We miss you Huggy Bear!

Spring Break!

I can not tell you what a HUGE blessing this trip was. During the time of the year when you cannot bear another cold, wet, cloudy day....going to sunny Cancun Mexico is just pure delight! My parents & brother have a time share in Mexico, & with the Christmas gift of my parents paying for airline travel, we squealed w/ excitement knowing we would all be getting some serious vitamin D come March.
Some pix of the trip....Wilson reaching for sand to plow Noah, Noah attempting to buggy board some waves, my mom & Lucy, me attempting to get a together photo of my very uncooperative children, and finally Annie-Grace getting braids on the beach.
Thanks again mom & dad, we had a wonderful time!!!!!

Backtracking Part III

New Year new template....finally, in all my computer expertise, changed the blogs backdrop. Hope you likes:)
Daniel had his second year of dressing up as 'ol St. Nick. His hair is much longer this year, and it called for more hair paint. Here he is w/ Andru, Madrid, and Bernice (his sister Debra's kids). They live here too, as most of you know. We wish we could see them more- life just gets busy.
Daniel and I had a night out for our 16th year wedding anniversary. We love sushi, and tried a new place in Seattle, it was yummy!
Finally, the last pictures are of Christmas family breakfast we had together. Lovely to have "L" back from Iraq, safe and sound. He's back after his 3rd tour over seas.
Hugs to all! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I think Im fairly caught up on our happenings!!!

Backtracking Part 2 December 2010

The Seattle Marathon was November 28th. I still look back on that day & find it hard to believe we ran 26.2 miles, but we sure did. Funny, the things I worried about during the run I didnt need to worry about @ all; like fueling properly- that wasn't an issue. I found an "espresso love" gel that worked great. However I did have a knee pain that suddenly arose @ mile 10 that required 6 Ibuproffin to get me through the race. Argh. The kids, an Dan cheered me into the finish line, it was very emotional. All those training miles logged and here we were finally finishing. Erika is my sweat sister who gets me through on these long runs, a dear friend to run side by side with.

Here is Annie-Grace celebrating moving up from Brownies to Girl Scouts. My dad & brother were in for a visit too, which was great "eating" fun. We visited all our favorite restaurants and even found a new one in China town, called Hong Kong Bistro....yummmm!!! Nothing like Asian noodles. We ate good!

Backtracking November 2010

Im still here!!! I've been in a blogging "funk" lately, but am determined to find my way back. I can't believe its been since last October since I wrote. Between extra work stuff and training for the marathon, I ran out of steam in many areas. So here is my measly attempt @ catching up.


Noah made a apple pie this year for Thanksgiving....amazing how he can't remember where shoes are, clothes, clean his room, but when it comes to food, his brain is suddenly clear. I've never even made an apple pie! It was delicious. Way to go Noah!


Daniel turned 44 this year. He is officially in school full time. We are determined to finish sooner than later- God willing. He's doing amazing, & is finally getting recognition for his amazing mind. He also plays Mr. Mom on his off days. I don't know any other guy who has gotten more of a taste of what its like to play this difficult roll. BTW most know this but the beard is for playing St. Nick @ some Christmas parties in December...the kids love him!

And, completely out of order...is Halloween. Im sad to say this is the first Halloween we were not all together. My older kids went in different directions w/ their friends and I didn't get any pictures of them. Only my sweet angel Annie-Grace.

Bloedel Reserve

There is this place on the Island that is so amazingly beautiful. It is a 150 acre nature preserve and garden. It has a lovely 2 mile walk through a Japanese garden, Moss garden and water pools etc. I cant wait to see it in the fall, its supposed to be gorgeous.
So, just trying to entice any visitors.....The place gives a whole new meaning to the color green!!!!
Hope "ya'll" are settling into fall, school, and sports schedules. Dan is in school full time this semester, Im still training for a marathon and the kids....well the kids are great. Some are taking a break from activities and just playing:)
Blessings to all of you! We miss ya!

Summer Birthday Mania!

