How to Reclaim Your Abandoned Child

Tim and I are spending more and more time with Joanie and Tim's family, especially since the GB has returned for a third time and Joanie is now back getting treatments for a final round. Get away, bad antibodies!!

So we watched one of our all-time favorite movies together Friday night, Finding Nemo. Yes we are almost 30 years old.

Lately, we like to make lists of what we can learn from movies when we watch them. This list is entitled, How to Reclaim Your Abandoned Child.

1. It all starts with 5 little letters: w-o-w
2. Have 400 eggs
3. Get ready to learn to get some knowledge
4. All new explorers must answer a science question
5. Touch the butt (or don't let your child touch it)
6. Choose your friends wisely - remember fish are friends, not FOOD
7. When in denial, use intervention
8. Just think about what you need to do
9. Give the kid a proper reception
10. Remember Sea monkey has your money
11. When life gets you down, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
12. Ask your conscience if you're dead
13. No eating here tonight - you on a di-et
14. Climb Mount Wannahawkalugee to join the fraternal brotherhood of tankdom
15. It's because I like you that I don't want to be with you, it's a complicated emotion
16. Follow the EAC for 3 leagues
17. Go through the trench, not over it
18. Shoo the squishy
19. Something about Tentacles - Got it!
20. You have 4.2 minutes once he grabs the Reader's Digest
21. Focus dude, hey dude
22. Leave them to hatch and then coo-coo-ka-choo
23. When they know, you'll know, you know
24. Think dirty thoughts
25. Take the swirly-twirly vortex of terror
26. Find your exit buddy
27. Bring out the inner whale in you
28. Hop inside my mouth if you want to live
29. We've all got to swim down together!!!

Join us next time for How to be the Nanny of a Lifetime.

dudes and orcas

The past couple weeks have been fun! Matt and Katie are about to have their 03 baby BOY so here are two of the centerpieces - diaper dudes - from their couples' shower I helped put together. Guys competed in team challenges such as sucking pop out of baby bottles the fastest and dressing dolls in full baby outfits while being stuffed with pillow tummies. Very creative.

WARNING: graphic image to follow. We had one diaper dude casualty.

Then, Tim and I headed to Orcas Island in the San Juans to celebrate 3 years of marriage! Wahoo!

A sunset pic from our ferry into the island Friday night.

Here we are without the view behind us from the top of Mount Constitution,
after a day hike up.

Cooling down at Cascade Falls on the way down!

The next day we kayaked in a windy bay before getting in line at the ferry for 4 hours...during which we escaped to explore the island by bike! A great choice!! We also couldn't have asked for better weather, just like 3 years ago:)

Tim's gift to me at the top of the mountain (again, this time driving to watch the sunset )! We were serenaded unexpectedly by 30 church choir members on tour, singing numerous American, folksongs from the summit. Very interesting...

The view from the top with Mount Baker in sight. A fabulous revisit to a great place!

I-have-plaque

I got third place in my age division at the Tacoma City Marathon (10K) on Saturday! Tim and I ran it together and he pushed me pretty dang hard and I ended up placing third in the women's 25-29 age division. I won a little plaque. Nice! Actually the run wasn't that nice, last year was more fun when I ran for fun with Abbie Brown. This time she and her dog Roscoe cheered us on as we TRIED to place in the top 5. I made it though! Tim gave up his half marathon slot since he hurt his back, and he had no problem running 6 miles. He could have left me in the dust (and did sometimes). We kind of like this occasional race thing. Too bad the Boston marathon is a qualifier. So we're recovering and eating lots of whatever we want lately. We'll try to keep it up though, the running that is!

binkie boppy burby boo boo

These are the 'b' names chosen by Isaacson family guests for themselves at Hillary's baby shower last Saturday. At REACH Camp, everyone has to pick a camp name. Well I was in charge of this shower too and everyone had to pick a shower name. We couldn't use normal names for 2+ hours (at least we tried). There were some non-mentionables I intentionally left out...

The girl face cookies I made (there were also feet)

The spread, complete with another alien diaper baby and a fruit carriage that was fun but took awhile to make...

Hillary holding an imaginary Isabella in the softest brown Koala blanket she asked for. 3 more weeks to go! Isabella Isa-comin'!!! Hillary pointed out she'd be willing to wait until June 7 to have Isabella because her birthday could be 06-07-08. Pretty smart!

Mow-town Mania

Be there other mower-stealer-dweller cities besides Tacoma? I mean, I know it is such an attractive place for one to convene and discuss covert operations to strike innocent yard-lovers by stealing their lawn mowers! So easy - just imagine - what a great idea! Hardly any work to unsuspectingly whisk away a motorized vehicle of compact dimension without any noise, clamor or effort...

NOT! Aren't there easier things to steal, that don't require strong men or noticeable pickup trucks?

For some sick reason, we've been victimized by a lawn-mower stealer once again. At our old residence 2 springs ago, someone stole our mower out of our garage. Now last Sunday we came back from church and thought, what long grass! What a sunny day to mow our minuscule lawn! And what did we find? A missing mower. It was definitely there the night before. You can't miss it on the way outside and downstairs to do laundry. It was there. With other stuff of smaller size and weight, which yet remained.

All that effort given by someone I just don't understand - who must have known our church service went into early afternoon? Gimminy. And what's more - the 2 mowers over the years weren't even ours; they belonged to our landlords. Maybe it's a good thing Boston doesn't have yards?

P.S. Any friend of ours is welcome this summer to join us for a picnic in the gorgeous new grasslands of North Tacoma. Meet at our house and we'll go from there.