Heat Wave!!!

So after months of complaining about the cold, rain and clouds, mother nature has finally decided to bring summer up here to the northwest (at least I think). We have had record highs this weekend....in the 90's. Now for a southern girl like myself and most of you who read this blog, 90's don't really seem like that big of a deal and under normal "southern" circumstances I would agree.....however since we tend to have 9-10 months of winter here (I just turned off my heat 3 weeks ago and yes it is June) there are no air conditioners in the homes here. Which means that when it is 90 degrees outside, it is freakin hot in the houses. Savannah's room is upstairs and it is so hot she has not been in it in a few days. We have all the windows open and the curtains and blinds closed on those windows that don't open. We have fans going in every room and all the lights out but right now the inside temperature gauge on the thermostat is reading off the charts and it stops at 85 degrees. Tyler's room is downstairs in the finished basement and it is cooler there so we will be crashing with him I guess. I am definately not going to complain about the heat and sun since we have not seen it in ages, but it does present a whole other set of issues. I guess when Donnie comes home we will go looking for a portable air conditioner for the main floor and upstairs for Vanna. So I will enjoy the weather while it lasts because I am sure the heat will be on again sooner than later (last year it came on in September). All I need now is some good old fashion sweet tea which I will have to make myself because it does not exist up here.

Graduation

Well graduation was good - much better than I expected actually. The school did a great job keeping things moving and we were done in about an hour and a half for 516 graduates. They told us to prepare for 2-2.5 hrs and I was worried whether Savannah could be good and quiet for that amount of time, but she did great. After graduation we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and went to the mall to walk off our lunch. Overall it was a good day....the weather even behaved and even though we did not see sun, it was warm without a drop of rain.

My mom flew home today. We dropped her off at the airport at 6am this morning and she has made it back to KS. She called while her and my dad were at the grocery store because knowing my dad and brother there was no food in the house while my mom was gone. We had a good time this week - hard to believe she was here for 8 days, the time just flew. Hopefully we will see them at Xmas. We are trying to get tickets to the Miami Dolphin NFL game in Kansas City (my husband is a die-hard Dolphin fan). It is on my bday in December so if we can get tickets we will be flying to KS for a good old white xmas.

Next on the list is the trip to NY in 3 weeks. It should be alot of fun and I think we are taking an overnight trip to Lake Placid and the Six Flags lodge and theme park. Most importantly though we are bringing home our dog who has been living with Donnie's sister. Finally the family will be back together (for about a week or so anyway).

Here are a few pics that we took this week while my mom was here.

Tyler is feeding Lily his sandwich while we were at the beach.

Savannah in all her glory.

My mom living it up (and stuffing her face).

The kids and I after graduation.

The waiter took this picture while we were eating and Famous Dave's BBQ.

Vanna and I in a self portrait.

Shout Out to the Hubby!

So I just want to tell my husband that he is the most wonderful man I know. Even with him being so many thousands of miles away (most of the time) he still manages to be thoughtful and surprise me. As you know my mom is here this week and on Tuesday the Fed Ex man delivered 3 dozen colored roses - 1 for each of us - my mom, Savannah and myself. Each one included a card with a message from him. Completely Sweet! And if that was not nice enough, today when we came home from seeing Kung Fu Panda with the kids, there was another 3 dozen red roses for me since I graduate tomorrow and he won't be able to be there. And he hasn't forgot Tyler either....being the good dad that he is he did not send Tyler flowers....apparently he is bringing home a Playstation 3 for the boy (hopefully he does not read my blog!).

These are the roses I received today for graduation....3 dozen red roses!

These are the roses he sent to Vanna, my mom and I earlier this week.

5th Grade

Yesterday was Tyler's last day of school and he is now officially a 5th grader. It is hard to believe that time has flown by like this. I can remember being a Duff Mustang 5th grader and trying to accept the horrors of entering Mrs. Marshall's 6th grade class and wondering how I was going to survive - those of you who had the priviledge of sharing that pain with me know exactly what I mean. Anyway Tyler had an awesome report card, which is so exciting because he had so much trouble in the TN school system when we were there and his grades were not very good. He has worked very hard and is on grade level and doing great. Hopefully one more year here will prepare him for middle school without any problems. His teacher was wonderful and really played a huge role in his success. She has a son Tyler's age and a daughter Vanna's age so I think we will definately get together over the summer since both of our husbands are deployed. She even wants to run the marathon with me next year - hope she knows what she is in for!

So my mom is coming in tonight for my graduation. She lands at 11pm in Seattle. The kids are very excited. She is quite funny because she thinks she is some kind of jet setter (somehow I don't think flying from KS to WA and CT qualifies) but whatever floats her boat. I will post some pictures of our adventures this week. One of these days I might get my brother up here but he is such a putz that I highly doubt it. Hopefully the weather will be decent this week - I am not asking for much, just some sun. The sun has come out 2 days this week for a bit and it was truly exciting. We have literally not seen the sun since May. My distain for this place grows each and every day.



This is Tyler and Vanna at Tyler's field day (pre-haircut by the way). He fought me on the haircut but I was not letting my mother see him like this. Notice the cloudy weather....the sun came out a while later and I actually ditched the rest of field day so I could mow my grass - how crazy is that? Oh and just in case you were wondering - yes we are in sweatshirts in June!!! Just goes to show that the weather and lack of sun makes people do strange things.

You can't really tell but this is after his haircut....I call this his official 5th grade picture for now.

Happy Best Friends Day!!

So June 8th is Best Friends Day, a day I have never heard of but is most definately welcome. So I would like to say Happy Best Friends Day to all of you, those whom I have not seen in a long time as well as those I see everyday. You all have truly impacted my life in countless ways and I appreciate each and every one of you. Pass the message on and enjoy the day!

NY - Here We Come!

So it is official....we will be heading off to NY next month. Not that it wasn't going to happen, but I have been searching the internet for decent priced plane tickets for a month now. I know that the sooner you buy them, the cheaper, but I just can't see spending almost $2000 on 3 plane tickets which is what I have been finding (unfortunately Donnie is unable to come with us). But yesterday the stars aligned and I as able to get our tickets for about $1200. I can't believe I am excited about spending that kind of money. The only thing that sucks is that our first flight is an overnight flight because that is all that was leaving during the timeframe we needed. I guess it won't be that bad because it is the longest flight - about 6 hours to Philly I think - so maybe the kids will sleep. Other than that we have good flight times and connection times. I have reserved our car thru priceline - which is you have never used it before is pretty cool. Of course I was getting mad at the "Priceline Negotiator" (William Shatner) because they kept rejecting my bids. I guess with gas prices the way they are, $15 a day for a car is a bit unrealistic. But I did end up getting a mid sized car for 7 days for under $200 which was alot cheaper than any internet special I found so I guess I did good.

Speaking of gas prices - they are $4.08 here! The national average is somewhere around $3.95 which means that there are a hell of alot more places paying lower prices than we are. I can't wait to get back to the south. I know Jenny blogged about the heat of TX, but I would trade places in a heartbeat. It is in the 40's - low 50's here and won't be changing much for the next few weeks. Not to mention the rain. It is June - we are supposed to be in shorts and sipping chilled drinks around the BBQ. We had one really warm weekend with record highs and so I thought that was the beginning of summer so I put all of our winter clothes away....not the smartest move. The weather truly sucks here and I hate it. My mom is coming is in 10 days and the weather is going to suck, not to mention that the kids are out of school next Friday and I need them to be able to play outside to preserve my sanity. Maybe the stars will align again and give us a break here.