FIRST TIME INTERVIEW

Today was the first day of the Mariners Fanfest at Safeco Field. Don't know why I thought that it would be a great day to take Mimi and Blake with me to the fanfest but I must be taking some strong drugs because that is exactly what I did.

Normally taking Mimi and Blake out on an outing is not bad at all. They are pretty well behaved but today seemed like the day from hell.

First we fill up the gas tank, make a cash withdraw from the drive-up ATM. We then proceeded to go through the McDonald drive thru for breakfast. I guess I was not going fast enough for the guy behind me cause he was honking his horn at me just as I finished giving our order. Mimi asked who was honking, to which I replied "some stupid idiot behind us". Don't know what possessed the girl and unbeknown st to me, she rolled down her window and yelled out to the man "YOU STUPID IDIOT!!!" I could have died of embarrassment right then and there.

We made it to the Lightrail and followed the sign to which side we are to go on only to find out that the train was going to Sea-Tac airport instead of downtown Seattle.

We finally make it to Safeco field only to find there were humongous long lines everywhere. All the while Mimi and Blake were just as fidgety as all get out. Blake said that he wanted to go and play on the playground in the kid zone. To which I said "NO". Not when we could play at home on the playground for free. Then he said that he wanted to stand (for god knows how long) in a line to play the Nintendo Wii baseball game. To which I said "NO" again. We could play that at home for free.

Then there was the super long line for the kids and kids at heart to run the bases. I chose for us to wait in the short line. This was the line for the interview with the either the Northwest News sportscaster or the King 5 News sportscaster. Not sure which it is since I watch both channels. We waited quite some time. Mimi and Blake still being fidgety. Sometimes fighting with each other. It was either "she started it" or "he started it". We finally made it down to the field. Still in line though. They both decided it would be fun to run in the dirt to which the security guard stopped them. They then started to play Kung Fu to which they moved over to the grass area and again got stopped by security. In the meantime we were able to see several players as they came through our line and also they were giving a talk on top of the dugout. Mimi also got a autograph by Dave Allen to which she just had to touch it and then smear it. He was nice enough to write it again for her.

We had inched our way to getting closer to the end and then I heard those beautiful words coming out of my baby's mouth "Mom, I gotta go Pee Pee" "Can you hold it?" I asked and of course the child said "Nooooo......" By this time (1 1/2 hrs later) I had become quite good friends with the guys in front and back of us. They held our spot while security took us on a bathroom break.

We finally neared the end when the worker who was passing out the dvd's to be recorded told me that I would only get one for both kids. He said that since they both would be doing the interview together with the sportscaster they only get one dvd and that I could make my own copy. So I told him they could each do their own interview and EACH GET THEIR OWN DVD. He did not like that idea. He was really annoying. After several minutes of being a bitch in front of a crowd, he gave in and both Blake and Mimi had a chance to make their own dvd. Mimi and Blake were busy messing around with each other that they did not hear any of my conversation with the man thank goodness. Mimi went first with her interview, then Blake. The sportscaster was so nice that she called Mimi back to the desk so that all three of them could take a picture together. Besides the dvd they also received other goodis such as Ken Griffy poster, t-shirt and bag.

By the time all was said and done, I was starved. So we headed out of the ballpark, back onto the lightrail and went to Uwajimaya in Chinatown. Mimi wanted Udon, I had the Niku Donburi and Blake was satisfied with a hot dog. On the way there I took their picture and Mimi says to me "Mom, you know why I'm standing like this? I"m praying to the Rain Gods". I don't know where she comes up with these ideas.

Then on the car ride home, we were listening to Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee". "Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee, it gets hotter than a hoochi koochi........" Both Mimi and Blake says "hoochi koochi????? what's a hoochi koochi???" I then tell them that it's when a man and woman KISS each other. They both said in unison "Ewwwww.........." You both keep that thought I say.

A NORMAL AFTER SCHOOL ROUTINE

This how it is at our house after school. Come home. Strip. Usually she leaves a trail leading to her bedroom upstairs. Quickly put on her gymnastic clothes. I put her hair into braided pigtails (it's finally growing out after not one but TWO self haircutting fiasco's). Then head over to the gym with a snack and drink in hand.

