Hey There...It's Me...Rachel!

oh...did you know you can now blog via mobile and email??? Hmmmm...I might need to check on that!

So sorry to my faithful readers (there are some out there right? Thanks Tabitha for checking in on me today)....I can't say that I've been so busy that I couldn't blog, but I've been busy!!! LOL!

I was gone for four days over to the other side of the mountains...I had a career fair to go to (don't even ask how it went!)...then I spent time hanging out with Holly and her family. I even got a visit in with Marcie (thanks for the yummy ice cream!) and her cute chickens (I say chickens because her son Noah barely said Hello...must be that age!).

On Friday we went and hung out at the Puyallup Spring Fair...and yes, Nina I had corn on the cob for you!! It rained a bit off and on, but overall the weather was pretty decent and we had a lot of fun.

Went on a few rides...well Carter went on most of them although I did convince Holly to go on the gondola ferris wheel...didn't realize how petrified she was up there. Carter and I were having a blast and she was hanging on for dear life!!!

Yes, this is me laughing at the top of the ferris wheel as the rain was beating down on us...I did notice that Holly was holding on to the middle bar as she took my picture!

We also saw some animals...Pigs...lots and lots of smelly pigs

Miniature horses that Carter absolutely loved...probably because someone in the barn said he could touch them.

And more smelly animals...cows!

ate some food...Mom...come back with that yummy COTTON CANDY!!!This picture totally cracked me up...I had Holly take it to be funny as I ate my popcorn and coincidentally the lady next to me was eating a bite of popcorn at the same time!!! I'm going to call this scrap book page Synchronized Popcorn Eating!!!

walked through all the booths and watched a few shows such as the flying dogs and dancing horses.
Oh, I also got to play a good game of checkers with Barb.

Saturday we walked through downtown Sumner and went into the little shops along main street. I graduated from Sumner High School and man it sure has changed since I graduated...I must be getting old! :)

Being home this week I've been feeling in the crafty mode so I've got some of the projects out that never got finished at the CK conventions I go to. I finished a cute wall hanging and started on a few books too...I'm prepping myself for a fun weekend of scrapping with Jen and Holly next month!!!

I was also finishing up the last few assignments for school...passed them all (even after I acidentally deleted half of one them when doing revisions...ugh!!!)

I am now changing some stuff with school in order to get my WA State teaching license easier and hopefully quicker. I am changing my MA program to a Post-Baccaluareate (sp?) program...GRADUATING next month and then rejoining the MA program later this summer!

I also heard a small rumor that my local high school might, MIGHT, be hiring a history teacher for this fall....please, please pray that this is an open door from God and that the job is mine if it truly does become an availble job!

So that's my life right now in a small nutshell! I'm going to Pasco this weekend to attend a dinner auction with my friends Christina and Ismo...I'm hoping to win something and at the same time support Christina's school...they are a private school trying to raise money for a new school building! Wish me luck!

Dance Like No One is Watching....

Or like you are a five-year old boy...who has a very strange sense of humor!!

This is my nephew Mason who has had this funky idea on how dancing should be! He is totally hilarious. The few minute times that he shoves his butt towards me....then he is giving me a farting noise...little stinker!

Why Would We Do This?

By Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) - Federal customs agents say a pearl-handled AK-47 that belonged to Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and was in the hands of the U.S. Army is being sent back to Iraq.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says the automatic rifle is chrome-plated and has a photo of Hussein near the sight.

ICE spokesman Lou Martinez says the return of the rifle was recently requested by the Iraqi government and ICE traced it to Fort Lewis near Tacoma.Peter J. Smith, special agent in charge of the ICE office of investigations in New York, called the AK-47 "a priceless symbol of Iraqi history."

Martinez said Friday that the Army, which had planned to put the weapon in a museum, cooperated fully with its return.

My question is why would ever consider returning weapons to a country where we had to send our brave military men and women to overthrow this barbarian? It doesn't make any sense to me at all. I fully understand why our military would like to keep it to symbolize the work and the lives lost in order to see Hussein overthrown...but really, give it back? Sheesh....

You are NOT going to BELIEVE this...

If you don't know about paperbackswap.com then you are missing out!!! I LOVE to read, and I mean LOVE!!!

I belong to an online group where you can post the books you want to trade and then when people request your book so send it to them and in return you receive a credit to request your own book!! LOVE IT!!! If you are interested click the button on my sidebar as I get credits for referrals...

But alas, I digress...

I request J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard...been wanting to read it since I love the Harry Potter series, but haven't wanted to pay for the book....so I requested it from paperbackswap.com

I got my book in the mail today....open it up to check it out...and WHOA...






a little surprise fell out.....











