The End of 2011

This post is very picture laden. December is a busy month! 

We started off with gingerbread houses. 

Kelsey and Rachel helped Ryan and Kathryn

Then Michael is home for the break and it's annual baking day.

the rolling of the Buckeyes

minor issue-Kathryn got stuck! really stuck! let's just say that we needed to fix our chair after it was said and done. :)

a few cookies to decorate

Serious cookie decorating happening here:

The day after baking, Michael had four wisdom teeth pulled. It went quite smoothly. Kelsey was disappointed that he didn't even get the chipmunk cheek look. 

We made a couple trips out to Enumclaw, my parents place.

Mt Rainier

detour to Zoo lights after the family party, met up with friends

Christmas eve at my parents

my girl and my daddy

Michael with a couple people he likes! 

the obligatory Christmas morning, by the tree, picture

Christmas Day evening we had a fabulous meal at the Miles. Since Monday was a holiday for all of us, we were going to go tubing with the Roberts clan. Well, who knew that the tickets would sell out? Thank goodness we discovered this online vs. after driving up to the pass. So, plan B was to go hiking at Wallace Falls. The weather held out, and it was a great hike. And on the way home we stopped at Five Guys for lunch. Yum.

I spoiled myself this month. I bought a new Garmin watch for my running. Michael was quite happy to get the older one. I think Michael is becoming a true distance runner. He's been out with me on some long runs lately. He has even surpassed me, getting up to 15.5 miles. I'm up to 12. My heel is a little more crabby. I'm so sick of it!! I'm going to see someone that does ART (Active Release Technique) to see if she can help. She comes with great references. 

My other spoiling, actually benefits the kids too. We are going to see Coldplay this spring. YAY!

Kelsey has submitted the third out of four applications to colleges. Soon it will be the waiting game. She actually knows that on April 1st (yes, April fools day) after 3pm, she will receive an email from Stanford with her acceptance or denial. Weird. The UW should have an answer to her prior to that, sometime in March. Those are her two main schools. 

For Christmas, Pat has contributed to my running passion: with a nice gift certificate to Brooks Outlet and more importantly, plans to register me and the kids to run, and maybe he to walk, the Disneyland half marathon on Labor Day weekend!! Woohoo! I hope we can make it work. 

I had a very nice Christmas. We have no plans for New Years. I'm not sure I'll blog again this week/year. 

HAPPY 2012!!

good-byes

I sit here on Friday afternoon with very puffy, tired eyes after crying a lot today as I said my final goodbyes to a friend. Sheila Pung died on Monday, after battling breast cancer for a year. She was 49 years young. I met Sheila when our boys were in middle school. Then our girls became friends during their middle school years. We were some of the moms that were always cheering on our kids, and all the kids, at those middle school track and cross country meets. Her kids did not run cross country in high school, but Andrew ran track all four years, and Shawna did track for a couple of years. I would see Sheila at all the school events: like I said, we were "those kind" of moms. Our husbands both work at Microsoft. We spent one picnic event together so kids could hang out together. :) Then budget cuts=no more picnics.
During our boys' senior year of high school, I had my Fridays free. I had been invited to join in the Friday coffee group. These gals had been meeting for coffee for quite a few years as often as they could. They had parented together since the elementary years. I knew all but one of these moms, and they all accepted me into their Friday routine. Now I feel so blessed to have had that time with Sheila. Three of us moms were going through this graduation year with our oldest kids. The other two had been through it before, but had seniors that year as well. My friendship with these women is stronger thanks to these coffee meetings. It was bitter sweet to lose my free time for those Fridays. (Don't get me wrong-so excited that my brother in law was employed again. And for the opportunity to watch my niece and nephew!)
I saw Sheila this summer at a friend's BBQ. Little did I know this would be the last time I see her. She looked great. It wasn't until the homecoming assembly at the high school (now our daughter's are seniors) that I knew something wasn't right. She wasn't there. Sheila was ALWAYS there! I saw some of the coffee gals at the game that night, and they said they just found out that she had been admitted to the hospital. She never really recovered after that.
Today's service was at St. Brendan's church. I attended the Rosary service and the funeral mass. The Rosary service was quite moving, much smaller group and some of her family got up to speak after. Kelsey chose to wait with some friends, and then we went into the full service together.
Sheila would be so proud of her kids. They were amazing. So strong, so beautiful.

Sheila at the Microsoft picnic

summer BBQ last August (she is in the black sweatshirt with white capris)

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The other difficult event for me this week was saying good bye to my family doctor, Dr. Peter Hohn. He is leaving primary care. He delivered Michael and Kelsey, and I also worked with him for many years at Northwest Hospital when I worked labor and delivery. He just can't keep his practice open, since his partner retired and he hasn't been able to find another. Plus in today's medical world, it's hard to be a solo practitioner. I'm not excited about finding another doctor, but such is life. I'm thankful to have had him as my doctor for over 20 years.
Here he is with Michael in 1992, and Kelsey in 1994.

On the positive side for this week. Pat, Kelsey and I had a wonderful dinner with a great friend and her family on Thursday.

November 2011

November has treated us to some typical fall weather. Beautiful crisp sunny days and ugly dark rainy days. I'm once again shocked how quickly the holiday season has arrived. 

I am back to 10 miles in my running. Yay! My foot has felt pretty good, which, of course, I hate to say out loud. After last weekend and running 4 days in a row, it has flared a little. I'm taking a few days off this week, so it can calm down. I really don't want to get up in my mileage and have it stop me. I have plans to run three half marathons next year. I discovered that I can only run in my toe shoes, for runs 5 miles or less. The more distance I added, the more sore the balls of my feet were becoming. I now run my longer runs in a racing flat. We will see how far I can go with these, since they are fairly minimal cushion/support too. I am still working on adjusting my foot strike, not landing on my heel, but more on the midfoot/forefoot. 

