About Me

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I'm Beth. I'm married to my best friend, and he's pretty awesome. We have two equally awesome kids, Gavin and Sophie.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Who would want to get up before 8 am?!

I'm not a morning person.  Getting up out of my nice cozy bed at 4:20 am is not my idea of a good time.  Its actually my idea of something a lunatic would do. 

However, I love clam digging.  Perhaps the only things that could cause me to (almost) voluntarily wake up at that ungodly hour are:
1) UFC (like, what if we had to get up early to travel somewhere? I could do that.)
2) clam digging
3) ....ok I'm coming up blank on this one.

So, to illustrate how much I love clam digging, I will tell you that not only did I get up at 4:20 am Wednesday, but I ALSO got up at the same time the VERY NEXT DAY.  Insanity! 
Wednesday Ernie forced me out of bed and I got dressed and stumbled around until we left the warm house and took off into the frigid cold to go to the ocean.  I was pretty jealous of Sophie.  She got to sleep until right before we left, and then she gets carried out of her room wrapped in blankets and catered to.  Dang it.  To add to the torture of this early morning, I forgot my coffee at home.  If you have any idea about anything that I love, you know that coffee is really high on the list, probably just under family.  Morning hater + no coffee = panic and weeping.

I'm getting off track. SO, Wednesday we loaded up the munchkin and took her with us to the beach, because what good are kids if you can't get their limit in clams too?  It was the perfect clam digging day.  Low tide was at 8:59, and we got our 3 limits of clams (that's 45!) and were driving away from the beach by 8:48!  That is what I call a successful dig.  We hung around in the town for a while, Ernie caught 3 dungeness crabs, and then we made it home in time to clean up and have our small group over. 

After all that, I was super tired.  But we agreed to do it again the next day.  I don't know about anyone else, but things always *sound* better to me in the evening, when I'm not being brutally torn from my peaceful slumber.  So....we got up again at the buttcrack of dawn, I stumbled around trying to get ready, and we squeezed into my mother in law's Suburban.  When I saw squeezed, I mean it.  We left our house and went to pick up Ernie's grandparents, and I was the only candidate for sitting in the third row of seats, next to Sophie in her carseat.  It must have been what sardines feel like.  Well, if food had feelings, which it doesn't.  Anyway.  Today, Friday, is Grandpa Leon's 87th birthday.  All he wanted to do when he found out there were clam tides this week was go to the ocean.  They haven't been in several years, although they used to go all the time.  Ernie has wonderful memories of going clam digging in his younger days with his grandparents, so we were happy to take them.  Ernie, Sophie, Carol, Grandma Doris and Grandpa Leon all headed off to the ocean.  (Let me say that I have to pretend to be a lot more of a morning person when there are old people there.  I feel bad acting grumpy.  So I was using a lot of energy, trying to seem chipper, wedged in beside a toddler in front of stinky crab pots, with numb feet.) 

Once we got to the beach we all made our way down there.  Grandpa Leon is not very steady on his feet, as much as he'd like you to believe he is.  It was a super windy day and I was sad that it was working against him.  He eventually had to go back to the truck, but he got to be out there at the ocean with us.  The rest of us all dug our limits, including Sophie.  Its hard work digging up clams, so we helped her with the digging part, but she was a super tough little girl and she picked up all 15 of her clams out of the sand, something that a lot of people, including our son and many otherwise mature adults, will not do because its "disgusting".  I was very proud of her and she was a really good girl. 

We went out to eat together, Ernie crabbed some more, and then we all drove back home after a very long day. When we dropped off the grandparents, Grandpa Leon said he wanted to thank us for letting them come along.  It was really sweet and I'm so glad it meant so much to him.  My grandparents are all gone now, and they always lived far from me.  Its wonderful to get to do things with Ernie's only remaining grandparents and I'm so glad we got to contribute to a great day for them. :) 

We usually take hundreds of pictures, but of course this time, when we have an extra special trip, we forgot to take the latest in our long line of cameras.  So although this was a long and rambling post, I wanted to make sure to record it because it was important for our family and I want to remember my daughter getting to do something that is special for our family with her great grandparents. 

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Nice.

Okay, so...I've been having an alright day.  I took Gavin to school, got a good run in, put Sophie down for a nap and even watched a show while I had lunch.  Then I got in the shower.  All very relaxing. 
I guess that, although Sophie is doing well with potty-training, she decided it would be fun to poop during nap time instead of sleep.  AND, she also thought that it was too spicy for her butt so she stuck her hands in it because it "didnt feel gwood mama".  So I got to throw her in the bathtub and scrub her skin off (okay, I didn't scrub it off, but believe me I was tempted...yuck!), then I had to strip her sheets off and wash them along with all her precious blankies.  I have to make sure they are clean and ready by bedtime or there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  So I hurried through that, because I am sort of on a time schedule this afternoon and neither of those things was in my plans.  At all.  Thanks, Soph. 
We got that fiasco taken care of, clean clothes put on and all of that, and ran down the street to get some gas so we'd be able to make it to small group.  And my debit card was denied!  Not only that, but I had gone inside to pay, so I found out it was denied *after* I went back out to the pump and was trying to pump gas.  How did I find out?  Bong (honestly, that is his name) the guy that works there came out the door and YELLED across the (crowded) parking lot "miss, your card, denied.  DENIED.  Can't pump!"  I had to dig through my purse and find cash, which took up a bunch more time...while my cheeks are bright red of course because it looks like I'm someone who gets their card denied.  Anyway.  I came home and called the bank, because my account for sure has money in it.  After being on hold forever, the lady said "oh, I see the problem.  Your card isn't activated.  When you got your new card, you needed to activate it."  Odd, because I've been USING IT all month, just fine.  She said "oh hm.  Well do you want to activate it?"  Well, yeah.  I do.  I want to be able to use it.  So she transferred me to their activation line.  Which then hung up on me.

How long did all this take?  An hour and a half.  I'm pretty much over today.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Curse you cold and flu season!

I did everyone at church today at big favor by staying home. Not only do I think they would appreciate not catching my super-cold, but I also think the frequent coughing up of my lungs would interfere with ya know, listening/singing/etc. So, you're welcome Reality Olympia! :) I have been doing really well, health-wise, since taking my new vitamins. I've been feeling great! Ernie is a freak of nature and never gets sick, so when we *both* got sick this last week, I was a little surprised. I'm used to getting every single cold, stomach bug, etc., that we are exposed to, but like I said -- I've actually been taking my vitamins every day like a good little girl, something I have never been good at. And so I have surprisingly skipped a few sicknesses. This one must be a tough one though! It has gotten progressively worse for me through the week. Which means I have not gotten a work out in all week. In the not so distant past, I would have been pretty pleased to have a legitimate excuse to skip exercising, but these past few days with no working out or running have gotten me pretty bummed. Which is weird, and makes me think....who is this person?? I have actually asked Ernie each day "do you think its okay to work out today? I didn't get to yesterday." And he keeps telling me he doesn't think its a good idea. Instead of cheering in my head and going happily to do something non-exercisey, I've been let down! Creeeepy. So, I've spent the morning in my jammies, drinking my coffee (my cheat while eating paleo...sorry, me and the coffee beans will always be together), and planning our meals for the week. What is my husband doing while he's sick? Roto-tilling the back yard. We all use our "down time" in different ways... Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sit on the couch with a blanket and plenty of fluids.

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