Go Julie, Go!

Oh my word, I am so FREAKIN' behind on this blog thing, I can hardly stand it. Blogging sucks. I am used to just starting something, going full speed to the point of exhaustion, and then moving on to the next latest and greatest. I blame the ADD. Self-diagnosed, of course. Well the thing is, you can't just decide you are going to quit blogging apparently, or people harass the living crap out of you. I know, hello? The nerve! It's like I joined the Mafia or something and now I can never leave. Or I get a hit put on me. For the love!

By the way, hello to my husband's co-workers who read my blog. Thanks for reading it! I'm sure Dave has conveyed to you that I love the attention, but I beg of you, could you PLEASE post a comment? Don't worry, I won't think it's weird or voyeuristic. I live for that stuff, trust me. What IS weird is that you read and DON'T comment, now that's where I'm callin' you out. You know who you are................ :) Now don't be shy. That goes for anyone else who is reading and NOT commenting, co-worker or not. I welcome all forms of stalking.

Okay, so I actually accomplished something incredibly amazing this summer that I NEVER EVER thought in a million years I would do in my entire life. I RAN A 10K RACE!!!! Yes, people, you heard right. The girl who HATES running with everything in her body, ran a full freakin' race and she didn't even come in last. Ha Ha! That was my biggest fear, honestly, no kidding. That and that I would have to stop midway and use the bathroom because I have that small bladder issue and that there would be no facility available. That's okay - my fears were alieved I'm happy to say. Thrilled, actually.

My wonderful and supportive family was there to cheer me on and my friend, Kendra George, who bullied me into registering for the race (THANK YOU, KENDRA!!!!), was my running buddy. It was one of the highlights of my year! I was 18th out of 35 in my category, coming in at a 9.24 min mile. Definitely not last. This, coming from a woman who couldn't even run a half mile last year. Is it brazen to say that I amaze myself?! :) Dave was so proud of me, and the girls too, especially Tiffany. Now, can I just say that I have NO desire to ever run anything longer than 6.3 miles - EVER. My next adventure is to jump out of a plane. I have some friends who are trying to talk me into it, but Dave is not on board with the whole thing. I am DYING to do it now, especially since he said I can't. Still have that teenage rebellious streak. Defiance, I guess. Don't tell me no, baby!




My Training Partner, Kendra - aka/PollyPocket - isn't she just a cutie!?

me and my fan club!

Sticky, sweaty, mess post race - yucky!

BackTracking

Alrighty, I'm just going to post a ton of pictures now and throw captions/depictions under them to get caught up. Too many things and I dont have time for "separate" cutsey posts for each category so you are getting an amalgam of the last month. Also, I am going through a bit of withdrawls as I left my camera at a park last month. :( It's killing me but hey, guess who gets that new fancy camera she has been wanting? The one that has way too many functions for any one even technologically advanced person to operate, let alone me, who only needs to know where the zoom button is. I'll let you know when I get it. You'll be able to tell because the photo quality will be much better. It may take a bit of coaxing before it materializes.



This is Dave in AZ at a real estate conference, er, golf I mean

Again, Dave soaking up the sun with friends while he's supposed to be studying hard, ya looks real hard, honey. I feel so bad for you that you have to leave for a week every other month with your friends to go to "school"

cousins in the backyard on Father's Day

Grandma Mary and Grandpa Joe with Natalie and Adilyn on Father's Day

Uncle Brett, his girlfriend Maria (we love her! she's a keeper for sure!, don't mess this up, Brett!) and mommy

Aunt Melani (Pregnant with twins right now - we are so thrilled! They said we could have one of the babies since they were only going for one more and don't have the budget for two) serving dessert at the Father's Day celebration

Family Room shot - look, it's clean! No Polly Pockets on the floor or anything. This must have been early on in the party before the girls dumped out the toys, nop guess not cuz Dad is already curled up with a glass of wine and gettin' ready to pass out.

Mommy with her favorite girls in pink! Looks like Adilyn hates her Aunt Julie. I will have to keep candy in my pocket and buy her love with sugar.

New day - Dinner at Ashley and Zig Serafin ginormous palatial compound/farmland. They are raising chickens there now! Anyway, Natalie and Nina found a pack of gum and went crazy. There were wrappers all over the place.

Mommy doing what she does best - snacking/grazing/munching.

Tiffany and Sela at the swing.

Zig and Julie right before a delcious Ashley meal. Why do I have this face on? I'm about to eat 4 star restaurant quality food at my diva gourmet's house! Dave must have said something rude before he took the picture because I should be smiling like crazy before a meal like this~! That's so like Dave.

