ANOTHER COPPERTONE MOMENT

Nice weather is gone and the Fall storm is here. Had a power outage early this morning. They are expecting another storm tonight and into tomorrow morning. The weatherman says we are to get 35 ft waves all along the Washington and Oregon coast.

Therefore it was just that kind of a day. A pj day, all day for Mimi. Of course she had to run around in her Halloween costume. The more she wore it, the more ole' Butch would try to yank the tail off. Now and then you would hear Butch! Stop it!!!

CHINESE PLAYGROUP

Rhonda: Where's Mimi and Elsie ?
Me: Well.....Elsie's driving a car and Mimi's got a shotgun.
Rhonda: Oh No!!! It's Thelma and Louise!!!

We just howled with laughter cause that's exactly how Mimi and Elsie are. That is no lie. Of course when it's with Blake, we call them Bonnie and Clyde. Of course Mimi had put her shotgun away when this picture was taken.

Not many families showed up. Just 4 in all. It was our family, Rhonda's, Simona's and Kris. Greg was the only guy there. Poor fella. None the less we all had a good time as always.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE.

Today was Nicole's birthday party at the fairly new Bounce It Up place out in Black Diamond. Nicole is a girl who lives just kitty corner from us. Although we have lived here for 3 years already, we are now just getting to know Nicole and her family. They don't come outside as much as we do. However I am now getting to know Rosie (the mom) a litttle better as we see each other every morning when taking the kids to school.

Mimi did not know most of the kids however her usual group of cronies were there. In the picture Mimi was duking it out with Rachel (shown seated next to Erin). Rachel has the pink shirt and Mimi is wearing the pink pants.

Later on Blake came up to me and said that Mimi was ignoring him and not being very nice to him. I called her over and asked her what was going on. "I don't want to talk about it" she said. I then peppered her with a bunch of questions...."was he mean to you? did he say something to hurt your feelings?" The list went on and on. Every answer was "No". Then she said that she kept falling down on the bouncy matteress and that made her mad. So I explained that it was ok to get mad but that she should not take it out on anybody especially her friends. She and Blake soon kissed and made up so to speak.

When we got home was when I got the whole skinny on the situation. Mimi and Blake had been duking it out in the ring and according to Mimi, Blake knocked her down 20 times. Well.....hello, Blake is twice as tall as she is so of course that will happen. Dad says that knowing Blake, he most likely was gloating about it too.

All in all the kids had a great time and so did the parents. Then it was time to go home for about one hour till we headed out to Auburn for the monthly Chinese playgroup.

IT'S CIRCUS TIME!!!

COW TIPPING

Since Mimi is on the gymnastic team, she gets to do "circus" activities. Her gym also has students learning circus stunts and since Mimi is on the team, she gets to do these kind of activites for free of charge. So.....for the past couple of weeks we have been coming here every Friday night. Elsie likes doing it too. Plus it gets her out of the house and she gets to have some fun.

While waiting for Mimi, I got a chance to talk with Rhonda and another mom by the name of Kim. We started off talking about some of the new developments that will be going up here in Maple Valley in the next 10-15 years or so.

One new developement is that there is a new Fred Meyers that will be built right across the Safeway near our home. This has quite a few of the moms up in arms. They all say that we do not want or need another Freddie's when we can drive 6 miles down the road to Covington.

A few years back when we first moved up here there was a huge article in the local paper stating that many of the residents do not want big box stores moving in. Fred Meyers found a loop hole. There is a small section of land across from the Maple Valley Safeway market that is actually the city of Kent and that is where Freddies is going up. So legally they are not in Maple Valley.

What the families really want up here is a movie theater or something for the teenagers to do in order to stay out of trouble.

So when Rhonda asked Kim what the teens do in Enumclaw which is a farming community, Kim answered that when the kids get bored they go "cow tipping". Enumclaw is located just a few miles south of the Black Diamond Bakery. Lots of dairy farms out there.

Of course being the city gal that I am, I asked "What is cow tipping?" Kim says that cows sleep standing up and the kids will go in an give the cows a push and they tip over. I cracked up laughing. It just seem so funny to me at the time. Maybe it's because I am just plain exhausted.

When I mentioned this to dad, he says "I'll bet that's where they got the idea for Disney's movie "Cars" Yeah, don't you remember? That's what Mater does in the Cars movie!" You're right dad!

FOOD DRIVE

Between now and next month is the time to get ready for the winter months up here in Maple Valley. It's funny how it can be snowing up here sometimes and sunny down by the airport. Oh well, none the less it is time to winterize everything here. That means all of the patio furniture gets stored or put away, plant the Hyacinths, Daffodils and Tulips. All of which was done yesterday. Also I straightened out the pantry and the shelves in the garage in order to get them stocked with soups and such for the winter.

There was quite a bit of food that I was getting ready to take down to the food bank but when Mimi came home all excited the other day and told me about the food drive that the school is having, I thought that we would take the food to school instead. She said that they are trying to beat out Ms. Haas class which is next door. So when Mimi walked in with her wagon full of goodies, you should have seen all of the kids faces light up. It was like Christmas in Mimi's class. Mimi was sooooooo excited about counting the items she brought and tallying the score. She brought a total of 40 items which brought the count up to 137, then someone else would bring stuff then more kids brought their canned goods. I lost count after 140. I'll have to ask her the complete count when she gets home from school this afternoon. Pictured with her here is Rachel.

FIVE GUYS

FINALLY !!!!!!! I finally found a burger joint that makes me feel
sooooooo happy!

Was out in Renton at our local Target shopping for birthday presents
and Mimi's (ski) winter clothing. Getting prepped for the snow season
ya know.

When the shopping was done, it was past lunch time and I was famished.
Made a call to Bryce to find out of the name of the place where he
told me one could get good burgers here at The Landing. He was soooo
right.

You not not only get one 100% all
beef patty but two! Butch also got a treat. It was way better than
Dick's, Wally's and right up there with In 'n' Out. The French fries
are better than In 'n' Out because the potatoes are fresh from our
local farms.

Now it is time to head for home.