E & J Brooks Family

the artist in residence

2012-01-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

So we have a little bit of an artist in our midst. The favorite toy is the etch a sketch, we can not leave home without it. and coloring is the official favorite past time, as well as play dough and stickers.
Here are some shots of our budding artist in action:

Halloween

2012-01-09T10:30:00.000-08:00

Okay So I'm a little late, but I really thought I had already posted about halloween, well I guess that 2010 doesn't count. Evan has been giving me the evil eye lately and hinting that the blog has been sadly neglected; apparently it is his version of the photo that you pull out of your wallet and show to all your buddies at work. So at long last here is Halloween:

We started out the day with nothing too ambitious just a toddler party for ten kids (eek!). Have you ever tried to get ten kids under the age of 2 to all look at a camera at the same time and smile. This is the best we got. Ella is sporting her "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to face."

The party actually went really well, we played bowling, had the kids decorate trick or treat bags and went on a ghost hunt. Then we finished it all off with halloween treats

Later that night Ella and I met up with her friend Emma that lives in the neighborhood to go trick or treating. Ella would say "trick or treat" on the way to the houses but never at the door. She did however say "Thank you Very much!" whenever she was handed a piece of candy. I wasn't sure if she would figure out the whole trick or treating thing, but it is amazing how motivated she is when candy is involved, and she soon was scurrying from house to house as fast as her little legs would take her.

My biggest surprise of Halloween came when Evan, who has never once dreased up in the entire 10 years that I have known him announced that this year he wanted to be a sock monkey for Halloween. Okay. So I got to work on making him into a sock monkey, here is a picture of all of us at the trunck or treat, Evan the sock monkey, me as 'Jane Goodall' and Ella as well a 'lil monkey. I think he should dress up every year. Anyway we had a great Halloween and I hope you did too.

Beach babies

2011-08-14T17:39:00.000-07:00

My brother Dave and his wife Ashlee came up to visit for a week so I got to spend a few days relaxing on the island and playing at the beach. I even got to spend some time quilting with Ashlee, I'll post a picture of the quilt as soon as I finish it (which will be before the 29th since it is a gift for Ella's birthday). We took out the sail boat and paddled around in the kayaks up at rasorio beach. Not to mention the hours that were spent on Grandpa's swing set. Dave's kids Max and Libbie are growing up really fast, but I love playing with them any chance I get, especially since Libbie and Ella are the same age.

Here is Max playing in the ocean.

Learning to kayak with Grandpa

Libbie with her Dad in the red kayak.

Ella chucking rocks into the drink.

Dave showing Max how to sail, Max was wearing a pirate hat and eye patch for most of our journey, which was pretty much adorable, while Ella and Libbie spent the whole time eating snacks and drinking juice.

My crazy brother jumping off the boat.

Ella and Grandpa

Libbie and Dave ready to go.

Sandiego Zoo

2011-08-14T17:07:00.000-07:00

Evan flew to California for two weeks on a business trip, so instead of having him fly home, Ella and I headed down to California for a weekend get away. We had a blast visiting the San Diego Zoo and wildlife park and just messing around in the "big bathtub" at the hotel (that is what Ella called the swimming pool). Here are a few pictures of our trip:

My favorite part of the zoo was that the flamingo exhibit was just past the entrance; perfect planning what better way is there to welcome people to the zoo? Is there any creature more stately on the planet? So elegant, so tall, so curvy, so PINK! Anyway, enough with my flamingo fetish.

Ella greated all of the plastic and metal animals by riding and kissing them, here she is kissing the seal (at least I think it is a fur seal), we also have pictures of her kissing the metal gorilla and polar bear. We opted not to go to the petting zoo because we were afraid that she would either attack or lick the animals, frankly I'm not sure which would be worse.

Riding a tiger

We only rode the carousel twice, but I think that Ella would have stayed all day, she loved riding it with her Dad, picking which animal she got to ride on and roaring like a tiger.

Playing hid and seek with Dad in the toddler zone.

"I'm so sneeky he'll never find me."

This is the tram (aka bus) tour of the wildlife park that we took. It was so exciting that Ella fell asleep. Evan and I loved it though, especially once Ella was sleeping and no longer fidgeting.

Walking with Dad at the zoo.

I just wish we had gotten a better picture of her with the puddle that she found, I think that she splashed in the puddle for a good 20 minutes. One lady walked past and said 'hundreds of exotic animals and there still is nothing better than a puddle to splash in.' So true. Just goes to show that it is the little things in life that little people like.

My husband has a man crush. . .

2011-06-28T15:18:00.000-07:00

Ella and I recently went to the island for a quick overnight visit to Grandma and Grandpa. When we got back I asked Evan what he did with his night of freedom. He lit up and told me about his evening with Lionel Messi. It was too good not to share so: Imagine if you will that Evan is all a glow and slightly blushing, as he describes his evening using hand gestures reminiscent to those of a teenage girl.

Jenny : "so what did you do last night"
Evan: "I watched the Albania versus Argentina match."
Jenny: "Oh, did Messi play?"
Evan: "yeah."
Jenny: "So how did he do?"
Evan: "He was amazing (right now Evan is doing Jazz hands). He set up a goal in like the first 3 minutes of the game and then scored another at the end. Sigh. . . I think I have a man crush."

Now I realize that I live in America and most people here don't know who Lionel Messi is, so let me introduce him. This is Lionel Messi:

He plays forward for Barcelona FC and the Argentine national soccoer team. He has won FIFA's player of the year award twice, last year he scored 51 goals and made 22 assists. All of this makes him the best soccer player in the world and well for lack of better term: "amazing" (with jazz hands). He is also 5'7" tall, weighs in at 147 pounds and is a mere 24 years old. So there you have it, Evan's man crush and hey he's got game to boot. I laughed so hard at Evan's antics when he described his man crush that I had to share. But he said that I could only do a post about his man crush if I also put up pictures of Ella so here are a few of those as well:

The Island creed

2011-02-09T17:04:00.000-08:00

To my island peeps: you know all of those unspoken rules that you follow as a local, because locals are cool and in the know, whereas tourists are slightly annoying and just plain geeky. Rules like shall we say:

1. don't feed the birds

2. never carry a camera on the ferry

exception: you may transport a camera on the ferry if you are going somewhere else that is cool, in which case the camera should never be in plain sight, and you should not under any circumstances take pictures, lest you look like the mother of all tourists

3. never take pictures of seaguls (aka rats with wings), but especially do not be caught gleefully snapping shots of that sea otter or baby orca which is more often than not a piece of drift wood

4. Lock your car on the boat, but do not set your car alarm (this one really is annoying, if you set your alarm it will go off the entire crossing and everyone will loath you by the time the journey is over. So please, don't set the alarm, I promise your car will still be in the same spot when the ferry gets to the dock

5. Try not to lock your keys in the car (the green machine is only entertaining when it is pushing someone else's car off the boat)

Anyway, once you have kids some of the rules go out the window. For instance, in 2010 I took a mere 2,997 photos, some of which were on the ferry. When you average 8.4 photos a day chances are a few of those will be on a ferry crossing.
Add into the mix Ella's fascination with all creatures, including flying rodents and voilla you have rules 1, 2 and 3 broken in one fell swoop. I am proud to say that I have yet to break rules 4 and 5, but Ella is young and has a flaky mom so chances are that I will one day lock my keys in the car and be rescued by the gallant green machine.

Hmm, is this really MY child?

2010-11-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

Okay so sometimes I have to wonder if Ella was somehow switched at birth. I love her and all, but she is a strange little duck at times. And she does have some odd quirks that I am certain don't come from me. I mean they couldn't possibly, I'm totally normal and well Evan actually LIKES accounting, but other than that he's o.k. So could someone explain this picture to me? She is eating raw onions and smiling. Nothing about that could be enjoyable, but there she is relishing in her raw onions. Maybe I should have her DNA tested, because I know she didn't get this one from me.

