Who knew we liked vampires?

Emma and I rented Twilight last week, and really, I was quite skeptical.  There has been so much hubbub over it, mostly pre-teen and teenage girls going crazy for the movie... but then some of my friends were really into it too.  I asked around if it was appropriate for Emma to see, so we tried it.  We loved it!  Emma followed the story much easier than I did (surprise surprise).  So yesterday after brunch, she and I had a date at the movies and saw New Moon.  Loved it even more than Twilight.  And the ending!  Man, June 2010 is not going to come soon enough for the next part of the saga!  After the movie we did some Christmas shopping... just a fun pic we snapped of ourselves in front of the giant tree at the mall:

My wish today - peace on earth.

The unthinkable has happened again, and only a month apart.  This morning four Lakewood police officers (neighboring town to Puyallup) were sitting inside a Forza coffee shop before their shift began.  Their laptops were out, they were conducting a briefing, and a customer stepped out of line - pulled out a handgun - and executed all four.  No one else in the coffee shop, customers nor employees, were hurt thank God.  But four police officers, who pledged to keep the peace and protect citizens, were mercilessly killed.  Four families do not have a loved one coming home today.

That's 5 officers in our region alone in the last 30 days, murdered while on duty.  This will be another painful week for everyone in the police community to accept and endure.

May I present to you - Clara Barton

Emma's book report this month was on a historical figure, and she was assigned Clara Barton - the founder of The Red Cross.  Here's the irony:  when I was in grade school, I, too did a book report on Clara Barton. That's just amazing to me.  She is giving an oral presentation for her report, and each child had to dress the part of their person.  So those old Gunne Sax prom dresses that we brought home from my Mom's this summer are coming in handy!  Emma chose one, added an apron with a red-taped cross on the front, borrowed her Dad's stethoscope and our super old first aid kit, and we searched for a paper nurse's hat on the internet.  Quite the transformation, and it was very fun putting it together with her on Sunday afternoon.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Christmas!!  I snuck away for a pre-Thanksgiving brunch with some girlfriends (Dutch baby pancake with butter and fresh lemon, and bacon/cheddar/potato pancakes - oh my.)  While I was gone the Cole elves were busy bringing decorations down from the rafters.  The porch is decorated, the tree is up (but not decorated yet) and we have begun to sprinkle Christmas magic around the rooms.  Here's just a snippet:

The "happy holidays" on the mirror and the presents above are from UppercaseLiving.com.  I recently had a party and got some disposable Christmas themed items for fun during the holidays.  We decided Cooper's area near the front door needed a little cheeriness too :)

Peace for Caden

Heaven received an angel today.  Caden Safer, my cousin Karen's 6yo son, passed away in the night succumbing to a brain tumor.  While I never met Caden, I have such good memories of Karen from my childhood - and she and her family, especially sweet Caden, have been in our thoughts and prayers for the last several months.

Karen & Jeff - we wish you peace and comfort in the coming days and weeks.

Caden, I hope you're riding your gator up there buddy.  Watch over us.

Out with the old, in with the new

At least with the blog background :)  We have a busy Saturday:  Emma is going to a costume/birthday party from 11:30-4:00, I have to deliver all of my UppercaseLiving orders (a lot!) and help Tracy apply hers, I have to post Kit preview videos for Coordinates Collections, and Carl is going to a UFC fight party tonight.

Tomorrow, however, we will begin the Christmas transformation of our house!! We are all so excited to dig into the 30+ containers of decorations up in the rafters.  This year we're changing the colors of our outside lights - so that will be the first outing tomorrow, picking out new bulbs.

We're excited to be going to the Robillard's for Thanksgiving dinner.  Tracy's entire family will be there, as well as Jeff/Ashley/Payton, so it will be fun to have so many kids around while the guys are watching football.  Carl will be playing in a Turkey Bowl that morning, tackle football with a bunch of cop friends - this has become his favorite part of Thanksgiving for the last two years.  I've been assigned dishes to bring: my famous sweet potatoes, an appetizer, and I'm trying a new dish - bacon/leek/potato gratin.  Such a nice break not to have to prepare the WHOLE meal this year.

