Walk to Remember

October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month.
October 15th is the designated day for pregnancy and infant loss.

We went to an annual Walk to Remember. The theme is, "We walk to remember the steps they will never take".
They do a little program and then everyone picks up a balloon to honor their baby/babies and we walk around a park in honor of our children. We then read off each babies name and each family releases their child's balloon.

It was a very tender experience for us. It is heartbreaking to be there and see SO many balloons and people. Everyone of those people there have felt those same feelings of sadness and loss that we feel.

This will be a yearly tradition for our family as another thing that we can do to remember Isaac and Evan and the all too short of a time they were here with us.
We miss them every day and  a piece of my heart and self left with them. I don't think that ever gets fixed. I don't think we'll ever stop missing them and wishing they were here and wondering about them and how life would be with them.

Genius Idea!

I picked up a Nemo card game for my Nemo obsessed Kaitlyn at DI (thrift store) the other day. We played it  Go Fish style as there should be 4 of each card and discovered that there are a few cards missing (of course).


I decided that I would just scan the matches of the cards we are missing (front and back) and then we'll have all 4 of every card. Bueno!
We don't care too much that we don't have the directions for the actual came the cards were intended for. I just love that I thought of something to replace those missing cards!

Random September

Nothing like being a few months late, right?

Here are my silly kids. The camera happened to be out and they wanted pictures taken, so I seized the opportunity. Alex LOVES doing crazy things and then seeing what he looks like on the screen. So he was posing with his sandwich here. Isn't that band-aid awesome? He had a small scrape on his nose, but INSISTED on a band-aid. Whatever kid.

Our stair railing got all finished! My dad had never done iron before, so he had a guy come and help him put it in. It went really fast and looks awesome! The only unfortunate thing about not having a wall and door there is that the basement noise tends to float right up the stairs and into Kaitlyn's room when she's napping. This leads to a lot of movie watching and playing with lots of shushing during nap time.
Overall, we love the improvement it's made to our house and everyone that sees it loves it. Our hall feels so much more open, which is nice!
We plan on eventually taking out the hall carpet and refinishing the old hardwood all the way down the hall.

I did a few new mermaid tails this year.
My good friend Lynsey and I contemplated how to make this one for a few hours. I had a customer who wanted a mermaid tail for her preschooler, but didn't want to worry about her tripping on it or holding it up all day. So we came up with this mermaid tail/skirt. It turned out really cute and I will probably make a few to stock this year.

I also made a mommy/daughter set. This lady's tail ended up being SO long. I made it according to a pattern that I have for the measurements the lady gave me and it was still big. She knew it was the first time I had ever made an adult tail and she was great. She said that it was fine and that she'd rather have it too big than too small. That is what I figured as well, so I'm glad that all worked out.

Seattle in September

In September my best friend from high school flew in from Hawaii for a visit. One of the weekends we were here we went up to visit my old roommate in Seattle for a girl's weekend. It was nice to get away.

When we came down the escalator we were amazed at how freakishly long the escalator was. We went back up it to take a picture. And video.

One of the first things we did was go to a coffee shop for my girlfriends. I got an amazing herbal tea with blood orange and rose hips and other deliciousness in it. I was feeling the need for sweet, so I loaded it up with honey and whatnot. When Kristin and Kellie sampled mine they said it was like drinking punch after their coffee.
Here we all our enjoying the fabulous weather that Seattle gave us for the weekend!

Then we went to the market and wandered around for a little bit. This is a lovely picture of me taken into the sun on the pier, so excuse the darkness of me.

We went on a dinner cruise out on the water that evening which was fun and of course got drinks before hand. I was basking in all of the peachy goodness of Washington and got this yummy peach concoction!

The next day we hopped on a ferry. Okay... Kellie actually hopped on the ferry first while she was out getting a drink thinking that we were driving on with the rest of the cars. After freaking out for a good 30 minutes to the point of crying, she responded to a page on the other side, so we felt okay getting on the ferry. We didn't want to get on without knowing where she had disappeared to! So Kristin and I had a nice ferry ride together.

We stayed with some people that Kellie knew with a "cottage" on Whidbey  Island.
See what a nice little place it was?

