Running

I did it again! I am really loving this running thing. Tonight, I ran 2.5 miles and could have gone longer. I say ran, but I really do walk fast half the time. It feels good. Brennan came with me tonight and it was a beautiful rainy, misty, fall night. We are leaving for Bellingham tomorrow afternoon to spend Halloween with my brother. He lives in a very large group of homes and it should be a lot of fun to not have to drive to go trick or treating this year. We will also get to give out candy to trick or treaters! I can't remember the last time we were able to do that.
Happy sugar day. Bleck. Here is a little preview of what the little ones will be wearing.
One of my artists from a past show, makes really great t-shirt dresses out of recycled big person shirts. I bought this a month ago and today was happy to find a matching Superman costume at our local childrens consignment shop for just 5.00! Woohoo.

What my husband does for fun

All is quiet.....I am reading and enjoying my book. Where is my husband I wonder? I knew he was watching football highlights but I don't hear the tv. I wander out to see what has become of him and I hear him talking. I look out the window, and the above photo is what I see.
Nevermind that the cat is in the house and has plenty of food in the laundry room, where she eats. There are raccoons on the deck, obviously baited by my husband, and my husband is coaxing them to come up and eat. We have had a nice long 3 year break from these animals because of Midnight and now that Midnight (our dog) is gone, they have figured it out and come to visit on a nightly basis. I was encouraged to come out but as soon as 4, yes4 appeared within a 3 ft distance from my body...I sensed a danger that said husband obviously felt invulnerable to.
It took a ear bleeding screech, and a near fight to send me running into the house for safety, and yet......brave husband is still out there. His quote for tonight......"this is better than national geographic". Really Shane......come on. This is Washington!
Oh well.....he could have worse habits.

Run like the wind.......or until the wind is out of you?

Answers come sooner than you think. I'll get to that in a minute. After a very inspiring dinner with a couple of families on Sunday, I haven't been able to get "running" off my mind. In the spirit of starting new things, I have also made a goal to run at least 7 miles a week. The first step was to head over to Poulsbo running and get fitted for running shoes. My good friend stressed the importance of this. They were great over there and after trying on several pairs of shoes and doing some "faux" running, I found a great pair for just over a hundred dollars. I have NEVER spent that much on shoes. I am very thrifty, but they feel incredible and it is extra incentive to get my butt out there!
After taking the boys to football, I headed over to the track. Online there is a great website called RunnersWorld.com and they help you design a good run schedule. Mine starts with 2 miles today, rest tomorrow, 2 miles on Thursday, and a long run (3miles) on Saturday to start. It was ccccoold outside tonight, but perfect weather for running. 8 laps around the track and I wanted to quit at 5, but I stayed at it, determined to make that 2 mile mark. I ran the straight-aways and walked the curves the first 5 and by the 6th, I was running 3/4 of the lap and feeling good.
I had Nathan take a "fat photo" of me. I hate the photo below and never show the real me if I know people that knew me skinny might see, but oh well. Here we go!
B of M moment - No.....that doesn't sound nice does it? I'll think of a better clue word for this section. Okay, so I am starting on 2nd Nephi tomorrow. Surprisingly, I am ahead of schedule and loving it. I find that reading aloud to myself helps me to absorb it better. I only got stuck today once and that was on the "whore" reference. I was like,..."who's this whore". After reading more it explained itself as usual. Damn my impatience! Hope you're keeping up! Share those stories and ponderings!

