A few pics

Anna with her Great-Grandma Shirley

Anna with Great-Grandpa Bud
Look how strong I am....
....I just need to learn how to stay up on my knees once I'm there!

Back in the loop

We FINALLY recieved our new power adapter cord in the mail for our laptop, so we're charged and ready to go!! :) After over a week without computer access I have come to realize three things:

1.) I'm lost without the internet and my email every day
2.) I'm addicted to blogging (mostly checking other people's) in an unhealthy sort of way
3.) I found I had a lot more free time without the computer as an option!

It's good to be back and to get caught up on everyone's lives. A lot has been going on here over the last week and a half...I'll be damned if I can remember what I did yesterday though. It really does scare me how much my mind fails me these days.

Early last week we took a trip to Oregon to visit Dane's grandparents and we had a wonderful visit. Anna was such a doll as usual and she allowed both of them to get sufficient snuggles on her. She took a great nap while we were there and woke up just in time for dinner, so she got to play with her toys while the rest of us feasted on steak, corn on the cob and salad. Don't worry, Anna got to have all the milk she wanted for dinner...her favorite!! After dinner, we headed to my parent's house (about an hour away) to spend the night so it was nice to see them and get in a quick visit. Anna slept for a little bit on the drive there so she was able to stay up a little past her bedtime to play with Grandma and Grandpa a little bit. My parents were both gone to work in the morning when we got up so I'm glad they got to play with Anna some the night before.

So the next news to talk about is that I started my new job on Monday. Big day! I was nervous as it was approaching...not so much about the job, but just how Anna was going to do and the fact that I was so sad to not be around her. Dane and I dropped the ball on finding child care in time so this week we have our friends Courtney and Jodi helping out watching Anna in the afternoon while Dane is at football practice until I get off work at 5:00, which we GREATLY appreciate. I need to make a lot of phone calls in the next few days to hopefully find someone with an opening for an 8 month old and just in the afternoon (it's not easy!). Hardly anyone accepts part time kids. Keep your fingers crossed that we find a place that we feel comfortable with...this is a HUGE stress for me right now. I've got to say though that Anna has done really really great at Jodi's house the last two days. She has napped as soon as she got there for 1-2 hours and has eaten good (she hasn't had to take a bottle in the whole month I was home!) and played great with Francheska (Jodi's 18 month old). It eases my mind to know that she is so happy when our friends watch her...what a huge help that is!

So my new job! The first two days have gone really great and I think I'm going to like it a lot there. Would I rather be home with Anna? Yes. But if I have to be at work, I think the City of Lacey is a great place for me. Everyone has been extremely nice to me and they are all the type of people that I can be friends with, not just coworkers. I've already been given a lot to do, so I'm jumping right in there and getting my feet wet! I will be splitting my time between the City Manager and Public Affairs Departments. Today I met the Assistant City Manager and it seems like I will be working along side of him doing what I can to make his job easier and his days run smoother. His name is Scott and he seems very nice...I have heard a lot of great things about him so I look forward to working with him.

I'm excited about a project that I have already been given. It is called the Work Involvement Now! (WIN!) Program and what it is, is the City offers this program to Lacey area youth groups (church, Boy/Girl Scouts, schools, etc.) to volunteer their time and sign up for different jobs around the city such as painting fire hydrants, planting trees, cleaning up playgrounds, laying new bark, etc. In return for thier 40 hours of community service we give them a $300 grant to go towards their organization. We make it all official for each of the 25 groups and the mayor presents them with their checks and a certificate and I guess the kids get pretty excited about it and feel pretty special. :) So this has been handed off to me to organize from start to finish and they're already a couple weeks behind schedule so I've got my work cut out for me! This is what I love about this job though...there's a lot to do! My day is so full that the time flies and it's 5 o'clock before I know it. There's nothing worse than having nothing to do and just watching each minute pass by. So anyways, I think this is going to be a good fit for me. I already miss Anna like crazy, but that just means I'll have to soak up every minute I do have with her when I get home.

Dane is keeping very busy these days as well now that football has started. He's coaching the defense for varsity this year so he's excited for this change. In fact, tonight he is at the school collecting the boy's fundraising money from them and organizing all of that. It always seems to be something...I guess I need to come to terms with the fact that football season is among us and I will not be seeing as much of him as I might like. If he's not coaching it then he's watching it. :) He has his draft this Sunday for his fantasy football team...please keep your fingers crossed that he gets a good team, otherwise it could be a long winter for me!