Well, off to get my videos up and running - I'll post pictures and progress tomorrow!

Posts are boring without pictures...

So I had to post one just because.  Wishin' I was here right about now.

Little bit of a break ahead

Sunday afternoon finished the Fall soccer league, and I'm proud to say that our girls pulled themselves up from their bootstraps (and a sketchy start) to finish in 2nd place out of 6.  If we had lost yesterday's game we would have placed 3rd, so it was down to the wire.  A shut out was the icing on the cake.

Now we will have about 3 weeks off (no practices, yay!) and then begin a bit of training for Spring league, which actually starts in January.  That will be a quick 5 games or so and then right into the State Cup tournament, should be really fun.  We are so lucky to have a team this year where every one of the parents is awesome and we all get along really well (as do the girls).  Last night was one of the wife's 40th birthday so we had a group of 10 go out for a nice and noisy dinner at Mama Stortini's.  So fun :)

Emma had her parent/teacher conference last week and pulled out all A's and a few B's, she's doing beautifully as we expected.  Apparently the jump from 4th to 5th grade can be quite a shock, and her teach says she has adjusted well.  She has a friend coming home with her today at noon dismissal to hang out, she's very excited about that.  The Christmas program is coming too, right around the corner, and she got a part as a "Jingle Girl".  I'm anxious to see what that entails!

Carl and I test drove vehicles over the weekend and think we have narrowed our choice down to a VW Passat.  Unbelievable ride.  Fits me like a glove (and fits Carl's shoulders too :))  We won't be purchasing until probably the Spring, but we wanted to do some comparison shopping ahead of time so that we're ready to go.  We also checked out the Nissan Altima (loved it, but the Passat nudged it out), Ford Taurus (interesting body style, too big for me), thinking about looking at the Toyota Camry too.  But honestly, my heart is with the Passat already :)

No pictures to share, but a little update will hold everyone over - I think :)

Pathetic Puppy...

I spent an hour and a half at the vet last night (not an emergency, but they had an evening appt. available).  Cooper has been licking his right paw for a few weeks now, and we haven't been able to figure out why.  We have felt all around it, manipulated it, he doesn't wince or act bothered in any way.  So we just decided I must've dripped some food from the stove on to his paw and he's been enjoying the taste of his fur or something!  Ha!

The other night Emma was holding him and found a big swelling where his dew claw would've been - so I took him to the vet.  Turns out his dew claw on that paw wasn't removed properly when he was a puppy, and it had poked through his skin and became infected.  So much so that it infected his bone, two phalanges high, and if left untreated would've continued to travel into his leg.  He went under the knife for about 25 minutes and came out with this little paw cast (excessive bandage).  The doctor warned me he'd be pathetic with it, and pathetic he was.  Little guy limped around all night holding his paw out at a 90 degree angle - it was the funniest thing.  Today, however, is a far different story.  He's been running the hall like nobody's business - ain't no cast holding this boy back!

Just a little catch up...

So this past week has been busy.  A Seattle Police officer was murdered in his patrol car on Halloween night.  Someone pulled up right next to the car, close enough that the trainee that was driving could not open her door, and shot into the car with a high powered assault rifle (don't even get me started on gun laws right now).  The trainee ducked and survived.  The 9-year veteran and father of two did not.  Carl was given the task of coordinating patrol coverage for about 16 hours on Friday during the funeral.  Police are brothers - no matter the department you work for, no matter race, sex or creed.  They lost one of their own, and when they do, a funeral is a monumental event.  As a courtesy, neighboring agencies provide officers who volunteer to cover the patrol districts so that everyone from the affected police department can attend the funeral.  Needless to say, we didn't see much of Carl in the days leading up to, and all day, Friday.