YES SIR THAT 'S MY BABY

About two weeks ago Mimi's school started to do random one minute math test. The first one is the picture on the left. Out of 20 problems Mimi only answered 12. I knew something was not right because she knows her math. Together we went over the test and she knew all of the answers correctly. Since Ms Greenfield tends to run her class Montessori style, she has around 3-4 students sitting together at one desk. Mimi likes to sit next to her friends and goof around. So I asked if she was goofing around that day when they were supposed to do the test. The child said "no". Hmmmm I thought. I think I will take her answer with a grain of salt. Last Friday when I went to volunteer, again Ms Greenfield gave the kids the one minute math test. Only this time I noticed she had Mimi sit all by herself at a desk that was facing the wall. As a result Mimi got 20 out of 20 problems correct which is the picture on the right.

SNOQUALMIE CASINO AND BUFFET

After a full day of skiing and tubing we were all quite in need of a shower and clean clothes and most importantly we were HUNGRY!!!

So we all went home to shower and change then head back to the casino for dinner. It was not bad at all. Not as good as Salty's on Alkai but not bad for casino food. With the help of Mimi, I had two helpings of the King Crab. Yu-um-mmy!!!

Bailey who truly adores Mimi asked if Mimi could come over to their house later and play. Since there is no school tomorrow, I said that it would be ok. Then Keri said that if Mimi wanted to, she could sleepover to which Mimi said "YEAH!" You would have thought that Bailey had died and gone to heaven.

So when dinner was over Keri and Amy took the kids home. Wade and Dominick (Amy's husband) stayed to play cards. I went and got my very first casino card and played the slots for a while.

Many years ago while working for UCLA, one Saturday afternoon I picked up dad before going all the way out to Malibu to make a visit to my last client for the day. On the way home, we stopped by the famous Moonshadow restaurant in "Mel-i-bu" I had and still have the mom car of an SUV. We got to the restaurant early but when we came out my car was nowhere to be seen in the parking lot. There were quite a bit of Jag's, Lamborghini's, and so forth. The valet people decided to park my mom car about a mile down PCH so that no one could see it. To this day, dad and I have a good laugh about it cause the very same thing happened tonight at the casino. When the valet brought my mom car to us, they parked the furthest from the curb while all of the other more fancy cars were parked the closest. Oh well, maybe when I get older I'll get a sportscar where the roof comes down.

MAKING SNOW ANGELS

On the way back to the car, Blake and Mimi thought that it would be a great idea to make snow angels. Keri told Blake to get up because he was laying in front of another car that had its lights on like it was getting ready to move. "But mom! This is the best snow to make your angels in!" cried Blake. I must agree that fresh fallen snow is the best snow to make angels in however his location was not the greatest.

We then all packed into the car and made a clean bathroom stop at The Pancake House and get some hot cocoa to go.

INTERTUBING

When the ski lessons were done and lunch was polished off, except for dad (ski clinic), we all headed across the street to where we could go intertubing. Even mom got into having loads of fun. Lots of exercise too. I am trying to get somewhat in shape for when we go to the olympics in a couple of weeks.

After sliding down the hill, you go over to where the operator will hook your tube up to the tow rope and you sit in the tube all the while being pulled up the hill which is super long. All while sliding down the hill, I would yell out to the people "Get outta the way! I can't stop!" But of course I did stop only to have Mimi take her tube and play bumper tubes with me. She thought that was hilarious. I tried to get a video of her sliding down the hill but it was snowing way too much and things were a bit cloudy.

We all rode our own intertube except for Bailey who rode down with her mom Keri. It really is a whole lotta of wintertime fun.

Next thing we knew it was time to head for home. A good time was had by all.

CHALLENGES

My Mimi bless her little heart absolutely hates anything that is challenging. She says that challenges are "stupid" and "I like things that are fun and easy". Can you blame her? However I tried explaining that life is not always fun, fun, fun and easy, easy, easy. For example when she gets a new song to learn on the piano, she really does not like learning the new song however once she does learn and can play it well, she loves it and has her friends sit and listen to her play.

The other day she came flying home and said "Guess what mom? We had a discussion about challenges together with Ms. Greenfield today at school and she said that we do not have to challenge ourselves. Doing ok is just right. Plus she knows better than you!" Of course I smelled something fishy going on here. "I think not" I said. "Plus I am older than Ms Greenfield and I don't think that is what she said" "UH HU-UH!" answered little Miss Know It All.

Well, yesterday was my volunteer day and Ms Greenfield and I had a lovely discussion regarding this matter. What went down was this: Ms Greenfield was trying to explain to the children about challenging themselves in reading. She told the kids that if they pick a book that is way too hard is like lifting a very heavy weight, if they pick a book that is too easy that is like lifting a weight that is too light, but if they pick a book that is just a LITTLE HARD then that is just right. So when I told Mimi that I had spoke with the teacher and told her what she said, this is the look I got.

