Friendships

I believe what you put out is what you get. Perhaps it took my until my 30's and some crappy life experiences to realize this, but better late than never.

I believe in being as authentic and true to myself as I can be. This doesn't mean perfect, it just means being comfortable in my skin, comfortable in my beliefs. In return I am surrounded by like woman. These woman make me want to be a better person. They are the type of woman that hold you accountable for your actions. As a result, you'd never comprise your morals or values for something that would only bring instant gratification. We haven't been lifelong friends, only the last 8 years, but without a doubt they will remain my friends the rest of my life. Thankfully the men in our lives are equally supportive and understanding about this tight bond, in fact they are the ones that always seems to capture it on photos.

Still not sure who thought the pyramid was a good idea. This was at a recent graduation from nursing school celebration for our friend Erika. We are SO proud of her and SO glad she's done so we get to see her more!

Our third annual summer solstice non motorized hood crawl! There's a few missing but I love this photo.

In a couple weeks ten of us will be traveling to Sonoma together and I can't wait to have some serious quality time with these ladies!

 

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Graduation

Pardon my once again hiatus, so much to blog, so little time. In a span of three weeks, we had Lo's dance recital, I put my dog down suddenly, my son's high school graduation and party and then I sold my house. I'm probably at my max capacity.

So graduation. It has come and gone. It was pretty amazing. As a parent this is kind of a defining moment in your role as a parent. For eighteen years you have been raising your child, preparing them the best you can to enter a world on their own. To be caring, compassionate, and competent adults. One day they are in school and the very next they are by definition adults. Everyone said I'd be sad, but I wasn't (maybe I was too sad about my dog the day before to be sad on graduation). I was just so proud, happy, and very excited for my son. I enjoyed high school, but it was after that I truly felt like I was living. Making my lifelong friends, seeing the world, getting to choose what career path I wanted to take. This just all represents such an exciting time for him. He's decided to stay here for the next two years, he also received a renewable scholarship from the Keep It In the Valley. Perhaps that's another reason it wasn't sad, I'm happy he'll be here.

Huge thanks to our families. Lars dad came out which was so great to see him again, Ricks mom was a HUGE help to me chopping veggies and setting up at the party, plus it meant a lot to have her at graduation. My parents, sister, and Oma, Lars parents and sister, all were there to support him. Thank you to ALL of you. We've all been in this journey together to get him here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proud of you my little man!

 

 

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Good Bye my Little Friend

Honoring Obie.

Sadly we had to put Obie down the night of Friday June 5th. We visited our vet on Thursday and a large mass was discovered in his abdomen. A mass that either needed to be removed immediately or would burst and kill him. After a long night of deliberating I spoke with the vet again Friday morning and decided to go with the surgery as long as it proved not to be too intrusive. He was fairly confidant based on the x-rays, but we went over all scenarios. With a teary good bye I dropped him off and hoped I'd see him soon, no sooner than I got home did I get a call. Based on what we had discussed earlier that morning, it was during the ultra sound they found it was far more extensive than first believed. The best option take him home, love on him and say good bye.

I picked up my wagging tailed basset hound, put him in the front seat (this is a never), went onto the park and decided we would live it up and break the rules. He got to be an off leash free basset. He smelled every tree and bush he could, jumped in the water and just wagged that tail.

When he was tired back into the front seat he went. Now this is funny and sad all at once, I had always hated driving with Obie because I put him in the back he cried so much, on this day putting him in the front seat he was absolutely perfect (of course making my heart ache more, wanting to give him more front seat car rides). Next stop McDonald's for a special ice cream treat and cheeseburger.

This was all a little exhausting for both of us, so one of our afternoon traditions, a quick power nap.

The hard part of knowing it would be his last day, was making it go slow. We only had several more hours together after a decade together. Logan came home from school early. My son's friends came to say good bye (again more tears for me). One of Obie's favorite things was when my son and his friends came home at lunch and he'd receive ample amounts of belly rubs. My friend stopped bye with a hug and flowers for me and a bone for him.

