West shares my love of Puff the Magic Dragon
and I couldn't be happier about that!
Unfortunately, he also shares my short attention span...

Play us a song!

West is a true music lover and he decided
to tickle the ivories a bit while we were at Scott's house.
Please watch and enjoy the musical stylings of Mr. W. C. Calkins!

Bring on the busy!

Time for a quick mid-Spring update!

We celebrated a nice Easter holiday with Westley enjoying a basket full of Curious George goodies and more, followed by a lovely lunch with Grandma and Grandpa (Christian's folks). My naturally dyed eggs (using blueberries!) turned out beautifully, and were especially delicious once we turned them into deviled eggs!


On rare days off, we've even spent a little time at the rocky beach in Mukilteo and it was perfect weather for hunting sea glass and digging for "potatoes " (it's what West was naming rounded rocks he found!). As the summer months approach we are looking forward to lots of upcoming activities including a big birthday for my best girl Caryn, parties with friends, lots of play dates, and my trip to see Kristan, my oldest treasured friend, for her baby shower and some much needed catching up. While it will be incredibly difficult to be away from West and Christian for 4 days, but I'd be lying if I said the break won't be a welcome one!

In the grown up world, Christian is doing fine at Apple and is in the process of meeting with various potential clients for side-work opportunities in more creative design environments.
As for me, on May 29th I will be catering a private dinner show
(Run for your wife with the Camwood Players in Stanwood, starring Scott Randall as Bobby!).
It's an exciting opportunity for my company, Modestly Merry Events, and there is great potential for a long-term relationship with the group. Realistically my company's main focus will remain on the event-planning side, but I'm not one to turn down a job! I am also part of new production company being founded with an amazing group of friends. (There is much more to come on that in the near future!)

In Westley world, when we aren't enjoying play time at the park with friends or watching as West tries to give
"smoochies kiss kiss" (see picture below for the ultimate in precious...) to all his little girlfriends, he's very into game shows and can name the hosts of Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right. He also likes to play host and make announcements like "It's a brand new car!" and "Five thousand dollars!" at the most random times. He can also (not surprisingly) name most of the Food Network hosts and their shows...That's my baby! Not to worry, though. It's not 24/7 TV time in our home. Music time, coloring, learning more shapes, colors and numbers are also favorite things and we always read lots of books every day. He's nearly memorized his favorite, On the day you were born, and can tell the entire story in his own words. It's brilliant! Dancing is popular as ever around here and he loves Jason Mraz music as much as I do, and even knows some of the lyrics to sing along. Favorite edibles are currently berry smoothies, waffles with PB and honey, and any kind of sandwich just like daddy. And finally, drum-roll please....we are in full potty-training mode!!!

Do you have a special event around the corner?

After years of friends and family encouraging me to turn my talents of organization and planning, etc., into a business venture, I have taken their advice. My website is up and running!

Please take a look and remember Modestly Merry Events for your next Bar Mitzvah or Flag day celebration!
Just click on the link to take a look (to your left) and enjoy!

No rest for the wicked.

Most of my friends and family are now aware that I will not be attending EvCC this quarter due to circumstances that I am not able to change at the present time. I have decided to go forward with my learning though, by completing the reading list from the British Lit class (Chaucer, Beowulf, Shakespeare, etc.) as well as teaching myself more about Word, Excel and Power Point. Hopefully by the fall, I will have the funds to finance the required credits to fall back into good standing at the college and can move on toward my degree. This is not the end of my college education, and whether it takes 2 years or 5, or more, I will be a college grad.

In the meantime, I'll be focusing on finishing all the projects that have been going undone, promoting my planning business and most importantly having lots of fun doing my most important work; being a mother.
I would like to find part-time work outside the house to get some semi-steady "extra" income coming in, but it will be challenging with the uncertainty of Christian's weekly schedule.

It's all in the waiting and seeing...

Here comes the sun!

We finally got to venture out to Legion Park today and spend some time outside in the sun! It was a nice day, a little windy and we had a great time meeting up with Davi and the kids. Here are a couple of photos from the park, Westley's Wheel of Fortune (the merry-go-round), Super Lizzy, and a roaring good time!