BIRTHDAY BLUES

Besides our neighbor friends Jess and Scott, dad and I are a rare breed up here in our neighborhood and town. Older parents with a young kid.

This afternoon I got together with my friends for a glass of wine before picking up the kids from school and the topic of discussion was birthdays. Apparently quite a few of us have January birthday. Now mind you, at 53 years of age, I am old enough to be the mom of some of these ladies and they all act like they are over the hill at 35! It was pretty depressing to listen to them talk about how old they are. Finally I could not take it any longer so I let them have it! Told them "You should all be ashamed of yourselves acting as if your life is over. Look at me! I'm 53 and still going strong. I think I'm doing pretty damn good for an old broad! Not only that, I getting ready to have another kid!"

EGGING

Early Sunday morning our little "Beaver Cleaver" neighborhood was vandalised. However it is sad to say that growing up on the "Westside" and moving from LA, this was nothing new to me. It was an everyday occurrence for me. 99% of the time, I would hear the helicopters late at night or the sirens going due to the fact someone was shot or robbed.

Fortunately for everyone it was nothing serious other than a couple of not too bright Tahoma High School boys out for a joy ride at 4 in the morning whooping it up in our neighborhood and egging my dear friend Janet's home. The house next to the park. This really put a scare into Janet and her family. She was more scared for her kids Erin, Liam and Patrick more than anything else. She was also mad as hell. As sweet and loving as she is, I have witnessed her getting mad and I must say that you do not want to be anywhere near.

This all got the neighbors who live next door to her all riled too as they too heard all of the commotion. Long story short, the boys were caught by the police, Janet and Sean had a long talk with the boys parents and they promised that the boys would help us out as part of our Spring park clean-up.

HITTING THE SLOPES

It's that time of the week again folks. I am sooooo glad that I bought that lime green jacket for Mimi. Makes seeing her so much easier for me as I do not ski and today's visibility was close to nil. Last week as you may recall poor ole Blake was having a doozy of a time trying to stay standing. Today however was way, way better. Wade had the day off yesterday and so the whole family took Blake up to the mountains to practice. We are so very proud of him. He did not give up. Not only that, little Bailey decided that she too wants to ski. "I wanna go keying mom!" she would say over and over. So Keri took her on the slopes today too.

GROOVEY SMOOTHIE AND MANGO MARGARITA

Happy Birthday to us!

FIRST LIBRARY CARD

Saturdays are usually the day when Mimi and dad spend time together.
Together after breakfast at their usual hotspot Black Diamond Bakery,
it was time to head over to tje library where Mimi received her very
own library card. She is quite jazzed about that.

SHABAT SHALOM

Mimi was singing this song all through dinner tonight. "Mom, you know
what Shabat Shalom means? Mr O'Connell says that it mean have a good
day." Mean while Butch was trying to steal her shrimp ramen. Soup is
always good on a cold, cold day such as today.

'I AM A COLLABERATIVE WORKER AT GLACIER PARK"

Yesterday afternoon when Mimi came home from school, I noticed she was wearing a stick-on nametag and was going to ask her about it but she was already upstairs changing for her gymnastic class. Then I forgot all about it. It wasn't until she was getting into bed when she asked "Mom, what is a corra-ber-ator? Cora-ber-ative? Well......anyways, I'm one of those people." We then talked about it. I'm so proud of my little chili pepper. This is definetly going into her scrapbook for sure.

SPLISH, SPLASH

Nothing like splashing in the puddles on the way home from school.
Thank goodness for rain boots.

I'M KING OF THE HILL!!!

When the lessons were done, Blake went home with his mom and Bailey. Mimi and I went down to a place called "The Pancake House" for lunch and wait for dad. By the time dad met up with us, we were through with lunch and ordered dessert. I love cheesecake (just not the baked kind nor with the cinnamon in the crust) and thought that I would try theirs out and wouldn't you know it. Baked and cinnamon. I ate anyways while Mimi polished off a big bowl of vanilla ice cream. Our favorite. Dad eats slow. Always has and always will I guess and Mimi was getting ansy just waiting so outside we went to play in the snow.