We made one last walk to Washington park so he could walk the perimeter, smell and pee. Only thing this time, we didn't rush him.

One last picture together.

Lots of saying I love you's

And lots of remembering our fun times not too long ago.

Obie, you were naughty. You'd steal anyone's food when you had the chance. You'd get into the pantry when we weren't looking. You would look at us outside, and run away. However, the good in you seemed to always out weigh the bad. You made us laugh all the time as a family, you were the constant conversation piece, you brought us together in so many ways, stopping our busy lives to just take it in and us all just laugh and marvel at what you've done now. Saying good bye was the hardest thing, selfishly I wanted more time. I wanted more of our good-nights, when off to bed we go, you wait to go to sleep until I've rubbed your belly and give you a goodnight kiss. I miss your snoring, I miss your excitement when you'd wake up each morning, I miss pretty much everything in my daily routine that included you, and it happens to be far more than I ever would have thought.

That drive to the vet Friday night was the hardest thing I have done, I tell myself and deep down, and know it was for the best. You had the perfect last day, you went out peacefully, but still my heart aches for more with you.

Farewell and Godspeed my little friend. You will forever remain in our hearts and of course our stories.

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What?!

Don't tell me anything you want me to remember, I can barely keep straight what day it is. I'm convinced life just has a way of preparing you for what's next. My son graduates this Saturday, I am so glad. Not sad, just glad. These last two weeks they just hit you hard with massive "senior" related nights. Add a little sister in orchestra and dance, and things just got unreal. I'm exhausted. I'm pretty much cursing out stay at home moms, entirely out of jealously! Six seems to be the max hours to sleep in order to fit everything in in the day (I am a solid 8 hour a night sleeper). So yes my boy is growing up, becoming an adult, moving to the next stage of life and I am throwing my hands in the air saying hallelujah, instead of sobbing. Ok maybe I would be crying if he was leaving but he's staying here (thank you)! So bring it graduation, because the day after I am going to sleep!

Along with an sports awards last Wednesday and Ocrchesta concert Thursday, Lo had a full week of dress rehearsal for her recital. She was amazing, it was remarkable to see the improvement made in a year on the elite dance team. Thanks always to my family for always coming out to support her, it means the world to her !

 

 

Then prom. My son and his date were stunning. Along with all the other kids, just beautiful!

 

 

And of course, with Mom

 

Sunday I couldn't ask for a better stress relief. A 15.5 (25k) mile run in the woods, with friends. We took it slow, enjoyed all the view and loved every minute. The run was great, but what made it the best was my friends. How lucky to have them. Always up for an adventure without so much as a second thought!

 

 

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The Dream House

A little more on the moving on. Don't get me wrong I am excited, all these changes will be so good for my children and myself, and after the last few years we are very ready for these good things to come. However, I'm a little emotional. By all accounts I am in my dream home. I remember how happy I was with everything in my life when my Ex and I bought this place. Our kids were 6 and 11 and we could envision our next twenty years in this house, raising our kids and beyond. We bought this house in 2008, but had made a contingent offer on it back in 2005 when we fell in love with it. In 2008 we had a contingent offer on another house down the street, they eventually got an offer, the day after we lost that house we got an offer on ours and this one went on the market. It truly felt like it was meant to be. We were newly in our thirties, had weathered some pretty tough stuff together, made it through, felt better, stronger and more committed than ever. This house, our life, was our new beginning. We settled in and life truly fell into place. Our kids were happy, in great schools with great friends, we had met the most amazing bunch of people (thank God, because not sure where I'd be today without that group). Life was good.

A little over a year later a long legged brunette would walked in and turned mine and my children's life completely upside down.

For a solid two years after I didn't want to be in this house. The house that "had" held all our dreams, but because someone had to keep their sh*t together for the kids and be stable, along with having zero options financially to do anything else I had to stay.

