rachel@home

2003 In Review

If all the tv stations and newspapers and everyone else under the sun can do a year in review thing, so can I!

This Year:

January: The girls have to drag themselves back to school after having so much fun over winter break:

February: Katrina plays basketball.

March: I started this website, so that everyone could share in the oh-so-exciting details of my daily life. Thrilling, isn't it?

April: I was laid off from my "internship" that was really much more than that, and began job-hunting, which I hate so much. I visited my friend Debbie in Texas, and managed to be in the same town as the president while I was there! (I still owe her pictures from the trip. How bad am I?!)

May: May seems to be a little foggy. I know I spent a lot of time taking Abby to her softball practices.

The girls sang in the end-of-year choir concert. Katrina got to be the only 3rd grader in choir!

And I had to drive Abby to girl scout camp way out on the peninsula late, due to softball, but had a nice ride on the ferry on the way back:

June: This was an eventful month. I got a new, much much better job and Abby turned 10! It's hard to believe she's now more than halfway to 11. I also had a birthday, but there's not really any need to get into exact numbers there, though. Also, Abby's team won the championship for their league.

July: This month was mostly filled with the tedious minutia of moving. By the end of the month, we were happily installed in our new apartment, just minutes away from the girls' school, which has been terribly convenient this year!
Old House:

The girls go away to camp for the first time, and have a blast.

August: We went to Leavenworth with my mom and see 'Oliver', which was lots of fun.

My name officially changed back to Cole, even if my bank and place of employment aren't fully aware of this yet.

We also went camping for the first time, over Labor Day Weekend. We learned how to build a fire and survived with only the mildest of lectures from a park ranger. (A lit candle was apparently a no-no.)
  

September: The girls started school, I tried to fight back my strong desires to buy lots of new school supplies (I have this problem every year) and we all learn to get up a little bit earlier.

October: Katrina turned 9. I managed to get my new driver's license.

November: Both the girls do their 'It's Thanksgiving, so We're Getting The Stomach Flu' annual routine. This year, they managed to get sick the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and are all better by the actual holiday. I have pictures of the rash Katrina got, but I promised her I wouldn't post them!

December: Abby soloed in choir, and both the girls had speaking parts for their performances. I launched my new, redesigned family website. If you haven't seen it yet, go look!!

The Big Redesign Is Done!

While this page still looks the same, I have completely redesigned my family tree website!

If you haven't checked it out in a while, check it out! If you've never even looked at it, look at it!

There's all sorts of neat pictures, tons of information, and a bunch of new features, plus a really cool new logo!

Hey, Wasn't I Going To.... Uh-Oh!

Ever since I lost my microwave several months ago, I have been happily surviving, thriving even, without it. I do survive a lot better without it when I don't feel like a cup of something hot.

Because when I do want a cup of something hot, well, then I need to boil water.

Now, while I don't consider myself a highly accomplished person in the kitchen, I feel that I am relatively competent. I manage to turn out some foods that people compliment me on, and I can substitute ingredients like no one else, and still end up with something edible.

So you'd think that boiling water would be a tiny task compared to baking dozens of cookies or making huge vats of soup. Alas, it is not.

The chances of me wandering off and completely forgetting about the water I was boiling are quite high, in the 30-50% range, I'd guess.

A while back, my mom gave me a whistling teakettle, so that I wouldn't forget to go get the water off the stove. Somehow, and don't ask me quite how I managed to do this, I did something that made the whistling part no longer work. But, with eternal optimism, I decided that I'd remember to get the water, and I could continue to boil water.

A week or so ago, I decided that I'd break down and get an electric teakettle, as the whole stove thing was just not working for me. But I continued to use my regular stovetop teakettles in the meantime.

Tonight, I have banned myself from even that. No more boiling water for me until I get an electric teakettle that will shut itself off if I forget about it. And you know I will. I'll have the most sanitized water in the city by the time I actually manage to drink it while it's hot, but at least it won't fill my apartment with the lovely smell of burning plastic. (And no, I don't know why a metal teakettle on the stove produced the smell of burning plastic, but trust me, it did.)

Christmas 2003

This year was a very exciting Christmas, as I had to work only one day the whole Christmas week!

I started the week off with a wild frenzy of cookie making. By 9pm, I had many many bowls of cookie dough sitting in the fridge, and I knew I had to get them all baked by morning. Why by morning? Just because. So by 2am I had all the cookies baked and each variety was stacked on its own plate, wrapped with a towel, and ready for cookie platters to be arranged.

Tuesday I had to work, but it was very quiet, and there was almost no-one there. Tuesday night I began (yes, began) wrapping presents. For some reason, I was feeling quite creative, so I didn't go as fast as I might have, but I sure did catch up on a whole lot of tivo-ed tv.

Wednesday was our one-day-early Christmas morning with the girls. The plan was to do their stuff with my parents and brother, then they would go with their dad and my brother and I would drive down to my aunt's together. I hadn't managed to shower before my parents arrived, partly because they got there before 9am, and I'd been up late, and partly because I really needed to do laundry before I showered, so that I'd have something to wear afterwards.

