
We waited a while, and our waitress came back to give us the bad news. Those entrees we ordered weren't coming. Our dinner was salad, a breadstick, glass of wine, and a dessert to share. Good news was that little bit of food was free.

Saturday was really warm, so I suggested we eat at a restaurant with outdoor seating. I was thinking it would make up for the lack of dinner the night before, and I love eating outside when it's warm.

There is a restaurant in Port Orchard called The Lighthouse. They have outdoor seating, and it's right on the water.
We got there pretty late because we were running around, preparing for some concrete to be poured here in a couple of areas on the property. The sun had almost set completely by the time we were seated, but the view was incredible. I forgot my camera, so I got this shot with my phone. We literally could have jumped off the deck into the water. Our dinner was delicious. I had the lobster bisque and tortellini and Chuck had a steak.
We are so lucky to live here.
I have a beautiful home, wonderful kids, a great man, wonderful family, and so many other things that I am so thankful for each day. Being surrounded by beauty is one.

Bugs, a favorite around here

Summer is fading fast, and it seems like we haven't really done much. A study of the calendar revealed that I am going to be knee-deep in my regular volunteer activities within a week or so, and that means we have to pack in as much summer fun as we can-- pronto.
I needed to run a couple of errands the other day, but I also wanted to make sure we had fun on that outing. Sean has loved bugs and anything else that moves since he was old enough to realize they were around.  So off we went to the Bug Museum in Bremerton. It's a nice place with a lot of things to see, and it's FREE!
The museum is not very large, but there are a lot of things to see inside. Lots of bugs pinned to boards and labeled, some live insects and such, and even a few reptiles in the back.
Lilly was still with her mom, so it was just me and Sean this time around. We saw lots of great stuff, including a tiny praying mantis. Most of the living things were things we've seen before at the Bug Zoo in Monroe, Wash., but it was still fun. Now that we know it is so close we will probably visit more often.

We loved the larger-than-life insects around
the museum. Most of them were outside, but
this caterpillar was a great place to rest
for a minute. 

Sean liked this big spider named Boris.

For the love of color

I started using some foliage from unlikely plants
this year. 

I've been playing around with bouquets of flowers that grow around the house, and last week I decided to think outside the box. I gathered a lot of different greens from the plants we have growing around the property. I don't know their names, I just like the varying hues of green they produce, and the textures.

These are a few of the bouquets I liked best.

We grow a variety of  strawberries that produce really large leaves, and large berries. I used the strawberry leaves to add a little surprise to the arrangement. Oh, and BTW, those leaves last forever in a vase. I also used some Heuchera leaves in a couple of the bouquets and found that they also stick around for a while before they begin to wilt. I like the variety of color in the leaves.

The dahlias and zinnias are in bloom now.  I love this little vase. It's handmade pottery, and I got
it at our community fair for $5. 

I clipped this hydrangea a little early. It was white when I cut it, but after it was in the vase
for a few days the inside where the petals meet began to turn a beautiful blue. 

Wine Among the Vines

It was an evening of good wine, beautiful weather, lovely plants and flowers, art, a silent auction and some great finger foods. We also listened to live violinists. We had a great time at  Sunnycrest Nursery last week during the Wine Among the Vines fundraiser for Mary Bridge Children's Hospital.

Our table.

A great escape

I am moody. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read books, and sometimes in the mood to not read and just be entertained by television or something other than books. I love reading, and I read something every day, but sometimes books are just too demanding. I have time to read a newspaper, but when my life is so busy, to commit to a book takes some doing. I always have a pile of books by the bed, though, and there have been times when I've had three books going. I love escaping into a book for a while. It feels like I've traveled to some distant land, or even back in time. Books are a great escape for me.

Right now I'm in a reading mood, which means I'll probably blaze through a bunch of books within a few months.

I just updated my list on this blog because I finished "State of Wonder" quite some time ago. It was a great book, BTW. It had me thinking for at least a week after I finished it, and that is the sign of a good book for me. In fact, I thought of it yesterday.

