Yakima

So after a crazy month - I don't want to be reminded of the details - we are settling into our new home in Yakima. I have a good feeling about this location, regardless of how long it will be 'home.' Yakima reminds me of were I grew up, a much slower pace; which after 2009 is much needed.

As for Seattle - we will truly miss all of the wonderful people we have come to know and hope that we will stay in touch with everyone, moving never gets any easier in this perspective.

A handsome day.....

(Requested by Torrie)
What has happened to my little baby? He thinks he is a man!! I know he is days away from 4, but I need a picture of my handsome baby for this post.

I set up a play date for Diego to visit his friend London. I soon realized it was no ordinary play "date" when that morning Diego demanded he had to take a shower; "I have to condition my hair, it has to be shiny." After a 30 minute long shower Diego got out and simply asked me how he smelled. He got dressed in his specific "handsome" shirt - green, long sleeved shirt with a cartoon gorilla on the front. I asked Diego if London was his girlfriend, he looked at me irritated and said, "No, don't ask me again." (Love the attitude!)

This really is not unusual behavior for Diego, he has always been a little vain. He styles his hair on any important event (keep in mind he has a buzz). He has a set of "handsome" shirts he keeps separated from his regular shirts. Don't get me wrong he is a handsome boy (not biased at all!) but coupled with his interest in girls, vocally noting "pretty" girls, lets me know that as the years go by, Julio and I will have our hands full.

First day of school

Yes - that is my baby Diego walking down the halls to his first day for Preschool.

His class is at the High School so it is a long hallway and he thinks that he is the coolest kid in the school.

Diego goes to school 4 days a week for just an hour and a half. Most days he is too excited and preoccupied with activities to even say good-bye to me.

A day in the life...

Summer is coming to an end, as it does we decided to spend the last few days in Yakima. The boys and I had a great time, particularly riding bikes. Diego has been hesitant through the process but he has really done great.

Yesterday we decided to go on a long bike ride on the Yakima Greenway, I admit I pushed the limits and we traveled too far, but the purpose of this blog is to give you a peek of the day in the life with boys, not just any boys, but my boys....

We are at the end of our trail. Just one more small hill and we would be at the parking lot and overpass of the interstate. Diego declares he has to pee, I have my roller blades on so I thought it would be easier to have Jordan help his brother.

They stayed close to the path (the interstate is just to the left of us) as there is not a lot of coverage. Just as little Diego begins, Jordan looks up and sees the path's water man approaching on his golf cart. Jordan instantly walks away, hands up, panicking. Poor Diego has committed and can't stop and is frantically trying to adjust his pants to no avail, thus is spraying straight up in the air and yes, drenching himself....

As I assess the situation I am rather amused. Jordan, walking away pretending nothing is happening, when clearly there was drama. Diego, focused more on yelling at Jordan than dealing with his current dilemma. Lastly, the mother trying to side step to the boy to help in whatever way I could, but in the end was too late, the damage was done.

As we regrouped and finished our adventure I explained to Jordan that this friendly old man understood the urgent needs of a 3 year old, and that casually peeing in the bushes was absolutely fine. However, I am almost certain as this man approached the scene of chaos he was thinking 'crazy', ' redneck', 'ghetto' - take your pick.

Memories of summer - to me, it will be a funny memory to look back on. However, the psychology in me wonders what kind of therapy will be needed. :)

Family Getaway

It has been a couple of weeks since we got back from our trip to Montana/Idaho. Here is a few pictures of our awesome time spent with family.

These first pictures need a little detail - Diego loves "The Bee Movie" and when he found out that his Aunt Melissa's brother was a bee keeper, Diego had to meet him! It was all he could talk about on our 10 hour drive. When we got to there Diego said, "I thought he would be a little boy."
Brian "the bee keeper" was great and knew his stuff, answering all our questions and showing us everything! The pictures below show each of the boys in the bee suit.






























We also went fishing as a small stream that was loaded with small fish. Everyone caught something - including Diego, with some help from his uncle.



































We also went to the state fair while we were in Montana. The boys had a great time - Diego got frustrated that he couldn't ride all of the big rides with the boys, but he did get on a few --- questionable if he made all the height requirements. In the picture below, you can't see the boys, but my little Diego is in the red cart spinning around very fast. At one point the cart stopped and began to go backwards. Julio said that the whole time Diego was yelling, "I'm going to die!"

I will post more photos soon from our time in Idaho - water skiing!

Summer trip to Idaho

We are preparing for our summer trip to Idaho. It is always a great opportunity for the boys to get a sense of where I grew up. We are hoping to fish, go huckleberry picking, water ski and visit with our family.

