Lonely week

So, this week we are without Derek. It is weird having him gone, but we are just going along doing our thing and staying somewhat busy. Ashley would be more help, except that she started school on Monday, so she just isn't able to be home to help, plus she's hopefully going to start working tonight at Big 5, a sporting goods store down the street. Laura should be having her baby any time now. She's due next week I believe. We are all so excited for her, plus everyone wants to see what the little guy is going to look like.

After we took Derek to the airport on Saturday we went directly to the Puyallup fair. We met up with Jack there, along with a bunch of his friends and Stacy. It was a blast. Ethan decided not to ride a sheep this year, so instead we rode some rides, looked at animals and ate great fair food. We had a blast and even though he was exhausted Ethan was pretty darn good most of the time. He loves his Uncle Jack, so I'm sure Jack got a little tired of the Ethan-sized growth he acquired at the fair, but he always handles it very well. I don't have pictures of the fair yet. I left my camera at home and am waiting for Jack to send some pictures. Soon hopefully. There were some cute ones.

So, that's about it. I'll hopefully have some great pictures from Derek's trip to Alaska up here soon for you guys to enjoy. Love you all!!

Random Pictures

Video

I know...I'm lame

So yes, I know I have been horrible about putting pictures up lately. We have just been so busy and we have had lots of changes and things going on for the past couple of weeks. So, I will put up some new pictures today and over the next couple of days.

So, changes in our world...I have switched clinics. I was working in a clinic about 20 minutes from my house. It was a nice clinic and I enjoyed the people I worked with but then I heard about a clinic that Providence was opening up that was literally 5 minutes from my house and I couldn't pass it up. It is quite a bit different than my last position, but I think I will like it just fine. The equipment will take some getting used to, but I think I can handle it.

Another big change...you better sit down for this one...Derek reenlisted!!! When he called to tell me I was in total shock. I had decided to just be supportive and let him decide what he wanted to do with his military career. Logistically it makes sense to stay in and retire with only 7 years left, but I don't have to do all the Army stuff. Plus, there is always the possibility of getting stationed someplace like Ft. Bragg, NC or Ft. Hood, TX. Neither are places at the top of our list of places to get stationed. So, he reenlisted for 2 years so that he can train in MRI. Some of you may wonder, why MRI since he went through training to become a Nuc Med tech and everything. Currently there is a set of procedures in Nuclear Medicine that is called PET CT. This uses the equipment from Nuclear Medicine and from Cat Scan to create an image. The new wave of equipment right now is bringing MRI and Nuclear Medicine together to produce an image. There are virtually no, or very few people that have knowledge in both MRI and Nuclear Medicine. So Derek believes that having a strong background in both will make him a huge asset in the world of Radiology. I tend to agree and am pretty excited to see where it might lead us. The PET MR machines are currently prototypes and are not yet on the market, so hopefully by the time they are he'll have a very strong background in both types of studies. It's very exciting. With so much of the medical field in places like Germany it could very well take us over to Europe or someplace else in the country at some point. We just don't know but are excited at the prospect.

So, let's see what else is going on...right now I can't really think of much. Oh!!! Laura should be having her baby anyday now. We are very excited for her. I just threw her a baby shower this past weekend. I have had so many baby showers myself I thought I should pass along the joy to someone else. I went a little overboard but loved doing it. I would love to be an event planner. It is so much fun. It went really well and she got lots of cool stuff, which let's face it, is the point of a baby shower. On Saturday, Derek will be headed off to Alaska to go on a fishing trip with his dad and brothers. He's pretty excited about that. He'll be gone for 10 days. Not the most convenient time with Laura about to go into Labor and Ashley about to start school, but we'll manage. He'll just owe me is all.

So, here's a couple pictures of the kids.

Always a Happy girl

Ethan loves listening to music

Ethan's First day of School!!

So, it's official. Ethan started school yesterday. It was the greatest, saddest sweetest thing ever. Neither of us cried but it took a little bit of work not to. So, I have a few pictures from his first day of school for you. I took him to school but he rode the bus home. He loved it and is excited to go to school again. He goes 2-3 days a week and is in an all day class. Yay Ethan!!!!!

Our new kitties!

So, our poor kitty Sammy recently ran away. I have had him for a long time and I am very sad that he is gone, as is Ethan. He has been a really good cat for us and was always very tolerant of Ethan's onstant harassment of him. But now he's gone. So, I decided we should get a new cat. Derek wasn't so sure but I finally convinced him we should get a new one. He agreed to one but I decided to get two so that Ethan and Ashley could each have their own. I am surprised that our marriage survived the night but it's all worked out and we now have two kittens. Ethan's is the grey one and he named it Alex. Ashley's is the multi-colored one and she named him Nanu. He's a runt and is teeny tiny. They are super cute. here's some pics.

Down to the river

Okay, so here are the pictures from the river. I know I am seriously overloading with pictures today, but it's fun. I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Dave Matthews

So, for Labor Day weekend we went to the Dave Matthews concert, again. I know we are so predictable, but we enjoy it. We decided to take the kids with us this year. Derek was concerned about taking Addie with the heat of Eastern Washington but a friend of ours has a trailer that we got to use which has air conditioning and stuff. We were able to get out of the heat and have a semi-cool place to sleep and stuff. We went with a great group and this year got away from the campground a little bit and played in the river.

Jack surprised us and showed up on the river with a boat so us girls got to play on the boat for a while. Derek was rock climbing so he didn't get to go. Too bad for him. He really enjoyed climbing though. I took Ethan tubing which scared him but he was a good sport about it. He was just scared of going so fast. It was a lot of fun though. Plus Ethan always loves to see his Uncle Jack. We had a great weekend. We came back Sunday since I had to work on Monday. I really didn't mind working Monday though. I haven't worked in the hospital for a long time so it was a blast busting my butt for the first time in a long time. So, here's a bunch of pics from our weekend.

Here's some cute pics for you

I know. I've been horrible over the past few weeks about putting up new pics for you guys. Sorry about that. Well, today I am going to make it up to you. I'll put up several postings with lots and lots of pictures for you. I hope you enjoy them. Love you all!!!!! Oh, by the way...my photographer is back. I told Ashley she had to stay in our house forever so that we always had pictures of the kids. We'll see how that goes.