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| We promised our kids we would carve their pumpkins last week, Friday night, Saturday morning, or sometime before Halloween. With the kids sick last week, no one was up to it until this Saturday night. Riley chose a ghost pumpkin that he thought was really cool: 
Fiona went for the all American experience: 
Sean, Riley, and Reagan worked together to make me this beautiful pumpkin as a surprise: 
Once it was finally dark this evening, we all stood outside and had an official lighting ceremony. The kids were very excited to see/play with fire: 
I've often referred to the au pair program as the program that keeps on giving. Thanks to my many experiences (read: botched experiences) in Germany, I can now successfully cook pumpkin and other awesome gourds and turn them into breads, muffins, soups, and other tasty concoctions. No more stringy, uncooked pies! Thanks to my German host family I have embraced the phrase: "Waste not, Want not!" Thanks German Host Family! 
Now we give back by teaching our German Exchange student how to save as much pumpkin as possible to be used for breakfast, lunch, and dinner next week. I think she was ecstatic about pulling out the pumpkin seeds. Good job, Fiona! 
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A very dear friend of ours offered to watch the kids for us this weekend as a belated birthday/anniversary gift. The last and only time we've left the kids was last year when Sean and I escaped to Victoria, BC for our 5th anniversary. For most of the week I didn't think we'd actually make it out of town. We were determined that all catastrophes aside we would make the most of the weekend and indeed we did. On Saturday morning we had coffee with our three kids - Riley, Reagan, and Fiona. Fiona made homemade streusel topped banana walnut bread for us! Angie was literally blown in by the wind and rain around 9am on the first pineapple express of this season. Surely, there would be no outside play for the weekend for these guys! Thankfully, Angie is a creative gal with lots of tricks up her sleeves and Fiona was amazingly helpful! 
With all the rain in Western Washington, we were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the mountains were as we drove through the Snoqualmie Pass and into the wine region of the Columbia Valley. 
We were welcomed by Campbell's Resort on Lake Chelan. Strategically located at the heart of downtown and close to shopping, we spent most of the waning hours of the evening traipsing through trinket shops searching for birthday gifts and exploring the town. 
We had a quiet dinner at Sorrento's, an Italian restaurant at Tsillian (ch'elan) Cellar Winery. It was a lovely evening albeit quick dinner for fine dining. The staff was warm and friendly and the tapas menu was light and delicious. I always adore the company of my husband who I seem to love more and more every day. I like that he doesn't seem to mind that I can't divide things evenly in half especially when it comes to our bed and dessert. 
This morning we woke up to absolute silence. All we could hear were the waves of Lake Chelan quietly lapping the shore through the open slider. It wasn't 6am either. We made our way over to the Starbucks by the resort and walked around the town a little more before heading home. We were more than glad to be welcomed home by our sweet children whom we missed dearly! We really appreciate Angie's gift of time to us! We had a wonderful weekend! | | |
| Sean came home from class this evening and shared how he's changed because of me. He's now a T instead of an F. We decided to analyze our exchange student who had no idea what we were talking about. We explained the personality test and quickly classified her as an ISTJ. Surprisingly, the same as Sean. I'd be willing to guess she's a lot like her own dad who is a mechanical engineering teacher. I don't know them well enough to say they are e's or I's though. I'm just guessing. It's always fun to read about yourself or your child and hit the nail on the head. For awhile I've been unwilling to accept I might be this or that and definitely not THAT and pretty sure I couldn't possibly be an INFJ anymore. Circumstances of life had tipped me to the thinking side and far back in my life I'm pretty sure I was born an Extravert. I finally bit the bullet and embraced that I'm truly an ENTJ. As I read the description outloud and laughed hysterically at how negative it sounded I had to admit in every way, I'm an ENTJ. As a parent, a spouse, a home maker, a worker, and friend - I'm an ENTJ. I'm a chief, a decision maker, and an executive organizer. I have vents of sentimentalism, but ultimately I could care less about how anyone feels when it comes to making business decisions. I can work without a vacation or work on vacation and consider work my hobby and am happiest when I have work to do. I rarely burn out with work