Snow Flakes Are Falling On My Head

Big snow flakes began to fall about 3:30 pm, just as I was getting home from the University of Washington, Tacoma. I was working at The South Sound College Fair there. I don't know why this poster has the 27th on it rather than the 26th...


Phillip and I spoke to about 50 potential students today giving them information and college catalogs. One thing great about that fair is that they treat their college representatives well that come to work at the fair. They serve a Continental breakfast and a nice box lunch so we don't have to worry about getting food ourselves. Students and parents like to come to UWT just to see the historical buildings. They took some of the old brick buildings and turned it into a campus. One of the buildings was an old mattress factory seen below. They leave the names and advertisements up there for historical reasons.

I just looked online and here is cam picture of UWT's Plaza where I was... and it's snowing there. You can get to the web cam HERE. I got out of there just in time. You can see snowflakes... Brr.

I am planning to stay in tonight. I managed to get to the store and get food etc so we are good there. Have a great Saturday night... Hugs

Look Out!

It's coming! The clouds from Cali are on their way here (Thanks Cali, like we need rain ;-) and the cold air from Canada (Thanks Canada, like we need more cold air ;-) and now we are looking at a week (5 days if not more) forecast with...? Yep, you guessed it: snow! At this point I don't know if we will escape it. And we have been doing so well too this winter. Right over head the two will crash and we will get the white stuff. Not good. So look out, once it leaves here it will head across the nation usually.

Maybe Cali got all the water and we won't. It sure looks like it on the news. I will talk to my family there tomorrow and see how they are doing.

I get teased a lot about the rain here. My stepdad was teasing just last week. They had driven to Solvang near Santa Barbara, and it was a nice day there that day when all I could report was rain and cold. He likes to tease that I can jinks the weather there when I visit because I am now from Seattle. He'll probably try to say that I must be visiting there in So California because of it raining. You know, oddly enough when I go "home" to visit it does rains. So I have a reputation now. It actually rained once when I went down and went to Disneyland one day. I had been to Disneyland probably 100 times when I lived there growing up with it in my "backyard" and it never rained on the day I went to Disneyland. But there we were with yellow ponchos and hoods on that you can buy in the park. We looked like a bunch of bananas.

Anyway, well, today was easy. I went to the Junior Achievement building in Auburn for a high school career specialist meeting in the area. We were given a tour and had lunch. I had the rest of the day off because I work tomorrow.

So there I was with 3 or 4 hours of "me" time and I couldn't decide what to do with it. Then after I got the boys, I started thinking of all kinds of things I could have done with the time. I will have to start a list and carry it with me all the time.

I hope you have a restful night. Until tommorow.

Des Moines Pier

I am experimenting... like I mentioned yesterday, I said I would try to post these pictures of the view I saw from the park in Des Moines, WA which is near the Puget Sound. I wanted these to be next to each other to get the whole picture but it didn't work. You will see the pier first above...

then I believe one of the islands (in the water here is where I saw the seals),

and above you will look west towards Bremerton (where the Navy is located) with the Olympic Mountains covered with snow (which you can barely see on the horizon... looks like clouds but it is mountains),

and then the shoreline looking north. I don't know how these will post but we will see. Remember, I am learning... If I could hook them together you would have a big view like the one I saw standing there.

Hugs everyone!

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

I forgot to tell you about something funny that happened yesterday. When I had misplaced my glasses I asked Riley while we were in the car driving to school if he had seen them. Sometimes kids see things with their keen eyesight. I thought I'd give it a shot. He said "no grandma" and then after a long pause he said "your keys are right there grandma" pointing to the keys in the ignition. (Thanks Riley). He was bound and determined to help me with anything he knew I sometimes misplaced. He forgot mentioning the cell phone, thank goodness. I was being exposed.

I had a strange experience today. I went to a high school in a city named Des Moines. There hasn't been any snow in the area. However when I turned onto a street all of a sudden like magic there was snow on the ground and ice in the street. It was weird. I parked the car at the school and stepped out crushing on the ice. I could tell that the snow had been there awhile. That made it even more strange. The kids told me it fell on Sunday for 20 minutes. They said it has been cold enough to keep it on the ground. I only live on another hill. But because they are near the Puget Sound they stay cooler.

Afterwards I discovered I was only a few blocks from the Sound, I drove down to the little park at the end of the street and tried to take some pictures to show you the water and the view of the Olympic Mountains. While I was doing that I could hear seals out in the water playing amongst the bird sounds. So I started looking for them and sure enough there was two or three seals out in the water. The people around me knew they were there too because they had glasses to look out on the water. Once I was at Alki beach and a seal appeared near where I was sitting. I felt blessed for having it choose to show itself to me and try to talk to me. My guess is that it thought I had something to give it to eat.

