Exercise can be fun!

Last weekend, we participated in the MS walk in Spokane.  It was a last minute thing for me, but since the MPI Chapter had a team in Seattle, I felt like Spokane should have a team too.  Lucky for me, my friend Kelsey signed up too.  We brought our kids, and Justin joined us too, so our team was 50% adult and 50% under 5.  Pretty funny team!

We raised about $50, so obviously our goal for next year is to raise more money, and increase participation....

Stay tuned for the opportunity to sponsor us next year!

On a side note, this is a rare picture of me.  I usually don't make the blog posts since I am the one taking the pictures, but today Justin was able to snap a few for us.

Opportunity for me!

This year, one of my professional goals has been to be a part of the MPI Board.  That is the Meeting Professionals International organization.  I have been involved in the Washington Chapter through various activities, and I felt that I should try to be a part of the board.

Well, when they slated the positions, they selected me to be the VP of Communications for the Washington State Chapter of MPI.  The elections were held recently, and I have been elected.  My one year term starts July 1 and there is a board retreat this upcoming weekend. 

I am excited to step on to this board and learn some new skills and be a part of the future of this chapter.  Hopefully I haven't taken on too much, but am hopeful that I can make a balance of things!  It is definitely a resume builder for me professionally and I am excited for the challenge.

On a side note, I am still at Visit Spokane (CVB) and to make things a little more crazy, our house is for sale.  We are not leaving Spokane, just trying to move around a little bit.

As always, it you want to keep up with us, find us on facebook, or you can check on my irregular posts here.  :)

It seems that Spring has arrived in Spokane and we just had our first warm weekend.  The temperature was in the 80's.  Once again, we change seasons quickly here!  Happy Spring!

Future sports star!

Have you heard what an athlete this guy is turning into?  He is playing soccer and we just started baseball.  He is quite the runner and has so much energy.  We are working on helping him stay focused on the sport, and less horsing around.  My mom likes to remind me of my soccer career, with many cartwheels on the field.

Caden is having fun with the sports so far, now it looks like the weather is going to cooperate for us so we can have practice and games.

What are we up to?

These days, we are staying pretty busy.  Big Surprise, I know!  Caden turned 5 this week!  We also recently decided that we want to move closer to my sister and parents.  While I know we only live about 2 miles away, we spend a lot of time driving back & forth.  So we are going to see what happens with the housing market and hope for the best!  With that, we have been painting rooms, deep cleaning and de-cluttering.  As I am sure you know, I like to hold on to things... So I am trying to get rid of clothes I haven't worn in at least 2 years and are in a size I won't be again...  Moving on!

This weekend will be Caden's birthday party.  We are heading to the YMCA to celebrate with a swimming party.  We are trying something new by not having the party at our house.  I am sure it will be awesome!

Hoping to post some pictures soon. 

I just got a Kindle Fire, so I am excited to use that for reading and web surfing. 

My upcoming trips are Washington DC and Tacoma!  Can't wait for Tacoma!  :)

My new love...pinterest

I have found something new to love...Pinterest.  You may have heard about it.  It is basically an online bulletin board and you can "pin" pictures of things that you like or want to do.  I have a board for Gardening, home ideas, kids, places to visit and other things.  You can add what your friends are pinning, you can search for things like wine bottles and it will pull up all images associated with what you type in.

I have found some great ideas on here for organizing our house, and for the spring when it's time to garden again! 

Can't wait to see what I find next! 

Snow Envy - Can it be?

This post is in honor of my friends on the West Side of the state!  This has been an interesting winter for us here in Spokane.  For most of this winter season so far, we have not had very much snow.  We are talking a dusting here and there, and no White Christmas.  Hard to believe that as it seems we have had a white Christmas every year that we have been in Spokane.

Earlier this week, the weather man was predicting snow, but each morning we would wake up with nothing.  Oddly enough my friends on the west side were getting pummeled with the white stuff.  Friends and family were posting their snow pictures, commenting that they were stuck at work, all school districts had cancelled, Alaska Airlines was even cancelling flights... And then it happened - Blizzard in Spokane! 

I am strangely happy that it has finally blanketed our town with snow.  I have even helped with the shovelling a little, even though I am not as efficient as Justin, I felt that the effort was what matters.  We have about 8 inches of snow here and school is cancelled, therefore creating a work at home day for me.  Great to get some of my bigger projects for work complete when I can concentrate without the hubub and distraction of my office. 

I think the reason that I like the snow this year is it didn't arrive at Thanksgiving!  I guess I like to ease into the winter white.  Well we have eased this year!  Caden was out playing in the snow in the backyard today.  When he came in, he had a pitcher of snow.  I asked him what he would be doing with that and he let me know he would like to take it to his room.  I explained that it would melt and he couldn't do that.  It took some convincing, but he finally left it outside.  How fun to see the imagination of an almost five year old and the snow!

So as I write this, the snow plow has just created a huge berm at the end of our driveway, and I need to get it relocated.  Not complaining, because winter has arrived!

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Our tree is decorated!

Our tree is officially decorated!  Our lights didn't work this year so we got new LED lights which are very bright and vibrant.  We had fun getting the tree at greendbluff again.  Thankfully it wasn't snowy when we were up there and we didn't have to bring a sled.

