FUN IN THE SUN

BREAKFAST TIME

Butch in every which way is always trying to steal a piece of bacon.
The little wretched thief.

IN THE HOSPITAL

Well we got here at the ungodly hour of 6:00 a.m. The stinky part
about where we live is that it takes a good 45 minutes to get here.
Therefore we had to wake up by 4:30. I am now ready for a nap.

THE BIG DAY

Well folks, tomorrow morning is the big day. Dad is going into the hospital for what is known in the medical field as a epigastric hernia repair. Yep, that's right. Dad has a hernia. About one month ago dad said to me "Here, feel this. I have a small lump in my stomach." I felt it but was not quite sure what to make of it. At first I thought it might have been a tumor. Then dad said that when he laid down the lump would go away. Then when he would stand up, the lump would come back. Then I knew it was a hernia and told him to make an appointment with the doc. Sure enough I was right. So for a whole month I told him not to pick Mimi up and carry her around as she is all of 41 pounds now and solid as a rock. Didn't want to make it any worse than it is.

I am so thankful that I have such wonderful friends in the neighborhood. Since we have to leave the house around 5 in the morning, I asked Keri if it would be alright if she took care of Mimi all day tomorrow. She said that it would be fine. Blake was in 7th heaven. So therefore Mimi went to play at his house for a little while after school then came home to bathe and eat dinner before going back over to Blake's house for the sleep over. Then dad and I walked her over to Keri's house. There is one slight problem though. Bailey loves to play with Mimi too and I think that Blake feels a tinge of jealousy because the girls will huddle together reading a book while putting Blake out. I'm sure he'll live though.

We should be home by the evening.

SEE THE RESEMBLENCE???

Kinda scary ain't it? This Halloween in particular Mimi has been afraid of her own shadow so to speak. She refuses to go upstairs by herself at night. For a while she would come home with stories about how Rachel says that Lake Wilderness is haunted or how Noah has a ghost in his bathroom and the water continues to run. Then one day last week after dropping her off at school, I took this picture of the front of our house totally forgeting that Mimi has a stuffed dog with the same likness.

JOB WELL DONE

Everyone in my family knows that I am not the most gracful person around. This is the bruise that I sustained last week while doing gardening work in our backyard. When I set out to do something, I do it right.

SEX TALK

Well folks, it's already happening at our house. Even dad does not know about this one yet, but I am sure he will by tonight.

Very shortly our local elections will be held. There is one proposition out there to "protect the sanctity of marriage". As we were driving to Ms Celia's house yesterday afternoon for her weekly piano lessons, there was a group of people standing at "four corners" with their picket signs promoting this particular proposition. While we were sitting in the car waiting for the light to turn green, someone in the intersection yelled out "Gay Pride!!!". Naturally Mimi asks "Mom, what's Gay Pride?" In a few seconds a lot of questions ran through my head. Do I tell the girl? Do I not tell her? How to tell her? Do I make something up or ignore it all together?

I then figured that if Mimi is old enough to ask, she's old enough to know at least on a first grader level. I then proceeded to answer her question in a short, sweet and truthful manner. I told her that the word "Gay" has a couple of meannings. One is when a person is happy or in this case it is when two men want to live with each other. "Why do the men want to live with each other?" Mimi asked. "Well it's because they love each other" I said. "You know what mom?" Mimi continues. "What?" I ask. "Well, when I get older I want to live with Alex. I don't want to live with Blake. He makes up too many rules." Usually they are rules that suit his fancy too. I told Mimi that one day she ought to call his bluff and see what happens.

LOOKS LIKE SNOW

Not. Just hail. Was in Walmart when we all heard a loud crashing sound
and thought that something had fallen off the shelves but instead it
was the thunder followed by the hail and rain. Now the sum is trying
to peek through the clouds. The stinky part about this whole ordeal is
that the weatherman said there would be no rain today just cloudy so I
brought Butch with as he loves to go out and it's cooler and I efty
sunroof open just a tad for ventilation and now my car is wet inside
but not too bad.

PHO

Ever since she was a baby, Mimi has always loved noodle soup. Noodle soup especially tastes extra delicious when it is cold and rainny outside as it was yesterday. Therefore after her piano lesson with Ms. Celia, we headed down to our local Pho noodle shop. I must say that they have pretty darn good food. I like the kalbi shorts myself. So we ordered our usual. Steak soup for Mimi (their small bowl is actually quite large), kalbi shorts along with soup, vegetables, fried egg and rice for myself and egg rolls to share. And as usual Mimi ate the whole bowl of soup plus my soup, plus a couple pieces of kalbe shorts and a piece of egg roll. I think that she may have hollow legs.

CURIOUS GEORGE

I should not say this but I am going to anyway since this is my blog. I cannot stand this monkey! Did not care for him when I was in kindergarten and I don't care for him now. It's like fingernails on chalkboard to me. However now since Mimi is in first grade and she is in a reading program, she gets to choose the books that she wants to read and of course she always picks George. So now I just have to suck it up. Ugh.....

