The windy city...

Has anyone watched that old old Calamity Jane musical from ages ago? At one point in the movie they burst into an energetic tap dance singing routine about "goin' down to the windy city" which was Chicago if I remember right. Anyway, that song keeps going through my head when I look at these pictures.
We don't live in a particularly windy place but in the two years we've lived here we've had a few massive wind storms. Like, power out and roofs flying off houses and trees uprooting all over the place, smashing through cars and houses, and our garbage can lid disappearing, never to be seen again- kind of massive windstorms.
In the first picture it wasn't even the big storm and I was actually afraid of being blown off the mountain. I'm not holding on to the post and my headband just to be cool, I'm holding on to keep from flying off!



Check this out. Someone's tree went down and the root system neatly picked up the yard and peeled it back like and orange!


For the surfing nuts this looks somewhat like a wave and provides a beautiful photo op of being inside the barrel...sort of.



Look at that...he's totally surfing in his mind!



Apparently the owner came out as they were enjoying his mess of a yard and he was decidedly unexcited about both the yard and the hooligans on his yard! I have to admit, I can't help but be on his side just a little. This does NOT look like an easy fix.

Some great Stuff and Some not so Great Stuff.

So about a week ago I had some lovely friends come to visit. I'd been looking forward to their arrival for about 100 years and had great plans of going to the beach and barbecuing and staying up late. As it turns out, I unfortunately, was both very sick and had very bad cramps. What a blessing! And the weather was cloudy, gray, drizzly, and downright cold. But as good friends do, they curled up in blankets with my miserable self and watched movies and played Bible trivia.

We, of course, stayed up late every night and on one of them, it was after midnight and I was the last person getting ready for bed. The house was dark other than our bedroom and as I was discarding my clothes and preparing to turn off the light, I was horrified to look up and see hands holding a camera right up against my window. Of course as soon as I looked at it, the person I couldn't see in the blackness jerked it back and it disappeared.

I've always thought that if I ever saw anything outside my window at night that I would scream bloody murder but I was surprised at how unbelieving my brain was. I thought it was a prank, a mirage, a reflection...anything but some creep taking pictures through my window in the dead of night! I checked the livingroom to make sure the girls were there and Sally was sitting bolt upright looking out the window. Only when she informed me that there was a man in our yard did I actually panic, wake up Justin, and go racing outside. In hindsight I realize I should have waited for Justin before I tore out to attack a full grown man in my pajamas but at the time I wasn't so much rational as I was TICKED.

Unfortunately we didn't catch him and only Sally saw him and his only identification was that he has gray hair. Seeing as how this is the retirement capital, it could be anyone, so it leaves us with this sick suspicion of every neighbor we see.

Whats really disturbing is that our place and certainly our bedroom window are pretty tucked out of sight so it doesn't seem likely that it was a spur of the moment intrusion by someone wandering around at midnight with a camera. You kinda have to know where to look to find our bedroom. How many times has he been out there under cover in the darkness!?

As disturbing as it is we can't be paranoid so other than being religious about closing our blinds, life goes on. We called the police, we lock our doors....our house is easy to break into...

On a much much better note - the rest of the weekend...

These are my lovely friends curled up with the ailing.

I'm aware of how I look thank you very much.

For old time's sake we went to Walmart (before I got hit with a tanker) and got a highlighting kit; it's funny that they trust me with their hair when in times past it hasn't always been....er.....fully successful. Sometimes 'mahogany' isn't so much a lustrous brown with reddish undertones as it is just fire engine red with purple undertones....anyway.

5 hours later....we're ready for the bleach...it's nearly 1 in the morning!

OH yes, speaking of hair, note that there is some pink in my hair! I've been wanting to do that for years and just never did. Now that I finally did it I was attacked by some wicked cold sores and refused to take pictures so by the time this was taken, it was mostly faded out. Durn. I liked it while it lasted though, i was smashing! :)

In order for it to not be a 100% lame weekend we did go to a cliff jumping site.

He looks like a fairy who flew up to kiss the hills!

Since I'm not so much of a swimmer and not so much of a jumper offer of cliffs...I read. Off the charts coolness!

This is my polly pocket, Grace.

Do as I say or I swear, I'll squish your head!

We girls went out for drinks and were interrupted by a random guy who came up and high fived us and proceeded to chat aimlessly.

Undoubtedly because he saw this irresistible pose!

Or this one! Nice chin Grace!

Despite the weather, the cramps and general malaise, the interrupting strangers and the peeping toms...we had fun. This is what friends are for and I love them!

