Moka

Before.....

...After!

Poor Moka went to the groomers today. This only happens a few times a year, as it's pretty much torture in her mind. She'd become pretty matted (she has "hair" not fur.. and it doesn't shed out, so it mats really easily), and overgrown, so she is now groomed shorted than she's ever been! I like her Halloween ribbons, but not sure she does. She also got a blueberry facial - the groomer's October special. She smells delicious! Tomorrow is her 2nd Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Moka! We love you!

Our Haunted Home

Tina & David

Wishing you a haunting night!

Kitties with clean teeth!

Natalie & Marina... "Meow"

Off to a party last night!

Pickard Girls' Homecoming

Kendyll & Stu (?)

Good buddies from what I understand - I think they might even have been each other's date for last year, but now Senior year Homecoming for Marysville/Pilchuck High School, a large group of Kendyll's friends met at the Pickards for photos before heading off for their fun night!
Kendyll's Girlfriends
The Guys

After the group of Seniors headed off, we finished helping Madi get ready, and this is Chris, a friend of hers. They decided just recently to go as each other's date. Chris is a sophomore, and they also had 3 of Madi's girlfriends join them as a fun group of 5 to do dinner and the dance together. Chris' mom was VERY into the corsage/boutonniere tradition - thankfully Madi passed over to her the honor of pinning on his flower. (I chuckled later when the kids informed us that an older couple eating dinner near them visited with them about the festivities and the woman re-pinned Chris' boutonniere as it was falling over! ha! I know... petty of me, but there's more to the story - just ask Dar!)

4 Freshman girls and 1 guy... pretty good ratio for him I'd say!

Thank you!

Madison, you are a doll for letting your Aunt Tina come and mess with your hair and make-up. I had lots of fun experiencing this first Homecoming with you. You looked beautiful! I hope you had a wonderful time. I want to hear all about the fondue dessert too! (snicker....)

I think it's great that these friends could go as a group and enjoy the fun of dressing up - even with out all having "dates" - sometimes it's just great to be with the girls!

(blurry - sorry)

Madison & Mom (Darlene - my sister!)

Too bad Kevin (brother-in-law) was down in CA helping his mom move. But a father of 3 girls has lots of fancy dances to participate in...

Delaney is 10!

Born October 18th, 1998 - my youngest niece. I'm glad this year we only had to delay your b-day gift by a week. You've been a very patient girl in years past. I had fun driving to the restaurant with just the two of us in the car. We just don't get enough time with our loved ones!

Friday Work & Fun

Dance Premier

I usually have Fridays off of work, but I ended up working this past Friday as the gal I job-share with had a sick daughter. Thought I'd post what Dance Premier's new studio looks like. It's actually a large building (goes way back) and the office is the room with the window to the left of the door, and there is also a dance-classroom, a restroom, a dressing room and a lobby on the 1st level, then upstairs is a really large dance studio/classroom, with a small viewing room. I love the etched glass front door - the image is part of the DP logo - a brushstroke sort of figure.
Friday night's fun was the "Girls Night Out" event for W2O.

This is the final version of the painting I created to donate to the silent auction which would also benefit the Northwest Hope & Healing charity which was the recipient of all funds raised that night. I'm sure it was a successful event - it was very well attended. 4 paintings, a fused glass platter, a ceramic vessel and some really fun silver necklaces were donated by various artists. I'm pleased to brag that my painting was the most popular in the bidding, and pulled in the highest $ amount. (It went for $250) The other 3 paintings had stated values over $700, so it was exciting to me that mine did so well by comparison. I'm also hoping to get some commissions to do custom paintings for other people who showed interest in my style of art.

Yea!

Inglewood Knights!

IJH - Spirit Day!

The week comes to a close with today's finale, Inglewood Spirit Day. Over the years we've gotten a lot of mileage out of many of these assorted clothing items and accessories. Jordan had a blue face for a couple minutes, but changed his mind. If you look back through my blog archives there are many photos of Ryker, Marina & now Jordan too - celebrating this event.

Marina wants to know if it looks like she has blue/white strips growing out of her legs... hmmm?

