Mrs. Snow

A couple weeks ago I was asked by our principle if I had been in the staff bathroom. Kinda a weird question, and he immediately had to clarify why he was asking. The preschool class had made a poster of their favorite teachers, and the poster was put up in the bathroom. I ranked high enough to be drawn on  the poster of favorite teachers. What's cool about this is I have only been in preschool two days this year! I guess I made quite the impression. I had to take a picture to preserve my fame.....while it lasts!!

13 years

Dan has had no schedule over the last few months. We never know when he is coming or going. He had been working in Seattle doing shipyard work, and there was a chance he would go straight to Alaska when it was done. So when it was time to go camping over Memorial Day weekend, he begged for the weekend off. Not only was it great to have him for a weekend of camping, but it was also our 13 year Anniversary. I am so thankful that we actually got to spend it together. Some people go out for nice dinners, but I was thrilled to sit around a campfire and eat BBQ.

Love you honey, here's to many more years together!

Scentsy Review

A big thank you to Sarah at Kingdom Twindom for a great review of Scentsy products. Check out her blog!

School Days

I was lucky enough to go on a field trip with the first graders this week. We went to Larabee State Park and observed sea life. What a beautiful day it turned out to be! This was the view from our little hike.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms in my life!

We did our annual Mother's Day picnic at a park, followed by a family hike. I am thankful that it was dry and that our whole family was able to be there. I am super blessed to have such a loving family!

There's no place like home

BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER

Lily's cat Hobbs has been missing for almost two months. Click back to March if you don't know that long story. Today, out of the blue, I get a phone call from the neighbor of the vet's office. He said that he thought Hobbs had been in his barn, but until today wasn't sure. He has four cats, and said he often gets strays wandering into his barn and eating the cat food.

He spotted Hobbs today, went over to the vet's office to check out the picture we posted of Hobbs, then went back with binoculars, and confirmed that Hobbs was hiding on the roof of his barn under an overhang. He called me, and I ran right over. I had a trap and tuna ready. I climbed a ladder to see Hobbs, and even after calling him, he wasn't coming out. I left the trap on the roof of the barn, and said I would be back with Lily. Being today is Lily's birthday, I didn't want to get her hopes up, but we needed her to get Hobbs out. So after school, I took the kids over, and Lily climbed up the ladder where she could see Hobbs. She started talking to him, and he slowly moved out. It took about five minutes, but she was able to pet him, but couldn't quite reach to get a hold of him. Plus, being up on the ladder, she didn't want to let go with one hand. The whole five minutes I was holding Lily's legs so she wouldn't fall off the ladder. I started to cry as soon as he came out and was letting her pet him. He poked his head into the trap and I yelled at Lily to close the door.

We had him trapped! Hobbs totally freaked out, jumping all over. I had to get the trap down off the roof, with a crazy cat inside! The kids went nuts! They were jumping up and down, cheering that we had caught Hobbs. We thanked the nice man who called us (and I had brought him a bag of cat food as a thank you for feeding Hobbs this whole time!).  Nate ran into the vet's office and told them we had Hobbs, and took the missing poster down.

When we got home, Hobbs was still scared and ran right under our bed. The funny thing is that Jay was under there. Jay is Hobb's brother that we got AFTER we lost Hobbs. We had plans to go out to dinner, so we just left them alone. When we got home, Hobbs has been sociable with us, and curled right up on Lily's fuzzy blankets, like he had never left.

What a great birthday present for Lily, to have her cat home! Thank you Lord for this miracle!

Happy 8th Birthday Lily!

Happy 8th Birthday to my Lily Bug! We celebrated with her friends on Saturday, and had the most beautiful perfect day. Then that night we had the family over for a BBQ and to celebrate Lily and Dan's birthdays. (Lily was born just 6 hours shy of her Daddy's birthday).
Lily is super excited for her actual birthday. We are bringing cupcakes to class today. She told her teacher that she will be getting up 5 minutes early on her birthday, so that she can do a happy dance.
As Mrs. Lehman (Lily's teacher) always tells me, "How can you not be happy around Lily?".

