The Newest Addition...

Big long stories are a little too laborious for my present mood and since this is a big long story, I thought I would condense it. For those of you willing to read it; this is the last year of Bradshaw work related history and major life changes - in a nutshell. I know some of my friends wish I would stop talking about this so they get a free pass, you guys can skip reading time just this once. This might still be long but trust me, for you it is a mere four minutes, for us it was months of WAITING, constantly waiting!

Brandon was working for a finance company and hated it. He was looking around for jobs but nothing seemed to fit. Thanks to an old mission buddy he was recruited to work for a company here in Seattle - Pointe Pest Control. From countin' money to killin' bugs (it was a lot more than that but this is the nutshell version ladies) We moved here in March and instantly fell in love. He loved this job more than any job he had ever done in his whole life. He loved them, they loved him, he was going places, he was finally happy - thus wifey was happy - until . . .

The recession hit Pointe and Terminix bought out the company. After much uncertainty we were offered a job with Terminix and took it. He stuck it out for a few months of misery and hated every minute of it. An idea was born months ago but it wasn't until this deprivation from happiness that it hatched.

Brandon has started his own pest control company. We are so excited we are bustin' at the seams although panic sets in on a regular basis :) Our life is changing rapidly and one way or the other - succeed or fail - we know things are never going to be quite the same.

EcoElite is born... no I'm not pregnant :)

The Gordon's Visit

My parents came to visit us for the first time (It's kind of a long way from Texas!!!) they came to see us through the early stages of the biggest snow storm western Washington has had in years!!! "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers ... " And left in the wee hours of the morning through what might turn out to be an extension of this fun filled storm.

Oh, did I mention we have been snowed in for a few days now??? This city shuts down, Brandon tried to go the bank and it wasn't open - snow, roads are closed - snow, pass is closed - snow, church is canceled - snow... Brandon hasn't worked since Wednesday. Oh global warming, where are you when we need you? It's cold here, is it cold where you are??? But of course we have been enjoying a little holiday before the holiday :)

I wanted you to notice Kenzie in the picture of her and my mom - we decided to walk to a little pond a half block away from our apartment, she walks, oh so happily, running most of the time through snow as deep as her little legs and then notice the last picture - kicking and screaming on her daddy's shoulder, somebody didn't want to go home... :)

These pictures were taken yesterday (Sunday morning - and yes church was canceled again... ) since then we have gotten another 6 inches of snow... Yippee!!!!!

I'll be gone from my happy little bloggers world for a while but when I get back it will be just in time to announce ...

The Bradshaw's Visit...

My kids have been SPOILED ROTTEN these last two weeks. Last week Brandon's parents came for a visit. This week my parents came to see us and left today, tomorrow we are going to the Bradshaw's for Christmas. You know the misery time that follows a departure from the beloved grandparents??? That will go on for a LONG time after Christmas - but it is TOTALLY worth it!!!!My kids - as are most others around this age ... or maybe it's just mine... are so into making faces, I can count on them to make a silly face every picture so I'm just going with the flow hoping this phase will end soon :) Judging from past family photos I don't think it will ... sigh... so, now all the pictures are silly faces. This time we got Grandpa and Grandma in on the silly face gig - no they don't usually make these faces, they are reserved for grandchildren only - my kids loved looking at these pictures because normally they are the only ones with a case of crazy face...

The coolest thing happened - we were driving around, me, the kids, g-pa & g-ma and I saw a bald eagle flying around one of our subdivisions ponds. I told everyone and my father in law made a U turn so we could go see it. There it was in all it's glory swooping around the pond, bothering the ducks and probably going after the fish. It was so pretty. Good teaching opportunity too - my mother in law got out a quarter and we started teaching Pickle about the beautiful bird we were looking at.

It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas.

We got a call 7 am saying church was canceled so we looked outside and this pedidly amount of snow was the culprit... well that and the rain that had frozen the streets and multitude of hills into ice skating rinks. Our playground is also an ice rink, if you can see it in the picture, this morning its solid enough to hold all of us up - too bad we don't have any skates :)

My husband loves me thissssssssssssssss much!!!!!

Well, he did it. He is perfect - for a few weeks anyway:) He of his own free will and choice, made me a gluten free birthday cake and bought my favorite icing. I have been struggling for months to get better at altering normal meals to be gluten free and baking - with some success and lots of trying again when I calm down :) I'll tell you this. It's been really hard. I sort of feel like it's taken over my life. Take everything you ever learned about cooking and throw it out the window - literally.

But he did it, just for me, he did it!!!!! :)

I know that is the ugliest cake you probably have ever seen, and there is a hole cut out of the center because it was raw, that was then filled in with icing, then there wasn't enough icing for the whole cake cause it was all in the center, and it tasted horrible, although it was better the next day and if you mixed it with loads of ice cream:) My husband loves me.

I had a fabulous day. We got ALL of our Christmas shopping done and had time for some meeeeee shopping (thank you Ron & Gwen!!! and thank you to Jess & Jaron for babysitting) Brandon was a trooper, if your husband is like mine you understand what this means - to have your husband hold your purse and all the purchases through 3 solid hours of shopping. Yet more proof of his love :) Thank you everyone for such a wonderfully perfect day!

Yes, if you are wondering, I turned 3 :)