We walked down to the beach in the morning during low tide to see if we could find any crabs/shells. I picked up tons of large shells for my kids and we found this guy.

Here's a picture of the beach. And it was FREEZING walking around in flip flops.

While waiting in the long ferry line, we picked blackberries along side the road. This was working out fabulously until the line moved up a ton very quickly and poor Kellie and I couldn't ever quite catch up despite running as fast as we could down the road. I'm sure it was very humorous for all of those people just sitting in their cars watching us. We thought it was pretty hilarious ourselves.
Kristin ended up turning around and getting back in the back of the line so that she could pick us up.
The next time I got out to pick blackberries I made sure to hop in the car if the line moved at all.

Despite having all 3 of us on the ferry this time, we didn't get out and take any pictures on the ferry. We sat in the car and ate fish and chips and nachos.

Because of the massive heaviness of such fried food and my weird pregnant tummy, I ordered just a soup and salad at dinner. It was a very safe choice, but it was also SO good. I felt much better afterward!
This meant dessert at a dessert cafe place.

Here we are enjoying our desserts

And cracking up at the awful pictures Nick was taking of us. Most unflattering picture ever, but also hilarious.

Oh! We also went to the beach in West Seattle when we were trying to figure out what to do for dinner and walked around. Here's my sand art.

Our final morning we went to brunch (of course). I was so sad that they were out of their caramel french toast. Seriously- how could that not sound amazing? So breakfast wasn't the best, but not bad.
Then we went on a Duck Tour (land and water) of Seattle. This was the one rainy day our whole trip and we only had to deal with it for a few hours. Sadly, all while on our tour, but it was fun. We were also the only people on our whatever it was called, so that was fun.

I loved these water houses. I just loved the houses in Seattle in general. There was a fabulous mix of craftsman homes and modern homes. I could just drive up and down the neighborhood streets all day looking at houses. And mixed in with all the green and dense foliage... so awesome.

And of course here's the space needle with the umm... science? music? art? museum.

In the last couple of hours before we needed to get to the airport we ran over to Pike's market again and had some macaroni and cheese and then I picked up the most amazing peaches, apples, and nectarines ever to bring home to Jon. Totally laughing that his souvenir was fruit. But he LOVED them and appreciated the yummy-ness.
It's a good thing I had Kellie with me because I had to shove some of my stuff into her bag and STILL walked on the plane with a bag of fruit, a container of mac and cheese, my stuffed purse, and my heavier than I could even carry carry on. I bought my kids too much stuff apparently. :)

It was nice to get away and have some distractions for a few days. Though catching up on mermaids was totally insane. I absolutely loved Seattle, but am not quite sure how I would feel about it if I lived there with a majority of rainy days. The atmosphere was very cool and I loved all of the hills, the water, and the many many trees.
I definitely want to go back with Jon, but I want to go see every place with Jon. He's just awesome like that.

This FREAKS me out.

Umm... see those scars and HOLES in people to remove their melanoma?

I have to have a pretty extensive removal on my EYELID. Yes, it is *only* precancerous, but they still have to remove ANY and ALL precancerous cells there. Tell me you wouldn't be freaked out or at least a little concerned if it were you.

All I can say is that that ocular plastic surgeon better be DAMN good at what he does or else I may end up crying. A lot.

And just so you don't think I'm all cynical/negative and vain, of course I will be so thankful not to have melanoma and all that comes with it and thankful to be alive so I shouldn't care about how I look in the end.
BUT a person's face, and definitely their eyes (especially mine where they are often the first thing people notice about me), are something so defining and distinguishing that it would be tragic to a person to have their appearance drastically altered or effected by a major scar. Many plastic surgeons are very careful with facial surgery because it is so much a part of how someone sees and defines their self.

Sigh.
Three (or more) months until I get to go down that fun road. Watching this video definitely did NOT help my nerves, though I do agree completely that we (and especially my family members as we DO have a family history of skin cancer} need to be aware of our skin and keep an eye on it.

Thus the share.

So freak out over my eyelid removal and reconstruction with me and be concerned for yourself at the same time. I don't wish the freaking out over their own diagnosis and removal on anyone. No one wants to think about the extensive removal of cells and tissue that has to be done to eradicate melanoma and even precancerous cells and the scars it will leave them with.