Spring Soccer

We had a beautiful day for soccer yesterday! Both kids scored goals (one on his own team). Lily scored her first goal ever and the sideline went nuts when she did. I think every girl on her team has scored a goal now. Nate's team hasn't won a game yet, and they are getting very frustrated. They are playing U11, but most of the kids on the team are 9 and 10 years old. We are hoping they can pull together and get a win soon!

Easter Prep

My to do list to get ready for Easter (along with every other Mom and single Dad out there):

Easter dress for Lily
New shoes to match new Easter dress
New sweater to match Easter dress (because it's cold here on Easter and somehow every Easter dress out there is short sleeved.....geesh!)
New shirt for Nate
New top for me
Candy and gifts for baskets
Jelly beans to leave as Easter bunny poop
Carrots to leave out the night before, for the Easter bunny
2 dozen eggs, boiled (Don't wait until the last minute!)
2 dozen eggs colored
3 batches of rolls (homemade) for Easter dinner
1 dessert for 2nd Easter celebration
Charge camera
I'm sure there is more....I'm just too busy to keep going.

My Hubby's Prep for Easter:
Put on the shirt I pick out for him and walk out the door. (I'm just glad he's home!!! )

Scentsy Launches in UK and Germany!

I am thrilled that Scentsy is growing internationally! As of today Scentsy is in the UK and Germany! What a great opportunity for people in these countries to be the first to share Scentsy! Scentsy has been such a blessing to me and I would love to share that "gift" with others!  Click on the Scentsy logo or contact me if you are interested in this great company!

Soccer Season

It's soccer season, and both kids are playing. That means 4 practices and 2 games every week. They are having fun, and I'm using their practice times to get my walks in. I bought new running shoes this week, and I'm hoping to start running again. So far it's been a cold, wet season. They actually canceled soccer games for yesterday. Hoping it warms up soon!

Meet Jay

This is Jay. He's a brother to Calvin and the missing Hobbs. When Hobbs went missing, the dear friend that first gave us the cats, offered up their brother. We waited two weeks, then went and picked up Jay. Lily named him after some cartoon.....don't ask. We have had him for over a week, and this is the only picture I have of him, and also the only time we have seen him during the day. I'm convinced he's nocturnal. He hides all day and wants nothing to do with the kids. He is still fighting with his brother, Calvin. He is warming up to me, but only at night while I am sleeping. He has to come lay on me and will get right up in my face to let me know he's there. The first few nights he was having turf wars with Calvin in my room. It was so bad I had to kick them both out in the middle of the night.
I'm really heartbroken over  the loss of Hobbs, and it makes it worse knowing that we can't replace him. I'm still on the fence about keeping Jay. If he can't socialize with the kids, he may have to go back. Hoping and praying he becomes more friendly.

Jumpin' Jelly Bean

I see cheer leading in her future!

Lily's Dance Recital

This weekend was filled with Dance! Lily had her two dance recitals this weekend. She did great, and was adorable as usual!

Tale of the Missing Cat

Lily's cat Hobbs, has been missing since Friday. Dan was taking both Calvin and Hobbs (brothers) to the vet to get fixed. Someone from the vet has said they would drop carriers off for us, and they forgot. Dan was in a hurry and just grabbed the cats and put them in the truck. When he got to the vet's office, he went inside and got a carrier, put  Calvin in it, then took him inside. No problem. Then he went back for Hobbs. As he was putting Hobbs in the box, a big noisy truck pulled in the parking lot and spooked the cat. He went running, and ended up climbing a huge cedar tree across the road. Dan tried going after Hobbs, but Hobbs just climbed higher.

Dan didn't know what to do. See, Hobbs is not social. He doesn't like anyone but Lily. He choose Lily and only likes her. So Dan went to the school and got Lily. Imagine filling out the reason for pulling your child out of class; Need child to get cat out of tree.

So Dan and Lily went back to the vets and Lily tried calling Hobbs down. Hobbs was pretty freaked out at this point, and was not moving. So the vet left food at the bottom of the tree, and Dan took Lily back to school. When I got done with work, I went over to see if I could call him down. At that point, we couldn't even see him in the tree.

