It's like this...

I spent over three hours at McDonald's today. Ally, Nicole and Ashley ate their way through burgers and fries and then played for the rest of the time on the enormous play-thing they had there while I read Harry Potter. I finished the book. You see, I had to leave the house in order to do so, because my son kept stealing the book from me. Now it's in his hands and he's reading, reading, reading. I'm grateful he's reading and thankful to Ms. Rowling for creating this series that ignited a reading frenzy in my son, as well as many other children. I only wish the series wasn't finished….and I also wish I hadn't succumbed and eaten a meal while I was there at McDonalds. Ugh.

More fun with the girls today. Lance stayed home because we were going to be gone so long. (Didn't get home till after 7:30 this evening) We drove south towards the rivers and lakes and forests as far as the eye could see. We ended up first at a park on the Cowlitz River, where we had lunch. There was a play area there and Ashley had some fun with that.... Ally found a tree to climb. She loves climbing trees. Nicole decided to join her. The river was a muddy brown and didn't look too enticing for swimming. Here's Ally in front of the river. The girls thought the boat launch area might be better.....nope. The water was still quite murky. Further down, there was a lake and we decided that the girls could swim in it. There was a road that went down to the lake...right into the lake. It used to be a road, with a white line down the middle, but I'm not sure just where it used to go. Now it goes straight out into the water..and just keeps on going. They said the water...

Rain, rain and more rain. Not that I'm complaining. Ok, I'm complaining. It's not the rain per se, it's the humidity. I feel like I'm breathing in water. The air has weight and it sits on you. Surfaces in my house are actually damp with it. Me no like. This morning we found out that they do a free lunch program thing in town, so we took the girls there for the lunch. Here's Lance with Allison, Nicole and Ashley holding the umbrella. Then we went to a beautiful park and took a long walk. When I say long, I mean long. Lengthy. Long in length. Unbearably long in the humidity. It wasn't raining but it sure felt like I'd walked through a warm wet drizzle. The girls had a great time running ahead and laughing. I know where all my energy went. They sucked it out of me. Ok, that and the cheetos, but that's a story for another time. We walked a couple of miles. Here are the girls in front of tree that toppled in our last great windstorm. Mor...

I had an empty nest for a while. Stephanie moved in with my father, Chris has been on a fifty mile hike with the young men from the church, Allison and Ashley were staying at my father's house for a few days. The house was eerily quiet. I only had to run the dishwasher every couple of days instead of twice a day. When I put something down, it was there when I went back to retrieve it. The girl's bedroom remained clean and their beds beautifully made. There was no one tugging on me to take them to McDonalds or to the store for something they just had to have. I can't recall anyone opening the fridge and grousing about there being no food in the house. The first day was sort of nice. By the end of the second day I wanted them all home. It was too quiet. It was too clean. It wasn't right. The silence was ringing in my ears and I didn't like it. Today we went up to Seattle and brought Ashley, Allison and their cousin Nicole home with us. My ears were ringing...

I waited until my house cooled down to a balmy 80 degrees before I left my ice cave (only room in the house with an ac unit) in order to clean my kitchen this evening. As I rinsed soggy fruit loops off of cereal bowls, scrubbed oatmeal detritus from spoons and emptied out a plastic container of tomato soup that had reached the stage of a science experiment, I pondered the past twenty years. How many mushy fruit loops have I scraped into the garbage over the years? What amount of desiccated oatmeal have I tried to sandblast off of utensils used by my children? When I lived away from home for the first time at college, I had five roommates. One of them would get physically ill every time someone had filled a sink with dirty dishes and hot soapy water and then left it to congeal. Sometimes for days. Hey, we were there to get an education, not to be Martha's –in-training, ok? So what little tidbit from my past does my aging brain regurgitate up for me each and every time I come acr...

Our third angel turned 11 years old today. It's the hottest day of the year, with the temperatures into 3 digits and we had to have a party. Not inside, nooooooo. This had to be outside in the heat and sunshine. Yes sir, a good time was had by all. She had a pinata filled with candy and an enormous chocolate cake. Getting ready to bash the pinata! My father and my sister (with her two daughters) joined us up on Mud Mountain for the party. Here Allison is getting ready to blow out her candles, with her daddy and her papa watching over the excitment. On our way home I caught a picture of Mt. Rainier in my rear view mirror.

My girls had great fun swimming in the frigid waters of the Puget Sound. When I was younger, I also enjoyed doing that polar bear stuff. Now that I’m older (but not much wiser) I no longer place my entire body in such peril. They loved it though!

We had a wonderful time over the Fourth of July. Our family drove over to the beach cabin and spent the day there in the sunshine. My sister and her family came along with us, which was fun as well. I created two slideshows with some of the pictures I took there that day. The first one is of my adorable and handsome husband. By the time I finished snapping pictures of him all day, he’d about had enough of it. He just looked so gorgeous