Surprise Babies

Darin and I have decided to become foster parents again...today 4 month old boy/girl twins were placed with us. This is a "long term" foster placement. There is some possibility that these babies will become available for adoption but for now, for our own sanity, we are viewing this as a foster placement only.

The babies names are Peytine (girl - pronounced Pay-ton) and Elijah (boy). They were born May 7th of this year so are almost 5 months old. They were born premature at almost 35 weeks and are very healthy and developmentally on target but a little small compared to a full term 5 month old.

We found a zip lock bag with several professionally taken photos of the babies in their diaper bag so it's nice to have a pictoral history of them. I scanned in a few of the photos for your viewing pleasure. Also - we took a few pictures tonight and they are below as well.

We'll share more as things progress but wanted to get this update out tonight for those of you that are anxiously awaiting pictures.

They are fairly close to newborn in this photo:



Here is Elijah:



And Peytine:



These are fairly recent pictures of the two of them together:




Here is a picture of Darin and Elijah in one of those happy full baby tummy moments!



Here is Peytine after she finally fell asleep in the Moby Wrap:



And here is one of me with both of them - you can tell that Elijah is a bit bigger than Peytine:

Garage Sale

You might have guessed from the last post that our Adoption Fundraiser garage sale originally scheduled for 9/20 has been postponed.

Our garage sale will be Saturday 9/27 from 9 AM - 4 PM.

We are definitely still accepting donations to the cause!!

Lemonade

Sometimes life gives you lemons but what I've learned is that they make the sweetest lemonade if you can find the courage to squeeze the sweetness out of the experience.

My dear cousin Christina passed away on Friday after a very courageous 2 and a half year battle with cancer. She was only 24. In spite of what might seem like a tragedy of a life cut short, she was an amazing example to all of us. Her spirit of acceptance was really remarkable - she definitely made lemonade out of the lemons she was handed and was a beautiful person inside and out. We will miss her but our lives have been enrinched by having seen her sweet smile and the sparkle in her eyes, for having felt her kind, courageous spirit and known the warmth of her love. Please keep her sweet husband Kerry and her family in your thoughts and prayers.

Here is a photo of Kerry & Christina and their dogs from their Christmas card last year.



I received the news of her death on my way to Seattle on Friday to participate in the Alex's Lemonade Stand cancer fundraiser that my company does every year. This year we lucked out and our Seattle office was able to put up our stand in front of Whole Foods on Westlake Avenue. They donated Organic Lemonade for us and gave us a great location. Alex's Lemonade Stand is a non-profit organization that raises money to fight childhood cancers. Alex was a little girl that was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 4 and decided to have a lemonade stand to raise money to find a cure for cancer. Before she died at the age of 8 she had raised over $1 million with her lemonade stand. You can donate to our team's fundraising effort at this link. Our goal is to raise $4000 - so far we are just over the $1000 mark with over $600 of that made on Friday selling lemonade.

Our team was very moved by the news of Christina's passing that very morning and everyone inspired to dedicate our efforts that day to Christina. Thanks Seattle XO team - your extra efforts were definitely noticed.

This year Darin built us a stand to use - it turned out great! The best part is it breaks down and is easily storable so we can use it every year when we do our fundraiser.

Here is a photo of our stand with some of the Seattle XO office team.



So - when life hands you lemons...make lemonade.

Introducing....

Our new nephew Luke Andrew. He was born late last night. He weighed 8lbs 11oz and was 20.5 inches long.

Congratulations John & Carmen and big sisters Caelyn & Carlee. Carmen & Luke are both doing well and plan to go home today after lunch.

September Already

I really can't believe it is already September! Most schools have started (except some Universities) and fall is in the air!

We had another busy but very fun weekend.

Friday evening we went to Seattle and visited my friend Laura at her "homestead". She and her husband Francis have a fabulous place in Burien with lovely gardens including a "secret" one! They also have an adorable Pug named Yolanda and a super cool kitty (asian shorthair) named Sushi. It was very fun to see their place and hang out. From there we stopped in on our old neighbors Jeff & Sam at their place in Des Moines. Their kids Izzy & Beck are getting so big and definitely kept us entertained. Isabella had a big breakdown because she couldn't come home with us that night for a sleep over but we've promised that she can come over soon!!

Darin borrowed the panel van from work so we could make a dump run on Saturday - I'm so happy to get that 320lbs of garbage (carpet & pad from the basement etc) out of here. He also used it to transport the door for our master bedroom down to the shop so that he can build a frame and sidelight for it. YEAH!!

