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.