Halloween

2010-11-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

The hardest part about Halloween is deciding what to dress up as. For some reason I decided to make Ella's costume this year. It would have been far easier to buy one, and probably cheaper, but oh well it was pretty fun and I think it turned out cute. I made her into a snow man, and while she did not go trick or treating she did hand out the candy and managed to snitch a few treats as well. This is her with cousin Devan, he was a Reese's peanut butter cup (a child after my own heart).

We also had a Halloween party with Jana and Robert's family (Evan's sister/my running buddy) Check out the cute Halloween dinner she made. Stuffed bell peppers cut like pumpkins and we had mummy polish dogs as well. It was delicious. Then we played donuts on a string and ate chocolate fondue. Yum. Jana's boys introduced Ella to the joys of Halloween candy (that is Brennan with Ella and the twix). All in all a great Halloween.

Merging my blogs

2010-11-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Okay so for a while there I had two blogs. Which is great, except that I don't post things on either one very often. Not to mention I sometimes wondered which blog to put stuff on, so crafts n candy will just be part of this blog again.

Hawaii

2010-10-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well this year we took a big vacation and went to Hawaii with my mom and dad, and we even spent a day with Evan's parents and sisters there too. These are some of the pictures of stuff we did. Ella started out leery of the waves, but within a day or two she was fearless, which was a little scary. She would try to drag whoever was with her into the surf, even if it was crashing well above her head. good thing she is so tiny and couldn't really win those battles. We had a blast though, snorkeling, body surfing, hiking around, going on drives and just relaxing.

Nap time with Grandpa :)

splashing in the tide pools, there was a bunch of turtles sitting in the tide pools here as well. Pretty coll.

Playing in the tiny waves with mom.

Grandpa looking at the water, he has always loved to be in and around water.

At the volcano

sunset on Maui

Grandma and Grandpa snorkeling, yep my mom went in the water a few times to look at the fish, pretty cool.

Ice cream at Bubbies, the guy there loved Ella and she loved him, because he kept giving her samples and then gave her a mini cone all to herself.

Grandpa brooks on the Bowfin submarine

Daddy's little girl

2010-10-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

I found Ella rifling through Evan's wallet the other day and I couldn't help myself, I had to take a picture and see what she would do. You could see her thoughts as she explored,

Hmm. . . What is the shiny plastic thing, it's so pretty and makes a great chew toy. Mom has one of these, and when she shows it to people they give her stuff. I want one of these. Dad won't mind if I take his. But wait what is this green stuff, maybe I'll just take a little of that too.

And so it begins. She's not even a toddler and she's already after our credit cards and of course our keys :)

Ella's Birthday

2010-09-19T23:23:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Ella's birthday a week early when all the all of Evan's family was over here for the fishing weekend. Which was lucky since all three of us were sick on Ella's actual birthday (Hurray!) It was really nice to have the cousins and family join in the fun as we watched her demolish her cake. I decorated a large cupcake to make it look like a basket of berries this is what it looked like before she got a hold of it:

and this is what it looked like when she was finished:

Call me naive, but for some reason I really thought that she wouldn't eat that much. But she decimated that cake, I still don't know how she fit it all into her tummy. And get this, I thought that she would steer clear of the chocolate. What the heck was I thinking? It turns out this child loves chocolate. She would suck on the kit kats and then spit out the wafer centers. Anyway here are a few more cute pics:

Summer Fun

2010-08-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Summer got off to a cold and wet start in Seattle this year, so we headed to the cabin for my birthday. It was fun to try out the hot tub, cruise around on "the Beast" (a souped up golf cart) and splash around in Kymber's wading pool. And of course get some R&R. Saturday we had a big family barbecue, complete with cheesecake YUM! And when we got home Ella and I hung out in Briana's kiddie pool so the party just kept going. Here are some my favorite pics.

Giggles 'N Grandpa

2010-07-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Some things are just too cute not to share.

Father's Day

2010-07-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

Evan has worked crazy hours during the month of June, From June 7th to June 30 he had only two days off Saturday the 12 and Sunday the 20th (Father's Day). Most of the time he left at 7 am and got home after midnight. It was a long month for everyone, especially Evan. But we did celebrate Father's day with a nice meal of pork chops and pear chutney, followed by cheesecake with cherry topping. Yum! It was a nice day to relax and hang out as a family. Ella especially had a good time, hanging out with her Dad, she always lights up when he's around.

Hmm. . . I'm not so sure about these

2010-07-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ella has some new tricks, so my life has gotten much more exciting.

1) She crawls. . . EVERYWHERE.

2 & 3) She pulls herself up, and pulls all of the books off the bookcase.

This happens at least three times a day. Now there is a hierarchy to the books, good reads go on the top shelf, books that are out of favor go on the bottom to serve as chew toys. Hence Beatrix Potter and Harry Potter both live on the upper shelves, the 'Atkins: diet for life, low carb cookbook" a little lower down. And the "Mastering Microsoft Works" definitely relegated to the chew toy zone. (and yes that is a twilight book in the chew zone)

4) she plays with her toys ALONE (YES! Freedom) This is my favorite of her new tricks, since she is getting better at entertaining her self for short periods of time.

My new blog

2010-06-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

So I've decided to start a craft/baking blog. Hopefully the preasure to post things on there will motivate me to get more done. We'll see if it works, anyway here is the address http://craftsncandy.blogspot.com/ Enjoy!

Blue Room

2010-06-21T22:38:00.001-07:00

My entire house is white/cream, kind of boring, so Ideicded that I needed a little color. But being the great decision maker that I am I took three weeks to choos the paint color, and another 2 weeks to paint. Basically what should have taken 1 day took over a month, but at long last here is what my new blue rooom looks like. I love it. Plus there is something thera peutic about painting. Now I just need to get a few more things on the wall, hang some curtain and recover some throw pillows for the room to be complete. Let me know what you think.

This is what it looked like with the eight sample colors that I was choosing from.

Ranier to Rushton Relay

2010-06-09T06:55:00.001-07:00

Last weekend my sister in-law and I ran in the ranier to rushton relay. It is a 50 mile race that goes from Mount Ranier to Rushton park on the waterfront in Tacoma. The first picture is taken from the finish, and we started from some where on that Mountain in the background. The race was truly all terrain. The mud was 18 inches deep on one of sections of "trail," and then there was the mud puddles and sand by meeker street. I lucked out and got one of the more tame legs. Although I gotta say the industrial district of Tacoma is not the prettiest or safest place I've ever run. But I did learn that even when your dead tired on your tenth mile you can still kick up a little speed when the shady guy with bottle in the brown bag wants to 'show you something.' I'm still wondering if our team hired him to get me and Jana to kick it up a notch for the finish. Either way it worked and we ended up with pretty good times. The three legs Jana and I ran were 3.9, 3.4 and 5.2 miles. Not too bad, and I think I'll try it or Ragnar again next year.

The handoff from Nicole and Rianon to me and Jana.

Our two teams of eight and the drivers.

decorating the cars.

Thanks to everyone involved for a fun day, especially to my running buddy Jana for keeping me going.

sharp-toothed monkey

2010-06-07T12:49:00.001-07:00

Here is her first tooth, I'm a little behind, because now she is working on number three. I like to call her the sharp toothed monkey because she crawls all over me all the time and if you put your finger anywhere near her mouth she'll bite HARD!

troll

2010-06-07T12:39:00.001-07:00

I was looking through my camera today and found these:

Doesn't she remind you of one those plastic troll dolls from the 80's, you know the ones with the wild hair. I guess it is time for another hair cut.