Well, it's already after 9:00 and I have a lot more stuff to get done before I get to go to bed so I'd better wrap this up. I'm happy to be back in the blogging world again...what did we ever do before blogging?!

M.I.A.

Well, as I write this our computer is about to die. We just ordered a new power adapter off of the Costco website, but until then, we probably won't have computer access. So sad.

Until then...

Hotter than Haites

Living in Western Washington I am usually one of the first people to jump for joy when the warm weather is upon us. I try to never complain when it's toasty out because I know it's probably going to be short lived...but come on! 95 degrees?! What are us pasty Olympians suppose to do in weather like this? Nobody has a pool around here because we see weather like this maybe 5 days a year and I would go turn on the sprinkler and sit in it with Anna, but our grass is currently like hay, so I don't see the fun in that either. Plus, we would both be fried in about 2.5 seconds.

So what have we done these past few days of scorching heat you might ask? We try to keep our options limited to the places that only have air conditioning...which isn't many. Our friend Julie was home with their new 4 week old baby, so I went over yesterday offering my "help" (really, it was her air conditioned house that I wanted to sit in) with Brody. Okay, that's not true...I really was excited to hold him and snuggle him...air conditioning or not. But that was a bonus. :) On Thursday my sister-in-law was in town with all of our nieces doing back to school shopping so we went to the mall (beautifully air conditioned I might add) and met up wiht them for a while. Today is even hotter and Anna and I have pretty much been confined to our family room all day. We have a small ac unit in the laundry room which is off of our family room...so we open up the door and turn on the ac and it actually stays fairly cool down here. But the second you go upstairs the hot air hits you like a ton of bricks. We are seriously considering camping out down here tonight. We already have a "fort" for Anna to nap in down here...it's just too stinkin' hot in her room. We set up her pack and play and draped blankets around the edges so it stays dark...daddy thought that one up...he has his moments. :)

Well, I guess I've complained enough about it being hot. I know it's hot everywhere else and I'm sure others are miserale, but I just wanted to take this moment to whine...mostly because I'm bored. :) Dane's at work and Anna's napping and I'm pretty much confined to this room unless I want to venture into the stifiling parts of our home...no thanks.

Oh, but not to worry...our extended forcast calls for rain and more rain starting on Monday, with our temperate reaching a whopping 59 degrees on Wednesday. That's Western WA for you. Listen to me...not happy unless it's a mild 73 degrees. Geez, I'm depressing! Anyone want to hang out? :)

A day with cousins

Myla graciously sharing her toys with Anna


Myla taking her dolls for a walk in her wagon

Holly, Cole, Dane and Anna in their garden looking at all the veggies (yes, that's a pink hair clip in Cole's hair...he wanted to be like Myla). :)

Myla in her "beep beep"...that's what she calls it! :)

Me with my cutie patootie

Cole in his sunglasses and Myla wearing Uncle Dane's

Yesterday we had a great day in Seattle at Neil and Holly's house with Cole and Myla. We played with lots of toys, enjoyed the wonderful weather outside and just caught up. It had been almost two months since we'd seen them (darn these busy summers) so it was due time. Myla showed us her new walking skills and Cole showed me his impressive reading skills by reading two of his BOB books. They are both such sweet kids and growing up so fast. Myla is 16 months old and astounds us with how well she talks...that girl has so many words!! It was so fun to see her play with Anna. Myla kept saying "Anna..eye" and poking her in her eye (well, maybe not poking, but us darn adults kept getting in the way before she could). She did poke her in her belly a couple times! Cole is going to be 4 in November and he is very curious about everything. He is definitley in the "why" stage so I spent a lot of my time explaining why things are the way they are. :) Anna loves being around other kids and could just sit there and watch and stay entertained all day long. It's pretty cute.

Neil was able to get off work at 3:00 so when he got home Dane, Cole and Neil walked to a neighborhood park while Anna napped and Myla got some one on one attention from mama. We are excited for the years to come when Anna gets older and she and Myla become good friends. They're only about 8 months apart in age, so as they get older I'm sure they will be playing together all the time.

When the boys got back from the park, we had a wonderful dinner of bbq'd skewers, home grown green beans, grilled corn on the cob and we had brownies and ice cream for desert! Thanks Neil and Holly--we had a great day with you guys!

