Monday=Procrastination

Monday done. I must admit I didn't get nearly as much done as I planned. Mom and I went to The Cabbage Patch for lunch because I've never been. We also stopped at Kohl's to try and find some tank tops/nice clothes for Ian's SkillsUSA competition in Kentucky. We spent a little too long there and by the time we got home, it was late afternoon.

Just when I started again on my work, Mom, Jane and I went to Costco. Rather, they went to Costco and I ran into Best Buy and Target. I wanted to look at Garmin's Vivofit2 vs. the Forerunner10. Anyways, Target had some pretty awesome looking clothes, but I didn't get a chance to look at them before heading back to Costco. Mom pretty much said I wouldn't be able to get in without a card. Challenge accepted... I did get in without a card, didn't even have to talk to anyone about it. Take that, Costco. 

We ended up going to Target and looking at clothes and buying sunglasses. :-D 

I got a wonderful pedicure from Ev. 

So tomorrow, I've got a lot of work to do to catch up on my week's schedule... 

A Sleepless Time

At first I couldn't sleep. It surprised be because I was up until 2:30 the night before watching a movie with Mitchell and Anna. I was pretty tired. Or so I thought....

Turns out, I'm stressing about things: 

There's a missing person case right now, I kinda know his sister and haven't been able to get them off of my mind. It feels so much more real even barely knowing the family. I've felt sick about the situation since I heard of it 24+ hours ago. It breaks my heart that the world is as it is. 

I'm the event planner for Cascade Falcon's banquet this year. Basically, I'm going from one person, to another person, to another person, to another person, then back again. It's stressful and I feel like an idiot and middle person... 

Getting close to leaving to go back to Tennessee for the month of May. Wrapping up seeing people, cleaning up my stuff in the house, finding summer clothes to wear, things to do while I'm there and CAP work that has to get done before Falcon. 

I've got Officer Basic course I'll be working on, ICUT radio training to do, get by CAP driver's license, do SLS (don't even really know what that stands for) in addition to my actual CAP job... 

Anyways, I just lay there thinking and instead of stressing, I talked with God. Most of the time I either put off praying until I can get a chance to focus on it instead of letting it come naturally or praying more often. It was good. 

I grabbed my blanket and headed out to enjoy what I knew was going to be the last clean night for at least a week. There was a gorgeous moon, faint stars, dimmed by both the moon and the city lights and the sound of frogs from all around. It was peaceful. I sat in the middle of our Cul-de-sac, longing for the summer and shooting stars. 

After that, I wrote in my journal and took a look at my goal list for this year. I've already done quite a few things on there, so I'm pleased about that. Now I get to focus on the next ones! 

A Competitive Family

Today I drove 150 miles chauffeuring the kids to different activities. Competitions...

Rose and Anna left for Rose's grappling tournament early. We heard from her a couple times during the day. Overall, she placed second and first in the two different competitions she was in.

Mom drove Jane to her piano competition in the morning and she placed top four. We learn tomorrow if she got first or second place.

Then I dropped Ian off at Cascade High to compete in an automotive competition with one of his diesel buddies. He spent four hours competing and their team placed 3rd of 20 teams. Pretty impressive.

After picking Ian up with Ev and Jane, we headed to Evie's piano competition. We teased her a bit about being the only one who could possibly not place. ;-) We were teasing, but she pulled through and she too will be performing in a competition tomorrow!

We got milkshakes from Mikie's and pizza for dinner. But before we went home, we drove to Granite Falls to pick up what turned out to be a REALLY large notebook of class information for part of my CAP training...

Planning Another Adventure

So today, I was looking at pictures on Instagram of Fort Worden. A completely different fort from the one we visited.... At first, I thought it was just people miss labeling their photos, but decided to look it up.

This blog showed me what exactly I was missing.... The majority of Fort Worden went unexplored by me and my friends! We explored 2/9 of the bunkers!

So I guess I'll have to plan another outing to explore that part of the fort. I wonder if it is pretty quiet, seeing as even I didn't realize it was there and I did some research... Good thing is, there's another fort, Fort Flagler that is 40 minutes away from Fort Worden. It is the fort that completes the triangle... 