Alright-here are some pictures from this month:

tailgating before the Ducks game (Kelsey and I did not go to the game)

xc banquet-captains

on the wall at the school

Thanksgiving was at our house. Michael worked a shift at Albertsons, and was home by dinner time. Pat smoked the turkey, and all the food was delicious! Even the new crockpot recipe I tried for the stuffing turned out well. 

with Mitch and Shelley-my newer running buddies. We got out for a 4.5 miler in the morning. Then they stopped by for a beverage. 

the craziness of my family...note Michael turned away, Pat offering a turkey leg to Kerri, and Kelsey's hand turkey with Ryan (extra credit for a class)

at the Macy's parade downtown on the Friday after

cousins!

found our co-worker, Drew 

October 2011

(I've posted two blogs today, so if you want to read about the end of our Europe vacation, it's here too). Now here is my October:

In the march before the Sounders game-US Open Cup final
Sounders win!

Michael had come with friends from B'ham, he found Barb and I. 

A new generation has been introduced to the Dawg Dash. Krista's kids ran in the pup run. It was 10 years ago that Michael and Kelsey ran their pup run here, with about 15 other kids. This year they had two waves, so the little ones wouldn't get trampled.
Kelsey and I ran the 5K, with Dory. Kelsey was at the end of her season, and her recovery day pace kicked my butt! I was dying at the finish. But, we also ended up running a 26:54. :) This November the Husky stadium is going under a major remodel. It will won't reopen until the 2013 season. Next fall, all the games with be at Century Link Field, downtown.

Dawg Dash

last look at the old stadium......

 My baby is all grown up. Sniff, sniff. Where did the time go?

The "evolution" of Kelsey is complete.

I went to the homecoming assembly this year. It's fun to see all the work the ASB put into this. This year's assembly was very nicely done.

homecoming assembly

Class spirit day with her former, and still favorite teacher, Dory. 

Michael came home twice in October. One weekend, we all saw the Blue Man Group at the Paramount. Awesome show. The other weekend was the final cross country race for Kelsey. It also happened to be the same race where he made it to state. (I will blog separately about the cross country season after we have the banquet).

kids checking out Michael's room in B'ham.

Halloween. Kelsey and I went over to the Kennedy's to trick or treat with them. It is kind of a tradition. Kerri and Krista came to our house for years to walk with me and the kids. It also happens to be the "anniversary" day of when Paul met our kids.

Fireman and Unicorn

enjoying someones fall garden :)

I believe this gets me almost current on my blogging life. There, is, of course, a lot of other "stuff" happening:
I am signed up to run a half marathon in February. My foot seems to be behaving for the most part. I am up to eight miles for my long runs.
Kelsey is in the midst of college applications.
I still have parts of my life that are hugely disappointing and sad, even lonely.
Work is getting busier-flu clinics have been going well.
Had a trip to Seattle Children's cardiology to check on weird vision events that Kelsey had while running a couple times. End result, she's fine-could have been dehydration or migraine.
And I am SO not prepared for the upcoming holidays! Yikes.

ok, I need to finish the vacation blogging!!

Our visit to Berlin:
I did collage pictures for the rest of our trip. I was getting overwhelmed on getting so behind on my blogging, but I felt I needed to complete the vacation part first.

The Austrian Alps via our train window. Munich train station. Kids in the sleeper car. We made it to Berlin!

After a somewhat sleepless night on the train (even with a nice private sleeper car), we arrived in Berlin at 8am local time. Our hotel let us check our bags, and off we went to do a city bike tour. This next set of pictures shows some pictures from that tour and the next day we signed up for another tour in Potsdam, where a lot of the palaces were built in Park Sanssouci.  

Berlin TV tower. Berlin Wall. Reichstag. Memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe. Brandenburg Gate. Waiting for the train with our tour bikes. Sanssouci Palace. Toured the Schloss Cecilienhof (Kelsey seriously began twitching here....where Churchill sat).

More local attractions viewed over the next couple days. We did these on our own.

Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom). Pergamon Alter and Ishtar Gate in the Pergamon Museum. Berlin Zoo (without Knut). Olympastadion, built for the 1936 summer Olympics.

Oh my gosh-the FOOD was amazing!!! Honestly we could have eaten in their train stations every meal. Sounds so weird, but they have the best fresh sandwiches and pretzels. mmmmm....Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the station food. 

It won't let me add an official caption. grrr. Anyway, Michael and Pat enjoying a local beer garden. Scnitzel. Kaiser Wilhelm in chocolate. (the real church was under construction). Doner Kebab by the Turkish market. And, my yummy sweetened malt beverage. 

The crossing signs here are the best. They even have stores selling a ton of items with the crossing man logo, or locally called Ampelmann. 

Ok, I know Berlin really didn't get the blogging it deserved. We all enjoyed it. The kids even said that they were glad to have seen Rome and Venice, but would go back to Berlin. It is a really tolerant modern city. Their transportation system is phenomenal, the food is delicious, and the city is surrounded by amazing history. 

It's been so long since I began blogging about this trip I'm not sure if I mentioned this before. But I would spend 24/7 with all of my family anytime. I will really treasure the time spent with Michael and Kelsey since they are beginning their adult lives, and we may not have this time together for a while, if ever again. I will part with this picture of icebergs/mountains over Greenland taken on our flight home.