This is what 6:00 a.m. looks like

Look at my teeth in this picture!!!! I'm such a big girl!!

Since Anna was up at an obscene hour this morning, it was mama's turn to get up with her. Poor daddy worked until 11:30 last night and then he has to be up and at work again this morning at 8:30. Yuck! At least I get to play with a cute baby.

Anyways, I just thought I'd take a few pictures of her playing this morning...doesn't she look darling in her pj's? I seriously have to restrain myself from not buying a pair of pajamas for her every time I'm in a store. I just think they are so cute! Unfortunately (not really) Anna is growing out of all of her clothes so I've had to do some shopping lately. :) On to 9 month and 12 month stuff! This girl is growing like a weed.

Notice the smiles in these pictures...I don't know why, but lately when I put the camera up to take a pictures she's all smiles. We'll see how long it lasts...it's probably just gas. Anyways...just thought we'd say good morning to you all!

Unemployed? Not me!!

As of this morning I am officially an employee for The City of Lacey!! I got the call this morning (while shopping at Kohl's!) and they offered me the position that I tested and interviewed for (Dept. Assistant III for the City Manager/HR/Public Affairs Departments). You should have seen me at the store...I shrieked when she told me and then she started saying all these dates and times, so threw my stuff down (I was in the baby clothes section...big surprise) and sat on the floor and was writing on an old crumpled up reciept. Anna was in her stroller just staring at me like I was crazy. :)

I had my "Assessment Day" yesterday and that was quite the experience. The day started at 8:30 and there were seven of us there for further evaluation and interviewing. We were brought into a room for our group project and there were SIX people in there to observe us. We were all given a slip of paper with five random sentences. We could read them aloud to each other but not hand them to each other. We quickly realized all the sentences were creating a story and we had to figure out two answers. I think we actually ended up getting one of them wrong, but I think they were looking to see how we communicated, who took leadership roles, etc. I have NEVER encountered anything like that before for an interview!

So next, she handed out the STACK of written work we had to complete. While we worked on that, the gal came in the room and got each of us for our individual interview. I was first. I felt it went okay. I was super nervous...there was a panel of five people spouting off questions at me and suddenly I became very aware of how many "ums" I was saying. It was a lot...bad habit when I get nervous! I walked out feeling like it went okay, but not great. It was one of those instances where you think "Oh shoot, I should have said this, or that". So I treked back into the room to finish my written work (2 hours later I was done!) and we were free to go to lunch. We had to be back by 1:30 to find out who was going on to the NEXT step. WHAT?! There was MORE? So at 1:30 we all reconviened in the room. I was shocked when she called my name first...seriously, I wasn't expecting to get it (especially after turning in a nearly empty packet of Microsoft Access quesions) but I was thrilled to hear my name.

There were three of us chosen to advance to the next step which was yet ANOTHER interview. Same panel of people, but this time there was further explanation of the job and just more talking on thier part, which was nice. They asked me about six more questions and sent me on my way. They said they would be in touch middle of next week either way. I felt A LOT better about the second interview...I was much more relaxed and I felt that my personality came across much better. I actually felt like I had a shot at it. So about an hour and a half later I got a call from my previous co worker and she said the the City of Lacey had just called to call for my reference. My boss (ex boss I guess) gave me a "glowing review" and apparently it worked because wahoo, I got the job!! :) I start August 25th which means I still have two whole weeks off without stressful job searching!

As excited as I am, I feel a little torn because it is full time and that is not what I was initially looking for. I was going to try and find somethign part time to be wiht Anna more, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. The pay is great, the benefits are among the best that anyone has to offer (for my whole family) and it will be a great starting point for a long term career if that is what I wish for it to be. We feel blessed that this has come through for us and we'll take it day by day to see what our options are for Anna. I cringe at the thought of her being in daycare for a few hours each day. We'll see what happens.

Speaking of Anna, I had to post this darling picture of her. Just this week she has started "clapping" her hands when we do it. They don't quite meet each other yet, but she looks adorable trying! :) And she looks so proud of herself when she does it!

