Katie

Katie told me I needed to post something everyday but mostly she just wants me to post pictures of the week we were there so she can have them. I do have a funny story about Katie she is so much like her dad it is really funny to see her, or in this case hear about her, in action.

She said that on Friday she went to the beach by her house all by herself and was walking along and came across this family. They had 7 kids and she said, "They reminded me of Julie's family," She said hi to them and asked them how's it going? She said that they were friendly back to her and she started talking to them and ended up sitting on the beach talking to this family for 3 hours. They then invited her to dinner at their vacation place that night. She emailed me a picture of her sitting on the couch surrounded by all of their kids age 12 and under. (I would post it but I don't post pictures of other people without their permission.) She said they were really nice and she loved playing with their kids.  That is so Scott like and so unlike anything I would do. Katie has the gift to be able to talk to random strangers apparently for hours on end.
She had a great week for her first full week at school, she bought a bike and spray painted it, she made it to all of her classes and is making new friends. It has been really fun to talk to her she speed talks to me and wants to tell me all the details of her life, it is so nice to have my old Katie back.
So here you go Katie!

Sea Kayaking

Once we got checked into our rental it was time to go play.  The house we rented had a sea kayak and a paddle board and all kinds of beach toys for us to use, it was great. After I watched Mike and Scott go out I felt I could handle a little sea kayaking.

I was a little nervous, I am not a big fan of water but it really did look like fun so I gave it a try.

It took us a minute to get going the waves were pushing us back on shore and there was a slight learning curve involved on my part.

I was really more comfortable this close to the beach but for some reason Scott thought we should go out in water that was not just 3 inches deep.

 

We paddled and made it out past the waves and around the corner into a little calm cove.  I just pretended that I was on the Amazing Race and the challenge was to kayak out past the break and then back again.  It was really fun and a good little arm work out as well.

Hawaii

 Katie has been complaining that I am not blogging enough I guess that is her lifeline to home right now so I am going to try and step it up.
We had a great trip it was so fun to get away even if it was only for 5 days. Our friends came along and made it that much more fun, we stayed up late (at least some of us did) and watched dumb movies and played cards and laughing at a lot of dumb things. We ate yummy food and mostly played on the beach.
I decided to upload random pictures and see what I get and then tell about that picture, so here goes!

Our first real day in Hawaii making our way to the North Shore we stopped at one of the beaches along the way, I loved the huge mountains in the back ground! Yes, I have a friend that is taller than me, she is also a lot skinnier, younger and prettier than me too!

 We made it to the North Shore but it was too early to check in to our rental, so we decided to stop at the temple, and walk around use the bathrooms and take pictures. The grounds were so pretty.

Stay tuned for more random pictures! (Photos from Mike's camera)

Tulip Time

We finally made it to the Tulip Festival this year! I have been wanting to take the girls every year since they came home but the first year we were just trying to survive and last year it seemed like it rained everyday. I also wanted to take the whole family and do cute family pictures but I realized that is just not going to happen. So Monday after I got home from work we loaded the girls up in the car and headed to the fields. We got there about an hour before sunset and it was perfect. The crowds were gone the lighting was good and the girls had a fun time looking at all the different flowers. It really is amazing to see field after field of tulips and we are so lucky to live so close.

We talked about the time that I took our family picture in 2009 and then photo shopped the girls into the photo and Destina said, "I remember that picture that you gave me while I was in Haiti and I never remember going to that place and it is right here!" (See that picture here)  We had a little laugh over that, and she was happy to finally see where that picture was taken. Even though it was a little chilly outside the ground was dry and the girls wanted ice cream on the way home.

While the parents are in Hawaii...

Hey, this is Kelsie. Some of you might know that my parents decided to take a vacation without us to Hawaii (they are also helping Katie move in and get ready for college). But on Monday it was Avrie's 5th birthday. So all of us kids decided to plan a party for her. We each got her a present or two, made a cake and even had a piñata for her. It was a lot of fun for all of us and Avrie had a blast.

Safe and Sound

Katie and her life in 3 suitcases at her first place, this picture was not showing the really rundown part of the house on the other side of the door.


