a few things...

i finished brisinger on thursday. i had a really hard time getting absorbed into the book until almost the end. i loved eragon and truly enjoyed eldest. i am disappointed that i can't even say i like this book. i don't dislike it, but except for a few times it did not move me the way the first 2 books did. i really hope the last book revives the pleasure i have felt in reading this series.

i actually have tickets to go to a book signing event next monday and i am not even sure i want to go. maybe my expectations are just too high?

if anyone else has read it i'd love to hear your opinion.in other news, kial's soccer team won their very 1st game in all the years they have been a team. some of the girls have been playing together since 6th grade and now in 8th grade they finally won a game...i bet you can guess how excited they were. and all us parents who've been watching and cheering from the sidelines were pretty dang excited too.
lastly, we had ceb's 16th birthday party (only a month after her birthday) at whirlyball in edmonds. it was so much fun. cebastian, the kids and jason all had a blast. i was worried that 90 minutes of playing time would be too much, but it just sped by in a heart beat, even for those of us just watching. as we left the facility most of the group was planning and plotting their next whirlyball adventure.

our next big adventure is ceb going for her driving test tomorrow...wish her luck!

dr horrible...

and other awesome things.

have you seen dr horribles sing-a-long blog? because if you haven't you REALLY should take a peek. ceb and i are madly in love with it. makes me almost want to sign up for an NHP (neil patrick harris...ya know doogie howser) fan club! ceb and i love the show and the soundtrack. we listen to it all the time. check it out an let me know what you think.in other news...stonewall kitchen crackers are awesome. i am not sure why, but i love them. no more regular saltines for me. from now on it's tiny $6 boxes of crackers when i feel sick. they come in a good variety of flavors and they all taste pretty dang good, but my favorite is the plain old sea salt. jason thinks they taste stale, but that just means there's more for me!and last but not least mac and cheese. not plain old kraft mac and cheese, but real homemade delicious carlanna's recipe mac & cheese that gets cooked in the crockpot. now i am not much of a cook, in fact i pretty much hate it and rarely do it, but this recipe was so easy that i know i will make it again. kial took some with her for lunch one day this week and her friends ate most of it. she ended up promising to bring a bunch more next tuesday, so i guess we'll be making more this weekend.
here's the recipe especially for shannon:)

carlanna's crockpot mac & cheese
8 oz pkg dry macaroni (cooked)
2 TBSP oil
13 oz can evaporated milk (fat free works)
1 1/2 cup milk
1 tsp each-salt, pepper (fresh is best) and dry mustard
3 cups shredded cheese-cheddar, american combo (i used medium cheddar & colby jack))
2-4 TBSP melted butter (i think 2 was plenty)
2 TBSP onion (dried minced onion works great)

in crockpot toss cooked & drained macaroni with oil. stir in remaining ingredients. cover and cook on low for 3 hours (check yours at about 2.5 hours mine was done).

so simple and so good.

can't wait for saturday! BRISINGER and i will be spending the evening together!!
take care...

can you hear the music of the night?

well i got to and i loved it.

jas and i joined kelly, rob, amy & clark for a fun evening on friday night.

we meet at juno the restaurant attached to the arctic club hotel. let me just say i would recommend juno to anyone who likes to try new things. the food was terrific and i loved the flavor combinations. rob and kelly ordered an assortment of appetizers for us to try. they were all really delicious even, much to my surprise, the duck rillette. my favorite was the beets! for the entree i had the carrot and chickpea socca which was so incredibly good.

after dinner we literally rushed to the paramont to see the phantom of the opera. i really enjoyed the musical. there were a few parts that i didn't love, and some spots seemed kind of long, but i still found it riveting. i truly love the music; it has captivated me since high school when i first heard it. poor jason did not enjoy it so much, not that he was expecting to.

after the show was done we headed to the arctic club where rob showed us around a bit. i can't even explain the beauty of the dome room. the ceiling was so incredible and intricately detailed. it was great having rob there to tell us little details about the building. one day jas and i will have to stay there just so i can look around some more.

last but not least we went back to juno for dessert...all i can say about that is wow you have got to try it!