In addition to our somber week: we had two soccer practices in the rain and a game in a hurricane (not really, but it felt like it); skate night at school; Jr. Achievement at BizTown; and regular work/school weeks.

BizTown:  This is the COOLEST learning experience EVER!  I didn't get to go, Carl was the parent volunteer last Tuesday from our family, but I so wish I could've been there.  Junior Achievement is a program for local schools that partners with local businesses to provide a town/work setting for the students.  It's located in a nearby town in a large warehouse in an industrial area:  inside the building are walkways, fake grass, street lights, storefronts, town hall, etc.  Each child is given a job (Emma was the CFO of Landstone Realty) and they earn a paycheck.  They perform the tasks for their jobs (Emma had to go to each business on Main Street and collect rent - deposit to the bank - pay bills) and get an actual paycheck equaling $8.00 donated from the businesses.  They go to the bank and deposit their paycheck, withdraw money, pay their monthly personal bills in a checkbook, and then get to go to any storefront they wish and spend their $8.00.  Emma went to Best Buy and bought a Mariners t-shirt.  All of the parent volunteers staff/oversee the stores and businesses and help the kids with questions.  TOO COOL!

Lastly, Emma turned in her November book report the other day.  Her teacher this year does not like traditional two-page book reports and encourages other means of comprehension and compilation of the stories.  One option was to create the main character out of clay and write a brief synopsis.  Love Emma's little mouse - he lived in our refrigerator for about a week until he was submitted.  Notice the cool scrapbooking supplies Emma used for her synopsis?  That's my girl.... :)

Halloween Recap

We made a quick trip and turnaround to Vancouver, WA for a soccer game on Saturday morning (4 hours of driving with a quick game in between) and got to stop at Burgerville for lunch.  That is always our highlight if we hit I-5 southbound - Burgerville!  Why they don't build them up here I have NO idea!  Carl got his regular Tillamook cheddar bacon burger and I got a "haute" dog with apple slaw on top.  Yummy!  Oh, and sweet potato fries :)

After we got home we quickly carved one of the bigger pumpkins - very low key this year, just some triangles for eyes and a cute mouth.  Mostly we just wanted the seeds :)  Plans for trick-or-treating changed a bit and we ended up hosting Carrie and Brianna (from soccer).  Emma and Brianna joined up with neighbor Jordyn and her friend, and the girls and Carrie and I made the neighborhood rounds (with a nice tumbler of syrah wine for the mommies).  It was a gorgeous clear night, surprisingly!  We usually have terrible storms for Halloween.  Here are a few pics:

Grammie, soccer and the patch

So Grammie is visiting, flew up on Friday so she can attend Emma's 'Grandparents Day' at school on Monday.  She flies up every year for this, Emma is always so grateful.  Grammie was able to see Emma in action on the field on a beautiful fall day as well, and then the team walked next door to the pumpkin patch.  We did a little 4x4 driving in the parking lot (serious bog of mud and water) but it was kinda fun.  Carl and I went out with Kristy and Dave for dinner and bowling later Saturday night - I always forget how much I enjoy bowling until I actually do it again.

Soccer weekend

We enjoyed a late afternoon game on Saturday up in Redmond, the fall colors were absolutely gorgeous (in between the torrential downpours).  It would rain buckets, and then clear up, alternating throughout the game.  The girls love to play when it's wet though, go figure.  Emma's team is wearing pink jerseys for breast cancer awareness month, it's a nice burst of color on the field for a change.

We beat Crossfire 2-0!  That helped us move up a spot in the standings.  After the Redmond game Emma and I joined two other moms and their girls for a trip over the pass to Yakima.  Since we were already on the east side of Seattle, it cut about 45 minutes off of our trip had we left from home.  We joined the gold team at a really nice Hilton Garden Inn downtown to play in their game on Sunday afternoon.