Have you scrolled down far enough to see it?










Here you go!

Do you think I should contact the person who sent me the book? LOL!!!

What's scary is the book was sent from Spokane...so this guy could live only a couple of hours from me! Hey, maybe she knows I'm looking for a husband!!! :)

Really?

The ACM Awards were on last night, and of course I watched!

Carrie Underwood, beautiful as she is, wore this outlandish dress last night. From all the reports I've read people are absolutely raving about it; however, I think it is a bit much! She couldn't even move in the thing...it just cascaded all over the place...she's lucky her band members found a place to stand and play!

Don't get me wrong, she is definitely beautiful and has a great voice...but the dress????


REALLY!!!!

But she did beat out all the boys last night to win Entertainer of the Year...not a whole lot of women can lay claim to that title...and she kept that cocky Kenny Chesney from winning 5 times in a row...although I personally would have liked to seen Brad Paisley win!

Photographing HOPE!

Adrian over at Adrian's Crazy Life is hosting a giveaway for a $25 gift card to Macys! I love Macy's clearance rack! Adrian is a Fishful Thinking Mom-bassador! I've mentioned Fishful Thinking before..they are encouraging parents (and adults in general) to motivate their children to become more positive and more active in their children's lives!!! Adrian asked that we go over to Fishful Thinking and choose an activity to do with our children or modify for ourselves if we don't have kids!!! I chose.... Photographing Hope: Children create vivid images of the material objects they desire, but they have a harder time visualizing personal goals, such as "Getting an A on a test" or "Being kind to the new girl at school." To make the goals more real, use a camera to capture thoughts in action. For example, if your child is determined to "do better" in math class, talk about what "better" means. Then, take a photograph of a mock-up of a test paper or report card that represents the improvement in math. That photograph becomes the physical representation of the goal. Then, take pictures of your child engaging in strategies (representing pathways thinking) that might help attain the goal. For example, take a photograph of your child when reading the math book, practicing math problems, or using objects to solve problems. Also, take pictures, which could be funny staged pictures, of your child looking determined or confident (representing the agency thinking that drives goal pursuits). Then, have your child take pictures of people (teacher, friends, sibling or mentor) who are helpful when trying to succeed in math (these people are sources of agency). Finally, have your child arrange the photos on a poster board with pathways photos first followed by a plus sign, then agency photos followed by an equals sign, then the first picture taken, the goal picture (pathways + agency = goal). Each time your child works on math, talk about the many photographs and thoughts that make up academic success. To modify for myself....I am going to use this as a scrap book starting point! I am having many things to hope for.... Gods destiny for my life My teaching certificate A house! and many, many more....

Her loss....My gain...

My niece Brittany ordered these fabulously pink converse months ago. When they arrived (she has a fascination with ordering online so no one has to see her try on clothes...strange child) she realized they were too big for her!

These too cute for words shoes sat on their front table for months...waiting...just waiting to go for a walk with somebody!

Finally, a few weeks ago, I asked her if I could have them!

I've never owned Converse shoes in my life...and pink to boot!

So now they are mine...I wore them today...they look terribly cute don't they?!!!

Like I said...Brittany's loss is my GAIN!!!

Mom and Camille

Ok...I realized that in all the pictures I put up of the weekend that I didn't put any up of my Mom and Camille!

Sorry...don't shoot me please!

So here they are at the zoo checking out the elephant!

Spring Break

Spring Break!!

Well, you wouldn't be able to tell it was Spring Break this week with the SNOW falling on April 1st...but I digress!

Last Friday our entire family...me, my sister and all her brood headed over the pass and into Seattle for a few days of fun. We bought Seattle City Passes and spent a busy weekend going from place to place to place. We even stayed in a hotel (which is totally my idea of camping out!)

Saturday morning, our first day of fun, we started out by heading to Pike's Place Market!

**NOTE** There are multiple blog posts and pictures for our weekend!!!

Which way is it to the Market?

Brandon and Ernie are no fun....I tell them to point and they just look at me funny and don't do it!!!

Here I am....I didn't get in a lot of the pictures this weekend! But I always take at least one of myself!

These two look like they might be planning something bad to get themselves in trouble...hmmm

Oh look, I told you they looked like they were getting into trouble!

I think they were trying to escape the parking garage...how they thought they were going to do that I'm not sure!

Wow! Rare Seattle sighting of Brandon and Brittany together (voluntarily!)

Please Aunt Rachel..the weekend hasn't even started and you are taking way too many pictures!

Again..the rare Brittany! Do you find it odd that you can only see one eyeball? I do!!