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

I found these in the decoration box and I just couldn't help myself. So happy easter everyone. We had a great weekend and we hope you enjoyed the holiday as well.

Jumping

2010-04-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

So she is a little small for her jumper, but she loves it, and I love putting her in it while I cook. Her head barely clears the harness and she is just as interested in eating the plastic as she is in playing with the toys. Oh well, anyway here is a video of a our little leaper.

New tricks

2010-04-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while since I posted a blog entry, and in the last 2 months Ella has changed a lot. At her last check up she weighed 13 pounds and 6 ounces, she is still itty bitty and wears her 3-6 month clothes, but she has a lot of personality to make up for it. She giggles all the time, and has turned into quite the little charmer. Here she is giggling with Dad.

She has also become our one toothed wonder with a lone tooth perched atop her bottom gums. Unfortunately it is a sharp little bugger and she still loves to chomp on things, especially fingers. She reminds me of the "sharp-toothed snail" http://www.qu-i-x.com/warning.html Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of her one toothed grin so pigtails will have to do.

Her other trick is rolling over. FINALLY! Evan and I spent several weeks coxing her, practicing with her and rolling on the ground to demonstrate good roll over technique all while she stared stoically back at us, not the least bit interested in joining in the fun. At last we tricked her into it by placing a toy just out of reach, so that in reaching for the toy she flopped onto her back. She has a serious fetish for toys, we should have tried bribery earlier.

Ella's hair cut- oh the truama of it all. . .

2010-02-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

(You're going to do what to me?)

My mother has been after me since New Years to do something about Ella's hair. It has grown so long in the front that it is always in her eyes. Poor kid, it drives her nuts. And despite my best efforts to 'stylishly' swoop it to the side, it stubbornly flies every which way creating some of the most impressive bed head styles that I have ever seen. At first I tried to tame the beast, I combed out her wings, pinned back her bangs and added a head band for good measure. . . but alas the wings took flight and Ella pulled out her head band as soon as I got it perfectly positioned. So, then I resorted to just letting her hair be and let it lay which ever way it wanted. But, when your child bears an uncanny resemblence to the Umpa Lumpas or fits in just a little too well with the 80's rock band, lines need to be drawn and it's time to give the girl a trim. So here is her mane of hair in all it's pre-trim glory.

Here she is with her bangs in her eyes, (Daddy needs a hair cut too :) ) Umpa Lumpa Doopity doo Ahh the bed head

and last but not least, Ella hanging out with the band 'a flock of seaguls'

You can see why I cut it. At first I had grand plans of trimming all of her hair to give her a little pixie cut. I even called in my good friend Karla for back up. Well, Ella did not appreciate our efforts and she let us and all the neighbors know exactly how she felt about getting her hair cut (you would have thought that we were starting an IV or something). So we settled for timming her bangs instead, but I think it turned out pretty cute. Here are some pictures of her new improved hair and the truamatic ordeal that she barely survived.

(she was still a little mad even after the fact )

(Karla getting her ready)

Snuggles from Mom after the truama

It's hard to be little.

2010-01-29T09:02:00.000-08:00

Poor Ella she hasn't quite gotten control of her arms and legs yet and things always seem to be frustratingly just out of reach. Any kind parent would help her out of these situations by giving her a hand, but me and Evan prefer to record the moment. I wonder if that qualifies as child abuse or neglect. I'll leave it for you to decide.

Don't worry, the torture does not last forever and in the end she almost always gets what she wants.

Christmas Glee

2010-01-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

This year we spent Christmas up at Camp Zarahemla with Evan's parents. It is the first time I have had Christmas off in 4 years, so it was the first time that we could go somewhere. We had a wonderful time reading the Christmas story, eating and visiting. Ella of course performed for everyone smiling and cooing. She even looked halfway interested in some of her gifts (okay so maybe she just noticed that we kept waving things in front of her, but that counts right?). Grandma Brooks and Great Grandma Poulson got her bumbo chair, so now she cna sit at the table when we eat, and I can get a hot meal again (Hooray!).

One thing we did a lot of was napping, napping with mom. . .

Napping with Dad. . .

And playing with Grandma. We had a great time, hopefully you all had a great Holiday Season too.

Ella's Blessing

2010-01-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

Okay so I'm a smidge bit behind. Ella was blessed back in November, but I'm just getting the pics up now. We had a LOT of family and food for the event. . . actually events, the Brooks clan knows how to party so in one weekend we had two birthday parties, a Thanksgiving dinner and a brunch for Ella's blessing. Everything but Thanksgiving was at my house so it was pretty crazy. I wasn't sure the house would recover, but we actually did pretty well. Here are some photos of her special day. We were able to get the first Brooks family photo since our wedding. Dennis and Sandi came out, and my friend Donna brought her husband as well. Thanks to everyone who helped out. Mom was an angel helping in the kitchen and bringing homemade tasty orange rolls. Yummy!

This is the same dress that I was blessed in as a baby.

Here is one of all the men, Evan did a wonderful job, and gave her such a sweet blessing.

Isn't that the cutest pout you have ever seen, no wonder she has me wrapped around her finger.

And here is the Brooks clan all together again.

Morning Conversations

2009-12-03T11:32:00.000-08:00

This one is for the Grandparents

Halloween Shenanigans

2009-10-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

I love holidays! And as far as holidays go Halloween is a big one, it is the ultimate candy lovers delight. It's great; you dress up and people shower you in candy. Genius! Whoever came up with this concept should get a noble prize for improving the lives of children all across America. In the Holiday rankings Halloween comes in a close second to Christmas. I love it because it marks the start of the candy season. You know, like fruit season, but for candy. Pears come on in September, Blackberries are in August and Raspberries in July. Well, candy corn and pumpkins bloom at Halloween, candy canes come out at Christmas, Conversation and juju hearts ripen in time for Valentines Day, and Runt's freckled eggs and cadbury eggs bloom at Easter. Sadly after Easter we have to weather the candy dearth that is summer and fall. Anyway, I digress. Back to Halloween, for Halloween we dressed Ella up as a "Sweet Pea"

we carved our pumpkin and took the traditional Vogey style picture.

Then we thought hey, why not put Ella in the pumpkin? And she fit so nice we took a picture. At first she was happy. . .

so we took another picture . . .

and she was still happy so we took another picture . . .

And then we were done. . .

But she calmed down pretty quickly and still managed to enjoy her first Halloween. Hope you had as much fun as we did, but mostly we hope you had a good candy harvest.

paparazzi

2009-10-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm really behind on my blog. But about a week after I brought Ella home the paparazzi, (aka my buddies Karla and Corinne) came over for a visit. I knew they were both shutter bugs, but I had never actually seen them in action. This is the closest I have ever been to the golden globes. Ella of course was the sta, and she performed beautifully. Even in her sleep! I mean come on the girl is amazing and gorgeous. Corinne and Karla were also amazing, prepping the star, staging the shots and then contorting their bodies to get just the right angle. It was so fun to watch that I decided to take a few pictures of the photographers. Here they are in action

They took such beautiful photographs that I completely scrapped the idea of getting professional ones done. I LOVE the pictures they took. Here are a few of my favorites.

I think this one is hilarious. Ella was being a little bit of a Diva and decided to whine about her bath, actually holler is more like it. :) But then again, isn't that what starletts do?

they even got her toes to look cute!

How to comfort a laboring woman. . . or rather, how not too.

