The Nelson Narrative

Today is the girl's 18th birthday!  18 years ago today I finally became a mom at the age of 39.  It was a long, painful and expensive journey but worth every tear, shot and penny.  

  This is the second installment of my new series called, "Things I Won't Miss", where I talk about all the different things that I won't miss once the girls go off to college in the fall.  Please note, they themselves will never be on this list. But this is. A sink full of dirty dishes, none of which were dirtied by me.  Every. Single. Day.  Here is a typical scenario:  I make dinner, Paul and I eat it but the girls are both at work.  Or maybe one or both are home but just don't want what I made.  So after dinner either Paul or I will clean up, then a few hours later one of the girls will get home from work and make herself something to eat. I always tell them to clean up and they say they will but they don't.  But even if they do, right after that the other one will come home and make themselves something to eat.  Same thing.  One way or another, a bunch of dirty dishes gets left in the sink. Another scenario is that they make a mess w...

A few years ago I decided to make it a thing that Paul and I have regular date nights. We decided that once a month would be ideal (well, I would love to have them weekly but that's not in the budget).  I ended up planning a bunch of them in advance, but not all.  Here is a year's worth of date nights: January - my birthday month, so we had my birthday date at Finn's Bistro and then saw the play Dial M for Murder at the Village Theater.  It was our first time there even though we had lived here 17 years (at the time, 18 now). In February, we had our Valentine's Day date at an Italian restaurant in a neighboring town. March is Paul's birthday month.  We had his birthday date at a pub-ish type restaurant called The Black Duck Cask and Bottle. April - Jazz Walk in North Bend.  I was actually supposed to be on a girls' trip to Phoenix the weekend this was taking place, but ended up not going due to cost (had recently helped each of our girls purchase a car, and was ...

It's the last Wednesday of the month which means it’s time for What's Up Wednesday, hosted by  Shay  and  Sheaffer . What We're Eating So far this week we’ve had a couple of Hello Fresh meals: Bahn-mi-style tacos and brown sugar bourbon meatballs.  I just decided today that I’m going to pick up a rotisserie chicken for tonight and have that with mashed potatoes and a veggie, and then tomorrow I’ll make enchiladas with the leftover chicken.  Friday we’re going out and Saturday we are probably going to Paul’s mom’s for the girls’ birthday. What I'm Reminiscing about The girls turn 18 this Saturday, so I’ve been reminiscing about them being little. What I'm Loving Just the usual—life, family, Jesus What We've Been up to Paul and I spent the weekend at Crescent Bar. We’re in the process of getting the condo ready to put on the market so this trip was spent doing some cleaning and going through the storage closet to get rid of some stuff. What I'm...

For as long as the girls have been alive I've vowed to give them the following every year:  An Easter basket, a Christmas stocking and a little Valentine's treat.  Growing up, Easter baskets were hit and miss--some years I got them and some I didn't.  By around age 10 I'm pretty sure I stopped getting them altogether (and yet, Mom gave all of my nieces and nephews one every year until they were at least 18).  Same with stockings, although I think I got one most years.  And not that V-day is that big of a deal for kids, but I only remember getting anything once, maybe twice.  But then again, we always had school parties where we got lots of candy, so no biggie.  So anyway, I vowed that the girls would always get all of those things until they graduated from high school. Valentine's is never much, usually just a small treat and maybe a gift card.  This year I got them each a small candle from Target, their favorite candy (Altoids for Olivia and wint...

The Seahawks are Super Bowl Champions for the 2nd time ever!  We had a great time at our friends' house watching the game.  It was just them and us, so it was easy to actually watch the game, whereas usually when we're there for the SB the guys go upstairs to watch and the women gather downstairs and mostly talk and occasionally glance at the TV. My love of the Seahawks started back in '82 when I was in 8th grade.  My parents were diehards and had season tickets but watched all the away (and some home) games at home.  So, I had been exposed since their inception in '76, but never cared or paid attention.  One day in 8th grade I just started watching and things started clicking.  I started to understand the concept of the four downs and it all started to make sense.  Then in '83 my parents got divorced, so I got to go to some of the games with either parent, usually my dad.  The seahawks were having a great season in '83, and I went to the last gam...