Crawl

Kellan finally moves forwards!  I tried to get a video but he was not very interested.  He finally does a little at the end.  Sawyer also sings you the ABC's in a funny voice.

This land is your land

More tales from a car ride...

My mom taught Sawyer the "This land is your land, this land is my land" song on Wednesday.  We were singing it on the way home from daycare and I asked, "Who lives in California?" when we got to that part.

"My other grandma and poppa!  That's why I made it for them"

"You made what?"

"California.  I made it so they could go to there."

"Huh. Ok.  California is really far, we'd have to drive all night to get there."

"I pee my pants."

"WHAT?"

"I pee my pants when we go to California sometimes.  That's why I need to go to a bathroom when we get there so I don't pee my pants"

"Oh.  Ok."


....about 3 minutes later he started yelling at me for turning the wrong direction....

Me: "No, home is this way"

"No, that's the way back to Eli LJ's"

"No it's no-ot" (I say sing-song like)

"Yes it i-is" (he sings back)

"Just watch and you'll see"

"I'll look out the win-dow, but no I wo-on't" (he says sing-song like at me)

....we get home....

We're in the driveway and he turns his head

"I don't see my home"

Me, pointing at the house, "what's that then"

"The garage" (Yep, I got a smart aleck)

"Is the garage attached to our house?"

"...yeah."

"So I guess mommy knows where she is going, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Job offer

I received my job offer letter today!  It was a long process and I'm glad it is over and worked out.

It started back in July when they announced that my job title was being eliminated across the country.  As I wasn't sure what my plan would be, I looked on the internal job site and saw what was out there.  The answer was not much.  The corporate jobs (which a lot of people want to end up in) were all IT style and/or required a lot of college and experience to boot.  I found one in accounting that didn't require experience and decided to apply since I was familiar with the job a little (they work with the stores- my position specifically was a main contact).  I kind of forgot about it since it was 2 months later that my manager called me in and said they were interested in interviewing me.  I was a little surprised.

I went to the interview, after trying to prepare.  It didn't have any of the "normal" questions though, and they basically just asked me about my previous experience.  I wasn't exactly sure how well it went, since I didn't have a lot of opportunity to present myself.  Within a few days I found another girl I was kind of buddies with was also interviewed, and I'm sure more in my position (since we were all getting laid off and there are literally dozens of stores in the area).

I hadn't heard anything for the past few weeks since the interview, but last week my manager said they contacted him and asked him a few questions.  He said they liked me, but I wasn't counting on anything until I heard it from THEM.

Well, today the letter arrived! It was quite a relief because looking online, there are not a lot of jobs out there that I was interested in, and most of them didn't pay more than a few dollars over minimum wage with ridiculous experience required ("at least 3 years in the IT and golf sales fields").  They are offering me more than I make now, but I am going to try to negotiate higher since the job is in Bothell and it is a FORTUNE to live up there (our house up there is more than 400k since it's next to Seattle) or to commute each day (with the traffic it is about 2 hours each way).  I hate to sell our house, but I do love the area up there and it would be nice to not pay that much gas. I guess we will see how it works out.

I would like to thank my college degree and certificate, as well as my decision to take accounting because I know that is what put me over the top over the other candidates!  I bet I even get a cubicle ;)  I am set to start the new job as of the first of the month!

Tough guys

Two blogs in one night, but they are so unrelated.

I hate even typing it, but the past 2 days have been 2 big scares.

The first was yesterday.  Andy and Sawyer went upstairs, and I heard a loud booming noise, then Sawyer crying.  I figured Andy was with him, especially since he was crying.  Well, he didn't stop, and it turned into screams of "DADDY!"  I was feeding Kellan downstairs and after the second "DADDY!" I knew Andy wasn't going to help him (turns out he was in the bathroom and didn't even hear this whole thing).  I ran into his room to find Sawyer crushed under his dresser and he was stuck there.  It was terrifying because I didn't know how heavy the dresser was.  I knew it was hard to move, but didn't know if it was heavy or just dragged on the carpet.  I pulled it off of him and lifted the drawers off.  Luckily, it looked like he just had a few scratches and he stopped crying once I hugged him.  I was shaking for a bit afterwards though.  I have repeatedly scolded him for climbing on his furniture so I hope he learned a lesson this time before something worse happens.

The second was tonight after I got home from work.  I went upstairs to change, but realized Kellan's diaper was puffy so I laid him down and had Sawyer get me a diaper.  He brought wipes instead so I ran into his room to grab an actual diaper.  He was really far from the stairs and his room is right there so I didn't even think it would be something to worry about.  Well, somehow in the 5 seconds I was gone he managed to move faster than he has ever moved in his life and pushed (he can't have rolled at that angle) himself right down the stairs.  I was on my way out as we hear "THUNK THUNK THUNK WAAHHH" and see him rolling down the stairs.  He made it halfway down before I grabbed him.  He was going pretty slowly and the stairs are close to each other so it didn't look like he was really hurt, but it definitely scared both him and me.  Sawyer sang him a lullaby as I was just hugging him until Andy got home.