Sela and Tiffany not wanting to part after our lovely evening. We stayed forever! Why on earth don't I have pictures of Dave and Ashley!?

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, I turned 35 this year! Freak! I'm OLD - but most everything is in tip top shape these days thanks to starving and working out like a fiend, so what the heck. Anyway, I woke up ALONE on my special day, as my darling was out of town on business. Boo hoo - yes, but what a genius I married (I love you, honey!) - he had the insight a week earlier to have bought, wrapped and shown Tiffany where the gifts were stored, so she could retireve them for me on my birthday morning. Amazing - where did I get him from? I suck at that kind of thing. I'm still promsing to make up Father's Day for him and that was three weeks ago. I have the gifts, just need to wrap them and...............I digress. Okay, so spoiled with a brand new phone and a new Zune for me to go running with. I'm a cheese and sing while I run - everyone stares and I don't care - I'm so happy I can even run! At 9:00AM Grandma came over to watch Natalie while I headed to my special birthday massage appointment. On the way home, I picked up Tiffany after school, where I was presented with chocolates and flowers from my dear friend, Cathie! After that, it was time for Tiffany and Natalie to take me out to our favorite teahouse, Taste The Moment, in Redmond, where we played tea party. We love the owners, Toni and Dick! The food is amazing and they take such good care of us. You MUST visit them. They had even anticipated my arrival (I told them I was coming a week before) and gave me a balloon and card and made my day even that more special. While driving up to the house, speaking to a friend who had just called to wish me happy birthday, I spied balloons and MORE chocolates and flowers on my doorstep from my friend, Monique, and squealed with delight. I have incredible friends~! After that, it was time to drop the girls off at Gpa' and Gma's house for a sleepover (their gift to me - thanks guys!) and run to play with friends at my favorite hang out - Pegasus Pizza and belt out some tunes with my brother and his girlfriend, Maria. It was a great day! Thank you to everyone who made it special and memorable!

Bacon Burger Barbecue

So, I have a lot of catching up to do. I'm going to attempt to update the blog with several posts in one night's time. Ugh - duanting, but here goes. Try to ignore the grammatical errors. As a disclaimer, you are getting the Reader's Digest version of everything for time's sake, so there goes all the funny out of most of the entries. I can only do so much, people. Okay okay-so this is last month at our friend's, Lindsay and Jeff Brown's house. We had a barbecue over at their bitchin' pad on Memorial Day. Ya, I just used the word bitchin'. The minute we entered, Jeff was busy pulsing a full slab of bacon in the quisinart. First off, way to be in the kitchen, Jeff! Second, do you really know how to operate that thing? Wow - I'm impressed! Anyway - Jeff was attempting to make a "pure" bacon burger. No fillers, additives, nada, just plain, nitrate laden bacon. Dave was drooling visibly at this point. All the menfolk gathered around the barbecue and speculated on it's outcome, intoxicated with the wafting aroma of the pure bacon burger and stared at it - it was freakin hilarious. The end result - well folks, I'm going to tell you - it was pretty much the same as a sausage patty. :) But don't tell the boys that. We had tons of fun visiting with the guests and I had to make us girls do some serious posing, for the blog of course!

Make Up Junkie

To quote my friend, Lindsay Brown, "My friend Julie is one of those girls who loves make up. Loves loves loves it!" That pretty much sums it up, people. Anyone who claims to know me knows that I can just about name all the girls at the make up counters and even talk them into giving me their tools for the night to give my friend a makeover. I'm obsessed with all the new products and colors. Aside from the blessing of being a mother and raising children, make up is the second most fun thing about being a girl. Well, fashion in general, but cosmetics is the real draw for me, since you can treat your face like a fresh canvas every day, ready for a new palette. Do you remember those giant Barbie heads years ago that came with make up and even hair dye? Well, I got one for Christmas one year (I must have been 7 or 8) and have been hooked ever since. I used to even torture my brothers and give them makeovers (I'm pretty sure I got into big trouble for using mom's AVON products) when they were too young to put up a fight. I think I could have pictures documenting this somewhere, but I may have to go into witness protection if those surface. Anyway, I could devote an entire blog to just make up and makeovers, but that's for another lifetime. Right now just trying to make the world a pretty place one girl at a time and thought I would share with you my latest masterpieces.

Oklahoma!