2009-09-19T11:07:00.001-07:00

One thing that I discovered is that in the medical profession we tend to gloss over things. Or deliver bad news in a honey sweet voice. If you listen to the tone, everything is just dandy, but if you catch the actual words, things aren't lookin so good. For example. I didn't sleep at all the night that I was in labor with Ella, I kept hearing her heart rate drop on the monitor, then I would look at the strip to see how low she had gone. When things were really exciting a random assortment of health care workers would rush into the room and have me turn this way or that, put oxygen on me, take it off, put it on again. The one's that didn't know I was nurse would nonchalantly say all sorts of comforting things like "oh don't worry we're just resuscitating the baby." Case in point, the term resusciate. Perhaps if I didn't know what resuscitate meant I would sigh with relief knowing that all was right with the world. However, I do know what resuscitate means and I would not classify 'resuscitate' as a soothing term, in fact it's kind of a red flag. When we resuscitate a baby in the NICU it's not something we do just for kicks and giggles. In fact I would put it in the same category as terms like, 'touch and go,' 'death defying brady,' and my mum's personal favorite 'circling the drain.' You get the picture. Then there was my personal favorite, when one nurse told me my baby looked just fine, and followed that statement up with "but I'm just going to arrange these cables so that if we need to go somewhere in a hurry, we can just take off and go." Huh? Let's back this hospital bed up a bit, where exactly will we be going in a hurry, because if it's Baskin Robbins I'm game. Man I was disappointed when after that run down the hall we ended up not at the ice cream palor but in the OR. I'm still trying to decide if they made a wrong turn.

Ella

2009-09-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry that it took us so long to put this up. I only got the internet installed this week, and our little cutie has kept me very busy. So, at long last we are introducing Ella to the blog. Here's the stats for you:

Ella Cornelia Brooks
born on August 29th at 7:10 am
weight: 2146 grams or 4 lbs 11 ounces
Length: 17 inches
Apgars: 8 & 9 (strong work Ella)
Eyes: yet to be determined
Hair: dark brown and lots of it.
general info: practically perfect in every way
Blood sugars: marvelous

Evan and I were supposed to move into our new house at 9:00 on Saturday, but Ella decided to steal the show and arrive that day instead. I was worried that with the diabetes she would be a big sugar baby, but she surprised me and the OB when she ended up to be very tiny. Less than the 10th percentile for her gestation. Apparently she wasn't growing inside my tummy so they decided to induce me in the hopes that she would grow more outside my belly than inside. We tried to have a traditional delivery, but with her small size and my low amniotic fluid she couldn't tolerate the contractions, and they had to do a c-section for poor fetal heart tones. Once she was born she did wonderfully. She dropped down to 4 and a half pounds a few days after delivery, but she has such an appetite that she has already grown to be 5 pounds 10 ounces (yahoo!). She is even getting a Budah belly and chubby cheeks. We're very proud of her growth, and her good looks, I mean come on she's ADORABLE. Here are some pictures of our little cutie.

It only took about 5 seconds for her to wrap Daddy around her teeny tiny finger. Isn't strange that Evan is a Dad and I'm a Mom, that is going to take a while to get used to.

Why I love being an Aunt part 2

2009-08-03T18:44:00.001-07:00

July brought more fun visits with family. We started out with an impromptu Brooks reunion on the island, complete with home made ice cream, the swing of course and kayaking. Here are some photos of the Brooks clan

Josh, Kymber, Devin and Emily at Double Bluff
Ian and Devin at the Zoo

Then we spent a girls day in Seattle for me and Lara's birthdays, watching the new Harry Potter and getting lunch at the Cheesecake factory. Delicious!

At the end of the month Dave and Ashlee came to visit the island. We walked around langley and got lunch at my favorite restraunt, Cafe Langley. Ashlee helped me register for the baby and we went to Thai food before heading back to Mom and Dad's.

Here's Libby with her mom, some kids are just born cool. . . it's in the genetics

Max on Grandpa's swingset

NEW HOUSE!

2009-08-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

So the bank finally approved the short sale and now we are just waiting for the financing to come through on our new house. We'll probably move in at the end of August. So now it's a race between Ella and the house to see which one comes into our lives first. Personally I'm rooting for the house to come first, but we'll see. It is a 4 bedroom with 2 and 1/2 baths and a pantry, not even a wimpy pantry, but a WALK IN PANTRY!!!

Did I mention it has a pantry, a real live panty. Do you know what this means. . . no more boxes of cereal perched precariously above my Sunday dresses. No more hoping that every time I open the guest closet pasta won't start raining down on me. Although, I will have to buy some new furniture, since the boxes of canned peaches will no longer serve as bedside tables, they'll just be boxes of peaches. What a Delightful concept!

This is the entry way/ living room

Kitchen

a bedroom that we will definitely need to paint, although the star is quite lovely

We also have an entire room painted pink, like the center of that star, we will also be painting that room. Anyhow, we're pretty excited about our new house, come pay us a visit when you can.

Names

2009-06-24T02:07:00.000-07:00

Evan and I are having a little stand off over what we want to name our baby. I really like the name Ella, but Evan really likes the name Heather. When I suggested that we name her Heather Ella Brooks, he just grinned and said, "okay and that way when she's mad we'll just call her 'Hella.' I'm not sure how I feel about this. Especially since Evan now only refers to her as 'Hella' or even better "Hella the Hellion." Hmm. I think we need some new name ideas.

Why I love being an Aunt

2009-06-24T00:57:00.000-07:00

The last few months I have spent most of my weekends off playing with nephews and nieces. And can I just say that I LOVE being an aunt. It's great you get all the fun parts of being around kids, but you don't have to discipline them. Not to mention that when your the aunt you get to spoil them, which in my case means that you give them lots of candy. Hence the jelly belly machine and why every time Devin sees me he asks if I have any candy before he says hello.

Anyway here are some fun times I have had over the past couple months with nephews and nieces: When John came up we went beach combing, there weren't really any tide pools that day so we mostly saw birds and couple dead crabs (wahoo!)

Here they are admiring a dead starfish

And a dead crab

Grandpa made breakfast with breakfast with Nathan and Ryan. That good old Vogey standby by: waffles and bacon. Yummy

We also took the kayaks up to Rosario beach and paddled around for a few hours, it took Nathan and Ryan a little while to get comfortable with the kayaks but in the end we had trouble getting them away from the water. They also got to spend the night in Grandpa's boat, which was pretty cool.

When Becky came, Kaiden wanted to know if that 'that boy that throws the sticks really fast would be there.' Translation- will Uncle Evan bring his bow and arrows. We bought a kids bow and arrow for Kaiden and Kaleb and then Evan drew a monster and set it up as the target to shoot at. Most of the time Kaiden dropped his arrow on the ground, but every once in a while he got off a lucky shot and then would parade around yelling "I shot the monster, I shot the monster." Unfortunately I brought my camera, but no camera batteries when this all happened. so you get to see pictures of use pretending to be bumble bees with our french fries instead. Yes, in public. As Dad would say, "you can dress em up, but ya can't take em out."

Then when I was shopping for maternity jeans, the kids found the fake pregnancy bellies and well, chaos ensued.

We also spent some time up at Camp Zarahemla with Janet and Tony and then headed to the cabin with Andrew, Careina and Kymber. Evan got to do some of his favorite things: shoot a big gun, fish and drive the tractor. Sometimes I think I married a hick, especially when he wears his John Deere 'play in the dirt shirt.' But he's a cute hick so I'll keep him.

Kymber kept us entertained running around with the turkey decoys at the cabin, and saying funny stuff. Like singing "Three decrepit rodents" rather than 'three blind mice.' Although my personal favorite is when her mom did something she didn't like and she protested by saying, "your killing me, your killing me." Ah the drama of youth. Here she is in the hot tub.

all in all we had a good time. In July Dave and Ashley are coming so I get to hang out with Max and my newest niece, Libbie. Then I get to see Lara and Nicolai, not mention that I'll get to hang out with Kymber again as well as Mark's kids and Jana's kids over the fourth. Which reminds me, I should probably buy some more jelly beans.

