Mystery KAL, Clue #2

Here's the finished project after clue #2. I had a mini-meltdown when I realized that I needed to tear out four rows, and pick up the stitches plus place markers because I did the tuck stitch wrong. It was worth the effort though. The swirls are a bit subtle in this part due to my color choices. But I like the finished product. I may need to do some color switching though if this combo comes up again. I'll get clue #3 on Wednesday.

Stitch-n-Bitch #2

A fabulous weekend was had by all at the 2nd annual Sundstrom ladies Stitch-n-bitch weekend. Aunt BZ was an amazing hostess, inviting us all to her beautiful cabin on Lake Kachess and keeping us all entertained with a million games and activities while keeping an eye on her granddaughters Hadley and Madeline (unfortunately their mom's were busy running marathons and working). I'm still not sure how Katie pulled Edelweiss from "yodel-eyes" during BZ's turn at charades... The Narode girls definitely kept us entertained as well. Miss Logan was busy making us all pretty by painting our nails (this two-year-old has a future at some Korean nail salon), while Tate told us stories and made up a new Sundstrom word-Lapoxia (a really annoying person). OK, Laurie and Katie made it up, but not without Tate's beautiful, chickenpox-covered doll and her annoyance at their naming her doll Lapoxia. That word is a keeper for sure! Lots of knitting got done. I even managed to recover from my meltdown over having to tear out my messed up Tuck stitches to complete Clue #2 of my mystery knit-along bag. We had a beautiful walk down to the lake with the girls, and I got a workout pushing the stroller filled with Hads and Logan back up the hill to Zaide's house, as well as carrying Hads for long stretches of the walk when she got tuckered out. Here are a couple pics from the weekend, I've linked up the rest of the photos on my flickr account and will email the link to all involved!!
Shirley and Madeline
Katie torturing Logan and Tate
BZ, Hadley and Madeline and the "Toddler Bobbler"
Getting ready for our walk

Hadley taking a nap
Hadley, Logan, and Madeline "covering" their eyes for their treasure hunt
Down at Lake Kachess
Katie and the girls checking out the waterfront
Loggie looking very serious!

Mystery Knit-Along

So I decided to try something new with my knitting this summer. I'm doing my first mystery KAL. All I know is that I need a certain type of yarn (bulky) in four different colors, the size of my needles, and that it is a bag which will be felted, but doesn't have to be. I got my first clue this weekend and just finished up this week's knitting. I love my colors, and can't wait to see how this will proceed. I do know there will be cables throughout the bag, and I think that green is going to be the color for those. Other then that, it's a mystery! Here's some pics of my progress and my colors. I guess I'll get back to tearing through books now while I wait for clue #2.

Sunset

I was driving home from a workout the other night and was met with this glorious view while driving down high drive. Enjoy!

Caleb Moyer

The other day, I got to follow-through with the present I promised my friend Lindy when her son was born earlier this year. I said I would take pictures of Caleb (and the family) when she was ready for it. Portrait photography isn't really my favorite because it always seems so forced, but Caleb, Lindy, Nate and I had some fun taking pictures at the Butterfly Garden in Manito Park. Here are a couple of my favorite pics of the Little-Old-Man and the Moyer family.

Incidentally, I also promised my friends Greg and Melissa that I would do the same for them and their son JJ, and now it looks like I may be doing at least two more families. Crazy!

Per mom's request

Since you asked, here's another picture of Brad that I stole off his facebook page.

Week 16ish

This was my official 16th weight watchers meeting today (because I missed a few due to tennis and what not). I got to celebrate a 2.4 pound loss, and am a mere 1.5 pounds from hitting 25 (that's 1.5 for you bad mathematicians). A good week overall. I guess the triathlon training is paying off!

Catching up with Brad

So tonight, I got to hang out with my favorite teacher (who played hooky for a year), Brad. He just moved back to Spokane a couple weeks ago from his year off of teaching. It is so great to have him back at Freeman. He wanted to see our Browne's Apartment, so I spent the last two days cleaning and scrubbing and keeping myself from being embarrassed. The place has never looked so good, and Katie has never been so happy with me and our beautiful apartment. All the hard work paid off, and Mr. Van Dyne was thoroughly impressed with my house-keeping (he knew I needed a day or two to prepare). After the grand tour, we walked down to The Elk, a Browne's Addition staple and enjoyed a lovely dinner outdoors. The timing was perfect, and we paid up just before it started to rain. Lucky for me, Brad was up for a little more fun, so we headed downtown for a movie and saw Year One. Not quite as funny as The Hangover, but still a lot of laughs.

