The Nelson Narrative

I mentioned a few posts ago that I have decided to try and journal every single day in 2017.  Even if it's just a sentence or tow, or even just a word or phrase, but I'm going to try and write something every single day.  The main reason is just because I thought it would be fun to go back and reread at the end of the year (I'm weird that way), and also I am hoping that it might keep me motivated with things like weight loss and time management. I was hoping to find a journal that wasn't just a bunch of blank pages but maybe had some sayings/quotes or questions to think about, etc.  I also kind of wanted to go back to a paper planner and thought what I really wanted was a combination planner/journal.  I probably could find something like that online or even in a store if I looked hard enough, but I was at Michaels and found something close enough on sale so I went with it. First, a simple journal, with cheesy quotes:  Sorry some of these pics are...

I was re-reading last year's Year in Review post and I mentioned how most years I think about penning a Christmas letter but never do, and that I didn't even get around to sending cards last year.  It was funny because I once again almost wrote a Christmas letter this year but didn't, and again did not even send cards.  But I didn't realize this was two years in a row without sending cards.  Oops.  I thought I had managed to get some photo cards made at the last minute last year but apparently not.  So again, here is my would-have-been Christmas letter in blog and photo form. The girls turned 8 in February and in lieu of a party decided they wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge with just one friend.  Another friend was already going to be there because they always go during the mid-winter break which is right around the same time, so it made for a nice little mini-party. Paul and I celebrated 10 years of marriage in May with a ...

Let's review the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year and see how I did, shall we?  Lose 20 pounds.  I want and need to lose more but a goal of 20 for the year is good.  I'm sure I lost more than 20 if you add up all the 3 and 4 pound losses, but my net loss for the year is right around 1, give or take.   Read 16 books.  I'm just not one of those people who can read 4 or 5 or 20 books in a month, and lately I hardly read at all so I'm just hoping to get back into reading somewhat regularly.  I read 16 1/2, plus a couple of kid books!  At one point I thought I would get to at least 18 but then I just got really busy and didn't read much for a few months. Train for another 5K.  I really want to get back into running but now that I'm working full-time and evenings are filled with kid stuff and next-day prep, it's SO hard to find time but I really hope to figure out how to squeeze it in.  I just need to commit to g...

So much for blogging every day, or even almost every day, for the rest of December.  Actually, I have blogged most days I just haven't finished any of my posts! Anyway, Paul has been off this whole week doing all kinds of fun things with the girls.  His sister is in town from Colorado (staying at their parents'place) so they went down there on Tuesday and stayed the night.  I was so excited to have the house to myself for a night so I could hopefully work on one of my projects that I never have time for, but I ended up spending the whole evening wrapping gifts and doing other pre-Christmas stuff.  Sigh.  Today they went skiing so I once again had some alone time this evening but I had to make a dessert and stuffing for Sunday, wrap a few more gifts, iron napkins and placemats, and work on getting the house in order.  I can't do any of it tomorrow because we will be gone all day.  It is our year to spend Christmas with my side, and they do Christma...

On Saturday our church had a free concert featuring former season 11 American Idol contestants Jessica Sanchez and Jeremy Rosado.  Since Paul and I were fans of the show and remembered Jessica (didn't remember Jeremy at first but did later) we thought it would be a fun family outing so we went.  They both were awesome and did a beautiful duet at the end. On Sunday, Paul's mom's singing group had a performance and the girls got to be in it.  They wore pajamas and pretended to be listening their grandma reading T'was the Night Before Christmas.  They had a real dog on stage, too, which the girls LOVED!     

I've been horrible about blogging lately.  Ever since school started.  But I've decided just for fun to try and blog every day for the rest of December.  I got the idea on the 2nd, started a post but didn't finish it, then a day or two later I had a vague memory of doing something similar last year so I checked and sure enough, I did.  Or rather, I meant to but didn't really keep up with it.  So anyway, I'm going to try again this year.  It could be anything.  A "normal" post or just something small and random. So here is my randomness for today to get caught up: I am probably about 80% done with my Christmas shopping which is an absolute miracle.  And, I even have a few things wrapped!  This sounded so much better a week ago, though, when it was only the 2nd/3rd.  I haven't made any progress since then.  I hope to wrap it up this weekend but probably won't happen. We had our first snowfall last Sunday and Monday and ag...

The girls have had early dismissal all week and last Friday for parent-teacher conferences.  So Friday we had our regular babysitter and I left work a little early for our appointments starting at 3:45, then Monday we had a brand new babysitter and then yesterday they went home with a friend.  Today I took the day off and was really looking forward to a few hours alone to do whatever (all the stuff that I'm always whining about never having time to do). So after I dropped the girls off at school I started doing things around the house and realized I better hurry and find our Elf on the Shelf so he can make his traditional day-after-Thanksgiving appearance.  So I spent the first half of my alone time looking for him, to no avail.  Then I got a phone call from school; the girls have lice.  I wasn't surprised, because a friend texted last night that her daughter had it but I looked the girls over and didn't see anything, but I didn't look that hard because I got ...