We got adjoining rooms and of course the three girls claimed one side to themselves - which was just fine, they had a really fun time together.  They all play defender positions, so they got a chance to bond together away from the rest of the team.  Emma enjoyed a dip in the indoor pool, we had a scrumptious breakfast at IHOP, and then played a quick game before coming back over late Sunday.  Funny, I didn't get any pictures of the girls on this trip, but I managed to get one of my friend Amy and me.

Sweet Seranade

And I use the word "sweet" loosely here :)  Emma has been practicing her clarinet today, very well I might add, with only an occasional squeak so shrill that it feels like my funny bone has been hit... but... when Carl got home from Montana last night and heard her he went into the garage immediately.  And out he came with his trumpet from the rafters.  So the two of them are playing Go Tell Aunt Rody, Hot Cross Buns, Jingle Bells and the likes from the kitchen.  Cooper is curled up in my lap with his paw over his head, but it really is fun to see them practicing together.

Emma's "Amazing" Birthday "Race"

Due to our family's love of CBS's Amazing Race, we duplicated it for part of Emma's birthday party this year.  We brainstormed how to implement the race within the confines of our neighborhood and I think we were pretty successful!

Carl took the logo off of the website and created clue envelopes with Emma's name on them for the teams. We had 2 teams of 6 that ran for the next "clue boxes" and had to perform challenges in order to move on.  Some things they completed:  skipping or walking backwards the entire way to the next stop; completing a 100-piece puzzle as a team; climbing the neighborhood park apparatus while all tethered together; putting a golf ball in a bucket; eating 3 saltine crackers each within 1 minute: very fun.  The pitstop was our front porch, and Kenton was very excited to play the host and stand at the mat.

Just a few pictures from the day:

October 4th, 1998

Today is our baby's birthday.  Eleven years ago today she was born on a Sunday, 10/4, at 4:11 pm - much to our surprise.  The nurses in the delivery room were all cheering on the doctor to get her out at 4:10 to match her birth date, but they didn't quite make it.  They all thought it was so cute that a young police officer was having his first child on 10-4.

My perfect pregnancy, complete with 0 days of morning sickness or fatigue, and an honestly blissful 8 months had a hiccup that Friday the 2nd.  I wasn't feeling my baby move.  I tried all the tricks they gave me (drinking orange juice, lying on my left side) and nothing woke her up.  We went to the doctor and they put a fetal heart monitor on me and watched the baby for about 20 minutes.  "Nothing great, but nothing bad either - kinda so-so" the doctor said.  "Come back to the L&D section of the hospital on Sunday for a quick check before you go to work that day." I truly wasn't very concerned, as they didn't appear to be either.  This baby had never moved a lot in the pregnancy anyway, I never got those jabbing kicks or legs stuck up in my ribcage like you hear other mothers complain about - she simply was content and snuggled in in my opinion.

So Sunday came, Carl and I woke late as usual (we were both working swing shift), and we decided to run up to the L&D before a quick lunch together, and then head up to work.  I had no idea it would be my baby's birthday.  Once we got buckled in on the monitor, the baby's heartrate dipped down into the 40's (it's normally in the 140-160 range).  The nurses quickly, yet not in a panic, started flipping my body all around the bed to change the baby's position.  They requested an ultrasound.  Then the ultrasound became a biophysical profile.  The ultrasound tech requested the doctor look at the results, not giving us any information.  We started feeling anxious.  Worried.  Why won't they tell us anything?  Finally the doctor on-call came in and sat down.  He said the baby was in distress, the amniotic fluid was low, and she had to come out today.

We were given two options:  induce labor, but I hadn't even started dilating yet, and the baby was pretty high.  He said it would be a long labor given those facts, and could result in needing a cesarean section anyway. The other option was to do a cesarean right now.  I didn't even blink.  Cesarean.  Get my baby out.  I was kind of excited... my baby was going to be born... I wasn't very worried.  And then I looked over at Carl.  He was sitting on the ledge of the window.  Crying.  Scared.  It was all happening way too fast and not as we predicted, for him to process.  I told him "this is exciting - she's going to be fine - let's just get her out".  And he got on board.  Within a minute we had nurses in the room prepping me for surgery, and within 10 more minutes I was in the operating room.  The doctor told us to prepare for about a 5lb baby, with probably immature lungs.  That didn't sound so bad, I thought.

