Do you ever go back and read old posts? I did today, went back and read all the way to the beginning. I reluctantly started this blog two years ago at the end of July. It has been great! better than I imagined! I found myself laughing again at the funny stories about my children, and marveling at all the things that have changed in our lives over two short years. Cassadie watched the video of her at swim practice and we all had a good laugh. It's easy to laugh now, when she's come so far.

I found myself wondering if there is some way to save the posts; worrying that they may somehow disappear some day. It really has been a great way to preserve all the little things that we so easily forget about.

Green hair and......Ham?

As a child I was VERY blonde, like almost white. I don't know at what point it got so dark, or if there was something I could have done to stop the progression. Every summer, my hair would gradually turn green from chlorine because we swam almost every day. I don't know if shampoo existed to remove the chlorine, or if we just weren't aware of it. Green hair was just an inevitability that myself and my cousin Jessica lived with. She too had nearly white hair.

My son Jarod's hair is almost as blonde as mine was. He swims almost everyday for a year-round swim team, and I had never even thought that he might get green hair. He wears a swim cap, and even if his hair did turn green, I figured it would come out with the Swim shampoo they use. Three things - his hair did turn green, it was caused by one practice, and it did not completely wash out with the "chlorine-removing" shampoo. It wasn't his whole head, just the inch-and-a-half that sticks out the back below the cap. The pool maintenace guy said they had been having some trouble with the chlorine levels...which did not alarm me either.
This picture does not accurately show the shade of green. When he got out of the pool, while his hair was still wet it was the brightest green you can imagine.His hair, while still wet from the pool was the green in the center block. I tried to get it wet later and see if the color would show up again, but it didn't. It's almost like some of the chlorine burned off when his hair dried.

He washed it twice with the swim shampoo, and it was almost back to normal. Although, the next day, his hair turned green again. The green wasn't quite as deep as the first time because the chlorine levels were still crazy but were starting to come down.

ROAD TRIP!!!!!!

In May we took a road trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Alex's daughter, Victoria, was graduating a year early. She had worked her butt off, and was graduating from High School as a Junior. So we piled into the car along with Alex's sister, Juanita, and drove straight through to Vegas on the first day. Cassadie, Jarod, and Juanita had never been, so we spent the night and saw a few of the family-friendly sights.


We drove the 6 hour drive to Phoenix the next day, crossing over Hoover Dam around noon. After checking into our hotel, we took Victoria and her boyfriend out for dinner. It was so nice to see her again. She is all grown up!
Her graduation was the next day, in the stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play. We couldn't even really see her except that they were showing each student receive their diploma up on a huge screen. This is the only picture I have where you can actually tell it's her.

Afterward we went to IN-N-OUT Burger. Alex has been RAVING about it as long as I have known him, and I was rather skeptical. He was hoping it would live up to his memories, and we were both pleasantly surprised. It was great! We all loved it, and it was pretty inexpensive so we ate there twice while in Phoenix.

We left the next day and drove to the Grand Canyon. It was amazing! We had never been, and figured we couldn't be in Arizona and not see it. Oh, and pictures do NOT capture the majesty that is the Grand Canyon. I knew it when I took these, but I just couldn't help myself.



During the 54 hours we spent in the car together, we laughed, we argued, we sang along to some great music, and overall enjoyed each others' company. It was a great experience.

"Not First Child" Syndrome

As a child it sometimes bothered me that there were more pictures of my sisters than of me in the photo albums. I got over it. As a mother I realize that there were reasons for it that had nothing to do with the amount of love my parents had for me.

You would think this would have made me more careful when it comes to my own children. But I find myself taking less pictures of my son Jarod. My photo albums chronicle the life of Cassadie with so many pictures you can almost see every inch of growth. The pictures of Jarod are not even a quarter of the number of pictures of Cassadie. When Cassadie started swimming, I took pictures and video at every swim meet for the first 6 months. Since Jarod started, I haven't taken more than a handful.

I have a few theories as to why this has happened.

#1 As life gets busier, I get caught up in it and forget to document the memories. I fall out of the habit of keeping my camera with me ready to grab a picture.

#2 The squeaky wheel gets the grease. What I mean to say, is that Cassadie is much more vocal than Jarod, and therefore gets more attention. This is not intentional of course. For example, I had planned to buy Jarod some new shoes for Easter. For those of you who don't know, Jarod is very particular about what he wears. I could not just pick out a pair of shoes, I needed him to pick them out. But I wanted to surprise him as well, so I took him to the shoe store and had him pick them out and try them on. Then I said "I'm sorry Jarod, but I don't think I can buy these. They're a little more than I had planned to pay. Why don't you look around and see if there is something else you like." I knew he wouldn't...he's very particular. When he was done looking (which took all of 30 seconds), I said "well, let's go, I'll think about it, and maybe I can come back and get them tomorrow or Thursday." To all of this, he said nothing. He never begged me to buy them, didn't even ask. He hasn't said one more word about those shoes since we left the shoe store. If this same thing had happened with Cassadie, she would have begged, pleaded, offered her soul in exchange for me buying the shoes. There would have been no end to the questions about when she could get them or when I was going back to Yakima.

