January 1, 2009

Happy 2009! 8th Annual Polar Bear Swim

This is my favorite photo of the day. Karsten stayed up ridiculously late last night and got up even earlier. I had him go watch Andy in the Polar Bear Swim but right after I snapped this shot he wanted to go back inside so I let him.

The swimmers returning from their dunk.

Andy showing Bob the waterproof flip video camera. Andy took some footage for the B-Town Blog. Andy is wearing his furry hat and graduation gown. Hey, wasn't he supposed to return that?

Crazy.

Happy new year!

Posted by jana at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2008

Merry what should be boxing day

You know it is time to go the gym when your only cardio is rolling pastry dough.

I was stoked that my favorite aerobics teacher had a special Friday night class tonight because I really, really needed it after so many days of foregoing my workouts for holiday prep time. I hauled the kids to the gym but it turned out there wasn't any child care tonight so the kids got to watch mommy do aerobics. They watched -- and distracted the class-- for a good 25 minutes so at least I got some sweating in, even if it wasn't my full hour.

Then we hit the pool. Britta is a very eager swimmer now (if the pool is a hot tub!) She's not interested in any pool under 100 degrees and I can't blame her.

And Karsten is now half fish. He borrowed some goggles from the life guard that gave him black eyes. I told him he looks like an evil eel from The Little Mermaid.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! I'll make a post about our merry one shortly. I am still absorbing it all.

Posted by jana at 9:13 PM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2008

More snow?

Remember this day when it first snowed? The kids were so happy to go out in blizzard like conditions. Now it is supposed to snow again tonight. Yaaawwwn.

And Seattlites drive in snow now! Mere dusting of snow will never shut this city down again. Take that, snow gods.

Posted by jana at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2008

Christmas tree shopping remembered

In 2005 we were in Amsterdam in December. We rode our "minivan" bike to the market and picked out a little Charlie Brown tree and biked it back to our flat. What an event!

Then we flew to Norway and the kids, Kristin, Ole and Andy and I went in their "back yard" (which by American suburban standards would be considered "The Mountains") to chop down a Christmas tree and haul it back to their house to decorate.

This year, due to snow, sickness and Andy traveling so much this December it started looking like we wouldn't be getting a tree. The kids reminded us of our lack of tree every day. Fortunately today I found a tree at a cute little garden shop in Burien and it was even half off. Todd took it home for us in his truck. It was a bit more conventional way to get a tree, but the kids are almost satisfied.

Now we just need some lights around the deck! Yeah, probably not.

Posted by jana at 7:53 PM | Comments (0)

The Seattle Driver

My hairdresser said to me today, "Be careful driving in the snow! Be careful of the other drivers!"

My reply, "No, the other drivers need to be careful of ME."

Because afterall, I am one of those Seattle Natives that the non-natives complain about who can't drive in the snow.

On Tuesday I took Karsten to his basketball practice. I was so proud of myself for going for it and driving when other people were staying home. We were almost there when I went down a big hill with a four way stop at the bottom. There were cars at every corner. My car started sliding. Of course I SLAM on the brakes. And then I remember, oh yeah, tap the breaks. I tapped but I was still sliding. I shifted down a few gears and my car slid to a stop right in front of the stop sign.

It was exciting and Karsten got to hear his mom yell "Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttt." I'm expecting to hear that one again.

Oh, and no one else showed up for basketball practice, because this is Seattle after all.

I chanced it in the snow today again anyway. I couldn't risk not getting my hair cut for another few weeks. I'm happy to report there were no incidents other than me passing a car full of gangsters stuck on the side of the road. Ha! I made it. My, I'm getting cocky.

Posted by jana at 7:40 PM | Comments (2)

December 9, 2008

Check out the FILTER gift guide and giveaway!

I've been writing blog posts for FILTER, a staffing agency for creatives. Today I posted a holiday gift guide and give away. All the gifts are items I would give (or have given) and would love to receive. I tried to make the ideas mainly unisex and all affordable. So, if you want to buy me anything this year, you've found some great ideas. Hint, hint.

The descriptions and links for the swag are all on the FILTER blog

I'd appreciate it if you'd all go check it out and leave your comment. I'd consider your patronage of FILTER a gift in itself. Thanks everyone!

