LAKE MERIDIAN

Mimi and her new found friend Blake had a great day at Lake Meridian.

DAY AT THE RACES

Today Mimi spent the day at Emerald Downs

Racetrack. Papa's office had a family day there.

The bad news is that mama aka "the gambler"

learned how to place bets. She won a whopping

$18.51 and did not lose a penny. She may go

back again so papa better watch out!

Trip to LA

Last week papa called home to say that he will be going to LA for a business trip. Mama and Mimi decided to tag along. The trip was only for two days and one night, so unfortunately we were not able to see all of our friends. We are really going to try our best to make it to Allyn's wing ding at Disneyland come this October.

The trip started off with us leaving home at 5:00 in the morning on Wednesday. After arriving in LA and dropping papa off at the Children's Hospital job site, mama and Mimi went to see mama's friends at UCLA and Mimi's friends at Pacifica.

We then went to the New Otani Hotel and had a nice visit with Uncle Jim (mama's brother). Later in the evening friend Maggie came for a visit and dinner. Unfortunately mama forgot to bring the camera so there's no pictures. The food was not too bad. By 8:00 pm the Putney's were konked out for the night.

Thursday morning, papa went to work and mama's friend Sandra came to visit. We all then had lunch with papa at Roscoe's in Hollywood. Mama had her favorite fried chicken and waffles with gravy. It sounds disgusting but it actually so goood tasting. Roscoe's has quite a few of good southern cooking. We then went to Mitsuwa market near our old home and Mimi was hungry again. So she ate a bowl of ramen. It's amazing how much this child can pack away. We were able to have a short visit with a couple more friends. Everytime we go there, we always meet people that we know. Then on to Maggie's home for dinner.

By the time we got to LAX at 7:30pm, we were informed that our flight was cancelled due to mechanical error. Ah man!!!

We had been switched from United to Alaska airlines. When we got our tickets, the flight was for 9:54pm and we all had different seating assignments. AH MAN AGAIN!!! Fortunate for us people were nice enough to switch seats with us. I guess they did not want to sit next to a four year old. Mimi slept the whole trip home. When we arrived at Sea-Tac airport, boy was Mimi grumpy when I had to wake her up. She absolutely did not want to get off the plane. She dug her heels in and yelled NO! IAM NOT GOING!!! Mama finally had to carry her off along with our carry on bag. By the time we got home and into bed, it was 2:30 AM Thursday morning.

We are still recovering. Dottie

HELLO FROM MAPLE VALLEY WASHIINGTON

We are now definetly Wash-i-to-nians. Although mama is still a Ca-li-for- nian at heart :-)
The gift basket is a housewarming gift from our realtor Mara Haveson. It was quite a nice surprise for us and heartwarming too.---Dottie

Stay At Home Mom

More and more it looks like mama is going to be a stay at home mom. She did not get the job at Junior Junction. Whooooppppppeeeeee!!!!!! Mama absolutely loves staying at home and taking care of "my" ahem "our "house and family. Mama is becoming quite the "Martha Stewart".

To help cut down on expenses, Mimi will only be going to school for half day as opposed to full day. That is just fine with us. School is only half day, the rest of the time is daycare and she can play at home for free. Plus there are a million kids in the neighborhood that she plays with. One in particular. Her name is Erin and she is also 4 years old. Erin lives right next door to the neighborhood park and Mimi always check to see if Erin is at home when we go.

DELICIOUS

Delicious is Mimi's new favorite word. She uses it everytime she eats, even when it is just a plain Japaneses rice ball. Yum yum. Mama also found a teriyaki place not too far from us and also very delicious. Best of all, mama found out that our nearby Safeway aka Vons or Pavillions makes fresh sushi on a daily basis! DELICIOUS!!!

HEAT WAVE

I wish I had a dollar for everytime someone told me how much it rains here in Seattle. I'd be a millionaire right now. They made it seem like it rains everyday. Well let me tell you, it is now 10:28pm and 84 degrees outside. Today it was in the triple digits. It seems that we will be having this type of weather till October the neighbors say. YIKES!!!