Book of Mormon challenge

I feel like the brat daughter that thinks she deserves everything when it comes to the gospel.
Born and raised in this religion, I have lived my life living off of everyone elses testimonies. Why bother to get one of my own? That's too much work. I have been too scared to question because I am afraid of the answers I might come up with. Answers that may contradict what the church believes to be true. I am fine with same sex marriage and partners. I have very close friends that fit into this "type" and love them to death. I don't see a difference. I see nothing wrong with other people having a drink once in a while. Everything in moderation. I even believe that marijuana should be legal, R movies should be a free choice, and I love having a Coke, or even a cup of coffee now and then. This is me, and I am not the cookie cutter mold of a mormon. I don't want to be a hypocrite and I want my friends in the church to love me for me, with no secrets. I have felt this off and on, but not to the extent of nearly leaving the church all together, until a few weeks ago. It was like a dark cloud of doubt that just moved in and remained for quite a while. I didn't feel an ounce of loyalty, which I hate to admit has kept me from ever considering departure. I can't even go into detail because as we speak, I have two boys arguing in the bedroom, one in rollerblades in the kitchen, another bouncing a ball in the livingroom and a toddler yelling "mommmmyyyyy mommmyyyy" over and over for no reason.
SO...until I get a moment...here is the gist. I snapped out of it. Seriously,.....just did. I'll talk about that more another time.
4 close friends of mine have been going through this with me these last few weeks and we have decided to read the book of mormon in one month. That is 15 pages a day. I have NEVER read the book from beginning to end. I have only read in progression to 2 Nephi and then jumped around as needed in classes, etc.
SO (2)....If you are interested in joining me....let me know. Seriously...today I made it to scripture 12 in the FIRST chapter before having to call my friend and ask "what book"?
Even if you are not LDS, I encourage you to read with me and ask questions. Don't have a book of mormon.....I'll get you one, or check out this website, www.lds.org. It has tons of info as well. I have many questions. This book won't make me change my mind about any of the above rebellious beliefs, but I am hoping that it will restore my faith in this gospel and renew/rebuild a "real" testimony this time that will be all my own.
-K

Wrap up via photos

Midnight

I am not quite ready to write too much about our loving family dog Midnight that was hit by a car and killed last night.
She will be terribly missed.

Bellingham

I don't have too much to write about. My dad bought my single brothers this big house in Bellingham about 7 years ago while they were going to college. Now, my dad just lets Greg live there rent free until he decides what he wants to do with it. Lucky Greg! My dad would like us to move into it, but we'll see what happens. It needs A LOT of work although it has 5 bedrooms, 3 bath, 2 livingrooms etc. It is quite the bachelor pad/vacation home for us. :)
Greg and his girlfriend of 4 years, Kelly. Kelly and I love to cook, so you can imagine how much fun we have together. I love cooking for my little brother. He is quite the gourmand as well, so it is fun trying new foods every time we come visit. This time it was fresh Sockeye salmon with garlic, fresh sweet corn and yummy little yukon potatoes fried with a little olive oil. Oh, and Mexican gulf shrimp that was cooked in the shells. Kelly and I devoured these later at night just the two of us. Yum.

There are some fun things about Gregs. He has two "normal" dining room chairs and then 2 office chairs at his dining table. We never see the kids, they are always downstairs playing video games or skateboarding outside. The bathrooms are....well......let's just say, I found a beer bottle in the shower. Why? Dunno. The posters on the walls. The fact that he set up a balloon, volleyball court in one of the rooms for the boys by putting tape across the room.
He is missing several key pieces of a normal kitchen. His oven is the smallest I have ever seen and I can't read the numbers on it.
All we do is do..........nearly nothing. It's great.

Mae loves to just stare at Greg unless Greg is walking and then she is following him everywhere.
This is the part of the house that you can see from the road. Very 80's
The best part about visiting is spending time with my little (25) year old brother. I just adore him and his imagination and loving personality. Love you Greg. xoxo
I guess I had more to write about than I thought!

Soccer., birthday, Bellingham

Today is Brennan's birthday, but unfortunately, he had a game in Seattle and we didn't get to see him from 10am-6pm. As I type this, I am sitting at the ferry terminal in Kingston en route to Bellingham to spend a couple of days with my little brother. Monday I will be able to post all about Brennans birthday. We wont even get to do his cake until about 11pm tonight when we finally get to Bellingham. Today, while Bren was in Seattle, I was finally able to make one of Myrons soccer games. It was intense! I thoroughly enjoyed watching for the first time. Myron is an amazing player and is everywhere. You can't get the ball past him. His team is undefeated and I learned why today. He is so much fun to watch. He is so passionate about soccer and has amazing skills. It was great to have the other boys coaches in football, tell me that the boys had the best games of the season today as well. Seriously, how did we get so lucky ? I hate sports.
Okay.....enough bragging for now. Tata

Point Defiance Zoo

Today was a beaUtiful day and so we set out to Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma. Did I mention that we bought this awesome ride? Maybe? Just a lil;) Here is a peek at the inside. Seriously...it's amazing although Myron has been a little OCD today about using the built in vacuum cleaner.
We arrived at 2pm and had just under 2 hours to visit what we love. We have a membership, so it has been nice not to feel like we are missing anything. We can pick and choose what we want to see and not worry about the waste of money. Of course, our very first (always is) pick was the shark aquarium. We usually spend 30 minutes or so in there. We are definitely a shark loving family.
Below is a photo of us entering the underground cave where the sharks are located.
This awesome nurse shark just hung out on the bottom the whole time right in front of Mae.
After several attempts at a family photo, this is what I ended up with.