and instead get frustrated with a lack of work or lack of meaningful executive decisions. I hate busy work and wasting time. I don't like working with people who show and do nothing at all to contribute to a position, team, or corporation. As a parent, I'm strict and have high, unreasonable expectations. I often struggle to reason with my artistic, rockstar, cheer leader, charismatic, social butterfly of a son who can't miss anything and is charged by people. He has the #1 social personality. If he could sing and tap dance, he could be a super star on the mickey mouse club. He's the next boy band in the making. I'm a TJ raising an FP. According to the portrait of an entj: ENTJs are very forceful, decisive individuals. They make decisions quickly, and are quick to verbalize their opinions and decisions to the rest of the world. It also says, the ENTJ is likely best paired with someone who has a strong self-image, who is also a Thinking type. It's interesting that Sean and I married so quickly because the ENTJ is decisive. In marrying, I wasn't the initiator. Sean took the lead. It could have been disastrous if I hadn't known what I needed in a spouse. We'd be divorced by now if Sean wasn't the stable, self confident person that he is. I wouldn't recommend such a quick path for most people, but for us it was really perfect. I couldn't imagine us married to anyone but each other. Finally, the "ENTJs are assertive, innovative, long-range thinkers with an excellent ability to translate theories and possibilities into solid plans of action. They are usually tremendously forceful personalities, and have the tools to accomplish whatever goals they set out for." Seriously? Most of the time I feel like my tenacity is overwhelming for some one of my size. | | |
| Over the weekend I turned 31. Before I go into a detailed recap on the weekend, I should perhaps recap the last two months. For one, we are hosting an exchange student this year! For most of August we didn't know if this might work out or not. The last Tuesday of August all of our paperwork was completed and by Saturday our new "host daughter" was arriving off a very long flight straight from Germany! She has been a wonderful addition to our family. We all love her and the kids like having a big sister! At the same time, we went through a list of schools Riley could possibly go to. He was wait listed for our local kindergarten. Then it another school and another school and another school. The morning of the open house, the school office called and said he had a space across the street. He started in one teacher's class and before the second class they had moved him to all day. The last month has been filled with adjusting our exchange student to High School and Riley to all day kindergarten. We've had school ice cream socials and open houses where we meet lots of different teachers. Sean leaves for work earlier since Fiona has orchestra at 6:50 every morning. We've also spent our weekends introducing Fiona to the area. I think we went to three different Targets about 8 times all together in less than week. We've been to the grocery store and school supply shopping and figuring out who packs what for lunch every day. We've hiked at Lime Stone Park. I don't think that was really the name, but that's the first thing that comes to mind since it had a big chimney where they make limestone or something. The trail went 5 miles along the Monte Cristo rail road bed abandoned in 1937. We've did the Puyallup! We went to the State Fair and visited all the animals and 4-H exhibits and watched Riley ride around on the kiddie rides. We've had plenty of dinners with friends, friends, and more friends. Whew! I haven't had time to write. This weekend was wonderful! Sean made crepes and coffee for breakfast. We went hiking at Snoqualmie Falls where Sean and I got engaged so many, many years ago. Sean and I had dinner at Daniel's Broiler at the top of one of the sky scapers in Bellevue with a view of Lake WA as the sun set. For dessert we headed down the street to the Melting Pot. Today we had a lovely dinner with good friends of ours. Fiona made a homemade German Chocolate Cake that was delicious! I started a moms and muffins fall toddler activity group this past week that will be every other week. We had a great time making fall collages with the kids and eating pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. As the seasons change from a hot summer to a crisp and clear fall, I can feel the same in my own life. As quickly as some things come into your life, they also go. The years I was home with Riley as a baby will never be again. We're in a different phase and the quiet days of morning play time and afternoon nap time have been traded for back packs, homework and afternoon gymnastic lessons. That has been September for us! In like a lion and out like a lamb...     
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