Goodbye 2015!

Goodbye 2015!

It was a good year, even though I forgot to post anything on the blog. This year, I'm trying to get back in the habit of writing.

In 2015 we bought our first "real house" along with Brian's parents. They have closed the bed & breakfast and are in the process of selling the house on the coast and moving permanently in with us. Currently, they're staying with us for about a week and a half at a time and it's working out well for everyone involved. Fortunately, the house has a master suite, so everybody can have their own space. Very important for when small people have nightmares and wake up in the middle of the night, stumbling into someone's bedroom looking for comfort.

Mental-health-wise, it was a good  year. After spending 2014 trying medications seemingly at random to help with the postpartum depression/my regular depression which returned with a vengeance, I finally got on a good "cocktail" of medications. (My co-workers at the county took a vote and told me how much they liked it!)

Mimi started 2nd grade, then promptly told me "Mama, it's really embarrassing when you tell stories about me." So even though she's so cute it's hard not to gush, I probably won't be commenting on her doings as much.

Carol has started talking in complete sentences. She didn't bother until she was 3, because Mimi made sure she got most of her needs & wants met and "interpreted" for her. Her first complete multi-subject sentence was "Me hug the kitty that lives under our deck."

Which brings me to FizBit. Although he theoretically belongs to the next door neighbors, he resides under our deck. Why? He's seen the writing on the wall and decided he'd rather run the risk of being hugged by an overly affectionate 3 year old than regularly live with his 10, 7 and 4 year old humans. Who like to do things like dress him up in doll clothes and pretend he's a puppet. It's not the same thing as having a "real" cat, but it's a nice substitute.

Carol likes having a cat around so much that she regularly hugs him and says things like "Me love you kitty." And then insists that she herself is a cat for the rest of the day. When she was a newborn, her cries sounded like mewing because she was a bit premature, but this is slightly ridiculous.

"Carol, it's time to use the potty!"
"But mama, me kitty! Kitties no need to use the potty."

So on this blog, I'm just going to refer to her as Kitty.

The downside of democracy

Remember my impassioned plea of a few weeks ago to motivate people to get off their collective backsides and vote? It turns out that an unfortunate consequence of allowing people to vote for whomever they want is that they vote for whomever they want.

Por exemplo...

Sodaville, Oregon is about nineteen miles from where I live. (If anyone who lives in Sodaville is actually reading my blog I should probably appologize for this post, but you have to admit that this is pretty weird.) Thanks to the recent elections, it has a new mayor. Who also happens to have a criminal record stretching across a decade and three counties.

Tell me this isn't funny!

Vacation photos

The battery charger for the camera is missing a few important parts. Specifically, the part that plugs the battery pack into the wall. So until we track that down, there won't be any new pics of my projects on the blog.

Might I distract you with photos from the Oregon Coast?

Brian grew up ten miles south of Newport, Oregon, and his family still lives in the area. Conveniently enough, his parents run a bed and breakfast so when we come to visit, there's always the chance we'll get to stay in the suite. (When there's guests, we sleep in Brian's old bedroom. Which means that we still get the home-cooked breakfast, but we have to forego the comfort of an attached bathroom.)

This group of sea lions was on the Newport docks. They like to laze around and bark, in the hopes that someone will be so enthralled with their charms that they'll drop their lunch. I think of this particular group as the alley cats of the sea. 800 pound alley cats.

Brian's father taught me how to use a spinning wheel during this trip, but I sadly have no pictures to commemorate the event. However, here's one of Pop and our friend Meghan and the spinning wheel.

Haceta Head Lighthouse:

40 miles to the north, Yaquina Head Lighthouse:

And my favorite sunset picture (out of the ones that I took) of the trip:

Some of our friends from Nome came to visit us for the week. As it had been so cold in Northern Alaska the week before that 20 people had dropped out of the Iditarod, Hayley, Kara, and Meghan were very excited to be somewhere where the daily low temperature was 35 F, instead of minus 35 F.
And because no seaside vacation is complete without building a beach fort: