Check In

There are some really positive things going in my life right now:

Phil is potty trained.  And boy was that HARD!  It was months of false starts and me thinking he was ready when he really wasn't.  And then in the past month: BOOM.  Potty trained AND (mostly) night trained.  It is awesome.  I am sure that as soon as I hit publish, he'll regress.  But I doubt it, because it has been almost a month and he's pretty good.

I've lost 10 lbs since moving out here.  If I had realized what my daily Coke and weekly fast food habit has doing to my waist line, I would have stopped long ago.  And would never have gained the weight.  I'm hoping that my continued success at limiting sugar will last for a long time and with some excerise I'll be a weight I haven't seen since college.  I doubt I'll ever be high school skinny again, but I'll accept junior year skinny.  And healthier too, because I'll be able to run a 5k without stopping.

Generally, I feel really good about my life.  Except sometimes, when it gets overwhelming.

Since this a blog:  I leave the bad things to:

I am lonely.  I miss my family and friends, I miss dropping the kids off at school, and I miss that my kids used to get a lot more interaction with other people.

Just once

Just once, I'd like to leave the house wearing my bra correctly. Perhaps when I stop breast feeding.

Seattle Bucket List

Believe it or not, I actually have some "fashion" posts coming up, but right now I want to talk about Bucket Lists.  Normally, I think that Bucket lists are kinda lame.  But since we moved to Seattle and I bought a travel guide for Seattle, I've been thinking that maybe creating one would be interesting.  

This list is not complete.

Space Needle (Competed Jan 4, 2014)

Aquarium (Completed Dec   28, 2013)

Pike Market (Completed Aug 2014)

Woodland Park Zoo (Completed July 2015)

Watch Salmon run (Completed April 2014)

Go Whale Watching

Alki Beach

Discovery Park  (Completed Feb 22, 2014)

Gas Works Park (Completed July 2015)

Seaward Park

EMP  (Completed September 2015)

Botanical Gardens (there are two.  One is in Seattle and one is in Bellevue)

Seattle Art Museum

Frye Museum

Science Center (Completed June 2015)

Children's Museum

Olympic Art Garden

Native American  museum

Asian Art Museum

Pioneer Square gallery

A show at one of the early venues Nirvana played at

Kurt Cobain pilgrimage

Visit Jimi Hendrix's grave

Eat Geoduck

Visit the first Starbucks. ( Completed July 2014)

Major sporting event

Wander around Fremont and find: the troll, Lenin, the rocket, and other street art.

Visit Mt. Rainer, the Olympic Mountains, and the North Cascades.  (not in the same trip though).

There are some things I'd like to add: like find the good restaurant, the main road race for the city and participate, and some of the other pop culture stuff, find a really awesome coffee place, and shop the more interesting boutiques.  These ones are more nebulous but when I figure out what the are I'd like to do them.   

On a happier note

On a somewhat happier note:  Back in November, I wrote that I wanted to stop drinking soda.  And generally I have.  As a result, I have lost almost 10 pounds and all but one pair of jeans don't fit.  I am really excited about this weight loss.  And it makes realize that if I just hadn't started drinking soda how much better my weight always would have been. 

Now, it I could just not drink or eat as much sugar and carbs.  

A little late

Warning: Thoughts on a tragic event.

Last week I went to the information session for the school that Oliver will most likely go to in the fall.  It is a good school and I think that he'll be fine there.  

One of the very first things after the introduction of the principal was a discussion of safety during the school day.  For the most part, it was there are badges and the principal usually knows the people in the school and pretty much everybody will stop and ask you who/why you are there from a "friendly" standpoint.  But sitting there in the school library I just felt the magnitude of Newtown in a way that I hadn't before.  And I know that there has been plenty of real and virtual words that talk about it, but it hit home soo much clearer than before.  And my heart broke again for the teachers who risked their lives, the students and teachers who lost their lives, and the parents who will never watch their children go into second graders, tweens, adults.  And I almost started bawling right there.  

Intellectually, I know that Newtown is an isolated event.  I know that in the course of the 15 years that my sons will be part of the public school system, the only reason they will (most likely) on "lockdown" is because of over-zealous principals and police.  But I can imagine the fear and worry that some principals must have because of these events.  

May our children be safe.

An update

I just downloaded the blogger app and I am using my phone to update right now! I know that the font and the tags won't be there but I am tired of having to be annoyed when I use the big desktop. I prefer to use it but right now it isn't worth the hassle. 

Moving In

We have a (rental) house! And we are moved in!  Now if I could get the kids bedroom and the playroom organized, fixed up and tidy we'd  be all set!

It's nice to be in a bigger place with more room, but I really hate the toy explosion and the crap explosion.  I know that most of it IS stuff that we use, but it generally feels like things that we don't need.  Just stuff everywhere!  And I haven't figured out where to put it yet.  And when I do put it away somewhere, it gets pulled out like 5 minutes later!.  It is pretty annoying.  This annoyance goes back to the idea that maybe I should have purged everything before we moved except what we got for Christmas and Fred's birthday.  

I think once we get used to the house and really have everything figured out to where it goes it will be nice to be here.