These are definitely not experiences I ever want to have again.  We finally moved Kellan out of the pack n' play in our room into his room and crib last night and I'm having Andy move the crib down because he is starting to pull up on things, and I don't want another experience like the past two days!

treadmill

I don't know why it took so long, but we found a good treadmill on Craigslist the other day (some of them are just horrid and disgusting looking on there) and we got it!  They were just getting rid of it because they live in an apartment and the people below them complained (ya don't say?)

The first week I was so sad I couldn't try it because
-Got it late Monday
-Practice Tuesday
-Sounders game Wednesday
-Practice Thursday
-Friday I was dumb and wore a pair of heels to work that gave me the worst blisters that I could barely walk by the end of the day
-Saturday I had a game and my feet hurt just as bad having run on those blisters in cleats
-Sunday was just as bad as well as my muscles from the day before
-Monday I first got the flu/plague thing which lasted all week (even though I still went to practice feeling like death)
Which leads to yesterday where I was still sore from my game but I decided to walk it out and it was AWESOME!!!!!  Andy put it right in front of our TV in our room (it stays on the side) and I walked a slower mile on a 7 incline, and a second quick mile...all while watching my normal Sunday night shows!  Why did it take us so long to get one of those!?  It just blows my mind that I can "walk" 2 miles while watching TV.

Now, I know it isn't the same as "real" running.  If you haven't seen the studies/science it is pretty much because in real running you are propelling your entire body through space, while a treadmill is just moving your legs to keep up with the strip, but it will still be good cardio and leg workout during the winter months where I can't breathe cold air.

Erik and Andy bring it up the stairs...it is heavy

The little set up, it folds up and fits on the side of our room when its done

Oh, this week

Quite a few things were going on this week.

-We were (and are) sick.  I even missed work on Tuesday.  I was loopy all week at work, it was kind of funny.  I still went to practice though because I'm nuts and it probably didn't help.

-Kellan eats puffs now, but he always gets mad because they get stuck on his hand and he isn't very coordinated

-Kellan has also become pro at crawling backwards and going into a sitting position.  It is funny to see how he tries to get places in front of him because he still can't go forward

-Sawyer is obsessed with my old color changing Hello Kitty from when I was his size.  He calls it "hello cat" though and even woke up at 3am crying because he left it downstairs

(another cute bath pic)

 -We got a new king sized bed.  Our old one is squished in the storage bedroom

-Kellan's first tooth finally broke the surface.  It is his front bottom left tooth and is still just barely there.  He has been a bit difficult and needy lately because of this.

-We got pictures taken by Stacy Jacobsen and I think we looked adorable in matching colors (they should be done at the end of the week)

-My team played Boise.  It was very close and we lost right at the end but I played pretty well considering I have the plague, and I even got visitors for the first half (my old manager Chantal and Stephanie came to watch)

-I took pictures of a cute little family (I haven't worked on them yet though).

-I'm waiting on a possible job offer (if it works out I might not get the offer until next month though)

I think that's about it.  I like this picture of Kel though so I'm putting one more ;)

Pumpkin patch

Olympia

I had a game in Lacey yesterday.  We won (barely).

We went to find food and went over to Olympia.  We decided to drive by the capitol. Sawyer wanted to go inside so they went to look around and he came out with a color book.

This was painted in an alley.  Hippies are so weird.  One of the bridges had a bunch of people knit little sweaters for the lamp posts along the way.

We went to the Cascadia Cafe.  Sawyer only ate part of his yogurt, but Kellan ate the rest of it and seemed to love it.

Here our hamburgers and fresh cut fries.

We went home and watched the 2 episodes of Parenthood we were behind then ordered "Now You See It" or something (where the magicians rob the bank).  While we were watching though, Sawyer got into the hair cut kit, cut his hair, then put it back away like nothing happened.  He looks ridiculous...right before our family photos next week :(

6 months

Today Kellan got his 6 month check up (only 4 days after this time)

He is 18 lbs (60%) and 29 inches (>95%)  Yep, apparently he is tall and off the chart:

He peed but we didn't want to change it since he was naked in a few minutes anyway

That top curve was the 95% line

He got shots, but actually liked the mouth one because they sweeten it.