the best part of the whole evening was actually the people. i had such a great time hanging out with everyone. i loved the easy camaraderie, the familiarity and the laughter. i can't wait until we can find time to do it again! (jas too, just without the phantom of the opera)

never a dull moment...

ok, maybe that's not true, but this past week has been filled with some "interesting" and fun events.

the interesting event is that kial dyed her hair bright pink (with her aunt juju's help). she'd been begging us to do it for months but both jas and i were reluctant to let her because her hair was in such great shape from last year when she shaved it. that being said we did let her shave it last summer so how could we really say no? it's just hair after all, it will grow out again.
back to school is always highly anticipated around here. all the kids want to get back to the social network that school tends to be.

cebastian is now a junior at nathan hale.
there are 4 cousins going to summit this year.
adam & kial are 8th graders. this is the last year they will be at summit.
malieo & delaney are in 3rd grade.
mataio is in 1st grade.
grant is going to shoreline preschool as a real preschool kid this year and not in the daycare.
malakai is also going to be starting preschool, but i didn't get a picture of him since he hasn't started yet.my oldest nephew adam is turning 14 on wednesday, sept 10 so i took him out shopping on saturday to pick out his presents. he chose to go to barnes and noble. adam loves to read and that just makes me SO happy. we had so much fun picking out 5 new books for him and razzing kial because she hates reading as much as we love it.last but not least i got to spend a fun evening with some wonderful women to celebrate amy's birthday. we had yummy indian food at cafe india. the food was all delicious except for some scary nan we got accidently that was filled with raisins and almonds. after that amy, kelly, their mom linda and i went to see mama mia (it was my 3rd time and i swear it just keeps geting better)and then amy, kelly and i had dessert at the claim jumper. it was so much fun! amy's real birthday is monday so be sure to tell her happy birthday of you get a chance!

so what happened to august?

i swear the summer has whipped by so fast i barely noticed it's passing. i can't believe it's september and school starts TOMORROW. that's truly shocking to me.

no, i haven't been living in a box, i just let time and the summer run past me. we were actually pretty crazy busy throughout august. i am sad that it went by so quickly. is it just me or does it feel like summer is much shorter than when we were kids? part of it might be that we didn't really have much of a summer this year. yeah we got some great hot summery days, but it sure seemed like there was a lot of cold along with the hot.

we had almost every day planned with something in august. here's a list of the big things.

8/2 ceb came home from a week away at efy...she had so much fun.
8/2 i spent the day with my good friend ally & her bridal party getting ready and then attending her fabulous wedding. (my family met me there) it was such a great day for me. i loved being an insider at the event.
8/5-8/9 the girls spent 5 days at girls camp. kial brought her friend ella. all the girls had a blast.
8/6 i spent 5 hours in the er with my poor dad who fell and broke his patella while helping a friend.
8/9 we had a super fun birthday bowling bash for jas to celebrate his 41st birthday. his "fun" work friends all came and we shut down spin alley.
8/10 we celebrated jason AGAIN. this time we had a little family party at his mothers house with trophy cupcakes!!
8/13 jas and the girls took off at 5:41am to drive to halfmoon bay, california to go to his cousins wedding. it only took them about 13 hours to get there.
8/15 i flew down to california for the wedding (lucky me!)
8/16 india and jud's wedding. it was absolutely perfect and 100% them. i truly enjoyed every minute of it.
8/23 ceb took AND passed her knowledge (written) test for driving. it was close, she missed 4 of the 5 you can miss and still pass, but she still passed and we were able to get her scheduled for her driving test on 9/30. it's a lot further out than she was hoping, but i am happy to put off handing over the keys to her.
8/23 scrapping with mary ann, jen, carlanna, kathy, sherry and patti. we celebrated carlanna birthday belatedly with yummy ice cream pie! of course we actually did way more talking than scrapping but it was still really fun.
8/25-8/28 camping in leavenworth with the minugh's and hohenstein's. our annual trip was a little different this year with some unhappy moments but we managed to pull out a good amount of fun as well.
8/26 cebastian turned 16. i still don't want to believe that i could have a daughter that is 16, but it's true. cebastian is truly one of the best kids in the whole world. i am so glad to know her.


i actually love the fall and am looking forward to all the things we have planned in the coming months, but i wish i had gotten to sleep-in a few more times during the summer!<