23 weeks!

2009-05-21T12:05:00.001-07:00

Evan was a little disturbed on Wednesday when rubbing my belly I proudly declared, "23 weeks, she's viable!" Don't get my wrong, I don't want to have my little girl at 23 weeks, (more like 37) but somehow it is comforting to know that if I went into labor the neonatologist could do something. I also like that I now have a good idea of what she looks like, somehow it makes her more real and tangible. Kind of like when she kicks me in the ribs, also very tangible.

I got to take care of a 23 week baby for a couple nights this week and I wanted to take footprints to show Evan how tiny they are, but it's not really legal, and he had an IV in his foot. So I'm settling for showing Evan pictures off the internet (see above image) and items in our house that weigh about the same as our baby, like a can of green beans. I'm also excited because I am finally past that awkward point where strangers wonder if you're pregnant, or just ate a few too many jelly beans. How do I know I'm past the "is she pregnant or just getting fat?" phase. . . well my 4 year old nephew came to visit for Mother's Day and while we were setting up the sail boat he randomly looked at me and said, "what's with your big belly, do you have a baby in there or something?" Classic! Other women may have been sad, but I'm proud of my little bulge, so I was ecstatic. Not to mention it was pretty fun to see his Dad/my big brother turn bright red and get all flustered.

It's a girl. . . and she already looks like me!

2009-04-28T13:48:00.000-07:00

On Monday we found out that we are having a little girl. The ultrasound tech showed us several photos and was very patient with all of my asinine questions; such as "is it a 4 chamber heart?", "is the brain okay?", "are all of her intestines inside her body?" (this one did illicit a raised eyebrow from the tech and an eye roll from my husband). You might think I'm crazy, paranoid; heck maybe even both. But, more people would ask these questions if they knew that Tacoma has the highest birth rate of gastroschesis babies in the nation (that when the intestines are outside the baby, one baby I saw was born with the stomach, intestines and bladder perched on top her belly, rather than IN her belly). So you can see why I ask. Oh if I could only be ignorant for just 9 months. But alas it is not so, and thankfully our little peanut looks healthy!

She must be a ham because the first image that we got of her was a full on butt shot. Kind of silly, but still cute. Only a baby can moon you and make it seem adorable. Later, they printed off pictures for us. On looking at them Evan immediately said, "hey she looks like you." At first I thought he was being stupid. How could she possibly look like me? Ultrasound photos make babies look like a black and white fish. I never understood why parents ogled over these pictures of alien like creatures. Looking at them I always wanted to say, 'I hope your child is more attractive than that, cause right now they don't look very cute.' I even promised myself that I would never display those awful photos, but right now they are proudly stuck to the fridge. It's like she received her first report card, every time I look at the photos I think

healthy heart: A+
kidneys: A
modesty: B- needs improvement
Cuteness: A+ + +
Ventricles: A
Stomach intact: A+

Anyway, I diverge. Back to Evan's comment. I was confused until I saw what photo he was looking at.

See the resemblance. Okay. . . so maybe the cuteness factor will decrease to A++, apparently she inherited my freak toes. Notice that her second toe is longer than her big toe, yep that's from me. Unfortunately I have ugly feet. I'm not being modest, I have had people tell me that my whole life. In high school Briony Cribbs told me that she was a little afraid of my feet because my second toe is longer than my big toe. Not to mention I managed to break the freak toe on my left foot so it sticks out at this weird angle and won't bend/straighten anymore. Adding to the beauty is the huge gap between my first and second toes. When I was little I was proud of the gap because mom told me that my feet were specially designed for flip flops. I'll let you judge:Hmm. . . questionable at best. In later years my sisters informed me that me feet were most certainly NOT designed for any shoe that put my feet on public display. It's so bad that Evan actually requested that I wear closed toed shoes at our wedding. He tactfully managed to tell me that while I had a very beautiful face, the Lord did not waste a lot of beauty on my feet (the funny thing is that all three of my college boyfriends voiced that opinion at some point).

I was really hoping that my daughter would escape this fate. I mean come on, Evan had great feet when he was little can't she follow in his cute shoes. But no. One thing the ultrasound did prove is that in at least one respect our daughter does indeed resemble her mother.

I like this one, it's true on so many levels

2009-03-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

(the picture is of me as a student)

You know you are a NICU nurse when…

1. You’ve eaten hamburger patties bigger than most of your patients

2. You define colors by the color of stool you’ve seen- i.e. baby poop green/yellow

3. You don’t understand why talking about sticking a needle in a baby’s head is making other people at the dinner table ill

4. At one time or another have had breast milk, poop or urine on your work clothes

5. You have affectionately called a patient cletus the fetus, wimpy white boy, troll or FLK (funny lookin’ kid) in report

6. You can change your patient’s bed linens with one hand while holding your patient in the other

7. You can make an IV arm board out of some 4x4 gauze and tape

8. You’ve almost caught your hair on fire while in your patient’s bed…a.k.a. radiant warmer

9. You’ve used a sock or a piece of tape for a restraint

10. You check out the scalp veins, cap refill and fontanels on a friend’s new baby

11. You use a cotton ball to obtain urine samples

12. You use saran wrap to keep your food fresh and your patient’s warm

13. You think all crying babies need benadryl, versed or intubation

14. You think the pulse oximeter, CPAP and those crappy no sticking leads were created by the devil

15. You have ever shown a doctor a green residual while they were eating

16. You have obtained a 10cc residual when the patient only gets 1cc

17. You have put an intensive care patient in a swing

18. You don’t get excited if your patient has a heart rate of 180

19. You do chest compressions with two fingers

20. Most of your meds come in TB/1cc syringes

21. You prepare your patient’s bath water in a Dixie cup

22. You draw blood from your patient’s heel

23. You use a rubber band for a tourniquet

24. You’ve seen two complexes on EKG screen and not been excited-you merely pat your patient on the butt and it’s all good

25. Newborn babies look like preschoolers to you

26. You tell people what you do and they think you sit around and rock babies all day (I wish)

27. When you tell people what you really do they start to cry and/or vomit

28. You have assisted with surgery on your patient in their bed and on the unit

29. You have at one time or another in the heat of frustration threatened to throw your patient in the trash can

30. You have considered using duct tape to hold a pacifier in a screaming baby’s mouth

31. You have met your patient’s father, mother’s boyfriend, and mother's husband all in one day

(sad but oh so true)

32. You have made a mental note that no matter how stupid people are they still know how to get their groove on

33. And lastly…You know you’re a NICU nurse if you’ve read 1-32 and have laughed a lot.

Riddle me this riddle me that

2009-03-13T12:35:00.001-07:00

Okay, here is a small riddle for you. I'm going to tell you some of my new quirks and you try to guess what's going on.

1. I flee from the x-ray machine at work

2. I consume massive amounts of Ritz crackers

3. I'm sleepy all the time (okay so this one isn't exactly new)

4. I don't really like cake, candy and ice cream (no I'm not dying)

5. I need new clothes

6. I'm in hyper-nesting mode

Have you figured it out yet? It took my coworkers six days to notice my aversion to the x-ray machine and put it together. Are you ready to find out? I'm pregnant! I'm due in September, unfortunately there was only one baby on the ultrasound. I really wanted twins but Evan was relieved, as he would like to ease into the whole parenting deal. I do really miss eating jelly beans though, but for some reason this little baby doesn't like sugar. Every time I eat candy I get nauseous for a few hours. But oh don't worry. That doesn't stop me from eating candy it, just punishes me when I do. So now I eat about the same amount of sugar as a normal human being, I just regret it afterwards. I wonder how long this sugar aversion will last, maybe it will help me lose some pounds if it's permanent. Wouldn't that be nice.

