What a deal; or shall I say steal?

I bought this really great coat for Harrison at Old Navy yesterday. It was $40 with 60% off. Since I have a Gap card I get rewards back for money spent. I had a $20 reward to use and I got this coat for $.76! Can you even believe it?! It's super cute and warm. He loves it!

Lately, I have become *obsessed* with all of these frugal blogs. I've been saving money left and right. But then again I guess it's money I wouldn't have spent in the first place if I didn't learn about these deals on these blogs. SO.. am I really saving money? Check the sidebar for my favorite blogs. Happy shopping!

Ta-da!

The graffiti is gone.

Christmas has been cancelled

So not really Christmas itself but Christmas dinner has been cancelled. In light of this recent event (http://ournewbluehouse.blogspot.com/2009/12/seriously.html) we cancelled dinner. Normally, we swap Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with the Cudes. This year we swapped holidays and we even included others. Thanksgiving was wonderful and we enjoyed spending time with the Cudes, their friends and my mom too! For our dinner we decided to also include other friends. It was going to be the same crowd that was at our house a little over a week ago. But after having someone write all over our door with a marker I realized I didn't want 6 kids on the loose in my house again. So it's just the 3 of us this year. We're still trying to figure out what we're going to eat.

In the past we spent Christmas Eve at the Brandals home. We loved celebrating with their family. But then Hans and Cindi moved to Boston in February and we knew we'd be on our own this year. Until I got an email from their daughter, Amanda, a few days ago. We've been invited to spend the evening with them again this year sans Hans and Cindi. We're VERY excited to be included and can't wait for tomorrow!

Hans, Harrison, Cindi in August

Here he comes...

Telling Santa what he wants.

Seriously?

Here is another reason I do not like kids. WTF? We had 6 kids over this weekend for a potluck and this is what I found this morning on the back of my door. Lets say I am less than pleased. These kids are all 3 1/2 and should know better so how did this happen? Harrison has NEVER written on a wall, door, floor... So now I can just add this to my long to-do list. Scrub the door, paint it?? Not happy.

One and done

This is the post you've all been waiting for. We are DONE - no more children - EVER. So please stop asking, hoping, wishing, praying or whatever it is that you do.

p.s. If you have a baby or are planning to in the future we're having a HUGE yard sale in the spring. We still have everything.

Thanksgiving day hugs

Do you remember this kid?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTXMFIlwe-M

Halloween Fun!

What is the story with this guy? Is he a hot dog? And what is the thing by HIS hot dog??

Introducing... Curious George and the man in the yellow hat

Happy Halloween!

Please grow up - I don't want a baby!

Well, disregard my previous post where I was glowing with the wonderful success we had the other day. Not only did Harrison go pee in the potty that afternoon but he also did it for Dave when he got home from work. We were silently high-fiving each other. BUT... since then he refuses to do it. He won't try. He screams and cries. When asked if he needs to go he says no and then pees in his pull-up. I'm not happy. It's really ridiculous, honestly. He is old enough. He more than gets it. He just doesn't want to grow up for some reason and it's driving me crazy! He loves to be a baby. Look, if I wanted another baby I would just have one. I don't want one - I want my 3 year old to grow up!

Pee pee in the potty!

As you all know by now Harrison wants to be a baby. He just doesn't want to grow up for some reason. He absolutely refuses to use the potty. What gets me is that he totally gets it and downright refuses. Well, I'm tired of laying him down and changing his diaper like he's a baby. SO I announced that when we ran out of diapers he was going to have to start wearing pull-ups and undies. Today he wore a pull-up and for the few hours that we were out shopping he never went pee. When we got home he sat on his little potty and guess what?? He did it! He is very excited about it too. (fingers crossed that he'll continue to go in the potty and that I didn't just jinx myself for talking about it!)

Fun in Vancouver, BC

Pumpkin time

It's been a year

Well, it's been one year since we moved into this house. It's hard to believe it's been a year already. My plan to post before and after pictures of every room hasn't happened because we're still working - decorating, painting.... I hope that soon we can settle in completely and then just enjoy our new blue house. And can we still call it our new blue house? Either way I still love it. I couldn't be happier that we found this house last year. Everything worked out just right for us.

First day of preschool

Harrison is officially in the 3s class at Lincoln Park Co-op Preschool. http://www.lincolnparkpreschool.org/ This was taken on Monday (his first day of school). If you look closely I think he's giving a thumbs up. Although he does that for most things these days.

I am on the fundraising committee again this year and Dave is co-treasurer for our class. Currently, we're selling Chinook Books. If you're interested in buying one let me know! They're $20 each and of that money $10 goes directly to our school. The book is similar to an Entertainment Book but also provides you with information and coupons that support living green. For my out of town blog friends - the book is only for Seattle/Puget Sound area. Sorry!

Go Cougs!

Ladder 11 arrival

FIRE

So you probably think this must be a post about Harrison and his firefighting obsession but it is not. While sitting in the basement tonight we noticed our lights flickering. Dave went upstairs to see if he could figure out what was going on when he heard noises coming from outside. He opened the backdoor to see the transformer (that is running wires right to our house) on fire. He ran back to get me and we ran out into the backyard. Then we kept hearing popping sounds. When we opened our back gate we saw the apartment above the market behind our house on fire. There were flames shooting out of the window.

Friends

Henry, Clare, Owen and Harrison. In order to get Owen and Harrison to remove their hands from the faces I said "raise your hands in the air." As you can see from the following photo only one person follows directions... thanks Henry.

Why?

For some crazy reason we thought we bypassed the 'why' stage. But then the first week of February it began. And boy has it escalated recently. Case in point: I pointed out to Dave the other night how much more Harrison has been saying why recently. Harrison then said "I wonder why."

