It's magic!

I have tried a lot of products on my shower, and nothing seemed to get it sparkling clean. Kaboom worked pretty good, but even after scrubbing for awhile, it still wasn't to my standards. So today I stopped and picked some of these up. I have seen several commercials for these Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, so I thought what the heck, what do I have to lose?

WOW! Talk about clean. My shower looks brand new, with little effort. I literally got this eraser wet, and started scrubbing and within minutes, had a sparkling clean shower. If you have never tried one, go to the store and get one, right now! That is the best $3.59 that I have ever spent.

5:25 am.

The time that I was woken up this morning by my bed swaying and nicknack's rattling on the shelves. I turned on the news right away, and after a few minutes they were reporting an earthquake, just what I had thought. It was a 4.6 magnitude, which is a significant quake. It was located several miles north west of Seattle, in the Kingston area. I don't remember feeling one since February of 2001 when it was the big one. I still remember that day as I was presenting in class and it was right in the middle of my presentation. Earthquakes are a pretty scary thing as they could be the prelude to something more. They say that we have them all the time and have had several small ones in the past week, but they are usually too small to be felt. This mornings quake lasted about 10 seconds for me and that was 10 seconds too long!

Cute ideas.

Today I found a new blog that I am fond of. It is called, Be gifted. I love the name alone, and even more, I love all the cute and creative ideas I have found. The first is this:

Tooth Fairy Kit

The Official Tooth Fairy Kit contains one letterpress Certificateof Record for filing with your local Tooth Fairy and one reusable silkscreened cloth deposit bag for your first and all subsequent transactions. The official certificate keeps record of name, age, tooth lost, method of extraction and compensation information.

What a cute idea for the little one in your life! You can purchase it here.

Next, this:

Magical Thinking

This idea came from here, and is so cute to me. Just a plain ole jar, to fill with the cute things your children say. Of course probably not every word they speak is worthy of the jar, but there are those occasional lines that really put a smile on your face. I will be starting one of these to keep for myself, of all the sweet (and maybe not so sweet) things, that the little ones in my life say :)

30.

He is funny..no hilarious.

He truly cares about everyone.

He goes out of his way to help people.

He loves his Wife.

He is a hard worker.

He is an awesome race car driver.

He reads my blog.

He has a good heart.

He loves being an Uncle.

He does not love the wilderness.

He loves hand sanitizer just as much as me!

He has a special energy.

He is a great friend!

Happy Birthday Travis!

Toyota All-Star Showdown.

Tonight, my friend Ashley and I will start our journey to the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, California. I have been every year, except for 2007 when I was in North Carolina. This is the first year that the race will be held in January instead of November and the prestige has increased with several big names coming to the event.

Ashley and I both love road trips, so of course we are driving. She flies in to Sea-tac tonight, where I will pick her up and we will be on our way.

There is something special about the Showdown, and even more so this year with the competition. To top it off, I hear that my favorite, Kyle Busch will even be there for the Late model race on Friday night!

1.17.04

This is the date that my friends Travis & Rachel started their life as a married couple and I really can't believe it has been 5 years! I am so glad to have them in my life. They have both taught me more than they will ever know! Their love for eachother, their family and friends is inspiring to me. I love going to Ellensburg and spending time with them because no matter what we do, we have fun doing it.

They define a marriage to me..to have and to hold, through good times and bad, forever and always. Congratulations you guys!!

Happy Birthday Shae!

She shines as a mother.

Has a great sense of humor.

Always makes me laugh.

Enjoys her life everyday.

New Favorite.

I got these last week and I can't take them off. They are SO comfortable and warm and soft and just wonderful. I am going to have a hard time wearing anything but these. I love that they are slippers yet they have a hard sole, so I can walk anywhere in them. If your looking for slippers, get these. You won't be dissapointed!!

Happy Anniversary.

3 years ago on this date, I watched my friends Brandon & Lynsie, start their new life together. It's hard to believe that 3 years has already passed! Their life has been blessed with their sweet baby boy Zachary who is now almost 7 months old. I can't wait to see where the years take them and how their life as a family continues to get better and better! Congratulations Brandon & Lynsie!

Kids.

For the first time in a long time, I had no plans for the weekend, well at least it started out that way :)

With the flood going on, Lizzie's mom asked me to take her so that she didn't worry. They live on our farm and thought their home would be flooded, so I took Lizzie on Wednesday afternoon and she stayed with me all weekend. We collected Campbell also and they stayed busy playing Barbie's, taking care of their webkins and their babies, watching movies and laughing. We also painted nails, went shopping and made cookies.