Myron is M.I.A below. He had about "had it" with the picture taking. Meanwhile......I was just warming up. 111 photos today!
Once in a while.....if I am very lucky, I am able to get a photo like this one below.

Dual sliding. Whee.

Above is a photo of Mt. Ranier. It was so clear today.
Mae's all time favorite thing to do at the zoo is the free carousel. We have to save this for very last because even though we let her ride it over and over (6 times today), she will still cry her eyes out for one more turn.
It was a great day. Tomorrow is Brennans 11th birthday and we will be leaving for Bellingham to see 25 year old, fun Uncle Greg. Now that we have reliable transportation, we will be hard to catch!

Love Machine

To make a LOONG story short, the planets all aligned today and we came home with this beauty. Our friends were selling this vintage, pristine condition rockin piece of machinery that we had been coveting for a while but couldn't quite afford . It has low miles, lots of extras.....etc.
Today, on our way to purchase another van, our friends offered us this van at the same cost. 700.00 cheaper!! It is a sweet ride. We have nicknamed it the "Love Machine" because of it's track lighting, queen size fold able bed, curtains, plush interior and mood lighting.
We love it. It is like being in a motorhome and it is all in excellent condition with even a built in vacuum and bottle opener....yes. There are so many extras that it is like being on a treasure hunt inside. Anyhow......can you tell I am excited?? More photos to come.
This van is so "us". I love it's uniqueness....who wants a car that everyone else is driving??
Watch for us out on the road and um......if the vans a rockin.....don't come a knockin.
What? It has curtains!!

Update on dream car situation

He still hasn't called, so I am thinking that it has sold to said single woman, but I am not giving up hope completely. Darn those single MOMS!! JK. Really though, what is NOT funny, is that I just walked a mile or so with Rylan in his jammies and Mae on my hip because our van apparently just died for good.
So....I am staying positive that something great will come our way. I am scouring Craigslist list all the time trying to avoid getting sucked into car payments through a dealer. If you hear of anything under 3000.00 let us know!!

New/used car for the Butlers??

Friends/family please PRAY PRAY PRAY for us that we will get this car! There is a single mom ahead of us on this one and she may just buy it tomorrow. If she doesn't, we get it. It is for sale for an incredible price and would be a perfect fit for us. Stay tuned and I'll let you know tomorrow if our prayers have been answered. I will be sleeping with fingers, toes, legs, arms...etc. crossed!!

Dance Derby

The boys had a dance tonight and the only way they could go was if I went with them.
It was a lot of fun and what great music. I ended up dancing more than the boys, but they were great sports and didn't act too embarrassed.
A lot of kids. I felt kind of old when they played Michael Jackson music and Forever Young.
Also....there was a techno remix of Journeys greatest hit "Faithfully". Weird.

It was a lot of fun and by 8pm, I was spent.

Best Birthday ever

Thanks Marianne!
I awoke in the morning to find the house decorated with my party flags. Honestly, it is going to be hard letting these go. They have already been used in 3 birthdays. I will be selling them at our Nov. show and I can't rave enough about them. Machine washable, durable, awesome.
Shane also made me a cedar "I love you" sign while at work. Best present ever.
Mae, Rylan and I went to Central Market and picked out flowers for Jenny. Jenny put together a sweet luncheon with friends to celebrate the day. Marianne.....where are the photos?!
For dinner, Shane took me to my favorite restaurant, Shima. The Rehders joined us. It has been a tradition for a few years now. Usually it is just Pam and I, but it was so nice to have Ed , Regen (who lives here now) and Kenley join us. They are the closest thing I have to family here. They have by far known me the longest of anyone besides family. They were family friends when we lived in Alaska and after we had moved here, they came to visit. A couple of years after that.....they moved here for good. It is so special to me to have them still in my life.
The Bento box is my favorite thing to order, along with Eel Asparagus roll and Nasu Gengaku, which is an eggplant appetizer with the most amazing sweet miso sauce.
After dinner, Shane attempted a photo of us girls. Niiice, but what can ya do?

It was a wonderful birthday with special gifts found in the mailbox, lots of calls and beautiful flowers sent by my godmother.
It has been very surreal realizing that I am now in my "mid" 30's. No more "early" 30's anymore.
Life is good and keeps getting better with age.