She got a haircut later this weekend from Aunt Camille and you can now see both eyeballs!

Do I measure up?

The famous pig by the flying fish people!! Woot-Woot!

Argosy Tour

The first activity we did with our Seattle City Passes was a one hour Argosy Harbor Tour aboard the Spirit of Seattle Here is the boat we went on....had to walk down this tremendously long, steep gangplank! The ship could hold almost 500 people; however, there were maybe 50-75 of us on this trip around the sound.

Here we have Brandon, Ernie, Dajia and Shannon looking totally excited to be headed out to open seas!

This is Maddy's, "I'm going to DIE" look!

She was so insistent that the boat was going to tip over and that we were all going to die. Being the good Auntie that I am I told her that at least we would all be in Heaven together if we did die!!

Isn't she a cutie patootie!

I think this may be one of the rare moments that she actually stood still the entire weekend and let me take her picture properly. The rest of the weekend was spent trying to get her to stay still!

Here is my other cutie...he always has a great big smile for me!

That big blob out on that buoy is a sea lion lounging in the sun!

Experience Music Project

With the City Passes we had the choice of EMP (Experience Music Project) or the Flight Museum...we chose EMP!! Did you know that EMP now has a Science Fiction Museum as well?

Susana...we need to go back...I think you would like the Science Fiction part of the museum...and it wasn't there when we went!

This is the view of the guitar monument from the 2nd level...hundreds of guitars along with other instruments (keyboards, bass guitar, etc)...very cool!


These two crack me up!

They have no idea what they are listening to, they just thought they needed to put all the headphones on that they saw. They actually sat and listened for quite some time!

EMP was fun; although it isn't the greatest place for the younger guys...they don't understand everything...but oh well!
Here is Rock Star #1

We were in one of those jam session rooms that you get for 10 minutes at a time...all three of the kids...Maddy, Mason and Dajia were playing the keyboards...quite LOUDLY!!


Rock Star #2

Mason was really getting into it

Seattle Aquarium

Sunday morning we started our day off by going to the Seattle Aquarium...have you been since they remodeled? They have this fabulously cool huge tank when you first walk in (really, in my opinion it is the coolest...I could have left after that...the Seattle Aquarium really hasn't changed much!)

Miss Elliana looks like she is having fun

Look...Dori was there!

And where you find Dori, you'll find Nemo!

Of course, there are the pools with all the star fish that you can touch (with only your pointer finger mind you!)

Here are Mason, Shannon and Maddy trying to figure out what is in the pool.

Ernie seems to be lecturing from the back...with coffee in his hand of course!

I am awed by the amount of fish in this school (are they smart since they are in school?...I know, I know...I hear the groans from all of you!)

My Little Snow Leopard...

My treat to the kiddos while at the zoo was something from the giftshop. Of all the things in the store Mason chose this Snow Leopard face mask!

We went to the zoo on Sunday and he wore it the rest of the day, Monday in the car and at the hotel, and all day Tuesday! He was so cute in it!

He wasn't so sure of my idea for him to "hide" in the bushes and pretend to jump out at me! We had to wait for everyone, and I mean everyone, to leave the area so that I could take his picture!

Oh, so super scary!!!

Please don't eat me.....
Once he got used to the idea he had me take his picture throughout the park...this is my little snow leopard over by the Elephants!Yes, even Dajia had to get in on the action...here is a baby snow leopard that I brought home from the zoo!

Do you think they've noticed she is missing? And of course...ME!!

How could I resist such a photo opportunity?

The Zoo

On Sunday, after the Aquarium we headed over to Woodland Park Zoo (which by the way took us almost an hour to get to because: A...we had to stop for lunch...B...people didn't know how to get there and C...people had to keep turning around to get on the right street!!!)Dajia and Mason visiting some long lost relatives in the Gorilla exhibit!

The tiger came out for a few seconds!

Big huge crocodile, who I'm sure was thinking..."How can I jump out of here and bite Rachel?"

The whole way to the zoo all I heard from Mason was how much he wanted to see the LIONS!!! We got a long view of them, then were able to get a little bit closer...he was totally excited!

Do I or Don't I?

Should I feed them to the Elephant?

Nope..the elephant would probably spit them out!!

We only saw one elephant this day! Why is it that Elephants are so dang fascinating?

Hungry, Hungry Hippos!

Sorry Mom, I have to rat you out!!!

When we were observing the Hippos...my Mom asked if the hippo in the back was fake or not!!

Sorry...it was too funny!

The giraffes were out, but not in a very good spot for picture taking!

These two flamingos were duking it out.

Do you find it as fascinating as I do that flamingos stand on one foot? I wonder how they keep their balance?