When the kids were out of school, we went back again. We talked to the land owner that the tree was on, and they said they would watch for Hobbs. We then went and got a live trap from my Grandpa, and a can of tuna from Grandma, and set the trap. That night Dan went back every couple hours, hoping to have caught the cat. Well, he caught a cat, actually two cats, but not Hobbs.

We went back many times on Saturday, but still no sign of Hobbs. Dan talked to the fire department and they said they didn't have a ladder tall enough. The people at City Hall just laughed at him. Our fire fighter friend told us that they had never found a dead cat in the tree. Still, we were worried. (More worried about how Lily was going to handle loosing her cat).

We ended up calling a friend of ours that has a tree service. He has all the equipment to climb trees. So Sunday morning he climbed the huge tree. He got to the top and didn't see a cat, so he shimmied over to the tree next to it and looked around. Still no sign of a cat. He felt really bad, and didn't even want to charge us. I had to pay him something for his gas and time.

So we have been over there multiple times a day looking for Hobbs. We have been adding more tuna, and hoping to catch him. The kids and I posted fliers around town yesterday with his picture. We posted on facebook and thought we might have found him, but it was the wrong cat.

Today Dan tried another tactic. I still can't believe he tried this. We have a neighbor cat that hangs around our house alot. We call him Psycho Ninja Cat. I have no idea what his real name is. He is a huge orange and white cat. He tried climbing my friends car one day. He jumps out of bushes and scares the kids and I as we walk to school. He chases squirrels in our yard. And lately he has become friends with Hobbs. He has been hanging out in our carport, and Hobbs gets out to play with him. Since Hobbs disappeared, Psycho Ninja Cat has been very vocal about missing his friend Hobbs. So..... Dan grabbed Psycho Ninja Cat and took him to the area we last saw Hobbs. He was hoping that Psycho Ninja Cat would "talk" and Hobbs would hear him. Of course Psycho Ninja Cat wouldn't talk, and Dan just brought him home. (On the way home, the cat pushed the button on the window and Dan almost lost that cat too. Imagine explaining that one to the neighbor....a neighbor we have never met!!!).

So that is the tale of the missing cat. If you see him, please contact us. We have a heartbroken little girl that misses her kitty!

Missing Cat

Hobbs, who is Lily's cat, has been missing since Friday morning. Dan was taking him to the vet and he escaped at the vet's office in Nooksack. If you see him, please contact us!

Auntie is slacking!

Wow I have been busy! I started my new job at the school, adding more hours onto my part time job. I had a crazy busy weekend at the Home Show last weekend, and I'm still catching up from that! Lily started soccer practice today, and I'm waiting to hear from Nate's coach. I'm pretty much slacking on everything, just trying to keep the family in the right place at the right time.

So today Dan offered to babysit the twins and Drew. They love coming over to play. I only got to hang out with them for an hour today, in between work, volunteering, and back to work again. Dan told me that Grant walked into the kitchen and asked for a cookie. He knows that Auntie Holly ALWAYS has cookies. Well.....not today. I've been so busy, and cookies are not a priority. I guess Grant left the kitchen with his head down and his heart broken. I felt so bad!

As I was sitting at Lily's soccer practice tonight, I was reminded that Nate needed snacks for a Safety Patrol Party tomorrow. I asked him what he wanted, and of course he said cookies. So I started making a batch of bar cookies (I can whip those out in 25 minutes flat!). Of course Lily wanted cookies too, so I had to make two batches. And of course had to add green M&M's because it's almost St. Patrick's Day.

Hopefully the cookies will last until this weekend when I see Grant (who's favorite color is green!). Maybe I can get back some Auntie points!

Whatcom County Home and Garden Show

Stop by and see me at the Scentsy booth at the Whatcom County Home and Garden show, located at the Northwest Washington Fairgrounds. And dress warm, because it's cold in there!

Can I get a clone?

Crazy busy week here! I'm a little overwhelmed. Seems like March came in like a lion......roaring with a ton of work!

I started my new job yesterday. I was hired by our school district to be a Para Educator for the rest of the school year. I have been subbing, and doing an after school program, but now I am an official employee. I'm loving my new job. I am working with first graders, and they are so much fun.

I am also getting ready for the Whatcom County Home and Garden Show this weekend. I will be at the Scentsy booth! If you get a chance, come by and say hi!