The Nelson Narrative

A dear reader is a survivor of this awful lung cancer and has asked me to share her story.  Diagnosed at age 36 and just 3 1/2 months after the birth of her daughter, she was given only 15 months to live.  I can't imagine being given such a prognosis, especially with a brand new baby.  But Heather held on to hope, wanting so badly to be there for her daughter, and beat the odds.  Praise God, it has now been 7 years.  She is truly an inspiration.  Here is her story. www.mesothelioma.com/heather

I was able to sign the girls up last minute to attend gymnastics camp last week.  They went for 3 hours every day, Monday through Friday.  It was so nice to have a little break during the day for the first time since early June, and they really enjoyed it.  It was hard to get any pictures because the spectator area is kind of far away, and I was mostly just dropping them off and then picking them up at the end although I did try to get there a little early most days so I could watch for a bit.  And for some reason the few that I did take are not showing up when I go to "insert image" and "from my phone", so never mind. Anyway, I ended up using 3 of the 5 days to work out since Paul was working late every night so I couldn't go to the gym in the late afternoons like usual, so that was kind of a bummer (I would have rather had that time to work on projects or just browse a bookstore or something) but oh well.  I'll have lots of time for that in a few more we

Last Friday we went to Crescent Bar for the last time this summer and stayed until Wednesday.  It's such an awesome, laid-back time there, just spending the days by the pool, reading, drinking coffee on the deck in the morning or sipping wine in the evenings.  Love it.  The girls are old enough now that they can play in the pool and we don't have to be right there the whole time, as long as we are fairly close.  So we can actually sit on a lawnchair and read while they're swimming.  I wish I would have gotten a video of their swimming.  They are so much improved from last year, or even earlier this summer. We came home on Wednesday and then went to the transportation open house, where the girls got their bus schedule and got to see inside a bus. Thursday they had a playdate with a friend whose mom is going to lead a Girl Scout troop to see how all the potential troop-mates got along and to get information on the whole Girl Scout thing.  The girls really want to join so

Every summer when we're at Crescent Bar we try to get a nice photo of the whole family (Paul's parents, sister and us).  For some reason we missed last year, but we weren't about to let that happen again.  So on Tuesday we found a very patient neighbor to snap a few pictures with several different family member's cameras and phones.  I desperately needed a new photo for my blogger profile as well as my Facebook profile and cover photo. Nelson Family at Crescent Bar, 2013     This one is from 2009, when the girls were 15 or 16 months.  I had to scan it from a hard copy.  I can't seem to find 2010 and 2011.   Then we tried to get one of just the 4 of us.  Kayley has a new thing were she like to smile with her mouth wide open (hey, at least she's sort of smiling, as opposed to her old "thing" were she refused to smile at all).  I totally didn't realize she was doing that or I would have tried to tickle her or something. Take 1

Today the girls had their kindergarten transportation orientation at the school bus garage.  We got their bus schedule and they got to see inside a school bus.  They are looking forward to riding the bus and I love that they will have so many neighborhood friends on the bus with them.  I can't believe my babies are starting real school!  26 days to go!

We've had a very laid back week.  Monday and Tuesday we were home all day and had friends over in the afternoons to play in the pool and with the slip 'n' slide.  Tuesday evening the local police station had an event, National Night Out or something, so we went to that.  They had face painting, a bouncy house, hot dogs and sno cones, a bomb squad, police dog, and we got to tour the police station.  The girls were excited to see the "jail" (holding cells).  I had some pictures of them in the holding cell and of their cute face painting but Kayley accidently deleted them. Wednesday we ran some errands which included a trip to PetSmart for cat food.  The girls love to go there to see all the litter critters (mice/hamsters/birds/lizards, etc.) and to see all the dogs in the pet hotel. Thursday we stayed home again and played with friends in the late afternoon, and today we need to go grocery shopping before heading to Crescent Bar tonight.  I'll probably have

Paul was supposed to be off all last week but ended up going back to work on Thursday, due to a co-worker being out for heart surgery.  Meanwhile: Tuesday  - Paul took the girls to the free matinee (Alvin and the Chipmunks) while I ran some errands and went to the Crossroad's farmer's market. Wednesday - Another hike.  This time we did the Denny Creek hike that we had intended to do the week before.  It was really pretty, and there was a cool area with a small waterfall where you could climb a series of flat rocks to get right up to the bottom of the falls. Thursday - Shopped for school supplies Friday - Went to the library for the first time in probably over a month to get our prizes for the Summer Reading Program and Starbucks afterwards. Saturday - Went to Seattle to Paul's dad's best friend Wes's house to see his son and family that were visiting from New York.  They have 4 kids so there were lots of kids for the girls to play with, and Wes has chicken

I used to LOVE school shopping with my mom.  So I've very much been looking forward to finally being able to school shop with the girls.  Last year all they needed (other than clothes) was a backpack and lunch box, so this is the first year that we really got to go shopping for supplies.  We went to Fred Meyer last Thursday and got paper, pencils, pencil boxes, markers, crayons, erasers, glue sticks, folders, snacks, tissues, hand sanitizer and stickers.  The girls were good and enjoyed it, versus clothes shopping where they get bored and whiny 2 minutes after walking into a store (and chase each other around and hide in the circular racks).  I wanted to get them new backpacks this year also, since the ones they have from last year, while still perfectly good, have Disney Princesses on them which they are kind of tired off (except in movie or toy form).  I happened to be at Walmart last Tuesday and saw one with peace signs, which Olivia loves, so I grabbed that for her but

We checked off another summer bucket list item, the Summer Reading Program at our local library.  For every book the girls were read, they colored a book on the reading program sheet and after 10 books, they got a half-way prize and after 20 they got the final prize, except we never made it in to the library after the first 10 so we got both prizes the same day.  The half-way prize was a bookmark with a little paper shovel on it that contains seeds to plant, and the final prize was a book bag.