In the book there is a group of women in the Amazon who continue to have children into later years, and a scientist is there studying this, and some other things. I thought of it out of the blue yesterday because I realized how difficult it would be for us to have children into our 60s and 70s and beyond. Our bones can become brittle. Carrying a baby would be such a strain on our bodies, not to mention a delivery. (It was a great book.)

Before I had even finished that book I was aware that I would want to be reading another one right away. I love the library, but I am terrible at getting books read before they are due. Plus I just always forget when they're due and I'm not good at keeping that little slip of paper that tells me when they're due. I've never in all these years come up with a good system for keeping track of library books.

So instead I went to the thrift store. I knew those books would be older ones, but like I said, I get in moods and out of moods. There are a million books out there that were popular within the past few years that I never got to read because I didn't have time, number one, and secondly, I wasn't in the mood.

I got a bag full of books for about $6. Yes. $6. Amazing. I'm reading a little paperback book right now called "To the Wedding," by John Berger. The writing style is totally different from any other books I've read. I usually read it late at night, and maybe that is why it has been a little confusing to me. It feels like it jumps from one voice to another and I have to take a moment to figure out who is speaking.

I've read so many good books. There are a few that I want to re-read they were so good.
Some of my favorites that come to mind, and these are just a few:

The Dao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
The Devil in the White City--soooo good. by Erik Larson
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series by Stieg Larsson
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler Ross
There are so many more. What are your favorite books? Do you have a reading list this summer?

Dinner and a Movie

A crab spider waits for a tasty treat on a hydrangea plant.

July was full of activity. We had so many things going on with the business, and we spent a couple of weekends getting ready for the upcoming family reunion.
It's so rare that Chuck and I ever get to have a little bit of alone time to just engage in a relaxing conversation.
Some days I handle it OK, and other days I just don't have any patience with interruptions when I'm trying to talk to him. Phone calls, kids, other people; it just gets frustrating when we're in the middle of a conversation.
On Saturday we had an opportunity to spend some time together. Both kids were with their other parents, and Chuck was off. He suggested a community social event and I declined.
We've spent lots of time at social, community functions. I like them, but I need time with him that is focused on us. When we attend events we end up talking to everyone else but each other. So we're together, but not really. We're just at the same event.
When that happens I feel so cheated. Sometimes there are a lot of things we need to talk about, and we end up with no time. Then when we do have a little bit of time after work,  I feel rushed to try to get as much conversation in as possible before we have to do the bedtime routine.
He was so understanding when I explained that I would rather not spend our time with a bunch of other people. We originally intended to attend the event for a short put-in-an-appearance time and he suggested we leave there and go out to dinner and a movie. Time got away from us and we skipped the social event altogether.
I wore a dress, and he work slacks and a nice button down, just like we were on an actual date, and we went for Maxwell's Speakeasy and Lounge dinner-and-a-movie deal in Tacoma.
Maxwell's Speakeasy and Lounge partners with The Grand and has a special dinner menu for two, with two movie ticket vouchers for $60. We had wine and grown up conversation, a really good meal,  and then we went to see "Your Sister's Sister" at The Grand.
It was a good movie about relationships. When I asked Chuck what he thought of it, he said the message he got from it was to enjoy life. He asked me what I thought and I said I agreed with him, and I it also seemed to be about forgiveness. We had a pretty good conversation about it on the way home.
It was a lovely evening.

Delicious dishes with berries

A few months ago we commissioned a local potter, Gary Andersen of Lakebay Pottery, to make us a set of dishes. The plates have our huckleberry design and are partly dipped in blue and green. The coordinating bowls are done in a design he calls Fusion. I chose the small mixing bowls as our cereal bowls because they seemed unique. I love them.
We ordered dinner plates, then added a couple of serving bowls and a platter, and I just recently picked up a set of little sauce/salsa bowls from him that I ordered. I took him an example of the size and shape and he made them. We love all of it. The dishes are all so pretty.

Raspberries are ripe and abundant. Sean likes them
on his Cheerios.