about me and current events

My favorite color..... gray..I know, it's not a color.  Nevertheless.

My favorite cartoon character.....  Pluto (Mickey's dog) and Garfield

My favorite sport.....  I have always liked watching figure skating.  I used to watch boxing with my dad, and Nascar (Daryl Waltrip was my driver).  Currently I love watching my son wrestle and my other son shoot.

My favorite flavor of cake.....  chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

If I had to eat only one food for the rest of my life.....  spaghetti with homemade meat sauce

The thing I'm really good at..... worrying.  For reals.  I'm so good at this that I just do it all the time.

I love to.....  come home, put on my pajamas and be with my family.

The best song to dance to is.....  Stevie Wonder's Superstition.  This one gets me every time.

This summer I want to..... take lots of time off work and hang out with my kids

The best super power to have.....  flying.  Or being in two places at once.  Or invisibility.  Or being able to carry a conversation through the awkward small talk phase and into the deeper connecting phase without wanting to sink into the floor.

I want to learn.....  when I have the opportunity, I'd like to take a creative writing course and an art class at our community college.

I wish.....  that the current storm of racial division in our country was a non-issue and everyone could just love each other as members of the human race, not in an attempt to diminish the rich history of any given race but to acknowledge the equality of our very souls.

.........................................................................

Last weekend Blake got to spend a few days at the Washington State Wrestling Tournament.  He went as an alternate and, while he didn't have the opportunity to compete, he did get to practice in the Tacoma Dome and stay in a hotel and hang out with his coaches and teammates and observe the high level of competition.  Now that the high school wrestling season is over he is participating in the youth wrestling club and helping out with the middle school wrestling team.

Austin was able to go to our state capitol and participate in the presentation of the colors before the daily legislative session.  They toured the capitol building and met some officials.  All in all, a pretty cool day.

Tomorrow will be the last JROTC competition of the year.  Austin gets to be the commander of our school's color guard!  It'll be the last time I watch him shoot a competition until April when we go to Colorado!  Great news about our trip to the Junior Olympic Shooting Championships: the plane tickets were gifted to us by a some very sweet individuals!!!!!!!  Thank YOU!!  And so many others have donated money for the trip, even one lady that we don't even know!  This has already been a great experience and we haven't left home yet.  Folks should always try to support and encourage each other because it is an awesome feeling to be supported and encouraged.

Here we are at the Regional Wrestling Tournament a couple weeks ago....

 

 

That's all for now!

yesterday's beach and others

We have had a couple of really beautiful days here and it serves to remind me that Spring is coming!!  For real.  And I couldn't be happier.  I spent some time working in the yard yesterday then took my Charlie dog to the beach.  It was a really awesome day.  Today has been pretty dark with rain.  And I worked and their was no beach.  Meh.

 

Recently this happened:

 

Blake's wrestling team received an award from the area officials (referees) for their sportsmanship and general awesomeness (actually, I forgot what all the accolades were).  This award coincided with Senior night and their last home match of the season.  We are in the post season now and Blake is headed to Regionals this weekend.  He's doing great!!

 

 

 

 

 

I took this pretty picture of a visiting squirrel and 4 of my chickens in the background: 

I'm rereading The Book Thief.  Oh. My. Stars.  I love this book.  This is the kind of book that makes me stop reading just to soak in what I just read and sometimes, I'll just reread a line or a paragraph because it was so beautifully written that once through is not enough.

Like this:

Oh how the clouds stumbled in and assembled in the sky.
Great obese clouds.
Dark and plump.
Bumping into each other.  Apologizing.  Moving on and finding room.

 

 

Sometimes I wear my dog like a fur scarf around my neck.  And he sleeps because he knows I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, the beach yesterday....

 

...it was every bit of beautiful that a beach could ever be on a sunny day in early February. I took so many pictures that I really had to rake through and pick just the best to share here.  These are all unedited because Whidbey Island is really that beautiful.

 

I love the contradictions in this picture...

 

The following pictures are highly edited and really capture my dog and I in our sincerest model form.  Who doesn't go to the beach and take selfies with their dog?  Not this girl!

Happy birthday to my brother Mike today!

Until next time,

E