Yesterday when the weather was still gloom and doom galore, we spent time reading and playing games all day. Westley has a new favorite book now! His favorite reading material is the internationally acclaimed, beloved by millions Dr. Suess' There's a Wocket in my Pocket!".
Who could blame him? It's a fascinating tale of zowers in the showers, ninks in the sinks and one very rude noothgrush on my toothbrush...a great read at any age.

Busy, Busy!

Wow! It's been a while since time has allowed an update so let's catch up. Ready???
Here we go...

We had a great Thanksgiving at my Uncle Jim's home with nearly the entire family! My parents, niece, nephew, came up from Eureka and we were joined by my in-laws and our wonderful friend, Sam, for the holiday fun. Sam is the one in the pictures who looks nothing like the rest of us, but fits right in anyway! After giving much thanks for all we are fortunate enough to have, we enjoyed a wonderful meal and lots of great music and conversation, of course!

Christmas was fun, but marred with a bit of illness which kept things interesting. Still, we had a wonderful time with Kaijsa here for a visit from Wyoming and lots of time with Christian's side of the family. Christmas even was spent with Christian's family at Grandma Virginia's home in Shoreline. It was a great evening and everyone had a fantastic time playing games, eating well and catching up. Unfortunately, Grandma was ill on Christmas morning, but we moved the festivities and gift bonanza to her house so she wasn't alone on Christmas, she was well taken care of, and able to enjoy all of us being together. After a big, yummy breakfast and opening all of our generous treasures, we headed home and had a nice quiet dinner with Sam. Steak and potatoes really hit the spot for Christmas dinner! For New year's Eve, I went over and hung out with Scott and a couple of friends, played games and relaxed. Christian stayed home with West and went to be early since it was off to work early the next morning, as usual.










Next on the agenda was Scott's Birthday! Everyone got together at a fabulous Family Friendly Restaurant called the Trumpeter Public House, in Mount Vernon. The food was wonderful, it has a great atmosphere for any and all to enjoy, and they were very accommodating with our large group. For the birthday boy, be bestowed upon him many bags of marshmallows, some other goodies, and a Freshly baked Hazelnut Cake with Nutella cream-cheese icing. Everyone had a really fun evening and West and Lizzie had a little dance time, in between all the hugs West was sharing.

After a short break between parties and holidays, it was time for Westley's Birthday Party! This year, we went with a 50's dance theme since he still loves shaking that booty! On the menu was Homemade Mac and 5 cheeses, lots of veggies, Turkey Burgers and a few other little munchies here and there with a variety of cupcakes for dessert. Everyone had a great time and it was a really fun way to celebrate our amazing, brilliant growing boy and all his hilarity.

Just one day before the big party it was time for the first haircut. We went to a delightful place in Bellevue called City Folks Kids. He got to sit in a firetruck chair and enjoy a balloon while his beautiful golden locks were cut away, and in the end he looked like such a little man! I was so sad to see his curls gone, but the poor kid couldn't see so it was definitely time for a cut. He behaved like a champ and impressed everyone in the shop being so mellow while getting his cut.

While all this was going on over the winter months I was in the process of attempting to keep up with Winter quarter (Attempt failed, but will make it all up...) while I was serving as Assistant Director and Assistant Stage Manager for "Once upon a Mattress" with the Northwest Savoyards. Sam directed the show, as well as designed the sets, choreographed the dance sequences and did an outstanding job with every aspect of the show. As for me, I was backstage along side the great crew every night, and even made a few appearances on stage in my "Brünhilda" costume! (My stage name came courtesy of my friend, our lovely Princess Winnifred, EmilyRose Shotwell.)

This was a new experience for me, being an AD, and I think I did really well with it. Sam and I worked together really well and all our late nights at the theatre gave us a chance to develope an even closer friendship which I cherish so very much.