Sometimes in life I have those moments of huge relief, where it feels like we have gone through fire and have come out on the other side a little scared but otherwise safe and sound. I have been having that overwhelming feeling the last couple of days, and I am relishing in the relief that we are experiencing. Katie is in Hawaii, she is exactly where she needs to be, we are grateful for the turn of events that brought her to this place.  She is happy and ready for the exciting challenges that await her.
I am grateful for the few days we had with her in Hawaii, what I loved most was the way Katie and Scott interacted with each other, they were holding hands walking down the beach, she would lay her head on his shoulder while we were driving, she was daddy's little girl once again, and he was her knight in shining armor. I was the third wheel and I loved standing back and watching their relationship blossom.
When we arrived on the North Shore one of the first things we did was drive by Katie's new place. We found it easily enough and it was really close to everything, but from the outside it looked like a dump. When I called home to tell Katie that I drove past her house I was talking to McKenzie and she said, "Mom all the housing looks like a dump from the outside." Later that day I decided to drive past it again and take a picture to send to Katie so that she would not have her hopes up and that she could be ok with what it looked like, as we were driving by the second time I got out of the car to take a picture and one of the girls living there came out I started talking to her and she let me come inside. I was even less impressed, but the girls living there said they were in the processes of cleaning because some of the girls just moved out, so I gave them the benefit of doubt and I did not look in the rooms just the main living room and kitchen. That was on Sunday.
On Wednesday when we had Katie and our plan was to drop her stuff off at the house and then head to the beach and play, but when we met the landlord at the house and saw Katie's bedroom we were a little shocked, Scott was out riding Katie's long board so it was just Katie, Tiffany and myself walking through the place and I was trying to be positive about the situation and pointing out the good and the things that just needed to be cleaned. When Scott came back and he went inside, the landlord was gone at this point, and he took one look around and said, I am going to the housing office and finding her another place to live." And sure enough while Katie, Tiffany and I went to the grocery store to get Katie stocked up on food Scott and Mike went and talked to the housing office, found her another place, called the previous landlord and got her out of the contract and our money back, I think the landlord was embarrassed that it was so bad, and maybe a little intimated by all the tall people accompanying Katie but they were really good about giving us all her money back. (It wasn't quite that easy but it did all work out) I was really proud of Scott for sticking up for Katie like that and Katie knew her dad had her back.

 This is the back patio off of the kitchen the washer and dryer out there and who knows what is living in that pile of crap.

 This was one of the sofa's the other one was broken in one spot the carpet was stained and gross.



When we went over to the new place the manager was an older lady she gave Katie a hug and was so sweet. She gave Katie the key even before we were sure that we would be able to get out of the other contract and told her to move her stuff in whenever she was ready and if it didn't work out to just call and she would come pick up the key. Kate loved the new place it was smaller and not as close to everything but it was so perfect for Katie. There are beds for 5 girls but this summer there will only be 2 of them living there for now, so she has plenty of room and her roommate seemed very nice. We spent about 2 hours before we left for the airport on Thursday helping her clean the kitchen and living room and getting her stuff organized. She was in such a happy place when we left her, I know she will do great.

 The houses look about the same from the outside but the inside makes a huge difference.

It Is Beginnng To Look Like Spring

Ryan woke up this morning and said,"I love Washington, just look outside it's a perfect shorts and tee-shirt day." Well Spring is "afoot" (for all you survivor fans) everything is starting to bloom and we have had sunshine. 

Easter 2012

Easter is anticipated at our house almost as much as Christmas. Our family is big on traditions and we broke a few this year and believe me the parents caught some flack! Some of the things we didn't do...
There were no big bouncy balls for the first time in 17 years, we took A LOT of flack for that one! We did not do the traditional Easter Basket full of goodies, again more flack and our excuse didn't go over very well with the kids.
Kids,"So why didn't we get an Easter Basket filled with candy and other fun stuff this year?"
" Mom, "We were too broke because we had to use all our money for OUR trip to Hawaii!"
So maybe flack was deserved, I should have said, "We used all of our money on the orthodontist and the dentist." Which would have been equally true too!

But fun was still had in the Gordon household. On Saturday Avrie went to a fun Easter Party at her friends house, another fun tradition. Then the girls and I colored eggs after Destina's soccer game, where she scored 6 goals, and after we spent a couple of hours clearing out the garden boxes. On Sunday we got up and went to church, THE reason we celebrate Easter, which was great! Then we came home and the Easter bunny had hidden all the colored eggs. After the little girls found the eggs we made "Golden Rod Eggs." It is made by making a white sauce, and cutting up the cooked egg whites and then smashing the yoke through a strainer and putting that all on toast.  My mom made that for us it seems like every Sunday while I was growing up and my kids love it as well.