I will add those pictures tomorrow good or bad. Aaron is having finals and is using the computer. So I am limited to my blackberry.

Have a good evening and tomorrow. Hugs.

Chilly Out There

Actually that's an understatement. It was 24 degrees F when I woke up this morning. I did not want to get out of bed and wishing I could stay home like I did yesterday. But duty calls and we got it together and got out the door on time. I thought there might be black ice on the road but it was ok. There was only frozen puddles. Because we haven't had rain for a few days and the air is dry there isn't anything to make ice. If I could have got a good picture I could have proven that it doesn't always rain here. The sky was the bluest blue (for you Bobby Sherman fans) today. Not a bit of smog in the air or on the horizon which is still a wonder to me with all these people and cars here.

I had misplaced my glasses which bothered me all day. I don't know why because there are days I don't use them at all. Thank goodness I found them tonight after putting in over an hour looking for them. They had fallen and was under a piece of furniture. It seems one needs their glasses to find their glasses.

Have a good evening. Hugs

Happy MLK Day

I am off today because of Martin Luther King Day. It is pretty cold here. When I woke up this morning it was in the mid 20s but most the rest of the country is making that look warm (except CA:). Tomorrow is suppose to be colder with the "s" word possibly coming on Thursday.

I heard on the news that today is Blue Monday. This Monday of January is the day that most are possibly feeling blue from lack of sun, bills from Christmas, and the New Years Resolutions have faded. I personally am feeling OK. I am reviewing my weight lost and increasing my strategies. I am planning my spring and summer at this time. I am also planning Brady's 3rd birthday which is on Friday Feb. 1st. Those things are keeping me going... along with a coat, scarf, and gloves.

Here is what I found from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Blue Monday is a name given to a date calculated to be the most depressing day of the year.
This date was calculated by Cliff Arnall. The date was calculated to be 24 January in 2005[2], 23 January in 2006[3], 22 January in 2007[4], and 21 January in 2008[5].
The date was calculated by using many factors, including: weather conditions, debt level (the difference between debt accumulated and our ability to pay), time since Christmas, time since failing our new year’s resolutions, low motivational levels and feeling of a need to take action. This date typically falls on the Monday of the last full week of January. This would make 21 January the Blue Monday of 2008. Mr Arnall has also calculated the happiest day of the year. In 2005 he found it was 24 June[6] and in 2006 it was 23 June For this he used a formula which uses factors including: the outdoors, nature, social interaction, childhood summers and positive memories, temperature and holidays.

Seattle has an international community and there is a focus on "Aussie Day" on Saturday. Many of us here wish we were there celebrating with them in Australia and where it is warm.



I was brave and at 10 am in the morning I took the little guys to the movies to see the Veggie Tales movie called "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" (or something like that). They needed to get out of the house and it is too cold to go out to play. We get a discount if you go to a movie at 10 am plus it is good to get them home and put down for a nap afterwards. So that worked well.

The rest of the day I am just doing things around the house and getting ready for the week ahead. Have a great day!

The Bucket List

Dave and I went to brunch and then went to the movies again. It has been so cool that being indoors is all we would rather do. We decided that we wanted to see "The Bucket List" based on the fact that Jack Nicholson was in it. I know he plays the surly man often but he does it so well. It was a very good movie about two men that faced their mortality (as you can tell by the title). Of course, it caused the audience to also face the same issues in their own minds. I, for one, am a person that thinks on these types of issues a little more than others. I think that having a father with MS and then dying of cancer, and losing a sister at the age of 20 in a car accident, caused a type of poetic awareness that life ends for all of us at some point. I know it sounds morbid but I will often look at the obituaries to read the stories of real people and what happened in their lives. It causes me to think about others and their families. I call it "sobering"... it reminds me that having a bad day is not issues such as gaining a few pounds, having a bad hair day, being late to work, or being grumpy because I lost sleep. There are people dealing with really hard challenges. I won't tell you any more than that so that it won't ruin the movie for you... but if you get a chance to see it I recommend it.

It is cold here today. It is clear today so that takes away the cloud cover that keeps us a little warmer. One would think that if there is sun then there would be warmth... nope, not the case. I thought that I might take the boys up to the snow in the mountains but I am looking for a good day in the mountains and a little help. I am not sure I would tackle that job alone. Not a really good plan to do it alone. So, I am now trying to think of an other outting for tomorrow. Dave and Kari goes to work but the rest of us stay home in respect to Martin Luther King Jr.. Stay tuned...
Have a good evening