So, Tiffany has always dreamed of being an actress and after several small scale productions at the Bellevue Youth Theatre (which does an AMAZING job, by the way), she finally graduated to the main stage and got her wish, when she was cast as a background singer and dancer in Meydenbauer Center's "Oklahoma!" She was pretty thrilled! Now, before you go thinking she is some incredible actress (and she is!), just know that EVERY child who auditions, gets a part. :) That's the beauty of it - no one is turned away, no matter what, so it's a great experience for all. The directors and producers are brilliantly talented and accomplish so much within a short amount of time and the patience they have with these children is outstanding. That said, can I just say that Oklahoma! is one of the most boring productions I have ever seen? My word! I almost fell asleep. For the love! I only kept my eyes open to watch the little cutie pie in the back sing and dance her heart out in those kickin' boots! We had a fantastic time all in all and Gma Priscilla, Gma Mary and Gpa Joe even came out to cheer on their future big screen grandaughter. Well worth it!

Sisters? Are You Sure?

Seriously, look at these two adorable children and tell me, do you see ANY similarities at all? Okay yes, they ARE wearing the same dress, I realize that, but other than that? I just don't get it. Tiffany is brunette with dark chocolate eyes and Natalie is blonde with blue eyes. How could they in fact be from the same parents? But they are! I can't tell you how many comments I get from people at the park or in the mall about how non-alike these sisters look. I have taken to telling folks that they have different dads, just to get a reaction. I'm not very gifted at carrying the joke too far before I erupt in laughter. It's kind of funny to watch their eyebrows lift off their faces when they think I've been with two different men, so I get a kick out of it, even though it's so far from the truth. When my hair was it's, ahem, natural color, I was even asked several times if Natalie was adopted! Now that I'm on the blonder side, I dont' get that anymore. But I still see people dying to ask me if Natalie is the UPS man's baby when I tell them they are really sisters. I'll let them think what they want. As long as Dave believes what I tell him. :)

Get My Good Side, Honey!

So yes, I realize this is just a little on the self-serving side (Dave is behind me saying, "conceited, write conceited, honey") to post a billion pictures of myself, but for someone who has up until recently shunned the camera, I am just making up for lost time. :) So sorry to give you a full Julie photo-assault/attack. Yes, I'm a dork. I promise not to do it again, but I am still getting used to seeing myself on film. Most of you know I just lost 63lbs. I say that like it happened overnight, but really, as anyone who has lost a lot of weight knows, it was an arduous task and I've never worked harder for anything in my life thus far. This is just a little self shout-out. Indulge me, would ya? Thanks for ALL of your support through my journey. You have all been amazing cheerleaders and motivators. You have no idea how far the compliments have taken me. Love ya~!

Happy Mothers Day!!

Okay, so right away you should know I will be shamefully boasting in this post. Don't say you haven't been warned! I have had THE VERY BEST Mother's Day ever! Aside from having to wake up early for an 8:00 AM church meeting, that is. Dave and the girls and I were all matching today in our bubble gum pink hues. I actually had it together enough to to style Tiffany and Natalie's hair and still be on time, which is a huge feat for me that early in the morning. Had a fantastic Sunday at church with all the Primary children and teachers/leaders. Me and my "gals" (Primary Presidency - I am the secretary) had a glorious time, albeit slightly hectic, helping the kids make cards and frost/decorate cupcakes for their mothers, which they then presented to them in adorable little gem-adorned boxes. The BEST part of this activity is the fact that I had probably 3 (okay, more like 4, could have been 5......I lost track) cupcakes and about a pint of frosting. These are homemade cupcakes and frosting that my friend, Erin, produces and they only surface twice a year, so the whole supply and demand factor was at work. I knew I wasn't going to see another cupcake for roughly six months, so I had to store up. Oh MAN! These are hands down the tastiest treats in the world. NO kidding! Seriously! So, after gorging myself and cleaning up our mess, the girls and I headed home. Dave has to stay after church on Sundays to do his calling, so we are always alone the first hour. Now, you have to realize that Sundays are clearly the messiest day of the week in our house, due to the tornado that takes place getting us all ready to walk out the door so early. I was not exactly looking forward to coming home and cleaning it up on my special day. Imagine my surprise as I walked into an immaculate house! Floors swept and mopped, carpets vacuumed, beds made, spotless kitchen - I was stunned! Martina McBride's "There You Are" blaring from the stereo on repeat - love that song, fresh pink tulips (my favorite color, of course)in a vase on the table and a beautiful Mother's Day card, enclosing CONCERT TICKETS to both the BFD Kiss 106.1 venue and the Sarah Evans concert coming up! My sneaky boy had raced home during church to do this all for his adoring wife and make her feel special. Thank you, Dave!!! I love you so much. Then I got to crawl into bed, due to the effects of my sugar-fest now wreaking havoc on my body (yes, I know, not the best choice!) and take a long and fabulous nap. Ahhhhhh, I do feel like a Queen today. I'm going to revel in it for the next little while before I can no longer milk it. Hope you all had amazing Mothers Days as well! See, I told you it was shameless.

