Self portrait

The lack of focus, I've decided, is a statment of my mental clarity. And notice my neck! I must work out!

And now for some things I don't appreciate so well:

- When the internet connection is spotty and I can't get to my blog as fast as I want to
- When I leave my 5-lb. weights laying around and then I trip on one and stub my toe
- When the toilet keeps running long after I flush it because the chain/plunger thing in the tank is screwy, which means I have to take the lid off and mess around in the tank
- When a bad case of spring allergies morphs into a baaaaaaaad cold
- The fact that I'm always at the very opposite end of the house when the phone rings, which requires running full-boar either up or down the stairs, only to find that it's an unknown name/unknown number on caller i.d. so I don't answer it anyway
- Clamato juice... i've never actually tried it, but the name is enough

Kiss me, I'm Irish!

My brothers are coming to visit this weekend (yahoo!), so if all goes well (meaning they cooperate and I figure out how to use the focus on my parents' camera), I just might have new pictures to share in a couple of days. Until then..........

Things I enjoy that maybe you don't:
1. The smell of sunless tanning lotion
2. Cabbage rolls
3. Folding laundry
4. Pilates for the buns and thighs
5. The music of Air Supply
6. Attending the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival
7. Wrapping presents
8. Ham hocks and beans

News flash of a random sort

Here are some updates from around my world:

1. I really, really like my new job. Hooray!!!

2. In April, Danny and I are taking a class together at the college. If anyone else is interested in belly dancing, let us know :)

3. Tonight I have a date with my sister.

4. Today I have a date with myself at Capital Mall.

5. I haven't seen my brothers-and-sisters-in-law, or nephew, in an unacceptably long amount of time, so if you are one of them, I'd like to have a date with you :)

Leavenworth

This is what we were surrounded by when we stayed in Leavenworth in 2003. Beautiful!

New Year's bash

An excellent New Year's feast (with all of the credit going to Bill and Sheryl) of lamb, polenta, salad and roasted vegetables. If you're looking for sheer quantity of food, there's no better place to be than when we're together. Clockwise from Jan Michael: Soren, Eric, Tessa, Joe, Bill and Sheryl.



Before football...
After football.
Haha, what a bunch of thugs.

To celebrate the new year, we were fortunate enough to have most of the old Centralia gang at our house for a weekend extravaganza of fun. We're scattered all over tarnation now, so we're not able to all be together more than once or twice a year, but when we do, it's always a good time. Most of us went to elementary school together, and I love that we're still so close even as grown-ups :)

Again, the park

An annoucement

Ahem. I would like to announce that I am now employed. I will be working at Tenino Family Practice as, what else?, a receptionist. It will be part-time, only 20 hours a week, but at this point that is just right. I will work from 1:00 to 5:00, which will give me plenty of time in the mornings for pilates and walking or jogging with my sister. As an added bonus, the clinic is conveniently located just blocks from my dentist, which will be nice if I ever decide to have my teeth cleaned again. Starting something new is usually a little bit scary for me, but this will be a good thing I think, and so, starting Monday, I will bravely sally forth into the land of the working once again.

Shameless plug

It just so happens that there are big things happening around here lately. My sister Shannon is opening her very own salon in March along with two other gals. My brother Adam has just been hired as a financial advisor at a company in Bellevue. The moral of the story is this: If you are in the greater Lewis county area and need a fabulous-o haircut, or perhaps just a good eyebrow wax, or if you live anywhere in Washington state and are looking for top-notch financial advising, let me know and I WILL HOOK YOU UP.

Father's Day

Last Father's Day, at my parents' house, after an excellent bowling excursion (which also included Derek, Sara, Brent, Danny& Little D). Imagine my surprise at discovering my leg is as big as a redwood. Blargh.

Brothers

At Derek and Sara's wedding, one of the nicest I've ever been to. Last summer in our backyard. Good times :)

Party pictures

I can't think of anything to say about this really. Just me and Brent (or Brent and I?)

John's birthday hoo-haw

Today we celebrated John's (or my #1 father-in-law's) 62nd birthday. Derek took some fabulous-o pictures of the festivities, and he's promised to send some my way. It was a happy time, as you will soon see....

Wonder Woman!

Guess who? :)

Happy memories

At Mountain Home Lodge in Leavenworth (2003)

The fruits of majoring in art education at Western

Derek isn't the only one with paint skills!

More shenanigans in the park

Clearly this boy is a Pearson! As further proof, we have a picture somewhere of Little D and Uncle JM inspecting a cell phone, and I've also seen my nephew completely mesmerized by a computer screen.

I love being an aunt :) And to think I'll be one a second time in just a few months!

An editorial

Initially I thought that I would use this blog as mostly a picture-posting place, and that is still my intent. Currently, however, I'm feeling cross, and have decided that this might be a nice place for a good, old-fashioned vent. And besides, the only people who even look at this thing are people that love me, so I can afford to rant without feeling like people will think I'm an idiot. So. I've come to the conclusion (a much over-do one, probably) that it is not good for me to sit around all day doing nothing. It makes me feel un-productive and useless, when I much prefer feeling that I'm contributing something to my family. Also, I eat too much when I'm laying around for hours on end. This leads to poor self-esteem because inevitably I expand in size, which makes me feel un-motivated, and then what happens? I sit around even more! It's a vicious cycle, you see. And, it seems that keeping busy is a good way to keep negative thinking to a minimum, which is always beneficial. My goal in the immediate future, therefore, is to seek to be less sloth-like. I really have a trillion things to be thankful for, and I want to be able to focus on those things rather than on all the other junk that presents itself when I have too much time to think. There. The end.

Christmas

This would be the annual Christmas photo, in which I force all of my siblings together despite grumbling and complaining. Someday, when we're all old and gray, and have proof of what we looked like as youngsters, they'll be grateful.

Hahahahahaha!

Brent may not thank me for this, but this picture would not be ignored :)