 

 

 Avrie wanted to help make it so she was in charge of making the toast!

 There was not a drop left!

After we ate too much we went on our annual Easter Egg Hunt up to the school. Scott and I hid over a hundred eggs, see the kids did get some candy! Then the kids came up and raced around the play ground finding eggs.

 

But it would not be a Gordon event unless there was a little drama and we have a little drama queen living at our house.

 

Remember I said there were over 100 eggs, Avrie saw an egg and went to go get it and someone got to it first and she immediately burst into tears, our word for the week is over reacting, she is queen of this!

I hid an egg on top of this pipe and it fell in.  Destina was the lucky one to find it and dig it out, it was a lot of work for just a little bit of candy.

Avrie soon turned that frown upside down once she realized there were a lot of eggs to be found.

Everyone had a fun time there was no fighting, but there was a few dirty tricks. One of the kids would find an egg look inside and if they did not like the candy would put it back and look for another one, when we got home one child had a whole basket of her favorite candy while the others were working out trades. One naughty teenage boy found a couple of eggs, dumped the candy into his basket and then put the egg back leaving an empty egg for someone to find.

All in all it was a fun day, and then we were invited to dinner at a friends house, it is rare that someone is brave enough to take on our clan, but Ryan had been over there all week long working on a bike trail in her back yard and Katie has been babysitting quite a bit so it was a fun night visiting and eating way too much food. Of course, Tim's mom needed more practice on the cake again so she made us an Easter cake that was delicious!

Quick Post

I managed to take some Easter pictures and will post them later but I just wanted to jot down a quick story before I forgot.
Last night we took some of the kids to get hamburgers, and this particular place has peanuts in the shell to eat while you wait for the food. As Destina was eating her peanuts she she looked up at me and told me that her mom in Haiti would plant peanuts in their yard and that she would go help her pick them, then she smiled and laughed and said, "But I always ate them instead of saving them," as she was expertly shelling peanuts. I asked her to tell me a little more and she told me that her mom did not have money to buy food so she grew peanuts to feed the family. It hit me how resourceful women can be when it comes to providing for their children and it was really sweet that Destina had that sudden memory while eating peanuts waiting for her hamburger.

Lame!

Yep, my blog has turned into a lame blog, I have not had a lot of time to blog and then when I do I don't have anything really exciting to blog about so here is yet another catch up on what is going on.

McKenzie found a new job, that is good news but she is not making what she was and not working full-time yet. Last Friday she went into Kelly Temporary Services because she has applied for a lot of jobs and only had one interview, so she went in there and they told her she needed to go online and enter all her information and take some tests. She did that over the weekend and on Monday they called her and they offered her a job. They said she had scored really high on the tests and they offered her a job in their office. She started today. She is only working part-time until she is trained and then they said she could take any job that she wanted to that came up through them and still work at their office and that they would give her a raise and put her on full-time as soon as she was trained and they had a spot. She got the keys to her new apartment and has been moving non-essential stuff over. They have a really nice apartment and she is excited about that. Wedding plans are coming along invitations are done except the licking of the envelops.
Katie has less than 2 weeks before she is gone, she is almost packed and so excited to go and get a fresh start on life. She is in a great spot emotionally and ready for great things to happen in her life. She has been spending time with friends and working and playing the guitar, it seems that she is always on the go. The best news for her is that she will be getting her braces off 6 days before she goes to Hawaii it was touch and go but the ortho is happy with where her teeth are at and ready to take them off. She found out that she is getting a scholarship from McDonald's she was really happy about that, she has been working and saving and hopefully she will be able to work at McDonald's in Hawaii as well.
Kelsie has read 4 books in the last 24 hours, not little books but novels so that pretty much sums up what she has been doing during spring break! She can't wait to turn 16 and drive, we can't either!
Ryan has been gone all week building biking trails at a friends house or running dogs or building things in the garage, he is always busy!
Jayden is happy for Spring break he has been hanging out with his buddy or in his room playing video games.
Destina and Avrie are taking swimming lessons again and they love it. They have just been hanging out and enjoying playing all day long with just a little reading and math thrown in.
See not too much going on, Scott is working a lot I never see him even though he works from home. I did make a day trip to Portland for the taping of the Wheel of Fortune it was fun, there were a lot of old people there but we ate good food, did some shopping and Vanna is just as sweet in person as she is on TV (said in my old lady voice!)