All in all a great time. Hopefully, we'll get to hang again this summer! No pics, but here's one from our golf tourney the other day of Brad. It pretty much sums up what we do golfing! Sorry I can't offer you a better pic this time.

Alumni Weekend

Katie and I headed out to Camp Cross this weekend to catch up with fellow Camp Alumnus. We had a beautiful weekend, with plenty of sun, a late night thunder storm, and craziness galore. My friend Tara and I planned a brilliant weekend over drinks at the Elk, and came up with some amazing events (which we scaled back when we realized there was no staff to help with set up). It was a great way to get the season going and see friends from all over. One of our friends, Brandon, flew all the way from Dallas to see us. Here's a couple of pics of the festivities.

Golfing with Katie

OK, I couldn't pass this up. This video is of Katie attempting to be "Happy Gilmore" at our golfing shindig last week. Sorry about the shaking mid-way but I was laughing so hard. She looks like she slammed it a mile, but really it went about 4 feet. I, on the other hand, knocked mine about 150 yards when I finally made contact. It was rad!



Needless to say, there was a lot of laughing that day!

Summer Vacation

OK, I know, I know, I'm the worst blog updater ever! I have no excuse except that I've been reading like a mad fiend and doing pretty much nothing so far. I do have a few up dates though as to what I've been up to. So keep reading. I will be mega-posting much like my favorite cousin Megan.

Books finished during week 1:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, that is really the title. Maybe the best book I've ever read. It's Jane Austin's Pride and Predjudice complete with Lizzy and Mr. Darcy, but it has the addition of England being under attack by the zombie undead. The girls are trained in the Deadly Arts and zombie fighting machines. Well worth the read! Jane's never been so hard to put down.

The 39 Clues #4: this has been my favorite young adult series of the year (you've got to get it for the boys mom). A brother and sister team are racing other family members all over the world to be the first to find 39 clues that will reveal the family secret and change the world. This one took them to the tombs of Egypt. Fast-paced and fun with lots of history mixed in. Fabulous.

Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian: sadly the last of this fabulous series by Rick Riordan, writing about young Percy Jackson (a demi-god and son of Poseidon). Percy and friends are in the final battle against a newly-risen Kronos (father of the Greek Gods), who wants to overthrow the gods and throw the world into Chaos. It was a fun series with some serious mythological know-how. I'm sad to see it ended, but loved the final book. Also a good series for the boys mother.

Because I Am Furniture: Written in prose. It's about the youngest girl in a family who is ignored by her father and feels unloved. Her father however is physically and sexually abusive so maybe that's not a bad thing although she feels like she has no worth since he doesn't bother to abuse her. Fascinating journey of her finding her voice and her worth.

Two...more....hours

I can't believe it! Only two more short hours in my teaching year. I am so ahead of the game right now. I have my grades in and posted, my room in pretty decent shape, and a scant two hours with students tomorrow. Then it's off for golf and celebrating the end of our year. We have to go to school on Wednesday to make up for our snow day, but our student-less day should fly right by! God I can't wait. Summer vacation, books, tanning and Mariners games here I come!

Freeman Girls, State Champions

Well, our tennis season has come to an end with a lovely stay in Yakima, the Palm Springs of Washington... I took two of my singles girls, Lea and Maya, and a doubles team, Katie and Blair, to the state tourney. The girls did awesome. Lea and Maya made it to the finals and played each other for the championship. Lea (the older sister) won, and Maya took 2nd. Blair and Katie got knocked out in round three. They lost to the state champions in the first round and then the consolation bracket champs in the 3rd round. Not bad for their first trip to state. They should be back next year with a great shot at placing high. Our team also placed 1st as a team, winning that state championship for the second year in a row. I'm very proud of our girls, although I have little to do with how well Maya and Lea did. They are very talented players. I'm going to enjoy the ride while I have them!