PUMPKIN CARVING

Last weekend Mimi and Blake helped Halliwell decorate her house for Halloween. It's kind of nice when your good friends live in the same neighborhood as you.

This morning we all woke up and just kind of lounged around the house. Then dad took Mimi and Blake over to Kent Station to see Astroboy. They all had a good time, even dad said that the movie was pretty darn good. Especially the animation.

While they were at the movies, I brought lunch over to the Summit Gymnastics. Apparently they are having a judging training course this weekend. Debbie says that although our team has participated in a couple of competitions this Fall, we won't be very busy until the beginning of Jauary. Then we will be in full swing and super busy. As of now Mimi is still on probation until I think the end of November. Her first competition will be on November 14 and it will be an in-house competition which means she will be competing against her teammates.

As soon as I brought the people their lunch I thought that it would be a good idea to go to purchase me weekly provisions of Japanese food and so I did. Living out here in Maple Valley is not like Californina where I could easily go to the Mitsuwa Market anytime that I wanted too. Here it depends on the weather and although I don't have to drive clear into downtown anymore, it still takes a good 2-3 hours to get the shopping done.

We all made it home by 1:30 this afternoon. Just in time to go over to Halliwell's house for the pumpkin carving party. Although the kids had a blast, it just was not the same without Brandy. She had to fly back home to California on a family emergency and will be back here tomorrow.

PUMPKIN PROWL

It was the annual Pumpkin Prowl at the Woodland Park Zoo this weekend. Brandy said that she went last year with her family and it was a lot of fun. I am afraid that I have to differ. It was just OK for us. It is a very small zoo with way too many people with really small children and their strollers. Not that I have anything against kids and strollers but they were everywhere blocking the only pathway in and out of the zoo! I could not believe how the people would just stop and block our one and only pathway to chit chat with each other. It took us one hour to drive there, spent $21.00 for the tickets, wait almost one hour in line to go through the "Boo-Nasium" (haunted barn), have Mimi cry in the haunted barn, the witch, ghost and big weeping willow tree scared her, pay darn near $30.00 for four slices of pizza and three water bottles and that's it! That is not to mention that we had to wait another 30 minutes for the shuttle to take us back to our car and drive another hour home. Don't think that I will ever do this again,

GETTING READY FOR THE WINTER

There is definitly a cold chill in the air. Summer is gone and so is the warm beautiful weather we had. Poor ole' Butch is sooooo sad that we took his backyard swing apart and covered up the frame. When the weather was beautiful he would spend the whole day swinging himself in the swing. This past week while dad was at work and Mimi was in school, I spent the afternoon raking, cutting all of the dead leaves in our backyard, thinking the whole time about how I would have loved to have been a "well kept woman" especially when picking up Butches "treasures". While doing all of this yardwork, I tripped and slid across our muddy grass in the backyard while spewing out every curse word I could think of at the moment. I now have a humongous bruise on my right lower leg and upper right arm. They both are now a lovely shade of black and blue colors with a hint of yellow.

As they say, "things happen in threes". That particular day when I fell, Janet was limping to school so Keri told me, Blake fell at school and sustained a nice black and blue lump on the noggin and the next day grandpa fell at his new digs in the dinning hall. Fortunately we all were not badly injured and grandpa is doing just fine.

In the meantime I was able to get my Tulip bulbs planted so hopefully by next Spring I will have some beautiful Tulips growing. Last Friday night at the school's beach party dad was .........let's see........how can I put this delicately? In the doghouse along with Butch? Yeah, I guess I will just leave it at that. Well anyhoo, I was frustrated with him and so on Saturday morning I did what I always do when I get this way, I go shopping. A shopping I went too. Mimi was at Blake's and I had the car and the credit card. Smart man that dad is, he knew I was upset with him and to make up he painted over the plantar's that grandpa had given to me. We both did not care for the purple color that grandpa had painted them. All is well in the Putney household again. So now tomorrow I can plant my Hyacinths and hopefully they too will come out beautifully next Spring.

FAMILY FUN BEACH PARTY

Last Friday night Mimi's school hosted a family fun beach party at the school. Soon as gymnastic practice we headed over to the school where we met up with dad. There were all kinds of games, music, food and friends. Mimi had loads of fun and so did mom.

LAZY SATURDAY MORNING...

Watching Casper Scare School.

PIANO PLAYING

Mimi will be turning seven in a couple of months and she is beginning
to show signs of maturity in leaps and bounds. The real shocker Lately
is that although she has always liked the piano, she loves it now.
Even when she has a new song to learn. She loves practicing the piano
with Maddie. Mimi is actually getting quite good with her playing. So
much so that we now can almost play a duet together which is a whole
lot of fun for me too. Mimi also loves her music class at school. All
day long she will go around singing
SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS.Phew!

TWISTER

Mimi and Blake definitly know how to hve fun during this rainy season.

