Three lucky needles in a haystack

When we first got married we lived in a small college town, then we moved from there to another small town. Brad grew up there, if your trying to guess where I am at. Then the next move was to the BIG city, where we live now. When we lived in the small town (where Brad grew up) I was always running into someone at the store. Which is good, but sometimes ya just want to get the shopping done. When I'm shopping with the kids its a get in, get the food, get out as soon as possible. So I found it very hard in the small town when I would always run into people because it made the process longer. And my kids don't have that attention span in the store.

When I lived in the Apartments (a few months ago) I had a friend there that this BIG city was her home town. And I remember her saying to me once "Its so small here, your always running into people around town!" My jaw literally dropped to the ground. I couldn't believe she was saying that. She actually ran into people here!

Well we are working on four years here in this area. Saturday we went to the Pumpkin Patch. For future reference Don't go the last weekend before Halloween. Its way too crowded! I miraculously ran into three different people I knew!!! How crazy is that! In this BIG city, I ran into three different people.
Finding a friend or a local face here in this BIG city is like finding a needle in a haystack, and when it happens your so excited, but yesterday I found three!
My lucky "three needle" finds were Laura J., Tarja H. and a lady from Lucy's dance class.

What movie is this quote from?

What movie is this quote from?

"Its in my professional opinion that now is the time to PANIC! "

My only guess is, its from a kids movie. Hello, I'm a mother of 5 what else do I watch, shoooot, kid movies are the only ones I can quote. This has been my quote of the month. When things are turning into the "panic" stages of the day. I find myself repeating this. I'll bake cookies for the winner! If you live far away, then I'll send them.

My Research

I am getting ready for another (HFPE) Enrichment Night in a few weeks and in my "research" I came across this... CHAOS stands for

Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome.

It never fails, when the house is messy, someone comes over.

When its clean, NO ONE comes over.

Is that a Murphy's law or something?

On a Whim...

On a Whim Owen and I visited a cemetery.

I picked up Owen from a birthday party and on the way home we needed to stop by WinCo to get a few staples (milk and bread). As we were stopped at the light we noticed this cemetery. We were chatting about it, and actually saw two women go into it. So Owen says to me "Mom, lets go in there." Its surrounded by busy streets, this busy grocery store and a major highway. But curiosity got the best of me and I said "okay, after we get our stuff."
Saturday at this particular store is chaos! I couldn't even park close, I had to park in the parking lot as you first drive into WinCo's lane. Yeah, it was crazy busy I've never had to park clear out there before. But, that made it very convenient for us to visit the cemetery.

So we entered. I still can't believe there is a cemetery there. I never knew it and would have never discovered it, but I was going the opposite direction I usually go.

It totally felt like we were entering another world. The tombstones were very old, some of them were missing the top half where all the info is. I assume some vandals had knocked them off their base, moss was growing on them, I even saw a snail crawling up one. The ground was very uneven, it felt like your foot sunk a half an inch. I almost bolted like twenty times. But with all the traffic around it made me feel like others were there. (actually "others" were there, but living "others" is what made me feel okay hehehehe)
We made a few cool discoveries... like these were the oldest dates:

Fredrick Tanck died Nov. 3, 1900 at 54 yrs. (born 1846)

and

William A. Scott 89 yrs died April 3, 1908 (born in 1819)

and

J.S.H. Johnson died March 15, 1906 at 76 yrs old. (born in 1830)

Check out those DATES!

I stood on the old hill and looked around. I was thinking why here? Where I stood it was surrounded by busy traffic. I wondered what it looked like back then. Why this spot? So I turned around and thought maybe it was the view. But back then that little hill wouldn't have a view, it probably had dense trees or lush green stuff and blackberries. I felt like it was a special spot, so special that someone back in the days chose this specific piece of land to bury their dead.
But was sad that in 2008, I didn't even notice it and only on a whim did I come in. I'm glad we did go in. We looked at every single tombstone. I thought we were done and even said Lets go to Owen when out of the corner of my eye I noticed another tombstone off in the corner, on the rooty part of a hill. And this is who I found;

Mary Anderson

born December 14, 1825

Promoted August 23,1905

The word Promoted made me smile.

We discovered a garden snake.