Posted by jana at 3:10 PM

December 8, 2008

Holiday traditions in full swing

Karsten just said to me, "Do you know what make this holiday really special?"

Me, "No, what?"

"If I could just see Jesus with my own eyes."

My answer? "Now that would be a miracle."

Karsten went on, "Jesus was born really smart."

I said, "like you."

Karsten then said, "I was born playing video games."

But I'm not sure how that relates to Jesus.

Anywhoo, we've been full on with our holiday traditions this year. We came back from vacation and I almost forgot it was advent calendar season. Karsten found the calendar, dug it out and urges me every day to load it with a new activity.

Our kick off was decorating a gingerbread house. My job was to spread the frosting and the kids applied (and ate) the candy:

One night we had the puppets read our night time stories. This puppet scares Britta but not Karsten:

My favorite was the Christmas boat parade party and neighborhood bonfire on the beach. We only had one guest to our party but Isabelle was the perfect guest. And not just because she brought Trophy cupcakes but I admit, that didn't hurt.

The white blobs are the Christmas boats.

A few years ago I started the tradition of the advent calendar of activities and it has really turned into something special for us.

Posted by jana at 8:59 PM

December 7, 2008

Don't mind the gloating mom (Part 2)

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while but things like vacation and then single mom survival took precedence over blogging.

Birtta was asked to bring someone she loved for show-and-tell, and Karsten angled his way in. He carefully planned his wardrobe for his speaking event. He selected his cub scout uniform.

At the preschool he gave what the teacher and I classified as a motivational speech. He told them when the kids left preschool they could still have Teacher Linda in their hearts. He told them they needed to be strong and have love. His speech was peppered with "when I was in pre-school...." I was truly proud of his animated presence because I know when I was seven I would have carefully hidden behind the fish tank.

Posted by jana at 2:55 PM

November 20, 2008

If I thought spending $400 on xmas stockings was a good idea

.. this is what I would buy for our family. Hable Construction has a fun flash "decorate your mantel" tool on their site.

Posted by jana at 2:08 PM | Comments (1)

November 19, 2008

Don't mind the gloating mom: Part 1

Because Karsten's two photo entries for the PTSA Reflections contest both won! His photos now move to the next level.

I am not sure who is happier, me or him.

Posted by jana at 9:25 PM | Comments (1)

My new uniform shoe?

Frye brown leather 'Lisa' stitched ankle boots at Bluefly Last year I didn't buy a pair of ankle boots that I saw and have regretted it ever since. I was trying to be frugal for the sake of my investment (Billing Revolution). What I'm looking for is a pair of shoes I can wear every day, like a uniform. Ideally they would be as comfortable as tennis shoes but not scream MOM. My uniform shoes must go with 80% of my wardrobe. These may have too big of a heel to be uniform shoes but I'm tempted. I saw another pair I like at Anthropologie and surprisingly they are even cheaper than these ankle boots. Once again the tall heel may disqualify them as perfect uniform shoes however. I still wish I could find the ones from last year.

Posted by jana at 1:05 PM | Comments (1)

November 17, 2008

Happy Halloween!

You may be reading this and thinking I am way behind schedule with this post.

Not so.

The kids are still celebrating Halloween on an almost daily basis. I tried putting the Halloween decorations back in the attic but the kids keep getting into the boxes to make haunted hallways, haunted bedrooms, haunted playrooms. Basically our whole house is now permanently haunted.

I don't mind because the kids are having a blast.

To recap the actual Halloween day, the kids started out trick-or-treating with a bunch of neighborhood kids. We started at a cocktail party and then hit the route. Karsten broke off from the pack early. He had a mission to get to the Haunted House on the corner (sense a theme here?) He would only go houses that were overly decorated. Not enough Halloween swag or smoke machines? He wasn't interested.

Britta petered out early. I had to drop her off at our house early to answer the door with Andy.

Andy was offering shots of Goldschlagger to the parents of trick-or-treaters and he was broadcasting Return of the Evil Dead (or something) on the back porch. He did it up right.

When Karsten finally tired he came home and changed out of his fly costume and into a knight costume and battled all of the trick-or-treaters heading to our door.

I topped off the night by heading to the neighbor's house for an after party. I actually won some sort of prize for my uber lame costume.

Halloween lives on at 3TP.

Posted by jana at 5:22 PM