Now that the show has wrapped and we are all moving on to new things, I miss people and being in the theatre, but it's time to focus on family and school once again. Also must say that all the while when I was gone until 2a.m. working on the show (stuccoing walls, sewing tents, painting, helping with fittings, shopping for props and costumes, etc...) Christian was home with West being the best husband ever. He was so supportive, as always, and I am so thankful for all he did, and all he does to take such wonderful care of West and I every day.

A few other things: - West's 2 year stats: 40 and 3/8" Tall, 34.5 lbs.,
healthy and happy, bright as can be. He's full of chatter, and the dickens, and never fails to make us laugh with a grumpy face, or his silly games. He can count to 20, name a lot of shapes, colors, letters and animals. He's very into coloring right now, and is great with a soccer ball. We are so proud of and full of joy to have such an amazing little person in our lives. Even when he starts to be terribly two, or scream at the top of his lungs in a restaurant or shop only to be hastily removed by one of us so as not to disturb other patrons,
we can't help but laugh...most of the time!
- Christian's still training clients at apple, always working on his website and on the hunt for a non-retail job, but we are so lucky we have any income at all right now with the economic crisis.
- Spring Quarter starts soon! Computer literacy, Economics and Survey of British Lit!
- Ordered business cards and registered a Domain Name for my event planning business;
Modestly Merry Events Orchestration and Design. Yay!
- Am taking an Acting Class from Scott Randall!
- We're trying to plan a trip down to CA this summer but all depends on $$$!

Well, West is avoiding a nap as usual, so I must away to settle my super-toddler! Enjoy the new slideshow to the right and be on the lookout for many more frequent updates to come.

We sing...

Yesterday, I was given free tickets to a Jason Mraz concert from Starlight Washington for some past volunteering . I called Christian, he called the grandparents and they graciously agreed to watch West so we could go to the show and it was amazing. West was happy about that and they had lots of fun together. As for the show, the opening act was an amazing Irish artist called Lisa Hannigan. She has a beautiful voice and a really fun Bjork+Tori Amos+Jenny Lewis vibe. She did a duet with Jason called "lucky" and it is the sweetest song ever.

Jason was, of course, incredible. He played a lot of earlier tunes and some new as well, and even threw in a little "Daddy sang Bass" to really get the crowd going. The stage at the Paramount was fantastic. While the crew was finishing set-up and tuning, there were screens on stage showing pictures people were emailing in from their cell phones. So...Westley's picture was on stage at a Jason Mraz show!



We emailed one of his Gnome pictures to a special address and in about a minute it was in the rotation on the screen! You can see here we even got one of the picture up toward the end of the show with the the band on stage.
West wasn't the only gnome in the venue though, since the percussionist actually had a little Garden Gnome at his Bongos all night! How great is that?!

YES WE CAN!

Tonight, November 4th 20087, Barack Obama was has been elected 44th President of The United States!
Words can't begin express how proud, how inspired, I am to be alive in America at this very moment. I believe tonight is the beginning of the best 4 years this country has ever seen, and I am so thrilled to

witness this event of such monumental, history-making proportions in my lifetime, and especially in West's.

Thor and more...

We've really enjoyed all the Halloween festivities this fall. West and I went to a party for our mommy-and-me group and had a fantastic time with all the kids and their moms, enjoyed some great food and fun and we even won for best costumes! As you can see from the Halloween slide show to the right, West was the world's most precious Gnome, "Gnestle the Gnome" to be exact, and I was a gardener!

On Halloween night, West snoozed away with Grandpa Bill watching over him while Christian and I went to Scott's place for a Halloween Bash with good friends. Everyone really had a wonderful time, the costumes were hilarious and inventive and all of us had so much fun! Christian even won 1st place in the costume contest for his depiction of Thor, God of Thunder. I, dressed as Sif, Goddess of the Harvest, looked on proudly as he accepted an excellent prize of DVDs and some other treasures.
Thanks, Scott, for bringing THE PARTY home!!

It's been a great October and we are gearing up for a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration in a few weeks,
and preparation for all the Winter Holidays.
It's baking time!!!!