HITTING THE SLOPES

It did not occur to me until I thought about it when I was sitting in the lodge waiting for Mimi to finish her ski lessons that she has accually been taking lessons for the past four years. Even when we were living in Southern California. Two years ago when we first moved up here, Mimi and Blake took lessons together. However, Mimi continued with her lessons last year and Blake did not. It is amazing how missing one year of lessons makes a huge difference. While Mimi was speeding along poor ole Blake was having some difficulties. I think that he ended up in a beginner class again. He was feeling quite discouraged. We were trying to encourage him not to give up. I do hope that he continues with the class and not quit.

SKI LESSONS

Although Mimi and dad had hit the slopes and couple of times earlier in the season, this past Sunday was the first lesson. Here they are just hanging around waiting for the class to start. Mimi almost looks like a Japanese Ninja if you ask me. She was always complaining that her face would get cold so dad bought her a face mask.

FOOD FIGHT

Taken just before Mimi's 7th birthday party this past Saturday. Dad went to CJ's to pick up the birthday cupcakes and he made the mistake of carrying the box on its side so therefore a couple of the cupcakes were smooshed together. Fortunately we had a couple extra cupcakes in the box. With the cupcake that was damaged, I thought that it would be fun to have a food fight. At first Mimi did not know what to think, but she caught on quickly and the game was on!

RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY

The nice weather is gone and now we are back to the torrential heavy
rain and later this afternoon we are to experience 40 mph winds or so
they say.

ZERO HOUR

About one month ago, Mimi came running home all excited "Mom,mom! I made the name of the week today!" Nothing special but for the kids it was and is. Every week Ms. Greenfield has the kids pick a name to practice writing in their journal. Also about one month ago instead of the skinny, teeny, tiny books that she has been coming home with, she is now moving up to the chapter books. I think that having her read "Junie B." and "The Boxcar Children" at home is helping. Also she loves to do Raz Kids and Storyline Online. Her ultimate favorite story is Stellaluna from storyline. I found out that Stellaluna is also very popular among a whole bunch of the first graders at her school. So much so, they are going to take a field trip next month to see the play at the Village Theater up in Bellevue. I do hope that I am picked to go as a chaperon. Our last field trip was in kindergarten and we all went to the Children's Museum in downtown Seattle. That was loads of fun.

Don't know about other schools, but Mimi's school has what they call zero hour. Once a week (Thursday) several kids are selected to go to school one hour before class. There is only one zero hour class per quarter starting with the beginning day as today. There are 3 total zero hour classes that spread all the way till June. First zero hour is art. The next one is math (3/18-5/20), then finally book club (4/14-5/12). I had signed Mimi up for all three and she was accepted into all 3. I just figured that since she is already awake and out of bed by 6:45-7:00, we might as well make some use of her morning. Even though she says that she is not crazy about school, she still likes it because of her friends. In today's class I saw a couple of Mimi's friends such as Halliwell and Lindsey. That alone in itself will make her happy. I have not mentioned any of this to my friends as it has been my experience in the past where Mimi was accepted into a certain activity and their child was not and it was "How come Mimi gets to do it and not my child?" I then and there decided to just tick a lock. People will find out soon enough. Small town living.......sigh.

MOTHER/DAUGHTER BIRTHDAY DINNER

Mimi has discovered nachos. She never wanted to try them before but
that is what they had for lunch this afternoon and she thought they
were the greatest thing next to movies.

SIGN LANGUAGE

I Love You!

BACK TO SCHOOL

It's back to school today! Woo Hoo! As much as I love, love, love, the
girl with all of my heart and soul, I am thankful for the few hour of
peace and quiet.

Butch loves his walks to take Mimi to and from school. This morning
one of her classmates Grant asked if Butch was a "Spit Bull" "Because
they bite and my dad had to get stitches. I don't like Spit Bulls" Now
that is a new name to add to our list.

SUPERWOMAN

For an outdoorsy kinda gal like Mimi is, I must say that she is doing
pretty darn good for being inside as much as she had been this winter.
Too wet to play outside. I'm also happy that when we were in the
market to buy a new home, we picked our current house. It is spacious
enough for Mimi and butch to run amuck in it which is what they had
been doing all morning long, from the living room through the family room and up and down the stairs.

THE FINISHED PROJECT

FUTURE ENGINEER???

Mimi loves to build things. Now that we are all down with virus
infection and it is gloomy outside, I thought that it would be a geat
idea to break out her Christmas present from Santa she could get to
building. In order for her to get dad to help her, she would call out
to him "come here big fella!" and he came running. Me thinks that she
has hot him wrapped sooooo tight around her little finger.