Saturday (after the dump run) we worked on cleaning up in the garage. Before we bought the house, the previous owners had a french drain put in all the way around the house including inside the garage (then carport). That meant cutting out about 3 feet of concrete all at the edge of the garage next to the house and leaving a pile of dirt/gravel behind. Well - we finally got that all taken care of and filled in with pavers and it makes such a HUGE difference (pics below).




Garage sale donations have been rolling in! Special thanks to our neighbors James & Tamara (lucky for us, our sale is coinciding with their organizing/sorting activity), Garry & Nancy, Tim & Megan and Laura & Francis. Look at this pile of stuff! We also have a growing pile in our own basement from our own "sorting" efforts.



Sunday at lunch we met 3 of my Fred Meyer co-workers for lunch. For those of you who don't know this - I worked for Fred Meyer my senior year of high school and all 5 years of college. I made some dear friends in those 5 years at the Broadway Fred Meyer on Capital Hill in Seattle. Shortly after we moved to Bremerton I was trying on "undergarments" at the Macy's in Silverdale and the recognized the voice of the woman that came to the door to ask if I needed any assistance. It was Beth - who I had worked with at Freddy's all those years ago. Come to find out Beth is our neighbor - just down the road. Well through this connection with Beth I was also able to get back in touch with Randall and Tobi. The two of them came over from Seattle and met Beth & Darin and I for lunch at Anthony's. It was so much fun to see them. Tobi and I not only worked together but lived in the same apartment building and attended the UW. It was so neat to see pictures of her kids - they are 10 & 9 (last time I saw her she had just found out she was expecting the oldest one). I am just so happy to have re-made these connections. Randall also attended the UW at the same time and now works in International store development for Starbucks. Good Luck with the London opportunity Randall - we'd love to come for a visit! So thanks again Randall and Tobi for driving over here and making the time to get back in touch and for Beth for making the connection. Here are a couple of photos of the 4 of us. Also - special thanks to Darin for patiently listening to the four of us talk for several hours about people he doesn't know and for being the official photographer! From left to right on the top photo is Tobi, Jean, Beth & Randall.




And - just for good measure - here's a photo of Watson the lap dog!

Busy Weekend

In keeping with our “never a dull moment” theme…we had another busy weekend around here!

More Water Damage:
Last week we had a major rain storm (more rain in one day than we usually get all month). Toward the end of the week Darin went downstairs to get something and noticed that the tack strip in the hall way (where the carpet has been removed from the May bathroom flood) was wet. Mind you, this tack strip can only get wet from the other side of the wall….so it was not a good omen. Apparently we had managed to leave the window open in our guest room and the big rain just came right in! Our gutters were actually totally overwhelmed by the rain and we had sheets of water coming down all the way around the house during the storm. So, those sheets of water plus the overflow from the downspout on the corner adjacent to the window well managed to find their way into the bedroom. The carpet was soaked, piles of dirt and debris etc. So, Friday afternoon we pulled the carpet and will likely end up removing most of the wall board etc in that room to prevent any possible mold problems.

Darin found a really cool set up at Lowe’s for re-routing downspout water and got that installed though and got the gutters cleaned out. So – barring further torrential rains with downstairs windows left open that should take care of the most obvious source of water in to the basement. Of course we were expecting company for the weekend so since the damaged room was our only guest room at the moment we had to do some quick swapping around and empty the other bedroom aka “temporary storage room” and make it into a guest space again.

Blackberry Festival and Darin’s big race!
This weekend was the local Bremerton Blackberry Festival and Saturday morning Darin ran the 5K race. This was his first race since grade school field days and he managed to run the entire thing without stopping to walk once! He reports that this is the longest distance he has ever run without stopping so I am SO proud of him.

Here he is with his race number.


And, lap 2 (it is a one mile course that you run 3 laps of)


This is the video of Darin at the finish…I apparently have to buy an upgraded version of Quicktime video in order to rotate this video…very annoying but I had to include it anyway.


The local Navy Chief Petty Officers (150 – 200 of them) run the race in formation so that was also fun to see. They started after all of the other runners.


After the race we went to the festival and listened to the Smiling Scandinavians play polka music while we ate Swedish Meat balls, blackberry pie and blackberry ice-cream. YUMMM. All of the blackberry products (scones, blackberry filled doughnuts etc) are the best part of this festival. Saturday night we went back and watched Kelly Thibodeaux and Etouffe play some Louisiana “Swamp Rock” (and we shared a blackberry scone topped with whipped cream and blackberry syrup).