So I haven't blogged in about 2 months, I think.  I keep starting posts but just never get around to finishing them.  Our schedule has been crazy lately.  Soccer just ended, so it has calmed down a bit, but here's what a typical week looked like after school: Monday - homework, early dinner, then soccer practice.  Finish homework if not already done, read, baths, etc. Tuesday - homework, dinner, then Paul drops Olivia at gymnastics and gets back just in time for Kayley's piano lesson (her teacher comes to our house.  How cool is that??!).  Meanwhile, I get home, eat, and then pick Olivia up.  Read and bedtime. Wednesday - homework, then violin for Olivia.  Kayley goes along and just plays on the iPad or whatever.  Paul takes them to Subway or somewhere for dinner.  Meanwhile, I get home and eat my own dinner.  Then the normal homework/read/baths whatever while I clean up, make lunches, fold laundry, etc. (that part...

Awhile back we had some timeshare points we were going to lose, so Paul went ahead and booked a little getaway to Seaside, OR, for mid-September, even though it meant pulling the girls out of school for 2 days.  We left Saturday the 10th after their soccer game and came home Tuesday the 13th.  It was really fun and we totally lucked out with awesome weather! We spent Sunday just playing on the beach and browsing the shops, and watching the Seahawks season opener. Cool sand castle some talented guy made Carousel View of our hotel from the beach On Monday we drove down to Cannon Beach.  We walked along the beach to the famous Haystack rock, but it was a bit cool and windy that day and Olivia and I had forgotten our jackets so we decided to leave and go back to Seaside.  But first we able to browse a few shops on the way back to the car and decided to have lunch there before heading back. Haystack Rock Tuesday morning we had one last...

School starts on Wednesday and I've been thinking about what our daily routine is going to look like.  Of course, what's in my head and what it actually ends up being are most likely going to be vastly different.  But hopefully writing it out will help me stay on track (because that's worked so well for me in other areas of my life, i.e. weight loss). The new school will start a half hour earlier than the previous one, at 8:35.  We will have the choice of riding the bus, walking or me dropping them off on my way to work.  The school is just under a mile away but they are still providing bus service to certain neighborhoods because of having to cross a super busy 4-lane with a median road.  And the only reason I would let them walk (without me) is because there will be roughly 23 other kids all walking with them, most likely with a grown-up or two or eight in the mix.  Either way, we will all leave the house around 8:15.  So here is the schedule I'...

I used to LOVE shopping for school supplies when I was a kid.  And even more than that, I loved setting them all out when we got home and getting them all organized.  Back in the days of the Trapper Keeper with multiple pockets for different subjects and what not. And of course, we all always had several of these: And we didn't have to get Kleenex, hand sanitizer, anti-bacterial wipes, or dry erase markers like now days.  We have all that on our list and also post-it notes and 4 x 6 index cards.  Index cards?  What the heck are they doing with those?  Recipe exchange? Anyway, the last two years I took the girls school supply shopping and they like it ok but they don't love it as much as I did and they always insist on getting the fancier more expensive versions of everything, like spiral notebooks with a cute animal design instead of the plain $0.49 (or maybe $0.59) ones.  I think one store had these on sale for $0.19, even. So this...

This is the last full week of summer vacation!  I can't believe it. Paul had last week off so after soccer practice on Monday he and the girls took off for Crescent Bar, leaving me with the place and time to myself for the last several evenings to do whatever.  Unfortunately I didn't make as much progress on neglected projects as I would have liked, but it was still nice to have the (clean) house to myself. They rented jet skis one day and went to a water slide park one day.  They always get to do all this fun stuff while I'm stuck working (sigh).  I'm really hoping to have some PTO saved up so I can take a few days off next summer in addition to just our annual trip. They came home Friday and then we all went to the Mariner's game (see previous post). Saturday started off good.  We slept in, then I took then in for their back to school haircuts.  Just a trim, nothing drastic, but Olivia asked for her hair to be curled. We ca...

I've been wanting to take the girls to a Mariner's game for years now.  I thought it would be a fun sunny summer Saturday activity.  I figured we could get the cheap bleacher seats in the outfield and it would be a fun summer outing that wasn't too expensive and the seats wouldn't matter because the girls would get bored and want to walk around anyway.  But we never got around to it and then this year I was able to get free tickets through work!  And bonus, it happened to be during their Star Wars themed weekend and on fireworks night.  They do fireworks after a handful of Friday night games throughout the season but last night it was set to Star Wars music, with a few movie scenes on the big screen with Mariner's game highlights (all-time, not just from last night's game) mixed it.  It was really cool! The Mariner Moose (and btw, Kayley does have shorts on :) ) a "24" in center field in honor of Ken Griffey, Jr.