Lotsa pictures

I've been informed that it is not in fact, conceited to post pictures of your own mug on your blog, but it IS conceited to leave only that particular post on your blog for weeks on end. Wha.....?? I was just giving everyone ample opportunity to gaze upon the pair of us and say ooooohhh....
Ok fine, I'll post NEW pictures!:)
At the end of April Justin and I went to a Miller family reunion in WA at my sister's house. I have two sisters that live on a tiny 8x8 mile island of the coast of WA. Its an excellent place to visit and vacation but takes a special patience to live on because your entire life revolves around ferry schedules. That includes marriages, funerals, and births. Pretty much you can only die at 9:45 or 10:30 or 2:30.
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how much fun we had. My parents and 5 siblings came up from Wyoming, one sister came from TN, two brothers and their families from MT, and Justin and I from BC. We all stayed at various "cabins" (flat screen TV, sleeps 6, on the beach type of cabins!) within a mile or two of my sister's place and spent three days eating and playing and partying! ....As one parties with their baby nieces and nephews and parents, you know, croquet and chocolate milk.
So I'll walk you through it with some photos.
This was taken on our way while killing time on the ferry. We may not be photographers but I have to say, I'm pretty sure this photo rivals Dustin and Christy's expertise. I think it really brings out my natural beauty!
This is why we're married, we're very compatible.After horsing around with self portraits, a kindly woman offered to take a picture of the two of us so we put on our "normal" faces and smiled for the camera.


This picture is mom and dad opening their wedding attire and finding out they have 1 hour until the party! We surprised my parents with a late 30th anniversary celebration. My sister Diana put tons of effort into it, ordering my mom a beautiful white dress and sewing a classy vest for my dad. She organized a photo album that we all put together online and had wedding cakes made and a party planned...all while keeping 5 children in line and homeschooling!
After indulging in some truly delicious chocolate cake we went outside for family pictures. It hasn't gotten any less "gong-showish" as we've aged. There's still never a single picture that has everyone looking at the camera and the little ones are always a blur of movement. I guess you might say it captures it the way it is. I haven't gotten any of the entire family pictures, these are just ones that we snapped with our little camera.

All the girls- L-R in the back: Debi, Kimberly, Krystal, Janette, Mom, Serena, Whitney, Diana, Myself ....Serena and Whit are the brave women who married my brothers!


L-R Cherie, Remi, Constance, Lindey
This is the youngest of my sisters and three nieces. The fourth niece got away.



And this is Kaitlynn making her getaway, she wasn't so into the pictures.


The sisters: Debi, Krystal, Mom, Kimberly, Diana, Constance, Me, Janette
This would be all of us doing the "Trevor smile." Very attractive. Yes, I'm afraid we ARE making fun of my down's syndrome brother. My family's joking around is a bit sacrilegious at times. And this would be the original "Trevor smile" and why it's so funny to us. It's not his real smile, it's the smile that comes out when he's posing for the camera. Has anyone seen that episode on Friends of Chandler posing for his engagement photo....it's a similar phenomenon with Trev.
Big brother Don is giving Trevor the rules, "don't smile for the camera."
All the guys. Great posing guys! What exactly does "look at the camera" mean to you?
Ok this one is a little better. What do you mean it's blurry! So it turns out I'm NOT good at taking pictures! Sheesh, give me a break already!
L-R Josh, Donny, Justin, Dad (and Trev) Nathan, and Matt. (Justin and Matt are the inlaws)

The Ma and Pa. Mom never got a white wedding dress so we were pretty excited to get one for her anniversary!
The whole family. I stole this picture from my sister`s blog who has better details and better pictures. You should read it.
Aunt Connie and little Myles.

Aunt Kimmy and Lindey.Aunt me and....oh wait...he's not my nephew. Me and Trev. He's mad because I'm not letting him take the picture.
Uncle Justin and Myles. Myles is the sweetest, best natured baby ever!
Over the weekend we took a hike and a picnic along the beach!
...looks like we're taking over the island...
She looks like a little island flower!
About 30 seconds after the photo was snapped he tripped and his tuna sandwich landed face down in the sand!



We collected rocks and found sea creatures...






































Anyone who was anyone climbed the log...


















Kaitlynn talked to us about log climbing safety...


















We ate mermaid popcorn straight off the beach...it's dried seaweed



















Josh ate worms...






















Janette dreamt about boooooyyyyyssss.....






All in all...we had a wonderful time! The islands, while perhaps inconvenient to live on, are stunningly picturesque!





Krystal wanted a shot with her and the nephews and nieces....good luck!
I like these pictures because they capture the constant movement at our get-togethers! It's actually getting better as most of us are old enough to wipe our own bums now but that pretty much means it's gone from Straight Insanity to Mostly Chaos. It's a step up.