I always like to see what ornaments we put on the tree.  Justin's ornament's are still in the original packaging from each year that he got the ornament.  Mine are wrapped in tissue paper and caden's are too.  Everyone's are separated and we pick which ones we like and add them to the tree.  It makes our tree look different every year. 

This weekend I made christmas cookies with my mom.  It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....  Well, it has for a while actually.  :)

Merry Christmas!

Last weekend we got out the christmas decorations.  After Justin and I got married, I started collecting nutcrackers at Christmas time.  It seems like each year I have bought one or two.  This year I let Caden pick one to buy.  He picked the one in the red on the right. 

He also added a different hat and was walking around the house with it.  I let him know that they were for decoration.  It sure made me know how Clara felt in the nutcracker when her brother broke her nutcracker prince.  :)  I think we dodged a bullet on our nutcrackers breaking, but it sure was funny to see him play with the nutcracker.

I also bought some santa's last year, so they are mixed in with the nutcrackers.  :)

What's new with us?

 I love Black Friday!  No joke!  I love to find the deals and I love to see what I can find!  I was able to get pretty much all of my Christmas shopping done this year which is good since it seems I have no extra time!  I did two major shopping trips this year.  One in the middle of the night and a second one (with Caden) at 9am.  We didn't score the $150 tablet like my sister did, but we did pretty well.  We also just made a cyber monday purchase on Sunday night, so we are getting deals all over the place.

One thing I have noticed this year is it seems everyone wants to get in the Christmas spirit early.  I see a lot more people decorating this year, and the lights are going up on a lot of houses.  Even our neighbor Griffin put up Christmas lights.  We got our tree this weekend and it is a very fat tree.  It is taking up about 1/3 of our family room.  I am sure I will post a picture soon, but it is a funny fat tree.  We decorated our house for Christmas today.  We got out the decorations and went to town.  Caden was so excited and running around the house "helping."  The other thing we were able to do was fix some decorations.  We bought stocking hangers 2 years ago that you can put pictures in.  Well, they still say photo here... so we added our photos this year. 

Tomorrow night is our office Christmas dinner.  It is not even December yet!  I guess that is one of the many reasons why christmas is moving quick this year, we are doing things earlier this year. 

We also have not gotten hit with the snow yet.  Last year at the end of November we had a ton of snow!  Not this year!  So far, minimal snow, and none has stayed!  I am sure I will pay for that, but excited for now!

Caden helped me wrap some of the presents on Saturday night.  As soon as we finished he asked if Dad could open his presents in the morning.  I told him he would have to wait until Christmas.  He asked me to show him on the calendar when that would be.  You know it's a long ways away when you have to turn the page...

Trick or Treating with the boys!

We had a festive group to go trick or treating this year.  We invited our neighbors over and a friend that I work with who has 2 boys.  Keegan was a monster, Gavin was a monkey, Caden was a cowboy and Bruce was a chicken.  Bruce had light up shoes on, so when he walked, his chicken feet lit up.  It was pretty funny.  All four boys hit up the neighborhood for treats.  Justin was the only guy with us moms, and our neighbor's sister was visiting too.  My friend let justin know his costume could be the guy from sister wives as everyone we walk by keeps commenting how cute his boys are.  So funny! 

We only had a few tricks, including a kid walking around pretending to be a zombie, and  house that was handing out air fresheners and construction paper.  That house also had a karaoke machine and they were chanting Halloween sayings out their door.  It was a pretty funny scene, but I guess you had to be there.  

Caden's bucket broke, so he ended up using a grocery sack.  It worked out well for him, he got a ton of candy.  We filled up his batman lunch box and now every night when he eats a good dinner, he can pick a treat from the batman box.  Looks like he will have enough candy to last through Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to all!  I didn't get my costume totally organized, so I am a festive mom!  Caden is a cowboy.  Justin got to be a scary guy! 

He actually wore the mask for a while, but when we went to the first house, he scared the people.  He apologized and realized it would be better if he wore the mask on top of his head.

Coeur D'Alene Family visit

We spent a week in Coeur d'Alene having a mini Anda Family reunion.  Not all the Anda's (my dad's side) could be there at the same time, but it was a continuous week of festivities, activities and family time.  Truly a great week for all.  To start out the week, we went to Silverwood.  This is like 6 flags in the Inland Northwest.  Roller Coasters, kid rides and a waterpark.  If you brought 2 cans of food, the price was discounted.  Turns out the waterpark was closed too.  All in all, it was a fun day at the amusement park with about 11 Anda's.

The next day, we went on a bike ride on the trail of the Coeur d'alenes.  This was a great trail, paved and flat.  We rode about 13 miles that day.  I also discovered I was missing a bolt on my bike that day... So my bike became dangerous, and I borrowed my mom's. 

Tuesday we headed back to Spokane so Justin could work and I met up with everyone at Spokane Discount.  We let my Aunt and Uncles know that no trip to Spokane is complete until you have shopped for the extreme bargains at Spokane discount.  I mean really, why wouldn't you want to have a pair of shorts for $1.42. 