Slowly and surely this house became MY home. The place I raised my children, where we started over. Where it was the three of us, creating our new life. I love this home. There's a lot of unfinished potentials I see in this home I won't get to see out, and that makes me sad. But this home has been so good to us, I will forever love it and hold it close to my heart. All that I learned, experienced and loved because of it.

It's bittersweet getting ready to stay good-bye to this old house.

Fall might be my favorite...

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And the Ball Starts to Roll

And just like that we found the perfect house.  Now comes the fun part (insert sarcasm), Rick is mid-reno on his home.  As in the ENTIRE downstairs.  Bathroom gutted, popcorn ceilings scraped and redone, window framing, new paint  and carpet through out, and some minimal landscaping....looks good (will post pics soon) unfortunately I am not much help at all, because this is the way things go, out of the last four years this is the worst possible few months to be doing any of this, for me.  I am trying to stay on top of my sons senior year, every meeting and award night that entails.  My daughter is in competition dance, and recital month, my business experienced the busiest week at the first of the month, doing 3 weeks of business in 1 week, while one of my main employees was in Columbia.  Coupled with the 3, 15k trail runs I signed up for way back when we weren't doing anything.  YIKES, but also so dang exciting.  This is finally happening!
My challenge is to stay in the game.  I have a tendency when I get uber stressed to get uber calm and just want to work on my vegetable garden.  Yep, my happy place, growing food, playing in the dirt.  It soothes and relaxes me, but maybe too much.  As we go further and things are more set I will post more details.

Just know after almost 4 years of dating this amazing man, doing what was right for my kids through out this time, I am VERY excited for this next step.

Hills

This is the second weekend in a row I spent running in one of my favorite places, the Methow Valley. Last weekend I did the last 14 miles of the Sunflower Marathon Relay with one of my best friends, hot, hilly, and amazing. This weekend was a 25k (15 miles) on the trails I ski in the winter by Sun mountain. After seven years of running I still cringe at the thought of calling myself a runner. Not because I believe you need to be good to be called a runner (I am adequate at best), but I think you'd enjoy it more than I do. I love these trail runs, but they are a challenge (which I also like), I always think maybe if I ran more I'd be better, but truth is I run 3 time a week and maybe only like one of those runs a week.

Back in 2010 my friends and I were called "selfish" because we ran and did races. I don't find running selfish in the LEAST bit. As a young child I was in leg braces. I hated running in elementary because my teachers let me know how bad I was at it. It wasn't until 2008 at 30 years old I decided to run, got injured six months later training for a marathon and spent 9 months at physical therapy essentially learning how to run and adapt with my poor biomechanics on my right side. If you've had the pleasure of seeing me run you will quickly spot the defect of my right side, needless to say I often hate the action photos because I always notice it. Running requires the least amount of time of any activity I do. I often do it when the kids are asleep or at school. It's a healthy outlet for me, I clear my head, gather my thoughts, organize my day/week, and on rare occasions when I get to run with my friends it's social.

This weekend, I was super excited for the challenge.....then the rain and thunder started the night before. Thankgoodness the thunder stopped before the race, the rain however did not. Today was tough, we climbed for nearly the first ten miles, in the mud. At times I was focused, my head was in it and I was feeling good. The other times I was overheating, feeling my quads burning and getting angry that I had to work so hard to get my feet out of the mud. Then we hit three miles of steep down hill, that hurt the knees. Prior to the race starting I had planned a bail out at the aid station at mile 9 if needed, but I wasn't cold I was just tired and knew I could push through that and because of the rain I was totally disoriented to where I was and not sure what the shortcut back down would be.....and no cell service (thank you AT&T), so I ran pushed through and was so happy near the finish when I heard Rick. It's a love hate relationship with running, but pretty sure the benefits outweigh the cost.

Thank you to Rick for his support this weekend, plus a wonderful weekend away in one of our favorite spots, we needed that!

The before and after....I pretty much feel as bad as I look!

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