It too looks like a fun fort to explore! And it's on an island! So, for those of my friends up for another adventure... Looks like we have two destinations to check out in late July or early August.

According to Ev, you've seen one fort, you've seen them all. I disagree and can't wait to go exploring again! Perhaps we'll even find a better singing bunker.

And I'll learn from my mistakes and make reservations for the ferry and bring enough water/snacks ;-) 

Beauty Blogger Tag

I've been tagged by among tall trees (in other words, my best friend) to do the Beauty Blogger tag... Usually I would NEVER do this kind of thing, but I'm making an exception...
The Rules are:
-Tag the blogger who nominated you
-Answer the questions
-Come up with 10 questions of your own
-Nominate 5 other bloggers, and don’t forget to tell them! (I'm totally not passing this on, because the only blogger I know tagged me. :-P)

1.)What is your favorite color?

Green. By far. I love how many shades of green are in nature. There's just something alive and peaceful about the color to me. 

2.) Do you think that coloring hair in bright/colorful colors (bright pink, rainbow, etc.) is neat or not? Would you ever color your hair like that?

By "neat" I'm not sure if it means tidy or cool, so I'll go with cool. I think bright colored hair can look awesome. To me, it isn't professional looking and that would be a reason I wouldn't color my hair. That being said, I would consider coloring a strand or two with bright colors for the summer if it weren't for CAP... 

3.) Where’s your happy place?
When I think happy place, I go to what I think about when I'm depressed, angry or in pain. Something, a memory and a dream to go back to. My happy place is lying in a dark field next to my friends, looking up at the magnificent view God gave us in the stars. I cannot wait to be in that same field this summer. 

4.) Hobbies?
Cooking mostly, photography and creative writing among many hobbies.  

5.)Have a night out or evening in?
Both. Night in by myself or with my family, a good movie, tea and biscotti. Out with friends, having fun.

6.) If money was no object, what would you do all day?
 All day every day? I would love to volunteer to help people out. Travel the world and see different cultures, foods and architecture with either my siblings or my best friend... or both...

7.) What does your perfect day look like?

You know our day at Fort Worden? Pretty much that. Hanging out with my closest friends doing fun stuff and enjoying each other's company!

8.) What makes someone beautiful to you?
I think a lot of this is stuff I'm striving towards...Someone who is:
Patient with other people (this is a big one for me, because I have a relatively quick temper)
Kind and supportive
Able to give constructive criticism and cares enough to do so.
Laughs and takes time to enjoy the little things in life.
Loves God and family

9.)If you could bring one musician back from the dead, who would it be and why?

Okay, so I actually have four people. I would love to have met the Andrews Sisters (3). I would love for Fred Astaire to still be alive as well. But really, it's kinda a weird question...

10.)If you had to choose to live without one of your five senses, which one would you give up?
That question isn't even remotely fair to ask. As a culinary person, taste would be very challenging to live without. And the ability to smell. Blindness terrifies me. To pick the least of all of them, I would have to say smell is the least important... 

Fort Worden Adventure

You know the times when you see your friends at different activities, but you don't actually get to hang out and talk with them? That's how I've felt pretty much the entire time since I've been home. I've seen friends at dancing, volleyball, Jane's choir and birthday parties. But it's not the same as actually getting to hang out with no real schedule or plans.

Nate Miles and I while trying to arrange a day to go somewhere as a group of friends, could not settle on a date, pushing it out into June. Big family with older kids problem right there... So on a more spontaneous idea, we set the date for Sunday, just over a week away. Ridiculous that everyone we wanted to come was able to come that day! But skipping Church... 

8:45 Sunday morning, a Jamieson, a couple Hackings, a few Miles and three Fuji's embarked in the rather dirty 15 passenger van and headed Northwest to Coupville. We really wanted to catch the 10:15 ferry, so we were cutting it way too close. I was positive we would have to wait for the 11:45 ferry (which is way too long to wait). We were sooooo excited that we were the second to last car boarded on that ferry. They had me re-park after the initial time pulling up in order to get us to fit. We were stoked to be on that ferry and many high-fives went around. 

