Friday September 18, 2015 {Happy Birthday Mom!!}

1. The day started early, when mom left for work. We took some time to shower, eat, and generally get ready, then the preparations began.

2. Today was my mom's birthday, and Isabelle and I had decided to clean the house. My mom is a wonderful person who does a lot of things. She works full-time, homeschools, and is a single parent at that. With all of that, there are some things that slip through the cracks sometimes, and I know it bothers her that our house is often not as clean as she would like it to be.

3. Isabelle and I had high hopes, and we did our best. Due to extenuating circumstances, our basement is still torn up and it's just generally a disaster. We knew there wasn't much we could do down there, so we focused on what we could do: the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathrooms. It took most of the day, but overall, I was happy with the results.

4. When mom got home from work, we headed out to dinner at D'anna's, a terrific Italian restaurant downtown. Though mom didn't know it yet, I was texting people all through dinner (yep, I was being a typical teenager). I was texting the families of our homeschool group however, giving them updates on our progress through dinner.

5. When we left D'Anna's, we walked a few block to Pure Bliss for desert, and Mom was very surprised to find all of our friends waiting there! I am honestly a terrible lair, so the fact that we pulled off this surprise party without her knowing anything is kind of amazing.

6. We hung out at Pure Bliss for a few hours, which was really great. I spent a lot of it talking with HW about all sorts of geeky stuff, including iPhone (which he has) vs. Android (which I have), various apps and podcasts, flags (the New Zealand flag redesign is really pretty exciting to watch), dance, Doctor Who, computer games, and Star Wars. The Star Wars segments were mostly him getting really exciting about things and telling me lots of things about it, only a small portion of which I understood. I don't share his excitement about all things Star Wars, but I can appreciate and enjoy his enthusiasm. :P

7. Afterwards, some of us walked to the Commerical Street Night Market, which is pretty cool. We didn't stay very long, but it was neat to check it out.

8. The Winslows dropped me off at home (mom and isabelle went home without going to the night market).

9. Read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

Happy Birthday Mom!! <3

Saturday August 26, 2015 {WIND}

1. Saturday morning, Isabelle and Mom left for the farmer's market right after I got up. Isabelle was going to sell her stuffed dogs.

2. After they left, I didn't do too much. I listened to music, read, and hung out for a while.

3. Throughout all of this, it was really, really windy. It was warm, probably about 70, but really windy. The power kept flickering on and off all morning, and at about noon, it went out for good.

4. We have these trees behind out house that are very tall, and that sway a lot when it's windy. Two years ago, we had one of them fall when we were gone (we were in Florida at the time), but it fell at such an angle that it didn't come near the house.

5. Today, a little before 1pm, mom called to say that they had closed the market early because the wind was getting too dangerous, and were sending everyone home. A few minutes after that, one of the trees in the back fell straight at the house. Luckily, it didn't break at the roots, but snapped halfway up the trunk, and also luckily, it was a very flexible but not too heavy tree. 

6. I was standing in the kitchen watching as it fell into the back windows of our house, and, amazingly, did not beak through, but instead slid onto the ground. It was still leaning against the house, but did no major damage.

7. There was lots of commotion for a little while as neighbors ran over and looked around and all decided that everything was fine. 

8. After mom got home, we did stuff around the house for a while, then went to Haggen to eat dinner, and then went to my dad's house, since he still had power, to change our phones.

9. We went back home,played some card games, read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

Thursday August 27, 2015 {Larrabee}

1. Mom left for work, and then I didn't do much for a while, then showered and got dressed.

2. Isabelle left to volunteer with the cats, and I baked some cookies. (gluten free oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies).

3. I also went through the books that got damaged with the mold and water stuff, and made a list. I'm posting it in parts on my other blog, part one went up today!

4. Julie picked us up and (after picking up a few boys from another house) we headed to Larrabee state park. I hadn't been there at all this summer, and the weather was great, so it was really nice down there.

5. We wandered around the beach, looked at crabs, pushed each other off of logs, and ate lots of popcorn and cookies and grapes. Julie took a ton of really great pictures of us, and we did lots of poses on the logs.

6. We dropped the three boys off at Cosmic Comics for some Magic thing, and then Isabelle and I got dropped off at our dad's house.

7. We had dinner there (steak) and then went to Pure Bliss Deserts downtown. I got Chocolate Salted Caramel, which is definitely my favorite of their cakes.

8. We went home, watched Lost (we're re-watching it with Isabelle now. It's mom's 4th time, my 2nd, Isabelle's 1st), read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

Today felt like the last hurrah of summer. The weather is supposed to be getting cold and rainy for a while, which is good in a lot of ways (we really need this rain!) but it's also sad. I like the dry, warm weather. Plus, with mom back at work, and rain coming, it really feels like the end of the summer.