Happy stuff

Let's talk poo for a moment.  As a Mum to 3 kiddos and 1 fur baby, I've changed countless diapers and cleaned up many messes that have caused me to gag over the years, but that's all part of being a parent of course!  Recently though, I've had to deal with way too many poo situations of toilet blocking proportions.  Is it because American toilets are different from British toilets?  I don't remember the toilet ever blocking this much in the UK, or is it that my kiddos are doing something they shouldn't?  Regardless, after spending 45 minutes trying to unblock the downstairs toilet from one of the kiddos this morning, the feeling of elation I had when I was finally successful, led me to shriek with happiness.  Today's tools included the obligatory wire coathanger, baking soda, vinegar, washing up liquid and finally, the plunger.  I hate even touching the plunger because of it's history.  To me, it's in the same category as raw meat.  Shudder.  But in the end, it came through and finally sent the poo of epic proportions on it's merry little way to the Pacific Ocean.  Strange the things that make you happy huh?

Lots of other things have made me happy this week!  Middle son did great at the soccer tryouts and made the team, we are so proud and excited for him.  One of his friends from down the street also made the same team, and they're now thick as thieves which is great.  There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood so there's always someone for my kids to play with.  It was the same in Tennessee, but I was worried there would be nobody for them to play with here - happily I was wrong!

We took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island and drove from there out to Poulsbo at the weekend, the dog came too.

Riding the ferry

It was a beautiful day and the scenery was amazing.  We considered living out there when we first moved here, but the daily ferry commute for the husband was a bit daunting so we ended up by the mountains instead, which definitely isn't a bad thing.  Bainbridge was gorgeous as was Poulsbo.  We walked on the pebbly beach, found tons of crabs and had lunch outside in the sun at JJ's - Molly too.  It's just a shame that it's taken her till she's 14 to calm down enough to be able to do that with her!  Poulsbo reminded me of Scotland and Cornwall, and we had a wonderful, relaxing day. 

Beautiful Poulsbo

JJ's

Instead of taking the ferry home, we drove down to Gig Harbor to check it out too.  Another gorgeous waterside town with incredible views of Mount Rainier.  Seeing Mount Rainer as many times as I do also makes me very happy.  It's bleedin' massive.  It doesn't look real, but there it is, sticking way up into the sky.  It's hard to take your eyes off it when you can see it, I'm so lucky to live in this amazing place!

I met up with a friend from Korea for lunch at (of course) a Korean Restaurant in Redmond.   It was so good to hook up again after all these years!  The conversation, the food and the sides were fabulous and I'll definitely take the family back for dinner. 

This past week wasn't all rainbows and unicorns though.  I had the misfortune to meet who could only be described as the most miserable and rude man in Washington in the parking lot of my daughter's martial arts center.  Parking spaces there are pretty tight, and my parking on that day wasn't exactly stellar, BUT, there was still some space between me and the line as you can see in this pic (my van is on the left).

I am not parked on the line!!!!

Anyway, there I was, sitting in the van with the boys, waiting to go in and collect my daughter, when my new friend pulled up in the space on my right.  He opened his door and it banged loudly on my van.  He just looked at me and walked off.  I was a bit disconcerted of course, so got out for a look, and asked him if he'd just dented my van.  He kept walking so I said it a bit louder but with a polite excuse me.  He turned round and started yelling at me, saying he hadn't touched my van, it was just my mirror and that I had no right to accuse him of anything because of my parking.  I was speechless, he'd obviously had a very bad day, but there was absolutely no reason for him to start screeching!  He refused to acknowledge that he'd banged my van,  yelled a bit more, then turned round and stomped right into my daughter's martial arts place.  Not one to remain silent - especially when I'm in the right - I called after him that he was the rudest man I've ever met and that he obviously has a problem.  A lady in the parking lot was concerned about me (bless her) and she too agreed that he was indeed crazy.  I then had to run the gauntlet of walking inside the building to pick up my daughter while he was there waiting for his son.  Ha!  I can't wait to see him twice every week as we pick up our children at the same time and place...

So apart from the miserable b****** mentioned above, it was a mostly happy week!  There are so many things to do around here that we will certainly never get bored, although it could get pretty boring being yelled at in the parking lot every week!