So parents come and the girls open stuff and parents go, and my brother falls asleep on the floor, and I do some laundry and take a shower, and get dressed, and the girls go and Matthew and I leave and go get coffee and stand around inside Starbucks, and then hit the road for the beginning of our 4-plus hour drive. We averaged 35 miles an hour for the trip. Traffic wasn't our friend.

On the way, we stop for gas, where I get out of the car and stand around and pump gas, and then later we stop at Walmart where we walk around and find the bathroom and I get a coke.

Eventually, we arrive in Longview, and we're saying hello and everything, and it's at that point, a good 6 hours after I put my clean jeans on, that my mother asks me, very delicately, if I knew there's a 'structural problem' with my pants. I rush off to the bathroom to have a look, and discover that there's a huge jagged tear all the way down the left back pocket, it's about an inch wide -- all the horizontal threads seem completely gone, and the vertical threads are sort of there, but there's plenty of see-through room!

I change into the one other pair of pants I brought -- sweats, which I figured I really wouldn't even need, as I was only going to be there two days and planned on just wearing the jeans both days. I was really really glad I'd thrown the sweats in!

Then I interrogate my brother as to why he hadn't told me. (In case you're thinking this was his revenge for making his historic tale, it's not! He liked it!) He said that he thought it might be on purpose, and he didn't want to say anything if it was. He didn't have a really good answer as to why he thought I was the kind of person who purposely walked around with big holes in the backside of their jeans. But hopefully, if anyone did see me as I was lounging about Starbucks, pumping gas in Tacoma, or wandering through Walmart in Chehalis, they'll think it was on purpose too.

Christmas in Longview was nice, and I slept until after nine on Christmas morning! My mom and I walked around by the lake and wandered through some nearby neighborhoods and looked at all the houses, which was fun. Matthew and I left after dinner and made it back to my place in two hours and ten minutes -- about half of what it took us to get there. So that made us very happy indeed.

Today, the girls and I went to see Return of the King, the 11:30 show. (I checked my jeans carefully before I put them on and left the house!) I was surprised at how full it was, and when we got out at 3:00, they had sold out all of the shows until the 7:00 one! So it was good we went early. I liked this one the best of all of the LotR movies, and cried though about the last 45 minutes of it. Even though they didn't do the cleansing of The Shire, it was still all very well done.

The Tale of Matthew

Here's hoping he likes this little story, or I'm in big trouble, as I have to drive with him for six hours this week!

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Weekend Miracles

Sometimes, things happen that surprise me.

Miracle #1: We went to a friend's to bake cookies over the weekend. We had a ton of dough, and ended up with so many cookies. Abby, especially, was in heaven, as she loves to eat the dough, and there was no one paying very much attention to how much she was eating. The miracle? By the end of the night, she said she didn't want to eat another cookie!

We made lots of cute cookies. Or, I should say, other people made lots of cute cookies. I made one, compared it to the others, and decided that cookie decorating was not for me!

Cookie pictures:

(This last one is baby Jesus in a manger. Baby Jesus started out his life as a teddy bear, but by cutting off the ears, he was able to lay down his sweet head just like he was supposed to do.)

Miracle #2: Saturday night, after the cookie-making extravaganza, we were mostly all quite tired. (Except for Katrina, who couldn't really understand why Abby and I were answering her interesting conversational topics with grunts, eventually she gave up.) So we were watching a movie, and I was drinking some red wine. (Which I hardly ever do, and I was about to learn why.)

I turned to make sure it was still sitting on my nightstand, and it was, but it was in the process of falling off, as my blanket was knocking it over. Like in the movies, when everything goes slow-motion, I reached for it, but it was too late. It went splat, all over the floor.

We went into carpet cleaning mode, which was challenging, as my desk was right there, and I was afraid the liquid had soaked underneath the edge of the desk, so I had to move it, and there was really no place to move it. I did some blotting with clothes, and sent Abby for the orange cleaner and Katrina to go mix up some oxy-clean.

I cleaned with the orange cleaner first, and it helped a lot, but it was still stained. Then I drenched a cloth in the oxy-clean mixture, and wiped it over the stain. An audible gasp was heard in the room. It was like magic. As soon as I wiped it with the cloth, the stain was gone. We spent the next few minutes marvelling over it, and then finished the movie.

Miracle #3: We got our Christmas tree today, from the traditional Woodinville lot, where you get to go and cut down your own. And let me tell you, today was a fine day for tromping down the dirt roads and into the field, what with all the rain. At one point, Abby asked what that smell was, and I told her she just didn't want to think about it.

We got our tree, and it was very nice, and I got it cut down just as the guy who was thinking I was probably going to need some help cutting it down was asking me if, I did, in fact, need help. And then, we got it put in the car and discovered the miracle of the bungee cord.

Last year, being less prepared, I tied the trunk shut with the only string I could find -- curling ribbon. Now, curling ribbon is not (you'll be surprised to hear this) the sturdiest string in the world, so it broke before we even made it past the ice cream place that always looks good but have never stopped at. This year, we made sure to take along an assortment of bungee cords, and I just fastened it down, and off we went, without a single worry (okay, a little bit of worrying, but not at all like last year) of the tree falling out into the road and causing horrible accidents.

