I don't like your scent

Melissa turned 40 on November 20th, isn't that crazy? She doesn't age. Melissa has the most energy of anyone I know. She is fun and always thinking of new ideas to try. She's a great life coach.

Back in August, Jessie came up to Seattle for a short visit. As we were talking about everything, she started telling me how much she wished Melissa could see her house. I suggested we try and rig up a surprise trip to Portland for her 40th. Nathan was on board immediately. Thus began our conniving and planning to surprise the un-surprise-able.

We had fun planning it, Nathan went the extra mile. He scheduled his parents to come and stay for an extended visit (without Melissa knowing it). When the flight purchase showed up on the credit card, he gave every indication he had a work obligation (either that or Melissa just figured that was the reason for the purchase).

I thought we might need Savannah on board so I got her contact information. I also told Melissa's friend Mandy about our plans. I tried to randomly ask Melissa about her teaching schedule (thinking I would try and switch her out of her regular teaching week).

Everything was in order, however there was just one glitch. Nathan took Melissa to Ohio for five days or so right before the Portland trip for a work/interview/check-out-the-area trip! Sheesh, talk about cutting it close. However, she never suspected anything. The great "reveal" was orchestrated perfectly. Nathan nonchalantly looked up his flight information email and then made a big deal about how it was in the wrong name. 

Slowly, Melissa got it. The flight was purchased under her name. After Ohio, Melissa and Nathan flew into Boise, stayed the night there and then she flew over to Portland.

So, off she traveled to Portland.

I rode the bus down to Portland and excitedly picked up some balloons for Melissa. Those balloons were in high demand the entire weekend by the Mattson children. Maybe next time, I should purchase three fancy balloons instead of just one.

When Melissa walked in the door, we bombarded her with love and birthday wishes:

Thursday night, we met Jessie's eclectic volleyball group. We played for 3 1/2 hours or something obscene like that. Jessie's friends are nice and genuine. It is easy to see why she is devoted to playing so much volleyball. Having the three of us show up was kind of a fun grand entrance-type thing.

Look very closely at the Yellow guy's left leg - do you think it is a sock?

Jessie planned a fun Friday of hiking the 4T trail in Portland which had us hiking, riding the tram across the city, taking the trolley downtown, and then bussing back to our cars. We had a grand time and didn't even get e-coli from Chipotle.

Jess and Double-Bombshell Melissa

We stayed up super late talking and laughing our guts out.

Tax-Free, Yes I WILL

The next morning, the two of us power-walked Jessie out, so she bailed and Melissa and I continued. Jess has a fun neighborhood. I then rode the bus downtown (with my holy shoes, I needed more time to replace them) and picked up the bus to Seattle. When I tried to get gussied up, I put on a special scent that was made just from perfumes my hairstylist had me sniff (and pick out my favorites). Well, Jess was not afraid to let me know she didn't like my scent.

Melissa and Jess did some home décor shopping for quite some time Saturday evening. Besides a life coach, Melissa is a home décor connoisseur. She has an eye for those types of things.

Happy 40th Melissa!! And many more . . .

Pink Eye for the Pink One

Pink eye probably ranks up there near lice and molluscum as "parenting-nightmares" (so far I am 2 our of three on these listed and I'd take pink eye over molluscum any day. period). So, a few nights ago, when Daughter #2 complained of burning eyes, I knew I had to put on my parenting muscles to power through what could be three rounds of school absences, medication, and general complaining.

No pink-eye in this picture, just a brace-less smile from a few weeks ago :-)

Darren, ever-ready for wit, consoled her yesterday morning with these words: "Sorry your favorite color is in your eye."

BTW - so far so good, hopefully we caught it early on, before the other kids (or their parents!) catch it.

Turkey Buzzard

I am going to do some backtracking blog posts here. My son, what a boy. He comes up with the funniest things sometimes. I love that he has such an appetite for reading, and it shows by some of the comments he makes.

He would probably say his all-time favorite book series is "Harry Potter" but I actually think it is, "Hank the Cowdog".  He has read and listened to so many of these books that we've begun to decipher when his comments are his own or straight from Hank.

Camping the Northwest - Boy Scouts of America

Last school year (6th grade) was rather difficult. Transitioning from elementary school to middle school is pretty rough. In fact, many times my boy would come home announcing his plans to start a petition amongst his classmates about the need for recess. He would even cite sources saying how kids need to move and be active. One difficult day, his statement was simply, "I think I can make it through one more day, at least."

Thankfully, by the last day of school, he was "riding high" again, happy to embark on a summer of adventures and fun. He and some friends even determined they were going to ride their bikes to
school on the last day. School starts at 7:45. While middle school is all uphill from my house (about 5 miles), I think the boys padded in quite a bit of extra travel time when they set their meet-up time for 6:00 a.m. I honestly didn't think anyone would show up, so I pedaled up to the elementary school (meeting place) and sure enough, one boy was up there (plan was that four boys were going to meet and ride together). The two boys (my son and one friend) waited for 15 minutes, realized the other guys had slept in (or not been given permission to go at all), and took off for school. They arrived a full 45 minutes before school start-time and according to my son's description, just played around till school started. That is a long time to loiter and an early time to do it, but I was proud of his stick-to-it attitude.

Bear Lake

During the summer, we spent some time in Idaho, as usual. He really knows how to charm the ladies :-) and definitely worked his magic when he said after a particularly good meal courtesy of Aunt Tawna, "I consider myself a food expert and this is really good."

We had a great time river rafting in Twin Falls with Melissa and her family. It was just perfect, the day was mildly hot, our river guide was engaging and fun. The significance of the experience was that my firstborn declared, "I definitely want to do this for my career". :-) So, now that is settled.

He definitely thinks Idaho is a great place, with great rivers for rafting and cousins to boot. Towards the end of summer, we got into a discussion about wealth and what a wealthy person might look like or behaviors of a wealthy person. I talked to him about how wealthy people go on extravagant vacations. After listening to what the definition of extravagant is, he determined, "Idaho is extravagantly nice."

Our summer in the Northwest was particularly hot, at one point he declared, "If I stay out in the car, I am going to turn into a turkey carcass." Channeling a little more Hank the Cowdog, my son referred to the mysteries of dating girls and possibly marrying one about the time we all got haircuts. He came up with this very important detail regarding appearance. He claimed, "If I ever get a girl to marry me, I don't want to look like a turkey buzzard."

Summer living around here combined with high temperatures made for many creative, cold meals. A couple noteworthy comments made by my first favorite child:

"Wow, this is the first meal Mom's made in like 3 days."

"This reminds me of the school year when you made us sandwiches every day."