Camping

Where does the time go? We went camping for Dave's birthday (July 23) and I am just now getting around to posting pictures. I've had about a week now of no naps from Harrison. And it's killing me... I usually hop on here during his nap time. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Anyway, we went camping at Dosewallips State Park for 2 nights. This is the same campground where Dave and I went camping for the first time back in 2003. We decided to wait until the last minute when we were inside the window of the 10 day forecast so we had an idea of weather. The we nabbed a spot wherever we could find one available. The last time we camped was two years ago and we booked it 6 months out for the same time, Dave's birthday. It rained the entire time. Good times with a baby crawling through the mud. Lets say we learned our lesson.

We booked spot 94. It said 'view site' so that was exciting. And then we got there. There was a view all right. We were on the river. Really on the river. There was no little beach. It just dropped off into a semi-fast moving river. Now I not only have to keep Harrison from falling into the fire pit, I also have to keep him from falling into the river. He is actually a really good listener so that's not our problem. Our problem was he was really clumsy that week. He had fallen a few times in our yard and scraped up his knee. He was tripping over things that have been there for months. Strange. During our set-up Dave put out a large stick by the river and that was Harrison's 'do not cross' line.

After we got our little two day home all set up and while we were making dinner a ranger stopped at our site. She got out of her truck and asked if we were there the night before. We told her we had just arrived. Then she said "there was a report..." And I wanted to say "didn't you hear us? We just got here... no report about us lady!" And she continued "... of a black bear in the river." Oh great. Now I've got the fire pit, the river AND a bear!!! Oh boy. She said that it hadn't been confirmed yet and that maybe it was just the herd of elk that live in the campground. Oh man - nature at it's best. So of course, both mornings that I woke up I looked and looked and looked up and down the river. Nothing. No bear. No elk. What a bust.

But we did see a snake! Harrison and I were walking around in the woods right next to our site when I spotted it. I told him to come back towards me but didn't tell him why. So he came running and accidentally stepped on the snake. Oops. I guess I should've told him why I wanted him to come back over. And maybe I should've carried him. He scared the snake and it freaked out as did Harrison. He started screaming and crying. (and probably woke up the campground because it was fairly early in the morning)

We had a great time camping. Harrison loved it. He loved sleeping in his new sleeping bag in the tent. We've already booked another trip for the beginning of September. We can't wait - and how nice it will be to not have a river RIGHT next to our camp spot.

3 hours later

Thank goodness it's cooling off. In the meantime, we're hunkering down in the basement for the night. And that, of course, is much too exciting for Harrison as he's still awake at 10:00 pm!!

Hot enough for ya?

Heat wave

Oh man ~ I feel like I am back in Southern California. (minus the smog, of course) It is SO hot up here right now. Today is officially the hottest day on record in Seattle. http://www.kirotv.com/weather/20191266/detail.html We spent the evening yesterday throwing water balloons at each other and running through the sprinklers. We've been eating lots of popsicles. And we hit the local wading pools twice so far this week. Tonight we're planning to sleep in the basement where it's considerably cooler. Hope you're keeping cool wherever you are.

Dempsey Family Cabin

We went to our friend's family cabin a week ago on Hood Canal. It was only us two moms and our 3 kids. We spent one night and it was lots of fun! Harrison loves playing with his buddies, Owen and Clare (or Clara as he calls her). The kids had fun 'fighting fires' in the woods with Owen & Clare's Nana. They even got to ride in the back of her pickup truck. Remember those days?? I remember going to Lake Tahoe and watching the fireworks on the 4th of July and then piling into the back of the truck to drive home.

And speaking of Lake Tahoe... I spoke with my dad this weekend and they had another bear break-in at the cabin! He says this is about 5 times now. They pry open the door and then head to the kitchen to help themselves to some food. This time they ate dog food, ice cream and syrup. Boy, they sure are living the life. When I was younger we would have so many people at the cabin that we'd set up tents outside for overflow. These days I wouldn't do that. And before we left we always put the metal trash can out by the street with a rock on top of the lid. That would surely keep the animals out!! I laugh at it now. They now have these metal containers where you lock your trash in so the bears can't get to it.

Toilet training

Today's visitor

This is what we found today when we looked out of my bedroom window. When he saw us he ran to the back of the yard but was frightened by Harrison's swing set. Then he came back towards the house and lingered for a bit.

Our holiday weekend

We had a beautiful holiday weekend up here. It was hot - in the high 80s. Once again we walked in our neighborhood's 4th of July kids parade. This year Harrison rode his 'tricked out' trike.

And once again our friends, the Cudes, showed up in colors other than red, white and blue. Are they Canadian? What's wrong with them? Here is Mike trying to redeem himself by waving flags while wearing a green shirt. I was waiting all day for him to say 'check out my flag underwear!' but it never came. He really had no red, white or blue on. Here's hoping they'll dress more appropriately next year.

This weekend also brought a change on the homefront... our kitchen walls are no longer yellow!! Yea! It was a long weekend. I painted everyday. There is still a bit more to do but we'll post before and after photos on here soon, I hope.

It's aLison NOT aLLison

So we finally made it onto the Redfin website. Unfortunately, they didn't include Harrison. He was in most of the pictures and in some of them he actually had his mouth closed (unlike this photo taken at dinner that same night).

It's pretty cool to be on the website. We're big supporters of Redfin. They're great at what they do. They're not so great at spelling though. There's nothing I dislike more than having my name misspelled. Click here to see us on the site: http://www.redfin.com/home

But I guess they're not the only ones lately having a difficult time spelling my name correctly. This is a photo from inside the cover of a book I received this year for Mother's Day. It's from my dad and his wife... of nearly 30 years!! How did this happen???

UPDATE: The spelling of my name has been corrected!! It's nice to know people in high places -- thanks Febe!!!!