They got my epidural set, gave me something to make me a bit loopy, and Carl was sitting with me at my head.  It was so cold, my entire body was shivering.  I felt like if I breathed deeply I would fall off of that table it was so stinkin' narrow.  (Why do they have to be so narrow?)  Time went by, I'm not sure how much, but we never got the "raising the baby in the doctor's hands over the privacy curtain" thing to say "it's a girl!".  It was very quiet.  Carl saw that they had pulled her out and whisked her over to the heating lamp/bassinet and were checking her over.  Finally I heard a squeak.  A little squeak like from a dog toy.  And I said, "is that my baby?"  And yes, it was.  Carl had walked over to her and watched the nurses dry her off, clean her up.  They brought her to my face.  What a little monkey I thought.

Later when I awoke, Carl told me how he stayed with her through all of the examination, the first bath, the drops in the eyes, everything.  He got to hold her and be with her, and she held his finger.  He then told me the vitals:  3.4 lbs and 16" long.  WOW.  That is tiny.  When do we get to go home?  He then tried to explain to me that it would three to four weeks before she could leave.  I smiled wide and said "nuh-uhhhhh, come on" thinking he was joking.  That would be just like him.  But he wasn't joking, and I couldn't see her until the next morning at 5:00am.  So Carl brought me some polaroid shots of her (okay, they have stopped making polaroid cameras/film since then!) and I slept my day away dreaming of how I would get to hold her in 12 hours.

She was tiny, but she was strong.  She was a beautiful little monkey. Perfect.  Not needing a breath of oxygen, or an IV for anything.  She simply was tiny and hadn't developed her sucking power yet to go home and nurse or feed.  Plain and simple, she just needed some time to do that, and after she could suck on her own for 24 hours straight, we could take her home.  That didn't seem so bad.

Twelve days we visited her - five times a day.  The hospital was only about 25 minutes away, but we went to every feeding - exactly 3 hours apart.  Sometimes we cut it close, and we'd run as fast as we could into the hospital so we wouldn't miss it - and the nurses, bless their hearts, would say "we held her off as long as we could" to allow us to get there.  I could go on and on about the nurses, but they were the most wonderful, caring, helpful people in the world.  I think they loved Emma as much as we did. They all fought every day for who would get assigned to Emma (1 nurse per baby per shift).

So 12 days later we took her home.  Kind of scared, she was only 3.6 lbs now - she didn't fit in the carseat.  We had to roll up towels and surround her body and head with a cusion to make the harness work.  But she came home and made this couple a family.  And we have loved every single minute of it. There haven't been many bad moments... this child is full of grace, compassion, empathy, and goodness. She is our pride and joy.  She is our world that we revolve around.  And today's her birthday, and we will celebrate her coming into this world at 4:11 today with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" with 13 of her girlfriends.

Yesterday she and I went to a gourmet cupcake shop to pick up cupcakes in lieu of traditional cake.  Cutest little shop ever. We're totally going back in the next few weeks, just she and I, to enjoy a cupcake at the window seat underneath a curtain of crystals.

Here she is in all of her 11year old glory:

November kit and add-on previews!

Novembers kits at www.coordinatescollections.com are awesome as usual!  I put the basics together for the first kit, a very fun color combo that features gray - love it!  And this month we have a wonderful Autumn kit with blues... a nice switch from the October Enchanted's predominant pinks.

Here are the add-ons for each kit - embellishments and then paper packages:

Home for a 5-day weekend... not so fast....

