It's like this...

Allison made a FAB breakfast this morning. She made bacon, eggs, French toast and orange julius. It was for her culinary arts class and she did a superb job! She was supposed to clean up as well, but we had to rush over to church so she could participate in stake service project with the young men and young women. They made blankets for children and then were getting a great lunch after wards. Soooo, I came home and cleaned it all up for her. Not a problem---she's always good about cleaning up and doing things around the house. She's a GREAT kid. Steph is working all day and Chris has to present his senior project to a panel of judges at the high school today. Lance has to work and so that leaves Ashley and I on our own for a while.... Oh the trouble we could get into! Which I'd better get to. Later!

We spent the holiday weekend at the beach cabin in Kingston with our friends. It was a little slice of heaven, mostly. My two youngest girls even swam in the Sound, as the weather was so nice. We had a few nights of campfires and S'mores Lance's father Doug came down to visit us and share in the camp-fire-goodness. T'was lovely. Our friends, though they're from Utah they're really Venezuelan and Puertorican, were wonderful. It was a delight to have someone to speak Spanish with all weekend and they played their iPods full of Latino music and they cooked Venezuelan food. I was in heaven. We had arepas, and empanadas, arroz y carraotas negras y platanos. Oh, and the jugo de parchita. My friends brought their twins, Kimberly and Adam. None of them had ever seen a gooey duck before and due to the very low tides, there were people digging them all over our beach. Here's Adam holding one. I have many more photos of the weekend, which are posted on my Face...

That's what the doc believes I have. All I know...is pain. Much. I'm on a stronger antibiotic and more pain pills. I go back to see her the day after tomorrow. If it's not better I have to see a surgeon. I think surgeons are nice people and probably kind to their wives and children and small pets--I'd just rather NOT see one thankyouverymuch.

Today I took a lot of pain meds. I'm still not right with the aftermath of my oral invasion. The swelling below my chin seems to have gone down somewhat, but I think I should not be in such pain this far into the game. Today I took a lot of pictures. My nephew Cameron spoke in church today. It was his farewell, as he's leaving for his mission in a week or so. He's going to the Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission, Spanish Speaking. He gave an incredible talk in sacrament meeting. I cried, but for other reasons nearer and more painful to my heart. Today I took a lot of pictures. Oh wait, I said that already. Well, here are a few that I snapped today of the kids. Here they are getting ready for me to take their pictures. They weren't thrilled that I wanted to do this, but it's been a while since I've had them all dressed up at the same time and in the same place. Chris even put on a tie for the occasion. We were at Julie's house after church for a ...

I took a couple of pictures of the flowers in my father's yard today. The rain let up just enough for me to do that. :) I LOVE lilacs. This is in the backyard with a bird house tucked away inside the bush. What you can't see is the bird feeder nearby, which attracts a multitude of winged creatures, as well as hordes of squirrels. I always wanted lilacs at my wedding, but alas I was married in August and by that time the lilacs are all gone. There is a big white lilac tree in the front yard. I'll try and get a picture of that soon. This is a picture of the hanging flowers near the lilac bush---I can't recall the name but they're gorgeous as well. In fact my father's entire yard is filled to bursting with color from all the flowers he's planted over the years he's lived here. It's a beautiful place to be in the spring, especially with the stream and pond. Then there's our cat Bobo. He's an indoor kitty who's always attempting ...

This weekend was OUR weekend. We had reservations at The Arctic Hotel in downtown Seattle. We were on the top floor (Hi Kelli!) so we had a wonderful view. We dropped off the kids at school then went for a drive in the country. We visited some of the places we used to go to when we were dating. After a delightful lunch in Duval, we headed for the big city lights. After we checked in and tried out the sinfully decadent feather bed (we were just sitting and talking, I swear!) I told hubby that I could get used to living like this. Quiet. No one in our room with us. Quiet. A GREAT view. Quiet. Did I mention the quiet? Sigh. We went out to walk around a bit downtown before it got dark that night. We visited the architecturally-unique Seattle Library, the Columbia Center and a few other places before heading back to the luxury hotel. Did I mention the jetted tub? And the quiet? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.....and the view? This isn't the view from our hotel room but from the street ...

Just hair coloring. Today is the day I decided to color my hair again. So this morning I dutifully read the directions, applied creme to the ends, mixed the colors, added it to my hair then piled it on top of my head. It was at this point that I ran into my son. "Whoa...what's up with your hair?" "I'm coloring it" "Right now?" "No Chris, next week. You're seeing into the future" "Don't girls usually do that at night?" "I was unaware of that rule"