This picture is taken last year - Diego with "papa" and Jim (the horse). I am not sure if this really is Jim, at some point there was a Jim, thus to Diego every horse is named 'Jim.'

Great memories! Diego adores his grandpa. Trucks, backhoes, horses - that is how to win over a 3 year old.

We are going to be spending the first half of the trip in Montana visiting my brother and his awesome family. Then we will go north, to my hometown of Rigby. The most important aspect of the trip - I plan on having a tiger's blood shaved ice in my hand everyday (possible all day). I have confirmed the hours and we will not set out for our days until they are open and the order has been taken. Only those close to me know how serious I am....

Battle at Target

Not to be mistaken with the Battle of Toys R Us.
This is Diego's favorite past time - only at stores. As you can see he takes up the width of an isle so we must first shut down the the isle so there are no human causality's.

Seriously, we were looking at a summer activity packet for Jordan and within minutes the battle was set up - the kid know he has to act fast.

Ah, Friday night entertainment.

Where have I been!

Oh my goodness - over a month has gone by. I only have my FB to blame. I knew it would happen - as soon as I get online, FB is top priority and I get lost.

Well, operation Yakima is in full swing - so far so good-ish. Of course it is hard - I kind of like Julio. Jordan got out of school last week and the plan is for him to spend some weeks in Yakima with his dad. In short Mom vs. Diego.
Julio is loving the rez, and this new challenge is perfect for him - it draws on all of his strengths.

As for me, I am no longer working graves (obviously impossible) so I am on the prowl for a new gig. Actually I had been looking for a while, but now I am serious - anywho - I am ready to take the next step in my "career".....

Everything is still up in the air for our future - we love our life here in Seattle and we are (after 3 years) settling into our location. However, it is hard to be far apart and this could turn from interm to long-term.

I will do better with up keep -- didn't I say that last time.

Yakima

It has happened so fast.
I am still trying to let things settle in.
Trying to make a plan.
Thinking what is right.

Ready or not Julio starts his new job on Monday - in Yakima. Whether we will follow and when is still undecided.

I want to wib!

I can't remember how the conversation started, but "I want to wib!" was the beginning of a down ward spiral to a 3 year old in need of a nap.

We were in the car, and as usual Diego with his non-stop talking came upon the statement that he does not want to die (I do not want to explain the drawn out conversation that lead to the statement, again the child just likes to hear his voice). I stated that everyone has to die, but when we die we get to go to heaven - simple enough. Also, explaining how bodies get old and eventually stop working. Tying to keep it basic.....below is the drama that followed.

"I don't want to die, I want to wib!" Diego sobbed uncontrollably, I could not make out his words. I tired to explain that he has a long time to live, he has to get old before he dies. This caused more tears of "I don't want grandpa to die! I miss him!" I reminded him of heaven while trying to concentrate on the delightful I-405 traffic. Diego was not feeling "heben." A solid 10 minutes of tears, crying "I want to wib, mama!"

What I find most humorous about this story is after his nap (again in the car) he said, "Heben is good, me no die right now, but heben is for families." How sweet - and yes how simple of a conversation. There was a great lesson learned today, wait until after nap time to have in depth conversations with a 3 year old.

Down by the shore

This weekend we braved the rain and headed to Alki beach to do a little crab hunting.

We have yet to take Diego on such an adventure (something Jordan and I did daily the summer before Diego was born) and I now feel guilty, we had such a great time.

We don't actually "hunt" the crab, it is a term Jordan uses. We simply walk along the shore looking for fun little sea creatures. Jordan found everything this time, while I lead an apprehensive little Diego who was anticipating danger.

Jordan found 4 crab and 3 star fish. He also showed Diego how to "harass" sea cucumbers. As you can see in the photo the star fish are really big. Diego was sure they would attack and while I was taking the picture of Jordan, Diego was yelling in fear that his brother was going to die. Needless to say, Diego did not touch the star fish. So after the star fish episode we found some sticks to use to poke things with.
Jordan found a great ledge were we found 2 crabs, one was a little more calm and smaller than the other. That was the one Diego messed around with, and warmed up to. Finally getting the courage to touch it with his stick.
It was a great day - and it reminded me how great of a child I have - I have two great children - but Jordan was great - his goal was to find a crab for Diego, show Diego that nothing was going to hurt him. Up to this point 7.5 years of an age difference doesn't make a difference, they have a great relationship. All attributed to Jordan.

Winter Break

Yes, I know it was almost 2 months ago - but the video is worth it.
In February we went to Idaho during Jordan's mid-winter break. Jordan had talked about snowboarding in the past so I thought this was a great time to take him (thanks mom for making it happen!) - we got him a private lesson (really cheap) and while he was up on the slope we took Diego on the bunny hill.
As you can see Diego did awesome!