On Saturday, Campbell had a birthday party for a girl in her class and it was at Jump Planet. It was a really cool place with tons of blow up slides and bouncy houses and the kids were so excited. Cooper and Lizzie got to jump too and it was pretty scary to watch Cooper. He is so little compared to the other kids and I was afraid he was going to get trampled. He just loved it and was doing flips like crazy and was totally fearless going down all the slides. The kids were so tired and Cooper was so warn out, that he fell asleep on me during the opening of presents. After the party, we headed down to South Center to have dinner with Jay and his parents. The kids were really good at dinner but were all fast asleep on the way home!

Sunday morning we got up and met my sisters and brother at Trophy Cupcakes. We haven't been there in a long time and they always want to go. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home while it rained all day long. I made a pot roast and eventually took Lizzie back to her Mom.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Kids really do make everything more fun!

Flood.

{Our farm in the distance}

The past week has been a little crazy in our family. We learned early last week that the threat of a flood was pretty high for our farm which is also where our business is located and by Wednesday the frenzy was on. Several people worked all day moving things to higher ground as there were historical river levels predicted. In 1990, the dyke broke and it flooded up to 10 ft on our property. We are reminded of that all the time by the signs that are posted to mark it. We were hearing it could be like the flood of 90 so we took all pre-cautions.

{The road to Snohomish with water nearly at the train tracks}

The dyke is at 28 feet, so if water goes over that, that's when it floods. I called the hot line numerous times on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It got up to 30 ft. at one point and it did flood, but thankfully, water didn't get much of our farm. It didn't get into the buildings which was a relief. Luckily the dyke didn't break, which is what happened in 1990 that caused the big flood. The water just went over this time, so it flooded most of the valley, but not as bad as it could have been. I went to check it several times and the water was rushing over the roadway and sounded like the ocean. Finally today, the water has cleared off the road at least, and we were able to get back to the farm and start putting everything back together.

{The water rushing over the roadway}

Floods are such a scary thing because water is so damaging and there is no control of it. Watching the news and seeing all the people that lost so much, just breaks my heart.

New Years Eve.

I was lucky enough to spend New Years Eve at a beautiful cabin in the mountains with a bunch of great friends. I was so excited just to have plans, since it seems I usually don't for New Years and then to be able to spend it with these people was even better. New Years Eve day, Rachel and I headed up to the cabin where Travis's sister and brother in law were waiting for us. We literally had to hike in to this place since it had snowed so much and the long driveway hadn't been plowed.

Once we got inside, it was amazing. It was a 3 story cabin that was on a large piece of property with 5 other smaller cabins around it. There is also a lake there, but we definitely couldn't see that with the several feet of snow. We got busy make appetizers and then hiked back out to meet Travis, Justin & Becca, Budah and Todd when they arrived. It was interesting going through all that snow in the dark, but we definitely got some good laughs. The night consisted of eating, drinking, laughing, playing poker and watching movies in the theatre. I don't play poker, so I spent the night mixing drinks which was really fun. Before midnight, we all gathered upstairs with our hats and noise makers. We had fun blowing those and screaming 'Happy New Year!' We had the celebration twice since Travis set the clock back again and we had another countdown :)




We woke up in the morning, Becca made breakfast and as soon as she put it in the oven, we lost power. It came back on briefly, but then went out again for good. We got creative and used the wood burning stove to cook the casseroles and then to melt snow so we could flush the toilets. We also learned that a tree had fallen on the only road to get in/out of the cabin, but luckily Justin had brought his chain saw to solve that problem. He is just the jack of all trades! We headed home that afternoon and just relaxed. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the New Year and I wouldn't have rather been anywhere else!

Happy Birthday Karen!

She loves her family and friends with ALL of her heart.

She is a hardworker.

She is a great Wife and Mother.

She loves wine.

She stands up for what is right.

She is loyal.

She listens.

She always knows what to say.

She is always thinking with others in mind.

She genuinely cares.

She believes.

She has a good heart.

She loves racing.

She does not love Kyle Busch :)

She loves purses, sunglasses and anything girlie.

She is the best friend anyone could ask for.

9 things in 2009

I love the New Year. A fresh start for everything. I'm not really one to make resolutions, but I do like to make lists of things I would like to do, and here is mine for 2009.

1. Be a great Auntie to my new niece and all the little ones.

2. Join a book club.

3. Take a cake decorating class.

4. Scrapbook at least a page a month.

5. Travel.

6. Drink more water.

7. Do something good every day.

8. Go to the Ocean at least once.

9. Take time for myself.

Happy New Year!

"Here's to the bright New Year and a fond farewell to the old. Here's to the things that are yet to come and to the memories that we hold."