I have been in deep thought a while now trying to figure a few troubling questions that have been haunting me.  I am older and a little slow to the game most of the time but somethings I think I just missed the memo on or can't seem to fall in line and conform to the norm. Seriously, there are a few things that I noticed have just popped up out of nowhere and are extremely popular and I never got the email or FB message or letter in the mail that said, "Attention everyone hashtags, mustaches, owls and chevrons are now the most popular and trending things this year, get them or be old school." That letter never came to me, yet everywhere I look there are mustaches, owls and chevrons and when did it become ok to talk in hashtags?
Hashtags:
A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #,^[1][2] a form of metadata tag. Short messages on microblogging social networking services such as Twitter, Tout, identi.ca, Tumblr, or Google+ may be tagged by including one or more with multiple words concatenated, e.g.:

#Wikipedia is an #encyclopedia

Hashtags provide a means of grouping such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it.

The first high-profile application of the hashtag was by San Diego, California resident Nate Ritter,^[5] who included #sandiegofire in his frequent posts on the October 2007 California wildfires hitting San Diego County. Internationally, the hashtag became a practice of writing style for Twitter posts during the 2009–2010 Iranian election protests, as both English and Persian-language hashtags became useful for Twitter users inside and outside of Iran.
Beginning July 1, 2009, Twitter began to hyperlink all hashtags to search results containing all recent posts mentioning either the hashtag or the standard spelling of such words, provided that such words are written in the same order of characters. This was accentuated in 2010 with the introduction of "Trending Topics" on the Twitter front page, as highly trafficked hashtags are featured as Trending Topics.

Ok there you have it the reason for hashtags, when it became popular, and why people use it. Not sure if I will start hashtaging, I do have a twitter account but never use it. For now I think I will stick to the regular way of writing.
Moustaches:

They are everywhere, and they are kind of cute but when did the hair above the lip become so popular? I am clearly not a moustache fan. I won't be sporting a tee-shirt or coffee mug with a moustache anytime soon. My husband will not be growing one and mine was lasered off years ago. So I will have to pass on the moustache trend.

Again my question is WHY??

Next up owls:

Now these are cute, they are used in a lot of different ways but again where was the memo that said,"Owls are now trending and if you don't do something with the owls you are on the outside." Just like the moustaches they started popping up everywhere. I will have to enjoy them from afar I don't have a nursery to redecorate and I just can't think of a place in my home for owls right now.

Last but not least the chevron:
I didn't know that a certain shape was called a chevron I thought it was a place to get gas. But I must say I do like the chevron I just hope it is not some conspiracy by the media to start buying all our gas at a chevron station because we are now wearing their logo.

It is super cute and this is one of the trends that I might just fall for and give into. But I draw the line at wearing shells.

or green and yellow flowers:

I am so glad I got this off of my chest, I have been loosing sleep over these deep thinking questions. I was not sure if I needed to give into #peerpressure and go with the crowd, or if it is ok for me to continue on just the way I am. The rebellious side of me is going to go against the crowd and I promise there will be no moustaches and owls in my future!

Really This is Our Winter

I love it when people say they could never live in Washington because it rains too much. Yes, we have rain and sometimes it seems like it will never end. If you have been watching the news this week with all the major snow storms hitting the country, I think I will take our rainy winter days anytime. This winter has been exceptional, we have had rain but we have also had days like this as well.

Yes, these pictures were taken Feb 15, 2013 in the morning right off of my deck. This also happened to be the day the Scouts went snow caving and had a major disaster because it was too warm. Yep, I will take rain in Washington any time!

Outings!

Being sick is no fun...almost a whole week of feeling yucky, but still had to go to work. Glad I am almost better and hopefully no one else in the house gets sick!
Last Friday the kids were out of school, Scott and Ryan went snow caving, Jayden didn't go because he had been sick all week and was just getting better. I had planned a fun day with the girls.  First Destina wanted to get her hair done, once that was finished it was off to the mall for a little shopping, dinner and a movie. We let Jay tag along on our girls adventure he had a great time looking at all the fun stuff at Claire's but we did manage to stop at the sporting goods store for new soccer shoes for Avrie she is so excited to start playing soccer in the spring.

Jayden had fun hanging out with us girls and we were glad to see that he was feeling better and able to get out of the house.

Today Scott and Ryan went skiing, I had been sick all week and the kids have been home bored for most of the week so I mustered up some energy and took the kids to Mindport a hands on exhibit that has a lot of cool things for the kids to experiment and play with. Tim and McKenzie wanted to come too.

After we were done we went out to lunch and walked around downtown for a little bit. The kids had fun and I relieved some guilt for neglecting my kids all week. Jayden was glad Tim came along so that he wasn't the only boy invading our girls day out!

What a little Cutie

Scott found some pictures in a stack of his stuff and there were a couple pictures that I love. They were of Jayden. He was the cutest, sweetest little boy ever.

He was so good and he loved to have his hair cut. Ryan on the other hand didn't like hair cuts and it was always a battle to get him to sit still to cut his hair. Jayden always had a smile on his face, but he loved to play in the dirt.

When he was little we had just moved into our new house that did not have any grass. It was our summer project to prep the dirt and plant grass we spent almost all our free time working on the yard that summer. Jayden and Ryan were in Heaven they would find the round saucer sleds and ride down the big dirt hill in the back yard. Ryan always wore snow boots for the occasion and Jayden could always be found sitting with the little shovel digging in the dirt. Unfortunately they often got fast food to eat that summer mixed with a little dirt of course.
Even after all the grass was in and they yard landscaped Jayden always seemed to find a little patch of dirt somewhere and dig. Now I am lucky if I can get that kid to even go outside.
My favorite quote: The days are long and the years are short. I can remember this like it was yesterday those dirty little boys tracking dirt into the house and leaving the tub filthy every night only to go back out again the next day. 