By the way, I went back and bought the shoes while he was at Karate class. They are in my closet waiting for Easter as I write this.

#3 Cassadie and Jarod are very different in many ways. One big differenc, Cassadie loves attention although she claims not to. She posed for many of those pictures in the photo albums. Jarod hates attention. He would give you a dirty look instead of smiling when the camera was aimed at him....my sister Beckie has a picture that demonstrates this perfectly. I think I have allowed this major difference to be my excuse. I always think that he doesn't like me to take pictures of him so I should leave him alone.

I suppose it could be worse, all his stuff could have been ruined when the garage flooded. ;)

All of this to say, I regret not doing a better job of documenting Jarod's life. I appreciate that my family does a better job than me, and am determined to do a better job in the future.
This picture was taken on New Years Eve 2010. Cassadie went to a party with the Youth Group at church, and Alex had to work, so Jarod and I watched the ball drop in Time Square together.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

I LOVE the snow. I don't so much like to get out in it and get cold and wet, but I love to look at it. I love the way it makes everything seem quiet and peaceful. I love the way it covers the imperfections and makes everything beautiful!

I don't mind driving in the snow, I kinda like it, and I think I'm good at it. I drive a Jeep Cherokee and it makes me feel like I can do anything. Sometimes I try to slide as I turn a corner and am disappointed. I often watch cars in front of me as they come to a stop and attempt to go again, but simple spin out. I wait patiently (and sometimes impatiently) for my turn and then have no problem at all. Tonight I watched a car attempt to drive up a hill, I pulled to the side of the road and watched as the car went halfway up and backed down again three times. They then turned and drove off in the other direction. I just waited patiently and once they were out of my way, drove up confidently without a problem. Poor little car....

I do get frustrated by others and their stupid decisions. I recently took a trip to Portland to hang out with my two sisters and our two cousins. (That is another GREAT story for another time.) It snowed while I was there, and it made the trip home interesting. The major freeway I took to get out of Portland had not been plowed, and was pretty bad. Not so bad that you couldn't drive a good 40 mph though. However, people began pulling over to put chains on, which wasn't really the problem either. It really got bad, when the big trucks would stop in the middle of the lane (whichever one they were driving in) to put their chains on. No need to pull off the road, please just stop right there. Anyway, it became an obstacle course. It took an hour to drive 20 miles. The only thing that redeemed that hour was the landscape...

And, since I wasn't moving....I had plenty of time to take pictures of it.

To speak or not to speak?

My kids went to the US Nationals swim meet in Federal Way this last weekend. It is a swim meet for collegiate level swimmers and there were some Olympians there. They road separately with friends. When they called after the meet was over to say that they were on their way home, this is how the conversations went:

Me: hey Cass, did you have fun?
Cassadie: Yes, it was sooo much fun......, we got to see........, oh my gosh mom, I'm tired so it doesn't sound like I'm excited, but I really am and I'll tell you more about it tomorrow
Me: sounds great, are you guys headed home now?
Cassadie: Yeah, we left the swim meet a few minutes ago, and Jeff told me I should call you now
Me: alright, so you'll call when you get to Ellensburg?
Cassadie: Yep
Me: Okay, see you later. Love you
Cassaide: Okay, love you too mom
(this call lasted several minutes)

Me: Hey Jarod, did you have fun?
Jarod: Yep (silence)
Me: Are you headed to Max's aunts house now?
Jarod: Yep (silence)
Me: Okay, well, have a good night
Jarod: Okay (silence)
Me: I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you bud
Jarod: Okay, bye
Me: WAIT! YOU WILL NOT HANG UP WITHOUT TELLING ME YOU LOVE ME!
Jarod: Oh, I love you mom
Me: Thanks bud. Bye.
Jarod: Bye.
(This call lasted about as long as it took you to read it just now!)

It's so funny to me how boys and girls are so innately different. He is a man of few words, the strong silent type. She will talk your ear off about nothing at all.

One-Liners

My children are always saying really good one-liners, and it's usually when they are completely oblivious to the depth of meaning behind what they have said.

Just today Jarod and I were watching a TV show called Wizards of Waverly Place. The kids are wizards in training and the oldest brother finds out that he has finished wizard school, but now has to do an independent study. His sister says "way to go Justin, you finished school just to be awarded with more school", to which Jarod says "that's just like when you graduate from High School". Alex and I had a good little chuckle over the truth in his words. It's good to know that he feels that way....it's just the way things work.

About a week ago, the kids and I were on our way to swim practice. We were driving along behind an SUV with "DO YOU KNOW JESUS?" painted in large letters across the back window. I said "do they think that's gonna convince people to know Jesus?" to which Cassadie said "yeah, do they think they can advertise Him like He's a roll of toilet paper?" Exactly!