It's like this...

Some people have shower caddies, we have a shower kitty. He loves to be in the shower with us and doesn't mind the water. He drinks it up. Literally.

Yesterday as we were driving home from Seattle, I took a slight detour and instead of driving on the freeway, we went over Beacon Hill and south. As we drove, we saw a woman covered head to toe in a black burkha. Only her eyes were visible. I told the girls to look out the window. "What religion do you think she is?", I asked them. "Ninja?" answered my nine year old treasure. I sputtered and then I laughed and then I explained that no, being a ninja was not a religion but a life choice. A very cool one, but no, not a religion.

If you have to spend time at a hospital, there is no better place than Children's Hospital in Seattle . We're sure we've paid for a few new wings on that place---but it's been worth it. Now we're not there every week, which is nice. Today we were there. And we were there last week, but hopefully that will be it for a while. Ash has been having pain and instability in her right leg. last week we met with the head of orthopedics and this week we met with one of our favorite people. Ashley's therapist, Cathy. She measured and she stretched Ash and we decided on a plan of action. Thankfully Ashley's hip is all right it we can alleviate her pain with some physical therapy. Since driving to Seattle every day for therapy is far too expensive, we're going to do it here at home for now.

We've all had them. Perhaps you've been in a plane that experienced severe turbulence and you were bounced around so hard you hit your head on the ceiling of the plane. Maybe you chipped a nail while opening a door or the wind mussed your hair after you'd just spent hours getting it just so . Coming this close to death is no laughing matter. I had just such an experience today. We took the girls here. We let the girls ride their bikes and we walked. Normally this is not a problem, but I'd left home not really intending to walk. I hadn't had time to grab socks so all I had on were tennis shoes (trainers to you across the pond). We walked and we walked. We walked a little further. Then my husband had a brilliant idea. "Sweetheart, how about I walk aaaallllll the way back to the suburban and then drive it up ahead to the next trail head and I'll pick you all up so you don't have to walk aaaaaallllll the way back" On the surface this was a kind an...

Pamela's Column for Pacific Publishing May 2008 I have a sign that I put up on the front of my house every Halloween. It says ‘You Can’t Scare Me, I Have Teenagers.” While this statement has proven true on many occasions, it’s also true that the only things that can scare me are my teenagers themselves. Sometimes all they need to do is come up to me and ask me for money. Or tell me they have a girlfriend. Ok, it’s not so much they tell me they have a girlfriend as I stalk them online to find out what’s going on in their lives and then discover the girlfriend. Myspace, Facebook and other social networking sites on the Internet are virtually (Get it? Virtually? Ha!) gold mines of information that your teenagers won’t willingly give you. Oh sure, experts tell you to keep the lines of communication open between you and your teen. Sit them down, talk to them, have dinner with them, ask them questions. These experts have never seen an actual teenager in their natural habitat. “So ...

What a difference a few days make. Here's a picture of hubby and doggie by the river last week. Notice the cement block and how far the water is from it.... Here's the same block a few days later with my baby girl siting on it... Here it is again the following day.... And here it is today. I mean, if you can see it. Look for the tiny dark area down to the right. The snow is melting at an alarming speed and the rivers are rising quickly.

Argh. Ack. Ptui. Someone stop this merry-go-round. I'm done. I want to get off.