Tales from the Cheap

2009-02-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

Today I drove Evan into work and on the way we listened to the Adam Carolla show. It was featuring "tales from the cheap," aka stories about how cheap his parents were growing up. The funny part was that almost everything he mentioned was something that I do. Hmm. I'm not sure what to think about that. They started by talking about 'tupper ware' meaning old cool whip cotainers and pickle jars that his mom re-used as tupperware and glasses. I didn't think much until Evan exclaimed 'I hate that, whenever I try to get sour cream I end up with left over corn or green beans.'

Truth be told I may guilty of this one. In fact, half an hour earlier when I made his lunch I used the last of the sour cream. Instead of throwing the container away what did I do, I put it in the dishwasher. Cheap? I THINK NOT!!! Come on people, 'reduce, reuse, recycle' any of this ringing a bell. It's not tacky. . . it's cool. I'm not cheap I'm green. Really I'm green, that's all. Even Oprah is green, so it must be cool.

Well as much as I'd like to cling to this arguement, I'm a lazy environmentalist at best and I don't even pretend to be cool. Nope, there's a distinct possibility that I might be cheap. Especially since, there were a few more inditements that Adam Carolla brought against me. He started to describe people that buy ugly generic white sneakers that look like something a nurse would wear. Hmm. Well in my own defense I am a nurse, so really it's part of the uniform. . . right? Except that everyone else wears cute danskos. Not to mention a coworker took one look at my shoes on Friday night and said, "we need to go shoe shopping." Okay strike two.

The death blow was really when they mentioned the wire coat hanger that doubles as a car antenna. While I do not currently drive a vehicle of that description I did in highschool. Actually I didn't have enough ryhthmn and coordination to drive the red truck, but Dad and Dave did. Let me explain. After Dave wrapped it around a tree we didn't trade in the truck, Dad simply fixed it up a little. Keep in mind that I use the term 'fixed it up' loosely, and the term 'little' literally. The hood was held closed by a bungee chord and the idle mode no longer worked, so at stop signs you had to dance between the clutch, the break and the gas in order to keep the car from dying or lurtching forward. And of course a wire coat hanger served as the antenna of our glorious vehicle. To be honest I haven't progressed much with respect to cars. I drive a little two door toyota echoe with 1. . . count em 1 hub cap, a cracked wind shield and some pretty scratched up paint. It also lacks a tape deck/CD player, AC and power windows (well power anything really). But those are all luxury items anyway right. I mean who would pay extra for AC, a couple doors, or even that totally frivilous invention they call a CD player. Pah! NPR is all I really need. Strike three? Well, you decide.

I just have one last arguement in my defense. It's not that I'm cheap I simply have my priorities straight. Do you know how many jelly beans you can buy with the money that tupper ware, new shoes and hub caps require. I mean come on. Next time you get in you're nicely air conditioned car, with you're shiny danskos think about the real cost. You could be enjoying a veritable plethora of jelly beans.

Mom precautions vs. standard precautions

2009-01-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

When I was a little girl I ran a doll hospital out of the closet in my bedroom. And much of what I learned about nursing I learned from my mother. So when I started nursing school and learned about "standard precautions" I quickly recognized their resemblance to "mom precautions."

What are mom precautions you ask, I'll explain by comparision. The goal of standard precautions is to prevent the spread of germs in the hospital. The goal of mom precautions is to prevent the spread of germs in the home. In the hospital when a patient tests positive for MRSA we put them into isolation. They get their own room and we posts signs so that anytime a person crosses the threshhold they know they have to put on a gown and gloves. Nothing that goes into the room can come out until it is disinfected (well that's the theory anyway).

Similiarly, when a member of the Vogelsberg family gets sick you immediately quarenteen them. That's right folks quarenteen. If you get sick, you get you're own butter dish, towels, actually you get your own bathroom. I should have faked being sick more often, the perks are amazing when your the youngest of five kids. Mom waits on you hand and foot, making milk shakes, renting your favorite movies, and dolling out medicine. She also follows you and cleans any surface you may have potentially contaminated.

I had forgotten about this untill I went home for New Years and Dad had a stomach bug. All of the Mom Precautions were in place. So of course, at dinner there were sat two sets of snowmen salt and pepper shakers to greet us. The one for Dad, easy to recognize because they were laying face down on their bellies, as if to say 'we don't feel well and the prognsis ain't good.' You would have thought a heat wave hit them and the end was near. In comparison the other set was standing proudly erect as if to boast of their relative health. Evan is new to mom precautions and he couldn't help joining in with Dad and joking about it. The snowmen were laying so still, that they looked like they were dead, was that a foreshadowing? Did mom know something we didn't? Maybe Dad's illness was more serious than we thought. Then Dad asked if we do the same thing with babies. "Hey, did you see baby so and so, they put him on his belly, you know what that means."

All joking aside, Evan and I both got home and thanks to mom precautions, neither of us got sick. So mom must have a pretty good idea of what she's doing. We follow her example in the hospital anyway.

2009-01-21T01:11:00.000-08:00

Evan and I have had some busy weeks. He has had a surgery and a biopsy and is recovering well, more on that to come. We also visited Andrew & Careina and both sets of parents. We battled snow with our mighty Toyota Echoe and I started a second job working part time at a NICU closer to home. I guess I'll start with all the winter mayhem.

This year I got the week before Christmas off and started my work week at 11:00 pm on Christmas night. It was a really nice schedule. Evan and I started out our break by traveling to Camp Zarahemla in White Pass where his parents are the care takers. We drove through some nasty rodes in the echoe and even broke a set of chains, but we got there okay and had a fun time. Evan hit the tractor right away, clearing rodes, moving snow and messing around. We had a hard time convincing him to come into dinner. I think he will be sad when the mission is over and the tractor is gone. I had fun realxing: reading the last of the twilight books. It was so beautiful with all the fresh snow that I had to break out the camera and take pictures.

After a few nights there we headed to the Tricities to hang out with Andrew and Careina and their little girl Kymber. We had a lot of fun, looking at luminarios, making candy with Teryl (Careina's Dad) and just hanging out. One of my favorite things was decorating a ginger bread house with Kymber, well, I use the term 'decorate' loosely. Careina and I decorated and once Kymber discovered that we were using frosting and candy she was busy with the tasty task of 'renovating' the house; removing a gumdrop here, thinning the icing there, she was definitely focused on streamlining the look of the house, nothing to do with just eating frosting and candy. It must have been a coincidence that all the gross candy stayed and all the tasty candy was removed during the renovation. ("gross candy"- you'd think that was an oxymoron, but such a thing really exists, it's a travesty really)

We spent a few days with my parents before Christmas and had more fun in the snow. We went sledding/skiing down the hill in my front yard. Dad and Evan humored me enough to build snowmen. I took pictures so you can see how, er 'pretty' they were. We also spent a day digging people out of the snow, clearing roofs and delivering groceries to people who called my parents for help. Mom and dad always amaze me with how willing they are to drop everything and help people, even people they have never met. Of course we played lots of board games, the old vogey stand by and ate tons of good food. The traditional Christmas Steak dinner and all. Yummy!

Evan wanted to make a second Christmas nativity, but we decided that it would be sacreligious to compare this snow family to a natvity.

Anyway, we hope you all had a great holiday, don't worry Christmas cards are coming, I'm just late as usual.

The Happiest Place on Earth

2008-11-30T20:45:00.001-08:00

Back in October Evan and I went to the happiest place on Earth and spent the day frolicking through the magical kingdom. We went on space mountain 3 or 4 times, tested out the new Nemo ride, suffered through the renovated Haunted Mansion (the changes were definitely a mistake), got wet on splash mountain and of course saw Darth Vader at the Jedi training camp.