Miracle #4: It's quite likely that my office location will be moving from up on the hill to closer to downtown, in the next month or so. I was wailing and wringing my hands, as I have a good, free, parking situation now, and was not looking forward to that coming to an end.

So tonight, I started looking at bus schedules, which, for me, is quite the miracle. It's not that I'm not a fan of public transportation in general, but when it comes to me, specifically, navigating the routes, well, let's just say that I've had a couple of bad experiences -- and not with people who also use public transportation, but with my ability to get on the right bus.

But, I found that I can park at the park and ride lot near Microsoft and take an express bus downtown that would drop me off right near my new office building, and it runs every half-hour and takes only 25 minutes, which isn't bad at all.

So, I, who am quite afraid of public transportation, am thinking that this will be my best option, especially as I can get a free bus pass from work. Maybe I can even get some extra reading done.

Now watch, now that I've figured out what to do, they'll decide we won't be switching buildings after all. (Yes, it is always about me!)

Miracle #5: A couple-three weeks ago, I was at my Aunt Margaret's house, and she was saying that she kept potting plants and they kept growing, and there were so many of them. I volunteered to take one off her hands, as a non-dying plant is exactly what I need, because I'm very good at killing them.

She carefully potted one up for me, and I verified that she would not be upset if I killed it, as that's a very likely result.

That night got a little bit hectic, as I ended up needing to unexpectedly pick up the girls, and because I'd taken my computer with me (the desktop, not the laptop!) there was a lot to haul in and it was sort of late by the time I got home, and I completely forgot about the plant.

Last week, I had an idle thought that hey, didn't Aunt Margaret say she was going to send home a plant with me? I must have forgotten to take it.

Today, the girls cleaned out the trunk of the car, and there was the poor little plant, carefully wrapped up in plastic wrap. I unwrapped it, and Katrina was sure it would be dead, but it didn't look like it had been bothered at all. We set it on the bookshelf by the window, where I will continue attempting to kill it.

I may have my work cut out for me.

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A random conversation from the car today:

A: "I just saw another police car!"

Me: "Was he making faces at you?"

K: "No! Although we could make faces at him!"

A: "No, then he might arrest us and take us to jail."

K: "Can they do that?"

Me: "If he did, he'd be violating your civil rights."

A: "You mean, then another policeman could arrest the first policeman for being a bad policeman?"

Me: "Yep."

A: "Wow, this world just gets better and better."

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And for those keeping score: I have been using my trampoline regularly, and seem to be past injuring myself every time I use it now. I did discover that it is not, in fact, a silent exercise, as my downstairs neighbors let me know by pounding forcefully on their ceiling when I was exercising at midnight. Oops.

Sleeping and Seeing

It was a momentous day in our house today.

To start with, Katrina got her glasses. She looks adorable, and she can even see! An added bonus.

Also, Abby finished her pillow. It is very giant, but very cute. It's all made of fleece, except for the lettering, because unfortunately, fleece doesn't come in silver. She says she's the last person to get her pillow done. (Don't ask me why they have pillows in 5th grade, but not any for the kindergarteners, who probably need them most of all!)

I am going to attempt the trampoline again tonight. I did it Monday night, and woke up Tuesday with a very sore leg. It hurt from my second toe all the way to my knee, which didn't seem like a very good result. So maybe a shorter session tonight will be in order. I was fine this morning, so whatever it was wasn't a lasting kind of thing. It's quite likely that I'm just a big wimp.

Bellingham

I was scolded last night for mentioning the 'Bellingham Starbucks' as if there was only one Starbucks in Bellingham.

There is not.

There are seven, in fact, within five miles of the center of Bellingham. I'm not sure where number three is, maybe it's underneath the 'Bellingham' text, or right beside one of the others. The Very Slow Starbucks is number seven.

It rained all day here, and often at work we measure the darkness of the day by how soon we have to turn the light on in our office. It used to be 5ish, then it crept up to 3:30. Today it was on all day long. At one point I looked out the window, and almost all I could see was mist. The clouds were swallowing up the building!

Abby is almost finished with her pillow. I appliqued her name onto the middle panel, and she's finishing up the front right now. She says that everyone else in her class has finished their pillow, but that hers is going to be the coolest. It is pretty cool.

In a fit of self-improvement, several weeks ago, I ordered an urban rebounder, which is a fancy way of saying a mini trampoline with some dvds that will teach me how to jump on it. I thought it would be good for apartment exercising, as I wouldn't be thudding around on the floor, plus I could watch tv while I jumped around. The guy who does the dvds is awfully cheerful, but surprisingly, not annoying. So that's a plus.

I did it for the first time a little less than a week ago, and was so, so sore the next day. I managed a bit longer last night, and am feeling the burn today. Am now trying to decide if I should let my muscles rest tonight, or if that' 's just an excuse, and I should jump back up for another twenty minutes before collapsing on my bed. Good thing it's close by.