Someone's in the Kitchen with Tajee!

Well, someone in our church thought it would be a good idea to ask Julie Westra to make a salad for 300 women attending an educational luncheon. What were they thinking?! I suck at this kind of thing! I am more of what I'd like to call a party "participant" and not an actual worker-bee. I talk far too much to be productive, basically. I just want all of the fun with none of the work involved. Is that so wrong? Anyway, of course I said yes and then freaked out! I rallied my favorite go-to girls (who, btw, would all have been much better choices as project managers!) and we turned it into a party. My dear friend, Tajee (no, she is not Native American - everyone asks me that - her mom was just being creative that day) offered her house for us to desecrate as we chopped, measured, scooped, stirred and mixed. Monique, Cathie, Tajee and I were crazy knife-wielding divas. But we did have one injury. I hope the attendees can't taste the blood in the concoction. :) Thank you, Tajee! Dave even stopped by for a cameo appearance and a big smooch. And I have to say, those ladies at the function tomorrow will be extremely happy because this dish is super delicious. Oh heck, I'll just be happy if no one gets food poisoning. But then again, if they do I guess they'll never ask me to head this up again, now will they?

How Would You Like Your Meat, Miss?

I love love love playing with my sweet children, but I am a big believer in frequent "date nights"!! Dave is pretty much my favorite person to hang out with, so any time we get together alone or with good friends, it is well-deserved. This particular evening we were with Gerard and Camilla Nowak, in Seattle, at what Dave commonly refers to as the "Meat Palace". I'm pretty sure that is not the given name of the restaurant (call me if you want the real name and I'll get the details!), but it is a spot-on accurate description of the all-you-can eat joint. I can hardly describe it, but it is in no way an option for vegetarians. There is just about every kind of animal imaginable available on a skewer for you to inhale at two-minute intervals, being paraded around your table by attractive Brazilian men. Okay, maybe attractive is a stretch, although I do love that dark skin! A true cave-man sort of place, with an up-town swanky feel. I had to pace myself. And I love meat, but come on, this place was out of control. Dave and Gerard eat there several times a year and rave about it, so we ladies had to try it. It was delicious, yes, but I think annually will be enough for me. I'll stick to my meat being served on a plate, thank you. By an attractive male server. :)

Ouch! What is that in the Sky, Mommy?

One day last week we actually had some sunshine, so as fast as I could I got us all outside to document this momentous occasion. My poor girls were acting as if I had awaken them from a deep vampire sleep and I felt certain that at any minute their skin would peel off. They moaned in agony as the sun beat down on them as if they had never seen it before. Luckily, I have several pairs of diva sunglasses that I was able to quickly pull out and remedy the situation. Check out their faces in each photo!

I'm An Official!!!!

So, Dave and I are big fans of Will Farrell. Especially in "Blades of Glory". If you will recall the portion of this particular film where he is in court to be stripped of his skating rank, he encounters the lovely Miss Nancy Kerrigan. His character, Chazz Michael Miachaels, leans over and asks her, "Hey Nancy, are you an Official?" The ensuing line is where the fun begins. I can't repeat it, as this is supposed to be a "family" blog, but you can download the movie and see for yourself. Dave has taken to walking around the house ever since we've seen it asking me, "Honey, are you an Official?" with an extra wink wink. I erupt every time! Never gets old. 12 years of marriage and I still think he is the funniest thing walkin'. So, this takes me to my first post. I've finally succumbed to the pressure of blogging. I can now honestly say that I AM an offical. I have to admit, I have thought of blogging as kind of cheesy; in a long drawn out showing-off Christmas card/letter enclosed with all the many accomplishments of myself and lovely/perfect children sort of way. I have secrectly (and not so secretly) made fun of bloggers for a long time now. I guess it's time to repent and ask forgiveness as I now find myself unable to resist any longer. I am slightly embarrased! Am I a sell-out? For sure. A big shout out to Brittany McCulloch for helping me set this baby up! Hope I can make her proud.

Making Faces