Its still amazing to me that Dan & I have four kids w/ their birthdays all with in 6 weeks of each other. Annie-Grace is 9, Lucy 11, Wilson 13, and Noah turned 15 this year. Their birthdays were a blast. Lucy got a bike, which she loves and has been riding everywhere- even on my training runs. Annie-Grace got new shoes, clothes and earrings. Wilson, an new phone and Noah a guitar. The boys also received baseball gloves. Just a quick THANKS to grandma and grandpa Wilson for all the great birthday clothes and gift cards. Aunt Courtney & Uncle Kory, the girls loved, loved their bracelets. And thanks to Pa-Paw for Noah's guitar- great gifts and thank you so much!!!

Time is flying by, they are all growing so fast. I have to brag and say they are amazing kids. Lucy spent many summer mornings selling lemonaide to golfers, Wilson did yard work, washed cars to earn all his money for Young Life camp. Noah walks dogs for extra money. So proud of all of them. Dan and I are some blessed parents.

Sweet!!!!

Last week Dan and I had a great opportunity to go to a Mariners game in Seattle. We sat with some of my work mates in the Virginia Mason suite and gorged on free hot dogs, popcorn and soda pop....hmmm:) Thanks to a manager @ work, who wasn't able to go, thanks Shirley! She gave me her ticket, and that meant one Donohue child could come with....Wilson was the pick. (too hard to explain why he was chosen) Anyway, a very fun, exciting game against the Cubs that tied until the 13th inning.....sadly we lost, but if your going to lose, at least it was to the Cubs, right? No, but what can you do?
These pictures were taken by Sally and her new camera, she's on the far left...and continuing on is Laura, Kate, Andrea, Valerie, GiGi & daughter Chloe, me and Katie. Several others were there too, but must of left early...Danica, Adam, Pavla.....hope I'm not missing anyone. Lovely time w/ all of you!!! and thanks Virginia Mason!!!!

Launching

To launch kids into high school, Woodward middle school has a huge 8th grade banquet, with dancing, games, dinner and big fun. Its an almost formal event.
What I can't believe, is that I will have a high school kid in the fall. Its amazing to me how Noah has grown up, and continuing to grow up into man hood. His voice has changed and he has hair on his legs! He makes money dog walking and baby sitting. He recently went on a gofer hunting trip w/ my dad, brother and some of my cousins in Montana. He has much to learn, as we seem to be confronted with daily, however, he is a good young man, and a pleasure to be his mom:)

Go Run

My Lucy likes to run. She joined a girls running group @ school this spring and had her first race. Sometimes she joins me on short runs- does part of it and heads home so I can finish my other half. Her end of the season was completed w/ a Viking Fest 1 mile fun run. Poulsbo is the next town north of us and its a little Norwegian sweet spot, thus the 'Viking' in Viking Fest:) I was so proud of her and have secret ambitions of her and I doing long runs and races when she's older, but for now I glowed and watched. Ok, teared up and watched. She was awesome, did her 1 mile in 9:21 min. and the best part was she had fun, and wants to do it again. I think she may have discovered the "runners high"!

Bad blogger:)

Well, since it's June and I completely skipped April and May, I thought I would give some updates. Summer will be here soon and hopefully I can play catch up on some blogging. The kids are busy getting final projects turned in, Daniel his grad. school papers, me, well I got sucked into Monarch of the Glen. A wonderful little Scottish miniseries on BBC:) And, I have signed up to run a full marathon in November. It's the Seattle's 40th anniversary marathon and I will be turning 40 that week. So, I'm taking the plunge, and hopefully I will still enjoy running after it's all over. Why do I run? Well, I've asked this question to myself many times. The best answer....It get's the "yuck" out of me. All those unnecessary worries, thoughts, fears seem to get worked out a little better after a good sweaty run. I'm a better wife and mom for it, I hope. So, I'll probably be adding some blogs about my runs intermittently with the family stuff.
Blessings on everyone's summer, ours is still 14 days away....

Score!!!!

Two Saturdays ago Wilson scored his first goal in a Lacrosse game. He's having a fun season. Understanding the game better, and feeling more confident has really made the game more fun for him. He told me after the game, " Mom, its so much more fun when you know what your doing". Lacrosse is a new sport for us; last year was our first year. I'm still trying to figure out rules and what a "mittie" is. The games are pretty exciting, and I find I can't stop yelling. Reminds me of my old soccer coaching days, yelling @ the boys "SCORE"!

