More Pics of Caiden!

You've asked for more photos of the boy, so here ya go! Enjoy! :)

Just Caiden

Grandparents Duchek Visit

Falling Back in Love with My Patio

Our first summer here in our current house I was out on the patio as much as I could during the summer months. We had our little herb garden scattered about in their little pots and comfy cozy patio furniture for which our patio was just the right size. Well, one thing we learned that summer was it gets damn hot out there being that the patio faces the west and the blazing setting sun with little to no sun shade available. So, the following year we invested in a super nifty patio umbrella that has a huge canopy and can be adjusted to shade specific areas of the patio depending on where the sun was pounding down. Also the Christmas of 2006 had Santa bringing B a brand new shiny grill. This means that adding the grill and the ginormous umbrella made the patio suddenly seem a whole lot smaller. Add to that, we didn't do a very good job with our herb garden so we had a whole bunch of dead or overgrown pots of plants hanging around what was once our lovely patio garden. Consequently, the summer of 2007 saw very little of me hanging out on the patio and it left me feeling pretty bummed out. We had this great space I loved the year prior, but in 2007 I just couldn't be bothered with it.

Now it is the summer of 2008 (in case you hadn't realized ;) )and I've decreed that I shall fall back in love with my patio again! And lucky for me, I've fallen and fallen hard. :) And really, it didn't take much! The first of two changes that we made was was the deck extension. B spied a neighbor's nifty innovation for getting more patio space, so he did the same. What was once a 4 ft by 12 ft strip of dirt off the side of our patio is now occupied by a lovely new side deck built by B and his dad. They did a fantastic job, and B is now a deck building pro! :)



The second change was adding a bunch of very pretty sun loving flowers. We overestimated just a wee bit and wound up with 9 separate pots and hanging baskets of flowers. But wow - what a difference adding those colorful flowers have made!! I love hanging out on the patio again now. It feels more spacious and looks much prettier. Amazing what those two changes have done! Now...if I could only silence my neighbors' hideous taste in music. (Two weeks ago in the middle of the day some idiot insisted on blaring Foreigner's "I Wanna Know What Love Is." SIX TIMES IN A ROW. Haaaaaate.)

Nostalgia

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, if you so desire, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.

My First Time Getting Stoned

Ha ha ha! Got ya! No, I don't mean "getting stoned" in the recreational sense, but instead as in getting a hot stone massage. Brian graciously treated me to a hot stone massage as a way to get some "me" time in response to Brian's "me" time from when he and the boys went and saw Rush perform at the Gorge a few weeks ago. He booked me at a place called The Sanctuary Spa & Yoga in Redmond. I've been going to Massage Envy for the last several months, and while they are good for what they are (a chain/franchise massage company), going to a proper spa is a really nice treat. The ambiance was very tranquil and serene. You get your own private changing area complete with a personal shower and toilet. Your session starts of with a blissful 10 minutes sitting in a eucalyptus steam room. Then you are led to another quiet area where your massage therapist gives you a foot soak complete with a brief massage and application of lotion. Finally, you are brought to your room for your massage. The massage itself was very relaxing, and it was a neat experience with the hot stones. The stones are both placed on your body at various pressure points and also used as part of the massage therapy. Afterwards, you are brought back to the tranquil area and given water and a heated neck wrap while your changing room is re-prepared. Overall, it was an absolutely lovely way to spend part of my afternoon. I'm still a big fan of the good ol' fashioned Swedish massage with a touch of deep tissue work, but this definitely made for a nice change of pace. :)

Happy Birthday Summer!

Today is the birthday of my bestest friend in the whole wide world! :D I can't believe we've known each other for 22 years now (tho we didn't become good friends until a few years after we met). I don't know what I'd do without her in my life. She has so many wonderful qualities that I admire in her - warmth, an amazing smile, big heart, loyalty, honesty, and a positive outlook on life. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. :) I couldn't ask to have a more awesome person in my life. Happy birthday Summer! I hope you are having a spectacular birthday!

High School Regrets

I was listening to NPR this morning as I was feeding Caiden. The topic on this morning's Weekday was "High School Regrets." It was interesting listening to people call or write in with things that they wished they had done differently or what they would do if they could live thru high school all over again. I know that I find myself easily sucked into TV shows or movies about high school experiences. I don't know if it is simply a case of nostalgia or if it is a way to live vicariously thru these characters to try and find the high school experience I wish I'd had. So naturally, this show got me to thinking about what things *I* would change or do differently if given the chance. It's hard to say that I would change X, Y or Z because that may mean I wouldn't have what I do today. And if things didn't turn out the way they did, I may not have learned certain important lessons that I've carried forward with me today. But still, I've been pondering this on and off all day and here's what I've come up with if I could "do it over" again:

• I would get more involved in clubs and/or sports. I was on yearbook and was a band groupie, but that's about it. I spent more of my free time working outside of school. Now this is sort of a double-edged sword cuz I met one of my best friends thru work. In fact, my closest "high school friends" are not people I actually went to school with! So if I traded work for clubs/sports, I may not have the friends I do today.
  
• I would take myself less seriously. I did have fun, but I feel like I held myself back in a lot of respects.
  
• I'd try harder to make friends sooner. It took me quite awhile to find a circle of friends. It was compounded by the fact that I was the only one from my jr. high who went to my high school.
  
• I would date more and have less "serious" relationships. I was totally a serial monogamist.
  
• Theatre. I would totally get involved in theatre. I tried out my freshman year for ONE show, didn't get a part and never tried out again. Talk about chickening out!

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. Given the chance to do something again, 9 times out of 10, you'd always find something you'd do differently cuz you "know better" now. But how would you ever learn otherwise?

So tell me, what are your high school regrets?