Watson Runs away again!
Sunday evening just after Tim & Megan (on their way from Spokane) called to tell us they were in Gig Harbor we discovered that Watson was missing. He apparently got out while Darin was unloading some stuff into the Garage. Darin jumped in his car and headed up the hill and our neighbors Keith & Jessie headed the other direction while I stayed at home in case we got a call (he is tagged now!).

Fortunately, Darin found him just about ½ a mile away laying along side the road. Unfortunately, he had eaten/rolled in something extremely dead, stinky and vulgar. However, he was home, safe and banned to the backyard for the evening.

Company:
Tim & Megan arrived from Spokane about 5:45 and Todd joined us for dinner at the boat shed. After dinner we all went to visit Aunt Velma. She seemed VERY glad for the company and we managed to get the photo below of Aunt Velma, Todd, Megan and Darin.


Monday we cooked breakfast at home and Tim, Megan and Darin headed south to Gig Harbor so Darin could give them a tour of the RCD shop. It was really nice to have Tim & Megan here – it had been almost a year since they visited last.

Watson Seizures:
About an hour after Darin had left for Gig Harbor, I was in my office researching a project online and heard a bunch of activity in the living room – it sounded like Watson was playing with something but wasn’t quite right. So, I called him to come and he came jerking down the hall – almost like he was startling over something. He went jerking past me into the laundry room and stopped and looked at me but didn’t seem like he could make his legs move to come toward me. I finally got him to come down the hall into the living room and called Darin to come home. I then called our wonderful neighbor Jessie to come and be with me and she came right over.

We sat on the floor with Watson for about an hour and tried to keep him calm while he twitched and jerked. I was certain this was the beginning of the end for him and that the cancer had spread to his brain. There was even a couple of times where his breathing slowed and his eyes closed that we weren’t sure if he was just resting or on his way out. Then, just before Darin got home Watson jumped up (prior to this we didn’t even know if he would be able to get up again) and went back to the laundry room and basically begged for food. I gave him a couple of kibbles to make sure he wouldn’t choke and then ended up giving him two scoops of food. This seemed to slow the spasms some but after he was done eating and headed back down the hall he had a spasm that took him all the way to the floor. Jessie and I got him to his bed and were just sitting down next to him when Darin arrived home. Watson got up again (spasms still coming less frequently than before the food) and went outside and begged to have the ball thrown. We decided that even if he was dying that he would die happy if we threw the ball for him so did that for a bit before forcing him to stop and go back in the house.

About ½ an hour later the spasms increased in frequency and severity again so we decided to take him in to the vet. They actually thought that he might have been poisoned from whatever he ate on his run-away adventure and did lab work etc. Fortunately, his liver and kidney function are just fine so they don’t really know what caused the seizures/spasms and by the time we got all of the lab results they had stopped. They sent us home with a muscle relaxant and anti-anxiety medication as well as an anti-seizure med in case they got really bad but he hasn’t had any problems since. So – it could be the progression of the cancer or could have been just something he ate that tweaked his central nervous system for a while. In either case, he’s home and doing fine – although he did seem extra tired last night and pretty much slept the entire evening.

Baby Nephew on the Way!
We have a new nephew due on Thursday of this week so yesterday evening after all of the dog excitement, I managed to design and make a little bunting for him that he can wear in his car seat this winter. (Picture below). I also stitched some ribbon to several cotton diapers to be used for burp cloths. If this is John or Carmen reading the blog you have to hide your eyes and not look at the pictures below until you get your package in the mail! I haven’t pressed out the seams yet so it looks a little funky around the edges but you can get the general idea. I modeled this sizing after a 3-6 month size sack gown so I hope it fits him at least most of the winter.



USS Kitty Hawk:
This aircraft carrier came in to Bremerton this morning through the channel just a block from our house. It came in for its decommissioning at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. I got down to the park just as it came around the corner and managed to capture a couple of pictures before starting my work day this morning. It was a pretty impressive sight gliding through the water – the group of us watching in the park were in a very quiet and somber mood as it went through. Here is the article from KOMO News.




So….that is the “quick” re-cap on our Labor Day weekend. It’s a good thing we had three days off work to take it all in!!

We are sending special thoughts to all of “our” kids – starting school today.