Skipping February

Well, the month of February came and went. I tried to think of something super interesting to blog but life is moving along in its normal way and that month just swept by. We have had "supposedly" a mild winter, and the ground hog was wrong for Seattle b/c spring has begun. Our cherry blossoms have bloomed, and it looks like pink snow when the tiny flowers fall. Bulbs are up and blooming and I have bright pink flowers on some kind of shrub/tree by my door. We've had some beautiful sunny days, and I cannot tell you how wonderful it is for my mood. It's like liquid vitamin D for my soul. I get so excited about the seasons coming, because spring, summer and fall are just beautiful here. People change almost overnight when the sun comes out...people smile as they walk down the street with their dogs, more bicycle riders are out and commuting again, and the day light is longer to enjoy. This for me is great, because on my work days I can actually get through the day seeing no daylight at all in the winter. Well, blessings to all, I have my sweet Annie-Grace home from school today for parent teacher conference week, and we are headed out to enjoy some liquid vitamin D!

Noah

So, Noah broke his arm again in the same spot as he did last fall, but this time a little worse. He was playing basketball w/ friends during school and he and a buddy thought it would be fun to play the "tripping game". Noah tripped his friend and his friend tripped him back. However, Noah fell backwards and apparently landed wrong on his right elbow. So, this time the doctor recommended surgery to pin it and keep it still and grow back properly. It was a long day @ Children's Medical Center in Seattle. Our surgeon was 2 1/2 hours behind schedule finishing up a spinal surgery. Children's did a great job taking care of us and Noah, and I am extremely grateful for all they do. I was a little nervous before they took Noah back to the O.R.....I was recommending a break for the surgeon...maybe a latte w/ extra shots to keep him extra alert? It had already been a full day for him, and it was now 3:30pm and he was just getting started on my kid. Thankfully all went smoothly except, right after they took out his iv he started feeling nauseous, no more Zofran for him. He proceeded to vomit the next 2 hours- argh. Thankfully anesthesia wears off and he woke up fine this am w/ his normal stomach of steel eating breakfast and drinking coffee. He will get his cast of next week and put in a sling....he should be good as new, although he obviously couldn't do wrestling season this winter, and probably won't be fully recovered for a couple of months.
Miss all who read my "homely" little blog- hugs to everyone....

Old St. Nick

Dan started a new tradition this year. He dressed up like father Christmas and offered complimentary photos w/ Santa @ a place called Faybainbridge here on the island. Its basically a park w/ a nice log cabin, open shelter w/ fire place and picnic tables etc. We rearranged; set up Christmas lights, Christmas tree, lit the fire and served hot cocoa, cider to any who came. Next year we will get the word out better, but we did have some who shared the magic. Dan blessed the children and he seems to have a special way w/ them.....they seem to just gravitate toward him. I wish I could show you some of the precious pictures of the looks on their faces, but I don't have permission from parents. You can see a very suspicious Annie-Grace.....who seems to know already:(

December 18th 1993

Many of you remember 16 years ago, when we enticed our dear friends and family to San Antonio for our little Christmas wedding. I remember finishing finals and rushing to unload my things to Dan and I's new apartment. My sweet dear friends helped tremendously...drove all night, taking shifts and getting a little lost. I'll never forget waking up in the car on the drive down to hear Jennifer say, "Dang, how many toll booths do we have to pay to go through?"...."uummm, one. How many have you driven through?" I think she answered w/ the number three. But, we got there ok, and on time :) I still chuckle at that conversation.
We spent our anniversary by going into Seattle for the day when the kids were in school, having coffee, Christmas shopping, and had a very nice french meal in Belevue. Low key, but nice. Got home in time before the kids were in bed, and had Wilson be our photographer ....(we had to take several pictures).
So, hard to believe it's been sixteen years, I know it's been Jesus walking beside us to get us here. I'm blessed and thankful. And, although I would do a few things differently along our journey, I would still do it all over again. May we have another blessed sixteen and many, many more!

Thanksgiving Part II

And, a Happy Belated Birthday to my sweet husband Daniel....I love you, loverboy:)