May 2016

Landlines are almost obsolete, but my sister and her husband have to have one for emergency work purposes. So from the landline phone, I occasionally get happy calls from little Katy, “Hi, Chelsea!” It’s wonderful. Sometimes I call that house phone to talk with my nieces (it’ll be weird when they have cell phones someday). And yesterday I called to invite the girls over for a sleepover!

I prefer having Chris around, because I get bored if I spend too much time at home with just myself and I get sufficient alone time most days. So while he’s at scout camp this week, he told me to spend lots of time with my fam and to play with the girls. So I am. Well, now I am, since I finished watching the Great British Baking Show yesterday. I love that. :)

After I washed my uno first boat last night, I picked up the girls and we came home, after jumping on their new, borrowed trampoline for a few minutes. Katy played with Edel while I ate the tin foil dinner Sister made for me, then we played some gooooood Mario. 

Natalie has played quite a lot of super mario world on Super Nintendo, but Katy is a lot more timid with it. However, she was playing some last night and that was great. It’s always a good time when you get to those switch palaces!

I fell asleep on the floor – I’m kind of extra sleepy these days – but woke up to help build our fort! It turned out great and it we had a nice bed in there for us three and the dog and our stuffed animals. 

It was 11 at the time, so we decided to watch a movie. :) We could’ve easily gone to bed too, but it’s just fun to watch a movie in the fort. We all agreed on Pocahontas 2, and I made us a little fruit plate. I’m loving fruit more than usual lately and probably eating too much of it. I’ve been doing good with water drinking though! Need to exercise more. 

In the morning, after I had read my scriptures and taken a nap, and after Natalie played some Nintendo and read the gnomes book, we woke Katy up, made a smoothie, and went for a walk. We took the soccer ball and had a great time playing on the field. 

Then we came home and tie dyed! I love creating tie dye and have some old sheets that I’m excited to turn into a work of art. :) I love spending time with these girls!

Edelweiss and I were outside playing outside, and out by the neighbor’s pops Mr. Moosey. He seemed pretty curious about us and the cat and my car, Penelope, and he walked right over. Once Edel saw him, I put her inside. She was barking at him and I figured it best they not encounter each other. :)

He was just cruising around the lawn, eating leaves off the alders. I took a couple mediocre phone pictures, and a few snapchats for my homies, and then I watched the snapchat video. It was magical! All the birds were chirping and little moose was just scratching his back with his face, and tried getting a leg itch too. He has tiny little antlers budding and he’s just a yearling, so he’s pretty small. When I realized the magical moment I was having, I decided to get out the nicer camera.

Chris had a nice camera that we took on many adventures and got some exceptional photos with. Buuuut we dropped it in the ocean last year and it stopped working. We have my dad’s camera, which is nice, but not the same as our old one. But the best camera is just the one that’s with you! We haven’t used my dad’s camera much at all and have mostly just been doing iPhone pics the past year, which are pretty decent and extremely convenient. But I’d really like us to have super great quality photos again. It’s a lot of extra work to haul camera gear around, and take time for pictures and such, and then to process and go through them later, but a good photo capturing a lovely memory is worth it.

Tonight I went to the harbor to clean my one boat for the evening, and I decided to sit in the car for a half hour on my cellular, and then I got a call from the captain! He said he was out fishing with friends and didn’t need the boat cleaned. I was happy. :) I would’ve been totally fine cleaning it too, and then would’ve made some dolla dolla bills, but I’m always delighted when I have less boats.

So duh, I went and got some of my favorite pizza. And I magically ran into our good friends there and we ate together and caught up. It was great and perfecto.

Now I’m watching Snow White and growing a baby in my belly. Chris gets home tomorrow evening, or Saturday morning, and I’ll be happy to hug and kiss him and for him to hold me tight. I love him lots.

Christopher Robin has had some Boy Scout activities lately, which means less husband time for me, and more time with the animals :), and my family. I’ve been hanging out at my mom’s house more lately which is always delightful.

Chris had the boys over for a video game party, as a reward for some of them achieving their Duty to God goals, so I decided to go have a sleepover at my mama’s house, and it was so nice! When Chris finally went to bed at 3 am, he sent me this picture of Edel and Piper cuddling. Those two animals… adorable.

I think there were seven boys there, and they pretty much ate junk food and played video games, mostly Star Wars, until they were too sleepy. And then they crashed on the floor. Funny. But a really good time for them, good bonding time and hang out time. Glad I was having a party at my mom’s house instead. :) Because I got to take a bath in her lovely bath tub and then sleep in her bed, just like the old days.