It was only supposed to be a 3 day weekend, with the beginning of my new 4/10 schedule beginning on Monday (and I just so happened to have Monday off next week!)  But, I had pulled a muscle in my back under my shoulder blade that was nagging me (like it always does, because I don't use good posture when sitting and typing, I know.. I know..) anyway... and then I woke up a few days ago with my shoulder really hurting on the same side.  Well, that radiated down into my arm, all the way to my middle fingertip.  So I didn't sleep at all on Wednesday and called in sick yesterday.  Thankfully there was a massage opening at my chiropractor - and she worked me so hard I cried on the table.  I've never done that before.  This is not a pleasant massage people, like you would get at a fancy schmancy spa - it's a deep-tissue-painful-but-in-a-good-way massage... except for yesterday.  Just plain nasty and painful.  Anyway, they didn't want me going back to work on Friday and typing all day and undo what they corrected, so I now have a 5 day weekend.  I have another massage scheduled on Tuesday upon my return to work.

So Carl's parents are in town - got in late yesterday afternoon and Carl and Emma visited for a bit after her soccer practice.  I heard Grandpa was a major tickle monster.  That's what Grandpa's do I guess :)  Tonight they're coming over for dinner, and then tomorrow we will enjoy a double header soccer match. Emma is playing up on the black team tomorrow - she's so excited about the opportunity - and then will play with her regular team immediately afterward.  She then has a swim party to go to at Lake Tapps that results in a sleepover - what a crazy busy life she has - but in a good way :)

My kits arrived yesterday from Coordinates Collections - oh my... are these ever drop dead beautiful! Even the Halloween kit is beautiful, as much as a Halloween kit can be - more cool-beautiful :)  I will be posting a reveal video later today at the site:  www.coordinatescollections.com.

I can't leave you without a picture, that's almost sacrileges in blog world, isn't it?  A pic of Emma from last month's tournament - I love the black uniforms :)  And then one of Cooper in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, although you can't even see the bridge - but it's there... I luv him :)

Miley Cyrus ROCKS!!!

Okay, I don't normally award myself the Best-Mother-EVER award, except when I score tickets to see Miley Cyrus ;)  Last night Emma and I had a date, along with Tracy and K-Sue, to see Miley Cyrus/aka Hannah Montana at the Tacoma Dome.  Here's the cute Best-Mothers-EVER...

And the girls before the show started - they were SO excited - we had awesome seats!

And a pic of the great screens with Miley in my favorite outfit of the night - the dress originally had a huge bustle on the back with a long wedding type train, but was still really short in front - very fun.  I was also a huge fan of her black leather jumpsuit hotpants - seriously!  

And then this remarkably great shot (from my pocket camera!) of Miley singing on this lift in the center o the stage.  This was right before she flew around the room on a suspended Harley Davidson motorcycle (of course those shots didn't turn out) rockin' out to "I Love Rock and Roll" by Joan Jett.  That was a serious woot-woot to the mamas in the audience :)

I had the brilliant idea to take the Sounder train from town to the Tacoma Dome (so that we wouldn't have to endure the awful traffic and ensuing $30 parking), then we walked to the Harmon Brewery where we had a great dinner (and yes, I did indulge in one of their beers, and Tracy had a strawberry lemon drop -we were going to be subjected to screaming adolescents all night people....).  Carl picked us up outside of the Dome - it was perfect!

Father-Daughter Bonding

It will begin at approximately 4pm tomorrow. After the soccer game, they are getting all packed up. Carl was hunting last Sunday-Thursday (yesterday) - he bow hunts elk. Yum. Not. Anyway, the rest of his crew was home for a day and then headed back this afternoon. Emma really wanted to go, so they were going to go for a day hunt on Sunday. And then Sunday turned into a Saturday night stay. And so now, there will be 3 dads there with their 3 kids - of course, Emma is the only girl. But he made sure to get her all decked out in Walmart's finest camo today. I think she's ready. P.S. that's K-Sue in the bottom picture - she was in some of Carl's hunting clothes acting as a decoy in the backyard when I got home - she scared the crap out of me! :)