Update - It's been awhile.....

Hi everyone -

Last weekend I hosted a baby shower for Christina at my house. It turned out so well, I think. It was so much fun to plan and pull together. Ward helped decorate and Theresa brought amazing food. I was pretty nervous because I wanted it to be exactly perfect for Chrissy. It was really perfect. She got tons of really cute baby clothes and a lot of equipment that they needed, like their car seat. And again, I am so excited for baby Luke to come!! You should see the nursery. Click on "Ben and Christina Johnson" to the right, and look at the pictures she posted of the baby's room. It's a dream!

All the rest of the news is:

My work = crazy
Wards' work = crazy
Nick's life = school + baseball (can it get any better than that?)
Kitten Annie = double-crazy


But..... Today, we helped celebrate a dear friend's 75th birthday in the lovely hamlet of Black Diamond. We spent a lovely afternoon together. Then, mom and I went shopping at Westfield mall. We stopped by World Market and I got these lovely items to update my dining room table for upcoming spring. I set up the table and the first thing Ward and Nick say, is "Cool, Bruin colors...".

I just smiled and said yes. that was my intention... :-)

Nick and Mom day in Seattle

Nick and I both had today off in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We had been talking for awhile about spending the day in Seattle. So today, we did! Ward did not have the day off, so it was just Nick and me. We got kindof a late start and had to make sure we were on the road back home by 3:00 pm. So we didn't have a full day, but we had a good couple of hours to bum around. It may have been foggy here, but in Seattle, it was a bright sunshiny day. A beautiful Seattle day! Our first stop was the market, where we explored all the little funny shops. Nick spent the most time in a baseball card & coin collection shop. He talked me in to buying him two stamp-signed rookie baseball cards of "someone" - I don't even know. The old man behind the counter knocked off a few dollars from the price and assured me I was getting a 'deal'. He also said my son has good taste in baseball cards! We hung around the fish stand trying to see if we could catch the guys throwing the fish around, but we weren't there at the right time and never saw that. Next, we went to that little park that overlooks the sound on the North end of the market and just looked at the beautiful scenery. The Olympics were out in full, but somewhat hazy force today. This is the only picture I managed to take, and it is supposed to look like NIck is holding up the totem pole. After the market, we wandered thru Post Alley and totally ruined our lunch appetite by eating too many baked goodies offered along the way. Then we made our way down to the waterfront to check out some of the nifty shops down that way. Then Nick got his caricature drawn by this crusty old British guy. We could barely understand him!! I wanted to say, "speak English!", but he was!!! His process was he took a picture and then drew the cartoon body and scenery around it. I didn't realize he did not draw the cartoon face too. Thats what I wanted. But this was cute and NIck had fun. After that, we only had one hour left and Nick still wanted to go to the Seattle Center. In particular, he wanted to ride the monorail and go to that Food Circus thing. So, we high tailed it up a jillion stairs and up to Westlake center where we caught the monorail and made it to Seattle Center just in time for him to eat a Subway Sandwich (all the cool places to eat in Seattle and this is what he picks!) and then head back to the monorail. We made it to our car and were on I-5 by 3:00 sharp! All in all it was a really fun, but too short, day. A great mom & me thing.

4th Picture of 4th folder

OK, here is my fourth picture in my fourth folder:

Back into the swing of things...

Wow, I sure loved having 2 weeks off during the holidays. That was so great! i really relaxed and playing in the snow with the kids was so much fun. Lots of good family time. Now we are back into the swing of our routines and trying to fight flooding water instead of freezing water. I do appreciate a good vacation, but consistent routine is appreciated.

Not really too much new to report. Nick has resumed baseball training and school. I heard him actually "regret" eating so much junk over the holidays. Wow! Ward is just trying to get back in the swing of work mode, and has a fair amount of "home" projects to do as well. I am swung fully back into work mode and am hitting as many yoga sessions as I can in order to deal with extra holiday pounds.

Ben and Christina seem to be doing well. Chrissy is looking third-trimester pregnant, but looks absolutely beautiful and healthy. She's been preparing the nursery and it is an absolute dream. Looks like it could be a magazine picture with lots of pretty browns and blues.

Stay dry everyone!!

Happy New Year!!

We had fun celebrating the arrival of 2009 with our long-time friends, George, Christy and Oliver. We made dinner, drank wine and talked about the upcoming year. January 1 was "slow" for me as I recovered from too much wine. Ward and Nick went to a Seattle University basketball game, and I got a lovely visit from Christina. Of course, we talked about baby-things. :-)