Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Catching Up

What's been going on here, you ask?  Well, let me tell you (in no particular order).

1.  I/we are empty nesters!  Yes, it really is a good thing, so far.  My two kiddos (can I really call them that anymore?) are off to college.  My son is 5 hours away and my daughter is 9 - by car.  I am very excited for them and where they chose to go to school.  They are both at the right place for them.

2.  I think a daughter going to prom from the mother's perspective is practice, in a very small way, for her wedding.  We had to alter her dress.  Her dress was long and gorgeous!  She was able to get her hair and make-up done for less than half what is normally the charge at a salon.  And she looked gorgeous!

3.  Obviously from #1 and #2, my daughter graduated high school.

4.  We just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by taking a trip to Maui!  Of course we left kids behind, duh.  What a great time we had.  I highly recommend snuba.  Snuba is a combination of snorkeling and scuba diving without certification.  We went on a snorkeling trip and with snuba you wear a weight belt and have a breathing regulator while your oxygen tank is floating above you with a 25 foot breathing tube.  The instructor took us around the bottom of the ocean and we were able to experience scuba diving in a very benign way.  Loved it!  Our condo was right up against the ocean and at times we could feel the mist from the waves.  Here's the best sunset view from our balcony. 
 
5.  Wind storm X 3.  We experienced three wind storms within 20 days of each other and they were all 10 days apart.  Our damage happened on the first one.  As we were watching the backyard we saw our very stable wood fence bow then break away from the fence and an 8 foot section was swept up and somersaulted in the air.  I now have a better understanding of the Wizard of Oz.  It was amazing to watch such force. 

Bye-bye fence.  Yes, it landed inches from the 14,000 gallon pool.  The two wooden posts you see in the picture are not from the fence but the neighbor's garden.  Our fence posts were snapped at the base.  After watching this damage we decided to look out front.  Oh no!  We lost four trees.  Two small ones broke and two very large ones came down - these were healthy trees.  The one in front of our yard snapped about a foot in the ground.  Not a single root was lifted as is normally the case.  Our pine tree dropped and clipped the neighbors rain gutters and fell across their driveway completely blocking off the garage. 
 
We also lost many roof shingles and many more were damaged.  The end result, we have a partial new fence.  We now own a chain saw.  Eight trips to the dump to discard of the tree limbs.  Our new roof is rated for 130 mile winds.  Let's hope we don't need to test that. 
 


6.  I missed my 30th high school reunion because we were dropping my daughter off at college but my three sisters and I did get to my step-sister's wedding.  We all came in from out-of-town (2 from out of state) and it was a great time with the girls.  Even took in a Mariner's game and saw Felix Hernandez pitch! 

7.  I tried eyelash extensions.  Love them!  But way, way too expensive for me to maintain.  Back to puny eyelashes.

8.  Even though football has started I still am watching every Mariner's game and rooting for a playoff spot.  Hey, when you name your dogs Spikes and Cleats you have to watch baseball to the end. 

I think I've caught you up on the happenings here.  Hope you all are well and would love to hear from you and what you have been doing.