Jordan did great as well, but I did not get any video of his great moves. When Diego got tired Grandpa came and picked up Diego; and Grandma and I went down the hill a couple of times with Jordan. I reaffirmed that I am not the skiing/snowboarding type, but it was fun to be there with Jordan watching him learn something new.
The rest of our snow experience was sledding down grandma & grandpa Bradshaw's butte - which was another great memory I will have with my boys.

Choices

Nothing exciting is happening with us right now - which I have decided is a very good thing, after the week that I have had. I have 2 health children, a loving husband - life is not bad.

As most of you know I work in a rehab center for women, what is awesome about the center is that women may bring their children or have the opportunity to be reunited with their children because they are in recovery.

I won't get into the drawn out details from all sides that lead up to the decision, but in sum a woman was being discharged thus loosing her two children.
I have had the opportunity to have a good relationship with the woman and her children. I have listened to her story, everything dealing with her life and recovery, but then on a professional level I know her file, I know her progress.

Because of the situation we felt it was needed to do extra checks on this woman during the night and be on high alert in case she tried to leave with the kids. The task seemed simple enough, after the first check I realized it was not a simple task. At each check, until 3 a.m., the woman was in her room sitting near her children, just staring at them, caressing them, even holding them while they slept. It was heart breaking, knowing she had made so much progress, but nothing close to a healthy home that her children deserved and need.
Finally having to wake her up at 5 a.m. so that she wouldn't be late for the court appointment. Standing in the doorway and watching while she kissed her children one more time - possibly never seeing them again. All because of the choices she had made and continues to make.

That day, I held Diego closer, stared at Jordan longer (it did freak him out), appreciated my family, my life more. Even having to think about kissing my children one last time......too much.

I have done a lot of reflecting - how lucky I have been. It is not a stretch to say that anyone could make similar choices - bad choices. I have met such a variety of women at the center, it is not fair to say that it is only a certain kind of people who make such awful decisions that lead to self-destruction. I am not solely speaking of substance abuse.
I am not without making bad choices - what I am saying is that I have been lucky and blessed that life has gone so well.

Ah life....

There are no pictures this go around -- you should be happy I am updating!!
The mystery of Poo was revealed...err we found him and I have a guess of what happened. About 2 weeks after the disappearance I accepted that he was not coming back so I cleaned out his bowl. As I poured the water and rocks into the sink, I saw something black and mushy. I asked Julio to do his husband/fatherly duty and scoop 'it' out and put it in the garbage without any eyes watching. Poor Poo was under the rocks, I think he swam under and got stuck - and died. I still can't find him in the picture I took, and poor Diego searched that bowl.

Anyways, on to current events. I am getting ready to take a trip to Idaho. The boys and I will be enjoying the cold from the 12th to the 22nd. For me it is a much needed break from work and life in general. Diego is excited to see Grandpa (and I am sure Grandma) and Jordan is just happy to get a week out of school (mid-winter break).
As for Julio, he will be staying home :(, working and looking for better employment (partially forced - love this economy!).

We are doing great and still kickin' up in Seattle, life is busy and gets the most of me, hence the outdated blogs. Eventually I will post a picture of the boys -- maybe by Jordan's graduation date :)

HMM....where is Po?

For Diego's birthday we bought him a small fish bowl with a gold fish, named Nemo. I specificlly found a gold fish that was orange and white because we all knew it was going to be Nemo. It lasted almost 3 weeks, and one morning we woke up to him floating belly up. I assumed 2 things 1) I should have cleaned the bowl (suppose to be done every10 days) and 2) I am out another 26 cents.
The more I thought about it I decided to get a fighting fish, they require less cleaning and last forever. Diego picked out (with mom's help) the most beautiful fighting fish. The fins were so long that they curled. The fish was blue with the tips of his tail turning red - beautiful!This is what we came home to this afternoon. At first I thought that Po (from Kung Fu Panda) was in the rocks where he likes to sleep. But there is nothing.....
There is no sign of a struggle, I assume there would be water splashed everywhere. I am of course talking about Daisy, my loving cat. I would have never thought that she was capable of such an act. Not that she is too kind - we all know that she mean and heartless. I just didn't think that she had the skills - plus she has no claws! I had witnessed her drinking Nemo's water, and even batting at the glass. Again I assumed she lacked the skills and desire of reaching her paw in the water.
There is not evidence - no splashed water and no fish...yet!
Newest fear - where is the fish? I can only assume it was Daisy - the cat spends 20 hours a day on my bed, 3 hours under my bed and the remaining hour sneaking around the house...I only hope she ate it - I do not want Diego finding his fish dead somewhere - but even more so I really do not want to find a fish in my bed - I just cleaned the sheets!