Caden & I cam back on Thursday night for dinner and decided to stay until Sunday for more family bonding.  The next day, we were all getting ready for our bike riding adventure on the trail of the Coeur d'alenes when Charlie and Caden pointed out that not only were they matching, but Jeannette and I were too.  I mean literally - we were wearing the same shirt we both bought at Spokane Discount.  Not planned, but yes, we are the big dorks wearing the same shirt on the same day.  :)

Pete & Vanessa met up with us too and actually made it to Coeur d'alene surprisingly early (like in the morning)  We weren't expecting them until about 2pm.

This was just before we hit the trail.

This is us having our picnic lunch after the bike ride in Harrison on the trail of the Coeur d'alenes. 

We lined up the grandkids for a picture, we took about 6, none are great.  :) 

Uncle John gave the kids some airplane rides in the grass.

This was during cocktail hour after the bike ride.  All of us were just enjoying hanging out.

All the kids in their Halloween shirts, possibly acting like whatever was on their shirt...

This was the trail of the Hiawatha crew.  We biked the 18 mile trip and made good time on the trail.  I used my mom's bike because mine was a disaster thanks to the missing bolt.  At the end of the ride, Lookout pass was selling all their bikes from this season, so I scored a bike for about $110.  (Retunred my faulty bike to Costco...)

On sunday, on our way out of town, we stopped at Discovery park for a picnic with Pete & Vanessa before they headed back to Pasco.  This is a great park in Spokane Valley and has toys for kids of all ages and abilities.  With that being said, Caden & I were sitting and spinning gently on this circular looping merry go round thing.  Next thing I know my brother runs over, jumps on, spins us out of control and as I fly off, I accidentally kicked Caden in the head.  All of us were in shock about what had just happenend and Caden was crying since I had just kicked him in the head.  Yikes!  Just goes to show you, we can make anything that is "safe" a little more dangerous!

Overall it was great to see some extended family, wish more could have joined us, but we will do it again I am sure.

A day at the pumpkin patch

We hit up the pumpkin patch last weekend.  It was so fun to go out in a field and find the perfect pumpkin, along with the perfect stem.  We went to Knapp's and enjoyed the Pumpkin Chunkin, the corn maze and the all the animals.  If you haven't seen the pumpkin chunkin, it is awesome.  They basically "shoot" a pumpkin out of a cannon at a target.  He hasn't hit the target yet, and it is a quarter of a mile away from the cannon.

Caden meets Ryan Leaf

When I was in college, Ryan Leaf was the quarterback for the Cougars.  He was a great asset to a great team that broke records and played well.  After graduating, he made some bad choices and was not the stellar role model you would hope he could be. 

Well, we ran into him at the Cougar game on Saturday.  He is doing a book tour.  He is actually turning his life around and trying to right some wrongs.  Based on that, I wish him well. 

Since we saw him, we thought "why not let Caden have a picture?"  So here is Caden's 15 minutes of fame today.  After we took the picture, his publicist asked if they could post the picture on thier facebook page too.  I said sure.  Then my Dad recognized her as Margo Myers - past tv personality from the west side of the state.  After that, they realized that none of them took a picture and asked me to e-mail it to them. 

On a side note, we went to Northern Quest the next day and ... Ryan Leaf was there selling and signing books.  We purchased a book and it is signed for us, so stay tuned for the book review...

Cougar Football Saturday!

What is not to love about Butch Cougar?  What a great mascot!  Caden loves Butch Cougar and was glad to see him again!

Caden, my dad & I headed to Pullman on Saturday to see the Cougars take on Stanford.  We were hoping for a miracle and the cougs would win.  That didn't happen, but we sure had fun walking around campus, having ice cream at ferdinand's and having lunch at the fieldhouse before the game!  Go Cougs!

Ready for halloween!

We are ready for Halloween! 

I am pretty proud of my skills! I made the vest and chaps for Caden's costume! Awesome skills, I know.  He is going to be a cowboy and we took some inspiration from Woody.  Thanks to Aunt Jeannette for letting him borrow the boots, holster and gun.  He is ready!  Now the hard part is every morning he asks how many days until Halloween.  Pretty sure we won't be talking about Christmas until December 1.

Nissan Xterra - Sold!

UPDATE:  - This is now sold!!!!! Awesome!  Thank you Craigslist!
Nissan Xterra for sale - Black, 2WD, 93,000 miles $5,500.  Anyone interested, you know who to call.  Kelley Blue book value is $5,800 - $6,600.  Family members - this would make a great island car.  We will deliver within reason and we are going with Cash only. 

The queen mum

I met the queen mum... Ok not really, but a good imposter!  This was part of my trip to Vancouver BC.  The entertainment at the opening reception was ... icons from canada.  The mounties were there too.  Not sure how the Queen mum fits in, but it was kind of funny.

This is me working

This is me working at a recent tradeshow in Orlando.  I know, it is awesome!
I have been doing quite a bit of travelling this year.  The big trip was actually 2 in a row, - Vancouver BC, then Orlando FL - in the course of 10 days on the road with about 16 hours at home.  All of this made me a little punchy by the end.