We discovered tons of grasshoppers. This cemetery was jumping with grasshoppers. An unusual number for the Seattle area, yeah, that made me want to bolt...again.

So, even though it was on a whim. I'm glad Owen and I visited this little cemetery. I, for a moment traveled back in time. Trying to picturing Seattle in the early early 1900's. A couple of the tombstones said they were from England. I wondered what they thought of this country, wild and dense, when they arrived. I wondered if there work has been done. I kept saying to Owen "Way back when, they were walking right here, right where we are, a hundred plus years ago. "

So, next time your at WinCo by yourself or with a kid, or two...check it out. It was a nice experience. And now there is another element of scary when going to WinCo at night. A commentary is right over there!

Funny Zucchini

Owen was running around the house giggling himself silly this morning before school. I was in the other room and was hearing him say "I'm wearing a Zucchini!" he'd crack himself up and continue giggling and I'd hear him again "I'm wearing a zucchini"
I'm thinking Zucchini, what? I do have a large zucchini in the fridge, I thought maybe they were playing with the vegetables or something. I walk in and he's running around in his underwear.
He meant to say Bikini, but thought the word was zucchini.
So then I cracked up.

Freaky Friday

On certain Fridays school starts late. This morning after dropping off the boys I said to Lucy and Luke "We should walk the boys to school next Friday! Wouldn't that be fun!"
Lucy crinkles up her nose, looks at me in the mirror of the van and says "Your Freaking me out!"
Well I know it would be a long walk, but not that scary!

Ending on a good note...

You could say

(deep breath)

Today didn't go as smoothly as other days, that's saying it in a nicely

(wink-wink)

Things just didn't go swell, honky dory, or well today.

So as I am getting ready for bed, I was thinking about my "smooth" day,

and before I wake Brad, who is asleep on the couch and I go to bed too...

I would end on a good note.

I'll tell ya 20 things that I found GOOD about today:

1. I got ready for the day, before my kids woke up this morning. Very important! Ya never know what your going to encounter for the day. I look at it as, my hair is done, my makeup is on, I'm clean, smell nice...bring on the day!

2. I paid rent.

3. My house was clean this morning. Last night I had enrichment at my house, so it was sparkling clean. So I aways enjoy waking up with a clean house.

4. Luke makes me smile.

5. Luke slept in his "big boy" bed last night. He likes Lucy's bed, and actually prefers to take his naps there. So I put his crib mattress on the floor next to his "big" sister. He was content, and fell asleep, eventually rolled right off on the floor and slept on the floor for most of the night.

6. I love my new pair of Levis. They are so comfy, designed perfectly to fit my butt!. I might have to go back and buy more...hey people, good fitting jeans are hard to come by, when you find good ones, don't ya wish you could buy the whole rack.

7. My kids looked good for picture day today. Monday we took family pictures and Wednesday is school pictures. A week of pictures.

8. My car functioned properly today.

9. There are still Hershey's kisses w/Almonds left over from the enrichment party.

10. The mail man still delivered my mail even though someone was parked within 15ft (or whatever the rule is) of the mailbox.

11. I'll be "Utterly" prepared for enrichment in October. I had a meeting this morning. Don't forget to come to our "How to be an 8 Cow Woman!" on Oct.14 dinner at 6:30pm sharp. Go, Now, Mark it on your Calendar.

12. Jaeger did his reading without complaining, and I got to see him smile that "oh, gosh mom" smile when I told him he did a GREAT job!

13. I realize I like the "oh, gosh mom" smile in my kids. (Evil Laugh) They better watch out!

14. Picturing Owen, in his high water PJ's and his too short of a shirt outfit for bed tonight. He's growing like a weed.

15. Remembering, just now, its time to get out the growth chart to document all this growing going on in the Redford family. Yeah!

16. My husband let me vent to him... the, just stay quiet while I get this all out, vent. He did a great Job! Thanks my wonderful hubby, I love You!

17. Remembering Lucy's hair due today makes me smile. childhood is bliss. She had a slept in hair due that was coming out every which direction, if she noticed, she didn't care!

18. I remembered to take the garbage out to the curb. Tomorrow is garbage day.

19. This feels good!

20. I'm almost forgetting my "smooth" day, already

ps. sometimes I wonder if I use my commas correctly.