Fun, Fabulous, Friend & Family Friday

Friday was one of those days that was busy with activity, but the best kind. Here's a recap with photos...

10:00 a.m. - Met my roommate from our Forks, WA for breakfast at Mimi's.

12:00 p.m. - Had smoothies at Lunch-0n-the-Lawn with Heather.

3:00 p.m. - Sat at animal clinic for about an hour getting Winston all squared away with shots.

4:00 - 10:00 p.m. - Kelly and Heather arrived in Barton Flats for their backpacking trip. Their trail pass for the next day was not at the Ranger Station, and the campground had only one site left. It appears that everyone (and their brother) thought it was a good idea to go camping that weekend. They had a blast at the camp ground and returned home Saturday instead of Sunday.

8:00 p.m. - After soccer practice, Jenna and I headed to CA Adventure to meet up with our cousins. We hung out with them until about 1:00 a.m. It was awesome for the kids to get reacquainted.

Soccer and a Doggie

In an effort to keep soccer pictures interesting (as opposed to the same old girl in the same old green shirt and socks), I have made a list of random soccer facts. We're a new soccer family, so all facts help in the learning curve.

1) You might get a coach who encourages the girls to pick a "unique" name. And then the banner people will be challenged to create an image to go with the name.

2) You can make new friends on a soccer team.

3) You will discover skills you didn't know you had, for example, being a naturally gifted defensive player. Then you have to get used to the coach not letting you be a forward like you dreamed about because you defend the goal better than anyone else.

4) Soccer hair can be pretty even when you're sweaty and red faced.

More random facts to come in the next couple of weeks. In other news, we have a dog. This will come as a shock to some of my family (Aunt Kathy), but we have joined the ranks of dog owner. We have "adopted" my friend's purebred Shitzu (I finally get to partially swear every time someone asks me what kind of dog it is), and the girls are in heaven. Here is a picture of Heather with Winston when he was a puppy in 2007. I cannot remember the name of the other puppy, but he was darned cute, and Jenna was darned cute too, so I posted the sisters' picture.

Winston was having to be separated from my friend's grandson because the grandson would be a little naughty when Winston was around (grandson is 12 months old). Winston would then nip, and the whole thing wasn't good. The separation was hard on Winston because he's such a people dog, and our friends decided they needed to find a home for him until next summer when grandson would be moving out. We have left next summer open in case our friends want Winston to come back and live with them, but for now, Winston is a Peterson. Can I just say that Peterson dogs are spoiled? You'll see. I'm sure there will be pictures and blog posts.

An Apple Family In Mourning

As most of the world knows, Steve Jobs, creator of Apple and most of the technology that lives in our house, died yesterday. We are finding ourselves a bit melancholy. We did not know him personally, but our lives have been affected by him. When I met Kelly 25 years ago, he owned a Macintosh computer. I hadn't ever heard of one, but when we married, I became a Mac/Apple gal, and I still am one. We're not only an Apple family, but a Pixar family too. Toy Story, one of our family favorites, was made possible because of Steve Jobs' vision.

This video link is to Steve Jobs' speech for the graduating class of Stanford University, 2005. It's about 15 minutes long, but I watched the whole thing and was kind of glad I did. It was really interesting to know some details about him that I didn't know like, for example, a calligraphy class he randomly took at college being the reason why computers have beautiful fonts. I also really, really love that he shared that we may not know why things are happening in our lives, but that one day we'll be able to look back and connect the dots. Being fired from Apple years ago, he says, was one of the best things that had happened to him. Of course he can only say that looking back. If you have a moment, it's worth a listen.

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html

Heather?

The last couple of posts on our blog have been about Jenna. What is up with Heather? Well, she's doing really well. Here's a little sample of her school year thus far...

Picture. Worth words. You get the idea.

Soccer Saturday

It was such a hot day which really caught all the girls by surprise. They were a little sluggish, but played well. Jenna is unstoppable on defense. She and her friend, Rachel, defended their goal, and no one got through them.

Jenna does not like being goalie. She takes her turn, and she kept her chin up as two points were scored on her. She much prefers her other defensive position making sure the ball never gets near the goal in the first place.

She had her first team party and had fun hanging out with Daddy (Heather and I were at a different table in the crowded restaurant).

Random Nature

This past Friday afternoon, we heard and odd pitter pattering and went out to investigate. We found rain falling in our sunny front yard (click on picture to view raindrops).

And, of course, there was running with abandon through said rain.

A couple of hours later at soccer practice, we saw this...

and by the time we drove to dinner, we saw this...

What a treat!

Lunch on the Lawn

Lunch-on-the-Lawn was just Jenna and I which ended up to be kind of fun. Jenna is usually in the shadow of her older sister, and I think it was really great for her to have one-on-one time with momma. I brought a picnic lunch with mac and cheese hot off the stove, bowls, classes, utensils and a pitcher of raspberry lemonade. It was really fun and easy to throw together. For dessert we had fudge bars that I kept frozen in our new "Pack-it" lunch bag. After lunch, we had a few moments of mom and Jenna tetherball before the other kids started showing up. It was so great to have this special time together.