More pictures from Arizona

The night after James's funeral, I went out with my MOFia friends. We went to Dave & Busters in Tempe, it is like a Chuck E Cheese for adults. We had fun and laughed about a tree I found in Mesa near the Temple..... and you'll see why.

Here are the party girls....



My grandpa and I met with my aunt, uncle, cousins and their grandma at the Texas Roadhouse. Their grandma's birthday was very recent so she rode the saddle and got a Texas "yeee ha" from everyone around her. It was a blast.

Back from Arizona

It was nice to visit with my cousins and Aunt after nearly 20 years. I've found that our families have a lot in common. James liked a lot of the same things as some of my siblings and after getting to know him through family and friends, I truly felt the sting of his death. My comfort is knowing I will see him again. While I was in Arizona, I found out that my mom's best friend and dear friend of my family, Michelle Dunn, has passed away. I was just at Michelle's house about 3 weeks ago getting my pants altered, I sat in her living room and listened to her tell me about her girls and her faith. She is a wonderful person and we will miss her!

Here are some pictures I took in Arizona.....

I used to live in this house in Phoenix from 1985 to 1990, they've done a lot of landscaping, they yard looks much better now than it did. I'm glad they removed a certain cactus, I got pushed into it a few times by neighborhood kids so I hated it.


Mesa Temple, very pretty at night


Crater Lake in Oregon - it was clear as we flew over it, I was lucky to see it.


The funeral

I'm flying to Arizona

My grandpa and I are leaving Thursday for Arizona (he lives with my parents now). My cousin, James, died in a car accident on Saturday. I didn't know him at all, we haven't spoken in nearly 20 years and I feel bad about not keeping in touch. James's dad just died last month so this is a double tragedy, although it is more shocking to lose James at the young age of 25. If anything, this is a lesson that life is too short and that we should not let years go by without getting to know our relatives.

Fun in the snow

Mother nature dumped a ton of snow on us this weekend. The boys begged all day to go out and I finally pulled out their snow gear and got them all bundled up. They were outside for a whole 10 minutes before calling it quits. I played alone for awhile, took some pictures and went inside to warm up.

I was thrilled to catch a sun star in the tree, there is a full size version on my photo blog.

WE WON!!

Remember that scammer, Jeffrey Wallace (A Touch of Class Painting), who took our $800 down payment and never showed up to paint our house? Well, I took him to court and he didn't show up. My case went to the judge and he requested more information about his military status (to be sure he wasn't active and deployed which would be a good reason not to show up to court). I went to the Department Of Defense site to look him up. I needed his full name, a birthday or social security number. As chance would have it, the State of WA accidentally provided me with his SSN (another story) so I plugged that info into the DOD site and got confirmation that he has never served in the military. I sent that information to the judge and received my judgment today for the full amount I sued for. I sued for the $800, court fees, service fees, and the difference of what it cost to hire another painter. I won it all! If I had known about the Consumer Protection Act prior to filing, then I would have sued for triple damages.

The next step is to submit this judgment to his bond company and they are suppose to pay it or I could take them to court too. This sure is a lot of stress, but today was a victory for me and it gives me hope that we will get our money back.

A good lesson when hiring a contractor: Make sure he/she is licensed and bonded! We checked this guy out online and saw one of the houses he painted before hiring him. We were careful and still got nailed, but we have a way out of this nightmare because he was bonded. The good news is that his license was suspended so he won't be painting (legally) any time soon. Another tip: Pay with a credit card. It would have been so easy to do a charge back for fraud and let the credit card company do the leg work. If you can't pay with a credit card, then ask to buy the materials yourself rather than give a down payment, we did this the 2nd time around and the painter was very cooperative.

On a side note... it's funny how bad events sometimes bring positive results. Jeffrey Wallace could never have matched the custom paint job we now have. Had Jeffrey followed through, I am sure we would have been disappointed.

Our day at the Sportsman Show

Jared was up a lot last night with an ear ache and he spent most of the morning throwing up. However, he knew today was the day he and David were going fishing and refused to give that up. We took him to the Sportsman Show and Jared managed to have fun until his stomach started to hurt him again. It's a good thing he had a plastic bag with him in the van.

Scream

I've enjoyed scaring the boys since they learned how to walk around a corner. On this particular evening, Jared was playing in the basement. I could hear him and thought, "Now is my chance." To date, it's the best scream I've ever caught on camera so he wins the prize. David gave me a token effort just to let me know he was a good screamer too. Please excuse David's outfit, he thinks he is dressed when he has a t-shirt, underwear and socks. Pants are just too complicated.

Sword Fight

I have these old homemade swords (made of pvc pipe, pipe insulation, wrapped in duck tape). The boys had way too much fun! They pretended I was a princess and took turns being the protector.

So dramatic !!

I'm so tickled!

I caught David exercising tonight and was amazed! He went for 17 minutes and .25 miles. The most amazing thing isn't the amount of time or how far he went. It was what he said while he was exercising. I had to post a video. He said, "I was exercising like you!" I think that I forget how much my habits influence them. It's things like this that make me want to continue living healthy, not just for myself, but for the boys.


Okay - this is just funny! Jared goes too fast for his little body and runs out of steam. I giggle every time I watch it.


For the record, I've been exercising regularly since David was almost a year old so he doesn't know any other life style.

A look back and things we're looking foward to....

Overall, 2007 was a wonderful year for us. We feel like things get better with each year. So here are some highlights of our 2007:

Career - Larry was hired as the Safety Engineer with a company on the east side of WA state. We now live in the area where we spent most of our youth and our parents now live (so we're home).

Toronto - In March, I took my first trip to Toronto, Ontario, I visited Niagara Falls and fell in love with the area - so much, in fact, that I wanted to share the experience with my family. We went again in July as a family. I took my 3rd and final trip for the year to Toronto in October. So far, no plans to go back, but I have fond memories!

House - We remodeled! I don't know what we would have done if we had known we'd move so soon. I expected to enjoy it a little longer so it's definitely ready to sell. We've had it listed since the end of August, but we think January has got to be the month it sells! We have before/after pictures in a previous post.

We are looking forward to a few things this new year. Larry will graduate with his Masters Degree in June, hopefully we'll sell our house and move into a new one, Jared will be reading, David will start Kindergarten in September and I am making my own opportunities to advance in my photography.