PIANO PRACTICE

Now that Mimi goes to full day school, piano on Mondays, gymnastic practice on Tuesdays and Fridays, it really cuts into her "social life". All of her friends are quite busy also with soccer, dance and gymnastic practices. So yesterday when I talked with Janet to set up a playdate with Erin, we made it for today and I completely forgot that this afternoon Maddie comes over for Mimi's weekly piano practice. Mimi is 6 years old and Maddie is 7 years old but oh man can she play sooooo good. However Maddie is such a gentle soul that when they get together it is Mimi who takes charge of how the lesson should go. Now and then I have to remind Mimi that although Maddie is her friend, she (Maddie) is in charge of how the lesson should go. All in all the lessons go pretty good cuz according to Mimi, Maddie is awsome or so I have been told on several occassions.

MOVING DAY

Yesterday morning was the big day. All. The movers came and loaded up
the truck and took the stuff to their new place but not before
stopping at our house first to drop off our newly aquired refrigerator
and freezer. Not only did we get the appliances but all the food too.
Spent the whole getting our garage straightened out. About 95% of the
food came from grandma's house and there is more food (non-perishable)
in the back of my SUV.

GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN

Mimi picked out her pumpkins last Sunday at Remlinger Farms. On the 24 (Saturday) there is an Halloween event at the Woodland Park Zoo. It goes from 5-8 in the evening. Adult tickets are 7 dollars and kids under 17 are FREE. Not bad for an evening of fun. Brandy tells me that they went there last year and it is a lot of fun for everyone. This year we are all going there together.
Did not notice this until I put the picture on the blog is that if you open up the picture on the right and look into the left window pane, it looks like a picture of a white dog face. How spooky is that?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELLY

It's been a long time since us moms got together like this and we so needed it. I wanted to hear about what everyone has been up too and catch up on the lates gossip. Right around 2:30 in the afternoon was when the electricity went out all around our town due to the windstorm. Mimi was quite excited about it. This morning I heard her ask Halliwell on their way to school, "Halli, did the windstorm freak you out yesterday?" To which Halli responded "Nope, we have windows in our classroom."

THE BIG MOVE

Not only were grandma and grandpa getting ready to move but it is the start of the windstorm season and boy was the wind blowing yesterday. Then it decided to rain in the afternoon. While Mimi was in school, I went over to their house to help grandma clean out all of her canned goods in the garage. Wow! She is such a pack rat. Then it was time to go home and cook up some hot wings for Shelly's last minute birthday party over at Keris.

GOOD TO THE LAST BITE

Mimi absolutely loves her miso soup and Maguro sushi without the
wasabi. She devoured a bowl of Miso and 2 rolls of Maguro (tuna) sushi.

MIZU'S SPIDER ROLL AND DRAGON ROLL

KANPAI

It's not very often that Mimi and I have a mother/daughter girls day
out as we are together all the time when she is not in school. So
tonight was a spur of the moment kind of idea and we had a lot of fun
talking, laughing and eating our favorite sushi.

FALL FESTIVAL AT REMLINGER FARMS

Remlinger Farms is a great place for kids especially around Halloween time. Yesterday started off with going over grandma's house and helping her get packed for the big move this tomorrow. Keri came over to their house to pick Mimi up and take her with them to the farms. Mimi could have gone over to Keri's but she had some business to take care of with grandpa. On Saturday while at grandma's house, she had a huge major meltdown. Dad had spent the whole day Saturday helping grandpa get his computer desk set up at the new place then he planned to take us all out to dinner at Rooters. That all changed when Mimi and I met them at the house and she had one big meltdown "I wanna go to Blake's house!!!" the girl yelled over and over. Well you know where you get when you have an attitude like that with me. The answer is NOWHERE. Now mind you, the girl had by this time spent the whole day with Blake and his family while dad and I were helping out with the move. We skipped out on dinner and went home instead. I just knew that she was tired as she woke up at 2 in the morning with slime in her hair. Another story for another time. When we got home she put her pj's on and went straight to bed (5:00 pm) and slept all the way until 4 the next morning (yesterday). I went back to bed with her as it was so early in the morning and we woke up at a more reasonable hour like say.......9:00 am, ate breakfast, went to grandma's house so that she could appologize to them for her bad behaviour the day before. Then she met up with Blake and family while dad and I packed the dishes. Then we all met up to together at the farms. This time another neighbor/friend Andy came along with his little girl Haley. So there was Blake, Mimi, Bailey and Haley. Which worked out great because Mimi and Blake would play together and the two little ones could play together. However there were a few rides where Mimi did not like the ride whereas Blake did and vice versa. So it really helped out to have at least 3-4 parents helping each other out. Dad went with Mimi on the roller coaster, I went with Blake to ride the bikes and Keri and Andy stayed with the little ones.

While there at the farms Blake and Mimi met up with their other classmate and friend Alex and his family. Then as we were leaving we met up with dad's business friend Bill and his family. I tell you, no matter where we go, we always seem to meet up with friends unexpectedly. Which is quite nice. Next thing we knew it was time to pick out Mimi's pumpkin and head back home to have dinner with grandma and grandpa at Gloria's.