The next morning, Mom had to go to her last day of school, and I didn’t wake up until she left, so I just hung out by myself. I made some flapjacks, watched the Magic School Bus, and worked on final touches of the dollhouse that I’ve been building for the past 1+ year. Good times and I felt like I was 12 again. :)

When I lived at Woodside apartments with Mom (and the older siblings probably), she worked at the assisted living place. She’d go to work at 7 (or maybe it was 8), so I’d go in with her and I’d watch Magic School Bus in the lounge until our friends picked me up for school at 8:15 or 8:30 or whatever.

And when I was leaving Mom’s house and going home, I saw Lacey girl laying in the extra bed. FUNNY. She just crawled right under the blanket and got all cozy.

Animals are funny little creatures that are nice to have around.

Oh! And Mom’s ol’ BFF came back to town after 14 years! It was so wonderful to spend and evening and afternoon visiting with the Darlings, especially for Mom and Frances I’m sure. So wonderful to reconnect.

My giant balloon cube says “Happy Mother’s Day,” but I always wonder why it’s not “Mothers’ Day” since it’s a day for all mothers, and not just my mother. Maybe someday I’ll decide or learn where I want to put the apostrophe.

My sister, brother in law, and nieces got me the giant balloon, my mom got me some happy, yellow tulips, and Chris left me a nice, little Mother’s day note. Chris was in Valdez for the weekend for the short take off and landing (STOL) fly-in. He took lots of great pictures and video and had a jolly time.

At the garage sale, I did find this treasure of a dress. Genuine vintage. :) I saw it laying on the table and knew it would be for me, so I washed it, and when I put it on sunday morning, perfect fit. And I wore my cute boots that I hardly wear. I liked my outfit, so I got a nice timer selfie with my balloon. :) Sometimes I feel weird taking selfies, but whatever

When Chris is gone, I struggle getting Edel walked and played with before I have to be at school/church. Normally I have just enough time to take care of myself, and I’m still running around the last five minutes. But sunday I woke up nice and early and had good time to take Edelweiss (and the kitties) for a little walk. Delightful. Except I walked in my dress and I got a bunch of bug bites on my legs, but that’s okay. I like my dress. And I liked the gray sunday weather.

After Saturday’s garage sale, I stayed outside to enjoy the sunshine and clean Miss Penelope Subie out. She was nice and clean for Sunday! But I got a ride to church with Mom, which was lovely. I ate my toast and drank my smoothie as we rode to church. I love living near family.

After church, my little nieces and I hung out at my mom’s house. We had a delightful flapjack feast! And I drank some chocolate cashew milk, which I’m loving these days. It’s full of sugar, but reeeeal tasty. I love Kodiak Cakes flapjacks.

Right after our flapjack feast, I was craving my father in law’s mashed potatoes and gravy. When we were staying at Chris’s brother’s house in Vegas last Thanksgiving, I had mashed potatoes and gravy leftovers over and over! And I was wanting some reeeeally bad on sunday. So I made myself a little Thanksgiving feast on sunday night after a rainy walk with pup pup. Funny. Buuuut my gravy was nasto and it didn’t quite satisfy what I was going for. The rest was still good though.

My first pregnant Mothers’ Day was a really great day. The rain was nice and I enjoyed outside time with the animals. And I felt really loved from all my family. I’m blessed with some great people and some exceptional mothers around as examples.

I spent a sunny saturday working at the youth garage sale. The best part was hanging out with these three! Fun times with our YW presidency and I’m really glad to serve with them.

Other than that, the garage sale was a load of work and I definitely complained a lot about it, and I still do haha. All of the funds go to the youth to pay for their girls and scout camps and so for many years now, our ward has been having a garage sale as the youth’s annual fundraiser. A lot of people help out, but it’s a lot of work, and I’m glad it’s over!

My belly is growing a bit! Some days it’s bigger than others, based on how bloated I am or something haha, but it’s definitely growing and I love that. I’m 14 weeks now.

The night before the garage sale, I went to Holly and Jordin’s for a family picnic and bonfire outside! It was fantastic. Even my brother was there and it’s so nice that he lives less than 100 miles away now. Aaaaand I got to play with the girls and their new baby chicks! Adorable. They got 6 little precious chicks. I want chickens someday.

5:30 am was my wake up call today… atypical. But those cats brought in a biggg mouse and were chasing it around the bedroom, then the dog was chasing the cats. It wasn’t my favorite to wake up to all their noises, and to see that poor big mouse running along the side of the wall. 

But now I’m awake and I feel rested, and that’s always a nice feeling. Especially when you can see the daylight and hear all the many birdies outside. I’m still in bed, but hopefully I get up and do yoga and maybe even go on a run! I don’t run too often, maybe like once a week. Actually, I’m probably delusional and it’s more like once a month. I did run on Saturday and it made me feel jolly good. 