Faith Story Night

Wed. Oct. 22ndLast night, Marina and around 20 other freshman kids at our church went up one by one to the podium, introduced first by Pastor John. They each spent 3-5 minutes (some even more...) sharing their "faith story" with the audience of peers, parents and group leaders. Most shared that they were born into Christian families and can't remember their baptism. That Sunday School was often remembered as a time of crafts, stories and snacks. Some had touching stories of hardships or deaths of loved ones when they questioned the 'fairness' of God. And most also spoke of camp experiences or other youth group events that touched them, and have made them feel they are growing their faith and moving forward with their walk with God.

Each story was different and showed the variety of personalities. Marina did a great job, and I fought tears as I listened to her and was so proud of our daughter. It's fun, but also hard to see them growing up so quickly.

Marina will confirm her faith during church services this Sunday, Oct. 26th.

Spirit Week Continues...

Day Two... "Retro Day"



Day Three... "Pajama/Comfy Clothes Day"

Jordan wore sweats, but didn't want to be in the picture.

Day Four... "Green Day"
no, not the band (Kelly's cousin's the lead singer!)
Green as in Environmental, etc. - but that means wear the color green apparently.
Jordan is shocked his sister put her arm around him, and I'm not sure either one of them is excited to be wearing the same t-shirt as the sibling - but what can you do?

Spirit Week Begins

"Black & White" day...

I grabbed a quick shot of Jordan & Marina as they were dashing off to meet the bus. Ryker shared his shredded swim team t-shirts. Jordan got the black one, Marina got the white one. If they participate in any other days this week, I'll try to post photos of those as well. Have a great week!

p.s. Ryker had a GREAT time at Homecoming!

Homecoming Night!

Ryker & Alison

The happy couple.... whew.. getting that boutonniere pinned on was a fun challenge for her!

LOTS and lots of posing for photos - couples.. guys, girls, group, on and on!

By this point, they were begging for the 'photo show' to be over... I think their cheeks were tired (remember your wedding day?)I'd tell you all the names of people, but I don't even know them all - it is mostly Alison's group, who Ryker knows pretty well, but the guys aren't his "gang" of guy friends. In fact - all the girls are sleeping over at one girl's house, and the boys were invited to one guy's house, but Ryker and one other guy are not doing that - the other 4 guys are pretty good pals.
After an "almost snafu" of the limousine service.. the owner of the company ended up delegating himself as the driver, and showed up with a great stretch Suburban Limo.

Got a quick "parent/son" shot...

Marina & I went over to the H.S. after the photo event for Ryker's group, so we might catch glimpses of more homecoming dresses, as many groups start the night with the formal photos at the school, then do dinner and return later for the dance. We ran into her good friend Natalie and family - and the girls ended up getting to have a quick 'sit' inside the HUMMER limo that Natalie's brother's group was taking. It had dual-rear wheels and could hold the huge group of 26 kids - it was quite a site, and really amazing inside!

Next Painting

Still working on this one... I'm focusing on typography for the time being... I love the designs you can get when combining letters and numbers. This painting will be donated to the "W2O" chapter some friends of mine started a couple years ago, which offers women the opportunity to combine socializing with philanthropic opportunity to help various charities. www.womentogetherstronger.com This month all proceeds go to Northwest Hope & Healing, focused on breast cancer.

Check back soon, and I'll have posted the finished piece!

Oktoberfest-David's Birthday

Okay, this is actually David's dad & his wife Miriam. Apparently they recently hosted their own version of Oktoberfest. I wish we'd borrowed those outfits!

Oct. 11th is David's birthday, and we celebrated in Autumn style with an adult Oktoberfest party along with 4 other couples we know from Jordan's soccer world. The 10th was our friend Kevin's b-day, so he & his wife co-hosted the event. The cake was baked and enjoyed on Sunday night - with just our family - great way to end a busy, yet fun weekend!
Thank goodness we have the buffet counter in the dining room, as we couldn't get the party moved from the island in the kitchen Sat. night. 10 of us hovered around that all evening - only a few of us took our plates to the family room to sit in comfort while eating. The Foley's brought the German food - brats, potatoes, schpaetzl, and I did Harvest Chicken Salad, appetizers and Spiced Pumpkin mini cakes with orange glaze - yum!
We all overdosed on the chocolate frosting/butter cake that David requested. Good times!

"Black-Out" Oct. 10th

Ryker & Marina both went to the EHS football game vs. Skyline - it's a major rivalry. Sadly for our school, Skyline is an amazing team this year and whomped the Wolves. How do you like Ryker's black-out fashion design?