It's funny how different Disney land is when you're 26 instead of 6. I was a short 6 year old so there were a lot of rides that I couldn't go on back then. Dad would take the other kids on the big rides and me and mom would hang out on small world and the tea cups. The other thing that I remember is the Matterhorn. Hurtling through the caves strapped in a little car as gigantic monsters with glowing red eyes reared up out of nowhere and bellowed. The red eyes of the abominable snow men haunted my dreams for years as a child. To be honest I was pretty apprehensive and it took quite a bit of convincing before Evan got me to give it another try. It was really fun and I felt pretty silly that I once feared the fuzzy robots that haunt that mountain. But then again I was only 6.

All in all I definitely enjoyed Disneyland, although the abominable snowmen are a little bit hokey.

This One's For karla

2008-11-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

okay, so this is a little overdue. I looked at the date of my last entry and felt some pangs of guilt. To be honest that would not be enough to motivate me, but there is this little voice in the back of my head that keeps replaying Karla, (yes you my friend). About a month ago at work she gave me the look and said, "you need to update your blog." Karla is one of my favorite people, but I'm a smidge bit afraid of her. I'm pretty sure that if we met in a dark alley and got in a scuffle she would walk out unscathed and I would limp out twisted like a pretzel. So, Karla, this one's for you!

Dave & Ashlee's big day

2008-09-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I got to hang out with the family in Utah. The highlight was Dave and Ashlee getting sealed in the temple, which was a sweet experience. I also got to hang out with my parents, see John & Jenny and the boys, and Wendy. I had a lot of fun eating Ashlee's wonderful cooking and just relaxing with the Aunts Uncles and cousins. One of my favorite moments is when I broke my cookie in two and offered half to Max. He gladly took the first half then without any hesitation, he grabbed the other half from my left hand. It made me laugh so hard. He wanted the whole thing, and that's what he got. He's such a cute little guy.

Summer Fun

2008-09-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

This summer we traveled a LOT, all within the state of Washington. We spent all of my weekends off visiting family and friends so we had a blast. I looked at the attendance for relief society and I hadn't attended my own ward for 4 weeks in row, yikes, although I was sick one week in there. Anyway here is a break down of our summer and some pictures to enjoy.

During May and June we went to the tricities for a Brooks clan get together. We packed Janet's kitchen (including the eternal supply of honey, something like 30 TUBS of honey) roasted marshmellows in the gazebo, Evan went fishing, and we hung out out the cabin a little.

Jenny went on the Quilt Shop Hop and Heather & Mark came to visit (see earlier blogs)

Next we spent about 8 hours driving to see Evan's parents at camp Zarehemla on mount Ranier, usually this would only take 3 hours, but we stopped by cabela's, got lost and messed around in Mount Ranier National park for a long time. We even got to see a porcupine, elk and a black bear.

Emily's baptism came at the end of June sorry no pictures, only Evan could go.

In July we headed to the Island for a visit with Becky & CJ, and Dave & Ashlee. I'm not sure what happened, some how I didn't take any picutres of this. But, here are some old pictures of my cute neices and nephews that we got to spend time with.

For my birthday we went to Lake Ozette

The next weekend we went Camping with friends on Ranier

We fed the brids, went on a very slow hike (I kept stopping to take pictures of wildflowers) and we fed some birds, after which they just stole the food they wanted when we weren't looking.

August:

We spent another weekend playing on the tractor at Camp Zarehemla (look at that smile of contentment)

Then We headed to Kennewick to visit Andrew and Careina in the tricities.

We shot some guns

went water skiing and played in the river with Kimber,

and most exciting of all. . . we scrubbed and cleaned the hot tub, YAHOO! After we evicted this little guy.

September

We started out with another visit to Camp Zarehemla and hung out with the Brooks clan again. We had more tractor fun and Jenny spent time relaxing and reading.

So that was our summer, we had fun and spent most of our time on the road visiting famiy.

Tasty Treats

2008-09-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

Since the fruit harvest is on, the sweat smell of baking is strong in my kitchen (too bad it doesn't permeate the halls of our apartment complex, which always smell like curry). Anyway, here are some pictures of a few of the tasty treats at the Brooks Home, stop by and we'll give you a taste.

Peaches and Cream Tart & pear almond tart (above)

Evan's Dream

2008-09-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are unaware, one of Evan's life long dreams is to own a tractor. After years of admiring real trackers and getting only toy tractors for christmas Evan finally got to play with the real thing. Evan's parents were called on a mission to be the grounds keepers of Camp Zarahemla, on Mount Rainier. Now while the mission is a blessing in many ways to them, we feel that it was truly an inspired call because we, er I mean they, now have at their disposal a John Deer 420. Evan took on a couple test runs and is officially in love. He moved the sand pile around, put some logs around it and did some other jobs. He was having so much fun that it was hard for me to get a turn. It really is hard to pry him off the thing. Anyway here he is enjoying the ultimate toy.

the New Do

2008-09-08T00:20:00.000-07:00

Mom will be so proud I finally shed my long locks for short ones. I just couldn't handle another pony tail so here it is.

A Very Happy Birthday

2008-07-23T01:18:00.000-07:00

Evan gave me some backpacking gear for my birthday and then we went for three days to one of my favorite places, the Ozette triangle. Camp dinners, sleeping in a tent, and lugging a heavy pack around. . . it doesn't get any better. We watched the deer wander through our camp, chased off a raccoon at 3:00 in the morning and played in the tide pools. Evan got to play with fire and I got to sit and look at the waves, ah the good life. I love Sandy Point, two coves come together and there is a large grassy hill where they meet that you can sit on and enjoy the view, and watch the bald eagles. The beach is soft and sandy and there aren't too many other people around. And hey you have such a wide open view of the ocean that you can actually make out the curvature of the Earth, how cool is that!

Well if you talk to the jolly park ranger in port angeles he will disagree. I went up all excited to pick up my permit and he said, "going to Sandy Point, I don't understand the allure of that place. All it is is a sandy beach, with a big grass lump." Hmm. Not the outdoor enthusiast that I would hope for in a ranger. Oh well, one less person to share the grass lump with.

66 squats

2008-07-23T00:25:00.001-07:00

I am an avid fan of the beach, I love water, I could just sit there and watch the waves roll in and out for hours. I am also a fan of all things miniature. When I was a kid my family would go for walks up and down Double Bluff beach and I would inevitably be found scouring the shell dust for miniature sea shells (and I mean miniature). Everyone else looked in the tide pools or skipped rocks, but not me. Even when it was time to leave I was always at least 300 meters behind everyone else searching for just one more shell.

I wish I could say that I have made progress, but alas this weekend I proved once again that I am a hopeless collector of beach trash. As I backpacked along the coast this weekend I stopped every time I saw a piece of beach glass, then like a bird that has seen a shiny object and can't resist, I stooped to pick it up while carrying a 35 pound pack. Towards the end of the hike newly discovered muscles in my legs and back started to complain about the activity. Evan and I counted the bits of glass, 59 in all. I couldn't help but comment, "ya know if someone offered me this little pile of beach glass and said that in exchange all I had to do was perform 59 squats while carrying 35 pounds, I would tell them to take a flying leap. And yet, here I am picking them up anyway." And guess what even after this epiphany I still picked up 7 more. Not exactly a quick learner am I, but hey they sure look pretty.

