Heart shaped goodness...

Pinterest.com, yes, I'm addicted! So many great ideas, so little time!

18th straight home win for the Hawks...

Thanks to who I sit near at work and somebody having to bail out of their tickets, I was able to get 4 free tickets RINK SIDE for tonight's game. Victor and I never put in for the lottery for anything the days he works, but he took today and tomorrow off (due to an important work event I'm taking care of)...SO when Lesley asked me if we wanted the tickets, we jumped at the chance.

THANK YOU to Intel's GPTW (Great Place To Work) Team!!! Great fun sitting RINK SIDE tonight.

At first Charlotte was a bit scared of all the pucks hitting right in front of us, but then she got into it. 7 to 4 against Everett, WA. Next game for us in February 24th...can't wait! GO HAWKS!!!

Charlie & I with Tommy-Hawk!

Dallas and Charlie

The entire team celebrating their 7 to 4 home win!

The season ticket holders sitting next to me kept putting the chicken against the plexiglass...it kept getting knocked down...

Charlie & Tommy-Hawk

The weekend that Dad becomes the patient...

Oh, never a dull moment with my folks. Dad called me early Friday morning at work and I thought he was going to tell me we were good to go away (Victor & I) to the Oregon Coast Feb. 2-4th...instead, he was calling to tell me he was waiting to hear back from Kaiser, but his right retina was trying to separate again. He has had multiple surgeries on both eyes, 2008 was the last one on the right eye.

Anyway, between me having to drive into downtown Portland for some last minute work arrangements and dad having to go to Sunnyside Kaiser, it worked out great that we met up at their place before 3pm.  Dad was able to get mom's prescriptions, quick run to the grocery store and then we drove up to Casey Eye Institute (SW Portland on pill hill). 

We knew dad was having surgery, but there was a patient before him and he didn't get wheeled back until 8pm....at 9:35pm, Chris (RN) came and got me and dad was already awake, driving OJ and joking with Chris some more about basketball, football and just generally happy that everything went so well.

Victor & Charlie were keeping mom company and when we got back to their house around 10:45pm, we were all ready for bed.

Dad and I went back to Casey Eye Saturday morning, everything went great and Dr. Davis was very pleased at how dad's eye, the sutures and everything looked!  YEAH!

Just another little bump in the road.  VERY grateful that the surgery went well...now dad just needs to take it easy for the next few days and not do anything stupid (like over doing it and NO yard work)!

Dad post surgery with our new favorite RN, Chris!

Dr. Davis initialed dad's right eye to verify which eye they were working on...before they knocked him out!

Great view of the river and SE Portland from the balcony of Casey Eye.

This is what Charlotte looked like, passed out when we got home.

Next morning before his post op appointment, cool Elk statue.

Sane view off the balcony with some peek-a-boo sunshine.

Tram docking..

Dad giving mom a semi-pedicure...

Charlotte was "helping" Grandpa with the burgers out back..

My new favorite idea blog...

Bee in our Bonnet...how great is THAT name??  :-)

http://www.beeinourbonnet.com/

Celebrating more birthdays...

Uncle Terry & Aunt L are down for a the long weekend. Dave, Katie and the girls came over to mom/dad's house Saturday and we had a wonderful evening celebrating more birthdays.  T & L brought all the fixings for a wonderful meal and we ate way too many appetizers before dinner...we were celebrating Mom's BDay (1/13), Dave's (1/25), mine (2/8) and Victor's (2/13)...
 
Uncle Terry taught Charlotte and I how to make these awesome 3D snow flakes....you can guess what I'll be making more of today...I'm pretty sure the snowflakes helped bring our first snow of 2012...maybe 1/2" but things are white and pretty and it makes me smile!

Mom's birthday...

Tonight we met up with mom & dad at Stanford's to celebrate mom's 67th birthday! 32 weeks ago mom's crash occurred, sometimes it seems like yesterday, other days when I call her on the phone, I forget for a split second that it happened (she's sounding SO much like her normal self). We had a very nice time at dinner and are looking forward to a day filled with time with our WA Family tomorrow up at mom/dad's place.  Life is GOOD!

Ten on Tuesday...

1. Time to get back on the ToT (Ten on Tuesday) wagon...
2.  Love this tree in the photo above...every night when I leave work I see it (when it's light out)...I was "stuck" at the stop sign for a bit tonight and remembered to take a photo..
3. Can't believe it's almost the middle of January.
4. Dad and mom shared mom's story at their church a week ago...it was very emotional, but so good to have them share what the past 7 months have been like and the importance of FORGIVENESS and leaving it all up to God -- He is the one in charge you know!
5. Charlotte started her guitar lessons Saturday.  Her instructor Rusty did such an amazing job explaining things to her...I think Victor & I are more excited about it right now than she is!
6. Work has been crazy/busy, but good! Love it when I get to order t-shirts for 800+ people and get to have my Corp. Card limit pushed out to over $50k a month!  Crazy!!!
7. I'm still in a sewing funk and need to snap out of it!
8. Rosemary, Rose and I are plotting our next DGI (Darn Good Idea) for FUNdraising.
9. Victor has been kicking it in the crock pot meal department...our home smells SO good when things are brewing....that and how lucky are we to take yummy lunches to work everyday!
10. Started a year long CZ class....more on that soon...

Good stuff...

One little word 2012...

BALANCE!!!

I love reading Ali Edwards' blog and each year she chooses "One Little Word" to live by....Last year my word was Simplify and it was perfect.

This year, I must find BALANCE. Home, work, volunteering, STUFF...learning to say "no" and sticking to it. Learning to not put too much pressure on myself. Learning to just chill out and go with the flow...

I'm also going to start doing and not doing a whole lot of other things, to help restore balance in my life!

Not stressing out about doing this...just gonna BALANCE!

Great way to start off a new year!

Matthew, Dad, Mom, Rachel, Charlie & Maddy after lunch.