Sick Day

Yesterday was President's Day I had fun things planned for our family and woke up sick, couldn't get out of bed kind of sick. The girls were very disappointed and Destina moped around the house for most of the day. Avrie came into my room at some point and gave me a sweet little love note, picture and her favorite Valentine's Day necklace that she made at school.

Not sure if you can read what she wrote, "I love my mom when she is sick and when she is not sick to mom from me has me kiss you."

It is not fun to be sick but knowing I am loved by a 5 year old made the day a lot better. I wish I could say I felt great today but work is calling and off I go...

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Cleaning House

I love when my kids remind me that I haven't blogged in over a week, at least someone is reading, but I usually talk to them every couple of days so whatever I do blog is usually old news to them.  I have thought of a couple of great, deep thinking posts to blog about right before I go to bed and then can't remember what they were the next morning, I am a much better night owl than morning bird.
I had some extra time last week, which means not extra money, I had three cases cancel last week and one today, so I find myself with extra time on my hands. The unfortunate thing is that I cannot plan ahead I usually find out as I am getting ready to walk out the door that I do not need to go to work. Last week when that happened I thought I would take advantage of the extra time and start cleaning out... I started with my closet it was time again to go through everything and get rid of the things I have not worn for a long time. Why is it that when I look at my clothes everyday I have a hard time finding something I want to wear, but when it comes time to cleaning and getting rid of things all of a sudden those clothes have some kind of sentimental attachment. But I did manage to fill up a garbage bag full of clothes. It makes me happy to walk into my closet and see things organized and clean. Next I cleaned out the bathroom drawers, I don't know when the last time I did that was but I threw away old make-up and a lot of other stuff that has accumulated over the years thinking that I might need that someday. Now I open my drawers and all is clean and organized, no more tiny elastics loose in the bottom of the drawer covered in hair. I threw away 3 dead blow dryers and the space under my sink is so clean and spacious. Next it was my night stand, my tuck everything into spot that doesn't have a proper home. This is where I found a couple of treasures, a card from my mom, a letter from my mother-in-law, sweet notes from my kids, and a letter from one of my daughters that I had forgotten about but was so sweet to read again.  Those things were saved and a lot of other things found new homes and my night stand is now ready for the next 10 years of homeless treasures.
Your thinking that this is a dumb post who wants to hear about cleaning....but all this outside cleaning is actually good for my inside too. For me they are somehow connected. When my outside is in chaos and disarray my internal self is usually that way too. I have really been trying to focus on who I am and who I want to be. I have been cleaning house on the inside as well. I want to always be improving and becoming a better person each and every day. I find that I have a lot of baggage that I like to carry around, just like all those old clothes hanging in my closet. I let things from my past affect my thinking of the present, I tend to hang onto some of the things that are not who I am today when I need to put them in the garbage bag and get rid of it.  I have to constantly remind myself that past mistakes do not make me weaker they do not represent who I am today they are in the past and I need to look to the future to find who I want to be and strive daily to find that person. I thought by the time I was in my 40's I would have mastered all this stuff but I guess I am a slow learner. I don't think I will ever be comfortable with where I am and I want to strive to be a little better each day.
So for the next however long I am going through my house room by room and getting rid of things that do not serve a purpose or make me happy, and I will continue to work on the things that make me a better person as well, I am sure that will be a never-ending project, and cleaning the house will be much easier. 

A Rough Week

Destina was playing soccer last night and it is rare that she comes across 3rd grade girls that are taller than her, some are getting close. Last night about 7 minutes into the game, after she had just made the one and only goal for her team, a girl from the other team, that was about 3 inches taller and about 50lbs heaver, not kidding, tripped over Destina landed on top of her, and while Desitna was on the ground trying to recover the shoe that this girl somehow managed to remove from her foot this girl stepped real hard on Destina's hand. It took her a minute to figure out what happened, the coach had to come over and help her off the field, shoe in one hand and cradling her other hand. I waited a minute or two before going over to see if she was ok. When I got over there her hand was swelling and tears were streaming down her face. I grabbed a water bottled that was on the bench that was really cold and used that as an ice pack, helped her dry her tears and gave her a big hug.  After she gave me her version of what just happened, as if I didn't see the whole thing, she said, "I tried not to cry but it really hurts, and then she said, "I am not done playing, I am going back out there!" She then looked at me and said, "It better be ok by Friday night this is the hand I dribble the ball with at basketball."
After icing it for a few more minutes and making sure she could move her fingers, she was back out on the field. The coach kept her back as a defender for most of the game but she finished strong, at least in spirit.
Then tonight she had basketball practice and came home with a swollen lip, apparently someone's head hit her in the mouth and she said it was bleeding everywhere and she had to sit out. She is a fighter that one, hopefully the game tomorrow night will be injury free.

Avrie came home from school with a band-aid mark on her knuckles she said to me, "Do you see that?" pointing the the band-aid marks, I asked her if she got hurt at school and she told me about the traumatic experience of hurting her hand, while pointing to a microscopic little spot of skin missing. I asked her if she was ok and if she cried, she said yes to both accounts. Avrie is the injury drama queen I am just glad she survived her injury. She was fine after I gave her a hug and listened to her tales of pain and misery. 

Everyone else is injury free as of tonight!