Needless to say, we had a blast on the ferry, both admiring the view, losing members of our group and then sending other off to find them, then people to find the people who were sent to find the original group who had just returned. It turned into an endless cycle of missing people. It was hilarious! 

We finally got to Fort Worden and after posing for pictures in the beached boat, we explored the fort. It was just as cool as I remembered. Almost all the doors opened and closed, hardly any were welded closed and the super narrow (almost creepy narrow) pathways between bunker rooms were super sweet. We did a lot of singing in the bunkers because the acoustics are amazing in those rooms! 

We had our standard Robin Hood lunch on the REAL sand beach and then while the others explored, Nate, Lindsay and I found an even better bunker to sing in. We had fun singing before being joined by the others. I felt a little bad doing a Sunday since everyone goes to Church, but I have to say, the fellowship and worship that happened in that bunker was 10x better and more natural then going to Church. :-D 

Even though we left plenty of time to get back to the ferry, most people made reservations for that particular ferry, so we were stuck at the terminal for an additional 1+ hour. John, Jane and I played card games while the other explored Port Townsend. All of us played Quack, Quack, Bang and Ninja until it was time to board. 

As if that day wasn't crazy enough as is, Ian and I took Kaylie to volleyball and caught the last game before heading home and to bed. Now to clean up the van and wait patiently until the next time we can have a crazy adventure like this one was. I love this particular set of friends, they're so easy to be around, we're like one crazy family. <3

An April Weekend

Friday:

 I was up at five thirty to go watch Ian compete in SkillsUSA with Dad and Mom. It was super interesting to watch him work and see more of the industry I've heard so much about for the past 2+ years. Once home in the early afternoon, I set to packing for the weekend in Wenatchee.

My plans got somehow foiled when Ian (once he came back) got a game he had been waiting for in the mail. A super fun game called Coup. You all should try it. So we invited the Rothenberger kids over (they live about five walking minutes away...) and played the game with them for a couple hours. 

Saturday: 

I woke up at 4am. Way too early to wake up on a Saturday, but it was well worth it. Ev, Jane and I headed out on highway 2 over the pass to go to Civil Air Patrol Washington Wing Spring Conference. We hit the pass at sunrise and it was gorgeous. We sang almost the entire way and complained about the people who were driving slowly. 

Spring conferences is pretty much a day of awards, speeches, lectures and classes, but the majority of the people who go are awesome. Still, there's nothing like getting to see about 100 friends and having to sit through classes. So I ditched the whole class idea. A senior member from our squadron and I hung out pretty much the entire day and got some good ideas down for things to do with our squadron and ways to improve. 

At four, I taught my DFAC class. Well, at least part of it. Half way through my class, another senior member came in and told us we had three minutes to wrap things up and get out so they could do banquet set up. I was a little frustrated because the second half of the class involved a bin full of M&Ms, Skittles and Reese's Pieces. It was my hands on food handler's portion of the class. Anyway, as far as I got went really well in my opinion, but I definitely need to work on my public speaking. 

The banquet was boring, the food was marginal, the dance afterwards was horrendous, but I got to dress up. During the dance, one of my favorite cadets and I went to the hall and talked instead of watching the awkward senior members and cadets try to dance. We had a blast talking and it made my evening! 

Sunday: 

The drive home the next day was fun, Jane had never been to Leavenworth, so we stopped for less than a half hour and went to the cheese shop and the hat shop. We made it home in decent time. Someone in our family had a birthday celebration that day (namely the eldest child) and we made rice pilaf, garlic asparagus, tilapia with homemade mango salsa and Drumsticks for dessert. It was a fun celebration and the meal was delicious! 

Ian and I ditched after the party to go to volleyball. It was a blast to get to play and hang out with friends again. That and Ian's a pretty awesome brother. :-D 

I thought this week would be calm, but after a crazy Monday, I'm thinking I might just stay in my pajamas all day...