Celebrating 80 years

My grandpa saying a few words and getting choked up with tears

Grandma and Grandpa and every one of the grandkids Our little family

My brother and his family (minus Shyanne)
My pops and my aunt Sandy
Adorable nieces Savannah and Samantha
My beautiful baby girl with her usual concerned look on her face Shandra and Samantha with uncle Dane in the hot tub...they absolutely adore him!
Mommy and daughter

What a wonderful weekend we had with my family in Yakima! My Grandpa turned 80 years old and we surprised him with a wonderful birthday party with ALL of his family there. This has not happened in probably 7-10 years! Every family member was there except for one of the great-grandchildren (Shyanne was not able to make it unfortunately). We gathered at a banquet room at Holy Family Church and my Grandma told him that they were going there for a birthday party for one of their friends...he didn't suspect a thing!! We had someone on lookout and when they walked through the door we all yelled surprise, and I thought for a moment that he was going to fall backwards! He was very surprised and just as I suspected, the tears began to flow. It meant a lot to him that people made the effort to come together for him...it got me all choked up too.

We had a wonderful day full of eating, visiting and catching up. Dane and I brought a lawn game that everyone had fun with outside (bean bags) and there were footballs to play catch with and babies to play with. I must add by the way that Anna put on a VERY good show for everyone! :) She got many comments about her chubbiness and how it was the sweetest thing...I agree!

We stayed at a hotel with my parents and after the birthday party, Shandra and Samantha came back to the hotel and went swimming...uncle Dane got in the hot tub with them, but the water was barely 80 degrees...brrr! Anna's tubs are hotter that than! Needless to say, that didn't last too long. Anna fell asleep like a champ and Dane and I were alseep by 10:00!

I think we are all grateful to be home for a while now. We don't have any other trips planned for the summer, with the exception of a weekend in OR to visit Dane's grandparents soon. We're not sure when, but probably this month sometime. Dane said he would be happy to not be back in Yakima for quite some time now. We've been there three out of the last four weekends! I don't blame him. :)

Well, Anna's napping right now so I should go and be a good little housewife and get some chores done or something. Or maybe I'll just sit on the couch and watch soaps with my bon bon's. :) Gotta love not having a job!

Freedom!

Anna, Leah and Francheska...my Anna is such a buddah compared to the other girls!!
Anna being a silly girl!
Little Leah girl, so sweet
Francheska with her own special broom...helping mama clean. :)
This picture was taken last weekend while in Yakima for my 10 yr. class reunion...a special visit with my Grandma Hafsos...Anna was such a good girl!

As of today, I am officially unemployed. That's right, yesterday was my last day of work at Weinand Financial. Did I have another job lined up, you might ask? Nope, sure don't I'm not even that stressed out about it, I'm just going to enjoy the time off that I do have. It was time to move on and find something different. We're hoping that I can find a part time job so that I can spend more time at home with our sweet Anna girl. That, plus Dane needs some more time during his day to focus on his job...we're doing our best to try to keep Anna out of daycare.

While I was job searching, I came across a great opportunity for a job with the City of Lacey. Great pay, great benefits for our whole family...but it's full time. We decided it was too good of an opportunity to not try for. So I filled out the application packet (yes, packet...it took me a total of about 8 hours to finish) and dropped it off. I got an email inviting me to take a test for the position, so two weeks ago, I showed up along with 34 other applicants and took this test. Talk about in depth! We had 90 minutes to complete it and only about 5 people finished on time (me, not being one of them). The gal administering the test said they would contact NO MORE than 5 people to go on to the next stage. I was one of them! I recieved an email last week inviting me for a full day of events. First will be a group excercise of some sort, then some written work and then the individual interview. Wish me luck...I'm going to be a nervous wreck on Thursday!! I've got some other applications and resumes submitted at other places too, so we're hoping that this unemployment status doesn't last much longer than a month! I'm going to enjoy every last day though. :)

The pictures above are from today's playdate that we went to. Our friend Jodi invited us over to play with her daughter Francheska (18 months old) and our other friend Lexa was there with her daughter Leah (7 weeks old). We had a great time and Anna loved to just watch Ches run around and entertain her. :) They're all such sweet girls!

We're headed to Yakima tomorrow morning for my Grandpa's 80th birthday. It's going to be a surprise to him and ALL of our family will be there. All the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandkids...everyone. It's been a long time since all of us have been together so I'm really looking forward to the fun tomorrow. This will be the first time for most of my family to meet Anna, so that should be great. Good times will be had by all! :)