Fun with Friends

2008-06-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it was a busy couple weeks. I got home from the shop hop late Thursday night and picked up my college buddies, Heather and Mark, early the next morning. We went to the museum of flight, Alki beach, the fremont troll, the market, and of course to the Butchart Gardens. The funny thing is I took more pictures than they did. I must have gotten a picture of virtually every flower in the garden, I think I'm turning into Dad. Anyway, it was a fun weekend. My personal favorite was the sail boat ride with Dad. We almost tipped it, at least Dad's comment was, "well now I know how far it can go without tipping." Water almost started to come in, but with our trusty captain at the helm, we straightened out in no time. (Of course we never would have reached 60 degrees if I hadn't got in the way when dad needed to turn the rudder, opps). Here are a few pictures for anyone interested. Come visit us and we'll show you the sites.

Shop Hoppin Fun

2008-06-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have at times wondered why my friends sometimes called me grandma, here is one piece of the puzzle. I like to quilt! I like it so much that for a mere 14 hours last Wednesday and 12 on Thursday I went to the annual Western Washington Quilter's Shop Hop. Thats right I went to 32+ stores in two days ranging in location from downtown Seattle to Sequim, Ferndale, and even a small shop in ocean shores. Why visit these far flung stores, well they give a you a pattern for a quilt block at each store along with a little fabric. The fabric was really cute and I had a blast. I went with a girl from work and her family and we just laughed, sang, and paroused the fabric stores. We even visited mom and dad when we crashed at their house on Wednesday. Now I just have to figure out how to put the blocks together. Anyone up for some quilting fun?

9 WORDS WOMEN USE

2008-06-01T00:50:00.000-07:00

A friend from college sent this to me and I just had to post it. Evan and I thought it was great. It's funny because it is true.

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.
(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the game (or play video games) before helping around the house.
(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.
(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!
(5) Loud Sigh: This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)
(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.
(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or Faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless shesays "Thanks a lot" - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say "you're welcome" ... that will bring on a "whatever").
(8) Whatever: Is a women's way of saying ____ YOU!
(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking "What's wrong?" For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Happy Birthday

2008-05-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Evan turned, 28 this year and for his birthday he got the backpacking hook up. Therma rest, whisperlite camp stove, nalgene bottle, and a mess kit. But he also got rubber yellow overalls for his Alaska trip. why yellow, you ask. Well they did have other colors, navy blue, forest green, black. . . but I wanted him to look like a big yellow duck, so here he is in all his aged splendor.

Something about me

2008-03-16T11:18:00.000-07:00

I decided that my next few posts will be little tidbits about me, so I'm startin with this one. This is my favorite poem, "Sara Cynthia silvia Stout" is also a favorite, but more about that later. Anyway this is "IF" by Rudyard Kipling.

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Not just Crazy, "Awesome Crazy"

2008-03-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Last week Evan and I both got stuck in some pretty bad traffic because a slightly disturbed woman got behind the wheel. What do I mean by slightly disturbed, only that she thought that the matrix, that's right the matrix was chasing after her. In her attempts to flee, she hit one car so hard that she spun 180 degrees, then she drove the wrong direction for a quarter mile before flipping a uturn on the highway. Next she weaved through traffic hitting a second car and forcing her own car up an embankment.

When passing drivers tried to help her she proceeded to assualt them. Seeing as they were matrix mercenaries, I guess they deserved it. When a state trooper arrived on the scene he was also assualted by the woman who was kicking, biting and punching anyone she could reach. She claimed to have a broken leg, but seeing as she continued to kick people the officers were 'a little skeptic.' Anyway, in Evan's words if you're gonna be crazy, don't just be crazy be "awesome crazy." Here is a link to the video and news release. http://www.kirotv.com/traffic/15426893/detail.html

things that weigh 14 ounces

2008-02-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

A can of green beans (actually these weigh 14.5 ounces, but close enough)

A classic bottle of Heinz Ketchup

14 Oz steak

A 23 week baby

So this is actually just a picture I found on the internet of preterm baby, but it gives you a sense of how little they are. Kind of cute huh. You'd be surprised how feisty these little guys can be too. Term babies aren't half as opinionated as these little guys, TRUST ME!

Progress!

2008-02-05T09:56:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid my Uncle Gary took us water sking for the first time. Nevervous and excited I listened carefully to all the instructions," lean back, let the boat pull you up, bend your knees and keep your arms straight." In case you haven't noticed, the phrase" LET GO OF THE ROPE" never came up. I don't think I really made it to water skiing, instead I went straight into human torpedo mode. And, being the stubborn child that I was I clunge on to the rope for dear life, bugs flying past me on the waters surface, getting dragged around the resevoir for 5-10 minutes. My sister Wendy described the scene best when she said, "I will never forget looking off the back of the boat seeing Jenny's arms holding on stead fast for dear life with the water making a perfect translucent cone over her face, mouth a-jar, eyes wide open. JUST LET GO OF THE ROPE!!!! "
Progress my friends one high school diploma and 6 years of college later, I made it up and. .. I let go of the rope when I fell.

Why Evan does NOT own an XBOX

2008-02-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Watch this video and you will understand.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1329362959167995041&pr=goog-sl

Just a Warning

2008-02-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

WARNING THIS BLOG MAY UPSET AND ANNOY!

This is mostly for the sake of my mother and Becky. I have never been good at replying to emails, calling people back and the like. So, in true Jenny fashion, I will probably write 'a veritable plethora' of entries this month and then neglect my blog, leaving it to collect proverbial dust. It's not that I don't like keeping in touch with people, I do. The truth is I'm just lazy and like to call instead.

For David's sake I will also warn readers that english/grammar is not my strong suit. Never was never will be. Things about my entries that may annoy the slightly OCD grammar natzis.

1. Sentences that run on for a really long time, because I use commas way too much, I even use them in place of periods from time to time, not cause I want be annoying, I just suck at english.

2. Spelling ('nuff said)

3. over abundance of parenthesis (I just like to add side thoughts and parenthsis are cute and inobtrusive)

4. big words (that I think I know the meaning of, but then again I could be wrong)

5. Random thoughts

6. Improper usage of ". . .", 'to' verus 'too,' colons and and semicolons, etc. . .

7. And other grammar fopas that I don't know about our understand. Trust me, there are alot of those.

And of course, the third warning about this blog is that I am the one writing it. That means if you dare to read it you will be exposing your self to. . . "random thoughts, by Jen." Just wait and if you keep reading you'll see what I mean.

Up to the present

2008-02-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

Here is an update to our life at present.
In July ’05 Evan began work at Ernst & Young, one of the big four accounting firms. He audits large companies and makes sure they don't lie aobut their finances to investors. He likes his job most days, but gets a little less enthused during busy season. From January to April he works 12 hour days during the week and another 8 hours on Saturdays (man I wish he wasn't salary), but the rest of the year he only has to work about 50 hours a week, so it isn't that bad all the time.
This summer he finally became a CPA (certified public accountant). A serious feat. He studied all the time and took a series of 4 or five tests over 2 years.

In July ’06 we moved into our apartment and are now enjoying all the amenities of older construction; including shower's that change from comfortable to boiling then freezing with the flush of a toilet, those 70’s ‘cottage cheese ceilings,’ and the occasional eight legged roommate. Man I wish we had a house.

In July '06 I began working at Tacoma General in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. All of my patients are premature babies weighing between 14 ounces and 8 pounds, so even with all the positioning and lifting my back is pain free. One thing I have injured though is my sense of size. I now think any infant weighing more than 5 pounds looks mammoth and something like a toddler.
Due to my job we have had an interesting change in our lifestyle. We now live like the characters in the 80’s movie Lady Hawk. I work the night shift (11 pm – 730 am) and Evan works days (7 am – 6/9 pm). We sleep at different times, but still enjoy evenings together, even if we sometimes eat breakfast for dinner and vice versa.