There’s the 10k Spit Run every summer, and I do it every chance I get. I first started when I was 5 and I did it 16 ish years on a row. Since then, I’ve missed the Spit Run a few times, but it was always something I “liked” doing. One year I prepared for it. I was in a regular running habit and maybe that was the year I got 61 minutes at 38 seconds, which is like a 9:56 mile pace! That’s fine by me! The spit run is 6.2 miles and goes from the high school to lands end on the end of the spit. I realized I’ll be running with a belly this year, so I should probably get used to running and not shock my pregnant body with an hour long jaunt along the Homer Spit. :)

I’m really trying to focus on being healthy and strong. Growing a human, it’s kind of a big deal! I feel like my belly actually grew yesterday, or else I was just bloated from too many of my “healthy-ish” cookies that I made on Sunday. But I’m really happy about it. Can’t believe I have a pregnant belly. Still doesn’t feel supa real.  

The cats are still making a bunch of noise with the poor big mousie. And Edel is closed outside the bedroom door whining to come back in. Man, when I first saw the mouse run all the way across the edge of the wall, I jumped and panicked and tried to hide under the covers. Haha me doing that scared Chris and woke him from his slumber. 

The kitties (and mice too I guess) get in and out of the house through our bedroom window that we leave open. It’s just above our bed. So I’m worried the cats will drop their live mice toys in our bed! And if we keep the windows closed, I’m worried the cats will poop and pee inside, which is a bummer to clean up, but Chris would have to since I’m prego. Yay babies.  

I better throw some pictures in this post so it’s not just all words about my cats. They are making so much noise right now! I’m surprised Chris is still sleeping. I’m scared to get up haha, in case I see the mouse again. For some reason they’re scary inside the house. Oh, so basically something needs to change, because I don’t want mice in my bed, and I don’t want cat poop in the house. Not sure what our solution will be…

With allergy season here and increasing, I also need to keep the window closed and probably try and keep the animals off the bed, since they get covered with pollens and stuffs outside. Really, I’m just hoping to overcome my allergies and get my body to a natural, allergy free state. I just have seasonal allergies, hay fever, and I get sneezy, runny nose, itchy eyes, cough sometimes, short of breath and a little asmatic… so it’s really annoying and frustrating. 

Bel just jumped on the bed by my head and freaked me out. Thank goodness she had no mouse hanging from her mouth. That poor mouse. Bah! Piper just jumped up too, scared me haha. I’m all jumpy right now. And I’m scared to look on the floor to see a big dead mouse. I’m glad they haven’t been eating them inside and that they’re not leaving mouse guts around. That’s really good.  

Okay, picture time. 

Yesterday my funny dad brought my Subaru into town for me to start driving it again! In the winter Chris and I get by fine with one car, but in the summer we need the dreamy subie too. 

Yesterday evening we got together with the empty nesters from our ward for FHE. It was a beautiful evening at the beach and I had a couple bites of a caribou dog and way too many cheesy Doritos haha. We told them that we’ll be adding to our nest in November!

My sister and her girls came over after school to get some cookies, and the girls stayed to play. I was really glad because they’re so fun and loving. They do tend to make a lot of noise when they come over with my recorders, tambourine, harmonica, ukulele, and keyboard, but I like for them to make music. That recorder gets to me though!

We played with the little neighbor boys and that was great. Then we went to the field to play frisbee and soccer, and for Edel to get more exercise. Unfortunately she got so much exercise that she had to lay down in a mud pit to cool off! I was not happy. It was not easy to get her cleaned up. But I still like her. 

And here’s a picture on my walk to school in the morning. It takes me about five minutes to go from the house to the school and it’s a delightful walk. I keep pretty busy at the middle school, subbing there the majority of school days lately. I like it. It doesn’t pay well but that’s fine for us right now, because I enjoy it and the flexibility is priceless. Boat cleaning starts soon and it pays great. I need to work on my boat cleaning attitude so I enjoy it more. Summer is basically here!

I got a hankering to make and eat lasagna yesterday, so I made it happen.

I spent probably an hour yesterday looking at different recipes, trying to figure out the healthiest and most delicious combo. And then I spent like three hours making everything and went to bed very sleepy!

The red sauce was really tasty, and the cheese/kale mixture too. I used brown rice lasagna noodles so my gluten free niece could have some. But she’s dairy free too, so I made her some cashew cheese for hers. It was pretty tasty!

But it took a ton of work. And it was all worth it. I put it in the oven as soon as I got home from church and a half hour later, the lasagna was making the house smell tasty tasty!

This is no fancy blog food photography, but our family meal after church was delightful. My mom and sister brought veggies and a salad and we had a pretty peachy time together.

So glad we have family close by. And it’s so nice to share food together.