He did not enjoy the leg ones

Sawyer liked the toys as usual

His milestones are:

-Sits without falling over now
-Can get himself into a seating position from his tummy
-Crawls backwards
-Eats purees or soft food
-grabs and holds things with more control (like picking up pacifier and putting in mouth)

Some things happening now are:

-Not wanting naps during day
-Sleeps all night
-Angry teething baby in pain (sometimes hard to feed him a bottle)
-Recognizing people (he threw a fit when unfamiliar faces took him)
-Loves Sawyer
-Survives Sawyer beating him up (pokes eyes, squishes him, etc) though Sawyer thinks he is playing

Oktoberfest Marathon Weekend

We managed to squish a lot into yesterday, so naturally this will be one of those way too long blogs.

We begin Friday afternoon.  Andy dropped the boys off at my mom's house and we took off east.  We rented out a cabin house with 3 rooms and split it with Krissy and Leslie and Jenna.  It was really nice and had a fire pit out back, a hot tub, and a hammock.  It even had laundry machines!  It was right across the street from Lake Wenatchee and had a beautiful view out front which I didn't take a picture of.

There was a loft lookout thing upstairs and 2 bedrooms

My parents took the boys to Luminasia at the fairgrounds and both of them loved it.

Kellan looks like the Christmas Story boy

We didn't stay up too late because the next morning we got up early for the race.  The start for the marathon was 10 miles up the road from the start/finish for the half and they were getting shuttled so no cars were allowed.  I was a bit sad I couldn't see Andy off, but relieved to not have to wake up extra early.  The rest of us left with Jenna since the half started 2 hours later.

The half started and Andy got there right afterwards!  It was good timing.  We had our signs and Andy stopped to chat with us and take a short break at mile 13.

There goes Jenna in the middle (gray shirt black pants)

Here comes Andy half way

The "ANDY!" sign said "JENNA!" on the back

We hopped in the car to find a spot along the way to hold our signs and cheer people on.  We found a couple ladies from Tacoma with cowbells and decided to feed off of them and hold signs next to them.  It was a good spot because it was mile 7 for the halfers and 20 for the marathoners. It was so fun!  Everyone laughed at our signs, we got a lot of "Thank-yous" and other comments about them.  We even saw Jenna since she was doing really well and she said we were really motivating. We waited about 15 minutes or so for Andy but Jenna was cruising and we saw traffic about to stop and wanted to make sure we hit her for the finish line and got a parking spot. We figured since we motivated him halfway we did our part already and took off.

Found Jenna

We got back and found a spot right in front of the finish line.  Jenna came in at and official 1:52 beating her last time by 5 minutes.  It was great especially since there were a lot of rolling hills and the last mile was in SAND!  (Andy had to do the sand twice...imagine running 25 miles then  hitting a mile of sand)

Some lady crossed right behind her after this so I didn't get her crossing the line

We waited around an hour cheering on each person finishing (there were consistently people) and finally Andy came into sight, finishing at 5:07.  We were so proud!  Andy's mom and Sam even came up to support him at the finish :)

haha he does not look thrilled and he looks super swollen but he finished!

The 2 racers

After a bit of rest, Andy and Jenna went back to the cabin to shower and sit in the hot tub for awhile and I went to town to check out the Oktoberfest festivities with Krissy and Leslie.  We ate lunch at a little cafe, walked through the bazaar, watched a polka band, walked along the river through the changing trees, and got ice cream.

As we were finishing our ice cream, we found Kyndyl and Joe (he grew up in Cashmere right near Leavenworth and they were there for the weekend) and right after that, Andy and Jenna showed up.  It was great timing.  We had run into Krissy's friend and he told us about the official "Oktoberfest" tents.  It was $20 and all it got you was into the area where there were a few beer gardens.  It didn't include anything so that was way too expensive for nothing.  Joe saw a friend in town and she told us about a bar down the street with a beer garden and live music all night for only $5.  Heck yes!  They had good bands and we had a ton of fun hanging around a fire pit.  Other people took more photos than me so I don't have them (including me having to tie some hairy guy's leiderhosen) but I have a few pics.

The brat had a nub and I thought it was cute

The crew

Andy feeding Leslie her beer

That dog's name was Zeus

We went home right after and me, Jenna, and Leslie hit the hot tub before bed.

We woke up and tried to find a bar to watch the Hawks game but most of them were filled...despite the game being at 10 am and everyone should have had hangovers in town.  Luckily we walked by a "South" restaurant with a little bar that was opening just as we walked by so we got to watch part of it while eating delicious fish tacos.

Leslie disappeared (she went to get aspirin and never came back) so we left and walked around the town while Krissy hunted her down.  We got the boys a few gifts then headed out after another ice cream.

On the way out we admired the beautiful view as the leaves changed, and we stopped to buy a box of apples/pears at a fruit stand we had been to before.

We even ran into the race announcer at this little stand

We got home and I gave the boys their gifts.  I think they liked them.

It was an amazing weekend and hope we can do it all again!